But For a Stone (A Matou Shinji Series AU)

A Harry Potter / Fate Stay Night Story

Disclaimer: Though I wish it were otherwise, I do not own or in any way, shape or form hold a legal or moral claim to elements of either the Nasuverse, the Potterverse, or other works I may reference in the course of this story.

Summary: What if there had never been a Boy-Who-Lived? What if, at the end of the Wizarding War, young Harry Potter had died alongside his mother and father, killed in the explosion that destroyed the house at Godric's Hollow? What if there was no figure of hope for the British Wizarding Community to rally around, just a knowledge of the high cost of victory? And how will Matou Shinji, fresh come into his status as a wizard, adapt in a Hogwarts with no easy route to fame...or notoriety?With this, Shinji's preparations for heading to Britain are now complete. He has a wand, basic school supplies, and books to study - both of which he has a decent aptitude for, and by the time he receives a Portkey to take him to Kings Cross, he feels ready.

Epilogue. Final Words

Quirinus Quirrell looked up from a stack of papers he was grading and rose from his desk as three very familiar first-years walked into his classroom, their eyes brimming with confidence. Just glancing at the way they stood, as well as the gear they carried, it was obvious that they had grown since the beginning of the year – something he approved of, as it meant they had learned from their mistakes.

'The world is a very dangerous place, once one leaves the borders of Britain behind,' he mused to himself. 'I learned that myself in Albania, where I sought to control something that then was beyond me.'

He'd gone there out of a desire to prove himself, to quiet the skeptics who thought that the furthest he would ever rise in was becoming a Muggle Studies Professor at Hogwarts, a man who taught children how Muggles lived and worked without the benefit of magic. Truth be told, he hadn't minded teaching Muggle Studies, as he found everything they had accomplished without the benefit of magic to be nothing short of remarkable. Indeed, his goal as a teacher had been to ensure his students appreciated the fact that their ability to use magic did not make them superior to Muggles.

One only had to consider whether it was Muggles who had conquered the known world or wizards and witches.

'They, lacking the ability to reshape the world with magic, devised tools to let them affect the world on a scale far beyond what we are capable of. Our civilization is limited by what can be achieved by a few powerful individuals – theirs, only by the resources of the entire world and human imagination. Yes, there are Muggles that are dumb and brutish, and the technologies they use in place of magic require a great deal more effort than our spells to operate – but is it not we who went into hiding – and continue to hide – from them? Is it not we who borrow from them, who steal what they create because our imaginations have gone stale?'

The Hogwarts Express, after all, was not created by magic – it was a manifestly Muggle creation that had been repurposed to meet the needs of magical population.

The wireless – which many wizarding families used today– was something Muggles had invented, with wizards only later adopting the technology for their own use, as it opened so many doors for wizards in terms of entertainment or mass communications.

Even the food they enjoyed in Britain was taken from Muggle farms, which used not magic but modern industrial farming techniques to boost their yields to the degree that the amount of food necessary to support a population of about ten thousand was a negligible write-off.

In fact, if one examined wizarding society with a critical eye, one could see many, many aspects that outright relied on either Muggle technology, or the existence of Muggle civilization.

The first time he'd come to that realization, the shock had nearly made him pass out.

After all, everything he'd ever been taught in Hogwarts talked about how great the wizarding world was – about how backwards Muggles were, even if they could sometimes be creative – about how wizards and witches were better than Muggles in many ways, given the alleged lack of things like racism and sexism in wizarding culture, though anyone who had seen how the Ministry treated goblins, werewolves and other non-human species knew that racism was alive and well, as did anyone who noticed the tensions between pure-bloods and muggleborns.

The one and only a Muggleborn had become Minister of Magic in Britain on the promise of reforms, he had been forced from office after being stricken with a terrible illness by a cabal of purebloods (including Abraxas Malfoy).

And of course, during the long war which ended just ten years ago, the Dark Lord had gathered many allies to his side by playing on pureblood fears that the rising number of Muggleborns would soon render them irrelevant.

'And yet, even in the wake of that, Lucius Malfoy and his cronies – purebloods all – remain greatly influential in this country, having convinced the Wizengamot that he had been acting under the Imperius Curse.'

Given all that, he thought it was rather hypocritical that his fellows tended to look down on Muggles, given that they managed a country of over fifty-million people more efficiently – and justly – than the Ministry managed their ten thousand.

Which was why in his classes, he had tried to break his students – particularly his pureblood students –of their unspoken assumptions of superiority, showing them just how insignificant they were in the face of death.

Honestly, it hadn't really surprised him that those who had done the best in his admittedly punishing scenarios had been muggleborns – at least those in the first and second year who hadn't yet had a chance to internalize too many bad habits.

Very, very few beyond second year, muggleborn or pureblood, had performed at a level even approaching satisfactory, preferring to complain about how his challenges were impossible, when victory was very much possible…merely very, very difficult.

