Harry Potter and the Samurai Wizard

Prologue

My name is KyoIchigaki. I was a scribe working for Lord Kaduki in the Tosa province of Japan, on one of the southern-most islands. What follows is an account I took of a mission one of Kaduki-sama's samurai took on his orders. I write this account at the request of that samurai, so that all will know of his courage, and the reason for his death.

Nikada Kusuke stood at attention outside the spectator's box, keeping a sharp lookout. It was his job to make sure that Kaduki-sama was not disturbed while he and his wife enjoyed the Quidditch World Cup, and as much as Kusuke wished he was in the box watching the match himself, he had a job to do.

On the other side of the door stood Kusuke's partner and long-time friend, Midori Nasema. Like Kusuke, she was dressed in a samurai hakama and wore a pair of swords at her hip, and her hair was done up in a topknot. Such was the standard uniform for their centuries-old profession, although Kusuke and Midori carried much less visible weapons hidden up their sleeves.

"I still can't believe that Ireland beat us out." Midori complained quietly.

"Me neither, but there it is." Kusuke agreed. The Japan-Ireland match had been an embarrassment, almost to the point that the players would have committed seppuku had the Japanese Minister of Magic not intervened.

Midori glanced to her right, where the match was already in progress. "How long do you think the match will go?"

"Not long. Krum is too good of a Seeker; even if the Bulgarians can't keep the lead, he'll find the Snitch before too long. Unless the Snitch escapes the stadium…"

"Oh, no you don't!" Midori said, getting stern. "The last time you pulled that trick, the players spent a whole week on their broomsticks, and when you got caught you were given 70 lashes, you remember?"

Kusuke rolled his shoulders uncomfortably. Of course he remembered the lashings. But he had been young and stupid, then. "I'm just saying…"

Midori sighed, which caused a lock of her long black hair to fall out of place; the effect looked rather cute on her. "Sorry, it's just that we never know with you."

::Good.:: Kusuke thought. He prided himself on being unpredictable…chaotic. The less he could be predicted, the less he could be planned for and countered. It had been a godsend on quite a few missions.

Midori's eyes, for the millionth time, strayed to Kusuke's head. "You need to grow your hair out, you know. Your father loses a little face every time someone asks why you don't wear a topknot.

"The gods know I'm trying. But it seems like no matter what I do, it just goes back to this length." And it was true. Kusuke had even asked his mother to magically grow it, but for a reason nobody understood, his hair resisted even that. It stubbornly remained only a few inches long, nowhere near long enough to tie into a topknot like every other samurai.

The two samurai were pulled out of their conversation by the sound of approaching footsteps, and they each snapped back to attention. Coming up the wooden corridor was the British Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, twirling his lime green bowler hat. Didn't the man ever just wear that thing?

"Good evening, Minister." Midori said with a cordial smile. "How can we help you?"

The Minister stopped short, surprised to see guards. The fool. He almost never went anywhere without a procession of Aurors, yet he expected a daimyo of Japan to go without protection? Not that he needed it, mind you, but it was protocol. "Oh, no, thank you, I can handle it."

Fudge attempted to reach the door. Kusuke calmly but swiftly sidestepped in front of it, again surprising the British Minister. Fudge's surprise turned to anger. "Now, see here—"

"Is there a problem, Minister?"

"You know there is! I need to speak to Mr. Kaduki, and—"

"Lord Kaduki," Kusuke said firmly, meeting Fudge's eyes, "is enjoying the match. Perhaps if your business was important enough, I would go in and ask if he can spare the time to see you."

"My business is none of your concern, now let me through."

Fudge attempted to push Kusuke to the side. Baaaad idea. With the ring of steel, Kusuke had an inch of his shorter sword, his wakizashi, clear of its scabbard. Already Kusuke was considering the most efficient manner of killing this potential threat to Kaduki-sama…simply slicing Fudge's throat would probably be the best manner, since Fudge was too close to curse.

Fudge's eyes went wide with mingled shock and indignation. "You dare-?"

