Harry Potter: Four Swords Adventures Chapter 32, a Legend of Zelda + Harry Potter Crossover fanfic

Group 2 finishes their half of the dungeon this week, and next week is the boss fight! Stick around at the end of the chapter to read my character synopses and stats for the different Harrys, if you like. If you don't like, there's a tl;dr at the end. I'll be posting those summaries to my profile, too, for easier reference.

Content warning for Blue's wack monologue about the Dursleys. For all his smarts, he has no idea how many wrong things he said.

A dripping lump of sludge slopped its way onto the tiles at Hermione's feet. She skittered back to avoid any splatter. The blue-eyed lump flopped onto his back. "I am done! DONE, I tell you!" Blue ranted to no one in particular. Or perhaps he was voicing his opinion to the temple itself? The boy shook his fist at the distant, soaring ceiling. "What madman decided to turn a church into a swimming pool? WHO?!"

Though Blue's manner of venting his grievances made Hermione's lips quirk in amusement, it wasn't enough to override the worry that had been twisting in her gut since he'd suffered his injury. Falling into the temple's questionable idea of water was sure to earn him a vicious infection. Maybe the place had a form of magic that kept them from feeling hunger or the kind of exhaustion that came from being awake and constantly moving for hours, but she didn't think it did much to protect them from the effects of injuries.

"Blue, come here so I can clean you up," she said with a beckoning motion.

The boy groaned and rolled onto his front. His robes were already tied in a rope around his waist, leaving only his sweater for her to move out of the way. "I hate having to do this every time I fall in the water."

"It's tedious, but it's better than you developing an infection. We don't know how much longer it will be before you can be properly healed," she told him. She cut through the back of his sweater with a Severing Charm and started casting Scouring Charms to vanish the debris sticking to his skin. While she was at it, she tried closing up the punctures a little more. They only healed to a certain point before ignoring her efforts, though, so she focused on cleaning. She would have bandaged it, but there was the problem of the bandages soaking up the filthy water and the possibility of them keeping rotted plant matter inside the wound even after she used a spell to dry them. When she was done, she closed up his increasingly threadbare sweater with a Mending Charm.

Blue sat up. "We have the map, we've found the compass, and we've burned through three silver keys. One would think we'd have come across the final key by now," he groused.

"Maybe the next room has it," Yellow said hopefully. His voice didn't have its usual cheer. Since Blue had been injured, the boy's bright attitude had been flagging. "I can scout out ahead!"

She was worried for both of them, honestly, even though only one was injured. That odd conversation they'd had in the spike maze kept bubbling to the surface of her mind. Blue had said Harry was locked in the "cup—" for an entire weekend as a punishment. The only word she could think of that would fit was "cupboard". Being locked in one's room for a weekend (or even an entire day) was unreasonable enough for the mistake of dirtying a shirt, but being trapped in a cupboard? That was child abuse, no two ways about it.

Hermione bit her lip. She really wanted to just come out and ask what Harry's family had done to him and what she could do to get him away from them forever. However, her friend had proven time and time again that, no matter how many pieces he was in, he absolutely did not want to talk about it. In an attempt at subtlety, she'd been making gently-phrased inquiries to Blue and Yellow since they'd gone from the maze-filled section of the temple to the side flooded with swamp. They had both reacted to her prodding like she had fired the opening salvo of questions in a police interrogation. If Blue didn't have a blunt answer that immediately shut her line of questioning down, Yellow would slide in with a smooth parry that provided an answer without giving her any helpful information.

