A/N: One of my old backup chapters. I used to just be a retelling of the first two fights with minor changes to accommodate Harry's presence/point of view, but I added a few original scenes to make it less boring, hopefully.

5.

"Would you like me to fix that?" Harry asked, as Hiei examined one half of the split cup still sitting on the coffee table with a blank expression. He wasn't expecting a positive response, since he highly doubted that the demon was fiddling with the object out of concern for its broken state. Rather, Hiei was the only one not in bed, and Harry was hoping for some conversation.

Unfortunately, Hiei merely responded with a dark glare before returning his eyes to trace the edge created by Zeru's energy blade.

Harry sighed. He was hoping for at least a verbal huff of dismissal, if not an outright "no," or maybe an insult to his intelligence. Maybe Hiei knew what he wanted and that's why he only glared? But then, surely he would've just ignored him completely and not even given the glare…

"Shut. Up," Hiei hissed, unconsciously wrapping his fingers around the arm of his chair in his irritation. "Your thoughts are absurd."

Harry blinked, then scowled. "Maybe you should stay out of my head," he snapped back. "Bloody telepath. Maybe I should start learning Occlumency again," he muttered to himself.

"Hn," Hiei huffed in return, before returning his focus to the cup.

Harry, in turn, stared at Hiei. In some ways, Harry was reminded of Snape whenever Yusuke told stories about the diminutive demon. It was kind of silly, because Snape was a very tall man whose robes billowed behind him, while Hiei was a very short demon who's cloak – when he wore one – snapped sharply with his quick footwork. The wizard's hair was also always greasy and lank, unlike Hiei's gravity defying spikes, and Snape's nose always seemed to overwhelm his face while Hiei's nose could almost be considered cute. And of course, Hiei wasn't a double agent for anything and he and Yusuke actually liked each other.

But they were both dark, brooding, unsociable types with more layers than an onion; people who seemed ruthless at first but turn out to actually have honor; people who hold high expectations for those around them but higher still for themselves; people who – and Harry sighed as he recalled what Yusuke had told him about Hiei's relationship with his sister, Yukina – had someone precious they worked to protect even if said person remained ignorant of it. Both Snape and Hiei considered the act of helping their allies to be more akin to "babysitting" than fighting side-by-side as equals, and they both – Harry scowled again – had the ability to enter another's mind.

The similarities should worry Harry. For all that he understood now that Snape had been an amazingly strong individual, he didn't think he'd ever have gotten along with the man even had he survived from his ordeal back in the Shrieking Shack. The old Potions Professor never saw him as anything more than a foolish, ignorant child. Still, Hiei doesn't appear to have reached his race's age of maturity, and he and Yusuke got along well enough, so maybe Harry still had some hope. It would be really awkward spending the entire tournament as an outsider.

"Ow!" Harry exclaimed when he was only able to partially dodge the cup half that was flung at his head.

"We are not here make friends," Hiei sneered, "and I am most certainly not going do any such thing with an impossible weakling like you. You may have fooled the buffoon and the low-class demons back on that ship with your tricks and vague stories, but you cannot fool the Jagan. Your only Energy attack during the entire fight was the one time you thickened your green aura on an attacking arm, and that trick alone drained nearly half your reserves. I don't know how you managed those other cheap tricks you utilized the rest of the time, but I for one am very much content to leave you as an alternate to never step foot in the arena. If you want someone with which to have friendly chat," Hiei spat the word like a curse, "I suggest you try Kurama."

"You just want Kurama to figure me out so he can tell you," Harry accused, having already been forewarned of the fox's silver tongue.

"Don't be ridiculous," Hiei retorted shortly.

"Well, you're certainly not going to find out by reading my thoughts if you don't spend gobs of time with me," Harry cheerily informed the ill-tempered demon. Telepathy and Legilimency were actually two distinctly different things. Snape could access his mind as a whole. On the one hand, there were no clear "words" to read, per se, but a skilled practitioner like his old professor was fully capable of extracting almost any information he desired to. Hiei could only access his conscious, worded thoughts. There was no ambiguity, but the information he had access to was limited. Since Harry certainly wasn't going to sit next to silent Hiei and ramble an explanation for his magic clearly and precisely in his head, telepathy wasn't nearly as useful in this situation as one might initially believe.

