A/N: Greetings all and sundry. It has been a long time since I've published anything, though it's not because I haven't been writing. I have a lot of first chapters piled up in my Google Drive, but I was never able to figure out where I wanted to go from there until now. I still only have one chapter for this story, at the moment, but I have quite a few ideas about where I would like this story to go, which a lot better than I've been able to accomplish with my other first chapters. Hence, why I feel comfortable posting this.

Things you should know:

-So this story combines a few things I never thought I would find myself writing. Mainly it's a crossover and a harem...probably. The only pairing I've for sure set in stone is the one made obvious in this first chapter. One thing I do know is that I only plan on there being one person from the Sekirei world in the harem. How will that work, you ask? In the immortal words of Dana Marschz: "I have a device." (and no, it's not a time machine)

-Hogwarts starts at age 13 in this story. Despite that, the HP universe is essentially canon until the end of OOTP. Don't complain. Even though I know it happens in real life, I don't fancy writing about 14-15 year olds gettin' squelchy. Especially with 20-somethings. Which brings me to the next thing you should know.

-This story is rated 'M' for a reason. Starting in this chapter. I will do my best to keep it somewhat tasteful. I don't want to get this story booted after all. But come on, it's Sekirei. I still don't understand how there are K rated Sekirei fics on this site. I mean have these authors read the manga or watched the anime? To that end, with Harry being 17 at the start of this fic, he is reaching his sexual peak and will not be the typical wishy-washy wet noodle that most manga/anime harem protagonists seem to be. He won't be an out and out sex fiend, but he will know what to do with a woman like Uzume, once he gets over some emotional hurdles.

-Timelines: What has two thumbs and doesn't give a crap if the canon timelines in a crossover fanfiction wouldn't normally overlap? This guy. I like the HP timeline, and since this story takes place in the HP world, that's the one we go with. Only change is what was stated before. So instead of his first year at Hogwarts being '91-92, it's '93-'94.

-I welcome all reviews, but please keep the 'that's not how it worked in the books' comments to a minimum. It's fanfiction. If I didn't change a few things, it would just be canon. That being said, please point out inconsistencies within my story, because I have a lot of trouble reading stories that are not self-consistent and I don't want to be that guy. For example, if I said in chapter 2 that elephants have giant blue testicles than can be used to generate continuously renewable biodiesel and then in chapter 4 said they were red ovaries, I have become inconsistent with myself. That is bad. Boo on me.

Ok, I've rambled on too long. Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own either the Harry Potter franchise nor the Sekirei conglomerate. I write this story purely for my own jollys, which sadly are not of a monetary or otherwise material nature.

Chapter 1: Death is a Stupid Bitch

'Welcome Home:' the last words she had heard before taking the proverbial bullet for Sahashi. The words now filled her with a bitter resentment. Not for the sacrifice she had made, but for the irony of where she had managed to end up. Home, my ass. Home is where you are supposed to feel safe, where your loved ones share your life, where your fondest memories are set. Like hell this shitshack was her home.

She just did not understand. Deactivation was supposed to mean the end of her consciousness as she and everyone else knew it. Unless the Jinki were combined, there was no coming back, and even then she would expect to return to a world similar to the one she left or at least reasonably so. It was obvious to Uzume that no such thing had occurred. There was absolutely no way this was a 'real' world.

Firstly, there seemed to be an infinite number of other Uzumes - none of whom she could interact with - wandering around an environment that seemed to fold in and around itself like one of those M.C. Escher paintings she had always liked. After some observation, she had been able to discern that she was in some sort of infinite time loop. Some of the Uzumes she could see were doing things she had done just previously and some were doing things that she would later discover herself doing in the 'future.'

In addition to the mind-bending perspectives, whenever she walked into a room in this place, she would be looking into one of her memories. If she were dead, like she suspected, she had definitely gone in the downward direction. None of the memories she was forced to relive were happy ones. The worst part was she felt compelled to keep opening new doors in the hope a good memory would surface. One of Chiho…

She knew she had no right to expect them. She was deactivated; Chiho was no longer her Ashikabi. Worse, she was no longer Chiho's Sekirei. That was hell in and of itself.

She was pragmatic enough to understand that there probably would have been another Ashikabi she might have reacted with had she not met Chiho. She had only had a mild reaction to the girl, after all. Nothing like what all of Minato's birds had described. But for her, it was the sense of belonging that she was after at the time of her winging rather than true love. She had grown to love her Ashikabi, but not in the way most Sekirei desired. Chiho was family, the true sister she had always wanted.

