Hogwarts' ANBU

A/N: Beta-ed by Hoshi Light. Thank you very much!

Hikigaeru means Toad

Chapter 12: Hagrid and the Dream

„Why don't you begin the class, my dear?" Umbridge asked the Cat-masked guard in her sweetest voice that made all three of the shinobi cringe ever so slightly.

"Wolf teaches the class," was the only answer she got from the brown-haired woman.

The Toad-woman immediately began to scribble something on her papers. Sayuri prayed that Kakashi would hurry up for once in his lifetime. Not because of the evaluation, the 'Pink Punk' would give him for his lateness alone, but because she couldn't stand waiting alone with this woman anymore. Sure, there was Sakura, and Sasuke, and the kids, but due to the Toad-woman's company it seemed like any other presence was wiped away.

"Well, Wolf is obviously ill, or he would've been here already, no?"

A corner of Sayuri's mouth twitched, and she couldn't help, but notice that it was the same for the students infront of them. The brats had gotten used to the silver-haired man's tardiness by now, as well as to his lame excuses. For some reason, though, they still showed up on time for the official beginning of class. Neji's aunt let her gaze wander over to where her pink- and blue-haired comrades stood at a safe distance from the annoying High Inquisitor. Sakura's hand was twitching at her side, as if it was just dying to hold her stomach while she laughed out loud at the Toad's ignorance- or to punch her, who knew. Sasuke was motionless as ever, but Sayuri was sure, if she activated her Byakugan, she would be able to see a smirk on his face.

"My dear?" Umbridge repeated.

'I swear, if she calls me that one more time, I'll…' the brown-haired woman thought, but kept quiet.

Instead, it was Sakura, who answered.

"No worries, hikigaeru. Sensei is always fashionably late to everything."

"You call half an hour 'fashionably late' ?!?"

"For sensei, that's being early."

Some of the kids couldn't hold it anymore, and started laughing out loud, just as a puff of smoke appeared, and out came the aforementioned lazy teacher himself.

"Sorry, I'm late, guys," he told them, without even waiting to be asked, and immediately everyone snapped to attention, curious, as to what story he would tell them today, "I was actually on my way here, when I saw a cat being stuck on a very high closet. Being the animal-lover that I am, I had to help the poor thing, but then-"

"Liar!" Lynx shouted at him, before he had even finished.

Wolf rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment, before turning back to the kids, and motioning for them to follow him. Standing up from their seated position on the meadow, they walked behind him at a leisure pace. When they arrived at the confines of the Forbidden Forest, Umbridge made another note to herself. The Hogwarts' students wondered, what Wolf could be wanting here, but feared the answer way too much to ask. The silver-haired male turned to face them, and, seeing the panic in their eyes, he chuckled lightly before reassuring them.

"We won't go in there… Yet!" he told the gaping group of teenagers.

At the last word, a shiver ran down the children's spines.

Their teacher chuckled again.

"Today, we'll do something completely different, from the other lessons. I confered with my fellow ANBU, and we came to the conclusion that you might find it helpful some day. Therefore, during this class, you'll practice, how to tree-walk," Kakashi announced to the brats, cheerfully.

"Chrm, chrm."

"Tree-walking looks very easy, but is actually pretty difficult to learn, because you need perfect control of your energy. Most likely, you will need some more lessons to learn it properly, unless you are a natural. In such a large group, there'll probably be a few naturals. Don't be surprised, if those are most likely only girls. Girls in general are better at chakra control than boys. It's passed down genetically. Like males have more stamina, and are genrally stronger, females have better control over their body's energy," he explained calmly.

"Chrm, chrm."

Ignoring her again, Kakashi continued. "It won't be easy, and with the skill you can achieve in such a limited amount of time, it wouldn't be of any use against people like us, but if you use it to get away from a wizard, you should have no trouble making your escape, especially if he doesn't have his broom with him."

"Chrm, chrm!"

The third time, Sakura snapped:

"If you have a cold, you should stay inside, hikigaeru."

