Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Naruto!”

Shortly after Naruto had teleported to Platform 9¾, using a portkey in the form of a sock, Hermione spotted her.

There was still a while before the Hogwarts Express was due to leave, and the platform wasn’t too crowded yet. Hermione came bounding towards her with a flushed smile.

“Oh! It’s so good to see you, Naruto!” she exclaimed, throwing her arms around Naruto’s shoulders and filling her view with large, bushy brown hair.

Naruto’s eyes immediately welled with tears as she took in her friend's familiar scent and warm embrace. Not too long ago, Naruto had been convinced she would never see Hermione again. Her arms tightened around the witch. “It’s good to see you too, ‘Mione, ‘ttebayo.”

Wrapped in Hermione’s hug, Naruto couldn’t find the guilt she had felt just a few moments before about leaving a clone in her place in Konoha against the Hokage’s wish and knowledge.

Hermione began to pull away and Naruto reluctantly loosened her grip.

“We were all so worried,” Hermione told her in a rush. “None of us had heard any word from you all summer and Harry said he saw something rather creepy take you away at the end of last term! You were alright, weren’t you? I mean, you’re here now so surely; but you’ll have to tell me all about it, of course.”

“Hermione, dear,” someone laughed softly, drawing both Naruto and Hermione’s attention to the kindly couple that had joined them at a much more subdued pace than Hermione’s eager dash.

“Oh, Mum, Dad! This is my friend, Naruto Uzumaki,” Hermione introduced. “Naruto, these are my parents, Jean and Ian Granger.”

“Ah, so you’re the famous Naruto,” Mr. Granger said, extending his hand towards her.

After spending nearly a year at Hogwarts, Naruto now knew what was expected of her. She gripped his offered hand in hers and gave it a few firm shakes.

“Hermione’s told us a lot about you,” Mrs. Granger commented pleasantly, offering Naruto her hand next.

Remembering Draco’s lessons on etiquette, Naruto leaned down to give the back of Mrs. Granger’s hand a small peck. She smiled charmingly up at her. “It’s lovely to meet you, Granger-san. It’s clear now where ‘Mione gets her beauty.”

“Naruto,” Hermione squeaked.

Naruto looked to her friend, whose face was burning a hot scarlet, then up at her parents. Mrs. Granger had her free hand pressed to her blushing cheek, and Mr. Granger was blinking wide eyes at Naruto.

“Uh—” Naruto straightened— “did I do it wrong?” she asked. Her brow furrowed and her eyes squinted like a fox as she tried to remember. “I’m pretty sure that’s what Draco said to do when you meet a lady.” Kiss the back of their hand, smile charmingly up at them, then compliment them. “He demonstrated it so many times on me to make sure I got it, ‘ttebayo.”

“Malfoy?” Hermione squeaked again.

Mr. Granger chuckled while Mrs. Granger covered up her giggle with her hand.

“It sounds to me like this fellow may have had some ulterior motives to showing you that,” Mr. Granger told her amusedly.

“It’s not wrong to do,” Mrs. Granger told a confused Naruto gently, also clearly amused. “It’s just a bit… old-fashioned and… over the top,” she said delicately. “But, see, we’re— as your people call— muggles. So, perhaps it is the standard for the wizarding community.”

Whether they believed that or not, both of them were certain that young Naruto likely had a suitor.

“Well, Naruto,” Mr. Granger shifted the topic, “it is a true pleasure to finally meet you.”

Hermione had always had such a hard time making friends growing up and they had been worried about sending her off to a boarding school (regardless of how exciting it was that the school was a magical one). They had been so happy and relieved when their daughter had told them about the wonderful friends she had made.

“Yes,” Mrs. Granger agreed. “We wanted to thank you for taking such good care of our Hermione last year.”

“Of course! But honestly, ‘Mione’s the one that takes care of me,” Naruto laughed. “I wouldn’t have passed my classes if it weren’t for her, ‘ttebayo. She’s amazing!”

Mr. Granger wrapped his arm around a blushing Hermione, looking very proud. “Our studious girl.” He kissed her temple.

“Please do take care of her for us again this year, Naruto,” Mrs. Granger said, resting her hand on Hermione’s shoulder.

“You can count on me!” Naruto beamed brightly.

The Grangers smiled warmly towards Naruto, then turned their attention to their blushing daughter to say their final goodbyes.

Once upon a time, Naruto’s chest would’ve ached at the sight of such a loving family as she yearned for her own. But Naruto no longer had to wonder what it was like. Sure, Kakashi wasn’t as physically affectionate as the Grangers, Naruto thought as she watched them hug and kiss Hermione goodbye, but he loved her, and was proud of her, and had even seen her off as she left for the Magical World.

Naruto was very thankful for her brother. Especially for the fact that he had known that she had switched places with a clone and hadn’t stopped her or said anything to the Hokage. She knew he would look out for her clone and continue to teach her like she was Naruto’s true self.

Hermione felt awkward and bashful as her parents finally left and she turned back to Naruto. She remembered Naruto didn’t have a family and she didn’t want her friend to feel like she had been insensitive, flaunting her parents and their love.

“Sorry about that,” she muttered.

Naruto smiled her usual bright and happy smile. “Why?” she asked. “Your parents seem great ‘Mione, ‘ttebayo. It was great to meet them!”

Hermione straightened in the face of Naruto’s easy cheer. If Naruto wasn’t bothered by it, then Hermione wouldn’t make it unnecessarily awkward or feel bad about her parents’ open love for her.

She gave Naruto a happy smile as she suggested they find a compartment before it got too crowded with students.

Of course, Hermione was scandalized when she found out Naruto hadn’t read any of the books or done any of her summer homework. She wouldn’t even let Naruto begin to explain why, exactly, she hadn’t. She insisted that Naruto had to begin now and do as much as she could during the train ride.

“Of course, you won’t be able to complete everything— it took me most of the summer to do it all properly. But, some is better than nothing,” Hermione said smartly, pulling out her own books in preparation to help Naruto as much as she could (without giving her the answers, of course).

Naruto grinned happily as she admired Hermione, feeling warm in the presence of her friend’s familiar passion for school and special kind of bossiness. She had missed her.

“Hey, ‘Mione,” she dared to interrupt.

Hermione hummed in acknowledgment as she tenderly placed another fancy-looking book with a handsome blond wizard on the cover onto the ever-growing pile of books.

“I learned a really cool jutsu this summer that I think might help,” Naruto said. Her grin widened as she brought her hands into a cross sign, already anticipating Hermione’s amazement.

“Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu.”

Hermione was startled so badly that she knocked over her carefully stacked books.

….

Now that Naruto had each of her clones set up with a book to read and an assignment to complete, she leaned towards Hermione with an eager smile, excited to properly catch up now that she had solved the homework problem.

Hermione, however, was a bit distracted. She couldn’t stop staring at the mass of Narutos filling the space as they worked with vast enthusiasm and concentration.

“It seems a bit like cheating,” she eventually said. It was meant to be a chastisement, but it came off weak due to her lingering shock. She cleared her throat to try again. “I mean, you’re not really learning the material,” Hermione remarked disapprovingly.

“No, no, I am!” Naruto told her. “See, they’re a part of me,” she explained to her friend, “and when I dismiss them, I get all of their experiences and memories. So everything they learn, I learn, ‘ttebayo!”

Hermione was instantly jealous. Naruto could learn so much in no time with that technique. But… her eyes narrowed in concern. “Aren’t you worried about cognitive overload?”

Naruto blinked a few times in perplexity. Hermione was always bringing in big words to their conversations that Naruto didn’t understand. But thankfully, by this point, Hermione was able to tell when things went over Naruto’s head and knew to explain without prompt.

“Cognitive overload is when you receive too much information for your brain to process,” Hermione told her.

Naruto still didn’t get it.

“Um…” Hermione took a moment to think of another way to explain it. “Think of it as a bunch of people talking all at once and they’re all telling you different things and since they’re all talking over each other, you end up not being able to hear any of them. It’s just too many voices and words for you to understand what anyone’s saying… That’s cognitive overload.

“What I’m concerned about is that when you get your clones’ memories— won’t it be too much information all at once for you to, figuratively, ‘hear’?”

Naruto looked at Hermione with wide eyes, once more amazed by her friend’s intellect. Naruto, herself, had been working with and studying her clones all summer and she had never once even considered such an issue.

She took a moment to consider it now but… “It hasn’t been a problem,” she claimed thoughtfully. She waved off the concern. “I’m sure it’ll be fine,” she stated confidently.

Now that Naruto was back in the Magical World, she really just wanted to hear about Hermione and what she had done over the summer. Thankfully, her friend obliged.

Hermione told Naruto a bit about the camping trip she and her parents had taken and a theater performance they had seen. But, mostly, she gushed about their new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor— who was apparently a very gorgeous, courageous, powerful wizard named Gilderoy Lockhart.

Naruto didn’t bother to point out that her clones were reading his books now so she would know his tales herself. She was happy to listen to Hermione retell them. (She had apparently memorized all of his books, just as she had done with her textbooks last year). Naruto could admit that she was getting very excited to meet their hero of a professor.

Naruto, in turn, told Hermione a very edited version of her own summer. She told her how she had found her brother, Kakashi (which Hermione was incredibly happy for her about) and how he taught her so many things as her new teacher and family. She talked about Hinata, Iruka, the Konohamaru gang, and Sakura (whom she believed Hermione would get along with very well as two intelligent, curious, and studious girls).

Naruto also complained about the lame chore-like missions she and her new team had spent most of their summer doing, and about the challenges she and Sasuke did during them. Her speech about missions and challenges managed, of course, to turn into a long rant about Sasuke. She explained to Hermione how he was a stuck-up jerk who often looked down on her and everyone else because he thought he was so great. Naruto insisted that this was not, in fact, the case, and that she had managed to beat him in plenty of things… actually, everything, she corrected.

With the way Naruto spoke of Sasuke, Hermione honestly couldn’t tell whether she disliked him or the opposite.

Naruto spoke at length of the boy she had spent her summer with, painting him in an unflattering light every chance she got, but… colors of admiration and friendship often bled through her storytelling. Not to mention the amount of excitement and joy talking about the boy and their competitions seemed to bring Naruto.

Hermione suspected that— though Naruto may not be ready to hear it— the small blonde actually liked this Sasuke who tended to feature in her stories more than anyone else.

Hermione would keep the observation to herself, for now, she decided.

….

“I can’t believe you managed to do months worth of schoolwork in less than a day,” Hermione uttered in disbelief and jealousy, though her eyes glimmered with awe and excitement as she looked over Naruto’s work.

She still questioned whether Naruto actually learned anything though and promptly began quizzing her for the rest of the train ride.

Naruto noted appreciatively that most of the questions centered around Gilderoy Lockhart and his conquests. They were far more interesting than trying to explain the magic behind turning rabbits into slippers or how yet another goblin war started.

She did giggle, however, when Hermione asked what Lockhart’s favorite color was.

“‘Mione, why would I need to know that?” Naruto laughed.

“It was in the textbook so it must hold some level of importance,” Hermione defended. “Why would there be irrelevant information in an educational book?”

Half of Naruto’s face scrunched in contemplation. “I don’t know if Lockhart-sensei’s books are actually textbooks. They just seem like stories about himself, ‘ttebayo.”

“Professor Lockhart’s books are comprised of historical documentations that educate the reader on the best ways to defend against dark creatures,” Hermione insisted passionately. “They are, therefore, educational textbooks, and as students, it is our responsibility to learn everything there is to learn from them.”

“...”

“‘Mione?” Naruto wasn’t as thoughtful as Hermione when it came to keeping observations to herself. “You really like Lockhart-sensei, huh?”

Hermione’s cheeks went scarlet.

“Hey—” Naruto’s grin widened with an exciting realization— “if you think about it, me and Lockhart-sensei are kinda similar, ‘ttebayo.” Courageous, blue-eyed blonds with charming smiles. Though Naruto’s smile at the moment was more mischievous than anything. “That means you have a type, right?” she continued. “You know, since you fancied me and now you fancy him.”

“Naruto!” Hermione shrieked, completely mortified. “I-I do not fancy Gilderoy Lockhart—”

“Yeah, I guess he is pretty old,” Naruto agreed in faux thoughtfulness, not giving Hermione the proper time to make her argument. “But now that we know you have a type, we can easily find you someone—”

Hermione drowned out the rest of Naruto’s embarrassing suggestion with a shriek as she battered at her arm.

Naruto, who was laughing too hard to defend herself, fell onto her side where she continued to cackle at her blushing friend’s expense.

“Oh, honestly,” Hermione huffed a moment later, unable to hold back her own laughter. “I can’t believe I fancied you.”

Naruto propped her head up with her hand and waggled her eyebrows at Hermione. “Don’t feel bad, ‘Mione, I just have that effect on ladies, ‘ttebayo,” she claimed, earning her another snort of laughter and shove.

////

Naruto had just dismissed the clones that she had sent out near the beginning of the train ride and was now overflowing with the wonderful memories of getting to spend the day with all her friends. All the people she had thought she’d never get to see again, all the stories she thought she’d never get to hear.

Naruto was so happy.

She emerged from the Hogwarts Express with a slight skip in her step, certain of three things: The Shadow Clone jutsu was the best technique ever, this year was going to be amazing, and— she looked up at the beautiful castle glittering in the distance— it was good to be back in the Magical World.

Chapter Text

Now that they were second-years, Naruto and her peers were directed to the carriages instead of the boats upon arriving at Hogsmeade.

She continued a stream of idle chit-chat with her friends as she craned her neck around to find Harry and Ron. She had expected them to join her and Hermione by now. But, with slight concern, she realized that in all of the memories she had received from her clones, she didn’t actually recall seeing Harry or Ron on the train.

“Hey, guys,” she began, dropping her head back forward, “have you—”

Naruto came to an abrupt halt at the sight of the creatures attached to the front of the carriages.

They looked like horses but… not.

They were dark and skeletal with large bat-like wings. Their milky eyes, which Naruto suddenly couldn’t look away from, reminded her of death.

But not the violent and painful death Naruto was familiar with. This creature, despite its macabre appearance, felt gentle. In the dead white eyes that stared through her, there was wisdom and peace.

“Naruto? What are you doing?”

Naruto’s hand froze a few inches away from the creature in front of her. She hadn’t even realized she’d been reaching out to it.

Her friends were all looking at her strangely.

Perhaps she wasn’t meant to touch it, she thought. But before she could put down her hand, the creature gently pressed its scaly face into it.

With a jolt, Naruto turned back to it and the bizarre creature began to nuzzle her hand. It didn’t seem dangerous, she decided. “What is it?” she asked, hesitantly stroking it.

“Naruto… there’s nothing there,” Hermione told her uneasily.

The young blonde looked between her friend and the horse-like creature that resembled death. Clearly it was there. She was even touching it. She opened her mouth to insist just that when—

“Naruto—” Lilah Shafiq, who had been passing with her friends, stopped with a worried look—“can– can you see it?”

“Well, yeah,” Naruto answered. “They’re kinda hard to miss, ‘ttebayo.” She directed a look at Hermione as if calling her out on a badly executed prank.

But her friends still looked confused and concerned, and Lilah suddenly looked very sad and pitying.

“They’re thestrals, Naruto,” Lilah told her gently. When no one seemed any less puzzled, she somberly explained further. “Only those that have witnessed and accepted death can see them.”

Ice filled Naruto’s chest, turning her whole body cold.

Haku’s bloody death flashed through her mind as quick and bright as the lightning technique that had killed him.

“Oh.” Her hand dropped from the thestral’s face.

Her friends were looking at her with pity and a new type of concern.

She didn’t want that. She didn’t want them to know how different she was from them— children that didn’t know death, children that hadn’t fought for their lives, that hadn’t killed…

Children that weren’t… that weren’t also monsters.

She rubbed the back of her head with a goofy smile. “Ah, that explains it, ‘ttebayo. I thought you guys were pulling my leg!” she laughed. She nimbly jumped into the open carriage.

“Well, come on!” she encouraged when nobody immediately followed. “We don’t want to miss the sorting, ‘ttebayo! I made a bet with Adrian Pucey that there’d be more Gryffindors than Slytherins this year. I need to see his face when I win!”

It took a couple of minutes, but Naruto managed to shift everyone’s mind away from the grim topic of thestrals and death— that is, everyone’s mind but her own.

Naruto found herself unable to join her friends’ discussion about upcoming classes and their excitement to meet and learn from Gilderoy Lockhart. She, instead, somberly watched the thestral that pulled them towards the castle and thought of them.

Haku with an arm through his chest. A young boy who died protecting the person he loved.

Zabuza with half a dozen blades protruding from his back. A monster that died a man, cradling the face of the boy he cared for.

Quirrell, burned beyond recognition with a snapped neck. A scared wizard that was used and discarded like nothing.

All the thugs on the bridge, sliced through with a vengeful blade as the price for greedily pursuing money.

The man and Anbu from the alleyway, reduced to nothing but blood and guts splattered across the walls because a young witch lost control.

Naruto knew death well.

Being able to watch the bones shift under the thin black skin of the thestral as it worked to pull their carriage was evidence of that. Being able to watch it toss its skull-like head back (earning another glimpse of its haunting white eyes) when they arrived at the castle was proof that, despite how much she may wish otherwise, she was different from the other children at Hogwarts.

Chapter Text

The tree they hit was attacking them!

“Aaahh!“ cried Ron as another twisted limb punched a large dent into his door. The windshield was trembling under a hail of blows from harsh twigs, and a branch as thick as a battering ram was pounding furiously on the car roof, caving it in.

“Run for it!“ Ron shouted, throwing his full weight against his door, but he was immediately knocked backwards into Harry‘s lap by a branch.

“We‘re done for,“ he whimpered as the ceiling sagged further under the tree’s unrelenting attack.

Their doors were suddenly thrown open and Harry’s heart made an attempt to escape his chest, terrified that the tree had somehow learned to open the doors to get to him and Ron directly. His eyes instinctively closed, preparing himself for the strike. But no pain came.

For a flash in time, it felt like he was flying. The wind against his skin, the weightlessness of his body, the swoop of his stomach. Then everything was still.

‘Oh, Merlin,’ he thought. He had just died, hadn’t he? He was dead. Killed by a tree at the tender age of 12.

“Oof,” someone huffed out above him. “You guys really pissed her off, ‘ttebayo.”

Harry’s eyes snapped open. “Naruto!” he yelped. His arms flailed out in shock before tightly wrapping around her narrow shoulders. Harry found that he was apparently not dead, nor in the car anymore— not even on his own feet. Instead, he was being held bridal-style by his friend, whom he hadn’t seen since the end of last term. He reflexively clung to her more tightly, relieved by her presence.

He felt completely disoriented by the sudden and unexpected change of situation. His head whipped around as he tried to place himself, and through the shadows of evening, his eyes quickly landed on the violent tree— still closer than he was comfortable with, but at least no longer in striking range.

Although, the tree did continue to strike something. The poor car was still beneath it and the tree gave another thunderous whack to it before the engine rumbled to life and the battered hunk of metal shot backwards and sped away from its attacker.

The enchanted vehicle only stopped long enough to open its trunk and throw out their luggage before speeding off into the darkness, its rear lights blazing angrily.

“Sorry!”

Harry’s head jerked to the side, recognizing the voice calling out to the car as Naruto’s, but aware that the girl carrying him had not spoken. Indeed, he found there was another Naruto only a few steps away, carrying a very pale-faced Ron in the same fashion as Harry. And yet another Naruto holding a cage in one hand with a ruffled Hedwig in it, and in another hand, a trembling Scabbers.

He gaped as his eyes darted between the three of them. Harry was certain that this was not something that Naruto had been able to do last term, and upon seeing his friend’s triplication, he became even more befuddled.

Where had Naruto come from? Why were there three of her? How did she manage to save them or even know they were in danger?

“Are you guys okay?” she asked as she and her double carefully set Harry and Ron onto their feet and looked them over. The third Naruto handed them their respective pets and Harry, with shaking fingers, unlatched the door to Hedwig’s cage and she jumped out with an angry screech and flew off to the castle.

“Dad’s going to kill me,” Ron said miserably.

“We’re fine,” Harry answered over him, “just some bruises.” Though, he was all too aware that they wouldn’t have been so fortunate had Naruto not shown up.

Naruto seemed to realize this too, for the one standing between them suddenly threw her arms around them both and pulled them in a hair too tightly for their sore and bruised bodies. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” she said in a voice that sounded almost fragile.

Ron’s face went as red as his hair as he awkwardly patted Naruto on the back.

Harry, on the other hand, felt himself soften in the secure hold of his friend as all of the unpleasantness of the day and the fright from crashing into a violent tree drained out of him. There were very few people in Harry’s life who would hug him, and there was no one who made him feel quite as safe as Naruto did. His brilliant and strong friend. She was always protecting him, always saving him.

When they pulled apart, Harry looked between the three Narutos with the ridiculous dilemma of wondering which one to thank for saving him this time. Before he could open his mouth, however, two of them burst into smoke to his astonishment.

“Blimey! What spell is that?” Ron questioned, eyeing the dissipating smoke in awe as he began to collect all of his luggage from the ground.

Harry followed Ron’s lead in grabbing his own luggage and Naruto explained that it was a jutsu she had learned over the summer as they trudged their way to the castle.

Harry and Ron vaguely recognized the term as one of those things Naruto had often spent her time studying on her own last year— things that were apparently not spells that they could learn but special techniques from her homeland. Mostly they remembered that when such things came up, it was best to just accept it without question rather than develop a headache trying to understand Naruto’s explanation of it.

“Boss didn’t see you in the Hall,” Naruto— who was apparently a clone herself— explained, “so she sent some of us out to look for you. Good thing she did too, ‘ttebayo.” She looked them over again as if she would suddenly find a terrible injury she hadn’t noticed before.

Naruto was well acquainted with the Whomping Willow— the violent tree that had attacked her two friends. She had trained with it a few times last year before she was caught and told to stop. She knew first-hand how dangerous the Whomping Willow was, especially for untrained children like Harry and Ron. Harry was relatively fast for a wizard, but neither of them had the reflexes and experience necessary to avoid the Willow’s brutal limbs, as proven before her interference.

“Why weren’t you guys on the train?” she questioned, and Harry and Ron launched into a quick and jumbled retelling of what had happened. They told her how the barrier at King’s Cross had closed on them and tried to explain their (rather poor) reasoning for stealing the flying car that belonged to Ron’s father to get to Hogwarts.

“But can you believe our luck?” Ron said as they dumped their luggage at the entrance to the castle with everyone else’s. “Of all the trees we could‘ve hit, we had to get the one that hits back!”

Once they made it to the Great Hall and peered inside to see that the Sorting was underway, Naruto gave them a chirping, “Glad you made it here safe, ‘ttebayo. See you inside.” and then burst into smoke.

