Bab 181: FILFY teacher chp1 part 2
Note: Due to the sheer length of the first chp webnovel rules did not allow me to post it in one chp so I divided it to two sections
The four of them talked for a few more moments before Harry and Lily took their leave. After their guests left, Rolf looked at his wife questioningly. "You went into a seer mode for a moment there, what did you see?" He was one of the few who knew Luna was sometimes able to discern the future in small brief glimpses though very rarely did she see anything useful.
"Something Harry has to see I'm afraid, before moving on to his real life."
Harry and Lily took a portkey home, only to find Grimauld's wards shut for a moment against them. As Harry was patriarch of the family however he was able to open the wards anyway, frowning as he did so. I wonder why the wards were up like that?
His public wand in one hand Harry moved towards the doorway, pushing Lily behind him with his other hand just in case. After quieting the hinges Harry opened the door slowly then his frown deepened as a scent hit him from deeper within the house. Even in his human body, Harry had heightened senses. He could smell the scent of sex in the air of the mansion and worse the scent of another man.
"Lily, stay here for a moment," he said softly, waving his wand over her, casting a Muffilatio spell and a few protective charms. "I'm going to go talk with your mother."
Lily knew that tone of voice. Papa always took that tone when he was going to argue with Mother, and she wondered what Mother had done this time. Her parents seemed to always be arguing about something or other, but she routinely took her father's side, never realizing that that too was part of the growing problems between them. It was just the things Harry wanted to do with her were so much more interesting than staying home and watching her Mother or read the same old stories all the time. And Papa always had time for her, while Mother didn't.
Walking inside Harry slowly closed the door, locking it just in case Lily tried to come after him. Then he stalked through the house, stopping outside one of the guest rooms, reining in his anger, which was fueled this time by his werewolf instincts, with the ease of long practice. At least she had the decency not to do it on our own wedding bed!
He opened the door swiftly, striding inside and finding what he knew we would: Ginny was on top of another man, who looked like someone Harry knew from school, a Ravenclaw boy maybe. On one of the chairs nearby there was a Puddlemere United jersey and two broomsticks.
Both of them had turned at the door banging open and scrambled to dive apart, staring at Harry in shock. "What…" Ginny stuttered, "Harry, what are you doing back so early?"
Harry shook his head slowly. His rage had left him now, and all he felt was simple disgust. I wonder when I fell out of love with you Ginny, that this doesn't really impact me more than it does.
"My lawyers will see you in the morning Ginny," he said coldly, turning away as he called over his shoulder. "And if you think you're getting any kind of custody with Lily, you can bloody well think again!"
OOOOOOO
Hermione stared over the table at her oldest and best friend shaking her head slowly. "She really was cheating on you? I thought something was going on, but I didn't want to say anything given your already frequent arguments without solid proof. I'm sorry Harry I should have…"
"No, you're right, if you said anything it would've gotten Ginny's back up, and I would have been forced to take sides. And on a topic like that I would've had to side with her unless the evidence was overwhelming. Then she might've become more circumspect about it. Better this way I think. If we were ever in love we grew out of it over the years. Honestly it was only because of Lily that I was even trying to make it work, it just took this to make me realize it."
Hermione nodded. "My mother once told me that moving in with someone would show you all of their flaws quickly. It's why she demanded that Padma and I live together for a time before formalizing our relationship."
The two brightest witches of their generation getting together had not surprised Harry honestly. He had seen his friend date several boys during their time in Hogwarts, but there always seemed to be something missing. And Padma had never dated anyone outside of going to the Yule Ball with one of her fellow Ravenclaws.
The two of them had been friends and rivals for much of their time in Hogwarts, and one drunken night in their seventh year had tried to kiss one another. Hermione had explained later that what she hadn't felt for Harry or any of the boys she dated, the sparks of desire had definitely been there when she kissed Padma, though both of them hadn't been in their right mind.
The two of them had quickly moved to Barcelona in Spain, which was much more relaxed in its outlook on such things than England, where witches being with witches was still seen as somehow depraved. "Have you told Lily?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, we had a talk about it. I don't know how much she understood, but she knows that she won't be seeing her mother any more until she's older at the very least. She doesn't seem sad about it at all, which I suppose says something about their own relationship.
Hermione winced, but nodded. "What will you do now?" she asked. "You're welcome to stay here with us of course."
"I don't know. I just don't know. I'm going to take some time to think about it. Moving abroad is definitely part of it, I don't want to deal with Ginny or any of her friends or family. Did you hear that she's turned Mrs. Weasley against me on my refusing Ginny custody of Lily?"
"Yes she definitely has views about certain things doesn't she?" Hermione replied tartly, having had to deal with howlers from the woman several times since she and Padma had gotten together. For some reason the woman had thought she would get together with Ron, never mind the fact that Ron wasn't interested in a permanent relationship, preferring to travel around with his Quidditch team, the Chudley Cannons. Hermione shuddered now, thinking about that. Ugh, what did Molly expect me to be, some kind of housewife?
She tuned back in on her friend's words as Harry went on. "It's just a question of what nation. Not America, I've looked at some of their laws, and while non-magical America may be known as the land of the free, the magical one is anything but, especially for werewolves. If my secret got out…" Harry shrugged. "To say nothing about what might happen to Lily if my curse passes on to her somehow."
"Understandable, but if you want to move to a country that might look kinder upon your status you should look for countries that have no ties to the ICW. According to what I've seen China, Japan and Malaysia are actually much more at home with such things." Hermione said before going on hesitantly, actually looking around as if worried she would be overheard. "I will warn you though I've been researching magic worldwide, and there have been strange gaps in my research, especially where it coincides with religious sites and past events."
"Gaps?" Harry asked.
"Like someone's hiding the information from the public," Hermione said firmly. "I don't like that, but I can't explain why it is, not yet. The amount varies from country to country, with the most occurring in Italy, and the second most in Israel."
"Understood. I'll be on the lookout then," Harry said with a shrug.
"Will you stay here tonight?" Hermione asked.
Harry shook his head. "No, I put myself and Luna up at a local hotel. I didn't want to put you and Padma out. After all you're coming up on your anniversary aren't you?" And the two of you can get ruddy loud when you get going which is a problem on many levels.
"Harry you could never impose and you know it!" Hermione said with a laugh. "Though I will say it's nice that you remembered."
"How could I forget, the grin you wore the day after you officially got together was the widest I've ever seen you wear Hermione," He leaned over, hugging Hermione gently. "I'll see you around okay?"
Hermione nodded, watching as he made for the door before sighing and shaking her head. "Why can't life ever be normal for you Harry Potter?"
OOO New Beginnings OOO
Harry took Lily around Barcelona for a time seeing the sights. The girl particularly liked going to the zoo and the aquarium, becoming entranced with the dolphins. The day was so busy and so interesting that by the time they returned to the hotel Lily was asleep on his shoulder.
He dropped her off in their room and then spent several minutes casting various defensive wards around the place. Since Lily had been born she had been targeted by wizards aiming to get back at Harry for Riddle's death twice. None of them had survived the attempts, which had done nothing to dissuade those who thought Harry was a Dark Lord in the making, but Harry didn't care. In his mind you mess with his daughter you die, plain and simple.
But now that he wasn't watching his daughter, Harry decided he needed a drink. Maybe I could find some companionship for the evening. It's certainly been long enough, and even a one night fling will make me feel better after this past week.
He entered the hotel's bar, and almost immediately stopped, staring at a well-dressed man sitting in a booth by himself as he leaned back sipping at something. It wasn't the young man's looks that had grabbed Harry's attention of course but the color of his hair. The other man looked up at him one eyebrow cocked in query and Harry shook his head. "Sorry I was staring it's just your hair's the same color as my daughter's." He said in English, cursing himself for forgetting to translate his words to Spanish.
