Tensei Skill Shop Chapter 40

Tensei Skill Shop

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 40:

A pair of teenagers were walking around the Hogwarts lake on a Sunday, discussing a certain discovery one of them found out the night before. The walk gave them privacy, especially since part of the conversation involved a criminal wanted by the Ministry of Magic. 

Or at least it should.

“On your left.”

Harry and Hermione paused as a black-haired male came running past them, the dark red tracksuit rapidly shrinking in the distance.

“Was that Rick?” The girl wondered.

“Yeah, I think so?” Harry squinted through his glasses, but the runner was quite far away by now. 

“I’ve never seen anyone move as fast as he does.”

“Neither have I. I still can’t land a proper spell on him during our tutoring sessions. That guy dodges like a Snitch.”

“Even for a Seeker like you?” Hermione teased.

That was something that Harry wasn’t expecting to hear from his female friend, but he soon realized that she was trying to distract him from his worries. Which only served to remind him of them once more. They resumed their walk, trying to think of how a wizard could overcome a dragon.

Several minutes later, they were passed by once again.

“On your left.”

This time, they didn’t pause in their walking, but their topic of conversation turned to the person in question once again.

“Does he do this often?”

“Run laps around the lake?” Harry tried to remember. “I don’t think so? Maybe it’s just something new.”

“New? Oh, I think I may know the reason why.”

Harry listened as Hermione told the rumor she had heard. After the visit to Hogsmeade yesterday, the exchange students were going back to their rooms after dinner, when Peeves ambushed Rick, who had been talking to some of the other foreign students from Beauxbatons.

Peeves the poltergeist was a menace to the students of Hogwarts, playing pranks on them like when he tried to throw water bombs when they initially arrived this year. One of his worst pranks involved sneaking up on a student while invisible, then grabbing their nose while screeching ‘GOT YOUR CONK!’, as Harry and many others could testify from their first year.

According to the rumor, Peeves tried to do that to Rick, who had reacted… badly. The result was a small crater in the wall of the hallway, apparently caused by Rick using his bare hand to smash the poltergeist’s head into the wall. Peeves then fled, his ethereal head flattened by the force. Of course, being a Hogwarts rumor, it was hard to tell how true it was.

Harry searched his memory, and recalled seeing a curiously crowded hallway on his way down to breakfast that morning, but he had been so distracted by thoughts of facing a dragon that he hadn’t paid attention to anything more than that.

“Of course,” Hermione continued, “Such a thing shouldn’t be possible, because the walls of Hogwarts are strengthened by magic. It would take a great amount of strength, like Hagrid’s, to cause such a thing.”

“So he probably used some kind of spell then.”

“I think so too.”

They continued walking, before Harry spoke up again. 

“Do you think… he might know something that can help me in the first task?”

“Who? Oh, you mean Rick?”

Harry nodded. 

“It’s possible,” Hermione said dubiously, “But there’s a difference between knowing a spell, and being able to-”

“On your left.”

“-perform it.” She trailed off as Rick went by yet again. “Does he have to keep saying that?”

They watched the red-clad back shrinking into the distance once again.

Harry let out a breath. “It’s better than nothing. We’ll try asking him after he’s done running.”

He chose not to respond to Hermione’s question. He wasn’t sure, but he thought he saw a smirk on Rick’s face as he passed them by.

The older teenager had vanished after they completed their second round around the lake, and Harry later found him in the library with the spectacle-wearing exchange student. However, they weren’t alone; there were several Hufflepuff students with them, including Cedric himself. 

With how cold their reception had been ever since his name came out of the Goblet, Harry didn’t dare to approach. If not for Hermione, he would have fled from the library entirely. Instead, they decided to find another place to wait until he could approach Rick alone. In the meantime, he looked through the shelves for any books on dragons, in the hopes of finding something that could help. However, he found remarkably few of them. It wasn’t until he was close enough to the group of Hufflepuff students that he overheard the reason why.

