Tensei Skill Shop Chapter 42

Tensei Skill Shop

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 42:

“Rick, could I ask you for a favor?” 

I was a little surprised when Cedric approached me after dinner one night, shortly before the new term’s classes were about to start. From what I could see, many of the students were feeling slothful, both due to the energy spent during the Yule Ball and the heavy snowfall making everything feel dull. The Hufflepuff was the rare exception. 

“Sure, what is it? Need help learning some of those spells in my Christmas present to you?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say no to that,” Cedric replied good-naturedly, “But I had something else in mind.”

I gestured for him to go on.

“I heard that you did something like making an obstacle course for those students you tutored, like Harry Potter, and I was wondering if you could do something similar for me?”

I studied him for a few moments, then nodded. “Sure. I take it that this has something to do with the second task?”

“That’s right,” Cedric confirmed.

“You’re gonna have to give me some details on what I’m working with.”

“If you have the time now, I can show you what me and my friends have gotten.”

I gave him a friendly grin. “Lead the way.”

As expected, Cedric had really managed to figure out that the screeching sound from the golden egg was Mermish language, which sounded like perfectly normal English when heard underwater. Armed with that knowledge, he deciphered the message and realized that the second task was meant to take place in Hogwarts’ Great Lake. The rest of the clue indicated a time limit of one hour to complete the task, which required the retrieval of something or someone precious to the champion.

The notes Cedric’s friends had assembled were pretty comprehensive; possible threats and obstacles to overcome, such as the natives inhabiting the lake, which included creatures such as Grindylows and kelpies in addition to the merpeople. They also came up with several solutions for each, but that was where their help hit a dead end.

“That’s when I thought about asking you or Matsu for help. It’s one thing to know what to do, but preparing for it…”

I nodded in understanding. “I’ve got a few ideas about how to work with this already.”

“You do? Then-”

“But we’re going to need a place where you can do some kind of underwater training. And I don’t think you want to use the lake itself in this weather.”

“I’d prefer not to, yes,” Cedric agreed with a big shiver, “Wait, I can think of one place we can use.”

I was about to suggest using one of the Room’s Matsu had made, but stopped myself. “Oh?”

“The prefects’ bathroom on the fifth floor. It has this huge tub that’s big enough to swim in.”

“Sounds like an abuse of privileges,” I commented, though the smirk on my face gave away my true feelings.

“Not at all,” Cedric retorted with a similar smirk, “I’m just using my right as a champion.”

We agreed to meet up there at a later time. It would technically be past curfew, but as Cedric said, he was accorded with some privileges as Hogwarts’s champion, and that included being able to stay up past curfew time. Whether he could share that with assistants was a different matter.

The girls offered to tag along when I told them about it, but I decided to refuse. For one, it was the male prefects’ bathroom, so them being there would be frowned upon. The second reason was a bit of a selfish whim on my part, but I disliked the idea of them donning swimsuits in front of Cedric. They sensed it through our bond almost immediately.

“Ara ara~ Rick-kun’s jealous about other men seeing us? How cute.” Uzume teased me, ruffling my hair.

“Did seeing all those boys trying to ask us to dance with them at the Ball incite that part of you?” Matsu leaned her body on me, pressing her breasts against my head. 

“Rick-dono,” Irene crouched before me, resting her hands on mine as she gazed at my face, “You’re our Ashikabi. No one else but you.”

A few moments passed in that warm embrace before the emotions started to feel a bit embarrassing for me. 

“Though perhaps we should have a swimsuit party next time, just by ourselves?” Matsu suggested, “I could craft a Room with all that, and then we can enjoy ourselves in it.”

“That sounds like a great idea!” Uzume looked at each of us with sizing-up eyes, “I’ve got some ideas for swimsuits… particularly for Irene-chan.”

“For some reason, I’m not really looking forward to it…” Irene responded with suspicion.

