XXXIX

"It's Japanese!" Harry came barging into the Common Room with the news. Dumbledore hadn't confirmed that Charlie spoke Japanese, but his line of questioning had been a dead giveaway. "He speaks Jap—"

He stopped when he realized that every Gryffindor in the entire room was staring at him. It was late but not that late. The room was full of people. Ducking his head, Harry apologized and snuck through the crowd to where Ron slaved over a History essay. Charlie's transcripts were spread over the entire couch.

"He speaks Japanese," Harry repeated when he reached his best friends. "Charlie."

"I heard you," Ron said distractedly, waving at the tunnel to the portrait of the Fat Lady from where Harry had already shouted the news into the wild. Ron didn't even look up from his homework.

"How do you know?" Hermione was a lot more interested, so Harry turned to her.

"Snape and Professor Dumbledore wanted to talk to me about how Charlie and I met. And they mentioned Japan. They think he's connected to Japan." He shrugged. "I don't know how they found out about it."

Hermione nodded with a pinched expression. "It makes sense," she thought out loud, eyes narrowed. "Professor Lupin probably shared what he witnessed. I never got an example of Charlie's language. None of us were there during the Boggart thing. I tried to get help from the Hufflepuffs, but none of them wanted to share and I wouldn't ask the Slytherins…"

"So, they just took whatever Charlie said and ran it through a translator." Harry nodded, understanding.

"Japanese," Hermione said, lost in thoughts. She blushed a little. "But he doesn't look Asian."

"Well, he dyes his hair," Ron said still focused on his homework. "Maybe he does more than that to disguise himself." For a moment he lifted his head from the paper. "Can we talk about that later? I need to get this finished until tomorrow, and I still need two inches."

"If you wouldn't do everything last minute..." Hermione glanced at what he had written already. Initially, Harry thought she'd be so eager to talk about Charlie, that she'd offer to do Ron's homework for him, or have him copy hers. She never offered, though. Instead, her eyes drifted to Charlie's newest transcript.

"Oh!" She smacked her hand against her forehead. "I'm so stupid, of course!"

"HEY!" Ron protested when she snatched the parchment away from him. "I need that. Hermione!"

"Wait, wait." She gestured wildly. "You'll get it back, just…" Looking around, she picked up the other transcripts and began sorting through them, not caring about Ron's protests.

Harry watched curiously.

"Don't mess it all up," Ron complained, "I sorted it all for relevance."

"Oh, just wait, Ron. Here!" She put the scripts on the table in front of her, turned so that Ron and Harry could easily read them. "How didn't I notice before… You see?"

Ron scowled at her. "See what?" He was about to just take the transcripts back to continue his essay, but Harry caught his wrist.

Harry's eyes were focused on the different papers. "He uses cursive now," he said, pointing at the newest transcript, which was written in a mix between mostly cursive and some block letters. Harry was quite fascinated by the realization. He hadn't paid much attention to Charlie's evolving writing style.

"Yeah, he's starting to use cursive," Ron agreed much less impressed. "His spelling gets better too, what of it?" He finally pulled free from Harry's grip and took his transcripts back.

"He's learning." Hermione grinned triumphantly. "Harry, you said he does calligraphy, because of his writing. But look at that. Over the last three weeks, there's a constant progression. He used more and more cursive each time. As if he's slowly getting used to it."

Ron had already taken the transcripts back, so Harry had to lean over his shoulder to see some of the older papers. Hermione was right.

"He doesn't do calligraphy. Block letters were the only thing he could use," Hermione announced. "He only learns cursive now."

Harry was skeptical. "But it's so neat and tidy when he writes."

Hermione nodded. "Yeah, I didn't figure that out, yet. But the cursive progression is obvious… How he can write so neat, I don't know."

Ron looked up from his essay. "Well, it looks like a printed book or newspaper, doesn't it? Especially muggle newspaper. Dad once bought a few of those, but the font was so boring, I could never get myself to read any of it."

Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron's admission that he couldn't read something without pictures and with a boring script

"You think he learned from books and newspapers and the like?" Harry asked. He was skeptical. Even if Charlie learned from books, it shouldn't look so perfect.

"I have no idea," Ron shrugged. "Maybe he didn't really write… but rather, draw the letters. Copy them down from the book and learn that way." He turned back to his essay. "Now that we're talking about his progress... Did you notice his accent gets better too? Even that speech impediment is getting better."

Hermione huffed. "'Cause it's no speech impediment. Just his accent." She weighed her head in thought. "And you're right, he's getting better."

