Disclaimer: Being neither British nor Japanese, it should therefore come as no surprise that I own neither Harry Potter nor Naruto, nor anything from their respective franchises.

Underlined portions are from Chapter Eleven of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I've broken the underline on words that are part of the canon text, but have some added emphasis.

The Sorting Hat sang a new song each year, but beyond just the stanzas describing the four Houses it rarely had anything else to sing about. This year, though, it coupled that explanation to a summary of the strife between the Founders and the reasons behind the House system and the rivalries it had spawned, before closing with a stern admonition that the school needed to pull together regardless of which color ties people wore.

Many of the students seemed confused, even mildly worried by this message, while those who were more aware of what was truly going on were largely divided in their reactions based upon which side they favored: Those Order and S.E.N. members in the school largely wore expressions of grim approval, while the children of Death Eaters and their allies sneered or scoffed in smug derision. Dolores Umbridge, meanwhile, was glaring at the Sorting Hat with a look suggesting that Albus would be subjected to a complaint about the Hat or its song as soon as she could bend his ear.

After the Sorting and the meal that followed, the Headmaster stood to give his usual start-of-term announcements. He'd managed to make it as far as Quidditch try-outs when a voice that Iruka was already sick of interrupted.

"Hem, hem."

Albus calmly sat, actually managing to act as if this was totally normal and as if he was genuinely eager to hear what the bigoted witch had to say.

The speech that followed was long, tedious, and more than a little unsettling. Umbridge started out poorly, her patronizing tone treating her audience as if they were about a decade younger than their real ages. She then ran through a round of politician-style back-patting towards herself, the Ministry, and Hogwarts...

"...The treasure trove of magical knowledge amassed by our ancestors must be guarded, replenished, and polished..."

Then things started to get more worrisome. Phrases like "progress for progress's sake must be discouraged" did not bode well, nor did lines about "preserving and defending the heritage and traditions that set proper British witches and wizards above all others." The bit about being "led astray by undesirable influences" was about as subtle as a bijuu, and had more than one speculative glance aimed Iruka's way. Most of those were from Ravenclaws, since that House contained the greatest number of students able to follow the Ministry toad's speech without being bored into inattention.

One curious line in particular caught Iruka's attention, almost waxing poetic about how "the strong, caring arms of our beloved Ministry of Magic encircle us all." A lot of students, and a couple of staff, clearly struggled to hide their incredulous looks or dismissive snorts.

Eventually, the whole thing concluded on an ominous note of "preserving what ought to be preserved, perfecting what needs to be perfected, and pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibited." Her glance in his direction at the end was blatantly deliberate.

Once the batrachian witch sat back down, Headmaster Dumbledore stood again to finish giving his start-of-term announcements before sending the students off to bed.

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Term began as usual, the students and staff quickly settling into the routine of life at Hogwarts. Reviews of Dolores Umbridge's classes were mixed, but not nearly as bad as Iruka and others had feared. On the mostly-positive side, she was quite enthusiastic about teaching the students about the dangers of various nonhuman creatures and ways to fight against them. These lessons certainly showed hints of her bigotry against those she deemed "half-breeds" like werewolves and centaurs, but according to Filius and Albus she was at least conveying accurate information about how to defend against various creatures and beings.

Of somewhat more concern was the way she was handling the teaching of defensive magic intended for use against other witches and wizards. Again, the lessons were factual, but she focused exclusively on the context of official duelling. This meant that she marked students down for espousing methods and tactics that would be prudent in any real fight but that would run afoul of any of the strict rules of a formal or competition duel. She also seemed to expect the students to know these rulesets already or learn them on their own time, refusing to "waste precious class time explaining things that any proper witch or wizard would have been taught already." Surprising exactly no one, this meant that students from the most traditional Pureblood families were at a substantial advantage over everyone else in their classes. Within the first week of term Neville had already started a study group, with his friends as the other founding members, where he and a few others like Susan Bones who had grown up learning about such things would help their peers catch up. Filius even visited their meetings when he could to share his own knowledge on the subject, something which certainly didn't endear him to the pink-clad instructor.

