Facing Bad Tropes with Little Lady Potter 6 - (Harry Potter AU, SI)
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Rose turned 11 in 1991. This was a matter of fact, and one that triggered the 'countdown' for the craziness that was bound to come.
Nymphadora was on her way to finish her last year at Hogwarts. The N.E.W.T.s proved to be tough, but she had put a lot of effort to make it to the Auror Program. I knew she would make it, but I still pushed her to give her best to get an even greater chance of success.
Beyond that, I had a list of things to brace myself for as this would be the first of many years where I would have to worry the most about troubles tied to Rose's role in the Wizarding World: I had taught Rose on how to handle some of the basic social interactions with 'weird strangers', while Andromeda made sure she was accustomed to basic pureblooded societal expectations.
That being said, she was strictly warned to not introduce herself to anyone that had some attitude with them, and to be quite careful with her barely-hidden scar.
"I will be fine," She huffed back when I last told her this during her birthday.
Everyone from the Tonks family to mine had been invited and was there to celebrate Rose's upcoming first year at Hogwarts. Rose's friends from school were there too, the redhead happily enjoying a most wonderful turn to 11.
Everything was set up to be a tedious first year, starting with the Hogwarts Letter but... things didn't go as intended. At least, not within a logical way of things. I know, magic is not meant to be logical in this world. But I definitely didn't expect that, instead of a letter from Hogwarts, a scroll from Mahoutokoro would suddenly appear in the mail a week after my daughter's birthday.
Rose caught it earlier in the morning while I was getting breakfast ready, and came rushing with a frown on her face. "This isn't from Hogwarts!"
A bit of a whine, but overall outright confusion on the matter as she had been told she would go to Hogwarts and... that 'funny' writing didn't look British English to her. I too was puzzled, and even Andromeda and Ted were as I told them about what had just happened. They came over a few hours later, and they were surprised as this was the first time they saw a scroll from Mahoutokoro, but they had a spell to translate the paper and...
"How is that possible? My daughter should still be registered in Hogwarts' book- the one for Britishborn students."
Andromeda nodded in agreement, yet she guessed on the matter. "She should, but... maybe someone tampered with the book."
"Is that possible?" Ted asked with a very baffled tone, and his wife shrugged, thus leaving him to turn to me. "What will you do about this? Notify the Ministry or..."
Go along with it?
The thing with this option was that 1) It put Rose out of Dumbledore's reach and also kept her away from the Death Munchers; 2) It also meant putting her on a different environment than anything she was prepared to handle which was very close to some of the toughest entities around between Angels and Devils.
...
Fuck, this was difficult.
I found myself stuck on which option was for the best but... Rose decided to step in.
"Dad, I want to go to Japan!"
Her sudden exclamation caught me off-guard. "Kiddo-"
"Didn't you say that it would be scary to go to Hogwarts due to Dumbledore? Then why not Japan?"
"It's quite far," Ted argued, and Andromeda nodded before speaking up against the idea.
"It is also not truly that safer. Mahoutokoro is known to host some of the more powerful magical users around, some are even of demonic descent."
"I know but..." Rose turned once more to me. "Wouldn't it be difficult to get me to Hogwarts now if the Ministry gets involved and they learn about... you know."
I froze up at that, instantly aware of the two things her rebuttal brought up. First, I told her that she had been adopted and who her parents were when she was 10, thinking that delaying this big revelation would only create a most dangerous powderkeg for the upcoming years of puberty. Second, her main point was quite solid: if we were to ask the Ministry to fix this mess, then there was no certainity in them doing their job and not actually causing a mess over discovering Rose's real identity.
It would spell immediate troubles from Dumbledore since he would learn on the matter relatively quickly. No, I could tell that this choice was truly fake, and there was a single way to proceed with.
As much as I wanted her to be close, this was no longer a feasible option.
"...I guess that makes sense."
"I could try to approach some trustworthy clerks at the ministry," Ted offered, but his wife shook his head. "You don't think that would do?"
"The book in question is something highly-charmed. Dumbledore would have to be warned regardless of this mess."
I turned to Rose and gave her a small smile. "You sure about it?"
"Yup!"
I rolled my eyes. "That also means extra rules."
"Awww."
So yes, as things were, Rose had to go to Japan to study magic. Which I was sure was going to stir some feathers and scare Dumbledore a fair bit, but I doubt he would have the means to truly track us down if he thought someone 'above the wards' may be responsible for Rose's case of being missing from the first year list.
Despite this change of plans, a visit to Diagon Alley was needed for the sake of getting Rose the 'old reliable' for her wand. Ollivander was like I had expected - mysterious, creepy, but overall a chill dude that tested out Rose and... gave her two wands. One was the one meant for Harry, but he also gave her Voldemort's old wand.
