Blue flame of the east, Red flame of the west

This is my first English fanfic. Please review. I need to know how bad I did this. -.-
Harry meets someone he perhaps misses the most.

Chapter 5: A Brief Reunion

Harry was shocked to find out he was unconscious and asleep at the Kuzeyamashiros for almost 9 days. The day Harry finally 'rose from the covers' Ryo moved his trunk to the small room Harry sleep for the past 9 days. He was infinitely relieved to find out the Dursleys didn't burn it. Nothing was moved within the trunk, there were no traces of anyone touching it: his Firebolt, wand, cauldron, most of his birthday presents (it turned out the Dursley's did burn the pahos and the mirror necklace was on Harry's neck the whole time), and all his books and supplies were there, untouched. The Kuze family (Harry's name for them; the whole name being rather mouthful), didn't ask anything about the contents of Harry's trunk.

Harry found out Ryo didn't bring any clothes with him. He apparently thought Dudley's cast-offs were junk like most of the things in Harry's previous bedroom. Unfortunately that included all his robes: school, dress and Quidditch. He needed to buy new ones at Diagon alley. One of Jiho's numerous cousins (Nakajawa was his name) was about the same size and height as Harry, so he borrowed his clothes. They weren't bad: despite the fact because of Nakajawa's unhealthy fixation for black; all of the clothes were black.

Harry also realized that someone cut his hair (the 'someone' turned out to be one of Ryo's younger sisters; Aya was her name). It wasn't just a simple trim: she cut his hair so short he looked like (in Harry's opinion) a priest. There were no bangs to hide his scar now; it was out in the open, for everyone to see. When Harry grumbled about this, Aya commented that he looked very smart and cute in the hair-cut with the cute scar; Nami (another sister) said it was an understatement; Noriko (a niece) said girls like guys that look smart and cute with interesting physical characteristics; Hujiko (another niece) said that Harry was her type of guy, and so on. After all the female members (including Aunt Imu) of the Kuze clan told their opinion about Harry's new hair-cut, Harry's face turned into a rather interesting shade of light purplish red, which refused to turn back to its original color for the rest of the day. (Male members of the Kuze clan just stood there laughing at his situation.)

Everyone was interested and curious about Harry's scar. Harry avoided answering the question till he found a reasonable, yet truthful, excuse not to. Finally, Harry told them explaining how he got his scar involved remembering the deaths of his parents so he'd rather not talk about it. No one asked about the scar after that.

* * * * *

The tenth day at the Kuze house dawned. Harry was already wide awake, having slept for nearly 60 hours before.

Aunt Imu had cooked enough food to feed the entire city block. Everyone ate far too much. Someone brought sake (rice wine) and after a several rounds of shots, things started to go crazy. Harry was horrified and yet fascinated to see an utterly drunk Jiho and a slightly less drunk Ryo celebrating Harry's recovery by singing a wide variety of rowdy Korean and Japanese songs. The partying lasted until 3 in the morning when finally everyone passed out.

Harry was out in the tea garden, waiting for a sign of Hedwig. As far as Harry knew, he was in a Muggle house, therefore not magically protected at all. Harry didn't worry much about getting killed by Voldemort now. He was more worried about Death Eaters attacking the Kuzes while trying to capture him. Harry thought if any member of the Kuze family died or got hurt from a Death Eater after all they did for him, he simply didn't deserve to live.

Hedwig didn't arrive yet. Perhaps it was too early for a reply, thought Harry looking at the Hedwig free sky. Sighing, he went back inside.

Harry looked around. Beer cans and sake bottles were everywhere. Pieces of left-over food and rubbish were lying all over the place, and there were mountains of dishes to clean. Aunt Petunia would have had a heat attack if she saw this mess. It was miracle no one broke any of the beautiful vases after all of the crazy dancing and singing. Feeling it was his duty, Harry started to pick up the rubbish. It was bit hard because his left hand was still wrapped with bandages. Harry wondered when Jiho would take it off.

