AN: EDIT! EDIT! EDIT! – Chapter 5.4 has been edited.
Fun fact: In most HP stories I've read, it's only ever Fleur's dad who is labeled a badass. Either a French Auror, a DMLE head, Minister of Magic, or something along those lines of a powerful wizard. I never really see anyone pull the other finger. What if her mom was the badass?
Question!
[How does everyone feel about changing the name to 'The Chaotic Traveler'. Child of Chaos was the name of the OLD story where the MC was 12. Jin is no longer a child, and the title is kinda thrown off. Any other ideas are welcome for submission as well. Otherwise, The Chaotic Traveler wins.]
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Enjoy parts 5.1 to the end of 5.4. Let me know what you think, reviews help me see where the readers attention is focused.
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Disclaimer: I don't own any source material.
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Chapter 5.1: Making Plans.
Fleur clicked her tongue in distaste. "Non, this will not do."
Jin rolled his eyes. "What did you expect? I told you I haven't gone shopping yet. I salvaged what I could from the castle."
She scrunched up her nose as she looked around his warehouse. "This is just sloppy."
"Exccuussee mwah. Where's your pocket dimension space for me to inspect and critique?"
She giggled and chided him. "Don't be a child Jin, every man needs a woman's touch to bring out some semblance of order and inner beauty."
He raised an amused brow at her curvy form covered in a towel. "You sure about that? Cuz I'm pretty sure I was the one bringing something out of you a little while ago."
She flushed at that and turned away. "Nevertheless! You can't live like this. I won't stand for it."
Jin chuckled and came up behind his fluttering bird to wrap his arms around her waist. "Oh? And what would you have me do? I planned to just put one of those wizarding tents in here and call it a day."
Her eyes lit up. "Ah! That's it."
"Whats it?"
She turned around and kissed him in excitement. "One of my aunties runs an enchanted tent business. I can put through a custom order with her to have it done by April. Otherwise, you're looking at an eight month waiting list. Enchanted tents are always in demand, and everyone wants to make their own, it's a fashion statement."
Jin just blinked at the girl going off in his arms and nodded. "Sure, whatever you want." Why did he care? He could have been happy with a standard tent, but if she wanted to have her fun, well, he only benefitted in the end.
"Whats your budget?" And then came the dreaded question and his mind was fully awake.
"I…" He opened his mouth to answer honestly with around a hundred galleons before he recalled the deal with Gorluff and immediately changed his following words. "What's the price range for a good tent?"
Better to make them say a number.
Fleur gave him an amused look but didn't call him out on it. "It depends how large you want it and how many extra features."
Jin hummed over that for a moment. "Let's say, I want one big one for a home in here, and two smaller ones that are less luxurious but more sturdy for being out in the wild."
She nodded at that and went into thought. "A good set up. Hm…if you let me handle the home tent, I can get you a big discount but you're still looking at around twelve hundred galleons. For the two sturdy smaller ones, around four hundred each."
Jin winced at the numbers, but Gorluff's assurance of how much his Basilisk corpse was worth pushed him on. "Right. I'll leave it to you."
She gave him a hug and peeled off with her wand to start taking measurements with a happy hum. Seeing her so excited made the price worth it. "Oh and outfitting them will probably double the price."
'So much drug money…no, no Jin, it's worth it. It's worth it. You could end up in a medieval world without magic.'
Fleur laughed at his expression and mischievously commented behind her as she walked off. "I never said we needed to shop on your savings, Mon Tigre. I'm a big girl."
His mind snapped back at that, and he narrowed his eyes on the bird fleeing through the door with a tittering laugh. 'Oh, she's gonna get it.' He buffed up with his animal features and raced after her. "Get back here Sparkles and take your punishment like a lady!"
"That's not how the saying goes!"
"It's how mine goes!"
Jin's cabin shook with laughter and vibrations for a while longer as the two young lovers had their fun.
It was a good thing the ball was held on a Saturday.
A few hours and an upturned couch later, Fleur lay atop him as they sat against the backrest of the couch with their feet in the air. "So, what are we going to do about the spiders."
Jin couldn't help but feel that spark of elation that went through him again at the thought of fighting, but he pushed it down for the time being. "I will be scouting them out and studying them while you continue with your classes and preparing for the tournament."
Fleur frowned at that. "That hardly seems fair, I wa-…."
Jin cut her off. "Fleur, the spiders aren't going anywhere, and you still have a life to live. I on the other hand have the free time and frankly, I'll need the combat experience in the worlds to come."
She pouted but didn't disagree. "Fine, but you will send me a message before you go and when you return. If I don't receive the second one, I'm going after you."
Jin thought about that before he nodded. "That's fine. If I get in over my head, it's good to have backup. But I'll have Gol to pull me out if it gets dicey."
Fleur shook her head in amusement. "I swear, you're the only wizard I know who values his house elf so much outside of housework."
Jin shrugged. "Wizards seem to think it makes them lesser if they rely on a house elf instead of their own abilities."
"You're not wrong. But what about your charms studies? It's amazing you learned so much in the time you had."
"I had the Room of Requirements and all the Wit-Sharpening potions I could handle to help me along, so I'm not sure how talented I really am."
She snorted in reply. "Jin, while many use potions to learn things quickly, it's not that much of a difference. It will clear your mind and increase your knowledge retention, but it still requires the user to have the focus, will, and drive to improve instead of playing games. I'm sure they helped, but don't look down on your own hard work."
Jin paused in thought at that. "Huh, never really occurred to me since I kept using them."
She chuckled and patted his arm. "Whatever it is, you are talented Jin, don't put yourself down."
He kissed the back of her head. "Thanks Sparkles, it means a lot."
"Don't call me Sparkles. But good, take pride in what you have and own it."
"And don't get a big head, right?"
"Nonsense, my head is beautiful."
"Might as well call yourself the pirate empress."
"Who?"
"Bah, just something from a fairy tale." He added in his mind. 'Just like Harry Potter was. Huh, wonder if I'll end up in One Piece at some point.'
"I see. Well, back to charms, what do you plan to do?"
Jin shrugged. "I'm just about done with the curriculum for the seven years. So unless I get my hands on tomes for the rarer kept charms, I'll just have to make use of what I have."
Fleur gave him a concerned look. "Most of the powerful spells are in curses, dark charms, and conjuration or transfiguration."
Jin smirked at her. "That's where you're wrong, Sparkles." He held up his hand, and it glowed with mana. "I've been looking into this a lot for the last few months, and magicals seem to think bigger is better when it comes to charms. The more impressive the spell, the more powerful, or the bigger it is, the more powerful, or the more ancient the spell, the more accomplished the witch or wizard. I disagree.
We have charms to levitate, explode, stun, gouge, shrink, grow, sever, turn invisible, make fire or water, and so much more, and they are all considered basic charms. Those basics can have incredible power if you put some imagination into them. I believe that somewhere along the way, magicals lost that aspect of spell casting. They lost their creativity and imaginative side."
