[Fic] -- IWoT chapter 12
“Where are we going?” Harry asked the man in front of him. It was dark - really, really dark. And they were creeping around in the dead of night for reasons he had yet to understand.
The place gave him the chills, almost like the Forbidden Forest the few times he had been daring (or stupid) enough to enter the grounds. It was an utterly foreboding, yet familiar sensation that crawled across his skin like ants on a summer day.
He realized that he was trailing behind so he ignored the shapes of what could be creatures crawling about in lieu of catching up to the person who was very much like the father he never had.
“You shall see soon,” the man replied not unkindly. “For now, we should be as quiet as possible.”
Harry fingered his vest absentmindedly, trying not to let his restlessness show. His bangs were in his eyes again, so he brushed them away so that they didn’t hamper his vision.
It wouldn’t do to be caught here and now just because he couldn’t see two feet ahead of him. The constant paranoia of watching his surroundings, however, made him feel like a hunted animal. It was starting to grain on his nerves.
After all this was done and over with, he was going to relax and treat himself to a nice, large order of odango…
That is, if nothing dangerous happened first that warranted a visit to the Hospital.
Finally, after beating around a few more trees and bushes, they came across a small clearing. Harry felt his heart quicken slightly as the black-haired man took a few steps forward and turned around to face him.
Something was just not right about this picture, and he could feel it in the way the man was looking at him with a predatory stare. All of his senses were screaming at him to run away, to back out of the deal (‘What deal?’), that this was a very bad idea and that he never should have agreed to this in the first place…
“Anko-chan, come here. It is time for me to give you the curse seal you swore to take.”
Harry gave a start when the man called his name (‘No, not my name. My name is something else…’) and froze when he got a good look at his teacher, saw that familiar, maniacal gleam in the elder’s eyes, felt that oppressive, suffocating air that just about screamed at all his senses to run away and never look back…
‘Voldemort! What the bloody h-’
“Hai, Orochimaru-sama,” he heard himself say. “I will do as you wish.”
And despite his own protesting, Harry took a step forward… (1)
---
In Way of Trouble - Again…
Chapter 12: “Confusion”
By Hikagi
---
Sasuke flinched ever so slightly as he walked down the corridors. Ever since the end of the Quidditch game earlier today, the seal had been acting up strangely. Anko-sensei (that still sounded strange to his ears, especially since he never thought that he would have anything to do with the seemingly crazed jounin after the Chuunin Exams) had said that this happened whenever Orochimaru was close by, or when he himself was in grave danger.
Neither option was very comforting to him at this moment, especially when he was in a school full of under-aged wizards who didn’t have the benefits of undergoing shinobi training. If anything were to happen now, then there was no saying what could happen to the rest of the school.
And then quite suddenly, the pain stopped. All that was left was a slight itching feeling where the skin grew too hot and irritated.
‘I should find the others,’ he thought as he hurried past the students.
---
“I’m really sorry about that,” her friend said, babbling on to her dismay. “It shouldn’t have happened that way, and I’m afraid that he has a tendency to be unpredictable in some aspects…”
Hermione turned on her heels and grabbed the other Gryffindor’s shoulders.
“Look,” she said, staring her housemate in the eyes. They were a piercing green, just like Harry’s… She stopped that train of thought. “It’s alright. It’s not your fault, so you don’t have to apologize for anyone. Madam Pomfrey can take care of him just fine, you’ll see. It’s not the first time he’s gotten injured…”
Hermione turned her gaze downward and chewed on her lips in worry. “Well, at least I hope he’s doing fine, you know? It doesn’t seem to be a serious injury, but I can’t help but worry.”
Sakura nodded in understanding. “In any case, you should be with him if you’re so worried. You don’t have to walk me to Hagrid’s place.”
Hermione smiled and shook her head. “I can’t do anything for him by waiting in the Wing for him to wake up. At least this way, I can escort you to wherever you need to go. It’s unsafe for students to walk anywhere by themselves - you remember all that rubbish the Ministry’s been spouting as of late, right? Besides, it would be nice to give Hagrid a visit every once in a while.”