He was done collecting all the beer cans and sake bottles when the first person rose. It was Ryo, nursing one hell of hang-over.

"Jal-ja-ni~~~ Xiiuu ~~"

"Are you OK, Ryo?" asked Harry looking at Ryo's green face with alarm.

"Augh"

"I'll take that as a no."

Harry steered Ryo to the bathroom, where Ryo proceeded to be quietly and thoroughly sick.

"Arigato Xiu," called out Ryo from the bathroom.

"Your welcome," said Harry, now cleaning up the rather disgusting looking food leftovers.

He was about to dispose a plastic bag full of food leftovers when Ryo finally emerged from the bathroom, soaking wet, but looking reasonably well.

"Why is it so clean in here?" asked Ryo. Then his eyes landed on Harry, who was tying up the plastic bag with one hand. He lifted a brow.

"Do not tell me that you are cleaning up the mess."

"Er … I am, actually."

"Why?"

"I thought … well …" Harry found himself lost for words under Ryo's piercing gaze.

"It was your duty?" filled out Ryo. Harry nodded.

Ryo muttered something under his breath, shaking his head.

"I dare say I would feel just like you if I were in your place. But as one of the hosts of the party, I have the duty to clean after myself as well. I trust you to understand that. So I propose we both clean up this mess."

Harry blinked. This wasn't the response he expected to hear. Harry just nodded stupidly in response.

Cleaning progressed much quickly with Ryo working with him. Ryo was a silent worker; he never talked while they cleaned. Harry rather enjoyed his silent company. It was as if he worked with Ryo before many times and he was used to it.

It was about 11 in the morning when the cleaning was done. No one was awake yet.

"Everyone will wake up late in the afternoon," said Ryo, sitting heavily on the sofa with a mug of VERY strong black coffee (he counted 20 coffee beans in a single cup). Harry sat next to him, holding a mug of a homebrewed, foamy looking cold green tea. Harry took a tentative sip. Whatever it was, it was delicious. The two of them drank deeply into their respective mugs in silence.

"Umm … Ryo?"

"Mmm."

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead."

"Were -- were you the one who fought the hwe-seng-ma?"

Ryo looked at Harry. Harry looked back. Their eyes met. Suddenly, Ryo looked extremely uncomfortable. He seemed to want to avoid answering the question, and want to answer the question at the same time. The two sides fought. The former lost the battle.

"Yes,"

There was silence.

Harry wanted to thank Ryo, but his presence seemed to turn Harry into a mute.

"Thank you for saving me," Harry blurted out lamely.

Ryo looked at Harry with amusement.

"I see why Jiho likes you. You are very interesting."

Harry felt his jaw drop, he wasn't expecting this.

"Jiho likes me?" croaked Harry.

"Yes. Though he tends to care about the well being of every bloody person in this planet, you seem to be special to him."

Harry was lost of words at that comment.

Ryo actually smiled at him.

"I never understood how Jiho's mind worked. Try to understand him, Xiu. Till then In 'shallah."

* * * * *

Dumbledore's reply didn't come that day, or the day after that. Hedwig was still gone, and Harry was worried sick about her. In fact he was worried about everyone. Harry called Hermione several times by phone, but no one answered. He hoped she and her parents were just off on a vacation. As for Ron, Harry couldn't call him because he didn't know the Weasley's phone number (if they had one). Harry prayed to all the Gods he knew for Hedwig's safe arrival at Hogwarts or where ever Dumbledore happen to be.

Despite the worries and anxiety induced nightmares, the stay at the Kuze family was wonderful. The Kuze family made it quite clear that they had no desire to send Harry to a place where there was even a distinct possibility he would be mistreated. There were no questions asked with the length of his stay, but Harry couldn't help feeling bad about continuously imposing the Kuze family's hospitality. Even more so when he thought about the fun he had. Not the type of fun he would've had at the Weasley's, but academic fun.

