[||||=LEVEL 48= ||||]
I reached over the glass of soda on the table beside my nice armchair and suddenly stopped.
"Please stop," I said irritably. The pulse of emotion that responded to that was something like protectiveness, indignation, and what could only be described as a pout.
I reached over to my glass again and sipped. Much better.
"Thank you," I said to the castle. The pulse that came next was something like a flat look but transmitted through emotions.
Talking through aura is weird. Speech and structured thought was preferred by me but the castle didn't much like to talk like that.
I tried to return to reading my book but kept getting distracted, normally by my own thoughts or boredom.
'It was in the year of 1871 that H.S. Fugglesprout discovered the Fugglesprout theorem, which dictates that all magic is intrinsically linked to the soul. This is different from the prior used theorem created by Rowena Ravenclaw due to the addition of an arithmetic proof.'
"Magic is tied to the soul? No shit," I muttered angrily. A tiny flash of magic and aura attuned to space alerted me to a rather uninvited visitor.
"Hey!" I protested. But the thief was gone. Some smugness and righteousness pulsed through me and I growled angrily.
"Well fine then." I checked on my parallel back in Remnant and saw that I still had about four and a half hours until combat class. Since Crimson has very specifically avoided picking me I'll probably be fine. So six hours…
First period isn't even done yet. I guess reading all week gets boring. Whether it's in a magical castle or not.
"Maybe I should go train Cinder some more," I mused, but a small pulse of sharp sadness and a hint of pleading stopped me from going.
In other words, the castle didn't want me to leave.
"Adorable, really," I muttered. Becoming bored with my current book I tossed it behind me somewhere.
Since last week, where team JAPR and others were formed, I had been poking around the multiverse a little. Beacon was boring beyond belief for most of the classes.
I did plenty with my team after school, of course, although so far we had just been getting to know each other, but that left me with almost nine hours a day to do nothing while a parallel and hard light avatar filled in for me.
So here I was, sitting in Hogwarts tearing through their restricted section. It was the fourth year for Harry Potter, not that it mattered for me.
As a strange twist of fate, I had awoken the castle's aura by accident. The place was absolutely filled with magic when I first arrived and just the smallest speck of my aura was enough to thrive on the magic and partially formed consciousness the castle already had.
Of course, the castle being alive more than before really didn't make a difference. It acted as it did before, twisting hallways and helping out in subtle ways, but she (she had decided she was a she for some reason) was more sapient than sentient, like a human rather than an animal.
She really was a wonderful pers-ah, castle, but nobody but me could hear her. Nobody else had an unlocked aura to sense her with. There was only mana unlocked in their souls. They lacked the element of divinity that gave them aura.
Only the house elves, likely due to their connection to the property, were able to hear her, and even then they heard something more like vague instructions attached with somewhat vague and distorted feelings. To call what Hogwarts and the elves did talking would be inaccurate.
In my own words, spoken right after I realized this, "Whoops. That's probably bad."
Since I had awoken the castle I had been dropping by to rummage around for all sorts of magical tricks and techniques. It wasn't too successful, but I did learn a fair bit. The runes native to this dimension were somewhat useful to incorporate into my own strategies, for example.
The spellwork, however, was lackluster. As it turns out, every wizard in this dimension has a spirit and world affinity.
Their magic was, at its core, just intent and raw mana. Using the world affinity they reflected their intent onto reality. Using the spirit affinity they affected others of their kind.
It was a flexible system of magic, really, and it explained why the HP wizard's never seemed to run out of magic in the books. They could use their raw world affinity to affect things. Mana just made their spells stronger.
The only downsides were lack of mana, lack of ability to affect higher powers like time and such, and of course, it's innate lack of strength.
Their lack of higher power manipulation was solvable with their runes and enchantments, making things like time turners and broomstick, and the weakness was solvable by wands able to amplify the power they lack.
"So what do you suggest I do, then?" I asked the castle. A pulse washed over me. I saw a vision of a classroom and me in front of it.
"No," I said plainly. Another pulse came to me of protest. I felt a confusing and messy ball of reasons why I should teach a class in there somewhere but I didn't try to parse it out.
"Speak clearly," I chided. The castle felt a little shame and awkwardness before laying out an argument, again, as to why I would do something stupid like teach.
I would get permission to go everywhere in the castle, I would get as much of a wage as I could be paid by the castle, she would bring the whip down on the forest to let me run around over there without fear of attack, and she would put her full efforts towards keeping me happy, healthy, and she would generally do whatever I asked of her, including granting access to the genuinely dark books in the restricted section. She put a special effort towards keeping me out of there.
When I asked what she would do if I kicked Dumbledore off his high horse and became headmaster I gained a headache from how utterly thrilled and excited the castle became. She had apologized profusely, feeling quite terrible about hurting me even a little bit.
Hogwarts (she really needs a nicer name) was so kind, honestly. She felt terrible about even so much as a paper cut on one of her attending students. She was so much like a doting mother that it was almost eerie. She gave out unconditional care like a tree gives oxygen.
I'd seen the students at Hogwarts. Most of them were idiots and sheep. The books got that part spot on. Really, anyone with a little presence and a stern glare could practically enslave them.
I think that's part of what made Hogwarts try to recruit me so much. I'm far more willing to be mean and use a stern hand than she is. If a student of mine was being an ass I would deal with him harshly. Hogwarts, if she were in that situation, would have no idea what to do.
"I'm not seeing any good reasons there," I pointed out. "If I wanted to go in the forest I could do so by myself easily. Wealth is no issue. Permission to go to more rooms isn't very appealing. I can get to most places by myself if need be whether you want me there or not. There are only a few ways I'd ever accept a teaching position permanently and those are out of your control."
An image of Ozpin and Salem appeared in my mind.
"Exactly," I agreed. "My family takes priority and so long as Salem and Ozpin are in their spat they're not safe. And permanently dealing with Ozpin would likely throw the kingdoms into chaos. Dealing with Salem is impossible for me. Even now."
