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Tengu and Ninja's Daughter By StarFeather
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Category: Magical Creatures Challenge (2017-3), Magical Creatures Challenge (2017-3)
Characters:Draco Malfoy, Harry/Ginny, Hermione Granger, James Potter, Lily Potter, Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom, Other, Ron Weasley
Genres: Action/Adventure, Angst, Comedy, Crossover, Drama, Fluff, General, Humor, Poetry, Romance
Warnings: Disturbing Imagery, Extreme Language, Mild Sexual Situations
Story is Complete
Rating: R
Reviews: 21
Summary: Someone will go hunting Kappa's eggs.
Hitcount: Story Total: 34931; Chapter Total: 3324
Author's Notes: The first chapters, mostly Nex Gen characters enter, Harry and Ginny will appear in the later chapters.
* Encyclopedia of Monstrous Creature by Shigeru Mizuki
** Harry Potter PS by J.K.Rowling
Many thanks to my beta Pixi!
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Albus contemplated what Malfoy said to them for a while after they came back to the Gryffindor Common Room. He couldn't forget the tone of Malfoy's voice. Rose managed to borrow some books about kappa. They had a plan to scribble notes about information about their breeding.
"According to the Encyclopedia of Monsters in Japan, there are many kinds of kappa. But it doesn't mention about their breeding at all," Rose heaved a big sigh.
Albus fingered the Snitch his father gave on his birthday, sitting on the cozy sofa and said, "Why did Malfoy want to drive us away? The library is a public space for all of us."
"It's clear that we're not Pure-Bloods. Will you read my draft, Albus? I have to add information about their breeding though," Rose held out her essay.
He took it and started reading.
"Kappa has a lot of names. They're called, kenmon, garappa and kawatarou *. They commonly have fish scales, and a hollow on the top of its head which carried water in. Muggle folklore tells us that it is only an imaginary creature appearing as a drowned man. But they exist. The kappa is a water demon similar to the grindylow in Britain and Ireland.
They become aggressive when Muggles and wizards insult them but if you have cucumbers, they won't attack you. How they reproduce is a mystery just like the tengu. Tengu's leader was a human who was kidnapped when he was a little boy. They let him drink potion made from special herbs to make his body and face red and let his nose big. They looked like crows when they're flying in the sky. .."
Albus stopped reading and said, "Rose, this is not what Hagrid told you. It's just information about the kappa and tengu that you got from these books." He was disappointed that her essay was so factual and without imagination. With two magical creatures like the tengu and kappa to write about, Albus had hoped that Rose would have made up one of her fantastic stories like she used to when they played together in Grimmauld Place when they were little. He had loved those stories, and still remembered them fondly.
Rose rolled her eyes and said, "I knew you would write like a story when you started writing your essay, so I changed my plan. Professor Malfoy will doubt that they are two different essays this way. He questions us if there're two same kinds of essays. By the way, yours needs information about kappa breeding habits too. If you want to add more, you need information about kappa's breeding."
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Draco Malfoy went pale as he read the sheet of parchment in his hand. They had sent the letter again. How could he find kappa eggs? The animals didn't live in Britain. He had expected one of his students to find clues to find the kappa eggs as research for him, but so far, no one had written anything helpful. He was now brooding over whether he should report that to the Auror Headquarters. He had thought of sending the eggs of a grindylow instead. But the villains who called themselves "Dark Lord's famulus", threatened him. If he did not send the eggs or if he reported the threatening letter to the Aurors, they would spread rumors to ruin his reputation at Hogwarts. He didn't want to lose his job as a Potions Master. He crumpled the letter into a dustbin at the corner of his room. As he started to leave, his son Scorpius entered the room.
"Scorpius, you must knock before you enter," he reprimanded.
"I'm sorry, father but I have to finish the essay, you know? Could you give me hints to where the answers are?"
"Think for yourself, Scorpius. I had to solve problems by myself when the Dark Lord threatened my family."
Draco grimaced, remembering the bad memory of being forced to assassinate Albus Dumbledore. Because Albus Potter was named after the deceased headmaster, Draco hated him. He hated him even more because of his middle name, Severus. The fact that Severus Snape was a double agent was another bad memory. On top of all that, Draco owed a life debt to Harry Potter and couldn't disobey the man. All of these irritating feelings were forced onto Harry's second son every time he walked into Draco's class. The fact that his face and figure were looked just like his father added fuel to his distaste towards Albus Potter.
He stared at his son. He looked a little dispirited. The expression took after his mother, Astoria very well.
He suddenly felt sorry for the boy, and said, "You can find the book in the East Asia section. The title is Illustrated Dictionary of Asian Magical Creature".
