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.
Book 6: Umino Iruka and the Covert Cabinetry
After Albus had approved the statement, it was sent off to the Prophet. It did seem to ease people's fears slightly (though shoppers in Diagon Alley were still visibly skittish) and bond sales surged as donations poured in to Saint Mungo's. Madam Bones complained somewhat about her people being run ragged following up the flood of tips, most of which were useless, but she acknowledged that too many tips wasn't entirely a bad problem to have; several had panned out, leading to the arrests of a number of Riddle's unmarked followers.
With fresh arrests, however, came a new problem: What were they going to do with them? Azkaban had proven no match for Voldemort, and there weren't a lot of other places to put prisoners. The DMLE only had a handful of holding cells, most of which weren't even all that secure. A few people had proposed summary execution, but that idea had been quickly and soundly rejected. It might gain more traction if things got more desperate, but for now almost nobody wanted to become that kind of society. The hardliners had managed to push through a bill mandating the death penalty for anyone convicted in open court and sentenced to a life term that was caught in Voldemort's service. Sirius and his allies had worked hard to make sure there were as many safeguards as possible to make sure that those executed were properly guilty, and he'd ruthlessly harped on his own wrongful imprisonment when necessary to get his point across.
In happier news, the Weasley twins had started up a joke shop in Diagon Alley, named "Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes" and funded by their silent partner Sirius Black. The Marauder considered it his duty to promote mischief and merrymaking, especially in such dark times, and also recognized that in the years to come he'd probably end up reaping a tidy profit from his stake in the company. Given that he was partly bankrolling the war effort on their side, it didn't hurt to have some assurance of long-term financial solvency. He and Remus also consulted with Fred and George at times, lending their own knowledge and experience; the four could often be found chatting conspiratorially behind privacy charms in the evenings.
The Order also had a number of new recruits, including Beauxbatons Champion Fleur Delacour or all people. She was apparently interning at Gringotts in Diagon Alley, and wanted to do her part in the fight against people that considered her nothing more than a subhuman beast. Her budding romance with her colleague Bill Weasley may have also been a factor.
There was a new face at Hogwarts, too, or rather an old one: Horace Slughorn would be teaching Potions to at least the first four or five years' worth of students. Apparently this latest wave of violence had finally been enough to push him into accepting Albus's offer of sanctuary in the castle in exchange for the unaltered version of his memory. They now knew that Tom Riddle had intended to make six Horcruxes, believing that a seven-part soul would provide the best results.
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With all five members of S.E.N. living at Headquarters and not really able to go out freely, Iruka spent a lot of time working them as hard as was practical, doing everything he could to make them more ready for what they all knew was an inevitable confrontation. Many of their parents or guardians had never seen the training before, and Molly Weasley in particular was not exactly happy about her nearly-fifteen-year-old daughter undergoing rigorous combat training. She grew even less happy when Ginny's brothers joined in as they were able, alongside virtually everybody else in the house and any other Order members that came by. After all, they were mostly in the same boat as the children, and in many cases needed something to occupy their time and keep them from dwelling on their losses.
None of the adult or near-adult witches and wizards would be able to gain as much from the training as those five students that had started young. At best, if they kept at it they'd end up in peak physical condition with above-average agility and reflexes but little else.
Many of these other witches and wizards also pitched in to help with the magical side of the teens' training, something Iruka was still relatively ill-equipped for - in fact, more often than not he joined such sessions as another student.
All of the male Weasleys showed at least some aptitude for the more physical forms of combat, with most being fairly sturdily-built. Even Arthur, who regained some of his lost good cheer at learning what could at least loosely be described as "Muggle fighting techniques," proved to have some solid muscle under his somewhat pudgy frame. Watching the twins practicing their duelling together against a common opponent was fascinating: The two seemed to instinctively know how the other would react in any situation, moving and acting more like a single mind in two bodies, seamlessly and unpredictably swapping which was focusing on defense or offense.
