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.


"To be honest, it's a miracle he's still alive. Any lesser wizard would likely have died before you could even get them to me."

Madam Pomfrey's assessment of the Headmaster's condition was not good news. Hagrid and Neville had carried Albus and Harry respectively to the Hospital Wing immediately after the ritual's conclusion, with Iruka out in front with his Staff Map making sure the path was clear of obstacles and witnesses and Minerva accompanying the quartet to deal with any he missed. Dumbledore had been seen to first, on the principle that bleeding from the eyes was worse than from the hands: His entire body had been ravaged as if by poison or Dark magic, but with no discernable cause other than the ritual itself. Both he and Harry were also suffering from severe exhaustion both physical and magical, but Harry's youth and lesser injuries meant that he was already on the mend whereas Albus's prognosis was uncertain at best. Both wizards - young and old - were now resting, having been healed as much as the school's Medi-Witch could manage.

"Filius," Iruka tiredly took command of the situation from the bed where he too was resting, though despite spending a lot of chakra he'd been able to make it here under his own power, "gather anyone that could help in fixing a damaged Vanishing Cabinet, as long as we can trust them. We need it fixed as soon as possible." The Charms teacher nodded and immediately began sending off Patronus messengers.

"Minerva, talk to the other Professors, along with the Head Boy and Girl and the Prefects, at least those that are trustworthy. Make sure they're ready to gather or evacuate the children at a moment's notice."

"Hagrid, can you get in contact with the centaurs? Let them know that there might be an attack involving their territory soon, and ask if they'd be willing to help defend the castle. After that make whatever preparations you can with the creatures on the grounds - I don't know if you can direct the thestrals, hippogriffs, and others to do anything to help, but do what you can."

"Sirius, contact Madam Bones and have her start gathering whatever forces she can muster and bring them here. Remus, call up the Order and our allies."

"You make it sound as though we're about to be attacked," Madam Pomfrey commented worriedly.

"That's because I suspect we will be," Iruka replied grimly, "and soon. There was already an attempt by Death Eaters to sneak into the castle last night; we stopped them, but it's likely that with the subtle approach thwarted they'll try something more direct. You should start preparing however you can to receive casualties. Call in help and supplies from Saint Mungo's if you can, and see if you and Professor Snape can get some of the better brewers in the castle to start producing whatever healing potions can be made quickly."

"Also," he continued, "someone tell Professor Snape about the situation, and that he may not want to answer next time he's called. If we're lucky, this will turn out to be a false alarm; if we're really lucky, Albus will be back on his feet soon and taking charge."

"I just don't think we're going to be that lucky."

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Even resting in the Hospital Wing, Iruka could feel the tension in the air as the castle's inhabitants prepared for battle. Even as he watched, a number of witches and wizards in green Healer's robes were bustling about, having the house-elves remove most of the comfortable beds and other furniture to make room for rows of folding cots and large racks of potions and other medical supplies. Only three beds remained, two of which were occupied; Iruka was already recovered enough that he volunteered to move to a chair between Harry's and Albus's beds in order to make more room.

Harry woke after about an hour and a half, squinting blearily around until Iruka handed him his glasses. "Thanks," the teen said, glancing around before freezing in shock when he noticed his neighbor. "What happened?!" he whisper-shouted, mindful of his fellow patient despite his surprise.

"We're not exactly sure;" the chuunin responded quietly with a half-shrug, "he collapsed just after the ritual completed, with damage Madam Pomfrey couldn't identify the source of. Best guess is that it was some kind of backlash, either from the soul fragment fighting harder than expected or because there was some kind of problem with the ritual itself. Hopefully he'll have some idea when he wakes up..."

"You mean if he wakes up," Harry observed, prompting a grim nod from his teacher.

"Don't even think about trying to blame yourself for this," Iruka said sharply, "unless you want another tag-team lecture?"

Harry winced. Hermione, Luna, and Ginny had managed to develop a frankly scary level of teamwork when it came to lecturing the boys over foolish behavior. "I'm good," he squeaked.

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Surprisingly, Albus woke up that evening shortly after dinner. It was another half hour of scans, questions, potions, and other tending by Madam Pomfrey (this area of the Hospital Wing had been sectioned off to hopefully at least delay word getting out about the Headmaster's infirmity) before the three wizards were able to converse.

