Warnings: Pre-slash, crossover, might not make a lot of sense logically, takes place outside of the manga (however the author has read through chapter 23 (the very start of the imposter arc), so if you have read that far or farther you're safe), AU to HP books (slight, explained in story somewhat). Mentions of Wolfram/Yuuri.

Disclaimers: Harry Potter belongs to Joanne Kathleen Rowling and associates, of whom I am not one. Kyou Kara Maou belongs to Takabayashi Tomo (author) and Matsumoto Temari (illustrator) and associates, of whom I am not one. Written as a (late) birthday gift to MarauderHeir as a replacement for a DBZ/HP fic I was planning to give her.

For the Cat

It had taken about a week, but Harry did eventually manage to find someone he was looking for. That was a short list, but given how common the last name "Shibuya" was, it was a task that took a bit of time to accomplish. Not that Harry was in a hurry – he was seeing the sites, enjoying the culture, and generally having a good time – but he had hoped that it would be easier to find who he was looking for when Dumbledore had narrowed down the location to a single city in Japan.

Harry's list of "people to find" consisted of 4 people, all members of the same family and having the not-uncommon-enough name of Shibuya. The young wizard had been appropriately confused when his city map had a section called Shibuya.

The fact that the meeting was entirely by coincidence was negligible and entirely par for the course as far as Harry could tell. He had been on a walking bridge, watching the river below with a pleased gaze – it was very clean and pretty – and contemplating which address by the name Shibuya he should check next. A male high school student was walking ahead of him, apparently reading as he went, in black gakuran.

And completely oblivious to the cyclist belting straight down the bridge, the course obviously going to impact and by the speed, Harry could judge it would be difficult to change. It would be easy on a broom, but Harry knew that bicycles weren't as easy to change direction… especially when the rider was paying more attention to a girl walking on the other side of the bridge.

So Harry sprinted about five steps and tackled the student to the side just in time to save the teen from being run down by the cyclist. Unfortunately, due to a combination of momentum and his target flailing, they fell over the rail and into the river. Harry could only think he was glad it was such a low bridge, since he wasn't keen on the idea of dying because of hitting the water too hard.

Until he actually hit the water, still clutching the other boy's sleeves in his hands. Then he couldn't help but wonder why it felt like he had latched, not to a regular Japanese schoolboy (which sounded worse put into words now he thought of it) but a rather low-end port-key.

Then he was surfacing and the boy was coughing to get his breath; Harry quickly took them both to shore and wondered if there was an alcove where he could cast drying spells on them without passerby noticing.

It took approximately three seconds after reaching dry land and uselessly trying to dry his glasses on his shirt that Harry noticed there was no bridge nearby, nor any sort of settlement. He heard a clang of metal and shouting from downstream – some sort of muggle renaissance fair or a festival, he was certain – but that was it. There were trees, lots of trees, the river, and various other plant life. Aside from Harry and the Japanese boy, however, there was… no one.

How disconcerting.

"Great, we're lost," Harry groaned and – after making sure that the boy wouldn't see him – pulled his wand from his left sleeve and cast a drying charm on his glasses before slipping them back on. He considered casting drying charms on them both, but didn't want to have to pay for breaking the statute of secrecy over something as stupid as a drying charm. "Er… sorry we got knocked off the bridge?"

There was probably a wad of paper-pulp floating around somewhere that had once been the student's book.

"N-no, it's okay," the teen voiced after he seemed certain that he could breathe. He was seated in the mud, uncaring of the brown smears on his sodden uniform. "It was that or get hit by a bike. I'm just sorry you got dragged along."

Harry blinked and moved to voice his confusion. He should have known something would happen to interrupt him.

"Yuuri!" Quite suddenly Harry was tossed physically away from the boy and into the river. Again. He scowled, but at least the water was shallow where he landed. Still, his glasses were wet again, and the water wasn't exactly warm, never mind that it was July.

