XXVI

"Welcome!" Dumbledore's voice rose over the heads of the students drowning out the few conversations that hadn't stopped the moment the headmaster stood up. All heads turned to him. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few things to say to you all, and as one of them is very serious, I think it best to get it out of the way before you become befuddled by our excellent feast…"

Kakashi got stuck on the word 'befuddled'. Befuddled? What an odd word.

"As you will all be aware after their search of the Hogwarts Express, our school is presently playing host to some of the Dementors of Azkaban, who are here on Ministry of Magic business." The old man seemed troubled as he explained the situation. Apparently, if Dumbledore was to be believed, the Azkaban guards were stationed at every entrance. Therefore, Dumbledore announced, it was forbidden for students to leave school grounds without permission. "Dementors are not to be fooled by tricks or disguises – or even Invisibility Cloaks."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed at the odd inclusion. It seemed so specific and at the same time sounded as if Dumbledore had added it as an afterthought as if thinking about a specific student. Surely, if there was such a thing as an Invisibility Cloak, it had to be rare. Suspiciously, Kakashi looked around himself, sniffing the air. But he didn't sense anybody close by and hiding in invisibility.

"It is not in the nature of a Dementor to understand pleading or excuses. I, therefore, warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you. I look to the prefects, and our Head Boy and Girl, to make sure that no student runs afoul of the Dementors." Dumbledore spoke with such severity in his voice, that it was clear, these creatures were a threat that couldn't be dealt with by students.

Worriedly, Kakashi looked around the table. The age of these kids ranged from eleven to 17, he knew. The youngest were genin age and the oldest were already adults. If even they weren't expected to be able to deal with these Dementors, was there a way to fight them at all? With a shudder, Kakashi remembered the way his kunai had uselessly cut through wispy cloth and skin. Cutting them and even later kicking and overpowering them with sheer physical strength hadn't done anything to harm them and scare them off. Kakashi knew with certainty that the only reason they had turned away after he had kicked the Dementor was that they already knew Sirius wasn't hiding in his compartment. He hadn't scared them off, they had simply had no reason to keep attacking him. That was troublesome…An opponent he didn't know how to fight was rare. He was used to fighting opponents with tricky ninjutsu, but at least they were always mortal humans. The shinobis' tricks always relied on chakra, and he had ways to understand that. These creatures were entirely foreign to him…

Wait… Hadn't Neville mentioned that a teacher had stopped the Dementor coming into Harry's compartment? How had he done it? Kakashi could only guess that it was a sort of magic, that he couldn't use anyway, but if he knew how to fight a Dementor with magic, maybe he could figure out how to fight it without magic too. His eyes searched for the tired-looking teacher with the scars on his face. The one who'd been in Harry's wagon and who Kakashi had only seen very briefly at the entrance to the castle. How had this professor stopped the Dementors? If Kakashi wanted to help Sirius, he should be prepared to handle them. These creatures were too much of an unknown for Kakashi to just ignore.

"On a happier note," Dumbledore continued after a short pause, "I am pleased to welcome two new teachers to our ranks this year."

Kakashi droned out then. He didn't know any of the teachers, so he didn't really care which ones were new. Instead, he used the short reprieve before his new classmates would start attacking him with questions again, to try and find a way through the Hogwarts wards.

He didn't fancy spending more than a few hours in a castle he couldn't see. He was getting a headache having to concentrate all the time on the wispy magical structures around him, to guess where exactly walls, ceiling, floor, and furniture were. Even worse was the fact, that he constantly had to use his Sharingan to see anything at all, even as his chakra got more and more attuned to the magic around him. It was draining him too quickly, and he knew he had to find a solution soon or spend the next few weeks in a coma due to chakra exhaustion – And how would he explain that to the medical witch who had treated his neck earlier?

