5 Conversation and New Arrivals

Author's Note

Doing some stuff with family, so I don't have a lot of opportunities to write. I'm mixing the old version of the story with the new one to get further in the story to where the main changes will take place.

--------------------------------------------------------------"So you're what, a catgirl? What did Solomon call you, a nekoshou was it?" I asked.

"Yeah, a nekoshou, a subspecies of nekomata that's more rare nya," Kuroka answered.

'She even acts like a cat when she's in her humanoid form.'

"Okay, gonna gloss over that last word. Why exactly did you come to me in your cat form?" I asked. I was trying to figure out what her goal was when she was still a cat, but now that she could speak I could just outright ask her.

"That's a little complicated," Kuroka answered unsurely.

"I've got time."

Kuroka seemed to realize that she wasn't getting out of this without an explanation as she sighed and said "Well I could tell you were a Campione when I saw you. The amount of magic you guys put off is pretty obvious if you know how to look for it. And who better to hide out with than someone who can kill gods."

"And who exactly are you hiding from?"

At this point, Kuroka began to shuffle her feet as she pointedly looked away from me.

"If you're staying with me I at least need to know who's going to end up coming after me," I said.

"Wait, you're letting me stay?" Kuroka asked in surprise.

"Yes, depending on what exactly your problem is. It doesn't really change all that much knowing you have a humanoid form."

Kuroka began to smile at that, before going into detail about why exactly she needed my protection in the first place.

Apparently, she and her sister had been reincarnated by a devil. He ran a bunch of experiments on Kuroka in hopes of turning her into a Super Devil, which Kuroka allowed in order to protect her sister. Eventually, he decided he wanted to try experimenting on her sister, Shirone, and Kuroka killed him in order to protect her. Unfortunately, that led to the mass genocide of her entire race, and her sister was added to another devil's peerage while she became a fugitive.

"Well having the entire devil race after you is pretty good reason to need some protection," I said with a snort of laughter.

"Well if that's all it is, then you're fine to stay. At this point, having devils can just be added to the list of things trying to get me," I said.

Kuroka sprung forward, wrapping her arms around me in a hug. I awkwardly patted her head, before she moved back.

"With that out of the way, I think that's enough excitement for me today. I'll come back and look around here more later, for now, I need to get to dinner before Hermione gets on me about where I've been."

Kuroka and I began to walk back through the tunnels we idly talked. I took the opportunity to try to get a better handle on her personality now that she could actually respond to questions.

Eventually, we made it back to the tunnel that led to the girl's bathroom. Giving Kuroka a pointed look, she nodded and shifted back into her cat form, hopping up on my shoulder. Flying by manipulating the wind, I rose through the tunnel and back into the bathroom, the sink passage closing behind me.

--------------------------------------------------------------Days passed as I set into a rhythm for the school year. Classes passed, although with [King of Magic] I was learning everything with a glance, so I began to get bored in my classes. To stave off that boredom, I started researching spell creation itself and learning how to make my own spells. There was one particular class with Mad-Eye Moody that was pretty interesting though.

--------------------------------------------------------------Flashback

I walked into the Defense Against the Dark Arts room with Ron and Hermione, not really sure what to expect from this teacher. I had found out he was a former Auror, but how that would translate into teaching would be interesting to see.

We all began to take out our books when he walked in and said "Put those things away. We're doing a practical demonstration today."

He walked to the front of the class and stood in front of us.

"I'm not going to bother with all of that extra stuff, so we're getting right into class. The first subject, the Unforgivable curses."

There were some gasps around the room, but I got a lot more focused. I had heard so much about how "it was a miracle I survived the killing curse" but nobody was keen on explaining to me what the curse actually did.

"Can anyone name one of the three curses deemed unforgivable?" Moody asked.

Neville slowly raised his hand. "The Cruciatus curse." he stuttered out.

"Ah yes, you would know that one now wouldn't you Longbottom," Moody said and pulled out a jar with three spiders in it. Levitating one of them out, he enlarged it.

"Crucio" Moody called out and the spider began to writhe in pain. Neville near me had a worried look on his face and had a death grip on his desk.

"Stop it, you're scaring him," Hermione yelled out. Moody hesitated for a second before stopping the curse.

"Can anyone volunteer the next curse?" Moody asked.

