It was an odd group that entered Gringotts. One was a sickly Magus (not wizard), one looked like a blond vampire with his red eyes (quickly dismissed as he wasn't bothered by the sun in the least), and two red haired children. One was a boy looking in awe of the open use of magic, the other a young girl who hid her hair under a ball cap with a Japanese logo on it. She stuck close to the red-eyed blond and beside the other boy.
The goblins raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. If the wizards hadn't picked up on what the majority of the group were, then they weren't about to enlighten them.
"Reason for visit?"
"I need to get an adoption cleared up," said Kiritsugu. Gil was there mostly so he could help Amy take control of her accounts, which he knew she had to have.
All Kiritsugu had to do was act as her legal and magical guardian. Gil would take care of the rest.
"Four doors down and on the left. Next!"
Sharpfang looked at the odd group curiously.
"Why would a Magus wish to adopt a witch?" he asked. The groups rarely if ever got along outside of business.
Kiritsugu gave Gil a look. He decided to explain.
"Amy, could you take off your cap for a minute?" he said.
Amethyst removed her cap. The goblin choked.
"Rowena Potter?!" he said in disbelief.
"Not any more," said Gil firmly.
Amy went closer to Gil.
"Could someone explain, please?" begged the goblin.
And so Gil explained about how Amy had somehow managed to contract him as her familiar, and how they had ended up in the care of Kiritsugu Emiya.
Finally the goblin asked why they had come.
"We need to make this adoption legal in both the mundane and magical side. That way she could take magic classes in Japan and never be picked up by the fools who left her with that family. As you can see, she really doesn't want to be back in England right now," said Gil.
The goblin noted that the Potter girl was unusually meek. She seemed practically glued to the blond's arm and stayed within reach of the other boy.
"I can hand you the paperwork. Fortunately Dumbledore believes his pawn to still be safely at her aunt's, otherwise he might try to stop this. What name shall we file this under?"
Kiritsugu finally spoke up. He had thought this over for a week and he decided that this would be the perfect chance to hide her.
"Kaede Amethyst Emiya. That way they'll never know she vanished from their radar," he said.
"We'll change her name and the vault label. Once that goes through we'll file the adoption papers at the Ministry. Now, do you want to do a check to see if any other issues might arise from the adoption?" asked the goblin.
"How about a heritage test, one that goes back to the first magical relative? I've had some suspicions about her ancestor, but it would be nice to have them confirmed," said Gil.
"Ability and heritage test. We'll take the fee straight from her account. How about the other child? I can sense his unusual magic from here," said Sharpfang.
Shiro looked eager to see if he had any real aptitude for magic.
An hour later, Amy was legally made Kiritsugu's adopted daughter (along with Shiro being her older brother). But it was the heritage test that had the goblins in an uproar.
Gil was right when he suspected her of being Arturia's descendant. He just wasn't expecting her to be related through Mordred of all people.
The goblins were more in an uproar over the fact that the Potter girl was literally related to Ravenclaw. Lily had definitely known about it, but had kept her peace...aside from naming her daughter after the founder as a not-so-subtle hint. Despite contrary reports, James Potter wasn't related to Godric Gryffindor...but Remus Lupin was.
Not that he was aware of this, but as it turned out one of the children Godric had adopted during his life had the werewolf gene and had children...and since he had blood adopted them, they were considered his heirs in lieu of blood children. One of the stipulations to get the account was that they had to be a werewolf...but they couldn't go out and get bit deliberately just to gain the vault.
As a victim of Fenrir Greyback, Remus qualified. The fact he did his best to keep from hurting others during that time only meant he was allowed to keep the vault.
Another big thing was that the goblins registered her and Shiro in Japan...they had a branch there that they could use to access their vaults.
To the surprise of many, Shiro turned out to be Amy's cousin from her mother's side, twice removed.
Gil was registered as her familiar, and they left it at that. It was easier than explaining the Servant system of the Heaven's Feel tournament.
By the time they left England, Kiritsugu had a massive headache...one that was compounded by the fact that they had a run in with the infamous Zelretch of all people while they shopped at a bookstore so Amy had something to read. He gave the girl something to keep, before leaving without warning.
Later inspection revealed it to be a graphic novel called Chrono Crusade, specifically a few volumes up to the point where they introduce Jewel Summoners. Kiritsugu could already see that his newly adopted daughter would have fun trying to recreate that particular magic.
A few months and several botched attempts to use his natural circuits later, Gil finally had enough of Shiro's rather poor attempts to learn magecraft and took matters into his own hands.
