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.
The next meal Iruka ate in the Great Hall was... tense.
News of Voldemort's open return was never going to be kept quiet, so by now the only living person in the castle that might not know was Sibyl Trelawney, depending upon whether she'd sobered up enough to read a newspaper in the past couple of days. Three quarters of the students were a soft riot of frightened whispering, hurrying to their House tables as they arrived and hurrying away as they left, and almost always moving together with their close friends. Many were shooting glances or glares (some subtle, some overt) toward the remaining quarter at the Slytherin table.
For their part, most of House Slytherin were at least attempting to affect a calm, stoic demeanor in the face of the mix of fear, suspicion, and enmity directed their way. A few, mostly Draco Malfoy and those in his orbit, either sat smugly or glared defiantly or hatefully back. Judging by the looks being thrown in both directions and the number of hands on or near wands, it likely wouldn't take much to trigger an ugly incident. The staff remained watchful, with the Heads of House in particular tasked with keeping their more hot-headed students in line.
Speaking of the staff, when in public they did their best to project soothing confidence and reassurance, though some (Minerva, Pomona, Filius, Albus, and Iruka liked to think he himself) did far better than others (Hagrid couldn't help but wear his heart on his sleeve, and "soothing reassurance" was not a phrase one would every associate with Severus Snape).
Iruka had still been unconscious when Albus had made the announcement to the school. His reassurances that Hogwarts would remain a safe place might have calmed many immediate fears, but that initial boost had faded as students began to worry about their families at home and for their own safety once term ended. From what the chuunin could glean, the greatest comfort was coming from the spectacular victory over the Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries coupled with the Ministry's surprisingly prompt and competent response. Having the Ministry of Magic actually prepared to handle a crisis and respond effectively was, after all, a very unusual state of affairs.
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When asked about working with the rumors regarding the prophecy and his role in the war, Harry had at first predictably balked. A discussion with Hermione shifted him to the point of considering the possibility, but he insisted on speaking with her parents before he made a final decision. Not only were Wendell and Monica his guardians, which gave them a say in anything to do with Harry, but they had also become trusted sources of advice and guidance. He also knew that drawing more of the enemy's attention his way would put those close to him at even greater risk, and he refused to do that without consulting them first. Iruka and the rest of S.E.N. had quickly given their own assent, but in the children's cases that didn't mean as much until their parents or guardians confirmed it.
The other request made to Harry was why he now accompanied Iruka up to the Headmaster's office. With his connection to Voldemort effectively blocked and the war about to heat up, Dumbledore had finally consented to include the teen in their hunt for Riddle's Horcruxes. For this meeting it was only the three of them present, and Albus would be leaving after explaining the situation - like the others, he was incredibly busy and so couldn't spare the time to take Harry through all of the relevant memories personally.
Albus delivered a (for him) relatively condensed explanation of Horcruxes and why and how the group was hunting them, then departed for a meeting at the Ministry, leaving Iruka to guide Harry through the memories. The memory of Regulus Black's death was not included, as it really didn't add any useful information and everyone on the Horcrux team except Moody agreed that Harry had enough bad experiences already without having to witness that horror.
After watching the memories, Harry easily identified the ring and cup as probable Horcruxes and suggested that some might have been entrusted to top Death Eaters. He also had two ideas that the others had yet to consider: "When Riddle came back to Hogwarts," the teen explained, "he had to know that Dumbledore wouldn't give him the Defense job. Kinda hard to defend against the Dark Arts when you're being taught by a Dark Lord, I'd bet. He must've had some other reason to come here, something he could hide by pretending it was just a job application. I'd bet every Galleon in my vault that he hid a Horcrux somewhere here in Hogwarts. For someone that was miserable growing up in the Muggle world, Hogwarts seems like Heaven. This is where he finally got to be special, the way he'd always wanted."
