Summary: Motivated, miffed, and magical, Shikamaru Nara was a force to behold. Whoever had placed him here was going to get it, but first he'd have to get through a school for magic. And he'd thought ninjas could be stupid. Troublesome.
Rating: T, and should stay that way.
Genres: Friendship, Adventure, Hurt/Comfort, maybe more, I don't know yet.
Warnings: Language, implied/mentioned child abuse/neglect, hey look...that's angst...in a chapter that was supposed to be funny, non-canon stuff going on in here, probably some OOCness, warnings are individual per chapter, might change next chapter or might not. No slash or yaoi, yuri, Shounen Ai, or Shōjo Ai. Or incest…just…no
Pairings: As far as romance goes, it's canon for both series. Friendship!Shikamaru/Harry&Ron&Hermione&Neville&Fred&George. Mentorship(slow burn)!Snape/Shikamaru. Developing Paternal!Lupin/Shikamaru. I might add more later, if I think of it.
Disclaimer: Don't think they will ever be mine because I don't have the money to buy them.
"Speech"
Emphasis on words/thoughts
(#) A/N at end to explain stuff
Regular text
A Shadow in Wizard's Robes Chapter 7: Fur for Fun!
By: AngelicSilverWolf
'Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.' - Doctor Seuss
Age 7: Four years before Hogwarts
Everything had been going pretty decently up until she came along and unsettled him. In his defense, it wasn't every day that he was stopped by a woman that bore an uncanny resemblance to a dragonfly.
Shikamaru had just exited The Leaky Cauldron with a bag of ingredients when someone knocked into him. He kept his balance, thankfully, but the bag in his hand was a lost cause. Something else to work on, apparently. Losing his grip so easily - he was going soft.
"Are you alright? Oh, my, how clumsy. Please, forgive me," said the woman who had bumped into him. She stooped down and picked up his bag. She offered it to him, long draping sleeves brushing his hand as he took it back.
"Don't worry about it," Shikamaru said easily, unnerved by her manner of dress. She was just so...sparkly. Some of the other jounin he knew might have found it appealing, Anko, but he wasn't that far gone in the insanity yet.
"I'm so glad-" And then the woman actually met his eyes. She stiffened almost painfully.
"Ma'am?" Shikamaru asked warily. Her eyes visibly glazed over.
"A change in fate has occurred. A foreigner from a world far away has made an appearance; a person who should not be here but is. Born to fight, born to kill, he will drastically change the future, but whether for better or for worse has yet to be seen. With the power to destroy the Dark Lord, or bring him to power, the Shadow lies in wait for the sign to either cover the world in darkness or in light. Betrayal by one he calls friend and much suffering has yet to come, but what will tip the balance is not now known. He will exit this world, never to return, and will leave it in either ruin or in a Golden Age of peace, the likes of which hasn't been seen for many centuries." The woman's voice was deep and strangely powerful. Her eyes, while still glazed over and distant, seemed almost manic in their intensity. Then, they rolled up and out of sight.
Shikamaru just managed to catch her before her face made an acquaintance with the ground, dropping his bag yet again (dammit, there went his no bruising policy) and pushing aside his disturbed shock at her prediction. He propped her against a wall and turned away, mind running over the words already committed to memory.
It was about him. No doubt about it, because, really, who else could have been "a foreigner from a world far away"? Add that to the "Born to kill" bit, and he had no doubt. Then, there the Dark Lord...Voldemort, it had to be. But how was he supposed to affect Shikamaru if he was dead? There was one thing that Shikamaru knew for certain, and that was that absolutely no one could know about the prophecy...
It was between him and Voldemort, and that was it. Not that Shikamaru was about to go join the guy, seeing as he was...well, dead, but with the potential to destroy the world, he wouldn't take chances with trusting people not to lock him up just because of a stupid prophecy. He would also have to be extremely cautious with any future friends since one of them would evidently betray him. Adults were out of the question entirely.
He had found, in both lives, that they were sometimes worse than children when it came to making rational decisions. They were biased, paranoid, ignorant, or just plain idiotic. If he was going to have to deal with the fate of the world, or something close to it, he didn't want to do it while also dealing with the ridiculously stupid tendencies of adults around him. Shikamaru liked to hand out reality checks as much as the next person, but there was only so many times he could dislodge someone's head from their ass before it became too much work to do consistently.
He felt that sometimes it was better for all involved if there was a little less involvement from preconceptions, and more involvement from good old-fashioned experience.
...
"You had better not be lying to me, McNair."
"Wouldn't, Malfoy. Heard it plain as day. That Seer woman belted the thing out in public. Muggle public, but still."
"Interesting. Gather those who are left. It's time for a change of plans. And get me any information on the boy that you can."
...
Present Day:
Harry Interlude:
It was weird to not have Shikamaru around for such a long period of time. Granted, at least now they knew that he was resting instead of working, but still. Harry often found himself turning to ask Shikamaru something in his classes, only to be reminded by the blank space next to him of the boy's absence. Neville was certainly missing Shikamaru's presence in Potions, though he valiantly made do with a reluctant Seamus. At the very least, nothing exploded.
