Trapped in Mirrors

Chapter Seven

'Well,' Harry thought distantly, mouth slightly open in shock, 'there goes my plan not to run into any more superhumans. On the bright side, she's probably not a psychopath… Hopefully, anyhow.'

Still, the sight in front of him was rather awe-inspiring. Who knew a little girl could cause so much damage?

And how, exactly, did Harry keep finding himself in these situations? Well, it started not long after Harry finally escaped the hellish nightmare that was the Hunter Exams….

…

"What do you mean, you can't tell me?" Harry growled irately, pressing his hands palm down onto the tabletop and forcefully keeping his smile in place.

"I'm sorry, sir, you can't provide the code for information access. Please return once you are able to," the infuriatingly collected woman sitting at the reception desk in front of him replied, a serene smile pasted on her lips.

"Wasn't this place the one that told me once I passed the Hunter Exam, I would be able to request any information I needed to know from here?" Harry asked, exasperated and frustrated beyond belief.

"Indeed," the woman answered, tilting her head to reinforce her confirmation.

"And I did! I even have my license to prove it—which I've already shown you," Harry pressed.

"I'm sorry, you are ineligible to request for information at this time," the woman repeated, still with that annoyingly bland smile pasted on her face.

Harry raked a hand through his hair, frustration and annoyance bubbling up inside of him. One of the main reasons he had gone to take the Hunter Exam in the first place was because of this building right here. Everyone he had talked to during his mad (and still ongoing) hunt for any information at all swore up and down that the information from here was infallible, and that if he wanted knowledge on whatever obscure thing this 'Veil' was, this was the place to go.

And so Harry had. But he had been denied access every time out of the many, many times he had visited, until the receptionist had gotten fed up with him to the point that she told him to go take the Hunter Exam. If he passed, she had said, then he would get access to any information he wanted—as long as he could pay for it, of course.

So Harry had gone gallivanting off to the terrible… thing… known as the Hunter Exam, and what did he get for his trouble? Absolutely nothing.

Which didn't make sense. He doubted the receptionist from back then had lied to him, and he had taken the Hunter Exam; he even had his license! So why…?

Suddenly, Harry connected the dots in a fit of Hermione-esque brilliance. Really, he swore that there had to have been a little Hermione Granger in his head raging at him until he finally understood just now.

"Could it be… that I haven't passed the Hunter Exam yet…?" Harry asked slowly, desperately wishing the answer was 'no', despite his instincts telling him that it was a futile desire.

"That is a possibility," the woman said in response, voice as monotone as ever. Still, Harry caught the minute widening of the grin, and fought the urge to just scream like a maniac right there on the spot. Or collapse into a sobbing pile of goo, really. Either one would be fine.

"Thank you, I guess," Harry sighed, bringing up a hand to rub at his temple and turning away to walk out of the room.

As he walked down the rather nice streets (he'd heard that the Hunter-run information center in this region brought a thriving trade, though the environment was rather life-threatening with the amount of skilled fighters from out-of-town running around. He'd also heard that every actual resident in this town could easily defend themselves, though he'd never had to test out that rumor…), he mulled over the knowledge he'd just acquired.

How was it possible that he hadn't passed the Hunter Exam? Had he not struggled with all of his might just to become a Hunter? And was it just him, or had the other examinees who had 'become' Hunters also not passed?

'No, no,' he thought to himself. There was simply no way that people like Hisoka and Illumi hadn't passed. So was he the exception then? Had he somehow failed the Exam and they just gave him a badge on accident? He rather doubted that, though. From the little he knew about Hunters, they didn't make mistakes like this. Especially not Hunters on such a high level that they were trusted to proctor an exam.

Alright, so it couldn't be that everybody had failed and it couldn't be that just he had failed. So… what did that leave left?

Absolutely nothing, that's what.

"Now would be the perfect time for another fit of sudden brilliance," he muttered to himself. "Come on, Inner-Hermione, I believe in you." What else could it be? He felt like the answer was staring him right in the face. Could… could it be…

"Oof!" Harry slammed face first into a muscular giant of a man (or at least a half-giant of a man—he was about Hagrid's size, give or take a little). Rubbing at his poor, abused nose, Harry looked up and met the furious glare of the man-who-tried-to-be-a-wall.

