Matou Shinji and the Philosopher's Stone
A Harry Potter / Fate Stay Night Story
Disclaimer: Though I wish it were otherwise, I do not own or in any way, shape or form hold a legal or moral claim to elements of either the Nasuverse, the Potterverse, or other works I may reference in the course of this story.
Summary: Ladies of Eternity, magi of the past hiding in the present, with ancient, nigh unfathomable crafts at their command. That is the destiny of a Witch in the Moonlit world, with the female child of a witch bearing the destiny of inheriting the blood and history of their line without any exceptions, upon which the mother will expire, her task done. But this is a story of a Witch's son – a boy tossed aside by destiny – a boy determined to become someone special, with blood, sweat, and wand. This is the story of Shinji Matou, and his newfound path in the Wizarding World.
Chapter 18. Dungeons and Demons
Matou Shinji panted as he tucked himself close to an earthen wall, trying to get control of his breath as he lit up his surroundings with a quickly cast Lumos. That had been entirely too close – he'd barely escaped the latest danger of this challenge. But that was no surprise – he'd almost failed the challenge from the very start, when a pack of vicious dogs, glowing with an eerie silver light, had melted out of the darkness mere meters away from his position.
They'd lunged at him, trying to tear out his throat – he'd only survived because his ofuda had responded to his will, with one such intercepting the spectral canines mid-leap and erupting into a burst of pure white light that caused them to shriek in pain – and vanish.
Shinji, of course, had been knocked on his arse by the explosion, his head ringing with how close it had been – though he had the presence of mind to cast a hurried Lumos to provide some illumination so he could see just where he'd materialized.
A central square of a village. Or the blackened, fire-gutted ruins of what used to be one, with the still-smoking skeletal remnants of houses and shops – a haunting reminder of what awaited him if he failed on this cold, moonless night.
Next to him was a small chest, containing three emergency Portkeys – in the form of fuzzy green mittens - as well as his mission briefing.
Welcome to the Defense against the Dark Arts Dungeon Challenge. The creator of the Book of Spells and Professor Quirinus Quirrell remind you that they take no responsibility for accidental death, maiming or insanity during the course of this exercise. This simulation is designed to prepare you for an emergency situation in which you are the only available responder and has been tailored to your year and skill level. Your actions will be judged and weighed throughout and your final score will be based on your ability to remain on mission.
This is a Seek & Preserve Scenario, set in the last days of the war against You-Know-Who.
You are the first wizard to arrive after a disastrous raid by Death Eaters, whose role is to rescue survivors – a group of 18 Squibs that have sought refuge in the caverns a quarter-mile directly west of the village. You have been provided with three Portkeys to facilitate their evacuation, though the chest also serves as a Portkey, if necessary. Each Portkey will activate thirty seconds after being touched simultaneously by six or more survivors, or if one uses the incantation of "Portus."
Your final score will be based primarily on the number of living survivors.
The location is Scotland. The current time is midnight. Level of Danger: Unknown. You have three hours.
…not a lot of time, that.
Not with caverns to search, Dark Creatures on the loose, and survivors to round up. Though at the very least, the ambush by Gytrashes - spectral creatures who straddled the line between life and death. As some of the most voracious predators known to wizard kind, they fed on fear and life alike, and dwelt in the shadows, where they lurked unseen until it was too late.
Two or three bites would have killed him, no matter where – so it was reasonable to write off the village as a place to search, as anyone without magic would have died. For anyone with magic, however, keeping them at bay was as simple as using the Wand-Lighting Charm – and a light that was bright or close enough could wipe them from existence.
Though to stand one's ground and use Lumos in that situation required…
'…not panicking and keeping a clear head,' Shinji recalled, thinking back to what the theme of the Professor's lectures had been. 'Clever bastard…'
And of course, while one was using the Wand-Lighting Charm – a continuous spell - one couldn't exactly cast other spells. So if a moving source of light were to draw other creatures…well, one would have very little time to extinguish the light and deal with them.
'…I'd better move quickly then,' he had thought, pocketing the Portkey mittens in his pants pocket, quickly glancing at a still-standing street-sign and heading west, thinking that the faster he was out of town the better.
…and hoping he wouldn't have to use too many ofuda. They had the potential to be more powerful than his cast spells, yes, but he had a limited stock.
Each one he used was one he'd have to make again, and he'd worked hard in his spare time to restock what he'd lost after Halloween.