The pink-wearing woman huffed indignantly, writing something into her notes, before turning back to Wolf. The silver-haired male contemplated ignoring her again, but decided against it. The sooner this was done, the sooner she would- hopefully- leave them in peace.

"Yes?" said man asked in an annoyed tone of voice.

"I was just wondering, what good it would do the kids to learn such… well, nonsense?" the Toad-woman asked sweetly. Those, who looked closely, could see Kakashi roll his shoulders a little, as if trying to shake of that bittersweet sound, and set himself free again.

"Nonsense?" the silver-haired male asked, "This 'nonsense', as you call it, has saved my life quite a few times, simply because I was faster than my enemy."

"But these are children, they don't have any enemies!" Umbridge insisted.

"So, you're telling me the outer world is perfectly safe for them?" Wolf shot back lazily.

"Ah, I see, you've been misled to believe that a certain dark wizard has returned-"

This time, it was Sasuke, who interrupted the small woman.

"Regardless, of whether or not, this Voldemort-guy (flinch) is back- and our intelligence says, he is- the world is never completely safe. There will always be vicious people, who'd find an easy prey in an unprepared child. We can not afford, not to teach the youth how to defend themselves, or at least escape an ill-meaning opponent unharmed."

"Right," Sayuri agreed, "…now, let's get back to business!"

"Thanks." Kakashi nodded to them, before turning to one of the trees. "What I want you to do, is concentrate your energy on your feet, and then," Here he put a foot on the trunk, "just put one feet infront of the other." He walked up the tree, until he was hanging upside down from a branch. Taking out a small, english book from his pocket, he began reading his beloved Icha Icha, without having the kids notice. Again.

The other guards just shook their heads at him.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Cat asked a moment later. "Go, pick a tree."

"But we could fall, and break our bones!" Draco Malfoy shouted.

"I'll break them for sure, if you don't do as she said, right now," Lynx threatened him with a shaking fist.

"First," Kakashi's voice came from above, " if you're smart, you won't walk up too high, the first few times you actually succeed at getting anywhere. Secondly, you'll share a tree with at least three other people, who would look out for you, if you weren't such an annoying sissy. And thirdly, do you really think we'll just sit by, and drink coffee?!? If you fall, we'll be there to catch you- that is, unless you annoy me further... Now off you go."

With that reassurance, and quite a bit of snickering from the Griffindors, the students dispersed. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville chose a tree near their pink-haired friend. Under the impression that the young woman was actually smiling at them, they started their exercises. Neville tried first, but fell on his butt as soon as he tried to make the first step up the trunk. Lynx helped him up gently, explaining, that he needed a certain amount of energy to stick to the bark, and he just didn't use enough. As Neville walked to stand at the end of the line to wait for his next opportunity, Harry and Hermione jumped out of the way of a backwards flying Ron. The redhead bumped into Neville, ripping the poor boy off his feet. They landed in the grass with a loud thump, and the pink-haired guard laughing at them full-heartedly.

"You used too much energy, Ronald, " she told him in between giggles.

"Found a love-interest, Weasley?" Malfoy's voice taunted, while the two boys tried desperately to disentangle their limbs.

Sakura's head turned in his direction immediately.

Malfoy gulped.

Then he noticed the kunai embedded in the trunk beside his head.

"The next time, I'll aim at your body, bastard, " she growled lowly at him.

"How dare you?!?" came the horrified shout of the High Inquisitor. "How dare you threaten and attack an innocent child, you-"

"Innocent, my ass," the girl replied in a hiss.

"You! You…"

"I?"

"You little s-"

"That's enough," Wolf barked at them. "Lynx, there is no need for such violence… and you, High Inquisitor, I think you should go back inside the castle, because if we hear one more word from you, I won't be able to guarantee for my comrades' behaviour!" With a growl of her own that sounded suspiciously like "We'll finish this another day!", the Toad-woman scurried off, and the silver-haired teacher told them to continue, just as a loud, female shout could be heard throughout the field:

"I did it!"

