Vita Magicis (HP SI-WC) (Patreon)

Chapter 21: Duels and Secrets

“Wow~ This room is huge! How did you find this Aether? This is amazing~”

Watching Astoria curiously explore every inch of the Undercroft with a smile I just stood back with an embarrassed Daphne due to her sister’s antics.

“Sorry about her.” Daphne muttered quietly in behalf of her sister.

“Mah, no worries. Let her do as she wishes.”

Before too long Astoria got tired of exploring and plopped down in the nearest sofa. “We should definitely use this room to practice spells.”

Blinking at her words, it finally came to me that since arriving back at Hogwarts we hadn’t had time to practice and keep up with our training from last year.

“Oh, that’s right. You don’t know this but we already use this room whenever I’m training your sister and the others.”

At my words, the girl sprang up from her seat again and looked at me with a glint in her eyes that made her sister groan to my side. “Then that means you wouldn’t mind training me too right Aether?”

“I don’t see why not. I’ll tell Ginny and Luna too so they can join us.” For some reason my words caused the girl to look at me in slight disappointed as she turned to her sister with a questioning look.

“I now see what you have to deal with sis, it must not be easy huh?”

“S-shut up Astoria! Nobody asked you!” Forgetting she was next to me; Daphne lost her cool composure for a second and yelled at her sister like she has probably done hundreds of times now.

“Huhuhu careful there sis, your mask is slipping~” Astoria teased with a small smirk that only grew when Daphne finally recalled that I was here too causing the blonde to blush in embarrassment.

“It’s good to see you two getting along so well.” I let out a laugh only managing to embarrass Daphne more who turned her head away from us with a cute huff.

“Hah, as if.” Astoria playfully retorted with her own huff. “Anyway, as much fun as I’m having teasing sis, why did you guys invite me down here?”

Taking the lead now I stepped forward and smiled gently at the brunette. “It was so I could heal you Astoria.”

Blinking in confusion for a moment Astoria suddenly widened her eyes when she caught my meaning and turned to her sister with a shocked look. “You told him?”

Her embarrassment forgotten Daphne turned to her sister again and nodded her head slowly. “That’s right, I did.”

“Why?” Lowering her head so she was facing the ground Astoria asked quietly. “You should know perfectly well that nothing will change Daphne. So why did you bring someone uninvolved into our family drama?”

“Because you’re my sister.” Her answer came in a whisper but was nonetheless also heard by Astoria who only trembled in response. “And because Aether has the power to remove curses!”

Astoria froze in place for a moment when she heard that before finally turning to look at me with teary eyes. “I-Is that true Aether?”

Instead of a response I only smiled reassuringly at her and stepped up in front of her before raising my right hand and chanting.

“Purify!”

A while light suddenly surrounded a shocked Astoria for a few moments before it retreated and I used my Analyze skill on her and nodded to myself when it no longer showed any negative effects on her person.

“There, you should be free of that curse now.”

“W-what?” Still shocked at how easy I had seemingly gotten rid of her curse, Astoria looked down at herself and started inspecting her body for the next few minutes.

When she finally seemed, satisfied Astoria looked at me again with a few tears leaking down her eyes. “I-It’s gone…There’s no more pain.” She was forced to close her eyes as my hand came to rest atop of her head and ruffled her hair.

“Now you can truly live life as you wish Astoria. You have a long and healthy life ahead of you.” I whispered with a smile as I finally removed my hand from her head.

“A-Aether…you. T-thank you. Thank you so much!” Her last words coming out in a happy wail, Astoria launched herself into my arms and hugged me tightly as she cried on my chest.

“There’s no need for that. We’re friends after all right?” I pulled her closer and gently rubbed my hand on her back in a reassuring manner.

A moment later I felt another pair of arms wrap themselves around me this time coming from my back. “You did it. You really did it ‘sniff’. Thank you, Aether.”

Surrounded on both sides by the pair of sisters I could do nothing but stand there and let them vent, feeling happy for them.

If my hand wondered to Astoria’s shoulder and applied a bit of pressure there for three whole seconds, well that was just a coincidence and nothing more.

=====

(Two Months Later, Week Before Christmas)

“Are you staying over the holidays, Aether?”

Turning to a curious Rose, I swallowed the food I was eating before answering her question. “I am. And you girls?” I turned to the others who were also paying attention.

A much healthier looking Astoria answered first, her cheeks having a healthy-looking blush on them now along with her skin tone. “Unfortunately, not. We always spend those days over at our grandparents. By the way Aether I’m eagerly awaiting what you got me.” She seemed a bit sad when she said that but was quick to mask it so we wouldn’t notice as she teased me.