Actually, now that she had been paying more attention to Yellow in this temple, Hermione had begun realizing some things about him. She had assumed that Blue and Green were the smarter Harrys because they maintained higher grades with less effort, but Yellow was clearly hiding a sharp intellect. He had a high skill for redirecting conversations and disarming arguments. If any sort of conflict started forming, like Ron and Hermione disagreeing on which door to go through or Blue saying something mean to either of them, Yellow would quickly stamp it out with some chirpy non-sequitur or offered compromise. He was also the best on their team at avoiding environmental hazards and dodging attacks. Everyone else in their quartet had collected at least one Beamos burn, one slice from a Peahat's blades, or a giant bruise from a Deku Nut. Yellow had managed to avoid all three, in addition to never having fallen in the water. He was graceful in a way that Blue wasn't, incredibly aware of where all parts of him were at any given time. She would notice these things, wonder how she hadn't seen it before, and then watch Yellow quietly fade into background noise until he felt like speaking up again. His ability to step out of notice was yet another remarkable thing about him. He was much more intelligent and capable than she'd originally given him credit for, and yet he spoke in childish words and let everyone boss him around whenever possible. What could his motivations be? The boy was an enigma to her.

Ron crouched down and snapped his fingers in front of her face. "Hermione, we have things to do," he reminded her.

She blushed. "I know that! I was just thinking."

"About what?"

They watched Yellow land on the spinning platform in the middle of the room and start fighting the Peahats that had just knocked his brother into the water for the third time. He was getting to be quite handy with that whip. With cold efficiency, the boy snatched the two monsters out of the air, slammed them onto the platform, and ran them through with his sword. Then he brushed himself off, curled in on himself slightly, and became meek again.

"About Harry," she said.

"Ah, yeah. I've been doing the same. We're going to have an awkward talk with him after all this, aren't we?"

"Assuming Yellow doesn't steer us in a different direction."

Ron considered that. "Huh, that is something he does! I didn't even notice."

She nodded. "He does that, too."

Blue, who was sitting right next to them, spoke up. "I can hear you, you know. Why are you gossiping about my brother?"

Hermione took in the boy's jutted-out chin and narrowed eyes. Reactions like this were why she'd unthinkingly assumed that Yellow was the weakest link of the four. He never defended himself unless he was fighting monsters. Instead, the other three Harrys would puff up and circle around him like riled hens protecting their defenseless chickadee.

"We talk about you all the time, Harry," she told Blue. "Just because there are four of you now, that isn't going to change."

"Hmph." Blue lost some of his bristling defensiveness. "And what was that about an 'awkward conversation?' You two have been muttering to each other since the vine maze. What are you planning?"

Ron rolled his eyes. "We're not Malfoy, Blue. We're not conspiring to blow up your potion in class or something."

"But you are conspiring."

"To help you," Hermione said with exasperation. If Yellow was the most cautious of the four, Blue was the most paranoid. Possibly the most belligerent, too. "The only reason why we were discussing about it without telling you is because it didn't seem like you would take it well."

Blue crossed his arms, wincing when the motion pulled at his injuries. "If we felt like we needed help, we would ask for it."

"That's the problem! You feel like you don't need help when you really do. This isn't a situation you can just endure and hope will go away," she said. "You have to start asking people to step in when you can't."

He fixed her with a piercing glare. The striking color of his eyes intensified it to an uncanny degree. She felt the back of her neck prickle. "Alright, let's stop pussyfooting around this. I've been living with the Dursleys for twelve years, Hermione. They've raised me, they've clothed me, they've fed me, and they even bought me extra things like school supplies and medicine before I went to Hogwarts. Are they nice people? No, but they're willing to house me and I don't have anywhere else to go where people like Sirius Black won't find me. Where do you expect me to stay? With fawning wizards who only want to take me in because I'm famous? With Muggles who don't have the kind of magical protections the Dursleys' house does? With the Weasleys, so I can take food from their mouths? Maybe I hate the thought of going back to my relatives at the end of the school year, but at least it's keeping me alive." He stood up and tucked his injured arm behind his back to keep it out of the way. Then he wagged his finger sternly at them. "The more people you tell about this, the deeper trouble I'm going to be in when I go back there over the summer, so you'd better keep your mouths shut. If I get padlocked in my room because you two tattled to a teacher, who tattled to Dumbledore, who said something to my relatives, I'm going to break out specifically to kick your arses." He turned with a huff. "There. Awkward conversation over. Now let's find that obnoxious eyeball key and get out of this horticultural nightmare." Snapping his whip out, he jumped to the closest moving platform and started riding it across the room.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Ron and Hermione fell into another one of those low-volume discussions Blue so hated.

