For my first posted fanfic to Zelretch's Collection of Alternates, well, those familiar with The Cauldron will recognise this as being the alternate version of Res Nullius that I said I was going to do. Res Nullius was basically my attempt at shipping Harry with a time-travelling and properly-aged Illya. Repetita Iuvant is basically the same story, but with Waver shipped with Illya instead of Harry.

I'll be perfectly honest, I'm still wondering whether to do it either as a Harry Potter crossover, or else as a pure Fate/Zero fic. If it does get posted as a full story, then we'll see. Anyway, I hope you enjoy...

REPETITA IUVANT

PROLOGUE:

TIME WARP

She hadn't expected to wake after the blonde-haired Servant with the blood-coloured eyes literally tore her heart from her chest. She had expected oblivion. Instead, she woke within the Grail, on a dark beach.

She only remembered her time in there but dimly, but her mother was there, with the truth. Her mother, the last vestige of her mother's soul that wasn't corrupted by Angra Mainyu, the Avenger Servant her own damn family had summoned to cheat during the Third Holy Grail War. She held her, comforted her, told her what had really happened, how the von Einzberns deliberately kept her father away from her, and then shaped his daughter into a killing machine to murder a boy she was told her father had abandoned her for.

She had cried, and cried, while her mother soothed her. Then, her mother outlined an audacious, insane plan. The core of the Grail still worked. With the right boost, it could fulfil its purpose without unleashing Angra Mainyu on all creation. And with that boost, she would have a second chance, even a new body that wasn't stuck so young.

When the arrogant Gilgamesh, Archer of the previous Grail War, was sucked into the Grail, they knew the time had come. The sheer raw power of that Servant would work well. Plus, the irony was appealing, to use her own murderer to give herself a second chance.

Her mother was going to send her back, to where she was needed. She was going to find the best protector for her, as well as someone who could be her friend, give her the happiness she had been yearning for all her life. She hoped so. She fervently hoped so.

As the landscape around them turned from darkest night to brightest day, the daughter looked at her mother. "Goodbye, Mummy. I'll see you as soon as I can."

As everything dissolved into white light, her mother said, "Good luck, my daughter…"

But even as she left, she felt something reach into her. Angra Mainyu, unable to stop her, was trying to tear away as much as it could. She felt her memory being shredded to ribbons, not actually gone, but tattered and left in useless ribbons, trailing in her wake as she hurtled back. To the beginning. And beyond…

Regret was running through the head of Waver Velvet, third generation Magus, eighteen years old, and in fact the only one of his family to take a serious interest in magecraft, as he walked home from the funeral of his parents, having gotten off at his station. He was badly regretting the parting words he'd had with his mother, the very last words they had exchanged. He had said, "You encouraged learning all my life, and yet, you're stopping me from doing so now? You hypocrite! I hate you!"

"The only way you're going to Clock Tower is over my dead body!"

And Waver, in a fit of stupid, childish pique, had just sneered at her, and said, "Then I wish you were dead! You're only in my way!" And stormed from the house, leaving his mother speechless. He had gone into London, looking at the museums in an effort to calm himself down. He would come back, only to learn that, when his mother and father drove to an outing, they were hit by another car, dying almost instantly. He only found out when he came home to find a bobby outside, waiting.

What a stupid, stupid thing to say, Waver thought as tears trickled from his eyes. He prided himself on his intelligence, but heated emotions and arguments have a tendency to lower IQs. True, he now had the opportunity to go to Clock Tower, or at least once he sold all the non-essentials in his old home…but was it worth it?

A truism of magecraft was that Magi walk hand in hand with Death. It was this incident that made that truism strike home. He scowled up at the sky, perversely blue with only a few clouds. Why wasn't it grey and dreary? Why wasn't it raining? Didn't it always rain at funerals, or afterwards, as an indicator of mood? His tears were the only thing wetting him. He needed rain, to expurgate his sins.

Waver eventually reached his home, and entered it despondently. Now, items that had seemed filled with joy filled him with sorrow and self-loathing. He remembered a quote from the Bible, a book he wasn't that much interested in, but he remembered one quote that seemed fitting: The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

The empty house seemed to make the noises of his moving about louder, eerily, as if making an accusation against him. Waver told himself to pull himself together. Houses weren't living, and furthermore…

WHUMP!

