This is the second chapter uploaded today, so if you haven't read Chapter 7 yet please make sure you go back and do so.
Chapter 8 – The Start of a New Year
Sumire, Hermione, Neville, and Ron found seats in the last compartment of the Hogwarts Express. The only occupant was asleep next to the window. He looked ill and exhausted, and his light brown hair was flecked with grey despite him not being that old.
"Who'd'you reckon he is?" Ron wondered.
"Professor R.J. Lupin," Hermione said. She pointed up the letters painted on his case in the luggage rack. The letters were peeling so they had clearly been there for a long time.
"Must be out new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," Neville said.
Ron seemed skeptical but Sumire studied their new professor. She had a pretty good idea who it was. It was doubtful there was another R. J. Lupin. She hoped she would get an opportunity to talk to him about her parents. He might even be able to tell her about Sirius Black.
"What did Mr. Weasley want to talk to you about," Hermione asked Sumire.
Sumire explained that Mr. Weasley pulled her off to the side on the platform to warn her about Sirius Black since the Ministry believes the man is after her and Mr. Weasley felt Sumire should know.
"You don't seem that worried," Neville said once some of the shock and panic had worn off.
Sumire shrugged. "There's no guarantee he is after me, so why worry?" She located the whistling sound that was bugging her. She opened her trunk to see the Sneakoscope Ron got her for her birthday spinning and glowing.
"Is that a Sneakoscope?" Hermione asked staring at the device in her friend's hand.
"Yeah… mind you, it's a very cheap one," Ron said. "It went haywire just as I was tying it to Errol's leg to send it to Sumire."
Sumire buried the device in her trunk and made a mental note to slap a sound dampening seal on it if it kept whistling. Otherwise, it would drive her insane.
"We could get it checked in Hogsmeade," Neville said. "Dervish and Banges in Hogsmeade sells magical instruments."
"Do you know much about Hogsmeade?" Hermione asked. "I've read it's the only entirely non-Muggle settlement in Britain– "
"Yeah, I think it is," Ron said uncaring. "I don't really care though. I just want to get inside Honeydukes." He proceeded to talk about all the different sweets the shop carried.
"Did your dad sign your form?" Hermione asked Sumire, ignoring Ron.
She nodded. "Tou-san signed It when I got back from getting my supplies."
"I know you've explained what tou-san means, but what does nee-chan mean?" Hermione asked, carefully pronouncing the foreign words. "I heard Naruto call you it."
"Sister," Sumire said. "We've been close for years."
She turned the conversation to the summer holidays. She kept the details of her summer exploits to a minimum, leaving out anything too dangerous or shinobi related. Sumire did say that her friends participated in a competition that she helped her teacher proctor one of the events in. when asked about the competition, she said it was made up of three parts. The first two eliminated teams of three in a written test and scavenger hunt. The third part was a dueling tournament. Naruto and Shikamaru made it to the third part, but Kiba and Chōji were eliminated in the preliminary to the third that had to be held because there were too many people initially for the tournament.
Hermione and Ron talked about their family vacations to France and Egypt, respectively. Neville had spent the summer cultivating seeds he'd bought at the greenhouse full of rare plants his grandmother had taken him to. There were only two interruptions to their conversations, the trolley and Malfoy. Although Malfoy and his cronies scampered off when they learned the fifth occupant of the compartment was a teacher.
The train slowed and Ron walked over to the rain lashed window. "Finally, I'm starving. I want to get to the feast…"
"We can't be there yet," Hermione said.
"We're stopping," Ron insisted. "We're there."
Sumire slid a hand into a pocket and grasped a kunai. Something was wrong. Her feeling was justified when the train stopped with a more violent jolt than any other and all the lamps went out.
"I'm going to go and ask the driver what's going on," Hermione said.
Sumire heard Hermione stand and step towards the door. She also heard Professor Lupin shift. A second later he spoke.
"Stay here," Lupin said, his voice hoarse. There was a soft, crackling noise, and a shivering light filled the compartment. It originated from Lupin's hand which appeared to be holding a handful of flames. It illuminated his tired face and alert, wary eyes.
Lupin headed for the door, but it slid open before he could reach it.
Standing in the doorway was a cloaked figure that towered toward the ceiling. Its face was completely hidden by its hood. Sumire caught a glimpse of a hand that looked like it had died and then decayed in water before it disappeared into the folds of the black cloak.
It drew a long, slow, rattling breath and an intense cold swept over all of them. Sumire found herself reliving her worst nightmares: missions that had gone horribly wrong, and the day she learned what Itachi had done. Then as she seemed to be surrounded by the Hidden Mist Jutsu she heard terrified, pleading screams overlapping discordantly with two voices crying out something she couldn't make out.