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Near the end of September Iruka was called up to the Headmaster's office, finding it filled not only by its usual occupant (or occupants if you counted magical birds and animate portraits) but also Sirius and Remus as well as Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody and William "Bill" Weasley.

"Ah, Iruka," Albus said, "excellent. Now that we are all here, it is my intention to add both William and Alastor here to our little 'scavenger hunt'." Both of the wizards mentioned looked somewhat confused and uncertain (and deeply suspicious, in Moody's case, but that was really his default mode).

Sirius's eyes widened, as Remus's narrowed in thought. Iruka simply nodded. "That makes sense. Both of them are unquestionably against Riddle, we've already trusted Professor Moody with other matters, and from what I know of you Albus you must have no doubts at all about Bill's discretion. Both of them also have skills and experience that'll almost certainly come in handy."

"Handy for what, that's what I wanna know." Moody grumbled, his prosthetic eye swiveling wildly around the room.

"An endeavor vital to bringing about a permanent end to Lord Voldemort," Albus explained. "You surely understand that it will likely be both tremendously difficult and extremely dangerous. It also must be kept in absolute secrecy, for if our enemy discovers our intent he will likely be able to counter our efforts beyond any hope of recovery."

"You know I'm in," Bill said. "Even if it weren't for what that bastard's diary did to Ginny, I'd do this because it's the right thing to do. Now maybe you could get around to actually telling us about this mysterious task sometime today?" he asked somewhat acidly, Moody giving a grudging nod of agreement.

"How apt that you bring up that diary," the Headmaster said. "Tell me William, have you ever heard of a cursed artifact known as a Horcrux?"

"Only in passing," the redhead replied with a contemplative frown "some kind of particularly rare and dangerous Dark magic, the kind of thing we're supposed to back off from and call in the rest of our team to handle." His eyes widened in realization. "That diary was..."

Albus nodded gravely. "It was. The first of several made by Tom Riddle, beginning before he even left Hogwarts." He proceeded to give Bill and Moody the same explanation he'd given to Sirius, Remus, and Iruka before. Both new inductees reacted with a combination of outrage and grim disgust.

"Before I tell you of our progress so far in identifying or locating these abominations," the Headmaster continued, "I would like both of you to watch through some memories I've managed to gather and share your own thoughts. It may well be that one or both of you will notice or deduce things which have thus far escaped the four of us."

"Good idea," Iruka said. "We can always compare notes afterwards, but fresh eyes and fresh perspectives are most effective if we don't bias them in advance."

"I take it these memories are why you had me, us probably, clear our schedules for the day?" Moody's organic eye looked warily at the Pensieve on the Headmaster's desk.

"That is correct," Albus acknowledged. "Iruka and I cannot be here the entire day, as we both have duties in the school and our absence might not go unnoticed by those aligned against us. We will return after lunch to discuss what you've seen and your thoughts on what Tom Riddle might have chosen as his Horcruxes and where they might be hidden. Sirius, Remus, might I prevail upon you both to answer their questions and assist them as needed?"

"Of course, Albus," Remus replied.

"Marvelous! Thank you both, and thank you William and Alastor for your assistance in this matter. If any of you have need of refreshments or anything else, simply call for Tappy."

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When they all reconvened that afternoon Sirius looked more subdued than before, likely due to the reminder of what he'd seen in Kreacher's memories.

"Most obviously conclusion is that Slughorn's hidin' something," Moody growled out, "but if you needed me to tell you that we're all buggered."

Albus gave his old friend a long-suffering look as several portraits sniffed dismissively. "Really, Alastor, must you be so crude? Of course I am aware that Horace has been less than perfectly forthcoming with me, but thus far my efforts to persuade him to greater openness have not borne fruit."

