Going Magic

Chapter 1: Sorting

Yeah, I know, it's an old plotline but I really wanted to use it. ^^

Characters: Gaara, Temari, Kankurou – gotta love the sandsibs – Naruto, Ino, Shikamaru and well, all the magic folk they run into over time

Pairings: Hmm, well they're kids so not so much. Possibly slight Temari/Shikamaru, and by the same definition you could consider there to be equally slight Hermione/Ron… I guess?

Set: Before Shippuden. During Book 5, Order of the Phoenix.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Harry Potter

Note: It's been a good long while since I read HP so I'll probably be fuzzy on several details – however since I'll be writing primarily from the Naruto characters' POV I hope this won't be too annoying. The plotline would be altered if a gang of shinobi would enter the scene, right?

Warning: Crossover? Is that qualified to be a warning?

Italics – Japanese; You know, my native language ain't English so I'm sure I'll make enough grammatical and other types of errors without throwing a third language in the mix.

Also I, personally, find it kind of annoying to have to look up certain words in an otherwise English fic – thus interrupting the flow of the text. I'm quirky like that.

"Gah! What the heck are those things?!"

"Naruto! Quiet down, you idiot!" Ino hissed, tempted to beat the fool over the head like she'd seen Sakura do on occasion. A lot of occasions really.

"Yeah, you little brat. Shut it." Another shinobi agreed huffily. In the darkness of the forest Ino could barely see her companions but she knew which one had come to her support. It wasn't difficult to figure out; out of the four guys on the squad only two were from her village and one of the ones that weren't didn't do the talking thing. And when he did she kinda wished he didn't.

"Hey, who the hell are you calling a brat, bat brain?" Naruto yelled, rounding on them.

"What did you say?" the other guy – damn, what was his name again? Kankou? Kanky? Something like that.

Beside her Ino could hear Shikamaru sigh and knew that there would soon be a muttered "troublesome" coming.

"You heard me. Heh, didn't you, batty?"

"You little…"

"Heh, brain of bat shi-"

And here it was – the fighting would begin in earnest and they'd be found out and the mission would be ruined and Hokage-sama would kill them and…

"Kankurou." One word, which was all it took for the fight that never was to never be. Oh, right, Kankurou… that was his name. "Enough."

That voice wasn't even angry, or stern, or anything at all really, but it still cut through the raised voices like a knife, slicing any argument in two.

"Ah… Gaara…. But…." Kankurou babbled, suddenly uncertain.

"You're compromising the mission." Gaara's voice never wavered, never gave any sign of emotion.

"But…"

"Gaara's right, dumbass. You two stop behaving like children and start acting like damn shinobi. We've got a mission to do." A female voice agreed – the last member of their joint Konoha/Suna team and only other girl. She pushed past Kankurou and Naruto and began walking ahead. "Let's go."

"What? You want us to walk down there to those things?" Naruto's voice said, not as loudly as before. "Are you stupid?"

Ino saw the other girl stiffen and stopping in her tracks.

"Great. Now you've done it, idiot." Kankurou muttered pointedly to Naruto.

"What? What did I do? We can't just go down there, we need to form a plan of attack and…"

"Naruto, use your eyes." Shikamaru finally decided to join the conversation, heaving a heavy sigh as he did so. "The students of this school are climbing into the carriages drawn by those creatures, they're most likely…"

"They're what?" Naruto hurriedly turned back to peek out at the yard where the creatures – great, black, oddly horse like things – were standing. Sure enough the students, a happily chattering crowd, were busy making their way into the carriages without an ounce of fear. In fact they seemed to ignore the creatures entirely. One girl very nearly walked into one of them and the horse like thing merely moved away gracefully, letting her by.

"…harmless." Shikamaru finished and sighed again.

"Who's stupid now?" Temari taunted, turning her head just enough to fire off a smirk aimed at Naruto before continuing on her path. Gaara followed leisurely, and then so did Kankurou who like his sister turned his head and smirked.

