Today's my Birthday, October 9th! I'm officially legally old enough to buy porn, bladed weapons and shotguns, cigarettes (not that I want to), vote and join the military (not going to happen)! Leave a review for a present for me, please!

Edit: Thanks to Kerwin for the really long, indepth review and critique with the mis-use of two words in here, 'bat' instead of hat and 'exorcise' instead of exersies... or however you spell it. I can't spell that word for the life of me, for some reason...

Also, thanks to my Beta for beta-ing this chapter.

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The sky had darkened, the rain had thickened, and Itachi zoned out again while staring into the pitch blackness. He had fallen out of the conversation sometime after lunch, mainly due to the fact Marcus ran out (due to Cedric's kicks) of questions. They now knew his close family, his school name and town name, how to say several curse words in Japanese, and the average ninja gear.

Cho had been most interested when he explained about his schooling. While in reality he was already out of schooling (and into the ninja profession, having even killed people before), his cover was that he had graduated Ninja Academy at age twelve, and was now in secondary schooling, which lasted three years after the academy to go into the profession of 'ANBU,' but he didn't tell them what the job actually was. He had passed off many questions regarding his ninja hood, saying it would be explained later to the whole school.

While he'd rather had not told of his home life, he realized and accepted the fact it would be strange for him not to talk of home, especially when asked.

He ended up eating a third of the contents of the bag, and drinking both of the drinks. The rest of the food had been given to Marcus, who had looked at him with a look that could rival his brother's when Itachi had stopped digging through its contents. He got clasped on the back a few times in thanks to his annoyance, but at least he wasn't hugged like Sasuke would have done.

The Uchiha was amazed at how friendly the there were to him after such a short time. But, if he thought about it, they were wizards, not ninja. Ninja were trained to deceive, so they were trained to be cautious to not be deceived. Wizards were just civilians with the ability to control an altered form of chakra.

The slowing of the train caught his attention. He looked around the compartment, seeing Cedric and Cho get up to grab their things. But Marcus stayed where he was seated, looking confused. "What're you guys doing? We've not gotten to Hogwarts yet." Itachi looked at him. Huh. He realized they were stopping at the wrong spot as well. Interesting. The ninja looked back outside, into the dark rain.

"Then why are we stopping? Geez, honestly." Cho rolled her eyes and continued getting her things.

"I think you should return to your seat." Itachi said, peering out the window with abnormal fixation rather then his normal blank stare.

The two seemed like they were about to protest, but then the lights suddenly went off and the entire car gave a terrible lurch, tossing the three wizards.

"Ah!"

"Ow! What the fuck hit me?"

"Ouch! Don't land there!"

"Eek! Who's touching me! Stop it, before I clock you one, pervert!"

"Hey, that was my face! I wasn't even doing anything!"

"Get, off." A light suddenly lit up the room by an unearthly blue glowing from Itachi's hand, shaped in the half ram seal. What was revealed was Cho lying on her back, with one leg over Cedric's, and her foot trapped beneath his other. Her other foot was stretched out to where Marcus's head should have been, had he not been lying in Itachi's lap with Itachi's bag on him, and under a full force glare. Itachi had not moved from his spot—it would take a lot more then a sudden stop for a ninja like him to lose their balance—but still ended up somehow in the tangled chaos afterwards.

As they detangled themselves, Itachi glanced back out of the window. Seeing them organized again into their seats, he released the neat little ANBU trick of gathering a large amount of chakra to his hand, expelling it from the points found there and casting a visible haze. In the dark, he allowed his Sharingan to light up and glance outside again, through the pouring rain. What he saw was hooded creatures—not humans, but things—get on board.

"How did—" Cho began to ask, probably wondering about the light.

"Something has boarded the train. It wasn't human." A kunai found its way to his hand, and he wished for his katana with its longer reach. "Stay seated and don't move."

A silence passed with only the quickening breathing of the frightened wizards, then, "Man, I bet you're happy that Itachi has his dagger-thingy now, huh Ciggy?"

"Shut up!"

The responding retort was cut off as something slid open the door. Tall, and in an all encompassing cloak, it stood ominously in their doorway. Itachi could see the chakra path center around the thing's mouth and drain into its chest, but nothing else. It shouldn't have been able to move at all, let alone stand there, as there was not a single path of energy in its limbs.

