If you like Zelda fanart, I draw that when I'm done writing for the week and can't think of anything to draw for my story. If you go to the garden-eel-draws tumblr, it's under the "doodle" tag in the handy-dandy navigation post at the top. I'm pretty proud of my Sailor Moon and Great Fairy costumes for Link~

Anyway, enough pimping my blog. Time for an emotional impact chapter. *cracks knuckles*

Harry sat in one of the chairs before Professor Dumbledore's desk, his stomach knotted with dread. Professor Flitwick had instructed them to Floo there through his fireplace, but the Headmaster's office had been empty when they'd arrived.

The soft whistles, clicks, and hoots of the instruments strewn about the large room, usually comforting in their gentle whimsicality, now unnerved Harry. One instrument in particular, a bulbous cross between a flower pot and a teakettle, kept producing strident little peeps that made it sound like it was in pain. Its lone cry of alarm made the peaceful chatter of the other silly doodads seem empty and wrong.

'The whole school is in danger, and it's my fault,' Harry thought. The teakettle-pot's distressed chirps matched the tempo of his thudding heart. 'I pulled the sword out of the pedestal. I set Vaati and the shadow free. If I'd just left it there—'

Blue punched Harry hard in the arm, jolting him out of his spiral before it could truly begin. "If you hadn't pulled the sword out, then everyone would have had to find a way to stop Vaati without the blade specifically designed to beat him," the boy said. "This isn't our fault. Hell, it isn't even Shadow Harry's fault. It's just Vaati acting like the wanker he is, so get over yourself."

Harry rubbed where he'd been hit and studied the wood of Professor Dumbledore's desk, refusing to make eye contact. "How'd you know?" he asked.

"Because I gave myself the same speech just a minute ago."

The boys sat in near-silence for a while, only the various noises of Professor Dumbledore's knickknacks and the occasional sound of a distant bomb blast interrupting the quiet. Harry chewed on his lower lip and struggled not to think. If he started thinking, he would start blaming himself for everything, and that wouldn't help him or anyone else. It was certainly bad form for a Hero of Hyrule—even a stand-in—to have a nervous breakdown while their designated villain was wreaking havoc. Blue was flipping the pages of a book he wasn't reading. His eyes were glazed and he turned the pages too infrequently to match his usual reading speed. Harry decided to follow his example and pulled his Defense textbook out of his schoolbag. Soon, he had lost himself in a section describing the defining characteristics of werewolves.

A sharp ping, like someone tapping on a wineglass, made Harry and Blue look up from their books. "Attention please, everyone!" Professor McGonagall's voice announced. Harry looked around for intercom speakers before realizing it was a spell of some sort. "It has been determined that this recent attack on the school has passed. Hogwarts's staff will be making rounds through the castle, transporting the injured to the Hospital Wing to be treated. Those who are only lightly injured may report to the Hospital Wing themselves, but do not move those who cannot move themselves. Simply wait with them and keep them safe from any monster patrols until a teacher arrives. Afternoon and evening classes have been cancelled and further announcements will be made throughout the day. That is all."

Harry felt sick. How many people had been grievously injured to warrant such a warning?

"You don't think anyone died, do you?" Blue asked, looking green. "Shadow Harry said he was intentionally trying not to kill us out of spite, but maybe…"

"I don't know," Harry said. He wrapped his arms around himself. "Let's just wait for Professor Dumbledore."

Tense quiet filled the room again. The boys flipped through their books and the instruments blithely produced their song.

After a seemingly interminable wait, the fireplace finally flared to admit Professor Dumbledore, Professor Snape, Draco Malfoy, and Dog. Malfoy reached him first, apologetically muttering, "I tried, Potter. I really did." He grimaced, then stepped back to reveal the figure of towering wrath that had followed him in.

Snape had such a look of fury on his face that Harry found himself actually fearful. He'd never been scared of Snape before—intimidated and unnerved, maybe, but not frightened. Harry couldn't help shrinking back as the man shouldered his way past Professor Dumbledore and swept toward him.

As the professor came within reach, Harry's arms automatically jerked up to protect his face. He'd seen this kind of mood from his relatives before; there was no way this would end without bruises.

"Professor Snape," said Harry's voice, sharper than he'd ever heard it. Blue had risen from his seat and glared at the Potions Master with narrowed eyes. "Before you accost my brother, I'd like to know what it is that you think he's done," he continued in an oily hiss. His hand was in his pocket, where Harry always kept his wand.

For a moment, Snape looked stunned. The snarl twisting his lips dropped away, and his dark eyes widened a fraction. When his moment of astonishment passed, however, he was even angrier than before. "What I think he's done?!" he spat. "It's what he has done! He's attempted to murder my students!"

