A/N: OMG! IT'S A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!!! Sorry for the very, very, very long wait before updates. There was a bit of a war going on in my house over the computer with the internet. I only had it on Wednesday nights, when I watched the new episode of Standoff, and Friday nights when I caught up on my forums and talked on AIM. And I lost my flash drive again. But for Christmas my parents got me a wireless internet router, so I can add chapters from my laptop! Yay! And thanks so much for everyone who kept reviewing despite the long wait and hopefully never stopped believing that there would be a new chapter. Thank you! Happy Reading!
Chapter 4
The First Day of Classes
The next morning Sasuke awoke with the sun. He poked Naruto awake quietly, dressed and went down to the common room. Sakura stood waiting for him, sunbeams hitting her pink hair and casting a cherry shadow on her face. She smiled as he came down the stairs, yet her face fell as he did not smile back.
"What is it?" She asked, concerned. Sasuke sighed deeply.
"You were right. Kakashi didn't tell us something." He told her the story of the Triwizard tournament, and how Harry was actually the target of the most powerful wizard of all time. He was with a sinking feeling in his stomach as Sakura face fell, doubt clearly portrayed on her features.
"So, this mission is a bit higher classed than we expected." She said, looking a little worried. Sasuke nodded.
"All that means is we have to be extra careful." He smiled as Naruto stumbled down the stairs, still half asleep. "And that we can give Kakashi hell the next time we see him." Sakura giggled.
"What are we laughing at?" Naruto said groggily.
"Oh, nothing." Sasuke said, with a smirk at his teammate. Harry and Ron came down the stairs, just as Hermione stepped onto the landing. Ron yawned.
"Breakfast, anyone?"
Twenty minutes of confusing passages later, the six sat down at the long Gryffindor table. After digging into breakfast, Sasuke asked the wizards some other questions about Hogwarts.
"So, what's up with the houses? We heard a little about it in the song last night, but I'm sensing some tension between a couple of houses." He asked with a knowing glance towards the Slytherin table.
"Some would call it tension." Harry said with a small laugh.
"Others would call it war." Ron said through a mouthful of food. Hermione scoffed at them over her book.
"Don't talk with food in your mouth? Didn't you ever learn manners?" She sounded stressed, and term hadn't even started yet.
"Hermione," Ron asked when he swallowed the egg in his mouth. "How are you already studying? We don't have any homework." Everyone turned to stare at the bushy hair, as most of Hermione's body was hidden behind her book.
"It's never too late to start studying for our OWLs." She said, returning to the thick volume. Ron stared at her.
"Oh, please. Those aren't until June. We have plenty of time." Hermione snapped her book shut.
"Are you even serious about this?" She asked shrilly. "These are the most important tests of our lives. If we don't pass, our lives will be completely ruined!"
"Aw, don't worry about it, Hermione." A red-haired boy that Sakura recognized from yesterday at the train station said as he sat on the empty bench next to Hermione. An identical boy sat down on her other side.
"We didn't do so well, but I don't think our lives our going to come to nothing." He sat with a grin at the stressful girl.
"Stressing is for people who care." Hermione looked indignant and started reading again. The shinobi were introduced to Ron's older brothers, Fred and George, identical twin pranksters. "And we don't." Fred concluded. The genin didn't either. Since they weren't really studying at this school, passing the tests meant absolutely nothing to them.
"Yeah, you guys barely passed." Ron said into his food. George smiled.
"Yes, but we believe that grades aren't everything."
"And if you will excuse us, there is Lee, and we have business to discuss." The twins left them to congregate with another seventh year down the table.
"They seem like my kind of person." Naruto said with a smirk. "I've always liked a good prank." Sakura and Sasuke rolled their eyes.
"Yes, at the expense of us all." Sakura said, remembering all the times Naruto had made their Academy class stay after because of his countless jokes.
"Good Lord, I don't think we can take another prankster like the Weasley twins." Professor McGonagall said from above their heads. She gave each of the surprised students a schedule. As Ron complained about his first day, Sasuke glanced over his shoulder.
