Chapter 17: Back to Hogwarts
This story is written by Zialema (original in French). English translation by 3A07.
I have the author's permission.
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Ace raised his head from his book and removed his headphones when he heard the door open once again.
Malfoy was about to apostrophe Weasley and mock him when he hear a throat clearing.
"Don't be a git in front of a professor, Malfoy." said Hermione, without raising her eyes from her book.
Ace got up and walked up to the three Slytherins.
"Either you are here to say hello and get some news, acting in a civilized manner... or... you can close back the door and leave. Which one fo you chose?" asked Ace.
The door was closed.
"It's nice to have you in Gryffindor!" smile Dean toward Ace.
"I'm going to change, and see Tsuki no Hime. I'll come back later."
And he left.
"What?" inquired Ron who didn't understand.
"Moon Princess. It's the nickname he gives to the strange girl in Ravenclaw. One of Ginny's friend." answered Harry. "The one that got a twenty at his Haki exam."
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Ace could not refrain a smile when Hermione said she would not want to cross the lake in this weather.
"Rooh, I would like it." said the pirate.
"By this weather?" chocked Ron.
"I saw some weather that are worth that reaction, this is just a refreshing drizzle, believe me."
That walked up to the stagecoaches.
"I wonder what makes them move." commented Hermione.
"It isn't spells." answered Ace climbing up after a look to the Thesdrals.
"Do you horses somewhere, Portgas?" asked Ron climbing in after.
"Yes, Thesdrals."
Hermione had a brisk inspiration, like she just understood something.
"What is it?" ask Harry entering next.
And they closed the door behind him.
"They are invisible horses, visible only those those who saw death." whispered Hermione. "It is said that they bring bad luck, but it is only said because of the sine qua none for them to be visible."
"I have a phoenix feather, a Dragon heartstrings and Thesdral horsehair in my want." mumbled Ace. "One of very few wands with a heart this complex. It had to be custom made."
"What is the condition to see the Thesdrals?" inquired Harry.
"To witness death..." mumbled Hermione.
Ace obstinately stared at the window, to be able to ignore the pity looks thrown his way. If they knew how many people he killed, they would change opinions about him.
"Granger Hermione..." said Ace while the young witch started to get angry about the house elves that were preparing the meal.
"What, you don't agree?!"
"What did I tel you the other day? It's normal for them to serve wizards, as normal as it is for me to have a blade on me, even under the shower! If you ever want to see what real slavery is, very well, come find me one the seventh floor, at the usual spot, and I will show you. After that, if you are still able to have coherent thought process despite what I will have shown you, we will go see the house elves in the kitchen."
"You know where the kitchens are?" wondered Harry.
"We often go." said Fred. "Can we come as well, Ace? Why is it only Hermione that can have that kind of rendez-vous... or maybe..."
"Oh yes, that would explain everything, brother mine!" commented George.
They looked at each other knowingly and announced:
"You're going out together and getting on each other in the broom closer!"
The golden trio chocked on their food, Ace was not phased more than usual.
"I will allow two virgins such as yourselves to make these kind of insinuations when they will have taken the next step. Not before." commented Ace.
This surprised more than one, before the whole table burst out laughing... except Hermione which was blushing deeply.
"Well played, Ace. Well played." granted one of the twins.
The rest of the meal went in the usual hullabaloo.
Finally, the dessert disappeared and Dumbledore got up. He was about to explain why there would not be Quidditch this year, when the doors of the Great Hall slammed opened.
A man was in the doorway, supported on a large walking stick and wrapped in a dark travel cloak. All heads turned toward the new comer, suddenly illuminated by the lightning streaking from the magical ceiling. The man pulled down his hood, shaking his long dark grey hair, then walked toward the teacher's table.
The deep and regular 'clank' that punctuated each of his second steps allowed Ace to guess he had an artificial leg, most likely wood. Lightning sparked again, letting a surprisingly hight amount of scars and a missing nose to show. As for his eyes... one was small, dark and piercing. The other, small, round and stark blue, turning happily in it's orbit, sometimes going completely backwards.
But this was not what was bothering Ace... It was his voice. He had never heard anything like it. It was like trying to choke someone talking through a pillow, and signing on top of it. Instinct told Ace to be careful.
"I don't like this man." mumbled Ace.
And could not avoid a growl when he hear it would be their new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.
"Sorry, you'll have to endure him." said Harry with a little amusement. "You like pirate stories, he looks like one."
"Hmph!"
Dumbledore started once again where he was:
"As I was about to tell you, we are going to have the honour to welcome, in the next few months, an event that did not happen in the last century. It is my deepest pleasure to announce that the Triwizard Tournament will be hosted in Hogwarts this very year."
"YOU'RE KIDDING!" exclaimed Fred.