Sakura gave her a small smile. “Oh, alright. Thanks for doing all this for me.”
“Not a problem.”
---
Harry felt that his head was swimming in a pond of murky water. Wait, it wasn’t just his head because heads were attached to bodies, right? In that case, Harry felt like his body was submerged in dense liquid, almost like that one Task where he had swallowed gillyweed and swam to the bottom of the Lake.
Every move he tried to make was painstakingly slow. His muscles refused to cooperate and in the darkness, he didn’t know which way to go except forward. Or maybe down. Up? Or was that sideways? He couldn’t tell.
He would hear voices every once in a while, but they were so vague and faint that they would be gone before he could recognize anything that was being said. Even if he strained his ears, the only consistent thing that he could make out was the steady beating of a distant drum that pulsed in time with his heartbeat.
How is he?
Didn’t leave any permanent damage, did he?
I hope he wakes up soon.
As do I.
It was noisy. His head was pounding as if he had taken on a Bludger straight on and had fallen off his broom from fifty feet up. The constant stream of timbres didn’t help in the least bit, but he could tell that whatever was making that noise was very worried.
Worried…about him?
Either way, he wished that they would just shut up and go away.
I’ll never be able to face my McGonagall after this.
McGonagall? What about me? I’ll never live this down for the rest of my life! Fred and George are probably going to have my hide!
Forget Fred and George. The Slytherins are having a field day as we speak. I wouldn’t put it past the blokes to flaunt it in our faces at every opportunity.
At least the other Houses are being nice about all of this.
Yeah, right.
And the swell of echoes grew louder, bouncing with greater intensity within the darkness, filling up the space with emotions not his own.
Wait ‘til I get my hands on that bas-
Shh! You guys better quiet down before we get kicked out.
Hey, you know that he was only kidding. Besides, we were on our way out.
Yeah. Tell us when he wakes up, okay?
Sure, no problem.
Well then, I’d best be going too.
Yeah, yeah. I’ll keep an eye out for him.
Thanks.
More words filtered in and out, but Harry felt his mind head for the surface of his consciousness, stroking through the dense liquid as if gravity worked in the opposite direction. It seemed to take forever and he had no idea how much time passed, but the endless depths of the ocean-like environment started to slowly clear with each stroke, the murky water around him fading away until he could just about see the imaginary sky. Finally, with one last effort, he broke through the surface and opened his eyes to the familiar ceiling of the Hospital Wing.
He recoiled as the lights hit his eyes and groaned in discomfort, bringing the blankets with effort to shield his face. A shuffling sound to his right alerted him of another person in the room.
“Hey, Harry,” it said uncomfortably. Harry felt the ringing sensation from waking up too quickly slowly fade as the room stopped spinning and started to right itself. He tried to sit up and he winced when even the smallest of movements made his head hurt more.
Casting another look at the stranger, he blinked once… and then once more before reaching over to put on his glasses.
Oh, it was Ron.
“Erg,” he coughed, clearing his dry throat as he looked around for a glass of water. He found one next to where his glasses had been and took a few gulps. “How long have I been out?” he asked, feeling the ache of sore muscles all along his body.
“Well, a lot less time than all of your other visits,” Ron said, trying to put things in a more…positive? perspective. It didn’t seem to make Harry feel any better, especially since all the aching pains technically weren’t supposed to be there after Pomfrey treated him.
“What happened Ron?”
His best friend made a noncommittal noise.
“Did I get the Snitch? What was the score?”
This time he coughed, all the while looking uncomfortable to be in the room.
“Well, erm, Harry. About that…”
Harry felt the winds brush against his face. There was nothing that relaxed and thrilled him at the same time like a good flight high above the grounds, and he relished it. Not to mention that this was also the first Quidditch match of the year, so he was in good spirits for the time being.
Idly, he wondered if flying was addicting like the drugs his Aunt Petunia had once wrongly accused him of dealing. If it was, then he was beyond saving at this point because there wasn’t anything else that loved doing more.
