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I dropped by that little town, Hogsmeade, through one of Hogwarts' secret passages. There were like forty permanent passages into the town and I just chose a generic one into an alley.
From there I just wandered around. It was easy to find the presence of Hogwarts' aura and mana from anywhere in the town. These were, of course, secret passages into the castle. If I wanted back in I just had to approach one, send a pulse of aura, and Hogwarts would let me back in.
I put on an illusion of myself wearing some decently stylish wizarding clothes, if just to stop the glares people sent at me. Money was similarly easy to come by. Transmuting gold was beyond trivial for me. Normal wizards couldn't do it but I was practically Midas. I shaped some fake galleons from ice and transmuted them into gold. Easily solved.
My first stop was a potion shop. I was severely disappointed. I found nothing I couldn't do myself. I wanted some of the truth potion but that was apparently regulated by the ministry of magic. I planned to just break in before I left the HP dimension. Easily done.
The rarer potions that might be useful like liquid luck or dragon's blood, which enhanced a wizard's body permanently, were off-limits unless you were Dumbledore or super important in some way. I chalked them onto my shopping list.
Next I just wandered around. The book shop was of no interest to me since I had most of Hogwarts' libraries at my disposal, the wand shop was literally showcasing sticks of magical wood I would never use, enchanted objects were inferior to what I could already do in even the best cases (though some legendary artifacts like Ravenclaw's diadem might be of interest), and so I went to the only place of interest to me. Back to Hogwarts. My trip being a failure in general besides a little sightseeing, I used the remaining twenty minutes to play with runes and a circuit board.
As it turns out, being able to use void to get rid of most of the magic was insanely easy. Cracking the problem only took two, if even two, minutes. I just made a little magically isolated area in a circle of runes and used void to burn off the remaining mana and affinity inside the no-magic zone. I tested out a few electronics in the zone and they worked fine.
Using a little trick I had found using space affinity and my soul space I took a part of my soul space, being my living room, and 'impressed' the space onto reality. It was more like laying the portion of my soul space over normal space, which wasn't terribly unlike slapping some tape on top of reality. It was about as elegant as well but just as efficient.
Point in case I ended up laying on my couch playing civilization revolution on the xbox, to Hogwarts' exasperation. I just moved the teacher's desk off to the side while I played. My huge INT and WIS let me play and often beat the bots easily except for the highest difficulties. It was a surprisingly good way to grind my WIS and INT up. I used it sometimes when I didn't feel like studying.
Students started coming in around ten minutes before class. The first was some Hufflepuff kid named Justin. He stared at me for a moment with two other kids. Ernest and Wayne, Observe informed me.
"That doesn't-electronics don't work in Hogwarts," he pointed out. Them he blinked and stared for a moment longer. "You're the badass cat gir-guy!" he corrected after a glare from me. Where had it gotten out that I was a girl anyways?
"I set up some runes that make this general area a magically isolated environment." I gestured to the rectangle of runes I had drawn on the floor before marching some riflemen into a ship. I had too many land units, not that it mattered too much. I was kicking the asses of the bots. Too much firepower was fine. England is looking a bit too powerful though. "I got rid of the magic inside and everything worked fine."
Jamie - or whatever his name is, I didn't bother to recall it - quietly spluttered for a moment before making something like a violent exhale and sitting down, his friends following his lead.
"Wasn't he supposed to be super scary?" one of Justin's friends whispered - Justin was the name? I was pretty close.
"He's… no?" Justin whispered back, keeping his eyes locked on me. "I mean, yeah he… Wayne he's playing video games. In Hogwarts!"
"So?" the apparently somewhat dumb Wayne said obliviously.
"Magic interferes with electronics!" Justin said excitedly. "Phones and stuff? That doesn't work! Even electric lights fail sometimes! If he can use that runic circle to make electronics viable or, if we're all blessed, miniaturize it, the wizarding world can stop living in the dark ages! Though that telly seems really advanced."
"I like the wizarding world how it is," Ernest sniffed. "But I see what you mean. Do you think… does he realize how monumental that runic circle is?"
"I do," I called out to them. They jumped a little at my butting into their conversation. "I just don't care. Wizarding Britain is boring. Getting famous here would be easy but detrimental and quite annoying. I'm just here for the books you have. Your comprehension of soul magic is quite ingenious in some areas and horribly archaic in others, for example."
At that moment another group of three students came in. The first one I actually vaguely recognized from the movies. Observe showed her as Daphne Greengrass. She was the smartest witch I've seen so far at fifty seven WIS, though her INT was significantly lower at thirty nine. Hermione had forty one INT and forty two WIS when I observed her. Daphne's bio was also slightly interesting due to her respect of muggle technology like automobiles and guns. She was apparently very cunning as well. A good combination, being cunning and wise that is. I like her already.
The moment Miss Greengrass saw my console set up and functioning she seemed to short circuit. A flurry of emotions crossed her face in about three seconds. First shock, then bafflement, intrigue, and finally a gaze that reminded me of Raven when she saw an opening in our spars. She saw an opportunity.
Oh, and her two tagalongs? Their names were Blaise and Pansy. Pansy was something of a coward with some issues with envy and Blaise was rather average and vain. Basically they were her less stupid version of Crab and Goyle. I guess that makes Daphne Draco Malfoy? Nah. She seems actually smart.
My brief analysis was interrupted when an enemy ship suddenly appeared from one of the foggy areas of my civ map and attacked some of my riflemen. Son of a-! Ugh. Serves me right. I should have investigated those parts of the map.