At first, all had seemed quiet, with Shinji keeping an eye on the edge of the light his wand cast, looking for any signs of more Gytrashes. As he walked, the only sounds present were the thudding of his heartbeat and the crunch of his footsteps on the gravel of the street, both maddeningly loud in the silence.
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
Crunch. Crunch. Cru-crunch.
Shinji had whirled at the sound of what seemed like a second set of footsteps, glowing wand levelled, but all he saw was a grey chunk of rubble. A perfectly understandable thing to see in the ruins of the village, considering how all of the buildings were mere skeletons of themselves, bare of wooden planks, stones, or bricks.
Maybe he was hearing things in his nervousness, he'd thought, as he turned west again and continued onwards.
Crunch. Cru-crunch. Crunch.
Cru-crunch. Crunch. Cru—
Once more Shinji whirled, seeing just another grey chunk of rubble on the road. He sighed and started to turn around again, but froze mid-turn.
'Wait…that piece looks exactly the same as the last.'
There was something off about this. Something very off, Shinji had thought, as he turned west again, dousing his wand for a moment, while readying an ofuda just in case his suspicions panned out.
He stepped forward.
Crunch.
He took another step.
Crunch.
He took a third and—
Cru-crunch.
—cried out "Flipendo", his wand pointing behind him, vaguely towards where the piece of rubble would have been relative to him had it been following him and keeping the same distance.
His reward had been a blood-curdling shriek of pain, as the Pogrebin – as the foot-tall demon was called, with its hairy body and an oversized grey head – was thrown back, a mouth full of sharp, jagged teeth revealing themselves as the creature sprang to attack—
Boom!
—and was blown to smithereens by an explosive ofuda, the explosion echoing in the ruins, with one of the skeletal buildings collapsing.
Shinji had sighed and shaken his head. While yes, a Pogrebin could be defeated easily enough – with simple hexes or even kicks, if he hadn't noticed it until later, he might have found himself in a bad state. After all, its modus operandi was to tail a human, with its very aura slowly eroding the human's confidence, forcing the victim to feel a sense of despair and futility will wash over the Human. And when a victim was overcome – then and only then the Pogrebin would attack and devour the hapless person.
But since he hadn't known it was a Pogrebin at the time, he hadn't been about to let such a being get within reach of his body, lest it was something more dangerous.
He would have to keep a close eye on his surroundings, just in case that was not the only one. That, and his actions had probably drawn attention. Had he been too hasty? Should he have waited until he wasn't in the open before exposing and killing it?
Suddenly, Shinji was much less sure.
Casting Lumos once again, he'd hurried onwards, redoubling his speed. He still hadn't made it to the cavern yet, after all, hadn't even made it out of the village, at that, and already fifteen minutes had elapsed.
Fifteen agonizingly long minutes, with every nerve on edge, wondering where the next attack would come from, what seemingly innocuous thing would turn out to be dangerous. And so far, only two sets of enemies, though here and there he saw glints of silver that indicated Gytrashes tracking him – something he was not comfortable with.
Should he conjure blue fire in one of his hands to illuminate his path and keep his wand ready for more offensive spells, if needed? Should he use his wand for illumination and keep his ofuda ready? It was hard to say, though so far he leaned towards the latter.
Just in case, since it was his ofuda which had seen him through his first real battle.
And for a while, everything had seemed ok. The Gytrashes were at bay, no more Pogrebins were trailing him, and…
'…do I hear…buzzing?'
A buzzing sound at the edge of his perception, one that – if he wasn't mistaken – had begun to get louder and louder.
"Nox. Incendio!" he shouted, his light at the tip of his wand going dark, replaced by a gout of orange and red flames a moment later, which he shot towards the buzzing, as multiple flaming things approached, screeching as their beetle-like wings caught fire, along with their coarse, black hair.
Doxies.
Normally considered mere pests of the wizarding world,the Biting Fairies, as they were sometimes called, could be quite an annoyance, as they liked light and sound and noise – and were unfortunately blessed with a double row of venomous teeth, which could make one quite ill.
And not just one Doxy.
This…was a swarm. A swarm of angry, biting things that were now on fire.
'Kuso. Kuso. Kuso. Kuso.'
He needed to get to the caves. Now.
So Shinji ran, as fast as his legs would take him, occasionally dropping a pair of ofuda behind him, the first of which would then erupt in a flash of light about fifteen seconds after he moved away, stunning a number of Doxies - which then were roasted to a crisp with a followup fireball.
Whump-Boom!
Whump-Boom!
Whump-Boom!
But the more he attacked the swarm, the more it grew, until the stars were blotted out by a mass of these false fairies and the sound of buzzing came from everywhere.
