Part 11.
The Headmaster's Office. Hogwarts Castle.
Albus Dumbledore looked out of his office window at the mountains surrounding his home and sighed softly as he watched Fawks pass by his field of view as the magical bird went off as he pleased.
So far this new school year has not been going well and he'd been hoping for a peaceful term as there were things he needed to arrange. Certain matters that required his attention.
Had any student other than Neville Longbottom been the one who missed the train and went drinking in Hogsmede it could have been dealt with easily enough, but the Boy-Who-Lived was famous and a role model for other young people so having him act this way was a problem.
No doubt the lad was simply stretching his wings and enjoying his freedom after spending so many years with his overbearing Grandmother.
Augusta Longbottom was not an easy woman to handle and while she would have ensured his grandson did not grow up to be a spoiled brat like other boys born into pureblood families she might have been a bit too demanding.
Professor Dumbledore could only imagine how much she pressured Neville to not only live up to his deceased father but also to become the fine young wizard that everyone expected the Boy-Who-Lived to grow up to be.
That was a lot of pressure to put on anyone's shoulders, even a fully grown man's, so it wasn't odd that Neville was acting out nor would Dumbledore try to stop the lad from having some fun it was just an inconvenience and a bit of an embarrassment.
Never mind, people would soon forget the incident, and it wasn't as if Neville Longbottom and Ron Weasley had done something really stupid such as fly Arthur Weasley's enchanted car to Hogwarts. Albus smirked at the mere idea as if any of his students could ever do anything so foolish.
No not even Ron Weasley, the youngest of Arthur and Molly's many sons, could have been as reckless. Although Dumbledore was glad he'd not had to be responsible for the boy before he'd reached the age of seventeen.
A shame that the young redhead wasn't as talented or as hard-working as his brothers, the twins might be a pain but they were intelligent and Dumbledore had a feeling they'd go far if they could find something worthwhile to focus on.
Still, it would be a good idea to have a quick word with Neville Longbottom and to remind him, through no fault of his own, that he was a role model and this meant the magical world needed him to be a good example for the youth of today.
If only Neville had made friends with someone more motivated to study, who had some respect for the rules, someone with a bit of common sense. Alas, those types didn't pop up often in Gryffindor and Neville didn't have much to do with those outside of his house.
Not that he could blame Neville for this as it was the Headmaster who had encouraged young Longbottom to get to know the Weasleys when he was growing up. It had seemed like a good idea at the time.
Neville lacked a proper family, and with his grandmother not being the warmest of people, it had made sense as the Weasleys had more than enough affection to go around and Molly did show Neville some of that affection.
Dumbledore found his mind wandering even though there was plenty of paperwork for him to be getting on with. He was thinking about the new students and one of them more than any of the others.
Heather Potter had come to Hogwarts, and just seeing her was enough to remind Dumbledore of both James and Lily, two of his bravest students who had been fierce defenders of the magical world.
No doubt it was worse for Horace and Minvera, Horace had always been fond of Lily and Minvera would never admit it but both of the Potters had been among her favourite students despite James having a talent for troublemaking.
Dumbledore had sometimes worried that sending Heather to live with her aunt and uncle had been a mistake, but who else had there been? Her godmother had died when Heather was a baby as had both sets of her grandparents. Lily's parents had died due to illness as had James's parents.
There might have been other options, alas Sirius Black had been killed defending his friends, and no one had seen Peter Pettigrew since before Voldemort's downfall. He was believed to have been killed and his body destroyed by the Death Eaters,
As for Remus Lupin, well he had his own issues and even refused to take a teaching position here at the college, despite the offer of Wolfsbane potion to ensure he wouldn't be a danger to anyone.
Lupin hadn't even taken the offer even with Dumbledore telling him that Heather Potter would be in the castle this year, and this had resulted in the Headmaster taking whoever the Ministry could spare to take the Defence Against the Dark Arts position.
At least Heather seemed happy and healthy enough. Dumbledore wasn't as ignorant of Muggle culture as many of his kind and Heather's style of dress suggested that she'd rejected her relative's lifestyle choice. Not a bad thing if what little he knew about them was true.
He'd already been informed that Heather was making friends as she'd been seen in the company of Ginny Weasley the last of the latest generation of Weaslys to come to the college.
Albus wondered if he'd live long enough to see the children of the older Weasleys come to Hogwarts. Charlie seemed unlikely to settle down and marry any time soon, but Bill might marry and have children who reached Hogwarts within Dumbledore's lifetime.
His deputy headmistress had let it slip that young Heather Potter had already gone on one date with a Muggleborn boy so her upbringing couldn't have been too bad and she wouldn't be dating a Muggleborn if she'd fallen in with any blood purist types since coming to the college.
Albus Dumbledore was confident that Minerva would keep a watchful and discreet eye on the young Potter no matter what, and that she would let him know if any action needed to be taken. They both owed it to James and Lily to step in if needed.
As for him, he had paperwork to be getting on with, the rest of this year might hopefully be peaceful but it would not be the same next year as the Tri-Wizard tournament would be taking place and Dumbledore would have to spend a great deal of time outside of the country.
That meant putting things into order as much as possible here at the school and making sure that he could leave things in the capable hands of the deputy headmistress who was going to need some help while Albus was gone.
The Room of Requirement. Hogwarts Castle.
My first full week of lessons had gone well enough and I'd settled in easily here at the college. This wasn't my first time going to college and even with the magical subjects it wasn't that different to regular college in many ways.
It helped that most of the Ravenclaw students left each other alone, or stuck with a small group of friends so they felt no need to drag me into whatever it was they were getting up to.
As for me, I just hung out with Luna when I felt like having company and when I didn't she made no fuss about me leaving her alone. She might not even notice at least some of the time.