(Hm. Maybe he was picking up a tendency to hyphenate names and titles from the Daily Prophet. He certainly had enough experience with that particular inclination of theirs…)

"Whaddya want?" the man growled, stepping even closer to Harry in a fairly pathetic attempt at being intimidating. Really, he'd seen much, much worse in his Hogwarts years alone—although he did have the added experience of fighting Voldemort, so maybe that wasn't quite fair.

"Sorry, my bad. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going," Harry casually apologized. It was better to be polite than to create trouble where it wasn't necessary.

"It was your bad. I think I should get some compensation—or someone's going to get hurt," was the far from forgiving reply.

Harry blinked once, then twice, rather bemused with the entire situation. Was he really getting threatened and extorted just for bumping into someone in the street? He had thought that this only happened in bad Muggle gang movies. This was supposed to be a fairly nice town too!

"I'm sorry, I don't have any money," Harry lied smoothly.

The gigantic man stared at him for a few seconds before turning around to call into a small alley beside them that Harry hadn't even noticed. "Hey! Get over here!"

In seconds, another two men had swarmed out and surrounded Harry. While not quite as big as the first man, they were both still significantly larger than Harry—not that that was particularly difficult, as he was freaking child-sized right now.

"I'll say it one more time, kid—give us your money right now or you're gonna wish you had," the first man growled, cracking his knuckles.

Harry quickly evaluated his options, coming to a decision rather quickly. He looked up at them, widening his eyes and hunching his shoulders in an imitation of terror. "O-of course!" As he opened his enchanted pouch, pretending to riffle around in it looking for money, he simultaneously smoothly slid the Elder Wand out of his sleeve, gripping it tightly in his hand. In one smooth move, he turned and fired off three consecutive Stunners—one for each thug.

Thankfully, these muscle-bound brutes weren't on the superhuman brats' levels, let alone the superhuman psychos' (namely Hisoka and Illumi, of course). They went down instantly. Harry sighed, clucking his tongue, unable to resist adding one last sarcastic comment addressed to their unconscious bodies. "If you're going to try and mug me, at least make it less cliché next time." (So what if they couldn't hear him? It was the message that counted.)

Harry delicately stepped around them, glancing into the alleyway as he continued walking. After a second or two, he came to a stop in the middle of the street. Did he really just see that?

He rapidly backtracked to stare more carefully into the alley. Yes, there really were another two thugs trying to rob a little girl. There were actually no lower lows than that. Seriously, it was a little girl. Also, why were there so many hulking brutes in this area? It was supposed to be a somewhat safe town, for Merlin's sake.

Again, Harry pulled out his wand to shoot off another two Stunners. As expected, both men collapsed, but… Harry frowned at the limp body on the left. The man had definitely collapsed before Harry's Stunner had even connected. What in the world….?

Suddenly, chills ran up his spine as he sensed the faint wisps of an intense aura. His eyes instantly snapped to the small figure in the back of the alleyway.

Wary, Harry stepped forward, unable to resist his concern for the girl, despite the unease he felt. (Yes, he already knew he had a hero complex. It was already official. Stop bothering him about it.)

As he grew closer, he was able to better observe the girl. She had long, curly blonde pigtails, was wearing a poofy pink dress, and looked all-around innocent and little-girl-like. So why were all his nerves standing on edge? "Are you okay?" he asked hesitantly, bending down to get closer to her level and hopefully make her feel more comfortable.

A few terse seconds passed before, abruptly, any tension in the air melted away like it had never even existed. The little girl lifted her head, large pink eyes teary as she stared beseechingly at him. "W-who are you?"

Harry took a step back. Rather than making him less wary, the sudden disappearance of the danger he had just felt only served to make him feel even more on edge. "A-ah… you seem to be alright now, so I'll be going okay? Be more careful from now on," he blurted out, turning on his heel and getting ready to escape (even if he did feel pathetic from running away from a little girl. Hey, he had sort of learned his lesson after Killua and Gon).

Unfortunately, he didn't get very far before he fell flat on his face—or rather, was pushed. The little girl had pretty much tackled him to the ground. Groaning, he rolled over, looking straight into the girl's tear-smudged face.

"P-please… Help me find my parents!" the girl hiccupped, rubbing at her puffy eyes.

Despite Harry's best judgment and survival instincts, his heart melted. "Of course!" he hastily agreed. Among the things he most definitely was not qualified to deal with was crying children. Lame, he knew, but he had long since accepted the fact that he had a bleeding heart.

"Really?" the girl asked, perking up instantly.

