Chapter 50: 3-7: Fear

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.

Both Iruka and Remus did their best to assist the rest of S.E.N. in keeping Harry on an even keel for the next few days as he processed the sudden upheaval of what he thought he knew. It didn't exactly help that Black was Harry's godfather, the man the Potters wanted to care for their son if they couldn't. The thirteen-year-old had grown quite fond of the Grangers, and was worried that Black would take him away from them or expose them to danger.

It was more than a week after the students' return that Minerva remembered that she still had Harry's mysterious Christmas gift, and sheepishly brought it to Filius for inspection. Neither were able to find any curses or other booby-traps, and they deemed it safe to return to its recipient, who had also forgotten about the present in all the chaos and excitement surrounding Pettigrew's capture. He gratefully opened it to find a pair of protective goggles of a type specifically designed for a Seeker to wear over spectacles.

It was a couple days after the trials that the first letters arrived. Black had written to both Harry and Remus from his room at St. Mungo's, making the first moves in reconnecting with the two of them (even if, for Harry, it was more like they were interacting for the first time). The werewolf Professor didn't share the contents of his missive, but Harry's was a mix of hesitant introduction, polite (if generic) 'get to know you' questions, and repeated apologies for failings both real and imagined. From the rambling, semi-coherent prose, it was apparent that the man's emotional state was fragile at best and probably severely unbalanced. The letter also stated that it was early enough in his treatment that the Healers weren't yet confident in estimating when he'd be well enough to leave hospital; the worst of the damage to his body could be corrected in a couple of weeks, with that treatment concluded after six months to a year of potions and checkups, but the mental effects of twelve years of heavy Dementor exposure were far less predictable.

Meanwhile, the lessons on the Patronus charm had finally begun. They were less urgent with the Dementors' removal to Azkaban, but Harry was still determined to be able to protect himself should he ever encounter them again. Hermione was always eager to learn anything new, and the rest of S.E.N. largely just wanted to support their friend.

Professor Lupin arrived last to the History of Magic classroom, where the lesson was scheduled, carrying a large packing case. "Another Boggart," he explained, hefting it slightly. "I've been combing the castle ever since Tuesday, and very luckily, I found this one lurking inside Mr. Filch's filing cabinet. It's the nearest we'll get to a real Dementor. The Boggart will turn into a Dementor when he sees Harry, so we'll be able to practice on him."

An explanation of the basics behind the Patronus charm was followed by several minutes of quiet introspection, as each 'student' (including one faculty member) tried to select a suitable happy memory. For his part, Iruka decided to go with Naruto's induction ceremony as Seventh Hokage. Soon enough, a bit of preliminary practice soon saw Harry and Luna producing slight wisps of silvery mist, though doing so was clearly draining and left both breathing heavily. "Very well done, both of you," said a wide-eyed Remus. "The charm takes a lot out of you, as you've no doubt noticed, so take some time and catch your breath. Everyone else, keep working on it. Remember, casting a Patronus takes both intense happiness and substantial magical power; even that bit of mist is more than most adult witches and wizards will ever get, so don't worry if you have trouble managing it. To be honest, I hadn't really expected any of you to produce anything at all for at least a few months, so this is a pleasant surprise. Those that want to try against a Dementor, or at least our simulation, can do so - some people have more success when they really need it, so it might provide a breakthrough. On the other hand, it can also make it much more difficult to cast the spell at all, and either way it's not exactly a fun experience, so don't feel that you have to do it any time soon."

Once he'd recovered his strength, Harry stepped up front to attempt the spell in front of their ersatz Dementor. The case was opened, and the black-cloaked form emerged, seeming to suck away at all the light and heat and joy and life in the room. "Expecto Patronum!" Harry called, to no effect. "Expecto Patronum! Expecto Patronum! Expec-" his voice trailed off suddenly as his eyes rolled back in his head and his wand slipped from his nerveless fingers. Iruka dashed forward to catch him as he collapsed, neglecting to realize that this would make him the closest conscious person to the Boggart.

Suddenly, without any sort of transition, the soul-sucking demon was replaced by a figure at once more familiar and utterly alien to the chuunin. The white cape was torn and stained, splotches of a deeper crimson contrasting with the red flames and kanji. Likewise, the black pants and orange shirt were in tatters, with numerous wounds visible underneath. Hair that would usually be a sunny blonde was matted with filth. A usually strong and confident pose was replaced with the slump of exhaustion and defeat. Worst of all, though, were the eyes: Where ordinarily they'd shine like a pair of warm and slightly mischievous sapphires, they were now dull, clouded with fear and despair.

«Iruka-sensei,» Naruto croaked, his normally bold voice weak and plaintive, «I'm sorry. I couldn't... I can't...»

