hey guys this is the last chapter I'm really sorry but i am discontinuing this story.

Chapter 4: Bewilderment, Devilry and Chaos?

Yagari rubbed at his eye patch tiredly, staring at Zero's body that was slumped against one of the desks in the rear of the classroom. The blood that soaked though a makeshift bandage around his wrist had dyed part of Zero's white shirt red and smeared his face. He'd followed the dashes of blood that tracked along the wall to find him, tucked into a corner and breathing slowly, keening in pain as his head lolled to one side.

He debated stepping closer, considering leaving Zero to bleed to death here where Cross wouldn't find out until it was too late for him to interfere. When he noticed the glimmer of silver around the injured wrist he peered closer, inhaling in shock at the odd silvery vines that shifted slightly as the roots slowly pulled out of Zero's skin. He repressed the urge to shudder, cursing Kaien Cross and his inane schemes and wondering if this (saving the brat from dying yet again) was covered by his contract. Knowing him, it probably was. He'd have to request it the next time he saw the man – if he didn't have to deal with this in order to get paid, then his idiotic apprentice could find someone else to do this sort of job. He wasn't a nursemaid, after all. That had been his Fiancée.

His last thought as he leaned in to shift Zero's mutilated arm toward him was that he really hoped Zero wasn't going to wake up anytime soon. If the pain was bad enough that Zero had allowed someone to help him…

This wasn't going to end well. The clatter of the vine bracelet hitting the floor as the roots were dislodged from the sluggishly bleeding wounds echoed his thoughts and caused blood to splash onto the edge of his coat and sleeve.

At least today couldn't get any worse. Famous last words.

Harry stared at Hermione as she paced the room like a caged animal, spitting out the occasional phrase that was almost incomprehensible. Ron appeared to be following along, although that was probably due to his fluency in Mouth Full, Still Talking.

She finally calmed down, still speaking rapidly and gesticulating wildly, but slowing down enough Harry could follow the conversation.

" …Kiryuuu has to be a delinquent, threatening his own schoolmates, how can their headmaster let him get away with things like that, another future Death Eater like Malfoy, no doubt - and they said he was a Necromancer! Ron, what's Necromancy in the Wizarding World? Is it like the Muggle version?"

"Necromancy? Hermione that's illegal! Only Vampires are dumb enough for that sort of stuff!" – Ron

Hermione continued, waving a hand at Ron absentmindedly. " And he associates with people his father doesn't approve of and he was trying to resurrect someone! Ichiaru or something, his brother I think they said. He must be working for V-Vold-, well you know who I mean. He's probably out to kill Harry, there's only been an attempt every year on his life, what was I thinking, of course he's out to kill Harry, he's probably trying to get our trust before he hexes you behind your back, that rude, arrogant little –"

"Hermione, please slow down. I can barely understand you. Besides, you've only met him once; he might have just been having a bad day. I don't want to make any more enemies like Malfoy – one ferret is enough for a lifetime of trouble." Ron laughed at Harry's reference to Professor Moody's (well, Bartemius*

Crouch Jr's) punishment of Malfoy's attempt to curse Harry from behind.

"Sorry, Harry. I guess I am over reacting a little – I've only met Kiryuuu once, and he was hurt at the time… he said he had a headache… wait, there was blood in the hallway! What if it was his?"

"What!"

"Here we go again…"

"Harry, what did you just say?"

"Nothing! Just, ah… hey, Ron, isn't it nearly time for dinner?"

"Oh, yeah! I wonder what's for dinner tonight…"

"Ron! The students from Cross Academy will be sorted tonight. Don't you remember?"

"Come on, Hermione, they're probably all Slytherins anyway…"

"Ron!"

Harry sighed. Would this ever stop?

Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Professor of Transfiguration and Head of Gryffindor House sighed at Dumbledore's latest exhibition of lunacy. The hall was decorated in colours more often found upon the elderly man's clothing, which had caused a few of the more fashion conscious students to… redecorate. It was now partly pink and fluffy, resembling Umbridge's cardigan. Some Gryffindor students had taken it upon themselves to show some house pride and also decorated in red and gold with lions. Ravenclaws had poked their heads into the Great Hall before making a strategic retreat to the library, which led to several Hufflepuffs taking a break from creating their own little slice of the Great Hall to visiting the kitchens to request that food would be sent up to the Ravenclaw common room. Slytherins were creating a rather… shadowy corner, interprised with Luna Lovegood's more… unusual and colourful creatures. She and Blaise Zabini had also taken to recoloring Gryffindor territory whenever they could get away with it.

