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.

"Ah, Percy!" Arthur beamed at his third son. "Time for our shift, then?"

"Indeed, Father." Percy nodded stiffly.

"All right," his father said, "give me a moment, just want to finish this section. Never any end to the parchmentwork, eh? At least things have been a tad quieter for us these last few months, fewer of the uglier sort of incident." He paused in thought, a rare frown appearing on his face. "Then again, I shouldn't wonder if the nastier Muggle-baiters are busy with something worse." At this he gave his son a meaningful look, tapping the side of his nose with a finger.

After he'd been cleared by the DMLE in the wake of the Crouch debacle (it still shocked him that such a wizard could have fallen so far), Percy had been brought into the Minister's confidence regarding the looming threat of a Dark wizard trying to undermine the Ministry and gain power by using a likeness of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Tonight he and his father were the assigned pair keeping watch over the entrance to the Department of Mysteries, where Headmaster Dumbledore's sources reported the Dark wizard intended to steal something important.

Percy looked somewhat sadly around the cramped office to which his father was relegated. It was barely large enough to fit the desks of the only two wizards employed by the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, and was made even more claustrophobic by the clutter of paperwork, evidence, and personal knick-nacks scattered about. It was times like this that really brought home just how little regard many held for Arthur Weasley due to his strange fascination with Muggles. While wizards and witches were rightfully the Ministry's priority (it was the Ministry of Magic, after all) that didn't mean that Muggles didn't deserve protection from magical abuses against which they had no defense. Besides, didn't these people realize that Muggle-baiting was a direct violation of the Statute of Secrecy? Unleashing overtly-magical (and often dangerous) objects on hapless Muggles threatened to expose the existence of the Wizarding World!

Reaching the end of the form he'd been filling in, Arthur nodded in satisfaction. He put his quill on its rest, capped his inkwell, and dried the ink on the parchment with a casual wave of his wand as he stood and nodded to Percy. "Right, shall we?"

They rode the lift down to Level Nine, chatting idly about work. Once they stepped off, his father called out, "Dedalus? John?"

The air by the door to the Department of Mysteries shimmered, and two wizards appeared from under Invisibility Cloaks. One of them Percy recognized as John Dawlish, one of the Minister's most trusted Aurors, while the other was unfamiliar but had an excited air to him. Dawlish had his wand in his hand, though not yet raised, and gave a sharp glance to his companion who sheepishly fumbled for his own wand.

"Mandrake?" Dawlish asked cautiously. This was part of the hand-off between shifts that Percy had been briefed on. Each member of the outgoing shift would have a word they'd say as a sign that they were who they claimed, and one of the new shift would have the appropriate countersign. If either member of either pair couldn't recite their code word, everyone else was expected to immediately raise the alarm.

"Hufflepuff," Percy calmly replied, acknowledging the sign he'd been told to expect.

"Oh, what was it," the other wizard mumbled to himself. "Ah, yes! Bowtruckle!" He said what was presumably his code word with a grin reminiscent of a puppy expecting a treat.

"Kelpie," Arthur said with a nod. Both of the outgoing guards relaxed and put away their wands. The two pairs walked towards each other, the old shift handing off their borrowed Cloaks to the new watch along with a pair of charmed fake Galleons before going on their way with the usual pleasantries.

Before they settled in, Percy walked over to a section of corridor near the stairs down to Courtroom Ten, just on the far side from the lifts. He pulled out his wand and began moving it in an intricate pattern, muttering in an archaic form of Aramaic.

Arthur stopped, looking on with curiosity and, Percy thought, perhaps a bit of suspicion. "What are you doing there, Perce?"

"It's a simple paling," he explained, "something Bill taught me a while ago. Nothing all that impressive, quite limited in fact - it's not anchored like a proper ward, so it draws off of me as a power source, meaning I can't get too far away without it collapsing on its own. Beyond that, it's really just an easy, temporary alert ward; I figured that it might provide a bit of advance warning if anyone tries to sneak past." Actually, Bill had taught him the summer after his third year at Hogwarts. The twins had come home from their first year with a vastly expanded repertoire of pranking spells, potions, and the like, and as always seemed to take Percy's studious, orderly nature as a challenge. He'd kept the paling up over his room almost the entire summer after that, so that he'd at least have a bit of warning if Fred and George were messing about in there.