A pulse of aura carrying the emotive equivalent of an endearing sigh ran through me. I considered what I had said for a moment and looked at the clock in Remnant again. Six hours…
"I might be up for a temporary class though. Like a guest teacher," I hinted. Hogwarts perked up a little and, like a sun beginning to rise, her mood became ecstatic.
"Than… You!" her wispy voice said, clearly absolutely bursting with happiness.
I rolled my eyes. Teaching a tiny single class is not that big of a deal. She shouldn't be so excited. "I would only do so if there was something in it for me, though."
If a flat look was a feeling Hogwarts was feeling it. Hiding behind that was joy, though.
"Horcruxes, " I said. "I already know most of how they're made - virgin sacrifices and whatnot - but I need to know the specifics."
If a pulse of emotions could yell Hogwarts just did. About five very loud and strong pulses of aura filled with emotion rushed into me.
Reprisal, fear, denial, protectiveness, regret, and a slew of more minor emotions assailed me.
"I'm not going to use it!" I exclaimed. The emotions slowed and stopped. "I want to know how the hell a guy would split his soul in half and keep on living!"
Embarrassment and a little awkwardness emanated from around me. The emotions disappeared for a moment to focus. Ambient aura swirled and I heard a heavy thump on the table beside me.
I glanced over this time and saw a middle-aged house-elf offering me my soda and a large, somewhat dusty book on the side table.
"Thank you," I said as I took the soda. The elf beamed and disappeared with a pop. I glanced at the cover of the book briefly. Horcruxes and horrible curses and rituals by Salazar Slytherin.
"Oh," I said rather blandly. I could have sworn I heard a giggle - and it couldn't be a ghost. I can sense them.
I was about to open the front page when I stopped. "Actually," I said, "I'll just go teach the dark arts now, if you don't mind. I'm not really in the mood for more books and I know you'll twist yourself around so I appear in a classroom if I try to wander."
An innocent feeling pulse touched me and I groaned. "What time is it?" A short chime from my left showed a large grandfather clock. It was only eight twenty-nine in the morning here in Harry's dimension.
"Do you have a schedule? Whatever year you want so long as it's fourth or higher. I don't want to deal with young kids who don't know a stick from a sword."
A piece of paper, propelled by some unknown and equally impossible breeze, landed at my feet. I picked it up and groaned.
"Fourth year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws from nine to eleven, a fifteen-minute break, fourth-year Slytherins and Hufflepuffs at eleven fifteen to one-fifteen, lunch until two, and finally one more two hour class of seventh-year Slytherins and Hufflepuffs… And I just agreed to this."
Hogwarts happily agreed with me.
"This is a seven-hour day."
A little tinkle made me glance to my right to see a little pocket watch. A time-turner.
"Damn you. Two periods. I have things to do other than cater to kids. I'm still doing the entire fourth year class anyways. I'd keep it fair and not cater to any one house. Around lunch I can get everything in order."
I heard the laughter again and a lazy agreement.
Note to self - when I get bored, I get stupid. For example, I forget to negotiate before I make a deal. I could totally have bargained down to a single big one-hour lecture.
I sighed. "I'm not using a time turner for this. Sure, I probably won't die but messing with time without having an affinity for it is just asking for trouble. If I try anything of that sort I'm making at least five safety buffers against getting wiped out of existence."
Hogwarts seemed to pause before agreeing with me. Or, more like shrugging and happily going along with whatever I said because I'm serving her at the moment.
I guess I'm teaching defense against the dark arts today. I mean, I just have to show them how to kill things. Hard light constructs will make fantastic live-action targets and can act as real combatants so the kids learn what real combat is like.
Well that's a good enough lesson plan for me. On I go, then.
"Dad do you mind if I explore Miss Hogwarts? Teaching sounds boring," Pit asked.
"Sure," I said carelessly. I felt a small pulse of happiness and satisfaction from within me and a shadowy grey aura collected itself within my own. I took hold of it and took out Pit's body from my soul space before merging the two together. Pit woke up and shook herself off.
"Bye dad," Pit said.
"Don't do anything too dangerous," I said with a nod. Pit nodded in return and turned off, immediately disappearing amongst the library's maze of books. I paused.
"Would you make sure she doesn't?"
[|||| =+= ||||]
"Be quiet."
"MMMMRPPHHHH!"
"So you're… not the Moody person. Who are you?!"
"MMMAAAAHMMMMMMM""
"You are certainly gagged, yes. But Moody was gagged… and now you are, and right where Mister Moody was before. What are you trying to do with that gag? Here. Let me help you with that."
"MMM-AAAAAGHHHH! OH GOD SOMEBODY HELP ME! THIS BIG FUCKING SNAKE BEAR IS TRYING TO EAT-MMMMMAMMAMMMAMMMM!"
"That's quite enough of that… I'll just leave you here. Miss Hogwarts was telling me about this place called the chamber of secrets. Dad went there for a minute but the soul of the big snake was gone. He took some scales though. The anti-magic thing it had wasn't unique but it was pretty potent and somehow preserved it's body, which only a few native species-"
"MMAAAAMMMRRAAAA!"
"Right. I forget how scary I am to humans sometimes. Dad and the family don't count. Dad's less human than he says with his soul so advanced… why am I talking to you? Nevermind. Have a nice day, Mister. I'll leave you to Miss Hogwarts."
[|||| =+= ||||]
I took about a minute to deal with the instructor to DADA. Mad-eye Moody, I mean. Although technically he's that death eater under polyjuice. I don't particularly care. I just locked him tied up in what Hogwarts said was his room.
After that it was just a matter of going to the DADA room and waiting to begin my cunning plan.
The students started filling in around eight fifty. Of course, some of them stopped dead in their tracks at seeing a giant panther sitting in the chair behind the desk, but I stared at them until they moved or were moved by their classmates that weren't frozen.
And, of course, there was the boy of the year. Or seven years if you wanted to be particular. Harry Potter. He looked… well, average. He was far and above on the skinny side - almost certainly an effect of malnourishment, according to my human anatomy skill, although he seemed to be in the middling stages of recovery.
