Tensei Skill Shop Chapter 39

Tensei Skill Shop

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 39:

When the bell rang early to signal the end of classes on Friday, Matsu, Uzume and I separated from the Gryffindors to return to our rooms, where Irene was already waiting for us. We dropped our bookbags off, and donned the formal haoris, the Japanese version of the cloaks the Hogwarts students were going to wear. 

“Rick-dono, come here for a bit.” Irene beckoned to me.

“What is it?”

She ran her wand over my head, causing it to settle into a neatly combed hairstyle. “There, you look better like this.

“Thank you.”

Uzume swooped in to tug and adjust some of my clothes as well. “Rick-kun sure looks cool in formal wear like this.”

“You look very nice yourself.” I returned the compliment.

Near us, Matsu had her hands raised to stop Irene. “I can do it myself, Irene-tan.”

Her hair unwound itself from its usual braid style, before weaving into the tighter and shorter French braid, settling nicely in front of her shoulders just above her chest. 

Irene relented, but gave all of us one last look over before pronouncing us ready. Having passed her judgment, we departed to join the rest of the student body. Leafeon chose to stay behind, since she had no intention of going out into the cold weather.

The entrance hall was packed with students coming from their common rooms, and the Head of Houses were organizing them into lines according to their year. Professor McGonagall scanned our appearances before nodding in approval, and instructed us to join the staff off to the side. Some of the students were looking at our formal attire with interest, and Uzume flashed her friends a smile, spreading her arms out to give them a better look. We certainly stood out more, considering that they were wearing their hats while we had no headwear.

Professor Dumbledore’s robes were a flashy purple with teal constellations on them, standing out among the plainer robes of the other staff members. He smiled at the four of us, then tilted his head to indicate where we were to stand.

Once the students had been assembled, Professor McGonagall led the whole group outside, stopping just after the stairs in front of the castle. The moon was already visible in the climbing dusk, but it was still bright enough for the students to see where to step. As we waited for the arrival of the other schools with the rest of the teachers at the back, I could hear some students wondering how they planned to arrive, or complaining quietly about the cold. 

[Cold Resistance]... It felt like so long ago that I purchased that skill…

With my enhanced vision, I spotted the incoming carriage moments before Dumbledore called it out for the students, who started making wild guesses about what it was until it finally came close enough for them to make out the actual details. Next to me, Uzume made a sound of awe, which matched my own feelings.

During our time in Earth Land, we had seen and fought some rather large monsters, and some of them had been impressive-looking too. The giant winged horses that pulled the carriage were a close match for those; golden coats with fiery red eyes, powerful muscles evident on their elephant-sized bodies, and clearly bearing a good amount of natural magic. I was definitely interested in getting a closer look at them in the future.

The carriage came to a crashing and bouncing halt behind the landing horses, and almost immediately, a boy in pale blue robes came out to lower golden steps, before stepping back with a respectful air. The reason for that was made evident when an extremely tall woman emerged, her stature towering over everyone else present.

That made me realize then that Hagrid was absent, which I wondered about for a moment before recalling the Blast-Ended Skrewts he was raising. 

It wasn’t just the woman’s size that made her stand out; her appearance was rather striking as well, with black satin and opals to accentuate her handsome features.

Dumbledore started to clap, and the rest of us followed his cue.

Somehow, I want to see Irene do a size enchantment on herself, just to see how she compares, I thought as I watched the woman approach Dumbledore, the students parting before her advance. Oh, those rings are enchanted too… interesting.

The old man kissed the hand she offered, addressing her as Madame Maxime. In response, she introduced her students, who had followed her out of the carriage in her wake. Several of them were shivering in the cold weather, lacking the warmer wear suited for the weather apart from scarves or shawls.

“Irene.” I murmured under my breath.

Reading my intentions, the redhead slipped her wand out from her sleeve and made a small twirl with it. Almost immediately, a warm air encircled the foreign students, who blinked in surprise as their bodies stopped shivering. Madame Maxime turned to look at us, curiosity in her eyes as Dumbledore did the same.

“Dumbly-dorr, who might zese four be?” She asked in her deep, accented voice.

