A/N: Yay! More! Not much to say except yay, plot progression! *shrug*

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.


"I should have known." – Albus


Ciel was sitting at the Slytherin table.

He frowned at this. It had been some time since he had last sat at his own table, but… He glanced at Albus, who was looking down at his plate and fiddling with the food on it, looking disconsolate. Beside him, Elphias looked just as uncomfortable, glancing around every few seconds as if the killer was going to jump out at them and start murdering students.

He'd almost forgotten that, mature as he was for a first year, Albus was still eleven years old. So was he, granted, but he had no room for uncertainty, for mistakes, not like Albus did. And he'd forgotten that.

Not anymore.

At that moment, Eliza landed in front of him, and he looked at her interestedly. She shuffled closer, brandishing her leg and snapping her beak at him. He chuckled softly and untied the letter, offering her a piece of bacon as he broke the Royal Seal impatiently.

My dear boy,

Why ever would you ask a question such as that? Have you found something wrong in the Wizarding World? You should know, my boy, that you have my permission to ensure the safety of anywhere you like. However, if you insist, then no, the Wizarding World is not considered part of the surface world. It is not necessarily part of the Underworld, either, but do as you see fit, child.

It breaks my heart to know that I was unaware of trouble in my country, but I know that you will keep it safe, as your family always has.

I trust you, dear boy. Whatever it is that you have found, it is in your hands.

Sincerely, Queen Victoria

Ciel paused, and read the letter again. Then a tiny smile pulled at the corner of his mouth.

He was being allowed to solve this infernal mess that was being made of his school.

The next day, Ciel dove in. Despite the confines of the castle walls, the process of working on an investigation was much the same. He started, as he always did, with the rumors.

It was easy enough to don the mask of a fearful first year, wanting to know what was going on, what was happening. He flitted from older student to older student, his one visible eye wide with anxiety, and his hair brushed over his eye patch, making it easy to forget that he was anything but what he appeared. In this manner, he gathered rumors, theories, and the whispers in the masses, and he started with those and worked from there.

Then Ciel sat down, and worked through each individual rumor.

All of them contradicted each other. Useless.

The next step, of course, was to investigate directly. Given that this was quite obviously magic, though, he would need detection spells.

Ciel didn't know detection spells.


"Albus?" he started, making the auburn boy jump, almost dislodging his half-moon glasses. "Would you like to help me with something?"

Albus looked over at him, crystal eyes sparking with curiosity. "With what?" he asked, half-warily.

Ever since he had stopped helping convict Professor Vanken, Ciel had been acting oddly. Things had been stiff between them, and Ciel had been looking at him differently, that much was obvious. It was as if Albus had revealed a side of himself that Ciel hadn't thought about.

Albus didn't really understand it, what he had done to make Ciel act like this, but he was glad that Ciel was talking to him properly again.

Ciel sat down beside him – though they were no longer scouring the Rulebook, they did both still go to the library, albeit separately – and set a thick book between them. "Detection spells," he said simply.

Albus pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and leaned over, looking at the book a bit closer. Then he smiled. "Sounds interesting enough," he decided.

And work began on that instead.


December was dawning on them, and excitement swept the halls. It was beginning to snow, and winter cloaks sat on the shoulders of every student in the castle. And, best of all (at least to most of the students, especially the first years) the Christmas holidays would be beginning in just two weeks.

Ciel himself cursed that fact; he was obliged to return himself, seeing as he could only afford to be away for so long, but he had work to do here. But there were obligations.

Very few students signed up to stay, frightened as they were, but still, the tension had faded somewhat, lost to the anticipation of Christmas and snowball fights.

Then, in a Care of Magical Creatures fifth year class, a Hippogriff dug up a dead body.

And suddenly there was chaos again. Wards were being thrown up, students encouraged to return home, professors obliged to stay… It was the third death all over again, because students did not get buried on the grounds.

But for Ciel? It all clicked into place with that death, and he cursed his own stupidity for not making the connection sooner.

The drowning was a death of Water, the fall one of Air, the burning of Fire… and finally, the buried body a death of Earth. It was the elements.

The Muggle elements, thus far, being Water, Air, Fire, and Earth. But he was certain – very certain – that the Wizarding elements were soon to follow.

There was a reason that seven was the most powerful magical number.

The Muggles believed there to be only four elements, but wizards knew better. There were seven. In addition to the Muggle ones, the physical elements, Ciel knew that there were three more, often known as the three 'M's: Mind, Mystic, and Magic, the elements of the metaphysical.

Those were next.

The Mind was a power all its own, the power of the intellect, the imagination. Anything and everything could be conceived within its depths, and, from there, made real.