"Severus, now is not the time to fling accusations," said Professor Dumbledore, walking up and putting a hand on the younger man's shoulder. "While rescue and medical operations are being carried out, we must consider this terrible event as calmly as we can. Anger and panic will do nothing to tell us why and how this happened."

Snape flinched away from Professor Dumbledore's touch and stepped out of reach. "Don't preach to me about staying calm, as though I'm some flighty first-year," the man said with a sneer. "My students—everyone conscious, that is—have all told me that Harry Potter appeared in the Slytherin common room and conjured up one of the many explosives that were detonated around the school."

"That isn't what happened, Professor," Malfoy said. He stood tall, but uncertainty showed in his face and the way his hand curled in Dog's fur. "It wasn't Harry. He said he wasn't Harry, just his shadow."

"So another Potter is running around, then," Snape scoffed. "That makes him no less guilty."

Harry's temper flared. With his hands balled into fists, he stood up from his chair and stared down Snape. "The shadow said he wasn't me, Malfoy's told you it wasn't me, and you know full-sodding-well that I couldn't conjure up a bloody pumpkin, let alone a bomb!" he shouted. "Not to mention he was teleporting all over the place! Do I look like I know how to teleport, Professor? Do I?!"

Silence reigned for several seconds. Harry was stunned by his own anger; he'd never yelled that loudly or sworn so readily at anyone before, let alone a teacher. Snape looked like he was about to pop a piston, his sallow face turning red and the air around him seeming to crackle with malicious intent. Dog, who was being petted by a wide-eyed Malfoy, glowered up at Snape with his teeth bared and a low growl rumbling in his throat.

Blue turned to Professor Dumbledore. "Professor, do you recall me mentioning a 'shadow' in my translation notes of the Hylian Bestiary?" he asked.

"I do, my boy," Professor Dumbledore replied. "According to what I've read of him, this sort of attack is only another entry on an eons-long list of his crimes."

"You're foisting the blame onto some...some mythical creature?!" Snape sputtered incredulously. "Albus, the boy is clearly guilty. There are hundreds of witnesses, from every House—"

"They were witnesses to an atrocity committed by a spirit whose purpose is to discourage and discredit those who challenge his master," Professor Dumbledore cut in. He put a hand on Blue's and Harry's shoulders. "The creature who cursed this castle has set his sights on Harry. It wouldn't do for us to assist him by believing his lies, now, would it?"

Snape's lips pressed into a white line. "Dozens of students have been made casualties today, and you're refusing to punish the one at fault. What will the students think? Their parents? The staff?"

"They will be told the truth, and I can only hope they'll choose to believe it," Professor Dumbledore replied.

Snape only grunted in response, casting a disgusted look toward Harry and Blue. "I see. Good day, Albus." He stalked toward the exit and left in a swirl of black cloth. The door slammed shut behind him.

"The bat has left the belfry," Blue said with relief, sinking into his chair. He exchanged a weary glance with Harry and then leaned forward to claim a lemon drop from the dish on Professor Dumbledore's desk.

"Professor," Malfoy piped up, causing Blue to jump and fumble with his candy, "what are you and the rest of the staff going to do about future attacks? If you, the Headmaster, can't deal with the Phantoms patrolling outside your office, it's clear that none of the other Professors are going to be able to protect us." The black dog at his side growled softly and bumped Malfoy's shoulder with his shaggy head. "Hush, you. I'm right, and you know it," Malfoy muttered to him. His hard gray eyes refocused on Professor Dumbledore. "So, Headmaster, what do you intend to do? In the absence of the school governors—my father having formerly been among them—I feel obligated to ask."

Harry raised an eyebrow at the blond. He'd been wondering something along the same lines for some time, but he never would have been so blunt in asking about it.

Professor Dumbledore gave Malfoy a grandfatherly look, though one tinged with sadness. "We will do all we can, my dear boy," he answered. "Although this ancient evil is one our magic was never meant to combat, we will do our best to banish it."

Now keenly aware of the scabbard pressing into his back, Harry sat up straighter in his seat. Maybe the teachers couldn't do anything, but he and his new brothers could.

Malfoy crossed his arms, a nasty twist to his mouth. Before he could say something snappish, Harry spoke up, "Remember Saturday, Malfoy." He tapped the pommel of his sword for emphasis. "We can do something, remember?"

"Hmph," grunted Malfoy, though his stance lost some of its combativeness.

Professor Dumbledore's smile gained a hint of mischief as he looked between the two boys. "I do hope your 'something' goes well."