Harry stretched with a yawn. "Never mind all that for now," he ended up saying dismissively, lazily waving his wand to repair the shattered cup half which landed on the other side of the room before summoning it to his hand. "Don't stay up too long," the wizard said in parting as he lightly tossed the cup half back at the fire demon before heading off to bed.

"Let the Dark Tournament, begin!"

Under the pink, smoky fireworks that exploded in the pale blue sky, the announcer, Koto, yelled enthusiastically into her microphone. She was a cat demon, or maybe a fox demon, Harry believed, since she had the ears, a bushy tail, fluffy brown hair, whiskers, and slit pupils in her large green eyes.

The crowd of low class demons roared and cheered in approval of their entertainment going underway. The whole place was designed like a baseball stadium, a circle of raised seats surrounding a grassy arena. A tall wall separated the watches from the participators, and in the middle of the grass circle was a large, round, raised stage that looked very similar to the one back on the ship.

Harry blocked out the noise as best he could, choosing to concentrate more on the state of his team than the blood-thirst of their audience. In the Tri-Wizard Tournament, the watchers at least had the sense to feel a bit of sympathetic horror and fear when the Champions faced a particularly life-threatening task. It wouldn't be the same here.

Kuwabara was once more lugging Yusuke along over his shoulder, the other boy having yet to wake up from his slumber since the boat ride yesterday evening, and grumbling a bit over it. Harry wondered if Yusuke would even wake up in time to take on a challenger. Though, if worst came to worst, he could always use magic to shock him back to consciousness.

Kurama was looking plenty calm and serene, though his eyebrows were slightly tense with anticipation. Hiei too was looking unworried, though far more irritated and disdainful. That was probably his default expression, Harry decided, and the wizard was curious what kind of thoughts were running through the mind behind those scowling eyes. He recalled last night when the fire demon had examined the coffee cup Zeru split with carefully concealed interest when not distracted by Harry. It made him wonder what Hiei thought about it. To be honest, Harry only knew Hiei was a fire demon due to his unique Spirit Awareness. By the stories he'd heard from Yusuke, the small demon didn't use his fire power in a fight, preferring his sword. Perhaps today he'll try something different?

As for Genkai, she was looking just as delicately beautiful as yesterday, and her eyes just as indifferent to the current situation.

Harry wished he could say the same. He was quite nervous about what might happen today, and questions flew through his head as the team lifted themselves onto the round stage in the middle of the arena, their demon opponents doing the same on the other side. Would he have to fight? How strong were their opponents? If he saw anyone on his team about to die, would he be able to restrain himself from interfering? Genkai had already warned him that any rule breaking would result in their disqualification and assassination, but if Yusuke went up there onto the fighting platform and looked like he'd be decapitated? Maybe he'd take his chances with the hitmen.

"Nervous, Harry?"

Harry gave Kurama a tight smile that probably wasn't very reassuring. "Not to worry," he said, "I always get jitters before a big event," he explained, thinking back to his first Quidditch match and the first task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

"Hmph, pathetic," Hiei sneered. "You needn't worry so much. Yusuke and I are all this team needs to win the tournament. Our current opponents are certainly no exception."

"Don't get ahead of yourself," Kuwabara protested, pointing a finger in Hiei's face. "I'll be winning a lot of fights, too, you know. In fact, if that annoying kid from yesterday decides to fight, he's mine, okay? The brat make me so mad, and I'm gonna teach him a lesson."

Before Hiei could reply with an insulting retort, Koto yelled into her microphone. "Would the team leaders please report to the center of the ring so we can decide how the first match will be fought?"

Kuwabara turned towards the announcer, startled. "Hey, wait a minute, Urameshi's still asleep. What do we do?" he asked the rest of his team.

