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.


Near the Hospital Wing, a large classroom had been cleared of its contents by the House Elves and now held dozens of simple conjured pallets laid out in neat rows. About a third of these pallets had been filled by this point, and it was around one in particular that Iruka and those under his command were gathered in support of their own.

Lying on the pallet was Arthur Weasley. He looked for all the world as if he were simply asleep, until one noticed his unnatural stillness and realized that his chest did not rise and fall with breath. For all the evil required to cast it, the Killing Curse was surprisingly merciful both in how swiftly it killed and in how it left the body unmarked. Many of the filled pallets were covered with blankets, and some of the shapes underneath were not immediately recognizable as human.

Molly was weeping, held in the strong arms of her two eldest sons and surrounded by her other children. Everyone else had surrounded the family, and few had dry eyes. Arthur had been a doting father, loving husband, faithful friend, and a generally kind and gentle person; very few people truly disliked the man, and most of those were on the other side of the night's battle.

"Daddy..." Ginny's voice was small, sounding far younger than her fifteen years as she and Luna clung to each other for comfort. "Why?"

"It's your fault!" The angry shout drew all eyes to where Ron was being held back by the twins as he glared at Iruka with tears streaming down his flushed face. "Your plan, your fault! If we'd had a better plan, if we'd just stayed back where it was safe-"

"RON!" Bill's sharp yell cut across his brother's tirade. "Stop. Just... stop. Before you say another word, before you hurt Mum any more, I want you to really think about what happened and why. Remember what Mr. Nara tells you about strategy with a clear head."

"Bloody show him 'troublesome'..." Ron muttered as he scowled angrily, before he closed his eyes and took several slow, deep breaths. Finally, he opened his eyes again, brow still furrowed. "It was a good idea. Risky, yeah, but not really different from any other fighting. Good chance of taking down a lot of enemy troops and gaining some ground without fighting bad odds." His frown deepened. "We all agreed to go. We knew the risks, no, we thought we knew them. Shikamaru keeps saying nobody really understands what war's like without fighting in one... I thought the fights we'd had earlier tonight was what he meant. This is what he was talking about, isn't it? It's like it's not really real when it's just people you don't know getting killed..." He shook himself, refocusing. "Looking back, we've been lucky up 'til now. We're good, yeah, but all it takes is one stray curse you don't catch in time. When there's spells flying everywhere, stuff exploding, people screaming, you don't really see anything but what's right in front of you - it's easy to miss stuff."

The ginger teen turned to Iruka. "I'm sorry, Sensei. Your plan was solid, and we all agreed with it. Dad-" He choked up for a moment. "Dad just got a bit of rotten luck. It's horrible, it's wrong, but one bit of shit luck is all it takes to die. Only people's fault this is are You-Know-Who and the people following him."

Bill put a firm hand on his brother's shoulder, offering up a proud, watery smile and pulling him into the hug with their mother.

"He'd be so proud of you, Ronnie," Molly said tearfully. "All seven of you, so brave and clever and good." She turned to Iruka, a fire lighting in her red-rimmed eyes. "But he wouldn't want us lollygagging here when we could be back out there helping people." Her expression spoke more of vengeance than altruism, and Iruka was about to comment when Xeno beat him to it.

"We should all take extra care, though," the journalist said firmly. "While I'm sure Arthur will miss all of you where he is now, he'd not be happy with any of you going to join him before your time. Let's all watch out for ourselves and each other as best we can." He gave the older Weasley brothers a meaningful look, getting resolute nods of understanding in reply.

While the rest of the group pulled themselves together and got ready to return to the battle, Iruka headed to the command center. He reported his group as ready for another "stitching attack", and worked with the command staff to find another route to use. The forward defensive position they'd enabled with their first excursion had since reported enemy contact, so they had to assume that the attackers were by now aware that something had been done to eliminate the forces pressing that area. Other enemy positions could therefore be assumed to be more wary and prepared for counteroffensives. This plan had been risky from the start, as Arthur's death so tragically demonstrated, but now the danger had likely been raised even further.

