"Congratulation Ms. Edelfelt. You have got the needle spell down perfectly. As promised, five points to Slytheron." Professor McGonagall said, nodding her head as she looked over the girl's work as Luvia puffed out her chest with pride.
"Thank you very much, Professor. I'm glad I was able to meet your expectations." Luvia said happily.
It was only the third week of Transfiguration Class, and she already had mastered the spell to the point where she could turn out ten perfect needles in a roll easily, while many of her peers had made no progress at all. Of the four spells they were supposed to learn in their first year, it was the easiest, but since it was their first attempt with Transfiguration, they were expected to spend the first three months on that singular spell while they learned the theory on the side.
But Luvia was so good with the spell already, that she wasn't even starting from match sticks anymore, which was where one usually started with the spell, since the similarities in size and shape made it easier to envision the matchstick as a needle.
Of course, it was only natural that she succeeded so soon. She had been studying the Transfiguration Alphabet for years, and done several mental exercises to improve her focus and prepare herself for the state of mind necessary to cast Transfiguration spells. Just because she hadn't had a wand yet, doesn't mean she had been lazy. She couldn't afford to be when the pride of her homeland was on the line.
She had to succeed, and not just succeed, she had to leave behind a story so great that it would breathe new life into Wizarding Britain, returning it to what it had once been.
She had spent her childhood listening to the stories from the ghosts of her house about the old times. The times before He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and before Grindelwald as well. A time before wizarding society blamed all of its problems on the Muggleborns and Goblins. When Britain had been known as the greatest magical sight in the world, the homeland of the Great Merlin, and the birthplace of the modern wand. Before people saw them as a bunch of paranoid, xenophobic, corrupt brutes with no sense of honor.
Now, places like Japan and America were at the head of innovation, while Britain was left behind, crippled by the deaths of many of their oldest members in the Wizarding World War and in the fighting with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. They were the butt of jokes, as their thinking was described as backwards and foolish. Their proud history disregarded.
In order to regain the pride of her homeland, Luvia could not allow herself to lose to anyone. Especially not the Japanese.
This was why her pride took a hit when a bird's cry sounded in the room, drawing her attention to one of the Hufflepuffs.
Shirou Emiya sat at his decks, running his hand over the feathers of a majestic merlin, the bird of prey having been transfigured from a bird shaped statue he had been given to work with.
The Avifors Spell, a spell that could turn any small object into a bird, was supposed to be the last spell learned during their first year at Hogwarts. The first spell that involved turning a non-living thing into a living one. Yet Shirou Emiya had managed the task by the third week.
Granted, Transfiguration seemed to be the only type of magic he was capable of, as he failed even the simplest charms given in Charms Class. He had only managed to cast the Mending Charm, which itself was really a transfiguration spell, when you thought of it.
"Very good, Mr. Emiya. Leave the bird be so we can see how long it takes it to revert back into a statue. In the meantime you can get to work on starting with different objects. Ah, and ten points to Hufflepuff for quickly learning the spell with minimal instruction." Mcgonagall said.
Luvia bit her lip and was trembling with frustration before she turned to Professor Mcgonagall. "Professor, please teach me the next spell!"
Mcgonagall blinked and returned her gaze to Luvia, a little surprised by her raising her voice. "While I applaud your willingness to keep going, the next step is a spell that turns a single object into multiple objects. A box of matches. It is a considerable increase in complexity."
"I'm ready!" Luvia insisted.
"That may be, but I must see to the other students." Mcgonagall said, gesturing to the rest of the room, where many students had yet to get their original matchsticks to even change color a little. "If you would like to get ahead, I would suggest reading more from your textbook, or asking another member of your house who has already passed the course to advise you, if they have the time."
Luvia wilted a little. "Alright."
She'd have to return to the textbook again and see if she couldn't get more inspiration out of it than she got the first few times, but that would be the best she could do. She couldn't turn to the other Slytherons for help. They wouldn't help her, not for free, and the things that they would want from her she would not be willing to give.