"Excuse me, sir, but would you be Kerrigan Mavros?" Daphne asked in a friendly manner. It only sounded a little bit fake to me.
"That would, in fact, be me," I said, giving her a brief glance, seeing her face showing innocent intrigue. She looked every bit friendly. Too friendly, in fact, to the point where it was a bit suspicious if I hadn't figured out that she planned to befriend me already.
"Really?!" she said, as if excited and surprised. "Everyone in the castle is talking about you! Did you really summon demons to fight the last class?"
"Would you quit the act?" I asked dismissively. Daphne's face flickered between faint surprise and indignation for a moment. "It's quite obvious you want to befriend me. I'll tell you now that I'm not interested in making allies. Friends? Maybe. Allies? I highly doubt I'll need any and the relationship wouldn't be equal either. I don't need political power or wealth or what have you. I'll address this at the start of class so just sit down. We start in seven minutes."
Daphne was silent for a moment. "Do you mind if I copy the runic circle you have?" sShe asked bluntly. I snorted while the other five students looked at her in surprise. She clearly got a good read on my personality.
"No you may not. My work is my own and if I ever feel like publishing it I'd put a patent on it and become fabulously wealthy first. Besides, this circle is so pathetically simple that it should grate on everyone's pride that you haven't figured out how to do it yet. Oh, and the runic circle you see displayed is just nonsense of an illusory cloak over the real circle. I put the cloak standard over all my matrices for aesthetics and to hide my work, though more the first than the second."
Daphne's mouth pursed but she sat down gracefully and was silent with the others. The atmosphere was somewhat awkward as more students began to funnel in. The conversation returned in a low murmur as people stared at me. Eventually, however, my nice few minutes of relaxing and ignoring everyone in the room had to end.
"Of course not! Potter was obviously boasting. A muggleborn teacher for defense against the dark arts? Muggles aren't familiar with magic as much as wizards are. That's why Dumbledore only hires purebloods, after all." The voice laughed somewhat condescendingly and was quickly backed up by two more fake laughs. Somewhere deep in the back of my mind I recognized that voice from the movies. If I hadn't then the blond hair and arrogant demeanor would have tipped me off.
Draco Malfoy came striding confidently into the room. I thought he looked a bit like a peacock. I couldn't quite describe what it was about him that made me want to punch him but his face certainly didn't help. Gleaming white teeth, a smile far more smug and arrogant than necessary, and what were undoubtedly more expensive robes than normal. They looked more silky and deeply colored than the robes the rest of the students wore, if only very slightly.
I was genuinely surprised when observe showed me that he was at slightly higher than normal WIS and INT. How the hell-? He looks like an ass and from my understanding his views are just his father's. It's not an act. His bio describes clear respect and some fair devotion to the death eater cause. Maybe he's just a remarkably competent idiot? Ugh. Whatever. He doesn't matter.
I nonchalantly locked eyes with the bastard, whose grin fell from his face as he saw that everyone was looking between me and him nervously. Then he noticed the console.
"Ah," he said quietly. I smiled viciously before standing up from my couch, pausing my game. I stepped out of the projection of my soul space and lifted the spell. The area faded quickly, leaving a bare patch of ground. A little motion affinity smoothly moved the desk back into place.
"Merlin," Draco whimpered under my stare.
"For your information, I AM muggleborn," I informed him calmly, a violent undertone to my voice, which I shamelessly stole from Salem. "I am also an extremely powerful wizard. I've slain magical creatures mightier than dragons, travelled to lands forgotten, talked with immortals and proven myself their equal, and researched secrets of magic you could only dream of. I've left trails of blood or prosperity depending on my mood and how much I respect the people I pass. I am only seventeen. I have not come to this school, if even for a day, to be insulted with slurs by some goldilocks child who can't fend for himself, using daddy's money for everything from getting into school to wiping his ass. Now sit and learn or I will make you."
Throughout my small speech I slowly raised the volatility of the mana around me, swirling it and making it denser. I also raised the air pressure and pressed down on everyone with motion, making the air oppressive and heavy both physically and magically. I even added a small electrical charge to the air for good measure. My words cracked like a whip due to my skill in acting, leaving Draco and his two cronies pale and everyone else looking fairly fearful. In some cases they looked mostly composed even under my magical might and dramatics.
Draco Malfoy, being under the intensity of my gaze and the subject of my words, was one of the worst affected. He shakily stepped towards a trio of desks and almost stumbled. He waited a moment and began walking almost normally before sitting down a little heavily. His cronies were not long after, though I suspected that it was more out of fear to stand out than the ability to resist me.
I swept my gaze over the class. Nobody quite met my gaze. Even the braver ones only came to my chest, including a few Hufflepuffs and some of the Slytherins. Daphne was one of the calmest and Draco somehow managed to muster up the courage to keep his eyes subserviently at my chest.
"I suppose we're in an understanding," I said in a more satisfied tone. I lifted the magical effects I had in the room and people visibly relaxed. Hogwarts stopped holding her breath. I hadn't realized she was doing so in the first place. "Today we'll be doing live combat exercises. Defending against dark powers requires that you be able to actually defend yourselves. Knowing every spell means nothing if you can't apply them. I will make solid illusions of demons and send waves after you."
One girl from Slytherin named Lily Moon raised her hand. "Yes?"
"I was under the impression that we fought the demons individually," she said quietly.
