Harry Kicks Ass (Literally)

by differentversionsofharry

After blowing up Aunt Marge, Harry is not welcome at the Dursley Household after his third year. A chance meeting with Professor Lupin in Diagon Alley leads Harry to a new summer home, allowing him to rebuild himself mentally and physically. With new skills and new friends, Harry takes on the adventures of The Goblet of Fire to become more than just the Boy-Who-Lived.

35. Chapter 35

A/N: I wished I owned Harry Potter. Alas, I do not. Ms. Rowling, I'd be happy to take it off your hands

A/N: I hope it is now feasible how a group of students can match up with fully trained aurors. To quote Dwight Eisenhower "In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."

Also, I know Dumbledore as Supreme Mugwump included the entire world. I chose to change that. Chapter 35 was one of the chapters I was most excited to write. It ended up being a real hassle. Funny how things work out, huh?

Chapter 35: Catch

December, 1994

For most of the students, breakfast was a boisterous affair. Some claimed that their Yule Ball had included much more snogging than might seem reasonable, others just told stories of how magical their night had been. Smaller still were the students who were exhausted but still joined in the storytelling and recounting of others. Close friends might have noticed the tension on the face of Harry and the twins, who sat on either side of him, but having seen Harry leave the ball early in pursuit of the French champion they stayed silent.

Harry didn't notice any of this. His ears recognized that nearby Ron Weasley and Seamus Finnegan were saying words. Dean and Lavender were also almost sitting on top of each other, a new development that Harry might have investigated on another day. But this was not another day. This was the day that Harry rescued his godfather, at the risk of becoming a fugitive from justice himself.

Before he had gone to bed, Harry realized something. He had no intention of wearing a disguise because it might slow his reactions by one millisecond. Against trained aurors, that could be the difference between victory and defeat. All of this mean that he would be recognized. No matter what the result of the rescue attempt was, he would be committing a criminal act.

When he had rescued Sirius the previous year, it was impossible to convict him. He supposedly was lying in a bed unconscious during the escape. Harry suspected the only reason Dumbledore has tacitly approved of the rescue mission was because Harry and Hermione wouldn't be convicted. This time around, if Dumbledore knew what Harry was up to, it wouldn't surprise the young Gryffindor if the most powerful wizard in Europe put a stop to his attempt before it began.

Dumbledore would not be able to penetrate his mind without using active legilimency, and even for a Legilimens as skilled as Dumbledore there was no guarantee that he could break the formidable mental defenses Harry had now. Akira, who by his own admission was not a great Legilimens occasionally tested Harry's mental defenses and had declared in November that it was too dangerous for him to keep diving into Harry's mind based on the strength of his brother's reflexive counterattack.

However, Harry had no doubt that even if the four co-conspirators were skilled Occlumens, they might be in danger. Many people who mastered the art often forgot to learn a key skill that was not mentioned in any instructional book. Closing off your mind was only valuable if you could sense when someone was trying to get inside your head. Keeping out an active legilimency attack was one thing but realizing from the faintest eye contact that someone was inside your head was much harder. Before returning to Hogwarts, Hayashi Sensei had told him that while he was an exceptionally powerful Occlumens. Harry's true talent was detecting even the slightest form of invasion and repelling it with force before the user had a chance to switch to an active attack, instead of just shielding.

Although Harry was fairly certain that Dumbledore would have no reason to be scanning their minds, he took a small comfort that the headmaster was not present at the teacher's table. Snape was present, but he looked busy as he was in a heated conversation with Igor Karakoff. On another day, Harry's interest would have been peaked, as he had seen Karakoff with Snape more than once. But today was not that day.

For a moment, Harry's mind focused on the absence of the headmaster. This was an important year for Hogwarts, given the controversies and issues of the last two years. To have multiple people petrified, and then have students attacked by dementors and having convict Sirius Black escape your school, Dumbledore must have been under serious political pressure, even if he had the moniker of the most powerful wizard behind him. But Dumbledore was not at school, and this was not the first time.