She would not trade her integrity, not for assistance in a mere class.
"If you'd like, I could try to give you a few pointers." Luvia was so surprised by the offer, that it took her a moment to realize who had given it.
Shirou was looking at her with an earnest smile, one that caught her completely off guard.
"Are you sure, Mr. Emiya? Talented as you are, you are no more than a novice yourself." Professor Mcgonagall said.
"They say the best way to learn is to teach. I might not be of much help, but I've got a few mental exercises I do for this. At the very least, it couldn't hurt." Shirou replied with a shrug.
"Very well. If Ms. Edelfelt is alright with it, I have no reason to object." Professor Mcgonagall said, glancing towards Luvia.
Luvia paused for a moment, not sure what she was going to say. Experience had taught her that nothing in life was free. Emiya wanted something from her, even if she didn't know what it was. But looking into his golden eyes she…
"Sure. It couldn't hurt." She finally agreed, though she didn't really look at him.
The both of them changed seats, while several of her fellow Slytherons stared angrily at her. Some because of grudges that they held against Emiya, some because of jealousy about being paired with him… that second group seemed to consist mostly of the girls, and wasn't strictly limited to the Slytherons.
Luvia and Shirou went over the wand motions for the spell and Luvia gave it a few tries, with little luck. Her box of matches was a lump of misformed sticks made out of the same clay she was starting with. "You've got the motions and words down. So you just need to work on your perspective of the problem." Shirou said.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Luvia asked.
"You are thinking of the box and the matches and being separate things, when in reality it is all the same existence." Shirou said, then seeing Luvia's bitter expression, he pulled out his wand and held it out in front of her. "What do I have in my hand?"
"A wand." Luvia said, stating the obvious.
"Yes. It is a wand. But it is also made up of multiple parts. There is the wood and also the core. Both are separate, but they make up the same whole." Shirou said. "Whenever you are trying to transfigure the box of matches, you need to understand the pieces that make up the whole, but when you are constructing it in your mind, you must focus on the individual pieces, but on its identity as a whole. A bird is all of its feathers and other parts, but the whole is more than the sum of those parts."
Shirou then waved his own wand, casting the spell and turning the clay into a box of matches, telling Luvia to pick up and look at each match and the box and to start making a list of all of the details of them. Then instructed her in how to visualize the relationship between each individual piece.
Luvia made another few attempt, and in time the matches were at least the right shape and had a tips, even if those tips were not able to light and the box looked indistinct.
Shirou congratulated her on the improvement and then started to explain to her the next step; understanding the chemical makeup of the tip of the matches, and how to describe it using the Transfiguration Alphabet.
He spent the better part of class talking her through the details, not only of the spell they were working on, but on the greater philosophy surrounding material existence in magic. And by the end of it, Luvia was sure that she had a greater understanding of what Transfiguration Magic was.
But through it all, one question was left unanswered.
"Why?" Luvia asked him as the class was winding down to the end.
"Is there something you didn't understand?" Shirou asked back, not getting what she was asking.
"Why are you helping me?" Luvia asked again, being more specific.
Shirou blinked at her before chuckling to himself. "Why indeed. It is kind of hard to explain." Shirou said thoughtfully. "I suppose you could say that I am trying to repay a debt."
"A debt? A debt to who?" Shirou didn't respond. He just kept chuckling to himself as he packed up his things and left class. "Hey! Answer me, Emiya! Don't you walk away! Hey!"
"So this is where you've been hiding during every meal." Luvia said, crossing her arms and glaring at Rin after having followed Shirou into the Room of Requirement.
"Why did you have to bring her here?" Rin let out a growl of annoyance, returning Luvia's glare.
"No fighting you two." Shirou said, reaching out and grabbing an apron off a peg. "Today we will be preparing pork ramen from scratch, so let's get started."