None of this explained why she knew she was still Uzume. The loss of Chiho was enough for her to seriously wish for the loss of her sense of self to have disappeared. She would not have been so pissed off if it had just been the MBI pricks who had told her what to expect when her core was silenced. She had long since realized they knew fuck all about anything or just lied straight up to the Sekirei about everything.

No, it was Miya who had told her about the end of ends. It was a scary thought, just losing who you were, even if you were still technically alive. Miya put it in perspective for her. 'Would you want to remember that you had lost your Ashikabi?' Because that was an inevitability. Deactivation severs the bond, no ifs, ands, or buts. MBI she had no trust in, but Miya she knew would not lead her birds astray. So what the fuck was going on?

On the one hand, she was feeling betrayed. How could Miya lie to her? Worse than that how could she plant the worst possible thought in her head about retaining her consciousness post-deactivation while telling her she would never have to worry about it? On the other hand, she was glad she was still her, despite being locked in this version of hell on a loop. If she was actually dead, she definitely felt she deserved the punishment for all the sins she had committed in her own selfishness.

Despite the cycle of guilt and depression, Uzume could not help but feel like there was something far more significant happening to her than just being dead. Some sense niggled at her mind that this existence had more purpose than eternal torment.

As she concentrated, trying to expand this sense, she was distracted by a wail from one of the other Uzumes. Recognizing it as one of her past selves walking out of a particularly horrible memory, she absently used her veils to plug her ears so she could resume thinking in peace.

Suddenly, her eyes shot open in revelation. I still have my power! It should not be possible. Her core was deactivated! She quickly turned her senses inward to make sure, but as she expected, there was none of the familiar feeling of warmth and power that she associated with her Sekirei core. Surely, true hell would not let her keep her powers, right? What the fuck was going on?

A cracking sound and some dust in her line of sight brought Uzume out of her reverie. Looking up she saw breaks and fissures beginning to form in the architecture all around her. She noted that all the other Uzumes had mysteriously disappeared, and apparently the rules of gravity were now in proper alignment. All the dust and debris from the disintegrating worldscape was falling in the same direction.

The destruction began to accelerate, and realizing the precariousness of her current situation, Uzume raised her veils up into a protective dome over her head. As the debris and rubble crashed down around her and bounced off her reinforced shield, she thought frantically trying to determine why the world was literally falling to pieces around her. Maybe it's because, I realized that I still had powers? Even with all she'd seen since her deactivation, she was skeptical it could be something so esoteric.

Eventually, the sounds of destruction tapered off. Fearing that lowering her shield would result in being crushed by the accumulated detritus, Uzume walked around her dome and tentatively poked the cloth to determine the extent of her enclosure. To her surprise, every spot she tested seemed to have nothing on the other side. Still wary, she gently peeled back a section of overlaid veils to peer carefully outside her protective dome.

Shocked at what she saw, the dome of cloth slackened and fell limp around her. Turning rapidly around on the spot she stood, and craning her neck in every direction, Uzume found herself standing on a craggy outcropping - or what used to be one anyway - of rock that was seemingly floating in an endless black void. Despite there being no obvious light source, she could see her immediate surroundings clearly. Not that there was much to see.

Apart from the endless nothingness around her, the only thing to see was a strange archway on the other side of her rocky perch. The archway was not actually arch-shaped, rather it resembled one of those standing stone structures she had seen pictures of from somewhere on the other side of the Earth from Japan. She had never been one for geography; a pretty useless study for someone confined to one city on one relatively small island for her entire life.

Curious of this new development, Uzume stepped forward lightly to examine the portal. It was fairly primitive though nonetheless impressive, consisting of three massive stones. As she approached, she was able to discern that all three stones were covered in etchings that seemed to be writing of some sort. The lindle stone had a curious symbol traced in the center, a circle inside a triangle, both of which were bisected by a vertical line. Each line of the symbol was composed of more of the etched writing. Something about the pictogram called to her, pulling her even closer.

The closer she came the more fascinated she became. Something she could not see from further away that became clear was that there was a curtain hanging across the portal, though it had no visible hooks or supports that she could see to keep it in place. Its material was the deepest black that she had ever seen, easily blending into the blackness of the void around her. Not a curtain… a veil!

