Chapter 33: 2-4: Additions

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.

It was the first Saturday of the new term, and Iruka was waiting in the Come-and-Go Room. While the configuration was mostly like he'd used for training the previous year, a new section had been added: At the other end of the straight wall that held the entry area there had previously been only a blank stone wall. Now, in defiance of the geometry of the adjoining corridor, there was a rectangular room several meters tall and across but over twenty meters deep. Its floor, walls, and ceiling were all made of rough wood, and a set of thick wooden posts with circles of various sizes painted on them were set in tracks on the floor running the room's length. Just inside this addition sat several cases of shuriken and kunai, some of which were blunt practice models.

As he waited for his now four students to arrive, the chuunin reflected on the week so far.

The Sorting had been about like the previous year's. Iruka had noted Luna being sorted into Ravenclaw (hardly surprising given her inquisitive mind) and Ginny, the youngest Weasley child, joining the rest of her family in Gryffindor. After the meal, Professor Lockhart had been introduced, prompting much swooning (not all of it female).

There had been a great deal of talk about an incident at King's Cross Station. Apparently, the magical platform from which the Hogwarts Express left (it was a sign of how inured to Wizarding Britain's insanity Iruka was becoming that he barely twitched at it being numbered nine-and-three-quarters) was separated from the rest of the (otherwise non-magical) station by a brick wall that allowed people to pass through and onto the Platform. In what according to the rumors was an unprecedented event, that barrier had suddenly and inexplicably closed, functioning only as an ordinary brick wall. Ministry personnel had struggled with it for some time, and eventually resorted to a series of short-range Portkeys to move the growing backlog of travelers and families over. All of this had later been more-or-less confirmed to Iruka by Harry, who had apparently been unfortunate enough to be the first person to bounce painfully off the barrier.

The door to the Room opened to admit three second-year students who were keeping themselves slightly apart from a blonde first-year that skipped happily into the entryway.

«Good morning, Iruka-sensei!» Luna chimed brightly, giving him a small wave. The other three looked at her in confusion.

"Good morning, Luna," Iruka replied with a warm smile, "and please stick to English for now. We can work in language lessons later if people want." He was not at all surprised to see a familiar gleam in Hermione's eyes at that. She'd not been a frequent attendee of his language tutoring, mostly because she was so focused on her magical studies, but it would seem that this was too good an opportunity for her to pass up.

"Now that you're all here, I'd like to welcome you all back, or simply welcome you to Hogwarts in Luna's case. Speaking of Luna, I hope you three have introduced yourselves to her?" The second-year S.E.N. members looked a bit sheepish. "Well then, perhaps you should all start with that; your names, likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams for the future."

Luna again smiled broadly at everyone. "Hello, my name is Luna Lovegood. I like animals, my family, and pudding; I dislike people being closed-minded; my hobbies are learning new things and helping my Daddy with the Quibbler, and my dream is to become a Healer and find new ways to help people."

Harry was the first to reply. "Hello, Luna, my name is Harry Potter. I like my friends and loved ones, and treacle tart; I dislike my fame, and people who hurt others; my hobby is flying on my broom, and my dream is to have a world where my precious people and I can be safe from people like Voldemort."

Hermione took Neville's flinch at the name as an opportunity to speak next. "My name is Hermione Granger. I like books and learning new things; I dislike bullies and bigots; my hobby is reading interesting books and my dream is to show that Muggleborns can be good witches and wizards too."

"Hi, Luna," Neville said a bit shyly, "my name is Neville Longbottom. I like my friends and quiet places; I dislike Death Eaters and people that look down on those without magic; my hobby is working with plants, and my dream is to find a way to heal my parents."

"Well done, all four of you." Iruka could see that the barriers between Luna and the others weren't anywhere near completely gone (well, at least on the trio's side; Luna didn't really have barriers), but that was to be expected. Spending time together was the only real way to bring those walls down. "We'll be mostly picking up where we left off last year, but there'll be a bit more of an emphasis on combat techniques than before. After what happened in June, your guardians and I have agreed that it would be best to focus more on helping you protect yourselves from attack. Go ahead and get changed, then come join me on the mats."

