Hi!^_^

This is my first Bleach and Harry Potter crossover, so I would really appreciate some reviews.^_^

As I am using some Japanese words and in this chapter, here are the translations and/or explanations:

futon = a type of Japanese mattress used for sleeping on the floor or a raised frame

fusuma/shoji = types of Japanese sliding doors

kyaku = guest

hai = yes

ano… = um…

tenshou = owner/shopkeeper

samue = the work clothing of Japanese Buddhist monks, though it is worn casually as well

haori = a type of coat

konbanwa = Good evening

shinigami = Death God

taichou = captain

shunpo = Flash Step, technique used by shinigami

iie = no

-dono, -sama, -san, -kun = suffixes added at the end of a name as honorifics

Well, I hope you enjoy the story!^_^

Disclaimer: I do not own "Harry Potter" or "Bleach". They belong respectively to J.K. Rowling and Tite Kubo.

HPxBleach******************************************

Chapter 1: Saved

***Harry***

Harry slowly limped along the dark streets of Karakura, a town in Japan, scratching at the skin around the silver bracelet on his right wrist. The metal ornament was covered from one end to the other with black, rune-like symbols and the clasp seemed to have been melted together. The area around the bracelet was reddened and littered with faint scars.

The young, black-haired boy winced as his wrist started to burn again as his slowly fading magic desperately tried to heal his wounds. He had received another beating from his cousin, Dudley, and his new gang of cronies. How his obese relative managed to find himself some "friends" in Japan was beyond Harry. After all, he was the only one in the family (he sneered as he thought that word) who spoke Japanese fluently. He thanked his interest in Japanese culture and the help from the nice lady from the library for being able to do that. It gave him a nice advantage. Harry had never expected to actually get the opportunity to go to Japan, much less actually live there.

Then again, his uncle's promotion to the position of director of the Grunnings branch in this prefecture had been unexpected, just as his expulsion from Hogwarts and the sealing of his magic had been. A scowl marred the 12-year-old's face as he remembered the day he had been more or less thrown out of the Wizarding World.

He saved the life of a student and even eliminated the threat the basilisk posed to the school and what did he get in return? A magical bracelet that not only sealed his magic away, barring his access to it, but also slowly drained it away. Fudge, the pompous fool of a Minister of Magic, had gleefully informed him that the bracelet would not come off until he had become even less than a squib. Until he had become an ordinary muggle. Emerald green eyes darkened and a brittle smile appeared on his face as he realized the irony of the situation. It had always been his greatest wish to be a normal kid and now it was slowly but gradually being fulfilled. Snape, that smug bastard, had informed him that at the rate the bracelets were eating away at his magic, it will have completely disappeared in one year.

Harry moaned in pain as he fell down on the sidewalk, barely managing to throw his hands in front of him to soften the fall. The injuries on his back were bleeding profusely and his very loose T-Shirt, which had once belonged to Dudley, was soaked through at the back by the dark red liquid. His face was probably covered in cuts and very bruised as well. There were probably some glass shards embedded in his skin as well, seeing as his "dear" cousin had deemed it a good idea to try out his new toy on his glasses. He couldn't believe that Dudley would have the guts to use brass knuckles on him. Hell, he couldn't believe how someone could even sell those things to his cousin. Not to mention the crowbars his goons had used to beat him on the back.

Suddenly everything started fading and the blurry images only got blurrier. Harry vaguely noticed that it had started to rain. The wounds on his back were stinging from the cold water repeatedly hitting them. The last thing the young boy heard before the black veil of unconsciousness (or maybe even death, he mused) descended over his eyes, was the sound of someone getting closer, their shoes making a loud, clopping sound, much like the one a horse's hooves would make.

***Urahara***

Urahara Kisuke, humble shopkeeper in Karakura, could only wonder why he was walking outside on that particular night in that dreadful rain. He could have been inside his shop right now, enjoying a nice cup of tea. But something had made him go outside. Having long since learned not to ignore his instincts – and his instincts were screaming at him that something important would happen – he had followed up on them and wandered out onto the streets of Karakura, the light from the streetlamps and the cloudy sky giving the night an eerie feeling.