His father smiled. "Good thinking, son. Now, where should we set ourselves up..."

They ended up settling just outside the door to the Department of Mysteries. Both sat against opposite walls, invisible under their respective Cloaks and desperately staving off boredom and sleep by quietly chatting about the goings-on in various Ministry departments, as well as the Weasley family's Christmas plans and the latest things Arthur had heard from the four still at Hogwarts.

Hours later, as both were fighting to stay awake by recounting increasingly-minor tales from their respective work, Percy felt his paling break. "Dad," he whispered, "someone's here." He stiffly stood up and drew his wand, a process made particularly awkward by his efforts to remain hidden under his Cloak, and from the sound of things his father was having similar difficulties.

The corridor seemed empty, until he spotted a bit of movement in the shadows at the base of the wall. It was too far away and too poorly lit to make out, but it was definitely not human-shaped and much larger than a common rat (not that Percy would ever again make the mistake of thinking a rat harmless or mundane). He immediately reached into his left pocket and grabbed the fake Galleon he'd been given, pinching it between his thumb and middle finger until he felt it heat up. He'd done his part in raising the alarm, now they just had to hope that the Aurors showed up soon.

Unfortunately, it was only seconds later that the dark shape exploded into rapid motion, revealing itself as a truly enormous snake dashing towards the two Weasleys. Percy and Arthur both tossed their Cloaks off - since they'd obviously been detected, freedom of movement was much more valuable than ineffective invisibility at this point. Before the silvery fabric had even finished pooling on the corridor floor, the snake was on them, dodging around a hastily-cast cutting spell from Arthur.

Like most English-speakers, Percy had often heard of striking snakes being used in similes and metaphors to describe speed. Now, seeing it first-hand, he realized how much of an exaggeration most of those comparisons had been. The beast attacked Arthur first, though the older wizard moved surprisingly quickly himself, managing to get his left forearm up in the way of a strike aimed for his shoulder. Long, needlelike fangs sank into his flesh as the snake bit down, producing a sickening crack from the arm and a cry of pain from Arthur.

This finally shocked Percy out of his frightened immobility, as he began casting any curse he could think of at the serpent's body. His first curse missed, his second seemed to splash harmlessly off its scales, and he was busy incanting something a bit more powerful (and questionably legal) when his target blurred with motion and he felt agony in his right side. A glance downward showed an emerald head larger than his fist with its fangs embedded in his ribcage.

His father roared with an incoherent rage that Percy had never thought the man capable of. Even with what must have been terrible pain from his wounded arm, he cast a spell that was probably only legal due to its obscurity, producing a spray of brilliant orange darts that burned deep finger-width holes into the stone floor. Even the snake wasn't unaffected, though its injuries were far shallower than they should have been and clearly didn't slow the creature down noticeably.

Still, this was enough to draw its ire again, biting Arthur on the thigh before slithering off into the shadows. Percy tried to stumble after it, to press the attack, but the burning in his side was getting worse and the corridor was getting darker...

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The second-to-last day of term, Iruka heard that Arthur and Percy Weasley had been attacked during their guard shift the previous night. More accurately, he first heard from his students that all four Weasleys had apparently been roused in the middle of the night by Minerva and hadn't been back to Gryffindor Tower since, their trunks no longer in their dormitories.

Checking with Minerva, he then found out that both wizards had been found by Aurors responding to the alarm, both bearing what looked like bite wounds from a massive venomous snake. While their injuries were severe and the venom potent, the Healers expected them to make a full recovery. During their convalescence, Molly and her school-age children would be staying with Sirius at Headquarters to be closer to Saint Mungo's; the Order and their families were largely avoiding Floo travel for fear of monitoring or diversion. That was all she knew at the time, though hopefully there'd be more news before the Order meeting scheduled for just after the start of winter break.

Albus would have been his next stop for more information, but Iruka knew that the elder wizard would be busy in the aftermath of such an attack. Satisfying his own curiosity wasn't a good enough reason to interrupt important work or a much-needed break from that work.

