The chapter you've all been waiting for. Most of this chapter was written while watching the news about Irene. As my aunt's house is where the eye of the storm is probably going to go through, it was decided that we would remain in our respective homes. Anyway, I'm not sure how it'll go, but I guess we'll know in the morning. At the very least, I know of three different neighbors and their families who are staying as well. So that's something of a safety net.

Chapter 3

Hermione found that she enjoyed working for the Akimichis, though she could do without the noblemen who tried to seduce her. She wasn't even that pretty, and she knew it. By this point, she supposed it was the idea of having what no other man could.

At least the shinobi and kunoichi were more respectful. Apparently, as she was the "cousin" of an active shinobi, and a fuinjutsu master she was considered one of them, if only as a civilian of a shinobi clan. Hermione didn't have the heart to explain that she was so distantly related to the Lovegoods that it wasn't worth mentioning. They even considered her interest in music appropriate, as many kunoichi learned to sing, dance, and play an instrument or two in their line of work.

She let out a happy hum as she followed Luna through the market. During the past week her and Luna's evenings had been spent learning the art of making rune arrays from Xenophilius-although in all fairness Luna was studying concepts far more complex than Hermione was at the moment. Her days were spent playing at the tea house, with the exception of her daily lunch break with Luna. Before breakfast and after Xenophilius's little tutorials, Hermione read her new books-she was enjoying Icha Icha Paradise in particular and had already bought the other two books in the series and found several other books by the same author to read when she returned to England.

This day and the day after were her days off from the Akimichi's tea house, as the Chunin Exams began in an hour and Natsumi had declared that Hermione should have the luxury of sleeping in after such a big event and visiting the festival the next day. Hermione was surprisingly happy with this arrangement. If she lived to become a bard, she was going to arrange her gigs so that she had either mornings or evenings, along with at least two days a week off.

Eventually the duo made their way into the stadium and found their seats. She pulled out her knitting needles and a skein of yarn and began to cast on stitches for a shawl.

"I wonder if this is going to be any bloodier than the dueling tournaments," said Luna, pulling out her crocheting.

"I don't know. I suppose it depends on if they intend to kill their opponents or not," said Hermione. "Although I do hope it's not. Dying in an event like this seems a bit… a bit of a waste."

"Mm," Luna agreed.

They watched the crowd gather, occasionally commenting on this or that. Both agreed that the noblewomen looked ridiculous wearing five or more layers of kimono over a shit and skirt in the middle of summer. They, at least, had chosen to wear only two layers, excluding bras and panties which so far as they were concerned didn't count.

About half an hour after they arrived the tournament began. The teens competing were absolutely vicious, but no worse than the European professional and amateur dueling circuits. She and Luna made sure to cheer loudly for the team they'd met at the castle during their fights, but otherwise just watched. Ran and Hana managed to make it to the second round, though Mozuku lost his first fight and Ran suffered a double knock out in the third. In the end, Hana was the only person they knew in the final round and the duo cheered themselves hoarse for the girl.

They tucked away their needlework and headed out, intent to enjoy the festival. They played games and ate the local food and went to some sort of drum performance before going back to the hotel room.

The next day was much of the same, although Hermione ended up bringing her banjo and setting up on a park bench to play and sing the Wizarding version of Beowulf while Luna braided flower crowns which she put on her own and Hermione's unveiled heads before sitting down to do a drawing. As she was neither working nor at a special event, Hermione had decided to forgo wearing a veil for the day, although she was dressed in a cotehardie with a girdle about her waist.

This, it seemed, was liked even more than the folk songs she usually chose. Already there was a crowd of nobles, shinobi, and civilians along with groups of children. With a mental shrug she did her best to keep faithful to the story, which was a little difficult as she was translating as she went and occasionally had to make split second decisions about which word to use without the benefit of a thesaurus. Nearly three hours after she began, the song was thankfully over. Hermione loved it, but playing for three straight hours without any breaks was a bit much.

She slipped the cittern back into the case when the crowd dispersed and turned to Luna. "Ready for supper?"

"Ramen stand?"