“I’m staying too. I want to spend more time with you Aether~” Luna answered next with a happy smile on her face.

Unconsciously scooting closer to me due to Luna’s comment, Rose answered last. “I’m also staying. You still haven’t introduced us to this Maya person that Luna was talking about.” The redhead looked up at me with a cute pout causing me to scratch the back of my head nervously.

“Haha sorry about that. Between having fun with everyone, homework and training it slipped my mind.” I apologized sincerely before turning to Astoria. “I’ll tell you and Daphne when you return Astoria.”

“Hmph, you better~”

Two months had sure gone by in a blink ever since I cured Astoria.

With three more girls joining us for training I had little free time for myself which was mostly spent with either Maya or Ilulu either relaxing or having sexy times. While I had not gone all the way yet with my cute elf, every time she was becoming more open to my advances.

It was only a matter of time now.

=====

A day before everyone left for the holidays, something unexpected happened that I was not expecting due to the changes I had already made.

I was talking of course about the Dueling Club being held by that fraud Lockhart.

“This is going to suck.” I muttered to myself seeing how everyone was being paired off randomly with me ending up against Draco of all people.

“Scared foreigner?” The little shit just had to open his mouth didn’t he.

Staying quiet I waited until we got the signal to start before immediately launching into action with the Slippery Jinx causing Draco’s wand to go flying out of his hands.

“What the-”

“Levicorpus!”  Not giving him time to even finish talking I levitated the little shit by his ankle causing his robes to fall over his head revealing pale legs and a skinny stomach.

Immediately laughter arose around us much to Malfoy’s shame as he turned an interesting shade of red.

“Let me down! I demand that you let me down at once you fool! My father will hear about this!”

“Sure sure, whatever you say.” With amusement clearly visible on my face I released the spell causing the teen to come crashing down on the ground only causing louder laughter.

In my attempt to put the little shit in his place I forgot one important detail.

That was the fact that the original inventor of the spell, Severus Snape, was also present in the room and was now giving me a strange look.

‘Fuck! Did I trigger memories of him being bullied by this spell or something?’

I never got my answer as I was pulled away by a laughing Harry and Ron who congratulated me on a job well done on humiliating the ferret.

“Well done mate! It’s nice to see that git get what he deserves every once in a while.”

“You have to teach me that spell. It was brillant~”

While the boys were happy though, the same couldn’t be said for the others in specifically Hermione who was giving me a slightly disappointed look. This Hermione while much better than when she first started Hogwarts last year, still looked up to the teachers and rules of the school.

“Your lessons worked Aether~ Pansy didn’t stand a chance against me!” The happy voice of Rose exclaimed happily as she jumped on my back.

Looking around at the girls I trained, I saw that every one of them had beaten their opponents with ease causing a proud look to appear on my face.

“Good job Rose. Though you’re not giving yourself enough credit. You won because you applied yourself and worked hard.” I praised.

“Hihihi thanks~”

Distracted as I was with Rose, I didn’t notice an embarrassed and humiliated Malfoy march up to Harry and taunt him about something. Nor did I notice when Lockhart and Snape got involved recreating the same scene from canon with Harry against Malfoy.

“Whoa! Harry is up against Malfoy?” Rose finally noticed what her brother was up to and got down from my back as everyone crowded around the dueling platform.

‘I guess some things are set in stone even with all the changes I’ve made.’ I followed behind Rose as she made her way to where Hermione and Ron were and we waited for the duel to start.

The chatter around us finally stopped and the duel started. Harry who had been goofing off with Ron and didn’t join our training sessions didn’t know many offensive spells yet and resorted to the Tickling Charm and Malfoy the Dancing Feet Spell.

With both teens out for the count Lockhart stepped in and cancelled the spells before gesturing wildly at Harry almost as if instructing him. On the other end Snape leaned down and whispered something on Draco’s ear making me narrow my eyes.

‘This confirms it. He was testing him.’ As was expected Harry started speaking to the snake summoned by Malfoy causing the hall to become deathly quiet as most of the teens stared at Harry in horror as if he was the next Dark Lord or something making me shake my head at the stupidity of kids.

When the snake was dismissed, a confused Harry was ushered out of the hall by Hermione and Ron with me and Rose trailing behind them as Ron explained to Harry about Parseltongue.

‘You must have the shittiest luck Harry if even with my changes, things like this are still going to happen.’

=====

(A Week Later, Christmas Eve)

I had been right.

The castle was abuzz in gossip about Harry being evil or something with the kid looking moody as hell as almost everywhere he went, he had to deal with people whispering at his back.

Luckily for him, most of the students had left home for the holidays so he finally got a break from the Hogwarts rumor mill.

In an attempt to get their mind off things I had invited everyone over to the Undercroft and they had accepted.