Harry hadn't realized just how many people Shikamaru had made acquaintances with. In the span of a few hours, he'd had a number of people approach him about his friend's lack of presence, and most of them hadn't even been from Gryffindor. One of them had been Percy, much to Ron's disbelief. Questions about how, exactly, they all knew Shikamaru had been brushed off once they had all learned that he was fine.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione had all made a mental note to ask their friend later. But until then...
They had promised themselves to do more in their little project after seeing Shikamaru's dedication to his work, and they had trooped down to Hagrid's the previous day, as they had planned before.
They had managed to wheedle a name from the man, Nicholas Flamel, and they had triumphantly marched to the library. Unfortunately, they couldn't find him. Anywhere.
Hermione had brought out armful after armful of books, hoping to find something. Nothing. The man was more elusive than spies in the muggle movies Dudley liked to watch and occasionally mimic (he wasn't very successful, for obvious reasons), but seeing Shikamaru exhausted from effort only strengthened their resolve. If he could go for three days without food or sleep, no matter how unadvised, they could surely stand a few hours of hardcore research with sleep and breaks in between.
They hoped to have something before Shikamaru woke up. Harry was feeling rather low in spirits and he knew that Ron was in the same condition, but Hermione kept them going with reminders and warning glances.
"We can't stop now," she said the day after Shikamaru went into a coma-like state, during the lunch hour, when they were in the library instead of eating. "We've put in too much effort. I certainly won't stop."
Harry and Ron exchanged looks, and the latter sighed.
"I guess," he said. "Besides, we couldn't do that to Shikamaru. I think he'd actually strangle us if we told him all his work was for nothing."
"There is that," Harry agreed. "Though I'm sure it would be more along the lines of death by some deadly potion."
"Shikamaru wouldn't do that," Hermione protested. Ron and Harry exchanged dubious looks. "It'd too much work, and it'd be really troublesome to clean up," she sniffed, corners of her mouth twitching up. Harry and Ron grinned.
"Actually," a familiar voice drawled, "it would be far easier than you'd think."
All three spun around.
"Shikamaru!" they exclaimed together. He raised an eyebrow.
"Was that rehearsed?" he asked.
"You're up! How are you feeling?" Hermione asked, recovering first from her shock.
"Better," he admitted. "I don't have a headache anymore, and I don't feel like I'm about to topple over."
"That's great. But...shouldn't you get more sleep?" Harry questioned in concern. Shikamaru waved it off.
"I can't sleep for long periods of time. These last twelve hours or so were an exception. Normally, I just rest in small and somewhat frequent amounts," he explained. "Hence my naps and cloud watching." Hermione frowned.
"That's strange. How long have you been like that?" she inquired. Shikamaru shrugged.
"Since birth? At least, since I can remember," he said.
"Well, you don't look like shit anymore at least," Ron commented bluntly, causing Hermione to scowl at him. But Shikamaru really did look better. His complexion wasn't waxy or as pale, and he seemed to have more energy. He seemed steady, and his hands no longer shook from exertion.
"I can always count on you to make me feel better, Ron," he said dryly. He glanced at the table that was covered in thick tomes. "What's all this?" he asked curiously.
"Oh! Right, you don't know. The last day of your, um...study vigil, we went down to Hagrid's and managed to get a name from him. 'Nicholas Flamel'," Hermione said proudly. Then her face fell and she sighed. "But we can't find him anywhere. I've looked in every book I can think of, and nothing!"
Shikamaru sat down with a huff and hmmed thoughtfully.
"Can you give me a list of the books you used? Maybe we should try Flourish and Blotts," he suggested. Hermione nodded and set about writing a list. Harry studied his friend closely, looking for signs that anything was wrong.
"So you're really better then?" Ron asked, apparently thinking along similar lines. Shikamaru nodded slowly.
"Yeah. Sleeping so well made my fatigue go away, along with several other problems," he said ruefully.
"Excellent!" a cheery voice exclaimed. All four of them turned to see Fred and George coming to them with smiles on their faces but steel in their eyes. "That means we can yell at you now without getting told off by our consciences for scolding a disabled person," Fred declared, ignoring Madam Pince's scandalized glare.
"I wasn't disabled," Shikamaru drawled. "More like temporarily physically unavailable." Fred's smile turned into a frown of disapproval, and Shikamaru stopped talking, surprise raising the latter's eyebrow a little. The other three first years looked on in slight discomfort.
The twins were usually pretty easy-going, and even when angry there were hints of good humor in their eyes. But...angry seemed to be the wrong word to use here. Upset was perhaps a better one.
"Let's start, shall we? George? Do you wish to have the honor of going first, or shall I?" Fred asked his twin. George shrugged.
"He's gonna get it from both of us anyway, so you might as well," he said. Fred nodded.
"Right. Let's get this over with," he said with a determined expression, which his twin mirrored. Fred turned to look at Shikamaru, who was eyeing him rather apprehensively now.
