[Fic] Dreaming of magic: Chapter 10 - Alastor

[gingerspark]

Title: Dreaming of magic
Fandom: Dreaming of sunshine, Naruto, Harry potter
Summary: DOS team 7 reborn into the Harry Potter universe

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Moody

 

Alastor Moody had finally managed to wrangle a meeting with Lysander Urien's little runes prodigy. He'd spent three weeks trying replicate the effects from the runes experts' notes (the sensible girl hadn't let them have a full copy) and utterly failed.

 

His request to meet with Lysander's little ward was initially refused outright, and he could respect the man being wary about having strangers around his children. But then, a few days after the first owl had arrived, a second appeared, inviting Alastor to Urien Manor.

 

Alastor had no idea what had changed, but he wasn't about to miss out on the possibility of obtaining protection for his eyes.

 div>He stepped out of the fireplace to see four adults waiting for him. Three had magical signatures, distinct to his right eye, and one appeared entirely muggle, not even a squib.

Lysander Urien stepped forward, a tense smile on his face. "Morning Alastor." They shook hands.

 

"You know my lovely wife Theo of course, and this is Mary, and this is Jo," Lysander gestured to each woman in turn.

 

"Good to meet you," Alastor said, glaring suspiciously at the strange ambush.

 

Theo and Lysander showed everyone to a sitting room and called for tea, which Alastor didn't drink, sipping from his flask instead.

 

"So, Alastor, while we initially dismissed your request, our children were quite adamant that we ask you to teach them magical security and defense," Lysander explained. "This would be in exchange for adjusting and teaching you a rune array that would work for you and you would be able to apply yourself."

 

What? The children had demanded to be taught be a semi-retired Auror? That was either childish awe of Aurors or the seer girl anticipating something. Alastor's eye spun, glancing around the small gathering, noting the three small figures on the other side of the door. If the adults were going along with it, (and they didn't seem exactly happy about having him around their children) then it was likely the seer pushing for it. 

 

"I teach Auror trainees, not little kids," Alastor pointed out. Honestly, he had no idea how to go about teaching children too young to have wands. Starting them on good security young was ideal, but he was used to teaching adults, however incompetent, not corralling children.

 

"We're aware," Theo said, polite smile firmly fixed on her face. 

 

"I'll be supervising," Lysander added.

 

Alastor a swig of tea from his flask. "I can try. The kids listening in the ones you want me to teach?"

 

All four adults looked exasperated, but entirely unsurprised that the children were eavesdropping.

 

"Yes, that would be them." Lysander pinched the bridge of his nose. "You might as well come in," he called.

 

The door opened and three children entered, all of them looking at him curiously, apparently entirely unashamed at being caught spying.  

 

"Children, this is Auror Moody. Alastor, this is Katherine, Sylvanus and Naruto."

 

Alastor gave the children a nod, looking closer at each of them. To his left eye, they looked entirely normal. To his right eye, however, they were all strange. The girl seemed to blend into her own shadow, and magical patterns flickered around her. The blond boy had... something twined around his core, and it looked powerful. The dark haired boy was the most normal of the three, but he had an unusual amount of magic in and around his eyes. 

 

"So your eye can see through walls?" Naruto asked. "That's so cool!"

 

Alastor wasn't really sure what to do with the open admiration he could see in the boy's eyes. He was still watching the blonde warily when Katherine decided to intervene.

 

"My notes are this way," she said, heading down the hallway.

 

Alastor followed the children into what looked like a schoolroom and sat with his back against a wall as Lysander took a seat a few steps away from the table.

 

"So, how does this thing work then?" he asked, gesturing to the rune diagrams spread across the table.

 

"There are several elements to the rune array I designed for Sylvanus, but there are elements of that that you probably don't want. The elements that block magical flow aren't applicable, and you probably want the incineration trigger set up differently too," Katherine explained.

 

"Why?" Alastor asked.

 

"Well, yours is a prosthetic eye, so presumably you take it out occasionally for cleaning? Or you might want to replace it?" Katherine said.

 

"My eyeballs are never leaving my head, so it's not a problem for me," Sylvanus added.

 

"But if you had this array, and you tried to take it out to clean it," Katherine trailed off, grimacing.

 

"I'd be incinerated," Alastor finished. Damn, that was inconvenient. Pretty high potential for making his murder look like an accident there too.

 

"Like, whoosh!" Naruto added, grinning.

 

"There are alternatives, but it depends what you want. I could make something keyed to your magical signature, but I think it would still be vulnerable to someone using the imperius curse or something similar to get you to remove your own eye," Katherine explained.

