The Hogsmeade visit prohibition was...she had never been to Hogsmeade in one of those well-loved Saturday visits. She would not know what she was missing. Rules always came first, anyhow.

She stared at the staff table and wondered if the teachers already knew what happened on the train. Of course they did. She wondered how they would take it, how they would react when they knew she had decimated the compartment as if it was merely a twig or something equally easily destructible.

All the students were eating heartily. But of course. The Sorting took quite a long time and it was cold. But she was never really hungry, especially at a time such as this.

She stood up. She needed air. She needed to think, to stop giving the smiles that did not reach her heart.

"Pardon me," she said to no one in particular at the Gryffindor Table. Then Shinrei skulked out of the Great Hall.

It was either to the dungeons to check out her old Chishio draught brewing place or outside into the raging storm.

Nimue watched Shinrei leave.

"Do you think she's OK?" Nimue said to the other Fourth Years. "Shinrei's been through a lot today and she seems quite 'down'. I don't think she is at all happy about this betrothal. She says it's a great honour and all but that isn't being happy. She hardly touched her food."

She'd been around Shinrei long enough to know the girl's formality prevented her from opening up. The only person she might have to was Jon Sinclair - but Jon was down the table engaged in excited conversation about the upcoming Quidditch tournament and anyway since Diagon Alley there appeared to be problems between he & Shinrei.

Jian was caught in an internal debate whether or not to follow Shinrei. She did not look well, for certain. Her demeanour showed a disturbed spirit, more than a disturbed physical body.

"Her spirit is hurt," Jian replied. "Do you think I should follow her?"

"I agree with you, Jian." said Nimue quietly, "It is a matter of her spirit. The castle is very large though and you could wander for hours in it without finding her. There are a lot of nooks and crannies to lose yourself in and she did a lot of exploring last term. I am sure she will make her way to Gryffindor Tower later - she always does."

She paused, "I think though that she would welcome your friendship as you have much in common."

She turned the subject to other matters. "Jian, do you fly? I know Shinrei is very keen in Quidditch and will no doubt be trying out for the House team."

"I shall wait for her to return tonight," Jian said. His voice was soft but merited no argument from anybody. He looked for a moment at the direction to which Shinrei had gone and reluctantly turned back to his food. Such rich fare...so different from the plain dishes they had at the temple.

He shook his head a little ruefully at Nimue's question. "We are not taught to fly broomsticks, Miss. We have...other ways to travel. My Portkey is one way. There are others."

*******

Randal had remained quiet since the announcements. They didn't effect him in anyway: Quidditch was of no interest and Hogsmeade wasn't that exciting anyway.

However what did interest him was the disappearance of Miss Hikari. He had not been involved in the incident on the train, but he had heard about it. And then there were the strange things that had happened to her last term. He briefly wondered if she had anything to do with the secret room that he had found at the end of last term that had smelled of Ravens. She had always smelled a little strange. He had drawn his own conclusions about her...

Deciding to try and pre-empt her plans and convinced that he would catch the person who had been using that strange room, he glanced briefly at the Ravenclaw table where Branwen was sitting with her friends. Then left the hall.

Once outside he looked round and crept into a dark corner. No one was there to see his image shimmer slightly as he transformed into the cream wolf and a small hole in reality form as he made the door into the dream world. Quickly he ran through into the dream world, closing the 'door' behind him and headed down towards the secret room that he had found last term that had smelt so strange. In the waking world the room had a door that only opened at certain times of the day, at least through the dream world he could walk directly to a room regardless of the obstacles.

Once he entered the room, he created another door back to the waking world, slipped through and changed back into his normal form. He would be waiting in the shadows for her if this was where she was headed...

*********

Shinrei's keen senses had picked up roaring thunder and heavy rain outside the castle. It would be pointless to walk in the middle of the storm trying to think.

She took her usual route down to the dungeons, to her secret room. She needed a place where she would not be seen. A place where she did not have to put on the mask that had long since been an integral part of her existence.

She found her way without trouble. The dungeons were musty and cold as always, and darker and more sinister than ever before.

She did not have her potion-making things. They were along with the rest of her possessions. There would be nothing to do in the secret room. There would be nothing there, only the cold blank stone walls.

Shinrei reached the hidden doorway at the end of the dark corridor. She held out her hand, as if waiting to touch something precious, then made it come into contact with the wall.

The stone swirled and dissolved and gave way into the familiar round opening that led into the place that had kept her darkest secret during the previous term. It was dark and--

Someone else was there. Not another visit from Kanjou's ninjas.

