Art of what Skullkids look like in this fic-verse is up on garden-eel-draws under "characters" and displayed on Ao3.

Content warning for blood.

The Harrys, Malfoy, and Avoka scattered upon hitting Castle Town's main road. Thanks to the heavy rain, it was mostly empty in the bazaar. A few intrepid street merchants had rolled sheets of black rubber across the overhangs of their shops to keep their businesses from drowning as they powered through the weather. Beedle, a miserably chilled Maple, and the Zora jewelry-sellers were among those up and running for the day, and the indoor shops farther out to the sides had their lights on. Yellow was over at the potions shop to ask Maple about the Gleeok scales they'd picked up. He'd quickly laid a Warming Charm on the poor witch to soothe her shivers. Red and Blue had gravitated toward Beedle's stall, where Blue was haggling over the exchange rate of a Galleon with Beedle as Red perused a rack of arrows. Malfoy, who didn't mind the wet cold but hated the wind trying to steal his hat, had disappeared into an indoor boutique with Sheikah kimonos in the front window. Harry supposed kimonos weren't too different from wizard robes; he just wasn't sure the sheltered Slytherin actually knew what one was.

Avoka had stayed back with Harry on the side of the street to watch the others buzz around. The Sheikah cleared his throat. "So, what do you plan to do next? As far as I know, Vaati hasn't gotten up to any other trouble in Hyrule yet, other than this storm."

"Er, that's a good question," Harry said slowly. He hadn't thought about what would happen after they'd solved Death Mountain. To be honest, Harry hadn't expected them to manage it so quickly. Even with the impromptu sleep-over they'd had at Link's house, this was only their third day away from the castle.

"What if you stuck around for training?" Avoka suggested. "I mean, just one day of letting me correct you isn't going to fix all the stuff you learned the wrong way."

Harry rubbed his chin. True, he definitely needed to dedicate quite a lot of time to training with Avoka if he wanted all those explanations and pictures he'd been forcing himself to study to ingrain themselves in his muscles as well as his memory. The trouble was finding a way to attend lessons with this free teacher he'd miraculously found. Renting a room at an inn, maybe? He didn't want to return to the castle yet—that was for sure. As soon as he went back, he'd be swaddled back up in a cocoon of teachers and never allowed out again. Maybe he could check into a Hylian hotel and treat this like he had his summer stay in Diagon Alley. It would be a great opportunity to visit Hogsmeade and explore Castle Town, too!

"Sure," he said. "Would you have the free time, though? How does an apprenticeship work?" As far as he could tell, the children of Hyrule just seemed to all have jobs already. Beedle's son and daughter were around eight and ten, but they had been minding the stall with their father when Harry had first stopped by a few days ago. Maple seemed to be about Harry's age, and yet she was running the Potion Shop on her own in this terrible weather.

"An apprenticeship is basically a combination of school and a job. We go to state-funded schools starting at age four, pick a career at eleven, and work under a master of some skill until we're a master ourselves. Or we train at some random career until seventeen and then take a job we like that doesn't require mastery." Avoka shrugged. "I'm usually working or training at the castle from eight a.m. to three p.m. on Monday through Thursday, since I'm too young for longer shifts, so I've got some free time. If you hang around Link's house in the mid-afternoon, I'll usually be there after my apprenticeship for a few hours. You should ask Link and Gaebora if it's alright for you to drop by first, though."

Harry nodded. "If they say no, we could—"

Avoka shook his head. "Oh, they won't say no. They'd probably even let you use the guest room if you four can't afford an inn. It's just polite to ask first, is all."

"They…wouldn't say no?" Harry repeated in confusion. He and his brothers were a somewhat eerie collective of identical foreigners who didn't all speak Hylian and looked like they'd stolen Link's face. And then they'd just gone and eaten Link's food! It would have been perfectly understandable for the Bluesmiths to want to speak to the Harrys more in town before they allowed regular visits. "Why?"

Avoka punched him in the arm, then winced at the same time Harry did. "Goddesses, you're bony. Link has more meat on him," the boy said in not-quite-apology. "But anyway, they'd let you in because they like you! And they want to pick your brain, since you have a head full of knowledge from another dimension. Also, you brought their great-uncle's things home! They never thought they'd receive anything of him back, and family is important to Bluesmiths."

Harry blushed at Avoka's praise. "Ah, well." He rubbed the back of his head. "I've learned it's safest not to assume people will just like me. Saves a lot of trouble that way."

"We're going to work on your confidence, too," Avoka said firmly. "Me and that egotistical weirdo Malfoy, if he isn't going back to your school-castle. I've never met anyone even meeker than Link."

"But doesn't Link not talk?"

"Because he has trouble getting the words out of his head, not because he has zero self-esteem like you." Avoka rolled his eyes. "Link doesn't think in a telling-other-people way. That's why he lets me talk for him sometimes."