"Hey, we have the same schedule." He said before he realized that that was on purpose. Ron checked it out.
"Yeah, cool. That's good, you won't get lost." Harry checked the other shinobi's schedules and discovered that they were the same. Something was suspicious about that, but he decided not to mention it, and wrote it off as a coincidence.
"We should get to potions before Snape gets too mad." Harry said, standing up. The rest of the group stood and followed Harry. In seconds Sakura was glad that they had the same schedules. Every hallway looked the same, and if she were alone she would never had made it to class. The entered a dank dungeon and stood waiting for their teacher to arrive and unlock the door.
"So, is potions…fun?" Naruto asked with a glance at the depressing setting. Ron laughed.
"Yeah right. Snape is venomous and makes the class so difficult it will be a wonder if any of us pass." He said, silencing when Snape walked into the hall, briskly letting the class into the lab.
"Ah, we have the new students in our class today. Why don't you sit up front, where I can watch you." He said glaring down at them. The three obeyed the sharp teacher's orders and sat at the table directly in front of the teacher's desk.
"I don't think I like this guy." Naruto whispered in Sasuke's ear.
"Shut up, loser. We need to keep all the teachers on our side. We could need them at anytime." Naruto shut up at the glare from Sakura.
"Why don't we test our new student's skills?" Snape said. A chuckle rang out behind them. The genin turned to see Malfoy and his goons smirking evilly at them. Snape stood directly in front of their desk, tapping it lightly to return their attention. "So, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to and infusion of wormwood?" He looked at them as if he didn't expect anything from the three. Sakura smiled.
"The Draught of Living Death, a sleeping potion." She was smiling. Snape's face fell at her correct answer.
"Where would you look for a bezoar?" He said, more sharply.
"A goat's stomach." This time it was Sasuke who answered the question correctly. Naruto flicked his eyes back and forth between his teammates. He had no idea how they knew the answer's to the potion master's queries. Harry looked at them, also surprised. He recognized the questions that Snape asked him on the first day of classes, but he never expected twelve year olds who weren't Hermione to know this. In truth, only Sakura knew the answers. But to give her teammate a chance at keeping Snape on their side she mouthed the answer to Sasuke when Snape's back was turned. Sasuke was used to copying movements because of the Sharingan, so it was simple for him to ready her lips and mimic the motions with his own mouth. She wasn't sure how she was going to get Naruto's attention to give him the answer. Before she could poke him, Snape asked the final question, this time looking directly at Naruto.
"What's the difference between monkshood and wolfs bane?" Snape grinned manically at Naruto's confused expression. They're the same thing, the same thing! Sakura thought frantically.
"Um…..I don't know!" Naruto said at long last. Snape's smile widened.
"Well, at least we have two worthy students." He said, looking directly at Naruto. He turned back to the chalkboard and waved his wand. A recipe formed on the board. "Follow these instructions exactly, and you can't fail. I will collect your final products at the end of the period. The class began working on the potion. Sakura found that it was easy. She quickly completed her potion and, while Snape was bullying Harry at the back of the room, helped Naruto through the last steps of his. It wasn't the exact shade of royal blue that hers and Sasuke's were but it was close and would suffice. Snape walked back to the front of the classroom. "Bottle the contents of your cauldron and place it on my desk. Then you are dismissed." The genin placed their labeled samples on Snape's desk and met Harry, Ron, and Hermione at the back of the classroom.
"I'm impressed!" Hermione said, as they reached her. "I guess you really are fifth years." Sakura smiled at the witch.
"You guys did better than I did." Ron said with a glance towards the front at his own, ash gray potion. Harry followed his glance and his shoulders drooped when he caught sight of his acid green potion. Hermione's was the perfect shade of royal blue.
Looking discouraged Harry and Ron led the genin up to the main castle and up more stairs to the tall divination tower. Hermione left them, going off to her arthimancy class. On their way up a final flight of stairs, Harry warned them about divination.