"Come on then, dummy. Or are you chicken?"

"Hey! Who're you calling chicken? I'm Naruto Uzumaki and I'm gonna be Hokage one day! Believe it!" Naruto boasted huffily, albeit not as loudly as before and rushed after him.

Ino watched them leave with a frown. "He better not tackle him or anything, or I swear I'll kick his ass." She vowed heatedly.

"How troublesome." Shikamaru sighed.

"Er… you know that bloke right?"

Ino was severely tempted to say no. To claim on her parent's non existing graves that no, no way in hell did she know that guy who was leaning so far out the window that she suspected that the only reason he didn't fall out was because he had glued his feet to the floor with chakra. So it was with outmost reluctance that she finally nodded.

The guy sitting across from her in the carriage had red hair, rumpled in that way which only boys could manage. A bit like Gaara's mop of hair, only Gaara's was even redder. Now the other boy eyed Naruto sceptically. "What's he doing?"

Huh? She had heard that correct, right? She knew that her English wasn't perfect but… she glanced sideways at Shikamaru who had a calculating look on his face. Well, didn't he always?

"The creatures." She replied slowly, pronouncing each word carefully. Gah, English sure was difficult to speak. The words didn't feel like they fit in her mouth. She hoped it'd grow easier over time. "He's looking at them."

"Huh? What creatures?" Ron asked, obviously confused but the other boy next to him instantly sat up straighter, almost as if he'd been startled. This was the first time she had been this close to Harry Potter and she couldn't help but take a closer look at that lightning bolt scar. Since the start of this mission they had all taken turns watching the guy from afar, gauging his traits and quirks, but none of them had approached him before.

"Wait. You can see those things?" Harry asked.

"What things?" Ron asked with exasperation.

"Of course we can see them." Ino snorted at the same time, then caught herself and gave Ron a surprised look. Quickly she looked at Shikamaru. He was frowning. "He can't see them?" Ino asked, nodding at Ron.

"No. Only I could see them." The dark haired boy said. "And Luna." He added as an afterthought.

"Wait, do you mean there's something pulling the carriages?" Ron asked, already joining Naruto by the window and looking outside. "I can't see anything."

"What? Are you stupid? Gah, stupid language, I can't… They. There!" Ino could hear Naruto respond in broken English. Most likely he was pointing and waving animatedly too.

Great first impression.

"Naruto." She hissed with the intention of dragging the other shinobi back into the carriage.

"Where?" She heard Ron ask. By now he was leaning out almost as far as Naruto.

"Ron! That's dangerous, come back inside!" The only other girl in the carriage called out. "You're going to fall out."

"No I won't!" Ron responded indignantly.

"Come back inside. Or I'll send and owl to your mother the moment we get to Hogwarts."

That comment worked like a charm. Within moments the boy was seated again.

The girl, Hermione, held out a hand. For a moment Ino stared at it in confusion until Shikamaru leaned forward and shook the hand.

"Shikamaru." He introduced himself, giving Ino a look that clearly said 'follow my lead'. Blushing Ino did and shook the hand, simultaneously cursing herself for having forgotten about the odd custom of joining hands while greeting each other. They'd observed it several times over the past week while doing recognisance. "Gomen… er, sorry. I'm Ino."

"That's some weird names, huh, mate?" She heard Ron whisper in Harry's ear, obviously trying to be inconspicuous and failing miserably.

"We're exchange students." She replied primly, sending him a superior glare. "From… Japan."

The redhead's eyes grew almost comically wide while his face slowly turned very red. For a moment she wondered if he was choking on his own tongue. Would serve him right if he did, she thought vehemently. There certainly wasn't anything weird about her name.

"Yeah, alright." Ron finally manage to splutter out, sitting back so far that he looked like he was trying to merge with the seat.