“I still can’t believe they’ve brought in dragons for the first task!” One of the girls hissed with worry, “Are you sure you’ll be okay, Cedric?”

Peering around the bookshelves, Harry caught a glimpse of Cedric’s face, who looked just as pale and panicked as he himself felt. On the table where he and his friends sat were several books related to dragons as well, far more than what Harry had been able to find. Obviously, Cedric had found out about the dragons too, and was trying to prepare for them.

The older teen just gulped, unable to form a reply. He looked at the two exchange students who sat nearby, both of whom were flipping through books at rapid speed. Rick closed his and looked up, and Harry quickly ducked back behind the shelves. However, he felt like the other person had seen him.

“Yeah, these books aren’t going to be of any use. They’re for handlers who want to take care of the dragons they’re raising, or for those taking Care of Magical Creatures.”

“Then what should Cedric do?” Another Hufflepuff asked.

Movement at the corner of Harry’s eye caught his attention, and he turned to spot Hermione approaching. Before she could speak, he held a finger to his lips to signal her to stay quiet. Realization spread over her face when she overheard the nearby conversation, and she quickly joined him to eavesdrop on the Hufflepuffs. It reminded him of the time during second year when he had done the same after being found out as a Parselmouth, but he forced his mind away from that memory and focused on listening instead.

“If you think about it simply,” The Mahoutokoro girl, Matsu, explained, “What exactly do they expect you to do when faced with a dragon?”

“I’d run.” A male Hufflepuff promptly answered, and the others made sounds of agreement.

“Exactly. That’s the normal reaction. But the task involves having to confront one. So the next question is, for what purpose would one confront a dragon?”

This time, there were mutters as some of them tried to figure out the answer. Harry glanced at his friend, who was mouthing questions to herself.

“There’s a clue here.” Rick’s voice interrupted. “The letter from your dad, Cedric. There’s something the dragons have in common.”

“So that’s how he found out!” Hermione hissed. “His dad must have told him!”

Harry nodded. When they met Diggory and his dad at the hill for the Portkey to the World Cup match, Mr Weasley had mentioned that the other man worked for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. It stood to reason that he would know about dragons being brought into the country.

Rick’s statement about what the dragons had in common made him recall another moment from last night, when Hagrid had led him to where the dragons were held. Ron’s brother, Charlie Weasley, had been there, and he had said something about that. 

“They wanted nesting mothers.”

“All four dragons are nesting mothers. And you know what nesting mothers care about.”

There was a flurry of frantic whispers as the Hufflepuffs came to the same conclusion Harry had, one that was causing his mood to drop even further. The word ‘egg’ came up more than once, until a sharp throat clearing from Madam Pince the librarian made them settle back into meek silence. There was a moment where the woman was giving them a reproving look, before she walked away.

Harry strained his ears to hear as they began talking again, more quietly this time. Part of the conversation was spoken too softly for him to hear, but he got enough to understand that they realized the objective was to get past a nesting mother dragon to obtain something that was in their nest with the eggs. That was a slight relief at least; he didn’t have to fight a dragon, he only had to get past it, which definitely wasn’t asking much…

“By the way, Cedric,” Rick said, more loudly this time, “What do you plan to do about Harry Potter?”

Harry and Hermione tensed up, pressing more closely against the bookshelf.

“What about him? He joined the Tournament, he should be prepared for whatever happens.” Another Hufflepuff said uncaringly.

“Yeah, no. You know that he joins me for tutoring sometimes, and I can tell you that he doesn’t have the magic skill that can make a magical item meant to select three champions select four.”

Harry felt a rush of vindication at hearing that. So many people refused to believe him when he said he didn’t put his name into the Goblet of Fire to join the Tournament, enough that he had given up on trying to convince them otherwise. Yet Rick not only believed him, but was willing to say so in front of others. It didn’t matter that the older teen said that his skill with magic was lacking.