"Why?"
"Your daughter, Mr. Stevens, is quite unique. Light and Dark, Good and Evil, yet threading the path of balance. She will need to have two wands to handle that hurdle, especially in lands away from those of her home."
Ah yes, more cryptic shit I had little to no clue what it all meant. I just nodded, thanked God that nothing crazy came from that visit and, a week later, we were off to the Japanese version of Diagon Alley.
Urakyoto is relatively similar to Diagon Alley, being set in the outskirts of the major city it was close to (in this case, Kyoto), and it was considered the 'magical capital' for Japan. It was originally born as a combined effort from Onmyoji and Yokai that wished to unify Magical Japan rather than keep split in factions like it used to be during the Sengoku Era. The Yokai were those in charge of the bureaucracy, while the security business was handled by exorcists trained by the old clans.
After making use of a portkey, and employing the 'Speak-Easy' Pellets that were given to us to speak fluent Japanese (I had a feeling this trope would have come up somehow), Rose and I were wandering traditional Kyoto streets filled with humans and Yokai alike. A most chaotic blend that awed my baby girl, but also left me a bit claustrophobic with how invasive of the personal space some of the folks around could get - especially since it was Japan and I knew that there were higher standards of politeness generally speaking.
We had a list of things to look for, ranging from familiar stuff such as fetching Rose an uniform and her textbooks for the first year, but also some unusual thing like Alchemical equipment rather than the standard potion-making kit. We started with the simpler things, getting Rose her a fitting uniform, which looked like a mix of a 'hakue' and a 'sashiko' worn by fugeki, while the robe appeared to be like a haori with a 'wagesa'.
Next up were the books and the browsing was swift and without any issues. Then it was time for the specialized stuff like the alchemist kit that was listed but also a few extra tools to handle 'fire magic' since Mahoutokoro was located within a bloody volcano of all places. As Rose tried to tell me she would fare well (while also trying to keep her nerves under check about getting potentially swallowed alive by lava), we started to deal with the last thing we had to find and it was something Rose had purposely kept for last due to its importance - find her a companion pet.
It was mandatory for Mahoutokoro too, so I was curious on what Rose would like to have as a lasting friend through these seven or so years. Truth be told, Rose had never asked for a pet, something I associated with the fact she didn't feel responsible to handle pets until now. Now she was a 'big girl', so she was finally looking into the matter with new and curious eyes.
Looking around at various shops yielded, however, several disappointing turns. Too dangerous, too fragile, too high-maintenance, and 'is that thing even alive?'. The process of selection was tougher than the two of us had expected and, truth be told, I could tell Rose felt at fault for not choosing something swiftly. I told her it was fine and all, as I could tell she was relying on some good judgment, but that didn't satisfy her unease.
As we were taking a walk around to clear our thoughts, Rose actually saw something from the edge of her sight - by a nearby dark alley. A box. One with something written on it.
Two little cats, take care of them - Kuro and Shiro.
I took notice of this right as Rose bolted to check what it was, panic swelling as that could have been a trap but... It was. Kinda. Sorta. It was more of a 'plot-trap' than a genuine trap. After all, two cats were there, both were young but the white-furred one looked to be smaller and thus the youngest. The eldest peeked up as soon as Rose got nearby, her eyes opening and revealing yellow topazes that looked back at the awed redhead.
"Dad, they look so cute!" Rose half-whispered half-squeaked, almost afraid of being too loud as the littlest of the two was still asleep. "Can I get them?"
I felt suddenly on the spotlight as I knew this was far more than what Rose was seeing. I knew who these two were as the timeline somewhat matched up with who the duo may be - not normal cats. Nekomata- no, Nekoshou. A rare breed, and they had been orphaned quite recently.
I saw Rose looking at me with hopeful eyes... but so was Kuroka. I thought of her older self, of the path she would endure if she was found by the Naberios Demonic Family in DxD and... against my best jugment in not letting Rose get involved with DxD...
"Sure."
Both girls appeared delighted, but boy was Rose up for some surprise-
The very next day.
"DAAAD! THEY ARE EVEN CUTER~!"
So, it turns out that I was now housing two stray Nekoshou, one of which would be more than happy to tag along with Rose in Mahoutokoro.
AN
And thus Rose began her spree of adopting new sisters. In her quest, she may or may not also adopt a few mothers. Still yes, Kuroka and Shirone (Koneko) from DxD are here and this is before they were taken in by the Naberios Master that would try and extract the Super Devil formula from Shirone. You know, making them actual criminals in the eyes of Hell.
Lastly, next time will see Rose and Kuroka embarking to Mahoutokoro... while little Shirone gets to spend quality time having an actually decent dad for once.