10

Escape

Two men dragged a crying Anne into the dungeon. James, Rose, Al and Gerry and sprang to their feet, their hands going for their wands until Anne cried, "No! No wands! They'll kill you!"

The boys glanced at each other. The shinobi holding Anne had fiery red hair and sinister gray blue eyes. His thick-built frame loomed over them, and when he grinned at them, he revealed large, yellowing teeth. His partner was slighter, sported a ponytail and a look of boredom on his face.

The redhead shoved Anne forward and barked at her Japanese. Trembling, she translated, "They want all your wands."

"No way!" James protested hotly, holding his wand to his chest. His refusal needed no translation; the redhead shinobi flickered behind Lily and picked her up by the neck, choking her. He shouted something, and Anne translated in panic, "Drop your wands now! All of you! He'll kill her!"

Everyone did almost immediately and the man released Lily, throwing her down. James rushed to his sister and took her in his arms and glared daggers up at the man.

The ponytailed shinobi picked up all the wands and stashed them in the holster at on his right leg. Then he looked at Anne, grunted something and shook his head towards the students.

"They want to know where this Naruto Uzumaki is," Anne translated quickly. She paused and muttered, reluctantly, "It's Nat, isn't it? It has to be him…the Japanese, the Gryffindor quidditch team, us…"

"They have the team?" Gerry gasped.

"Yeah it's him," James mumbled, frowning, "Guess you were right after all, Katsumata."

"Where is he now? If he was still in the hospital wing, they'd find him already."

"Why should we tell you?" James snapped, glaring at Anne, "I know you're probably raring to tell them."

The other students threw James bewildered looks.

"Potter," Anne said, giving James a hard look, "It's not the time to be petty. They'll torture us for information. They killed the headmaster."

"We know," said Al, his voice hitching.

The redhead walked towards the group, prompting James to pull Lily behind him into Jill's arms and out of sight.

The redhead pointed to Scorpius and grunted in Japanese. When he stepped towards Scorpius, James tried to put himself in between, but he was only batted away. The redhead grabbed Scorpius by his shoulders and threw the boy at his partner.

"Malfoy doesn't know where he is, and nor do we," said James, "Tell them that."

They were interrupted by a horrible, pained shriek from Scorpius as the interrogating shinobi twisted his left arm until an audible snap could be heard.

"No stop it!" cried Anne, "Please don't! He doesn't know anything! Stop it!" She switched to Japanese, crying the same thing as she grabbed the interrogating shinobi's arms. The man shook her off with a light kick to her stomach, sending her slight figure flying several feet back

Rose tried to run to Anne but the redhead shinobi stepped in front of her, hand raised posed to strike. George Deer was shaking with fear yet he was astute enough to quickly cast a shield charm between the shinobi and Rose to keep the girl from being smacked. The redhead hadn't taken this too well, and he flicked a throwing dagger at George, hitting him in his left shoulder.

Madame Pomfrey cried out in horror, echoed by the other students in the room. The ponytailed shinobi, much to their brief surprise, scolded his partner. Madame Pomfrey scrambled to George's side and pressed her hand against George's bloody left shoulders. Lily made a move to run over and help, but Jill held her back.

Over the sound of his rushing blood in his ear, Al heard Scorpius let out a shriek of pain when the ponytailed shinobi kneed him into the stomach. The man's leg remained wedged in Scorpius's stomach, pinning him to the wall. Al dashed towards the man and tackled him around the middle, slamming him into the wall, forcing him to drop Scorpius. In the tussle, Al grabbed a handful of the wands from the holster, scrambled free and pointed one wand at the ponytailed shinobi, but hardly a sound had come out when the redhead flickered in front of him and shoved him into the wall. The redhead's rough hands encircled his neck and choked him. Al dropped the wands.

Lily screamed and buried her face in Jill's robe. James and Gerry rushed over to help Al. The redhead threw Al at James and they crashed to the floor. Gerry, however, made it to the wands, picked one up and pointed up at the redhead. In the same instant, the redhead delivered a snapping kick to Gerry's face that produced a spray of blood and effectively knocked the poor boy out. The wand went sliding across the floor into the middle of the dungeon.

Rose was crying now. Her cousins' pained groans, Hugo's whimpers, Scorpius's scream and Lily's crying all blended together into a single, unbearable high pitch cry. She watched the scene before her in slow motion, the feeling of helplessness and fear incapacitated her. It took another, even louder cry from James when the redhead kicked him in the stomach to knock her out of her daze, which momentarily expelled her fright. Fortunately for everyone in the room, it was all Rose had needed for righteous anger to come flooding in. She dived for the wand Gerry lost. Without a second delay, she cast a series of stunning spells at both men. The spells missed both, but the sudden attack threw them off balance. Al crawled towards the rest of the wands and shot a stunning spell to chase the redhead away from his brother as the second shinobi flicked several daggers at him. Rose knocked them out with a quick protego.

"Guys, wands!" Al shouted, throwing wands to James, Jill, Hugo and Lily. The redhead made towards Al, but James jumped away to avoid James' freezing spell, but headed straight into Rose's full body bind curse. With a start, his large body locked out and fell to the floor, as stiff as a board.

They had no time to celebrate their victory. The ponytailed shinobi brought his hands together to create hand signs and punched the ground. Black writing appeared from his palms, and two wolves appeared in puff of smoke. They were not as big as the ones in the hall, but still big enough.

One of the wolves jumped towards them, scattering the group. It lunged at Rose but missed and then it turned and snapped at Jill and Lily.

