Blue flame of the east, Red flame of the west

I'm free!! Free from the horror called finals!!! WAHOO!!!!

* * * * *

Chapter 7: Back at The Burrow

Everyone was sitting in the parlour of the Leaky Cauldron for the moment.

"So, how was your stay at the Kuze family?" asked Mr. Weasley eagerly, his eyes shining with anticipation. He was clearly itching to know how Japanese Muggle lived.

"Interesting," replied Harry.

He told everyone about how it was like living in a traditional-to-the-core Asian family and about Jiho, Ryo and the rest of the Kuzes. Everyone was especially interested with Jiho, the Grangers in particular.

"So he's half Native American with a Japanese father," said Mrs. Granger thoughtfully.

"What tribal group did is his mother come from?" asked Mr. Granger.

"Hopi, with some blood ties with the Navajo," answered Harry.

"She is a Hopi with Navajo blood? How did that happen?" asked Mrs. Granger.

"His great, great, great, great, great Grandfather or something was taken by the Navajo when he was kid. He grew up as a Navajo and married a Navajo woman, but eventually returned to Oraibi with his family before the great show down between the Hopi and the Navajo."

"Where is Oraibi?" asked Hermione.

"It's an old Hopi village on third Mesa. It's in Arizona; the States. Somewhere near Keams Canyon, if I remember it correctly."

"Wow, did you learn anything else about the Hopis?" asked Hermione eagerly as she took notes.

"Jiho gave me a book called 'The Fourth World of the Hopis' by Harold Courlander to read and taught me a few Hopi songs …"

"Can you sing them?" asked Hermione, her eyes burning with scholar fever.

"Not really … I just know the words …" mumbled Harry, feeling himself blush a little at the prospect of singing in public.

"Lets just hear the words then," said Hermione. Mr. and Mrs. Granger nodded their heads eagerly.

So that's were Hermione's scholastic enthusiasm comes from thought Harry as he cleared his throat.

"Hay-ay___ ay ya_______ a a-a-ha______
oh___ o way-ay ma -- -- nu. Hay-ay___ ay-ya ay-
ya ma-hay____ ya-hay____ ya-hay____ mi-nu.
Hay-ay ya hay-ya ma hay ya-hay-ya-ay
Ma -- -- ha.______ Ka-ya-a - o ay-ma-a
Si -- -- bo-pay______ di-maan-no nohn-ka____
___ di-maa-haan-a ohm - o.______ Hay-ay em-
ba -- -- go na ka _____ di-maan - no
nohn____ kA - la aw - twan. _______"

"That was beautiful!" exclaimed Mrs. Granger, scribbling down the words on a napkin.

"Do you know the English translation of the song?" asked Mr. Granger eagerly, as he brandished a prescription notepad and fountain pen.

"Uh … yeah, I actually do. Hold it …" said Harry as he stared at the Grangers for a moment.

"Somewhere, somewhere
Far away, Sibopay.
What was I at Sibopay
When I was born?
Where did I come from?
Where am I going?
What am I?
That is what I was asking
At Sibopay.

We emerged
From the First mother somewhere.
That was Sibopay.
We went to Oga'akeneh.
We went to Shokugeh.
We went to Tewageh*.
That is what our fathers told us."

"That's very deep," remarked Mrs. Granger, as she scribbled down the translation on another napkin. "Is there a story behind the song?"

Harry nodded and told her about the Arrival of the Tewas* and how the song came about. The Grangers frantically scribbled down every word on a writeable and transportable object's surface.

"Everything is in the book by Courlander," said Harry, staring at Hermione.

"It might not be in print in England," said Hermione, still scribbling.

"You can read my copy …" said Harry.

Hermione squealed with excitement. Harry pulled out the frayed copy Jiho gave him from his trunk and handed it over to Hermione, who snatched it out of his hand. She promptly started to read the book furiously, with Mr. and Mrs. Granger reading it over her shoulder. Harry stared at them with wide eyes.

"And I was wondering why Hermione was a bookworm," muttered Ron, staring at the Grangers. "It's the Granger blood."

Harry nodded his head thoughtfully. The influences of blood-ties are incredible …

* * * * *

After the Grangers were torn away (physically and mentally) from the Courlander book, the Weasleys (except Mr. Weasley; he had to return to the ministry), Harry and Hermione returned to the Burrow. Harry, Ron and Hermione went straight to Ron's room to discuss more private matters.