Specifically by handing him one of his not-so-rare jewels filled with prana and telling him to swallow it.
Shiro, once told by Kiritsugu that this was a less common method of awakening any natural circuits, swallowed the gem and was promptly knocked out by Gil.
The next morning he finds that his luck at reinforcement has shot up exponentially. He could now reinforce a simple rock.
Of course shortly before Amy's eighth birthday (she had been six when she accidentally summoned Gil) Kiritsugu found himself with the unique issue of having the Japanese Ministry approach him about the children's magical schooling. He kept shooting Gil evil looks for laughing at his predicament. It was, after all, the brat's fault that Shiro and Amy had been picked up by their magical sensors around Japan.
At least he didn't have to pay for it.
Shiro looked at Gil with surprise.
"How is it that you're taking the same classes as us when you look like you're ten?" he asked.
Gil hooked a thumb at Amy.
"Familiar. By law, a witch, wizard or magus may bring a bonded familiar so long as they are able to follow the rules. Since I am actually a Servant, and can understand human speech, I am allowed to join you two and defend Amethyst if need be."
"And the fact you aren't technically human?" he asked.
It didn't bother Shiro that Gil wasn't even human, since he occasionally managed to keep Taiga from huggling him to death after giving her food. Well that and he found it highly amusing to watch his adopted father get migraines from all the crap Gil dumped on him as the only 'adult' of the group.
Gil had entirely too much fun with that, and the fact was Kiritsugu would strangle him if he could get away with it.
Though the Servant did have a certain amount of enjoyment by helping the ex-assassin make things much more difficult for Kirei just because they could.
He now had an over-worked schedule trying to find the source of the Mystic Codes that now littered the city and no idea who the hell was behind it. One of Gil's treasures was a scrying mirror and the two had a great deal of amusement watching the priest tear his hair out trying to put an end to this.
His current belief was that an Apostle had settled in the town and was trying to gain more familiars...this was mostly because people kept mentioning red eyes and nothing else.
"Welcome to the Japanese Academy for Magic. You would be Shiro and Kaede yes?" said the older student.
For some reason most of the students were wearing something that greatly resembled shrine outfits. Red for the girls and blue for the boys. This was further emphasized by the fact that many had bows and arrows on their backs, or swords.
Shiro immediately fell in love with the place.
Amy stayed behind Gil. Despite being around caring people, she was still very shy and tended to hide behind the blond boy.
The older girl smiled at her.
"Shy are we?"
Gil repressed the desire to roll his eyes.
"Kaede was in an abusive home for several years, and only recently has started to come out of her shell. As such she has trouble being alone in the same room with any males older than thirteen," he said.
"We were informed of the abuse early. She'll be in mostly girl-only classes, barring the mixed ones where Shiro-san will be joining her. As her familiar you are free to join her in any class except the times that involve changing," she said with a frown.
"I tend to avoid the area if she's changing," said Gil flatly.
"Why don't we get you three sorted out. You can pick whichever classes interest you and we'll work out a schedule so you don't have to neglect your mundane education."
"Oh thank kami! I was afraid Taiga would maul me if I ended up having to drop out of the school!" said Shiro in relief.
Seeing the questioning look, Gil smirked as he explained.
"Shiro and Kaede have a surrogate older sister/guardian in the Fujimura yakuza group, specifically the granddaughter of the head of the family named Taiga. She takes education very seriously and plans to become a teacher with no connections to the criminal activity her family is known for...and she's an unrepentant mooch who comes over frequently to bum off meals," said Gil.
"Ah," said the other girl tactfully, not sure what to really say to that.
Tohsaka Rin was a Magus, born and bred. She was also the heir of the Tohsaka clan and the second owner of the lands that held the Grail War.
So finding out that her home was playing host to two wizards and a witch came as an unwelcome surprise.
It took her a week to find their home and an hour to get over the fact that her Father's Servant was now in the service of another and that Kiritsugu Emiya was still around.
Fortunately Gil was able to diffuse the situation by suggesting she join them in some of their magus classes...and have Kaede give her a bag of hard to find jewels to appease the tsundere.
On the plus side, they were now allowed to live in Fuyuki without having the Magus who owned the place kicking them out. On the downside, Rin now joined them in classes and tended to boss around two of the three children. She didn't bother with Gil because she knew he could and would ignore her orders.
At least now Amy had a girl her own age to be friends with...even if she preferred the timid Sakura Matou to the bossy Rin Tohsaka.
Amethyst, age 11...
"Is that an owl?" said Shiro.