But Naruto did not get to see them inside the Great Hall for the opening feast. Professor Snape caught the boys before they could enter.

So, following the feast, Naruto joined the rest of Gryffindor House to their common room to wait for Ron and Harry’s arrival. Naruto may have let slip what had happened, and there was no place like Hogwarts for gossip to spread. In no time at all, the whole school knew roughly what had happened and all the Gryffindors were eager to celebrate the two boys and praise their brilliant arrival— well, everyone except for Hermione and Percy, who were waiting to tell them off instead.

Naruto was mainly there to make sure nothing horrible had happened to them during their brief time of separation.

Thankfully, Harry and Ron seemed in good spirits when they finally arrived, and Naruto, with a sigh of relief, mentally dismissed the rumor of expulsion. The boys seemed to enjoy the cheers and attention of their peers, but upon noticing an angry Percy marching towards them, quickly made their excuses and hastily retreated to their dorm.

“Honestly,” Hermione huffed disapprovingly once they’d gone and the other Gryffindors began to disperse. “They should be getting reprimanded, not praised… And where do you think you’re going?” She turned her bad temper on Naruto.

“I don’t sleep in the dorms, remember?” Naruto said. At least, she hoped that was still the case. She’d been having increasingly bad nightmares since the fight on the bridge in Wave. She didn’t want to subject anyone to that.

Hermione huffed in displeasure once more, finding the lack of rule-following reprehensible, but didn’t stop Naruto from leaving. The headmaster himself gave Naruto permission to be out past hours and to sleep somewhere other than the dorms, and Hermione wasn’t going to go against an authority figure (even if she didn’t agree).

////

Naruto was greeted by a very welcoming Tipsy when she made it to the Room of Requirement. And after a long, tight hug, the house-elf dumped a small mountain of desserts onto the witch. Despite how full she was from the feast, Naruto enthusiastically ate them to the elf’s pleasure as they caught up.

Naruto inquired about Tipsy’s summer and got to tell them how all the training Tipsy had kept her company for had paid off, and that Naruto was now a kunoichi. Tipsy cheered for her accomplishment but was unfortunately unable to stay long (as the first night of the students’ return was a very busy time for the Hogwarts house-elves). They made sure to relay the other elves’ wish for Naruto to visit the kitchen soon, and disappeared with a snap of their fingers, leaving another pile of snacks and treats in their place.

Naruto smiled as she stored them away in a storage seal that was modified to keep things fresh, and settled into her warm bed for the night.

Naruto had the pleasant thought that this was what she had longed for at the beginning of the summer when she had returned to a desolate, empty apartment, hungry and alone.

This must be what coming home felt like.

////

The next morning, Naruto sent out multiple clones to the library to continue her research on the nature of magic and left a few in the Room of Requirement to practice fūinjustu.

Even with all the excitement of being back, Naruto couldn’t allow herself to forget the reason the Hokage had permitted her to continue her magical studies. She had to figure out a seal that would allow her to transport magical energy to the Hidden Land if she wanted the Hokage to let her keep her connection to magic and all it entailed.

The real Naruto went down to breakfast where she witnessed Ron receive a Howler for all to hear.

Mrs. Weasley apparently had lungs and an ability to scold that rivaled Iruka-sensei. Ron had Naruto’s empathy. She patted him on the shoulder with one hand while she stuffed two whole pieces of toast smothered in marmalade into her mouth with the other. (Naruto had dearly missed the food here.)

Both Harry and Ron looked miserable about the whole thing, but Naruto didn’t have time to properly console them. McGonagall was approaching from down the table with each of their new schedules.

Naruto eagerly took hers with sticky fingers and looked it over.

But McGonagall didn’t move on.

Ron and Harry sank further into their seats, certain McGonagall was there to scold or warn them about misbehaving again, but she wasn’t standing there for them.

Naruto could feel her sharp eyes on her and looked up at her Transfiguration teacher questioningly. “Sensei?”

McGonagall lightly cleared her throat. “I just wanted to express how… relieved I am to see you here, Ms. Uzumaki,” she told the young girl, strangely stiff despite her clear sincerity. “I was originally told that you would not be joining us again at Hogwarts due to your new…” Her lips pinched very tightly and Naruto noticed the paper schedules still in her hand crinkle slightly. “…position,” McGonagall finished in forced evenness.

She deliberately loosened her grip and her gaze on Naruto softened. “If you need someone to speak to about…”

The older witch could only imagine what this summer must have been like for her student as an official soldier in the Hidden Land. She took a breath to subtly compose herself and continued “…about anything, at all, my door is always open to you.” With that said, she briskly resumed her task down the table.

Naruto watched her for a moment, somberly remembering that, last year, McGonagall had been strongly against her becoming a ninja. After Haku and Zabuza, she thought she now maybe understood why.

Her friends looked at her curiously, Ron and Harry’s drama temporarily forgotten.

“What was that about, mate?” Ron asked.

“What position?” Hermione inquired.

“You weren’t going to come back?” Harry worried.

“No!” Naruto hurried to assure. “Well, I mean, yes,” she awkwardly corrected, rubbing the back of her neck. “Hokage-jiji said I couldn’t come back at first. But don’t worry!” she insisted heartily. “I came up with an awesome plan and convinced him to let me come! Everything’s fine now! Dattebayo!

"Oh, look! We have Herbology first!” Naruto cheered, brandishing her schedule. “Yosh!” She excitedly pumped her fist in the air and threw her bag over her shoulder. “Come on, guys!”

Her trio of friends knew that Herbology was Naruto’s favorite subject and that her enthusiasm wasn’t completely fabricated, but— they shared a look between them as Naruto hurried them along to the greenhouses— none of them were fooled by it. All three of them silently agreed, Naruto had just evaded the topic.

Naruto would have once been elated by the idea of telling people she was a ninja, a valued member of the village, someone so important that the Hokage himself insisted she had to stay because her team and village needed her.

It used to be an often-visited fantasy of hers. A dream rooted in the future that would help carry her forward when the horrors and miseries of her life threatened to keep her in place and drown her.

Last year, Naruto had had no qualms about telling anyone who’d listen about her training and eagerness to be a ninja. But now... she no longer wished to share it with the kids here.

Naruto was proud to be a ninja. She was. But…

All around her, her classmates laughed and told stories of their carefree summers as they waited for Professor Sprout to arrive.

Naruto’s own stories of training and missions, of violence and grief, had no place here.

She tried to ignore the whisper in her mind that insisted that she had no place here.

Last year, when Naruto came to Hogwarts, she felt like she had finally found a place to belong. For the first time in her life, people were kind to her and she had come to the conclusion that it was because they were all magical like her and that the reason the villagers hated and feared her was because she was a witch.

But Naruto knew better now.

While the magical outbursts hadn’t helped the villagers' fear and hatred of her, it wasn’t the reason they had singled her out and dubbed her a monster. No… that was because Naruto had a true monster inside of her.

The Kyuubi no Yōko— a giant demon fox that had attacked Naruto’s village the day she was born and was consequently sealed away into Naruto as its container.

While Iruka and the Hokage had insisted that this did not make Naruto a monster herself, she understood now that it did make her dangerous.

If the Kyuubi ever escaped, Naruto would be ground zero for its destruction.

And in Wave— when Naruto was convinced that Sasuke had just died in her arms— the Kyuubi had taken advantage of Naruto’s emotional state and had slipped its chakra and influence past the seal.

While the chakra had given Naruto incredible power, it had also amplified her rage and bloodlust to an intoxicating level.

Naruto had nearly lost control of herself, she had nearly killed Haku even though she had sworn never to kill again.

Kakashi had explained to Naruto that the horrible circumstances of that fight had caused the seal to loosen slightly. And now Naruto worried that it meant the seal was unable to properly hold the Kyuubi back anymore.

Would the Kyuubi’s malevolent chakra try to consume her every time Naruto was vulnerable now? Would she hurt or kill someone? Would it be one of her friends?

A part of her thought that her friends should know the risk they were taking by staying by her side. But another, louder part of her selfishly wanted them to never know. She never wanted to lose them. She didn’t want them to hate or fear her like the villagers did.

This place was peaceful and the children innocent.

And it felt like, as long as they didn’t know about the Kyuubi or Naruto’s life as a ninja, she could pretend she was too.

Naruto thought about McGonagall’s offer to talk though.

In truth, Naruto did wish to speak to someone about it all. The nightmares she’d been having since Wave hadn’t allowed her a moment of proper rest, and even awake, she was having a hard time escaping her painful memories about what had happened with Sasuke and Haku. Naruto stifled a sigh and instead forced herself to laugh with the others when Justin Finch-Fletchley told them about his muggle mother's comedic misunderstanding of a magical concept he had tried to explain to her.

McGonagall was a kind woman and Naruto appreciated her offer to talk, but the young girl already knew the witch’s unfavorable opinion of the Hidden Land and Ninja.

Naruto couldn’t go to McGonagall.

She found herself forlornly wishing for Kakashi or Iruka.

It was childish of her, she knew, but she couldn’t help but yearn for their comfort— the comfort and support of people who could understand.

She doubted that there was anyone here that could.

“Oh, hello there!”

The cheery voice rang like a bell in Naruto’s ears. And when she turned her head towards the owner, it was like the clouds had parted so the sun could shine down on him. He was so bright, Naruto nearly had to shield her eyes. Everything about him seemed to reflect the sunlight— from his unblemished skin and perfectly white smile to his glossy blond waves and satin robes.

“Just been showing Professor Sprout here the proper way to doctor a Whomping Willow!” he told the gathered students. Sprout— whose arms were full of bandages— did not look at all pleased by this declaration, but Naruto didn’t notice. She only had eyes for the gorgeous and very shiny man. Suddenly, a light just as bright as he was turned on inside her mind.

Gilderoy Lockhart.

Her chest swelled with hope as she remembered his tales. He was exactly who Naruto needed!

Lockhart was a warrior in all but name. He was a wizard who’d seen, faced, and accomplished things that very few wizards could ever claim. He had fought in many battles, and was well acquainted with violence and tragedy.

While she didn’t think she could tell him about the Kyuubi, Lockhart could still understand Naruto’s life as a ninja.

“But I don’t want you running away with the idea that I’m better at Herbology than she is!” Lockhart continued to say. “I just happen to have met several of these exotic plants on my travels!”

And he was clearly very good at coping with his more traumatic experiences, Naruto thought (if his beaming smile and easy cheer were anything to go by).

Perhaps he could help Naruto learn how to cope as admirably as he did. Or at least, how to smile so convincingly.

Naruto, finally registering what Lockhart had been saying, looked at the Whomping Willow in the distance. Several of its branches were now in slings and Naruto’s admiration grew. That could not have been an easy feat.

“I can help next time!” Naruto blurted. “You know,” she clarified, “when it’s time to change its bandages, ‘ttebayo.”

Naruto was of course happy to help (especially when it came to plants), but the swift offer had come from a sudden overwhelming need to impress Lockhart.

Lockhart chuckled at an obvious fan’s enthusiasm and prepared to lecture her about the dangers of Whomping Willows and the skills needed to handle one.

Sprout, whose disgruntled expression softened at Naruto’s eager offer, spoke before Lockhart could spout one of his ignorant and condescending spiels.

“That is very sweet of you, Ms. Uzumaki, but—” she quirked her brow at the young girl— “I do believe I told you, no more playing with the Whomping Willow.” (Lockhart’s speech died in his throat with a pathetic sound.) “I dare say, the exercise you gave it last year made it much quicker and more resilient.”

“Ah.” Naruto ducked her head sheepishly and rubbed the back of her neck. “Sorry, sensei.”

“All is well. Now, greenhouse three today, chaps!” Sprout instructed the class.

Naruto perked up. Greenhouse three had far more interesting and dangerous plants than greenhouse one, which they had used the year before.

Naruto bounced with excitement as Sprout unlocked the greenhouse, eager to see what they were going to work on today. But she suddenly felt torn as she remembered Lockhart. Naruto didn’t want to miss even a minute of her favorite class, but she really wanted to talk to him.

“Lockhart-sensei,” she began, prepared to make another shadow clone so she could do both if Lockhart had the time, “I was wondering—”

“Hoping for an autograph, were you? But of course!” he interrupted her with a dazzling smile and wink. “Anything for a fan.” He was already getting out a slip of parchment and an elegant purple quill. Naruto heard Hermione gasp lightly.

“Um, actually—” Naruto accepted the paper placed in her hand without a thought and shoved it into her pocket without a glance— “I wanted to talk to you about—”

But Lockhart wasn’t listening. “Ah, Harry!” he interrupted Naruto again, putting a hand out to stop the famous boy from entering the greenhouse with the others. “I’ve been wanting a word. You don’t mind if he’s a couple of minutes late, do you, Professor Sprout?”

He nudged Naruto inside and without waiting for Sprout’s disagreeing response, he shut the door on them both.

Naruto drooped at the brush-off, but she cheered up at the sight of Neville beckoning her to the spot beside him that he had secured for her. She beamed at him and he smiled back shyly.

Their assignment for the day— repotting mandrakes— ended up being an exciting albeit laborious task. It was hard work wrangling the baby-like plant into its new pot as it flailed with its sharp claws and gnashed its teeth at her, and Naruto danced in victory when she finally had hers once more buried in soil.

Sprout gave her an encouraging pat on the shoulder and a smile that sent Naruto’s mood soaring. Naruto spent the rest of the class cheering on Neville (who couldn’t hear her through the sound-proof earmuffs they had to wear) and stopping the venomous tentacula from attacking unsuspecting students.

Transfiguration was their next class and Naruto found it hard to focus with McGonagall failing to pretend she wasn’t giving Naruto special attention. The professor made sure to walk around the whole class but noticeably strayed towards Naruto’s side more often than was necessary. It was as though she was waiting for Naruto to have a breakdown, or— Naruto tried not to think it— some sort of violent outburst.

It made Naruto uncomfortable.

So, every time McGonagall walked past her desk, Naruto kept her eyes trained on the beetle she was supposed to transform into a button and pretended it was Ron the professor was worried about instead. It made sense for McGonagall to watch out for Ron. Ron’s wand had snapped when he and Harry had crashed into the Whomping Willow and it didn’t seem any amount of Spellotape was helping it function properly.

It was Ron’s broken wand that kept McGongall’s attention on this side of the room, not Naruto, she tried to convince herself.

Once the bell rang, marking the end of Transfiguration and the start of lunch, Naruto didn’t even bother to grab her partially transfigured beetle, which had the body of a button but 6 squirming legs that it used to scurry away. She instead tried to catch up to Draco— who had been seated right beside the door and had immediately rushed out before the bell had even finished ringing.

He didn’t so much as pause at Naruto’s call for him, and if she didn’t know better, she would’ve thought he was avoiding her.

Chapter Text

During the train ride to Hogwarts, Draco felt very smug. And that was because Naruto Uzumaki had chosen him to spend the train ride with. Him, Draco Malfoy, over “wonderful, famous Potter” or “perfect, amazing Granger.” Not Weasleys or Hufflepuffs or know-it-all Ravenclaws or pesky upperclassmen. She had chosen him.

Draco couldn’t completely suppress his giddy smile. He didn’t even mind that Crabbe and Goyle were in the compartment as well because Draco knew Naruto wasn’t there for them, she was there for him.

He bought her treats from the trolley and shared the box of candies his mother had sent him off with. He told her all about the luxurious places and exclusive events he and his family went to during the summer. He showed off his brand new Nimbus 2001— which he emphasized the superiority of to last year’s model, Nimbus 2000. He boasted about how he would certainly make the team this year and preened when Naruto enthusiastically agreed that he would do great.

Draco’s elation lasted almost the entire train ride. He was certain that Naruto staying with him the whole time meant she had deemed him her best friend. It felt official: Draco Malfoy was the better friend. Better than Harry Potter, with his fame and scar. Better than Hermione Granger, with her top scores. Better than all of them.

He greatly anticipated the look on their faces. He smirked to himself behind a well-placed hand. Indeed, he couldn’t wait to boast and rub it in.

“Please excuse me for a moment,” Draco said, straightening his face and clothes as he stood.

“Where ya goin’, Draco?” Naruto asked around a mouthful of pumpkin pasty. The crumbs were sticking to her bulging cheeks, he noted distastefully. Well, he decided more pleasantly, it just meant they’d have to spend more time together to review manners.

“Lavatory,” he lied.

Draco rushed past the compartments with as much dignity as he could as he kept an eye out for his enemies. But then, he did a double-take so hard he nearly fell.

Hair as bright as sunshine. Such a unique hair color that he had only ever seen it on one person in his entire life. Naruto.

He threw the compartment door open with such force the students inside visibly jumped.

“Draco!” Naruto exclaimed with excitement that suggested she hadn’t just spent hours with him.

“Malfoy?” Ernest Macmillan, one of the Hufflepuffs that Draco often saw clinging to Naruto, voiced disdainfully. “You know it’s proper to knock first, right?”

Draco completely ignored him. “Naruto, how are you here? I only left a mere minute ago. You should’ve known I’d come right back.”

“What are you talking about, Malfoy?” Hannah Abbott’s nose scrunched in a way that perhaps Naruto would think was cute, but Draco found especially obnoxious. “Naruto’s been with us this entire time.”

Draco looked down at her with a sneer. “Do you take me for a fool? Naruto has been with me.” He crossed his arms to emphasize his point.

The three Hufflepuffs looked at each other in a way that could not be mistaken as anything but judgmental and mocking.

“Ah, you’re actually both right,” Naruto interfered before Draco could hear anything demeaning or snap at them. “I wanted to see all of you guys so I made clones of myself, ‘ttebayo!” She chuckled bashfully.

Everyone’s shocked gaze turned to her. “Clones?”

“Yeah!” Naruto cheered. “It’s a new technique I learned this summer!”

“That’s amazing, Naruto!” Justin Finch-Fletchley gushed. “I didn’t even know that was possible!”

Draco’s pale cheeks flushed with embarrassment and his chest tightened with hurt. So, Naruto hadn’t chosen him over everyone else, he realized. He was just another one of the masses.

He quietly and shamefully returned to his compartment where his own clone version of Naruto happily greeted him. He wasn’t able to find his earlier cheer though.

Draco was hurt. And frustrated. And humiliated.

It was even worse to find out that the real Naruto had, indeed, been with Hermione Granger throughout the train ride. The only reason she hadn’t also been with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley was because they hadn’t been there.

To Draco, it felt like he wasn’t actually anything to Naruto. He was just a friend, which wasn’t special because everyone was Naruto’s friend. The title of best friend instead went to a Mudblood and blood traitors and Draco couldn’t understand why.

He hated it and he hated them.

////

Naruto recognized Draco’s mediocre avoidance tactics from last year, when he had spent the first 3 weeks dodging her approaches. But it had made sense then, because they hadn’t been friends yet, and Naruto had been trying to deliberately annoy him to get answers. She didn’t understand it now.

She didn’t understand why when she tried to sit by him for their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class, he coldly told her that the seat was reserved for Vincent.

“Oh.” She paused in an awkward position halfway between standing and sitting.

“Go sit with your best friends, Granger and Potter,” he told her with a disgusted curl to his lip.

Naruto’s brow furrowed, feeling hurt and confused by the hostility. But, with an apology to Vincent, she let him have the seat without another word and awkwardly looked around at the remaining spots.

She didn’t have the option to sit with Hermione and Harry as Draco told her to. It was three to a table and Harry, Ron, and Hermione were already sitting together. So, Naruto joined Susan Bones and Megan Jones in the front row instead. The two Hufflepuff girls welcomed her warmly which made her feel a little better. Naruto just didn’t get what she had done to make Draco upset.

She didn’t have much time to worry about it though. Lockhart started the class with a pop quiz that Naruto found herself seriously underprepared for. Somehow, Hermione ended up being right about having to know Lockhart’s favorite color. Naruto should’ve expected it. Hermione was always right, but it still baffled her.

Naruto lamented how bad of an impression she was about to leave and hoped her inevitably poor quiz score on “Everything Lockhart” didn’t hurt her chances to talk to him about the things she was hoping to.

At least, she thought in relief once the quiz was over, it seemed that most students didn’t do too well, according to Lockhart’s comments. All except for Hermione, who, like usual, received perfect marks and the teacher’s praise.

The second half of the class seemed like Naruto’s chance to prove herself though!

Lockhart released a cage full of Cornish pixies to see what they could make of the situation. While Naruto’s classmates ran and dove for cover as the pixies wreaked havoc around them, Naruto took the initiative to catch the little pests.

After only a minute of chaos, Naruto’s school robe— which she had removed to help her catch and hold the creatures— was full of Cornish pixies. She had even managed to save Neville from whatever fate the pixies were carrying him off to.

Neville, of course, blushed deeply from where he was held in Naruto’s arms and stutteringly thanked her. Naruto just gave him a charming smile and wink as she reminded him of her promise to always catch him. She helped him find cover under a desk and continued to save other students from the pixies' mischief.

Surely, she believed, this would earn her Lockhart’s attention and praise. But when his spell to take care of the rest of the pixies completely failed and he instead lost his wand to one of them, he too hid under his desk and therefore could not see Naruto’s accomplishments.

Naruto gave a little pout before quickly grabbing a pixie that was pulling on Padma’s braid as the girl ran past her with a shriek.

When the bell rang, all the students made a mad dash for the exit. So did Lockhart.

“Well, I’ll ask you four to just nip the rest of them back into their cage,” he told Naruto, Ron, Hermione, and Harry (who hadn’t quite made it out in time) as he swept past them and shut the door quickly behind himself.

“Can you believe him!?” Ron exclaimed angrily and then yelped when a pixie bit his ear.

Naruto quickly grabbed it and stuffed it into her makeshift sack.

“He just wants to give us some hands-on experience,” reasoned Hermione as she performed a spell to freeze two pixies and handed them off to Naruto to add to her robe-sack.

Harry and Ron were unconvinced as they struggled to catch any of the few remaining pixies.

“He had no idea what he was doing,” said Harry. “Naruto’s the one who did all the work! Lockhart was completely useless.”

Naruto beamed at the acknowledgment of the work she’d done. But she was still disappointed that she didn’t get to talk to Lockhart after class as she had hoped to (or Draco for that matter).

////

“Hey, Adrian?” Naruto decided to ask early Saturday morning as they went through their stretches at the Quidditch pitch. Adrian had team practice later but routine was routine, so he was there at the break of dawn as usual to practice and train with Naruto first.

He grunted in what may have just been from the effort of his stretching position, but Naruto decided to take it as an acknowledgment.

Naruto knew that Adrian had no interest in topics that didn’t tie into quidditch, but she didn’t feel like there were many people left who could answer why Draco was upset with her.