"Did you hear him? 'Take food from their mouths'? Harry doesn't talk like that. Someone told him to say that!" Ron hissed.

"He said they 'even' bought him school supplies and medicine. 'Even!'" she hissed back. "It's like he thinks those things are a luxury!"

"I thought the bars over the window were weird, but the Dursleys are way worse than I thought," Ron said. "We need to get him out of there before he goes even barmier than he already is."

"But you heard what he said! Where would he go? Death Eaters could find him easily in the Wizarding World and if they tracked him down in an unprotected Muggle home, he and his foster family would be defenseless. What can we do?"

"My parents know Dumbledore, so they could ask about protecting our house. That 'taking food from their mouths' thing is stupid," his face screwed up in a scowl, "and I'm gonna tell every single Harry it's stupid. In the meantime, you could look at laws and things. Maybe there's a law to get Harry away from those people. His boggart counts as evidence, I'm pretty sure, so you could start from there."

That was a very good idea. It wouldn't have occurred to Hermione until after she'd started her research that boggarts resembling family members could hold legal significance. "I think Professor Lupin may be looking into this already," she said. "I'll go to his office and speak to him about it. It doesn't count as tattling to an adult if he already knows, right?"

Ron crossed his arms. "I'd say we should just talk to Dumbledore and tell him not to say anything to the Dursleys. If we said they were going to hurt Harry, he'd have the sense to believe us, right?"

Hermione wavered. Between Professors Quirrell (secretly Voldemort), Lockhart (a huge fraud and plagiarist), and Trelawney (a minor but irritating fraud), her faith in the staff of Hogwarts wasn't as rock-solid as it had been in first year. Professor Dumbledore was definitely a trustworthy authority figure, though, so maybe? But then again, adults were prone to doing things for children's own supposed good without listening to the children they were trying to help, so there was a chance he'd ignore their advice. She could imagine him, being as nice as he was, giving the Dursleys a stern warning to act properly toward Harry in the honest belief that they would actually listen. A few weeks ago, she would have done the same in his place.

Seeing the indecision on Hermione's face, Ron raised an eyebrow. "You, of all people, think we shouldn't tell the Headmaster?"

"Harry said any word getting back to the Dursleys would put him in more danger," she fretted. "Professor Dumbledore seems like the type to talk to a student's parents to correct their behavior instead of going the more drastic route of taking their child away. Doesn't it seem that way to you?"

His brows furrowed in thought. "I...well, I guess that makes sense," he admitted reluctantly. "So just Lupin, then? Not even McGonagall?"

"Telling Professor McGonagall would be as good as telling Professor Dumbledore. She's a Head of House and the Deputy Headmaster, so she would be obligated to."

"Oh, right. She's like you, but taller."

She smacked him on the shoulder for his cheek. "Ron!"

"I'm not wrong!" He took out his whip and swung away before she could fire anything back.

With a sigh and roll of her eyes, she followed suit and caught the next moving platform as it circled around.

They cleared the room without further incident. Hermione was glad no one had collected any more injuries to add to her loaded plate of concern. She already had her mind full enough, her mental wheels spinning wildly over how incredibly messed up Harry's way of thinking was. Harry had always been a little quiet and oddly unfamiliar with certain gestures of affection, but he hadn't seemed particularly…"damaged", for lack of a better word. And yet, all this time, he had secretly been thinking along totally different lines of track than Ron and Hermione. How he managed to seem so well-adjusted while also believing that being forcibly locked in one's room was normal and having school supplies was a privilege, she didn't know.

The next room was also full of water and hooks, which was definitely preferable to another vine maze. Beamoses were spaced out along the length of the room, sitting on narrow stone pillars rising from the green water. Circling around and weaving between them were hovering platforms fashioned from giant leaves. And at the far end of the room, three Beamoses and a messy collection of platforms away, lay a large treasure chest and an open doorway.