Scorpius smiled at his father's advice. Draco didn't expect that his son would find the key to solve his problem at all. He guessed that if one of the students found the answer, it would be Rose Weasley. He admitted that she was very clever. She reminded him of her mother, Hermione Weasley. Then Draco devised a plan. When Rose found the clue that he needed, he could somehow give the idea to tell her uncle, Potter about it. But Draco would have to be careful. The villains couldn't know what he was trying to.
He addressed his son again, "I'm going to Professor Longbottom's office. See you at the library, later." And he left the room.
Scorpius stayed behind and he looked about his father's office with curious eyes. He liked the room very much. He smelled the herbs and got closer to a glass shelves which contained various shapes of bottles of potions. Brewing potions was one of his favorite things at Hogwarts. He wanted to be like his father in the future. When he tried to touch the dried herbs that hung from the ceiling, he stumbled over the dust bin. It rolled down on the floor with a rattling sound.
Then he noticed a crumpled parchment. He got curious. He picked it up and unfolded it over on the desk. Reading the threatening letter, his face turned white with fear. He felt like he was drowning in the Great Lake. He couldn't remember how he reached to the library. He was sitting at the small table behind one of the bookshelves in the library. It was his favorite secret spot to hide whenever someone shouted him, "Go to Azkaban! Your father deserved it!"
And he hated the green eyes of Potter. Every time he saw the eyes, he felt like they demanded him to feel sorry for his father's dark past. It was natural for him to speak ill of Potters and Weasleys, he just wanted to attack before he would be attacked. To be honest, he didn't understand what on the earth the Pure-Blood status meant at all, because his mother didn't care about it, either. His father hinted that before, but he looked always frightened by something whenever he tried to voice his opinion. He wanted his father to have confidence. He envied Potters and Weasleys. That was when they appeared. They always had the worst timing. Albus and Rose were talking about his father's assignment.
Rose spoke, "No, I don't think so. I remember the Asian section was moved to the back room. I reckon it is near here. "
"Okay, let's search the shelf there, Rose," Albus reached the spot where Scorpius was hiding. He thought Scorpius had been crying.
Scorpius noticed his rivals were near him and held his face up. With his red-faced, he got angry. He didn't want to show his weakness to them and shouted, "I don't want to see your faces here. Go find somewhere else to sit!"
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After Scorpius retreated to the dungeon, he set the book, "Illustrated Dictionary of Asian Magical Creatures" next to an old leather covered East Asian Fairy Tales book. Both books were very thick and heavy, and he pondered which to read first. Finally, he took the latter and became completely absorbed in the old story.
The young man drank the strong herbal potion. The transformation into a Tengu was painful. Feeling his nose get longer and his face turn to red like the glowing sunset sky, he waited for wings to sprout from his back.
After transformation, Shota walked up to the entrance of a secret headquarters. In the dusk sky, he spotted a flock of Crow Tengues flying back to their nest. The nest had been built in the sheer cliff among the sacred mountains. Muggles used to look up the cliff and had believed there lived Tengues. Shota's subordinates stormed inside from the shrine entrance. They had beaks and the rest of their bodies were the same shaped like human-beings. One of them, a male creature with sharp eyes, spoke.
"Master, we gathered information from our enemy. They're planning to attack a fisherman's village" He held out a roll of parchment to his boss.
The leader unrolled the parchement and examined the map. "How many people are in the troop?"
"Five hundreds, sir."
"Not so many," muttered the young man.
"But the Kouga Ninja tribe will be there."
"Yeah, I know, Saburo."
Saburo stared at his boss skeptically, "How do you know this?"
"It's none of your business. Anyway, keep watching the enemy's movement. I want to keep damage at a minimum." He grimaced in worry, thinking of his old friends and his family.
"Master? I suggest you'd better drink one more vial of potion to ease your pain from the transformation."
He didn't answer and stood up from his wooden stool irritated. Saburo bowed deeply and waited for his next words. Shota didn't grimace because of the pain. He had suffered from a nightmare. In his dream, he was a little child, playing with a girl on the mountain. Whenever he tried to remember the girl's name, he always woke up. But this time, he remembered that her name was Saki, a daughter of the Kouga Ninja. Her father was his father's boss. She was the same girl whom he met near the big oak tree. He marched to the entrance.
Saburo followed him saying, "I'll go along with you, sir."
But Shota flatly refused. "I'll search the village alone."