But stand it did—a low, raspy sucking noise as it seemed to drink something in from the air. Instantly the warmth drained form the room, and the bitter cold seemed to head straight into his heart, but Itachi ruthlessly pushed it away with all the grace only a trained killer could do. ANBU feel nothing.

"Creature," He growled towards it, and it seemed to face him. "Leave now, or I will make you."

The sound came again, the sucking in of air, and the cold he could barely feel bit deeper. But he held his ground, and put chakra into his kunai, ready to stab it in the center of the creature's energy pathway. The thing took a step forward into their cabin, the noise starting up again, but Itachi had enough. Quicker then anyone could see had the lights been on, he jabbed the blade deep into the throat area and ruthlessly sliced it out, shredding the flesh and chakra path, before punching the creature in the chest quickly away with enough force to fling it out of the cabin and against the wall with a solid thud. As soon as the blade pierced whatever flesh the thing had, the air regained its warmth to his slight note.

The hooded thing scrambled up from its crumpled position and darted away and out of the car in fear, clutching at its throat. It may not be intelligent, but it, like every natural thing, knew not to mess with something that could kill it.

Itachi, after standing in the doorway and watching it disappear, slowly slid the door shut, making his way back to his seat in silence. When he did the light trick again, his eyes were their normal coal.

"...What did you do to make it leave?" Cedric asked quietly, eyes wide in the blue light.

"I did what I had to." He said, avoiding the question.

"What was that thing?" Cho asked, visibly shaking.

"It felt as if I could never be happy again, like, everything in my life had gone wrong and it'd never fix." Marcus hugged himself, trying to disappear into the corner of the wall and his seat.

The two nodded dumbly in agreement, murmuring their thoughts.

Itachi was peering out into the darkness again, watching vague shapes move about and lazily listening as an adult—due to the weight and speed of the steps—walk by their compartment. He had felt some of what they said, but he was a ninja, and ninja suppressed their emotions during missions. ANBU weren't even supposed to have them, period. It was how they survived. Was that why it tried to get closer to him, because he didn't have any emotion to suck?

"That was a Dementor; they are used to guard the cells in Azkaban." He said, dropping his jutsu as the train started moving again and the lights came on.

"How did you know?" Even Cedric was looking at him like he was some great sage.

He placed the kunai back, his face blank. "I read a book with them this morning."

"...Oh."

XXXXX

Itachi was pleased to have been smart enough to fling on his water resistant cloak on before stepping out of the train, and into the icy rain. It still beat against his head and face, chilling him, but he was ANBU, he did not have discomfort. He followed the flow, losing track of Marcus and Cedric in the mass of people while ignoring a loud booming voice connected to a bulk of a man who called out for first years. He followed Cho as she got into a loading dock, where many carriages were. She seemed to realize he was the only one out of the compartment left around her, so she clung to his arm so not to get swept away by the people, but he ignored it.

The rain was thick and heavy, and he didn't notice what was pulling the carriages until he was near to them. They waited in the mass of people, and he watched the black, skeletal horses with huge, leathery wings wait for people to get in their load before taking off, showing they were trained to do this. No one seemed to notice them except for him and a handful of others, who quickly looked away from the beasts. As Cho got into a carriage, he deterred and walked to the winged horse, looking at its fathomless eyes. The creature turned to look at him with it's dragon like head, and didn't resist when he reached out to stroke its muzzle. "Thestral," He murmured to it, and it thrummed lightly, snorting slightly with each breath.

"Itachi! What are you doing? Get in the carriage!" Cho shouted out side the door, and he turned and walked over, getting inside and sitting in the spot next to her at her insistence. He noticed the two new male occupants of their carriage. Both wore colorations he hadn't seen before—Gold and red—and their crest was a lion. They appeared to be his age, and one had an odd skin coloration he had only seen so twice before in his life. The carriage rocked into motion, jerking him out of his slight stare, and he turned to watch out the window as they moved on, toward the castle, past a gate where two Dementors stood guard.

