Chapter 31: 2-2: Clout

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. I should also comment this chapter that neither do I own Schlock Mercenary.

Augusta had easily agreed to accompany Iruka to the Ministry to help clear Harry's record. While the Adjunct Professor's word alone could well have been enough, neither wanted to risk some officious bureaucrat making a stink and demanding more evidence. Whether because of the clout of the Longbottom matriarch, or just because the people present at the time in the Improper Use of Magic office were actually competent and honest, the incident was soon expunged.

Based on what he'd heard of the Ministry, Iruka suspected the 'clout' explanation.

After a long lunch, aged witch and ninja wizard made their way to the office of Amelia Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Madam Bones was at the top of the list Augusta composed of those who would likely be willing and able to discreetly help with Harry's custody situation. They'd set up an appointment with her for that afternoon, not knowing how long their business at the Improper Use of Magic Office would take.

Having previously given her his account of the events surrounding the Philosopher's Stone, this was Iruka's second meeting with Amelia Bones. As before, the square-jawed witch had her iron-grey hair cropped short, and wore a monocle along with robes of a cut not unlike his own. Her overall demeanor and mannerisms reminded him of some retired jounin - no longer taking field assignments, but still more ready for action than people might expect. His impression of her at their previous meeting was of a stern, honest woman that took her job with the seriousness it deserved.

"Madame Longbottom, Professor Umino." She greeted them from behind her desk. "To what do I owe this visit?"

"Before we begin," Iruka ventured, "I'd like to ask that the topic of this meeting be kept strictly confidential. You'll understand why, once we tell you about it, but for now we need to keep this as quiet as possible. I assume that this room is secure against eavesdropping?"

Madam Bones shifted slightly, and Iruka heard a faint tap under her desk where her hands were still out of sight. "It is now. Now what is so sensitive and important?" The 'that you need to bother me with it instead of going through channels' was left loudly unsaid.

"We are trying to quietly shift custody of Harry Potter from his Muggle relatives," Iruka replied, "who are abusive and may present a threat to his safety, to the family of his Muggle-born friend Hermione Granger. The reasons we're meeting with you about it are threefold: One, we want to make sure all of the legalities are covered, to avoid leaving an opening for someone to contest the Grangers' custody. Second, we want to get everything done as quickly and discreetly as possible to avoid tipping off those who might interfere or target Mr. Potter or the Grangers. Third, we need to get authorization to ward a dwelling in a Muggle area."

The DMLE Head's already stern expression turned distinctly stormy at the mention of abuse. "Explain. Now."

Her tone grabbed Iruka by a part of his long-reinforced training, causing him to quickly slipped into reporting-to-a-superior mode, and he detailed the tangled knot surrounding Harry's custody and his concerns that Minister Fudge would personally intervene to hand custody over to his 'good friend' Lucius Malfoy. He explained his idea to handle the custody transfer entirely on the nonmagical side, keeping Harry's actual place of residence secret on the magical.

"I can't dispute that your assessment," Madam Bones said at last, "or that your plan is in Mister Potter's best interests, and it doesn't require breaking any laws. Would you or the Grangers mind if I brought in an old colleague to handle placing the wards? Alastor Moody is a retired Master Auror, one of the best this department's ever had; he's also notoriously paranoid, somewhat justifiably given the number of Dark witches and wizards he's killed or captured. Thanks to that paranoia, he also knows more about protecting a home magically than almost anybody else, so he should be able to help put up some solid defenses. It won't be to the level of Hogwarts or one of the old family manors, but it would at least buy time to call for help and try to escape or fight back. As far as discretion goes, he knows the value of secrecy, especially where He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and his followers are involved."

Details were hammered out, followed by the filling in and signing of several pieces of parchment. Plans were made to apply a bit of discreet magic to fast-track the Muggle custody transfer paperwork, though it would still take over a week to get through the procedure and bureaucracy. Madam Bones also contacted Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody, and after passing enough security checks to satisfy even a Kiri-nin got his agreement to help ward the Granger home. Once a (deliberately vague) time had been agreed upon with Iruka's input regarding the Grangers' schedules, the necessary permit was prepared along with a memo to the Improper Use of Magic Office to disregard spellcasting in the area during that window.

She also mentioned that unauthorized portkeys were illegal, but while their creation could incur a significant fine it was only their use that would be detected unless they were made in a Muggle area. Iruka made a mental note to ask Headmaster Dumbledore for an emergency portkey for the Grangers.

Now he just had to talk to Harry.