Fleur watched as one Charm after another took hold in his palm before fading to become another with a ponderous gaze. "Simplicity."
He nodded and went on. "How would you block a killing curse."
She gave him a look. "You can't."
He smiled and channeled a charm while pronouncing it for her benefit. "Avis." A flock of birds was conjured from his hand. Not to be confused with a natural conjuration spell for transfiguration, the bird summoning Charm created constructs in bird forms from mana. As a pure conjuration spell, they can be formed from other materials such as stone, metal, or so on to a variety of effects, but as a charm, they were energy and faded when they had no more fuel.
Fleur looked at the flock of birds flying as her eyes lit up. "That's…brilliant. Create a physical wall of animated life to absorb the curse coming your way."
He smiled and continued. "What if you grew the ground beneath your feet in a singular direction? What if you banish a shrunken blade and revert it to full-size midflight? What if you focus the water-summoning Charm with incredible pressure? Or form the fire summoning charm as a whip of flame? Charms have so much versatility, but everyone ignores the basics to look for the rare and obscure.
Build your mana pool, understand your spells, increase your casting speed, decrease the reliance on a focus, learn to silently cast, and most importantly, imagine. Open your mind to the possibilities."
Fleur marveled at the display and thoughts running through her mind. She dreamed of being a Charms Mistress and understood what Jin was saying. But it was as if she had always known it but never saw it. When put in a different perspective, she suddenly had dozens of thoughts of charms she knew and how to work with them. "Have you tested them?"
He chuckled and put down his hand. "A bit, but I never really pushed it. Fighting will help me with that. I don't think I need more charms; I need some experience using what I have first, especially with my animal side. Last night, I didn't even think about casting a spell; my instincts just pushed me to physically attack. I can't give in like that." He had gone over the fight dozens of times when Fleur wasn't distracting him, and he had many things he would have scoffed at in a movie.
Fleur placed a hand on his chest. "It wasn't the wrong action considered Acromantula are fairly magic resistant, but…take it slow will you?"
He looked into her eyes with a smile. "Where would I get if I took it slow? No, I need to jump right in. I need to fight. If I want to survive the coming years, I need to push myself now while I have the time. There's a reason I like playing with fire, Mon Soleil."
Her own eyes lit up with humor as she felt him stir beneath her. "You need stamina to play with fire, Mon Tigre."
"That sounds like a challenge."
"Oui, a challenge that will keep on coming."
"Well, at least I won't be out of shape."
"I would be insulted if your muscles didn't burn."
The two laughed and met in a kiss as their hormones lit aflame once more.
They talked, they played, and they had their plans.
Now, they just had to act on them.
00000 5.2: The First Hunt.
Jin breathed deep of the cold forest air as he stepped fully into the thick snowy brush. Fleur had returned to her school's carriage the evening before, and he rested and cleaned up his home before coming back out.
The two burned spider corpses were gone, drag marks in the snow leading into the tree line, likely telling the tale of something getting a full meal.
'I really don't want to know what considers those abominations a meal….or maybe I do, could be useful.'
As his feet took him deeper into the woods, he recalled Hagrid's information on magical beast territories. 'If I remember correctly, the spiders infested the northeastern portion of the forest. Although, Hagrid was adamant they were harmless.' He thought back to the night of the ball and suppressed a shiver of both fear and excitement. 'Yeah, real harmless.'
His eyes hardened, and he let the animal out. His senses heightened, a tail sprouted, he grew a few inches, and his nails sharpened. He marveled at the world around him. 'I never came out here after finishing my Animagus transformation; there's so much….life.'
His eyes tracked the movement of falling snow, and his range of vision expanded as he could see the shaded areas clearer; his sense of smell worked faster to tell his brain about scents he was familiar with, and his skin felt the chill in the air more profoundly, and his sense of hearing expanded the most.
The sound of creatures moving, roars, growls, galloping, the wind blowing through trees, the snow crunching beneath his feet, the creaking of wood as it bent under the weight of its mass. It was incredibly vivid.
'This is incredible…do tigers always hear like this? I would have thought scent was their stronger sense.'
For the past few weeks, he kept relying on his sense of smell when he should have focused on his sense of hearing.
The clicking of pincers in the distance rang in his ears among the rest of the sounds, and he furrowed his brow as he tried to pinpoint it. 'There are too many sounds.'
He took a step toward the direction of the spider's territory and paused. 'Best to be prepared.' His skin was resistant to his own spells as well as others, so his options were limited.
He learned in the first month that he could channel magic to the skin of any part of his body to cast a spell externally when he jokingly made his dick a flashlight, but being able to focus the Charm in a quiet room without a timer was a different world from doing it in a high-stress environment. As well as the fact that he had never been able to make a charm from his skin inward.
'I need to be fast. I need to use what feels most natural to me so my mind can focus the image most clearly even when I'm distracted.' He clenched his hands and went through dozens of thoughts. 'My skin only stops mana from entering me, not leaving. So I can cast whatever I want and launch them, but I can't hit myself anywhere except my mouth or eyes…..yeah, lets avoid the eyes. That leaves my mouth.'
He looked down at his palm and focused on an idea. 'I could just shoot a sphere of light into my mouth, but I doubt I would be able to do that smoothly in combat. So if I need something I can pop in my mouth without much thought…..' His mind flashed back to all the potions he had been taking the last few months, and he chuckled. 'I've been making drug jokes all this time; maybe I should enforce that idea.'
Numbers flashed behind his eyes as his brain, hardwired for Arithmancy, reworked the parts to a simple silencing charm before he channeled mana to his palm.
The customary ball of light flashed and then began shrinking down to a small floating pill no bigger than half a fingernail. 'Down the hatch.' He casually tossed it in his mouth and felt it evaporate on his tongue with a weird sensation as he swallowed on reflex. 'Doesn't taste like anything, and it sunk into my flesh on contact, but did it work?'
He looked down and jumped a few times and heard the clear sounds of his steps in the snow. 'Ok, that didn't work. I'm making my insides silent but my skin is still resisting. Let's try adding more mana this time.'
He channeled the charm a second time but doubled the mana count.
Failure.
He tripled it.
Still failure.
He added ten times the amount necessary and began to sweat. 'This is getting ridiculous, just how resistant is my skin?'
He doubled it a second time and at twenty times the mana cost, he finally saw results as his feet no longer made noise.
Doubled over and panting, he shook his head. 'This isn't going to work if I need to use my whole mana pool for a single charm to stick to my skin. God, I need to take five and recover.'
Fifteen minutes later, he decided to change his approach. 'Maybe I don't need to make my feet silent, I'm wearing boots after all.' He pointed at his boots and hit them with the Charm. A few jumps later and he was smiling. 'There we go.'
Disillusionment was next. 'If I can't make my skin disillusioned, then just make my clothes disillusioned.'
Ever since he gained his tiger side, the cold didn't bother him as much, but it was still December in Scotland and he needed warm clothing. A minute later, only his head was visible. 'Not perfect, but much less noticeable. I'll need to rethink my wardrobe if this is how I deal with things though.'