Draco, himself, kept avoiding her and had only provided a passive-aggressive non-answer when she had managed to pin him down. Her non-Slytherin friends didn’t really know Draco— that or they didn’t like him (Ron, Harry, and Hermione had certainly been unhelpful with their bias towards the Slytherin when Naruto had asked for their help). As for Naruto’s Slytherin friends— Daphne had only given her a bored look when she had asked before suggesting they continue their dance lesson, and Vincent and Gregory had only offered shrugs and nothing else.

This left Adrian, whom Naruto hoped had at least some insight as a fellow Slytherin.

As expected, Adrian looked as though he couldn’t possibly care any less about the subject when Naruto asked, but he still at least provided an answer.

“That Malfoy prat? He’s just petty,” Adrian told her dismissively as he deepened his stretch.

“‘Petty’? What d’you mean?”

Adrian sighed, making sure to show Naruto that he would much rather be focusing on his exercises. But Naruto knew he didn’t truly mind. If Adrian really didn’t want to do something, he wouldn’t bother humoring her.

“Malfoy’s spoiled,” Adrian explained to her. “‘Mummy and Daddy’ always gave him whatever he wanted and he’s never had to share. But…” Adrian shifted out of his stretch to finally look at Naruto. He didn’t look all too impressed (by either Naruto, the topic, or just Draco, Naruto wasn’t sure). “Malfoy has to share you,” he said, “and he doesn’t like it.”

He shifted into his next stretch. His voice came out muffled from where it was pressed against his leg. “Malfoy is high on the social ladder. He has money and standing in the community, but you’re an anomaly who doesn’t care about such things. He can’t buy or bribe you like he does everyone else.” (Adrian briefly glanced at his brand new Nimbus 2001 that was lying amidst his worn out and decidedly less nice gear.)

His lip quirked up subtly as he looked back over to Naruto. She wouldn’t even be able to recognize the value of such a gift. He was certain that Draco had probably tried.

“You treat him just like you treat everyone, even people he deems lesser than him.” Adrian chuckled. “It must really bother him.”

Naruto was completely thrown by this theory. She simply couldn’t imagine such a way of thinking. Naruto had always wished to be treated the same as others— especially when that “same” was with kindness and friendship. And she had never even considered the possibility that her having friends— something that made her so happy— could be the reason for someone else's unhappiness.

However, before she could ponder the strange explanation further, her attention was caught by the Gryffindor Quidditch team sluggishly making their way onto the field. They didn’t seem to notice Naruto and Adrian stretching at the other end of the pitch as they lumbered towards the changing rooms (which was no surprise to Naruto considering how tired they looked with their drooping eyes and dragging feet).

Adrian huffed in amusement. “Looks like Wood’s working his Gryffindorks hard. Probably even more desperate to win after last year’s utter failure.” The boy grinned widely as he happily remembered that last game. “I’d never seen such a pathetic loss.”

“Hey! We only lost ‘cause Harry was in a coma and we didn’t have another Seeker, ‘ttebayo!” Naruto defended.

“Yeah, yeah.” Adrian waved her off dismissively. “But a loss is a loss, no matter the fairness of it.”

Naruto huffed but had nothing to say against that. Afterall, she already knew it well, and in a much harsher reality than a Quidditch game.

“I’ll go and get a good seat, Harry!” a first-year with a camera hollered after the lagging Seeker of Gryffindor. Naruto recognized him as one of their newest Gryffindor additions, Colin Creevey.

“Potter’s got himself a groupie, does he?”

Indeed. Colin was a muggleborn who had become a huge Harry Potter fan after hearing all of the stories about him. He often followed Harry around and enthusiastically greeted him any chance he got.

Naruto thought it was cute and flattering, but Harry hated it. Especially after some sort of situation where Colin had asked for a photo with him and, according to Harry, Draco had come along and deliberately made the whole situation worse while simultaneously insulting them.

Naruto wasn’t too sure how much of that was true, or just her friend being biased. Harry and Ron had never liked Draco, and spent the majority of the previous year trying to convince Naruto that he was trying to use or trick her.

Naruto knew Draco was often insensitive and could lash out with his sharp tongue when he was embarrassed, but she didn’t know him to deliberately be mean. She believed her friends were being overly sensitive or simply unable to let go of some of the things Draco had done last year (like tricking them with a fake midnight duel that nearly got them in trouble).

Draco Malfoy wasn’t a bad person. Naruto truly believed that, despite what her friends tried to tell her.

Naruto’s last stretch was impatiently held to the count of 30 seconds— that was, in actuality, closer to 10— before she jumped to her feet and began to nag at Adrian to hurry.

It was uncommon for Quidditch teams to have their practice this early in the morning. Usually it was only Adrian and Naruto using the field, but since the Gryffindor team had arrived, Naruto and Adrian didn’t have much time left for their own warm-ups.

Adrian gave no outward acknowledgment to Naruto’s impatience, however. Instead, he deliberately slowed his counting and— unable to help himself when he noted Naruto’s tapping foot and petulant huffs— purposefully continued to count past 30.

He only managed to reach 33, however, before Naruto bodily pulled him to his feet.

Adrian yelped as he was yanked into the air. And when his feet properly met the ground, he stared down at the small girl with wide eyes.

“Come on,” Naruto urged, oblivious to how astounding a display of strength she’d just shown was. “We’ve at least gotta get our race in, ‘ttebayo!”

Adrian cleared his throat and straightened his quidditch robe in a bid for time to regain his careful composure. But, once he did and noted what Naruto had said, his lip pulled into a small grimace.

For years, Adrian would jog after his stretches. But since meeting Naruto last year, those jogs had turned into dashes. Adrian honestly didn’t find them very fun. Naruto always won despite her much shorter stature and Adrian was getting very tired of losing to a Gryffindor two years below him.

“How about you race my broom instead,” he suggested slyly, knowing full well it was physically impossible for a person to outrun a Nimbus 2001.

“Sure!” Naruto agreed, eager for a challenge. “Sounds like fun, ‘ttebayo!”

Adrian smirked as he mounted his new broom. Naruto sometimes proved to be rather naïve and Adrian was now finally going to win.

And of course, he did win the race, going 135mph, but he had very nearly fallen off his broom at the beginning due to shock. Naruto had apparently been holding back a lot during their previous races.

“Merlin!” Naruto shouted as she soon caught up to him at their decided finish line. “You were so fast! I couldn't keep up at all, dattebayo!”

Adrian gaped at her and held back a shudder. She wasn’t even winded, he noted with unease. Sometimes he wondered if she was even human. But mostly, he was just thankful that, for whatever reason, Naruto wasn’t on the Gryffindor team. Slytherin wouldn’t stand a chance if she was, even with their Nimbus 2001s.

“Naruto! That was amazing!” Colin Creevey hollered at her from where he was jumping excitedly in one of the stands. He had stars in his eyes and his camera was gripped tightly in his hands which he had no doubt used to take pictures of the race.

Naruto gave the first-year Gryffindor a big smile and cheerful wave.

Adrian almost wanted to ask why she wasn’t part of her House’s team, but the fear of putting the idea into her head and dooming the school to an endless streak of Gryffindor wins kept his mouth shut.

He had already doomed himself to constant losses by having Naruto as his training partner. “I’m never going to win,” he lamented.

“What d’you mean?” Naruto clapped him good-naturedly on the back. “You just won Adrian, ‘ttebayo!”

Adrian was not comforted.

….

For some reason, the Gryffindor team never emerged from the changing rooms, even after an hour— which was the time Adrian needed to head inside anyway to get breakfast before his own team practice.

They walked to the castle together, and Naruto had somehow circled back to her ridiculous claim that she knew people who could outrun Adrian’s broom. He scoffed but Naruto continued to insist that her brother— who happened to also be her teacher back home— could do it easily, and so could another boy named Sasuke.

Adrian rolled his eyes at her, not buying a word of it.

“Not possible,” he dismissed as they made their way through the Entrance Hall. “You only got close because you cheat.”

Adrian, at this point, no longer actually believed Naruto did the things she did by cheating (though sometimes he still pretended she did for peace of mind) but he still often accused her of it, enjoying the way her cheeks always turned red and puffed out with indignation.

“I don’t cheat!” she predictably shouted at him, jumping into his space.

Adrian huffed in amusement. “Yeah, yeah.” His hand managed to cover her entire face as he pushed it away. “Now bugger off to your loser table, shorty, you’re not following me to mine,” he said.

Without missing a beat, Naruto childishly blew a raspberry at him and ran off to the Gryffindor table to join the few people with the will to be awake so early on the first Saturday back from holiday.

Adrian, with amusement lightly pulling at his lips, went to the Slytherin table to join his team members who were already dressed for practice.

At the Gryffindor table, Naruto found Hermione and Ron— who were preparing to head down to the Quidditch pitch to wait for Harry. Naruto, unbothered that she had only just come from there, quickly grabbed a few things for herself and Colin (who had refused to move from his “perfect spot to watch and take pictures of Harry”) and joined them.

Ron and Hermione were surprised to find that what they were waiting on wasn’t for Harry to finish practice but to start.

“Yeah,” Naruto said from where she was crouched in the stands, rocking back and forth with energy she hadn’t managed to burn off in her morning routine with Adrian, “they went into the changing rooms over an hour ago but never came back out.”

But thankfully, after only a few minutes more, the groggy Gryffindors finally emerged.

Colin nearly threw the piece of toast Naruto had given him in his haste to get his camera in position to take pictures of Harry once he took to the air.

Harry didn't have a chance to be in the air for long though, because that was when the Slytherin team appeared for their own practice.

Oliver Wood, the captain of the Gryffindor team, was furious when he saw them. “I booked the field for today!” he shouted at the Slytherin Captain, Marcus Flint, as he landed hard on the ground, soon followed by the rest of his team. “This is our practice time, so clear off!”

“Plenty of room for all of us, Wood,” Flint said slyly.

“Uh oh.” Even from a distance, Naruto could feel the tension between the two teams quickly building. She jumped down from the high stand— ignoring Hermione and Ron’s cry of horror and Colin’s astonished gasp and camera clicks— and slipped in behind the Gryffindor team, wishing to be close in case an actual fight broke out.

“But I booked the field!” Wood insisted, outraged. “I booked it!”

“Easy, Wood,” said Flint. “I’ve got a note.” He handed it to Wood with a pleased smirk.

Wood angrily took it and read aloud, “‘I, Professor Snape, give the Slytherin team permission to practice today on the Quidditch field owing to the need to train their new Seeker’…” He looked up from the note with furrowed brows. “You’ve got a new Seeker? Who?”

The larger Slytherin players stepped aside to reveal a very smug Draco Malfoy.

Naruto’s hands clapped together in a moment of joy. So, Draco had made it onto the team as he had so desperately wanted! She was happy for him.

She was the only one from the Gryffindor side though.

“And he’s not the only new thing this year,” Flint added with a broad smile. He purposefully adjusted his broom so that everyone could see the fine gold letters on the sleek handle that spelled Nimbus 2001.

The Gryffindor team gaped as they realized all of the Slytherins had the same extraordinary model.

“A gift from Draco’s father,” Flint bragged. “The very latest model. Only came out last month. I believe it outstrips the old 2000 model by a considerable amount.”

Naruto remembered Draco telling her clone about it on the train, and presently, he had a large and proud smile on his face.

“What’s going on? What’s he doing here?” Ron questioned as he and Hermione finally made it down from the stands the proper way, via the stairs. They both were looking at Draco with open dislike.

“I’m the new Slytherin Seeker, Weasley,” Draco answered smugly. “Everyone’s just been admiring the brooms my father bought our team.”

Ron, of course, gaped at the sight of the seven Nimbus 2001s.

“Good, aren’t they?” Draco continued smoothly. “But perhaps the Gryffindor team will be able to raise some gold and get new brooms, too. You could raffle off those Cleansweep Fives,” he said, glancing condescendingly at Fred and George’s brooms. “I expect a museum would bid for them.”

The Slytherin team laughed while the three Weasleys blushed in embarrassment.

Naruto’s brow lifted in shock at Draco’s mean and unprovoked comment.

“At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in,” Hermione said sharply. “They got in on pure talent.”

Draco’s eyes narrowed as he turned his cold gaze on Hermione. “No one asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood,” he spat.

There was an immediate uproar at Draco’s words. Gryffindors were yelling, the twins were trying to get past Flint so they could get at Draco, Ron whipped out his broken wand and took aim. It was chaos.

But Naruto just stood there, frozen in shock as the horrible slur echoed in her mind. She had learned about that word last year… and although, for Naruto, it may only be a word, she also knew that, for the Wizarding World, it was perhaps the worst thing Draco could have said. She couldn’t believe that he, her friend, had just said it to Hermione.

There was a bang and Ron went flying, his curse meant for Draco having backfired on him.

While the Gryffindors surrounded Ron to see if he was okay and watched in horror and disgust as he began to vomit up several slugs, Naruto stood there and watched Draco. She must have been hoping to see regret or guilt on his face for saying such horrible things, but instead, he was howling with laughter alongside his fellow Slytherins.

By the time Ron was hurried away by Harry and Hermione, with the other Gryffindors following in concern, Draco was doubled over and using his new broom to help keep himself up. He couldn’t seem to stop laughing.

And in the new calm following the Gryffindors' hasty departure, Naruto silently stood there alone and watched this side of Draco she hadn’t witnessed before.

When Draco finally noticed her (thanks to Adrian nudging him), he immediately sobered. Naruto watched as alarm replaced his amusement. “Naruto!” he yelped. “How— how long have you been there?”

But it was a pointless question. Draco knew from her stricken expression that she had seen and heard everything.

The other Slytherin’s laughter died down.

Naruto didn’t know what to say to him. After witnessing this, she had the terrible thought that her friends had not been exaggerating about Draco’s horrible personality and deeds. Draco Malfoy, she realized with aching despair, was a bully.

“You called ‘Mione a Mudblood,” Naruto stated in an even voice. “Are you going to call me a Mudblood too?”

“What? No!” Draco exclaimed. “Of course not!” He took a step towards Naruto, his face earnest and sincere, but he halted at Naruto's expression. “I wouldn’t—” he tried.

“Why not?” Naruto asked. “I am one.” She didn’t appreciate him backpedaling now that he knew she had heard. “Or did you forget?” She thought of all the other things her friends claimed Draco had said to them. “I don’t have parents either, or money… Are you going to belittle and mock me for that too? Like you do to Harry and the Weasleys?”

Draco’s pale cheeks turned a bright red.

It upset Naruto even more that he wasn’t denying it. She wanted him to deny it. To tell her he hadn’t said those things, that it was a misunderstanding.

But he didn’t.

“Do you think it's something we chose?” Naruto asked, hurt.

She had certainly heard much worse things said to her, but it was undeniably more painful coming from someone she had considered a friend.

Betrayal throbbed in her chest. After all the times she had defended him…

“Do you think I don’t wish that I had parents to take care of me, or money to buy food, or to have been born into this magical world instead of the one I was?”

Draco was now looking down, but Naruto didn’t think it was because he understood. It was more likely because he didn’t like being on her bad side. He had continued saying such things behind Naruto’s back, afterall. It wasn’t because he grasped how horrible it was, but because he knew Naruto wouldn’t like it.

“You have a lot, Draco… but that doesn’t give you the right to bully us.”

“Wait a minute!” His head shot up with wide eyes. “I never bullied you! I would never—!”

“When you mock people for those things, you’re mocking me too, Draco. ‘Cause I’m the same as them, ‘ttebayo.”

“But you’re different from them!” Draco argued.

Yes, Naruto thought, she was different from them. She was different in ways that Draco didn’t even know. But… “I don’t want to be,” she uttered softly.

Naruto’s face turned down and away and Draco could feel her withdrawing from him.

“Naruto…” he tried again, more gently, as he reached out to her.

Naruto shifted away from his reach. “Congratulations on making Seeker,” she told him. “I know how much it meant to you.”

“Naruto…”

Without a word, she walked away from him.

“Naruto!” he called more desperately. But she didn’t turn back. “I’m sorry, okay!?” But she didn’t believe him. “Naruto!”

Draco slumped in dismay once she was completely out of sight. She hadn’t even looked back once.

“Well, I say ‘good riddance’,” Flint commented in a poor attempt at comfort as he gripped Draco’s drooping shoulder. “You really shouldn’t have been associating with someone like Uzumaki anyway. She’s unmannered and freakish. And really, she—”

“Shut up,” Draco and Adrian told him simultaneously.

Chapter Text

Team 7 in A Place to Return

Naruto near the beginning of A Place to Return

Naruto in ch.23/24 of A Place to Return (Kyūbi Mode!)

Naruto in A Place to Choose (her hair has gotten longer 😄)

Although I make sure to keep my descriptions vague in the story so you guys can imagine the characters the way JKR wrote or how the actors represent them in the movies, this is how I like to imagine the HP characters 😊

Harry:

Ron:

Hermione:

Draco

I will eventually draw more characters (very slowly lol)

If you're having difficulty seeing the images, they are posted here on my Tumblr account: https://www.tumblr.com/metalsnakefanfic

Chapter Text

“This is becoming ridiculous,” Pansy Parkinson hissed at her fellow yearmates as she cast a narrow look towards Draco on the other side of the Slytherin common room. He had refused to join them again so that he could instead write another one of those pathetic letters.

The fact that he had to resort to letters, in itself, was pathetic, but Draco had been unsuccessful in approaching Naruto Uzumaki to speak to her directly. Not that the letters were doing any better. Uzumaki had yet to even open a single one of them! And all of the gifts Draco had sent with them had been wasted, seeing as the stupid Gryffindor just let whomever she was sitting beside take them.

Tracey Davis and Millicent Bulstrode shared an exasperated look between them. They agreed that this was indeed becoming ridiculous. Pansy very rarely shut up about Draco, especially since his falling out with Naruto Uzumaki. Unfortunately, it was risky to voice their annoyance as the only halfbloods at the table.

Daphne Greengrass, however, had no such restriction. “Parkinson,” she said in a polite tone, not looking up from her work, “shouldn’t you be more focused on your essay? It is, afterall, due tomorrow, and I noticed you have yet to begin. We wouldn’t want you falling too far behind.”

Pansy slapped a hand over her blank parchment and glared at Daphne past her embarrassed blush. “I’m perfectly capable of managing my own work, Greengrass,” Pansy spit out. “Right now we have more important things to discuss… What are we going to do about Draco?”

“Enjoy the show?” Theodore Nott suggested, his thin lips twitching with amusement.

“Nothing,” Daphne answered more seriously before Pansy could snap at Theodore. Draco had, in fact, already asked for Daphne’s assistance with the matter, since she was acquainted with Naruto. But Daphne had refused. “Malfoy got himself into this mess. It is up to him to fix it. I have no intention of getting involved.”

“That’s exactly it though! Why does Draco have to fix anything?” Pansy demanded. “He didn’t do anything wrong.”

Blaise Zabini scoffed lightly. He didn’t even bother to lift his head from his essay as he glanced at Pansy with his sharp golden eyes.

What Pansy failed to acknowledge was that regardless of whether or not what Draco had done was wrong, it had been incredibly stupid— insulting Granger for being a muggleborn in front of his highly influential muggleborn friend. Pansy’s defense of him was only making her sound foolish.

“What?” Pansy hissed at him. She thought if anyone, Blaise would be on the same page as her.

But Blaise didn’t deign to answer. His elegant features only shifted with derision before he refocused on his essay. He felt no desire to explain it to her. Blaise often enjoyed Pansy’s company to discuss fashion trends or laugh at lesser students, but her current topic of choice had long since grown tedious.

“Parkinson, even you must admit it was in poor taste to call Granger by such a vulgar name,” Daphne pointed out.

“He called a Mudblood a Mudblood.” Pansy disputed. “He’s the heir to the house of Malfoy and of the house of Black—”

“He’s not the heir to the house of Black,” Theodore disagreed with a roll of his eyes.

“He’s as good as,” Pansy argued. “It’s not as though the current head of the house will be procreating in Azkaban. He will soon croak, and without an heir of his own, the title will go to Draco as the last proper descendent of the Black line.”

“Is that why you’re so obsessed with him?” Tracey Davis asked innocently. “Fancy yourself as the next Lady Black?”

“Shut up, Davis,” Pansy hissed, her cheeks blaring red as she glared at the bespectacled girl. “No one asked for your input!”

Tracey smiled pleasantly at the snobbish girl, enjoying the way she bristled. Tracey was unbothered by Pansy’s hostility and instead found it rather amusing.

“My point is,” Pansy continued, “Draco shouldn’t have to apologize. This whole thing is so far beneath him. And so is Uzumaki. I mean, who does she think she is!? Making Draco grovel. He’s better off without her!”

And Pansy was going to do everything in her power to remind him of that, with or without the others’ help.

It was high time Draco remembered what it meant to be the heir to the house of Malfoy and a descendant of the Black family.

////

“You guys go on, I want to talk to Lockhart-sensei about something, ‘ttebayo,” Naruto told her friends at the end of another boring DADA class. Ever since the pixies, Lockhart hadn’t brought any more live creatures to class and instead read passages from his books or forced Harry to act parts out with him.

This last class, Lockhart had read from Voyages with Vampires, his most recent book, and had, at a certain point, mentioned a kind fellow who had assisted him, and the young man’s unfortunate death.

Naruto, sensing her chance, had asked about how he dealt with the loss, but Lockhart had given a very scripted and impersonal answer before quickly moving on to the next exciting passage.

Naruto imagined it was because Lockhart didn’t believe his young students were ready to hear about such travesty or the horrible truth of his “glamorous” battles. She wanted to let him know that she understood and hoped he would, in kind, give her a more honest answer.

“Oh!” Hermione perked up. “Are you going to ask him something about his books? May I join?” she asked eagerly, a blush making its way onto her cheeks.

“Why would you want to talk to him?” Ron asked in distaste. “He clearly doesn’t know anything.”

“That is not true!” Hermione protested shrilly. “Professor Lockhart is brilliant.”

“Actually,” Naruto cut in before Hermione and Ron could start another one of their arguments, “it’s kinda personal, ‘ttebayo.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “I was hoping to talk to him alone.”

“Oh.” Hermione deflated.

Ron looked horrified. “You’re not confessing to him, are you?”

Naruto’s chest spiked with panic. There was no way Ron could know, right?

No one at Hogwarts knew about Quirrell or the people in the alley but Dumbledore. She hadn’t told anyone about the horrible things that had happened that summer or that the Kyūbi was sealed inside of her. There was no way Ron could even know that Naruto had things to confess!

“Confessing what?” she tried nervously, her brow glistening with sudden sweat.

“Your love, of course!” Ron stated obliviously.

Naruto’s eyes widened in shock. Where had Ron gotten that idea? “No! Of course not, dattebayo!” she exclaimed, embarrassed yet relieved it was not what she had been thinking. “It’s— It’s just about something that happened this summer…”

“I don’t think you’re going to get what you want from him, Naruto,” Harry said. “But, I guess you can see that for yourself… Come on guys.” Harry guided Hermione and Ron out. He didn’t guide them far though. As soon as the classroom door was shut, he quietly ushered them back to it.