He had been present on all the important days, like the first feast, Halloween, the first task, and the actual night of the yule ball. But Harry could recall at least 10 days where Dumbledore did not make an appearance at any meal. It was possible he stayed in his office or simply wasn't seen, but as Harry thought back over his previous years, he could not recall more than a few instances of the headmaster not being present over dinner. For him to have a real and considerable amount of absences suggested he was dealing with something serious, possibly in his role of Chief Warlock of the British Ministry of Magic, or more likely Supreme Mugwump of the European International Confederation of Wizards.

Harry shook his head to physically knock the thoughts cluttering his head away from his mind. He had to be focused today of all days. Outside of being laser focused on not being slaughtered or burned by a dragon, followed by defeating 5 students without a wand while his muscles still ached all on the same day, this was the most important day of the year. There was only one priority, and it was Sirius. Dumbledore's absences, Snape and Karakoff, Dean and Lavender, all of these were mysteries for another day.

Harry looked down at his watch for what must have been the 10th time and ground his teeth. Of course you never had enough time to prepare for something important, but when you are desperate to get to a certain time, whether it be the end of a class or the time agreed upon to commit a capital offense, time moved too slowly. He started absently tapping the edge of his watch in order to stop himself from looking at it again. This tactic only worked for two minutes.

"Harry, you must have checked your watch 5 times in the last 5 minutes," Hermione said, sitting across from him. "Is there something you are waiting for?"

"Nothing to worry about," Harry said. He was almost proud of the nonchalance of his answer to Hermione. Stress might be tightening his muscles, but he was laser focused on the task ahead. Enough of his mind was unoccupied to answer Hermione like nothing was wrong.

"Are you sure?" Harry nodded at Hermione's inquiry.

-O-O-O-O-O-O-O—O-O-O—O-O-O—O-O-O-

Hermione was instantly on high alert. After that tense nod, the so-called brightest witch in Hogwarts was sure something was wrong. To most people, Harry's answer might seem totally normal. To his friends who noticed Harry was a little stressed, that could be attributed to the fact his date to the most romantic night of the year had fled the hall in near tears, something that was sure to be talked about in the newspaper when it arrived.

But Hermione was not some friend. What's more, if Harry had been stressed about the outcome of his night with Fleur, it would not take 12 hours for that to manifest. It would have come up last night. Not to mention that Fleur's close friend Susan Bones had been at their little midnight pow-wow about Sirius and hadn't said a word or even shot an attempted secret look at Harry.

No, his stress was not about whatever happened with Fleur, something Hermione was determined to get to the bottom of. But she knew all of Harry's looks. It was an occupational hazard of being the person who got dragged into all of his adventures and rule breaking for 3 years. The look on his face might be mistaken for unfocused, and in past years Hermione might have jumped to that conclusion.

But the Harry who had arrived this year at Hogwarts was a different person. He was very rarely carefree even if his general demeanor and speech pattern was more lighthearted. It was part of why his friend group had expanded so dramatically at an extremely quick rate, which Hermione was of two minds about. Last year's Harry would have been distracted. The current version of Harry did this to clear his mind, to reach the lake in his mind Harry had told her about.

When she had talked to Harry in depth about his training after seeing his first and only spar with Akira, she had shot down the idea of joining him in his training and learning to fight. One punch with Malfoy last year was more than enough to know that she did not enjoy combat that did not involve wands. She wasn't even a huge fan of the offensive magic she and Harry's grandmother were teaching her best friend in their study sessions in the name of tournament preparation. After a few days of pressing, Harry had talked about aspects of training beyond breaking someone's nose.

What fascinated Hermione more than anything else was the quiet mind technique that Harry had learned in order to concentrate and keep people out of his mind. His conviction around the fact the certainly Professor Snape and potentially Dumbledore would try to read his mind seemed like classic Harry paranoia, even if in the past almost all his paranoia turned out to be well-founded. But she saw the value of learning how to reach that calm state. Unfortunately, Harry struggled when attempting to teach her that, and Hermione had rashly declared she could handle it herself, which had gone even worse than when Harry had tried to teach her.

But she had spent enough time with Harry to recognize when he was heading towards that state. She had seen it with him when he trained, both with his body and his wand. She had seen him head there when he was overwhelmed by everything on his plate and just needed a few minutes to be alone with his thoughts before refocusing on whatever task was ahead of him. And now, all the signs were present. Harry was not distracted or absent-minded. He was becoming focused.

