Just like before, normal text dialogue is in English and swapping to all italics is for dialogue in Japanese.
Charms class that afternoon went better than Sayuri expected. She found a corner where she was shielded from the rest of the students by Crabbe and Goyle's hulking forms and attempted to levitate her feather, while studiously ignoring Hermione correcting everyone's pronunciation on the other side of the room. The surrounding Slytherins giggled while Draco quietly mocked the bossy muggleborn.
Her housemates' moods all soured when Professor Flitwick enthusiastically praised Hermione in front of the class for being the first to levitate her feather perfectly.
Sayuri rested her chin on one hand as she swished and flicked, wondering if levitating feathers was specifically a yin or yang release type of magic. Or maybe it was neither. Maybe it was one where both were equally mixed. It didn't matter though. Not as if she could consciously separate the two types at this point.
Instead she focused on what the wand was trying to do on its own.
It was strange. When she cast a jutsu, one hundred percent of the energy fueling that jutsu came straight from inside her own body. She had to separate the right amount, mold it through hand seals, then release it in a precise way.
The wand took a little "raw" energy from her and a little "raw" energy from her surroundings, molded them together inside using the right wand movements and words, then poof! A spell. She was missing something, but when she got the hang of it a wand would be pretty handy. Wizard spells came out a bit different than jutsus, with the addition of nature energy to the mix. She was a little baffled that none of her teachers had warned them about anything like chakra exhaustion. Maybe the wands helped with that.
Her feather had managed to weakly flutter off the desktop a couple of times by the end of class, so she counted that as semi successful at least.
She pondered how the Levitation Charm could be weaponized. She could drop something heavy on a person. Or levitate something caustic onto them, like acid. Or poison. Or levitate something they needed out of reach. Flitwick had already said this charm wouldn't work to levitate people's bodies, so dropping them from a great height was out.
Maybe she could use it to throw things?
When class ended, everyone swarmed toward the exit eager for the Hallowe'en feast to start. Sayuri packed her bag slowly, not wanting to get carried along in the crush. Flitwick spotted her in the corner as the rest of the students cleared out.
"Ah Miss Uchiha! How are you finding class now that you've had a chance to get acquainted with your wand?" he asked.
She liked Professor Flitwick. He'd been very understanding of the wand situation. His voice was sort of squeaky and like Hagrid, his presence was a bit different than the other wizards. It tended to extend far beyond his body and run into his surroundings, like an expansive thundercloud with unpredictable ribbons of needle sharp lightning running through it.
"It's good, sir," she said. "I think my feather twitched a few times."
"Excellent, I'd like to see a demonstration soon. But not just now! You must be eager to get to the feast."
Sayuri rubbed the back of her head. "Eh, actually I was wondering about something."
"Yes?"
"What would happen to someone if they exhausted themselves casting spells? I mean, has anyone used up their magic?"
"You needn't worry about that happening here," he reassured. "When using a wand it is nearly impossible to exhaust one's magic."
"But what would happen to someone if it did?"
"Theoretically, it could be life threatening. Although most wizards will lose consciousness before reaching that point. Wandless magic draws upon one's inner reserves," Professor Flitwick advised. "Which is why we do not teach it until seventh year. At your age, very few children have the magical reserves necessary to safely cast wandless spells at length. I would hate to see a student in the hospital wing due to overexertion. Or worse."
"It feels like my wand is drawing a little something from me and something from my surroundings, then mixing it together," she said. "Is that accurate?"
His voice rose in an excited squeak. "My! How perceptive of you! That's exactly how they work. It is also why wands are so coveted. There is a long and bloody history over the right to wield wands, which Professor Binns covers quite in depth if you choose not to nap through his lectures on the goblin rebellion. I believe those will be covered in your third year."
"Oh, thanks!" she said. "I'll make sure to pay attention."
"It's a pleasure to have you in class Miss Uchiha. Now, run along to the feast! You don't want to miss out on the cauldron cakes."