"So, you think he learns cursive," Harry summarized, "and he's getting better with his accent." He shook his head. "So what?"

"He's improving," Hermione said it as if it was an important revelation, but Harry didn't see what had her so excited.

"Yes, I got that. Of course, he's improving. Why wouldn't he?" Not like it was all that strange to get better at a foreign language with time.

"Yes, Harry," Hermione stared at him as if he was daft. "But he's improving so fast. At that pace, he will speak and write English perfectly fluently and without mistakes or a noticeable accent in a matter of a few more weeks."

"So?"

"He's been here for years, apparently," Hermione finally explained. "Think about it, Harry! If he really lived here for so long, why would he only improve his cursive and accent now? With how fast he learns, after three years…? There wouldn't be such a strong accent."

Harry's eyes widened. "You think…" Not only was Charlie not from South Africa, but instead from Japan, as it seemed. And on top of that, he was only in the country for much shorter than he told them. "How long do you think? How long was he in Great Britain to get to that level?"

Hermione didn't know. She made a vague gesture. "Maybe a year, maybe less?" She bit her lips. "I don't know. If he learned from scratch maybe longer. It's hard to say. Most people would need at least a few months to learn a new language, I think, but Charlie… He's smart."

"Smart," Harry scoffed. "Yeah, he's smart alright. And a liar." He felt hurt. He'd defended Charlie in front of his friends for all this time. He was against digging into Charlie's life because he thought Charlie was a friend. He had trusted him, even against his better judgment, that he shouldn't trust strangers easily. And yet, it turned out, Charlie had lied. And not just about something minor.

He was Japanese, not South African. And spoke Japanese, not Afrikaans. He'd only been in England for a few months or a year, tops, instead of years. He dyed his hair, and probably hid other features of his face and body. Harry didn't even know what he looked like. And if he was Japanese, was the name even real? Or had he just come up with that?

He felt like everything he knew about the boy crumbled in front of him, revealing a boy he didn't even know. He knew nothing about him!

Was he even a boy? Was he fourteen or maybe an adult using Polyjuice? Was he muggleborn at all? What about his sob story about his parents that hadn't wanted him because he was weird?

He felt like a dam had broken and suddenly everything Charlie had ever told him was called into question. Harry remembered that he'd told Charlie about the Dursleys before Charlie ever talked about his past. He had avoided any questions until after Harry had spoken about the Dursleys, and then… Had Charlie just come up with a story that he knew Harry would sympathize with because it was adequately similar to Harry's own past?

And should he even still call him Charlie now?

Liar!

Harry was angry. It wasn't just that Charlie had lied to him. No, Harry had opened up to him, had told him about himself. He'd bought him a wand and helped him get to Hogwarts, and he'd done all that thinking they were friends and had a connection. A pain they shared, even. And instead… Who even was Charlie Ma—no, this boy… this person?

He suddenly was a total stranger. And Harry didn't like it one bit.

Ron was working over his essay again, while Hermione had started fretting over the fact, that she'd gifted the stranger a calligraphy quill when now it turned out, he might not even do calligraphy.

Harry couldn't bear listening to her whining over what she thought was a good birthday present. In any case, he didn't even understand her concern. Calligraphy or not, Char—the stranger had clearly liked her gift.

Without another word to his friends, Harry stood to go to bed early.

"Yes, Mr. Major," Professor McGonagall stood at the front of her third-year class. "You have a question?"

Kakashi took his arm down. "I wonder how you can figure out if somebody is an Animagus."

"Ah," Professor McGonagall seemed happy at the question. "An excellent question. You see…," she stopped herself when an arm lifted into the air. "Yes, Ms. Granger. Can you answer the question?"

Blushing, Hermione took her hand down. "All Animagi are required to register in the Ministry of Magic, by law. The data is open to the public, including a description of everybody's animal appearance."

Kakashi could only barely keep himself from rolling his eyes at her. He wasn't asking about such official Animagi. He'd read the chapters in the book, so he knew there was a public registry.

"Very good, Ms. Granger," Professor McGonagall said.

"I meant," Kakashi started a bit exasperated at the waste of time, now, if it was possible to tell a real animal apart from an Animagus in animal form?"

"When it is done correctly," McGonagall answered, "the only way to find out if an animal is really an Animagus, is to use a spell that would force the wizard back into human form. We will all learn that spell later this year. The spell will do no harm to real animals," she added with a glance to Lavender, who was starting to whisper to Dean Thomas.

