Vita Magicis (HP SI-WC) (Patreon)

Chapter 17: Trip to the Alley

(Following Day)

With Harry and Rose now safely living with Sirius, it was time for me to handle the last problem that might come up in the future once Dumbledore eventually learns that the twins are no longer living with the Dursleys.

That is of course if the old fool doesn’t already know.

For that reason, I now found myself in the Ministry of Magic. Standing across from Fudge with Asako and Ilulu at my sides who were both wearing cloaks over their forms giving them a slightly sinister appearance.

I obviously was in disguise as well using my Appearance Change perk to turn myself into an unassuming middle-aged man with brown hair and brown eyes.

Using Satou’s abilities, I had teleported us here with the wards in place doing nothing to stop me probably due to apparition and my teleportation skill being different abilities so the wards couldn’t detect us.

As if sensing our presence, the man looked up from whatever he was looking at on his desk and jerked back in his seat in surprise.

“W-who are you? How did you get here?” Fudge let out with a stutter as his arm immediately went for the wand at his desk.

“Pick up that little toy of yours and you lose an eye.” Or tried to at least as Asako was immediately at his back with a knife pointed at his face making him freeze in place.

“D-do you k-know whom it is you’re t-threatening? I could have all of you kissed for this!” Fudge attempted to threaten us with false bravado only to fail spectacularly as his body betrayed him and trembled in fear.

“Pipe down old man.” I was quick to respond to the man before Asako, or worse Ilulu, killed the man in the most painful way possible for threatening me. Those two were shall we say very protective of me and going by the slight tensing of their bodies I had just saved the man’s life.

Taking a closer look at me Fudge made to respond before going silent and looking at me in confusion blinking his eyes a few times. “Who… Who are you?” This time when he spoke it came out more as a whisper.

“Tsk, you should be more respectful worm.” Asako suddenly hissed menacingly in Fudge’s ear making him yelp in fear. “Do you have any idea whom stands before you?”

“Huhuhu it can’t be helped that such a lowly creature doesn’t recognize his superiors Asako-san. He is only human after all.” Ilulu, who had been silent this whole time, suddenly spoke with her sweet smile being the only thing that could be seen of her face making her look rather scary right now.

I almost broke character at the scary words that were released from normally such a sweet and caring girl. ‘Yikes! Since when did my adorable Ilulu get this scary? Is she taking lessons from Asako or something?’

“Please calm down ladies, I really don’t want to spend any longer than I have to in this cesspool of corruption.” I intervened walking forward and unceremoniously sitting down in the chair in front of Fudge’s desk.

“Of course, Master~” Ilulu was all smiles again as she took the seat to the side of me.

“W-What’s going o-on?” asked Fudge finally taking note that everything was too quiet and still. “How c-come nobody has come to check in on me already? H-”

“How come we haven’t been arrested yet?” I finished for him with a smirk on my face. “Don’t worry about that. Everything will go back to normal as soon after we finish our chat.”

What the man didn’t know, was that we were currently in an illusion thanks to some Mind Magic that I had obtained from my Template and time passed a little faster here. Back in the original office, you would only find us staring at each other silently while some of Asako’s clones stood guard around the room.

“Wh ’gulp’ What do you want?” Seeing no other option but to go along with our talk, Fudge tried relaxing in his seat wary of the strange knife aimed at his neck.

“I want you to pardon Sirius Black of all charges.” Leaning back and relaxing on my seat with a smile on my face I revealed my demand.

“WHAT!? HE’S ALREADY DEAD! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR M-” His outburst came to a halt as Asako drew her knife close enough to draw blood making him close his mouth with a snap and turn extremely pale.

“Did Master not tell you to keep your mouth closed you insect?” Asako hissed putting her knife under his jugular.

“I think there’s a misunderstanding here Minister.” Ignoring Asako’s actions and giving the now terrified man a small frown, I clarified. “I wasn’t asking you. I’m ordering you.”

I then pulled up my inventory and stuck my hand in the seemingly empty air further surprising the man and pulling out a terrified fat brown rat.

The reason Asako had been absent from the party yesterday was for this very reason. While most of the Weasleys were either at my home or at work, I had Asako sneak in and capture the little fucker which was simple with the use of the Mapper perks.

On a side note, I should probably buy Ron another pet since he was never going to see ‘Scabbers’ again.

“Besides, you will find that the horrible stories fabricated about the man are false and were instead performed by this man right here.” I presented him the terrified rat who was trembling in fear.

