A/N: Thank you Lightweaver for betaing!

She rushed to get dressed, tugging on a thick wool sweater as she shoved her cell phone into her bag. She quickly cast a tempest spell and blinked at the time, feeling foolish. If Sakura left now, she'd be hours early, but there was no way she could sleep with only a few hours before she needed to go. So instead, she pulled the Dark Arts text out of the bag and curled up on the windowsill. This might be her last opportunity to read from the book, and she wasn't going to waste it. She set a timer with a spell and began browsing.

She flicked through the pages. What had she genuinely wanted to study closer?

She paused at the current chapter. Curses Moste Dark.

Underneath the words, sketched in animated detail, was a rotting hand with maggots eating the flesh from the inside out.

Unable to watch the scene replay, Sakura glanced out the window at the rolling fields and forest cloaked in shadow and slivers of moonlight. There'd been a spell in there about shadows that could suffocate victims. The chill crept further up her spine. As a rabbit, she'd read them all but didn't have the memory to remember the wand movements or what half of the spells even did. She'd also been obsessed with the annotations and had been able to ignore the picture altogether because the image had been overwritten by maroon ink. Madara had been inclined to tell a funny story about the time he ended up cursed with maggot feet by his own brother.

Her eyes slid back to the page. The image was just as gruesome as before. Without the distraction, she couldn't forget these were spells to maim, disfigure and kill. They were genuinely Dark curses. But here it was before her, and this might be her one chance to learn a curse that would change the tide of a battle. She shook herself as if to shake the feeling slithering up her bones and quickly turned to the first page.

Ad Influunt: Efficient and effective in a fight with the ability to affect multiple enemies within a casters range. The range depends on the caster, their abilities, and the skillset of their opponents.

At the time of this publication, my publisher has forced me to state the following: As per Asura's Fifth Law of Drudical Faction, this spell is officially classified as a Light spell.

As a gentle reminder to my publishers: Asura declared his own work unsuitable to the duas partes magicae. His portrait in the Museum in France hisses and leaves at any mention of Light and Dark. Although whether it is because he still doesn't believe in it or is ashamed he fought so hard in life to disprove it is unknown.

I am confident that Matsui's Arithmancy Theorem will replace the Fifth Law when assessing duality in a few centuries because it accounts for the ponderati directionem problem we see so often.

But alas - let us not debate on the page or we'll end up like Asura, dead with a quill still in our hands and a tipped-over inkwell ruining our life's work.

I want to enforce one last point. All variations of Influunt magic should be a core set of skills a dark caster should keep in their toolset. It is worth noting there may be some difficulty in a dark wizard learning to cast this compared to a light one.

Sakura gave a wistful sigh. If only it was easier to get her hands on books about these topics. Factions were not covered in Hogwarts' general education, and all the books related to them were in the library's Restricted Section. Well, if it was easy for a light magic user and difficult for a dark one, then surely someone who did neither would find it of medium difficulty.

In the hands of a powerful wizard, all spells, regardless of classification, have the capability of being curses. This one, in particular, is devastating, especially when paired with the wand movements listed below.

Madara had only said a dark wizard who mastered it would have a devastating impact, but someone like her might just be able to take out the person in front of her. That was what she needed, a moment to get the upper hand or run.

Her finger moved along the words to the moving drawing of a stick figure repeatedly breaking into pieces. Had this drawing been done by Madara, or a real artist who was done with their work day? Regardless, it was like a game of Pictionary. Were the arrows pointing near the chest, or was it the stomach? There were black swirls and dashes springing forth from the body, clearly they were springs so was it guts and internal organs coming out or were they supposed to represent magic getting pulled out of the victim?

The literal translation of the Latin didn't help. Flow out? What the hell was flowing out of them, everything? Should it matter? Sakura bit her lip. No. When the time came, it wouldn't matter as long as she got to go home and see her family again. She drew her wand and inspected the next portion of text and corresponding diagram.

Starting from left to right, swish in a sweeping motion. Then sweep back whilst speaking the incantation of 'Ad.' Next, quickly pull the arm towards the body in one motion while twisting the wrist clockwise on 'Influunt.' Make sure to clearly enunciate and there is a break between Ad and Influunt, slurring is a sure fire way of killing yourself when dealing with Influunt spells.

Swish, swish, and pull in. She attempted to mimic the movement, but it felt so strange. Every spell she'd dealt with thus far had been using an x-y axis of motion, and this introduced the third dimension, z.