'That the means to obtain that victory may be rather unorthodox, unseemly, or unethical are neither here nor there…'

So the trio before him proved, with how Miss Noel defied the conventions of the wizarding world to focus on her blade, how Miss Suzuki enjoyed using the abilities granted by Mopsus in place of her wand, and how Mister Matou used curses freely, as well as drawing on the power granted to him by the parasitic force inside of him.

'There is no good and evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it.'

So the man told himself as he said a few words to his students, that he might assess their readiness before sending them back into the water temple that so many of the others hated with a passion.

"A new wand, Mister Matou?" Quirrell asked, noting that the Japanese boy's second wand wasn't the nearly burned out husk of the holly and phoenix feather instrument he'd destroyed during the last challenge.

"A gift from Sokaris," the boy responded succinctly, meeting his eyes without much in the way of hesitation or uncertainty.

"So I see," the Defense Professor said dispassionately. "Perhaps this one will meet with a better fate than your last?"

"…I will make sure it does," Shinji replied, inclining his head slightly. "It would be rude if I were to just let it be destroyed, after all."

"Indeed, so try not to let that eventuality come to pass," Quirrell noted, before turning to the Japanese girl clutching a cylinder of black and chrome in her fingers. "Miss Suzuki, do you intend to use the…flashgun during your exam?" he inquired.

"Yes, Professor," Natsumi answered, nodding her head as she activated the device, and a stream of molten red light poured forth from the aperture at the end in a manner much like a spellbeam, if one was compressed and contained. "I believe it will be quite useful." She swung it through the air with a thrumming sound, clicking through a number of settings before powering it off. "Thank you for the gift, Professor."

"Of course, Miss Suzuki," the Defense Professor responded genially. "You earned it, after all. Though…you should know that most wizards would find such an implement cumbersome and unwieldy, compared to a wand."

"And yet, if an enemy closed in, it would be they who were helpless, not I," the Japanese girl retorted. "Besides, Matou-kun has my back. Don't you, Matou-kun?"

"I do," Shinji affirmed, his voice perhaps a bit gruffer than usual, which Quirrell found rather amusing. That there was something of a tension between the two was obvious, with the way they glanced at each other sometimes – though of course, most would be confused by how they would glance at the third member of their group – the young Amber Noel.

"It is good that you sound so certain, Mister Matou," the man noted, as he looked the boy in the eye, the corners of his lips tugging up into the beginnings of a smirk. "But after what happened last time, do you truly believe that you can protect everyone? What if…and this is purely a hypothetical, mind you…you end up having to choose?"

"Choose?" the boy echoed, a range of emotions flashing across his face – anger, hurt, shock, insecurity, and more. "I, uh…I don't know what you mean."

"Oh, I think you do, Mister Matou, but I'll not say more about the matter, as you seem…uncomfortable with it," Quirrell added. "Just bear in mind that the realities of the world are rarely as merciful as any of us would wish. However mighty we may be, the wheels of fate do not always turn in our favor, as even the mightiest sometimes discover, to their detriment."

"The mightiest, Professor?" Amber spoke up, with Shinji looking at the copper-haired girl gratefully as the man turned his attention to her. "Do you have an example?"

Quirrell pursed his lips, as if he was contemplating something, before nodding as he glanced over the three students before him.

"Mister Matou, do you remember the story I told you of a certain Nicholas the Wise?" the man inquired, with the boy nodding slowly.

"I do, but what about it?" Shinji responded, looking somewhat confused, before his expression cleared. "Oh! Is that the example you meant? How the creator of the Philosopher's Stone, an artifact so mighty and magical it could keep himself – and those he cared about – from dying, forgot how to make the relic he is known for? Or…are you about to tell us of his apprentice?"

The Defense Professor chuckled.

"Neither actually, though it is true that they were both mighty," he noted simply, before quirking an eyebrow. "Tell me, have you ever heard the tragedy of Tomas the Fearful?"

"…who?" Natsumi asked.

"Mm, I thought not. It's not something Binns would have lectured on, given exactly when it happened! It isn't ancient history, after all!" The man's lips tugged into a smirk for a moment before his expression smoothed. "Tomas was a wizard, one so powerful and so learned that he could affect not just flesh, but spirit. Indeed, his knowledge was great enough that he even could keep himself from dying – even from the Killing Curse – through the construction of anchors wrought of his soul."

"…such a thing is actually possible?" Amber found herself voicing.

"Indeed. For those with the right…ambitions, the study of magic can be a pathway to abilities some would consider unnatural."

"You called him 'the Fearful', and said this was a tragedy," Shinji observed shrewdly. "So…what did he fear, and what happened to him?"

Quirrell nodded at the boy approvingly.