The others looked at each other with amusement. This was supposedly the time when the team leaders presented themselves, not only to the audience, but to each other, to measure up the opponents' strength and present a strong front. Trust Yusuke to miss it all together because none of them could wake him from his peaceful slumber.

"Mm," said boy began to mumble, sleep-talking from his place on Kuwabara's shoulders, "I don't want to go to school today, Mom. Just let Kuwabara be the leader of the events for me…"

"Well, if that's not a transfer of power, I don't know what is!" Kuwabara grinned, excited to take the important leadership position. He set his fellow schoolmate down on the floor before walking to meet Zeru in the center with Koto.

"Poor fool," Hiei drawled.

Harry stifled a snicker. Kuwabara seemed to be the most naïve on the team, so perhaps it wasn't so strange that he clashed with Hiei, who was the most cynical. Still, taking on the leadership position at this point did little harm. Everyone knew already that the star of the team was Yusuke Urameshi, and Kuwabara being the human in the center of the platform did nothing to change that fact.

Between glares and gritted teeth, Kuwabara and Zeru arrive in a roundabout manner to an agreement for one-on-one matches. The first team to achieve three victories would advance to the next round. The whole exchange was remarkably free of any attempts at violence, until Kuwabara turned to leave.

A sharp glare at Yusuke's body sprawled on the ground and a sudden flaring of his aura were the only warning signs before a bonfire bathed Zeru's body.

"His Demon Energy just shot through the roof," Kuwabara observed breathlessly to the rest of the group.

"A demon of his class with the power of fire," Kuruma contributed. "Hiei, we had better be careful with this one," he warned.

Harry was pretty certain Hiei already knew and was currently a little more worried about what Zeru was planning to do to Yusuke. The wizard stood a little closer to the boy. It was unnecessary, he knew. Yusuke would surely wake if he was truly in any danger, and it wasn't like he'd be any match for Zeru in a true fight. Genkai probably had the best chance, but she just stood there, hands clasped behind her back, staring blankly at the flaming demon, utterly unimpressed.

Kuwabara grabbed Yusuke by the collar and started shouting for him to wake up when a wall of fire sped towards their team like a train. It circled once around them like a fence to pen in livestock, mere inches from burning their clothes off their bodies, before the flames left the ring to collide with a section of the stadium and dozens of lower class apparitions were consumed by the fire.

When the screams of the dying demons faded, the rest of the audience members were silent as thestrals. Zeru gave one last look at Yusuke, who continued to sleep on, before scoffing and leading his team off the platform.

"Well, the flames are out," the announcer girl stated with a halfhearted chuckle as she got back on the stage, having thrown herself off to escape the flames mere seconds ago. "I notice everyone is pretty quiet after that outburst, but remember, that's half the fun!"

She flicked her bushy tail and raised a hand in the air for attention. "Now send out your first fighters, teams."

Rinku, the bratty demon from yesterday, stepped up the plate. Kuwabara eagerly made good on his word and went back on stage, leaving Yusuke to sleep on the grass.

"Harry!"

Harry turned and blinked in surprise when he saw Hermione and Ron standing in the audience section, right behind the wall that separated the watchers from the fighters.

"Hey there," Harry grinned, jogging over to get closer. "What are you two doing here? It's dangerous!"

His two best friends gave him the stink-eye. "That has to be the stupidest reason for us to not be here, Harry!" Hermione scolded. She pushed herself up onto the top edge of the wall, carefully swinging her legs over to the other side and slowly sliding off. Ron simply jumped down with a grunt, and the two boys lent a hand in softening Hermione's landing.

Once they were all together again, Hermione dragged them back into the corridor the Urameshi team used to enter the arena and warded a small corner from eavesdroppers.

"So how've you been, mate?" Ron asked as they all sat down. "Gotta say, I wasn't expecting to learn about a whole new dimension with freakish looking creatures like those demons so soon after You-Know-Who."