"Sumire are you alright?" Hermione asked.
Sumire blinked up to see Hermione and Neville staring down at her, Professor Lupin and Ron were in the background. She sat up feeling dizzy. "What happened? What was that thing?"
There was a loud snap and she looked over to see Lupin breaking up a chocolate bar. He passed her a large piece. "Here. Eat it. It'll help."
"What was that thing?" Sumire asked again.
"A dementor," Lupin said, handing chunks of chocolate to the other three. "One of the guards of Azkaban. Eat. It'll help. I need to speak to the driver, excuse me…" He headed out of the compartment and down the corridor.
"Are you sure you're okay, Sumire?" Hermione asked.
"What happened?" she asked, ignoring the question.
"I thought you were having a fit or something," Ron said. "You went rigid and fell out of your seat and started twitching."
"Professor Lupin pulled out his wand and said, 'none of us are hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks,' "Hermione said, shooting Ron a look. "When the dementor didn't move he whispered something that sent something silvery at the dementor. It glided away after that."
"I haven't poisoned that chocolate, you know…" Lupin said reentering the compartment.
Sumire couldn't help but sniff the chocolate first. She could only smell chocolate, so she took a bite. To her surprise, warmth spread all the way to the tips of her fingers and toes.
Ten minutes later, they were boarding the carriages that were pulled by some sort of skeletal horse. Most people it seemed couldn't see them, but by his actions, Sumire knew Neville could. As they passed through the gates, she used the chakra exercise all genin should know to keep themselves warm. It helped stave off the cold from the dementors somewhat. Inside, Professor McGonagall insisted Sumire and Neville get checked over by Madame Pomfrey and she also need to talk to Hermione.
Sumire sat at the Gryffindor table still a little annoyed with Madame Pomfrey. She wasn't delicate damn it. Next to her, Hermione was glowing from the private conversation she'd had with their Transfiguration professor. Unfortunately, their conversations made them miss the Sorting Ceremony.
"Welcome!" said Professor Dumbledore, standing up. "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 too befuddled by our excellent feast. 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 business.
"They are stationed at every entrance to the grounds, and while they are with us, I must make it plain that nobody is to leave school without permission. Dementors are not to be fooled by tricks or disguises – or even Invisibility Cloaks. 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. But you know, happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if only one remembers to turn on the light.
"On a happier note," Dumbledore continued. "I am pleased to welcome two new teachers to our ranks this year. First, Professor Lupin, who has kindly consented to fill the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. As to our second appointment, well, I am sorry to tell you that Professor Kettleburn, our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, retired at the end of last year in order to spend more time with his remaining limbs. However, I am delighted to say that his place will be filled by none other that Rubeus Hagrid, who has agreed to take on this teaching job in addition to his game-keeping duties."
Sumire and her friends were the ones cheering the hardest for both Hagrid and Lupin. After the feast they went over to congratulate an emotional Hagrid.
At breakfast the next day, Sumire wondered how Draco and the other Slytherins found out about her reaction to the dementor. There were only a handful of people who knew, and most were not the type to go spreading around that sort of information. Unless they were overheard using it to comfort a younger student that had a bad reaction as well.
"New third-year schedules," George said, passing them out. He saw Malfoy pretend to faint in terror again. "That little git. He wasn't so cocky last night when the dementors were down at our end of the train. Came running into our compartment, didn't he, Fred?"
"Nearly wet himself," Fred said.
Sumire couldn't help but snicker.
"Ooh, good, we're starting some new subjects today," Hermione said.
Sumire and Neville exchanged confused glances when Ron pointed out how Hermione was scheduled to be in multiple classes at once. Unlike the redhead, they let it go. She had clearly sorted things out with Professor McGonagall. Sumire just hoped it wouldn't lead to too much stress for Hermione.
Not taking Divination, Muggle Studies, or Arithmancy, Sumire had the first period off, so she decided to take advantage of it and get some training in before Transfiguration. That was a fascinating class. To be able to change something into something else could come in handy. Also, being able to change into an animal without needing chakra would be extremely helpful as a shinobi. The only downside was she couldn't control what animal she turned into. When she arrived in Transfiguration the overpowering perfumy smell coming off everyone who had Divination made her really glad she didn't take that class.
That afternoon she, Neville, Hermione, and Ron headed outside for Care of Magical Creatures.
"C'mon, now, get a move on!" Hagrid called from outside his hut as his first class approached. "Got a real treat for yeh today! Great lesson comin' up! Everyone here? Right, follow me!"