At her revelation, she felt her white veils being pulled away from her and out of her control. Panicking, she exerted all the control she could muster, but their progress towards the portal was inexorable. As soon as the first edge of her white cloth touched the black veil, the slow tug became a powerful yank. In self preservation, Uzume let go completely as she was stripped of her precious defense.

She clenched her fists in desperate frustration. What good was having her power, it she had lost her veils? She had thought her hell was over with the destruction of the Escher worldscape, but this new reality was not shaping up much better. She felt naked without her veils. Well, she actually was naked, they had also been serving as her clothing at the moment.

Of course, Uzume was never one to really care about physical nudity. She never really had cared about modesty, though she was not ignorant of it like poor Musubi. She had a kick-ass figure, so she never saw a reason to be ashamed if someone saw it in all its glory. Plus, being able to manipulate cloth like she could, made self-waxing exceedingly easy. The Brazilian still hurt like a bitch, but at least she could get everything in one go. Considering veils were often thought of as tools used to conceal, it was a bit ironic that the Veiled Sekirei had no qualms about baring it all.

Despite her anger at the portal before her for robbing her of her weapons, it still fascinated her. Still called her closer in what she recognized as an unnatural way. As she drew closer she saw the veil begin to ripple despite there being no breeze and her not using her power. Enthralled by it as she was, she wasn't about to try touching that particular veil if she could help it. It seemed to be composed of the void and that could not be good.

The rippling increased and started to become somewhat violent. For the first time, Uzume managed to take a step back from the archway in wariness. She was glad she did as the next moment, the curtain blew inward as a man began falling through from the other side in what appeared to be slow-motion. However, as soon as the man's body crossed the threshold, it began disintegrating until only a small glowing orb about the size of her fist remained.

As interesting as the sight of the disappearing man was, Uzume's gaze was fixed behind him into brief glimpse she was given of the space beyond the veil of nothing. For the tiniest of moments, she felt it. Her face flushed, goose flesh rose on her exposed skin, and her arousal spiked. Her knees gave out on her and she dropped heavily to them with a moan. "A-ashikabi…"

Despite being close to release, Uzume was able to observe several things about the world beyond the portal. The first thing she noticed was there was some sort of fight or battle occurring, though it looked like something out of a manga or video game since the combatants were all shooting different colored beams at each other, like laser guns.

Before the fabric dropped back down to obscure her vision she was able to focus her sight on the one making her react. He was looking right at her after all. Well, not exactly, he was looking at the disintegrating man with a look of pure and utter despair etched across his surprisingly young face. The last things she was given before the veil fell again were a vision of his shockingly green eyes and the agonized sound of his voice, "SIRIUS!"

Despite the pain displayed in both eyes and voice, they both served only to spike her arousal. Her left hand slid quickly up across her kneeling body to grasp frantically at her right breast, flicking her hardened nipple between her index and middle finger as she squeezed desperately. Her right hand had journeyed south over the smooth skin of her belly over her mound and into the folds of her pussy. As soon as her fingers made contact with her engorged clit, her mind exploded with pleasure.

Uzume was certainly no stranger to self-pleasure. With a sickly Ashikabi, there was never much in the way of physical intimacy. It was one of the reasons she saw Chiho more as a sister than a lover, unlike most Sekirei/Ashikabi relationships. Unfortunately, Uzume had as many needs as the next woman, probably more considering her Sekirei nature. So she routinely spent at least a couple hours a day scratching her own itch.

Orgasms, while necessary for her satisfaction, had never come easy and when they did they were more like a warm hug. But this was like nothing she had ever felt before. Wave upon wave of pleasure crashed over her for nearly five minutes, not that time seemed to mean anything in this void. Every muscle in her body spasmed, her back arching, thrusting her breasts out as her moan escalated to a continuous shriek of bliss.

Holy shit! she thought as she finally felt the pleasure ebb. A loopy grin crawled across her face as she imagined finding that boy and locking him in room with her for a week or so. A few seconds of his presence and the sound of his voice, and this is what he does to me? Sign me up! Immediately upon that thought, she felt both guilty and confused. The thoughts felt like the ultimate betrayal to Chiho. She had to forcibly remind herself, that Chiho was no longer her Ashikabi. There was no connection between them anymore, which led to the confusion. How the hell could she be reacting to someone if she had no Sekirei core?