Thankfully, I was able to get them to focus enough to assist me with some of the preparations I had in mind for Cedric. 

I met the Hufflepuff up on the fifth floor later, next to a statue of a bewildered-looking wizard, wearing a swimsuit underneath my robes. 

“You really sure I don’t need to bring towels?” I asked him as he led me to a door several doors down from the statue.

“There are some in there,” He reassured me, before leaning in to whisper the password that would unlock the door. “Pine fresh.”

Hmm… an opening triggered by a password. The various locking methods in this world are really fun to play with… I knew there were some that required tapping with a wand to activate. Maybe I should see how [Skeleton Key] handles them.

I followed Cedric through the door, and let out an appreciative hum when I saw the well-decorated interior. Instead of the usual stone and tile I was used to seeing around the castle, every part of this room was made of white marble. The large rectangular swimming pool in the center even had a diving board, not to mention the numerous golden taps surrounding the pool’s edges. There was also a portrait of a blonde mermaid who was watching us with interest; she tossed her hair and smiled when she saw me looking at her.

“How the heck does Hogwarts have something this fancy when everywhere else is made of stone?” I asked.

Cedric shrugged. “I don’t know, but I think some Headmaster wanted to upgrade the place, only to realize how much it would actually cost.”

“Good point. Imagine if the Weasley twins blew this place up.”

“That’s why only prefects get to use this room.” Cedric paused, before asking in a pleading voice, “Please try not to damage this room too much?”

“I’ll do my best not to.”

The pool was empty at this point, but Cedric just turned a few taps that saw it fill up faster than expected. The taps themselves released different sorts of bubble baths mixed with water, but on closer examination, the effects were tied to the respective taps, combined with the Water-Making Spell. I resolved to bring Matsu here to properly examine these interesting samples of enchanting later.

“Okay,” I told Cedric, the two of us already in our swimming costumes, “First, I need to see how fast your swimming speed is. Go… let’s say ten lengths, and I’ll time you.”

I waved my wand, vanishing all the foam and other special bath effects, leaving only the clear water. A muttered spell summoned a digital display of numbers, which Cedric peered at interestedly, before realizing that I was waiting for him.

The young man nodded, slipping into the water. “Ready.”

“Oh, and do it completely underwater. You’ve got something to help you breathe, right?”

“Of course.” Cedric waved his wand, creating a translucent bubble around his own head. “Bubble-Head Charm,” His voice sounded a little weird, but still audible, “Already got a lot of practice with it.”

“Alright. Ready… Go!”

He turned out to be faster than I thought, clearly having some swimming experience, using a breaststroke instead of the doggy paddle. With that basic skill demonstrated, I started adding modifications to fit the setting he was going to have to deal with. Naturally, he could use his own spells in response to them.

Darkening the waters to reflect the low visibility of the deep waters of the lake, charming the waters to be colder just like the February weather the task would be held in the middle of, adding obstacles to represent the underwater flora and fauna, and finally tacking on an objective of retrieving a bulky item.

Cedric reacted well to each one.

For poor visibility, a Supersensory Charm. For the cold temperatures, a Warming Charm cast on himself. The animated golems to represent the underwater animals that he might have to contend with were either Banished away, or bound by hexes. And when I threw in a surprise of a spell to disrupt his Bubble-Head Charm, he kept his cool and recast it quickly, giving me a dirty look when he resurfaced later.

Yeah, he’s got some skill with Charms. “Good job! I think you should be set.”

“Did you have to burst the bubble like that?” Cedric asked with annoyance, wiping the water off his face.

“Just a test to see if you could react quickly and appropriately in the event the bubble fails.”

He looked at me, then brandished his wand, sending a wave of water right at me. I jabbed mine at the incoming wave, then slashed upwards, splitting it into two separate ones that passed by on either side of me. The mermaid shrieked as some of the water nearly landed on her portrait.