“How would you know? You’re just a fifth year.” Another Hufflepuff said accusingly.

“I just say it how I see it. Well, Cedric?”

“I… If you’re right…” Cedric paused, his unsure words silencing all the other Hufflepuffs, “Then I think we should tell him.”

“Sasuga Cedric.” Matsu said.

“Huh? What does that mean?”

“Oh, it just means ‘as expected of’. You’re a good person, Cedric, never forget that.”

“Thanks,” Cedric sounded embarrassed, which was why he quickly changed the subject, “So, what do you think I should prepare?”

The group fell back into discussing the task again, and Harry nodded to Hermione. The two of them crept away from between the bookshelves, heading back to their spot. Once back at their table, they just sat there for a bit as they tried to wrap their minds around what they had overheard. Hermione eventually went to return the dragon-related books, returning with spell books in the hopes of finding something that could help. They only looked up when they noticed someone approaching their table.

It was Rick. 

“Well, you’ve heard what they said. Though from the looks of you, you already knew about the dragons, didn’t you?”

Harry nodded, his throat tight. “Saw them last night.”

“Is that so.” That wasn’t said as a question. “Well, you look like you still have stuff to ask.”

The older teen pulled out a chair and sat down at their table. 

“Sometimes, all you need is a separate point of view.”

Later at dinner, Harry spotted Cedric sitting at the Hufflepuff table, and the older student had likewise caught sight of him in return. For a few seconds, they stared at each other, recognizing the expression they themselves wore on the other’s face. Then the two Hogwarts students nodded to each other, and that was that. They both knew what awaited them, and they had to prepare for it. Anything else came after that.

…

“Well, they certainly didn’t skimp on security,” I commented as I sat in the stands alongside everyone else.

The first task was held in the afternoon on a weekday, so afternoon classes were cancelled. I saw Professor McGonagall call Harry and Cedric out early, before the rest of us were assembled and led out towards the prepared arena. It was quite similar to the stands used for Quidditch matches, raised a good distance above the ground, facing an enclosure that bore more than a few burn and claw marks.

The security measures I was referring to were the multiple number of protective charms layered over the stands. Some strengthened the wood itself, while others concealed our presence from non-human creatures within the enclosure. The most familiar ones had anti-fire effects which reminded me very much of the [NulBlaze] skill we came across in Spira. I also noted a number of wizards handling the role of security, some obviously with the ministry and others wearing dragon leather like Charlie Weasley had. 

“I’d be very annoyed if they had.” Irene replied, her arms crossed as she watched the audience get settled in their seats.

On my other side, Matsu was busy cataloging them as we waited for the task to begin. “Oh, a new one! Gotta note that down… and that one too…”

I gave Irene a look of slight concern. “Will you be okay?”

Her eyes flicked towards me without her head moving. “I’ll be fine. This isn’t Skyrim, and [Draconic Soul] shouldn’t work the same.”

I was referring more to the nesting mother dragons thing… but this isn’t canon Irene I’m dealing with here, so maybe I was just jumping to conclusions. “Alright then.”

Professor Dumbledore stood up, that simple motion once again silencing all those present as he began to speak, already broadcasting his voice without a verbal cast of the Sonorus Charm.

“Everyone, thank you for coming for the first task of the Triwizard Tournament. In a few minutes, we shall see our champions take turns in competing. They were not told what it involves,” Dumbledore paused, “Other than it being a test of their daring.”

I spotted Edward Meddle join the rest of the judges at the raised panel, having come from giving the champions their instructions. Unlike Bagman, he wasn’t going to try and help Harry cheat to win.

When Dumbledore announced that the first task was to steal an egg from a nesting dragon, there was considerably less surprise than was expected. With Hogwarts’s rumor mill being what it was, the results of the Hufflepuff’s investigation somehow still got out to the rest of the school. Unperturbed by the dull reaction, the old man proceeded to introduce the judges, with Meddle handling the commentary. 