Blue reached out toward the exit. "Oh, it's so close and yet so far," he said longingly.

Yellow gave him a careful hug. "All we have to do is power through and we'll make it out soon," he encouraged. "Just hang in there!"

Blue snorted. "You sound like a motivational poster."

"Why, thank you!"

"You're ridiculous," Blue muttered, though he had a half-suppressed smile on his face. He hopped onto one of the moving leaf platforms and entered the long trial toward the raised ledge at the far end of the room. Hermione was quick to follow him. While Blue was the most academically intelligent of the Harrys, he was also impatient and very likely to rush and make mistakes. She checked which pocket she had put her wand in, just in case she had to cast a Levitation Charm to catch him.

A high buzz sounded and she scrambled to get off the platform. She locked her eyes onto a hook, jumped, and swung. When she was mid-swing a yellow laser skimmed the outer edge of her left calf, almost startling her into letting go of the whip. Unable to think over the fiery pain now prickling across her skin, she landed on the next leaf chest-first. Only her hands frantically locking onto the edge kept her from sliding off backwards.

As she clawed her way up onto the leaf, she caught a glimpse of Blue farther ahead. He was grimacing in pain, but staying constantly in motion. As soon as he landed, he was off again, moving in the same direction as the leaves to keep his momentum going. With the speed he was moving at, he stayed far enough ahead of the Beamoses' lines of sight that they never spotted him.

'He thought this through better than I did,' she thought with a grimace. And here she'd thought she might have to save him!

She swung back to a previous leaf and crouched there, keeping an eye on the revolutions of the nearest Beamos in between casting healing spells on her leg. While she was gathering herself up for another try, Yellow passed her by. Like Blue, he had grasped that the best way to get across was to never stay still long enough to be spotted. He was so quick, so light on his feet, that she felt a flare of jealousy.

'I can do this!' she thought firmly. She hadn't gone for a swim yet. With luck and determination, she wouldn't have to.

She took a deep, controlled breath. The Beamos looked away. Hermione snapped out her whip and began her crossing. No thinking, just leg muscles springing and arms straining. Her eyes focused solely on the leaf in front of her—the next spot to land. Not the Beamoses, not the crosswise-moving leaves that would knock her sideways with their perpendicular motion. Just jump, swing, land.

Two jumps left. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears and her lungs burned. Hermione hadn't been doing any extra exercise like Harry's sword practice and Ron's shield-carrying; she regretted that now. Her second-to-last jump was weaker, her grip on the whip made uncertain by aching fingers. She was sure to develop blisters if she had to do much more of this. One more jump, even slower and more tired than the last. There was a high buzz and a lash of heat at her heels, but she'd almost made it. She just had to keep her hands locked for a little while longer…

Her feet touched stone. Hermione stood there for a moment, awash in a sense of achievement. She had made the crossing without falling even once! Mentally, she thumbed her nose at all the kids who had picked her last for team sports in school.

Then she was hit by a heavy reminder that she had just played Tarzan across thirty meters of leaves and lasers. The semi-unfamiliar ache of exertion rolled across her like liquid lead, pooling at the ends of her limbs. Now she remembered why she preferred reading books to exercising. She wobbled on her feet.

Yellow appeared at her side, looped an arm around her waist, and led her over to the doorway. The air was warmer and wetter, but less musty. A slight itch she only now noticed began to clear from her nose. She and Yellow sat down next to Blue, who was slumped against the wall with his eyes closed in pain and the temple's final key clutched to his chest like a teddy bear.

"You've been casting spells with your Hylian wand and doing a lot more exercise than you're used to. You got injured back in that maze, too. Are you okay?" Yellow asked.