"Ohhh."

Yellow skipped over, clutching a bottle of silvery gray potion. "Gleeok scales are worth a lot, but they're also good potion ingredients!" he reported cheerfully. "Maple made this Tough Elixir with one, and she said it's as strong as one can be. This kind of potion makes it a lot harder to get hurt for a while, like invisible armor."

Harry laughed. "One of those would have been nice to have in the foundry!" It would have saved them a lot of pincushion moments, for sure.

"I know, right?" Yellow said wryly, putting the bottle away. "Say, have you checked our phone yet?"

Harry drew a mental blank. "…Phone?"

"Our Gossip Stone, Green. Have you checked it, or has it been on mute this whole time?"

Oh crap.

Harry clapped a hand to his forehead and sighed at his forgetfulness. "Hermione and Ron must be losing it," he groaned. "I can't believe I forgot we had that thing. They don't even know whether we're alive or not!"

"I'm sure Queen Zelda would tell them if we died," Yellow reasoned as Harry dug for his magic phone.

"Why are you suddenly panicking?" Avoka asked, having missed the English conversation. When Harry pulled the glowing, buzzing Gossip Stone from his bag, the boy nodded in understanding. "Ah. You know those aren't supposed to be kept in Bags of Holding, right?"

"I know that now," Harry said exasperatedly. "How do I answer this thing?"

"Say the assigned owner of the stone is speaking."

"Harry Potter speaking," Harry told the agitated green rock sitting on his palm. It started hovering over his hand.

Professor McGonagall's voice hit the air like a whip crack. "Harry James Potter, what the hell were you thinking?!"

Harry fumbled with the Gossip Stone, which helpfully decided to float by his face instead of falling to the ground. He put his hand back under it. "Sorry, Professor!" he bleated. "The air quality is better back at the castle now, though, isn't it?"

"Yes, and you will explain in detail how that came to be once you report to the Headmaster's office. Now return, if you please! Whatever mission you've decided to assign yourself is now complete, and you have the entire staff worried about your safety. Not even your friends know the state of you," Professor McGonagall said, sounding exhausted. "We have enough to worry about without more students wandering loose in a dangerous country."

"I'm safe right now, Professor. There's a city to the north of Hogwarts called Castle Town, and it has walls and a lot of guards to keep the monsters out," Harry assured her. "Hogsmeade is here, too, so there are more people from back home around."

"Hogsmeade? More than just the castle was transported?"

"Yeah, I think the whole village is here. It got folded into Castle Town like a new city block," Harry said. "Oh, and Hagrid is in Hyrule, too! He's living with, erm, basically this world's version of me? His name is Link, and he's a magic blacksmith. Link and his sister have been taking care of Hagrid while he recovers, since he got really sick when we crossed dimensions."

"Thank goodness. He was the last person unaccounted for in the shift," Professor McGonagall said. "Now, Mister Potter, if you would come back to the castle, we can arrange—"

"But we don't want to," Harry and Yellow blurted out.

"Y-You don't?" Professor McGonagall stuttered, aghast. "But how are you feeding yourselves? Where are you staying? Have you been camping all this while?"

"It's only been three days, Professor," Yellow said, "and we know how to fend for ourselves."

"We slept in…" Yellow shook his head frantically and Harry remembered that inside a half-collapsed foundry under an erupting volcano was not an "appropriate" sleeping location, no matter how sheltered it was from elements other than lava, "…in a good place, and then we stayed the night at Link's house," Harry finished. "We have money for an inn, so we're going to rent a room for a while. I'm sorry, but we have things to do, and being forced to stay at the castle when we're the only people who can fix Vaati's messes is just going to lead to the end of the world. Also, we met a nice ninja who said he'd give us sword-training—"

"Are you sure you're in your right mind? You sound delirious, Mister Potter."

"The ninja is a Sheikah, a kind of people that live around here," Yellow explained. "Also, we're pretty sure he's this world's version of Draco Malfoy, so that's neat."

Avoka leaned in toward Harry. "Who are you talking to?" he whispered. "She sounds like an older Impa."

"She's the Deputy Headmaster of our school, and she's really mad we ran off to fix the volcano," Harry whispered back. "We weren't supposed to do that."

"Well, the Gorons and the king's knights weren't able to fix Death Mountain or Endraal, so it's a good thing you broke the rules."

"The ninja was the least ridiculous part of what I heard," Professor McGonagall said dryly. "I don't know how you became convinced that you're the only one who can 'save the world', but I assure you there are other ways for problems to be solved."

"There aren't, though," Harry insisted. "We've got the sword that beats Vaati, and since it's basically fused to us, no one else can wield it until we've done using it."

"Those stories in the Hylian Bestiary are real, Professor, and we're living in one," Yellow added. "It's just how things have turned out, sorry."

