Why were you born when the ash was falling?

You should've come to the Phoenix's calling

- A parody of "The Dirge" by Christina Rossetti

Hogwarts Castle, 2 May, 1998

A scream... No...Maybe ten...Twelve… Maybe more?

There was a hum of spells and yelling of incantations all around…

Explosions came, and the toppling of marble against marble rang in the back of their heads as the mighty school collapsed behind them, while the crackling of fire whispered in their ears.

It was there, and then it wasn't.

When Harry Potter and the Dark Lord took tentative steps towards each other, the piercing cry of a phoenix took to the air.

Ϟ

Shinobi Countries, Date Unknown

Twenty years ago, a small village in the Land of Lightning had registered to become an official shinobi village.

The Five Great Shinobi Countries gave it one look and dismissed it as unimportant. After all, the village itself was about the size of the small trading towns scattered all over the country, nowhere near the size of any of the main five, and therefore, just a seemingly insignificant little detail, and the village sank back into anonymity.

The Five weren't prepared to eat their words.

Then, two years ago, just eight years after, a Chuunin Exam was held in Sunagakure. It was during that time that the Hidden Lightning Village had officially stepped into the Shinobi World. As newbies, the three teams, nine shinobi in total, were naturally given a hard time by other competitors, or were ignored completely. What chance did some wannabe village in the middle of nowhere have competing in the Chuunin Exams against the Five Elemental Nations?

But the dry, dry sun and the cold, dismissive hearts of the people did little to deter them. They persevered, and performed remarkably well in the first few stages of the event, excelling in several areas where their competitors failed, greatly surprising the onlookers.

When the final stage of the event came to be, everyone thought the Lightning Village's luck had run out, for surely they would never be able to defeat their far more experienced opponents in open combat?

The Hidden Villages didn't stand a chance.

It only took six young men of the nine that arrived to defeat the many dozens of shinobi they should have had no real right to beat.

Well, no one could blame them for underestimating them. They didn't know that they were dealing with the reincarnated combatants of the Battle of Hogwarts.

Ϟ

It...was sort of like being an Auror, she guessed, as the only equivalent she could draw up in her mind were the military and police force, and that was...sort of a nice way to put shinobi. She nodded to herself.

There were more parallels now that she thought about it. To train for both would be intensive and strenuous. Except, instead of magic, they used chakra, a phrase that she often heard in muggle yoga films or meditation techniques. This chakra was much more tangible, and much more useful; a magic in its own right.

Chakra has two components: spiritual and physical. The two energies were molded and then used for basic techniques or advanced ones with the right output. Instead of wands to conduct the energy, they used hand seals. And instead of only a specific number of people having chakra, everyone had it in this world, which came as quite a shock to them when they first found out.

If chakra was chakra, then what was magic?

What was it that made her move things without touching them, or teleport to places far away when she was too lazy to walk?

Simple, the only answer to that was...magic.

Magic was magic and it had followed them through time and universes to bring them here (No matter how much Hermione studied or theorized).

And, where was "here?"

Here was a place where she was still a child, but with the memories of an adult. The same went with all of her old classmates, friends, and family. Here was where almost all of her old classmates and teachers were reborn in a small village they had called their own, but had openly seeked her at a young age so she could never be alone anymore. Even if she did have a brother here.

Here, she was taught a thousand ways to kill a man and thousand ways to lie.

Here —

"Tch," a voice loudly complained, and she turned her head to the platinum blond male beside her. He consciously scuffled his leather boots against the unpaved dirt road and shoved his hands in his pockets. His face scrunched up as he sniffed the air and scowled deeply, "It stinks of rubbish."

"Oh really?" a girl with curly brunette hair asked sarcastically. "I would never have guessed with all of these smelly trash cans around." Almost in a proving way, she gestured to all of the cramped garbage bins lining the narrow alley walls emitting a rather foul odor.

He scowled deeper as he looked past the figure in the middle to glare at the brunette, "Oh yea? Well if you're so smart, why don't you point the shortest way to the hotel then, Miss Know-It-All."

She huffed and lifted her chin up, "If I remember correctly, it was YOU who suggested that we take this path. Obviously you know what you're doing." Translation: I'm as completely clueless as the where to go as you are.

"Guys, please-"

"The sooner we get out of here, the better," was his quick reply.

"Well then, how would you explain leaving a month early? The exams don't start for another three weeks at least. If you had waited a little longer, Ron's Dragon Pox would've passed, and we would be out of your way."