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Harry had been hesitant at first. Ten years of conditioning told him that he was a burden, an unwanted imposition. It took Iruka the better part of half an hour to convince his student that Hermione and her parents would be happy to take him in. Once he finally accepted the possibility that he could be welcomed into someone's home (even if he still insisted on paying the Grangers back out of his vault), he was unsurprisingly quite eager to move. Iruka hated telling him that because they were trying to keep everything legal and quiet, it wouldn't be until late in the next week before the Grangers could legally take custody of him. He reassured the boy that he'd be visiting frequently in the meantime and keeping him apprised of any developments.

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Alastor Moody was... interesting. His prosthetic eye was certainly odd-looking, and its erratic movements made it clear how he got the nickname 'Mad-Eye'. That it occasionally seemed to be looking inward suggested that it could see through solid objects, not unlike a Byakugan. Such an ability would explain why the maimed man was subtly keeping some distance from Iruka - he presumably saw the ninja's weapons, and wanted to stay out of their easy reach. As far as his attitude went, it wasn't that different from a certain type of veteran shinobi: Some managed to land in the uncomfortable realm of being strong enough to make a lot of enemies without being so strong that most of those enemies were dead. Lower-level ninja, especially those that didn't do much fieldwork like Iruka, were beneath most people's notice, while the true elites like the various current and former Kage generally didn't have many enemies still alive and able to pose a credible threat to them, even discounting the fact that they tended to have other strong shinobi nearby that could back them up.

All three members of the Granger family had been a bit uncomfortable at first in the retired Master Auror's presence, but their discomfort was pushed aside by fascination as Moody and Madam Bones cast a number of various protective spells over their house. Granted, only Hermione and Iruka were able to watch the work that was done from outside, as the two elite law-enforcers had spelled themselves to deflect attention from those without magic. Judging by the looks the DMLE Head gave her former colleague at times, Iruka suspected that a few of the enchantments may have been of somewhat questionable legality, but given who they were intended to protect and against whom, none of the three said anything about it.

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They almost made it through the entire operation without any issues. Unfortunately, as Shinobi Maxim #17 stated, 'The longer everything goes according to plan, the bigger the impending disaster.' On the last visit before he expected to be able to move Harry completely legally, Iruka was about to step out of Harry's room when he sensed a presence just outside the door that was undoubtedly Vernon Dursley. Thinking it odd that the large man would be waiting there, he couldn't help but feel a bit suspicious.

Those suspicions were confirmed the moment Iruka stepped through the door. A weak spike of sakki and a swishing of air heralded an attack aimed towards his head. For a civilian, this could well have caught them off-guard and left them critically injured; for a chuunin-level shinobi, it meant that Dursley's swing with a flat wooden club came to an abrupt stop against the flat of a kunai held in reverse grip.

Vernon's shock at the failure of his ambush was replaced with agony as Iruka snapped a kick into the side of his knee, buckling it in a direction it was never meant to bend. After disarming the howling man, the chuunin leaned in and clamped a hand over his assailant's mouth.

"The only reason you are not going to die today," he stated harshly, "is because the police inquiry would cause too many complications. Now, before you think about causing those complications anyway, remember that you are provably guilty of several very serious crimes, a list to which you just added 'attempted murder'. Drawing the attention of law enforcement will not end well for you or your wife, and that is just on the nonmagical side. The whole mess could well leak into the news on the magical side, where your nephew is a beloved national hero. How do you think they'd react to finding out how you treated Harry?" He could see a fresh dose of fear penetrating into Vernon Dursley's pained expression. "Oh, but it gets worse. As far as many of them are concerned, people without magic aren't really proper people - more like clever, savage apes. By their laws, you and your family have no rights. They could basically torment you with their magic as much as they wanted, and only face the equivalent of an animal cruelty charge. And do you know one of the things they hate most? Non-magical 'Muggles' like you trying to hurt wizards because they hate magic. Your only hope of living in peace is going to be if nothing that happened in this house ever becomes known, do you understand?" At the man's panicked nodding, he grinned coldly. "Good. Now, we were going to be doing this in a couple days anyway, but I'm moving Harry out today. You and your wife just need to sign a couple pieces of paper, and Harry and I will leave here and never come back."

Iruka stepped back into Harry's room to help his student pack his belongings (and send Hedwig winging her way to Hermione's house) while keeping an eye on a still-supine Vernon whose wife was wailing tearfully over his injured leg. Once Harry was packed, Iruka held the custody transfer papers out to the Dursleys, who quickly signed them while shooting looks of utter hatred at both wizards. A minute later, there were no wizards at #4 Privet Drive.

