In case you can't tell, I adore animals far too much.

So hush about Akari being too focused on the new CMC role, I want to write about cute animals, so I'm going to. Adorableness will always win!

In this chapter is one of my first kinda major changes in terms of canonical existences. Mordecai is separated from most things so is fine, but this regards an event inside of Hogwarts, with me adding something that was never there to begin with. Why? Because it's cute, so fuck you.

Also, who here thinks that having usually-diligent characters 'let their skills wane' over a period time is a bullshit way to de-power them? Akari would never stop sparring with her Shadow Clones, she loves fighting and her actions make sense around that. I was reading a good Harry Potter fic, and enjoyed it up until the point where it said that Harry wasn't comfortable with how much his skills had waned over the years. It just immediately screams that he's going to be slow, inept and kinda just generally bad at combat during the start of the story, despite being experienced from the war with Voldemort.

Just a little something that annoyed me, sorry for another rant.

Chapter 20

Leaving Sirius with a Shadow Clone, Akari Hiraishin'd out of the Ministry, then from outside the wards she Apparated to her little clone training cave.

She took the seals that contained inmates out, dropping them in the arms of a freshly-made Shadow Clone before cracking her fingers and withdrawing the Elder Wand. Even if a Doton Jutsu would make things easier, she wanted to figure out the limitations of this new wand, and so far, she was a bit underwhelmed. Sure, spells took far less energy than normal, but with how much she already had, that really didn't matter.

Akari did find that casting her own irregular spells was far easier, simply taking a little energy and her imagination she was able to entirely vanish a large cube of stone from the wall, just by swishing her wand and willing it to be. Since it seemed spells relied on focus, intent and willpower, along with enough energy to perform the action, the Elder Wand pretty much acted like a conduit, or perhaps a booster, making it easier for imagination to turn to reality, kind of like how she could learn to not use nearly as many hand seals for a Jutsu, simplifying the process.

Whatever the case was, Akari was able to quickly clear out a cube-shaped room with a roughly-hewn stone door only openable from the outside, then unseal an inmate and leave him with a clone who would get him to either start writing in the diary, or would simply Genjutsu him into doing it anyway. He was one of the ones she certainly recognized, imprisoned for torture, rape, murder and other crimes that Akari didn't care enough about to read, and so she didn't have an issue with using him as a test dummy.

The rest of the prisoners she left in her inventory just in case she needed them for some reason, maybe the prisoner died or the diary needed more 'fuel', who knew. With that now going on, Akari went back to Hogwarts, just in time as one of the Hogwarts House-elves appeared beside her, a few moments earlier and the elf would have appeared in her cave. "Mistress Akari, Dumbledore is requesting your presences." Humming her agreement, Akari exited her room with a yawn and a stretch, making her way towards his office while the house-elf disappeared.

Her Shadow Clones hadn't reported any kind of issue in the school, so it was probably nothing major, but maybe he'd found something out? He was the Supreme Mugwump, something Warlock and probably other titles, so maybe he had more fingers in pies than Akari gave him credit for. She arrived at the gargoyle and recited the password for the week, something all staff were told. Why they changed it baffled her, since surely in emergencies students being able to see Dumbledore would be important, but maybe it was just war paranoia coming through still.

With silent steps she hopped up the staircase, peeking her head up and spotting Dumbledore looking out of a window, his back to her. She crept in and sat down just as silently, clearing her throat to catch his attention and grinning when he sighed and shook his head. "How you can be so silent without spells truly astounds me."

"I would have thought you'd be more astounded with how quickly I can move, but eh, whatever. Fitsy told me you wanted to speak with me?" The man turned back around and faced her, observing her for a few moments before taking his own seat.

"I do. During our little...duel, you disarmed me and took the Elder Wand, as I'm sure you've now realized. And, as much as I would like it back, I recognize that you are probably at best distrustful of me, so giving me back that wand is out of question. So instead, I would like to offer you some advice. I've been doing some research, and I believe I know of at least five of Tom's Horcruxes. You see, Tom likes to be the most powerful, and what better way to show his power than to corrupt the founder's artifacts?"