 

Alastor stared at her, right eye stilling to look straight at her. That was a good assessment - he'd had Auror trainees who wouldn't have noticed that.

 

They eventually settled on an array keyed to Alastor's magical signature with an intent based anti-theft ward layered over it. He wasn't about to let someone else apply an incineration array to his face, so he had a pile of notes to take home and learn from so he could do it himself. 

 

He tucked the notes away and stood, giving himself space to pace while he talked.

 

"Right then. Do you kiddies know the most important principle of protecting yourselves?" he asked.

 

Sylvanus raised an eyebrow. "Is it making sure your enemies are already dead?" he enquired.

 

"Protecting each other?" Naruto volunteered. 

 

Katherine smiled in that irritating way seers did sometimes.

 

"No," Alastor said. "It's CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he shouted, thumping the table for emphasis.

 

 All three children were now on their feet, settled into stances he didn't recognise, all of them holding weapons. They looked calm too, reacting like trained Aurors rather than startled children. Huh. That was interesting. Damned suspicious, but interesting. He was starting to like these kids.

 

*

Alastor spent a couple of afternoons talking the terrifying trio through the theoretical aspects of defense before Lysander relaxed enough to let him show them anything practical. He suspected the kids were nagging their parents to allow him to let them see what they'd be up against, fighting an adult wizard.

 

Lysander had admitted he'd tried to spar with them, but they'd been frustrated by his hesitance in attacking them.

 

They'd agreed that Alastor would limit himself to stunners, mild hexes and jinxes, and defensive magic, and the children would do what they could. Given that they didn't have wands yet, that wasn't much. They might have sword training, but they were being taught forms created to be used with a wand in the dominant hand.

 

Learning how outclassed they'd be against a fully trained wizard would be an important lesson.

 

The three children stood across from him in the garden, relaxed in the way that meant they could snap into movement at a moment's notice. If Alastor was honest, that was really odd to see on children. They'd also scattered the garden with rune-traps, which was good thinking, if ineffective against his eye. 

 

He didn't do anything to indicate the start of the 'duel' (good way to get killed, that) but the instant he started his first stunner the children scattered. They dashed in different directions faster than he could follow, vanishing and then reappearing in different places.

 

He re-aimed his stunner at Sylvanus, who dodged with a smooth shift of his feet and threw a knife at Alastor. It halted in mid-air, caught in Alastor's wordlessly cast shield.

 

To his right, Katherine headed for the orchard and ran straight up a tree. Alastor turned his head to look at that with both eyes, because what in Merlin's name was that? An instant later he dismissed it as a distraction and dragged his attention back to the other two as his robe caught fire. He doused it with a water spell, utterly bewildered about the spontaneous combustion. He was certain he hadn't got near any of the traps, and there were no strange runes on his person.

 

In his moment of distraction Naruto had started pelting him with - were those muggle tennis balls? Alastor narrowed his eyes as he cast another shield charm. Those were muggle tennis balls with telltale traces of magic.

 

He unleashed a torrent of stunners and tripping jinxes at the two boys. Naruto dodged, neat sidesteps taking him out of spell-line, but Sylvanus only dodged the first spell sent his way. When it dissolved harmlessly on one of the rune arrays Sylvanus stopped moving and pulled out his own tennis balls.

 

Alastor re-calculated as he ducked tennis balls from three directions. Katherine had initially used some sort of magic on her projectiles, but had dropped it when he'd dodged easily. He'd been assuming the runes were all trap based - stupid mistake. At least some of them were shields, and he had no idea which ones. He should have expected it; he knew how bright these kids were. 

 

Alastor ran as Katherine's shadow reached for him, dodging around the rune circles, switching his shield for one better at deflecting physical attacks. This was a much, much harder fight than he was expecting. Most of his problem was that he couldn't hit the brats. They were fast, and he expected that, he knew they were sword-trained, but he didn't expect this level of skill. They didn't throw themselves out of the way of spells, ditdn't lose their balance, and didn't take their eyes off him. They were just a step to the side whenever his spell arrived, hurling another fucking tennis ball at him, and he was starting to get out of breath. He fired another stunner at Katherine, aiming at her shadow instead of her body.

 

Alastor had only a split second to notice a ball changing its trajectory midair before it connected with his forehead.

 

*

Lysander

 

Lysander watched the fight unfold from the balcony with his hands over his mouth. He'd only agreed because Alastor had argued that the kids were too bright for their own good. He had concurred with Alastor that it would be good for them to realise they couldn't take down an adult and shouldn't try.