"I apologize for frightening everyone," Albus said with a weak smile, looking every one of his one-hundred and fourteen years, "but unfortunately we had run out of time to further refine the ritual. As I was leading it, I was the first to sense not only that there would be a price to be paid for it to succeed, but something of the magnitude of that price. My decisions, my actions and inactions, they've cost so much from so many people, all while I remained largely untouched in my ivory tower. I found that I could not demand this sacrifice from another person, especially under conditions where I could neither ask their consent nor give them warning. This one time, at least, I chose to take the burden entirely upon myself."

Given the Headmaster's fragile state, Iruka held back his comments on how Dumbledore should have disclosed the possibility of such a toll being taken, particularly since if one or more of the participants had chosen to pay the price themselves the Order would not now be without their greatest asset just as a final confrontation looked to be looming. Instead, he filled the elder wizard in on the steps he'd taken and the status of the castle's preparations.

"The entire Order is here at this point, along with most of the Aurors and Hit-Wizards including cadets and foreign hires. We've even got other people coming in, witches and wizards from all walks of life who've heard about the muster by word of mouth - we're doing our best to check for infiltrators or the like, and restricting who can access what to keep any that slip through from causing too much damage. A lot of parents have either joined our guard forces or pulled their children out to take home. We've held off on evacuating the children and other noncombatants for now out of fear that if we sent them less secure they might be targeted as hostages."

"As much as I dislike keeping all our eggs in one basket, I favor it over being forced to choose between surrender and the deaths of children," the Headmaster agreed.

Iruka nodded. "You've already heard the amount of activity outside the privacy screens - hopefully it'll be adequate to handle the casualties from any action. Filius estimates that the Cabinet should be operational by morning, though he obviously can't give any more specific time. Neville also had the bright idea of asking the Room of Requirement for somewhere safe for the children to shelter and evacuate from; it gave him a large chamber with a passage leading out to behind a painting upstairs in the Hog's Head of all places."

"Excellent," Albus smiled, "the proprietor of that establishment can be relied upon to get the children to safety should the need arise."

The chuunin gave his employer a doubtful look but continued on. "A lot of people have been raising whatever temporary wards they can to add to the castle's protections, and Neville's now helping Pomona along with some other upper-year Herbology talents in placing some of the less friendly varieties of plant life on approaches to the castle. They're also helping new arrivals through the resultant gauntlet. Sirius and Remus have enlisted Peeves, at Minerva's suggestion of all people, and supplied him with some of the latest creations from the Weasley twins' shop. I made sure they kept a record of exactly what they gave him in hopes of reclaiming any unused product later - some of those items are seriously dangerous, and I frankly don't trust him to understand that they're not appropriate for use on students-"

At this point the privacy curtains were yanked aside as a frantic Severus Snape barged in. "He's calling," the black-clad Professor stated without any preamble. "I had to Stun Draco to spare him the pain."

Albus frowned. "So Voldemort is gathering his followers. I do not believe that it would be wise to attend this call, Severus."

"I already knew that," the Potions Master snapped, "but if he's calling now, it means he's coming."

"Alert Minerva and Amelia," the Headmaster sighed resignedly. "Tell them to expect all of the forces Lord Voldemort can muster. One way or another, it seems, this war will end tonight."

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With Snape's warning the preparations sped up in a surge of frantic desperation. Minerva cast a spell that animated every statue and suit of armor in the entire castle under her command. "I've always wanted to cast that spell," she admitted wistfully, "I just never wanted a situation where it was necessary."

The students, with the exception of S.E.N. and some among those already of-age, had already begun evacuating via the Room of Requirement. One Sixth-Year Hufflepuff boy had been placed in a body-bind by one of the Aurors overseeing the evacuation after he'd started shoving First-Years aside in his rush to leave. He'd be freed and allowed to flee only after the rest of the evacuees had gone.

Wendell and Monica Granger had, with help from the school's elves, found a long-forgotten armory in one of the disused parts of the castle. Both now wore belts bearing a sword and dagger each, but they'd also enlisted Septima Vector along with a few elves to help them set up a still-functioning ballista on the Astronomy Tower. "I'm not going to sit back and wait while my daughter fights on the front lines," Monica said sharply, "but since we can't exactly stop her and we'd just get ourselves killed trying to join her, we have to help from here."