"Now, I know that the sword of Gryffindor is safe, you can rest assured of that, Tom never got close to it, but the other three artifacts Voldemort quite likely came into possession of. Snape has confirmed for me that he believes he saw the locket of Slytherin around Voldemort's neck at least once, though his memory was hazy enough of the event that a Pensieve wouldn't work, you have to be able to truly remember the memory to draw it out." Akari hummed thoughtfully at that.

"And why exactly are you telling me all this, when before getting information from you was like trying to draw blood from a stone or stop the sun from rising?" Dumbledore rubbed at his brows, sighing deeply and seeming to age considerably in that one action.

"A once-good friend reminded me that I cannot bear the weight of the world on my shoulders any more. Perhaps in my youth I could hold the entire Wizarding World together with my own strength, but now? No, I cannot, it is folly to believe I could do such a thing. And so...against my better judgment, I tell you this in the hopes that you can finish what I could not."

Frowning, Akari leaned back on her chair. "Okay, you told me three of his Horcruxes, what do you believe the other two to be? For that matter, why so many?"

"I believe that Tom has, or intended to have, seven Horcruxes, a significant number in Arithmancy. The fourth I presume to be his diary, something close to him and the reasonable assumption for an experimenting young wizard." She nodded, it was certainly reasonable. It didn't fit with the Voldemort attached to Quirrell, but maybe his more charismatic and grandiose normal self would have done such a thing. "And the fifth I would presume to be his maternal grandfather's ring, a way to thumb his nose at his ancestry."

That also seemed perfectly reasonable. "Alright then, since you showed me some trust, I'll reciprocate. I already know that his Diary is a Horcrux, and I'm working on it, don't worry. Lucius Malfoy is also working with me, as I told him exactly how Voldemort reacted when I confronted him, and it seems the man has been disillusioned with what the once-powerful Dark Lord has become, he's the one who got me the diary." That line shut Dumbledore's mouth before he could say anything, his throat making a thoughtful noise as he considered it. "So, any idea where any of the Horcruxes could be?"

"Well, while it might seem obvious, I believe Tom would have hidden Marvolo Gaunt's ring inside the Gaunt House somewhere, the one place people wouldn't expect it to be hidden, as well as being a relevant location to him, he wouldn't just throw it into the sea despite it being safest there. You already possess his diary by your own admission, and as for the others, I'm afraid I don't know where he would hide them. Perhaps somewhere inside of the school though, for one of them, as his way of proving his superiority over me by placing a valued item so close to me without my knowledge."

Nodding, Akari stood up. "Alright then, where is the Gaunt House? I'll go find this ring and throw it into Mount Doom or something until we can find a way to actually destroy it." Surprising her, Dumbledore chuckled when she mentioned the fictional volcano. "Oh? You've read those books then?" The old wizard nodded, standing up himself.

"Yes, I rather enjoyed them, though the depiction of magic leaves much to be desired."

Apparating without knowledge of an area was always risky.

You could pick the wrong place and appear inside of a wall, or underground, in the air, whatever. Unfortunately for the rules, Akari had Shadow Clones, who could also Apparate. A few clones later she had the perfect mental picture for a safe place to Apparate, appearing within the dense forest surrounding the Gaunt Household. She could already feel the wards protecting the place, approaching then using her Preta Path to tear a hole into the wards and slipping inside.

The shack itself was a decrepid thing, evidently uninhabited for many years, not that it mattered. She walked inside, careful of physical traps, then Accio'd Marvolo Gaunt's ring, to no result. It was annoying that the easiest way to get it didn't work, but hey, if it didn't have protections then it'd be pretty suspicious. Activating her Rinnegan, Akari began hunting through the small shack, overturning the table, rummaging in the cupboards before turning her attention to the floor when one board she stepped on had a hollow thump sound out.

She knelt down and dug a Kunai into the wood, prying the board up easily and tossing it aside, immediately spotting the little ring box sitting innocently beneath the floor. Akari reached in and lifted it up, flicking the box open after checking for traps. It was absolutely dripping with dark magic, but what was more...was that it wasn't just the ring. The stone itself seemed of an even darker nature, a deeper black than even the Horcrux ring. An inexplicable urge to try the ring on came over her, something Akari clamped down on hard.