It wasn't until term had ended and Iruka was free to call on the Weasleys at Headquarters that he finally got the full story, along with a hug from Molly Weasley that might have cracked a rib on a civilian.

"Oh, Iruka, thank you so much!" She released him and stepped back, looking up with red-rimmed eyes and a fragile smile. "Albus said that it was your idea to give the guards some way of raising the alarm, and if it weren't for that who knows how long it would've been before somebody found Arthur and Percy? I can't even think about what might've happened if they'd been just left there for hours..."

"They'll be all right, though, right?" Iruka asked.

Molly nodded shakily. "Yes, they're already awake and sitting up, though the Healers said they'll be at least a few days yet before they can come home. Whatever that beast was that attacked them, there's some sort of Dark magic in its venom that's keeping the wounds from closing. They've actually tried some sort of Muggle foolishness to deal with it! It didn't work, of course, but still, the idea - as if you could mend a person's skin like darning a sock..."

"It's meant to hold the wound closed," Iruka explained, "and it keeps the edges lined up so that things heal properly with less of a scar. Not the prettiest thing to look at, but it doesn't really hurt except when they're first doing it. Magic is obviously a lot faster and cleaner, but it's always worth having something to fall back on when your first choice won't work. The Healers and Aurors wanted to learn about basic Muggle techniques for exactly that reason."

The redheaded witch blinked. "Oh yes, I remember Xeno talking about how you'd used Muggle means to help Pandora after her accident because you'd not learned any magic yet. So you're the one that taught the Healers about that?"

"I did," Iruka confirmed somewhat defensively. "It's more than just that one technique: A lot of what I showed them are simple ways of treating injuries without needing magic. Most of it isn't all that useful in most cases at the hospital, but it's helped the Aurors at least once or twice."

Molly gave him a dry look. "Well, regardless, thank you again for your suggestions to Albus, at least. Arthur and Percy will want to thank you in person, I'm sure, Arthur especially - he's over the moon about getting genuine Muggle-style healing, even if it didn't work," she groused before her expression softened. "We'll be doing our Christmas here at Headquarters this year, and Harry and the Grangers are coming. We'd love for you to join us, either on Christmas itself or on Boxing Day."

Iruka smiled gratefully. "I'd like that."

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After checking in with everyone at Headquarters, Iruka's next port of call was Saint Mungo's Hospital. He found Arthur and Percy in neighboring beds in the "Dangerous" Dai Llewellyn Ward.

"Iruka!" Arthur beamed. He was sitting propped up with a large pile of pillows with his left arm in a sling, and looking a bit paler than usual. "I hear we have you to thank once again."

"Indeed," Percy agreed, putting down the book he'd been reading, "thank you, Professor, for your suggestions to Headmaster Dumbledore. Had it been only one of us alone against that snake, or had we not been able to call for help, our prognosis might well be far less positive."

"I'm just glad you're both doing okay," the chuunin replied. "What actually happened?"

Percy took it upon himself to describe the sequence of events from the start of their shift up through when he'd lost consciousness. "Apparently a squad of Aurors arrived within a few minutes," he continued, "but by then the snake was gone. Their working theory is that it must have left the same way it got in. Regardless, they rushed us both here for treatment. At the last word, Madam Bones and the Minister were discussing if and how the guard protocols should be changed in the wake of this incident."

"Has Albus been by?"

"Not yet," Arthur shook his head, "but you know how busy he is, and this mess is hardly likely to help."

"In that case," Iruka said, "would you mind if I took a copy of your memory of the attack? I'd like to see if I can tell whether it was the same snake I ran into in that graveyard, or whether there's more than one. It might also help us get a better idea of how to fight it, considering how durable it seems to be."

"It was certainly tough," Arthur confirmed, "though obviously in an underground corridor I couldn't go casting anything too big for fear of bringing the ceiling down on us or catching Percy in the effect."

Iruka winced. "Yeah, fighting damage-resistant enemies in enclosed spaces tends to get ugly."

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"It's the same snake," Iruka said as he and Albus emerged from the Pensieve, "at least I'm pretty sure it is."