“Sorry!” I called out, quickly casting a spell to protect the painting from the water, before turning back to Cedric. “So, it’s a challenge you want then…”

He flinched, before putting on a stiff grin and raising his wand again. “Bring it on.”

I quickly caught myself, realizing I had been using more intimidation than I had meant to. And he still found the courage to respond to my challenge. Really, a champion through and through. “Don’t worry, I’ll hold back to avoid damaging this place. Just water, and a few simple charms.”

“What charms?” Cedric asked suspiciously.

Instead of answering, I pointed my wand at one of the taps, which released its flow of water. This flow from this one didn’t contribute to the pool, but instead bounced off the surface in a large arc, which I redirected at Cedric.

The Hufflepuff yelped and dove underwater to avoid it, before coming up with another wave. I dodged this time, retaliating with a mild spray from my wand. 

It was rather childish, but neither of us could deny that we were having fun with this water fight. I did get splashed a few times, but victory was undoubtedly mine.

“I give… up…” Cedric panted, floating on his back in the pool, “How can… you… move like that…?”

“Breathing,” I told him, “If you control your breathing, you don’t get tired as easily. You were slowing down as we went on.”

“I see…” He closed his eyes, before flailing when I sprayed water at his face again. 

“Don’t fall asleep here. I will leave you here overnight if you do,” I threatened.

“Fine, fine…”

I used one of the foam-producing taps to create floating cushioned seats for the two of us to rest on, then got to work cleaning up the modifications I had made to the pool. After doing so, we spent some time discussing other possible situations and solutions. After all, a single pool couldn’t properly represent the setting Cedric was going to be facing in reality.

“By the way,” Cedric remarked, “I told Harry about the clue. The night after the ball.”

“What did you tell him?” I snarked teasingly, “Take a bath with the egg?”

“...yes.”

I snorted, then burst out laughing. Even when Cedric sprayed me with water, I continued to laugh for a while. 

I finally raised a hand to block the water. “Okay, okay, I’ll stop laughing…”

“You didn’t have to laugh so much…” The young man grumbled.

“Nah, it’s more like… how do I put it? I think it might come across as a little condescending. But it’s still better than just telling him the answer directly.”

“Condescending? What do you mean?”

“You didn’t notice how he tried not to look at you and your date?”

“Me and Cho? What about…” Cedric paused. “You mean?”

“Uh huh. Seems like the Gryffindor Seeker has a crush on the Ravenclaw one.”

“Um. Uh…”

“So how are things going with you and her? Seems like you had quite a nice time at the Ball, from what I’ve seen…”

“Well, Cho is fun to be with… but I’ll appreciate it if you would mind your own business,” He replied with slight irritation.

“Got it…” I changed the subject. “Anyway, back to Harry Potter…”

Perhaps I should be feeling bad about badmouthing the younger boy behind his back, but his tendency to procrastinate turned out to be irritating me more than I expected. Combined with my experience at training all those eager adventurers in Orario, seeing that talent go to waste was honestly frustrating. Cedric ended up getting into it as well, and we traded gossip about the Boy-Who-Lived, which lasted until we started cleaning up the bath.

“But still,” I added as we waited for the bath to drain, “He’s a good kid. Just… rather unlucky, I guess. How else would you explain all the things he’s been involved in?”

“He does seem to get in more trouble than most,” Cedric agreed. 

“Just be careful though.”

“What do you mean?”

“If my guess is right, and someone else put him into this Tournament for a reason, you might end up a target if you’re in that person’s way.”

Cedric gave me a wide-eyed look. “That’s not very reassuring…”

“You’re welcome.” I gave him a cheeky grin.

…

When the new term started, it was with a few changes. The first was the temporary substitution of the Care of Magical Creatures teacher, with a stern no-nonsense witch by the name of Professor Grubbly-Plank taking on Hagrid’s teaching responsibilities. The reason for that was the newspaper article publicizing Hagrid’s half-giant status, written by the provocative Rita Skeeter. The huge-sized man shut himself up in his hut, refusing to come out for meals or to even handle his groundskeeping duties, something which annoyed Harry and his friends.