His march into the woods had paused for close to an hour as he experimented and learned more about what worked and didn't work. When it came to launching a spell, it was easier to simply shoot it as a ball of colored light, but for spells he wanted to cast internally, it was faster to form something he could just toss in his mouth like candy. 'I'll have to brainstorm on healing methods if my skin is going to resist healing charms.'
Silenced and disillusioned, his feet took him deeper into the wintery landscape with a feline's grace. The more he moved, the more he found his body naturally adjusting to the forest terrain as his steps touched down with very light tracks.
Cold air filled his lungs, boiling blood pumped through his veins, and the spirit of a tiger shined through his actions as he gave himself over and gradually became more phantom-like beneath the forest bush.
Movement in his line of sight froze him in place as he clung to a thick tree. His nails dug into the bark like paper as he twisted around its width to observe out of sight. 'A Thestral herd.'
The skeletal omnivorous horses poked around in the snow for a snack, with the young toward the center and the adults on the outskirts. The alpha, a male twice the size of the average Thestral, sniffed the air and looked directly toward Jin's position.
The two stared off as Jin's animal side told him to pounce, and his human side told him to leave. Thankfully, his human side won out, and he bowed his head in respect before moving around the herd at a distance and away. 'I can't give in too far to my instincts. I'm lucky Thestrals are relatively friendly, but I won't always be that lucky.' He focused on how the horse found him as well. 'And scent is going to be a problem. Just because my own sense of smell is weaker doesn't mean that applies to others. There was no scent Charm in the school books, damn, I'll need to make my own or buy something.'
His legs pumped him further into the magical forest as he angled in the direction of the spider's territory. The sound around him began to grow more sparse the closer he got, and eventually, he came to a stop once he didn't hear a sound. 'Isn't that a bad sign?'
The gentle clicking of a salivating jaw was all the warning he had before his instincts flared, and he leaped powerfully forward, just narrowly missing the divebombing giant spider that silently descended on a string of silk.
The beast hissed at him threateningly as he rolled and dug his feet in to face it.
The fear of his first meeting with them came to the surface in the face of the identical predator so close to him while alone. The reality of the situation suddenly cooled his heated courageous thoughts of slaughtering a path through the nest of spiders.
And then, like a flipped switch, the animal spirit roared its defiance, and the fear was drowned out by an animalistic need to tear out the throat of a competitor.
Jin's logical mind retreated as his lips pulled back in a snarl, and his back hunched as he crouched. Muscles popped and flexed, ready to pounce at the slightest movement.
The XXXXX-rated magical creature stared back with emotionless black eyes and raised its forelimbs in a threatening hiss to make itself look bigger as it charged.
A breath. Two.
The spider screeched in pain, and Jin spat out the twitching limb from his teeth. The taste of blood only made him lose himself further.
Screeches and Growls rang in unison as minutes passed and the adrenaline pumped. Jin's mind overcame by the beast played with his prey.
He circled the arachnid, took off the limbs, twisted with inhuman dexterity around stabbing limbs and seeking venomous jaws, made it suffer, and took pleasure in it.
His mind only returned when the beast was satisfied as his body sat atop the de-legged and blind thrashing spider, sure in its victory and pleased with its actions.
Eyes widened in shock, and a tongue tasted blood as he dropped from the back of the creature and crab walked back until his back hit a tree.
The reality of what he had just done hit him like a ton of bricks as he recalled every moment. The feeling of tearing flesh, the heightened pleasure of every limb removed, the fear in its eyes as it struggled to fight back.
Bile raised in his throat as he dry heaved into the snow. His mind rapidly pulling at the knowledge ingrained in his mind through study and potion to recall the passage from a book on natural Animagi.
{Not much is known of those born so close to their animal spirit. These rare magicals come into their forms naturally, unlike those who use rituals and potions to connect with what's inside us. But natural or artificial, the animal is not separate from us; it is us, other sides of us, as if we were born the beast with the mind of a wizard or witch. Respect the identity of both and find the balance. For both sides are very real.}
The passage rang in his mind more accurately than ever before.
With Fleur, he had been defending her at first, reacting more than acting to everything. Now, he had been acting, and he wasn't in the driver's seat.
Bloody hands dug into the snow as he processed it all. 'I just told myself not to give in to the instincts ten minutes ago, and then it showed up and my mind just turned off. I'll really die if I can't control this.'
His mind began reviewing the battle in a detached sort of way and saw how naturally his body moved. 'But I can't deny it, it's part of me. Some part of me enjoyed what I just did.' Eyes tracked the strewn limbs and bloody trails. 'That was me. Don't run from it.'
He was disgusted with his actions, but there was no fear of himself. No, the fear was slowly dying as he looked on as the pitifully twitching spider slowly dying. 'I did that.' The image of the spider who ambushed him and put fear into him was superimposed with the image before him.
Fists tightened around snow as he pushed himself to his feet. The creaking of his leather shoes telling him the effects of his silencing spell had faded.
He took a step. Then two. Then three.
With each step forward, his fear took another step back. With each step ahead, his hesitation melted further. With each step more, his heart hardened to the reality of the moment.
'Reality and illusion.' His mind flashed to his first moments in the warehouse, questioning which was which. 'This is reality, this is my reality, don't run, don't hesitate, face it.'
Sharpened nails dug into his palms as the pain heightened his sense of reality.
His feet stopped before the still struggling form of what was left of the Acromantula. The image of it burning into his brain. 'This is what I did. This is what I will do if I give in. They are not something to fear. Conquer it, conquer yourself.' The lonely old man sitting at a table in a forgotten sewer flashed. 'I won't fall, I refuse, I refuse!'
His hands grasped a fallen branch and lifted the edge to the gouged-out eye socket as calculations flew through his eyes to tweak a charm. 'Engorgio.' The stick shot forward with a targeted directional growth and pierced into the meaty flesh and brain inside the spider as it shattered under the strain.
The spider hissed a final time and went still as Jin watched. How long he stood there, he didn't know, but when the sound of skittering limbs on wood reached his sensitive ears, he took off into the brush without hesitation until he reached an area with the sounds of wildlife once more.
He looked down at the blood covering him with distaste. 'Sloppy.' A quick cleaning charm peeled the blood and gore from his clothes but not the blood under his nails or over his face. He sighed in defeat at the sight and pointed a palm toward himself. Water splurged forward and knocked him on his ass. 'Ow.' He groaned and cut off the Charm. 'Maybe a little lighter next time. I could have just made it a mist.'
He banished the water from his clothes and wrung out his wet hair. 'God, I didn't realize how annoying passive magic resistant skin was. Why the hell did I pick this perk? At least with occlumency controlling the animal instincts would be a simple process.'
Muttered curses rang out in the trees as he berated himself. 'Bah, don't think about what I don't have. Focus on what you do have. You're a magic-resistant tiger who can use charms and tweak them on the fly, be proud of that.' His little pep talk got his approval as he stood back up. 'Now, I just have to actually use those charms in a fight.'