"Reducto!" James shouted. A jet of red light hit the wolf, knocking it off its feet. The other wolf made for James, but Al and Rose shot stunning spells, both of which missed but forced the wolf away.

The shinobi slipped across the room silently and wrapped an arm around Jill's neck and grabbed Lily's hair and yanked her down. James and Al turned at the sound of their sister's scream. The wolves took advantage of the distraction to jump them, trapping their necks in their jaws, their fangs grazing the boys' necks. Rose screamed, pointing her wand at the wolves, then to the man who held the two girls hostage and pressed a dagger to Jill's throat. Lily struggled against the iron grip on her hair, but her little arms were no match for the shinobi.

Hugo and Madam Pomfrey watched with horror at the scene. Hugo gripped his wand, looking from his sister to his cousins and to the man. He needed to do something, anything, before he lost his family. He tried to think of a spell that could distract both the man and wolves—but as a third year, his repertoire of battle worthy spells was severely limited, and the few charms he learned from Rose's charm textbook wasn't really going to help. He wasn't quite sure if the tickling charm would do any good.

But first things first, he needed something to distract the wolves. He slowly brought his wand out but kept it hidden behind him. He let out a sigh, pointed his wand as discreetly as he could at one of the wolves, and whispered, "lapifors." He hoped to Merlin that it worked; transfiguration was not his best subject.

The wolf that had James in its jaws turned quite suddenly into a rabbit. James took one incredulous moment to stare at the little rodent while the other wolf in the room could not keep its eyes off of the new rabbit as it went scurrying around the room in panic.

The man snapped at the last wolf to ignore the rabbit. Rose aimed a spell at him. The shinobi ducked as Lily, finally gathering up her courage, did something she knew would hurt men most: she flung the hardest kick she could muster at his groin as the man crouched down. The contact hurt twice as much as it normally would have, and a sharp, pained groan escaped him. His hold on the two girls loosened. Jill grabbed Lily and dived away to safety.

The last wolf finally give into his instincts and snapped at the rabbit, freeing Al. Hugo lifted his wand at the wolf and shouted, "Reducio!" The wolf froze, started seizing and then compressed down to the size of the rabbit it had in its jaws. The miniature wolf barked madly and attacked James's legs. James merely kicked it away, and it disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

The man had recovered from his initial shock and was starting to form signs with his hands again, but they knew not to let him finish. Rose threw the first shot, a stunning spell, which he dodged easily but was forced to abandon his hand sign progression.

"Confringo!" Madame Pomfrey shot the spell at the man who managed to dodge again. He made towards the Jill and Lily, but James quickly shot a stunning spell that forced him back.

"STUPEFY!" cried James, Rose, Al and Madame Pomfrey in unison. None of the spells hit him and they went ricocheting off the wall in panicked sparks.

Lily pointed her wand and shouted, her voice full of childish fury, "Tarantellegra!" Surprisingly, her spell actually hit the man, and his legs started to tap dance wildly. The shock from seeing his legs doing some furiously fast and highly skilled heel clicks made the man's eyes go wide and his lips part incredulously. He even seemed to forget that he had a room full of kids he had to interrogate.

The kids didn't fare any better: Al looked on with bemusement and James had a stupid grin on his face. Lily looked close to giggling and Hugo looked from Rose to James, wondering if he should be worried or entertained. Rose, however, was the first to break out of the spell cast by the ridiculousness of the tap dancing shinobi and relieved the man of the shame by stunning him.

"We did it!" cried Lily happily.

"Dancing charm, really?" said Al, glancing at his younger sister.

"Hey, it worked!" she responded defensively, "None of your spells hit." Al only smiled in response.

Rose rushed to help Anne who was sitting against the wall where she had been thrown. She was waking up again and favoring her left leg. Al went to Scorpius crumpled against the wall. He was barely conscious and unrecognizable with the bloody bruises and swollen cheeks.

"Hey…" muttered Al, "Scorp, you okay? Can you hear me?"

Scorpius replied was muffled. James rush to Gerry's side and checked his breathing. He let out a sigh of relief to see that his friend was still alive.

The dagger was still sticking out of Gerry's shoulders. Madame Pomfrey appeared next to him and using her wand, slowly pulled out the dagger and started performing a healing spell.

"Good job there, Hugo," said James, glancing up at Hugo, "You saved us. Good thinking…with the rabbit…"

Hugo nodded, his face still flushed from the adrenaline.

"You did the lapifors spell perfectly!" said Rose, rushing to her brother's side, "Professor Dune'll be proud!"

"I watched Dom practice," he mumbled in reply, "I—I wasn't sure it'd work but—"

Rose pulled her brother into a hug.

After they had collected Anne, Gerry, George and Scorpius together, the newly minted heroes started to panic. Their victory was hard won against just two of them, and they were now at the mercy other two to three dozens shinobi in the Great Hall. James knew they were lucky because he realized neither shinobi was trying to seriously kill them or taking them seriously at all.

"We can't stay here," said Rose, fearfully, "What are going to do now?"

"We obviously need to hide," said Al, "Somewhere those wolves won't be able to sniff us out."

"First, Rose, can you think of a spell that can curse the door locked?" asked James, motioning towards the dungeon door, "Something they can't force through with brute strength."

Rose nodded, "I think I know—the Imperturbable charm! I'll be back!" She headed towards the door.

James turned to Al and asked, "Al…do you remember…that one story dad told us about…um…Dumbledore's Army and how it got started?"

"Yeah? What about it?"

"The room that they used to evade Toad Lady..."