Since I wasn’t as close to the man as they were, I didn’t really care. And to be perfectly honest, the replacement teacher was a better teacher; Hagrid was quite experienced with the creatures he introduced during class, but on top of having less awareness about handling them from a non-half-giant point of view, he tended to be a bit vague on some of their characteristics. Professor Grubbly-Plank didn’t have that problem, and the general opinion agreed with me.

The second change was the foreign students paying more attention to us four ‘exchange students’. We did stand out during the Yule Ball, making them curious enough to probe further, upon which they learned about our stellar magical skills. Perhaps us not being affiliated with Hogwarts made some of them bold enough to approach us directly, giving us access to their repertoire of spells and skills.

It wasn’t that great. 

“Is this really how you learn?” I asked the Durmstrang boy who had shown up to one of my tutoring sessions, “This is awful!”

“The teachers, they demand much of us,” He said as an excuse, “There is no room for error.”

According to him, the lessons were delivered in theoretical form only, with the Professors lecturing while the students had to memorize without any chance to take notes. Actual casting had to be done on one’s own time, and in order to achieve the standard demanded by their teachers, the students had to push themselves beyond safe limits. This often resulted in injuries and scars for the students there. Only the truly driven or talented would thrive in such an environment.

The Beauxbatons students were much better by comparison, some of them outstripping their Hogwarts counterparts, which made sense considering that the Triwizard Tournament win record was a close match between the two schools. They too were horrified by Durmstrang’s harsh standards. They were better at spellcasting, but not so much at exploring their creativity.

“Just ‘ow did you do zat?” Jean, a Beauxbatons male student, asked me, after I showed off how to combine two different spells to give rise to a unique effect.

“Experimenting. If you understand what the components of a spell are, you will know if it can combine with others.”

“Zat can be dangerous,” He told me frankly. 

“It is. That’s why it’s only something done with proper understanding. The intonation, the wand motion, the mental image… all those affect the spell.”

“Could you show me zat again?” Jean requested.

The increased interest from the students soon escalated to attention from the teachers themselves.

“What’s that you’ve got there?” I asked Irene one night.

“A letter from Karkaroff,” She replied without looking up, “Asking if we would be interested in visiting Durmstrang Institute as exchange students. Came after I beat some of his rowdier students in a duel.”

“Oh,” Uzume waved a letter of her own, “I got one from Madam Maxime too, asking the same thing. One of the Beauxbatons girls passed it to me.”

“We’re not going to accept, are we?” Matsu wanted to know, “As fun as this has been, I don’t think I can take another year of acting like a younger student.”

“I’m okay with it, actually. I do miss having my shows to watch though,” Uzume admitted.

“For me, I might not have as much experience running the shop as the rest of you,” Irene said, lowering her letter to look at us, “But I prefer that sort of life than having to lie like this.”

They looked at me, and I nodded. “Then it’s decided. We’ll finish up with this, and get out afterwards.”

Maybe we might return in the future to see what else this world has to offer, but based on what I had seen so far, I wasn’t going to hold my breath.

The third change was similar to the second, in being the object of attention.

It came in the form of a letter on a Friday morning, arriving with the rest of the owl mail during breakfast. A white owl with grey streaks landed before me, staring curiously at my face before sticking out the leg that was gripping a letter.

“A letter? From who?” Uzume asked.

I took it from the owl, who stood there waiting. It had my name on the front, and upon opening it, I saw that it came from Edward Meddle. He was writing in his role as head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports, and wanted to consult us regarding the Triwizard Tournament. The rest of the letter was a request to meet him at the Three Broomsticks during the next Hogsmeade visit.

“It’s from Meddle,” I answered, “He writes quite politely… or maybe it’s someone else doing it for him, can’t tell.”

