Later that afternoon, Illya made her way to the Forbidden Forest claiming to want to write the letter in a private location. Truthfully, she was nervous. The fact that she was going to meet a servant without one of her own made her feel exposed. While if it had been a master, she would have been able to fight back if they intended to kill her, with a servant, anything she did would be pointless as they would blow through anything she could throw at them. The only reason that she didn't think this was a trap is due to the fact that the Archer servant would have just sniped her without warning, there would have been no talking.

Looking around to make sure there was no one around Illya called out, "I'm here. Show yourself."

Materializing in front of her was none other then the same Archer servant during the war, but something felt of as if he wasn't exactly a heroic spirit anymore.

"So I was right. This is where the little princess fled to." Archer sighed. "Well, what is it you want to know?"

Illya had no idea where to even start. There were so many questions that she wanted to ask Archer, but there was one thing that was bugging her right then.

"How are you still around? Shouldn't you have disappeared?" This really had Illya stumped, there was no way he should still be around especially if the war was over.

Archer looked at her, frowning slightly, "That's a bit of a long story that revolves around the last Holy Grail War." He leaned against the tree. "I'd make myself comfortable, this is going to take awhile."

Illya did as he recommended and leaned against the tree opposite off Archer and listened intently as Archer told her everything that happened in the Holy Grail War.

"So just to sum things up, a halt to the war was called when I left due to there not being a second vessel, however there was in the form of Sakura Matou, but only Zouken was aware of it. Then he used the halting of the war to use his Assassin to kill Caster's Assassin. At the same time, while Caster and Kuzuki were busy dealing with Zouken and the real Assassin, you decided to betray her and free Saber. Caster and Kuzuki drove off Zouken, but you got Saber out before they came back and they killed you for your treachery. Meanwhile, Lancer had met up with Shirou and Rin and offered assistance, but when the announcement came to halt the war, he went back to Kirei and Rin and Shirou went home unsure of what to do until Saber showed up who then became Rin's servant. Confused they went to Kirei, but all he could tell you was that an eighth master appeared with an Assassin servant. At the time, Lancer was fighting Assassin when all of a sudden Kirei's heart suddenly stopped, which you guys still don't know why or how it happened. Suddenly being masterless caused Lancer to mess up and allow Assassin the killing blow. That left Zouken, Assassin, Sakura, Shirou, Rin, Saber, Caster, Kuzuki, and Gilgamesh left. So Gilgamesh went after Caster and Kuzuki and killed them, while Shirou's group went after Zouken. There, they find that Sakura is the vessel and started to overpower Zouken and Assassin. Unfortunately, Zouken set off some explosions and fled to Mount Enzou with Sakura expecting Shirou's group to chase after them. He had traps set up in Mount Enzou and wanted to finish off Saber there and then summon the Grail, however Gilgamesh was already there and killed off Zouken and Assassin and used Sakura to summon the Greater Grail. By the time Shirou's group got there, it was too late and Gilgamesh's wish for a stronger human race was granted in the form of Angra Mainyu's birth and thousands of dark, shadowy, dog-like creatures. You were then summoned by Alaya as this was deemed a threat to humanities existence. Unfortunately, the four of you weren't able to keep the horde back and they spilled out into the town. The Wizarding World stepped in thinking it was caused by some dark wizard and mistook you four for being said dark wizards, which in turn allowed Angra Mainyu to flee with some of the werewolf beings. You guys manage to escape the wizards and Saber chose to stay as Rin's familiar." Illya sighed in exhaustion. It had turned to evening and dinner would be happening soon.

"So now Angra Mainyu is roaming somewhere with his minions and the Wizarding World captured some as well. Great, just great." Illya sighed again. "So why are you guys in England? Did you track Angra Mainyu here?"

"Not quite. There are two ways that Angra Mainyu can be stopped. The first is to outright kill him and the second." Here Archer trailed off a bit, but Illya knew where he was going.

"To seal him back into the Grail." Illya said backing up.

