Aftter giving Sirius the shock of his life, Cassius received one of his own in return.
When they returned to Grimauld Place, package in hand.
He entered what could only be described as a hedonists palace.
In their absence somehow Sirius had gotten word back and transformed Grimwald place into a scene of excess and debauchery to celebrate his godsons achievements.
According to Sirius who chuckled and cackled walking through the door they'd be partying it up till dawn!
An over the top celebration in his honor.
Which is exactly why Cassius quietly slipped out minutes after entering the scene.
He waited until Sirius was in the middle of a dramatic retelling of "—and THEN he stunned the Romanian so hard his shoes flew off!", then quietly eased open a window in the library, slipping outside before he vanished into the city.
With none of the partygoers being any the wiser that he wasnt even there.
~
Through the use of disillusionment charms and his own Aeriusbolt broom, Cassius quickly navigated the countryside until he reached the location he was looking for.
But before he landed with a flick of his wand, his features blurred—cheekbones reshaped, height increased by four inches, irises darkened, scars added, hair lengthened.
A perfect, flawless, no-potion-needed polyjuice-level transfiguration of himself.
Looking something more like a character out of a video game than someone who should exist in the real world today.
Taking a simple look in a pocket mirror, Cassius saw the roughly 30 year old self, staring back at him.
"Good enough."
Tonight, he wasn't Cassius Snape.
He was Arcana.
He'd sent this group hundreds of letters, possibly thousands by now.
Blueprints.
Proposals.
Magical theories that made Department of Mysteries employees quietly swear into their coffee mugs.
But he had never visited in person, remaining ever an enigma and silent boss to the entire research institute.
Until now.
Having arrived at a plot of countryside that was privately owned, by one of his many shell companies, but secretly housed the location of the Arcanum, his magical company seeking to bring the magical world out of the rut they've fallen into due to arogance and ignorance.
Using a key that had been in his possession since the beginning but had never used, Cassius inserted the key into the front door lock.
*Click*
and with that simple twist of his wrist a series of magical spells inside were set off.
The building served a dual purpose, just like how you could see the same with the empire state building in the movie Magical Beasts.
Muggles and wizards shared this space.
And in more ways than one they also collaborated with one another as well.
Cassius's goal afterall was to merge magical with muggle to bring out the best of both their worlds.
~
Entering the magical side of the organization Cassius could simply say he was shocked.
He'd read reports sure, and heard updates from the muggleborn students who were sponsored by him, but actually seeing the results of almost a decade of planning and plotting was something else entirely.
It was like the arcanum was alive.
Perhaps not even just metaphorically.
Cassius had been to places of magical ability, such as the Ministry, Diagon Alley, Hogsmede, even Hogwarts and yet the Arcanum put all of those places to shame.
Magic was practically brimming in the air enough so that you could feel it, like going on a vacation to Mexico when you can actually feel the air due to the dense humidity.
The many ideas and proposals put forth by Cassius both from future knowledge, and just drawing upon the Muggle worlds own expansive immagination, saw the rise of many new magical implements.
Standing as guards at the front door were a row of 'statues' though these were all actually Golems.
Composed of Bronze-Alloy, and Iron-Alloy giving them magical resistance were the first line of defence to protect the many other projects going on inside the structure.
Arcana 'Cassius' walked the halls, pleased to see the Magical researchers had taken to his desire for a clean and organized space, as they all walked around wearing white labcoats that looked only a little bit like their desired robes.
Labs were setup and sectioned off from one another to prevent the possible interference of one project impacting or causing the failure of another.
At the moment the Arcanum is Great Britains largest magical corporation, possibly already the largest in the entire world.
Dozens if not hundreds of research projects were actively being studied and tested even as he roamed the halls now.
Stopping at one in particular.
~
Aeriusbolt Supreme Testing Room
A door slid open to the left.
Inside, wizards hovered around a sleek broom design—black, silver, elegant—its handle humming with contained lightning.
