Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and Harry Potter.
Chapter 4: The Quidditch nut and the Taskmaster
''Good morning, my sweet little cinnamon roll!''
The curtains are thrown aside and light streams into Hermione's eyes.
Huh- what?
What's going on?
Sleepily, she sits up, rubbing her eyes. The cold draft hits her bare forearms and she shivers. The air in the castle tends to get awfully frigid at night. It reminds her of camping with her parents, actually. She loves it when they go camping, but really, she doesn't need the shock of the warmth leaving her the instant she crawls out of her sleeping bag every day.
Who opened the curtains anyway? The other girls wouldn't have woken her up- Hermione wasn't good at making friends. Not even now she was finally in a place where she seemed to belong. Was it childish to cling to magic?
She rubs her eyes once again, before shaking the thoughts from her head.
In front of her are two girls, older than her by at least two years. One of them, the one who must have spoken before, is jumping around excitedly, brown ponytail bouncing up and down. The second girl is still braiding her blonde hair while watching the brunette. She's already exhausted if that expression is anything to go by.
The brunette beams at Hermione, putting her hands on her hips, legs apart. ''Shisui asked us to wake you up! I'm Charlotte and grumpy over there is Lillian!''
The blonde, Lillian, sighs at the chirpy attitude. ''Please dress quickly so we'll be able to get going.''
Hermione wants to say something- protest, actually. Shisui might have recognized that she was not involved with the incident (well, she thinks he did. She's not entirely sure if he ever said those exact words. It seemed like that was what he meant, mind you, and her guesses are rarely wrong), but he said the school was dangerous. And while it's nice that there's an older student is taking responsibility for them, Hermione believes he might not know what he's talking about. Because really, nowhere in Hogwarts: A History is any mention of the school being a dangerous place at night. Sure, last night it was dangerous, with that dreadful three-headed dog, but then again, Dumbledore had warned them that their lives would be in danger if they were to enter the third floor.
…
All right, she does have some doubts about the school management, but she's certain it simply must be the cultural differences. All the more reason to study up some more!
She finishes dressing and trails after the older girls. She attempts to close the door without making too much noise. It's unlikely that her roommates would wake up from something like that when the brunette's greeting didn't, but still. She doesn't want them to dislike her any more.
She's sick of sitting alone.
Maybe that's why she doesn't protest about the running, even though she wants too. She doesn't mean to push the other children away, she really doesn't. But she's intelligent and she knows it, and can't stand stupid remarks. And correcting them always seems so nice and helpful. At least, until they get mad and she realizes that she opened her big mouth again and said something she shouldn't have.
She bites her lip and looks at the gray stones of the corridor floor. Charlotte is walking in front of her. Hermione frowns. The older girl only wearing a singlet, running shorts and shoes. Her bare arms and legs, completely covered in freckles, are in plain sight.
''Aren't you cold?''
Lillian turns her head and gives Hermione a long-suffering nod. ''She pretends she isn't.''
Charlotte scowls at her, which only seems to spur Lillian on to talk more, despite her constant yawning. ''When Sui took us to the Muggle part of London in the summer before our second year, we went to see a movie. She didn't even like it all that much. But her family disapproved and Char does like contradicting every word that leaves her father's mouth. So now she's flaunting copious amounts of skin for our culture's standards and wearing Muggle clothing whenever she can, the spoiled little princess.''
Charlotte pouts and crosses her arms, pointedly looking at Lillian's own robes. They look only a fraction lighter than the normal school uniform. ''Not like you're in a better situation, miss Sweat-To-Death.''
Lillian waves it away. ''Majority counts.''
Charlotte pouts again, but doesn't start anything. Hermione thinks she's not really feeling like having an argument at six a.m. either, despite her upbeat attitude.
Hermione's still not entirely sure what she's doing here, but when Lillian pats her on the head and keeps walking next to her, she can't help but think: I'll protest later.
''Be careful when you stretch, you don't want to pull anything,'' Shisui peers at the boys from underneath his arms, his T-shirt sleeves getting in the way. It's hard to see them while touching his toes- especially when sitting on the grass, but that was to be expected.
