Sorry about the long time in updating but here is the next installment of Harry Potter and the Dark Beasts!!! We regret to inform you there is not a lot of Ken in this chapter, but he will play a larger role next chapter. There is, however, some Farfie!!!! Yay!! Keep reviewing!

We don't own HP or WK.

He was going to give himself a raise after this. It wasn't that he hated children. On no, he liked them. After all, who couldn't love liars, cheaters, and sniveling brats?

And twenty-five of those charming specimens were sitting in desks, starring at him. That Snape guy had the right idea. Terrify the kids into submission. He saw how they all avoided him at any cost. Even the Slytherins tried to avoid him if they could pull it off subtly.

Yes, he made up his mind. He would terrify them all and keep them as far away from him as he possibly could.

"To you, I am Professor Takatori. Tah-kah-tou-ree. Get it right, I will not answer to any scrambled form of it. This year, Defence Against the Dark Arts will be much more challenging than you have ever faced. Our focus will be on hand to hand combat with some weapons training as well. I've noticed many of you have obviously not been keeping in any sort of shape other than round," he added, thinking back to the two uglies trailing that blonde Slytherin git all around.

He convinced Dumbledore before the term had started to let him have one of the nearby spare classrooms. He lined the entire extra room with mats just in case anyone decided to be coy and/or stupid. Oh yeah, he hadn't been chief of the police for no reason.

"Most of the time we will not be in this room. Across the hall is another classroom allotted for our use. Next class period will be our first time in there so I hope you all bought work out clothing as your list of supplies for the school yeah indicated. Those of you with longer hair may want to pull it back lest it get caught on anything, or anyone's fingers. And ladies, if I hear one word about a chipped or broken fingernail, I'm taking house points."

The children stared more. In fact, during the entire class period the only indication of life was the stir from the search for parchment to write on. Although the entire atmosphere began to loosen a bit once he began to explain the simple chalk drawings on the board.

Each image involved two individuals. A character who looked remarkably similar to him was involved in different variations of hurting others. He had tried to make the students relate to the issue at hand by clothing the victim in school robes.

Above the pictures were the words "no talking or-" from his previous class that would not stop talking. He hadn't finished writing the rest of the sentence on the board before something else was going haywire in the classroom. He wouldn't be the least surprised if the students all thought he would hurt them if they spoke. All the better if it made them leave him in peace.

He should have been an Auror.

As a new policy, Dumbledore was allowing for more Hogsmeade visits for fifth, sixth, and seventh years. And that was how Omi, Ken, Nagi, Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Sean found themselves standing in front of The Three Broomsticks.

Omi and Ken hadn't seen Aya much since she woke up the other day and highly doubted Ran would let her out of the castle any time soon. Poor girl.

Thoughts were interrupted when the group got the shock of their lives. Draco was leading Aya straight to them.

"Gryffindors!" He proclaimed. "I would like to introduce you to your newest fellow Gryffindor, Aya something or other. She's the sister to the Muggle Studies teacher who for some reason thinks we want to know about Japan - OW!" Aya hit him hard.

"Urusai Draco-baka!"

His eye twitched. "What?"

Apparently Aya could still speak in Japanese if she wanted to. "Anyway," she continued, ignoring him to size up the group. "You two," she said, pointing to Omi and Ken, "are friends of nii-chan, right?"

"You could call it that, I suppose," Ken snickered. "Welcome to the world of the living again, Aya-chan."

"So now you can leech off them!" Draco suggested energetically. "Later."

He was so close. He could see the light of freedom in the tunnel. He was almost there, almost gone, and then there was ground. And pain.

Aya snagged the back of his robe with such an amazing strength that he fell down on the ground.

"How dare you?!"

She looked at him straight in the eye, much to the amusement of the assembled Gryffindors and Ravenclaws around them. "Kudou-sensei told you to show me around. It's only been a day. Please take me around Hogsmeade?"

How could he say no to those eyes? He fell into their depths. Curse his luck! "Fine," he grudged out.

Aya looked quite pleased with herself. "Thank you, Draco," she purred.

All right, that had to stop right now. She was purring! No one triumphed over Draco Malfoy. On the other hand, what could he do to stop her? It doubtlessly only aided her image to be seen with him, but what could he get out of this? The only family he knew about of hers was her brother and his only claim to fame was being…a…teacher… Okay, he could take this. This had merit. If he were nice to the sister of a prof, of course the teacher would like him and give him good grades. It burned him inside that due to scheduling conflicts he had to take Muggle Studies this year.

Hey, was that guy checking her out? Out of the corner of his eye, Draco saw some Hufflepuff seventh year looking Aya over. How dare he! She was his!

Then the inevitable happened. Aya dropped a purchase she made right off the bat. Three guys all dived to grab it for her, Draco and Aya standing there in shock.