She took a few deep breaths to calm her heart rate. "I think I'll be alright," she said. The magic of the temple was already lifting away some of the unpleasantness. It wasn't quite healing, just a subtle easing that let her catch her breath and quiet the drumbeat in her ears. Her partially-healed injuries were a little louder than they had been before, but it was a dull ache she could ignore for now. "I believe it's becoming clear we may need to start taking potions with us on these trips. Most medical potions are incredibly tricky and expensive to make, but I'm sure there must be something I can brew up. Even a basic painkiller or something akin to an energy drink would be useful." She knew she was capable of making higher-level potions than most anyone in her year (she'd achieved Polyjuice, hadn't she?) but she wasn't willing to pinch anything from Professor Snape's cabinets again. The man was more wound up than ever this year, with monsters making his classes even more explosive than usual.

"Will Moaning Myrtle lend you her bathroom again?"

"She won't have much choice in it," Hermione said. If she was going to brew a potion, she was going to brew a potion. Besides, it would probably improve Myrtle's miserable mood to tease her about the Polyjuice Incident. "The corridor in front of that bathroom always has two Phantoms patrolling it, so she doesn't even see the few people that put up with her anymore. I think she'd like having someone to wail at again."

"You're not going to have us steal from Snape again, are you?" His wide eyes sparkled pleadingly. "He'd expel us for sure!"

"No, no, I think I might try doing things by mail order and scavenging from the Forbidden Forest. I know that Professor Sprout supplies some of Professor Snape's ingredients, too, so I might nip into the greenhouses to see what she won't miss."

"You shouldn't steal from teachers, Hermione."

"It's to help us save the world, Yellow. Some missing Bubotuber pus or Mandrake trimmings are a justifiable sacrifice."

Ron arrived on the final platform, having survived the journey without taking his second muck-bath of the day. He braced his hands on his knees and gulped down air. Hermione felt somewhat vindicated for her own dramatic wheezing.

"If there's another room like this, I might just swim across and have one of you levitate me up," he panted. "Swinging around was fun at first, but now it just hurts."

Hermione knew the feeling. She imagined her arms were going to be far more sore than his when the effects of their adventure caught up with them tomorrow. Though the temples saw fit to heal concussions and cuts after once the adventurers within found the spell scroll, the enchanted buildings didn't appear to deem exhaustion and soreness a pressing issue.

Blue cracked one eye open. "Everyone's here?" he said. Without waiting for a response, he braced his good arm against the wall and climbed to his feet.

Hermione reached out. "Do you need any—?"

He moved her hand to the side. "No, no more taking healing breaks. It's going to waste yet another five minutes, and I think I'll lose my mind if we slow down any more for my injury," he said. "We have the key and the door it goes through is right there, according to the map," he pulled out the folded square of parchment from the back pocket of his trousers. "We could be out of here in less than twenty minutes if we play our cards right, so let's go." Shoving the map back in his pocket, he handed the oversized key off to Yellow and stalked into the next room. For extra effect, he blew a two-fingered whistle.

Ron trudged after him, grumbling, "Hold your horses, we're coming!"

Hermione exchanged worried looks with Yellow before the two walked out together. Now that she had confirmation that Harry's way of thinking wasn't always in his best interest, she was concerned Blue might have been ignoring his own health because he couldn't stand being fretted over for a moment longer. Mere impatience she could understand, but there was a chance this went beyond that.

The next room was one they hadn't come across before in their journey, though it seemed like they should have. It was clearly the center of the building—what had once been a grand atrium. Now it was an algae-ridden greenhouse heated by its poorly-thought-out ceiling. It was a little strange, though, that the stone building was so warm on a mid-autumn day in Scotland. There might have been some magic at work to keep the place so muggy. Perhaps even a chunk of this temple's home climate had been transported with it, out of space and time.

"Oi!" Harry's voice echoed from a considerable distance. Hermione's group peered across the room. Green and Red were standing by one of the side doors of the room and flapping their arms to get the others' attention. Dog pranced around at their side, while Draco was sat against the wall with his arms folded and a tired scowl on his face.

Draco stood up, fixed his robes, and bellowed, "You'd better have found that bloody key!" He lapsed into a violent coughing fit thereafter. It took Red grabbing him by the shoulder to keep him from staggering blindly off of the platform.

