Me: alright, I'm sorry it took soooo long to update and this is a long chapter. But I had a lot of fun writing this, and I can't wait to read your reviews, I really do hope you like it and that you will forgive me for taking so long! Stupid school!! So anyway, I own NOTHING.

If it had not been for the D.A. lessons, Harry thought he would have been extremely unhappy. He sometimes felt that he was living for the hours he spent in the Room of Requirement, working hard but thoroughly enjoying himself at the same time, swelling with pride as he looked around at his fellow D.A. members and saw how far they had come. Indeed, Harry sometimes wondered how Umbridge was going to react when all the members of the D.A. received "outstanding" in their Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L.s.

They had finally started work on Patronuses, which everybody had been very keen to practice, though as Harry kept reminding them, producing a Patronus in the middle of a brightly lit classroom when they were not under threat was very different to producing it when confronted by something like a dementor. But that didn't stop Naruto from helping him with that issue.

Now, most of the students had a Naruto clone in front of them, each disguised as a dementor, which Harry filled in on how to look like them. And they were very convincing. For the students that didn't have a Naruto they had either Neji under a black sheet, or Sasuke making them think that there was a dementor in front of them with his sharingan. Sakura was sitting on the sidelines in case anyone got hurt, if that was possible in this lesson.

Cho Chang had recently made a Patronus knock over Naruto; she now was just admiringly watching the silvery swan shaped Patronus soar around the room. "They're so pretty!" she said thoughtfully.

"They're not supposed to be pretty, they're supposed to protect you," said Harry patiently. "Thanks for helping out, Naruto." he said as he walked past a 'dementor' standing in front of Lavander. The 'dementor' nodded and waved, which made several students who were watching laugh. It seemed way to out of character for a dementor.

"I know it's him, and all, but it's still kind of scary!" said Lavander as she shot puffs of silver vapor out of the end of her wand. "And I still – can't – do it!" she added angrily. The clone in front of her quickly stepped forward, trying to intimidating her, hoping that it would help her concentrate more. No. It just made her yelp in surprise.

Neville was having troubles too. His face was screwed up in concentration, but only feeble wisps of silver smoke issued from his wand tip. Sasuke was standing in front of him, looking somewhat exhausted and impatient for him to get it right. He was using a lot of chakra on a kid that couldn't do a simple spell.

"You've got to think of something happy," Harry reminded him when Sasuke broke the genjutsu for a moment to catch his breath.

"I'm trying," said Neville miserably, who was trying so hard his round face was actually shining with sweat.

"Harry, I think I'm doing it!" yelled Seamus, who had been brought along to his first ever D.A. meeting by Dean. "Look – ah – it's gone…but it was definitely something hairy, Harry!"

"Ugh, yeah, and powerful, too." Neji added as he got up off the floor, throwing the sheet off of himself. Seamus smiled proudly.

Hermione's Patronus, a shining silver otter, was gamboling around her after knocking away the Naruto clone.

"They are sort of nice, aren't they?" she said, looking at it fondly.

"Oi! Harry!" the original Naruto's voice yelled from across the room. Harry made his way over.

"Yeah?"

"Mind if I try?" Naruto asked eagerly, looking around the room longingly.

"Uh…sure. Why not?" Harry handed him his wand and watched, somewhat looking forward to the ensuing chaos. Naruto snatched it, pointed it out and yelled, "Expecto Patronum!" like he heard everyone else. To nearly everyone's surprise an orange fox burst from the wand and chased around the room. Harry stared wildly at it and chuckled as it disappeared.

"Wow…" Harry muttered, dumbfounded.

On the other side of the room, Sasuke looked at Neville's wand curiously, grabbed it from him and shouted, "Expecto Patronum!" and, like Naruto, a long dark blue cobra slid from the wand and slithered around in the air, hissing at students.

Neji took hold of Seamus's wand as well. He yelled out the charm and out popped a huge, purple eagle, spreading its wings and flapping up to the high ceiling. The students looked surprised that they could produce a Patronus on the first try, but what really got them was how they looked nothing like the others. Luna Lovegood made her way through the stunned students that were watching the eagle dive-bomb to the students, and walked right up to Sakura.