"Imperio, the Imperius curse." Hermione said.

"Yes and the curse that got numerous Death Eaters off on a technicality. The total control of the victim." Moody said and levitated another spider out of the case.

"Imperio," he said and began to control the spider, moving it around the room and having it jump on different people.

People freaked out about a giant spider being near them, but once Moody had had his fun he put the spider back in the case.

"And what, pray to tell, is the last curse." He asked while looking directly at me.

"The killing curse," I answered.

"The killing curse. The curse that ends something's life in an instant with no signs. Only one person has ever survived it." Moody said, gesturing towards me before levitating the last spider out of the jar.

"Avada Kedavra" Moody said and a sickly green light came from his wand, hitting the spider and making it go still.

--------------------------------------------------------------That class was one that showed what kind of teacher Moody was, and he was one everyone enjoyed.

Kuroka and I would spend time in the Chamber, looking around at the different rooms. We found a room that was filled with bookshelves that had books written by Salazar Slytherin himself. Alongside that, in the middle of the room was a magic circle that, with [King of Magic], I understood was a teleportation circle somewhere. I hadn't activated it yet, although I was planning to soon.

From the books available, I found Salazar's journal, which had a lot of interesting information about the man himself. I hadn't made it very far into the book yet, but I had found out a little more about his wife. Reading about another Campione was interesting. Erica had told me a little about one of the others, Salvatore Doni, but it wasn't much, and hearing an account from someone who was married to a Campione gave an interesting perspective.

I realized that I hadn't been spending all that much time with Ron and Hermione recently, but I didn't really know what to do about it. It wasn't anything they or I did, but I had gotten sucked into learning more from the Chamber, and for some reason, I didn't want to let them know what I had found. Kuroka had been the only person I really interacted with a lot besides passing interactions with people around the school.

With how devoted I was to my research, I didn't even realize it was time for the other schools to arrive for the Triwizard Tournament. It wasn't until it was lunchtime and Hermione dragged me outside that I realized they were arriving today.

We were all assembled outside to wait for the other schools.

"Look" someone called out. Looking where they pointed, we spotted a carriage being pulled by flying horses.

It landed on the ground a little ways away from us and from it emerged the Beauxbatons students. After every student had emerged, their Headmistress came out as well. She was an extremely tall woman, rivaling the height of Hagrid.

"You reckon she's half-giant?" Ron whispered to me.

Shrugging my shoulders in response, I watched as the Beauxbatons group made their way forward, with their Headmistress and Dumbledore exchanging pleasantries.

"Oh great, she's here too," Hermione muttered under her breath, but I heard her. Following her line of sight, I looked to where she was looking and surprisingly saw Fleur.

'I never did ask her where she went to school. I guess this is what she meant by seeing me sooner than I thought.'

Fleur seemed to be looking through the crowd. When her eyes landed on me she gave a small wave. I returned it when the Durmstrang group decided to show up.

A boat emerged from the lake, sending up a spray of water into the air. It docked and from it emerged a fur-clad group of students. They made their way down, with their Headmaster in the lead.

Someone called out "Krum" and I saw that everyone was excited because Viktor Krum was a student at Durmstrang.

The Durmstrang Headmaster made his way over to the other two and the different Headmasters talked for a little while before Dumbledore loudly called out "Let's all head inside for dinner."

'Here we go. I'm sure this whole tournament will turn out to be a headache for me, but however I get dragged into it, I'm not participating.'

We all made our way inside and sat down in the Great Hall. The students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang spread out along the tables, with a majority of the Durmstrang students sitting at the Slytherin table and a majority of the Beauxbatons students sitting at the Ravenclaw table. Fleur walked over and sat down next to me at the Gryffindor table, but didn't get a chance to speak before Dumbledore stood up and began to speak.

"Welcome Beauxbatons and Durmstrang to Hogwarts. For those of you unaware, to my left is the Headmistress of Beauxbatons, Madame Olympe Maxime. To my right is the Headmaster of Durmstrang, Igor Karkaroff. On either side of them are two people who will act as judges for the tournament, Ludo Bagman and Barty Crouch."

As he introduced them the four people stood before returning to their seats again.

"Now that everyone is here we can announce the method that the champions will be chosen." As Dumbledore said this, Filch walked in and with him, he brought a glass case that contained a giant golden cup.

