Chapter 10
" I can't believe they think, that there is something fascinating in a missing number." Shikamaru muttered lazily, all of a sudden, startling Sai, who was peacefully drawing something on a huge scroll.
" What?" Hermione raised her eyes from the cards and looked at the smart boy.
" I said, that there are too many people in front of this house. I don't think it's because they're fascinated with the missing number."
The girl stood up from her chair and looked outside of the window. Of course, there were a few people leaning against the railing facing numbers eleven and thirteen, watching the join between the two houses. The lurkers were never the same two days running, although they all seemed to share a dislike for normal clothing. Most of the Londoners who passed them were used to eccentric dressers and took little notice, though occasionally one of them might glance back, wondering why anyone would wear such long cloaks in the heat.
" Of course..." Hermione sighed heavily. " Exactly when Harry is out, there are more then usual..."
Half a dozen men in long cloaks stood silent and watchful, gazing as ever at houses eleven and thirteen, but the thing for which they were waiting still appeared elusive. As evening drew in, bringing with it an unexpected gust of chilly rain, for the first time in weeks, there occurred one of those inexplicable moments when they appeared to have seen something interesting. The man with the twisted face pointed and his closest companion, a podgy pallid man, started forward, but a moment later they had relaxed into their previous state of inactivity, looking frustrated and disappointed. At that same moment, the front door banged.
Hermione rolled her eyes and motioned Ron to stand up. They appeared in the hallway and stared at Harry, who was taking his invisibility cloak away from him and Naruto. They waited for them to make a few steps, for Dusty to appear and then, after Harry whispered 'I didn't kill you', for it to disappear completely. As they entered the kitchen, Hermione sighed heavily, with furrowed brows.
" They noticed you."
" I lost balance when I apparated on the top stair. Naruto caught me in time."
The blonde beside him tried to smile, but frowned, instead.
" Hey, what is it?" Hinata appeared, followed by Ino, Temari and Sakura. She hurried over to Naruto and investigated his face and then, his body. "" Are you alright?''
" Yeah, we're fine..." he muttered. " It's just that we have bad news."
" Bad news?" Ino paled, but the other shinobi, that arrived, aka, Sasuke and kakashi, stopped her.
" Did we hear 'bad news'?"
" Oh, yes, yes, you did..." Harry said miserably and placed a newspaper on the table in the rather clean kitchen. Kreachur turned out to be very fond of Harry since he received his locket, which was, in fact fake, back.
" What's happened?" Ron asked apprehensively. He and Hermione had been poring over a sheaf of scribbled notes and perfectly drawn by Sai maps that littered the end of the long kitchen table, but now they watched Harry. He pointed bitterly at the front page, which attracted everybody's attention.
A large picture of a familiar, hook-nosed, black-haired man stared up at them all, beneath a headline that read:
SEVERUS SNAPE CONFIRMED AS HOGWARTS HEADMASTER
" No!" said Ron and Hermione loudly. Hermione was quickest; she snatched up the newspaper and began to read the accompanying story out loud. " 'Severus Snape, long-standing Potions master at Hogwarts School ofWitchcraft andWizardry, was today appointed headmaster in the most important of several staffing changes at the ancient school. Following the resignation of the previous Muggle Studies teacher, Alecto Carrows will will take over the post while her brother, Amycus, fills the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. "'I welcome the opportunity to uphold our finest Wizarding traditions and values—' Like committing murder and cutting off people's ears, I suppose! Snape, headmaster! Snape in Dumbledore's study—Merlin's pants!" she shrieked, making almost everybody jump. She received a few disapproving looks. She leapt up from the table and hurtled from the room shouting as she went, "I'll be back in a minute!"
" 'Merlin's pants' ?" repeated Ron, looking amused. " She must be upset."
He took the newspaper and read the rest of the text.
" The other teachers won't stand for this. McGonagall and Flitwick and Sprout all know the truth, they know how Dumbledore died. They won't accept Snape as headmaster. "
" Who are these Carrows?" Sakura asked while holding the newspaper, which Sasuke was peeking at from behind her shoulder.
" Death Eaters," said Harry. "There are pictures of them inside. They were at the top off the tower when Snape killed Dumbledore, so it's all friends together. And," Harry went on bitterly, drawing up a chair, "I can't see that the other teachers have got any choice but to stay. If the Ministry and Voldemort
are behind Snape it'll be a choice between staying and teaching, or a nice few years in Azkaban—and that's if they're lucky. I reckon they'll stay to try and
protect the students."