Eventually, they hit upon an idea that would make the return attack a bit more viable. Instead of taking the direct route between two nearby positions, they'd opt for a more roundabout path and a more distant target. Even if the enemy was warier now, they weren't likely to pay much attention to goings-on at any but the nearest pockets of fighting (aside from the main front, of course). That, combined with coming in from a direction their targets would assume to be safe and secure, would improve their chances of once again attacking with surprise on their side. With all this in mind, Iruka and those helping him were able to plot out a path between two positions that actually took them down to the Ground Floor for quite a ways but would hopefully pay off with a less costly victory than their first attempt.

The others were mostly composed again by the time the chuunin returned, though there was a hard look in many of the more red-rimmed eyes that did not bode well for anyone on the other side. He explained the route to them, making sure that everybody knew where they'd be going. Since they'd be outside friendly territory for much longer this run, he also took the time to arrange a simple formation with himself out in front as a scout/skirmisher, the trio of Sirius at the front and Remus and Tonks as a rearguard to make best use of their sharper-than-normal senses and strong duelling skills.

As a further elaboration on the original plan, a second group of fighters had been pulled from wherever they could be spared. This second force of eight witches and wizards would assist at both ends of the mission, travelling between the two along a shorter path within friendly territory and staying out of sight of the enemy until battle was joined in hopes of maintaining surprise. Further, several of the defenders at the exit position had been pulled back slightly to give the appearance of having been called elsewhere. It certainly worked well on their way out, as the attackers were caught still planning their push through the "weakened" defenses and were totally unprepared to face a group ten times the size of what they expected. Three dozen Light fighters easily swept the small Dark band aside with the combination of surprise and overwhelming force.

A staircase hidden behind an old tapestry (depicting a battle against a long-past Dark Lord, aptly enough) took them down to the Ground Floor, where they immediately headed away from the battle front. During one of Iruka's trips forward to scout, his instincts began nagging at him that something was wrong. A noise off to his left drew his attention and he turned, burying a thrown kunai in the heart of a haggard-looking black-robed young wizard that had been emerging from an alcove with his wand raised.

The fresh corpse had only just begun to collapse when the chuunin's danger sense screamed at him to MOVE. He spun to the side, barely avoiding a spell as the hulking, bestial wizard that had cast it barreled into him. Iruka's right forearm came up under his attacker's chin, holding back the inhumanly long and sharp teeth snapping just short of his face, while his left grabbed the man's wand and squeezed hard enough to crush it. As the two continued to fall, he brought a knee up between their bodies.

Even if Iruka's body was resilient enough to take the blow without serious injury, being tackled hard onto a bare stone floor was never going to be pleasant, and he felt the air forced from his lungs by the weight of his assailant. A moment later, he took advantage of the inevitable slight bounce to kick out with the leg he'd brought up, tossing the brute off. Sucking in a greedy breath, the chuunin kipped back to his feet facing his attacker.

The large, hirsute figure turned his own tumble into a controlled roll, deftly rising to stand hunched forward slightly with his legs spread for stability. Now that he had a moment to think and process, Iruka recognized his adversary as Fenrir Greyback, the infamous werewolf criminal responsible for infecting Remus Lupin and a number of other children. Greyback looked down at his shattered wand and snarled angrily, his features and bearing animalistic even this close to the new moon. "You'll pay for that, wizard," he growled.

Iruka noted in disgust that he seemed far angrier about the loss of his wand than the death of a comrade that the chuunin now realized was probably also a fellow lycanthrope.

No more words were exchanged. The feral werewolf threw the remains of his wand aside and charged with his arms out and wide, ready to either tackle Iruka in a bear hug or bring his claw-like nails into play.

To most witches or wizards, Fenrir Greyback was a terrifying opponent. It wasn't just his ferocity, or the resistance to magic he'd gained by embracing his curse; it wasn't just his enhanced speed, strength, senses, and durability. He was also cunning, ruthless, and resourceful enough to have survived and even thrived for over two decades with a death warrant hanging over him - using one of his own subordinates as bait to distract his prey was a clear demonstration of this. All of these contributed, of course, but the biggest issue was that typical witches and wizards were virtually helpless in close quarters. Thus, they would have either frozen or fruitlessly attempted to backpedal and keep the range open.

Umino Iruka wasn't a typical wizard.