"Here, you try now." She said wistfully, handing her own wand to Sakura. Sakura looked at it for a moment, nodded and took it.

"Expecto Patronum!" she shouted, pointing the wand into the air. A pink dove flapped out and around her head.

"How on earth are you able to use magic?" Harry asked Naruto when the others handed the wands back, their curiosity satisfied.

"Well, we can't." Naruto said, rubbing the back of his neck. "We didn't exactly use magic like you do, we focused our chakra through the wand, and how it actually worked I have absolutely no idea."

"Well it was cool anyway." Ron said as he walked up. Harry turned to Ron.

"Let's see yours." Harry said. "You must have gotten past the clone to get over here." He smirked. Ron grimaced, and then shrunk back into the crowd.

Harry spun around as the door to the room of requirements opened and closed, and saw Dobby the house-elf string at him from under his usual eight hats. "Hi Dobby!" he said. "What are you – what's wrong?"

The elf's eyes were wide with terror as he shook uncontrollably. The members of the D.A. closest to Harry had gone silent now: everybody was watching Dobby. Naruto stared down at it with a concerned look, taking in every feature and automatically knowing something was wrong. He canceled his shadow clones and several students jumped in surprise as the clones disappeared before them in a puff of smoke. Several Patronuses that had lasted that long had faded away, making the room seem that much darker than before.

"Harry Potter sir…" Dobby squeaked. Naruto glanced at Harry, then around the room, taking note of how all the other shinobi had also sensed that something was wrong and now stood at the ready, fight or flight instincts setting in slowly. "Harry Potter sir…Dobby has come to warn you…" Naruto tensed. He knew something was up…

"But the house-elves have been warned not to tell…"

Dobby then ran headfirst at the wall, which Harry had somehow come to expect. He made to grab him, but Dobby simply ricocheted off the wall, cushioned by his large layer of hats. Naruto, Neji, Sasuke and Sakura all stared in bewilderment, while Hermione and several other girls let out squeaks of both fear and sympathy.

"What's happened Dobby?" Harry asked, grabbing the elf's tiny arms while holding him away from anything he could hurt himself with.

"Harry Potter…she…she…" Dobby hit himself hard on the nose with his free fist. Naruto, helping Harry out, grabbed that with a firm, yet gentle hand.

"Who is "she" Dobby?" But Harry had a feeling he already knew the answer. The only "she" that could strike up that much fear was one that made him seethe with anger to just think about her. Dobby looked at him – just a bit cross-eyed – and mouthed the name wordlessly.

"Umbridge?" asked Harry, horrified. Naruto was then the picture of anger at the thought, as well. Dobby nodded, and tried yet again to hurt himself. Naruto took him quickly and held him at bay. Thinking fast, Neji actually hurried to the door and looked out, just to double check their suspicions.

"What about her? Dobby…she hasn't found out about this…about us…about the D.A.?"

He instantly received the answer from the elf's face. "Is she coming?" Harry asked quietly.

Dobby let out a howl, and began beating his bare feet hard on the floor. "Yes, Harry Potter, yes!" Neji came back in, nodding as he deactivated his Byakugan. Harry stood up quickly and looked around at the motionless, terrified people gazing at the thrashing elf Naruto was trying to calm, now with Sakura's help.

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?" Harry bellowed. "RUN!!"

They all pelted for the door at once, making Naruto actually physically pick up Dobby and move to the side so they wouldn't get trampled. Harry found himself being pulled out of the way by Sakura, and then later joining Neji and Sasuke as they tried to get everyone out in time. Harry just hopped that they had sense not to go straight to their dorms, but to take refuge in the library or the Owlery instead since it wasn't exactly curfew yet.

"Harry, come on!" shrieked Hermione from the center of the knot of people who were now fighting to get out. Harry ran to the back as Naruto, still carrying the thrashing Dobby, followed close behind.

