Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Dazai squinted as the bright sun shined in his eye.

Ever since he became an executive, he was allowed to go out on his own as long as Mori or Elise knew where he was. Ah, freedom, where had it been all his life? Too bad it came with the price of his father's life (though was that even a bad thing?).

Speaking of his father, Dazai was going to visit the old man's grave! Yeah, Dazai never thought those words would go through his mouth either, but Elise didn't question it when he told her, at least.

The reason he was going to his father's grave was, well, he felt a sort of obligation to do so recently. A debt if you will. Not because Dazai ever cared for the man, of course not. But because . . . well, Dazai wasn't sure, but it definitely wasn't out love for the guy.

Dazai made it to the graveyard before he even realized it. He walked over to the grave with his father's name on it and sat down. 

I wonder if I will be allowed to go to Hogwarts this year . . .  was the first thought that went through Dazai's head. He almost wanted to ask Mori, but that had backfired on him last time. He was not attached, absolutely not. But it was getting awfully monotonous around here. The chaos of Hogwarts would help that. Plus, he'd get away from Mori for a while.

Well, whatever the outcome, it was August 26th and the new Hogwarts school hear was upon them. If Mori was going to say anything, he'd better do it damn quickly!

Though there was always the problem of his subordinates. Unfortunately, Dazai was unable to write to any of them. The twins and Blaise wrote to him, of course, with the occasional letter from Hermione or Draco, or sometimes even Ginny. But he was only ever able to send their owl back with something to show that he was okay. Little scraps of paper, pens, etc. But, of course, all that starts to add up after awhile, and they were getting suspicious.

While Blaise hadn't said anything directly, recently he had asked about Dazai's well-being way more than usual. Though the twins kept asking and fussing, and Dazai couldn't tell them anything. So, to put it lightly, Dazai was dreading having to face them (if he's allowed to go this year, that is).

Dazai had to think of an excuse for if he sees them again. It's not just Mori restricting contact anymore. Dazai was genuinely busy. Mori gave him so. Many. Stacks. Of paperwork. He even checked, Kouyou had so little compared to him, and they were both executives! Dazai asked, but Mori just gave him a half-assed answer as usual and then made him do another job. 

But just as Dazai was thinking, his phone went off. A single text from Mori.

It read: You're needed in my office. Come quickly.

Ah, yet another job from the boss. Being an executive was awfully tiring. At least he has actually freedom these days . . . sorta. But that was besides the point. Time for another annoying job from Mori!

Dazai returned to Mori's office afterwards. Surprisingly he had only sustained a broken arm and some bruised ribs. Usually it was worse.

After Mori had finished treating Dazai's injuries, he started smirking. Deviously. He was planning something. 

"Mori, what the fuck are you planning?" Dazai asked, giving the mafia boss a sharp glare. "Now, now, Dazai, language. As for what I'm  planning, that's a secret." Mori said with a wink.

Well that was helpful. Whatever, Dazai will figure it out eventually. Probably.

Dazai sighed deeply and walked out, Mori was insufferable as ever. Though he couldn't stop himself from thinking What if Mori's plan has something to do with Hogwarts?

Dazai was being too optimistic. Too . . . sentimental! Ugh, maybe his friends really were making him soft. But he couldn't let that happen. Not on his watch. He really needed to get his life figured out. 

Dazai went back to his room and contemplated. Of course, Featherbrain insisted on chirping at him the entire time. That stupid bird, he wished he was allowed to murder it . . .

If only Dazai could disassociate on command. He'd do it in a heartbeat, honestly.

Only two days later, Dazai was called into Mori's office again. But it wasn't for a mission this time. Apparently the idiot doctor was finally going to reveal what he was planning.

"What do you want?" 

"Ah, Dazai, sit down!"

Dazai sat in the chair just across from Mori, crossing his arms. "Well?" He prompted.

"I'll just get straight to the point, I've booked you a flight to London for your third year of Hogwarts." Dazai was silent for a moment.

"It's four to five days until the first day, and you're telling me this now?" Mori chuckled, nodding with a sickeningly sweet smirk. "Yes. You'll be going in an hour, so get ready. It's not like you own much, anyways."

Dazai scowled. That wasn't an excuse for hiding things from him again. But for some reason, Dazai couldn't help being almost excited to get there. Almost.

"Is that all?"

"Yep, have fun~!"

Dazai sighed deeply, waving bye to Elise before standing up and leaving.

Honestly, Dazai didn't know what he expected. It was Mori after all, of course the idiot doctor wouldn't tell him until the last minute. It was to be expected. But Dazai still found himself annoyed at the mafia boss. Plus, now he has to come up with some kind of excuse for never responding to his gang's letters. Eh, he'd figure something out.

He didn't have many possessions to actually pack. Just bandages, a few articles of clothing, his gloves, etc. It's not lime he's ever needed a lot at Hogwarts, anyway.

The average amount of time that it takes to get to London from Yokohama is 12 hours. Dazai was dreading it. He's never quite liked traveling, especially not for that long. Ugh.

As soon as Dazai got to Diagon Alley, he made a beeline to the Leaky Cauldron. At least he could stay there and keep the little sanity he has left. He could tolerate Tom. 

Of course, people still whispered things like "Demon" and "Murderer" in his general direction, but he was used to that, both from here and from back home.

"Ah, hello again," Tom greeted. Dazai smiled back pleasantly. "Hello,"

"I hope you don't mind me asking but..." Tom started, "Whatever happened to your arm?"

Dazai blinked before remembering he broke his arm. Right. "Oh, this? Don't worry about it! I break my arm all the time,"

Tom didn't look very reassured, but nodded anyway. "Right. Well, I'm guessing you're here for a room? Here, I have one available." Tom said as he pulled a key out of a drawer and handed to Dazai.

"Thank you~" Dazai smiled pleasantly again and walked off to his room. On his way, however, he saw a sign. It had a scraggly looking man on the front with greasy black hair. It was charmed, obviously, so he was moving. The sign read: Sirius Black. Have you seen this wizard? Approach with extreme caution! Do NOT attempt to use magic against this man!

Well now he wanted to. Maybe Dazai would mention it to Mori in his first letter . . . eh. Whatever. Dazai ignored the sign and walked away. He had better things to worry about then escaped Azkaban prisoners. It wasn't like the guy could use magic against him. 

Dazai walked inside his room and set Featherbrain's cage on the desk next to the bed. As soon as he did, though, she started squawking at him. How does any wizard deal with this?

Anyway, Dazai will probably have to get school supplies soon. Ugh. He really doesn't want to. I'll just have to suck it up, he reasoned. Like I always do.

Dazai collapses on the bed provided for him. It wasn't as comfortable as the one in his room back at home, but in a way he preferred that. Dazai pulled out the letter from Hogwarts he got a few days ago. It detailed all the regular stuff; when school was starting, how they couldn't wait to see him (lies, he thought.), but there was something new. The second part of the letter read: Third-years are permitted to go to the village of Hogsmede at certain weekends. Please give the enclosed permission form to your parent or guardian to sign.

Dazai hadn't shown it to Mori since he didn't even know if he would be allowed to go. But he could always sign it himself. Sure, it'd never be the same as Mori's stupidly fancy signature, but it'd be good enough to fool the teachers. So he pulled out a quill and signed the bottom of the page.

If Dazai were to be the perfect villain, he'd need to be everywhere.

Chapter Text

It was only two days later, and Dazai was already waking up to arguing. He sighed, maybe if he goes down there his presence will shut them the fuck up.

Dazai reluctantly got out of bed and walked outside. In the middle of the stairs leading down was Ron and Hermione, bickering about something. Ron was clutching his rat, Angel, while Hermione was carrying a ginger cat. They didn't seem to notice him yet.

"Why are you two bickering again? Do I need to make you do more team building exercises?"

"Dazai-" Hermione cut herself off as she looked over. "What happened to your arm!?" Ah, so he was going through this again. How lovely.

"Huh? Oh, nothing! I just fell down some stairs, no reason to worry!"

Ron and Hermione gave him the most horrified looks he'd ever seen on them. It would be more amusing if it hadn't come from a place of "concern". Eugh.

"Are you seeing this, Fred?"

"Yep. Are you two bickering again?"

Dazai looked over. The twins were standing right there, shit eating grins on their faces. He turned around and waved, but as soon ad he did the two ran over and started asking rapid fire questions.

"Are you okay!?"

"What happened to your arm!?"

"Hold on, did you break it!?"

"Wait, you broke it!? How!?"

The two were so close to Dazai's face he could count every individual freckle. He pushed them off.

"Calm down, I'm fine! This isn't even the first time I broke my arm this summer!" That didn't seem to reassure them very much. Dazai didn't know one could even look that concerned and or horrified.

"Dazai! You didn't tell us that!" Hermione interjected, looking incredibly worried. Dazai sighed. His subordinates are always so tiring!

"Anyway, you didn't answer my question. Why were you two bickering?" Hermione looked mildly irritated that Dazai ignored her, but Ron pointed at her and interrupted her before she could say anything.

"Her stupid cat is trying to kill Angel!"

"He's a cat! It's in his nature!"

Dazai sighed. He was gonna have to do something about this, wouldn't he? "I wouldn't really mind if that demon of a rat dies, but you two have to come up with some sort of compromise or I'm going to make you and the rest of the gang do more team building exercises."

The twins looked horrified at the mere notion, but Hermione just sighed. Ron, however, just looked annoyed that Dazai called his rat a demon, even though it totally is!

"Hey," Ron started. "Have you gotten your school stuff yet?"

"No, I haven't. I really should. Are you just trying to get me to leave, Ron?" Dazai smirked as Ron sighed, used to his antics.

"We can come with you!" Fred said, gesturing to himself and George. George nodded in agreement.

"Ah, alrighty then!" Dazai smiled and walked further down the stairs, the twins quickly by his sides.

The walk out of the Leaky Cauldron and back into Diagon Alley was made in a heavy silence. It wasn't much different once they were there, either, though. The tension was so think you could cut it with one of Dazai's razor blades. He was sick of it. They even exchanged Dazai's money in silence, though he could see the stars in their eyes when they sat saw how much it was. After all, Dazai was finally getting paid for his efforts in the mafia. Thankfully, George broke the awkward silence. 

"Hey, Snakey, why didn't you respond to any of our letters? You only really just sent Errol back with scrapes of paper or something, we were worried!" Ah, so they were on this subject now. How lovely.

"Huh? Oh, that! I was just so busy that I couldn't take time to write! Mori sure does love to overwork me!" Dazai huffed dramatically, a small pout on his face. The twins shared a look, like they were having a telepathic conversation with each other again. Dazai quickly changed the subject.

"Anyway, anything interesting happen over break I should know about?" Dazai knew some stuff, of course. But he didn't have access to the news and he knew that there was bound to be something his subordinates didn't mention. 

"Well, Dumbledore died. His house was burned down, too. They found a hole in his chest, though they're not sure where it came from." A gun. It came from a gun.

"Oh? Why didn't hear about this?

"Well . . ." Fred started.

"We didn't want to ruin your summer." George finished for him. 

Dazai blinked. "You couldn't have possibly made my summer any worse,"

Fred and George gave him a look. "Why's that?"

"Oh, hey, it's Flourish and Blotts, let's go in!" Dazai said, changing the subject and running inside.

They went inside, Dazai looking around for all his books. They were relatively easy to find, but then he realized that none of them were Lockhart books.

"Hey," Dazai looked at the twins. "Whatever happened to Lockhart? None of his books are on the list."

"Oh, that." Fred chuckled. "Professor McGonagall read all the quizzes and tests he had us do and decided he was "unfit" for the job, so she fired him!" 

Dazai cackled loudly, and a few bystanders stopped to look at him, giving him stares of fear and hatred. The twins glared back, of course, but that wasn't enough to stop them. 

"Jeez, finally," Dazai said once he caught his breath. "I can only hope, though, that the next Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for this year is better than the last two."

The twins gave Dazai a look at his last comment, but Dazai ignored them. They passed by the shelf that they met by, when the twins had taken away the book he was gonna buy. Dazai wondered if it was still there. He glanced over and saw it, The Ultimate Guide to Wizarding Suicide. Dazai nabbed it as quickly as he could. Sleight of hand, and all that. If the twins noticed, they didn't say anything.

Dazai walked up to the counter, putting all his school books down, notably not adding his suicide manual. "Now, how much does all this cost?" He asked to he nervous cashier. 

"L-Like hell I'd ever sell anything to the l-likes of y-you!" The cashier said shakily. Dazai frowned. That looked to convince the cashier to sell him the books, as they quickly mumbled the price, just loud enough for Dazai to hear it and pay.

"Thank you!" Dazai said as he walked out the door. The twins gave him a look.

"What?" He asked them once they were out of earshot. 

"What did you do to that cashier?" George asked. He didn't sound angry, per se, Dazai knew what anger sounded like. He sounded disappointed. Dazai felt a lurch in his stomach that must've been annoyance.

"Nothing. I guess people are just scared of me." And they walked the rest of the way back in silence.

Chapter Text

Dazai was squished in between Blaise, Draco and Hermione while Ron, Fred and George sat in the seat across from them. Blaise was, predictably, dead silent, staring out the window. Draco kept a death grip on his duffel bag on the floor that suspiciously squirmed. Must be Egg in there.

Egg ended up going with Draco again since he was the one who tamed her before. Plus, if Dazai took her and ended up not going again this year, the Port Mafia would be stuck with a semi-feral, venomous dragon on their hands. He has a feeling that Mori wouldn't be happy with him for that.

Fred and George were speaking animatedly of new schemes that they could do that year. Things like charming all the dorms to inhabit an inane amount of frogs, charming the stairs to stop moving every other hour (Dazai was especially on board with that one), etc. They probably would have come up with more crazy, fun schemes but Hermione gave them a look that seemed to say "Do any of these and I'll get you expelled". Dazai knows a real threat when he sees one, and promptly shut up. 

"Oh! By the way, Dazai," Fred started as George rummaged through a bag. "We have something to show you!" George pulled out a bunch of glitter bombs that the twins must've made over break. "Tada!" George exclaimed. Dazai smirked mischievously. The stunts they could pull with these!

"Fred, George! Put those away!" Hermione whispered, giving them a stern look. The twins looked mildly disappointed but put them away and grinned at Dazai. Dazai grinned back. 

The temperature suddenly dropped. In Dazai's two years of going here, that's never really happened before. Dazai huddled up closer to Blaise as to steal body warmth. Blaise let him, but looked concerned. "Is it just me, or is it getting colder?" Blaise asked, but it fell on deaf ears, and was that ice on the windows?

Dazai heard a gasp that sounded suspiciously of Father. Dazai flinched away from Blaise and jumped slightly, earning himself concerned looks from his friends. But Father was dead, he couldn't possibly be here. But that gasp was unmistakable, Dazai lived around it for years. For practically his entire life. 

Dazai's vision swam. He felt the scalpel in his eye again, saw that slash of blood again. Father's murder-- he heard Mori's voice-- it was all too much. Dazai covered his ears, tempted to rip his hair out.

He heard barking dogs, the ones from the kennels. Saw them fighting against their restraints as if they wanted nothing more than to see Dazai suffer. He could almost feel the sharp cuffs on his wrists that always ended up cutting him. They almost hurt more than his razors.

Dazai felt pathetic. Bad memories shouldn't effect him this much!

But then, he was back in the train, on the floor of the compartment, with a pounding headache. He had no idea how he got onto the floor, but oh well. Dazai noticed none of his friends were there and sat up. "Huh." Dazai said as he noticed it wasn't ice cold anymore. Dazai looked around only to find a professor he didn't recognize standing by the front entrance sighing in relief.

Dazai just stares at the professor for a moment before said professor walks up to him with a stupidly warm smile and hands him . . . chocolate? Dazai inspects it like he'd never seen chocolate before. Why would a random professor, who's probably the new DADA teacher, hand him a piece of chocolate? 

"Just eat it already, it helps. You gave your friends quite the scare, y'know." The professor said. Dazai reluctantly took a small bite of the chocolate and he hated to admit that part of his headache did go away. 

"Hey, is this poisoned?"

"No?" The professor answered, though it was more of a question, with a confused expression. Dazai was mildly disappointed, and it showed, but before either of them could say anything else, a pair of heads with familiar red hair burst into the compartment and ran up to Dazai.

"Are you okay!?-"

"-You collapsed!-"

"-And I'm pretty sure you were hyperventilating a little bit there!-"

"-What happened with you!?"

The professor just chuckled as Dazai fought to push them off. "I'll just leave to you, then. Dementors are tricky things . . ." He said before walking away.

Dazai wondered what the man meant by dementors, but didn't ask as he pushed the twins away from him. But just as he managed to do so, the rest of his friends burst back into the compartment.

"I'm fine, jeeeeeez." Dazai assured them before standing up. "By the way, what the heck is a dementor?"

The twins looked reluctant to stop fussing, but after a quick look to each other, Fred sighed and spoke. "A dementor is what guards Azkaban," he started. "Basically it sucks the happiness out of you. They're here cuz Sirius Black escaped."

Oh yeah. That guy on the wanted paper that he saw in the Leaky Cauldron. Dazai fully stood up and stretched. Laying on the ground in that position was incredibly uncomfortable.

Dazai sat down back in his seat and his friends reluctantly sat down with him. Just as Dazai had a minute to breathe, he realized just how exhausted he was. He yawned.

Blaise grabbed his hand, opening it in front of him, revealing the chocolate Dazai still hadn't ate. Blaise picked it up and stuck it in Dazai's mouth, forcing him to eat it. Dazai felt the heat rise to his cheeks at the gesture and looked out the window. But, Dazai supposed, at least Blaise was happy. Blaise squeezed Dazai's hand that he was still holding reassuringly.

Dazai couldn't wait to get to Hogwarts and pass out in the gang room.

Remus didn't know what he expected from the so-called Demon Student. But he can't say he expected this.

He never believed in the Daily Profit's story about Dazai Osamu. He knew that the media could manipulate people very easily. He'd seen it with his own eyes. But what he wasn't expecting was to see someone so feared, so hated by society, hyperventilating on the floor of a train because of a dementor.

Now, dementors are definitely a force to be reckoned with, and Remus had seen people react to them the same way that Dazai had. But it was just so hard to imagine someone like Dazai so vulnerable and scared. Especially since the only ones he'd ever seen react like that were extremely broken, traumatized people.

Remus knew that he would have to keep an eye on Dazai from the moment he took the job. Whether or not Dazai was actually dangerous was besides the point when everyone hated him, and the defense professor was concerned about bullying. Especially after Dumbledore's firing and death being once again, pinned on the poor kid. He was concerned that he might be the only one who would come to the child's defense.

Remus had been between the isles of the train after the dementors had come. He had helped the kids that were in the seats with him and went off to go help others. While he was doing that, though, a group of kids had ran up to him and said that the dementors were hurting their friend. They were so panicked, and so Remus followed them, only to find Dazai, the Demon Student, looking like he was having some sort of trauma flashback.

Remus was never good at comforting people, and he was about to step in when Dazai finally snapped out of it. It took longer than it usually does, but at least it ended without needing intervention. He helped the kid, of course, and gave him chocolate. Though Dazai had inspected it like it was the first time he'd ever seen it. And he had looked disappointed about learning that it wasn't poisoned. 

It would be an understatement to say that Remus was concerned. He could only hope that the kid was okay now. His friends were clearly worried and wasted no time fussing over and mother-henning Dazai. They're clearly all good kids. But that only made Remus worry more.