Hagrid led them along the edge of the forest to an empty paddock. "Everyone gather 'round the fence here! That's it – make sure yeh can see 0 now, firs' thing yeh'll want ter do is open yer books – "
"How do we open our books?" Malfoy's drawling voice interrupted. He held up his rope wrapped textbook.
The rest of the class pulled out their books. Some were belted, others like Malfoy's had rope, and many had the twine Naruto helped the bookstore owner tie the books with. Sumire's was the only one wrapped in wire.
"Just stroke the spine of course," Hagrid said as he headed to get the magical creatures from further in the forest.
"God, this place has gone to the dogs," Malfoy said. "Wait until my father hears Dumbledore's got this oaf teaching classes."
"What can he really do?" Sumire asked. "He's no longer a governor since he was kicked off the board for threatening the others."
Sumire heard a snort from Hermione.
Malfoy's eyes glinted in anger before he put on a false panicked face. He stumbled back pointing at something above and behind her. "Dementor! Dementor!"
Several people spun around in panic. Sumire though just blinked at him. "Did you really think that would work? Everything gets really cold around the dementors and… oh would you look at that. No temperature change."
Lavender's squeal drew everyone's attention and she pointed across the paddock at the dozen creatures Hagrid was leading in. their front half was that of eagles, but they had the back half and main bodies of horses.
"Hippogriffs!" Hagrid roared happily. "Beau'iful aren' they? Now, firs' thing yeh gotta know abou' hippogriffs is, they're proud. Easily offended, hippogriffs are. You do not want to insult a hippogriff. It may be the last thing yeh do."
Hagrid went on to explain how to greet a hippogriff and then asked for volunteers.
Sumire was the only person to step forward as the first volunteer. Hagrid walked her through how to greet the stormy grey hippogriff named Buckbeak. She bowed careful not to blink or expose the back of her neck. There was no way she was presenting anything vulnerable as an easy target.
After a tense moment Buckbeak bowed back. Sumire stepped up and stroked his beak. Because he seemed to enjoy it so much, Hagrid thought it would be a good idea for her and Buckbeak to go on a short flight. The flight itself was fairly enjoyable but her lack of control made her keen not to do it again.
The rest of the class stepped forward after Sumire dismounted. Her success seemed to give the others some confidence. Sumire talked to Neville about what she did and why since his hippogriff wasn't responding.
"This is very easy," Malfoy drawled, loud enough for Sumire to hear even if she was a civilian. "I knew it must have been, if Potter could do it… I bet you're not dangerous at all, are you?" He said to Buckbeak. "Are you, you great ugly bru-u-ute?"
Before Malfoy had finished speaking, Sumire realized what he was going to do. The blond twat was an idiot and probably deserved a minor mauling from Buckbeak. But he was trying to ruin this opportunity for Hagrid. Instead of focusing her chakra, Sumire reached for her magic. She made a grabbing motion with her hand and Malfoy was yanked towards her by his robes. She cut it off in time to prevent Malfoy from crashing into her. Instead, he dropped to the ground landing awkwardly on his right arm.
Hagrid retethered Buckbeak and stalked over to where Malfoy was whinging and whimpering while cradling his wrist. "I told yeh not to insult a hippogriff," Hagrid snapped, beetle black eyes glinting furiously. "Ten points from Slytherin and detention." He gestured to Crabbe and Goyle. "Take him to the hospital wing to get that wrist looked at. I'll have Professor Snape pass along the details of your detention."
Malfoy scampered off to the castle with his two lackeys. Hagrid turned to Sumire, "Ten points to Gryffindor for saving a fellow classmate. Class dismissed." The Slytherins ran off to check on Draco. "Thank you, Sumire."
"I didn't want Malfoy being an idiot to ruin this for you," she said getting a beaming smile from Hagrid.
On the way back up to the castle, Hermione stopped and stared at Sumire. "How did you do that?" she asked, eyes alight with curiosity. "The Summoning Charm is a fourth-year spell, and I didn't see your wand."
Sumire shrugged. "I didn't know it was the Summoning Charm. I accidentally summoned a couple things to myself one day several years ago. After I remembered what it felt like, I kept practicing until it worked every time."
"Felt like?" Neville and Hermione repeated.
"You can't feel magic," Ron said.
"That's because you haven't been taught how," Sumire said. "Back home, it one of the first thing we're taught is how to access it and judge the amount needed." 'Admittedly its chakra not magic, but the same principles apply.'
"Can you do any other spells without your wand?" Neville asked.
Sumire shook her head. "No. I'd like to be able to do the Disarming Charm. But I don't know if it's possible now that I've started using a wand."
