Chapter Two: Pranks and Politics

Harry is in the middle of scooping food onto his plate at dinner when the doors to the Great Hall open, and Dumbledore enters. Only now does Harry realize that he'd been gone in the first place.

But it's not Dumbledore that gains his attention in the end. It's the boy, maybe a year or two older than him, walking into the room behind him in the same clothes they'd found him in and awake, dark eyes bright and surveying the room with a strange detachedness.

Hermione lets out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness, he's fine," she says with a smile as Dumbledore whispers something to the boy and points in their direction. Harry assumes he's telling him who'd found him.

The boy heads over, his steps oddly graceful and eerily silent for someone with such a cheerful and lazy look about him as he makes his way over to them. Once he reaches them, he grins. "Hey, thanks for finding me and not leaving me to the wolves. I'm Shisui Uchiha, nice to meet you."

Hermione gestures to the open spot next to her. "Have a seat! You must be hungry; you've been out the past two days. I'm Hermione Granger, by the way. It's nice to meet you too, Shisui."

Hesitantly, Shisui takes a seat and looks around, looking rather uncomfortable and Harry can't fault him for that. "I'm Harry Potter," he tells him, and much to his delight and surprise, Shisui doesn't react to the name.

"Ron Weasley," his redheaded friend says from beside him. "Nice to meet you, mate. Great to see you're finally awake."

"How did you find yourself on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, anyways?" Harry inquires, curious as he takes a bite of his food. Strangely, Shisui doesn't touch anything.

"I don't know," Shisui answers, propping his head on one arm, his free hand drumming a soft rhythm against the table. "I just remember drowning and waking up here." He frowns.

"Drowning?" Hermione gasps. "Are you alright? How did it happen? Why didn't anyone save you? Was there anyone there?"

"Easy, Granger-san," hums Shisui, sounding amused of all things. "I'm fine now, don't worry."

"That doesn't answer any of my questions!" Hermione huffs, exasperated and practically radiating concern. "And you can just call me Hermione," she adds as an afterthought.

"Alright, Hermione-san," Shisui replies. He pauses, as if formulating a response. "I don't… really want to talk about it," is what he settles on.

"Where are you from?" Ron asks hastily, clearly choosing to change the subject.

"Dumbledore-san thinks I might be from a separate world," Shisui answers, looking mildly relieved. "I come from Konoha, Fire Country, but it seems there is no such place here. That theory, unfortunately, doesn't answer a few of my questions, though."

"What's Konoha like?" Harry asks, interest piqued. Being from another world isn't unlikely, considering the wide variety of magic…

Shisui hesitates for a few moments as though deciding what the tell them before answering. "Konoha… it's one of the primary Hidden Villages and governs over the Fire Country. Our ninja have what we call the Will of Fire, but it manifests in many different ways, which we call our nindo, or ninja way."

"Bloody hell, you're a ninja?" Ron exclaims at the same time Hermione frowns and says, "But ninjas are from Japan, and they're no longer around!"

"That's why Dumbledore-san assumes I come from another world," Shisui says before tapping the strange headband he's wearing. "This is what Konoha nin receive once they graduate from the Academy. Once we graduate, we're allowed to go out on missions, but only D-ranks to begin with."

"What are D-ranks?" Harry inquires with a frown as he takes another bite. His food's gone cold.

"We have a ranking system for the difficulty of missions. The harder the more expensive and the harder, the more dangerous," Shisui explains in a patient tone of voice. "It's from D to S, to put it simply. D-ranks are like chores you do for people, and S-ranks are when you're hired to scout out incredibly dangerous territory or assassinate important figures with powerful guards. Only the elite of the elite, ANBU, are authorized to take S-ranks."

Assassinate? Harry thinks privately, but nobody voices the question. Shisui seems to be a nice person, even if he seems so guarded all the time, though that might be attributed to his job.

"So, can you tell me what's been going on around here?" he asks.

Hermione jumps right into it. "We're having the Triwizard Tournament this year, and it hasn't been hosted in a long time!" she exclaims, excited. "It's basically…"

Much to Harry's surprise, Shisui listens to Hermione carefully and actually seems interested while he and Ron just tune their friend out as she gives Shisui the details of the Triwizard Tournament, along with its history and about every rule there is.

Eventually, they have to head up to the Gryffindor dorms, and they bid Shisui goodbye. Hermione looks incredibly cheerful at finding someone who'll actually listen to her, and Harry watches as Shisui heads down the hall, footsteps still eerily silent.

.

Shisui yawns as he heads down to the Great Hall.

Last night, he'd done some rounds of Hogwarts and checked his supply of weaponry. He doesn't have much, but it'll work well until he can find some more for himself. The senbon is still there, and luckily Dumbledore hadn't taken his tanto away. He'd grown somewhat attached to it.

This "Triwizard Tournament" sounds interesting as well, if not as interesting as the Chuunin Exams are. The challenges Hermione had described to him didn't seem all that challenging to him, but he kept his thoughts to himself.

