Chapter 19
True to her word, Akari let Harry be his own boy.
She was surprised and even a little dismayed at just how well he handled not having her support, which probably stemmed from her disappearing regularly for weeks, if not months. He'd even abandoned the Senbon she'd given him and had his hair cut far shorter by one of the few students still in Hogwarts for the holidays. The first time he got literally buried under mail when Akari stopped filtering it was pretty amusing, though maybe she and Narcissa hadn't quite thought far enough ahead to think of his reaction to learning that she'd been filtering his mail in the first place.
When he'd gotten angry at her for going through his mail when they ran into each other in a corridor, she merely pointed out all the dangerous mail he would have received had she not filtered it out, bringing one of the cursed envelopes out and having a Shadow Clone demonstrate by being turned inside out before disappearing with a puff of smoke. He still was angry that she'd been interfering with his mail, but it was clear from the 'death' of that Shadow Clone he was a bit shaken, his first realization that for all that the Wizarding Public loved the Boy-Who-Lived, there were those who would rather him be dead.
Lucius would probably be one of those if they didn't have a truce. But what was a rather major problem was actually getting the word to Voldemort that if he attacked Harry he would probably find his soul torn to shreds. She couldn't just go up to Quirrell and...actually, why the hell not? he was staying in Hogwarts over Christmas, and so with no students around it was the easiest time to confront him.
Since she couldn't see anything negative, that was the new plan.
Akari switched out with the Shadow Clone watching Quirrell, the memories received telling her that he was just walking down the next corridor.
With silent movements and a shroud of invisibility Akari zipped after him, eventually spotting what she knew was an empty classroom and dropping from the ceiling where she was walking to land beside Quirrell, snatching him and immediately pulling them both into the classroom, closing the door then using a seal-less Doton Jutsu to raise the floor into the way of the door, all before the man could even turn around. "What is the mea-" His words died upon seeing two things.
First was the previously unblocked door, and secondly was the fact that Akari was now visibly sitting atop the stone now blocking said door. "The meaning of this is pretty simple. Your followers, and no, I'm not talking about you Quirrell, have negotiated a truce with me, not that you have any idea who I am, do you Voldemort?" Slipping off the rock, Akari avoided the blasting curse Quirrell sent her way, using her speed and her Sharingan to casually almost dance between bolts of light from different spells before she snatched his wand right out of hand, her other hand reaching up and tugging away his Turban.
She twirled the wooden wand between her fingers before tossing it into her inventory, then snatched the end of the Turban when it whipped up towards her throat. "That's a pretty neat trick." She spoke casually, before gripping the other side of the end of the Turban, then tore it all the way down the middle, sending the two torn halves into her inventory with a contemptuous toss. "Now then, if you're quite done throwing a hissy-fit at being found, maybe we can get down to business. I want you to leave Harry and I alone, and in return, as long as nothing too extreme happens, well, I don't much care what happens to the Wizarding World."
"Kill her or flee you fool." She heard hissed words from the back of Quirrell's head, making her sigh. The man proved his aptitude for the Dark Arts as well as spellcasting by wandlessly and wordlessly casting a banishing charm, then a Reducto, all the while approaching the windows in the room. Sighing, Akari zipped out of view of Quirrell to the window behind him, getting her first look at Voldemorts face latched onto the back of Quirrell's bald head.
"Are you even listening to me, you fucking Frankenstein freak of a creature?" She clamped her hand onto Quirrell's shoulder, forcing him to stay turned around so she could face Voldemort directly. "Because I just fucking told you I don't care what happens, ergo you can do whatever you like as long as you leave me and Harry alone...and a few others as well. Maybe that whole soul-splitting thing messed with your head more than you thought?"
That brought the disembodied Dark Lord up short, his eyes narrowing as he glared at her. "You dare to claim knowledge of this? To me?! I am one who knows of the Dark Arts more than any living being, besides maybe that blasted Grindelwald. You know not of what you speak." He hissed at her, making her roll her eyes.