Everyone turned to see that Hermione had apparently made good use of the little argument between Umbridge and the guards, and practiced, instead of listening. She was now sitting on the highest branch of their tree and waving down at them, a very pleased smile on her features. Dangling her feet in the air, she blushed as she noticed that her little shout had gotten her everyone's attention. Raising her hands, Sakura applauded her, saying something about a great similarity between the girl and herself. To which Kakashi agreed, explaining that the pink-haired woman had been a natural as well.

Then, their teacher chuckled.

"Just how do you plan on getting back down, though?" he asked, amused. He knew, there was a difference between going up, and walking down a trunk, especially if you suffered vertigo from the altitude. After all, you had to look straight at the ground, when coming down from a tree, and that wasn't everyobody's favorite part of the exercise.

"Uh oh, " Hermione murmured, blushing an even deeper shade of red.

Apparently, she was one of those candidates.

"Wait right there, I'll help you down," Sakura announced, but found, that Sasuke was already there, taking the girl's arm, and lifting her to her feet, "Oh, well, he'll walk you down then. Don't worry, if you fall, I'll catch you for sure, even if Raven misses you."

She winked behind her mask.

That earned her a dirty look, and an indignant huff from said blue-haired boy. Slowly, Sasuke guided the panicking girl down the trunk, step by step, until they reached the ground. There, her friends and fellow students were already waiting to give her a quick, comforting hug. Ron and Neville had finally managed to disentangle themselves as well, so they could join in with all the other kids, complimenting the bushy-haired girl. Well, all the other kids, except for the Slytherins, obviously. Who thought it to be insulting, that a mudblood had succeeded to accomplish the task, before a pureblood could.

Meanwhile, the Griffindors were very proud of their young bookworm!

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After all the other students had left, Harry, Ron and Hermione remained on the schoolgrounds with Raven, who would accompany them to their meeting with Hagrid. When the halfgiant opened the door, he was very surprised to find the guard there. Apparently, no one had told him about the ANBU yet. After Hermione had explained, who Sasuke was and why he was here, Hagrid seemed to get a little more comfortable with the bluish-haired boy. While the Golden Trio got even more uncomfortable and curious about their friends' injuries. He was treating them with a raw piece of dragon meat. When the young students asked for the third time, Hagrid snapped:

"For the last time, it's nothin'."

"You should go see Madam Pomfrey, Hagrid, please," Hermione suggested with a desperate tone.

"I can take care of it, okay?" the halfgiant replied evadingly.

"So, you gonna tell us what happened, Hagrid?"

"Can't, Harry. Sorry, but it's top secret. Won't risk my job by telling you."

"Did the giants do that to you?" Raven suddenly asked. Gasps ran through the room.

"How do you know about it?"

"We have our sources. So, I am right."

"…"

"So, you have visited the giants?" Harry inquired after a moment of silence.

"…Oh, fine, yes. Yes, I did. You happy now?"

"What happened?"

"Why do you always have to know everything?"

"And how did you find them?" Ron added as an afterthought.

"I hardly doubt, they're that hard to find, wouldn't you agree?!?" Raven huffed.

"Well…"

"Anyway!" Hermione interrupted, before Ron could start bickering with the ANBU. "Why don't you tell us, what happened, Hagrid? Then, Harry can tell you, how the dementors attacked him-"

"What?!? Dementors? You were attacked by dementors?" Hagrid asked, bewildered.

"Didn't you know?" Hermione countered.

"I don't know anything, about what happened, while I was away. It was, after all, a secret mission. I didn't want to many owls following me, you know… But really now, dementors?"

"Yep, really. Appeared in Little Whinging, and attacked me and my cousin. The ministry of magic almost threw me out of school-"

"WHAT?"

Sasuke cringed. That halfgiant had too strong a voice, even for someone with just about normal hearing.

'Maybe I should lure Naruto to him, and make him yell into the dobe's face… That would be fun…'

"-and I had to go to a hearing and all."

"They threw you out?!?"

"Tell us about your summer, and I'll tell you about mine," Harry offered.

With his uncovered eye- he was holding the steak to the other- Hagrid pinned Harry with a dark gaze, while the Boy-Who-Lived had an expression of innocent determination on his scared face.

