When Lycoris had exited class, she hadn’t expected to watch Fou drag Merlin across the stone floor of the castle. Nor did she expect Fou to pause and turn to her, motion her over, and after leaning down to better hear him, he didn’t even whisper.

“Blades are for skating, ya dingus.” Before promptly conjuring a pair of custom sized in-line skates on his paws and blasting off down the hall, dragging Merlin further along as his tears soaked the floor.

She looked at Draco, then Blaise and then Pansy before looking back down the hall, shrugging and walking down said hallway. Blaise and Pansy watched her leave down the hallway as the rest of the class stood stunned. Draco was just looking back and forth down the hallway and tracing the lines of water with his hand as he repeatedly tried to come up with something, anything really, to say.

Lycoris doubled back and grabbed Draco by the wrist and continued to power walk as she dragged him down the hall, the water slowly fading away as if it was a mirage, Blaise and Pansy looked at the floating pink flowers before chasing after Lycoris and Draco.

Leaving behind pink flowers to float out a nearby window, everyone seemingly ignoring the event besides the 4 Slytherin Students.

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“And just where do you think you two are off to?” Pansy yelled, running after the duo and quickly catching up, flanking their right as Blaise took a left.

“I do believe that you, Lycoris, owe us an explanation on what’ever the fuck just happened back there?” Blaise said with a raised brow, only to be punched by Draco who was still out of it, Blaise rubbed his shoulder and muttered something about reflexes as Lycoris gave a small giggle and slowed down.

“It's a simple spell really, but quite unbreakable.” She said, Blaise rolled his eyes and whacked Draco on the back of his head.

“Ow! Blaise, you bastard, what was that for?” Draco said, quickly picking up pace to a jog and catching up to the rest as they leave the central hall into a small courtyard before entering the Astronomy Wing.

“I still don’t understand where we’re going Lycoris, care to explain what went on?” Pansy asked as she stepped in front of the girl, causing her to stop moving forward and everyone to stop at the bottom of the first set of stairs.

“It’s quite simple really, Fou needs to talk with us, assuming you saw him on the roller skates, my uncle Merlin is quite the flower magus.” She said, her classical monotone have a hint of joy to it.

“Ah, that explains the flowers.” Blaise said, slamming a fist to his palm, Draco’s head whipped to him. “What flowers?” He quickly said, clearly flustered about missing them.

“Don’t worry about it,” Pansy turned to him before promptly moving and pushing Lycoris forward. “Now show us the way forward.”

Lycoris giggled, taking her hand and rushing forward, leaving Blaise to roll his eyes as Draco quickly took off after them.

“Bloody whipped he is!” he practically yelled before taking off after them.

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Did you know?

I always have music going on when I write, and it sometimes influences what's going on in the story.

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“So we have, about, 5–10 minutes before they catch up. Think that's enough time to summarize what happened in that meeting between you and Dumbledore?” Fou said as he rested on a cushion in the Room of Requirement, sipping a nice hot tea he made.

“Oh, well it was quite simple you see, we walked in and immediately started to strip-” Merlin said as he pranched around the room, *SLAP* only to be wacked on the back of his head and sent to the floor by Artoria.

“Artoria?” Fou asked with a raised brow as she took a seat down on the tatami mat that made up the floor currently.

“We had a pleasant chat,” Artoria said, however her twitching brow gave away that she didn’t particularly like it.

*Flashback Sequence*

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Numerous paints were hung around the walls of the office near its entrance, yet to the sides of Dumbledore who had taken a seat at his desk were a bunch of bookshelves, numerous books old and newer lined them from wall to wall.

“Now, before we proceed, I’m afraid I do have to ask if you’re aware of the Hogwarts ‘Bill of Orphans’ from 1902?” Dumbledore asked them as he leaned back into this chair, picking a lemon drop for himself and popping it into his mouth.

“Yes, we’re quite aware, Merlin stop that, or I’ll have Shirou remove you from the meeting myself.” Artoria said, eyes roaming the office with a critical look, taking in the space required to fight and escape from there if needed. Merlin had ignored everything in favour of interacting with the baby chick that was Fawkes the phoenix, yet was forced to stop cooing at the bird.