"Dobby, this is an order! Get back down to the kitchen with the other elves, and if she asks whether you warned me, lie and say no!" Harry said. "And I forbid you to hurt yourself!" he added, and Naruto set him down just as they made it through the door. Sasuke, who was right beside them, slammed the door and watched it melt quickly back into a brick wall.

"Thank you, Harry Potter!" squeaked Dobby, and with that he streaked off. With a quick glance around the halls, where all the others were moving so fast that he caught only glimpses of flying heals at either ends of the corridors before vanishing completely.

"I'm gonna make sure everyone's alright," Sasuke said quickly, and ran away as fast as possible. Harry nodded, and both him and Naruto ran down the hall to the right; there was a boy's bathroom up ahead, he could pretend he'd been in there all the time if he could just reach –

Suddenly, Naruto dropped like dead weight next to him, making Harry jump in surprise. Naruto lay sprawled out on the floor, clearly stunned. Just as Harry was about to skid to a halt, he let out a loud yell as something caught him around the ankles and he fell, skidding along on his front for six feet before finally stopping. Someone behind him was laughing. Rolling onto his back, he saw Malfoy standing above Naruto, tapping him with his foot in the ribs, looking tempted to actually kick as hard as he could. When had he shown up?!

"Hmm…like my handy work Potter? It was the Trip Jinx for you," he said with a smirk. "Hey, Professor – PROFESSOR! I've got two of them!"

Umbridge cam bustling around the far corner, breathless, yet thrilled. "It's him!" she said happily at the sight of Harry, and once her eyes laid on Naruto, her toad like face stretched even wider as her smile grew larger. "Excellent, Draco, excellent, oh, very good…fifty points to Slytherin! I'll take them from here…stand up Potter!"

Harry got to his feet, glaring at his two most hated enemies standing before him. He nodded at Naruto and said, "What about him?" Umbridge looked down at the stunned Naruto, sighed, and pulled out her wand.

"Very well…" she grumbled, undoing the spell. Naruto remained motionless for about five more seconds, and finally showed some signs that he was still alive. Even though she disliked the two of them, she was still beaming, even as she moved over and gripped both their arms tightly and turned once more to Malfoy. "You hop along now and see if you can round up any more," she said. "Tell the others to look in the library, anybody out of breath, and check the bathrooms. Off you go – and you," she added in her softest, most dangerous voice as Malfoy left. "You can come with me to the head masters office."

Naruto was dragged to his feet, in a complete daze after being hit by his very first spell (pretty much) and he looked groggy. The three were at the stone gargoyles within minutes, Naruto remaining silent the whole time, shockingly. Harry had wondered if the others got caught. He thought of Ron and how his mother would kill him, and of how Hermione would feel if she was expelled before she could take the O.W.L.s. And it had been Seamus's meeting…and Neville had been getting so good…

"Fizzing Whizbee," sang Umbridge, and the gargoyles jumped aside, the wall split open and they ascended the moving stone staircase. They reached the polished door and the two boys were practically dragged into the room as Umbridge strode inside.

The office was full of people. Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk, as per usual, looking calm; Professor McGonagall stood rigidly beside him, her face tense as she glanced between the two. When she got a look at Naruto, who was finally coming to his senses, she looked like she wanted to outburst and say, "What did you do to him?!" but she held it back because the Minister of Magic was standing just feet from her. Cornelius Fudge was rocking forward and backward on his toes, standing near the fire. Kingsly Shacklebolt and a tough-looking wizard Harry didn't recognize were standing on either side of the door like body guards. And lastly, he saw Percy Weasly hovering excitedly by a wall with a quill and heavy scroll of parchment in his hands, poised to take notes.

Harry pulled himself free of Umbridge and watched in silent anger as she simply let Naruto go as he blinked in confusion. Cornelius Fudge was glaring at Harry with a kind of vicious satisfaction upon his face, even as he gave quick nervous glances at the now straightening Naruto.