"Minister," Midori said soothingly. She hadn't left her station. "Please consider our position. Kaduki-sama hand-picked us to guard his box so that he and his wife could enjoy the match without worrying about being attacked. If we let you just walk in, even being the British Minister of Magic, we would have betrayed Kaduki-sama's trust. How could we show our faces after that? I mean, you wouldn't want one of your Aurors to let Kaduki-sama in to see you unannounced, would you?"

Fudge seemed to lose a little of his ire. "No, I suppose not."

To meet Fudge's concession, Kusuke sheathed the inch of steel and put his hand back to his side. "Now if you'll tell me your business, I'll be happy to ask if Kaduki-sama can see you."

"I came to discuss with Kaduki—er, I mean, Lord Kaduki," Fudge corrected when he saw Kusuke's eyes suddenly flare with anger, "increasing the amount of silk his province will trade to us next month."

"In that case, please pardon me a moment."

Kusuke turned and knocked on the door.

"Enter," came a deep voice from inside.

Kusuke opened the door and slipped inside, closing it behind him in the Minister's face.

Inside the spectator's box there were no chairs, simply a short wooden platform covered with a silk tapestry depicting the sea god, Shinryu. On that were several darkly colored pillows, upon which Asuma Kaduki-sama and his wife, Orihime, sat, watching the World Cup. Lining two of the walls were six samurai, all watching the door in case someone barged in. Kaduki-sama was watching the match through his Omnioculars, while his wife simply sat caressing her swollen belly. Lady Kaduki didn't really care for Quidditch, but she didn't mind watching the match with her husband. Even though they had been married for twelve years, Lady Kaduki had only just recently become with child, and it was long feared that she was unable to conceive. Now that she was finally with child, nobody was taking any chances whatsoever; she was protected even more heavily than Kaduki-sama.

"Yes, Kusuke-kun?"Kaduki-sama of course spoke in Japanese, but for the sake of those reading this account, I shall translate to English.

Kusuke fell to one knee. "My lord, Minister Fudge is outside the door, wishing to speak with you about the planned silk trade next month."

"Horsehockey." (Kaduki-sama actually said something far stronger, but I thought it best to tone it down a bit for this account.)

"Yes, sir."

"Whatever he wants, I'm sure it can wait until after the match is over."

"As you wish, my Lord. What should I tell him?"

Lady Kaduki spoke up. "Tell him that he is caring for me at the moment."

Kusuke blushed profusely. "Y-yes, my lady."

"Dismissed."

Kusuke rose and left the room, opening the door only as little as he could, and shutting it behind him.

"Well?" Fudge asked impatiently.

"Kaduki-sama is currently tending to Lady Kaduki's delicacy, and wishes to not be disturbed." Even though it was a lie, just the idea still had Kusuke blushing like a radish.

Kusuke expected Fudge to be shocked at this information. Instead, the man seemed infuriated, as though Lady Kaduki needed to hurry up and give birth so that Fudge could have his audience with Kaduki-sama. "Well, when he's done, tell him I want to speak with him!" He turned on his heel and stormed off.

Midori raised an eyebrow as he went out of earshot. "I do not envy these Britains their Minister of Magic."

"Hmph." Kusuke returned to his spot, and crossed his arms. "I think I'd have to commit seppuku if I had to spend more than a week here."

[~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~]

Kusuke ran.

Through the howls, and the flames, and the flying curses, Kusuke ran, desperately seeking Midori.

The attack had come out of nowhere. A bunch of men—or women for all Kusuke could tell—wearing black hoods and silvery masks had strolled by in a mob, setting fire to nearby tents and floating three poor muggles with their wands. At the first sign of trouble, Kaduki-sama had been escorted, guarded by all his samurai save for Kusuke and Midori, whom he had sent to try to help the Ministry of Magic. But something had gone wrong.

Kusuke wasn't even sure who had sent the curse, but it had hit Midori square in the face, and then she had vanished. Not made invisible…vanished. Now Kusuke was looking for her, trying to find out if she was safe. He had even done what he thought he'd never have a good reason to do: he had abandoned Kaduki-sama's orders.

