Chapter 13: 1-3: Class
Disclaimer: Being neither British nor Japanese, it should therefore come as no surprise that I own neither Harry Potter nor Naruto, nor anything from their respective franchises.
Trigger Warning: Mentions of / references to child abuse.
The next night, after dinner concluded, Headmaster Dumbledore nodded to Iruka, who stood. "Before you leave, I will be speaking briefly about the Sealing Arts and giving a demonstration to help you decide if you are interested in the lessons I will be giving. Starting this weekend, these lessons will be offered for an hour after dinner on Tuesday and Thursday nights, and for two hours after lunch on Sundays."
Pulling a medium-sized scroll from his robes, Iruka held it out, unrolling the first meter to show the designs within. "This is a seal; more specifically, a storage seal. By drawing the correct characters in the correct arrangement, the seal channels magic to produce an effect, which in this case is to store an item inside." He laid the scroll on the floor in front of him, then released the storage seal to reveal a broad stone brazier on a waist-high pedestal. Several students jumped somewhat at the plume of smoke, but now looked intrigued that a design on paper could store a solid object. Leaving the storage scroll in place, Iruka stood and lit the brazier with a quick charm before withdrawing a second scroll from his robes and unrolling it between him and the brazier. "This seal is somewhat similar, except instead of storing an item for later retrieval, it captures nearby flames as a means of extinguishing fires." Word was followed by deed, as the flames were pulled from the brazier and into the seal. Rolling up and stowing that scroll, Iruka slid forward and re-sealed the brazier.
"The applications of the Sealing Arts are limited only by one's skill and imagination. That storage seal is simply one of the most common; another is the creation of barriers." As he spoke, Iruka placed four tags in a square on the floor, before channeling his chakra into them to create a cubical barrier a meter on a side. Careful to maintain the chakra flow into the barrier, he hopped up on top to demonstrate its solidity. "Now, none of you will be creating one of these right away. Creating seals that work reliably and safely takes training, practice, and more than a little patience, but with talent and hard work it's certainly possible that Wizarding Britain's first Seal Master is standing in this Hall right now." The chuunin smiled as he cut the flow of chakra, allowing the barrier to collapse as he dropped lightly to the floor and receiving an enthusiastic round of applause from many of the students and staff. "The first session of the class will convene in the Entrance Hall before moving outside for a safety demonstration. Afterwards, we will move to the classroom, though which classroom will be determined by the number of interested students. I look forward to seeing you on Sunday!" Bowing to the student body, Iruka began gathering his materials before returning to the Head Table as the students filed out, chattering animatedly about what they'd just seen.
"I believe you may find yourself using the largest of the available rooms." the Headmaster commented with a knowing smile.
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The end of lunch that Sunday saw a large crowd gathering outside the Great Hall. Iruka noted students from all four houses were present, perhaps fifty in all, though the Ravenclaw contingent was by far the largest. Quite a few of the first-years had come, still somewhat starry-eyed after their first week of learning magic. He also saw the Weasley Twins, talking in their back-and-forth way with the four first-years to attend from Gryffindor (Granger, Longbottom, Potter, and Thomas). In an out-of-the-way corner, so as not to intimidate the students, the Headmaster was holding a quiet conversation with Professors Flitwick, Quirrell, and Babbage as Filch looked on with his customary scowl.
Once he felt that all who were coming had arrived, Iruka clapped loudly to get his students' attention. "Welcome, everyone. I'm glad to see such interest, and hope you'll continue to find the subject interesting. For today's safety demonstration, please follow me." He turned and led the assorted students out the front doors of the castle and to a broad area of open lawn, where stood a pair of small, rough waist-high tables about ten meters apart. Minerva had transfigured the two at Iruka's request, while he had colored a yellow line in the grass ten meters from both tables. Next to each table stood a mannequin (also transfigured by Minerva) wearing somewhat tired-looking Hogwarts student robes (old discards provided by Flippy) and holding wand-sized sticks which lightly touched the tabletops. "Everybody but me stays behind the yellow line until the demonstration is over, unless they want to be sent back to the castle and banned from my class." he called out, and watched as the students and staff arrayed themselves behind the line with first-years and Professor Flitwick in front and the Headmaster sticking up in the back like a garish flagpole.