Jiho gave Harry book after book about Asian history and philosophy to read and Ryo taught Harry how to throw knifes and injiuchi. He also taught and played various strategy games with Harry. The entire family would have endless discussions on various topics, and Harry was having too much fun listening to these discussions and lectures, or reading the books the Kuzes gave him to think much about going outside. (Harry wasn't sure if this was normal 15 year-old-behavior; perhaps he should have a psychiatric check-up)

Also after finding out Harry already mastered the basic one thousand Chinese words, Jiho gave him a large Chinese word textbook containing 3000 words and various linguistics texts and tapes for Harry to study. By the end of the third week of August, Harry read ancient Asian texts, sang Korean and Japanese folksongs, chanted in Hopi and Navajo, and jabbered in Gaelic.

Curious, thought Harry I always thought I was a more outdoor, hands-on type of person. DADA is the only subject I was actually confident in doing well, who would've thought I'd do well in languages? Then again, I was never exposed to linguistics … Maybe I should take ancient runes instead of divination this year …

When everyone had enough staying indoors for one day, the Kuzes would take Harry into the forest and have a picnic in a nearby thicket. Jiho would do an American Indian chant (with the dance routine sometimes), and here and now and then Ryo would bring and play his goto. Suzunosuke gave Harry a Celtic lute and gave him instructions on how to play it. Harry never felt more serene and peaceful then those hours at the hills and forest.

His time wasn't entirely spent having fun, though. Jiho and Ryo had numerous cousins, nieces and nephews who were under 5 years old, and Harry took the responsibility of keeping an eye on them and playing with them. He wanted to help the Kuzes out with the house work, but they wouldn't hear of it. So as another way of expressing his gratitude, he stayed with the children. No one objected with this, and much to Harry's bewilderment, the children seemed to like him.

* * * * *

Harry got his first piece of news from the magical world 5 days before September 1st. It was delivered early in the morning not by Hedwig, not by a witch or wizard, nor by any other owl or bird, but by a large dog named …

"SNUFFLES!!!" shouted Harry, running to the tea garden.

The huge black dog pounced on Harry, making him fall on his behind. Snuffles started sniffing him as if to make sure he was in one piece. Snuffles growled briefly at Harry's still heavily bandaged left hand, and continued sniffing with more vigor. Harry laughed as Snuffles' nose wiggled around his body, and held the black dog tightly. Snuffles stopped sniffing and let out a whimper that sounded like a sob.

"I missed you so much, Snuffles!" said Harry, whimpering a bit.

Snuffles wagged his tail once and pawed on him gently. If only this could be his godfather in human form …

The Kuze cousins approached the godfather and godson.

"You even own a dog?" asked Jiho, staring at the huge bear of a dog.

"That's Jiho and Ryo," said Harry to Snuffles, who was throwing suspicious glances at the two.

"I can't say I own him, Jiho. He's a stray that no one can own. I took a likening of him and him to me, right Snuffles?" Snuffles barked and wagged his tail as a reply.

"Loyal and intelligent animals seem to be attracted to you," remarked Jiho staring at Snuffles. Snuffles made a superior sniff.

"Indeed," said Ryo. He was looking at Snuffles shrewdly. "Xiu, can you clean up that dog in the backyard? He looks incredibly dirty if I may say so …"

Understatement thought Harry, looking at Snuffles. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought Snuffles' fur color was muddy grey-brown.

Snuffles let out a snort of outrage. Ryo actually smirked at him and threw a rag at Harry. Harry gave Snuffles a meaningful look and started walking towards the backyard. The 'backyard' was actually a miniature bamboo forest the Kuzes owned. There was a pond and faucet in the middle of it, and both were completely hidden from outside view.

"You can turn back Sirius; they won't come till I'm done."

Snuffles gave him an inquiring look. When he saw Harry looked very confident, he transformed back. Sirius wasn't wearing his Azakaban robes, but they were still ragged and extremely dirty. His Godfather himself was in no better shape than his clothes and was VERY thin (again).

"Thank god you're alive, Harry ---" and gave Harry a tight bear-hug.

Finally Sirius let go of Harry. His eyes were full of tears. Sirius hastily wiped it off with the back of his hand.