"That was for Gryffindor and Ravenclaw," I said obviously. "Gryffindor had bravery where Ravenclaw did not. The Gryffindor children needed their overconfidence to be beaten down and the Ravenclaws needed to be inspired to strike out on their own. With your groups you have a horrible lack of house unity in Slytherin and an excess of it in Hufflepuff. You also lack cunning and smarts in Hufflepuff and have an excess of it in Slytherin. Of course, these are generalizations but the stereotype holds true for most of the houses."
The class was silent as they mulled that over for a moment. "Now for introductions," I continued. "I'm Kerrigan Mavros. I'm substituting for Moody since he has personal issues he's dealing with. If the rumor mill hasn't decided I'm everything from a dementor in disguise to Merlin himself I'd be disappointed but that truly isn't my problem. If you want to know more about me do some research in the rumor mill and parse out what truth is still left. I gave the last class three questions. Ask."
To my surprise Draco Malfoy's hand was raised, along with several others. "Interesting. Blondie." Daphne and Draco both opened their mouths at the same time. "No, the Malfoy blondie. I'll get you next." Daphne closed her mouth patiently.
"What do you do for a living?" Draco asked respectfully. He seemed much less assholish now.
"I suppose you could call me a hobbyist," I said, wondering what the appropriate answer to that was. "I would say I do a little of everything. Managing people, teaching some others, and so on. I don't have any need for wealth for various reasons but I'd say I mostly do what I please. Typically that's studying and learning more about magic. Next."
"Does that mean you're hirable?" Draco blurted out. I looked calmly at him and he shrunk back a little again. I waited a moment and nodded thoughtfully.
"In a fashion I would say I am, as I act in my own self interest and owe allegiance only to myself and my friends and family. However, I don't care for gold, power, or fame. All those things can be taken if I choose to take them. I care about magical artifacts and the favors of powerful people. And by powerful I mean people such as the Flamels or the like. I don't care for the favors of people like your father or Dumbledore. Political power means little to me. Now, next. Daphne Greengrass, yes?"
Daphne nodded, looking calm and composed compared to her earlier intimidated demeanor. "What are your opinions and affiliations on the light and dark?" A tension went through the air and I sighed despondently. I thought she was smarter than this.
"The whole light and dark deal is stupid. There is strong and weak, those who are bound by duty and those who eschew it, and a plethora of other dualities but light and dark are just opinions. It's all in perspective of what's good and bad. If society was different then so to would be the vision of what's 'light' and good. Sacrificing citizens would be a horrendous crime today but in older times such as in the societies of the Mayans and Aztecs it was normal and holy. It's a ridiculous matter of social norms.
"The 'dark lord' idea is the same as whoever is the most dangerous criminal of the time as well. As for me? I honestly don't care what labels people put on me. I do what I please within my rather flexible morals. Rape, for example, is one thing I can't tolerate, but killing criminals, so long as they are actually scum and not wrongly accused, is a perfectly acceptable action. I'd even encourage it in some instances. Dark magic is equally absurd. There is magic that pollutes the soul and magic that does not. It's your soul. Do as you please with it."
A somewhat stunned silence rang throughout the room. Whatever these people expected it wasn't that.
"So… dark grey then," Daphne said slowly.
"Sure. Close enough." I rolled my eyes and pointed at the next person who raised their hand. "Go."
"How powerful are you?" The random kid asked.
"Powerful enough to turn a minor city into a crater in ten minutes depending on its size. Not that any of you would believe me on that. It's more accurate to describe my various utilities than my overall power. I specialize in storm magic. Hurricanes, rainfall, lightning, and wind. I can do all this with a thought. I'm also extremely proficient in a sort of anti-magic that negates other magic. Now I'm tired of your questions but at least they're better than the Gryffindor's questions. Let's go."
A hallway revealed itself as I gave Hogwarts space attuned mana. People seemed to collectively take a breath at how easily the 'secret' passage revealed itself but followed somewhat quickly after me, Hufflepuff following first. How trusting of them. The Slytherins made sure to take note of every detail, doing a decent job in general to not show too much fear.
We emerged out the same door as before, stepping into the odd meadow. "Here." I waved my hand and worked my metal affinity and some mana. Almost like it was already there a small fort raised itself out of the ground. Four spires came first in square corners, flat roofs lined with low nubby things. Merlons? I believe I read about them somewhere trying to grind my INT.
The walls came next, also fitted with the merlons. The spires filled out to become proper towers. Inside them ladders formed from the walls up to the tower roofs while the groundwork for stairs going downwards formed as well.
I formed some different features of my walls such as a portcullis with chains and a gridded doorway, a small moat (dug with motion affinity and mana and filled with water), and some few scattered armory racks fitted with mundane swords, axes, bows, and arrows for the bows, though the actually dangerous weapons would be in the keep's armoury.
Finally I began work on the actual keep. I branched out a little and made it out of packed ice with a dulled metal shell. The combination was lighter than complete metal and offered the grimm a small chance to break through the walls without specialty units.
Motion mana did the initial digging as I formed the surface rooms. As I dug deeper I made portals to the borders of the moat and used motion mana to transport the dirt into the portals. I made more underground rooms while also making a small dirt wall at the edge of the moat that I compressed to be a semi-decent wall.
