It had taken Shirou nearly two months to finish his repairs to the Golden Sword of the Victorious.
And as he held it, looking upon its splendor and feeling its power course through him, Shirou realized something.
This sword was never meant to be his. He had repaired it because it had been Saber's favorite sword. Repairing it had been a way of paying his respects to her and her sacrifice. But it was not his to keep.
So one day, after classes, he took the road leading down to Hagrid's hut. But rather than visiting the man, he slipped past it, into the Forbidden Forest, and circled around the forest until he left Hogwarts ground and into the village of Hogsmeade. There he found a large stone towards the edge of the village, and drove Caliburn into the stone.
"Good luck finding her again." Shirou said, patting the sword's hilt before turning around and going back the way he had come.
It wouldn't be long before people found the sword in the stone, after which, they quickly translated the ruins on its blade.
'Whosoe'er pulleth out this sword of this stone is rightwise king of all England.'
After that, news spread like wildfire. News of the return of King Arthur's sword, and rumor of the return of the king and perhaps, the return of the Great Merlin.
It was Halloween day, just a few days after Shirou had planted Caliburn in the stone, and the gossip had yet to die down about it.
People were already arranging pilgrimages in order to see the fabled sword, and to try to pull it out. Tonks would tell them all about it, as the sudden surge of people gathering around Hogsmeade meant a call for Aurors to police the place, so she was stationed down there often, since it was so close to castle Hogwarts anyways.
Shirou followed the stories with a mixture of amusement and annoyance at how the people were treating the return of Caliburn, the way the media was flocking to it. But in the end, unless the sword really was pulled from the stone, Shirou didn't particularly care what they did.
He had done his part. Now it was up to fate. Shirou had other things to worry about.
"That's odd. Where are Ms. Potter and Ms. Granger?" Professor Sprout asked as it was time for Herbology class to start, but the two girls were nowhere to be seen. "It's not like them to skip class."
Shirou was a little worried.
Halloween seemed to have always been a pretty big deal in Wizarding Britain, and with it being the anniversary of Voldemort's death, it only became bigger. But being the anniversary of Voldemort's death also meant that it was the anniversary of the death of Iris' parents. Something that people constantly thanking her for her great accomplishment was bound to remind her of.
Did she decide to hide for the day? Wouldn't surprise him. She was a little introverted, even at the best of times. Even if she had made progress with Rin and Luvia.
But that didn't explain Hermione being missing.
"Yeah Ron, why are they not here?" One of the Gryffindor said with a bit of venom in her voice.
"Hey, I did nothing wrong!" Ron Weasley shouted, not liking the accusation. "I didn't know Hermione was listening, and I didn't say anything untrue. She doesn't have any friends because she treats us all like we are stupid. You heard the way she currecting us during Charms Class. She was a total snob." Some of the boys voiced their agreement.
"That doesn't give you the right to stay things like that." The Gryffindor girl replied.
"If you feel so strongly about it, then why aren't you friends with her?" Another of the Gryffindor boys said. "Iris was the only one who went with her and that was only out of pity. You girls bully her more than we do."
Voices started to rise more and more until Professor Sprout shouted for them all to be quiet and get to work.
Shirou couldn't exactly blame the boys for their view of Hermione. The girl lacked any sort of filter at all and was rude to just about everyone, always saying exactly what was on her mind. She was smart, talented and daring, but all of that led to her acting self-righteous and condescending. And in the face of adversity, when people got angry at her for her behavior, the girl would double down, rather than admitting she was in the wrong.
It had led to her not having any friends at all, save for Susan Bones, who seemed willing to be friends with anyone. But unlike Iris, who was an introvert and used to and perfectly content to be by herself, Hermione was an extrovert, hungered for acknowledgement, and used to always being able to return home to parents who loved her unconditionally, even if everyone else got angry with her.
She was an eleven-year-old child, and the kind of child who couldn't adjust to dormitory life. It seemed that, after two months at Hogwarts, she finally broke down. Ron's comment had probably just been the straw that broke the camel's back.
Shirou was usually partnered up with Iris, but since most of Herbology was manual labor in the garden, he was more than able to do the job of two people. Or three, since Hermione's disappearance had left Susan in a spot.
"The Gryffindor girls say that Hermione went into the out of order bathroom on the first floor and Iris went to comfort her." Susan said after Shirou helped her with the replanting of that day's herbs. "I think I'll go after class and see if they are still there."
"Alright. Tell me if you need something." Shirou replied. "How about you? You seem a little drained."
"I'm… I'm fine." Susan said, not very convincingly. She had been spacing out all day, and seemed a bit pale.