He heard a thud from his parents' bedroom, and leapt into the air, startled. After a moment's hesitation, he reached for a cricket bat his father kept near the door (in case of intruders), and inched forward, eventually making it into the bedroom…where he stopped and stared.

Sprawled on the bed, as if she had fallen out of the very air itself, was a naked girl about his age, and a little taller than he was. Her skin was snow-white in a way that was no metaphor, and almost as pale hair. His first thought was that she was some kind of albino. His second thought was that he didn't know how the hell she ended up here, but thieves tended not to be naked when infiltrating a house, and certainly didn't fall asleep on a bed. She could be a rapist, but the thought seemed laughable even as Waver thought of it, and with a body like hers, with long gorgeous legs, beautiful face, and a generous bust, really, she could have her pick of any man she wanted. And while she could have intruded to kill him, well, something told her that psychotic murderers wouldn't fall asleep on a bed.

After a moment's consideration, Waver opted to let the naked albino girl sleep and explain herself when she woke up. He just shut the door, and opted to go into his room and study the few magecraft books he had…

Consciousness returned slowly, gradually. She thought she heard English, rather muzzily. But she slept on, dreaming. Of a boy with red hair and golden eyes. Of a dark-haired girl with a red dress. Of a blonde girl with green eyes and a regal demeanour, wearing a blue, armoured dress. Of a tall, tanned man with white hair, wearing a red coat over black armour. Of her two maids, almost identical in appearance, but not in demeanour. Of a massive, musclebound giant with skin that made him look like he was a statue, hewn from dark stone. Of her mother, those features so much like her own, and yet an adult body. And of her father, dark-haired and weary, with a sadness in his eyes. These images faded away, like smoke on the wind.

Eventually, she woke, slowly and reluctantly. Her first realisation was that she was in bed, and utterly naked. A quick spell showed that nothing untoward had been done to her. But her body seemed strange now. So did her mind. So full of holes. She knew about magecraft, but her life and her family were blank. She was surprised she wasn't panicking yet.

As she managed to get out of the bed, she found herself facing a body-length mirror, and she stared in shock. Okay, she should have realised the moment her limbs seemed longer than they had been, or that her chest was much heavier than she was used to…and yet, she was still surprised. She stared at the body of a stranger…

No, not a stranger. It was her. She had managed to reach her true age, somehow. She was eighteen, but stuck in the body of a pre-teen. She didn't remember much, but she could remember that much. Now, she actually looked eighteen, and a very good eighteen at that. She had proper breasts now, for crying out loud! And those legs! Long, graceful legs! A small chuckle wormed its way from her lips. A last gift from her mother, she thought. An actual body that wasn't a prison.

She twirled in front of the mirror, giggling quietly to herself. She could still feel her Magic Circuits, too. She was still as powerful as she was before, if not more so. The rush of power was intoxicating.

She brought herself into calm with difficulty. She was still naked in an unknown situation, and she couldn't remember a damn thing about herself. Pursing her lips, she studied the room, reaching out with senses honed by her abilities as both a Magus and…something else. She couldn't remember what that was for the life of her.

There were traces of magecraft throughout the house, though not much, not enough to be more than the work of dabblers, or an amateur student. No spells holding her here, no Bounded Fields…the only problem she had was that she was naked in a stranger's bedroom.

She wandered over to a wardrobe, and looked inside. The clothes were a little too big for her, but she'd have to make do. She opted to get dressed once she had finished her morning ablutions, which she did, savouring a nice, long bath.

Getting dressed, she opened the door, and found a faint smell of food wafting into her nose. Smelled like some sort of curry. She snuck downstairs, and carefully padded her way through the house, trying to find its origin. It was hunger and curiosity both that led her to the dining area.

As she opened the door, she soon saw her host, a dark-haired boy, rather weedy and short, sitting there, what seemed like a takeaway Indian meal being eaten morosely with one hand, while a magecraft book was held in the other. She cleared her throat to get his attention.

