Matou Shinji and the Heirs of Slytherin
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: Trouble is brewing in the Wizarding World. In the wake of the Stone Incident, Albus Dumbledore has begun quietly preparing Britain to survive the coming war. The Stone Cutters, a new organization at Hogwarts for the most talented and distinguished of students, seek new blood to bolster its strength. The Boy-Who-Lived seeks his destiny as the Heir of Slytherin. And a boy from the east meets a specter of the past.
Chapter 6. Journey's Eve
After the brief interlude of the Fuyuki festival, Matou Shinji and the Boy-Who-Lived returned to Mahoutokoro to finish out the last month of their summer training. With the Hogwarts term beginning promptly on September 1, there were only a handful of weeks remaining, and their respective trainers were determined to squeeze as much out of them as possible.
Severus Snape and the other members of the Competition Committee had returned to their countries of origin, with the Potions Master of Hogwarts having proved interesting enough to Aozaki Touko that she had agreed to keep up written correspondence. And as liaison duty no longer took up her days and a good portion of her nights, Touko saw no reason to extend her pupils' informal vacation.
There was something to be said for personal attention to her apprentice's education – and to the Potter boy's, she supposed. Hijiri, of course, was a skilled Onmyouji who was far older than she appeared, and Tomas had been infamous for his charisma and combat ability during his lifetime, but skill and power were no guarantee of being a good teacher.
One only had to look at Severus Snape or perhaps Touko's sister to know that much, as the former expected his students to be as brilliant as he and became frustrated when they were simply dunderheads, to use his words, and the latter – well, Blue was far too whimsical and irresponsible to make a good teacher.
At least that was what Touko chose to believe, and to maintain that belief, she took a hands-on approach to her apprentices' education, which was why she was observing Shinji's Occlumency training under Tomas, watching as the two dueled.
Or rather, Shinji attacked, and her puppet defended, with Tomas not quite as contemptuous as earlier as spellbeams crisscrossed the dueling chamber.
Flipendo intersected Expelliarmus, the fire of Incendio was absorbed into a handful of flames, as the duel proceeded predictably—
—until with a cry of Fumos, acrid black smoke began to fill the chamber, cutting off line of sight between the opponents.
"Is that the best you can do?" Tomas asked mildly, making no immediate move to dissipate the cloud. He had said he would only defend, so—
"Avada Kedavra!"
—well-honed instincts let him shift immediately to the right as a bolt of emerald light tore through the spot he had just been – and exploded in a blinding flash of emerald light, illuminating the room and marking Tomas with a shower of green sparks.
Tomas dispersed the smokescreen with a silent wave of his hand and looked at his student appraisingly.
"…that was not the Killing Curse," he observed quietly.
"Indeed," Shinji agreed, his lips curving into a small smile as he kept his wand pointed at the seemingly defenseless older boy. "And I hit you."
"So you did," the dark-haired teen allowed, standing down. "Though I was unaware you had the ability to silently cast one spell while speaking the incantation for another. Even one as basic as Verdimillious."
"It's simply a matter of focus and mental discipline," the Matou scion noted, grey eyes meeting red. "The same that Occlumency or elemental Onmyoudou require. But even so, you should have seen through such a basic misdirection, as I do not know the Killing Curse."
Instead, the puppet had dodged, which in itself was quite telling.
"…very well, Matou Shinji. I will admit your performance was…passable," Tomas said slowly, turning to the one who created him. "Your judgement, Master?"
"I suppose you have provided enough value not to be dismantled," Touko answered from the corner of the room, where she watched, arms crossed. "Though my apprentice will need to continue his studies."
"So happy to be of service," Tomas replied with a mocking bow. "But I would agree – while it appears I cannot peer into his mind without any effort whatsoever, a serious incursion would still make quick work of his defenses. However, such an incursion is usually noticeable."
"…and how would I stop it?"