His glasses were a bit ill-fitting. I could see some tape around his left ear that was probably a quick fix for them from a while back. Contrary to that, though, his robes seemed well cared for. They were stainless, at least, which was more than most, but judging by looks they might even be ironed. His wand was similarly well cared for. I swear, it looks almost polished.
Maybe he separates his so-called muggle life and his wizarding life. Wizard-harry was a talented wizard trying his hardest. Rich, famous, and so-on, while muggle-Harry was a poor kid worked to death by his relatives. I'm not sure if he was beaten, though. I can't see under his robes. Nor do I care to.
Once all the kids were in they talked quietly among themselves for a moment. I sighed deeply and stepped down from the teacher's chair, transforming in the process.
Everyone's eyes were on me, most of them looking interested and a little impressed. Ah, right. Being an animagus was rare, wasn't it? I mean, what I'm doing is more like skinchanging since I become the actual animal, but it's not like anybody here will see a difference. And I was also wearing so-called muggle clothing. A long-sleeved light grey shirt and dark blue pants at the moment. Nothing fancy, though for a shirt and pants they were about as nice as you could get.
"I'm Kerrigan. Kerrigan Mavros," I started. "You'll be calling me professor Mavros for the day. Moody had private issues concerning his former status as an auror. Paperwork or something. I stopped paying attention after he asked me to fill in for him." A few snickers were audible here and there in the classroom.
"Since he didn't leave a lesson plan I'll be teaching you to actually defend yourself against dark creatures or wizards. Theory can be done in your own time. You could know all the theory in the world but it wouldn't be worth a thing in combat if you can't throw a spell." People looked interested at this point. Kids liked practical work, right?
"In this case we'll be going outside. I'll make illusions and you all will attack them. At the ending half hour of class you'll be forming teams and taking down a projection I summon. If you can, great. If not? I truly don't care but Moody sure will. Questions?"
Ronald Weasley of all people raised his hand. And of course the gullible wizards just ate my BS up, no questions asked. "Yes?"
"Is there any particular spell we should use?" he asked. "I mean, we usually get taught one spell or another to use."
"The lethal ones," I said bluntly. People looked at me blankly. I raised an eyebrow. "You do know lethal spells, yes? Or at least dangerous ones?"
"We know a few," One Ravenclaw kid with dark brown hair offered. "Diffindo, incindeo, and a few others. Banishing charms. Things like that. But not, um, dark stuff. Lethal stuff."
"Good enough," I said with a shrug. "Imagine that the giant monsters are candlesticks. Or cut their throats. Or anything, really. Whatever works? Use it. Anything is a weapon if used violently, after all. Transfiguration should give you an edge, both literally and not, in acquiring weapons should you decide to use them. I'll answer a few more questions." A Gryffindor kid raised his hand. I stared at him for a moment.
"Are you-... you still have c-cat ears. And muggle clothing. Um, you-most people have robes, um, professor Mavros," he stuttered. He didn't seem afraid. It's probably natural.
"Yes. I do," I acknowledged. "I like being able to hear better than I can as a human. I see and smell better too. I don't understand why other animagi are so focused on being only human or only animal. Other than social etiquette, of course, but I'm rarely in social situations so it doesn't matter. This is an outlier, substituting at Hogwarts. As for the clothing, this was very much a last minute change in plans for Moody and I was unprepared, as was he."
Of course, people just accepted my word as law once more. "Next, then. I might have one more after this if you have a good question." Nobody raised their hand. "Nothing?" Somewhat hesitantly, Harry Potter raised his hand. "Fine. You then."
"How old are you exactly?" he asked. I was about to respond when he continued on. "Because, it's just, you seem very young to be teaching, or substituting at Hogwarts. You seem barely older than George Weasley. Sorry, I don't mean to offend."
"It's fine," I said with a dismissive wave of my hand. Smart kid, though, actually asking me for verification of any sort. Or maybe he's just curious about how incredibly suspicious I seem. "I'm seventeen, though I'll be eighteen pretty soon. And before one of you asks how exactly I came to be teaching this class for today, you'll see soon enough. Now come on. Class begins now."
I sent out a small pulse of aura asking Hogwarts for a clear path to some open space I could use for battle and a bit of space attuned mana to help her out. Within a moment the stones behind me parted, leaving a strange stone doorway. Most people gaped at it while I just walked inside into a small tunnel curving right. The Hogwarts students followed quickly behind me.
"How did you know about this?"
"Where are we going?"
"How did you open this corridor?"
I ignored the questions and continued down the corridor, which sloped slightly downwards after about ten seconds of walking. At the end of the passage was a very old door with a tarnished copper handle. I pulled it back and looked out at what I'm pretty sure was the forbidden forest.
I walked out uncaringly, like I actually knew what I was doing, and glanced around the large meadow I had found myself in. It was rather nice, actually. The sun was shining, the flowers down below our feet were blooming, and it was pleasantly warm.
This was all extremely odd since it was October or something in this dimension. I knew that the champions hadn't been chosen yet. Either way, it should be far colder. Ah, whatever. Magical forests do magical things. Hogwarts was probably being generous to me. I've never demonstrated my magic to her, actually.
"Here we are," I said in a pleased tone. "Spread out a bit. I'll call you one by one up first. Then we'll do doubles and finally as a group I'll make an especially strong enemy for you all to face. It ought to be fun. For me, that is. Now, who's first?!"
I turned to see everyone shuffling awkwardly. I rolled my eyes and pointed at a random kid. "You." I pointed towards the middle of the meadow. "There. Now." The kid seemed a bit hesitant but walked forwards to the meadow before turning back around to face me.
"Draw your wand," I commanded. He did so and assumed what I think is a dueler's stance with his wand facing forwards and his feet spread a little for balance.
"Here," I waved my hand and made a creature from hard light. A beowolf appeared, to the exclamations of the students.
"Wandless," someone said in awe behind me.
"This is a beowolf. It's a hard light projection I made. To be specific it's like a solid illusion I can control to do whatever I want. Imagine what I want you to do against it."