There was no one nearby who could read his mind, that was a guarantee. According to Harry passive mind reading, the proper name of which was legilimency needed eye contact. The only thing Harry had looked at since arriving at breakfast was his plate, his shoes, and more recently the occasional staring contest his watch. His current insistence with knowing what time it was suggested he wasn't trying to clear his mind.

That left only one possible conclusion. Harry was getting focused, and the focus was so important that he had to go a state of mind that ignored everything else. Hermione knew her deductions were likely correct, especially when she added in the fact that Harry had not asked a single person about how their night was. He had been instrumental in arranging quite a few dates and had given advice once the dates were arranged in making sure they went well. But now he apparently couldn't care less.

Harry's period of intense focus and seeming absent-mindedness tended to coincide with his most impressive acts this year. He had the look of someone with his mind totally elsewhere on his face as he weaved around the tail of a dragon. During the two spars where Cedric had demanded Harry fight with everything he had, which had ended with Cedric being knocked unconscious in under 20 second each time, there was no emotion on Harry's face. The only event on Harry's calendar to Hermione's knowledge was their little "late Christmas get together" on New Year's and even if Harry was in a rush to get presents, which supposedly he had gotten earlier that month, that wouldn't require the level of focus he was heading to.

She glanced at Harry, who was now looking into empty space. Apparently his shoe, breakfast, and watch were too stimulating. Now the only thing that could captivate his interest was nothing. Hermione was now 100% sure that Harry was getting ready for something. But only knowing half of the situation was not satisfying for Hermione. If Harry was getting ready for battle, why wouldn't he include his best friend?

It hit her like a thunderbolt. Hermione knew that if the word battle hadn't entered her subconsciousness, she never would have realized it. Whenever Harry ended up on a path that was dangerous, whether it was going after the sorcerer's stone, going into the chamber of secrets, or chasing down a supposed murderer, he never asked people to come along with him. She and Ron had to force Harry to take them along. There was only one thing at this moment that was truly dangerous, and it was in keeping with everything she knew about Harry. Harry was going to try and break Sirius out.

Last year, Hermione had helped break Sirius out because there was no way they could be caught. It helped that Dumbledore had essentially given them permission. There was no risk, and as it turned out, it had already happened due to Harry's Patronus, though the intricacies of time travel were even trickier than prophecy. But now she had enough information to know it was very different.

Last year, the people who knew Sirius was locked up were almost entirely friendly. The only person who had really seen Sirius with their own eyes who believed he was guilty was Snape, and he was an unpleasant surprise. Snape might have told Fudge about Sirius, but by the time more people were involved, Sirius was already free. That meant that his escape did not have that many people invested in the situation willing to believe the lie Snape had come up with. In Snape's defense, he was unconscious when Professor Lupin had forced Pettigrew into his human form.

But now there were multiple witnesses, including the head of the DMLE, and it wasn't like Harry could obliviate them all. Even if he somehow acquired a time turner, which she suspected would be impossible, Sirius had been captured shortly after midnight, and Harry obsession with the time meant she knew that it was just about 9am. Croaker's law meant that the 8 hours that Harry would have to travel back to save his godfather would be too dangerous, though she doubted Harry knew that law. Knowing his stupid desire to save people, Harry would probably accept the risk to himself to save Sirius.

According to Susan, Sirius was being kept under lock and key by multiple aurors. While it was hypothetically possible that Harry could take out a few aurors, he was too smart to risk his godfather's freedom on the off-chance that he could handle it on his own. The fact that he had not spoken to her or Neville was indicative of the fact that he, like always, would never ask for help in his dangerous endeavors. But she remembered that when she had headed upstairs to sleep, the twins had been talking to Harry, and she vaguely remembered Daphne and Krum not following the other student out of the Gryffindor common room. It made the placement of the twins at breakfast, on either side of Harry and nowhere near their year mates and dates at the far end of the table, even more suspicious.

For a moment, Hermione debated helping Harry to free Sirius. But she quickly dismissed that idea. It was one thing to go along with Harry to stop Voldemort. It was another thing entirely to commit a clear and obvious crime. This wasn't about house points, it was about the law. Even if Sirius was innocent, she could not show reckless disregard for the law. Susan had said she would get the kiss on sight order cancelled. Sirius would get his day in court and could be proven innocent.