Itachi took advantage of the boy's and Cho's distraction at the sickening cold that he quickly pushed away, and looked towards the castle with his Sharingan. It practically glowed in the sheer amount of magic running through it. It was huge, ancient looking, and nearly exactly what a fairy tail castle would look like. The only thing missing was a dragon and a soon-to-be devoured princess, in his opinion. Oh, and the extra crispy knight—de-shelled, of course.

He blinked as the carriage came to a stop, his eyes going instantly back to coal.

Itachi followed Cho and the growing mass walking into the structure through two huge, looming doors. The crowd all headed to the right, into what appeared to be a very large feasting hall with a genjutsu cast on the ceiling to resemble the sky outside (The things civilians do if given chakra, he sighed and shook his head), but he saw a very distinct symbol off directly ahead, down the hall, away from the dinning room. So he parted from his soon-to-be-peers, and followed the small flags of Konoha.

The Uchiha was led to what appeared to be a stage of some sort, but there was a gathering of adults all wearing black robes. They were carelessly talking, but when Dumbledore—distinguishable by his green cloak and long, white hair—waved him over, saying "Ah, I would like to introduce you to someone," they all turned as one to look at him.

Face as blank as his eyes, he calmly walked to his employer and kneeled, his fist supporting his torso as his other hand rested on his raised knee, like the good soldier he was. "Dumbledore-sama, I have arrived on time as requested." He said in his own language.

"Very good, Itachi. Please, stand, and tell me was your trip well? And did you notice anything with you wand?" He said, in his own language.

He did as commanded, completely ignoring the odd looks from the others he was receiving as he took his standing position with his arms behind his back and his feet lightly spread. "Yes," He took the hint and spoke in the foreign tongue, happy that his accent had greatly diminished even more even though it would probably always be present. "I left Konoha exactly twenty seven and three quarters hours ago. I traveled by train approximately twenty three of those hours. While on the train, I learned your language and read the Magical Creatures book, and most of the Culture Book. While on the Hogwarts express, I perfected my English with the Fourth Years; Cedric Diggory from Hufflepuff, Marcus Belby from Ravenclaw and Cho Chang, also from Ravenclaw. My wand seems normal enough, and when my fingers touched it, it seemingly gives off its own warmth. I assume that means something?"

"Yes, each wand is unique to the person who wields it, and I am happy the one I picked—ten and a half inches, cherry, dragon heartstring (from an unusually mean Chinese Fireball), particularly stiff—matches you. And that's very good, Itachi-san, that you've read the books already. You've done very well so far." He turned and gestured to the crowed behind him, "This is Itachi Uchiha, Konoha ANBU and assigned for protection of this school for one semester year. Itachi, these are the faculty. There is Professor Snape, Flitwick, Vector, Trelawney, Sinistra, Lupin, Hagrid, and Binns." Itachi calmly looked over the teachers as they were pointed out, carefully taking in names and faces, but he paused and outright stared at Professor Binns—who had just appeared through a wall—eyes automatically morphing into red Sharingan without his direct will.

At first he thought he was under a genjutsu, but nope. The Sharingan revealed all and all Binns was a collective of highly condensed chakra moving in a sense he couldn't comprehend, far different then a regular bunshin, which was more of a shadow of a person's chakra. "First time you've seen a ghost, lad?" It said in a dull droning voice, shocking him even more into taking a single step back. The chakra talked!

"Are you sure he's competent, Dumbledore?" A dark haired man muttered in a bored tone, looking at the headmaster with a 'You can't be serious' expression. "If he is scared of a mere ghost then how can he stand up against a real danger like Black? An eye trick doesn't mean anything other then he can pass off as a vampire."

Itachi blinked, reluctantly letting his eyes fade back as he continued to watch the apparition, who covering a yawn like it was no big deal.

"Professor Snape," He said, finally locking gazes with the man who coolly regarded him with equally dark orbs. "If you doubt my capabilities, I invite you to test them yourself." He narrowed his eyes just slightly, his foot sliding a bare hint to the left.

"I'm afraid I'm not into the business of attacking children," He smirked as Itachi's eyes flashed just a little.

"Itachi-san, stand down." Dumbledore said simply, and Itachi made minor adjustments until he was just the way he was before, gazing blankly at nothing in front of him. "Professor Snape, I would advise you to not antagonize the ninja. He is far more powerful then you realize. While he will not physically harm any member of this school, he probably wouldn't be wise to provoke. That band you see on his arm shows he is a proud ninja, and he has been for quite a few years. He is no more a child then you."

