Chapter 11: The Final Countdown

As the end of the year approached, so did the Quidditch Final: Slytherin vs. Gryffindor. For the four ninja, the scuffles that led up to the game seemed like the kind of juvenile pranks academy children played on each other. Examples of this included: attempted maiming, attempted hexing, tripping people, tripping people down stairs, etc.

However, the closer the game got the more violent the attempts became. No Quidditch Team member from either team was allowed anywhere alone. The group masses of Gryffindors and Slytherins that surged through the corridors between classes made Kurenai laugh. She did take her quidditch practice guarding very seriously though, and as the practices became more numerous, even though only two teams were practicing now, she asked Ebisu to help her by patrolling around the pitch. He intercepted spies and saboteurs alike from both houses.

At one point, a Gryffindor fourth year and a Slytherin sixth year pulled their wands on each other right in the middle of a corridor. Guy was in between them, having snatched both of their wands, before either of them could blink.

"I know how you feel," Guy said with emotion, "you have a burning desire to prove your worth. You both are desperate for your house to come out on top. But the competition has yet to begin and it is beneath you to settle the score in this way. Go, encourage your teams in this worthy contest and if your house fails, then you'll just have to promise yourselves to do better next time." He gave them a thumbs-up and handed their wands back to them.

Most of the students seemed confused by this speech but some of the Slytherins had learned to speak 'Guy' by now and nodded. A seventh year Slytherin called out, "Slytherin for the cup!" The Slytherins in the corridor cheered and dispersed.

Kakashi arrived a moment later and heard a passing Hufflepuff girl say, "what was that about?"

Kakashi approached Guy and, indicating the Slytherins, said, "you've had a positive influence on them."

Guy nodded, smiling but his face soon became serious. He turned to Kakashi and said, "it confuses me. Why do the other students hate the Slytherins? Blind ambition can be dangerous, it's true, but reckless bravery is equally dangerous. Yet they love Gryffindor and detest Slytherin. Each house has roughly two hundred students. Do the others assume that all two hundred Slytherins are mean-spirited? How many Slytherins do they actually interact with to make that judgment?"

"It's just old grudges I guess," Kakashi shrugged, "like the Stone and the Leaf."

Guy 'hmed' at this as they watched the last of the students disperse, rushing to class.

The Quidditch Final itself was even more brutal than the violence that preceded it. There were penalties here, there, and everywhere. Kakashi and Kurenai stopped to chat as they passed each other on their stand patrol.

Kurenai whispered, "we're supposed to protect the students, but who's going to save them from each other?" As she said this, a beater bat went flying into Marcus Flint's head. His face whipped forward and bashed into his broomstick. Blood began to stream out of his nose.

Kakashi nodded at his teammate's statement as they watched the Slytherin Team Captain descend to get some spell-work done on his nose. The bleeding stopped, he returned to the fray.

A few minutes later, Kurenai and Ebisu watched as Harry shot straight up and the two Slytherin beaters that had intended to crush him, collided with each other beneath him. "And they say our society is violent," Ebisu murmured, pushing his glasses up on his nose.

In a few minutes it was all over. After a close race to the snitch between Harry and Draco, Gryffindor had won the Quidditch Cup. Everyone in the stands was cheering except for the Slytherins, who looked quite dejected. Guy could be seen patting backs and smiling.

"The team will just have to work twice as hard and try again next year," he encouraged cheerfully. "Gryffindor had the better team today. But we will use this disappointment to fire our hearts when we think we're too weary to keep training! Meanwhile, we must give the team our support, for they feel the defeat even more acutely than ourselves." None of the Slytherins looked like cheering but they did nod in agreement. They began leaving in twos and threes to find their sorrowful team.

Meanwhile the Gryffindors were in hysterics, screaming their lungs out as Dumbledore handed Wood the Quidditch Cup. Kakashi stepped away for awhile to give his ears a break. Guy joined him, "congratulations my rival, you win this round."

"You don't have to count this one Guy. You and I had nothing to do with the competition."

"No no, I know when my house has been beaten, but don't think that this will keep us down for long!"

Kakashi smiled, "I have no doubt in your rallying abilities."

With the conclusion of the Quidditch Final, the dreaded end of year exams arrived. The castle became extremely quiet, for Hogwarts, since everyone now had the same aim that Hermione had all year. With the exams also came Buckbeak's appeal and execution, apparently.

"You mean they are sending the executioner along with the Ministry official?" Kakashi asked, slightly confused.

Harry nodded sadly.

Some appeal, Kakashi thought. Any misgivings he had about Kurenai's plan went out the window. "I wouldn't worry about it."

Ron, Hermione, and Harry looked at him like he'd grown another head on his shoulders.

They were alone in the common room but Kakashi still whispered, "just leave it to Kurenai."

"What?" Ron demanded. "What's she going to do about it?"

"I told you not to worry about it," Kakashi replied and wouldn't say any more about it.

Kakashi wondered if they were going to go the entire year without Black being caught by the dementors or anyone else. If the fugitive still wasn't caught by the end of next summer, would they be reassigned here for another year? Would Dumbledore be able to afford it? Kakashi knew an entire squad for a year had to be costing an immense amount of money. Maybe Dumbledore would take his chances without the ninja and hire some other form of protection. These were Kakashi's thoughts as he walked amongst the exam-sick students in the corridors.