If Harry actually got in a fight with the protective detail on Sirius, then it would ruin any chances he had on getting free in a legal way. As she rose, Hermione knew she was heading down an all too similar road. She was going to do something that would make Harry furious even if it was for his own good. It was the case of the firebolt all over again. She would stop Harry from doing something stupid and would have to pray it did not cost her his friendship.

She couldn't do it alone. It would be downright dangerous to take on Harry even if he was alone. But there were some people who would see the wisdom in her thinking, who understood the political ramifications of what Harry was doing, people who would help her make Harry see reason in a way that he couldn't with the firebolt. One of those people was two seats away.

Neville Longbottom was holding hands with his girlfriend, which made her hesitate, but not for long. Hermione looked at Hannah and then ignored her, tapping Neville on the shoulder. Her friend turned around, surprise on his face as he recognized Hermione.

"Hey Hermione? Do you mind giving me a minute?"

"Sorry, Neville, I need you to come with me." Neville clearly saw something on her face because he kissed Hannah on the cheek and jumped out of her seat. If Hermione was being honest, she was bringing Neville because he could get through to Harry. In case things got a little nasty before the aurors could respond, she needed firepower. It was with severe trepidation that she made her way over to the Hufflepuff table.

"Hey Hermione," Jason said as she parked right next to him. "Cedric, you might want to turn around." Cedric, sitting next to Jason, obliged his friend' request and saw Hermione. He blushed and looked away, and Hermione fought the same reaction. It was hard to see him at this exact moment and normally Hermione would have stayed away. If it was for anyone but Harry, she would not have touched this situation with a 10-foot pole.

Cedric's embarrassment was not surprising. After what had been an enchanting evening in which

Hermione had fully realized that Cedric's attention towards her was because he was actually interested in her as more than a friend, she had allowed him to escort her back to the entrance of the Gryffindor common room. She was a little reluctant to say goodnight, and Cedric had taken the opportunity to kiss her.

It was not a full-on snog like she had seen with some of the older students who had no real boundaries, but it was more than a simple peck. Hermione knew that she had enjoyed it a lot. His arms were starting to go around her, which she did not object to in the slightest and Hermione had no idea what might have happened if they had not heard the tramp of feet coming down the corner. They sprang apart as Harry, Susan, and a few more people went into the common room and eventually Harry's entire friend group arrived to hear the discussion about Sirius.

She would have preferred a private setting to talk to Cedric again. Of course, she could have come over to the table earlier and asked to talk to him alone, but he might get the wrong idea about that and the last thing Hermione wanted to do was ruin her relationship with him, whatever that relationship might be or become. But she needed his strength to slow Harry down if he was fully committed to this self-destructive path.

"Cedric, can you come with Neville and me?" Hermione asked. She turned to look at her fellow Gryffindor and saw Hannah had followed them. "Hannah, I assume you are not letting this drop?" Hannah shook her head. "Ok then."

"Of course," Cedric said, getting up. "I was going to see if we could have a chance to chat later today, if that is ok."

"Let's get through today first, but yeah, in the near future," Hermione told him. At that statement Jason also rose from the table. Hermione was sorely tempted, but she didn't need people outside of the immediate circle of friends around Harry getting involved, and if was not for Neville's relationship with Hannah Hermione would stun her the moment they left the hall. "It's ok Jason."

"That comment sounded like you might not bring Cedric back in one piece," Jason replied. "I've always got my best friend's back. Whatever you are doing, I am in too."

"Fine." Hermione led the small group out of the great hall and cast the tempus charm. If Harry was going to try and break Sirius out, he would probably try to do it right after the students departed on the 9:00pm train, even though most of the students were not returning home. Her charm showed her it was 8:55, so she started to hurry up the stairs. When she reached the 5th floor she turned to survey the people with her.

Neville looked a little nervous, as did his girlfriend. That was understandable, and Hermione hoped Neville could grow a backbone to stand up to Harry and try and talk him down. Cedric was nervous as well, but Hermione surmised that his nerves were probably due to the uncertain status between the two of them. He was a tri-wizard champion because he could fight, and she had no doubt Jason would indeed have his back. To her surprise, she saw they had picked up a 5th student.