Thoroughly soaked, Harry had to regain his bearings before standing in the knee-high water. A blond boy of presumably similar age was fussing over the boy Harry had saved from the river, squawking in a language that Harry had never even heard before. It seemed to young wizard would have to let his translation charm grow accustomed to this language, too.

Luckily, charms were quick to pick up languages and, if worn long enough, would make the wearer able to understand the tongue as well... excepting magical tongues like Parsel and Mermish. Those were born or had to be learned naturally.

Until then, however, Harry knew he was in a bit of a tight spot. How? Well, as soon as he had, once again, slogged his way out of the river, Harry found himself at sword point. His gaze traveled up the blade and landed on a very handsome face; a very angry face, but a handsome one nonetheless. Framed by dark gray bangs, the glaring blue eyes stood out all the more. A few words were snapped, but Harry didn't understand.

And he said so, in all six languages that had been logged by the charm's previous owner. Bill had handed over the earring when he heard what Harry was planning, since he already knew the logged languages by heart and Fleur had bought him a new earring to replace the old fang that now hung from Harry's right ear. (1)

The deceptively young gray-haired man didn't look too terribly impressed.

At once, two people rose to Harry's defense... well, one rose to Harry's defense, the other simply interceded.

The first, the one that seemed to stand up for Harry, was the Japanese teen Harry had tackled back in, well, Japan, which Harry was fairly certain was not their present location. And he was speaking in the language Harry didn't understand, though his charm was already picking up that the sentence structure was the same as Japanese and had started routing the language through that one as Harry started to catch snippets.

Very tiny snippets though. All he caught were the words "water" and "random" which didn't help.

The interjector was a very good looking man, certainly on par with the other though he was clearly younger by a few years, with light brown hair and eyes.

And he spoke Japanese, which certainly helped the Boy-Who-Lived.

"Excuse my brother," the man said, and Harry dismissed any surprise at the relation to the gray-haired man. After all, Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange didn't look anything alike and they were sisters. "We were out hunting and not expecting to see visitors."

"You guys seem pretty pleased that kid's here," Harry jerked a thumb at the Japanese boy who was still arguing with the older man. "I'm guessing you know one another?"

The man just smiled.

"Er... well," Harry shuffled his feet a moment before opting to stand his ground. "I wasn't exactly expecting to be here either; it's no reason to point a sword at me, especially when the smaller guy –" his gaze drifted to the blond that was practically hanging off of the brunet "- already threw me back into the river for no reason." He sighed and decided that it was water under the bridge anyway. No use crying over soggy socks and all that. "Anyway, I'm Harry Potter. Nice to meet you..." He trailed off rather obviously.

"Conrart von Weller," supplied the elder. Harry was no tuning out the argument going on right next to him; he couldn't understand it anyway, and it was likely the charm would take up to an hour to fully comprehend the language. "Again, you have my apologies. Gwendal is never pleased to have unannounced visitors. How came you to this river? Yuuri is soaked too, so not all that water can be from Wolfram."

"I was on a bridge, and that guy –" Harry indicated the Japanese boy, "was about to be run over by a bicyclist. I tackled him out of the way... and we kinda fell off the bridge. Ended up here." He wasn't going to mention the tugging, as these were probably muggles. The only people he had clearance to reveal magic to were his relatives, the Shibuya family, assuming they didn't already know.

Wait. Shibuya... he immediately ran through the names of the people in that family, as Dumbledore had told him. There was the mother, Miko, the father, Shoma, and the sons, Shori and Yuuri.

"Shibuya Yuuri?" He hadn't meant to say it out loud, but he had, and the Japanese boy – Yuuri – turned around and answered on reflex. Definitely his cousin then. Unless there was another Shibuya Yuuri. "You're Shibuya Yuuri?"

A cautious nod. Harry noticed that the three men (now he could see the blond, Harry could see that he, too, was very good looking) tensed and looked ready to fight, but he opted to ignore them. The best way to stave off suspicion was to avoid it in the firs place; the next best way was to not be doing anything worthy of suspicion; the third was to act as though you are unaware that what you were doing was worthy of suspicion.