The girls read the letter I passed around.

“I don’t see any harm in accepting the invitation. I’m kind of interested to see what he wants,” Matsu said.

“The next Hogsmeade visit… that’s tomorrow, isn’t it?”

“It is,” She confirmed.

“Alright, I’ll write back and let him know we’ll see him there. And you can stop trying to stare a hole in my head.” I told the owl, whose eyes had been gradually widening this whole time.

The next day, we set out from the castle, happening to cross paths with the Golden Trio. 

“Hi Harry, Hermione. And Ron,” I greeted each of them.

“Why’d you say my name like that?” Ron asked.

I blinked innocently. “Like what?”

“Never mind him,” Uzume flapped a hand at me for my teasing, “You three are going to Hogsmeade too?”

Harry’s answer was short, showing how the incident with Hagrid was affecting him. “Yeah.” 

“Ah, figured out your clue already, have you?”

Now he looked slightly uncomfortable. “Y-yeah, I got a pretty good idea.”

His friends looked proud of him for saying so, but then again, they probably trusted him so much that they easily accepted it when he lied. Knowing the teen, he was a bit pissy over Cho going with Cedric to put off following the advice the Hufflepuff gave him, nevermind that he had a pretty fun time with Ginny Weasley himself.

“You do know that figuring out the clue is only the first step?” I asked pointedly as we walked down towards the gates.

“Of course I do, I’m just… fine-tuning it!” 

I decided to cut him some slack, turning to Hermione to ask her how she liked her Christmas present. She gushed quite a lot about the puzzle box, having only solved about half of them, and still had quite a lot to say about the spells we put into it.

We passed by the Durmstrang ship, coincidentally just as Viktor Krum came out in swimming trunks. The older teen dove into the freezing water of the lake, and began swimming around.

“He’s mad!” Harry commented, “It must be freezing, it’s January!”

"It's a lot colder where he comes from," His female friend said, "I suppose it feels quite warm to him."

"Yeah, but there's still the giant squid," Ron replied, sounding more hopeful than anxious.

“Tone that jealousy of yours down,” Irene informed the redheaded teen primly, “It’s not becoming.”

“I’m not jealous!” He protested, only for Hermione to give him an unimpressed look. “Really, I’m not!”

"He's really nice, you know," She said. "He's not at all like you'd think, coming from Durmstrang. He likes it much better here, he told me."

“Given what I’ve heard of their classes, I’m not surprised,” I added my own thoughts to the matter.

Hermione began asking more questions about that topic as we passed through the gates of the castle, all the way until we reached Hogsmeade. There, we broke off from the trio to head straight for the pub, while they explored some of the other shops first. They looked like they were looking for someone, and I had a good guess as to who.

The Three Broomsticks was crowded as usual, though the proprietor Madam Rosmerta informed us that Mr Meddle was already waiting for us in a private room on the upper floor. She also told us that our drinks would be covered by him, so we ordered Butterbeers for each of us and headed to the room where the older man was waiting. He looked as stressed as I recalled seeing him at the Ball, but his robes were clean and neat.

“Ah, you’re here,” Mr Meddle’s tired face brightened up slightly at the sight of us, “Come in, come in… have a seat.”

Once we were all seated, I decided to get straight to the point. “We read your letter, Mr Meddle. What exactly did you have in mind?”

“You know my predecessor, Ludo Bagman?” Mr Meddle asked, and we nodded, “Well, after I took over his post, I’ve been reviewing some of his arrangements for the Tournament, and…” He hesitated, “It’s not good.”

I could see that I wasn’t the only one who had suspicions about what he was referring to, given what we all knew about canon events. Woah, is this guy actually one of those with common sense?

Uzume broke the silence first. “What do you mean? Also, why us? Aren’t there others in your Ministry you could approach regarding this? Like Mr Crouch?”

