A/N A special thank you to lightweaver for beta'ing this work.
Chapter 4: Of Wrestling Ghosts
Sadly, returning to the habit of curling up beside Itachi and reading about the Dark Arts until morning resulted in another failed potions exam. Worse still, after Potions, she had Potions tutoring during her free period.
Sakura stood before the small workstation, fiddling with her wooden stirring rod as she stared blurry eyed at her notes. Their last tutoring session had gone so well that Neji had mentioned they could stop altogether. She was going to have to burst that bubble...
She tossed down the stirring rod. Where was he? She cast a quick Tempus. Odd. It was already ten minutes past their scheduled time; Neji was normally punctual. She stuffed her wand into her robes, yawned, and rubbed her eyes furiously.
The door slammed open with such force the parchment on the table took flight and Sakura almost stabbed her eyes with her own fingers.
Neji strode into the classroom, cloak billowing. His typically pale face was flushed with a look of fury.
Well, this wasn't good.
He didn't even bother to close the door. Without pausing his stride, he whipped out his wand and cast Accio on the papers before they could hit the ground. He slammed the papers upon the desk. "What," he said, "is wrong with you?"
"I just –" her planned excuse tried to make its way out, but he continued on as if the question must have been rhetorical.
"You made it perfectly last week. I watched you. So, tell me exactly why Professor Chiyo pulled me aside to tell me that you received a Troll in today's exam and that she believes my tutoring is inadequate," Neji's voice hitched at the end.
Sakura cleared her throat, trying to find words. "I made a mistake."
"That much is obvious to me." Neji leaned over the table, eyes narrowing in on her. "What mistake did you make?"
"I used rainwater instead of lakewater for the base." And that had only been the start, but it was the easiest mistake to have made.
Neji let out a low hiss, like a kettle just about ready to screech. "You mean to tell me that after we spent at least an hour discussing differences between rainwater and lakewater last month, you chose the wrong one?"
Sakura gulped. "I misread the label. It's not like I picked up rainwater and thought this would work. I thought it was lakewater. I won't do it again. I'll do better on the next test."
Neji leaned away. "What did I tell you were the most important rules in potions?"
"To follow the instructions," she said, "and read the labels on all ingredients."
His glare lessened and his hands unclenched. "And what did you forget to do?" he asked, his voice inflecting no emotion, almost dead sounding in her ears.
She bit her lip and dropped her head. "Both." Because the rainwater had only been the first mistake.
"How can I be expected to raise your grade if the one thing I asked of you, you refuse to do?"
Sakura lifted her gaze, wishing he'd raise his voice, or go back to hissing like a snake. Instead, his skin had returned to its porcelain features and a blank stare greeted her.
Neji shook his head. "I don't know what to do with you. You're unteachable." With that, he turned and left. Not a sign of the earlier anger in his even pace or how he shut the door behind him. It left a hollow ache of guilt in her stomach.
With a long sigh, she gathered her supplies. All of her mistakes had been honest ones; they had started with picking the wrong first ingredient and had just grown from there. She'd stirred counterclockwise instead of clockwise, used rat livers instead of kidneys, moss instead of lichen. Each mistake had compounded until the potion had become a black gooey tar beyond recognition. Her professor had pretended to die from toxic fumes and that had only made the situation even worse. She'd thought for a moment she'd really killed Professor Chiyo before the old woman popped up and almost smacked her in the head.
The spry old hag had cackled away as she shoved a bottle toward Sakura. "Stopper it, before you end up killing us all."
With a groan, Sakura heaved her book bag onto her shoulder. Neji had been right. All those mistakes had been made because of how tired she was. She'd been so excited to read again that she and Itachi had stayed up late. It hadn't helped that after reading, Itachi had clung to her like a child that had been without his favorite toy for weeks. She would have hopped away earlier had he not pinner her under his weight.
While she probably could have managed some shuteye while being used as a stuffed animal, she'd ended up watching Itachi sleep instead. She'd imagined what life would be like as Izumi and Itachi had been hers. Stupid Kisame, putting ideas in her head.
She made her way out of the classroom and through the dungeons. She paused in a corridor to stifle a yawn. The weight of the books in her bag felt like the world and she let it slide off her shoulder and to the ground. She followed it to the stone floor, letting her back slide down the wall. A quick Tempus showed there was another half hour until lunch. She could rest here, just for a few moments. She pressed her head to her knee and stayed there.