It was obvious whatever Charisma the man had originally possessed to form the Death Eaters had been lost through his death, or perhaps the possession, but either way, he was not even remotely sane. "Well, I know that your Horcruxes anchor your soul to this plane. So...-" Akari brought the Naraka Path into existence behind herself, her hands still firmly holding Quirrell's shoulders. "-what happens if I tear your soul to pieces and feed it to the King of Hell himself? Do you come back fragmented, your mind shattered into pieces? Will you come back at all?"
The once-feared man began spouting spoken curses, unfulfillable demands and hissing at Akari, leading her to use the Human Path to pull his soul out of the back of Quirrell's head, contemptuously tossing it to the Naraka Path who latched onto it and yanked him inside, snapping its jaws shut and cutting his furious yells off entirely. "I-is it over?" She heard Quirrell say hesitantly.
Turning to face him, she saw that he was far more passive than before, his eyes flickering around the room, but this time it seemed he wasn't acting. "Yeah, Voldemort probably won't be coming back again, not with his soul currently being digested by the King of Hell. Now then, what to do with you..." Akari tapped her fingers against her arm, smirking as the man shimmied backwards.
"I-I swear I didn't want to do all of this, he just...h-his words were so...the Imperius. Please, he must have used the Imperius on me!" She narrowed her eyes before having the King of Hell latch onto Quirrell's life-force, smirking at his shocked face. "W-what is this?"
She patted the side of the giant face. "This is the King of Hell's arguably strongest ability. How it works I can't be bothered to explain, but suffice to say, it's not pleasant to run afoul of the conditions. So, you say you were under the Imperious Curse, correct?" He nodded, immediately screaming as the Naraka Path began pulling his life-force away. "Oh, it seems not. Looks like you were trying to cover your own behind when your master got his soul torn apart. Well, I don't much like liars, so while I'd say it's a shame, I don't like to lie, it'd make me a hypocrite...well, more of one than I already am."
She waited for his life-force to be drawn out before catching and sealing the newly-made corpse, throwing the tag into her inventory where it'd be lost amongst the myriad of items she'd accumulated over the years. As she went to close her inventory, she remembered that she'd obtained the Elder Wand, pulling the powerful artifact out. With a little energy pushed through it, she cast a non-verbal levitation charm on a nearby desk, smirking at how...easy it was.
So it was true that the Elder Wand was obscenely powerful. If she'd done that with her normal wand or her staff it would have taken far more energy...still an utterly negligible amount since she had nearly two-million points to spend, but maybe it'd be useful for some fun spells. She still wanted to create a golem the size of Kurama, just because it'd be fun to make. Then again, considering his size had increased drastically once he absorbed the Juubi, maybe she'd stick with only making a golem as big as how large he used to be.
Still considerably large, but at least not earthquake-inducing.
"What have you done...?"
Akari shrugged, leaning back on her chair. "What I've done is killed a disembodied spectre of a man who was insane, irrational and illogical. If he comes back from what I did then I'd be impressed, and I'd be more impressed if he retained any significant portions of his memory. And if he comes back insane again, I'm writing him off as a lost cause and going Horcrux hunting." Lucius pinched the bridge of his nose, forcefully exhaling to calm himself down. "Listen to me Lucius, he was insane, irrational and illogical, nothing like what you've vaguely let me know he used to be like. If he came back, I would have been forced to step in because no matter what he would have attacked Harry. Besides, he was all but demanding that Quirrell kill me even after I said I don't care about the Wizarding World, that seems like fair game for me to kill him back."
"I suppose that does sound like something our Dark Lord wouldn't do, not even in his most...unstable of days. I...this is quite honestly breaking faith in my Lord, but if what you have told me is true, and I have never known you to lie for no reason, then I'd like you to have something." Lucius snapped his fingers, ordering Dobby to retrieve 'the book', before focusing on her once again. "This was entrusted to me by the Dark Lord, but if it turns out that he is as deranged as you say, then having this against him would be proper insurance that he takes your warnings seriously."
Dobby re-appeared clutching a book, hesitantly handing it to Akari at the man's request. Looking at it with the Rinnegan she saw it dripped with darkness, leading her to the reasoned assumption that it was a Horcrux. "Is there anything I should be wary of?"