Iruka's eyes widened. "He's also a descendant of one of the Founders, further reinforcing that idea of being someone special and important," he said in realization, "but with Hufflepuff's cup and seeking other Founders' relics as well... he may be trying to lay claim the entire school, at least symbolically."
"Well he is trying to rule over all of magic," Harry pointed out. "Where better to start than one of the most magical and important places around, where everybody learns how to use magic? It's also supposed to be one of the safest and most secure places in Britain, more than even Gringotts- Gringotts! If none of the Death Eaters had a Horcrux in their house, maybe they put one in their vault? It'd be a safe and secure place, and another connection to power and importance because anybody that's really part of the Wizarding world has a vault in Gringotts."
"Oh, that's going to be fun to check," Iruka groaned. "We'll have to bring these ideas up at a full meeting of the group and hope that we can either eliminate Gringotts as a possibility or find some way to get Goblin cooperation."
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As stressful as they were for his Fifth-Year students, O.W.L.s were frankly anticlimactic after the life-and-death battle they'd experienced just a week before. Of course, that didn't stop Hermione from obsessing about all the things she worried she'd gotten wrong no matter how many times her friends assured her that she'd probably gotten straight Os. Luna eventually managed to calm her down a bit by sitting her down and patiently browbeating her with logic and the fact that despite all her worries on previous exams, Hermione's test scores were always among the best in her year, generally only behind those with a clear gift for the subject; Neville's scores had consistently been top of the class in Herbology since his second year, while Harry was an acknowledged natural in Defense.
Shortly after O.W.L.s, just as the students in the castle seemed to be truly catching their collective breath after the revelation of Voldemort's return, a new blow landed: There had been another mass breakout from Azkaban, this one far worse. The first breakout had been a surgical operation, extracting just the core cadre of Death Eaters while leaving virtually no other trace of the incursion. This time, according to eyewitness statements from survivors, there had been no subtlety or finesse; Voldemort simply arrived at the prison with several Death Eaters, and at his command the Dementors had promptly turned on the human guards en masse. A swarm of hungry Dementors backed up by a powerful Dark Lord and his followers offered the guards no quarter, killing or Kissing all of them in short order save for one who'd been in a more isolated part of the structure and simply hidden himself in a broom closet and locked the door.
From there, the attackers had begun systematically opening cell doors. Not only had all those captured in the Department of Mysteries been freed (again, in some cases) but over half of the remaining prisoners were missing. Of those that remained, only a third were still alive and in possession of their souls. From their accounts, any prisoner that dared attack or resist was promptly killed, with the rest offered passage off the island if they pledged themselves to Voldemort's cause. Those that refused were abandoned to their own devices and the tender mercies of the Dementors until the swarm departed in the Death Eaters' wake. Only a few had actually been Kissed, with many of the rest braving the dangerous waters of the North Sea. Some would almost certainly reach shore alive, fugitives that would only add to the chaos already brewing.
The remaining prisoners had been consolidated to a single section of the prison, guarded solely by humans now, with their treatment markedly improved in recognition that they'd actively chosen not to join Voldemort despite the enticement he offered and hadn't attempted to escape when they had the chance. Albus had already put forward a motion in the Wizengamot to shorten or even commute the sentences of these prisoners, both as a reward and to free up more capable Ministry personnel for the war effort.
It was an obvious play on Voldemort's part, in hindsight: The incident in the Ministry had been an almost unmitigated disaster for the Dark Lord's side, with his entire force killed or captured without achieving their objective or even eliminating any high-priority targets. He needed a substantial win, and soon. Throw in the losses suffered in the graveyard the year before, and he was also down a large chunk of his most dedicated followers, with recruitment likely not helped by either of these high-profile defeats and the casualties taken - only the most devoted or desperate would readily join a group with a low survival rate.
In one fell swoop, the Dark Lord had gotten his clear victory, recovered all of his surviving servants, recruited a lot of new lower-level followers, and gained a powerful weapon in the Dementors. All of this was in addition to the damage done to the Ministry's forces and the burden they'd soon face trying to identify and recapture those independent fugitives that decided to return to a life of crime.