“What are you doing?” Hermione hissed, thankfully understanding his gesture to be quiet.

“I want to hear,” Harry confessed.

Naruto always seemed so open, but Harry knew his friend had a lot she didn’t tell them. He trusted her, but he was also very curious as to what she was hiding. He suspected something very big had happened during the summer that Naruto was deliberately keeping from them. This was his chance to find out what.

“This isn’t right,” Hermione protested, but she didn’t make a move to leave. And when they could hear Naruto’s muffled voice begin on the other side of the door, she too leaned in closer.

“Lockhart-sensei?”

Lockhart whirled around from where he had been indulging in the heroic reenactment of his fight against the vampire.

“Ah! Ms. Uzumaki!” He smoothed back his already perfect golden hair and offered her a sparkly smile. “What can I do for you?”

“I was hoping to talk to you more about… about your comrade, Sasha, and his death.”

Lockhart’s dazzling smile faltered. “That is a, um,” he cleared his throat uncomfortably, “a rather grim topic, Ms. Uzumaki. I only mentioned it today so that you may understand battles come with losses and are not to be taken lightly despite how easy they are for me. Most wizards do not fare so well. I’d prefer if you didn’t dwell on it, however. It is not a subject suited for someone as young as you, you understand.”

“The thing is, sensei… this summer—”

“What are you three doing, loitering about?”

Ron, Harry, and Hermione all jumped at the sudden voice and quickly spun around. Their backs now to the door their ears had been pressed to, they faced the older girls with their cheeks colored in shame at having been caught eavesdropping.

“We need to get to class. Would you mind moving?” one of them asked with a quirked brow.

Hermione’s brow furrowed. “There’s still quite some time before the next lesson is due to start,” she pointed out.

The girls visibly blushed. “It is good to be well-prepared and early,” another defended. “You’ll understand when you’re older.”

Ron and Harry’s expressions turned unimpressed. These girls clearly just wanted to swoon over Lockhart before class. As if the glorified peacock needed a bigger head.

“Our friend’s discussing something important with Professor Lockhart right now,” Harry told them, bothered that he was missing Naruto’s potential secret due to these girls. “You’ll have to wait until she’s finished.”

Just then, the door opened behind them and the young Gryffindor trio quickly moved out of the way to see a very pale Lockhart guiding Naruto out with an awkwardly hovering hand— as if he couldn’t bring himself to fully touch her.

“I think it is best that you head off to your next class now, Ms. Uzumaki,” Lockhart told her with a strained smile that vanished as soon as he hurried back into his classroom. He quickly shut the door behind himself without so much as an acknowledgment to the other students in the hall.

Harry blinked in surprise.

He didn’t think there had ever been a time when Lockhart hadn’t taken an opportunity to interact with potential fans. Much less a chance to interact with Harry, whom Lockhart bothered every time their paths crossed (thus the reason why Harry tended to duck away whenever he saw the professor coming).

Harry shared a look with the other students in the hall, all of whom seemed equally surprised. He then looked to Naruto for an explanation, but the usually joyful blonde just walked past them without a word, her head slightly bowed.

Harry sucked in a breath. He, Ron, and Hermione shared a worried glance and all at once quickly followed after her.

They had missed what was discussed, but from both Lockhart and Naruto’s reactions, it couldn’t have been good. It was rare to see Naruto be anything but happy. Right now, she wasn’t just unhappy, she looked like she was trying not to cry.

And that was because even Lockhart had been horrified by her tale. Naruto thought he would understand her. Thought he would understand the anguish she felt when she thought Sasuke had died in her arms or her rage towards Haku right after. How she had nearly killed him because of it. Lockhart had even described a similar situation in his book when Sasha had fallen to the enemy and he had consequently defeated the vampire in a moment of rage and grief.

But, just the mention of Naruto having witnessed a death had made Lockhart very pale and she had realized that there was no way she could talk to him about the struggles of having taken a life or what it felt like to realize your fallen enemy was also just a victim. She couldn’t help but morbidly wonder how he would react to the fact that she had a monster inside of her that had massacred hundreds or even thousands of innocent people.

He would be so repulsed by her, she now knew, and scared.

Naruto’s eyes squeezed shut with her hurt.

Not even someone as accustomed to battle and death as Lockhart could stomach what Naruto had been through— what she was.

It made her feel like she couldn’t truly belong here, in the Magical World. She was too violent, too monstrous. If her friends ever found out, they would react much worse than Lockhart. Her interaction with Lockhart confirmed that they would never be able to accept that part of her.

But, then again, who could?

Her head dropped further at the bleak thought.

The only exceptions were Kakashi and the Hokage. No one else could ever accept her completely. The people in Konoha could never accept her as a witch, and the people at Hogwarts could never accept her as a ninja. Certainly no one could ever accept her if they found out she had a demon sealed within her.

Her hand gripped the fabric over her abdomen as she tried harder to fight back the tears threatening to break through the surface of her control.

“Naruto? Are you okay?”

Naruto paused in her steps at Harry’s soft voice beside her.

‘They can’t know.’

“Did Lockhart say something stupid?” asked Ron. “You shouldn’t put too much weight into what he says. He’s always spouting nonsense.”

Hermione— for once not reprimanding Ron for speaking ill of Lockhart— took Naruto’s free hand between hers and gently squeezed it.

Naruto slowly lifted her head to look at them.

Her precious friends.

Their gentle faces were softly creased with concern and Naruto’s chest throbbed.

She loved them so much.

She didn’t want to lose them. She couldn’t lose them.

But if they knew what she was… If they knew the truth…

She lost the battle against her tears. They filled her eyes to the brim, making her friends’ faces blur, but before they could fall, Naruto pulled on a smile so wide it squinted her eyes shut and hid her tears from sight.

That was just it then, she concluded. They wouldn’t know. She would make sure of it.

She’d keep it all to herself. All of her nightmares and grief. All of her pain and fear. All of the darkness in her world and the demon sealed inside of her.

No one would ever find out. No one would ever learn who or what Naruto truly was.

It didn’t matter if no one truly knew her or understood her. It didn’t matter if no one could fully accept her or support her. As long as they didn’t hate her. As long as they didn’t fear her. Nothing else mattered.

She could handle it alone. She had her whole life. As long as her friends stayed beside her, Naruto was okay with being alone.

At least, that’s what she told herself as she assured her friends that nothing was truly wrong, only that Lockhart had rejected her request to be his apprentice.

She graciously accepted their consolation and encouragement, but felt hollow from the lie.

Chapter Text

Vincent gave a long wet sniff, but it did nothing to stop the snot from trickling down his nose. Instead it caused him to cough— which he tactlessly did into his hand, causing Draco to grimace in disgust and silently remind himself once more not to let Vincent touch him.

Vincent moaned in his misery and slumped further into Gregory, who was either kind or foolish enough (Draco voted foolish) to support their sick friend to the infirmary.

Draco, to convince himself he was just as useful as Gregory when it came to helping his friends (even when he was unwilling to get close to them and their germs) opened the infirmary door for them and took the initiative to call for the matron. However, his voice died on his tongue when he heard the laughter filling the infirmary.

It was far too loud and completely unrefined, but it was a laugh that Draco had been wishing to hear.

It was Naruto’s laugh.

And she was there, sitting up in one of the beds, looking ridiculous with orange paste smeared across her cheek and half of her unbrushed hair blown back as if it had been caught in a small explosion.

She was talking to the matron— who was standing beside her bed trying to look stern but failing to completely hide her amusement. But almost immediately, despite being in the middle of saying something, Naruto’s gaze shifted towards Draco.

Draco inhaled sharply and his heart immediately picked up its pace as her blue eyes locked onto his from across the infirmary.

Naruto’s heart, however, ached at the sight of Draco and she could not hold his silver gaze for more than a moment. She looked away, feeling mournful and uncomfortable.

It had been weeks since she had learned about Draco’s bullying and decided to end their friendship, and she still didn’t know how to handle it.

“Oh dear,” said Madam Pomfrey, noticing the three arrivals herself, specifically the sick one among them. She quickly stepped towards them and gestured to a bed. “Go on and sit him down,” she instructed.

Gregory obediently did as told and Vincent flopped ungracefully onto the bed with a groan, drained from their trek from the Slytherin dormitories.

As Pomfrey looked Vincent over, noting that it was another case of the flu which had been going around lately, Draco— who had not joined them— took a careful yet hopeful step towards Naruto instead.

It did not go unnoticed by the blonde despite her gaze being turned away, and her hand gripped the sheet a fraction tighter as confliction rose in her chest.

She didn’t know what to do.

She wanted to talk to Draco. She wanted to understand why he had done the things he’d done. She wanted to yell at him and make him understand how sad and upset she was.

She kept thinking of their time together— the way he would share his sweets with her and teach her calligraphy, the way he would help her with potions and dance with her.

Despite everything, Naruto missed being friends with Draco.

Naruto had never ended a friendship before. She had never had friends before.

It felt so very wrong to her. It hurt to think about. It was excruciating to do.

But to go back to how things were before felt wrong too.

“You filthy little Mudblood.”

She remembered the way he had spat those words at Hermione.

And Draco had made no effort to recognize how wrong it had been or apologize, she knew. She often overheard him and Pansy Parkinson talking— the horrible things Pansy would say and the way Draco didn’t disagree with her.

It felt like it would be a betrayal to all of her other friends if she tried to be friends with Draco again.

Naruto always stuck to her word and her decisions, but this was harder than anything she’d done before and the longer she sat there, avoiding Draco’s eye, the more she felt like crying.

“Hey, Pomfrey-sensei!” she called, adding pep to her voice. “I’m good to go, right?” She swung her legs off of the bed and wiped the orange burn-healing paste off of her face with the sleeve of her jumpsuit before Pomfrey even had the chance to respond.

“Naruto!” Pomfrey reprimanded, handing Vincent a Pepperup potion while giving Naruto a disapproving look. “We have talked about this—”

“Sorry, sensei,” Naruto said with a charming smile that just barely passed for apologetic as she bounded over to the matron.

Naruto and Pomfrey had had plenty of “talks” about Naruto’s habit of dismissing a treatment by her own accord (and sooner than Pomfrey approved of). Naruto was trying to be better about it but this was a special circumstance.

Draco tried to reach out for Naruto as she passed but she was too swift to grab and didn’t pause to acknowledge the attempt.

She had to get away. She could feel the choking sensation of tears threatening to come up and really didn’t want to cry where others could see.

She leaned into Pomfrey’s space once she was close enough to show off her cheek— still smeared with residual paste but clearly healed. “See? Totally fine now, ‘ttebayo.”

Pomfrey looked like she wanted to protest further but Naruto rocked onto her toes to give the older witch’s cheek a quick peck. “Thanks for taking care of me, Pomfrey-sensei,” she chirped. “I’ll see you soon, ‘ttebayo.” She waved goodbye as she left. “Feel better, Vince!” she called right before shutting the door behind herself.

It took a moment for everyone to catch up. Vincent and Gregory belatedly waved goodbye, Pomfrey let out a sigh of resignation (wishing Naruto didn’t already expect to be back at the infirmary so soon), and Draco ran to the door with a call for Naruto to wait.

But Draco was too late. By the time he got through the door, the corridor was already empty.

////

“Merlin, he does not give up, does he?” Ron grumbled darkly as they approached the Gryffindor entrance to find Draco Malfoy loitering about again.

They watched the Slytherin grab a first-year trying to skirt past him and hiss something. The first-year frantically shook their head, looking uncomfortable and scared, and the trio hurried their steps.

Harry pulled the first-year from Malfoy’s grip and stepped between them to glare at the Slytherin, feeling very confident with the knowledge that his friends were at his back.

Draco glared in turn.

“You’re pathetic, Malfoy,” he told the boy. “Stop harassing first-years about Naruto. No one’s going to tell you where she is or fetch her for you.”

Draco’s face tightened in a way that usually meant he was about to throw an insult.

Harry's chest tightened with anticipation. Now that Naruto no longer considered Draco a friend, there would be no lecture from her if he told the Slytherin off, he was sure.

But instead of striking back, the sharp-tongued Slytherin tactfully smoothed his features and said, “I only need a minute of her time. Just to explain—”

“What is there to explain?” Ron cut him off. “Your act is up, Malfoy. Naruto’s seen you for who you truly are and now she wants nothing to do with you. Leave her alone and get lost,” he sneered.

Draco’s jaw clenched in anger. “I am not leaving until I see Naruto,” he insisted, crossing his arms to demonstrate his resolve.

Harry scoffed. “Whatever. Come on, guys.” He turned away from Draco in a rude dismissal. “He can stay here all night, she won’t come.”

Draco continued to glare at their backs as they whispered the password to the portrait and disappeared inside Gryffindor Tower.

But, once he was certain that they were gone, he allowed himself to slump in despair. It had been a month. He was already well aware that Naruto wasn’t going to come. But still, he waited for her on the off chance that she’d finally take pity on him.

He buried his face in his hands. He already knew how pathetic it was without Pansy constantly reminding him— without Harry Potter shoving it in his face.

….

Draco quickly got to his feet and straightened his uniform when the portrait to Gryffindor Tower suddenly opened hours later. A stubbornly hopeful part of him thought that it could be Naruto.

But it wasn’t.

It was Hermione Granger.

The bushy-haired Gryffindor stood there, by the portrait, and just looked at him with an apathetic face.

Draco scowled and turned away.

“Here to gloat? Tell me I got what I deserved?” he asked. She didn’t immediately answer and he scoffed. “You are no doubt delighted that Naruto no longer wishes to have anything to do with me.”

“I feel how I imagine you felt last year when I stopped talking to Naruto,” Hermione said.

Draco looked at her. He had nearly forgotten about those three amazing weeks where Hermione had avoided Naruto and he had gotten the blonde to himself. Though, he remembered, it hadn’t all been great.

“I don’t like you, Malfoy,” Hermione continued. “I find you to be rude, arrogant, snobbish, and just… foul. You say and do such horrible things and find amusement in other people’s embarrassment and suffering—”

“Do you have a point anytime soon?” he asked, annoyed.

She scowled. “But… I know that you actually care about Naruto. And…” Hermione looked down, feeling sad for her friend, “and she really misses you.”

His eyes widened and their dull cloud-like color suddenly sparkled like silver. “Really?” he asked hopefully.

“She’s still not going to talk to you,” Hermione pointed out, bursting his joy.

Draco’s pale cheeks reddened with anger. “And why not!?” he demanded. “Has Potter—”

“It’s got nothing to do with Harry,” Hermione interrupted, getting vexed herself. “Look, Malfoy,” she huffed, “you tried to advise me last year when I was being foolish so allow me to do the same… What you’re doing is only causing Naruto more pain. Naruto doesn’t want your gifts or-or your stalking.” She waved her arm in his direction, indicating his habit of waiting around for her.

Draco blushed further.

“She just wants you to apologize—”

“I’ve apologized countless times!” he argued. “She won’t allow me to say it in person, but I send her letters nearly every day.”

“Not to her,” Hermione stressed. “She wants you to apologize to the people you’ve been mean to, and for you to not be such a bigoted classist,” she snapped. “For Naruto, this is about more than just you and her,” Hermione explained impatiently. “You’ve been horrible to a lot of her friends and she doesn’t feel like she’s allowed to forgive you until that’s been resolved. And as far as I can see, you’ve made no effort to.”

Draco’s lip curled at the thought of apologizing to any of them. It was one thing to ask for Naruto’s forgiveness, it was another to ask for theirs.

“It’s embarrassing, Draco,” Pansy’s voice whispered in his mind. “Just think about what your father would say.”

Draco couldn’t possibly bring himself so low.

Draco agreed with Pansy that Naruto was beneath him (she was a poor, uncultured, and crass muggleborn afterall— even with Draco’s attempts last year to educate her), but she was a special case. His father had even been the one to ask him to befriend Naruto, which assured Draco that his attempts to get back into her good graces were acceptable. Doing the same for the other plebeians at this school was pushing it too far, however.

Hermione, noticing his clear disgust at the idea, puffed in anger before turning away sharply.

“That’s my advice,” she said. “Take it or leave it. But, either way—“ She glared at him from over her shoulder— “stop upsetting Naruto.”

Hermione slammed the portrait behind her to the Fat Lady’s disgruntlement.

Chapter Text

Naruto was in the Gryffindor common room, working on her fūinjutsu.

Usually she would only practice her fūinjutsu in the Room of Requirement— away from other students— but Naruto had already “hit her allowance for the week” on how much training she was permitted to do according to Tipsy.

It was a new rule Tipsy had been enforcing since Naruto fell asleep on one of her seals and triggered an… undesirable effect when her drool had mixed with the ink. 

Now that Tipsy had decided Naruto needed a break, the young ninja was not allowed back into the Room of Requirement until bedtime, where Tipsy would ensure she did nothing other than sleep. Well, sleep to the best of her ability. Naruto was certain that her regular nightmares didn’t help her argument with Tipsy that she was fine. 

Naruto knew that if she went to other secluded parts of the castle, Tipsy would pop up and stop her. The only places Tipsy didn’t venture were those populated by students— thus why Naruto was in the common room. She felt a little guilty about taking advantage of the elf’s desire not to be seen by the students but Naruto knew it was important that she keep studying and training her fūinjutsu. She had to get stronger, and she had to figure out how to blend seals and magic properly.

It was, however, rather dangerous to do it here— which was demonstrated when two people plopped down on either side of Naruto, jolting her brush. The seal she was working on began to burn red and Naruto hastily slammed a small pre-made seal over it to nullify the imminent explosion. 

Naruto had managed to modify her seals to interact with magic, but found that magic made them a bit… temperamental.

She gave a small sigh of relief when the ink returned to black. Thankfully, she had learned pretty early on to have nullifying seals on hand for when they decided to act up.

The two girls now sitting beside Naruto leaned in closer to her space, oblivious to the danger that had just been diverted. 

“Hey, Naruto~” Lavender Brown greeted sweetly. 

“What are you working on?” Parvati asked from her other side, looking over at the parchment full of strange-looking lines.

“Nothing really,” Naruto said, smiling brightly at the two girls as she collected the ruined seal.

“Great!” said Lavender excitedly. “Hang out with us!”

Naruto’s eyes briefly shifted to her ink and brushes but… even after a year of experiencing friendship, those were still magic words for Naruto. Lavender and Parvati wanted to spend time with her! How could she say anything but yes?

Naruto got along fine with Lavender and Parvati, but she didn’t spend as much time with them as she did with other students. The two girls tended to be in their own world most of the time— giggling with each other behind a magazine— and there had never been room for someone like Naruto who knew nothing about fashion trends or celebrities.

Lavender and Parvati were unbothered by this, however. They apparently already had something specific in mind when they had asked for Naruto’s company. 

They wanted to do her hair.

Naruto blinked in surprise but readily agreed. As long as they kept the length, she requested. 

It was something she was rather proud of— the length of her hair. For a long time, Naruto would cut her hair out of fear— fear of someone grabbing it, fear of losing control of her magic. But she had grown a lot in the last year. She was stronger and braver. She was no longer afraid of her magic. So she had stopped cutting it. 

But why it was truly important to her that they not cut her hair was that, over the summer, she had learned that it was an Uzumaki tradition to wear it long. For the Uzumaki, the length of someone’s hair represented their longevity and strength. And for Naruto, having long hair made her feel more connected to her mom and clan.

“Oh, I wouldn’t dream of cutting it!” Parvati assured, gently running her dark fingers through the golden strands. “It’s so pretty long! And there’s so much more you can do with long hair!”

Parvati and Lavender were beyond excited to work on Naruto’s hair. They had been talking and fantasizing about it for a while now. Afterall, the two young girls loved the prospect of a makeover, and Naruto was a perfect candidate— easygoing attitude, unquestionable beauty, and plenty of room for polishing. 

Naruto’s hair was… Well, neglected, to put it kindly.

At this point, her blonde hair reached all the way to her lower back. Her unique color held so much potential to be beautiful, but unfortunately, Naruto didn’t know how to take care of it. It was dull and always tangled, and the ends didn’t look like they had ever been trimmed. It was uneven from when she had cut it herself last year and random parts stuck out in odd places. Worst was Naruto’s bangs, which she had carelessly cut with a kunai— not for style, but to keep out of her eyes.

In a way, it added to Naruto’s eccentric charm, but the two young girls knew it could be so much more with a little care.

Naruto had not expected the amount of work that apparently went into hair. She was told to take a shower with strict instructions on how to use the potions they gave her, and when she emerged, there were no less than five more potions lined up for her.

Naruto nearly blurted how excessive it seemed to her (It didn’t even take this many potions to regrow skin!) but at the last second, thought better of it. At least these potions smelled good, she thought— unlike the ones Madam Pomfrey always gave her.

Naruto sat down as directed and Lavender eagerly handed her a magazine while Parvati started on her hair.

Naruto turned the magazine over in her hand and, seeing the witch on the cover shift from pose to pose to show off her robes, quickly concluded that it was a fashion magazine of some sort. Her nose scrunched up.

If Naruto was expected to read something, she thought, couldn’t it at least be a manga? 

She chanced a glance at Lavender and nearly jumped in startlement from the way the girl was so intently staring at her.

Naruto whipped her gaze back to the magazine and immediately forced her expression into one of interest as she began flipping through the pages with hums and nods of mock consideration.

The magazine was able to hold her attention for a bit, admittedly… but only for the time it took her to find and sniff all the perfume ads. When she finished smelling the last one, she subtly glanced up at Lavender to check if she was still watching her. She dropped her gaze back down to the magazine when she saw that she was. 

Naruto wondered what reaction the girl was looking for. Was Naruto supposed to comment on the clothes? She hoped she wasn’t actually expected to read the small writing that filled the margins.

Lost for anything else to do, Naruto commented on the random page she had open. “This is pretty, ‘ttebayo,” she said.

Naruto did not anticipate the excitement of Lavender and Parvati— who both practically threw themselves at the magazine to see what Naruto had deemed pretty.

It was the reason Lavender had given her the magazine and had been watching her so carefully— the secondary goal of this time spent together. Lavender and Parvati wanted to know Naruto Uzumaki’s ‘type’. 

“So this is what you like?” Lavender asked, taking in the handsome wizard.

He was certainly nice to look at with cheekbones that could cut glass and a strong square jaw. His gentle blue eyes peered up at them past his curly hair. He was the perfect blend of hard and soft. Parvati and Lavender could definitely understand the choice. Naruto, on the other hand, looked terribly confused.

“Um, yeah,” Naruto said. She looked down at the model who was removing his outer robe so that they could see the cable knit sweater he had on underneath. It was orange and Naruto latched onto it as a topic. “I like his sweater, ‘ttebayo! Orange is my favorite color, you know! And it reminds me of the sweater Weasley-san— Ron’s mom— made me last Christmas! It was really warm.”