Itachi could feel Snape's glare, but he did nothing of it, toning it out like so many other nuisances. He looked eerily like (a white version of) his own father and it disturbed him, he admitted. One was enough, thank you.

"Now, as I told you all before, why he is here and what we are going to tell anyone who asks. He is going to be put in Gryffindor, and is to be a Third year. For this, we will 'randomly' select one boy out of the third years from a hat. Itachi-san, you are to grab the ball that has the chakra in it. Now, please wait here, we will call you up after the sorting."

"Yes, Dumbledore-sama."

The staff passed by him almost wearily, still standing like a militant solider. He zoned out, staring at nothing, but knowing lots of little eyes from the other side of the stage were watching him as they waited to be sorted. Soon, however, Professor Flitwick scurried by him, carrying the stool and the hat that reeked of old magic and bringing him up from his zone. Taking it as a sign, he made his way to the edge of the curtains, looking out and spying two kids his age scurrying to sit at one of the tables, the one with flecks of gold and red all along it, before he moved his gaze elsewhere. His eyes took in the many hanging candles, and the dark, cloudy roof, as well as the appearance of each table in detail, storing away information that he found.

"Students," Dumbledore spoke out, waiting until the idle chatter died down. "I would like to introduce to you what could be the first of many exchanges between a school far different then our own. He spent over twenty four hours traveling to get here, and he only just learned the language so please be patient with him." He held out a hand, and Itachi stepped forward, his arms clasped behind him in a bored manner he vaguely realized his father did. "This is Itachi Uchiha. He is thirteen years old, and therefore will be placed with the Third years. He will not be sorted by the sorting hat, instead will be partnered with a boy of one of the houses. He will take the classes that child has, and will be roomed with him. The boy's house will automatically receive 50 points at their partnering," He said and many murmurs danced through the hall. "Whoever is chosen will have to keep Itachi with them at all times for the first trimester, teaching him the ways of Hogwarts. If you're nice to him, I am sure he will teach you one of the skills he brings from his homeland if he can. In fact, Itachi, would you mind introducing yourself to the school and then showing them a little something?"

"Yes, Headmaster." Itachi spoke clearly, taking two steps forward. "I am Itachi, as Dumbledore-sama said. I have never used a wand in my life to date, because in Konoha, people use their hands and their own energies rather then relying on the use of magical artifacts that power wands. We are ninja, not wizards or witches. For you, I will perform the Henge, a pure illusion, and one of the most basic of all abilities. Every ninja is required to master it early on in their learning. It is limited to the skill and the observation ability of the caster. You must know what the image you want to turn into looks like, acts like, and sounds like for it to be fully effective, or it will be easily seen through and broken. Each henge will only last as long as the caster has the energy to do so. Normally for ninja my age, two hours at most. For older ninja, it could last days." Itachi brought his hands before him, and as he felt every eye on him, quickly made the hands seals faster then they could see and with a poof of smoke, a second Albus Dumbledore smiled at the crowd, who collectively gasped, excited murmurs running through them.

"The Henge is very simple, and if you follow the guidelines," He said in a scratching voice just like the headmaster, who was looking amusedly around to his colleges. A new poof of smoke appeared, and soon another Hagrid stood tall and proud in his leather jacket with the voice and speech to match, "Yeh ca' transform inter anyone," Another poof appeared, and a small puppy sat on its haunches in the place of the duplicate Hagrid. It whined and squirmed, tail wagging furiously, causing a few people to laugh almost reluctantly. With happy yips, it poofed again, and when the resulting smoke cleared, a large, ominous Dementor stood there. Its soulless face scanned the now nearly terrified crowd, before it poofed again and Itachi was one back in his place, "Or anything, you want." A silence passed, before the hall burst into life with cheers of praise.

"Thank you, Itachi. Now, let us find out who will be your partner." The real Albus took off his hat and waved his wand over it, and round white balls appeared in it as the entire hall now roared with pleas that Itachi would be partnered to them, or someone they knew. "Itachi will draw a name out, and that is who will be his partner."