He leaped through the entrance door of shrine built in the cliff. Spreading his big white wings, he glided down to where his old family and his childhood friend lived. The wind blew and tangled through his silky jet-black hair. Tree branches bent as the leaves stirred up into the air. He pulled out a portable fan made of feathers and swung it lightly to balance his body in an upright position. Then he landed on the branch of the old oak tree. A scaly thrush sang a far-carrying sad song from the opposite branch in warning. He noticed the abandoned nest on the front branch and found five dull green eggs. They looked like kappa's eggs.
Excited by the first clue he'd found, Scorpius quickly bookmarked the page with a Puddlemere United ticket he'd kept in his pocket from last summer. Then he grabbed for the book his father recommended and was instantly mesmerized by the cover, showing a haunting Asian lady in kimono and a creature with a monkey's head, a badger's body, tiger's limbs and a snake's tail. He flipped through the moth-eaten pages to find an illustration of the Kappa. Some of them cuddled each other inside a small cavity under a tree, the others were sumo wrestling on a floating island near a sand bank. He paid attention to the spot, the drawing of the dark green eggs covered with leaves. He began taking notes furiously, muttering, "I found it, I found it," over and over.
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Each time Professor Malfoy stepped inside the green house, he recalled unpleasant memories of his school days, piercing screams of Mandrakes, dirt under his nails and slimy worms. He much preferred the dried ones needed for potions, which he saw in little bags on Longbottom's desk.
"It's rare that you visit here." Neville Longbottom straightened up from an over grown pot of herbs.
Malfoy glanced at Neville's dirty cotton work gloves, but put on his impassive face and said,
"I need your help. I need to get Kappa's eggs for my study. The academic conference will be held in November, and I need them soon."
"Are you sending a report to the International Herbology and Potions Society this year?
Good for you. It's my pleasure to help." Longbottom discarded the gloves into the laundry bucket and asked, "But I've never heard about kappa's eggs. Why didn't you choose grindylow?"
Malfoy nearly uttered, ‘How thick you are!', but he calmed himself before he spoke. "Recently, I have been studying rare Asian magic. I know of no one in England who is an expert, so it'll be a shortcut to making a name for myself."
"Yeah, surely. Nobody has claimed an award in that area yet. I'll ask my Mongolian friend about the kappa." Longbottom nodded and began sweeping the floor.
Malfoy smirked at how quickly Longbottom accepted his story. It was easier to tell a lie than he thought.
"Thank you. I believe I have a rare Herbology book that you would find interesting as payment for your help. Please tell your friend that I won't spare any expense if he can find the eggs."
Malfoy didn't forget to pocket a dried worm bag as he left the greenhouse.
Outside, he felt a little cooler. Autumn had begun its work on the forest that surrounded the castle of Hogwarts. He loved his work and didn't want to lose this cozy place. How many times would the shadow of the remaining Death Eaters threaten the tiny shred of happiness that he'd found? Looking back on his school days, he grimaced at how stupid he'd been. As a child, he'd thought that being a Death Eater was something to be proud of. But the reality of how the Wizarding World was trampled down by the Dark Lord and his followers, didn't bring anything but loss and suffering to anyone, including his father and himself.
"Professor Malfoy, how are your students? Have they prepared well for the new semester?" The stern voice made him aware of the headmistress standing near the staircase into the dungeon
Rumors said that Minerva McGonagall would retire at the end of the year, but she still clearly observed all of her staff in her old age, like a stray cat watching humans warily. He flinched at her stare, as if she could discover his secrets just by looking at him.
"F..fine. Everything is in good order. I reckon your favorite Weasley will get top marks. No worry."
"How's your son, Scorpius? I think he will get Outstandings as well as Rose Weasley."
"Thank you, professor, but I don't think so. He's not qualified," he answered sarcastically.
"Don't downgrade your son. You are his father, Mr. Malfoy. Giving children confidence is our task. Don't forget that."
"Yes, professor."
McGonagall nodded and climbed up the stairs in a dignified manner. Draco descended to the dungeon, starting to feel guilty about making his students research the kappa for his own sake. He had thought to be like his mentor, but he couldn't compete with the courage that Severus Snape must have had to be an effective double agent. Underneath it all, how cowardly must he be? Malfoy heaved a big sigh and shoved the Potions classroom door open. Flames of torchlights along both sides of the dungeon flickered against the stone walls. Draco remembered what Snape told him once.
"I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death."**
I don't deserve to seek fame. I should not be here. How can I teach these innocent students how to brew glory? I couldn't save even my mentor who had saved me more than twice.
