Thank you for the reviews, they motivated me to write but sadly I got sick and was in bed for a week. I would have used my laptop but it broke down awhile ago and I have yet to replace it.

I was really amazed by all the story alerts I got, and kind of sad that more people didn't review, but I'll take what I can get.

I would also like to point out that if any of you see where I used American terms instead of the proper British/Japanese terms then please tell me so that I can fix it. I most likely won't be doing that until after the story is finished but it would still help.

LiechLiet has my thanks for correcting me on a term I used.

I did get a beta, Spirit-of-the-Rain, and I can already see where my story has improved. Thank you, Spirit-of-the-Rain. I also encourage fans of Avatar the Last Airbender and don't mind original characters, to read Spirit-of-the-Rain's story called The Elemental Gift. Expect a long time between updates, but I believe that it's worth the wait.

I will also say that it might take a while between updates for this story as I tend to get sick very easily, usually it's a severe sore throat; my sister tends to get tonsillitis a lot so I don't what's going on there but I do know that it means I will likely not be able to update quickly. I'm sorry about that and I will try to do the best I can to get the chapters up faster. There are, of course, other things happening in my life as well but I will try to ignore them so I can write.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Harry Potter or Fruits Basket. As much as I love them, I don't own them and I didn't write them.

The Witch and Her Rat

By OneWorldLife

Ailith drove into her garage, having just come back from the Sohma's place.

'Well, they seem like nice people. A little rough, but if they way Yuki and Kyo tried to protect Tohru from me was any indication; she'll be safe there, for now at least. I'll have to watch that Shigure guy, he gave me the creeps. I don't like him and that dark aura, it makes me worried,'Ailith thought to herself as she got out of her car and walked up the steps to her three-story house.

"Mistress Ailith! You are home!" The voice came from a rather strange creature that had green tennis-ball sized eyes and a long pencil thin nose. This creature was a house elf named Dobby.

"Hello Dobby. Where is Kreacher? Oh, did Winky come by with news of when Luna and Teddy would be here?" Ailith asked, wondering about her other two house elves. Kreacher was an aging house elf who had served the Ancient and Noble House of Black well, though he did pick up their nasty habits. After Ailith had given him the destroyed locket horcrux, to show that he had done as Master Regulus asked of him, he started to warm up to Ailith and was now taking her ideals.

Winky had been freed by her previous master. When Ailith had gone to the Hogwarts kitchens one last time before she left, Winky was in the process of drinking herself into oblivion. Ailith, worried for her, offered her a place as her third house elf. Ailith needed someone to look after Teddy, her godson, anyway so it was a good fit.

Dobby, though she would never say aloud lest the other house elves hear, was her favorite. They had met in the summer before second year. He had tried to keep her safe by keeping her from going to Hogwarts, but most often than not he ended up putting her in more danger than if he had stayed out-of-the-way. After the adventure Ailith had in the Chamber of Secrets, in which her fear of snakes arose to unimaginable heights, she managed to free him by putting her wool hat over the destroyed diary horcrux, though she didn't know it was a horcrux at the time. When his master, Lucius Malfoy, threw her hat away Dobby caught it, thereby freeing him.

He then protected Ailith from his old master by using his house elf magic to send Malfoy tumbling down the stairs. Dobby had gotten down on his knees and pretty much begged to be her house elf. Ailith just couldn't say no, Dobby has the most powerful puppy eyes ever.

"Kreacher is in the kitchens making dinner and Winky said they would be here in about a week." was the reply that Dobby gave.

"Thank you Dobby. Can you please find the address to one Honda Yasuo? Also, find out who lives there with him and anything you can find on them."

"Yes Mistress Ailith," Dobby said before popping out.

Ailith, for what seemed to be the hundredth time, looked around her 'house' in awe. She had never dreamed of owning a place like this one. When she found out that her father's family had built a house in Japan, close to where Tohru lived, Ailith was sure it was a sign. A sign that she was supposed to live here and protect her little cousin.

It was big, the fact that it had three floors, a lot in Ailith's book, was emphasized by the notion that each floor was massive. There were high ceilings, and the floor was expansive.