“W-What are you talking about? That’s clearly a rat.” Fudge let out tentatively while eyeing the knife pointed at his throat, afraid he might offend me or something.

“Hahaha wow I knew you were stupid Minister but seeing it for myself is just sad.” I mocked the man with a chuckle before shaking my head and looking at his now angry face. “It’s an Animagus you fool.”

“O-oh! Right! Of course, it is!” Even under current circumstances the man had the decency to blush in embarrassment.

“Haah moving on… Minister I would like you to meet Peter Pettigrew. With Sirius dead, there shouldn’t be any problem in giving him a pardon, right? After all I just want to clear an innocent man’s name.”

I held the urge to burst out into a fit of giggles as Fudge took on a pensive look and started thinking about the ramifications of what pardoning Sirius would mean for him.

=====

(Several Days Later)

My plan had gone off without a hitch.

The day after I paid Fudge a visit, the Daily Prophet had released the story on its front page. Detailing that due to new evidence being found, Sirius Black would be acquitted of all charges. All the blame was put into a former friend that was now dead and that was that.

Of course, the details missing from that were that Pettigrew had admitted all of his crimes before he suddenly vanished from existence since I had sold him. Asako under Presence Concealment had been keeping an eye on him and she immediately let me know the moment he spilled the beans and I had sold him having no further use of the man.

That’s when my Gone and Forgotten perk had gone into effect leaving a few Ministry officials rather confused as to the identity of the man they had just questioned. Then not wanting to seem incompetent for losing the man, they had just lied and swept it under the rug.

Now Sirius while still considered dead my most, would have no problems dealing with any pesky old men or fools who tried to come in between him and his charges since he would be a free man.

I bet the old dog was laughing it up at everything going on right now and I couldn’t blame him.

Beyond that bit of excitement though, the days leading to our trip to the alley had been spent with my catching up with my homework since like any regular teenager, I had put it off until last minute.

I did receive a couple of letters from Hermione who informed me she would meet us at the alley and demanded I explain in detail everything that I saw in America much to my amusement. The other was from Luna who was away somewhere in Africa with her parents, hence the reason she couldn’t come to the party and her telling me excitedly that she couldn’t wait to attend Hogwarts with me.

“Aetheeer~”

Pulled from my thoughts by a feminine yell coming from somewhere I looked up from my desk and blinked as a moment later the door to my office was thrown open before a red missile made a beeline for me.

Chuckling already knowing who it was, I got up to greet her and caught her around the waist spinning her around a few times much to her joy before setting her down in the ground.

“Good morning, Rose. Ready to head out?”

Grinning up at me with her eyes shining in joy, Rose only nodded her head giving me another quick hug for good measure before finally responding. “Good morning~ Did you read the news?”

Guessing she was probably talking about Sirius, I just nodded my head.

“Yeah, Sirius is now a free man even if most of the Wizarding World still thinks he’s dead.” I repeated with an amused smile that only got a huff from the girl and a roll of her pretty eyes.

“Not you too.” She whined looking up at me with a pout. “Sirius has been besides himself with laughter since the news broke and he won’t stop making jokes about it.”

“Hahaha let the man have a little fun.” I barked out in a laugh of my own. ‘Yep, called it.’

“Yeah, yeah. Now come on, Harry and Sirius are waiting down stairs for us.” Relenting on the subject, Rose took a hold of my hand before all but dragging me to the receiving area where as she said the boys were already waiting for us.

“There they are. Another minute or two and I was going to go and see what was keeping you two.” Sirius, never one to miss an opportunity immediately teased us with a big smile on his face.

“W-We weren’t doing anything Sirius!” Rose immediately exclaimed in embarrassment only to groan a moment later when she noticed the man’s grin increase in size.

“Not anything ‘serious’ huh?”

“Haah, you and your stupid puns. Let’s go already.” I intervened mercilessly stopping the man from making anymore stupid jokes before turning to Harry and offering a wave. “Morning Harry. Ready to get back to Hogwarts?”

Already used to Sirius’s antics by now, Harry just ignored the man and greeted me with an excited smile on his face probably also really happy at the news of Sirius’s freedom.

“Morning Aether. I honestly can’t wait.”

Ignoring the pouting man child behind us we all finally made our way to the chimney and one by one we flood to the Leaky Cauldron with me being the last to do so.

=====

‘Ugh, I forgot that this year we will have to deal with the blonde ponce.’ I thought in annoyance as I looked down at the school supply list while sitting down at the Leaky Cauldron for a quick bite to eat.