The sun was still high in the sky; the day wasn't over.
His head turned back towards the castle. 'I could just call it a day; there's no rush.' His foot refused to move in that direction, and he turned back to the spider's territory. 'But I can't just give up here, can I? If I take it easy today, I'll take it easy the next. That's not what I'm here to do.'
He shook his head vigorously. 'Get your head in the game Jin, you're on the clock.'
Silenced and mostly disillusioned, his steps took him back at a slowed pace. The area was no longer silent, and he crouched low in the tree line, catching sight of three Acromantula tearing into the dead one. 'Well, that answers my question of what ate the ones me and Fleur killed. They're cannibalistic.'
The three savagely ripped the other apart and feasted. 'Three on one isn't good odds. I don't have to fight today, but I can at least scout.'
He stayed low down in the snow and backed up slowly. A quick look up showed webbing in the trees. 'Best to stay on the ground with this one.'
For the rest of the day, he circled the spider's territory in a curve, getting a decent idea of the lay of the land and rubbing up against trees to leave his scent behind. A tiger's sense of smell was not significant for tracking, but it worked wonders for identifying familiar scents like his own.
Once the sun began to drop into the west, he pulled back and headed home. He needed to meditate and study up on Acromantula habits and traits.
He would come back the next day more prepared. One step at a time.
00000
Chapter 5.3: Growing Pains
The next day, he journeyed out again, except this time wearing one of the school's extra winter cloaks Gol swiped for him and cleaned. 'God, how do wizards wear these things? Do they even wear clothes under it? I know Fleur keeps things airy, but she's a major closet pervert with an amazing poker face. I can't tell if I should hate or love this culture.'
He shook his head in wry amusement and pushed on into the wintry brush with his head now covered mainly by the disillusioned hood.
His research into Acromantula the night before proved primarily useless. 'The encyclopedias mainly all had the same message to specifically 'not' study the giant death spiders. Their silk was highly prized, and a select few families in the magical world specialized in farming them, but the supply was low enough that the demand remained high at all times.'
The sound of a passing galloping creature had him alter his course to avoid its path as he kept on. 'All that was known was that they emulated normal spiders in most of the same ways. Strong eyesight, night vision, nocturnal, strong sense of taste, scent, and touch, with touch being their strongest sense. A venom that while not lethal to a grown wizard, would begin to numb the affected limb and paralyze the body in high enough doses. Not bad if you were in a group, but solo against a horde it's a terrifying affect.'
His nose inhaled his scent marks from the day before, and he slowed as the sounds from other creatures faded. 'I haven't figured out a scent masking charm yet, but I'm not without options.' He ensured the robe was tightly wrapped around him and hit it with an overpowered cleaning charm. 'I can at least remove the charm component that involved adding a scent. It won't mask my own, but it at least lowers my scent to a much lower degree.'
The Acromantula territory was its own land from the rest of the forest. Marked by the thick webbing in the trees blocking out the sunlight to create a much darker and shaded area. How he missed the signs the first time, Jin had no idea. He could only blame it on hyper-focusing.
Choosing a different location to enter from, he crouched low at the line just outside the thick webbing in the trees and looked up. The shadowed space blocking out the sun would have been worrisome to most, but his tiger enhancement pierced through the dark without issue to spot the completely still giant spider hovering above on a web.
'I can't believe I missed that yesterday. It's right there.'
He berated himself and thought about how to approach things. 'Alright, I'm zero for two on trying magic here, so let's start simple.'
His palm, hidden in the brush, pointed at the spider as he focused on the Gouging charm and let it build in power before he released it in a silent yet colorful red ball of light.
Despite his intent, it wasn't as fast as he would have liked, but it did manage to hit the spider in the end.
And he succeeded in knocking it back a few steps as it hissed and locked onto his position. 'Fuck.' Eight black eyes zeroed in on him, and his animal side wasn't happy.
00000
His third attempt was going to be different; he was sure of it; he wouldn't turn into a mindless murder fluff. 'Magic resistant spiders. Nothing close to a giant, but still there. Weak to fire, but fire equals light, and light equals more spiders quickly, so fire and explosion Charms are out.'
He was in a new location, looking at a new spider.
And this time, he had a boulder.
'If I can't spell you, I can smash you.'
He levitated the hundred-and-fifty-pound rock into position and aimed carefully before casting the banishing charm with both hands.
The rock flew like a cannonball and smashed head-on into the spider's face, pushing it off the web to crash to the ground below with a screech. 'Yes! Now go for the kill!'
His animal side cheered, but without a fight, it didn't push to the front as he charged forward to stab a steel spear he took from an armor stand in the castle into the creature's smashed eyes. 'Engorgio.' His modified growth charm extended the spear like a spike to stab through the eye socket and brain before he shrunk it to return it to normal size.
Adrenaline pumped in his ears as he threw his arms up in a silent cheer. 'Yes! Take that you fuckers! I can kill you without becoming a giant cat!'
His kill wasn't elegant, it wasn't impressive, and it wasn't a long-term strategy, but it was a win and a confidence booster.
Said confidence froze a second later at the sound of dozens of skittering legs reaching his ears. 'What?! Why are there are so many? They didn't show up the entire time I was here the last two fights!'
A quick retreat deep into the tree line hid him out of sight, where he covered himself in cleaning spells to erase whatever scent he could as he watched a dozen Acromantula break into the clearing and look around.
A couple of them ignored the dead spider to poke at his thrown boulder lying nearby. 'The boulder? Why would that….'
He looked up and felt like an idiot. 'Right, their strongest sense is touch and I just smashed the edge of a massive web with a giant rock. Nice going dumbass.'
There wasn't any more hunting to be done that day.
00000
Jin cycled through the charms he had available to him to see what worked and what didn't work.
Any attacks of the webs seemed to immediately summon a dozen more to check out the disturbance, so he was forced to bring the spiders down first.
First, he tried using his command over snakes to get the job done. That didn't go very well.
~You want me to do what?!~
Jin eyed the ball python with the benevolent look of a shady priest. "~Just go in there, touch that tree, and come back. Simple.~"
The snake hissed at him and reared back. "~Speaker, I can CLEARLY smell this is claimed territory. I don't want to die.~"
"~You won't die, trust me.~"
"~….I can smell the dead snake skin on you.~"
"….."
"….."
"~I'll give you a mouse.~"
"~I'm going home.~"
Turned out, being a speaker of snakes didn't make you universally master of all snakes. It just meant snakes would always hear you out, and if it wasn't an outrageous request, they would listen to your demands without question. They were also fiercely loyal and fulfilled any task they agreed to.
With that said, they weren't committing suicide for him. Well, some did, but they became spider food and had mini tombstones raised in their honor.
With snakes not an option, he just sent Gol to a pet store to buy a large number of rats. No one liked rats. Jin felt justified. The rats felt fear.
