Again, sorry for the delay. Enjoy!
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Chapter 28: Those Who Have Seen Death
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Umbridge wrote furiously on her clipboard as Hagrid talked, often mentioning things out loud "to herself". Most of the Slytherin side of the class was trying to contain their giggles of glee at the growing awkwardness of the situation. Conversely, some of the Gryffindors were attempting to keep from lashing out at the High Inquisitor.
Hagrid determinedly plowed on.
"A'right, who can tell me why some can' see 'em?" he asked, towering over the group, trying to regain their attention.
Hermione immediately raised her hand.
"'Ermione," Hagrid called on her, looking slightly relieved.
"The only people who can see thestrals," she answered dutifully, "are those who have seen death."
The shinobi shot mildly surprised glances in her direction. Rin turned back to Kakashi, slight worry on her face.
"I'm regretting raising my hand now," she whispered. He could only shrug.
"I'm sure they won't make a big deal out of it," he replied.
A mass of giggles erupted from their right. Kakashi turned to see Umbridge questioning Pansy Parkinson, who was clearly giving her everything she needed to sack Hagrid and more. Kakashi seriously hoped Umbridge wouldn't question Hagrid himself again. The others might trust him, but he had given up the information on the giants at a mere inquiry from Hermione the previous day. He wasn't so convinced.
"I'll just, eh, wait 'til yer finished then," Hagrid said in Umbridge's general direction, who didn't seem to notice or ignored him. He suddenly became much more interested in observing the thestrals.
Umbridge finished her last note and shuffled over to them. Kakashi looked at the ground as she passed, but only just, before she stopped in front of Rin, on Kakashi's left. He clenched his teeth. A hand brushed the clasp on his kunai holster hidden beneath his robes. He was so close…
"Rin," Umbridge drew out her name, examining something on her clipboard before looking up at the kunoichi and smiling sickly.
"Yes, Professor," the medic replied, faithfully playing the good student.
"You can see the thestrals?" she asked, still smiling.
"…Yes," Rin answered slowly.
Kakashi didn't like where this was going. He kept his head down, but his eyes were locked on Umbridge.
"And whom did you see die?"
What… did she…say?
He felt like he had been struck a physical blow. She had no right to ask that, no right to know something that personal. He clenched his fist so hard that he felt little half circles being pressed into his palm.
Rin looked like she had been slapped in the face. She was at a loss for words, staring straight ahead at Umbridge.
"Well?" Umbridge asked impatiently.
The question seemed to snap her out of it, registering somewhere in the back of her mind. She would later wonder if that impatient tone had had any effect on her next words.
The answer came tumbling out, "My best friend."
Those in the near vicinity suddenly became much more interested in the conversation, Harry, Ron, and Hermione among them. Kakashi continued to glare at Umbridge, who was seemed completely indifferent to Rin's response, scribbling again on her clipboard.
"And what do you think of the thestrals?" she continued her inquiry.
But Rin, still too flustered to answer, remained silent. Umbridge wrote again.
"Student…is too… frightened… by… creatures… to… answer…"
"Enough," Kakashi growled before he could stop himself.
Umbridge looked up at him as if she had just figured out he was standing there, eyebrows raised.
"Excuse me, Mr. Hatake?" she asked politely, smiling.
Kakashi reigned his temper in and quickly forced out an excuse, "You have everything you need, right? We'd like to get on with the lesson."
She didn't reply for a moment, simply looking at him contemplatively.
"Yes, I do believe I have enough information for an accurate report," she chirped, "Though you would do well not to talk out of turn, Mr. Hatake. Looking forward to your detention tonight, I trust." She leered at him and then turned on her heel, nodding to Hagrid and heading back out of the forest.
As soon as she was out of sight, Kakashi turned to his friend.
"Rin?" he asked uncertainly.
She didn't look at him, "I- I just need a minute," she said hurriedly and pushed through layers of students to go back the way they had come.
Kakashi considered following her, but then he would be leaving his charges in the middle of the Forbidden Forest. In class, with a teacher, but so far, he hadn't had the greatest experience with the woods, and he was reluctant to leave. So he stayed, despite the look he was getting from Hermione that blatantly said he should go.
