In which Lee makes her less than triumphant return to Hogwarts and is reminded of some of the petty drama she left behind, a disguised Tom Riddle has the surreal experience of greeting the world with an ordinary face, and Kakashi and Minato wager on Lee's immediate future.

Some might argue that the dead of winter was hardly the time for the jonin exams.

The chunin exams, annual as they were, tended to take place either in the spring or the fall depending on just which village was hosting them this time. Both seasons were relatively mild in Konoha and Suna but closer to the sea and early fall became monsoon season. Of course, sometimes Suna purposefully put it during the summer to test a genin's mettle (if you could handle summer it spoke well of your future) but it was generally agreed that less storms were better.

The jonin exams, however, were always internal. Konoha's winters, while not exactly pleasant, weren't all that nasty either. More, the jonin exams had much fewer participants and were always far less advertised. Lee knew they happened once a year, but you couldn't ask her when exactly they were happening or who happened to be taking them this time.

Most didn't make it to jonin, most didn't make it until years after having been a chunin, and so there wasn't the same constant buzz as there was for the chunin exams.

If you asked Lee to guess, then she wouldn't have thought they'd take place in winter. If you asked her, then the exams had been moved up as quickly as possible to promote any chunin even remotely ready into the position of jonin.

Still, even with the pressure to promote as quickly as possible, Lee didn't spot too many participants out there.

The chunin exams annually accepted close to a hundred participants all typically in the age range of ten to fifteen. There couldn't be more than twenty people loitering in the exam's holding area, most in their late teenage years, and even a few looking older than twenty. Minato, Kushina, and Mikoto were by far the youngest among them.

With so few it was easy to look out and start picking out clans among them. Unlike the chunin exams, there wasn't too much diversity, there was a Nara, a few Uchiha, a Yamanaka, a Hyuuga, all the big names with perhaps only Minato as a civilian born orphan representative.

They all stretched, ran through kata, and did anything to distract themselves from the board set up just outside the Forest of Death that, when unveiled, would list the exact order in which they'd begin the first portion of the exam.

Unlike the chunin exams there was no initial weeding, information gathering, task to complete. If you were participating in the jonin exams, then you'd already proved capable of gathering information and using your head in the chunin exams. More, those who participated in the jonin exams had to have a certain track record of participating in and leading missions before they qualified.

The contestants had been weeded out before they could even set foot here.

Instead, this first task was more like the chunin's second task, only without any teammates to help you out and prove your ability to work with others. It honestly sounded a bit like some of the old training exercises Jiraiya used to put them through when his team had proven just a little more powerful than he'd expected, so much so she was pretty sure she now knew where he'd stolen them from.

Each participant was to complete a solo mission simulation. They were to infiltrate enemy territory alone, find and retrieve an unknown item of value guarded by enemy shinobi, take the item back to Konoha territory without getting caught and without letting the enemy know their Konoha affiliation, and do all of this in under four hours.

Naturally, the enemy shinobi in question were jonin and special jonin, the administrators of the exam. The enemy territory was none other than the Forest of Death where, somewhere inside the dense tree line out of sight, a small temporary fortress had been set up representing a small enemy outpost.

While an interesting task, it wasn't exactly something people wanted to watch, not unless you were judging the exam results. The actual tournament part of the exam wouldn't be happening until a week after this portion had ended. Then a few stands might be set up for friends and family who wanted to watch but it didn't really have the same draw as the chunin exam tournament. At least, Lee had never heard of it having the same attendance.

Which meant that Lee was standing just outside where all the participants were by herself and feeling a bit like an idiot. Kakashi, her second shadow, having regretfully returned to the academy after the great protest had ended. Sakumo, naturally, had been put onto a mission the very morning it'd all resolved itself (partly to keep him out of trouble and partly because he was suddenly, desperately, needed in the early war effort). She was pretty sure the first and second hokages were also off on a mission somewhere, Jiraiya too, and it felt like Lee was the only damn shinobi left in the village.

Well, the only one not working.