"This is the Goblet of Fire. It is an impartial judge. Each student of age may write their name and school on a piece of paper and place it in the flame. On the day of the choosing, the goblet will choose the champion of each school to compete. With that said, tuck in." Dumbledore finished.

Everyone around us began to eat as I talked with Fleur. "So this is what you meant about seeing you sooner than I think."

"Yes, I thought it would be a nice surprise."

"So you're going to enter your name into the cup then?" I asked.

"Of course, it is a great honor to compete in the Triwizard Tournament," Fleur answered.

"I've read that it's quite deadly. I don't know why anyone would want to put their life at risk for something like this," Hermione chimed in.

"It wouldn't be much of an honor to compete if it was easy," Fleur responded.

"I wonder what kind of defenses they'll put around the Goblet to stop people who are underage from competing," I said, trying to change the subject.

"I'm sure Dumbledore will have defenses planned that will stop anyone who shouldn't enter from entering," Hermione said.

Turning to look at the old man chatting with the other headmasters, I wasn't so sure. With his track record, he didn't have the greatest showing in the defense department. Turning back to the group, I finally noticed that Ron was caught up in Fleur's allure, absentmindedly shoveling food into his mouth while staring. Now that I really glanced around, I could see a lot of guys were paying extra attention to Fleur, with some being better at resisting the effects than others.

Fleur noticed me looking around and spoke up about it. "They will adjust as my classmates did. It takes some time to get used to the passive allure of a veela."

"Yes, I'm sure it's so passive," Hermione muttered under her breath, but I could hear her, and I could tell Fleur could as well, but she chose to ignore it.

From there we made small talk over the course of the rest of dinner. Eventually, it was time to make our way up to the dorms. With a promise to hang out later, we parted ways with Fleur and made our way up to the Gryffindor dorms.

As we walked, I finally asked Hermione what her deal was. "What do you have against Fleur?"

"What do you mean? I don't have anything against Fleur" Hermione lied.

"Really, then what was with the snide comments."

Hermione sighed and said "Just be careful Harry. You seem to be relatively resistant to her allure, but that's when she's not trying. Veela are known to ensnare men."

"You know Hermione, you shouldn't believe everything you read in books. Just because Fleur is a veela doesn't mean she's trying to manipulate everyone," I replied and sped up, walking ahead of Hermione.

"Wait Harry, that's not what I meant," Hermione called out after me, but I already was too far ahead of her. Saying the password, I entered the Gryffindor common room and made my way up to the fourth-year boy's dorms.

Making my way to my bed and sitting down, I pulled out a Salazar's journal and began to read it. I had gotten to a part where he began to describe his interactions with other magical communities. It seemed that in his pursuit of knowledge, he began to branch out, being one of the few wizards to make contact with other groups.

Before I could get very far into it, the rest of the guys in my year filtered in. As they entered and took notice of me, Dean took the opportunity to speak.

"Harry, mate, why didn't you tell us you knew a veela."

Sighing and closing my book for a moment, I said "Because it doesn't matter."

"Hell, it doesn't matter. Could you introduce us?" Seamus said.

"I'll pass. Build some resistance to the allure and do it yourself" I said and moved the curtains around my bed. I could hear them still muttering outside though. "Doesn't have to be so stingy. Probably wants to keep her all to himself."

Putting a silencing charm around me I continued to read the journal into the night before going to sleep.

--------------------------------------------------------------The next day was a weekend so we didn't have classes. Making my way down to breakfast, I found a group assembled in the atrium connected to the Great Hall.

They were all looking at the Goblet of Fire sitting in the middle of the room, lit with blue flames. While I was looking, Fleur came into the room and I moved over to talk to her. Noticing the piece of paper in her hand, I said "Entering right away?"

"The sooner the better," Fleur responded and walked forward, crossing the line drawn around the goblet and placed her paper into the fire. She then walked back over to me and I asked her something I was curious about.

"Do you know what that line around the Goblet is?"

"That's an age line. It will only allow people of a certain age to pass over it, while those not of the correct age will have something happen to them dependent on who cast it." Fleur answered.

"So this is the defense Dumbledore came up with. I really hope this isn't everything." I said aloud.

"Why?"

"Because it is really easy to enter your name with just the age line as protection," I responded.