"Fantastic! Well, assuming you're the right one... your father's name is Shoma? And your mother is Miko? You have a brother named Shori, right?" He had a feeling he was right, and while usually he knew not to follow that gut feeling – it was incorrect 90 percent of the time – Yuuri nodded anyway. Harry beamed. "I've been looking for you for a week now, y'know."

Yuuri looked wary and sent a look to Conrart. Then he spoke in that language Harry didn't understand (2) and the young war hero sighed. "Of course you'd only speak a language I don't understand; never mind that we were in Japan less than five minutes ago..." Harry grumbled mostly to himself.

"You're certain you aren't in Japan now?" Conrart asked. He looked rather amused, if cautious.

Harry gave his best "no duh" face in reply. "None of them are speaking Japanese; the only one of you who looks Japanese is Yuuri; and you have a name that sounds more European than anything," Harry ticked off. "Not to be racist or anything, but odds are, any group of people in Japan are of Japanese descent. The odds are even greater that anyone would speak Japanese. So yeah, not in Tokyo anymore, Todo."

Who cared if Harry was mixing his metaphors? His charm hadn't picked up the language yet. It blipped an estimation of half an hour given the current rate of conversation, and he withheld another sigh.

"Whatever," Harry shook his head of the bad mood and pressed on. Best to seem stupidly cheery. "I solemnly swear that I am not a suspicious person. (3) So... where are we?"

Unfortunately, Harry found that he was not at liberty to ask questions. While Conrart did seem nice, he didn't trust Harry, and the other non-Yuuri men didn't seem too keen on him either. Yuuri kept trying to interject, but since the charm hadn't yet picked up the language, it didn't really help... well, it did somewhat, since the time estimation decreased due to the increased amount of speech.

And so Harry found his hands tied behind his back and forced to sit on one of the horses that Conrart fetched; there were three, presumably one for each of those who hadn't been transported via river. Yuuri was willingly sharing a horse with the boy who had hit Harry, and the young wizard... well, he was seated in front of the one who had put him to sword point.

Conrart said it was because "Gwen" liked cute things; considering Harry felt like a drowned rat and got a seriously annoyed vibe from "Gwen" (or, as the gray haired man had corrected, Gwendal von Voltaire), it was likely his leg was being pulled.

Either way, having his hands tied behind his back was awkward when seated in front of someone. He was careful to ignore it, but that didn't mean he liked the situation. At all. The ride was mostly silent unfortunately, for all ten minutes of it, with the exception of Yuuri and his companion (Wolfram von Bielefeld, as Conrart had called him, apparently the youngest brother) who spoke too quietly.

The estimated time on the charm held stationary.

When they arrived at a castle, Harry was neither surprised nor too terribly impressed. Sure it was pretty – despite being of similar size, it was much better cared for than Hogwarts, at least aesthetically – but it wasn't the first castle he had ever seen, nor was it exactly a surprise. It had been visible over the trees for a good five minutes before they arrived.

There was some chatter as everyone dismounted. Much to Harry's chagrin, he couldn't get off the horse without aid, which Gwendal provided wordlessly. Harry bowed his head in thanks, knowing words would be pointless just yet, and wondered just how many times the charm would reassess the required time before it was done assimilating the language.

And his wrists were already feeling a little raw.

Being escorted into the castle was no fun, though Conrart continued speaking to hm. Or not-so-subtly needling him for answers. Same difference. Most of them were pointless anyway, so Harry asked his own question.

"So where are we? I mean, I get it, I'm being treated as a hostile element, tackled Yuuri off a bridge, etc etc," Harry made motions with his shoulders for lack of ability to gesticulate while his hands were tied, "but I still want to know where I am. Aside from 'not Japan'."

"Shinmakoku, the Mazoku nation," Conrart elucidated. Mazoku, apparently, was part of the ever increasing vocabulary that his charm was picking up on though, as Harry caught the undertone of "demon".