There was nothing he could do about his need to fly every so often, because he was sure that his father had had the same feelings. As Hermione had once said before, it was in his blood.
“We all saw you start diving for the Snitch, mate. With eyes like yours, I’m sure you spotted the Snitch in no time.”
Something zoomed past him, and Harry was quickly brought out of his daydreams. Their match today was against the Hufflepuffs for reasons unknown, as the Ravenclaws and Slytherins had backed out earlier last month. So far, their own Chasers were doing a good job of keeping a nice lead running. Hufflepuff’s Goal Keep wasn’t doing so hot, but that was to be expected.
The figure that had flown past was the Hufflepuff Seeker, what’s-his-name (Williams? Smith? He didn’t remember at this point).
“And apparently, so did the other Seeker.”
Not understanding what made the Hufflepuff speed off like that, Harry followed suit, his instincts taking over. All was made clear when he saw a flash of gold dancing near the opposing goal posts, and Harry leaned into his Firebolt for all it was worth.
Connors (Harry remembered his name now) was still ahead by a long shot, having been the one to spot the Snitch first. But Harry trusted his broom and was confident that he could catch up in no time.
Harry shrugged, not bothering to correct his friend since he knew how stubborn Ron could be once he had made up his mind, especially when it came to topics such as Quidditch.
For a brief instant, Harry wondered why the Wizarding World didn’t have more than one sport when the Muggles engaged in over dozens worldwide. “Then what happened?”
Ron gave a snort. “Nara went off his rocker and everything. He stole the Quaffle from his own teammate and took a batter as well to keep people away.”
“Are you sure that’s what happened? I seem to recall that he switched places with a Chaser though.” Harry was a bit confused. Was Ron talking about when Nara had traded the Goal Keep and Chaser positions all around? He remembered hearing something about it from the announcer’s stand, but the Snitch had been the sole focus of his attention at that point.
“No, I mean he actually went and took a bat and the Quaffle.”
“What the bloody hell!?”
“Is he crazy?”
“Someone check to see if he’s been jinxed!”
Harry recalled that people had been yelling loudly, but he had been solely focused on seeking the Snitch and out-maneuvering the Hufflepuff Seeker. He had assumed that the sudden outbreak of roaring had been from a scored goal or something similar.
Ron seemed to have realized this and continued explaining. “Well, we all thought he was crazy for aiming the Quaffle at his own goalie.”
“What the heck is he doing?”
“Somebody stop him!”
“He’s going the wrong way!”
“Apparently that wasn’t what he was going for. It turns out, he was aiming for…”
Harry heard the noise of some high-pitched whistling to his left but was too preoccupied with the Snitch in front of him to see the zooming red object approaching at an incredible speed.
Ron had the grace not to finish his sentence, but Harry’s brain had caught up with the rest of him as he slowly remembered what happened before he woke up in the Infirmary.
“We lost, didn’t we,” he said, in a disbelieving voice.
Ron gave yet another snort, and Harry had the notion that his best friend was doing a rather good impression of a pig. That idea horrified him as he was reminded of his Muggle relatives, so he ruthlessly squashed that train of thought before it could go anywhere else.
“Bloody brilliant, if you ask me,” Ron said, trying to lessen the situation a little. “He lost ten points to gain a hundred fifty back and win the match.”
Harry wondered exactly how well Ron had taken the initial shock, which lead him to wonder how long he’d been out cold. It must have been quite a long time, because his best friend seemed to have recovered somewhat than what he might’ve been like mere minutes after losing.
“Imagine. I’d never think that anybody could lose to Hufflepuff.”
Harry tried to shrug off the feeling of disappointment at losing to supposedly worst team out of the four, but he couldn’t help but wish that he had tried to close his hands around that little ball of gold just a few seconds sooner…
“There’s a first to everything,” he said finally after realizing that Ron had wanted a response from that last statement.
Ron gave a sudden sharp sound of laughter that made Harry start from his bed. “Sorry mate - I just had a wild thought when you said that.”
“What was it?”
“Picture this. Can you imagine us and Malfoy fighting on the same side? I’d die from a heart attack.”