Naruto fell silent when she noticed the girls’ disappointment, however. 

Shame colored her face. She had clearly said the wrong thing.

She tried to laugh it off. “Sorry,” she said with an embarrassed grin, only just remembering not to rub the back of her neck which was covered by potion-laced hair, “I don’t know much about fashion, ‘ttebayo.”

“Oh, no!” “No!” Both the girls hurried to assure Naruto. “It’s not that at all, Naruto!”

So, past embarrassed giggles, they explained to Naruto that they had been trying to figure out which model Naruto found most *fit so that they could determine her ‘type.’ It was apparently a hot topic among the students. 

They had been trying to be subtle with their investigation and laughed about how subtlety wasn’t exactly Lavender's strong suit. 

“Oh,” Naruto said with wide eyes.

Naruto had never considered what her type might be, having never had a crush before, but she didn’t want to spoil the girls’ fun or disappoint them either. So with determination and a thumbs up, she promised to look in earnest for the model she thought was most attractive.

The girls giggled at her enthusiasm, Parvati went back to fixing Naruto's hair, and Lavender kneeled down beside Naruto to point out the models that she and Parvati liked best.

It was hard for Naruto to choose, however. All of them looked very nice but in such different ways it made it hard to compare.

But then there was one model that had Naruto pausing for a long time. 

She could not tell by looking whether they were a boy or a girl and the term she had learned last year— *ambid— went through her mind.

They looked elegant with soft, delicate features but there was also a clear fierceness in their sharp eyes and jawline. Their hair and eyes were midnight black which contrasted strikingly against their moon-like skin.

‘They’re really pretty,’ Naruto thought. 

“They kinda look like Sasuke,” she muttered unthinkingly. ‘Sasuke could probably be a model, ‘ttebayo.’

As soon as the words and thought registered in her mind, Naruto’s face went aflame and she hastily smacked the magazine shut, earning raised eyebrows from Lavender and Parvati.

But then Lavender’s lips pulled into a knowing smile. “What was that, Naruto?”

“Nothing!” she squeaked unconvincingly.

“No—” Lavender’s grin stretched further— “you said one of the models looks like someone.”

She took the magazine straight out of Naruto’s hands and began to flip through it to find the page Naruto had just been on. Naruto, mortified, tried to grab it back but was unsuccessful, Lavender twirling away from reach.

“Oh my—” Lavender pressed her hand against her round cheek which was rosy from laughter and the sight of the person on the page— “you actually know someone who looks like this?” she asked excitedly, flipping the magazine around for Naruto and Parvati to see.

To Naruto’s embarrassment, Lavender had indeed managed to find Not-Sasuke who looked even more like Sasuke now with an annoyed scowl pulling at their perfectly shaped brows and lips for having had the magazine slammed shut on them.

“Yeah,” Naruto conceded, “but he’s a total jerk, ‘ttebayo!” She felt the need to quickly and loudly explain. She couldn’t let anyone go around only knowing that Sasuke was good-looking and nothing else!

“A lot of girls like him ‘cause he’s good at everything and always acting all cool but they totally overlook how rude and arrogant he is! I mean—” and Naruto, seemingly unable to help herself when it came to Sasuke, went off on a long tirade about the boy. 

However, all Lavender and Parvati were able to hear was that a very good-looking boy with talent and intelligence to spare and an aloof personality, often teased Naruto and liked to get her riled up. They shared a glance between them over Naruto’s head and giggled.

Naruto went on, oblivious to the fact that everything she was saying only played further into the girls’ fantasy and did nothing to adhere them to the view she was trying to guide them to about her teammate.

Naruto’s rant suddenly ended, however, when Parvati carefully smoothed the hair away from her face and began to massage one of the potions into her scalp. 

It felt… really nice. 

Naruto’s cheeks reddened at the thought, but it felt like what she imagined it would be like to be loved and cared for.

Naruto was not as touch-starved as she once was. Hermione and Tipsy sometimes gave her hugs, the twins often threw their arms around her shoulders, Kakashi occasionally held her hand or patted her head. The last year was a far cry from her first 11 where no one dared to even get close enough to chance an accidental brush of skin. 

She willed herself to be casual about it. It was just another friendly touch, albeit new. It was always a bit thrilling for the once incredibly lonely child to experience different ways people could physically demonstrate kindness. (She filed away how nice this particular one was though.)

“You alright, Naruto?” Parvati asked, noticing her sudden silence.

“Yeah,” Naruto answered. “You’re really good at that, Parvati,” she told the girl, always free with her compliments. “It feels real nice, ‘ttebayo.” 

Parvati blushed happily. “I’m glad,” she said, rubbing at Naruto’s temples before running her fingers all the way down to the ends of her blonde strands. “I’m trying to do it like my mum does for Pad and me,” she admitted. “I’ve had to do this for Pad plenty of times since coming to Hogwarts,” Parvati continued, “but she’s never properly thankful,” she huffed. “You’re far more pleasant to work on.” Parvati did not confess to the fact that the reason Padma was never thankful for her help was because Parvati often took the opportunity to pull on her sister’s hair. 

Lavender, however, was more than happy to divulge that with a giggle. Parvati quieted her by shooting her with a well-aimed hair tie, causing Lavender’s face to scrunch up cutely as it bounced off her forehead.

Parvati finished with the potion— which was the last one— and proudly showed Naruto her enchanted comb that could undo any tangle. And while she worked on brushing out the back, Lavender worked on mending the front. 

“I think we should keep it kind of messy,” Lavender expressed, considering Naruto’s fringe bangs with a critical eye. “It sort of adds to the wild beauty look you’ve got going for you.”

Naruto had no reply, feeling very out of her depth. But she did blush at the implication that Lavender thought she was pretty. 

Naruto never really gave much thought to her looks (except for the small self-consciousness she had for the whisker marks on her face that identified her as the Kyūbi’s jinchūriki). Naruto’s appearance played no factor in her skills and, therefore, did not matter. However, every once in a while, it was nice to feel like she could perhaps be as beautiful as the people around her, she thought.

And boy was her hair beautiful by the end of it.

Lavender and Parvati switched back and forth between looking very proud of their work and squealing in excitement at Naruto’s new look.

Naruto moved her head side-to-side, feeling the light swish of the pigtails Parvati and Lavender had tied high on her head. The air against her skin reminded her of how nice it felt to have her neck bare once more. She took one of the tails in her hand and it felt like silk running through her fingers. Her hair looked like it was made of sunshine, she thought, as it glimmered in the light.

“Wow,” she vocalized. “It’s so shiny, ‘ttebayo.”

“You’re so pretty, Naruto!” Lavender gushed as she hugged Naruto’s arm. 

Naruto rubbed the back of her neck with her free hand as her cheeks turned a warm pink. “Hehe, thanks, Lav.”

“Come on,” Parvati encouraged as she hugged Naruto’s other arm and began to lead them away.

“Where are we going?” Naruto asked.

“It’s supper time,” Parvati answered, sharing a conspiring smile with Lavender who then pressed her face into Naruto’s shoulder to smother her giggle.

Naruto, noticing the mischievousness between them, but feeling no ill intent, followed along happily. 

By the time they made it to the Great Hall, Naruto was so fully swept up in the two girls’ excitement and giggles (and the smells of delicious food) that she didn’t notice the heads that turned upon their entrance, or the eyes that followed her, or the few people that had accidentally inhaled their bite of food and were now choking.

Parvati and Lavender did, however, and they took great pleasure and amusement in the reactions Naruto was getting. The blonde was a beauty afterall, especially when given just a little polishing.

Parvati and Lavender shared a secret high-five.

*BONUS*

Gregory Goyle smacked Draco on the back a few times as the young Malfoy choked on his food.

*BONUS BONUS*

Before:

After:

Iconic pigtails:

If you're having difficulty seeing the images, they are posted here on my Tumblr account: https://www.tumblr.com/metalsnakefanfic

Chapter Text

The corners of Narcissa Malfoy’s ruby lips lifted when she saw her son’s eagle-owl fly in.

She had the very best son, Narcissa thought as she delicately untied the letter from the bird’s leg— so loving and attentive. Her sweet Draco never neglected to write home.

She briefly spared a thought for poor Miriam Goyle who, just the other day at tea, bemoaned that her own son never wrote. But then again Gregory had always struggled with his literacy, they all knew. Writing a letter to his mother every week was likely too difficult of a task for the boy on top of his schoolwork.

Draco on the other hand was, naturally, one of the top students in his year (which had been pointed out with envy at tea, to Narcissa’s delight).

Narcissa knew Lucius was displeased that Draco had ranked 2nd in some of his subjects last year, but Narcissa was proud enough of Draco for the both of them. And every mother that Narcissa socialized with seemed to recognize how wonderful he was too— especially when one considered that Draco still found time to write.

Draco was just perfect— the best son any mother could ask for. And oh how dearly Narcissa missed him and wished she could be there beside him— especially when he was going through such a challenging time.

“Oh dear.” She brought her manicured hand to her flawless cheek as she read through the letter. “It seems the necklace I picked out didn’t work either,” she told her husband.

Lucius glanced up from the Daily Prophet. “Rather hard to please, isn’t she,” he remarked unimpressed. “That necklace was *70 galleons.” While not a remarkable sum to them, it was undoubtedly a hefty amount for a savage from the Hidden Land.

Narcissa made a small noise when she came upon the next section of Draco’s letter.

“What is it?” Lucius asked, folding his paper so he could give more focus to the problem at hand. It was unfortunate that Draco had a falling out with the ninja before they could take advantage of the connection, and Lucius was anxious to have it resolved. He had not anticipated how finicky the girl would be, however.

“Draco seems to think the solution might be to turn his focus on her friends instead. Earn their favor in order to regain hers.”

Lucius sighed in displeasure though he acknowledged it was a clever tactic. Lucius often did it himself— for instance, donating to St. Mungo’s to raise his standing with the Minister.

“Very well,” he allowed. Afterall, the gifts had been ineffective. Perhaps this will have better success.

Narcissa didn’t seem to agree though. “Dear,” she said, “you might recall that Uzumaki’s friends of choice are rather—” her lip curled in distaste— “disreputable.”

Lucius grimaced at the reminder. Throughout the summer Draco had complained endlessly about Uzumaki’s friends— Harry Potter, Weasleys, and Mudbloods. In fact, he recalled, this all began with Draco calling that Granger girl a Mudblood. This tactic might involve having to play nice with her.

Lucius sighed again and tapped irritably at the arm of his chair as he considered the best course of action.

“Have Draco start with her more respectable friends,” he decided. “Perhaps she will be appeased before he has to go too far.”

“And if she isn’t?” Narcissa questioned.

It wasn’t ideal but… “Draco knows how to be sensible about it. And it will be well worth it in the end,” he assured.

////

“You okay, Neville?” Naruto asked as her dazed friend came into the Gryffindor common room, clutching a fancy-looking box of candies.

Without looking, Naruto tapped her wand on top of the matching pair of cards in front of her, earning herself another point in the game she was playing along with outcries from Fred and George.

“She was barely paying attention that time!” George lamented loudly to his twin. “How are we losing when she's not even paying attention!?”

“She’s cheating is what she is!” Fred accused.

“You guys are just slow, ‘ttebayo,” Naruto teased.

Without time to even be offended, the twins lunged at the deck of exploding snap cards, desperate to get the next matching pair that suddenly appeared before the swift girl in front of them could.

The cards exploded in their faces.

Naruto cheered in victory.

“That was a Troll and Giant,” she pointed out to the singed brothers with a cackle. She herself had fallen for that trap many times when Seamus had first shown her the game.

She turned her attention back to Neville, who had drifted closer (although he still looked very lost).

“Neville?” she asked again. “Did something happen? Need help finding Trevor?” It was always a safe guess, Naruto thought. But the round-faced boy slowly shook his head.

“I, uh…” Neville’s brow furrowed in a rare frown. He suddenly wasn’t sure if he should tell Naruto. Any mention of Draco Malfoy tended to make her sad since their falling out. But… maybe she could explain what had just happened.

“Whatcha got there, Neville?” George asked, his hair blown back from the blast. It made the redhead look a bit silly— not that Neville would ever say something so rude. Instead, the shy boy looked down at the box of candies he was crushing against his chest. “Malfoy gave them to me,” he admitted, still uncertain what to think about it.

Naruto perked up at the name, but weariness quickly dulled her spark. She missed her one-time friend but she had found that whenever his name was brought up, it was usually accompanied by the retelling of something upsetting he had done.

And sure enough…

“Have you checked it for curses?” Fred asked excitedly, jumping to his feet to see the ‘cursed candy’ for himself. He was certain that, as a Malfoy, Draco would know great curses.

Neville paled at the question and hastily pushed the box away from his chest.

Fred happily snatched it from the younger boy’s outstretched hands and brought it back to his brother. They both looked delighted at the prospect of trying to uncover what had been done to the candies.

“You really think Draco would curse Neville?” Naruto asked, hovering over the twins nervously.

“Possibly,” Fred answered airily.

Neville gave a little squeak, suddenly very scared for his safety.

The twins rapidly went down a list of detection spells, taking turns making the box glow different colors.

The two pranksters were rather adept at detection charms— which had become necessary when their brother, Percy, had wisened up to checking his food and drinks for the twins’ tampering. Fred and George had been forced to study up on each of the charms Percy painstakingly sought out to disrupt their fun. Of course, until now, the twins had never cared to use the charms for their designated purpose (only ever using them to figure out how to get around them) but, thanks to Percy, they had a large arsenal of tests to try out and see what Draco Malfoy was trying to do to poor Neville.

“Why would Draco do that?” Naruto asked.

The twins shrugged and gave carefree hums of ignorance, but George still hazarded a guess. “Everybody knows you’re close to Neville,” he said, “and that he's an easy target.”

“Malfoy could try to curse him out of envy,” Fred contributed.

“Or frustration,” added George.

“Or a plot to get rid of all your friends so you have no choice but to re-friend him or risk being all alone.”

Naruto spluttered. “That’s crazy!”

“Well…” the twins shared a look of consideration. “Little Draco is a descendant of the Black line,” said George.

“And that family is rather notorious for their madness,” Fred finished.

Fred and George seemed to be having far too much fun with their speculations. But Neville looked even paler than before, and Naruto lightly pulled him to sit down before he fainted.

“Well,” George clapped his hands together in delight, “I didn’t detect anything,” he said.

“Me neither,” said Fred. “Only one test left to try.” He grinned at his brother as he unceremoniously ripped the box open and popped one of the beautifully decorated candies into his mouth.

Neville gasped in horror.

Fred chewed on the candy thoughtfully as the three observers leaned in with tense anticipation.

Fred smacked his lips and looked at them expectantly. “Anything?” he asked.

He waited a few beats but when no one immediately said anything, he went for another one.

Neville personally thought he ought to wait a bit longer.

“How’s it taste?” George asked, grabbing one for himself.

“Bloody delightful,” Fred said around the candy in his mouth. He was already going for another.

“Merlin’s beard,” George gasped as he, too, snatched another one. “Where d’you suspect Malfoy got these?”

“Somewhere posh.” Fred’s answer was slurred from the candy in his mouth.

“Did Malfoy say anything when he gave these to you, Neville?” George asked. Maybe Neville had been so nervous he hadn’t heard Malfoy’s instruction to give them to Naruto, he thought.

“He,” Neville began, then he swallowed, uncertain. “Well, he… apologized.”

The twins’ chewing stopped as they and Naruto all looked at Neville in surprise that finally matched his own.

////

Draco Malfoy was changing his pattern and Harry was suspicious.

“He’s up to something,” Harry hissed quietly to Hermione and Ron soon after Naruto (or her clone, he was never able to tell) had left to meet with her Ravenclaw friends.

“Who?” Ron asked, thankful for an excuse to divert his attention from the assignment in front of him.

“Malfoy,” Harry snapped. It should’ve been obvious. “Haven’t you noticed? He’s been pulling students aside to give them gifts. He’s clearly bribing them… or, or trying to curse them or something.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Harry,” Hermione said, not even bothering to pause in her writing to give his concern proper consideration.

“I’m not being ridiculous,” Harry defended. “It’s Malfoy and it’s suspicious.”

“He’s got a point, ‘Mione. Malfoys are never up to anything good.”

“I suspect it’s just his way of apologizing,” she said, turning the page of the large tome beside her to find the next relevant passage for her assignment. “It’s about time too. I advised him to apologize over a week ago.”

“Malfoy, apologizing?”

“‘Advised him’?”

“You can’t be serious.”

Hermione gave them an annoyed look from over her book. “I am,” she said, becoming impatient with this meaningless interruption to her studies, “and it’s making Naruto happy so just leave it, will you.”

“Well that’s his plan!” Harry exclaimed, earning a glare from Madam Pince, the librarian. He leaned in closer and dropped his voice. “It’s all a ploy. And we have to stop him.”

“From making Naruto happy,” Hermione deadpanned, hoping Harry was able to hear how ridiculous he sounded.

“From manipulating her,” he corrected. “It’s not as if his ‘apologies’ are sincere. He’s only doing it so Naruto will be fooled into speaking to him again.”

Hermione struggled to find an immediate retort for that because, well, “You’re probably right,” she conceded.

Draco had been revolted by the idea of apologizing when she had suggested it. It was incredibly unlikely that he now saw it as the right thing to do. It was more likely that he recognized it as the only choice he had.

“But what if he really is trying to be better?” she questioned.

“Hermione,” Harry chastised, “he’s not. He just wants to use Naruto.”

“Harry, despite what you think, Draco actually cares about Naruto,” Hermione insisted. “All he wants is to be friends with her again.”

While they could doubt the sincerity of his apologies all they liked, Draco’s sincerity towards Naruto was at least true. Of that, Hermione was certain.

Harry and Ron were not to be convinced, however. They had never trusted Draco’s friendship with Naruto. They couldn’t believe that it was sincere or good in any way. They were still certain it was all a scheme from the House of Malfoy to use Naruto or hurt her.

Even if Hermione wasn’t on board, Ron and Harry would make sure Draco couldn’t get into a position to hurt Naruto again.

////

Draco Malfoy conceded with displeasure that he was going to have to do it.

But first, he would have to practice quelling his facial expressions. Because, according to Theodore, Draco looked like he had just been told he had to eat bubotuber pus.

‘Well,’ he thought dramatically, ‘it’ll be just as pleasant.’

Chapter Text

Hermione had expected Draco to eventually apologize to her (frankly, she had expected it to be a bit sooner), but it still took her by surprise when he finally approached her.

Hermione was alone in the library. And in truth, having Draco Malfoy suddenly take the seat across from her when no one else was around made her a bit nervous. Not that she was going to show it. 

“Granger,” he greeted almost civilly.

“Malfoy.”

He didn’t say anything else and Hermione wondered if he was nervous too. She didn’t try to start the conversation, however. She felt no inclination to ease his discomfort.

After a while, he cleared his throat and placed a thick book on the table. 

She quirked an untrimmed brow and waited for him to actually say something along the lines of “I’m sorry I was nasty to you and called you a mudblood.”

Instead he simply said, “I am gifting this to you.”

Hermione bristled and her mind flashed to what Harry had said concerning Draco’s gifts.

“I don’t want your bribe,” she said, even though the book she pushed back towards him looked exactly like something she wanted.

Pink dusted Draco’s high cheekbones. “It is not a bribe,” he enunciated. “It is a— peace offering.” There was only the slightest hesitation to show that Draco was being very careful with his word choice.

She crossed her arms and waited. A book wasn’t actually a suitable replacement for an apology and after a long awkward pause, Draco seemed to realize that.

“I am… sorry for how I have treated you,” he finally managed to get out.

She nodded her head in acknowledgment and an indication for him to continue. 

His lips tightened and Hermione wondered if he had actually expected to get off the hook with just that, because she certainly had no intention of making it so easy.

Draco carefully relaxed his jaw from its teeth-gnashing position and continued. “My attitude towards you has been… unfair. I based your value on your muggleborn status instead of how you conducted yourself as a witch. It was… wrong of me. Furthermore, I should never have called you by that derogatory name. It was indecorous behavior on my part. I sincerely apologize.”

Well, Draco certainly had a silver tongue. But the near-perfect apology only made Hermione more suspicious.

Draco made it sound like he had genuinely reflected on his actions and understood why they were wrong. But Hermione still doubted his sincerity. Surely no one could change so drastically in such a short time. Plus, she suspected the hesitancy was due to reluctance rather than nerves.

Draco was cunning and Hermione knew better than to take his words at face value.

She had, once upon a time. For about a month at the beginning of their first year, Hermione had naïvely considered Draco a friend— at least somewhat.

It had been stupid of her really, but Hermione had never had friends before and— despite Draco’s occasional mocking— she had mistaken his constant presence and their intellectual debates as signs of friendship.

She understood now that their “debates” had only been Draco trying to prove his superiority over her, and he had shown later on that the only reason he had hung around was because Naruto had been there.

The moment Naruto and Hermione had had their misunderstanding— when Naruto ran off after pushing Hermione to the ground in a state of panic— Draco had given up any pretenses of tolerance.

Hermione remembered that moment painfully. She had been so confused, embarrassed, and hurt. And Draco— he had only laughed, and then he had left her on the ground crying. Worse, he had then told others of Hermione’s humiliation. And with the mockery that followed, Hermione had been convinced that Draco was a cruel little boy with no compassion for others.

To this day, she didn’t think she was too far off with her assessment of him, but she knew that there was at least one exception.

Naruto Uzumaki.

Draco hated Hermione— he had made that clear— but in those horrible weeks when Hermione had avoided Naruto in her mortification, Draco had done something that had stuck with Hermione. While she had not appreciated it at the time, it became the reason she found herself defending his intentions to Harry and Ron.

Draco had approached Hermione one evening and had tried to convince her to make up with Naruto. 

He had unashamedly confessed that he had wanted to get rid of Hermione. But, despite that, he had still asked for her to come back because, “Uzumaki is sad that you are not talking to her…” he had said. “I don’t like seeing her upset.”

Draco had finally gotten what he wanted, but was willing to give it up, just because Naruto had been unhappy.

And now, Hermione found herself in a similar position with the same choice to make.

Hermione did not like Draco, she had no desire to forgive him or play nice with him. But for Naruto…

Hermione’s lips thinned with resolve, and she extended her hand. “Thank you, Malfoy, for the apology.”

////

Draco watched Hermione eagerly go through the book he gave her from over the rim of his own book.

It was very reminiscent of their first year, he thought, as he did his best to hide his distaste behind pages he couldn’t fully bring his attention to.

How could it come to this? he bemoaned. 

He should have only had to apologize to her and everything should have been fixed. 

He had it all planned out. Hermione would be content that Draco had heeded her advice, she would accept his bribe gift and very well-thought-out apology, and she would open the door to Naruto’s forgiveness.

It was supposed to be simple! (And only mildly painful.)