All that can be said of the matter is that it was loud, furious, a tad explosive, and even the librarian didn't interrupt for fear of the looks on the twins' faces. (1) By the end, Shikamaru was leaning back in his seat with a somewhat embarrassed and chagrined look on his face.
"Promise to never, ever work yourself like that again," the twins finished in chorus.
Ron was openly gaping and Harry knew that his eyes were probably the size of dinner plates. Hermione was a mix between awe, displeasure, and amusement. The latter seemed to be directed at Shikamaru and her companions' reactions.
"Blimey, and I thought Mum was the yeller of the family," Ron muttered as the twins wrapped up their tirade.
"Must run in the family," Harry said faintly. Hermione snickered. Shikamaru slowly leaned forward again, briefly looking - for all the world - his age for the first time since they had met him. Then his face turned back to its usual indifferent appearance and the image was gone. If Harry didn't know any better, he'd say his friend had looked almost wistful, but that couldn't have been right. What in this situation could have made him wistful?
"I promise that you won't have to interfere again; what happened this last time was a mistake," Shikamaru said carefully, as if weighing his every word. Hermione frowned at the odd wording, but said nothing. The twins' faces split into brilliant grins.
"That's all we're asking," George said.
"Wonderful, now I can stop having to think about that," Fred said. They turned to the other three Gryffindor first years. "Sorry about that, but we really-"
"-had to get that off of our chests," George finished.
Harry shook his head. One minute they were lecturing a boy who was usually much more mature than them, and the next they were back to their normal selves. What it must be like to be Fred or George Weasley. He was brought back by a change in topic.
"So, about the prank," George started, when Shikamaru interrupted him.
"Yeah, about that, can I speak to you guys in private?" he asked, standing up. They shrugged and followed him to a corner, where they proceeded to speak in hushed tones. Smiles grew on the twins' faces, and they clapped Shikamaru on the back. The group separated and Shikamaru returned to the other first years with a mildly pleased look in his eyes.
"What was that all about?" Hermione asked him.
"Prank details. I can't tell too much or I'll give it away," he said. There was mischievousness in his voice and a bit of excitement in his eyes.
"It's going to be big, isn't it?" Ron asked warily. Shikamaru tilted his head towards him.
"Why do you say that?"
Ron shrugged. "I know my brothers."
Shikamaru nodded, whether in acceptance of the statement or in answer to the question, Harry wasn't sure, and that was all that was said on the subject before he, quite deliberately, no doubt, asked a question about Nicholas Flamel.
...
"Well? Are they ready?"
"Patience, young grasshopper."
"Where did you learn that? Isn't that a muggle saying?"
"I'm a half-blood."
"That...actually makes sense. Did you two know that?"
"Lee is a half-blood? Of course! Sorry best friends we'd be if we didn't at least know that, Shika." (2)
"Right... Do the house-elves know what their job is?"
"Yeah. Excited little buggers too. Kept calling me 'Master Weasley', or 'Master Fred'. Can't believe we haven't found them sooner, you know. Life would have been better if we'd only known..."
"You two will have to show me how to get into the kitchens some time. But, for now: it's tonight. Finally."
"Well, people are going home in a few days. So, if everything works out, everyone will have some new additions to their bodies to celebrate the holidays. And, if we did this correctly, it should last exactly thirty-seven hours."
"Why thirty-seven?"
"It's a nice, even number."
"...No, it isn't." (3)
"Shika, are we going to sit here and nitpick all day, or shall we get this party started?"
"Let's just...go."
"You heard the man! Fred, George, you know your places. Shikamaru, prep the signal for the house-elves. By the way, I want a mane."
"We can't all have what we want, Lee, but I'll see what we can do. I mean, I want a kick-arse tail, and Shika secretly confided in me that he wanted claws-"
"Don't put words in my mouth, you troublesome person!"
"Now, now, Shika, getting homicidal won't help anyone. You don't have to try so hard to act like the predator we all know you want to be. Besides, we need Fred alive for this operation."
"...Why did I agree to this again?"
"You love us, and you're secretly a mischievous, no-good prankster like Filch calls us."
"That's not all he calls you, I'm sure. Whatever. Time to start- Operation Fuzzy Bits? Seriously? This is the name you came up with?"
"Don't knock it till you try it."
"I officially give up; I don't care anymore."
"That's the spirit! Operation Fuzzy Bits is officially underway!"
...
Hogwarts was awoken with many a scream and unmanly yelps of shock. Students poured into the Great Hall, haphazardly dressed and in various states of confusion and distress. Only...to their surprise, they weren't the only ones.
Snape glared venomously at the world at large. His black eyes had been changed so that they resembled that of a snake's and were now a dark green, and when he opened his mouth, a silvery forked tongue made its appearance. McGonagall had red whiskers and golden pads on her bony fingers, while Sprout was sporting black hair with yellow stripes. Flitwick's nails greatly resembled talons while his hair had been dyed a deep blue, and Dumbledore trilled a little every time he spoke. Some noticed enviously that he didn't have any visible changes.