"If you are feeling unwell, you should visit the Hospital Wing." Shirou suggested.
"No. It's nothing like that. Today is just a bad reminder. That's all." Susan said with a shake of the head. "You probably know this, but You-Know-Who killed a lot of wizarding families. Not just the adults or those who directly opposed him. He would kill everyone, down to the last child. The Bones family actually had a lot of members back in the day, or so I've been told. I never got a chance to meet any of them. For me, it's always just been me and my aunt."
"I see." Shirou nodded his head in understanding. "For some, the celebrations give them closer. For others, it opens up old wounds."
"I guess you don't remember your relatives either." Susan said quietly. "Do you ever wonder what they were like? What they would think of you?"
"...No. I really never have." Shirou admitted.
For Shirou, his blood relatives had just been a few nameless people in a list of over 500 lives that had been lost to the fire. No different than any of the other voices that had screamed out for help as he had tried to crawl his way out of the inferno. His mother could have been the woman trapped under the fallen beam. The baby she was screaming for someone to save could have been him, or a sibling. The child whose body was burned beyond recognition could have also been a brother or sister.
Any of them could have been Shirou's relatives.
And he had left them all to die.
"S…Sorry. That was insensitive of me." Susan stuttered after seeing Shirou's eyes go distant and lifeless. Her voice snapped him out of his recollections and he smiled.
"Don't worry. I'm sure your family would be proud of you, Ms. Bones." Shirou said. The words he knew she wanted to hear.
…But her expression didn't seem at all happy with him.
"It's rare for you to be in the Great Hall, yet you are still sitting alone." Tonks commented, moving over to sit down with Shirou at one end of the long table which belonged to Hufflepuff.
That day, her hair was pumpkin orange with black stripes, and she had chosen a more lively face to fit the party around them.
"Not really one for celebrations, and if Iris comes back, she'd probably want to put distance between herself and other people tonight." Shirou explained.
Because of the Halloween feast, the usual group had elected to join their tables at the Great Hall. But even so, Shirou didn't exactly click with any of his classmates, and forcing himself into their little circles during the middle of a celebration would be rude.
"Where is Iris anyways? I don't see her at the Gryffindor table." Tonks asked him.
"Last I checked, she was sharing a bonding cry with Ms. Granger and Ms. Bones in one of the girls' bathrooms." Shirou reported.
Shirou had been within ear shot as Susan had gone into the bathroom to check on the girls, but left after they all started to share stories of the stress and insecurities they felt from school, feeling that it was rude to listen in without them knowing.
None of them had been in any real danger or anything. They were just children having to adapt to life at a boarding school.
"Bones is one of the first year Puffs, right? I think I remember her. Granger doesn't ring any bells though." Tonks said, tapping her chin.
"Shouldn't. Hermione Granger is a first year Gryffindor. I don't think the two of you would have ever met." Shirou said with a shake of his head.
"That so? Well, just try your best not to add her to your growing collection of girls." Tonks said casually as she grabbed a piece of banana bread and took a bite.
"My what…?" Shirou started to object, but then became distracted as the doors to the Great Hall were thrown open and Professor Quirrell came stumbling in before letting out a scream that easily drowned out the noise of the students.
"TROLL! IN THE DUNGEONS!" Quirrell screamed, silencing the room and drawing all eyes to him. "Tho… thought you ought to…"
Before the man could finish, he was nearly thrown aside and Shirou bolted past him, his reinforced speed sending him flying half-way across the Great Hall and out past the stuttering Professor and into the corridors of Hogwarts before anyone could even react.
Shirou pulled up a mental map of Hogwarts and was glad to find that corridor 1-C on the first floor, where the bathroom that Iris and the others were supposed to be in, was not directly connected to the dungeons, which had access points in corridors 1-A and 1-B. But that didn't mean that there weren't others in danger.
Not everyone was in the Great Hall, and Shirou knew that the Slytheron Dormitory was located in the dungeons, with the Hufflepuff's being in corridor 1-A. It wasn't even unlikely that a student running late to the feast would be milling about in the area.
In order to guarantee that the troll didn't hurt anyone, he would need to find it first and either contain it, or put it down. Time was of the essence, if he wanted to prevent victims.
However, as Shirou moved towards the nearest access to the dungeons, a magical scent caught his attention. A scent of earth, fat and… stupid?
It was a strange way to describe it, but if stupidity had a smell, that was it.
Only the scent wasn't coming from the dungeons. It was coming from a different corridor.
Corridor 1-C.
"Dammit!" Shirou growled, twisting in mid-flight from one of his bounding steps to turn back after having sprung past the corridor where the scent was coming from, rushing back towards the archway that led into that wing of the castle as fast as he could.