"So, what really happened?" asked Hermione urgently.

The Weasleys and Grangers were given a severely edited version of Harry's encounter with the hwe-seng-ma and his survival so the two of them were itching to know the whole truth. Harry rapidly replayed the events. He had to severely edit his injuries and take out the sewn body and the part when Uncle Vernon burned him because Hermione already looked like she was about to faint when she learned a hwe-seng-ma was a rebirth demon.

When he was done, there was a stunned silence.

"You mean Jiho didn't notice you're being starved? For two weeks?" said Ron in a hushed voice.

"Yeah, he said I literally transformed when I got out of the house. I'm guessing the hwe-seng-ma or someone else put some sort of an enchantment on me to make me look like I was reasonably fine, and broke when the hwe-seng-ma was destroyed."

"Good thing Jiho followed his instincts," said Hermione with a shudder.

"Very intuitive, isn't he?" said Ron. "But then again, he is an Indian …"

"I not sure it's because he's an Indian …" said Harry thoughtfully. "I mean, he's got this incredible instinct … and he seems to know things ahead of time … and when I had that fit," Harry eyed Hermione cautiously "I swear he transmitted his energy to me some how."

"Maybe he's a chi master, Harry. I read it somewhere that real masters can transmit their chi to another …" started Hermione.

"I thought about that too. But he wasn't just transmitting energy to me; he was correcting my circulation. In the book I read says the latter is only possible when the person transmitting chi is 5 times more powerful then the receiver. Jiho's older then me, yeah, but not that old. He couldn't have had the time to gain all that energy."

"Uh … can you two explain what chi is?" asked a totally lost Ron.

"Seriously Ron, you're taking foreign magic studies and didn't prepare?!" Hermione scolded.

"I was kind of lost where to start," protested Ron. Hermione let out a sigh of exasperation.

"It's an Asian concept. They believe all people have a life energy source called chi. It's like heat, and differs from person to person. It reflects a person's emotion to some degree and can be 'felt' by trainers. More advanced practitioners can control and use his or others people's chi, like transmitting and correcting chi circulation," explained Hermione, sounding like she swallowed a chi reference book.

"So what you're saying is, Harry's chi or whatever it is went haywire for some reason and Jiho corrected it?"

"Yeah, only he couldn't have done it" said Harry.

"Maybe he received his chi from another person or his master," suggested Hermione.

"What kind of reference book did you read, Hermione?" asked Harry, astounded. "Transmitting chi to other people isn't like giving a cup of water to the other person. To begin with, the receiver's original chi has to accept the foreign chi completely. Even a small amount of transmitting can cause more damage then gain if the original chi refuses. In the unlikely event the original chi accepts the foreign chi, the receiver has to circulate the foreign chi in his/her body for several years before the foreign chi becomes completely his/her own. The more received the longer it takes."

Hermione looked abashed and angry for not knowing what Harry knew. Ron was impressed.

"Wow Harry, this is the first time you knew more about something then Hermione!"

"Don't remind me," said Hermione, still abashed. "Do you have the book you read?"

"Yeah, I'll give it to you later."

Ron rolled his eyes at Hermione, who glared at him. Harry shrugged at the two.

"So … what's your side of the story? What happen after I … 'disappeared' from Privet Drive?" asked Harry.

Hermione turned dreadfully pale at that. Ron looked haunted too.

"Never mind; you don't have to tell me," said Harry quickly. "Dare say you two suffered more then I ever did."

Hermione shuddered involuntarily. More to change the heavy atmosphere then anything, Harry posed a question.

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

Hermione perked up immediately. "No. I couldn't figure out what language it is, so I didn't know where to search. I asked here and there, but nothing. Ron, did your Dad find out anything?"

Ron shook his head. "Uh-uh. Dad doesn't know much about languages. The language expert in the ministry was Barty Crouch Sr., but …" Ron eyed Harry nervously.

"…He's dead. Nothing works smoothly, does it?" said Harry, thumping the floor with his right fist, slightly frustrated. "I found out some stuff, but nothing really helps to find out the meaning."

He told them that he learned that [shim-yun-ui-noon] was Korean, that 'noon' meant 'eye' in Korean, and Snape saying the word 'shim-yun eyes'. Both of them were stunned.