"Mazoku, huh?" Harry tilted his head and looked at Conrart. He didn't look like any of the demons in his text books... unless mazoku were related to succubi? They were all quite pretty, after all. Except they weren't trying to seduce anyone... well, alright, Wolfram was trying to seduce Yuuri, but that was a whole other kettle of fish since Yuuri appeared accustomed to the advances and ignoring them. "You're a lot different from the demons in my books."

Conrart stiffened, and Harry felt the rope around his wrists pull backwards a bit harder than before, meaning that Gwendal had tightened his grip on the lead in response to his brother's discomfort.

"None of my business anyway," Harry shrugged. "I suppose I'll give you some information? My name is Harry Potter. I'm from England, attended boarding school in Scotland and my plans for the coming academic year depend on Yuuri. I'm going to be 17 this month. All other information needed, please specify at your leisure, and I'll answer as best I can."

He wondered if he should point out that he had diplomatic immunity or not... probably not. After all, there was no Shinmakoku in any Atlas, not even his wizarding one, which probably meant he was in another dimension or something.

"How did you know Yuuri's name? And why do your plans depend on him?" Conrart sent Harry a suspicious – yet strangely open and friendly, like Remus Lupin – look. "Shouldn't you be more worried about my brothers and I?"

"I know Yuuri's name because I've been searching for his family for the past week," Harry shrugged. "I wanted to see if they were willing to connect or not. I mean, I'm technically Yuuri's father's cousin, so –"

Yuuri shouted in surprise, rounding on Harry. Then the clock on the charm suddenly went from ten minutes to zero. "... Be my cousin?! That's... and on my dad's side?!" He looked a combination of horror, surprise, and... well, something. Harry sucked at analyzing complex emotions.

"Through my paternal grandmother," Harry replied in the language he had been spoken to in, grateful that the charm was working. "Dorea Potter nee Black, who was adopted into the family when she was twenty. The family tree didn't say anymore, though it did expand a little on her blood family. Not much, but enough that my magical guardian was able to point me in the direction of her nephew's family, the Shibuya."

Silence.

"Disregarding your sudden ability to speak," Gwendal's voice sounded a lot more pleasant when Harry could understand what he was saying, "you claim mazoku ancestry?"

"Er... no," Harry turned around a little; the procession had stopped a short way from the large doors that led to the castle. "I claim to be Yuuri's second cousin... or is it first cousin once removed? I always mix those up." (4)

"But you're saying you're related to my dad?" Yuuri seemed to have collected himself.

"Yeah; my grandmother was your great aunt," Harry explained once again. "Which makes my dad your dad's... er, first cousin once removed or second cousin, whichever one I'm not." He wanted to scratch his head, but his hands were still tied, and likely would be for some time.

"Which makes you part mazoku," Conrart explained.

So... Harry was part demon. He considered, momentarily, whether or not he should be surprised. When the doors burst open and Yuuri was tackled by a man with long lavender hair screaming out a jubilant "Your Majesty!" he decided to just take it in stride. Stranger things, by far, had happened to Harry after all.

And that was how Harry found his family.

"So... you're taking the 'part mazoku' thing a lot better than I did," Yuuri shifted a bit in his chair. A red cape was tossed over his shoulders and he wore it with familiarity; it made sense, considering he was apparently the King of the Mazoku, and had spent some time in Shin Makoku for the past couple of months.

"I've been told weirder things," Harry was still flexing his wrists in relief of being freed from the ropes. Not that they had been tied uncomfortably tight – Gwendal knew how to treat a guest in his castle – but he was still glad to have use of his hands back. "But you've told me all about you, so it's only fair if I return the favor."

He started with the basics, that there was a magical world running right alongside the normal one, and that Harry was part of that world. He told Yuuri (and the Von brothers plus the purple man, Günter) about being a human wizard – brandishing his wand and drying off his and Yuuri's clothes, as well as the affected areas of Wolfram and Gwendal's from being in close contact – and the turmoil there regarding purebloods, and how Harry somehow ended the first war with Voldemort as an infant. His school years were glossed over for the important things – the Dark Lord possessing a teacher and Harry killing him (by accident, of course), the basilisk and Ginny's possession, meeting his godfather and the truth of things with his parents, the nerve-wracking tournament ending with Voldemort's return, and Sirius' death – until he got to his sixth year, though he kept that short, too.

