Interlude 41: Kunou's Hogwarts Adventure, Part 4

Hermione Granger's POV

“There you guys are! I was looking everywhere for you!” Ron came stomping in, earning a loud shush from the librarian as he basically shouted without any consideration for everyone else.

At least he looked sheepish in embarrassment.

“Where else would we be, Ron? Our assignment is due tomorrow.” I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah, but we have all of tomorrow to finish it before class.”

“Not all of us like to wait until the last minute.” 

“Come on, Harry, isn’t ‘Mione overreacting? We still have plenty of time.” Ron turned to Harry, whom I had to practically drag here.

“Sorry, Ron, I have Quidditch practice tomorrow; I need to get this done now.” Harry smiled awkwardly.

“I guess that makes sense; Quidditch is way more important.” Ron nodded as if understanding, missing the point entirely.

I sighed, rubbing my eyes, but at least he was getting his stuff out to start working with us.

“Hey, did you guys hear about the first years? They’re saying that one of the first years—the girl with the tails—had a broom that was faster than anything on the market right now!” Ron’s attention span showed how remarkably finicky it is.

“Wait, really?” Harry got distracted too.

“Yeah, they said that it went so fast that she went past Hogwarts grounds before any of them could even blink!”

“Ron, don’t be ridiculous.” I shook my head. “If a broom were that good, wouldn’t it be everywhere by now? I read that broom designers take years to even get a small upgrade to their brooms before they release them to the public.” 

I didn’t care much for flying myself, but the study of it was fascinating.

“But what if it’s some super secret broom that doesn’t exist yet!? Maybe she brought it from whatever country she’s from.” Ron argued.

“Japan.” I iterated. “She’s from Japan, Ron. And Japan has its own professional Quidditch teams.”

“Oh right, the Kyoto Dragons.” Ron perked up, remembering that singular fact among everything.

“They are first years, Ron.” Harry pointed out. “Maybe they’re exaggerating. You know how we were last year.”

“Ginny was there though! She told me herself that it was true.” Ron replied. “She also said the Muggle professor ran up the side of the castle to catch one of the first years that fell off their broom.”

“.....Ron.” I sighed again. “That’s utterly ridiculous.”

“All the first years are saying it!”

“Ron, if he’s a Muggle, he can’t just run up the side of the castle. He’s a muggle.” This whole conversation was exasperating.

“Maybe the …. “ Ron leaned in. “Dark Witch did something to him.”

“Do you really think they’d hire a Dark Witch to teach one of their classes, Ron?” 

I didn’t need to say it; even Harry was having trouble believing Ron this time. “And Professor Medea has had nothing but stunning reviews from everyone who has taken her class.”

I admit I was excited for it too; each year gets one day a week since it’s an elective.

“I heard that everyone’s too scared to ask her any questions.” Harry whispered. 

“I heard that she’s teaching dark magic to anyone who asks.” Ron added.

“Ugh, stop with those ridiculous rumors! Dumbledore personally hired her; if you can’t trust her, at least trust Dumbledore.” This wasn’t like last year, where it was hidden! He supposedly directly interviewed her personally!

“I’m just saying it’s weird! Dumbledore hired a famous Dark Witch, and she’s married to a muggle!? Isn’t that weird?” Ron threw out the wild accusation.

“They’re engaged, not married.” I scoffed. “And what’s wrong with Muggles, Ron?”

“Nothing’s wrong with them; it’s just weird.” Ron defended without giving any actual explanation. “This year has been barmy so far. We got a famous Dark Witch, a Muggle teacher, and even a girl with a bunch of tails and ears.”

“At least Malfoy and his goons haven’t been causing any problems.” Harry pointed out.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Ron perked up. “The weasel is probably too busy sucking up to the Dark Witch and bullying the tail girl, though. Slimy snakes are the worst.”

“Isn’t Kunou also a Slytherin?” I pointed out the hypocrisy.

“Yeah, but she’s Ginny’s friend, so she’s probably not bad like the rest of them.”

“You’re just saying that because she gave you a sweet roll.”

Ron blushed a little. “It was good. And no other slimy snake would do that, so she must be good.” He puffed up proudly with that Herculean bout of logic. “Besides, she has the super broom, so she can’t be bad.”