"Me Naruto." Naruto added, pointing at himself almost boastfully. Yeah, 'cause he's so great, Ino thought snidely and resisted the urge to roll her eyes. They really needed to teach him to speak better English. He sounded like a caveman.

"So it's just the three of you?"

"More. Three." Naruto explained, holding up three fingers to empathise and counted: "Temari, Kankurou, Gaara. There! Damn it, I really hate this language. There." Naruto pointed out the carriage towards another, and then yelled loudly, waving his hand. "Yo! Gaara!"

A pale face turned his way and a steady, green stare fell on Naruto for a long moment. Then Gaara… blinked. Once. And looked away again.

Scratching the back of his neck sheepishly Naruto grinned. "Heh, he's not… gah… what's the word for chatty in this stupid language?"

"Wow, awesome!"

They had only just stepped foot inside a large hall. No, the Great Hall, Ino corrected herself. That was what these wizards had called it; The Great Hall. And it was great. Filled with students that were seated along four long tables and adults, which she assumed were the teachers, along yet another table at the end of the hall. What was the most notable about the hall, and also the cause for Naruto's exclamation, was the ceiling though. Or the apparent lack thereof. Logically she knew there was a ceiling somewhere above, she could see the pillars holding it up fading in the distance, but somehow it showed the open sky. A dark, starry sky that somehow seemed more immense whilst contained within these walls.

Looking around she saw that Naruto wasn't the only one impressed by the sight, although amongst the shinobi he was the only one to voice it that loudly. These children, new students apparently, that was milling around them all were saying similar things.

The old man standing at the end of the hall smiled at them while they approached. Truthfully Ino had thought that the previous time they'd met their client he'd been experiencing some sort of mental breakdown, because, really, who'd dress like that? All of that blue and red and silver and yellow, and the stars and the moons and… and that hat - kami-sama, was the man colour blind? He was insulting her finely honed fashion sense and he didn't even seem to realise it.

Clack!

The elderly woman – witch, she reminded herself – that had led them into the Great Hall sharply sat down a stool in front of the teacher's table and then stepped away from it. There was an old patched hat sitting on it. Immediately the hall went quiet and Ino carefully looked around, trying to discern why everyone had suddenly stopped talking.

Then someone started singing. It sounded like the voice of an old man but when she looked over at Dumbledore she couldn't see his lips moving.

"Gah! That hat is singing!" Naruto yelled, pointing an accusing finger at the old piece of headgear.

And it was. Ino couldn't decide what to think about that. Clothes were not supposed to grow sentient, that she did know. And they sure as hell were not supposed to burst out in song.

"Stupid." Temari muttered and snorted disdainfully.

"That's what they call the Sorting Hat," Shikamaru said, causing the other shinobi to turn to look at him. "Once it's stopped singing we will be divided into one of the four houses."

"How do you know that?" Ino whispered.

"Dumbledore briefed us about this ritual during our meeting." He replied lazily. He looked annoyed with her question and Ino glared. Was he trying to insinuate that she was a bad listener?

"I know that." She replied huffily. "You could've told us it was going to sing."

Shikamaru heaved a heavy sigh that really could mean anything. Being on the same team with him for the past year and a half told her that he did that whenever he didn't feel like explaining something. Or expected a fight.

"What are the four houses then?" Temari asked. "How do they divide people between them?"

"Those of great cunning goes to Slytherin," Gaara said, monotone as ever. He sounded distant, as if he was not really talking to any of them at all. "Those of sharp minds go to Ravenclaw. Those of great daring goes to Gryffindor and the rest are placed in Hufflepuff."

"How do you know?" Temari asked, looking surprised. Ino didn't blame her: she'd been surprised when Gaara talked too. Since this mission began she was confident that she could've counted the number of times that guy had talked on one hand. She might still have fingers left too.

"The hat told me." Gaara replied and Kankurou snorted with laughter.

"Yeah, Temari. You should listen when the hat do a ditty, everyone knows that." He smirked.