"Then it's my fault Weasel caught Dragon Pox?"

"Now when did I say that-?!"

"Guys!" The raven-haired female called again, only to fall to deaf ears. The two had a stare down.

"Oh, I get why you came with us now," the female stated confidently, "Trouble in paradise? I thought Parkinson was the perfect match for you."

The only male in the group scoffed in annoyance. He turned away with a scrunched up face. She had hit the bullseye.

"C'mon guys," the middle figure tried again, now that the arguing pair was silent. "I thought you would've stopped arguing by now, you're adults."

She took a good look at them.

Adults in twelve-year-old bodies.

"Hekima," a glance at the female. 'Hermione.'

"Ryuuta," she gave a look to the brooding male next. 'Malfoy.'

"I understand that we don't necessarily get along, but it's just for one exam." Translation: Apologize. Now. The two former students inhaled and turned to one another. They didn't actually say anything to each other, but Harry knew the look in their eyes that grudgingly conveyed a form of apology.

Harry sighed, "I swear, guys…" She reached up to rub her temples and closed her eyes. "But…" she looked up at them with a slight teasing smirk again, "I would do anything to get away from Parkinson too."

Hermione barked a laugh, while Draco gave a wry smile of his own, before it twisted in annoyance.

"Tch, out of all the people I had to be assigned with, it had to be her. That girl sticks to my side like a rash."

"A least Zabini makes it tolerable," Harry said, switching back to their old names. It was sort of an unspoken rule in their village full of reincarnations. You speak your old, European names around your old friends in private, but in public, especially around people from other villages, you speak with your new names; the more foreign, Japanese-influenced names.

Draco hummed thoughtfully. While they weren't exactly friends, they were civil as adults in their past life. Which was kind of strange to Harry when he all of a sudden switched back to being a huge prat.

Perhaps it the new body?

After all, they had no control of their current pubescent stage and raging emotions, hormones, and whatnot.

"It could be worse," Hermione added, "You could've been teamed up with Crabbe and Goyle."

"Ha! If that happened I can say goodbye to even reaching Gen-!"

What happened next was a blur.

All of a sudden, an orange figure sped by at the speed of a Quidditch bludger, and collided head-on with Draco, spewing paint and splattering colors all over his robes.

And knowing Draco, they were very expensive robes.

Hermione gasped, but had pulled Harry away in time. The young women gaped at what the short tempered blond would do next.

Draco stood there, frozen in shock, dripping in the brightest of reds, oranges, purples and greens.

It was almost like the world itself took an inhale of breath and listened to the paint drip.

The two girls then focused their attention to the orange and yellow figure on the ground. He was knocked over on his rear, and was currently rubbing the soreness away from his head.

"Ow!" he moaned, running fingers through his messy blond hair. He looked down. "Aw! My paint!" he whined, looking at the mess splattered paint balloons all over the alleyway. Then, he felt people looking at him and blinked. He looked up to see three people standing over him, one of which was covered in paint and looked ready to pummel the tar out of him.

The girls wanted to help, they really did. But there were two things one absolutely shouldn't do around Draco Malfoy.

One of them was messing with his clothes.

"Heh heh..." he laughed nervously. "I'm really sorry about that!" He scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

Harry felt bad for the kid. If anything, it was Malfoy's fault. The bright blond was obviously running with a time and place in mind. Malfoy was the one who stepped out of the dark alleyway, where the sun was cut off. But, then again, Draco was the one covered in multicolored acrylics.

Malfoy stood over him with such a heavy aura that it made his stomach drop and the air hard to swallow. He made Naruto look so small. His platinum blond hair cast a shadow over his face, while a single eye peeked over his bangs and lit up like a red, demonic headlight.

"Ten for the shirt and trousers," Malfoy demanded, "Pay up. Now."

Ϟ

The girls failed miserably at the attempt to cover up their giggles when their eyes had met the sight of Malfoy staring blankly at the single coin in his hands.

Ϟ

"You!" Ryuuta yelled again, hosed down and in a fresh new outfit. Harry sighed deeply, but followed Malfoy to wherever he was storming. It turned out to be a small, but homey little noodle shack with the words "Ramen Ichiraku" printed proudly on the individual fabric flaps. He was quick to angrily shove aside the fabric and grab Naruto by the collar.

"Wuh?!" Naruto exclaimed, "You're the guy from earlier! What's the big idea?!"

"Dammit Naruto!" The pink-haired girl on the stool beside him roared, "What did you do now?!"

So Naruto was his name, Harry noted, putting it in the back of her mind for possible future use.

