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Chapter Twenty-Five

It wasn't long before Yusuke got a message from his father. It wasn't long, just a name and the phrase, "Dumbledore's lackey." Since the only thing he'd had on his plate, beside destroying Voldemort's gumi, was finding out who was hexing him, and with what exactly, he knew what he needed to do. A quick note to Shiriusu-oji set up the first step.

He was going to have to deal with Dumbledore soon. He didn't want to have to kill the old man, it wasn't convenient. He didn't need to have to deal with the fallout from that particular piece of obvious foolishness. Dumbledore was a symbol of The Light. He, Yusuke, was not. As he'd said before, he was a shadow cast by shadows, and he liked it that way.

In order to do what he needed to do, he was going to need more time. A lot more time. Hermione would have a complete hissy fit, but he was going to skip classes. He wasn't sure which ones, yet, he'd have to think about it.

Yusuke got up and wandered into the bathroom. He was showering when he noticed that his protective bracelet was turning black. This meant that someone had cast another hex on him. He got out of the shower and padded, naked and soaking wet, to the full length mirror on the wall. He cast a diagnostic on himself and found that the honesty hex and another hex had been replaced, probably while he slept. He used a second spell to identify the second hex. It was one designed to make him more accepting of English ways and his English name. He sighed. He was beginning to get really tired of this sort of thing. And that made him angry. He couldn't remember who had said it first, but they really weren't going to like him when he was angry. He removed the spells and returned to his shower.

After a shower he always exercised, in this case he did a complete kata, watched Neville in his exercises then led Neville through a yoga routine that saw both of them panting and sweating. Yusuke plucked a cigaret from thin air and puffed a couple of times. "That tobacco you gave me is excellent. I'm saving it for special occasions." He smoked for a moment then continued, "You're doing very well. I'd put you up against any green belt. But I expect you to continue to improve at the same rate."

Neville grinned. "Well, thank you. I'll try my best."

Yusuke just nodded. "You always do. Run tomorrow?"

"Ok. Shower ... now." Neville sniffed himself. "Ugh!"

Yusuke waved his hand to cast a cleaning charm over both of them. He explained with a smirk. "So we don't stink poor Hermione out."

As they walked back to the dorm, Yusuke told Neville about the honesty hex. He knew he could trust Neville to keep his silence as well as come up with an idea of what to do about it.

Neville thought in silence for several meters then said, "You know who's doing it?"

"Chichi-ue said Fudge was sending an Unspeakable to do it. But ... I think Dumbledore dropped a hint or two. So, I'm turning Shiriusu-oji lose on Fudge. Dumbledore ... I don't want to mess with him, yet. As to the Unspeakable? What to do? Any ideas?"

Neville got a particularly evil smile on his round face. "Well, there's a muggle saying that even Gran knows. Turn about is fair play. Need an explanation?"

Yusuke blinked for a moment. "No. No, I don't. Now, all I need is to find the subject."

Under the Ministry For Magic an Unspeakable shivered; a sudden, violent, second long shake. When questioned he said, "Goose must have walked on my grave." then he went back to his work.

.

Remus Lupin spent some of his time getting Ken No Ie organized to suit him. The way the gaki had the place organized led to them running up and down stairs to the cellars a dozen times a day. The noise was annoying, to say the least. So staples were moved up to the pantry, and the boots and coats to the entry way.