The boy paled a bit. "Can I opt out?" he asked a little weakly.
"Does the beowolf want to kill you?" I asked. He looked towards it and back towards me.
"Um, n-"
The beowolf suddenly roared, or it seemed to and my wind whisper spell performed the actual roaring. The boy raised his wand quickly and pointed it at the beowolf.
"Di-d-Diffind-fff-" Oh come on. Another stuttering kid.
The beowolf projection loped towards the kid, serpentining a little bit, before it's hind legs tensed for a pounce. It was exaggerated since the kid would never recognize it otherwise.
"DIFFINDO!" The kid screamed. He stumbled backwards and I watched a large and chaotic slash of world attuned magic slammed into the beowolf, landing directly on it's right eye. If it were a normal beowolf that probably would have killed it, but instead I had it howl in pain and stagger backwards, a deep cut over the right portion of it's mask, seemingly grievous. The kid's mouth opened and closed once before he almost seemed to be hyperventilating.
"F-f-f-fff-" the beowolf roared angrily and the kid screamed and jumped backwards. The beowolf leapt and the kid screamed louder and seemed to almost throw his wand at it. At the last second a whirl of pure intent, world affinity, and spirit affinity tore it's way from the kid's wand and into the beowolf. I saw as a large amount of force, enough to break bones at the least, hit the beowolf's neck. I projected it flying backwards with a twisted neck, falling limply on the ground.
"Not terrible," I said, not impressed in the slightest. "Terrible spellwork, though that accidental magic at the end was, while clearly a fluke, effective. You need to control your fear too. Screaming would do nothing against something trying to kill you. Against a weak beowolf that diffindo probably would have killed it, but I thought you could give me a bit more so I had it attack a little more. Finally, against an armored part of the body like that bone plate you shouldn't use cutting attacks. Use blunt or, even better, explosive attacks. I believe a confringo should do the trick. If you're inexperienced use a protego. It's better to not be in danger by killing the beowolf before it gets to you and the spell would be broken quickly, but it would have worked to buy a tiny bit of time. Now, who's next?"
I turned to the students, who were looking somewhat horrified and a little excited in some cases. I sighed. "Look, the beowolf doesn't kill. It's not even real. Does every diffindo you cast hurt somebody or do you use it to cut a paper in half? The same goes for my projections. They scare you. Threaten you. You face them and kill them because that's what you're supposed to do to them. That's what they're made to do. So do we have some brave volunteer to go next?"
"I'll go," A quiet voice said. I looked to the source and was sort of surprised to see that Harry Potter had spoken. I held back a small smile.
"Nice of you to stand up for your classmates. Oh, remember what I said about weapons?" Harry didn't seem to understand for a moment but then he drew his wand and casted some transmutation spell at the floor. He reached down and drew a somewhat lopsided sword. It was made of stone and looked heavy.
"Oh come on," I groaned. I drew a basic sword with lightning runes from my inventory and took a few steps towards Harry. "Here. Just use something decent." The Ravenclaw kid looked at the sword with envy. "I'll be summoning three beowolves for you since you've got an advantage." The Ravenclaw kid looked horrified and seemed to almost cry for Harry before holding it in.
"Over there then." I waved at the general middle of the meadow. Harry summoned up some courage and walked over. He looked at me with what seemed like defiance. I rolled my eyes and he suddenly looked embarrassed.
"I could just summon a stronger creature instead of three beowolves if you like." I offered. Harry hesitated for a moment.
"Can I see it first?" I waved my hand and an ursa major appeared alongside three beowolves. Harry blanched. "The… the beowolves." I nodded and let them loose while dissipating the ursa.
The three beowolves wasted no time serpentining like they did before. They loped quickly towards Harry. He had just a moment to swing somewhat wildly with the sword. It clipped one of the beowolves' lower jaws and it made a growling/hissing sort of noise I had heard them do a few times.
The other two began to circle around to Harry's sides and his eyes widening showed that he understood just how bad his situation could get. He looked hesitant, and perhaps a bit scared, but he pressed forwards on the beowolf in front of him.
The beowolf seemed to strike but held back at Harry's strike. Then it snarled and leapt. Instead of dodging Harry lunged forwards, stabbing deep. The beowolf spluttered and struck weakly but Harry was pressed against its chest and it hit nothing. The beast collapsed and Harry's sword was stuck in it's chest.
The other two seemed to almost grin as the advanced quickly on Harry, not quite charging but not going slowly either. Harry fumbled as he tried to draw his wand and the beowolves charged at the same time.
Harry almost yelled something but instead he whipped his wand downwards. "Confringo!" A cloud of dirt blasted upwards in front of the grimm, which yelped and snarled as they broke their charge to not run into the explosion.
Harry seemed to prepare for a moment as he readied some sort of spell. He looked around the space in front of him closely and seemed to spy the beowolf on his left. "Impedimenta!" he called, seeming calmer. I allowed the magic to take hold of the projection rather than try to fight it. I myself was fine.
The affected beowolf saw Harry and I tried to make it lunge for him but it's left foot somehow slipped and it face-planted. "Diffindo!" There was one less beowolf in my arsenal.
The last beowolf I had go into a frenzy. It charged through the dust cloud, snarling and spitting like a mad animal, which it sort of was. It 'saw' Harry and leapt at him with a sort of howling snarl tearing from its throat.
"Protego!" Harry yelled quickly. The beowolf projection slammed into a shield and slammed it's arms frantically on it, trying to break in. Then it seemed to realize that Harry's shield was small and tried to slip around the side, grasping at the edges. Harry looked around wildly for a moment and locked his eyes on the first beowolves' corpse, which I had disintegrating as all grimm did.
Harry leaped towards the sword and tore it loose just as the protego faded due to strain. He whirled around and, by complete luck, managed to slice open the beowolf's unprotected throat. It clawed at it's throat, making it worse, before falling down, curling up, and dying.
For a moment nobody in the clearing spoke, the only sound being Harry's panting.