Lucius looked thoughtful for a moment. "Perhaps you could awaken Voldemort by using this diary. As I was lead to believe, it was supposedly cleverly charmed to bewitch the person who wrote in it to re-open the Chamber of Secrets, but as I now believe it to be a Horcrux, perhaps by having somebody write in the diary and become bewitched would allow the soul fragment to awaken." Akari considered it.
On one hand, she wanted to know if Voldemort's soul would still be able to return after being torn to shreds, but on the other hand, she could just incinerate the diary and be done with the blasted idiot. She did give her word to Lucius and Mordecai though that she would leave they and their lord alone if she and Harry were left alone, so in the end she inventoried the diary, already thinking of people she could force to use the diary. Nobody important of course, maybe she could hop back to Konoha and 'borrow' a T&I prisoner, or perhaps just steal a prisoner from Azkaban.
She still needed to perform an incursion over there to visit a certain Black after all.
As it turned out, finding Azkaban was honestly the hardest part of the plan.
It wasn't nearly as easy as finding information of where Mordecai was holed up, he was comparatively small-fry compared to Azkaban's location. Instead of breaking into the Ministry again for potentially no gains, Akari instead made her way across the North Sea scouting for the location. While it was Unplottable, that didn't mean it was undetectable, even with how bad Akari's sensing skill was.
How? Because of the Dementors. They were practically beacons of negativity, so even before she hit the north coast of Scotland she had Kurama telling her that somewhere far north of her was a maelstrom of darkness, negativity and depression, one he could feel from such a long way away. He could feel a few in the Ministry, but they were exceptionally weak compared to the Azkaban Dementors, probably because they got far less 'food'.
Whatever the case, the Dementors basically acted like a giant homing beacon of darkness, leading her straight to the island. As a precaution, the island seemed to be protected with solid wards, though a quick absorption from the Preta Path opened a hole for her to slip inside, the large triangular prism prison stood starkly atop barren earth which was lashed with waves that crashed over the diminutive walls, their short stature providing scant protection from the harsh Hebridian waves.
Akari only had a little trouble running atop the waves, though it did bring up the question on whether the water-walking and wall-walking Jutsus could be taken a step further into air-walking, a question for later. She spotted a particularly-tall wave and moved to stand atop the crest, riding it all the way over the Azkaban perimeter walls and landing in the midst of the courtyard, quickly moving to the main prison before a wave could crash over her.
To everyone else, nothing was amiss, it was just another wave, because as per usual she was invisible, and crossing her fingers that Mad-Eye Moody wasn't assigned prison duty. She'd done her research, and apparently the only person who knew about the eye was Mad-Eye himself, and he'd obliviated the knowledge from his own mind so it couldn't be recovered. Akari was sure the Human Path would be able to recover it, as Obliviation was able to be undone through torture according to Narcissa, but she had no need to.
A bit of a problem she'd encountered near-instantly though were the Dementors. Even outside of vision and hidden by Nature Chakra, they could still sense her emotions, several drifting towards her and making her begin to remember things like her team dying, her first death, watching Minato die in front of her. Needless to say they were the perfect targets for her first attempt to kill an Amortal creature.
Akari jumped away from the building towards the nearest Dementor, her hand snatching the throat of the startled beast. She channelled the Human Path and tore away a fabric-like strand of what looked like pure darkness from the Dementor as she kicked off and landed back on the side of the prison. She then summoned the King of Hell and threw the strand into its mouth, watching with no small amount of satisfaction as the black cloak of the Dementor drifted unsupported to the grounds below. She then dashed to each of the other Dementors faster than they could even react to the death of their comrade and of the startled beast. She channelled the Human Path and tore away a fabric-like strand of what looked like pure darkness from the Dementor as she kicked off and landed stole what remained of their souls, effectively killing each of the happiness-fed creatures.
Making her way up the side of the prison, Akari killed any Dementor that came close, smirking when she saw the creatures drifting warily around but not getting close. Evidently she'd scared them enough and made them realize attacking her would lead to their death, a concept that the Dementors had never known occur to one of their number before. She wasn't interested in needlessly killing creatures who were forced to intake human happiness to survive, it would be like condemning a lion for needing to kill and eat other animals to survive. That didn't mean she thought they were anything but dark creatures, they undoubtedly were, but they weren't that way by choice.