"Oh, well. Fine, " Hagrid gave up, sighing, "well, we- that is Madam Maxime and I- departed immediately after the end of the school year, and I can tell you, that Olympe is one tough gal. I mean, you know her. She's a well-dressed lady, and I knew, where we would be going, and I was already asking myself, what she would think about walking over scree, but she didn't complain even once."

"Wait, you knew, where you were going?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, well, Dumbledore knew. He told us."

"Are they even hiding? I mean, is it a secret, where they are?" Ron inquired immediately.

"Not really, but most wizards could care less about their location, as long as they are far away. Plus, it's pretty difficult to get, where they live. We needed Dumbledore's advice, and it still took us about a month to get there. Yes, a month, Ronald. And we couldn't use a portkey, because the ministry is watching Dumbledore closely, so the last thing he needed, was an unauthorized portkey. Therefore, we had to travel like muggles for a while, until we were sure, we had shaken the minstry wizards off. After that, we used a little magic to get onwards, and from then on, the travel wasn't even halfbad. We ran into a group of crazy trolls near Polen and had a little trouble with a vampire in Minsk, but then we reached the mountains, and everything was fine. We just couldn't use magic. They don't like wizards that much, you know. Anyway, we had to be careful, in case You-Know-Who had already sent his Death Eaters to meet with them. Anyway, we found them. There were around eighty of them, that all, there left of the giants. Well, it was night, so we waited a few hours and then went down with our present- Dumbledore said, we should give something to their leader. That's always the biggest, ugliest and laziest out of all of them, so it wasn't very difficult to find out, whom to give the gift-"

"What did you give him?" Ron asked. "Something to eat?"

"Na, that's something they can easily provide themselves with. No, we gave them a little bit of magic. They like that, as long as it isn't used against them. So we gave them a flame, that would never be put out. It was like all hell was breaking loose. They really liked it, so I asked, if he could please talk to us, when we would come back with another gift the next morning. Dumbledore wanted us to take it slow, you know. So we left them, and came back the next day. We did, we gave him an indistructable helmet, and then we talked, while they mostly listened. The leader, Karkus, had heard of Dumbledore, and how he had been against the execution of the last giants in Great Britain, so he was really interested in what we had to say. We were optimistic, when we left for the night, promising to bring another gift in the morning, but then… everything went wrong."

"How so?" Ron wanted to know.

"Well, giants aren't made to live in such big groups, so there were many fight between the different members. That night, there was a really big fight and when it was over, there was a new leader, Gologmath. We hadn't expected such a thing, after getting closer to Krakus. We had the sinking feeling, that Golgomath wouldn't want to listen to us, but we had to try, so we went back with the third gift, offering it to the new leader of the tribe. Before I had even finished greeting him, two of them had already yanked me up by my feet. If it wouldn't have been for Olympe and her magical skill, I wouldn't have gotten out of that one. However, then, we were really screwed. I told you, they don't like wizards much, so we had to flee. We stayed in a cavern for a few days and watch silently. Turned out, Golgomath was friends with Death Eaters. Fortunately for us, that didn't go for all of them. We waited until dark and then went back down, but this time, we met with those, who hadn't wanted Golgomath as their leader- or in other words, the ones, that were constantly beaten up! We treated their injuries and talked to them, and it didn't look so bad, until Golgomath found out about our nightly activities. He attacked them. Afterwards, none of those, who had survived, had still wanted to talk to us. Our only hope now is, that those, who don't want to be near Golgomath, will leave the mountains, remembering, that Dumbledore has been kind to them, and maybe they'll come here…" Hagrid ended his report.

After a minutes of silence, Harry inquired, if his friends had heard anything about his mother. The halfgiant smiled sadly, before replying, that she had been dead for quite some time now. When the kids asked again, how he had gotten injured, Hagrid was about to answer, but a knock at the door interrupted him. They gasped and turned towards the door. Sasuke immediately knew, who it was and motioned for the kids to go out the back, and put away the glasses for the tea. Once they were out of sight, Hagrid opened the door. Infront of him stood a tiny woman in a green coat, as well as a matching hat. She leaned back to look at his face; she barely reached up to his navel.