The rest of the class seemed to drag on forever. When the period finally ended, he trooped back up to the castle with the rest of the students, searching the grounds for Rin as he went. He didn't find her. She wasn't in the common room either, when they arrived.
By the time dinner rolled around, he was getting nervous. He poked at his mashed potatoes, glancing at the huge entrance doors to the Great Hall every thirty seconds, expecting her to come walking through the doors and sit down next to him and ask why he looked so jumpy.
He reluctantly turned his attention back to the table to find the trio staring at him, quickly averting their gazes when he caught them. He went back to prodding his food with a fork.
"I'm sure she's fine," Hermione suddenly commented, "Anyone would have been thrown off… Your best friend… I can't imagine…"
"You haven't?" Harry asked.
"Of course not," she replied immediately. "…You have, Harry?"
"Well," he took a drink of pumpkin juice, stalling. Kakashi finally tuned into the conversation. Harry continued, swallowing, "Yeah… I mean with all that's happened… Nevermind."
"It's a hundred times worse than anything you can imagine," Kakashi muttered, causing them all to stare again, Ron with a fork halfway to his mouth. Kakashi stood, "I have a detention to get to. Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone."
The trio exchanged looks as he left.
--
No different than the first time, Kakashi felt an overwhelming sense of nausea as he entered the office of Dolores Umbridge. The kittens mewed at him from the delicate plates on the walls, one swiping its claws at him when he glared at it. The room screamed tidiness and organization; everything had its place and was strictly confined to it. Kakashi suspected Umbridge was slightly obsessively compulsive.
She appeared to be happily grading papers when he arrived, even writing in pink ink. He nearly gagged.
"Mr. Hatake," she smiled up at him, removing her glasses as he put down his bag and sat in the same high-backed chair at the same desk as before. He didn't meet her gaze.
She stood and retrieved a sheet of parchment and the torture quill from her desk and placed it neatly in front of him. Experimentally, Kakashi knocked the pen so that it rolled a few inches to the left of the paper before picking it up. Umbridge's hand flinched as she withdrew it. The shinobi suppressed a smirk. Her way of order was her strength, but undoubtedly also her weakness. How Kakashi didn't know exactly, but it would be her downfall.
"Now then," she perched on the edge of her desk, smoothing out her pink skirt, "before we begin, I have a few questions I'd like to ask you, Kakashi."
Kakashi tensed. He had run through situations like these in his head a million times and come up with lies for such circumstances. It looked like he would finally have to use them.
"You are a foreign exchange student, correct?" she asked.
'Obviously,' Kakashi thought but tonelessly replied out loud, "Yes."
"And where is it you are from, exactly?" she continued, cocking her head to one side, greatly resembling one of the uglier kittens on her wall.
"The East," Kakashi said simply, deciding to test her patience.
"East where, dear," she prodded. Kakashi detected a hint of annoyance. "Asia?"
Kakashi nodded, using the answer that she provided for him. Umbridge seemed unimpressed by this revelation.
"What school do you go to?" she asked, adjusting a pencil in a small jar so that it lined up with the others.
"Leaf Academy," Kakashi replied, "for the magically gifted."
Rin had decided on with Leaf Academy one afternoon. Kakashi had added on "for the magically gifted", sarcastically criticizing her unoriginality. He pushed the memory away. 'You'll find her later. Focus.'
"I've never heard of it," Umbridge remarked. "And that's what the…" she gestured to his hitai-ate.
"Headband," Kakashi supplied, "Yes, they're for school."
"Is it a custom to cover your face there as well?" she asked, pretending to be polite.
"No," Kakashi continued, knowing she would ask, "A bad accident, in my first year. One of the kids in my class was practicing a spell, next thing I know—" He slapped a hand over his left eye. "It's gone. I can show you, if you want." He grabbed his headband, waiting for the rushed objection. It came, just as he expected.
"That's unnecessary. Just one more little thing," she said with a smile.
Kakashi crossed his arms and waited for her to continue.
"Miss Hayata… She is your friend?"
Kakashi leaned back in his chair casually, "…Not really. We talk."