"Hold on. Although, using you is the better option, the others refuse to use that option or rather, Shirou refuses to use that option. We're here because Angra Mainyu also knows this fact, meaning, he may come after you." If Archer was being honest with his himself, this was the only time he agreed with what Shirou said. While he knew that it was better to sacrifice Illya, that was something he absolutely didn't want to do.

"I find it difficult to believe that you guys wouldn't come after me simply because Shirou said so."

"In order to use you, we'd have to start up another Holy Grail War, something Rin doesn't want anything to do with anymore."

Illya calmed down a bit hearing Archer's explanation. "What about you? You have no reason to listen."

"I have my reasons." Unsure if she should press further or not she figured that as long as he wasn't going to attack her, she was fine leaving it alone.

"Fine. I'll accept everything you've said so far, but how did you know I fled here?"

"It's quite simple. As a Counter Guardian, I'm called to solve every threat to humanity. Including one's involved with the Wizarding World and that would be the only place you could've run off too."

"Wait, does that mean you know about the curse?"

"I do."

"Will you tell me?"

He gave a thoughtful look. "No."

"Why not?"

"I want to see your reaction when it affects you." He tried to fight back a smile that was threatening to form as he imagined the aftermath that the curse would have on Illya. "Well, I should get going. I'm staying at the Hog's Head so send a letter there if you see Angra Mainyu stalking about." He then dematerialized and left before Illya could ask anything else.

'Why doesn't he just stay at the castle?' She thought to herself, before a second thought came to her mind. 'How did he get past their bounded field?'

Leaving these thoughts aside, she made her way back to the castle, ready for dinner. That night found Illya on her bed, flipping a coin in the air. It was a galleon, but it had been enchanted. During the walk back to the castle with Professor Quirrell, he took out a coin and enchanted it. All she needed to do was speak the word, apertus, and then direct her thoughts to the coin which would send the thoughts over to Quirrell's coin, which would then glow. Once Quirrell saw the coin glow he would say, adducere, and a connection would occur where they could speak to each other.

This would give Illya an easy way to communicate with Quirrell and vice versa, however, when Illya tried to contact Quirrell, the coin burned in her hand as if it was on fire, causing her to drop it. This is what led to her flipping the coin in the air, trying to think of why she couldn't use it.

'I can't use regular wands, broomsticks hate me, and now this coin as well refuses to work with me.' Illya thought to herself. She flipped it one more time and caught it. 'Maybe magi can't use Wizarding World mystic codes. The only reason I can use my wand is due to the Homunculus core in it.'

The only issue with this thought is that the Sorting Hat had no effect on her and she knew this. Sighing in frustration, she tossed the coin on the floor, just to notice that it was glowing. Grumpling about how she had to get it now, she picked it up and was about to say adducere when the thought that it would burn her again crossed her mind.

Steeling herself for the eventual pain, she spoke, "Adducere."

"Miss Von Einzbern, can you hear me?" A thought popped into her head and accompanied with it was a headache. Was the headache the cause of the backlash now?

"Yeah, just tone it down a bit. Is communicating through the galleon always painful like this?" Illya directed her thoughts to the coin.

"...For first time users, it may be painful, but it'll go away with repeated use." Illya frowned at the news. If the backlash wasn't the headache, then where was it?

"Glad to hear the stutter is gone."

"Yes, well, I doubt many people include their stutter when they think. Besides, are how is tonight's reconnaissance coming along?"

"No sight of any unicorns." It turned out that the first sighting had just been a big stroke of luck as Illya hasn't been able to catch sight of another unicorn that night.

"Alright, let's call it a night then." Quirrell closed off his line leaving Illya alone with her own thoughts. Realizing that looking any more tonight would be pointless, she directed her Storch Ritter's to come back. They would continue doing this pattern three to four nights a week until Halloween day came.

That morning Illya had gotten a quick call from Quirrell telling her that since it's Halloween, they would reschedule the scouting to tomorrow. Fine with that as she was planning on investigating what Cerberus was hiding, Illya went on with her day. Meeting with Harry and Ron in the common room, they made their way to the Great Hall. Just as Illya had suspected, the entire Great Hall was decorated with floating jack-o-laterns. Orange and black table clothes layed on the tables and the plates and silverware were enchanted to match. All kinds of pumpkin themed goodies lined the table, pumpkin flavored cinnamon rolls, pumpkin bread, pumpkin spiced pancakes, and other things as well.