The man chuckled. "Interesting, I imagine that isn't exactly a normal color around here?" he asked, his English only slightly accented.
"Not really no," Harry said dryly, grateful the man had understood him. "She's a bit of a sport in that area. Her mother, who is the reason I'm here to drink, is a ginger. My mother was also a ginger, even if a slightly darker color."
"Ouch," the man said, waving at a waiter to come over. "There seems to be a tale there. Care to share with a stranger?"
Harry sighed, but sat in the booth across from the man. "Can I ask where you come from? I can't place your accent," Harry said as the waiter took his order and left. "And is red hair normal there?"
"Japan actually, I've only recently learned English for business purposes though my family has British blood in us, according to my mother anyway. The red hair is a hallmark of my father's side of the family, so I suppose you could say yes it's normal in a very limited circle." The man replied dryly. "I am Sirzechs by the way. And you are?"
"Harry Potter," Harry said, watching the man closely for any sign of recognition. There wasn't any, though something was telling Harry that the man did recognize the name. He shook that thought off as paranoia, as the drinks arrived.
"So, that story…" Sirzechs hinted, and Harry sighed before he began.
After sharing his tale with the other man, Sirzechs returned the favor, talking about his wife. They loved one another dearly, but Sirzechs was very laidback ,while his wife was uptight and very formal. They also had a lot of demands on their time, and couldn't spend much time together. Despite everything however, it was was their shared passions, including their son, that kept them together.
The two men then bonded over pranks of all things, with Harry talking about Sirius and his pranks. Sirius had died in the war, but had truly become the father figure Harry had needed for many years. After that, they got onto the subject of kids, and it turned out they were both doting dads. Harry talked about Lily and Sirzechs talked about his own son, Milicas.
After they had shared more than a dozen drinks Harry asked, "So what brings you here?"
"I'm headhunting to fill a few key positions. You see, I'm a sponsor for a private high school in Japan, and they've recently opened their doors to boys but several of their teachers left in protest. That leaves us scrambling before the school year begins to find teachers for the vacated positions."
"What positions are you talking about?" Harry asked suddenly interested. Japan after all was not an ICW country, and this could be a moment of good fortune. Later, Harry would wonder why he ever thought good fortune was something that happened to him without some sort of hidden cost, but at the moment that was the furthest thing from his mind.
"English and Physical education are the last slots i need to fill, but unfortunately it has to be a single person. Our budget just won't let me hire two teachers to fill both slots."
Harry looked at him then a slow smile spread across his face. "I think you're in luck then. I happen to be a teacher, and I'm looking for a job that gets me as far away from my ex-wife and her family as possible. Do you want to see my credentials? Or would you prefer to set up a formal interview?" After all, I can always use a translation spell to learn Japanese quickly, and I certainly know enough about athletics to teach Gym.
Sirzechs looked down at his drink for a moment before pushing it to one side. "Meh, these were kind of weak anyway, so if you have your credentials on you, we can do this now."
Harry nodded, and excused himself for a moment before returning with his résumé. The two of them talked some more and Sirzechs eventually offered Harry the job. They hammered out the details, and Harry walked out of the bar with a new job to look forward to and plans to make for the future.
Behind Harry a silver haired young woman dressed in a business outfit she looked rather uncomfortable in, sat down across from Sirzechs, looking at him thoughtfully. "Are you sure about this?"
"You felt the power in him. You know what that young man is." Sirzechs stated rather than asked, his own eyes locked on the door Harry had just walked through, looking far more serious than he had during his conversation with Harry. "And i'm not talking about his werewolf curse."
The young woman nodded. "That is not what I am asking, are you sure about getting him involved with Rias-sama's issue?"
"I don't want my younger sister married to that bastard of a Phenex!" Sirzechs said, his face morphing into a grim line. "But given my position, and the number of spells my father placed on her, my hands are personally tied. This simply gives Rias-chan another way of possibly breaking that agreement, and one that could be far more reliable then simply hoping she finds enough powerful people to add to her peerage."
"You're putting a lot of faith both in that young man, and in your sister to actually ask for help when the time comes," she said critically. "Judging from his character I have to admit that the first doesn't seem like that far of a stretch, but the question is will Rias-sama be willing to ask for help from him?"
"We shall see," the young man replied with a faint smile.
OOOOOOO
Traveling with a young child on a plane flight fourteen hours long would be a trying experience for anyone, but Harry had planned accordingly. Thus whenever his daughter was awake she was occupied with coloring books, small toys, or a set of foam puzzles. Those were her favorite, little puzzle pieces that she could fit into various box-based designs, which she seemed to find fascinating. This allowed Harry to do some reading and paperwork. The paperwork was for his new job, and the reading was mostly about Japan and its relationship with the ICW.
It turned out that the magical Japanese had to deal with their version of the Black Ships and the Perry Intervention in the past, but had, unlike the mundanes, actually turned the attempt to open their borders aside, refusing to become part of the ICW. And unlike the mundane governments, the ICW had decided against trying to enforce their rule with force.
Instead they had compromised: Japan was allowed to keep all of its magical traditions, local laws and rules, but they had to uphold the Statute of Secrecy. How they went about that was up to them, and they seemed to have developed both an entirely new way of doing so, in addition to using the tried and true method of warded areas under Notice-Me Not and anti-non-magical arrays. Unlike Britain however, they didn't stick some of their magical zones in the center of non-magical population centers, following the far more sensible idea of sticking them as far away from most people as possible, mostly up north, with one area in a large national forest the locals called 'the Suicide Forest'.
On top of that, they seemed to have developed a control over the nation's media that was both quite subtle and rather astonishing. Whenever magic appeared in the news they ran with the story and added embellishments, making it obvious that it was a tabloid type tale rather than reality. At the same time they erased the memories of any non-magical witnesses and hunted down random recordings of the incident. The combination was extremely effective, and Japan had the least number of true threats to the Statute of any country in the world.
They also strangely had far more firstborns, what the UK called muggleborn, than most countries. The book Harry had found on the country didn't seem to have any opinion on why that was, but it was an interesting point. So they had no local equivalent of the pureblood movement that continually ravaged Europe and the UK. They weren't exactly welcoming of outsiders however, even beyond the mundane side of the country, something that had been heightened to near rabid paranoia after WW2.
Finally Harry heard the announcement they were finally going into land, and Lily quickly turned, opening the blinds of the plane and staring out avidly. The city below them was large, and ultra modern. Just off in the distance Harry spotted what he realized must be the famous Tokyo Tower, which his book had mentioned. Other than that, it looked relatively normal to his senses, but Lily continued to look out the window, pressing her face against it as if that would let her see better.
The two Potters disembarked and passed through customs without any difficulty, with Lily chatting excitedly about what she wanted to do first. Fourteen hours of sitting down had made the girl go a little stir crazy, and Harry decided that the first thing they would do would be to find a park so she could work off some of that energy. With no need to pick up any actual luggage, Harry having shrunk their trunks and stuck them in his mokeskin pouch, the two quickly exited the airport, and began to look for a bus to take them elsewhere in the city.
However near the luggage area they were accosted by a middle-aged woman, who smiled politely at them holding up a sign that said 'Potter' on it. Bowing briefly from the waist she addressed them formally but in English. "Mr. Potter, your car is this way, please follow me."
Harry stopped suddenly, moving his hand from holding Lily's to pushing her back behind him as his eyes narrowed. "I don't recall asking for a car," he said mildly, but there was nothing mild about his suddenly hard eyes. "May I ask who did?"
The woman's smile faded slightly, and she held up her free hand quickly to show she wasn't carrying a wand. Looking around she made sure that no one was nearby and spoke quietly. "Peace Mr. Potter. You've only dealt with the non-magical variety of customs. You now have to deal with the magical."