"Snape knows," echoed Ron. "But how can we ask Snape?"

"I'm not planning to try. I just want to know how Snape knows" muttered Harry darkly.

"Blimey, this is worse then finding out who Nicholas Flamel is!" said Ron, shaking his head.

"Tell me about it," said Harry, sighing.

"Well, at least we know what kind of language it is," said Hermione enthusiastically. "Harry, do you know how to write it in Korean? Once we have it written in Korean, we could ask around, or send it to a translator."

"Nope; Jiho conveniently left out Korean lessons in his tutorage."

All three of them started to scowl. Ah …the frustration.

* * * * *

The trio came back downstairs. Hermione literally snatched Harry's book on chi from his hands and began to read furiously. The twins asked what he kind of fun he had at the Kuzes, so Harry told Ron and the Weasleys about Nakajawa. Before he was done with Nakajawa's first lecture on iniquity, they were howling with laughter.

"MAN … I'd love to meet this guy!" cried Fred/George.

"Sounds like a classic Muggle troublemaker!" said George/Fred, sniggering.

"He's beyond Troublemaking, he's the personification of evil," said Harry, smiling at them. "Though he claims his friend 'Punisher' is even eviler then he is …"

"'Punisher?'" repeated Ron, incredulous.

"It's a code name, an alias. He's Nakajawa's partner of crime who uses the name 'Punisher.'"

"Does he have more partners?" asked George eagerly.

"Yeah, there is this other partner of crime who called himself 'Pilgrim.' He's a rather decent guy, for a troublemaker that is. Then there is 'BlueFlame.' 'BlueFlame' is a lone-wolf: avoids partnering as much as possible. Nakajawa met this person only recently, but he says 'BlueFlame' is a genius. Considering how arrogant Nakajawa is, 'BlueFlame' must really good."

"Who is this 'BlueFlame?'" asked Fred.

"That's it; he as no clue."

"What?! But you said Nakajawa met this person!" cried George.

"I mean 'met on the web.' 'Web' is another name for cyberspace, and cyberspace is a virtual reality Muggle made with computers and electronic networks. In cyberspace, you don't have a face. Your identity is what you make yourself look like, and the most common and preferred way of communication is letters."

Ron, Fred and George looked spellbound. Harry continued:

"Well, Nakajawa is a hacker. A hacker is, to use his terminology, a truth seeker. Hacking is, truth seeking or information scrounging. Normally confidential information is hidden to the users of cyberspace, but hackers find ways to by-pass security and find information. Well, Nakajawa already found out who really are 'Punisher' and 'Pilgrim' after several months of hard work, but he still can't figure out who 'BlueFlame' is, and he's been working on it for almost a year!"

"Whoa … sound like some sort of a spy novel. So, why can't he find who 'BlueFlame' is?"

"Nakajawa says he found too many conflicting information regarding this person, most of them obviously fake. He once found the person in a server --- this is like an owl post office to wizards --- but he was counter-hacked and got his computer fried."

"Geez, this is almost a war!"

"It is, in some sense. Anyway, 'BlueFlame' was rather impressed that Nakajawa managed to find him/her at all, so he/she approached him first. They've been in touch in cyberspace ever since."

"Damn … Never thought Muggle could think of such things," said George, sounding awed.

"Damn right. So, who's 'Punisher' and who's 'Pilgrim?'"

"'Punisher' is a Japanese hacker. His real name is Matsumaru Kameyama. 'Pilgrim' is a Chinese hacker: his name is Pei Lee. 'BlueFlame,' of course, very little clue, if any."

Fred and George looked awed. Ron was gaping. Hermione apparently overheard Harry: she looked interested and disapproving at the same time.

"Did you tell him off? Hacking is a real crime you know."

"Tell Nakajawa not to do something?" said Harry, in an exaggerated voice of disbelief, "Hermione, he'd do it with more vigor if I did that! Then Ryo would kill me! He's already aging prematurely as it is. Anyway you can't make Nakajawa be something what he chooses not to be. Ryo already gave up on him: he just made him swear to all the gods in all Bodhisattvas not to spread whatever fire he's making on rest of the family."

Fred and George looked as if they were planning to fly to the Kuzes to meet Nakajawa right then and there.