Hermione nodded and the duo set out for the little ramen stand they'd discovered several days prior. Ichiraku's had to be the best ramen stand in the village by far, although it was smaller than its main competitor. The found a free space at the stand happily enough, Crookshanks curling up between her stool.

"Two shrimp ramen please," said Luna before turning to Hermione.

"I'll start with two beef ramen, please," said Hermione. One of the downsides of their Wizarding nature was that their metabolisms were far faster than a normal human's and they had to eat at least twice as much.

"Coming up," said the proprietor.

"So, what near death experience will you go through this year?" asked Luna.

"I'd object, but I'm beginning to think it's a yearly event as well," sighed Hermione. "I don't know. I had to cancel my Daily Prophet subscription, so I don't really know what old Tommy-boy's minions may or may not be doing."

"Have you set up wards for your family home?"

"Yeah. Professor McGonagall helped me set them up last summer." Technically the truth, but nowhere near complete. Not that she intended to tell Luna that.

They ended up eating four bowls of ramen apiece before heading out to explore the festival again. The sun was just beginning to set when they started to head back to the hotel. And then Hermione realized one little problem.

"Lu, why don't you go ahead of me?"

"Mione-"

"I forgot to get Harry something for his birthday. I saw a stand a couple blocks back that should have something that'll work, but I don't think it'll be there tomorrow."

"I'll take your banjo back with me. And hurry. You know Daddy doesn't want us out too long after dark."

She nodded and passed the instrument over to her friend. "Thanks. If I'm not back in an hour, call the cavalry or something."

"See you soon."

With that Hermione turned back to the festival. She walked quickly, Crookshanks by her side. It took her a couple minutes but she managed to find the stand. After five minutes of haggling, she got a new folding knife for Harry. She knew that he regretted having his penknife from Sirius melt to slag and she could easily carve the needed runes into the blade and handle before she sent it to him.

She turned from the stand only to stop short. Before her was Hideki, one of several samurai who'd frequented the tea shop. He had made a game of teasing her and had invited her to supper on more than one occasion, despite her making it clear she was uninterested in his attention.

"What good fortune to bump into you, Hermione-chan," he said.

"I'd thank you not to be so familiar with me," she said, searching for any of the shinobi she knew out of the corner of her eye. "If you'll excuse me, my cousins are expecting me and I wouldn't want to worry them."

"The night is still young-"

"Be that as it may, I have a curfew and I cannot break it."

"There you are, Granger-san. Lovegood-san was worried," said a deep male voice Hermione was relatively sure she'd heard before.

"My apologies. I didn't mean to make him worry or for him to send out a search party," said Hermione, trying not to show her surprise. She gave the gray haired man she knew only as Wolf a relieved smile and mouthed "thank you" once her back was turned to Hideki. Crookshanks, she noted, was winding his way around Wolf's legs affectionately. "Well, I must be going."

Hermione allowed the shinobi to escort her out of the market and back to the hotel silently. At the entrance, she turned to ask if he'd really been sent by Xenophilius, only to realize that Wolf had disappeared. With a mental shrug she headed into the building.

Two days before they were supposed to return to the castle, Hermione found herself at loose ends. Her job with the Akimichis was over and she'd already explored the parts of Konoha she could visit as a civilian. Normally, she'd have been content to strum out a tune or two and hang around with Luna, but after several hours of doing so, she was nearly at wit's end. She couldn't just do nothing. Not now, not today.

Around five, she gave in to temptation and found a bar she felt relatively comfortable in. It wasn't quite a shinobi bar, but there were certainly more shinobi than civilians and not a samurai or noble in sight. She settled at the bar in the corner opposite the entrance where she could have her back to the wall and ordered a beer and some finger foods. Hermione was no lightweight-Gryffindors threw the best parties and the Weasley twins could always be counted upon to supply alcohol-but she wasn't going to start drinking on an empty stomach.

