The Holiday Spirit OF EVIL
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
"Students..." The pink haired girl at the front of the room spoke. "As you may have heard, Quirinus Quirrell has been... let go... due to... some problems with his... personality?
"Since Hogwarts doesn't have enough staff to cover all of the Defense classes, upper year students with good grades have been deputized to cover some classes. You can expect to see me two out of three classes, and one of the staff will cover the third."
She looked around at the silent room of Hufflepuffs and smiled.
"Many of you know me, since I'm also a Puff, but for those who don't, my name is Tonks. Just Tonks."
"What if we call you Nymphadora?" A student called out from the back row.
"Five points from Hufflepuff!" Tonks smirked at the shouts of outrage from the crowd.
"A girl's gotta have her priorities." She said. "And I will gladly take points from your grades, or even my own house if it means that no one uses that name.
"Now that the ground rules have been set, let's get going. Quirrell wasn't exactly the best teacher, so I'm gonna do my best to catch you all up to where you should be, and as the good Puffs you are, I expect you to put in your due diligence. A personal recommendation to the Auror Corps from Albus Dumbledore for me is riding on the success of you all."
She stared at the boy who had called out from the back, earning an audible gulp from the first year.
"If you do feel like slacking off in my class, do remember that I know where you live, and while the boys can't get into the girl's dorm, no such protections exist on the boys room, so don't expect that to save you from me."
Tonks let the silence sit in the room as she glanced around.
"Now open your books to page 50. If you study hard enough, you might just survive my wrath."
-o-o-o-o-
Iris groaned into the Gryffindor table.
Shirou shared her sentiment, but years of late nights and early mornings allowed him to keep his face out of his breakfast.
"You didn't seem too tired after the study session last night." Shirou commented as he loaded some healthier food onto Iris's plate.
"Quidditch practice." She replied into the table, followed by a long sigh. "Then Hermione wanted to quiz me on stuff we studied, to make sure I didn't forget anything during practice."
"Where is Hermione anyway?"
"Library... Getting reference materials... for me to study."
With a tortured moan, Iris pushed herself up into a sitting position and blinked down at her previously empty plate.
"Thank you." She mumbled as she began to mechanically spoon food into her mouth.
With a loud thump, Hermione deposited a small tower of books onto the table next to them and then sat herself down next to Iris.
With another thump, Rin set down another pile of books and sat down next to Shirou and smiled at him in a way that told him she wasn't happy at all with what she had just been doing.
"Thank you again for helping me find and carry all of this, Rin." Hermione said as an empty plate and silverware appeared on the table in front of her.
"It was no problem." Rin replied in a tone that conveyed sincerity, and Shirou interpreted to mean that Hermione would never find herself alone in the library with Rin ever again.
A traditional Japanese breakfast materialized in front of Rin along with a set of chopsticks.
While they began eating, Iris had stopped, and was eying the pile of books with some trepidation.
"I hope you don't expect me to read all of that before Mid-Year Exams." She said tiredly.
Hermione quickly covered her mouth with her hand and swallowed whatever she had been chewing.
"No, this is all of the introductory texts on Alchemy that we could find in the library." She glanced at the books dreamily. "It's so fascinating! It's like Potions, Charms, and Transfiguration rolled into one. The things it says you can do are amazing."
Unable to hold herself back, Hermione began to reach for a book, only to be smacked lightly on the arm by Iris.
"Breakfast first." Iris ordered and pointed down at Hermione's still full plate.
Hermione was able to distractedly eat for almost a whole minute before she compromised with herself and opened a book to the side of her plate so that she could eat and read at the same time.
Iris rolled her eyes, but didn't argue with the new setup.
Everyone quietly ate for another moment before Iris perked up.
"Oh yeah!" She said and began to pat down her robes. "I got something for us."
She pulled four small folded bunches of paper from her robe and, after checking them, passed them out.
"What are these?" Rin asked as she unfolded hers into three distinct sheets of paper, held together by a small clip at the top.
"Messenger Pages." Iris replied. "Students here use them to pass messages to each other in classes. I figured we could use them to chat with each other, even if we are in different dorms. Some of the upper years on the Quidditch team made them for me, and the Twins delivered them to me this morning.
"You see the name on the top of each page?" Everyone nodded. "That is the person that will receive the message when you write on the page. They Charmed the papers to wiggle and crinkle when you receive a message, so you'll know when someone is trying to reach you."
She selected the paper with the name "Shirou" at the top and began to write on it.