"The Room of Requirement?" Lily piped up. Her brothers looked at her, almost as if they were surprised that she was even there. James grinned, ruffled his sister's hair and said, "That's right, the Room of Requirement. Thanks, Lil."

"That's perfect," said Al, nodding enthusiastically.

"What's perfect?" asked Rose, "Oh, I've got the door. If they attempt to come in, it'll take them some time and we'll know. They won't be able to hear us either!"

"Excellent! Good job, Rosie!" James said, "We were talking about the Room of Requirement, we can use it to hide. We can ask it to provide a comfortable untraceable place with medical supplies, food and everything!"

"That's great!" said Rose, "But, um, how do we get there? Isn't it on…the 7th floor? And, it can't provide food, it's one of the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration."

Al and James had not considered this, and looked utterly crestfallen. How were they going to sneak past seven plus floors of them and the wolves? James did not even remember to tease Rose on her remembering those fussy transfiguration laws.

"What do we do, then?" asked Al slowly.

"C-can we…" started Jill quietly from behind them. She was cradling Gerry's head in her arms. "Possibly cast disillusionment charm and um…get to the seventh floor?"

"But the wolves can still smell us," said James.

"But there's a spell to mask our smell," said Jill, "I learned it some time ago…it's…oh dear…I forget…"

"Try…Nidor Oblitterus…" Madame Pomfrey told them, "I believe that will do. I use it to cancel out smells in the hospital…but it doesn't last long, and I'm not sure how it will work on the wolves. My disillusionment charm is quite good too, I daresay, though my range can be a bit spotty with a large group."

"I can help too," Anne added, "I am good with multiple spell coordination."

"Great!" James exclaimed, "We can even use a silencing charm to make sure they don't hear our foot steps."

"What about George, Gerry and Malfoy? They can't walk," asked Jill.

"We can carry them up with mobilicorpus," replied Rose. "But…before we leave, we need to deal with them." She jerked her head towards the two motionless shinobi.

James and Al looked at their captives with renewed interest. They had nearly forgotten about their shinobi prisoners. James pulled Lily off of him and told her to stay with Hugo, who sat quietly near George and Anne. Al, Rose and James walked towards their two assailants, both with expressions of hatred and anger frozen on their faces.

"What do we do with them?" asked Al.

Rose swished her wand, summoning thick ropes that circled itself tightly around the shinobi. "For good measure," she said.

"Think we can make them talk?" said James, "It wouldn't hurt to find out more about them."

"Let's see," said Rose, "I can do this to the petrified one." She touched the frozen redhead's cheek with her wand and said, "Finite."

The redhead's face sprang to life, and immediately started hissing and growling at them in Japanese.

"Does anyone know the translation charm?" Al asked.

"I do," said James, drawing a suspicious look from Rose. "Rosie, in the beginning, it was hard to understand Nat even in English. I swear I stopped using it later on."

Al was amused by James' rush to explain himself to Rose, and Rose seemed pleased by the power she had over him. Anne limped over to them with Jill supporting her.

"He's a rather nasty fellow," said Anne, looking down at the man with her lips pursed in disgust, an expression that the others knew well. She would wear that same exact frown whenever she was about to take away house points for sheer stupidity.

"We were going to use a translation spell," said James, "Do you want to translate instead?"

Anne shook her head. "No, I don't want to have to translate their horrid words ever again."

"Fair 'nough," said James, and cast the translation spell: interpretari japonicus, interpretari anglicus.

Suddenly, the man started to make sense: "—you fucking brats, I'm gonna rip to shreds an' feed ya to the wolves—"

"Oi, save it, arsehole," James snapped. This actually did silence the man, and he looked around at them in bewilderment.

"I cast a translation spell, so we can understand each other," James explained.

"Did ya now?" the man said with a laugh, "Hah. If you all did that in the first place, would have saved a lot of grief."

"Yeah yeah," James muttered, "First off, why are you after Nat—er—Naruto?"

"Naruto Uzumaki?" the man answered, "'Cause boss wants him."

"But why?" asked Rose, "What do you need him for? "

A cruel grin appeared on his face, "Doncha know? He's the nine tail brat and a darling of Konoha. "

At this Anne looked at the shinobi in alarm. "Nine tails?" she asked, "Do you mean a fox?"

"It's known as the nine-tailed demon fox," he answered, "The most vicious and powerful of all tailed beasts."

"What are you talking about?" said Al, "Katsumata, what does he mean?"

"You all seriously don't know about your lil' friend do you?" he said, roaring with laughter at their confused expressions, "Didn't know all this time a ticking demon bomb was right beside you?"

"Demon bomb?" James repeated, "What are you—"

"Kid's the container for the nine tailed demon fox."

James, Al and Rose still looked confused, but Anne's eyes widened with shock. "When you say container, you mean it literally, don't you?" she asked.

"Literally," he answered.

"The seal on his stomach, is that what it is?" she asked, "Is the fox sealed inside of him and that seal is the formula for it?"

"Usually how sealing works with hosts."

"But-but that's…" Anne began to sputter, "That's impossible. That's heinous. Why? Why would anyone do that? And to him?"

"Wait wait, let's pause here for a moment," said Al, "What are you two on about? What seal?"

James, when the situation called for it, could be amazingly sharp. He guessed, "It's about the tattoo, isn't it?"

"What tattoo?" Rose asked.

"It's a Japanese style sealing art," Anne explained, "Similar to runes, but different mechanism and parameters altogether. It can be hidden in a person's skin."

"What's that go to do with the demon fox?" asked James.

