This is just the beginning of my story. Have a go and see if you like it. Please read the AN at the bottom when you're done if you plan on reading more.

I don't own Bleach or Harry Potter. If I did, Butterflizen would not have planned it all and Spoony would have a bigger part in the story.

"You are Albus Dumbledore, I presume?" the kindly woman looked at Dumbledore, her eyes seemed to penetrate his very soul while still remaining motherly and warm-hearted.

"I am, but, if I may ask, who are you? I do not believe I know you," replied Dumbledore with a brief nod.

"My name is Unohana Retsu," she answered simply, "And no, we do not know each other. However, I must ask for your patience, I am here to talk to you about a very serious matter at hand."

"Then please sit," Dumbledore waved to the chair at the table. He turned to Tom, the bartender of the Leaky Cauldron, who was bringing Dumbledore a bottle of mead at his order. Dumbledore accepted it with a small word of thanks and poured Unohana and himself a glass before setting the bottle aside, "Please, continue. What did you wish to speak to me about, ma'am?"

Before Unohana began speaking, Dumbledore fingered his wand hidden deep in his sleeve, for defense of course, in case she was not as trustworthy as she may have seemed.

"We, the Gotei 13, have reason to believe your school may be in more danger than you immediately think," started Unohana solemnly. She lifted the cup from the table, took a sniff of the liquid to identify any possible poison, and took a small sip to test the taste. She did not show it, but the mead was not quite her taste, she set the glass down and continued, "This may seem hard for you to believe at the moment, but the 'Dark Lord' that has returned to your world is not truly alive. He has become a race known as Arrancar."

"This is quite the tale you are telling me," said Dumbledore. He bowed his head to look at Unohana from above his glasses, she did not seem to notice, "I, along with just about everyone else in the wizarding community, know that Voldemort is a far cry from having a human state of mind. He is a bloodthirsty killer, but it is rather difficult to believe that he is not an actual human being."

"It is difficult to understand at first," Unohana agreed, "But everything I say is the truth. I will tell you all I am permitted to say, which turns out to be a fair amount. The Gotei 13, or 13 Division Imperial Guards, is an organization of beings called Shinigami whose main duty is to protect the souls of the living from creatures called Hollows and to send Earthbound spirits to the afterlife. Hollows are creatures that evolve from the pain and sorrow in the human heart and, in order for them to fill their empty heart, they feast upon human souls regardless of whether they are dead or alive at the time."

"Those sound quite fearsome. Why haven't I heard of these monsters before? I'm quite sure something like that would appear in reports at some time or another," asked Dumbledore. He was a man who liked to read, quite a lot. He should have seen something about monsters that feed off human souls. Or were Dementors those creatures they called 'Hollows?'

"Luckily, Hollows that regularly appear on earth are weak and are easily dispatched by any within the ranks of the Gotei 13. There are, however, Hollows that grow in power and that power can exceed that off the highest officials in the Gotei 13," said Unohana. To elaborate further, she explained the menos evolution process "They leave their need for the souls of humans and quench their thirst with the flesh of other Hollows. These conglomerations of Hollows become known as Menos. Then within this class, there are three sub-classes, Gillian, Adjucas, and Vasto Lorde, each one has more and more power until you get to the extremely rare and exceedingly dangerous Vasto Lorde. To become anything more than a Gillian, who all look the same and act the same, to become more than just lumbering beasts with no conscious thought, a single entity that was once a single Hollow must remain conscious and thinking. What this single hollow was will make the Gillian different from it's comrades and it may continue the line of evolution to an Adjucas-class Menos.

"Adjucas are considerably smaller than any Gillian and are much more powerful, but they also must only eat other Adjucas to remain one themselves and have even the smallest possibility of becoming a Vasto Lorde. The Gotei 13 has estimated there are as many Vasto Lordes in existence as there are fingers on your hand."

Unohana spared a glance down to Dumbledore's thin, bony fingers resting calmly on the table, with a wand loosely gripped in one of his hands, "However, these Vasto Lorde are not violent unless provoked and do not pose any threat to earth, as they live in a realm lying between the world of the living and the afterlife, called Hueco Mundo. The problem poses itself in the Arrancar. Hollows have two distinct markings seen on every one. They have a hole on their chests to show their empty hearts and they wear white masks over their faces to conceal their past life as human spirits. Arrancar are hollows that have torn off their masks and gained powers akin to the powers of a Shinigami. Arrancar have the same natures as hollows but have rational minds, so they are much more dangerous than even an Adjucas-class Menos, which still has the mind of a beast."