Harry nodded at that, but he was still tense as the woman gestured for him to follow her.
Instead of heading out into the car park they walked towards a door with a sign that said 'maintenance' on it, passing through a Notice-me-Not field that extended a few yards away from the doorway. Lily paused, pointing at the edge of the Notice Me Not ward where it hit one of the walls. "What's that Papa?"
Harry turned to look, and cocked his head thoughtfully. "That looks like a piece of paper with some kind of runic array on it honey, though I didn't think paper could hold runes."
"Not your European variety," the woman said somewhat proudly, or perhaps arrogantly. "Our runic language is much more subtle than your brute force methodology. We can also perform a far wider array of tricks than your rune-based arrays can through the use of our talismans."
"It's pretty," Lily said, trotting over to look at the design on it for a moment before turning back and moving over to her father once more.
The woman chuckled at that, and opened the door for the two Potters as Lily tried to strike up a conversation with her. The woman replied quickly enough, seemingly enjoying answering the young foreign girl's questions, though Harry noticed that she was still somewhat condescending.
The supposed maintenance hall on the other side of the door was instead a large room with two desks in it. One desk was set to one side with a few mugs of drinks and a plate of local finger food while the other desk was set in the direct center of the room. Two men sat there, one middle aged, one elderly. The older man was sitting with his eyes closed as if sleeping, his feet pulled up under him in a mediation pose Harry recognized and was wearing a kimono. The other, a thin man with glasses and wearing a very good business suit, was scribbling something on paper while several other pieces of paper waited beside him.
The two men however were not what grabbed Harry's attention. That honor was given to the two large red humanoid-looking creatures, , that stood on either side of the desk. They looked like miniature giants mated to demons, complete with heavy clubs and tiny horns rising from their foreheads. They stared forward dumbly, and both of them had a collar around their necks which was festooned by more talismans.
"Wow!" Lily exclaimed, escaping from Harry's hand for a moment to rush over to one of the monsters and stare up at it. Shaking his head, Harry made his way forward, nonchalantly casting a tether spell on his daughter, which would allow him to pull her back if needed, just like if he had cast an Accio on her. It could also be used to bounce her away just in case.
Harry was not intimidated by the large red things. He'd dealt with far more dangerous creatures then two ogres like that. So he simply sat in the chair facing the desk with the two men without being asked. Leaning back slightly, his wand in one hand but hidden behind his other forearm as he crossed his arms, staring around him. "I can't say I approve of the decor, and if either of those things even look at Lily wrong you're going to have to clean their innards off your pretty white walls."
The man with the glasses looked up at that and frowned slightly, an internal debate obviously going on behind his eyes. He could continue with his attempt to intimidate or he could simply get to the reason why Harry was here. "…I wouldn't advise that Mr. Potter, you'd find that they're magically immune to a very high degree." He replied, prevaricating slightly.
"I've fought giants who thought they were magically immune to a high degree too. Boy, were they surprised," Harry said blandly, his eyes meeting the man's unflinchingly.
At his side, Lily had completely ignored the tension between the two men, choosing instead to continue staring at the giants before sighing and moving over to the corner where the middle-aged woman had moved to stand by the small desk with refreshments. Knowing the rules about such things she took a cup of tea from the woman, then hurried over to her father, who cast some spells over it despite the locals' frowns. "It's clean, just the local version of Earl Grey but I don't think you really need the sugar do you?"
"Silly Papa!" Lily said loftily, "I'm a young girl, young girls always need sugar."
The woman chuckled at that, but the man simply continued to stare at Harry and Harry returned his gaze blandly. Finally the man sighed and shook his head. "So you really are the Harry Potter, The Man Who Conquered?"
"Have to admit, I like that moniker more than the old Boy Who Lived nonsense, even if the fame grates badly these days." Harry said nodding. "Why, do you get many people trying to it sell themselves off as Harry Potter?"
"We don't get many foreigners in this country at all, let alone famous ones, and that's the way we like it," the man said bluntly, not giving his name. "The purpose for your visit here, Mr. Potter?"
"Business. I was offered a job at a local non-magical school and I wanted to get away from the adulation of the Man Who Conquered bollocks." Harry replied, his eyes shifting slightly over to the older man before back to the one who was doing all the talking.
"And you were having some familial difficulties with your ex-wife," the man said glancing down at the paper on his desk. "Understandable I suppose, though if that had occurred in this country you would have had no need of moving away, rather…" he paused and shook his head. "I'm getting off-topic."
"Considering you haven't even told me you why I'm here, yes," Harry retorted mildly, though his eyes flashed at the mention of his 'issue' with his ex-wife.
The man caught that and hurried on, trying not to show that he was somewhat intimidated by the Englishman. "We have rules about wands and foci of that nature Mr. Potter," he said, gesturing at Harry's wand. "Our citizens use other mediums to cast their spells or learn wandless magic as you all put it, and there are severe fines for adults using magic in a non-magically warded area. To stay in the country you'll have to agree to be trained in the local magic and agree to abide by our laws."
"So long as your laws have places in them for self-defense and the defense of family, I'll provisionally agree to that," Harry said nodding his head and mellowing noticeably now that the attempts at intimidation were over with. "Learning how to do wandless magic sounds fascinating really."
The man blinked. "Most foreigners immediately decide they want to leave when they're told that their wand will have to be exchanged."
"What do you mean exchanged?" Harry asked, his eyes narrowing.
"We will exchange the magical core from your wand into a wooden bracelet. That is the normal median here for most spells. It is a somewhat painful process for adults I've been told, as they have bonded with their wand to a certain extent as is."
"Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if I could bond with an entirely new wand. Still, that's fine by me," Harry said thoughtfully, looking down at his Phoenix wand for a moment. His old wand of course still worked for him, but it wasn't like it was his only one these days and it definitely did not react to his willpower like it used to.
Harry actually preferred the Elder Wand he had won from Dumbledore during a spar with him, though he very rarely used it. Harry thought that using it had become one of Albus is crutches later in life, that he relied on the Elder Wand rather than his own abilities.
He didn't like to think about Dumbledore though. The man had made so many mistakes with Harry and in general in his final years, but he had also admitted to many of them and tried to do the right thing. Or at least what he thought was the right thing, which in Harry's opinion had not always been the same thing.
"Very well," the man said, somewhat off-balance now that Harry had agreed to the stipulation. "There are also several fines to be levied for moving into the country in the first place. As I said, we do not encourage European magicals to remain in our country overlong."
"Your blunt about it which I actually approve of frankly. Better to be up front about that kind of thing then try to be subtle. Besides, it won't be the first time I've dealt with prejudice." Harry replied with a faint smirk.
"Which brings us to another point: We understand that in Europe there is some kind of pureblood nonsense? We don't have that here," the man said firmly, not rising to the jab about prejudice or even noticing it. "Non-magicals have just as many rights as magicals, and firstborn just as many rights as those born into magically gifted families. If you have any other thoughts on that matter, then we will help you make reservations on the next flight out."
To one side Lily pouted shaking her head. "No way! I am not getting back on a plane for another fourteen hours, not even for one more hour! Even taking a few portkeys would be better than that," she finished, though she looked a little queasy at the very idea. Lily had developed many of the same issues with magical transportation her father had, though her stomach was able to handle apparition better than Harry's had initially.
"I rather think that pureblood business is all nonsense myself," Harry said with a shrug. "That was one type of prejudice that I was talking about having dealt with before. Unfortunately it's almost an institutional thing in Britain and in many other European countries. Even the families that like nonmagicals look down their noses at them."
The man nodded then looked quizzically at Lily and back to Harry, now looking worried once more. "You will also have to, that is… certain information about you has…" he trailed off trying to think of a way to speak about this subject in front of the girl.