Iruka's heart was hammering in his chest at the scene before him. This couldn't be real, it was wrong; Naruto would never give up like that-

It was wrong.

"KAI!" the chuunin bellowed, clapping his hands into a Ram seal and disrupting his chakra hard. The NOT-Naruto in front of him was unchanged, merely moaning out another broken apology. Before Iruka could try anything else, Remus was there, stepping between them, and the figure was replaced with the silvery orb of a full moon, which a quick charm transformed into a glittering ball composed of small mirrors and surrounded by bright multicolored lights. In short order, the Boggart was once more locked into its case.

Drawing on his training, Iruka pushed his deep distress aside and focused on checking over his downed student. Harry was still unconscious, his skin pale and clammy, and his pulse was worryingly rapid. His determined focus meant that the shinobi was startled by Remus's approach with a large bar of chocolate.

"He was the same way on the Express," the werewolf stated sadly, absently handing a few squares of chocolate to his colleague. "Given that this wasn't a real Dementor, the effects should fade a bit faster, but it'll still be a bit before he's ready to try again. I'm assuming that whatever you tried there was something from your homeland?" Iruka nodded stiffly. "It's only natural to fall back on familiar techniques and long-ingrained training when you're caught off guard like that. Once Harry's back on his feet I can show you the charm for dealing with Boggarts, maybe have you practice it with a live target, give him time to- easy there, Harry." The Third-Year had begun to stir, immediately redirecting the man's words of reassurance to a more needful recipient.

Harry was helped to a seat in a nearby chair, surrounded by his friends, before Remus began to instruct Iruka on the Boggart-Banishing Spell. Ginny and Luna soon joined the lesson after showing open curiosity and being assured by the young Potter that he'd be fine with just Neville and Hermione. It was a sign of how badly he'd been affected (and perhaps a bit of how far he'd come in the past two years) that he didn't completely wave off all four of his friends. Once the Defense teacher was confident that they all had the incantation and wand movement down, he instructed them to consider their fears and how they might be altered to make them amusing. Judging by the girls' expressions, they weren't having an easy time of it. Thus it was that the chuunin was up front, ready to confront the Dark creature again.

The case opened, and out crawled a battered and broken Naruto. Iruka's cry of "Riddiculus!" replaced the bleak figure with a bit of memory: An orange-clad ten-year-old was sulking, spattered with bright multicolored paint, and bound in a comically excessive amount of ropes after Iruka had interrupted one of his pranks. Given the chuckles coming from all present, it was a good choice.

Iruka stepped back, and Ginny moved up. The captured Naruto became a different boy, one Iruka had last seen in spectral form in the Chamber of Secrets. "Well, well, well... Little Ginny Weasley, back again..." Fifteen-year-old Tom Riddle wasn't immediately frightening to most people, but the young redhead's fear of him was more than justified after her experience. She quailed slightly before rallying, her expression one of fierce determination. "Riddiculus!" The image of Riddle became slightly younger, his pale skin marred by numerous pimples and some sparse whiskers, and when he attempted to continue speaking his voice promptly squeaked, prompting weak chuckles from both Ginny and Harry.

Next came Luna's turn. It didn't surprise the chuunin at all that the Boggart shifted into the form of Pandora Lovegood as he'd first seen her, but with one major difference - she was dead. With resolve in her slightly moist eyes, the blonde raised her wand and softly incanted "Riddiculus." The image of Pandora was now very much alive, seated at her desk, but both desk and witch were covered in some sort of purple pigment, and her hair stood straight back as if blown there by a small explosion. It was the blank expression and confused blinking that pulled a watery giggle from the girl, after which Remus again drove the Boggart back into the case.

"Good job," he stated proudly, "especially our two Second-Years successfully casting a third-year spell."

Harry stood, his face resolute even if his color was still a bit off. "I want to try again."

"Are you sure, Harry?" Remus asked worriedly.

Luna stepped forward. "We'll try casting it together, this time. That way, we'll have double the chances of getting it cast."

The second attempt went no better than the first, with Harry again losing consciousness and the Boggart needing to be driven back into the case. Neither he nor Luna were able to produce even mist in the face of the faux-Dementor, though Iruka thought he saw a faint spark of light flicker at the tip of Luna's wand for a moment. Another period of recovery and practice followed, before a final attempt saw Harry and Luna both generating a misty shield that held the Boggart-mentor back for several seconds and noticeably lessened its effects on everyone in the room.