She wasn’t supposed to trap him in his own forged niceties.

Draco had underestimated her. He hadn’t expected such a manipulative and cunning plot from a Gryffindor. 

They both knew neither of them wanted to interact with each other more than what was completely necessary. 

So, why try to become friends!?

She was clearly trying to force Draco’s hand, he concluded. She knew he wasn’t completely sincere and wanted to catch him out.

So now Draco was being made to spend time with her, to ‘study’ with her, and prove that his apology wasn’t just pretty words.

Hermione closed her book with a satisfied sigh and Draco looked back down at his own book, hoping she wasn’t about to try to start a conversation with him.

No such luck.

“Have you started your paper for potions yet?” she asked, digging out a roll of parchment from her bag.

“Yes,” he answered reluctantly, wondering if she was truly audacious enough to ask for his help on it. Potions was the only subject he was still beating her at!

“Thank you,” she said with a pointed and somewhat aggressive gesture towards him. “It is completely reasonable to already have it done instead of waiting until the last possible minute!”

Draco, slightly taken aback, had the sense it wasn't him she was actually talking to. It was no doubt an ongoing disagreement she had with her dunderheaded friends. (With slight amusement, he thought of how Naruto was likely included in that.)

“I chose phoenix tears as my topic,” Hermione told him excitedly, smoothing out what he realized was an already completed essay. “It’s really fascinating! Did you know that phoenix tears…”

Draco relaxed slightly as Hermione rambled on about what she’d learned. She wasn’t asking for his help then. She just wanted to discuss what she’d found. They’d been given the task to research a potion ingredient of their choice and of course she had chosen one of the rarest.

She was such a *swot, he thought, holding back a sneer and completely in denial over his own keenness to hear about phoenix tears, and in turn share what he’d discovered about siren saliva. 

////

Draco and Hermione continued to meet one another nearly daily and, seeing how happy it made Naruto, Hermione knew she had made the right choice to suggest it.

“How’d it go today?” Naruto asked eagerly. She had practically thrown herself at Hermione as soon as the bushy-haired girl came through the Gryffindor portrait hole from yet another study session with Draco. Naruto’s face (which was a bit too close to Hermione’s) was flushed with hope as she excitedly tugged at Hermione’s arm— impatient for the day’s assessment. “Was he nice to you?”

Hermione shifted a bit uncomfortably. She loved seeing Naruto so happy and excited, but she also knew what she wanted to hear— that Hermione had completely forgiven Draco and that they could all be friends now— but Hermione still couldn’t say that and be truthful.

“He still hasn’t said or done anything nasty to me,” she answered carefully instead as they made their way to her dorm to drop off her books. 

It was a similar response to the last several days and Naruto couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed by the lack of progress. “You don’t think he’s actually changed though,” she noted disheartenedly.

Hermione bit her bottom lip with her large front teeth, feeling a bit bad. She hated to see Naruto’s excitement diminished. The whole point of this was to make Naruto happy, not get her hopes up only to dash them. And Hermione really did want to believe that Draco had changed. She’s actually enjoyed having someone to talk to about schoolwork and study with. But, “It’s just… It’s just, well…” she sighed in frustration and dumped out her bag onto her bed and busied herself unnecessarily sorting through her books, finding it easier to talk to them than Naruto’s disappointed face. “It’s just that he’s so good at showing only what he wants people to see,” Hermione explained. 

“It’s hard to trust someone like that.”

Naruto flinched back at Hermione’s words and the guilt she’d been dedicatedly trying to bury came rushing back up.

Hermione, unaware, worked on putting her books back in their proper place. She continued to talk, but Naruto, standing in the middle of the room, suddenly feeling small and ashamed, couldn’t focus on the words.

Was it really so bad to want to only show the parts of yourself that others would like, she thought helplessly. What else were you meant to do when the other parts of you were so abhorrent? 

Was that… was that how Draco felt when he was friends with Naruto and hiding the fact that he was prejudiced against her friends? But it was different for her… right? Naruto wasn’t hurting anyone.

With a sick feeling, she remembered the haze of bloodlust that had overwhelmed her only a short two months ago. She remembered losing control to the Kyūbi and nearly killing Haku. 

Naruto’s arm instinctively wrapped around her abdomen.

Even though Naruto wasn’t hurting anyone… with the secret she was hiding—

Naruto’s focus snapped back to Hermione when she laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. 

“…I just want to be sure,” she was saying. “I don’t want you to be hurt again.”

Naruto smiled up at Hermione even though her stomach felt twisted with guilt. “Thanks, ‘Mione, ‘ttebayo.”

Naruto felt the usual thrill of happiness when Hermione wrapped her arms around her in a hug, but a dark and sad part of her couldn’t help but wonder if Hermione would still do it if she knew what exactly she was embracing.

////

There had been a noticeable shift in the second-year classes. 

While Hermione Granger could always be expected to raise her hand when the class was asked a question, Draco Malfoy’s hand had begun to join hers in the air more and more often in the last week.

Now, it was almost guaranteed that if a question was posed, it would be one of them who answered.

At first, most students were indifferent to it, simply finding relief in not being called on themselves. However, that was only until they noticed the amount of points being accumulated by Slytherin and Gryffindor thanks to the two. Suddenly both Houses were neck and neck for the House Cup, and people started to take more interest.

They began to call it the most intense rivalry in the school and it was treated much like a Quidditch game by the other students. 

They watched Draco and Hermione raise their hands and answer questions with as much excitement and focus as they would watch a chaser throw a quaffle at a goalpost. They would hold their breath in anticipation when their House’s representative was called on and buzzed with excitement when they would answer correctly and earn their House points.

It was nice at first, Hermione thought— the positive attention and encouragement she was getting from her peers— but a problem soon became apparent. 

“Professor!” Dean Thomas protested when Draco was called on, “Hermione had her hand up first!” 

“Yeah!” a number of the other second-year Gryffindors agreed. 

Hermione’s face reddened. “That– that’s alright,” she tried to say. “I answered the last—”

“Granger answered the last question!” Pansy shouted back at the Gryffindors. “It’s Draco’s turn!”

Draco and Hermione shared a look, both equally baffled by the sudden fight taking place on their behalf. 

“That’s not how that works!” Lavender argued. “Hermione knew the answer first so she should be the one—!”

“That is enough!” McGonagall ordered sternly, quieting the class immediately. “This is a classroom, might I remind you.” For many tense seconds, her steely gaze, resting over the rim of her glasses, shifted from one student to the next, and many of them shrank back into their seats.

“Perhaps,” she advised now that they were all sufficiently cowed, “your time is better spent answering the questions yourselves rather than relying on Mr. Malfoy and Ms. Granger to do it for you.” Her tone made it clear that this was not actually a suggestion and, despite the recent lapse in judgment, they all knew better than to do anything but agree.

“Sorry, professor,” Dean apologized, recognizing himself as the one to speak out first.

McGonagall huffed out a sigh and her strict shoulders softened. “Thank you, Mr. Thomas,” she acknowledged. 

The whole class sank in relief with the passing of McGonagall’s ire.

The professor turned back to the half-completed diagram on the board. “Now, would someone other than Ms. Granger and Mr. Malfoy care to try and complete the diagram?”

The classroom became awkwardly still and silent, and when McGonagall looked back at her students, almost all of them avoided her gaze in an attempt to not be chosen. 

McGonagall held back a sigh and the urge to rub the bridge of her nose.

But, after a beat, Naruto— whose focus up until that point had been so deeply concentrated on the diagram she hadn’t even noticed the argument or subsequent lecture— enthusiastically threw her hand in the air and waved it vigorously.

“Me, sensei! Pick me! I know it, ‘ttebayo!” she cried.

A few students tittered in amusement and even McGonagall’s thin lips curved slightly up.

Despite the atmosphere lightening considerably thanks to Naruto, it was still a relief when class concluded. Hermione decided that she did not want a repeat of the experience.

With determined steps, she tried to catch up to Draco so that they could discuss what to do to avoid that happening again. Perhaps they could agree on a certain number of times they were each permitted to answer questions. That way they could give others a chance to participate in class too and hopefully discourage whatever had come over their classmates in Transfiguration.

She was already going through numbers in her head— what would be appropriate based on their classes, teachers, and of course what would be considered fair— when she noticed Draco’s distinct platinum hair branch off from the main group of students to step into a more secluded corridor.

She blinked in surprise, wondering if he had had the same thought as her and was courteously stepping into a less crowded place to wait for her to pass by so they could talk. 

But when Hermione went to follow, she found that that wasn’t the case.

Draco was not waiting for her. He was turning yet another corner with Pansy— whom Hermione only now noticed. And without the noise of all the other students, she could clearly hear the Slytherin girl angrily badmouthing and blaming Hermione for how the day’s class had gone.

“That know-it-all Mudblood is insufferable!” she was ranting. “It’s bad enough we’re forced to go to school with that kind of filth, but that Granger is by far the worst of them!”

Hermione’s jaw clenched with indignation and her chest flared with betrayal. But mostly, her body buzzed with anger as she quickened her steps.

“She should just keep her mouth shut and let real wizards and witches answer—”

Fuming, Hermione was just about to round the corner and confront both Slytherins and their horrible bigotry when, “Granger is a real witch, Pansy.” 

Hermione came to an abrupt halt.

“And be honest, if you knew even half as much as her, you’d want to show off too.”

Unknown to both girls, they were wearing identical expressions of shock. But Pansy snapped out of hers quicker, her face turning a brilliant shade of red.

“Are you implying that that Mudblood is smarter than me!?” she screeched at Draco.

There was a moment of silence where Draco did not answer, but that in itself was answer enough and Pansy gave a piercing shriek of outrage. 

“Aaaaaahhh! I cannot believe you, Draco! First Uzumaki and now Granger!? I feel like I don’t even know you anymore!” 

“Pansy, I only meant—” Draco started, trying to placate her anger— “Well, I mean you can’t deny she’s smart!” he ended up defending in frustration.

Pansy couldn’t get upset with him for thinking Hermione was smart! It was simply a fact and Hermione had the scores to prove it! 

By her screech, Pansy did not agree, however.

“You are the worst, Draco Malfoy!” And with that last declaration, Pansy stormed off, seething and giving small dramatic screams of fury the whole way.

Draco groaned pathetically to himself. Why’d he do that? He had only intended to go somewhere more deserted so that Pansy’s rant wouldn’t be overheard and consequently ruin Draco’s progress. What benefit had there been to defend Hermione Granger, he reprimanded. He was so stupid! If he was going to do that, he thought, he should have at least done it in a place where he could earn points for it!

He kicked at the stone floor before stalking off himself, still unaware that Hermione, hidden in the opposite direction, had heard everything.

////

That evening, while Draco and Hermione sat together at their usual spot in the library, Hermione anticipatingly waited for Draco to bring up what had happened with Pansy. She expected him to boast that he had defended Hermione (although, arguably, he really hadn’t said much). It would be the perfect opportunity to prove he had changed, to prove that he deserved Hermione’s permission to hang out with Naruto again. But Draco didn’t. 

He only continued to read and take notes like it was any other day. 

Hermione wasn’t entirely sure why she wanted him to say something about what happened earlier. Perhaps she wanted a reason to dismiss it. If Draco brought it up to her with the hopes of getting recognition for it, it would no longer seem as… sincere. She could instead see it as another one of his schemes, another calculated tactic to get her to trust him and give him what he wanted.

However, once Hermione recognized it, she immediately felt bad for thinking that way.

It was undeniably petty of her, she thought, and Draco… despite her lingering distrust, didn’t deserve that. 

He really did seem to be trying, she reasoned with herself. He did everything Hermione had recommended and asked for. He had even gone against Pansy with no way of knowing that Hermione was there to witness it. And they truly did seem to be getting along now (Hermione was 75% certain it was actually the case this time).

What more could he do, she asked herself. And, more importantly, whom did it benefit to drag this out? 

With no answer forthcoming, Hermione decided to take the next step.

////

Draco was giddy as he made his way to his and Hermione’s customary spot where, this time, Naruto was going to be joining them! 

He was so incredibly excited he nearly rounded the corner between himself and Naruto without any mind to how sloppy he must look after his rush from the Slytherin dorms. It wouldn’t do to immediately waste all the effort he had put into looking nice for their reunion.

He forced himself to take deep breaths and pressed his slender hands against his warm cheeks, urging them to cool down. He smoothed his platinum hair back, making sure not a strand was out of place. He straightened his uniform and checked for the fourth time that he indeed remembered his emerald cufflinks. He started to take a step forward but thought better of it and brought his hand to his mouth to check his breath. He considered it for a moment. It wasn’t bad but maybe he should go back and get a mouth-freshening potion. 

He started to turn back to his dorm when he suddenly stopped. 

Draco was nervous. That’s what this was. He was stalling because… because he wasn’t certain that Naruto actually wanted to see him. 

What if he went out there and was rejected? What if Granger was playing him? What if she hadn’t liked how carefully he had selected the words he had used to apologize? Or how careful he’d been with their interactions? What if she considered it all deceitful— how much he had considered what she wanted to hear? What if she was setting him up?

It wasn’t as though he had been completely dishonest, he thought. Surely she would have seen that during the time they had spent together the last week. And surely, if not Hermione, at least Naruto would see that he was trying. Naruto was usually so forgiving if one simply tried to make amends. Naruto was always so understanding. Naruto was… right there.

“Naruto,” he squeaked. 

Her golden hair caught the dim light of the torches and reflected it twice as brilliantly. Her eyes— which were finally looking his way— were as mesmerizing as he remembered. Their blue depths more enchanting than even fairy wings. 

This was his chance to talk to her yet his silver tongue suddenly felt like lead. “I…” He swallowed.

Then suddenly, Naruto’s beautiful eyes filled with tears and she threw her arms around Draco and cried into his shoulder.

“I’m so sorry I ignored you,” she sobbed miserably.

Draco was completely taken aback. Wasn’t it supposed to be him apologizing!?

“It must have hurt really bad,” she continued. “I was just so angry and hurt and I didn’t know what to do.”

Draco could barely register her words. Naruto was hugging him and he was certain she could feel the way his heart was pounding and the heat that was flaring up in his chest.

“I–It’s okay,” he began uncertainly, hesitantly lifting his own arms to hug her back, but she pulled away before he could. 

She wiped at her face with her robe sleeve and smiled widely at him. “‘Mione told me everything,” she said. “I’m so glad you guys are friends now, ‘ttebayo.”

Draco instinctively wanted to deny the label of friendship. But… if that’s what he needed to do to have Naruto’s forgiveness… 

And, he supposed, he did owe it to Hermione.

“Yeah,” he agreed, "me too."

Chapter Text

Naruto was having a pleasant conversation with the Fat Friar— a cheerful ghost that always offered her a smile when they crossed paths, and Sir Finis— a ghost visiting from Glasgow for the occasion— when, through their translucent bodies, she noticed three familiar faces she had not been expecting to see tonight. It was strange to see them there, for they were alive and this was a deathday party full of the undead.

“Guys!” she called, jumping high enough to wave at them from over Sir Finis’ shoulder. Granted, they would’ve been able to see her through Sir Finis, but she thought that it would perhaps be rude to do so. 

“Naruto?” Harry questioned, looking shocked. “What are you doing here?” 

“It’s Nick’s 500th deathday! I came to celebrate with everyone, ‘ttebayo! You guys too, right?”

“Uh, y-yeah.” Harry suddenly felt ashamed. He was only there because he had agreed to in a moment of thoughtlessness, and Hermione had insisted that he follow through on his promise to Nearly Headless Nick. He had spent all evening looking at the amazing Halloween decorations covering the Great Hall and wishing he hadn’t told Nick yes. 

Of course Naruto was here for the proper reasons, he thought guiltily.

“Ah, right!” Naruto turned back to her ghostly companions. “Guys, these are my friends, Harry, Ron, and Hermione.” She gestured to each of the living children in turn. “You guys already know Friar Simon, of course.” The Hufflepuff ghost gave them a jovial smile and wave.

The three Gryffindors waved back politely but quickly tucked their hands back into their robes for warmth. The dungeons were positively freezing with the number of ghosts occupying the space.

“And this is Sir Finis Caldwell,” Naruto continued, gesturing to the tall ghost beside her. 

“How d’you do,” Sir Finis greeted, turning towards the three new arrivals to dip his head in greeting. 

Harry suddenly felt sick to his stomach as he was granted a view of the injury that no doubt killed the ghost. He reflexively averted his eyes from the gory sight of Sir Finis Caldwell’s caved-in head and consequently got a good look at his friends’ faces. 

Hermione looked like she was trying to smile at the ghost but it was far less convincing than she probably hoped it was. Ron was openly gawking and looking very green under his freckles. Naruto, naturally, looked as unbothered and cheerful as ever.

“It’s, uh, nice to meet you, Sir Caldwell,” Hermione managed to say for the group.

“Please, Sir Finis will do.”

Ron made a sound in his throat that resembled a whimper but thankfully seemed to pass as an agreement to the ghost.

After a few awkward seconds, Friar Simon took pity on the three children who were unaccustomed to such gruesome sights and Sir Caldwell who hadn’t been around the living in many decades and often forgot about their delicate sensibilities. “Naruto,” the friar said with a kind smile, “why don’t you go have fun with your friends,” he suggested amiably, moving to usher her closer towards them.

Naruto could feel the sudden wave of cold that came from his hovering hand and she moved with it before it could pass through her back. She had accidentally walked through the Wailing Widow earlier and was content to go the rest of her life without ever having another ghost go through her again. It was an unpleasant feeling and reminded her too much of when Haku had pulled her through his ice mirror to trap her with Sasuke. 

Naruto craned her neck back towards the Fat Friar. “Are you sure?” she asked. She would feel bad leaving so suddenly after living company came by. She wouldn’t want them to think that she was choosing the living over them or something.

The Fat Friar smiled appreciatively at her. She was such a kind and thoughtful child. He would have loved to have her in Hufflepuff. 

“Yes, yes,” he assured. “You’ve entertained us old phantoms long enough,” he said with a good-natured chuckle. “Now go on.” He kindly waved her away. “We shan’t hog the life of the party the whole night!” The plump ghost laughed joyously at his own joke and Naruto joined in loudly.

“Alright, alright,” Naruto said, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. “It was great talking to you guys, ‘ttebayo.”

“It was a true pleasure to meet you, Naruto.” Sir Finis dipped his head towards the young girl in respect. It was so rare that he was able to tolerate the company of the living, much less enjoy it. “Goodbye.” And without even sparing a glance for the other three children, he turned around and floated away.

“Bye, now!” Friar Simon chirped as he left as well.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione gave half-hearted waves goodbye. Shivering profusely and their feet feeling like blocks of ice, they were just thankful for the chance to start moving again and hopefully warm up. 

They followed after Naruto, who picked a direction with confidence and (whether true or not) always seemed to know what she was doing.

She led the way around dancing and conversing ghosts, occasionally stopping long enough to give or return greetings. None of the ghosts she spoke to paid much mind to her three followers but they seemed to love Naruto.

It was a bit uncanny, her friends thought. 

After 15 minutes of this, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were ready to leave. The party was becoming unbearably uncomfortable between their growing hunger, the constant cold, and the awkwardness of loitering around the “life of the party.”

“Hey, Naruto,” Harry began a bit quietly while there was a lapse in ghostly guests wishing to chat, “I think we’re gonna go.”

“Oh.” Naruto turned back towards them, seeming surprised to hear that they weren’t having as much fun as her. 

Indeed, she finally noticed, her friends looked cold and miserable. 

She nodded after a moment of thought. “Okay,” she agreed. “Let me just find Nick real quick and we can go.”

“Oh, Naruto, you don’t have to go just because we are,” Hermione protested.

“Yeah, mate,” Ron contributed, “if you’re having fun, you should stay.”

Naruto opened her mouth to say something but stopped and very deliberately took a large step to the left.

Splat!

The other three children jumped back in shock. On the floor, right where Naruto had been standing was a large pile of something writhing. Unable to tell what it was, Harry curiously took a step forward to see better in the dim light but nearly vomited. He clamped his hands over his gag and took a few hurried steps back. 

It smelled of death and was squirming with maggots. Harry thought he was going to be sick.

“Oh pooey!” an unpleasantly familiar voice whined and suddenly Peeves, the poltergeist, appeared in the air above the mess, sporting an exaggerated pout.

“That’s really gross, Peeves, ‘ttebayo,” Naruto claimed in a nasally voice from where she was tightly pinching her nose.

“I brought you haggis!” The poltergeist spread his arms out as if to graciously present the putrid pile. His smile spread wide, making him look characteristically wicked. “I thought you might be hung-y and wanting a munchy! Aren’t I thoughtful!”

“You nearly dropped it on her head!” Ron exclaimed.

Naruto waved off Ron’s righteous concern. “It’s just Peeves’ way of saying hello,” she explained. She was fairly familiar with the poltergeist and his antics by this point and she knew Peeves had purposefully given himself away with a small cackle right before dropping the rotten “gift”. 

Her face pulled into an impressive grimace as she addressed the poltergeist though. “But did you have to pick the haggis?” she asked in disgust.

The buffet table was filled with horrible dishes in various states of rot, but in Naruto’s opinion, the haggis was the worst one. It was at least the only one with maggots. Though, she supposed, perhaps not as stinky as the salmon.

Peeves swooped down towards her to wrap an arm around her shoulder and pull her into an aggressive side-hug. “Of course! Only the best for my friend!”

Naruto slipped out from under his arm and shook out the fungus-covered peanuts he had dropped into her robe’s hood. 

Peeves cackled and Naruto took one of the peanuts between her fingers and, with impressive aim, flicked it up his nostril. 

Peeves gave a little exclamation and covered his nose as if to protect it from further onslaught. “No fair! No fair!” he whined.

Naruto laughed. “Only fair!” she countered. “Now—” she craned her neck to look around— “you haven’t seen Nick, have you, Peeves?” she asked.

Peeves, never one to be helpful, only answered with a rude raspberry. Then he pressed a finger against his free nostril and blew out of the other as hard as he could. The rotten peanut went shooting towards Harry, who thankfully was able to duck in time to avoid it. 

“Not saying!” Peeves crowed before flying off to cause mischief elsewhere.

Thankfully, the next moment, Nearly Headless Nick came to find them.

“Hello!” he greeted. “Enjoying yourselves?”

“Yeah!” Naruto enthused.

“Oh, yes,” the other three lied.

“You have a lot of friends, ‘ttebayo,” Naruto praised.

“Not a bad turnout,” Nick agreed proudly, looking around at the mass of translucent bodies. 

“I think we’re gonna head back up, though,” Naruto said, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly.

