The next Thursday, Ty Lee, Zuko and Haru were all sitting at the Gryffindor table, Ty Lee perched on Haru’s lap, feeding him strawberries.  Teo had elected to sit with the Ravenclaws today, and they could hear snatches of music coming from that table.  One of them had brought some sort of musical instrument that reminded Haru of a pipa.

Zuko took very little notice of this, translating an essay for his first class from characters into this world's alphabet.

"Y'know, Zuzu, it'd be easier if you just wrote it their way first," Ty Lee commented.

"Like Zu does anything the easy—" Haru began to say.  He was cut off by all the Ravenclaw third-years suddenly bursting into very loud song.

"SECRET TUNNEL!
            "SECRET TUNNEL!
            "THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS!
            "SECRET SECRET SECRET SECRET TUNNEL!"

All over the great hall, heads turned.

Zuko made an impatient noise and chucked a roll in their general direction. "LEARN BETTER SONGS."

"Hey, I know this one!" Ty Lee said, hard on his heels, and joined in the last line.

Haru groaned and started to put his head in his hands, then he noticed the paper Granger was reading; without hesitating, he reached across the table and grabbed it from her.

“Hey—” she protested.

Zuko peered over Haru’s shoulder, wondering what prompted this uncharacteristic act of theft. He swore. Creatively. Teaching the first years (and some of the older students) words that they really had no business knowing.

“I’ll give it back,” said Haru absently, staring at the headline.

MASS BREAKOUT FROM AZKABAN
MINISTRY FEARS BLACK IS ‘RALLYING POINT’
FOR OLD DEATH EATERS.

His eyes narrowed as he scanned the article.  “Zuko, come with me,” he said abruptly.  “Ty Lee, you can come if you want.”  He handed the paper back to Hermione and stood.

The two nobles of the Fire Nation followed him without question.

“Security check?” Zuko asked in an undertone once they were out of the Great Hall.

“Security check,” Haru replied.  “They’ll hit this school sooner or later and we all know it.”

He nodded. “Sending in a sole assassin would actually not be that difficult,” he muttered. “An army would be close to impossible.”

“Not necessarily,” Haru said thoughtfully.  “It’d be a pain in the ass to pull off, but it could be done.  What do we know of the school’s defences?  Can’t plot it on a map, oh, yes, real help there when pretty much everyone who is an enemy graduated from here.  Forbidden Forest.   Yeah.  Right.  Can’t do that Apparition thing here, but nothing stopped Ty Lee from being transported to school grounds.”

“That’s why I said nearly impossible,” Zuko pointed out. “You could do it, especially if you sent in a small advance team to pave the way.”

Ty Lee nodded. “Yeah.”

“…I think we should split up. Each take part of the grounds, find security holes and plug them as best we can,” Zuko suggested.

“Sounds like a plan,” Haru replied.  “I’ll take the castle itself.  God knows I can find any structural weaknesses.”  He thumped his bare foot against the stone.

“I’ll go for the forest,” the prince said.

“I’ll start on the other side of the grounds. How about we meet… in the Room of Requirement in four hours?” Ty Lee added.

“Done,” said Haru.  “Let’s go.”

And the three visitors scattered to their self-appointed tasks.

Haru spent some time considering where he ought to start, then a Ravenclaw wandered by him singing the Tale of Two Lovers.  Slowly, the Slytherin smiled.

Haru wasted an hour of his time trying to track down the Weasley twins, who he finally managed to corner just outside their House.

“What d’you want?” one of them asked, still a little suspicious.

“I want to make a deal with you,” Haru said.

“What kind of deal?” the other asked.

“A place this old has to have secret passageways and tunnels.  And you two are exactly the kind to know about them.”

“…Maybe,” Twin #1 said.

“You mentioned a deal?” said #2

Haru grinned.  “I can get you your brooms.”

“…Give us a moment, please.” The twins retreated into a corner to discuss this.

Patiently, Haru waited, and silently blessed the Ravenclaw third-years for giving him the idea.

They finally returned. “We’ll show you three now, and the rest when you get us our brooms.”

“Done.”  Haru followed the twins.

As promised, they showed him three of the passages, then left to do whatever it was they did all day. They almost never went to class, after all.

Haru set some traps in the one working passage and then, when he knew Umbridge was in class, moved to a room directly above her office.  He locked the door by sinking stone into the wood, then calmly bent a hole in the floor.  Dropping down, he found the brooms and quickly rescued the twins’.  After a moment, he smirked and grabbed Potter’s too.  This theft accomplished, he took a moment to rifle through the professor’s papers.

Anything that might be interesting was written either in code, or on paper jinxed to make it unreadable to anyone unauthorized, or possibly both.

He sighed in disappointment and removed himself to the upper room again, putting the floor back in order.  He then let himself into the Gryffindor common room with the brooms.

As promised, once their brooms were returned to them, the twins showed him the rest of the passages.

Haru booby-trapped the other working ones as well and told the twins how to avoid triggering the traps.

They thanked him for the brooms and the tip, then once again headed off.

The earthbender then continued his study of the castle, walking it from top to bottom, and was almost late to the meet-up in the room of requirement.

Ty Lee, too, made it in right on time, covered in scratches. “I think we’re safe with the lake,” she said, somewhat ruefully.

