9 Success, in more ways than one

Author's Note

I feel like a lot of people don't read the author's note at the end so I'll say it here too. This and next chapter are the last of the DXD content before we get back into the Harry Potter stuff completely.

--------------------------------------------------------------The next morning I walked down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Seeing that Fleur was already sitting at the Gryffindor table, I made my way over to her and sat down.

"Morning." I said, filling up my plate.

"Too bad we couldn't meet up for dinner yesterday. Madame Maxine rushed us off to the carriage as soon as the sound was heard." Fleur commented.

"Yeah, I didn't even find out until I was wandering the halls, since I'm not sleeping in the Gryffindor dorms." I said.

Fleur nodded and said "Hopefully nothing else happens today. Have you been preparing for the first task?"

"I'm gonna play it by ear." I answered.

"Well we all can't do that. Some of us have to be worried about our chances in this tournament." Fleur said.

"I mean there's no point in worrying. Just improve your ability overall since you don't know what the task is."

"I guess you're right" Fleur responded.

Breakfast then passed and I had to go to class since the weekend was over. At this point I wasn't sure what I was getting out of classes at Hogwarts. I picked up magic right away, which excited some teachers and frustrated others.

Once the school day was over I was about to walk up to the Room when I was approached by Draco. I noticed he had a badge that said "Support Cedric Diggory - The Real Hogwarts Champion" which then flashed to say "Potter Stinks."

"Real creative there Malfoy. How long did it take you, Goyle, and Crabbe to come up with that, two days?"

"Joke while you can Potter. I give you two minutes before you die in the first task." Draco sneered and walked away.

'Another intellectual conversation with Malfoy.' I thought as I continued on my way up to the Room.

Entering, I pulled out Rias' summoning paper and channeled magic into it.

'Huh, this will be the first time I meet a member of her peerage. I wonder what they'll be like.'

The red circle I was now used to appeared and the floor and out of it emerged two figures. One was Rias, who wasn't a surprise. The other one caused me to drag my hand across my face in bemusement.

'I wonder if there's a magic backpain solution for devils or something.'

"Harry, this is Akeno." Rias said.

"So this is the guy you've been spending all your nights with Rias." Akeno said with a teasing voice.

"Don't take her teasing seriously Harry." Rias said.

"Oh really, what about when I walked in on..." Akeno began but her mouth was covered by Rias hand.

"Alright, I'm gonna just brush by that. You want to get started right away?" I asked.

"Get started with what exactly? Rias didn't tell me what it was we were doing?" Akeno asked with confusion.

"You didn't tell her? What do they think you've been doing all this time?" I asked Rias.

"Training with you, which is true. I just didn't want to tell them the other part until we were sure it would work." Rias answered.

"Okay, well Akeno, Rias and I formed a contract. One part of that contract was that I would study the evil pieces and see if I could find a way to remove the part that binds a reincarnated devil to the king." I answered Akeno.

Akeno turned to Rias and said "That's what you've been doing all this time? You know none of us care that we're bound to you."

"But I care. I'll be a lot happier when all of you are completely free of the peerage system. Just, do this for me okay." Rias said.

"Okay Rias. So Harry, want me to get undressed for this?" Akeno asked, her tone turning teasing.

"No, just summon your piece." I said, already getting used to her teasing.

Akeno moved over and held her hand out, summoning her Queen piece and handed it to me. Moving to my desk, I sent my magic into the piece to see how similar it was to an unused one. Behind me I could sense Rias and Akeno sit on the couch, but I blocked them out.

The Queen Piece in front of me felt different for a few reasons. It wasn't a Pawn, so the basic boosts provided by it were different. They didn't affect the binding part, however, so it didn't matter. The actual binding part was a lot stronger due to being active. It would be the same process to remove it, but it would require a lot more power.

Getting to work, I zoned out and lost track of time as I focused entirely on removing the binding. Finally removing it, a red line appeared from the piece going into Rias' chest, which drew hers and Akeno's attention.

"Harry, what's going on?" Rias asked, standing up and moving over to me, with Akeno following suit.

"I'm on the last step of removing the connection. Looking at the way this was structured, when I remove the binding it will create a small backlash. Are you sure you want to go through with this? It shouldn't be too bad, but Akeno might end up slightly injured." I said.

Rias looked more worried about going through with this now. "Maybe we shouldn't do this. We can just leave it for unused pieces."

"I'll do it." Akeno said.

"Are you sure?" I asked just to be certain.

"Campione do the impossible. Let's see it happen." Akeno said.

Rias still looked worried, but I turned back to the piece after looking closer at Akeno. I got the sense there was some other reason for her to do it, but I couldn't hope to guess what it was.

Sending my magic into the piece, I removed the binding part in one fell swoop. The glowing line between the piece and Rias shattered, and the piece moved back to Akeno, fading into her hand and leaving a cut in her palm.

Quickly moving over to her I hissed ~Close Wound~ in parseltongue and the cut on her palm closed shut.

Rias was next to Akeno, fussing over her and looking to make sure she wasn't injured anymore. I sat back and let her be while Akeno continued to assure her she was fine. After Rias was done, she stepped back and seemed to concentrate for a second.

"I can't feel the connection anymore." She said.

"With this piece I completely removed it, since you don't need to summon the piece like the unused one." I answered.

"So that's it. It worked? The evil piece system doesn't affect her anymore?" Rias asked.

'It's good that all of my work paid off. Months of studying and planning worked out perfectly.'

"Besides the benefits provided by her Queen piece, it isn't doing anything else." I answered before I suddenly assaulted in a hug by Rias.

"You know this is the third time in the past three days. I think that's more actual hugs than I've gotten in my entire life." I idly commented without thinking.