Another standout from the family of redheads was Ronald; the revelation of what his sister's "extra lessons" had actually entailed clearly came as a shock, and yet the jealous blowup Iruka was expecting never occurred. The attack on his family home had badly shaken the youth, something Iruka had made time to speak with him about, providing a sympathetic ear that didn't require swallowing his teenaged male pride by going to his parents. Between their talks and Ron's own periods of introspection, it seemed that the insecure boy was rapidly growing into a far more mature young man. He now approached the training sessions with a focus and enthusiasm that clearly startled his family, and had shown hints of the tactical mind that his reported talent at chess suggested had been there all along. On a hunch, Iruka had arranged a mirror-call with Shikamaru for the two to play games of both chess and shogi. The jounin commander had won both times, of course, but stated that Ron had at least made him work for his wins and that the teen had plenty of room to grow yet. He'd even had Iruka make these calls a regular part of the daily routine, claiming that it would make a great break from work to play against such a promising opponent. Neither shinobi could miss the slight but distinctive infusion of confidence this gave the youngest Weasley son.
Everyone in the house was showing noticeable benefits from the time they were spending on training. It was too early for major physical gains, but already many of them were casting a bit more quickly and accurately, and the frequent group-versus-group duels with randomized team assignments were sharpening teamwork across the board.
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The rising Sixth-Years' O.W.L. results came in mid-July. Hermione had, as expected, received straight Os; she was also noted as topping her year in Transfiguration, Astronomy, Arithmancy, and History of Magic. Harry and Neville both passed all of their classes, with Os in Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Neville also got an O in Herbology and the top score in the year, while Harry's Defense score was noted as the highest on record. Iruka made sure to point out to him that this meant he'd outscored both Albus Dumbledore and Tom Riddle.
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It was late in the third week of July that they finally managed to hold a meeting of the full Horcrux-hunting group, including Harry. They gathered in Sirius's study, sealing the door behind them but only needing to give the room a cursory check-over for listening spells thanks to the extensive security wards laid in by generations of prior Black family patriarchs, many of whom could compete with Moody in terms of sheer paranoia.
Harry explained his ideas to the rest of the team, one in particular prompting a look of shocked realization from Bill.
"An anchor!" the redhead exclaimed, slapping his thigh. At the others' confused looks, he explained: "If Riddle hid a Horcrux at Hogwarts when he reapplied for the Defense job, it could have also acted as an anchor for a curse on the position! The soul fragment would provide a built-in power source, eliminating the need to spend time tapping into the wards or ley lines, and its active malevolence and sort-of-mind would keep the curse going without having to use complex rune schemes to define the effect. It's quite brilliant really, and elegantly simple, even if its actual nature is horrifyingly evil. Once the war's over I'd love to write something about it for the cursebreaking journals, assuming I can keep certain details out to avoid attempted copycats. Anyway, the practical upshot is that if we can find and destroy the Horcrux at Hogwarts, there's a good chance it'll get rid of the Defense curse at the same time."
"A definite ray of hope, then," Albus beamed. "Wonderful! Already it seems clear that Harry's insights will prove invaluable."
"That still leaves us needing to figure out both what and where exactly that Horcrux is," Remus reminded them all, "plus one other Horcrux, if Riddle did end up making six. The diary, locket, and ring," he counted off on his fingers, "that's three destroyed already. We're pretty certain that the snake is another, making four, which leaves two. If Harry's thoughts pan out, that means we're looking for one at Hogwarts and one in a Gringotts vault. Bill, you actually work there; any ideas on how we might be able to convince the goblins to work with us on this, preferably discreetly?"
Bill looked very uncomfortable as he answered. "I can't say too much about the inner workings of the bank itself; all wizarding employees are under at least some form of confidentiality contract, and the penalties for violation, well... Let's just say the goblins take terms like 'severance' and 'termination' a lot more literally than humans. As for your question, the goblins might - might - be amenable to helping in a limited fashion, but only under the right conditions. Easiest would be if whoever's vault it was in did something stupid like cursing a Gringotts goblin inside the bank or otherwise violating the terms of the vaultholder agreement, since then Gringotts would no longer be bound by contract, treaty, or honor to protect the vault's contents. Past that things get murkier, and it'd really come down to the specific circumstances unless the Ministry offered up some pretty substantial concessions to make up for the loss of honor from breaching a client's trust."
Albus shook his head. "Even if I thought such concessions to be possible - which under the present Ministry is a dream at best - it would be too overt a move to conceal from Lord Voldemort, likely tipping our hand and alerting him that we were hunting his Horcruxes."