As for Heather Potter, we saw each other at meals and in classes, but she hadn't gotten clingy or anything like that. I suspected that since she knew I wasn't interested in any sort of romantic commitment she was waiting for me to make the next move.
If so she'd have to wait for a while and perhaps she find someone else to take her out or maybe I'd ask her out again when I felt ready to have a girlfriend. I was hesitant to date for a few reasons, but that might not remain the case.
I hadn't given much thought to the age difference at first, because I'd been going through a lot this past week or so, and I'd decided to make learning magic my biggest priority.
However, this was my life now and I couldn't isolate myself from everyone else because while I am a loner by nature even I would need some human contact. At least it was something I could worry about later.
When the weekend came around again I once more had time to go and explore the Room of Requirement as I'd had an idea about how to organise the contents of the Room of Hidden Things using a spell meant for such things.
It was a variation on a spell meant to allow you to quickly pack your bags. Only this version was more complex and so required more focus as well as skill with magic.
I'd also been practising the spell to repair things as I was going to need it to fix up a lot of the junk in here once I had started organising it all. Normally this would be far too much work for one wizard, however, I had something that would let me cheat.
With the Staff of Magnus, I should be able to organise this room using magic because I was no longer using a simple wand. I had a divine instrument at my command and it was time to use it.
Granted that would suck out some of the fun I was having while exploring the place, but I did need to make some money, and if I'd had other sources of wealth then looting this place wouldn't have mattered so much to me.
I planted the staff on the floor and began to use it to channel my magic as I directed my will upon the world around me. As I did, I kept in mind what I wanted to happen.
So even as objects began to fly about I kept my focus. Yet it would have been easy to be distracted or to become worried about something whacking into me.
Objects, such as tables and chairs which had been thrown into piles, stacked themselves neatly to take up as little room as possible. Clothes such as cloaks, sorted themselves and were folded as they were stacked.
The thousands of books went onto shelves or otherwise became much more organised. Which would make it much easier to find ones worthy of adding to the library in my trunk.
Silver and bronze coins found their way into empty money bags, and expensive accessories floated into jewellery boxes which closed themselves when full.
A certain professor's sherry bottles got dumped into a bin as hats hung themselves up on hatstands.
By the time the work was done, I needed to sit down for a while even with the staff doing the work that had been mentally taxing. Lucky for me there were now plenty of neatly set out chairs to sit upon.
As soon as I sat down the Celestial Reliquary, which I hadn't seen since earlier the week, made an appearance and I soon opened up the fancy scroll.
200 points
+200 points
400 points
Looking at this I couldn't help wondering if I should wait until I had six hundred points because that seemed to be the value of some really good stuff.
My staff had been worth 600 points as the odd book which was keeping me ahead of most of my peers in class despite me having not even had the chance to do any reading the summer before the school. I figured that I could have already advanced further if I'd pushed myself and read more, I just didn't feel the urge to do so.
However, there was no guarantee I would get something worth six hundred points even if I saved up or that I would have any use for the Celestial Reliquary gave me.
Then again I had been getting low-value objects as well as pricy ones so my next relic could be worth a mere hundred points or even less allowing me to keep building up my points total.
I decided to roll only to get another failure, as I had gotten the last time I'd been in the Room of Requirement, this was a bit disappointing but hardly the end of the world as I knew there were more relics to be found in the caste and the fancy box would turn up against soon.
For now, I had money bags to claim, jewellery boxes to place in my trunk as well as some odds and ends that hadn't been fully organized and some weapons to practice my cleaning charms on. This would be a rather busy weekend.
Part 12.
Diagon Alley. London.
Since there weren't any rules preventing students from leaving the college whenever we pleased, even if it seemed to be some sort of agreement that we students wouldn't, I had no problem sneaking off to Diagon Alley.
it wasn't as if the people running the Knight Bus cared much who brought a ticket from them and I had no family to inform even if they would have disapproved about me going to a shopping centre between lessons.
While during the night, the Knight Bus had beds for people to sit or lie upon, during the day, there were just seats that were not bolted down, and hadn't that been an experience?
I was going to have to find a different means of getting to and from London if I wanted to avoid riding in that evil bus in the future. It had been a most uncomfortable ride.
While I did have a book which would generate a portal to London for me I had no way of knowing if the Ministry could detect such things and since portals tend to be rather noticeable I wouldn't be able to hide it from the No-Maj.
As to why I'd come to Diagon Ally that was because there were second-hand stores here and I had many things I wanted to sell. My trunk was full of junk that I could sell for a little profit.
Since I'd sorted out the Room of Hidden Things I had more second-hand stuff than I could ever sell, but I would try to trade some of it for cash as you did need money to get buy in the Wizarding World.
I wondered if anyone required an enormous stuffed troll, and if anyone did then I could get one for them, it was just a matter of finding out who would want such a thing.
Perhaps I should take out an advert in the newspaper and see if anyone contacted me about it? Although people might ask where I'd gotten it from.
I had found one or two things in the Room of Requirement that I would be keeping, such as The Half-Blood Prince's copy of Advanced Potion-Making, which must have been found by a student and then dumped in the room or left there by a House Elf doing some tidying up.
No matter as while it was a minor relic it was now mine. Sure most of its information was of no use to me yet as I was a novice at brewing potions, but that would change one day, and the book did have a few interesting spells within its pages.
Another recently claimed relic was something called an astrolabe, which the scroll had told me was an ancient navigation tool mainly used for studying the stars.
Might have come in handy if I taking astronomy. As it was I would keep the item just in case I ever found myself at sea. Not that I intended to ever go sailing, but strange things happened to people in the magical world.
I'd never been to Diagon Alley before today, having missed that part of the Hogwarts experience due to being dumped directly on the train. All my books and stuff had been provided to me.