I shook my head again; there was no arguing with Ron; it was like arguing against a wall.

“Do you think she’ll let me ride her broom? Or better yet, tell me where she got it from.” Ron continued in excitement; the only thing that caught his attention was either Quidditch—and things Quidditch related—or chess, surprisingly enough.

“Wouldn’t it have come from her parents?” Harry pointed out. “If she has the broom like you said, she had to have gotten it from them.”

“You’re right! Maybe I should call her parents? Ask them if they had any more to give me. It would be wicked to fly around on a broom that’s so fast! What was her last name again, Schin Schween something…?”

“Schweinorg, Ron.” I corrected him absentmindedly, but it made me pause my writing.

“Something's wrong, ‘Mione, you looked like you left the stove on; my mom has that same look sometimes.” Ron looked at me.

“No, it’s just…. I could have sworn I heard that name before, and it’s been bugging me ever since I heard it again.” I shook my head.

“What, like she’s from a famous family or something?” Ron asked. “Didn’t Ginny say she’s like a princess or something?”

“Maybe that’s it…but her last name isn’t Japanese; that sounds German if anything.”

“Why don’t you just look it up?” Harry offered before getting up and walking to the front of the library. He disappeared for a few minutes before coming back with a book in his hand. “Madam Pince found this for me when I asked her.” He set the book down in front of me.

‘Notable Wizarding Families from around the World’

I scoffed, partly because I was so oblivious to the obvious about just looking it up myself and partly because it only says ‘Wizard’ and doesn’t include ‘Witches.’.

How backwards.

I still opened it up and flipped through the pages until I found what I needed. I don’t know if I was surprised or not to see the name Schweinorg listed.

“...Merlin.” I whispered.

“What, did you find it?” Ron perked up.

“It says here that a man known as Kiscur Zelretch Schweinorg defeated Grindelwald during the Second World War, which inevitably led to his downfall at the hands of Dumbledore!”

I barely even touched the magical side of the Second World War; there’s so much I was missing still!

“But I thought only Dumbledore beat Grindelwald; it’s why he’s so famous, right? That and, well, You-Know-Who.”” Ron scrunched his nose.

“Who’s Grindelwald?” Harry asked.

“He’s…a Dark Lord that came to power during the Second World War. He allied with the Axis powers—Hitler and them.” I explained briefly. “He’s responsible for a lot of the Pureblood rhetoric that you hear nowadays. He wanted to enslave all the muggles.”

“So she comes from a good family?” Harry tilted his head.

“.....it says here that the one named ‘Zelretch,’ and he was called, was a Dark Wizard.” I read over the passages and couldn't help having my eyes widen. “Grindelwald took his most trusted and personally trained soldiers and disciples and attacked Zelretch at his home in Germany. It says that Grindelwald wanted to recruit Zelretch into his army, but he refused. It concluded with Grindelwald running away—suffering serious injuries, and nearly all of the people he brought dying at Zelretch’s hands.”

“Why does that make him a Dark Wizard? I mean, it was a war, right? It’s not like we beat the Nazis by talking to them nicely.” Harry questioned.

“Because after what happened, the Allies’—our’  side—began to look into him because he was unknown at the time. From what the book says, they were able to dig up some information on him, and his existence dates back over a thousand years. It says here that rumors from the Ministry are hiding some of it and that he was even around during the time of Merlin himself. They claim he performed very dark magic and gained some type of immortality or that he’s a dark creature with a long lifespan.”

“Wait, just because he’s old, they’re saying he’s dark?” Harry furrowed his brow. “Isn’t Nicholas Flammel like 500 years old? He isn’t considered a Dark Wizard either, and he has the Philosopher's Stone.”

I shook my head. “It’s what the book says, Harry. They say only the darkest of magics can let someone live that long, and there’s no other explanation.”

“So Ginny is friends with a Dark Witch!?” Ron blurted out,. “I have to go tell her!” 

“Ron, stop making assumptions!” I hissed under my breath as he was starting to make a scene. “It’s still the same person as she was five minutes ago. Maybe we should just look into this more.”