"So one of the Death Eaters (we don't know which one) probably has something (we don't know what) in their vault, and we need to destroy it or get it destroyed (and we don't know how)," Sirius summed up. "Should be easy, right?"
"I'll start reading up on the Goblin treaties," Remus offered, "see exactly what obligations and constraints they're under. Sirius, could I get a look at the vaultholder agreements for your vaults? The terms on Black family vaults are more likely to be similar to those for the Death Eaters than any others we'd have access to, assuming Gringotts' copies are confidential?" This last question was directed at Bill and met with a nod.
"I might have an idea, if we don't find out whose vault it is some other way," Iruka ventured. "Albus, you could confide to Professor Snape that you intend to propose that the Ministry start fining or outright seizing the vaults of convicted Death Eaters, at least those that freely admitted their guilt. He could then bring this up at the next meeting of the Death Eaters, even potentially showing Riddle his memory of it, and watch for any reactions that seem excessive or out of place. The Death Eaters that went to Azkaban rather than renouncing their master or making excuses seem like the ones most likely to be 'rewarded' with guardianship over one of his Horcruxes, after all."
Dumbledore nodded musingly. "Yes, that might indeed provoke an informative reaction. I might well even follow through on the proposal, as on the off chance it won approval it could bring our side increased financial resources for the prosecution of the war while denying such to the enemy."
"Might want to wait on that for now, though," Sirius commented, "at least until we're closer to being ready to make a move. Knowing who stashed the Horcrux in their vault won't do us much good if they took it out of their vault before we got there."
"Still, sounds like we've got at least the start of a plan on the one in Gringotts, then," Moody grumbled while simultaneously eyeing both the door and something on or behind the ceiling. "What about findin' the one in Hogwarts?"
"Have you asked the ghosts?" Harry asked. "I mean, if Myrtle helped us find the Chamber of Secrets, maybe she or one of the other ghosts might know something about missing relics or maybe remember Tom Riddle going somewhere he shouldn't have..."
"The elves, too," Iruka said in realization. "It was Flippy, the elf I had assigned to me when I was first hired on, that told me about the Room of Requirement. They must know the castle better than anybody else, all the little hiding spots and forgotten places."
"Don't forget the portraits," Sirius chimed in, "I mean, Merlin knows how much memory they have, but the Fat Lady certainly recognized me back in '93, and I didn't exactly look that much like my Seventh-Year self."
"I'd queried the portraits," Albus said, deep in thought, "but not the ghosts, who are not bound to keep the Headmaster's secrets as the portraits are by Hogwarts' enchantments, nor the house-elves, most of whom are likely too young to have encountered Tom Riddle. At this late stage, I would say that the possible gains from speaking with the ghosts outweigh the risk that others might learn of my inquiry, especially given how unlikely such a leak would be with how little the school's ghosts interact with the living. As for the elves, I will put the question to a couple of them when I return to my office and have them make my interest in the matter known to their fellows. No Hogwarts elf would betray a secret of the Headmaster, and as we have already seen in the past with Dobby, they regard Lord Voldemort with the utmost antipathy and should readily work against his interests."
"And if it pans out, it'll be another case of his dismissal of non-wizards coming back to bite him on the arse," Sirius grinned viciously.
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All the kids in Number Twelve took a bit of a break from training the last couple days of July in celebration of Harry's and Neville's sixteenth birthdays. The Weasley Twins gifted both boys with a selection of their inventions, much to Molly's chagrin. After the party, they quietly made it clear that some of the items in the packages were versions not available for public sale, as their effects had been altered or increased in ways that took them well beyond harmless jokes. Fred's description of the Portable Super-Swamps sounded frighteningly like a miniaturized version of Jiraiya's infamous Swamp of the Underworld ninjutsu.
Leave it to those two to effectively weaponize pranking.
Ginny's birthday came up in early August, at which she too received pranking and defensive items from her twin brothers. They also gave similar packages to Luna and Hermione. "Early birthday presents, you understand." "After all, can't have you lovely ladies-" "-feeling left out!" "We don't think McGonagall-" "-would let us back into the school-" "to give them to you on the days." "It seems we might not have left-" "-an entirely favorable impression." "No idea how that happened."