Now that I was here I would get to see what I missed out on, but business before pleasure. Once I had some money in my pocket then I could look around. Assmumg I had enough time.
The Second-Hand Bookshop, which was located next to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour was my target, and as I moved towards I decided to see if I could sneak some ice cream into the castle in my trunk. Luna loved her desserts and she was a nice girl so I would treat her.
With me, I had a long list of books that the owner of the store could look over, and when putting them together I'd made sure that none of them were iffy sounding judging by the title.
I didn't want anyone from the Ministry or the shopkeepers of Diagon Alley to think I was dealing with anything to do with the dark arts. I simply didn't desire that kind of attention.
The wand wavers had a separate shopping area for such things called Knockturn Alley but I was not going anywhere near that place until I'd learned to defend myself, or until the Celestial Reliquary gave me the means to move safely in such a dangerous place.
Perhaps by being so cautious, I was missing out on some of the more interesting parts of the Magical World, but it wasn't as if my time in this world was limited, at least as far as I knew, and I was not the Chosen One so I lacked plot armour.
As I approached the Second-Hand Bookshop, again I couldn't help but notice the bustling atmosphere of Diagon Alley. Witches and wizards of all ages were going about their business, browsing the various shops and exchanging gossip in lively tones.
There were even a few non-humans about, such as warty-faced hags, what I assumed to be a pack of dwarves, and I saw a couple of goblins who wore suits that wouldn't have looked out of place on the bodies of important businessmen had been a larger size.
Upon entering the bookshop, I was greeted by the musty smell of old parchment and ink. The shelves were stacked high with dusty tomes, some of which looked like they hadn't been touched in years.
Behind the counter stood a wizened old wizard with spectacles perched on the end of his nose.
"Good afternoon," he said with a friendly smile. "What can I do for you today, young man?"
While also trying to act friendly I handed over my list of books.
"Hello, sir, this is a copy of an inventory of mine" I explained "I'm willing to sell you any book on the list".
I watched eagerly as he scanned through it with interest. As he read, his eyebrows raised in surprise at some of the titles as he whispered them, no doubt there were a few diamonds among the rough.
"This is quite the collection you have here," he remarked, peering over his glasses at me. "Where did you come across all of these?"
I hesitated for a moment, debating how much to reveal. After all, the Room of Hidden Things wasn't exactly common knowledge among Hogwarts students, and I didn't have any relatives in the magical world to inherit things from.
"Oh, you know, various places," I replied "Nothing is stolen if that's what worries you".
Thankfully, the shopkeeper seemed more interested in the books themselves than their origin.
"Do you have any of them with you?" he asked
I had all on the list with me, there had been a few bags with expansion charms on them scattered about the Room of Hidden Things. As I began laying some of the books out the storekeeper began to examine each one carefully, sometimes muttering to himself as he flipped through the pages.
After what felt like ages, he finally looked up with a satisfied smile. He had taken longer than I'd expected for the wizard to go through the list.
He must have been weighing quite a few factors in his mind as he decided on what to buy from me, such as the state of the books, their rarity and what sort of interest he would be expecting from his customers.
"I'll give you the best price I can," the old wizard promised me as he took some of the collection of books and separated them from the others, "Some of these are out of print and I can easily find buyers for them who will want to add them to their family libraries, but some of them are a bit too common to sell for more than a few sickles to someone who just came to do some browsing".
The ones he had little interest in were old school books and I might end up putting them back in the Hidden Room because I had already copies of them in my trunk, but no matter I'd come here to make money and I had done just that.
I took the money he offered and as I pocketed the coins, I made a mental note to come back and explore the bookshop further when I had more time. Who knew what rare books hide among these shelves?
With my business concluded I bid the shopkeeper farewell and stepped back out into the bustling street. Since I didn't have unlimited time here, I headed towards Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour to pick out a treat for Luna. I would have to come and explore Diagon Alley when I had more free time.
It was then I realised that I could use floo powder to make my way back to Hogsmede, something I'd not realised before, and then just walk up to the castle rather than having the bus drop me off as close as it could to Hogwarts.
It wasn't as if I was going to tell anyone why I was out even if they saw me returning to the college. So what did it matter?
Before heading over to the fireplace within the Leaky Cauldron I stopped off at the bar to buy a couple of butterbeers as Luna also enjoyed them and they cost next to nothing.
As I did I found the Celestial Reliquary sitting on the bar and since I knew that no one would pay attention to it I saw no harm in opening the scroll and finding out what relic I could get.
400 points
+200 points
600 points
Bank or Roll?
I wrote to roll and crossed my fingers, hoping that I would get something powerful.
-600 points
0cp
Wow, that had totally cleaned me out so it had to be something good.
Black Ark - Warhammer Fantasy: Dark Elves
One of the venerable floating cities upon which Malekith and the Druchii fled Nagarythe so long ago, now turned into a vessel purely intended for war and plunder.
This Ark is filled to the brim with vicious, bloodthirsty, hardened Black Ark Corsairs, all of whom are unflinchingly loyal to you.
It also has spacious quarters for you to the scale of a small mansion, a hold that can carry incalculable tons of plunder, cells and stocks for the swift breaking of slaves, and even a clutch of ten War Hydras for more, stubborn opposition.
Any troops, or beasts, that are slain repopulate on the Ark the following day. The singular catch is that your Corsairs may only go 100 miles inland, which should be a more than fair allowance for raiding.
When I opened up the fancy box I found what could be called a ship in a bottle even if what was inside the bottle wasn't any kind of human-made seagoing vessel and the insides of the bottle were far larger than they should be.
Spoiler
What the heck was I supposed to do with a floating sea fortress full of sadistic pirates and raiders? This was the kind of thing that the non-magical people are going to notice unless it can be hidden by magic, which is something I wouldn't rule out.