"The first and most important rule in this class is as follows: You will not attempt to energize any seal without my approval. Sealing mishaps can be extremely dangerous, and I don't want any of you to get hurt. That brings us to why we're out here. You'll notice the two mannequins behind me? They are positioned as someone energizing a seal."
"I have in my possession two defective seals, each of which I have modified with a time-delay on the charging section for the sake of this demonstration." He held up two envelopes with only a charging node protruding from each. "No, you may not see these seals. I don't want anyone copying them and hurting themselves or someone else. What you're about to witness is a demonstration of a couple of the ways seals can go wrong."
Iruka walked over to the first mannequin and slid one envelope onto the table under its 'wand'. "This will be a fairly generic seal failure, one of the more common ways for bad seals to fail." He charged the seal and jogged at a brisk civilian pace back to his students. "You might want to cover your ears."
Two seconds later, there was a loud BANG and a cloud of smoke, which cleared to reveal the dummy's wand reduced to a charred and splintered stump, and clear damage to the hand and arm holding it. He had set the explosive yield just high enough to be spectacular without being truly catastrophic; no need for people to know how big a boom seals could really produce, after all.
Stepping to the second table, Iruka placed the second seal in position, then pulled a crudely-transfigured wooden goblet from his robes and placed it on top of the center of the seal. "This is a bad version of a storage seal. Properly-drawn storage seals are immensely useful, but here you'll see what can go wrong if they're not properly drawn. Our dummy in this case is trying to test his storage seal with a goblet." He charged the seal and stepped clear, and a few seconds later, the tabletop erupted in smoke. This time, while the damage wasn't as violent, it was far more extensive: The entire wand arm of the dummy starting just above the elbow was simply gone.
"I am not trying to scare you off sealing," Iruka addressed his students, several of which looked to be on the verge of losing their breakfast, "but I am trying to scare you. As with any discipline that has great potential to do good, fuuinjutsu also has the potential to do great harm. Treat your work with the appropriate level of care, diligence, and respect, and I have no doubt that you will find this a rewarding endeavor."
At this, he pulled a storage scroll from his robes, unfurling and activating it in one smooth motion. The large cloud of smoke provoked more than a couple shrieks of alarm from the students, but when the smoke cleared to reveal the Staff Table from the Great Hall, complete with seats and Iruka sitting calmly in his accustomed place, they burst into applause.
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Even the largest of the classrooms Iruka had available was full nearly to capacity once his class had settled in. A handful had left after the safety demonstration, but most still seemed eager. "Once again, welcome everyone to Sealing Arts, or 'fuuinjutsu' as my people call it. For those with very short memories, I am Adjunct Professor Umino Iruka; in my homeland we state our family names first, so I am properly addressed as Professor Umino."
"First off, a show of hands: Who here has used a calligraphy brush before?" About half a dozen students raised their hands, mostly those with Asiatic features, although Dean Thomas of Gryffindor also had his hand up. "Those with their hands up will likely find this lesson a little bit boring, but you'll have a head start on the rest of the class, and I hope you'll use your experience to help the others." He saw heads nodding, even if most of the class looked somewhat confused at this point. "Even if your seal is designed properly, it can still fail if you cannot draw it properly. Calligraphy takes a lot of practice to get good at, and even more practice to get good and fast at, so that's where we'll be starting in the hopes that by the time you've learned enough sealing theory to begin drawing actual seals, your hands will be able to follow through for your minds."
Iruka spent the remainder of that weekend's lesson instructing the students in how to use the calligraphy brushes he had provided. Before dismissing the class, he pulled out a stack of parchments. "These parchments contain a list of many of the more basic characters used in seal-writing. Any of you who wish to practice between classes, come take one of these and you'll be able to sign out a brush kit, with the understanding that if you mistreat your brushes you will pay to have them replaced."
