The Train Towards Trouble

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Iris threw herself down onto a seat on the Hogwarts Express.

"Bugger that House Elf." She said with an exasperated sigh. "Four different taxis, with each of them blowing out all four tires. Did he think he was being subtle?" She shook her head. "And it was only luck that let us arrive early enough that someone was around to deal with the barrier he put up over the platform entrance... Well, luck and you Reinforcing the tires of that last taxi."

Shirou grunted in agreement as he stowed away his own luggage and flopped down on the seat across from Iris.

He considered himself to be a rather patient person, but Dobby had been a serious irritation.

He had stopped stealing Iris's mail after they had caught him the first time, so they hadn't had another chance to directly deal with him again.

That hadn't stopped the little elf from trying to prevent Iris from making it to Hogwarts though, through all sorts of little tricks. This included hiding her school supplies, barricading the door to their apartment, and trying to make off with Hedwig. A mistake he wouldn't be trying again.

There had also been a strange occurrence when Shirou had been out getting groceries where the small creature had appeared near Iris and began to magically clean the apartment.

When he returned, the apartment had been spotless, and Iris had been very confused.

"Have you Reinforced your protections today?" Shirou asked, changing Iris's expression from a sulk to a frown.

"No." She replied. "Too much elf interference."

"You should do it now, while we wait for Hermione and Rin."

Iris nodded, then sat up straight and closed her eyes in mediation.

Shirou watched her carefully while she worked on her own version of Reinforcement.

It wasn't quite the same as his own type of Reinforcement magecraft. As with many magics in this world, Iris seemed to be able to skip several steps when it came to application of the skill.

It allowed her to achieve quite a bit of success without having to master Structural Grasping, but also limited her in several ways. For example, she could increase her strength and speed by a small margin, but she could only apply it to her entire body. She couldn't target specific muscle groups or organs. It wasn't much of a limitation, since she didn't seem to have a limit on the amount of magic she could use anyway.

One of the benefits of this new method was that it worked quite well for maintaining the protections her mother had given her, which has started to wane as the summer came to a close. It was in no danger of failing completely, from what Shirou could tell based on the limited information he had, but daily maintenance was now required to keep it at full strength.

In general, this new method of Reinforcement wasn't nearly up to the level Shirou usually worked with, but Iris was making strides with it. And Shirou had actually sat down with her and had her instruct him in how to do it. He would probably have to use his own style for most of his usual fighting methods, but taking advantage of the seemingly unlimited supply of magical energy provided by this world's magic system would be very useful. Even if Iris's style could only be used for basic body Reinforcement, it was a serious boost to his efficiency.

He pulled out a book he had been reviewing about Floo travel and perused the pages which were heavily annotated with his own script.

It was twenty minutes later that Hermione located their car and stepped in.

She smiled and opened her mouth to greet them, but stopped herself when she saw Iris's meditative expression.

Hermione didn't know the whole story, but Iris had explained to her about the protections her mother had left behind and that they were starting to fade. She didn't mention the reason for them fading, letting Hermione assume that they were simply wearing off from age.

Hermione quietly made her way into the cabin and Shirou stood to receive the girl's enthusiastic greeting hug.

He had seen her a few days ago, but any spending more than twenty four hours out of her sight elicited a hug from the young girl.

He reached for her luggage, but she waved him off.

She reached down and, with a grunt, lifted her own bulging luggage from the floor.

A few feet up, the luggage stopped rising, and Hermione started to pant a bit.

Shirou reached out and helped her finish the task of stowing the girl's school trunk away.

Hermione had been learning Iris's form of body strengthening magic. However, the increase in strength received was proportional to the caster's starting strength, and Hermione didn't have a great base strength to work from.

Of course, Shirou had continued to give her the basics of the magecraft he knew as well, but under Iris's tutelage she had managed to learn more about the way Iris did things than any theoretical magecraft lessons from Shirou could impart.

They both sat down and waited for Iris to finish her mediation.

-o-o-o-o-

Iris slowly sank into herself, letting her other senses fade away.

She immediately felt her magic. That action was instinctual at this point, to the degree that she didn't even need to close her eyes or meditate to find it.

The next part was much harder.

Mixed in among her magic was the magic of another. But the caster had been so close to her, physically and emotionally, that the spell had faced no resistance when it settled into her. Eleven years inside of her had only ingrained it further. So it was incredibly difficult to parse out.

But she did. Slowly and methodically, she felt through her mystical and physical self, searching for the little piece of herself that was not truly herself.