Without another word, Ron turned around and started shouting his sister’s name as he ran out of the library.

I looked at Harry, who looked back at me. 

“Do you need help with the homework?”

“Could you check it after I’m done? Professor McGonagall takes off for spelling mistakes.”

“Sure, Harry.” I smiled.

@***@

Ginny Weasley POV

“Hey Luna, hey Kunou.” 

“Ginny!” Luna smiled brightly. “Kunou and I were just talking about trolls. Did you know that they had a troll sneak into the castle last year?”

“Yeah… Ron said he fought it or something.” He made up a lot of stories.

“Oh, that’s true.” Kunou stated. “They said that Ron, Harry, and Hermione teamed up and beat it.”

I find that hard to believe. “ Ron also said that Harry fought and killed the Defense Professor last year.”

“Now that’s just silly.” Luna shook her head. 

“Yeah, if he could beat your defense teacher, then wouldn’t he be the defense teacher this year?” Kunou replied.

“What?”

“That makes sense.” Luna seemed to agree.

“The stronger one should teach.” Kunou nodded.

That…kinda makes sense? But he’s Harry Potter! It doesn’t count; he’s the exception. 

I ignored it for now. “Did you two do your Charm homework yet?

“Yeah, look!” Kunou took out her wand and started waving it around as sparkles followed in a trail. 

“Oooh, pretty!” Luna clapped. “I can’t make mine change colors.”

“How did you get it to sparkle?” I looked at her in surprise.

“I can show you; it’s easy!” Kunou smiled brightly.

I was worried at first, but she’s actually really nice and…normal. Besides the weirdness from when we first met…and other things, I’m glad we’re friends.

“Look, the youngest of the poor Weasleys is hanging around animals.” A group of girls walked by, wearing Slytherin clothes; they giggled to themselves.

I frowned but noticed something out of the corner of my eye as Kunou said something under her breath and jerked her wand.

Suddenly, the small group of girls yelped and slipped altogether, as if the floor were ice.

Did she cast the slipping Jinx?

I looked back at Kunou about to say something, but then I saw Luna also say something with a movement of her wand. And as the girls tried to get back up and move, their laces were tied together, and they fell over again.

It became something of a spectacle that drew a crowd, laughing at them.

All three of us looked around and started laughing along with everyone else.

The girls quickly got up and ran away in embarrassment.

“I think I need to talk to them later.” Kunou hummed, and I didn’t know what she meant by that.

“Oooh, little icky first years, I saw what you did~” A haunting voice popped up above her. A ghost flew over, and Ron told me about it, Peeves, the Poltergeist. He was the only ghost in the castle that could physically interact with anything. “Naughty Naughty, I’m going to tell~” He held his hands out, and something that looked like balloons appeared, and he started throwing them at people.

They splattered, and…was that paint?

Were those water balloons filled with paint?

He hit a bunch of others with them, and they were covered in all sorts of colors. Then he turned to us with a big grin.

“Don’t.” Kunou narrowed her eyes.

His smile only grew wider.

“Ginny!” Ron’s distinct, shrill voice echoed down the hallway. “She’s an evil witch; stay away—

Ron got hit right in the face by one of the balloons; he let out a cry of confusion, blinded by red paint, and he stepped right where Kunou cast the slippery jinx from earlier onto the ground and went sliding across the ground with another cry, tumbling down the stairs.

Even Peeves went silent as it happened.

Ron was whimpering, so he was alright.

I heard that they actually enchanted the staircases so even if you fall all the way down them, you don’t get overly hurt. 

Though my shock was broken when the aftermath of something wet splashed across my face. Only a few drops of it, as the majority of it hit Kunou, who was now partially green.

“Oh dear.” Luna whispered.

And then I noticed Kunou’s expression.

@***@

Dumbledore's POV

“Here she is, Dumbledore.” McGonagall sat our newest student right down in front of my desk with a stern expression before walking out.

“Aunty Medea!” Kunou smiled, waving at Medea, who was standing at the side.

“Oh no, you’re not using your cuteness on me to get out of trouble.” The woman crossed her arms.

Kunou clicked her tongue with a huff.

“Ahem.” I cleared my throat. “Do you know why you’re here, Miss Kunou?”