Two solutions to the quandary presented themselves, neither of which gave her much comfort. The first was that she still had her core, which would have been good except she felt no connection to it. If there was no connection, how could it grant her use of her powers or make her react to someone? These questions led her to the second conclusion, which made her both angry and delighted. The only other scenario was that a Sekirei's power did not come from their core at all, that being a Sekirei was more than just being a human with a special battery.

Initially, the thought filled her with joy, knowing that she was and would always be Uzume the Veiled Sekirei. Nothing could take that away from her. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized how well she, and all the other Sekirei, had been played. Not by MBI, but by Miya. All those stories about what Sekirei were and how their powers worked and the role of Ashikabi-all just smoke blown up her veils. So what was the point of the cores? Why were they there? Her thoughts began to spiral out of control before she was abruptly brought back to the present.

"Oh YES! Moony, you so owe me 10 galleons!" a voice practically shouted in a semblance of joy. "Ha, fucker thought there'd be no way I made it to heaven. Well, super-fit naked birds cumming at the mere sight of me seems pretty fucking heavenly to me, Moony! So there!"

"Not very likely," she said with a snort of amusement. Uzume had always been one to roll with whatever situation she was handed. Perverted disembodied voices were certainly unusual, but considering she thought the possibility that she was dead was at least 70% likely, why should there not be a ghost or two flitting about? Looking around with curiosity rather than panic, she noticed the small iridescent orb - which she absently remembered the disintegrating man turning into - bobbing around in the general vicinity of her nether regions.

"Alright, alright, Mr. Ghost-man. Show's over. Besides, I'm pretty sure this is not heaven, and it certainly wasn't you revving my engine. It was that green-eyed hunk on the other side…" She trailed off with a dreamy expression crossing her face. Noticing the orb-thingy had yet to move, she closed her legs to cut off the view.

With what she could somehow understand as disappointment, the ball of light floated upwards, stopping at chest height. This man had been a serious pervert, but as long as he could have an informative conversation while doing so, she was not going to begrudge him staring at her tits. They were quite impressive, if she said so herself.

"Hunk? Harry?" The orb quivered as the voice tried to hold back laughter. Apparently, he took at least a brief look at her face to see the sudden scowl that had come across it. This pervert was making fun of her Ashikabi...well, hopefully he would be her Ashikabi, if she wasn't actually dead. Her scowl deepened at the thought.

"Sorry, sorry," the voice placated. "I love the lad as if he were my own, and I couldn't be more proud or jealous that he has a smokin' bird like you pining for him. But I'm not sure anyone would call Harry a 'hunk'. Bit on the scrawny side, after all."

"His name is Harry?" This query seemed to through the ghost for a loop. She had no way to know for certain, but she guessed if he had a face at the moment it would be showing outright shock. Realizing that neither of them knew the other, "My name is Uzume, by the way."

"You don't know who Harry is?" Incredulity was plastered all over his voice, though she could not tell if it was because this Harry was famous or because she had popped the big O thinking of someone whose name she did not even know. She figured it was the former, since most people masturbated to thoughts nameless faceless sex idols from time to time. "Oh, sorry, I'm Sirius, Sirius Black, or rather I was. You really don't know who Harry is?"

"Only seen him once," she replied nonchalantly. "When you fell through that portal-thingy over there, the veil across it lifted, he was running towards, well, I suppose towards you, seeing as he called out 'Sirius' while your body was disintegrating."

"Wait, so you saw him for maybe, what, one second?"

"It was more like 30 seconds," Uzume replied. "I think time flows a bit differently where we are; you all seemed to be moving in slow-motion. And don't ask me, I have no idea what this place is either. I just got here a minute or so before you did."

"Still, 30 seconds to both inflate and burst your bubble? James will be so proud," Sirius stated in a teary sounding voice.

"You certainly have a one-tracked mind, don't you?"

"Sorry, but when the most beautiful woman I've ever seen is sitting in front of me, naked as a jay, and she just had the most explosive orgasm I've ever witnessed, it's difficult to stray far from the topic." Despite knowing he was trying to charm her, Uzume could not stop the slight coloring of her cheeks. Most beautiful? She knew she was hot, but she thought she was only middle of the road compared to some of the other Sekirei. She absently wondered if this Sirius guy would even be able to speak if Miya were here instead.

"Well, I don't know about all that, but can you try to focus a bit? Tell me about Harry."

"Who's got a one-tracked mind?" the orb mumbled, though not soft enough for her not to hear it. The slight scowl on her face must have indicated that he was caught if the hasty clearing of his 'throat' was any indication. His tone turned serious as he continued, however. "Why do you want to know about Harry?"