"Here you go, Ms. Fujimiya." The winner of the battle of the package was the same oogly-eyes Hufflepuff Draco saw earlier. The other two males slinked back into the shadows.

"Er, well, uh, thank you!" Really, Aya wondered. Were all the Brits this pleasant?

Draco inwardly groaned. She would be the type to be completely oblivious to everything, wouldn't she? Hopefully that would work out for the best.

Both were drawn out of their reverie to the sounds of laughter.

"That has got to be the funnies thing I have ever seen," Harry declared, wiping the tears from his eyes.

"You should have seen your face!" Ron practically howled out, completely unable to stop laughing.

Every time the group calmed down, one look at Draco's scheming face and Aya's perplexed on send them back into gales of laughter.

Draco had enough of this. "Come on, Aya. Let's go get a butterbeer or something." He put one foot into the building and then swung around, pulling Aya each way with him. "Actually, I have a better idea. How about we go just about anywhere but in there?"

Aya had to give him some credit for highly random sentences. "Are there any good dress shops around?" She ventured to ask. Not like he would wait around while she shopped, but it was worth a try, especially when he looked so desperate to get away from that building. It was astounding how quickly he could go from cool and collected to man with a mission.

"Robes! Good idea! She'd never think to look for me there!"

Aya mentally gave herself a nice pat on the back. "It worked," she murmured to herself.

It was really great to see Aya up and around, Omi thought to himself. And this whole thing with peoples his age, also pretty cool. And on that note, Hermione was also quite pretty. He blushed. None of that! Schuldig will never let you live it down. He wondered if she was seeing anyone at the moment.

The group was all sitting around, drinking butterbeer. Omi found it surprisingly good. Harry was entertaining the group with the story about Norbert since he couldn't get in trouble for it now.

This feeling of friendship and camaraderie was such an alien concept for Omi, but it was great. Except, of course, for that ever-present glare in the corner. Nagi. Again.

From what he heard of the supposed Gryffindor qualities, he figured the Hat messed up with Nagi. He was evil. Gryffindor was anti-evil. Well, it was that or Nagi had a sweet side he tried to hide deep within himself. Yeah right. How many assassins are sweet? Ok, that was a bad argument but it just doesn't work! Maybe he bribed it!

"…mi?"

Omi shook his head to clear his thoughts. "Oh, sorry, Ken. Were you saying something?"

"Just asking if you were all right. You looked a little out of it."

Was he blind? Nagi was there! With them! And he was just smiling and completely enjoying himself! What if Nagi was plotting their downfall?! "Oh, I'm fine. Lost in my thoughts and all."

Nagi stared at him. Why, oh why did the fates have to put him with the Weiss kid?

Omi shifted nervously. "I think I'm going to go roam around." Why was he starring at him?!

"Will you be all right alone, Omi?" Hermione asked cautiously. "These are dark times."

Omi felt his heart flutter. She was willingly initiating conversation with him! Kami-sama be praised! And she cared! "I'll be fine, thanks though." The great thing about the school robes is they conceal a lot. At the moment, Omi was a heavy armory leaden down with quite a few darts.

Hermione looked down out her empty cup. "I'm done anyway, do you mind a little company?"

It was the best day of his life! He loved Britain!

He hated Britain. Nagi WOULD come along, wouldn't he? It figured. Just when he was about to have time alone with a pretty and intelligent girl, he asked to come along. Naturally, Omi was obligated to agree to be nice. After all, aside from Ken, no one else knew what Nagi was or to be suspicious of him and warning them without giving away what they were either.

Teenagers had such hard lives! He was distracted from his moaning by the sight of Yohji at the train depot. Omi slightly wondered if he was meeting on of his many women.

Omi couldn't ask Yohji about it even if he dared, because at that moment, there came a hideously deranged screaming, sounding as if it came from a pitiful excuse for a house nearby. It came so suddenly, and with such a racket, that Omi jumped. It was all he could do to keep from pulling out a few of those darts he kept handy.

On the plus side, the hideously deranged screaming also had the pleasant side effect of making Hermione to clutch Omi's arm suddenly. After a moment though, she remembered herself and let go. She ran towards the house. Omi and Nagi followed close behind.

"Hermione! What are you doing?" Omi asked once he had caught up.

"That noise." She said. "It's coming from the Shrieking Shack." The Shrieking Shack? Omi didn't like the sound of that.

"Someone lives there?" He asked.

"No." Hermione frowned, and stopped at the side of the road in front of the Shrieking Shack. "It's been empty for years. There's a tunnel leading to it from under the Whomping Willow at Hogwarts."

Nagi pieced the scene together quickly. So THAT was the Shrieking Shack. He had heard Crawford mention in passing that he was going to stash Farfarello in there to keep him out of the way. And now he was in town, raising eyebrows. Just perfect.