“No.” 

“Come now, there’s no need for a lie.” I looked at her a bit more sternly.

“I didn’t do anything.” She huffed, crossing her arms.

“So you didn’t, and I quote from Minerva—‘Beat Peeves until he started crying for mercy’?”

“He deserved it.” She crossed her arms with another huff. 

“You can’t just go around beating up people.” I approached it in a more grandfatherly tone. The green paint on her…well, it painted a rather obvious tale of what occurred even without the report I received.

“Ghosts aren’t people.” Kunou countered,.

I opened my mouth to respond, but I found myself not knowing what to say.

“Technically, she’s right.” Medea spoke up.

I shook my head because technically, she was right by definition. “Peeves has thoughts and feelings.”

“That’s why I beat him up.” Kunou said as if it were obvious,.

“......” Once more, I found myself speechless. How can she say something so aggressive yet with such innocence? “How…exactly did you hurt him?” I recall seeing her mother grab him as well…

“I used Touki.”

“Brat.” Medea quickly interjected. “You remember what your mom told you.”

“She told me not to use it, my classmates! And only on humans that are trying to hurt me!” Kunou quickly defended.

“Well, I suppose that’s fine then.”

“I’m lost, but that doesn’t sound good.” I voiced my concerns. “What is…Touki?” I think I pronounced it right.

“Touki is Touki?” Kunou replied as if confused.

Medea let out a sigh. “It’s…you can consider it something like Qi or Chi, or fighting spirit if you want to be blasé about it.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t follow.” Is this the first time I’ve ever heard about this?

“Have you ever heard a story of a person accomplishing an impossible physical feat? And I’m not talking about an athlete or something like that. Say, a child lifting a car to save their parent.”

“I may have heard some vague situations like that.”

“They most likely tapped into their Touki. It’s an innate energy that every living person has. Youkai are predisposed to it, and she isn’t an exception. But it takes a lot of time and energy to master. It’s not magic; it’s more a…physical exertion of will. It would take me hours to go into it further, and I’m not an expert.”

“Fascinating.” I ran a hand through my beard. “Based on what you said, it makes you physically stronger, yes?”

“Stronger, faster, more durable. It can contend with Magic if utilized correctly. If you coat yourself in Touki, you may as well have a metaphysical shield of willpower surrounding you.”

Why have I never heard about this until now?

But that was something to ponder later. “I can understand your trepidation. I would also like to reiterate that you not use that on your fellow students, Kunou.”

“I wasn’t going to!” She pouted. “I only know how to use it a little bit anyways.”

“I believe you.” I smiled, seeing her innocent and good-natured reaction. Despite being…aggressive, I could tell she had a good heart and wasn’t the type to hurt people for no reason.

Before I could say something else, a burst of flames erupted in the middle of the room, and Fawkes reappeared from his annual jaunt, flying around to wherever he likes to go.

He looked around excitedly at our guests; first, his eyes landed on Medea.

“Marvelous.” She breathed out. “You would make the most marvelous research materials.”

Fawkes’s wings flapped out, and he squawked in disbelief at her brazenness.

“It was a joke…mostly.” She whispered the last part. 

I’m fairly sure Fawkes moved his wing in a gesture that was considered rude in his own language.

He ignored Medea and instead hopped over to Kunou and pushed his head into her chest.

“You’re so pretty!” Kunou cooed as Fawkes let her pet him. And I just noticed that a certain feathered bracelet on her wrist began to let out a soft cry, the exact same phoenix cry as Fawkes.

“I wasn’t aware that Fawkes gave out one of his feathers. What a marvelous magical item that was made!” I glanced at Medea. “Your work, I’m assuming?” Because I could now tell it had an enchantment that rejected notice that was exceedingly powerful. If not for Fawkes drawing attention to it, I may have overlooked it myself.

“Her father also helped…a tiny bit; it was mostly me.” Medea smirked.

Just further proof that young Kunou here is a sweet young lady. The feather still had the touch of his magic and didn’t reject her.

After another few moments, Fawkes gently escaped her grasp and returned to his perch at the side of the room.