Off to his left he spotted three young teenagers running towards the forest encircling the remains of the city of tents. More importantly, beyond them, Kusuke thought he could see a katana flash in the firelight.

::Midori!::

He ran after the flash, which brought him barreling almost right into the three. Almost, because before he could reach them, he was met by a wand pointed at his face.

Kusuke stopped in his tracks, anger rising in his heart. "Out of my way!"

"You stay away from her!" The tallest one, a redhead boy with a face full of freckles, yelled. The other boy, shorter but still taller than Kusuke, was apparently wandless and was using his body to protect the girl.

"Get out of my way you fools, I don't care about your girlfriend!"

"As well you shouldn't." Came a drawling voice nearby. Kusuke turned to see a long-haired blonde boy leaning against a nearby tree, watching the carnage at the camp. "I'd suggest you protect her well there, Weaselby, unless you want to see her knickers up in midair."

"I expect your father's one of the ones in hoods out there, Malfoy." The shorter boy spat.

The blonde boy, Malfoy, gave the speaker a knowing smile. "Well, if he was, I wouldn't very well tell you about it, now would I, Potter?"

Kusuke felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck him. Potter? THE Potter? He turned to the shorter boy, eyes staring.

Yes, he did match the descriptions Kusuke had heard…moderate height for a British teenage boy, black, unruly hair, and circular glasses. If only Kusuke could see his scar…

Kusuke pulled out his wand, which made everyone tense. Kusuke ignored them, and silently lit his wand. Pointing it at the shorter boy, Kusuke could just make out the lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead.

"It…it is you…"

"Yes, it's Harry Potter." The girl said in exacerbation. "What of it?"

"…Nothing, I guess. Listen, I must get by, I think my friend is deeper in those woods, and I have to find her!"

"You're not with those hooded men?" The redhead asked.

"Do you see a hood and mask on my head?"

"Well…no."

And they FINALLY stood aside. Leaving his wand lit, Kusuke ran ahead…

[~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~]

Kusuke left the woods, tired, sweaty, and panting, about half an hour later. He had found no trace of Midori, despite his best efforts and the use of some complicated magic, such as the Supersensory and Radar Charms. There were plenty of other people hiding in the woods—mostly youths likely sent there by of-age parents wanting to keep them out of harm's way—but Kusuke would have recognized Midori's unique signature. They had been childhood friends, after all.

Where was she? And what was the curse that had caused her to vanish? Kusuke was still trying to sort it out. It had looked like a simple Stunning Spell, but no Stunning Spell, regardless of how powerful, caused its victim to vanish. So what-?

"Did you find your friend?"

Kusuke was pulled out of his thoughts to find that he had, somehow, walked out into the clearing where Harry Potter and his friends were hiding. Since he had been gone, they had been joined by three more redheads, two stupidly-tall boys and an average-height girl. Kusuke surmised that they were relatives of the redhead that had threatened Kusuke.

"No, I didn't…" Kusuke answered the girl, who had asked the question. "She could have Disapparated, though, so I'm not too worried about it."

They all stared at him.

"What?"

"She can Disapparate?" One of the tallest redheads asked, which Kusuke realized was a twin of the one next to him.

"Yes, so what?"

"How old is she?"

"I don't see how that matters…"

"Is she older than 17?"

"No, and neither am I."

"Then why can she Disapparate?" The bushy-haired girl asked. "You can't get a Apparition liscense until you turn 17."

"Apparition liscense? What's that?" Harry Potter asked the girl.

"The Ministry of Magic requires that everyone wanting to Apparate and Disapparate must pass a test and earn a liscense. Anyone who is found Apparating without a liscense is heavily fined."

"The Ministry of Magic has no sway over Midori and I." Kusuke announced. "We're Japanese, only here for the World Cup."

There was a visible wave of realization throughout the group before Kusuke.

"But still, if your friend is as young as you," The redheaded girl said, "it's pretty impressive that she can Apparate already."