"Excellent questions, Mister Matou," he murmured. "Indeed – I called him the Fearful, for more than most men, Tomas feared the prospect of death. Everything he did, from his studies to the way he mutilated his soul, from his decision to pursue power to…his more questionable decisions in life, flowed from this desire." The Defense Professor took a breath here. "Eventually, he learned of the Philosopher's Stone, and so sought to obtain it, approaching the endeavor as he did most other things in his life. In the end, he managed to attain it, yet in attaining it, was unmade, betrayed in his most vulnerable moment by an accomplice." Quirrell smiled at this. "Ironic, that after all the measures he had taken to prevent his death, the one relic that could have given him true immortality was instead the cause of his demise."

"Is this a true story?" Shinji asked warily.

"Oh yes, yes indeed," the man replied openly. "More to the point though, do you grasp the lesson to be learned from it?"

"That one should be careful of who one shows weakness to?" Amber suggested, with Quirrell chuckling.

"That is one lesson, yes. There are others as well."

"What would you say is the main lesson then, Professor?" Natsumi questioned.

"That while emotions like fear may certainly give one the drive to accomplish great and terrible things, one should be careful that one is not ruled by them, lest one's actions make that fear a reality," the Defense Professor supplied, looking pointedly at Matou Shinji as he did. "Tomas, after all, could never escape his fear of death – a fear which led directly to his end."

"…I understand," the boy murmured, lowering his head, with the others following suit.

"For your sake, I sincerely hope so," Quirrell replied, nodding at the trio. "Now go and defeat the trial I have devised for you."

He sat down and proceeded to watch as they did exactly that, working together with a fluidity and ease that he'd seen in few other teams, save for the duo of Wroxton and Sokaris, and well, given what he knew of the purple-haired girl, it just didn't seem quite fair to compare them.

'Should they survive the next few years, they have great potential…'

Potential that could be shaped, potential that could be guided, potential that might one day lead to greatness.

'They may surpass me, even with all I have learned, and all I have become,' the man mused to himself. 'They – or one of the others I have chosen to cultivate. Such is as I hope – as all competent teachers should hope – that those who come to me as learners will one day become masters.'

That they might be the instrument he needed to burn away the rot in Magical Britain, by cunning, example or force.

'I suppose, seeing their success, I have come to a decision of my own,' Quirrell noted, as he looked back at his papers. 'The current situation, after all, is not tenable.'

In the wake of Binns' disappearance, he had been asked to temporarily teach History of Magic, in addition to his position teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, but a man – even one as intelligent as he was – could not realistically hold both positions and do an effective job. To her credit, Acting Headmistress McGonagall (and there was another interesting wrinkle, since in the wake of Dumbledore's disappearance, the Board of Governors had refused to appoint a permanent replacement without time to consider 'all qualified candidates'), realized this and asked him which position he would prefer to remain in, given that neither position was particularly easy to fill.

He'd strongly considered becoming Hogwarts' History Professor, as it would be a relatively secure position, and one which left him a great deal of time to pursue interests outside of the castle. However, it was also a role without much in the way of prospects for advancement…

'Defense then. I think it will be interesting to see what the students think when I return next year, and there I am – not another teacher in the long string of instructors who have lasted only a year.' No doubt they'd be confused, wondering if what they'd heard about a curse was correct, or if it had merely been a long string of very, very bad luck. 'That said, I do wonder who the new History teacher will be. It is a core subject, even if it is one our students do not much appreciate.'

All in all, he thought the year had gone rather well – better than he'd hoped, in fact.

First, he was alive.

Second, he, not Dumbledore and not some chosen child of legend, had helped engineer the final defeat of a Dark Lord.

Third…he had met some interesting students, as well as gaining the favor of an individual who would soon become quite influential in Egypt – and who owed him quite a sizable favor he intended to redeem at some future date. Already, they had done brilliant work together, with one result being the vial in his robes – a glass tube filled with a substance as colorless as water, but infinitely more valuable.

What the next years held, he didn't know, as unlike his accomplice, he did not seek to calculate the future. What he did know was that it would be interesting, and that he looked forward to the surprises it would bring, free of the insecurities that had plagued him since he was a student, free of the doom that had hung over his head after he'd discovered the wraith of Voldemort, free of oversight from well-meaning but short-sighted wizards who did not have the will to do what was necessary.

For he had won, and through victory, his chains had been broken.

A/N: Thank you for reading to the end of But for a Stone, an exploration of another set of possibilities that Matou Shinji could have chosen, had Harry Potter died shortly after his fateful encounter with Voldemort, all those years ago. The result - a year much less defined by a single iconic quest (retrieve the Stone), and much more concerned with how Shinji grows and develops as a person, especially with regards to how he deals with the issue of his family and the psychological abuse he suffered at their hands. Most of the characters you've met in this story that you may find unfamiliar - e.g. Amber, Miyuki, Natsumi, Selina, & Nigel - are drawn from the Harry Potter video games, with their backgrounds fleshed out by some research. Penny Haywood comes from the Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery mobile game. Perhaps you may meet them in their original contexts and see their stories one day!