"I have no secrets from Lily," Harry said with a faint frown, already discerning what this was about.
The man nodded quickly. "We know you are a werewolf Mr. Potter, we also know that you have somehow made peace with the inner beast. We would like you to either give interviews about that process or write up an instructional lesson on it. There are many were-creatures in Japan and China who could benefit from such thing."
"It occurs to me that that is a little beyond the pale for simply moving into your country." Harry said musingly, though he wondered how the Japanese had found that out since it wasn't exactly common knowledge back home. "How much would instruction in the local magical style cost, and how much would you be willing to pay for the kind of lessons you're asking me for?"
The two of them haggled for a time, while Lily talked to the woman about anything that caught her fancy. This included a poster for a magical girl live action show that had been in the airport a few days back. "You mean one of them is really magical!?"
"Oh yes, many of the live magical girl shows have at least one actual magical involved to do the special effects. It's part of why they're so popular. People try to figure out how they can have such amazing special effects with such a primitive setup. No one has ever cottoned on to the idea it might all be real magic of course."
"Papa!" Lily shouted looking over and causing Harry to look up from his discussion with the man wearing glasses. "I want to be a magical girl like Sailor Moon!"
The man in glasses chuckled into one hand, while the silent man's lips twitched a little and Harry rolled his eyes. "You're already a witch luv, how much more magical do you want to be?"
"Not like that!" Lily pouted, stamping one foot. "I mean like in one of the local magical girl shows!"
Harry looked at the woman blandly and she had the grace to blush a little. "Where exactly will I be going to buy her an outfit like that?" he asked in a tone of long suffering. Of course if he had spotted the poster and seen what Sailor Moon actually wore, he would never have allowed his daughter anywhere near it. The woman hurriedly gave directions, and Harry sighed memorizing them before turning back to his haggling.
It turned out the Japanese magicals had a small workshop setup right there in the airport, where visitors were fitted with either a magical inhibitor if they were just there for short amounts of time, or the local equivalent of a wand. Harry looked at the bracelets, nodding in approval since they were much more practical than wands. They wouldn't stick out, in fact they looked like extremely elaborate friendship bracelets, or something a child would give to a parent, which suited him down to the ground.
In fact Harry had Lily pick out the design for him, while Harry was tested on a few core ingredients. Basilisk venom was a surprise to everyone but Harry, though he was happy that he also still reacted to the Phoenix feather core in his original wand. It turned out it was simply the holly wood that was causing a bit of an issue rather than the core.
Taking his wand apart was indeed as painful as he had been warned about, but Harry had dealt with much worse, and even joked, "Compared to the Cruciatus, this is child's play." The joke fell flat when everyone realized he actually had been put under the cruciatus and looked at him, rather appalled at the idea someone would joke about it.
Harry's bracelet was made of ancient oak, which was then steeped in the basilisk venom, creating a greenish tinge to the wood before it was then dried swiftly via a few spells. Then the Phoenix feather was infused into the bracelet, a process that was fascinating to watch even for Lily.
Eventually Harry put on the bracelet and looked at his daughter questioningly holding it out to her. "What do you think, does it make me look pretty?"
She giggled but hugged his hand, and he lifted her into his arms. The little girl was also proud that her father had decided to go with the design she found. It looked like an intricate carving of scales and feathers going around the bracelet.
"Do you have a familiar?" the man asked as they filled out more paperwork after Harry's fitting.
He was looking a little smug, as if Harry deciding to use one of the local tools rather than his wand had been a major point of contention. Harry would find out later that the bracelet also had a limiter on it, which was supposed to limit how much of Harry's power it could let out at any one moment, as well as a tracer that would allow them to track him anywhere.
Harry broke both of them easily that evening, having had a crash course in such things from Sirius, though the reasoning for that had been to get away with pranks rather than anything serious. The limiter he simply broke, the tracer he eventually put on one of Lily's most infrequently used toys
"No," Harry said his voice suddenly very cold and the man backed away slightly. "Not anymore." Hedwig had died in the war taking a killing curse that had been meant for Harry, and her death was still a sore point for him, as was Sirius's, though Harry had been able to move on from that easier, considering the man had gone down with a bang, taking both Lestranges with him.
The man in glasses nodded, handing Harry a small slip of paper with an address written on it. "I apologize for asking, but if you had we would've had to register it. You will be expected at this location tomorrow morning to begin instruction in our magical methodology. Any spells outside of the spells from our school of magic you use will have to be in self-defense, or in your own habitation once you set up wards. If you use them in public where they can be seen you will be fined and if they are seen, the fines are quite exorbitant save in cases of clear self-defense."
This was both a way to keep the Statute of Secrecy and a way to discourage foreign magics of course but Harry nodded nonetheless. The locals really weren't very welcoming, but he could deal with that, he'd dealt with far worse in his life. And besides, learning a whole new magical methodology was no doubt going to be fascinating. For some reason Harry was looking forward to being a student again. "Will Lily be allowed to take local classes, or will I have to teach her myself?" Harry asked.
"We start magical education later than ICW countries at around 15, but we expect that families have already begun personal instruction before that," the man said. He still hadn't introduced himself, which Harry decided was some kind of local discourtesy and so ignored it. "We also demand that all magicals are as at home in the non-magical environment as they are in the magical. Will that be a problem?"
Harry shook his head with a laugh. "No, though that means I will have to take some time to look around for a school for Lily."
With all the paperwork done the two Potters were allowed to leave the airport, Harry with his new bracelet wand on his wrist and still holding Lily's hand with his other.
OOOOOOO
"What did you think of him?" asked the middle-aged woman to the silent man, standing with her two colleagues by a window that was following Harry and his daughter as they walked off.
"He's dangerous," the heretofore silent man said simply. "He has the eyes of a warrior, someone who has fought and killed, which is only to be expected. He also was hiding something, though it wasn't anything dangerous to us so long as we do not become a danger to him. But he wasn't lying about being able to deal with the Oni. In fact he was confident he could deal with all of us despite his daughter being here. His attitude was not false bravado at all."
The man who had been doing all the talking turned to the current speaker with a startled look. "But surely that's wrong master Morimoto. An oni's magical durability is one of the highest of any species!"
"So are giants, and he said he dealt with them easily and I did not detect any lie." The man said sharply. "He is the Man Who Conquered for a reason. Remember that and look past the prejudices of him being a foreigner or he may just surprise us all in a way you won't like."
The two government officials bowed their heads deeply to Truthspotter Iori Morimoto, before turning and leaving to go about their business. Morimoto stood there for a silent moment, staring out the window towards Harry, frowning.
He hadn't told the two of them what else he sensed about the young man, uncertain what to make of it. Even a soldier who was also a werewolf should not have such a Dark, dangerous aura to him, especially one like Harry, who was noticeably drawn to the Light side of the spectrum. It was a mystery, and he wondered what to make of it for a moment before sighing. If it causes trouble I'll no doubt find about it in time.
OOOOOOO
With an objective in mind Harry and Lily headed into Tokyo proper, looking around in interest at the city while asking directions for where they could go to pick up a costume for his daughter. Harry figured it would be a nice gift to commemorate their moving to a new country.
His mastery of the local language brought both smiles and frowns, and Harry wondered what to make of that at first though he decided to simply ignore it after a little while. He knew that the non-magical Japanese were almost as biased against foreigners as the magical variety, and supposed it had something to do with that.
Eventually they were given directions to a section of the city called Akihabara which was supposedly more than an hour's walk away. But since both of them had spent most of the last day and a half sitting down, Harry and Lily decided to walk and pick up some food on the way.
They were about halfway there when Lily stopped and pointed. "Look Papa! There's a magical girl!"
Harry looked, and shook his head slightly. "I don't think that's the right style for being a magical girl Little Luna. That looks more like a personal style to me."