“May I introduce our four exchange students from Mahoutokoro, Japan?” The old man introduced us. 

Irene stepped forward, bowing slightly with a bend of her knees. “Pardon me for casting the magic, but I saw that your students were cold.”

“Your concern is appreciated.” Madame Maxime looked down at Irene, who straightened up and met her gaze unflinchingly.

The tall woman looked away first, to examine the other three of us as we introduced ourselves to her and her watching students. She was certainly strong, and had to be a powerful witch as the Headmistress of Beauxbatons, but compared to all the experiences we had been through… She finally cast a questioning look at Dumbledore.

“Ah, they will not be participating in the Triwizard Tournament. They will simply observe.” 

Guess she must be worried about her school’s chances of winning the tournament if we were to be in it. I noticed that some of her students had started unwinding their scarves from their heads, though a few of them still kept theirs on. Ah, so Veelas come with a weakness to cold and water. 

“‘As Kakaroff arrived yet?”  Madame Maxime asked, changing the subject.

"He should be here any moment," said Dumbledore. "Would you like to wait here and greet him or would you prefer to step inside and warm up a trifle?"

“With ze young lady’s magic, I believe we shall wait,” She decided, “But ze ‘orses-”

After she finished passing on instructions on how to care for the steeds that had conveyed the Beauxbatons students here, the Headmistress ordered her students to assemble in an orderly group next to us. Quite a number of them gave us friendly smiles, along with words of thanks to Irene for the warming spell. 

The first indication of the Durmstrang party’s arrival was the sound, a mix of gurgling and rumbling that was hard to pin the source. It was a sharp-eyed Gryffindor who shouted out to look at the lake, calling everyone’s attention to the disturbed water surface. I raised my eyebrows at the sight of the whirlpool forming, followed by the ship emerging from its center in a vertical ascension.

Water-based teleportation… I’m definitely interested in getting a closer look at that. A quick glance to the side confirmed that I wasn’t the only one. Might be fun to make a date of it with Matsu.

Contrary to its arrival, the ship sailed smoothly towards the shore. There was a splash as it dropped its anchor, and people in heavy cloaks began disembarking from it. They didn’t bother organizing into a proper group, instead approaching Hogwarts in a disorderly line led by a silver-haired man in similar colored furs.

“Dumbledore!” The man called out as he climbed the slope up towards the castle, “How are you, my dear fellow, how are you?”

“Blooming, thank you, Professor Karkaroff.”

“Ah, Maxime! I see you’ve beat me here. Hope I didn’t make you wait too long in this weather?”

Madame Maxime shook her head. “I ‘ad only just arrived myself.”

The man shook Dumbledore’s hand with both of his own, before greeting Madame Maxime the same way Dumbledore did. He then turned up to look at Hogwarts, smiling in a rather unauthentic way that didn’t match his eyes.

“Dear old Hogwarts, how good it is to be here, how good…” He paused as he felt the area of warmth, looking around curiously and finding our group standing nearby.

Dumbledore quickly interrupted by taking a few steps up the stairs to the front entrance. “Let us not tarry in this cold weather. Shall we go inside and warm up a trifle?”

“Yes, yes, that sounds good. Come along, Viktor…” Karkaroff beckoned one of his students forward. “He has a slight head cold…” The man said as an explanation.

It had been several weeks since I saw the images of that face, but it certainly stuck out in my memory enough that I couldn’t fail to recognize Viktor Krum. The guy had a mildly uncomfortable look, like something disagreed with him but he was doing his best not to show it. Up close, I could see he was older as well, with a smaller age gap compared to the rest of the students here.

With Dumbledore leading the way, the Durmstrang group, followed by the Beauxbatons party and us four, and finally the huge crowd of Hogwarts students, climbed up the stairs and entered the entrance hall. I could overhear Karkaroff asking Dumbledore about us, but the old wizard just said he would give a proper introduction later. A quick glance back saw that many of the Hogwarts students were shifting around, trying to catch a look of the talented Quidditch star, while others were making plans to try and secure an autograph.

<Wonder how much I could make from selling one of his autographs?> Matsu asked jokingly in my mind.