"Shut it, doll-boy." The girl snapped back.

"They're not dolls," Kankurou said, clearly affronted. "They're…"

"It has stopped singing." Gaara interrupted, causing the both of them to quickly bite down on whatever they'd wanted to say when applause broke out all around them. Only crazy magical people would applaud a singing hat, Ino decided. Well, apparently crazy magical people and Naruto, she amended after a glance his way.

Once the applause and the subsequent whispering between the students had died down the old witch nodded her head and retrieved a paper from within her… dress? Robes?

"This year the sorting will begin with a group of older students." She explained, addressing the hall. Immediately the whispering started up again but the witch didn't appear inclined to explain further why there was suddenly a heap of older students being enrolled, instead she shot a baleful glare across the hall and the whispering settled once more.

Then, clearing her throat once, she proceeded by slaughtering Shikamaru's name.

"Nara, Shikamaru."

To be honest Ino could barely make out which one of them the woman had called forth, and she wasn't entirely certain until her team-mate sighed and continued forward. Once he was standing in front of the woman she gestured towards the stool. "Well have a seat, Mr Nara."

He lazily sat down on the stool and the witch placed the hat on his head. Ino pulled a face of distaste when she realised that they'd do the same to her as well. The mere thought of having that smelly old rag touching her hair made her skin crawl and she reached up to stroke her hair. It was a mission for her village, she reminded herself. She couldn't back out. Kami-sama, the things a girl would do for a mission. Perhaps she could wash it later.

"Ravenclaw!" The hat barked loudly and instantly the students by one of the tables started clapping loudly. She noted that their generic black robes were marked with blue. Blue would go great with her eyes, she thought absentmindedly while Shikamaru meandered his way over to and sat down by that table.

"Sabaku, Gaara." The witch called out and this time she seemed to have an easier time with the pronunciation.

The redheaded boy sat down on the stool, his pale face as expressionless as ever. This time the hat didn't take long to decide, it had barely settled on his head when it cried out: "Slytherin!"

Was it her imagination or did the rag sound frightened?

Gaara stood and walked over to the table farthest to the left to where the students' cheers guided him. A quick look told her that the colour choice for that house was green, oh and silver. Very stylish of them. Green and silver went well together, she thought, and she could definitely make it work with her colouring. Although… no, she didn't relish the thought of being in the same house as Gaara. That guy gave her the cr-

"Sabaku, Kankurou." The witch called out, having some difficulty with his given name.

"I better not end up in Hufflepuff." Kankurou muttered darkly, mostly to himself it seemed, as he walked forward. "From the sound of things that place is the equivalent of a magical slop pail."

Not to mention that he just wouldn't have been able to pull off that yellow colour. Come to think of it she wasn't so keen on it either, Ino thought with a frown when the witch placed the hat on Kankurou's messy head of hair.

This time the hat appeared to take way long and judging from the many and varied facial expressions flittering on Kankurou's face he was either having a stroke or… was the hat talking to him? Like in his head?

"Don't you dare, you filthy piece of trash." He suddenly snapped, his eyes glaring upwards at the hat that, oddly, seemed to smirk.

"Very well then," The hat declared. "Ravenclaw!"

"Damn it!" Kankurou barked out furiously, ripping the hat off his head and appeared to attempt to strangle it even while the Ravenclaw table erupted in cheers… which quickly died down in confused whisperings and mutterings.

"Mr Sabaku!" The witch snapped sternly. "Unhand the Sorting Hat this instance!"

"I will once it places me in the right house." Kankurou snapped back.

"Now, Mr Sabaku," Dumbledore said mildly, smiling way too kindly. "The Sorting Hat makes its decision based on your finest qualities and once made is final. This is an honoured tradition since this fine institution was founded. I'm afraid I will have to insist that you refrain from tearing it apart."

Kankurou looked surly but after another moment he handed the hat over to the witch, who quickly dusted it off and glared at him.