"Then what could that be?" Omi asked. A haunted house was the last thing he needed right now. Nagi volunteered to investigate before Hermione could reply, but that only served to worry her.

"But Nagi, you couldn't possibly go there alone."

"Don't worry. Nagi's real tough. He'll be okay." That was strange. Why was the Weiss kid covering for him? Oh well. Nagi wasn't about to deny it. . . . What was the name of that ghoul that had humiliated him? Peeves?

"Besides, it it's supposed to be empty, then it's probably just Peeves." Nagi responded. Luckily for him, she agreed.

Yohji Kudou was in Hogsmeade on personal business that day, and Hagrid had come along to help him. Hagrid had insisted that they leave early, so they could pop into the Three Broomsticks for a bit of a drink first. Now Yohji thought it was hardly time to be drinking, but it had been years since he had a chance to hang with Hagrid, so he had agreed.

"Well, there's a face I haven't seen in ages." Rosmerta commented as the two men took seats at the bar. Yohji replied with his customary flirtatious grin.

"It's good to see you again, darling." He said. Rosmerta laughed, and leaned against their patch of bar for further interrogation. It was hard for Yohji to believe that it had already been six years since his last Hogsmeade visit, in his last year at Hogwarts.

"So what brings you here, handsome?" she asked.

"I'm teaching, believe it or not."

"What, they let you back in the school after your prank at your graduation?" She asked with all seriousness.

Yohji chuckled nervously. "Come on, it wasn't THAT bad." He said.

"All right then. So what are you teaching, Defense Against the Dark Arts?"

Ouch. . It was the obvious subject for Yohji to be teaching to anyone who had known Yohji during his days as a student. The ones who could get over his 'playfulness' that is. Herbology, on the other hand, was not a terribly obvious thing. It's not that he did badly. In fact, he did rather well. It was just that Yohji never found Herbology to be terribly interesting.

"No, this year's Dark Arts prof is much more qualified than I am." He said. Rosmerta looked confused.

"So what DO you teach?" She asked. He took it as his cue. Yohji snapped his fingers, and a cattelya appeared between them. He handed it to her.

"Herbology." He purred. Confused, but satisfied for the moment, Rosmerta took their orders. Thankfully, Yohji managed to convince Hagrid not to have anything stronger than a butterbeer. The last thing he needed on his hands was a half-drunk half-giant. Yohji finished much before Hagrid, and decided to wait for him in front of the train depot. Try as he might, he just wasn't in the mood for hanging at the pub. How could he, on a day like today? HE was coming to live with Yohji today. Yohji had doubted this day would ever come, but it was here. The 'he' in question was coming the same way everyone else did: By train. Hagrid had come to help with his bags, so Yohji could spend the day with him. Yohji promised to meet Hagrid outside, and that's where he still was when Omi and Hermione approached him.

"Yohji-kun! What are you doing here?" Omi asked. As if he needed a reason. Since when were Hogsmeade weekends restricted to students?

"I'll let you get away with the 'Yohji-kun' just this once, since we're not at school." Yohji answered playfully. "But I'm here to pick up a very special someone, if you must know." Omi didn't look too surprised to hear that. Heck, knowing his own reputation, Yohji wouldn't be surprised if Omi thought he was here to pick up a girlfriend.

"Oh yeah? Who is it this week?" Omi said. See, what did he tell you?

"Omi!" Hermione seemed shocked that Omi would talk to him like that, but Yohji just laughed it off.

"Hey. I resent that remark." He said with feigned insult. "In any case, I can guarantee you that this person will be in my life much longer than any girlfriend I've had." Yohji could see Hagrid approaching at the end of the street. He had to end this, and get onto the platform.

"Lucky lady." Omi continued. Yohji couldn't help but laugh as he turned towards Hagrid and the entrance.

"It's not a lady." He said. "He's a male." The looks on the two kids' faces were priceless, but he supposed he owned Omi an explanation, at the very least. "If you really want to know what's up, you're more than welcome to join me."

So Omi and Hermione went with Yohji and Hagrid to wait on the platform for Yohji's 'special someone'. Omi had to admit, he was rather curious. Who was this mystery person? As someone who had known Yohji for a while, it was easy to see that Yohji was nervous. He paced. He felt up his robes in a manner that Omi recognized meant that Yohji felt he needed a cancer stick. The only surprise was that Yohji didn't produce his usual pack. Instead, he flopped into a bench without producing anything.

"Relax, Yohji." Hagrid reassured Yohji. "He'll get here soon enough."

A few minutes later, Hermione spotted the train coming in.