She said she'd stay a few weeks though, let England sit and stew, and she had but some part of her was beginning to wonder if maybe she shouldn't have just left. She wasn't saying she didn't enjoy the time she had left with Minato and even Dead Last and Uzumaki, intellectually she knew that this might be the last chance she had to spend any meaningful time with them for months if not years, but they quickly started focusing on their exams and Lee just…

Wandered around the village, flipped through all those books the nidaime had bought and tried to guess at what else he thought they should buy if he hadn't bought it already, read through Tequila's report at least three times searching for her would be assassin, and tried not to give into the feeling of restlessness.

This was how Sakumo must have felt for weeks.

No, worse, as he'd not only been unemployed but left to stew exactly on how all this had come about and what it would mean.

Still, here Lee was, waiting for the ordering of participants just as eagerly as the participants themselves.

One of the administrators, someone from T&I if Lee was remembering right, shouted gruffly at the participants laying out specific rules for each of them. Nothing unexpected: no outside help, no obvious use of clearly Konoha techniques or blood limits, only four hours permitted, if you were knocked out or knocked down and unable to continue fighting you were done, if you were recognized as a Konoha shinobi you were done, and only bringing the item back into neutral territory would count as passing, you didn't pass this then you did not continue the exams.

Lee could imagine taking it herself, probably would go heavy on genjutsu even if Uchiha were helping administer the exam, walk right in and then right back out with whatever it was she was supposed to pick up. It'd probably take her ten minutes, maybe less, and the rest would be spent arguing with the referee if genjutsus that strong were a Konoha technique or not.

It might have been fun.

Instead, Lee got to skip all that and was sent to England as her reward. Her own private and very personal version of the jonin exams.

God help her.

Finally, the administrator stopped talking and with a wave of his hand unveiled the board, names fell into place one after the other. Lee's eyes raked down the list, down and down, and down, "Oh, hell."

Namikaze Minato was listed at the very bottom, Uzumaki Kushina's not that much further up, and Uchiha Mikoto somewhere in the middle. They planned on two participants per day which meant that Minato wasn't going to be out there for another few weeks at least.

Which meant that Lee would have to stay in Konoha for over a month to see even that much.

And that, given the short amount of time she had, was too much.

She closed her eyes and sighed, letting her head fall, and resigning herself to hear about it the next time she came to visit. Maybe she could take a day off and come back for it but, well, it wasn't exactly in the spirit of a solo mission.

He'd pass, she knew he would, but just the same…

Slowly the participants began to disperse, no point in standing around here and staring at trees, and only the two who would be running through the simulation today stayed in the waiting area.

Minato, spotting Lee, jogged over to her with a small smile. One look at her face and he already knew exactly what she was thinking, "You're not staying, are you?"

"I was hoping you'd be first or second," Lee confessed with her own smile, "Even third or fourth I could probably get away with."

A day here or there, that was nothing, but weeks…

Minato let out a laugh, "Well, I hate to say that I'm glad I'm not first or second."

He and Lee started walking back into town, feet instinctively taking them to the ramen stand, Ichiraku being one of the few wonderful souls who had no problem serving Lee.

"You can't think it'll make a difference," Lee scoffed, "It's not like they've set up viewing stations and I seem to recall that your trying to sneak into the Forest of Death to watch is an automatic failure."

No, the only people that got insight into this portion of the exams was the hokage, jonin commander, and whoever else was evaluating performances.

"Well," Minato said slowly, "It gives me enough time to work up my nerve."

Lee glanced over her shoulder, looking for a conspicuously absent red head, "Where's Uzumaki? I thought she'd run after us."

"I may have bribed Mikoto to keep her busy," Minato said with a small and entirely too pleased smile.

That must have been some bribe. Uzumaki Kushina was not easily distracted and usually made a point of interrupting Lee and Minato's alone time whenever possible. Lee couldn't even imagine what Mikoto would have to say or do to get Kushina to willingly let the pair of them wander off.

Lee felt her eyebrows raise, "She'll be pissed as hell if I leave without saying goodbye."

"And that is not my problem," Minato said, as if somehow Kushina wouldn't know exactly who to blame for Minato eating up Lee's last day in the village, "Besides, she's had the chance to say goodbye for weeks now."

That was true, Lee had pretty much said farewell to everyone she could at this point. Everyone who hadn't left for their own missions and the going battlefront already that is. Technically, she'd already had her goodbye dinner a few weeks back after the protest had finished up.