Even if that was the case it wasn't as if I was going to go raiding muggle villages and towns along the coast, and if I did threaten to expose magic that way all the magical governments would come down on me.
I'd need a massive body of water hidden away just to let the ship out of the bottle. However, that wasn't impossible as the Black Lake at Hogwarts was hidden. Perhaps I could get some use out of the floating fortress.
At least the hundred miles inland limit didn't mean much as I lived on an island. But it wasn't as if I could go sailing around the world on the big ship. At least not in this world.
Was it possible for me to access other worlds with something from this fancy box?
Something to think about later. For now, I needed to get back to the castle before the ice cream melted. I could worry about the Black Ark at a later date since it was safely contained.
Defence Against The Dark Arts Class. Hogwarts Castle.
It was a close contest to decide who was my favourite teacher here at Hogwarts and the contest was between my head of house, Professor Flitwick who taught Charms and Professor Tonks who taught Defence Against the Dark Arts.
He might not be in the running for the award of the best teacher, yet I rather liked Slughorn as he was a jovial fellow and sure he had his favourites, whom he gave too much of his attention to, but he had a real passion for his subject and made sure that we knew what we were doing before we brewed a single potion.
Even Hagrid proved to better educator than expected, by not exposing first-year students to anything dangerous, making sure that we only interacted with the more cute and cuddly kind. For sure I wasn't the only student grateful for this.
While Professor McGonagall was not liked by me she was respected as she had an important subject to teach, and I recognised this, however, I found no joy in her subject, and so I wouldn't be putting much effort into it. A shame since it was a useful branch of magic, alas I could not summon any enthusiasm for it.
As for my Muggle Studies Professor, I couldn't give her much respect as she knew less about her subject than I did and she had some naive ideas about bringing muggles and magical together. She was too naive and idealist for me to take her seriously as an educator.
Tonks was by far the youngest of the teachers here at Hogwarts and she was good-looking. Although given she was a shape shifter who knew what she really looked like? She might in reality be a rather ugly woman. Yet somehow I doubted it.
Spoiler
While she was new to teaching and she was rather close to our age, Nymphadora Tonks was taken seriously as a teacher because while she'd not yet become a full Auror, having agreed to take a break in her training to teach DADA, she had been trained by Mad-Eye Moody and thus she has seen some action.
Training under Mad-Eye meant she had interesting stories to share with her students that were often rather amusing as trainee Aurors were at times sent to deal with things that were normally handled by less important members of Magical Law Enforcement. I'd picked up some useful tidbits about magical society from those stories.
Such as Dwarves were quite often involved in smuggling operations because they had trouble finding proper work since the Statue of Secrecy was enacted. Hardly shocking news given that Lockhart in the books was able to hire them to go around handing Valentine's Day cards to the students while dressed as cherubs. You had to be really desperate for money to do that sort of work.
Professor Tonks also knew her stuff, having become quite knowledgeable on the subject and she'd figured out how to ensure that no one got bored in her class.
The morning lectures were spent discussing dangerous magical creatures, but the afternoons were used for something more practical. Which only made her more popular among the students
Our DADA teacher was a big believer in showing rather than telling when it came to defending yourself with magic. So we didn't do much reading during our class nor did she lecture that much, not when she could demonstrate a spell or show us how to handle a potentially dangerous creature practically.
She'd had set up this afternoon's class so that the tables and chairs were out of the way and we all had plenty of room when it was our to fire off a spell at the training dummy.
It was one of those training dummies that looked a bit like a dark wizard and when hit by a spell it was fall over only to right itself a moment later.
Spoiler
The targets also had fake wands in their hands so we could practice the disarming charm, but Professor Tonks had decided to save that spell until the end of the school year as apparently, it was more dangerous than it might seem if you did it wrong or overpowered the spell.
I knew this to be true as I recalled what happened to Snape in the third book when he was disarmed in the Shrieking Shack, he didn't just lose his wand he was knocked out and Professor Tonks didn't want anyone to get hurt. Because of this, we had to line up and fire at the target one at a time.
"Today we are going to carry on with the Flipendo spell before moving on," said the Professor.
The Knockback Jinx (Flipendo) was a jinx that knocked the target backwards as the name strongly suggested. Before today's class, our teacher had told us to read up on the spell in Quentin Trimble's The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection, which was our Defence Against the Dark Arts textbook, since it was a simple spell there was no need to go looking for other sources of information on the jinx.
"Mostly this spell is used for duelling" explained our teacher "But it can be useful for knocking down an attacker giving you time to flee or to get help".
I'd heard some less-than-polite remarks from a couple of Gryffindors who seemed to think doing anything else other than standing your ground was unforgivable cowardice. I suspected that should Voldemort return to power those lads wouldn't be around when the fighting stopped.
Luna and I ended up at the back of the queue having taken seats at the back of the classroom.
"I'll be going home for half term" Luna informed me.
Aside from the two-week Xmas and Easter breaks we also had time off for half term, and at Hogwarts the first short break was at Halloween. While most of the students stayed in the castle some would go home and Luna was one of them.
I had nowhere to go as while I could go live within the Black Ark if I deployed it somewhere, I had no way of hiding the floating fortress from either the magical people or the non-magical.
The kind of magic required to hide something the size of a castle was well beyond me and would be for many years. Since I had no idea if the Black Ark had its ways of hiding without first deploying it I couldn't risk exposing its existence.
This would change one day I felt sure, and for now I was quite comfortable here in this magical castle and who knew what the Celestial Reliquary would give me in the future. I might end up owning some property.
While the Celestial Reliquary had been dormant for a couple of weeks, I wasn't concerned as I was learning magic quite quickly and I still had my plan to backpack around during the summer.
If that didn't work out then I would have to rent a room at the Leaky Cauldron. As such there was no need for me to worry about ending up on the street.
