Chapter 10 : The human Bludgers

Akira wasn't used to receive letters. Her only correspondent was her father to whom she was sending news regularly to assure him that everything was going well for her at Hogwarts but he hardly ever answered back.

Therefore, she never realized how long the wait could be to get a response after sending an owl to Konoha at the other end of the world. Especially when she was eager to read what Matsuo could tell her about the mysterious group of Slytherins who gathered secretly in Hogsmeade at the Hog's Head Inn.

The long-awaited letter came during the first week of February, when the weather turned nice and the snow was melting slowly from the mild temperature. Akira received it during breakfast with the usual bunch of owls flying all over the Great Hall to find the recipient of their post. An owl landed right in front of Akira with the letter it had for her and its sudden appearance managed to scare Arcturus who hadn't heard it arrive at their table.

"They should put a bell on these owls to announce their presence." He suggested while putting a hand on his heart that was pounding in his chest.

But Akira wasn't listening to him as she hurried to retrieve her letter from the owl's paw. Now that its job was fulfilled, the owl flew away to get some rest at the owlery after such a long trip while the two Gryffindors were wondering what they might learn from Matsuo who had befriended these Slytherins at the time he was at Hogwarts.

"Finally, we'll know why they attacked us while we were simply wandering in the street to look for Honeydukes." Arcturus said enthusiastically.

He was so excited that he didn't bother to walk around the Gryffindor table to sit next to Akira to read the letter with her. Instead, he strode across the table before dropping onto the bench next to her, almost falling to the ground in the process as Akira was unfolding the letter to get access to its content.

The latter was written in English like the one that Akira sent to Matsuo and Tatsuno as it had been more convenient for Arcturus who helped her writing it. Therefore, the latter could read it over Akira's shoulder for himself without her having to translate each word to him. It was also better to read the letter containing sensitive information in silence as other students were wandering around them to reach their place. Akira plunged immediately into the text to see what Matsuo had sent as a response.

« We were away from your school since less than two months and you're already missing us ? By the way, Tatsuno who's sitting next to me is asking if you enjoyed our fireworks. I hope their explosions weren't too much "explosive" because the ones we lit almost put fire to the Hokage's residence as they fell on it. Hopefully, no one found out that they belonged to us since so many were lit that night.

Anyway, if we go back to the content of your letter, I was surprised that you took any interest in this group of students from my old house because to be honest with you, they just seemed to be a bunch of people who think they're better than anyone else while talking nonstop about their families who were apparently highly ranked in the wizard society from what I understood.

At first, I thought that it was cool that they included me in their group so that I could really integrate into my Slytherin house but retroactively, I doubt that I would have had much fun in this very select club. They must spend their time arguing who has the most illustrious family rather than partying.

So if you ever have the opportunity to join them, don't do it because it's not worth it. And if that wasn't what you had in mind, is the weather nice at your school ? With this question, you'll have to send us a letter back to answer it because we miss you a lot.

See you soon I hope,

Matsuo / Tatsuno »

"That was quite a long letter but they didn't really answer our question, did they ?" Arcturus asked in a puzzled tone after waiting silently for Akira to also finish reading it.

"No, not really." Akira approved with spite. "I wanted Matsuo to tell us if these Slytherins were a potential dangerous threat, not if they were having fun. We'll have to send another letter to him to learn more about this club even if it will take days to get an answer back."

"In that case, don't forget to answer his question about the weather. It would be silly to have to send another letter for that." Arcturus added with a smile as Akira was already taking out her quill and a piece of parchment from her bag.

They then wrote a slightly more equivocal letter without delay while paying attention that no other student from the Great Hall would read it above their shoulders. Once it was finished, they sent it to Konoha and the reply reached them almost a week later during breakfast. In Matsuo's letter, they could read :

« It's true that this club looked creepy when I heard of it but considering the students who're in Slytherin, I would say that it's part of the general atmosphere in this house.