"How about telling him that the bastard is back," the old Auror suggested, "and might come lookin' to tie up loose ends? Be a lot safer for Slughorn and everybody else if you had the information you needed to put Riddle down for good..."

"Ha!" Sirius barked, "I like it! If there's one thing that'll motivate ol' Sluggy better than anything else, it's his own self-interest. You could even sweeten the pot and offer to put him up here at Hogwarts - no place safer, after all, and we all know he'd never pass up the chance to schmooze with Harry and maybe revive his old 'Slug Club'. Maybe he'd even be willing to take over some of the Potions classes; he'd be loads better than Snivellus, that's for sure."

"Both the carrot and the stick, then..." Dumbledore mused, stroking his beard. "It is certainly worth trying, at the very least, and I dare say that Severus likely wouldn't object to being relieved of the need to teach the younger years should the opportunity arise. Yes, I shall have to speak with Horace very soon, but for now, what did you notice?"

Bill and Moody proceeded to share their observations and conclusions from the memories presented. None of it, unfortunately, contained any new insights, but discussion of the seaside cave sparked Iruka's memory.

"Albus," the chuunin said, "I don't think that we can afford to wait until after Riddle's gone to deal with those Inferi. They represent too much of a potential enemy asset to leave them as they are."

Dumbledore sighed. "You may be right, Iruka, but my points from before still stand. It would be too difficult, too dangerous, too time-consuming, and far too public to attempt to retrieve those bodies for identification and burial."

"I know," Iruka said sadly. "Destroying them, on the other hand..."

Moody scoffed. "You may have some experience as a fighter, Umino, but that many Inferi in one place are dangerous. Without being able to Apparate or Portkey out, or hop on a broom, or even open some distance thanks to the tight space, it'd be suicide."

"Being able to fight them from out of reach on brooms would certainly help," the chuunin allowed, "but in this case the cave actually works to our advantage against the Inferi's superior numbers."

The scarred Auror's organic eye widened in realization, even as the prosthetic one scrutinized a patch of wall to his left. "A bottleneck. We stay in the outer portion of the cave and draw 'em out through a narrow choke-point so they can't all reach us at once or surround us, while we can hit 'em with everything we've got."

"Exactly!" Iruka agreed. "They also won't attack except in response to specific triggers, which lets us prepare the battlefield to our liking before the fight starts. A wall of stone spears, or maybe a trench in front of a low rampart, would make it even harder for any that slip through our attacks to actually get close enough to reach anybody. I'm sure we can find someone able to handle such Transfigurations," he said with a wry smile while looking over at Albus, who chuckled. "Ordinarily I'd use explosive notes against them, but in a cave that would be way too risky. Maybe shrink a few casks or barrels filled with flammable oil, to provide some added fuel?"

The meeting rapidly turned into a planning session from there, each member of the group mooting ideas and suggestions and helping refine everyone else's. This expedition would, on top of destroying a potential army of shock troops at Voldemort's disposal, provide the opportunity to practice working together as a group in at least a semi-controlled situation before they had to go up against whatever unknown defenses guarded other Horcruxes.

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On the surface, those early months would have seemed like a perfectly normal start-of-term at Hogwarts. To those living in the castle and truly paying attention, however, it was apparent that a subtle tension had begun to build. Much of the student body seemed to understand that some sort of trouble was on the horizon, even if most didn't know what shape it would take.

In a vague echo of several years prior, the more active blood-purist students (particularly those from Death Eater families) were more smug that usual, and had a bit more strut and swagger. This was most apparent in their de facto leader, Draco Malfoy, who'd been making use of his newly-granted Prefect status to aggressively enforce discipline against all those he deemed lesser than himself. He wasn't exactly subtle about it, but in each case he was technically in the right according to the rules, even if the overall pattern was obvious. It wasn't long before several other Slytherin Prefects joined this campaign. Unfortunately, the ultimate arbiter on their positions was Severus Snape, who with Voldemort back couldn't be seen to not favor those aligned with the Dark Lord's cause.