Shirou's paper with the name "Iris" at the top began to fill in with words. Then the paper farted.
Iris stopped writing and glared at Shirou's paper. Then she let out a long, exasperated sigh.
She collected the papers back up, rolled the stacks up into a cylinder, stood from her seat at the table, walked towards the head of the table, then proceeded to attack the Weasley Twins with the pranked Messenger Pages.
-o-o-o-o-
It was the last week of November when Shirou remembered a very important difference between how the British and the Japanese celebrated Christmas.
Back in Japan, Christmas was a romantic holiday to be celebrated between two people in a relationship, you only really bought presents for your romantic interest. In Britain, you would generally get presents for your close friends and family.
Which led him to another problem. He had no money. Not just very little money, but none at all. He had been forced to forge currency to use on his trip from Japan to Britain, and then even more when he was staying in London. He had no real money to his name.
Many of the people in Hufflepuff were making use of the Owl Order system which allowed you to order just about anything that was for sale in Diagon Alley and have it sent to you via owl. But that was just an additional cost which he still couldn't pay for.
Since his Projections apparently didn't disappear in this dimension, he had briefly considered giving each his friends something from Unlimited Blade Works, but quickly dismissed the idea. Giving someone a random normal sword didn't seem very appealing, and giving a Conceptual Weapon to a pre-teen sounded like a recipe for disaster, even with some of the more benign Noble Phantasms in his arsenal.
He did have the option of making something for each of them. With all of the historical information he received from the swords he added to his Reality Marble, he actually had a rather impressive understanding of metalworking and blacksmithing. It was really his only crafting skill to speak of, but it didn't do him much good, since the castle didn't come with a forge... that he knew of.
All of this had led him to his current situation, with dozens of large, misty eyes staring at him, and an equal number of large, pointy ears perked up attentively.
"No forges here, Mister Emiya Sir." The appointed speaker for the House Elves looked incredibly apologetic about the news it was delivering. "Just kitchen ovens and the like."
"I didn't mean that I was looking for a forge in the Kitchens." Shirou corrected the small creature. "I was just wondering if there was a forge on the castle premises... and hopefully some metal that I could use."
He heard rushed whispering as the elves in the background conversed with each other.
Eventually, they seemed to come to a conclusion, and one of them stepped forward.
"There is a room, we call it the Come and Go Room, or the Room of Requirement. It may have forges."
-o-o-o-o-
The portrait of The Fat Lady swung open to reveal the yawning face of Iris Potter, who quickly snapped her mouth shut when she noticed that the portrait had opened.
It was the first day of the Christmas Holidays, and she, like most of the rest of the castle, had probably been planning to sleep in.
"Hey Shirou." She gestured towards the Messenger Pages she had in one hand. "Your message seemed like you wanted to talk about something important. Is anything wrong?"
Shirou paused to consider the question. There was in fact something wrong, but it wasn't something he wanted to bring up in a public place. And it wasn't something he wanted to attempt to deal with in the castle at all.
"Do you want to come into the Gryffindor dorm?" Iris continued into his silence. "There's practically no one here."
"I want to talk about something important." Shirou said at last. "But we need to go somewhere private."
"Okay..." Iris drew out the word as she looked around and took in the complete lack of people around them. Then she stepped towards Shirou, but stopped when he shook his head.
"You're going to want your coat."
-o-o-o-o-
Shirou took a careful look at their surroundings.
Trees and hills blocked any view from the castle, but they weren't far enough into the Forbidden Forest for any of the rumored monsters to show up by surprise.
They were also relatively close to Hagrid's hut, so they had an escape avenue if they needed it.
He Reinforced his senses and took stock of everything around them to make sure that there were no threats and no eavesdroppers.
He used Structural Grasping on the area around him, overloading his mind with details about the ground and trees nearby. It was too much to fully parse, but it gave him a picture of the area in his mind, and he could tell that there weren't any listening spells attached to anything nearby.
Beside him, Iris let out a shuddering breath and watched it condense into mist before her.
"Iris." He said seriously, causing her to jump a little. "There are a few things I need to tell you for this conversation to go forward, but I need you to promise not to tell anyone about what I'm going to reveal to you."
Iris looked at him and then nodded resolutely.
"I have a... unique power." Shirou paused as he tried to decide how to explain magic from a different dimension. "It lets me understand the structure and composition of things I use it on... As well as its history."
Iris nodded and then raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to continue.