Harry nodded determinedly "So do we, Professor. Maybe we'll find a way to help fix all this while we're at it."

Hermione sat on her bed with her arms loosely wrapped around her cat, the Hylian Bestiary splayed out in front of her. She had been flipping through it frantically just minutes before, searching in vain for a way to magically undo the tragedy that had taken place not even an hour ago.

She had not been inside the castle when the bombs had gone off; instead, she had been stuck in the crowd of students who had piled up outside Hogwarts's locked doors. Sickly purple-blue-green arcs of electricity had sparked and zapped anyone who had tried to pull the doors open, keeping everyone out. Her stomach had dropped when she'd recognized the strange energy. If Vaati's magic had seen fit to trap most of the student body and faculty within the castle, what else could it be doing?

That was when the bombs had begun going off.

Hermione glared with teary eyes at the page she had last turned the Bestiary to. It depicted a round, blue bomb that far outsized the shadowy, tunic-clad figure that supported it. Simply translated as a "Big Bomb", the weapon was something that could only be conjured by the "Hero's Shadow", a mythical figure that appeared frequently as an enemy of various Heroes of Hyrule. Such explosives had been one of the creature's favorite means of attack against the previous bearers of the Four Sword.

Fortunately, the shadow's magical bombs weren't quite the same as those crafted by human hands. They sent out no shrapnel and, while destructive, they caused more deaths by starting avalanches and collapsing houses than by blowing people to pieces. Some students might have been hurt terribly, given the damage explosives were known to inflict, but they had likely survived.

The girl had wept with relief when Spirit had translated this for her, but now she speared the dark figure shown in the article's illustration with a glower. How dare he attack a school full of children? Sure, they were students of magic and somewhat more able to defend themselves because of it, but they were children. Even if the Heroes who had fought him in the past had been around Harry's age, that was no excuse to attack people who had done nothing to cross him!

A scream from the common room, muffled by the heavy wooden door of her dormitory, startled Crookshanks from her lap. Hermione sprang out of her bed. Was it another bomb? Had a monster found its way in? What was happening?

She ran out of the dormitory and stopped at the top of the staircase that led to the common room, her brown eyes scanning the commotion below. Students had gathered in a boiling huddle near the front of the room. They appeared to be simultaneously pulling someone in and trying to force them out. Hermione started down the staircase, squinting to make out whoever it was.

A stripe of golden hair and a glimpse of a small figure being bodily shoved out of the portrait hole drew a gasp from her. That was Yellow!

Ron's loud and angry voice could be heard berating whoever had attacked Yellow before it was cut off by a pained grunt. Hermione took the stairs two at a time, panic fluttering in her gut. She didn't know what she was going to do to help, but she had to do something!

Red's voice rang out now, an incoherent yell of rage. Hermione saw a burst of flame as she dashed toward the mob. She then had to act fast before she was trampled by two dozen hastily retreating students. Having an inkling as to how Red had gotten them to back off, she called up her fire lantern and waved it at anyone who got too close. With that in hand, she made it to the portrait hole in good time.

"What happened? What's wrong with everyone?" she asked Ron as she helped him to his feet. His ear was crusted with blood and he clutched his midsection with a pained wince as he stood. "Why did they attack you?"

"Because Shadow Harry is an arse," Ron replied. "He's an evil Harry who's got yellow eyes, and he went around letting people think he was Yellow while he was dropping bombs."

Hermione nodded in understanding. "So everyone just leapt to the conclusion that Yellow is behind this?" she asked. "Did Shadow Harry take his form, or something? Did he tell them he was Yellow?" She couldn't imagine that a creepy, gray-skinned boy who shared none of Harry's mannerisms could possibly convince them he was Yellow without some form of shape-shifting trickery involved. Harry had been at Hogwarts long enough for the student body to know he didn't have that kind of evil in him…hadn't he?

"People are stupid," Red growled. He had his sword in one hand and his flaming lamp in the other, his narrowed eyes focused on the small collection of Gryffindors who still hadn't fled. "The shadow knows that. He didn't have to hide anything, just let people make assumptions." He dismissed his lamp and pulled out his wand. "You wanna go?" he snarled at the Gryffindors warily eyeing Yellow. "I might not win, but you'll come off bleeding or missing something, I promise!"

Hermione punctuated this by rattling her lantern, causing small drops of flame to hiss and smoke on the carpet. "I'll tell Professor McGonagall it was self-defense," she threatened.

The other Gryffindors conceded temporary defeat and backed off. Hermione's memory catalogued their faces and matched them to names as they did. She wanted to know who to keep an eye on, and possibly report to their Head of House.