“Wicked~ How come you never told us about this place mate?” Ron looked at me with an almost betrayed expression causing most of us to roll our eyes.

“You would have learned of this place much sooner Ronald if you and Harry had bothered to take Aether up on his offer on training.” Hermione exclaimed with an annoyed tone causing the redhead to back off.

“Thinking back on it that was stupid on our parts. I saw how everyone dealt with their duels pretty quick whilst we just fumbled around.” Harry admitted still with a depressed aura around him but nowhere near as bad as a few days ago.

“Aether is very knowledgeable about magic. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t learn something new about him. It’s rather exciting~” Luna praised me with a smile, a happy aura surrounding her that was almost visible.

Slightly embarrassed now I was saved from having to say anything as a pop was heard around the room and a voice followed it.

“Would Master and his friends like some snacks?”

Turning towards the voice we saw the smiling form of Ilulu with Maya and Asako at her sides.

“D-did you just Apparate into Hogwarts?” An astonished Hermione asked with wide eyes and an open mouth.

“Maya! It’s so good to see you again~” Luna launched herself at the redhead who received her with a smile.

Feeling a tug on my arm I turned to a confused looking Ginny. “Is Ilulu an elf Aether?”

“Hahaha good guess Ginny but let me properly introduce you to them.” Taking the lead, I walked forward until I was standing beside the girls and turned around to face the others.

“First of all, you might recognize Ilulu here.” I brought the elf into a side hug much to her embarrassment. “She’s actually an Elf much like the ones you read in stories or a guardian to the forest to those who don’t get that reference.”

“It’s nice to see you again Ilulu.” Rose greeted with a smile already knowing my maid along with her brother.

“Hello Ilulu.” Harry was next to greet her.

“Hello Miss Rose, Mister Harry. It is always a pleasure to meet some of Master’s friends.” Ilulu slightly bowed to everyone.

“An elf? A real one?” Hermione quietly muttered to herself looking between me and Ilulu with an intense gaze.

“Next we have Asako here, who is sort of like the ghosts around Hogwarts just with the ability to take human form again and interact with things in this world.” Asako who was floating a bit behind me just nodded her head not really saying anything.

“And finally, we have Maya here, who is believe it or not a snake capable of taking human form. In fact, why don’t you show them Maya?” I turned around and gave the snake girl a playful grin that was easily returned.

“Sure~ Sorry Luna but I’m sure you’ll enjoy this if nothing else~” Finally letting go of a clingy Luna, Maya stepped way back and once she had enough room she transformed back into her original form of a Horned Serpent.

“Sssurprisseee!”

I could only chuckle silently to myself at the looks of the others as they beheld Maya’s true size.

‘This should be an interesting conversation.’

=====

“So let me get this straight.” Hermione muttered with an exhausted sigh.

We found ourselves seated now that introductions were over with a big plate of snacks in front of us courtesy of Ilulu.

After everyone freaked out for a while, they finally managed to calm down once they were reassured that Maya wouldn’t harm them. Luna was a huge help in that regard actually as she immediately started inspecting every inch of Maya like a curious child poking and prodding along with asking tons of questions.

The blonde was currently having a silent staring contest with Asako who looked highly amused at the girl. It was beyond me to try to guess what was going on through Luna’s mind at the moment so I didn’t even try.

Ron, the one most scared at first, had also relaxed somewhat probably because Maya was back to her original form again and was too busy stuffing his face to pay us any attention.

Harry on the other hand was doing everything in his power to not look anywhere Maya’s direction for some reason or other but I paid it no mind since it didn’t seem to be anything bad.

Lastly Ginny seemed amused at the situation mostly along with Rose who were chatting happily with my cute elf maid off to the side.

“Not only do you have a real Elf for a maid, a spirit or whatever Asako is as a servant but also a Horned Serpent for a familiar who just happens to have the ability to turn into a girl. Did I miss anything?” At the end Hermione looked a second away from pulling her hair at all the shocking and impossible things happening in front of her.

“Well…” Looking off to the side nervously I noticed from the corner of my eyes how Hermione sighed in defeat and lowered her head into her hands. “You know all those magical creatures living back home?”

“…Let me guess. They have the ability to turn into cute girls as well.” Hermione’s words came out somewhat sarcastically but when she was met with silence, she only groaned out loud and started mumbling gibberish between her teeth.

“Haha surprise?” I sheepishly scratched the back of my head at the chaos I had caused but not really feeling bad about it.

‘The only secret left remaining is my ability to travel to different worlds but I think I’ll hold off on that until they mature a bit more.’ Looking at Hermione especially who looked as if her whole life was a lie, I couldn’t help but think that was a wise decision.