He laughed again, and this time Harry couldn’t help but to chuckle along at the absurdity. (2)
“Well anyway,” Ron said as he calmed down somewhat. “It’s about time we head back towards the Tower.” He was smiling now, in comparison to before.
“Sure.” Harry scrambled to get out of bed and nearly tripped on the blankets in the process.
“Are you sure you’re alright? I could ask Madam Pomfrey to take another look over you.”
“Trust me,” Harry reassured, now itching to get out of the gowns. “I’ve been in worse scrapes than this. You should know that.” He was also itching to go for a run (where had that come from?), but he didn’t tell that to his best friend.
Ron chose not to reply.
‘Besides, there’s not much she can do to get rid of weird dreams. Although,’ he added with an afterthought, ‘it’s not like I remember what they were about. Hermione would probably like to know what’s been going on. She would also probably tell me to go see Dumbledore…’
Harry felt guilty for hiding things from his best friends, but there wasn’t anything he could do. Even he didn’t know what exactly his weird dreams were about, and he wasn’t sure if having others know about them would help his situation any.
Especially when the weird dreams slipped past his grasp when he woke up and tried to recall them. What was that term? Oh yes - like trying to keep water in your hands. Or was it supposed to be sand? The more he grabbed at it, the more it evaded his thoughts, dancing away just before he could manage to get his mental fingers on it.
The only thing he was sure about was that he was starting to become more and more wary of the international students (and craving things he never knew existed) as time passed on. Those four were more than what they seemed, and his gut feeling hinted at it as well.
Inwardly sighing, Harry made his way towards the basket that held his clothes when something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. He turned the rest of his head so that it faced the window.
“Ron,” Harry said, still not taking his eyes away. “Where are the others?”
Ron was stuffing something into his book bag from the sound of it, but neither teenager was looking at the other at this particular moment. “Beats me, mate. Some of the students are studying up at the Tower.”
“Did Fred and George leave any of their firecrackers behind after last year? Were any of them ordered by the students this year?”
Ron shrugged. “Not that I know of. Why do you ask?”
Harry grabbed his friend and pointed to the window. There were traces of fire and spells in the sky as well as smoke rising up from an area of the forest. No one seemed to notice anything unusual, thinking that they were merely experimental sparks from the practical aspect of DADA or a spell lit up in celebration of the concluded Game.
Ron whistled as a bright flash of light exploded in a distant area of the forest. “Bloody hell! Those don’t look like harmless flashes of wand work!”
“Where’s Hermione?” Harry said, trying not to panic as their eyes slowly met.
“At Hagrid’s place, showing Sakura around at her insistence.”
They froze when they realized what that meant. Half a heartbeat later, Harry was hastily trying to change into his clothes with Ron helping the best to his ability. They didn’t care if his shirt was unbuttoned or if his tie wasn’t straight at this point, so the Gryffindor ended up looking like somewhat of a mess by the time they were done.
The two started sprinting towards the Main Doors, causing a slight commotion in the hallway as they pushed against the flow of traffic. Not long afterwards, there was an even greater surge of panic as McGonagall’s voice rang out amplified throughout Hogwarts (‘Sonorous,’ Harry thought, remembering the spell from the Quidditch World Cup), announcing all students to quickly head to their dormitories.
“Attention all students! You are to speedily go to your rooms this very instant. I repeat, head to your dormitories right now. There is a slight problem outside that will be dealt with shortly. All prefects, make sure that the younger students are all accounted for and report back to the Office immediately. Professors, please head on outside to help contain the situation. Under no circumstances is anyone to go outside! Students caught violating this warning will be given a month’s worth of detention and have two hundred points taken away from their Houses per person.”
The last statement caused both boys to stop in their tracks. They were worried about their friends, but at this point, McGonagall’s stern warning seemed to be of more importance and dire consequences than venturing outside.
Ron gave him a nervous glance. “What does that mean?”
“It means,” he said, breathing heavily, “that there’s something bad going on. Something along the lines of - I don’t know - a Death Eater attack or something.” He crossed his fingers and prayed that he was wrong.