"If you are in a position to do so, disrupting the concentration of the Legilimens with a spell would suffice," the puppet answered. "Though in your case, as you have a second partition in your mind as one of the gifts you received from the Director of Atlas, you may be able to use that to hide what you do not want known."
"Indeed, Matou, you may use one as the outward-facing partition, filling it with less useful memories – or misdirections – for a Legilimens to access," Touko added, her sharp gaze making him feel quite small, "while your true thoughts remain hidden in the second. Occlumency's purpose here is to not only defend your first partition, but to hide the fact that the second exists – and to assist you with sorting your thoughts."
"His skill with that ability remains still poor," Tomas noted clinically. "A pity. Had he spent his time training instead of frolicking about at a festival, perhaps he would have had more success in actually hitting me with a spell before today."
Shinji took a deep breath, focusing on the breath and the person before him. Once again, the puppet was trying to goad him into letting his defenses slip, into succumbing to anger,
"Nevertheless, he accomplished what he set out to, if not entirely with your teachings," Touko pointed out, an unlit cigarette in her hand.
"Granted."
"And Potter?"
"The other child's progress leaves…something to be desired," Tomas noted dryly, shaking his head as he considered the troubled boy he had evaluated earlier in the day. "Certainly he has power, but his emotions often get the better of him, keeping him from being an effective Occlumens."
"Unsurprising, due to the events of the previous year," the puppetmaster agreed, as she had seen how an excess of emotion could cripple even the most talented magi – a certain Cornelius Alba came to mind. "And his other studies with you?"
Tomas was almost amused when he spoke next, in a tone that sent a cold shiver down Shinji's spine.
"Quite well indeed," the puppet answered, the corners of his lips tugging upward ever so slightly. "Potter has both a hunger for power and an unusual talent for the Dark Arts. But then, such is fitting for the Heir of Slytherin."
"I'm all sure you would know all about that," Touko said evenly, meeting and holding Tomas' gaze. "You certainly have taught him an interesting style, compared to your colleagues."
"I hardly think combining the Stickfast Hex with area-effect spells like Bombarda or Tria level spells is that unusual," Tomas noted, raising an eyebrow. "That most wizards use easily predictable single-target spells – and defend themselves with the Shield Charm, when they can - is simply a weakness that can – and should – be exploited." He turned to the young scion of the Matou, weighing something in his mind. "Speaking of weaknesses, try Slugulus Eructo for your trick, if you can manage. It projects a full jet of green light, rather than an orb, so you could probably use it without a smokescreen."
"…huh," Shinji said. He supposed that might indeed work better. "Thanks."
"Of course," Tomas related affably. "A broader range of non-verbal spells is always useful, especially when they add more…authenticity to your deceptions."
"You sound like you have experience with deception," Shinji said mildly. There was something about the puppet that really unnerved him, something that spoke of power and age, as once more he wondered how Touko had made him. Apparently, Tomas had told Harry that he was once a wizard descended from the Peverells, but then, how had Touko gotten a hold of the soul? And for that matter, what had…
His lips pressed together as thought back to Christmas, which seemed almost a lifetime ago.
"Master, what did you do with the diadem I sent you?" he asked slowly, lowering his wand as he narrowed his eyes. Had she…?
Touko chuckled, hiding her mouth with a pale hand.
"Ah, so at last my apprentice asks the right question," the puppetmaster answered, seeming…quite pleased. "You could say that the diadem is serving its purpose by enhancing your mind, even if he does seem to enjoy corrupting you."
"I think he was walking along the dark path quite well without my help," Tomas offered, with Shinji turning his attention back to the puppet, thinking about how she had used a powerful artifact in its creation, making a marvel indistinguishable from a human.
Come to think of it, she was not unlike an Alchemist in that way, which he supposed shouldn't be surprising, as the Aozaki magus apparently worked with the Director of Atlas.
"I wouldn't say I walk the path of darkness," Shinji replied, earning a skeptical look from the puppet, who snorted and shook his head.