"Yes….?" Harry replied, getting a somewhat ominous feeling. That recovery time was way too quick for his peace of mind.

"Yay! Thanks so much! By the way, what's your name?" the little girl chattered, picking herself easily up off the ground and dusting off her dress. "I'm Biscuit, but you can call me Bisky!"

"I'm Harry," Harry replied instinctively, too dumbstruck by this whole situation to even think of making up a lie. Seriously, these things really only happened in novels or Muggle movies. Why was this his life again?

"Okay, Harry-nii then! Get up, get up, let's go look!"

Harry found himself yanked to his feet and promptly tugged out of the alley, the little girl at his side chattering a hundred kilometers per hour the whole time.

"So… where'd you last see your parents?" Harry cut in while she was taking a breath in between her long-winded talking. He really did have things to be doing as well (like mentally agonizing over how and why he hadn't passed the Hunter Exam), and the sooner he got away from this strange little girl, the happier he'd be.

"Oh, they're just over there," Bisky dismissed. "Anyway, Harry-nii, you were so cool back there! How'd you do that, anyway? Those two big, scary men were knocked out, just like that!"

"Ah… I just… threw something at them, and must have gotten a lucky shot in." Again, it wasn't a lie. He'd "thrown" some spells at them, and they'd "luckily" connected. Or… at least one of them had. Harry frowned. Logically speaking, it must have been Bisky who'd knocked out the other one, which did explain the sense of danger Harry had felt… So yeah, he really should get away from her. Why did he have to be so weak when it came to crying children? He should really work on that, especially as apparently in this world, all children were inhumanly strong.

"Harry-nii? Are you listening?" the girl demanded, tugging on his arm bossily.

"Sorry, I was thinking about something," Harry replied, smiling while simultaneously tugging gently on the hand Bisky was grasping. Said hand was promptly squeezed in an iron vice grip.

"You should pay more attention, Harry-nii!" Bisky admonished, looking up at him. This time, Harry saw the sharp look in her eye. Glancing around him, he suddenly noticed that they were at the outskirts of the town, right next to the start of the woods.

'Ah… I was really stupid this time, wasn't I,' Harry thought regretfully. He should be alright though—all he needed was one second of inattention (or for her to let go of his goddamn hand) and he could just Apparate away scot-free. No problem.

"Harry-nii." The girl's voice suddenly grew serious as she turned to face him. The whole time, she never once loosened her grip on his hand. It was starting to feel rather numb and tingly at the fingertips actually…

"Yes?" Harry responded, quirking his lips in a rather horrible imitation of a smile, if he did say so himself.

"So, what exactly did you do back there?" Bisky asked.

"Like I said, I threw something—"

"Don't lie," she said, eyes gleaming dangerously bright. "I have very good eyesight, Harry-nii."

"Ah," he murmured noncommittally, taking a discreet step backwards. Naturally, Bisky just followed him.

"Come on, Harry-nii! Just tell me. Please?" she asked again, tilting her head cutely to one side. "I won't tell anyone else, promise!"

"Sorry, but—" Harry began, only to be rudely interrupted—this time, however, not by the surprisingly persistent little girl.

"Hey! How dare you attack us, you little brat!" an enraged shout came from behind him as all five of men who tried to attack him and Bisky entered into the clearing. Harry jumped, twisting around as best he could with a little girl attached like a limpet to one hand.

Harry blinked, extremely surprised. They should definitely have been out for another half hour or so. He didn't want to brag, but he was considered one of the most powerful wizards in his generation. Even though he hadn't exactly bothered to put that much magic into each Stunner, there was still no way any of them should've been up and walking so soon. Plus, the great thing about Stunners? Unless someone (namely a wizard, of which Harry was almost certainly the only one in this world) used Rennervate on them, someone Stunned wouldn't be able to be awoken by an outsider either.

If just one of them had woken up, he could have just dismissed it as a fluke, but all of them (or at least four of them)? No way. In fact, most of the magic he had cast on people in this world tended to wear off quicker than he was used to. The pattern didn't hold for spells he cast on himself or inanimate objects, but it was definitely unusual…

"You! Are you listening to me?!" the first man who had harassed Harry yelled, coming up into his personal space, grabbing the front of his shirt, and lifting him slightly off the ground in a (stereotypical) move of intimidation.

"Yeah… but it's… kind of hard… to talk… like… this…" Harry wheezed out, trying to discreetly reach for his wand—only to be stopped short, as his right hand was still caught in the bear-trap that was this little girl's hand.