Slowly, order was more or less established, and students sat down at their houses to examine themselves and their housemates more closely.
Members of each house now had some sort of trait of their house mascot, and occasionally one or both of their house colors. And it affected every single person, so in theory, no one could be blamed for the prank. Every eye, however, was on the Gryffindor twins and Lee Jordan.
The formers' brown eyes were now amber in color, and when they grinned, abnormally sharp teeth made an appearance. Lee Jordan had gotten his desired mane, black with gold streaks, that took the place of his hair, which he showed off proudly. Shikamaru was slouched in his seat while his housemates gaped at the pair of fluffy black ears that peaked up in his messily put up hair. He was also gifted with a smooth tail with a tuft of black hair at the end.
Loud chatter reigned for nearly ten minutes while teachers either gawked at their own extra appendages, glared in sulky silence, or roared with laughter at their coworkers' expressions. Eventually Dumbledore managed to get everyone relatively quiet, his eyes twinkling with mirth all the while.
"Well, this is a surprising way to start the holidays," he said. The students rumbled in agreement, some looking more amused than others. "I don't believe that these new additions are harmful, so we shall have to wait and see how long they last. I myself am quite fascinated and, should the engineers behind this prank ever come forward, would enjoy learning about how it was done. Until then, we shall simply go about our normal days."
Some of the students didn't seem to care one way or another, and the rest were either in good spirit about it, or they were on the more negative side of the emotional spectrum. The majority of the teachers looked resigned or extremely irritated. The only one who hadn't been affected was Professor Bins, and that was because transformations didn't really work on intangible objects. The students were brought out of their moods by the appearance of food, and the sounds of eating filled the hall.
The breakfast period was spent with the students either admiring their new additions, or them trying to get rid of them. Unfortunately for those who belonged in the latter category, there was no doing so. Even the seventh years couldn't get rid of it, they usually ended up only making it worse. Shikamaru, somewhat uncharitably, thought it served them right for trying to mess with something they had no information on.
"How'd you do it?" Ron asked, casually examining his friend's tail. It twitched in response to his pokes. Shikamaru yanked his tail away.
"Poke yourself," he said irritably. Ron just shrugged good naturedly and examined the paw prints on his fingers.
"Wicked," he said. "You never answered my question." Shikamaru eyed him pensively.
"Have you ever heard the phrase, 'A magician never shares his secrets?'?" he asked.
"No..." Ron said slowly.
"Pretty much, I'm not going to tell you because it would ruin the effect," Shikamaru said. Ron pouted but didn't say anything.
"Shikamaru, can't you get rid of these?" Hermione asked desperately, waving her now clawed hands.
"Sorry. It's permanent for another few days or so," he answered, not looking sorry at all.
"Permanent?" she squeaked. "How am I supposed to hold anything? How am I supposed to write, or hold my books without poking a hole through them?"
"Cats have retractable claws, don't they?" Harry asked from across the table. Hermione went pink.
"I haven't figured out how to control them yet," she mumbled.
"Don't you just...I dunno, pull, or something?" Ron asked. Shikamaru sighed and went back to eating. He was absolutely not getting in the middle of that impending mess.
"'Pull'," Hermione repeated blankly. "That's your advice?"
It was Ron's turn to change colors. "I was just trying to help," he said defensively. "How the ruddy hell should I know? I only have pads. See?" He held up his hands for inspection. Hermione leaned over to do exactly that, and Harry and Shikamaru exchanged knowing glances.
"Fifth year, he asks first, five galleons," Harry said, much to the confusion of the others. Shikamaru made his usual half grin.
"Without complications? Where's the fun in that?" he drawled. "Sixth year, they have several whole dancing-around-the-issue situations. He finally grows a pair and just asks her out, oh, and they probably have a few jealousy spats. Five galleons it is." (4) He and Harry shook hands.
"What are you two talking about?" Ron asked suspiciously. Harry gave a look of innocence that absolutely no one believed, and Shikamaru let his grin stretch.
"Nothing," they said together. Hermione rolled her cat-pupil-ed eyes.
"You two are acting more suspicious than the Weasley twins right now, and that is saying something," she said disapprovingly.
"Us? Like them?" Harry asked in disbelief. Shikamaru cocked an eyebrow at her.
"You give them too much credit," he said, so dryly that at first no one registered his statement. Then Ron snorted, Harry grinned, and Hermione shook her head.
"Incorrigible," she said fondly.
"I do not think that word means what you think it means," Shikamaru replied, completely straight-faced. Hermione's face lit up.
"I love that movie!" she exclaimed.
"Isn't it really old?" Hardy asked curiously.
"What's a movie, and what are you talking about?" Ron butted in. The other three exchanged looks.
"I'd forgotten about the lack of anything muggle with pureblood wizards," Shikamaru commented.
"A movie is like a bunch of pictures together with sound and color," Hermione explained. "Usually, people play different roles; they're called 'actors'."