“What about Sakura and Hermione?”
Harry sighed, bringing a hand to his scar as habit dictated whenever he was troubled. The headache had not gone away, despite all of Pomfrey’s care while he had been asleep. “I don’t know.”
They would have contemplated their actions longer, but something else caught their attentions. They saw three familiar teenaged boys start walking in the wrong direction, towards where all the commotion was being held. Outside.
“Did you se-” Harry started. Ron interrupted him.
“Yes. Let’s follow them.”
“How?”
“I have your cloak with me.”
Harry paused, wondering how Ron could have had the foresight to bring something as invaluable as that to the Hospital Wing. His thoughts must have been projected onto his face because Ron quickly added afterwards, “It was because Pomfrey would’ve chased me out if I stayed for too long. I kept it in my bag.”
Harry bought that excuse. “What about the professors? Wouldn’t it be against the rules?”
“You’re starting to sound like Hermione,” Ron joked as he started draping the cloak over the two of them. “Besides, that never stopped us before.”
“You’re right,” Harry said, grinning in spite of himself. “It hasn’t.”
Ron beamed. “Padfoot would be proud of us.”
“…Padfoot isn’t here anymore.”
“Bloody hell! I’m sorry, Harry.”
“It’s alright,” Harry answered with a grim determination set on his face. “I just have to make sure that there’s one less Marauder alive by the time this is all done.”
---
“Run!” Sakura said, pushing Hermione aside as an explosion sounded from inside the Forbidden Forest.
Hermione, too panicked to think, started taking off for the castle. She went about three steps when she realized that the pink-haired girl wasn’t following.
“Sakura!”
She was torn between doing as she was told, and following her friend.
Forest or Castle. Forest, Castle. Forest, Castle…
Then…
‘I knew there was a reason why the Hat was unwilling to place me in Ravenclaw…’
The witch made an exasperated noise in the back of her throat and turned back to head into the forest, taking out her wand as she did so.
She blamed Harry Potter and his “hero tendencies” for her current dilemma, because they were starting to rub off onto her.
‘Blasted Gryffindor traits.’
---
“Where do you think they’re headed?”
“How should I know?”
“Ouch! You’re stepping on my foot.”
There was a scuffle as they tried to untangle themselves.
“Well, it’s a good thing Hermione’s not here with us.”
“True. We’re having a hard time as is.”
“Shh! I see something a head of us!”
“Ow!”
“Sorry.”
---
Oh no, this was all happening at the wrong time… Shikamaru was supposed to have met them by Hagrid’s Hut by now, but none of the boys were in sight at this point. Then when Hermione proposed to wait with her and the explosion went off, she had just left, hoping to ditch the witch before anything drastic could happen. But the other girl was persistent, and Sakura had no choice but to head over to the destined area they had agreed upon before in the case of an attack.
Well, at least Naruto could make a kage-bushin for her if needs be. Then if Hermione caught up, she could lead her astray with the clone while she herself attended to matters elsewhere.
Making a single hand seal, Sakura mouthed the word “Kai!” and released the genjutsu, reverting back to her thirteen-year-old self in the specialized clothing they used for patrol. She sprang off, not noticing the dark robes that watched her from behind the trees.
---
“They’re all going in the same direction,” Harry noted from his vantage point under the Cloak as he saw more figures entering the Forrest.
“Well, then that just means that they’re all in it! I knew from the start that there was something wrong about that Nara guy. He’s too smart to be in Hufflepuff. And that Uchiha person is too conceited and haughty to be in Ravenclaw. If you asked me, they hoodwinked the Hat to get into those Houses.”
“Ron, ‘Mione’s told us that the Hat can’t be tricked. Besides, it seems that Sakura’s going there too.”
“What!? But she’s in Gryffindor!”
“So was Pettigrew.”
“…You don’t have to remind me.”
---
Sakura cursed inwardly when something else exploded and nearly caught her in its radius.
It was a good thing that she had been able to lose Hermione a short while ago, but that didn’t guarantee that the witch wasn’t going to get here any time soon.