"Well," the minister said. "Well, well, well…"

Harry replied with the dirtiest look he could muster, and Naruto shot a quick glance at the boy. If Naruto even thought about giving a look like that to Tsunade either Tsunade herself, or Sakura, would punch him through a wall…

"He was heading to the Gryffindor Tower," said Umbridge, and was going to continue when Naruto interrupted her. Now that he had finally got a grasp on the situation, he knew how to handle it.

"He was with me. I needed his help with something," Naruto tried.

"Oh was he? Then why were you running?" Umbridge asked. Naruto clearly hadn't thought about that, and had no reasonable explanation. "I thought so…"

"Well, I expect you know why you are here?"

Harry fully intended to respond with a definite "yes": his mouth had opened and the word half formed when he caught sight of Dumbledore's face. Dumbledore was not looking directly at Harry; his eyes were fixed upon a point just over his shoulder, but as Harry stared at him, he shook his head a fraction of an inch to each side. Harry changed direction mid-word.

"Yeh…no." Harry gave his guard a quick glance when he saw the blue eyes flash with confusion, telling him wordlessly to just go along with it.

"I beg your pardon?" said Fudge.

"No," Harry said firmly. Fudge glanced at Naruto, who looked at him quickly, and gave a slightly quick nod, then a larger one as a confirmation.

"You don't know why you are here?"

"I don't know why I'm here," Naruto said, raising his hand slightly, causing all eyes to turn on him.

"No, I don't," Harry said, suppressing a chuckle. Fudge turned his gaze back to him, looking surprised. Harry gave a quick look at Dumbledore, who gave a slight nod and a shadow of a wink to the carpet.

"So you have no idea," Fudge's voice was positively sagging with sarcasm. "Why Professor Umbridge has brought you to this office? You are not aware that you have broken any school rules?"

"School rules?" Harry looked thoughtful, "No."

"Never done anything wrong when I was with him…" Naruto shrugged, giving his best honest expression.

"Or Ministry decrees?" amended Fudge angrily.

"Not that I'm aware of," the boy said blandly. Naruto smirked, then quickly wiped it off his face and looked up at the ceiling as if looking back. Nearly everyone waited for Naruto's answer, but all they got was a shake of the head.

Harry's heart was pounding very fast. It was almost worth the lies to watch Fudge's blood pressure rising, but he couldn't even begin to guess how to get away. He looked over at Naruto, and wondered how he could stay so calm. But he guessed that, being a ninja, he would have been put in situations much worse than this, and that this was just a piece of cake to him. But what Harry didn't see was that every single one of Naruto's senses were on alert, ready to move and get out if anything happened, any sign of danger appeared and he would do his job to get Harry out.

"So its news to you, is it," Fudge started. "That and illegal student organization has been discovered within this school?"

"Illegal organization?!" Naruto sounded truly surprised. Harry was thanking him over and over in his head for his good acting skills. Since Naruto was always with him and he seemed surprised, it must throw them off their tracks, just a bit.

"What he said; yes, it is news to me," Harry said calmly and coming up with an innocent and surprised look.

"I think, Minister, we might make better progress if I fetch our informant." Umbridge offered.

"Yes, yes, do," Fudge nodded. Naruto and Harry gave each other a quick glance and both silently gulped down their worry. Fudge continued with, "There's nothing like a good witness, is there, Dumbledore?"

"Nothing at all, Cornelius," Dumbledore said gravely. "Oh, and I must give a message to mister Naruto, there for just one moment, gentlemen." He added, standing up tall and walked around his desk to Naruto, who looked terribly confused and surprised, and for real this time.

"If you would please follow me to where we may speak privately…"

"Um…sure…" Naruto said, following him to another part of the office that was unoccupied. While Umbridge has left for the witness, and Naruto was talking to Dumbledore, Harry had an odd feeling that things were going to get very weird. Naruto had returned to his side just about a minute before Umbridge had returned, and bent down to whisper in the student's ear before he could ask any questions.

"Just go along with whatever Dumbledore-sama says, alright?" he whispered.