"If it does work, can you teach is?" Hermione asked.
"If you want. I can at least show you how to sense your magic and the amount you're putting into a spell. It helps with learning new spells since you can try adding more or less magic instead of trying it over and over until you accidentally get the right levels."
"That's why it doesn't take you too many tries to get a new spell to work," Neville realized. "If it didn't work you just changed the amount of magic you put into it."
Sumire smiled and nodded. "We can go over the spells from the last two years too. Now that you have your own wand, casting spells should be easier. You won't have to fight the wand as well anymore."
Neville shuffled his feet. "I'm not sure it'll make much difference."
Hermione swatted his arm. "Nonsense. Besides, you never know until you try."
"And you could discover you have another specialty other than Herbology."
"Do you really think so?" Neville asked. Sumire nodded making him blush. "How long do you think Malfoy's going to draw out his injury?"
"Madame Pomfrey will have his arm fixed by tomorrow," Hermione said.
"Definitely, but that doesn't mean Malfoy won't milk it for days," Sumire said.
Turns out, Malfoy didn't show up to class until he showed up halfway through Potions Thursday morning. His right arm was in a sling and he was clearly faking the pain by the wink he tipped to Crabbe and Goyle after Pansy asked how much it hurt. The only comment Snape made was for the Slytherins to settle down, showing his clear bias. Sumire just rolled her eyes, planning on ignoring them and focusing on her Shrinking Solution. Unsurprisingly, Malfoy set up his cauldron next to her and Neville so he could get them to prepare his ingredients for him.
"Father's not very happy about my injury," Malfoy sighed after Sumire skinned his shrivelfig. "He's complained to the school governors and the Ministry of Magic. Father's got a lot of influence, you know."
"What, is he complaining about how much of an idiot his son is?" Sumire asked, getting a small snicker from Neville.
Malfoy's eyes glinted in anger. "My injury, Potter. The one that brainless oaf Hagrid caused."
"Hagrid caused?" Sumire asked incredulous. "He told us not to insult a hippogriff which you proceeded to ignore. My getting you out of the way is what caused your injury. So, go ahead and bring Hagrid and Buckbeak up on charges. Just be aware of what that means."
She grabbed Neville's leech juice before he could add too much into his potion.
"What does it mean?" Malfoy sneered.
Sumire's grin took on a predatory edge. "By saying Buckbeak would have hurt you, you'd be admitting that I saved you." She turned back to her potion satisfied at the sight of Malfoy choking on air.
Snape swept by making Neville tense. Sumire was glad he had nothing to complain about either of their potions. It might have been a different story if more than a dash of leech juice was added to Neville's. Since she'd started partnering with him after Hermione had been petrified last year, he'd stopped having disasters. Both because she helped him be more organized and with her experience making poisons with Anko she could keep an eye on his potion as well as her own. But he still had two years of fear of Snape to get past.
When Seamus borrowed Sumire's scales, he told them about a Daily Prophet article. A Muggle had sighted Sirius Black not too far from Hogwarts. It seems he was heading in this direction. She'll undoubtedly end up crossing paths with him before the end of the school year. If she didn't, she'd be extremely surprised.
"Thinking of trying to catch Black singlehandedly, Potter?" Malfoy asked a malevolent gleam in his eyes. Seems like he was trying to regain his sense of superiority.
"Uh huh," Sumire said distractedly.
Malfoy started to smirk. "Of course, if it was me, I'd have done something before now. I wouldn't be staying in school like I was told, I'd be out there looking for him."
"What are you talking about, Malfoy?" Neville asked.
"Don't you know, Potter?"
Sumire looked at Malfoy, a clueless mask on her face. He let out a low sneering laugh.
"Maybe you're rather not risk your neck," he said. "Want to leave it to the dementors, do you? But if it was me, I'd want revenge. I'd hunt him down myself."
"Funny, I didn't think you'd have the guts to do that," Sumire said.
Before Malfoy could retaliate, Snape gave the order to clean away while their potions simmered. Sumire and Neville put away their extra ingredients and went to wash their hands and ladles.
"Any idea what Malfoy was talking about?" Neville asked quietly.
"Some, but there's no telling how accurate they are," Sumire said. "Malfoy's probably just blowing smoke." Neville gave her a confused glance. "Saying things to make himself look better and cover something up."
Neville nodded and after bottling their potions they left for lunch with Ron and Hermione. On the way Hermione was at the top of the stairs and then the next moment she was at the bottom. Sumire figured it had something to do with how she was taking multiple classes at the same time.
