Victory to the Unreasonable
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Shirou sighed as he put down the letter and regarded the key that had come with it.
Across from him, Illya frowned.
"Is something wrong?" she asked. "We still have a few days before the end of the year. If you need something else, I'm sure my family can expedite whatever you need and get it to you before we have to get on the train."
Shirou stared at the key for another second and was filled with an overwhelming sympathy for Iris. If this was how the Einzberns acted all the time, no wonder she didn't like dealing with them.
"It's too much."
Illya smiled weakly. "It was marked confidential, so I don't know what it said. What's too much?"
"… Your family bought me a house."
"Oh? Did they get you a mansion or something? Maybe a castle? Grandfather is a fan of castles. "
"No. Nothing like that. It's a two story house in the suburbs of London. It's just…." He trailed off as he tried to explain the cause of his distress.
When he had been putting together fake citizenship and existence records with Kiritsugu, the man had noticed his lack of permanent address. When Shirou had admitted his situation of needing a place to stay over the summer and his difficulties with coordination such a thing from Hogwarts, Kiritsugu had said that the Einzberns would take care of it.
So, Shirou had expected them to put him in contact with the owner of a magical apartment building or something. What he hadn't expected was for them to BUY HIM A HOUSE!
"It's too much," he said weakly. "Your family has already arranged for me to get extra training over the summer, they didn't need to go this far for me."
"Yeah, but that was… trivial." Illya stared at him. "Really, really trivial. How could that possibly make up for all the things you've done for my family?"
Shirou winced. He'd gone through this argument a number of times with various members of the Einzberns.
He hadn't really done much of anything in the whole Philosopher's Stone incident. He'd stood around while Iris collected the stone. Stood around while Iris handed the stone over. Then thrown together a believable, mostly-functional fake of the Philosopher's Stone to help throw off suspicion.
Trivial.
"I can't accept this." He held the key out to Illya. "I'll just get an apartment again, like last year. There's no need for your family to go this far."
Illya sighed as she regarded his outstretched hand. "I didn't want to have to do this," she said. "I know your weakness, Shirou. I learned it from my papa. Please just take the house and don't force me to use it."
"I… have no idea what you're talking about." And he really didn't. This Kiritsugu hadn't taught him, and his world's Kiritsugu had only taught him a little bit. The man shouldn't even know his fighting style, let alone any of his weaknesses. He motioned for her to take the key from his hand. "It's too much. I can't accept it."
Illya stared at him for a second and then rolled her eyes.
With a sudden change in demeanor, she stepped up closer to him, brought her hands up as if praying, and stared up at him through her lashes.
"Shirou," she said plaintively. "My family put so much effort into finding you a house that would make you happy. They'd feel like they neglected your needs if they'd done anything less than this. I don't know what I'd tell them if you turn this gift down. They would all be so disappointed in themselves."
Shirou flinched back as Illya's words pierced right through his Japanese soul. Years of subliminal, societal obligation training became a chain around his arm.
Illya continued to stare up at him, looking absolutely miserable, and his hand began to waver.
"Fine," Shirou said through gritted teeth as he drew his hand back. "I will accept this gift. But I will be sure to pay your family back."
"You can't!" Illya took a step closer and her eyes began to water. "We're doing all this to pay you back. If you do something for us again, our debt to you will only increase, and I'm not sure how my family could possibly deal with that."
Shirou nearly choked as the situation turned so harshly against him.
Really, anyone that understood the Japanese obligation system but didn't hold themselves to it could easily twist such a situation to their advantage. Though, in this case, it was forcing him to receive something, rather than give something.
There was really only one route he could take now, though he'd be certain to get what he could out of it.
"Alright." His mouth tasted like blood. "But you can't, under any circumstances, teach Iris about this trick."
That girl already knew how to push his buttons. If she knew about this weakness, he'd be completely at her mercy.
-o-o-o-o-
Iris glanced around at the fully assembled student body, stuffed into the Great Hall.
It was the Leaving Feast, and the atmosphere was full of melancholy and expectation.