Sakura wrinkled her nose in frustration. There was nothing in the library about wand movements and their importance. She would know, having spent her entire second year searching for books on the subject. She'd even attempted to do her own tests, applying mathematical equations like modifying velocity, starting and ending point to see if wand movement had an impact. She'd ended up discarding her hypothesis.

However, there were clear instructions about speed and dimension in Madara's book. Should she revisit testing? Was 'quick' relative to the person casting? If she usually cast spells fast, did she need to do so extra quickly on this last part?

She sighed and raised her wand once more. Swish, swish, in. That still felt strange. She reversed the movement to repeat the troublesome bit. Out, in, out, in. Why did this feel so awkward?

Sakura couldn't practice on any objects, at least nothing she knew of. She could only imagine what would happen should she try to cast it in the dorm and accidentally maim those sleeping beside her. She could try a practice dummy. But would it leak sap or scoff at her like the one in Professor Hatake's classroom liked to do? Not that she'd dare to use the dummy in the Defense classroom, especially since Professor Hatake knew she had the book.

She glanced at the other spells on the page and their wand movements. All looked far more complex. Well, this was it then. She had to learn one before she returned the book.

Out. In. Out. In. At least it felt a bit better.

Swish. Swish. In. Still awkward.

Swish. Swish. In. Out. In. Out. In. It was like the Hokey Pokey dance without any shaking or fun tunes.

Eventually, the timer spell buzzed her entire arm. She freaked out and slammed her head against the stone. Ouch. Well, time to go. She had to sneak that book into the library and meet with Kisame and Lee.

Sakura stuffed the book in her bag and headed for the door.

She descended from the dormitory stairs, gaze naturally falling to where Itachi had been asleep. He was gone. The vacant space held no evidence to show he'd fallen asleep or had been writing a letter home.

Sakura found the closest classroom to the library, transformed, and slipped through the Restricted Section bars. Although, to her surprise, it was a tighter fit than last time. A flop, a skip, and a dab of opposable thumbs - and the book slid perfectly back into place. Tada! Done!

Another tight squeeze and she was ready to go meet her friends. As a human, of course.

She began descending the first moving staircase.

"You're up early, Sakura."

Sakura froze, eyes growing wide as Professor Hatake came into view. The Defense teacher stood on the platform her staircase was rotating to. For the first time, he was without an obscene book.

"Normal time for a Saturday," Sakura lied quickly. "But it seems early for you, Professor."

"Madam Hara went directly to the headmaster about the book. He made me get up early to look for it."

Her fingers gripped the railing as she took another step down. The librarian had gone to Headmaster Namikaze; oh no! But at least she'd already put the book back. What luck! She could almost shout for joy; thank goodness she hadn't waited on Itachi. "I wish you luck on your search. I'm sure you'll be able to get back to bed soon."

The man stepped onto the stairwell and then reached out to pat the top of her head. "And that is why you are one of my favorite students." He removed his hand. "But why are you up so early on a Saturday?"

She could feel the sweat accumulate on her forehead, but she held steady. "Several muggleborns use cellphones to call home on Saturdays." Well, they had just recently agreed to do it, but it was still true enough. "To speak to our parents," Sakura clarified, unsure how much Professor Hatake knew about muggle technology. "It's faster than sending a letter, and we get a response immediately. We walk out to the grounds together so we don't have to be alone when it's dark."

"Smart thinking, darkness has gained its ground in the last month. So which muggleborns do you walk with?" Professor Hatake asked.

"Lee and Kisame - ah." Sakura blinked, she didn't know their last names now that she thought about it.

"Both older years, that is good. I'm glad. Lee… Lee does enjoy fighting for the sake of it. But Kisame is quite the duelist. He's a lot like you in that regard. He's quick to find a way to end a fight."

"Oh, it's a technique taught at our dojo." Sakura then stumbled for words, "A dojo teaches physical self-defense. We happen to go to the same one. First, they teach us how to avoid a fight. But if you can't avoid the fight, how best to find your enemy's weakness and end it quickly." Excellent, well, she wouldn't be a Muggle Studies Professor, that was for sure.

Professor Hatake's one eye lingered upon her for a long moment. "Wise. Very wise. I don't wish to make you tarry any longer. Please have a good time speaking with your family." He then continued on his way.