"Well, " Professor Umbridge began, "you're Hagrid, right?"

Without waiting for an answer, she went inside, 'shooing' Fang away.

"Um, I don't want to sound rude," Hagrid spoke up, "but, who the hell are you?"

"My name is Dolores Jane Umbridge."

"Dolores Umbridge?" Hagrid repeated. "I thought, you were from the ministry… Don't you work for Fudge?"

"I was his First Secretary, yes," the Toad-woman admitted, "but at the moment, I'm working as a Defence against the Dark Arts teacher as well as the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts."

"The what? What's that?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing," she replied, motioning for the broken cup.

"Oh, that was Fang," Hagrid answered.

"I heard voices."

"I talked to Fang."

"And did he answer?"

"Well, sometimes I'm under the impression that he's almost human, my Fang…"

"There are footprints that lead to your cottage," Umbridge told him. Outside, Sasuke swore under his breath, while still trying to get the kids to run back to the castle, but the Golden Trio just won't comply.

"Well, I just came back. Whoever it was, must've been here some time ago."

"There are no footprints, leading away from your house, though."

"Well, I have no idea, how that is possible," Hagrid said, lightly.

"In any case, how did you get yourself injured?" Umbridge asked.

"Oh, that! I… I stumbled."

"Stumbled?"

"Yeah. Over the broom of a friend. I…"

'And I thought, Wolf's excuses were lame! I'll have to apologize to him later," Sasuke thought, slapping a hand over his mask-covered eyes.

"Where have you been? The schoolyear started months ago!" Umbridge continued her interrogation.

"I- had gone away, because of my health."

"Your health?"

"Yeah. A little bit of fresh air, you know…"

"Oh, yes, as gamekeeper you don't get very much of that!" the Toad replied sarcastically.

"Well, I wanted something else, you know-"

"The mountains?"

"Mountains? No, I was in the southern France. Little bit of sun and sea, yeah…"

"You didn't get much of a tan, though," Umbridge prompted.

"Oh… uhm… I've got sensitive skin…"

'Oh, please! Give me a break!' Sasuke burried his face in one hand.

Umbridge looked at him coldly.

"Well, I'll inform the minister of your late arrival. Furthermore, as the High inquisitor I need to inspect your class, so I guess, that we'll see each other pretty soon."

'Somehow, I'm sure that after how it went in Kakashi's class today, she'll be dying to throw someone out…'

"You inspect classes?"

"Oh, yes, " Professor Umbridge replied with a sugary sweet smile, that didn't reach her eyes, "the ministry is very interested in identifying and eliminating teachers, that are not up to their task. Good evening."

As soon as they saw Umbridge head for the castle, the three students stormed Hagrid's cottage again, an almost audibly groaning Raven trailing behind them. After affirming, that Umbridge indeed inspected their classes, Hermione hesitantly asked, what Hagrid was planning on teaching them this year. Having heard stories about the halfgiants strange likings, Sasuke's ears perked up as well, and he agreed with Hermione, that what he heard wasn't good. It wasn't good at all.

The bushy-haired girl tried to convince him with every trick she knew, even going as far as visiting him the next morning- dragging Shikamaru with her, since it was his shift- and trying to reason with him again, giving him advice and all. She returned much later with a defeated look on her face, telling them, that, as expected, nothing worked. This day, Harry, Ron, and Hermione made their way towards Hagrid's cottage with a very strong sinking feeling in her stomach. They were relieved, for a moment, when they couldn't find the High Inquisitor anywhere, but that feeling was crushed, when Hagrid led them into the Forbidden Forest, a dead cow over his shoulder, saying: "They prefer the dark."

"What prefers the dark?" Malfoy screeched.

Behind him, Harry could hear Fox and Eagle chuckle.

"And what did you do with your face?"