Sayuri mulled over what Flitwick had said as she made her way through the castle. There was a lot she wanted to ask Jiji about. Neither of them could write well. Tsuchibue's English was barely passable. Not good for complicated questions with potentially complicated answers. More than anything, she just wanted to sit in the same room as him and complain about how terrible reading was.
Plus the inn was always busy on Hallowe'en, he could use extra help cleaning or waiting tables.
With everyone in the Great Hall, she could easily sneak out to The Hog's Head.
She suspected that running around Hogsmeade in her school uniform might draw unwanted attention, so bypassed the Great Hall and headed straight for the common room in the dungeons instead. If she changed into some warmer street clothing and slipped the school robes back over the top, she could take the robes off after leaving the grounds. Maybe hide them near Hagrid's and put them back on when she returned.
Something felt off in the dungeon corridors though. The hairs on her arms prickled. A stench fill the hallway. Something like rotten cabbage and turpentine. It reminded her of the oni in the forest, only far worse. She slowed and tried to feel farther ahead.
One set of footsteps hurried toward her, the hard soles of their shoes clicking against the stone floor.
The footsteps slowed as they came around a corner. No doubt she was in view. She could feel two distinct presences. One was Quirrel. The second-
She recognized the second. The unicorn killer.
"W-what are you doing here?" came Quirrel's stuttering voice.
Sayuri took a step backward. "Going to my common room."
"D-don't you want to g-g-go to the feast?"
"I'm not hungry," she said. Unicorn Killer's moldering presence had expanded past where he and Quirrel stood to fill the width of the hall.
For one terrifying moment a malignant tendril curled out toward her. Brushed up against her with its senses. She clenched her teeth together to hold in the vomit that reflexively lurched up her throat. It drew back again. Her skin crawled at the sensation of moist decay it left behind.
"This is the student that interfered with the unicorn," an unfamiliar voice rasped.
"What should I do, Master?" Quirrel's tone shifted. It became sharp. Focused.
"Silence them before we proceed. Use the troll."
Use the what? A spell flashed out at her from Quirrel. It passed through her hair, singeing the ends as she darted around him. He began to laugh.
She kept running, turned a corner, and found out why. There was indeed a troll. It was far, far bigger than what she'd ever encountered in the forest.
It was also agitated, and there were no trees to climb.
The lumbering creature swung a heavy club at her, glancing off the chakra imbued stones lining the corridor with a dull thud. Quirrel and the foul stranger boxed her in from behind. He fired another spell which missed her, but clipped the troll instead making the creature more angry.
She quickly tried to blank out both men's vision with her genjutsu, but couldn't seem to take hold of Unicorn Killer with it and he immediately dispelled it from Quirrel.
The troll was large and terrifying, but it also moved slowly. Swearing under her breath she ducked around one of its legs close enough to graze its cold stone-like skin.
Once she was on the other side she whirled to face all three enemies. Sucked in a deep breath. Flipped through the hand seals, and compressed every bit of chakra she could muster into the densest fireball she was capable of. Searing heat lit up the corridor, soaking into the surrounding stone. It engulfed the troll, who barely shielded the men behind it.
One one-thousand, two one-thousand, she counted in her mind. She had enough chakra to fuel it with seven more seconds of breath before cutting off.
Her knees buckled as the roiling ball of heat plowed through her enemies, dissipating with a blistering hiss. Amazingly, the troll was not fried to a crisp. It roared with fury. The club crashed down, catching her robes. She rolled away at the last moment, and retreated further down the hall on shaking legs.
Slipping behind an archway, she dug her fingertips into the cold masonry and crawled up into a corner. There was an ornately carved bit of pillar on each side, so she did her best to wedge herself behind it as the troll wildly struck at its surroundings.