"So yeah, until we're sure we won't get locked down at the castle again, we're going to stay out here, learn more about Hyrule, and get better with our swords. When Vaati decides to muck something up again, we'll go out to fix it," Harry declared. "We don't want a repeat of what happened with Death Mountain. There are people who live there, you know, and all of you tying us up back at the castle made it so those people had their town flooded with lava and attacked by monsters. Some of them died because you wouldn't let us help!"

Harry didn't know when his volume had gone up to a shout. He was angry, he realized. Just remembering all those suspicious, monitoring eyes on him and the constant feeling of being tied down made his blood boil. His teachers' refusal to listen had led to people having their homes partially sunk into molten rock, countless injuries from Gorons getting caught in lava storms, dozens of Gorons being forced to evacuate, several Gerudo being trapped on the volcano, and at least one entire crew of workmen drowning in a pool of lava. That was unforgivable.

And why were his professors so convinced that Harry was helpless? A few of the Heroes talked about in the Hylian Bestiary had been younger than him when they'd made names for themselves! Had the teachers not even bothered reading those stories? Maybe a situation like this was ridiculous in their world, but it was so normal in Hyrule that they'd even created an official title for people who fought bad guys like Vaati! Was it bizarre that a random wizard from the Dark World had wound up with the Four Sword instead of a worthy Hylian? Certainly, but that was what had happened and everyone was just going to have to deal with it! Why were his teachers so inflexible? They'd taught loads of kids throughout the years, so why couldn't they learn?

Professor McGonagall started speaking more gently, with a slight whine of desperation. "Mister Potter, you must understand that you are a child, and dire situations like this are in no way your responsibility. You are expected only to learn in safety and with adult support, not to risk your life and wellbeing for others. No one is demanding that sacrifice of you."

"I'm demanding that sacrifice of me. Doing nothing means more people getting hurt and being killed, and I want to stop that if I can," Harry stated firmly. "We're going to stay out here and help the castle by telling people about the situation there. We've just gone to talk to Princess Zelda, so the royal family knows what's going on, and we've also spoken to some construction people, so they might call you soon to talk about installing a line of train tracks and a turnplate in front of the castle. If you need us to deliver supplies like healing potions or extra food, we'll do that, but we aren't staying there until we know we can leave when we need to. Ron and Hermione will understand." Hopefully they'd break out of the castle or convince the teachers let them go soon, too. Hermione was missing out on a lot of learning, cooped up on that little lake island as she was, and Ron would get a kick out of looking around Castle Town's shops.

"How do you end a call?" he whispered to Avoka.

"Say 'end conversation'," the Sheikah replied.

"Harry please, it isn't safe—" Professor McGonagall hurriedly began.

"We can make it safe," Harry cut her off. "End conversation." The rock went dim and settled on his palm, then quickly began buzzing and glowing as Professor McGonagall tried to reach him again. He stuck the Gossip Stone back in his magic bag.

"Do you think we were too mean?" Yellow fretted. "She was super worried. I understand why, but…" He trailed off, shuffling his feet uncertainly.

"I do, too, but the teachers need to understand what having an evil-banishing magic sword means," Harry said. He didn't feel great after that conversation, either. Professor McGonagall had sounded frantic, and she wasn't a woman to panic. Hopefully she and the rest of the Hogwarts staff would learn that the Harrys could handle themselves. "If they need us, they can find us in town. The castle has brooms. I reckon it's about time they started using them, too. It's been over a month and none of the teachers have even tried to talk to the people around here! They won't let anyone more familiar with Hylian stuff fly out, either, because only the students have tried figuring these things out! Adults are so frustrating."

Avoka escorted them to the city gate, as he'd been commanded by Impa, then bid a quick farewell before hurrying back to the castle. The clatter of his wooden sandals echoed down the street.

"So, what now, Potters?" Malfoy asked. "Any reckless ideas for today?"

"No, just finding a hotel," Harry said. "The reckless thing already happened."

"He told Professor McGonagall off and said that we weren't going back to the castle," Yellow said in a hushed voice. "We're in sooo much trouble, but I think it might have been worth it?"

"You told her off without me?" Red whined. "Aww, I wanted to yell at a teacher! After how they've been lately, they deserve it."

"We would have been in even more trouble if you did that, Red," Yellow pointed out.

"Who cares? It would have served them right, and it's not like we could dig our pit of trouble much deeper," Blue declared. "You should have called me over, too. I have so many criticisms to lay down on those stubborn, narrow-minded, coddling jerks. I still can't believe we explained everything to Dumbledore that one time and he just went on to steamroll us like we hadn't spoken at all. 'Professor', my arse! He ought to know how to listen!"

"Well, now I know who I'm never giving the phone," Harry muttered.

"We didn't say anything about you, though, Malfoy, so you should be able to go back without any problem," Yellow told the Slytherin. "I'm sure the teachers think we kidnapped you or something, since you're not one to run off. I doubt you'd get in as much trouble as we will."