The tension in the air that was triggered by the arrival of Moody immediately dissipated.
Almost everyone burst out laughing, even Dumbledore puffed funnily, his eyes twinkling.
"No, I am not kidding, Mr. Weasley." he answered. "But If you like to pleasantries, I heard a good one this summer. A troll, a harpy and a leprechaun walk into a bar..."
Professor McGonagall noisily cleared her throat, bringing Dumbledore back on task.
Once he was done with the main one, he announced something that surprised everyone... Ace the very first:
"It happens that this summer, I managed to contact a Haki master, who graciously proposed to do a demonstration, in February, a dual between magic and Haki... Natural magic, obviously... And I am positive our young Haki professor will be more than happy with his opponent."
"USO!" exclaimed Ace, getting everyone's attention on him. "Dare?!"
"Natural magic?" wondered Harry in a low voice.
"No, this is not a lie, Portgas-kun, I assure you. As for the who... one word, Fushisho! Now, everyone to bed! And quickly!"
Dumbledore sat back down and turned toward Allastor Moody.
"What is natural magic?" asked Harry while they started the walk toward Gryffindor tower.
"Every wizard in the world is destined to a very specific magical discipline. By this I mean that, for example, while we work, one might discover his or her specialty, and go above and beyond in it. Like Ace and fire. But wizards able to do this are very rare... Especially those knowing Haki." explained Hermione.
Ace was still in shock... Fushisho could only mean one thing... Marco.
He was going to see Marco again, here.
His legs were working on autopilot.
"Come one, this kind of magic can't be that uncommon!" exclaimed Ron.
"Weasley... The first thing I learned when I took my independence was that everything is possible. I removed the word 'impossible' from my vocabulary years ago. Oi, Fred! Do you have the password for the tower?"
"Yeah, it's 'Fairy Lights', why?" answered Fred.
"Hermione and I are going to leave you here. I'm going to show her what real slavery looks like. And no, you cannot come."
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They entered the Room of Requirement which, this time, showed a luxurious jungle with, perched on a tree, a little house.
"Where are we?" asked Hermione while Ace undid his tie.
"Dawn island, in East Blue. This is the tree house where I spent seven years of my life, I made it with my brothers. Come."
He nimbly hoisted the ladder and climbed into the tree house.
It was nice to come back here. Even though the room could only copy something from a memory, it was nice. Ace helped Hermione and motioned to her to sit on a box that was used as the table.
"This hut is nice... who helped you to do it?" commented Hermione.
"No one. We found the materials in Grey Terminal, and we made it ourselves."
Ace sat on the other side of the improvised table and, immediately, a pensieve appeared on it. Ace put his want to his temple, as he had seen Dumbledore and Snape do in the past, and retrieved a memory, before letting it fall in the pool.
"Ready?" asked Ace.
"What do we do?" inquired Hermione.
"We're going to explore one of my memories. My first day at Shabaody. You'll see the real horrors of the world I come from."
He reached his hand and Hermione too it, shacking slightly. A second after, they were in the memory.
When Hermione reopened her eyes, she immediately recognized Shabaody's landscape, despite that around here it looked slightly in ruins.
"We are in one of the 'outlaw' zones or the archipelago." explained Ace. "If you're looking for me, I'm over there."
He showed three figures sat on a roof, messing around. Two man and a woman, around seventeen or eighteen. The woman had a face similar to the Patil twins, with a huge dark hair mop, worse than his own, and strange amethyst eyes with white almond-shaped pupils. The other man was rather mundane, dark blond hair, a few scars on his face. Finally there was Ace, laughing like no other.
"I was almost eighteen at that time." Ace told her.
"Oh... well... you were rather cute... I knew you were older than you looked, but I have not seen you without your runes." commented Hermione. "Why are you showing this to me?"
Ace motioned himself with his chin, and a dark gaze.
True to it, the trio had stopped laughing and seemed to look perplex toward something. The girl's eye suddenly open, wide in horror.
"A Tenryuubito!"
"You're kidding, Agnaya?" exclaimed the other young man, while the Spades' captain frowned.
"It's Saint Charlos..."
Hermione looked toward the same direction and saw that the passerby all kneeling down, making way for a four man wearing a diving suit and seated on...
"A slave, yes." murmured the Haki Professor to Hermione when she yelped in horror. "A Tenryuubito has all rights. They are never wrong. Raising your hand on them is like signing your own death warrant."
They watched the man pass by, who did not see them since they were only spectators in the memory.
Hermione could not remove her eyes from the Tenryuubito's procession. The man on all four, used as a mount, the other chained slaves forced to follow in the path...