"So you are telling me that Voldemort has become one of these Arrancar?" asked Dumbledore. He was skeptical, it was a wild story, but the woman seemed to be well versed in the subject. It was either an extremely well thought out and well executed lie or it was true.

"Yes, we fear so," Unohana nodded her confirmation, "The Gotei 13 is divided up into 13 divisions, each division is headed by a captain. Recently three of the captains from the Gotei 13, Aizen Sosuke, Ichimaru Gin, and Tōsen Kaname, defected from us and are now considered traitors. They left us with a means of artificially creating Arrancar stolen from one of our scientists, who was attempting to destroy the item used."

Unohana stopped talking. It was only a short time ago that the captains left for Hueco Mundo and the Arrancar started appearing. It was only yesterday that they found out about the Espada.

"Since then, they have been creating an army of Arrancar made up of only Menos. We do not have any exact numbers for Aizen's army, but we have information on their top fighters. There is an organization of sorts within the Arrancar army called the Espada. The Espada are given ranks from 1-10 based on their power, 1 being the highest and 10 the lowest. It is also unknown if there are any Vasto Lordes within the Espada, but from our evidence so far, there are none or very few," Unohana looked into Dumbledore's intrigued eyes, "The man, Voldemort, is ranked somewhere between 7 and 10. We have found traces of his reiatsu, or spiritual pressure, on earth all summer and recently the 6th Espada went on a rampage in a suburb of Tokyo, his reiatsu did not match that which we had been tracking of Voldemort and it seemed significantly stronger. The second Espada we've traced is weaker than Voldemort instead of stronger. There is a third we are suspecting to be a Vasto Lorde, but as is Vasto Lorde nature, he seems to be docile and acts simply as a spy."

"If Voldemort has become one of these Arrancar, a powerful one at that, how can we defeat him? We must learn a new fighting tactic if he isn't human or suffers from human weaknesses," asked Dumbledore. He prided in being skeptical of all things, there was always room for error and recalculation, but something was off when Voldemort first appeared, all the details of his rebirth didn't sound like something a human could perform, now that suspicion was confirmed.

"Arrancar, same as Hollows and Shinigami are fundamentally different to kill than a regular human," Unohana pulled her Zanpakuto out from underneath her captain's haori and laid it on the table, "We may be damaged by spells that you cast, but it will not kill us. In order for Hollows to be killed, you must slice off their mask with a Zanpakuto, a soul-cutter sword, and they will be purified, transformed back into their human form, and sent to the afterlife. Arrancar and Shinigami do not have these masks to slice off, so that method does not work.

"In order to kill an Arrancar or Shinigami, they must be physically unable to continue living. Shinigami and Arrancar do not age and our bodies do not get weary as do humans. You must force our hearts to be unable to beat or our lungs unable to draw in air or our blood unable to circulate through our body. You cannot simply cast that killing curse at us, we will not die from that. You must beat us down to the bone or both Arrancar and Shinigami will continue to rise and fight."

"That is not a very practical way to fight a strong wizard such as Voldemort," said Dumbledore. This would prove to be troublesome later on. If spells would not work on Voldemort now, what would they do? It was far too late to start retraining all students to fight Hollows and not a single student nor their families, to his knowledge, had ever so much as picked up a physical weapon such as a sword with knowledge of it's proper use.

"The good thing is that Voldemort is no longer a wizard, he is an Arrancar," said Unohana, "He may not be vulnerable to your magic, but he cannot use it either. The Gotei 13 has over 2,000 fully trained shinigami, Omnisukidō, a special operative group, has about five hundred more, and the Shinōreijustuin has many fine students that will soon graduate the Gotei 13 or the Omnisukidō."

"Are you trying to tell me that you will take over the war against Voldemort?" asked Dumbledore.

"Not me, but the Gotei 13. I am the captain of the 4th division, specializing in saving lives rather than taking them," replied Unohana, "If you are willing to accept help, we will send you several Shinigami to protect your school and those inside it, if it should be attacked by Arrancar. You can do as you wish with them, assigning them to simply guard posts or have them integrated into the school to monitor the safety from the inside."