As he did so, a large entrance at one end of the enclosure opened, with several dragon handlers leading a bluish-grey dragon into the enclosure by chains. She snapped at them when they drew close, but mostly kept her attention on the nest of eggs being levitated along by another wizard. From where we sat, there was an obvious golden one among the clutch of grey ones. Once the dragon was in place, the handlers removed the chains and vacated the arena. One of them blew a loud whistle as he left, to signal that the stage was ready.

Quite a lot of trust in their own magics… then again, the magic users in this world do have a remarkable resistance to damage, so that results in a corresponding lack of self-preservation.

Meddle brought his wand up to amplify his voice. “And now, let us give it up for our first champion… from Hogwarts, Cedric Diggory!”

The Hogwarts student body broke into loud cheers when the male wizard entered the arena, with the Hufflepuffs being the loudest of them all. The look of nervousness on his face intensified as he caught sight of the dragon, but he immediately started casting spells. 

“He’s doing a good job of keeping his cool,” Uzume observed. “Uwaa… whose stupid idea was it to make them challenge a dragon?”

“At least it’s not a Danmachi dragon,” I murmured, loud enough for only my girls to hear.

“Yeah, these ones are barely Level Two in ability.”

From the speed of the dragon’s claws and jaws, it would be able to beat an Infant Dragon from the Dungeon, but not without taking heavy damage from the sturdier monster.

Cedric’s first few attempts didn’t work very well, as his attempt to directly summon the egg failed, and so did trying to send an enchanted rope to grab it from the nest; the dragon just burned it out of the air. He began to take more risks, probing the dragon’s range and behavior with several spells. There was one close call when his estimated range of the dragon’s breath turned out to be wrong due to the dragon moving away from the eggs, but he narrowly avoided getting burned.

“Oh, he’s figured out she goes after faster moving targets,” I said after a few minutes.

The canon Cedric had used a rock Transfigured into a dog as a distraction, but this one, assisted by his friends, used several instead of just one. And he made them harder to destroy by casting fire protection charms on them. The animated dogs ran back and forth across one half of the enclosure, keeping the dragon focused on them as he slowly approached through the other half.

Meddle was leaning forward as he continued to commentate, as did the rest of the audience. There were gasps and screams of worry when the dragon, realizing that fire wasn’t working, came rushing out to smash one of the dogs. Cedric quickly reacted by directing the rest to scatter, causing the dragon to venture further away from the nest in pursuit. 

After the third one was snapped up between the jaws, leaving only one remaining, the wizard burst into a sprint, snatching the golden egg up in his arms and dashing towards the exit in the opposite direction of the dragon. The dragon realized it too late, and tried to reverse direction to go after him, but failed to reach Cedric in time, even with the fire breath.

“He’s done it! Mr Diggory has gotten the egg!” Meddle called out, and the audience burst into loud cheers and applause. 

As the handlers sprung into action to subdue the dragon, Cedric was led around to the other side where the judges were waiting.

“And now, judges, please give your marks!” 

The judges took turns raising their wands, shooting out ribbons that shaped themselves into numbers. While Cedric took some time to get his egg, he had done so without incurring any injury, and the judges’ awarded points seem to reflect that… with Karkaroff being the exception due to biased judging. 

There was a great deal of cheering as Cedric’s score was tallied up to forty-four points out of fifty.

The dragon handlers brought in the next dragon, with another whistle to signal the next champion, Fleur Delacour. Compared to Cedric, she hesitated less when she caught sight of her dragon, going with a spell that took some time to cast, but could apparently work its way through the dragon’s innate spell resistance. The dragon was dismissive of Fleur’s presence given how far away she was, which was a glaring opening for her to exploit.

“That tactic wouldn’t have worked for the dragon Cedric faced,” Irene said, “This one is less proactive.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Madam Maxime taught her multiple spells to use depending on which dragon she faced.”

Matsu nodded in agreement. “Oh, I think so too. She seems like the sort.”