About an hour and two beers later, a large figure sat down beside her. She glanced over long enough to see that Wolf was next to her along with the green spandex clad Bruce Lee wannabe and several other men, including the man she faintly remembered as Hana, Ran, and Mozuku's sensei; Genma. She ignored them, concentrating on her beer. The bar had filled up and the seats next to her had been the only free ones in sight. Him sitting there meant nothing, even if she was beginning to wonder if he was following her.

She listened absently as they talked about Genma's team, of which only Hana had been promoted, as Mozuku's showing had been rather unimpressive and Ran had continued to fight when he should have either forfeited or tried another tactic. Apparently having even one student be promoted was a good thing and the other men were congratulating him. And the Bruce Lee in spandex was waxing poetic about something, but Hermione wasn't really sure what, other than it involved springtime, youth, and something about the genius of hard work.

Hermione managed to tune her companions out and plow her way through a rather substantial supper and two more beers over the course of her second hour in the bar. Well, mostly tune them out. And then a boy a little older than her that she was relatively sure was called Tenzou began to speak about fuinjutsu.

Unable to hide her interest, Hermione found herself looking to her right at the piece of paper with a seal on it that Tenzou had produced. Wolf, she noted, quirked his visible eyebrow at her before leaning so that she had a better view.

"That's wrong," she announced, before she could quite manage to stop herself. She was teetering on the edge of tipsy, and unfortunately her mouth had gotten away from her, as it was wont to do when she drank.

Like a switch was flipped, the easy atmosphere was replaced by one of suspicion as all the men in Wolf's group turned to look at her. She found herself blushing and had to fight the urge to duck her head.

"What's wrong, miss…?" asked Tenzou.

"Granger. Hermione Granger-there are different naming customs where I'm from," she explained before anybody had a chance to make a mistake with her name. "Granger is the name of the branch of my clan I belong to and Hermione is my given name." She cleared her throat. "And your seal is wrong. You said the person you bought it from said that it was a shield jutsu, and it is. But whoever it was who made it didn't think things through. Yes, it'll create a chakra shield, but it doesn't account for air completely and whoever's inside the shield is limited by how long it'll take them to asphyxiate. It looks like they left a space to add a sub-array that would change carbon dioxide to oxygen there, but they forgot. Which means you're screwed. Unless you can grow trees or something, but I don't see that happening."

The men laughed off her statement, but something in their manner seemed off. Hermione wasn't sure what it was, but something she'd said had touched on a sensitive topic. Wolf, she noted, had pulled out a familiar orange book and had affected what she was relatively sure was his usual lazy manner.

"I apologize if I overstepped my bounds," Hermione said quickly. "I tend to speak more than I should when I drink."

"Maa, maa, it's fine," said Wolf, waving off her words.

Beside him, Tenzou and Genma, along with a man she thought might be named Raidou stood and said their goodbyes. She waited until the men left before she turned to Wolf and Bruce Lee.

"I'm sorry for chasing off your friends. I didn't mean to."

"No man would run from one as beauteous as you, my dear," said the spandex clad man. "Ah, a booth has opened up; perhaps you would care to join us, Granger-san?"

Hermione shrugged. "Alright. It's better than drinking alone. Although I'd appreciate it if you toned down the flattery a bit."

They grabbed their drinks and took the booth moments before another person reached it. The purple haired woman pouted at them before going over to the bar. Somehow Hermione found herself next to the Bruce Lee wannabe on the inside and across from Wolf, whose real name she still didn't know. Was she to forever call him Wolf?

"I, am Konoha's Sublime Green Beast, Maito Gai," he said in introduction.

"A pleasure to meet you, Maito-san." She paused, then asked, "Does the village perhaps have regular psychological evaluations of its shinobi?"

Wolf gave her what almost looked like a happy eye crease-and really, how could his face be so expressive when only a quarter of it was visible?-and said, "All active duty shinobi are required to visit a counselor once a year or more often if their commanding officer or their doctor recommends it."

"Ah, good. That's… that's probably a very good thing."

In reply, Kakashi giggled a bit. Hermione pouted into her beer until she realized he was laughing at something in the book.

"You reach the part where Junko pretended to be a maid yet?" said Hermione.

"You read Icha Icha?" he said.