"Don't get all cocky with me," the huge man growled, shaking Harry roughly. "You think you know what sort of power I have? Trash like you could never understand just how much greater than you I am!"

"Ugh," Harry choked out, wincing. Oh, his neck was going to hurt for days after this. "Bisky… let go… of my hand…"

"Hey, little girl!" another one of the goons called out, pushing past both Harry and the huge man seemingly attempting to strangle him. "We never finished our business earlier either."

"Let go… and… get out…" Harry repeated more vehemently—or as vehemently as he could without actually dying of asphyxiation.

There was no response from Bisky. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the small figure of the girl remain ominously still, head bowed down. A rather terrifying aura was beginning to emit from her, and that strange energy that all people in this world apparently had began to intensify around her until it was practically tangible.

"Bisky?" he choked out, actually getting a little bit freaked out as his vision started to blur and little black spots began to appear. He was about to finally give up on hiding his magic at all and just blast the brutes away, when his hand was abruptly left Bisky-less. A loud thud was his only reply.

"Hey!" the man who was currently hoisting him off the ground yelled, dropping him unceremoniously onto the ground.

"Ow," he wheezed out, rubbing his neck and blinking rapidly in the hope that his vision would return faster. Around him, a cacophony of thumps, enraged shouts, and pained groans echoed.

Finally, the spots in his vision began to clear away. Harry looked up… and stared.

Which brought him back to the present. Four of the muscular men were lying on the grounds in miniature craters, a few broken tree trunks littered around them, and the fifth was currently being beaten into submission, all by a little blonde slip of a girl. Who was, as he had suspected, superhuman, just like all of the other brats he had gotten to know in this world. Why did this happen to him?

"Ah," he blinked, hastily scrambling to his feet. Obviously this girl could take care of herself, so… He was just going to leave now. With a little twinge of guilt for leaving Bisky by herself—but not really because she was, evidently, yet another impossibly strong brat and he really didn't need his life getting any more complicated than it already was—Harry Apparated away.

…

To be honest, Harry never really expected to be able to run away from Bisky for too long. After all, the girl was just too innocent looking, which of course meant that she had to secretly be a terrifying monster, and in the short time Harry had known her, she had already displayed an extremely irritating conviction to never leave him the hell alone.

Because, somehow, this was his life. Why.

(He still dared to hope that maybe she was just like a Netero-monster—probably inhumanly strong, but willing to hide it to make Harry not feel like his life was in constant danger, even though it was—and not like an Illumi-monster, who had appeared almost harmless as Gitturackur before turning into a murderous demon that would obliterate Harry with a smile on his face. Oh wait, Illumi didn't smile… Still, the rest of that definitely applied.)

Anyway, as he had been saying, Harry had expected Bisky to catch up with him sooner or later. He had just hoped it would be later and not sooner. But, of course, Harry's wishes never got fulfilled, which was why he was currently staring warily into Bisky's eyes.

"How did you even find me? Actually, how did you find me so quickly?" Harry asked despairingly. He had Apparated to his hotel, which was probably two towns over from the town the information center was. He had learned not to live too close to wherever his actual destination of interest was, just in case it all went down in flames. After all, it wasn't like this world had any sort of anti-Apparation wards, so he could just Apparate everywhere whenever things started going downhill. It was pretty convenient, actually.

Of course, when things actually got messy, the person he had been trying to run away from managed to catch up to him in less than two hours. What was the point of Harry even trying to come up with contingency plans anyway? They never worked, as this incident proved.

He really missed Ron. Ron could actually strategize. Unlike Harry, obviously.

"Mm, I have my ways, Harry," Bisky replied, smiling sweetly up at him from where she was perched on his bed.

So Harry wasn't "Harry-nii" anymore… Whatever the heck "Harry-nii" had meant anyway. It had sounded vaguely affectionate so Harry assumed that the change in address meant that things were actually getting serious now.

Nervously wetting his lips, Harry smiled back. "That's nice," he murmured. "Well. This was a great conversation. I kind of have some places to be so… Bye? I'll see you around!" As he was talking, he had been slowly edging backwards towards the front door.

The second he was finished talking, he pivoted on his heel with every intention of dashing out of the door before Apparating away behind the cover of a closed door. Not that he couldn't just Apparate away now, of course, but… he didn't want to show any more of his magic to this annoyingly persistent little girl. (The first time he'd Apparated away had been okay, because she had seemed fairly busy bashing a man-five-times-her-size's brains out against a tree, but unfortunately there were no thugs around this time to distract her.) Look at what happened the first time he used a Stunner in front of her—he gained a tiny stalker.