Iruka had made his way to the Great Hall, from which the castle's defense was presently being organized. He'd contributed a bit to the planning, as had Kakashi and Shikamaru via mirror, though it mostly boiled down to sternly reminding everyone that a castle is by design a fantastic defensive position and they should make the best use of that. He also stressed the fact that they were basically fighting a delaying action, trying to buy time for the group working to repair the Vanishing Cabinet and start bringing through reinforcements. Naruto had already begun organizing squads of magic-briefed and English-speaking shinobi for deployment the moment the way through was open, including a sizable number of medics. There were presumably a large number of ANBU among this force, but to avoid confusion (and friendly-fire incidents) they'd be forgoing the black hooded robes and white animal masks while in Britain.

Sirius and Remus had taken charge of blocking off the passages onto the grounds, collapsing the tunnels to Honeydukes and the Shrieking Shack. The latter passage was further secured by blasting away the knot that would calm the Whomping Willow, leaving a nasty surprise for anyone able to make it past the collapse, while the statue of the humpbacked witch would have a dozen wands guarding it with instructions to curse anything that tried to come out.

Fred and George Weasley had focused their efforts on the passages inside the school, rigging some (but not all) of them with traps ranging from humiliating and inconvenient all the way up to nastily lethal. They did keep careful track of which passages were so trapped, passing this information along to those in charge of planning and organization. Should the Death Eaters breach the school, they'd have to either stick to the normal corridors and staircases or chance running into the fruits of the twins' twisted creativity, while the defenders would be able to move more freely by using those passages and shortcuts they knew to be safe.

It was a bit over an hour after Snape's warning that a familiar high, cold voice echoed throughout the castle:

"I know that you are preparing to fight. Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers of Hogwarts. I do not want to spill magical blood. Give me Harry Potter, Albus Dumbledore, Iruka Umino, and the Vanishing Cabinet, and none shall be harmed. Give me what I ask, and I shall leave the school untouched. Give them to me, and you will be rewarded. You have thirty minutes."

Screams echoed through the school, and many of the would-be defenders surrendered to panic before the first spell had even been cast. More than one fled to join the evacuees, and in several places fights broke out as someone tried to fulfill Voldemort's demands and had to be subdued. Soon enough however Kingsley, Amelia, and Minerva had shouted many of the panicking witches and wizards into a rough semblance of order and begun getting people into position.

Iruka himself was placed at a First-Floor window overlooking the main approach to the castle, alongside S.E.N. and most of their families. Fred and George weren't present, being part of the group of current and former Quidditch players waiting with the best brooms that could be found (including, ironically enough, the seven Nimbus 2001s purchased by Lucius Malfoy) to join Hagrid's hippogriffs and thestrals in providing air cover. Iruka's group (he had been given nominal command) was stationed where they were in consideration of the prophecy - their position could give them quick access to the ground floor of the castle in case Harry needed to actively move out to confront Voldemort.

As the half-hour mark approached, Iruka felt an all-too-familiar chill that went beyond the physical. "Dementors!" he shouted, "Anyone that can cast a Patronus, do it!" He felt a bit of pride in seeing his five students be the first to respond, their silvery guardians racing off onto the grounds, soon joined by those of the other Patronus-capable members of their group. As the portraits and ghosts carried the call to other defenders, soon the Dementors' chill was pushed back along with the creatures themselves, which started to spread out along the perimeter of the grounds, spreading the Patronus guardians in turn.

With the Dementors neutralized at least for the time being, the next threat came lumbering through the smashed outer gates in the form of trolls and giants. A smattering of spells from the towers and battlements did almost nothing, but a ballista bolt caught a troll near the middle of the group in the abdomen; the creature collapsed with a pained bellow, briefly distracting its fellows as they looked at their wounded comrade in bewilderment. At some signal Iruka couldn't hear or see, the giants began to fan out into a ragged line abreast, the trolls spreading ahead and behind them. A second bolt shot out, but with the targets no longer in a tight grouping it failed to hit anything but the ground.