"A horned owl to be exact. What's it doing here?" asked Kiritsugu.
For the past four years, Kiritsugu had been the subject of much curiosity among the magically inclined. Because of the nature of his curse, they had to transfer his mind and what was left of his magical crests into a new body, and the original was made into a test subject in hopes of finding a way to reverse the corruption of the Grail.
With the knowledge that the Grail would restart a little over ten years after he had destroyed it, Kiritsugu had dropped most of his objections to having his mind put in a new body built from his DNA. Plus there was every chance that he would see his daughter Illyasviel again.
Gil was the one to grab the letter. He scowled, before he reached into the Gate of Babylon for paper and pen. He wrote a quick missive in English and had the owl take it back.
"What was that about?"
"Take a look. But it would be better if Amy didn't touch it...damn thing has a port-key on it set to her signature."
"I thought post owls would only hand over the letter to it's recipient?" said Shiro. Kiritsugu was scowling at the letter though.
"In the case of familiars, if they have the intelligence then they can remove it in place of their Master. The owl saw I had her signature, so it let me take the letter," explained Gil.
"What's it for?" asked Shiro.
"It's her Hogwarts letter. Though judging by the books required alone and the fact they still used pewter cauldrons, there is no way in Enma's fiery hell I'm letting any of you change schools," he said.
Shiro looked at the booklist and winced. Most of the texts were very outdated and the rest were only good in Europe, particularly the history one.
A few days later another owl appeared. Gil took it and removed the charm, having looked up the counter just in case.
"They don't know how to take no for an answer do they?" he said.
Kiritsugu scowled big time as he read the letter.
"Dear Ms. Potter
A representative will arrive at your residence to discuss your schooling on August 3rd. Please prepare accordingly..."
"What do we do?" asked Shiro, having read over his father's shoulder.
"I'll send you two to school early while I deal with this nonsense. It would be better to confront them in an area full of magic users than to have them near mundane population in the event they try something."
Even after retiring from the game, Kiritsugu was still an ex-assassin and Magus-raised to boot. He wouldn't put it past the wizard to try something just because they didn't want to cause a scene with the neighbors.
Forcing them to go to the Japanese school to see Amy was just strategic planning. Not to mention gave them a major advantage in the event they attempted to steal her again.
The next morning Amy, Gil and Shiro immediately headed to class early. Taiga was disappointed to find out that they had gone to their special classes instead of regular school, since it meant she couldn't bum off breakfast.
Kiritsugu waited for whoever was unlucky enough to be sent to get the 'Girl-Who-Lived'.
He didn't have to wait long. Right before lunch he sensed someone crossing his boundary wards. He had his special gun in a place he could reach with ease...old habits died hard.
There were two people, and he had to suppress a groan at who was sent.
These idiots were worse than Magi when it came to being discreet!
"Get in here already! I don't need the yakuza down the street to see you!" he hissed at them.
He brought out mats for the outside (some had to be put together for the taller man) and some tea. It was bad enough he couldn't let the obvious half-giant into his house without worrying about holes in his thin floors.
The woman, who wore her hair in a strict bun and actual robes (which not even Magi would wear as that was far too old fashioned even for them) sat down awkwardly.
"Where is Rowena?" asked the woman.
"At school, with her brother and familiar. I sent them there early so they wouldn't be overwhelmed by you. Amy in particular would not have reacted well to him," said Kiritsugu, looking at the half-giant.
"I am Minerva McGonagall, Transfiguration teacher at Hogwarts. This is Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of the Keys."
"Emiya Kiritsugu...formerly known as the Magus Killer," he said bluntly.
Seeing her stiffen, he gave a mirthless smile.
"I'm retired."
"How did Rowena end up in Japan of all places?" asked McGonagall.
"From what I was told by her familiar, her uncle, and I use the term in the loosest of definitions, brought her here to murder her and get away with it. She narrowly escaped before he could try, and one of my neighbors happened to find her living in an abandoned house with her familiar Gil. She was given the option of living with the woman in question, or with me and my adopted son Shiro. She chose to stay here," said Kiritsugu, not mincing the story.
"Her...familiar?"
"There are certain spirits here in Japan that can be summoned as familiars...in this case she summoned what is known as a Servant, which is a familiar which primarily takes on human form."
"And where is Rowena?"
"At her school. Shiro, Gil and Amethyst all attend a magical school which is run by a shrine the next town over. It's considered a cram school by the Japanese education system," said Kiritsugu.
"I would like to confirm that she is indeed happy here, and that she is already receiving quality magical education," said McGonagall.