"Mind your own business, Malfoy!" Hagrid snapped at him, still leading the class deeper into the forest. Took them about ten minutes to arrive at their destination. The trees were standing so close to one another now, that there wasn't much light reaching the ground to work with, and not one snowflake graced the ground. Groaning, Hagrid put down the cow into the middle of a clearing, before turning towards the students again, after emitting a long whistle. Not a minute later, once of those dark, skeleton-like horses made their way onto the clearing. Harry couldn't surpress a sigh of relief. Here, finally, was the proof, that these creatures really existed. Hagrid knew them as well, and now, Harry would get to know, what they were. The Boy-Who-Lived could hear a few gasps (Naruto shouted: "Wow, they are so cool!"), but mostly only people asking, why Hagrid didn't call again. Looking around, Harry noticed, that those people, like Ron, looked everywhere, but not at the horse that was right infront of them. He didn't understand, what was going on, why no one seemed to see them.

"Who can see them?" Hagrid asked after a while, when a few more of those creatures had arrived. "Ah, yes, Harry, I thought so. You too, Neville?… And the guards, of course-"

"I beg your pardon," Malfoy spoke up, in a sneering tone, "but what exactly are we supposed to see?!?"

As an answer, Hagrid pointed at the cow, on which the horses fed. Gaspes went through the crowd, and Harry imagined, how it would be, to see a corpse be eaten up by thin air. Parvati shrieked and asked, who was doing that, who was eating the cow. Hagrid answered in one simple word:

"Thestrales."

"But they bring bad luck!" Parvati yelped.

"Now, that's just nonsense. Well, who can tell me, why some of you can see them, while others can't?… Yes, Hermione?"

"To see Thestrales you need to have seen death."

"Exactly," Hagrid said, "10 points to Griffindor. Well, Thestrales-"

"Chrm, chrm."

Professor Umbridge had arrived. She was standing a few meters away from Harry and the blonde guard, again wearing her green coat. She was holding her notepad against her chest, her quill ready to scribble. Hagrid, who hadn't noticed her yet, looked strangely at the nearest Thestrale, wondering, if it had made that strange sound. Another "chrm, chrm" made him turn to the Toad-woman, while Fox cringed deliberatedly.

"Oh, hello," Hagrid greeted the High Inquisitor, "I see, you found your way here. Well, as you can see- or, I'm not sure, can you?- we're talking about Thestrales-"

"Excuse me?" Umbridge started, putting a hand behind her ear. "What did you say?"

"Uhm- Thestrales," he said more loudly. "Big, winged horses, you know?"

As Hagrid started to wave with his enormous arms, Umbridge took that as he sign to begin her crusade, spelling out loud, how she was writing down that Hagrid needed primitive handsigns to communicate. The Slytherins started giggling, while the other students, even if they preferred Grubby-Plank, weren't as amused. Naruto exchanged a glance with Neji, who shook his head no, so the blonde wouldn't interfere. The Hyuuga didn't like the Toad-woman's game either, but this wasn't their top priority. Meanwhile, Hagrid was telling them the story of Hogwarts' herd, though he was interrupted again.

"You do realize, " Umbridge began, "that the Ministry states these animals to be dangerous."

Harry's sinking feeling grew, but Hagrid giggled slightly.

"Thestrales aren't dangerous. Okay, maybe they bite a piece of you away, if you anger them-"

"Shows… distinct…signs of…enjoying violence…" Umbridge read out loud, while writing down her notes.

"Now, that's enough. Dogs bite as well, if you provoke them!" Hagrid huffed.

Ignoring, what he had said, Umbridge told- and showed- Hagrid, that she was going to ask the students a few questions. By now, the Slytherins were laughing their heads off; Pansy Parkinson almost couldn't answer that she thought of Hagrid's way of speaking as grunting, when Umbridge asked her. Meanwhile, Hermione was swearing under her breath, like Harry and Ron had never heard her swear. Plus, they could hear the low, growling sounds from Fox behind them, as Umbridge twisted Neville's answer so that it would serve her purpose. A second later, the blonde guard was intoning his own series of swears, and curses in his native language. Harry looked towards the other guard, Eagle, who had the dubious pleasure of standing near the Slytherins. His stiff posture, and the impatient tapping of his index finger, as his arms rested crossed over his chest, were the only signs of his distress. Suddenly, he stopped, and his head shot up. The Boy-Who-Lived found Fox looking up from the horses, and at his comrade, alarmed.