Sirius had run off to somewhere and left us by ourselves after telling us to enjoy ourselves and that he would find us later.

Rose who was sitting beside me must have noticed the annoyed look of my face. “Is something wrong with the list this year Aether?”

“I guess there is. Looks like we’re having a new DADA teacher this term but the problem is that it’s a guy who I think is a fraud.” I let out a sigh while putting my letter down.

“What makes you say that?” asked Harry while taking a sip of milk.

“All the books he’s written are very inconsistent and some are straight up lies so I have a feeling he’s lying about all he’s accomplished.” I lied slightly as while I had read his work, I had only read one book and it had been full of what I said.

There was no way I was reading more of that crap after reading the first book. I refused.

“I-I see. But surely Dumbledore wouldn’t hire someone incompetent right?” Poor naïve Harry with his trust in Dumbledore at an all-time high, couldn’t help but slightly defend the man.

I stayed quiet and resisted the urge to scoff in disbelief at those words. Binns, Trelawney, Quirrel, Barty Crouch Jr, Snape, Umbridge and even Hagrid were horrible teachers. Even Snape and Hagrid while knowledgeable about their field were awful teachers when it came to passing on knowledge to a group of kids.

Rose apparently agreed with me as she stayed silent and avoided looking in her brother’s direction. A habit I had discovered she did when she disagreed with her brother but didn’t want to argue with him.

Not getting a response Harry soon went back to his meal with nobody commenting for the remainder of breakfast.

Minutes later we left the pub and stepped into the alley proper.

“How about we head to Gringotts first? That way we don’t have to make the Weasleys feel bad when they see all the gold in our vaults?” I proposed.

“Good idea, Aether. I know they won’t say anything but it’ll still make me feel bad.” Rose approved with a nod.

Without further delay we headed to Gringotts and 2 wild rides later we were back on the alley after filling our pockets full of gold coins.

“Aether, Harry, Rose! It’s so good to see you again.” a feminine voice yelled in front of us before I was pulled into a hug by a bushy haired missile.

“Hahaha hello to you as well Hermione. We’ve been well how has your summer been?” I chuckled before pulling her in for a proper hug.

“It was wonderful but I admit I can’t wait to get back to school.” Hermione finally pulled away and greeted Harry and Rose with a hug as well brief as it was.

Looking around I spotted Hermione’s parents standing to the side looking slightly awkward but nonetheless smiling happily at their daughter. I went up to them and greeted them politely before a gaggle of redheads made themselves known and grabbed our attention.

Mr. Weasley was delighted to meet actual muggles and easily held their attention while I went to greet the others.

“Hello again Mrs. Weasley, Percy, George, Fred, Ron and finally but not least Ginny.” I greeted with a smile before bracing myself as Ginny threw herself onto my arms with a hug.

“Aether!” Ginny happily squealed in my ear making me internally wince.

“Heya Aether.” said Fred and George.

“Hey mate.” said Ron after greeting the others.

“Hello dears. Did you already visit Gringotts?” Mrs. Weasley was last as she watched us with a smile as Ginny finally released me from her embrace.

“Yes ma’am. We were actually just waiting for all of you to arrive.”

“Very well, we’ll be right back then.” Mrs. Weasley politely excused herself before heading inside the bank with almost all her family only leaving Ginny and Mr. Weasley behind who was still talking to the Grangers.

“So, Ginny, right?” asked Hermione making light conversation. “Are you hoping to join Gryffindor like the rest of your brothers or do you want to go to another house?”

“While it would be great if I could join Gryffindor with the rest of my brothers, I also had my eye on Ravenclaw.” Ginny muttered from beside me while giving me a few side glances.

Immediately catching on that Ginny only wanted to be sorted into Ravenclaw because of me, Hermione forced a smile onto her face while a slightly jealous look appeared in her eyes.

“Well, if you do end up in Ravenclaw,” I said bumping my shoulder with her. “I’ll be saving you a seat.” I grinned teasingly when she turned to look at me.

“Mn thanks.” Ginny let out with a quiet mutter, a blush coloring her cheeks cutely.

“Though from what I already know of her, whatever house she ends up in will have a heck of a time dealing with her. Oof.” I continued with my teasing and was rewarded for my efforts by an elbow to my ribs.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Ginny immediately denied and puffed up her cheeks while looking away from me.

We missed the jealous looks that were thrown our way by Rose and Hermione as we lightly bantered with each other.

As we happily chatted about anything that came to mind a sudden thought came to my mind.

‘Why do I have the strange feeling that I’m forgetting something?’