He finished his rounds helping other students and returned to his original compartment. He sighed as he fell back asleep. 

Chapter Text

Dazai tuned out the sorting like he always does. It's unimportant, anyway. Now would be the time when Dumbledore usually gave his speech, but last time Dazai checked, dead people don't give speeches unless they're ghosts. 

So now it was McGonagall giving the speech. She spoke about how, despite all the deaths last year, they must move forward and towards the light or something like that. Dazai wasn't really paying attention. All his concentration was currently going towards staying awake. 

"Now, we have another new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor this year!" Dazai perked up. He'd been curious about the new professor since the train ride.

"All welcome, Professor Remus Lupin!" The shaggy looking man from the train ride stood up. He smiled and waved at everyone before sitting back down. Something that stood out to Dazai was the large scar across his face. He hadn't noticed it before on the train because he was too distracted. That was unbecoming of a mafioso. 

"Our new healer couldn't join us today because they're still setting up," a heavy silence fell over the Great Hall. "But let us all welcome them once they can arrive." And with that, McGonagall sat back down.

Eventually everyone started speaking again like normal. Dazai laid his head on the table, trying and failing to just let the voices be white noise. It was all too loud!

But he couldn't leave just yet. It would look suspicious if he did. The feast had just started, after all. Dazai felt a familiar hand pat his back, it must've been Blaise. At least be hoped so. 

Dazai picked up his head, leaning on his palm. Almost immediately, Blaise put some food on his plate. Dazai had forgotten how noxious food was after leaving Hogwarts. He only ever ate a bit of crab every so often back home, after all.

(In Dazai's opinion, that was optimal, but whatever.)

Dazai reluctantly took a small bite and Blaise smiled softly. Dazai scoffed quietly.

Draco gives him a look from across the table. Dazai had a feeling that it would come back to bite him if he ignored it.

He ignored it anyway. 

Dazai yawned and leaned his head back on the table. He really, really didn't want to deal with this right now. Dazai decided that it had been an appropriate amount of time and stood up, ignoring his friends asking where he was going as he left the Great Hall. 

The latent magic in the air was stronger than he remembered. Dazai stepped into the hallway and pinched the bridge of his nose. It may have just been his imagination, but Dazai swore the headaches were getting worse. Dazai looked up and had no idea where he was.

Dazai was about to comment on it when someone tapped his shoulder rather aggressively. Dazai forced a smile onto his face and turned around.

"Yes? Do you need something?" Dazai asked before realizing it was Pansy there! "Oh. Why hello, Paaaansssyyyy!" Pansy scowled and crossed her arms. 

"Just shut up!" She said bitterly. "Why did you leave so suddenly?"

Dazai was taken aback for a moment before smirking at her. "Oh? Pansy's not one to care about stuff like that."

"Oh, hush! Draco told me about what happened on the train, he was worried about you!" Pansy said, pointing an accusatory finger at him. Dazai's smirk widened.

"I just got tired, is all." Dazai answered, waving her off with his good arm. Pansy's attention was brought to his broken arm. "Do you need to go to the new healer for your arm?"

"No need," Dazai said, waving her off again. "It's not even the first time I broke my arm over the summer."

Pansy winced.

"If that's all, I'll be going now." Dazai announced as he started walking back to the gang room again. Pansy just sighed behind him. 

Jeez, every time someone joins his gang they start fussing over him. Dazai's starting to think he's actually cursed or something. He hadn't even wanted Pansy in Hell's Hounds. She had invited herself! The audacity!

Dazai sighed as he reached the gang room, walking inside. It looked the exact same as it had before he left.

Egg was curled up on the floor, soundly sleeping. Draco must've dropped her off before. She had gotten much bigger over the summer. And probably much more deadly. How fun.

Dazai hobbled over to the couch, making sure to avoid Egg before collapsing onto it. He hoped she would kill him in his sleep. He passed out as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Pansy, as much as she hated to admit it, was worried about Dazai.

He constantly had this look in his eye that was just unsettling. Like beneath it all, he was a living corpse, cursed upon this mortal plane. Even the way he spoke about death fed into that.

Pansy had always had that feeling, but she always brushed it off. That was, until last year.

She knew that Dazai wasn't an evil murderer the whole time. But she couldn't say that. Not when everyone else despised and feared him. And now, she finally had an excuse to hate him. And she couldn't help but think; Maybe the rumors are true. 

And then she was dragged into Dazai's plan to kill the basilisk. Of course, she had invited herself, but she hadn't anticipated that level of danger!

She should have, of course, considering it was a creature that could cause death from eye contact. But, Pansy didn't expect Dazai to put himself in so much danger. He had insisted she, Blaise and Draco stay behind, even though he himself was injured.

It was at that moment that she realized just how much Dazai was willing to put himself through. That made her worry.

And then the fateful moment came when she, Blaise and Draco saw under his bandages. The scars that ran up his arms, all the way up to his elbow. She'll never forget that mental image.

Some of his scars didn't look like they even came from a knife, either. So much was odd about Dazai. And Pansy wanted to figure him out. Find out what makes him tick. Maybe then she'll finally know why Blaise and Draco like him so much.

And maybe she'll finally know just what about him is dead. Pansy sighed, she finally made her way back to the Great Hall. It had felt like ages.

"Did you find him?" Draco asked.

"Yeah, but he insisted on leaving. Said he was "tired"."

Blaise gave her a considering look, but just nodded after a moment. Draco, however, wasn't going to accept that answer so easily.

"He was tired? But he barely ate! He needs to eat more . . . " Draco said. Blaise snorted. He had been trying to get Dazai to eat for years. Pansy always noticed.

Dinner soon ended. But Pansy still wasn't satisfied. She wouldn't be until she got answers.

Chapter Text

Dazai had chosen Divination as a class because he thought the concept was interesting. The first lesson was reading tea leaves, and Dazai had already read Blaise's, but his own cup remained full with tea.

Dazai wasn't even sure if this lesson would work on him. If the tea was charmed in any way it would instantly be rendered useless when Dazai drank it. 

Though he couldn't feel anything in the tea, it was getting harder to recognize any magical signature this year from all the protection charms on the castle because of Sirius Black unless he really concentrated which, he was way too tired to do.

"Now, Mr. Dazai, go ahead and drink your tea already! Mr. Zabini can't read the tea leaves of someone who hasn't drank their own tea yet." Professor Trelawney said. 

Dazai huffed but drank his tea, albeit indignantly. Trelawney looked down at his tea before gasping dramatically and taking a step back, a hand on her heart. Dazai gave her an expectant look to explain. 

"Y-You, my boy, have the- the Grim!" The class went silent and Blaise gave Dazai a considering look, but Dazai himself still wasn't sure why. He hadn't read the Divination textbook yet, so he had no idea what that was. Dazai gestured for her to explain.

"You are doomed to die!" 

Dazai's eyes lit up. He was expecting the class to start cheering, but nobody did. "Really!? I just hope it isn't painful!" He exclaimed, excited at the prospect. He grinned at the flabbergasted professor, who was surprised at his excitement.

The rest of the class was done in almost complete silence, the only reason it wasn't being the fact that this assignment required speaking.

"Dazai." Blaise whispered to him, looking at Dazai with a familiar searching gaze. Dazai rested his head in his hand as he looked over at his second, raising an eyebrow to prompt him.

"Just for the record, I'm not letting you die. And I know that the others aren't going to, either."

"Of course you aren't. You're all too boring . . "

Blaise shot Dazai a stern look, but sighed and let it go for now. Dazai had a feeling his gang would ambush him with this later. 

Class soon ended, everyone scrambling to leave finally. Dazai grabbed his stuff and walked out with Blaise by his side.

Not even halfway through the hallway, randomly felt a tap on his shoulder. He was momentarily startled. He should've been able to hear someone coming. Dazai looked over at the person.

"Oh! Hermione. Hello." Dazai greeted with a wave of his hand as he turned around. It was just Hermione. Blaise turned with him.

"Dazai! I told you to stop joking about death so much!" Dazai had had a feeling that this what this was about. He internally sighed.

"Ah, sorry about that!" Dazai apologized, but he still looked starstruck at the idea of his impending doom. Hermione just sighed disapprovingly.

It was now the twins' turn to run over to the group. 

"Hey!" George started. "How was Divination?"

Dazai said "Great!" while Hermione said "Awful!" at the same time. The twins just laughed it off.

"Well, Defense Against the Dark Arts was great! The new professor is definitely better than the last two."

"Well, that's a pretty low bar," Dazai said. The twins winced at the reminder. 

"Anyway, he had us fight a boggart!" Fred said with a grin. George nodded and continued, "Defense Against the Dark Arts is definitely my favorite class now."

Dazai had read about boggarts in his first year. They showed your worst fear and used it against you. But it probably wouldn't affect him because of No Longer Human. That was a bit of a problem.

The twins set off to their own classes and Hermione disappeared while he and Blaise and went to DADA, on the way meeting Draco. But he wasn't paying much attention. He had to get out of exposing No Longer Human in some way. 

Dazai could always say that he's just not afraid of anything (because he's not). Not only will his cover be okay, it would probably work in the Port Mafia's favor. It would make his classmates fear and hate him even more which, in the end was part of Mori's extensively vague plan. Dazai was so lost in thought he bumped into the door. Blaise and Draco blinked at him.

"You okay?" Blaise asked. Dazai just smiled. "Yep! Just got lost in thought again, you know me!~" Draco and Blaise looked unconvinced, but they opened the door and walked inside anyway.

Dazai walked inside and sat down at a desk. Blaise and Draco sat next to him, and Pansy soon followed over.

"Before you say anything, Dazai," she started. "I'm only here because Draco is."

"Suuure," Dazai teased, smirking at her. She just huffed and looked forward. Blaise had a small amused smile that made Dazai look away as well.

Eventually, Professor Lupin started the class. They were indeed, fighting a boggart. 

Dazai found himself involuntarily tensing up, and forced his muscles to calm. They moved the desk and everyone lined up in front of a supply closet, supposedly where said boggart was.

Almost everyone had relatively normal fears. Someone was scared of caterpillars for some reason, someone else was afraid of bats (seriously, why are they all so wimpy?).

But he was surprised to see his own face in the mix.

Dazai knew people were afraid of him. It wasn't a surprise. He just didn't expect it, is all. And soon enough, it was his turn to fight the boggart. But before he had a chance to see what it would turn into, Professor Lupin jumped in front of him. 

The boggart turned into a sphere of sorts with clouds around it. Sorta glowing in a way. The moon. It was the moon. But why would Lupin be afraid of the moon? Perhaps it was part of some sort of magical creature trauma?

Before Dazai had a chance to contemplate further, Lupin cast Riddikulus, and the boggart was officially taken care of and class was dismissed. Dazai walked out the classroom with even more questions than when he had stepped inside.

Well, at least he has more things to research in his free time.

Chapter Text

Dazai was, once again, in the library.

He hadn't done this much research since first year, back when he was naive enough to believe that he would find literally anything on Special Abilities. Ah, he was so young and foolish back then.

But this time, he was researching dementors. So far, he didn't have much luck. He already knew most if the stuff in there. That they guard Azkaban, suck happiness out of you, make it really fucking cold, etc. The best thing thing that he found was that they occasionally perform something called the "Dementor's Kiss" and suck out your soul.

Dazai sighed. He had quite a few tomes surrounding the desk he was in. For the little information that wizards seem to have on dementors, they sure do write a lot of books on them.

Dazai was surprised the dementors still affected him despite No Longer Human. He wondered how it interacted with his Ability. Dazai sighed again, closing the book he was reading shut and leaning back in his chair.

"Dazai?"

Dazai looked over. It was the twins plus Blaise. He was so wrapped up in his research that he didn't even register them approaching. Dazai quickly put a small smirk on his lips.

"Yes?"

Blaise walked forward, a concerned crease in between his eyebrows. He sat down across from Dazai. The twins quickly followed. They seemed disappointed and even a bit concerned, looking incredibly close to fussing again.

"Spending all your time in the library again?" Fred asked. 

"We're so lonely without you!" George dramatically exclaimed.

Dazai saw Blaise glance over to the large tomes that he was reading. Blaise knew his new research topic, but didn't comment on it. Instead stating: "Don't overwork yourself again, Boss."

Dazai waved them off. "I won't, I won't . . . " After the summer that he had, being overworked to hell by Mori, he wasn't sure tasks like this could overwork him anymore. Blaise still looked unconvinced, though. But he didn't push further.

"So," George started. "What did you guys do over the summer?"

Dazai half shrugged. "Nothing much, mostly just helped Mori with paperwork." And babysat Elise, and did missions, and pushed himself to the brink of exhaustion, but they don't need to know that.

"I didn't do much, either," Blaise responded. "Mostly just hung out with Draco and Pansy. What about you?"

The twins nodded and hummed in recognition before responding.

"We went to Egypt with our family to visit Bill!"

"It was in the Daily Profit!"

Blaise nodded. "I remember reading about it, you won the Daily Profit lottery or something,"

Dazai mostly doesn't read the Daily Profit, and he wouldn't be able to even if he wanted to since Mori has to be a pain in the neck all of the time apparently.

Soon, Madame Pince walked over and told them it was almost curfew and that they should get back to their dorms. So Dazai checked put the books he still had to read in the gang room. Dazai eventually left the library with the twins and Blaise as his guides to said gang room since Hogwarts is still impossible to navigate.

Dazai normally wouldn't give a shit about curfew, but he doesn't want to deal with the professors currently with his infamy at it's peak. Plus his friends would force him to go back to the gang room, anyway. Not that Dazai wasn't planning on pulling an all-nighter to read his library books and finish his textbooks.

Unfortunately, Dazai had forgotten his bookbag like an idiot and was now stuck carrying his library books with only one arm considering he broke the other.

"Dazai," Blaise started. "Do you want me to help carry your books?"

Dazai gladly dropped two of the four large tomes in Blaise's arms as soon as he offered. George chuckled.

They soon made it to the gang room, and Dazai grabbed his books back from Blaise. He bid Blaise adieu and waved him off. The twins, however, stayed and opened the door for Dazai.

Dazai stepped inside and dropped the books on the desk. The twins closed the door behind themselves and stood there, their arms crossed, concern etched into their features.

An interrogation was coming. Dazai could feel it.

Severus, as much as he held a grudge against the man, knew that Lupin wouldn't hurt Dazai. At least not consciously, considering the whole werewolf situation.

Severus had been worried about how Dazai would respond to Lupin, given his previous luck with DADA professors. And from what he had heard from Lupin himself, Dazai had avoided the professor all lesson. Severus couldn't say he was surprised.

And there was still the issue of telling the new healer of Dazai's . . . habits. As the boy's head of house, it was Severus' job to do that. He was just absolutely dreading it.

Dazai's records, of course, already had said issues on it. But Dazai's record also didn't have his name on it at all. Poppy had kept it that way to preserve his safety, given St. Mungo's knew about him. But Severus would still have to say something eventually, since it was still very clear on his medical history itself.

But eventually wasn't now. 

It was almost time for curfew. Maybe he could ask Minerva for at least their name. He wanted to know who he was dealing with, after all. He hadn't even spoken nor seen them yet. They still haven't come out at meal times, apparently still setting up. Somehow Severus doubts that.

But maybe he just wasn't over Poppy yet. He was still concerned about possible abuse in Dazai's household. No, not possible abuse, definite abuse. 

The way Dazai responded to things; the way he deflected questions, how he spoke about his own guardian, how he reacted to things that should be simple, it just wasn't right. 

And there was always this darkness behind his eyes that felt wrong. It was that that turned everything he does and says into an obvious call for help, even if it was just subconscious.

Dazai's fake reassurances be damned, he wasn't fucking okay! He and Minerva hadn't given up on making Dazai safe, but business was slower than it had ever been. Severus couldn't help but be concerned. He looked at the time. Five minutes until curfew. He had been thinking for ten minutes.

Severus stood up from his chair. He had better start his regular rounds before he went to Minerva's office.

Chapter Text

Dazai had ended up being interrogated like he had predicted. The twins had heard about the whole Divination thing and the Grim incident. Hermione probably told them.

But, while they are being extra overprotective, they aren't mentioning his comment and trying to get him to talk to them like they were before. 

Dazai also keeps seeing a big black dog everywhere, though, as well. It's freaking him out. But apparently the Grim is supposed to be a big black dog, so maybe it's a sign that his impending death is coming soon. Hopefully.

Either way, Dazai is seriously considering just finishing the job for the Grim and killing himself. He sighed. He had finished his potions assignment ages ago so now he's just waiting for the class to end. Since being allowed to experiment with his potions in return for participation, Dazai has been finishing his assignments faster and faster. The only bad side to that is now he gets perfect marks and everyone knows that he's not just a useless idiot anymore.

At least Hermione's happy about it. She's finally off his back about his potions grade. Though that's caused her to double down on his other subjects. 

"Dazai!" Ron whisper yelled. "How did you finish so quickly?"

"It's really not that hard, Ron,"

"You're the one who was failing potions just last year . . "

Dazai ignored the comment and laid his head on the desk. He had been so busy with his research he's barely had time to sleep. But, at this point, he's gotten used to sleep deprivation after being forced to do so much paperwork. Dazai is starting to think Mori has some weird vendetta against him for some reason.

Thankfully, class ended soon enough. Dazai was going to sneak out without bottling his potion, but Hermione caught him and forced him to. Dazai really didn't want to (since he'd definitely get a perfect grade), but he was being threatened with the wrath of her cat so his hands were tied.

Dazai sighed deeply and opened the door with Blaise. They walked around in silence. To Dazai, it looked like random wandering, but he was sure that Blaise knew where he was going.

Dazai felt someone tap his shoulder. He looked over and saw none other than Percy Weasley.

"Percy! To what do I owe the pleasure?" Dazai asked, a small smile playing on his lips.

"Your presence was requested in the infirmary," Percy informed them. Dazai pouted.

"Do I have to go? I have class after all . . "

"Yes. I'm sure your absence will be covered, so you have nothing to worry about."

Dazai whined. Blaise put a hand on his shoulder reassuringly. 

"I can lead you there if you'd like. We both know you'll get lost otherwise."

"That won't be necessary, I'll be taking him."

Dazai couldn't help but feel disappointed that he won't be able to walk with Blaise instead. He barely knows Percy, anyway (that was definitely the only reason!).

Dazai groaned. Percy started walking and Dazai reluctantly followed behind him. Though he made sure to complain the whole time about random things. Hey, he's petty.

Eventually, they made it. Percy opened the door for Dazai and made sure he walked inside, knowing that he would most likely try to escape as soon as Percy left.

Dazai looked around. It looked more or less the same as before, with a few small changes. A man sitting in a chair - the healer, no doubt - turned his head and looked at Dazai, smiling.

It was Mori. He was in a disguise, sure, but Dazai would never mistake that devious smile for anyone else's. That damn bastard.

"Ah, recognize me, don't you Dazai?" Mori inquired with a small chuckle. Dazai scowled but walked forward when Mori beckoned him forward.

"Explain." Dazai demanded, glaring at the doctor that had tormented him for years.

"I will soon, but first I wanted to check on that arm of yours." Dazai reluctantly handed Mori his broken arm, but rolled his eye in spite of the man. Mori tutted, starting to take off the cast to check on the arm.

"So," Mori started. "How is school going?" He asked condescendingly. 