Since she didn't know anything much about Azkaban, Akari picked a random floor to breach, using a Doton Jutsu to tear away then replace the wall. She subdued the practically-dead prisoner in the cell she'd entered, looking them over before humming and sealing their unconscious body into a sealing tag and throwing it into her inventory. She'd looked up some of the people sent to Azkaban, and he looked vaguely like a Death Eater convicted for raping a Muggle girl repeatedly and using the Imperious to control her for several weeks before he was caught. If that was the case, she had absolutely no qualms about forcing him to write in the Horcrux diary.
She laid her hand against the door and shoved it open with a shriek of protesting metal, immediately setting off at a fast run and darting through corridors, her Sharingan working overtime to recognize prisoners, searching for only a few in particular. Akari stopped several times to snatch prisoners she recognized as having done reprehensible crimes, just in case she needed more than one test subject.
Only a minute or two after she'd breached the cell door, she found her target, a moustached man with morbidly-gaunt cheeks under matted black hair. She watched him roll his head up to peer at her as she glanced in through the bars, his head dipping back down without a word. "Well now, that just won't do." Snatching ahold of the bars on the door, Akari ripped the entire thing off it's rusted, unused hinges, tossing it aside with a horrendous clang. "I have but one question for you before I end your life...why'd you do it?"
She saw confusion scrunch up on the mans face as he observed her. Akari did note that he seemed utterly unafraid of her, even after her show of absurd physical strength. He parted his lips, but his voice was a mere croaky noise, his lips closing again with a shake of his head. Akari rolled her eyes and shifted an arm behind herself, withdrawing a bottle of water then tossing it at him, watching him stare at her for a moment before flipping the lid and squirting a little of the water onto his hand before...sniffing it, eventually taking a sip then practically downing the bottle in moments. "Ahh." He exclaimed after he finished drinking, wiping his mouth. "Do what?"
With thinned eyes, she gestured at the cell. "Why'd you do the exact thing that got you in here? Why'd you betray James and Lily?" She wasn't expecting the sudden burst of speed as he bolted upright, his hand trying to reach for her neck. But especially with her Sharingan watching him, she had more than enough time to snatch his wrist and wrench it around, breaking it easily. "Answer me or I'll force them out of you with no input on your part."
"Then don't you dare insinuate that I did anything. I never betrayed James or Lily, I would have died first. They changed their secret keeper to Peter, the blasted rat! We should have known he was a treacherous rat! Blasted rat!" The man said with convulsions every time he called Pettigrew a rat. Akari snuck a glance at his wrist, and sure enough, it was still broken, the man either had impressive tolerance to pain or could ignore it entirely somehow.
With a click of her fingers she caught his half-mad eyes again, watching them widen as the King of Hell appeared behind her. "If you could repeat that you never betrayed James and Lily, I'd have confirmation of your truth. But-" She quickly interjected before he could speak. "-if you lie, you die, it's as simple as that, so I'd recommend not trying to trick me." The man repeated what he said, and sure enough, he wasn't killed by the Naraka Path, which led her to believe he was telling the truth. "Well then, if you'd like to step inside, I'll get you cleaned up."
When the man showed hesitance, she just made the King of Hell disappear and re-emerge behind him, shoving him in and activating the healing ability of the Naraka Path, only a few scant seconds later spitting out a fully-healed Sirius Black. His hair was still utterly unkempt, but his skin was now no longer waxy and pallid, nor were his eyes sunken-in. "What the hell was that?!" He yelled, immediately touching his throat when his voice, a far more commanding and deep voice bellowed out.
"That was the King of Hell, and it just healed all your ailments, returning you to physical normalcy. Well, with certain exceptions." She gestured at her own hair with a smirk, the action drawing his attention to her arms. "Oh, I could fix these if I wanted, but they are quite convenient. I do draw a line at actually cutting my own limbs off of course, but if I get injured I don't have a qualm about replacing parts of myself to be more durable and less inefficient. Now then...-" Akari created a Shadow Clone and slapped a Hiraishin Tag onto it. "-if you could take my clones hand, she'll take you to a safe place for you to wait until I'm done here."