"So, how's it going?"
"Aah!" Sakura bolted awake only to find herself face-to-face with Professor Hatake leaning over her. She hurried to her feet.
The professor leaned casually against the wall, his dark gray and green dueling robes hanging loose upon his frame. He held a romance novel in one hand. A different one than last week. The witch on the cover held a wand with the tip pressed against her lip as if she were in thought, but her eyes were a bit too wide – as if there was another meaning to her pose. Her robes, they were slipping off her shoulder to reveal an inappropriate amount of skin – at least in a stuck-up pureblood society.
For a good moment, all Sakura could do was stare. This was a lot edgier than the last cover. How the hell was he allowed to wander around with such a book? How could he not be ashamed? The image on the cover moved. The full shoulder became exposed, and the wand slipped almost, but not quite, into her mouth. The witch blushed crimson and the image reset.
Sakura blinked and shook her head. "I need to go." She gathered her supplies. If she were quick, she could still grab some lunch before afternoon classes started. She turned to go down the corridor which led to a quicker path to Ravenclaw Tower.
"Dinner is in the opposite direction, you know."
Sakura turned back around. "Is it dinner time?" She had several more classes to attend, including Ancient Runes and Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Oh no, Defense! She was supposed to have been in his class.
In horror, Sakura stared at Professor Hatake. The only time she'd ever missed class had been when sick. Not only had she skipped, but he'd also caught her sleeping in a random corridor in the dungeons. She couldn't even give an excuse because he'd been the one to find her.
Professor Hatake gave his notorious eye squint. "No worries, I didn't make it to class today either. First, I had to wrestle some ghosts out of the kitchens that were scaring the house elves–"
Ghosts couldn't wrestle. They literally weren't physical beings.
"And then a portrait started crying about being thirsty, so I had to fetch some water from a well."
Even if portraits could drink water, couldn't he have just cast Augmenti? How did this man have a job?
"And then I stumbled across one of my students in the throes of slumber who regurgitated to me Chapter 15 of a Dark Arts Textbook. They had just started reciting Chapter 16 when they started begging Itachi Uchiha to stop pinching them. Last time I came upon someone dreaming of Itachi, they were asking for something to start, not stop."
The pit in Sakura's stomach dropped.
"The strange thing is," Kakashi continued, tapping his chin, "most of what this student recited was in a text that's suspiciously gone missing from the Restricted Section of our very own library at Hogwarts. Isn't that odd?"
Her grip on her book bag tightened. This was it. She was going to get expelled. She had to think of something, quickly. She coughed and squared her shoulders. "Sounds so bizarre that it couldn't be true." Circumstantial evidence, right?
"I thought as much myself. Perhaps the book merely vanished from the eyes of the librarian. Books are known to do that here. When I go look for it, I'm sure I'll find it exactly where it ought to be."
That was a very clear threat.
Sakura cleared her throat. Oh, shit. "I sure hope so."
"I'll find it. I don't think I'll go looking until the weekend. I'm fairly… booked." Kakashi pulled away from the wall then. "Want to walk together with me to dinner, Ms. Haruno?"
Could she melt through the floor or disappear? She let out a shuddering breath but nodded. She had until the weekend, strangely enough, but she'd take it. He'd extended an olive branch and she wasn't foolish enough to refuse it. She was either going to have to get Itachi to return that book, or she was going to have to steal it from the Ravenclaw dorm.
The professor slowed his pace when he noticed her falling behind.
"I heard you almost killed Professor Chiyo today."
Sakura's head popped up. "What?"
"During our lunch, she could talk about nothing but your Potions exam."
Chiyo had told the other teachers? Shame burned Sakura's cheeks. She did well in Defense Against Dark Arts, what would he think of her now? She looked away from Professor Hatake's gaze. "Yes, I made a mistake."
"Quite a few of them. According to her."
The hallway felt like a furnace. "Yeah," Sakura confessed.
"I bring it up because I know you well enough by now Ms. Haruno. You don't tend to make too many mistakes. Not in my class."
"I'm good at Defense." She had to be. If she didn't, she'd die in the war that would be coming.
"The best test taker by far of your year."
"Ah. I'm good at written exams," Sakura agreed.