"How it always does," Dazai reluctantly replied. "So, y'know, everyone being absolutely terrified of me and giving me enraged stares."

Mori just chuckled. He eventually finished and put Dazai's arm in a new, smaller cast.

"You should be able to get it off in a week if you're careful"

"You're finished. Now explain." Dazai demanded, taking his arm back.

Mori chuckled. "You're awfully feisty today. It's cute." Mori commented. Dazai prompted him to get on with it.

"Anyway, DOE hired me under a fake name so we could communicate better. Since our letters may get intercepted."

Dazai seriously doubted that was the real answer, but didn't voice that out loud, instead asking a better question:

"Where's Elise? There's no way that you'd let her stay with just Hirotsu an entire school year. And there's the whole ability thing, too."

"Elise is out right now, but she'll be back to serve as my assistant."

Dazai isn't surprised at the cryptic answer as much as he's annoyed by it, but just sighs and gets up to leave the god awful place that the infirmary has become.

"Ah, before you leave Dazai," Mori started. "Don't tell anyone about this. Not even Draco."

Dazai nods and opens the door to finally leave.

Chapter Text

Dazai hadn't been looking forward to the first Hogsmeade visit before, and now he was fighting through a crowd, trying to find his friends so they could get on the train there with them.

Dazai didn't regret signing the paper, he just wished he wasn't in the middle of a large cluster of people glaring at him. It was, admittedly, overwhelming.

But just then, he felt someone grab his wrist and pull him out into a clearing of the crowd, where not so many people were. Dazai was looked up to see it was just Blaise. But not only Blaise. Fred, George, Pansy, Hermione and Ginny.

"Hello," Dazai greeted once his growing anxiety subsided. "Big crowd."

"Actually it's not as big as it usually is." George responded. "Must be because Sirius Black escaped."

"Oh, yeah, that guy." Dazai said. "Think he's in the wizard mafia?"

Blaise looked part amused and part exasperated at Dazai's comment while Pansy just rolled her eyes.

"Sirius Black was a huge supporter of You-Know-Who, y'know." Ron responded. Dazai chuckled.

"So, I was right. Though he doesn't give me the same kind of vibe that Quirrel did, y'know?"

The twins nodded in unison as the group got on the train. They all sat in the same compartment as usual, though it was a bit squished. Nothing they haven't gone through before, though.

"Dazai," Hermione started. "Are you alright? You looked overwhelmed earlier,"

"I'm fine," Dazai responded. All his subordinates overreact so much!

"Dazai, by the way," Fred said, clearly trying to change the subject. "What's the new healer like? I haven't heard anything about him for some reason!"

"Insufferable." Dazai answered. He wasn't allowed to tell anyone about Mori, so that's all he was going to say without elaboration.

"Well," George started. "If you don't like him, then we won't either." Fred nodded in agreement.

Dazai pouted. "I had to see him twice to get my cast off!" And Percy had dragged him there both times.

"He can't be that bad." Hermione said.

"He might be worse than the last ones!"

"The last ones tried to steal and profit off of your information, Dazai." She shot back.

"I saw the healer a couple days ago," Ginny spoke up, fidgeting slightly. "He kinda . . creeped me out? I dunno . . "

"If you ever need to go the infirmary again, just don't." Dazai said. "I'll research some healing spells and potions, no one should have to deal with that guy."

The twins were uncharacteristically quiet for a moment.

"Hey," Fred started. "What do you mean by he 'creeped you out'?"

"There was just this vibe to him that was just weird and creepy, almost slimy in a way."

"Ugh, like Mori," Dazai had to comment.

"I'm sorry you have to deal with that, it was awful!" Ginny said. Dazai waved off her concern. 

"It's fine," Dazai told her as he looked out the window. Blaise grabbed his hand reassuringly and Dazai hid the blush that crept up on his face.

"Is the new healer at least competent?" Pansy asked.

"Debatable, but he's technically not bad at his job." Dazai responded.

Hermione looked just about ready to scold him for that, but just sighed and gave up visibly. The twins chuckled in unison.

Dazai was blankly following the twins at this point. They told him that they wanted to show him some stuff since it was his first time and they were his self appointed older brothers, but Dazai had a feeling it was because of all the hushed whispers and angry stares and scared children that tended to follow Dazai everywhere.

They eventually brought him over to an actual store. It was a small sweet shop, with shelves in every available space filled top to bottom in various candies and sweets.

"These are probably the best," Fred said while pointing at different types of candies.

"But we have a list of all the good stuff in here in case you want something different," George finished and handed Dazai a detailed list of every good sweet or candy in the store and why, along with an allergy list. It listed things like Chocolate Frogs, and Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, and Dazai scanned it.

He looked around and grabbed two or three things to make the twins happy. But he doubted he was going to eat most if any of it. At least not without vomiting.

Dazai looked over and saw the twins looking over some candy -- though there was notably none in there hands -- and whispering to each other. It was pretty easy to deduce what they were talking about. They were trying to figure out what candy they should get to share for the both of them.

It quickly became unbearable to watch, so Dazai grabbed a couple more things and walked over to the counter, scaring the lady behind it in to giving them a deal and paying for all of it before leaving.

All of them left and Dazai handed them some of the stuff he saw on their list that he bought.

"Aww, does Snakey care about whether or not his subordinates have candy? That's adorable! Right, Fred?"

"Definitely, George!"

Dazai's face burned and he crossed his arms.

"Don't patronize me, it was hard to watch!" They just laughed.

"Hey!" A voice hollered from behind. It was Pansy. Blaise was standing next to her.

Dazai waved. "Hello!"

"I bought this for you," Blaise said and handed him an advanced potions textbook. He had been wanting to learn more, especially since he'd definitely be doing Mori's job for him for his friends.

"Here," Dazai handed Blaise a bag of candy. "I won't be eating that much, anyway." Blaise nodded and took it.

"Hey," George started. "We should go to Zonko's! They have some great stuff there!" Fred nodded.

"Lead the way!" Dazai announced. And so they started walking to whatever the hell Zonko's was.

The store was a bit larger than the sweet shop from before, and the shelves were spaced out a bit more for more room to walk. Products were being flung across the store and some even flew above their heads. Dazai knew that if he even brushed against one of them accidentally, No Longer Human would be completely exposed.

It was chaotic, to say the least. Dazai never liked chaotic. But weirdly enough, he didn't feel overwhelmed or feel a need to escape.

(The thought came, unbidden, Maybe it's because my friends are here. But he snuffed the thought out just as quickly as it came.)

The group split up. Blaise and Pansy going along with Dazai while the twins went on there own.

There were some interesting things, to say the least, at the shop; dungbombs, trick wands, etc. Dazai was never super interested in those sort of things, but he grabbed three dungbombs just in case he needed a diversion. Maybe he'll set one off in the infirmary for Mori to deal with.

"Are you seriously getting dungbombs?" Pansy asked, though curiously she didn't sound like she was insulting him.

"Eh," Dazai shrugged. "I might need them for something."

Blaise just sighs in amusement, but doesn't grab anything. 

Dazai noticed the twins hesitating to grab anything. Right. They can't afford anything. Dazai walked up to them.

"Jeez, if you want something just grab it." He said. "I'll pay for it."

"Are you sure-?"

"Yes. I'm sure. Just get on with it," Dazai tried to sound annoyed, but was almost surprised when he heard his own, almost fond, tone. He shook away the thought.

Fred and George grabbed a few things, but clearly not as many as they actually wanted to. Dazai just ignored it and paid for all of them.

Chapter Text

Dazai had only gotten back an hour ago, and he was already exhausted.

Dazai would've normally skipped the Halloween feast, but the twins kept talking about their prank for that year and he had to stay. Dazai didn't want any kind of food, but of course Blaise put some on his plate anyway. He picked at them with his fork, not planning to eat much if any of it.

It turned 8:29, one more minute until the end of the feast and bedtime. But just then, all of the beverages turned into something that looked like actual shit and smelled even worse. Ah, the twins prank. Dazai heard gagging noises all around the Great Hall as people accidentally smelt and drank it.

Dazai thought it was absolutely hysterical. Especially when he saw Gemma smell it by accident and almost vomit. But at that point, it was time to go to bed. Dazai stood and started to leave with everyone else.

Dazai had run out of money at Hogsmeade. He'd have to steal some from Mori later, since he knows that Mori's getting paid quite a lot at Hogwarts.

Dazai felt ready to pass out. He was so tired. But then he looked up. He hadn't been paying attention to where he was going and now he was lost. He had memorized the way to the gang office at this point but he was too distracted. Dammit!

He laid down on the floor. "Guess I'll just die here . . . "

"Not happening," said Blaise from behind him. He walked in front of Dazai and offered his hand. Dazai hesitated a moment before reluctantly taking it. Blaise helped him up before immediately pulling him somewhere else.

"There's been a situation in the dungeons," Blaise explained. "They're looking for you."

Dazai let himself be pulled. He didn't bother asking what the situation was. He had a feeling it would be revealed soon. 

They eventually made it to in front of the Slytherin dungeons, where a small crowd was, similar to how it was after Egg hatched. Blaise pulled Dazai over to the front where Snape and McGonagall were.

"Where were you after curfew!?" Snape demanded to know. Dazai flinched. Snape took a breath and calmed down but still looked incredibly done with life.

"Oh, you know me, I got lost again!" It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the full truth either. 

Professor McGonagall and Snape both just sighed and nodded. Snape looked a bit skeptical, but said nothing. Blaise started pulling Dazai to the back, still holding his hand.

"What's the situation again?" Dazai asks. But before Blaise can answer, the portrait next to the entrance to the Slytherin dungeons screamed

"Sirius Black!"

Blaise sighed. "Supposedly, Sirius Black broke in and tried to get in the dungeons. But then the portrait screamed and he tried to shut her up by slashing her."

Dazai nodded. "Amateur move on his part," Blaise gave Dazai an exasperated look but didn't comment.

Though there was still the question of why he decided to break into the dungeons, or Hogwarts in general. It wasn't practical. There were dementors everywhere looking for him. Plus Hogwarts has a lot of security.

The dungeons itself isn't practical. It's cold and there aren't many places to hide or stay. 

"Hey!" Gemma yelled over the crowd. "Everyone! Go the Great Hall, I will be leading you! You'll be sleeping in there!"

Everyone started moving to the Great Hall again. Blaise kept his grip firmly on Dazai's hand and pulled him along gently. It felt like forever until they got there.

There were mats laid out for them. All three other houses were there, too. Some people were crying, some were looking around like they expected Sirius Black to jump out of the shadows and some were just checking on their friends. 

Dazai heard running behind him. He turned his head, expecting a classmate that might blame him for what happened or something-

Only to be ambushed by a hug. Dazai relaxed once he realized that it was just Fred and George. He pat them on the back awkwardly.

"Uh," Dazai started, attempting to dissolve the tension. "Do you really want to destroy your reputation that badly, hugging me and all?"

They released their tight hold on him. Only to smack him lightly on the arm.

"Hey!" Dazai said, pouting. "What did I do to deserve such cruelty!?"

Fred and George crossed their arms in unison. "We don't care about our reputation!" George said sternly.

Fred followed up with "And we've been so worried after we heard what happened! Especially since the Daily Profit is blaming you!"

"What?" Dazai asked. He probably knew what they were talking about, but he likes to know for sure what the media is saying about him so he can exploit it.

"The Daily Profit has been blaming you for the escape of Sirius Black," Blaise explained.

. . . ah.

Dazai wasn't surprised.

"Lights out!" McGonagall called out. "Go to sleep! We'll deal with the situation!"

Fred and George gave him and Blaise an apologetic look before walking over to their house again.

Dazai picked the mat that he was going to sleep on randomly. It just so happened to be next to the one Blaise had picked. It was definitely a coincidence. Definitely.

Dazai can't sleep.

He was reminded of the year prior, where he had been so jumpy that his sleep schedule was fucked. He was in a similar situation here. He was decidedly not paranoid. He was, however, so exhausted.

Dazai sat up. He couldn't just leave to the gang room to sleep, a professor would definitely notice his absence. But he was so desperate for some form of rest already. 

Someone walked inside the Great Hall. Based on the walking pattern, it was definitely a professor. Dazai looked over and had to suppress a groan.

It was Mori.

Mori walked over and looked down at Dazai, gesturing for him to get up and follow him. Dazai begrudgingly obeyed. They walked to the infirmary, where Mori sat him down in a cot.

"So," Mori started with a sickening smile. "How has school been?"

"The usual," Dazai answered. "Everyone's afraid of me and thinks I'm a serial killer, I'm apparently being blamed for the escape of an actual serial killer, etcetera etcetera."

Mori nodded before sighing forlornly. "You never visit the infirmary! I've been so lonely here . . "

"Good."

"Ah. You're so cruel, Dazai!" Dazai ignored him.

"By the way," Mori began. "Earlier when Sirius Black attempted to break into the Slytherin commons, did you happen to see him?"

"No. How would I?" Dazai rolled his eye. 

Mori nodded. "Find out more about this 'Sirius Black', will you? Give me a report once you're ready,"

"Of course," Dazai responds. Then, as an afterthought, "Boss." Though he was only agreeing because Mori is his boss and he was curious himself. Plus, it'd probably annoy Snape to no end.

Mori looks at Dazai longingly. "If only I could put you in more of your dresses, you look ever so much cuter in them!"

Dazai doesn't comment, but shoots him a menacing glare. Before sighing and giving up because Mori finds his glares "adorable".

"You're free to go now." Mori said. Dazai got off the cot as quickly as possible. "Try to get some rest, okay? Eye bags don't suit you." 

"Yeah, yeah . . " Dazai waved him off and walked out the door, finally free to sneak back into the Great Hall.

Chapter Text

Remus turned the page of the book he was reading. He was in Minerva's office with Severus.

Apparently, Madame Pomfrey had started a Dazai Protection Club, and Severus of all people was in it. Remus had only joined after expressing his concern about others bullying the boy to Severus. He was Dazai's head of house after all.

Though he and Severus didn't have a very good history, he hoped it wouldn't get in the way of protecting a student.

Remus didn't want to believe that his student was being abused at first, but he saw more signs every day. The way he covered himself in bandages, as if he were hiding injuries that a child shouldn't have to. The way he would snap quiet as soon as someone else spoke, as if he had been yelled at and ignored his whole life. The list went on and on.

But when he had suggested just contacting his city of residence, they shut him down immediately. Apparently, Yokohama was incredibly tight lipped and even threatened them when they had expressed concern.

"I hope that problem child doesn't cause any trouble . . " Severus mumbles. He was obviously talking about Dazai, and while Dazai was known to be a dangerous murderer, that wasn't actually the case and they knew that. And Dazai hadn't caused too much trouble so far other than not participating.

"Hm? What do you mean? I haven't noticed Mr. Dazai causing any trouble." Remus asked.

"Mr. Dazai has a penchant for getting into stuff that he's not supposed to." Severus responds. "First year it was Quirrel. Last year he killed the basilisk."

Remus was surprised. Of course, he knew that there had been a basilisk. It was mentioned in the Daily Profit after the school year ended. But DOE had taken all the credit. Remus was finding more and more things wrong with his world. He didn't like it.

Severus didn't look like he did, either. Remus never thought he'd see the day that Severus cared for someone again after Lily.

Dazai had started his investigation on Sirius Black. He had gotten some information on him (read: got info from Draco). Yet he still barely knew anything about the guy.

Apparently he had killed 12 muggles on the street and a wizard named Peter Pettigrew. And he had done so after giving the address of a magical family called the Potters to Voldemort. The Potters' 1 year old son, named Harry Potter, was the end of Voldemort. Though Harry Potter himself died while taking ol' Voldy with him.

Dazai had known that Voldemort was incompetent from the beginning. Died after trying to kill an infant and couldn't kill an 11 year old 10 years later. But that was besides the point!

There weren't any books on Sirius Black for some reason. There were books on the Potters' 1 year old son. No books about Sirius Black. Books on the Potters themselves. Still nothing on Sirius Black. It was getting quite frustrating. Though, then again, frustration was a perfect description for anything Mori wanted him to investigate. The only clue that wasn't just common knowledge in the wizarding world was that Mori was interested in the guy.

Dazai had spent all of his free time in the library studying something impossible. He was starting to feel a bit like a first year again, trying to read up on something that didn't have books on it. Though he had been doing that in the beginning of this year with dementors, hadn't he? That felt like forever ago.

Maybe he could find some old Daily Profit articles on Sirius Black later. He didn't care how he got information anymore. It could come from a mysterious voice in the abyss and he'd still be grateful for it. But where would he get old news from? He had gotten some older news articles from Tom before. But those had only been a few months old, not years.

Life was getting awfully tiring and complicated (not that it wasn't before with Mori working him to the bone). Everyday was the same cycle. Classes and then library. On the weekends it was just library. Sometimes he picked up some spells from the older kids in the hallways and practiced them.

But that was a problem for another time, as much as he hated it. Dazai had promised that he'd watch Ron and Draco's first match of the season. He'd only agreed to shut them up about it.

So, he left the library. At least for the time being. Hermione was standing there in front of the door. Dazai almost hit her in the face just by opening it. 

"Ah-" Dazai said. "I'm sorry about that!" He put a pleasant smile on his face.

"No worries!" She said. "I was just about to go in and get you, actually!"

Dazai nodded and they started walking to the quidditch field. They had reserved seats by the teachers' box again, just like the year before. Blaise, Ginny, Luna and Pansy were already there waiting. Dazai's little gang was starting to grow much bigger. Just as Dazai sits down, the game begins.

"Hey," Dazai starts, looking at the professors. "You wanna bet on the winner again?"

"No!" Most of them say in unison. Dazai laughs quietly to himself before sighing in disappointment and pays attention to the game again.

Luna, Ginny and  were all cheering on Ron and the twins, but Blaise, Pansy and himself were quiet. Though Dazai could tell that Blaise and Pansy were silently cheering on Draco. Dazai wasn't sure who to cheer for. 

It looked like Slytherin was in the lead. Though it was hard to tell because everything wizarding was excessively complicated. Dazai caught a glance at something gold fluttering around the field.

Pansy and Blaise seem to have found it as well, because they became tense in their seats. Dazai was tense, too, but not because of the game. In the middle of the field, there was a big black dog.

Hermione must've seen Dazai's immediate unease, because her hand immediately rested reassuring on his shoulder. As much as he hated to admit it, it did help. But the thought of 'That thing is going to kill me' still crossed his mind. As much as Dazai longed for his final breath, death by dog was still on his Worst Ways to Die list. Dazai squeezed his eye shut as hard as it would go.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, it got really really cold. Dazai knew what that meant immediately, but be couldn't help thinking 'The kennels are always so cold.'

Dazai reluctantly opened his eyes to prove that he was still at Hogwarts when he saw so. Many. Dementors.

He could hear old memories, ones that he locked away in his own subconscious. Ones of his father's hysterical screams, since he always got so so angry over everything. Ones of his mother's cries, because she was always crying. Then the world went dark.

Mori wasn't surprised when Dazai was brought into the infirmary unconscious. He was always such a troublesome child, even when he was so much younger, and so much smaller.

Elise - in an older form than Mori wasn't quite used to, as to not arouse suspicion around why a ten year old was there - grabbed Dazai and set him in a cot. Dazai had been brought by a pair of twins, a boy, two girls and Severus Snape, all of which looked incredibly worried and anxious. Though the boy just looked mildly concerned.