At least he hadn't decided to teach them the stretching exercises on the path in front of the school instead of next to the lake. That would've been a lot less soft on the bottom. He'll take the grass tickling his calves over scrapes any day.
''I don't even get why we're doing this!'' Ron groans, making grabby hands towards his feet, tongue sticking out of his mouth, but unable to reach them.
''Because,'' someone snaps at Ron behind Shisui's back, making the red head jump slightly, ''Warming up before sporting prevents injury and increases your performance!''
Decisively, Hermione sits down and begins to stretch.
Shisui chuckles. Such a pitch-perfect textbook answer! That girl is going to be a terrifying woman one day! And apparently she already knows how to stretch too- Her form is good.
Ron sticks out his tongue at her as Charlotte plops down on one side of Hermione and Lillian gracefully lowers herself to the ground on the other.
Hermione huffs. Shisui feels like he's the cat that's got the canary- because really? This is even more entertainment than Lills and Char whenever they can't get into the kitchens because the Hufflepuff's charmed the secret door again (never believe the Slytherin's are the bad guys. They might be ambitious and ruthless at times, but at least they don't try to monopolize food outside of the meal times. Shisui knows what's up).
''Why do you have to be so immat-''
''Hey, Harry! Great that you're here! And of your own initiative too! Hear that, guys? I told you he would become the best seeker ever! Natural talent and hard-working!''
The Gryffindor Quidditch team is jogging towards them, decked out in red and gold Quidditch gear. Wood, as always, is leading the troupe. His teammates yawn, but humor him by not saying anything.
Wood arrives and hits Harry on the back, beaming at him. Harry turns beet red and shies away, fidgeting with his shirt. Shisui is really going to have to do something about that. It's also obvious the boy wants to protest Wood's statement, but a quick glance sideways at Hermione, Ron and Neville seems to change his mind. The loyalty is adorable- it's great to see him actually getting along with his peers this time around! With the exception of Shisui himself in Harry's previous life, of course.
He stands up and dusts his knees off, before clasping hands with Wood, a broad grin taking over his face.
''I was thinking we'd let the first years run about half a lap. That will get them started nicely, without pushing them too much. Hmmm… What were you planning to do with Harry's training schedule? How heavy is the exercise going to be? I don't want to exhaust them.''
''I didn't know they were friends,'' Ron whispers, leaning into Harry.
''They're both mad,'' Charlotte mutters underneath her breath as she adjusts the strap of her singlet, ''The Quidditch nut and the taskmaster. The crazies always band together.''
''What does that say about you?'' Lillian asks over her shoulder as she stands up. ''I mean, you've accused me of being a nutjob more than once too, but you're still here.''
Charlotte gasps and splutters, but doesn't come up with a comeback.
Shisui claps in his hands. ''Time to get going, ladies!''
Ron grumbles at that, but follows anyway. ''Oh, come on!'' Hermione retorts, ''It's not that bad!''
Shisui walks in front of them and can't help but laugh a little.
This is going to be fun!
Scratch that, it's awful and Hermione should definitely have protested before Shisui Osaka had turned into a slave driver!
Sweat is running down her face, drenching her sports clothing and making her feel awfully hot. Her hair sticks to her face, she's out of breath and she is having a stitch.
This simply can't be healthy!
(Actually, her brain says, and Hermione suddenly has the urge to hit herself up the head. Just because she knows that this is good for her body in the long run doesn't mean that she has to like it, mind you).
Why ever had she thought that half a lap around the lake was not far? It was a monstrous distance!
Huffing and puffing, she pushed on. Her legs were aching.
Oh, god! They were going to have to walk back when they finished!
Was this torture never going to end?!
Shisui couldn't help but grin at the sight of the sweating first years. Such a delight to be the evil taskmaster! Why hadn't he ever considered teaching genin in his past life? Seriously, he had been missing out!
Then again, better late than never!
Neville, Harry, Hermione and Ron really had no idea what was coming for them- just look at them sitting there so innocently, breathing hard and thinking they were done!