Trying to find something to occupy her time while waiting for the food to arrive, she looked towards the head of the table, where the upper-year students sat. The celebratory feeling from the school year ending became more and more subdued the older the students were. Eventually, the mood reached its nadir at the very head of the table where the students that were graduating this year sat sporting somber smiles. Each and every one of them took careful looks at everything around them. The tables, the decor, and the faces of their younger friends. They engraved it all into their minds as the last sights they would see of Hogwarts before they became working adults.
Iris sighed and forced herself to look away from the soon-to-be-graduates and instead focused her attention towards the younger students. They were, for the most part, more expectant than melancholy. To them, this wasn't the end of anything, just a brief break in having to write papers. It was simply a vacation, and they were all looking forward to seeing their relatives, sleeping in a room of their own, and maybe going to exotic places with their families.
Iris couldn't really empathize with any of that, but it was more comfortable to watch people bragging about imminent trips to the continent than looking at the tearful hugs and handshakes that were going on towards the head of the table.
It was also more comfortable than paying attention to the irritated looks she was getting from people who were far too invested in the imminent House Cup announcement.
As for why people were irritated... well, Iris and Hermione had stopped attending Potions classes for the final quarter. They lost points for every class they skipped. In addition, they lost points for skipping the detentions they received for skipping classes.
Unfortunately for the rest of Gryffindor, Iris and Hermione had decided that the loss of points was definitely worth it for the opportunity to get away from Snape and snub the awful professor at the same time. After all, all they got for working to get House Points was a chance to have red banners hanging up during the Leaving Feast.
It wasn't like they'd even had that much to lose by that point in the school year anyway.
When Dumbledore had been ousted from the castle, the students had practically rioted. Even when the initial furor had calmed down, things remained restless for a while afterwards. And, during this lawless period, all the Houses had bled points like crazy. Only McGonagall finally putting her foot down and taking serious action reminded people that there was still law in Hogwarts.
That period also saw the prank war between Iris and Wendy, which had definitely gone too far by the time the teachers actually managed to stop it. And, since a good number of Iris's Housemates had joined in on the pranking, Gryffindor in particular had lost significant points before they were stopped.
So, the House was already down. Iris and Hermione just delivered the finishing blow to their point pool by leaving Potions and not going back.
Not that they were completely out of the running. Something that Iris felt gave a lot of creedence towards Hufflepuff's ambivalence towards the House Cup.
Gryffindor had been at zero points entering finals week.
Zero points.
Despite rumors to the contrary, the hourglasses that counted House Points didn't actually go into the negatives. So, the last days of classes passed and Gryffindor was at rock bottom.
Then, after exams were over, they played a Quidditch match against Ravenclaw.
At this point, Iris's dynamic vision and reaction speed were so good that she felt like she was cheating whenever she played the game. She'd caught the Snitch while Gryffindor had been ten points up, and since they got House Points equivalent to their lead over the other team, that meant that they had earned 160 points during a period when it was rather hard to lose points.
Really, while Iris was responsible for most of their lost points, she was also responsible for all of the points they currently had. She would have appreciated if some of her classmates considered that and stopped sending mean looks her way.
Right above Gryffindor in the rankings, Ravenclaw had 203 points, putting them in third place.
Wendy McNeil was part of that House, and her part in the prank war had cost Ravenclaw a surprisingly staggering amount of points. Probably due to the fact that they weren't as good at getting away with it as Gryffindors tended to be. There were a lot of advantages to having the Twins in your House when such things were going on.
The rest of the House was barely able to pull themselves back up with all the points they collected from answering questions in classes. The Ravenclaws that kept themselves out of the fight, which was most of them, clearly blamed Wendy and her clique for their imminent loss and had shunned her and her friends to the foot of their table.
Slytherin had 267 points, thanks to Snape's obvious favoritism. When he caught them making trouble, he rarely even took points, and when they answered basic questions in his classes they often got more points than a Ravenclaw would get for answering something actually difficult.