She watched him look between her and the Shadow Clone for a moment before stepping towards her and...hugging her? "Thank you." He muttered quietly before stepping back and taking ahold of the Shadow Clone, disappearing with a crimson flash. She'd given the clone several days worth of Chakra, so she could easily stay in Azkaban for a while before having to go back and make sure he hadn't accidentally lit his hair on fire with the stove or something.
Akari laid an invisible Hiraishin tag on the ceiling, then made a Shadow Clone equipped with a receiver seal who Henged into Sirius Black and went to go sit in the corner. Now nobody would immediately realize the switch, giving her time to figure out what the fuck she was going to do. She'd come to get some good old fashioned revenge for Toki's parents, as well as learn what really happened that night, but that ended up becoming this dumpster fire. Now she had to hunt down Peter Pettigrew, who it was assumed Sirius Black killed along with a bunch of Muggles, in order to get revenge on him instead.
As she left Sirius' old cell and walked down the hallway, she caught sight of another inmate, one who tickled her memories faintly. She stepped up to the door and leaned backwards when a shiv parted the air her face was just in, reaching up and pulling the womans arm all the way out of the bars, trapping her torso against the door. "That was ill-advised." Akari disarmed the woman of the makeshift weapon and snorted as she picked it up. It was literally hewn from stone, and there were bits of blood on it, so she'd put effort into the crude weapon, probably crafting it with her own nails and perhaps even teeth. "You're Bellatrix Black then, sister to Narcissa and Andromeda. I'm friends with them you know, I wonder if they'd get annoyed if I killed their sister."
The woman tried to pull her arm back to no avail. "Like you've got the guts, foreign bitch. I wonder how much you had to suck Dumbledore's cock to get him to let you in he-aukh!" Akari shut her up by snatching her throat, snorting at her widening eyes as Akari used her knee as leverage to force the door open, trapping the woman behind it as it swung open.
"First off, I got in here under my own strength, so fuck you. Secondly, I probably have more kills under my belt than Voldemort and his little war. How many casualties in the First Wizarding War? Five-hundred? A thousand? Two? In my years of fighting I've probably killed far more than that, so don't think one more kill would affect me. And thirdly, if anyone wears the pants between me and Dumbledore, it certainly isn't that old twat." She gave the door a shove for good measure before letting it go.
When the woman lunged at her again, Akari sighed and whipped her fist out, her knuckles impacting Bellatrix's brow and shattering her skull, sending fragments straight into her insane little brain and killing her instantly. "And here I was hoping you'd see reason." With a shrug, she shook her hand off and left the cell, slamming the door shut behind herself. With that done, Akari went through the floor and killed a few other Death Eaters she recognized as having performed acts she really couldn't abide, capturing the worst ones to use if she needed them for anything, laying down Hiriashin beacons like flyers as she went.
She wasn't quite sure what was a worse fate, but she was pretty sure that being used by Akari was better than dying a slow death to depression from the dementors.
After clearing out some of the worst of the worst inmates, Akari teleported back home.
She could see Sirius sat awkwardly at one of the seats on her kitchen island, her clone preparing something on the counter. Akari took over, the clone dispersing and telling her exactly what Sirius had asked for when the clone had asked him if he wanted something to eat. Apparently he said yes, so her clone had begun making a beef broth.
Since that was just fine for someone recovering from starvation, she kept working on the broth, though maintained at least a little light conversation with the man. She was careful to avoid anything that could trigger him, as he had just spent a very long time in Azkaban after all, there was no telling what kind of serious emotional damage he'd sustained. Sure, she'd healed him, but only his body, his mind was entirely his own, not something the Naraka Path could fix.
When the broth was done, she placed a bowl in front of him and sat back to eat, or rather mostly drink, her own bowl of broth, watching him out of the corner of his eye as he took a sniff of his food before eating. Thankfully despite how he was probably very hungry he didn't try to scarf down the entire own in a single mouthful, that would have been pretty detrimental.