"I realize I may come off a bit stand-offish but as your Head of House, you always have my ear," Professor Hatake said, and gently patted the top of her head. "You know that, right?"
"Ah." Sure. The man had more than forty students to look after, assuming he could be found. It seemed foolish to speak with him about what was really on her mind. It wasn't like he could say, "Don't worry about a war, nothing is going to happen." And if he did, he'd be a liar. Even less trustworthy than he already was.
Their steps echoed in the silence.
He nudged her on the shoulder with his own. "It's now your turn to tell me what's wrong. That was my - what do the muggleborns call it - shindig."
She bit her lip. The worries inside of her wanting to rip their way out. What would she look like if she allowed them to? Just some muggleborn scared of magic? She braced herself.
"We are going to war. Every student signed a contract to be a soldier in exchange for schooling." She didn't phrase it as a question. She wouldn't give him room to back away from facts. If he wanted to deny it, he'd have to lie to her. And what would she do then?
Kakashi stopped walking and Sakura paused beside him, fingers trembling. Don't lie, she wanted to scream, but she bit her tongue.
His dark eye stared down at her, an unreadable expression on his face.
She tried hard to hold his stare, and not let her gaze drift to his eyepatch. He'd lost his eye in the last war. She'd seen it mentioned in the newspaper clippings she'd dug through. He'd been younger than her, by a year.
"Yes," he said, just when the silence seemed almost unbearable. "Everyone at Hogwarts will be expected to contribute to the war effort, by means of magic. Contribution is not limited to the front lines. Brewing potions count too."
Her eyes narrowed. "Do you think that's what fourth years will be expected to contribute…sir?"
His expression drifted away from her and to the wall. "No, and I did not mean it that way. Everyone will be expected to fight except first and second years. Although I suspect some clan children will be ready the moment they walk through the halls."
Sakura tilted her head.
"All clans started training their children the moment the first champion died in the tournament last year. Some clans always train, regardless. It's why I was selected earlier than my peers in the last war. The Hatakes have always been battlemages."
He turned back to her, "You'll be expected to fight, but you will also be expected to brew. St. Mungo's relied on Hogwarts students in the last war to keep up with the demand war brought. It saved my life; it saved others'. When the time comes, you'll give everything you've got and then some. Even when I was recovering from injuries, I could be found over a cauldron because the people I loved were still out there fighting. I kept thinking my potion could be what stood between them and death since I couldn't be there in person to help anymore."
Sakura dipped her head in response. "I'll try to do better." Not that trying had helped thus far, but that's what adults wanted to hear, so that's what she said. But Kakashi had a point. Naruto and Sasuke would be out there fighting too. What if a potion truly could help them live? Wouldn't she want to help? Nobody would want her near a cauldron, not unless she got her act together.
He gently tapped her head with the spine of the book. "How about you try to get some sleep instead?" Kakashi asked.
Sakura gave a pained smile. "I can do that."
They continued their walk to the Great Hall. As they came into view. Kakashi started speaking, "As a Head of House, I have a spell that allows me to keep track of students. I'd hate to have to use it to track you down or monitor your well-being like I did today."
Sakura's eyes widened to saucers. "What?"
"After speaking with Chiyo, and Naruto's frantic declarations that you'd been killed or you'd have shown up to class, I felt compelled to use it." Kakashi opened the Great Hall door and motioned her into the loud room. Nobody even paused at their entrance. "So, take care of yourself. I'd hate to track you down in a closet snogging another student. I'd have to take points on principle."
He then tapped her head again with the spine of the book. "Now stop worrying and go be a kid. My biggest regret was not cherishing the time I had to be carefree before war broke out. Make the most of it on my behalf. Make memories with your friends and spend as much time as you can with them. You never know who Death will come to claim."
Sakura blinked, eyes tearing up. She'd seen the newspaper clippings. How many of the students had been friends with Professor Hatake? How many of his friends had been lost?
The man then gave her a wink, the serious expression gone on his face as if it had never been there, "Oh, and make sure to see Naruto before he harasses the Headmaster. Minato is not as forgiving as I am."
Naruto. The knucklehead. Sakura could feel her armpits sweat at the thought of the headmaster having such a talk with her. She might have been expelled if he'd been the one to show up. It was his wards in the Restricted Section that Itachi had thwarted after all.