“Oh.” Nick quickly hid his disappointment. “Of course,” he said, nodding his head in understanding. The motion was strangely off-putting due to his neck’s significant lack of connection. “It is getting rather late, isn’t it?” At least for human children. The ghosts would no doubt be partying throughout the entire night. “I am just about to make my speech, though, if you wouldn’t mind terribly—”

The sound of a hunting horn interrupted the rest of Nick’s sentence and his face turned bitter. “Oh, here we go,” he muttered darkly. 

Through the dungeon wall burst a dozen ghost horses, each ridden by a headless horseman, and the partying crowd cheered excitedly. 

Leading the group of horsemen was a large ghost who had his head tucked under his arm, from where he was blowing the hunting horn. Once he made it to the center of the crowd, he leapt down from his steed and theatrically lifted his head high in the air so he could see over everyone. The gathered ghosts laughed at his performance and he strode over to Nearly Headless Nick with an air that bespoke of how accustomed he was to having all eyes on him.

“Nick!” he crowed in a mighty voice, dropping his head back onto his neck with a squelch. “How are you? Head still hanging in there?“ He clapped Nick hard on the shoulder as he guffawed at his own word choice.

Naruto scowled. She knew how self-conscious Nick was about not being considered a properly headless ghost. She decided immediately that she didn’t particularly like this ghost.

“Welcome, Patrick,” greeted Nick stiffly.

Sir Patrick spotted Naruto, Harry, Ron, and Hermione and his eyes went comically wide. 

“Live ‘uns!” he yelped dramatically as he gave a huge, fake jump of astonishment which caused his head to fall off. 

The ghosts watching the scene— which seemed to be just about all of them— howled with laughter. Even Naruto struggled to hold a straight face. 

“Very amusing,” Nick said grimly.

“Oh, don‘t mind Nick!“ shouted Sir Patrick‘s head from the floor. “Still upset we won‘t let him join the Hunt! But I mean to say— look at the fellow—“ 

Naruto had the sudden urge to kick Sir Patrick’s stupid head and wished that it wouldn’t just lead to an uncomfortably cold foot.

“I think,” Harry hurried to say, remembering the second part of the promise he had made to Sir Nicholas, “Nick’s very— frightening, and, uh—”

Sir Patrick gave a barking laugh. “Bet he asked you to say that!”

“Oh, trust me,” Naruto butted in, her eyes wide and earnest, “Nick doesn’t need to! He’s one of the scariest ghosts in the castle, ‘ttebayo!” she exclaimed. “You should see how afraid the students are of him. He has to actively try not to scare them away!”

Sir Patrick looked up at her with a gaping mouth from his place on the floor and the ghosts around them began to murmur in astonishment. 

“It’s his neck, you know?” Naruto continued to say. The crowd seemed to be hanging onto her every word. “It’s so gruesome that humans can’t handle the sight of it. He has to always keep his head on so he doesn’t traumatize any of the living, ‘ttebayo.”

The slight to Sir Patrick did not go unnoticed. Afterall his fully headless state had received no reaction from the living children. His mouth closed into a stony scowl.

Naruto didn’t even notice, engrossed in regaling her audience with how terrified she had been when she and Nick first met. 

“…I’m just thankful he ended up being so nice,” Naruto laughed. “I would never have had the courage to be his friend otherwise, ‘ttebayo.”

The ghosts whispered excitedly amongst themselves and some even clapped Sir Nicholas on the back while expressing their admiration.

Naruto gave them the time to properly praise Nick, who looked very pleased, before lifting her hand as if she were holding an invisible glass. “To Sir Nicholas de Mimsy Porpington!” she shouted, “Who on this day, 500 years ago, died terribly!”

The ghosts cheered so loudly that it actually hurt Naruto’s ears but she continued to beam.

“Thank you! Thank you!” Nick called, bowing to his applauding crowd. “And thank you, Naruto, for your kind words. You honor me.” He gave her an even deeper bow and Naruto could see the deep gratitude in his meaningful gaze.

“Now, if you’d please,” he continued, floating into an icy blue spotlight on the podium, “it is time for my speech.”

Nick had everyone’s rapt attention as he spoke, “My late lamented lords, ladies, and gentlemen, it is my great sorrow…“ 

Nick’s words faded out as Naruto and her friends slipped out of the room but she could still hear the drone of his voice and the sounds of an engaged audience all the way until they reached the end of the passageway and returned to the warmth of the rest of the castle.

“I don’t know how you do it,” Ron said with a bewildered smile. “It’s like you always know exactly what to say. Harry couldn’t even get a proper sentence out,” he laughed.

“Oh, shove off,” said Harry, not truly offended but making a show of pushing Ron away anyway. It just made the redhead laugh harder.

“Oh, you should’ve heard me try to talk to Sakura-chan this summer,” said Naruto, laughing at herself. “Unfortunately I could get a sentence out of my mouth but every time I did, I’d put my foot right in it, ‘ttebayo.” 

“Well, it was kind of you to stick up for Sir Nicholas like—”

Hermione bumped into Harry who had suddenly come to a halt and was looking around frantically.

“Harry, what‘re you—?“ Hermione began.

“It‘s that voice again,” said Harry urgently. “Shut up a minute.”

At the beginning of the term, Harry had mentioned hearing a voice while serving his detention with Lockhart— a voice that he had heard but Lockhart hadn’t.

Now, they all stood in tense silence, straining their ears to hear what Harry was hearing, but even Naruto with her sensitive ears heard no voice.

“This way!” Harry shouted and then suddenly took off up the stairs in a sprint.

They ran after him, past the Great Hall where the Halloween feast was still underway, and up the next flight of stairs to the first floor. 

That’s when Naruto, who was putting all her focus into her senses, smelled it. “Blood,” she said. “I smell blood.”

Harry’s stomach lurched and Ron and Hermione became even more uneasy. 

“I think it’s going to kill someone!” Harry shouted in horror as he dashed up the next set of stairs three at a time.

Naruto, now that she knew where they were going, quickly outpaced them. But, even with her extra speed, she was still too late to catch the culprit or save the victim.

On the wall, in the flooded second-floor corridor, were words written in blood.

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. 

ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE

And underneath, tied to a torch by her tail, was a very stiff Mrs. Norris.

Chapter Text

“We have to do something,” Naruto insisted.

“No,” Ron disagreed, trying to pull her back by the arm but instead slipping in the water on the ground. “We need to go,” he urged a bit frantically. “Trust me, Naruto, we don’t want to be found here.”

“We can’t just leave her like that, ‘ttebayo.”

Resolutely, Naruto pulled her arm away from Ron and brought her hands into a familiar sign.

Ron, Harry, and Hermione jumped a bit when a second Naruto poofed into existence. Even after two months of her doing that, they weren’t quite used to it.

“Go get Dumble-jiji,” Naruto ordered her clone. “Tell him what happened.”

The clone gave a sharp nod and her three friends watched as it dashed away at a speed they could barely comprehend. When they turned back to the original Naruto, she was already working on detaching Mrs. Norris from the torch bracket.

The cat felt all wrong in her hands as Naruto cradled her. It was like holding a taxidermy with life energy trapped and frozen inside of it. That, along with the remnants of Dark Magic she could still feel lingering in the corridor, had Naruto’s stomach turning with dread. She gulped audibly.

This was bad.

So was the sound of thundering feet coming up the stairs. It seemed the feast was over and the entire student body was filling the corridor from both ends. Their happy chatter died quickly as they came upon the horrible scene.

Naruto suddenly wished she wasn’t holding the very dead-looking cat in her hands.

….

Harry, Ron, and Hermione shifted nervously as they stood in Professor Lockhart’s office. The overzealous professor had offered it as the closest place of privacy to properly examine Mrs. Norris and determine what had happened. The three students (along with Naruto and her clone) had all been ordered to come with Dumbledore and the professors.

They were expecting to be asked questions, or accused, but no one had said a word to them. Dumbledore was studying Mrs. Norris closely from where she’d been set on the desk, while McGonagall watched nervously from over his shoulder. Snape was looming behind both of them and occasionally casting suspicious glances at Naruto, who was watching the process intently from across the desk. Lockhart was being a nuisance, hovering around all of them and making unhelpful suggestions as to what could’ve killed the feline and how he could have prevented it if only he had been there.

Naruto’s clone wished the Defense professor would keep his thoughts to himself as she consoled a sobbing Filch. He certainly didn’t need to hear Lockhart’s insistence that his beloved pet had died terribly from the Transmogrifian Torture.

“It’s okay. It’s okay,” the clone assured the devastated caretaker in soft tones as she rubbed his back. “She isn’t dead. She’ll be okay.”

Filch lifted his face from where he had been crying into his hands and looked at her with pitiful eyes and a trembling mouth. She offered him the most reassuring smile she could.

“What do you know, Naruto?” Dumbledore asked calmly, lifting his head from the stiff cat.

The Naruto across the desk perked up. She’d been holding back while Dumbledore investigated, but she was eager to help and so told him all that had happened since Nick’s deathday party. However, she didn’t actually know much, having shown up after the crime was committed, and only a minute before everyone else. She omitted Harry’s part in hearing a voice that led them to the scene, however, having noticed his restrained panic and plea for silence, and instead told them how she had smelled blood and worried someone was hurt.

“But don’t worry!” she quickly assured Filch at the end. “Just because someone doesn’t have a heartbeat, doesn’t mean they’re dead, ‘ttebayo.” She said this very matter-of-factly and with the full confidence of someone who had learned that lesson twice last summer— first with Zabuza and then with Sasuke. “Mrs. Norris doesn’t even feel dead, you know?”

“I’m afraid none of us are gifted with your keen sense, my dear,” Dumbledore said patiently. “Would you please explain what you mean?”

“Oh. Well…” Naruto lost some of her zest at the request and her eyes darted uncomfortably towards her friends then away.

She hadn’t wanted them to hear about this sort of thing. But what if it helped Dumbledore figure out what had happened to Mrs. Norris?

“When someone dies,” she explained a bit lowly, “they feel… empty.”

McGonagall took on a slightly pained look and Lockhart, who had finally stopped prattling on about all of the curses he had countered and lives he had saved, suddenly looked very pale at Naruto’s description. Harry was reminded of how strange Lockhart had been around Naruto since their private conversation he had failed to eavesdrop on. And, now that he thought about it, McGonagall had been strange around Naruto since the beginning of term too. Did they know what had happened to Naruto over the summer? Did it have to do with a death, he now wondered.

Naruto didn’t notice McGonagall or Lockhart’s reaction, however. Instead, her chest throbbed as she was once more submerged into the memory of death’s empty touch. First Sasuke— the way she felt his life disappear as she held him in her arms. Then Haku, when she had reached out her senses to him and lost any hope that he could still be alive. Lastly Zabuza, whom she had felt slowly fade away to nothingness.

She remembered how awful it was to reach out to someone and feel a void where their essence should have been, but had been ripped out. It was horrible, looking at someone and knowing there should be energy and life inside of them but feeling… nothing.

She tried to shake the memory away and continued, “Mrs. Norris isn’t empty. She still has life energy inside of her, but it’s… trapped or something, ‘ttebayo.”

While the others looked perplexed, Dumbledore nodded as if it made perfect sense.

“I suspected the same thing,” he said. “Do not worry, Argus,” he told the caretaker softly, “just as Ms. Uzumaki says, Mrs. Norris is not dead.”

“Not dead?” Filch finally looked at his precious cat lying stiff on the desk. “But— but why is she like that?” he asked in a choked voice.

“She has been petrified,” explained Dumbledore. (“Ah! I thought so!” exclaimed Lockhart.) “But how, I cannot say.”

Filch’s bulging eyes, bloodshot from crying, seemed to light up with an angry thought.

“Ask them!” he exploded hysterically, causing Naruto’s clone to back away and Naruto to stare aghast as he pointed aggressively at her and her friends. “It’s them who’ve done it! You saw what they wrote on the wall!”

“No second-year could have done this,” said Dumbledore firmly. “It would take Dark Magic of the most advanced kind.”

“If I may, Headmaster—” Snape stepped forward— “you seem to be forgetting to take into account Uzumaki’s… unique abilities.” His lip curled away from the words with clear distaste as he turned a narrow look onto her. “If anyone could…”

Naruto’s stomach dropped at the accusation.

But she hadn’t, she thought desperately. She had just told them what had happened. She’d smelled the blood, she had only been trying to help. How could he blame her? Why didn’t they believe…?

She felt like the floor had just fallen out from under her.

But, they never believed, did they?

She was always to blame when things go wrong.

The frustration, hurt, and hopelessness that came from being accused of something she hadn’t done was no easier for its familiarity.

She felt like a little girl standing in the streets of Konoha after something bad had happened. The eyes looking down at her were exactly the same— Filch’s anger and accusation, Snape’s distrust and disdain, Lockhart’s unease… Even McGonagall looked uncertain.

Something horrible clawed at Naruto’s chest and up her throat, constricting her breath as it got stuck there.

She felt ill.

‘No,’ she thought, looking between them. ‘No… No, I didn’t do it.’ Even Lockhart’s portraits were looking at her. ‘Don’t look at me like that!’ she wanted to scream. ‘I didn’t do it!’

How many times in her life had she screamed herself hoarse with those words? How many times had they been ignored?

‘Stop,’ she wanted to cry, but she couldn’t even breathe.

“Naruto didn’t do this!” Harry yelled, snapping Naruto’s focus back onto her friends.

“Naruto wouldn’t hurt anyone!” Hermione also objected.

“We found Mrs. Norris like that! Naruto was trying to help!” Ron shouted.

Naruto’s breath hitched at their defense and the thing lodged in her throat shifted slightly.

“She couldn’t even have done it!” Harry continued angrily. “She was with us the whole time!”

“Ah—” Snape looked pleased by this last argument, as if it served to prove Naruto’s culpability— “but Uzumaki has proven her ability to be in multiple places at once.” He turned a dark, gleaming eye towards her clone and it promptly poofed away in a futile attempt to get rid of the evidence for his argument.

“I didn’t do it,” Naruto finally managed to voice aloud. “I wouldn’t hurt Mrs. Norris, dattebayo! And— and even if I did do it, fūinjutsu would’ve left marks on her!”

“I am certain you are more than capable of concealing any evidence,” said Snape with a sneer. “After all, your kind are exceptional at it.”

Naruto’s heart hammered in her chest. So, Snape knew she was a ninja… and this was what he thought of it— that she was a deceitful monster.

The little strength her friends’ defense had given her crumbled.

“What reason would I have to do this?” Naruto asked, ashamed to hear her voice betray her held back tears.

“Do you need one?”

Tears glistened in her eyes as she stared at Snape’s hateful yet satisfied face.

“That is enough, Severus,” Dumbledore finally said firmly, though he was giving Naruto a searching look himself. “There is no evidence that Naruto has done anything wrong.”

“Precisely, Headmaster,” he said. “There never would be.”

A tense silence hung over the room for a moment. Naruto couldn’t bring herself to look at anyone else, especially not her friends.

“Do you truly believe Naruto has done this, Severus?”

Snape broke eye contact with Naruto with a look of displeasure. “No,” he confessed reluctantly, “I do not.”

Naruto thought for a moment that her legs might actually give out from under her.

“I am merely pointing out, Headmaster,” Snape continued, shooting her another look, “that she ought to be monitored more carefully. She is given far too much liberty considering how dangerous she is.”

“Naruto has my trust,” Dumbledore said decisively. “She would not harm anyone in this school.”

Snape scowled angrily at the dismissal but didn’t say anything more. Filch, however, looked furious and shrieked, “My cat has been petrified! I want to see some punishment!”

“When the one responsible is found, Argus,” Dumbledore promised. “But we cannot punish those who were merely there and trying to help.”

Filch looked like he was about to cry again.

Naruto didn’t move to comfort him this time though. She felt almost numb standing there— still reeling.

Her unfallen tears made her world look distorted. It was for the best, she thought. She didn’t want to see anyone’s expression.

What must they think after all this, she wondered horribly. How much had her friends discerned from Snape’s accusations?

She felt sick.

“You may go,” Dumbledore told the children, and Naruto immediately turned and ran out of the room before anyone could say or do anything further.

Her friends tried to follow her, but the corridor was already empty by the time they reached the door.

////

“How awful!” ranted Hermione once they were far enough away. “Accusing Naruto like that! And his blatant racism! ‘Her kind,’” she echoed angrily. “‘Her kind’!”

“Yeah!” Ron agreed. “Where does he get off!? Naruto’s not dangerous!”

Harry agreed full-heartedly with his friends. He was fuming from Snape’s treatment of Naruto. But, he thought, it wasn’t exactly new. Snape was always awful to them, and he had hated Naruto since the very beginning. But this time…

“It wasn’t just Snape,” pointed out Harry, giving pause to Hermione and Ron’s tirade. “Did you see the way Lockhart and McGonagall were looking at her? Even Dumbledore…”

They contemplated this. “But, but Dumbledore defended her,” Ron voiced, though he didn’t sound too confident. They had all noticed how long it had taken Dumbledore to speak up. “He said he trusted Naruto—”

“But he didn’t rebut what Snape was saying,” Hermione recognized. She frowned. “They were all acting like Naruto could have actually done it.”

Ron bit his lip. “D’you think it could be because of her jizzu?” he asked.

“It’s jutsu, Ron,” Hermione corrected automatically.

“That’s what I said,” grouched Ron.

“Maybe,” Harry cut in. “But Naruto was able to do that kind of stuff last year and it wasn’t a problem for them then. I think it’s whatever happened this summer. McGonagall said Naruto got a new position and wasn’t planning to come back, remember? And it was after Naruto talked to Lockhart about her summer that he began to act funny around her… Do– do you remember last year, Ron, when Naruto had a nightmare and…”

“Yeah,” Ron answered grimly. It was a very hard thing to forget, waking up to the biting cold and Naruto’s screams.

“Do you remember what Hagrid said after? He also mentioned Naruto’s kind. Said her home— he called it the-the Hidden Land— that it was a bad place…”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t make Naruto bad,” insisted Ron. “It doesn’t matter where she’s from or what happened over the summer— it’s Naruto.”

“I know that,” Harry defended.

He grimaced. “Should— Should I have told them about the voice I heard?” he asked, wondering with guilt if it would've kept Naruto out of their suspicions.

“No,” said Ron, without hesitation. “Hearing voices no one else can hear isn‘t a good sign, even in the wizarding world,” he explained. “And it’s not your fault, Harry. Snape was determined to make a point about Naruto— the git. Telling them about the voice probably wouldn’t have changed anything. Something else was going on there— something more than just Mrs. Norris and the writing.”

“What was with the writing on the wall?” asked Harry. “What did it mean— ‘The Chamber of Secrets’?”

While Hermione and Ron agreed that it sounded familiar, neither of them knew what it was. However, it was clear that it couldn’t be anything good.

Chapter Text

“How can you just let it go?” Draco asked indignantly. “For days, they acted like you were a cat murderer.”

Harry had questioned Naruto on the exact same thing just earlier and Hermione wondered how he and Draco would react if they knew how much they sounded alike. They even had the same expression when Naruto answered with an easy and dismissive, “Well, they don’t think it now, ‘ttebayo.”

Draco balked. Yeah, maybe they changed their minds once they discovered what the Chamber of Secrets was and decided that Naruto could never be the Heir of Slytherin, but her so-called friends had still avoided her and whispered suspicions behind her back for days after the incident.

Granted, Draco thought, it hadn’t been a good look for Naruto, being found holding Mrs. Norris, but her "friends" should have known her well enough to know she would never hurt anyone. The utter betrayal to the kindness and friendship Naruto had shown them! No one had even apologized to her, and Naruto hadn’t asked for one. She was just happy that her so-called friends were talking to her again instead of behind her back and so she pretended like the whole affair hadn’t happened.

(If they had done that to someone other than Naruto, she wouldn’t have forgiven them so easily, Draco thought bitterly.)

What Draco and Harry couldn’t understand, however, was that it was the only way Naruto knew how to live— that it was a situation and coping mechanism as familiar to her as the whisker marks on her face.

It was better to just let it go. It wasn’t as though anyone had been hurt except for her, and to hold a grudge would only hurt more.

All she could do was be thankful that they had changed their minds about her, try to forget the whole ordeal, and move on.

It hadn’t been that big of a deal, she tried to convince herself, and it was already over. Lingering on it only prolonged the pain. Besides, “We have bigger priorities,” insisted Naruto. “We have to figure out who did do it… We have to find Slytherin’s heir before they hurt anyone else, ‘ttebayo.”

….

“It’s Malfoy,” insisted Harry.

“Mm-mm,” disagreed Naruto, swallowing a mouthful of the chocolate frog Justin Finch-Fletchley had given to her— likely out of guilt for suspecting her of cat-murder. “I already investigated all the Slytherins,” she explained— something she felt bad about, but reasoned had to be done, as it was Slytherin’s heir they were looking for. Naruto had used a transformation jutsu and snuck into their common room, but she hadn’t found anything incriminating despite her thorough search, she told them.

“Besides, Draco’s been helping me and ‘Mione try and figure out this Chamber stuff, ‘ttebayo,” she told them. “He wouldn’t do that if he was the Heir… Right, ‘Mione? You know it’s not Draco…”

Ron and Harry threw accusatory looks at Hermione.

“What does she mean by that, Hermione?”

“Uh…” Hermione’s gaze shifted away awkwardly. “You see…”

“Hermione!” they yelled at her, scandalized, not needing her to say anything more to understand what she’d done.

That was when Naruto learned that while Hermione may have forgiven Draco, Ron and Harry certainly had not. In fact, they were more than displeased to discover that Naruto and Hermione had forgiven him, and voiced this loudly.

“I can’t believe you—!”

“What were you thinking!? Mal—”

“—can’t trust him! He’s manipu—”

“—completely evil!”

It was hard to catch the words they were shouting over each other, but it wasn’t hard to get the overall consensus.

Naruto immediately felt the instinct to defend Draco, who had apologized and was trying so hard to be better. She was usually so quick to stand up against what she believed was wrong and voice what she thought was right. But… she found her voice getting stuck this time.

Everyone had only just started being her friend again. She didn’t want to lose that. She didn’t want Harry and Ron to be angry with her. Her eyes squeezed shut. She—

She banged her fist against the table to knock herself out of it, consequently silencing the boys too.

“To see what is right without doing it bespeaks an absence of courage.”

Kakashi had said that. He had told her it was a teaching of the Fourth Hokage, her father.

Naruto was no coward. And right then, speaking up for Draco was the right thing to do, even if it might cost her.

“Everyone…” she said a bit shakily. She gritted her teeth and started again, more firmly, “Everyone deserves a chance. Especially when they’re trying to be good…” She looked up at Harry and Ron, her gaze unwavering. “Everyone.”

Harry and Ron were slightly taken aback. Naruto had never taken that tone with them before. It was a bit intimidating, in truth, and served to cow them as efficiently as any respected adult’s scorn.

After a moment, Ron found his voice again, though it was now subdued. “But it’s Malfoy.”