"Professor Trelawney is a complete fraud. She enjoys predicting my early death." Harry was smiling as if Trelawney was the most amusing teacher in the school.
"She also likes to predict new student's death, so don't get freaked out. No one she has said would die have died yet. Actually if you look at it, she's probably extending your life." Ron reasoned with a sneer. Harry laughed.
"Then, I'm going to live forever." Harry said smiling. Naruto shrugged.
"I've never believed in all this predestination and predicting the future crap. I've always thought it was stupid."
"I don't really believe in it either, it was just meant to be an easy elective, since we had to take one." Harry responded.
"Yeah, it's really just an easy A. Even though, since we're failing, it has become a complete joke." Ron said just as the reached the top of the stairs and the rope ladder that led to the divination classroom. Each of them ascended the ladder, Harry leading, followed by Ron, then Naruto, and Sasuke and Sakura bringing up the rear. They sat at a table in the back.
"It's hot in here." Sakura said breathily. Harry nodded.
"It's always like that in here. Trelawney apparently likes it like this." As the final syllable left Harry's lips Trelawney herself appeared from the far side of the room. She swept in, looking like a large insect. Shawls draped over her thin form, rings encircling each of her knobby fingers. Round glasses made her eyes larger than normal, completing the imagery of an insect.
"She does look eccentric." Sakura whispered to Sasuke. He suppressed a laugh at the professor's wild appearance. Her sharp ears picked up the noise and she swept over to their table, looking slightly surprised upon seeing new students.
"Ah, I see my prediction of a larger number has come to fruition. I knew that we would be joined this term by new students. Welcome to divination, my children." Trelawney smiled at them and turned back to the rest of the class. "This term we will be starting crystal balls. You each have one on your table. Get a partner and gaze into the fog within the glass." Sasuke and Sakura paired up, and Naruto formed a trio with Harry and Ron.
After five minutes of staring into the fog Sasuke was fed up.
"This is stupid, there is nothing to see." He said to Sakura. She turned her head, looking at the fog from a 45 degree angle. She had to agree with Sasuke.
"It's only fog." She said sitting back in her chair. Trelawney was walking among the other students and saw their frustration.
"Now lets just see." She said, turning their sphere. "Oh, dear. I see hard futures for you children. Much pain, suffering, and sacrifice." Sasuke rolled his eyes. Of course they had hard futures, what shinobi didn't? Trelawney held a hand to her heart suddenly. "Oh my. I see death in your near future. It looms on the horizon, coming closer which each breath." She looked faint. Sakura had to bite her tongue to keep from voicing her annoyance at the peculiar professor. She turned to Harry's crystal.
"And what do we have here? Not again, oh it is almost to horrible to speak aloud. But, I feel I must warn you about your coming horrible fate. It is the…"
"Grim?" Ron and Harry answered for her. She looked slightly taken a back.
"Yes, my child, your death is quickly approaching. Beware, my dears. I have never seen such a morbidly fated table." Finally the bell rang for the students to go to their next class. The morbidly fated table sprang up and dashed down the ladder.
"That was irritating." Sasuke said, a headache brewing from the fumes and intense annoyance.
"Is every class like that?" Sakura asked, her stomach dropping. Harry nodded and Sakura thought that she would not survive an entire year of Divination classes.
"She's so weird! I mean, the way she was talking, we were all going to drop dead right there!" Naruto exclaimed, either showing enough sense not to mention that her prediction for a hard future was obvious, or just not noticing the correlation. The second option was far more likely.
"Now we've got Defense Against the Dark Arts with that Umbridge woman. I'm sort of interested in seeing her class." Hermione said, coming up behind them as they left the North Tower.
"I'm not. Judging by her speech last night, this class is going to be a snoozer." Ron said stuffing his hands in his pockets. Sakura was also interesting in seeing Umbridge's class, and how she taught it. It would most likely be enlightening, if not enjoyable. They found most of the class anxiously waiting outside for class to begin. The door opened and Umbridge's girly voice stretched over the crowd.