<Depending on who you sell it to… probably a few Galleons.>

The other foreign students paused around the doorway of the Great Hall, clearly unsure about where to sit among the four House tables present. Deciding to set an example, I walked past them, followed by my girls.

“Just pick a table and sit at it.” I said quietly to one of the Beauxbatons students as we passed them. 

“Think they understood you?” Uzume murmured to me as we sat at our usual spot at the Hufflepuff table.

Glancing back at the comprehending look on the boy’s face, and his quick chatter to his schoolmates, I nodded. “Yeah, they did.”

The rest of the students followed our lead and took their seats, with the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang groups sitting at the same tables they did in canon, the Ravenclaw and Slytherin tables respectively. After Dumbledore gave a short welcoming speech along with the notice of the tournament being officially opened after the feast, food appeared on the table and everyone started to eat.

“Wow, I’ve never seen some of these before!” Uzume said in wonder at the sight of some of the new foreign dishes.

She immediately started trying a few of them, analyzing their flavors to try and replicate it in the future. It was hard trying to find foreign restaurants in Japan that weren’t expensive, so having her cook these dishes was a welcome alternative.

The Durmstrang students were wearing red robes underneath their fur coats. With our grey and peach, Beauxbatons’s blue, and Durmstrang’s red, the normally black-dressed student body now looked quite different. Around us, the students were discussing the new arrivals, though most of them were about Krum.

“I’d love to try flying against him,” Cedric told me as he tried a French fish stew. “Dunno if he’ll accept though.”

“You could always ask. No harm in trying.”

“By the way, you really aren’t going to try and join the tournament?” He asked the same question we heard several times in the past weeks.

Matsu shook her head. “No. We’re just exchange students, and besides, it was originally between your three schools. So why change that?”

“Cedric, you’re going to try, right? Good luck, hope you get in.” 

“Thanks.”

“Hold on, look who just arrived.”

We turned to the staff table, where there were two faces sitting next to Karkaroff and Maxime. Only one of them was familiar; Mr Crouch in his neatly combed hair and mustache looked rather different in wizard robes. [Appraisal] confirmed that he had the [Charmed: Imperius Curse] on him. As for the other man…

“Oh, I recognize that guy,” Cedric said, “My dad told me about him. He’s Edward Meddle. He recently took over Ludo Bagman’s position after Bagman got fired.”

A totally new face… wonder how the man will be like? I scrutinized the stranger. Definitely not the friendly, happy-go-lucky person that Bagman was. Looks a little stressed at having to deal with the tournament in Bagman’s place.

The man didn’t seem to have anything suspicious about him. No traces of Dark Magic the way Snape had, or the faint signal given off by the Dark Mark on the arm like Snape and ‘Moody’ did.

“What are they doing here?” Another Hufflepuff wondered.

“Their departments helped organize the Tournament, so they must be here to oversee it.”

“I see… Oh look, dessert!”

Finally, dinner came to an end, and everyone seemed to focus as Dumbledore stood up to speak again. He started off by introducing the new arrivals, Crouch and Meddle, and the Ministry departments they represented in organizing the tournament, along with the announcement of their roles as judges alongside Dumbledore and the other Heads. After that, he gave a quick rundown of the rules; three tasks with points awarded by the judges, and the one with the highest points at the end of the tournament would be crowned the winner. The selector of the champion candidates was then revealed.

The Goblet of Fire.

As its name indicated, it was a wooden goblet filled with blue-white flames, casting Dumbledore’s face in an imposing glow as he placed it on the casket it had been stored in. 

<A ritual-linked magical artifact,> Matsu analyzed, her eyes locked on the Goblet, <Purposely crafted for the Tournament itself. Makes use of the element of fire for the sacrificial concept…>

I listened absently to her dictating her findings, along with Dumbledore’s explanation of how one could put their name forward for candidacy as their school’s champion, and his decision to put an Age Line to prevent those below a certain age from applying. 

<Is there really a binding magical contract?> I asked, curious to know if that part was true, or just a fancy story meant to discourage the undetermined.

<Unfortunately, there is. But to be honest, the binding’s not that hard to break. Nor is the contract itself hard to subvert.> Irene answered.

