A Different Grail War
Dumbledore sat at the head table shuffling a deck of cards.
The hall stared at him.
He shuffled one last time, with the flair of a professional dealer at a casino, and then handed the cards off to Madam Maxime of Beauxbatons. She was more awkward at it than Dumbledore, which was natural considering that her hands were much larger than the cards she was now shuffling.
She probably also didn't play cards much considering how busy the job of being a Headmistress of a leading magical school was.
Mister Bagman, cleared his throat before continuing to speak in his carrying voice. "As a result of the various Ministries of Magic being unable to find the traditional Tri-Wizard Cup after one of the previous winners, Kiritsugu Emiya, of the joint victory in 1976 of Kiritsugu Emiya, Japanese exchange student from -how do you pronounce this again? Ah well, no one will care if I leave it out-" Rin sputtered with indignation among the Ravenclaws "and Irisviel von Eiznbern of Durmstrang, stole it claiming that he feared that a past Servant Avenger had corrupted the Cup. I, and the Ministry of Magic, assure you that such a thing is impossible as Avenger had been safely killed in the opening round of the Tri-Wizard Tournament two tournaments ago. -"
Illya squeaked in embarrassment while Shirou face palmed as every student turned to face one of the Emiya in the hall.
"-But to compensate for the loss of the traditional judge, it has been decided that we would use this anonymously donated deck of cards from the Department of Mysteries to choose the next champion of each school."
Whispers and hubbub swept through the Great Hall. Every student was excited to see if they would be chosen to be the next champion.
Meanwhile, Madame Maxime finished shuffling the deck, not quite as elegantly as Dumbledore, and handed them off to Karkaroff who began to shuffle with a deft hand.
"We can assure you that no matter what the Department of Mysteries may say, that this was given to our representative by the visitor up here with us today, who by the way is named Darius Ainsworth who handed us his registration of being a subject of the Department of Mysteries-!" Bagman broke off his explanation with a look that exclaimed 'Eureka!'
Shirou reinforced his hearing to catch Bagman's quietly muttered words, "So that's why he wasn't on the list of Unspeakables, he was an escapee from the Department of Mysteries! Well, whatever it is that he gave us, it can't be that bad, right? Would help promote publicity surely if it got out that a person who broke out of the Department of Mysteries was the one who gave us our current form of the Tri-Wizard Tournament."
Shirou blinked and wondered if every adult wizard he had met was insane in one way or another.
But Bagman had realized that he still had an audience that was waiting for his next words. He cleared his throat and continued, "Regardless of the reliability of the messenger," Bagman with practiced ease ignored the looks of alarm now circulating the student body, "we have examined the "Class Cards" and have concluded that not only will they serve as a reliable way to select the champions, but they will also allow our champions an unique resource for the upcoming challenges."
Karkaroff finished his shuffling and handed them off to a mysterious, pale-skinned, black-haired scruffy looking man with an unkempt beard who received them with a wide smile and a malicious look of glee and started to shuffle the deck as well.
"In interest of preventing a biased individual from giving their school a preferred Class Card, Mister Ainsworth will be handing out the cards to each student after each Headmaster has shuffled the deck such that no one will ever be able to keep track of any card. He will be walking around the hall giving every student a Class Card. We ask that you set the Class Card face-down on the table in front of you and do not poke it with your wand until told to do so, upon penalty of expulsion from the tournament or the non-refundable loss of your wand."
Shirou looked carefully at the middle-aged man, who was now at the Slytherin Table giving each student a Class Card although some students did not look like they wanted to take it, staring at it like they had their dinner replaced by a Basilisk on top of a nuclear bomb.
Illya and her adopted cousin Miyu that attended Durmstrang both had a class card in front of them but were eying it like it would suddenly come alive and attack.
Bagman cleared his throat and started to read off the stack of papers in front of him, "The Ministries of Magic of Britain, France, and Scandinavia would like to remind any participants that the governments and schools will not be held accountable for any loss of life, property, sanity, or any previously unlisted type of loss, any gains of a beneficial, detrimental or mixed nature, alternations in life or property, or any changes of gender. Any illegal action may be prosecuted to the full extent of law up to a maximum-"
Suddenly, the students that had not yet tuned out Bagman once he started reading the disclaimer were regarding the Class Cards like they were now a hand grenade that was set to go off.