Even if they'd been able to predict that such an attack might happen, though, Iruka couldn't really see much that could have reasonably been done against it, especially in a short time frame. The Dementors had been too integral to Azkaban's security, too difficult to keep contained as it was, to get enough support in the Ministry for replacing them with human staff. That change probably wouldn't have helped anyway, not with Voldemort leading the attack personally; the number of people in Britain that could even put up a serious fight against him in one-on-one combat could be counted on one hand, and he'd have undoubtedly brought enough backup to overcome any defenders. Albus was probably the only person whose presence could have possibly discouraged an attack, but he could hardly move to Azkaban full-time. Executing the captured Death Eaters would have at least prevented their return to their master's service, but doing so without a thorough trial was the kind of extreme measure that would have been hard to justify. Their supporters and sympathizers in the Wizengamot would almost certainly have blocked any move in that direction, anyway.
It all boiled down to a fundamental problem with fighting a defensive war against terrorists or insurgents: They tended to be the ones choosing the time and place of battles, and they almost invariably hit vulnerable targets. There were never enough resources to protect everything that might be attacked, forcing the defenders to choose where to focus their attention while knowing that whatever they didn't choose would probably get hit. Things only got worse when the enemy had an S-rank fighter, since many S-rank combatants also tended to hold leadership positions, leaving any in the defenders' forces almost certainly out of position to protect any but the most vital points.
The Hidden Villages obviously had plenty of practice at guerrilla warfare from both sides, but the different conditions and the qualitative differences between magic and jutsu made much of their knowledge hard to apply. Shikamaru and Kakashi had both sent recommendations for Albus to pass along to the Ministry, but it was yet to be seen how effective they'd be.
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Albus's speech at that year's Leaving Feast had been a mix of reassurances that victory was possible and exhortations to be careful (for those not aligned with the Death Eaters) and not to support Voldemort (for those who were).
Many of the children left for home with their usual joy at freedom from classwork badly dampened by fear of what was to come. The highly visible squads of Aurors at both Hogsmeade and King's Cross, and the less-obvious squad guarding the Hogwarts Express, were a stark reminder of the troubled times their country had entered.
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Lord Voldemort surveyed His servants, all cloaked and hooded in black with the highest among them bearing the trademark skull-like masks of His Death Eaters. Their ranks had swelled in the past weeks, beginning with His conquest of Azkaban. Most were worthless sheep, of course, only different from the rest of Britain in having just enough intelligence to join His cause when given the chance, but a few showed enough promise that if they acquitted themselves well tonight He might consider Marking them. With the losses His Death Eaters had suffered both in the last war and in the opening moves of this one, their numbers needed to be increased to provide Him with suitable field commanders. It would hardly do if He had to lead every little action personally - if nothing else, it rather negated one of the primary benefits of having followers to begin with.
One of these potential Death Eaters seemed particularly promising: Though initially paralyzed with terror in His presence (rather like a toad before a snake, he had noted with amusement), Dolores Umbridge had been almost as eager to join His cause as His Death Eaters had been to rejoin it. Apparently she hadn't taken it well when her precious Minister had thrown her under the Knight Bus for showing a few Mudbloods their place and disposing of Potter's Muggle relations. The latter had been, if anything, a public service: Based on what Severus reported and His own observations of the "Boy-Who-Lived" during His time possessing Quirrell, the Dark Lord could easily deduce that they had been the worst sort of Muggles. In any case, since joining Him she had demonstrated an impressive aptitude for the Unforgiveable Curses, especially the Cruciatus. She'd even mentioned having already picked a set of Muggles to use for her initiation; her surface thoughts revealed that they were her mother and brother, Lord Voldemort noted approvingly.