Whump-Boom!
Shinji's breathing had begun to go out of control as he ran and ran and ran, his feet covering ground as quickly as he could. It wasn't working. It wasn't as if there was some Doxy Queen he could slay, some heart of the swarm he could pacify to stop them – they didn't work like that. At least, he didn't think so. If he had some Doxycide though – but well, he didn't, so that was a moot point.
The Matou boy was seriously beginning to regret not focusing more of his attention on Defense against the Dark Arts instead of Potions and Charms, since not knowing all the details of these creatures was proving to be a very bad thing indeed.
Where was it?
Where was the cave?
Where was the—AHHHHHHHH!
The ground gave way beneath Shinji's feet, and down he fell. Down, down, down, with cold, damp air rushing past him and him just barely managing to keep hold of his wand as – FLUMP – with a funny, muffled sort of thump he landed on something soft.
He felt the urge to puke as he doubled over, fighting to keep his breath under control, his free hand gripping some kind of…tentacle? No, it was a dark colored vine, the light from his wand told him, from the plant that had broken his fall.
How far had he fallen? He couldn't even see the hole above him, though there was a crude series of rungs carved into the wall.
At least he couldn't hear the buzzing anymore. The doxies must not come down here, for whatever reason.
He was safe.
…or so he thought until he tried to move, only to find that the vines had already twisted, snakelike around his ankles, and now were moving towards his arms.
'Oh. Shit.'
Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. What was this? What was this? Professor Sprout had mentioned a rare plant that liked to strangle whatever it touched, a plant that unfortunately resembled a common houseplant that practitioners of witchcraft were apparently fond of—flitterblooms or some such.
What was it?
But he couldn't remember, not out of breath from running as he had been, so he did the only thing that he could think to do.
Kill it with fire.
"Incendio!" Shinji roared, a jet of flame shooting forth from his wand towards the dark tangled vines and body of the plant.
And it worked. In a matter of seconds, Shinji had felt it loosening its grip as it cringed away from the light and warmth. Wriggling and flailing, it unraveled itself from his body, and he was able to pull free.
Which was how he'd found himself in his present situation, leaning against the wall in one of the tunnels leading away from the area protected by what he now remembered was Devil's Snare, peering down into the gloom for any signs of human presence.
He patted himself to make sure the emergency Portkeys were there – thankfully, they were—and breathed a sigh of relief. How had he thought this was going to be easy? Sure, some had said that this was hardly a challenge, since Neville Longbottom currently held the top spot on the first year leaderboard, but then others had mentioned that the scenario was very mean-spirited, often leaving someone no option but to fail.
Or so it seemed. In some of those situations where people had complained that they had been forced to fight Death Eaters or other such, because they couldn't reach the front door of a building otherwise, Shinji had often wondered why they didn't just unlock the back door or sneak out a window. After all, wasn't that what Alohomora was for in the first place?
But he remembered most practitioners of witchcraft were supposed to be notoriously bad at logic, so he hadn't said anything at the time. After all, the more people who failed, the greater his own chance at winning the tome would be…right?
Of course, that was provided that he won, his prospects for which seemed fairly dim at the moment, not with his performance so far.
Still, Matou Shinji would not be Matou Shinji if he didn't at least try. His pride would allow him no less, so with wand held lightly in the palm of his hand, a number of ofuda prepared for use if he needed them, and emergency portkeys in his pockets, the boy continued on through the gloom.
But it wasn't gloomy long, as the boy saw a dim, flickering light in the distance.
As he walked on, he found the light grew brighter, until he emerged from the narrow, dank tunnel into a grand chamber, from which six tunnels diverged, if one included the tunnel down which he'd come. The only difference was that while his archway had permitted easy entry and exit, each of the other five was blocked by a wall of flame, which doubled as the illumination of the room.
He put out his wand with a whispered Nox to get a better look – and to prepare himself to use spells if necessary.
From what he could see, the flames were erupting from a grille set into the ground, over which roamed scaly lizards glowing red with inner heat.
Salamanders, these were, aptly named for the elemental spirits of fire, and they both fed and fed on the fire that birthed them. For now, they didn't seem to have noticed his arrival, but that could change easily enough. They were never docile creatures at the best of times, and if disturbed tended to swarm those that disturbed them.
As for the room itself, it was large – about ten meters across – but otherwise utterly unremarkable, aside from being dominated by an altar of some kind in the very center of the room. The bare walls were a smooth, even grey, and the floor too was smooth and bare, aside from some greyish-brown stones the size of his head.
