Matou Shinji and the Broken Chains

A Harry Potter / Fate Stay Night Story

Disclaimer: Though I wish it were otherwise, I do not own or in any way, shape or form hold a legal or moral claim to elements of either the Nasuverse, the Potterverse, or other works I may reference in the course of this story.

Summary: It is a time of seeming peace, as the British Ministry prepares to host the Quidditch World Cup - the greatest sporting event in the Wizarding World. But unbeknownst to them, a grand army of Giants and Werewolves is gathering in Eastern Europe, under the leadership of the vicious Fenrir Greyback, their sole objective - revenge. In the East, Matou Shinji and his comrades have arrived at the hidden bastion of Mahoutokoro to hone their skills, given that they are likely to become Champions of the two Tournaments this year – the Triwizard and the Potions. And if their struggle against the Acromantulae has shown them anything, it is that only through power can they gain victory - and only through victory can their chains be broken.


Chapter 7. On Stranger Tides

With a strip of cloth tied over his eyes and his wand held tightly in his hand, the boy from the east stretched his senses to their limit as he tried to figure out what was around him, or where to go, to no avail, as the sound of the wind blowing in from the sea and the lapping of waves on the shore drowned out anything meaningful he could glean.

'Funny how the world seemed so different in the sun…'

Even the prana he'd released was proving less than helpful, as it strained impatiently at him, as if it was unwilling to simply remain still and let him read the patterns of the world around him. The longer he waited, the more it threatened to go out of control, twisting, roiling, spinning, as he took a step forward—

Sploosh!

—only to lose his footing as the ground beneath him gave way, with the hapless boy plunging through the surface with a colossal splash.

Almost immediately, he was seized by the current, with his mouth opened wide in shock, bubbles of precious air streaming from his lips as he flailed about wildly for several seconds, trying to resist its pull, before he forcibly stilled himself.

'Calm. I have to stay calm.'

He reached up with his free hand, pulling the blindfold from his face so he could orient himself towards the surface above, the boundary layer tween water and air gleaming with the silver light of the moon, the dappled illumination it provided revealing a strange and alien world, where fish and other creatures darted among the corals below, staring up at the stranger in their midst.

With a powerful scissor kick, he shot upwards, drawing in a greedy lungful of air as he broke through to the world above.

'Ugh. That's five times now. And this isn't getting any easier…' the boy thought to himself as he treaded water, shaking his head.

"Need a hand?" a dreamy voice spoke from beside him, with Shinji looking up to see that Luna Lovegood, clad in a garment of pure white and glowing from within with yang prana, a tiaré flower tucked above her left ear, had walked out over the water to where he was and was reaching down to him.

He sighed, but reached up anyway, with the girl taking his hand and pulling him upwards, giving him the opening he needed to project prana from his feet and subtly change the consistency of the water beneath him so he could climb up onto the surface.

"Thanks," the boy said, a look of chagrin coming over his features as he shook his head. Before he could say anything else, however, he felt the cool night air someplace it definitely should not be, since he was wearing shorts – or at least, he had been before he fell in this time. 'Oh no. Don't tell me.' He looked down, only to go beet red as he saw his worst fears confirmed. '…and I even lost my pāreu. Damnit. This sounded like such a good idea earlier…'

"You don't have to be embarrassed," his companion replied quietly, her lips curving into a smile as her gaze roamed over his wet body. "It's nothing I haven't seen before."

"…that is entirely beside the point," Shinji muttered, looking away. His companion only laughed, a quiet sound with no ill intent in it, only a sense of amusement. "Sorry. I just…I'm just annoyed I keep failing. I even…well, you know."

"It's quite alright," the girl murmured, closing her eyes and stretching out her free hand, whispering something he couldn't quite make out. He could feel her prana all around him, in the air, in the water, on his skin, its touch delicate, ebbing and flowing like the tide. "Things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end, if not always in the way we expect."

At her words, light bloomed from under the water, and slowly, something rose from the depths, coming closer, closer, closer still, until it broke the surface and Shinji could see that it was his lost pāreu.

"…that wasn't the Summoning Charm," Shinji spoke quietly, raising an eyebrow as garment rose into the air and was claimed by Luna's waiting hand.

"Not exactly, no," the girl agreed, but said no more as she let go of his hand.