“I’ve done what I can with the castle.  Thank spirits Teo taught the third-years that stupid song about the tunnel — I think I managed to get into the Weasley twins’ good graces.”

“That’s good,” Ty Lee said, laughing a little.

“I also booby-trapped every single secret tunnel this castle has.”

“Also good,” she said, brightly. “I set up traps all over the grounds. I was starting on the lake, when it was time to go meet up with you guys.”

“Right.  So we just wait for Zuko?”

“Yep, guess so.”

After half an hour, Haru frowned.  “Where the hell is he?”

“…Maybe he lost track of time?” Ty Lee suggested, doubtfully.

“Does he do that when he’s not training?”

“…Not usually.”

“Let’s go look for him,” suggested Haru, pushing himself to his feet.

“He went into the forest,” Ty Lee remembered, then led the way in that direction.

Haru shuddered at the mention of that forest.  “I hate that place,” he said quietly as he followed her.

“It is sort of creepy,” she agreed, staring at the treeline. She shivered a little, trying not to think about all the large animals that lived in there that might have eaten her “brother”.

The older boy’s green eyes narrowed, then he abruptly took off his tie and tied it around his eyes.  He took a deep breath and then stretched out his senses through the ground, trying to find the bit of mass that was Zuko to his earthbending.

There he was, east of where the two searchers stood, flickering faintly, either on the very edge of Haru’s senses or injured.

Or both. Knowing Zuko’s penchant for recklessness, it could very well be both.

“He’s east,” said Haru confidently, turning and striding purposely in that direction.

Right into a tree.

“Are you okay?” Ty Lee asked, totally not laughing.

“I need more practise,” he grumbled, leaving his tie where it was.  “Toph’s right about that.  Come on.  I think he’s hurt.”

Ty Lee bit her lip, and guided him around trees as they headed east.

Zuko wasn’t moving, at least not enough to be picked up on from this distance.

“…he’s staying put,” said Haru, trying to keep his worry from his tone.  “Let me know when you see him.”

“I will,” she said, just as worried.

They finally found the prince curled up in a hollow at the base of a very large oak tree, chalk white, a bloody piece of glass next to him, and his own tie wrapped tightly around his right leg.

“Think I met the Weasley’s car,” he mumbled when he saw them.

Haru ripped his makeshift blindfold off and whistled.  “You don’t do things halfway, do you, Zuko?”  Without a word, the strong young man scooped the prince up into his arms.  “Back to the school with you.”

“Put me down,” he insisted, slurring a little.

“Don’t be stupid, Zuzu, you’re covered in blood,” Ty Lee said.

“Let your friends worry about you from time to time, would ya?” Haru added.

He didn’t respond verbally, just tried—ineffectually—to wriggle down from Haru’s arms.

The older bender didn’t even have to tighten his grip, in and of itself an indication that something was wrong.

Somewhere along the path back to the school, Zuko blacked out.

Ty Lee bit her lip. “He…he’s still bleeding. Is that good or bad? I…I mean, if he’s bleeding, that means he’s still alive, but…”

“He’ll be fine,” Haru said, much more confident than he actually felt.  “Madam Pomfrey will fix him up.”

“Okay,” she said, hoping he was right.

Together, the snuck back into the castle and turned the prince into the nurse’s care.  Their attempt to escape before she demanded to know what had happened failed, and Haru turned and looked her square in the eyes.  “I don’t know,” he lied blithely.  “We found him like this.”

“Is he going to be okay?” Ty Lee asked, rather than answering herself.

“Yes, of course,” said the exasperated woman.  “I can’t say I think much of your healers if you must continuously ask such obvious questions.”

“He’s my brother,” she said, indignantly. “I’d think less of me if I didn’t continuously ask such obvious questions!”

“We have a war going on,” Haru said sternly to Madam Pomfrey.  “The common folk don’t get much access to healers.  We’re leaving now.”

The woman drew in breath, but Haru dragged Ty Lee from the room.

Ty Lee bit her lip again, then said, “I’m going to go find Teo and let him know what happened, okay?”

Haru nodded, his green eyes hard.  He didn’t even seem to notice Zuko’s blood on his robes.  “I’m going to talk to the Headmaster.”

“All right. I’ll see you later.” She kissed him quickly and ran off to find the younger boy.

Haru watched her go, then went off in search of Professor Dumbledore.  The headmaster was not an easy person to find, and when he finally found the passage to the old man’s office, he was frustrated enough to forget secrecy entirely and just force his way through the hidden door.

He retained enough presence of mind to be certain nobody was watching him before he did so, however.

The old man didn’t seem particularly shocked to have his office broken into by one of the students — or, if he was, he hid it well. “What can I do for you?” he asked.

Haru smiled slightly.  “I wanted to talk to you about security,” he said.

“…Is that so?” Professor Dumbledore asked, arching an eyebrow.

“Yes.  To put it lightly, your security sucks.”

“I assume you have suggestions?”

“Several,” Haru said.  “I’m not going to risk Teo getting hurt in any attack these escaped Death Eaters might launch on this place.”

“Well, then, let’s hear them,” Dumbledore said, gesturing the young man to a chair.

Part Two located here.