Also, he hadn't touched anything at the table last night, he hadn't eaten the two days before, and who knows how long he'd been lying there in the Forbidden Forest? (Which he seriously needs to go check out.) Luckily, Dumbledore had been kind enough to tell him where the kitchen is, and he'd just gone there.

As soon as he enters, a pair of twins practically jump at him, probably expecting him to jump or something. Shisui simply blinks, having sensed their presences beforehand. "Good morning to you, too," Shisui says dryly.

"If it isn't—"

"—the ickle boy—"

"—that Harikins and—"

"—Ronnikins and—"

"—Hermione—"

"—had found!"

"Why don't you—"

"—introduce yourself—"

"—to us," they finish together.

"Why don't you introduce yourselves to me?" Shisui retorts with a roll of his eyes. "Be polite."

"Ooh!"

"A feisty one!"

"Alright then, I'm—"

"—George—"

"—and he's—"

"—Fred!"

The one on the right, with the slightly longer hair and a few freckles less, had said that. Shisui tilts his head. "No, you're Fred, and he's George," he corrects. "I know a liar when I hear one. If you really must know my name, I'm Shisui."

The twins grin widely, holding their hands innocently behind their back.

"And your—"

"—last name?"

"What's yours?"

"Weasley."

"Uchiha."

"Well, nice to—"

"—meet you, Shisui!"

Fred holds out his hand to shake.

"What did you put on that?" Shisui inquires, raising an eyebrow.

"My dear friend—"

"—whatever could you—"

"—be talking about?"

"At least be a little more discreet when attempting to prank someone," Shisui sighs before holding out his hand to shake.

Fred takes it with a grin, only to yelp and pull away. Shisui dangles a senbon from his fingers, grinning widely.

"What the bloody hell is that?" George asks, fascinated.

"Looks like a giant needle!"

"A senbon," Shisui answers, flipping the senbon around before stashing it up his sleeve again. "No, you can't have it. I am severely limited on how many sharp, pointy objects I have, and I like my sharp, pointy objects."

"Well, it was—"

"—very much fun—"

"—to talk to you—"

"—Shisui, but—"

"—we'd like to—"

"—go eat breakfast—"

"—so enjoy yours—"

"—and hopefully we can—"

"—do some pranks—"

"—together," they finish.

Shisui blinks. "Sure. See you." He heads off as they separate, casually stepping over the clear oil they'd set up on the ground, and walks towards the table in green to say hello.

"Hey," he says with a cheerful grin, coming to a stop behind a boy with pale hair.

"Who are you?" he sniffs haughtily.

Not put out at all (he an Uchiha, after all), Shisui continues to smile guilelessly at the boy. "I believe it's considered polite to introduce oneself before asking the other's name," he hums. "But I'm Shisui Uchiha."

The boy narrows his eyes in irritation. "I am Draco Malfoy," he replies coldly, putting emphasis on his surname.

"Ah! An important family or clan here, then?" Shisui inquires. At Malfoy's jerky nod, Shisui simply answers, "I'm from one as well. My best friend will inherit the clan soon." If there is a clan by then…

Malfoy's eyes widen almost comically, and his demeanor does a one-eighty. "It is a… pleasure to meet you, Uchiha."

"Just call me Shisui," Shisui replies, amused. "I'm not that important to the clan. It's nice to meet you as well, Malfoy-san."

"Shisui, then," Malfoy says slowly, nodding slightly. "You seem to be a rather pleasant person, but your choice in companions was… questionable at dinner."

Shisui tilts his head as though confused, feigning emotion nearly perfectly. "Malfoy-san? Who may you speaking of? Harry, Hermione, and Ron are all perfectly fine people to get along with."

Malfoy sneers. "They are imbeciles, the lot of them. They lack respect for their superiors, and they constantly are in trouble."

"Is that so," Shisui replies, shoving down his irritation at the boy's bigotry. "But I think I'll judge what they're like for myself. They do seem carry more respect for others than you, at any rate, if your initial reaction to me is anything to go by. Have a nice day, Malfoy-san."

Before Malfoy can reply, Shisui turns on his heel and strolls away, leaving him with his mouth hanging open.

Hogwarts really is huge, Shisui muses, Malfoy already pushed to the back of his mind. I suppose I'll have to spend the next week or so exploring.

Then, I hope Itachi's okay.

.

a/n: I don't hate Malfoy, by the way. He's just a little… irritating. He'll play a larger role later on.

Excuse the late update, my internet was down. I hate the feeling.

Also, Shisui was rather vague in his explaining of Konoha; in fact, it's actually pretty general, enough so that it describes most of the Hidden Villages (with ninja). So what I wrote for Shisui doesn't give away too much, in case you're worried about that.

Reviews are loved! The reception the first chapter got for this story is frankly amazing.

Sneak peek: He looks up from his book on the history of Quidditch, acting as though he hadn't heard them approach. "The one and only," he replies good-naturedly with a smirk to see a Slytherin, perhaps his age or so. "Who're you?"