"What is it?" the blonde asked.

"Everyone, cramp together and stay in the group," the Hyuuga replied without looking at him. "Fox, make a bunch of your clones. Make sure no one gets hit."

Confused, but trusting his brown-haired friend, Naruto ushered the students, Hagrid, and Umbridge to stick together in one group. Reluctant at first, the Slytherin hastily complied, once the first green flash came towards the kids from in between the trees. Neji jumped infront of the group, kaitening the death curse to be nothing more than fireworks, and sending a bunch of shuriken flying. A strangled cry could be heard seconds later along with a 'thump'. Obviously, he had hit one of them. The other Death Eaters came into view only a moment later. Their leader made a complicated move with his wand that sent the brown-haired guard flying to the side, until his back hit hard against a trunk. Shaking his head clear, the pale-eyed boy fumbled with his radio. It wasn't like they couldn't take the wizards, because they could. The only problem was that this time, the kids weren't in a halfway safe enviroment- like a train- but right there on the battlefield with them. Naruto was too preoccupied keeping the kids safe from any and all curses with his shadow clones to do much more. Especially since some of the brats- namely the members of the DA- found the need to try, and help them. This way, Naruto had to restrain the little rebells from intervening with the course of the fight, as well.

"Wolf," he called into the radio. "We're in the forest, and under attack. We need backup."

Then, he gave his superior some coordinates, and moved to stand up. One of the dark-clothed men had followed him, though, and cast the Avadra Kedavra, while Neji was still in midmotion. Unable to dodge the attack, the young Hyuuga did the first thing that came to his mind. He threw a kunai right into the curse. It worked. The curse exploded, but so did the kunai. It burst into a thousand pieces that scattered over the clearing, hitting a few of those Thestrales, and destroying some of Naruto's shadow clones, and fotunately killing the Death Eater as well. With a piece of metal in his throat, he sank to his knees, gurgling.

Neji was hit too, though.

Two of the shards impaled themselves into his left thigh, and the third found it's way into his shoulder. It was a close call, as it was only a few centimeters away from his own neck. He tried to stand up again, but the pieces in his thigh must have hit a few nerves, because his leg wasn't responding. It was limp.

'Damn!' Neji thought. With his Byakugan, he saw Naruto giving him a worried glance out of the corner of his eye, and signaled him that he couldn't move from his spot. The Death Eaters seemed to notice, because they turned their full attention to the army of blonde guards, destroying one after the other with their stunning spells. Fortunately for the kids, Naruto wasn't quite human, so he could make new clones everytime one was destroyed- which frustrated Voldemort's little helpers to no end.

Still, they progressed towards the cramped together group.

They were only a few feet away, when something strange happened. One of them stopped in midstep, began to tremble, and wriggle as if something was holding him. Then suddenly, he made a flip backwards, and, turning to his surprised comrades, swung his wand, sending an Avadra Kedavra at them. The nearest fell over dead, immediately. However, the remaining Death Eaters were quick to react, and killed their companion, before advancing towards the kids again. The second after, found two of them being strangled by apparently nothing but thin air.

'Well, on such dark clothes it's hard to make out a shodow-y hand…' Neji thought, relived.

The other three Death Eaters stared at their comrades surprised, but weren't given the time to think up a new strategy, or flee. A black and white blur knocked the first of them down onto the ground, while two senbon pinned the wands of the remaining two to the ground. Naruto immediately commanded his shadow clones to pin them to the dirt underneath them. Looking up, he found Cat standing with one feet on her opponent's chest, holding the man down. When they noticed that the Death Eater was raising his wand, the brown-haired woman kicked it away, before breaking his fingers by putting her weight on them. Turning her head, she found the other two strangled on the ground, and a lazy pineapple-head leaning against a nearby tree, muttering his favorite word.

She smiled. "Fox, Deer, get the students, and our guests into the castle. I'm sure, Wolf would like to interrogate them."