About a quarter of the students lined up to get practice guides, followed by the Professors, as the rest of the class dispersed. Last in line was the Headmaster, whose eyes twinkled with merriment as he signed out a brush set. "I do hope I prove trustworthy with your brushes, Professor." he said with mock-seriousness.
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That Tuesday, though there were a handful of new faces, the overall size of the class had dropped by about twenty percent. Clearly some of the students hadn't realized that learning to scribe seals would require actually learning how to write them, and considered the calligraphy aspect too boring to bother with. A few others were probably scared off by the safety demonstration, but didn't want to show this in front of their peers by leaving immediately. Either way, the Gryffindor contingent was heavily depleted, with only a couple of students beyond the twins and the first-years, now about matching the small group from Slytherin in size. Clearly the Hufflepuffs weren't afraid of a bit of work, and the Ravenclaws' curiosity was largely undimmed. Iruka's class would continue to dwindle over the next several weeks, while picking up the occasional late-comer, finally mostly settling down at about thirty-five total pupils.
As the weeks wore on, Iruka soon settled into a routine. There hadn't been enough interest to merit a class on Japanese language, but a few students were interested enough that Iruka ended up holding tutoring sessions as scheduling permitted. Other than his class and tutoring sessions, much of the chuunin's time was spent poring over Hogwarts' Library for anything that might help in his and Pandora's research, including skimming the History section on occasion for mentions of other displaced travelers like himself or anything like chakra or shinobi. Several times a week, he would return to the Rook to update and consult with Pandora, chat with Xeno, and spend time with Luna and continue guiding her training. She had now reached the point of being able to mold her chakra consistently, and was currently working on the leaf-sticking exercise.
Several students had drawn the ninja teacher's attention for various reasons. Hermione Granger, who seemed to spend almost as much time in the library as he did, appeared to be having trouble connecting with her peers. Given her personality, which reminded him of Sakura at the same age; it was likely that her forceful, driven attitude and bookish nature were contributing significantly to this, as had been the case with the pink-haired kunoichi. While Sakura may have been mostly teased for her large forehead, that had largely been because it was an easy target, as much of the bullies' true animosity towards her had been from resentment of her academic successes. If things didn't improve for Hermione soon, he'd speak to her discreetly or ask Professor McGonagall to do so and advise her on ways to be less... abrasive.
There were two students in his Sealing class that he now strongly suspected had troubled home lives. While Harry Potter was the first he had noticed, due to the attention the reluctant child celebrity drew, he had also noticed the boy's housemate Neville Longbottom showing problematically low self-esteem. It was to his dismay that Minerva had sadly informed him that Wizarding Britain did not have a legal framework in place to aid children with bad guardians when he had asked about proper procedures for reporting suspected abuse. Muggle law-enforcement did act on child abuse, she noted, but when the child in question was away at a boarding school they couldn't talk about, it made explaining things to law enforcement exceedingly difficult, and most students from abusive Muggle households tended to simply take refuge at Hogwarts and the homes of their magical friends before moving entirely into the Wizarding side of the world at their first opportunity.
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Nobody that knew Umino Iruka would ever claim that he didn't do everything he could for his students' sake. If legal intervention was out, that only left a more direct approach, which was why he was now making full use of his shinobi stealth skills (and dressed accordingly, including a facemask and gloves) as he alighted on the roof of #4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey. Minerva had given him the address of Mr. Potter's guardians as soon as he stated his intention to investigate further whether something was wrong and if anything could be done about it, and told him what she recalled from her day observing the family a decade before. She had also muttered sulphurously about "the worst kind of Muggles" and a "stubborn old fool".
A quick glance down at the driveway showed Mr. Dursley's car to be absent; unsurprising, as it was a workday. This was actually the chuunin's fourth visit to the neighborhood, the previous three having been spent observing the comings and goings of the Dursley family both to begin assessing their behavior and personalities and to determine a good time for a closer inspection of their home.