The young girl in question was around 15 or so Harry guessed, with blonde hair done in the twin-tail style. The blonde hair made her stick out in the crowd here and she was wearing what he thought looked like some kind of maid suit as she walked down the street.
Lily paused, thinking. "Well, I think that actually looks a little better than the outfit I saw the magical girls wearing on that poster."
"And since you can actually walk around in it, I'll approve of it too," Harry said with a chuckle ruffling her hair. He had seen a poster for that show as they were walking and feared what would happen when they actually got to the costume shop and saw one in person.
With that Lily moved through the crowd to the girl. "Excuse me miss."
The girl turned to her, a somewhat haughty look on her face, which seemed to dissipate slightly when she noticed the age of the individual who had stopped her. "Yes what is it chibi?"
Lily pouted at that, understanding it was some kind of insult, but went on gamely. "Where can I get a dress like yours?"
That caused the girl to smile and puff herself up slightly, one hand flicking one of her pony tails behind her as her other hand came to rest on her hip. "This? This is something I designed and sewed myself. You'll never be able to find a dress to match it. There are a few though that sells similar things," she said after a few seconds and she quickly gave Lily a few directions.
She didn't notice Harry coming up behind his daughter, busy talking to the young girl about color and fashions, which seemed to be something of a passion for her. She did look up though when another female voice interrupted them. "And who's this little cutie you're talking to rather than meeting with us, or did you just get lost again Mittelt?"
"Hush you!" The girl said turning angrily to address the woman, noticeably biting off her reply given the crowd still moving all around them.
The new woman was tallish, with long blue hair flowing down her back to her rear. Harry had no idea if the blue was natural or not, but it did look good on her. She was wearing a tight short crimson skirt and a matching jacket which was open nearly down to her belly button to allow a nearly indecent amount of her ample cleavage to be seen.
Harry had to pause for a moment to take in the woman's appearance, shaking his head slightly and banishing his baser urges for a moment with a reminder that his daughter was right there. While as a man I have to approve, as a father I'm not certain I want my daughter to associate with these two any longer...
The woman however immediately got back on his good side when she knelt down in front of Lily winking at her. "I love your hair! But I think going all black and white like my friend here would be a little too dreary. I think you'd look better in brighter colors."
"She's right you know, Red Moon," Harry said, placing a hand on Lily's head. Suddenly both women were mindful of his presence and looked up at him, the woman who had knelt down straightening up, though she still had to look slightly upwards at Harry's face. He was quite tall thanks to his werewolf curse and how he dealt with it, standing at 6' 9".
"Is this little cutie yours?" The woman asked, flushing slightly at the handsome man in front of her.
"Yep," Harry said with a grin, patting Lily's hair . "Oh, but where's my manners, the name's Harry Potter, and this is Lily Potter, my daughter. May I have the pleasure of knowing who I'm addressing ladies?" he asked, taking a note straight from Sirius' little black book in how to introduce himself.
"Well Harry Potter, this is Mittelt and I'm Kalawarner and I think the pleasure is mutual, or could be anyway…" Kalawarner said, smiling and moving slightly closer to Harry so that he could see even more of her cleavage. Her smile widened as the man's mesmerizing eyes flicked down once before coming back up to lock on her face. "Hmm…despite your mastery of Japanese, I can tell you're a foreigner. British, right?"
"Indeed miss," Harry said, his nostrils almost flaring as the woman's scent hit him. Next to him Lily and Mittelt struck up a conversation of their own about local fashions and anime shows of all things, which Harry was quite thankful for at present. "What gave me away?"
Kalawarner shrugged. "Your looks, the way you speak. Your sentence structure is off, though your daughter's accent is more obvious. I don't suppose I could ask for your help sometime in the future to brush up on my own English? My mastery of French is good, but my English could use some work." Her tongue flicked out, lightly licking at her upper lip. "I just can't get my tongue around the words. You think you could help me with that?"
Harry's voice was deep and throaty as he replied, only his daughter's presence keeping him from upping the flirting beyond words. "Oh, I'm certain we could find some way to solve that problem of yours, certain exercises for your tongue that might help..."
Next to her friend, Mittelt shook her head looking down at her watch. "Anyway, we need to get going, we're supposed to meet up with some friends and we're already running late."
Her words helped Harry snap out of it, and he shook his head, one hand falling to his daughter's head to better steady himself in the here and now. "Yes, um yes. Actually we should be on our way too if we're going to get Lily fitted for her dress and still catch the train we need to. It was a distinct pleasure meeting you Kalawarner." Harry said, his eyes flashing with desire.
Allowing a faint blush to appear on her cheeks Kalawarner smiled in reply, holding out a card with her number on it, pulling the card out from under her blouse from somewhere. It was still warm when Harry took it from her. "Call me sometime, hopefully we'll see each other again soon."
Mittelt nodded, looking at Harry thoughtfully for a moment, then took out a small card of her own, handing it over to them. "In case you have any more for questions about what real fashion is like," she said haughtily, winking at the little redhead, before turning to walk down the road, dragging Kalawarner with her for a moment as the blue-haired beauty winked at Harry.
Behind them Harry watched them thoughtfully, his eyes narrowed as he watched them disappear into the crowd. Something was a little off about those two, and more importantly his reaction to the woman. A Veela maybe, or something similar. I didn't feel anything malicious about it but looking back on it it definitely got through my defenses in a way I don't like. I'm going to have to be wary of that if she and I ever meet again. Still would have been a lot of fun though…
OOOOOOO
"Did you feel that?! That guy's got to have a Sacred Gear of some kind!"
"If he does, it's a fully awakened one Mittelt, and even without one that man is dangerous." the woman "That was a soldier of some kind or I'll eat my bra. Besides which he also had the aura of some kind of were-creature, though I couldn't tell what kind." Kalawarner replied warningly, before blushing slightly as she licked her lips. "And he's quite an attractive man too."
"Don't tell me you're going to try to seduce him? When has that worked in the past hundred years you old hag!" Mittelt groaned.
"Tell me again which of us has the better track record?" The woman replied tartly shaking her head, reining in her temper at the jab at her age with the ease of painful practice. "There are better ways to get what we want then brute force sometimes. Don't be angry at me simply because you can't use seduction except against people with Lolita tendencies!"
As Mittelt simmered at that Kalawarner went on. "Now come on, we're already late for meeting up with Dohnaseek and Raynare."
OOOOOOO
After buying Lily a dress to match the woman Mittelt's in style but which was white with yellow highlights rather than black, the two of them continued to explore the city until Lily declared she was hungry. After that Harry led them to the train which would take them to the district where his new job was before buying them both some food for the train.
Public transportation in Japan was amazing: on time, clean, and very quick. The bullet train took them from Tokyo and dropped them off at their destination after only about 40 minutes whereas trying to get there by car would've taken them four hours.
Upon arriving in Kuoh, Harry checked in at the school and was shown around the campus by the headmaster, an elderly man with a bent back and frail appearance. Despite that appearance he was noticeably quite spry on his feet as he moved around the campus showing Harry where everything was.
"Our induction ceremony is in five days, and we expect you to be a part of it," he said at one point near the end of the orientation. "we'll be welcoming the new teachers there as well as the incoming freshman class. You'll be one of four new teachers this year."
"I understand that you opened your campus to boys for the first time this year? Have there been any problems so far organizational and facility-wise?" Harry asked, looking around in slight awe at the size of the campus.
"Not so much other than the teachers who quit," the man said dryly. "That was quite a large problem of course especially given how much of the budget we had to use to set up facilities, like men's rooms changing areas and so forth. But thanks to your hiring we seem to have solved them all."
"I'll want you to have your lesson plans for the English course ready the evening before the induction ceremony at the latest," the headmaster went on seriously. "You won't have to submit all of them for review, but as this is your first job I insist on looking over at least your first week's worth of classes for both English and Physical Education."