During breakfast, Illya would shove some of the cinnamon rolls and pancakes into a bag. When given strange looks by Harry and Ron, she told them that she wasn't feeling hungry at the moment and was saving them for latter. Then, excusing herself, she made her way down to her workshop and stored the goods in there for tonight's heist. She'd gather more during lunch and then skip the feast at dinner to make her way into her workroom, grab the treats, and then sneak off into the third-floor corridor. With that all in mind, she went off to her classes.

Throughout the time, Quirrell kept about his usual self and potions was a pain. If she made even a small deviation then what Snape wanted, he'd give her a zero for the potion even if it was the best of the class. Transfigurations was a lot better where she was at least above average, beaten by only a handful of students. Herbology was dull, but nothing like their History of Magic class where, to Illya, it looked like a free period as she couldn't see or hear Professor Binns. However, the class she had the most difficulty with was definitely charms.

Maybe it was because she would use her wish-granting trait to achieve certain spells instead of actually learning them, maybe she just sucked at it, either way it was looking today had been another bust. She was paired up with Neville, probably because he was also at the bottom of the class, and was trying to perform the flying charm. Half way through, she decided to give up and take a nap instead.

"Miss Von Einzbern, why are you napping?" Flitwick asked her as he passed by.

"Well, it seems that charms is not quite my forte, so I decided to nap instead."

"No great witch or wizard was made in a day. Why some of them nearly failed school, but through hard work and studies, they achieved what they thought to be impossible for them and as it was with them, I'm sure is the same with you."

"I'm not aiming to be famous or anything."

"Regardless of that, my point is that even the most impossible of possibilities is possible if you put effort in it, but if you give up this early, then the impossible will forever be impossible."

Flitwick left after that little spiel. Illya picked her wand up and tried again, totally unenthused, but she didn't want to deal with Flitwick coming back. She looked around the room to see how everyone else was doing. Neville was just like her, couldn't get his feather to move at all. Ron's twitched as well as Harry's. Hermione's flew around the room and by the looks of it, that ticked Ron off. Honestly, those two got along like fire and water. They were with the Hufflepuffs and it seemed as if the Hufflepuffs were also having as much difficulty as the Gryffindors were. She turned her attention back to the feather, practicing without result until the end of the period.

After the lesson, Ron complained about Hermione when she rushed past them, clearly upset with the things Ron had said. The three of them shared an awkward look between them. It didn't seem like Harry and Ron were going to do anything about it, but Illya wasn't sure she wanted to do anything either. Sure, they shared the same room and talked every now and then, but that was as far as their relationship went. Telling herself that Hermione will get over it, Illya left the matter alone besides perhaps Hermione will fix her know-it-all personality from this. Illya noticed that Harry and Ron had started to become a bit more uneasy and awkward as the day wore on due to the fact that

Hermione hadn't shown up to a single lesson after charms. She'd already put it from her mind, after all, something much more important was going to be happening tonight. Since the last class for that day had been History of Magic, Illya decided to skip it, opting instead to head to her workshop to prepare.

Her workshop hadn't seen much use as Illya had no reason to be in there. The few times she had gone to her workshop was to try to create new potions combining the Wizarding World reagents with the Moonlit World reagents, but even with doing the calculations beforehand, the end result was a massive explosion that almost revealed her workshop. This meant that the chemical makeup of what Illya thought one reagent was was actually something else. In order to figure out the chemical makeup, she'd need to do a ton of tedious work, something she wasn't very keen on doing. The only other thing she did was form her Stork Ritters into other shapes. She had gotten them to look like

mice, dogs, and moles. By having a specific goal in mind, Illya had emphasized different parts in the creation process to create these new familiars. Mice were similiar to her Stork Ritters except with the purpose of indoor use. The dog was made in mind of having a stronger attacking familiar, however it took several strands of hair and more time to make than the other familiars. The mole was made as a spying type. She put a bigger emphasis on the claws for digging and the ears for hearing.