"And we're talking about the Princess Bride," Harry said. "Even I know that, and I almost never watch TV."
"Anyway, it's a quote from there," Hermione continued. Ron hmmed and said no more.
"So, when do these wear off?" Harry questioned, trying to untangle his newly added whiskers from his glasses. His hair hadn't been changed into a mane, but it had gone from black to a dark red.
"A few days," Shikamaru answered vaguely, slapping Ron's hands away from his velvety ears.
"You were serious about that?" Neville asked, looking crestfallen from his position beside Hermione. His changes were less visible as they included a sandpaper textured tongue and enhanced hearing.
"Unfortunately, dear Neville, our tailed friend is right," Fred commented from behind Shikamaru. The latter twitched his ears and tail, the only sign of his aggravation. He hadn't heard them. That was a problem.
"So it was you two!" Seamus said dramatically, pointing a hand covered in soft fur. Everyone within earshot gave him a look.
"Was there ever any question?" someone asked sarcastically. Seamus went a little pink.
"Well, Shikamaru's been looking shifty-eyed for a couple of days," he said defensively. Shikamaru's eye twitched. "See?" Seamus asked dramatically.
"You're an idiot," Dean sighed. He shot Shikamaru a sympathetic look, which was ignored as the receiver looked about two seconds away from bashing his head into the table to save himself the trouble of dealing with the situation any more.
"Now, I say that Operation Fuzzy Bi-" Fred started proudly, but Shikamaru's head whipped around so quickly, and his look was so threatening, that the words died in his throat.
"Keep talking and I will bite you with these new teeth of mine," Shikamaru warned dangerously. Indeed, there were sharp canines that glimmered whenever he opened his mouth. Fred's face stretched into an evil grin.
"Kinky," he snarked. Half of the table - the older half it must be said - spewed food everywhere, clearly imagining something, and the other half just looked confused. Shikamaru positively growled and stood up.
"You have exactly to the count of ten before my foot is five feet up your ass," he said menacingly. Fred waggled his eyebrow, and now even his twin was starting to look a little unsure at his actions. One of them would live, at least.
"Ooh, Shikamaru," Fred cooed, paying no attention to the truly dangerous twitch that the younger boy was developing. "I didn't know you swung that way-hurk!"
"Ten," Shikamaru snapped, and then he lunged, just barely missing Fred, who had been yanked back by the collar by his brother. George, sensibly, looked rather concerned for his sibling's safety. They bolted, laughing madly and scolding respectively, with a rather pissed off young boy nipping at their heels. Almost literally.
"I told you we shouldn't have spiked his juice with that hormone stuff!" George yelped, dodging a spell. Shikamaru had pulled out his wand and was now casting viciously after the pair of them.
"How was I supposed to know it would make him act like a girl who's PMSing and a pissed off lion at the same time?" Fred shot back. "It's still fun kind of though, you gotta admi-whoa!" He ducked just in time to dodge a spinning plate full of food that Shikamaru had apparently snatched off of one of the tables. The twins skidded around the corner of a table and went for another turn around the hall.
The teachers seemed to think that they deserved it, for even McGonagall was only half-heartedly calling for peace (which probably had something to do with her un-Vanishable whiskers and the amount of potential blackmail material everyone was gaining from this incident). Dumbledore just chuckled merrily, and Snape looked slightly less murderous now that Shikamaru was aiming some rather painful spells at the twins. The hormones seemed to be affecting his aim, however, for none of his spells hit. A pity. Seeing a Weasley twin get set on fire for a few seconds would have made Snape's day.
...
"I hate you all."
Fred and George exchanged looks.
"We said that we're sorry," George offered.
"Besides, the fact that you chased us around for over ten minutes while almost succeeding in hitting us with painful jinxes and thus making us the laughing stock of the entire castle makes up for it, doesn't it?" Fred tried reasonably. Shikamaru didn't answer for a moment.
"...the blackmail material I have on you might be worth it," he allowed, a mischievous glint entering his brown eyes. The twins spluttered and everyone else in the room - Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Neville - just shook their heads. "I have plenty on you, too," Shikamaru said to his friends. "You could have helped."
"Where's the fun in that?" Ron asked breezily. "It was pretty funny to see the twins running for their lives."
Fred strode up to his younger brother and put him in a headlock.
"Ronnie-kins is getting brave," he said, mercilessly allowing his twin to tickle their brother. Shikamaru watched with something like fondness in his eyes.
On the inside though, he was worried. He knew the potion they had administered to him shouldn't have made him lose control like that. It was supposed to just make him feel some annoying urges, but it shouldn't have made him get so annoyed. As a ninja, he was supposed to constantly be in control of his own body and actions since there was a chance of people getting hurt if he wasn't. The incident that had occurred a few hours ago - thankfully it had mostly worn off after about thirty minutes - unsettled him. He had played it off by pretending to finally let the twins go, but in reality, it had taken him that long to calm down enough to think the situation over.