“What do you think?” I asked Uzume, who was quite focused on what was going on in the enclosure.

“It’s a bit like Hypnosis,” She murmured, then blinked as she realized what I was asking, “Huh? Oh, yeah. I think so too.”

“Ah, I see it too.” Matsu added, watching as the dragon’s head swayed lower and lower. “A Fairy-type version of the move. That’s effective against Dragons, isn’t it?”

The two girls were more familiar with Pokemon moves than I was; I only knew about the Dragon-type’s weakness to Fairy-type moves, but not enough to identify such a thing at first glance. 

<Wait, does that rule apply in this world?> I asked them telepathically. 

<I don’t know,> Matsu responded, <But the spell she’s using seems to be specialized for her lineage. I doubt a normal witch or wizard would be able to cast the same spell with the same effectiveness.>

<Ah, so a skill unique to veelas then.> 

Such an exception didn’t apply to me, and my [Learning] managed to grab enough to form a proto-skill. Hmm, I think I’ll call that skill [Faerie’s Lull].

Once the dragon had fallen asleep, the French girl cautiously approached. However, no one expected the sudden snore that shot a gout of flame out. There were screams from the girls in the audience, but Fleur managed to avoid the worst of it, only getting tagged on the skirt. Remarkably, she kept cool enough to douse the flames with water from her wand. 

“Close one there!” Meddle said with evident relief, “But Miss Delacour kept her cool and dealt with the fire quite well!” 

A few minutes passed by as she stood there watching the sleeping dragon cautiously, unsure whether to continue against the risk of the dragon waking up. Eventually, she decided it was safe to move, and approached the nest in a more roundabout way. The audience watched with bated breath as she stepped daintily around the scaly form, coming dangerously close to the claws, before she came away carrying a golden shape in her arms.

“And… yes, she’s got the egg!”

This time, the Beauxbatons cheered the loudest, and Fleur waved towards them as she walked towards the judges. She curtsied towards Madam Maxime, and awaited the judges’ scoring.

“Wow, could he be any more biased?” Uzume muttered.

As expected, the judges took a few points off for the burn, and Karkaroff the most of all. His Beauxbatons counterpart was giving him a cold glare, but the man just stroked his beard coolly even as Meddle announced the total score for the audience.

“Thirty-eight points… they really do punish mistakes, huh? Even though she was faster than Cedric.”

“Oh, they’re actually levitating the dragon out. Using quantity to overcome the dragon’s resistance.”

I could hear Matsu mumbling as she calculated the magic resistance value of the dragon’s hide, based on the level of effect that was being exerted by the handlers’ spells. 

“And now, Mr Krum!” Meddle announced as the next whistle blew.

“So Potter’s last then!” A student said from somewhere further down the stands. 

“Who cares about Potter, I can’t wait to see how Krum handles a dragon!” A different student replied.

The Bulgarian wizard came into the arena and paused at the entrance. There was a beat as both the wizard and dragon stared at each other, then Krum burst into action. He swung his wand up and thrust it out with a shout, sending a curse that struck the red-scaled dragon directly in the eyes. The screech of pain that resulted had many in the audience covering their ears.

“Oooohhh…” I winced in sympathy as it went berserk, thrashing and stomping around, scattering the eggs in its nest, and not all survived the chaos.

Looking to my side, I saw that Irene had her eyes shut tightly, and I felt a brief twinge from our bond. 

A sympathetic connection? I reached out and laid my hand over hers. “Irene, are you okay?”

“I’m fine… Just wasn’t expecting that.” She muttered, her eyes opening slightly to look down at the arena. “It wasn’t painful. Just… strange.”

“Daring! Very daring!” 

The reason for Meddle’s commentary was Krum, who had seen a golden egg being knocked away by the flailing limbs and was running straight for it. Compared to the flying he showed during the World Cup match, his running looked rather awkward and jerky. The dragon was too distracted to notice though, so he was able to grab the egg and retreat to safety with no problems.

