Chapter 6 : The Christmas escape

Magic wand. Check. Student whose appearance would be taken. Check. Clone to distract Arcturus and Tolfius. Check.

These three elements were an integral part of Akira's plan to leave Hogwarts during the Christmas holidays. Because the fact that Dumbledore refused her the permission to take the Hogwarts Express to join London wouldn't stop her from returning to Konoha to avenge the death of Tatsuno and Matsuo. She just had to be extremely careful to not get caught. Therefore, she spent her classes and her free time turning this plan over and over in her head so that it would be perfect from A to Z on the fateful day.

And in what did exactly this plan consist of ? Well, let's go inside Akira's head to find out.

Firstly, she wasn't going to carry her suitcase home. Taking her magic wand with her to use in case of trouble was enough.

Secondly, having been forced to write her name on the parchment of the students who were staying at Hogwarts for the holidays, she had to take the appearance of one of her colleagues who got the authorization to leave the school in order to have a chance to board into the Hogwarts Express without being stopped. Akira had thought carefully about which student to choose before setting her sights on Sandra Nielson, a Gryffindor girl from her year, who had bragged so much about what she was going to do during her Christmas holidays that Akira now knew by heart her schedule. This could come in handy if anyone interrogated her about it while she had the appearance of Sandra.

Thirdly, Tolfius and Arcturus wouldn't let go of her. The first one to make sure that she wouldn't get in trouble during the holidays, the second one because he was really happy to spend the winter holidays with her, especially after it snowed so much in Hogwarts to the point of covering everything with a thick white coat. So if she had to sneak away, there was nothing better than using a clone for that. Akira knew that the latter would eventually disappear, so she planned to have it briefly taking easy in the Gryffindor common room until the Hogwarts Express left the train station before making it reach her dormitory to disappear without the two boys suspecting anything.

Fourthly and lastly, not wishing to spend the entire train journey rubbing shoulders with Sandra's friends who were numerous given her popularity, Akira wanted to find an empty compartment in which she could lock herself and travel during several hours alone under her real appearance. That would give her a break before resuming the one of Sandra to quickly leave King's Cross Station while hoping to not run into the latter's family.

This would finally be the beginning of the freedom that Akira had been waiting for so long.

It was a dream coming true but it had to be recognized that this plan was complex, with many unknowns and it also required being on guard for an entire day until reaching London. It was far from simple but Akira wasn't going to give up yet. After having waited so long to leave Hogwarts and return to Konoha, she couldn't let go, even less the day before her departure.

"Ah, finally the holidays." Arcturus exclaimed with delight while dropping onto an empty couch of the common room as many Gryffindors were occupied to prepare their luggage on this Friday evening since the Hogwarts Express was taking them home the next day. "Which activities can we do tomorrow to take advantage of the fresh snow that fell today ? A snowball fight ? A snowman ? An army of snowmen bewitched so that they have a snowball fight ?"

"It depends. What time do you expect to get up tomorrow ?" Akira asked him while taking place in an armchair next to his couch as his answer would impact her plan to leave the school.

"I don't know. Perhaps just before lunch. However, we'll have the afternoon to play anyway so I don't see any reason to get up early." Arcturus commented while stretching before crossing his arms behind his head as he sprawled out on the couch.

"That means I'll only have to lure Tolfius with my clone until my train leaves at nine o'clock." Akira thought while glancing sideways at the weasel which was standing in front of the fireplace on its hind legs and was rubbing its front paws towards the fire like a human. "On the other hand, he's cunning. I'll have to be extra careful."

"Hey. Hey ! Akira !" Arcturus said to her while passing a hand in front of her eyes to bring her out of her thinking. "You still haven't told me which activity we should do."

"Whatever you want. Anyway, I'm going to bed." She replied abruptly before getting up from her armchair.

"But it's only eight o'clock in the evening. We've the right to stay up longer on the eve of the holidays." He pointed out to her with a hint of sadness in his voice.

"I know but I'm exhausted. All these classes have been rather rough to catch up with and I need a good night of sleep to empty my head of them." Akira told him which was quite the truth.

Because with the day that was awaiting her, all her energy and concentration would be required to not fail in her plan. So once she reached her dormitory, she immediately went to bed and closed her eyes to fall asleep. But her concerns about her plan to escape proved to be stronger than tiredness and she spent a good part of the night thinking about it against her will. She took advantage of being the only one awake to steal Sandra's wand that was on the latter's nightstand.