 

Even limited to stunners and mild hexes, Alastor Moody was a formidable opponent, casting a torrent of spells wordlessly, far faster than Lysander could. He was impossible to surprise, dodging and shielding against balls thrown from behind him.

 

His kids were holding their own though. It went against every instinct he had to stand on the balcony and watch an adult attack his kids, but he was starting to see why they'd been getting impatient about being coddled. If they could hold their own against Alastor Moody... 

 

The children had spent the morning before Alastor arrived traipsing round the garden setting up traps and defenses, and then painting runes on the tennis balls Jo had bought for them. Their plans were clearly paying off, as Alastor was actually having to dodge as well as maintain a shield. As he watched, Katherine stilled, hand out, and a ball collided with Alastor's face, and he collapsed. A few meters away Katherine fell to the ground, although Lysander was sure she hadn't been hit.

 

He hurried down the steps to the garden as Naruto and Sylvanus rushed over to Katherine.

 

"Kako? Kako, are you okay?" Naruto asked.

 

"Her pulse is fine, I think one of Moody's stunners got her," Sylvanus said, letting go of Katherine's wrist.

 

Lysander knelt beside the boys and pulled out his wand. "Ennervate," he cast.

 

Katherine woke up with a gasp.

 

"Kako! You're okay." Naruto grinned widely.

 

"The stunner didn't hit you," Sylvanus said, frowning.

 

"It hit my shadow," Katherine said, looking thoughtful. 

 

What? Why would that matter? But Naruto and Sylvanus both looked serious and thoughtful, so it must be important somehow.

 

"We should probably wake Auror Moody up," Katherine pointed out, getting to her feet. Lysander realised he'd left the man lying unconscious on the grass, which was thoughtless and rude of him. Alastor was a guest.

 

Alastor was sprawled on the grass with a tennis ball stuck to his forehead. Come to think of it, all of the bright green balls had stuck to what they'd hit, there were several stuck to trees in the orchard. How had they managed that?

 

Lysander removed the ball with a wordless levitation charm, standing several feet back from Alastor. The man jumped to his feet the moment he was awake, eye spinning.

 

"Wandless levitation?" Alastor asked, staring at Katherine incredulously.

 

"Um, yes?" Katherine responded.

 

Alastor gave Lysander a look, clearly communicating the same sense of 'what the fuck?' that Lysander felt whenever the kids did something incredible.

 

"She levitated a spoon to demonstrate when we were explaining magic to her parents," Lysander said, shrugging.

 

Alastor's eyebrows rose even higher. "Merlin's balls."

 

Lysander nodded slowly. It was a lot to get used to. He'd adjusted to the ridiculous talents of the trio, but he really hadn't been expecting the kids to take down Alastor. It was three on one, and they'd prepared the terrain, but... 

 

"Wait, wait, is that weird?" Naruto interrupted.

 

"Wandless magic at, what? How old were you?" Alastor asked Katherine.

 

"Five," Katherine said, glancing between the two men with wide eyes.

 

"Five. Damn," Alastor shook his head. "You didn't tell them how odd that was?" he asked Lysander.

 

Sylvanus narrowed his eyes at his father. "How odd is it?"

 

"Ah, well, we, uh," Lysander struggled to explain. "We didn't want any of you to feel pressured, or well, stop doing things because you thought it was impossible." And that was a seriously possibility. If you didn't believe magic would work, then it wouldn't.

 

Katherine was frowning. "But everyone does magic like that."

 

"Hah!" Alastor laughed. "Not intentionally. Accidental magic is uncontrollable. Most wizards can't do any wandless magic at all."

 

"But it's not difficult!" Naruto blurted. "I managed levitation ages ago. It only took practice."

 

Lysander and Alastor looked at the boy curiously.

 

"How much practice?" Lysander asked.

 

"I mean, an hour a day maybe? For a couple of years before I could really do it consistently?" Naruto said, and Sylvanus and Katherine nodded.

 

Lysander blinked. Naruto practiced that much? Lysander had known that Katherine and Sylvanus were little workaholics, but Naruto had always seemed much more carefree and well, normal. But putting in regular practice without any sort of adult influence was not even approaching normal child behaviour. Actually achieving results was incredible. 

 

Yes, Lysander was aware that it was theoretically possible to learn wandless magic through practice, but it wasn't usually worth the effort. A minimum of seven hundred hours of practice for a simple levitation spell? When he could just use a wand, what was the point? He could perhaps see it being useful for a child, but attempts to teach wandless magic to children always failed - they needed to know how the spell felt cast correctly to even have a starting point. And if it failed too many times they'd start to believe they couldn't do it, and wouldn't be able to. How on earth had the children managed this through practice alone?

