LW: Chapter 4 and the last of the pre-2017 chapters so it may take a bit longer for future chapters to show up.

Harry Potter Shinigami – Plot and Christmas

Harry was actually surprised by how well Hermione took his confession in her stride, though the rapid-fire questions were predictably Hermione. Once Harry was unable to answer them himself he took to a higher power of knowledge; bringing Hermione to the boys dorm the next day and removing a rectangular mirror about the size of a large picture frame, propping it up on chair, placed his hand on it and cast 'Mirāshādo tamashī no kensaku {Mirror shard, Soul search} Anthony Granz'. At this point the image began to flicker and blur before clearing to a boy with pink hair apart from 2 white bangs just over his eyes, in a white outfit sitting cross legged with a sword on his lap.

'Hey bro wake up!'

Harry yelled, the pinkette opened his eyes slowly, as though leaving a trance, then was by the mirror in the flash upon realising who was calling 'Harry, how've you been? Mum was worried sick about you all day yesterday. You did something stupid didn't you?'

He said/asked/accused his amber eyes focused on Harry.

'Define stupid' Harry said nervously 'I saved Hermione from a troll, does that count?'

'Yes' Anthony said tiredly.

'Well now she's asking a whole load of question I can't answer so it's now your job'

Harry announced before moving out of sight, drawing the arrancar's attention to the bookworm. Despite his initial reluctance he complied and was quite helpful to Hermione, even releasing his Akuma rōtasu to show her (though Harry was sure it was Akuma and Serebii wanting to show off rather than it being his idea). After that Hermione got used to having a sword wielding grim reaper for a best friend, not that she treated him any differently than she had before.

Soon November bleed into December and as the holidays approached Harry realised he still hadn't checked out the third floor, mostly just due to lack of effort on his own part and vowed to do it before he left. As luck would have it he had some spare time after dispatching a Hollow; the bird like creature, though fast was relatively newly formed and as such easy to beat. It was already past curfew so Harry saw nothing wrong with being later than he already was, especially as no one could see him as a shinigami. Quietly making his way to the third floor he opened the door with an alohomora; right now glad his wand was usable in his soul form. Pulling the door open he immediately shut it again at the sight of a Cerberus; one of the few living creatures able to harm Hollows and Shinigami (well they are supposed to be guardians of the underworld, they can't guard what they can't even interact with now can they?). Relocking the door he went to bed, mind running through ways to get around the creature.

That thought process led himself and Hermione to Hagrid the grounds keeper, a man known by the entire school for his love of dangerous creatures

'So Hagrid...' Harry asked the large man '...how would you get past a Cerberus?'

Hagrid immediately froze 'How do you know about Fluffy?'

'Fluffy?' Hermione yelped while Harry chuckled

'Yep, he's mine. Leant him to Dumbledore to guard the...' he stopped

'Yes?' Harry asked while making the 'go on' gesture with his hand

'That's classified, the only people who need to know are Albus Dumbledore and Nicholas Flamel' Hagrid said seriously then stopped with an expression that said 'Oh F***' 'Nicholas Flamel?' Hermione repeated looking interested 'I shouldn't a told you that' Hagrid said panicked.

The duo scoured the library looking for information of Nicolas Flamel, currently finding nothing and as neither was staying at Hogwarts both agreed to pick up the search in the New Year, Hermione getting Harry to ask his parents while he was away too. The trip home had little problems, apart from Dumbledore trying to keep Harry in the castle 'for his safety' until Harry pointed out that he was well trained and had also promised his parents he would be on the train; he was sure Yamamoto had told Dumbledore who they were and that they were not to be messed with, but he wasn't sure if that would stop the old man from trying something anyway. Harry spent the trip with Hermione and also Neville who he was beginning to see has another friend and time passed quickly. Upon arrival at the station Harry was able to find Sakura and Szayel easily, both from their spiritual signature and how they stuck out their white outfits against the other occupants of the platform, Harry introduced his friends to the two of them before Sakura opened a garganta in a nearby wall. The trio entered as Hermione and Neville went looking for their own families.