That didn't mean Uzumaki wouldn't bash Lee's head in if she left tonight without a word.

Lee could wait until tomorrow, she supposed, but that just led to the temptation of staying one more day and then another day and another…

Lee sighed, "I guess she'll get over it."

Minato just smiled, patting her on the back in good humor. He didn't care whether Uzumaki got over it or not, which was good for him, as he'd be the one dealing with the aftermath.

As they stepped inside Ichiraku's small restaurant she realized that this was the date they'd missed. The one he'd promised to have with her, but they'd never gotten around to having with the mission getting in the way.

She wanted to ask if he was alright with that, with this, with the fact that they'd just defaulted to ramen after all.

She wanted to ask if this mean they were going long distance and if everything would still be the same when she got back. Had it even been the same after they'd parted ways upon becoming chunin? Yes and no.

It'd probably be like that then, later, different and similar once Lee managed to find her way back to Konoha.

In fact, she thought with a small smile, she'd count on it.

Dumbledore had not aged in the decade and a half since Tom had seen him. However, Tom suspected this was because the man had already been well past his prime by 1981. That wasn't to say he looked as if he would keel over right this second, more's the pity, but he didn't look a day younger than eighty either.

If anything might stop his heart though and finally put an end to the constant thorn in his side then it was the knowledge that not only could Ellie Potter, a trained child assassin, apparate in and out of Hogwarts with ease but straight into the headmaster's office without a care in the world.

Unfortunately, Dumbledore just opened his mouth, closed it, and offered the pair of them a seat.

"Now, my dear girl," Dumbledore started hesitantly, ignoring Lee's unimpressed look at the endearment, "I thought we had talked about your apparating straight through the wards."

"Forgive me," Lee said, "But time having gotten away to me back home I thought it best to just come straight to you. The term is over, isn't it?"

Rather than watch Ellie Potter and Dumbledore's battle of titanic wills Tom took the chance to take in Dumbledore's office. He'd never gotten to see it after Dumbledore had taken over, the last time he'd been in here was when he'd interviewed for the Defense position, and Dippet had still been headmaster then. Dumbledore had really taken over the place, gone was Dippet's minimalist décor and replaced by hordes of mysterious metallic instruments whose purpose Dumbledore himself had likely forgotten.

The phoenix, the one he'd picked up after the defeat of Grindelwald, snoozed quietly in a corner. A bowl overflowing with lemon drops sat on the desk next to a smaller dish of chittering ice mice.

Had Tom had the misfortune of walking in without any context he'd still be able to tell you this place was Dumbledore's through and through.

More importantly though, the man had yet to recognize exactly who was sitting in front of him.

Tom wanted to laugh at that. Dumbledore had always been so certain that he could see right through Tom. He probably thought he could pick out Tom no matter whose face he was hiding behind just because of his mannerisms. Yet, here they were, and according to Lee Tom wasn't even the first.

No, the first had been a man named Quirrell, who had taught students while possessed for an entire year without Dumbledore taking any action against him. The second, had been the Weasley's youngest daughter, who even now seemed to escape Dumbledore's notice entirely.

In fact, Dumbledore had barely spared Tom a glance strange as that was.

Then again, Lee upon selecting his disguise had warned him to expect that.

Rather than appearing as Tom Riddle, or even a young Tom Riddle, he was apparently wearing the face of what Matsuda Haru used to look like before his recessive Uzumaki genes had kicked in.

His skin was a non-descript average tan, his hair a mousy brown, his face neither too handsome nor too plain, eyes equally brown, and absolutely nothing about him was particularly noteworthy. If Tom had to describe what he was now charmed to look like the best he could manage was the most average little boy anyone could possibly imagine.

Tom Riddle had always had a striking appearance, one you couldn't help but notice and look at, so having Dumbledore immediately turn away from him (seemingly on instinct) was a surreal experience.

Tom wasn't sure he liked it.

He'd decided, in order to best soothe his ego, to find it funny instead of just insulting.

"Yes, I'm afraid you missed the end of terms and your exams," Dumbledore said, giving her a chiding look.

Lee smiled back at him pleasantly, "We said it'd be a few weeks, didn't we?"

"You said you'd be back by the end of term," Dumbledore reminded her, equally pleasant.