Quite frankly, the Great Hall looked as if it had been painted by toddlers with an excess of paint and a deficit of sense. Or maybe they just had Dumbledore's fashion sense. Godric only knew how often she'd wanted to claw her own eyes out after being asked for her opinion on the atrocities Dumbledore regularly committed in his idea of fashion.

She closed her eyes as she dragged the traditional short stool up to the dais, while Fawkes flamed in, dropped the Sorting Hat and had a premature burning day, another victim of Dumbledore's fashion sense. She picked him up and put him on the staff table, before proceeding to systematically vanish most of the paint, leaving a Gryffindor lion, a Hufflepuff badger, a Hufflepuff painted eagle, which she spelled to its correct design of blue and bronze and a Slytherin serpent (although the painted Dark Mark had to go. Honestly, was that Mr Malfoy's work? She'd vanished the ferrets as well, as tempting as they were to leave. Mr Zabini seemed to have developed quite the artistic streak.) A mild animation charm sent the painted animals to pose at the ends of the house tables.

The protesting students looked at her, noticed the twitching eyebrow and flared nostrils and wisely ducked for cover, emerging at their respective house tables in relative silence. Minerva McGonagall smirked in Severus's general direction, mentally gloating as to her control over all four houses of imbecil- …students (Mrs Granger and Ravenclaw house had the good sense not to contribute to this farce. Mr Potter was supposed at Quidditch practice with the Weasley twins. Minerva quietly thanked whichever deity looked after overworked, underpaid teachers for small mercies.) Other teachers trooping in faltered, shocked at the near absolute quiet and pale, shaking students. The professor from Cross Academy had buried his face in his hands, muttering quiet curses upon children and idiotic employers. Filius and Pomana made their way through the cleared space, ignoring splotches of paint and pretending they hadn't been helping their houses in the attempt to paint the great hall. The house ghosts joined their respective tables as Dumbledore returned from his office with his perpetually bemused look upon his face, the one that asked "What on earth am I doing here? Where am I, anyway?" and had succeeded in infuriating several staff members. Severus finished glaring in the direction of the Quidditch pitch and stalked up to his seat at the staff table. Ravenclaws filed into the Great Hall, some still carrying books from the Library. The Gryffindor Quidditch team strolled in from the pitch with the students who had been in class or studying following them before settling, ignoring Severus's renewed glare with the ease of long practice.

Yagari wandered over to the room off the Great Hall where his students had been told to gather before the sorting, idly wondering if Zero had managed to escape the school's infirmary. Poppy, as she'd told him to call her had threatened to Sticking Charm him to the bed if he attempted to leave after Yagari had familiarised her with Zero's usual lack of regard for life and limb and issued him some calming potions, for which he was grateful. Yuki seemed frantic, rushing around the room trying to locate Zero while Kaname and Aido seemed quite smug at the idea of Zero being the first to get in trouble. Senrei seemed rather jumpy, clinging to Ruka and twitching at every sound. What had Zero done to him, anyway? Ruka looked a few minutes away from abandoning him to talk with Rima, who was keeping an eye on Yuki. Kain was leaning against wall by the entrance to the room, in his Cross Academy uniform with the shirt done up properly for once. Takuma was attempting to calm Yuki down, having returned to the dorm to sleep and read manga after breakfast and still carrying a few books with him, along with a box of pocky he was using in an attempt to draw Senrei out of his Zero induced state of terror, hoping to restore him to his usual somewhat morbid state.

Yagari opened the door to see Professor McGonagall standing in the middle of the dais by a rickety stool with a hat perched upon it. The hat moved by itself, opened it's mouth and then began to sing. It was a horrifying cacophony of sound, one that battered at the ears and caused the mind to retreat into forgetfulness – wait, he thought, that was Kaien's opera records. What had the hat been going on about, anyway? Unity, ambition, danger – of course there was danger, Zero was here. Something had been said about house qualities, such as the Hufflepuff tendency to take in anything with the ability to twitch. Brains weren't required for loyalty (or bravery, now that he thought about it).

McGonagall stepped forward, unrolled the scroll that Yagari had written both the names of Kaien's students and the correct pronunciation of their names. The professor read out the first name on the list calmly, ignoring the chattering of students around the hall with practiced ease.

"Aido, Hanabusa." She called out.

