AN: Back after a considerable delay- sorry! Good news is that now I have more time to write now that I'm finally at camp =P

Thank you guys so so much for reviewing! Since I have regular time now, I hope to update more frequently. Now that I actually know better how to write omakes (thanks to UzumakiNarutoLover and FluffyDragonsLiveInMyHouse), you can expect them from me as thanks for reviewing! Hopefully these will be better than virtual cookies or cake.

Since I got to 200 recently, I'd like to thank the following people who have taken the time to write their thoughts, tell me how much you're looking forward to the next chapter, provide valuable feedback and on occasion, answer my questions:

Krazyfanfiction1, TheThreeStoogies, Ice Night, Freefan1412, War Sage, Life-match, urs-v, pkp033, Abdullahsaurus, SSJ5 Jace Wayland, WolfGirlHowlsAtMoon, Alibi Nonsense, Taiyalin, 10th Squad 3rd Seat, guisniperman, Guest (1), Guest (2), watermelon-shotput, xXmini-chibiXx, kaori and yoshi, Morte Cacciatore, The Almighty Pyro, IndigoDragonRider, Elspeth, KeshKesh, Buffmanican, KHatake007, tuckwoo, Amica, Naruto, flamegirl55, hornet07, Q.Q, Wal Otter, Diclonious57, JAMcG, Ann-Stripes, Kaioo, AnImpressedguest, Katherine Sanderson, Googlpro, AnonOne, Ignisha, Guest (3), Rinnala, Lock on Lockon, furuba-suzume, Anarchy-Bell101, zomgonozdinosaurs, Andrew MacKenzie, ChopSuzi, Tiah, FluffyDragonsLiveInMyHouse, Guest (4), roseaj, kapurisudesu, yinngoh, deathbykitsune, Suzululu4moe, Dark Void Princess 21, The Ninja from Yesterday, sunnylawz, MysteryAsia, UzumakiNarutoLover, lifeisahiddenriddle, YouKnowWhoHeIs/Peaddool, Silawatsi, Warpwind, kelpiejh, kia onreas, and silverbyakugan.

This time, the special thanks goes to all my lovely anonymous reviewers. I don't have a way of replying to each of you personally, but I'd just like to once again express my sincerest thanks for sharing your opinions.

Just a reminder that this chapter has some swearing as it is rated T.

Hope you'll enjoy the story (7000) plus omake (1000)! =)

The next month and a half flew by like a blur.

That's what these unobservant students surrounding him would have said. No. Instead, Shikamaru thought that these past few weeks had gone even slower than a snail's pace. He now received bi-monthly detentions with Severus to match the Death Eaters scheduled meetings by gladly avoiding work for DADA. These detentions weren't too bad though because the two had started to chat about this and that after the usual info exchange. Their intellectual conversations were even enjoyable for both parties. He had come to learn that Severus was really a reasonable man with a particularly nasty temper for bratty kids. For Harry however, Dumbledore hadn't called him back for another lesson since the last one, leaving Harry upset with his unmet expectations. His charge's emotional state however was not part of his duty to keep in line. Shikamaru anticipated its own resolution with time. Hopefully.

Being that this was a mission, he was constantly on guard. It would have been slightly more bearable had Tsunade-sama just let him be with his school work. That Howler (as he later found out about in one of his morning library sessions) was not necessary. He perfectly understood everything in the curriculum, he just didn't see a point in proving that to people he was unlikely to ever see again after the mission. He was constantly learning anyway.

His daydreaming class hours and skiving homework assignment days were over, and now he was reduced to unhappily crafting his papers just like Harry and Ron, to their visible delight. Furthermore, every morning at the crack of dawn, he would diligently send down a shadow clone down to sneak into the library to read about magical theories, practicums and uses. His clone would simply jump from shadow to shadow, unseen, then read behind bookcases until the librarian's tangerine magical signature seeped in through the doors.

He was always the tensest in hallways because of the large number of moving people. Although things were more peaceful here at Hogwarts, he could not drop his guard. To clarify, he could not even if he wanted to; it was instinct ingrained through all the years of shinobi training. He was really getting twitchy with the lack of enemies. It would've been so great if he could just enjoy these careless days of student relaxation. This is definitely the longest guarding mission he had ever got, and it was even worse with the lack of action. The longest one he's been on had been only a month, and there was definite reason for his guarding, instead of just sitting around in classes making sure his charge doesn't lose house points. His stress could've been justified if there were threats, but what a pain, there were not. At least, it doesn't seem like it. He couldn't help but think that the danger will pop up any moment with a monster mask and a bamboo sword.

Additionally, sleeping was a terribly pain-saking chore when you're bunking with five raucous teenager boys. Snores and sleep talking often snapped him out of his dreamless state. Just as he finally fell asleep after Neville's symphony of snores and the sky's thunderous shouts, he was woken up by the sound of something like flipping pages. Was someone doing some early morning reading?

Suddenly, he sensed a brief flash of magic usage - too quick for him to detect the magical signature - and he felt some unknown magical force tug him up by the ankle. An enemy? It was about time really. Reacting immediately to the chakra binding his leg, he instantaneously released his chakra laced shadows. The tendrils grew from the ground, whipping and lashing till they had cut through the invisible rope holding him up. Twisting his body in an instinctive spin, he swiftly landed on the ground with a soft thud, wand out. His eyes flicked up, scanning the room for threats only to find an open mouthed Harry staring back at him: wand up, the Prince's book open in his lap and eyes bulging.