Eventually, she caught hold of it as felt a flush of warmth pass through her body.

Shirou had explained that she was instinctively Grasping the intent of the spell. She couldn't get the particulars yet, but she intended to be able to Grasp it as well as Shirou could someday.

She basked in the feeling that the spell provided for a minute before she got down to work.

She couldn't track down the specific parts of the protections that were waning, so she had to take the route of gradually Reinforcing the whole thing, and letting her magic fill in the weak points. Taking care, of course, to not add too much and risk damaging the protections.

Internally, she chuckled at the memory that always arose with that line of thought.

Shirou's face when she explained that she could just put magic into something slowly with the intent of fixing or reinforcing something, and it would fill in the gaps for her had been priceless.

His explanation of having to know all the little details of every little thing in order to Reinforce it with his style had made her head hurt just to think about.

Her method may have been less effective overall, but she much preferred it for its simplicity.

The process was slow, but it wasn't like she had a time limit to confine herself to. If she took too long, the train would get underway, and she would come out of her meditation with her friends already present.

When she was done, she slowly removed herself from her meditative state and began to shake her hands and legs to restore feeling to them.

She opened her eyes just in time to see Hermione flying towards her before she was enveloped by one of the girl's hugs.

Hermione was a hugger. It was something Iris had known academically during first year. But she hadn't fully understood the extent of it until she occasionally visited the girl and her family over the summer hols.

Hermione was a hugger, and so was her mother. One couldn't enter their house and expect to leave without receiving at least one hug from each.

Iris responded with an action she had slowly learned to use over a summer of maternal and friendly skinship.

She wrapped her arms around her friend and squeezed softly.

"Hey, Hermione." She said into the girl's ear.

"Hey, Iris." She replied before breaking off the hug and backing up. "How have you been?"

"How have I been since we saw each other a whole three days ago?" Iris asked with a smirk.

Hermione just replied with a knowing look.

"Nothing blew up." Iris reported.

"The door." Shirou corrected her.

"Nothing important blew up." Iris glared lightly at her flatmate. "Just the door to Shirou's apartment. We've had House Elf troubles, but it's nothing we couldn't handle."

"I've been reading about House Elves." Hermione said. "It seems horrible. They're basically treated like slaves."

Shirou waved his hand in a so-so gesture.

"You shouldn't set all creatures to the standards of humans." He said.

"But they can speak." Hermione argued. "They're intelligent and deserve respect."

"I agree. But that doesn't mean they are human. Serving witches and wizards is part of their very being. It's integral to who and what they are. If you offered to pay them or compensate them for their work like that, it would probably just offend them."

"Really?" Hermione asked skeptically.

"The Hogwarts elves seemed very offended when I asked them if I could cook my own meals last year. They were also offended when I offered to compensate them since they were going out of their way to cook food just for me."

"But... but, it's slavery."

"Like I said," Shirou shrugged, "you shouldn't judge other creatures with the same measuring stick you apply to humans. You should treat them with respect, but also keep in mind that they are intrinsically different from us. They might have different needs or considerations than a human would."

Hermione's face screwed up in thought as she considered his words.

"Anyway," Iris interrupted, "has Rin shown up yet, and how much longer until the train departs?"

"Rin hasn't shown up yet." Hermione replied with an air of concern. "And the train departs in ten minutes. I heard that there was trouble with the entrance to the platform earlier. I hope it didn't break down again and trap her on the other side."

"That was us." Iris reported while she stretched out a bit. "Our resident House Elf prankster tried to keep me from coming back to school by blocking off the entrance to the platform. Luckily we got here early enough that the next family to come along were able to open it up. I doubt Dobby would re-seal it now that we're already on the train."

"Then what do you think happened to her?"

"Well..." Iris tilted her head as she considered. "Maybe she ran into Malfoy and is reteaching him the meaning of the word pain... or suffering... or embarrassment... or dignity, as that was the one that started it all off."

Shirou chuckled lightly and she smiled over at him.

"Or," she continued, "she's just taking her time saying goodbye to her family. Do you have any messenger Shikigami ready? We could just send one of those to her."

"I do!" Hermione replied happily. "I've got quite a few of them... in my trunk." She frowned up at where her trunk was stowed away. "What about the Messenger Pages?"

"The Charms on them were pretty weak." Iris replied. "They couldn't send messages more than the distance of the Hogwarts grounds, and the magic on them has faded away by now. We'll have to get some new ones when we're back in school."

Hermione glanced at her watch, noting the time remaining before the train departed.