 

"Terrifying little Hufflepuffs aren't you?" Alastor commented, grinning at the children.

 

 

*

 

Sirius

 

Harry and Sirius picked through the blown out remains of what had been the Potter's country house. Sirius had spent several summers here as a teenager. Even before his mother had thrown him out, he'd preferred to spend time with James's family. The house itself had been destroyed in a Death Eater raid while James and Lily were in hiding at Godric's hollow.

 

Sirius maintained a shield around them as they walked into what had been the entranceway. The staircase was destroyed and Sirius took a moment to recover from the gut-punch of grief. James was gone, couldn't slide down the bannister laughing even if Sirius had the house repaired.

 

"Sirius?" Harry looked worried.

 

"It's alright kid, just some old memories. Let's carry on, okay?" Sirius said.

 

As they walked past the kitchen Sirius found himself staring blankly into the kitchen, remembering Fleamont cooking for himself and James, telling them stories about his own Hogwarts days.

 

Harry tugged at his hand, and Sirius tore himself away from the mostly intact kitchen. It was slowly getting easier to think about James and his parents. Maybe in a few months he'd be ready to share some of those stories with Harry. 

 

They walked through the house until they found the room where Sirius remembered James spending hours with his father during the summer holidays. It was in the centre of the house, with no access to outer walls. The door and the surrounding stonework was scarred with scorches and traces of spellfire, but the structure remained intact. 

 

"I think you just turn the knob," Sirius said after a moment.

 

Harry looked at him dubiously, but reached out. 

 

"Ow!" Harry pulled his hand back, cradling it to his chest. 

 

"Harry? Harry, what happened?" Sirius asked.

 

"It hurt me," Harry said, sounding miserable. "Does that mean I can't go in?"

 

"Can't be, you're the heir. I don't know - oh!" Sirius smacked his forehead. "It probably just tested your blood. I don't think it'll do it again."

 

Harry responded with a reasonable impression of Grandfather's 'unimpressed eyebrow raise'. It was adorable. "So, even though it bit me the first time, you think that this time it won't?"

 

That was exactly what Sirius was saying, because it was true! Sirius sighed and reached for the knob himself.

 

The second he touched it a burning sensation started to spread up his arm, and he snatched his hand back, biting his tongue to avoid swearing in front of Harry. 

 

"Ah, Merlin's balls that hurts." Sirius curled around his hand protectively and waited for the awful burning sensation to abate. "I think that was just a warning, it definitely liked you better."

 

"Are you okay?" Harry sounded upset, which really hadn't been Sirius's intention.

 

He forced a grin back onto his face. "I'm fine Harry, just a bit of stinging. Nothing to worry about, I promise."

 

"Okay, but if it hurt me, then it hurt you, why do you still think it won't hurt me again?" Harry asked.

 

Sirius winced. He really hadn't thought that through.

 

"It's a blood test - it hurt me a lot more because I don't have Potter blood. It's already tested your blood, so it doesn't need to do it again. You'll be able to open the door, I swear.

 

Harry looked skeptical, but nodded and turned back to the door with a cute determined scowl on his face. He grasped the knob, breathing a sigh of relief when nothing happened, then opened the door.

 

Sirius couldn't see much beyond the entryway, but he gave Harry an encouraging smile. "A big leather-bound book, probably with gold stuff on it. On a pedestal or something probably. You can do it."

 

Harry moved out of sight, returning a few minutes later with two books. 

 

"Um, Sirius?" he said, holding them both out. "Which one is it? They were both on a big table."

 

"Huh," Sirius said, examining the two books. They both both resembled the Black grimoire, in that they were large and old, with pages sticking out from where generations of witches and wizards had added their own notes. What was odd was that they were very different enough that he doubted they were for the same kind of magic. "I don't know. We should probably bring both home." 

 

Sirius was starting to suspect James had inherited two different family magics. The cloak had been a family artifact, but it had never fitted with what Sirius knew of the Potter's creation and transformation based magic.

 

*

 

Crouch

 

Bartemius Crouch had no idea how this could be happening. He'd done his best to fight the Death Eater threat during the war, even condemned his own son. How could this be happening?

