Chapter 6: Hairy Hogwarts

The next morning, Kakashi, Kurenai, and Guy got up the moment Ebisu walked in. "Nothing to report captain," the genin said tiredly, "goodnight." He then flopped down on his bed.

The three rested ninja dressed and headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Fred and George had forgotten about Kakashi's mask during the feast the previous night. This morning, they refused to take their eyes off of him.

"Okay, I'm going to take a bite. Are you watching him?" Fred asked.

"Yes," George replied, his eyes peeled.

Kakashi pretended he didn't hear them but inside he was chuckling. He took another bite of his porridge.

"See anything?" Fred asked, mouth full of food. He looked up hopefully.

"Nothing, he's just sitting there with his spoon in his hand."

Fred's eyes narrowed. "George, look at his bowl."

"Blimey, his food's almost gone! How did he do it?"

"Now his food is gone and we were both looking!"

Kakashi rose from the table and went to stand against the wall. Genjutsu is a wonderful thing.

While the students attended their first classes of the day, three ninja inspected the castle. Just as I thought, Kakashi mused, security nightmare.

By early afternoon, Guy and Kurenai were showing Kakashi the lake and forest. Suddenly Kurenai cried out, "above us!"

Guy and Kakashi looked where she was pointing. There was a large winged creature flying through the air. The torso, back legs, and tail looked like a horse's but the front legs were more like talons and its head was of a large bird.

Kakashi uncovered his left eye. "Someone's riding it."

"What?" Kurenai gasped.

"Fan out, follow it," Kakashi ordered, sprinting after the strange creature. Guy followed suit, angling to the left. Kurenai did the same on Kakashi's right. The ANBU watched the creature descend near the edge of the forest and quickened his pace. The forest was very extensive, an easy place to hide.

By the time Kakashi was within visual range of where the creature landed, Harry was dismounting to cheers. The ninja captain spotted the Care of Magical Creatures teacher and slowed to a walk. Kurenai and Guy did the same and rejoined him.

"Another creature kept on the grounds that we have to watch out for?" Kakashi asked. As they got closer, he saw an entire paddock of the winged beasts. Kakashi was getting better at hiding his irritation at the amount of risks Hogwarts possessed. He simply sighed at the sight.

"Looks like it," Guy said brightly. "It makes the challenge all the more stimulating!"

As the ninja approached the class, the teacher partnered up a creature with small groups of students. One of the students, a blonde wizard whom Kakashi remembered from the train, was petting the creature they'd been chasing moments earlier. The blonde began to speak very loudly, looking at Harry. Kakashi saw the boy address the animal and the look in the creature's eyes changed. Its muscles tensed. It began to move, so did Kakashi, but too late.

The copy-ninja was about a foot away when the creature slashed the boy's arm with one of its talons. Kakashi grabbed the boy by his robes and threw him behind him. Chidori burst to life in his other hand.

"Buckbeak no!" Hagrid cried, reprimanding the creature.

Kurenai and Guy were poised near the rest of the students, ready to spring. Kakashi stood between Buckbeak and the boy. Orange eyes stared into Kakashi's mismatched ones, neither looked away. They stayed that way for a few long seconds. The students held their breath. Hagrid was frozen to the spot, afraid to interfere but afraid of what might happen if he didn't. Slowly Buckbeak lowered his head at Kakashi, eyes still locked on him. Kakashi nodded in response. He let his chidori fizzle out.

Hagrid stepped forward, reprimanding the hippogriff in a shaky voice and putting its collar on. Meanwhile the students whispered among themselves. "Was that lightning?" "How did he do that?" "Came out of nowhere. I saw him halfway across the field!"

"Guy," Kakashi said, eyes still locked on the gray animal. "Get the wizard to the hospital wing, now."

Guy practically bounded over to the blonde Slytherin and scooped him up. "Do not worry, you will use your youthful energy to press on through this setback and fight another day!" Guy's teeth gleamed in a broad smile.

Malfoy looked horrified. His eyes grew huge, his lip quivered, and he began to wail.