"They do say little evil would be done in the world if evil could never be done in the name of good," Tomas reflected with a sad smile. "Or at least, the greater good, as Gellert Grindelwald and Albus Dumbledore showed…"
"Gellert Grindelwald and Albus Dumbledore?" This, Shinji had not heard of, but then Hijiri had not covered much in the way of European History outside of the history of the International Confederation of Wizards, as her sphere of concern was the history of Mahoutokoro and its inhabitants.
"A would-be revolutionary who sought to overthrow wizarding governments and put an end to the International Statute of Secrecy," the dark-haired youth related. "And of course, the co-conspirator who eventually betrayed him and became the hero Magical Britain worships."
"…co-conspirator?"
Tomas shook his head, grimacing.
"It is no secret that he was Grindelwald's closest friend in his youth," the puppet explained, seeming almost…disgusted. "Though of course, few enough are aware of this in Magical Europe."
"Why is that?"
"Why, you ask? You are aware of who Bathilda Bagshot was, yes?"
"The author of A History of Magic?" Shinji asked, recalling the name from one of his little-used textbooks.
"Indeed – the writer of the most well-known work on European Wizarding History," Tomas confirmed, though he seemed to smile just a hint. "Which conveniently stops at the end of the 19th Century – about the time that Cuthbert Binns left the mortal coil. For if it went on any longer, it would have had to cover Grindelwald, and that wasn't something she wanted, as his great-aunt – and as Dumbledore's friend, of course."
Shinji froze, as this web of lies wasn't something he expected of the world he'd entered, which had seemed so magical, so open in comparison to the world of magi. Slowly though, he was finding that the world was as rotten as his grandfather's worms, with secrets within secrets, where the strong tried to crush the weak with enough callousness to match any den of magi.
It was just that magi were simply more open about it.
He supposed he shouldn't have been surprised, with the culture of Witchcraft in the west being built on secrecy and deceit, but it did, since so many of those he knew were nearly children, much like him. They just hadn't had to grow up so quickly, in a land not theirs, wearing a face they couldn't take off, with very few they could trust.
They didn't know to distrust others, and yet that was what they were being groomed to do with the House system, to divide the world into us and them and choose us every time. Just as Harry had to do, and just as he.
"I see," Shinji said at last, the weight of the truth proving a heavy thing indeed. "That's—"
"—wrong indeed, Matou Shinji," Tomas commented, idly conjuring up an orb of blue fire in his hands. "At its very foundations, the wizarding world is built on a lie. A lie of superiority to cover weakness, a lie of purity to cover mingling, a lie of openness to cover secrets beyond measure. It rots away, little by little, and in its current state will not long endure. Grindelwald understood the last, even if he was taken in by the lie of superiority. Even Dumbledore did once, but he failed to do what was necessary to stop the decay."
It was a fey moment, where time itself seemed to stand still, with Tomas looking into Shinji's eyes and pulling out the examples he wanted.
"You are an interesting one, as is your friend the Chosen One," the puppet continued, turning away and moving to his usual spot against the wall. "You suspect how deep the corruption lies, the secrets hidden by the waving of wands and the blithering of fools. Perhaps you will have a chance to learn more and accomplish what those before you did not. Still, I wonder…in the end, will you be the next Grindelwald, who sought to change the world, however flawed his methods, or the next Dumbledore, doomed to live in regret and watch as the world rots away?"
It was on that note that Tomas had returned to inactivity, with Touko observing that her creation was rarely so free with his words. Clearly, whoever he had been in his lifetime, Tomas was both powerful and had not agreed with the current order of things, which made Shinji wonder who he had been. Not Grindelwald himself, certainly, but who? He didn't know the Peverell lineage well, which meant he would have to do research.
Had his soul been bound to the diadem as Zygmunt Budge had been bound to the Book of Potions? This only raised questions.