Instead, she took the tip of her Kunai and pried the small black stone off of the ring, tossing it into her inventory, before picking the ring up and tossing it up and down on her palm. Akari didn't really know how a Horcrux was even destroyed, but since Voldemort still had a chance to be a reasonable human being, she would hold off on destroying the ring...for now.

One inventoried ring later, Akari dusted her hands and left the shack, though not without hiding a few Hiraishin tags throughout the place, just in case. She had literally hundreds of the things now anyway from her clones writing seals out for her, so having plenty of them around was useful. It amused her to learn now why Minato was so adamant that he place tags everywhere he could in Konoha, it was so convenient having so many places you could teleport to in an instant. Now, the other Horcruxes were going to be far harder to find, simply because they had no idea where they'd be kept.

She would leave that to Dumbledore though, Akari couldn't be bothered to find them.

Surprisingly enough, getting Sirius exonerated was actually quite easy.

Thanks to the existence of Veritaserum, proving his innocence was actually remarkably easy, as simple as getting his case in front of the Wizengamot and having them hear him out. A few of the seat-holders made a token attempt to raise concerns about how exactly Sirius was even able to testify after such a long time in Azkaban, but they were smacked down brutally by Amelia, who pointed out that it didn't matter how Sirius was able to retain his sanity, the matter was that an innocent man had been in Azkaban for over a decade. At the end of a hilariously short deliberation, Sirius Black was exonerated, and just to add the cherry on top, Akari was regarded as a whistleblower in regards to his unlawful incarceration, and thus wasn't punished for breaking into Azkaban.

Again, a few Wizengamot members tried to bring up concerns such as the mysterious deaths and disappearances of several life-sentence Azkaban inmates, but since they were all due to die anyway, nobody looked too closely at that. It probably stemmed from the fact that, when actually looking at the situation, the Wizengamot all knew there was no real way to get at Akari. Politically she had Lucius and Dumbledore in her corner, meaning the Light and Dark factions both were wary of trying anything, and the grey wouldn't even incite a conflict on their own.

Physically, even if the Ministry decided she should be imprisoned, how the fuck were they going to achieve that? Better question, even if Akari played along and went to Azkaban, she'd already proved she can get in and out undetected, so they couldn't put her there, the only proper Wizarding Prison in Britain. Ergo, the best course was to just keep her from doing anything major, and thus save face in front of the public by announcing Akari as having uncovered evidence that got Sirius Black exonerated.

Thus, here she now was, sat in her kitchen watching as Sirius fiddled with his clothing again, his eyes practically glued to the mirror. "Would you just fucking decide already?! I swear, you're worse than...well, I don't know, but you're bad. I'm sure he'll be happy to meet you, Kami knows his aunt left much to be desired." She growled at him, making him jump.

"You don't get it, this has to go perfectly." He muttered, turning back to face the mirror. With another low growl, Akari got up and smacked a hand against his shoulder, forcing the man to turn around. She quickly tilted his bow, tore his sleeve slightly and then forced a few strands of hair into disarray.

"There, now I know he'll like you at first sight. Harry fucking hates being all formal, one of the things he picked up from me. If you showed up in a suit, tie and combed hair claiming to be his godfather, he wouldn't like you, I can tell you that. So just be...yourself I guess. You've already gotten acquainted to my brand of insanity, and if he could put up with me for years, I'm sure he'll have no trouble spending time with you." Akari then snapped her fingers. "Oh, I forgot." She dug a hand into her inventory and withdrew a box. "Could you give this to him."

Sirius took the box in confusion, looking first at it, then at her. "Uhh, sure, but wha-" Was all he managed before she made a Shadow Clone appear and Hiraishin him to Hogwarts. Akari would have gone with him and tried to amend things again, but she thought maybe some extra time apart would help things. Her problem was that she really didn't know a way to actually fix things, since she thought he was massively over-reacting over being told off by her in front of Ron and Hermione.

But if he wanted to throw a hissy-fit, that was fine by her.

Visiting Konoha was certainly the highlight of her holidays.