Unfortunately, the little girl's hand closed around his before he even got the door open all the way.

"Don't run away, Harry," Bisky cooed, her eyes gleaming with the light of an unholy demon in the guise of a child.

Harry briefly contemplated just Stunning the girl and getting the hell out of dodge as quickly as possible, but somehow he didn't think it was an option at this point. Bisky had proven herself to be at least on the level of Gon and his merry band of inhuman children and, based solely on the aura he had felt from her very briefly, probably actually closer to Hisoka and Illumi's level of death and destruction (with Harry's life being the unfortunate victim), which basically meant that the chances of his spells actually connecting were dishearteningly low.

"Alright," he sighed in resignation, slumping down to sit on his bed. He could just use half-answers the whole time and hopefully this girl would just take it and get out, even if he somehow doubted his life could be that easy. Regardless, he didn't have the energy to try and force Bisky out (plus the fact that she looked like a little girl and he didn't think he could actually fight her without being overcome with self-loathing) so his only option was to try and solve this somewhat diplomatically. "If I answer your questions, will you please leave?"

"Sure!" Bisky chirped in the tone of voice that clearly implied that she was going to haunt Harry forever whether he answered her questions or not. "So, first of all… What exactly did you do to knock all of those bandits out, Harry? And how did you get this far away from the clearing so quickly?"

Harry eyed the little girl for a second, wondering how exactly he should answer that. At this point, it was probably too late to deny the existence of his magic altogether. Sighing once more, Harry got ready to do his best to explain what a Stunner was hopefully without actually giving away all of his magic abilities.

"Well, you see, there's a certain ability that I was born with… It allows me to do things that can seem almost impossible for humans, if you don't understand what it is. I know this is difficult to understand, but you have to accept that these unusual abilities are real before I can explain any—"

"I already know what Nen is," Bisky cut in impatiently. "What I want to know is why your Nen aura feels so strange?"

Harry stared at the little girl uncomprehendingly and with great confusion. "…what's Nen?"

"Don't play dumb with me!" Bisky snarled, slapping the desk she stood next to. The wooden top dented instantly, a web of cracks spreading out from the perfect imprint of Bisky's hand. Harry stared at it in horror.

"Do I have to pay for that?" he murmured, tilting his head to one side. 'Oh wait, I can just magic it better later,' he remembered, nodding to himself. 'My mind had a tendency to wander to the most trivial topics whenever I get in tight situations,' Harry reflected. 'That probably isn't a good thing… I should do something about that.'

Bisky fairly growled at him, clearly sensing his inattention, her pink eyes glowing and that strange energy gathering around her once again.

"Wait, wait!" Harry hastily interjected, holding his hands in front of him in a calming gesture. "I'm serious. I have no idea what this 'Nen' is."

"That's impossible," Bisky dismissed. "There's no way you could do what you did unless you were using Nen. But your aura doesn't have any of the properties I've ever felt before, and I'm very experienced with Nen…"

"I swear I have no idea what you're talking about. You said my aura felt weird, right? That's because it's not Nen," Harry insisted.

"Oh yeah? What is it then?" Bisky asked, crossing her arms in front of her in the perfect image of childish petulance.

"Um…" Harry stalled, realizing that he had just backed himself into a corner. "It's magic?" At Bisky's incredulous stare, he quickly added, "Just let me explain! I'm telling the truth!"

Bisky raised one eyebrow at him, foot tapping impatiently against the wood floor of the room.

"Well… I came from someplace very far away, you see. There, certain people are born with an inherent ability called magic. There's an entire community made up of these people. They have a school and everything, and at the age of eleven, magical children are sent there to learn spells and the like. A few months ago, I got transported here somehow. I just… I just want to get back home," Harry finished, throat feeling embarrassingly tight just from giving that brief (and purposefully vague) description of the Wizarding World. He missed it so much… Harry looked away, blinking back the uncomfortable warmth in his eyes.

When he looked back up, Bisky was still watching him, this time with a thoughtful glint in her eyes. Uncrossing her arms, she leaned forward to stare into Harry's eyes. Harry resisted the urge to look away, maintaining eye contact in a clear gesture of honesty.

