A Chain of Debt (A Matou Shinji AU Quest)

[Daiki]

[x] Keep working on cooking.

[Dracueri]

[x]Talk with Draco

[Malorius]

[x] Keep working on cooking

Its not antisocial behavior if you intend to just avoid these annoying meatbags for a little bit.

[skulkidcachi90]

[ ] Keep working on cooking

[shanagan]

[X] Keep working on cooking

[alfheimwanderer]

[X] Keep working on cooking

---

From a completely rational standpoint, there was no need for Shinji to visit the infirmary - he wasn't a healer of any sort, and it wasn't as if visiting would help Zabini wake up any sooner. That aside, the prospect of potentially running into an irate farmgirl was not exactly a welcome one, especially when she would just end up giving him a headache with her lack of sense.

...for that matter, there wasn't much of a point in talking to Malfoy either, since he was just the farmgirl's lover, and presumably still sore about the minor detail of losing 450 galleons in the course of a card game. It wasn't as if he'd forced the other boy to wager it all - the other boy had chosen to do so, and well, actions had consequences.

Still, with Zabini and Weasley away and Malfoy presumably checking on the farmgirl, it meant that his room was quiet for once, meaning he could practice his brewing cooking in comfort. That was, if Zabini's contact had...

'Aha...'

It was always nice to know competent people, the boy noted, as he popped open the top of a small box he was carrying to find several quickly defrosting chicken legs.

'Excellent. Zabini's contact came through again,' he observed. These legs were quite plump, after all, just as was useful for soup, though they were a bit...bloody, actually, which made him wonder just how fresh the chicken leg was. Had the contact obtained this just after a chicken was butchered?

So he wondered, just as Draco walked in, the blond's eyes opening as he found Shinji's hands covered in blood.

"...that's..." the blond paused, steeling himself. "I say, are you working on some kind of blood ritual?" he asked.

How does Shinji deal with this?

[ ] Run with the misunderstading
[ ] Be secretive, denying everything
[ ] Clarify that he's simply cooking

[Skull Leader]

[X] Be secretive, denying everything

No one would admit in public of doing Dark Magic, so deny deny deny. "I am....brewing." What is a bold face lie...that is the truth. Exactly the kind of stuff I think we want from this Shinji. Lies that are true. Truth that is lies. Deception at its finest. Let Draco think he knows what is going on after Shinji denys this.

[Daiki]

[x] Be secretive, denying everything.

[alfheimwanderer]

[X] Be secretive, denying everything

---

"Of course not," the boy drawled, as if Draco's assertion was entirely off the mark. Which it was, of course, since he was...brewing, but he didn't see the need to just tell Malfoy everything.

"...then what are you up to?" the blond asked suspiciously, now sure that Matou Shinji was up to no good.

"It's really none of your business, now is it?" the Japanese boy inquired, smiling ever so slightly. "I'm not hurting anyone, am I? So what's a little blood between...roommates?"

"You...ah, you won't mind if I just ah, sit and read a bit while you...do whatever you're doing?" Draco replied, alarm bells going off in his head as Shinji glanced about the room. The blood of a beast recently slain, after all, was a necessary component for many rituals with effects more...subtle than those achieved through the use of a wand, as magic clung to blood far better than many other things.

"Do as you will," Matou Shinji intoned, the smirk in his voice sending a shiver up Draco's spine as the blond silently drew his wand just in case he needed it.

He looked on as Matou took a hunk of bloody meat and dropped it...

'...a cauldron? Is this some kind of potion?'

Perhaps - or perhaps Matou simply needed a vessel which could contain the ingredients of the ritual, for even now, the Asian boy was muttering strange sounding words while blood dripped off his fingers. No, not just dripped - the boy was dipping his hands into the liquid of the cauldron, turning it red.

Matou's actions were slow, methodical, deliberate - just like every ritualist Draco had ever known.

"Um..." the blond spoke up, almost flinching as Matou's terrible grey gaze turned to him. "Where'd you get the meat?"

"...I have my sources," the Oriental boy said cryptically, a lazy smile touching the corner of his mouth. "Why? What's it to you?"

"Oh, haha, ah, nothing," Draco stated, a bit of nervous laughter issuing from his lips. "I, uh...I just thought that maybe you knew who someone who knew..." he licked his lips nervously as he looked around, trying to make sure no one else was around.

"Who knew...?"

"The Vittle Broker," the blond whispered, almost as if afraid of being overheard.

"The Vi--" Shinji began, only to fall silent as Draco signaled for him to be quiet.

"Don't. Me saying it was bad enough - the...it has ears everywhere, they say."

"Really?" the Japanese boy questioned.