The keep was fitted with an armoury filled with more weapons and ammo stockpiles as well as some brooms, several prison cells, some small amounts of food and water in a pantry, a council chamber instead of a throne room, and a room for resting in, where I put down several soft things for sitting on, including two beanbags, three couches, two armchairs, an exercise ball, and a yoga mat. Wherever I got that last one from. I recognized the others as things I stole at one point or another or grabbed and forgot about at various points where I felt like stealing things.
I remembered taking the yoga stuff from when Yang forced me to go to a gym with her and I changed the room every time she turned around. I took the exercise stuff and never thought about the stuff again. Until now. I wonder what those people at the gym would say if I told them that their equipment was sitting in a castle made of steel and ice in another dimension?
"Go explore," I said loudly to everyone. They all looked wide-eyed at the castle I had made in about three minutes. "In about ten minutes I will be in front of the castle armoury and I will give you all a lesson in safety using weapons that should last about ten minutes. If you don't show up you don't get a weapon, and I highly recommend you do show up. I will sumon real grimm into the area surrounding the castle fifteen minutes after the safety lesson, where you will defend a flag of sorts. Use the ten minutes you have to get familiar with the castle and use the fifteen minutes after the safety lesson to construct a plan. I will heal any injuries or temporary deaths that occur during the lesson, though I will try my best to make sure nobody dies, and that's saying a lot. Now go frolic while you can."
I walked easily towards the fort while the Hogwarts students stood frozen. The first person to break the stupor was, surprising, Draco, who I was re-evaluating my opinion of. "Come on!" he shouted as he rushed forwards, his cronies quickly following him. Everyone blinked the stupor away and began running forwards under his example.
I disappeared around a corner and blinked to the armoury before activating mage sight. The Hogwarts students rushed about the whole castle like ants, investigating every little thing. Their curiosity was amusing. The castle was pretty bare and mundane, though I sensed some mana push out from the students towards the walls. An analysis spell, I believed. That's what the intent of the spell appeared to be.
After a few minutes I looked towards the armoury. Weapons racks lined the walls filled with all sorts of goodies. Not only were there swords and melee weapons fitted with runes of varying complexities, though none of them actively used dust, but instead they had sharpness, lightening, elemental effects, and other weapon based runic matrices.
In ranged weapons I had crossbows of all sorts both made of modern plastics and metals as well as older wooden ones. I kept to the most advanced reloading systems I could, though. I have standards. I didn't use guns because these kids seem rather stupid and I don't trust any of them to shoot a BB gun, much less a real gun.
Finally in the ranged department were the staves. Yes, staves.
Magic here was, fundamentally, using the world affinity, mana, and willpower to accomplish unnatural tasks related to manipulation of the world. More advanced magic wasn't the same in cases like fiendfyre and expecto patronum (which I'm pretty sure was an odd sort of mental manifestation of your aura given temporary animation and possibly sentience) but nobody here would be using those spells.
The staves were heavily runed to amplify every sort of spell that used world affinity. That is to say, all of the ones these wizards used. They were, in a word, generalized magical amplifiers, though they only worked in this dimension because everybody used the world affinity. They had a times three amplifier compared to the wands, which often used a times two or two point five amplifier. Some of the better fitted ones were times three amplifications for world affinity and other affinity specific spells like fire or change (transfiguration affinity basically). Point in case, they were better than most wands. Not that anybody would ever be getting to take a stave of mine home.
"I think we're ready," I mused to myself. I also sensed all but two of the Hogwarts students outside the armoury, though they still had a minute left on my timer.
I walked to the door and moved the steel pole holding the door shut before moving the door and gesturing everyone inside. People gaped once more at my selection before I gave a harsh glare at all of them and they hurried inside.
Once everyone was inside I closed the door though I didn't lock it. I strided to the wall and picked off a crossbow before brandishing it to the kids, who looked at it curiously.
"A crossbow. Simple, useful, silent, and relatively powerful. It's far easier to use than a bow at least. Load the bolt, as so," I loaded a bolt and nocked it back to show everyone. "And aim before firing." I brought the metal sight up to near my cheek and put pressure on the trigger. I landed my shot clearly in the metal wall, the shot sinking up to the flechette in the solid pack ice and metal.
"Of course, every weapon is enhanced by runes. Each one is different, if subtly. Mostly the crossbows have enchantments to shoot straighter, faster, and harder. I have one or two that make their bolt home in on the target. Another makes a concussive blast where it's bolts land given that you feed it a little of your magic. No you may not test the crossbows. Take one and leave it to chance."
I set the crossbow down and picked up a sword, running my eyes over it. It was razor sharp and thinner than the norm since the runes on it enhanced it's durability and made it cut faster with the assistance of liquid motion affinity stored in the hilt.
"A sword," I said simply. "Do I really need to elaborate? You swing it. Stab with it if you must. This one in particular swings itself faster than it normally would." I lazily swung the sword, barely putting any effort into it, more letting it fall with my wrist limp than actually swinging it. The sword swooped down and clearly sped up unnaturally before coming to a rest in the air again. Rather than let it swing itself again I set it back on the rack.
"Some of the other melee weapons channel magic, by the way," I said absently as I picked down a stave.
"These staves channel and amplify almost any magic you put through it," I said simply. "It doesn't have base sentiance like your wands but rather is composed entirely of runes amplifying a core element of almost every wizard or witch's magic. It amplifies the effects of spells by exactly three times. It's not personal like a wand. It's a tool and nothing more. Here." I handed the stave to the kid in the front of the group. He fumbled with it and gasped, shivering.
"… Well?" I asked, an eyebrow raised.