"When you were attacked by the troll, I used it on you to check the extent of your injuries."
Iris's mouth opened into a small circle as she processed his admission.
A moment later, her eyes widened and she stepped back, her arms coming down to wrap around her torso.
"I can explain." She stuttered out. "My uncle just gets mad really easily and he doesn't want anyone to know that I can do magic but I can't always control when I do it."
Shirou held up his hand to stop the torrent of words.
"We will address that later." He seethed.
Internally, he swore to himself that he would save Iris from her relatives, but there wasn't anything he could do about it right now, and there was an immediate concern to address.
"What?" Iris asked angrily as she took another step backwards. "Have you decided that you don't want to be friends with the freak anymore? You know all about me from that stupid trick you did and you know it's not worth it to be near me." She was shouting now and panting as she took more steps away.
"Your scar-" Shirou started to say.
"Planning to join the Malfoy club?" Iris taunted. "Start calling me scarhead? Tell the whole school about what my life has been like until now?"
"It has a fragment of Voldemort's soul in it." Shirou ground out between her angry shouting.
Iris froze.
"What?"
"Your scar," Shirou explained slowly, "has a fragment of Voldemort's soul bound to it."
Her hands flew up to her scar, pressing against it as she looked around wildly.
"The pain you've been feeling from it since the beginning of school has been due to it becoming more active." He caught her gaze with his own and held it, speaking slowly to prevent her from panicking more than she already was. "I've been searching through the library all semester for a means to remove it safely."
Iris stepped forward, hope and confusion in her eyes.
"If you'd mentioned it sooner, we could have gone to Madame Pomfrey." She said, accusation and uncertainty waging war in her voice.
"I tried to bring it up to her after the troll incident." Shirou explained. "But she couldn't find anything about your scar that stood out from other wounds received from curses."
"... But you've found a spell?" Iris asked after a long pause. "You found something to remove it?"
Shirou nodded.
"What do we need to do?" Iris continued. "Should we go to the teachers for help with casting it?"
"It has to do with another one of my... unique skills." Shirou stated. "This is the one that you definitely can't tell anyone about."
He held up his hand, and with a moment's effort, Projected Rule Breaker into existence.
Iris took a step back from the wicked looking dagger.
"This is Rule Breaker." Shirou said. "It has the power to unmake any and all magics. All bindings and magical contracts are nullified and wiped clean by this weapon." He pointed the blade of the weapon towards Iris's forehead. "I can use it to undo the spell that binds the soul fragment to you."
Iris stared at him for a moment.
"You're going to stab me with a dagger?" She asked incredulously. "That's your solution?"
"I'm only going to prick you with it." Shirou argued. "And it really will unbind the soul fragment from you."
Iris took a deep breath. Then another.
"Okay." She nodded. "I trust you, Shirou." She smiled weakly. "What do you need me to do?"
"Hold still." Shirou said as he crossed the distance between them.
"Trace On." He intoned.
He placed his hand on her shoulder and used Structural Grasping on her, searching for the specific bond he wished to break.
When he found the soul fragment, and the spells that held it in place, he locked the image of them into his mind.
He felt Iris flinch as the wicked dagger rose past her face to rest centimeters away from her scar.
He poured Prana into the Noble Phantasm and felt it respond to his will. Its abilities came alive, and the blade thrummed with the intent to sever the desired spells.
With a small twist of his wrist, he nicked Iris's scar with the tip of Rule Breaker.
Iris screamed as red light pooled around the cut.
Her cries were drowned out by a furious, disembodied roar, as black mist poured out of her scar and shaped itself into an ethereal and very disfigured skull that floated above her.
Iris dropped to her knees as the red light around her scar faded away.
She was no longer in pain, but that thought was far from her mind as she looked up into the empty eye sockets of the twisted skull that hovered overhead.
The horrific visage roared again and reared back as if to strike, but was interrupted by the blade of a solid red spear that cleaved through it.
The two halves of the skull burst apart into mist that began to coalesce again, only to be stabbed again by the spear.
The black mist scattered away from the spear point, and with a pitiful squeal of defiance, faded away into nothingness.
The clearing was silent for a moment as Shirou made use of the burst of adrenaline in his body and some Reinforcement magic to make sure that the noise hadn't drawn any observers.
"That..." Iris said weakly. "That was in my head." She looked around blankly, as if trying to determine if this was actually some kind of nightmare.
She gingerly touched a finger to her scar and pulled it back to examine the small drop of blood that had pooled from the tiny cut that Rule Breaker had left behind.