"As long as that lake keeps trying to lure me to my death, I intend to keep my distance," Malfoy sniffed. "I'm sure there's a desperate innkeeper in Hogsmeade willing to give me a good price on a room. I'd much rather live in a bubble of wizardkind surrounded by Muggles than do the same surrounded by monsters."

"It is weird that the Skullfish keep reappearing, isn't it?" Harry mused, frowning. According to the Four Sword, monsters tended to stay dead when they were killed. More might crowd in the same spot, but they couldn't multiply or reappear without a magic source to generate them. With the lake being a closed system surrounded by cliffs, he had to wonder whether there was something in the water that kept producing monsters. He'd have to take a look into that.

"Let me know when you decide to throw yourselves to the Skullfish, Potters. I can use you as bait while I look for artifacts," Malfoy drawled. "Since Lake Hylia is a major landmark, I must assume the Hero of Lights incorporated some of her foolishness into it."

Red nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, you're right. She probably put her trails in a lot of famous places around here." He took out the Trail Finder they'd found in Death Mountain. "I should find a way to stick this on my belt so we can always see when it goes off."

"Well, we're in the right place to buy a holster for it," Harry said. "Now let's go find a room or two to rent."

[A FEW DAYS LATER]

Sirius's nerves were alight with fearful exhilaration. Now that the raging storm had passed, they were going to leave the forest! They were free! Oh, Merlin, they were going to leave the forest, and Sirius had no idea what to do with the thought of freedom oh no—

Kajiwara elbowed him as she passed by. "Quit standing there like a post and make yourself look inspiring or something. The kids will panic if their resident grown-up does."

Sirius shook himself. Yes, right. He was the adult here. Well, there were also several guards and Narcissus standing around, but the children generally agreed that the soldiers were either scary or background noise. Sirius and Kajiwara were their main authority figures.

He looked over the group. Twenty-four students were conscious and buzzing with anxiety, making nervous conversation within their assigned groups. They were traveling in clusters of four, all of them tied together with sturdy rope belted around their waists and leading back to a Deku Scrub soldier. Since the Deku Scrubs were immune to the draw of the forest, they were to serve as anchors to keep the kids from wandering off. Eight students lay peacefully dozing on a pair of cushioned wooden pallets, having been dosed with a careful amount of Sleepy Toadstool dust. They were the Lost Ones: Penelope Clearwater, Roland Abberley, Miranda Flockton, Shruti Dev, Loretta Cornhill, Austin Guthrie, Shoma Ichikawa, and Yutaka Amano. Though the biggest wandering risks were Mira and Yutaka, all of them had agreed that taking a drugged nap was better than facing the risk of being spirited away for good.

The children clutched their belongings protectively, as if a Skull Kid might appear at any moment to whisk their robes and books away. They were leaving with more luggage than they'd originally brought, having each received dried provisions, a canteen of water, a bottle full of Blue Potion, packets of seeds and spores so they could start their own gardens, and a Kokiri sword for self-defense. Both the Deku Queen and General Narcissus had insisted on giving them supplies, with Narcissus hiding his concern for the children behind an excuse of "this is only in return for the potions". Ever the softie in denial, that one.

Queen Primrose, Princess Belle, and a handful of townsfolk stood with them at the edge of the trees. The princess was flitting through the clusters of students under the watchful eyes of her father, making her goodbyes and demanding full names so she could call her human friends once they bought some Gossip Stones. Through the Lenses of Truth, Sirius could see Koroks skipping through the crowd as well, curious to see what the hubbub was about. Poppo, recognizable by his poplar-leaf face, sat on Luna's shoulder to ask her questions and wave off the other forest spirits vying for her attention.

Sirius ambled over to the queen while the kids finished getting themselves belted up. "Will you miss us, Your Majesty, or are you just happy to have us out of your petals?" he asked with a grin.

"If course I'll miss you and your class, Mr. Black!" the queen said, laying a hand on his arm. "It's been decades since we've seen so many human visitors, and it benefits our seedlings to interact with humans their age. Some of them have only seen beings like you in story books." She shook her head. "In recent years we've grown more closed-off, hidden away from the other peoples of Hyrule in our forest haven. Sometimes when we send traders out, the people outside the forest mistake them for monsters or Skull Kids!"

"The Ravenclaws will be happy to tell anyone and everyone that Deku Scrubs are both real and normal people," Sirius assured her. It hadn't been lost on the children how lucky they were that Queen Primrose had given them food, lodging, and potions materials. "The Herbology teacher back at our school will be singing your praises, too. Thanks for all those seeds."

"The Great Deku Tree suggested it," she said brightly. "He sent out his Koroks and they returned with all sorts of seeds to add to the collection—even ones that don't grow in the Lost Woods! I wouldn't be surprised if those silly children of his made a game out of finding the strangest plants they could."