"I only know from the prefects, but they say that for as long as Hogwarts has been around, one has existed - maybe the same one, maybe just a line. I don't know, and no one's ever bothered looking too closely."

"This...individual," Shinji said, choosing to respect Draco's caution. "They supply...?"

"Victuals. Foodstuffs," Draco stated. "Almost any item one could want. Desserts. Special breads. Drinks of all sorts. Even...raw ingredients." He swallowed. "For a price."

"...and how does one contact...?"

"That's the thing. No one outside of Hufflepuff knows, and they're not sharing," the blond grumbled. "Not even all the Puffs, either. Just the prefects they say."

"Really?" Shinji asked. "I thought you didn't think Hufflepuffs were good for much."

"Oh, they aren't, but they know how to keep a secret," Draco admitted. "Did you know, in the entire history of Hogwarts, the Hufflepuff Common room is the only one that has never been seen by a member of another house?"

"...that I did not know," the Asian boy stated. "So whoever this is uses them as go-betweens?"

"After a fashion. The stories tell of secret exchanges. Pouches of coin left in out of the way places, and containers of...ingredients or food that appear in others, but only if the deposit is made."

"...come to think of it, a Hufflepuff prefect might have been involved," Shinji admitted reluctantly.

"You...you'd better be careful, Matou. Whatever you're doing, don't risk...well, don't bring...that being's wrath down on all of us."

"I won't," the Japanese boy reassured him. "I'm just...I know what I'm doing, and it won't cause trouble for anyone. Probably."

"...it's the probably that has me worried," Draco muttered, watching till the end as Shinji made something that looked suspiciously like chicken soup, though he imagined there was some nefarious charm worked into it, or... "Wait, what are you doing?" he asked, as he saw Shinji beginning to taste the potion, to devour the flesh and drink the fluid. 'No...could it be..some kind of method to increase his vitality by devouring the life force of another creature?'

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Shinji asked, innocuously enough that it sent a shiver down Draco's spine.

'Right. None of my business.'

---

So, the time has come to brew and present the Cure for Boils to Slughorn. How will Shinji play this?

[ ] With pomp, circumstance, theatricality
[ ] Quietly, trying to slip under the radar
[ ] (write-in)

[Skull Leader]

[X] With pomp, circumstance, theatricality

There can only be one answer when it comes to Slughorn class, go the distance and sell it with everything you got. Sometimes being a wizard is being an entertainer as well as knowledgable. Plus if people get distracted by your stage show, they will not see you palming them and taking their goods.

[shanagan]

[X] With pomp, circumstance, theatricality

[Daiki]

[x] With pomp, circumstance, theatricality.

I'll humor it this time because it's a coop work but please, keeps things in control.

[alfheimwanderer]

[x] With pomp, circumstance, theatricality.

---

In the Scottish play, Macbeth had once said that if something was to be done, then it should best be done quickly, yet to Matou Shinji, doing something quickly was not enough. No, one needed to act with style and panache, to not just let something be done, but to wow the crowd and stun them with his display of brilliance (or as per usual, baffle them with enough bullshit that they didn't think to question him). So, he said to Zabini, was how the group needed to present the chicken soup to Slughorn, with pomp and circumstance and...theatricality.

Anything less and people like the farmgirl would no doubt protest, claiming that what he was doing was cheating or wasn't allowed, when really, they were just sore sports who couldn't bear the thought of someone benefiting from something they hadn't thought of.

So as his fellow students set to work on their potions, carefully boiling and chopping their ingredients, concentrating on their cauldrons in an attempt to be sure they were following their recipes directly, or to catch the exact moment when the potion became viable, betraying their nervousness at their lack of skill, Shinji and his partner affected an air of confidence, chopping, slicing, and cooking in a way that showed off just how comfortable they were with their knives, with their ingredients, with their cauldrons, as if they'd made this thousands of times before, with Slughorn coming over as he noticed that their ingredients and technique seemed a bit...unusual compared to those of their peers.

"Boys."

"Professor," Shinji and Blaise chorused.

"I believe the assignment was to brew a Cure for Boils, yes?"

"That's right," Shinji replied glibly.

"Then why don't I see any of the ingredients your classmates are using?" the man asked, gently prodding them for an answer.

"That's because we found a different recipe," the boy from the east replied.

"An older recipe," Zabini chimed in.

"But one that was far more practical for wizards and witches in the days before Diagon Alley existed," Shinji summed up, taking an oversized spoon and catching a little of the broth - for broth it was - within it. "In the days where merely brewing was not enough. Care to taste our efforts?"

Slughorn raised an eyebrow at this, but took the spoon and gingerly tasted it, rolling the liquid about in his mouth to try and interpret the results as best he could.