"It's here!" She shouted, and Yohji sprang to his feet. He practically ran off the edge of the platform, trying to see for himself. The train was slowing down as it neared the station. Yohji backed away to a safe distance. Once it had finally stopped, Yohji positioned himself in front of the door to the first car, a huge grin on his face. It wasn't his flirty grin, Omi noted. It wasn't even his good-looking-salesman look. It was… genuine. There were no other words to describe it. The doors opened, and out of the train came a Japanese witch and… a little boy? The boy caught one glance of Yohji, and his face lit up.

"PAPA!" he shouted, and ran towards Yohji, who had dropped to one knee and was now holding his arms outstretched.

"Madoka!" Yohji said, and caught the little boy in a great hug.

"I missed you, Papa." The boy said in his native language, returning the hug as best he could.

"Well I'm here now." Yohji answered. He separated himself from the boy and took out his wand. He tapped the boy on the head.

"Loqui Angles" He said. Omi, for his part, still hadn't gotten over the shock of learning that Yohji was a father.

"Papa?" He asked. Yohji just laughed and guided the boy over to where Omi and Hermione were standing.

"Omi-kun, Miss Granger, allow me to introduce my son, Madoka."

Madoka looked like his father in miniature. He had short hair, the same sandy blonde as his father's (which had been back to its natural colour for a while now) His eyes were the same jade green as his father's. And a mole. Madoka had a mole underneath his left eye, where his father had none.

"Mado-chan, this is Omi, and Hermione." Yohji pronounced the names slowly and clearly so the boy could understand them.

"Hi!" Madoka said cheerfully. His eyes wandered as he took in the station.

"Your son is really cute, Professor." Hermione said.

"Thanks." Yohji smiled proudly.

"I can't believe it." Omi shook his head. "Yohji Kudou, the playboy, a caring father." The two just didn't compute in Omi's mind.

"Sure. When we were at the shop, I visited him every weekend. He used to live with his grandmother." Yohji explained.

"Really? I thought you were -" Omi started, but Yohji cut in.

"I *know* what you thought I was doing." Yohji struck an accusatory tone, and put his hands on his hips. Omi blushed. This was about the time that Madoka spotted Hagrid. He tugged on Yohji's robes.

"Papa, who's that?" the boy asked. "He's HUGE." Hagrid had finished loading Madoka's bags, and had come to say goodbye.

"Ah, so this is the little one, is he?" Hagrid bent over to get a better look. Madoka looked wide-eyed up at him, and clutched Yohji's leg possessively. Yohji picked him up.

"This is my friend Hagrid." He told the boy, who immediately brightened again.

"Papa, what are we doing today?" he asked. Ah, the attention span of a four-year old. Shorter than the memory of a goldfish.

"First, I'm going to take you out for a treat, and then I promised Granddad that I'd take you to see him." Yohji answered. Madoka was not impressed.

"But I don't want to see granddad!" He protested. "He's scary!" Once again, Omi's curiosity was piqued. How could Madoka's grandfather be here?

"Granddad?" he asked. "Who's granddad?"

"Professor Snape." Yohji answered.

Nagi did manage to get into the Shrieking Shack by 'prying' loose a few of the boards covering the windows. He suspected, however, that a normal idiot with a crowbar or a wand couldn't have done it. Farfarello was in that same room, making a lot of noise and trashing the already shoddy furniture. Nagi didn't think it was a good idea to leave Farf alone for extended periods of time. When Farfarello was left alone, he got to thinking about his own little demented theology, and when that happened, he slipped into one of his less-sane moods. When THAT happened, someone would have to shut him up. Normally, Schuldig's telepathic abilities made him the ideal person for this job, but when he wasn't available, (like now) Nagi would have to do it. Damned nutcase.

Nagi attracted Farf's attention by sending a piece of broken chair flying past his head. Farf turned around and said nothing. He didn't look surprised to see Nagi, and he didn't speak. He just waited.

"What do you think you're doing, making all this noise?" Nagi hissed.

"Why can't I make noise?" Farfarello countered. "This place is supposed to be haunted."

"It's also supposed to be empty."

"Not my problem." Farf turned his back to Nagi and screamed again. Nagi shot him a venomous glance and forcibly held his mouth shut.

"Look." Nagi told him, even more testily this time. "People from school are starting to get suspicious. You know what Crawford will be like if they start poking around." Nagi knew all too well what Crawford would be like. Since Hermione and he were both in Gryffindor, he would be the one who had to throw her off the trail. Like he was doing now. He released Farf's mouth so he could answer.

"Do I care?" Farfarello said. That was it. Nagi had had it. He wanted to get back to Honeydukes, and the Three Broomsticks. The thing was, he couldn't do that until he was sure Farf would shut up. But what could he say to make that happen? And idea hit.

"Farf, you shut your mouth right now, or so help me, I'll find the nearest Catholic Church, and drag you to confession." He threatened. It seemed to do the trick. Farf's eye widened in horror, and his eyebrows raised.

"You're lying." He accused.

"Try me." Nagi replied, deadpan. Farf shut up.