Waver nearly shrieked when he heard someone clear their throat, but he managed to stifle the urge, looking up to see his guest standing there, wearing some of his mother's old clothes. "Oh, you're awake?"

The girl nodded. "Sorry for startling you," she said, her musical voice having a mild German accent. Waver noted that her eyes were rather unusual, like the rest of her: her irises were blood red. He could have sworn there was a slight epicanthic fold to her eyes too, like she had some Oriental ancestry.

"I ordered enough for both of us," Waver said. "Have you ever had curry before?"

"Long ago," the girl said, sitting down. "It's somewhat plebeian, but I won't say no to it."

Waver blinked at her choice of words as she took a plate and ladled out curry and rice. Plebeian? Sounded like the way his mother claimed Magi from long-established family spoke. He didn't know whether to be offended or not.

He opted not to ask any questions before she finished. But once she did, he asked, "Who are you? And how did you end up in my house?"

She blinked. "I…don't know." She pouted in a manner that made her almost endearingly childish. "Damnation, this is hard. I don't know how I got here, I'm missing a lot of my memories, and I'm tripping over myself. And you're a Magus, right? Or at least someone studying magecraft?" she asked. Waver winced when he realised he hadn't concealed the book, given that she could have been a non-magical. "Well, I happen to be a Magus myself."

Waver blinked. "You are? Can you teach me?"

"Well, I can help you with some things. Other things, well…" She pursed her lips. "Well, why not? Maybe it'll help jog my memory. Actually, what's your name?"

"I'm Waver Velvet. And you are?"

The girl blinked, and frowned. Eventually, she said, "Yes, I do." A smile lit up her face. "I remember my name!" Her face fell. "Well, my first name. And I can't remember my parents, though. But I am Illyasviel. Call me Illya."

Illyasviel…what a pretty name, Waver thought to himself. Like the rest of her.

He didn't subscribe to any foolish notions of fate or destiny, save for what they made themselves. But there was something about this meeting that was portentous, in a good way. It was like Illyasviel was an angel from Heaven, sent to help him after his parents' demise. Maybe she was a sign that he could do something with his life. Maybe she could help lay the ghosts of his parents to rest.

Waver didn't know it, but she would draw him into an even greater purpose than he ever thought he could aspire to in life, something that would have made his parents proud. After all, what parent wouldn't be proud of their child saving the world?

PROLOGUE ANNOTATIONS:

So, here you have it. Illya's ended up with Waver. And in case you're wondering, Irisviel (as part of the Grail that isn't corrupted by Angra Mainyu) has sent her back with a body that is her actual age, and back shortly before the events of Fate/Zero.

I thought of Illya as looking like a version of her mother in her late teens. I mentioned epicanthic folds due to her father being the Japanese Kiritsugu Emiya, and Iri does mention in the opening episode of Fate/Zero that Illya has his eyes.

Now, originally, I intended to have Illya come back in time with her memories intact, but I thought that'd create too many problems, having her know too much about the future. So I decided to have Angra Mainyu be a dick and take a good chunk of her memories. She knows her name, her magecraft, and about the Grail War, but she's forgotten her family, along with the events of Fate/Stay Night. She'll recover them in time for the events of Fate/Zero.

There's another reason for that. Because she retained her memories, the chapters I initially wrote were filled with exposition, and it would have taken forever to get to the romance. I'm going to skip forward to shortly before the events of Fate/Zero, with all the lead-up to the romance taking place offscreen, and Waver and Illya being lovers.

Now, the above annotations is an edited form of what I wrote for Res Nullius. Here, I'd like to talk about Waver, and why I wrote him the way I did.

Waver's past isn't expanded upon much, but when I read the Type Moon wiki for ideas, beyond what I've seen in the anime and read in the first volume of the manga, I read that his parents died before he went into Clock Tower, and that his mother didn't want him to go into it. Given how bratty he is initially in Fate/Zero, I thought I'd give a touch of tragedy to his parents' demise, with his last words to his mother being something he regretted. Yeah, it's probably not remotely canon, but it's my fanfic, my rules, and I hope it gives Waver some depth he needs.

No numbered annotations this time.