Suddenly bereft of the stabilizing effect of his companion's prana, the boy almost toppled facefirst into the water once more, barely managing to lurch upright by releasing more of his own prana – and even then, he still found himself wobbling back and forth.

"Hold still, if you can," Luna suggested in her dreamy tones, with the girl kneeling before him with the pāreu in hand as she hummed a gentle melody.

"Luna, what are…?" he asked uneasily, his words trailing off in a gasp as her fingers found him. He fought to keep his balance – and his composure – as her hands moving over his body, touching him rather intimately as she began to wrap the cloth she carried about his waist and legs. "I can…"

As his mind wandered, he nearly stumbled, with Luna pressing a hand to his stomach to steady him.

"Concentrate," the girl whispered, as her fingers continued her delicate work, sending shivers of pleasure across his skin wherever they brushed. "Not on me, not on what I'm doing, but on the ebb and flow of the water around you." To the boy's credit, he tried, but the sensation of her breath, hot on his cold skin, made him tremble, his eyes closing as he fought to stay standing, lost in the pleasure. Perhaps wisely, the girl said no more, focusing on the folding and tying, until at last she stood, tucking in the ends of the cloth to reveal a perfectly serviceable set of shorts.

Pāreu, after all, were simply rectangles of cloth that formed the basis of the traditional garments worn by Tahitian men, women, and children – cotton sheets that could be worn as a skirt, a dress, or even as a shirt or loincloth, with the last not dissimilar to fundoshi – traditional Japanese undergarments. Which meant that though he'd come to her with nothing but the clothes on his back, she'd been able to lend him something more appropriate – even if he thought she took a bit too much amusement out of tying the garment for him each morning and watching his reactions – much as she was doing now.

The boy gasped as Luna's fingers trailed from his waist up his stomach, until her hand came to rest on his chest, and she leaned against him, the exotic sensation of her prana mingling with his to keep them both stable on the surface of the water.

"Your first element was earth," she murmured quietly, reaching out to take his hand, with the boy doing so with a sigh. "Deliberate, patient, stable."

"It waits," Shinji recalled, cradling Luna against him with his free hand, "waits as long as it needs to for an opportunity, storing up power without end. It is the element of defense and focus, of solidity."

"Water is different," Luna whispered, rubbing her cheek against his bare chest as she spoke. "It has a pattern that must be matched, an ebb and flow, a rising and falling, a rhythm like life itself. Close your eyes and listen."

As he did so, as he felt the world falling away, except for the girl in his arms, with her warmth and vitality the only real thing that seemed to exist. He could feel her heart beating in time with his, their breathing matched, the way she shifted as the world shifted under them, and the way he moved with her, unconsciously, without even realizing it.

Her yang blended with his yin in an ever-shifting rhythm, like the swells and waves of the sea moving towards the shore, crashing on the sand and returning to the source, with variation upon variation playing out in beautiful fractal patterns that brought order out of chaos and chaos out of order.

The power of the spirit blended with the power of flesh, allowing him to see, to feel, to understand.

Water.

It wasn't just below him – it was within him, within Luna, and in the air all around him.

It moved within him, flowed within him with every beat of his heart, at every level of his composition, bridging the inside and out with every breath he took.

His consciousness expanded, little by little, until he could feel everything around him, seeing the way the patterns of life changed moment by moment, like nothing he had experienced outside fusion.

'Of course…'

Of course prana infused in water would not be still, because water itself was not still, because the prana he sent into the world carried part of his own pattern with it, and that was never truly still. Life itself had a hum, a vibration to it. Earth accepted these patterns, muted them in a sense, but water was the element of flows and combinations, ever changing in its way.

'It's…like a dance…'

What was within shaped that which was without, what was without that which was within, in a never-ending cycle. It wasn't about stillness at all, or deliberation, but equilibrium, balance, being in the moment.

"Mm. You see," Luna murmured, with Shinji opening his eyes and leaning down to kiss the girl in his arms, who moaned in quiet pleasure at his touch.

"I see," he whispered, when their lips finally parted, her silver eyes looking into his grey with an expression of faint surprise. "Thank you."

Perhaps he was the first to move after that. Perhaps she was.