<Hmmm… now I wonder if I could get Harry to do some of those funny stuff I read about in fanfics...>

Some were definitely too ridiculous to implement, or too unrealistic, but it was fun just recalling them.

The next day, I woke up early and went to the Great Hall for breakfast, where a friendly face approached me as I was eating.

“Hi Cedric,” I greeted the young man. “Put your name in already?”

“Yes. I’m confident in my chances as champion.” He turned to wave at another pair of Hufflepuffs who called out their support for him as they passed by. “You’re really not going to try putting your name in?”

I sighed at the repetitive question.

“I’m not old enough yet, remember?” I pointed out, despite knowing I was. “But actually, I just want to try a few things.”

Cedric blinked, a little confused. “What do you mean?”

“Well, if you don’t have anything to do, you’re free to come along and watch, after breakfast.”

He shrugged, and settled down to eat. 

I had talked to the girls about what I was trying to do, and they gave me the go-ahead, though they weren’t around to watch. After finishing the first meal of the day, I went to the entrance hall, where the Goblet of Fire was placed in the center of a golden circle. There, I began taking out the items I had prepared: several pieces of parchment, along with a bunch of random items like a long stick, a roll of string, sticky tape, and more. Some of the other students already present watched me curiously as I got to work.

A sticking charm to attach a piece of parchment to a stick, which I then lengthened with magic until the parchment itself hung over the goblet, upon which I dispelled the sticking charm. 

A levitation charm to float the parchment directly into the goblet.

Inflating a balloon and tying the parchment to a string hanging from it, and directing the balloon to carry it into the cup.

Transfiguring it into a snake to slither across the distance and go directly into the flames.

Each time, the blue flames of the Goblet turned red, showing that the application had been accepted. And with each success, the crowd of observing students muttered their disbelief. I could see some of them were planning on imitating my methods later. Next to me, Cedric was wearing a dead-eyed stare.

“Ahem.” I looked over my shoulder to see Professor Dumbledore standing there, amusement dancing in his eyes. “May I ask what you’re doing, Mr Steel?”

I finished folding the parchment into a throwing star, which I tapped with my wand to adjust its weight, and tossed it with a flick of my wrist. Turning to face Dumbledore directly, I didn’t bother looking to see it curve in a gentle arc to land in the Goblet, like the many others I had already submitted.

“Testing alternate methods of submitting one’s name, Professor,” I said shamelessly.

“It appears your tests have been unexpectedly successful,” He observed, looking around at the hall of watching students. “But I must ask you not to conduct any further tests.”

I nodded. “Understood, Professor.”

“Now, for the rest of you wishing to submit your names, I request that you hold off for a trifle…” Dumbledore’s voice faded into the background as I made my escape. 

Over the course of the day, I kept getting approached by students telling me that my methods were ‘wicked’ or ‘ingenious’, or scolding me for not sharing them before Dumbledore sealed off those methods. I also noticed that none of them asked whose names I submitted during my ‘tests’.

Then again, I did put in names of several Azkaban prisoners under the names of false schools, which is more than the limit of three. So if they actually get accepted, they’ll probably end up suffering the effects of the contract.

Eventually, the attention got a bit too much for me, and I retreated to the privacy of my dorm rooms, where the girls already were.

“I heard about what you did,” Uzume grinned at me from her lying position on the couch, “It was pretty funny how you did that. I know there are others trying to find ways of their own around the protections now.”

“So whose names did you submit?” Irene asked.

I told them, eliciting a few chuckles, even Matsu, who was working on another Room build. 

“Unfortunately, it wouldn’t have worked,” She said as her eyes focused on the magic screen, “One of the prerequisites to qualify as a selection is to be a student. We could have, but not people who have already left school. You could submit all the names you liked, but only those qualified would be selected from.”

“Aw, what a shame,” I said in mock disappointment. 

“More importantly, Rick-tan,” She dismissed her Archive interface, and held out the glowing box to me, “Mind testing this one out for me?”

“Sure.” Taking it from her hand, I walked over to an empty wall and activated it there.

The version she made this time was a large sprawling structure with many ramps and rails, along with several floating platforms that moved in a certain pattern. The reason for it became clear when she held out a familiar pair of ATs to me. Behind her, the other two had their own pairs, though Irene’s were a generic set.

