The Deadly Adventure Sounds More Appealing
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
"So, Hagrid." Iris tapped her biscuit against the table and grimaced at the solid sound it elicited. She dunked it back into the pint of tea on the table before her and prayed it might soften a bit. "What's with the giant, three-headed dog in the castle?"
Hagrid coughed mid-chew, and pieces of his own biscuit sprayed across the table with the sound of falling pebbles.
"How do you know 'bout Fluffy?" He asked, brushing some of the crumbs from his beard.
"Wait." Rin commanded, putting down her own pint of tea with a rather impressive amount of grace. Her own biscuit was surprisingly gone, without Shirou having seen her take a single bite. "You named that monster Fluffy?"
"Don't call 'im a monster." Hagrid said, sounding slightly insulted. "Fluffy's a big softy. Wouldn't hurt a fly."
"But..." Hermione stuttered out, looking a bit sick. "But what about all that blood?"
"Blood?" Hagrid asked. "What blood?"
"In that room in the third floor corridor."
"Oh." Hagrid glanced around surreptitiously. "Saw all that, did ya?"
All the students around the table nodded gravely.
"Well... Fluffy gets a bit scared when folks 'e don't know get too close to 'im. Gets a bit aggressive when 'e's afraid. Not like this wimpy mutt o'er here." He gestured towards Fang, his large dog that looked rather small in comparison to the topic of their conversation.
"Don't you all worry 'bout it though. Fluffy's got an important job, and he ain't gonna be leavin' that room for a bit."
"What could possibly be so important that you need to have it guarded by a three-headed dog in addition to all of the castle's protections?" Rin asked.
"Now that there is the secret business of Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel."
"Who?" Iris asked.
"Oh... Ahhh... Errrrr... I don't suppose you all could forget I said that?"
"Nicolas Flamel?" Rin whispered incredulously. "Nicolas Flamel? As in the Immortal Alchemist?"
Hagrid looked around in a panic.
"No!" He said. "No! Who's that? Immortal Alchemist? Never heard of 'im."
"What could he..." Rin trailed off, her eyes widening. "Is he hiding the Philosopher's Stone in our school?!"
Hagrid pushed himself up from the table, his heavy chair scraping backwards.
"Well..." He affected a very fake yawn. "It's gettin' mighty late, an' you all should probably be headin' back to the castle. Wouldn't wan' ya to be losin' points for bein' out too late."
"But Hagrid-" Iris started to argue.
"No 'buts', ya hear." He spoke over her as he shuffled the group out the door of his cottage.
He paused right before he closed the door.
"It was mighty nice of ya to come and visit." He said, then he closed the door.
Iris glanced up at the midday sun, then around at her fellow students.
"He... is really bad at keeping secrets." She said to no one in particular.
"That was almost hilariously easy." Rin added. "Though one thing that happened in there has definitely caught my curiosity."
"What's that?" Hermione asked. "You seem to be more informed about this Nicolas Flamel character than we are. Does it have to do with him?"
"No." Rin turned to face Shirou. "How did you manage to eat that biscuit?"
"You actually ate it?" Iris asked. "If he hadn't eaten one, I would have thought that they were simply biscuit-shaped rocks."
Shirou considered his response. It had actually been an exercise in Conceptual Reinforcement. The biscuit had contained an 'Edible' trait, no matter how small that trait had been, it had been there. Pouring Pranna into the food had enabled him to Reinforce that trait and to consume it without breaking any teeth.
It was also an approach to food preparation he had never considered before. When he had access to a kitchen, he would have to see about Reinforcing various flavors in certain dishes.
"Magic." He said eventually, earning himself a very unimpressed look from Rin.
"You'll have to teach me that spell." Iris said. "I like meeting up with Hagrid, but his cooking is the worst."
-o-o-o-o-
Hermione frantically took notes as Rin drew another diagram on the chalkboard of the empty classroom they were borrowing.
"So," Iris said as she rubbed her chin. "You're saying that there's a magic rock that can turn stuff into gold, as well as make people immortal? And for some reason, it's hidden in this school?"
Rin sighed at the oversimplification and pointed to a few specific sections of the board she had written on.
"It's a component of alchemical processes that can create gold, as well as the Elixir of Immortality." She clarified. "And yes, I can't honestly think of anything else associated with the name Nicolas Flamel that might be worth stealing. Especially with the size of the package you mentioned Hagrid retrieving from Gringotts over the summer."
"And Quirrell is trying to steal it?"
"Seems so." Rin shrugged.
"Where does that leave us?" Iris asked.
"What do you mean?" Rin replied.
"Well... should we do something about it?"
Rin stared at her.
"Do you... want to steal it or something?" Rin asked slowly.
Shirou and Hermione turned to stare at Iris Potter, potential thief in the making.
"No!" Iris argued. "We just know all this stuff now. Shouldn't we do something to make sure the stone is protected?"
"I think the staff have it well in hand." Rin said. "He was pushed back when he had their trust. Now it will be even harder for him to get through their protections." She picked up a nearby eraser. "As for where that leaves us..."
"Wait!" Hermione called out before frantically scribbling more notes.
She looked back and forth between her papers and the board a few times before sighing in relief.
"Okay."
Rin shook her head as she erased the board.
"As for where that leaves us..." She drew a large grid on the board. "Mid-year exams are less than two months away, and if we want to study together despite the different houses, we are going to have to schedule it very carefully.
"Especially you, Shirou." She pointed at him with the chalk. "I know I'll be fine, and Iris has Hermione to help her out, but if we leave you alone, you're likely to botch things up completely."
She flicked one of her pigtails over her shoulder.
"I guess I'll just have to spend some extra time on teaching you this year's material."
Iris rested her chin on the palm of her hand.
"Did you just call us stupid?" She asked.
"Not at all." Rin replied. "That designation would be reserved for people who run off to fight trolls, or want to try and steal priceless relics."
Iris and Rin glared at each other momentarily before they were distracted by Hermione jumping up from her chair.
"Got it!" She exclaimed, waving several sheets of paper in the air. "Based on all of our schedules, we can follow these study schedules to make sure we're ready for the Mid-Year Exams." She then began to pass out the different sheets.
"You managed to make these just now?" Rin asked as she received her sheet.
"Well..." Hermione blushed. "I've had my own study schedule planned out for awhile now. And I've had one planned out to help Iris. I only needed to come up with schedules for you and Shirou based on what I already had."
Iris sighed and leaned back in her chair and turned to Shirou.
"Should we be concerned that our friends seem to think we need excessive help with schoolwork?" She asked.
"Only if they expect us to actually keep up with their level of work." Shirou replied, hoping that this dimension's Rin wasn't as much of a slave driver that the Rin of his home dimension could be.
Iris took her schedule from Hermione and glanced over it.
"So... yes?" She turned the paper to show Shirou the absolutely brutal schedule that Hermione had composed for her.
He glanced at his own schedule when he received it. The spaces that had originally been blank in Hermione's design had been filled in by Rin with personal tutoring sessions.
He was going to be losing a lot of sleep if he wanted to continue doing his research on soul magic and dimensional travel.
"You know..." Iris glanced between her schedule and the rest of the students in the room. "Stealing that magic rock is looking pretty appealing right now."