The dragon handlers weren’t very happy though, some of them casting annoyed looks at the Bulgarian wizard as they crowded in to pacify the rampaging dragon and retrieve the remaining undamaged eggs. They were eventually forced to use a massed Stunner assault to put it down, before they dragged the unconscious body away in chains.

Krum’s score was lower than Cedric’s, even with Karkaroff giving him full points. However, it appeared that the younger wizard’s Quidditch stardom was enough to override his Headmaster’s biased judging, as quite a number of witches and wizards in the audience were cheering loudly for him.

“He definitely had quite a bit of experience with curses, given how fast and vicious that was,” Uzume analyzed, “The pain inflicted was higher than I expected.”

“Points for efficiency too,” Matsu added.

Not exactly the sort of skill I’d like to be trading with Sano… I thought as I listened to their comments, But skills are still skills. It’s what one does with them that matters.

Finally it was Harry’s turn. ‘Moody’ had been hanging around yesterday hoping to try and give him some advice about what to do, but backed off sometime after lunch. I could see the older man watching with a wand in his hand, clearly ready to step in if necessary. I also spotted Hermione and Ron in another stand, both fretting with worry, and the redheaded boy was quite pale after seeing the previous three champions.

“And finally… Mr Potter! He’s casting… a Summoning Charm!” Meddle exclaimed, “Is that… a Firebolt?! And he’s up in the air!”

“Huh.”

“What is it?” Uzume asked me.

“He’s reacting faster than I expected.” 

From our mock sparring during the tutoring sessions, Harry learned how to respond to some of my movements, even though I was toning it down to match someone without a falna. He was doing the same now, responding to the minor tells the dragon had before it was about to attack, dodging them so gracefully it looked like there was no chance of it ever landing a hit. The two-hit combo of breath and tail was beautifully threaded through.

“That’s some flying you wouldn’t expect from a student!” Meddle called out excitedly, revealing a side of him I wasn’t expecting. 

The audience was cheering enthusiastically as well, impressed by some of the moves Harry was showing off on his broom as he dodged around the dragon’s vicious attacks. However, that was all he was doing. I could see him holding onto the handle with both hands, and there was no sign of his wand.

“Still can’t multitask though.” 

“I don’t think anyone really trains to cast spells from a broom unless they’re an Auror.”

“Good point,” I admitted.

“Wait, it looks like he’s got a plan.”

“Mr Potter is flying back and forth,” Meddle said the same thing Uzume did, “What is he- Oh! He’s baiting the dragon! And… yes! He’s done it! Our youngest champion has gotten the egg, and in the fastest time!”

The stands exploded with applause and cheering once more, the loudest yet. I was shaking my head at how easily fascinated the magic users of this world were with the whole Quidditch spot, if just a bit of flying could draw such a reaction. Still, I did join in with the rest of them. There was just something about the main character that made you want to cheer him on.

Karkaroff was trying to hide it, but he had a slightly displeased expression. When the time came for the judges to give their score, he threw out a six to counter the others’ perfect tens, but that still left Harry in first place. 

“Guess he couldn’t be too biased,” Uzume remarked as we got up to leave.

“It would have been too much to give a five or lower,” Matsu agreed, “But he would have gone for the lowest he could anyway.”

“By the way…” Irene asked me. “Any trouble so far?”

“Nope.”

YOINK

[Dragon Scales] obtained! [Dragon Breath] obtained!

Peering around the sleeping body of the dragon, I made sure the handlers were looking the other way before I moved. My feet padded silently across the ground as I slipped into the stores of the dragon handlers, immediately identifying the excess potions there, and nabbing the ones that they could spare. Despite all their preparations for dealing with dragons, these wizards hadn’t put in any security measures for their own stuff. I wasn’t going to complain though; it saved me the trouble of having to cast counterspells.