“It’s been a while since we’ve ran together, so let’s have some fun.”

“Let’s.” I agreed.

Teaching Irene how to run with ATs was an enjoyable experience, even if she wasn’t the type to perform stylish tricks like Uzume did. But there was no mistaking the joy in her smile as she soared above the scenery below, almost in defiance of gravity.

…

The flames in the Goblet turned red, and it spat a charred piece of parchment out, which Dumbledore caught.

“The Hogwarts champion… is Cedric Diggory!”

All around us, the Hufflepuffs burst into thunderous applause and cheering, with the four of us clapping along for the friendly and well-natured young man. With a broad grin on his face, Cedric went up, entering the chamber where the other two champions had already been.

However, as Dumbledore was in the middle of telling everyone to support their champion, the flames turned red again, spitting out a fourth piece of parchment. Some of the students who had seen what I did this morning turned to look at me in shock, but no one else apart from the four of us were prepared when Dumbledore read out Harry Potter’s name.

After Harry was called up to join the other three students, Dumbledore decided to dismiss everyone for the night, not making any statements about what had happened. As expected, he asked me to stay behind, since I was the prime suspect for this oddity. Against the flow of the crowd, I made my way up to the staff table.

“Mr Steel, I must ask, did you put Harry Potter’s name in the Goblet of Fire?” Dumbledore asked me calmly in front of the other adults.

“No, I didn’t. I was putting in the names of people who weren’t students,” I answered honestly.

“Then it wouldn’t have worked. Besides, the Goblet was only meant to accept champions from three schools,” Edward Meddle spoke up, drawing several surprised looks from those around him. “What? It was written in the records about the Goblet of Fire.”

“Then how did Harry Potter’s name come out of the goblet?” Karkaroff demanded.

“Just out of curiosity,” I spoke up, interrupting the adults before they could start arguing, “May I see the parchment with Harry Potter’s name on it?”

Dumbledore held it out to me, and I examined the piece of evidence. While charred around the edges, the writing in the center was very much legible.

“Well, it’s not my handwriting for sure. Mine is much more untidy. Also, Ilvermorny?” I looked around questioningly.

“That is the name of a magic school in America.” Mr Crouch answered.

“Well, that’s new to me. Anyway, I’ve seen Harry Potter’s handwriting, and this isn’t his either.”

Professor McGonagall held her hand out for the parchment, and checked for herself. “He’s right. This is not Mr Potter’s handwriting.”

“But then who put it in? Obviously someone has!” Karkaroff complained. 

The adults fell to bickering again, before Mr Meddle suddenly spoke up.

“Let us ask Mr Potter himself,” The man decided, “Perhaps he might know something.”

Looks like the guy’s finding his courage. I watched the wizard walk towards the chamber where the four champions were waiting, followed by the other adults. 

Dumbledore hung back to dismiss me before heading off to catch up with the rest. From his sedate pace, I doubted he was going to ask Harry in the film version of ‘calmly’. I was planning to take a closer look at the Goblet, but ‘Moody’ was carrying it away in its casket, probably planning to conceal the signs of tampering under the cover of ‘investigating’.

Some of the Hufflepuffs were waiting outside the hall, and they ambushed me with demands about whether I was involved in Harry’s name coming out of the Goblet. I had to admit that I hadn’t considered these consequences about showing off my alternate methods of putting in names. Despite my denials, few of them believed me- 

There’s got to be some relation between the ability to perform magic and being bull-headed enough to believe in one’s own version of reality. “Anyway, between Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory, I think Diggory’s more likely to win.”

-until [Speech] took effect again.

“You know, I think he’s telling the truth,” A sixth year girl whom I knew was an admirer of Cedric suddenly said. “Rick’s been upfront with us this whole time, so if he says he didn’t put Potter’s name in, then I believe him.”

“Damn right. We’ll just support Cedric then. He’s the real Hogwarts champion!”

“Hear, hear!”

“Want to join us in our common room for the celebration when Cedric comes back, Rick?”

I smiled, but passed on that invitation.