Sakura leapt down from the stairwell as it began to spin again and jumped onto the next one in the nick of time as it started moving as well. She then breathed a sigh of relief. Freedom!

"Yo, Sakura."

Sakura whipped around, had her sigh been that audible?

"If you cast any spells from that book, you'd better wish I never set an eye upon you again."

Sakura sucked in her breath.

He waved a hand. "Have a good Saturday." And off he went.

To her shame, she ended up riding the rotating stairwell twice. It had taken that long to get her legs moving again. Somehow, she'd escaped actual punishment, but the threat had eaten up the air in her lungs. It was like Professor Hatake knew she'd been practicing the spell thirty minutes ago.

Even though she'd been delayed, she was the first to arrive at the meeting spot. She sat upon the bottom stair and stared into the brazier's light, unable to suppress a shiver.

Kisame was next. He walked up, right past her, and collapsed into a pillar. There he stayed, unmoving.

Kisame's presence gave Sakura something else to think about. She rose to her feet, watching as his eyes started to drip closed like a leaky faucet; when they finally settled closed, she struck. "Did you know that Izumi was cheating on Itachi?"

Kisame bolted awake and jerked away from the pillar, turning towards her. He wiped his eyes. "What? Say that again?"

Sakura stepped forward, attempting to discern if Kisame was about to lie. "You alluded to something weird between Itachi and Izumi the other day. Did you know about Izumi cheating on him?"

"Izumi would never cheat on Itachi," Kisame leaned in to be eye level with her.

Sakura crossed her hands. "He caught her in the Astronomy tower with some dude."

Kisame's expression faltered, and recognition flicked across his face.

Sakura's back stiffened. Hufflepuff, Itachi had said. The guy had been in Hufflepuff, and Kisame was a Hufflepuff. She took another step closer, taking the remaining space between them. Liar. She poked Kisame in the chest. "You did know," she accused, "that guy is in your House."

Kisame's black eyes glinted in the light of the braziers, and his expression darkened. "Don't," he warned, "I'm not sure what assumption you've made, but Izumi isn't the kind of person to cheat on Itachi, nor is Yasuo. If anyone were going to cheat, my bet would be on Itachi."

"What? With who?"

"With you."

Sakura took a step back, "Look, Itachi and I–"

"Itachi is the one who has power in the relationship, being a clan heir. Regardless of what he does, his reputation will likely remain untarnished. Izumi's, on the other hand, would be ruined. So if anyone had the ability and intent, it would be Itachi."

"But she did. Itachi caught Yasuo and Izumi on patrol."

Kisame took a step forward. "Doing what?"

Sakura took a step back. "Yasuo was hiding in the Astronomy Tower, and Izumi had gone to meet with him. It's obvious they were going to snog or," Sakura flushed and turned away. "It was pretty clear they had a rendezvous."

"I can assure you that they weren't cheating. As much as I want Itachi and Izumi to go their separate ways… Of all the things Izumi would do, she'd never do that."

Before Sakura could ask more, another voice spoke up.

"Who's Izumi?"

"No one–" Kisame began.

"No one important," Sakura finished. Heat rose in her cheeks. Hadn't Kisame told her the exact same thing? That Izumi had been no one important. Damn, she was such a hypocrite.

As if sensing it, Kisame slugged her on the shoulder, knocking her off balance with sheer strength. "See, it comes out easy and smooth, doesn't it?" He then gave a wink to Lee. "We were just gossiping. Nothing you should worry about or repeat to anyone."

Lee gave a nod of his head. "If you say so."

"Ready to get this party started?" Kisame asked, quickly changing the subject. Then, without waiting for an answer, he busted open the doors. A gust of cold air blasted them.

Kisame promptly slammed the doors shut.

Without another word, they all pulled out their wands and began casting warming charms on their clothing. Sakura regretted not bringing a scarf, now her nose was going to freeze off or she was going to end up stretching her sweater and acting like a turtle.

"I'm glad there is no snow, but it still feels like winter, right?" Sakura asked as they began their trek across the lawn.. It felt like Halloween had been just a week or two ago, but still too soon for fall to fade away. Another forty days until Christmas and, before that, midterms. Oh no, she really needed to focus on Potions instead of Itachi's and Izumi's relationship drama.

"I can't wait for winter break," Lee said. "Do you have plans to go home, or are you staying at the castle?"

"Going home, no plans, minus Christmas Eve and Christmas," Kisame said. "You?"