Christmas in Soul Society was normally a small informal affair, especially for the hybrids, and Harry was glad they'd stopped off at Kage ni kakusa reta chiku (District hidden in the shadows) (Basically the Japanese version of Diagon Alley) for him to get his presents for some of them. He got Sakura a midnight blue kimono covered in stars, Szayel a book on arithmancy; as the scientific magical subject intrigued him and Anthony was given a cutting of the whomping willow (the procurement of said cutting being an event that had lead to Harry's only visit to the hospital wing so far). Among other things Harry received; candy as usual from Ukitake and Kyoraku, one of the older kido books from Sakura (remembering his skill in kido and his Zanpakuto's secondary effect) and as he'd heard about Harry's Junsuina kokoro moeru, Yamamoto had promised him training in increasing its fire abilities over the summer as well as instructions to help 'stoke his fire' as the old man put it.

Harry also got a few items from Hogwarts delivered by garganta; a flute from Hagrid, a sweater and fudge from Ms Weasley (which Sakura took one look at and balaed to nothingness) a few joke items from the Weasley twins (who Harry got on well with) and an unmarked package. Opening it a note fell out, revealing it was originally Harry's dad's, and when Harry put it on he disappeared. They discovered it made him invisible and also cloaked his reiatsu completely like something a certain shopkeeper designed. Sakura was annoyed by the tracking charms on the cloak, which meant Szayel sent it to reishi sterilisation, after he assured all of them (mostly Harry, as Sakura was more worried about the charms than the invisibility being lost, as it could simply be re-applied) the cloak would be undamaged, and would still work as the other abilities were contained within the cloak itself rather than simply applied to the outside of the artefact.

Soon after Harry decided to take the hit, getting the 3 hybrids in one room he asked 'Do any of you know who Nicholas Flamel is?' Szayel's eyes widened and Sakura suddenly looked worried, Anthony smiled though he stared at Harry slightly confused

'Why are you asking?' countered Szayel

'There's something in the forbidden corridor at the school guarded by a Cerberus that is only allowed be talked about with Dumbledore and Flamel' Harry answered, seeing no reason to lie to them.

Szayel looked ill and turned away muttering 'the philosopher's stone'

'In a school!' Anthony yelled then looked at Harry worryingly 'Has anyone been killed yet?'

'No' Harry answered 'Dumbledore told everyone to avoid it who does not wish to 'die a most painful death'.'

Despite the circumstances Sakura couldn't hold in a cackle 'The basterd's baited a trap' then she turned serious 'Harry no matter what happens do not go down there, do I make myself clear?'

Harry nodded 'Yes mum'

The rest of the holiday passed normally well, Harry training as well as spending time with his friends and family, though he was sad the twins were 'away' in Hueco Mundo, he wasn't too worried and would just see them over the summer. He wasn't surprised Shini had joined Anthony in trying to read the entire archives before reaching maturity along with flitting between Squads 8 and 10 as they were the most likely to allow him to join upon majority, as well as Alistair's… Harry wanted to call it an intern/apprenticeship but really it was him fighting, beating up and getting the shit kicked out of him by Squad 11 members, which the young shinigami realised was their way of seeing if he was good enough to join them.

Soon came time to return to Hogwarts and this time Sakura was there to see him leave; after kissing his forehead and ruffling his hair she said

'Please don't go looking for trouble kiddo'

Harry nodded and went looking for Hermione, but along the way was stopped by Draco

'Potter' he greeted formally 'I believe we got on the wrong foot, I wish to apologise for insulting you as well as your family and would like a chance to start again'

Harry not seeing any reason to argue nodded and took Draco's hand. The blond smiled until Harry's grip increased and he was pulled over to the green eyed shinigami 'I'll forgive you Draco, because we're both kids who make mistakes, do stupid things and say things we shouldn't but this is your only chance. I won't ask you to change your entire world view for me or something stupid like that, but don't insult me or any of my friends, are we clear?'

the Malfoy heir nodded, what Potter said was reasonable 'I understand and accept, thank you for this chance Harry and happy new year' they separated and Harry continued on his search.