"I believe your story is solid, ma'am," Dumbledore stood up, "Assistance would be greatly appreciated."

"Very well," Unohana nodded and smiled kindly, "If you have no more business with me, I will return and have the squad assembled and sent to you as soon as possible."

"I would like it that you come with me for a brief time. My organization, the Order of the Phoenix, would be more likely accept your story after hearing it firsthand rather then through my interpretation," Dumbledore requested, "I believe it would be best for someone experienced in the matter to explain to them."

"As you wish," Unohana laughed quietly, "Though I am no more experienced than you, I have never seen an Arrancar in all the time I have been a captain, which is well over 400 years. I will relay exactly what I have told you to those you trust, nonetheless."

That evening, Unohana told the same story to the skeptical ears of the Order of the Phoenix. Fred and George had been kicked out, even though they were of age, as Unohana wanted no students to know of the mission she would send her fellows on. It took a fair bit more talking to convince everyone that the Shinigami would be completely trustworthy. In the end, there was a unanimous decision to allow the Shinigami onto Hogwarts grounds in disguise as foreign professors to teach an optional class on life as a wizard in Japan.

"It was wonderful to meet you," Unohana bowed to the people standing in front of her. The act threw them off balance, it was not customary in England as it was in Japan, they believed bowing was only used hundreds of years ago, "The team will be assembled as soon as possible and they will arrive soon. For now, I must return."

The Senkaimon gate appeared directly behind her in the kitchen, it opened slowly and a pure black butterfly fluttered out, landing on the hilt of Unohana's Zanpakuto.

"Give them this, but do not let it be seen by anyone else," Dumbledore handed Unohana a slip of paper with 12 Grimmauld Place, headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix written in elegant, spidery script on it.

"Of course," Unohana tucked it into her robe and turned to walk through the gate. It closed the second the little black butterfly was back through the doors and slowly faded from existence. Sirius was the first to walk over and wave his hand through the place where the door once stood.

"That was an interesting conversation," he said. His face was utterly perplexed by the information he now had to digest and it seemed that he was not the only one feeling that way, either.

"I don't know about this, Albus," Mrs. Weasley had been nervous all along. She was unsure about sending a squad of undead fighters to protect students, if she was to believe the story. Unohana was kind enough, but she hadn't met a single other Shinigami and was unsure about their personalities. If she knew anything, they could be handed another set of people to match the personalities of Fred and George. Lord knows what would happen next.

"Molly, anyone who is an enemy of Voldemort is a friend of ours," Dumbledore reminded. They were fighting for the same cause, after all, the defeat of Voldemort.

"That isn't true!" Molly cried out, "For all we know, they could be even worse than You-Know-Who and just want to get rid of him to further their own plots!"

"Then why would they offer to protect us, Molly?" Dumbledore asked, "We will judge them by the squad they send and give them a chance. It is unfair to judge them before you don't even know how their society works."

"I'm just worried about Harry and my children, not to mention everyone in Hogwarts," Molly resigned herself to a chair on the table.

"I assure you, everyone will be safe as long as the professors at Hogwarts are there," with the final word said, Dumbledore swept out of Grimmauld place and was gone. The decision was final, there would be no more arguing on the matter.

Three weeks later—

Ukitake Jūshirō and Kuchiki Byakuya walked up the steps to an old, dingy house. They looked back at the tiny slip of paper from Captain Unohana several times, back at the house number, and to the sign on the street. They were more than confused. Supposedly they were supposed to guard a school and this old, run down building was most definitely not a school.

"This is the correct address," said Ukitake as he examined the deteriorating building, he couldn't quite call it a house or a home, "Did they get it wrong?"

Byakuya didn't reply.

Ukitake sighed, grabbed the ancient knocker, and knocked several times, "There's only one way to find out."

After a bit of muffled yelling inside the house that neither captain could quite make out, the door creaked open. A teenager with flaming red hair stood at the door, he didn't look too happy about answering the door and his face dropped further when he didn't recognize the people at the door.

CRACK!

Both Ukitake and Byakuya had their hands on their Zanpakutos at the sound, but Ukitake lowered his guard when he saw what had just happened.

"Who are you?" another of the teenagers identical to the first appeared next to him in the blink of an eye.

Byakuya seemed mildly surprised at the speed of the Shunpo that the child had just preformed. It wasn't nearly as good as his, but it was like seeing Kurosaki Ichigo suddenly knowing how to Shunpo all over again.