Hermione blushed and nodded. "Considering the books were written by a man, they're surprisingly true to the female mind and experience. Although don't spoil it for me. I just started on the third volume."

"How unyouthful," commented Gai.

Hermione shrugged. "More books for us, then."

"You're a musician who spends her free time studying fuinjutsu?" said Wolf.

She shrugged. "Actually, I just finished my fifth year of a seven year apprenticeship within my clan. But I intend to become a musician when I finish my apprenticeship."

"What's wrong?"

The Bruce Lee wannabe was surprisingly perceptive. She shrugged and shook her head, almost curling in on herself. She motioned at the waitress and ordered sake. There went her attempt to distract herself from her troubles. Wolf and Gai seemed to shrug and do the same, ordering sake as well.

She waited until after she took several sips of sake to speak again. Wolf and Gai had spoken silently through hand motions and body movements the entire time, though Hermione had had the courtesy to ignore them.

Finally, she asked, "How do you deal with knowing you could die at any time?"

"Another civil war?" asked Gai.

"I-how?" she stuttered.

"Gai and I are familiar with the British Wizarding Enclave," commented Wolf, who then proceeded to take a sip of his sake.

"Out great great great grandparents left the British Empire in the 1870s," explained Gai. "We are their only surviving descendants."

"Oh. I'm sorry…" she said. "May I ask why your ancestors left?"

"They thought it better to leave than to deal with constant assassination attempts from grandmother's family," shrugged Wolf, as though assassination attempts were insignificant in comparison to other things he could think of.

"Pureblood who ran off to avoid an arranged marriage or Pureblood who married somebody beneath her?" she asked.

"Both," said Wolf.

"Might as well be hung for a lamb," she said philosophically before taking another sip of sake. "Wait, does Mr. Lovegood know about you two?"

"He doesn't," said Gai. "The Utatanes were the ones who vouched for him when he came to the village as a fuinjutsu master."

"Oh."

"How bad's the war so far?" asked Gai.

Hermione shrugged, and suddenly found herself explaining the events of the previous two years with a segue into her first and second years as appropriate. "… I mean, what sort of man-ghost-creature-thing goes around stealing life force through fucking diaries?"

"Sounds like he created Horcruxes," shrugged Wolf.

"Created what now?"

Wolf remained silent, which confused Hermione until a waitress came over to take their empty beer mugs and sake bottles. After a moment's thought Hermione ordered a beer, feeling the need to ensure she didn't get too drunk, though the men ordered sake.

Once the waitress brought their drinks, Wolf explained, "A Horcrux is a piece of a soul which has been broken away from the body and attached to an object or being. It's a form a necromancy. Until all the Horcruxes he made are destroyed, his spirit will not leave the mortal plane."

"How does a person destroy a Horcrux?"

"Fiendfyre would be your best option," said Gai. "Unless you learn necromancy."

"Necromancy's illegal. And I'm not about to go messing with other people's souls." Hermione shrugged. "It's not illegality I mind so much as the morality."

"I know of necromancers who study the subject simply to know how to deal with those who use the art to abuse people," explained Gai.

"Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't think I'll be able to learn any useful necromancy. Do you know how to make fiendfyre? I'm good with fire spells."

"How good?"

"When I was five I figured out how to make floating balls of fire," she bragged before taking a deep drink of her beer. "My first bit of magic I could control."

"I've always been good with illusions," commented Gai.

Across from them Wolf shuddered theatrically and muttered something about evil sunsets. "I electrocuted an enemy nin accidentally."

Hermione nodded. "I once accidentally blew up a tree stump and hit half a dozen Death Eaters with its flaming-and I do mean flaming-shrapnel. Saved our lives, it did. Gave my father enough time to find his pistol and shoot them."

"How old were you?" asked Wolf.

"Two and a half. I don't really remember it all that well. It was a couple months after Tommy got disembodied. The Aurors treated us like we were criminals even though in all honesty, if Dad hadn't killed those men, they'd have bribed their way out of jail like that." She snapped her fingers clumsily. "And then they'd have come back to finish the job. Bastards."