No difference? Kakashi wondered about that. Did that also count for the smell? Sirius smelled of both dog and human, no matter which form he was in. Scabbers' scent was purely rat and McGonagall's was mostly just human. But if there was not supposed to be a difference…

Was Peter just so much better at the transformation, that he managed to fully transform his scent too, compared to Sirius' half-human scent?

"Could you maybe show me your transformation again?" He spoke in a pleading tone. If he thought flattery would get him to his goal sooner, he'd find a nice compliment, but it didn't seem necessary.

McGonagall sighed. "One more time," she said then glared at the rest of class. "Now, everybody, please concentrate. I won't do this again next week just because you keep forgetting. I'm not a circus act." And with that, she changed into her cat form.

Kakashi sniffed the air immediately. She smelled of cat now, but still with a strong human undercurrent… No, as he puzzled through her scent, he realized he'd been wrong. It wasn't a human undercurrent, more so a human overcoat. As if…

Oh of course. He could hit himself in frustration, that it had taken him so long to figure out. It was about time. The Animagus' body odor was human in human shape and animalistic in animal shape. However, the old scent of course didn't just disappear. It still hung over the new shape, on its skin, and in its fur like an overcoat. With time, these remnants would be lost, but right after transformation, the human scent was still stuck in the animal's fur.

McGonagall barely spent any time in animal form. Peter had spent the last dozen years in rat shape. And Sirius spent long stretches in animal form but still changed back every now and then. On top of that, Sirius' hygienic conditions were abysmal, preventing him from washing out his old human or dog scent.

"Did that help?" Professor McGonagall asked after turning human again.

Kakashi nodded. "Yes, it looks real, you were right, Professor. It just seemed strange to me." He smiled innocently. "I don't want to suddenly learn, my new toad is really a person," he joked.

Professor McGonagall's lips quirked in amusement. "That would be disconcerting, indeed," she agreed. "So it's a good thing, that the ministry keeps a file about every Animagus, is it not?"

Kakashi nodded, though he knew neither he nor McGonagall were so naïve to assume, that the system couldn't be abused.

"Yeah!" Harry agreed loudly from behind Kakashi. "That would be horrible." He shuddered as if in mock. "Imagine, you think you can trust somebody, and then they're just acting and in disguise."

Kakashi glanced back at Harry. His voice was oddly and uncommonly aggressive. Although Kakashi first thought, Harry was talking to Professor McGonagall, he was glaring right at Kakashi.

"Is everything alright, Mr. Potter?" Professor McGonagall asked, also noting the aggressive tone.

"What are you talking about, Potter?" Zacharias scowled. He sat next to Kakashi, glaring back at Harry as if Harry's aggression was directed at him. "I'm sure your owl's just fine." His eyes narrowed with a snicker. "Or maybe you want her to turn into a beautiful princess. What's that muggle fairy tale?"

Justin laughed. "The Frog Prince." He acted out a kissing scene with audible smooch sounds.

"That's quite enough Mr. Finch-Fletchley," McGonagall warned, and immediately the class went quiet again.

"Ah! Professor," Hermione's hand shot into the air. This time Professor McGonagall looked a little bit exasperated when she nodded at her to talk. "Maybe that's the origin of the fairy tale," Hermione suggested excitedly. "Is that possible? I read that a lot of muggle fairy tales have their origins in the magical world."

McGonagall seemed intrigued. "I'm not familiar with that story. We've been sidetracked from the lesson quite enough, but if you want, you can stay after class, and we can talk about this fairy tale?"

Hermione nodded excitedly, and McGonagall too seemed to look forward to it.

"If anybody else is interested, I'm sure we can shave a few minutes off your lunch break," she suggested, but she didn't seem surprised nor disappointed at the long faces – apart from Hermione's sheer excitement. "Well, not that I was expecting anything else."

When the lesson finally continued, Hermione still sat beaming from ear to ear. After the bell rang, starting the lunch break, Kakashi even heard her try to convince Ron and Harry to stay along.

They didn't, so Kakashi hoped, he could catch up to Harry and ask him whatever the reason for his attitude was, but when Kakashi called out to him, Harry glared back and obviously tried to avoid him.

Kakashi could've stopped him. It wasn't like Harry knew how to effectively shake Kakashi off, but he had no interest to provoke him any further… It bugged him, though. He had no idea, what he had done to stir up Harry's anger.