"How did you make him, Master?" Shinji dared to ask, looking at the inactive form of his Occlumency teacher, who was as lifeless and still as any doll.
"You wouldn't understand at this point in your training," Touko said solemnly, to which Shinji only nodded. He had only been learning for the better part of two months, and she must have spent a lifetime perfecting her craft.
"I hope I may one day learn."
Touko laughed, a low, distant sound that had little mirth in it.
"Perhaps, Matou," she said, beckoning for him to join her as they walked out of this particular workshop and into the city. It was an odd place by moonlight, with the dim, pale illumination only heightening the way the shadows seemed to creep ever closer, seemed to whisper promises of power and salvation.
The magus didn't say where they were going, and Shinji didn't ask, simply following and observing, on this next to last day of summer. He assumed that he was to be tested to see if his progress as an apprentice was adequate, something he was still unsure of, since he'd spent more time learning Onmyoudou and Occlumency than anything she'd taught him.
They walked in silence, their footsteps quiet on the city's roads, proceeding on and on and on, passing a wooded glade and through the gate of the castle of the School of Magic, which opened as if recognizing the Professor of Ancient Runes.
At last, after the better part of an hour, they came to a door wrought all of ebon wood, which Touko unlocked with a strange silver key.
"Matou, what do you seek?" she asked, turning her head to regard him with her cold red eyes.
"Knowledge," he answered, almost at once. That was the desire of any magus, after all, and even now, his past hadn't completely left him.
"Matou, why do you seek it?"
That was a harder question. Unlike most magi, reaching the Root of Creation was not his ambition. Unlike most practitioners of witchcraft, he was not satisfied with simply learning what had been set down before him, with each generation forgetting more and more.
"To make my own path, and walk with those I choose."
"Hm…" Touko considered her apprentice for some moments. That desire – the desire to create something new – was one she could relate to. After all, she had done much the same herself once when she became a puppetmaster, crafting imitations of the human form indistinguishable from the original. "Follow then."
Shinji did, looking around as he found himself in a room wrought entirely of black stone, with glowing silver runes carved into the floor, walls, and ceiling.
"Is this your classroom?" he asked, remembering her post at the school.
"It is indeed, Matou," the redhead confirmed. "I have brought you here as you are my student, and it is traditional for an apprentice to receive a gift from his Master."
"I see"
"Do you have any requests?" Aozaki Touko asked in her low tones, but Shinji just shook his head.
"Simply what you think best, Master," Shinji replied, bowing as he hoped this meant she would keep him on.
The woman walked to the desk – itself made of stone – and picked up one of three parcels.
"Hijiri tells me you are still having trouble with water-elemental ofuda," she commented quietly. "That those spells destabilize or fail to work."
Shinji nodded.
"Show me the most basic then," the magus commanded, and Shinji obeyed, attempting the most basic of water spells, sitting and going through the ritual of channeling prana into an ofuda, picturing the effect he wished, and trying to bind it into reality.
The flow resisted him, twisted, turned, almost snarled, but he forced the prana to settle with sheer willpower, knowing that if he lost control, the reaction would be bad.
When he finished, sweating, he had one ofuda with the kanji for water written on it, with Touko placing a wooden bowl before him in a carved rune circle.
"Release and fill," he commanded, with something being released into the bowl – a black liquid that slowly consumed the wood with the sound of whispers, flowed out to touch the runes, then turned upon itself, vanishing into the ether.
Touko just looked on as this occurred, frowning as she looked at the wand he had used to channel his prana.
"Do you succeed at any water elemental spells?" she inquired.
"Those meant to freeze or draw water from the air," Shinji related, thinking that that black liquid seemed eerily familiar – almost like the cloud of darkness he'd summoned in the fight against the troll. "Anything that involves simply producing water or healing spells aligned with it, not so."
"That could be one of two things: your wand's affinity, or a family trait," Touko noted, recalling what she knew of Matou Zouken. "Either way, I think it is safe to say that your strengths do not lie in healing. You are far better versed in decay and destruction."