"Well, apart from the obvious," Uzume coughed a bit, embarrassed by the smirk she could feel Sirius-orb giving her. "He seemed so lost. His eyes were full of sorrow, and not just the sudden agony of seeing you die, or whatever happened to you. There was deep, long-held sadness. Not to mention some serious frustration and resentment. I can't stand to see my Ashikabi in pain, but I can't fix it if I don't understand it."

"What's an Osh-kosh-bigosh?" Sighing, she began to explain to Sirius all about Sekirei. For the next hour or so she regaled him with their history, their powers, their connection to Ashikabi's, the Jinki, the whole works including her recent epiphanies about from where a Sekirei's power arose.

Throughout the story, Sirius listened with a critical 'ear'. He would ask her questions to get to the heart of matters she had never thought about, especially concerning her anger at Miya regarding the Sekirei cores.

"I take it, you've never had children?" he asked. She shook her head, somewhat confused by his question. "Then you've never known the lengths a mother would go to protect their children, including lie, cheat, and steal from them to prevent a more heinous crime against them. These cores, were placed in you before you were born, before you even left your planet. This MBI exploited all of you for your powers, which were fantastic to a normal human even limited as they were. What do you think they would have done if they had known your powers could be passed to your children, even children born with regular humans? I wouldn't hold Miya and the other Pillars in disdain for protecting me from that fate."

"But the other five sets of Sekirei had children. We wouldn't have had Ashikabi without them!" Uzume responded, not fully grasping what Sirius was implying.

"Putting aside the fact that the original five sets of Sekirei found Ashikabi on a planet where no Sekirei had been before, none of your modern Ashikabi - those descended from Sekirei - had Sekirei powers did they?" he responded. "I would venture to say that not only did the cores limit their power, they also prevented them from being passed to their children. Sekirei blood, yes, powers no."

"But the whole point of leaving our planet was to save our race!" She huffed indignantly. "Why would the Pillars deliberately sabotage that plan? It makes no sense!"

"Unless they knew exactly where they were headed before they left and had done some research on humans beforehand," he riposted. "We are a greedy and prideful people, Uzume. Even millennia ago when your ships landed, we were, as a whole, bad people. If your powers could have been passed down with your blood, you would have been slaves to your Ashikabi, used only to produce as many children as possible. As it were, I think some of your early compatriots did in fact overcome the limitations of their cores, just as you seem to have, but I'll get into that more later. I want to hear more about you."

She hesitated slightly when it came to her personal history, but Sirius seemed very protective of this Harry, and he did not seem likely to give up information to someone he held no trust in. So she gave him her story.

Her situation with Chiho had taught Uzume a lot about pain, sorrow, and frustration. The pain she felt watching her Ashikabi suffer and knowing she had no power to fix it. The sorrow of knowing she did not love Chiho like she was supposed to, despite their bond. The frustration of being forced to commit horrible crimes so Higa would keep Chiho alive. The worst part being that she wanted Chiho alive more for her own sense of belonging than for Chiho's well being.

If she had a chance to start over, to try again, she was damn sure that she was going to do better, be a better person. If Harry was her new Ashikabi, she would make sure that she devoted herself to him without question. She would not exploit him for her own selfish desires, nor would she allow him to be exploited. She had been drawn to Chiho's suffering in a bid to make herself feel better by being needed. She was certainly drawn to Harry's apparent suffering, but she would not form a bond with him for herself. She would only bond if she could help him.

"What if just bonding with him helped?" Sirius asked with in a somewhat haunted tone. It seems he had come to the decision that she was trustworthy enough to talk about Harry.

"What do you mean?" Uzume was a bit confused. Harry seemed young. Gaining a bonded mate at his age would usually be seen as more of a burden than helpful.

"You were right that Harry has a lot of pain and sorrow locked up inside him," Sirius began. "I guess I should start at the beginning." Sirius told the tale of Harry Potter as well as he knew it: how he was well-known even before birth just because of his family, how he became famous for events beyond his control at the age of 1. At this point, Sirius had diverged a bit into his own story to explain why he was not around for Harry's early childhood and why he did not know a lot of details about it. But he certainly had suspicions, suspicions that set Uzume's blood boiling in rage just imagining it.

