The morning light slipped through the blinds in pale bars as Cassius awakened.
The haze of travel and training clung to his limbs.
He stretched, wincing, his mind already humming with calculations.
Noctis shifted beside him, blinking.
Cassius patted her feathers soothingly.
"We're going to be going on a trip today, and we wont be home again for quite a while i think."
He gathered his things: the messenger bag, wand holster, robes (the sets from Madam Malkin), his complete set of writing works from the magical world, as well as a thick stack of notebooks and pens from the muggle one.
His pockets contained just enough gold for incidentals, with a company credit card in case he needed it along with a sizeable amount of Euro's to buy anything he might need from the muggle world.
He locked the condo door behind him and descended into the street.
The cab ride to the bus station was long but uneventful.
The driver eyed the child in fine robes and the tall cage on the seat beside him, shaking his head as though supposing some extravagant rich brat.
Cassius said nothing, only offered payment in crisp bills, and the driver's suspicions melted into assumption.
At the station, he boarded a first‑class coach bound for the coast.
He sat alone in a plush seat, the windows wide, letting the patchwork of English countryside roll by.
At intervals, he closed his eyes and whispered Lumos under his breath.
The glow flickered at his wand's tip.
Progress, even incremental was still better than no progress at all.
Hours passed.
The bus rolled through market towns, under overcast skies, until at last he disembarked near Dover.
The Channel ferry loomed ahead, hull dark in the mist.
He carried his bag and the cage, boarded and claimed a private cabin.
The ferry's engine throbbed, and outside the sea stretched gray and restless.
Inside the cabin, Cassius closed the door and set his bag on a seat.
He unpacked one of his history tomes, flicked through pages— magical history specifically as his chosen destination was one hidden from the general public but a story almost everyone in his parents generation would know if it werent for Voldemort himself.
He read as land slipped away behind the porthole, the water burning its wake under the ferry's hull.
At nightfall, the ferry docked at Calais.
Cassius disembarked into damp air and boarded a sleek train heading east.
He settled into his private compartment—small bed, desk, window curtained—but elegant, quiet.
The rails hummed as the train sped across France, into Germany, past forests and fields, the world shifting with the hour.
He used idle times—when the compartment was dark, when the train passed through tunnels—to quietly practice Alohomora and Nox, the spells his training wand still allowed, using all the stored magic within as soon as it was available to gather up experience points to train his spellcraft and skills.
The status window glowed faintly in his mind, registering experience for each partial, and successful casting.
In a brief stop at a station café, Cassius slipped out with his bag.
He bought a simple meal—bread, cheese, water—and returned to the train.
A steward passed him without question; the child in first class with designer clothes invited no suspicion, as none wanted to be on a rich industrialists bad side.
During the journey, he also sent a mental command to his idle slot: train Lumos continuously.
The clone remained silent, woven into shadow, doing its unseen work, even while he himself practiced spells.
At dawn the train crossed into Eastern Europe.
The landscape changed—rolling plains, distant mountains, villages of steep roofs.
Cassius leaned against the glass, fingers stroking his wand.
His mind cycled through the strategy ahead: He was going to get himself enlisted as a disciple or trainee under the greatest wizard of their generation.
He wondered as well if people abroad knew of Arcana.
Probably not yet, since the magical world generally didnt share much knowledge between themselves.
The hardest thing about this trip would be locating the prison of his future teacher, that and convincing him to actually take him on as a disciple in the first place.
Late in the afternoon, the train slowed as it approached a border station.
Guards at the platform passed in shadowy uniforms; Cassius did not step out.
He stayed in his compartment, drawn curtains, the cage dark by his feet.
When the port of call arrived, Cassius disembarked into a foreign station.
Words on signs unfamiliar to him, still using the Latin alphabet but with words so foreign you'd almost think the language was gibberish for someone who spoke only english, people speaking in tongues he did not know, but with such speech that it almost sounded agressive.
He regarded it with a thrill.
This was no tourist trip.
This was the start of his real campaign.
He hired a carriage to take him to a secure lodging he'd prearranged using shell identities, heavily using a German dictionary to mumble his way through getting his request understood.
The driver eyed the owl cage warily but accepted euro's without question.
Eventually arriving at his designated Chalet within the Austrian Alps, he could finally take a break and just smile at the world he was seeing for the first time.
In his previous life he had never left North America, and yet now after only a few years he had already travelled almost the entire length of Europe having passed through a half dozen nations in the process.
Once inside the lodging—a modest but private cabin—Cassius locked the doors and drew the curtains.
He opened his bag, laid out his tomes, and sat cross‑legged.
Noctis hopped down from her perch to circle him, then settled nearby.
He called up the status window in his mind.
Magic: still 107 (unchanged)
Charms: Level 0
Lumos: Level 1
Nox: Level 1
Alohomora: Level 1
A small smile touched his lips.
The training wand had held him through its full repertoire, and thanks to his repeated training and use of the systems idle slot, he had managed to raise all his spellcraft to a novice level, the time he failed to cast the spell with his training wand was now rare, while the successful casting was more stable and brighter for the lighting charm.
He closed the mental menu.
Settling into his new temporary home.
But he wouldnt be staying here for long, since starting tommorow he would begin his investigation.
Probing the vast Austrian alps for the secret magical location of one of the worlds most formidable prisons.
Cassius Snape, the boy who no one wanted to live, was going to conduct the investigation of a lifetime.
He would search for and hopefully located Nurmengard, and in doing so alter the course of history by learning from the wizard who could go toe-to-toe with Albus Dumbledore.