All they knew was slowly, their motions built, and soon they moved together in a dance as old as time, with the music of the wind and waves providing all the accompaniment they needed as they made their way across the shimmering surface of the ocean, gleaming in the pale moonlight.


It was not often that Xenophilius Lovegood could be surprised, given the strange things he believed in, the conspiracies he investigated, and more. Yet when he emerged from the rainforest after a few days exploring a sunken cave decorated with shells and corals, even the publisher of the Quibbler was taken aback by the presence of an unexpected visitor sitting with his daughter by the fire.

"I'm beginning to think you have a habit of showing up at the most unexpected places, Mister Matou," the man said as he strode into the clearing where Luna had pitched her tent. "I rather you thought you would be at Mahoutokoro by now. Where have you come from?"

"Oh, from going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it," Luna quipped, with Xenophilius' lips quirking as he recognized the book from which she was quoting. "He came to me on the beach some nights ago, stepping from the air."

Luna's kitsune familiar Pandora, who had been sniffing intently at a cookpot full of sliced up breadfruit, yipped in agreement.

"What she said," Shinji agreed, as it was accurate enough. "I…after some things that happened, I needed some time away. To think."

"…and to see my Luna," the man noted perceptively, given how close the two were sitting. He wasn't too worried, as he knew his daughter could take care of herself, and above all, he just wanted her to be happy. "Bit odd, how you knew to find your way out here."

This was, after all, not Tahiti Nui, the glamorous Tahiti of tourist brochures, but Tahiti Iti, the remote, untamed portion of the island accessible only to those travelling by boat or on foot, a wild land overflowing with clear streams, waterfalls, and hidden coves aplenty, along with ancient grottos, long-abandoned temples, and caves carved of wind and rain.

"How was it you put it?" Luna asked, looking at her companion with dreamy eyes. "You didn't know where you would end up, just that the path you took would take you to me?"

"…that's about right, yes," Shinji admitted, with Xenophilius raising an eyebrow at this. The two seemed closer than he remembered, but then again, it had been a while…

"Will you be staying long?" the man inquired after a few moments, choosing not to ask the other questions burning on his mind, even as he noticed that his daughter had a tiaré flower tucked behind her left ear – which in Polynesian tradition meant that the wearer was taken.

'As long as she's happy, so am I…'

"About a week," the boy said quietly. That was how long his leave was for, after all, and as much as he enjoyed this place, enjoyed simply being with Luna in this island paradise, he didn't think Matsuo-san would be generous enough to give him another week away from his duties. "I do need to get back to Mahoutokoro for training soon enough."

"Ah, that's right," Xenophilius murmured, recalling an article in the Daily Prophet about the boy from the east having been chosen as Hogwarts' Champion for the Wizarding Schools Potions competition. "I presume you've been learning a few things while you're at Mahoutokoro? Couldn't hurt your chances."

"Maybe," Shinji grunted. "I'm trying to, anyway. There's just…a lot to take in."

"See that you do," the man directed, shaking his head with a crooked smile. "From what the Prophet says, not that I trust that old rag, they're one of the three favorites to win the Wizarding Schools Potions Competition, I hear."

"Well, that's true," Shinji admitted. "Koldovstoretz is usually favored when the isle has drifted near a pole. Uagadou when it is close to the equator. Mahoutokoro when it's anywhere else."

So he'd heard from Sajyou-san, at least.

"I think you'll do well," Luna murmured, leaning into her lover beside the fire. "As long as you give it your best."

"…that much I will certainly do," Shinji said solemnly, glancing at the girl beside him and then over to her father. "No matter what else happens."

Having come this far and sacrificed so much, there was no point to not giving his all, and frankly, he had promised his patron, the Director of Atlas, that he would.

After all, her wish was his command.

"Frankly, I think you'd be better off promising to come back alive!" Xenophilius chided. "You're young for a competitor, and from everything I hear, the competition is a very dangerous affair. Not unlike the Tri-Wizard Tournament." The man turned the full force of his eerie gaze on the boy, as if he could see what Shinji had done over the last few days, but had simply chosen not to mention it. "I don't want to see my daughter cry."

A strange mood fell over the clearing as Shinji met the man's gaze evenly, before nodding slightly.

"And I don't want to make her sad," he murmured, turning to the girl by his side.

That, apparently was the right answer, as the tension eased.