 

Could Amelia really be so rule-bound as to condemn him for minor regulation violations in a time of war? He'd been sure the trial would see him exonerated. Not, perhaps, back to his position as department head, but not to Azkaban! It was a short sentence, three months wouldn't be a huge problem, except that his son would almost certainly break free in that time. Holding his son under the Imperius had seemed like a good idea, but he needed to re-cast it at least every couple of weeks.

 

This couldn't be happening. Oh Merlin. He couldn't tell anyone, hadn't told anyone. What would his son do?

 

Barty managed to pull himself out of his denial fueled inertia as Shacklebolt was pushing him into a cell.

 

"Kingsley! Kingsley, you need to listen to me, my son."

 

Shacklebolt grimaced and turned away. 

 

"Kingsley! Kingsley Shacklebolt! My son, he's alive! Please listen to me, Kingsley," he pleaded, to no avail.

 

Shacklebolt turned the corner and the dementors swept in.

 

 

*

Alan 

 

"I've seen better fighting from eight year olds! Better situational awareness too. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" 

 

Alan pinched the bridge of his nose as Alastor chewed out the Auror trainees. 

 

Yes, they were pretty unimpressive, yes the three children Alastor had been teaching could probably make mincemeat out of them. Taking down Alastor, even as a team, was no mean feat. He was easily jounin level, a capable and experienced fighter.

 

Comparing three Jounin of Konoha, however small they might currently be, to new trainees was incredibly unfair. Not that he could point that out. It would be difficult to explain why a trio of eight year olds had more combat experience than Aurors. From what Alastor told him of the spar he'd had with the kids, Alan actually suspected they'd been holding back. They'd still impressed Alastor enough that he seemed to have developed a fondness for them.

 

On the other hand, the standards for Aurors were appallingly low, maybe being shown up by wandless children would encourage improvement?

 

 

*

 

Makoto 

 

Makoto was glad he and his wife had made the choice to move to England. His wife was happier closer to her family, and his family were able to use magical travel methods to visit. Most of all, Makoto appreciated how good England had been for his son. 

 

Naruto stuck out less here. In the Japanese magical community, his mother's English heritage had been looked down on, and even Naruto's natural charm and charisma hadn't totally countered that disdain. The problems had been compounded by Naruto's strange accent. Makoto had no idea why his son spoke Japanese so strangely. His accent was distinct but unplaceable, and he used strange phrasings and odd meanings. He'd done it ever since he began talking, and Makoto still couldn't figure out why. It had faded slightly as Naruto grew, but he still sounded odd to Japanese speakers, like he was from a region they'd never heard of. Even stranger, his son didn't have the same problem in english, speaking with a perfect mimicry of his mother's slight Yorkshire accent. 

 

Makoto had come to accept this was one of the things about his son he might never understand. The boy's insistence on being called Naruto was another of them, along with his fondness for orange and closeness with Katherine and Sylvanus. His son had been folded into their little group seemingly instantly. All three children had been insistent on taking lessons together, learning to fence together, and visiting each other. Naruto spent as much time as he could with the two children, playing together in the gardens or huddled together inside.

 

Naruto had taught both of the other children Japanese, with all his little quirks. It was odd, listening to turns of speech he'd never heard from anyone other than his son come out of the mouths of English children. It was even odder to watch them chase each other up walls and fling leaves about.

 

Makoto and Mary had adjusted. Their son was kind and brilliant, he always had been, and he so clearly enjoyed spending time with Sylvanus and Katherine. In the face of that, they could ignore a lot of oddness.

 

Maktoto stood in his kitchen and stared. This was more than a bit of oddness. This was a kitsune. What a kitsune was doing in England, Makoto had no idea, but he knew what he was seeing. One had turned up at school once, a four-tailed fox. They'd all been awed. Two tailed foxes turned up regularly around Japanese magical communities, but foxes older than that were incredibly rare. 

 

This kitsune had nine tails, and it was sitting in his kitchen eating inarizushi. 

 

"Hi Dad," Naruto greeted him. "This is Kurama, he's my friend." Across the room Sylvanus pinched the bridge of his nose - apparently this wasn't how they'd planned to broach the 'nine-tailed fox in your kitchen' thing.

 

Makoto bowed respectfully to Kurama. "Welcome to our home Kurama-sama. How long have you known my son?" What on earth is going on, when did my son meet a nine tailed fox were the questions he desperately wanted to ask, but didn't.

 

"Tch. I've been with the annoying brat since he came into this world," Kurama responded, which, what?

 

"Kurama-sama was stuck in Naruto's head, I finished the seal to let him out last week." Katherine explained, entirely unhelpfully. Stuck in his head? How did a kitsune get stuck in his infant son's head? Especially one so powerful. Should he have persuaded Mary to give birth in England? Why had his son never mentioned the fox in his head?