Harry gave a dry chuckle. "Would you ever expect anything like that? I wish you still didn't know, to be honest, 'cause now that you do, those demons are probably going to decide that you smell like good eating."

Ron punched him lightly on the arm. "You may keep getting yourself into these stupid tournaments, Harry, but that doesn't mean we can't support you, you know."

"That's right, Harry. Ron and I can take care of ourselves," Hermione stated firmly. "In fact, I've recently found a great ward that should take care of the problem entirely. You remember, of course, how Voldemort used his own name as a taboo in order to track down the resistance, right?"

Ron and Harry nodded grimly, Harry especially upset as he remembered his own recklessness that had gotten them captured when he angrily spit out the name of his parents' murderer during an argument.

"At first I didn't think much of it. After all, he could have cursed any word, and there didn't have to be any significance in the fact that it was his chosen name since it was just convenient that no one would say it but his most dangerous enemies. But then Harry told me Koenma explained how the wizards of old cursed the demons and used ignorance as the sleeping trigger. That got me thinking about what other spells and wards that could use another person's mental state against them. I finally found what I was looking for in an old text about assassination magic throughout history."

Ron and Harry stared at her in shock. While it was true Hermione researched the obscure, neither of them ever expected her to be interested in something like the history of assassination magic. It was entirely too cool a topic.

Hermione blushed lightly under the gaze. "Oh hush, you two," she said, disregarding the fact that they had yet to say anything about her new tastes. "Anyway, there's a specific personal ward from a few centuries ago that used to allow people to sneak into well guarded buildings. The short of it is this: if a person doesn't know the name of whoever is under the ward, he cannot see, hear, or smell him. Unfortunately, the idea of 'name' is categorized very loosely. A fake alias still counts as a name, as do official titles that you uniquely respond to, such a Minister of Magic, or, well, Spirit Detective, too, I think. It also breaks if the warded person does something too drastically attention grabbing, like yelling during prayer in a quiet church, or murdering in front of an audience. There were several cases where the ward failed just because someone was unexpectedly privy to an assassin's code name or right after a messy kill and the assassin had to escape several vengeful vassals of a powerful lord. In fact," Hermione continued enthusiastically, when Harry finally interrupted.

"So I'm guessing you and Ron are using that spell, then?"

"Exactly," Hermione beamed. "It took awhile to find the actual casting of the ward, but it should work perfectly. After all, no one from the demon world should have heard of us. You'll have to tell Yusuke not to reveal my name once he wakes up, same goes for you, and we'll have to keep our communications discrete to keep from accidently breaking the ward, but I don't think we'll have many problems."

"Discrete, right. I suppose that's why you yelled out my name in the middle of a crowd of demons so that I could talk to midair like a lunatic?" Harry asked dryly.

Hermione blushed. "Yes, well, at least we know it worked when no one commented on us sneaking into the fighting grounds. And it was noisy enough that us yelling your name wouldn't stand out much."

"Not to mention, it would've been worse if you stuck around to watch the fight," Ron said in their defense. "Let's face it, Harry, mate. You barely know anybody on that team of yours, but they're still your teammates now and you're the kind of person who considers that very important. If a demon was about to kill anybody on your team just a meter or so in front of you, you'd step in without a bloody care about the rules; so Hermione thought it'd be safest if we kept you distracted during most of the fighting."

Harry scowled. "It's a bit of a moot point about those hit men if we die in this tournament anyway!"

"Harry James P-"

Harry quickly shoved a hand over her mouth, shushing her furiously. If anyone in this tournament was even remotely familiar with the Wizarding World, like that squib on the tournament committee, his name would be far too dangerous a piece of information to yell out loud, even with the wards.