Ukitake looked down at the address in confusion again, "I think this is the right address."

The paper was snatched out of his hands and both the redhead twins began examining it with scrutiny. They looked from the paper and to the captains multiple times until finally Byakuya had had enough, "Let us speak to your superior."

The twins burst out in mad laughter. So much so that they were wiping tears away from their faces when one said, "You've got to be kidding me. 'Superior'? That's just too good."

Ukitake was starting to get exasperated at this point, "Is your mother or father here?"

"MUM!" they shouted in unison.

"Fred, George, I told you two to answer the door, not make me come all the way out here to—" a woman bustled out from down the hall. She froze when she saw the two men standing at the door.

"Do you know them?" one jabbed his thumb at Ukitake and Byakuya at the door.

"No, can I help you two?" she asked.

She reached down into a pocket and drew her wand. Byakuya matched the gesture by grasping the hilt of his Zanpakuto a fraction more. Ukitake grabbed his wrist to prevent him from unsheathing the weapon.

"We are here from the Gotei 13 on orders from Captain-Commander and Captain of the 1st Division Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni and request of the 4th Division Captain Unohana Retsu," Ukitake answered. He pulled a letter sealed with the 1st Division's insignia and handed it to the woman, "I am Captain of the 13th Division Ukitake Jūshirō and this is the Captain of the 6th Division Kuchiki Byakuya."

The woman skimmed over the contents of the letter and eyed them nervously, "Of course, come in."

They walked into the house, it was quite dingy, but it appeared as they had been working vigorously on cleaning the place. Some spots had boxes of junk that had been tossed inside from the immense cleaning process. A few chairs and tables in the halls had been dusted and polished to their former glory. The house was quite a sight to behold. It was nothing like Byakuya's refined taste nor like his manor in the slightest but it was quite obvious that it had cost a lifetimes worth of fortune to furnish the rooms to what they were; filled to the brim with classical paintings and portraits (that moved, no less) and antique Queen Anne style furniture.

One thing that made both Ukitake and Byakuya cringe was the heads of some kind of humanoid creatures that were mounted on the wall. It was a disgusting thing to look at, just like seeing the heads of an animal on the wall, only closer to humans in appearance.

"I'm sorry about the mess," the woman murmured absently, "We're trying to clean it as best we can, the place was terrible when we first arrived."

"It's quite alright," calmly replied Ukitake. He didn't care for the house in the least but he couldn't be rude to her just because both he and Byakuya lived in large manors in Soul Society that were a fair bit cleaner than this.

They were led into the kitchen where the woman gestured for them to sit, they both remained standing. She set the letter down on the table and turned her strict attention towards the shinigami. It wasn't difficult to tell that the woman didn't completely trust them. Though it made sense, they were technically spirits trained to kill, which was quite odd to think about.

"I understand you must've had quite a long journey…" she started.

"Actually, the Senkaimon opened up just across the street… so all we've had to walk was to the gate back home and across the street…" Ukitake's voice died away when his eyes met the strict ones of the woman in front of him. She was definitely intimidating.

"Do you mind me asking how you two were chosen for this 'mission'?" she asked with a slight smile. She turned back to her cooking but still obviously wanted an answer.

"We were the only two captains who were adequate for the job," answered Byakuya.

The woman gave Byakuya a nervous glance and Ukitake took over from his explanation, "You see, the captains have rather… vivid personalities. Some would not be acceptable to send to a school to masquerade as a teacher, of all things. The only captains who could control themselves enough were the Captains of the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 10th, 13th and possibly the 8th Divisions. However, the 1st Division captain must stay in Seireitei at because he is the Captain-Commander, the highest Captain of all. The 2nd Division Captain is also the commander of a special operative group called the Omnitsukidō, so she must stay in Seireitei. The Captain of the 4th Division must also stay in Seireitei because she is the head of the medical division and we are in the midst of a war. The 7th Division Captain… let's just say that he doesn't look quite human and he wouldn't be acceptable to send to the human world. The 10th Division Captain could've been sent if he was also not departing soon on another mission but he would've had to have been a student because he looks like a 12 year old human. The 8th Division Captain would've been a stand-in if either of us refused to go. So that's how we got here."

Ukitake seemed rather satisfied with his explanation, even Byakuya nodded a bit in agreement.