"I have them ready now," Harry said shrugging. "I worked on them over the past few days. Of course I'll want to tailor them to each class, but I've made them flexible enough to do that easily enough once school starts."
"Excellent, e-mail them to me tomorrow morning and I'll go over them and either approve or ask for corrections. You did make allowances for the fact that Japan's educational standards are different than the UK's correct?"
"Of course."
The headmaster nodded agreeably, then asked, "And have you found an apartment or something similar?"
"Actually I'm going to be buying a small house if I can manage it. I'll be looking around for one over the next few days. Until then, my daughter and I will be staying in a hotel."
The headmaster nodded again, and the discussion turned once more to scholastic topics until Harry picked up Lily from two of the teachers who were already on campus that had agreed to watch her as he and the principal talked. By the time he did it was obvious both middle-aged women had fallen under Lily's spell as they were gushing about how cute she was, and Harry could only sigh. Wait until she has a bad day. Red Moon can be a right little hellion at times.
The next day, Harry showed up for his appointment to start learning the locals' magic, only to be surprised. "Wait, you mean they're distant courses?"
"For someone your age sure," the young man said from across the small desk. It was in an equally small office, part of dozens of others that looked this like any other non-magical office space really. "Normally, the distant courses are used for people following up on their Masters, we don't get many gaijin who want to learn what real magic is like," the man said blithely ignorant of Harry's twitching eyebrow at his unthinking condescension. "But we still have classes. We simply transfer the in-class stuff online and have you do all the work with none of the actual in-class instruction. It's a hardship of course but the textbook should be good enough."
Again not noticing or ignoring Harry's twitching eyebrow, the man went on. "The login codes are magically locked. If someone overheard your code they couldn't login to Magi-net nor could your daughter accidentally. So if I could have you use this blood quill for a moment?"
Harry sighed but picked up the blood quill and then wrote out his name. Hermione will go spare when I tell her about how much magic and technology are mixed in Japan, he thought with an inner laugh. She might actually convince Padma to move here just for that!
Although come to think of it, Tonks and Teddy might be the two who move here first, Harry thought, letting that happy idea keep his spirits up. Remus had died late in the war, but before that Tonks had snagged him after more than a year of chasing the older werewolf, and they had rather quickly gotten serious, even secretly marrying when Tonks had gotten pregnant. Harry had served as a groomsmen at the wedding, and had helped Sirius chase Remus down when he'd had cold feet. Tonks had hinted at the idea of following him with Teddy, but hadn't yet made up her mind when Harry had met Sirzechs.
His renewed good humor did not stop Harry from twitting the man nameless office drone for his condescension. After the man was finished magically copying Harry's magical signature, into a computer format Harry lit the blood quill on fire along with the piece of parchment containing his name.
At the man's astonished look Harry replied blandly, "Sorry, I've had bad experiences being signed up for things through the use of papers with my magical signature on them before. And in fact I'd like your assurances that that computer format couldn't be changed back or used without my permission."
Over the next few days Harry began to teach himself some of the local magic, while also spending time with Lily looking at houses and generally getting to know the town that the school was located in. He also became interested in the number of strange auras he could vaguely sense around him at times as he and Lily moved around the town. It was evident that there were other magicals in the area, or something similar anyway.
I wonder if Sirzechs knew about that. Harry hadn't been able to sense anything off about the man when they met, but that didn't really mean anything, especially since Harry had a hunch the man had recognized his name.
He and Lily eventually found a small two-story house that had a large and varied backyard that they both fell in love with immediately. There was a tree right by the back of the house, where someone apparently had begun to build a sort of deck out and around it. Capping off the tranquility of the yard was a tiny little pond, while the whole lot was surrounded by a large fence covered with ivy. The price was astronomical of course, which had scared off many buyers, but not Harry who thought it an excellent investment.
With that done they started to buy furniture and move in while Harry also put down wards around the area and began to create a permanent ward scheme. That would take several weeks of course even for Harry but by the time he was done this place would be as well defended as he could make it, to the level of Grimauld Place or maybe even better.
Soon after that, the first day of school began and after dropping Lily off at a local elementary school, Harry headed into work. Striding through the front gates Harry noticed immediately how many girls there were on campus in comparison to the boys. There were a number of exceptionally attractive girls, just as the teachers he had met so far had been somewhat good-looking, and the academy's uniform did not help matters.
Dammit! It's been too damn long if I'm looking at high school girls like that! Maybe I really should have found a local girl for a tumble back in Barcelona, or called Kalawarner over the last few days despite how her presence affected me.
A few of the girls stuck out to him the first being a redheaded girl who grabbed his attention immediately. She had blood-red hair flowing down her back in a wave to the back of her knees She was a buxom beauty with fair skin, and her heart-shaped face with high cheek bones and dimples was dominated by blue-green eyes which sparkled as she looked around her. Despite her age, the redhead was one of the most attractive girls Harry had ever seen.
Yet right next to her was another girl of similar beauty. The second girl's long black hair was tied in a long ponytail, the end of which fell to her knees like her friend's. It was tied in place with an orange ribbon and two strands sticking out from the top of her ponytail and sloping backwards. Her face was more traditionally Japanese, slightly thinner than her friends with no sign of dimples, and her eyes were black. Perhaps most startling for Harry, she had the largest chest he had ever seen, larger even than Kalawarner's, though that could possibly be said about the redhead too.
I'd have to examine them much more closely to be certain though… Harry shook his head quickly such thoughts, despite his werewolf side wanting to sit up and howl at the very sight of the two. Their bodies were precisely the type his werewolf instincts thought most attractive, though Harry had to admit he could say much the same, especially after settling for Ginny's much more athletic tomboy physique for so long.
The redheaded girl looked in his direction, and Harry winked at her for a moment before turning and heading towards the gym where the induction ceremony would occur. Down boy, no flirting with the students now, that was just you being friendly…
OOOOOOO
Behind him the girl, one Rias Gremory, blushed slightly at the older man's wink, shaking her head. "That was a very handsome man," she murmured to her friend. "But what's he doing on campus and dressed like a teacher too? Do you have any idea Akeno?"
Her friend Sona Sitri spoke up before Akeno could. Sona was slightly taller than Rias though not as tall as Akeno, and was less busty than the two of them. Despite that she was still markedly attractive, with a cool, regal expression on her face and a trim body underneath the school's uniform. She was also the student body president, while Rias was head of the Occult Research Club. "He's our new teacher, English and Phys Ed. apparently. One of the administrators, I haven't found out who, reached out to him rather than vice versa. His name is Harry Potter."
"Interesting," Rias said shaking her head. "Is it just me or does he have a noticeable aura of power around him?"
"It's not just you," Akeno said from behind her, shivering in place and licking her lips slightly. "I felt it too. A powerful aura, though a very odd one. It looked like a strange dichotomy of light and dark, as if each side was somehow two sides of a coin rather than the usual mix, and I could be wrong but there also seemed to be a bit of animal to it too."
"That is what I sensed too, the animal part, not the strange dichotomy," Rias said. "I wonder if he has a Sacred Gear, or if he's some kind of Magician from the Magical Association? I can sense some magic around him too."
"Most Magicians aren't that powerful though," Sona muttered shaking her head, having felt some of the same things that her friends had, as did Tsubaki Shinra, her vice president. "Nonetheless, we'll find out more in time. Come on, it wouldn't due for four honor students to be late to the induction ceremony, would it?"
OOOOOOO
My God when they said the ratio between boys and girls was uneven I didn't realize it was this bad! Harry thought to himself as he stood with the other new teachers, nodding his head towards the crowd as he was introduced. There can't be more than one boy for every seven or eight girls max!