A few minutes later the quartet of students had all returned. "For those of you that have trained here before, you may have noticed a new addition." He motioned towards the addition and led them over to it. "Can any of you guess what this area is for?"

"It looks like a target range," Hermione commented, "is it for practicing our spell accuracy?"

"Good observation Hermione, and good thinking. While we could and probably will use it to practice spell accuracy at some point, for now it's mostly for demonstration and later for practicing something else." With a grin, Iruka stepped into motion, and his arms blurred. A moment later, a large number of loud thunk sounds announced the many pieces of sharpened steel that now protruded from the target posts. "One of the things I hope to get you started on this year is buikijutsu, weapon techniques. If we can get far enough, I may be able to begin teaching you shurikenjutsu as well - that's techniques using shuriken, those star-shaped blades, and other thrown weapons. Before you can learn to throw weapons, though, you'll need to learn how to use them, and even that comes after learning how to properly and safely handle, carry, store, and maintain such weapons. Today we'll be mostly going over the safe handling rules and methods, but first," he said bringing his hands together with a clap, "warm-ups!" He stepped back onto the running track and adopted a grin he'd adapted from the Sixth Hokage. "Time to start running, my cute little students..."

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Lessons continued, both official and unofficial, as the fall semester fell into its usual Hogwarts rhythm (a syncopated 7/4 beat, for those that are curious). Interestingly, it seemed that Iruka wasn't the only member of staff looking to give extracurricular lessons: Harry reported in a private session during the second week of term that Professor Lockhart had approached him after class and offered to teach him about how to handle fame, celebrity, and public relations.

In spite of the poor impression both had of the Defense Professor, Iruka still urged Harry to consider the offer. Even if the man were utterly useless at magical defense (something his classes so far had suggested), he was a celebrity and might be able to give the young Gryffindor advice that the chuunin was ill-equipped to provide. After all, while "kill or maim any foreign ninja that disparages you" might have been reasonably solid PR in the pre-Fourth-War Elemental Nations, it probably wouldn't work quite as well in Wizarding Britain. Of course, given the somewhat seedy vibe coming from the immaculately-groomed Lockhart, Iruka intended to speak with the Headmaster about setting up a couple of discreet monitoring charms to make sure any private lessons stuck to appropriate topics.

That inquiry, as well as questions about whether Gilderoy Lockhart was actually qualified to teach Defense, were why the chuunin was now approaching the gargoyle that guarded the entrance to Headmaster Dumbledore's office. It leapt aside as usual, and he ascended the revolving staircase to his employer's door.

"Welcome and good morning, Iruka! Lemon drop?" Iruka refused the offered confection but accepted the gestured invitation to sit. "I take it that you have come here for reasons beyond rescuing me from the endless drudgery of parchmentwork?"

"Yes, I was hoping to ask you for a bit of help. You see, Professor Lockhart has offered to give Harry some lessons on how to handle his fame and control his public image. I've encouraged him to accept, since it would be useful material for him to know; it's not like he can simply stop being famous, after all, and if you're not careful fame can easily turn into infamy. You were already an adult when you became famous, so you had the opportunity to learn and adapt to it, but Harry's still just a child and I'm hoping this might help him to avoid mistakes that could cause him lasting harm in the public eye."

"Where you come in," the chuunin continued, "is my hope that you could set up monitoring of any such tutoring sessions as you monitored me last year. Beyond simple due diligence, something about Professor Lockhart doesn't feel entirely right to me."

Dumbledore stroked his beard as he thought. "A discreet listening charm or two wouldn't be difficult. I'm sure one of my predecessors' portraits could be persuaded to handle the monitoring. Some of them do get rather bored at times. I am somewhat concerned about causing Harry's fame to go to his head if he spends too much time with Professor Lockhart, but I am sure that you and his friends will help keep his feet firmly on the ground, and besides that your point about his public image is well made. Had I the time, I might offer to advise him myself, but alas my numerous responsibilities would make such a time-consuming endeavor rather difficult to schedule."