Guy's smile faltered, his brow furrowed, and his mouth fell open a bit.

"Guy just go!" Kakashi yelled.

The confused look on Guy's face vanished and he took off at a sprint toward the castle with the sobbing boy in his arms.

Kurenai was trying to explain to the other Slytherins that it was only a flesh wound and that everything would be fine. The students looked at her like she'd grown a second head on her shoulders.

"Professor," Kakashi addressed Hagrid. "You'd better go report this to Professor Dumbledore. It'd be best if he heard about it from you first."

"Ah, right," Hagrid agreed nervously. "Class dismissed." Hagrid finished locking the hippogriffs in their paddock and made his way up to the castle at a trot.

Every morning and evening, when all the students and ninja were together, the most curious things would happen. One morning, a witch from Hufflepuff walked up to Kakashi. Assuming something was wrong, Kakashi prepared for an attack, hand hovering over a kunai and scanning the surrounding area.

"Excuse me Kakashi," the girl said sincerely. "We were wondering what you use in your hair? You know, to get that volume."

Kakashi blinked at her.

Ebisu, who was a table over, almost burst into laughter but controlled himself. The girl stood there expectantly. Kakashi's eye looked up, whether he was looking at the hair in question or appealing to some higher power for patience, Ebisu didn't know.

I can run up walls and hold lightning in the palm of my hand, but this girl wants to know about my hair care routine? Kakashi was at a loss. How was he to answer such a question?

"Um…I wash it."

"And?"

"And that's it." The girl seemed unsatisfied with this explanation so Kakashi attempted to elaborate. "My father's hair was just like this too. It must be in my genes."

"Oh I see." The girl frowned, looked at the floor, and walked back to her table.

Wait, they think I do it like this on purpose? Kakashi looked up at his hair again, examining it anew in light of this realization. Well that makes me seem quite vain. I mean, I am, but not in this area.

A couple of minutes later at the Hufflepuff table, Kurenai listened in on a conversation between some girls. It finished with, "so either he was lying and didn't want to tell me," a girl with black hair said, "or it really is in his genes and it's hopeless." A collective sigh went up from the group.

Kurenai looked across the hall at Kakashi. He was standing by the Gryffindor table, looking up, and poking at his hair experimentally. Kurenai smiled and leaned in toward the group. "I've seen Kakashi's father," the girls jumped and turned to look at her, "trust me, it's the genes."

Instead of relief at knowing the answer to their musings, or disappointment at the hopelessness of obtaining similar hair volume to the silver-haired guard, the girls gaped at Kurenai. Now she was confused.

"You're really pretty," a red-headed girl said. "How are your eyes red like that? Is it magic or are they naturally red?"

Did they just notice that I was here? Kurenai had been working on blending in, but she hadn't meant to be invisible.

"Did you change them to match your dress? And where did you get it," another asked.

Kurenai covered her eyes with her hand. The reaction was becoming very familiar to her on this mission. She was sorry she'd said anything.

The ninja didn't see the blonde boy, who they later learned was called Draco Malfoy, for a couple of days. When they did, he was still acting like he was at death's door.

"The girl one said it was just a 'flesh wound' but Malfoy is in real pain!" Pansy fussed.

"I'm okay Pansy. I must stay strong." Malfoy put on a brave face.

"That's the way! Use your youth to overcome your obstacles. Shall we have a contest then? To test our commitment?" Guy had joined the conversation.

"How about a quiet contest?" Malfoy suggested, annoyed at being interrupted.

"Ahaha, my rival and I have already completed that one," Guy replied, his laughter dying. "He won."

"Imagine that," Malfoy rolled his eyes.

"You! How about you? I can see by your youthful haircut that you're a man of action! Shall we have a footrace around the castle?"

Crabbe looked up at his own bowl haircut in confusion.

"Crabbe, I want you to get a haircut immediately," Malfoy said urgently. His eyes flashed between his friend's head and Guy's. The similarity was too much.