As they walked to their Apparition point, Iruka could tell that his student was in something of a state of shock. It was understandable, really; a lot had happened in the last few minutes, and there was more yet to come: He'd watched as his uncle, who had bullied and terrorized him for most of his life, had tried to kill the first real adult he'd ever trusted. Said adult had then casually defeated and seriously injured said uncle, someone who had likely represented power and terror for the past decade for Harry. To see such a figure brought low so casually by his unassuming teacher had to be hard for the twelve-year-old to process. Now his aunt and uncle had signed away custody and he'd left their house, his prison, for what could very well be the last time. Despite their decade of mistreatment, it still likely hurt a bit to see his guardians so gladly signing him away. There was presumably the elation of freedom and escape, but this neighborhood was, until a year prior, basically all Harry had ever known. Even if very few of them were actually good, he had to have a lot of memories attached to the area. So that's fading fear, shock, a bit of horror, hurt, awe and joy, and a touch of melancholy; a lot of emotions to process, and that was just what had happened so far. Really, it was a wonder his brain wasn't overheating from all the work.

Now, of course, they were on their way to the Granger house. That meant the excitement and anticipation of seeing a friend, true, but it also meant a host of different emotions about meeting her parents, his new guardians. Would they like him, tolerate him, hate him like the Dursleys did (unlikely), or even maybe come to love him? Would he be a burden? Would he fit in with their household? Iruka knew his student well enough by now to see the questions roiling in his mind.

Shifting Harry's trunk over to rest on his hip (he couldn't shrink it without risking triggering the Ministry's detectors) he gently placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Don't worry," Iruka reassured his student, "I'm sure you'll get along fine with them. The timing isn't exactly what we'd planned, true, but Vernon's actions pushed the timetable up a bit."

"Why did he do that?" Harry's voice was faint, small.

"Power," Iruka answered. "Ever since they took custody of you, all three Dursleys had a lot of power over you. For a man like Vernon, and I've seen plenty of them before, power is one of their greatest cravings. Some rise to high positions where they have tremendous power, but some end up lower on the ladder. They're always aware of the fact that there's someone above them, someone that has power over them, and it chafes worse than sandpaper underwear. To have someone like you available, someone over whom he could exercise near-absolute power, would have been intoxicating for such a man."

"The first problem that cropped up was magic. Ever since last summer, he'd been feeling the threat of magic-users hanging over him. That was a kind of power he couldn't match, couldn't overcome, so it left him scared. He also had to worry about whether you would have that power when you came back, and take his power away. Instead, I took his power away at that first meeting, and I did it inside his home, one of the places where he should feel safest and most secure and powerful. The day after your birthday, he tried to exercise power over you, and I stopped him with an even greater show of power, again making him feel weak and helpless in his own home."

"His fear from that incident kept him at bay, until today. I don't know what tipped the scales, but somehow his hate, anger, and most importantly his need to retake his power overcame his fear of me. Most likely, after killing or incapacitating me, he'd have called in the police and told them I forced my way into his home and threatened him. Then, once I was out of the way, his attention would have turned to you. There's no telling how exactly he would have reasserted his power over you, but the cupboard would probably have been part of it; almost certainly, he'd have tried to keep you from returning to Hogwarts."

Harry's musings on this were temporarily interrupted while he focused on keeping his stomach contents where they were after the Side-Along Apparition to Crawley. Still, by the time they reached the Grangers' home it was obvious that the young wizard had a lot on his mind.

A/N: I was recently re-reading 'Harry Potter and the Rune Stone Path' by Temporal Knight, and found that he/she had already used the idea of quietly changing Harry's guardianship in the Muggle world. I'd honestly completely forgotten about that, though it may have prodded my thought processes a bit subconsciously. In this story, they're taking that approach for somewhat different reasons (although they're still a bit concerned about how Dumbledore might react), but they're acting mostly on the basis of "it's doubtful any Death Eater would be able to trace a transfer of custody through Muggle bureaucracy" and "Malfoy and his ilk won't notice Muggle proceedings and thus won't interfere".

Also, in hindsight I probably drew from 'Harry Five-O' by mjimeyg for the bit about power at the end.

Also also, I'm adding a bit to the A/N after chapter 27 / 1-17 to better explain the mental process of this fic's version of Dumbledore. I'd have put it in the story proper, but unfortunately Dumbledore isn't sufficiently self-aware to recognize what's going on and nobody else has sufficient access to the inside of his head.

Fic Recommendation: "Wind Shear" by Chilord - a non-do-over time-travel fic that has Harry using a unique and interesting magical fighting style, and overall well-written.

Posted 6 May 2018

Current WIP Chapter: 58