Between Wands & Sigils - Chapter 118 : Damn that Woman... (Patreon)

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London

–Damian Hawthorne–

He snorted at that, pouring water over William’s fantasies. “You could try.”

William deflated at the reminder, muttering a subdued, “Yeah,” before perking right up, jumping back on his bouncy bed like a child, before asking him in a normal tone, “So, what brings you here, Lil bro?”

He gave the man a dry look at the corny name, “Don’t ever call me that.”

William smirked at that. He ignored that before making a show of looking all around the apartment. It was obvious that some magical work was done on the residence, as the bedroom and the living room alone were larger than the entire apartment. Spatial expansion, of course. Wizards loved to live in style, provided they had the money, of course. William was, of course, loaded, being an Auror on top of being the scion of a noble pureblood house.

“Nice Living quarters you have here.”

“Har har,” William replied dryly, “Yeah, as if you have room to judge. I have seen Hogwarts dorms, and while the Ravenclaw dorm is far bigger and more spacious than the others, it is still a dorm.”

It was clear that William was in the mood for a little ribbing, and he too was in the rare mood to accommodate that.

“Yeah, I wasn't talking about the dorms.”

William immediately leaned forward, interested, “Oh? Can I see it? Your real home?”

“Nope.” Not in this lifetime, if he could help it. Sure, eventually, he will have a place of his own, one that could be made semi public, both for his acquaintances to visit and also as a trap for his enemies; all the while he kept his Lair safe, secure, and hidden from everyone. Well, not everyone but most people.

He couldn't wait to get into Kamar Taj and absolutely secure the hell out of his Lair, to the point that even trying to divine the location of it should give a magical headache to anyone who tried.

There was a lull in the condensation there, so he just spoke up, “I want to get out of Hogwarts, preferably as soon as possible.”

William looked at him with confusion, “What? But that is not possible. The record for being eligible to pass out of Hogwarts is something like 3 years, I believe, but even then, the Headmaster did not allow him to leave, forcing him to complete at least 5 years before they were allowed to graduate. I don’t think it is possible for you to do that in, what? 4 months. That’s nuts.”

Yeah. That was an issue. He was hoping that a man on the inside would have an answer to his problems. Sure, he could go ahead and bribe or threaten the Minister himself into giving him the degree, and it would probably be done by the end of the week.

But he had a teeny tiny suspicion that it would violate the spirit of the condition that the Ancient One gave to him about graduating from Hogwarts before entering Kamar Taj. He was reasonably sure that she did not want him to go that way. 

He’d read through whatever public information there was on all the rules regarding Students studying at Hogwarts or even homeschooled, but there didn’t seem to be a proper way to get his graduation without exposing himself to the Magical World and giving up what was, in his opinion, his greatest strength at the moment, his anonymity.

Hell, even if he was able to leave unscathed from the fallout of a Dumbledore tier wizard who was not even a teenager, the Hawthorne family would absolutely be torn to shreds, and he did not want that to happen. Not to Eleanor and Catherine.

So, the next best option it was, “Could you just pull me out of the school for an emergency? Say, some sort of illness? Then, I could just appear for the exam at the end of the school year and graduate then and there?”

William looked at him with concern, “Damian, is something the problem? WHY are you in such a hurry to leave Hogwarts? People love it there. Kids beg to go back. Hell, even I would love to go there and spend days reliving some of my fondest memories.”

Ahh. William thought someone was bullying him, despite the impossibility of such a thing happening, atleast in Hogwarts.

“My reasons are my own. Just know that I wish to graduate from Hogwarts as soon as possible. Not leave, but graduate with a certificate from the Ministry of Education. Then and only then, I can leave.”

“....Those are some oddly specific conditions.”

“It is what it is.”

“I see,” William replied before falling deep into thought, actually getting off his bed and pacing on the hardwood flooring. 

“Well, your idea of pulling back from school has some merits, as we can definitely get you the cover necessary for that. You’ll still have to do the assignments, though I assume that will not be an issue for you.”

He gave the man a look at speaking the obvious.

William sighed before replying, “Well, I will have to think of it. Plus, the ultimate decision lies with Father. I will talk to him as well. I assume I can’t ask you to tell me the truth?”