Indeed, to be able to take her appearance to have the authorization to leave Hogwarts, Akira had to get rid of the real Sandra first. And to do so, she intended to make her look for her magic wand since she would never go on holidays without it, as she was a witch since childhood who always had a wand by her side. At least, that was what Sandra was repeating over and over again. Akira would make Sandra stay behind while helping her looking for her lost wand when all the latter's friends would be gone to not be late for their train. Being alone with her victim, Akira would then knock her out before taking her appearance.

The idea was good but having a short night wasn't. Suffice to say that waking up the following morning was painful and waiting for the train departure even more. Akira - who was too tense to want to go have breakfast with the other students - stayed in her dormitory, sitting cross-legged on her bed while juggling with her magic wand between her fingers. She was waiting for Sandra to come back as the latter hadn't realized yet that her wand was missing when she went for breakfast. But when Sandra finally did, she returned to the dormitory like a fury and began to look for it frantically all other the place while her two best friends were trying to reassure her.

"It may be lost in your suitcase." Oran Knox suggested on tip-toe.

"Impossible. I never put it in there precisely to avoid losing it." Sandra immediately replied while looking under her bed.

"Or maybe you forgot it somewhere." Eileen Hyde added with a certain impatience as it was time for them to go to Hogsmeade to board on the Hogwarts Express. "You'll find it when we'll come back from the holidays but now we really have to go."

"Not without my wand !" Sandra replied in a categorical tone as she was the only one of her group to really look for it.

"I can let you a hand because I don't have any trains to take. That will allow your friends to go." Akira suggested to Sandra while slowly getting off her bed.

"Why would you help me all of a sudden ? We don't even talk to each other the rest of the time." Sandra pointed out to her as she was on edge at not having her wand in addition to missing her train.

"We let you handle it." Oran said to Akira as she was too happy with Eileen to be able to go.

The two girls left their "friend" alone with Akira as they were rushing out of the dormitory. Akira then began to "search" for the wand throughout the room before pretending to pick it up from the floor in a corner.

"I think I found it." She announced to Sandra while raising her find in the air to show it to her.

"It's about time. Now give it to me !" Sandra ordered her without the slightest thank you.

She approached Akira and reached for her hand in which she was holding the wand but the latter raised it above her head to keep it out of her reach.

"I hope you don't mind spending Christmas at Hogwarts." Akira told her while wrapping her other hand – the one which wasn't holding the wand - in chakra behind her back.

"Why do you say that ? Give me back my wand before I miss my train."

Sandra made another attempt to take it but this time, Akira placed her chakra-covered hand on the latter's head which made her victim lose consciousness immediately. She caught Sandra before she hit the ground and hid her as well as her wand under her bed so that no one could find her, at least until she regained consciousness in a few hours.

"Perfect." Akira thought after taking a quick glance at her watch.

Indeed, if she managed to get out of the castle in less than ten minutes, she would be able to catch the last carriage that would drive her to Hogsmeade. So without waiting, she took on the appearance of Sandra by using her ninja transformation technique before producing a clone of herself to distract Tolfius while she was gone. She then headed down the stairs to join the common room after instructing the clone to do the same in a few minutes to show to Tolfius that she was still in the castle at the time the train was leaving.

Akira – under the form of Sandra - immediately spotted the weasel which was watching the comings and goings in the common room from the top of an armchair and it ignored Akira when the latter passed by it.

It permitted to Akira to leave the room without any issue and run down the stairs of the school until reaching the Entrance Hall. She only got stop by Filch who was stationed there to check the list of students who were allowed to leave the castle for the holidays.

"Name ?" He said roughly to her while alternating between looking at his list and at Akira.

"Sandra Nielson." Akira answered with confidence.

"Hmmm… You're allowed to go." He advised her once he found her name.

A wave of relief invaded Akira when she walked through the entrance door to find herself covered in snow as large flakes were falling from the sky. As expected, a carriage was waiting for the latecomers and she jumped in it without waiting, just like three other students. The latters didn't know Sandra - not being from her year or her house - and that was a good thing because Akira doubted that she could hold an entire discussion on subjects that only the real Sandra was familiar with.

Having nobody to talk with allowed Akira to relax a little during the journey before getting on edge again when she would have to find a place to hide on the train. But that was an issue for later as she began to daydream while watching through the window at the snowflakes piling up a little more on the ground. Going to Hogsmeade on this snowy day was an adventure thanks to the several centimeters of snow that deposited on a layer of ice. However, this didn't prevent their carriage from moving forward at a good pace without encountering any problems.