"Good!" I exclaimed, feeling unusually happy. "You were outnumbered, somewhat outmaneuvered, and your only advantage was getting close, which I believe was the one thing none of you wanted to do." Harry nodded, still panting, seeming a bit shaken. I flicked my fingers and retrieved my sword, quickly putting it back into my soul space.
"Yet, despite those disadvantages you did the one thing that absolutely everybody needs to do in a fight." I paused a moment for dramatic effect. "You used your head."
"Now, of course you barely stopped to think," I continued, "But when your mind raced you weren't indecisive. You chose what you thought was the best option and took it. When you had to stab the beowolf you didn't stop to cower a little or feel fear. You did so because you had to do it. When you had those two tag teaming you you didn't kill one. You stunned them both, which I can honestly say I didn't expect. It was a simple move but it was effective, and effective is all you should ever be in a fight. You, Harry Potter, are a talented fighter. Whether through a need to be or natural talent. Either way, good job."
"Now," I eyed the other students, who looked to Harry with some awe. "Who's next?"
[|||| =+= ||||]
"Merlin's sacks, Harry."
"I.. yeah."
"You just killed like three demons!"
"Yea-... yes."
"Ikes could barely take one! How the bugger did you do that?!"
"Tactics. Well, that and being reactive."
"What do you mean, Mione?"
"I mean exactly what professor Mavros said after Harry's fight. Harry made plans. He acted logically. He did what he had to. He acted. Ikes screamed and acted desperately. Harry thought his way through the fight, staying a step ahead and in control."
"Is that true, mate?"
"I just did what I thought was best."
"Huh."
"… I thought professor Mavros, even though he's probably not a professor because he doesn't teach professionally, wouldn't be a very good teacher. I mean, he's…"
"He looks completely barmy and didn't bother to answer our questions?"
"Well… yes."
"Mister Weasley, is it? You're next, then."
"I-oh. He can hear me. Right. Cat things."
"I'm glad to see you using your brain, Mister Weasley, if retroactively. It's certainly improvement from your previous statement of me being 'barmy'. Do enjoy fighting a demonic projection? If you'd like to make another statement I'll happily give you five."
"Thank you, mate, but I'm quite happy fighting one."
"Smart move."
[|||| =+= ||||]
The rest of the singles were underwhelming. Probably the best fight was from Hermione, of all people. She was nervous but seemed to find some sort of hidden backbone. Or she just pushed back her fear. Considering how terrified she looked as she walked back to the group of people I'd guess it was the second. She also had a wide variety of spells to choose from. She took on two beowolves since I started ramping it up when people began to get more confident of themselves. The only thing that she did wrong was reacting too slowly. She thought too much, basically. It cost her a 'hit' to the side. Other than that she was fine and got both the beowolves.
Hermione and Harry were something of outliers, though. Most people had shaky legs or had second thoughts about doing one thing over another. Some had bad aim or couldn't function under stress or had some sort of flaw that prevented them from becoming the reactive machine you had to be in combat.
There were a few that had promise, like Longbottom, two Ravenclaws, and four Gryffindors, but they were all just people who could work under pressure and could control themselves under fear. They were too reactive. They never pressed the initiative. Were they potential fighters? Yes. But were they promising? No. Harry, I think, was the only person to stand out as prodigious.
"That's everyone," I spoke loudly as the last student finished their two beowolves. "I had hoped we'd have more time but we should probably move on to groups of four now. Pair up. If you're not paired up soon I'll pair you myself."
I watched in fascination as students started grouping up. Hermione, Harry, and Ron were paired, of course, but Neville was joining them. Not entirely surprising. Others were of less importance but I noticed that the students that did more poorly grouped together while the students that did well paired up. Interesting. I don't think anyone kept track of how well people did.
There were five students that didn't get paired. I chose the weakest one to stand on the sidelines and take notes while I pushed the other four together.
"Fine then. Granger. Weasely. Longbottom. Potter. Want to go first again?" the four looked among each other, seemingly silently conversing, as most friends somehow do. Hermione was the one to decide with a small nod. "Fine. Here you are."
With another wave of my hand I made a larger grimm. A deathstalker. The four gaped at the size of the creature and backed up a little unconsciously. I made the deathstalker back itself up to to the other side of the meadow.
"Um, professor are you sure that's safe?" Neville asked nervously.
"So long as you don't get stung then yes it's perfectly safe." I said as plainly as I could. Some people looked at me like I was crazy (again) and I snickered a little. The students relaxed and turned their attention to the deathstalker.
"You have one minute. Plan. Prepare. And do so quickly. I don't think there will be any injuries but if there are then rest assured that I can heal people just fine. Now go." I pretended to look over my deathstalker while the four planned to win.
"It's huge!" Ron hissed.
"It's too heavily armored for any attacks to penetrate." Hermione semi-agreed. "We need to get through it's armour or around it. Do you see any weak points?" The four of them looked over to the deathstalker.
"The eyes?" Neville suggested.
"Can we hit the eyes?" Ron wondered. "They're tiny."
"Explosives," Hermione said plainly. "Then we don't need to aim."
"But the eyes alone won't kill it," Harry pointed out.
A moment of silence overcame the group. "Oh!" Hermione exclaimed. "Harry, the troll!" Harry blinked blankly at her. She sighed a little but she seemed used to this. "Nose, mouth, ears. Do scorpions have ears? And I don't see a mouth."
"They don't have ears," Neville said, surprising everyone a bit. "They have mouths. They're the… the pincher things around it's face. I don't think this one has a mouth." Everyone glanced towards the deathstalker one more time.
"No mouth," Hermione concluded. "Neville, can you think of anything else?" Neville thought for a moment before his face went red.
"Um, the, um, the butt. It's between the plates of chitin around it's tail and it's poison bulb. If we can… something sharp would take out the stinger and we can just go for the gaps them. With diffendo. I think that's the only way."
Everyone stared at Neville. "Neville, how do you know so much about scorpions?" Ron asked.
"They're pests around gardens sometimes," he muttered, still blushing.
