Chapter 9

Full Metal

Chapter 9

By: BigToFu

Roy Mustang

Letting out a huff as I floated high in the air, my hands cupped before me as my mana twisted in a spiral forming my latest spell. Bright light shined between my fingers as the spell came to life and I paid it no mind as the spell was unleashed. Performing a quick flash step from the air, I reappeared at the side of the training dummy as the Nova spell made contact.

Throwing my arms upwards, the ground raised to my command and with a stomp of my feet. The transmutation matrix on the bottom of my dragonhide combat boots flared to life. The sand flowed and twisted, taking on a new form while I fed it the mana to make up for the difference in the material I wanted.

Titanium shields snapped into reality while what was left of the sand dropped away. A resounding whomp rang out as the spell exploded, flicking two fingers with my left, an ice shield formed. This kept the high temperatures and the molten red surface of the shields from reaching where I stood.

Jumping away from the sudden appearance of the ice spike at my location, I skided along the ground before throwing both hands up before me. Lightning slammed into the shield of void I erected before me and I had to roll my eyes at my ancestor.

I flash-stepped once, twice and a third time dodging the spells Rowena sent my way. Landing lightly on the other side of the sandpit, I took in the smirk on her face.

Funny enough all this started when I came down here to blow off some steam after leaving breakfast in the Great Hall. Even with all my setup and all the blindsides I had hit his ass with, somehow that white-bearded fuck kept his job at Hogwarts.

He was of course outed from the Wizengomott, but somehow he kept the Hogwarts Headmaster position. The only good thing out of it all was Sirius getting his case reviewed on the sly by Amelia and Dumbles getting out of Wizard politics. Then again with the way he whispers his words into the ears of his followers, he isn't really out of wizard politics.

So of course when I got that news, I decided to blow off some steam with one of my latest creations. After leaving the Great Hall during Dumbledore's little celebration, I had found Hermoine and that sweet goth ass of hers in the Raven's Nest. It would seem that she had gotten caught up in one of the books I had lent her and the house-elves had even brought her a meal.

My idea was to craft a stone golem for the little spirit of Rowena to control, but in all honesty, I wasn't making it for her to interact with everyone. No, I wanted a sparring partner and what better than the ancient super magician.

So that meant after a few days of laboring and her having to put up with my manic ass, we had finally stumbled onto something. The mark one golem I was facing off against still looked like a rough knight in a suit of armor with all of the defenses and none of the speed or flexibility. That was all made up for with the fact that I was powering the golem with a connection to my unlimited mana-tap.

Growling in my frustrations, I locked eyes with my ancestor as she sat on the shoulder of the golem that she was piloting. Honestly, I felt as if I was in a quagmire with no way out. The Dumbledore situation felt as if I had overplayed my hand and the man was now onto me. It was clear with my retaliation when he called me dark with the troll citation that I was now on his watchlist right beside Voldemort and Harry.

Well, Snape was also on that list since he took his chances to vanish, then again, I was waiting on winter break to catch his slimy ass. People always forget to ward against house-elves and even then, there aren't many wards against them. Funny how wizards felt that the help was so beneath them that they did even make proper protections for if they might turn.

Getting my anger under control, I slowly released the breath I was holding as I felt the massive spell being formed on the other side of the sandpit. Spears appeared in the air, hundreds of them with fine intricate details along the blade and shaft.

Instead of running because let's be honest, a homing spell was far too easy, I stared it all down. My arms snapped open wide as a magical circle made itself known. Spells circles upon spell circles formed into a humanoid shape before me as I stared down Rowena on the other side of the pit.

Hovering hands formed first then a ribcage and upper torso, an ethereal blue sprang to life covering my makeshift Susanoo. Rowena waited for the head to form before sending her spears at me, but now they were charged with a touch of lightning for added effect.

When I had dreamed up big plans of bringing back the battlemages, I did not foresee myself battling one from legends past.

Wings unfurled behind my massive magical construction as Rowena's lightning spears bore down upon my creation. Arms crossed and the wings came forward in a defensive embrace as the spears arrived.

Spears of steel, wood, and stone clashed with my construct and broke upon contact, but I knew that this wasn't the end of Rowena's attack. Even if it just looked like a big and flashy spell, she never just struck from straight head-on without a purpose.

She was sneaky like that.