"This old man is relieved to hear it," Xenophilius said dryly, his lips quirking into an odd smile as he regarded the two sitting by the fire. "Well, now that that's out of the way, why don't we talk about what we want to do today over breakfast?"

Over a goodly portion of breadfruit, mango, and coconut, the trio worked out a routine for the next week. By day, they would enjoy the sights of Tahiti together, making their way through the rainforest and the winding trails along mighty bluffs that overlooked the pounding surf, exploring the caves and such. By night, they would make camp, with Xenophilius pitching his own tent out of sight and sound of the others, leaving his daughter and her lover to their own devices, only to meet them again for breakfast.

"The solitude helps me write," the man said. "Have a special edition of the Quibbler to put out when we get back to Britain, after all. Speaking of which, I'm thinking about having my daughter act as a special correspondent for the Quibbler, so she can go and see one of the Tournaments coming up this year."

"I see," Shinji replied, raising an eyebrow. "Instead of just being at Hogwarts, you mean?"

While fourth years and above would be heading to Durmstrang for the Tri-Wizard Tournament, those who were younger – third years and below – would be left behind at Hogwarts, with only the paper letting them know what transpired.

"My Luna has always liked to travel," Xenophilius stated, shrugging. "And I just want to see her happy, like any father would. She's the only one I have left in the world, after all."

"You care about her a great deal," the boy noted, thinking it must be nice to have a father who actually gave a damn about his child's happiness.

"And I can see you do too," the man said gently, shaking his head. "I have to say, it's a bit odd. I was originally thinking that after our month in Brazil, we would come back to see the World Cup, since that only happens once every four years, but Luna wanted to see Tahiti instead."

"Huh…the Quidditch World Cup, you mean?" Shinji inquired, with Luna nodding. "What's it like?"

"A spectacle," Xenophilius recalled. "It is one of the only occasions in our world where wizards of all nations come together, celebrating the skill and passion of our Quidditch teams. Tens – hundreds of thousands – so many you wonder how they can all exist at once. For it to happen in Britain is a once in a lifetime thing, but…" The man shook his head. "When you have children of your own, you'll understand."

"Mm. One day, I'm sure," Shinji replied.

"As long as it's not too soon," the man said, but left it at that.

And so they packed up their tents, doused their fire, and set off through the rainforest, with Shinji thinking that it seemed not unlike Shiretoko, where he and Luna had gone last year as part of their quest to find familiars for themselves.

'A trip that ended better than I could have imagined, even if the start was…more than a bit rocky.'

Mostly because he hadn't realized that he'd needed to acquire proper camping supplies, having grown up in the city. He supposed he should have to give the Twins a bit of advice if they were setting out on an expedition, though it occurred to him that he had no idea where they would be going. He knew they were studying up on youkai communities, which was more than he had done, but he was sure he could think of something.

By day, they explored caves, looked out at the sea, even traded bits of lore, with Luna recounting the legend of how Tahiti had once been part of the sacred isle of Havai'I, until a great eel possessed by the spirit of a vengeful maiden had torn loose the foundations of the land, so that the isle floated away like a great fish, until it came to rest where it now lay.

"Not quite the same as the legend of how the Islands of Japan came to be," Shinji remarked, speaking of how in myth the isles had been made by the gods Izanagi and Izanami, who stood on the bridge between heaven and earth, churning the sea with Ame-no-nuboko, the heavenly jeweled spear.

As for Xenophilius, he mentioned that perhaps the most mysterious of the wizarding schools – Nu'utea Kohu – was located somewhere around the islands – not that he or anyone else knew much about it aside from its name, which apparently translated to something like "the ever-distant fleet of canoes passing in the distant fog."

Aside from talk of myths, legends, and other matters, they even made a game of sorts of seeing who could find the most hidden caves, formations, and more, with Shinji's awareness of the earth matched against Luna's awareness of the flows of air and Xenophilius' uncanny eyes.

Near dusk, though, they would set up their camps, with Xenophilius always raising his tent some distance from that of the two teens, just out of sight and sound, and after a quick dinner, Luna and Shinji would be left to their own devices.

Often, the two would use their water-sensing abilities to seek out one of the isle's many secluded hot springs, where they would strip down and wash away the worries and cares of the day, feeling refreshed by embrace of the warm waters, and by one another's touch as they helped each other scrub down – or just explored each other's forms slowly and thoroughly.