"Nothing big," Lee said with a shrug.

"I might be spending a few days with extended family, but overall I don't have too much that I'm up to," Sakura said. However, she suspected her cousin and a few old friends would demand that she play the latest computer game that had struck their fancy.

Thinking of friends and family sent her mind whirring down the path of presents. Could she give jelly slugs to muggles? Her cousins would get a kick out of them, thinking they were pranks and that slime inside them was something like a Gusher. They wouldn't be able to tell it was magic. Except, what would they do if they couldn't find them on Amazon or anywhere else online? Maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all.

Lee ran forward and then turned to Kisame and Sakura, arms open. "We should go and do something together. I mean, if you are all close to London. Let's go to a movie or ice skating or –" The idea list went on for a good minute. "I'm in a flat in muggle London, near Diagon Alley. We could also visit there, go window shopping or listen to carolers."

Kisame shrugged. "Just a bus ride away, why not."

"Yes, I'm in," Sakura smiled, her heart warming. Not even during summer break did she get to see any of her magical school friends. The only magical person she'd ever seen during the holiday had been Kisame - not that she counted him as a friend until this year. She often saw him around the neighborhood like ships passing in the night. Oh, during last winter break, hadn't she seen him pick up a snow shovel and use it to pin a guy to an alleyway wall?

They continued discussing ideas as they made their way towards the edge of the Forbidden Forest, finalizing their plans down to three options: going to a movie theater, visiting an arcade, or playing laser tag. They went their separate ways once they reached the zone, each taking the same locations as before.

Once Sakura booted up her phone, her phone blew up with texts from one or two friends but mostly family. Her dad wasn't going to be able to talk at all, so instead he'd said he'd written her a giant email instead. Sakura went to her inbox next, reading through his words slowly, smiling at the way his email sounded just like him speaking. He caught her up on all the little details of the neighborhood, such a nosy guy, and how the grocer was doing. Sakura frowned when she he mentioned her mom was still at Aunt Kaede's, her aunt was sicker than before.

She quickly skimmed looking for a cause, but all he mentioned was more tests were necessary.

Sakura then rang her mom.

"Hi sweetie, you called at the wrong time. We've got a specialist appointment this morning in London to see if we can figure out what's going on. I'll text you if I get an update. I've got my hands full right now making breakfast; we all must be out of the house in thirty minutes. Do you want to talk to your cousins?"

"Yes! Can I talk to Auntie too?"

"Of course, I love you. Here is Jomei. Jomei, take this for me so I don't get batter on it."

Sakura smiled softly; of course, her mom was still attempting to cook with a phone pressed to her ear.

"The lack of internet at your school is such a pain. You know enough about routers. You could hook up to a private wifi and hack the system. Then we could play games together again," her older cousin complained.

Sakura rolled her eyes and laughed. They'd had this conversation before. Sadly it would be too suspicious to say there was zero internet connection at a prestigious muggle school, so she'd had to lie and say it was policy and the firewall only allowed academic sites through, not even email. "No can do, Jomei. I'd get suspended or expelled if I did that. They're so strict! You are lucky I'm sneaky enough to call, but really it's the teachers turning a blind eye to it."

"Yeah, but you're smart enough not to get caught."

Ha, like she was smart enough not to get caught as a rabbit? "I'm not going to risk it." Except, she had.

"Please, I need someone to play ghost games with."

Sakura shuddered. "Yeah, no, not for that." She'd rather not think about the horror games she and her cousin played, especially while standing in the dark next to the edge of the woods. "Send me to Auntie."

"How are you feeling?" Sakura asked once her Aunt bid her good morning.

"Tired. Just tired, hun."

Sakura bit at her lip, and before she could think of anything to say, she was passed along to her youngest cousin, Keiko.

The young girl immediately taught her the song to her favorite new anime with gusto—a new magical girl anime.

"So what is so great about her?" Sakura prodded.

"Her wand changes her into someone who can fight crime."

"So, Sailor Moon?" Sakura teased.

"She's way cooler than Sailor Moon! Oh, we got to go now. Love you - bye-bye!"

Sakura could only laugh at the little girl's attitude. The others were still on their phones, so Sakura found a seat on a boulder and looked over the field at the castle while she waited for them to finish.

Sakura gave a half smile as she reflected on her own naivety back when she was Keiko's age. She wished magic was as easy as a twirl of a wand, a single spell, one that could make you not only powerful, but also graceful and beautiful.