 

Makoto watched the fox warily. Kurama-sama was the size of a normal fox, but there was a faint impression of vast power. He also had opposable thumbs, which was bizarre. Was that something that happened to all foxes once they got to nine tails, or was Kurama just unusual?

 

In lieu of the answers that were obviously not forthcoming, Makoto watched the children. Naruto was completely relaxed around Kurama, chattering to the fox a mile a minute. Sylvanus and Katherine also seemed comfortable, Sylvanus was barely paying attention to what Kurama was doing, in sharp contrast to his usual behavior around strangers. Katherine was writing in her notebook, occasionally asking Kurama questions Makoto could barely follow.

 

Makoto decided to trust the children's judgement and moved to put the kettle on.

 

*

 

Moody 

 

Of the three children he'd taught the basics of magical security to, Katherine was the one most at risk. Sylvanus lived in Urien Manor, which he knew was relatively secure, and Naruto had competent parents who lived in a mixed magical and muggle village, so his security would likely be fine. Alastor would be checking later of course, but Katherine was the priority. She might be a seer, but any security she might have put on her house had likely never been tested.

 

Therefore, Alastor was flying over a fence in muggle London run a security test himself. The house itself was opaque to his vision, which was a good sign.

 

He slunk across the garden, right eye searching for wards he might trip. He reached the house unimpeded, and after casting a few charms to hide what he was doing from muggles, he pulled out a broomstick and flew up to the first floor. 

 

Alastor circled the house, looking through each window with his normal eye. The curtains were closed, but through a small gap he could see what looked like it might be a small girl's room. He used an unlocking charm on the window, and slowly levitated the lower pane until there was enough space for him to crawl through.

 

He carefully scanned for traps, then placed a hand on the windowsill to help himself through. There was a flash of light- 

 

Alastor woke up in a considerable amount of pain, unable to move. He started to struggle against the strange paralysis.

 

"Auror Moody." His eye spun for a moment until he saw Katherine kneeling beside him. She was wearing pyjamas, hands raised and empty.

 

"Auror Moody, you've hurt your spine, I'm going to try and heal it, okay?" Katherine said.

 

He eyed her suspiciously. She certainly looked like Katherine, and he didn't think anyone else would think to replicate the shadow or the odd flickery traces. The pain was bad enough that he was willing to take a child's attempt at healing, so he nodded in consent.

 

Her hand glowed green, and the pain faded slightly. A few minutes later he able to breathe and sit up without agony.

 

"So, were you testing my security?" Katherine asked.

 

"Yes," Alastor said. "It's acceptable." If it could take him out, it would probably take out most dark wizards. 

 

"Thanks, but um, did you think about how this would look to my parents?" she asked, grimacing.

 

How it would look to her parents? Alastor considered it. Why would they have a problem with security testing?

 

"You're trying to break into my bedroom in the middle of the night," Katherine said.

 

Alastor winced, realising how bad that would look to the parents of an eight year old.

 

"Exactly," Katherine said. "It might be a good idea to leave before they wake up and freak out."

 

Alastor agreed, given that he'd just realised he'd probably broken a couple of the laws on entering muggle residences.

 

He thanked Katherine and snuck off into the night, newly confident in her security.

 

*

 

Remus

 

Remus had eventually caved to his friend's excuses about needing help with Harry (which was nonsense, Sirius was great with him, just anxious) and moved into Black Manor. It was easier, and he had taken over teaching Harry maths and the basics of how the wizarding world worked. 

 

Remus hung around the edges of Harry's birthday party. It was a small gathering, given that Harry didn't know very many children in the wizarding world yet. Harry had been ecstatic the entire day, delighted that his birthday was being celebrated. Remus had been doing a lot of counting backwards from ten when Harry talked about his previous birthdays.

 

Harry's genuine happiness was infectious, and watching Harry bounce around the house with his presents had tempered Remus and Sirius's tempers. 

 

There were five children altogether, having a picnic in the ground of Black Manor. Remus and Sirius were supervising, Sirius taking the children for short flights in his motorbike while Remus kept an eye on the others.

 

One of Harry's friends looked straight at him, eyes narrowed. Remus felt suddenly self-conscious, and even more so when she nudged the boy beside her. That was a very piercing look for such a small boy. He said something Remus didn't catch to the girl, and then they were both making a beeline for him.

 

"Remus Lupin?" The girl asked.