Crabbe obediently got up and ran out of the hall. He came back a few minutes later, hair cut off in patches at different lengths. Apparently, instead of using a tidy-up charm, he'd gone after his hair with a pair of scissors.

"Merlin's beard Crabbe, here," Malfoy said, pulling out his wand with his injured hand. He waved it, a long sweeping motion from left to right and then a sharp jerk down. The blonde muttered something under his breath. Bits of Crabbe's hair began evening out until it was relatively straight.

Guy appraised the boy's work. "His hair is not as youthful now but still a good choice!" Guy blinded the whole table with his smile.

After breakfast, Professor Lupin approached Kakashi. The team leader took his hand out of his hair and gave the man his full attention.

"Kakashi, I would like you or someone from your team to join my class today. We'll be dealing with something that the students may find frightening. Your presence, I hope, will be reassuring."

"That won't be a problem, I'll go," Kakashi replied. He turned toward his team that was spread throughout the hall. He used hand signals to tell them he'd be with the Professor. They each nodded in response. Turning back to Lupin, Kakashi said, "lead the way."

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Professor Lupin entered his classroom full of third-years with the captain of the guards in tow. "You won't need your books today, just your wands. If you'll follow me please?"

The students put their books back in their bags and grasped their wands, chatter breaking out. Kakashi waited for the last of the students to file out and followed behind them. From the end of the line, Kakashi saw Lupin confronting a small ghost. Suddenly the ghost flew away at a surprising speed.

"Cool Professor!" one of the students exclaimed.

At last they reached the staff room. The potions professor, Snape, was the only occupant. He glared at Kakashi as he passed. Kakashi looked bored in response.

After Snape was gone, Professor Lupin began his class and Kakashi positioned himself against the back wall. The lesson was about boggarts and how do defend against them. Kakashi listened from the back wall, interested. It made sense that laughter conquered fear but laughter conquering the actual creature seemed unlikely.

Each student went to battle the boggart in turn, starting with Neville. Professor Snape, a mummy, a shrieking green-skinned woman, a rat, a rattlesnake, an eyeball, a severed hand, and a spider that looked like it had come straight out of the Forest of Death were the things that appeared.

These are their worst fears? Kakashi thought. Now that's ridiculous.

The body of the spider, its legs having been removed by Ron, rolled at random. Some students leapt back with a squeal so Kakashi stepped forward lazily, putting himself between them and the boggart. Even though there was nothing to fear with the professor there, it didn't hurt to reassure the students. The spider body settled in front of Kakashi and he looked down at it, unconcerned.

There was another crack. Suddenly Ebisu, Kurenai, and Guy were on the floor before Kakashi, dead and bleeding from multiple wounds. Kakashi looked down at them, his face suddenly blank and stony.

There were several gasps from the students. Then, "here!" Professor Lupin yelled, moving to stand beside Kakashi. There was another crack and the boggart changed shape again, into a cockroach. Lupin gave a silent direction and he and Kakashi stepped back together. "Finish it off Neville," the Professor encouraged energetically.

The class was stunned by what they had just seen. However Neville, mouth hanging open, stepped forward boldly and Snape appeared once more. Another crack and the form of Snape was outfitted in a green dress and peaked hat once more. Neville forced out a laugh and the boggart exploded into smoke that quickly dissipated.

The room that had been full of laughter now had a mixture of anything from nervous chuckles to sobbing. The students who weren't crying into their hands or comforting their friends were staring at the guard. His face was expressionless but when he saw their looks he eye-smiled reassuringly. Some of the wizards and witches who were looking at him attempted to smile back but ended up grimacing and looking away. Guilt, fear, and astonishment permeated the room.

"Right," Lupin said briskly, "that's enough for today. Read the chapter on boggarts, I want a summary on Monday. Class dismissed."

As the last of the students finished filing out, Professor Lupin shut the door of the wardrobe and turned to Kakashi.

"I'm sorry. I'm afraid my presence had the opposite effect of what you intended," Kakashi apologized.

"It's not your fault," Lupin reassured him. "Besides, they'll learn someday, one way or another, that there are more frightening things in this world than rats and disembodied eyeballs."