"I'm afraid circumstances demanded I stay a little longer than expected," Lee said.

"Yes, I can see that," Dumbledore said, finally allowing his eyes to roam over to Tom, "I notice that most of your companions are still missing and that you've brought someone new."

"I've been promoted and am now the officer in charge of this mission," Lee said, at Dumbledore's dumbfounded look she elaborated, "The others won't be coming back."

She then motioned to Tom sitting next to her, "As everyone else is detained, I thought I'd bring my dear old friend Ren along. He's just been dying to get a chance to see Hogwarts ever since he heard about it."

Tom Riddle, Ren apparently, slowly turned his head to look at her.

"I swear, he talks about nothing else," Lee earnestly told Dumbledore, ignoring Tom's gaze.

She opened her mouth again, probably to say something about how Tom actually respected Dumbledore's people, but Tom took the moment to stamp on her foot and with a pleasant smile said, "I'm very much looking forward to taking classes next term, sir."

Dumbledore looked like a deer in the headlights. However, he didn't stare at Tom long, instead as always his eyes turned back to Ellie Potter.

"With that, we need to talk about my schedule," Lee said, as if everything was taken care of now that introductions were over.

"Your schedule?" Dumbledore said dumbly.

Lee didn't seem to mind and prattled on, "A semester has given me enough time to figure out that Care for Magical Creatures is a death sentence and Divination a waste of my time. Dead Las—I mean… Dead Last—"

She'd probably forgotten the poor boy's name. Not that Tom remembered it either, but at least he hadn't been the boy's genin teammate, the closest thing many shinobi had to childhood friends.

"—Insists that Muggle Studies is an equal waste of time. Now that Minato and Kushina aren't coming back, I'll need to attend Runes and Arithmancy in their stead."

Dumbledore tried and failed to smile, "Miss Potter, I'm afraid that you've missed an entire term of those courses—"

"Minato and Uzumaki missed an entire year," Lee pointed out, "And we've missed three years of all the other courses. I'll manage."

"Well, I imagine you might," Dumbledore said, "Your professors, well save Hagrid, speak very highly of your abilities but don't you—"

"I will not waste another semester caring for Hagrid's abominations," Lee said, "What's left of his abominations at any rate."

Hagrid, as in Rubeus Hagrid? They'd made him a professor? Last Tom knew he'd been framed by Tom himself for murder. His wand had been snapped, he'd been expelled, and Dumbledore had made him groundskeeper out of pity. He lived in a little hut by the lake where to Tom's knowledge he raised the occasional giant spider for his own amusement. It was a miracle none of his beasts had eaten any of the children. How in the hell had they gone and made him a professor?!

She then seemed to remember Tom existed, "Oh and sign Ren up for the same courses, he wouldn't last a week with Hagrid."

No, Hagrid wouldn't last a week with Tom.

If Tom was put in a class with Hagrid then Tom would put all his significant intellect to the task of getting the man fired. It probably wouldn't be too hard, Hagrid would do half the work for him by smuggling dragons or breeding aliens.

"Well," Dumbledore said after a pause, "I can't say I approve but your people are here to make the most of your education. Though I'd hardly call Muggle Studies, Care for Magical Creatures, and Divination worthless."

Lee looked as if she dearly managed to protest that but had learned some minimal amount of tact that prevented her from saying it. Instead it was written all over her face.

"Now, when you say the others aren't coming back, do you mean to say you're here without adult supervision?" Dumbledore asked, eyebrows raising slightly.

"I am adult supervision," Lee retorted, and at Dumbledore's flat look added, "If you really want me to serve detention just put it under one of your professors' supervision. As for anything you want to say to Konoha, yes, that can go through me."

Dumbledore nodded slowly, "Well, then, I suppose I have to inform you about the Yule Ball."

"The what?" Lee asked slowly.

"Had you been here for the end of term you would have heard about it," Dumbledore noted, once again with that chiding look, as if Lee should have felt ashamed of herself for running off, "Regardless, the Yule Ball is a tradition of the Triwizard Tournament, a dance taking place on Christmas that students fourth year and above are invited to attend."

Lee blinked once, twice, then asked, "And?"

Yes, Tom wondered if she even remembered what a dance was. Just as Konoha had no sporting events, the closest equivalent being the annual chunin exam tournament, it didn't have many social functions. There were no high-school dances, no galas, no balls, no parties of any kind.