Noticing Yellow peering fearfully around the edge of the portrait hole, Hermione went to him. "We'll get this sorted out, I promise," she told the boy. "We know what really happened and we'll make sure everyone else hears it, too."

He smiled weakly. A bruise was slowly darkening around one eye. "Thank you," he said in a soft voice. "I'm still not used to having friends to back me up, even after more than two years. Weird, huh?"

Hermione could sympathize; she hadn't had any friends before Hogwarts, either. She hugged Yellow. "It's not weird at all."

They both started in surprise when two thuds and a grunted curse came from the direction of the common room's hearth. She spun around to see Harry and Blue sprawled on their fronts and dusted with ash. The boys sat up with matching disgruntled frowns and shook the ash out of their hair.

"What did we do wrong this time?" Harry asked the fireplace with a frown.

"The fire isn't going to talk back, Green," Blue told him. He sneezed twice.

"How did you Floo inside of Hogwarts?" Ron asked. "I thought it was off the Network."

"There's a network?" Red, Harry, and Yellow asked.

"We came from Dumbledore's office," Blue answered Ron. He stood up and slapped at his dusty robes. "We went there to tell him about what was going on. Malfoy was there, too, and he helped us explain." The boy grimaced. "Snape followed Malfoy in. He didn't believe us, of course. He didn't even believe Malfoy. According to him, anyone named 'Harry Potter' is guilty." He sighed. "So, what happened on your end? Were any of you caught in the blasts? Ron, what happened to your ear?"

"I'm okay. A Moblin just got in a lucky shot," Ron told him. "The good news is, we didn't get blown up. The bad news is that everyone thinks Yellow was the one throwing bombs. Shadow Harry has yellow eyes, and I guess that's all people noticed."

Harry's eyes bugged out. "Yellow? It'd make more sense if they blamed me or Red, but him?"

"Next time I see Shadow Harry, I'm pounding his face in," Red growled, sinking his fist into his palm. "The stupid coward couldn't even take the blame for what he did!"

Harry and Blue frowned, Harry looking particularly conflicted. "Actually, I don't think he wanted to do this," the latter said. "We were the ones he threw the first bomb at, and we talked a little before that. Vaati's controlling him with dark magic. The shadow's just a minion and he isn't all that happy about it."

"How can you be sure, Harry?" Hermione asked. "According to the Hylian Bestiary, he's been doing things like this throughout history. Attacking a school is new for him, but not out-of-character."

"We aren't saying he's a decent person, but there's a difference between causing mischief with the Hero's weapons and targeting a school," Blue said. "Normally he'd be dashing through the halls with the Pegasus Boots, using the Fire Rod to set the tapestries on fire, or causing earthquakes with the Magic Hammer, not something as direct as this. He only blew us up because Vaati wanted him to cause a massacre. He might even be in trouble with his boss right now, since his bombs are non-lethal."

"Blue, the last time he appeared, was helping Ganondorf. He tried to kill the Hero of Time!" Hermione pointed out.

"He was summoned by Ganondorf and bossed around, just like he's being controlled by Vaati now," Harry countered. "I know all about him, Hermione. I read the book."

Hermione blinked, the rest of her intended argument fizzling in the face of Harry's admission. "You read…Are you saying you can read the book? All that Hylian—it makes sense to you?" She had been struggling to put together a translation key, puzzling over why things like the word "bomb" translated in the "Big Bomb" article heading and not at all in the "Dodongo" article, and Harry could read everything? No wonder Blue had been hogging the Bestiary! He probably had it half-translated by now!

Noticing her expression of shock, Yellow offered, "I can make a copy of Blue's notes for you if you want. I learned how to do that so I could get copies of his class notes to study."

"Let's do that now," Hermione declared. She took Yellow by the wrist and towed him toward the boys' dorms. The sooner she became able to read the Bestiary without having to filter her questions through Spirit, the sooner she could find a way to solve this school year's mysteries. It wasn't going to be as easy as finding a basilisk's mode of travel in an ancient castle, but she was always up for a challenge.

In case Professor McGonagall's post-attack speech seems too short or unemotional...I was kind of channeling my experience as an American who went through many lockdown drills and a couple of legit lockdowns in high school. Nobody died or got hurt, thank goodness, but the post-lockdown talking-tos we got sounded rather like that. A very terse "remain calm, stay put, wait for future announcements" sort of thing.

Also, the teakettle-pot is a detector for physical damage to the castle. Hylian magic doesn't exist, as far as Dumbledore's instruments are concerned, so that's the only one that got set off.