"Darius, were you planning on going to Halloween Dance?" I was asked by Heather Potter.
Hogwarts had three dances per year. The Halloween Dance, the Yule Ball and the Spring Fling, one per term took place when there weren't any classes.
"I wasn't planning on it," I said "I can't dance".
She hid it well, but I could see her deflate a little when she realised that I was not planning on going.
"You don't have to dance," pointed out Ginny Weasley "There's a big dinner first and everyone will be wearing costumes".
I wasn't one for such social events, but when Heather Potter looked at me with her pretty green eyes, I caved in.
"Heather, will you go to the Halloween Dance with me?" I asked.
She hadn't gotten clingy after the first one and during the date she'd been rather relaxed so I didn't think she would get upset if we didn't become a couple after a second date.
"Of course I will" she replied "I've already started working on my costume".
Costumes would be mandatory so it was good that with the help of older students, it should be possible to transfigure something to wear, or maybe the piles of clothing in the Room of Requirement had something suitable.
As for the young Miss Potter, she moved away to discuss something with Ginny. I had no doubt they would want to chat about what they would be wearing for the social event. I didn't try to overhear such boring talk.
"I was thinking of inviting you to stay at my place over the break" mentioned Luna once were alone again "Would you like to stay at mine for Christmas?".
That Luna asked me this shouldn't be so surprising, she was the kind of person who got attached to others rather quickly and we'd been hanging out together quite a bit for weeks.
"I'll think about it," I said.
The Lovegoods were an odd lot and I was worried about what they might get up to for Xmas. They weren't the Addams family level of strange, however, I didn't want to end up at Luna's place for two weeks with nothing to do.
"Olle you're up next!" called out the Professor.
I went to face the dummy and I shifted my body to present the most narrow profile possible. Since I was ahead of where I should be I had no trouble with this spell. I made a little tick in the air with my wand and muttered the word Flipendo.
As expected the training dummy flipped over before righting itself, now ready to be struck again.
"Fire off some red sparks for me" instructed the teacher "I want to hear you pronounce the spell".
Red sparks were a well-known wizard signal for distress and the spell could also be used to distract an enemy by blinding them for a moment.
"Vermillious!" I called out.
The red spark spell struck the dummy and soon I was making way for the next student. Luna just had to fire off some pink sparks to be different.
Once we had all fired off both spells and were told what spell we would be learning next, which would research in advance in our own time, we were dismissed from the class.
"Do you want to walk on the grounds before dinner?" inquired Luna.
I wondered what Heather Potter made of my friendship with Luna, did she see the hippy girl as a competition or was Heather not that invested in dating? It wasn't my concern I was just curious.
"Let me grab my coat and we'll go for a walk," I said.
Luna would want to chat about something and point out some interesting creatures, and I wanted to avoid getting too lazy so I would wander the grounds with her.
Once I got back to my dorm I found the Celestial Reliquary waiting for me. It had moved from where I had left it and now sat on my bed. With the scroll resting on top, waiting for me to read it.
"I haven't seen you for a while" I commented.
0cp
+200cp
Bank or Roll
I debated saving my points but I hadn't had a roll for a while I wouldn't mind something new to check out.
- 100cp
100cp
Treasure Map - Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
A red scroll opens to reveal a random location with a single red X located on it. And I do mean random, as it could be pretty much anywhere. The only real guarantee is that it's going to be somewhere in the ocean. Find where the X is in real life, and you'll find some treasure. Might be a neat magical artefact, or just some cash. The map changes a week after you find a treasure.
As I looked for the scroll inside the Celestial Reliquary I picked Azura's Star and someone spoke to me.
"Greetings Mage," said a strange-sounding voice.
Even in the Wizarding World hearing voices wasn't a good thing.
"Hello?" I asked, "Who are you?".
Why was the Daedric Artefact talking to me? And why had it changed coloured becoming blackened?
"I am Malyn Varen," said the star.
It took me a few moments to realise what was going on here. Then I recalled that Malyn Varen was a Skyrim character who sought to find a way to become immortal, and he believed that storing his soul in Azura's Star would prevent him from dying.
This had to be some sort of mistake as the scroll hadn't mentioned that the Star was occupied. Whatever was behind the fancy box had either somehow made a mistake or had done this on purpose to screw with me.
"What do you want?" I asked.
If this was some trick to get me to switch places with the soul in the Star then he would have to find some other mook.
"I wish for someone to talk to" admitted the mage "I've been stuck in this soul gem for so long and truth be told immortality is boring. I can sense you are a mage so I have decided to teach you if only to pass the time".
Of course, I was curious about what this mage could teach me, but I was also going to be careful as I didn't want to end up like Ginny in the second book/movie. On the other hand, I'm not a little girl, and nothing else from the Celestial Reliquary had done me any harm so why would the star?
"I'll get back to you," I told Varen.
He wasn't going anywhere and before I considered learning from a man I knew to be a dark arts user I would need to take some precautions. I also had this cool new map to check out that promised to lead me to more interesting relics and perhaps some proper wealth.
Part 14.
Room of Requirement. Hogwarts Castle.
Once more I had returned to the Room of Hidden Things. This time I was here to find something that the Treasure Map I'd recently acquired from the Celestial Reliquary had led me to rather than just looking around to see what I could find.
What I'd found within this special space was a Giant's Helm.
Spoiler
Which was an abnormally large combat helmet made from some sort of metal, suitable only for a giant to wear and would have been worn during one of the many conflicts between giants and wizards.
Such battles were not something I knew much about, as I'd not studied any Wizarding history, but I vaguely recalled mention of such things in the books as something Binns managed to make sound very boring despite how thrilling tales of such wars can be.