Then his gaze fell upon Albus Potter. Harry Potter's second son stared back bravely, holding a sheet of parchment. His face was full of confidence like his father used to be. He gave Potter's second son a long look and averted his eyes disdainfully. He surveyed the other students. Most of them turned their eyes away when they recognized his stare except for Rose Weasley. Her competitive demeanor reminded him of her father, Ronald Weasley. The cleverness was obviously inherited from her mother. His strained look softened when he saw his own son staring back at him as well. Scorpius looked worried, which showed how clearly he cared about his father. Malfoy coughed lightly, trying to wipe away the guilt of using these students, including his own son.
"Open your Advanced Potions textbook to page fifty-six. I'll gather your reports at the end of the class."
He pointed his wand at the rolled screen and spread it. He swished it again and the map of East Asia was reflected on it. "Turmeric is very useful for various potions as well as ginger. But if you don't dose them properly, they will do harm. The excessive dose of rue and sage commonly caused death in Merlin's era. You must memorize the color of each powder per uses. Which one do you use for hangover potion, Potter?"
"Eh, a white one?" Albus voiced uncertainly.
"Correct. But you didn't use the proper words to address me. Ten points from Gryffindor."
Albus blinked with disbelief. Rose whispered to him, "You forgot to say ‘professor'."
The Potter boy maintained a sullen silence until the end of the class. When Malfoy told them to hand in their reports, he marched into the desk, submitted his report and left displeased.
Rose followed Albus briskly after she turned in her report. "Wait, Albus. You shouldn't have behaved like that. A moment of patience in your anger saves you detention added later."
"When Professor Malfoy behaves, I'll follow the manner. If he continues like this, my father won't ..."
"Your father, what?" Scorpius interrupted.
Albus halted and turned around to stare at the Slytherin. "My father will never allow him to have a prejudice against me. He can send him back to Azkaban."
Rose gasped and tried to reprimand him, but Scorpius was faster.
"Who do you think you are? You're nothing without the shadow of your father." Fury surfaced on his face.
"So who are you? A son of the Death Eater?" Albus didn't flinch at all.
Scorpius sprang on Albus and pinned him against the wall at the Great Hall.
"You have no right to speak to my father like that!"
"Don't I?" Albus challenged him.
His words fueled Scorpius with rage, but before he could punch Albus on the jaw, a thick hand grabbed his hand held it in the air.
Neville Longbottom looked angrily at them both. "Violence isn't allowed here. Talk to understand each other. I always listen to you. Your next class is in the Greenhouse. Follow me."
Albus noticed Rose panting behind Professor Longbottom. He guessed she had called him. Unexpectedly, Scorpius followed Longbottom without complaint.
They passed by the pond where grindylows inhabited. Longbottom talked to them brightly,
"Professor Malfoy is preparing a report for an important conference this year. You're so lucky that you can listen to his lecture. He'll surely be a potions pioneer in Asian magic."
Then he shoved the entrance door open.
"I'll listen to what happened after the Herbology lesson. Do you like tea and hot biscuits? My wife, Hannah baked a lot and sent them to me this morning."
Three of them nodded. Then the other Slytherins and Gryffindors entered the greenhouse one after another. When all of them settled, Longbottom opened his mouth,
"All of you know how worms take a role as cultivators. Whether they are magical or not, they help plants and crops grow. Today we'll observe them and learn how to fertilize the soil."
Rose held up her hand and asked, "When will we learn how to plant Mandrake?"
Longbottom smiled at her and answered, "Next year. As you think of Mandrakes, remember today's lecture.." He pulled out his wand and swished it.
Each table received a pot of soil with a small ball of cabbage planted in it. A few girls started screaming when they saw baby flobberworms eating the leaves.
"Please don't hate them, ladies. They're adorable creatures. Their feces is a natural fertilizer. Your task is to draw what you observe. You don't have to draw any artistic pictures. Take notes on anything that you'll notice. Oh, Flint, don't mistreat them!" Neville marched to the naughty Slytherin.
Albus turned to the spot but his eyes caught Scorpius first. They stared each other showing hostility. Rose elbowed him,
"Don't turn to Malfoy. Focus on the flobberworms!"
But Albus kept staring at Malfoy till he looked the other way. Albus smirked with a defiant expression and began observing his pot. He drew a big worm on the sheet of parchment.
"Do you think we should color them?" he asked Rose.
"Yes, we should. Especially yours. Your drawing is good, Albus. It shows that you're very good at observing things."
Following Rose's advice, he got engaged in coloring the picture of flobberwarms and a ball of cabbage. He even drew the black feces. He finished up in high speed and looked around. The other students hadn't caught up with him at all. He had plenty of time. He flipped the parchment and began drawing kappa which he and Rose found in the book they borrowed the other day. The report he submitted to professor Malfoy was written perfectly well. He had confidence to get a good mark. If Malfoy wouldn't evaluate students fairly, he was prepared to consult his father.
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