A week into things, Jin wrote his findings down. 'Spiders react to movement in the area despite being upwind and in their blind spot. How are they reacting so quickly?'
00000
'Strings! It was strings!'
Jin bent back ninety degrees and avoided the piercing strikes from two Acromantula.
His desire to test a theory resulted in him pulling the attention of two of the spiders who were on to him before he could pull away.
When his animal side tried to force its way up, he formed a Cheering Charm pill and swallowed it to keep calm.
Rolling out of the way of another strike, he tried to grimace but smiled instead. 'Ok, maybe turning off the murder fluff mode wasn't the best idea.'
He did a back handspring with the ease of an advanced gymnast thanks to his highly enhanced dexterity and channeled two Growth Charms into the earth as it rapidly raised up in an unstable earthen wall six feet tall.
The seeking limbs pierced right through it, but it bought him seconds to back away and aim his spear at one and grow his weapon to stab into its body.
The Acromantula screeched in pain, so he shrunk his spear and repeated his action four more times until the second spider was on him, and he broke off.
It got in close, and a panicked flail of his arm ended up severing a spider leg on his sharp nails. The spider froze, Jin froze, and the second spider thrashed in agony from five bleeding holes in its body in the background. 'Huh, forgot I could do that.'
The spider before him regained its wits in seconds and pounced as Jin dodged with all the grace he had and aimed to keep taking off limbs with his sharpened nails.
With five limbs twitching on the ground, laughter bubbled up from him, more from the forced cheer than anything, as he danced with the XXXXX-ranked creature. 'Maybe this is what Madara meant about dancing.'
It was crazy; it was weird, he would throw popcorn at a movie screen if he ever saw it and call it bullshit, but it was fun.
And then he got stabbed in the shoulder by the spider who got stabbed first, and his illusion of fun was broken. 'Not fun, this is no longer fun, ow, ow, ow!' His free hand flashed in a spark of bright light as he channeled an overpowered light charm and rapidly broke away to head for the tree line.
The two spiders thrashed on the ground in pain from the sudden flare, but Jin didn't care. His arm was already going numb from the venom, and he didn't want to chance a third spider showing up while injured.
But if he knew anything about the spiders by now, those two injured ones wouldn't live past the night with their hungry brethren on the way.
00000
Two weeks in, Jin ditched the spear. 'It wasn't bad, but it's not for me. Besides, I'm focusing on magic here, and a spear isn't magic. Time for Jedi mind tricks.'
It was time to test out the Confusion Charm and Memory Charm.
Jin stared into the eight blinking eyes of his foe and waved his hands from twenty feet away. "You don't want to fight."
The spider followed the movement of his hand traveling in an arc.
"You don't want to eat me."
Its eyes stayed on target.
"You want to eat your brother over there. He stole your sweet roll."
Its eyes turned to the side where Jin knew another spider was hiding in the distance from daily experience and screeched.
The lesson of that day was that Jedi mind tricks don't work on spiders. But they did like sweet rolls.
00000
'Banishing shrapnel stones. Highly affective. Aim for the eyes, otherwise you will just piss them off.'
00000
Once more, Jin found himself facing two spiders, except this time, he was testing out a new Charm.
'Water summoning charm, adjusted to extreme pressure with a thin summoning hole.'
His inner spirit thrashed to come out as he forced it down with growing experience and kept the two spiders in his line of sight. A growl was already at his lips as he channeled his charm to both hands and ejected a two-finger-width diamond-cutting beam of water from both hands.
Mana drained out of him in spades to supply the pressure, but each blade pierced a head of a spider in the blink of an eye.
Jin blinked as his spirit settled down, and the two spiders collapsed.
'Well, that was worth all the trees I killed trying to adjust this charm. Not sure it's very cost effective though.'
00000
Day in and Day out, he took off into the woods to hunt and test his handbook of charms one after another. Sadly, despite his consistent creativity, finding ones that worked well against giant magically resistant spiders without summoning a horde down on him was an uphill battle.
00000
An exasperated Jin cursed the sun's existence as he walked to the Horse stable one frigid morning while drinking a cup of coffee.
A lumbering form came up on his side from the other direction. "Ey Jin! How's it going bud? Haven't seen ya in a few days."
Jin blinked up at the large form of Hagrid and shrugged. "Got myself a lady, you know how it is."
Hagrid blushed and nodded with a dopey smile. "Aye, it's a good winter ain't it?"
Jin grinned and elbowed the larger man in the stomach with all the force of a piece of paper hitting the half-giant. "Got yourself that big French gal, eh? Good job, bro."
Hagrid flushed further, and Jin laughed. "Bah! I did, and I got no shame, ya hear. Just keep it on the down low, don't wanna be embarrassing the lady with her status an all."
Jin chuckled and waved a hand. "No worries man, my girls her top student so I got no one to tell."
Hagrid blinked and laughed as he slapped Jin's back in a friendly fashion and sent him into the ground. But he saved his coffee.
"Oops." The gentle giant winced and picked him up like a kitten to dust him off. "Sorry bout that."
Jin calmly sipped his drink. The spider hits the last few weeks hit harder than a gentle pat from the man. "All good." The thought of spiders made him blink and look at the giant. "Hey, Hagrid."
"Hm?"
"Are spiders colorblind?"
"Colorblind? Depends on the species Jin."
"Acromantula."
"Oh! Friendly buggers aren't they? Often misunderstood sadly. Are they colorblind? Nah, not a bit. They do hate the color blue though, so never wear that if you go into the forest."
Jin deadpanned. "Hagrid, I've been here six months and go in there frequently. You couldn't have mentioned that sooner."
Hagrid scratched his cheek with a flush. "Must have slipped my mind, sorry."
Jin waved him off. "It's fine, but aren't some spiders blue?"
The giant let out a laugh. "Yeah! Acromantula hate em."
"Huh, good to know. So how's your Cerberus."
Hagrid's smile lit up his face like Christmas as he talked while Jin quietly drank his coffee. 'They hate the color blue, huh, good to know.'
00000
'Wow, they really hate the color blue.'
Jin stealthily watched as three spiders viciously attacked a blue tree he had hit with a color-changing charm not ten minutes before.
The first one noticed the change and screeched, and two more quickly came to back it up with emotional support as they went to town on the wood like crazed animals.
'I kinda feel bad for the tree.'
His hands lifted as he summoned fire in one hand and used a color-changing charm in the other to turn the flame blue. 'I'll give it a pyre and go home. I learned enough for today.'
He was no Veela but pump enough Mana into it, and Acromantula were cooked crispy. Of course, he ran like a bat out of hell the second he was done, as he could hear hundreds of limbs coming his way, attracted by the light. 'How many of these fucking things are there?'
00000
The days began passing one after another as Jin stepped into the forest in the mornings, after completing his duties for Hagrid as well as feeding Alfred and his buddies, and then returning with the setting sun to finish up his chores.
Fleur came over most evenings to check on him and keep him company at night. Her days were mainly filled with study as she worked through her final year of schooling and avoided the crowds as much as possible. She also helped where she could in caring for the horses as she was one of the few Alfred's gang wouldn't attack for approaching.