The altar itself was about waist high and two meters across, with a crimson pentacle inscribed in the center, each of the five points aligning with an irregular depression on the altar that corresponded to one of the five flaming paths.
A puzzle then.
At least he hoped so. Obviously, his most powerful offensive abilities – his explosive ofuda—would probably not be of much use against salamanders, which dwelled in – thrived in – fire. For that matter, ofuda in general tended to have a nasty weakness to flames, so he'd have to rely on his wand skills, which he had to concede were not the best, given what he'd been spending his time on.
And from what he remembered, even if he managed to get rid of one salamander…
'Another one will take its place, as long as the fire stays lit.'
However, if that fire were to be extinguished, with even its embers put out, the salamanders birthed by it would die instantly. Somehow, he didn't think Aguamenti alonewould suffice, but he wanted to see if such a direct approach had been warded against. He was sure it had, but figured that he could probably hold off a small group of salamanders for a short time, if that was what it took.
Just to be safe though, he'd try the furthest archway from him, just so he had room to move if things went badly.
"Aguamenti," he called out, a powerful jet of water hissing into steam as it shot from his wand into the flames warding the passage, with some dripping onto the red-hot grille below.
That hiss doubled and redoubled as the salamanders that had been luxuriating in the heat of the fire noticed his efforts and began moving towards him, shuffling out of the fire with eyes and scales aglow with inner heat.
'Shit.'
Gritting his teeth, he kept the spell up, feeling it leech away at his prana reserves as slowly—ever so slowly—the fire began to flicker out. Alas, just as the fire began to grow dim, his spell puttered out, and streams of multicolored flames shot forth from what looked like a line of jeweled boulders just beyond the wall of fire to rekindle the warding flame.
Obviously, the direct approach was not going to work…and the salamanders were coming, swarming to the left of the great altar as they made their way closer to him.
'Ok. I can still do this. I just can't let them touch me.'
Just like the Doxies.
How very…inconvenient.
There were many things he wanted to say about the situation he found himself in, but he knew he had to concentrate. What was he going to do? He couldn't put out the fire with water, he didn't have any offensive ice spells (and he was very much regretting not learning the Freezing Charm from the Weasleys after the Troll Incident), and angry salamanders were now after his blood.
There was nothing in this room he could use to defend himself. Just some grey boulders lining the—
That was it.
—if he couldn't quench the salamanders, he'd smother them. He had the rocks – and he knew this charm. After all, the Levitation Charm had been the very first spell Flitwick had taught them.
So with a cry of "Wingardium Leviosa", one of the grey stones rose into the air, directed by his wand, only to come crashing down on the head of one of the salamanders, with Shinji rewarded by the sound of a death gurgle – and the other salamanders speeding up.
Ok, that wasn't working either.
Think, Matou, think.
The puzzle. That was probably the key. To stop the fire, he had to solve the puzzle.
So he thought as he kept moving, feet scampering to staying ahead of the salamanders, though—
"Ack!"
—his robe snagging on a stone did not help.
Hurriedly, the boy doffed the robe, letting it slip from his shoulders and tossing that to the salamanders, who paused as the robe caught fire, basking in the warmth of burning spider silk.
'This had better be worth it.'
The altar – it had indentations. Indentations which would fit…the jeweled boulders that spat fire.
Boulders which weren't really boulders.
No, they weren't boulders – they were fire crabs, those large turtle-like creatures native to Fiji which shot flames from their rear ends when attacked to stop pursuers in their tracks. Creatures whose shells would fit the indentations well, if they were turned upside down.
He'd need to do two things: to lower the flames on each of the passageways enough to get line of sight on a Fire Crab, and then levitate that crab to the altar.
…all while staying ahead of the salamanders.
"Aguamenti!" he cried again, keeping his wand trained on the flaming passageway as he ran past it, shooting more and more water towards it until the flame began to flicker, exposing the line of jeweled boulders, at which point he ceased shooting.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" he cried then, with one of the now-confirmed fire crabs squealing as he brought it through the air to immediately in front of him (with the tail facing away from him), turned it upside down, and ran to the altar, just ahead of the salamanders. With the thing squirming and writhing its legs helplessly, while shooting a jet of flame away from him, he plugged it into the appropriate indentation—
—as the warding fire rather abruptly went out, with the salamanders birthed by that blaze collapsing to the ground, dead.
Shinji collapsed to the ground from the exertion, taking deep, full breaths. That had been too close, but at least he knew the trick now.