Umbridge and the other candidates would be leading some of the night's operations under the watchful eyes of veteran Death Eaters, who would evaluate both their competence and their dedication to His cause. All of the witches and wizards present had been assigned their tasks; a lucky few would have the honor of accompanying Lord Voldemort as He Himself sallied forth...
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Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody was, to the surprise of just about nobody, a light sleeper. Besides the obvious, his paranoia also led to him wearing his prosthetic leg and eye even to bed. The three months of especially foul moods after he lost his leg and six after his eye had been put down to anger, both at those responsible for his injuries and at himself for letting them happen. While that had been part of it, part was also the fact that he'd taken that long to be able to sleep properly while wearing a less-than-entirely-comfortable wooden leg and an uncloseable eye.
Thus it was that his natural eye snapped open less than a second after the first alarm ward tripped. Actually, it was the third alarm ward, but the first two had obviously been disabled by whoever it was. That was fine; all seven alarm layers were within an inch of each other, each a different version and none of them easy to detect or disable without setting off the whole lot. Number Three was actually the subtlest of them all, and half the distance in from Two that Two was from One. It'd take a particularly twisty mind to realize that just because the three easiest wards to detect were spaced evenly that didn't mean there wasn't another hidden in front of the innermost. If he lived long enough to see her again, he'd have to thank the Lovegood girl for the suggestion.
Moody rolled to his foot and drew his wand - which he never, ever took off - in one smooth motion as if he'd done it a thousand times (it was closer to twelve hundred, actually; he'd practiced until he couldn't make it any faster), absently Summoning, shrinking, and pocketing his emergency bag. Everything of substantial value (whether practical, monetary, or sentimental) was inside; anything else in the house was just there to hide the fact that he was always packed to evacuate at a moment's notice. Well, there were also the booby-traps...
As the first crash sounded from outside, followed by a cry of surprise and alarm, a tap of his wand turned an unassuming section of wallpaper transparent and revealed the map underneath. The moment he'd heard of Lupin and Black's little project, he'd questioned those involved until he was able to create a rough version for his own property. It didn't show names nor passwords, couldn't hide itself nor insult folk, but it told him that he had at least a dozen intruders massing on his front lawn. Even if they were nothing but wand-fodder (an assumption he was not fool enough to make) that many attackers would probably be through at least most of his defenses in under two minutes. It'd be closer to one minute if they had someone like the mad Lestrange bitch with them, and just too bloody short if the Dark Tosser himself was involved. Bottom line, they'd be on him too quick for him to do much fighting back, which meant he'd be best off getting gone.
The uneven thump-thud of his gait was drowned out by the sounds of spellfire, screams, crashes, explosions, and some very loud quacking (Merlin, but those twins could be twisted when the mood struck them). He could smell smoke, meaning the Death Munchers had already started to break through at least some of his anti-fire enchantments. That was fine; they were only helping make sure they couldn't take anything of value. A bit of spite was little comfort when he was about to lose his home and its contents, but there was still some satisfaction in it.
The whole cottage shook from the impact of a spell. Just bloody great, it figured that whoever'd come for him had somebody with some power to them. The female cackling that preceded the next strike told him it was the mad bitch Lestrange, so at least he probably wasn't up against the Dark Bastard himself.
"Oh, Moooooody," the crazy witch called, "come out and plaaaaaay! Let Bella show you just how much I've missed you all these years locked away!"
He responded by throwing a particularly nasty explosive spell her way between the shutters on a window before quickly repositioning himself to avoid the return-fire. "You want me, Lestrange, you'll have to come in here and get me!" Of course he'd used a ventriloquism spell to misdirect his attackers.
"You heard him!" she shouted gleefully to the black-cloaked wizards around her. "Our Lord will reward you handsomely if you can bring him old Mad-Eye!" They hesitated, undoubtedly aware of his reputation. "Or you could stay out here and play with me..."
That got them moving.