Shirou wondered about the sanity of the Magical world's students. Threaten their life like with Fluffy and they will line up to look behind his door. Mention changing their sex and all of a sudden, the Tri-Wizard Tournament is now a thing of horror.
But people might need saving so he probably should do his best to enter and participate.
Especially since Angra Mainyu had apparently gotten involved in this world's past Holy Grail Wars.
Ainsworth had reached the Gryffindor table and was now talking with Iris.
"No, I will not be taking a card. It is better for my health to not even have a Class Card near me. Actually, I probably should be avoiding the hall right now, so if you would excuse me," Iris got up looking hopefully at the massive doors leading to safety.
Darius smiled like he was a madman about to rip out your throat. "Miss Potter, I will have you know that I specialize in making and enchanting magical artifacts. One of them happens to be a scrying tool that shows a person's most embarrassing moments in their past. I have that device set up so that the first person to step out of those doors will have it shown to the entire hall."
Iris narrowed her eyes at the blackmailer in front of her. Slowly, like a person who was not a Parselmouth reaching out to grab a venomous snake, Iris moved her hand closer to Ainsworth's deck of cards. She then used her trained Seeker reflexes to grab a Class Card from Darius's hand and placed it down in her spot while sitting down so fast that she appeared to be a blur.
Darius cackled in glee, causing the people next to him to shuffle away from him. Anyone who laughed like a madman was obviously not sane. But he simply carried on handing out Class Cards to the Gryffindors, most of who had ignored Bagman's disclaimer that even now was steadily causing the Ravenclaws to turn paler and paler.
It wouldn't surprise Shirou if the Ravenclaws refused to participate, even though they had already been given their Class Cards. They were known as the house of the intelligent, not the suicidal idiots. Looking at Illya's cousin Chloe, who was on exchange with the Beauxbatons students, he could tell that the tanned girl was pointing her wand at the card like she was prepared to cast protego at even the slightest of twitches.
Smart girl that one.
Speaking of the Gryffindors, some of them had to be prevented from poking either their or their neighbor's Class Card with their wand.
Darius Ainsworth finally reached the final table, the Hufflepuff table, and started distributing cards to each Hufflepuff.
Shirou sat back, eyeing the card. If this was anything like the Holy Grail War, then the card might react to him and use him as a catalyst to summon EMIYA. Maybe he could wait until after Rin had summoned?
No, it would be better to summon at the same time as everyone else and chance that he might get EMIYA.
And his first Command Seal would be to hold that guy in place so that he could slit that guy's throat rather than have him as a Servant. He might be powerful and useful but he did not want to have that guy as his Servant.
Darius finished up and returned to the teacher's table at the front of the hall. He settled down next to Karkaroff who turned to mutter quietly to the ancient wizard.
Shirou reinforced his hearing to catch "-agreed that the enchantment on the Class Card should keep the underage students from even being to enter the tournament."
Darius smirked at the man. "It should but some people are so compatible with the Class Card that they could possibly overpower that enchantment. I expect at least six underage students to get past the enchantments that depower the card upon detecting the Trace."
Karkaroff narrowed his eyes at the smirking wizard and settled back down in his chair, frowning deeply.
Shirou agreed with the Durmstrang Headmaster's obvious suspicions. There was something wrong about that wizard.
Shirou looked around the hall, wondering which of his friends would overpower the Trace- Oh no.
He had removed the Trace from both him and Iris. And with their luck, they were both bound to be in the tournament.
Bagman finally finished the disclaimer. "-the judging court will be held in the respective nation against which the claim is being made. In the event of multiple countries as participants in the trial, the trial will be held in front of the International Confederation of Wizards and judged according to each corresponding nation's laws."
Bagman stopped to take a swallow of pumpkin juice from his glass left over from dinner.
"Well, that was a jumble of legal issues cleared up. Hope I didn't bore you to sleep!" He winked at the audience as some of the students chuckled at his joke.
"Now, for the part you have all been waiting for, the selection of the Champions!" He announced to the audience.