Naruto was still the big ball of adorableness and sunshine, and Kushina was as she ever was, utterly shameless about trying to pinch her fucking cheeks. Minato was apparently busy trying to stop Iwagakure and Kumogakure from starting the Elemental Nations equivalent of a Cold War and thus was away for Christmas, which wasn't very fun. What was fun however was giving Kushina a book on Uzumaki Sealing arrays she'd uncovered from her mess of an inventory, something she'd obviously picked up from the large dump of crap the Entity had given her years ago.

She'd finally had enough and assigned a dozen clones to go through her inventory, each being designated sections of the list to clear out of junk and find things that would be useful. So far, they'd uncovered quite a few miscellaneous but extremely handy items like an infinitely replenishing set of Fuinjutsu equipment, complete with ink, brushes and everything else she'd need, meaning she never would have to replace them again.

For Naruto, since she didn't know how far along in Fuinjutsu he now was, but presuming that he was certainly flourishing under his mothers tutelage, she gave him one of her old notepads covered in advanced Fuinjutsu notes. She'd had a clone go over it and make sure nothing too dangerous was on it, but it'd be the Fuinjutsu equivalent of a puzzle book for him, since if he finished the puzzle of sorting out those notes he'd have new and exciting seals to use.

Akari did intend to give Minato a hoodie she'd seen in a muggle shop with a yellow lightning flash emblazoned on it and fur in the hood which matched with a second she'd bought and changed to be red, just because it fit one of her monikers, but she ended up just leaving it with Kushina for her to give to her husband. As for everyone else she knew, most of them got various muggle items, though she did pick up a baby Runespoor for Anko, knowing the woman would adore the three-headed snake.

Accidentally, Akari brought up Harry's behavior to Kushina, who swatted her on the head and reminded her that by entirely leaving him alone, she was only reinforcing the idea that Akari wanted nothing to do with him now that he was getting older. She then nervously pointed out that she'd already been letting him live on his own for periods, fleeing when the woman's hair began flaring up. As strong as Akari was, Kushina's rolling pin still scared her a little.

But Akari was surprised when it came time to return to Hogwarts. She'd timed it so that she had a few days in Konoha, a mini-vacation of sorts, before coming back with a few more days spare to gather any magical beasts she needed for her lessons, which meant that when Kushina stopped her and handed her a box, she was caught a little flat-footed.

When she opened the box, she saw that Kushina had given her a scarf. But it wasn't just a normal scarf. The black lines she could see weaved around the crimson fabric were actually absolutely tiny Fuinjutsu patterns she could only faintly make out, but what she could see baffled her. They were almost like reinforcement seals, ensuring that the literal molecular structure of the fabric remained consistent.

The fabric still acted like a scarf, but it wouldn't be susceptible to being burnt, cut, torn, or otherwise damaged, something that had happened an embarrassingly large amount of times to her scarves over the years. But when she thought about how much work must have gone into painstakingly writing those tiny Fuinjutsu specks out literally on the fabric itself...she couldn't help herself from giving the Uzumaki a hug.

She then glomped Naruto when Kushina told her that he'd helped a ton, a shit-eating grin on her face as Naruto squeaked.

"That's fine by me."

Akari said before digging back into her food. With Quirrell's untimely demise, the DADA position for the year was left unfilled. As such, Dumbledore had asked Akari during the first dinner she attended after returning from Konoha whether she could take over the lessons until the end of the year.

While it would be a bit difficult, Akari clued the man in regarding a 'trick' she was going to use, Shadow Clones. She obviously didn't spout all their secrets, but informed him that her technique would let her effectively teach two classes at once. When he asked for a demonstration after they'd eaten, she enlisted the help of Minerva, having a Shadow Clone accompany the woman and chat with her all the way to her office, all the while Akari remained sat at the High Table talking to Dumbledore about what creatures she planned to bring to her classes first.

A short while later a feline Patronus showed up and informed Dumbledore that Minerva had been able to converse with Akari's clone regarding even complicated theoretical subjects of transfiguration the entire journey, thus cementing in his mind that her clones were just as capable as she herself was. He wasn't very subtle about wanting to know more, but fortunately for him he didn't push his luck.

Meanwhile, Akari had found a new project to work on, her Patronus.

"Oh, come in, file in, whatever, take seats wherever you were sat...or don't, I don't mind."