"Luna?" Hermione asked, and everyone turned to see Luna Lovegood staring at the floor behind Hermione. "What are you doing here?"

"The Wrackspurts in the hall were going crazy when you walked out. I assume it has something to do with the Blibbering Humdingers all around Harry this morning," Luna stated as if the two sentences she had just uttered were totally normal. Hermione took a deep breath. After what might be classified as a verbal attack on the Ravenclaw girl on her supposed creatures, Harry had given her an explicit demand that she never make fun of Luna, no matter what she said. Given her current situation, it took all of Hermione's self-control to not snap at Luna.

"Sure," Hermione said. This was not the time to deal with Luna's bizarre made up creatures. "I guess you are all wondering why I yanked you out of breakfast this morning."

"The thought crossed my mind," Hannah said.

"Jason, Luna, I hope you weren't planning on catching the train because this might run us past 9."

"Not me," Jason said and Luna bobbed her head, which Hermione hoped meant she was staying too.

"Ok, what is going on?" Hannah asked.

"Well, remember how Susan was telling us all that her aunt caught Sirius Black last night?"

"Yeah, she told Harry because Sirius Black tried to kill him all of last year," Hannah said. "I assume Harry is relieved."

"It is more complicated than that, but Sirius is actually not trying to kill Harry. I can't say much, but I'm fairly confident Harry is coming up the stairs and is planning to bust Sirius out. We are going to stop him from doing something so stupid."

"We are going to fight Harry?" Neville said, his face paling.

"First, we are going to try talking," Hermione said. "But if it comes down to it, I guess. All we need to do is hold him up for two minutes. That's how long it will take a few professors to arrive."

"Hermione?" Hermione looked down the steps and saw exactly what she had most feared. Her group backed up as Harry, Fred and George, Daphne, and Victor Krum crested the stairs to step onto the 5th floor platform. The two groups now faced each other, tension running through every person. "What are you doing here?"

"I might ask you the same thing," Hermione said, subtly palming her wand. If it did come to a fight, her only chance would be to get some shots in before the others expected it. "Harry, don't tell me you are planning something stupid."

"Hermione, I really don't have time for this," Harry said, trying to move past her. Hermione planted herself in his way. "Hermione, move!" Harry barked.

"No," Hermione said, meeting his eyes with her. "This is totally mad. This is time to trust your friends. Trust Susan to get the kiss on sight order cancelled. Trust your other friends to make sure Sirius gets a fair hearing in court."

"Harry, please tell me you are not planning on taking on fully trained aurors," Neville said.

"I wouldn't be going down this path if I wasn't confident this would go well," Harry said. "So get out of my way, or I will go through you." Both parties of 5 had their wands out.

"Fine," Hermione said. This was going sideways fast. She raised her wand and quite clearly put it away. "Go through me. I won't stop you, but I won't get out of your way,"

"Hermione, don't make me," Harry said.

"Me too," Neville said. Hermione noticed he didn't put his wand away, but he lowered it. "If our friendship really doesn't mean anything to you, then go ahead." Hermione saw the struggle on Harry's face, and there were tears in his eyes. He raised his wand, looked Hermione in the eyes.

"I have to save him," Harry pleaded.

"Then trust us to do it, but we will do it the right way," Hermione said. "Believe in your friends." Harry sighed and lowered his wand.

"Stupefy! Incarcerous!" Hermione heard, and Cedric and Jason crashed to the ground. But none of Harry's group had fired the spell. Hermione turned and saw Luna aiming her wand at her. "Stupefy!" Hermione couldn't dodge the spell from close range, and she slid to the floor, her vision going dark.

"Luna!" Neville cried, and he was hit by a stunner from one of the twins. The other fired a tripping jinx at Hannah, which she dodged, only to be hit by a binding spell from Daphne.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked, taking a second to stun the still conscious Hannah and Jason.

"Helping you save Stubby Boardman," Luna said. There was a small smile on her face, and then it seemed like she was miles away. "Harry," Luna said, her face becoming deadly serious. "You need to go, and quickly. The minister just arrived, and he is not alone."

"Remus!" Harry called, and the ex-defense professor whipped the invisibility cloak off. "Stall them?" Remus nodded, and Harry headed down the hallway. He stopped at the door he knew Sirius was behind and took a deep breath. "All ready?"