"What about the other Divisions?" asked the woman, she pointed to the letter, "It says here that there are 13 different ones. What about the 3rd, 5th, 9th, 11th, and 12th Divisions? Were they not acceptable to send?"

"No," simply answered Byakuya.

Once again, Ukitake elaborated on Byakuya's explanation, "Well, the 3rd Division Captain is rogue and he was a bit creepy to begin with… he always smiled and spoke with nothing but sarcasm and had his eyes closed… The 5th Division Captain would've been acceptable until he went rogue as well and revealed he was plotting to kill us all from the start and usurp to the throne, same with the 9th Division Captain. The 11th Division Captain, where to start…"

"He's an axe crazy buffoon," Byakuya answered, "And his… Lieutenant," he looked away from everyone, hiding his face from view as if he was protecting his pride, "She desecrated my manor, stole my fish, and rides her scooter through my hallways."

"That's about right. He's a little too bloodthirsty and violent for a school and if he went, that would mean his Lieutenant would have to go too and she's a bit of a disaster wrapped up in a painfully adorable six year old girl package. And I only ever think about the 12th Division Captain in my nightmares… he's a mad scientist that likes to experiment on things he finds interesting. If you were all normal humans, we'd have no qualms sending him here, but… he was quite anxious to dissect a wizard or two hundred or so…" Ukitake finished speaking. Mayuri was creepy to everyone, the only reason he was tolerated was because of his brilliant scientific mind and because there would be no way for anyone to get him back in the Maggot's nest anymore.

"Well," the woman turned around and held out her hand to Ukitake, "I am Molly Weasley, sorry if I came off as rude. I'm worried about my children's safety, since four are currently attending Hogwarts along with two of their friends whom I also consider my own children."

"Of course," Ukitake shook her hand warmly, "I have no children but I'd hate it if anything happened to my siblings."

Mrs. Weasley appeared rather confused upon hearing the word 'siblings', but shook it off quickly. Ukitake had already noticed but it was not the right time to explain everything about Soul Society.

Mrs. Weasley held out her hand to Byakuya. He looked her in the eye coldly. He did not make a move to shake her hand. Mrs. Weasley's hand curled up and fell to her side slowly, Byakuya had won.

"You two are welcome to stay for dinner in half an hour, we have everyone coming over, including Albus," she opened the door to the kitchen again and looked out, "I'm sure everyone would like to meet you," she took in a deep breath and shouted, "RON, HARRY, EVERYONE COME DOWN HERE! WE HAVE GUESTS YOU NEED TO MEET!"

The twins were the first to appear in the room, using the strange Shunpo variety. Byakuya scrutinized them silently, he wondered where they'd gotten such amazing speed.

The barrage of everyone else appeared soon after, four other children and one middle-aged man. For Byakuya and Ukitake, it was no question as to who was related to whom. There were four children with flaming hair the same color as Kurosaki Ichigo's. If Ichigo didn't have a distinctly Japanese face, they could possibly be considered siblings. The oldest children were the twins and the youngest appeared to be the redheaded girl.

Ukitake was shocked as he looked at the black-haired boy. Ichigo may have gotten his former Lieutenant's, Shiba Kaien's, face but this boy had gotten his hair and eyes. His black hair stuck out all over the place and his eyes were nearly the same shade of green. Ukitake couldn't help but smile faintly, he wondered if their personalities were similar.

"Sirius," Mrs. Weasley beconed the middle-aged man over to them, "They're the ones sent to protect Hogwarts this year."

"Ah," he smiled warmly and held out his hand, Ukitake shook it, Byakuya did not, "Sirius Black, pleased to meet you."

"Same here, Ukitake Jūshirō. This is Kuchiki Byakuya," said Ukitake.

Sirius nodded and stepped away after Mrs. Weasley cleared her throat impatiently. She glanced at the children once and back at the two captains, "Well, this is Ukitake Jūshirō and Kuchiki Byakuya from Japan," she stopped speaking to the children and then looked at Ukitake, "What do you want us to call you? I know customs are different in Japan."

"Ukitake and Kuchiki will do," answered Ukitake, "Thank you for asking, it's very rude to call someone by given name without knowing that person well or without express permission."

The other girl, with bushy brown hair, nodded as if she knew exactly what Ukitake was talking about.

"Well, introduce yourselves," said Mrs. Weasley. All the children immediately snapped to attention, "Ginny, you start."