"Time's up!" I said a little too happily. Now, then, go get em!" The deathstalker chittered and rushed forwards. The four seemed to panic a bit as a group for a moment.
"Scatter!" Hermione yelled. Everyone did so, running around the field, keeping out of range of the scorpion's stinger and claws. It only took a minute of running around for Hermione to make another plan.
"Petrificus!" She cried, her wand pointed at the scorpion's tail. I looked a little more interestedly at the four as a large amount of magical power went into the spell. I felt my control over the scorpion's tail diminish to almost nothing. I couldn't control it. Then her wand went to the scorpion's right legs. "Petrificus!" A similarly large amount of magic was used on the legs and I lost the ability to move the legs.
"Ron! Distract it! Harry! Cut it! Neville! The eyes!" Harry almost hesitated before running at the semi-petrified scorpion. He climbed on top of it and jumped onto the tail as best he could, trying hard to climb on top of it.
"Hey, ugly!" Ron yelled. "Is it just you or does this place smell? Could you do us all a favor and bugger off? Your mother was a spider but she didn't put in enough effort so you got six legs!" I rolled my eyes at the taunts but decided to throw the four a bone and made the deathstalker hiss angrily. I'd follow Ron when the spells wore off.
"Confringo!" Neville yelled. A small explosion went off on the deathstalker's face, taking out a few eyes but not all of them.
"Diffindo!" Harry yelled. A slash of magical energy went through the delicate cartilage holding the tail's stinger and tail bone and muscle together. It didn't do much. Cartilage is tough stuff.
I felt the spell Hermione casted wear off enough that the deathstalker got its feet under it. "Merlin's balls!" Ron swore. He began running as quickly as he could from the deathstalker, which limped quickly after him.
"Diffindo! Diffindo! Diffindo!" Harry yelled, cutting through the tough tail cartilage. He was making some serious progress He was almost halfway through now.
The deathstalker screeched and flailed it's tail, making Harry cling onto it for dear life. In that process his wand went flying. At least the deathstalker stopped chasing Ron.
"Oh no. Oh nononono!" Hermione muttered in a small panic. I scoffed and decided to throw my own two cents in.
"Hey!" I called. The four turned their attentions to me immediately. "Stop being David! There's no weakness! Be Goliath!" The four had a small lull in the action before the deathstalker screeched again and bucked against Harry, making him hold on tightly again.
"Goliath? Who-right. But power? Do we have power?" Hermione was practically tearing her hair out trying to think of something, Harry was hanging on dearly, and Ron and Neville were standing around uselessly without orders. I rolled my eyes at the scene. Their plan really fell apart quickly.
"Neville!" Hermione yelled. Neville's full attention was instantly on her. "The trees! Cut them!" She yelled while pointing at the deathstalker. Neville looked at Harry with an agape expression. "I'll get him! Go!" Neville took one last glance towards Harry before running to a fairly large tree. He began casting diffindos on it immediately, making good progress on the trunk.
"Ron!" Hermione yelled, "Lead it over there!" She pointed at the tree. Ron looked between the deathstalker and her before nodding. He immediately picked up some rocks from the ground.
"Oi! Evil bugger! Over here!" The deathstalker took some notice of Ron and charged towards him, still bucking somewhat with Harry on it. "Come on! Can you only walk? Bugs suck! Rats are better!"
"Now, Neville!" Hermione yelled.
"Repulso!" Neville cried. A powerful pulse of force shot from his wand, hitting the tree he had cut through. It groaned and began to fall.
"Accio Harry!" Hermione yelled. Harry was torn from his place at the deathstalker's tail and tumbled on the meadow floor in his robes.
Luckily for the group, however, the tree fell on the deathstalker. It screeched in pain as it's tail was crushed. I took the liberty of crushing it's back half too. It flailed a bit as it pretended to be trapped under the tree until I waved my hand and dismissed the creature when the four leveled their wands on it.
"Not as clean as before but you did kill the deathstalker so you performed acceptably if not well," I said. "The first plan you had wasn't bad but you lacked the magical strength to perform a diffindo of adequate power, Potter. You did, however, have the stamina to cast many more diffindos. If you had put much more effort into a single much stronger diffindo you would have made progress much more quickly. Losing your wand was also a mark against you. Either learn a few wandless magics yourself or find a way to not lose your wand. A wandless accio should do fine."
"As for the rest of you, Granger, you are an adequate planner but you yourself were not often as involved in the plan as the others. In addition, you had no backup plan. While this lies partially upon your teammates you took on the duties of a tactician for your team and are more responsible for that failing. Weasely, you are quite good at distracting. Perhaps the only failing I can find with you is your seeming lack of magical variety, though your team's plan accounted for that I believe. Longbottom… you did well. Your surprising knowledge of scorpions was critical for the team and you performed your role as well as can be expected if not slightly better. Perhaps you should remember that this was a giant illusory magical scorpion and not an actual one, however. In other words, it does not have a mouth or opposite end."
"Now, next group. Oh, I'll scale down the difficulty a little. This seemed too hard for you all. Hm. A nevermore, maybe? I'll try an ursa or three."
The rest of the groups were somewhat boring. As a group the wizards and witches clearly performed better than alone. Typically one played distractor, keeping the fake grimm occupied, two more the hitters, as in damage dealers, and one the coordinator to keep them all working in sync.
Some groups did far better than others. Two Gryffindors and two Ravenclaws managed to kill a deathstalker (they asked for one) by half slicing through its tail with overpowered diffindos shot by a girl who climbed a tree before all four of the team accio'd the tail clean off the deathstalker after paralyzing it. Finally, they managed to repeat the process on three of its right legs. It was a cleaner strategy than Harry's group. Then again, they had more time to prepare.
In the end a number of ursa majors, minor deathstalkers, and a few more miscellaneous grimm like Arachne and a nautilus major were killed. Several more teams fell apart either because of bad planning, lack of firepower, miscast spells, or so on. It was a much more poor showing than the first round of fights.
I was thankful when the last team finally blew off the head of the Arachne I made. I was getting bored again. Maybe this teaching thing isn't for me. I'm enjoying toying with my students too much.