"Needs salt," the man said blandly.

"Yes, well, that's added after one rubs some of the broth on the affected area, else it would inflame the boils."

"I assume you have something written up about the properties - and perhaps why we no longer use something like this today."

"Most certainly," Zabini replied with the utmost confidence - or appeared to, at least. "And if I may be so bold, Professor, you asked us to make a sample of a Cure for Boils, not any one particular Cure for Boils."

"I see," Slughorn noted. "It is true I said that. I suppose you are much like your bother, Mister Zabini, always seeking some way to turn an advantage to yourself."

"One tries."

"Though I wonder just much of this you were responsible for, and how much was due to the influence of our gambling friend," the heavyweight said jovially. "Do you care much for wagers, Mister Matou?"

"I can't say I don't, Professor," Shinji replied. "What did you have in mind?"

"Your grade on this assignment," the man stated. "If you are indeed a gambling man, perhaps you would be willing to try and convince the majority of your classmates that what you have done is not say...improper?"

"And if we chose not to try?" Zabini questioned, cautious as ever.

"Then with something like this, I suppose I could give you an E at most, since it is somewhat simpler than your classmates' potions, now isn't it?"

"And what would we get if we try and succeed?" Shinji asked, eyes narrowing.

"An automatic O, and oh, say, an invitation to the Slug Club," the man stated. "Try and fail, however, and the most I will give you is an A."

"...I'll take that bet," Shinji stated with a fierce grin. "Just be ready to honor your word, sir."

"Matou, are you--"

"Confidence, Zabini. Confidence. We've got this. We were made for this," the boy reassured his companion.

"Right, but you're not giving me boils for you to cure."

Shinji sniffed.

"What kind of person do you think I am, Zabini? I only need one test subject - myself! After all, if I don't believe in myself, who else will?" He smiled. "To put it another way, if the king doesn't move, how can he expect mere peasants to follow?"

"...you're sure the rest of the class won't act against you out of spite?"

"Not if I tie their actions to their reputations and to their sacred honor," the boy stated.

"Very well then, Misters Matou and Zabini. I look forward to the show."

Said show, when the time came for it, involved getting in front of the entire class...and then purposefully dousing his arm in a misbrewed batch of the Cure for Boils, as bright red pustles erupted all over his skin, making him want to scream with pain - but instead the boy smiled.

"Some among you, I believe, doubt that what I have created is a Cure for Boils," the boy declared, showing off his reddened, boil-covered arm to the crowd. "But if I had not, would I go so far to prove myself?" he asked. He took a spoonful of soup from his own cauldron, slowly moving it to his arm so he did not spill a single drop. "Observe, if you will," he stated, as he let the liquid drip down over the arm, only nothing seemed to happen.

"You're a fraud, Matou!" the farmgirl spat. "Don't think you can trick us?"

"Trick?" the boy asked, smiling at her. "That's just it - there is no trick."

He poured another spoonful of the soup on the boils, but to the crowd, nothing seemed to happen.

"You se--"

"Quiet. Let the magic work," Shinji interrupted, pouring yet another spoonful of soup on the arm, and this time, after the third spoonful, there was a change, as the boils grew smaller, less red, less painful. "See?"

Another three spoonfuls and there was barely any sign of the boils left.

A last, and all had disappeared.

"Seven spoonfuls," the boy stated. "As directed in the days of old. Seven, out of an entire cauldron. And in the end, I still have a proper meal," Shinji stated, proceeding to sit down and taste a spponful himself, after wiping his arm dry. "Quite a bit better than the recipe of today, where all it is good for is curing boils - and really, when would one ever have enough boils to warrant an entire cauldron? Besides, even if you have an accident when brewing this, you won't give yourself any boils."

There were some thoughtful looks.

"Does anyone wish to claim that Mister Matou and his partner have not created a true Cure for Boils, after seeing this?" Slughorn asked, only for Miss Granger's hand to shoot up. "Oh?"

"I don't believe his claim," Hermione said.

"Oh?"

"He probably mixed in some of an actual cure for boils in there, but that's mostly just soup!" the girl protested.

"Then perhaps you'd like me to brew a new batch, one that everyone observes, while you give yourself boils for me to cure?" Shinji challenged. Sure, he'd used up his ingredients, but the girl would back down. He knew it. He knew she wouldn't be willing t--

"Fine." Huh? Wait, what did she say? "I'll prove you're a fraud! Right here, right now."

"Uh..."

That wasn't supposed to happen. Not when he was already out of ingredients, with the entire class looking on.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked, smelling weakness. "Are you admitting that you can't do it after all? That there was a trick you used? That you cheated?"