So it was his charge that casted it.

Shit.

Well, at least he didn't wake anyone up. Plus, he didn't draw the kunai neatly tucked in anticipation from his pants pocket. He had a wand in hand too. He was thinking positives.

"Wha-... What in Merlin-"

Speeding over with unheard footsteps, Shikamaru put his mouth over Harry's stammers and whispered minutely in his ear, ignoring the silent fisted protests. "I'll explain downstairs." Hearing these words, Harry calmed down but followed the shinobi to the common room with mixed awe and confusion.

After a quick scan of magical signatures to confirm the absence of fellow Gryffindors in the common room or in the stairwells, Shikamaru settled down in one of the armchairs beside the blackened fireplace. Harry did the same, then looked at him quizzically. Before commencing this explanation, the tired Nara took a brief glance out the window behind Harry. The morning sunlight was already streaming in, illuminating particles of dust suspended in mid-fall. And of course the clouds: hovering peacefully on the gradient canvas of the dusk sky. They always seemed to tempt him right before a troublesome task.

Directing his gaze back to his confused charge, Shikamaru asked.

"So... I'm betting you have a question or two?"

"A question or two?" he repeated incredulously before his excitement exploded from his mouth. "What was that? What did you do? It looked really cool with all those black tentacles-"

"Okay, first," interrupted Shikamaru, annoyed. "That was a sort of spell that was invented by my family," he elaborated falsely. "They're shadow spells that are unique family secrets." Not entirely true, nor entirely false.

"Not tentacles," he emphasized, a twitch pulsating at his temple.

"Oh... haha, sorry." said Harry sheepishly, rubbing his hand on the back of his head.

"They're family secrets, Harry. So don't tell anyone," said Shikamaru seriously, looking directly in Harry's eyes. The Fifth would definitely have him for this screw up. It will be such a pain in the ass to write this in the report later... He could only hope that she won't send him another Howler. Hopefully, he could keep the damage count to a minimum.

"No one at all?" asked Harry wishfully. His charge might tell his best friends anyways; they keep many secrets between the three of them but not from each other.

"Okay, you can tell Ron and Hermione later at breakfast or something because I trust them too. But that's it," said Shikamaru, almost sternly. However, that meant that he would be looking forward to Ron and Hermione's questions and protests in an hour. Joy.

"Yeah, of course!" said Harry confidently. There was a short pause, then he asked again.

"Can you teach me how to do it?" he asked apprehensively.

"Family secrets," said Shikamaru resolutely, arms folded.

"Or at least show me again?" tried Harry once more.

"Family secrets," he repeated. "No one was supposed to see them anyway, so consider yourself lucky." And that was the final note. Harry seemed to have given up on his feeble requests so this case could be counted as closed. Of course, only until the other two in the Golden Trio reopen it.

"By the way, was that spell you tried from the Prince's invention?"

"Yeah, but it said non-verbal so I didn't think it'd actually work. You know, since I'm so bad at them and everything... Cool spell though, right?"

Shikamaru chuckled at the naive gleam in his charge's eyes. Hard to believe they were the same age. "Yeah," he responded with a smile. He didn't have to lecture Harry on the dangers of trying strange instructions because he was sure Hermione will do that for him later.

They returned to their dorm room only to find their roommates starting to stir from their slumber, so the two of them left to wash up for the day and got dressed in layers upon layers of winter wear. Once Ron and Hermione were ready to join them in the common room, they set off for the Great Hall with Harry wasting no time in regaling the events of the early morning. Hermione predictably wanted to know all about it and Ron wanted to see this shadow spell as well, saying how if Harry saw it, it would only be fair if they all saw it. Shikamaru countered with it being an accident and that they were family secrets; he couldn't tell even though he wanted to. Although the issue ended with all three of them in disappointment, Shikamaru was content that they seemed to let the idea drop.

Of course, once Hermione let go about knowing the details of this mysterious spell, she subsequently went off on a tangent to know why Shikamaru had cast it in the first place if it were an emergency. When she found out about the Prince's spell, she immediately started to lecture Harry. Shikamaru wasn't going to step foot into this fight again. He already had enough of troublesome explanations to deal with for one Saturday morning.

Eventually, the air cooled and Ginny arrived with a letter from Dumbledore to Harry's great joy. It was then that Harry invited Ginny to go to Hogsmeade. And it was then that Shikamaru was reminded of Hogsmeade and its problem. Tsunade-sama had already signed his permission form for legal policy purposes, although he was technically an adult in all accounts back in Konoha. No, the problem was the Secrecy Sensors. He had to find a way either to beat the detectors or just bypass them. He doubted that he would be able to beat the Sensors actually. Since they were designed to sense any sort of secrecy. Just the number of secrets he had in his mind right now would probably set the device off like a hyped up fire alarm. So he would have to bypass it.

He could potentially get Professor McGonagall or the Headmaster to write him a note, but it would look suspicious to everyone else. Moreover, what reason could he possibly have to avoid it? "He is allergic to the Secrecy Sensors' sensing magic"? Therefore, he would have somehow avoid it altogether. From his memory, the Sensor doesn't have a large radius and it only works if it makes contact with you, if the way Filch was persistently jabbing it at people was anything to go by. With some quick footwork and the body flicker technique, he was sure that his speed and agility could avoid Filch's hand.