" And to think, that Snape was my favorite colleague..." Kakashi muttered and all teens looked at him as if he were a madman. " What?! He has always been with that cool attitude and he doesn't stand his students...We're so much alike!"
" That hurt..." Naruto muttered and then turned back to the teen wizards. " Would somebody please explain me why there are so much Death Eaters out there today? They're way more than usual!"
" It's like they're hoping we'll march out carrying our school trunks and head off for the Hogwarts Express." Harry whispered, while Ron glanced at his watch.
" I've been thinking about that all day. It left nearly six hours ago. Weird, not being on it, isn't it?"
Naruto thought about it for a second. He was positive, that right now, Ginny, Luna and Neville, probably were sitting together, wondering where their friends were. And Ginny, of course, would tell them, that they would be safe with the shinobi. The blonde wondered whether the others would miss them or remember them.
" Of course..." Kakashi said and for a second there, Naruto thought that he was answering to his thoughts, but then the man continued. "...you can't return now, that Snape is a headmaster and Hogwarts is completely under Voldemort's control. Well, partly. I highly doubt that Minerva and Fillius will obey that man."
" Of course they won't! It's like we already said, they'd try to keep the students safe! And Pomona and Poppy, too!"
" Who?" Harry furrowed his brows and Sakura looked at him disapprovingly.
" Professor Sprout and Madam Pomfrey. Kami, Harry! You've been studying there for six years and you don't know their first names! And I've only been there for a few months!"
" I know Professor Macgonnagal's and Professor Flitwick's...And Snape's, unfortunately! And, hey! Because of Hermione I know Lockhart's!"
At the last part, Ron's ears blushed and he looked away with an angry expression, while Sasuke snorted.
" And we're supposed to know who Lockhart is, because..."
" Oh, right! He was the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher in our second year. He went mad, because he tried to erase mine and Ron's memory, but the spell hit him instead. And his name is Gilderoy, just so that it's clear..."
" It doesn't matter..." Shikamaru interrupted. " Where did Hermione go?''
" Why would you want to know that?" Temari hissed against him and Shikamaru rolled his eyes, causing Ron and Harry to snicker.
" I'm here..."
Everybody turned to see Hermione, who was dragging an empty picture. Sai, of course, really frustrated by the way she was dragging the thing, stood up and almost ripped it out of her fingers. When he took it to the table with ease, she smiled.
" Thank you..."
" What is that? There's no creativity at all!" Sai commented, looking at the blank picture."
" That's because he's not here right now." Hermione smiled. " You should know what I'm talking about, right?"
" But of course we know what's happening in your weird mind!" Ron deadpanned, as she opened her little handbag. She proceeded to force the painting inside, and despite the fact that it was patently too large to fit inside the tiny bag, within a few seconds it had vanished, like so much else, into the bag's capricious depths.
" Phineas Nigellus," Hermione explained as she threw the bag onto the kitchen table with the usual sonorous, clanking crash. Harry\s mouth formed an 'O', while it took a few seconds for Ron to realize what was going on.
" Oh! I get it!"
" yes, if Snape tries to send him to the house for information all he'll get to see is the inner side of my bag!" Hermione stated proudly and smiled at the confused ninja. " The man from this portray can go to Dumbledore's office and back in here. It's safer like this."
" But can't you try to force some information out of him? " Temari asked and looked at her fan. " We'll kill him if we have to, but we ca also use him as a spy."
" The part with the killing won't happen." Hermione shrugged. " He's already dead."
" Wha-What? You can communicate with dead people?" the girl asked amused, as Hermione nodded. " But can you...can you...if that's so, we can return my mother and father."
" No, we don't return them. They are talking and thinking paintings."
Temari pursed her lips, considering the information. She has already seen the pictures in the hallway and finally understood what the other girl was talking about. Did she want to see her parents like that? Was it worth it? Maybe she could write to Gaara and ask him what to do. He'd be really frustrated at the idea to see or hear his father again, but his mother...of course, why not?
" I'll be right back..." Temari whispered and with concentrated chakra in her feet, jumped to the hallway up the stairs and then out of the sight of the other shinobi.
" Shikamaru...please...could you...check what she's up to?" Kakashi said without looking away from his book, while the Nara paled.
" Why me? You have a room full of shinobi and you pick me! Ino's brainwashed you, hasn't she?!" Shikamaru turned to his teammate. " What have you told him?!"