"Thought I'd never see you again," said Sirius, absent-mindedly ruffling Harry's now too short hair with his extremely thin and dirty hand. "I followed your scent, but it was spread across this entire area. It took me forever to find the right house."

"I guess location charms don't work with me," said Harry.

"Of course they don't work on you," growled Sirius. "Do you want to make it easier for Death Eaters to find you?"

Harry shook his head. Sirius absently racked a hand into his long matted hair.

"So what happened?" demanded Sirius.

Harry frowned a bit.

"Didn't Professor Dumbledore tell you about my letter?"

"You sent Dumbledore a letter? I don't know about that; when I learned you were missing, I just ran off."

"Oh … Well, I sent a letter to Dumbledore via Hedwig once I … was able to," answered Harry.

"Smart move," said Sirius. "I just hope Hedwig wasn't intercepted. But she's a very smart owl; I don't think we should worry about that."

"She hasn't returned to me though," said Harry gloomily.

"Owls can be traced Harry," said Sirius sternly. "Dumbledore isn't going to risk that to deliver a letter."

"I guess not…"

"So what happened?" asked Sirius.

Harry told him what he could remember of the hwe-seng-ma attack and what he learned from Jiho. Sirius turned deadly pale when he was done.

"I can't believe this," he said weakly.

"I wouldn't have believed it either if someone just told me," said Harry. "Anyway, Ryo will tell everyone what happened better then I can. He did fight the … thing."

"I guess Dumbledore has to ask Ryo himself. The magical law enforcement too, if I'm not mistaken," said Sirius with a derisive snort.

"Shouldn't you go and tell Dumbledore now?" said Harry.

"Good point," said Sirius. He immediately turned into a dog again and ran off.

He returned ten minutes later with an envelope in his mouth.

"I just contacted Dumbledore," said Sirius after he turned back to a human. "He told me someone will be coming here soon. And this is your Hogwarts letter." He added, handing him his letter.

"How did you contact him so fast?" asked Harry, amazed.

"Owls aren't the only way of communication. For security, we use communication orbs. They only activate with the people they are bewitched to recognize, and you can transport small objects and letters with it too."

Harry nodded.

"Did he mention anything about Ron and Hermione?"

"I'm sorry … I didn't ask him and he didn't mention anything," said Sirius apologetically.

Harry let out a sigh. He just had to wait till he met them again.

"So, the younger of the two men is Jiho? How did you think he was an Indian, Harry? He looks like pure-blooded Asian," remarked Sirius.

"If you saw him at the library with his Indian headdress, feathers and all, you'd think he's American Indian. Anyway he told me: Japanese father, Native American mother."

Sirius shrugged.

"His family seems to treat you exceptionally well: If I saw you in human form, I'd never guess you were the same Harry I knew. You've grown."

"I didn't notice that."

"Nice hair-cut, too"

"Augh," said Harry, remembering the embarrassing scene on the tenth day at the Kuzes. "But now there's no way I'm going to go into the magical world incognito."

Sirius grinned wolfishly.

"I dare say you won't. How are your preparations for foreign magic studies? I heard a rumor that Asian sorcerers make Snape look like Father Christmas in comparison."

"I don't know … I read a lot about Asian mythology and legends, and the ancient history of China and Japan. I learned some interesting stuff about Korea."

"You learned about Korea?" asked Sirius, looking amazed.

"Well, yeah … Why is that so surprising?"

"There is practically nothing known about Korea. Plenty of people don't even know that country exists."

"Don't let anyone in this house hear you say that, Sirius. Jiho told me his father's ancestors rooted from Korea, and the entire family is really proud of it."

"Well, then it makes sense. What did you learn?"

"About the same as China and Japan: foundation myths, more myths and legends, ancient and medieval history, culture, pottery …"

Sirius sniggered.

"Pottery? You're learning about pottery?"

"I'm learning how to make Asian pottery, Sirius. Two hours a day. Jiho only lets me do the initial molding process. It's dull work. I can't wait till I can sit in front of a spinning stool."