Muggles would consider Mystic and Magic to be one and the same, but Ciel knew different. The Mystic was the power of the divine, pure energy, more subtle than light and half as harsh. The Mystic was circular, and far too unreachable to change.

Magic, on the other hand, was, in a way, the Mystic of man. It was flexible and ever-changing, very much an earthly element, and it danced in a way that Mystic never did.

With that in mind, Ciel realized that the deaths could only get worse.

But now he had a place to start.

So Ciel started to research rituals – specifically, those involving the elements. He trawled through power rituals, fate rituals, creation rituals, and more, each one of them extremely powerful. He grimaced.

But Albus had drawn the connection, too, and it wasn't long after that that he realized what Ciel was doing. That was all it took for Albus to challenge him again.

Ciel glanced up, irritation flickering in his one blue eye. "What?" he growled, more annoyed with Albus than he had been since the year began.

"You shouldn't do this," Albus repeated, confidence growing, and his eyes locked onto Ciel's over half-moon glasses. Soul-seeing crystal challenged intense cerulean, both gazes unwavering. "You should leave it to the adults, Ciel. They know what they're doing." You don't.

So do I. Ciel bit back the words and replied instead, "And yet they aren't. They do nothing but set up wards as students die around us. Do you see any teachers researching elemental rituals?" He spread an arm to indicate the entire library, free of any teachers. "Even the teachers do their research in here, Albus, and yet there are none. Logically, it follows that if no one else will solve the problem, it is up to those who will."

"This is dangerous, Ciel, not a game!" hissed Albus, voice quiet, almost venomous. "You shouldn't interfere in things you don't understand, not yet!"

"And what," Ciel asked quietly, "if I do?" He looked up again, eyes blazing, glare intense. "What if I do understand, Albus? Understand that the adults are doing nothing, that their efforts to protect are for naught? What if I do understand that if no one will help us, we have to help ourselves? What if I do understand that, Albus?"

Albus stared at him furiously for a moment longer, and then, abruptly, relaxed, burning ice becoming a softer baby blue. "Then," he said quietly. "I suppose… that would be something different." Slowly, he relaxed, tense muscles unwinding, and let his gaze skitter across the page. "What have you found?"

Ciel stared at him for a moment, somewhat startled by the sudden change of heart, but then he smiled.

"Most of these rituals require the sacrifice to be at least a certain age…" he started, pointing out the different rituals. "But these, here, they don't specify, or call for children." In the back of his mind, he wondered why magic this Dark was here, but he didn't think much of it – it was coming in handy, after all.

But Albus? He lingered on it for a bit longer.


Ciel glanced up, once again at the Gryffindor table, as Eliza swooped down toward him, nipping his ear as if in reprimand. He frowned at her. "What, Eliza?"

She seemed to glare at him, and brandished the letter. He sighed and took it, breaking the seal. It was from Sebastian; he skimmed it quickly.

Oh, yes. The seventh. Hm, his birthday was in a week…

And Albus hadn't needed to know that, but the other boy was reading over his shoulder and found out anyway, much to Ciel's irritation. Ciel turned to look at Albus, whose eyes were widening slightly.

"Ciel!" he protested just a moment later. "You never said anything about your birthday being soon!"

Ciel groaned and covered his face. "There is a reason for that," he mumbled. Did not want to remember his birthday, did not want to remember his birthday, his tenth birthday, just two years ago, did not…

Albus, though, looked excited, beaming at Ciel, eyes twinkling happily. "Ciel, a birthday is a good thing," he protested, laughing. "It's a day that's just for you, and you can enjoy it with whoever you like, however you like. It's fun."

Ciel glowered at him. "I," he said slowly, carefully, and very, very pointedly, "do not want to remember my birthday. In fact, Albus, my birthday carries a very bad memory, which I would very much like to never remember again." Didn't want to remember fire and ashes, didn't want to recall the scent of burning flesh, the fusing of skin to skin, didn't want to remember the manor crumbling around him, threatening to collapse at any moment…

A moment or two of confusion, and Ciel turned to glare at his owl. "This is your fault," he accused.

She puffed up in pride, and then took off, swooping away again.

When he looked back to Albus, the boy looked almost crushed. "Ciel, a birthday is a good thing. If you have bad memories…" And Albus looked at him, crystal eyes behind half-moon lenses. "Make good ones."

It wasn't that simple.

But Ciel sighed, and he looked down, and he didn't object further.

Some things just weren't worth arguing.


Hm... Come on, now, not a lot left, then a Fox Kit. Which I think I'm looking forward to more than you... *sigh* Also, since it's been so long, I think I'll post a few, just to catch up with the plot. And while the plot is progressing, school is also breaking up soon, so Ciel is going to have a very frustrating few weeks. And then his birthday. *grin* Please review!