"It's inside him," Anne replied, "Someone used sealing art, a form that is strange and dangerous, to seal a kitsune spirit—a fox spirit—inside him."

"Is that why he keeps checking his stomach?" Al asked, "I saw him in the bathroom. Thought it was odd."

"But why?" Rose asked, bewildered.

The shinobi only guffawed and said, "Get Naruto and bring'im here and he'll explain it to you."

James snorted. "Fat chance of that…Don't even think he knows."

"Why wouldn't he know?" the shinobi asked curiously.

James tensed, thinking perhaps he shouldn't have revealed that Nat-Naruto did not have any of his memories.

The shinobi, however, figured it out anyways: "That brat doesn't know any of this? Lemme guess, he lost his memories?" The shinobi let out a harsh laughter. "Hah, this is too good…it'll be too easy once we find him. Explains why we haven't seen him come save his lil' buddies. Usually you can't get that fox brat to shut up and sit down."

"Yeah, well, you're not going to find him," said Rose firmly, "I promise you that. The headmaster hid him well." At least Rose thought so, especially if they couldn't find him yet. But then again, this was Hogwarts and the Headmaster could have just been bluffing.

"Don't be so sure, girlie, we shinobi live to hunt."

"We figured," Rose returned angrily, "But you won't be doing any hunting!"

"That headband you're wearing," said Al, "What's it say?"

"Shinobi," Anne answered.

"But it's crossed-out," Al observed, "What does that mean? It's crossed on that guy too." He motioned to the frozen Ponytailed man just a few meters from them..

"Maybe it means they're not shinobi anymore," Rose suggested thoughtfully.

The shinobi below them was getting antsy. "Oi, you little chickenshits!" he snapped at them, "Stop your fucking prattling over me!"

"Didn't your people send a letter asking for help?" Rose asked, "Why are you attacking us if you're asking for help?!"

"It was all a trick, girlie," the shinobi asnwered, "It was almost too easy. Your people are weak and pathetic."

"Or," Rose insisted, "There are two groups of you. One group with no slash on the headband, and you lot who with a slash, for some reason."

The shinobi looked mildly impressed.

Anne asked, "It's not Naruto you want, is it? It's the fox spirit. A nine-tail fox is a powerful spirit. You want to take it out of him, don't you?"

"Well aren't you all a buncha smarty-pants?" the shinobi drawled, "So why don't you take it step further and tell me where he is."

"You're insane if you think we're just gonna betray a friend," James growled.

"How admirable," the shinobi deadpanned.

"What do you want to do with a fox spirit anyways?" asked Al.

"Good question, little boy—we, we're gonna save the world."

"Are you mad?" James said, incredulously, "By killing innocent people?"

"It's far too complex for spoiled children like you to understand," the man answered.

"More like we're too sane to understand," Al muttered under his breath.

"And what are you trying save the world from?" Rose asked.

"Does it matter?" James said, bitterly, but Rose ignored him and repeated her question.

The shinobi looked pensive for a moment, doubt flashing across his face. Then he frowned and snarled, "From yourselves! From spoiled ignorant brats like you!"

"That makes absolutely no sense," Rose said, frowning critically at him, "I'd hope all this mayhem and death would at least have a better explanation."

"Oi, Rosie, what are you, disappointed?" asked James, peering at her with a concerned frown, "Wouldn't be better if he did make sense!"

"Well, it might be, a little," Anne confessed quietly.

"That's only because you're a quintessential Ravenclaw," said James. Anne didn't deign to roll her eyes.

"He's probably lying," Al added.

"Lying? You stupid fucking brats!" the shinobi growled at them, "All of you here in your weak pathetic little world! If I ever get outta here I'm gonna rip out all your tongues! You're all so damn annoying!"

"Is that so?" Rose asked with frightening gleeful expression, "Not if I rip yours out first."

Everyone stared at Rose in shock.

"I'd like to see you try, you little—"

"Evanesco lingua."

The shinobi's words fumbled into grunting. Suddenly he stopped and opened his mouth in horror to reveal emptiness where there should have been a tongue.

"See," said Rose, smiling down at him, "Your tongue is gone. I didn't even have to rip it out!" She looked up at her friends and cousins, who were all staring at her with incredulous expressions.

The shinobi grunted in panic, wide, horrified eyes darting around as if asking for help. Rose pointed her wand at his face again and stunned him so that the he froze wearing an expression of tongueless horror.

"Intense, Rosie," said James with a tensed grin, "And scary! I'll never forget that…but...I think we might have more to ask him…"

Rose pouted. "I suppose." She put her hands on her hips. "I can bring the tongue back when we need it. What else do we want to know?"

"I dunno…how to get them to leave?" tried Al, "How to defeat them?"

"I doubt he'll talk about that unless we make him choke down some truth potion," said Rose with a quirk of her eyebrows.

James looked at Rose with an expression of utter astonishment. A mischievous smile crept onto his lips. "Brilliant Rose, you are! We need to get him to drink veritaserum."

"What? No!"

"Why not? Like you said, he's not gonna talk. Besides, we can learn more about them and how to fight them."

"There are a lot of problems with your plan, James."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. One, where in the world are you going to get veritaserum?"

"Slughorn should have batch in his potion cabinet," said Al, "Right? He keeps a flask of it for school purposes."

"And how are we going to get to the cabinet, evade the shinobi and the wolves, get past the anti-theft charms, find the right potion if it's there at all, get back and administer the potion before more of them try to come in here?"