After a couple more careful pot-shots that didn't do more than slow the bastards down a little, Moody pulled back into his living room, sealing the (already magically-reinforced) door behind him and Banishing an area rug away from the complex array of runes and other symbols it was concealing. He knelt down, the tip of his wand on the activation point, waiting, until he heard them trying to blast in the door. Even reinforced as it was, it probably wouldn't take them long even without Lestrange, but that ceased to be his problem as he triggered the array beneath him with a bellow of "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" and disappeared off to Hogwarts. Less than a second later, though he obviously wasn't there to see it, the entire cottage disintegrated from within as dozens of explosive tags detonated.
When Umino had been setting up the array, he'd explained about how it included a bit that'd burn the entire thing out after a short time-delay to keep anybody from trying to reverse-engineer it. Moody had promptly asked, "If you can link stuff to it, could you include a little surprise for whoever's busting in at the time?"
They'd ended up using Severing Charms to cut away patches of the walls, floor, and ceiling to place explosive tags and lines of sealing script behind them before putting them back and magically repairing the cuts so it all looked good as new. When it was done, the entire house was rigged to blow just after the escape circle self-destructed. Placing the tags inside the walls not only concealed them but also provided an ample source of deadly shrapnel.
Bellatrix would return to base believing her mission successful. She'd lost all of the new recruits with her, as well as both her eyebrows, but had gained two burst eardrums and a host of minor burns and shrapnel wounds.
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Lord Voldemort watched the rubble that was all that remained of Amelia Bones's home burn. It seemed that His decision to send some of the raw recruits in first to soften her up had been quite prudent. There was no way that they, or she, could have survived that blast. That she was cunning enough to prepare such a thing (and it must have been prepared in advance - it was far larger than any spell could have produced by itself) and ruthless enough to use it merely underscored the necessity of removing her before she could become more of a problem.
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Hestia Jones woke with a start. She'd been relaxing in the bath after a long day, glad to finally get a break for once, but judging by the thick smoke pouring around the edges of the door her break was well and truly over. Quickly climbing out of the bath, she rushed out of the room only to find half the hallway already engulfed in flames. Staggering back from the brutal heat and choking smoke, a quick glance out the bathroom window showed black-cloaked figures outside, rubbishing the already unlikely chance that this fire was an accident. It also meant that her only chance of getting out of here alive was probably that weird circle that Pandora Lovegood had laid in last month. Unfortunately, that circle was in her bedroom, at the other end of ten feet of burning hallway.
In the end, she only had one choice. Cursing herself for a fool for having left her wand on her bedside table, Hestia closed her eyes and steeled herself before running as fast as she could through the flames, feeling them burn at her as she desperately tried to reach her only means of escape. It was agony, it was Hell, but somehow she made it to her bedroom door. Stumbling inside, she grabbed up her wand, ignoring how the charred skin of her fingers cracked and bled. Through the haze of pain and oncoming shock, she managed to reach the inscribed circle and activate it before surrendering to blissful unconsciousness.
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By the time dawn broke, some of the scope of the night's violence began to sink in. All five S.E.N. members and their families were now crowding Grimmauld Place, along with half a dozen other Order members and any family they'd brought along. The Hogwarts Hospital Wing was a hive of activity as Healers from Saint Mungo's desperately tried to save Hestia Jones's life, as her burns were so severe that they didn't dare transport her. Even if she survived, it was likely that she'd be permanently maimed and disfigured.
Even Jones was lucky compared to some. Several Order members, mostly those without escape circles, were either confirmed or suspected to be dead. Reports from those making brief stops back at Hogwarts or Headquarters indicated that quite a few Ministry personnel had been attacked as well, particularly those in the DMLE.
It would be days before the full toll could be tallied. Thirty-four people had been murdered, including several entire families, with eight injured to varying degrees and another five missing. Given his own experience with Death Eater captivity, Iruka could only hope those five were either dead or somehow in hiding. Hestia Jones would live, but she'd lost seven toes, three fingers, and an ear and would forever bear terrible scars over virtually her entire body.