The house had three floors and a basement; the basement held multiple potions rooms that held all the potions equipment and ingredients Ailith would need. The house elves also had their rooms in the basement.

Ailith tried to tell them to take one of the rooms on the second floor but they refused, saying they were too big, and Ailith didn't want to order them. Finally, Ailith decided to give them some of the lager closets in the basement. Dobby and Winky cried about how good their master was to them and Kreacher just nodded his head, saying that the rooms, while still big, were acceptable.

The ground floor had a living room, a dining room, an indoor pool, and a kitchen only used for entertaining muggles, though when the house was made it was used by house elves.

Ailith had everything in the kitchen spelled to look and act like muggle appliances, and she had gotten different equipment for the house elves to use put into a large room in the basement for the house elves to use. She wanted to make sure that her muggle cousin and friends wouldn't get suspicious of the lack of kitchen, so she made a muggle kitchen that they could enter and get food from, never knowing that it was not the main kitchen.

The first floor held bedrooms for the humans in the household. Each had a foyer that led to the bedroom and a bathroom. Teddy would have the room in-between Ailith's and Luna's. Ailith was thankful for Winky, as she was sure she never would have been able to take care of Teddy so well without her.

The second floor had a play room full of games and toys, both wizard and muggle. Ailith remembered that shopping trip with an almost smile. Teddy was really a joy to be around; Ailith didn't think she would be as mentally stable without him.

The second floor had storage areas and practice rooms, which had been spelled safe from stray hexes and curses. These would be most helpful when Ailith taught Luna the rest of the sixth and seventh year work she needed to pass her NEWTS.

Ailith couldn't wait until Luna moved in with Teddy. Ailith had grown close to Luna during the DA and after she lost Sirius they had grown even closer. Luna had lost her father a month before the final battle. Voldemort had seen how close Luna was to Ailith and had sent his Death Eaters to kill her and her father. Luckily Luna had been out looking for a Crumple Horned Snorkack at the time, but Xenophilius had decided to stay home.

Luna was brought to Hogwarts for protection. She was filled in on what horcruxes were and why they needed to find and destroy them. Luna helped as best she could, and was even taught by Alastor Moody and Kingsley Shacklebolt alongside Ailith for that short time. Luna, who had been taught by Ailith in the DA, was not that far behind and was quick to catch up.

When it came time for the final battle with Voldemort, Luna fought beside her and her arm was almost severed from a nasty curse Bellatrix Lestrange sent her way. After the battle was over, Luna had been rushed to St Mungo's Hospital, where they were able to save her arm.

After Ailith had made sure she was okay she left her and Teddy with Winky at the Black family home, which Kreacher had fixed up and it was quite nice to live in, if you could ignore the loud painting of Walburga Black.

Teddy was the son of Remus Lupin, her father's friend and her honorary uncle, and Nymphadora Tonks, her cousin through the pure blood lines, who preferred to be called Tonks. Remus and Tonks had met during the summer after Ailith's third year. They had known each other before, during the war, but Tonks had been very young. They dated, and soon Tonks was pregnant.

They had wanted to get married but the laws on werewolves made it almost impossible.

Through letters Ailith and Tonks had grown close and when, during Ailith's fourth year, Tonks had Ted Remus Lupin, given his father's last name even though they were not married, Ailith was named Godmother. Sadly, Ted Tonks, Tonk's father and the person Teddy was named after, was killed by death eaters along with his wife, Andromeda Tonks. Teddy had been left in the care of Dobby during the battle with Voldemort and then in Ailith's care until Tonks woke from her spell induced coma. Remus had been killed while trying to keep the werewolves on Voldemort's side away from Tonks while she fought Dolohov.

Shortly after Remus fell Tonks took out Dolohov but the werewolves caused massive damaged to her entire body. The only good thing about the situations was that the werewolves were not transformed and Tonks did not get infected.

Many of the fighters left alive are still worried about how the werewolves on Voldemort's side acted like beasts when it was not the full moon.