That afternoon, they headed to Defense Against the Dark Arts. Professor Lupin showed up late and then led them to the staff room passing Peeves sticking gum in a keyhole. Their professor used it as an opportunity to show them Waddiwasi which shot the gum up Peeve's nose. Sumire couldn't help wondering what would happen if it was something poisonous or paper bombs. She'd definitely been spending too much time with Anko.
She glared at Snape's back as he left the staff room. There was no reason for him to advise Professor Lupin not to entrust Neville with anything too difficult. At least Professor Lupin said he had confidence in Neville's abilities.
"Nothing to worry about," Professor Lupin said. A few people had jumped backwards when the wardrobe banged against the wall. "There's a boggart in there."
That didn't reassure many of the wizard-raised and even made it worse. Professor Lupin explained about boggarts and had Hermione tell the class what it was. It was a creature that would shift into whatever the greatest fear of whoever it came across.
"This means that we have a huge advantage over the boggart before we begin," Professor Lupin said. "Have you spotted it, Sumire?"
"Because there's so many of us, it won't know what to turn into."
Professor Lupin explained what happens when a boggart tries to fight more than one person at once and how to combat the creature. He then called Neville forward and asked him what he feared most.
Neville admitted it was Snape.
Sumire burst into giggles when Professor Lupin asked what Neville's grandmother wore. They both turned to look at her.
"It seems Sumire has caught on, quite quickly too," Professor Lupin said smiling. "Why don't you come tell Neville your idea."
"Picture Snape in your grandmother's clothes," Sumire whispered to Neville.
He looked at her in shock and turned to their Professor who nodded and said, "Precisely, Sumire."
She smiled and moved back to join the rest of the class.
"If Neville is successful, the boggart is likely to shift his attention to each of us in turn," Professor Lupin said. "I would like all of you to take a moment now to think of the thing that scares you the most, and imagine how you might force it to look comical…"
Sumire thought for a minute. Riddle was dismissed quickly. He would only attack her with magic and looked down on anything Muggle. The image of everyone she cared about dead flashed across her mind. It was admittedly a very real inevitability in their profession, but that it would happen because of her? If she froze? Then she felt the penetrating cold from the train creep over her and Sumire remembered the effect the dementor had on her. The question now was, how to make a dementor look funny. Maybe she could dress it up like a young civilian girl dressing like a princess.
"Everybody ready?" Professor Lupin asked. When he got the class's assent, he turned to Neville. "Neville, we're going to back away. Let you have a clear field, all right? I'll call the next person forward… Everyone back, now, so Neville can get a clear shot – "He gave Neville a countdown and opened the wardrobe.
Professor Snape stepped out of the wardrobe and bore down on Neville.
Even though he was pale and slightly shaky, Neville pointed his wand at Snape and said, "Riddikulus!"
With a noise like a whip crack, Snape stumbled. His black robes changed into a long, green, lace-trimmed dress and a towering hat topped with a moth-eaten vulture. He was even carrying a huge crimson handbag.
Sumire and almost the whole class burst into laughter. The boggart paused in confusion and Professor Lupin called Parvati forward. Sumire watched as the boggart changed into a mummy, banshee, rat, rattlesnake, strangely a single bloody eyeball, a severed hand and then Ron's giant spider that was not dissimilar to the acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest.
The legless boggart spider rolled to a stop in front of Sumire. Before she could do anything more than raise her wand, Professor Lupin stepped in. the boggart changed into a silvery white orb hanging in the air.
Professor Lupin called Neville forward again and they had another brief look at Snape in Madame Longbottom's clothes before Neville laughed and the boggart exploded.
"Excellent!" Professor Lupin cried, as the class applauded. "Excellent, Neville. Well done, everyone… Let me see… five points to each person who tackled the boggart, ten for Neville because he did it twice… and five each to Hermione and Sumire for answering my questions correctly at the start of class. Very well, everyone, an excellent lesson. Homework, kindly read the chapter on boggarts and summarize it for me… to be handed in on Monday. That will be all."
The class left the staffroom talking animatedly about the lesson. Lavender wondering why Professor Lupin was afraid of crystal balls almost made Sumire roll her eyes. A crystal ball would not be hanging in the air. It looked more like the full moon, which made sense considering his condition. Her tou-san had told her Professor Lupin was a werewolf when he was telling her about her parents and their friends.
It didn't really matter, though. Sumire was sure he had plans for what to do on the full moon. Werewolf or not, Professor Lupin had already proven himself a far more competent teacher than any of the previous. Admittedly it wasn't hard when compared to Lockhart. She knew Defense Against the Dark Arts was going to be one of her favorite classes this year.
Thanks again for sticking with this story despite the long gaps between updates.