He resolved to look into it more over the holidays. For now, he could only think that they'd either messed up the potion, or that his chakra had something to do with it. Considering how meticulous the twins were with their pranks, he was leaning more towards the latter conclusion. He noticed Harry looking at the scene of Ron and his brothers with something close to longing, so he shunted aside his worries for later and turned to the now red-headed boy.
"What do you do for Christmas?" Hermione asked quietly, clearly thinking along the same lines as him. He was increasingly thankful for the thing people called 'Woman's Intuition'.
"Usually make the food and then stay in the cupboard while the Dursleys have family over," Harry answered with a shrug. Shikamaru's mouth twisted in displeasure, and Hermione looked shocked.
"Don't you get presents?" she asked. Harry smiled a little sadly.
"I gave up on that when I was five. I learned not to expect any," he answered. Shikamaru breathed. Slowly to avoid punching something. Preferably Harry's thrice damned relatives. Hermione looked sad, and then determined.
"Then we'll have to fix that this year," she said firmly. "Expect presents from now on." Harry looked so shocked that she stood up and left the room, swiping her hands across her eyes. Shikamaru just watched Harry carefully.
At least they hadn't asked about his Christmases. That would have been an interesting can of worms to open.
"Why was she so upset?" Harry asked in confusion. Shikamaru sighed.
"I'm not the best person to ask about Christmas traditions, but I'm fairly certain that everyone is supposed to get a present or two. And they're supposed to be able to eat the Christmas feast and enjoy the festivities with whomever they're with," he said slowly. Harry frowned.
"Didn't you know, Harry?" Ron asked. He and the twins had started listening without the others noticing. Harry shook his head.
"They always said that I wouldn't get any because 'Santa doesn't like freaks'," he said, doing air quotations. Shikamaru leaned back and steepled his fingers, running through a basic breathing exercise. He couldn't lose it again so soon after that morning.
"Freak? Are they talking about your magic?" Fred asked indignantly.
"Yeah. I had been told that my parents were killed while drunk driving and that wasn't cool, but now I think my aunt was bitter about it or something," Harry told them.
"And that's reason to keep a kid from Christmas?" George scoffed. Harry squirmed slightly in his seat.
"Yeah, but this isn't any worse than not being told my name until age six..." he trailed off at the looks they were giving him. "What?"
"What do you mean by that? You didn't know your own name?" Ron asked, astonished. Shikamaru absently thought that it was a good thing that Hermione was no longer in the room; she probably would have been bawling by now.
"No?" Harry tried. "They just called me 'boy' or 'freak'." That was really the last straw for Shikamaru.
He swore quietly and stood, startling the others in the room for his uncharacteristic break in nonchalance, and he turned around and - with a chakra enhanced hand - punched a hole through one of the stone walls of the common room. He ignored the lance of pain that shot through his hand as images of a child Harry filled with confusion at being left out intermixed with a young and sad Naruto being called 'monster' and 'demon' filled his mind, making him let loose a litany of Japanese and English profanities. His expletives got more and more extensive as his anger grew, some directed at himself, others at the Dursleys, and a good many just at the world in general.
He ignored his silent-from-surprise friends and pulled his fist out. He'd repair the hole later. For now...he needed to do something. Preferably something messy, bloody, and violent. Since fighting other students was probably forbidden, and no one his age would last against him anyways, it was time to go to the Forbidden Forest. Maybe he could kill a few of those giant spiders that were rumored to be there.
With that, he turned on his heel and strode out of the Common Room. Anyone he met on his way outside took one look and wisely stayed out of the way, either because of his foreboding, flat expression, dangerous aura, purposeful walk, or his still bleeding fist - even the few Slytherins that spotted him. They had enough self preservation to know when to pick a fight, and they correctly guessed that this wasn't one of those times. He absently wondered if it was a good thing that he was so intimidating even with a fluffy tail and (adorable) ears.
Shikamaru jerkily snapped off a Disillusionment charm to keep Filch from interfering with his trip outside (he didn't know what he'd do if the man tried to stop him, but it probably wouldn't be very pretty, and damn it, that potion apparently wasn't entirely out of his system yet) and felt a measure of gratitude that it was Sunday.
Going to classes in this state spelled disaster.
...
Shikamaru felt marginally better and much calmer three hours later, having vented on a good number of dangerous animals. He had taken the time to clean off his tantō and kunai in the lake, absently noting that there were, in fact, merpeople in the lake. How about that.
They had waved goodbye when he left. Friendly.
He walked into the Common Room and was met with more than a few stares. He raised a questioning eyebrow and was directed to the hole in the wall. Oh, right. That.
"Shikamaru! You're back," Hermione said, scrambling out of her chair. She walked up to him and then noticed all of the stares. "What? Haven't you ever seen a hole in the wall before?" she snapped. She didn't wait for an answer and grabbed Shikamaru's arm, dragging him across the Common Room to a corner.
"Are you okay?" she demanded quietly as soon as they had some semblance of privacy. He quirked an eyebrow at her but nodded.
"Guess you heard about that," he said, gesturing to the hole. She let out something of a hysterical laugh.