A figure stepped into view, and Sakura could tell that it was a wizard by the way he held that precious stick the whole lot depended on.
---
Somehow, in the midst of all the confusion and chaos, they had managed to meet each other without getting hurt.
“Hermione, you’re okay!”
“Honestly, Ron. What’s wrong with you?”
“What happened to Sakura?”
“Sakura? She went in that direction…”
There was a scream, and the Golden Trio took off, now not caring about being seen.
They came to the place they had heard the scream from, and there they saw Sakura Haruno sprawled on the ground. Naruto Uzumaki was in front of her, hovering over her still body.
“What did you do to her!?”
“Urusai!” Uzumaki said, muttering to himself.
“How could you attack Sakura?”
“Ron, I’m sure that there’s an explanation for all of this…”
“Like hell there is! It’s obvious that he got to her while she wasn’t looking!”
“Ron, it’s obvious that you’re a little infatuated with her, so your judgment is affected as well. You’re not looking at all the clues!”
As a matter of fact, he wasn’t. There were two wands on the floor and Sakura was still holding on to hers. Plus it looked like Sakura had been knocked unconscious, and Naruto wasn’t uninjured either. There were gash marks across his face and his arm was bleeding.
Naruto then took off his orange jacket and placed it on Sakura, trying to keep her warm. She shivered in her sleeveless red dress despite this.
Hermione paused. There was something not right about all of this. Uzumaki was wearing the language charm, but it seemed that it was not working. But that was cut off when an arrow landed right next to her foot the minute she tried to take another step.
---
Harry was keeping watch over their trail into the forest when he heard Hermione scream. Quickly donning his Invisibility Cloak, he hastened over to the area where Naruto and Sakura had been found.
There, Hermione and Ron were trying to scoot away from two tall creatures that Harry recognized to be centaurs.
“We will not harm women and children,” one of them said, raising his bow. “You, on the other hand, are too old to be granted passage.” He was referring to Ron.
“We will not harm foals,” the second one repeated. He stalked over to where Harry was hiding. Harry held his breath, trying to be as silent as possible. But the centaur seemed to have known where he was and the Cloak came off.
“You. You were here last year and we warned you to never return. No longer are you a youngling. Now you must pay for the consequences.”
“What about these two?” Harry blurted out, gesturing to Naruto and Sakura.
“They are still young,” the second stated.
“But they are our age! They’re in our year!”
“Appearances can be deceiving. Saturn looms overhead. We are not to ignore such a sign.”
The centaur raised his legs in a threatening manner as if to come crashing down on him. But just before that could happen, a streak of light came between them, causing the centaur to quickly back off in order to prevent from being hit.
“Potaa Haari,” the figure known as Sasuke Uchiha said as he emerged into the clearing. “You will not harm him.”
Uchiha exchanged a few words with Uzumaki and the blond retorted something back. He then picked up Haruno, jacket and all, and raced back in the direction of the castle.
Uchiha gestured that they do the same, and Harry nodded to follow, grateful for the chance to escape. Hermione was on the ground, so Harry had to tug on her arm before she would get up. Ron was close behind and the three of them scampered out of the forest, not pausing until they were on the other side of Hagrid’s Hut.
“Hermione?”
Hermione was, unlike what Harry had suspected, not scared in the least bit. In fact, she was concentrating with her brows gathered on her forehead.
“That’s odd…”
“What?”
“I only see three sets of footprints behind us. It’s almost as if they disappeared.”
“That’s crazy. You know that we can’t Apparate on Hogwarts Grounds. Besides, we don’t know if they’re even old enough to know how to do that.”
“Still… When I was following Sakura out into the forest, she was wearing a robe on top of that red dress. Halfway there, she was wearing all black. But now, her robe isn’t here.”
Hermione shook her head.
“Never mind,” she said, feeling in her robe pockets for the items she had gathered earlier. Maybe with these, things would be cleared up just a little.
They all huddled under the Cloak and slipped past the teachers who were in the Order. Fortunately, neither Professor Dumbledore nor Mad Eye Moody were there. The professors were headed into the Forbidden Forest, in the same direction as the trio had just left.