I thought in the beginning that gathering in really incongruous places and taking care that no one else heard of their club was just a way for them to make sure that not anybody would join in but upon reflection, it looked darker than that, especially with the name they gave themselves. Aaah, I have it on the tip of my tongue but I can't remember it. In any case, it was quite repulsive to make your stomach turn when you mention it.

I hope these information were helpful, especially to make you realize that you should leave these Slytherins alone. They aren't the type of people you want to get along with, believe me on that point. Tatsuno also shares my point of view on this.

Matsuo / Tatsuno »

"Good advice." Arcturus commented at the end of their reading. "Their group isn't the one we want to be part of so let's put as much distance as possible between us and them."

"Precisely, it's the fact that we mustn't approach them that makes me say that they're suspicious. That's the info we were missing in Matsuo's first letter." Akira added while taking the latter out of her bag to read it again.

"And now we're missing the name of this group." Arcturus sighed while pointing to the line that was mentioning it on the second letter of Matsuo. "But it's just a name, it's probably not very important."

"On the contrary. From what Matsuo is saying, it seems to inspire fear." Akira replied.

"There are only two names that inspire fear in the world of magic. Or maybe three. The Dark Lord's name that begins with a V, the Death Eaters and the Dark Mark. Everything that has to do with death."

"They might have mentioned one of them. Let's just write them all down and see what Matsuo tells us about it." Akira suggested while taking her quill to write the three propositions at the end of Matsuo's letter with the question "Is it one of them ?" since she wasn't going to write a whole letter just for that.

They then sent back the letter to the twins and waited another long week before having the answer which said this :

« Death Eater ! That's the name I was looking for but I forgot it since you're not hearing it every day. They had called themselves the Death Eaters Succession, hoping that it would open them the doors to the real group, whatever that means because I confess that I didn't follow everything they were saying. I simply nodded politely most of the time hoping that I wasn't making a fool of myself.

I hope that it doesn't quite answer your question so you can write to us again. We really like this chat even if it takes a long time to reach each other. But that's better than nothing since you let us two years without any news from you.

Matsuo / Tatsuno »

"Death Eater ?" Arcturus repeated in a small voice. "Did they really adopt this name ?"

"From what Matsuo says, they did." Akira sighed as she wasn't reassured by this fact. "You heard it, they plan to join the real ones when they get out of school and they're already banding together to prepare for that."

"Okay, so now that we got our answer, we can leave them alone." Arcturus offered again while wringing his hands worriedly. "Otherwise, we'll be on their list of people to destroy at all cost once they join the ranks of the Dark Lord."

"On the contrary, if we stop them now, they won't represent a threat in the future for anyone. That's our chance since they're still vulnerable students." Akira pointed out as she didn't intend to close her eyes on this case. "Better to confront them now than later."

"And confront them how ? We've no proof of who exactly they are and what they do. Maybe they simply borrowed that name because they found it cool. Or that's what they'll say to defend themselves against our accusations."

"It may be worth checking that they've actually an evil plan in mind." Akira added in a tone that displeased Arcturus.

"By telling a teacher to check it himself, right ?" He asked hopefully.

"Well, no because as you just said, we've no proof of anything. Just letters written by a guy who should never have set a foot in Hogwarts. It might even get us in trouble if we ever happened to show them."

"So, we're again the ones that have to put themselves in danger to stop dangerous people. Why is it always us ? Our comrades don't have that bad luck. They follow their studies peacefully and that's all they're asking for." Arcturus pointed out while crossing his arms with anger.

"It might be bad luck but since it fell on us, it's our duty to do something to prevent anything from happening." Akira replied before going back to her breakfast which had been interrupted by the arrival of the owl with Matsuo's letter.

She also wanted to have a normal life at Hogwarts, especially since the one she had at Konoha was quite dangerous. But fate had other plans for her, she noticed it for the Quidditch match against Slytherin that was held on the last Saturday of February. In fact, two members of the mysterious club were playing in the same position as her, namely Chasers. It was the leader of the gang and the girl who had offered to kill Akira right away before going to drink something as if it was a mere formality.