Akari watched the first-years file into the large room, closing the door behind them with a negligent wave of her wand as she slid her legs of the desk. "Now then, Professor Quirrell has had an unfortunately accident over the holidays and can no longer teach you. I will be taking over teaching you kits until the end of the year. I believe the higher year students might have told you, but I have taught Defence Against the Dark Arts before, and if I dare say I was pretty good at it. Now then, Quirrell thankfully left notes, so I know what you have and haven't covered, which means that this lesson will be a simple one."

Akari got up from her chair and came around to the front of the desk, leaning against it amidst whines of how boring it was going to be. "That's not to say this will be a lesson without any spellcasting. It simply won't have any flashy spells." Akari then sharply rose her voice. "But! That doesn't mean this won't be one of the most useful charms you'll ever learn. Observe." Akari raised her normal wand, swirling it. "Fumos."

Immediately a jet of smoke gushed forth out of her wand, filling the room. Within moments it was so dense that even her Sharingan couldn't see through it. "As you can see, in an enclosed space, this spell could save your lives. Except for if your opponent knows an appropriate counter-spell. Ventus." She cast the wind spell, blasting the smoke around and forcing it out of every possible gap in the walls, doors and elsewhere, quickly clearing the room, aside from a thin layer of smoke on the ceiling. "Any questions?"

Nobody raised their hands, so she continued. "Now, the Fumos spell has no offensive capabilities. It doesn't irritate the throat, nor the eyes. It doesn't even block smell, it is simply a visible change. But if used creatively, it can entirely hamper your opponent's offensive abilities, rendering them easy to evade or even counter." As she spoke, a red spell flashed across the classroom and splashed against a Protego, all the students heads whipping around to see a second version of Akari stood there smirking. "As you can see, using the smoke to cover your tactics can easily lead you to victory or defeat. In a real fight, the break in line-of-sight can spell victory or even just evasion and escape if handled correctly."

The clone dispersed into nothingness as Akari sheathed her wand, sitting on the front of her desk. "You see, a lot of witches and wizards put so much onus onto 'powerful spells' like the Blasting Curse, Reductor Curse or in the case of Death Eaters the unforgivables, but as you'll learn...the simpler spells are just as terrifying. Diffindo." Akari swiped her bare hand backwards, cutting her desk in half. "Might be stepping on Flitwick's toes a little, but the point I want to make is that you should never, ever, dismiss the basics. Reparo." Akari fixed her desk and moved back around it, taking a seat.

"Now then, turn to page 73." The entire time during the lesson, Akari made an effort not to let Harry's thinly-veiled anger at her from the back of the class. He probably assumed that she was trying to get involved in his life in this way, and maybe her little present to him didn't help, but Akari was pointedly not giving him any special treatment, nor calling on him directly or anything stupid.

Before long, the lesson was over, Akari still subscribing to the idea that homework wasn't really that necessary with how easy it was to teach the subjects she had. This, however, was going to be the only lesson she taught directly. Her Shadow Clone was going to handle all DADA lessons, while Akari herself handled Care for Magical Creatures. It wasn't that she didn't like teaching it, she did, she just far preferred handling magical creatures.

...It totally had nothing to do with the fact that right after this lesson Hagrid was going to introduce her to the Hogwarts Hippogriffs.

"Oh, you are just beautiful."

Akari brushed a hand against the side of the Hippogriffs head, smiling as he brushed his head against Akari's. "'At's it 'kari, ye've got 'is attention now." Hagrid spoke from the side, watching the interaction. It wasn't as though Akari was in danger or afraid, Kami knew she was fast enough to avoid it if the Hippogriffs somehow magically didn't like her, but he was still there none-the-less.

Akari levelled a faux glare at the half-giant groundskeeper. "Hagrid, how could you? Keeping these beautiful beasts hidden from me for so long?" Akari punctuated this by nuzzling her nose against the neck of the Hippogriff, getting a happy trilling sound in response. "Oh I know, the big meanie's been keeping you all to himself, hasn't he? Well not anymore." Akari withdrew some meat from her inventory, holding it in her hand for the Hippogriff to eat as she rolled her eyes at Hagrid who had stepped forwards. "Don't worry Hagrid, even if he tried I doubted this big softy could hurt me much."

