A/N: Kudos to HAtterofWonderland for making me snort hot chocolate from her comment. XD Aaaah yeah.. anyway� glad ya�ll enjoyed Astra and Snape bitching at eachother. XD

Chapter Twenty-One

Arturia woke up and looked at herself. Her body was a man�s body and it made her feel very odd. She got up and stretched, shivering slightly at the chill of the room before going over to the fireplace and stoking the fire that Emiya had built for her. She rubbed her arms and picked up her hand mirror. Her hair was still the same length, and her eyes still gold, but her face was masculine. Her shoulders were broader and her stomach muscled, but she was still fairly short. She sighed and looked around for something to wear. Giving up on her usual dresses, she went in search of Emiya for some of his clothing.

A knock on the main door caught her attention. She pulled a cloak over herself and walked to it, holding the cloak closed up to her neck as she went through the sitting room to the main door and opened it. Gawain grinned at her. �Seems you�re awake, then, eh, cousin?� he said with a wink.

Arturia�s face remained a humorless mask. �What is it you want, Gawain,� she said; her voice very low. It surprised her enough that her eyes widened and her hand shot up to her mouth.

Gawain chuckled and held up a pile of clothes. �I brought some of mine and thought it might work for you. You�re a lot shorter than me, but I�m sure we can figure something out for you!� He grinned and walked in, Arturia watching him with interest.

�Are you staying?� she asked.

�Of course!� he said. He pulled up a pair of trousers and grinned at Arturia. �I�m going to help you get dressed! After all, I�m sure you don�t know how to fix these so that they will fit a bit better on you, do you?�

Arturia didn�t want to admit that she was helpless for the moment. She frowned deeply at Gawain as he came over to her. �Fine,� she said.

�Good, now put these on and I�ll fix it,� said Gawain, holding the trousers out to Arturia.

Arturia frowned and looked at them. They were similar to her long underwear, which she rarely wore except in the colder temperatures for they were uncomfortable to her. She put them on and Gawain got down on his knees and started fiddling with the bottom of the trousers, tying them up so that they formed to her legs. �Okay� ah.. tie that fly there and I�ll get you a shirt.�

Arturia looked down at herself and saw her trouser front was still undone, so she tied it before being assaulted by a red shirt. �Oi! What are you doing?! I can put a shirt on myself!� she grunted.

�Yeah yeah, but you�re not fast enough to beat me to it,� Gawain laughed. He pulled the hole of the shirt, which was massive compared to Arturia, over her head and then gave her the laces. �Tie it up and I�ll work on the sleeves.�

Arturia growled faintly and worked the laces of her ill fitting shirt carefully, glaring at Gawain slightly. He busied himself with rolling her sleeves up to her wrists and tying them up so that they stayed. When he was done, she watched him go back over to pick up a coat and pulled it onto her, this time with little argument from Arturia as she put her arms through the sleeves. Gawain buttoned the coat and pulled the sleeves back as well as he could so that her hands could be seen and then cinched the back of the coat so that it fit across the shoulders and around the waist on her. �You�re acting like a seamstress, Gawain,� said Arturia, smirking faintly at her nephew.

�Very funny, auntie,� said Gawain, smirking deviously before he tugged the cinches tighter. Arturia let out a gasp and took a swing at Gawain. Gawain laughed and backed away. �You asked for it with that seamstress comment, auntie,� he said.

Arturia pouted silently as Gawain went over and pulled up a tabard with Cannick�s crest on it. �Apologies for the lack of dragon, cousin, this is all my stuff,� he said with a sheepish grin. Arturia smiled faintly and nodded to him as he walked over and pulled the tabard over her and belted it. �There we go! A little king!� he said cheerfully.

�My height doesn�t come into it, Gawain,� said Arturia, glaring at her nephew.

Gawain chuckled and walked to the door. �Come down to breakfast, we�re waiting for you,� he said before disappearing out the door.