It happened as one of the spears struck the ground in front of my magical construct instead of making contact. Sand and dust flew into the air clouding my vision, yet when I waved my hand it didn't disperse. Before I could figure out why and how she even did something like that, I had to jump into the air.

A spell circle appeared underneath the balls of my feet carrying me upwards and back into what I thought was the range of the spell. That was until something slammed right into my back paralyzing me in the air.

My arms were locked in place and my magic felt like mud within my veins, even my chest felt constricted from the paralyzation. Before I could think up a plan or even break out, Rowena was before me standing on one of her spears as it lined up with my chest.

[My win.]

The smug condensation in her tone was just ohh so unbearable, battle mages were such bullshits and her being the real hidden ace of Hogwarts even more so. Calming the breaths I was taking, I let the adrenaline work its way out of my system before nodding and letting her release the spell she had me under.

With a wave of the golem's hands, I noticed from my peripheral vision that it was a web-like structure I was caught and suspended in.

[Come on, enough brooding.] Rowena told me as she clapped a hand on my shoulder. There was no hiding the grimace on my face as ten pounds of stone slammed into me. Yeah, I had to make a note of that for fixing, but the new variant was already on my building board.

Giving my ancestor a nod, we both flew and went to land before walking over to a rack system with Hermione standing beside it looking over a magical table I had given her. With the whole situation with Dumbledore happening and her being more open to advances in technology, I had decided to step up my game and show her a few things.

Of course, this had nothing to do with the fact that she was a big titty goth chick that's nothing like her story or movie counterpart. I swear, fingers crossed of course.

Landing beside her, Hermione gave me a put-upon look before rolling her eyes. At the side Rowena marched the golem over to the rack and sat it in the cradle, then the orb that contained her spirit floated up and out of its slot.

The little spirit of my ancestor then went into a hover over Hermione's shoulder as they both went about ignoring me. Pulling off the sweat-soaked t-shirt that I was in, I started to dry off only to miss whatever Hermione was saying.

"What?" I asked, still coming down from my combat high.

Looking up from her tablet, I finally made eye contact with her as she repeated herself, "So, still upset with being outplayed by the old man?"

Now, that hurt because of course, she knew that I was. I didn't care if he kept his judge seat or not, but I needed and wanted him out of the damn school for some of my major plans. Yet, he was still here like a persistent fucking infection.

The nudge from my left pulled me out of my thoughts that were starting to spiral downwards into plots and schemes.

"No, am not upset that some hundred-year-old fox was able to stay inside the castle." I grumped in return.

[HOHOHO. Trying to be the cat that caught the canary and missed his chance to eat it.] Rowena laughed at the side.

Sigh, "Yes, I might have been a little too active and didn't cover the bases properly and let him slip through, that doesn't mean I am upset over the outcome." I replied with a shrug.

Hermione looked up from the table and placed it at her side with a hand cocking her hip. "And why not, I know I would be. Especially if I had evidence of him passing shit laws while being a pretender to the whole lord of light bullshit."

Rowena flew over in the orb that contained her spirit and hovered between Hermione and I. [Pay him no mind girl, he already knows what he has to do to get that old codger out.]

Nodding her head at that, Hermione then turned and I had to ignore the lavender fragrance that touched my nose as she then turned back around and slapped the tablet she was using against my bare chest. "Come on, I plan to get every bit of knowledge in that big head of yours"

Instead of replying, I flexed my pecs and hid the smirk that threatened to form on my lips as I watched her bite hers.

"I don't know little lady, you don't seem like the rebel type to me." I said slowly, taking a step forward. Hermione scoffed at me black eyelashes fluttering like butterflies. Letting her take a half step backward, I shrugged before summoning over a shirt to my hand. A quick spell had me decent before I floated back into the reading chambers and splayed myself onto one of the couches.

"Alright, hit me with it, why." I said.

She looked at me from the door then asked the simple question, "Why, what?"

"Why do you want to know all that I know or do what I do, pretty sure me allowing you in here has already advanced your magical knowledge past even that of the seventh years," I replied as I watched her like a predator. "Most magic users would sell their firstborns for access to Ravenclaw's hidden library."