This uneven application of discipline wasn't enough to explain why more and more Muggleborn students began to look increasingly harried, walking on eggshells when outside of their friend groups. No incidents of bullying or other violence had been reported, nor any unusual or suspicious injuries arriving in the Hospital Wing, but something was putting pressure on them.

As the end of October approached, Harry was visibly on edge. This wasn't unreasonable; every year since his return to Magical Britain there'd been something on Halloween to cause him stress. Admittedly, last year it had turned out to be a major positive, but that hadn't been for lack of trying on Voldemort's part. All this stress finally boiled to the surface in Defense class.

"I guess I just snapped," Harry shrugged, speaking with Iruka that weekend. "I mean, Umbridge is bad enough normally. Yeah, she's at least teaching us some useful stuff some of the time, so she's better on that front than Lockhart at least, but she treats us all like we're in primary school! Worse is how much of a bigot she is, always praising the Junior Death Eaters and the other Purebloods, and ignoring or being nasty to everybody else, and whenever we tell her that Professor Lupin already taught us about the creature she's covering, the stuff she says about him, and I've heard about the laws she's pushed through against werewolves and other people. So somebody asked about maybe learning the Patronus Charm, since it's good for defending against Dark creatures and is worth extra credit on our O.W.L.s, and she just scoffs and condescendingly asks why we'd ever need to protect ourselves against Dementors when they're completely under the Ministry's control..."

"And that's when you asked 'So it was the Ministry that tried to kill me twice two years ago?'," Iruka finished.

Harry nodded. "It was out of line a bit, maybe, I can admit that, but the fact that she was just ignoring how the Dementors affected everybody made me so mad, and I couldn't exactly bring up how Voldemort was talking about them switching sides, not with the way we're trying to handle stuff, and I guess it just slipped out. The detentions weren't too bad, at least: Writing lines is boring, and my wrist was starting to cramp up by the end, but Snape and Filch are way worse. The self-inking quill she gave me was probably part of the problem, really, since I just kept writing without the little breaks to dip it in the inkpot."

"What did she have you writing?" the chuunin asked.

"Just 'I must not disrupt lessons' the first night and 'I must respect authority' the second. If that's the worst that I have to deal with for this Halloween, I'll take it and hope next year's no worse."

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By early November, the Horcrux-hunting team figured that they were about as prepared as they could be for their planned trip to the seaside. There might have been a bit more room for improvement in their plans, but with the weather getting colder and the fact that they'd have to swim (or at least most of them would) to get in - Albus, Moody, and Bill had surveyed the site already and found a wide-area jinx that would interfere with broom flight - they felt it better to get the job done sooner rather than later.

So it was that four wizards made use of the handholds and footholds carved into the cliff face, while Moody was belayed down by Iruka in consideration of his wooden leg. Once Moody had reached the water, Iruka calmly walked down the vertical surface, deriving a bit of guilty pleasure from the gaping expressions this produced; the others might have been briefed on his abilities, but Albus was still the only one to have seen them first-hand. That awe turned into grumbling envy as he also walked (or occasionally crawled when the passage got tight) on the water's surface.

The sextet gathered in the antechamber, making liberal use of drying and warming spells. After checking that all of their supplies and equipment were ready and in good condition, they began to prepare their battlefield. Albus reshaped the ground in the area around the point on the wall where the gateway to the inner chamber would form, pulling stone from the floor to form a deep pit behind which was a sheer vertical wall that rose over two meters above floor level except at five points, where it was low enough to allow the five wizards to freely cast while having as much protection as possible. The lakeward side of the pit actually formed a ramp back up to ground level at the door, to allow Inferi to flee back into the water and thus relieve the pressure on the defenders. This defensive wall was followed by a low platform that then gradually sloped back down to floor level. The result was almost an inward-facing castle wall in miniature, with a moat and crenellated battlements and with solid walls extending from either end to join up with the cave walls. It enclosed a space that would become their killing ground, allowing for an unusually-literal crossfire against the bunched-up undead while keeping the ends of the barrier angled enough to allow all five to cast through the doorway if needed and to avoid friendly-fire incidents. One final twirl of the Headmaster's wand smoothed everything from the wall's face to the door (excepting the ramp) to a glassy shine in order to minimize the traction available to attacking Inferi.