Arturia looked at herself in the long mirror in her room. She frowned at herself, for her clothes still looked too big on her and she had not put on a pair of boots. The boots that Gawain had left had several stockings stuffed into them. She put on a pair that were in the boots and then put them on, frowning at how they wiggled on her feet. She sighed and tied them before going down to the main hall to eat.

Bedivere looked up at Arturia when she entered and blinked. �Ah..!� He stood up and bowed to Arturia as he usually did. �Apologies, my queen, I forgot��

�Am I really that odd looking?�

Bedivere looked up as Gawain blinked at Arturia. �Eh? No, it�s just that� I forgot that you had been changed into a man, my queen. I was apologizing for not greeting you like I normally do.�

Arturia nodded and sat down stiffly. Merlin wasn�t at the table and neither was Emiya. She wondered where they were before Merlin came in. �Master Merlin, do you have something to rid me of this blasted condition?�

Merlin smiled faintly at Arturia and sat down to eat. �Apologies, Arturia, but the people I�m working with have been having trouble trying to make an antidote for the potion. They will prevail, no doubt, but it�ll take a little while.�

Arturia sighed and nodded. �I see, Merlin.� Then, she started eating.

The woman had gone out of Camelot after she had done whatever she had done to Arturia. He had noticed her tracks when he came out and noticed that she had not gone far when he rode out to catch up to her. He saw her come into sight and took another path to get onto higher ground once more. He saw her face this time. She was a pretty woman with a very lovely face, though she looked cold, much like Arturia looked normally. She had long dark hair, almost black, that was pulled over her shoulder and cascaded down over her breast in curls.

What need did the woman have for Arturia�s now male body and her newly formed male seed? It seemed to him that the woman had paid someone to slip the potion into Arturia�s soup so that she could manually retrieve Arturia�s seed. But for what reason? Arturia was a woman and would have stayed that way had it not been for this woman and her cunning use of a gender change potion.

They were nearing Leoness and Emiya frowned. He didn�t want to be away from Arturia for long, so he needed to do something about the woman soon or be stuck in Leoness until he could get back home the next day.

He formed a bow and an arrow in his hands and strung up the bow, pulling it taut and aiming it at the woman�s horse�s neck. He frowned. Then, he let it loose.

Morgan yelped as her horse reared and threw her. The horse had a black arrow in his neck and fell over on his side, gasping. She pulled herself up as fast as she could and ran to find cover. Whoever was shooting at her had missed and she wasn�t about to take the chance he would make his target!

Suddenly, she looked up and there was a man standing before her. He was clad in all black leather, his coat was leather, his shirt was leather and tightly tailored to his body, his trousers and boots were leather as well. His sleeves ended at his fingers oddly, only covering two middle fingers and his thumbs. Usually, she might have said that was the mark of an archer, but it didn�t seen right even still. The man�s hair was shaggy looking and fell into his eyes in reddish brown locks, though parts of it were turning white. Despite the strange white hair he was starting to have, he looked young, no more than twenty-two at best. His face was odd as well. He looked Asian, though his face was more angular and had a strong jaw and a larger nose, like he was a Caucasian/Asian halfbreed. She had seen a few among the Asian traders coming through. They�d take a Briton/Welsh/Irish/Scottish woman as his bride and they would have an unusual looking child that looked like both sides and made people not want them near for they looked so odd. He was also not pale, but tanned, as though he worked in the sun like a peasant. He was clearly a servant of some sort or a slave.

�Who are you? What do you want? I don�t have much money, so you won�t make a profit off of me!� she called out to him.

He looked up at her and she noticed three or four pale claw marks across his face, marring the odd handsomeness of his features. He was indeed handsome, though his face was really strange to look at. �What do you want? Why are you harassing me, stranger?� she called again.

�You�re a witch and you turned my mistress into a man, didn�t you,� he said; his voice low and smooth to her ears. If she weren�t so afraid, she might have felt nice shivers run over her back.