Said 'big softy' responded by nipping her finger under the guise of trying to get at the last piece of meat on her hand, though he turned his head sideways curiously when Akari showed no outward reaction. "Honestly, you forgot about these Hagrid?" Akari removed the Henge over her arm, having decided that she could avoid the hassle of answering students questioning why she was missing her arms by just making it appear like her arms were normal. The Hippogriff eyed her arm curiously for a moment before brushing his beak against her hand, nuzzling against it when he deemed her hand just fine.

"'A know about yer arms. A jes' worry, tha's all."

Akari was in the midst of teaching her class about Glumbumbles when one of her clones dispersed.

Her students saw the small paper tag that mysteriously appeared in her hand, though from the fact she glanced at it and immediately tucked it away with a low growl they wisely didn't mention it. She slipped around the back of the cage filled with the Glumbumbles and as she re-emerged, it was just a Shadow Clone, while she herself Hiriashin'd to where her clone had placed a tag before dispersing.

The clone had been investigating a tunnel it had come across, following it back and finding a large statue-filled room hidden under Hogwarts. The motif was snakes, making her believe it was related to Slytherin House or perhaps Salazar himself, leading the clone to jump to the conclusion that it was quite possibly the fabled Chamber of Secrets. The tunnel entrance was found when her clone had randomly tapped on a wall and then noted that it was hollow, quickly figuring out that it was a secret passageway, using a simple Doton Jutsu to tear away the stone and reveal the passage.

It was at that moment that the clone decided this was something that Akari should be handling, placing her tag down before dispersing. Though, now that she was down here herself, she honestly didn't see why the clone- "Intruuuuuder."...never mind. With a rasping groan the mouth of the only human statue in the room opened. Activating her Sharingan and Rinnegan, Akari saw the mouth of a giant snake.

"Close your eyes!" In opposition of what Kurama had yelled, her eyes widened in surprise, but she snapped them shut. If Kurama warned her about something, it was damn-well important. "That was the mouth of a basilisk, though it couldn't see you yet thanks to the angle of the inside of that statue." Akari frowned, hearing the sound of water as the giant snake slid out of the statue and into the water below, its scales scraping the stone.

The problem for Akari right now was in the one hissed word she heard, 'intruder'. That meant this snake was probably acting under orders, rather than defending territory or something. This meant it was quite possibly a familiar or under mind control, ergo not something she could pacify with her Animal Tamer title. "Uhh, hi?" She tried, tucking to the side when she heard the snake rear back and lunge. "Okay, so, not a conversationalist. I can get behind that."

Akari created a Shadow Clone who activated the Sharingan and opened their eyes, immediately dispersing but giving Akari in effect the image of the area. Since she wasn't the one who looked at the Basilisk, seeing it in its full glory didn't kill or even petrify her. She then wreathed an arm in Lightning Chakra, listening carefully for the rush of wind as the Basilisk again lunged at her. She dodged far to the side, waited a brief moment, then lunged back to her original position, striking the Basilisk harshly on the side of the head with a fist of pure lightning.

She made another Shadow Clone who didn't disperse immediately after opening her eyes, though the reason for this became clear when the clone actively chose to disperse. The basilisk had reared up in pain which meant it had lost line of sight of her. Turning her speed up to maximum, Akari opened her eyes, focusing mostly on her Sharingan as she bolted forwards underneath the chin of the Basilisk. With a hard jump she found herself grasping the underside of its jaw, the safest place from its gaze, before laying her hand on its throat. "Sorry, I'm sure Anko would kill me if she found out about this. Raiton: Jibashi!"

Clenching her hand to hold herself in position, Akari pumped electricity straight into the throat of the Basilisk, the beast writhing and smashing its head around trying to dislodge her or stop the electricity from frying it, until, after maybe a minute of electrocution, the creature stopped thrashing and began to collapse. Shutting her eyes again, Akari hopped off of the Basilisk and landed on the floor a distance away, hearing it crash down with a smash that shook the ground. She made a Shadow Clone who went and looked directly into the eyes of the now-dead Basilisk, dispersing and giving her the thumbs up to re-open her eyes.