Kakashi had taken to explore the castle in the late evening and night hours. Between classes, homework, and spending time with his classmates, who all wanted to be entertained at varying intervals, he had barely any time to do so during the day. And this castle was huge and filled with secrets. Even after three weeks, he was sure he hadn't found all the secret passages yet. If he could map the castle out and get used to the moving staircases, knowing the blueprints of the castle could be an incredible advantage.

Clearly, he wasn't the only one who thought that way. Every now and then as he traveled through the secret passages, he found traces that he wasn't completely alone. By the trail they left behind, there were at least two other students who knew the castle even better than him. Thankfully, those two had no experience hiding their traces. For Kakashi, it was easy to identify them by their lingering scents even though he hadn't met them yet.

How Fred and George had found all these passages, he didn't know. The entries were well-hidden and often almost impossible to get through unless one knew a codeword. Kakashi could bypass that by simply breaking through the magical barrier blocking the entrance. He had quite a bit of experience in that regard now. It helped, that he could go through stone walls using his earth ninjutsu. Fred and George wouldn't be able to do any of that, so Kakashi wondered how they had learned about the passages.

However, they knew about them, Kakashi tried to avoid the twins. Surprisingly, that was easier said than done.

This evening, it seemed as if their dynamic had shifted. When before, it was Kakashi who had stumbled upon their traces and followed them for a bit – partly to learn even more about the castle, partly to find out what they were up to – most of the time some prank they pulled on the Slytherins, Snape or the caretaker Mr. Filch – now this dynamic had turned around.

Suddenly he heard their voices and shuffling steps echoing through the tight tunnels. They were too far for him to understand any words, and even more so, too far for them to see or hear him. And yet, when Kakashi took a quick turn and exited the tunnel to enter another secret room, they still followed him there.

How did they know where he was going? He changed his hiding place again, wasting precious energy to make sure he destroyed his trace. This time, he stayed around the entry to watch what they were doing. However, he didn't come unprepared.

Smiling to himself, Kakashi set his new friend down, gesturing for him to go up ahead. The toad looked at him as if Kakashi made no sense, but then he turned toward the tunnel Kakashi was indicating, and with a very quiet ribbit he left into the dark. The toad training was going slow, Kakashi mused, but it was progressing. A grueling process, much less rewarding than with his ninken but Kakashi was committed. He'd make Mighty Green into a proper Konoha ninja toad. Jiraiya would turn green with envy, greener than Mighty Green himself.

Focusing back on the entryway, Kakashi hid in the dark and waited. It took a while until he heard steps approaching from the other side of the secret doorway. The twins were following so far behind him, no way would they have seen or heard him enter this passage, and he had made certain to clean all traces.

And yet…

"Where is he now?" Kakashi didn't know which of the Twins was talking. He could easily keep them apart by scent but by looks and voices they were difficult to differentiate.

"Right up ahead," the other replied after a short moment. "I can't believe it. He even knows the shortcut to the Ravenclaw tower."

"He's good whoever he is." The twin laughed lightly. "If he wants, we'll let him join our shenanigans. Would be a strong addition."

"As long as he doesn't join up with Filch to hunt us. We don't even know if he's a student."

"Is it a guy, anyway?" The voice was uncertain. "Kakashi… Could be a girl's name."

Kakashi's ears perked up at the mention of his name. They found out his name. How?

He heard the light knock against the portrait that hid the secret tunnel.

"Cappa in the sand," somebody announced to Kakashi's bafflement, but then the portrait swung to the side. The twins knew the codeword. However, had they found out about that?

Kakashi pressed himself further in the back around the corner. The wand light that was held into the dark room couldn't reach him here. The light almost reached to the tips of his shoes, but not quite.

"Alright, he's right here. Be sharp," one of the twins instructed. Then the wand was raised a bit and both boys entered simultaneously. The other boy who wasn't using the Lumos had his wand ready to attack.

Kakashi scoffed. If they wanted to catch him, they had to be a bit faster and more inconspicuous. He felt almost that they thought to catch him while announcing each of their steps. With their discussion out on the corridor, even semi-whispering as they were, Kakashi didn't even need to be a trained shinobi to get away. And then they even came in with a lit-up wand. A waving Here I Am sign if Kakashi had ever seen one. Still, though, he remained, curious, how they had found him in the first place.

Now that he could see and smell them, he could identify them. Fred was the one without his wand lit up like a torch. The other brother held a big piece of folded parchment in his hands. Looking down at it, George announced, "he's in the room. I'm sure." He gestured towards the tunnel where Kakashi was hiding. Then George pushed his brother's wand enough to shine it on where Kakashi stood.