Hermione huffed and pushed aside the hand. "Harry Robinson," she corrected herself, before continuing the lecture. "You listen to me now and you listen well! I'm not going to bother reemphasizing the danger to the Wizarding World if you lose – you're here because you know that. What your problem is, is that you can't accept the fact that sometimes you have to let other people do what they have to do too! You think it was easy letting you walk to your death?" she asked, her voice trembling slightly. "But in the end, dying for the cause was your choice, and Ron and I hadn't any right to interfere when we didn't have any alternative solutions to offer. Well now it's your turn to respect other people's choices. Those boys are fighting not only for their lives but also to protect their loved ones. At the very least, if they die fighting here, their family and friends will be safe from retribution. You do not have the right to take that peace of mind away from them!"

By this point, Hermione had stood up and was looking furiously down her nose at Harry, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. Ron stood up and awkwardly grabbed her hand, lacing their fingers together and squeezing tight to comfort her.

Harry stared for a moment. Then he too stood up and pulled Hermione into a tight hug. "I'm alive," he reminded her in a whisper, "and you're right, of course. Our clever Hermione is always right," he teased gently. "I'll be a good team member," he promised, "and let the others do what they must, alright?"

Hermione nodded silently, and the trio stood there together for a few moments.

"Robinson?" Ron asked eventually, breaking the silence. "Why Robinson?"

Harry chuckled. "Do you know any Robinsons? Or any reason to connect Robinson with me?"

"Er, no?"

"Exactly," Harry grinned.

"Oh."

The trio stood together in renewed silence, until broken, this time, by Hermione.

"Harry." She reached into her pocket and withdrew a rather familiar ring. "When Ron and I were cleaning up the Quidditch Pitch a few days ago, a centaur came and delivered this to us."

"Bloody confusing bloke he was," Ron added.

"Yes, well, he rambled something about how the stone's presence in the forest was clouding their readings of the stars or some other such divination nonsense, but, well, I do think you should take it, Harry," Hermione said slowly, pressing the ring into Harry's hand as the wizard stood tensely, silently, before her. "With this new situation you're in – well, maybe a stronger connection with the dead might be helpful at some point."

"Eight! Nine!" Harry walked back into the arena to the sound of Koto counting down someone's time. He had managed to convince Hermione and Ron to return home. Wizarding Britain still needed wands for the recovery process after the war, and there was very little they could do to help Harry in the situation now. They promised to stay in contact, Hermione especially as she was still researching for useful spells, and porkeyed back to Hogwarts.

"Ten!" On the platform, Rinku was using most of his Demon Energy to nurse a wound on his stomach. The rest was directed at Kuwabara who was outside the ring, struggling to free himself from the yo-yo strings Rinku was manipulating to hold him tight. As the last count resounded through the stadium, the strings were released, and Kuwara toppled over in shock.

"And Rinku's the winner!" the announcer girl declared, gesturing to the large screen that displayed pictures of Kuwabara and Rinku. "The Rokuyukai team gets a point!" An 'O' was added under the Rokuyukai team name and an 'X' under the Urameshi team name. Then the photos dimmed and faded away to make room for the next pair of fighters.

"No, no, nonono!" Kuwabara protested, shrugging off the limp strings from his body and clambering back up onto the platform. "Hold it, jerks! That wasn't a fair move! Let's go," he challenged, a fist raised in anger.

Rinku looked at him fearfully, clearly having had enough. Regardless of his win, it seemed Kuwabara did something to make quite an impression on his opponent. "What? You run on batteries or something?" he demanded weakly.

Harry sniggered. Ok, yeah, an overly stubborn enemy who just won't stay down can certainly wear on a person, and apparently on demons too.

"I beat you! Just please go away!" he insisted, the demon looking just as vulnerable as his young appearance intimated. But Kuwabara would have none of that. He demanded that Rinku meet him at the back of the hotel when the round was over, prompting yet another demand to just 'Go away' as Rinku turned and fled the ring.

"Interesting," Kurama commented. "It's rare that both fighters are still alive at the end of a fight in this tournament."

"I assure you that won't happen in any of my fights," Hiei responded coldly.

Kuwabara returned, grumbling as he jumped off the stage onto the grass and stomped towards the rest of the team. On the other side, another demon stepped up to fight. This being had indigo skin, navy blue hair, and wore a dark, mossy green trench coat over black baggy pants tucked into black boots.