"It would have been difficult not to," she agreed. "People aren't exactly sure that it was you, and the witnesses certainly aren't saying anything, but going off the rather foul mood you were in when you left…"
He sighed. "I'll fix it after dinner," he said.
"I don't care about that," she said earnestly. "Are you okay?"
He gave her a ghost of a grin. "Yeah. I just needed to blow off some steam after hearing about Harry. I'm better now."
"If that's true, why is your hand wrapped up in bandages?" she asked accusingly. "You hurt yourself by punching that wall, didn't you?"
Shikamaru blinked at her in surprise. Honestly, the pain in his hand had been reduced to a full throb, and he hadn't thought about it much except to make sure not to jostle it while venting. He had done his little...escapade with his left hand only. It had left him severely handicapped, but since he was pretty sure he had a few broken bones, it had been better to be safe than sorry. Hermione rolled her eyes at his silence.
"Boys," she said in exasperation. She took his uninjured wrist and started for the door out. "C'mon; since you clearly can't take care of yourself, I'll have to help you. To the hospital wing."
She dragged him out of the Common Room, down a few flights of stairs, and into the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey seemed surprised to see them, since neither of them had been there before. She shook herself out of it as soon a Shikamaru unwrapped his bandages.
"Goodness, what did you do to your hand?" she asked blankly.
"Put it through a wall," he admitted. She looked a tad skeptical, but Hermione nodded and shot Shikamaru a look. A few wand taps later and his hand was as good as new.
"Now, I suggest that you refrain from striking anything like a stone wall the next time you feel like hitting something," the nurse admonished sternly. "Try breathing next time; it works wonders."
"Yes, Ma'am," Shikamaru said, not saying that he'd tried breathing but it hadn't been good enough. No need to let her onto his somewhat violent - for this world - stress-relieving tendencies, no need at all.
He and Hermione left the hospital wing and promptly ran into Harry and Ron.
"Hey," the latter said. "We heard you went to the hospital wing. What's up?"
"Shikamaru here decided to punch a hole in the wall - you were there - and then he didn't go to get his hand inspected until it had enough time to swell and turn purple," Hermione huffed.
"It wasn't that bad. I would have gotten it checked out eventually; I know I'm no medic," Shikamaru told her. It would have been extremely stupid to remain handicapped like that for longer than necessary.
"You had two broken fingers, Shikamaru. That's not a good thing," Hermione reminded him. The former shrugged. That was fair. "What were you doing anyway?" she asked.
"Exploring," he answered vaguely.
"But where?" she pressed.
"The Forbidden Forest," he said, not especially looking forward to the impending reaction. She gasped, and Ron and Harry started.
"What?" she squeaked. "That place is dangerous! Why- for four hours?"
"I needed to let off some steam, so I did," he said simply. "And...the hormone potion Fred and George spiked my drink with hadn't completely worn off yet."
Ron scowled. "Bloody gits," he said darkly. Shikamaru raised a placating hand.
"I don't think they meant for it to affect me like it did," he said thoughtfully. "It was probably a fluke. The potion isn't supposed to actually influence me so strongly; it's just supposed to...nudge me, or something."
"So you punching through a wall and swearing enough to make a sailor blush like a schoolgirl was because of the potion?" Harry asked, finally speaking.
"Partly," Shikamaru admitted. "Some of it was genuine anger, though. The potion won't do much without somewhere to start." It was supposed to just nudge emotions, but it ended up amplifying them a lot instead. He'd note it for later - might come in handy some day, who knew?
"So, would you have punched through a wall without that potion?" Ron asked curiously.
"No," Shikamaru answered blandly. Well, he would have punched it, but without chakra. It had been irresponsible to waste chakra like that and show that he could, in fact, put his hand through a stone wall.
"Well, while you were having your little pique, we were doing research," Hermione sniffed. Shikamaru threw her a curious glance.
"Did you find anything?" he asked.
"There's the question of the bloody century," Ron muttered. "Crazy, obsessed..." Hermione shot Ron a nasty look and turned to Shikamaru.
"No, we didn't," she said huffily, "but we did cross off another shelf of the library."
"Going by shelves now?" Shikamaru teased. "Thorough."
"Of course! He has to turn up somewhere," she said. "There's no way he just can't exist. We'll find him."
"By second year, maybe," Ron commented grumpily. She rounded on him with an irritated look on her face.
"What's wrong with you?" she demanded. He looked at her with wide eyes. "Don't you care?"
"Of course I care!" he snapped irritably. "But it seems pretty pointless to go looking for this guy in the library anymore. If he hasn't been in the last five-hundred books, what's to say he'll be in the next few hundred?"
"Nothing, but we shouldn't just give up," she said hotly. Ron made a show of looking around.
"Did anyone say that?" he asked in exasperation. "I just meant that maybe we could be exploring other options, instead of having all four of us looking for one person. It's called 'Divide and Conquer'!"
"Ridiculous," she said stubbornly. "It would be much easier if we just all tried to look in the same spot for a larger and faster coverage of the area."