“We adopted Lycoris about a month or a little bit more ago, the paperwork took a bit to be finalized, but after what happened to her relatives we felt it best to take her in.” Dumbledore nodded and held the bowl of drops up, she swiftly turned it away with a head shake no and hand pushing it lightly back to him.

Shirou picked a book up from one of the shelves before leaning onto the pillar to the left of Dumbledore, he flipped it open and started reading with a disinterested hum.

“I heard about it a little more than a week after the incident, I’ll admit, you sent us all into a tiffy trying to find where she went after disappearing; I had been beginning to think that Tom's forces had gotten to her.” Dumbledore said solemnly, remembering the tragedy of the Dursley family murder; A twinkle in his eye as he took note of how none of the other adults in the room show a reaction to his words.

“And who is this ‘Tom’?” Artoria asked with a raised brow, Merlin appearing to have brought a chair out from nowhere for her to sit on. Shirou seemed to also raise a brow and look away from the book, while Merlin went back to cooing of the bird.

“Ah, please forgive me, nothing but an old man’s ramblings.” Dumbledore said, a smile plastered on his that didn’t reach his eyes, yet no one made a comment on his past mistakes.

*Ah, so the back dated paper work worked?* Fou interrupted Artoria’s play by play.

*Yes,* Artoria nodded to the small creature, *paying the goblins in that much silver to be used for their needs was a brilliant bribe.*  She said with a small hint of praise.

*Of course, the ministry is incompetent enough that the goblins can sneak in the back dated documents with a couple spies* Fou said after taking another sip of his tea, he watched Artoria’s cow-lick waver in the air.

*Are you going to let me continue?* She asked with a suspicious smile on her face.

*Ah yes, go ahead* Fou conceded this battle, for if he didn’t hear it now he didn’t know when he would next.

“I have the paperwork finalizing the adoption process here.” Artoria said, reaching to Merlin who pulled a manila folder out from nowhere, like he did the chair. “We did not do a blood adoption ritual, yet when she turns 12 she may ask for such a thing.” She turned back towards Dumbledore after flipping through and skimming the pages, archer having gone back to his was quick to snort at something drawing attention to himself.

“Ah, very well, may I have the papers and a moment to go over them?” Dumbledore asked, already opening the folder.

“Certainly, I also assume you’ll want to call the ministry and check with some others, right?” She asked, getting an affirmative nod from the old man, she turned back to watch Fawkes play in his own ashes. “Take all the time you need.” 

*And how long did you need to wait?* Fou interrupted again, wanting to skip the unnecessary description of Dumbledore flipping through a folder and making some Floo calls.

*About 20–30 minutes, afterwards, he seemed very defeated.* Artoria said with a small hint of pleasure.

“Well.” Dumbledore started, “Everything seems in order, thank you for coming today to sort this issue out before anything could escalate further.” he gave each a firm nod, “I also noticed that she’s had her name changed legally, from Harriet Lilian Potter to Lycoris Amaryllis Radiata. May I inquire as to why?” Dumbledore seemed to inquire, each of the servants froze for a second, Artoria stared at Dumbledore picking her words carefully, her hands already clasped in her lap became tighter and the sound of the gloves being stretched was heard.

“She wants to put that part of her life behind her, for her… it was a dark and traumatic time and not my place to say any more.” Artoria spoke solemnly, Archer having closed the book with a crisp *BANG*gained a long stare as he looked at the other pillar.

“But that's beside the point, as her guardians we feel we have a couple questions for you.” Artoria said, even Merlin had stopped doing what he was doing to create and smell a couple flowers through illusions.

“And these questions are?” Dumbledore asked as he popped another lemon drop like it was a medication he took regularly.

*BAM*

Artoria was now standing, her fist smoking and wood splattered over the Area, Dumbledore had stood up just barely missing having his legs peppered by the wood.

“What in the bloody hell did you think you were doing, giving her to her aunts.” Artoria asked, her voice deep and gravely for a woman, yet the oppressive atmosphere from her companions looking at him from the corner of their eyes didn’t help the situation as the woman’s hair covered her eye that were no doubt staring at him in hatred.

She held a deadly smile on her face, on that promised pain, while archer had his head upturned as if he was inspecting the roof, Merlin had taken to crouching down on the floor to pick up a fallen book, yet his eyes were also trained on him.