"Then what should we do?" She asked, a note of panic coming into her voice.

"What should we do about what?" A calm voice asked from the doorway of their cabin.

Shirou smiled up at the newcomer.

"You have impeccable timing, as always, Rin." He said to the girl. "Or were you waiting outside our cabin for a chance to make a dramatic entrance?"

Rin scoffed at him as she stepped further into the cabin, but was cut off from responding by Hermione grabbing her into a hug.

"It's nice to see you too." Rin said dryly as she gently returned the embrace. "But before we get into the business of catching up on what we've been up to this summer, there is someone I'd like to introduce you to."

She gently pushed Hermione back into the cabin and then stepped aside to reveal a short, black haired girl, who shyly lowered her eyes as everyone's attention fell onto her.

"Hello, everyone." The girl said softly. "My name is Sakura Tohsaka. I'm Rin's younger sister." She smiled sweetly, and her eyes turned up a little bit to glance over the occupants of the cabin. "My sister has told me a lot about you. I hope we can get along."

"And this should go without saying," Rin spoke sharply, but with an undertone of humor, "but if she ends up in any of your Houses, you'll be expected to keep an eye on her. Or else."

"Onee-san!" The younger Tohsaka exclaimed, a blush building on her face.

Rin just glanced around the cabin, as if challenging her friends to even think about leaving her sister out to dry.

"Shirou?" She asked suddenly, concern entering her voice.

All eyes turned to the only boy of the group, who looked honestly thunderstruck.

He immediately composed himself, and then shook his head.

"It's nothing." He said in a way that no one in the cabin took as the truth.

"It's not nothing." Rin replied, her glare now firmly fixed on Shirou, all humor gone from her face.

"I..." Shirou hesitated, but slowly wilted under Rin's glare while the rest of the students held their breath. "She looks familiar. But I can't place where I might have seen her before."

"I see." She said, her eyebrows climbing.

She turned to query her sister, who had raised a finger to her chin in thought as she looked back at Shirou.

"I might have seen him before." She reported. "But I'm not one hundred percent sure."

-o-o-o-o-

"I come bearing gifts." Rin reported, handing out a small wrapped package to everyone in the cart, including her sister. "And birthday gifts." She handed another, smaller package to Iris.

They all slowly unwrapped their gifts to reveal small notebooks.

"After how much we used the Messenger Pages last year," Rin started, "I decided to have these made for us. They have the same function, but are in a much easier format than a bunch of loose pages. They should also last us a few years at least, and allow us to communicate a bit farther afield."

"How far?" Hermione asked.

"Not all the way to Japan, sadly." Rin replied. "But you and Iris should be able to use them next summer since you both live around London."

"Oh!" Hermione smiled brightly over at Iris.

"Or, we could just call each other." Iris replied with an eye roll.

"Thank you, Rin." Shirou interrupted, bowing slightly.

Everyone else in the cabin took that as their prompt to thank Rin as well.

"What did you get, Iris?" Hermione asked, clearly interested in any foreign magic item that Rin might have procured.

Iris unwrapped her gift to reveal a number of marked papers.

"Shikigami?" She asked Rin.

"Not quite." Rin replied. "These are Fuda that are made using a similar kind of magic. You put a little magic into them, then stick them onto a wall, or into the air, and they do something. The ones I got for you are 'barrier' tags, and will create a magical shield around themselves."

"Can I learn how to make these?" Hermione asked, examining the Fuda closely.

"Later on." Rin replied. "You'll have to get the basics of Shikigami down first.

"But Iris," she continued, "did you get anything interesting for your birthday?"

"Hermione got me a book about the rise and fall of swordfighting in Magical Britain." Iris smiled over at Rin. "It turns out that learning to fence was very popular up until the beginning of the twentieth century.

"Hermione's parents gave me a book on mundane fencing and her father's old epee.

"The twins sent me some pranking items. Though I doubt I'll have much use for them." She sighed. "They also sent me a gigantic bra with a note that I should use it to catch the Snitch during the first game this year.

"Everyone else has completely forgotten about that." She complained. "But the twins just won't let me live it down that I caught my first Snitch down the front of my robes.

"Hagrid sent me some of Otr's shed scales, as well as a note that he has other gifts for me waiting at the castle.

"And Shirou Conjured up a sword for me to have as a placeholder." She nodded towards the only male in the compartment. "He said he got some great ideas from seeing Goblin weapons at Gringotts, and he's going to make something awesome for me using the forge at the school."

"An idea he got from looking at Goblin weapons?" Rin asked. "What does that mean?"