"I worry that it may be more than just a snake," the Headmaster said soberly. "Its intelligence and durability are unlike any magical serpent I know of save for a Basilisk, but it lacks the deadly gaze and its venom is nowhere near as destructive. While it is possible that Lord Voldemort has simply enchanted and otherwise modified a snake to serve as a weapon, such a creature would be poorly-suited for use as a lone scout. Further, we know that he already possessed this snake or another very like it before his resurrection, and that it was already unnaturally durable at that time; there was no opportunity to carry out any enhancements between when he regained his full strength and when we arrived."

"Thus," he continued, "at least the size, aggression, and durability of the snake were granted to it while Tom was still in an infantile form and thus at greatly diminished capability. Enhancing a creature seems an odd use of his time while in such a state, something more likely to be done as a side project when idle than as a demanding task during an already fraught and demanding period. What, then, could have motivated him to do this? What goal could draw such efforts when he was in such a frail condition?"

"Something important," Iruka answered, thinking out loud, "either advancing his goals or protecting himself. Since I don't see any pressing need for the snake in conquering Britain, I'd lean towards the protection angle."

"My thoughts run along similar lines," Albus agreed, "leading me to ponder just what how Tom sought to use this snake to preserve his life. Most obviously it could serve as a potent bodyguard, one that obeys only him and is clearly quite dangerous to wizards, but I circle back to the question of why he would use such a creature as a scout. Perhaps he no longer felt the need for a bodyguard now that he was fully restored, freeing the snake to be put to other uses, but this task was a poor fit for anything less intelligent than a human being. How much effort would need to be wasted in teaching the snake all it would need to know to successfully carry out such a mission, and to report useful information upon its return? A possibility comes to mind, a reminder that with a certain connection it is possible to view events remotely through another being..."

Iruka frowned in confusion as Albus trailed off. What was he talking about? The only instance he'd ever heard of where somebody saw what was going on around someone else was - his eyes widened. "You think he made the snake a Horcrux?"

Albus nodded. "I do. What better reassurance for a man, terrified of his own mortality, who is trapped in a weak and vulnerable form? It would have created both an additional anchor and a useful weapon in one stroke. The vile Dark magic involved could explain why its venom prevents wounds from closing, and we both saw how even the powerful and rather questionable spell Arthur used had barely any effect. I have little doubt that by now, even those minor injuries are already healed or at least well on their way there. While a living creature would be more fragile in some ways, its ability to actively fight back against an attacker or to flee when outmatched provide defenses easily on par with any static protections."

"Of course this is all just an educated guess," the Headmaster admitted, "but I've found that my guesses tend to be correct more often than not. The sensible course of action therefore would be to seek this snake's destruction on the presumption that it is indeed a Horcrux. Even if we are wrong in believing that, it is still a dangerous and aggressive Dark creature that would almost certainly pose a threat to innocent people should it be left to its own devices after Lord Voldemort's ultimate demise."

"That makes sense," Iruka agreed. "A dangerous creature under enemy control is bad, but at least it's predictable. A dangerous creature running - or slithering, in this case - loose with nobody restraining it could actually be worse. This does beg the question of how we're supposed to kill it. Somehow I doubt it'll be obliging enough to sit still while we stab it with a Basilisk fang."

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Christmas with the Weasley family was... exuberant, and that was without counting Sirius Black's contributions. Iruka met up with Harry and the Grangers after the four had enjoyed an early breakfast and opened their gifts from each other, and the quintet traveled to Headquarters. The old Black family home had been decorated to a level that made "over the top" seem tame by comparison, with fairy lights and color-changing baubles and singing wreaths in every room and hallway, with holly boughs in the main hall chiming in with the "fa la la" portion every time "Deck the Halls" came up. Someone, presumably either a twin or a Marauder, had tampered with the charms on several wreaths to replace their lyrics with various creative alternatives when Molly Weasley was out of earshot; it was as if they suspected she wouldn't approve. Iruka's favorite was one on the washroom door that kept coming back to "The Restroom Door Said Gentlemen".