"Come in, class." They filed in and took seats in the middle of the room. Umbridge stood in a puce green cardigan at her desk, smiling sweetly at the class. She waved her wand and several points appeared on the board.
Defense Against the Dark Arts
A Return to Basic Principles
Course Aims:
Understanding the principles underlying defensive magic.
Learning to recognize situations in which defensive magic can legally be used.
Placing the use of defensive magic in a context for practical use. (1)
"Now your former teachers in this subject have been less than competent. We will have to spend most of the year relearning most of the basic concepts from the past four years." She read the course aims aloud. Sakura frowned at them. It seemed like this class was just about learning what defensive magic was, instead of learning to actually defend yourself. She shrugged it off, thinking that not every school was a Ninja Academy. Umbridge finished with the course aims and instructed the students to read in introduction of their textbooks. Sakura turned to her own book and began reading. It was boring. When she thought she was going to die of boredom, she noticed a hand stretched in the hair to her right. Hermione hadn't even opened her volume. She sat perfectly straight, her hand unwavering in the air. Umbridge definitely saw her, but was unwilling to forfeit to the fifteen year old witch. Finally she gave in.
"Yes, Ms. Granger." She said, checking her seating cart. "Is something wrong?" Hermione put her hand down, a triumphant smile on her lips.
"Yes, there is nothing about actually learning defensive magic in your course aims." Umbridge looked down at her.
"Well, that's because we will not be learning any particular spells. By learning the principles, you will be able to effectively defend yourselves in event of an attack." Umbridge walked back to her desk, as if the subject was finished. But Hermione was not done. As most of the class stared at her, she stopped Umbridge in her tracks.
"I don't believe that that will work. Just because we understand the legal way to use defensive magic doesn't mean we will be able to use it in the event of an attack." Harry backed up Hermione.
"Yeah, it won't help if we freeze up because we were never tested on our reactions or reflexes." The shinobi watched with interest as most of the class took courage in Harry and Hermione's words and spoke up for their classmates. Sakura agreed with Hermione, thinking of her own days at the Ninja Academy.
"That is enough." Umbridge said silencing the students. "It seems that you all believe that you will be attacked at any minute. Probably a lesson you learned from you previous teacher. As I said before they were all incompetent."
"We think that way because we are going to be attacked at any minute!" Harry shouted. The room fell into a decibel of silence that was previously unheard of. "Doesn't anyone realize that Voldemort's back?!?" Umbridge turned very pink in the face.
"Mr. Potter. That's twenty points from Gryffindor and detention tonight. And I warn you not to tell silly little lies in my classroom! Now return to your texts and do not talk." Most of the class obeyed her, unwilling to get in trouble on the first day of class. But Harry wasn't finished yet.
"I'm not telling lies! Voldemort's returned and we're all going to die because you're not teaching us anything!" He screamed, standing up. Umbridge looked liable to explode, but managed to compose herself.
"Mr. Potter." She beckoned to him. Even Harry realized that he had gone too far and walked to the front of the room, studying the floor. Umbridge scrawled a note on a spare piece of parchment. "Take this to your head of house immediately." She did not say anything else. Harry walked out the door, not saying anything either. The entire class was staring at her. As the door clicked shut Umbridge turned her attention back to the remainder of the class. "I hope that taught all of you a lesson. I have just given Mr. Potter a week's worth of detentions. I hope you all learn that telling ridicules lies to get attention in this class will not be accepted. I assure you, the Dark Lord has not returned. Those are just the utterances of one who craves attention. Since you are in no danger, I see no reason to wave the ministry's regulations and teach you defensive spells in this class. You will read the passages and listen to me, and you will be alright." Hermione frowned.
"Even if the Dark Lord didn't return," Ron glared at her sharply. She glared back, attempting to say that she still believed Harry, of course, but was just testing the austere professor. Judging by Ron's angry expression, it did not convey. "There are plenty of other evil beings in this world that we need to defend ourselves against." Umbridge shook her head, but again other members of the class were backing Hermione.