"What happened here?" Mori asked, getting a clipboard with Dazai's new record on it. He couldn't find the old one. There were none with his name on top. 

"Dementors showed up at the quidditch game and Mr. Dazai happened to faint," Snape explained. Mori nodded. He had done some research on dementors since they were everywhere this year, so he went to a cupboard for some chocolate that he had gotten earlier.

While Mori was going through his cupboard, he secretly watched the students that had brought in Dazai. The pair of twins were extremely worried, just being shy of touching Dazai.

The cute girl with bushy brown hair looked like she was on the verge of tears. The other girl with short black hair - equally as adorable - just looked mildly annoyed to the untrained eye, but there was some concern under it.

The boy's face, however, was mostly blank, the only sigh of concern there being a furrow of his brows. But Mori could tell that he was way more worried than he was letting on. They must've been Dazai's little friends. Mori couldn't blame them for being so worried, they were only children after all. And the concern on their faces was quite cute. 

"Well," Mori started as he put the bit of chocolate on the bedside table. "There's not much we can do except watch him and wait until he wakes. He'll be fine." Mori walked over to the side office that was apparently off-limits before calling out "Elise, dear? Can you watch Mr. Dazai while I get caught up on something?" Elise nodded.

Mori smiled back at the group before walking inside the office. He had an investigation after all. He doesn't always make Dazai do all the work. Only sometimes.

Chapter Text

Dazai woke up, the bright lights of a medical room hitting his eye. He squinted, his eye not quite adjusting to the brightness yet. It took a moment for Dazai to realize that he wasn't back home, and was in fact, still at Hogwarts. The wizarding world was not just a fever dream. Dazai looked over. Some of his gang members were there. Specifically Blaise, Fred, George and Ron.

"You alright, mate?" Ron asked. A woman who Dazai could only assume was Elise noticed his consciousness.

"Rintarou!" She called out. "He's awake!"

Dazai looked back at his friends, silently assessing them. "I thought I told you to stay away from the infirmary." Dazai quietly chides them. He has a feeling that Elise heard, but she didn't say anything if she did. 

"Sorry . . " The twins say reluctantly in unison. Blaise and Ron just look exasperated. The door to Mori's office opened and he walked out.

"Ah, Mr. Dazai, you're up." Mori said. Dazai didn't know why, but he only ever liked it when Snape called him that. "Eat the chocolate there on your bedside, it'll make you feel better."

George grabs it for him and hands it to him. Dazai very reluctantly takes a bite. He'd usually rather die than eat anything Mori gives him, but it's probably not poisoned.

"How are you feeling?" Mori asks, holding up a clipboard. Dazai glares at him before just sighing.

"Like I've been dropped from a building three times. But other than that, fine." Dazai answered begrudgingly. His friends give him worried looks, but Mori just chuckles.

"Well, don't hesitate to call me if you need." Mori says, pretending to be nice as he walked back into his office. Elise follows suit.

"Ginny wanted to visit, but didn't want to come back to the infirmary." Ron explains.

Dazai huffs and crosses his arms. "At least someone bothers to follow instructions around here!" He grumbles, pouting a little.

"But boss!" Fred whined.

"We wanted to visit you!"

Dazai rolls his eye at them in exasperation.

"Pansy visited for a while," Blaise says. "It was hard to convince her to go to class. Though you didn't hear that from me."

Dazai was about to respond when he realized Blaise said class. The quidditch game that he had fainted at had been on the weekend.

"How long have I been out?" He asks instead.

Fred and George look like they don't want to answer, so Blaise sighs and responds for them.

"About a day or so."

. . . What.

He'd missed a whole day of research. Or at least attempting to do research. He could've missed something! He sighs and tries to push the thought away.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Elise pokes her head out of the office. "You four should head to class. It's starts in about 3 minutes."

Blaise nods at her and forces the twins to stand up with him and Ron.

"See you later, Boss." He says. Dazai waves goodbye to them with a pleasant smile, but as soon as they left, it fell.

Dazai picked at his arm bandages absentmindedly. He saw a big black dog, right before he fainted. The Grim is a big black dog. Maybe there's a connection there . .

Mori walks out of his office, pulling Dazai's hand away from his arm to stop him from picking at his bandages.

"Can I leave?" Dazai asks. He had stuff to do. Mori chuckles, and Dazai imagines himself ripping out the man's voice box.

"It would be wise for you to stay for just a bit longer, Dazai."

Dazai scowls. "I'm not gonna get anywhere with my investigation if I'm stuck in here all day." Dazai complains, crossing his arms.

"How is your investigation going, by the way?"

"There's nothing on Sirius Black in the library that isn't already apparently common knowledge, as far as I can tell." Dazai says before adding "But I'll find something." as an afterthought.

"I can probably find you some more resources from DOE, but you'll have to be patient." Mori responds, smiling his signature sickeningly sweet smile.

Of course DOE can get him probably confidential stuff. It is led by Kouyou after all.

Blaise had been ushered out of the infirmary for class. He had wanted to stay longer, make sure Dazai didn't hurt himself. Purposefully or otherwise.

Dazai was also clearly uncomfortable with the new healer, Rintarou. The last time Dazai was outwardly uncomfortable with a staff member he almost died. Similar stuff happened with Lockhart, and Dazai was uncomfortable with him too, even if it wasn't super obvious.

So clearly he has good instincts.

Blaise had considered skipping class, but he didn't think that Dazai would appreciate it that much. Though Fred and George looked like they were planning to skip as well.

"Knock it off and go to class," Blaise tells them. "Dazai wouldn't want you to skip."

The twins look at each other for a moment before bursting out laughing. "Well, that's Blaise for you. Ever observational!" One of them says.

Blaise has been told that he's observational since he was a little kid. That was how he could read the ever mysterious Dazai so well.

Blaise just sighs and walks to his Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

Class was over, but Blaise was still in the classroom. Professor Lupin asked him to stay after class.

"You wanted to talk, Sir?" Blaise says, walking up to Lupin.

"Ah, yes, indeed." Lupin said, leaning against his desk. Blaise looked at him expectantly. "How is Mr. Dazai? Not many react to dementors like he does, is there anything in particular that happened that makes him react like that? Anything traumatic?"

Blaise shrugged. "Probably, but not anything in the past two school years." That was partly a lie, but Lupin doesn't need to know how much trouble they get into every year. Not until he proves trustworthy.

"What about at home?"

"Dazai never talks about home." Blaise said. "Is that everything you needed, Sir?"

"Yes. Thank you."

And with that, Blaise left. He just hoped that that little interrogation was out of concern and not anything malicious. 

Chapter Text

If Dazai wasn't sick of the infirmary before, he definitely was now. Which is kinda dumb, considering he was only there for 2-3 days and he wasn't even conscious for one of them. Mori said he could leave at lunch, but it was still annoying. 

At least it wasn't just Mori with him for company. Occasionally his friends would visit in between classes, and Elise was there too. Mori had made her look older for the sake of disguise, but she still acted the same. Winter break was almost upon them now, so the two were scheming on how to annoy Mori the most over it.

"Okay," Dazai started. Elise was holding a clipboard that had their idea on it. "Our best idea is to reorganize all the books that Mori own while he's in a meeting and then gaslight him." Elise nodded.

"We should reorganize it backwards to how he usually does it," Dazai suggested. Elise wrote that down on their list. Just then Mori walked out from his office, but he didn't seem to have heard anything.

"Are you two getting along for once?" He asked, teasing. Elise stuck her tongue out at him while Dazai flipped him off. So of course Mori has to laugh at them.

"Anyway, you can leave in five minutes, Dazai." Mori said before adding "Oh! And DOE has found you some records on Black that you should be able make a report on for me." And with that, he retreated back into his office. He spent a weird amount of time in there.

Dazai turned back to Elise. "Anyway, what meeting should we enact our plan during? . . "

Severus didn't usually distrust anyone this much. Sure, he never trusted Quirrel. Especially after finding out that he was having "remedial lessons" with his problem child Dazai. And he definitely didn't trust the temporary healers Professor Spleen or Wiggins. But his distrust for them doesn't come close to his distrust for the new healer, Rintarou.

For one, he was hired by DOE, which is already a red flag. And there was just this vibe to him that was unsettling. His assistant Elise is a bit . . . odd. But she's okay as far as Severus can tell.

And he has an weird feeling that he's seen Rintarou before but he can't place where. Maybe they happened to pass ways while he was visiting Saint Mungo's for whatever reason. Either way, the guy still gives him a bad vibe. 

Though, now that he thinks about it, Elise was the name of someone mentioned in the letter that Severus had found. It must be just a weird coincidence, he thought. After all, the way that the letter had spoken about that Elise made her sound like she was a child.

Severus was snapped out of his thoughts when he arrived outside the ever noisy Great Hall for lunch. Dazai was there, too, with his ever present best friend Blaise. Dazai must've gotten out of the infirmary.

"Hello!" Dazai greeted, overly cheerful with a cheeky smile that told Severus he was planning something. Blaise, however, just waved.

"How are you feeling?" Severus asked Dazai. 

"I feel fine. People should stop asking me that!" Dazai responded, crossing his arms and pouting. Blaise just sighed and pulled Dazai with him into the Great Hall. Severus follows suit after a quick moment.

He walked over to the teachers' table and sat down, watching Dazai and Blaise by the Slytherin table. All of the seats next to or even just near them were completely empty. Blaise seemed to be forcing Dazai to eat again, as he did every day. Severus could only wish he had the ability to make Dazai take care of himself in literally any way.

Dazai didn't even touch the food that Blaise was pushing towards him. Snape was watching them intently, but he just ignored it. It's not like he could hear them talking (not that they were talking much.). No, it was Mori he was worried about.

Mori had started sitting at the faculty table at some point while Dazai was in the infirmary, and he was also watching them. And while technically Mori hadn't said that Dazai wasn't allowed to have his gang, he wasn't allowed to get attached.

He's not attached, it just looks that way. He is not getting soft. He will not allow himself to.

So now Blaise was giving Dazai one of his looks because he was being weird. It was, to say the least, annoyingly inconvenient.

Well, whatever. Dazai will deal with that later. For now, the year started a while ago and Hell's Hounds has barely caused any chaos! Now, normally that wouldn't be all that big of a deal, even the Port Mafia has it's slower years and it's big years.

But chaos will lead the teacher's off his trail for investigating Black. People have been watching him anxiously as he reads up on it, so he needs a good distraction. Plus, he can tell that maybe the gang needs to do something organized all together, especially with new members. He needs to limit infighting.

"Hey." Dazai started, looking at Blaise. "Meet me and the others in the gang room after school." It was an order, not a suggestion. Blaise nods, but doesn't stop giving Dazai looks every so often.

Well. Dazai will ignore that for now and hope it doesn't come back to bite him. 

School had ended. So now George was walking to the gang room with his twin Fred since Dazai asked them to meet him and the others there. George is a bit worried about the kid. Fred is too. They both can tell, even if neither says anything to the other.

For one, he didn't answer any of their letters. And even if they agreed to stop nagging him about it, they haven't forgotten. It was hard to, knowing how awful living at home is for Dazai.

Well . . .

Maybe they didn't fully know, but they had a good enough idea. Even if he's never really said anything outright.

And unfortunately, Dazai has a bad habit of shutting himself off a lot, so it was hard not to be worried about him. Especially if you were his self appointed older brothers. But they were trying not to mention it, since they knew that Dazai would react, well, poorly.

"Wonder what Dazai needs from us . . " Fred wondered out loud.

"He probably just wants to cause chaos,"

"You must've read my mind, George!" Fred laughed. George laughed with him.

Eventually they made it to the gang room and walk inside once the door appears. Everyone else is already there.

"Hello!" Fred and George say in unison as they sit down. As more members joined, more seats seemed to appear for them.

The sound of Dazai clapping rang throughout the room, catching everyone's attention.

"Hell's Hounds! Hello! You may be wondering why I gathered you all here!" Dazai started as everyone looked at him, listening, hanging on every word. Dazai had a way of making people pay attention to him.

"We should start our usual schemes now." Dazai says, confirming George's theory before. "Selling test answers, of course. We should keep a good economy, especially since we may need to buy things from the village every so often."

George had seen everything there was to see at Hogsmeade already, and there were some pretty good stuff there, especially if they ever need a distraction which tends to happen a lot.

"We should probably do some other things maybe, if we have time. Though, I've also been meaning to research Sirius Black . . . " Dazai started mumbling. Most of the group looked at him in surprise and or horror.

"Dazai," Hermione started. "Please tell me you're not planning on going after Black! He's dangerous!"

Dazai smiled pleasantly at them. "Don't worry, I won't." The 'probably' in that sentence was unsaid but not unheard. No one said anything, but they were all watching him with an unconvinced gaze.

Dazai pulled the chalkboard over to himself, writing on it. On one side it said 'Potential victim teachers' and on the other side it said 'Other ideas'.

George already had a few ideas, and Fred definitely did, too. But neither twin was sure if it would meet the Boss' standards. After all, they were in charge of the pranks and chaos department and needed to meet his expectations. 

Chapter Text

Dazai ended up filling the entire right side of the board with just ideas for chaos, mostly them being the twins' ideas.

Hell's Hounds had ended up deciding that their first victim for their answer selling scheme would be Lupin, since he's the new teacher. They should assert their dominance, after all, even if he won't know it's them doing it.

"By the way," Dazai started. "Before you go, I have Ginny and Pansy's joining gifts."

"Like I'd want anything from you," Pansy said, rolling her eyes. Ginny, however, looked intrigued.

"Well, whatever. You're the one who invited themselves for into my gang, live with it." Dazai responds, opening a drawer in his desk as the two walk over. The others just watched in anticipation.

Dazai handed Ginny a leather bound diary. "Here. I saw it while I was out and thought of you. Oh, don't look at me like that, it's not like it's possessed." Blaise and Draco looked incredibly exasperated at his "joke". Ginny smiled at him.

"Thank you, Dazai."

Dazai nodded at her and moved on to Pansy, handing her a gold bracelet. Unlike the diary that he's randomly bought while walking around town with his new found freedom, he's actually had the bracelet forever. He doesn't remember where or how he got it, but he didn't want to keep holding onto it. 

"Thanks, I guess." Pansy says reluctantly. She doesn't put it on, but holds onto it gently like it could break if she breathed too hard on it.

"Curfews soon. We should get going." Blaise reminds them.

"Oh!" Dazai starts, holding them back for a moment. "Fred, George, could I borrow that map? I'll return it as soon as possible."

The twins nod in unison and Fred pulls out the Marauder's Map and hands it to him. The rest of the gang looks at them weirdly. Draco just sighs and ushers them out. 

"Goodnight, Dazai." Draco says curly before walking out.

Dazai waits until he knows they're gone before opening his drawer again and pulling out the actual possessed diary. He had kind of forgotten it's existence over the summer since he was so busy, but hasn't had time to write in it during the school year until now.

Hello again, he writes. Riddle responds quickly.

Hello, Riddle starts before writing You killed my basilisk.

Don't take it personally. I simply had a job to fulfill.

Riddle didn't respond for a moment. I didn't take it personally. However, I don't exactly appreciate you killing it.

Dazai rolled his eye, even though the diary probably couldn't see him considering it was an inanimate object. If you didn't want it killed, maybe you should've made it harder to get into.

It is difficult to get into. You have to speak parseltongue to get in. There was a small pause. Can you speak parseltongue, Dazai?

Dazai contemplated whether or not he should tell the truth. After all, it was easy to lie to a face, and even easier to lie to a page.

No. He finally wrote.

Then how?

Dazai ignores the not-so-inanimate inanimate object and closes the diary. He was so tired already, and it wasn't even midnight. But he couldn't sleep yet. He had business to attend to.

Mori had finally gotten those files on Black from Kouyou and Dazai needed to collect them now. And then do his report. He was not going to be sleeping for the next while.

Dazai stood up, using the map he borrowed from the twins to get to the infirmary. It was a couple floors down, so he had to brave the moving stairs, but he could deal with that. Probably.

He eventually made it without getting horrifically lost too many times or giving up on life entirely. Dazai barged in without knocking and closed the door behind him a bit louder than intended.

"Ah, Dazai! If you could please refrain from breaking the door . . " Mori said, standing up.

Mori walked into his office briefly, before walking back out with a small stack of paper and hands it to Dazai. Not even half of what he normally has for paperwork back home. Dazai takes them with a small sigh.

"Kouyou finally managed to find some confidential files for you. Don't lose them." Mori explains, sitting back down in his swivel chair. Dazai nods wordlessly.

"Ah, I can't wait for the break. I'll have you all to myself again!"

"Goodbye." Dazai says and walks out the door, away from that.

As much as Remus was enjoying teaching, students were starting to ask questions.

He can't blame them, being sick every month is really quite suspicious. His old friends thought so, too. Balancing being a werewolf and being a teacher is hard, but he's done similar and it worked out.

His work with Minerva and Severus hasn't been going well, either, though. For one, there's no easy way to help the Demon Student when you're trying to involve the law.

Everyone hates him and considers him a murderer, after all. Dazai himself has actually started to avoid Remus for some reason. Though, at the same time, watching him very closely.

Remus is trying not to be too worried about it, but it seems that Dazai suspects something. He can only hope Dazai doesn't know he's a werewolf. 

Chapter Text

"41 . . 42 . . 43!" Ron beamed as he finished counting the galleons they'd earned from selling test answers. It was quite a lot for only one teacher, even more than they made last year. Dazai could -- reluctantly -- say that he was proud of his small gang.

The Weasleys in his gang were the most excited about the money. Dazai couldn't blame them.

Of course, this was nothing compared to what he grew up with, but Father couldn't do this! He wouldn't know what stability was if it punched him in the face. Though, Dazai doubts that he would know anything anymore, being dead and all. 

Dazai shakes the dark thought away.

"Good job, guys," Dazai said. "This was a good haul."

Ginny and the twins beam up at the praise. Meanwhile Hermione looks a bit guilty, but is trying and failing to hide it.

"We should probably start getting the test answers from other teachers, and get started on our plans from earlier."

"Yeah!" Fred and George agree in unison. Though it's probably only because they enjoy chaos.

Dazai managed to finish memorizing all the records that Mori got for him, so he was in the library while he still had free time.

He would technically have to make it into a report on paper, how Mori liked it, but that was a later problem. Right now, he had to continue his research on healing potions. His infirmary ban on Hell's Hounds was still there's after all. He had learned some healing potions, but more was always good.

He was walking to an empty table to read, when he saw an open book on it. It was a book about werewolves, on a page about the signs of werewolves. Dazai read the passage.

One telltale sign of a werewolf whom you may know is disappearing every month, with little to no explanation.

Well that sounded awfully familiar. It went a little more into depth, but Dazai only skimmed it.

Another sign that someone may be a werewolf are scars. These scars may appear on face, neck or back. Scars have appears in separate places before, but those are the most common.

Dazai turned the page, suddenly suspicious of a certain Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. There were pictures of people with different kinds of scars on their face, neck and back. All claw marks, of course, like ones you would get from a dog. Dazai was very familiar with those. However, these ones looked different.

They all looked identical to the scars that Remus Lupin has on his face.

Well, it seemed as if Dazai had a werewolf for a professor this year. First hear he had a mafioso with Voldemort on the back of his head, last year he had an incompetent idiot, and now he had a werewolf. What, was he going to have some sort of criminal in disguise next year?

Dazai was done with this school year already and winter break hadn't even started. He hasn't even done the research he wanted to do! He didn't have much time left to do anything, barely any time at all.