She wanted to join him in his hunts, but Madame Maxine was keeping her day's busy training with teachers for the next Tri-Wizard task.
The nights were hers, however, and anyone who had a different opinion got burned for their efforts.
The two young lovers spent New Year's together, and while Jin almost burned down his house trying to make a holiday dinner with Gol hovering worriedly around him like a mother hen, Sil came to the rescue with a full cooked meal. Fleur laughed her ass off at him for forgetting he could do magic as he jumped out the window to put his burning turkey, as well as his arm, out in the snow. Right before Bron appeared and decided he needed to be dunked into the ice-covered Black Lake to be sure the fire was out.
That moment aside, the New Year was full of laughter, teasing, and a special time for just the two.
Every day, Fleur would spend an hour grilling him on his experiences fighting. He told her what he dealt with, and she helped him brainstorm, review, and come up with new plans and shoot down suicidal plans.
The question of how to deal with his clothing situation was quickly handled the second it was brought up. In hindsight, Jin was just thinking out loud in the same room as her. He did not intend for his words to be taken as 'I have 100 galleons to spend on clothing shopping'.
00000
The jingling of a bell announced the arrival of two young adults bickering as they entered a clothing store.
"Sparkles, this is unnecessary. Gol can just snap his fingers and stitch some stuff together. Or I could just alter some clothes with charms. That's the point of having magic."
"Stop being so stubborn. You need clothes, you have money, you buy clothes like a civilized person."
"But I have clothes."
"Welcome~." A cheerful voice called from the desk as Jamie amusedly watched one of her favorites get lectured on higher wisdom. "I see you have a good handler Jin~, but whats this about making your own clothes now?"
Her sickly sweet tone at the end made him wince and Fleur shine. "Bonjour~. Jamie, right? Jin has told me about you."
"All good things I hope~."
The two women shook hands with a glare, and Jin casually found the men's section to browse away from that nonsense.
'Hm, this is a nice cloak….twenty galleons?! Is it made of goblin silver?' He put distance between himself and that rack.
Five minutes later, he was just minding his own business and browsing when he got jumped like a rabbit eyed by two bored lionesses as two dainty hands grabbed his shoulders and turned him around to the shining eyes of two fashion-focused women. "Er….I'm going to grab some milk."
Their grips turned to steel.
"Nice try."
"Let's go on to the back and get your….measurements."
"Damn, that usually works."
Two hours later, a very disheveled Jin stood at the cash register with two females with glowing skin and wild hair. Fleur was thrown over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes as she giggled away. "So, do I get a discount if I'm supplying the materials?"
Jamie's dazed, dopy look snapped to him. "Hm? Oh, yeah, definitely. Bring me what you got, and I'll make you the cloak we designed."
Jin nodded and looked off to the side. "Gol."
His dutiful elf appeared, took one look at him, and vanished to reappear with a towel. "Sir."
Jin silently took it with a thankful look and wiped the lipstick and other fluids off his face with nothing that needed to be said. "Please remember this location when I tell you to bring materials to Jamies Jammies."
Gol vanished the used towel without comment. "Certainly sir."
He popped off, and Jin looked back at Jamie. "By the way, do you make leather armor?"
Jamie blinked. "Uh, well, no. But I know a guy if you need some."
"Are they good?"
Jamie scoffed and patted her chest, only realizing a second later her shirt was missing. "Ow. If you can trust my tailoring skill, you can trust my guys work. You got the material for that too?"
His answering smirk said it all. "I got some."
Fleur's snort of amusement seconded him.
Chapter 5.4: Bonds and Charms 2.
Sunday was Jin's one day off a week from everything and he chose to spend it kicked back on his lush carpet with his back against his couch, idly going over his charm designs in his personal journal.
The sun shined through the window, illuminating his peaceful wintry cottage with a serene air.
His form was wrapped in grey sweats and a black V-neck t-shirt as the hearth filled the cabin with a comfortable warmth and the sounds of crackling wood.
A steaming cup of tea rested on the coffee table above his extended legs. A cup that had just been lifted with a gesture of his finger as his peripherals caught a book being slammed down on the table.
He looked up at the proudly standing vision of beauty with a puffed out chest that ruined his peace with a raised brow. "Why are you peacocking?"
She reared back like an insulted swan. "Excuse me?"
Jin cracked a smirk. "What's got you so happy Sparkles?"
She hmphed at him and dived onto the couch to hug his head from behind. "I got a package from France I was waiting for."
Jin rested his head against her chest with a relaxed smile. "The book?"
"Mn. I may have been busy but that doesn't mean I'm not going to help you in my own way Jin."
He brought one of her hands to his lips and kissed her palm. "You help me every day by being here."
Fleur's arms tightened around him. "You fool, we are a pair; it is only proper to support each other."
They enjoyed a moment in peace as Jin's fingers trailed gently over her arms before he spoke with a teasing tone. "You sure it's not because you're a natural cuddler in bed? Or that you prefer sleeping after orgasming?"
Fleur's cheeks flushed, and her voice dropped a level of volume. "Don't embarrass me; I always went home on the weekends in France to my Veela coven. I told you, Veela take care of their own."
"Every weekend?"
"Mn. To Veela it's natural among our own."
Jin looked up with distant eyes, and Fleur pulled his ear in annoyance. "Is your mind wandering, Mon Tigre?"
He came back with a blink and chuckled as he turned his head to look into teasing blue eyes. "Can you blame me? I know exactly how horny you are on a daily basis. A whole coven is just terrifying and enrapturing at the same time."
She rolled her eyes in amusement. "Imagine all you want, but I'm the only Veela you will ever touch."
"No complaints from me. Are Veela usually so territorial? Or have you just fallen for my charms that hard."
Fleur scoffed and pulled back. "Hardly~." She winked at him and went on. "But territorial, yes. We are all women, and sexual boundaries are more for fun and necessity among each other. But if one claims a partner, its theirs. Crossing that line among Veela is like insulting an ancient wizard bloodline family and results in blood feuds."
Jin hummed in interest. "Huh, it really gets that serious?"
"Mn, it's rare but it happens. Many Veela form harems with their partners, but there is only ever one Veela in them."
Jin raised a brow as he thought back to their visit to Jamie. "But you don't care for other non-Veela women?"
Fleur shrugged and ran her fingers through his hair. "Depends on the couple. If you're asking about me, I don't mind having some fun as long as it's with you. Or making something serious if another woman entered your heart, although I would have to be sure they wouldn't hurt you, or I may kill them myself. But without you, on my own, I wouldn't touch another non-Veela in the world."
"But you would still connect with a Veela?"
She gave him a look and realized he was serious, so she nodded truthfully. "If you were not around, it wouldn't change my nature. Veela cannot change what we are. I have said before, we are beings of Fire, Passion, Love, Loyalty, and Lust. My lust would grow and grow and I would go mad. It has happened among our kind before. The lust calms during pregnancy, but otherwise is unchanged."
