A/N: Yes! I'm honestly surprised that I managed to get anything up this month, let alone this much. I'm out on vacation, on the other side of the country, with family. But I have time. Unfortunately, my writing's been pretty scattered, so while pieces of every new chapter are written, this is the first one that I've actually managed to complete the whole of, though RPR got put up first just 'cause I don't clear that with anyone. And the others, too. But for now, enjoy!

Title: Fox Wish

Author: liketolaugh

Beta: The Quaag

Rating: T

Pairings: Ciel/Elizabeth, later Albus/Gellert

Genre: Adventure/Friendship

Warnings: Some spoilers for Black Butler manga and seventh Harry Potter book... eventually.

Summary: Ciel Phantomhive is a wizard. He's known this all his life; after all, his mother and father had both been purebloods, dividing their attention betwen the Wizarding and Muggle worlds. Now, Ciel is eleven, and it's time for him to attend Hogwarts, accompanied by a boy his age called Albus Dumbledore.

Disclaimer: Sadly, Black Butler is not mine.

"Yes, this is no simple murder." – Ciel Phantomhive

October had melted into November, which meant that Ciel had been at Hogwarts for more than two months. The weather was growing chilly, but that didn't keep Ciel from being kept busy. He and Albus worked frequently on their newest project, the gathering of any and all relevant rules.

In fact, they had both gotten up early that day to do just that.

They met up in the Entrance Hall, as usual. Albus was smiling in anticipation, but Ciel, to Albus' utter lack of surprise, was scowling. He was also shivering.

It took almost no time for Albus to notice Ciel's obvious discomfort, and he frowned at the smaller boy. "How can you be cold? You're wearing your cloak."

Ciel scowled at him, a slight flush of embarrassment spreading across his cheeks. He hated the winter months for just this reason. They were too cold. And it wasn't even December yet! "Shut up," he grumbled, sulking slightly.

Albus gave him a considering look, still frowning. "Do you have another winter cloak?" he asked abruptly.

Ciel gave him a suspicious look and nodded slowly. "Yes… Sebastian insisted."

Albus paused for a moment, but then pushed past the odd comment. "You ought to go get it. And maybe order another one."

Now Ciel's cheeks burned. Why did he have to get cold so easily? He was not going to wear three cloaks, dammit! He'd rather be cold! "No," he snapped, crossing his arms irritably.

Albus just kept frowning. "You won't be able to focus if you're cold," he pointed out logically. Ciel glared at him. "We'll get more done if you're not frozen."

Ciel held the glare for a moment longer before letting out a huff and spinning around to slink back to the dungeons. Albus smiled behind him, satisfied, and then turned to push open the door to the Great Hall to wait for Ciel.

As he headed back down the stairs, Ciel frowned to himself, considering. It had been a long time since anyone but Sebastian had been able to get him to do, well, anything he didn't want to do.

But Albus could.

He told the wall the password absentmindedly and went in. Albus could convince him to do things. He scooped up his winter cloak and fastened it, fingers far more deft than they had been the first time, and sighed as the weak Warming Charm got to work. His other cloak had one too. He grumbled incoherently to himself. As he'd stated, he got cold far too easily. It irritated him. Immensely.

But anyway… Albus could persuade him. Coerce him, even when he was against it. And Albus could calm him, or at least tolerate him, when he was in a bad mood. That, Ciel would admit, was a feat in and of itself, because when Ciel was in a bad mood, he was in a really bad mood.

All that, no matter how much he thought over it, only brought Ciel to one conclusion. He could hash and rehash the information all he liked, but the conclusion was the same.

Albus was his friend.

Ciel had a friend.

Ciel shook his head. No matter how many times he thought it, it didn't sound any less odd. Ciel just didn't make friends.

But he had one.

He reached the Entrance Hall, again, mentally cursed Albus for making him go back, ignored the fact that he was no longer shivering, and crossed over to the Great Hall.

He pushed that door open, too, and found, to his surprise, that Albus was still standing, stiff as a board, on the other side. He frowned. Something was wrong. "Albus?"

Ciel wrinkled his nose as a foul stench reached it and let the door swing shut. He looked over, following Albus' frozen, horror-struck face, and froze himself.