While she could have just given him the broth and had something from her inventory, she felt it'd be a bit...awkward to be having a proper meal while Sirius was stuck having just beef broth, a rather bland meal. She would have given him some proper food, but his stomach would probably be entirely unequipped to deal with it. She was stretching it by moving him from water to broth so quickly, but he hadn't been totally starved, just severely malnourished, which meant she needed to get his digestive system working properly again before he could enjoy proper foods.
After they'd finished, Akari got the full story from Sirius. Apparently, the original plan was for Sirius to be their secret-keeper, but he had believed at the time that the better plan would be for Peter to be the secret-keeper. Since everybody assumed Sirius was the secret-keeper, even to the current day, he would be targetted, meaning the secret would stay totally safe, as nobody knew who they true secret-keeper actually was.
But Peter betrayed them, telling the Dark Lord where the Potters were hiding. Since everyone thought Sirius was the secret-keeper, he was assumed to be the traitor and imprisoned after confronting Peter, who Sirius claimed must have faked his own death, for he was too cowardly to ever die to suicide. Why this never came out at trial was because Sirius never got an actual trial, he was tossed into Azkaban on the orders of the then-DMLE Head Barty Crouch Senior without trial for his alleged crimes. Since they'd found him at the scene of a massacre of muggles, that probably expedited things, plus it was in the midst of the chaos of Lily and James being killed and their son disappearing, with only Dumbledore assuring people that he was safe and cared for.
This turned the conversation onto Harry, which was when Akari revealed that she'd been looking after him for the past few years, though right now was his first year at Hogwarts. Saying that then lead to her actually admitting to being the Care for Magical Creatures professor, something that made Sirius stare at her for a good few moments before cracking up, slamming his fist against the table as he bellowed out laughter.
Apparently he assumed her to be either some kind of special foreign witch that an unknown benefactor had brought in to retrieve him, or something entirely unknown that he couldn't begin to theorize about. He never assumed she would actually be a teacher at Hogwarts, especially not CMC, not with her skill-set, she was more attributable to Charms or even DADA, though she did say that she'd taught that class for a year. Needless to say, he shut up when Akari summoned most of her companion animals, Bao in particular intimidating the man with his stature, even if he was just a big ball of fluff.
Akari did use that moment to observe him, noting that he was a level 90, exceptionally impressive. But it seemed as though levels didn't follow the same guidelines as in her original universe, since he certainly didn't possess enough strength to be nearly equal to Hiruzen, the old Kage would snap his arms back six ways to Sunday. That probably meant that levels indicated pure magical ability, since physicality was not something that the Wizarding World really subscribed to.
Since Bao would be able to put him through the floor despite only being around level 60, she wasn't surprised. With a wand in hand though Sirius would probably be able to easily keep the big panda back, not that she gave him one yet. He was still, after all, a freshly-freed ex-con, so who knew how he'd react to certain stimuli. The last thing Akari needed was for a new wall-sized window to be made because something spooked the man.
Akari didn't mention whether Harry would be coming here for Summer, because she honestly didn't know. He didn't seem to be too remorseful for what he said or did, so perhaps he really was happier being away from her. She thought herself to be a fairly good carer, since Naruto turned out just fine in her eyes, but maybe Harry was just too different, requiring more attention.
It might also have stemmed from the fact that she'd raised Naruto practically from birth, whereas Harry she'd only started looking after when he was seven, plenty of time for him to formulate his own mindset that perhaps adults couldn't be trusted. His home life would certainly lead him to that sort of conclusion. But that all didn't matter, what did matter was how Akari was going to actually introduce the man to his Godson.
That wasn't as easy as it appeared.
"I still think my plan was better."
Rolling her eyes, Akari turned to face Sirius as she walked backwards, whose hair was now tidied up and was currently wearing some nice clothes she'd taken him to buy from the Muggle World. "I don't care what you think, leave the plan-making to the one who has actually infiltrated the Ministry before. Besides, I don't have nearly enough funds for that many fireworks, even mundane ones."