"Not really." Kusuke went ahead and sat on the grass, removing his katana in the process. "It took her four months to accomplish it. It took me just one."

Again, they all stared at him.

"It took Bill the better part of six months! How did you learn it in just one?" One of the twins asked.

"Simple. Every time I failed, I was whipped. If I wanted the pain to stop, I had to learn quickly."

Six jaws dropped.

"Whipped?" The redheaded girl asked. "That's horrible!"

"Such is the life of a Samurai Wizard." Kusuke said with a shrug. "We must learn fast and hard so that we may protect our family's Lord. And I, who came from a long line of very powerful Samurai Wizards, had very high expectations to meet. If I didn't, I would have shamed my family for generations."

"What family?" One of the twins asked. "Maybe we've heard of them."

"Oh, of course, I forgot to introduce myself." Kusuke did a short bow from his seat. "I am Kusuke Nikada, son of Hayabusa Nikada-san, Front Guard to Asuma Kaduki-sama. It is an honor to meet you."

"I'm Hermione Granger."

"We're Gred and Forge," one of the twins asked, pointing first to himself and then to the other, "this is Rinny, and that's Gon."

For some reason, Rinny found that very funny, and had to clamp her hand over her mouth to keep herself from giggling.

"Knock it off, guys!" Gon said, before turning back to Kusuke. "Ignore them, they're always playing tricks. Their names are Fred and George, I'm Ron, and that's my little sister Ginny."

"Who are you calling your little sister?" Ginny asked indignantly.

"And that's—"

"Harry Potter." Harry said, holding out his hand.

For a moment Kusuke was confused as to what Harry wanted, until he remembered that this was the customary greeting among Westerners. He took Harry's hand and shook it, although Kusuke thought he may have done it a little too hard, because when Harry took his hand back, he shook it somewhat, as if to relieve pain in his hand.

"Who's that?" Hermione asked, looking off into the distance to Kusuke's right.

Looking, Kusuke saw a figure shrouded in darkness, and couldn't make out his face. The odd thing about him was he looked to be an adult, rather than a child or a teenager like most others Kusuke had seen in the forest. Before Kusuke could even consider getting up and investigating, he raised his right hand to the sky, and Kusuke saw that he was holding a wand.

"Morsmordre!"

A trail of green mist shot forward and exploded in the sky, and formed into an image…a green, glowing skull with a snake slithering from its mouth.

The effect was almost instantaneous. Kusuke heard several screams all around him, and heard the distinctive sound of pops and cracks from multiple wizards Apparating. Kusuke looked, and at the edge of the forest was a huge line of wizards…with their wands pointed straight into the forest!

Kusuke seized his wand from his right sleeve and screamed, "Descendere!"

As if a giant hand had slammed them, everybody was thrown to the ground, a split second before the wizards all yelled, "Stupefy!"

The spells fired above the group, forced to the ground by Kusuke's charm, rebounding against the trees. It seemed to go on for an hour until finally Kusuke heard a man scream, "Stop! That's my son!"

The Stunning Spells fizzled out, and the wizards approached, led by a balding red-headed man wearing glasses, his face as freckled as Ron's. When the man hugged the other redheads, Kusuke knew that he was their father.

"Who did it?" A rather hysterical man screeched, waving his wand around, sparks flying occasionally. Kusuke recognized him as Amos Diggory, the British Head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. "Who conjured the Dark Mark?"

"The what?" Harry asked.

"You-Know-Who's mark!" Diggory yelled.

"What, you think we did it?" Kusuke asked.

"You were found right beneath it! Was it you?" Diggory pointed his wand in Kusuke's face, so close that Kusuke had to cross his eyes to keep it in focus.

"First of all, calm down." Kusuke said, doing his best to follow his own advice. "You'll find out nothing panicking as you are. Second," With a motion faster than any of them could've tracked, Kusuke snatched Diggory's wand away. "Don't put your wand so close to someone you're threatening, it'll just get taken away."

Kusuke tossed Diggory back his wand, and the man made a visible effort to calm himself.