"I can control fiendfyre," he said. "How soon are you and the Lovegoods leaving?"

"Day after tomorrow. Mr. Lovegood has a job making these wards from scratch and Lulu and I are heading back to the Daimyo's castle with Chiriku-kun."

"I can teach you tomorrow morning."

"Thank you. And that reminds me, I didn't have a chance to thank you for rescuing me from that man last week."

Wolf inclined his head in acknowledgement.

"Which man?" asked Gai.

"Nakamura Hideki cornered her in the market place."

"He kept requesting songs from me in the tea house as well and asking me out."

Beside her Gai was almost growling.

"What is it?"

"Nakamura Hideki is the lowest of the low," Gai said angrily. "He has forced his attentions upon more than one woman. Unfortunately those women were peasants or musicians and the courts would not acknowledge their complaints."

"Maybe I should have followed my instincts and cursed him when I had the chance."

"They can track jutsu through energy signatures," explained Wolf.

"Damn." There went that idea.

"So you and the Lovegoods are cousins," said Gai, attempting to change the subject.

She shrugged. "I'm a Muggle-Born. I have a good idea of who I inherited my magic from, but she was a squib cast out from her family more than two hundred years ago. I think Lulu and I are related through her mother more recently than any of the other branches of her family, but I have no idea for sure. It's not like I have access to the family trees or anything."

She flagged down the waitress and ordered a second bottle of sake. She was more than a little tipsy and the subject matter only made her want to get completely plastered.

Wolf tilted his head in question when the bottle of sake arrived and Gai asked, "Why are you trying to get yourself drunk."

"Her name was Sally-Anne. She was one of my roommates." Hermione spoke mechanically. "Sally died two and a half years ago. A couple of former Death Eaters got the great idea to attack her family while she was with them for winter break. Two years ago today the last of the men responsible for the massacre of the Perks family died."

There was a knowing look in Wolf's eye and one look at Gai proved that he had the same expression. Hermione took a large gulp of sake, ignoring that the wine was supposed to be sipped. "I wrote a song for her. First song I ever wrote. My roommates and I play it the day before winter break begins each year."

"Mm. We have the memorial stone, where all those who died in service of the village are memorialized," said Gai.

"Do you somebody who can help me write a will?" asked Hermione.

"Around here you just write it out and sign it in blood and have two witnesses sign it in blood and send a copy in to the Hokage's office so that they have a record of it just in case the originally copy is lost," explained Gai.

"Okay." She pulled out a piece of scratch paper and a quill and a bottle of ink from her bag. "Do you two mind being my witnesses? I just… I don't have much, but I think I need a will."

"Don't forget to put in clauses for incase you get married or have children," said Wolf.

It took her a couple minutes, but she managed to divide up her possessions and put in clauses for what she wanted if she had just a husband, a husband and children, or just children. It was all written carefully in Japanese, with an English translation underneath. She pushed it over to Gai.

"What do you think?"

"Very thorough," he agreed.

Hermione nodded and transcribed a second and third copy. Then she pulled out her athame. It was Wizarding tradition for all girls and women to carry an athame that dated back more than a millennia. From what she understood, the ritual blade was a symbol that the woman was a free citizen. She upended an empty ashtray and cut open her thumb, dripping the blood into the depression in the clay. She cleaned off the ink from her quill and scratched out her signature all three in both English and Japanese.

She cleaned off both the quill and the ashtray before handing everything to Gai. While he signed the papers, she cleaned her thumb up and applied a band aid before putting her athame back. Once he and Wolf signed everything, she put two copies away-she intended to keep one and give another to Professor McGonagall for safekeeping. The third Wolf took custody of.

"Thank you," said Hermione. "Hey, how does this village view the Wizarding, anyway? It never was explained to me."

"We're called the Dragon Clans. It's believed that we're all descended from a mating between a human woman and a dragon several thousand years ago and the woman's descendants scattered to the four winds. They call it a kekkei genkai." Wolf shrugged. "It's close enough to the truth."

"Well at least they got the back story right," shrugged Hermione.