Akari snorted when Sirius drooped his head. The biggest problem with introducing Harry and Sirius was that one of them was a wanted criminal in the eyes of the public, something that needed to be changed. Since Akari sucked at anything legal, the plan was simple. Get into Amelia Bones' office, then have Sirius take Ministry-approved Veritaserum and prove that he was not the secret-keeper, nor did he cast the spell which killed the muggles the night he was arrested.
The hardest part was making sure they actually got an audience with the woman. Fortunately, Sirius actually had something useful in that regard, his Animagus form. It was unregistered, and the only people who knew about it were the Marauders, and now her. Since Pettigrew was in hiding and James was dead, the only person who could recognize Sirius was Remus, and the chance of him being at the Ministry on the same day they went in was practically nil.
Akari had already gone into the Ministry on her own and gotten a booked appointment with the woman, which they were now going to, merely by stating she had something for her ears only, and that she should have some Veritaserum she knew was effective on hand for the appointment. Since Akari had a well-known reputation for being basically unstoppable and going where she wanted, she got herself a date and time pretty quickly. She did realize afterwards that she could have just gone to the meeting immediately, planted a Hiraishin tag and then had a clone bring Sirius along, but that didn't really matter.
Besides, this was more fun. As they reached the phone booth which would take them down to the Ministry, Sirius sighed and shrunk down, turning into a scruffy-furred black dog. Akari resisted the urge to coo and pet his head, he would most certainly not appreciate the gesture. She opened the door for him and stepped in herself, the box descending once the door was closed.
Akari got a few curious glances as she stepped out of the box, though since the Ministry was so bustling nobody had the time to stand and gawk at her, too busy with their other jobs to perform. The guards certainly kept a wary eye on her and Sirius, evidently her last little incursion had gotten a lot of them reprimanded, so they were determined to not let her slip past them.
It wasn't really fair, since they had literally no way to detect her if she wanted to move unseen, but they were trying their best. As she reached the gate and planted her staff down on the table for registration, she got to watch the wizard behind the table look up at her and blanch, taking a wary step back before glancing at the guards and visibly straightening. "Your wand as well please." Akari flicked her right hand to draw his attention, drawing her wand into her other hand and tossing it onto the table before smirking as he nearly took a step back again.
It was so amusing to watch reactions to even the most basic sleight of hand. Maybe not a good idea to toy around with people, but even if they got annoyed with her, what could they do? It wasn't like the guards around the room stood a chance against her, let alone if she summoned a bunch of Shadow Clones to beat the piss out of them. Akari didn't stop herself from making another jab. "You want my flying carpet as well?"
It was clear the boy was trying desperately not to get angry at her, though she saw his knuckles tighten just a little as he raised her wand and cast something on it, his eyes glancing up at her suspiciously after a moment. "This wand's trace has been tampered with." She tipped her head to the side curiously, recalling what she knew of the trace them making an 'oh' noise.
That would probably be the thing she'd torn out of both her wand and staff when she looked at them with her Rinnegan. "I was under the assumption that the trace disappeared from wands and staffs upon the user turning of age? Since I purchased my wand and staff after I was that age, it wouldn't have been active anyway. So, are you going to make a fuss about this?" Akari watched the guy war with himself for a moment before sighing and placing her wand back down. "Good boy."
She took her wand and staff back and tucked them away in her inventory using some more sleight of hand, amusing herself when he realized that unless she was under Veritaserum or something she would always be able to sneak things into the Ministry, though she'd already wandered towards the lifts before he could say or do anything. If she was going to cause trouble, she wouldn't have bothered to declare herself after all.
Sirius got some curious looks as he padded along behind her, though since he was with Akari, now known by many to be the Care for Magical Creatures professor, they assumed he was some breed of magical creature she was bringing along for some reason, perhaps for imprinting or whatever. It didn't matter, it was just a convenient excuse that she could use if anyone asked.
Akari took the lift to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, coming across the receptionist for the area and inquiring as to where the DMLE Head's office was, getting a startled squeak as the woman behind the desk only noticed her when she spoke. "D-do you have an appointment?" She nodded, reciting her name with a bored droll when asked and watching the womans eyebrows raise before gesturing to her side, giving her directions to Amelia's office.