“What do you think?” he snarked.

William just sighed even more, sitting on his bed. “Thought so.”

____xx___

Leaving behind William’s apartment, he went back to the Lair, using the same methods to throw off any tails that he could not sense, before appearing in his office.

Sitting in his chair, he rolled around in one place, deep in thought. 

The Troll attack was thwarted. Dumbledore had somehow dealt with Quirrell as well. How, and to what extent? He did not know, but it should be safe to assume that the old man now had some inkling as to what Tommy boy had created.

That brought him to the topic of Horcruxes. He still had that one box buried under London. At the time, he had no issue with letting the issue settle down, especially due to the attention from Wakanda, before retrieving the Basilisk Poison, but now that he was in a hurry to get out of Hogwarts, it seemed prudent to kill or secure the Beast based on its tendencies, so he could have a sure fire way to take care of all the Horcruxes that Tommy boy left behind.

He was brought out of his thoughts with a beeping sound, one that made him pause for a moment before he shot out of his chair, the chair hitting the wall on the far end, the shock at hearing that alarm making him practically fly out of his office, as he teleported to the Portal room before teleporting back to his workshop, looking at the flashing red forcefield that contained clothing.

Yup. The original shirt and pants that he found himself in, with all the runes. The OG ones, the ones he learned so much from. The ones that were kept in stasis, using so much magic to slow down the disintegration process.

They were only supposed to last a few years before they disintegrated on their own, but he had stubbornly made them last all this while. Alas, even with all he’d done, he hadn’t been able to study all the enchantments woven into those clothes, something that he would not be able to do now, even with simplistic enchantments.

Fabric was simply not conductive enough for enchanting, let alone enchantment of that calibre. He would need pretty high quality magically quenched metal to get roughly the same number of enchantments, in simplistic terms.

He couldn't help but feel nostalgic and slightly sad as he could see the clothing dissipate, from behind the blue forcefield, the entire thing pulsing brightly in a bid to stop the process but apparently, the clothing were just ignoring the magic being poured into them and within seconds of him appearing in the workshop, they dissipated, leaving behind nothing but memories of his first few years in this universe.

The forcefield dimmed before dissipating entirely, their work done, as he sighed and left the workshop, feeling bummed out.

___xx___

Just like that, the weekend went by, and this time, once he came back from the Lair, he didn't even bother going out, instead choosing to hole up in the dorm. 

Then came the classes, and he found himself mostly zoning out in them, waiting until the weekend arrived so he could go back and pester William about the whole thing.

In honesty, the disappearance of those clothes had him contemplating something he never would have done before. Just disappearing, and learning from someplace else.

Hell, there were other magical communities on the planet. Failing that, there were other Alien magical civilisations out there, some of them in the Nine Realms as well.

He could become a badass Dwarf, capable of making Relics that could devastate cities at once?

….Nah. he could already do that now, with some prior planning and good execution. Modern infrastructure was surprisingly vulnerable if one had enough knowledge of the pressure points of any urban area, and if one had the necessary magic to inflict pain on those pressure points.

Honestly, the fact that a Muggleborn wizard who knew the ins and outs of both the normal world and the magical world had not become a Dark Lord and wreaked absolute havoc on the country was a miracle, probably because most Muggleborn kids spent most of their formative years in the magical school and slowly lost touch with the non magical world.

It was understandable because the non magical world was, well, non magical.

Either way, the chances of him reaching Nidavellir, let alone becoming one of them and reaching their level, were very low. Most probably, he would die of old age before he could complete even half of their education process, since they were very long lived.

No way to get into the Nine Realms to learn from them directly, at least not until the Convergence, which was alteast a decade away. No way to learn from reliable teachers aside from Kamar Taj.

He did not know if he could just approach Sorcerers who left Kamar Taj early could be trusted to teach him properly. What if they taught him half knowledge?

One thing he could tell was that magic was to be treated with extreme care and caution, as if it were a live bomb, because it was. Even with all his gifts, he might not last if he somehow bombed his internals with magic or if his teacher deliberately sabotaged him.

Because he could definitely see that happening in rogue magical communities.

…..That left him with, once again, only Kamar Taj as the sole option to learn the shiny magic he so desperately wanted to learn.

…..Damn that woman.