Bill created a number of hovering globes of pale white light, clearly illuminating their killing ground.

Seven wooden barrels were un-shrunk, and the first had its top vanished and the mix of flammable liquids inside dumped in to cover the floor of the pit. The remaining casks were distributed along the rampart, placed to either side of each defender's position. A drain was then opened through the wall in front of each, so that a single quick piercing or cutting spell could add their contents to the pit below without otherwise occupying the neighboring wizard(s). Each of the five then pulled out and donned simple belts festooned with pockets and pouches, giving them quick access to various potentially useful potions and other items. One last bit of Transfiguration by Albus tightened the clothing on their upper bodies enough to leave no dangling fabric that could be easily grabbed. They moved to their stations, with Albus in the center flanked by Moody and Sirius. To Moody's left stood Bill, while Remus anchored the right end of their line.

Iruka, meanwhile, hopped off one of the merlons to stand upside-down on the ceiling, and walked over to the doorway. A quick slash with a kunai had him bleeding freely, allowing him to open the door before easily healing the cut. He climbed through, taking up a position above the water that would allow him a clear line of fire to the floor of the pit but not to the defenders on the walls. Bill sent another few light-globes to push back the oppressive darkness that hung throughout the main chamber.

"Is everyone ready?" Albus called. They each responded in the affirmative. "Very well, then. Iruka, if you would."

At the Headmaster's prompting, Iruka released his chakra-based hold on the ceiling, kicking just enough to flip himself upright by the time he landed on the lake. The soles of his sandals only barely broke the water's surface, but it was enough: Within moments, the lake almost seemed to boil as pale figures erupted to attack. As quick as they were, however, they weren't fast enough to catch a chuunin that was expecting them, and he jumped back up to the ceiling. Below, about a dozen Inferi were leaping from the water attempting to reach him while dozens more climbed out onto the narrow ledge that ran along the cavern's wall. Those right in front of the door were almost immediately dismembered, blasted apart, or outright disintegrated by the barrage of powerful offensive spells that tore into them. Some of their nearby cohorts turned, seeming to have realized that other closer targets were available.

Iruka decided it was time to "encourage" more Inferi into the prepared pit. He took a deep breath as his hands flashed through a quick sequence of seals, ending on Tiger.

Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu!

He spat a rapid-fire sequence of small fireballs, immolating many of the undead leaping out of the water and those on the ledge farthest from the door, with those not aimed to hit instead bracketing the mob to leave the door as the obvious escape route.

It worked. As they'd expected, those Inferi struck by fireballs took serious damage from the flames, while the rest followed their programming and retreated. Some returned to the water, but many did indeed charge through the door and into the pit, where they joined their brethren piled against the base of the wall and scrabbling futilely in their attempts to climb up and attack the wizards it protected.

Once the pit was as full of undead as it was likely to get without drawing more from the lake, Bill cast a low-power fire spell, immolating the packed mob and igniting the fuel they were standing in. So intense were the flames that most were charred down to little more than skeletons in a matter of seconds, with none making it up the ramp before they'd taken too much damage for the Dark magics animating them to keep them going. None of the Inferi still above water remained functional.

"A promising start," Albus said loudly enough to carry to Iruka's ears, "enough so that I feel confident in handling greater numbers in the next batch."