They'd practice water-walking together after that, surface of the hot spring, with the two feeling the water shift under them as they shifted, using bits of prana to playfully nudge one another, so that they each had to work to stay balanced, with splashes of water, the whisper of the wind, and liquid laughter all intermingled until at last their glistening bodies stood together, entwined in an ageless dance they continued when they returned to their tent, whiling away the evening hours as lovers often would, enjoying the brief moments they had together.


On their last night, the two made their way along a meandering stream hand in hand, picking their way down a hidden trail that led them to a secluded cove. This time, they playfully sparred under the moonlight, with motes of foxfire hanging in the air around them like a field of stars, a fox-eared (and tailed) Luna Lovegood barely skimming the surface of the sea as tendrils of Shinji's prana tried to catch her, teasingly allowing them to come close, before slipping away just as they nearly touched her.

Perhaps it was better to say that they played, with the ocean as their playground, choreographing a fight that wasn't a fight, a dance that wasn't a dance, as the waters rose and fell around them and wind whispered in their ears.

And then a new sound entered the mix – the eerie vocalizations of a voice that wasn't their own, a voice that certainly wasn't human. The two paused in their revels, turning as one to see a large shadow approaching them from beneath the sea, a dark dorsal fin becoming visible as it surfaced.

'…a killer whale?' Shinji wondered, as his suspicions were confirmed by a column of mist, with what was revealed to be a lone orca circling them. 'But what is it doing here?'

The waters were a bit warm for such a whale, were they not?

And then the whale changed, its form shifting in the moonlight into that of an older youth with tanned skin, a male islander dressed in a pāreu tied into a skirt, covered by a cloak of red and black feathers. He held a hooked shark-toothed club in his hands – almost like a scepter, and stood on the surface of the water easily as he regarded the two in frank curiosity, his gaze taking in Shinji's Japanese features – and Luna's fox-eared form.

"Ia Orana," the youth said simply, speaking the ancient words of greeting.

"la Orana," Luna replied quietly, meeting the other's inquiring expression.

"Mahoutokoro?" the other asked, only for Shinji to shake his head.

"Hogwarts," the Japanese boy corrected, with the new arrival's eyebrows shooting skywards in an expression of faint surprise.

"Ah, Kahuna of the West," the youth spoke solemnly, his eyes dark in the moonlight. "I had wondered why the stars seemed strange this night. I had not expected it to be the work of another Kahuna, much less one who wields the fire of a tupuqa."

"…you are of Nu'utea Kohu," Luna observed. "The Pacific Islands School."

"Indeed. I am Kaʻaukai Kapule, Kahuna Kapua of Nu'utea Kohu," the youth confirmed, indicating his cloak. "My canoe is Hokule'a. I am of Hawaiki, but my path is that of the wanderer."

In Hawaiian myth, the Kapua were seen as tricksters and magicians with the power to appearing in both human and animal – or plant – form. They were not unlike animagi, save that where an animagus form was an aspect of a wizard represented by an animal, a Kapua had a form born out of one's connection with the world, blending the self and the other, influenced by the elements one partook of.

To be Kahuna Kapua was to demonstrate one's mastery of the shamanic arts, bringing together the inner and the outer world, with the self as a medium, understanding that power came not from personality or individuality but from the source of power of all life.

"I am Luna Lovegood, a Witch of Hogwarts," the blonde girl replied, the golden eyes of her fusion form shining in the moonlight. "My house is Ravenclaw. I am of Britain, but my path is of the wanderer."

"…and I am Matou Shinji of Hogwarts and Mahoutokoro," the Japanese boy added. "I am of Ravenclaw, and my path is my own."

"Mm," the other said. "You have a come a long way, but the path is longer still, yes?"

"I suppose, yes."

"You will not be doing this every night, I think?" the Kahuna Kapua inquired. "For those of us who find our way by the stars, this…confuses."

One of the courses every student of Nu'utea Kohu took was navigation, after all, based on the ancient Polynesian practices passed from navigator to apprentice through the ages, and one of the main methods by which they determined where they were when the land was no longer in sight was by the stars.

Aside from that, there were factors like weather and season, what creatures were nearby, the quality of the ocean and the colors of the sky.