Well, he supposed it could wait. He checked out the books he wanted to use and left the library. 

Pansy paced around the Slytherin common room. She had left the library in a hurry. The book she was reading might even still be open. She just couldn't believe it. Lupin is a fucking werewolf.

She had been researching curses and other things related to the moon ever since their first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. Lupin's boggart had been the moon, after all. Pansy had been curious as to why, but this was just too much!

Pansy wondered what Dazai would do next with this information. She sighed and stopped pacing.

"Are you okay?" Draco asked her suddenly, as he had been watching her.

Pansy felt a bit touched that Draco would notice her troubles, but huffed as if it was obvious anyway. "Of course I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be?"

"You've been pacing a lot." Blaise commented. Pansy hadn't even realized he was in the room before. "Is this about Dazai again?"

Pansy sputtered at them. "What!? Of course it's not about Dazai! Why would it be?!"

"You did spend a majority of last year obsessing over and conspiring against Dazai." Draco teases her, smirking. 

Pansy huffed at them. "No. It's not about Dazai at all." She reiterated. 

Pansy sat down on the couch next to them. She was glad to have her friends back after almost a full year of them not really hanging out with her, but she was worried about telling them what she had learned about their teacher.

She wondered if this is how Dazai felt about that secret everyone refuses to tell her about. Blaise had said that even he wasn't supposed to know. 

Chapter Text

Dazai was spending so much time in the library that he didn't even need to pay attention to where he was going to get there anymore. However, this now meant that he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings either.

"Oh! I'm sorry, Mr. Dazai!" Lupin apologized as Dazai bumped into him. 

"It's fine, Professor." Dazai responded, waving Lupin off. "Ah! I actually had a question, Sir."

Lupin looked surprised. "Oh. Well. Ask away!"

"Why did you stop me from fighting the boggart in the beginning of the year?"

Lupin fidgeted, answering reluctantly. "Ah, well . . . with everything that went on in your first year, fighting off Quirrel . . and the whole debacle last year . . plus with how you reacted to dementors - the embodiment of fear - you wouldn't react well to your worst fear."

Dazai was offended. "Well I'm not afraid of anything!" He answered, crossing his arms indignantly. Lupin gave him a doubtful look.

"Is there any way to ward off dementors?" If there was, it would be great knowledge to have. Dazai can't just keep fainting every time he comes across one.

"Well, yes, there's a spell but it's very advanced!" Lupin said. "Way above the level of a third year."

"I'm a fast learner." Dazai responded quickly. "Teach it to me."

Lupin shook his head. "No. I can't. It's way too advanced." Lupin rejected stubbornly.

"Fear is an excellent motivator," Dazai could hear Mori saying in his mind.

Fear, huh?

Dazai thought for a short moment.

"Well, it'd be a shame if rumors started going around that you're a werewolf, and you also just so happened to reject my request . . "

"Are you blackmailing me?" Lupin looked appalled. It really shouldn't be that surprising considering his reputation.

"Me? Blackmail? Never!" Dazai not-so-subtly lied, smirking cheekily. "Just think about it." He said, walking away. He had business to attend to.

Well, this was turning out to be an interesting year. First a mass murderer, then Mori's odd career choices, and now Dazai is blackmailing teachers.

Draco thought that Rintarou looked awfully familiar. In fact, he looked a lot like Mori. Add that with the fact that Dazai didn't want them going near the infirmary and you get a suspicious as fuck scene. It was difficult to ignore.

Draco seriously doubts, however, that Dazai would ever give a straight answer if he asked, though.

Draco wanted to stop thinking about it, but Dazai has been distant and hadn't given him a whole lot else to think about other than him and Rintarou's possible identity. 

Honestly, Draco didn't even want to ask Dazai about it. Not yet, at least. Hell, he had other things he should probably bring up, but it would never be a good idea. Such as, the scars he, Blaise and Pansy saw in the chamber. The other two and Draco had avoided the subject entirely, even among themselves.

They all knew Dazai too well. He'd get defensive and close himself off if they even tried to bring it up. Though maybe that was part of the problem. He'd definitely downplay it, too, despite the fact that some of those scars were deep enough to kill.

Winter break was very soon. Dazai was going home. Draco was, too. He wouldn't see Dazai for a few weeks again. Everything was happening way too fast for Draco. He could barely keep up.

Chapter Text

Winter break had only started yesterday, and Dazai already missed being at Hogwarts. So, he was doing what he usually does when he's annoyed about something and complaining about Mori to Hirotsu while on a walk.

"Mori's giving me even more paperwork even though I already need to make up stuff from when I was on my mission! Can you believe that!?" Dazai whined loudly. "Incident reports, payment forms, mission reports! He's even having me spell check medical forms cuz he's 'too busy', like no one else can do that!"

(*cough cough* Elise *cough cough*)

"That is certainly a predicament you're in, Dazai." Hirotsu agreed. While it may seem like he's insincere to the average passerby, someone who knew him as well as Dazai could tell otherwise.

Dazai wasn't even sure why they left Hogwarts at all. Mori works there now. Though, he supposes Mori probably has boss duties.

"It's so boring staying at headquarters for most of my time! But I can't leave very often since I have so much to catch up on!" Dazai pouted and crossed his arms.

"That is quite frustrating, Dazai." Well, at least Dazai had a little bit of freedom for now. And some sympathy from Hirotsu.

Dazai sighed heavily and wondered if his subordinates were missing Hogwarts at all.

Ginny, for as much as she loved and cherished her family, preferred Hogwarts over being at home. Which was kind of unfair to her parents, since they work so hard to give her a roof over her head and food and to keep her happy.

But hanging out with the gang and causing chaos with Dazai was just so fun! Ginny could tell the twins missed it, too. Though they probably missed their honorary brother more than school. Anyone and everyone in the gang would. Heck, even Ron missed Dazai!

(He would deny it fervently if anyone asked, though.)

Fred and George were being overly dramatic in their moping. It would be more hilarious if she herself didn't feel like she was being overly dramatic as well. After all, it was only a few weeks or so. And she could have fun with her friends, instead!

"Giiinnyyy!" The twins exclaimed in unison, dragging out her name. She looked up, now snapped back into reality.

"Why do you look so mopey?" Fred asked, his hands on his hips. George had his arms crossed next to him, giving the image of a concerned mother.

"Oh, nothing. It's dumb, anyway." Ginny waved them off. They gave her a look.

"Don't say that! Whatever it is, I'm sure it's not dumb!" George insisted. Fred nodded along with him.

"I guess I just miss Hogwarts." Ginny said finally. "And the gang. But it really isn't that bad." The twins exchanged a look, silently communicating something. They did that a lot.

"Don't downplay your feelings like that!"

"Yeah! You're starting to sound like Dazai! And not in a good way!" Ginny looked away.

"Yeah, I suppose. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize!"

Ginny ignored them and sighed. She wondered if the rest of the gang was enjoying their break, or if they were just as miserable as she was.

Pansy could only wish that she was still at Hogwarts instead of in her huge, stuffy house.

At least there there were books in the library that she hasn't read a million times before. And as much as she absolutely hated to admit it . .

She was starting to like the gang. Like being in the gang. It was like being a little kid again, and doing stupid shit with friends, for the first time in forever! She was still, however, attempting to hide this information from her parents.

They'd disown her if they found out she was hanging out with the Demon Student and the blood traitorous Weasleys of all people!

"Pansy, dear," Mother started. "Are you feeling alright? You've been awfully quiet since we got back from Hogwarts. That Demon didn't do anything to you, did it?"

Pansy felt her annoyance grow. She didn't want to talk to Mother. Especially not about Dazai, when all she was going to do was complain about him and call him an 'it', like he was an object.

"I'm fine, Mother. Just tired." She answered dismissively, not looking at Mother.

"Do not be disrespectful to your mother like that, young lady!" Father scolded her. "Apologize. Now."

Pansy didn't understand why Mother couldn't say that if it was so disrespectful. Father was always the one to speak up, like her mother was too fragile. But Pansy mumbled a quick, halfhearted "Sorry . . " anyway.

She sighed deeply as she wondered what the others were doing over their winter break.

Blaise couldn't help but think and worry about Dazai. If he was doing well back home, what he was doing, how Mori was treating him. He knew how much Dazai hated his home, and he wished they could still be at Hogwarts together.

Blaise wished a lot of things, actually. Like how he wished Dazai was happier, wished he could help, wished Dazai would open up to him more. He knew that Dazai was in the Port Mafia, and understood him more than anyone else in the gang. Dazai knew that, so why wouldn't he trust him?

Blaise looked up from his thoughts, watching his cousins running around and playing. They were visiting for the holidays since he was home from school. Most of them were quite young and very rowdy. He was the second to oldest, but his older cousin was too busy to show up.

"Hey! Blaise!" One of them, Elizabeth, said as she ran up to him. "Wanna play chess? We're having a championship!"

Blaise ruffled her hair and stood up. "Sure. I don't have anything better to do, anyway." She cheered and ran back over to the others who were setting up.

Blaise sighed. He hoped that the rest of the gang was doing well at home.

Draco normally wouldn't mind being at home, but right now? All he wanted was to be back at Hogwarts. He wanted to have a good conversation with Blaise or Pansy. Or heck, even Dazai and the rest of Hell's Hounds. And while he would technically see Blaise and Pansy at the Malfoy Winter Ball, it wouldn't be the same.

Draco didn't have anyone to talk to at home. His parents were too busy and also just didn't count, while the maids and butlers were all afraid of him. But as Draco was walking down the hall, he heard a familiar voice.

He put his ear up to the door. He knew he shouldn't be eavesdrop, but he couldn't help it. It was Father having a conversation with that lady who was with Dazai last year, Kouyou!

"Lucius, that son of yours," Kouyou started. "He's useful."

"Oh, please. He's a child." Father scoffed. Draco could hear his eye roll.

"Children can be surprisingly effective in these sort of things." Kouyou retorted. "Dazai's a child, too. He's getting his job done very well."

Draco was kind of shocked she had such faith in him when his own father didn't. But then again, it wasn't exactly surprising.

"I don't want Draco involved."

"He's already involved. You just have to accept that."

Draco pulled himself off the door. He didn't want to hear any more. He sighed quietly and hoped that the rest of the gang -- of his friends -- didn't have to deal with this kind of stuff at home either.

Chapter Text

"Stay still, Dazai." Mori reminded him as he continued to patch up Dazai's arm.

He obeyed, but only because he was too tired not to. Dazai sighed. He really did not want to be here. He doesn't know when he ever has. Mori chuckled.

"Y'know, I only find your annoyance cute." Mori commented, smiling at him condescendingly. Dazai kicked him in the shin, but that only seemed to amuse him more.

Dazai takes his arm back as soon as Mori finishes with it and moves on to the other one. He knew he wasn't being the most cooperative, but it was good enough for Mori to be able to work. 

"You really shouldn't hurt yourself like this, Dazai." Mori chastised him. "It's unhelpful for the both of us. You're not the only one doesn't want to be here."

"I wish I poisoned myself this morning . . . "

"Now, now, Dazai."

Dazai just rolled his eye and ignored him. There was no point in saying anything, anyway.

"That group of friends you have, they were quite the bunch of children." Mori said. "Interesting characters, alright. Those young girls were cute,"

Dazai kicked Mori in the shin again and glared. Mori just sighed in exasperation.

Mori was at a meeting now and Dazai didn't have anything else to do but hang around his office. He could've done paperwork, but he put most of it on a random executive's desk. Not Kouyou's, though.

He'd had a surprisingly little amount of missions or work lately. It was suspicious, but he wasn't exactly complaining. It was getting very boring not doing anything, though. Dazai could hear Elise laughing at him from the corner of the room. He glared at her, but ultimately just sighed.

"Hey," he started. "Wanna mess with Mori?"

"Oooh, yes!" Elise excitedly agrees.

"We should do our original idea of rearranging his books!" Dazai suggests. Elise nods and hops up from her chair over to the bookshelf.

Mori didn't keep most of his books in his boss office, but there were still quite a bit. If they worked fast enough, though, they should be able to finish before he got back.

The two started to pull out books, but eventually Elise broke the silence.

"Your friends," Elise says. "What are they like?"

"They're my subordinates." Dazai responds, because they are his subordinates.

"That doesn't answer my question. And are they really just your subordinates?" Elise continues, "I saw them fuss and worry over you. And I know you care about them, too."

"They are incredibly fussy," Dazai says, choosing to ignore that second part.

"Denial is a river in Egypt, Dazai, you definitely care about them." Elise added bluntly. Dazai didn't respond.

They pulled out book after book in silence. Dazai didn't bother checking the name or covers. Most of them were probably boring anyway. Mori wasn't exactly known for his amazing taste in books.

Elise pulled out the last book and Dazai started putting them in reverse alphabetical order.

"Hey," Dazai piped up finally. "When they brought me to the infirmary, what did they say? Or do?"

"At first they were fussing a lot. Especially those twins." Elise said after a moment.

"I can see that."

"But then they just watched anxiously. They were really worried, and it was hard to get them out of the infirmary so I could work."

Dazai nodded, accepting that answer as he continued putting books back on the shelves.

Dazai could hear the usual sounds that inhabited Yokohama at night while he watched out his window. Sirens, cars driving by, a faint shout here and there. It was all very familiar.

It was quite late -- around 1:30 -- but Dazai wasn't tired at all. He had long since learned how to stay awake all night. It came easily to him after years of doing it. Perhaps too easily. He could rarely sleep at all these days.

Mori hadn't noticed his and Elise's trick yet, as far as he could tell, since Mori barely ever actually reads those books. But he will notice eventually.

Dazai was bored just sitting in his room doing nothing, though. He could always mess with some random Port Mafia member. They couldn't do much against him, since he's an executive now. However, that didn't sound entertaining enough.

He could always slice up his arms again. They still stang faintly under his bandages from earlier, and Mori definitely would not be happy with him, but he kind of didn't care.

Dazai looked up back up at the window. He saw something new. Something dark and unfamiliar.

A black dog.

It looked back at him with glowing eyes. And it wasn't just looking up, no, it was definitely looking at him specifically as it made eye contact. Dazai jumped back.

That dog . . it had been following him all year. This couldn't be a coincidence. That dog was intelligent and specifically had it out for him. The thought made him shudder, and he shut his eye tightly. After a moment he looked back out.

The dog was gone, replaced with just a regular pedestrian.

If Dazai had any chance of sleeping before, it was gone now.

Chapter Text

Winter break was finally over, so Dazai was finally back at Hogwarts in the gang office with the rest of Hell's Hounds.

Hermione and Ginny were studying; Ron and Blaise were playing chess while Pansy watched; Draco was reading and the twins were discussing something silently.

Dazai was just glad to be back already.

"Hey, Dazai!" Fred said, smiling with George like they were planning something.

"We got something for you!"

They then handed him the Marauders Map to him, smirking. "We figured you could keep it now, Boss!"

Dazai took it from them, a bit stunned. Well, at least he wouldn't be getting lost constantly.

"Is that a map?" Ginny asked, looking up from her textbook.

"Yep. One of Hogwarts."

"Wait, what? That's impossible!" Hermione exclaimed, looking up as well. "Or, at least it's supposed to be."

Everyone was looking now, each with a different level of interest. "Thanks. But . . why?" Dazai asked, tucking it into his pocket for safe keeping.

"Well, we don't really need it anymore." Fred said, shrugging.

"We've memorized it, anyway. Consider it a late Christmas present." George finished for his twin.

Dazai blinked in surprise at them, and they just sighed lightly, like they were exasperated. Dazai wondered why. It wasn't every day your subordinate gave you an extremely helpful and powerful item casually. But before he could ponder on it more, Ron groaned in annoyance.

"Come on!" He whined. "That was totally unfair!"

Dazai looked over, as did everyone else. He had lost at chess to Blaise. Dazai cackled loudly, and the twins joined in with him after a moment. Soon, so did Ginny, Pansy and even Hermione surprisingly.

"I demand a replay!" Ron declared loudly. "Come on! You just got lucky!"

"I think you're just a sore loser." Draco piped in as he turned a page in his book.

"Hey!"

Dazai held up his hands at the two of them. "Now, now. No need to fight." He said, attempting to mediate the situation before adding, "You are a sore loser, though."

Ron looked like he was going to say something but Blaise cut him off. "I'll do a replay."

Dazai and the other gang members watched as they reset the board and started playing once again. Ron made the first move. It was a basic opening, but it wasn't bad. Blaise, after a moment of thought, countered it with his own.

Ron paused, a look of concentration going across his face. He hesitantly made his move, but it wasn't bad. Dazai had to admit, Ron wasn't actually bad at chess. Blaise took Ron's knight then, though. Ron took Blaise's rook.

Blaise moved one of his pawns. Many underestimate pawns, but they're much more useful than one would think. Dazai could see either of them winning in just a few moves. 

Ron did as well, apparently, because he made his move accordingly. Blaise saw what he was doing, though and blocked him. Ron looks agitated but places his next move anyway.

Blaise paused again, looking around the board. He thought hard for a good minute before making a good move. Hermione was sitting on the edge of her seat and looked like she really wanted to tell Ron what move to make. 

Ron took one of Blaise's pawns that was blocking him, but Blaise moved accordingly and blocked him again. Ron makes his next move, but it was all in vain.

"Checkmate." Blaise said.

Ron sighed in defeat and was not very happy about it, but nods. "I suppose I did lose . . "

Blaise put a hand on his shoulder. "Y'know, you were the hardest game I've had since Dazai." He comforted, saying it matter-of-fact.

"Hey!" Draco said, glaring at Blaise but there was no malice in it.

"You know he's right." Pansy piped in, backing Blaise up. "Dazai is stupidly good at chess."

"Yep!" The twins said in unison. "We've never seen him lose!"

"I guess I'm just better than all of you." Dazai commented, leaning back in his chair. He obviously didn't mean it. Ginny giggled lightly under her breath while Hermione sighed exasperatedly, but with a small smile.

"If you're so good, then play with me!" Ron challenged, having recovered from his previous loss. Dazai had to admit he was quite competitive. "I still have some fight left in me!"

"Are you sure? You just lost spectacularly." Dazai teased, pretending to be reluctant. "Well, if you insist . . " Dazai walked over to the small table, sitting down across from Ron and they reset the board.

"White goes first." Dazai reminded him, gesturing towards the board with a smirk.

Ron makes the first move. It was a slightly different opening than before, but still very similar. Dazai surveyed the board and considered his options before moving. Ron attempted to counter Dazai, and it would've worked if it wasn't Dazai he was playing with.

Dazai took Ron's bishop. Ron was perturbed, but makes his next move anyway, just less confidently as before. Dazai could see either of them winning in just a few moves and counters appropriately.

Ron took one of Dazai's knights. It was only a minor inconvenience, though. A small sacrifice in the grand scheme of things. Dazai took the other of Ron's bishops to even it out.

Ron made his next move poorly. Even he could tell it was bad. Unfortunately, that lost him the gang as Dazai moved his queen into position. "Checkmate."

Ron sighed in defeat once again. "I suppose you are good at chess . . " Ginny and Hermione looked impressed. The twins had already witnessed his expertise, but they were no less enamored.

"You are too. Just not as good as me." Dazai told him before standing up again and stretching his back. "I should get back to what I was doing, though."