After lunch, they left for the castle's main doors for the first Hogsmeade trip of the year. Students from 3rd years and up were uncivilly pushing and shoving like a bunch of academy kids instead of lining up. The result was a mass of bodies, all wrapped up in thick cloaks, squeezing and tangled in a mess to pass Filch and out the door. Shikamaru had anticipated this though, and used it to his advantage. While he followed the trio, he allowed himself to get pulled behind by a small pair of 4th years, then get drowned in the pool of students. Then Hermione seemed to notice his absence and caught his eye when she looked behind. He mouthed 'I'll meet you outside' and Hermione nodded in amusement at his situation. She turned back and disappeared from view as other students blocked his field of vision.

Now time to use some of his pent-up energy. In an instant, he crouched down low to look at a sea of legs. Although people were bundled up for their torso, most only had a pair of pants on, making their figures very much top heavy; there was plenty of space to maneuver close to the ground. Quickly calculating the best path of travel, he sped off dodging this leg or that foot: left, right, left, left, right, left. Suddenly, there was a wall of legs closing in on him. Using a flare of chakra, he body flickered through a gap that barely fit him and burst out into the brisk, cold air of the wintry autumn weather. He brushed himself off as he straightened up and pondered about that little dash. He was definitely rusty. His movements weren't as swift as he would like. As much as he hated to admit it, he would need to find a way to train his body with another shadow clone. Two clones at once would probably be very exhausting though - he didn't know how Naruto could manage summoning hundreds at once - so he would need to do an alternating schedule with his early morning sessions: study one day, train the next, and so on.

Catching up with the trio at the edge of the castle grounds near the Hogsmeade gates, they headed off into the village. Hermione took it upon herself to introduce the exchange student to the various attractions of the only all-wizarding village in Britain. What seemed to pique the interest the most for his charge was Zonko's Joke Shop, which was unfortunately closed down along with much of Hogmeade's quaint little shops. They arrived at another popular student destination and filed in with the crowd to look at the colourful row upon row of Honeydukes' sweets.

Sugar quills, acid pops, chocolate frogs and fudge flies to cockroach clusters: Shikamaru had to say that wizards had odd tastes because from experience, he knew that those flies are real flies. The messily arranged store somehow managed to cram all assortment of treats into its roofless establishment; the stacked columns of products piling high into the unseen ceiling. Choji might like to taste some of these exquisite tastes, however he would have to be careful to bring back chocolate that wouldn't surprise the ninja reflexes in his friends. A chocolate frog, while not sentient, may be unfortunate enough to find itself pinned to a nearby wall with a very much sharpened kunai.

Harry and Ron wasted no time in detailing him about the best sweets, insisting that he try the levitating sherbet lemons and the pepper imps. Once he made his purchase - amounting to a small but brimming paper bag – they departed from the tooth aching sweet atmosphere back into the settling winter air, only to bump into Professor Slughorn.

Abruptly, the shinobi sensed an all too familiar killer's intent. All his ninja senses came alive within the second and he scanned his surroundings while analyzing the situation.

No, it was not the walrus Potion's Master; his cheerful demeanor had no room to muster this blood thirst. Moreover, it was not that close to them. It was some ways away, perhaps a hundred meters.

He was only barely aware of the conversation between Harry and Slughorn. Probably something about Harry always scheduling the Quidditch practices during the Professor's little suppers. Shikamaru only nodded good-naturedly when he detected a volume increase in his direction, signalling the turning of someone's head to talk to him. Albeit minutely, he made sure that he had the impression of participating in the conversation. It wasn't like he was usually much of a talker anyway.

Either way, that was not important. As the chuunin focused his sensing, he identified a group of three by the Three Broomsticks just leaking blood thirst. Singling out their magical signatures, he memorized their feel and unique colour: indigo, forest green and navy blue. Double-checking, and even triple-checking, he scanned the area till he was positive those were the only threats then set to remove himself from the group. After the fight in Diagon Alley, he fully understood the risk of fighting with a shadow clone and knew that maintaining one would be devastatingly disadvantageous. Since he had already pinpointed the only sources of danger, Shikamaru decided it was safe to leave his charge alone as long as he could dispatch the group of three. Seeing the physical prowess of the last group he defeated, it shouldn't be too hard. The success rate was very high.

He was only vaguely aware that the jolly Santa figure of Slughorn had just left, leaving their group to continue on strolling towards the south end of the village, nearing the Three Broomsticks. Instantly changing his demeanor, he spoke to the trio.

"The Three Broomsticks have a washroom right?"

They all nodded with a chorus of unmatched 'yea's.

"Alright, I'm going on ahead to use its facilities," Shikamaru intoned to the oblivious Gryffindors. An ice chilling wind blew by, causing them all to wrap their wool Hogwarts coats even tighter around their bundled selves.

"Okay then, we'll catch up to you in a bit," Harry said, undeterred along with his friends' casual and silent agreement.

With that, Shikamaru left with a brisk nod of affirmation then headed off in a jogging speed appropriate for a wizard.

First, questions to be answered: who were these murderous people and what was their purpose for being here? Arriving at the friendly establishment within a few minutes, he realized that the evil group was somewhere outside. Wandering? No, their signatures were quite stable. They were waiting just outside where he assumed the washrooms were.