Suffice to say that Akira wasn't happy to face these two, especially now that they knew each other personally and had a grudge between them. Their conflict would surely be settled on the pitch, one against two meaning that Akira wouldn't have the advantage.

Therefore, on the morning of the match, Akira was lost in her thoughts as she was hesitating to take her magic wand with her during the match or not.

"Hey, Chitsute ! Focus !" Ana threw at her sharply while banging her fist on the Gryffindor table of the Great Hall to snap Akira out of her reverie while she was giving her usual motivational speech to the whole team gathered around her.

"Yeah, focus." James added before throwing at Akira a spoonful of porridge which landed directly on her toast that she had barely touched.

"Keep that spirit for our opponents, not your teammates !" Ana scolded him while snatching his spoon from his hands before he tried to do it again.

"And especially for the match, not the breakfast." Liz added while snacking on a piece of bacon.

But Akira didn't hear the rest of the conversation as she went back to her thoughts. She then just followed her teammates to the locker room and onto the pitch once they were dressed with their Quidditch uniform and saturated with their Captain's pep talk that had seemed endless.

Arriving in the middle of the field to the cheers of the crowd made Akira feel vulnerable even if she had her wand with her. Indeed, knowing that there were future Death Eaters hiding there wasn't reassuring, especially after almost getting killed by the real ones last year. On top of that, Akira noticed that the two members of this mysterious group that were also part of the Slytherin Quidditch team were glancing at her in a worrying way. This match promised to be painful as Madam Hooch finally gave the players the permission to take off.

However, once the Quaffle was put into play, Akira began to focus on it to concentrate on the game that was to be played. The rest could wait until the end of it.

"Finally." She thought to herself once she retrieved the ball from the Slytherins.

With it in her hands, she crossed the entire field to reach the opposite goals but her race was interrupted by the girl of the mysterious group who had run into her at full speed. Normally the players would scramble a bit to get the Quaffle back but this time it was different. Indeed, Akira was convinced that she had tried to knock her off her broom. It was easy to guess as that girl aimed for her rather than the ball that she was holding. She didn't even bother to brake once she was near Akira. However, as the shock between the two players had no dramatic consequences – Akira was a bit shocked but not injured - the match continued as if nothing happened.

But this kind of brutal clash with the girl or the chief of the mysterious group happened more often than usual. People even began to wonder if they weren't doing it on purpose, to which Akira could respond "yes" but the two weren't going to admit it.

"It's not my fault ! I'm dazzled by the sun which is reflected on the snow that's still on the ground ! You can't blame me if I don't see where I'm going." The chief said as an excuse to Madam Hooch while the latter was confronting him after he made Akira let go her broom with one hand due to the violence of the shock.

"They're up to something against you." Ana said to Akira after stopping by her side while the match was suspended.

"That's obvious. They hit me for the seventh time in a row." Akira complained while rubbing her shoulder where her opponent's broom just hit her.

"They want to put you out of play, that's for sure. Even if it means injuring themselves in the process. It's a good strategy to eliminate an exceptional player but since you aren't really one, it's risky and stupid."

"I'm not a good player ? But you recruited me to be part of your team." Akira pointed out to her with a bad mood.

"You're really good, like the two other Chasers I took but you're not exceptional. However, these two Slytherins are only getting after you, not them." Ana replied suspiciously. "Wouldn't you have gotten yourself into trouble again by any chance ?"

"Who, me ? No, not at all." Akira lied as she knew why she was targeted but couldn't tell anyone about it except Arcturus.

"Good, because I need my three Chasers if we want to win." Ana added before flying away as the match resumed.

But Akira wasn't of much help for her team as she got pummeled again, even when she didn't have the Quaffle in her hands. These two Slytherins were worse than Bludgers but they didn't know who they were really dealing with yet. Indeed, once Akira got fed up from being hit, she went from casual Quidditch player to ninja mode as her new goal was to hit them twice harder in return.