An authoritative knock on their cabin door interrupted their conversation, and everyone fell silent.

"Yes?" Iris called out.

The door slid open, and a familiar face glanced around the cabin.

"Potter." Draco said, smiling slightly. "Tohsaka. Emiya. Granger." He nodded to each of them, though his tone soured for the last two names. "And, I apologize, I don't believe we've met." He nodded towards Sakura.

"Sakura Tohsaka." She replied politely.

"Wonderful." Draco said. "I look forward to an exciting year with you all."

He closed the door softly and walked away.

The cabin was silent for a long moment, the quiet broken eventually by a single word from Iris.

"What?" She said.

-o-o-o-o-

Iris changed clothes slowly, considering the conversation that she needed to have, and how it was going to go.

The other girls had already changed into their school robes, and Shirou was waiting out in the hallway for them to finish up.

"Sorry, you two." She said hesitantly to Hermione and Sakura. "Can I talk to Rin alone for a moment?"

Hermione glanced back and forth between her and Rin once before nodding and heading towards the cabin door.

Sakura didn't even do that, merely nodding at the request and making her way towards the door.

When they left, Rin turned and smiled awkwardly at her.

"What did you need?" She asked.

"I..." Iris took a deep breath. "I wanted to say: I'm sorry."

"For what?" Rin asked slowly.

Iris glanced up at her friend.

"Shirou told me that you know."

"'Know' what?"

"You know about me." Iris clarified.

Rin just looked even more confused.

"I know what about you?" She asked.

Iris took another calming breath and pushed on.

"About my... home life."

Rin froze.

"So," Iris continued, "I wanted to say that I'm sorry."

"What?" Rin sputtered. "But I'm the one that should apologize. I stuck my nose into your family situation, and even tried to force you to talk to me about it."

"No." Iris shook her head, her eyes glued to the floor. "That was fine. I just didn't want you to know about it. And now that you do... I'm sorry."

"Stop apologizing!" Rin said sharply. "You didn't do anything wrong! You didn't do anything you need to apologize for!"

Iris smiled sadly, her gaze still locked on the floor.

"I can understand that you're angry." Iris continued. "And, I just wanted you to know that you don't have to pretend to be my friend just to be around everyone else. If you want to hang out with everyone, I can leave when you're around. I can see Hermione in the common room, and Hufflepuff is probably paired with Gryffindor for Herbology, so I can see Shirou then without getting in your way."

"Iris!" Rin cut her off as her voice began to fade. "What are you talking about? Why would you think that I don't want to be your friend?"

Iris took a deep breath and let it out again. She scrunched up her face to hold back tears as she carried on.

"You know about me now, so I can understand if you don't want to be near someone like me."

"Iris!" Rin said angrily, causing Iris to flinch. "I..." She trailed off, her mouth hanging open.

She glared to the side for a moment, then turned a fierce look towards Iris.

"Iris." She started again, stepping forwards and placing her hands onto Iris's shoulders, refusing to let the girl escape. "I don't..."

She grimaced then started again.

"I like you." She blurted out. "I really like you. I like you for you.

"Your family situation doesn't make you any less of the brash, clever, caring, genius of a girl that I enjoyed spending time with all of last year.

"Me knowing that you have a bad family situation doesn't make me hate you, it makes me want to hunt down the people that hurt you and make them suffer like no one has ever suffered before."

Iris shook her head, unable to stop the tears now.

"But I-"

Rin cut off whatever she was going to say by pulling the girl in for a hug.

"I-"

Rin shushed her before she could say anything more.

"We are friends, Iris." She said comfortingly. "You don't ever have to worry about that."

She held Iris for another minute before Iris slowly closed her own arms around Rin in response.

Another minute passed as Rin simply let Iris cry into her shoulder.

"Now." She said after a moment. "We have a feast to get to in a bit. So we should probably let Shirou change clothes."

"He probably changed in the hallway." Iris mumbled into Rin's shoulder. She felt the girl stiffen against her cheek.

"What?"

"It's what he did last year." Iris mentioned.

"He's so weird." Rin sighed, eliciting a short giggle from Iris.

She slowly pushed Iris back, leaving her hands on the girl's shoulders.

"Let's get you cleaned up." She said, pulling out her wand. "Malfoy was mysteriously not a jerk earlier, but that's no reason to give him ammunition by showing up at the Welcome Feast with puffy eyes."

Iris glanced down at the wand, then back up to Rin's face and grunted in agreement.

It was all she could manage to say.