Their eyes met in silent understanding. "If you stay with me, I will never have need of another. But if you leave, I cannot survive without my Veela sisters. I can abstain from fun, but eventually I would have to give in."
Jin tilted his head back and smirked. "I guess I should be glad no males exist among your kind then."
She blinked and sat up. "You are unbothered? It is quite common for Veela partners to be uncomfortable."
"Hm….I wouldn't say I'm comfortable, but what should I do? Tell you to go mad?" He trailed a hand over her legs. "You're not the only one falling for someone in this relationship, and we need to support each other if we want to grow as a couple. You are you, and I never want you to be anyone else but you."
His hand tightened ever so slightly as his voice growled with a possessive tone. "I am not ok with it, but I must respect your species. As long as it is only a Veela, I won't be upset with you. If another man touches you while your with me, I'll kill them."
Fleur stared into the wild eyes of her man and smirked with an inner fire of her own gaze. "If another man touched me, I would kill them. I told you, Veela are loyal to a fault to our partners. For good or bad, you earn it and its yours."
Jin growled, and she pounced on his lips in a passionate kiss. His arms came up naturally to wrap around her torso and bring her down into his lap with a squeak of laughter from her.
She settled, lying halfway on his lap as the two heated up.
Minutes later, they pulled away with Fleur biting his lower lip. "Sparkles."
"Must you call me that insufferable name right now?"
Jin smirked and nuzzled her cheek with his own. "Weren't you excited to show me something when you walked in?"
Her eyes lit up. "Ah! I forgot." She poked his chest playfully. "You distracted me."
He chuckled and lowered his lips to her neck. "I'm your favorite distraction."
She held back a moan as his kissed her pulse point and unsuccessfully tried to push him away. "Jiiinn~, wait, you should see this."
He savored her taste a minute more and his animal side felt pleased to mark what was his. "Go on Mon Soleil, show me."
She bit her lip with a minor whimper of pleasure at his tone and resisted all her urges to burn off his clothes and mount him. "Don't rile me up."
"You sure you don't want me to add oil to the flames?"
Fleur turned away with a struggle and sat up so she could plop down in his lap with a hiss. "I will drain you dry after this. You think you saw heated? I'll give you an inferno."
His answering gaze didn't back down from the challenge. "Show me all of you."
Her nails dug into his skin and drew blood as she forced down her instincts while grinding her hips into his own. "Mon Tigre, please."
He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her shoulder. "Alright, alright, enough teasing. Show me what you brought."
She sank into his chest and tried to focus on the tome on the table. "You have told me of your troubles with using Charms on the Acromantula."
Jin's thoughts went to his weeks of experiments, and he grimaced. "Yeah. I can be creative all I want, but my most effective charms would just get me killed. Fire, Explosions, and Light are their worst matchup, yet using any summons a horde down on you.
Their skin is too magic resistant to be directly affected by Gouging, Severing, Summoning, Banishing, Freezing, Levitating, Growing, Shrinking, Stunning, Confusion, or Memory manipulation without me overcharging the spell and draining myself. It's less extreme than my own skin, but I'm far away from the level where I can affect them with the size of my mana pool.
So all my options are in using the terrain, weapons, and my own body to physically harm them, and even then, they are strong fuckers.
You touch their web, game over. You enter their territory, and you will always be found by an endless maze of needle-thin webbing to alert the web above. All you can do is stop and fight, but even if you avoid doing anything to alert the rest, every step you take deeper will just result in you having to fight more at a gradual pace.
For all of that, the only weakness I know is that they REALLY hate the color blue."
Jin sighed in annoyance as he finished his minor rant.
Fleur wrapped an arm around his neck from underneath. "I know. I know it's been aggravating you. That's why I called home to ask for this."
She summoned the book to her free hand, and Jin looked at the simple leather cover with curiosity. "It's not a ritual, right?"
His question got an exasperated huff. "Non Jin, I had my Maman send me some charms from the coven library."
Jin's eyes lit up in excitement as he sat straighter with a laughing Veela in his arms. "I see I got your attention now, no?"
"You have all of it, all of the time."
She rolled her eyes. "Of course."
Jin chuckled and nudged her. "So what did they send? And aren't magicals extremely against sharing valuable knowledge? I searched the entire Hogwarts library in the Room of Requirements but barely got more than a handful of Charms outside the curriculum. And even then they are mostly useless as they are."
Fleur giggled at his adorably curious look. "Oui. My school is the same. I assume many others are as well. Some schools have more or less subjects, but the charms taught are usually ninety percent the same across the board. Unless you are willing to trade or pay with a family, it is hard to get more charms." She bit her fingernail in annoyance. "Which makes my desire to be a Charms Mistress so much harder than it has to be. Why is everyone a prick."
Jin laughed and took her hand away. "Feelings mutual Sparkles. Focus back on your coven."
She smirked as he played with her fingers and went on. "Right. Well Veela covens have their own libraries, and members have credit to copy spells or knowledge. My Maman is high up in the hierarchy and was happy to help when I asked."
Jin raised a brow at that. "You told your mother you wanted to hunt Acromantula and she just helped without a word?"
Fleur looked away shiftily, and he licked her finger to make her react. She squeaked and pulled her hand back with a flush. "Bad kitty. Ok, I didn't exactly say that, but I got the job done."
"Tiger. And what did you say?"
Fleur thought back to that conversation the other day.
Flashback:
"You want me to do what young lady!?"
"Maman, please."
The near identical face of Fleurs, except far more mature and yet just as beautiful, frowned at her over the Floo call. "Don't you start with me. Why are you asking about hunting Acromantula? Is this for the tournament? I knew Maxine shouldn't have brought you there."
Fleur huffed in indignation. "Oh please, I'm the best student Beauxbaton has this year."
Her mother, Apolline Delacour, frowned but nodded with a sigh. "We are proud of you honey, but we still worry. Scotland is so far away, and the tournament was discontinued for a reason."
Fleur winked at her mother. "Are you saying the daughter of THE Apollon should fear a little British tournament?" Buttering her up was an effective way to get what she wanted.
Apolline knew that, but she couldn't fight her own proud smile. "Hm. You did take after me the most; little Gabrielle is a daddy's girl, sadly."
Fleur giggled, recalling the tough Auror who melted under the young Gabriella's pout. "Oui, it's adorable. But that's not why I'm calling Maman. Do you think you can send me some charms for those horrible spiders?"
Her mother raised a brow. "What's wrong with fire? It's those creatures main weakness."
Fleur winced. "It's for the tournament."
Apolline narrowed her eyes. "I raised you for seventeen years young lady. Don't think you can lie to your mother. Out with it."
Fleur sighed and just bit the bullet. "I'm bonding."
Her mother's eyes lit up like shining rubies of joy. "Tell me everything."
Flashback end.
Fleur drooped her shoulders. "I told her about you."
Jin focused his gaze on her without judgment. "I see. How did she take it?"