"What do you mean why, do you not understand what you have accomplished, what you have started or even done?" Hermione asked clearly exasperated as she waved the magical tablet around in her hands. "Look at this, a personalized magical tablet, a clear combination of magic and technology. It bridges the dark ages we are subjected to and then clearly advances them by far. Hell, we are barely into November and you already have a working solution to magic interfering with technology by having it convert into electricity itself which protects the device."

"That gave me pause because it's not even my greatest accomplishment, yeah, i'll keep the unlimited mana-tap to myself and my family for now. I did have a note-to-self to install one into the school as soon as I could. From what I was feeling from the wards, they were very underpowered and the school felt sluggish in some places.

Hermione then huffed at me as she dropped the tablet on the couch in frustration, "Still can't believe you figured out how to turn magic into electricity, theoretically that shouldn't be possible."

I could only shrug in response. "It either works or it doesn't, there is no theoretically. We play with magic and the intent behind spells for so long I can't believe no one figured it out. Remember, magic is just energy and electricity is also just energy. If you understand that fundamentally then when you think about it, energy is energy, doesn't matter the form, plus magic is pure bullshit."

The look on her face was just pure loathing for me and my ancestors, I watched as a black nail tapped away on her painted lips. Since she wasn't going to say anything I decided to continue filling the silence with my words.

"When it comes to magic and how intent works we are in a very peculiar Star Wars situation."

That perked her up and she raised a black eyebrow at me. "What do you mean?"

Filling my chest with all of the smugness in the room, I took my grand wise master pose as I sat up. "It's do or do not, there is no try."

Hermione looked at me for a good half a beat before her wand appeared and a pillow came flying at my head. "Alright Yoda."

"Exactly, everyone keeps overthinking these things, back in the day, there were no rules and no wands. Just imagination, intent, and sheer fucking will and determination to get shit done." At this point, I was really gassing my own engine and had to slow it back all the way down. The less I said about all that the better, I could even see Rowena giving me a side-eye from her floating orb thing.

"Anyway, I plan to keep as much of these things to myself as I can since you haven't learned how to protect your mind yet." I said before clapping my hands to summon a house-elf and ordering breakfast.

"If I learn how to protect my mind, you will then teach me how to convert magic into electricity and back again?"

"Maybe, gotta see where you stand with a few things down the road. Not going to give you the keys to the kingdom and then have you pull a Morgana Lee Fay on me. It's bad enough I have to out a shit tier dark lord and some wanna-be lord of light before dragging this fucking backward wizard nation kicking and screaming into the 21st century." I grumbled as the food arrived. It was clear that what I had said was the end of the conversation as she looked at me before then turning her attention towards the meal.

Morning exercise was over and it was time to get back to the life of Hogwarts. The school was in need of some help and I guess I might as well skip double potions to sort her out. Hermione sat there with her black lace leggings one leg over the other eating with calmness as if we hadn't been speaking on heavy topics.

Pushing those thoughts from my mind, my gaze honed in on the door that decided to make itself known. Shifting my gaze back from the door, a quick flick of the wrist pulled my prototype tablet into my waiting palm.

Gazing down, I decided to go over the golem body and how I could improve it. What I was thinking about was either changing the material used, even if the conjured stone was free as dirt. The joints were working as they should since I didn't go for simple hinge elbows.

Reading further down the list, I noticed the power consumption disregarding the spells fired. Honestly, I tried hard not to cringe at the numbers. Movement alone consumed three times as much magical energy as it took to strengthen the frame.

It was obvious that the mobility enchantments had to go and had to be replaced with something else. Then there was the fact the golem looked like a typical rock golem just with five fingers and a control unit.

Sigh, so much to do.

Instead of complaining, I took what little time I had left to change the material to marble while swapping out a few enchantments. Once I had the rough outline of the feminine form, it was then left to Rowena to work out the sizes that she would want.

Hermione went silent as I worked and I kept myself from looking up and gazing at her as she fixed her black eyeliner. I worked to the light of the candlelight spells above until the sun came up and the bell rang.

Turning my head to the side, my neck popped as I got up from my seat only for my breath to catch as the beauty before me blew a kiss. Instead of walking around with that lion's mane of hair like in the books. Hermione's hair was obviously relaxed with magic with streaks of black and purple.

She stood across from me in a sexy combination of a schoolgirl and I'll rot your teeth sexy. Somehow the girl had gotten her hands on a corset that she then camouflaged to match the school outfit. That meant instead of hiding the female form, those jugs were held high and tight with just enough jiggle for all to see.