Koto eagerly observed aloud the demon's initiative, before glancing over towards the Urameshi team.

"Please," Kurama smiled softly. "I'll handle this one," he stated, walking forward.

The game screen updated, revealing Kurama's opponent to be named Roto.

"Kurama," Hiei called out. "Considering the stakes and our current disadvantaged situation, we cannot afford a loss. Don't leave the ring while he's still alive."

"Naturally," Kurama responded, his eyes blank of any emotion.

The fight began when Roto grew a blade from the back of his right hand and quickly began to attack with quick slashes at Kurama. The fox demon dodged them all with his eyes closed, clearly the superior fighter of the two.

"What a joke, he's no match for Kurama at all" Hiei scoffed, and then turned around. "What are you doing here?"

Leaping into the arena similarly to how Hermione and Ron joined Harry was Boton, wearing an embroidered orange kimono.

"Hello, boys!" she greeted cheerily. "I'm here, so let's whip this team into shape!"

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Kuwabara asked.

"Leave, before you hurt yourself," Hiei sneered.

"Well!" Boton huffed. "That's a jolly thing to say to someone who's going to help you win!"

"Eh?" Kuwabara gaped. "Don't tell me you're an alternate fighter too!"

Boton giggled. "No silly." Grabbing the ends of her kimono, she whipped the outfit off to reveal a yellow button-down shirt and slacks. "In addition to Spirit Detective assistant and pilot of the River Styx, I'm also a licensed trainer," she announced.

Harry looked at her skeptically. For a licensed trainer, she seemed rather oblivious to the fact that it was a bit late in the game to be 'whipping the team into shape.' She didn't seriously think she could raise their power levels now when the fighting has already started, did she? At this point, a healer or strategist would be far more useful so that each individual's current power could be used to their full potential.

"I'll be looking out for you all and making sure you're all in tip-top shape for fighting." That said, she walked right up to Yusuke who was sleeping next to the platform, grabbed him by the collar, and smacked him a few times. "Spirit World to Yusuke!" she yelled. "Wake up! Come on now!"

"Hey!" Harry protested. "Stop that."

"Yes, really, don't bother," Hiei drawled. "The boy's determined to sleep on."

"Ohh," Boton grumbled. "Well, at least I'll get him out of the way," she compromised, dragging the teen by the ankles to the edges of the grassy field.

The team returned their attention to the fight.

"You know," Kuwabara wondered aloud. "That rose whip of Kurama's must be ten feet long. Where's he stash it? All the ways I can think of sound kinda painful."

Hiei gave the boy an incredulous look. "Kurama simply carries a normal rose. By manipulating it with his Demon Energy it is transformed into a whip. Even weeds can turn into a deadly weapon for Kurama," he informed Kuwabara, a hint of admiration in his voice.

At this point, it was clear Kurama was tired of the fight and his opponent's poor skills. He sprinted sharply at Roto and easily maneuvered his way behind the demon, a hand raised to deal a killing blow at the exposed neck when the unexpected happened. Kurama, for some unknown reason, froze in midair and only just barely dodged Roto's blade when the demon blindly sliced his hand backwards.

As Kurama quickly made distance, a trickle of blood welled up from a cut across his cheek.

"Hey, what happened?" Kuwabara glanced between Kurama and Hiei. "You said no match!"

But Hiei was just as shocked at this turn of events and didn't respond.

The audience was thrilled. Suddenly, they stopped booing Roto and cheered him on, begging for more blood from the 'traitor.'

For a few moments, they didn't attack each other. Instead, Roto talked to a scowling Kurama with a stupid grin on his face and a strange device in his bladeless hand. Harry couldn't see any Demon Energy emitting from Roto, so he wasn't attacking through a chant of some sort, nor was the device channeling any Demon Energy either. What could be going on then? Harry hardly thought Roto was in any position to gloat considering the pathetic fight he had been putting up until just now.