…

The next few days saw Hogwarts split into two sides, those who supported Cedric and the Gryffindors who supported Harry. And the former’s treatment of the boy was certainly quite depressing, with insults and silent treatment. Furthermore, he appeared to have fallen out with Ron, as the two boys were barely talking, leaving only Hermione to support him during this trying time. 

“I keep telling everyone, I didn’t put my name in the Goblet of Fire, and I don’t know who did!” Harry complained to me during one of our evening training sessions that only the two of them showed up to.

“They can be stubborn idiots, yes,” I agreed. “And as I already showed with my alternative methods, they don’t consider other explanations unless it’s clearly demonstrated before them.”

The two of them already knew of what I did, but I had been able to adequately defend myself of any involvement in Harry’s case, leaving them without any other suspects.

“Moody thinks someone is trying to kill me. Confunded the Goblet into accepting me as a champion for a fourth school.”

“But who could have?” Hermione wondered, “No student could have been able to fool the Goblet…”

“So obviously it has to be one of the adults.” I flicked my wand, sending a spell at Harry that he blocked.

“But, but… why would they?” Hermione looked at me at a loss, like she couldn’t imagine such a thing.

“Who knows?” I shrugged, pretending to drop my guard.

“Stupefy!”

“Accio chair.” 

Instead of blocking the bolt of red light with the summoned chair, I had it come down low, letting myself fall backwards underneath Harry’s spell to sit on it. The next thing I did was to cast animation charms on it, riding it around the classroom to avoid Harry’s spells. It felt like an amusement park ride, with the chair spinning and tipping to the sides.To his credit, he didn’t stay stationary either, dodging behind some of the makeshift barriers I had raised for his benefit.

Now I feel a bit like Jackie Chan. I conjured a length of rope that I wrapped around a nearby desk leg, using it to redirect my momentum into a swinging turn, narrowly avoiding the jinx that would have hit me had I continued on straight. Close one there.

I reduced the number of offensive spells I was casting, simply using my limbs and magic in positioning myself to avoid Harry’s spells. Kicking off walls, hooking furniture with my limbs, even kicking up a broken piece of furniture to serve as a barrier.

“Can’t you be serious?!” Harry said angrily in between spells.

“Not when you’re this distracted,” I retorted.

“Fine!” He humphed. “Accio chair!”

Smoothly transferring my weight to my feet, I stood up as the chair shot out from underneath me. It was a rather good, if overpowered, example of the Summoning Charm from Harry. Getting carried away with the mood, I spun and did a bit of moonwalking, finally striking a pose as I pointed at him.

“Harry, you did it! You cast a Summoning Charm!” Hermione exclaimed.

The boy blinked, then looked at the chair that had slid to a stop next to him.

“I heard Professor Flitwick will be covering this spell with the fourth years soon, so good job on casting it successfully,” I praised him. “Now, let’s see if you can do it when you’re facing… distractions.”

Harry looked at me brandishing my wand and gulped, but he still raised his in return.

Though he still faced some trouble from the other students, the sessions with me did quite a lot to help Harry take his mind off the stress of it.

Despite my interactions with the ‘gloryhound’, as some Hufflepuffs referred to Harry as, my group still maintained a friendly relationship with Cedric and the rest of his House, even if many of them wore the ‘Support Cedric Diggory’ badges that Draco Malfoy made to taunt Harry. That connection allowed us to get some of the details regarding the first task of the tournament.

“‘Test your daring’?” Matsu repeated as she sat in the Hufflepuff common room with a history book open on her lap, surrounding by Cedric, his friends, and curious eavesdroppers. 

“That’s what Mr Crouch said,” Cedric confirmed, “‘Courage in the face of the unknown is a very important quality in a wizard’... that’s the reason he gave.”

“What else did he say?”

“We’re not allowed to ask for or accept help from our teachers to complete the tasks in the tournament, and the first task has to be done with only a wand. What else…” Cedric tilted his head as he tried to remember.

“So no teachers, but what about your fellow students?” Uzume spoke up.

The other Hufflepuffs agreed with the brunette’s words. 

“She’s right, Ced! You’ve got us on your side!”
“We’ll help make it a Hogwarts victory!”
“CED-RIC! CED-RIC!”