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A little over a week after Ginny's birthday, Albus informed his fellow Horcrux-hunters that he'd identified their last target. He'd begun his questioning with the four House Ghosts, and upon finally tracking down the elusive Grey Lady for a chat she'd had quite a lot to say when asked about one Tom Marvolo Riddle.
While the Headmaster stated that much of what had been said was a private matter, he did relate that the charismatic young wizard had charmed the ghost, convincing her to share with him the hiding place of a relic of Rowena Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw's Diadem, purported to grant wisdom to the wearer, had been lost for centuries despite the best efforts of many students alumni of the House of blue and bronze.
Ghosts' memories could not be copied for viewing in a Pensieve, but fortunately the Ravenclaw Common Room held a statue of their House's Founder wearing her famous Diadem, so the team had at least a good idea of what it looked like. Albus had already asked the school's elves to be on the lookout for either the Diadem or Hufflepuff's Cup, but not to permit anyone to touch them if they were found. The search of Hogwarts had thus begun in earnest, but it was a big castle with a great many secrets.
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There were once again Aurors stationed at Platform 9 3/4 when it was time for students to return to Hogwarts. While there hadn't been any operations on the scale of the coordinated attacks at the start of the summer, Voldemort and his followers had remained active. They'd been slowly running the DMLE ragged with a near-constant stream of small hit-and-run strikes, mostly against Muggles or ill-defended wizarding targets, interspersed with larger attacks such as the destruction of a bridge in the West Country by giants. The timing on these major operations was unpredictable, leaving the Aurors and Hit Wizards forced to respond to every attack in force or risk a repeat of one of the earliest such incidents in which the first squad to arrive on-scene was completely wiped out.
Even the smaller cases weren't safe, however, as occasionally some of Voldemort's forces would remain nearby in hiding, waiting to strike at targets of opportunity before withdrawing for real. Half a dozen Aurors and Hit Wizards had been killed or injured by such ambushes, as had two Healers, five Obliviators, and a particularly ghoulish photographer for the Daily Prophet.
Cornelius Fudge was starting to flounder badly, according to Albus and Amelia (Madam Bones had, after over a month at Number Twelve, invited Iruka and a few other Order members to use her first name). As much as the Ministry's responsiveness was winning him plaudits, he simply didn't have the temperament to lead in wartime and it was really beginning to show. Both Amelia and Albus were increasingly having to ride herd on the Minister, keeping him focused and steady and talking him out of rash actions. Their job was partially helped and partially hindered by Rufus Scrimgeour, the current Head of the Aurors.
While the man's competence as an administrator and dedication to victory was unquestioned, he was also very much a political animal. As such, though he did help keep Fudge reasonably focused and on-task, he also tended to counsel proactive moves that might look good to the public but would be of little help in actually winning the war. A series of pamphlets he had helped compose advising citizens on how to keep safe did contain some useful information, but they were more geared towards helping people feel safer. He also advocated for "casting a wider net in pursuit of potential Death Eaters", i.e. arresting witches and wizards almost at random based upon even the flimsiest of circumstantial evidence. The less said about his suggestion that the Ministry immediately ship them to Azkaban without investigation or trial, or Sirius's reaction when he heard about it, the better.
The students reached Hogwarts without incident, and many seemed to visibly shed tension as they entered the Great Hall for the Welcoming Feast. Very few were completely at ease, not even the Death Eater children that'd spent their time at school thus far openly supporting Voldemort's cause; those walking trouble spots mostly put on a show of smug bravado, but some clearly realized that they were vastly outnumbered by hostile wands here, and more than a few had returned from summer holidays with much older, more haunted eyes. Draco Malfoy, Harry's would-be school nemesis, fell into this latter category.
Horace Slughorn was announced as taking over the teaching of Potions (to much celebration among the students), with Professor Snape moving to the Defense post, something that rumor claimed he'd long desired. Albus had finally acquiesced as he had Slughorn to handle Potions and there simply weren't any other reasonable candidates available to teach Defense; with the war now in full swing, the Ministry just couldn't spare anyone competent. The Headmaster had expressed his worry over the suspected curse on the position, but was hopeful that Bill was right about the effects of destroying the Horcrux they suspected was in the castle.