Mr Meddle shook his head. “Mr Crouch has been out sick, and has been delegating all his work to Percy Weasley. When I write to him, I might- MIGHT,” He emphasized the word, “-get a reply a week later, and always through Weasley.”

Oof, I know how annoying that can be. 

“The rest of his department is working on soothing things with the foreign Ministries because of Harry Potter’s unplanned inclusion. As for others within my department,” He continued, “They’re not receptive to following someone forced into Ludo Bagman’s shoes. Don’t share that with anyone, please.”

And politics too… It’s bringing up bad memories of our time in Earth Land. 

“As for why you four? You’re the most neutral party I could find. I can’t very well ask the French or the Bulgarians, can I?” Mr Meddle said sarcastically. “Though to be honest, it was Professor Dumbledore who recommended that I approach the four of you.”

That was news to us. So this move was set in motion by Dumbledore, which could be one of his manipulations… or it could just be well-meaning help. We decided to hear him out further, and with the agreement not to share what we learned with the other champions, Mr Meddle brought out documents detailing the events of the second and third tasks.

I shouldn’t have been surprised how much of it was the same as canon. Which had quite a lot of the same things that many fans analyzed and pointed out in their discussions and fan fictions.

“Are they really going to have the audience stare at the lake for an hour while everything else goes on underneath? And the third task, a maze that the audience can’t see into… That sounds rather boring.” Matsu asked. “The other judges didn’t have anything to say about it?”

Mr Meddle shook his head, clearly embarrassed. “I thought so too, but they said they had no problems with it.”

“Dumbledore probably thought it was fine since the Hogwarts students are used to seeing Snape,” I joked, causing the older wizard to choke on his drink.

He spluttered for a bit before he recovered. “Don’t ever let that man hear you say that. Good one though.”

Uzume giggled, while Irene and Matsu smiled. I knew the latter would recognize the reference I was making.

“But seriously speaking, what do you want to improve, what can we change, and can we do it in the short time left until the second and third tasks?” Irene got us back on track.

Mr Meddle ran a hand through his hair. “The egg clue already pointed to the second task involving retrieving a person from the merpeople village in the lake, so we can’t change that. What I’d like is for the audience to be more entertained.”

The man started grumbling about Bagman just thinking anything could be made fun by sticking it in an arena. He jumped when Irene smacked the table with a hand to snap him out of it.

“What about the third task?” She asked forcefully.

“That’s actually more flexible. It’s planned for the twenty-fourth of June, so some of the preparations, like importing a Sphinx, can be cancelled.”

That’s like… four months after the second task. Seriously, the foreign students sure have a lot of free time to kill considering they don’t join the Hogwarts classes. Unless this whole trip is like a chance for them to get more personal coaching from an expert teacher? 

I stopped myself from going off on a tangent in my thoughts. “In that case, let’s ignore the third task for now, and focus on the second.”

“Good idea,” The man nodded, “I must say, your English is very good for Japanese students.”

“Thank you,” Irene said primly, “We studied hard.”

“Actually, for the second task, I’ve thought of a way to let the audience see what the champions are doing,” Matsu added her input.

“Do tell,” Mr Meddle said eagerly.

As she launched into an explanation about how she planned to create a sort of image display linked to each of the champions, I decided to start writing down ideas for an original version of the third task. I hadn’t been expecting this AU setting to allow us to mess with canon so much, but I had every intention of enjoying myself with it.

If the first one is to get past a dangerous obstacle, and the second is to retrieve something precious within a time limit, then what should the third be? I tapped the parchment with my quill. There are so many to choose from… even if I want to try following a general theme based on the first two tasks. Then there’s the possibility of Fake Moody coming after us if we prove to be too much of a problem.

When Matsu was finished with her presentation, complete with a small demonstration using her wand to display an image of the common room below us, Mr Meddle was very pleased, promising to compensate us for the work done after the task.

“Hold on, look what’s going on downstairs,” Uzume pointed out, making us look at the image.