"After Sirius' death, Voldemort became active again, killing muggleborns and causing mayhem," he explained. "I was cooped up in my aunt's house all summer, and at school I wasn't given any special training, even though I was supposed to kill Voldemort. Dumbledore was counting on love to win. So I taught myself new spells and how to fight. Over the Winter Hols, I was visiting the hospital to see a friend. Long story short, Voldemort found out, attacked, and tried to invade my mind. The friend I came to visit did something – I never got to ask, he was killed – and I managed to kill Voldemort while the bastard was in the wrong head.

"Since then, I've been dodging assassination attempts," he leaned back on the luxurious couch; he hadn't decided if it was better than the ones in Gryffindor Tower yet. "I guess Dumbledore was sort of right though, since my friend sacrificed himself for me. Anyway, he told me about my relatives living in Japan in May, and from then 'til when I started looking for your family, I was planning my trip. If you aren't adverse to me hanging about for a year or so, I thought I'd transfer to a Japanese school to round out my education."

"And when you found me, we ended up in Shinmakoku," Yuuri frowned, and Harry found that his cousin looked strangely regal like that. "Well, on the bright side, it seems like whenever I'm here no more than a couple of minutes will pass on Earth... so when we go back it'll probably be to someone dragging us out of the river."

"Don't talk about going back as if you want to leave me," Wolfram growled low. That was another strange thing; Yuuri claimed to be straight, but he had a male fiancé. Not that Harry was one to judge, he was bisexual, but it was strange that Yuuri wouldn't have found some way to renege on that if he truly was just straight. This, of course, was none of the wizard's business, and he kept his mouth rightly shut.

Wolfram would kill him if he said anything.

"Er... right..." Yuuri shifted again, edging ever so slightly away from his betrothed.

Harry didn't almost laugh. Really.

"If it is Yuuri's will, then I will open my castle to you until you depart for Earth again," Gwendal intruded. He didn't sound happy about it.

He left.

Harry wondered if everyone here was so attractive or if it was just the upper echelons.

"He's annoying," Wolfram stated as he sat neatly in an arm chair. "It's like he thinks being related to Yuuri means we'll like him or something."

"You're just angry that he tackled your betrothed," Gwendal rebuffed his sibling. "He is rather... unassuming."

Conrart understood his older brother completely. "Most humans, whether here or on earth, would not take such news so well," he elucidated his own opinion. "Harry hardly blinked when he realized we were demons and certainly gave us the benefit of his doubt. And he didn't react when Yuuri told him of their mazoku heritage."

"So he might have already known and is an enemy agent sent to kill Yuuri," Wolfram's face was sour.

"Or he was telling the truth about his life and it was... 'par for the course' I believe he said," Conrart smiled lightly, pensively. "The range of his magic is certainly interesting. He isn't pledged to any element, and yet he can do all sorts of magic."

"It's different from mazoku magic," Gwendal put in.

"Very, but useful," Conrart leaned back in his chair. "I think we should keep him until he and Yuuri return to Japan."

Wolfram wasn't pleased with that notion.

"And you have to pledge yourself to an element?" Harry looked surprised, which amused Günter considerably. "I mean, there are some wizards and witches back home who do so; Dumbledore was pledged to fire, otherwise Fawkes - that was his familiar, a phoenix – wouldn't have joined him, and he was able to make an everlasting flame. But even then, he was able to use other elements... it's more like a mastery for us really."