The smokey eye look with that half-smirk she wore told me that she knew exactly what she was doing and how she looked. Instead of saying anything, she twisted on the spot which flared her skirt in just the right way for me to see toned thighs with a hint of cheeks before an enchantment took effect and hid it all from view.

Right as I was about to call her a damn minx, Hermione's wand snapped out and my bag containing my books came flying towards my chest. Shaking my head to clear the thoughts racing through them both, I cast a quick illusion spell to make it appear as if I was following right behind her, then turned on the spot.

I had more important things to do instead of following around the wishes of my second brain.

]|[

Standing before the door that led to somewhere in the school, I held out a hand and waited for my dragonhide trench coat. I had my boots on, my wand in its holster, and chainmail with multiple enchantments on it underneath my shirt.

No such thing as being too prepared, this was Hogwarts after all. Once I had completed my final checks, I held my hand out once more. Instantly there was a fwap sound as the orb containing Rowena's spirit flew into my waiting grasp.

Ignoring her protest, I slotted the orb into the hole that was in the center of the door. Script of what I believe was elvish ran up from one side of the door frame to the other as magic pulsed through the door activating it.

Before I could read the inscriptions, they vanished along with the door leaving behind a long hallway. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I did a ten count before snap casting a basic revealing spell.

Of course, the spell reacted with nothing.

Instead of walking down the hallway that's obviously boobytrapped, I opened my trench coat, found the right pocket, and took out my little sniffer dog. Tossing the four-legged golem as if I was playing Pokémon, I hit it with an enlargement spell from a distance and followed behind it as the sensor and diagnostic spells went to work scanning and relaying information directly back to me.

I wasn't much of an artist, but any Pokémon could tell that my little sentry was an Eevee. Since I was a firm believer in gen one, I felt why not. And since the games hadn't come out yet, I felt like keeping my childhood alive.

The little golem pokemon sniffed and checked the hall and with it not triggering any traps, I felt that it was safe enough to try.

The moment that I walked into the long hallway, things changed. Lucky for the hallway, they changed for the better as light shone down from the ceiling, each illumination stone set a foot apart from each other.

Chuckling, I waved my hand reabsorbing the magic used to form the three arcane bolts hovering around me. Reaching into my trench coat once more, I pulled out a face mask with a modified bubble head charm enchanted into it.

Certain that it was affixed to my face properly, I slowly made my way down the hall following behind the little foot trails of my golem. The little tap-taps stopped some distance away and since there weren't any alerts, I knew that it was safe.

That didn't mean that I just threw caution to the wind. My pace was kept slow and ever so often I released a pulse of magic to test my surroundings. A little messy sure, but I would rather brute force a trap instead of just walking into one.

As I reached the end of the hallway, I found a room that was easily ten feet in radius with a very large and very glowing orb in the center. For a time I stood at the edge of the room, but with nothing reacting and the orb nonresponsive to Eevee's probs. I entered the chamber.

[Wit beyond measure is man's finest treasure.]

[Welcome my heir, for only with a test of wit may you claim what is yours by right of blood.]

Pausing to take in the look of my ancestor, I mulled it over as the glowing orb settled into the stand that it was on. I kept on thinking of the possible test as lines started to trace from the orb, down the stand, and up the walls.

Rowena was really beyond her time. The magic settled and another door made itself known glowing against the wall on the opposite side of the room. Shrugging, I walked over and hit the doorknob with a spell to check for traps. Finding none, I grabbed and turned the knob, that was when I felt the jerk of a portkey teleporting away.

Author Notes:

Look at that, the plot thickens.

Hope you guys enjoy, yes the magic is going to be a lot more expansive and no this will not be a Dumbledore bashing fic.

The original HP actually has a lot of plot holes in Dumbledore's tales and I just plan to use some of them to pin him to a wall. Of course, the old man is just too slick so it's going to have to come down to a battle of wits and power.

I wonder what sort of magic someone like Dumbledore might be hiding behind that gentle smile of his. Things I plan to explore. The prize is Hogwarts of course. I wonder what's so special about that school that makes Dumbledore use it as his seat of power, and yet, Voldemort also desperately wants it.

It's a magical school, of course, there has to be some secrets.

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