Her wand slid effortlessly into her hand. She held it out into the darkness. "Show yourself or suffer the consequences."

Randal stepped out of the shadow, his yellow eyes glowing in the gloom. "Hummm... Not bad."

There was no wand in his hand, but his demeanour was dark and imposing. He was confident that he had the upper hand in this situation, and now Shinrei had given away something else about herself.

"So you have heightened senses too. *Most* interesting." He surveyed Shinrei's appearance. She was not carrying anything except her wand. Would she be the one who was using the dead Raven and herbs down here? She had managed to find this room, and he knew that the entrance would not be one that anyone could blunder into. He decided to chance it...

"So... What are you doing here in the heart of the Dungeon. It is a dangerous place for a Gryffindor. And you have not brought your dead raven and herbs with you today, why not?"

Randal stared at her. Waiting for her to make her next move. Underneath his senses were very alert. He was ready for anything, his work here pre-dominant in his mind.

Shinrei stared right back. His very strange yellow eyes were burning straight into her soul, mercilessly, giving away nothing but his certainty at his words and actions.

The more rational side of her brain wheeled around frantically. He was a student. A Fourth Year Slytherin she had not met personally but had heard about. Top in duelling class--yes, that was it. She had very nearly gotten the highest mark but he had bested her.

The name clicked into place. Fudge. Randal Fudge.

Kami-sama. How did he know about *this* place? How had he managed to catch her right in the act? What kind of power did he have to know about her actions--and the raven's eyes and her Chishio Draught herbs?

Her voice was steady, as was her wand, which was still pointed at him. The denial slid smoothly from her tongue.

"I do not know what you speak of," she said softly, not daring to blink. "I have no plans to harm anybody or anything. I wanted some time to myself and yet here you are accusing me of something I am not even aware of."

Shinrei was already contemplating casting a Memory Charm on him as she said: "What is it you want?"

Randal continued to stare at her. Now he trusted her even less. So he had made a judgement that it was her behind the smell of the dead raven, but that final intuitive leap had been made because he believed it... He suspected she was lying, trying to confuse him by denying all knowledge, but how to prove it.

"Why, Miss Hikari, are you saying that you have never been in this room before? I think not. You left the great hall and came straight here. You could not have just happened on this room in the time it has taken you to leave the great hall and arrive here, so you must have been here before. Especially as this room is kept secret by the spirit of the school itself. No, you would have had to search quite hard for a room such as this. And were that not enough, then your air of confidence as you walked through what appears to be a wall would have been enough to tell me that you had been here."

He treated her to a small smile, and his eyes twinkled as he reached the next conclusion. "And, you have already demonstrated your heightened abilities. Had you been here before you would not have failed to find the traces of the body fluids from the dead raven, nor the few small leaves of the herbs, both of which I found in here last term after you had arrived. You would not have been blind to them and still been able to detect me in this room just now..."

Now he had convinced himself too. But there was still a feeling of doubt. What if he was wrong. What if she had just stumbled on the room somehow.

"As for what I want." The look in his eyes gave nothing away. "I want to know who has been using this room and what they have been doing in it. I want to know who is responsible for the presence of dead ravens." His voice was getting louder. "I want to know the TRUTH Miss Hikari!"

"The truth?" she asked in a soft, empty voice, the complete antithesis to his loud question. "What truth are you talking about? Why would I bother telling you the truth when you obviously have *created* your own--the ones you have already believed in even before I stepped into this room."

"I know of this room, /Mister/ Fudge--" she addressed him with no Japanese honorific--"because I have been here last term. I have said to Sarah Taverner that I explore the dungeons because the presence of so many people in the Great Hall overwhelms me. I found this room one time and have taken to staying here when I need to be alone."

She shook her head almost sadly. "How so easily you distrust, Mister Fudge, and how so easily you lose your patience with someone you do not even know." Shinrei shoved the wand back into her sleeve. She did not have the energy to fight. The half-truths she was voicing smoothly were draining her remarkably of what little strength she had left.

Why in the name of the gods did she have to go to a place such as Hogwarts? How long would she have to wait until Kanjou came for her? How long would she still keep her secret with so much fear in her heart?

"I am a medicine woman of my clan, Mister Fudge. I do not deny that I make potions from our own native traditions and even the magical equivalent of Muggle vitamin supplements. You can ask Alpha Rich, Yvette Monclere or Madison Avalon."

"That is all I know." Her eyes flashed but her soft tone did not change one bit. "Oyasumi."

After her speech, Shinrei turned and began to take her first step away from him.