" Hey, nothing!" Ino muttered and looked extremely offended. " Why do you always accuse me?!"
" Now, now, don't blame Ino for anything. It isn't hard to understand, see? Especially for a person like me, with good senses...I have some knowledge, you know..."
" Knowledge? Where from? Your porn?" Sai asked, highly interested, while all other people looked at him, as if he were so out of place.
" I mean, the chemistry between..."
" Fine, fine...I'll go, just...shut up!" Shikamaru muttered and shot the sensei and Sai glares, after that, headed for the hallway while muttering. Harry, Ron and Hermione exchanged glances.
" Sorry about that..." Sakura smiled nervously.
" Why do you apologize...I just didn't understand...what is it between Temari and Shikamaru? She seemed like she wanted to kill me yesterday..." Hermione shivered at the thought.
" You see..." Naruto began, but stopped after Ino glared at him.
" Well, there is a story between those two." she said with a smile, but that didn't seem to be enough for the wizards, who were listening with raised eyebrows. " Sakura, Hinata, can any of you explain this...that prick will blame everything on me again, anyways..."
" Hmm, it's none of our business..." Hinata smiled evilly and looked at Sakura, who sighed.
" FINE!" she sat on the nearest chair and glared at her girlfriends. " Look, Hermione, remember when I told you last time, that only a few of us pass the Academy? Well, we are ranked after that as genin. Of course, there are higher ranks. The next one is chuunin. And there is an exam after it. A lot of genin arrive from different Hidden Contries and only one becomes a chuunin after countless fights. In my year a lot of weird stuff happened because Orochimaru was kind of obsessed with Sasuke and kind of ruined our exam. However, that doesn't matter. Back to Temari and Shikamaru. Well, she isn't from our village. She isn't from Konoha, but from Suna. At one of the stages, there is a fight. One versus One. And they happened to fight against each other. Shikamaru is a really amazing strategist, he had thousands of ways to defeat her. And he did, in fact, he immobilized her, which in the shinobi world is a win. But before he finished the fight, he surrendered. Because he's lazy and because he didn't aim for becoming a chuunin. That was his excuse. A lot of people think though, that he let her pass to the next stage, because he had feelings for her. He denies that whatsoever. After all the unfortunate events which we have no time for explaining now, Shikamaru became the chuunin of that year, as I said, because he's an amazing strategist and the village needed that back then. However, that's for then. After that, he was in charge of organizing the chuunin exams and the person who was sent from Suna was Temari. they spent a lot of time together on working for the exam, but some people talk, that there's much, much more...And every time temari comes to our village she always ends up spending her time with SHikamaru. However, as Hinata said, that's totally not our business and we should stay out of it, OK?"
" Alright..." Ron said but looked at the ceiling as if he was wondering what was happening in the rooms above them. He then shook his head, deciding that it wasn't really obligatory to know.
" Back to the ministry..." Harry said and inhaled deeply. " I think we should do it tomorrow. We have no more time for planning. The longer we wait, the farther the locket goes. So...who's in?"
" You can't be serious, right?" Ron asked, but Naruto shrugged and stood up next to Harry.
" Why not? You all know everything about these people. You've been working on that for a month! Besides, we're with you, right? So...let's do this!"
Naruto looked at Sasuke, who nodded briefly. Sakura smiled. Hinata blushed and nodded. Sai imitated Lee with the good-guy-pose and Ino hit him on the head, then she smiled, too. Kakashi simply continued on reading, which meant, that he had no objections.
" Perfect! So we're doing it tomorrow!" Naruto grinned and caught Hinata's hand.
" What the hell is that? Why are you him?" Naruto pointed the small unconscious man and then back to Ron, who has turned into him. " That's creepy!"
" It's the same with the Henge, which, by the way..." Kakashi formed a seal and turned into another man, that they have captured. "...is as useful n this situation."
The shinobi followed his example and changed into the people, who have been captured by them in the little street. Kakashi made sure to put some seals on, so now the wizards in there were sleeping and couldn't be seen by the people around. Hermione was drinking the same potion as Ron and Harry, who, by the way, were standing in front of them as a scary, strong man and a really little, chubby man. The girl started turning into a plain woman, which Naruto quickly noticed in the sleeping crowd. Everybody took the cards and some tokens from their bags and pockets.
" So, I'm Mafalda..." Hermione smiled with the face of the other woman and took her bag from her shoulder.