"Well, that was...fun." She said as her eyes opened, eyeing the colossal snake curiously as she approached. The Chamber of Secrets was written about in Hogwarts: A History, but there'd been no mention of a Basilisk. Then again, parents probably wouldn't have sent their kids here if they knew what lurked beneath the school. Akari brushed her hand against the Basilisk's scales, frowning.

She didn't want to kill it really, but it wasn't like she had much of a choice. It was a fucking Basilisk after all, not exactly something she could let wander freely around the tunnels of Hogwarts now that she'd disturbed it. The Basilisk had regarded her as intruder, which meant it would probably stop at nothing to kill her and maintain the secrecy of the Chamber. "Mommy?"

"Oh fuck no." She muttered, turning away and creating a Shadow Clone who went over to the still-open mouth of the statue. What was curious was that when the clone dispersed, it had looked inside and stared at two yellow eyes for a good few seconds without dying, prompting Akari to turn and wander over, walking across the water and looking into the mouth, only to lean back when the far smaller basilisk jumped forwards.

"Mommy!" It repeated, it's tongue flicking out as its head leaned out of the statue. It dipped its head towards the water and slipped inside, its tail flicking in panic as it fell into the water. With a sigh, Akari fished the small snake out, resting it on her arm. She resisted the urge to frown at the little reptile as it tilted its head curiously at her. "You're...are you...you are, aren't you?"

Blinking, Akari brushed a hand against the Basilisk's head, turning and walking towards the far larger Basilisk's corpse. "I'm not, but I presume she was." Akari gestured at the adult Basilisk, watching the smaller lean out towards it and fleck its tongue before it returned to its place on her arm, shaking its head. "No? What do you mean no?" The snake tipped its head to nudge at her chin.

"Not Mommy. You're Mommy." Akari narrowed her eyes, but eventually gave up and sat down with a sigh, watching the snake slither from her arm onto her lap where it coiled up, its inquisitive head now focused on her hands. it licked at them before tipping its head up to look at her again. "Mommy." It re-confirmed, its tongue flicking and gently brushing against her. Akari brushed a hand through her hair with a sigh, the other hand idly reaching to pet the most dangerous snake in the world on the head.

"I swear, why does this sort of shit happen to me? Anko would be way more suitable for this. I blame Monty, that damn snake just had to go and be so adorable."

"...Kurama, you have permission to call me a fucking idiot."

The fox, after evidently looking at what she saw, stayed silent for a moment, before raucous laughter rung out in her head. "Oh, that is just priceless. Remind me to not tell you things more often!" Akari sighed, dropping her head against the table and supporting her chin with her arms as she looked across the Great Hall

It had been entirely by accident that Akari had looked across the room with her Rinnegan active, and when she saw practically a maelstrom of darkness, she was reasonably surprised. What was even more surprising, though maybe she should have expected it, was that the entire maelstrom was centred over Harry, more specifically his scar.

Her mind immediately began theorizing what had happened, arriving on the logical conclusion that from his close proximity to Voldemort, the Horcrux in his head had in effect woken up and began influencing him, since it never used to pour out so much darkness. it might have been a deliberate action in response to Akari's presence making him afraid, thus trying to turn Harry against her so she in turn would turn against him, thus leaving him vulnerable for Voldemort to finish off. Whatever the case was, it meant it was very likely that, considering his clearly unnatural sudden dislike for her, he was being manipulated, first by Quirrell, and now by his scar.

Fortunately, solving that wouldn't be too hard.

...It's not my fault, alright? I just think this 'lil baby Basilisk is too adorable to not have in the story.

Oh, by the way, I totally stopped doing this and I feel bad, so here's my recommendation for today. Moratorium, by Darkpetal16, quite possibly my favourite Fanfiction author in existence. The way Petal portrays a !Fem and !Gray version of Harry is incredible...no, I'm totally not biased because of Basileus, Titan and Porteurdemort's adorableness.

Hope you enjoyed. I don't like saying this, but I guess occasionally mentioning it is worth it...I do have a Pat reon on my profile, so if you have a few coins you can toss my way, I'd greatly appreciate it...I also really suck at thinking of any sort of rewards aside from my heartfelt thanks, so if you can think of some that doesn't require something which would give something away about me that isn't already known, I'd adore being told about it!

Thanks for all the love by the way boos!