James remained silent for a while. He glanced at his brother, then at Hugo, Lily, then back to Rose. "Magic," he said finally.

"What?" said Rose incredulously.

"Magic!" he repeated brightly, "We are witches and wizards. We'll use magic."

"Right…" said Rose, "Did the kicks in the head completely knock you off your rocker, James?"

"No," said James seriously, "Not completely. Look, I think they're not used to our magic. Any older wizard would have been able to stop the dancing charm that Lily did, but he just looked shocked. We could use that to our advantage."

"Element of surprise," added Al, "Lily did simple spells they didn't expect. I mean, if we shrank all the wolves, it'll be a piece of cake."

"The shrinking part not so much," muttered Rose.

"Look," said James, "We'll get the injured up to the seventh floor and into the Room of Requirement. Meanwhile, someone will get the potion, and force the truth of this bastard here."

"We don't need the potion, James," said Rose, "We need to get to safety! You realize they'll kill you if you get caught, don't you?! We need to get up to the Room of Requirement!"

James nose flared with anger. "And then what? Are we gonna hide in the Room of Requirement while the rest of the school gets tortured and picked off one by one? Huh? Are we going to hiding until they find Nat…or Naruto…whatever…and they do who knows what to him? Are you okay with that Rose?"

"No, of course I'm not!" she returned furiously, "But getting the veritaserum is just stupid!" She turned to Al. "Al, tell your brother he's not making sense!"

Al shrugged, "I kinda agree with him."

Rose rolled her eyes and turned to Jill and Anne.

"I don't know," Anne said, "I mean, the veritaserum would be useful but I am not sure if the benefits outweigh the dangers. I mean, on the one hand information is always valuable in any situation, and in ours, we're disadvantaged in two major ways. First—"

"Katsumata, you wanna to make a pro and con chart while you're at it?" James asked, frowning at her.

"Oi, be nice, James," Jill chided. "And I agree with Rose. It's too dangerous. We're no match for them, James, we can't fight them."

"Listen," said Al, "James is right. I think it's worth try to get information to be able to fight them, you know. Not to attack them head on, but to just hold them off until help from outside come."

"And Al rarely agrees with me," James added emphatically, "So, it's not that mad of a plan. Plus, we have to figure something out to help the quidditch team."

Rose let out a frustrated sigh. "Alright, if you want. But let's talk this over with Madame Pomfrey first?" Without waiting for an answer, she marched over to the group and told them of the dilemma.

Madame Pomfrey proclaimed it was far too dangerous and forbade them from the task, while Lily volunteered to go with them, and Hugo threw in his support.

"Oh, we win the vote!" said James with a cocky grin, "We're gonna get the potion."

"Absolutely not, Potter!" Pomfrey exclaimed indignantly.

"Sorry, Madam Pomfrey, in a non-classroom situation, it's a democracy, and all votes are equal."

"It's not a democracy!" said Rose, exasperated, "But you're not gonna drop this, are you?"

"Absolutely not, Rosie."

Rose harrumphed at the two of them. "Fine. We'll have one group go up to the seventh floor, and another down here to find the veritaserum and the rest of the quidditch team."

"Agreed! Al and Jill, you lead everyone up the seventh floor," said James, "Madame Pomfrey, Anne, both of you keep an eye on all the concealment charms on the way up. Hugo and Lily, you guys will help bring Malfoy, Gerry, and George with mobilicorpus."

"Let me stay and help you and Rose," she said, "You still have to find the team, and as Head Girl, I have the access you two don't."

"Sounds fair," said James, "You're with us, Katsumata."

"How are we going to find the team?" Rose asked.

"They'll probably in another dungeon on the same floor," Anne answered, "I saw them taking the team a little further down the hall."

"We'll figure something out," said James, nodding his head.

"That's not reassuring," Jill said.

"Well, we have no time for a detailed five year plan," James snapped, "Just focus on getting to the Room of Requirement, okay?"

"Why can't I come with you?" whined Lily, "I defeated that man!"

"Yes, Lily," said Al in a placating tone, "So you get to help me get past seven floors of them." Lily thought about it briefly, and the nodded, deciding that seven floors of shinobi and wolves were worth her skills.

"Everyone ready?" asked Rose. Everyone who could manage it nodded. "Good. Remember to ask for a room that hides your presence, smell, everything, alright?"

"Right," said Al, nodding, "Good luck."

Madame Pomfrey started to cast the disillusionment charm, and the kids felt a cold shiver as the spell rendered them invisible.

"Yeah you too," said James, grinning as his brother disappeared, "Take care of them."

"Don't move so fast and stay near me," Pomfrey warned as the spell wrapped around them, "My disillusionment charm is quite good, but only when you're near me."

Daunting was understatement. Absolutely not good heart-attack-inducing frightening—yeah, that was more accurate. It was like walking barefoot on eggshells sprinkled with thumb tacks, except, here the consequence of slipping up was being mauled alive by giant wolves.

Al had, momentarily in the dungeon, had wanted to go with his brother in Rose's place. He had perceived that he would be more apt for the slightly more dangerous mission of going to the potions store, not that he didn't think Rosie wasn't up to it at all (for she really was absolutely brilliant). But at the present moment, as he hugged the wall on the second floor in an attempt to slip past a hall full of resting wolves, he realized how terribly wrong he was. How could he ever think facing seven floors of this was safer than going to the potions store? He was literally a few breaths away from a sudden and gruesome death.

Sure, the disillusionment charm made them invisible, the odor cancelling charm made them odorless, and the silencing charm hid their footsteps from the wolves' ears. Really, it was like they weren't there at all. And with Madam Pomfrey making sure the spells were strong and going, it would be, logically, a piece of cake to get to the seventh floor.