Boredly, and to the surprisingly sudden deafly quite around him, Itachi stuck a hand into the hat, instantly finding the ball that had chakra in it. Firmly gasping it, he with drew it and looked at it, before wordlessly handing it to Dumbledore to read.

"Ronald Weasely." He tapped Itachi's head—to the boys' unnervement, but he didn't show it—with the tip of his wand, causing the plain black uniform to bleed into the Gold and Red style.

A huge cheer erupted from the table on the far right, and several students hopped on the table doing what he assumed to be some sort of satanic ritual. "Itachi, I believe you know which table it is. But the student you are looking for is currently dancing in the pudding bowl."

Nodding, Itachi made his way down the stairs, ignoring the clasps on the shoulders and the 'Welcome to the best house!' cheers.

"Now, to less cheerful news..." Dumbledore was saying as Itachi slid into the seat between Ron—after the boy was shoved off the table—and a kid with green eyes and black hair.

"Wow!" A girl with mousy brown hair leaned over the table after the room hushed completely for the Headmaster, and around Ron to look at him. "The only way I know you can transform into someone else is with a Polyjuice potion, and those take days to make, and you can't turn into anything but humans! The Hedge you did was simply fascinating, in and of itself! That's not even counting that you did it without a wand!"

"Henge, not hedge. A Hedge is a bush." He corrected, slightly irritated she messed up on such a simple word. "And I believe we should be listening to Dumbledore-sama." With that he pointedly turned to face the old man, who was just finishing up his speech.

"On a happier note, I am pleased to welcome two new teachers to our ranks this year. First is Professor Lupin, who has kindly consented to fill the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher." Itachi glanced around at the small, scattered applause (ignoring the three people around him who cheered loudly), and then clapped decently as well, not caring one way or the other.

"Look at Snape!" Ron hissed over to the green eyed boy.

Itachi, being the good little ninja he was, had already observed the animosity between the two men. If he could place it, it probably was where one was almost killed by the other and failed, to their great disappointment.

Dumbledore coughed slightly as the applause dwindled away. "As to our second new appointment, well, I am sorry to tell you that Professor Kettleburn, our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, retired at the end of last year in order to enjoy more time with his remaining limbs. However, I am delighted to say that his place will be filled by none other than Rubeus Hagrid, who has agreed to take on this teaching job in addition to his game keeping duties." Itachi clapped with the same speed and force as the last time, indifferent even though the nearly everyone in the hall clapped enthusiastically.

"We should have known!" Ron nearly wept, "Who else would have assigned us a biting book?" At this Itachi stopped clapping and turned to give a confused gaze to the red head. He did not see any books in his case that could move on their own, let alone bite.

But his unasked question didn't get answered as Dumbledore once again spoke. "Well, I think that's everything of importance. Let the feast begin!"

And then food appeared out of nowhere on the plates around him, most of which he couldn't even begin to name, and the children eagerly dug into it.

"Oh!" Ron said suddenly, a chuck of food already halfway to his mouth, "This is Harry Potter," Itachi's eyes darted to the dark haired boy. Ah, so this was his charge. Scrawny, wasn't he? "And this is Hermione Granger. They're me best buds. And try this, it's the greatest." He picked up what looked like a small blob of flesh mixed with some weird sauce and promptly set it down on Itachi's plate with a disturbing squelch.

The girl giggled at the probable laps in his emotionless mask. "What do you normally have for food, Itachi?"

"Things that won't scuttle away when I try to eat them." Itachi replied hesitantly, reaching in his robes for something as he continued to watch the brown mass as if expecting it to attack. Withdrawing his chopsticks—never left home without them—he gently tried to tear at the supposed meat for easier bites, but it proved to want to cling to the other mass more so then admit defeat under his eating utensils. Itachi signed, muttering "Itadakimasu" dully before giving up manners for the time being and just put the entire thing in his mouth.

"Hogwarts food is the best there is, Itachi!" Ron said through his food, happily falling into the role of Itachi's partner by teaching him much 'needed' information. "Everyone loves it. Hey, we should hurry," He added, speaking to his two other friends, "So we can talk to Hagrid." The other's agreed, and they lapsed into silence as they focused mainly on eating.