Finally, Bisky settled back on her heels, golden curls bouncing as she mumbled to herself. Harry waited for a few seconds, before slowly edging to the door once more. He had one hand on the doorknob when Bisky looked back up. Hastily, Harry shoved his hand into the pocket and pasted his best innocent expression on. He didn't exactly want his hand to be caught in the bear trap that was Bisky's grip, so he figured it would be best to pretend like he hadn't been running away. Because he hadn't. He had just been… strategically retreating. Hopefully for forever.

"Show me," Bisky demanded, eyes shining with interest.

"What?" Harry said blankly, thrown by the sudden change in attitude.

"I said, show me this magic of yours!" the little girl repeated impatiently.

"I don't want to," was Harry's instinctive response. He hadn't tried so hard to keep his magic a secret for so long just to give it up now! Just because he had told her that he was magic didn't mean that he had to demonstrate it. Telling someone that magic existed was very different from revealing all the cards he held in terms of abilities.

Bisky's eyes widened for a moment before she smiled cheerfully, an ominous aura growing behind her. "Harry-nii… You'll show me, right? Or else, I might just lose my temper and accidentally break something, ne? Like your face."

Harry flattened himself against the door, watching the tiny figure in front of him warily. "You know, if you're going to act like an innocent little girl, you should really try harder to stay in character," he remarked drily. When he didn't flinch at Bisky's deceivingly dainty raised fists, she switched tactics and let tears well up in her eyes. She reached out and tugged beseechingly at Harry's shirt, murmuring, "Please, Harry-nii? I just want to see a little bit…"

Despite the fact that he knew it was a trap, Harry couldn't help but concede. He hastily agreed, "Fine, fine! I'll show you a little… what exactly do you want to see?" Alright, so maybe he was going to fold sooner than he thought he was… It was fine, right? He didn't have to show her everything, he would just show her a little.

(So he was easily swayed by little children. Sue him.)

"Something that can't be done with Nen."

"I don't even know what this Nen is! How am I supposed to know if it can be done or not?" Harry asked exasperatedly, rolling his eyes. "Look, here. This is magic." Wordlessly and wandlessly, Harry cast a Reparo at the poor desk previously mutilated by Bisky. The wood unbent itself, the splinters lying around the room gathered themselves up and flew back into place, and the cracks sealed up without so much as a trace. In seconds, the desk was fully restored to its original state of being.

Bisky stared disbelievingly, before an excited expression spread over her face and she leaped forward, running her hands over the flawless wood. "Wow," she breathed out, looking for all the world like a young child in Diagon Alley around Christmas. However, a second later she composed herself and looked back up at Harry with narrowed eyes. "While rare, that can still be done with Nen. Do something else," she ordered.

Harry's eye twitched at the bossy request. "What am I, your slave?" he muttered under his breath. When Bisky smirked before letting her face fall into a despondent expression, however, he quickly cast a spell à la Professor McGonagall and transformed the recently reconstructed desk into an honest-to-god pony.

Harry couldn't resist the smugness that rose up within him at the shocked expression on Bisky's face as she jumped away from the animal. She hesitantly reached forward, poking it in the stomach. The pony snorted, tossing its head and stomping its hooves. Harry winced at the loud banging noise, and quickly transfigured the pony back into a desk.

Bisky remained still for a moment, just looking at the spot where the repaired-desk-turned-pony-turned-desk innocently stood, as if it hadn't just gone through a bewildering (to a person unfamiliar with magic, anyhow) series of transformations that defied the laws of physics. Finally, she turned back towards Harry, walked forward, grabbed his hand, and yanked him into a seat, before plopping unceremoniously into a chair of her own.

"Okay," she said. "I believe you. Now explain more."

"No," Harry refused without a second of hesitation. "I already told you enough. I'm bound by law not to reveal any more secrets of my country." This was, again, technically true. The International Statue of Wizarding Secrecy did stop any wizard or witch from revealing the existence of magic to any non-magical being without express permission from the government, but then again it wasn't like anyone could enforce said law across worlds. If Harry wanted to, he could broadcast the existence of magic to the entire world. Harry had no intention of doing so, however—or at least not without any gain for him as well. For once, he actually had a plan that could hopefully aid him on his mission to return home.

"I could, however, be persuaded…" Harry added slyly, employing his inherent Slytherin traits. "How about this. I'll answer one question you have about magic for every one question you answer that I have about this place."