"Strange is always good," Sirius said. "We'll need to grow staple crops for food back at the castle, but having ingredients for potions and medicines will be important, too." He bowed to her. "Thank you for helping us. We're in your debt."

"The citizens of Kokiri Court live in the Lost Woods, Mr. Black. Helping those who wander comes with the territory." The queen's orange-gold eyes sparked with a hint of wryness. She clasped Sirius's hands in her much larger wooden ones. Her fingers were smooth and cool. "I wish you luck on your journey home," she said solemnly. "May the spirits understand your intentions and clear your path."

"Your blessing is appreciated, Your Majesty. Considering how our luck tends to be where we're from, we'll need it."

"Black! Get over here," Narcissus barked. "We're setting out."

"Coming, coming." Sirius gave the queen one last nod and then jogged to the back of the traveling party to tie himself to Narcissus. Because Sirius was bigger and stronger than most of the students, and thus would be harder to drag away from fairy tricks if he became ensnared, he was going to be lashed to the only Deku Scrub big and strong enough to wrestle him. They were at the back of the group to keep an eye on anyone who managed to untie themselves and wander off; there wouldn't be a repeat of their first trip through the forest.

"Alright, everyone, we're off!" Sirius called out in English. "Make sure you keep the idea of getting back to Hogwarts strong in your mind! The Skull Kids' magic plays on positive emotion to distract you, so if you feel yourself getting too happy about things other than Hogwarts, you'll know you've been bewitched."

"Wh-What if one of them c-comes out of the w-woods and just grabs us?" asked young Agarkar, nervously tweaking his glasses.

"They wouldn't do that!" Poppo, still perched on Luna's shoulder, said indignantly. "They're trying to make friends! Grabbing people would be rude. Why else do you think they play such nice music all the time? They want people to hear them and say hi!"

"Skull Kids aren't ones to kidnap new playmates," Sirius passed along to the second-year and the other unnerved children now looking to him for reassurance. "They just play their music and hope someone comes to them. As long as you don't do that, you'll be fine."

"That harp-playing one almost got me last time," a first-year girl said, covering her ears and looking around nervously. "Any chance we could have earplugs?"

Sirius shook his head. "The music is spirit magic. Since it plays tricks directly on the mind, it would work even if you were deaf. You could ignore it if you were unconscious, but, well…We don't have enough pallets to drag everyone across the island on."

"Oh, that's just peachy," muttered one of the seventh-year Prefects, to many agreeing nods.

They headed into the forest without much more fanfare than that, their Deku Scrub guides leading the way with torches whose burning heads were held safely away from them on tall pikes. Sirius had no idea what they'd brought them for; fire was a rare element within the forest for good reason. The Deku Scrubs, their village, the local spirits, and the Lost Woods were all terribly flammable, thus the mushroom-based light fixtures in Kokiri Court. Why would they want to risk a fire here?

The Deku soldiers kept their eyes as much on their torches as on the trees ahead. They stopped every so often just to watch the flames. Again, why?

"The wind blows as an answer to the forest's tricks. They're following the direction the flames are shifting in," Narcissus explained gruffly. At Sirius's surprised look, he said, "You think too loudly, human. Everything is always on your face."

Sirius's lips twisted. He knew that was an issue—it always had been with him, and prison hadn't helped with his emotional control—but he hadn't thought the Deku Scrubs had noticed. What with them having a mostly immobile faces and a different style of showing emotion and all. Did that mean the kids always knew what he was thinking? No wonder Kajiwara had told him to fix his expression earlier.

Ahead of him, he saw Luna's head turn to the side. Her gray eyes widened with enchanted wonder. Sirius lurched forward, his hand outstretched.

"No!" The Korok sitting on her shoulder glared into the woods. "Luna's my friend, not yours!" Poppo shouted. In response, the trumpet music coming from that direction faltered and played a little more quietly.

Luna blinked, the expression of childish delight clearing, and resumed moving forward when another student in her group tugged on her rope.

Sirius breathed out. It looked like Luna had picked herself a useful minder.

He kept a sharp eye out for anything strange as they traveled on. Kokiri Isle was of considerable size: ten kilometers across, with a seven-kilometer span of spirit-laden water around it on all sides. It was the heart of an inland sea, and none of it was designed with the safety of mortals in mind.

Koroks popped in and out of view, gossiping in their shrill voices. He listened in on a nearby pair.

"Do you think they've heard?" asked one with an elm-leaf face.

"These humans don't have Gossip Stones and the Deku Scrubs don't use them much, so probably not," responded one with a maple leaf.