“Because.” Dumbledore started slowly. “The very nature of the protection her birth mother gave her, a blood relative who is willing to let her live in their home, would keep her safe from the machinations of the last dark lord.” He explained, hands raised in surrender, as if to calm the hostile party down before they could make more of a mess of his office. “As long as she had a place she called home, where the blood of her mother dwelled, she would be protected.” Dumbledore almost pleaded to them to see his side of things with his words, yet they didn’t listen.

“We’re quite aware that the dark twat is not dead,” Artoria spoke, her regal voice may have been deep and gravely, but it was still contained with the regal aura and tone of a King. 

“But you should know, she has never once called that place her home, it was noting more than the place where Harriet Potter was dropped off and died in the cupboard under the stairs.” Archer spoke up, gaining the headmasters' attention, with a hand pointing at him.

“And we are quite unhappy with what happened to our little flower, we consider her just as much of a blood relative as an actual blood relative; No matter what happens.” Merlin spoke up, rising to his full 5’ 8” frame, he seemed to not even look at him yet exerted a magical pressure from his very body with more power than even Dumbledore had.

“We’ve grown to love and care for the girl, and both me and my compatriots hold major significance in our respective magical circles.” Archer spoke up again, continuing Merlin’s point, he moved to stand to the right of Artoria.

“One of us, from the house of the magic killer Kiritsugu Emiya; One of us, from the house of Pendragon; One of us, from the house of Merlin.” Merlin continued, moving to Artoria’s left flank.

“In short, you do not want to get on our bad side, let alone the political weight we carry.” Artoria said, adjusting her glove as Dumbledore waved his wand repairing his desk but stayed standing, he started to go pale from their words as the political weight they had in England and out of it would be enough to remove him from every position he had.

The Emiya family had become famous for their ways of catching up with the technologically advanced Muggles, and it was because of that they became the premiere hit-wizard family.

Until one day they retreated from the public’s eye.

“I have no intentions of making anything hard on your daughter, if anything, I just want her to grow up a normal girl and enjoy her youth and innocence.” Dumbledore tried to appeal to their humanity, yet they had none.

One was a sword, meant to protect & save others from the horrors they faced in their lives.

One held the heart of a Dragon, they protected anything that was theirs with the jealousy of a Red Dragon.

One was fundamentally In-human, a wise man indeed yet one that yearned to learn how humanity functioned.

*BANG* *SHLING* *WOOSH*

The desk was reduced to nothing but splinters, swords sticking out of the floor, Archer's hand held out and pointed to the desk. A sword was levelled at his throat from Artoria, the wind blazing around the blade, trying to keep it invisible from all. And numerous flowers floated in the air as a staff was held pointed at him, with magic gathered at the tip ready to burst.

“Congratulations, you’ve had that chance taken away from her, by leaving her with ‘THEM’.” Artoria spoke, her voice a dead calm, the blade mere millimeters from taking his head.

“Please, calm down” Dumbledore urged them, their eyes shadowed in rage as veins pulsed on Archer neck, Artoria’s hand trembled with rage and merlin had a vicious smile plastered across it.

Yet he held no fear looking at them, his hand palming the Elder wand, ready to defend himself. The arrogance of thinking that tiny stick of wood was not lost on the three as they all took a breath.

“Our apologies, we let our emotions get the better of us again.” Artoria said with a bow, the swords fading into blue motes, the blade Artoria held having gone missing, and the flowers faded similar to the swords. “I believe that's all we have to say today, good day to you, Dumbledore.” Artoria said, turning around and walking to the door before pausing, the door half open, she turned her head to the man. “Do not, make an enemy out of us.” Artoria said before promptly walking out.

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“I see.” Fou said, nodding at the explanation before sneaking a look at the nearby clock. “Well, they’ll be here any second now, I should start to set up my presentation.” He said, standing up and moving away to set up his pitch to Lycoris.

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Authors Note / Did you know?

I write in Source Sans Pro with a 13.5 text size in google docs.

I stopped posting this on Webnovel because I hate that place at this point. A lot of people were asking me to pair Fou and Harriet together, which, counterpoint, THAT'S B*STI*L!TY AND P**D*PH!L!A! And I’m not fuelling that cesspit option.

So I’m just going to come out and say it, FOU IS ASEXUAL, HE WILL NOT HAVE A ROMANTIC PARTNER!

Just wanted to leave y’all with this last bit of info.

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