"I… I can feel everything," the kid said in awe. "I can feel my magical core. It's like… the staff wants to take my magic; Make it greater…" the kid stared at the stave in wonder.
"Huh. So yeah, it's a wand but better, if less personal and less portable." I had wondered if the innate world affinity in the staves would do more than amplify spells with world affinities to those with the world affinity. Oh well. Magic with these wizards was a little weird. I suspect that there's some sort of planetary intelligence like Gaia from Fate Stay Night. Perhaps this hypothetical intelligence is the reason that magic in this world works so well. Hogwarts herself is proof of concept that high amounts of magic can make an artificial intelligence. Why not apply that on a planetary scale? It would make sense of a lot of holes in my understanding of this magical world.
"That should be it," I announced. "Pick what you like and get ready for the siege. Remember that you're facing monsters and not intelligent enemies." I teleported out of the armoury immediately and looked at the wall of my little fort. I raised a metal bench and laid against it. It would normally be uncomfortable but with an application of my metal affinity the steel became as soft as a bed. Leaning back became quite comfortable.
Just a few minutes later I heard people arguing vehemently in the main room of the keep. The sort of throne room turned council chamber, that is. I snorted lightly at what chaos must be going on in there. It sounds terrible. If I had to get into that I would silence everybody with magic and speak myself. The perks of power, I suppose.
The chaotic sounds wore off somewhat quickly to a few people. Daphne and Draco, obviously, as well as several other Hufflepuffs. They were running short on time while I and my parallels carved runes into the ground, making sure that no grimm would spread through the meadow, much less the forest, when I transported them to the Harry Potter world.
It was several minutes after I finished that I made the portal to Remnant, which was rooted in the middle of nowhere. I pulled distilled red sap from my inventory and immediately heard roars ring out. I made another smaller portal to the roof of the fort and dumped the bucket. Now the grimm would be drawn to the fort. My job is done.
The first grimm through were simps, a sort of monkey grimm with large growths of bone almost like gauntlets around their forearms that they used for striking things, using their forearms like clubs.
The Hogwarts students were already rushing out of the fort after the roar but after shouts and screams at the simps appearance crossbows were levelled on the fort's walls and bolts shot out towards the group. Their accuracy was… not good. Three in ten bolts hit, roughly. A small barrage of magical spells fell on the group while the crossbow bearers reloaded. Limbs went flying, lacerations appeared on the grimm, and several began to trip constantly or some other odd malady. One simp seemed to go berserk and try to attack it's fellow grimm. It was struck down after taking two of its brethren with it. I wonder how they did that? Grimm don't really think and I'm not sure they feel emotions either. Technically they're just elementals trapped in a physical form.
I zoned out somewhat as I watched the students defend themselves. It was a fair bit quicker than the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw class for me. I just let the grimm pour through the portal and, later on, saved some students from certain death by grimm. Easy peasy.
For almost an hour the students were doing well. The Slytherins were more cunning than they acted when they put their minds to it, devising frankly ingenious plans that varied from conjuring oil, lighting it, and dumping it on the stronger grimm, to some smarter one making a ritual circle that was supposed to ward off evil, though it was only strong enough to make the weaker grimm hesitate before rallying behind a stronger grimm.
The Hufflepuffs were a well oiled machine of cooperation between both themselves and the Slytherins. None of them stood out too much but all together they probably did more work than the Slytherins.
Draco, surprisingly, was a rallying force behind the defenders, calling forth magical barrages of spells and projectiles that held off the grimm. I didn't expect him to do that but he wasn't quite as cunning as the other Slytherins.
Eventually, even a subspecies of a Beringal that breathed fire came through the portal. It leaped into the fortress, nearly flattening a kid before I teleported him to safety, and demolished the walls to let more grimm in. One particularly bright student enlarged his crossbow to be bigger than a ballista and fired it into the thing's back twice before it died. By then, though, the teams fell apart.
The holes in the walls were too big and the defenders couldn't muster themselves fast enough. Everyone fell back into the keep with quite a few 'casualties'. Everyone was tired magically and physically but they still fought, using the keep's one entry as a chokepoint.
Slowly, though, the grimm crept farther into the room. It took about ten more minutes before the kids all retreated farther into the keep, down to the armoury. More kids 'died', including Draco Malfoy, who put himself deep into magical exhaustion, which is to say, he had been down to his affinities for a while and finally pushed his affinities too far, making them stop functioning. I pumped some mana into him and he was fine but he still went out pretty heroically, collapsing a quarter of the keep somehow. Whether he did it because the other kids now owed him and there was no chance of death or because he wanted to save lives is irrelevant. He did it in the end.
Down in the armoury, however, there was just one door to hold back the grimm. A barricaded door, yes, but just a door nonetheless. It wasn't even a big one. I could see where this was going. The kids would hole up and make one final stand or try to find a way to escape and from what I can see of them, which is a lot, their faces look bone tired but resolved.
Come to think of it… do they know their classmates are alive? One kid fell off the walls into the horde of grimm, another was almost flattened before I made a portal under him, and so on so forth. When they get minor injuries like a gash on their leg missing major blood vessels I just leave them. It probably doesn't look pretty. Hm. I'd bet that a fair few of them think I abandoned them to a demonic horde of monsters.