"Maybe I'd tell 'em if they'd just listen. Stupid meanies, ignoring my music." A larger figure alit on the same tree branch. The being was a little smaller than a first-year, with spindly limbs mostly hidden under rough clothes that looked halfway between coarse fabric and autumn leaves. Their face was mostly hidden in the shadow of a wide-brimmed tulip hat, visible only as a pair of glowing, circular orange eyes and a set of clownish beige lips. Sirius might have mistaken them for an eccentric Deku Scrub if not for their proportions; despite the creature's thin limbs and dark wooden skin, they were perfectly human-shaped. Almost like the wooden skeleton of a child. In one long-fingered hand, the being held a small, unnaturally gleaming silver harp.

Sirius recognized the instrument from his last trip through the woods and transformed into a dog out of panic. He planted his feet and growled up at the Skull Kid, his fur bristling. The Deku soldiers noticed the Skull Kid as well, though their reactions weren't as hostile. They just kept a wary eye on the spirit as they brought their student groups to a halt.

"Is there something you know, Harpist?" Narcissus asked, his voice only marginally gentler than it was when he spoke to Sirius. "If you do, out with it."

The Skull Kid blinked at him. "What are you doing out here, Mister? Don't you have kingly things to do?"

"I do, such as the mission I'm currently on. Now, what is it you're all whispering about?"

The maple-faced Korok spoke up. "Oh, it's—!"

"Cram it, Mabel!" The Skull Kid wrapped an arm around the Korok and put their hand over the struggling, squeaking spirit's mouth slit. "What do I get if I tell you?" they asked.

Narcissus sighed. "Always such brats," he muttered under his breath. Louder, he said, "You can have some Rupees to buy yourself something in town. How does twenty sound?"

"They can buy things?" Kajiwara whispered at the soldier she was tied to, echoing Sirius's incredulous thoughts. "I thought Skull Kids were attached to the forest!"

"Oh, no, they can leave whenever. It's just that their magic only works in the Lost Woods or the forest they died in, and anyone with enough spiritual awareness to see them tends to be fearful of what they're known for," the soldier replied. "Skull Kids who leave their forests usually get lonely without their Korok friends and come back."

"Twenty Rupees?" the Skull Kid repeated, rubbing their round chin. "Hmm…I guess so!"

They disappeared from the tree and reappeared in front of Narcissus in a spray of leaves, making Sirius yelp and a few students scream. The spirit shrank back. "I'm just standing here," they said, looking around wide-eyed. They held their harp close. "Am I that scary?"

"These humans are new to the concept of spirits. Don't mind them," Narcissus said, reaching into a burlap pouch hidden under his leafy cape at the small of his back. He pulled out a red Rupee and held it up high when the Skull Kid made a grab for it. "You tell us what you know first, and then you get some money," he said firmly.

The fairy child pouted. "Oh, fine." They nodded in the direction the Ravenclaws were traveling. "There are monsters on the edges of the island, up to about half a kilometer in. Nothing too smart or powerful, just things formed from ambient malice like Peahats, ChuChus, and Deku Babas. The Deku Tree's power is keeping the negative energy from creeping farther in, but he won't be able to do it forever." They reached up. "Now gimme!"

Narcissus handed them the Rupee and the Skull Kid jumped for joy. "I'm gonna go buy a cool mask!" they announced gleefully before winking out of sight.

"Well, this might change your travel plans," Narcissus told Sirius. "The Lost Woods are the most difficult place for monsters to infiltrate due to the spiritual power in and around the island. If they have made it here, the monster invasion must be more severe than I thought. Rather than a more organized series of attacks, Vaati may have just caused his army to appear everywhere."

Sirius shifted back to human. "You mean across the entire country?" he asked. Sure, Vaati had been able to fill a large castle and the grounds around it with monsters, but a country was on a much different scale!

"Did you not see the massive Gleeok that the Wind Mage sent into Death Mountain?" Narcissus gestured toward the looming reddish shadow taking up the horizon. "He has more than enough power to spawn monsters across the mainland, if not also the Southern Isles."

Sirius blanched, imagining the same thing happening across Britain. The magic-resistant beasts would easily overrun wizarding settlements, and while Muggles had the weapons needed to inflict significant damage through purely physical means, they wouldn't be equipped to handle strange magical creatures appearing out of nowhere. He had to hope that Vaati's apparent obsession with reshaping the Dark World would keep him from destroying it. If he only attacked Hyrule with his hordes of what-have-you, at least the citizens of this place were accustomed to such invasions.

They continued through the misty, drizzling forest. Though the Lenses of Truth showed him a beautiful sunrise coming over the crowns of the verdant trees and casting golden light on the bright dewy flowers, he kept his wits about him. He could hear the plaintive strains of a violin, an ocarina, and a trumpet fighting for his attention. The harp had gone to the market with its player. Fairy flowers hit him with an alluring perfume and false guiding lights winked in the distance. Sirius focused hard on the thought of finding Peter to tune it out and watched his kids. He refused to lose anyone this time.