Presents were distributed and wrapping paper flew, but Arthur and Percy's continued absence left many of the smiles a touch strained and brittle. After a massive lunch (complete with dinner theater of Molly and Kreacher both trying to prepare food for everyone) the redheads left to visit their missing members in Saint Mungo's. When they returned just before suppertime, they brought stories of Neville having possibly saved the life of one of Arthur's Ministry colleagues.

As he'd explained to Ginny during a lull in the commotion that resulted, during his annual Christmas Day visit with his parents, the teen had spotted an odd potted plant by the bed of another patient. Having previously tried several times to give decorative plants to his parents, Neville knew well that live plants weren't permitted as decoration in the wards, which made him particularly curious. Upon closer inspection, he immediately recognized the plant as a disguised cutting of Devil's Snare, and promptly alerted the hospital's staff of the dangerous decoration.

Broderick Bode was now in a secure ward usually used for treatment of Aurors and VIPs. It would later turn out that the Bode, an Unspeakable, had been found insensate in the Department of Mysteries after an unknown incident. The Devil's Snare had been sent to him at Saint Mungo's as an anonymous Christmas gift, and the Healer in charge of the ward had been too busy with the flood of activity over the holiday and had failed both to spot the danger the plant posed and to follow hospital protocol. She had been suspended with pay pending an inquiry.

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Classes resumed after the New Year, with the pressure redoubled on Fifth- and Seventh-Years. Unfortunately for academia, however, news was coming that would shatter the concentration of students and staff alike.

"A breakout?" Iruka asked.

The Headmaster nodded somberly. "Nine of Lord Voldemort's most fanatical and dangerous followers were freed, with one slain by a guard who was himself unfortunately killed. I had not expected such overt action so early, and so hadn't pushed as hard as I could have to more thoroughly tighten security, and now we shall all pay for my mistake." He shook himself slightly. "In any event, I wanted to warn you promptly so that you might inform young Mister Longbottom: As the three Lestranges were among those to escape, this news will likely have a severe impact on the lad, and given your closeness to him I felt that it might be better for him to hear about it from you before it's announced in tomorrow's Prophet."

"It would," the chuunin agreed with a sigh. "I'll talk to him first thing in the morning; no sense ruining his sleep tonight. This kind of big move, though - could it mean that Riddle's getting ready to act more openly?"

"I do not know," Albus replied, "but whatever his reasoning this is a worrying sign..."

A/N: So. Many. REWRITES...

First, I just glossed over Christmas hols with nothing happening, before I remembered about Nagini's attack and Broderick Bode. Then I got through writing the scene between Iruka and Molly only to re-read the relevant bits of OotP and find out that she really didn't like the stitching idea, and that it didn't work (I'd thought it had). After all that, I noticed that the Azkaban breakout was on the first day of term, which meant the little scene I'd written of Ginny and Luna joking with the other three just wouldn't fit with how Neville would be feeling and acting. Seriously, this chapter was a bloody nightmare.

As for Neville spotting the Devil's Snare here when he didn't in canon, I figure that both he and the circumstances are different enough to tip what should have been a fairly close thing to begin with. After all, shouldn't the Herbology prodigy have recognized a dangerous plant, or at least been curious about it? I threw in him having tried to gift plants to his parents before, since that seems very in-character for him. Unlike in canon, he's more confident and more situationally-aware, and hasn't been distracted by an unexpected and deeply uncomfortable encounter with his schoolmates, so it makes sense to me that he'd be more likely to notice a plant that shouldn't be there and take an interest. Yes, it's been disguised, but this is Neville we're talking about, and one that's had first-hand experience with Devil's Snare.

I figured that Fudge's different attitude towards the war effort should have some effect on the Azkaban breakout. It wasn't going to stop it, not with Riddle showing up personally and the Dementors on his side, but having one of the added human guards kill an escapee (and be killed in retaliation) seemed about right.

This chapter is being posted a week early not in celebration of any particular winter solstice holiday, but because I'm switching to a weekly posting schedule. Those of you who regularly read my Author's Notes might realize what this means. That's right, folks, I've finished preliminary writing! All that's left is editing, polishing, formatting, and maybe a few last-minute tweaks. Happy [Insert Holiday]!

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Posted 22 December 2019