Or had stood. He'd moved to another corner of the room already.

"What are you talking about?" Fred said lifting his arm a little higher, to brighten the entire tunnel where Kakashi had been. "There's nobody. Check again."

Confused, George looked at the parchment once more. He made a sudden halfway turn, raising his own wand arm to point it right at Kakashi. He didn't look as if he'd seen or heard Kakashi though… He just knew Kakashi was there. His eyes were wide with excitement and a bit of fear.

The parchment. Kakashi eyed it suspiciously. If that thing gave them an accurate reading on his position as well as his real name, that could be annoying. What other information would it give them? But Kakashi didn't want to attack those two to steal it. So far, they were just two boys out after curfew hunting a name on a piece of paper. Whatever they knew, they wouldn't go to the teachers with it, but if Kakashi ended up knocking them out, that might cause quite the stir.

In a way, it was like those ministry people that had hunted him in London. Even with them knowing where he was, he could easily avoid them.

He had used the Substitution jutsu before George could activate his own Lumos. Where Kakashi was just moments before, now a green toad waited and blinked against the light.

Not bad, Kakashi thought, listening to the baffled reaction of the twins. The toad had taken its first Substitution surprisingly well, it seemed.

Mighty Green might be an almost common green toad, but only almost. It seemed animals that were raised for wizards were a lot more intelligent than common pets. However, they were much less intelligent than the summons he normally worked with.

"A toad," he heard one of the twins – he thought Fred – exclaim in surprise. "How did that one get there?"

"No idea, where's Hatake?" George replied distractedly. "I can't find him." Kakashi heard rustling paper. "Is that…? He must have fled a bit away. Jumped out of this section of the map."

"Or he turned into a toad," Fred added with a snort. "You think it's an Animagus."

The paper rustling quieted, then after short hesitation, George spoke again. "Might as well test it."

"You do the honors."

"I never used it," George complained, but then he obviously tried anyway. Light flashed when he used the spell. Kakashi could see it, even where he stood far down the tunnel.

"So, just a toad?"

Kakashi was quite a bit relieved, that McGonagall had told them, that the spell was harmless against real animals. Something else, he was glad to learn: If Fred and George knew the spell, it couldn't be too hard to find somebody to perform it on the rat for him.

There was a muffled yawn. "Just a toad, yeah. Looks a bit familiar, don't you think?"

"Looks like the one Roniboy bought for Charlie." Fred huffed. "He didn't name it Kakashi Hatake that you know of?"

Their voices were distancing themselves now until he heard the faraway sound of the portrait closing. Kakashi realized then, that the twins had taken Mighty Green with them. He didn't mind. After all, he was certain they'd give him back during breakfast or lunch tomorrow.

Instead of worrying, Kakashi turned around to look, where exactly Mighty Green had brought him. Unlike what Kakashi had told him to do, the toad hadn't followed the path in a straight line to Ravenclaw Tower. Instead, it had taken a sharp left turn and now Kakashi stood in front of an exit, he'd never seen before.

As he pushed the stone away, to reveal an ordinary old classroom on the other side. Next to the hole, where Kakashi came crawling out of - having to duck a little - there was a large piece of armor that had slid away with the piece of wall hiding the entry. The classroom seemed rarely in use. Tables and chairs were layered with a thick blanket of dust. Words were still written in old white chalk on the blackboard, though Kakashi didn't know the subject. Maybe it was Arithmancy, he assumed. He'd only ever seen one of Nitin's books on that subject and it looked vaguely similar. The words, numbers, and symbols were half wiped away, making it difficult to read.

Immediately, Kakashi didn't like the smell of the room. The dust in the air almost made him sneeze. Instinctively he pulled his cloak up over his nose.

A low rumbling sound made him jump back into the tunnel. But the noise didn't come from a person, nor even Peeves as he had feared. It came from a drawer under the teacher's desk.

Curious, Kakashi stepped out of the tunnel and edged his way closer. He had a suspicion… This was too familiar. And if he was right…

He knew he shouldn't get close, it was a bad idea and wouldn't do him any good… It was all just lies, anyway. And yet, his feet carried him onwards.

Reaching the drawer, he got suddenly distracted, when there was noise out on the corridor. He quickly hurried back into the secret passage.

"What do you think, my dear?" It was an unknown voice to Kakashi. Very quietly, he could hear the purring of a cat. Quickly, before the cat could whiff him out, he pulled the entry to the secret passage shut. He didn't want to be caught.

As long as the Boggart remained there, he could still come back at a later time.