After several minutes, Akira became more and more intrigued by something that she might have seen out of the corner of her eye before boarding the carriage. Indeed, she was almost sure that she had spotted large, black animals pulling it when it was reknown that nothing was pulling the school carriages. She knew it herself since she hadn't seen anything in her second and third year. So why for her fourth year did they have to harness animals to make the carriage move forward ?

"Probably because of the snow." She guessed vaguely as she realized that she had never left Hogwarts during winter.

Thinking that she had found the solution to this mystery, she put it in a corner of her head, at least until the carriage stopped for everyone to go down as they had finally arrived at Hogsmeade. Akira jumped out of the carriage and couldn't help but take a look at the animals in question. She had a brief jolt at how sinister they were. They looked like winged horses but they were skinny as all their bones were visible, and their eyes were white like those of a dead animal. How could things like this be alive ? And above all, why was she the only one to be shocked by their scary appearance as the three students who had travelled with her were happily heading towards Hogsmeade station without paying the slightest attention to these horses ?

Confused but not having time to take an interest in these strange creatures any longer as the Hogwarts Express was about to leave, Akira immediately went to the empty and icy platform before boarding on the crowded train.

Some students were staying at Hogwarts for the holidays, but that didn't mean nevertheless that Akira would find an empty compartment to be alone during the entire journey which would last hours. Indeed, the students seemed to have dispersed across the whole train to be comfortably installed and that was an issue for her.

Although she hadn't arrived early enough to occupy an empty compartment, she still had an idea to get what she wanted. She just had to empty one herself and she soon spotted her next victims as she passed in front of a compartment full of young Hufflepuffs who seemed to be having fun telling jokes or playing Exploding Snap.

Akira walked a little further from the compartment and glanced left and right to make sure no one was in the hallway, which wasn't the case. She then produced three clones to which she gave from memory the shape of Slytherin bullies. The latters were feared by all the students who once crossed the path of their gang that was always roaming in the dungeons. Akira herself swapped her Sandra appearance to take the one of a Slytherin from this band, forming a group of thugs who would be able to dislodge these poor Hufflepuffs from their compartment without giving them the slightest explanation.

Without hesitation, Akira - alias the Slytherin - stood in front of the compartment in question with her three clones on her heels and she suddenly opened the door. The five Hufflepuffs immediately stopped their activities to instead look questioningly and then fearfully at the new arrivals.

"Didn't you see that we had reserved this compartment ?" Akira said viciously in a deep voice that terrified the young students a little more.

"N… No." One of them barely dared to answer while the others were trembling like leaves.

"Well, now you know." She added while cracking the knuckles of her hands worryingly. "So either you run away immediately and never come back, or we throw you out the hard way."

"We're leaving." Another responded hurriedly as they were all gathering their belongings.

Akira watched them do so while tapping her foot impatiently and she bluntly pulled some of them out of the compartment to show that she wasn't joking. The poor Hufflepuffs ran off to find another compartment far away from these evil Slytherins while the latters entered in the now empty compartment before slamming the door behind them.

Once Akira found herself alone, she made her clones disappear and she herself returned to her normal appearance - so the one of the real Akira - before kneeling at the level of the lock of the door. She locked it so that no one would come and disturb her but fearing that someone would try to open it with an Alohomora, she decided to sabotage the lock by melting the metal that was composing it. She produced a flame in her hand and held it against the lock until the metal melted and became shapeless. Then once her work was completed, she tested that the door was securely blocked by pulling the handle to open it and even casting an Alohomora on it but the door couldn't be opened. Reassured by this fact, Akira sat down on the floor of the compartment and leaned against the door so that no one could see her from the hallway-facing windows.

Now by herself and safe in her sealed compartment, Akira remained motionless as she contemplated the snowy landscape passing behind the windows that she was facing. Normally, she would have found the time long but being aware of what was awaiting her once she returned to Konoha, she appreciated this moment of calm. She even began to doze off as nothing was worrying her at that moment, not even the students who tried and failed to open the door of her compartment to occupy it as they couldn't see anyone in it.

The pressure only increased a bit when Akira recognized the landscape outside which was announcing that they were approaching King's Cross Station as the day was soon coming to an end. The snowflakes had given way to rain and the weak sun that managed to go through the white curtain of flakes had given way to the dark night.

It was about time to think of a way to get out of the train and leave the Platform 9 ¾ without being spotted.