The head researcher was mid-rant:
"No, no, NO! If we reduce drag on the bristle array by another twelve percent, the acceleration becomes unsafe for anyone without reinforced skeletal charms—WE ARE NOT ACCIDENTALLY INVENTING A HUMAN-LAUNCH CATAPULT AGAIN!"
Cassius's lips twitched.
Again?
He gave his researcher a pretty wide margin of freedom, but hearing their words had him thinking about possibly putting in some minor restrictions to prevent possible harm in the line of duty.
But the fact that they were actually willing to stand in their very own pursuit of progress due to these cases was also uplifting to his soul.
Usually wizards would have just dubbed the loss of life especiially with looking into something new as the cost that was required to get there.
Seeing the broom they were all crowed around, Cassius grinned, by the time the world cup came, that would no doubt be his broom.
And if he was to play against Victor Krum and his Firebolt broom, lets see who really is the best seeker in the world then?
~
The next couple of rooms he visited had Cassius thinking he was touring Willy Wonka's factory as the Magical Television division, was currently experimenting with using a television as a medium to send sample products to wizarding houses through the use of a disaparating in combination with the Gemini charm magical adverts could sent samples of their products right to households to test out before actually selling them.
The same could be said about the Magical surveilance project, as the wireless camera systems were already operational in the testing field, but using magic and imbedded charms, these cameras were almost sentient themselves possessing an almost artificial intelligence, making them capable of recognizing individuals, tracking suspects, and even setting off defences in the event of a recognized threat.
Of course when presented these camera's were rejected by the Ministry.
They afterall felt being watched all the time to be unnerving and made the very corrupt ministry officials shudder to think how much dirt could come to light if these Camera's were adopted.
~
The last room he chose to visit was one of his probably favorite subjects brought before the Arcanum researchers.
One that had been bringing in experts in wandlore, even getting a special visit from Garrick Ollivander himself.
The project was the discussion between Wands, Staves, and Staffs.
This thought came to Cassius from a Fanfiction he'd read back when he was still in school, when it came to the current magical world, wands were the staple tool, while staves were rare, and staffs were non-existent.
But if you could use Wandlore to craft a staves, why couldnt you stretch the creation further to create a staff?
And if the wandcore itself was larger couldnt the tool then allow greater magic to pass through it?
For example a wand being a great tool for beginners or smaller cases of magic, while staves are greater tool, meant for less intricate or personalized magic designed more to project AOE magic, and them lastly staffs, a tool of unimaginabel destruction focused on power almost to the point of insanity, with the purpose of casing widespread far reaching magic affecting entire battlefields or regions.
The progress had been going well, staves were practically rolling off the assembly line as it were, but for Staffs...
Well five had been created using Cassius's drawings of the five wizard staffs from LOTR as a reference but they were as of yet incomplete.
The wood, runes, and cores had been completed but the magical gems to be crowned atop the staffs well those were still missing.
Magical gems were afterall one of the most rare resources of the entire magical world afterall, coupling that with the fact one needed to be compatible with the chosen wood and core combination of the staff itself.
~
As his tour of the active projects came and went, Cassius retired to 'his' office.
The Grandmasters sanctum, in which he had holographic screen capable of showing him the status of all the projects currently either just beginning or even completed within the Arcanum at this time;
Arcane propulsion
Mana circuitry
Spell theory optimization
Harmonic casting
Magical materials research
Enchanted robotics
Dimensional stabilization
Aeriusbolt development
Witch-broadcaster prototypes
Arcanum security systems
Adaptive resonance wands
This—this organization, barely ten years old—was already more innovative than the Ministry's last hundred years combined.
More funded.
More focused.
More brilliant.
More dangerous.
Cassius folded his arms.
The department of mysteries might still hold their secrets… those held from the ancient past still being rediscovered to this day.
But the Arcanum wields knowledge the Ministry doesn't even have words for yet.
And it all ran on the designs he'd quietly mailed in under his alias.
He smiled beneath his disguise.
Not a cruel smile.
Not a boastful one.
A satisfied one.
Knowledge is power.
And right now?
He had more than anyone.