Harry and his friends were sitting at one of the tables with his friends, having entered the pub sometime while we had been talking. He was glaring at a woman in banana-yellow robes and jeweled spectacles, who was looking back at him with a beaming expression.

“That’s Rita Skeeter,” Mr Meddle identified. 

“Hold on, I think I can get some sound.” Matsu muttered a spell as she waved her wand, finishing with a downwards jab at the floor.

Her modification worked just in time to hear Harry shouting in response to whatever Rita Skeeter said.

"Who cares if he's half-giant?" The teenager shouted. "There's nothing wrong with him!"

The outburst caused everyone else in the pub to go silent.

“I see,” Mr Meddle murmured, staring at the scene, “That article about Rubeus Hagrid. That woman loves inciting conflict with her quill- of course there it is.”

The adult witch had pulled a green quill out of her handbag, asking if Harry would consent to another interview about Hagrid. Then Hermione interrupted, drawing a cold response from Rita Skeeter, and the trio left abruptly, with most of the pub watching them go. The woman’s quill was already scribbling on a piece of parchment on the table.

“Matsu, I think we’ve seen enough,” I said, before glancing at Irene.

The look on the former queen’s face was stony; Rita Skeeter’s notoriety for false stories that painted mud over other people was a reminder of her own past, being decried as a dragon by her own husband and his nation. A nod from me let her know that I approved of whatever she wanted to do, and I noticed her aim her wand at the floor, out of sight from the other wizard with us.

The image disappeared as Matsu ended the spell, but there were screams from below shortly after. 

“Good heavens! What now?” Mr Meddle asked worriedly.

When we went down to investigate, everyone was staying far back from a table, where a piece of parchment was practically riddled with arrows nailing it to the wooden surface. Apparently the Quick-Quotes Quill had transformed into a quiver of arrows, which then proceeded to drive themselves into the parchment it had been writing on.

“I don’t see Skeeter anywhere,” I observed, looking around for the bright yellow clothes and not seeing them.

“She fled,” Irene answered shortly.

“The Aurors will come to investigate soon,” Mr Meddle told us, wiping his forehead with a sleeve, “Anyway, send me an owl once you’re done, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

“Will do!” Matsu promised cheerfully. 

“It was nice talking to the four of you. I look forward to hearing your ideas in the future. Remember, not a word to the champions about the tasks.”

With a final friendly nod, the older wizard walked out of the pub, vanishing in a crack of Disapparation some distance away.

I looked at my three Sekireis. “Well, since we’re here, how about we enjoy ourselves in this village for a bit? We only got to see a bit last time.”

They agreed, and we set off to wander the place.

We saw a few Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students around as well, the former now dressed for cold weather, and asking them about similar counterparts in their home countries was quite interesting. Hogsmeade might have been the only all-wizarding village in Scotland, but that was hardly special when foreign nations were concerned. Even so, the wizarding nature of the shops were still fascinating.

Dervish and Banges dealt in a lot of magical knickknacks, including music instruments, and the shopkeeper there was happy to talk about such things with Matsu. Then there was the actual musician’s shop, run by a man named Dominic Maestro. He got into a discussion with Uzume about some cultural differences between European and Japanese music, especially when she demonstrated some dance choreography used by Japanese idols. He got a little jealous when we told him that the Weird Sisters played at the Yule Ball. 

At Zonko’s Joke Shop, we ran into the Weasley twins, who confided to us that they were there doing ‘market research’ for their future joke shop, by taking note of what their competitor was doing. Apparently, some of their goods were spreading to the foreign students as well.

We also split up for a bit; Uzume went to the clothing shop, Matsu to the apothecary, and Irene accompanied me to the bookstore, where we browsed for books we had yet to see in the Hogwarts Library. When the sun had nearly set, we met up together and returned to the castle.

As we climbed the steps up to the entrance hall, a nearby conversation reached my ears.