The Three Broomsticks itself was mildly full. Its warmth and homely atmosphere attracted most students here. Though he did see some Hogsmeade villagers here as well in the bustling business, he mostly recognized the Hogwarts students. Even Malfoy was here sulking with a Butterbeer in hand, probably moody from that detention he got from Slughorn just yesterday for his crappy essay. The only reason Shikamaru didn't get one was because he proved his knowledge of the subject material time and time again in class.

The barmaid, with tray expertly balanced in her right hand and her left on her hip, waltzed over to his tranquil form at the entrance.

"Would you like to take a seat?" she asked charmingly, flashing a smile. "Tables 10 and 8 are free. You can choose whichever one you'd like."

"Oh no, thanks," he countered genially, still keeping an eye on the magical signatures. "May I just use your washroom?"

"Of course!" Suddenly, he felt very quick flash of black magic. In all his days at Hogwarts, he had never sensed magic coloured pure black. There were greyish tones, but never jet black.

The barmaid paused, her face unexpectedly unreadable. Did she feel it too?

"Actually I'll take you there because it's almost time for my break. I'll just take it now," she said plainly gesturing to the barman who gave her a wave.

Putting down her tray, she led him with an unusual haste, weaving through the tables and chairs. She was in such a rush, she collided with the pretentious Malfoy sitting too far out from his table, who straightaway raised his fangs to hiss.

"Hey! Watch where you're going, woman!" spat the Slytherin. An unpleasant scowl smeared itself on his face as he shot her one of the trademark Malfoy glares, pausing to steady his drink in his left hand. He didn't even glance in Shikamaru's way, let alone to give a sarcastic greeting. Scowling angrily, he then stormed out of the building.

She fumbled a great deal from the shock, bowing and apologizing in a complete daze, then continued hurrying in the direction of the washroom in the south-east corner of the building. It was as if she had completely forgotten that she promised to lead him to the washroom as she scurried further without any regard to his person.

Once they got to the restrooms, the barmaid promptly went into the girl's washroom without even a single farewell. She must've really needed to go to the washroom.

Putting the thought aside, he went to the guys' side. Confirming the absence of superfluous magic signatures and the presence of the three outside, he silently crept up the wall with his chakra covered feet and peeked out the high bathroom window to take a look at the perpetrators.

Tall and donned in all black, Shikamaru hazarded a guess to identify them as Death Eaters. A gut instinct and the familiarity of the malicious intent sending a ping into those memories of the Diagon Alley assault weren't enough to accuse them. Nor the fact that they were complete perverts hiding behind these big barrels trying to stare through the high window to the women's room. This "malicious intent" could very well be that of perverted guys and their dirty thoughts. On the other hand, it could also be the evil thoughts gathered in the minds of all Death Eaters; Voldemort had a knack of finding followers with these traits. Or was it the opposite? That only the ones with this intent were willing to follow Him?

If his ear could twitch like a dog's, it would. Footsteps. Heading right his way. Blending into the shadows, he slipped out of the window to hide outside in the darkness of the shade on the wall right underneath the roof. Now that he was closer, he could pick out what they were saying.

"No no, now why would he do that?" asked the tallest one rhetorically, raising his arms in exasperation. "Makes no sense! None!"

"And when did he have common logic huh? Bloody hell, man!" exclaimed the stumpy one rhetorically, thumping one hand on the other's rigid back. "I thought you had some in you!" He tsked in mock disappointment, shaking his head slowly with his disapproving frown.

"Why was this mission given to him? Of all people!" complained the tallest, fiercely refusing to accept this decision. His face was contorted in a disgusted pout while attempting to stop the other from thumping his back harder and harder.

"Come on guys," said the third placidly, cooling the lingering flame between the two. Pushing his spectacles up the bridge of his nose, he elaborated, "The Dark Lord said just to report his actions. There can't be anything easier. Plus shouldn't it be great that he recognized our skill to tell us about this top secret mission?"

"We're next in line to get into the Inner Circle anyways," replied the stumpy one matter-of-factly. "You know that we're just waiting for someone to die or go to rot in that hellhole, Azkaban."

This certainly gave him lots of info, all of which raised many questions and many flags. These three were told to spy on "him" by Voldemort (really, how many Dark Lords are there in the wizarding world). "He" was given a mission so big and so great that almost no one knows about it. "He" would be a low ranking officer or some sort since it was so unbelievable that he "of all people" had acquired said mission. He was unskilled and at the bottom of their little Death Eater-ranking system that his fellow followers resented and doubted his chances of success. (Of course, this could also have something to do with Slytherins' tendency to think they're 'all that', though Shikamaru thought it safe to assume otherwise.) Voldemort did not trust "him" since he sent people to report in on him behind "his" back. So why would Voldemort do that? What was this ground-breaking mission? If it were a "he", then what were the Death Eaters doing underneath the girl's washroom window?

But those were meant to be pondered later. Right now, he had three Death Eaters to dispose of because any Death Eater under the order of Voldemort is a threat to Harry and any other Hogwarts student. Although his skills were a bit rusty, he should still be able to pull off a swift ninja assassination with magic-like jutsu. No kunai or explosive tags.

Looking at his surroundings, he nodded his approval seeing that the backyard of the building had a dozen or so meters before it reached the woods. In the perpendicular side, he had at least twenty or so metres before it hit the fence of either establishment on both sides. Plenty of space for a quick battle.