"Yes." Shirou said, drawing her attention to him. "But it's gone now."
Iris sat back on her heels and placed her hands onto the ground to steady herself.
"That was rather intense..."
"How are you feeling?" Shirou asked, placing his hand on her shoulder and Grasped her again to check for himself.
There was no sign of the soul fragment or any of the malignant spells that had bound it to Iris's scar.
The protections that had been placed upon her had closed around the gap that had been left open by the fragment and were now complete and more powerful than ever.
"I'm okay." Iris replied as she pushed herself to her feet.
She shook the snow from her hands and stretched up towards the sky.
"Actually, besides the fact that I feel like I just had 30 hours of Quidditch practice, I feel great."
"I feel light." She continued, spinning in place and grinning. "Like something has been weighing me down and I didn't even notice until it was gone.
"By the way, what's with the spear?"
Shirou looked up at the tip of the red spear that he was holding upright. It must have looked rather comical, a six-foot spear being held by his eleven year old body, but he could still wield it.
"This is Gáe Dearg." He said. "The Crimson Rose of Exorcism... It's another thing I'm going to have to ask you not to tell anyone about."
"You seem to have a lot of those." Iris smirked at him. "Secrets and magical weapons you can just pull out of nowhere."
"But, you are my friend." She glanced at the spear standing next to him. "And my bodyguard. So I don't mind keeping your secrets."
She rubbed her hands together to warm them up and began walking towards the castle.
"Come on." She called out. "After all the excitement this morning, I'm hungry enough to eat Hagrid's cooking."
"There is one more thing we should address." Shirou called out to stop her, absently dismissing his Projected weapon.
"What's that?" She turned and smiled at him.
"Your relatives."
The smile fell off her face.
"What is there to address?" She asked. "They have guardianship over me, and they wear a facade of a perfectly happy family. Every time I've complained about them, they always spin it around to make it look like I'm some kind of delinquent looking for attention.
"I can't get out. As much as I would like to." She clutched her left arm with her right and smiled wanly into the Forbidden Forest. "As much as it seems like they would be happy to be rid of me."
Shirou paused for a moment.
He didn't have a solid means to resolve the situation. Domestic abuse wasn't really something you could throw a sword at to solve. Well, not unless you involved murder, but that wasn't really an option.
He had a vague solution, but it wouldn't solve the long term problem, and it wasn't something he should mention when he was planning on going back to his home dimension as soon as possible.
"Let's go back." Iris whispered.
She turned and slowly began to make her way back to the castle.
Shirou glanced down at the hand he had used to Grasp her.
His mind still echoed with the years of sorrow and despair she had endured at the hands of her aunt, uncle, and cousin.
He wanted... No... He needed to save her.
"You can live with me over the summer." He called out to her.
She paused in her walk, but didn't turn back to him.
"I appreciate the offer. But, I'm pretty sure it's called kidnapping when you take someone away from their legal guardians. Even if they want to be taken away."
"Even so... I'm still offering."
Iris turned to look at him, and he could see tear tracks on her face.
"Seriously?" She asked, receiving a nod in response. "We're talking about a crime, Shirou. Breaking the law."
"Wouldn't be the first time." Shirou replied.
"First time you've kidnapped someone?"
Shirou briefly recalled the few days during high school when he had nearly forced Sakura to stay at his house, with Taiga to chaperone, when he had found out about Shinji hitting her.
"First time I've broken the law." He corrected.
Iris took a step towards him.
"This is a terrible idea." She said. She took another step. "But I'm in." Then she began crying in earnest.
"Bloody hell!" She cursed as she wiped her sleeves over her eyes. "It's not even mid-morning and this day has been seven levels of insane."
She sniffled and then rubbed furiously at her face before glaring at Shirou.
"If you have any other crazy things to bring up, it will have to wait. I want to eat, and then I'm going back to sleep."
She turned and continued to wipe at her eyes as she walked away.
"That was all I had." Shirou called out as he jogged to catch up.
"Good!" She snapped. "Because if we're going to kidnap me, we're going to need a plan, and we should come up with a good one before Hermione and Rin get back." She slowed down and glanced over at Shirou with bloodshot eyes. "I don't want them to know about... that."
Shirou could only nod as he slowed down beside her.
They walked along in silence until they reached the main entrance to the castle.
"Join me for breakfast?" Iris said abruptly.
"Sure."
"Good." She smiled and stepped into Hogwarts.