Several Aurors had also been stationed at the school, and a slew of new rules and restrictions had been crafted for security reasons: Curfew was to be much more strictly enforced, with Prefects carrying out headcounts of their Houses every night. Students traveling to and returning from Hogsmeade would be subject to potential searches for dangerous items; pranks, alcohol, and other more mundane contraband would generally be overlooked by the Aurors performing such checks. These students would also be expected to check out and back in, so that the staff knew who should be in the castle at any given time. Unannounced was the search of the students' luggage during the Feast, again looking for Dark artifacts, poisons, books of illegal magic, or other indications that a student might pose a threat to others. Only one student would actually run afoul of this search, a Seventh-Year Slytherin boy that'd brought a dagger cursed to cause obvious and incurable scarring. He was quietly removed and, being legally an adult, sent off to the DMLE.
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To the surprise of approximately nobody, Horace Slughorn had promptly resurrected his old "Slug Club," seeking to meet and build connections with and between those students he expected to be the rising stars of Wizarding Britain. All five students in S.E.N. had received invitations; even without their individual qualifications, there was no denying the splash they'd made by surviving a battle against more than double their number in Death Eaters. Harry had grumbled quite a bit about fancy gatherings and hobnobbing, but was reminded by his friends that it would be a good opportunity to make new friends, allies, and connections for the future. According to Luna, the bespectacled teen had "bravely endured the tasty snacks and pleasant conversation" with the aid of his friends.
The following Saturday, Iruka headed up to open the Room for training as usual. What wasn't usual was the First-Year girl standing right near the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. She startled nervously and dashed off at his approach, noisily dropping the pair of scales she'd been holding. It was odd, and even at the best of times "odd" meant "suspicious" to a ninja. Even more suspicious, however, was how she moved: There were plenty of ways to alter one's appearance, even without magic or chakra, but those abilities greatly broadened the variety of methods available for disguise and infiltration. From basic tricks like the Henshin no Jutsu up to the Yamanaka clan's hijutsu, the possibilities were vast. Because of this, shinobi had long studied the subtle tells that could mark a person as being other than they appeared, and experienced ninja knew both to watch for them in others and to avoid them when going in disguise themselves. In practice this meant that every attempt at disguise became a contest between the infiltrator's skill at hiding their tells and any observers' skills at spotting them.
On the other hand, someone without proper training in the field was left practically announcing themselves openly to every reasonably-intelligent ninja that bothered to look. Iruka promptly found the nearest out-of-the-way nook and pulled out his recently-issued copy of the Staff Map, created specifically for use in defending the castle. Looking at the relevant area, he was reasonably certain that none of that year's First-Year girls had been named "Gregory Goyle". A further search of the castle showed Vincent Crabbe in the Slytherin Common Room, but couldn't locate Draco Malfoy. Given the presence of Goyle as a disguised sentry and the fact that those working on the Maps still couldn't get them to consistently show the Room of Requirement, the blonde Slytherin's location was fairly obvious.
Unfortunately, the Room's door wasn't visible at the moment, and Iruka knew from testing it with his students that only whoever was inside could open it now. The loud clatter of the dropped scales had probably been a signal, warning Malfoy that there was someone approaching, so unless the young bully was spectacularly stupid he wouldn't be coming out any time soon.
Iruka stuck around to watch the area of the door for a few minutes, just in case.
Hearing his students coming, the chuunin sighed and acknowledged that it just wasn't going to be that easy. Beyond not immediately finding out what was going on, there was also the question of what to do about the day's training. Most likely they'd just have to temporarily secure one of the many unused classrooms and focus on what they could do without a miraculous training area.
A/N: I swear, you give the twins even a bit of slack on their leashes...
So here we are, heading into the final major book of Will of Fire. This one's going to be pretty action-heavy, but hopefully I've kept the fight scenes diverse enough to remain interesting.
The Seventh-Year Slytherin with the cursed dagger was just an idiot that thought he could get away with anything. He brought the dagger with no clearer idea than just maybe using it to "teach some mudbloods their place".
Fic Recommendation: "The Subtle Arrangement of Stones" by Nemo_the_Everbeing on Archive of Our Own - Delenn, Londo, and G'Kar are kidnapped, and hijinks ensue in one of the best Babylon 5 fics I've ever seen. It really does an amazing job of capturing the characters and their interactions.
Posted 9 February 2020