As per proper undercover protocol, he henged into a plain faced man, donned in night black robes with a hood that hid most of his facial features. He then cast a silencing charm, a disillusionment charm and a barrier of paper seals on the perimeters of the space between the Three Broomsticks and the neck of the woods; he had to prevent any possible interference from the villagers. Still staying well out of sight, he fixed his hands in a rat then a bird seal: "Kage Kubishibari no Jutsu!" (Shadow Neck Binding Technique)

His shadow tendrils shot forth, rapidly snaking along the shadows on the ground and traveling over bumps and cracks en route for his victims. In a split second, they blossomed from the ground, aiming to grab the cloaked figures. Three unified glowing semi-spheres appeared to counter as the Death Eaters spun around with the reflexes of skilled dualists. The shadows bounced off the hardened masses of chakra and melted in a pool of darkness on the ground.

The tallest waved his arm in a familiar pattern, wordlessly casting an invisible spell. Then, Shikamaru felt as if something flew right through him, creating a weird swooping sensation similar to that of falling a couple hundred metres.

"See Trott? See Crinum? I did feel something earlier. My gut feeling is ri-ight," emphasized the tallest enthusiastically, almost jumping with glee. The stumpy one only grunted in response. "Now then," he continued, "Why don't you come out of your little hiding spot. We know you're the-re. Unless you want to play hide-and-seek," he added with a maniacal grin.

Because of Homenum Revelio spell, hiding had lost its tactical advantage; they already knew his exact location anyway. Showing himself would also give him more space to work with, plus his identity was well hidden. After carefully but instantly mulling over his options, he stepped out of the shadows and hopped off the side of the wall to land gracefully in a flurry of cloak in front of the his targets. He had underestimated his targets' abilities; they were several levels higher than the last ones that he quickly finished off. Their status wasn't a white-faced lie.

It's been quite a while since he's done anything physical. He could almost say that it was a relief if it weren't a pain in the ass to deal with.

A hooded man appeared from what seemed like nowhere. Crinum pushed up his glasses once more. It was rare that Fenry was right. So rare. But he had to admit that he also felt something magical just now as they were talking and spying on the Imperiused woman.

"Who are you?" he shouted to the figure, stepping forward arrogantly and gaining authority as the leader of their group. The man made no visible movements and had not even responded in the slightest. Half of his face was covered so he couldn't see what he was certain was the stranger's poker face. No matter, Crinum could easily get him to speak.

"Following the orders of that old man, Dumbledore? You're one of the Phoenix lot, aren't you?" he jeered. Of all the enemies that the Dark Lord had, only the people in Dumbledore's group were brave enough to stand up the Death Eaters and fight. It was a logical guess really.

Suddenly, the hooded stranger acted with movements too quick to follow. Did he drink an Enhancement potion? It seemed like he flickered out of sight before reappearing a few metres closer to the barrels at the edge of the backyard. It wasn't Apparation either since there wasn't the distinct popping noise. Nevertheless, he reacted to the words. Thinking that he probably struck the right spot, Crinum smirked arrogantly.

The man skidded and crouched, his robes ruffling as if he were doing something underneath, then a wand came out of its folds and his shadows started to warp and distort. This spell again? Was this person incapable of using another one? But he had to say that he had never seen anyone else use it before.

"Don't let it hit you!" He yelled to his colleagues. Although they usually jibbered and jabbered non-stop, they were well proficient in battle which had proven very useful time and time again. They nodded their understanding and went into their stance for their first formation: Joint Protego! Easily casting the spell non-verbally, they watched the shadows accelerated frontward to their shield, confident that their powerful shield would block it.

Wait, no. This person was not an idiot. Why would he cast something he was sure wasn't going to hit, unless he had a way of bypassing their shield?!

Realizing this at the last moment, he exclaimed, "No, it's going to hit. Pull back!" But he said it only too late; the shadow completely shattered the trifold reinforced Protego. Fenry didn't jump back fast enough before whatever it was hit him. But it didn't! It only touched Fenry's shadow and somehow completely froze his movements. He watched stock still in mixed fascination and horror as the shadows in the form of hands sprouted from the ground and climbed up his body to encase themselves around his neck, then started to tighten. As interesting as this hex was, and as much as he wanted to add it to his collection of magic, his teammate was choking. Cautiously glancing in the stranger's way, the man still did not let anything slip from his blank expression, let alone a twitch of the body. This person was proficient in murder. He did not even hesitate a single fraction of a second. Why was this type of person working for Dumbledore? Would Dumbledore even hire such a person?

"Cri...num... Tro..." Fenry didn't even have enough energy to finish his friend's name before his eyes rolled back to the darkness of his head. The shadowed hands slinked back to the ground, letting his clunky body fall with a dull thud. As rapidly as it started, it was already over.

Trott seemed to have snapped out of his shock within seconds of his friend's death. His face white with rage, he tore headfirst screaming bloody murder: making a huge racket with arms flailing and feet stumbling while wildly brandishing his wand.

"You bloody idiot! Don't let the fuckin' shadow hit you!" Crinum shouted to his deranged teammate. Snapping his gaze once more to the stranger, he saw the robes ruffle and the wand poke out. He's going to strike again. That bloody motherfucking idiot better still have some sense in his empty brain.