Thankfully, the Deku soldiers took their role very seriously. Whenever anyone on their ties lagged, they'd address whoever had become distracted and pull them back down to earth. None of the children even got the chance to attempt wandering off. Sirius still kept a sharp eye out, though, just in case.

For a while, nothing of note happened. There was just the intoxicating atmosphere of the magical woods and the paranoid anticipation of being led astray.

Then an ugly blue flower ate a first-year.

There was a moment of dumbstruck silence, followed by earsplitting screams. Sirius transformed, heedless of the panicked ruckus happening around him. All his attention was locked on the wailing, terrified child being dragged off by the jaws clamped around her torso.

Sirius lunged for the monstrous plant's slim green throat. Closing his teeth on it, he crushed the vine and viciously tore sideways. Fibers popped and ripped in the face of his beastly strength. Soon, he managed to rip the plant's wicked blossom free.

That wasn't the end of it, however. Even parted from its body, the flower continued moving. Its teeth clamped down harder, drawing a pained wheeze from little Alice Thompson. Now that Sirius was clear of it, Narcissus charged in with his hammer high. He brought it down precisely on the meeting of the flower's two halves. The monstrous plant lost its grip and fell to the ground, its jaws spasmodically snapping. A lashing pink tongue trailed strings of sweet-smelling fluid as the creature searched for its lost prey.

Sirius shifted to human form and gathered the traumatized first-year to him while Narcissus beat the monster's head into the ground with his hammer. Once it had vanished in a puff of smoke, the Deku Scrub leapt into the foliage. Sirius was dragged a few steps forward by the rope lashing them together. With the same brutality he'd applied to the plant's head, Narcissus hammered away at a large green and purple bud tucked between two bushes. It resisted a couple of strikes before being smashed open to expose the pale blue insides of its fleshy leaves. The unnatural plant withered away and disappeared like the flower had, leaving behind a large, multicolored, saw-edged seed. Narcissus picked the mutated sunflower seed up and held it out to Sirius.

"That was a Deku Baba. They form when ill feeling corrupts plant life," he said. "Their seeds are worth something, though, both at the market and as ingredients for Blue Potions. The flowers can also be grown with positive intent, if you're willing to sacrifice a Cucco a week for magical seeds."

Wordlessly, Sirius took the seed and put it in his rucksack. He'd figure out what the hell he'd do with it later.

"How can the p-plants just r-rise up and eat people?" asked a young voice. An outcry of similar questions followed, quickly rising in the level of hysteria.

"In Hyrule, the nature of the world can be affected by emotion and intent in addition to magic," Narcissus said. "Just as caring earnestly for a tree across generations may prompt it to develop a guardian spirit that looks after its caretakers, poisoning a plant with emotional or magical malice will mutate it into a monster like a Peahat or Deku Baba. That is why I had my soldiers keep such a close eye on you in town. Mages such as yourselves hold incredible sway over your surroundings, regardless of whether you have channeling instruments for your power."

Some of the fear turned to wonder. Sirius could see dangerous ideas forming in several students' heads, as was to be expected from members of Ravenclaw House. He'd have to keep an eye out for any risky experiments once they got back to the castle, assuming the staff didn't decide to chain him in the dungeons until they could drag him back to Azkaban. If any of the students other than Kajiwara asked for the Deku Baba seed, the answer would be an automatic "no".

He put an arm over Alice, who was shaking like a windblown leaf and terrified beyond the point of speech. She was bleeding where the monster's conical teeth had pierced through her robes and sunk into her flesh. Blood mixed with the slimy nectar slicking her torso.

"Shh, it's alright. The monster is gone now," Sirius soothed. He wasn't sure what else to say. While he knew how to protect and make himself useful, comforting people had always been something he'd left to his more responsible friends. Since the kid was still trembling and sobbing and he didn't know what else to do, Sirius turned into Padfoot and let himself be desperately snuggled. It had worked with Draco, after all.

They continued on with Alice (freshly healed by a Red Potion) sitting on one of the pallets full of sleeping children and Sirius loping nearby. Monsters appeared more frequently as they neared the dock on the northern shore of the island. The forest felt wrong here, at its poisoned edge. There was no more music, nor any sweet scents to draw them off their path. Blupees and Koroks no longer appeared. Instead of seeing white mist when he removed the Lenses of Truth, Sirius observed lavender smoke creeping heavily over thinning grass. Unlike the cool, wet scent of the natural fog, it gave off an odor of lightning and burned hair.

Sirius jumped with a yelp when a translucent bluish blob bubbled up from the ground in front of him. He clumsily pranced around it until he got his instinctual reaction under control.

A pair of red and yellow googly eyes appeared on top of the blob, which gathered itself up and flung its body at him. Sirius leapt to the side to avoid being engulfed, then switched to human form. He conjured his whip and lashed at the creature. The weapon's wooden claws tore chunks of goo out of the monster's body. From the burbles of displeasure the creature produced in response, Sirius assumed he was hurting it.