I'll give them all a prize. Ah, house points. They like house points, right? And since I'm a teacher, albeit a substitute, I can definitely assign points… probably. Hogwarts will be fine with me giving points, I'm sure. She can do just about anything inside the castle and I'm certain she values my friendship with her more than that old coot Dumbledore. Yeah. Let's say… two hundred for Slytherin and Hufflepuff each and a hundred for Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. It takes no effort from me and the kids will probably be pretty happy. It means I have to attend lunch, though… well I guess I am pretty hungry. And the food at Beacon isn't very good…
I watched the grimm burrow down to the survivors as they prepared… something. The ritual kid from earlier was making something big. Some sort of circle that spanned the entire floor and crept onto the walls in some places. This time though, everyone was pitching in by helping to draw the circle.
As the grimm drew nearer the five kids left finished and Daphne, being the only leader left, made some sort of speech. I didn't listen to it. And then every kid gathered around the edges of the circle, perfectly spaced apart. They raised their hands and all their remaining magic was pushed into the circle.
The circle glowed a pale greenish blue color and mana began to stir throughout the clearing. I suddenly snapped to attention when the grimm all began to howl in pain rather than excitement. What the hell were they doing?!
Ritual kid began chanting something and even the manticore began to scream. I gaped as their innate affinity for corruption began to act strange - oh dear lord the very mana around them seemed to coalesce together with a scattering of affinities in the area. The mana mixture lashed at the grimm, whipping them at their affinity, weakening the strongest and killing the weakest.
Beowolves and creeps and simians and minor taijitsu and all sorts of other grimm died in apparent agony, their flesh wisping away in smoke, leaving only their corpse, which began to quickly fade away. The manticore fell from the sky with a startled shriek, falling onto the keep and collapsing a good portion of it onto it. Other strong grimm, some ursa, a grimm minor dracon (not dragon. Dracon. Tiny dragon without wings but with an acid attack, basically not unlike the minor dragon), and several other strong grimm stumbled and fell, bearing through the mana based attack.
I was startled when the mana mixture began to attack me, of all people. The world mana seemed to get agitated around me and the mana began to writhe and thicken around me, eventually trying to pierce into my aura, likely to tear it apart. I resisted, of course… very easily.
The mana in the area was stronger than usual, likely because we were all in a magical forest, but I was far, far stronger. I collected my aura and mana into a shell around me and used my flawless mana and aura control refined over years to make it perfectly smooth and free of any weak spots. The mana based attack broke itself against my aural shield.
Even if I hadn't resisted the attack I'd bet that my aura and mana were dense enough to shrug off the attack without effort. Not to mention how void would deal with the attack.
With that ritual killing off most of the grimm I checked the clock in my soul space and saw that we only had about fifteen minutes left. Time to end this. The kids did a suitable finale anyways. I quickly killed off the remaining grimm with lightning or some ice spikes through the skull and focused briefly.
I teleported into the armoury with a small smile on my face. Immediately two quarrels of crossbow bolts flew towards my face and gut. I sidestepped them before they hit with a roll of my eyes. Slowpokes. Daphne and a Hufflepuff, who had fired the bolts, seemed stunned for a moment before nearly collapsing in relief, looking dead tired, smelling as sweaty as most exhausted teens do, and having a collection of superficial injuries all over, some of which would leave scars. Say, that gives me an idea…
"Good job," I commended them. "No casualties, by the way. Your classmates cheered quite loudly at you around the end there. You have fifteen minutes left until class ends. You'll be feeling better shortly. Probably." I stepped aside with a portal opening behind me and gestured the kids forwards. They all stumbled through the portal like zombies, Daphne and the generic Slytherin girl straightening themselves up a little before walking through.
Upon exiting the portal they were met by wild cheers from their classmates, which brought small satisfied smiles to their faces. Meanwhile I glanced around the meadow. Trashed would be one way to describe it. Totalled would be another.
The meadow was filled with rubble from the keep's walls being destroyed and a part of the keep collapsing from the manticore's fall. Spellfire made craters and burned parts of the land to ashy spots. A large patch of the ground was also a stretch of flame from the manticore as well from a strafe it did earlier when assaulting the keep.
I felt a little bad about it, honestly. There were some craters before from the Gryffindors or Ravenclaws miscasting a confringo or from an ursa pounding the ground but it was nowhere near ruined. I can do better than just leaving destruction here.
Easily fixed. I used motion mana to flatten out the ground to a more natural look, wiping away any trace of the craters. I used my metal affinity to sink the metal shards from the keep deep into the earth, never to be seen again. Finally, nature and life affinity worked on the land to restore the grasses. I nearly went overboard and regrew too much plant life but cut myself off at just the right time.
With that done I turned to the students, who looked at the newly restored meadow with resigned awe, as though they simply accepted that I could do miracles at my whims. I doubt they'll be forgetting this day anytime soon.
"Alright, let's go back. Clean yourselves up and make sure not to be late to lunch." I paused for a moment. "Oh, yes, right. You're exhausted." I stretched my soul over all of them and filled their souls with mana once more. I saw most of them perk up immediately.
"Seriously, go clean off. You all stink. It's even worse for me than it is for you."
[|||| =+= ||||]
"So what is the real you doing, Abyss robot?"
"Teaching."
"But… Abyss you're a student."
"Yes."
"Can you talk to me for real?"
"Acceptable… Okay, the parallel is gone. I'm teaching at a magical school across dimensions."
"That's so cool! Are they all slinging spells?!"
"Not impressive ones, Ruby."
"Could we get more details?"