"Trott!" He screamed angrily, clenching his fists in frustration and tightly gripping his wand. Said bloody idiot didn't listen and kept on sprinting towards the man by the woods, firing spell after spell of Stupefy and Pertrificus Totalus if the red and yellow lights were anything to go by. The hooded figure languidly avoided the badly aimed spells, then started a spell of his own. Crinum gritted his teeth in mixed anticipation as he followed the shadow's trajectory to Trott's own. He fixed his glasses' position with a shaky hand. He shouldn't risk his life by going there and there wasn't a spell that he could think of to save his colleague. It was really too bad, but there was nothing he could do. At the last second, Trott twisted and turned, popping out of sight then reappearing beside Crinum. The shadow reached its original destination, just missing Trott by a mere second. Apparation. Efficiently used: he had to give his teammate credit for that. He let out a little sigh of relief.

The shadow did not pause however and kept racing towards them. As they prepared to Apparate away, it stopped in its tracks just a metre from their position. It paused, as if straining to travel more, then quivered before it shrunk back to its caster, who withdrew his wand. He could not help but smirk at this stupid weakness; it could not travel very far. So it seemed that this hex controls the user's own shadow, solidifying it and stretching it as much as its original surface area will allow. It is freely controlled by the user. Luckily, they could see every time he cast it because he had to stick his wand out of his coat in order to activate this hex.

Brimming with confidence, he shouted to the stranger, who was in a daze; his head was angled upward as if staring at something in the far off distance. Did he just yawn? Ha, this battle was already won on their side. This guy didn't stand a chance two against one.

"Hey you! I already see through your stupid spell. The same thing won't work on us twice! Why don't you stop your lame attempts and tell us who you are already!"

His head turned back to look in their general direction - his eyes were completely covered - but his mouth didn't move. Instead, his robes just ruffled some more and his wand poked out. Really, this guy didn't know when to quit.

Predictably, his shadow once again shot towards them.

"Useless!" he yelled triumphantly. He very hurriedly scanned his terrain, judging the best places to Apparate to. Best as far away from their current spot as possible in order to avoid the area around him where the shadow can hit. Choosing the side beside the fence close to the guys' washroom, he and Trott simultaneously Apparated away. Trott appeared safely directly opposite of the man's shadow beside the water barrels. The shadow made a sharp turn and headed to Crinum's position but abruptly stopped several meters short of his position, much shorter than its last limit actually. Was their opponent running out of energy?

"Are you a one-trick pony? That old man Dumbles couldn't find anybody else at all? What about little ol' werewolf? Or that stinkin' crazy eye, huh?" he taunted as the shadow shrank back to its owner. Said owner wasn't even paying attention to him anymore. What audacity! Why he outta-

"Crinum!" came a crazed scream, piercing his irritated train of thought. "I can't move!" Stunned, Crinum spun around to see that indeed, Trott was standing completely still, save the bodily shakes that were rocking his entire frame. Angling his head back to look at the hooded man, he confirmed that indeed, his wand was still out.

"Oh bloody, bloody, bloody hell," intoned Trott, completely panicked and profusely sweating, "Fuck this, just come save me Crinum!" he screamed out of desperation. But the black tendrils had already surged out of the ground, encircling his body, then strangled his throat.

How the bloody hell did that happen? Trott was well away from the shadow; it was closer to himself than Trott! He inspected the scene in more detail. The shadowy tentacles were now retreating once more into the shadow of the barrels, letting the limp body fall lifeless to the ground... Wait, the shadow of the barrels?! Then said shadow started to reduce in size until he followed the mass of black retreating along the thinnest shadow line possible until it reached the hooded stranger, leaving behind another smaller barrel shadow: its original shadow! This man had sneaked out a part of his shadow to the barrel to make a fake shadow. He then attacked them with a decoy shadow to make them think that this was the only shadow that he could use! That's why the shadow attacking them was less in size; he had used some to plant on the barrel instead!

But how could he have known that Trott would Apparate there? There's no way he could have known with all this open space... unless he really didn't! Realizing in cold sweat, he jumped away from the nearest spot of shade: the building. This person could have planted his shadows anywhere along one of those near invisible shadow lines of his.

"Connecting the dots are you?" said a deep gravelly voice, sounding mildly impressed. Spinning around to the source of the sound, he noticed the hooded figure's mouth was half open in a smirk. He finally spoke! "And then there was one," he then added with some finality, or was that relief?

His palms were getting really sweaty now, and his glasses were even fogging up. Either way, Crinum couldn't help but feel afraid. He hadn't been before, but after seeing his teammates get killed in cold-blooded murder, it was enough to make any man go mad. Except this one in front of him apparently. This person had them in his little paws until now, but now it was time to turn the tables. Time to bring out some Dark magic.

Quickly twirling his wand with his duelling reflexes, he fiercely slashed it through the air, sending jets of black light towards the stranger. The man redrew his wand back into his cloak, then easily side stepped the spells; crouching then leaning one way or another, it seemed as if the man knew exactly where each one would be. However, even as he increased the number and relentlessly shot spell after spell, none of them hit. Growing increasingly frustrated, he comforted himself on the fact that at least in this manner, the hooded figure will not be able to prepare his own hex. The hooded figure consistently kept on dodging his spells; each time, they only missed by just a little fraction. Oh! One just grazed his coattail just now and he observed with satisfaction as the curse disintegrated a section of his coat. If his aim was even slightly better, then his opponent would not be able to dodge all of them. If he were closer, his aim would improve and the frequency of the spells would increase with the smaller distance.