"Mm."

"You know," she said, taking a sip of her sake. "There are so many things I wanted to do with my life, and I don't think I'll ever have the chance to do them."

"Like what?" asked Gai.

"My boys… they're so naïve. They think to themselves they're immortal, that the war won't affect them even though they intend be on the front lines. They think we'll survive and grow old together and the two of them will become Aurors and I'll get some administrative job at the Ministry and become a paper pusher. You're a genius, they say, and you'll do great things. But I'm not, I just think things through and listen and study more than they do, and I don't want to. I don't want to do great things. And I see that future, and all I want to do is scream. It won't happen. Not like they think it will."

"What do you want, should you survive?"

"I'd like to get married. I want to have children. But what man would want a woman with a figurative death sentence over her head? I want to be a musician. If I live, I'll do what I want, and not what they expect of me. I'm tired. I'm tired of the Wizarding, I'm tired of their expectations and their beliefs. I'm tired of what they think I should do."

Wolf's laugh was bitter and Hermione realized he was just as drunk as she was. "A shinobi would have you. What does it matter if you'll die young? Most shinobi die young as well. There aren't enough kunoichi to go around. And civilian women. Civilian women don't make good wives."

"They see what they want to see and not the reality, don't they," she said in understanding. "At least not until its too late. Harry's famous for something his parents did and he has these terrible fan girls. They're just awful, acting at though he's a prize to be won. And none of them see him for who he really is."

"We'd both heard the stories of Mab the Black in our childhoods, but two weeks ago was the first time we heard any of the songs," commented Gai. "None of our family has had any particular musical talent."

"Did you like it?"

"It's good to know that she's not forgotten by those outside the clan," said Wolf.

Hermione's eyes widened. "Oh. Oh… You're descended from Isla and Bob Hitchens, right? The timeline fits…"

"How did you know?" asked Gai.

"Sirius. When we stayed at his family home last summer, he showed us the family tree tapestry. He was so proud of getting blasted off it. Said that Isla Black was his cousin Andromeda's hero growing up." She tilted her head in contemplation. "I suppose that explains why you both smell like canines. All Blacks have either a dog or wolf animagus form. At least according to Sirius. I don't suppose either of you are metamorphmagi? Although I guess you wouldn't tell me if you were."

"Why would you think that?" Wolf said absently.

"Whatever… Can you at least tell me what your magical education was like? I'll trade you a story for a story," she said.

There were nods and suddenly Wolf was telling her about when he was a child his father began to teach him transfiguration. Apparently, though he knew how to use a wand, he generally used either hand symbols or completely wandless magic instead. She in turn told them of what it was like to attend a magical school and ended up going off topic and spending a good ten minutes on the House system.

By the time it was completely dark, Hermione had learned of how Gai was better at charms and Wolf at transfiguration. She admitted that her skills lay in arithmancy and spell creation and how certain people from certain unspeakable government agencies had sought her out the previous year and how she'd turned them down, refusing to let her abilities be used to make curses and other spells for people when she had no idea how they'd use them, particularly given that the Ministry was inundated with former Death Eaters. Hermione had asked about the mask and black uniform she'd first seen Wolf in and he'd laughed, commenting on how she didn't miss anything. And then he'd told her about what ANBU did. At least the basics of what ANBU did.

By the time the trio settled into a comfortable silence, Hermione was well and truly drunk, and she knew it. Like her, both of her companions were drunk. Not quite fall down drunk, but they were certainly three sheets to the wind, which was why, when Gai made his suggestion, it sounded like a good idea.

"Yeh should jush get married," said Gai.

"I know. Buh who woul' I marry? Don't shee men linin up," slurred Hermione.

"Marry 'im." Gai motioned dramatically at Wolf who was giving him a glassy look.

"Okay," she shrugged, and then did what seemed logical. She unhooked her sheathed athame from her belt and held it out to Wolf. "For you if'n yah want it."

He shrugged and took the blade from her with a bow of the head. "Lesh find person tah make it offish-offic-legal."

"'Kay," she agreed.