I was under the impression that giants of this world weren't very bright, so I was surprised by the quality of workmanship that had gone into the helmet. Perhaps the goblins, who were known for their metalwork, had forged the helm for some giant to help them in their wars against wizards, for reasons that made sense to them.
It was also shocking to have missed the helm when I'd been sorting out the contents of this room. I'd done so because it had somehow gotten buried under a pile of parts from broken suits of armour. This meant other valuables might be hidden in this room despite my efforts to uncover them.
At the same time, I was a little disappointed that the Treasure Map hadn't led me anywhere new and it wasn't as if I could wear the helm so unless someone wanted to buy it was worthless to me. I figured that if I ever got a home then I could put it on display if nothing else.
Hopefully, the Treasure Map will lead to something more interesting in the future as it was supposed to reset a week after I claimed a treasure it led me to. It gave me something to look forward to.
For now, I was going to see if the huge helm counted as a relic by floating it over to the Celestial Reliquary which had appeared when I needed it.
The headwear did indeed grow smaller, enough that it could easily fit inside the Celestial Reliquary and I knew from experience that the helm could be fixed of any damage while being kept safe in the fancy magical box.
I checked the fancy scroll to see what it had to say about my newest relic.
Giant's Helm - Harry Potter
Goliath wished he'd had one of these when he'd faced David. This helm, forged by goblins and worn by giants during their wars against wizards adds to the resistance of the wearer to spells as well as more physical attacks.
While looking inside the Celestial Reliquary I saw the version of Asura's Star that contained the dark wizard Malyn Varen. This wasn't the version of the Daedric artefact that I'd started with and I wondered why it had been changed.
I recalled that when I started my new life, which was still something weird to think about, I'd been informed by the scroll that I was beta-testing the Celestial Reliquary. As such it made sense that someone or something out there would tweak things as they tested out Celestial Reliquary on me.
There was no desire within me to complain about this, even if I'd had anyone to whine at, as whoever was behind all of this had taken me out of an unimportant life and made me a wizard who got free magical objects.
An old expression about gift horses and mouths came to mind.
"Have you considered my offer, mage?" asked Malyn Varen.
So far nothing I'd gotten from the Celestial Reliquary had done me or anyone harm and I didn't think the Star would either no matter who was in it. Not unless I allowed it to.
Besides, having insane evil teachers here at Hogwarts wasn't at all odd. Dumbledore was at the very least a bit loopy and outside of the staff the caretaker Finch kept a collection of shackles in his office.
"What can you even teach me?" I asked the artefact.
I have conquered mortality itself. I've spat in the eyes of the Daedric Lords!" Malyn Varen declared.
The voice stopped for a moment and then spoke again in a calmer tone of voice.
"Sorry about that, old habits die hard," he said "I can teach you much young, mage".
Malyn Varen was sounding a little too much like a megalomaniac dark lord to me.
"Tell me how you ended up in the Star" I requested.
I'd gone through this quest so I knew the basics. Malyn Varen was a necromancer who'd cheat death by having his soul enter Asura's Star, and the Dragonborn had to go into the Star to slay him.
That part of the quest had always confused me a bit because you can't soul trap dragons and the whole point of the Dovahkiin is that he or she is a mortal with the soul of a dragon.
If you could soul trap dragons you wouldn't need a Dragonborn to go around slaying them because you could just do it yourself and then stash the filled soul gem somewhere or use it to enchant something and then Alduin couldn't bring the dragon back to life.
"My tale begins many years ago," said Malyn Varen.
Malyn explained to me how he was exiled from the College of Winterhold for pursuing controversial research with Soul Gems, which resulted in him killing a student.
Hearing this tale reminded me of how Grindelwald was expelled from Drumstang for performing some sort of experiments within the school. This made me even more wary of the Dark Elf.
Varen sought to find a way to become immortal, and he believed that storing his soul in Azura's Star would prevent him from dying. The problem with this is that one of the properties of the Star is that no humanoid soul could enter it.
I knew enough of Elder Scrolls lore to understand that the souls of mortals such as elves, men and the beast races are different than the souls of animals you need a special kind of Soul Gem to capture their spirits.
Valen began working on changing how the relic worked while still at the college, Azura cursed him. The owner of the Daedric artefact drove Malyn insane, causing him to hallucinate more and more until he murdered one of the students at the college.
For this, he was understandably expelled, whereupon he gathered a band of followers and continued his research elsewhere.
He achieved this goal to some extent, trapping his soul in the artefact and avoiding having to go to the afterlife, however, to sustain this existence he had to be provided with souls from the outside, and I didn't think they'd been giving him the spirits of animals to fuel his unnatural existence.
If he'd been doing anything else with all the power he'd been gaining from those souls he didn't mention it to me.
"But I haven't been feeding you any souls" I pointed out.
I wouldn't do so even know how to do that.
"Since the Star found its way into this chest of yours I've not needed to feed, and my mind has become clear again," Varen told me.
The Varen the Dragonborn meets within the Star had been driven mad by Azura. It seemed as if this was a more mentally healthy version of the Dark Elf, who without the need to feed didn't have anything else to occupy his time with.
"I was a teacher once, and I wish to be again" stated Varen
Not that this was comforting by any means as Voldemort had once come to this very college looking for a teaching job. Being an educator did not make you a good person.
Even if Varen was not trying to trick me into taking his place within this Star or trying to consume my soul, his knowledge could be dangerous if misused.
"I don't want to discuss Necromancy or Conjuration" I stated.
By summoning them I could end up inviting the Daedra into a new plane of existence. Granted this wasn't Nirn, and this universe worked by different rules so a planemeld was unlikely to be possible, but why take that risk?
Having wizards battle the Daedra as Oblivion Gates appeared all over the world, would be very cool to read about in a story I'd rather not be here while it was happening.