Dumbledore was distracted in his role as a judge, while Moody was handling security in the arena. Those two were the ones who could possibly sniff me out, but since they were occupied, that made now the best time to go raid the dragons and their handlers. And so far, I was getting quite a number of interesting skills. Some might be specialized for dragon-taming and all, but like I thought about Krum’s curse, skills were still skills. 

“Rick-tan, they’re going back,” Matsu warned my thought projection. 

“Alright, I’m pulling out.”

I slipped back into Hogwarts, making use of a toilet trip to blend back into the crowd with no one else the wiser. 

Another theft mission successful! Oh, I even got some LP from it! Nice.

…

December rolled in with wind and sleet, sending chilling drafts through the castle corridors. Leafeon actively resisted any attempts to bring her out of our rooms, preferring to stay within the sunny version of the Room, happily photosynthesizing there. Some days, when it got too cold, we set up some futons there to sleep as well, enjoying the fresh air she put out.

With [Cold Resistance], we were enduring the weather better than the Hogwarts students, who could only bundle up when they couldn’t use warming charms. Muggle Studies had an interesting session when we explained how chemical heat packs were used to keep warm during the cold seasons in Japan. The wizards understood it better when we compared it to a potion that would actively produce a desired effect for a short period, and could be safely discarded afterwards.

Care of Magical Creatures was relatively peaceful since Hagrid preferred to leave his experiments with the Blast-Ended Skrewts for the fourth years. The syllabus for the fifth years was focused on topics that would come up in the OWLs instead, such as identifying magical beasts from their mundane counterparts, like Kneasels, Knarls and Crups versus cats, hedgehogs and Jack Russell dogs, along with how to handle them. The mood of trepidation hanging over the students before the start of each class was slightly amusing.

“Heard those things are killing each other,” A Ravenclaw was overheard muttering to his friend.

“Better them than us. Have you seen the size of those stingers?”

As for the core curriculum classes, the teachers were moving on from revision of past years to embarking on learning new advanced spells. Some were rather specialized for their situation, but were meant to teach students how to adapt their previously-learned general techniques to fit a different requirement. Naturally, that was an area that Matsu shone in, earning herself more than a few compliments from Professors McGonagall and Snape.

“Of course, not all of what I learn can be applied outside of this world,” She explained as we sat on the edge of an extremely tall tower, ATs on our feet, “But it does help with coming up with working builds like this one.”

Whatever reply I was about to say was cut off as a huge explosion rocked the grounds far below, causing our perch to sway dangerously for a moment.

“Oh, that was a powerful one. Irene-tan sure isn’t holding back.” Matsu peered down at the ongoing battle, her hair having shifted into hooks to keep her stable.

I did the same, catching sight of the dome of white cloth through the dispersing smoke. “Is that…?”

“That’s right. An original dressphere based on Floral Fallal!” She boasted proudly, referring to Yuna’s special dressphere from Spira.

From my position, I could see the cloth unraveling to reveal Uzume, draped in a fluttery robe that revealed quite a good amount of skin. Her normally brown hair had turned a glowing white, and there were three large rolls of cloth floating at her back, from which stretched forth the streamers that had made up the barrier.

“So you finally completed it?”

“Not easy with all our classmates asking me for help, but I managed it. Though some parts are still a work in progress…”

The battle resumed as we watched, with colored patterns flickering across the streamers before they lashed out, causing more damage than one would expect from an empowered cloth lash; Irene deflected an explosion that stretched for at least fifty meters behind her. 

Oh? She tried a debuff, but the center cloth turned black before fading out. “Did you put in some kind of anti-debuff barrier effect?”

“Yep! Are you impressed?”

“I am.” I reached out and patted Matsu’s head, causing her to giggle with a glowing expression.

Thanks to the privacy of the Rooms, we could really spar with all the resources at our disposal without having to worry about the natives seeing. It did allow us to test any new creations that we came up with during our stay in this world. 