Off to the side, he heard a peculiar noise. It reminded him of a Muggle…something related to flying. He was still trying to figure out where he recognized it from when Narcissus shoved him onto his arse.

With a malicious honk, an orange and yellow monster swooped over Sirius's head. The Peahat tried to fly off, only to have a soldier jam its propeller with his fire-pike and efficiently hack it to death once it was no longer airborne. A glimmering golden feather fluttered to the ground, which a nearby student eagerly pounced on. Narcissus then stepped in front of Sirius and slammed his hammer down on the blob monster. Jelly went everywhere as the creature's body was squashed into a wet spot on the grass. The glistening circle disappeared in a tiny pop of purple smoke, leaving gobs of inanimate jelly sitting around.

"Pick that up. It's good for potions and fairy magic," Narcissus said, gesturing toward the strewn goo.

"Is everything the monsters drop useful?" Luna asked as her classmates gathered up the semi-solid blobs and shoved them into spare potion flasks. "And are they living creatures here, or only magic?"

"They're as real as magic can make them. Some, like Deku Babas, ReDeads, or Wizzrobes, are built around a core of something living or formerly alive," Narcissus said. "For mages like you, monster remains are especially useful. In addition to having monetary value, they can be incorporated into potions or used to imbue objects with power using a particular style of enchantment." He tilted his head to one side. "At least, it seems as though you'd be powerful enough to mimic a small measure of Great Fairy magic. If not, you can hand these materials and some Rupees over to a Great Fairy in exchange for a blessing on an object."

Luna suddenly had stars in her eyes. She bounded up to the general. "The Great Fairies are still around after the flood? Do you know where we can find one?" she asked in a rush. "Oh, they must be so wise. I can't wait to meet one!"

Narcissus got a funny look on his face, mainly visible in the slight twitch of one eye. "…You could say that, child. They have certainly seen much," he said slowly. "A set of four such spirits lives on the mainland, and another pair in the Southern Isles. The youngest of the mainland fairies resides in the forest on the northern side of the Great Plateau, not too far from Lake Hylia. You would be best served asking a traveling Korok about the other fairies' locations; their shrines migrate from place to place every few decades and have a magical habit of slipping from people's minds. Despite their craving for mortal attention, it doesn't suit the Great Fairies to become tourist attractions."

Luna and some of her fellow Ravenclaws looked up at Sirius, their faces alight with hope.

Sirius smiled fondly. These kids were so cute when they found something new to learn about. He still considered himself a Gryffindor through and through, but these knowledge-hungry bookworms had their own appeal.

"If Kajiwara can convince Professor Flitwick and the Headmaster to allow field trips, I'd be willing to chaperone," he said, fully aware that he might never know freedom again as soon as the Hogwarts staff got ahold of him. Still, he was determined to speak the truth to as many people as he could. If even one person believed him, that was one more ally he had on his side when it came to making Pettigrew pay.

Their journey became slower and more cautious the closer they got to their destination. With the thick foliage, it was difficult to tell when or where a monster might appear. At one point, a Deku Baba snapped up a Deku soldier. At another, a Peahat bowled over a trio of second-years like dominoes. ChuChus bubbled up from the ground at random and squat, hard-to-find Octoroks occasionally spat rocks from the bushes. By the time they reached the docks, Sirius and several students were limping or clutching bruises that they didn't want to waste their limited supply of healing potions on.

The boats on the lakeshore were both sail and oar-operated, though only large enough to hold half their number each. They piled on, Kajiwara and Sirius each taking four of the sleeping Lost children, and set off with the Deku soldiers and seventh-years adding their strength to the wind. Monsters crowded on the beach after their departure, but none dared to step foot in the lake. Even the Peahats didn't fly out beyond the sand. They stared for a while with eyes of varying shapes and sizes, then disappeared into the dark trees.

Sirius breathed out. The biggest challenge was over, and they hadn't lost anyone. Now all that was left were the lake crossing and reaching the nearest train station. In comparison to the tricks and trials of the Lost Woods, he couldn't imagine those tasks being anything near as nerve-wracking.

Notes:

-While children in Hyrule do indeed get jobs by age 11, it isn't in a "Little Timmy got the Black Lung from working in the mines" way. They do job training and perform tasks appropriate for their age level for about as many hours as they would be in school, and then they're free to goof off for the rest of the day. The goal isn't profit, but education, and apprenticeships found to be exploitative will result in harsh punishment for the teacher(s) involved. "Homework", in the form of projects or tests meant to prove their growing mastery, is usually assigned once every 2-4 weeks. Most apprenticeships give children a small wage and lessons in managing money like an adult.

-The Deku Babas in this era look like the Skyward Sword ones, minus the vertical mouth slit. Out in the Southern Isles, they're Boko Babas like in Wind Waker.