"Don't even think about it, Fred, George. Ryo will decapitate you two first, and then come here to kill me. The last thing he wants is Nakajawa learning more ways of troublemaking."

"How do you know what we're thinking?" challenged George, sounding indignant.

"I know you too well," replied Harry, grinning.

"Yeah, right" snorted Fred.

Mrs. Weasley, who was listening in the kitchen, at that point promptly shooed the twins away. When the twins didn't budge, she took a broom and chased them out of the house. Ron, Harry and Hermione were left alone in the kitchen.

"Nakajawa with the Weasley twins … They'll blow up The Burrow within 24 hours." Harry remarked to Ron.

"Damn, he taught you to how to make Muggle bombs, Harry?! He's a bit off his rocker, isn't he?" said Ron, sniggering.

"He's a sociopath," said Harry in mock-seriousness.

"Blimey."

"Nakajawa: the self proclaimed truth seeker and sociopath. May your path never cross with the Weasley twins…!"

Harry stopped short. He and Ron stared at Hermione, who leapt up from her seat with the most astonishing expression on her face. Then she started to pace around the living room muttering to herself nonstop.

"Call St. Mungo's; Hermione's gone completely barmy," muttered Ron.

Harry didn't have the time to respond to that. Hermione stopped pacing, grabbed the two of them by the shirt, and dragged them to Ron's room again.

"Nakajawa," whispered Hermione as she closed the door.

"What about him?"

"He can do some 'truth seeking' on shim-yun-ui-noon!" hissed Hermione.

"But he's a Muggle!" exclaimed Ron.

"Not just any kind of Muggle. Nakajawa is a hacker. If I understand him correctly, he'll do almost anything to find out about something if he finds it interesting. If we just make it sound like Harry came across something interesting and unknown, I'll bet he'll lap it up and dig like crazy!"

Harry nodded his head slowly. He didn't find the heart to deny Hermione when she summed up Nakajawa quite nicely.

"Anyway, we're not well suited to search about this," continued Hermione. "Nicholas Flamel was a European wizard, so we had all the resources at hand. But this is Korean … People don't know much about Asia to begin with, and Korea's one of the most obscure countries. And there is things too Asian for us to know or understand. But Nakajawa … he's Japanese with a Korean background, and has a LOT of experience with digging information."

Ron wasn't convinced yet.

"But he's still a Muggle! How is he supposed to find something that might be magic-related?"

Hermione waved her hand impatiently.

"Seriously Ron! Don't you remember Jiho's the first person to use the word on Harry? And as far as we know, he's a Muggle! If 'shim-yun-ui-noon' is something even Muggle know, then Nakajawa can find it out. In any case, Jiho and Nakajawa live together. If we make it sound like Jiho knows about this, Nakajawa can ask him or sneak into Jiho book collection to find it out."

Ron looked convinced, if a bit peeved, for the moment. Harry just smiled feebly. Hermione's plan, for once, sounded quite solid. But he had something he wanted to know.

"Hermione, why are you so tuned up to find out what shim-yun-ui-noon means? I mean, I'm curious, yeah, but you seem to more curious then me, and I'm the one who hears that word from other people."

Hermione looked rather thoughtful at that.

"I don't know …" she looked at Harry's eyes briefly. "Something's bugging me. Like you said, it sounds VERY important …"

"I know," Harry said. "But something tells ME that as long as I know it's important then that's more then enough."

* * * * *

Mr. Weasley and Percy (Harry only then realized Percy wasn't with the rest of the Weasleys at the Leaky Cauldron) came back home later that evening.

"Hello Percy," said Harry smiling at him. Percy mumbled a hello, but avoiding meeting Harry's eyes. Without saying a word, he went up the stairs.

"Percy's … still a bit shocked after last years … incident," explained Mr. Weasley apologetically.

"He looked a bit guilty," murmured Harry, without realizing he was talking out loud.

Mr. Weasley looked surprised at that.

"He did?"

Harry frowned at himself: he couldn't say why, but something told him whatever Percy thought of him right now, angry and hateful was not one of them. Harry shrugged.

"It was just a feeling," said Harry, scratching his head. "Anyway … can I ask you a question, Mr. Weasley?"

"Fire away," said Mr. Weasley, smiling.

"What happened while I was … gone?"