"Thank you, Albus," Iruka replied. "On a related note, I am beginning to develop concerns regarding Professor Lockhart's ability to effectively teach Defense, and was hoping to ask you about his qualifications..."

The Headmaster's wistful smile fell away. "I am afraid that it is rather likely that Gilderoy's actual qualifications for the Defense post are slim or non-existent. Before you direct your outrage at me, please permit me to explain. As with our... less than ideal History of Magic Professor, there are certain considerations and complications surrounding the Defense Against the Dark Arts post. Firstly, we have of late been unable to retain any Defense Professor for more than one academic year, and none have later returned to the post. Many believe, although it has not been proven, that Lord Voldemort placed some sort of curse upon the position at some point in the past. Because of this rumored curse, many potential candidates avoid the position out of fear."

"With few candidates of quality, if any, I am often forced to choose among a poorer selection of options. While I could simply reject all of them, there are ways in which the Ministry can insert a person of their choosing into any Hogwarts vacancy which the Headmaster is unable or unwilling to fill. Given Lucius Malfoy's influence with Minister Fudge and his position as head of the school's Board of Governors, I am left with a choice between selecting a subpar but inoffensive teacher and permitting one who might well be a danger to their students, either directly through their actions or indirectly through the influence they exert on impressionable young minds. Further complicating matters is that I must be able to justify my new hire to the Board if pressed, and thus I am at times forced to employ a more impressive individual over a more competent one."

"Having access to Gilderoy Lockhart's records from his time as a student here, and recalling him as he was then, I am well aware that his skills with magic are average at best in spite of a great deal of apparent potential which he sadly never put forth the effort to fulfill. In fact, I find it quite likely that the man is a fraud to at least some degree, at least inasmuch as I sincerely doubt that he personally achieved any of the feats he claims in his books, save for such things as the Most Charming Smile awards. I personally know a couple of individuals who were in the right place at the right time with the correct skills and temperament to be the actual parties behind certain of his tales, but in my correspondence with them they have claimed no involvement in his supposed feats. Whether this is the truth or not is yet unclear."

"All that said, the man's public image is impressive enough to hold off any questions by the Board, and the precarious nature of such images that you mentioned earlier should ensure that he remains on his best behavior around the eager eyes and ears and notoriously loose lips of our student body. It is also far from unlikely that the supposed curse, if it exists, might act upon him in such a way as to cause a revelation of the truth behind his glittering persona."

"I see," Iruka replied at last, "and I can't really fault your reasoning. Would I be correct in guessing that this is at least a part of why you agreed with my plan to incorporate more combat-focused training for Harry and his friends?" The Headmaster nodded solemnly. "I'll do my best to give them as many tools as possible to survive any future dangers. I'd also ask that you send me a short list later of books you'd recommend I point them towards to self-study defensive magics, since I don't really know that much about it myself. In any case, I'm afraid that's all I had, so your reprieve from tedium is unfortunately at an end." Both men shared a wry chuckle as the chuunin let himself out.

A/N: Not a lot of action this chapter, I'm afraid. Things'll pick up a bit next chapter though, I promise.

To guest reviewer Leslie: I am not myself a teacher, but both of my parents were, along with two grandparents and a bunch of uncles/aunts/cousins/friends/ancestors. Needless to say, I have a great deal of respect for educators.

In response to another guest review: Yahoo! My first anonymous troll review! Achievement unlocked, milestone passed, et cetera.

EDITED TO ADD: Thanks to everyone for your reviews and support! I try to respond in at least some way to reviewers, but I felt like continuing to send generic form-letter PMs to frequent reviewers wasn't really doing more than bloating their inboxes. From now on, I'm going to mostly keep review responses to new/infrequent reviewers and those reviews for which I have more to say than thanking the reviewer.

Fic Recommendation: "Against the Dying of the Light" by Akatsuki210 - She follows the Doctor everywhere, it seems, but nobody sees her but the TARDIS, which knows that she's as much a woman as it is a phone booth.

Posted 03 June 2018

Current WIP Chapter: 61