"Oh, good. Now you'll ALL be fighting one strong opponent. But I've given you all a choice a few times before so I'll give you all one more right now. You can fight this-"
I summoned a minor grimm dragon, flames trickling out of its maw. It was smaller than the normal grimm dragon, about twice the size of a deathstalker, and its armor was softer. It was pretty common in mountainous regions, especially northern Mistral and Atlas. Caves also occasionally played host to them.
Exclamations were shouted behind me. Generally, people seemed to have a resounding no, as seen from a few vigorous 'Hell no!'s and some 'Merlin have mercy! Don't make them bigger!'.
"-Or you could fight me. Oh, and I won't be using a wand or magical focus of any sort. I also won't construct any creatures." I gave the groups a vicious grin and people seemed hesitant but between the dragon and me they seemed less inclined to fight the dragon. It was big, scary, and fire-breathing. I get it.
"Raise your hand if you want to fight the dragon." Harry's hand went up, along with Neville and Ron's. Some students followed them, though it was more likely that they were just following Harry and the popular kids rather than any desire to fight the dragon.
"And if you'd prefer me?" More people raised their hands. I'd say seventy percent of the class seemed to prefer fighting me than the dragon. "Good, then. Oh, and though most of you will ignore me you should be lethal again. Let's start."
Without waiting for the class to ready themselves I waved my hand lazily and sent a pulse of motion attuned mana through the class. It was low powered so as to not hurt anyone.
The blast of motion mana tore through the class like a fist through wet paper. It blew straight through the middle of the class and threw kids aside easily, knocking people off their feet and spreading chaos throughout the group.
"Oh, come on," I groaned. "Land on your feet at least. Or try to not disrupt your comrades." People scrambled to their feet and began casting a variety of spells at me. Plenty of what I think were prank spells and a few that might, under extenuating circumstances, slightly hurt somebody.
Under the onslaught of spells I scoffed and whipped my sword from my soul space. Void infused it and I cut down every spell that came my way, the magical energy in the spells completely dissipated.
I waved lazily again and sent a huge gust of wind through the group. Some people held their ground this time but just as many fell down from lack of balance. I rolled my eyes, clearly making many in the group angry.
"Surround him!" somebody yelled. People started running around me, wands aimed at me from all angles. Unfortunately for them, I was plenty able to deflect spells from all angles. I used my ability to sense mana along with my prediction skill to tell where the spells were coming from.
"Boring." I quickly swapped my metal sword for a cheap wooden one I used long ago when I first started training Ruby. "I'll start taking some of you out now. Oh, and don't panic. I know what I'm doing."
To me I was moving slowly. I made a warp to the closest student and stepped through it. I casually tapped him on the head and channeled a tiny bit of void. I made sure to only use enough to leave him with ten percent of his mana. He crumpled down to the ground with a ragged gasp and trembled.
"Oh you're fine, you big baby," I chided. I gave him a weak kick to his side, even for a normal human, and he fell to his side. "Let's move on, then."
I started casually warping from one student to another, just choosing my targets at random, though I avoided the more promising students like Neville, Harry, and a few miscellaneous students. I would tap them with my wooden sword or a finger and tore their mana away from them, always making sure I controlled my void perfectly.
I felt Hogwarts make her presence known through a pulse of aura carrying concern. I pulsed back that the student would be fine and that he was just magically exhausted. She wasn't happy with me incapacitating her students but so long as I left no lasting damage she was alright with my exercise.
I methodically tore through the student's ranks, slicing through every spell that came my way. At one point Neville tried using a confringo to blast around my feet, supposedly blinding me, and casting a diffindo at my achilles heel. I just raised my leg for a moment. The look on his face was amusing but the rest of the class tried getting creative.
Since raw spells didn't work on me they tried banishing things at me, fighting back physically (which was plain stupid), casting multiple spells in sync, and one prodigious one even shot a fireball at me.
I easily dealt with the kid that got physical, slashed down all the spells that came at me and dodging those I felt were too inconvenient to slash down, and where none of those lazy methods worked I used my ice affinity to make a shield.
"We give up!" One of the last few kids yelled. I warped up to him and swept his legs out from under him before jabbing his neck with my wooden sword.
"This isn't even a fight. Thus, you can't give up," I said calmly. One girl transfigured a few knives from stones and threw them at me. She apparently had a little training because they flew straight-ish. I caught all three with one hand. She blanched and I snapped all three between my fingers while staring at her in the eyes.
"I-yeah. That's it then," she said, a little dazedly. I took a few steps towards her and was about to poke her forehead when she whipped out another knife and slashed at my finger. I lightly knocked her hand away.
"Cute," I tapped her and she was out. "That was very Slytherin of you. It was futile but also unexpected from a Gryffindor. Good job." The girl whispered something and I walked away towards the next victim.
"You know, I'm at least a little pleased none of you tried to run away. That would just be shameful. Not because it's shameful but because it's stupid and futile. Anybody can see it." I brushed my fingers over another boy's shoulder and dropped him.
Wait, where are all the spells?
I glanced at the remaining students and took stock. There were still six left.
"Now!" somebody yelled. I recognized the voice as Ron's. Somebody shot a bow at me, of all things, and I dodged the arrow - holy shit that's actually lethal. Nice.
Three metal spikes were shot at me at great speed, about half the speed of a bullet, and I made a small shield made of projected mana to block them. "Fascinating," I said in interest. Then the next phase started.
Somebody threw two leather balls around my feet. I frowned but waited a moment. When the balls started to expand I realized what they were and leaped back while looking away. A huge flash shone from one while another exploded with some sort of gas. A little light got in my eyes and I scowled.
I sensed around the clearing only to sense a magical signature behind me. Harry. I whirled and landed a harsh side-kick to his gut. Harry choked and went flying back. I realized for a moment that I might have broken something. That was a weaker kick than I usually use by a large margin but it was still at the level of a very strong human.