Fleur scoffed in amusement. "She's more excited than my little sister being told she can meet her idol, Harry Potter. She went off on me for hours for details on our first night."
Jin chuckled and kissed her cheek. "She's not grilling you for my story?"
Fleur looked affronted. "Jin, I wouldn't tell anyone about that. You trusted me with your past, and that stays between us and anyone you decide to tell."
Jin blinked. "I didn't know you felt so strongly about it."
She narrowed her eyes and cupped his cheeks to look directly at her. "How many times must I say Veela take loyalty very seriously before it sticks? I would never betray you like that."
He gazed warmly at the bird in his lap and couldn't help but marvel at how bright she was. 'Like the sun, heh, what a fitting nickname.' "Thank you…. Mon Soliel." And he meant it. The loyalty touched him deeply.
A smile split her face at his tone, and she released his cheeks to share a light kiss. "You never have to, Mon Tigre."
They enjoyed a moment of peace before Jin looked up. "So, what did you tell your mother then?"
She groaned and rested her head against his shoulder. "I told her about your personality and what we have done, outside our personal moments, while I have been here. In return, I had to listen to her gush for hours about how she met my father."
Jin winced at that. "Ouch. Is she mad at how fast we are going?"
Fleur scoffed. "Fast? Jin, I told you Veela can bond in a day or a decade. My mother was the former. She decided she wanted to bond within two weeks and took my father for the ride of his life as they fell in love. Love takes time to blossom, but the bond is the weaving of souls, it is the seed planted and sprouted as fast as the feelings mature."
Jin processed that. "So, it's kinda like the bond is very committed dating, and once the love is there the knot is tied?"
Fleur rolled her eyes. "Men. Making something very esoteric and complicated sound so simple. Yes, you may take it like that. But you can find out the rest yourself." Her challenging smirk egged him on, although it wasn't like he wasn't already on board.
"Come get me."
"Oui, I already have."
The two laughed, and Jin pointed his chin at the book. "We got off track, but what's in the book."
Fleur focused back on it. "Ah, she did some searching and found a few Charms that can help. Smokescreen Charm. I know the spiders care more about touch, but I figured you could play with it and make something useful."
His eyes shined, and he quickly summoned his fallen journal to write down ideas sprouting in his mind. "You're a genius!"
Fleur laughed arrogantly with a hand over her mouth. "I know, I know. it's hard to be me sometimes."
"Shush, Sparkles. Keep going."
She playfully slapped his chest but went on. "Rude. The next one is the Presence Revealing Charm. You may be able to see them in the dark, but the charm says you can see the red outlines of nearby lifeforms through obstacles."
Jin smiled excitedly. 'Like the Aura Whisper shout in Skyrim.'
His expectant look was absolutely adorable to Fleur, like a feline being given its favorite treat. She shook her head with a laugh at the mental thought. "Last one is the Bluebell Flames Charm, magical flames also known as cold fire. It makes blue fire that will only burn what you wish, is waterproof, can be held, and most importantly, can be adjusted to a dim glow rather than the bright light of normal flames."
Jin's journal dropped as he stared at the smug-looking bird for all of three seconds before he stood up and lifted her up in a cheer. "Are you fucking with me right now?"
She laughed and cupped his cheeks. "Not yet."
He laughed back and spun her around before kissing her passionately and stealing her breath away.
His fist came up in celebration as he shouted. "I've been trying to figure out that charm since I heard the spiders hated the color blue! I couldn't figure out the damn combination, but now I don't have to. Those fuckers are going down!"
Fleur patted his head fondly. "Yes, yes, you can go be a murder fluff. Now put me down, there's one more thing."
Jin's excitement caused him to miss the gleam in Fleur's eyes. "There's more? Babe, you're spoiling me."
Fleur chuckled lowly and wrapped her arms around his neck as she pulled close. "Just one little thing. I made you a Portkey."
Jin's eyes widened. "Really?! You can make them?"
Unlike how the fanon of Harry Potter liked to portray, there was no simple Portkey Charm to make yourself a key to spatial travel anywhere you wanted. He had done plenty of research into its charm, and Portkey creation involved loads of exact coordinates, measurements, adjustments for what type of passengers, and many other pieces that made it apply three different branches of magic for every single one. Each had to be custom-made as well; there was no way to mass-produce them.
Portkey defensive wards, however, did exist with a simple charm. After all, the defense simply rejected a Portkey from entering or leaving a set space.
Fleur giggled and shook her head. "Not yet sadly. But I ordered this one. It's a pair of portkeys with a safety enchantment. If one of us gets knocked unconscious against our will, it will pull us to the other."
"Really? That must have cost a fortune! Fleur, you didn't have to go that far."
She laughed with the same mischievous smirk. "Don't be a fool Jin. You think I don't worry when I study and you go off every day? Even if Gol is a call away, at least now I can have a safety net to catch you. And it even goes both ways, so I know I'm always in safe….claws."
Jin laughed at the play on words and shook his head. "Fine, fine, I'll return the favor later. Where is the thing?"
A hand behind his back summoned a small item from her pouch on the table as she held it up. "Right here~."
Jin's happy mood stilled on the object in front of his eyes. "Sparkles…."
"Yes?"
"No."
"You would say that, even with all it stands for?"
Jin struggled. "But….I….babe…."
"Uh, uh. Say it~."
Her voice was downright evil as she bit his earlobe.
Jin groaned and looked at the simple black earring with rune engravings. "Fleur, I'm not an earring guy."
"It will look sexy."
He looked at the shining eyes of his bird and the tome on charms she had just brought him before he sighed. "….just keep it away from my right ear."
0000000000 Coming Soon: Chapter 5.5: Silk and Centaurs. 000000000000
AN: Thoughts?
Response to Reviews:
H Hadi J – Yo! Sorry about last chap but Fanfiction is really annoying about anything with it. They are the only site that censors anything with a link to anything else, and your name apparently counts as a link lol.
2005born – You asked, you shall receive.
OoOXylionOoO – Thanks! Hope you enjoyed.
Sakra95 – Thank you! No worries, Fleur will have justice done. No drama involved here. I got no plans after the second world just yet, but when we get there, I'll throw up a vote to see where everyone wants to go next.
Winter Melon – Yeah, it might surpass chap 4's 24K word count lol. I'll send it in BIG pieces.
TopHatWeirdo – Dude, you're the fastest and most attentive reader of my stories I've seen so far. Thank you! And I'm not 100% happy with that last scene for the talk, might go back to clean it up. Not change it too much, just a few lines.
Mr Brown Optometrist – Thanks! Hope you enjoyed.
Azai Jin – Thank you for the review! I'm hoping to build their relationship strongly so it doesn't feel 2D. I want to bring them to life while keeping the focus on Jin. There will be plenty of adventures down the road. Hope you enjoyed this chap.
Haseosamaa – No spoilers for the end. I'm not planning on doing usual cliches, but it won't be dramatic.
IronKombat736 – Stay tuned and find out :).