"Of course," Sakura said, "and thank you, Professor, for the advice." That was the most she'd ever heard him talk about the last war or himself, at least about himself that seemed real. Wrestling ghosts… honestly.
Professor Hatake waved her off and continued down the aisle to the teachers' table.
Sakura was just about to start scanning the tables for Naruto when a voice came from behind her.
"There you are!" Naruto yelled as he walked through the entranceway, even though she was only a few feet away. "We've been looking everywhere for you."
Sasuke slouched behind Naruto, looking bored. "Hn."
"You're alive!" Tears began pooling in Naruto's eyes.
Damn it. She started tearing up too, Professor Hatake's warning like a hammer to her heart. "I'm not dead." Not yet. And neither was he.
Naruto launched at her, lifting her in a bear hug which she returned with more gusto than she normally would ever give him. And like the two fools they were, they cried as Sasuke looked on. Sasuke became more uncomfortable by the minute.
It took several minutes but eventually, they separated with laughter, wiping away each other's tears.
"So where were you? You never miss class," Naruto asked.
Well, normally she got a few hours of sleep. "Got to be a rebel once, right?"
"If you say so, but you should have told me. I would have ditched too." Naruto then motioned to the Hufflepuff table. "Ready to eat? I'm starved." He didn't wait for a reply and just began walking to the table.
Sakura couldn't keep the smile of affection off her face.
"Is everything really ok?" Sasuke asked, stepping up beside her, dark eyes watching.
No. Nothing was ok. But she would take Professor Hatake's advice. She wouldn't waste a moment with her friends. How foolish of her, to only be thinking about herself. She grabbed Sasuke's arm and tugged him to the Hufflepuff table, knowing his discomfort would probably stop him from asking more questions. "Let's get a plate before Naruto eats everything. I didn't mean to make you all worry."
That night, at every creak of a window shutter, she flinched, thinking that Kakashi was there and would catch her in rabbit form. She trembled below the divination chamber, teeth gripping a scroll with a demand on it.
Return that book to the library or Kakashi is going to have my ass.
"Have your ass?" Itachi asked, brow raised after opening the scroll.
She wiggled and hopped in front of him to express the importance of the contents.
"What does that even mean? 'Have ass' doesn't even make sense. I know you think you are better at these muggle expressions than me, but you've messed this one up, Izumi."
Really? She thumped her back foot in irritation.
Itachi snapped his fingers. "Ah, you know what. I think you meant 'tan my hide'. Kisame has said that before. Although the idea of slicing off someone's skin to tan gives me quite the savage impression of the muggle world. As far as I understand it, muggles mostly use it for furniture and clothing. Can you imagine great-grandmother's hide being used for something other than making pages in our grimoire? Her portrait would still be screeching to this very day."
Ugh. Why were wizards so gross and stupid? Did they not understand what 'figure of speech' meant? Who the hell would think to turn their grandma into a grimoire anyway? She rammed her head against his shin.
"Fine, I'll replace the book, but I don't have it on me right now. All I was saying is that you might want to learn the phrases before you go around using them."
She rammed him again for good measure, before bounding down the hallway. She stopped at the split in the corridors and waited for Itachi to catch up, her foot tapped waiting for him. He was so slow.
When he caught up, he didn't pick a path. Instead, he looked down upon her. "That's twice today I've made you angry. I'm sorry."
Twice? She looked away. No, just once. The real Izumi though, he'd upset her. Guilt pooled in Sakura's stomach. Izumi was owed his apology, not her.
"I didn't mean to insinuate anything earlier, but it's just… You've been a bit off lately. In class, you've been staring out the window more often. You're starting to fail Arithmancy, and I thought that was your favorite class. I'm just worried."
Sakura lifted her gaze to meet Itachi's solemn one. He kneeled to be closer to eye level.
"We're going to go through life together, you can lean on me more."
Sakura just wanted the empty pit in her stomach to stop. Why couldn't he take a cue? She wasn't Izumi! She flew at his face and head-butted him.
"Ow."
Good, she hoped it hurt. Hurt as much as her heart and head did. Already, she was feeling the start of a headache. She turned back around. If he wasn't going to pick a corridor then she'd lead this parade. She continued straight and kept five paces ahead of him for the rest of the patrol.