He soon found her in a compartment alone and told her what he'd learnt.

'The philosopher's stone! Damn it, I'd read about that near the beginning of the year if only I could've remembered it' Hermione complained

'Don't worry about it, now we know, we just need to figure out why it's here and who would want to take it' Harry said placating her. The duo agreed though Fluffy was a good 1st line there were most likely other defences for the stone, and that they were probably planned out by the other teachers; but as they couldn't get past Fluffy would be unable to know what they could entail, therefore would have to wing it if they ever needed to go down, though both hoped they wouldn't need to.

TBC

LW: Well that's the Year one plot set up, see you later.

By the way if anyone's wondering why Sakura's behaving the way she is, other than Harry she's the only one (we've seen) with magic experience, which when combined with her spiritual senses means she can tell when something is off, magically speaking (e.g. Tracking charms or malicious potions).

Reviews

Kalladin1989: Yes he's like Ichigo from seasons 1 or 2, he's a human with Shinigami powers but as far as I have planned he doesn't have Hollow powers, just his (as far as you know) unnamed zanpakuto, because I'm pulling a Kubo and keeping her name (I'll admit the spirit is female) secret until it seems important or relevant.

Sakura Lisel:

Okay first I need to clear up a slight misunderstanding (I think it was because I was trying to say how quickly Harry was growing and was referring to how even though some of the Gotei 13 like Toshiro and Yachiru look young they're all at least 100+ years old where as Harry is more or less 11) Harry isn't captain level (yet... ;D) he's 5th seat, in Squad 13, you know the one who's only good Shinigami are Captain Ukitake and Rukia.
As for sealing powers and gigai trapping, I presume gigai are designed to be physical representations of your soul body, or if you're like Ichigo and Harry (by that I mean you passed on or just have Shinigami powers rather than being born in SS) it's like having your original body, which has all the hair, BLOOD, and DNA a normal human body has. (Yes I did just imply gigai can be polyjuiced or can use polyjuice)
Yeah Dumbledore is going to try use the Private Drive Blood Wards (or something similar) to weaken Harry to the point he's at least not going to get stronger (which would severely fuck them all over with what I have planned for what counts as books 2 and 3), he's that much of an arrogant old coot who has no idea what he's meddling with. Also while I'm sure there is some kind of archaic ritual that could do what you said, as well as stealing or creating a version of the gigai Urahara tried to seal the Hogyoku inside Rukia with, Soul magic is a thing, Horcruxes being the most well known on our side but there is probably a lot more especially as at least part of the magical world knows about Shinigami and hollows and Dumbledore as you said is 100+ years old and strong by British magical standards so may have some kind of soul magic books in his library.
Lastly and this will probably count as a spoiler and add to something Kalladin was asking about Snape, Dumbledore would need to destroy Harry's powers like Ishida did in the end of the Soul Society Arc or Ichigo did when he beat Aizen, as a magical trapped in there body isn't unable to use Shinigami powers, abilities or their zanpakuto, they just can't access soul form, enter SS without a specialized portal or use their full power (no bankai for example... thought burning out the vessel while extremely painful could work to release them). Harry would be just fine (sort of) if he were trapped in human form for a while and if all else fails the AK ejects the soul from the body and Sakura is a 5000+ year old Hollow magical.

FreeTraderBeowolf: My writing style is a constant work in progress; I'm trying to make things easier for my readers so I'll try taking your advice to heart and see if I can write as you suggested. Also on the pairings you are right about them being too young at this point in the story, it was really just me saying this was where I had planned to go. I decided to remove the coupling mark for them for now but she'll be staying on the main characters list because she is Harry's 1st and best friend so will always be there with him, plus while I'm on the subject I did have an odd idea for something near the end of 3rd year. I hope I continue to be good enough that you'll still around at that point.

R&R