To Harry's surprise, the plan actually went even better than expected. He managed to get a few steps into the room before the aurors were able to fire, and he leapt over the stunners, clearing Sirius with his leap. As he landed, he saw the aurors on the far side of the room crumple. He rolled to his left, his wand jumping into his hand and with a vicious quickly stab of his wand and cry of "Stupefy!" another auror went down. He saw the twins engaging the last auror standing, and then Krum hit him with a tripping spell, allowing one of the twins to stun him.

"Harry?" Sirius cried in surprise as Harry directed Krum to the chains. The Bulgarian fired a spell at the chains, and one of them broke. Krum swore and aimed his wand at another chain. "Just reach into my sock," Sirius told him, and Harry reached in, and came out holding a knife. "Just stick it into the locks." Harry followed his godfather's instructions and was surprise when the lock fell apart. Harry quickly did it to the two remaining chains, and Sirius was free. Sirius gave Harry a big hug and drew his wand from his other sock.

"We have to go, now!" Harry told his godfather. "That happened so quickly I don't even know if the aurors will recognize us. Come on!"

Remus heard the noise from the room from behind him and readied his wand. He was not surprised to see Amelia Bones enter the corridor alone. They just gave a small grin and bow to each other.

"Remus Lupin, I hope that is not you" Madam Bones asked, even though Remus knew she knew the answer. "My niece has only said nice things about your teaching last year. I had hoped you would not be drawn back into Sirius's orbit."

"It is nice to see you to Amelia, We both know he is innocent," Remus told her.

"Then it will come out in court, not in this hallway."

"Perhaps if you were minister. I will not trust my best friend to Fudge," Remus said. Amelia drew her wand in response to that.

There was no need for words anymore. They both knew what was going to happen. Amelia took the first move, firing a few simple hexes at Remus. The werewolf contemptuously batted the spells away. They were simply testing spells, to see if Remus was committed to his course of action. The head of the DMLE scaled up the speed of her spells and started to add some dangerous attacks.

Remus ducked under a bone-breaker and met a binding spell with a shield. He had to fire back, or he would be overwhelmed by Amelia's casting strength. He batted away a stunner and fired a flipping spell back at her. Amelia just swayed and fired back forcing Remus to throw up a powerful shield.

Remus was sweating as Amelia pressed her advantage. He tried to dodge a flurry of spells but Amelia was too fast and efficient. There was no wasted movement and her spells were bunched tightly, giving him no opening. Remus dipped into his bag of tricks and summoned a group of birds who distracted Amelia for a moment. He spun out from behind his improvised spell and threw a spell at Amelia he knew she wouldn't know.

Remus had learned the spell in America, from an athlete no less. He had helped the athlete banish a nefarious spirit and it was one of his hidden tricks. It was a fast green jet and looked an awful lot like the killing curse. It was impossible to cast the killing curse silently, but any law enforcement official would automatically dive out of the way. But Amelia was faster than Remus anticipated, rolling out of her dive and regaining the offensive with two blasting spells that Remus had to shield from

The spells were flying fast and furious, and Remus realized if he didn't try something unexpected he would be overwhelmed within seconds. So he switched wand hands and threw out three high powered stunners. He wasn't surprised to see Amelia deflect two and shield from the third. He had expected it.

It had taken Remus the entire summer to regain any of his old karate skill, but spending time with Takashi and Harry this summer had encouraged him to start from scratch. He could not match Harry's natural skill or growth due to his younger age, but Remus was no longer just a wizard, and had the heightened speed of and strength of a werewolf. This was his advantage against a stronger spellcaster.

Remus slid past two of Amelia's spells and rotated his entire body, throwing his entire weight into the punch that smashed into Amelia, sending her down the hall in a heap. Remus sent a silent prayer for her safety but suspected when she regained consciousness Amelia would be more annoyed than hurt. Then he felt the room start to get cold. He looked curiously at Amelia, and saw she was still unconscious. Then the hall began to lower in temperature. It wouldn't make sense for her to be casting a cooling spell in any sense. With a horrible feeling Remus realized what the feeling was.