"And some students can't learn through books and principles. Some need to see it in practice and try it out before they understand." Sakura reasoned, again thinking of her Ninja Academy days. She was able to learn ninjutsu skills out of books, but others needed to be physically shown how to do the techniques. Umbridge wheeled around to glare at her.
"I would suggest that you don't speak of things you don't understand. You are but a child and a newcomer to this school. So be quiet, Ms. Haruno." Sakura backed off, looking hurt. Sasuke stiffened.
"She was only voicing her opinion. Or is that prohibited here too." Sasuke said, his cold voice flustering the already disconcerted teacher.
"Read the introduction in your books. The next one who speaks gets detention for a month." Everyone shut up, knowing when they've gone too far. Sakura smiled at Sasuke, thrilled that he stood up for her. She had thought he never would acknowledge her, but they are growing closer each day. The remainder of the class passed in a tense silence, everyone waiting for the bell to ring. The class filed out silently and quickly when the bell's tones finally washed over them. The three genin followed a pissed Ron and Hermione, who were arguing, out of the room and into the labyrinth like halls.
"Thanks Sasuke." Sakura said, turning red. Sasuke nodded, containing his own smile out of a fear of emotions. Naruto came between the two.
"Wow, she was mean. I wonder why she was so mean. I mean that was seriously uncalled for." Sasuke and Sakura exchanged an eye roll at their teammate's expression and caught up with Ron and Hermione.
They met up with Harry at dinner. He was extremely irritated by the detention and the lecture from Professor McGonagall. Even more annoying were the whispers that spread across the hall about Harry's outburst. And very few of them were flattering. Most were expressing the apparent popular belief that Harry was insane and making up this story to get attention. But the three genin knew better. They would not have been sent to protect Harry without a very good reason. But then again, how were they to know that it was for real. That was another thing that they would have to talk to Kakashi about on Friday. The whispers spread across the hall, Sakura catching her and her teammate's names thrown in some places. The whispers concerning their actions were far more flattering than the ones concerning Harry.
"I can't believe her. She is evil." Harry hissed, staring up at Umbridge. Sasuke felt sick as he watched the already plump witch stuff herself gleefully with food and speak in her sick high pitched voice to another professor. He hated her with an intensity that he reserved for very few people. Shaking his head, he pulled his glare away from the hated professor and pushed her from his mind. He tried to keep his mind clear of such hatred these days. He turned to Sakura and engaged, to her delight, in a conversation with the kunoichi.
Naruto was having fun bashing Umbridge with the wizards.
"And her stupid sweaters are terrible." Naruto was saying when an odd girl approached them. She was wearing earrings made of what seemed like radishes, a necklace of bottle caps and her robes were inside out. Her wand was tucked precariously behind her ear and she was reading a magazine while she walked. The colors she wore indicated that she was in Ravenclaw but she approached the Gryffindor table with the self confidence of a real lion. As she reached Harry she closed her magazine and tucked it in her bag.
"I believe you." She said simply. "My family has always believed that You-Know-Who would return and we have never held much stock in the Ministry." And she walked away with those words. The people seated at the table around where they sat stared after her.
"What the hell was that?" Ron asked, completely flabbergasted.
"I have no idea." Naruto replied, also flabbergasted. Sasuke and Sakura returned to their conversation, as did Fred and George Weasley. Ginny rolled her eyes.
"Don't mind her, that was Luna Lovegood." She explained to the others. "She is sort of eccentric, her entire family is." Ginny returned to her meal. Naruto and the wizards looked at each other and laughed, provoking irritation from Sasuke and Sakura.
Dinner passed without further incident. The students were dismissed and they returned to their dormitories. Sasuke realized that he wasn't getting as hopelessly lost as he had for the past two days. As he went to bed later he thought that he may be able to get used to a peaceful school. It was a good vacation from a way a life in which every lesson was life threatening.
(1) Rowling, JK. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. New York: Scholastic Inc, 2003.