While it was undoubtedly the biggest success of the lesson, it also provided a clear demonstration of just how taxing the Patronus Charm was to cast, as both students' shields failed after only around fifteen seconds, forcing Remus to once again drive back the Boggart as Harry and Luna moved to tiredly support each other. Both of them were pale, sweaty, panting, and shaking, as if they'd just finished some very taxing exercise. Their tutor for the evening prescribed a full bar each of Honeydukes' chocolate to replenish their energy and recover from the pseudo-Dementor's aura. The lesson wrapped up soon after that, with everyone instructed to think further on their choice of memory and to refrain from trying to practice the charm without adult supervision.

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Of course, given the rather fickle nature of a shinobi's luck, it really shouldn't have come as much of a surprise that the streak of reasonably good news would shortly be broken by a new catastrophe. A few days after the first Patronus lesson, Iruka received word from Madam Pomfrey that a fifth-year Gryffindor boy had been injured in an explosion. Thankfully it was mostly flash-burns and a burst eardrum, nothing the school's Healer couldn't put right in under a week, but the fact remained that the student in question had admitted that his injuries were the result of a locking seal he was trying to make.

"Mister Pibald," the chuunin said sternly as he approached his soon-to-be-former student's bed, eliciting a flinch from the boy in question, "I recall being very clear as far as attempting to energize a seal without my supervision. It should therefore come as no surprise that you are no longer welcome in my classes, though I suppose I should thank you for providing an object lesson to remind my students why I have such a rule. For now, however, I must ask you whether you have any other seals, completed or not, and where they and your other sealing supplies are."

After getting the requested information from the Fifth-Year, Iruka made his way up to Gryffindor tower to confiscate all of the boy's fuuinjutsu-related materials. Entering the dorm, he found Minerva standing beside Pibald's bed (identifiable due to the scorch marks and minor blast damage on the trunk at its foot). "I presume that you were able to obtain the information you needed?" The Scotswoman was visibly upset, her anger at a student's foolish misbehavior warring with her dismay at the injury to one of her Lions.

"I did;" he replied, "there's one notebook near the left-hand end in his trunk, but everything else should be on his desk." Glancing over the items present, the Sealing teacher was able to see that all the items named by his now-former student were where the boy had said they'd be. A cursory flip through the notebook on the table showed no evidence of torn-out pages, though with magic there was no way to be fully certain. "Looks like it's all here."

Minerva, meanwhile, had collected the second notebook from Pibald's trunk, and Iruka took possession of the entire lot. The actual supplies would certainly be put to use by the class, and there was a good chance that with a bit of work he'd be able to use the notes to show his students at least something about how this seal had gone wrong.

After securing the confiscated items in his office, he then made his way to and past Albus's gargoyle bouncer. Once he'd accepted the offered seat, his employer got down to business. "I presume that you have secured Mr. Pibald's Sealing supplies?"

Iruka nodded. "His supplies, and all of his notes and works-in-progress. I haven't had a chance to go over them yet, and it'd be impossible to know for sure without seeing the exact seal he tried to activate, but there are at least half a dozen ways a standard locking seal could go wrong like this, from poor character placement to sloppy calligraphy to carelessly connecting the wrong points. If I do figure out what his exact mistake was, I'm hoping to use it as an example of what not to do and why."

Albus gave a nod of his own, before his expression turned more serious. "It is a near-certainty that Lucius Malfoy and his associates will learn of this incident, and when they do they will surely use it in their attempts to sway people against the Sealing Arts. That Mr. Pibald's injuries were so minor is fortuitous for us as well as for him, as it will greatly reduce the outrage that Lucius might be able to stir up; many will consider it to be much ado about nothing. The situation could be better, but it could also be far worse, and may indeed worsen in the days to come..."

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"I'd say it's worsened, Albus."

It was three days after the minor Sealing mishap, and Iruka once more found himself in the Headmaster's office, both men looking at an article from that morning's Daily Prophet: FOREIGN MAGIC BLOWS UP HOGWARTS STUDENT!

As with many of Skeeter's works, the story bore only the most tenuous resemblance to the actual facts. Fuuinjutsu was treated as some great and ominous mystery and strongly implied to be a form of Dark magic. Pibald was described as 'an underaged child from a respectable family', which would give the ignorant an impression that he was several years younger than in reality, while the 'respectable' was polite code for 'pureblood'. The article stated that he was sent to the Hospital Wing, but not that Madam Pomfrey had easily healed his injuries, nor that the entire incident was caused by a deliberate violation of a teacher's rules and instructions. Iruka himself was portrayed as a savage foreigner, corrupting innocent children and leading them into danger and darkness while a senile Headmaster Dumbledore sat in his office happily sucking on lemon candy.

Overall, it was a remarkably skillful hatchet-job, one that Iruka would probably be more impressed by were he not its primary target.