Harry and Sirius watched on in awe as Remus and Amelia dueled knowing that an interruption could hurt Remus as much as Amelia. Remus sent Amelia flying with well placed blow, and he slumped against the wall in exhaustion. Then Harry felt cold all of the sudden. He saw the black shapes floating towards him and cursed. He aimed his wand down the corridor and searched his mind. For a moment, he heard the cry of his mom, but then he found something, and yelled "Expecto Patronum!"

Prongs burst out into the hallway, running faster than Harry had ever seen him before. It was not his strongest Patronus, and Prongs was only partially solid, but Harry saw his stag drive the dementors away, and he staggered from the force of the spell. The last thing he needed was exhaustion, but Harry couldn't help as he crashed to the ground.

"Harry!" Daphne cried out, rushing over to him. "Please be ok!" Harry gave her a small smile as she helped him to his feet. "Don't scare us like that?"

"Harry are you ok?" The twins asked at the same time. Harry nodded as he got to his feet, and he blinked a few times as he looked down the corner. Remus had his wand out was retreating, and Harry paled as he saw Minister Fudge accompanied by at least 10 other wizards who had their wands trained on Harry's group.

"What is going on?" an older man said. Harry's shoulder's slumped. The only way out would be to take the blame himself. He saw Dumbledore talking to Fudge while the minister shook his head vehemently. "Criminal trying to escape!"

"Hey Harry," Akira said, gliding past all of the personnel in the corridor. "Catch." Akira was holding something in his hand, and as he drew back his hand to throw it, Harry saw the slightest shake of his head from Akira, as well as a hand signal from his free hand. Harry recognized the signal as a sign to not move. So Harry stayed stationary as the small cup sailed over his hand and into the hand of his godfather. The air around Sirius seemed to pulse, and then with a loud crack Sirius was gone. "Oops."

"What the hell was that?" The older man said said, drawing his wand on Akira. Akira looked disdainfully at the man and without moving sent his wand skittering down the corridor.

"Well, I was going to go talk to Harry elsewhere, so I tried to toss him a portkey," Akira said. "I tossed it too hard. My apologies." Akira didn't look remorseful in the slightest.

"A portkey!" Fudge snarled, coming forward. "Where is the portkey too? We can still follow him and arrest the criminal."

"Well, I wouldn't advise that," Akira said with a half smile.

"You will tell me where that portkey, right now!" Fudge shouted, drawing his wand. A few of the other aurors were looked around, extremely confused.

"If you insist. That was an emergency portkey my father made for me and Harry. When it activates, it takes anyone who is holding it to the Japanese embassy in London. Feel free to go, but it would be classified as an invasion of Japanese territory. That would be a very bad idea."

"An embassy!" The old lion yelled. "Who could create a portkey that goes through the wards of Hogwarts and into an embassy?"

"My father," Akira said simply, still incredibly calm. "You may have heard of him. Takashi Hayashi. He works for the Asian ministry."

"Some halfwit Asian?" Fudge snapped. In an instant, Akira had his wand right another Fudge's chin, and all the aurors trained their wands at Akira.

"I'll allow that once," Akira said, his voice now lower and promising violence. "Insult my father again, and I will cut you open."

"Takashi Hayashi?" Amelia Bones asked rising from the floor. Akira gave a small nod. "You mean to tell me your father is the current Head of Magical Martial Instruction for Asia?"

"Last time I checked," Akira said, lowering his wand.

"Minister!" Amelia hissed. "Lower your wand and apologize. You just insulted the son of one of the most dangerous men in the world. We do not want to cross him."

"I do not apologize," The minster started to say, and then Amelia drew her wand and pointed at her boss.

"Minister, if you do not apologize, I will stun you. You do not want this man as your enemy, trust me. Please," Amelia was almost begging.

"Fine," Cornelius Fudge said, "I apologize." It was clear to everyone that the apology was insincere, but it satisfied Akira enough to let the situation diffuse. "Now bring that criminal back. But we will discuss your insubordinate attitude later, Amelia."

"Yeah, no can do," Akira said. "That was a one-way portkey. Besides, the Japanese ministry does not have an extradition treaty to Britain. So we don't have to do anything for you. What's more, to my knowledge, Sirius Black was never convicted of a crime."

"That's preposterous!" Fudge shouted.

"I told you that last year!" Harry cried.