The door of her compartment being sealed, her only way out was through the window which could open halfway. Making Sandra jump through it would have seemed suspicious as the latter wasn't a gymnast capable of this type of accomplishment, quite the contrary. So Akira instead opted to take the appearance of the Slytherin that she had used to scare the young Hufflepuffs. He was strong and stupid enough to jump through the window without anyone on the platform wondering why he did this instead of using the train's door like everyone else.

Akira therefore transformed herself into this Slytherin and she didn't even wait for the train to come to a complete stop to open the window and jump out. She frightened two or three families waiting on the platform by landing in front of them with a roll to soften her fall - and not take back her real appearance - but they didn't have time to ask her if she was fine as Akira was already speeding through the crowd to reach the exit.

She rushed headlong and quickly until she saw the barrier leading to the muggle side of the platform. But before she could reach it, Mad-Eye Moody suddenly appeared in front of her and grabbed her shoulder to immobilize her as she had tried to take a step aside to avoid him.

"Hey ! Put your hands off me !" She told him harshly while trying to free herself.

"Nice disguise, Chitsute. I almost didn't spot you." Moody told her while looking at the crowd around them with his normal eye as his magic one was remaining fixed on her.

"I don't know who you're talking about." Akira replied while trying to seem surprised by his statement coming out of nowhere. "I've to join my family now so let me go."

"Negative." Moody replied while keeping her immobilized. "Dumbledore figured out that you would try to escape from Hogwarts during the Christmas holidays so he asked me to make sure that you didn't succeed."

"Really ? And what are you going to do ? Send me back to Hogwarts ? You could have intercepted me at school instead of letting me do all the way here by train." She pointed out angrily as there was no point in lying to him any further about her real identity.

"Except that Dumbledore also thought that spending two weeks locked in this castle wouldn't be beneficial to you. He advised me about your outbursts of rage which led some of your colleagues to the Hospital Wing and the reason behind it. It's never easy to lose your colleagues in combat, I'm well placed to know that."

"Did he really talk to you about all that ?" Akira asked while repressing her tears at the evocation of the twins' death as she was wondering what Dumbledore had exactly told to Moody about her. "In that case, if I don't end up going back to Hogwarts or home, what am I supposed to do on my vacation ?"

"Follow me to the Ministry of Magic."

"Are you going to have me arrested after I attacked my classmates ?" Akira asked him with disbelief as she hadn't expected to be sent to jail after not being even expelled from her school.

"No. Us Aurors, we have better to do than sending to Azkaban a student who got into fights with her colleagues, as long as you didn't kill any of them. No. Instead, I'm taking you with me to my department to show you how Aurors work. Dumbledore thinks that your talents and your desire to do everything to avenge your fallen comrades for justice would be better invested in repelling the Dark Arts which are becoming more and more powerful. It's better than taking your anger out on a few students who don't really deserve it."

This news, which Akira didn't expect at all, left her speechless. Moody was offering her to get an insight on the Aurors department of the Ministry of Magic ? She never really thought about this profession, having never considered to join the Aurors in the future as she was meant to be a doctor since she was born. But in a sense, Aurors were like ninjas in Konoha. They were fighting to protect innocents from evil people. That was what Akira wanted to do when she became a ninja. And now, she would get the opportunity to discover how it was done in the magical world.

However, having a revenge to take in Konoha, she didn't really want to fool around in the Ministry of Magic. But Moody didn't let her the choice as everything seemed to already be planned.

"You'll stay at the Leaky Cauldron for the night and starting tomorrow, you'll spend your time in the Aurors department. But I warn you, we don't take lazy people who waste our time. You'll need to show a minimum of interest and willingness to learn. But given the way you managed to leave the school without being detected and the disguise you put on to fool everyone, I think you've what it takes to become an apprentice Auror."

"Tomorrow ? But it's Sunday. You're working during the week-end ?" Akira asked him with concern.

"Of course. You think that Dark Arts stop their mischief during these days ? They don't so we don't take days off either."

Merry Christmas everyone (with a bit of advance) !

These winter holidays took a strange twist for Akira. It went from being unsure if she would succeed in leaving the castle, to finally joining London with the idea of flying then to Konoha, to getting a job at the Ministry to see how Aurors work. It's far away from all the Christmas stories I wrote so far.

Anyway, I think that this adventure will be interesting for Akira. Good or bad, she'll surely learn a lot of things to the contact of Aurors who share the same ideology as ninjas. We'll see what they'll teach her in a few days after the New Year, when the next chapter will be published.