Thinking this, Crinum decided to advance. He was safe from the shadows anyhow since the man was too busy and incapacitated to even lift his wand, let alone cast a hex. Marching on and leading his torrent of curses, he watched as the stranger started to visibly struggle: more and more parts of his cloak were getting burned off. The light smirk that played on his lips were gone, but replaced with a bitten lip. Crinum could even hear the growing sounds of his progressively ragged breaths. Although he didn't particularly care that much for his teammates' deaths, they were a good team for some time so their deaths deserved to be avenged. More importantly, this person would be a spectacular presentation to the Dark Lord; oh how He would be so pleased at his success.

With a start, he saw his target spin his body around and rushed off in the opposite route. He was running away! His victory was sure this time. The hooded figure wasn't even looking behind him anymore, just sprinting away from his onslaught of black magic. He was assuming that the effects of his Enhancement potion gave a great boost in speed and power for a very limited time since he was running at a reasonably moderate pace. At the speed he was escaping at, all Crinum had to do was block his opponent's path and blast his curse straight in his face. So simple. The man may even stop to look behind him once he realizes the shower of magic had stopped. He wouldn't even have time to react! Ahh, how victory was sweet.

Going along with his brilliant plan, he twisted and spun, landing just five metres from his target, effectively blocking his current escape route. Lifting his wand once more - but he couldn't. His body had completely seized up. He looked down and realized with horror that he had Apparated right on the shadow. Not just a shadow, the shadow. How could this be? His opponent was running away! He had no time to do anything! He was not in the right mindset to prepare anything! There is no way that he could've-! Unless he did... Unless he prepared... Unless this entire ploy was just an act. Unless this person pretended to lose his edge to prompt the Apparation to this very spot. To stop him from escaping, Crinum would've had to Apparate here in front of him to defeat him. He would have had no other choice. If he didn't, then he would lose the short distance advantage he had gained earlier. To make sure that he would chase after him, his opponent made it seem that he would easily lose, that the goal was in sight. He was just acting! He was... He tricked... Fuck this shit!

Shikamaru observed his capturee with mild interest. The man's face had contorted from a broad smirk, to wide-eyed horror, to a blistering scowl. It seemed like he had figured everything out. This Death Eater wasn't so stupid after all. Contrary to his beliefs though, he did not murder the other two Death Eaters; he only choked them to the point of unconsciousness.

If this were in the Elemental Nations, then he would have used Shadow Stitching without question. Nevertheless, this was Magical Britain where the law indicates that it is illegal to kill people, even if they were Death Eaters. If a person (even secretly) hired by Dumbledore, the cornerstone of the light, were to murder someone, then it would crumble his authority over his followers and everything that he stood for. Additionally, judging by the gentle grandfatherly-like character that his client was, the shinobi assumed he didn't want any threat to be captured dead, only alive. The information package never said anything about refraining from killing people, but he read between the lines and concluded that because of the laws and culture here, that was to be expected.

He let the leader of this group of Death Eaters to mull over his anger at being tricked for a few more seconds before likewise strangling him with the Shadow Neck-Binding Jutsu.

Great, now that he had defeated them, he would have to lug their bodies up to the castle somehow without being seen. He'd probably have to send a shadow clone to find the Headmaster. Since he hadn't been around recently though, that would probably mean that he'd have to find McGonagall or Severus. The former would freak out to some degree while the latter's hands may be tied due to this situation being related to other Death Eaters. That meant that he had to relate it to McGonagall.

Even though he had wrapped up today's incident with minimal damage - the battle itself wasn't even longer than ten minutes - he had many more questions left unanswered. What was the black magic he felt earlier in the Three Broomsticks, and what is with all this concerning a top secret mission given to an underserving underling?

Today had just been one troublesome task after another. His relief with a reason to protect Harry Potter was quickly short lived by these events; he would have to put away some time between homework and studying to think about these issues.

Just one after another. How troublesome.

Omake

Two weeks earlier...

It was Sunday evening. That meant the first and last homework cramming session of the weekend. At the moment, the common room was fairly empty; most people preferred to use the vast resources available to them in the library (like Hermione, except she's doing extra non-curricular research). Unlike Harry and Ron that had procrastinated till the last minute to write their Monday morning assignments and essays, Shikamaru was not sitting around the common room scrawling an explanation for Grenrich's theory of Dark Defense. Instead, he was comfortably settled on the window ledge, placidly staring out the glass. The stars twinkled as merrily as they ever did and the crescent moon bathed the surrounding clouds in a gentle light as they inched along minusculy by the slight breeze. Night cloud gazing was just as enjoyable as morning cloud gazing.

"Oi Shikamaru!" called Ron to the seemingly sleeping Nara.

"Hmm...?" responded Shikamaru lazily.

"How much of Snape's essay did you write? Or did you write anything at all this time?" asked Ron irritably.

"Mmm... too troublesome... didn't write anything..." said Shikamaru languidly.

Ron grumbled unhappily and returned to his rough draft. Although Shikamaru barely did any written work, his in-class performance mark was consistently excellent and kept him from the brink of failure. His professors reprimanded him and complained about his lack of response, but it was not like the classes were an important aspect of his mission. The more time he could spend gathering intel and observing his surroundings, the better. Though Ron's average mark was better than his - not that it mattered- it seemed that his charge's best friend was jealous of his effort-to-result ratio.