"Yeah, we found it!" Ron hollered back. "What's wrong with you?"

"Not sure yet! We're going to the Hospital Wing later!" Red answered for Draco.

The two groups swung across the room with minimum difficulty, since there didn't appear to be any monsters about, and met in front of the temple's intimidating final door.

"We opened the path to get here," Red said proudly. "The key would be useless, otherwise."

"Well, we fought a huge Deku Scrub and found the key, so there," Ron said smugly. "We found the map and compass, too."

Red's eyes lit up. "A huge Deku Scrub?! Where? What did it look like! Was it cool?"

"He was enslaved by dark magic and fighting us against his will," Hermione said sharply. "It wasn't 'cool'; it was cruel."

Red gave her an exasperated look and puffed out his chest. Yellow dove in to cover his mouth before he could say anything. "Yes, it wasn't very nice of Vaati to use mind-control on people. Magical creatures are people too," Yellow quickly agreed with Hermione. The boy hissed something in Red's ear that made his brother cross his arms with a huff.

"Fine, fighting Deku Scrubs is mean," Red muttered. He fell back to exchange whispers with Ron.

"You don't have to do that, you know," Hermione said to Yellow.

"Yes I do," he said brightly. "Adventures are more fun when everyone gets along!"

She raised an eyebrow. If he was compelled to quell arguments before they ruined the "fun", she wondered whether he believed in any of the disarming statements he always had on hand. Did he actually think that battering mind-controlled Deku Scrubs was a bad thing, or was he just saying that to appease her? It was yet another layer to the mystery that was Yellow.

The boy skipped over to talk to Ron and Red, leaving Hermione with Malfoy and Dog. Blue and Green were conferring in front of the big door, likely discussing battle strategies. Malfoy was absently watching the twin boys gesticulate at one another. His scarf sagged around his neck, showing the faintly red-stained and more freshly red-spotted skin of his neck. He must have wiped (or washed, because he had definitely gone for an unwilling swim) the blood away before more had shown up. Hermione tried to take a close look without drawing his attention. There was no visible cut or opening on his neck, just little dried dots where blood had recently seeped through. It reminded her of a poorly-made vase her mother had once owned, which had wept red water through more porous sections of the lacquer.

"I'll tell you what I think it is once we're out of this place."

She jumped at the sound of Malfoy's voice and looked away, blushing. "Was I being that obvious?"

He lifted his chin. "Do you do anything with subtlety?"

"I can if I need to!" she huffed. It wasn't one of her more practiced skills, though. The direct route was usually the most effective.

Malfoy gave her a doubtful look. "You're incredibly obvious, but I do know you're able to keep your mouth shut when needed and read a book thoroughly enough to regurgitate it in class. Those are abilities I need."

She sighed and only just avoided rolling her eyes. This boy's manner of thinking was as alien as Harry's. How did he see people first by their usefulness, and possibly never by their personhood? He would have had a field day setting mind-controlled Deku Scrubs on fire, she was sure.

"Is it about that topic you didn't want me to research for you?" she asked. "The one you mentioned when I found you by the lake?"

The boy's confident posture bled out of him. His chin lowered, his shoulders rolling forward. "Yes," he said. "It's…that."

She tried not to stare, but it was a tall order. Malfoy, looking unsure? This boy, seeming nervous and unconfident? Malfoy?! It was more surprising than seeing him standing hypnotized and lamp-eyed in the Black Lake, honestly.

"Do you have a firmer idea of what this phenomenon is?" she asked carefully.

"I do." He set his jaw. "It has to do with the biology of the different peoples of Hyrule."

Now that he mentioned it, that sounded like a great subject to bring up with Zelda when she got back. She'd been so focused on learning ancient magic and lore that she'd neglected to ask questions about that! Ugh, how could she have let it slip her mind? She was going to start writing down all the lines of inquiry she wanted to explore with Zelda as soon as she had a piece of parchment and a pen.