Vernon Dursley was an obese man whose movements showed a bit of muscle beneath the fat, but not nearly at the level of an Akimichi. What little Iruka had seen of the man suggested a prideful and likely boastful nature based on the way he swaggered to and from his immaculately-polished and presumably expensive car, but any more than that would require more time observing the man's behavior. In contrast to her husband's girth, Petunia Dursley was rail-thin, with an unattractive face that seemed mostly set in one of two expressions - a saccharine smile or a haughty, disapproving scowl. She spent much of her time outside her house running errands, gossiping with other women in the neighborhood, and performing autumn upkeep tasks on the front flower beds, such as removing dying annuals and pruning certain perennials. This last task was performed without the smoothness of familiarity, suggesting that one or both of the boys now away at boarding school had previously handled the chore.
Like much of the street, the exterior of #4 practically screamed out its conformity and 'propriety'. The flower beds were a study in rigid uniformity, a place for everything and everything in its place. If anything, the Dursley house seemed more 'normal' or 'regular' than those around it, as if the residents were making extra effort to fit in. The whole thing set off Iruka's shinobi sensibilities in a big way, as the more effort someone puts into maintaining an image, the more likely it is that the image is a mask for something far different.
If they followed their typical schedule, Vernon would be at work, Dudley still away at school (it was only late October), and Petunia out running errands for at least the next hour - plenty of time to get in, check things over, and get back out.
Stepping off the roof, Iruka casually and silently dropped the two storeys to the back garden, carefully peering in the windows at the back of the house and listening for any activity. Once he was satisfied that the house was empty, he made quick work of picking the lock on the back door and slipped inside, closing the door behind him. The inside of #4 was just as pristine and regimented as the outside, unnaturally so. Had he been familiar with Muggle films, he would have described it as disturbingly Stepford. The entirety of the ground floor looked like a staged imitation of a home, rather than somewhere an actual family lived, lacking any of the natural clutter generated by most people as they go about their lives.
There were no books on the ground floor, save for a couple of cookbooks set neatly at one end of the kitchen counter, though there were some newspapers and magazines on housekeeping and entertainment gossip in this living room. The walls were festooned with numerous family photos, with the only child they contained looking like a smaller (at least vertically) version of Vernon without the mustache. In fact, nothing Iruka could see suggested that Harry Potter had ever even been in this house. Tabling a more thorough search for after he'd done a more general look-through, he headed upstairs.
The first floor of #4 contained a bathroom (nothing of note present or lacking) and four bedrooms. It was in the bedrooms that the chuunin found the first signs of genuine human habitation: Judging by the adult belongings and asymmetrically-compressed king-size bed, the largest bedroom belonged to the Dursley parents. Across the hall from the master bedroom was what appeared to be a guest bedroom, judging by how it lacked any personal effects. At the far end of the hall was a room that appeared to contain much of the mess absent from the ground floor, as it was utterly packed with a variety of toys and games, with both playthings and very large children's clothing scattered everywhere.
It was between the master bedroom and what appeared to be Dudley's bedroom that Iruka found his first signs of a fourth inhabitant. The smallest bedroom was as cluttered as Dudley's, again with toys, but here the toys were different: Most were broken or damaged, and of those that weren't, many had the bright primary colors and simple shapes of toys for children much younger than eleven. He'd have dismissed this room as simply storage for all of the boy's broken and abandoned toys were it not for the worn-out bed, dresser, and desk in the room. The bed, despite being an obvious available flat surface, was clear of the toys piled elsewhere in the room, suggesting it had been in recent use. Given the lumpy mattress and poor-quality linens, it was not likely to be used for invited guests (especially when compared to the conspicuous consumption on display elsewhere in the house). It all added up to indicate that someone had been sleeping in this room relatively soon before Dudley and Harry went off to their respective schools. On the other hand, nothing about the room showed the stamp of an inhabitant's personality, as every person consciously and unconsciously shapes their environment to suit them over time. He was missing something.
