When the students had all exited the Great Hall, some of the faculty followed Dumbledore into his office in order to discuss some things. Dumbledore flicked his wand causing a couple of chairs to magically appear and arranged them into a circle.

"Please everyone. Take a seat." Professors Snape, McGonagall, Sprout and Flitwick all took their seats. Jiraiya took a seat across from Dumbledore.

"Albus, if you don't mind, could we wait a few seconds before we begin? He was supposed to be here for the sorting but as you can see he's late as usual." There was a loud poof and Kakashi appeared right behind Minerva scaring her senseless.

"I'm sorry madame. I didn't mean to scare you." Kakashi walked by her and took his seat next to Snape who didn't even bother to look up. It was if Kakashi hadn't appeared at all.

"Alright," Dumbledore said clearing his throat. "Now that we're all here, we can now begin. I brought you Head of Houses in so that you can get to formally meet the two new additions to the staff this term. Master Jiraiya here will be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts while Kakashi will take on Lyrical Studies."

"Lyrical Studies?" Severus asked raising an eyebrow. He studied Kakashi from head to toe and frowned. Kakashi just flashed him a warm smile and shrugged.

"Yes, Lyrical Studies."

"I fiori a scomparire, e per lo campi, per l'inverno si tirano le somme rese wayward."

"A honey tongue, a heart of gall, is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall." Severus looked absolutely horrified but chose to say nothing. Kakashi smiled sweetly before turning to Dumbledore. "Please forgive me headmaster. Your Professor Snape was recited some lovely lines from one of my favorite poems. I could not help but to reply." At this, Snape looked as though he was going to puke but he still said nothing and went back to his state of non existence.

"That's quite alright. Now that we're all acquainted we need to discuss the seriousness of the situation among other things. We'll start with the Triwizard Competition that's going to be held here this year."

"Headmaster, are we really going through with this?" Minerva asked. "Even after what happened with Potter and the others last year?"

"I too can't help but to agree with Minerva," Severus said dryly. "After all, we never did get a hold of Peter Pettigrew and as unlikely as Potter's story may be, there's still that 1 percent chance that Trelawney had a vision and he told the truth about it. If that's the case, why hasn't you-know-who made his move yet? Why wait?" There was some nervous shifting from some of the staff before Jiraiya quietly spoke up.

"I agree with Severus." Snape looked up briefly before looking away unconcerned as usual.

"What do you mean?" Filius asked.

"He means that the Triwizard Tournament will be the perfect opportunity to grab Mr. Potter," Kakashi added.

"I don't really think that's possible," Alexis chimed in thoughtfully. "The tournament has always been so highly guarded by the greatest of magic not to mention all the precautions that are taken before each task."

"That may be Alexis, but this is a much more difficult situation than you think. We, as in Jiraiya and I, believe that You-Know-Who may have some help this time. His death eaters are one thing but ninjas equally powerful as him are another," Dumbledore noted.

"You mean to say that there's someone out there just as bad as he?" Minerva asked, dropping her wand in the process.

"Yes, a very powerful sanin like me from my time. His name's Orochimaru and if he gets in contact with Vold…" There was a loud gasp and Filius almost fell out his seat. "I'm sorry. I mean, if Orochimaru finds You-Know-Who then this will get really, really ugly. You think the first Great War that you had was something, Orochimaru will make it hell on earth. He's got minions to rival your so-called death eaters."

"How would you know about our death eaters? You've never seen them in action," Severus inquired.

"That may be but I've read stories about them. Rape, torcher, body possession…yeah I know about them, but Orochimaru is different. Unlike You-Know-Who's followers who only follow him because they are afraid, everyone working for Orochimaru has been brainwashed into thinking he's a God. They follow him because they think it's their life long dream to help Orochimaru get what he wants. They never back down. They never chicken out. They all will willingly put their life on the line for him," Kakashi said grimly.

"So how do we catch someone like him?" Minerva asked. Kakashi let out a sigh.

"I wish I knew. He's been in hiding for almost a year. Just six years ago he invaded our village. He didn't completely destroy it but he weakened our forces greatly. Now that we're back in full force, we need to catch him as soon as possible before he could cause any more trouble."

"But he came here which means Konoha may not be the target," Jiraiya added. "The Hokage believes that he either wants to help revive your Vold-sorry-You-Know-Who, or distract us and go after the village. We sent our best team of rookies…"

"You sent rookies on a mission like this?" Severus asked.

"Oh, don't take them lightly. They are all highly trained and highly exceptional ninja. But don't take my word for it. Drop by my class tomorrow for a show like no other," Jiraya said grinning. "Anyway, we left the others to guard the village."

"So if he doesn't go after Konoha, what can You-Know-Who do for him?" Alexis asked nervously.