"None of us conjured that image, but I think I know who did." Kusuke pointed off into the woods. "We heard a man yell from that direction, and right after the image appeared in the sky."

"And you expect us to believe such a story?"

Kusuke found himself losing his fight to keep his calm. "Think about who you're accusing, Amos Diggory. First off, you're accusing Mr. Weasley's children. Do you truly think a Ministry official would teach his children how to summon the Dark Mark, just for fun?"

"Well, no, I, er, suppose not."

"Second, you're accusing Harry Potter himself. And the idea that he would conjure the Dark Mark is simply absurd.

"The only two people here that there is even the slightest possibility of conjuring the Mark is this girl, Hermione Granger, and myself, and we were all together when the Mark was conjured. So perhaps you might want to at least send some people over there to check it out?"

Without waiting for the word, a pair of wizards ran off to search the area Kusuke had pointed out.

"What's the deal, anyway?" Ron asked.

"The Dark Mark was an image You-Know-Who adopted when he rose to power here in Britain some 14 years ago." Kusuke answered. "I am told that his followers, the Death Eaters, put up the image over a place whenever they killed there."

"And those men…" Harry said, "The ones in the hoods…they were…"

"Yes," Mr. Weasley said, "Death Eaters. The ones that dodged Azkaban, I bet." He eyed Kusuke. "You seem to know an awful lot about what happened back then."

Kusuke crossed his arms and stared right back. "My father was hired by the Ministry to help track down and capture Death Eaters, and was killed pursuing that task." Hermione gasped. "He gave his life for this country. I would be a disgrace if I didn't know all I could about the era in which he died."

"We found something!" One of the wizards yelled.

The two wizards returned, carrying a small bundle. Ron's eyes widened.

"Hey, isn't that…?"

"Winky…" Hermione whispered.

The wizards set the house-elf down on the ground.

Mr. Weasely looked flabbergasted. "How in the name of Merlin's sparkly pants…?"

"Let's find out." Diggory said. He pointed his wand at Winky. "Renervate."

Winky glowed slightly for a moment, then woke up. She took a second to look around at all the witches and wizards before her eyes went wide with terror. Once she spotted one of the wizards, she burst out into wailing, such that it took a fair bit of yelling to get her calm enough to question.

"Elf, do you know who I am?" Diggory asked menacingly. Kusuke noticed that he remained standing straight rather than crouching to better address the house-elf. To her, he must have appeared utterly terrifying. Winky nodded. "Then you know better than to try to lie to me, am I correct?" Winky nodded again. "Good. Now then, elf, did you conjure the Dark Mark?"

Winky glanced fearfully up at the skull and snake. Was it Kusuke's imagination, or was the snake longer than it had been before? "No, sir, wasn't me! I is not knowing how!"

"You were found beneath it, and these children told us they heard you say the incantation."

"Wait a minute!" Hermione said urgently. "We heard a deep, male voice, Winky's is far too high!"

"Maybe she disguised her voice?" Kusuke suggested, receiving a dirty look. "What? It's what I would do."

"Well, she would still need a wand."

"She had one!" One of the wizards chimed in. He pulled a wand out of his pocket. "We found it just a couple of feet from her."

As it passed under the wandlight, Harry exclaimed, "Hey, that's my wand!"

Surprised looks all around.

"Are you saying you used this wand to conjure the Dark Mark? Is that a confession?"

"Amos!" Mr. Weasley said.

"Sorry…got carried away…"

"When did you lose your wand, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"I'm not sure, I only just noticed it missing when Kusuke showed up and we thought he was attacking us."

"I wondered why you didn't pull a wand on me like Ron did…"

"We're getting side-tracked." Diggory said firmly. He turned his attention back to Winky. "Elf, did you know that there is a very simple way of determining the spells that a wand has recently performed?" Winky shook her head fiercely, her huge bat-like ears flopping wildly. Diggory pointed the tip of his wand at the tip of Harry's and muttered, "Priori Incantatem."

As if a gavel were swinging down, a small, ghostly image of a skull with a snake slithering from its mouth floated from the tip of Harry's wand.