"Um… sure." Iris said, following his lead, though her eyes lingered on Luvia.
"Cooking? Why are you cooking for yourself? That's what the House Elves are for." Luvia asked, looking away from Rin to stare at Shirou.
"Many of the same principles for why you do things in potion making are also present in cooking. So it is a way of practicing potion making without dealing with the costs of some of the potion ingredients. Also, you can eat it afterwards." Shirou said, giving his justifications.
"You're comparing potion making to something as mundane as cooking?" Luvia said in disbelief. "If Professor Snape heard you say that, he'd kill you."
"Unlikely. Emiya is his favorite student." Rin said with a huff.
"What!? You're joking!? That narcissistic brown noser likes a student who doesn't even have a family background!" Luvia shouted.
"'Narcissistic brown noser'?" Iris said, perking up at hearing her least favorite teacher being insulted.
"Of course. Why do you think he so obviously favors his own house so much? It's because he's trying to milk brownie points out of them because most of them are going to someday have Ministry jobs. Nepotism and all that." Luvia said before a thoughtful look spread across her face. "Maybe he thinks that Emiya really is the son of Kiritsugu Emiya and he is hoping that kissing up to his son will make the father less likely to hunt him down. He did get fingered as a Death Eater once, even if Professor Dumbledore vouched for his character."
"Kiritsugu Emiya? Who's that?" Rin asked, unfamiliar with the name, but her interest peaked by something possibly related to Shirou. Iris was also listening carefully, wanting to know who Kiritsugu was.
She also wanted to know what that was about Snape being a suspected Death Eater.
"He was a big time Auror back when You-Know-Who was running around, and probably killed more Death Eaters than anyone else. They say his methods were so scary that many Dark Witches and Wizards fled the country out of fear of what would happen to their families." Luvia recounted for the pair of witches. "After the fall of You-Know-Who, Emiya went and rounded up ten high ranking members of the Ministry and executed them. Turned out, they were all Death Eaters who were escaping judgment using bribes, but, with the war over, executer criminals was no long considered an acceptable practice. So he was stripped of his status as an Auror and left the country. But since he is still alive, many families with Dark Wizards hiding in them are terrified of him. Sometimes, suspected Dark Wizards just disappear without a trace. There is no evidence that it is Emiya doing it, but people still suspect."
"Well, that certainly would explain some things." Rin said, thinking of how scared Malfoy seemed to be of Shirou, and how Shirou was a little TOO good at potion making. Though it was hard to equate the relaxed and caring Shirou with a vigilante, serial killer.
"Excuse me. I'm sorry to ask this but, you are a Slytheron, right?" Iris asked nervously.
"I am. Why?" Luvia replied, confused by the sudden question.
"Oh… It's just… ah…" Iris didn't know what to say, but that got the question across anyways.
"I see. You've heard that whole 'all Dark Wizards come from Slytheron' thing, haven't you?" Luvia guessed. Iris' embarrassed silence was answer enough. "Well, even if it isn't true that 'all' of them come from Slytheron, I can't exactly argue that a majority don't." Luvia said with a sigh. "All Slytherons are people with great ambitions who want to make it to the top, usually politically, and to do that, they have to work the system. It is a sad truth that one of the dominant political parties at the moment usually spouts a very certain type of message. So in order to get anywhere, they have to conform to that message, at least on the surface. I'd say only about 20% of them are really Dark Wizard sympathizers, but it is a really vocal and stupid 20%, and the rest go along with it out of necessity."
"Funny, hearing you call people 'vocal and stupid'." Rin quipped.
"What did you say!?" Luvia growled back, the two immediately at odds again, while Iris just stared in bewilderment.
"Hey!" Shirou shouted, getting all of their attention. He'd already assembled the ingredients and tools they would need on the counter. "If the three of you want to eat, I suggest we get working."
And just like that, Luvia had joined their cooking class… whether she wanted to or not.