Dazai went back to his seat. He was still writing his report, since he had been procrastinating doing it. It's not the greatest thing to do, but it inconveniences Mori, so he was fine with it. 

Chapter Text

Dazai could be doing anything else right now.

He could be doing research. He could be finishing that report that he's still procrastinating on. He could be actually doing something productive, or even just sleeping. Instead, however, he was walking around the town of hogsmeade. 

The twins forced him to, saying that the "sunlight and fresh air" might do him good. Well, Dazai calls bullshit! He'd been indoors for longer amounts of time and been fine.

Well, whatever. He was here now, might as well memorize the town and scare people by existing. He might need to know the layout the place, who knows? The gang split up a little bit ago, so he was on his own now.

He had also made sure to split the gang money between Hell's Hounds, because last time was just sad.

Well, the good news was that Lupin finally agreed to give him patronus lessons. The professor had said that if Dazai could learn how, it would be good. And if he couldn't? They could always stop.

But Dazai knew he was going to have to learn. He had learned other advanced spells before, what made this different?

(If it was anything like transfiguration, however, he was screwed.)

He was bored now though and was -- although he'd never admit it -- feeling kind of self conscious from all the staring. He started walking faster, and walked unto the first building he found. It turned out to be the Three Broomsticks. 

Dazai walked around, ignoring the new many pairs of eyes on him. He should've known the universe would decide to hate him. He was wandering around when he heard a familiar voice. 

Dazai made sure no one was watching him too closely before leaning against the wall and starting to eavesdrop, the action seeming casual to anyone else. 

At first, the words were hard to make out. He could only tell that Mcgonagall was there, speaking with someone that was revealed to be Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic. 

"Black gave the information to You-Know-Who." Mcgonagall said. "He may have not killed them himself, but he's the reason they're dead."

Dazai was able to discern that they were talking about Black and the Potters. It had been becoming more and more of a common subject since the guy was currently an escaped fugitive.

"And Mr. Pettigrew was always following him around," the professor continued. She sounded oddly distraught. "They seemed close, to think Black would kill him . . "

Dazai pondered on the new information presented to him. So, Black and Pettigrew were friends, huh? Or at the very least admired him. Interesting.

It wasn't the most useful information. It didn't seem like it anyway. It was interesting, though. Thinking about it brought his mind to his own friends.

Would he have to be the Black to their Pettigrew? The mission would probably require him to betray them at some point. What would he do then? What would they do? Think? Dazai thought about Elise's words from before.

"Denial is a river in Egypt, Dazai, you definitely care about them."

He was not attached. The dread in his stomach was unrelated to the thought of betraying his subordinates.

Remus wasn't very sure what to think of Dazai.

He had agreed to give patronus lessons to the boy, since there wasn't much harm in doing so. Who knows? Maybe it would do the boy some good.

Plus, he could probably learn more about Dazai and be able to help him more. Something told him, though, that the rabbit hole went way deeper than he ever imagined.

He would be correct, of course, he just didn't know how much yet.

Chapter Text

Dazai looked around Lupin's office. He was here for patronus lessons, finally. The office looked different than he remembered, without all of the cluttering from Quirrel in first year or the way too many portraits of Lockhart from second year.

Even the chair Dazai was sitting in felt different.

"So," Lupin started, pacing around the room. "The patronus charm is a very advanced spell, as you already know. To cast it, one must concentrate on a very happy memory."

Okay, so this might be a bit harder than Dazai originally anticipated. He doesn't really have very many happy memories.

"I am aware that you need an example when learning magic, yes?" Lupin said. Dazai nodded.

The professor pulled out his wand, holding it out. "Expecto patronum!" He exclaimed, and as Dazai felt the magic working, out from his wand came a silvery wolf.

Dazai played the moment out in his head again. It had felt like a flash grenade of magic almost. Now he just had to recreate it. Dazai looked back at the wolf patronus. How ironic.

"Now, I don't expect you to have a fully corporeal one yet." Lupin said as he flicked his wand and dismissed the spell. "That is extremely advanced and many only achieve it after years of practice."

"Interesting." Dazai absentmindedly responded.

"What's a very good memory for you?" Lupin asked, but it was mostly a rhetorical question. "Once you figure that out, you can attempt the spell."

Dazai took a moment to think. What was a good memory of his? He searched his brain. A time he almost died, perhaps? That would probably work.

Dazai held out his wand in front of himself, feeling the magic around himself. He just needed to make it explode. Like a flash grenade. He concentrated on the memory he chose at the same time.

"Expecto patronum!"

Dazai felt the magic explode around him once again, but the spell didn't do much. A few whispers of silver was all he had to show for his efforts.

"Don't worry about the fact that it didn't do a lot." Lupin said, attempting to reassure Dazai. "There's many factors that go into making a successful patronus. It takes much practice and the memory may not have been strong enough."

Dazai's head throbbed. He had a bigger headache than usual, the magic being very strong and potent. Not strong or potent enough, evidently.

"Are you feeling alright, Mr. Dazai?" Lupin asked him, concerned etched into his features.

"Yeah. I'm fine." Dazai waved the man off.

He wondered what he did wrong. He definitely manipulated the magic correctly. It felt the same. That was one of his happiest memories, too. So what went wrong?

He just needs to try harder. He just needs to use a better memory.

Dazai shook off the headache and thought. All the times he screwed with Mori. That was pretty happy, right? Holding out his wand again, he cast.

"Expecto patronum!" He exclaimed, more frustrated than before.

It worked a bit better this time, but still only barely. This was getting old. The headache he had before got stronger and he felt a tidal wave of nausea.

"Maybe we should stop, you look sick." Lupin said, catching on. "There's always next time."

"I'm fine."

"I'm aware of your condition, Mr. Dazai." Lupin deadpanned. "Would you like for me to lead you to the infirmary?"

"No thank you!" Dazai responded, smiling pleasantly. "I can find it on my own."

Lupin seemed hesitant, but nodded anyway. Dazai went over to the door, waving a gloved hand before walking out.

What did he do wrong the second time? Maybe the memory was too broad? Should he use a specific memory next time? Would that work?

He would try that next time. It would probably work better.

Hopefully.

Chapter Text

Dazai was having a relatively normal day.

Classes were normal, Trelawny was still coming up with ways that he was going to die horribly; people in the halls were still glaring at him like they wanted to either run from or kill him, and he was still refusing to participate in class.

So clearly something was about to get weird. And it did. Right as he was about to think that maybe today was just average, Ron and Hermione busted into the gang office.

Ron looked angry while Hermione just looked distraught. Dazai looked up from what he was doing and gave them an expectant look. "What's happening?" He asked.

"Angel went missing again-"

"-Which he does a lot-"

"-And while I was looking for him I found ginger hairs and blood-"

"-It wasn't necessarily blood-"

"-Where I saw Angel last! Clearly Crookshanks killed him!" Ron finally finished.

Dazai took a moment to process the information. So Angel may or may not be dead, but they technically never found a body. Okay. He could work with this.

"And why is this a problem?"

"Hey!"

"Didn't you hate Angel?" Dazai asked, but shook his head. "Whatever, that's besides the point."

Dazai continued, ignoring Ron's irritated expression. "Maybe Angel didn't actually die? He does go missing constantly." Ron didn't look completely convinced.

"Listen, if you two don't start getting along, I will have to make Hell's Hounds do team building exercises. And you know how much the twins will complain."

Ron sighed. "Fine." He held out his hand to Hermione. "Truce?"

She took it. "Truce."

Dazai watched as Hermione looked back at him, giving him a thankful look. Dazai gave a small nod, barely noticeable if you aren't looking closely enough.

Dazai wasn't sure why they couldn't deal with it on their own. Why did they have to come to him?

It was late at night. Curfew was a while ago, and Dazai was working on some Port Mafia paperwork that Mori had sent him. As much as he would've much rather just ignore, he was an executive and unfortunately had a huge amount of responsibility.

Right then, however, Draco walked in. He seemed nervous as he looked at Dazai.

"Why are you up?" Dazai asked. After all, it nearing towards the very early morning and he would've had to sneak around to not get caught.

"I need to talk to you." Draco answered, straightforward. "We should go back to the dorms. No one is up right now, so we'll have privacy."

"Why the dorms? Why not just here?" They'd probably have more privacy in the gang office.

"Pansy also wanted to speak with you, but she didn't want to get in trouble." Draco said. Dazai got up. Of course that was the reason, how couldn't he have guessed before?

But really, why did all of his subordinates need to talk to him today? Was this some kind of weird prank from Hell's Hounds?

Dazai followed Draco out into the hallway. He silenced his footsteps so they wouldn't be heard. Draco seemed to get the memo as well and do the same.

Dazai thought about and, wow, the last time he was even in the dorms was early last year. That felt like so much longer than it actually was.

Now that Dazai's noticed, though, Draco was being oddly silent. Dazai couldn't say he was really a fan. Draco was rarely this quiet or nervous. What was up with him today? It made no sense. Dazai made no attempt to break the silence, though, so it continued to be silent while they walked.

Dazai wondered what Draco of all people wanted to talk about. Hell, what Pansy of all people wanted to talk about. With how fidgety Draco was being, Dazai couldn't help but feel a bit worried about it himself.

They went through quite a few hallways and many moving stairs (Dazai had lost count of just how many) before they finally made it back to the dorms. Frankly, they were lucky to not get caught.

Dazai followed Draco into the common room. Pansy was already there, sitting on the couch quietly. She was lost in her own world. Dazai remembered just how cold the Slytherin dorms were as he shivered.

Dazai had Draco sat down on the couch with her, and for a moment there is silence. It was almost uncomfortable, if only because of the tense atmosphere that had settled. After a good minute, Draco spoke up.

"I'll just get straight to the point." He started, breathing deeply. "Is-"

Before he can finish, there's a huge commotion from the actual dorms as a few kids run down, all talking at each other in unison. From what Dazai could gather, they were trying to find Snape. Surprisingly, they don't even notice Dazai is there.

"What happened there . . ?" Dazai asked, but before Draco or Pansy could respond with anything, Snape busted into the room. He completely ignored the three as he ran upstairs.

Draco was getting interrupted a lot that night. Dazai almost let himself laugh.

Without a word, Dazai started running upstairs with Draco and Pansy. Once they go up, they had to stop abruptly. It was incredibly crowded, with every single Slytherin up. Draco tapped a random first year on the shoulder.

"What's going on?"

"Sirius Black! H-He slashed the curtains around B-Blaise's bed!"

Dazai looked through the crowd. He saw Draco and Pansy doing the same. Blaise was there, talking to Snape. Dazai couldn't hear what they were talking about.

They pushed between people, trying to get closer. All the people in one room made Dazai nervous already. Blaise caught their gaze and gave them a reassuring quirk of his lips. After finishing up with Snape, he walked over.

"What the hell happened!?" Draco asked. Pansy looked expectantly at Blaise.

"Sirius Black, apparently. I'm fine."

Dazai searched him for injuries. Nothing that he could see. Snape would have had him go to the infirmary if he was injured anyway. Despite the fact that Black seemed to have had a knife, Blaise was relatively unscathed.

"Why would Black do that, though?" Pansy asked randomly. "I mean, I'm glad you're not hurt Blaise, but it's so out of the blue. Why would he go out of his way to break in and go to all the trouble of slashing the curtains and then not do anything?"

"How did he even know the password?" Draco asked, though none of them knew the answer.

The conversation ended there. Snape could be heard attempting to calm down the entirety of Slytherin with the prefects. Why did Black do all of that? It was completely illogical. He got the password and everything, just to slash some curtains and not do anything.

Was everyone in the magical community this terrible at their jobs?

"Hey!" Draco whispered at Dazai. "Stop zoning out! I still want to talk to you."

Dazai looked up and over at Draco, blinking. The other boy just sighed and pulled Dazai off to the side. Dazai ignored the discomfort in being touched as he allowed himself to be dragged. It didn't seem like the other two noticed their absence, at least not yet.

"So . . ?" Dazai prompted once they were in relative privacy. Draco still looked nervous but continued on.

"I'm just gonna get straight to the point." He started. "Is Rintarou actually Mori?"

Well, shit.

"What gave you that idea?" Dazai quickly asked, stunned. What had he given away? Did he say something that clued Draco in?

"I've seen Mori before. It wasn't that long ago, it's only been about a year." Draco pointed out. "That added with the fact that you don't want us going in the infirmary paints a pretty clear picture. Am I right?"

"I didn't think anyone else would be able to recognize him." Dazai said as he sighed. "So yes, Rintarou is Mori. Just don't say anything, no one is supposed to know, not even you."

Draco nodded and they started walking back to where they were. Dazai now had bigger things to worry about, like if Snape figured it out as well. It didn't seem like it, but he couldn't rule out the possibility.

One thing at a time, Dazai reminded himself.

Chapter Text

Dazai made his steps silent as he walked. It was probably after midnight by now. Why the stupid doctor insisted on having Dazai give his biweekly reports in the dead of night, Dazai had no clue.

Dazai was so glad the twins gifted him the map. He would be so lost without it.

Nothing had really been happening recently. After the whole incident with Black and Blaise everything went back to being relatively normal. So there wasn't much to report.

Dazai was almost finished with his report on Black, but he wasn't eager to give it in. That would just mean having to deal with Mori even more than what was necessary.

How was Mori even running the Port Mafia from Hogwarts anyway? Dazai sighed and kept walking. He shouldn't think about it. A minute spent thinking about Mori was a minute wasted. Dazai heard the sound of small claws scratching against the floor and looked up.

It was a rat.

Angel, perhaps? Dazai wasn't entirely convinced that the demonic rat was dead. If it was Angel, it would be beneficial. Ron and Hermione would have to make up. Dazai looked back at the map and saw the name P. Pettigrew on it.

What? That made no sense. Based on the conversation he overheard at Hogsmeade P. Pettigrew was supposed to be dead. Before he had any time to ponder on it longer, however, S. Snape approached quickly.

Dammit. How did he not notice a professor? He was supposed to be more observant than that! Dazai disabled the map and stuck it in the pocket inside of his robe before Snape could see.

"What exactly are you doing out after curfew, Mr. Dazai?"

"I was lost."

Snape looked unconvinced. "You were lost." It was more of a statement than an actual question.

"Yep." Dazai said, walking backwards now. "Now, if you'll excuse me . . "

"My office, Mr. Dazai."

"Ah. Okay."

Snape wouldn't ask Dazai to go to his office just because he was out past curfew. No, he had some kind of ulterior motive. He started walking and Dazai walked behind him. The situation needed to be handled very carefully.

Dazai picked on the skin of his wrist. It didn't work well with the gloves on his hand, and he let his arm fall to his side once again. He could think of a million things to say, but none of them would help him out of the situation.

Well, he could threaten Snape, but he didn't think that was a very good plan.

Snape opened the door to his office and let Dazai inside. "Sit." He commanded, and Dazai obeyed.

It was the same as Dazai remembered it being. Everything was in order and save for a few loose papers, neat even. Snape pulled out his kettle and began making tea.

"What were you doing up so late?"

"I was lost." Dazai reiterated. "I already told you that."

Something set in Snape's jaw. "One of your friends would've come for you if you were actually lost." He said, leveling Dazai with a stare. "What were you actually doing?"

"Aww, you have no faith in me!" Dazai complained, pouting.

Snape just sighed. "Where were you during the incidents with Black?" He asked instead. "Since clearly you weren't in your dorm like you should've been."

Dazai can't just say he was lost. It might distract Snape, but only momentarily. He may be a bit screwed, but nothing he couldn't work with. Hopefully. Snape started pouring the tea into mugs.

"Snape is awfully nosy."

"I'm the nosy one?" Snape mumbled, mostly to himself. "Never mind that. Just answer the question."

"I was in the dorms the second time."

"The first time. Why weren't you in the dorms the first time and tonight."

Dazai paused for a moment. The best lies had a bit of truth in them. "I don't like the dorms very much."

Snape's eyes narrowed. "You don't like the dorms? Why?"

"I'm afraid I'm just not all that popular, and I kind of don't want to be smothered to death in my sleep," Dazai said, sighing. "That sounds way too painful."

"You aren't going to be smothered to death in your sleep," Snape said, though it wasn't all that reassuring. "That's not the point. Where exactly were you?"

Dazai paused as he took a sip from his tea. "I have no clue." It wasn't completely a lie, but it wasn't the entire truth either. The gang office was technically an unknown place.

"You don't know." It wasn't a question. "Don't lie to me, boy, unless a detention is what you want."

"I really don't know!" Dazai retorted. "I'm not lying."

Snape sighed deeply, as if dealing with Dazai was some kind of tedious chore. "Have you really just been sleeping in an unknown place for who knows how long?" He then added, "Are you aware that this against school policy entirely?"

"I figured as much."

Snape looked deeply burdened. "I will lead you back to the dorms, Problem Child." He said, leveling Dazai with an annoyed stare. "You are lucky I'm not expelling you. I will have to give you detention if I find you again."

Dazai nods as they start walking. That went . . . better than expected. So, not that bad. How this is going to turn out in the future was worrying, especially knowing his luck. Something was bound to go wrong.

It wasn't a very long walk, if a silent one, and they soon make it to the Slytherin dorms. Once Dazai steps inside, Snape turns to leave. As soon as Dazai couldn't hear the man's steps anymore, he escaped.

Chapter Text

It had been a week or so since the last one, but Dazai finally had another patronus lesson.

Dazai searched his mind, looking for a memory that might work. He was in the trial and error part of this spell. There was always one where he almost died. He had plenty of those. Dazai nodded at Lupin to show that he was about to cast.

"Expecto patronum!" He called out, not entirely enthusiastic. It, yet again, didn't really work.

This certainly wasn't going well. Maybe because Mori brought him back afterwards?

"Are you alright?" Lupin asked. "No headaches or anything?"

Dazai shook his head. He could cast several more times by now. He'd be fine. "Unfortunately, one spell couldn't kill me." He said instead. Lupin hummed.

"Why is that unfortunate, exactly?" He asked, concern playing on his face (ew). Dazai wasn't sure if he should answer that, knowing the type of people who work and go to Hogwarts. However, he was kind of backed into a corner there.

Like a stray dog, he thought, unbidden.

"I strive to cut my life short with a painless and quick death!" Dazai said cheerfully. "Mori is annoying about it, though, and always brings me back . . "

Lupin looked positively appalled at Dazai's words. Dazai knew he shouldn't have said anything. Well, too late now, he supposed. He tried to think of a new memory that might work. The first thing his mind supplied him with was Hell's Hounds.

How gross.

Dazai shook off the thought and decided he'd use the test answer scheme. It was the first real job they did, and the first job he had ever lead himself. Dazai cast again, but it yielded the same results.

"Was it a powerful memory?"

Was that it? Did the memories not only have to be good, but also powerful? What in the world even was a powerful memory?

"It depends on your definition of powerful, but probably not." Dazai responded.

"Well, then what is a powerful memory for you?" Lupin asked him.

Dazai wasn't sure.

"I know that your last couple of year here haven't been the greatest," Lupin sighed. "So maybe you have some powerful memories from home?"

Dazai snorted. Good memories and home weren't exactly two things that went together. That should ever go together. Seriously, what a joke. Dazai thought for another moment.

His mind still went back to Hell's Hounds and the group hug they shared at the end of his first year. Dazai supposed that most people generally would consider that a powerful memory. 

(Not him, of course. That would be ridiculous.)

"I think I got one." Dazai told Lupin, pointedly not mentioning what the memory was or anything about it whatsoever. He tried not to think too hard about it.