"You know that library I've been hiding away in? The one in the castle? She finally got me to teach. She had to offer me a book on dark magic, though."
"You said dark magic didn't exist."
"It literally has you sacrifice an innocent. Or more specifically, a virgin. You then shred their soul for their divine essence and use it to sustain half your soul, which you split in two."
"Fuck."
"Exactly. It's a fascinating ritual, though. It's like the avatar spell made permanent. I've actually devised several new magical techniques from it. And the sacrificing innocents thing was stupid. You can just drain a tiny bit of divinity from a huge array of people, harming nobody enough for them to even feel it. The other rituals are just as interesting, actually. Sick and demented, yes, but interesting."
"That sounds bad."
"Oh, don't worry. I'll fix most of them to not be so horrible and instead be only morally questionable. I found out how to make a vampire, by the way."
"I thought they were fictional?!"
"I thought so too. Perhaps a fairytale version of cannibals that made itself common in mythology. But no. They actually do exist. They're also extremely strong. Frighteningly so."
"Care to explain?"
"Take a soul and awaken it's aura and what are you doing?"
"Um… breaking it's chains holding it-"
"Not even close. You're tricking the divine essence in you to increase its effect on your soul. Before it was dormant, doing nothing more than holding your soul together. When awakened, after being kickstarted by an injection of divine essence, it works at its full capacity, creating an excess of what could be called soul energy, which we call aura. Vampires have their divine essence work harder than it is supposed to, degrading itself in the process. Imagine working a muscle harder than it's supposed to. It tears itself apart but performs better than ever. Vampires are like that but their souls devour other souls for the divine essence needed to continue living."
"I… okay. What about fangs and pale skin and stuff?"
"I think it may be an effect from the first vampire. With your soul doing so much it may be acting the same way mine does when I use the panther soul I have. Impressing the soul over reality. Most carnivores have sharp teeth and sucking souls is looked down upon in civilized society. Most vampires would have pale skin from living in isolation. Or it could be something else. I'm just theorizing."
"How do you learn all of this?"
"I have a lot of time to think. And I've gotten somewhat good at it, I like to think."
[|||| =+= ||||]
"Ah, you must be that new professor I've heard so much of." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled but he seemed pretty irritated judging from his aura, unawakened as it may be. Perhaps running into him in the hall was planned by him? I don't think so. I was just on my way to lunch.
"Professor would be stretching it," I admitted. I felt disagreement from Hogwarts, saying I was better in every field than any of her professors. Flatterer. "But I'm extremely competent magically. Enough to be considered one, certainly."
"Indeed," Dumbledore agreed, as Hogwarts did the same with much more vigour. "And why, pray tell, are the wards not working on you?"
I knew exactly why. Hogwarts didn't want to monitor me. She did so the first time I was around and I politely asked her to not spy on me. Ever since she had never done it. And due to her not wanting to harm me she wouldn't activate any runes I tripped, of course.
"I do it by habit," I said, pretending to be embarrassed. A grandfatherly smile came onto Dumbledore's face but curiosity and extreme wariness shone clearly through his eyes.
"Of course. And why-"
"I'm here to make a small announcement," I interrupted Dumbledore's interrogation. His smile never faded, nor did his eye-twinkle. "The students deserve a reward for their efforts today and I will be adding points based on their performance, which I will be showing snippets of."
"I see," Dumbledore said with an understanding nod. He was trying to get a read on me, I was pretty sure. "If you would tell me your point amounts I would be happy to accomodate you, given that they're within reason."
"Of course," I agreed, though I didn't like this man at all. With that in mind I decided to switch my mood to throw him off. "But I don't care about your accommodations. I do care about lunch, though."
Dumbledore blinked at my sudden change in tone and attitude and frowned slightly, seemingly more in gentle concern than any sort of irritation. Dust below I really don't like this man at all. Manipulative old men are the worst.
"My boy-" he started. I used wind manipulation to alter the words coming out of his mouth. "It's perfectly fine to ignore me." Dumbledore blinked, seemingly surprised, so he tried speaking again.
"In fact, would you do so more?" He blinked, with no words describing his expression other than befuddlement. I blinked, pretending I was surprised, and shrugged before walking away, leaving Dumbledore supremely confused.
As I looked at the professors seats, though, I frowned. I didn't know which was mine. "Yours is the one in the middle, over there." I looked at Dumbledore standing besides his seat out of the corner of my eye to see him pointing gently towards the right side of the table. I walked over and pulled out my chair before sitting down. I glanced to my right to see two teachers walking into the hall, five minutes early like me and Dumbledore.
"So, my boy," Dumbledore began again, as he sat down in his seat. "I must admit to hearing some fantastical rumors about your skill in magic and combat especially, as well as some somewhat interesting views on how to teach a class."
"From the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs or Gryffindors and Ravenclaws?" I asked boredly.
"From dear Minerva, though you may know her as Professor McGonagall," Dumbledore said with a kindly smile at my question. "She, in turn, heard from her Gryffindors."
"Hm," I acknowledged with a small nod. "I made illusory projections made solid and had the students fight them. It was perfectly safe, as I was controlling the illusions and they were all made of light. The students all learned quite a bit about how to act in combat situations and how to use what they already know effectively. It's astonishing how overlooked the confringo spell is."
"And the claims of wandless magic?" Dumbledore prodded. "True users of wandless magic are beyond a rarity in this day and age. Even so, those that do accomplish feats of wandless magic often only accomplish simple spells. The children made you out seem as if you walked out of a storybook."