Lying on the ground was a corpse – stiff, still, and burnt beyond recognition. The stench, Ciel realized, his stomach giving a sickening lurch, was burnt flesh; he'd smelled it before, once, on an investigation with his father, just two years before.

He still gagged.

That jolted Albus out of his stupor, and he gagged, too, then leaned over and vomited. Ciel himself felt seconds away from following.

Behind them, the door creaked open for the third time, and a sharp voice snapped at them, "Mr. Dumbledore! Mr. Phantomhive! What are you doing, blocking the doorway? Move this inst- Oh, Merlin!"

Professor Lockhart (who was apparently not a morning person) pushed herself between them, blue eyes wide and fixed on the corpse. "Oh, Merlin," she whispered again. She was in shock for a moment longer before she snapped back to her senses and hissed in a hushed voice, "Boys, go get the headmaster. His office is on…" She faltered slightly, her voice getting just a little higher with each word, "on the third floor, behind a gargoyle, don't bother looking for a door, it's a wall. The password is Salazar. Go!"

Despite her shaken state, Lockhart managed to inject enough authority to get an immediate response from both boys, who whirled and rushed back out the door toward the stairs, stumbling slightly in their haste.

They ran all the way to the gargoyle, blowing past the few students who were out of their common rooms. By the time they reached it, Ciel was too out of breath to speak, so it was Albus who snapped out, "Salazar!"

The wall behind the gargoyle parted and it leapt aside. Albus grabbed Ciel by the elbow and dragged him through the gap and up the (moving) staircase.

"Professor Nigellus!" Albus gasped, pounding on the door. "Professor Nigellus!"

"Come in," the impatient voice called from behind the door. "What is it that's so urgent this early in the morning?"

Albus pushed open the Headmaster's door and didn't even glance around before he tried, "Professor, there, there's been…"

"There's been what?" Professor Nigellus asked impatiently.

"Another death," Ciel finished breathlessly, leaning over with his hands on his knees.

Professor Nigellus' annoyed gaze sharpened with intent. "What?"

Professor Nigellus took one look inside the doors and forbade Albus and Ciel from entering. Instead, they were sent to go inform each House.

In order to accomplish this, they were given all four (well, three – Ravenclaw didn't have a password) passwords. Ciel smirked to himself, making a mental note of each one. Nigellus eyed him suspiciously; he was a Slytherin too, after all, and he probably knew exactly what Ciel was thinking. Ciel didn't look away.

Instead, Ciel nodded to a still-pale Albus and headed for Ravenclaw Tower, while Albus went toward the Hufflepuff common room.

Ciel frowned to himself. People did not simply burn to death spontaneously. The drowning and fall could easily have been accidents (and something about those three deaths together nagged at him, some connection buried in his mind) There was definitely something wrong in the school. The question was, did he get involved? There was no indication, at least thus far, that the case was a part of the Underworld at all. In fact, it was unlikely. But if it wasn't Underworld activity… well, there were rules about this.

The Underworld was not permitted to interfere with the surface world. It was the most basic and fundamental of Underworld rules and the one that Ciel's family found themselves enforcing the most often, as people tended to ignore it in favor of gaining more wealth, more power. As a part of the Underworld himself, Ciel couldn't be seen breaking it, no matter the reason. Her Majesty simply wouldn't stand for it, and, more than likely, he'd find himself quite simply eliminated. But was the Wizarding World part of the surface world at all?

This bore thinking about.

But for now, he'd been given a task, and he briefly studied the wall and its single, eagle-shaped knocker, then reached out and knocked once.

The eagle's mouth opened and a musical voice asked, "Who controls the power of the one who dwells in shadow and fire?"

Ciel pondered the question for only a moment before scowling. Dammit, did everything in this castle know his secret?

"The holder of the contract," he replied. A cryptic answer for a cryptic question. Even if someone had come along and heard both parts, they wouldn't understand any part of it, unless, perhaps, they were familiar with demonic lore. Even then, they wouldn't draw the connection between him and 'the holder of the contract'. That was enough for him.

"Yes, I suppose that's true," it conceded, sounding almost amused.