"Expecto patronum!" He cast. A silvery light came out of his wand and made some kind of shield of sorts. As the spell faded, Dazai could feel the magic fade, too. The snap and pop of the spell on his skin. Like a firework fizzling out.

The patronus wasn't fully corporeal, but it was progress. Progress was something, at the very least.

"Great job!" Lupin praised, stepping next to Dazai with a gentle smile. "That was an amazing cast, Mr. Dazai."

Dazai couldn't believe that was the memory that worked. Dazai tried not think about it, and only focus on the success. It was proving to be difficult.

Attachments like that have no place within the Port Mafia, Mori's voice spoke in his head. Dazai shook the thought away.

"We should end the lesson here, before you get too sick." Lupin suggested, not noticing Dazai's mental battle. Dazai nodded half-heartedly.

Lupin opened the door for Dazai, and he walked out. This would certainly be interesting to think about.

Draco looked over to Pansy. Despite the fact that she and him were the ones to suggest the three-way study group, Blaise was the only one actually studying instead just pretending. Or maybe he was, too. It was hard to tell with him.

Well, at least Draco wasn't as distracted as Pansy. The only reason he was distracted, anyway, was because Pansy was. It was hard to concentrate when one of his best friends was so clearly bothered by something.

"Ugh!"

Draco looked up from his book. Pansy had slammed her potions book shut and was scowling.

"You okay?" Blaise asked her, setting his own book down. Pansy scoffed.

"I'm fine, obviously."

"You sound like Dazai, y'know." Blaise commented. Bad choice of words. Draco had a feeling Blaise already knew that, though.

"Don't compare me to him!" She huffed, crossing her arms. Blaise just hummed, noncommittal. Pansy deflated at that. "Hey, Draco." She said instead.

"What?"

"You've been awfully quiet." She raised an eyebrow as she said it, but didn't press. "How did that conversation with Dazai go the other day?"

So she had noticed when he pulled Dazai aside. He wondered if Blaise noticed, too. If he had, he didn't say anything.

"It went fine. He wasn't too difficult." Draco said, sighing. "You never got to talk to him that night."

Pansy uncrossed her arms and sighed deeply. "I doubt it would've gone well, anyway. He's always been so . . deflecting." Draco snorted. Understatement of the century.

"What did you want to ask him about, anyway?" Blaise asked. Draco perked up. He'd been wondering that, too. Pansy gave them a certain look.

"I think you know." She said simply. Blaise furrowed his brows.

"I don't think that's a good idea." Blaise responded, leveling her with a stare. Draco agreed with him. That would've gone horribly.

"I know that!" She snapped, but soon just sighed. "But we can't avoid the subject forever."

Blaise sighed and Draco pretended to read from his book again. Pansy huffed, but opened her book again and went back to reading as well.

Chapter Text

Hermione could not believe she was even thinking this, but she wanted to skip class.

No one could blame her, though! It was Divination, and she absolutely loathed that class. Professor Trelawney was such a fraud, and she learned positively nothing from that class. It's a waste of a time-turner to even bother showing up at all, honestly.

Hermione went anyway, however, because she couldn't just cut class. It might lose her house points and it would go on her permanent record. Besides, the whole helping steal and sell test answers thing was enough rebellion for her, at least for now.

Hermione walked into the classroom and sat down at her seat. The next class hadn't arrived yet. She set up her stuff and pulled up the time-turner from under her robes. Turn right and she went forward in time, turn left and she'd go backwards.

With one left turn of the device, she was one hour back in time.

She was sat next to Ron, who just so happened to turn his head only a moment after she appeared. He jumped at her sudden arrival and blinked.

"When did you get here?" Ron asked, surprised.

"I've been here the whole time! Honestly, Ronald . . " Hermione huffed and looked forward at Professor Trelawney. She was lucky Ron didn't ask too many questions.

After a moment of trying and failing to actually pay attention, Hermione glanced over at Dazai. He was sitting next to Blaise, looking bored out of his mind. She was both surprised and incredibly lucky that he hadn't noticed her randomly appearing. Or, if he did, he didn't ask.

Hermione wasn't sure when Professor Trelawney started class. She didn't care, if she was being entirely honest. How could she, when all Trelawney ever spouted was nonsense and predictions of Dazai's death, like she was now? Though Dazai himself didn't look too bothered. Sometimes Hermione couldn't believe him.

She was just so done with all of it.

Hermione looked at the crystal ball in front of her. Who knew if it held any actual power. It showed her nothing, and Hermione suspected that Trelawney saw nothing either as the professor walked forward.

"Ms. Granger, you look distracted!" Professor Trelawney announced. Hermione fought off an eye roll. "Is it because of visions!? Are you in the beyond??"

Hermione decided that she really was done with this class and stood up, knocking the crystal ball off of the table. She grabbed her stuff and stormed off. Studying in the library would suit her time better. Everyone looked up at her stunned.

Well, everyone but Dazai and Blaise.

Dazai just looked amused while Blaise looked thoughtful. Hermione couldn't say she was all that surprised. She walked out the door and slammed it behind her.

Hermione fell into step with Dazai and Draco, and they walked in relative silence. They were looking for Blaise, since he had been collecting customers for their test answer scheme. She couldn't believe they were still doing that.

And for finals of all things!

Well, she couldn't focus on that at the moment. Blaise said he would be in the courtyard, so that's where they were headed (with Draco leading of course). She'd just have to think about it later.

"Hey, are we almost there yet?"

"No, of course not!"

Hermione watched as Dazai crossed his arms and pouted. Draco rolled his eyes in exasperation, but there was fondness in the way his lips quirked up just slightly.

"Stop bickering, you two," Hermione sighed. She could hear Dazai snicker as Draco huffed.

"Hey!" Someone yelled from the other side of the room. Hermione looked over to see Millicent Bulstrode. "Demon! D-Don't think I haven't noticed you h-hanging around Pansy all the time! What did you d-do to her?" Millicent said, clearly trying to seem intimidating but shuttering through her words with anxiety.

"Ugh, not again . . " Hermione thought she heard Dazai mumble, but she must have been wrong because she looked back at him and he was smiling. "Why hello there! I have no idea what you mean, I haven't done anything to our dear Pansy."

"Liar!" Millicent screamed. A few people turned heads, but most just ignored her. "You must have done something! She hated you last year, why would she suddenly like you now?"

"I don't know, ask her." And with that, they started walking away again.

Hermione wanted to give everyone in this school who really believed that Dazai was a 'demon' a piece of her mind, but Dazai seemed to have it covered. She would just have to live with it.

Or so she thought until she heard Millicent pipe back up.

"Fucking mudbloods! You should just die!"

Hermione stopped dead in her tracks. She felt her blood boil, and her hands were clenched into tight fists. She stormed over to Millicent and slapped her across the face. Hard. Hermione walked back over to Dazai and Draco, leaving Millicent stunned silent.

Dazai looked a bit surprised, but was mostly just grinning at her. Draco on the other hand just looked speechless, but only for a moment.

"I didn't know you had it in you." Draco breathed out as they walked away. Hermione shrugged.

"You don't know a lot of things about me."

They kept walking in silence for a little bit. The anger in Hermione's bones fizzled out, but she wasn't guilty or embarrassed at all like she normally would've been. Dazai patted her on the shoulder.

"That was hilarious. Keep that up, and I might just start paying you!"

Hermione's face warmed, though she knew he was just joking. She was almost glad, in a way, that Dazai was happy with her. She quickly shook off the thought.

"We both know that isn't true." She joked back, smiling at him. He gave her a sly smirk and she chuckled. After that, they fell silent once again, surprisingly.

They finally make it to the courtyard, and Blaise was in sight. The trio walked over to him. Or rather, Hermione and Draco walked over while Dazai ran.

"Hey, Blaise!" Dazai greeted, waving widely. "I'll get to the point; how many did we get?"

"About 32. Though, there should be more to come later." Blaise responded as he patted Dazai on the head lightly.

The two started bantering, but Hermione wasn't paying attention. Not really. She had always admired Dazai's charisma. He always seem to know what to say. How to say it. Hermione had never had any of that.

Sometimes she wondered how much of it was just how he was, and how much of it he had to learn and perfect himself. Sometimes she wondered what could've made it so he had to.

Chapter Text

Dazai didn't really want to, but he had to actually pass his finals. So, he'd been doing everything right all day during his exams and it was killing him.

Dazai wondered if that would work as a method of suicide. Probably not, and even if it did, it would definitely be painful. Oh, well . .

It didn't feel like all that long ago, he was at home for winter break. No crazy bullshit had happened this year. Well, if you excluded Mori becoming the new healer, and the dementors. It was almost peaceful. Almost.

Dazai walked into the Divination classroom. No one but Trelawny and himself were there. She beckoned him forward, where she prepared a table for him. He smiled pleasantly. Dazai walked forward and sat at the table, across from Trelawny. In between them was a crystal ball.

"Now, Mr. Dazai, all you have to do is tell me what you see." She explained. Dazai hummed, and nodded, gazing into the probably useless sphere of crystal.

Now, all Dazai saw was a hunk of possibly fake crystal on top of a fancy pillow. Whether that was because the thing was useless, No Longer Human, or because he just wasn't able to see the future was unknown to him. One thing he did know, however, is that he will probably most likely be able to bullshit this test at least.

"I see . . myself floating down a river, drowning. How fortunate!" He lied. Dazai wished. He knew that predictions of his own death would do the trick. Trelawny sputtered, but nodded furiously.

"Yes, yes! You are right! It is right there, clear as day!" She agreed, gesturing to the ever blank maybe-crystal ball. "Do you see anything else, dear child?"

"Hmmm." Dazai hummed, trying to think of something. Before he could, Trelawny piped up.

"Trick question, of course. Full points. I already knew you'd pass, I saw it this morning. You truly have a sense for this." She praised. Wow. Dazai didn't even have to do much, and he already passed.

"Wow. Okay. I guess if I'm allowed to go now . . . " Dazai trailed off, grabbing his belongings and starting to get up. He walked towards the door, but Trelawny grabbed him by the shoulder roughly and pulled him back.

Discomfort spread through Dazai's entire being, and he stopped breathing. Of course, he couldn't go through one full year without a professor trying to kill him for some odd reason. But Trelawny didn't do that. It was much weirder, actually.

"It will happen tonight! The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers--" Trelawny hacks out in a deep, raspy voice that is unlike her. "His servant has been chained all the twelve years! Tonight, before midnight-" she gasped. "-the servant will come out of hiding to rejoin his master!-" she gasped again and mumbled to herself before just coming out of it.

Dazai did not question what just happened, especially considering she didn't even seem to remember what happened, so he left and hoped that wasn't a real prophecy. Dazai had had enough of the Dark Lord to last his hopefully short lifetime, thank you very much.

The exams for the day were over, and Dazai was glad for it. He opened the door to the gang room, ready to just sit down and not think for three consecutive hours, when he sees Pansy, Draco and Blaise. The original Loyalty Club.

"Oh. Hello." Dazai greeted them, giving a small wave and sitting down at his desk before laying his head down on it. He was kind of hoping for some solitude, but they didn't make for bad company, so he wasn't complaining.

"Hey." Pansy starts immediately, arms crossed. "I never got to have that conversation I wanted to earlier."

Dazai sighed silently. Blaise and Draco noticeably stilled, and it made him a bit uneasy. He really did not want to deal with this right now. Or ever, frankly.

"I'm a bit busy at the moment." Dazai yawned, resting his eye. "Besides, didn't you want to study with Hermione for the rest of your finals in the library?"

"Busy doing what? Laying down? And anyway, Hermione had to cancel." Pansy responded, leaving no room for argument. No matter, Dazai was a master at deflection.

"Huh. Wonder why that is." Dazai pondered, but he didn't dwell on it. It was probably nothing.

"Stop trying to change the subject, Dazai." Pansy said, walking over and slamming her hands on the desk in front of him. "I know you think we don't notice your obvious attempts at avoiding conversations, but we do."

Well. This was going to be a bit of a headache. He opened his eye and picked his head up, leaning it on his hand. "Whatever you wanted to talk to me about, I'm sure it can wait."

"All me, Blaise and Draco have done is wait and avoid the subject." Pansy rebutted, scowling. "We're having this conversation now."

Dazai was more attentive now. Distantly, he was reminded of the conversation he had with Blaise a year earlier, after he'd left the quidditch game early. He shook his head minutely, as if to dispel the memory from his mind.

"Do we? I'd rather just-"

"God, Dazai, what is up with you?" Pansy interrupted him, her hands that were still on the desk clenching into fists. "You're acting weird. Hell, you've been acting kind of weird all year!"

Oh, dear. It really was the dreaded well-being conversation. The one all of his subordinates seemed incredibly keen on giving him at some point. Dazai suppressed a grimace.

"Draco, back me up here!" Pansy demanded, looking over at an apprehensive Draco. "You agreed with me, didn't you?"

Draco didn't look her in the eye. Neither Blaise nor Draco actually backed her up on this one, but they didn't help Dazai either. Pansy just sighed like she expected this and turned back to continue glaring a hole through Dazai's face.

"Last year, when we went to kill the basilisk," Pansy started. Draco and Blaise tensed in the corner of Dazai's eye. "You told us not to look, so we wouldn't get petrified. After you passed out, your bandages got loose."

Dazai froze, like a statue. He stopped breathing. He had been careless back then. Of course they got loose, why wouldn't they? He'd gotten so caught up on just killing the damn thing without his friends getting in the middle of the cross-fire that he wasn't thinking, but he knew that wasn't an excuse. Mori would be disappointed.

"We're worried about you. I'm worried about you. I want to help, but I can't unless you tell me what's wrong." Pansy said, sounding a bit desperate, but Dazai wasn't paying attention.

Dazai needed air. He stood up, his chair screeching as it was pushed backwards by the movement. He ran out the door, ignoring Pansy and the others yelling back at him. He runs down the hall, ignoring the footsteps he can hear behind him.

"Don't run in the- oh, nevermind . . " yelled Percy. Dazai ignored him, too.

Dazai ran past Snape as well, who sputtered as he sped past desperately. He didn't know where he was going, he just followed wherever the hell his legs took him and hoped for the best. Clearly, it was working. After what seemed both like an eternity and way too fast, Dazai found himself in the courtyard in front of a giant tree. The whomping willow, right?

Dazai had no clue how he got there, but he stopped anyway, not wanting to get the tree to hit him. Or worse, accidentally nullify it. He could hear the footsteps behind him come to a stop, too, as well as some panting breaths.

"Dazai, please," Draco started, clearly trying to reason with him. Dazai saw a rat he vaguely recognized, before suddenly a black dog appeared out of nowhere.

It wasn't just any dog, though, no. It was clearly the one he had seen during winter break. Dazai never forgets a face, animal or otherwise. The panic that had just been starting to lower hiked back up to alarmingly high levels. Everything else was tuned out, and breathing became ten times more difficult. The black monstrosity lunged in Dazai's direction, and he almost let himself scream, but he was pushed out of the way.

Blaise's leg was gripped harshly by the dog's teeth, it's sharp canines digging into and ripping the fabric of his legs. Beads of blood were beginning to form, and some even dripped down. The sticky, crimson substance was only stopped by the teeth practically embedded in Blaise's leg.

It was likely only a moment that Dazai stared in panic and vague horror, but it felt like hours before Draco clapped a hand on Dazai's shoulder and pulled him back to stop him from being hit by the violent tree. Dazai had almost forgotten it was there.

"Dazai!" Draco kept his grip on Dazai's shoulder firm. "Try not to get killed by the murderous tree, would you!?" Dazai didn't respond.

Blaise was currently being dragged to said murderous tree by the leg, though he was attempting to get dislodged. It was a pointless endeavor, Dazai knew. He'd spent hours being tossed around by the vicious little things in a cage. He knew better than anyone.

Dazai noticed, distantly, that the rat had climbed up on Blaise's leg at some point. The dog and Blaise disappeared somewhere in the dark by the tree. Pansy started running towards said tree, and Draco followed, releasing Dazai's shoulder. Dazai finally came back to his senses, following them as well.

The willow sensed their presence, and one of it's limbs crashed forward with a smash. Pansy just barely managed to get out of the way, but it was just getting started. The death tree crashed around and attacked them, Dazai just narrowly avoiding nullifying it. Pansy and Draco weren't so lucky, however, and had many scrapes and cuts from it that they didn't manage to dodge.

One of the limbs of the whomping willow went up, and Dazai only noticed when it was too late. An image of his father holding up his staff to hit him with flashed through his mind, and he wondered what it would feel like to be smashed into the ground by a tree. It would certainly kill him, right? Hopefully it wouldn't be painful. Dazai braced for the impact . . 

. . that never came?

Dazai looked up again, and the tree was still. Dazai was still reeling from his near death experience and looked down to see Angel stepping on one of the tree roots. Dazai memorized which one it was and walked forward. Pansy and Draco followed, albeit more hesitantly. After searching for a good minute, Draco found an entrance by the tree that had been obstructed.

"That's where Blaise disappeared. Lets go." Pansy said, and they all walked into the small entrance. It was barely big enough to fit all of them, and they had to walk single file to get through.

The walk was eerie and mostly silent - though none of them were walking, not really. A more accurate description would be jogging. No one said a word or dared bring up the conversation from earlier. Until further notice, it was like it never happened. That was a problem for future Dazai.

Present Dazai had to deal with trees that wanted to kill him and a black dog that keeps stalking him and kidnapped his subordinate. Isn't his life so fun?

After what seemed like 3 lifetimes, they finally arrived somewhere. Where they were exactly, who knew. It was anyone's guess, really. Some kind of shack, maybe? Blaise was sitting on the ground, unnaturally pale. Dazai could tell from a single glance that his leg was broken.

"Blaise!" Pansy exclaimed, running over to him. Draco followed suit. "There you are! Your leg . . !"

Dazai tuned Pansy out focusing more on the lack of black dogs that were supposed to be there. Don't get him wrong, he didn't want the dog to be there, but it was odd that it was missing.

"Where's the dog that dragged you here?" Draco asked, beating Dazai to the punch. "It couldn't have just left, could it?"

Blaise sat up slightly, wincing when he accidentally jostled his injured leg. "He's an animagus." He explained. Draco gasped and Pansy blanched. "I'm not sure where he went."

Just then, a very familiar man walked over. "I'm right here." He said, though it was more of a growl. He laughed, and Dazai grimaced as an already pale Pansy turned chalk white and Draco sucked in a breath.

Sirius Black.

Dazai couldn't find it in himself to be surprised. Knowing his luck, this was bound to happen. How he didn't see it coming from a mile away, he would never know.

Chapter Text

Dazai sized Black up. The man was wearing scraps of what clearly used to be clothing, but was now just raggedy pieces of cloth loosely stuck together. His hair was greasy from being unwashed for months, possibly years. Gross.

They stood like that in silence for a good 15 seconds.

"Hey," Dazai started, finally breaking the awkward silence. "Why would you ever want to be an animagus if you had to be a dog? Worst animal."

Black seemed surprised at his random question, looking both confused and a little offended. "Excuse me?" He said, but he didn't seem all that annoyed.

Draco and Pansy motioned at him to shut the fuck up, but Dazai didn't see what the big deal was. He deals with psychotic murderers all the time back home. Blaise seemed calm enough, but also it's Blaise so who knows?