The redheaded girl gave a mild and subtle glare towards Mrs. Weasley but introduced herself anyway, "Ginny Weasley."

"Ron Weasley," the boy beside her said.

The line continued down to the twins when one said, "I'm George, pleased to meet ya."

The other twin piped up cheerfully but with a sly glint in his eye, "And I'm Fred. I am Fred, aren't I George?"

"No, I'm George because you're Fred, Fred. You're Fred and I'm George."

"So you're Fred and I'm George, right? Or am I George and you're Fred?"

"That sounds about right, George, because I'm Fred."

Ukitake cut in before they could say anything else. He pointed to each of the children in succession, naming Ginny, Ron, Harry, and Hermione correctly without a blink. He stopped when he reached Fred and George who were both beaming in their supposed accomplishment. Ukitake took in a deep breath and said to Fred, "I'm absolutely sure you aren't George because you're Fred and I wouldn't want to confuse George with Ron and Fred with George and George with Harry. George said that you're Fred because he was named George, not Fred. Now, George," he looked at George, "Suppose that you are Fred for once and put yourself in his shoes, you wouldn't want to be called George mistakenly because Fred is your name not George. With that logic I can effectively say that Fred and George would not lie about their identities because Fred and George do not want to be confused as George and Fred. Therefore, they were futilely trying to confuse me with saying their names too many times in one sentence. Is that right George, who is not Fred, and Fred, who is also not George?"

Fred and George could only stare, they'd been beaten in the game they had learned to master as soon as they knew each other's names. They burst into mad laughter and bounced over to Ukitake, slapping him on the back affectionately. Fred managed a sentence after he'd taken a breather, "I don't care who you are, mate, but you and I and George are going to get along real well."

Everyone but Byakuya couldn't help but grin. Ukitake knew he was at home already, this family reminded him of his own Division in a way. It might make the blow of being away from Soul Society for over a year a little less painful. They were so energetic and could cause limitless trouble in the blink of an eye. Byakuya wouldn't like it, but Ukitake had a small fondness for the chaos that he encountered. To him, it was better to move with it than to fight it, as Byakuya attempted to do often. You couldn't hope to stop the flow of a river completely, no matter how much you dam it up, it would always spill over.

"I'll pray for your life," said Mrs. Weasley.

"Don't worry," said Ukitake, smiling reassuringly, "I've had my fair share of Fred's and George's. In fact, back home, my assistants act very much like them. Sometimes I wonder if they'll ever learn to behave themselves."

"You have assistants?" interrupted Hermione, "Like house-elves? You know, I don't be—"

Ukitake bit his lower lip, thinking of a way to answer about his two bickering 3rd seats, and cut off Hermione before she could finish her thought, "I am unfamiliar with house-elves, I'm sorry. But, in a way, I do have assistants. It's nothing of importance."

"Why don't we continue the conversation in the kitchen? Arthur will be getting back soon and other Order members are coming here for dinner tonight. I've planned on dinner being in half an hour," Mrs. Weasley ushered them all into the kitchen.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione began chatting amongst themselves, Ginny helped her mother finish preparing dinner, and Fred and George seemed to be plotting something among each other. As Ginny was delivering a large bowl of mashed potatoes to the table, she picked up the abandoned letter from the Gotei 13. She glanced around the room and noticed the insignias on the backs of Byakuya's and Ukitake's robes, it was similar to the one on the letter. She knew better than to just hand it back to them, it could have something interesting and important written in it. She tucked it into her pocket and grabbed the next set of bowls and plates for the buffet-style of dinner that would be held that night.

In the moment Mrs. Weasley was distracted, she joined Harry, Ron, and Hermione casually.

"Guys, look at this," she whispered, holding it out for them to see.

"Whoa, where'd you find that, Ginny," Fred butted into the conversation, leaning over Ron's shoulder, "Those two gave that to mum when they first came here."

"It was just on the table there," Ginny stabbed her thumb over her shoulder, indicating the kitchen table now cluttered with foods of every imaginable variety.

"Well, open it up, what does it say?" asked Ron.