�Did I? I think you have the wrong person, sir,� she said, attempting to look helpless. She didn�t want to show this man that she could possibly be a person who could defend herself. However, it didn�t seem to work on the man, for he just simply continued to glare at her.

�You are lying,� he said.

She frowned. So much for acting helpless! She pulled out her wand and sent off a curse at the man, surprised that he dodged it fairly well. She started whipping curses at him as he ran around trying to avoid being hit. Finally, she grew tired of playing with him and started tossing about the more serious curses, trying to get him stuck in one spot so she could finish him off.

She didn�t see the short sword he had lobbed at her. It missed her head by six inches, whirling around her to come back to the man. He had somehow produced a pair of short swords, one black and one white. Was he an imaging mage?!

�Now that I have your attention,� he said, �Why is it that you have need of my mistress�s seed?�

�It�s none of your business!� she snarled.

The swords in his hands shimmered in the growing light of the morning sun. He advanced forward when she did nothing and dodged when she shot a spell at him. There was no other way for him to get at her without using his more drastic techniques. She watched as the swords disappeared from his hands and he stood with his eyes closed. A light started underneath him and spread toward her. She tried to move away, but it enveloped her. Her surroundings disappeared and were replaced by a cold land filled with swords all stuck into the ground. The snow under her feet crunched slightly as she stepped back. In front of her stood the man, this time holding his hand up and a ball of energy seemed to be gathering in his hand.

�Yeild now� or I will kill you,� he said, though he didn�t look as though he meant that. His face betrayed the lack of want for killing, though was set in a determined look.

Morgan was defenseless for once. For once, she did not know how to defeat this strange wizard, for as she looked up at the sky, numerous swords had gathered above her and seemed poised to strike at her like a rain of arrows. �I� I yield,� she said, staring up wide eyed at the mess of swords pointed at her.

The strange world she had witnessed disappeared and the man was in front of her, searching her for something. When he didn�t seem to find what he wanted, he formed a pair of shackles around her hands and pulled her to his horse. �You will come with me. My mistress will deal with you,� he said softly.

�You don�t like killing,� she said as she eyed her captor.

�No� but I�ll do it if it is necessary,� he said.

�And what would you deem unnecessary?�

He stopped and looked to her. �An innocent person. Someone who doesn�t deserve death,� he said.

She smirked. Oh how she liked a good soft mind to play with. �Really, and what makes a person innocent? We�re all guilty of something. That is the way life is,� she said softly.

He frowned at her. �Someone who�s murdered another person, someone who�s stolen, someone who�s betrayed someone.�

�All of which people do in their daily lives. I�m sure you�ve done similar. You�re spied on someone, I�m sure. I�m sure you�ve stolen something before. I�m sure you�ve betrayed someone before.� She smirked evilly as the man�s eyes grew wide and fearful. �I�m sure you have murdered before�.�

He shot away from her and held up one of his strange blades. �Shut up!�

She smirked and made the shackles break. �I see I was right. Tell me then, dear young man, should you kill yourself for being a murderer? Should you kill yourself for being a traitor, a thief or a spy or a liar?�

She put up a shield this time when the man threw his sword at her and ran at her. �SHUT UP!� he snarled and flung the other sword at her. Again, it merely bounced off her shield as he formed another pair in his hands. She heard the blades moving around behind her and put up another shield. He threw the second pair of swords at her and all four came flying straight at her from every side. The shield she put up was almost not enough, for one got through and sliced her arm. She whipped her wand at the man and snarled. �CRUCIO!�

The young man screamed in agony as he fell to the ground, twitching. She moved away from him and went to her horse. She pulled the arrow from the horse�s neck and observed the wound. The horse was still alive, though he had lost a great deal of blood. She pulled out a blood replenishing potion and a healing potion and poured the healing potion on the wound before feeding the other to the horse.