" And I'm Reg Cattermole..." Ron said and frowned. " Such a stupid name."
" Yeah, said Ronald Weasley..." a tall man with muscles and dark eyes said with a really common dark, hoarse voice. Of course, Sasuke would be the strong handsome guy from the group. That was so unfair, that Ron frowned even more.
" However, let's go!" Hermi-, no, Mafalda gave each person a token and then looked at the flow of wizards, that was heading towards the restrooms. The girl looked at the four other girls. A chubby woman with a really desperate expression.
" Why am I the fat one?" Ino whined in her own voice and Hermione smiled.
" Don't worry, I-Ino..." the woman next to her was blushing hardly. She was around the fifties, with gray parts in her hair, a really warm smile. But that was probably just Hinata. The woman behind her was at the same age and was trying to hide a fan under her cloak. Temari, of course. And then she looked at the last woman. It was a young woman, almost a teenager with red head and scary brown eyes. She was wearing glasses and her lips were twitched in a pout, that was making her even scarier. So that was supposed to be Sakura.
" Hell, she looks like Karin..." tha tall muscular man commented and another one, with a grin and black hair turned to him.
" WHAT? Who's Karin...Ooooh, Karin! The girl you brought to Konoha? I remember now!" the black haired guy said in Naruto's voice. And the face of the redheaded witch changed into a grimace.
" Let's stop talking about that bitch, OK?" Sakura asked bitterly. " Come on, girls, we should go to the ladies' restroom!"
" Fine, jeez..." Ino commented and pushed on the belly of the chubby woman she was now. " Let's go...I don't want people to watch me while I'm like that."
" See you in a moment, then," said Hermione nervously, and she tottered off down the steps to LADIES after Hinata, Temari, Ino and the angry Sakura. The male shinobi, Harry and Ron joined a number of oddly dressed men descending into what appeared to be an ordinary underground public toilet, tiled in grimy black and white.
" Morning, Reg!" called another wizard in navy blue robes as he let himself into a cubicle by inserting his golden token into a slot in the door. "Blooming
pain in the bum, this, eh? Forcing us all to get to work this way! Who are they expecting to turn up, Harry Potter?"
The wizard roared with laughter at his own wit. Ron gave a forced chuckle.
" Yeah," he said, "stupid, isn't it?"
The man who was supposed to be Sasuke glared at the little Reg, causing him to shiver. The wizard who spoke to him earlier looked at the Sasuke-guy, then at the Kakashi-guy and finally, the Harry-guy. He bowed a little, as they went by. He then stared at the other wizards around them, who were actually the shinobi and wondered whether they were sane. As they escaped one by one in the cubicles.
" What , for Merlin's sake, is going one here?" the man commented and Ron looked at him.
" What?"
" Why are they coming to work like this?! They usually use the Floo Powder and..."
" Who do you mean?" Ron asked and received a glance from the man beside him, who seemed to be suddenly highly suspicious.
" What do you mean by that, Reg?"
" Runcorn, Yaxley and Thicknesse, for Merlin's..."
" Thicknesse?!| Ron deadpanned and looked at the backs of his friends. " THE Minister of Magic?"
" Well, of course, Reg, didn't you see him? He's over there!"
Ron's brain was working too hard. Harder than usual. If Harry was that Runcorn guy, then Sasuke and Kakashi were the minister and Yaxley. Ron has seen pictures of the minister, so Kakashi was currently him, but unfortunately, he hadn't realized this earlier. He should have told his friends. And that means, that Sasuke was that Yaxley guy. Yaxley, Yaxley...he sure has heard this name...But OF COURSE! Yaxley! A Death Eater! Ron frowned and looked and turned to the shocked man beside him.
" Of course, of course...I saw him, weird yes...Bye!"
Before the wizard could say anything, Ron was hurrying towards the cubicles and lined up behind Runcorn, aka Harry. He leaned in so that he was closer to his ear.
" OK, you are some important guy, highly respected and feared, Sasuke is a Death Eater and Kakashi is the Minister."
It took Harry a few seconds to assimilate the information, right before it was his turn to enter. He took a glimpse at Reg (Ron) and frowned.
" Shit..."
OK, I know I'm changing too much by making Sasuke Yaxley, but hey, it's more fun! And also Pius Thicknesse, the Minister. Kakashi and minister in one sentence just sounded way too good! :D
I hope you liked it, it was longer than usual, by the way...
So, please, review! AND GIVE ME IDEAS!
Bye, lovelies xox