That night, back in the common room, she bit at Itachi's hand, which was holding the Restricted Section book, until he figured out that what she wanted was for him to put it back in his book bag. She then pointed with her nose and snuffled loudly at the better-annotated copy sitting on his dresser, stretching with all her length to reach the top of the desk.
Itachi grabbed the book and laid back on the bed.
Sakura scrambled multiple times before finally succeeding in getting beside him. She curled against his side, her bottom wiggling in anticipation. She'd promised Kakashi she would sleep, but all she was asking for was just twenty minutes. Just a few pages.
Once Itachi opened the book to where they'd left off, she leaned in until her nose almost touched the text. She needed to, so she could read the small cursive words in the margins. How could she have forgotten about these insights? She should have gotten Itachi to return the library's copy before so they could read from this one instead.
Eventually, she yawned and realized if she didn't stop now, Kakashi might potentially start casting spells to find her whereabouts at night. Wouldn't that be damning? Instead of pawing for more, she jumped upon Itachi's chest and curled into a ball facing the small opening he had in the curtains.
"No more?" Itachi asked.
She gave a shake of her head, before replacing her head upon her paws. She began counting the books in the room, eyes scanning the spines in the darkness, though she couldn't discern any words upon them. Just how many were there? This was at least an aisle or two of the actual library of Hogwarts. It was far easier to count than invisible sheep though. One. Two…
Eventually, Itachi shifted, and he slowly stroked the top of her head. Her eyes drifted close. And for the first time, she was the one that fell asleep first.
She woke up in the same position as always, with her rump being used as a pillow. At least he didn't have a heavy head, or worse, drool in his sleep.
She squirmed just enough for Itachi to turn over. Then she sprung out of the boy's dorm and, once ensuring the coast was clear, up into her own.
Double Potions went much easier with some sleep. Professor Chiyo used the second part of the class to allow test retakes for those like her who'd messed up. Everyone who passed the first time had been allowed to leave and take a free period.
The potion she made hadn't been perfect, but it had still been much better than the tar disaster she'd turned in before. That was a success in her books and met expectations for Professor Chiyo. The old woman had complimented the off shade of green. "I'll give you an additional five points for having it match your eye color."
That light green hadn't been the plan, as a forest green had been expected, but she'd take what she could get.
The rest of the week passed quickly with Sakura avoiding the disappointed Neji and doing rounds with Itachi. She took care to not get carried away in reading the book in the evenings, mostly because she was terrified of Kakashi using his spell and finding her in the boys' room. Definite expulsion, if not imprisonment awaited her.
On Friday night, she met Itachi at their usual spot. Right underneath the divination classroom opening. As per usual, they made their way across to check the hallways and then down and up again.
Itachi grunted on picking her up on their way to the Astronomy Tower.
"I think you're getting heavier," he complained.
She kicked him with one of her hind legs. Technically speaking, she was still a growing rabbit. The age thing with animagi was relative. That meant she was still a young teen bunny and had some room to grow. But it was rude to comment on a woman's weight at any age or species.
"You have a bad habit of smacking me around. I don't appreciate it."
And she didn't appreciate getting called fat. She made a growling noise in her throat.
He placed her gently down as they continued their round of the Astronomy Tower.
Her ears pricked first. Footsteps!
She bolted ahead of Itachi, stopping at the fork. She sat up straight and then motioned with a paw to the left corridor. Oh boy, oh boy. This would be her first-time seeing Itachi catch someone out of bed. Did Itachi take out some of his cruelty on innocent night walkers as he did to her? She could almost rub her paws in delight at watching someone else take the brunt of his teasing.
He extinguished the wand light without uttering a word and crept beside her, avoiding the brazier's lighting radius. Ooh, Itachi was sneaky.
They whipped around the corner like a tactical unit in the PC games Sakura played with her cousin.
"Lumos Solem," Itachi said.
Sakura shrieked with pain at the amount of light. These eyes were not made for such bright views.
Her cries were echoed by the person they'd caught out past curfew.
The light was gone a moment later, and then Itachi cast a normal Lumos.
Sakura blinked rapidly, eyes burning, still in pain. Why had Itachi opted to cast that awful spell? More importantly, who had they caught?
Still trying to clear her vision, her question was answered by Itachi.
"Izumi, what are you doing here?"