"You are from the same school."
"Does that mean we have to be friends?"
Umbridge stared him down. "No, of course not," she replied after a moment. "I was merely curious."
She appeared thoughtful for a moment; Kakashi wondered what she was plotting. But after a few seconds she shuffled over to her desk and resumed her seat, replacing her glasses. She looked up at Kakashi.
"Well, you know what to do. I think we'll repeat the same line as last time," she smiled widely, showing all her teeth.
Wondering what, if anything, she was implying by that, Kakashi picked up the quill and began to write.
I must not tell lies.
The back of his hand burned as the skin was ripped open again.
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The castle was dark when he emerged from Umbridge's office. One of his hands was cramping from writing so much, and tiny rivulets of blood trickled down the back of the other. After two weeks of detention-torture, he had no doubt the words would be etched into his hand for life. He mumbled the password to the fat lady and was granted access to the common room.
It was nearly empty, as he expected. But not completely. A lone figure sat on the couch in front of the fire, which was still going strong, despite the late hour. She appeared to be half asleep and didn't notice him right away. He sighed in relief.
"Rin," he said quietly, waking her. She rubbed her eyes and sat up as he seated himself next to her, flopping his sleeve over his bloody hand.
"Don't think I didn't see that," she said, squinting at him, her eyes adjusting to the firelight. "Let me see."
He showed her, "There's nothing you can do. She'll know if you heal me," he said sensibly.
"I know but—" she pulled up the sleeve of his robes to uncover the words, "Oh…"
"It's not as bad as it looks," he said, trying in vain to pull his hand back, "You know I've had worse."
"Here, I'll bandage it for you anyway," she replied, pulling out a role of gauze from a pouch on her belt.
"I'll only have to take it off, tomorrow," he complained.
"And until then, it won't get infected." He opened his mouth to object. "Please, Kakashi, let me do my job." He closed it silently. Satisfied that he wouldn't snatch his hand away, she unrolled a large strip of cloth and tore it off.
Kakashi watched her focused expression in the flickering light. "You alright?"
"Fine," she said, not looking at him. Kakashi guessed probably because she knew he would see right through the lie. "I shouldn't even have left. It was stupid… We're in the middle of a mission; I shouldn't have left you… I don't even know why I told the truth…"
He watched her wrap his hand, "You're not fine."
She smiled at him sadly, "No, and neither are you. But do you really want to go there?"
It didn't take him long to answer, "I suppose not."
She tied the ends of the gauze in a knot on the top of his hand, "There. Was that so horrible?"
He suddenly realized that it didn't sting anymore. He flexed his hand and curled it into a fist.
"Would you like me to kill her?" he asked in all seriousness.
She managed a quiet chuckle, "You're sweet, but I think that might blow our cover."
He shrugged, "It's possible."
She shook her head, traces of a smile still on her face, "It's late. I'll see you in the morning." She stood and started for the stairs.
"Rin," Kakashi said, turning to look over the back of the sofa. She stopped at the first step and looked back. "She had no right to ask that. She'll pay for it, for everything, in the end. And the way you reacted… It wasn't stupid. It was… human."
He could barely see her outline in the darkness. She bent her head down, staring at the floor. She was silent for so long he was about to ask if she was okay.
"Goodnight, Kakashi."
He listened to her soft steps and the shutting of the door before he realized the implications of his words. He hadn't reacted at all. He had been angry, sure, but that was because Umbridge was threatening his teammate. If he had been asked the question, he would have lied immediately, effortlessly and thoughtlessly. If her reaction was human, what did that make him?
Heartless? Cold-blooded?
A truly horrible friend?
Rin was right, he wasn't fine.
Quiet as a mouse, he slipped back out the portrait hole to patrol the dark corridors.
--
If I may be so arrogant, I'd say that was quite brilliant of me. The last however-many chapters have been very plot focused, and I really wanted to get some Kakashi-centric-ness in there. I think things will start picking up now; Christmas is coming, and if you know your OOTP, that means the whole Arthur-gets-attacked-by-the-snake thing is coming, and I think that's sort of a turning point for the book. 'Til then.