 

"Yes?" He shifted nervously, unsure how the girl knew his name.

 

The girl smiled triumphantly. "I'm Katherine and this is Sylvanus," she said, gesturing to the boy beside her. "We've got a present for you."

 

Katherine Darby, the seer he remembered Harry and Sirius talking about.

 

"A present?" he asked. "It's not my birthday." 

 

"No, but it's just a little present." Katherine held out a handful of small pieces of parchment.

 

Remus took them, examining the runes curiously. He didn't understand what they would do, but they certainly looked like functional arrays of some kind.

 

"What do they do?" he asked.

 

"They're mostly timed knockout arrays, the number at the top there is the number of hours they work for. And the four ones with the big rune in the middle are barrier tags - you just put them around you in a circle and use your wand to activate them," she explained.

 

The bottom dropped out of Remus's stomach. They knew. They wanted to keep him away - but that wasn't it was it? They didn't seem scared, just slightly concerned.

 

"You should keep them on you, you know, just in case? Especially if you're ever at Hogwarts," Katherine told him.

 

Remus felt dizzy, and his stomach felt cold with dread. That was a warning with some terrible implications. Transforming somewhere he could endanger others was one of his worst nightmares, and Hogwarts? He nodded his head numbly, tucking the little sheets away. He'd get something to keep them in, something he'd always remember to wear. 

 

Katherine gave him a warm smile, and then turned to where Harry was calling for her.

 

Sylvanus lingered, looking intently at Remus, who gave him a slightly wobbly smile.

 

"You wouldn't have hurt anyone. You'd just have lost your job," Sylvanus said, before giving him a nod and following after Katherine.

 

Remus sat down on the grass, and tried to breathe through the relief that he hadn't, even in a future that wouldn't happen, killed or infected anyone.

 

*

Sasuke 

 

Sasuke's perspective on Konoha had changed. It wasn't one thing, or a sudden revelation. It happened slowly, over the course of years.

 

When Sasuke was three, still trying to make sense of the politics of the strange world he'd been reborn into, his mother told him only adults fought in wars, and he wouldn't be an adult until he was seventeen. Seventeen seemed both such a long way away from three, and very old to start fighting.

 

The radio played in the background as Sasuke and Shikako made biscuits in her mother's kitchen and Sasuke struggled to make sense of the report about child soldiers in Mozambique.  If they were soldiers then they were adults, genin. Jo glanced at them with a momentary flicker of heartbreak, then hurried to change stations.

 

Sasuke learned traditional wizard fencing because he wanted to (it was easy and familiar) and not because he was expected to fight. His parents were civilians, but that wasn't it - there weren't clan children somewhere else being taught to fight. Most children got even less training than him. 

 

Sasuke shot past his parents' expectations with ease, but the things he was being taught still confused him. He was being raised as a clan heir, but he knew Itachi hadn't known nearly as much about history, law or politics as Sylvanus was expected to. He was expected to be able to make arguments and counterarguments for a position, to think for himself. He was good at it, but it was disconcertingly new.

 

His peers here learnt such different things to shinobi children. Both his magical and muggle peers spent much more time learning abstract things than he expected. Konoha would never have bothered teaching about a civilisation over a thousand years gone, and why would they? Shinobi didn't need that to be a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. 

 

Learning the things he was expected to know as the Heir of the House of Urien along with the muggle primary education Shikako and her parents thought was important, there were so many things that hadn't been important for shinobi to know. Children could only learn so much, and academy children needed to learn to fight. There just wasn't time to write essays on philosophy when it was quicker (convenient, a voice whispered) for them to memorise rules.

 

Sylvanus was expected to be in school until he was 18 and had passed his NEWTs. He wouldn't be finished with all his academic learning by twelve. Of course, all good shinobi taught themselves various things after graduation, but it was very different. 

 

The thing was, he could see the influence of all this education in Shikako's actions in their last life. She thought about things on a bigger scale, was scientific in her approach, looked outwards, thought about her own views. He'd assumed it was just Nara intelligence, but he could see it wasn't. Shikako had always thought about orders, thought about the impact of their actions on others, and it was natural to her. Now though, he could see that some of that was a product of her previous education.

 

Sasuke watched Neville and Harry spar, refereed by Naruto. The sun shone through the leaves of the tree he and Shikako sat under.

 

"Do you think we're doing the right thing?" Sasuke blurted. "Teaching them to fight."

 

Sometimes Sasuke could see Shikako's age so clearly in her eyes. She looked tired.