"Also, for a supposed murderer you haven't killed any of us yet, despite the fact that we know your little hide out now." Dazai shook his head in disappointed. "Really, a rookie move."

Now he could see the panic coming from Blaise. Subtle, but there nonetheless.

"I never wanted to kill any of you kids!" Black retorted. Now he was just getting defensive. 

Dazai somehow doubted what Black was saying. Really, how did the man think that they would believe him?

"If that's true, then why did you attack my friend?" Pansy asked once she she picked up the courage, voicing Dazai's thoughts.

"I was looking for Dazai, and I saw the person who framed me there." Black answered, sounding bitter.

"I didn't see anyone,"

"And why were you looking for my friend?" Blaise piped up, being his usual overprotective self, though Dazai was unbothered and unsurprised by the turn of events.

"It's . . . complicated, but I will explain."  Black starts, looking more serious. "Even in Azkaban, I still got the Daily Profit, and since last year the infamous Demon Student was given a face. One that I recognized."

Now Dazai was just confused. "Could you maybe elaborate?"

"I'll get straight to the point, no use stalling." Black said, and after a moment,  continued with, "You look exactly like your mother. It's uncanny."

"Wow, you suck at this!" Dazai exclaimed, because yeah, this just made him more confused. "How do you know that?"

"Do you . . do you not know?" Black looked utterly confused and a bit surprised.

"Am I missing something?" Draco asked, and Dazai shrugged. Honestly, it felt like he was missing the whole puzzle instead of just a piece.

"Well, I suppose I have even more explaining to do then." Black sighed, still looking very confused. "I should start with the fact that you, Dazai, are not a muggleborn but a half blood. Your mother was a witch."

Well, if this is true, then it seems that everything Dazai ever thought he knew was wrong. He really shouldn't be surprised.

Black continued, despite Dazai's clear confusion. "She wasn't just any witch, though. She was also part of an important magical family in Japan."

Dazai blinked. He knew very little about Mother, so whether or not this was true, he couldn't be sure. Black didn't seem like he was lying, but he could also just be a good liar. Draco and Pansy were looking at him like they were trying to put it together.

"Prove it." Dazai said suddenly. "If this is true, prove it."

"I can," Black stated slowly. "But not now. Not yet."

Well, isn't that just great? Dazai wasn't even sure where to begin on that identity crisis if any of it was true.

"Wait. If that is true, how would Dazai just not know?" Pansy asked, clearly skeptical. 

"You'd be surprised how little I get told." Dazai said, but he didn't look at her.

"Okay, but that still doesn't explain why you haven't murdered us yet!" Draco pointed out, still clearly terrified but going along with the discussion anyway.

"I was framed!" Black yelled angrily, suddenly manic. "I never murdered anyone!"

It probably didn't seem that way, though, to Snape who had just busted into the shack. In fact, Black probably looked incredibly murderous.

"Well hello there Professor!" Dazai greeted cheerfully, waving at him as per usual. Blaise and Snape each give him a look, though they looked completely different. 

"Hello." Blaise eventually greeted as well after looking away from Dazai. Snape just looked even more horrified.

"What is going on here?" Snape asked, sounding almost murderous. He walked forward with his wand pointed out at Black. "What are you doing with my students?"

It was looking very bad for Black now, as Snape looked about ready to rip him to shreds and had his wand out, meanwhile Black was defenseless.

"Stupify!" Pansy yelled, and suddenly Snape fell to the ground, stunned. Dazai, Blaise and Draco all looked over at Pansy in surprise. After a moment,  Dazai just sort of accepted it and moved on.

"Well, anyway. You were saying?" He prompted after a good few seconds of silence, looking over at Black again.

"I'm not a murderer." Black reiterated, not missing a beat. "I was framed!"

"So you've said." Dazai said, but Black didn't seem to be listening.

"My own best friend framed me for murder! He killed our friends and then ran away like a coward!" Black yelled (quite loudly, Dazai might add) while manically gesturing. "He faked his death and then framed me for it!"

Peter Pettigrew, Dazai's mind supplied for him. It was obvious, and the others seemed to agree. Dazai had seen the name P. Pettigrew on the map, this just explained it. Black wasn't lying, not about this, anyway.

"Wait, you said you saw him but you never explained." Blaise pointed out, but before they could get an answer, the door burst open again.

It was Lupin this time. Great.

Black didn't seem too worried, though, and he walked over to him. In fact, they seemed almost like old friends. 

"Well, aren't you looking worse for wear?" Lupin started. "It almost matches your insanity."

"You'd know a lot about that, wouldn't you, Remus?" Black retorted, and they walked towards each other.

"Are either of you going to explain?" Pansy interrupted, very clearly irritated at them. Black and Remus stopped their weird reunion and obeyed.

"Me and my old friends Peter and James were animagus for Remus."

"Because he's a werewolf." Dazai and Pansy interrupted, speaks simultaneously. Huh. Dazai didn't even know Pansy knew.

"Ms. Parkinson? How long have you known?" Lupin asked, surprised. Blaise also seemed mildly surprised as well, but not quite as much as Draco who looked like he was about to have an aneurism.

"Whatever! That's not important!" Pansy said after a moment of stunned silence. "You still haven't explained!"

Black shook his head like he was trying to shake away his shock. "You're right." He started again. "Peter's animagus form is a rat. I saw him with you, and tried to grab him."

That explains the rat that Dazai saw after Pettigrew's name appeared on the map and the rat he saw earlier that evening.

Blaise was quiet for a moment, visibly lost in thought before speaking. "Well, he couldn't gotten very far, right?" He reasoned. "If this is true, you should be able to prove it if we can find him."

Everyone seemed to agree, and soon enough, they were searching around the shack for a rat. Though Blaise's movement was restricted by his leg. They should really get that treated when they get back . . . Dazai was getting distracted.

"Hey! Guys!" Draco called out. Everyone looked over to him and Pansy, and they pointed to a dark corner where a rat skittered out.

It was the same rat from earlier.

Lupin cast a silent spell, missing a few times before managing to hit the rat. The rat then turned into a fully grown man, who was shaking profusely.

Dazai was tired.

Chapter Text

Pettigrew just stared at them in fear. Or, more specifically, he stared at Black and Lupin in fear. It was an expression Dazai knew well. The look of someone who knows they fucked up, and now had to suffer the consequences. Dazai had seen that expression on many mafia traitors.

"Remus . . . Sirius . . " Pettigrew started, though he was shaking like a leaf. "O-Old friends . . "

"Don't give me that, traitor!" Black yelled. He already hostile before but now he had to be held back by Lupin. "You aided our friend's murder!"

"You don't understand!" Pettigrew kneeled at their feet. "The Dark Lord would've killed me! You have no idea what kind of power he has!"

"Then you should've died!" Black screamed at him again, which was definitely going to attract attention. "Died rather than revealed your friend's location!"

Pettigrew looked even more frightened, if that was even possible, and suddenly Dazai was given the impression of quarreling lovers. He shook away the thought.

"S-Surely you don't mean that." Pettigrew started, speaking quietly. "We're friends, aren't we?"

Everyone collectively cringed, but Dazai wasn't surprised. Once again, Pettigrew reminded Dazai of the many cowardly mafia traitors he had tasked to kill.

"We stopped being friends once you betrayed us, and you know that." Lupin interjected before Black could respond. "You made a promise and you broke it, and that's your own fault."

"B-But you wouldn't kill me for it." Pettigrew said, pausing for a moment. " . . . would you?"

Black and Lupin looked furious, with Lupin's grip on Black's arms going slack. Both were interrupted before either of them could say anything, though.

"Stupify!"

Blaise, Draco, and Pansy all stunned the man simultaneously. And unlike the very shocked Black and Lupin, they didn't even seem surprised at the synchocrity.

"Well, that certainly took care of that." Lupin said after a moment of awkward silence. Black's expression darkened.

"Yes, yes it has." He walked forward towards the stunned man, looking much more like the presumed mass murderer that he was supposed to be.

Black pulled out a wand — who knows where he got that — and pointed it towards Pettigrew. "I've waited 12 years to kill you, I won't fail this time."

Lupin didn't move to stop him, and didn't really seem like he was all that interested in doing so. However, just before Black was about to cast some sort of spell, Pansy grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Wait!" She exclaimed, pulling him back. "Don't you want to clear your name? Or are you really going to become the man they think you are?"

Black's eyes widened, and Lupin had an almost regretful expression on his face. After yet another beat of deafening quiet, Dazai spoke up.

"I agree, if you're going to kill him at least put his body where people will find him." Dazai said, sighing. "Then they'll know he was never actually dead. Honestly, ameture move . . "

Evidently, however, no one else in the shack agreed with that part. Dazai pouted as they stared at him with a mix of exasperation and horror.

"Not what I meant, Dazai, and you know it."

"Rude."

Pansy rolled her eyes and Draco sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose and probably regretting his recent life choices.

"Ignoring that last bit, I suppose you have a point." Black sighed, moving away from Pettigrew. "I guess I never thought about it like that." Black handed the wand to Lupin, who magicked Pettigrew and Snape to float. So it was Lupin's wand, then.

Lupin walked in front of the group and opened the door. Everyone walked out behind him, with Snape and Pettigrew hitting the doorway on the way out. Dazai had a feeling that was intentional.

Dazai was in the middle of the group with Black, trying not to walk too slowly. Blaise was being supported by Pansy and Draco behind him. Silence once again washed over them, but only for a minute.

"Hey," Dazai started, looking over at Black. "You said you had proof, or at least could prove it."

"Of course." Black said, clearing his throat awkwardly. "Remus, do you have it on you?"

"Yes, why wouldn't I?" Lupin responded, digging through his pockets before finding whatever he was looking for. "Mr. Dazai, as Sirius was going to Azkaban, he asked for me to hold onto something for him . . "

Lupin handed Dazai a photograph. It was hard to see it in the dark, but Dazai had always had excellent night vision. In the photo was what he presumed was a younger Sirius Black and someone who was definitely his mother. Though he didn't have that many photos of her and couldn't remember her very well, he could still recognize her.

The photo wasn't charmed to move like most photographs Dazai saw in the wizarding world, and it definitely wasn't charmed in any other way, either. It was just your regular, run of the mill photo that you could find anywhere. Dazai couldn't think of a way that it would be able to be faked like this.

Well. Damn. Dazai's definitely going to be having an identity crisis now. Great. Hopefully later. At least Dazai knows how Mori could be so sure that he had magic, and he couldn't exactly say that he was surprised that he had been lied to his whole life.

"That photo was taken when we were about your age, actually." Sirius said, pointing to it. "We had known each other since we were quite young, even before I went to Hogwarts."

Something must've happened, though, considering Dazai had never once heard of Sirius before this year, and Sirius had used the words 'had known' instead of 'have known'.

"She went missing when we were 15." Sirius started. Dazai could hear someone suck in a sharp  breath. "No one seemed to even care, not even her parents."

"Yeah, that tracks." Dazai said, not missing a beat and shrugging.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, my mother had me at 16." Dazai responded, nonchalant. "Something tells me her parents knew about it."

Sirius and Lupin looked genuinely horrified at that, and Dazai could practically feel the holes his friends in the back were searing into his back. Dazai chose to ignore that.

"Why the hell is this tunnel so long??" Dazai complained, changing the subject after a minute or so of horrified silence. "It's just impractical, if you ask me."

Now that Dazai didn't have to worry about an oversized black dog dragging his second-in-command into a murder tree, Dazai could tell just how infinitly long this tunnel was.

"Well, it did have to make the distance between Hogwarts and hogsmeade." Lupin reasoned, sounding exasperated with Dazai.

"I feel that should be a non issue considering you're, y'know, magic?"

"I'm sure that we're almost there, Dazai. Just be patient." Said Blaise, who was just now speaking up. Dazai crossed his arms and pouted.

There was yet another beat of silence, this one feeling a bit more comfortable. However, Dazai gets bored easily and his two favorite past times were complaining and fucking with people.

"Snape is totally gonna be so pissed." Dazai commented, though he wasn't all that bothered.  Dazai could hear Pansy and Draco groan loudly, while Blaise just gave an exasperated sigh.

"I'm sure you'll be fine." Lupin reassured them calmly, though he looked amused. "I'm sure he won't be that mad."

"I suppose you're probably right." Dazai started, smiling pleasantly. "I am Snape's favorite."

Pansy and Draco groaned again. Blaise snorted at the joke quietly. At least one of them thought it was funny.

"It's so true it's not even funny . . " said Pansy, sighing. Dazai cackled.

"Now, now . . "

Sirius laughed loudly, evidently finding all of this hilarious. "Snivelus is playing favorites now??" He said in between laughs.

Dazai paused, looking at Sirius before his face broke out into a grin. "Snivelus?!" Dazai laughed even louder, because really, who wouldn't?

Dazai and Sirius chortled for another few seconds before calming down again, and Dazai spared another glance at Lupin, who looked so absolutely done with them. 

After another few moments, the tunnel finally ended. Thank god. Dazai was getting bored again. It was dark out now, and the moon was out. A full moon. Dazai grimaced internally.

Dazai could hear Blaise reviving Snape in the background, and he's quickly in front of all of them and motioning for them to stay behind him. He pulled his wand out from a pocket, that had somehow not fallen out grom the journey. He pointed it at werewolf Lupin and Sirius. 

Right. Sirius is still a convicted murderer.

Sirius, seeing the chaos, transforms into dog form. Dazai instinctively flinched back. Damn.

"Dammit, why didn't you drink your potion before storming out here?" Snape mumbled to himself, though Dazai was still able to hear. So there was a potion that Lupin evidently didn't take, probably one that would prevent all this.

Suddenly, there were spells flying everywhere. Snape was trying to subdue werewolf Lupin while also trying to get rid of the Sirius Black problem.

Dazai tried to get closer, but Snape pushed him back, and he stumbled. He caught himself quickly enough, getting back onto his feet. It seemed like he wasn't the only one to stumble, though, because Blaise was mostly unsupported after Pansy fell down. Dazai stopped Blaise from also falling down and held him up long enough for Pansy to get back up.

The fight wasn't going very well. The spells Snape was shooting out were either missing or useless against the werewolf. Huh. Weird. It wasn't going well for Sirius, either, though. He was trying to hold Lupin down, but was only succeeding in being pushed around.

In Dazai's very informed opinion, being mauled by a feral animal is basically the worst way to die. So he was maybe just a bit panicked when the werewolf got past Sirius and started charging at them. Dazai braced for a very painful death, when suddenly Lupin was distracted by howling from the far away bushes.

Now, Dazai has heard a whole lot of howling in his life, so he'd say that he was pretty qualified to say that that had sounded extremely human-like. Dazai really hoped that wouldn't come back to bite him.

At least everything was calm again, for now.

Chapter Text

Sirius turned back into his human form. Good. Dazai preferred him that way. Immediately upon transforming back he stunned Snape again.

There was a pause, where everyone just kind of collectively held their breath, as if waiting for something or someone to pop up out of nowhere.

"I . . I think I'm gonna take Blaise to the healer." Pansy said after nothing happened, and picked Blaise up bridal style to carry him and started running in the opposite direction. Draco followed her closely behind.

There was a beat of silence, and Dazai was about to follow her, when the air got colder. Dazai instinctively looked up. Dementors.

Shit.

Sirius noticed as well, and reached for a wand, only to find none. It must've fallen out at some point. Dazai just stared at them, a bit stunned.

Dazai tried to ignore all of the memories that were dug up. The memories he buried for a goddamn reason. But they just kept coming, no matter how much he tried to shove them down or ignore them.

Dazai noticed Sirius on the ground, and looked over. He was out cold. Dazai was unsure when that had happened, though it made sense. Dazai shivered. He was shivering, because didn't that just make everything worse? Dazai reached for his own wand, struggling a bit from his sudden tremor.

"Expecto patronum!"

The spell didn't quite work, probably because he can't seem to focus on the memory that worked before. Hell, Dazai doubted he could focus on anything other than the more unpleasant memories coming up.

"Expecto patronum!"

Dazai tried a few more times after that, but he couldn't seem to get it to work. Dazai felt sick. He hasn't felt like that after casting in a while. Dazai stumbled, but mostly kept his footing.

Dazai was annoyingly very aware that dementors can't kill him. They can only take his soul, in an unfortunately named 'dementor's kiss', though he wasn't even sure if that would even work on him. The dementors other affects work on him for some ungodly reason, why not that?

Dazai knew he should probably just accept his fate now, but for some reason he just couldn't.

He doesn't care what happens to him or Sirius. That would be stupid. No, his life would just be extra boring without a soul, and Sirius just so happens to be there. That's all.

Besides, if dementors can't actually suck out his soul because of No Longer Human, then it'll be revealed, and he can't have that. Trying to explain would just be exhausting.

Dazai stood up straight again, keeping his feet planted firmly on the ground. Wand pointed towards the dementors again, he casts again.

"Expecto patronum!!"

Dazai focused harder on the memory, but it barely worked. Dazai started to wonder if the last time was just a fluke or what.

Dazai stumbled again and falls down, his hand still clasped around his wand tightly. Dazai wondered if this is what dying feels like. Logically Dazai knows dementors can't kill him, but he kind of wished they would already.

Dazai sits up. He might as well just kill himself now. It would save him time, and probably drive Mori up the wall. Who knows.

Just when Dazai thought he could probably just stab himself in the neck with his oh so pointy wand, he saw a flash of light, or rather felt it, and saw a fox patronus save him. Dazai barely had time to look over and see himself.

What a weird hallucination . .

Then everything went dark, and he passed out.

Elise has done this many times before. She was usually the one sent to go look for Dazai. It was something she was used to. So when Dazai never came back after his friends, she was naturally sent looking by Rintarou.

Dazai's little friends (what were their names again?) were a bit . . . apprehensive to share why they were so beat up, but that's okay. Rintarou didn't judge.

What kind of underground doctor would he be if he grilled every patient for info, after all?

Besides, Elise had a feeling she already knew. Even if she was wrong about it, Dazai would tell her at least part of it. Dazai had always trusted her a bit more than Rintarou. Never completely though.

(She couldn't blame him for that.)

According to Dazai's friend with the flower name, she should look around the whomping willow. The kids hadn't explained that at all. Elise could only hope Dazai didn't accidentally kill the tree with No Longer Human, and that Rintarou went easy on those kids while she was gone, and on Dazai once she brought him back.

Elise hadn't really left the infirmary that year, much less the castle. She had left once or twice to pick up whatever the magical community uses as medicine, but that was about it. It was new grounds for her, but she wouldn't get lost.

For one, Elise actually had a sense of direction, unlike Dazai, and she had seen the grounds from out the window plenty. Plus, all she had to do was follow the feeling of Dazai's ability.

That was why she was always sent after him. It was easy to find someone when you could literally sense them from a distance.

The feeling got stronger, and Elise knew she was close. Dazai's friends were right; he was near the whomping willow. Walking faster through the plant life, Elise turned and saw him.

He was out cold, passed out next to Sirius Black and that Snape professor. Elise can't remember a time before Hogwarts when Dazai passed out this much. She walked closer and leaned down. He was still breathing, so that was good at least.

Now there was the issue of getting him back. Elise would normally just carry him back, but she didn't bring her gloves. She would have to get Rintarou or maybe a teacher.

The headmistress Mcgonagall seemed like she cared about Dazai more than most of the teachers. She would probably help. Yes, Mcgonagall would help.

Picking up Snape bridal style, Elise fast walked back to the castle to find the headmistress.