Sirius seemed to try to imagine his godson sitting in front of a spinning stool. He apparently couldn't.

"Just can't imagine you doing pottery, of all things. You were more of an outdoor type to me."

"That's what I thought, too. Then again, I'm having fun learning Chinese letters and reading Asian literature. Maybe I have scholar disease."

"I have no idea where you got contaminated, Harry," said Sirius, grinning. "So you're learning Chinese letters? That's a smart move. How are you doing with that?"

"I can read original texts Sirius," said Harry, proudly. He didn't feel the need to be humble with his godfather.

Sirius' jaw dropped.

"Original texts, Harry? But, you never learned Chinese letters before! I heard you need to memorize at least a thousand words as basic foundation! How did you learn all that in 3 weeks?"

"I'm still working on it, Sirius. And I started learning Chinese letters 5 weeks ago. I mastered the basic thousand within three days; it wasn't hard."

Sirius looked dazed, his jaw hanging open.

"A thousand words within three days?" echoed Sirius.

"Why? Jiho told me he learned the basic thousand in three days."

"Oh, he did, did he?" snorted Sirius, shaking his head with disbelief.

Harry smiled.

"Did Dumbledore have anything to say to me?" asked Harry.

"He asked if you can ask Ryo what a hwe-seng-ma is," said Sirius.

"Dumbledore doesn't know what it is?" asked Harry, a bit surprised.

"Apparently not," said Sirius shrugging. "There's no wizard that has expertise in the Dark Arts of Asia, you know."

"What about the foreign magic studies Professor?"

"We still don't know who the foreign magic studies professor is," said Sirius.

"Why?"

"There is a lot of conflict in the North Eastern Asian confederation of magic on who should have the job. They first choose a Chinese bloke about a hundred years old, but they had to cancel his appointment because he couldn't speak a single word of English. Apparently Korea recommended a very competent master, but the Japanese will rather sell their souls to the devil then let this person have the position. As far as I know, Japan is still disagreeing with the confederation's recent decision and is refusing to recommend anyone. The Chinese masters are simply too old and India is in too much internal turmoil to spare anyone. Bottom line: we're screwed. At least the Confederation gave Hogwarts a syllabus."

"I guess there's not much choice. It's going to be tough though; if Ryo decides he's not going to answer the question, he won't. Even if you gouge his eyes out, sever his ears and slice the very nose from his face to make him answer … I'm quoting Jiho by the way."

Sirius smiled grimly.

"Then we'll just have to feed him some truth potion."

"It won't work, Sirius. No one can feed Ryo something without him being aware; he can feel suspicious intentions in what he eats. Force feeding won't work either: it'll take an army to do that."

Sirius looked like he wanted to do some creative swearing. Harry just shook his head.

"I'll think of something," he said. Then Harry suddenly remembered something.

"Sirius, did you find out what 'shim-yun-ui-noon' means?"

Sirius looked blank at first. When Harry jogged his memory he scowled. "Nope; couldn't figure out what kind of language it is. I asked Moony but got a blank from there."

Harry started to scowl with him. "Nothing really goes smoothly, does it? Well, I did some research on it too. It's either Japanese or Korean. Those are the two languages Jiho uses the most. And [noon] might be 'eye' in Korean."

"You figured out that much? Then you're already a way ahead of me. Anyway I think we should wrap up this discussion. You're right Harry, they do leave you alone. Do they know you're a wizard?"

"Not that I know of; Ryo might have some inkling, but since he's a Japanese wizard I don't think it'll matter … As for the rest of the Kuzes, they respect my privacy and I respect theirs. They don't ask awkward questions either. 'Remember thyself what thy will want if ye were in the other persons shoes' is the Kuzes motto and they stay true to it."

"Very convenient family to live with, aren't they? Anyway, Dumbledore told me to 'disappear' quickly before the ministry wizards find me. Keep in touch."

Sirius gave Harry one last hug, transformed to a black dog again, and disappeared from sight.