Hufflepuff had lost the least points, and were thus in the lead with 280. They also cared the least and were mostly preoccupied with discussions of the next year. The primary topics were: what classes people would be taking; who Dumbledore would give the House Cup to; who the next Defense professor would be; whether or not Shirou would get away with shooting him; and elaborate stories describing the situation that would lead up to said professor getting himself shot.
Finally, the hour turned over and Dumbledore stood from his seat causing the whole hall to become silent.
"I'd like to say a few things before we all dig in." Dumbledore looked over the amassed students, as if waiting for someone to refuse him. "It has been quite a chaotic year, with many twists and turns. I hope you all managed to stay focused enough to learn what your teachers were trying to teach you before you forget it all over the summer." His smile turned slightly sad for a moment. "I must apologize for not being around through some of this year. Unfortunately, it took me some time to convince the Board of Governors that filling the hallways with chickens was a wise and sound decision that kept the students safe." He paused to let some very confused students mutter to each other.
"During my absence, there were a number of events that I was not witness to, but I feel merit reward, even long after the fact." Teachers rolled their eyes while students leaned forward in their seats.
Even Slytherin House students, who didn't feel like they had much of a chance of getting points from Dumbledore, sat forward in expectation. They were only 13 points behind Hufflepuff, so even a minor blessing from the Headmaster could catapult them to victory.
"Loyalty is a core tenant of Hogwarts," Dumbledore said. "And though Hufflepuff House is well known for the loyalty of its members, the trait is in no way restricted only to members of that House. For showing unyielding loyalty during an intense situation, Rin Tohsaka, Luna Lovegood, Illyasviel Emiya, Hermione Granger, Sakura Tohsaka, and Shirou Emiya are each granted fifty points."
Cheers and clapping erupted from the assembled students. Even if that hadn't actually overturned anything, and instead had only brought the competition closer. Every House had received points, and thus every House celebrated.
At the Ravenclaw table, Rin rolled her eyes while she clapped. Dumbledore was clearly referencing the night Lockhart had fled the castle, and had just returned the points that all of them had lost that night, with the exception of Hermione and Shirou, who hadn't lost any. It looked like he'd given points to all Houses, but, in reality, he'd only given points to Gryffindor and Hufflepuff.
"Due to our dear grounds-keeper being falsely accused, he had to spend a great deal of time away from the castle, leaving behind many tasks that he was uniquely qualified to handle. In such a situation, it was actually a student that stepped forward to fill those rather large shoes. Iris Potter is granted twenty-five points for superb care of magical creatures."
The Gryffindor students went crazy with cheers, while those at the other tables shivered, recalling the massive three-headed dog that Iris had called upon from the forest. Hagrid stood from his spot at the Head Table to applaud with claps that sounded like cannon shots.
"And finally…." The entire hall went quiet as Dumbledore began to speak again.
With the exception of Gryffindor, all the Houses were within 15 points of each other. In addition to this, he'd already given points to every House. Everyone felt that the next allotment of points was anyone's game.
"The rules are in place in this school and in society to protect people. Sometimes, the rules can come into conflict with one's conscience, leading one to indecision and turmoil…." Dumbledore trailed off as confused muttering broke out amongst the students. No one was certain of what event he was referencing. "For following her conscience, instead of the rules, and, in doing so, defending a friend in need, Hermione Granger is granted one hundred points."
The Great Hall exploded with noise. The Gryffindors were all shouting with the excitement of an unexpected, come-from-behind victory, while the other tables echoed with exclamations of shock or dismay.
Hermione's face was aglow with happiness as members of the Gryffindor table leapt from their seats to crowd around Iris, Hermione, and Sakura, patting them on the back and congratulating them.
This lasted for thirty seconds or so, before Hermione was suddenly contemplative, then slightly indignant. With such an expression on her face, she leaned towards Iris to whisper: "Did I just get a hundred points for setting a teacher on fire?"
Iris looked at the confused indignation on Hermione's face and smirked as she leaned in to reply. "He gave me points last year for Quirrell blowing himself up against me. Next year, we should do something terrible to Snape and see how many points we can get."
She felt a twinge of concern as Hermione looked thoughtful rather than scandalized, but food appeared on the table, so she ignored it.