Professor Lupin had asked that one of Kakashi's team monitor his exam in particular, since it was going to be an obstacle course with various dangerous creatures. "Nothing should happen that I can't handle myself," Lupin explained, "but the extra precaution couldn't hurt."

"No problem," Kakashi agreed. "I'll send Ebisu."

Thursday morning, Ebisu joined the Gryffindor third years for their exam. He'd already seen the exam taken by some of the other third years, Slytherin and Hufflepuff, so he knew what to expect. It was an obstacle course involving most of the creatures they'd studied that year. What he wasn't expecting was Hermione's reaction to the boggart.

Only moments after Hermione entered, blood curdling screams issued from the large trunk that contained the boggart. Ebisu had the trunk open and Hermione pulled out before Professor Lupin knew what was happening.

"Hermione," Professor Lupin exclaimed, "what happened?!" He hurried over to his student.

Harry and Ron ran over as well. They had already finished their exam.

Hermione was facing Ebisu and he had an arm around her shaking shoulders. She took a couple of deep breaths and turned her tear-stained face to Lupin. "Professor McGonagall, said I failed everything."

Ebisu smiled and shook his head in amazement. "The way you screamed, I thought you were being murdered," Ebisu said. He seemed to suddenly realize how close he was to Hermione and stepped away hurriedly. "Are you alright?" He asked, trying to sound more professional.

Hermione wiped her eyes and nodded, smiling. "I guess I still need a partner to deal with a boggart Professor."

"There's no shame in that Hermione," Professor Lupin said, noting something on his parchment. Ebisu had no doubt that she'd gotten at least a little credit for remembering that piece of information.

By the time Hermione had calmed down, everyone else in the class had finished taking the exam. Ebisu waited for the three Gryffindors and they all went up to the castle together. On the castle steps, they met Cornelius Fudge.

"Nearly finished with your exams Harry," the Minister of Magic asked. His eye caught on Ebisu's unfamiliar garb for a moment before shaking his head and looking back at Harry.

Harry replied in the affirmative.

"It's a beautiful day," Fudge continued. "It's a pity I'm here under such unfortunate circumstances. The Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures required a witness for the execution of a mad hippogriff. I needed to be here anyway, to check in on the Black situation, so I was asked to step in."

"Is the appeal already over?" Ron asked.

"No…" Fudge said slowly.

"Then the hippogriff still might get off," Harry said hopefully.

Fudge looked between the two wizards but didn't have a chance to say anything. Just then, a withered old wizard and a tall man with a black mustache walked out of the castle. The man with the mustache had an ax in his belt. Ebisu stiffened slightly at the sight of the weapon but made no move. He followed the students in to lunch, senses on alert.

When Ebisu didn't see Kurenai in the Great Hall, he walked over to Kakashi. "Is Kurenai in place? Because they're here."

Kakashi nodded minutely, scanning the hall as if he hadn't heard. His lips hardly seemed to move underneath his black mask, "the appeal doesn't start until two and I'm sure they'll delay the actual execution a couple of hours."

"What? Why?"

Kakashi turned and looked at him, "they're wizards and politicians. What makes you think they're in a hurry?"

The two guards were interrupted by the approach of a certain troublesome duo. "Kakashi," Fred greeted.

"We'd like to thank you for watching out for our house this year," Fred and George said together.

"And the school in general," George added.

"So we made you this cupcake," they said together. Fred held out a vanilla cupcake with confetti icing.

Kakashi took the cupcake and eye-smiled at them. "Why thank you," he said.

"We're sorry Ebisu," George said looking at him, "we didn't make anything for you."

"That's alright. As the Ravenclaws say, 'knowledge is the greatest gift' and I gained plenty of that this year," Ebisu replied with a smile. He felt Kakashi cast his genjutsu.

Kakashi pulled the cupcake apart and removed the puking pastille inside. He threw the sweet toward where Fred and George had been eating their lunch. It landed in one of their soup bowls with a splash. He then released the genjutsu in which Fred and George had been watching Kakashi slowly reach up to remove his mask. Kakashi paused and said "do you need something else?"

"We just want to watch you enjoy it," Fred said sweetly.

Kakashi cast the usual genjutsu around his face, one that Ebisu was used to by now, and ate the disarmed cupcake. It appeared to everyone that the cupcake just disappeared into Kakashi's masked face. Kakashi chewed thoughtfully, observing Fred and George's expectant faces.

Kakashi swallowed, his face impassive, and said, "that was delightful, thank you."

The twins stood there for a moment, staring at Kakashi. At this point they were wondering if the strange guard could eat their sweets without having a reaction at all. Disappointed and muttering to each other, they went back to their lunch. Two minutes later, Fred retched all over the table. Some girls screamed and their neighbors retreated. George was siphoning away the sick by the time McGonagall came over.

"I'm fine Professor," Fred said, his eyes on Kakashi.

Kakashi had his back turned as if he was talking to Ebisu. Ebisu, however, was openly gawking at the mayhem.

"Won't this little challenge between you and them make Guy kind of jealous?" Ebisu asked.

Kakashi turned back to look at the twins who were both glaring at him now. "No, the challenge is too one-sided to make Guy interested."

"And if they beat you?" Ebisu asked.

"If they succeed," Kakashi said, "then they deserve to get what they're after."