“Quiet over there, please!”

“Sorry!”

“We don’t mind helping you out either,” I told the young man with a smile, “So let’s get to planning, shall we?”

“But the judges didn’t say anything!” Someone else protested.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” Matsu said with a waving of her finger, “Don’t give up so easily. Allow me to explain…”

I’m sure very few of the Hufflepuffs understood the lecture she delivered on data analysis, done on past records of the Triwizard Tournament, but the conclusion itself was quite easy to understand. The probability of having to face a dangerous magical beast was quite high, and the Hufflepuffs decided to get to work on trying to confirm such a thing, sending out owls to their family and friends to get news on whether some would be brought into the country for the first task.

In the meantime, the four of us continued to attend classes and explore the castle, though there were some changes in our daily schedule.

One of them came about due to the other foreign guests, and we occasionally made trips out of the castle to interact more closely with them. The Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students usually stayed in their carriage and ship respectively, but made the rare trip up to the castle to partake in the meals or as guests making use of services their accommodations lacked.

The Beauxbaton students, which consisted mostly of girls, came across as a little snooty at first, but turned out to be pretty friendly after we got to know them better. It was Uzume who managed to break through their cool exterior first, by inquiring about their cultural practices on both the magical and Muggle side, and fostering mutual interest between them and the Hogwarts students. A few of them made the occasional appearance as part of Uzume’s friend group, with the silent agreement not to discuss who they supported in the Triwizard Tournament.

As for the Durmstrang students, it appeared that Karkaroff ran a tight ship (pardon the pun), because few of them were ever seen off the boat, and only for short periods of time. It seemed unlikely that we would get a closer look at the ship at this point of time. The only exception was Viktor Krum, whom the man indulged and allowed to do whatever he wanted. That freedom was devoted towards the Hogwarts library, where Krum chose to read relatively undisturbed by his fanclub of girls, whom Madam Pince the librarian kept in check. 

Of course, we knew that the man had other reasons for being there.

<Yep, he’s crushing on her,> Matsu reported from her position in the library, <Keeps stealing glances at Hermione every few minutes, trying to work up the courage to talk to her.>

<Too bad she’s always with Harry,> I replied with some amusement. <I’m nearly there.>

Entering the library, I looked around and found Matsu, her chosen seat facing a direction that allowed her to keep an eye on both Harry and Hermione, as well as Krum, who was in a far corner with several books. There were also a few other girls present, though they were hidden behind bookshelves, peering at the Quidditch star through the gaps and giggling.

<Can’t believe his fanclub haven’t noticed yet.> She told me as I approached. “Hi, Rick-tan. Thanks for coming.”

<We already know that these wizards can be really unobservant.> “Shall we go back to our rooms then?”

Nodding to Hermione and Harry, I helped carry some of Matsu’s books as we left the library, leaving them to try and prepare for the first task.

“Oh come on! Again?” Matsu complained as the staircase we were on started to move.

She looked at the distancing entryway, clearly considering whether to just jump the gap before giving up, and advanced onwards to where the staircase now led. Down a dimly lit corridor, a suit of armor in the corridor nearby lifted one arm, pointing at a section of the wall across from it.

“The reward for good work is more work…” I quoted.

Matsu didn’t reply, but stretched her leg out to step on my foot, while she called up the Archive screens and got to work. Meanwhile, I cast spells to conceal our presence in this area, along with sending messages to Uzume and Irene to update them.

Her fiddling with the Room of Requirement’s functions had certainly helped improve its performance, but apparently had the side effect of making Hogwarts more active. And it had an awareness to it now, one that remembered who was responsible for its change, and thus who to approach for help. 

About once a week, Matsu would find her path altered or given signs towards a seemingly innocuous location, but it would turn out to be a nexus of magic responsible for Hogwarts mystical nature. It was obvious that the castle wanted her to help continue tuning it up, and so she did, causing the place to undergo several gradual changes. The castle was now taking some effort to maintain itself without the house elves, creating new secret passageways that made navigating its halls much easier, and I even noticed some of the previously normal rooms automatically shifting to meet our needs.