Sometimes friends would get together and drink, sometimes go to a pub, but dancing itself wasn't even a concept.

"And," Dumbledore said slowly, "Champions are required to participate and bring a partner."

Lee said nothing for a moment, likely trying to internalize what that meant, and then said, "You didn't mention that in the beginning of all of this."

"There's no danger in the Yule Ball, it's a celebration, and I'm afraid when your name came out of the goblet it slipped my mind."

"You didn't say I had to find a date," Lee said.

"I thought, given that you were to return before the term ended, that you would have had more time," Dumbledore retorted.

The pair stared at each other, entirely oblivious to Tom's presence, until finally Lee relented.

"Right, well, Ren, I guess you're my date."

"Me?!" he asked, nearly falling out of his seat.

Technically, he could walk out now if he wanted to.

The unbreakable vow, made just before they'd left for this place, had nothing to do with his sitting in this office let alone taking a young girl to a dance.

All it required was that he never strike her and nor her him. If he left now, there was nothing she could do about it. True, the village could set someone else on him, natter at him for breach of contract but that required significant effort in a time of war for something Lee should be able to handle herself.

However, she'd made a good point in that Tom wanted a chance to get a lay of the land. He wanted to see what his horcrux was up to, find out just what had happened in his absence, and see what the world made of Ellie Potter.

He would never be this close to Dumbledore again.

However, that didn't mean he had to take the girl to a bloody dance. Especially not the girl who'd blown him up as a toddler. If anyone ever found out, which they of course never would, it'd be the very death of him.

"Yes, Ren," Lee said, eyes burning, "Of course you, do you see anyone else sitting here?"

"Take Namikaze," he hissed back with a smile that tried to be pleasant.

"Minato Namikaze is in the middle of his jonin exams," Lee said back with a far more pleasant smile, "They don't get Christmas off."

"That's too bad," he said with his own smile, "Because I'm not going."

"Go with me to the ball or I—" she stopped, eyes widening, as she realized that her threats were now meaningless. He couldn't betray or harm her just as she couldn't betray or harm him.

"Yes, what will you do, Lee?" he asked with a pleasant smile.

He expected her to grow flustered, to throw her hands into the air, and declare that he could have it his way and she'd come up with something. Instead though she gave him an assessing look.

"You really think I'm that stupid, don't you?" she asked.

"Come again?"

"You think that just because I can't put you in the hospital, I can't come up with some way to make your life miserable."

He considered that for a moment and decided that it was refreshing to be honest, "Yes, that sounds right."

"Ren," she said after a moment's pause, "Either I go with you or I end up going with Ginny Weasley."

Ginny Weasley, he saw Dumbledore's eyes light up at the name, not in dread though but in fondness. For Tom though the name had a different meaning, Ginny Weasley was the name of the girl she swore was possessed by his horcrux.

"I don't see how that concerns me," he said as if he hadn't the faintest idea who Ginny Weasley was. Which, to be fair, a few days ago he hadn't.

"It concerns you because you will have a front row seat to her painful flirting and attempts to get to second base." Lee responded, "And I will do everything in my power to make sure you witness every second of it."

She leaned in close, "Every, single, second."

He wanted to say she was bluffing, he desperately wanted to say it, but there was no hesitation at all in her face. Somehow, she expected a sixteen-year-old Tom Riddle wearing the face of a little girl to do exactly that.

Dumbledore cleared his throat, "Speaking of Miss Weasley, where had you planned to spend the holidays?"

Lee blinked, looked back at him, and finally remembered that Dumbledore was in the room, "Probably our cabin on the grounds. Unless you demolished it."

"No, no, it's still standing," Dumbledore assured before noting, "However, after you left, the Weasleys had offered to host you, Miss Potter, over the holidays. As it's just the two of you I'm sure they'd be more than willing to accommodate your friend."

He could see Lee desperately attempt to control her reaction. She very clearly did not want to stay with the Weasleys, in fact, it looked as if she wanted to be anywhere else in the world. However, she'd also told him that part of her job here was to form connections and make friends.

Before she'd relied on the others, on the former hokages, to do that work for her. Now she was here on her own and all of it would fall to her. Including, of course, making nice with the locals.