Still, Al was nervous. He was aware of the feeling that something might go wrong—what was that muggle thing again? Aunt Hermione had mentioned it once. Murphy's Law— everything that can go wrong will. Hogwarts was already in a pretty bad situation: invaded, the staff and students imprisoned, the headmaster dead. The castle itself seemed to be in hiding. From his parents, he had heard that Hogwarts come alive in the Battle of Hogwarts, but nothing seemed to stir now. The portraits on the lower levels were empty, having ascended upwards out of reach of human hands for safety. The ghosts were nowhere to be found, though why they would hide was beyond him. The stairs moved slowly and quietly, as if they were also creeping about. There was a stillness to the castle that was, frankly, very creepy and unsettling and just plain wrong.

The ascent to the 4th floor, while hair-raising and stressful, was relatively uneventful. They successfully passed several guards and wolves. Al knew the nooks and crannies well enough to lead everyone through the shadows. Jill followed him closely, juggling the unconscious Scorpious, Gerry and George with her wand. Behind them was Madame Pomfrey, keeping the concealment charms alive. Lily and Hugo tailed them, acting as rear guard. Al wasn't too keen on them doing this, but with their previous performance and the lack of a better option, he had let his younger sister and cousin take the positions. It wasn't like he didn't trust their abilities—their combined ingenuity had saved their hides and all, but Al knew luck had been a factor, something he wasn't willing to depend on. They were fearless Gryffindors, sure, but they were still his 12 years old sister and cousin. With those thoughts, he often found himself glancing back at them nervously, though he could not actually see them, he could make out what he thought was a glassy outline.

When they arrived on the fifth floor, another layer of burden was lifted off his back. Just two more floors. Two more, and Murphy would just become a silly, paranoid muggle. They might make it unscratched, he thought with a bit of joy. He hoped Rose, Katsumata and James were having such luck. Sixth floor went just as smoothly, and Al noted with some happiness that the number of wolves became less with each floor. The seventh floor came around, and only two wolves stalked the hallway. They were so close tosafety! So close! He turned and looked at the rest, making brief eye contact with each, and then nodded. Unspoken command—think!

We want a room that would hide us from the invaders, where they can't ever come in or find us. A room where we can be safe, a whole lot of us. Medical supplies, food if possible, some beds…a place for refuge. Right! A comfortable place for refuge from murdering invaders. From shinobi.

He repeated it in his head in various permutations of requests. Each time he added something new, sometimes he left some stuff out. But oh he thought, screwing up his face in concentration. Then it appeared suddenly, unnoticed by the wolves, a great oak double door. Al's heart leapt at the sight. They had made it! Just two wolves to fool and they were there.

Then Murphy, the paranoid muggle with his ridiculous theory, got his revenge. Al hadn't even finished smiling when the hall filled with a great loud POP!

Al jumped, startled, and so did the wolves. Just a few feet from them, a small, pathetic house elf was looking around in bewilderment.

What in the merlin's beard was a bloody house elf doing here?

The wolves didn't ponder this, unfortunately, and acted promptly. One started to howl, it's long, high pitched cry resonating throughout the entire castle. The other made a dash for the elf, who, upon hearing the howl, had become petrified.

Al growled inwardly, thinking—really? Honestly, ruined by a bloody house elf, one who was too stupid to just pop away again? Briefly (very briefly) he considered just rushing for the door to keep their presence hidden—not that it mattered anymore, since the warning cry already alerted their shinobi masters. And damn his bleeding heart, he had to save the poor thing!

He pointed his wand at the oncoming wolf and shouted, "Petrificus Totalus!" The spell hit the wolf and it froze, just a few meters from the cowering elf, and fell to its side. He turned to Jill and the rest and said, "Get in the room, hurry! I'll take care of the other wolf! Go!"

Jill, still balancing the comatose three, went forward carefully and quickly, followed by Madam Pomfrey. Hugo lingered uncertainly, then started to move, albeit slowly, towards the Room, acting again the rear guard.

The howling wolf turned its attention to them and made a beeline towards them. Al, Rose and Hugo threw varying spells at it, which hit and knocked it unconscious. However, the shinobi was already alerted, and a number of them had jumped from stair to stair, going up a level in each bound to reach the seventh floor and take in what was happening. Al grabbed the elf roughly by its raggedy dress, and sprinted towards the Room of Requirement after Lily and Hugo. Jill and Madam Pomfrey were waiting for them at the doorway, wands out shooting spells at the incoming shinobi. As Al crossed the threshold, the doors slammed behind them with a reassuring thud.

They were in. They were in, but the shinobi knew they were in. A sudden feeling of dread filled Al. What if they could find the room if they knew now? Was that how it worked? No…they knew nothing about the Room, and Room wouldn't betray them like that. Of course, this also meant that they would go down to the dungeon and discover only two petrified shinobi and none of them, which would put James, Katsumata and Rose in danger. Al bit his lip, hoping that the wolf's howl was loud enough that they heard it too, and figure out that they need to either hide or run.

Jill was setting the Scorpius, Anne and George down onto three hospital beds that lined the back wall of the room, while Madam Pomfrey dashed around, checking the medical supplies as she began to treat them. Al looked around in amazement, in awe of the sheer size and detail of the room. Everything they could ever need was there: beds, medical supplies, chairs, sofas, a large fireplace, table, foe glasses and other alarms, change of clothes everything! Well, everything except food. Rose was right, the Room couldn't create food. Despite that, it was even better than he had imagined!