Seeing the sadistic grins on his comrades faces as they walked away with the brats, Neji deactivated his bloodline limit, and slumped back against the tree. Walking over to him, his aunt crouched down to take a better look at his wounds. The piece in his shoulder got out immediately, and the injury was healed, then she turned to his thigh. Sayuri explained that he'd have to have Sakura take a look at it, but she needed to get the shards out, or he'd die of bloodloss. Plus, she wanted to have his nerves regenerated as soon as possible. Ripping the fabric of his pants just enough to see what she was doing (Neji blushed behind his mask), and taking out a scalpel, she cut deeply into his flesh to remove the metallic pieces from his leg.

"Why?" Nej asked.

She looked at him for a moment, as if unsure of what he was talking about.

"He's probably trying to pressure us?" It was more of question than an answer.

"No. Him. Why him of all people?"

She didn't answer for a second, as she concentrated on getting the pieces of his broken kunai out of his wound so she could give him a first healing.

"Because he's himself," she replied mystically. "Because we hated each other the first time we met, because we went all out during our sparring matches, because we did our best to send each other into hospital everytime we trained together…because he was a by-the-book kind of shinobi, while I was a total rebell. Because he came to me, breaking into my chambers, when his best friend died, and he got his sharingan as a parting gift. Because his only remaining eye was shedding tears against his will. Because he needed someone who would listen without commenting, unless asked to. Because he was there, when my brother- your father- gave his life for a clan that treated him like dirt, because I could confide in him then, and because he let me cry on his shoulder without thinking any less of me…"

Neji stayed silent.

"Because of the way he held me through the night, after I told him what I did…what I had become. Because he didn't turn away, digusted. Because I feel safe, and protected in his embrace, and cherished under his touch. Because he's-" And here she paused to look around, though knowing there was no one but them "- because he's Kakashi."

Neji still didn't say anything.

Healing his thigh as best as she could, she stood, before yanking him into a standing position, one of his arms around her shoulder, so she could support him.

"Well, then. Let's go. Sakura is already waiting in our dorms."

And with that, they 'poofed' away.

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This night, after their last DA meeting for this year, and finding out that Ginny Weasley had taken his place as a seeker, Harry went to bed with a slight headache. His mood wasn't the best, but at least thoughts of how Lynx had flattened Umbridge this afternoon, could give him back some joy. Plus, he had kissed Cho for the first time. It had been after their DA meeting. Everyone had already left, only Cho and him had remained in the Room of Requierement- and Deer, but well... They had talked for a few minutes, mostly about Cedric, and how Harry always seemed to get away, when Voldemort attacked him. He had been about to leave, when she called him back to apologize, then they noticed their position under a misteltoe. Hearing the pine-apple-headed guard mutter one of his infamous Troublesomes, they had inclined their heads and…

Sigh…

On the downside, it had to be mentioned that Cho had cried during the kiss, which Hermione had explained to be a multitude of emotions filling the girl at the moment, she just didn't know, how to handle. Now, he was slowly drifting off into slumber, returning to that door, that had been haunting him for some time now, but this time, it was different. He wasn't running towards the door, he was… crawling?… He didn't know, but his body felt different, pliant, yet strong… he was flat on the ground, and slid forwards with his stomach… it was dark, but he could see strange objects, glowing in different colours…the hallway was empty…but wait… there was a presence, he could smell it… a man… he was close…alive, but tired, almost sleeping already…sitting infront of the door, he wanted to open…

Harry could feel the desire in him to bite that man, repeatedly, again and again, until he lay in a pool of his own blood… slowly fading from life… pain…and cold his companions on this last travel…

In a second, the man was standing. A silvery coat fell from his legs, and a wand was drawn from his belt. Harry didn't have another choice, but to attack. He straightened himself… and snatched at him, burrying his poisoned teeth into him, over and over again. The man fell to the ground with countless wounds on his body, a scream left his lips, blood leaked over the ground. His face turned towards Harry, so familiar, so dear…

It was Mr. Weasley.

End of chapter 12!

A/N: Ah, we're getting to the interesting part now. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please leave a review!