For those navigating fleet, the sight of different stars – unexpected ones – could be quite jarring indeed.

"Our apologies," Luna murmured. "We will be gone by the morrow."

"I see," the islander noted. "If that is so, then I will take word of this to those at Hokule'a. Fortune be upon you, Kapua of Britain."

"And to you, Kapua of Nu'utea Kohu."

With a nod, the youth shifted form once more, his feathered cloak and club disappearing as he sank into the waters, becoming a mighty orca. The great whale did a barrel roll and made a few clicks in parting, before diving and slipping away from sight altogether.

"That was unexpected," Shinji remarked. "A killer whale animagus. I never expected—"

"Not quite an animagus," Luna murmured, her eyes gleaming gold. "He looked more like you in fusion form, only different."

"I see," the boy noted, holding out his hand. "Shall we finish our dance upon the waves? Or shall we go back to our tent?"

"One, then another," Luna commented. "The name you called yourself – Matou. I thought you said it was lost to you."

"It was," Shinji agreed, smiling sadly as he looked into the distance. "As such, I can no longer be called a Matou, written with the characters for 'among the paulownia.' As my people did once though, I can choose my own name. And so I choose to use the name of Matou, written with characters meaning 'true to myself.'"

"So Matou Shinji is reborn," Luna murmured in a fey voice as she stepped close to the boy and snuggled up to him, her fox-eared face leaning up towards his as her fluffy tail wrapped about the bare skin of his back. "Finding a new beginning in the ruins of the past."

"Indeed," the boy whispered. "Here's to new beginnings," he said, as he leaned down and captured her lips with an aching, tender kiss as the stars gleamed overhead and the waves and wind played.


In the morning, they sat together on the shore, nestled against one another as they talked of the future to come.

"What will you do?" Luna asked quietly, as she leaned against his chest. "When you leave here, that is?"

"Well, I should probably talk to Tohsaka," Shinji sighed. "After all, I owe it to her, to tell her about her sister. What about you? Going to explore more of the island?"

"Mm. There's more of Tahiti yet to see."

"So there is," Matou Shinji acknowledged with a soft smile as his arms tightened around her waist, and leaned forward and kissed the top of Luna's head, breathing in the scent of her hair. "I love you."

"I love you too," the girl whispered, her thumb and fingers tracing small circles on his arms and hands. "It will be some time before we see each other next, won't it?"

"Mm. Yeah, it will…" the boy noted. "Though I'm sure we'll see each other again when the school year begins."

The girl did not reply immediately, with Shinji having the sense that she knew something he didn't.

"We will," she said at last. "And perhaps on the weekends we can spend time together at your house, using the cabinets. It would be a nice change of pace, and it is fun cooking breakfast with you."

"It is fun doing many things with you, Luna," the Matou boy replied wryly. He fell silent for a moment as he watched the waves roll over the sand, and idly, he brushed her hair aside and blew a stream of air over his lover's ear, so that she moaned and sighed.

She twisted in his arms and kissed him, and for a time, there were no more words between them, just the sound of two people enjoying each other's warmth under the open sky.

Sometime later, they lay side by side on a spare blanket she'd brought, looking deeply into each other's eyes as they held each other close, as if the other was the most precious thing in the world. By this time, however, a shimmering portal had appeared beside them, its surface mirror smooth as it waited patiently for a wayward traveler to return through it to the place he called home.

"You have to go," Luna murmured, her words almost a sigh.

"I suppose I do," Shinji said reluctantly. No dream lasted forever, after all, and he had duties to attend to as Champion.

"I'll miss you," they spoke together, smiling as they realized they'd both spoken at once.

"Be safe," Luna whispered.

"Be happy," Shinji replied, as their lips came together in a long, lingering kiss of farewell.

They stood as one, with Luna stepping back, the breeze causing her blonde hair to stream behind her like woven gold in the morning light, her pale skin and white dress almost glowing.

"I'll see you soon," the boy said.

"I'll hold you to it," Luna replied, with her smile and her radiant form being the last thing he saw before he stepped through the portal, returning to Mahoutokoro, ready to take on the world.


A/N: So Matou Shinji is reborn, but instead of 間桐, the kanji of his old family name, he uses 真当 instead, as a symbol of the path he has embarked on.