Naruto grimaced uncomfortably. “I know Draco’s been awful to you guys, and I’m not excusing that. But… but he’s not a monster,” she asserted. “He’s a kid and he’s trying.” She looked fierce and determined, but also like she was pleading with them. “That means a lot to me. So—” her face scrunched up in a way that made her look ready for a deadly blow— “even if it means you're mad at me, I’m still gonna give him another chance, ‘ttebayo.”

Harry softened but ached over his friend’s resolve.

He hated that look on her face— like she was ready for them to hurt her.

“I’m not mad at you,” Harry assured her. Ron nodded in agreement.

And it was true. They were frustrated with her decision, but they couldn’t be angry with her about it. It was just how Naruto was— unreasonably forgiving and excessively kind. And neither of them wanted to fight with Naruto. She had already been through a terrible enough week and didn’t need them contributing to it. In their shock and anger about Malfoy, they had forgotten that they’d all agreed to treat Naruto with extra care since the incident with Mrs. Norris and Snape. It’s why they hadn’t asked her about it despite their curiosity.

“We just…” Ron began.

“We just want you to be careful with Malfoy,” Harry finished.

“Don’t worry,” said Naruto with renewed confidence. “If he starts acting like a jerk again—” Her friends cringed back at her sudden fiery intensity— “I’ll give him a telling off that would make even Sasuke-teme sorry, dattebayo.”

Feeling like there was nothing else they could do to change Naruto’s mind, they left it at that. But Harry wasn’t completely ready to let it go. He was still upset with Malfoy for taking advantage of Naruto’s kindness and Hermione for allowing it. So, as soon as Naruto left, he immediately started again on Hermione.

“What were you thinking, Hermione?” he demanded. “We’d talked about this— you can’t trust Malfoy!”

Hermione lifted her chin defiantly. “I was thinking of Naruto. She was miserable not talking to him.”

“So what!?” asked Ron. “It was for the best! Malfoy’s horrible. She would’ve gotten over it eventually.”

Hermione glared at him. “No, she wouldn’t have,” Hermione told them knowingly. Naruto valued her friends far too much. “Plus, Malfoy was horrible,” she corrected, “but, like Naruto said, he’s trying really hard to be better. He even stood up for me when Parkinson was saying some nasty things—”

“Only to trick you into thinking—”

“He wasn’t,” snapped Hermione. “He still doesn’t know I even overheard them. I believe he’s really changing,” she insisted. “And he’s been loads of help. He’s the one who told us the Chamber’s been opened once before, 50 years ago, and that a muggleborn died last time.”

“Is that the term he used?” Ron muttered bitterly.

Hermione ignored him. “I really don’t think it’s Malfoy. He wouldn’t risk hurting Naruto again.”

“Fine,” relented Harry. “Let’s say it’s not Malfoy.” His expression clearly stated that he was still unconvinced and merely humoring her. “Who’s the Heir of Slytherin then?”

Hermione turned thoughtful. “Well, it has to be someone in Slytherin,” she said, “but Naruto said she didn’t find anything, and Malfoy hasn’t heard anything either.”

Harry barely refrained from rolling his eyes but Ron didn’t bother to hide his sneer.

“Well maybe Naruto missed something. Afterall, she has a few friends in Slytherin and might be biased in her investigation.”

Hermione gave Ron a dirty look, knowing he meant her too and was still clearly convinced it was Malfoy. She didn’t rise to the bait, however.

“We’ll just have to investigate ourselves,” she claimed. “We’ll go into the Slytherin common room and ask a few questions.”

Harry and Ron balked at the plan. “And they’ll let us in and tell us the truth, why?”

“Because they won’t realize it’s us,” Hermione explained. “We’ll use Polyjuice potion.”

////

It had been an absolutely horrible Quidditch debut, Draco lamented.

And it was all Harry Potter’s fault! He always needed all of the attention— all of Naruto's attention.

Draco had almost been hit by that bludger too. So what if it had been targeting Potter, and had broken his arm. And Draco had fallen off of his broom too. It had hurt terribly. But Harry Potter had gone and gotten his bones removed from his arm, so Naruto was at his bedside instead of Draco’s— even though Draco was in obvious pain. He made sure to groan extra loudly to remind her of this but was shushed and dismissed by the matron before Naruto could notice. “Mr. Malfoy, stop making such a fuss! You may go!” Madam Pomfrey told him in a clipped tone as she rushed to Potter’s side.

Draco blushed in a mixture of embarrassment and anger.

He hated Harry Potter, he thought on repeat as he left the infirmary. This should have been Draco’s day. He’d had the better broom! He’d had the advantage! He should have caught the snitch and won the game. He should have had all of Naruto’s attention today!

It was all Harry Potter’s fault.

So, the following day, when he heard that there had been another attack in the night, all Draco could think was how unfortunate it was that the monster hadn’t gotten Potter. Instead it had gotten his little muggleborn fanboy, Colin Creevey.

Draco tried to pretend to care when he was around Naruto, who was very upset that she hadn’t been able to prevent the attack, but otherwise he truly couldn’t care less. Creevey had been annoying on top of all his other flaws anyway.

Draco was careful to keep these thoughts to himself though. He knew that Naruto and Hermione would not approve and he had worked far too hard to be in their good graces.

The two of them also rendered this whole ordeal much less amusing than it should have been. As a prestigious pureblood, Draco personally had nothing to worry about from these attacks and he would have normally enjoyed watching the lesser students act foolishly with fear upon the news of Creevey. But he no longer had that luxury.

Granger and Naruto were muggleborns.

He would likely get over Granger being attacked rather easily, he thought (although he begrudgingly admitted to himself it would be somewhat unfortunate), but what if Naruto got hurt?

His father had told him that the last time the Chamber had been opened, a muggleborn had died.

Naruto was always doing reckless things, trying to help others and wandering places alone. Knowing that she could potentially be a victim of the Heir made this whole thing rather upsetting instead of funny.

Draco couldn’t believe that the Heir of Slytherin was here at Hogwarts at the same time as him— something that should have been exciting— and Draco was actually against them instead, and wishing they’d leave.

How disgraceful.

////

A month passed without another attack. But also without any success in finding the Heir.

Naruto had searched as best as she could and had stayed constantly vigilant; but without further clues, it felt like a lost cause.

With nothing else to be done, Naruto refocused her attention on training.

She wasn’t any closer to transporting magic, but she was very close to figuring out how to store it safely. The problem was that magic had a strange way of interacting with objects, especially her seals. From what she had gathered, magic was more or less alive and consequently did what it wanted without prompting.

Naruto had recently discovered, however, that if she was very firm and clear with her intention for the magic— such as staying put and quiet within her seals— she was able to curb its desire to act out in unexpected ways.

But, she would soon find out, having magic seep out of her seals in the form of orange juice wasn’t the most surprising thing that would happen to her that week.

Chapter Text

Naruto woke up with a pounding headache and a concerning lack of memory of what she had done to land herself in the infirmary. She blinked a few times at the familiar high ceiling, trying to remember, but it only made her head hurt more.

“Oh, thank Merlin, you’re awake,” came a very relieved voice.

Sitting in a chair beside her bed was Adrian, looking— if Naruto dared to think it— as if he had been fretting.

Naruto took half a moment to take in the novelty of that. But guilt quickly moved in. As touching as it was that Adrian did actually care about her despite his pretenses, she felt bad for worrying him.

Something must’ve happened during their morning practice, Naruto concluded. Although she was still coming up blank as to what.

“What happened?” she asked, carefully sitting up. She kept a hand pressed to her head to keep it steady, but to her pleasant surprise, the pain was already easing.

“I don’t bloody well know,” Adrian answered sourly, crossing his arms in an attempt to regain his aloof persona. “We were practicing like normal when you suddenly started having some sort of fit.”

He gave her a look that communicated he was unimpressed by her dramatics, as if her episode had all been some sort of childish prank meant to inconvenience him.

But in truth, Adrian had been scared.

When his small friend had suddenly curled in on herself in clear pain and had kept crying out how it was too much… Adrian hadn’t known what to do.

He had nearly panicked when her eyes had rolled back, and it was only thanks to his reflexes as a chaser that he had managed to catch her before she hit the ground. Madam Pomfrey’s admittance that she couldn’t figure out what the issue was with Naruto had only added to his anxiety.

Overall, Adrian’s morning had not been a pleasant one, and he full-heartedly blamed Naruto.

“Did you carry me here?” Naruto couldn’t keep the smile off her face. She wasn’t overly concerned about being in the infirmary. Pomfrey always took care of her and fixed her up, no matter the issue. But Adrian being the one to take her and stay by her side was an interesting matter to address.

Whenever Naruto did anything Adrian deemed foolish or dangerous, he always made a point to say that he wasn’t going to carry her to the infirmary. And yet, here they were.

A light blush dusted Adrian’s cheeks as he refuted the assumption. “Of course not,” he huffed. “I dragged you by the leg.”

Naruto laughed loudly, which garnered Madam Pomfrey’s attention.

Pomfrey was not pleased as she ran different tests on an increasingly restless Naruto. The matron could not determine the reason for Naruto’s fainting or what had caused the headache, and it worried her.

“You should stay here for the day, Naruto, just in case,” she eventually concluded.

“What? Nooo,” the young girl whined. “I feel totally fine, sensei, ‘ttebayo! I promise!” And it was true. The headache was completely gone. Plus, tonight was the first day of Dueling Club and Naruto really, really didn’t want to miss it.

They compromised with Naruto agreeing to stay until lunch.

“Thanks for carrying me here, Adrian!” Naruto hollered after him as he left for class, earning a glare from the teenager and a narrow look from Pomfrey for her volume.

He pointed a finger at her. “Bring it up again and next time I really will leave you, shortstack,” he threatened.

Naruto’s laughter followed him out.

Pomfrey kept a close eye on Naruto throughout the morning but was thankfully not as stern as usual. She even let Naruto practice her magic sealing, to the young witch’s delight.

She spent a fair bit of time simply pouring raw magic into the seal through her hands, to see how much it could hold. However, once Pomfrey caught on to what she was doing, she had chastised her for expending so much energy after having only just fainted.

Naruto knew better than to argue that one. When it came to Madam Pomfrey, it was best to choose her fights carefully.

Instead, Naruto began to grab random things from around her to put into her seal. She would add a few strokes, which separated the magic from the item, then would unseal the object and carefully put it back where she found it, magicless.

It took Madam Pomfrey a fair bit longer to catch on to that one. But once she did, she was less than pleased.

By the time lunch finally came around, Pomfrey was just about ready to kick Naruto out herself.

“Don’t know why I was worried,” she said, collecting all of the now magicless objects to either try to fix or discard. “You clearly have far too much energy.”

Naruto rubbed the back of her neck with a sheepish laugh. “Sorry, Pomfrey-sensei.”

////

Lunch was a lively affair with many people coming over to see if Naruto was alright and sticking around to discuss the excitement of that evening’s Dueling Club.

Naruto was so incredibly excited for it. It was all she could think about as the day continued. Even in Transfiguration class, where they were learning to turn any small object into a bird, all Naruto could think was how great of a move it would be in a duel. It could serve as a distraction, she thought, or render any weapon thrown at her harmless. And if she learned how to make the birds do her bidding… It was going to be so great.

But first, she had to get it down— which was, admittedly, a tad more difficult.

There were already a few of her classmates who had managed the spell, filling the classroom with the sounds of flapping wings, squawks, and singing. Hermione’s blackbird had an especially lovely voice. Naruto shook her head, forcing herself to focus on her rock and the image of it turning into a bird.

The spell was on her lips when, through the cacophony of birds, Naruto heard something.

“Ah, Minerva,” someone at the door said. “If I may pull Miss Uzumaki for a moment.”— Naruto’s head turned at the sound of her name and her eyes went wide. Without meaning to, her spell went off in an unplanned direction, turning the rock in front of Neville into a sparrowhawk that flapped so aggressively in his face the poor surprised boy fell out of his chair.— “She has visitors.”

Standing in the hall behind Dumbledore were Sakura, Kakashi, and Sasuke, looking very out of place.

“HUUUUH!!!???”

////

That Morning in Konoha

Sasuke quietly let himself into Naruto’s small apartment, his arms laden with bags. He didn’t bother announcing his arrival, knowing Naruto would still be asleep, especially if she was indeed getting sick as he suspected.

He dropped the spare key Naruto had given him to the apartment back into his pocket and toed off his sandals at the entrance. He nudged them with his foot until they were neatly beside each other against the wall and then, with a roll of his eyes, he did the same for Naruto’s shoes that had been kicked off carelessly and left in the middle of the walkway.

It wasn’t until Sasuke was nearly done cooking that Naruto finally emerged from her bedroom.

“Sas’e?” she slurred, rubbing at her eye. “When’d you get ‘ere?”

Sasuke frowned as he watched Naruto slowly shuffle her way into the kitchen. She was definitely sick, he concluded, turning back to the pot on the stove with only a casual shrug as answer to her question. She didn’t need to know how early he had gotten up to make this for her.

Unbothered by his silence, Naruto peered over his shoulder, tickling his cheek with her short spikes of hair. “Whatcha makin’?” she asked. “Ramen?” she suggested hopefully.

Sasuke huffed fondly in amusement. “You don’t eat ramen when you’re sick, dobe.”

She dropped her chin onto his shoulder with a pout.

“It’s rice porridge,” he explained, his voice soft in the way it always was when he shared something personal.

Naruto glanced up at his face, which was gentle with nostalgia, as he turned off the heat and added miso paste to the pot.

Sasuke’s mother used to make rice porridge for him whenever he was sick as a child. And last night, after he had dropped an unwell Naruto off at her apartment, he had spent over an hour trying to find his mother’s old recipe with the plan of making it for her.

Naruto hummed, understanding the significance without him having to say a word. “Well, it smells good.”

“It’s almost done.” He glanced down at her face resting on his shoulder. She looked even worse close up. Her skin was pale and the circles under her eyes were dark. Even when she smiled up at him (having noticed his gaze), he couldn’t find any of her usual vibrancy. It looked like the life had been drained out of her and she was becoming only a shell of herself.

He tried to swallow down his worry but it roiled in his stomach instead.

He was well aware of Naruto’s astounding ability to bounce back from anything with extraordinary speed. He had been envious of it plenty of times when he himself had to take an extra day (or three) to recover from their intense training. But it was difficult to shake the feeling that there was something different about this time. It was hard to brush aside the fear that this was something serious and he was going to lose her.

He mentally shook the thought away. She was just sick. Everyone got sick. It was just throwing him off since he’d never seen Naruto sick before. Sasuke was just being paranoid and overprotective, he tried to convince himself.

He bounced his shoulder a few times, dislodging Naruto’s drooping head from its resting place. “Go sit down,” he told her. She looked like she was about to fall over from exhaustion.

She grumbled a bit but did as she was told. She slumped into a chair at the kitchen table and immediately dropped her heavy head onto her folded arms, seemingly unable to hold it up.

Sasuke tried hard not to outwardly show how much that bothered him.

////

Sakura nervously tucked her hair behind her ears and wrapped her thin arms around herself, wondering anxiously why she was standing alone in training ground three.

Granted, she was technically early, but that was only because Naruto and Sasuke always came early to practice.

She untucked her hair to let it frame her face again, just in case Sasuke chose this moment to show up. (Sakura looked better with her hair untucked.)

She looked around the training field again but she was still alone.

She bit her bottom lip as a distressing thought came to mind. Had… Had Naruto and Sasuke moved their morning practice to someplace else?

She knew Sasuke was upset with her. He had been all week— ever since Sakura, in a moment of shallowness, had convinced Naruto to cut her hair. (How was Sakura supposed to know the significance of what she had pressured Naruto to do!?) But— but they wouldn’t actually exclude her, right?

An ugly feeling rose in her chest.

Of course they’d exclude her, she thought bitterly. It’s exactly what they’d been doing for months.

Morning practice wasn’t even a Team 7 thing. It was a Naruto and Sasuke thing. Sakura had just invited herself.

Tears pricked at her eyes.

Sakura had just wanted to be included— to form a bond with Sasuke the way Naruto had. But with Naruto by his side, there was no room for Sakura.

She could still remember Sasuke’s look of displeasure that first day she had joined them— not even Naruto’s enthusiastic reception had been able to soothe the horrible feeling of having her presence be unwanted.

But Sakura had kept coming— even when Sasuke ignored her or regularly egged Naruto on to do challenges he knew Sakura couldn’t keep up with (consequently and purposefully leaving her on the sidelines or in their dust), Sakura hadn’t given up.

And things had gotten better. Sasuke had started to respect her perseverance. He had started to acknowledge her determination and commitment. He had even started to give Sakura pointers to help improve her techniques. Last week, he had even given her a small smile when she had been able to recognize his genjutsu and break out of it almost immediately.

Sakura had never been so happy.

But the moment had been fleeting. Sasuke had then turned to Naruto with the demand that she practice her own genjutsu recognition more. With their ensuing bickering, Sakura had once more been forgotten.

It had been a terrible reminder— that there was no room for Sakura within their duo.

Even when Sasuke was at his warmest towards her, even when he gave her more recognition than he ever had before, Sakura was still regularly excluded.

As long as Naruto was there, Sakura would always be excluded.

And that was the way it was when things were good between them.

With Sasuke upset with her…

Sakura tried hard not to cry.

They’d come, she told herself.

But as the morning slowly dragged on to their official meeting time, Sakura continued to stand there alone in the cold.

When she finally heard the familiar sound of her teammates' back-and-forth banter, she was nearly boiling over with the embarrassment, indignation, hurt, and frustration she’d been stewing in.

“I’ll be fine, Sasuke,” came Naruto’s voice. “I feel much better thanks to your amazing rice soup, ‘ttebayo!”

“Rice porridge,” Sasuke corrected.

“Tomato, tomahto,” Naruto retorted.

“If you’re feeling so great,” Sasuke continued, “why am I carrying you, usuratonkachi?”

With hot anger burning in her chest, Sakura wondered the exact same thing. Naruto was all over Sasuke, draped across his back with her arms wrapped snugly around his neck and head resting in his hair.

“I didn’t wanna waste all the energy your rice porridge gave me by walkin’ here.”

“Stupid. If you’re feeling that bad you should’ve just stayed home.”

They’d completely forgotten about Sakura, she realized. It wasn’t even that they had purposefully excluded her. They simply hadn’t thought to tell her that they weren’t coming to practice that morning.

To them, Sakura wasn’t even worth that much of a thought. Not when precious Naruto wasn’t feeling well.

“I gotta talk to Kaka-sensei ‘bout somethin’,” Naruto insisted. “It’s real important, Sasuke.”

Once they got closer, the blonde gave Sakura a small wave and smile as she said good morning, but all Sakura noticed was that neither of her teammates were going to acknowledge the fact that they had left Sakura waiting all morning. Sasuke hadn’t even looked at her yet. Sakura’s teeth clenched with anger.

Sakura had believed that being on a team with Sasuke had been her chance. But all he cared about was Naruto. It was always Naruto, Naruto, Naruto! Naruto who claimed she was Sakura’s friend. Naruto who knew how Sakura felt about Sasuke. Naruto who took all of Sasuke’s attention, leaving not even scraps for Sakura. Naruto acted like she was Sakura’s friend, but if she actually cared about Sakura, she wouldn’t keep getting in the way of Sakura’s chances with Sasuke. She wouldn’t be hanging all over him!

“I could’ve just told Kakashi you wanted to talk to him,” Sasuke pointed out as he carefully supported Naruto’s descent from his back. He snorted as he kept a gentle hand on her arm to keep her steady. Sasuke would actually bet money that Kakashi would’ve immediately run off to Naruto as soon as he learned that she was sick, uncaringly ditching Sasuke and Sakura in the process.

“There may not have been—” Naruto was cut off by the sound of Sakura boiling over. “Idiot! Go home if you’re sick!” the pink-haired girl demanded, pushing Naruto back and away from Sasuke.

Sakura did not push Naruto hard, but with Naruto already struggling to stand, it was hard enough.

Sakura's eyes grew wide with immediate regret as she watched Naruto go down.

Sasuke lunged past Sakura in an attempt to catch their falling teammate, but before Naruto even made contact with the ground, she dispersed in a cloud of smoke.

“Wha—?” Sakura began in shock before relief ballooned in her chest. It had only been a clone. She hadn’t actually pushed a sick Naruto to the ground.

Sakura turned to Sasuke, prepared to make her defense, but the look on his face stopped her.

Sakura watched Sasuke kneel to the ground, and that’s when she noticed that not all of Naruto’s clone had disappeared. The outfit Sakura had encouraged her to get when her ugly orange jumpsuit had become too small and damaged was still there.

Sasuke carefully reached into the folds of Naruto's burnt-orange kimono top.

“Ah, what terrible timing.” Sakura jumped at Kakashi’s sudden presence. The jōnin sighed long-sufferingly as he stared blankly at the pile of clothes.

They had been so close to getting away with the switch. Now he was going to have to tell the Hokage. He looked heavenward. It was not a conversation he was looking forward to.

Both Kakashi and Sakura’s attention turned to Sasuke who was still on the ground when, with a quiet and measured voice, he asked, “Why did a clone… have Naruto’s necklace?”

Kakashi winced.

Sasuke had given Naruto that necklace for her birthday… in October.

“How long?” Sasuke asked, a cold dread filling his chest.

Kakashi hesitated a moment but answered honestly, “108 days and about, say 13 hours, give or take.”

Sasuke closed his eyes as if the answer had physically pained him.

The whole time. It had been a clone nearly the whole time.

His hand curled tightly around the necklace in his hand.

“It’s pretty impressive,” Kakashi continued to say, perhaps in an attempt to lighten the mood, but Sasuke wasn’t listening. “Certainly longer than I thought—”

“Is she at Hogwarts?” Sasuke interrupted.

Kakashi’s visible eye widened.

“Hogwarts?” Sakura repeated in confusion, looking between Sasuke and Kakashi.

“Naruto told you about Hogwarts?” Kakashi asked in surprise. Then he chuckled lightly. “Of course she did. She tells you everyth—” Kakashi had the good sense to cut himself off with an awkward cough. Because, clearly, that wasn’t completely true. Naruto had never confessed to Sasuke that she was a clone.

Kakashi eyed the boy as he slowly stood up. It must certainly sting, Kakashi thought, knowing that your best friend had been keeping something like that from you. Especially when you were under the impression that there were no secrets between you.

“Sasuke-kun?” Sakura asked hesitantly, reaching out for his shoulder.

He roughly brushed her hand away and sent the young girl a glare. “Don’t think her turning out to be a clone makes what you did okay.”

Sakura flinched at the icy scolding and her head bowed in shame, hiding her burning face and teary eyes.

Sasuke paid it no mind, instead turning to Kakashi. “Well?” he said expectantly.

Kakashi quirked a brow at him.

“Aren’t we going to go get the usuratonkachi?”