Inside her workshop, not much have changed, the only new thing was a giant pile of sweets. Half of it was supposed to be used on her descent, the other half for when she came out. Next to her stash of sweets were a couple of knives that Illya had created. She created them in case there was to be a fight. In total there was five. Heaving the bag over her shoulder, she pocketed the knives and started off to the third-floor corridor, but as she took her first step out, a horrid smell assaulted her nose. It almost made her gag and she couldn't help but wonder where that smell was coming from.

Thinking that it was probably nothing, Illya made her way down the hall only for the smell to get even worse. Illya stopped at a T-junction. That smell smelt so horrible and close now that Illya actually did gag. Suspecting that it was coming form around the corner, she peeked around and saw a sleeping troll in the middle of the hallway.

'Why?' Was the only thought Illya could think of. Unfortunately for her, it was in the direction that she needed to go. Using a strand of hair, she formed it into the mouse and sent it to nibble on the foot of the troll causing it to wake up. It gave a short roar and tried to smash the familiar with it's club. However, the mouse was quicker and dashed between the troll's legs. The brute turned around and gave chase to the little familiar. Once it was gone, Illya continued on her way to the corridor.

Once she had arrived at the corridor, Illya glanced around to make sure that no one was nearby. Seeing no one, she charged her magic circuits and used her wish-granting trait to cast flash air. Stepping through the portal, Illya opened up the bag of sweets and dumped half of it in front of Cerberus and true to the legend, he lept for the treat. Illya gathered up the rest of her bag and made her way to the trapdoor, avoiding contact with Cerberus incase it remembers why it was there in the first place. She opened the trapdoor and peered inside just to see that it was completely dark.

She reached into her pocket and grabbed one of the knives and remade it into a miniature Storch Ritter and had it fire down into the hole. The magic energy that was fired off lit a small part of the chamber that laid below, but it was enough. There was some kind of plant there, but it seemed to fear light as it shifted away from it. Realizing that she was going to need several of her regular Storch Ritters to produce enough light to safely traverse the chamber, she got out the rest of her knives, ready to undo them when all of a sudden her miniature Storch Ritter was shot down.

Knowing that she was in danger, Illya spun around just in time to dodge a red light that missed her by millimeters. Looking at where the source of the light came from, Illya saw none other then Professor Snape.

"Drop the knives. Wand on the ground and hands where I can see them." Illya complied. She didn't need to keep physical contact in order to use her knives and she didn't know any spells that could get her out of this situation. All that was left was to determine what to do, if Snape turned her into Dumbledore, then it was all over. That clearly left only two options. Win Snape over, which she figured was impossible or kill him.

Judging by how calm he is and how fast he was able to shoot those two shots off, he was clearly skilled in fighting. Something which Illya lacked in and so using her knives probably wasn't the best option, instead she could use her mystic eyes. From what she's seen so far, mystic eyes don't exist within the Wizarding World and so they shouldn't have any concept of them. Once she had him bound, she figured she could feed him to Cerberus and be done with it.

Once her knives and wand were on the ground, she looked up to Snape and activated her mystic eyes so now all she needed to do was stall. Unfortunately for her, the moment she used her mystic eyes, Snape used legilimency albeit stronger then last time. Immediately, Illya realized that Snape was trying to get into her head with the extreme amount of pain she was feeling right now caused her to reel back. A second later and she had pushed him back, causing a backlash for Snape. Both of them knew that the victor of this match would be determined by who recovered first and unlike Illya, Snape has been in this situation before and knows how to recover quickly.

"STUPEFY!" Snape called out sending a red beam straight at Illya's chest. Realizing that she can't dodge it, she sent her knives flying, hoping that she could nail Snape in the head or heart and take him with her. The last thing she saw was a knife sticking itself inside of Snape's leg. Cursing her ineptitude in fighting, Illya collapsed on the floor, unconscious.

AN: So I wasn't planning to post this story until the entire story was complete and then post one chapter per week and use the reviews as a way to improve the later chapters, however with my schedule, I won't be able to do that. So I'm posting what I have now and want to know if this story is worth continuing. If it is, what's working well with it and what can be improved?

Thanks and until next time.