"Harry," Akira said, a warning in his voice, Harry instantly stepped back. "Feel free to look up Sirius Black's court records. In the meantime, I would be happy to submit a request to the ambassador for your desire to talk to the new occupant."

"I would like to speak to the criminal tomorrow," Fudge said.

"Well, that's not possible," Akira said. "The ambassador is a busy man. I would be happy to fast track your request. You should be able to see him in 4 to 6 business weeks."

"I can't see him until February!" Fudge was livid.

"March," Akira corrected. "The ambassador will be returning to Japan on holiday to visit his family starting tomorrow. He will return in the middle of January. I said business weeks"

"You are serious?" Amelia asked. Akira nodded. To everyone's surprise, Amelia starting laughing. "Well, I would be lying if I said I wasn't impressed. I haven't seen your father in years. Give him my best."

"Of course," Akira said, stepping forward and shaking her hand.

"Mr. Potter, I would still like to see you tomorrow night." Amelia called as she turned to leave. "Let's say 7 pm sharp?"

"What are you doing?" Minister Fudge screamed as Amelia walked away.

"Going back to the room Dumbledore gave me," Amelia said. "Nothing I can do, Minister. We can't touch him, and I'm not about to make an enemy of a man who could dissemble my entire auror force on his own. If you want Sirius Black, you will have to do it without me for the time being. I plan to go investigate the claim that he was never charged of a crime after the holidays.

"This is preposterous!" Fudge yelled.

"No," Akira said. "This is the time to walk away."

"Indeed," Harry said stepping forward. "I got this."

"Ok," Akira said, strolling away. "We will be discussing this later." Harry shuddered a bit at that. Akira was almost certain to rip into him later. That would not be pleasant.

"Minister Fudge, you are now insulting the house of Potter," Harry stated. "I am Lord Potter, and you are dangerously close at making me your enemy. You do not want that. Back away, and I will avoid declaring a blood feud against you."

"You wouldn't dare!" Fudge claimed.

"Try me," Harry said.

"Then I'll take you down," the old lion said. Most of the aurors were gone now, having left with Amelia but two remained, standing right behind him. "I'll take you right now for helping an escaped fugitive."

"You are?" Harry said, trying to appear unconcerned.

"Rufus Scrimgeour, head of the aurors," the old man spat.

"That's nice to hear," Harry said. "Last time I checked the Potter family gave an annual stipend to the auror fund. If I went to jail, I guess that would have to stop. It wouldn't do for a criminal to be giving money to the ministry. I'm not Lucius Malfoy."

"Now listen here," Fudge started to say.

"I have to say, I'm interested to learn more," Cedric said, limping towards Harry. "And I would also like the chance to talk to Lord Potter about this. But for now, The House of Diggory will stand with him. I will be contacting my father about all of this."

"As will House Greengrass, after I get in touch with my father," Daphne added. Fudge glared at Daphne, but Harry saw the wheels turning in his head. It was one thing to make an enemy of Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory, but making enemies with one of the Sacred 28 was not something he could afford to do. After a quick whispered conference with his head of aurors, Fudge whirled and walked away. "Good call."

Harry sank to the floor, tension leaving his body. That had been some of the longest 20 minutes of his life. He couldn't believe his bluff had worked. He was exhausted, and wanted nothing more than to go to sleep.

"I can't really get mad at you," Cedric said, "seeing as you didn't actually stun me. I'd still like an explanation later."

"Later," Harry agreed. He groaned as he got to his feet.

"Harry," Luna said, walking up to him. "Is Stubby Boardman safe?"

"Who is Stubby Boardman?" Harry asked. "I meant to ask earlier, but like you said, I was in a hurry."

"The lead singer of the Hobgoblins," Luna explained. "The man you rescued."

"I don't know I'll have the energy to unpack this until tomorrow," Harry said. "But I guess." Luna smiled and waltzed away. Krum gave a half nod to Harry and walked away, seemingly following Luna. Harry's eyes narrowed at the mismatched couple, but he simply didn't have time for that. "Why don't you bring everyone around to the Gryffindor common room tonight?"

"You don't want to go back and have a full breakfast?" Cedric asked.

"I have to get the snot beaten out of me by Akira," Harry said. "But I'll see you later."