Raising his wand to his ear, Harry cast a sensory enhancement charm on his right ear and slowly increased the volume, gritting his teeth as the crowd's demands to 'kill the demon traitor' grew painful, but if he concentrated, he could just barely make out Roto's words.

"…-king your mother for some time, you see, and he's been very anxious to bite off her head."

Kurama slid out of his defensive position to stand with his feet together and arms at his side.

Roto laughed gleefully at this show of submission. "So you understand." He released the energy he was using to manifest the blade from his hand, and rushed towards Kurama with his bare fists, pounding them into the face of the non-resistant fox demon.

"Damn," Harry cursed. Hermione could say all she liked about how it was Kurama's right to fight to protect his loved ones, but the current situation wasn't exactly allowing such a thing. If Kurama didn't win this, that Roto bastard would kill him, and then kill his mother anyway out of spite.

"Damn," he cursed again, striding angrily closer to the fight, ignoring Kuwabara's surprised questions about his strange behavior. He couldn't interfere, no, Harry conceded. But at the very least he can make sure that regardless of what Kurama decided, his mother would stay safe.

That device from before had a red button on it, reminding Harry of a remote control for a bomb or something. It was probably the signal for whoever Roto had stalking Kurama's mother. He was pretty sure nothing would happen until that signal was given. Roto was quite certain Kurama cared greatly for his human mother and had no way of knowing if Kurama was keeping tabs on her. If the woman died before Kurama was taken care of and Kurama found out, Roto's life would be forfeit. A coward like Roto would understand that, so there was no chance of him allowing such a thing to happen.

"Huh?" The punching stopped when Kuruma shot two tiny dots of his fuchsia Demon Energy at his opponent, startling the demon into stopping his attack. Looking closer, Harry realized that one was reinforced pebble to the face, but the other he wasn't sure of. Interestingly enough, the second burst was shot at the chest, and instead of exploding as the first did in what was likely a light sting against Roto's face, the second spot was tightly linked to Kurama with a thin thread of Demon Energy. In fact, it almost looked like Kurama was feeding energy through that link. But what for? The wizard highly doubted he was trying to feed Roto any energy, so perhaps he threw some sort of time-delayed weapon? Harry hoped Kurama would be careful. There was no telling what might happen to his mother if Roto died.

"Oh honestly," Roto sneered. "Do you think throwing a pebble in my face is the best thing to do in this situation? You've been warned!" The device was grabbed out of his trench coat pocket. "With a push of this button your mother will meet her death in a very unsightly manner! Now fold your arms behind your back and let me hit you as I please."

Kurama complied, to the announcer's shock, who was still unaware of exactly what was going on, standing too far away to hear the conversations.

"Oh yes, that's much better!" Roto praised, "I love the posture of forced submission. Why train hard to be the best when you can hold onto one of these," he said, waving the device in his hand up and down in emphasis. He laughed, walking up to Kurama's face.

"You want to try," he taunted. "I can see it in your pretty eyes. I know what you're thinking. 'What if I can quickly cut off his left arm?' But what if his severed finger still pushes the button?"

Harry grinned. Roto talked too much for his own good. Apparently the signal was necessary to communicate with the stalker. If Roto had some sort of telepathic or spiritual connection instead, it would be a far more effective threat. He'd simply tell Kurama that if he was maimed or killed, his accomplice would do the same to his mother, signal or not, and it would quell any plans for risky attacks. Since this wasn't the case, Kurama still had a chance. If Roto put the device back into his pocket, he'd be as good as dead. But just in case he doesn't… Well, an immobilization charm was invisible, and from only four meters away, Harry was confident he'd hit that stupid red button easily.

A/N: So yeah, kinda boring, and the next chapter's looking like it'll be worse, so it'll be awhile before I can post it without cringing. Meh.

73 reviews 3/5/2013

Thanks everyone! Sorry I haven't been too good about review replies, but I read every one, and questions help me plan future chapters :)