Malfoy smirked wanly. "Interested, Granger?"

She hadn't realized it had shown so clearly in her expression. "Yes, I am," she admitted. Directly, as was her wont. "You said you'd explain what this entails after the temple?"

He rubbed at his neck. "Well, after the temple and some rest," he admitted. It was very human of him, she thought. "I'm going to need a bath, a clothes-burning ritual, and a full day of sleep before I'm ready to vend any sensitive information."

"That's understandable," she said. "Maybe we can meet tomorrow evening, then?" It would be a Sunday, so while they would both be sore and tired, at least they wouldn't be even more sore and tired from a full day of classes.

"Yes, around eight o'clock. At the Black Lake." His distinctly yellowish eyes flicked away. "You know the specific spot."

Oh, now she understood. He was having these symptoms and researching the magical races of Hyrule? She could put two and two together, even if being tired made her slower at it. "Yes, I do," she said. Malfoy nodded, and that was the end of their conversation.

Notes:

I feel at this point I can comfortably infodump about what I'm doing with the Harrys' personalities, since I have a clear picture in my head now. For the purposes of this summary, "aggro" is aggressiveness in battle, "temper" is how likely they are to pick fights with people (either within their group or to defend their brothers/friends), "magic" accounts for knowledge of conventional spells (and later on, knowledge of Hylian enchanting magic), "grace" is both stamina and the ability to avoid damage, and "HP" equals pain tolerance. The stats I give them here are just a general idea of where their strengths lie.

Green: Green is normal Harry, but with more of a drive to throw himself into danger and investigate weird goings-on. He's the one doing all the sword practice, so he has the highest level of skill. While he's usually in charge, he isn't the most confident and will sometimes step back to let Blue or Red take control of a situation. Like Yellow, he tends to shut down fights within his group. He's the only Harry that can speak/read Hylian and the second-best at academics, so he's usually the one helping Blue with his latest topic of study. His magic-boosted environmental awareness gives him an edge in navigating dungeons, but he isn't the most physically adept of the Harrys.

Yellow: If he seems ditzy and harmless because he uses childish speech and has trouble focusing on schoolwork, good—that means it's working. While Yellow is genuinely a sweet boy, he also exaggerates his cheerfulness in an act of calculated risk avoidance. He isn't just an innocent kiddo who's too cute to stay mad at; he's very intentional about disarming potential conflicts and deflecting questions he's uncomfortable with. He can be scary if he's pushed to defend his friends or brothers, including holding them back from their own poorly thought-out decisions. Yellow enjoys quietly people-watching from a comfy blanket-nest in the Gryffindor common room.

Blue: Blue has all of Harry's drive to learn about things beyond the tiny world of his cupboard, combined with a surprisingly hot temper. He's possessive of his books because he has trouble trusting others, but he enjoys telling people about what he's learned. Blue loves to argue and hates to lose, which can make him difficult to get along with. Even so, he's fiercely protective of his brothers and friends and quick to square up in their defense. He's confident and good at planning/tactics, but easily distracted and impulsive when it comes to acquiring new knowledge, so he's the second-in-command of the Harrys.

Red: Patience and emotional intelligence balance out Red's hotheadedness. He's ruthless in battle and has little tolerance for adults talking down to him, but he's more willing to shrug off insults than Blue and less likely to be rude in return. He's bicker-buddies with Blue, since they both speak their minds and are often on opposite wavelengths. Red works best as emotional and physical support for the group because while he's confident enough to lead, he isn't great at tactics. He has a particular fondness for pretty things/places and is willing to take a lot of weirdness in stride.

Tl;dr: Green can take a hit and is basically normal Harry with more initiative, Yellow can absorb damage with a smile and is cute but calculating, Blue is an injury magnet on the debate team, and Red is a glass cannon and a good shoulder to cry on.

Questions? Comments? Do you think my point values are fair, or is someone too OP? The review engagement on this fic isn't all that high, so I'm kinda flying blind here. Let me know what you think!