The giants resumed their advance, only to come under attack from above: Thestrals and hippogriffs began diving at the giants, lashing out with their beaks, claws, and hooves whenever they got close enough. This distracted the giants as they tried to swat the equine creatures out of the air, though the trolls continued largely unhindered. Black-robed figures rose into the air, flying up on the attack, but not long after they got close enough to start hurling curses in defense of the giants they came under attack in turn by defenders on brooms. Riders on both sides soon began falling from the sky, plummeting to their deaths; they were all too high for even wizards to survive.

A third bolt struck one of the giants in the shoulder and caused him to clutch his wound in pain, which in turn left his face unguarded and cost him an eye to a hippogriff's talon. He stumbled back, roaring in rage and agony, not down but definitely not fighting at the moment. The defenders in the castle began focusing their spells on the nearer and less durable trolls, and the increasing quantity and accuracy of spellfire began to tell against the creatures.

Another giant stumbled, a bolt buried deeply into the meat of his thigh; the reload and accuracy both seemed to be improving substantially as those operating the old siege weapon got some experience with it. At this point at least half the giants the Death Eaters had brought were either wounded or starting to hesitate as the defenders proved able to cause real harm to their kind. This was apparently enough to prompt the mass of wizards behind them to begin moving forward, presumably urging the giants on rather insistently if the curses shot towards the stragglers were any indication.

Using magic to try and drive the giants back into the battle proved to be something of a mistake, as the first giant wounded and three of those who had been hesitating promptly turned on the wizards that had cursed them (and every other wizard near said targets), flailing with arms, feet, or clubs into the mass of small, fragile human magic-users. Bodies were sent flying, and even at this distance Iruka could see that some were bent in places and ways the human body was definitely not designed to bend. The response was almost immediate, as a volley of distinctive green curses struck all four rebellious giants, who fell in what their size made look like slow-motion. At this sight, most of the remaining giants again began to press forward, though a few broke and fled, with a couple even escaping alive despite the Killing Curses hurled in their direction.

As the wizards came up closer to the giants, some began to add their own curses to those of their broom-riding fellows in trying to fend off the flying defenders, but the distance made hitting such fast-moving targets more a matter of luck than one of accuracy. Another giant collapsed, hands at her throat where a lucky shot from the ballista had inflicted a mortal wound. Spellfire along the edges of the mass of wizards showed that the plant-based defenses were at least inconveniencing the attackers, though it was too far to tell if they were inflicting any casualties.

Meanwhile, near the main doors of the castle, the trolls had encountered further opposition in the form of some of the statues and armors previously animated by Minerva; the rest had been stationed around the castle in groups at other possible points of entry. It rarely took more than one or two blows from a troll's club to down one of the defenders, but many of them bore weapons that were entirely capable of inflicting serious damage in turn, and the statues that weren't so armed were mostly focusing on grappling. Even a troll's strength wasn't up to moving freely with a quarter-ton of angry rock trying to throttle it or break its limbs. Combined with the punishment dealt out by the defenders on the battlements, the trolls were now suffering heavy losses. The animated defenders were as well, but they could probably be put right with enough repairing spells. Even so, the trolls were still aiding the other attackers by occupying a substantial amount of defensive fire, tripping traps, and destroying the statues and armors.

Iruka and those with him had by this point started throwing spells and blades at the attacking forces, mostly focusing on the giants or the wizards behind them as the trolls had largely gotten too close to the wall for them to target without leaning out the windows and exposing themselves too much to return-fire. The chuunin himself was sticking to kunai and shuriken for now, knowing that his relatively meager magical skills wouldn't amount to much against these targets. Unfortunately, the range was still too great for his blades to have much penetrating power, though he'd managed to at least annoy the giants somewhat through the use of flash bombs and explosive tags. Anything that kept those spell-resistant behemoths at a distance for longer bought time for the ballista and the more powerful casters on the defense to make a difference.

Overhead the aerial battle continued, though after the initial clashes both sides were being much more cautious. A pair of defenders peeled away briefly before returning to their formation, and a few moments later chaos erupted among the attacking ground forces in the form of what were recognizably WWW-brand fireworks. Unlike the ones available in the twins' shop, however, these didn't seem to operate at safely cool temperatures judging by the number of robed figures that were now on fire. With the attackers thoroughly distracted and disorganized, Iruka and a few other de-facto unit commanders directed their groups' spellfire at the attacking witches and wizards.