So, with gritted teeth, she responded, "I would love nothing more than spending the holidays with the Weasleys."

Tom didn't say it but he began to wonder just how long the Weasley home would be standing after Lee arrived. More, how long it would take until the inhabitants kicked her out entirely.

Because, if there was one thing Eru Lee was truly bad at, it was making friends.

Minato sighed and straightened his legs beneath the kitchen table, stretching his sore muscles, and contemplated the days ahead. He tried to put both the chunin exams, Lee's departure, and Kushina's betrayed fit of rage when she'd learned Lee had left in the middle of the day out of his mind.

Going last, he hadn't wanted to go first, exactly, but now the exams would just keep looming over him for days on end.

It almost had made him want to tell Lee to hell with it all and go to England for a few days with her. He could train anywhere, he didn't need to be in the village for that, but being a participant he wasn't supposed to leave the village during the exam either.

Instead he had to sit here, wait, and perform when it was asked of it.

Lee had acted like his passing was a given, Jiraiya always had too for that part, and maybe it was but that didn't mean it didn't make him nervous either. These weren't just chunin he was facing but those few chunin who really looked like they could perform at the next level.

Only a few of them would pass the exams and be promoted.

Kakashi sat across from him, setting a carton of orange juice down on the table with a loud thunk, apparently not minding that drinking the last of it now meant there'd be none for breakfast the next morning.

No one in the Hatake compound, Lee and Minato included, had any ability or inclination to cook and their meals consisted of takeout or whatever happened to be lingering in the fridge. It really was a tragedy, one Minato should probably do something about, except he'd be condemning himself to cook forever.

Minato wasn't ready to take that burden on himself quite yet.

"I heard you're up last," Kakashi said.

Minato could ask where the brat had heard that, as he'd been in the academy all day, but Minato wasn't sure he wanted to know.

Lee had always told him Sakumo's kid was both very talented and very clever it was just until recently, until Lee's great charade, he hadn't cared about Lee or Minato in the slightest. Now though, if there was any gossip to be had, he'd hear it.

"I also heard you sent Lee off to England already," Kakashi said, looking at Minato with accusing gray eyes.

Minato just raised an eyebrow, "She said goodbye to you this morning and we had that whole giant dinner a few weeks ago."

"This morning," Kakashi responded, "I didn't need a last-minute date over ramen."

Minato opened his mouth, closed it, and then said the only thing he could, "A month ago you'd be celebrating her departure with confetti."

"I was young and foolish then," Kakashi said with all the wisdom of a sage, "And I still would have given you shit for being unable to keep it in your pants."

Somehow, Minato really doubted that, but he just had the feeling anything he said would only give Kakashi more ammunition.

Except Kakashi just kept looking at him, oddly chiding and superior for a five-year-old, and Minato had to blurt out, "She had to leave sometime. It's not like I told her to leave in the middle of the day."

Right after ramen, no less, Minato had paid the bill, stood up, and then she'd hugged him and told him she'd be back in a month or so. She'd barely given him a chance to say goodbye let alone anyone else.

He liked to think it was because the longer she stayed the harder it became to leave.

Kakashi nodded, as if he didn't really like what Minato had to say but accepted it was probably true. Minato contemplated pouring himself a glass of what was left of the orange juice while his eyes rested on Kakashi.

With Sakumo on a mission and back god only knew when that technically made Minato in charge of the brat. All during her apprenticeship, apparently that had been Lee's job, and not one Kakashi appreciated her doing. Minato didn't know how he felt taking it up in her absence.

He probably should start by making Kakashi eat real food for dinner.

Kakashi didn't ask when real dinner was coming though, or if Minato was supposed to be the adult in this situation. Instead he asked, "How long do you think it will take her to burn down the magic castle?"

Minato opened his mouth, closed it, then said, "Lee has matured a lot."

Kakashi was entirely unmoved.

Which was a very fair response given that Minato had just learned that Lee had taken the English nin back with her in an attempt to fight fire with fire and get him permanently out of the village's hair in a time of war.

Minato amended his previous answer, "Probably a month."

Author's Note: Next up, yet more forced painful bonding with the Harry Potter universe's favorite family.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Harry Potter