Luckily, trolls were legendarily stupid, and it was unlikely that one could even figure out how to use a door. So as long as the girls stayed in the bathroom, they shouldn't be found.
He wasn't far when his reinforced hearing picked up a scream echoing through the hallway.
That was when he remembered that the bathrooms in Hogwarts, for who knows what reason, didn't have doors.
Iris was momentarily shocked as she looked up at the massive form of what she knew to be a mountain troll.
She'd never seen one in person before, but the Room of Requirement was hidden behind a tapestry involving someone trying to teach a group of them to be ballerinas.
The scene had been so comical, that Iris had thought she would never be able to take the creatures seriously, but with a live specimen in front of him, looking like an elephant had somehow managed to stand on two legs, and its tiny head looking around the room as if confused as to how it had gotten there… Iris was very much afraid.
But when a scream echoed through the room, it hadn't been hers.
Hermione and Susan had spotted the troll as well and had both screamed at the sight of its massive form as it leaned over them, while they cowered in the bathroom stalls.
The troll seemed angered by the sudden noise and let out a roar, swinging his club about and smashing the bathroom stalls to pieces, sending pieces of wood everywhere and only missing Hermione and Susan because it hadn't really been aiming its swing and had gone too high when the girls ducked down.
Iris looked at the torn apart pieces of the bathroom stalls, and an image of what would happen if Hermione or Susan were hit flashed in her mind's eye, bringing her to action. "Hey you!" Iris shouted, picking up a piece of wood and chunking it at the troll.
The wood harmlessly bounced off of its body, but the shouting at least grabbed its attention. Realizing that tossing wood wasn't going to be effective, Iris took out her wand, but without any particular spell that could help in mind, she ended up just shooting lights at it.
With huge, resounding footsteps, the troll turned towards her and let out a shout, spittle flying everywhere. Iris was frozen still as a club as large as she was swept out towards her, slamming into her and throwing her back against the wall.
Her head slammed into the stone wall of the bathroom and instantly, lights started to dance in front of Iris' eyes, and sounds started to echo strangely. There was a pain in her arm, but it seemed distant, and when she tried to lift it, it didn't seem to want to bend. It felt like a sack of potatoes.
"Iris…" The cry of Hermione sounded so distant, but Iris tried to turn her head towards it, only to look up at the massive form of the troll standing over her, its club held high. Then, she blinked, and there was something on the troll's shoulder.
She figured she must have been seeing things, because it looked as though Shirou was there, perched on the troll's shoulder, with a white sword in one hand, and what looked to be the hilt of a second sword buried in the troll's head.
The troll was still, a look of frozen shock on its face, and then as sparks of magic flickered around Shirou's hand, the black blade that had been driven into the troll's skull changed shape.
The troll's body slowly fell away, each half going in a different direction, spilling blood and guts everywhere, turning the floor of the girl's bathroom into a pool of red, foul smelling liquid.
And there was Shirou, standing in the middle of it all, holding a six foot long sword that looked like the black, feathered wing of a fallen angel. His clothes were completely soaked in blood that clung to him, though it all seemed to just slide straight off of the blade's surface, like water on duck feathers.
Iris blinked, her mouth hanging open as she looked into his hardened expression… and then the expression and the swords vanished, and the next moment he was on her. "Iris? Can you hear me?"
Iris' mouth didn't seem to want to obey her, so she tried to just nod in response, but was met with a world of pain.
Shirou's hand gingerly touched her head, and for a moment, she thought she saw a look of shock and revolution cross his face, before the worry returned. "Iris, keep your head as still as possible. You have a cranial fracture and any movement that you do might make things worse."
"Shirou, what do you think you are…!?" Tonks voice came from somewhere outside of Iris' vision but suddenly stopped. "Bloody hell!?"
"Iris has been injured! Send a message to Madam Pomfrey and get her to come here this instant! Iris has a cranial fracture, so we can't move her no matter what!" Shirou shouted to Tonks.
Iris then saw him lift up his hands and a long piece of black cloth appeared in them, as Shirou traced a piece of his own clothes, wrapping it around Iris' neck and shoulders and reinforcing it in order to make a makeshift neck brace for the girl.
Tonks had sent the message to Pomfrey, and the Professors who had rushed to the dungeon while Tonks followed Shirou, using her patronus and had come to Iris' side to offer assistance, as her Auror training had included healing magic.
While she didn't trust herself to mend a broken skull, she could at least see to Iris' other broken bones, as long as Shirou could point them out.
At some point, Iris lost consciousness.
The last thing she remembered was Shirou's reassuring smile and assurances that she would be alright.