The fireworks only lasted about half a minute, and after the noise from them died off Voldemort's magically-amplified voice boomed over the battlefield: "Enough of this cowardice! Charge the castle, smash open the gates, and crush these mudbloods and blood-traitors!" There was a momentary pause, before the attacking forces surged forward. This drew the defenders' fire away from the trolls, but they were still occupied with the statuary, being too dim-witted to remember their actual objectives or orders when there were targets to smash.

Between the defenders' increasing desperation and the sheer volume of fire only two of the giants actually made it to the front doors, which they promptly began working to bash in. Thanks to the ancient spells laid when the doors were first installed and the far more recent additions by the defenders, the iron-banded wood was only marginally less durable than the surrounding stonework, but that just meant that it would take the giants a bit of time to break through.

While the giants were busily swinging their clubs against the doors the wizards around them began trading fire with the defenders, spreading out along the walls in search of targets, though some also ended up embroiled in the trolls' battle, blasting aside animated statues or frantically shielding against sword-wielding suits of armor. Small groups broke off, keeping their distance as they warily circled around towards the castle's other doors; Iruka assumed they were meant to try and slip in a back way and/or keep the defenders from sallying forth or escaping.

At this range, Iruka's kunai and shuriken were inflicting serious damage, at least on the human attackers, but as on previous occasions the Dark wizards quickly adapted by using simple shield spells to block them. Narrowing his eyes, he took a few seconds to prep something he'd been thinking about since the night of the graveyard incident, then hurled several handfuls of kunai towards one of the more aggressive clumps of attackers. Only one blade actually caught flesh, sinking into the foot of someone who'd positioned their shield just a little too high, while the rest either sailed past the group, landed short, or bounced off their shields.

One of the shielding wizards laughed. "Pathetic!" he shouted, "You really think your Muggle knives can-"

He'd never get to finish his taunt, as Iruka had brought his hand up into a half-ram seal and flared his chakra, detonating the explosive tags attached to every one of the kunai he'd just thrown. The forward facing shields might have been able to hold against the blasts from the deflected and short throws, but they offered no protection whatsoever from the long throws, leaving the group of attacking wizards caught between two sets of explosive shockwaves. When the smoke cleared only a few were still moving feebly, but Iruka knew that without immediate and major healing they'd soon join their fellows.

Given the fact that Death Eaters and their supporters weren't exactly known for their altruism, Iruka doubted there were more than a handful of trained healers or medics in their entire force. Even if they didn't know it yet, these men were already dead.

Iruka was forced to duck back, sharp fragments of stone from the window frame grazing his cheek and lip, as other attackers retaliated for his little stunt. He could feel blood start to trickle down his face, but knew the cuts were too minor to worry about.

The defensive spellfire started to taper off as more and more defenders were either hit or forced to keep their heads down by return-fire, and with the giants so close to the castle wall the ballista couldn't bear on them any more. Both sides were close enough together that air support was no longer much help to either of them, so most of the broom-riders had landed and dismounted to join their respective comrades on the ground, though a few remained circling warily on guard outside the range of enemy spells.

A loud CRACK accompanied the boom of one of the giants' club-strikes, announcing that the front doors were beginning to surrender under the sustained assault. This prompted a surge of renewed fire from the defenders, desperation driving them from cover to try and keep the Dark forces at bay, but it was too little, too late. The sound of the doors shattering echoed throughout the castle, soon followed by the roar of men and trolls charging forward and the shouts and screams of combat.

The Battle For Hogwarts had begun.


A/N: Because it would bog the story down to list out everyone in the force working with Iruka: Arthur, Molly, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Ron, Ginny, Sirius, Remus, Harry, Hermione, Augusta, Neville, Xeno, Pandora, Luna, and Tonks

Fic Recommendation: "The Quiet Fox" by TheBeardedOne - A young Naruto earns the gratitude of the Hyuuga clan, and he and Hinata become legends in the making.

Posted 15 March 2020