 

She sighed. "Harry will have to. He doesn't have a choice, Voldemort will target him. Neville - Neville might avoid it, but he's brave and loyal, and he'll fight with Harry. I hope we'll be able to handle some of the war for them, but... It's better than letting them run in as civilians."

 

They watched the children spar for a long moment, silence broken only by Neville and Harry's cheerful shouts.

 

"We were undereducated child soldiers, weren't we?" Sasuke suddenly needed to know, to know if Shikako thought so too.

 

Shikako slumped back, staring up at the wisps of cloud visible through the branches. "Yes." 

***

Yay, another giant chapter. Apparently chapters under 5k are no longer a thing.

Thank you to notanautomaton, who made me realise that a moody POV was 100% needed, and also betaed along with lilybound.

Also thank you to the people on the DOS discord, this wouldn't have been written at all without the people on the crossover channel.

I've got 50K of this written now, and I'm still kind of floored people are interested.

Stevie wrote some DoM stuff over on the forums, and you should check it out if you haven't already seen it, it's wonderful. LINK

So, the next chapter is the Kakashi chapter, which I know people have been waiting for. You guys get to find out what he's been up to!
 

Comments

[spiritualatheist]

Awesome! Thanks for the chapter!

[gingerspark]

Glad you like it, thank you for commenting :D

Fox out of the bag

[john_burton_lee]

I liked the fight with Moody and the scene with Aoba made me giggle.

In the scene with Makoto, are they talking in English or Japanese? I wonder how long it would take for him to jump to the possibility that Naruto learned to speak Japanese from the fox and that's where his accent comes from.

I also wonder how long it would take Sirius to find out about Kurama and start side-eyeing Sasuke, wondering what primordial being took an interest in him. I kind of want to see him freak out when he realizes that Shikako uses sama with Kurama.

Definitely looking forward to Kakashi.

Re: Fox out of the bag

[gingerspark]

:D

I didn't actually think about what language they're speaking. It could be either, they're all very fluent and happy switching back and forth.

Oooh, that's a good explanation. It's wrong, but it's like, perfectly plausible and sensible given the info Makoto has, that's brilliant!

Ah ha, that might come up in the next chapter. And yeah, deep respect from kako - scary to sirius.

Glad you're looking forward to Kakashi, he's such a delightful bundle of neuroses.

[nemesisnecrosis]

Moody's reaction to the lucky sevens is the best thing ever XD. I also just generally love the way he deals with Shikako like she's an adult. Really I love the way all the adults in this treat the trio.

[gingerspark]

Honestly I think Moody treats all kids like adults. He's...not good with kids. He'd be really thrown by her responding like an actual child, and hasn't actually noticed that she doesn't act her age.

I think Moody is like, the fun uncle who has no idea what child appropriate is, and could be persuaded to tell awful gory true crime stuff to a five year old who showed the slightest bit of interest.

He's going to get a bit of a shock if he actually tries teaching normal primary-age kids though.

Terrifying Little Hufflepuffs

[math_is_magic]

Mwahahaha. Team 7 strikes (terror) again! So glad things are shaping up for them, a little nervous about barty crouch, and SO excited for Kakashi. Just. Ah. I love this so much. I write recursive snippets in my head about it, tho not anything good enough to share. Just. My head wants to stay in this verse longer.

Also. GO HUFFLEPUFF. TLH as a moniker for team 7 is. Very Accurate.

Re: Terrifying Little Hufflepuffs

[gingerspark]

Oh, you should be nervous about Barty. Barty is competent as fuck, and he can act so well.

I'm incredibly flattered that you think about this fic enough to head-write recursive about it, that's such a wonderful thing to hear.

You're a really good writer and I'd be really excited to read anything you wrote, even if you don't think it's up to your standards for sharing.

[chys]

Yeah, had to get Kurama out or the sorting hat would have had a field day with Kurama. lol!

[gingerspark]

Haha, so, the seal is kind of like the standard fanon little Kurama who can run around outside the seal. This is *waves hand* easier with magic than chakra for uh, reasons.

He's still mostly inside Naruto, but being able to manifest a body and run about a bit means he's less trapped. It's also far easier for Shikako to talk to him about chakra - naruto was not made for passing along theoretical conversations.

If he was actually totally unsealed, he'd be a hundred foot tall chakra beast which would be awkward and end badly.

He can and does stay inside naruto a good deal of the time, and will be there for the sorting.

The adults are 100% assuming that if they can't see Kurama, he's not there, and they are very wrong.

[tpyrene]

I really love this fic. :-)

[gingerspark]

Thank you!