A breathless silence fell over the Hall as each student eagerly listened to Ludo Bagman's words. Some were eager to get a chance to participate like the Gryffindors. Others were desperate to learn what not to do like most of the Ravenclaws.
"I will warn you that at this point, the Class Card will test your compatibility with the Heroic Spirit inside. Some of you will have good compatibility and your Class Card will give you the ability to take upon yourself the identity of the Heroic Spirit, which can include knowledge of secrets long lost," the Ravenclaws as a house perked up, more eager to participate in the tournament now. "or power or skills or weapons beyond your wildest dreams!"
Shirou knew that if the students really had an inkling of what the Servants might have available, it would be more akin to their worst nightmares than wildest dreams.
"But others of you will not have a good compatibility with your random Servant inside the Class Card. To you poor folks, I offer my condolences as luck just wasn't your way today." Bagman continued. "For the safest form of testing your compatibility, please take out your wand."
A rumble of whishing robes and shifting in their seats ensued as the students took out their wands. Bagman, who already had his wand out, used his free hand to show everyone the blank Class Card he had.
"Tap your wand to the Card," Bagman demonstrated. "and while keeping the tip of your wand there, say 'Include.' It can be in any language you desire."
A rumble of "Include" echoed throughout the school.
And then things got interesting.
Bright flashes of light sparked to life throughout the Hall as various students suddenly had their Class Card respond to their activation.
Shirou kept his eyes open scanning over the hall, even as his own pillar of light surrounded his wand. He needed to know what the other Heroic Spirits would be. If there was another Gilgamesh or Caster or Archer then now would be the first chance to know and head it off before it was too late.
Illya stared at her wand and card which had transformed into a red shafted stick with a star in a circle and several white wings.
Next to her, her childhood best friend Miyu stared at her own wand which had changed from her fine yew wand into a blue-shafted wand with a star in a circle with wings instead of the usual rounded tip.
The two wands suddenly moved, startling the two girls into shrieking, dropping their wands and to clutch at one other.
"Oh dear, that simply will not do!" Illya's former wand suddenly spoke.
"Sister, it might be better for us to simply say what Class we are and explain in a more private setting," Miyu's now blue wand spoke in response.
Everyone nearby was now staring at the talking wands.
Their wands had been stolen and replaced with sentient wands!
Illya nearly panicked as she realized that the wand her mama had bought together with her was now gone. And she now had a sentient magical artifact. Stories that her mama and papa had told her about how such thinking artifacts killed their owner flashed through Illya's mind.
Fortunately, papa was paranoid.
Illya pulled out her second wand and pointed it at the thing that had replaced her favorite wand.
The red wand ignored her and sighed. "Very well, but afterwards I think we ought to do something fun at least."
The two wands floated into the air -by themselves! These are magical wands that moved themselves!- and bowed towards the two girls.
"Mistress/Master, we are proud to announce that you have the unrivaled Class of Magical Girl!" the two wands spoke as one.
Illya and Miyu stared.
The class of what now!?
This is as far as I have gotten. I figured that Chloe von Eiznbern (Kuro) should get the EMIYA class card but didn't really have a good way to show it without deciding on Shirou's Class Card.
As a bit of explanation, each Class Card is enchanted to deactivate if the witch or wizard that touches them has the Trace. But as Darius said, if the compatibility is high, then both the person's magic and the Card might overpower the enchantment.
Also, some (almost all) people had bad luck in the compatibility of their cards to themselves. Even those without the Trace might end up with a Heroic Spirit that doesn't match their personality. And if they don't match, then the Heroic Spirit inside the Card will not lend their strength to the contestant, thus preventing them from becoming a school champion. Because when you think about it, most average students don't have the raw materials to be the heroes of legend. And Gryffindor, the house of the brave might not either. Any Gryffindor might have ended up with a Caster or Archer or Assassin Card that would regard the average Gryffindor as a crazy that has nothing in common with them while a Saber like Siegfried might have been compatible with that very student.
Or for a specific compatibility example, Romilda Vane might have ended up with Medea of Colchis who would certainly not lend any help to a girl who thinks that using a love potion on another as ethical due to her own experience in being under a love spell from Aphrodite. Even if Romilda didn't have the Trace on her, Medea would not react to Romilda and lend her her power.