Which was one strike against him, if he wished to become a puppeteer, following her tradition of the art. Yet, his affinity to earth was interesting as well, and he had been proficient enough with his repair spells, so…
"I am willing to provisionally retain you as an apprentice at least until the end of next summer," she said, tossing him the parcel she'd retrieved from her desk. "So, a present, and a piece of information from our mutual friend: the Room of Hidden Things is more than a vault of lost treasure – simply imagine what you wish."
Shinji unwrapped the package to see a pair of fine black gloves,
"Thank you, Aozaki-san," he said, looking at them, and then to her, an unspoken question in his eyes.
"Don't ask what they're made of – I doubt you want to know," she explained, forestalling any further question on that vein. "The important thing is the effect - these gloves have been crafted to let one interact with magic, holding a spell in your hand or handle the dark liquid, for instance. Or of course, to touch and hold a spirit."
"…you made these, then, Master?"
"I did indeed. Rest well, Matou, you have a long day ahead of you."
The next day was spent with Harry, shopping for their Hogwarts supplies and gifts for their friends back in Britain, before the Portkey to take them to Platform 9 ¾ activated in the evening. As it turned out, the Boy-Who-Lived had his own stories of what training under Tomas had been like, with the puppet – though Harry hadn't known he was a puppet – relentlessly drilling the basics of combat and situational awareness into him.
Most of what he learned had indeed been Tria class spells – area effect versions of wind spells, lightning spells, and more, with other tricks to freeze an opponent in place or silence them. And as it turned out, Harry had become quite proficient in dodging attacks, as in training, the red-eyed puppet certainly used him as target practice sometimes.
He'd recommended that Harry buy a set of enhanced robes, however, which was the one fairly expensive purchase he actually made, given that robes which offered total protection against at least low level jinxes and hexes and partial protection against higher level spells could be quite useful, especially if he was planning on confronting the Dark Lord.
It also would come in handy if he dueled other students, given that the sheer intimidation factor of seeing a spell do nothing if it hit his body would only contribute to his reputation as the Heir of Slytherin, preventing unwanted altercations...
…though Tomas had made it clear that robes would do nothing against a spell aimed at his head, and that the best thing to do was simply not be in the way.
Shinji of course, picked up one of the press copies of Ofuda and Origami tome from the same bookstore from which he bought his Hogwarts books. It was not as nicely bound as the proof copy, and the selection of books wasn't quite the same as that in Surein Toroi's shop, but at least a copy had been available, with the advanced exercises he needed to continue practicing his Craft at Hogwarts. Granted, Hijiri had provided some exercises, but having the book was always helpful, as it tended to go more into detail (even if it said nothing about darkness and how to use it).
That aside, the young-looking bookseller who had a giant spider for a familiar unnerved him, given the casual power that bespoke. He wondered what other bits of arcane knowledge the man had hidden away – and for that matter, how old the man actually was, since he didn't think the blond was as young as he looked.
And well, while most of the Hogwarts required books were predictable, either being volumes he'd bought last year or being the next in the series, there were four which caught his eye as being unusual:
The Essential Defense Against the Dark Arts by Aresnius Jigger
Magical Me, an autobiography of Gilderoy Lockhart, the new History of Magic Professor – which made Shinji wonder why exactly his background was important to know.
Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century – the book which Hermione had mentioned finding references to Harry in – and which Harry had signed for the twins.
And of course…
Official Secrets: Grindelwald, the Loch Ness Monster and the History the Ministry Doesn't Want you to Know! by a supposed bestselling author named Rita Skeeter.
…from all appearances, History would be more…interesting than it had been the year before, though that wasn't setting a very high bar. Matou Shinji just hoped that the coming year would be a good one, free of the turmoil and risk to life, limb and sanity that had characterized the year before.
Unfortunately, as a close associate of the Boy-Who-Lived, such was not to be.