Günter, the serious scholar that he was – when not around the King – was entirely enraptured by the explanation. "Is that so? That's so different! I don't think Yuuri has formalized his association with water, and he doesn't... well, he doesn't use magic on his own. He's sometimes possessed by the King who he is the reincarnation of, and uses mostly water magic. Lord von Weller mentioned an animation of animal bones, but I don't entirely understand the manipulation involved. If I had been there to see it..." Günter sighed to himself. Well, he hadn't been there. Hopefully Yuuri would be able to mimic it at a later date for the violet eyed mazoku to study.

"How cute!" With that non-sequitur, Günter was snapped from his musings. He turned about and saw Harry was about three meters back and was kneeled down on the ground to –

Oh dear.

It was one of Gwendal's hand-knit toys. How it had ended up in the middle of the hall, Günter had no idea, but he rather wanted to tease Gwendal for it. Günter had had no idea the man made the things until he entered the bedroom unannounced, and surely Gwendal was normally more careful with the things? If a human were to find out and – worse – manipulate the weakness for cute things...

Well, Günter had fun threatening to use small animals for his divination spells. There was no need to let any humans find out.

"What a cute rabbit," Günter said as he approached, trying to be unsuspicious about it. It was cute, though Gwendal still didn't seem to be perfect at it. The ears were long, but shaped funny.

Harry gave him an annoyed look. "What rabbit? This is a cat! Look at the shape of the ears and how the pupils are slit. I've never seen a rabbit with a long tail, either." The wizard pointed out all these features as if he doubted Günter could notice on his own.

Which he wouldn't have. But that wasn't the point.

"Er... right. Well, he's cute," Günter shrugged.

Another annoyed look. "She."

"But it's blue," now Günter was the annoyed one. "I'll admit that it might be a cat, but blue is a masculine color in most societies."

"Is that all you see? Blue? Because I see Cerulean, not that you'd know it," Harry shook his head. Günter felt like he had been declared a lost cause. "And look at these eyelashes. This is a very cute female cat." He paused. "Er, whose is it, anyway?"

Before Günter could reply – whether with the truth or a well crafted "I don't know but I will ask around" even Günter could not say – Gwendal walked past them in the direction of his room.

"Keep it."

And Harry did.

Harry collapsed, exhausted and laughing. He had been included in Yuuri's sword fighting lessons and found it quit a lot of fun. The only sword he'd ever even touched before was the sword of Gryffindor, and all he did with that was wave it around and stick it in the roof of a 150-foot basilisk's mouth.

This, however, was interesting. It was precise, and yet there was so much error margin when someone was skilled enough. It was all instinct, and it was all strategy, and it was terribly exhausting, both mentally and physically. Since Harry was so new to it, he needed to be aware of his movements and able to change them at a moment's notice while staying within the form and without being predictable enough that he would get hit anyway.

"How can you enjoy this so much?" Yuuri groaned as he collapsed next to Harry. "I have Morgif helping me, and it's still torture."

"Back at Hogwarts, I played a game called Quidditch," Harry explained, though it probably didn't explain much. "It was a competitive sport, but I barely had to do anything to play. My job was the most important, but the least physically taxing. But when I was a kid I was running everywhere, and I knew that by the time I was exhausted, I was safe, and I could just lay down and enjoy things, because I would be beyond any schoolyard bully's reach. I haven't been this thoroughly exhausted since I was ten years old."

"Running? That's it? No baseball or anything?" Yuuri looked disappointed. He had explained his love of baseball before.

"It isn't played much, if at all in Britain," Harry made sure to move his arms a bit as he laid in the downtrodden grass. He didn't want to have lactic acid build up. "But yeah, just running. The only reason I have any upper arm strength is because of all the 'foolish wand waving' I've done." He felt silly for quoting his old potions professor. "And even then it's only because of the sheer amount. This'll be good for me."

Yuuri scoffed. Harry laughed.

They bonded.

Sort of.

Wolfram was the last hurdle, and he knew it. Conrart took easily to the new arrival, deciding that Harry was not only harmless, but perfectly benevolent and capable of living peacefully. Günter was immediately taken in by the knowledge of earth magicks that none of the mazoku had ever heard of. Even Gwen had been taken in by the boy simply because he had been able to tell one of his "secret" stuffed toys was a cat. How anyone could say that was a cat was beyond the (relatively) young mazoku.