The headmaster having finished introducing Harry and the other new teachers Harry sat back down. He listened to the rest of the ceremony while his eyes roamed over the crowd, trying not to let them linger on any of the frankly gorgeous looking young women out there. After several weeks without any physical affection that was hard, but Harry kept the fact he was a teacher now firmly in mind and fought back his body's demands.
Harry noticed one blonde girl was looking back at him intently, her eyes narrowed in thought. She was very attractive as well, with a chest that was close to the two he had seen that morning. dark brown eyes who peered up at him with a lively looking face. He couldn't figure out why she was staring at him so intensely, but decided to put it out of his mind for now.
Instead, he concentrated on what the principal was saying as he forced his mind into teacher mode, readying himself for his first-class. There was no gym class today since gym classes were all scheduled on Tuesdays and Thursdays with a shorter class on Saturday. But he had four classes of English to teach today.
Harry walked into his new class confidently. He didn't actually have a specific classroom assigned to him since as a new teacher he hadn't been given authority over a homeroom class and in Japan outside of lab classes teachers traveled to their classrooms rather than the students coming to them. That of course made him unable to rearrange the classroom as he wanted, but Harry was fine with that.
After a few minutes writing on the whiteboard he turned with a smile. "Good morning class, my name is Mr. Potter, and I am your new English teacher." He then repeated himself in Japanese. "I will be taking role now and then we can get down to business."
At the sound of his only slightly accented Japanese the girls and two boys in this class all blinked in shock looking at the foreign teacher in interest. Many of the girls had hearts in their eyes; others were just as obviously undressing him, while the two boys seemed to be glaring at him. Harry had no idea what was going on there, though he had a good idea as to what was happening on the girl's side of things. No Harry, bad Harry, don't look at your students like that!
"Now, as a new teacher I'm sure you're curious about me, just as I am curious about you. So for half the period we will play a little game. You can ask me any questions you like, so long as they are in English. I reserve the right to not answer of course if they are too personal, and I will be asking the students who volunteer to try one or two questions in turn, which they must answer in English. If a student can answer all three questions without any coaching from her or his fellows, they will receive a get out of homework card they can use this first month if they so wish," Harry said before falling silent, not repeating himself in Japanese this time.
Knowing how much prior knowledge this class, which was a sophomore level class, Harry was unsurprised to see that a little under a third of the students raised their hands while the others slowly worked through what he said. English was apparently very hard for Japanese to learn just like vice-versa, but Kuoh was a very prestigious school. With that in mind he smiled and moved around his desk to lean against the front of it staring out over his students.
When he spoke, he spoke in English first, then Japanese once more. "Please state your name first then your question. Remember however, that I did say I reserve the right to not answer any question I deem too personal or disruptive to the class."
To his amusement those last two points seemed to curb the student's enthusiasm, but there were still four hands to choose from. One was one of the two boys, and Harry pointed at him. "Karisomo, Hayate sensei. Are you from England or from America?"
"I am from Britain, which is England yes. Are there any good family restaurants around here?" Harry asked.
"A few," Hayate replied, then began to list them, starting from the nearest, and even gave directions, all in English before translating back to Japanese. The young boy, a rather mousy sort both in size and attitude, knew his stuff.
Harry waved him back into his seat and turned to the next, a tall, athletic looking girl who asked whether Harry played any sports, and if he was also going to be their Phys Ed. teacher, something that had been mentioned in the introduction ceremony. Harry answered in the affirmative, then asked about the school's sports clubs, and if there was a self-defense seminar or club. The girl, whose name was Murayama Shiratori (though she introduced herself family name first, which Harry knew was the Japanese way), replied with a quizzical expression. "I'm not certain if I understand Sensei, what do you mean a self-defense club? We have kendo and various martial arts clubs..."
"Those are nice and all, but if you don't walk around with a, what do you call those wooden play swords?"
Murayama bristled slightly at the 'play swords' line, but still answered. "We call them bokken sensei."
"Yes those. But what if you don't have one on you? What if you find yourself in a situation where you're suddenly set upon or have your purse stolen from you? That is what I mean when I talk about defense. It is more of a mindset than anything else, though I suppose martial arts clubs and the like would be able to teach the same thing." Harry replied, waving the girl into her chair. "Well done Shiratori-san."
This left only two more students with their hands up and Harry saw they were the two girls he had noticed this morning. Smiling, he gestured to the one with black hair to ask her question first, trying as hard as he could to keep his eyes on their faces as he did.
"Himejima Akeno, sensei. Can I ask what brings you to Japan, and what do you miss most from Britain?" Akeno said, smiling back, though there was something in her violet eyes that made Harry's spine stiffen slightly, though he hid it well. That is a far more mature look than I'd have expected from a normal high school student.
"A chance to start over and a very well-paying job brought me to Japan. As for what I miss most, I suppose that I have yet to get used to the local teas, and much of the local food is still new to me. Not bad, I hasten to add, just new." Harry replied, then paused and asked, "Now for my question: Is the cafeteria here any good, and if so what would you recommend?"
"It is alright I suppose sensei, but most of the good food goes quickly," Akeno laughed, raising one hand to hide her mouth, something that made Harry angle his head to one side in question. "Even girls get hungry sensei, and the cafeteria can be something of a battlefield at times. I would recommend that you bring something to eat, lest you be mobbed in your pursuit of food, both for that, and for… other things…" Akeno finished slowly, her eyes raking Harry up and down.
If Harry had been a younger man he might have blushed. Instead, he simply smiled, crossing his arms over his chest and looked back, shaking his head. "Unfortunately I wasn't looking for food for myself here on campus but something to take home for dinner for my daughter and me since I doubt I'll have time to make us anything after finishing here." At least not until I get used to the workload.
There was a loud murmuring at that throughout the class, as he translated his words to Japanese as he had been doing all along. At the back of the class one girl, who Harry couldn't' see through her fellows, whispered loudly, "So he's a DILF? Oh that's so hot!"
That made Harry nearly lose his cool and laugh out loud, but he coughed into his hand and quickly turned to the last student who had raised her hand to answer his earlier challenge. "Yes, well, last student. Then we are going to do a few group exercises to give me an idea of your grasp on grammar, vocabulary and above all the written version of English. In fact Ms. Akeno if you could hand these papers out while your friend here asks her questions?"
Akeno answered in the affirmative, getting up from her seat quickly. She made a point of rubbing slightly against Harry as he stood by the papers before turning away, not having gotten any reaction from him, which she thought was both a pity and rather telling. Mr. Potter might be young for a teacher, but he has a certain amount of self-control. But this close I can sense more of the animalistic side of him. He's definitely a were-creature of some kind.
For her part Rias smiled thinking of what to ask. She knew what most of the class was interested in, but she knew that Mr. Potter would not respond to such personal questions such as if he was married or not. Besides, she had already spotted the answer. He wore no ring on his finger any longer but there was a slight band of discoloration on his ring finger. That meant he had been married at one point, and if it had ended poorly for whatever reason, Rias had no interest in opening up that can of worms.
Instead she decided to get to know him another way, through his daughter. "My name is Gremory Rias sensei. You mentioned a daughter, what is she like, and does she go to school near here? Can she speak Japanese as well as you can?"
It was immediately evident that she had taken the right tack as Harry's eyes and face softened noticeably. A look of love came into those emerald eyes that quite took the breath away from many of the girls looking at him, including Rias, though she didn't show it as much as those around her.
Reaching into a pocket Harry pulled out a nonmagical photograph of Lily, smiling at it before handing it to the girl in the desk right in front of him. "That's my little Red Moon, Lily. She is a bundle of energy, quite intelligent for her age."