He took a few minutes to recover, then repeated his strategy on each passageway, using the Water-Making charm to lower the flames and get a visual on the Fire Crabs, then Levitating a Crab out to his position, all the while staying ahead of a swarm of angry salamanders.
One by one, the fires died, until at last the final passageway was unsealed, and the center of the altar folded open, with the five colored jets of flame from the upside-down fire crabs igniting a white-hot blaze that was almost blinding after the dim firelight Shinji had been used to.
But now, the way was clear, even if over an hour had passed, and with him being harried and pushed and frazzled, he hadn't yet rescued even a single Squib. He would make a point of asking if everyone's challenge was this bad later, after he got through this mess.
There were no enemies down the first corridor, just a series of locked doors that opened readily enough with Alohomora. Well, it made sense. These were Squibs – they couldn't magically lock a door.
And what waited for him at the first corridor's end was—
'—Blood.'
Fresh paint coated the surrounding walls, and the floor was lined with something wet. The smell of mold and earth usually present was masked by an ever more overwhelming stench. A thin layer of blood squished under Shinji's feet, its metallic tang sharp in the air. No – what appeared to be red paint is in fact blood – perhaps human, perhaps otherwise.
And in the middle of the room were two bodies. The body of a hairy Pogrebin, its throat slashed open by a discarded silver knife in the corner of the room, and the body of a man, pale – too pale – breathing fast and sweating, with a face and leg badly mauled. Tending to his wounds, or trying to, was a slender, blonde woman about thirty years old, and a little girl who spun around at the door opening.
A little girl, whose blonde hair glowed in the firelight. She was pretty, with the sweetness characteristic of youth, but her silvery-grey eyes held the light of maturity. She was wearing some kind of blouse that was quite out of fashion these days, but he couldn't really comment on it, as it was soaked in blood.
"Thank goodness!" she exclaimed. "Please – you've come from the Ministry, right? You're not with the bad men? Can you help Papa?"
Shinji swallowed. He had not expected this scene of death.
"What happened?" he asked, rushing over to look at the man.
"We came here when the bad men attacked our village. There was a wizard who lived here, who said he'd fight them off. But he never came back. Papa—papa was attacked by the Pogrebin, and his wound isn't closing. Please sir, help us. Can you get us to St. Mungo's?"
Shinji was quite keenly aware of the emergency Portkeys he had been issued almost burning in his pockets. This would seem to be the very sort situation they were for – but if these people were so badly off, he was sure there were others as badly off. And he only had three.
There were 18 Squibs - if each group of three or maybe four had someone who couldn't move, that could be very bad, especially if he then had to escort the rest back to the village square.
It would be different if there was at least one or two other wand-users, but with a group of what were effectively mundanes, this was bad.
"Let me have a look," Shinji said, moving to the man's side. Now that the woman was not obscuring his way, he could see a jagged tear in the man's abdomen, as if the thing had leapt and savaged him. That was where the blood was coming from. If the wound wasn't staunched soon, he'd bleed out.
'Here goes nothing.'
"Seal!" Shinji commanded, with one of his ofuda flying from a pocket to cover the man's wound – sticking and holding the sites together. It wasn't healing, no, nor a permanent repair, but it would stop blood from coming out the torn vessels, as surely as anything else. "There are other people here – they could be hurt too."
But how could he lift the person? Sure, he could use his wand, but then he'd be unable to use other spells…oh, of course.
Those ofuda.
The ofuda of separation he'd used on the train to keep his trunk light, by isolating the weight of what was in the trunk from the outside. Could he do the same with a person's skin?
'Well…can't hurt. He'll die anyway if I don't.'
And so he let fly a second ofuda – which, thankfully, made the man nearly weightless.
"I'll get your Papa out," he said. And he would too – his points in the mission rested on how many living survivors he managed to rescue. "Ma'am – is your husband?" he asked the woman. The silvery-haired woman who had been tending the wounded man nodded.
"Yes. Are you giving us a Portkey to St. Mungo's now?"
"In a moment. There are other people who need to be saved – I can't leave them behind. I've sealed your husband's wound and made him lighter with a charm. You should be able to carry him now.
"…can you just levitate him, sir? He's lost a lot of blood, and I think he hit his head."
Well…that wasn't good news.
"Yes. I can do that," Shinji responded, trying not to snap. It really wouldn't do to lose his composure. It wasn't these people's fault that they were upset – they weren't even real to begin with. It was Quirrell's fault. It was all Quirrell's fault. "Wingardium Leviosa. Come with me."