After a second of thinking, Bisky nodded her head decisively. "Fine. I'm warning you though, I'll know if you're lying. I'll start," she declared. "What can't you do with this 'magic' of yours? What are its limitations?"

"Wow, going for the throat at the very beginning," Harry murmured warily. It was entirely possible that Harry would end up regretting sharing any of this information later. Still, he had made a promise… "A lot, undoubtedly. First and most importantly, magic cannot truly bring back the dead. It also can't make food out of nothing. Conjured objects will be weaker than any real life counterparts. Obviously, the level of magic anyone can cast depends on the skill and power level of the wizard or witch in question. Without a wand, your magical core is drained a lot quicker, and that can lead to death or permanent harm. I think that's all I can think of off the top of my head… Oh—one more thing. Even with magic, true immortality is impossible."

"That's it?" Bisky questioned, eyebrows raising incredulously. "There are no other limitations to magic? Except for those six things, magic can do anything?"

"If the witch or wizard is strong enough, probably… Keep in mind that I don't actually remember everything. I'm only… seventeen… after all," Harry defended himself, wincing at his own use of a younger age. It still stung. "Anyway, it's my turn now. Seriously, what in the world is Nen?"

"You honestly don't know? Ugh, that's such an annoying question to answer then," Bisky sighed. "Simply put, Nen is the energy produced by all humans. With the right knowledge and skill, it can be harnessed and used to enhance your body or create almost supernatural abilities through the use of your mind alone. Users of Nen can be categorized as Specialists, Manipulators, Transmuters, Conjurers, Enhancers, and Transmitters. I could go on, but that's really the basics. It would take forever for me to get through everything, but if you still want to know later, I'll explain some more for you in more depth for no cost to you, as long as we can reach an agreement here. Anyway, the general public doesn't have any idea that Nen exists, so you have to keep it quiet, okay?"

"Only if you promise to keep the existence of magic a secret," Harry replied, shrugging his shoulders. "Your turn."

Bisky pursed her lips in thought, kicking her feet back and forth. "Earlier, you said that there was no 'true' way to bring back the dead or become immortal. Does that mean that there is a way that's not considered true?"

Harry hesitated, before nodding his head in an affirmative. "There is," he said softly, voice cracking slightly. "But those who try to become immortal pay a terrible price, and the dead do not like to be disturbed. Even if one's spirit were to be "revived", his or her spirit would never truly be in the living world. They would only be a shade of who they were in life." Harry was quiet for a moment, lost in the memories of the war and the Final Battle, before shaking himself out of his thoughts. "Still, it is possible for short periods of time, yes."

"So. Would you happen to know why I haven't passed the Hunter exam yet?" Harry asked, going out on a limb and assuming that Bisky, strangely knowledgeable (and also terrifying) for a child her age, would know something.

"Because you aren't strong enough?" Bisky offered, eyeing him strangely. "It's not my fault if you can't get through all the Phases. I don't know how to help you with that."

"That's not what I meant," Harry dismissed, feeling a slight twinge of irritation at the implication that he couldn't have passed the Hunter Exam (because he did pass through his own hard work, thank you very much). "I took the Hunter Exam a few weeks ago and was told that I passed. I got a license and everything! But I still can't get access to this information center that requires you to be a Hunter before you can enter."

"Oh!" Bisky exclaimed in realization. "Oh, that's easy. You have to learn Nen in order to become a full-fledged Hunter. I almost forgot about that secret exam… It's been so long since I took it."

"So long?" Harry asked, raising one eyebrow. "You can't be more than twelve. How long ago could it have been? Unless you're secretly an old lady," he joked. Then he shook his head, bringing his wayward thoughts back on track. "Wait, that's not even important. How the hell am I supposed to learn Nen? Is it even possible to learn Nen and magic? Are you seriously telling me I suffered through that hellish torture for nothing?" he seethed, more to himself than to Bisky, in all honesty. When he looked over at Bisky to see if she could offer any answers, however, he froze in fear.

A saccharinely sweet smile was pasted on Bisky's face. Hopping off of her chair, she casually skipped to Harry, reached over, and pinched Harry's hand with impossible strength.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow," Harry instantly buckled, dropping off of his chair and to the floor with tears involuntarily rising to his eyes. "Stop!"

After another agonizing few seconds, Bisky released him and sat primly down in her chair as if she hadn't almost just torn the skin on Harry's hand off.