From then on, she stopped acting like a punching bag and began to discreetly hit her opponents back every time they were too close of her. These two Slytherins received their share of elbows in the ribs, punches in the face and kicks to push them away. And not those of a thirteen-year-old student but those of a seasoned fighter who had already dealt with much tougher than them. However, having to retaliate distracted Akira from the game, even if her two attackers were less fierce towards her with time as they began to avoid her, wincing in pain from the injuries that she had inflicted to them.

She only realized that she was still on a broom in the middle of an important game for the Quidditch Cup when her Captain hit her at the back of her head with her bat.

"Luckily, you're not the only Chaser I have in the team otherwise we wouldn't get any points !" Ana threw at her angrily before violently sending a Bludger that was passing near her towards the Slytherin Seeker who was being chased by Liz as they seemed to have spotted the Snitch.

"Sorry." Akira apologised sheepishly while putting a hand on her head where she had been hit. "But from now on, I'll be more concentrate."

"It's too late. The match looks already sealed." Ana told her bitterly while gritting her teeth as she and Akira were looking at the two Seekers who were soaring into the sky.

Liz was side by side with the Slytherin Seeker but he was much bigger and stronger than her. Therefore, it was easy for him to push her out of his way before grabbing the Snitch which put an end to the game. Akira's heart sank when she witnessed this but it was nothing compared to Ana who swore before breaking her wooden bat in half on her knee.

"You !" She then said to Akira while grabbing her by her Quidditch robe as the latter had remained speechless. "I'm going to put your post back on the line and I can guarantee you that if I find a Chaser that does at least what is asked of him on the pitch, you'll be replaced in no time !"

After this threat, Ana let Akira go before returning on the ground to leave the field as quickly as possible like all the other annoyed Gryffindor players that were ashamed of their loss against the Slytherins. Akira wasn't in the mood to stay any longer so she imitated them, as well as James who landed right next to her in the middle of the Slytherin spectators who invaded the field to congratulate their team.

"For once, it was nice to play with you. Oh wait, maybe it was because you were busy doing I don't know what at the other end of the pitch while I was scrambling to score points." James told her in a both reproachful and amused tone after he heard Ana's threat towards Akira.

"I was dealing with two of their three Chasers." Akira informed him angrily as she was walking even faster to leave the field. "If they had attacked you the way they did for me, I doubt that you would have done better than me against them. You would even have fallen from your broom and be sent to the Hospital Wing."

"It's rather these two who would have ended there." James replied confidently. "No one in this school is able to make me fall from my broom because I'm a talented player contrary to you. That's why our Captain is planning to replace you and not me."

Akira clenched her fist as she was very tented to break her broom in half on James' head. However, she didn't do anything to not get in more trouble because Ana wouldn't be pleased if she hurt one of her players besides being indirectly the reason why the Gryffindors lost their match.

Fortunately, James' group came to meet them, which made him leave on his side while Arcturus was joining Akira. He was running at full speed and slipped on a layer of melted snow that was covering the grass of the grounds, resulting in his fall and his slide in Akira's legs but the latter had the reflex to jump aside to avoid him. She then helped him to get up as he was covered from head to toe in freezing mud. However despite his condition, he was more worried about what had happened to Akira on the pitch.

"I saw everything from the bench ! These two Slytherins should get expelled from Hogwarts after almost killing you, all that because they don't want us to snoop around their club. But that's also a warning from them that we should take seriously. We have to leave them alone." Arcturus insisted as it was what he wanted from the start.

"After what they did to me during the game as well as making me risk my place in my Quidditch team, I want to make them pay back. They don't know what's awaiting them." Akira told him as she was more determined than ever to put an end to their group.


Hello dear readers,

Now, things are getting serious (and pretty interesting). After an exchange of letters that was at the same time informative and a waste of time - especially to learn that the Slytherins in this group weren't the partying type - it's time to take action for Akira and Arcturus and investigate on this mysterious club.

I just recommand them to be cautious. Especially after what these Slytherins did to them at Hogsmeade and to Akira during her Quidditch match. They aren't going to go easy on them, after all they called themselves the Death Eaters Succession and the real ones almost killed Akira the previous year. We'll see what happens at the end of the month.