Kakashi made a mental note to never bring up to the students why he had one red eye.

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The school was abuzz with what the third year Gryffindors had seen. Ebisu, Kurenai, and Guy didn't know what had happened but it had to somehow involve them. They kept getting frightened looks from first one group of students, then another.

As the day went on and the shock wore away, the frightened looks became thoughtful. Although the guards were typically aloof, it was reassuring to the students to know that the guard captain cared about something after all. If the death of his friends was his greatest fear, he was more like them, more human, than they'd previously thought. The complexities of Kakashi's fear was lost on the students, but not on his teammates.

Kakashi said nothing about the gossip and didn't even mention what happened in the class to his teammates. He simply stood by the Gryffindor table as always and glared at the floor.

Eventually Guy, Kurenai, and Ebisu caught enough snippets of conversation so that Ebisu knew to look up the word "boggart". After that, they had a pretty good guess as to what had happened.

Kakashi didn't fear the past but rather the future. Rin's death was still fresh in all of their minds and for Kakashi, the death of his teammates would be both a personal loss and another failure. Guy pursed his lips, knowing there was nothing he could say that would lift Kakashi's heart. The three ninja deflected the students' questions as best they could, doing their best to shield Kakashi from scrutiny. It was all they could do.

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One evening at the beginning of October, Kakashi made his way over to Kurenai. She rose from her seat at the Hufflepuff table to meet him. The girls she had been sitting with were whispering excitedly. Kurenai rolled her eyes.

"The Quidditch season is beginning," Kakashi said without preamble. "I would like you to patrol the pitch in the evenings. There's probably going to be at least two or three practices by various teams going on there every night."

"I understand."

Kakashi nodded and headed back over to the Gryffindor table. As Kurenai sat down, she saw an older student smiling at her from across the table. She was hoping he hadn't overheard, her little shadow.

"Did you need something Cedric?" Kurenai asked blankly.

"Did you know I'm the Captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team?"

"I had no idea," Kurenai deadpanned.

Cedric smiled at her again and went back to talking to his friends.

That night, and every night from then on, Kurenai was down by the Quidditch pitch watching seven wizards fly back and forth on their broomsticks. Tonight the worn robes were a faded yellow (the teams practiced in old uniforms). One of the yellow forms buzzed Kurenai's seat in the stands. The kunoichi rolled her eyes again.

A few minutes later something flitted straight at Kurenai's face. She snatched it out of the air and looked at what was in her palm. She held a little golden ball the size of a smoke bomb but it had little wings on it. She was surprised, she hadn't thought a metal ball would be so fragile. The wings were not flapping and the sphere was dented in several places. Oops.

Just then, Cedric landed next to her. She held it out to him, "I think it's broken." Cedric's jaw dropped. She tried to look remorseful but the look on his face was too funny.

"Hold on, maybe I can fix it," Cedric soothed. He pulled out his wand and said, "Reparo." The golden ball was a sphere once more but the wings remained limp. "Hm, looks like I can repair the physical damage but not the enchantment that makes it free roaming." He looked at the snitch, a little disappointed. "I guess that's it for my practice tonight."

"You don't have another one?" Kurenai asked.

"Oh we do, but by the time I run up to the castle, ask Madam Hooch for another, and get back, our practice time at the pitch will be over."

Kurenai frowned. "I think I have a solution for that."

"Really?"

"Yes, but I'd have to use a spell on you, of sorts. Do you trust me to do that?"

"Of course," the Hufflepuff grinned at her. "You can spell me any time you want to."

Kurenai held herself back from smacking the teenager. Instead she forced her hands through some signs.

Suddenly, before Cedric's eyes, a snitch appeared. As he watched, it darted away across the field.

"It'll help you with seeking and chasing but I'm afraid you won't be able to practice your capture at all," Kurenai warned.

"We'll just see about that," Cedric said, mounting his broom and kicking off.

Kurenai shook her head, smiling. For the rest of practice, the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team watched their Captain chase nothing from one end of the pitch to the other.