At least he was getting a good amount of practice with his Levitation charm.
The second corridor contained more locked doors, which meant he had to place the man down on the ground as he moved forward, swept the area for any threats, and double back. This room had four people – two uninjured, one banged and scraped up, and a man with a leg twisted into a position he knew it shouldn't be in, and only one arm.
Old accident, the others had said.
'Well, this makes seven.'
Quickly saying what reassurances he could, he retrieved one of the mittens and handed it to the group, instructing them to touch it, and wishing them all good luck. Half a minute later, they were gone, with Shinji now free to move about again.
Almost two hours now. He had to pick up the pace.
The third corridor had only one person down it – this time surrounded by a defensive ring of Fire Crabs, which had apparently burnt a Pogrebin to ashes.
"Leave me alone!" the man was shrieking. "You'll not take me, knave! My bejeweled friends will save me, won't you, lads? Won't you?"
Shinji almost turned around and left him behind in disgust, but figured that since he'd come down the way already, he might as well just get this over with.
Using a Sealing ofuda he shut the man up, before proceeding to levitate him and bring the indignant, flailing survivor with him. Frankly, he didn't have time to talk the man down, and he wasn't about to just leave points behind. Damnit, he'd come this far – he was going to win.
The fourth …well, down that way, he'd heard a high-pitched cackle, and had thought perhaps it was another mad survivor, only to find a short, meter-tall creature with a pointed face and glowing red eyes that shot him in the shoulder with two dart.
'Ack….' Shinji groaned, staggering from the sudden explosion of pain and nearly dropping the man he was levitating as the creature came forward. "Shi-ne!"
Erkling.
An elfish creatures, with a particular affinity for the taste of children, whose cackle was supposedly entrancing to children. Of course, it was also quite vulnerable to concussive force, as was demonstrated when an explosive ofuda blasted its face apart with extreme prejudice.
Shinji had been quite wary as he went down the rest of the hallway, dispatching two more of these Erklings – before he came yet again to a locked door. He dropped the man unceremoniously to the ground, casting a Verdimillious Charm to disorient him – an orb of glowing green energy shooting from the wand-tip and exploding in a blinding flash of emerald light as the man clutched at his eyes, while green lightning played over his form, paralyzing him momentarily.
Long enough for Shinji to unlock the door and walk in.
Six people were huddled here, all uninjured – all very grateful for rescue. He handed over their neighbor and a Portkey, and was quite happy when they vanished.
Fourteen down, four to go.
And only one more corridor.
There was nothing too remarkable down this one – except for the fact that two of the four people in the final room had apparently been bitten by a venomous spider some time ago and were beginning to show some bad effects.
He was just about to hand over the last Portkey and move out when he heard a distant crack! from the main room.
'…wait…this is all 18 Squibs,' he thought to himself, wondering what the new sound was – whether it was something bad.
But it couldn't be too bad – Quirrell had promised that whatever they faced was beatable by a student of their skill level, and who knew – maybe it was the wizard that the little girl in the first room had mentioned. If it was, he wouldn't turn down extra points, but he wanted to be sure he completed his main objective, so he handed over the last portkey and activated it manually, before proceeding back into the main room, wand drawn.
Whump-Boom!
The moment he stepped into the main chamber, he was blinded by an explosion of pure white light and thrown back down the tunnel by a blast of concussive force, his head spinning from the shock.
'What the…'
Whump-Boom!
But he didn't have time to think or recover, as his body was thrown along the ground again.
Whump-Boom!
And again.
"Expelliarmus!" came a cry from…what was clearly a hostile entity – who was using his skills against him, as his wand went flying away.
But he couldn't see. He was disoriented. His ears were ringing.
"Seal!" the other cried, with a piece of paper clamping over Shinji's mouth, unable to be dislodged.
'No…I can't…it can't end here.'
But it seemed it would.
"Ah, you're the one who helped the Squibs get away, I see," a dark cloaked figure intoned as his boots clipped with military precision across the floor. "Dealing with that other wizard took time, but I suppose it was not all for naught. After all, a hostage from the Ministry is far more valuable than a band of useless Squibs."
He leaned down so that Shinji could see the eerie silver mask he wore, grabbing the arm of the weak, still disoriented boy, about to Apparate away when—
'Bind.'
—one last ofuda fluttered out from Shinji's sleeve and stuck to his assailant, who froze, unable to move – unable to use magic – and toppled over.
Shinji squirmed out from under his attacker, stumbling to his feet and ripping both his wand and the other's from the enemy's hand. Vindictively, he kicked the other person in the crotch – several times – and it felt good.