"Well…" Kakashi sighed. "I guess I need to come right out with it. Orochimaru…We're not really sure of his intentions. All we have are theories. Theory one states that maybe he wants to revive You-Know-Who and force him to help crush the leaf village. We have our doubts about this one because if that was the case, he would have already done so by now. Another theory- very unlikely but possible- is that he may want to help You-Know-Who take over your world. If that's the case then you're all in for one hell of a fight."

"Any other theories?" Severus asked dryly. "All this speculating is boring me to death and I have lesson plans that I need to make." Jiraiya just shook his head before picking up where Kakashi left off.

"Well our latest theory has to do with our very on Naruto Uzumaki."

"What about him?" Minerva asked. Severus clicked his tongue and cut her a look but she snapped his head off. "Severus, if you are bored then please, by all means get the hell out of here! As this Naruto boy is a part of my family now, I have a right to know how best to look after him. Maybe if you spent more time worrying about your students too, they wouldn't act like such pompous fools!" Severus rolled his eyes but remained silent and in his place. Everyone knew that when Minerva spoke, she meant business.

"To answer your question Minerva, Naruto has been running for most of his teenage life. He has a great but terrible power living inside of him and if it falls into the wrong hands countless people will lose their lives," Kakashi said grimly.

"This power," Jiraiya continued, "is a Kyuubi- a nine-tailed fox spirit. His father sealed it inside of him when he was just a baby. Throughout his training over the years, he has learned to harness the power for himself thus making it his trump card in countless battles. But now…things are different now. The seal is weakening and we have no idea how to fix it. The 4th gave his life to seal that spirit. It would seem that it's the only way to suppress this terrible power."

"One minute you say it's terrible, another that it's great. Which one is it already?" Severus snapped.

"It's great in the sense that it's powerful. Terrible in the sense that it's killing him slowly every time he uses it. There are people that want to extract that power from him but we can't let that happen. I have been close to death only twice in my life and training with Naruto brought me close to death for the second time. The power…it's truly amazing but if it gets out of hand he can't control it. Orochimaru knows this so he may try to get Naruto. He may try to get Harry as well," Jiraiya whispered.

"What?!?! WHAT?!?!" Minerva gasped. "But…but why?" she asked, almost to tears.

"Because Harry would be the perfect trade off to convince You-Know-Who to help extract the Kyuubi within Naruto."

"Why would he need You-Know-Who's help? I thought you said Orochimaru was very powerful himself?" Alexis asked.

"Orochimaru has spent years doing strange research. Who's to say he hasn't figured out a way to get the bijuu using magic," Kakashi concluded. The room was quite for several seconds before Dumbledore finally broke the silence.

"This just means we have a lot of work to do. I expect everyone to help keep the boys safe. In order to do that, we need to start doing a little research of our own. We need to find a way to help Naruto. If the bijuu is slowly killing him then we haven't much time. He uses the power to fight…If he ends up in a fight against You-Know-Who, he'll need that power but it could cost him his life in the end and we don't want that. Also, we know You-Know-Who wants Harry dead. We cannot let that happen either. So somewhere between the tournament challenges and regular classes, we will get researching. I want to save both these boys lives and they will need all the help they can get." They all nodded in agreement before Dumbledore dismissed them. Only Severus remained behind on behalf of Dumbledore.

"Yes headmaster?"

"I need you to find a way to help the boy. You're the greatest Potion's Master in the world, I know you can do it."

"Don't indulge me Albus. It's not necessary. I'll do my best to help the boy but it won't be easy. I'll need a medical history of the boy and a full examination of his body."

"That won't be necessary right now. The 5th is an exceptional medical ninja and between the two of you, I'm sure you can come up with something."

"When do I get to meet this 5th Hokage?" he asked rolling his eyes.

"You're going to go to her this weekend but be warned. She doesn't take criticism lightly and her tongue is as sharp as yours. I wouldn't push her buttons too far. Her punch is equivalent to ten thousand seals. Have a nice night Severus." Dumbledore disappeared leaving a very trepid Severus behind to ponder over his situation. This year was going to be an interesting one indeed.

AN:Okay. It would seem that my story has taken a serious turn. Gahh…I didn't mean for it to get like that but I am also writing this for a friend and so she made it this way. –cough- wrenbaily…Anyway, a few things you out to know…

"A honey tongue, a heart of gall, is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall"----This is a line taken from a poem titled "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" by Sir Walter Raleigh. The lines that Snape recite in Italian also come from that poem.

Filius is the first name I've given to Professor Flitwick. I have no idea if that's really his first name. That's the name that I saw everywhere so I am sticking with it. Alexis is Professor Sprout.

There may be some dark turns to the story if I keep it fairly serious. I haven't decided yet but I will keep the occasional fluff and down right silliness to a certain degree. If it turns dark then you'll def know that this is an 'M' rated fic. You have been warned. Also, I am not following Rowling's books. In fact, disregard them completely. I am going to change a whole lot of things so you have been warned. You might not like the pairings so if you don't then go away. No one's forcing you to read this.