Fleur opened her mouth to ask me another question, but before she could the twins entered the room carrying a potion in each of their hands.

"Stand back, stand back. I think it's about time we entered, don't you think Fred?" George said.

"Right you are George. Bottoms up then?" Fred asked.

"Bottoms up." They both said at the same time and downed their potion. As they drank the potion, I finally noticed Hermione sitting on a bench near the goblet.

"It's not going to work," she said to the twins.

At that point, they had finished downing the potion and winked at her. "We'll just have to see then," Fred said.

It took a few seconds, but the twins both grew an inch or two. Making a show of it, they slowly lifted their legs up and jumped across the age line.

"Look at that..." George began but before he could continue a loud, sizzling sound began to be heard. The twins were thrown out of the circle and hit the ground. They began to stand up and once they fully were standing everyone around them began laughing.

"What, do I have something on my face?" George asked. He began to touch his face and noticed the long white beard that now adorned his face. Fred was in a similar situation as well.

Fleur tapped me on the shoulder. Turning to look at her, she said "As amusing as that was, I'm curious why you think the age line isn't sufficient."

"Let's walk to breakfast and I'll tell you along the way."

Fleur and I made our way out of the atrium and towards the Gryffindor tables. As we walked I explained my reasoning.

"The age line stops anyone who isn't the right age from passing, but why would you have to pass in the first place. It might take a few tries, but you could probably throw a piece of paper into the goblet from where the line is. That's ignoring just asking someone who is of age to take your paper and put it in."

"I guess I never thought of that," Fleur said.

"I don't blame you. There's something about magic that makes everyone look at magical methods first instead of the mundane ones."

From there we sat down at breakfast and ate while talking. The champions would be announced tonight, so I had the whole day to spend however I wanted. Kuroka followed behind me in her cat form as I entered the chamber of secrets. Once we were in the chamber, she changed back to her nekoshou form.

"Excited for the tournament?" she asked with a teasing tone of voice.

"You know damn well I don't want anything to do with it."

"Yeah, but from what you've told me about your past three years here, it doesn't look like your going to avoid it. If they do try to get you to participate you can just flex that Campione might and see how they react," Kuroka said, an amused look on her face at the thought of the wizards dealing with the magical output of a godslayer.

"I know, I'm hoping I don't have to. I'd rather finish this year out and get a better handle on how to actually be a Campione before I'm forced to deal with it outright.

"Well, it's up to you. I think it'd be a sight to see though."

"Whatever you say. Come on, I want to see more of your magic," I told her. Something we had started a week ago was that Kuroka would show me some of the devil magic she knew. I was curious to see how different it was to wizard magic and with [King of Magic] I could learn it right away and get a deep understanding.

"Wow, are you just using me for my magic," Kuroka pouted, widening her eyes and trying to look at me with a hurt face.

"And aren't you just using me for my protection?" I shot back.

Kuroka's face went back to normal quickly as she laughed.

"I guess we're both gaining something then, even if I'm definitely the one better off in this case. Okay, today I'll show you how to do illusions."

With a motion, two duplicates of Kuroka formed standing next to her.

Walking around the duplicates, I tried to see any differences between them and the real Kuroka.

"They don't make any shadows, but otherwise they're pretty good," I said.

"Of course they are, I made them after all. You know something else that's interesting, they mimic what I do," Kuroka said, her face turning on a smirk as she moved her hand to the shoulder of her Kimono.

"Haha, very funny," I muttered, used to her teasing by now. The first few times she'd done it she'd managed to get a rise out of me, but I realized by now that it was better not to react or else it'd feed into it.

"Well you're no fun," Kuroka said.

"Let me try," I said, ignoring her as I cast the illusion spell she had. The room was immediately filled with copies of me as I had decided to put a good amount of mana into the spell.

"If only they were physical," I said aloud.

"If only," Kuroka echoed, but her tone was a lot different than mine was.

"Shush you perverted cat," I told her as I spent a little while just trying variations of the spell and seeing what it could do, as Kuroka showed me her own variations of the illusion spell. After some time, we realized that the choosing of champions was going to be happening soon, so I needed to head back up to dinner.

"Let's go, this is gonna be a long night," I told Kuroka, who was in her cat form on my shoulder. Mering with the group walking into the Great Hall, I readied myself for some annoyances.