I waved my hand and made a grimm appear. The two teachers chatting quietly in two adjacent seats instantly had their wands trained on it. Dumbledore's expression turned curious as he leaned forward slightly to observe the fake grimm.
"I can control them," I said as I made the hard light illusion spin in circles and fly into the air. I did that for a few seconds before flying the creature to Dumbledore's goblet and bumping its nose into him. "They're not harmless, of course, unless I'm being careful, which I was. I had the students fight one on one with them at first until they began to get more confident, where I began sending duos and occasional trios of the wolves after them. Then I used larger ones while fighting teams."
"Fascinating," Dumbledore said with a satisfied smile. His eyes, however, didn't twinkle. They nearly burned as he stared at me. He didn't think of me a an enemy, that was clear from his aura, but he was extremely interested in recruiting me, as I was both an animagus and an extremely competent wizard, not to mention that I was a mystery to him. I was enough of a mystery to him that he seemed to temporarily disregard Moody's situation.
Just at that moment the students began to file in in groups of five to ten, all chattering excitedly. Everyone had their eyes on me, seeming extremely curious. They hadn't seen me in action, after all. Only the fourth years had.
Dumbledore didn't try to strike up another conversation with me, though he was clearly keeping an eye on me for a while. I myself waited until every student had come into the hall. Before I rose, though, Dumbledore did, and walked towards the owl podium in front of the high table.
"Welcome, students," he began. The slow chatter that had been swapped amongst the students died at this as everyone gave Dumbledore their attention. "Today our dear friend and teacher Alastor Moody was preoccupied with some urgent business of his. While his sudden disappearance is jarring he luckily arranged a substitute friend of his for the day. Please welcome Kerrigan Mavros."
He waved at me and I stood before walking towards the podium. Dumbledore stepped back and into his seat while I looked over the students. Already I could hear faint mutters about my 'muggle' clothing, though those students were quickly shushed by their fourth year classmates.
"Hello, all. I am, as Dumbledore said, Mister Mavros. Due to my lack of time to prepare I was unable to dress appropriately for today, though it seemed to be of no particular consequence in my classes." I could feel a hole being burned in the back of my head by Professor McGonagall, likely for my clothing. Stickler…
"With that said, Moody will likely return to teach in the next period, I have been informed." A small, polite applause rang out. "Still, in my classes, which were much more vigorous than typical for DADA classes, I saw some impressive talents and have decided to grant these quaint points of Hogwarts' that you all seem to value so much." A rather confused applause rang out once more, with a few students seeming a little insulted by my dismissal of their points system. The prefects seemed especially insulted, most of them refusing to applaud me. Not that I cared.
"However, with the quantity of points being given I felt it necessary to give you all a demonstration of what I have been teaching for these past two periods." I waved my hands and a projection of light appeared, like a screen, behind me. Whispers of 'wandless magic' were tossed around but they stopped as the projection of light began playing. In reality it was just an illusion of light that I was making based on my memories of the classes but it seemed quite intimidating.
I quietly pulsed my aura asking Hogwarts for some food and a house elf immediately appeared with a plate of food on my table. The other professors looked at the plate in surprise while I just picked it up, leaned against the table, and started eating the pork and beans given to me. It was most certainly better than Beacon's lunches.
After I had the illusion finish playing I set the half finished plate down and stepped forwards again. "So yes, while there was no real danger-" Scoffs and sounds of quiet disbelief were clearly heard from the Slytherin and Hufflepuff table, "-the acts performed were certainly worthy of commendation at the very least. So with that in mind I have decided to grant, based on bravery in the face of superior odds and a resolute determination not often seen in those your age, one hundred points to both Ravenclaw and Gryffindor." I saw Hogwarts' aura and mana converge on the numbers around the house cups and the numbers changed accordingly. Cheers from the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor students rang out while at the teacher's table people gave the cup confused stares. Do substitute teachers not normally get the ability to assign points? Probably not.
"And," I continued, "Due to stalwart grit in the face of overwhelming odds-"
"Wait a second," I saw Ron Weasley say at the Gryffindor table. Similarly odd looks were given to me from around the room.
"-Companionship and cooperativeness between Hogwarts houses atypical for both houses, coordination between students not always paralleled in even auror units, and truly cunning plans performed against dark forces, and through the generous self-sacrifice of one Draco Malfoy-" Malfoy preened under my praise. Perhaps I shouldn't have done that. "-I grant Slytherin and Hufflepuff each two hundred points." Wild cheers erupted from both houses and absolute silence from the Gryffindor Ravenclaw house clapped a bit, likely seeing that the Slytherin and Hufflepuff classes did do much better on a whole than they did.
"Do enjoy the rest of your lunch, and I hope you have taken away something important from these two classes." I stepped away and into my seat before digging into my meal. People, particularly the teacher's table, stared at me a little before returning to their own meals and muttering things about me, all of which I heard and only a few of which were flattering.
Weirdly enough the only people to really like me were Snape and the old cranky groundskeeper, Finnick or something. McGonagall seemed to dislike me on the bare principle that I assigned the Slytherin house more points but respected that I was an immensely powerful wizard and an animagus at that.
I was out of the dimension with Pit an hour later, my job done and a team practice to go to. I had no idea what was going to happen with Moody but Hogwarts should have her fill of interesting things while I'm doing boring school stuff.
Well, school stuff will be done in a little while. I didn't see Cinder yesterday… Hm...
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