The chuunin heard Harry chuckle, probably the result of recalling the numerous detentions that he had acquired in the past month due to his lack of completed assignments. Though the class he put in the most effort in would definitely be Transfiguration. The main reason is because an angry McGonagall wasn't a pleasant one to deal with. If he put in a decent amount of effort, he wouldn't have an eagle-eyed professor breathing down his neck.

Suddenly, from the far-off distance, the shinobi spotted a bird flying straight towards him. Probably an owl delivering a late night message. However as it got closer, he recognized it as a hawk: a Konoha hawk! Since it had been a month since he arrived at the school, he assumed that it was the Fifth's reply to his weekly mission reports, which was odd since he had basically nothing to report except that everything was well.

Once it got to the Gryffindor Tower window, he pushed it open and let the tired hawk in, allowing it to drop a letter in his hands. A letter? Not a scroll? What's more is that it was a red letter that started to singe at the edges. It shouldn't be anything dangerous though since it was sent by a hawk unique to their lands with an official Konoha emblem seal.

"You should open that before it explodes," warned Harry cautiously, stopping his progress to stare at the offending object in Shikamaru's possession.

"Explodes?" asked Shikamaru incredulously, turning over the slowly blackening crimson envelope in his hands. Its corners were already completely eaten away by the flame.

"Yea, it'll be worse if you don't. It's better to get it over with," said Ron shakily, shuddering at what seemed like a terrible memory.

Trusting them with these magical affairs, Shikamaru decided to open the envelope. At once, an eruption of sound that he could only recognize as the Fifth's voice burst out a hundred times amplified. Objects around the room clittered and clattered from the mere shockwave of her voice.

"HELLO? HELLO? ... OH, DID IT START ALREADY? THE WRITTEN INTRODUCTIONS WEREN'T CLEAR. THEY DON'T HAVE THESE FUN LITTLE LETTERS HERE! HOW NICE OF THE HEADMASTER TO GIVE ME SOME."

Fun? Well, he could see how she would be entertained by this hell of a death letter. Furthermore, the Headmaster gave her this? He would've definitely liked information on these letter bombs in that giant package of info if the Headmaster had planned to plant some in the Hokage's office. And she had some? More than one? He could only sigh.

"ALRIGHT, SHIKAMARU! GET YOUR LAZY ASS IN LINE AND START DOING YOUR HOMEWORK! AND DO IT WELL! THIS ISN'T THE ACADEMY ANYMORE! HOW MANY DETENTIONS HAVE YOU BEEN GETTING? A DOZEN SINCE THE START OF TERM? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?! AS AN EXCHANGE STUDENT FROM JAPAN, YOU BETTER BRUSH UP YOUR ACT OTHERWISE YOU'LL BE EXPECTING ANOTHER ONE OF THESE SUCKERS FROM ME! HAHAHAHAHA! HAVE FUNNN!" And with that, the letter curled in on itself and burst in flames, quickly leaving nothing but a feeble pile of ashes on the floor.

Shikamaru swore that he could hear a sadistic smirk at the end of that message - if it were in written form, there would be a heart - and the Fifth was definitely having too much fun with this letter. Well, at least she remembered that he was undercover.

Harry and Ron had burst into laughter and were clutching their stomachs from the pain, their DADA essays long forgotten since the start of the volatile message. A few students peeked their heads out from their dormitory to check out the spectacle. Good thing most of the Gryffindors weren't in the Tower at the moment, otherwise he'd have an even bigger crowd to avoid. He whispered some instructions to the hawk on how to get to the Owlery and launched the bird out the window.

Finally able to calm down, Harry asked after pants.

"Who was that?"

"The foul-mouthed headmaster back at my school..." replied Shikamaru with a sigh.

"So, are you going to start that essay then?"

Shikamaru grimaced and sighed heavily once more, but he slid off the windowsill and closed the window anyway. Grabbing a spare piece of parchment and an old quill off Harry's desk, the shinobi made his way to another armchair to start his thesis on Grenrich's outdated theory, accompanied by the sounds of raucous laughter.

There went the days of lazy living.

AN: Hopefully the omake made you laugh? And hopefully you enjoyed the fight scene (I guess the names are kind of odd...). I tried to make it more methodical than the usual brute fighting to showcase Shikamaru's fighting style. It took me some time to figure out a strategy for Shikamaru - Did it work out okay?

Yea, Shikamaru screwed up. But I figured that a month and a half of doing nothing would take its toll on him. It's not likely that something dangerous will happen frequently.

I suppose one of my concerns now with writing is the dialogue. Is it punctured? Or does it flow well? Is it interesting enough? And perhaps are they identifiably different for each character?

Thank you for reading to the end. My current plan will be following the canon chapters so don't expect this story to go over 40 chapters. It should wrap up in the 30-something chapter. Yes, I am planning to finish this story come hell or high water =)

I'm going through a tough time now, so writing has been kind of slow. It's coming along though.

Please review if you please and make my day =) Your words are treasured greatly! Would it motivate you to write if I said I started to write the next chapter already? ;)

I apologize sincerely for this inconvenience and for my long unexplained absence. Due to unforseen events, I have been unable to continue with this story for the past few months. It started unluckily right after I posted this chapter. I was and am struggling with a couple severe personal issues and had to stop my progress with the story. I know it probably sounds like excuses to you guys, but I didn't want to make you wait without reason.

Thank you for all your support and I hope to continue my story this winter. Until then, the story will be on hiatus.

I really apologize so much in the hopes that you might understand. I can only wish though.