"That was close," said Lily, still trying to catch her breath, "Al! I think you're hurting her!"

Al looked down, unaware that he was still holding the house elf by its dress. He set it down immediately and let the poor thing cough and wheeze and catch her breath.

"M-masters…" she started crooning, "Saved Nellie. Thank you so so much, master!"

"Why in the world did you pop up like that?!" asked Al angrily, "What are you doing here?"

"Nellie is very very sorry, master," she whimpered, cowering under Al's anger, "But…Nellie heard request for food!"

"When has a house elf responded to food requests?" asked Jill, warily, "You're not allowed to give food out like that."

"Not the pressing issue here," muttered Al impatiently, though he was pleasantly surprised to know that they could hear late night food requests, "Nellie, was it? Were you trying to get us all killed?"

"I apologize deeply master!" she cried, her great elf eyes watering, "But—"

"And you didn't even bring any food," noted Lily, disappointed.

"But but, Nellie come to say to masters who can help," Nellie continued, wringing her tiny hands together, "Important, masters!"

"Well out with it!" Al snapped, "Better be something worth that disaster!"

"See, master, Nellie use request for food which house elves can obey if they see fit to go against headmaster's orders, which doesn't matter anymore because…" She paused, her great eyes sparkling with tears again, "Headmaster has died. But, the poor master is suffering so and dangerous, house elves can't handle poor master anymore. Nellie has idea to seek help, and hear the requests on seventh floor, which Nellie thought it strange since all students in great hall. Then then…Nellie thought, some student are free and can help poor master so Nellie used food request to come!"

"You're not making any sense," muttered Al, frustrated, "Just…say it again without the masters and Nellies."

"Poor master needs help!" the elf exclaimed mournfully, "He is suffering! Great suffering! I shall take you to him and you can help! Maybe help him here!"

"Who's 'poor master'?" asked Al, frowning, "What are talking about?"

"Oooh," she cried, hitting herself with both her palms, "Name escapes Nellie. Stupid stupid Nellie! Master has blonde hair and scratched cheeks! Bad english, that one."

Al eyes widened when he realized who she meant. He glanced at the others, who stared back looking just as astonished as they were hit with the same revelation. He looked back at the elf and said in small voice, "Nat."

Nellie brightened. "Yes, Master Nat!"

"Wait, why is he in the kitchen?" asked Al, astonished.

"Headmaster place him there, master…"

"But why?" He looked at his friends for help, "Why would he do that?"

They only returned confused looks and shrugs.

"I'm surprised the wolves haven't sniffed him out," said Jill.

"Perhaps the kitchen is the safest place," said Hugo, "It IS hidden, and I don't think they've discovered any hidden passages."

"But with the elves?" said Al doubtfully.

"Nellie," said Lily, "What do you mean he is in pain? Is Nat hurt?"

"Master Nat is asleep and has horrible nightmares!" Nellie said tearfully, "His yells are horrible! Please help!"

"He's asleep?" asked Hugo, lifting his brows in question.

Al was thinking, regarding Nellie with a deep frown, which suddenly turned to a sly smile as a thought popped into his head. "Nellie! Since you're a house elf you can disapparate within the grounds, can't you?"

Nellie nodded. Finally some luck!

"Good," he said, excitedly, "Then Nellie, we'll go get Nat and bring him here, but before that, there's somewhere else we have to go to."

"Where, sir?"

"The dungeons. My brother, Rose and Katsumata are still down there, and they're in trouble. Can you take me there, Nellie?"

The elf nodded. "Yessir."

"Wait, Al," said Jill, rushing towards him, "You're going back down there?"

"I can't leave them," said Al gruffly, "Not with them on alert! Nellie and I will just pop in, grab them, and pop out!"

Jill frowned, unconvinced of the plan. Lily asked if she could come along, which Al refused right away, of course. He couldn't be worried about one extra person.

"Be careful then," said Jill, letting out a resigned sigh, "Get them back safely."

Al nodded, and then turned to the elf. "Ready Nellie?"

"Yessir!"

Harry blinked. What? What was that just now? Arrested? A fox? He looked to the fox, then to the minister, then back to the fox. Ron, Kingsley and the others looked as bewildered as he was.

No one explained anything to Harry and the others in the befuddling ten minutes that followed that initial shock. Hermione was shouting, and the old Japanese woman was screaming at the top of her lungs as she sprinted towards them. The Japanese wizards held the scrolls down to the ground, enchanting it with their wands. The Japanese minister stood a few feet shy of the fox's claws.

"Tsubaki what?" said the Kingsley, "What in the hell is going on here?!"

The Japanese minister spoke to the fox, "Ninety years of planning, Tsubaki, and you still messed up."

The fox growled in return. By this time, Hermione, Teddy and the old Japanese woman had arrived, panting and huffing.

"Minister," Hermione managed between breaths, "This…is…not the time…"

"What is that thing?" Ron asked, "What'd you do to Manami? Did transfigure her?"

"Weasley-san, this is Manami's—or rather Tsubaki's true form," said the minister calmly.

Harry was staring at the fox incredulously. The creature would have been the height of a fully grown man if it stood on its hind legs, and its three tails were as long as its body. Harry recognized great intelligence in its beady black eyes—this definitely was not a normal fox.

"She's a kitsune…" Harry said quietly, "Isn't she?"

"Let her go!" the old woman commanded sharply, "This in inhuman!"

"Seeing as our subject is not human, I think this is quite appropriate Fujiwara-san," said the minister.