Sirius had more concrete knowledge of what had occurred in Harry's life after he turned 13. Uzume was fascinated by the idea of humans with powers as he told her about Harry discovering his 'magic' as he called it and receiving his invitation to a school designed to teach him how to wield it properly. The next five years of Harry's life were described in greater detail since Harry had been more inclined to talk about them with Sirius. He still rarely talked about any of his time outside of school, apparently. Only mentioning incidents that revolved around magic.

He talked about Harry's friends and enemies. And the more Sirius talked about the goings on at this school Harry attended, the more Uzume began to suspect some of his friends should be listed in the other category. Especially this Dumbledore fellow. The more she learned of him, the more he sounded like Minaka - though less blatantly insane - which just made him that more dangerous.

When Harry turned 15, Sirius digressed into his own story a bit and how he had broken out of prison in an attempt to protect Harry. Uzume was beginning to realize that Sirius had had a bit of a reckless streak in him, and he had a tendency to rush headlong into situations he probably should not have. Of course the way he described Harry was very similar.

As Sirius talked about Harry's fame and the boy's inability to deal with it, Uzume gained a glimmer of an understanding as to what he meant about the bonding alone helping Harry. The kid had no innate understanding of what friendship was, or what it meant to be loved. His unnaturally strong attachment to this Weasley family was a prime example. Based on what Sirius said, it sounded an awful lot like, poor Harry was being used. Maybe not by all of them (it was an admittedly large family), but certainly this Ron guy. And any mention of the sister was starting to raise Uzume's hackles.

Of all of Harry's friends, only the Hermione girl seemed to be truly genuine. Sure, there was some hero-worship underlying everything, but what girl would not look at their savior without a bit of reverence. The important part was that Hermione seemed to have outgrown the awe and still wanted to remain friends with Harry, just to be friends. She said as much to Sirius.

"I agree," he responded. "There are a few others I haven't really talked about much that are true to Harry, but of those he considers close, Hermione is the one I trust the most. Actually, I had hoped romance would spark there, but Harry doesn't see her that way. Plus, he's pretty sure she's a witch's witch, though he's too polite to just ask."

"Why wouldn't he know already? If she was a real friend, would she not have told him?" She was a bit baffled by the situation.

"Well, same-sex relations are not really looked well upon in the Wizarding world. He probably doesn't want to embarrass her or make her uncomfortable," Sirius remarked.

"Seriously? They wouldn't like me much then."

"But, I thought…" Sirius sounded confused. She realized at this point that she must not have made a strong indication that Chiho was female. Not that she had ever done much in the intimacy department with Chiho, but she did find her attractive.

"Chiho, my previous Ashikabi was a girl, Sirius," she clarified.

"But, what about Harry?" He was starting to sound very concerned.

"Relax, I'm a very open person, Sirius. I don't really concern myself with gender overmuch." It was true; there were fun things to do no matter how you were plumbed. "I just want to be happy and make the person I'm with happy, no matter who they are."

"Well, if you ever get out of this place, I want you to promise me, you will do your best to make Harry happy." Sirius' orb got very close to her face as he asked this of her, as if to impart the gravity of his request.

"If I ever get out? Don't you mean we?" Uzume leaned back a bit, slightly uncomfortable with his closeness for some reason. He backed down a bit and seemed to take on a mournful air. He floated back over towards the portal.

"You don't know what this is, do you?" he stated. He floated all around the stones as if he was reading the unintelligible script. "It looks a lot different on this side."

"What are you talking about?" Uzume asked, thoroughly confused. "What is it?"

"On the other side, it looks like a continuous stone archway," he responded. "There's no runes, and it always looks like it's about five seconds from crumbling to dust. I guess that makes sense, in a morbid sort of way. In life, death is the end and often comes when you are at your weakest. In death, death is eternal is strong. This archway is known as the Veil of Death. You don't get to return when you've passed through it."

"So, I am dead," Uzume mused, almost unconcerned. It made sense.

"I don't think so," Sirius responded, startling her a bit. It must have shown on her face. "Don't you notice anything different about us?"

It hit her like a truck. How did she have a body? If Sirius was the norm for someone in death, how was she here on this side of the Veil with her body fully intact. Something was definitely not right about that. As she was musing on the strangeness of her situation, she almost missed Sirius pulsing faster and faster.

"Sirius? What's happening?"

"I think," his voice sounding distant, "our time is almost up."

"What? Wait, you never told me about why you thought there were unbound Sekirei!" She had almost forgotten during his story about Harry. The sound of chuckling came from Sirius' fading light.