As for Necromancy, well anyone who practised the dark arts never had a happy ending and I had no desire to end up in Azkaban. No, it would be best to focus on more acceptable forms of magic.
Aside from the moral and legal concerns, there were only so many hours in a week and I'd rather not spread myself too thin by having so many lessons even if my electives were a breeze.
I had a lot to hide and this world was far more dangerous than it seemed, so I could see myself falling into the temptation to use the dark arts to protect myself only to become corrupted in some way. I was too genre-savvy to allow it to ever happen.
"Very well, I am an expert in the school of Destruction and Illusion magic," said Varen.
Now that got my attention.
"Can you teach me to shoot lightning from my fingertips?" I asked.
Even if Valen couldn't see the eagerness that must be written on my face he'd no doubt have heard it in my voice.
"I can, but calling upon the power of the storm in such a manner is dangerous" he warned "You would be wiser to channel such energies through a magical staff as I do as it lessens the risk of having the power redirected back at you".
Well, I had the Staff of Magnus for that sort of thing, and if watching Palpatine on screen had taught me anything it was that you don't want your lightening attack reflected back at you.
"We can start lessons soon," I said to the dark wizard "Right now I need to find something I can use as a Halloween costume".
There was bound to be something within these piles of clothing I could wear. If not I would need to go down to Hogsmeade and spend some of my limited money on something to wear.
"What is Halloween?" Varen asked.
I wondered how to answer that question.
"Halloween is the night of the year when we dress up and eat too many sweets" I explained, dumbing it down as much as possible "I am escorting a young lady to this event and so I need to put together a decent costume. It's traditional to dress up as some something scary or fantastic".
I was thinking of dressing up as a pirate. Wizards had to know about pirates.
"Enjoy your frolics," said Varen "You know where to find me when you are ready to begin your studies".
As soon as he'd finished speaking the fancy scroll appeared in my hand and I opened it.
100cp
+200cp
300cp
Bank or Roll
Since I was currently in the Room of Requirement, and I'd failed two rolls while in this space I decided to bank my points and wait. It might be a while until I got my next roll, but I'd have 500 points by them so I should be able to afford something decent.
"Bank," I said as I wrote it down.
300 points
With that done I went back to looking for some suitable materials for my outfit. I should be able to use the Staff of Magnus to remove any magic from one of the swords kept here and then after a good cleaning, it would go well with my outfit.
Part 15.
The Great Hall. Hogwarts Castle.
"What are you suppose to be?" Heather asked.
As planned we met in the great hall and by the looks of things the Halloween Dance was already starting. The tables normally occupied by the students had been removed and smaller tables had been placed along one wall to hold all of the food, leaving plenty of room for people to dance or just stand about.
The tables were covered in the sort of food you'd expect at a Halloween party, bowls of sweets, applies that had been coated in something surgery, along with a truly startling amount of pumpkin foods such as pumpkin pie, and pasties. Far more so than was normal even here at Hogwarts.
Lucky for me there were some foods here that I didn't mind eating such as honey cakes, candy corn and other treats, so I wouldn't go hungry. There was also plenty to drink on offer, the drinking age being 17 in the magical world.
Thanks to hangover potions and other magical medical treatments the wand-waving humans of this didn't need to worry about younger people drinking too much.
I was impressed by the decorations as aside from the carved pumpkins, some of which floated about, they had skeletons here, not made from real bones, that would get up and move about, doing things like shaking people's hands. Once in a while, a bat decoration would come to life and fly above our heads before sticking to a wall as decoration again.
Amidst the revelry, I couldn't help but marvel at the creativity and ingenuity of the magical world. From the elaborate decorations to the enchanted treats, every detail had been carefully crafted to delight and enchant. It would be a night to remember and a good reminder that not everything in the wizarding world was about politics, blood purity and dark lords.
"Ah lass, I be a pirate," I told her.
I looked more like the swashbuckler of a romantic tale than a real pirate, but that was okay I wasn't planning on raiding the seven seas, even though that was an option since I possessed a fully staffed Black Ark.
"Are you going to plunder her booty?" asked an older female student who I didn't know.
Rather than answer that I kept my attention on Heather.
"Wha' did ye dress as, lass?" I questioned.
Heather did a little twirl for me.
"I'm an auror" she explained "Professor Tonks made them sound real badass".
Defence Against the Dark Arts was her favourite lesson. I'd noticed that rather early on. Heather was rather good at the practical stuff and our DADA teacher was a big believer in learning by doing.
"Ye might 'ave t' arrest me since I be a pirate," I said.
Heather was amused.
"Only if you're a magical pirate," she pointed out "Aurors have no jurisdiction over muggle criminals".
Since this was a sort of date Heather and I walked around the hall holding hands and I noticed that the sound of the music was dampened by some sort of magic unless you went onto the dance floor. This allowed people to talk with each other without having to yell.
I saw some students bobbing for apples, a pastime in the Muggle parts of this world on this night as well as the magical.
"They make a big deal of this night in the Wizarding World" Heather commented "It wasn't like this when I was growing up in Surry".
It had been the same for me. Some people made an effort for the holiday, but in the UK Halloween was not a big deal like it seemed to be for the Americans in all their shows and movies.
"Aye aye," I agreed.
We talked for a while, or rather she did most of the talking, as Heather ate an impressive amount of snacks for such a small person. Which made me wonder if she'd been starved when younger or if she just had a great metabolism.
As time passed her friend Ginny came over and I was a little surprised to find that she'd managed to get Neville Longbottom to come along as her date.
I'd figured that she encouraged Heather to go on another date with me if only to make sure there were fewer girls available for Longbottom when he needed a date. I hoped the fan girl had done anything drastic to remove any potential rivals.
"You're an Auror and Darius is a pirate you've arrested," guessed the Boy-Who-Lived.