A more thorough search of the bedrooms told him little that he didn't already know, though he did find that a floorboard under the bed in the smallest bedroom had been recently pried up and replaced, suggesting a hiding place even if the void beneath was currently empty. Other than a few trashy romance novels in the master bedroom, most of the books in #4 were stowed in the smallest bedroom, and were clearly aimed at children of various ages. Many of the books were damaged to some degree, and he noted that all were about mundane topics such as aeroplanes and automobiles, rather than more fantastic subjects like magic and monsters.
Thankful that Mrs. Dursley kept her curtains shut (presumably to keep out nosey neighbors like herself), Iruka returned to the ground floor to continue his more thorough search. Almost immediately, he found a piece he'd been missing from the puzzle.
The cupboard under the stairs.
Iruka scowled fiercely as he took in the small, worn cot on the floor of the cupboard, and the thin, threadbare blanket covering it. It didn't take a Nara to figure out that this was where Harry had likely spent much of the last decade. A house with four bedrooms and four occupants, and the Dursleys put their nephew in a Sage-blasted storage closet. Putting the pieces together, the veteran teacher's mind produced a picture of long-term systematic mental abuse, though thankfully the lack of bloodstains indicated that physical abuse was less likely. Still, Harry Potter was going to need some strong positive human connections to heal from what happened here. Not for the first time, Iruka wished that Naruto was here, with his seemingly limitless ability to easily connect to people and bring out their best natures. As things stood, it would fall to him to handle things and help his student as best he could. Like a generation before, it was again time for Iruka to reach out to a lonely, mistreated orphan.
A/N: And Iruka makes his first real use of his ninja skills in this fic. Sharp-eyed readers may be able to guess why he'll be needing them again next chapter.
Another question to my readers: Are there any particular material requirements for fuuinjutsu? I can't find any broad canonical restrictions (though at least some seals need to be scribed in blood), so this is more a case of "what makes sense to people". Basically, I need to figure out whether Iruka's students will be able to produce active seals outside of class.
In this fic, Harry's abuse is as it's portrayed in the books - mental/emotional/verbal abuse, coupled with forced confinement, starvation, and some physical violence (other than Dudley and his gang, Vernon might occasionally swat at Harry or handle him roughly when dragging him around or throwing him into his cupboard). The only full-on beatings are delivered by Dudley and his 'friends'.
I imagine that Konoha takes a very dim view of child abuse, and that the Academy teachers know the signs to look for. Ninja-level observational skills obviously help in that regard. On the flip side, the cases in which abuse is most likely to be discovered and dealt with are Academy students from civilian families, while clan children are least likely. The clans have more leeway in how they treat their children, since they all have their own secret training methods and practices. As I pointed out to a reviewer of Chapter 1-2, most people would not consider implanting your child with a colony of parasitic insects to be good parenting. That leeway, plus the fact that the abuser is more likely to have political clout within the village, means that identifying and dealing with abuse of a clan child would be fairly difficult. I would actually argue that, depending on how representative those scenes we saw of her home life were, Hinata may have been a victim of abuse, in her case in the form of mental abuse coupled with unnecessarily rough training. There are certainly plenty of fics whose authors seem to agree on that, though many more simply paint Hiashi as strict and cold.
To Guesthouse (a guest reviewer), since I can't respond directly by PM: Thanks for your support, and here's hoping that the story will continue to please!
To another guest reviewer, asking where Iruka would be sorted: Hufflepuff, for loyalty more than anything else, with Gryffindor as a secondary pick.
Fic Recommendation: "Adorable Violence" by CloudZen - A sweet and fluffy Harry/Hermione story in which Hermione happens to be incredibly (and hilariously) violent towards those who threaten or harm her books or her Harry.
Posted 8 October 2017
Edited 19 November 2017 (A/N only): Added posting date