Spies would therefore be observed before confronted. What were they spying on? Were there confederates? Was it a false alarm such as could be caused by someone forgetting an identification pass before passing through a detection seal?
Jiraiya's eyes flicked around the room, noting immediately when someone quietly slipped into place. Jiraiya was sure to meet the figure's eyes, nod slightly, then return to watching Naruto.
"Student. Your observational skills need work." Jiraiya shook his head as if filled with disappointment.
"Aw, c'mon Pervy-sage, it isn't like anyone knows we're here. Heck, WE don't know where we are."
"Sorry about this," said Jiraiya to the old man who'd slipped into the room.
"I take it-" began the old man.
"WAGH!" Naruto fell over.
Jiraiya sighed heavily, putting in a facepalm for good measure.
The old man managed to mostly suppress a smirk. "I take it that this is your student?"
"Yes, quite," said Jiraiya. "I wanted to check out your school here, but we appear to have missed the spot we were aiming for."
"Ah, well, Hogwarts is protected from attempts to just pop in for a visit," said the old man. "The school is, in fact, not open for students until tomorrow."
"All the better to observe before all the students get in," said Jiraiya, in full infiltration mode and therefore prepared to sling BS until the sky mooed.
"Oh?" asked the old man. "I'm sorry, I didn't get your names."
"Jiraiya, wandering author," said Jiraiya, bowing lightly to the obvious authority figure. So he'd guessed correctly from the bookshelves and diplomas on the wall - this was the office of someone in the Academic field. "This is my apprentice, Naruto Uzumaki."
"Odd names, but I get the feeling you've come very far away," said the old man. "I am Albus Dumbledore."
"Talk about odd names," grumbled Naruto.
"No floo travel, nor evidence of splinching," said Dumbledore. "Most curious."
"I've only engaged in this form of transport once before, and don't know all the details myself," admitted Jiraiya.
"Oh?" asked Albus Dumbledore, thinking about this and trying to discern how much BS was actually being slung.
There was a brief knock at the door.
"Ex-excuse me," said a timid-looking fellow as he stuck his head in the door.
"Professor Quirrell, I rather expected our Defense Against The Dark Arts instructor to be rather more prompt on responding to a potential trespasser," said Dumbledore.
"W-w-well, that is to say," began Quirinus Quirrell, fidgeting as he took out a wooden stick. "I - I really wasn't p-prepared for s-such."
"Interesting," said Jiraiya. "Might I ask which one is Quirrell?"
Quirinus Quirrel froze to such an extent that Albus almost wondered if a petrification spell had been used.
"I beg your pardon," said Albus Dumbledore. "What do you mean?"
Jiraiya paused, not wanting his full abilities to be known at this juncture. The hostility had just jumped at least two notches from the hidden individual. "There are two people there. Both have a bit of hostility, but one is much stronger than the other."
"R-r-r-ridiculous," offered Professor Quirrell.
Jiraiya looked over the individual in question, then shrugged. "I don't know what or why or how, but that presence reminds me way too much of someone I know and actively dislike."
Naruto, in the meantime, had gotten behind the Professor in question and reached out with one finger. "What's with the weird hat? I could swear I heard something hiss in there."
Quirrell whirled, brandishing his wand. "Crucio!"
Naruto dropped to one knee, a startled scream briefly coming from his throat as he was hit with more pain than he'd ever known before. Then it was gone.
"Do anything like that again," said Jiraiya, having backhanded the Professor into a wall, "and I will have to hurt you. BOTH of you."
The face on the back of Quirrell's head, revealed as the hat had tumbled off, mumbled something about a headache.
"Voldemort!" thundered Albus Dumbledore on seeing the face, his own wand switching targets as he reassigned active threat values. "How dare you infiltrate my school!"
"We've been here quite some time actually," said Voldemort, sneering despite the blood dripping from his mouth. "You cannot kill me. You cannot stop me!"
"Excuse me," said Jiraiya, putting a small vial on the ground. "Anyone mind if I try this?"
Eyeing the vial, Voldemort decided he didn't like the look of this. Time to separate from his failure of a host and try again. Fortunately the door was still slightly ajar and provided a ready means of escape. "I shall return, a thousand times more powerful, and you shall all die."
Jiraiya unfurled a small scroll with a snap of his wrist as the misty form expanded, cut one finger with a practiced gesture, and then raced through hand-seals.
"What are you doing?" asked Albus Dumbledore.
"Anti-demon SEAL!" said Jiraiya, answering by doing.
Severus Snape had been following Quirrell, responding to the same alarm and adding additional notes to his "why Quirrell would be best left to a different department than Defense Against The Dark Arts" file.
So he had been in position to overhear comments, but other than drawing his wand in case his assistance was required with the intruders - he had refrained from action.
When the odd green light had appeared, he had moved to the partially ajar door to observe.
A swirling green vortex had within it what LOOKED like a melting Voldemort and while he watched slammed the vaporous thing into what looked like one of those little bottles the Japanese used for that rice wine they were fond of.
The large fellow controlling the vortex slammed a cork down onto that bottle, took out a small piece of paper, and then scribbled something across that paper before wrapping the bottle in it.
"That should do it," said the large fellow.
"Excuse me, but what exactly was that, who are you, and what is going on?" asked Snape, the complete oddness of the situation causing him to temporarily lose his accustomed snarkiness.
"Ah, d-d-don't hurt me," said Quirrell, not realizing that practically everyone in the room had dismissed him of being any consequence at all.
"An associate of mine has a similar ability, and I had this idea of how to stop him if I ever encountered him when he was escaping one body and looking for another," said the large fellow, both his posture and tone indicating he was well pleased with himself.
"You had that ready for Orochimaru?" asked a yellow-haired boy wearing an outfit that was even more of an eyesore than the one adorning the large fellow.
"Yeah," said that large fellow with the pseudo-Japanese outfit, making a gesture. "I developed counters for a couple of his tricks."
Quirrell yelped as he stopped crawling for the door, an odd knife imbedded into one hand.
"Shut up and be still," advised the large one. "From what I put together on that body-thief technique, the victim has to either not resist or it burns their mind out. Since you're not drooling on yourself..."
"Indeed," said Albus. "You seem well versed in such things."
"When you fight monsters, you have to know something about how they operate," said the large fellow.
"'He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an Abyss, the Abyss gazes also into you.'"
"Well put," said the large fellow, nodding.
"It's a quote. Friedrich Nietzsche," said Severus Snape. "So, did I see this correctly. Did you just seal the Dark Lord into a bottle of rice-wine?"
"If that was a 'Dark Lord' - then yes," said the large fellow.
There was a brief silence as everyone looked towards the little ceramic bottle sealed with paper.
"Is he able to get out again?" asked Severus, raising an eyebrow.
"Not unless someone lets him out," said the large fellow.
"I see," said Severus, putting his wand away then steepling his fingers as he considered that. "Well, Albus. I'm glad to see you're taking my recommendations for a new Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor seriously. While I remain deeply disappointed that I was not your immediate choice, this one at least seems... credible in his abilities."
"Jiraiya of the Leaf," said the large fellow, giving a slight bow of the head.
"Severus Snape, Potions Instructor," said Severus, giving a like inclination of the head. Japanese, as he recalled, were very big on such little gestures of politeness. Though neither looked particularly Japanese as far as physical appearances - certain elements of clothing and their backpacks seemed to suggest a Japanese or at least Oriental background.
"Hmmm, this is a most interesting development," admitted Albus Dumbledore, his eyes focused entirely on the wrapped bottle on the floor.
(Posted Tue, 28 May 2013 16:14)
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