Tentatively, Kakashi started probing the walls and ground with his chakra. This was difficult. In Diagon Alley and Kings Cross, there was a plain wall and a single magical core hiding a passage to the magical world. Here, the walls of the castle were overflowing with magic and he was right in the middle of it, trying to find one specific sort of magic. His problem wasn't that he had trouble finding a magical core, but rather that he was in a cloud of magic, trying to find that one particular magical raindrop that turned the whole cloud invisible to him.

As Kakashi spread his chakra over the walls and ground, he wasted even more of it than he could afford. Hopefully, he'd be able to catch a few good hours of sleep that night, or he'd be dead on his feet tomorrow.

Then, he was distracted by sudden applause. He almost flinched in surprise, as the kids all around him started clapping. Looking to the front, to see what had the students so excited, he saw that it wasn't the headmaster at all. Instead, the scarred teacher that had helped Harry on the Hogwarts Express stood awkwardly from his seat at the teachers' table waving into the crowd.

Kakashi concentrated back on probing the magic around him. He needed a better method than just searching blindly. There was still this odd feeling of wanting to turn away – as if his instincts were warning him of some unknown hidden danger. Kakashi was reasonably certain, that that too was part of the wards protecting the castle. Latching onto a feeling was easier than searching for something he didn't know. He just hoped that the wards were connected, so he could make his way from one to the other.

In fact, to his surprise, it was surprisingly easy to find the bit of magic that made him want to leave the castle. His chakra immediately latched onto it—

And then something slapped it away. Like a whip or a snake's tail…It dislodged his chakra. A defense mechanism? Or had he been—

Kakashi quickly retreated.

"…our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, retired at the end—" upfront, Dumbledore suddenly stopped in his speech. The headmaster's eyes narrowed behind half-moon glasses and roamed over the students' heads. He must have felt the intrusion on his wards.

Kakashi immediately knew he had messed up. Carefully he pulled all his chakra back into himself. With his Sharingan he could see the magic shift and move around him, trying to find something, searching for the intrusion, that wasn't there anymore.

Dumbledore coughed slightly. "Professor Kettleburn retired to enjoy more of his remaining limbs," the principal joked in front of the whole school, but his magic was still visibly searching for the intruder. Kakashi held his breath. "However, I am delighted to say that his place will be filled by none other than Rubeus Hagrid, who has agreed to take on this teaching job in addition to his gamekeeping duties."

Again, applause rose in the Great Hall. This time it was louder than before. Some students even cheered. Clearly, Professor Hagrid was already beloved by many, though Kakashi noted long faces at the Slytherin house table. Kakashi too joined in on the applause this time, if only to look inconspicuous.

If Dumbledore had felt the attempted manipulation of his wards, it was possible that he already suspected Kakashi…

And that meant, as Dumbledore finally ended his speech, before declaring the banquet open, that Kakashi should probably try to fit in with his new classmates. Even as the food appeared out of nowhere on the table, it was clear that the other Hufflepuffs were all too eager to skip the meal to ask him questions. The fact that they had waited for Dumbledore's speech to finish before unleashing their curiosity spoke volumes of their respect for the headmaster.

"So, where did you transfer from?" the same girl from before repeated her first question.

Kakashi ducked his head. In a vain attempt to avoid the questions he reached out for the food on the table. He wasn't comfortable being the center of attention, and he wasn't eager to tell Charlie's story again. Even more so, Kakashi wasn't looking forward to the barrage of questions that would undoubtedly follow once he had answered the first few. Although he wasn't hungry, he pulled a bowl of beans and a kidney pie close. It was the closest in reach and he was not squeamish as to what he wanted to eat as long as it was a good excuse not to answer.

Of course, it didn't help. Even as he put a portion on his plate and lifted his cutlery, the other kids were still staring at him curiously.

"I didn't transfer," he replied vaguely. He thought about adding further information when the girl interrupted him.

"What do you mean you didn't transfer?"

"Susan, you didn't even give him time to explain!" another girl complained. She had straight black hair and sat next to Susan. As she spoke, she gave Susan a friendly kick under the table, that would've gone unnoticed to anybody else – but not to Kakashi.