What followed was at once tense and tedious. Again and again, Iruka would provoke the Inferi before returning to the ceiling out of their reach. Between his fire jutsu and the other five's spells, the undead would be drawn and herded into the pit, where they could be destroyed en masse. Occasionally Iruka would have to reopen the door, but when he started to feel the repeated bleedings he simply downed a Blood-Replenishing Potion and kept going. The only real variation came when they'd emptied all the barrels, and Iruka made up the difference in firepower with a Karyuudan. Throughout it all, the air in the cave became increasingly fouled with the stench of burning flesh and hair and cloth, to the point where everyone took the time between rounds to cast Bubblehead Charms.

After wave upon wave of the undead, finally the tide started to slow. It took more provocations to draw enough Inferi out of the water to properly fill the pit, until it simply took too many and too long and the defenders started burning them in smaller batches. Eventually, even Iruka standing on the water for several minutes failed to produce any response.

"If they were alive, I'd worry that they'd finally gotten wise to our little trap," Sirius panted, his forehead damp with sweat, "but Inferi are too literally brain-dead to learn no matter how obvious the lesson."

"Indeed," Albus commented tiredly as he began to re-level the floor, in the process burying the piles of unidentifiable charred remains within the stone, "I believe that even if any Inferi remain beneath that lake, they are so few as to be of little use in bolstering Lord Voldemort's forces. Once we have all recovered a bit, we should take our leave."

Iruka returned to the antechamber to find five wizards looking sweaty and drained, though he wasn't much better; much longer and he'd have needed a soldier pill to make up the chakra he'd been rather literally burning. Thankfully, their plan had largely gone off without a hitch: There were a few minor scrapes and bruises from close calls, but nobody had been seriously hurt. Sirius and Albus had both suffered minor burns when a batch of Inferi had been immolated a bit too enthusiastically, but after that incident everyone had kept Flame-Freezing Charms active, and after that only some of the more aggressive magical flames had been any danger.

They all took a few minutes to catch their breath and treat their injuries with the potions and other medical supplies they'd brought, then made their way out through the half-flooded crevice. Rather than try climbing back up the cliff, they simply swam far enough out to be beyond the anti-Portkey ward covering the cave. Albus pulled out a length of rope that they all took hold of, and one dizzying ride later they were back in the Headmaster's office again making liberal use of drying charms. Some cleaning charms were next, to get rid of at least some of the sweat and salt from their bodies and the smell of the battle from their clothes, before they warmed themselves around the roaring fire in the fireplace. A house-elf brought an assortment of beverages, from brandy and firewhiskey to a full tea service.

They stayed a little while longer, sipping their drinks of choice and chatting half-heartedly about what they'd just done, but soon enough the combination of magical, physical, and emotional fatigue from the trying day had them all parting to seek out showers and clean clothes before falling into their beds for some much-deserved rest.

A/N: Writing Umbitch is HARD. I just can't readily get into the mindset of a petty, sadistic, bigoted bully. Assume that outside of the bits I added or tweaked, her speech was more or less like in canon.

Dumbledore likes the sound of his own voice, and he really likes feeling like the smartest person in the room.

Yes, I know that Harry said "at least" twice in one sentence. The way I write his "voice" is to skip a lot of the editing and polishing that I tend to do with other people's dialogue. He's the type to let his mouth get ahead of his brain, so sometimes he's going to trip over his own words.

I'm trying to use distinct dividers for each major character, but I'm afraid I'm stumped for Hermione and Neville. Right now, they're just the paired wands I use for most wizarding characters, but I'd like to put something in the middle that's specific to them. Unfortunately, FFnet strips out repeat spaces (and some other repeated characters), making ASCII art a real challenge. Any ideas for a solution are welcomed!

Fic Recommendation: "And Bits of Fluff" by Teufel1987 - Harry finds an interesting solution to his Occlumency problem.

Posted 15 December 2019
Current WIP Chapter: 90