"Oh ok," Harry said with a nod.

"What? What's "ok"?" the minister asked, his face suddenly stricken with worry.

"Oh, nothing at all. It's just that Dumbledore-sama said that he had received some letters from me and my teams' homes and that Gaara just has a visitor coming with a progress report about something in his village is all…and that Dumbledore scheduled some type of 'come together' week at the end of the year for the students to meet and learn about our culture," Naruto explained, just as the door opened. "Perfectly harmless," he added at the worried expressions. Harry pretended not to be surprised, like he had just been told that. Inside, though, he was thinking, "oh great not more of them…" as Temari's ruthless acts to get him to behave flashed through his mind.

Umbridge moved past them into the room, and following her was Cho's curly-haired friend Marietta, who was hiding her face in her hands, and Shikamaru holding her shoulder firmly, but gently at the same time. Naruto stiffened when he saw him.

"I was called here…don't exactly know why," Shikamaru said in a bored tone. "I think to make sure nothing goes wrong."

Umbridge turned to Marietta, ignoring Shikamaru for her own obvious reasons (being somewhat afraid of them and all), and spoke softly to her, "Don't be scared, dear, don't be frightened." She started to pat her on the back and Shikamaru moved over to the other side of Harry. Glancing around the room as he stuck his hands into his pockets, he finally rested his eyes on Naruto. Naruto looked at him just as curiously, and both went to watch Marietta. "It's quiet all right, now. You have done the right thing; the minister is very pleased with you. He'll be telling your mother what a good girl you've been." Umbridge went on to tell Fudge who her mother was, and where she worked in the ministry, but the two shinobi tuned them out and snickered at each other.

"Shikamaru," Naruto whispered, stepped behind Harry to speak quietly to the pony-tailed boy. "Apparently we have a snitch in our midst."

"Yeah, I gathered that when I saw her face…the Hermione girl truly is a genius," Shikamaru sighed slightly.

"Her face?"

"— Galloping gargoyles!" Naruto whipped his attention to Fudge, and nearly jumped in surprise when he then laid his eyes on Marietta again.

"Told you," Shikamaru grimaced. Naruto tried oh so hard not to laugh as Fudge jumped back and nearly landed in the fire, causing his robe to light. Fudge stamped the fire out and Marietta began to wail. With yet another sigh, Shikamaru moved back over to her and patted her shoulder comfortingly, as he had done countless times before they reached the office. Marietta pulled the collar of her shirt up to her eyes, but not before everyone saw the horrible close-set purple pustules that had spread across her face to clearly form the word "SNEAK."

"Never mind the spots now, dear," Umbridge said impatiently. "Just take that off your face and tell the Minister –"

Marietta gave a muffled wail and shook her head. Shikamaru looked helpless, and just gave up with trying to calm her down.

"Oh very well you silly girl, I'll tell him," snapped Umbridge. She hitched a sickeningly sweet smile back onto her face and said, "Well, Minister, Miss Edgecombe here came to my office shortly after dinner this evening and told me she had something to tell me. She said that if I proceeded to a secret room on the seventh floor –"

"Secret room?" Naruto said with a questioning look. Umbridge gave him a quick look.

"Yes, a secret room."

"Well, I'm sure that many rooms in this castle haven't been discovered by many students yet, so I bet a lot are secret to them, right?" Shikamaru asked, going on with Naruto's clueless act, more or less.

"Right you are!" Dumbledore chimed in randomly.

"May I continue?" Umbridge sounded in a hurry. And before anyone could answer, she continued, "Yes, thank you. The room is sometimes referred to as the Room of Requirements –"

"That's a weird name," Shikamaru interrupted with a shadow of a smirk. Naruto had to use all his willpower not to laugh, yet again.