They managed to sneak in through the main doors and somehow traveled all the way to their dormitories without being caught.
When they went through the door, however, Ginny was waiting for them, tapping her foot impatiently with her hands on her hips. Harry gulped, thinking that she was very reminiscent of her mother.
“Ronald Weasley,” she reprimanded. “Just where have you been!?”
Apparently, Ron thought so too. He started backing up against the wall. “I was… Um, er…”
“Everyone else had gotten here an hour ago! What sort of trouble did you get into this time?”
“Wait, ‘everyone’? Where’s Sakura?”
“She’s next to the fireplace, you bloke,” Ginny said, pointing in a direction. “Hey Sakura, this guy’s calling for you!”
“No I’m n-” Ron began.
“Yes?” the pink-haired girl said from the other side of the Common Room as she looked up from the book she’d been reading.
Ron gapped.
“But wait a minute, weren’t you just outside with Hermione and everyone?”
Sakura frowned. “I’ve been here since McGonagall announced for everyone to head to their dorms.”
Harry and Hermione chose to remain silent through all of this, their brains reeling at a hundred miles per minute.
---
“Phew, that was a close call,” Naruto said as he watched the Trio head back to the castle. “It’s a good thing that one of us here is good with genjutsu, otherwise we’d all be screwed.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Sakura replied, eyes still closed as she made the wizards believe they were following three figures back. After they reached the end of the forest, she dispelled her Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura illusions and wiped her forehead. Creating clones would have been a problem if the wizards had managed to catch them being released into a puff of smoke.
“You remembered to create my alibi, right?” It wasn’t really stated like a question, but Naruto understood it anyway.
“No problem. I’ve got that all covered before we even left school grounds.”
“Good.”
Sasuke appeared on a branch behind them. “Are you guys done?”
“Yeah. No innocent bystanders in our way. We can do what we set out to.”
Shikamaru landed on another branch as he finished doing whatever he had been before they had been interrupted.
“It looks like we have a problem, however. There are strange foreign beings in this forest. I’ve contacted the centaurs from before, and they said that Dark Wizards have been roaming about a few hours before the Quidditch match began.”
“…So Voldemort already has his spies here?”
“That’s not all. I’ve finally received a message from a spy just a little while ago. This was what I wanted to talk to you about when I contacted you all during class.”
They were all traveling further into the forest by now, leaping from branch to branch that came from years of living in Konoha.
“It seems as if Orochimaru has a few of his agents here as well. From what our informant has been able to gather, they have teamed up for the time being.”
“But at least the Death Eaters can’t Apparate here.”
“No, but shinobi can use teleportation jutsu.”
“…We’re in deep shit…”
Sasuke nodded, even if the wording was not to his tastes. Yes, if Orochimaru and Voldemort really had teamed up, then there was no stopping them. A team of genin/chuunin was no match for the great Snake Sannin himself, fully trained and prepared or no.
“So then, the people in the forest right now are wizards? Or are they shinobi?”
“I have come to believe that the majority of them are wizards, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a few shinobi are with them.”
“So, should we counter with kunai and shuriken, or jutsu?”
“I say that we pretend that we’re wizards as to catch them off guard. They would underestimate us a lot more since wizards have limited mobility due to their reliance on wand-wielding magic. At least, that’s what any other shinobi would think of them.”
“Oi… Sasuke, have you seen my wand?”
“You should keep track of your own things, dobe.”
Sasuke looked through his own pockets.
“Mine’s not here either. They must’ve fallen out when we got into that argument with the centaurs.”
“Don’t worry, Naruto. We’ll come back and look for them later. If they’re really gone, then we can just ask Professor Dumbledore for new ones.”
“B-but, I liked the one I had!”
“C’mon, we have other things to do. Such as finding out if a mole had really been planted in this forest or not. And before the others get here. Dumbledore said that not even his Order knew about our real identities, just that he’s hired some help out.”
“Sure.”
---
“What’s wrong, Fang?”
The big black dog was sniffing at something peculiar on the ground.