She pulled out her wand. Swish. Swish. In.

Real magic was finicky and specialized, and the knowledge to understand it – all those concepts like factions, specializations, polarizations and wand movements, sat on the other side of a locked gate, if it was even there at all. But she had this at least. One spell in her arsenal that a young girl like her shouldn't know. The most significant advantage was that of surprise, the second a cool head, and third, the ability to outmaneuver your opponent.

But in war, outmaneuvering your opponent wasn't just incapacitating them. She was going to have to kill. The newspaper clippings she'd read about the last war were like a movie reel in her head. 65% of muggleborns never got to go home on the Hogwarts Express.

She had never known them, but she still felt their absence. The life and work they could have contributed, the knowledge they could have shared, instead was just a gaping vacancy.

She swallowed hard as she took in the sight of the castle. Had they sat in this exact spot? Had they stared upon the great castle, maybe listening to a walkman, as they debated what it would take to kill another human being? Or had they foolishly believed they would not have to harm someone, and was that why they'd had higher death rates than their magical-born counterparts? She wanted to curl her legs to her chest and wait for the others to finish their phone calls, but she straightened her shoulders.

Again.

Swish. Swish. In and clockwise.

And again. And again. She had to practice until it was fluid. When the time came, she would need muscle memory – she wouldn't be able to focus on getting it right with an enemy in front of her.

"New spell?" Kisame asked as he sat beside her, his shoulder brushing against hers. "I've never seen that wand movement before."

"Yes," Sakura said, sliding her wand up her sleeve.

"What does it do?"

Sakura gave a bit of a laugh and let it die off in the cold air. For a moment, she hesitated, but out of all the people to tell, Kisame might be one of the few people who could understand. And if he didn't know about the contract, she would have to tell him about it. "I'm not entirely sure. I think it's supposed to dismember someone; it's a curse. I want to be ready for the war that's coming."

"So, the 4th years have already been broken into squads already?"

Sakura turned her head, "What squads?"

"In February, after Kairi died during the tournament, all 7th through 5th years got assignments." Kisame hesitated, then continued, "They weren't certain if we'd go to war then, but they started training us as if we would. The teams are very mixed with different abilities, strengths, goals, and numbers. I'm in a three-person squad. On top of normal class assignments, three times a week, actual professionals like aurors come in and train us. For instance, even though Itachi and I are not taking Warding, we must run drills on defending Ouka while she sets them up and write papers about attack angles or defense spells to keep an enemy from modifying a ward while she works. Ouka and I have also had to follow Itachi's lead in navigating and disassembling a hallway loaded to the brim with curses. It's been pretty intense, not going to lie; I'm nervous of what's to come just from the scenarios we've 'play tested.'"

Sakura shifted in unease. Kisame as a muggle seemed untouchable, for someone like him to be upset by it, what did that mean for her? "I didn't know you all were training."

"They mentioned they didn't want the younger years getting scared and to keep the info on the down low." Kisame sighed. "That's how I know Izumi isn't cheating on Itachi. Yasuo and Izumi are squad mates with two others, Junpei and Taru. Their squad is struggling, and I mean really struggling. Yasuo and I have been staying up late to discuss things; that's why I know what's going on. Their goal is to capture an enemy alive for interrogation or interrogate on the battlefield if they must."

"Interrogate!"

"With techniques that would be a war crime in the muggle world. Yasuo is the only muggleborn in the group and is in a similar position to me. The purebloods don't question the morality of it, so we discuss how things are different in terms of ethics. Yasuo recently said Izumi was having issues with what they were learning and passing the practicals. Like Ouka is on deck for warding, Izumi is on point to perform the interrogation. And – I suspect that had something to do with them meeting up."

"Why wouldn't Izumi just say that, then? Why had she tried to hide it?" Sakura turned to Kisame. It didn't make sense. How was she so okay with Itachi thinking she was cheating on him instead of… whatever else it was she was doing with Yasuo?

"The Uchiha clan is a war clan, Sakura. A confession of weakness to a fellow clanmate, let alone the next heir, just isn't done."

"So are you done talking about Izumi Uchiha?" A third voice entered the conversation.

Sakura and Kisame whipped around to find Lee standing behind them. Both of them began stammering.

"Good," Lee said, putting his hands on his hips, "Because I think the most important thing to discuss is doing a Star Wars marathon over winter break."