“Have you noticed anything different about the stairs lately?”

“What do you mean?”

“It feels like some of those trick steps have gone.”

“Gone? Are you sure it’s not just your imagination?”

“No, I mean-”

I leaned closer to Matsu and whispered, “Good work with improving the castle.”

She winked back with a sneaky smile of her own.

Later that night, I sat with Matsu in another one of her created Rooms, this one looking much like a command center, with monitors and keyboards positioned around her central chair. The displays showed dots moving around the castle, like a computer version of the Marauder’s Map. She had incorporated her Archive magic into it to make it to her liking.

“There he is,” Matsu tapped a few keys, bringing up a dot labeled ‘Harry Potter’ on the center display, “In the prefects’ bathroom, as expected.”

There was another dot next to him labeled ‘Myrtle Warren (Ghost)’. This was the night that Harry decided to try following Cedric’s advice, and actually learning what the clue was instead of lying about it.

As we watched, the dots indicating the two separated, with the display tracking Harry. He headed off in the direction of Gryffindor Tower… then suddenly stopped, and went the other way, going downwards instead, in the direction of Snape’s office, where another dot marked ‘Bartemius Crouch’ was moving around. There was a shortcut on the fourth floor that went directly to the second, and Harry was going through it.

“If things go as canon, he should get stuck in a trick step around the center…” Matsu murmured.

“But if he doesn’t, doesn’t that mean he might run across Fake Moody instead?” I asked, as Harry’s dot cleared the secret passageway with no problem, “If Crouch realizes his cover has been blown…”

“Oh, I don’t think that will happen,” She replied confidently, “There are measures in place to prevent any abduction from happening within the castle. Also, impersonating Moody’s paranoia has taught the guy some tricks of his own. Just watch.”

Matsu added another two perspectives to the display; the dots marking Argus Filch and his cat, and Severus Snape, both of which were stationary. Just as Harry was about to reach the corner that would lead him to where Snape’s office was, Crouch paused, then began leaving the office. His movement caused Harry to stop as well, having tracked it on his own Map. It appeared that he had laid some kind of alarm ward to let him know if anyone was approaching him.

As we watched, the two dots ended up coming into close contact, standing together as though talking for a few minutes, before they separated. 

“Think he lent the impersonator his Map?” I asked.

Matsu studied the screens for a bit, then shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

Seeing her point, I saw that Harry had paused at the top of another flight of stairs, several floors up from where he had left ‘Moody’. Given that the area around that spot didn’t have any special rooms or noticeable features, the dot being motionless suggested he was checking the Map again. 

“So he’s probably asking himself now, ‘why does Moody show up as Crouch on the Map?’.”

In the office near the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, the dot named ‘Bartemius Crouch’ was shifting around in a corner, where he was probably brewing more Polyjuice potion to keep up his disguise.

Matsu dismissed the displays with a wave of her hand, before standing up and sliding her arms around me in a loose embrace. 

“Perhaps he might start actually thinking and acting for himself, instead of being an annoyance to my Ashikabi.”

She gave me a quick peck on the lips, which soon developed into something more intense, before she started pulling me out of the Room. 

“It’s Sunday tomorrow, so we can stay up late!”

Bemused, I followed her.

Afterword: Wooo, this chapter really flowed out of me, with quite a bit of original twists to the usual canon events. Now we’re getting to see canon going further off-course with all the small changes, which is where the fun part of ‘For Want of a Nail’ comes in.

That said, even though I wrote fast at first, it got a little slow because I was researching ideas about alternate tasks, as well as some of the plot holes in the fourth book. Based on canon, they really didn’t know what went on down in the merpeople village until Dumbledore talked to the Merchieftainess. Same with the final task, Krum casting the Cruciatus Curse on Cedric not being noticed? No wonder there’s so much fanfiction picking out those holes and running with it.

Do continue to enjoy and support!