Ginny opened the letter like one would a Howler and when no ear-shattering noise came out of it, she began to read,

"To whom it may concern,

Upon the advising of the Gotei 13 (ambassador: Captain of the 4th Division, Unohana Retsu), you have agreed to accept the best protection we have to offer while under the threat of Lord Voldemort, an Arrancar in former Captain of the 5th Division, Aizen Sōsuke's, army. It is within our power to take control of war efforts and eliminate an enemy we are specially trained to combat. Thus, we have come to the conclusion that, out of all the Gotei 13, Captains of the 6th and 13th Divisions are suitable to protect Hogwarts School of Wtichcraft and Wizardry and Harry Potter until Aizen Sōsuke, his partners (former Captain of the 3rd Division, Ichimaru Gin, and former Captain of the 9th Division, Tōsen Kaname), and army have all been executed. Ukitake Jūshirō and Kuchiki Byakuya ha—"

The paper vanished out of Ginny's hands with a quiet whooshing sound. She didn't need to blink, it just vanished. Everyone else was just as amazed as she was.

"You will never utter a word of what you have just read or there will be consequences," the voice made everyone jump. They hadn't ever heard Byakuya speak before.

Slowly, they all turned around, Byakuya held the paper firmly in his grasp, was currently folding it up, and tucked it inside his robe. He flattened out his robe and swept away from them without a second glance.

ALL IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE (really important stuff in bold): This story takes place over the Arrancar Invasion Arc, Hueco Mundo Arc, Fake Karakura Town Arc, and possibly the Deicide Arc. I know this is a spoiler to my story but you have to know that Voldemort will be the 9th Espada, Aaroniero has been either demoted or killed (whichever you prefer). More explanation will be given to say why Voldemort is 9th and not another rank. Byakuya will not get trapped in Las Noches with the others and Ukitake will not be involved in the Fake Karakura battle (no curbstomp battles for Wonderweis, sorry)

Recent manga chapters have thrown off my plans for this story quite a bit (stupid Bleach, I don't want to have ridiculous plot twists while I'm trying to write fanfiction), I'm not gonna say anything about it because I may choose to shrug off recent canon and switch into an alternate timeline to keep my plans intact and not have to redo the latter half of this story. Here's a quick timeline of the story corresponding with the Bleach Arcs as I've seen them play out, Arrancar Invasion takes place over the summer and ends somewhere around September when Ichigo goes to train with the Vizards for a month, he invades Hueco Mundo probably a week later and spends maybe 3-4 days there before the Captains arrive and save the day. Fake Karakura appears to only last about twenty-four hours or so, at the most, before the Deicide Arc starts and... T.T

I'm not going to make this any longer and more confusing than it needs to be, so if you don't want to read something that turns away from the Bleach plot too much, don't read this story.

One more thing, the narrator will always call Kuchiki Byakuya as Byakuya but in speech, nearly everyone will call him Kuchiki because of proper Japanese manners. My only reasoning for this is that he is called Byakuya almost solidly through the manga and because there are two Kuchikis that will be talked about, Rukia and Byakuya. If other characters like Byakuya make an appearance, i.e. Kenpachi or Ikakku, they would be called Zaraki and Madarame in speech but by given name in narration but characters like Kyōraku and Ukitake will be called by family names in both speech and text. Just think, what are characters called commonly in the manga, given or family name? If it's their given name, they'll be called that in the text but by last name in speech and if it's family name, both speech and narration will call them by that. The only exceptions would be characters who have separate speech patterns and call everyone by a given name or a nickname: Ichigo, Yachiru, and Kyōraku.

NO HONORIFICS WILL BE USED! I hate Japanese honorifics and it confuses me to constantly try to use them. They can be used condescendingly or mockingly (Ichimaru Gin), out of genuine respect (lots of characters), out of habit (lots of characters), etc. Each character uses them in different manners and uses different ones for each character they interact with. Ichigo uses none and uses given names, Byakuya calls everyone by full name, Kyōraku calls everyone by given name or a nickname and attaches a honorific to that, Gin adds honorifics to a bunch of names and creeps people out by it, etc. It's too confusing and convoluted to use effectively in this story. The only time they have a chance of appearing is by the respectful Espada speaking to or referring to Aizen as Aizen-sama due to any translations for it sounding awkward.

Whoo... long AN. I can give a 99% guarantee that there won't be another one this long ever again.

Anyway, please review this story, it isn't all that hard. I like constructive criticism. If you think there's something I could improve or change or if you spot issues with my grammar or something like that, please tell me. I WON'T take it badly unless it's a flame.

I hope I get this story out relatively soon.