Shivering, she deadened her sensing. Pulled it in tightly, shrank in on herself, the same way she'd learned to mask her chakra to evade the hungry acromantulas in the forest. She did her best to melt against the stones of the castle, hating every second of it. There was no way to track what the two men or the troll were doing below like this.
"What now Master?" Quirrel coughed and cleared his throat roughly. "I cannot see."
There was a brief pause before the second responded. "I no longer feel her presence. The troll has crushed her. Hurry now."
Quirrel coughed again. "It's a pity, Master. She would have grown to be a strong witch."
"Sacrifices must be made in pursuit of our greater cause. Now hurry! The stone awaits."
The click of footsteps receded down the hall as who she assumed was Quirrel hurried ahead.
Was Unicorn Killer still down there with the troll? Maybe they left too. Maybe they preferred soft shoes, like Dumbledore. She'd only heard one set of footsteps approaching after all.
But maybe he was bluffing, saying she was dead so she would reveal herself. She thought back to the cut on her arm. What Snape had said about cursed wounds, that she could have lost her arm or died if it had hit a little differently. The killer also seemed to be a sensor-type so she couldn't be reckless.
Why couldn't Snape have taught me the spell to heal that stupid curse? Maybe I should have kept some of that healing potion instead of sending it all to Sasuke. She wracked her mind for the unfamiliar words Snape had sung to fix it, but couldn't trust that she had remembered them right.
It wasn't as if she could be reckless with the troll shuffling around below anyway. Summoning her crows would only get its attention. So she let ten minutes or so pass. Then fifteen. Almost twenty minutes later, it finally stopped picking its nose and lumbered on to find something more interesting to do.
Peeling herself out from behind the pillar, she summoned Tsuchibue and his small gang of siblings.
"You guys, it's really important this time. There's a giant oni loose in my school. Quirrel-sensei just tried to kill me. He thinks I'm dead. Find Dumbledore-sensei and tell him. He speaks our language. There is a sensor-type helping Quirrel so be careful.
Tsuchi-kun, you stay with me. I need you to help me see what's going on since I have to keep my chakra suppressed for now."
"Listen up," Tsuchibue said, addressing his siblings. "Traitor-sensei wears a purple turban and his chakra feels like garbage. Avoid him. Dumbledore-sensei is the wrinkliest most ancient human ever and has a long white beard. Got it?"
There was a chorus of agreement, then everyone dispersed.
Sayuri decided to go for the Great Hall first. There was safety in numbers and teachers would likely be at the feast. She darted through the corridor, taking a bit of a roundabout path to the first floor in case Quirrel was still using the obvious route. She ran truly blind, putting her trust completely in the crow flying alongside her to warn her of anyone approaching in time for her to react.
The Great Hall was completely empty when they reached it.
"What the fuck?" she whispered to herself.
"Language," Tsuchibue whispered back, disapproval in his voice. He'd spent enough time in The Hog's Head to understand a variety of swears in English now.
Turning to leave, muffled screams and shouts reached them from down the corridor. There was a tremendous crash that could have only come from one thing.
Frowning, she followed the sounds of destruction. It came from the girl's toilets near the Great Hall.
Thankfully the door to the toilets was open. She reached it, her hand pausing on the door frame. The troll inside took up way too much space in the room, plus Harry, Hermione, and another boy. It was a large lavatory, but still was only a lavatory.
She didn't have her knife. And she didn't have a hope of being able to kick a troll's ass with taijutsu at her size and skill level. Not a troll with rock skin anyway.
Going into such a small space with an agitated troll was too risky, both for her and the other kids.
Hands weaving through the seals for the same genjutsu she'd demonstrated for Snape, she attempted to blind the troll.
Unfortunately, the creature was extremely distressed by its sudden loss of vision. There was a deafening crash and the crackle of shattering porcelain as it bellowed and thrashed about wildly. Shrill screams from the other kids told her they were still alive at least.
NO! she thought. I've got to immobilize it somehow! Dropping the first genjutsu, she tried the hand seals for her new genjutsu. An upset stomach should distract it. Any creature's first instinct when their stomach hurt was to slow down and protect their abdomen.