"Alright, that was decent." I admitted. I blinked over to Harry and looked over him. Shit. I fractured his spine and ruptured a few organs. "Sorry. This must hurt. Here." I channeled life attuned mana and brought him to the peak of human health. I cured his poor vision, fixed some weak bones, and did a full tune-up of his body. It was my way of apologizing. To get the mass to heal his malnutrition I used a steak from the fridge in my soul space. Harry actually had a little muscle now. He was less of the stick he was before I healed him. Around average for his age. Maybe a little less.
"There," I said, pleased. Harry began to get up, looking around in confusion. "I'm not going to zap you. That was a solid strategy. Using my heightened senses against me. Did you or Granger come up with it?"
Harry was at a loss for words for a moment. "I-um, me." I nodded.
"I figured as much. Good job. Now, up." I grabbed the kid's shoulders and hauled him upwards to his feet. Harry was a little unsteady for a moment and he seemed caught off-guard when he stood up.
"What did you do?!" He said in shock.
"I accidentally fractured your spine and ruptured a few internal organs when I kicked you," I said plainly. Harry gaped at me. "I gave your body a full tune-up in recompense. I fixed your eyesight problem too. My apologies." Harry was shell shocked. I ignored him and turned around to the others. Of course, it was Neville, Hermione, and… two other random people.
"What happened to Weasely?" I asked.
"He's right there, sir," one auburn haired girl said with a pointed finger. I glanced to a prone form on the ground.
"Ah. I thought I avoided him. Whatever." I looked over all the students and stretched out my aura. A red haze stretched through the meadow. Around the students it became a little distorted for a moment as I filled their souls with mana. People got up with disgruntled or extremely uncomfortable looks on their faces.
"There," I said in a pleased tone. "Now what did you all learn today?" the kids were all silent. "Fine. I suppose I'll spoon-feed it to you. Or, more like ram it down your throats considering my methods. People are unpredictable. A wizard, witch, or even muggle can have countless tricks up their sleeves. Whether it's utterly overwhelming power, a spell you don't expect, a skill you can't deal with, or something as simple as a gun. Beasts are easy. People are wild cards. Any other lessons you learned today?"
A black haired girl raised her hand.
"Yes?" I asked.
"Don't screw with professors or wizards of power. Degrees are worthless. Skill is more potent and disrespect or any sort of incitement will likely ruin us." She said devoutly, believing every word she said. Mutters of assent resounded throughout the clearing. Every single person agreed with her. I shrugged. They weren't wrong.
"You have about five minutes until class ends. Let's get back." I walked to where the door was and saw that the spatial warping that was there before had worn off. I sent a large pulse of mana with space affinity infused in it through the door and Hogwarts reconstructed the spatial warping it had before. "Come on. I want my break too, you know? Oh, and Harry. See me after class." Harry blinked but nodded nonetheless.
I walked casually through the hallway Hogwarts made and saw the bricks part again into the DADA classroom. I pulled out the teacher's chair and laid down heavily. "Check on fake Moody, would you?" I murmured lowly. Hogwarts pulsed assent and apparently checked on Moody before a frantic pulse met me. Images of a man I assumed was the death eater guy appeared in my mind. "Fine. I'll check on him." Hogwarts relaxed but was still nervous.
I was silent as I watched the students collect their things and leave a little early. Harry made plans to meet up at Gryffindor tower and walked over to me. He opened his mouth but I held up a finger and pointed at the others still remaining.
"Hurry up, would you?" I called to the other kids. They glanced towards me and sped up drastically. Within a minute they were gone. "There," I said contentedly. "First thing's first, I noticed something odd during my full body tune-up." Harry's eyes widened for a moment before he tried hard to look casual.
"What do you mean, sir?"
"Not the malnutrition," I waved off. Harry winced but stayed quiet. "It's none of my business what happens to you outside of this singular class. I'll be gone from Hogwarts tomorrow. I'll just pop back for the triwizard tournament before leaving to do my job. This is more serious than a physical injury. Your soul has a passenger."
Harry didn't seem to understand. "A passenger, sir?"
"A little shard of a soul," I explained. Harry's mouth opened slightly before he looked completely disgusted and a bit afraid. "Yes, you are a horcrux. Sorry to tell you that." Harry nodded, looking pale.
"Then there's one other thing. Here." I pulled a stone from my inventory that was covered in runes. Harry looked closely at it. Probably to distract himself. "It's a bit like a portkey. It sends me a little pulse of magical power and I can teleport to you. You're a resourceful kid. A good fighter too. If you ever decide you need to learn how to fight, and I don't mean duel, then use the stone. Put some magical power into it and I'll know." Harry looked closely at the stone and nodded, slipping it into his pocket.
"If that's all…" He trailed off, seemingly in a hurry. I nodded.
"Have a nice day, Potter. Enjoy yourself."
[|||| =+= ||||]
"Uh, hi."
"So you're the bastard fucking my daughter?"
"…"
"So this is my dad."
"I never thought a trapezist would be so buff."
"Damn right."
"Dad's kind of… "
"Overbearing. Overprotective. Bell calls me all sorts of the things. I don't care. What the hell gives you the right to even look in her direction?"
"Uh-huh. I think I see where this is going."
"The part where my daughter finds someone who isn't a drunk waste or where you walk away?"
"The part where I kick your ass from here to Atlas. I'm the same with my nieces. I wouldn't let a kid touch Ruby who didn't have the balls to stand up for her and the decency to treat her like a princess."
"Better. You almost seem to show some spine despite how short you are."
"I'm not compensating for a tiny toolset with a balding head seven feet up."
"Fucker. Show me you can fight worth more than a piss in the wind if you want my daughter's hand."
"Is your mother as lovely as this asshole of a dad?"
"Mom's barely five feet and whips dad like a slave driver."
"Be quiet, Little Bell. I still have to kick your fiance's ass."
"Dad, he's a huntsman. He'll hand you your own ass on a platter."
"I don't care."
"We're doing this outside. We're not breaking any of my future wife's stuff. Then we can share a drink while you lick your wounds."
"Dust damned men…"
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