Kisuke stopped dead in his tracks as he turned around the corner, his dark grey eyes widening slightly. There, lying on the sidewalk, was a person. A young person, if the size was any indication. Going slowly towards the unmoving body of the young – boy? – the former shinigami saw two emerald green eyes closing. When he was less than a foot away from the young boy, he noticed that what he had originally thought to be a dark red T-Shirt was actually a white T-Shirt drenched in blood. Without even thinking about it, the blond-haired man scooped up the boy into his arms and used shunpo to quickly get to his shop. He would need Tessai's help to heal the boy and hopefully prevent him from dying. His instincts were telling him that this was the reason he had gone out tonight and he would be damned, if he let the boy die.

***Hedwig***

The female snowy owl beat her beautiful white wings angrily against the confines of the cage as she tried to open it with her beak. She really disliked her human's relatives, forcing him to keep her in this tight space all the time. But she knew that things were even worse for her human – his cousin was beating him, the bruises he often came home with proof enough of that. But her human had yet to show up tonight and the snowy owl was getting worried. She could sense through her bond with her human that he was hurt, very hurt. She had to get to her human now and help him. If not her, then who would?

Renewing her efforts, the snowy owl was rewarded with a soft click and the door of the cage slowly opening outwards. Without even losing a second, she darted out of her prison and out of her human's room through the open window. Using her bond with her human, she followed it all the way to a small, two-story high shop. She knew that her human was inside and so she flew to one of the windows on the first floor. There, inside, lying on his stomach on a futon, was her human. He appeared to be unconscious and heavily wounded, judging by the amount of blood on his back. Two men were sitting next to her human and both of them were holding their hands over her human's wounds. The hands were enveloped in a light green colour. Hedwig could only assume that they were healing her human.

Landing on the window sill outside, the snowy owl kept her sharp, amber eyes trained on the two unknown humans in the room. She would wait and observe until her human woke up.

One day later…

***Harry***

Harry groaned as he slowly woke up from what had seemed an endless sleep. His body was sore all over and even slightly twitching a finger made him wince. Getting to the conclusion that moving around would be a bad idea, Harry slowly opened his eyes and found himself staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. Frowning, the 12-year-old tried to move his head slightly to the left and, to his relief, discovered that he could at least look around the room where he was without feeling any pain. He appeared to be in a traditional Japanese room, with wooden walls, wooden floors and a fusuma or shoji, Harry couldn't tell which. He was also lying on a comfortable futon, for which he was really grateful – it helped ease the pain from his injuries a little.

"Ah, kyaku-dono is awake", a voice suddenly said. Startled, Harry quickly looked to the left and saw that he had somehow missed the man kneeling in the corner during his inspection of the room.

Even from his position on the floor, Harry could tell that the lightly-tanned man was muscular and probably very tall too. He had a black crowbar mustache attached to long sideburns and his hair was cornrowed. He also wore a pair of rectangular-shaped glasses, the light reflected by them in a way that hid his eyes from view.

"H-Hai. Ano…dokoda kowo? Dareda anta?", Harry replied, confusion clearly written all over his face. (Um…where am I? Who are you?)

"Tenshou! Kyaku-dono has awakened!", the unknown man called out. A few seconds later the sliding doors opened and into the room stepped one of the most strangely-dressed men Harry had ever seen.

He wore a dark green samue, with an even darker green, almost black haori with a white diamond pattern along the bottom half. He was holding a cane in his left hand. The man's hair was a light blond colour and messy, though not as messy as Harry's own, with strands hanging between his eyes and framing the sides of his face. There was some stubble on his chin. Beneath the rim of a white-and-green-striped bucket hat a pair of sharp, dark grey eyes looked at him. The man smiled broadly when he saw Harry's emerald green eyes on him.

"Konbanwa!", the blond-haired man happily greeted Harry, "Watashi no namae wa Urahara Kisuke", he continued whilst sitting down next to Harry. (My name is Urahara Kisuke)

"Konbanwa? It's night?", the 12-year-old asked, looking out the window to see if it was true. What he did not expect was to see his familiar sitting outside. "Hedwigu!", he exclaimed.

On reflex the young boy stood up to go and open the window to let the snowy owl inside. Immediately he sat back down on the futon, groaning in pain when the sudden movements jostled his undoubtedly broken ribs. The blond-haired man, seeing the owl outside, got up from his position next to the injured youth, opened the window and watched as the magnificent bird gracefully flew towards the black-haired boy and settled on his shoulder, gently nuzzling his bruised cheek. Raising a heavily bandaged right hand, Harry lovingly stroked Hedwig's white feathers, ignoring the pain the movement caused him. The green-eyed boy suddenly remembered the other two people in the room and sheepishly looked at the man the first one had called "Tenshou".