Rias pulled away from me and looked at me in surprise. "What?"

'Damn it, I slipped up. Never let people know, I know better.'

"I said it's more hugs than I've gotten in a while, what with me being pretty cut off from my ex-friends and all." I lied.

Rias stared at my face for a few seconds before giving me a quick hug and backing up. "Well I'll just have to make up the difference then. Do you still want to train today?"

I opened my mouth to say she shouldn't do that before deciding it wasn't worth that battle or the conversation that could lead to. Instead I said "Let's train, but I want to do something different today. We can keep working on your endurance, but I've got a different idea how."

"Oh, you have an idea to train Rias' endurance do you." Akeno said with a smirk.

'Is everything she says an innuendo.'

"Yes. Right now we've been working a lot of your offence in combination with my defense, now we're going to switch." I said.

"I'm fine with that, but I don't think I can stand up to a Campione's attack." Rias said.

"I'm not attacking you like a Campione, I'm gonna attack you like a wizard. I haven't gotten the chance to work all that much on my magic, so I need the practice. What I want you to do is try to hold a layer of Power of Destruction around your entire body. It should stop my spells, depending on how much power I put into them."

"So we'd be training my endurance and improving my defense. Okay, let's try." Rias said, standing up. With a thought the room change, becoming more open and giving us a better place to train.

"Akeno, since you're here you want to help with something?" I asked.

"Do you want me to attack Rias too?" Akeno asked.

"No, I want you to attack me. With just my spells it should be sufficient to train Rias, but I could use someone attacking me to work on my multitasking."

"Alright, I'll participate." Akeno said calmly, but to me she sounded a little too excited.

We all moved into position and I gestured for Rias to try to form the layer of Power of Destruction. She slowly produced more and more PoD and spread it over her entire body.

"Okay, I think I'm ready." Rias said once her entire body was covered besides her head.

Summoning my staff in the form of my wand, I tested the barrier by sending a low powered Stupefy at it. As soon as the spell impacted the barrier it dissolved into nothing.

"Okay good. I'll keep raising the power. Akeno, just send any kind of magic attack at me. I'll defend." I said.

From there we began to train. Shifting through every spell I knew, including the ones I had picked up from reading Slytherin's books, Rias' barrier managed to hold up to a good amount of them on low power before falling. At the same time Akeno was sending lightning bolts or fireballs at me from the side that I blocked with a Protego. She seemed to get frustrated by her inability to hit me, so she began to put more and more power into the blasts until she finally managed to break the shield while I was distracted and forgot to reinforce it. The lightning bolt flew towards me and Akeno's face lit up for a second before it hit me and dispersed, changing her an expression to an annoyed one.

We spent a few hours practicing like this, with breaks in between for Akeno and Rias to recover their magic, until we finally decided to call it a day.

"You're shield holds up pretty well to a good amount of spells, combined with your offense you should have a good chance against Riser now. When is the Rating Game?" I asked.

"It's in a week which reminds me what I was meaning to tell you, we're going to train at one of my families houses for a week, so I can't answer a summons for a little while." Rias said.

"Okay, well good luck. I'm sure you'll beat him. Just a word of advice, a king fights on the front lines." I said.

"Thanks, I'll see you afterwards." Rias said and gave me a quick hug before teleporting away with Akeno.

'I guess hugs are going to be a thing from now on. It's a nice change, but I shouldn't have slipped up.'

--------------------------------------------------------------A week passed pretty normally. I went to class, hung out with Fleur, and avoided interacting with pretty much any other student. Now that I wasn't working with Rias I spent that time instead expanding my magical knowledge. Classes were teaching too slow, so I went down to the Chamber for the first time in a while to look at what books on spells there were. Myrtle didn't come with me today, but I wasn't sure where exactly she was.

While I was down there I noticed the magic circle on the ground that Myrtle had been drawn to on our first visit. I hadn't messed with it at all because I wasn't sure what exactly would happen, but now I was a lot more curious.

'Maybe Rias would know what it is.'

Alongside expanding my magic, I got through a lot more of Slytherin's journal, which told me something interesting. Salazar had interactions with a Campione, but he didn't know what they were. While he was searching for new kinds of magic he came across a woman who was confronting a Nundu. Although he wasn't as bad as people thought he was, Salazar was still a selfish man and didn't make any kind of move to help the woman. It turned out that he didn't need to.

All she did was glare at the beast and it changed from a growling beast to one that was perfectly docile. She then walked up and began petting it before turning to where Salazar was hiding in the bushes and saying "I know you're there. Why don't you come out."

It was the last line of this section of Slytherin's journal that surprised me. It read "I had no idea at that moment that I would be meeting the woman I would spend the rest of my life with."

'Slytherin married a Campione, which means all of his descendants are descended from one, including Voldemort. I wonder if being descended from a Campione provides any benefits, or if it doesn't change anything.'

I stopped there for the night, which was the day Rias should be participating in her Rating Game with Riser. Going to sleep that night, I was curious to know whether or not she had won, but I would have to wait until tomorrow to find out.

The next day I went through the day with the same routine as always, but I was distracted because I was really curious to know whether or not she had won. Once evening came, I made my way up to the Room and channeled magic into the summoning paper.

The magic circle I was used to appeared and from it emerged Rias, who lunged forward and gave me a hug.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you." She said.

"I guess that means you won then." I commented.

Rias released me and stepped back, almost bouncing on her feet as she said "Yep we did and I couldn't have done it without all the training we've been doing."

"Well let's sit down and you can tell me about it." I said, moving over to the sofa with Rias doing the same.

"Okay so this is what happened..." Rias began.