Seeing that lightning bolt scar on the head of someone who wasn't Harry Potter was a strange sight. It helped to drive home that this was an alternate universe more than even the students all being older.
I was also surprised to hear that he knew my name given that we'd never spoken to each other. Perhaps Ginny had mentioned who I was since I was here with Heather who was her friend.
"Right ye be," I told him.
The terrible accent wasn't going away just yet.
"Let me guess you are both Quidditch stars" said Heather.
It wasn't hard to see given that they were wearing team uniforms belonging to someone other than their house. Beyond that, I didn't have a clue who they were supposed to be.
"Ron dressed like this too," said Ginny "Only he's still under the impression that the Chudly Cannons are worth supporting".
Longbottom looked around to see if anyone was paying us any attention.
"We're going to check out the Forbidden Forest," the Chosen One said as he leaned in "Do you want to come along".
That sounded like both the mother and grandmother of all stupid ideas and only a group of Gryffindors would think that going into a forest, known to be the home of monsters, at night on Halloween was at all a good time.
"Sounds like fun," said Heather.
I was about to refuse but then I remembered it was indeed Halloween and something bad always happens to Harry Potter on Halloween. If I let her go along as if she got hurt I'd feel bad about it. I had become somewhat fond of her.
"Yarr" was all I had to say on the matter.
Heather was still amused by my commitment to the act and smirked at me as we made our way out of the Great Hall. Despite the size of the grounds we made quick progress and while the moon was bright it wasn't full (which was a good thing since werewolves were a thing in this world) so we lit up our wands to light the path.
"We're only going to edge, right?" asked Ron Weasley.
He was here with a girl I knew to be Lavander Brown, as she had a bit of a reputation for going through boys like another girl would go through a box of chocolates. She was known for getting clingy very quickly with new boyfriends and fussing over them.
My thinking was that the relationships burned hot and then burned out as things began to calm down which resulted in coming off as suffocating. I suspected she'd be happier if someone gave her a puppy as a dog would attentive and always ready to give affection.
"I'm sure Neville will protect us," said Lavender.
Chosen one or not I wasn't going to depend on him to protect me.
"Yeah we'll just go to the edge" said Neville "Now stop acting like a Hufflepuff, Ron".
As we made our way towards the edge of the Forbidden Forest, I noticed how the air grew cooler, and the rustling of leaves as the wind picked up became somehow sinister. I couldn't help wondering if something bad was about to happen or if we were being set up as part of a prank.
Yet despite my reservations about venturing into the forest, or even just its edge, I couldn't help but feel a thrill of excitement, this was a bit of a rush, and it had been a long time since I'd felt like this.
In contrast to Ron Weasley and Lavender Brown, the latter of whom I was guessing had dressed up as some magical version of a nurse, Ginny and Neville led the way confidently. Their wands were illuminating the path ahead, while Ron, Lavender, Heather, and I followed closely behind.
As we reached the edge of the Forbidden Forest I couldn't help feeling that the towering trees seemed to loom over us, casting long shadows that danced around due to the light of our wands were giving off.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" I whispered to Heather as I dropped the pirate accent.
She glanced at me with a mischievous grin.
"Where's your sense of adventure, Darius" she teased "Besides, what's the worst that could happen?".
I shot her a sceptical look as those were famous last words, but I decided to keep my doubts to myself. I was a Ravenclaw, not a Gryffindor reckless action was not something we were known for, yet if I left I would feel guilty if anything happened to them.
I wasn't the most emotionally available person, but I wasn't an unfeeling monster either.
"Do you hear that?" Neville whispered.
We strained our ears, and faintly, in the distance, we could hear the sound of something other than the movement of the leaves or our heavy breathing. It was something of a chittering noise, unlike anything I'd ever heard before.
"What is it?" Neville stammered, his voice barely above a whisper.
Without warning a massive spider came charging right at us.
Spoiler
I felt Heather press herself around me as the monster impacted into a shield that suddenly appeared around us. The spider, which could be nothing other than one of the spawns of Aragog, had hit the shield so hard that it must have been injured. It was moving slowly as it backed off.
"Do something!" I heard a girl call out.
I had my wand in my hand so I used the Knockback Jinx on the spider. That seemed to discourage the predator and we made a run for it not stopping until we were back inside the castle. Our young bodies had a lot more stamina than I was used to and I was impressed by how far we ran.
"How did you make that shield?" asked Heather.
We were now in the antechamber and while my mind was racing a sudden thought entered my mind that got my attention. I recalled how the danger encountered by Harry Potter on Halloween was a sign of trouble to come. I'd have preferred the petrified cat to be honest.
So it seemed like the spiders were going to be an issue for the entire year or maybe there was something worse in the Forbidden Forest and the spider attacking us was just a sign of them getting desperate for food or they were near the edge because something had driven them from their home deeper in the forest.
"I don't know," I said.
At first, I didn't but then I recalled how the Staff of Magnus was in a pouch of holding, not that they were called that here, at my side and it was supposed to be able to protect its holder.
"Excuse me I need a drink" I said.
I re-entered the Great Hall and as I was pouring myself a flagon of meed I noticed that the fancy box was back. Once more it was noticed by anyone other than myself.
300 points
+200 points
500 points
Bank or Roll?
After tonight I deserved a roll so I wrote for one.
- 400 points
100 points
Ring of Wizardry - Elder Scrolls
A gold ring with the image of the Mage constellation emblazoned upon it. While wearing this enchanted ring, you will find that not only are the magicka cost of all spells reduced, allowing you to use more spells than before, but it will also double their potency, making them twice as powerful as before.
Even with the Staff of Magnus a ring which makes my spells less taxing to cast and makes my spells stronger was most certainly something I wanted.
By now I was feeling a bit calmer so I decided to put on the ring, pour Heather a drink, and carry on with my date.