Shikamaru sighed and shared a commiserating look with Harry.
"How long until they stop?" the latter asked. "I would think everyone on the floor can hear them."
Shikamaru narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. Harry had a good point: for not wanting someone to overhear their plans, yelling about it was pretty idiotic. But, as he turned to tell them to pipe down, Ron yelled at the top of his lungs, "Books aren't the only places to find BLOODY NICOLAS FLAMEL!"
And then time stopped, because the impossible (but actually quite plausible, in hindsight) had happened. Someone had heard them.
Severus Snape glowered down at Ron from where he had been standing - unnoticed - for the past few seconds, long enough to hear exactly what had been said.
...
They were... probably dead. Shikamaru was going to die at a young age even by shinobi standards, and it was all because some people couldn't wait until they were in relative safety before arguing about their top-secret work in their loudest possible voices. Snape had given them all a long, piercing look and had curtly ordered them to his office. So there they all were, waiting as shut the door behind them. It sounded like a death sentence. On the way there, Shikamaru had cut off any forms of talk, whether it was an apology from Ron, or a squeak from Hermione. They hardly needed anything even more incriminating to be said. As it was, they were on thin ice already, but there was the smallest chance...
As soon as he had shut the door, Snape commanded them to sit down. He strode to his desk, footsteps echoing around the room.
"Now, why would a group of first years be shouting at the top of their lungs about Nicolas Flamel?" he asked coolly.
Charms (Spells):
Vanishing Spell (Evanesco): Transfiguration spell to vanish inanimate and animate objects.
Disillusionment Charm (Unknown incantation): Spell to something act like a chameleon, taking the color and texture of what is behind and around it.
(1): Sorry, couldn't actually come up with dialogue for this. Besides, it's the end result that matters anyway.
(2): So, Lee Jordan is either a half-blood or a pure-blood. I'm going with half.
(3): Took this from a different story that I can't remember the name of. But, it isn't mine.
(4): No, Shikamaru can't predict the future, but he has had friends in relationships before, so this is pure guesswork based off of experience and knowledge of Hermione and Ron's characters. (And yes, he and Harry are predicting when the former two will get together.)
Guest Reviews (Bottom to Top):
Wanderer13: Thanks a bunch! I'm glad you like it. I am going to have Neville be a more integral part of the story this time around!
NatNicole: Thanks a lot! And as for the abuse part, being neglected and hurt verbally is, well, neglect and verbal abuse respectively. What the Dursleys do to Harry transcends regular parental frustrations with their children; I am certain that not every parent/guardian treats their children/wards like they treat him. I hope that answers your question! Thanks for the review! Sorry for the late response.
Guest: You know, I haven't actually read Shikamaru Hiden. I'm glad I'm portraying him accurately, as far as that goes. And yes, sadly Temari isn't here to help him out, but he does have the Golden Trio and the twins, so that's something. I guess this can be seen as a mission, but Shikamaru cares about his friends beyond them being clients to protect, so to speak. Harry gets in a lot of trouble, and Shikamaru wants to keep him safe as a friend. It wasn't in the mission from the one who sent him here to protect Harry, but he's doing it anyway. Anyway, thanks for reviewing! Sorry to be so late!
A/N: I live, and that's about all I can say about it. This has been sitting in my computer for a while, untouched, and I only recently re-discovered my enjoyment for writing this story. So. Yanno. Enjoy?
RECOMMENDATIONS: (Tell me if you like them and if you have any of your own.)
A Mary Sue Alphabet - Irony-chan: I recently discovered this, and it's pretty much all in the title. Nearly every cliché Mary Sue out there included. Hilarious and brilliant, poetry and rated T. Check it out; it's pretty popular for good reason.
A Hero - Celebony: Dudley is good! But, the Dursleys are abusive jackasses, so yeah. If you don't like that...and Dudley isn't OOC, surprisingly. It is amazingly in character and realistic for the situation and AUishness. Rated T for violence and language, and the hurts are real, people.
Campfire - ramasterharper: Funny oneshot about Team 8 in their younger years, before the timeskip. It's very amusing, because Hinata is the only thing that keeps Shino from murdering Kiba on a daily basis. Rated K+ for humor and general fluff.
Of Broken Arms and Super Ninja - Ranowa Hikura: Fluffy oneshot with a chibi Kakashi, a teenaged Minato, and Jiraiya. Babysitting - what could go wrong? (Hint, look at the title). Rated K for cuteness and cluelessness on both of the older men's parts. Tsunade's there too, and there is not enough headache medicine in the world.
Changes to Chapter 6 (Sorry if I miss some details, but I'm focusing on the larger things for those of you who care):
Shikamaru is hopefully less OOC during this entire chapter.
Shikamaru was not there when Harry told Ron about the break-in at Gringotts. Hermione knows about Fluffy.
Shikamaru is not taking muggle coursework as well.
Shikamaru does not meditate to sort himself out; he watches clouds.
More snark and light-hearted sarcasm.