“Did you pick up anything?” The dog whined in confirmation.
“What is the matter, Hagrid?” McGonagall asked.
“It seems as if someone’s been here recently.” Hagrid picked up something from the ground. McGonagall took a good look at it before handing it over to the other professors.
“Well, it seems as if this situation is already being taken care of,” Dumbledore said cheerily.
“What do you mean?”
“This,” he said, holding up the kunai, “is a signal from the guards I have hired that everything is alright now. Can’t you see - there’s a note wrapped around the handle.”
Snape snorted. “I don’t see how these people can handle a small Death Eater raid when Aurors have a hard enough time. And I don’t know if we can trust people who wield dangerous weapons around, Albus.”
“My boy,” Dumbledore said. “I happen to have been great friends with their superior. I’m sure that they will do an excellent job providing us with the necessary support, since the leader had specifically recommended them to me.”
“We’ll just see about that,” Snape said, eyeing the sharp metallic blade warily.
He’s had his doubts about just how reliable their leader was when he’d seen that Hatake fellow join the Death Eater ranks less than a month ago.
Plus he was curious as to the identities of these guards were. Dumbledore had assured the Order that they were making rounds every day in order to make sure that Hogwarts was safe.
Snape had a sudden thought that the four international students could be the ones the Headmaster had been referring to, but that was quickly cast aside when he had interviewed the other teachers. None of the international students had ever skipped any of their classes, so it couldn’t be them.
---
Hours after Hogwarts was thrown into a state of confusion (and brought back around), Hermione was lying up in her bed, staring at the ceiling. She couldn’t sleep; there was too much on her mind.
Those objects she had found in the forest… Why would they have been disregarded in that manner? How could they have just been left there?
The only reason that came to her mind was that they held almost no significant value to their owners. After all, the objects had obviously not been looked after like any other person would have.
But who would do such a thing?
She turned her head to face Sakura Haruno’s four-poster bed. The pink-haired girl’s outline was just barely visible in the dim moonlight, and the rhythmic breathing patterns put her more at ease.
There was something suspicious about all of this…
And she was somehow going to get to the bottom of it, or she wasn’t the smartest witch at this school.
---
“Now,” Tsunade began. “I know from your reports that you’ve been working hard on the summoning jutsu and the others that I’ve been teaching you so far.”
Sakura nodded automatically, even though she knew that Tsunade-sama couldn’t see her in this one-way genjutsu.
“Therefore, I believe that it’s in both of our interests that you get back to working on expanding your chakra supply since you have such excellent control. This helps give you more strength so that you can effectively immobilize your enemies when they underestimate you based on gender…”
To Be Continued…?
---
Author’s Notes:
1. No, it’s not really Voldemort that Harry saw. He just got caught up in the moment.
2. Please see the crack!spoiler/omake thingamabobber link in my profile.
As of now, IWoTA is discontinued - or on a really, really long hiatus. Why? For one, I really suck at plot - (crossover) shots come to me much easier than epic stories, and school is eating away at my time. For another, there are waaaaaaay too many Naruto/Harry Potter crosses out there. Coughandmorekeepcomingcough - you think that people would be more original by now (sighs in exasperation). You could probably look around and find one that’s much better than mine, even though I’ve been planning this since I first stumbled upon Naruto around four years ago. All this makes me nervous because I’m afraid that the ideas I present will be like someone else’s (what with a bajillion recycled plots and all), or that after I post, other people will “be inspired” and do something similar. Grrrr. That, and I’m just not motivated anymore. To me, crossover shots are more enjoyable to write because I get to mesh two worlds together and figure out which set of characters get to meet without having to really come up with a storyline that requires weeks and weeks (because it really does take me that long) of drafting.
And I am very sorry about the quality of this chapter. I was in a hurry to get this up (despite my taking extra time to do so) and some of the scenes were extremely rushed.
If you have questions, they will be answered if posted in the forums, unlike the ones left behind in reviews.
Please review! Who knows? I might decide to pick up IWoTA again. Might.
Yatsuka Hikagi
2007.II.13