The trio stumbled out of the booth and paid their tabs before leaving the bar. Hermione leaned heavily against Wolf as they made their way down the street. The wove their way down the street, part of Hermione impressed by how steady on his feet and graceful Wolf was in comparison to her. Eventually, Gai and Wolf led her into an official looking building that had a sign before it that said something to the effect of something tower, though Hermione was sure that wasn't what it was really called.

"Can I help you," said a kunoichi giving then a rather disparaging look.

"Need ta, need ta register marriage," explained Gai.

"Wait there," said the kunoichi.

"Oh, my will. Need tah give my will," she said.

"Won't forget," said Wolf, waving a hand at her.

Wolf helped Hermione sprawl out on a chair, though he and Gai remained standing. "I use' tah like blonds, 'cept then Lockhart stole memories. I don' like blons anymore. But yer nah blond, so thas 'kay."

"Nah blond?" said Wolf, looking hurt.

"No, got ashy gra' hair. Pwetty."

Wolf nodded, almost preening and Hermione rolled her eyes.

The kunoichi walked back in and said, "Utatane-sama will see you in office 3."

"Thanks," said Gai.

Wolf and Gai helped her stand and they started to walk again. They ended up walking down the hall and into an office. Wolf dropped Hermione in a chair and then slouched against a wall, staring at the older kunoichi. The woman had to be in her late fifties or early sixties and Hermione found herself impressed that she'd survived so long in such a demanding line of work.

"Mei-chan said you wanted to register a marriage," said the woman.

"We got married," explained Wolf, motioning to Hermione.

"Are you three drunk?" demanded Utatane.

"Yep," said Hermione.

"Still married," explained Wolf. "Hermione gave athame. I acshepted. We'er married now."

"It's a legal marriage?" echoed Utatane.

Gai nodded. "Our ancestors from where Hermione-chan from. Bride gives cere-ceremonia' blade tah groom. Are married."

"Ri-ight. Why a knife?"

"Not just knife, is athame. Very impor'ant knife," she explained.

"Why a ceremonial blade, then?"

"Means bride truss groom tah protec her and her chil'ren," explained Wolf.

"Uh huh. So she gave you a ceremonial blade and you accepted it, which means that you two are legally married," clarified Utatane.

The trio nodded.

"Right," she sighed. She pulled out a form and began to fill it out. "The bride's name?"

"Was Hermione Granger… is Hermione… uh… what is yer na' anywa'?"

Utatane put her head in her hand and let out a sigh. "Hatake. Hatake Kakashi."

"Righ' is Hermione Jane Hatake now."

"How do you spell your name?"

"Lihk this," she said, taking a brush and righting her name out properly in Japanese.

"So you'll keep your own clan name-"

"No." Hermione shook her head. "Taking husband's clan name. Fam'ly name Granger. Now it's Hatake."

"Dif'rent namin' customs," explained Gai.

"Is Hermione or Jane your given name?"

"Firs' name, middle name. Go by Hermione."

"This is going to take a while," grumbled the woman.

Author's Notes: So, as hinted at, a drunken wedding.

The knife thing was inspired by a number of sources. According to some neo pagans and Wiccans, an athame is a ceremonial blade. Wether or not that's true, I don't know. I think it was either the Saxon or Viking women who used to carry a knife to symbolize they were free women. And I believe it was in one of the True Blood books where Eric tricked Sookie into marrying him by giving him a knife. In face, I've seen many fictional accounts of a woman giving a man a knife meaning something along the lines of marriage.

As for why I chose that rather than having Kakashi, Gai and Hermione stumble to a priest, I wanted to give the Wizarding an old tradition. Obviously it's not in common use, but the knowledge of the ritual still exists.

Finally, my decision about Gai and Kakashi and their family. It was never explained what happened to Isla and Bob Hitchens after they eloped, so I felt free to use them as I please. The "Hatake White Chakra" inspired me to make Kakashi Wizarding, as did my desire to ensure that they had relatively similar life expectancies. After all, in the books, wizards coule live twice as long as Muggles. And Gai is Kakashi's cousin because I think it's funny.