"Whatever." He muttered moodily and sat down by the Ravenclaw table. The students next to him moved away a little, Ino noticed. She didn't blame them.

Once order had been restored Dumbledore smiled cheerfully at the students and gestured for the sorting ceremony to resume.

"Sabaku, Temari." The witch intoned her voice stern and clipped. When the last of the sand ninja walked up to the stool the witch eyed her warily, as if expecting her to attack the hat too.

Temari settled down, looking rather huffy and glared ahead of her when the hat was cautiously set on her head.

After another moment her glare grew in intensity and her lips tightened.

When the hat shouted out a: "Gryffindor!" Ino could've sworn the other girl looked both annoyed and disappointed for a second, but the expression was quickly wiped away when she stood and walked over to the assigned table. That table in particular appeared to cheer the loudest, thumping backs left and right and howling like hounds. Really kind of an unsightly bunch. And their colours were red and gold, which was just… no. Heaps of no.

"Uzumaki, Naruto."

Naruto was grinning like a little kid when the hat was set on his head. Quickly his face turned surprised, eyes wide and mouth agape. That idiot probably hadn't even realised that the hat was talking to them, she thought and smiled wryly.

"Gryffindor!" The hat called out, causing another bout of cheering and back thumping from the red table, and Naruto jumped up, striking a victory pose.

"Oh yeah! Feast your eyes on Naruto Uzumaki, the number one leaf shinobi and future Hokage!" He yelled out, grinning and gesturing, and although none of the students could possibly understand a word the cheering grew even wilder and louder. It continued until the blond boy had been forcefully pulled down to sit by Temari and the old witch sent a stern glare towards them.

"Yamanaka, Ino." The witch said, finally calling her name.

Straightening her back she smiled her best smile when she walked up to the stool. Inwardly her mind was reeling; trying desperately to decide which house she wanted the hat to place her in. She figured that she should be able to reason with it easily enough, one mind manipulator to another, but… oh, blue, yellow, red or green?

"Ah, I see." The hat's gruffly old man's voice suddenly was in her head and she was startled. She'd never experienced anything like it before. Mind manipulation was sort of her area of expertise and she'd never had anything like it done to her before. She decided that she didn't care for it.

"What do you see?" She voiced the question in her head, trying to sound as cordial as possible.

"You possess some sharp wit, most definitely, ah yes." It responded thoughtfully. "And rather a bit a bravery as well."

"Thank you." She replied, attempting to sound humble. Inwardly she was cheering herself. Oh yeah, sharp wit and bravery. Good stuff.

The hat chuckled. "Pride is ingrained in you, I see."

Well, having pride in one own ability and appearance wasn't a bad thing either. Perhaps this hat wasn't as dumb as she'd first thought, really it seemed quite astute.

"But your greatest quality is your ambition," it murmured. "Therefore I shall place you in; Slytherin!"

Wait, what? Ino's eyes widened in surprise. Just like that the decision had been made and she'd not even got a chance to… the hat had just complimented her and… it had duped her. She'd been outsmarted by a hat, she realised shamefaced, while the old witch removed the hat from her head and told her to go join her new house.

And, oh, crap, Ino thought with dread while she walked over towards the Slytherin table. She was going to be living with Gaara.

At least she got the green and silver… it would go well with her colouring.

Author's notes: So how does it look to you guys? Worth continuing?

Not all of this will be written from Ino's POV. The POV will wander about some, I promise, I just enjoyed writing the intro from her point of view since, well I think Ino would have a lot to say about the wizarding world. And she's delightfully vain, which I love.

I hope the characters are reasonably IC – it's not easy writing a crossover and keeping them in character, I've come to realise. Although it's always a struggle keeping other people's characters IC isn't it?

Please do tell me what you think of it: I love getting reviews – keeps me going, see? And also makes me aware of any impending pitfalls, and things I might have to think about in the future. THX