“Now.” I clapped my hands. “We’re going to need to talk about punishment. As this is the first time I’m having to punish someone for fighting a ghost, I find myself unsure of what to do.”

“Punish?” Kunou’s eyes widened.

“Mmm, detention probably.” I stroked my beard. “Perhaps with Professor Snape cleaning cauldrons.” I looked at her as she fidgeted in place. “Or maybe helping clean up the bathrooms.” And she squirmed even more.

“Why not both?” Medea offered.

“Ohoh, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea.” I grinned mischievously as Kunou paled.

“No!” Kunou shot to her feet and suddenly a puff of smoke filled the room and in her place, was a small fox with Nine Identical tails, it started yipping before jumping down and running away.

“....Miss Medea.”

“Yes, Headmaster?’

“Did Kunou just turn into a fox and run out of my office?”

“She did.” Medea answered.

“This is a first.” I leaned back in my chair.

“Having one of your students turn into a fox? It’s an ability that all Kitsune have.”

“No, well, yes.” I corrected it. “That is a first. But I was talking about having a student believe they could…run away from me.”

Medea let out a sigh. “It’s partially the fault of her parents. Calling her a princess isn’t wrong. She’s willful and mischievous, and she’s never really suffered consequences that didn’t come from her parents. She’s not used to other people having proper authority over her.”

“Ah, I believe I understand. She must have been quite startled by talks of punishments then.” Yes, her behavior makes a lot more sense now. A different flavor of entitlement compared to the likes of, say, Young Malfoy. She’s simply not used to having consequences even if she doesn’t particularly do anything…bad by certain standards.

“Are you not going to stop her?”

“Oh, I wanted her to get her hopes up a bit more before I dashed them completely.” I smiled, running a hand through my beard.

Medea, of course, just cackled.

“And I wanted to ask why Mr. Weasley was running through the halls shouting that she was an ‘Evil Witch’ as well.” I let out a small sigh.

“Who knows, children can be strange and silly sometimes.”

“I suppose it doesn’t.” She managed to get rather far before she slowed down and turned back to normal, but I could see her from where I was in my office. “Regardless, I apologize for interrupting you. You had come to my office because you wanted to talk about your classes?”

“Yes, after having my first couple classes, I realized that it was…inefficient, and I wanted to propose a change.”

“Oh? Do tell.” 

“Since Magical Theory isn’t part of your O.W.L. or N.E.W.T. curriculum, I wanted to shift around how classes work. I wanted to separate it into three tiers instead of each year having its own ‘materials.’”

“Three tiers rather than individual years associated with each class? Tell me in detail.” I believe I understand what she was trying to say.

“Simply, instead of it being based on individual years, simply set it so it’s separated into three tiers with escalating difficulty. Tier One is the introductory material, Tier Two is the intermediate material, and of course, Tier Three is the expert material. One must complete and pass the previous tier to move on to the next. It gives the students ease of access to the class to fit their own schedules.”

“You would be fine with having classes with mixes of different ages?” I could understand what she was asking rather easily.

“It wouldn’t be hard. And you did say you were opening my lessons up to first and second years rather than just extracurriculars for third years. The second-year class was tomorrow. It’s still early enough to shift things around without causing any confusion. For this year, I’ll tweak things appropriately, but I want to set this going forward.”

“I see no problems with what you’re suggesting. Run your plans along with Minerva, but I’m sure she’ll agree.”

“Then I’ll go find her right away!” She said happily, wasting no time leaving the room.

I leaned back in my chair again. “This is certainly going to be an interesting year, isn’t it, Fawkes?”

My old friend looked at me and let out a happy squawk as if to agree.

“Well, would you mind going to fetch Miss Kunou?”

My faithful companion flashed away in a burst of fire, only to reappear moments later with Miss Kunou back into her chair.

“Welcome back, Miss Kunou.”

“Meep.”

“Indeed.” I smiled good-naturedly. “Now, let’s talk about your punishment.”

@***@

A/N

My brain has just been fried the past couple of days, so I wanted to do something easy. So, Kunou chapter it is. Not every Kunou chapter will be some big absurd thing; that would get stale quickly. Just some things here or there with Kunou living her school life as well. But it’s still early in the year, so things have time to escalate.