Then something rocked our tower again, followed by an intensifying sensation of falling as our perch began to tip over. One of the two combatants below shouted an apology, but it didn’t change the situation.

“Fuck,” I cursed automatically. Okay, I can at least jump to that rail over there, and grind to the next one… 

“Still not good with falling uncontrolled?” Matsu asked amusedly.

“No.” I answered, before making my jump to escape. 

She followed behind me, using her hair as tethers. “How are your lessons with the Boy-Who-Lived?!” Matsu called out.

“So-so!” I called back, executing a twisting backwards flip to grind backwards so I could see her. “Now that he’s cleared the first task, he’s lost his focus!”

Harry had made up with his friend Ron in the wake of the first task, but despite the redhead’s understanding that Harry’s life was at stake, the boy with the forehead scar was more focused on having fun with his friend instead of preparing for the next task. Their third member Hermione was the same, except with her social justice work for house elves. I would admit to being a little bit more vicious in hexing them during the latest session because of that. 

Contrary to him, Cedric was putting effort into figuring out the clue of the golden egg. Encouraged by his performance during the first task, the other Hufflepuffs came together to help him solve the puzzle, wanting to prove that they could do it without relying on our help. They were polite about it too, so we acquiesced and stepped back to let them apply Matsu’s lessons. Then just a few days ago, Hufflepuff earned itself a hundred house points, granted by Professor Sprout for ‘an impressive amount of effort to prove one’s loyalty to friends’. Cedric’s group of friends began researching on topics related to magic used underwater shortly after that.

Another positive thing of note was Neville Longbottom. He managed to acquire his personal wand shortly before the first task, and his spellcasting performance improved quite noticeably, making it so that he was no longer at the back of the cohort. The young teen still stumbled at times, but he was putting in the effort. 

“In fact, just yesterday he came to show me a letter from his Gran! She wrote about how his teachers reported that he was doing better in class, and was telling him to keep it up!” 

“I think it says a lot that he came to show that letter to you!” Matsu chuckled, then gasped as she missed a landing.

“[Aero]!” I sent a gust of strong wind to help push her into a more favorable location. “You okay?”

“Ugh, I really need to practice more. Thanks, Rick-tan!” She blew me a kiss.

“Are the classes taking up too much of your time?” I asked, skating over on my ATs.

Matsu waved a hand dismissively. “Not at all. It’s the Weasley twins.”

“Ah, their joke shop thing. Are you at least charging them a consultancy fee?”

The grin she wore was infectious. “Earning every Knut of it!” 

For the purposes of testing the limits of her Tuning Development Ability, Matsu had approached the twins about some of their inventions for their joke shop. I didn’t know the exact details, but she probably offered some advice on how to improve them, or solve the problems of the ones that were still in development. Then there was the marketing assistance… I knew there were secret exchanges of goods and money going on outside of the classrooms.

“Oh, looks like they’re done.”

“Let’s go join them then.”

We descended down to the ground, where Uzume lay panting, her dressphere transformation having been dispelled. Standing over her, Irene was slouching slightly, dirt staining her clothes and skin. The redhead had won, but not without being made to work for it.

“How was it? The dressphere, I mean?” Matsu inquired.

“Powerful… but rough…” The brunette panted.

Irene nodded in agreement. “That’s how I won. There were openings that she normally wouldn’t have.”

“Got it, I’ll try to adjust it for next time.” Matsu took back the dressphere grid from Uzume, tucking it away into a pocket before turning to look at me.

She wasn’t the only one; Irene straightened up and turned her gaze towards me intently, and even Uzume lifted her head up slightly to do the same.

“What?” I asked, suddenly feeling nervous.

“Which of us are you taking to the Yule Ball?”

Afterword: Writing scenes in Hogwarts is fun, especially when trying to picture how I would react for a different POV from the canon ones. But sometimes I need to remind myself that the overall purpose is to gather more skills, so we have more sneaking and interacting…

Thanks for the support as always!