Regrettably, Sayuri had never tested her jutsu on someone with full bowels before.
Unbeknownst to her, trolls that believed they suddenly needed to poop did not have any social taboos against public defecation, and made no attempt to hold it in.
There was an ominous moment of silence. She fervently hoped Hermione and the others would take the opportunity to run for it.
"What's it doing?" a voice she recognized as Harry's whispered loudly.
Another boy's voice whispered back, "It looks like it's about to take a giant-," Whatever he was about to say was cut off by a thunderous gurgle, followed by an strained grunt that grew into a tortured bellow. A noxious cloud billowed through the open doorway as a roaring avalanche of troll shit sloshed out onto the floor.
Covering her face with her sleeves, Sayuri retched and fell backward. She could taste it. Oh Merlin no. NO. She released the genjutsu, far too late.
Similar retching sounds came from within the lavatory.
What have I done? She crawled away, trying to distance herself from the stench enough to function again. From what she could tell, The other kids were just as paralyzed as she was. Plus they were likely blocked in by both the troll and a gargantuan shit pile. But how could she fix it? Katon hadn't worked against the troll before. Besides, a story Jiji had once told her gave her pause. One that involved himself lighting a neighbor cow's fart on fire to cheer up his younger sister and losing his eyebrows in the process.
If she tried that in a gas cloud of this magnitude, the entire wing of the castle might blow.
"What's wrong Sayuri-chan? Are you poisoned?" Tsuchibue croaked worriedly.
"No," she wheezed. "It's the smell. I need you to help, Hermione and some other kids are trapped in the bathroom with the oni. It's trying to kill them and none of us can move now."
"I don't smell anything. Cast the crow clone jutsu on me. I can carry them out of there if you do that."
"What? I've never done that before! Why would you think it's a good idea to try a new jutsu out in this situation!?"
The troll let out a tortured bellow and smashed something noisily as if to emphasize the terrible timing.
"Look, I can carry them out as a clone. You'll have to use a lot more chakra than if the whole flock was here, but it will still work."
"How am I going to make a clone when I don't even know what I look like?" she choked.
"Calm down!" he said. "Just, just think of Shisui! I've had a lot of practice transforming into him. He invented this jutu. You remember what he looks like, right?"
She nodded curtly. How could she forget her own father's looks? Tsuchibue chanted the names of the hand seals at her. She focused her chakra while she moved her fingers. Connected it to the crow's. Sharpened every detail in her mind. Tou-san's disheveled black curls. The way his eyes went up at the corners when he smiled. The cowl-necked black shirts he liked to wear-
"Karasu bunshin no jutsu,"
Something shifted in the crow next to her. There was a new weight and warmth there that she resisted the urge to reach out and touch. Tsuchibue stood and darted through the lavatory door, tugging lightly at the chakra connecting them as he went.
Shards of porcelain pricked at Hermione's palms and knees where she had fallen in the rubble that was once the girl's toilet. Frigid water sprayed out from the walls where the toilets had been securely mounted only moments before. Her eyes burned. She rubbed tears, mud, and dust from her face with her sleeve.
She wished she knew a spell to cancel out smells.
The troll, a mountain troll, towered over them. Leathery and grey with elephantine legs. Its charred club had large porcelain shards embedded in the wood now, making it even more lethal than before. The creature squatted once more and with a grunt a smaller wet plop was added to the mountain of feces blocking the doorway. The hem of its blackened loincloth dragged through the top of the moist dung pile as it stood.
Ron dry heaved again. He'd already lost everything he'd managed to eat at the feast. "We, we have to get past it," he choked out.
"But how?" Harry asked. "What spell do we use?" He was crouched in front of them defensively, one hand over his nose, wand out and knuckles white. "Or do we just make a run for it?"