"There's not much to explain," Kakashi said. "I didn't go to a school before. The ministry found out this summer and invited me to Hogwarts. I was sorted in the ministry." With that he shoveled a big portion of pie into his mouth – big enough that he would need a few minutes to chew and swallow it all, giving himself ample excuse not to continue the conversation.

Apparently, the others didn't see it like that. The boy next to him with the curly dark hair frowned confused. "Then you're from a wizarding family? They taught you?"

Kakashi shook his head to both questions. It was curious, he thought. In some way, shape, or form only a few minutes after meeting somebody, there would always be a question about his family status. Muggleborn, half-blood or pureblood…He remembered what Neville had told him. Some thought purebloods were superior. These kids here didn't seem to belong to that group of people, as none of them seemed all that interested in his blood status apart from wanting to know who had taught him before.

"So, you weren't taught by anybody?" Susan asked. This girl couldn't stay quiet for longer than a few minutes.

Kakashi shook his head. This time he was better prepared. It was clear that they wouldn't stop asking questions, so he quickly swallowed and turned the conversation around. "Why don't you introduce yourself first?" he suggested. "I don't even know your names."

At that Susan and Ernie, both blushed bright pink. They didn't otherwise resemble each other at all, but the way their faces turned red simultaneously, they could've been siblings.

"Right," Susan agreed with a nod. "I'm Susan Bones. That's Megan Jones," she pointed to the girl next to her who had kicked her under the table – Kakashi already expected that he'd confuse the similar names. "The boy next to you is Justin Finch-Fletchley, and that's Ernie Macmillan." She nodded at the curly-haired boy and then at the one next to herself. Then she continued to name the other girl sitting on Kakashi's other side. "And Hannah Abbott." Hannah had a rosy face and blond pigtails. She smiled shyly at Kakashi.

"You, Justin, and I share a dorm room," Ernie added when Susan finished her introduction, "with three other boys. Give me a…" He looked around searchingly.

"Ah, right. You see the boy over there?" He pointed over their heads at a blonde boy talking to a bunch of the older Hufflepuffs further up the table. Cedric was there as well. "That's Zacharias Smith. He's playing for our Quidditch team. Cedric is the Captain, by the way. You already met him. That's the team he's talking to. The one next to him is Wayne Hopkins. The one with the freckles." He turned around and then pointed at a dark-skinned boy who sat close to them among the second years. He had his nose in a book and didn't seem to care much about what was going on around him as if he hadn't even noticed that he was sitting with the younger kids. "And that's Nitin Divekar," Ernie said. "Hey, Nitin!" But Nitin didn't react. "We have a new classmate!" Still no reaction. Ultimately, Ernie shrugged. "I guess he's at an exciting part."

Kakashi had a headache. With the excuse that he was tired, he had crawled into bed and drawn the curtains shut. It wasn't even a lie. He was so tired, that he hadn't even been able to concentrate much on where his new classmates led him. Apparently, the Hufflepuff common room was hidden under a password-protected barrier, but Kakashi had no energy to concentrate enough chakra to be able to see the encoded entryway nor even the common room. He had just barely managed to fall into the bed that had his trunk lying next to it.

However, he hadn't fallen asleep after that. Behind the curtains, he could hear the other boys whisper. They were clearly far from tired and all too eager to share their holiday stories, but out of consideration for him, they kept their voices low. That didn't help Kakashi though, as his senses still picked up on the conversation and in fact, it was more difficult for him to sleep with people whispering around him than if they shouted.

Whispers just set him on edge. His brain was trained to home in on these silent conversations, perceiving them as potential threats.

That wasn't the only reason why he couldn't sleep though. Existing in this castle was weird and energy-consuming. His instincts were still telling him to get away for no apparent reason other than the wards around the castle telling him that he wasn't welcome. Even worse was the fact that the world he perceived was a lie. It gave him nauseating whiplash. He had stumbled three times on the stairs and even now as he had the curtains drawn shut, he couldn't get past the fact that out there he was surrounded by walls he couldn't see while the walls he did see were lies.