A door in the wall swung open and Ciel stepped through, pausing to study the common room. The room was large and circular, with large windows all around. Both the floor and the domed ceiling were a deep midnight blue, the latter painted with silvery stars. Tables, chairs, and bookcases were scattered about the room, and a marble statue rested in an alcove opposite the door. Two more doors, presumably to the dorms, sat on either side of this statue, which Ciel guessed was Rowena Ravenclaw.

Only one person, Ciel noted, was in the common room, which was just as well. She had not yet noticed him, nose buried in a book.

He strode over to her and tapped her shoulder. She looked up, startled, and then frowned at him. He ignored the way her gaze flitted instantly to his eye patch and stayed there. Really, it wasn't that strange… To him…

"You're a Slytherin." It wasn't a question. "What are you doing here?"

"There's been another death," he replied, watching the frown wash from her face in exchange for a wide-eyed, frightened look, his only face carefully blank. "Someone burned to death in the Great Hall, either last night or this morning. The Headmaster's orders are to keep anyone from entering until he says otherwise."

"I understand," the girl replied faintly.

He nodded once and turned to leave.

After that, the castle was different. Professors could be found adding to the wards, strengthening them. Professor Vanken, in particular, was frequently seen casting spells, looking particularly bad-tempered. It was expected, after all, that as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, she would be at the front line of the defense to any threat to the castle. Students were moving in huddles, and Ravenclaws buried themselves in books even more than usual, looking for protective spells and enchantments. And worst of all, at least to Ciel, that hated tension hung in the air again.

Yes, Ciel was bad-tempered, too.

He still had yet to decide whether or not he could allow himself to interfere, but he was beginning, in the face of this, to just not care.

He and Albus still conducted their sessions with the rulebook, but he could see Albus beginning to hesitate, to wonder if it still mattered, and Ciel thought that it was only a matter of time before he quit altogether.

Tension was building in the castle again, and Ciel didn't like it.

Two weeks after the burning and three weeks into November, Albus looked up from his paper and met Ciel's eye.

"I don't think we should do this."

Ciel had seen it coming. Seen the hesitation, the worry, the confliction. It didn't stop his fingers from tightening their grip on his own papers. He tilted his head silently, regarding Albus with an unreadable blue eye. "Go on," he said quietly, tone as unreadable as his face.

Albus took a deep breath. "Professor Vanken is frustrating. She's mean, and petty, and I don't like her. But she's the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher." He looked down, to the list of every offense, minor or otherwise, that they'd found she had committed, and then closed his eyes against them. "Should we really be trying to get rid of her?"

For a moment, Ciel was silent.

Resolve failed. He knew that. It was a flaw of the human race. New information came up, new circumstances, and suddenly, what you were doing seems unimportant, and that made resolve fail. Most people did that.

Not Ciel. Ciel calculated his moves, because his life hadn't allowed him to do otherwise. He didn't have time for regret. One slip in the Underworld, one moment of uncertainty, and he'd be down.

Besides that… Sebastian. Sebastian would not tolerate anything like weakness, like remorse, and while Ciel had control over him, Sebastian was a demon at heart. He could find loopholes. And he had no loyalty.

Deals only took you so far.

But other humans didn't have those limitations, and he inclined his head toward Albus, as much in acknowledgement of this fact as in acquiescence. "Fine."

Albus nodded, gave the smallest smile of relief, and closed the book, tucking his parchment into his bag and turning to walk away.

Ciel went back to work.

He didn't have time to look back.

The next day, Ciel wrote to Queen Victoria and asked in the Wizarding World was considered a part of the surface world.

The suspense builds at last, and a lot of wasted effort. Poor Ciel. And Albus. Now, I know it seems like I'm putting Ciel over Albus, and I kind of am. But you have to remember that, at this point, Ciel has already undergone a lot of character development (read: forced maturing) and Albus... hasn't. The Albus we all know is over a century old. This one? Is eleven. Big difference. *shrug* Bearing that in mind, if you still think that Albus is out of character, let me know.

Also, there are fourteen reviews left, as of now, before the next Fox Kit goes up. It's of the Phantomhive home when Ciel's first letter arrives... which is a bit behind the times now. Maybe I should shorten the intervals... oh, well. Please review! Reward is the Fox Kit as soon as we hit 60!