Hermione shivered where she was huddled on the ground, unable to make herself move. She'd learned so many spells so far, but in the face of a troll attack her mind was a complete blank. She couldn't use magic. She couldn't even crawl.
A young man dressed black pants and shirt crept in through the lavatory door behind the troll. He clung low to the walls, carefully skirting the large deposit left in the doorway.
"Hey! Help us!" Ron whimpered desperately, choking on the foul stench.
The troll grunted, lifting its club for a fresh swing in their direction. The man rolled underneath. His dark gaze darted to Hermione first. "Hermione, let's go," he said. One hand closed around her arm. She pushed down surprise that he knew her name, letting him scoop her off the floor. She blinked up at him, then squeezed her eyes shut and clung to his shirt as he darted straight toward the troll, barely ducking sideways in time to avoid the swinging club.
Next thing she knew, she was on the floor in the hall.
Safe.
"Harry! Ron!" she cried.
The man spun around and darted back into danger. Her eyes were drawn to the design on the back of his shirt. It was like a red and white ball. She struggled to get to her feet, but her legs were too weak to hold up her weight.
The man's reappearance had galvanized Harry and Ron. Both boys were fighting their way toward the door, hesitating only slightly at the mountain of dung blocking their way before charging through.
Harry slipped first.
Ron crashed into him, sending both boys skidding into the dung heap. Ron screamed in horror, raising his wand to point at the huge wooden club swinging toward them.
The dark shape of the man darted between them, shoving Ron and Harry flat against the floor.
There was a sickening crunch. His body was flung through the doorway, a spray of red trailing behind where the porcelain shards had punctured. He struck the wall next to Hermione with a crunch and slid to the floor, limp. Wetness gushed from the jagged holes torn in his shirt. A scream froze in her throat. Hermione's eyes went to his face.
Everything seemed to slow all at once. The man coughed, bright red trickling down his chin.
Dark eyes grew vacant. His body went slack.
Harry and Ron watched this happen with wide eyes. Harry turned toward the troll, a guttural scream tearing from his throat. Ron did the same. Spells flashing from their wands made the troll flinch. Suddenly debris and shards of glass were levitating all around both boys as they hurled the objects at the troll.
Her vision blurred. A rush of black wings brushed past her. Familiar, deep voiced caws filled the air. A raven, no Sayuri's crow had sprung up from where the man's body had been and it was now fiercely attacking the troll, diving and pecking at its eyes while the boys drove it deeper into the toilet.
A moment later they ran out, crow swooping close behind. Then slammed and locked the door behind them.
"We just, it's trapped now," Ron gasped. "We should get a teacher."
"What happened to that man?" Harry asked, looking up and down the corridor frantically. "Did he leave? I thought he was dead! We need to get him to Madam Pomfrey! "
The bird glided over to where Hermione sat on the floor and landed on her knee. "I'm not dead."
"Tsuchibue?" Hermione said, in a very tiny voice. "I-is that really you?
"Yes."
She sniffled and wiped her eyes. "You're not hurt?"
"I'm fine."
"Did, did Sayuri send you?"
"Yes, she worry."
"Are you an animagus?"
He stiffened slightly, and looked her dead in the eye. "No. I'm a crow."
"Oh," Hermione said. "Oh. You, you're the most brilliant crow. I'm so sorry." She burst into tears then. Ron and Harry watched awkwardly as she hugged the large black bird.
"Hermione," the bird said. "This is secret." Then with a small poof of smoke, he disapparated.
Author's Note: Hi everyone. 2020 is just the gift that keeps on giving. Apparently having covid once wasn't enough. I get to have it twice in one year!
I'm fine, but this means I have to isolate myself completely in a tiny room for 14 days or so, to keep my mom and other family members safe since we're staying with them temporarily. Which means I'm going crazy, and writing too much fanfiction. I wrote ahead a bit, but decided this was a good stopping point for this update.
If anything is not making sense, or there's anything you'd like to see let me know!