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Chapter Thirty

Remus proceeded to trace the magical signature of whoever had interfered with the post. He also traced where the diverted post went to.

The magical signature belonged to no one Remus knew, but he was sure Dumbledore had put them up to this― no one else had reason to interfere with Yusuke's mail. He made a copy of the signature for later use, then traced the mail itself. He folded to where the mail was after he realized that it was still in Hogwarts.

He wasn't that surprised to see that it was all just stacked, higgledy-piggledy, in a damp room in the lowest dungeon. This was rather bad, as parchment didn't do well in damp. He gathered up the mail and took it with him, leaving a nasty note about thieves in its place.

He returned to Ken No Ie to send off a protest to the Administrator of the Postal Office about having a private postbox interfered with. He also sent a message to Miyamoto Musashi-sama about it. Then he sorted through the mess and announced, "Well, most of the reports were hand-carried, now all the post will be. I'll see to it myself." He arranged everything so that all Yusuke's post came to him personally so that he could get it to Yusuke as soon as possible, without interference. He'd go to Japan on a regular basis to pick up mail, if he had to.

He sorted through things again and took the results to Yusuke.

"Here. Mail. I found most of it in the lower levels of Hogwarts. It might be a bit damp, so you could use a few drying charms." Remus settled back in his chair to wait for instructions.

Yusuke snorted. "Well, whatever. Open the reports and shit and I'll see what Father has to say."

He opened the letter, noticing the date was three days ago. He read quickly and agreed with his Father that he should not enter and make a big deal of it. Then, if his name came out of the goblet, they'd know that something was up. He was to participate if his name was drawn.

"Ok, that's that. And ... business for me?" He waited a moment, then, when Remus shook his head he announced, "If there's anything I need to do, one of you let me know."

Sirius nodded, "Ok, we will. Now what do you want to do?"

"O-saki tō!" Yusuke stood up and headed for the downstairs back lounge.

They were met by several Dansei, waka and gaki, who settled them into comfortable piles of pillows and offered them wasabi peas, hot saki, and takoyaki. They settled in to nibble on the hot, salty peas, guzzle saki and argue over whether the octopus balls were done enough. Since Yusuke was making the takoyaki himself, his declaration that it was done when it was darkly browned won the day. No one was that concerned.

Sirius finally looked at the clock on the wall and announced, "Nearly dinner, you better get back."

"Kuso! I don't care. Watashi yorokobanakerete! Dumbledore is messing with me again." He slammed around for a moment then shrugged. "Kare o fakku."

Sirius just helped him get back into his robes. "Yes, fuck him. Only, seriously, I wouldn't fuck him with someone else's dick. Really. I know you're not pleased, I'm not either. Control your temper, if you please. Losing it isn't good. All you'll do is wind up giving Grandaddy Longbeard what he wants. Calm down."

"Gomen, Shiriusu-oji, I'm drunk." Yusuke shrugged into his robes.

"I know, you're mixing your languages."

Remus just snorted. He was well aware that Yusuke was a great deal less drunk than he was letting on. It was a Japanese thing.

"Warui, Remusu-aniki. I'm going now." And with that, Yusuke folded right into the entrance hall of Hogwarts and ambled into the Great Hall to see if dinner was served yet.