"I'll leave you to think about that," he answered. "Just be very careful who you talk to about it." He may have tried to say more, but his glow was nearly completely extinguished. Only two more words managed to make it to her ears, and then he was gone. "Save him…"

Uzume huffed in frustration as she was once again left alone. At least she knew she was not exactly dead. But she had no idea how to get back to the world of the living. She still did not want to touch that veil. And if she did get back, where would she return? Somehow, she had never gotten around to asking Sirius where exactly he and Harry were from. Despite them being able to understand each other, something told her she had not been speaking the same language as Sirius. And with their magical world being kept secret, how would she even enquire about the few places he had talked about?

She was brought out of her musings as the Veil began to ripple again like it did just before Sirius came through. This is it! When the Veil blows open again, I can rush underneath it, she thought, though her excitement was tinged with something niggling at the back of her mind: like there was something important she had forgotten.

While she was never the most girly of girls, she did occasionally have bouts of overly-romantic fantasy. As the fabric grew more agitated, Uzume's anticipation grew. She could practically see Harry standing right in front of her with arms wide, ready to sweep her off her feet. Wait, that's not a fantasy...he's right there! Shit!

Instantly, she realized what had been teasing at her brain. Time! She had been talking with Sirius for what seemed like hours, but based on her last glimpse to the other side, time moved much slower over there. What was hours spent in conversation here, might have only been a few minutes, or even seconds in the living world!

The Veil had parted for the briefest of moments in its frantic fluttering, and she had just barely glimpsed Harry barrelling headlong towards her, albeit in slow-motion. The thought that the battle she had seen might still be going on and that it had only been a fraction of a moment since Harry saw his godfather fall through the Veil of Death had not occurred to her. Yet from what she could gain from that small look through, that was exactly what was happening.

Without much thought, Uzume sprang into motion. She could not let her Ashikabi literally throw his life away. He was much more important than her wariness of the Veil's fabric. So she ran straight towards the portal. She was not very far away from it, and with her enhanced Sekirei speed, she should have made it there in no time. But in her mind's eye, it seemed to take forever to cover the distance.

The Veil had just begun to part in earnest - and she could see Harry's hand outstretched as if to grasp his godfather's long since departed form - when she raced over the threshold of the archway. Time seemed to stop altogether as her body made contact with the fabric of the Veil. Pain lanced through her entire body as she felt something expanding within her, like her structure could no longer contain the forces of life within her. Or rather the forces of Death.

Through the agony she was experiencing, she came to the realization that she had made a serious mistake. When she had reached the doorway and touched the Veil, she had, almost unconsciously, extended her power to attempt to control the cloth into forming a barrier that Harry could not pass through. Unfortunately, this was no normal textile.

Rather than reject her attempt at control, the Veil of Death's connection to her power increased in intensity, filling Uzume with an acute understanding of the barrier between life and death. The pain and feeling of exponential expansion arose from the moment when she was able to feel every soul that was passing on all over the world and the multitude of worlds across the universe all at once, with no way to block the sensation.

Then, as rapidly as it was there, it was gone: leaving her feeling tiny in her own shell for a brief moment. The power to sense death was still there, it was the creepiest thing she had ever felt. But if it stayed limited like it was now, she could roll with it. She felt the Veil responding eagerly to her touch now as it wrapped around her body, much like her old white veils. Unfortunately, she was not given much time for introspection as she was still moving quite quickly despite stumbling a bit due to the influx of power.

She also discovered that physics was a bitch.

pi R round's English Tutor/Pet Peeve Corner

Today's Lesson: Homey vs. Homely

How many times have you been reading through a fic and you come across some descriptive writing in which the author has described some pleasant place or person as 'homely'? Probably more often than you can count. Many of you may not even realize what the problem here is. Allow me to enlighten you. From dictionary . com:

Homey: (adj.) 1. comfortably informal and inviting; cozy; homelike

Homely: (adj.) 1. lacking in physical attractiveness; not beautiful; unattractive. 2. not having elegance, refinement, or cultivation. 3. properly suited to the home or to ordinary domestic life; plain; unpretentious 4. commonly seen or known.

Ok, so we can see here that while some authors may be trying to imply correctly that what they are describing as 'homely' is plain or simple, let alone ugly or unrefined, most writers are likely using the word incorrectly, and they are probably trying to use the definition of 'homey' to describe their object.