It was infuriating.

And it was even worse, that not only had he no idea how to break the wards, but he didn't even dare probe them, as he now knew, that Dumbledore would pick up on his manipulations.

Already teetering on the side of desperate, he put his hands together in the tiger sign. Kai. He didn't say the jutsu but he still felt a small burst of chakra leave his body, yet nothing happened. It was no mere genjutsu that he could break out of. And honestly, it wasn't even worth the try, as now he had even less chakra.

Revelio veritas. He still remembered the spell Professor Snape had used against him, how he had broken through Kakashi's Transformation. If only Kakashi had a similar technique now. If only he could use magic…Or if he had a jutsu that could do the same.

Revelio…veritas… It was Latin, he knew now. During his time in Diagon Alley, he had found out that at least 90% of the most commonly used spells were in Latin or at least something that resembled Latin. It didn't help him much, as Kakashi couldn't speak Latin, and really between learning English and picking up some rudimentary Afrikaans just in case somebody dared him to prove that he really was from South Africa, he had no time to learn a third language.

Revelio…That seemed easy enough. It sounded like to reveal. And veritas sounded like…this one was more difficult, but he had a hunch that it had the same origin as words like veritable and verify. So revelio veritas would be something like to reveal the truth.

Kakashi scratched his head. If the spell was meant to reveal the truth, it wasn't really a spell that was meant to break a specific spell. The fact that it didn't only break magic but even his jutsu proved that it would reveal the truth no matter the means by which the truth was hidden. Such a spell would be quite nifty.

Curious… Could Kakashi do the same? Could he create a jutsu that wouldn't necessarily break or manipulate the wards but simply, independently of the wards enable him to see the truth.

If he thought of it from that angle, maybe he had a chance. Maybe he could leave the wards intact and simply layer a jutsu of his own on top of the wards that would exclude Kakashi from being affected by them. After all, that was all he needed. Whenever he had tried to manipulate magic before, it had always been either…or. Either activate the magic or deactivate it. Either try to break through the magic or leave it intact. However, if deactivating or breaking through the wards was impossible, and leaving it activated and intact was, in the long run, unfeasible for him…He had to find a middle ground.

Maybe he could find a way how the wards around Hogwarts either ignored him entirely or maybe he could fool them into thinking he was magical. Surely that was possible. If magic was impossible to understand and emulate for his chakra, it was only logical that he could do things with his chakra, that magic couldn't defend against.

In theory, the idea was easy. He needed a genjutsu that made Kakashi look like a magical person. However, in practice, he had no idea how to go about it. If he could just put a genjutsu on Dumbledore, maybe that was possible – though even then, he didn't want to necessarily fight Dumbledore who seemed a respectable warrior even just in the few minutes Kakashi had seen of him – However, Kakashi feared it wouldn't be enough to just fool Dumbledore, he had to fool the wards around the castle. And the wards weren't a person…How did you put a genjutsu on magic itself?

Seals… Kakashi thought, feeling his headache already increase. I'll need to put a layer of my own seals over the wards…

If only he had paid more attention to Minato-sensei's and Kushina-nee's sealing lessons.

He cursed quietly, pulling the blanket up to his chin. This would be difficult. He could waste days and weeks trying to find a good seal or he could…

There was a different possibility. One, he hadn't really considered yet, but maybe one that was more feasible than teaching himself all the basics of sealing that he needed, to come up with his own technique to do something he didn't even know how to do yet…

Maybe, it was time to ask for help. Surely, with magic and help from the right people, it would be an easy thing to get past the Hogwarts wards.

For a moment, he considered asking Harry for help, then he shoved that thought aside. It couldn't be Harry. Would Harry even know what to do? Apparently, one of his best friends was a good student, but even she was just a third-grader and likely didn't know how to fool the wards around the castle…No, if he had to ask for help it would be the smartest choice to go straight to the person, he was certain could actually help him.

Dumbledore, he thought, it has to be Dumbledore.