Thanking the woman, Akari and Sirius disappeared down the hallway, quickly coming across a rather plain wooden door with a placard claiming that this was the DMLE Head Office. A knock on the door saw it opened, the stern-looking woman looking at her over the desk, her eyes then looking at Sirius with a raised eyebrow. "I must say, I didn't expect you to bring a pet." Snorting, Akari walked to the desk, taking one of the two chairs present.
"I wouldn't call him a pet." Akari cast a few spells to make sure the room wasn't being monitored, since she didn't want someone to stop this before it was finished, then refocused on Amelia. "Now, do you have some Veritaserum that you are completely sure works, because you'll want this to believe what's about to be said." The woman opened a drawer, placing a small, almost finger-sized vial of clear liquid onto the desk. "Great. Now then, I'm not going to be the one drinking this, and I ask that you withhold your judgment or reactions until the end."
Akari nodded at Sirius, watching him transform from his Animagus form into his far more neat and kept visage, smoothly taking the other chair. "Miss Bones, a pleasure to meet you finally, I do hope you can give me a fairer outcome than your predecessor." Akari memorized the very rare expression on shock on the face of the woman before it was put away behind a mask of professionalism again.
"Sirius Black. I am to assume that you call his sentencing into question?" Akari nodded, gesturing at the Veritaserum. "Ahh, I see. Well, if Sirius Black is willing to ingest this Veritaserum and tell me explicitly that he did not perform the crimes he has been sentenced of, then I can take this before the Wizengamot and get his sentencing re-evaluated and potentially get him exonerated." Her eyes focused on Sirius as she spoke, the man taking the vial, opening it with a sniff and then dropping three drips onto his tongue. "Sirius Black, on the night of October 31st, 1981, were you responsible for the deaths of Lily and James Potter and the orphancy of one Harry Potter?"
"I am not." He said simply, a smile on his lips. Amelia's own mouth curled into a frown, to which she proceeded going through various questions designed to trick him into giving up something incriminating, all of which Sirius responded appropriately and concisely, until finally she sighed and leaned back in her chair, looking between them both before withdrawing a bottle of something from a drawer and placing it and some glasses on the desk.
"Well, you've got me convinced. Mr Black, I can promise you that I'll get this in the face of the Wizengamot, damn what Fudge says about maintaining stability. And you." Akari found herself on the end of Bones glaring at her, though she just kept lazily staring right back implacably until the woman sighed and dropped her gaze to her bottle. "Miss Uchiha, while I can't condone your actions of breaking Sirius Black out of Azkaban, especially outside of the notice of my Aurors, I have to acknowledge that your actions have revealed two important facts." Akari raised an eyebrow at her, prompting explanation.
"Firstly, the fact that an innocent man was imprisoned for longer than a decade in Azkaban, and even without a trial. Secondly, that our security is obviously not up to par. This could give me the fuel I need to get the Dementors removed from Azkaban, so if you could not make mention of your unique skills allowing you entrance, I could get those things out of there finally." When Akari mentioned that she could kill them if they needed that to happen, the woman simply gave up and opened her bottle, pouring some out with a sigh.
"Of course you can."
Hooray for innocence!
Of course, nothing can ever be simple for Akari. She goes looking for revenge, and ends up having to figure out a way to get Sirius to be heard out by someone high enough that they can influence things.
But hey, now that Amelia Bones has heard Sirius give testimony under Veritaserum that she has verified is effective, they have a strong ally for getting him pardoned or exonerated.
Don't forget though that Akari comes fro mthe Narutoverse, and before that she was a fighter anyway, so she's very used to violence and dubious decisions. She would loot a corpse happily for something to help her survive, so using people who are mentally shattered and imprisoned for utterly detestible crimes is fine by her.
While Akari is brutal and violent sometimes, even she has a line that she won't let be crossed. Rape, with what happened to Toki, really sets her off. And mind-control is pretty bad as well, especially against muggles who can't defend themselves.
Hope you enjoyed, and I think I'll wait until the end of the school year to have Akari's status re-emerge and be updated, makes it easier.