And what was he to do now? Obviously the scenario wasn't over yet, since he had yet to escape the area himself – or get rid of this other person, and he didn't want to risk using his ofuda – not when something of fire might burn away the binding. He wasn't about to take the other all the way back to the village Portkey either, not when he didn't know what still lurked on the surface.
So he did what he'd been doing all day, levitating the person with his wand and walking down the passage to the patch of Devil's Snare, where he dropped the enemy unceremoniously, watching as the vines constricted, snaked around, choked the life out of the enemy, dislodging the mask to reveal—
—the horrified face of Matou Shinji looking at him as if he'd seen a monster.
With the killing of his assailant – a Death Eater who had stayed behind to deal with resistance – according to the scenario's debriefing, the scenario drew to a close, with the ofuda sealing his mouth fading away as the caverns and all else that had been conjured did – including the second wand in his hand.
"Well…that was…impressive," Quirrell had said, the Defense Professor marking down how the boy had done. "You not only managed to rescue all of the Squibs, but defeated the Death Eater. Unfortunate that you could not take him in for questioning, which would have granted the most points, but you did very well indeed."
"Those skills," Shinji stated flatly, remembering what the enemy had used against him, shaking – whether in anger or fatigue or such he didn't know. "How did it…"
"The Book of Spells has a rather remarkable set of enchantments," Quirrell noted drily, speaking as if Shinji hadn't paid attention in class. "The ability to take spells people jot in it and add it to the book for future reference, for one. In the simulations, I have used this to take the abilities a student uses and empower a doppelganger. After all, a Dark Wizard is far more difficult to face than a creature, and who is more difficult to face than yourself – an enemy who knows exactly what tactics you favor and will use them against you."
Shinji forced his expression into a semblance of composure, taking a deep breath, and then another.
"…with all due respect, Professor, how do you expect any student to beat something like that?" he asked, half curious, half very annoyed to have been blown across a room several times and sealed.
"I don't," Quirrel replied, quite honestly as he eyed the blue-haired boy. "Much as I do not expect anyone to complete all elements of the primary objective – you managing to rescue all of the Squibs was an outcome I did not expect, for example. I expect people to make hard choices, to see what they will do when they face a scenario in which complete victory is possible in theory, but is outside the bounds of practicality. As an example, had you rescued any of the Squibs and survived, that would have been enough to complete the scenario, if not a very high scoring method of doing so."
"…and the so-called Death Eater?"
"An enemy that would test both your resolve and whether you understood your limits, if you managed to fully succeed in your primary objective," the Defense Professor said coolly. "Leaving once you have rescued the individuals or obtained the items you were tasked with is a perfectly valid approach to the challenge. However, few choose that path, and of those who chose to face the Doppelganger, only you and Longbottom have managed to prevail. You through unexpected skills, and Longbottom through unexpected knowledge of Herbology."
"…Herbology?"
"When mature, the cry of a Mandragora can be fatal to any person who hears it," Quirrell explained, finishing up his notes. "It was simply unfortunate that he had ear protection and his opponent did not. In any case, Matou, fine work. I will announce the winner on the last day before Christmas break. Dismissed."
With that, Shinji had nodded and headed back to Ravenclaw Tower, where as it turned out, everyone else was talking about the various challenges that they had faced. Each challenge had been different – some had been simple fetch quests, with one having to retrieve various items from a cluttered house, only to face creatures that had infested it; some had faced stealth missions in which they had to sneak past much superior foes – like a security troll – to retrieve a locket or gemstone – and escape with it; some had had to leap from platform to platform to reach and retrieve a golden cup, solving a number of puzzles and riddles to move forward; some had had to escort individuals of varying skill through a dungeon, or out of a burning village.
By far the most interest was given to Hermione Granger's attempt, in which she had apparently had to escort a man named Gilderoy Lockhart through something called the Temple of Doom – a place filled with traps and monsters – to reclaim the lost treasure of Ravenclaw or some such. Apparently, Lockhart was something of a celebrity to other practitioners of witchcraft, an adventurer famous for his heroism and his encounters with dark creatures. Thus, many of the other first year girls would have swooned for a chance to escort him, but…Granger's mission had been nothing short of disaster.