Harry and the other students probably thought I was the one responsible for setting up everything for the tutoring sessions, but I only did so the first few times. Now, I was barely doing anything. The room itself automatically shifted to fit what I wanted when I waved my wand.

Matsu wasn’t doing the work for nothing either. Apart from furthering her understanding of the various components governing the castle’s various gimmicks, seeing how the interactions between multiple unrelated spells could produce an entirely new effect, she was also using it to test other things.

Like what happened if an ability enhancement skill was added to the mix, to work only within a designated territory. Or what sort of results could be captured by a data analysis skill mixed with a monitoring charm. Stuff like that.

I know some of the teachers appreciated the increase in scholastic performance.

Not that everything turned out well all the time. Sometimes the changes made affected some forgotten room that nobody used, other times the alterations couldn’t handle the new addition and we had to reverse the changes. And rarely, we had to use Matsu’s Norito to prevent a critical meltdown.

The outbreak of amorous behavior in the dungeons had been chalked up to a Potions accident, though I knew my perverted Sekirei kept notes about its actual cause.

“And done!” Matsu tapped one last key. “Happy now?”

Hogwarts made a low groaning sound similar to a whale, and the atmosphere around us felt like it was waiting for something.

After a few more seconds, she nodded to herself. “Okay, so let’s see where is being controlled here…”

I started scanning through my storage of skills, trying to decide which would be good to temporarily part with.

“Ooh, the corridor where Charms is held. That’s good!”

“Definitely another data analysis one then.” I spent some of my LP to create another copy, and handed that one over.

She smoothly slotted it into the workings, making a few final adjustments to ensure it meshed properly, before we made a hasty getaway from that spot.

…

Albus Dumbledore paused in his work as he noticed something different about his office, looking up from the letter he was writing to try and identify it. It took a second before he realized it was one of the instruments on the shelf, which was now swinging in a slightly different rhythm.

Standing up from his desk, the old wizard stepped over to take a closer look, peering at it over his glasses. In all his time at Hogwarts, he had made a few discoveries about the castle’s quirks, like how the activity of magic could influence the motion of certain mechanical devices, without them having to be enchanted to do so. The instruments on his shelves acted like the Muggle seismograph, picking up the reactions of the castle to certain spells being cast within its halls. Any attempts to conceal them with anti-monitoring charms wouldn’t work. As he recalled, this particular one was linked to Filius’s classroom.

For the past few decades, this oscillating wheel had a slight crick in its spin motion. However, as he examined it now, there was no sign of that; the wheel spun smoothly without any interruption. On the bird perch nearby, his phoenix Fawkes let out a pleasant trill that matched the rhythm of the wheel, as though taking pleasure in its smoothness.

Dumbledore examined several other instruments, noting that they were still functioning as they always did. Only this one was acting differently.

Stroking his beard in thought, he returned to his chair, wondering if this was related to the culprit responsible for Harry Potter’s inclusion into the tournament. While he had no proof, the elderly wizard’s instincts told him that it wasn’t. 

Yet the mystery behind Harry Potter’s incident remained. His old friend Alastor Moody had investigated the Goblet, and claimed to have found no traces of whoever had cast the Confundus Charm that had led to this whole mess. Without any clues to follow, the only thing he could do was to see the tournament through, hopefully without any further troubles.

That was all he could do nowadays, doing his best to keep everything running smoothly for everyone, which unfortunately meant having to neglect the few outliers. His heart ached for young Harry, but Albus Dumbledore’s hands were tied, and not just by the binding magical contract that kept the Heads of the schools from acting directly. 

Sighing, he returned to writing his letter. The dragons would arrive tomorrow night, and Hagrid knew what to do to help Harry.

Afterword: Another chapter done! I found that my muse is rather stimulated when it comes to considering butterflies from previous minor actions, though it takes quite a while to kick into gear as I have to think about how changes can develop over time. Also, I really had fun imagining all the sort of things that could be earned from the castle itself. 

Another thing that’s interesting about the Harry Potter universe is how so much of the canon can be altered in fanfiction. Is there a good reason for this thing that we see, or are the wizards just lacking common sense? Coming up with my own explanation for that, and how we can make use of said explanation, is where the fun lies.

Once again, thank you to my readers for supporting this story!