Itachi cautiously went around through each plate within his easy reach—carefully avoiding whatever Ron had given him—before he had an acceptable amount of food on his plate to sate his hunger. He sipped on the goblet in front of him that was filled with Pumpkin juice—having drank some on the train—and slowly tried each item on his plate, not reacting one way or another despite the varying tastes. He chose not to eat dessert, but followed diligently when the group went up to the teacher's table.

He awkwardly waited behind the group (while he did so, he noted with a little amusement that he was shorter then all of them, as he was supposed to be their protector) as they talked to the sobbing enormous man for a little while before Professor McGonagall gave them a look and they wisely scattered. He followed them up many flights of stairs, and despite how exhausted he was having not gotten a good, full night's sleep in over three days, he enjoyed the exercise after having sat for over twenty four hours. Itachi looked around with interest, memorizing the path, and was slightly unnerved by the moving paintings.

Finally, they reached a landing with the rest of the crowd, waiting in front of a fat lady in a pink dress, who looked at them and said, "Password?" Itachi's eyes narrowed, he was not happy with all of these surprises, and a moving and talking picture was one of them.

"Coming, through, coming through!" A boy who had the same hair color as Ron said, but he appeared stuck behind the crowd despite his words. Giving up, he rolled his eyes and just shouted, "The new Password's Fortuna Major!"

The painting swung open reveling a hole, which people started to crawl through. Itachi kept close to the sleepy red head, not wanting to have to find him. They went up through one of two staircases, he noting the girls went up the other, and then with the two boys from his carriage and the one who had groaned at the password, as well as Ron and Harry, he found himself in a circular room, with six beds. It was obvious that the room was made for only five, and the last one had been squeezed in by condensing the others and then it sharing a nightstand with another one. Itachi found his sealed trunk sitting in front of the one next to Ron's and the black kid's, with Harry against the flat wall of the staircase, also next to Ron.

Itachi nearly cried, looking at what was to be his bed. It was raised. He could never sleep on a raised bed, ever since he was a child. No matter how tired he was, how comfortable it was, there was just some sort of mental block. And add to the fact he was in a completely new surroundings, surrounded by five non-ninja who didn't know how to hold back their snores, he was already in for a near, if not completely, restless night. Did they have to make it cruel and unusual too?

Knowing he couldn't really pick it up and chuck it out the window—it wouldn't fit—he got out a scroll from his duffle bag, which he had placed in the wooden trunk before exiting the train.

He placed the scroll under the raised bed after he unrolled it partially, and then stood next to the bed, quickly performing some seals and then slamming his palm onto the matrices. With a poof and a white cloud of smoke, the bed disappeared and there appeared a Kanji in the center of a sealing circle where there didn't use to be on the scroll, saying simply, 'Bed'. Crouching down, he unrolled the scroll even more, reviling a similar seal but this one already had the kanji for 'futon' already on it. He bit his thumb, and smeared the blood across the seal, quickly made three seals and tapped it. Another smoke burst, and his preferred futon and comforter were lying where the four pillar bed once was. Completely ignoring the staring looks of his dorm mates were giving him, he quickly put the scroll away and started to change into his sleep wear in a near zombie like way.

But the silence was not to last. "How did you do that?"

"Why did you do that?"

"What's that thing?"

"Where'd the bed go?"

"You're not going to steal the bed, are you?"

"Please," He said before more questions could be asked, crawling under the covers of his bed after nearly collapsing on it. "I have been traveling for the last two days, and I am very tired. I will answer your questions on a later date, but I just wish to sleep right now." The rarely used sympathy card, oh how well it worked, he thought as they grumbled lightly and went to bed themselves.

Thankfully, the boys seemed tired in their own rights, and soon they were all asleep after muttering good nights to each other. When it was quiet and rhythmic, his ninja instincts finally allowed himself to drift off, curled tightly under his comforter.

XXXXX

MDF: Poor Itachi-kun's tired! All alone in a strange new world! At least he has a nice, comfortable bed, ne?

The manga actually points to the fact Itachi probably would have a form of a raised bed (Sasuke's was, as a child in a flashback) but I have an image due later on in the story with Itachi sleeping on a futon, and thus I made it like it is.

Ah, artistic license, how I love thee. Occasionally. Not when people randomly pair Naruto with... Hanabi, or something. Seriously, WTF? They've never even met or know of each other's existence!