The man trembled as he shoved himself slowly to his feet. She turned in time to see his hair starting to turn whiter, his eyes wide and unseeing. She pulled her wand out, ready for him to attack, but when she saw that he wasn�t attacking, she sent another cruciatus curse at him, sending him sprawling on the snowy ground, twitching and screaming in agony. �Don�t hesitate to kill someone, boy,� she said harshly, �For it will be your undoing.� She helped the horse up and got onto his back. The horse wobbled slightly, but he stayed upright as she nudged him forward at a fast pace. As she galloped away, she saw the young man laying curled up and covering his head with his arms in a fetal position.

She ran toward the horse and found her shoes too floppy to run in. �Guards! Guards! Get that man off his horse now! Someone! Get a doctor!� she called as she ran over to the slumped body of Emiya.

She ran over just as the guards pulled Emiya off his horse and laid him out on the ground. She patted his cheek and checked his body. He wasn�t really damaged, though he had small burns on his body. What really struck Arturia was his hair; it had turned as white as the snow. She continued to pat his cheek before Merlin came over and handed her a potion. �Got an antidote, Arturia. Take it. I�ll deal with him,� he said as he looked over Emiya.

Arturia nodded and took the potion, feeling herself grow hot. Her body felt as though it were melting and shrinking. She looked to her hands and watched as they went from masculine to small and feminine, the sleeves of her coat and shirt covering her hands now.

Merlin checked Emiya and blinked in confusion. �He�s been hit with a curse,� he said.

�A curse?�

�Yes, a bad one at that. It�s one of the unforgivable curses, though it has been taken up again as a normal one since the Great War destroyed the ministry of magic,� he said as he looked around. �Guards, could you take him to the main hall? I�ll come back with a potion for his condition.�

The guards nodded and picked up Emiya, toting him off toward the castle. Arturia followed after them, though with some trouble as she kept tripping in the boots and her trousers were falling off her hips a bit. When she reached the castle, she knelt down beside Emiya as Merlin walked down the stairwell.

�What are these unforgivable curses? Why were they banned and why they in are use now if they were banned before?� she asked.

�I�ll explain later in my tower. Right now, I must treat Emiya,� he said.

Arturia stayed silent as Merlin dealt with Emiya�s injuries and then instructed the doctor to keep an eye on him. Then, he took Arturia�s wrist and pulled her up the stairs to his tower. She kept stumbling as they walked, so he had to stop to help her take the boots off and roll her trouser legs up. As she walked up, her feet grew cold from the chilly stones. They reached Merlin�s room in the tower. She went over to the fireplace and sat down with her feet toward the fire, warming up.

�Unforgivable curses are the three curses which used to be banned in the wizarding world, Arturia,� said Merlin as he walked over to a chair and sat down. �They hurt and kill and torment people, therefore they are unforgivable curses. They require the user to really want to do harm or whatnot to the victim.�

�If they are so awful, then why was the ban lifted on them?� Arturia watched Merlin with her usual cold mask falling back into place.

�Because they are damn useful in a battle for your life.� Merlin sighed and rubbed his face. �The killing curse, the cruciatus curse and the imperius curse. One kills, one tortures with the greatest pain imaginable and the third forces the victim to do whatever the user wants. They were used in fighting when dark wizards started cropping up and they don�t stop at using a spell just because it�s a bad curse to use.�

�What is this�ministry of magic?� asked Arturia.

�The government of the past was much different than the ones we have now. It would take too long to explain, therefore I will only say that it was once what governed the wizard people, what kept them safe and what kept things from being seen by normal people.� Merlin looked to his pupil and watched her as she processed this. �Is that all you wanted to know?�

�Yes, master,� she said and stood.

Merlin nodded. �Off you go then. Go get changed so you won�t trip anymore.�

Arturia nodded and then left. Merlin watched her go and frowned. Why had Emiya come back with burns typical of a person who had been hit with the cruciatus curse a couple of times? His gut told him that it was the same witch who had given Arturia the gender bending potion. To what purpose did this witch want with Arturia being a man and what had Emiya uncovered that caused him to deserve her ire?

Only one person came to his mind that he could think of that would possibly want some form of revenge on Arturia. Morgan.