"Do you see the mark in the slaves' backs? It's the Tenryuubito's emblem. They mark their slaves with red iron, condemning them to be nothing more than objects in everyone's eyes... if they manage to escape without their deadly collar triggering, since they are bombs. They will forever bear this mark to show they are below humans. Worse than trash..." whispered Ace. "And as you can see, they are well protected. Come, let's move."
He took Hermione's hand and guided her in the wake of the Tenryuubito, following the same path as his other 'him' on the roof.
They arrived in front of a building with a few guards in front. A man came to welcome the Celestial Dragon who walked in.
Following, while trying to stay discrete, the Spades also entered.
Ace pulled Hermione with him, and made her sit in the stairs, besides him, at the very top.
"Who are those people?" asked Hermione.
"Nobles, sovereigns, rich merchants... Those who might have enough money to buy a slaves. Oh..."
"What is it?"
Ace got back up and walked down a few steps to see someone. A pirate he easily recognized. The man looked at the people who just entered and tightenned his grip on the armrest when seeing the Tenryuubito.
"You know him?" asked Hermione.
"Fushisho Marco. It's true there was a rumour that there was going to be a siren sold. I didn't stay long, so, I never knew if it was true. But I understand why he's here. It's apparently him that Dumbledore is going to invite."
"Isn't he... your boyfriend?"
Ace diverted his head, mumbling an 'Urusai' and went back to sit in the stairs. Hermione came to join him.
"You have great taste, he's really cute." she teased.
"Hermione, it's starting."
Hermione shut up and looked at the man who just walked on the stage. When the sale started, she had a hard time to restrain herself in front of such horror.
It was after three slaves, a child who had been separated from his mother, that Ace motioned to Hermione to get up.
Indeed, Ace the pirate had just left.
They walked out and could see him further out, besides the water.
"I just puked my guts out."
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Coming back from the memory, Hermione was thankful of the bucket the Room provided to throw up in. She then sank into Ace's arms to cry.
"It's... It's..."
"It's my world... simple as that." murmured Ace, petting her hair. "Now come along."
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Hermione opened her round eyes, seeing the crowd of house elves working in the kitchens. One of them noticed them and came to them.
"Can we help you?" asked the little creature.
"My friend here is in need of a pick me up. And if you have a little alcohol somewhere, I wouldn't say no."
The two students where guided to a table where a hot chocolate awaited Hermione, and some whisky Ace.
"Now, shut up and look."
Hermione did as Ace asked. And she clearly witnessed the difference.
Eyes and smiles.
The Hogwarts' house elves had shinny eyes. Just that meant a lot.
"Ne... do you like it here at Hogwarts?" asked Ace to an elf that was bringing them some small cakes.
"Very much! Professors and the uncommon students that come here treat us very well! Better than some wizard's family! We have a roof over our heads and a full belly! Hogwarts is a good master! And the Director respect us!"
"Soka. Thank you for answering. My friend here was a little worried for you."
Hermione blushed.
"Thank you misses! But we do not need it! We are happy to work at Hogwarts!"
And the elf left to go back on what he was working before.
"Is your mind at peace now?" inquired Ace.
Hermione nodded.
"Come, let's head to bed."
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"Botany with Hufflepuffs and Magical Creatures with the Slytherins..." commented Hermione. "How about you, Ace?"
Ace removed his nose from the coffee mug he was nursing to look at his time table.
"Introduction to Haki with First years, then I'll join you with Hagrid-sensei."
"And this afternoon? We have double divination." said Ron.
"I have Haki with the Third and Fourth years that didn't have the autorisation last year. Depending on the amount of people in the class, they might get merged with the other classes... if the students don't run away between now and then. We'll see each other after lunch for Haki. I'm leaving"
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Ace stayed crouched down, observing the Blast-Ended Skrewts.
When Hagrid told they they would raise them themselves, it was like someone told him it was his birthday.
"Why would we want to do that?" asked Malfoy in an icy tone.
"It's true! We're going to raise them?!" Asked Ace, all excited.
"That's it, Portgas finally lost it..." commented Seamus with a smile.
The class started and, of course, Malfoy did not miss a single one.
"I now understand why it is so important to keep them alive." said Malfoy dripping sarcasm. "Who never dreamed of house pets that could burn, sting and suck blood?"
"It's not because they aren't pretty that they can't be useful." replied Hermione. "Dragon's blood has prodigal magical virtues, but despite this we don't really want to have a dragon pet at home."
"And you should know stuff that can suck blood can be quite useful." commented Ace. "In Muggle medicine, even though Mr is too proud to be interested, they started to introduce leaches to liquefy blood and dissolve blood clots as well as anti-inflammatory. I bet anything you want that the potions used in those situations are based on leeches, or, a way to mimic them. Then, instead of bitching, teme, appreciate the fact that you might actually be doing a good action in your life, take care of your Skrewt in silence."
Hermione had to bit her lips not to laugh.