And now Yuuri seemed perfectly content to hang about with the presumed quarter mazoku. Yuuri's breeding wasn't very good, but he was still the King, and as quaint as it might seem that he would acknowledge a potential quarter mazoku, it was also disgraceful.

It had been a week, and while Wolfram wasn't paranoid about Harry trying to steal his betrothed anymore – such marriages weren't unheard of certainly, but Harry was thankfully thinking of Yuuri only as "family", if that – he didn't like the teenager.

Mostly because the wizard was stealing Yuuri's attention from Wolfram.

Oh, he knew it was childish. If Wolfram met a half brother from his father, or another cousin, he would express some interest. Maybe for someone to whom this was a novel experience, there would be a greater response, however to Wolfram it would be a formal event of fake interest.

Even if he understood, he didn't have to like it.

And Wolfram was the last barrier. Assuming his mother didn't pop up and get involved somehow, anyway. Otherwise... well, there would be nothing in all of Shinmakoku that could stand between Harry Potter worming his way into the everyday lives of the highest ranked people in the nation.

So Wolfram kidnapped Harry for the purpose of interrogation.

"This is... a closet," Harry sounded nonplussed as he faced his captor. And it was a closet, albeit a large one. No one would think to search for them there, and Wolfram would be left to his own devices. "Please tell me you haven't changed your mind about Yuuri."

That threw Wolfram for a loop, and he demanded an explanation.

"Er, well, at Hogwarts, broom closets were where most couples would get together for..." he paused, as if thinking of an appropriate term, "clandestine encounters."

It took Wolfram precisely three-point-two second to understand just what sort of secret liaison would take place in a closet.

And he glared. "How dare you question my loyalty to my fiancé!" he ground out, face red, though whether that was from rage or embarrassment even he could not say. "I would never do anything like that to him! I take our betrothal very seriously!"

"And yet you don't trust him to do the same," Harry countered. "He trusts you to do whatever you like with whomever with the knowledge that when you return you will still be loyal to him. But I've seen you freak out when he's alone in the same room with one of your brothers, or if he's popping down to the kitchen to ask one of the servants for a snack. He obviously trusts you, so why don't you trust him back? I can't consider that a serious engagement."

Wolfram was stunned. Not literally of course – he'd seen what a truly "stunned" individual was like when Günter had snuck up on Harry – but he was shocked all the same.

"Anyway, Gwendal said he would teach me some strategy since I'm so poor at it," Harry shrugged as if he hadn't just been lecturing a man 5 times his age. "Something about how relatives of the King should be able to defend him. I'll see you around, Wolfram."

And he understood why everyone seemed to like Harry.

He was wise.

"So... where are we headed, anyway?" Harry asked. He was sitting atop a dapple gray horse that walked astride a jet black one that was apparently Yuuri's horse brought specially from "Blood Pledge Castle", wherever that was. They were going on an excursion to... somewhere with the brothers, and Harry had been told to pack for three days away from the castle.

Sadly, he had to leave the cat behind. There wasn't room in his saddle bags for it on top of the food (since he was the best cook of the group he was expected to make food, which was fair) and necessities, so it was left behind in his guest room.

"Just to one of the villages under Gwen's jurisdiction," Yuuri told him. They were riding behind everyone else. Wolfram was the one scouting, since his horse was especially quick, and Gwendal and Conrart were at staggered distances ahead. Harry was deemed a suitable bodyguard for the excursion. "Conrad said there was some talk of rebellion, since I haven't been seen a lot yet and everyone is worried that I'll be a puppet-king. I'm not really sure how visiting a village is supposed to help though."

"Hm..." Harry tilted his head, "well, it could be that they're arranging it to correspond with the arrival of someone else who is important in Shinmakoku? Or maybe they want you to spread your peaceful doctrine and have it all start on the ground level. If the people want peace and that spreads to other nations, war should be a lot less likely. I mean, assuming they don't think it's a trick to let you go a-raping and a-pillaging."