"Gomenasai, Urahara-san. Watashi no namae wa Potteru Harry", he apologized before introducing himself. (I'm sorry, Mr. Urahara. My name is Potter Harry)

"Don't move around too much, Potteru-san. Your wounds still haven't closed yet", the shopkeeper informed the 12-year-old, moving back to his seated position next to the boy, "If you move too much, you'll die", he finished, his dark grey eyes indicating he was serious about the statement. Harry frowned.

"I'd have rather died", came the boy's dour reply.

***Urahara***

Kisuke frowned. The boy would have rather died? And the defeated way in which he had said this…It was as if he had become tired of living. What had happened to the boy to make him think in such a way?

"Now, now, Potteru-san. You are too young to wish to die", Kisuke admonished the green-eyed youth.

His dark grey eyes watched as Potteru-san's left hand went to the right one to scratch at the bandage on his right wrist, just where the strange, silver bracelet was. Dark grey eyes narrowed in suspicion – he was certain that the many burns and scars on the young boy's wrist had been caused by that weird accessory, but he had been unable to remove it, much to his chagrin. Something was keeping it firmly in place.

"You don't know what you are talking about! Your magic isn't being slowly stripped away from you, is it!", the young boy shouted, his eyes flashing angrily. Just as suddenly as the anger had appeared it disappeared, replaced by fear. His injured right hand flew up to cover his mouth.

"Magic?", Kisuke wondered, his mind going a hundred miles an hour.

"Ano…I am not really supposed to tell you about this", the young boy nervously told them, "Then again, I was exiled from the Wizarding World, so I guess it doesn't really matter anymore", he murmured, a look of sadness on his young face.

Kisuke was shocked. Magic existed? There had always been theories in Soul Society about magic being real, but there had never been any proof. Now this boy claimed that he was part of an entire hidden world? Or rather, he had been part of it. Why had a child as young as him been exiled from there?

"Why were you exiled, Potteru-san?", Tessai inquired, having gotten nearer to the futon. It was a question Kisuke himself had been about to ask. The black-haired youth sighed, his emerald green eyes darkening.

"I saved a fellow student at my school and saved the school from a monster. The Minister of Magic deemed me a threat and used this bracelet to make sure that my magic is not only sealed, but drained away as well. It'll be gone for good by next summer", he dejectedly told them.

The former shinigami taichou inclined his head just enough for his eyes to be hidden by the brim of his bucket hat. The situation of the young man before him reminded him ever so slightly of the way he himself had been exiled from Soul Society. He had stopped Aizen Sousuke's experimentation on his fellow shingamis at that time, but had had to flee as a result.

"Potteru-san, how did you get all of these injuries?", Tessai continued with his questions, effectively bringing Kisuke's attention back to the present.

"My cousin has always loved beating me up. I thought moving from England to Japan would be an improvement for me, but somehow my cousin still managed to find himself a gang. What you see before you now is the result of their latest beating session. It was the worst one I have ever had. His parents, my aunt and uncle, actually encourage him. After all, I am just a freak", the 12-year-old explained, a mirthless smile on his face.

Kisuke was shocked by this revelation, to say the least. However, the shock was soon replaced by anger at Potteru-san's relatives. It appeared that the young boy was unwanted by his own blood-family. They even called him a freak and the cousin was allowed to beat him up as much as he wanted. Kisuke would be damned, if he just stood by and watched as this boy continued to be abused by his own relatives. Taking off his beloved bucket hat, Kisuke looked the black-haired boy directly in the eyes, a small smile on his face.

"Potteru-san…Iie. Harry-kun, how would you like to be adopted by me?", Kisuke proposed.

He could see out of the corner of his eye that Tessai was shocked by the shopkeeper's words. The blond-haired man carefully observed the young boy's reaction to his proposal and was delighted to see a glint of hope appear in the previously dull, emerald green eyes.

"Hontodesuka?", Harry inquired. (Really?)

"Hontoni", was Kisuke's reply. (Really.)

On that fateful night the life of Harry James Potter changed and so did the fate of both Soul Society and the Wizarding World.

HPxBleach******************************************

Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a review! I would really appreciate it. Reviews motivate us writers to write or help us improve. So please review!^_^