From the looks of it, the pinkette and the brooding duck-butt haired boy were his teammates. It didn't look to be a very friendly squad.

But, then again, team formations in other villages were pretty bizarre. Usually it was either by clan-formations, prepared by their fathers, and their father's father, and so on. Or it was by specialties. The rest of them were formed by grades, like top boy with top girl and dead-last.

Their village wasn't like that, and she scoffed at the thought of being teamed up with anyone that wasn't Ron or Hermione. The only reason why Malfoy was here now was because after the fiasco with the Suna Chuunin exams two years ago, their village had pulled back from international affairs with the other Shinobi countries. Of course, after such a performance, being left alone was never really an option.

Soon, after countless messengers, letters, and meddling, Kingsley Shacklebolt finally had enough of their intrusions and grudgingly agreed at the last minute to send in one team.

And here she was now.

Only problem was, Ron had come down with a case of Dragon Pox a little while before they had to set off, and it wouldn't do anyone good if he was tired, hurting, and heating up through the entire exam. If they had pulled out of the exam completely, it would be a horrendous insult to Konohagakure, especially after they made so many arrangements to have them included at all.

Then came the arrival of Draco Malfoy, who, however cowardly he was, there was no doubt that he scored high on their graduation exams.

"What. Is. This?!" Draco asked with badly restrained anger. He opened up his palm to reveal a warm coin with the number ten printed over it.

"Huh?!" Naruto loudly exclaimed, "Whaddya mean?! You told me to pay you back for your clothes!"

"Are you trying to make me look stupid?" Draco rather comically shook the boy, face twisting, and if it weren't for the fact that Malfoy was so angry, Harry would laugh at the face he was making. Naruto flailed helplessly like a rag doll, "You can't even buy a drink with this kind of money!"

Shouldn't his teammates be doing something? Harry looked over at the boy's two teammates who stared blankly at their companion getting interrogated.

"Ten-THOUSAND! When I said, ten, I meant 10k!"

"What?!" Naruto said indignantly, "Ten-thousand ryo?! Are you crazy?! No one has that kind of money to spend on clothes!"

She sighed. This was going too far. Obviously this guy didn't have the money. Really, no person in their right mind would carry around that kind of money either.

"That's enough, Ryuuta. He already said sorry for your clothes," she said. This was the first time she spoke since they've arrived at the ramen shack. The two others jumped, and stared at her with shock and suspicion. They hadn't sensed her, a fact that she was happy about. She took pride in how sneaky she was in a world where being sneaky was an art form.

Draco slowly turned his head to glare at her.

"You're causing a ruckus," she said firmly. A breeze blew over the silence.

"Hmph," he threw Naruto back, and brushed invisible dust off his clothes.

"Wait, teme! You can't just do that and walk away!" Naruto yelled, angry about what had transpired.

"What do you want me to do about it?" Malfoy asked, almost bored. Naruto glared up at Draco.

"I challenge you to a fight!"

Ϟ

"If Hekima finds out about this she's gonna skin us alive," Harry half-heartedly complained across the field. They — Team 7, Harry and Draco — were at Training Ground 7, and Naruto and Draco were staring each other down.

Draco's fighting style was smooth, quick, and clean. He liked to finish it off with the hardest hit and to not dance around with fancy, unnecessary flips and kicks.

Sasuke looked as uninterested as ever.

Sakura looked worriedly between her teammates, and the blond's teammate.

'Why,' Harry thought, 'am I letting Malfoy get away with this?'

There was a light pressure on her shoulder, like a ghost with bony fingers and hands. She turned her head slightly and grimaced. Her eyes met with a dark, shadowed cloak.

'That's right...There's something wrong with that boy.' She could feel it.

'Smack!'

She jolted out of her thoughts. Naruto had blindly charged at Malfoy while she was thinking and the wizard had simply stepped to the side and sharply struck the back of Naruto's neck, forcing him to the ground.

The kunoichi beside her gasped, but then slumped her shoulders in obvious relief when Naruto got back up on shaky arms.

'Smack!' A kick to the ribs.

'Smack!' A punch to the jaw.

Harry furrowed her eyes in intense confusion. No one would be able to take that many hits from Malfoy and stand back up every time. Whoever this Naruto person was, he was certainly resilient.

"Why. Won't. You. Just. Stay. Down?!" Malfoy roared, punctuating each word with a blow.