There'd been a tremendous amount of property damage as well. Most of the Order aside from those already living at Hogwarts were now homeless, as were the Longbottoms, Harry and the Grangers, and several Ministry workers who'd managed to survive or simply hadn't been home at the time of the attacks. Headquarters and several other Order safehouses were packed near to capacity with displaced members and their families. Sirius's house was mostly occupied by the members of S.E.N. and their families, along with the Tonks family and Madam Bones. Kreacher hadn't been enthusiastic about having Muggles in the house, but given that they were part of the effort to destroy the wizard responsible for Regulus Black's death he mostly took the attitude of "the enemy of my enemy is not my problem." If there was one thing a Black family elf could get behind, it was vengeance. Susan Bones and her parents hadn't been targeted, but after the attack on the DMLE director everyone knew it would only be a matter of time, so they'd packed up and been moved into one of the other safehouses, as had a number of other people close to the night's targets.
That wasn't to say that things had gone swimmingly for the Death Eaters, either. Not only had quite a few of their targets escaped (many thanks to Pandora's and Iruka's efforts), but they'd taken losses of their own. At least a dozen (some of the bodies weren't in a state that made them easy to count accurately) of the new low-level recruits and one as-yet-unidentified Death Eater had been killed, three by targets that went down fighting and the rest by a combination of the traps Iruka had set for Moody and Madam Bones and a bit of prior... aggressive gardening by Neville on the grounds of his family's home.
Both sides had taken a mauling, to a degree that neither could truly count it as even a Pyrrhic victory. The Order had fared far better than would have been expected thanks to the escape circles, and most of Voldemort's higher-priority targets had escaped, but the public at large were more frightened than ever after such a brutal and large-scale attack.
Harry had regressed back into self-blaming mode, particularly in regards to the attacks on his friends and their families, something all of them were working to help him deal with. On the plus side, at least focusing on trying to pull him out of his funk seemed to be helping distract them from the loss of their homes and possessions.
In the end Harry decided that, since his friends had all been targeted already anyway, there was no more reason to hold back from Kakashi's proposal regarding the rumors about the contents of the prophecy. He even suggested that announcing that now might help quell some of the fear generated by the attacks, giving people both hope that Voldemort could be beaten and the option to actively contribute rather than waiting helplessly.
Almost everybody sitting idle in Headquarters soon threw themselves into helping Harry draft a press release, with some contributing more actively than others: Most of the twins' suggestions were admittedly wildly inappropriate, but they did a good job of keeping everyone's spirits up. Xeno's experience with the Quibbler helped them set the tone, and Wendell turned out to be a very capable proofreader (a legacy of having been raised by schoolteachers, apparently). Molly kept the whole operation grounded and focused on appealing to ordinary witches and wizards.
Their final product made it clear that Harry could (and certainly intended to) defeat Voldemort for good. "But the prophecy doesn't say that I have to do it alone, nor that I should. I, and all the others fighting against this terrible evil, need as much help as we can get, but that doesn't mean you need to pick up your wand and charge into battle. There are countless ways you can do your part: Buy some Emergency Bonds from the Ministry, to help fund the war effort. Report suspicious activity to the DMLE. Help your friends, family, and neighbors update their wards. Volunteer at Saint Mungo's. Anything you can do to support the brave witches and wizards fighting for us all, anything to keep innocent people safe, anything to keep people from joining Voldemort's cause, anything to help those already suffering, it all contributes. You CAN help, and together we CAN win!"
A/N: I added the scene with Hestia Jones to show that the Order definitely did not have it all their way.
Apparently just because an ASCII-Art divider survives being saved in a DocX chapter doesn't mean ffnet won't still shred it when placed in a Story chapter. Thankfully, after some frustration, I was finally able to tweak it enough to work.
Fic Recommendation: "The Autumn of Our Virility" by WinterOfOurDiscontent - Gai vows to help his Eternal Rival find love; Kakashi debates the merits of desertion.
Posted 2 February 2020