"This is a bit of a problem, yes," the aged wizard agreed. "I have already fielded several inquiries from concerned parents, members of the Board of Governors, and the Ministry. Thankfully, I believe that I was largely able to reassure them that this report is overblown, which should at least mitigate the damage, but this will still leave some parties more ill-disposed toward both you and your class. There are, unfortunately, many people who take whatever is in the Prophet, or in some cases anything by Ms. Skeeter, as the absolute truth. They, in particular, will for now have a badly tarnished view of both of us, though on the bright side the general inconsistency of the targeting of such pieces means that they will likely soon turn their ire elsewhere and forget this entire matter. I feel that our best strategy will be to weather the immediate storm and allow the matter to be forgotten."

"What about Skeeter?" Iruka asked with a thoughtful frown. "She seems oddly well-informed, as if she has an inside source or some means of snooping here at Hogwarts."

"Alas," Albus answered, "I do not know how it is that she is learning so much, so quickly, although doubtless certain students have been owling her tips. While it is certainly within my authority to ban her from the school's grounds, doing so at the present time would only validate her insinuations against us. It would also be possible to block or intercept the students' mail, but I would never do such a thing for any cause less than a clear necessity for the children's' safety."

"In the meantime, our best recourse is to continue as we have been and trust that the truth will win out."

A/N: I had a reviewer ask last chapter about how the Ministry hopes to contain a rat animagus in Azkaban when a dog escaped. The answer is twofold: First, they didn't know about Sirius, but they do know about Pettigrew. Second, fine wire mesh charmed for durability, along with some tweaks to the cell door alongside specific protocols for feeding and otherwise interacting with him.

Speaking of reviews, am I the only person that finds it annoying when people leave guest reviews stating their intent to stop reading and listing off their complaints? I don't mind if people dislike my work (though I obviously prefer it when readers enjoy it), and constructive criticism is certainly welcome since it can help me improve the quality of the story, but I do like to be able to respond to critics. With a guest reviewer that's not reading any further, the only response I'm able to give is to edit responses into the review itself before approving it, which is kinda awkward.

Some of you might be wondering how Sirius is receiving mental care after I'd previously stated that Wizarding Britain lacked any real resources in that discipline. There's a key difference here, though - Sirius is being treated for magical trauma. Unfortunately, wizards (at least in Britain) subscribe to the still-too-common attitude that mental illness is 'all in your head' so to speak, and that it's therefore up to the individual to overcome their own issues. As an aside, I DESPISE that attitude, as it creates a stigma against people that are struggling with serious neurological and/or neurochemical problems, causing people to treat the mentally ill as if their illness is a character defect and preventing many sufferers from seeking and/or receiving treatment. If you suffer from mental illness, it is NOT YOUR FAULT, and I urge you in the strongest possible terms to seek treatment if you aren't already being treated.

Sorry to go off on a rant like that, but I've lost two peers to suicide and if there's a chance that my words here might help someone that's suffering, I have to make the attempt.

Sadly, Iruka does not have the necessary raw power to cast a successful Patronus. In answer to the question I'm certain you're wondering about, if he could cast one it would take the form of a fox. Prior to the Naruto canon, it would probably have been a dolphin.

We also see Iruka's Boggart. Some of you may have expected it to be Kurama, and my wife suggested the six-tailed form Naruto took after Pain stabbed Hinata, but to me this would be the ultimate horror for him. Naruto is a force of nature, one of the most powerful individuals since the Sage himself, and beyond that has an unstoppable will to protect and win; this Boggart combined the implication of an enemy powerful enough to beat Konoha's greatest defender, terrible harm to someone Iruka cares for deeply, and witnessing that indomitable spirit broken. It's less the direct appearance of the Boggart, and more what its form implies - a threat so terrible that it could cause even Naruto to give up and lose hope.

Now, why did Luna do as well as Harry? Reason #1 is that she's easily the most positive and upbeat character in the story, which combined with her happy home life makes the emotional component of the spell very easy for her. Second is that because she's been training under Iruka the longest, it's boosted her magical power slightly and her mental discipline significantly. Harry and Neville are still (and will remain) the most magically powerful of the group, but Neville hasn't had the happiest of childhoods, and especially lacks in the spectacularly happy moments that a Patronus requires. Ginny is among the weakest magically (though already at least close to passing Iruka) because of her young age, and has the least training, while Hermione has a lot of trouble letting go and losing herself in emotion. Harry's memories aren't as happy as Luna's, but he's compensating with raw power and natural aptitude.

The slightly-exploded student is an OC, though I did steal his name from a work I have previously referenced. I'd have named him after Pronto (who's closer in personality), but frankly that name doesn't fit the setting nearly as well.

Fic Recommendation: "Ibiki's Apprentice" by May Wren - a one-shot in which Konoha's top prankster ends up under the tutelage of their master of head games.

Posted 27 January 2019

Current WIP Chapter: 70