Randal watched her turn to go. Loose his patience? He grinned inside if she could see the calm logical reasoning that he was doing he would hardly say he had lost his patience. He must be getting a little to good at the old intimidation trick. He noted that she had avoided a denial about the traces of herbs on the floor. At least now she had given him a reason for the presence.

"The headmaster has told me that you are classed as a medicine woman where you come from. I am also aware that you applied to assist Madame Pomfrey in the infirmary and were turned down. And it is not surprising that you find so many people overwhelming considering where you have come from. But that does still not explain the dead raven. If you are using the remains of any raven in your potions then you should be aware that in this country an ingredient like that would only be used in dark spells."

He watched her carefully, making sure she was listening. "Your background is a great excuse, but you should be aware that in this country the ravens are considered important. There are even some Ravens that live in the Tower of London that are protected in the eyes of the law. It is an accepted fact that their body parts are only illicitly used for potion brewing. You would be wise to find a substitute. Or if you cannot then do not carry your ingredients around hogwarts. There are those that would seek retribution on you if they were to discover them."

Perhaps she would not take the warning seriously, it did not matter to him. After all he wasn't talking to Branwen right now anyway. Although he had promised to tell her when he found out.

"As for me," he said softly as almost as an after thought. "I do not form an opinion unless the facts are there to confirm it. I may suspect and I may accuse but my opinion is my own."

Shinrei had dead stopped in her tracks. What he was saying cut deep, though he would never know how deeply they did so.

The raven's eyes were one of the most important ingredients of the Chishio draught. These sustained her sight and more or less stopped her eyelids from bleeding whenever she experienced meltdowns.

At the back of her mind Shinrei knew Randal was somehow enjoying this. She had justified her actions and he had just discovered a secret of hers. She had just claimed weakness and he had said his self-righteous warnings. Gods. He even knew practically *everything* she had told the Headmaster about her situation with Clan Kossawa.

Why did Headmaster Dumbledore give him power to, somehow, meddle? And in her life at that.

She needed no one to give her warnings. No one to probe into her activities. She was not doing any harm. Shinrei was trying to survive through another day. Without the Chishio draught...

"I thank you for your advise that I take caution, Mister Fudge," she replied, turning back to face him. "I shall, of course, bear your words in my mind as I go about."

"Your opinion may be your own, but I hope you do not cast judgement on things that you do not know. I think you suspect me a Dark wizard or something of the sort, do you not? Why else would you bother to know so much about me and what I do around this school--when there are so many other students here?"

Something in her welled up at the thought. Shinrei knew she was getting emotional but right now she did not care. This self-righteous boy knew *NOTHING* about what she was going through. Shinrei was only half-aware that her wand had slid back into her grip. She was only half-conscious of the fact that she was raising the wand and--

"Just because I can do something like /this/--" her voice was like a quiet feline growl as the tip of the wand erupted with countless bright illusory ninja stars, hurtling towards Randal only to disappear midway into thin air--"DOES NOT mean I thrive on the Dark Side."

Randal did not even blink when Shinrei performed her spell. He did not believe that the spell she had chosen to weave would hurt him in anyway, although he had not seen it before.

Inside he knew why he bothered to know so much about her. But of course he could not tell her that in fact it was his job to know everything about everyone and to report on what went on in the school. No, Shinrei could make her own conclusions. But he would still be watching her.

He stared into her eyes for a minute. His yellow eyes glowing in the dim light in the room, and his blond hair trying to spoil the effect by hanging a little too much over his face.

He pushed his hair back in a relaxed manner. "Well I am glad you will take heed of my warnings. And I am sorry to disappoint you, but you are not the only student in this school that I am watching."

He gave her one of his most charming grins and the smile lit his eyes too. There was no sign of malice or any other emotion there at all. "I'm sure we will *bump into* one another again soon."

He bowed slightly to her in the oriental manner and then brushed past her and out of the room.

"I would be most thankful *and* pleased if you stay out of my life and my activities, Mister Fudge," Shinrei drawled, replacing her wand. "Believe me. There is nothing regarding myself that will interest you, unless you so passionately believe that I am a Dark wizard."

"Then again...that would not be so terrible, ne? The good trying to defeat the supposedly evil. I heard you are proficient at duelling. Perhaps we shall soon see how proficient you really are."

It was a challenge. This was the first time Shinrei had issued something of the sort outside of Clan Kossawa.

She smiled genuinely at his retreating back and allowed herself to blend into the shadows.

Randal had already left and did not hear what Shinrei had said to try and provoke him. In the corridor outside he slunk into the shadows and headed back towards the Slytherin common room. He had a report to write before the other Slytherin's returned. One that he felt he ought to show the headmaster some of as well....