Greyback's speed and strength were nothing to sneeze at, certainly (Iruka had felt that strength first-hand) and he had decades of experience in fighting. Unfortunately for the werewolf, his intended prey was also an experienced fighter and had something he lacked - training. For all of the bestial wizard's viciousness, he was still little more than an animalistic brawler that relied more on overwhelming his opponents with power and ferocity. Iruka, by contrast, had plenty of training in close-quarters combat and had sparred against a variety of different opponents including more than one Inuzuka. That clan's specialized taijutsu style may have looked wild and bestial, and to a degree it was, but it was also the result of many generations of refinement to cull as many obvious openings and weaknesses as possible while exploiting its wildness to make its users difficult to predict and counter. Compared to that, Greyback might as well have owl-posted this attack a week in advance.

The chuunin drew a kunai with each hand, holding the left one in a reverse grip. As Greyback lunged for him, Iruka ducked forward and to his right, pushing the werewolf's left arm up with a slash from his right-hand blade while the left-hand kunai struck across his opponent's belly. Disemboweled and with a major artery severed the feral wizard was already a dead man, but that didn't mean he wasn't still dangerous; countless fighters throughout history had discovered to their cost that "mortally wounded" doesn't always mean "incapacitated" or "harmless". Iruka knew this, and took advantage of his adversary's moment of shock to pivot on his left foot, brace the pommel of his left kunai with his right, and drive the blade in at the base of the man's skull to put him down quickly and cleanly.

If one discounted the werewolf's verbal threat, the entire fight had taken less than ten seconds.

Given the curse both of the dead men had borne, Iruka wasn't willing to risk infecting himself from their blood, so the kunai still in his hand was promptly discarded. He had hundreds more in his magically-expanded holsters. There was a bit of damage to the right shoulder of his vest where Greyback had grabbed him during his initial tackle, but the armored cloth had done its job and kept the werewolf's sharp claws from reaching him. He also had a few specks of fresh blood that he could see on his clothing, so given the risks Xeno had mentioned after Pandora's accident he decided to just burn them away with small fire spells rather than try to vanish or clean them. It would leave a couple of new holes in his sleeve, but better that than some accident from mixing magics.

More pressing, however, was to get back to the others. When a scout gets attacked, the main force needs to know about it and soon. Iruka hustled back as quickly as he could while watching out for further ambushes. Thankfully when he got there nothing seemed to have happened at that end.

Sirius certainly noticed his burned sleeve and damaged vest, however. "What happened?" he asked worriedly.

"Just a slight ambush," the chuunin replied calmly, "but I dealt with both of them. Fenrir Greyback won't be hurting anyone again." His voice took on a hard edge with that sentence.

More than one pair of eyes widened at that flat declaration. "You- he- what?" Remus croaked out.

Iruka shrugged. "I was a bad opponent for him. He probably didn't expect someone that he couldn't immediately overwhelm in-close. Granted, he did catch me a bit by surprise - used one of his own minions as an expendable decoy to distract me - but he didn't capitalize as well as he could have. What I'm more worried about is whether there are any more enemy fighters around us."

"We should stick together," Neville said firmly. "Even if there are more of them out there, we're better off working together than trying to spread out hunting for enemies that might or might not be nearby."

"If there's more of 'em, we'll have to fight them at some point no matter what," Ron observed. "So we could stay here waiting for them, turn back, push forward, or change course. Staying here's a bad idea; if there's more coming it'll give them time to organize and plan, and if there's nobody else we'd be sitting here like lumps for nothing. Going back's not much better - we might be able to get back through where we came out, but if they're chasing us they probably know where we already hit and sent more people there. I'd say continuing on's probably best, since that's at least harder to predict where we'd go and we know we'll have backup if we make it to the other end."

"That's my thinking as well," Iruka agreed with a nod. "We need to push forward, but stick together and stay alert."

It was this very alertness that probably saved many of their lives a few minutes later. They were creeping along the edge of one of the various courtyards dotted around the Ground Floor when it happened. Those watching out above for enemy broom-riders and the like were the first to spot it, but the coruscating yellow-white spell was so large and blazingly bright against the darkness of the cloudy, moonless night that everyone's gaze snapped upwards almost immediately. With all of them so tense and ready, shields were promptly cast... just in time to be utterly shattered by the spell that tossed their casters all over the courtyard. Iruka suspected that he and Harry were probably some of the only ones to have seen the shadowy figure floating about where the spell had been cast from.