Shisui knew better than to force them, though. He would just make them do half a lap every day. They would get curious soon enough- signing the devil's contract had to be done out of free will. Or at least, that was Shisui's experience with sports. People did not manage to preserve unless it was out of their own resolve.
One thing he does know for sure: Whatever is going to happen, it's going to be one hell of a ride.
Shisui slumps on the hard chair, pressing his cheek to the wooden surface of the library table. His head hurts and his hand is cramping, but he had done it. He had finally taken the time to research and sort out at least a small part of this gigantic mess.
Straightening up- ouch, that's his back making itself known- he goes over his notes again.
Yes, there was no doubt about it.
The propaganda about the Boy Who Lived was absolutely sickening. The Wix were a people who, without any logical explanation, believed that a baby, a child just a year old, was responsible for defeating Lord Voldemort, a terrorist extraordinaire.
However, ''Look underneath the underneath'' was not the shinobi motto for nothing. So Shisui watched.
The Wix were conditioned very thoroughly, was the conclusion. For example, The Witch trials. It scattered the Wix, made them so very afraid of everyone who was not one of them. Muggleborns were risks- they had families that were normal, and what if they chose their side? It would end in the death of both the Muggleborn and the pureblood Wix. Didn't lessen the resentment towards Muggleborns, however, or stop the deep instilling of the fear of the unknown. It was not the earliest source, but definitely an important one.
The reason why this fear of the unknown led to such ridiculous beliefs was also clear- Magic was an unpredictable power. It could fit into the safe little box of the wizarding world for only a little while- spells were but a tiny fraction of the magic that existed out there. In order to move around in the Wizarding World and use advanced magic, or deal with the Auld Magic that had left traces of itself everywhere, a Wix had no choice but adopt a less rigid mindset.
And lastly, propaganda like the Daily Prophet.
The press, Shisui had noticed, had almost unlimited power on the Wix of the United Kingdom. It was the sole thing binding the Wix together- the thing that made them a community as a whole, and not just little towns sprinkled all over the country who just so happened to go to the same school in Scotland.
If one did not have a subscription to the Prophet, they were completely cut off from the Wizarding World. They did not have a single idea of what was happening in their World if they didn't have the paper. There could be a war going on for all they knew, a mass murderer on the loose, and they wouldn't know until their corpses lay rotting underneath the fall leaves.
It was a terrifying reality- and one many had taken advantage of. Articles in the Prophet were often taken for the absolute truth because the Wix had no other source. And those who didn't actively search for other sources? Who didn't make the effort to check what was being said? Those became slaves to the word of the paper.
And Shisui, a wolf in both of his lives, knows very well that the majority of the population tends to be sheep.
…
Shisui is glad that the escapades of the first years have been stopped for the time being. If there is one thing he's absolutely certain about right now, it is that the Wix might just be crazy enough to do something as stupid as letting mass murderers into the school.
Authors note
Hi, everyone!
It was quite some puzzling with the points of views and order of events in this chapter! Especially because it ties in with some pretty important character development for the group and certain individual characters in the next chapters!
I also was happy to get to work on this again- I managed to write half of it a week ago, but then I had to finish editing my Free! fic Sirensong (Yes, it's a merpeople AU- I can't resist writing about sirens) so I could post the last chapter. But fortunately, I finished Sirensong last night and had the time to write the rest of this chapter today!
The Hufflepuff's ruling the world through the hoarding of food is one of my personal headcanons that decided to make itself known through Shisui XD
Wix is a gender neutral term for both witches and wizards that I invented, but it goes a bit deeper than that. In the Harry Potter universe, they mostly seem to use ''wizard'' as an equivalent for the gender neutral form of ''man'' (as in mankind). However, I used the Witch trials in my explanation. Historically seen, witch was a gender neutral term too, not only meaning women in possession of magic, but also men. This situation gave me two technically gendered, but also technically gender neutral terms. Instead of choosing one and thereby constantly irking myself because it would either not fit the HP universe or dismiss the historically correct term, I chose to use an entirely new, truly gender neutral term.
I hope you liked it, and constructive criticism is always welcome!