Mr. Weasley's countenance darkened.

"You don't have to answer me," said Harry quickly, looking at Mr. Weasley's obvious discomfort on the subject.

Mr. Weasley shook his head with a sigh.

"No, I'll answer it. Dumbledore told me to tell you everything if you asked, and I agree with him. I have something important to tell you anyway."

Mr. Weasley directed Harry to an empty room on the second floor. After Harry sat on a chair, Mr. Weasley started to talk.

"It was a nightmare. None of the protective wards were set off the night you 'disappeared' you know. Nobody used magic, so neither Dumbledore nor the ministry had any idea what happened. Arabella Figg, the person who was to keep an eye on you, went to number four and found the door open and the interior in a complete ruin. I never saw so much blood in my entire life." Mr. Weasley let out a shudder at that.

Harry suddenly remembered the chunk of flesh that landed on his hand and blanched. Mr. Weasley stopped talking immediately.

"Are you all right?" asked Mrs. Weasley. His face was pale.

"I'm alright, Mrs. Weasley. I-I saw the blood too. But I can handle it. So, what happened after that?"

Mr. Weasley turned even paler.

"Are you sure you can handle it, Harry? If you saw the blood, then it's unlikely you were unaffected by it. Maybe I should stop here …"

"I was affected, but I'm getting over it. Avoiding it doesn't really help," said Harry firmly.

Mr. Weasley continued reluctantly, as if he was doing it against his better judgment.

"Arabella informed Dumbledore first, and then notified the ministry. They found out that most of the blood wasn't from you, and the … remains weren't you. The Dursleys are still alive," added Mr. Weasley. Harry neither reacted nor spoke at that. Mr. Weasley continued.

"A search party was arranged, but we had no idea where you could have gone. The suspicions lied mostly on your Indian friend, but Arabella Figg …"

"Are you talking about Mrs. Figg, my neighbor? I always thought it was strange to see her always around me all of a sudden."

"Yes. Well, Arabella didn't know who he was, or where he lived. She saw you hanging around with him, but she thought he was just a Muggle, so she didn't put much thought on him. The search party found your scent, but the problem was your scent was everywhere. There were at least three areas where your scent was found, and even that on almost every house within a 50 yard radius. The ministry relieved us from our usual jobs to find you. Even with everyone searching, it was still a monstrous job.

"Then Hedwig came to Dumbledore, but with no letter. She wasn't hurt, but she looked like someone rough-handled her before she came."

Harry swallowed. So that's why Dumbledore didn't respond to me immediately … Someone took away my letter from Hedwig.

"We didn't know what to do: we didn't dare to send her back to where ever she came from, and we weren't even sure you sent her either. So we continued searching with your scent. Finally your godfather contacted Dumbledore out of the blue saying that he found you. After that, you know story."

Harry bowed his head.

"It must have been a horrible month for everyone," muttered Harry. "And I was having fun when everyone was …"

"Don't," cut Mr. Weasley sharply. "After what you've been through, you really needed that break."

Harry looked up curiously.

"Yes, I heard what happened," said Mr. Weasley. He looked pained. "The Kuze family told Dumbledore about everything they knew, and he told me today. I'm sorry you had to go through all that, Harry. We should have taken you with us when summer holidays started."

"No one would have guessed this would happen," said Harry a bit sheepishly.

"I know … but still people tend to regret past actions even if they had no control over them."

Harry just sat on his chair silently.

"Harry … you're not dwelling on last years events, are you?" asked Mr. Weasley tentatively.

"No," answered Harry a bit too quickly. Mr. Weasley looked a bit worried at that.

"No, really I'm not. I don't deny I was before, but now I don't."

Mr. Weasley let out a sigh. Of relief or foreboding, Harry didn't know.

"I'm glad to hear that."

There was an awkward silence.

"So … what's going to happen to the Dursleys?" said Harry at last.

Mr. Weasley eyes flashed, but he immediately lowered his eyes.

"Nothing; absolutely nothing," Mr. Weasley clenched his fists. "As far as the Ministry's concerned, the Dursleys were under control of some Asian curse so they are not to be blamed." Mr. Weasley looked at Harry apologetically. Harry just let out a sigh of resignation.

I guess I'll be going back to stay with the Dursleys again after this term…

(to be continued ...)