As he rolled to his feet against the far wall of the courtyard (which had now been expanded to include some of what had previously been adjoining classroom and hallway), Iruka saw what looked like a pillar of black smoke streak down to the ground near where Harry was also rising, wand in hand. At the same time, four white spikes embedded themselves into the stone in a rough rectangular formation around the pair. The smoke promptly vanished to reveal Voldemort, who shot a spell at the nearest of the spikes. Each of the four spikes was immediately surrounded by a dome of swirling, poisonous violet light, and these domes then emitted a box of the same light to form four walls and a roof around Harry and Voldemort. The space enclosed was a bit shy of ten meters long, four meters wide, and three meters high. Iruka's heart sank as he recognized it as a barrier similar to the one used by the Sound Four to entrap the Third Hokage with Orochimaru, the Shishienjin, though the inanimate anchors and the domes around them suggested it wasn't that exact jutsu.

"Nobody touch the barrier!" the chuunin shouted frantically, though most of the others were still picking themselves up. For a few moments everyone seemed to pause, before Voldemort broke the spell (figuratively).

"Hello again, Harry," the ophidian wizard said congenially, "you don't mind if I call you Harry, do you?"

"Not at all, Tom," the teen replied with a smile faker than Sai at his worst and his wand pointed straight at his opponent's heart.

Voldemort snarled and snapped off a spell whose color was difficult to determine through the barrier, and Harry dodged smoothly, allowing it to splash harmlessly against the barrier behind him. Iruka noted that his wand looked to be of a different design than the one he'd held in Harry's memory of the graveyard; presumably he'd gotten a replacement somewhere. "Show respect, boy," the Dark Lord hissed.

"I do, if people earn it," Harry snarked back.

That seemed to tap out Riddle's store of patience and diplomacy as his eyes narrowed. "I had thought to offer you a quick and merciful death, but your insolence has changed My mind. I am not just going to kill you," he spat, "I am going to destroy you and parade your broken body before all those fools still daring to resist My reign. With Dumbledore apparently indisposed and their precious 'Boy-Who-Lived' dead, they will recognize that I cannot be beaten. Their resistance will finally crumble and all of Britain and then all of Wizardkind shall kneel before Lord Voldemort!"

Harry didn't respond verbally, instead choosing the moment Riddle seemed distracted in his boasting to cast what looked like a Gouging Spell. Voldemort parried of course, and a moment later curses were flying back and forth with deadly intent. Iruka tried throwing a kunai at Voldemort, and a lot of others present threw spells, but unsurprisingly the barrier blocked them all.

Bill immediately ran to the corner nearest him and began examining the anchor there, and Iruka joined him. Upon closer inspection, the anchor was covered with sealing script painted in glistening blood and finely-engraved runes. The spike itself looked to be made of bone, but it shone as if still wet and fresh. What Iruka could see of the seals seemed to be based on the barrier he'd used against Riddle's snake in the graveyard along with some clever links to the runic arrays, which were in turn vaguely similar to the sample warding setups he'd seen when learning Runes. He couldn't see the entire thing, and much of the rune-work was more than he could grasp from a quick glance. Judging by Bill's increasingly angry expression, however, there wasn't going to be an easy way to bring the barrier down.

"It's no good," the eldest Weasley son spat, seemingly unfazed by the lethal spells striking the barrier only a meter or so away. "I don't know about the seals, but the rest looks like an independently-keyed necro-linked ward array. Unless he's made a stupid mistake somewhere, it'd take me a full team and at least two or three hours to bring this down without finding the offsite components, and that's assuming the sealing work didn't complicate things further."

He was just opening his mouth so say more when Iruka tackled him to the ground, allowing a Blood-Boiling Curse to streak through where they'd been crouched moments before. Death Eaters were pouring into the courtyard, engaging Iruka's scattered force in a chaotic mess of spellfire. Knowing they'd be no help to Harry if they got themselves cursed in the back, Iruka and Bill sprang back to their feet and joined the battle in earnest.


A/N: I'm still here, just managed to forget to post yesterday. With my wife working from home for the foreseeable future, days of the week are far less distinct than they used to be.

Hoping you're all keeping safe and sane in these crazy times.

Fic Recommendation: "A Crime Fitting the Punishment or Dumbledore's Monster" by Diresquirrel - Albus Dumbledore gets a visit from a much older, much darker Harry Potter.

Posted 30 March 2020