"Ha!" Naruto laughed. This tough guy was good, certainly, but now it was time to show what he could do. He formed the necessary hand seals, saying, "It's going to take a lot more than that to take me down! Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Multiple doppelgangers popped into reality with a cloud of smoke. Draco's eyes widened, and then he moved in a blur. He dodged, glided, and slid over all of the clones, dispelling them all with hits in critical pressure points, causing the training ground to be flooded with smoke.

Harry couldn't help but grin. Back home, not even a Wizard of Dumbledore's caliber could compete with a Ninja, but when they had ended up here, they became a lot stronger. Their abilities as wizards remained the same, and they couldn't perform some of the more complicated techniques the Shinobi did, but their closest magical equivalent was usually just as good, or in quite a few cases better.

That, coupled with copious martial arts training, had made them highly formidable opponents to the Shinobi and Samurai that called the continent home, as Draco's current match with Naruto clearly proved.

He didn't come out unscathed though; his clothes were a ruined mess again, and his face was streaked with dirt and minor cuts.

Harry knew that they were at the breaking point of his temper.

"Why...you…!"

"Hey…!...Ryuuta!" Harry warned worriedly, keeping her eyes on the male.

Sasuke and Sakura stared at her in mild fear and concern.

Malfoy pointed with his middle and index together, while he folded back the others. Then, he started to move them in an all-too familiar movement too Harry.

"Ryuuta…!" Her voice took a dangerous edge.

"Rictum-!" Naruto was frozen in his spot, unaware of what that hair-raising feeling in the air was, and what was going to happen next.

"RYUUTA!"

What happened next was too fast for even Sasuke's Sharingan to comprehend.

It wasn't the Body Flicker Technique, where Ninja used leaves, logs, or basically anything to leave a substitute in their place while they quickly moved away, leaving their opponent confused and vulnerable. Nor was it the Yellow Flash's technique, where he slowly blurred away from existence.

No, it was quite literally — Blink — Now you see me! — Blink — Now you don't!

With the loud, ear-bleeding 'crack!' the girl moved from one end of the field to the other nearly a thousand feet away in a less than a second. Team 7 openly gaped. Especially Naruto, who had two fingers pointing between his eyes, just centimeters away.

Harry kept a hard grip on Draco's wrist, pressing down firmly on his wrist with her forefinger. The Tickling Charm, on the surface, didn't sound very dangerous, but a powerful enough casting of the spell could cause the victim to collapse into painful laughter, leaving them short of breath and close to suffocation. It was even labeled as minor torture in some books back home.

But that's not what she was worried about. It was a minor spell, after all. She had used it on Draco once in their second year and plenty of times afterwards. What she was infuriated about was the fact that he was about to use magic, so soon, and on a new Genin of all things.

The two Wizards glared at each other, conversing silently with their eyes.

"Just what do you think you were doing…?! You know you're not supposed to use that here!" she yelled furiously. Team 7 was frozen in shock at the quick change in the air. Huffing, she threw down his wrist after she let the message sink in. "We're leaving." She twirled around on the balls of her feet, letting her hair flutter after her like ribbons.

A few steps away, she felt a prickling in the back of her mind. Faster than a Golden Snitch, she spun around and caught a speeding kunai between her fingers, just inches away from her face. She looked up at the Konoha Nin, and to her surprise, it was the brooding one that threw it at her. She schooled her features into a calm one.

"What are you thinking walking over our village like that, Lightning-nin?" he said, with a spike of something in his voice, having realized that they were from the village that had dominated at the Suna Exams two years prior. He was shaking slightly too. With fear, excitement? She couldn't tell.

"I'm sorry for causing trouble then," she said, avoiding the question.

They were interrupted again, this time by the pink-haired girl, who spewed numerous political terms that only Hermione and Malfoy would bother to remember.

"We have passes for the Exams this year."

"And your name?" Sasuke asked, or rather demanded, though he faltered somewhat after hearing why they were here.

"The name's Akui Ryuuta."

Harry hummed, letting the silence sink in for suspense before she decided to answer.

"Hari. Nazo Hari."

1] The discussion on the currency:

If I did my math correctly then then 1 ryo = 10 yen = a little less than 10 US cents. I planned for Draco to have a simple $1000 outfit, (because, in my mind, he'd probably go that for for clothes.) So when Naruto thought he said 10 ryo, that equals to about a penny, that's why he's so upset over it.

No pairings as of yet, but considering my other story, it might be obvious to whom I'm leaning towards. Hermione and Ron are set in stone though.

Beta'ed by Recycler

Revised 5/31/16, updated 5/1/16