Harry felt a pang of irritation at the comment, but he looked at Hermione instinctively, knowing she wasn't going to let a comment like this pass so easily.

"You're being ridiculous," Hermione said, right on cue, "You are jeopardizing the wizards' hard earned working relationship with the kitsune clans by doing this! Using magic that is so disgusting and oppressive!"

"Weasley-san, I admire your work," said the minister, "But you are out of your league here! You know nothing!"

Harry frowned. He really had no idea what was happening, not since they first popped over to the other side. First, their comrades were brutally murdered, then he had been told that his kids were in grave danger, and now Manami was a fox being held captive by a hostile Japanese ministry—this was going way out of hand! He had no time for this, and he was so sick of not knowing! He took out his wand and pointed it into the sky and let out a large, bright red spark, startling everyone into silence.

"Listen!" Harry shouted, loud enough so that the spectators standing on top of the dunes probably heard him, "I don't know what you guys have been doing over here, but in case you haven't figured it out, we didn't quite have a great time across the barrier. We were slaughtered. Only 28 of us made it! If it weren't for these shinobi here, we'd all be dead! We still have injured still over there! The American President is lying unconscious in a foreign land. Ministers, leaders, from other countries are dead or injured! Apparently the shinobi are fighting each other, and the insane murderous ones who tried to kill us have crossed over, and you know what they want? They want a boy named Naruto Uzumaki, and you know where he is? At Hogwarts!"

Hermione gasped loudly, a sentiment echoed by the other. The shinobi seemed a little stunned yet amused by Harry's sudden outburst.

"Yeah, Hogwarts, where all our kids are. They're going after him and they're not above killing kids. So, I don't understand why, sir, as the Japanese minister of magic, you are wasting time being bloody racist towards perfectly intelligent magical creatures instead of dealing with the real problem!"

"Potter-san, you do understand that this problem was caused by this creature—"

"Minister!" Hermione interjected hotly, "You heard Harry! It isn't the time for that! Our kids in Hogwarts are—"

"You don't have to worry about that," growled the minister, "The Department of Transportation has taken down all means of magical transportation out of Japan. No one can come in or out, so I assure you, if the shinobi have left Japan with muggle means, they have not arrived in the United Kingdom."

"You sure about that?" asked Kingsley, "These people can run as fast as brooms can fly, and can walk on water. They have magic beyond our understanding—you think you can trap them like you'd trap a wizard?"

"Are you insisting that you know more about the shinobi than we do?" asked the minister incredulously, "We are their neighbors! We've been studying them for centuries! We knew not to—"

"AHEM!"

Everyone hushed immediately, momentarily looking puzzled. Harry, mildly startled by the sudden interruption, suddenly remembered that they had guests. He turned around quickly and found, just as the others did, their shinobi neighbors standing on the sand just a few feet away from them. Hermione's eyes couldn't have gone wider at the realization, but the Japanese minister took a second to comprehend who these new faces were.

"Shinobi," he said to himself finally. There was mixture of awe and fear in his eyes. His underlings reacted nearly the same way, and looked stunned as they lay eyes on their famous, elusive neighbors for the first time in centuries.

Kakashi had been the one that had gotten their attention. He spoke, his arms crossed and his tone light and flippant, "Well, if you want to know about shinobi and how to stop them…I'm betting it's best to ask one, right?"

A stunned and even awkward silence followed the man's words. The Japanese minster and his people shifted uncomfortably, aware of an angry fox gnashing its teeth at them. The minister seemed conflicted over who he should deal with first, but after a brief hesitation, decided that the shinobi were more important.

The minister attempted to speak, but his attempts were rather pathetic, "Y-you're…from…over there…"

Kakashi's only visible eyes blinked, but he did so with much character that Harry could tell he was rather unimpressed and even bored. "Yes," he answered, blandly, "If by over there you mean beyond the barrier."

The minster nodded, trying to regain dignity and composure. "This is…! I—we—"

"Before we get to hugs and hellos, I think we should get the hell off of the beach," a lazy drawl joined the conversation. It was Shikamaru. The teenager glanced at Kakashi with a shrug, "I prefer to do business without getting hit in the ass with ice cold water every ten seconds, don't you?"

Harry smiled, despite himself. Hermione beside him was taking this all in with breathless wonder.

Updated Commentary:

1) Several Potter savvy peeps pointed out that the spell I had Hugo use before (cuninculus) wasn't taught to third years, so I found lepifors, which is taught to third years, as a neat replacement. I am glad that worked out. I was going to change the disillusionment charm to an invisibility spell, but after reading the wiki on the charm, I decided to keep it. It seems to imply that the quality of "invisibleness" depends on witch/wizard who's casting it, and otherwise it acts as a camouflage. I figure, Pomfrey is damn old and probably powerful in her own right. She can probably cast a pretty good disillusionment charm that can render them perfectly invisible at a reasonable range. For James, Al and Anne, however, their charm is not nearly as perfect, so an observant shinobi could probably figure out something is moving about.

2) I also realized how stupid it was for Harry to attack one of the wizards holding down a giant, angry fox. Like yes, he is mad about things, but he really should not be setting furious kitsunes free willy-nilly. At first I had reasoned that he trusted Hermione's judgement and was fond of Manami enough that he would attack the wizard holding her down, but this is adult Harry Potter, not reckless teenaged Harry Potter. He can't go around attacking members of another government and setting free a creature that could have threatened the life of the Japanese Minister. Bad politics all around, and Harry has grown smarter than that.