"As I was saying…" Umbridge looked mad, but the smile returned. Dumbledore gave Harry, or more like the carpet, the slightest hint of a smile, and Harry had a feeling that the shinobi's plan was just to stall time for them to think up something to get away. "She said I would find out something to my advantage. I questioned her further…" she paused, half expecting Naruto or Shikamaru to put in their two cents. But when she saw they were just looking at the portraits casually, she continued. "I questioned her further and she admitted that there was to be some kind of meeting there –"

There was the interruption, just as Harry expected. "What kind of meeting?" Naruto asked. Umbridge glared at him.

"She. Didn't. Say." Umbridge snarled.

"Alright…continue," Naruto seemed to be enjoying himself.

"Thank you," Umbridge said. "Well, unfortunately at that point this hex –"

"There's a hex on her?!" Naruto asked in bewilderment. Marietta didn't know whether to cry or smile, so she just stared at him. Shikamaru and Harry were trying not to laugh, as was, apparently, McGonagall and Dumbledore.

"Yes!" Umbridge waved impatiently at Marietta's concealed face. "Did you not, perhaps, see it?"

"Oh…that thing on her face? Yeah, I saw it. Thought it looks cool," Naruto ended up snorting while trying not to laugh at himself, and quickly covered it up as if he had a cold and rubbed his nose. "Sorry go on."

"…this hex came into affect and upon catching sight of her face in my mirror the girl became too distressed to tell me any more. Upon which, I had called Mister Nara here to make sure nothing goes wrong in here tonight." Shikamaru rolled his head back with a long sigh.

"Just Shikamaru of the Almighty Awesomeness will be fine. Oh please, God no, not Mister Nara!" Naruto almost busted a gut trying not to laugh. He had never seen Shikamaru like this, and he really wished he could laugh along with him. Harry did too. Fudge and Umbridge on the other hand, looked too startled at his interjection to speak for a moment.

"Is there anything else in your story you would like to finish with, Professor?" Dumbledore asked with the slightest hint of laughter in his voice.

"No…no, I'm done now…"

"Well, now," Fudge shook himself out of whatever had taken hold, and looked at Marietta with a surprisingly kind and fatherly look on his face. "It is very brave of you, my dear –"

"How come nobody calls us dear?" Naruto whispered over Harry to Shikamaru. Shikamaru snorted, and covered it up by rubbing his nose.

"Sorry, we're sharing a cold," he said, his voice shaking slightly as the minister looked over at him.

"Right, well, what was this meetings purpose?" Fudge turned back to Marietta. "Who was there?"

But Marietta didn't speak. She merely shook her head again, her eyes wide and fearful.

"Haven't we got a counterjinx for this?" Fudge asked Umbridge impatiently. "So she can speak freely?"

"I have not yet managed to find one," Umbridge admitted grudgingly, and Harry felt a pride in Hermione's jinxing ability. "But it doesn't matter if she won't speak, I can take up the story from here."

"You will remember, Minister, that I sent you a report back in October that Potter had met a number of fellow students in the Hogs Head in Hogsmead –"

"What evidence do you have of that?" cut in Professor McGonagall. Umbridge started to look very annoyed with all the interruptions.

"I have testimony from Willy Widdershins, Minerva, who happened to be in the bar at that time. He was heavily bandaged, it is true, but his hearing was quiet unimpaired," Umbridge said in what could be assumed as triumph. "He had also mentioned that Mister…I mean, Naruto…and his teammates had been there as well."

"Meet and greet…" Naruto mumbled, offering up the best excuse he could muster.

"Wouldn't they all have met you already?" Umbridge asked.

"I dunno…they could ask questions then, couldn't exactly before because we were all working," Naruto itched his cheek slightly as he looked any where in the room besides the people.

"It most certainly was not," Umbridge said boldly.

"Again, what proof do you have?" McGonagall asked, crossing her arms and staring at her.

"Willy Widdershins had heard everything they were talking about, and gave me a full report as soon as the meeting was over." Harry and Naruto shot each other distressed looks. Naruto mouthed "damn, so close" to him, and Harry nodded slightly.

Ok, just want to say one thing: Naruto was in a daze after the spell because that was the first spell he had cast on him, so….yeah. That was my reasoning. Please review!