The ministry, now under Kingsley's command, is now testing the werewolves to find out if they are under the effects of a potion or illness that would have them abandon all human traits. They know that Snape never made anything like that so if it is a potion then they need to find the source, quick.

If it was an illness then they plan to find out what caused it and make sure they do all they can to prevent it from happening to the werewolves who didn't participate in the war. The new laws catered to helping magical creatures instead of persecuting them should help in that goal.

Luna and Teddy would be coming once Luna completed her OWLS, thanks to Ailith teaching her other subjects after the DA meetings and using her statues to let Luna test early. Ailith had left them to get the house ready and soon they would move in. She couldn't wait to introduce Luna to Tohru and vise versa. They were like her little sisters, though Tohru only by a few months.

"Mistress, dinner is ready," said Kreacher as he appeared in the room next to Ailith, knocking her out of her daze.

"Thank you, Kreacher," was Ailith's reply as she walked to the dining room.

After dinner Ailith walked up the stairs to her bedroom. She sat on her bed, pulling her laptop off her side table to send an email to Hermione. Ailith knew Hermione would be upset if she didn't hear from her soon, and Ailith didn't want Hedwig to have such a long trip.

Ailith spotted a picture on the side table. Picking it up, Ailith looked into the smiling faces of Moody, Kingsley, Luna, and herself. It had been taken one week before the battle. They had just finished training for the day when Dumbledore, strange man that he was, appeared with a camera forcing them to pose.

Ailith truly missed Moody; he was the only person who really knew her. She had shown him all that she could do, told him all of her problems; she had even told him that she knew that the vision of Sirius being tortured was a trap. Ailith wasn't stupid; she could feel the difference. She had only been curious as to what Voldemort wanted badly enough to expend all that energy.

She had risked her friends' lives and had gotten Sirius killed, all because of curiosity. (2)

Moody hadn't tried to tell her it was all right or that it wasn't her fault, especially after what she told him, unlike most of the others. He pushed her harder, taught her more. He even got her books on Legilimency and taught her that as well. Dobby hadn't liked it, but reluctantly accepted it after being told of the benefits. If it kept Ailith safe, all the better in Dobby's book. (1)

Ailith had been shocked when he first told her that he'd be teaching her the mind arts. Moody was a paranoid man and a hater of everything dark, after all. The way he explained it was simple, sometimes you have to sink to their level if you want to beat them. Ailith agreed. It quickly became apparent that she was a quick learner when her teacher was a more patient man.

For all the good he had done, Snape was a horrible teacher.

Ailith truly missed Moody, her mentor. As Ailith ran her hand over the picture, she could only think that there was never a man more deserving of being called father than he. One of her biggest regrets was never telling him that.

Sighing, Ailith put the picture back onto the side table and turned to her laptop.

Soon an email was written about Tohru, Uo-chan, Hana-chan, and the Sohmas. Ailith also included the weird feeling she had about Shigure. It resembled the feeling she got around Voldemort, someone who performed dark magic. Ailith was extra sensitive to that sort of magic because of her past experience with the grim material.

Moody also had it to some extent, and it probably made his paranoia even worse than before he got it, or maybe that was why he was paranoid to begin with.

Ailith didn't think it was anything to serious, but one never knew. He might be close to someone who used a curse on him at some point in the past. The physically closer a person or thing cursed was to the caster, the better she could pick up the dark magic surrounding someone. She hoped he just walked past a cursed item or something like that; she'd had enough of dark wizards and the spells they use to last the rest of her life.

A/N: I wanted to add more and go into what happens at school but I think it works well ending here. I hope you liked it and request that you tell me so in a review. If you didn't like it then tell me why and what I can do to improve. Thank you.

(1) I think Dobby would consider Legilimency as something no decent wizard/witch would do so I think he would have problems with it, but he loves Ailith and wants her to be safe. Learning the mind arts would be helpful in protecting herself so Dobby is okay with it.

(2) This is a huge fault Ailith has. When something sparks her interest she will do all she can to find out about it, sometimes forgetting that other people could get hurt along the way. With what happened to Sirius she will probably be a bit more careful from now one, though one never knows.

Thank you for reading and I hope I can get the next chapter out soon.

-One World