For one thing, the Lockhart person had a tendency to Apparate into groups of Dark Creatures, or simply to skip over the Temple's various traps, leaving Hermione to do all the hard work of getting past it on her own. One memorable trap had involved a set of pressure-sensitive tiles, with the brunette forced to walk only on tiles indicated by glowing runes – which changed at a moment's notice. Another had been a corridor lined with dart launchers that she had had to crawl past, along with pit traps she had to vault – something decidedly unsafe. There had been the idol whose riddle she had had to answer to be granted the diadem.
And then there had been the giant rolling ball of stone which had been triggered after she and Lockhart had obtained the item – a somewhat cliché but no less dangerous trap that had chased them all the way back to the entrance, with her having to push Lockhart out of its way into a side corridor with a muttered Flipendo to avoid him getting crushed.
After all, ensuring his survival was her primary objective, with leaving the temple with the diadem as a close second.
At the end, she had thought she had succeeded, until Lockhart had mentioned how it was a pity that she couldn't be allowed to leave the temple with the diadem. After all, if she was the one holding it, people might think she was the one who had conquered the temple's challenges and retrieved Ravenclaw's Lost Treasure, not him. And that just wouldn't do.
He had disarmed her then, and Apparated out, diadem in hand.
This had ended the scenario, leaving Hermione extremely upset – after all, why would someone in authority betray her trust like that? A famous adventurer, no less? It wasn't like anyone actually stole other people's credit in the professional realm. That…would be terrible! Like cheating!
When she had confronted Professor Quirrell about this, the Defense Professor had been utterly unsympathetic. He had mentioned that with Lockhart's callous actions during the mission – often leaving her behind and putting himself in danger - Hermione should have already deprived him of his wand, as Lockhart himself had been a threat to the mission. And of course, at the end, while he was talking, Hermione could very well have disarmed and disabled him – but she had not.
Thus, while she had completed her primary task of keeping him alive, she had failed to leave with the diadem, so her final score was less than it could have been. She did get a total of five House points, however – one for attempting the mission, and four for completing it, so she was happy enough, but the last encounter rankled.
Hearing how badly everyone else had done, Shinji…actually felt a lot better, both about his performance, and his chance for winning the tome. He already felt uneasy about all the skills he'd been forced to use to complete that scenario. If, for all his work, he had ended up as merely average, he probably would have gone into the Room of Hidden Things and screamed, since it would have meant Quirrell would have seen what he could do for nothing.
But if was hearing correctly, the two current contenders for the rank of first in his class were himself and Neville Longbottom – which surprised him. He'd have thought a Slytherin might do well, but Potter hadn't competed yet, and while Malfoy had completed his, he wasn't talking about what happened. Some people joked that he had probably told the Death Eater that he too was a loyal servant of the Dark Lord, though others thought he had just turned tail and run – though the latter would not have been a bad move, from what Quirrell had said.
All in all, he considered himself mostly satisfied. The rest was now out of his hands.
As for the problem of transporting gifts from the Room of Hidden Things to the Owlery, Shinji had done a couple of things. First, he'd gone back to the room and finished picking out what he wanted to give people at home.
A suit of House-Elf Armor for Emiya Shirou, the boy who wanted to be a hero.
A very large chest full of large rubies, emeralds, and other precious stones for Tohsaka Rin, the Second Owner of Fuyuki, along with a genuine wyvern skeleton, in the hope that Rin would jump to conclusions and somehow think that Shinji had slain a wyvern and gifted her a portion of the treasure he'd gained in return. Well, maybe not, but there was no harm in trying.
A stuffed troll – not a toy, but an actual troll that had been slain and stuffed – for the Weasley Family, in commemoration of having fought besides Fred and George Weasley - and their victory.
A silver self-cleaning, self-refilling tea set and a mokeskin pouch each for his sister and his grandfather (who he would have to ask for a case of high quality green tea for Professor Flitwick – and maybe a Tanuki statue for Hillard, in remembrance of his…brains and bravery).
For Professor Snape, a gold cauldron and a very nice looking set of silver knives.
For Draco Malfoy, a glitter-bomb.
For Aozaki Touko (aside from the diadem he'd mailed off earlier), an intricate armillary sphere and astronomical clock of exquisite craftsmanship, given her love of artifacts.
And for himself, of course, a number of mokeskin pouches stuffed with gold, jewels, and a few interesting books.
He had slapped weight-reduction (weight separation) ofuda upon what items he'd needed to, before levitating them to the door of the Room of Hidden Things one by one and moving them outside, where he was met by a House Elf, who he had asked to take most of the items to the Owlery.
After all, Hogwarts allowed its students to make indiscriminate use of its owls for whatever mailing needs they had.
…this policy would be revisited after the Great Matou Gifting Incident of 1991.