The blond haired boy wandered up to the stool, looking slightly nervous. McGonagall lifted the Sorting Hat and placed it on his head, where it remained for all of a minute before barking out

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Ichijo, Takuma."

The boy that bounded up to join her on the dais was a lighter shade of blond than the previous child had been. His sorting took less than five seconds. He smiled when the hat yelled out:

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Kain, Akatsuki."

The tall boy wandered up to the stool, seemingly unconcerned with the world around him. His sorting took the longest so far, nearly four minutes. He frowned when the hat called out:

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Kiryuu, Zero."

Silence reigned over the hall, students twisting in their seats to get a look at the by now infamous student. Senrei slipped behind Kaname, glancing around nervously. Yuki clenched her fists, muttering under her breath.

"Kiryuu, Zero." Professor McGonagall glared at the gathered students.

"Excuse me, Professor?" Yuki asked nervously. Kaname patted her on the shoulder absentmindedly, attempting to disentangle Senrei from his side. "I think he's ditching. Again. Or he might be ill, or injured, or he's gone back to the academy… this kind of thing happens a lot. Sorry."

"Yuki… I'm very sorry to say this. But pay up… please?"

"How did you know he'd ditch the sorting? I made him promise he'd come! He promised he'd come unless he was dead… ohmiancestress, he's dead, isn't he? Yagari-sensei, that's not true, is it?"

"No, Yuki, he's not dead. He's just unconscious. I think he's still in the hospital wing."

Aido laughed. "Pay up, Kaname-sama!"

"No."

"Kain?"

"…fine. What was it again?"

"You're my slave for the week!"

"…ancestor, this is going to suck… and not in a good way."

""Is it really that different from what you normally do?"

"No."

The professor stood up, walked over to each of the conversations participants and murmured something to them. Given how quickly they paled, it was likely a fairly decent threat. McGonagall cleared her throat, before calling up the next student from Cross Academy "Kuran, Kaname"

The hat hadn't quite touched his head when it cried out, shouting:

"SLYTHERIN"

"Kuran, Yuki!"

"…Hufflepuff."

"But I wanted to be with Kaname-sama!"

"Too bad" Yagari seemed to be enjoying this.

"Shiki, Senrei"

A twitchy, nervous boy moved towards the hat, only about to pass McGonagall when the hat shouted "HUFFLEPUFF!" A few muggleborn students squealed in glee, while pureblooded students looked confused.

"Souen, Ruka"

The hat settled on her head and sat there for a few minutes, before declaring:

"SLYTHERIN"

"Touya, Rima"

The last student from Cross Academy skipped up to the stool, frowning at the sorting hat before resigning herself to placing the hat upon her head. As she sat there she appeared to be arguing with the hat, before it sighed and muttered "…Hufflepuff."

She stalked over and sat next to the nervous boy from earlier, before pulling out a box of sweets to distract him. The two at the Ravenclaw table had been joined by a girl with white blond hair and a vague expression, who was asking Takuma about his manga. Aido was flirting with the nearby Ravenclaw girls, who were now giggling and blushing at his jokes. Akatsuki was staring at Aido with a concerned expression.

Dumbledore stood up from the head table, blinding nearby students with his multi-coloured robes and causing Rima, Senrei and Ruka to hide under their respective house tables. Several Hufflepuffs joined out of house loyalty, while a few of the younger Ravenclaws decided they should see if it made any noticeable difference in their thinking process.

"Students, esteemed guests and Professors, I am delighted to announce that Professor Yagari has agreed to continue his class, which will be optional for all students above first year. It is being held in the lecture theatre by Professor Binn's classroom. His subject is one that Hogwarts has never taught before – however, I believe I shall allow him to introduce it."

"Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct. That said, I don't want slackers in my classroom, and I will toss you out if you aren't up to standard. Cross Academy brats, you're in my class whether you like it or not. I certainly don't. Sadly, I can't toss you out, as I'm required to teach you by my contract. Whichever of you sees Kiryuu next, tell him he has detention. Try not to destroy the potions classroom, Kuran. Other Kuran, don't kill Aido while I'm responsible. Aido… just no. No. Shiki, if you apologize now he'll stop stalking you over the next few days. If you don't… well… I suggest making burial arrangements. Souen, Touya… do your homework for once in your lives. Akatsuki… you're responsible for Aido, seeing as you agreed to a bet that made you his slave for the week. Ichijo, no books at the table. Put the manga away. Sayonara, brats."

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