"I admit no such thing," Shinji growled, before turning to the Professor. "Could my partner leave class to acquire some...ingredients, quickly?" he questioned. "I fear I have run out."

"I'm afraid not, Mister Matou," the Potions Master said. "There is no time for that. Either brew something now, or concede."

"Uh..." What was he going to do? He...he...

"Oh, which ingredient did you need?" Zabini asked, blinking. "I think I picked up some extra, just in case. It should still be in my bag." Zabini made his way over to it and brought out a small wooden box. "Yes, just one left."

Shinji nearly sagged with relief, but managed to stay upright.

"Then let's brew!" he crowed in triumph. Over the next few moments, he explained exactly what he was doing, how the different components interacted with one another - and how one had to avoid using salt while one wanted to use it as a potion, as that would reverse the effects. After a while of chopping and stirring and watching the cauldron boil, he declared himself ready, daring his challenger to give herself boils with a flawed potion.

...to his surprise, the girl did, but not by splashing it on her skin, but by drinking it, only to stagger forward, her eyes widening with pain as she nearly collapsed.

'This girl is utterly insane.'

Quickly, the boy took a spoonful of the soup and tried to get Granger to swallow it, only she kept twisting, writhing, turning her face away, as one spoonful failed to even make it into her mouth, and then another, and the girl simply thrashed.

"Malfoy, I need your help," Shinji announced.

"Huh? Me?" Draco echoed, taken aback at this whole situation. "Why--"

"Get down here."

"O...kay," the blond said, uncertain about why Matou needed him at all. "Shouldn't we just get her to the Hospital Wing? She doesn't look so good right now, and if you can't make her drink your...cure..."

"Then things will be bad, yes," Shinji agreed, fighting the urge to just scream or to choke Granger to death for her actions here. Was she willing to die just to spite him and make him look bad?! "Which is why you're going to help me?"

"How?"

"You're going to feed it to her."

"But--"

"Mouth to mouth."

"...what."

"Don't give me that, you're lovers right?"

Draco blushed, going crimson down to the roots of his hair.

"W-w-what are you t-talking about? D-don't get the wrong idea, I-I just--"

"Do you want her to die or not?"

"I...no."

"Then take a mouthful, and feed it to her, mouth to mouth."

"How?"

"By kissing, how else?"

"T-then, why don't you do it?"

"Hey, she's your lover, not mine."

"She's not m--fine, I'll do it."

And so the boy did, taking a mouthful of the soup and then, in front of the entire class, kissing Granger as Shinji held her still. At the shock of Draco's lips on hers, Hermione's mouth opened, with the life-giving fluid trickling down her throat. Once-twice-thrice, it was done. Four times. A fifth. A sixth. And then a seventh, with Granger trembling now for an entire other reason as her entire body went red from embarrassment that everyone had...that everyone had...

Draco barely caught the girl as she passed out, though this time, she seemed to be breathing easy, her pain gone.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the class," Shinji declared. "I rest my case."

Unsurprisingly, the class voted unanimously that his cure definitely counted. He - and Zabini - won the bet.

---

The Weekend has Come. What will you prioritize? (choose your top 3 things to focus on)

[ ] Explore the Castle
[ ] Work on History stuff with Amber
[ ] Play with the Dodo
[ ] Go to the Library
[ ] Read from the Invisibility Book
[ ] Ask about the Vittle Broker
[ ] Join Amber and Phelan for sword-training
[ ] (write-in)

[Skull Leader]

[X] Play with the Dodo
[X] Read from the Invisibility Book
[X] Work on History stuff with Amber

[skulkidcachi90]

[ ] Explore the Castle

[ ] Play with the Dodo

[ ] Read from the Invisibility Book

[Daiki]

[x] Play with the Dodo

[x] Work on History stuff with Amber

[x] Read from the Invisibility Book

[Malorius]

[x] Play with the Dodo

[x] Read from the Invisibility Book

[x] Read from the Invisibility Book 2: With Vengeance

Power, guys. Unlimited Power of skulking in shadows.

[Dracueri]

[x]Read from the Invisibility Book
[x]Work on History stuff with Amber
[x]Explore the castle

[shanagan]

[X] Play with the Dodo
[X] Read from the Invisibility Book
[X] Work on History stuff with Amber

[alfheimwanderer]

[X] Play with the Dodo
[X] Read from the Invisibility Book
[X] Work on History stuff with Amber

---

For the Assignment - How do you propose to reform/fix the Hogwarts system?

[ ] (write-in)

For playing with the Dodo, does this consist of... (choose two)

[ ] Walks around the castle
[ ] Exploring the castle grounds, wherever it chooses
[ ] Grooming the Dodo
[ ] (something else)