Winky started her wailing anew, louder than ever.

"Well, it looks like we have our culprit." Diggory said, satisfied.

"Is that right?" A bank manager said, stepping up to Diggory, who wilted. "Are you suggesting, then, that I am a Death Eater?"

Diggory paled, and for Kusuke to see it in the wandlight testifies to how much he paled. "N-no, of course not!"

"And yet, I must be, if it was my elf that conjured the Dark Mark, for who else could have taught her the incantation?"

"Ah, well, she could've picked it up anywhere…"

"Just like she did that wand, or are you accusing me now also of purchasing a wand for my house-elf?"

"N-never, sir, I know you wouldn't do that—"

"Hmph." The bank manager said. "Mr. Diggory. I know that it is usually protocol for your office to handle punishment for such an infraction. But I ask you, as a favor, to let me handle the punishment of my elf in my own way. I can assure you that she will be punished harshly."

Diggory didn't seem to like this idea in the slightest, but the bank manager seemed to be a person of very high esteem, because Diggory didn't press the matter.

"Winky…" Mr. Manager said, his face showing only fury as he glared down at the house-elf.

"M-m-m-master Crouch?"

Crouch? Kusuke's eyes widened. That guy is Bartemius Crouch?

"You have failed me in the most grievous manner. I ordered you to stay in our tent until I returned. You did not. I also did not give you permission to possess a wand, yet you have done so. This means clothes."

"Nooooooooooo!" Winky cried desperately, as if Crouch had just ordered her tortured to death. "Please Master Crouch, don't do this!" She clutched at his highly-polished shoes. "I beg you, please don't do this!"

Crouch coldly kicked the house-elf off of his shoe and strode away without another word. The other wizards watched him leave; Winky sank to the ground, weeping loudly.

"Er, Amos," Mr. Weasley said, "since that wand has served its purpose, might Harry have it back now?"

"Oh, oh yes, of course." Diggory handed Harry his wand back, then held out his hand for a hand shake. "Sorry about all that. No hard feelings?"

"Er, no…" Harry shook Diggory's hand. "Of course not."

And Diggory left.

"Come on," Mr. Weasley said to the rest. "Let's get back." He looked at Kusuke. "Will you be all right?"

"…Yes, I should be fine."

[~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~]

"Would you mind explaining to me what exactly you did?"

Kusuke flinched at Kaduki-sama's voice…even though it was perfectly calm, Kusuke knew that his lord was furious with him. "I went to go search for Midori-san."

"I wasn't aware that I had ordered you to do that."

"…"

"Am I now prone to giving commands without memory of them?"

"No, my lord."

"Perhaps I gave the order, and then you modified my memory?"

"No! I would never do that!"

"Silence!"

Kusuke fell to silence again.

"How dare you go against my orders, Nikada-kun? How dare you? Are you honor-less scum?"

"…It pained me greatly to disobey you, my lord."

"Yet you still did it."

"Yes, my lord. Because it would've been an even worse pain to my honor had I let Midori-san come to harm." Kusuke raised his head from his kneel to look Kaduki-sama in the eyes. "Order my death, my lord, and you shall have it. But at least I will die knowing I did all I could to help Midori-san.

"A samurai who disobeys his lord is scum. But a man who will leave his friends to die is even worse."

Kaduki-sama eyed Kusuke for a moment, then his expression softened. "Your father taught you well."

"And you taught my father well, my lord."

Kaduki-sama stroked his chin. "You realize that I still have to punish you."

"Yes, my lord. What do you command?"

"First, I will tell you what happened to Midori-chan." He waved his hand to his right, and Midori walked in, perfectly fine. Kusuke's eyes bugged out. "She was with me the entire time. What you saw was a mere Kage Bunshin that she sent out to accompany you."

Midori bowed low to Kusuke. "Please forgive my deception. It was the only way I could think of to protect both you and Kaduki-sama."

"Next, I will tell you your punishment." Kaduki-sama tossed Kusuke a scroll, which Kusuke caught, opened, and read.

Kusuke gasped. "What?"