While the girls of the classroom all cooed about the photo or shot looks between it and Rias, Harry went on to answer the rest of Rias' questions. He had already noticed that Rias' hair was only a little darker than his daughter's. "I enrolled her in Kuoh Elementary, and yes she can speak Japanese. We both have a good ear for languages, which has served us well here. The culture is still an issue but I think we're settling down as well as we can."
When it reached her, Rias understood immediately why people had been looking between her and the girl. The hair color and some of the face did look like the two of them could be related. Still, Rias knew they weren't, it was simply a coincidence. Though she did think the young girl was a absolutely adorable.
"Hmmm… as for my question…" Harry thought for a moment, not wanting to waste his question on what he thought obvious: that the girl was related to the man who had offered him this position, Sirzechs. Yet for some reason Harry was having a lot of trouble stopping himself from asking any one of a dozen inappropriate questions that had been going through his mind since Akeno had eyed him moments ago.
After a few seconds contemplation, as his picture returned to him and Akeno signaled she was done passing out papers Harry shrugged. "For my question Ms. Gremory, answer me this: where around here would I go to purchase some good teas?"
Rias smiled happily, and went into a lengthy explanation of a few of the local tea stores while Akeno reclaimed her seat pouting slightly. She habitually made the two of them tea whenever they were in their club room, but Rias too enjoyed making and drinking it.
Smiling at the redhead's enthusiasm, Harry clapped his hands looking around at all of the students, making a point to nod at the four who had taken up his challenge. "Very well done, I am impressed. However we need to make certain that your information and knowledge is not the exception but the rule." He said once more in English then converting to Japanese.
"In front of you is a page of multiple choice and short answer questions. Don't worry, this is not going to be graded, this is only for my own understanding of your individual levels. You have fifteen minutes to complete these, and then we will go over the sheet together for the rest of the class. In the last five minutes we will discuss required reading and the syllabus for this course."
Harry spent the next fifteen minutes walking around the room, talking quietly to any student who needed his help. He found that some of the girls still tried to make doe eyes at him but didn't thankfully outright flirt with him, though Akeno did wink at him, and Rias smiled at him before looking away demurely.
The class were all finished the assessment paper in the allotted time, and Harry spent the rest of the class doing as he said he would. When they got to it they were several questions about the syllabus, noticeably about how rarely there would be actual graded quizzes, and the amount of reading homework which was a marked difference from their first classes. There were also a few questions about how Harry wanted them to record themselves speaking specific lines in English and prepare them for class the next day.
Some of his choices for reading were also questioned, since he hadn't included as many of the known classics as was normal. Instead he had mixed in several modern fantasy and science fiction novels and even magazines from popular culture. Harry answered their questions easily, and the class realized to an individual that maybe this class was actually going to be fun.
Altogether Harry was quite happy how his first class had gone, and dismissed the class to lunch happily. Now he had some time free before his next class, though the rest of the day would see him without further breaks.
"Potter-sensei," Akeno said, moving towards him as the rest of the class hurried out, while Rias waited nearby to ask her own question. Akeno stood almost pressing Harry back against his desk, obviously flirting with him in a way he was surprised to see from a student to a teacher. "Seeing as you mentioned being concerned about being able to cook for you and your daughter, I could stop by this evening and cook you something?"
Surprised, and despite himself becoming quite excited by the girl's closeness Harry almost replied in the affirmative before his self-control reasserted himself. Down boy, she's a student remember, and a high school girl, no matter that she has a body any adult woman would kill for GAH stop it! "That would hardly be appropriate Himejima-san. What would people think of you being alone in a teacher's house?"
"Ara, but I wouldn't be alone with you would I, your daughter would be there too," Akeno replied disingenuously. "Besides, I am certain you wouldn't do anything I wouldn't want you to after all."
"I think that would rather be the problem Himejima-san, what exactly would you not like me to do to you?" Harry replied before he could stop himself, his voice deepening for a moment as his eyes bore into Akeno's. To Akeno's chagrin she was the first to look away, a blush coming to her cheeks.
Shaking his head Harry regained control of himself and turned away to fiddle with some papers on his desk. "Thank you for the offer though, it was very kind."
Akeno nodded, still looking away rather flustered and moved toward the door, while behind her Rias chuckled, shaking her head. It was obvious that while you could get Mr. Potter to respond to physical flirtations, he would either reply in kind and turn the attack back on you or ignore it and make you feel silly. I suppose he is more experienced than either Akeno or I attempt to fool ourselves and others into thinking. In any event, that kind of flirtation is more Akeno's style than mine.
No, it's best to go for a soft sell to find out what exactly Mr. Potter is and if he would like to join my peerage. Rias did not like trying to manipulate people, she was honestly quite a straightforward girl when she could be. But at present she was facing an issue in the near future that was slowly starting to dominate her mind and she had to do something to combat it.
To get out of that fate, she was willing to be underhanded. And besides, it isn't like I am going to hurt Harry or his daughter, she consoled herself. And they can always say no. I refuse to force anyone to join if they don't want to. I'd rather have friends than nothing.
Moving forward to take her friend's place near Mr. Potter, Rias kept some distance between them unlike Akeno, just enough to make their talk more informal but not close enough to make it seem she was flirting with him. "Excuse me Mr. Potter, I wanted to ask if you've decided to over oversee a club yet? You mentioned something about defense?"
"I haven't no, but as for defense that is a passion of mine you might say, though given how many martial arts clubs Shiratori-san mentioned it doesn't seem to be necessary. Why, do you have a club in mind, or would you like some defense lessons?" Harry asked looking at the redhead with interest.
Now that Akeno wasn't flirting with him and there weren't other people around, Harry became aware of a feeling in the air, a sense just beyond his ability to discern. It was like Rias was giving off a kind of magical aura, but not one he was familiar with, just like the ones he had sometimes sensed walking around town. Interesting.
"Well, I happen to be the president of the Occult Research Club. We go around looking at mysteries and discuss the supernatural." Rias smiled at Harry, noticing his lips twitching at that, not as if he was making fun of her, but as if he knew something she didn't.
Rias saw that, and realized that yes, Mr. Potter knew what he was and about the occult world, or at least parts of it. That would make it easier to approach him later on. "We don't have an advisor however, Miss Imuya left after the school declared it would become coed. If you think you could, that would be a major help in organizing trips and other things of that nature. We could also be open to babysitting Lily after school if you're busy with paperwork or just want a night out on the town Sensei."
"Hmm… I'll think about it Gremory-san," Harry said, standing fully upright and gesturing toward the door. This brought him slightly into Rias' personal space, which caused her to blush for some reason, though he didn't notice. "For now though I think you should get to lunch."
Rias nodded and bowed politely. "In that case I will see you tomorrow Sensei." Despite her desire not to come on physically as Akeno had, she couldn't stop herself from adding an extra little swing to her hips as she turned away and Rias smiled when she spotted Harry's eyes trailing down her back in the door's window as she made her exit.
Shaking his head Harry moved around the desk to stand by his heretofore unused chair. This is going to be an interesting job for certain. I wonder if I really understood what I'd be getting into as a teacher, especially here…
End Chapter
t occurred to me that the point before Harry meets Sirzechs could be a great moment use what has preceded as a story starter chapter. So if anyone wants to use or expand on the above, please send me a message and we can talk about it.
Obviously this story would need a lot of work - above and beyond Harry's past, I would like to delve more into the magic of Japan, its spells, its talismans and so forth, as well as how it overlaps the Youkai and Magic Associations of DxD. I would of course also have to explain the difference between magicians and wizards as well, both how and why wizards have remained separate from the Three Factions and why.
As an exercise I actually enjoyed working with this chapter, but the amount of world building and the fact I already have a story going in Highschool DxD mean I probably won't continue this, unless a lot of people request it and are willing to do so over on Patty R on. Still it works as a Christmas gift for my fans here on fanfic and I hope you all liked it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
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