The King rolled his eyes. "Very funny," he muttered sarcastically.

Not long after, they came to a shallow stream and had to nudge the horses to start crossing it. Gwendal and Conrart waited on the other side to make sure nothing bad happened – though it was such a shallow stream Harry didn't see the problem – and even Wolfram was back within eyesight.

It turned out that this was a bad idea, as they were halfway across with the horses up to their knees in water when a water snake came swimming past Yuuri's horse.

One thing that could not be said of horses was that they were brave. The beasts were cowardly, just like any other race of animal in the world; their primary directive was simply "survive". The secondary directives were "don't get killed", "eat", and "sleep". Not getting bitten by snakes fell under the category of "don't get killed".

The horses spooked, bucking up and away from the little serpent that, from what Harry could hear, was simply swimming back to its nest.

Harry fell off his horse cleanly, but Yuuri's foot was stuck in the stirrup. The wizard took out a dagger – a gift from Gwendal to aid in protecting the King – from his belt and sliced through the stirrup before ducking under the water to pull Yuuri up for air.

Unfortunately, he felt a tugging, and realized as he grasped on to Yuuri's school uniform that they were going back to Japan.

Even as he dragged himself and Yuuri out of the river and onto the bank, hacking up the water that was less clean than that which had been in the wilds of Shinmakoku, he lamented leaving that realm.

He would miss his cat.

It was a sort of controlled chaos. Wolfram was distraught, as usual, that his fiancé had been dragged back to Earth. Günter was distraught at Yuuri's departure and the fount of foreign knowledge that was Harry Potter. Conrart kept smiling, but his family knew he was displeased. And Gwendal... well, by the way his production of not-quite-recognizable stuffed toys had increased, it was obvious that he was distraught as well.

With the King gone, Wolfram and Conrart had to go back to their own castles to deal with business, leaving Gwendal not-quite-alone. Günter had decided that, Castle Voltaire being the only place in Shinmakoku where Harry had performed his magic, it was the best place to stay.

So the Lord von Voltaire was left to knitting and working, uninterrupted, for three days until he heard a sharp crack from the training grounds, louder than any whip.

When he arrived to investigate, he saw Harry Potter standing there, looking around pleasantly with a positively beautiful white owl on his shoulder.

"I was sucked in my a river again," the wizard explained without prompting upon Gwendal's approach. "I had to try three before it worked. I figured I ought to come back for the cat... though I don't know how long it might take to get back to Earth. If it's okay, can I stay here, Lord von Voltaire?"

And that was that.

Author's Note: Happy Birthday MarauderHeir! ... 4 months late... ^^" The DBZ fic didn't work out, but hopefully this one makes up for that... *cough* Even though it is entirely pre-slash and barely even hints at the Gwen/Harry...

So far as I know, nothing that happened in this story happened in the manga. If it has, I'm sorry. If other authors have used the same premise, again, I apologize. I've never read a Kyou Kara Maou fic, nor an HP/KKM fic. So… yeah. Any ideas from other authors are completely coincidental.

The reason I'm using Lord rather than "-kyou" and Majesty and Highness rather than "-heika" (etc etc) is because I see no point in using Japanese terms when the characters aren't even speaking in Japanese. Normally I'd use suffixes, but they are speaking... whatever language is spoken in Shinmakoku, which is not Japanese.

(1) Yes, I'm aware of the little rhyme "right is wrong and left is right." Considering that's meant as an indicator of gayness, it's okay; Harry is gay (well, bi) in this fic after all.

(2) Sorry if I'm incorrect but from my understanding Yuuri automatically speaks the language used in Shinmakoku while there. It worked for the plot that he CANNOT speak Japanese while there. So, again, sorry if it's incorrect, but I've seen nothing to indicate otherwise.

(3) Reference to Nabari no Ou, crossed with the standard "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good".

(4) It's second cousin. I looked it up ^^"