"What in the name of Merlin was that for?" Harry gasped, standing up and cradling his poor, abused hand to his chest. The skin was bright red, and the small crescent indents made by Bisky's seemingly-normal-but-actually-demonically-sharp nails clearly stood out.

"Don't call me old! I'm clearly a young and beautiful maiden," Bisky sniffed, crossing her arms haughtily and sticking her nose in the air.

Harry stared at her. "You have got to be kidding me. That was just for calling you an old—"

Before Harry could even finish his sentence, Bisky kicked him in the shins, sending Harry crashing to the floor once more. "Ow…" he groaned. "I was joking…"

"Anyway, moving on!" Bisky cheerfully chirped. "I can actually help you with that!"

"With what, the destruction of my hand?" Harry griped, shuffling away from her with a wary expression on his face.

"No, silly," Bisky huffed, rolling her eyes as if Harry were the ridiculous one in this charade of an amiable conversation. "I'm talking about your little Nen issue."

Harry's eyes sharpened with interest as he finally dropped his throbbing hand and sat back down as well. "Keep talking."

"I'll help you awaken your Nen abilities if you'll just do one itty-bitty thing for me!" Bisky said, clasping her hands together and looking up at Harry with sparkling eyes.

"What," Harry replied flatly, green eyes peering suspiciously over the top of his glasses (which he had started wearing again once the eye-correction potion had worn off). "Is it illegal? If it's illegal, I'm not doing it."

Bisky considered the question for a moment. "It's shouldn't be really illegal… And if it is, it's just a little, tiny bit illegal, I promise!"

Harry eyed her disbelievingly. "That's the worst attempt to convince someone to do something I've ever heard in my entire life. Also, you're going to have to go into a little more detail than that before I agree to do anything."

"Well… You see… I love pretty things and there's this jewel I've had my eye on…" Bisky trailed off meaningfully.

"…You want me to steal it for you?" Harry deadpanned. "How is that not illegal? That's against the law in every possible way."

"I don't want you to steal it!" Bisky pouted, crossing her arms. "If I really wanted to, I could steal it myself, thank you very much. But I actually like the woman who owns it right now and she's surrounded by powerful bodyguards so it would actually be annoying. She refuses to sell it either, so I can't just buy it off of her. It's not like I don't have money either!"

"So what do you want me to do then?" Harry questioned exasperatedly. The way he saw it, if the woman really didn't want to give it away that much, then Bisky should just leave her alone. It was just a stone.

"See, this jewel, along with a massive sum of money, is actually put up as the prize for anyone who can fulfill a task for the owner. This task seems impossible for most people, so it's advertised as a task for Hunters. If you help me with it, you'll probably even be able to meet with useful people who have information for you on how you could get home!" Bisky cajoled.

"Stop dancing around the subject and get to the point. Exactly what does she want?"

"Well…" Bisky twiddled her thumbs, clearly somewhat uncomfortable with the subject. "She wants someone to get in contact with the dead for her."

A/N: First of all, as always, thank you for reading! I can't express how grateful I am for all of your constant support.

I know it's been an exceedingly long time since I've updated. In truth, this chapter was just really difficult to get out despite the fact that I basically have the entire plot of TiM worked out. A large portion of it is that I've recently come to understand some of my failings in shaping Harry and TiM itself, mostly in that my characterization is kind of all over the place sometimes. Now that it's been rightfully pointed out to me in reviews, it really bothers me. A beta would probably help me out a lot, but unfortunately I don't really have one… although telysiv has helped me out a lot IRL so she kind of counts? Regardless, however, I have no intentions of abandoning this story, so don't worry. I'll figure something out, but on that note, I would like your advice on how to proceed considering you, the readers, are the ones who enjoy reading this story.

Sooner or later, I'm going to end up going back and doing a rewrite of this story to fix all of the issues. What I would like to know is this: would you rather me finish up TiM completely first or go ahead and do the rewrite and continue from there? If I were to go back and re-edit it, would you like me to upload it as a separate story or just replace chapters? I would, of course, love to finish the original TiM first, but there's a long way to go before I reach my ending and I'm somewhat afraid that my pre-existing problems will come back to haunt me.

Again, regardless, this story is not abandoned. It may take longer now to update because I'm becoming busier and I'm actually getting into important plot points, but I'll never abandon TiM. Also, just because I'm shameless, I'll promote my other story I just started right now~ It's called "From the Frying Pan (Into the Fire)," which is a KHR x Kuroshitsuji fanfiction.

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed it.