BBS - Chapter 7 : Changing strategies and assumptions.... (Patreon)

The Bat, The Billionaire & The Shenanigans [7]

Disclaimer - I don’t own anything. Disney does, Warner Bro does, and Rowling does.

London

–Bruce Wayne–

As he watched the old man leave using his brand of teleoperation, the way he came here, after dropping a veritable bomb on his parent’s laps about their only son being a wizard and a really strong one at that, he noticed the suffocating silence in the room before turning around, and getting ready to face the music, so to speak.

They had been remarkably calm in the lead-up to the revelation of magic, but after that, they were understandably spooked about the whole thing. Thankfully, they were not spooked in the context of declaring their son as some kind of devil because of the extra powers, but as in they were regular hard working people who were just told that their son was capable of reality warping.

It would imbalance anyone, let alone his parents, who took his safety as the most important objective of their lives. He had felt his father try to reach for one of the panic buttons within his easy reach when Dumbledore had come inside, but after one demonstration of magic from the old man, his father had realised that either he was hallucinating the same thing as his wife and child, or it was all true.

Dumbledore, understanding the kind of thing he had dropped on their laps, told them that they could take the night to choose and reply in the morning. Though, before leaving, he heavily implied that he had powers that were far too powerful than they should be and that, without formal training, could hurt him in the long run instead of benefiting him. That had scared his parents as well.

The chances of that being true were really small, based on what he had observed so far. If he could control his magic when he was a child and could cultivate it to such a degree, then it stood to reason that he would have far greater control as he grew older, even if the magic in question continued to increase. It was probably meant to scare his parents, or it might even be true, but that was not the case for him, as he was born with an adult mind capable of controlling the energy.

He saw his parents staring blankly into the space ahead of them, not even reacting when he sat down in front of them. He had scanned their bodies using his sensory net and was sure that nothing was wrong, save for the mental shock they had received. 

So, he sat down on the sofa and waited for them to come to terms on their own. Meanwhile, he kept his senses peeled, just in case someone else came, someone with a more aggressive approach than Dumbledore. After all, there might just be some kind of competition between schools to compete for wizard kids, especially if Dumbledore’s words about his above-average strength reached Hogwarts’ competitors' ears.

It was a possibility he had to account for. Looking at the time, he saw that it was bedtime. The dinner had already gone cold by the time Dumbledore had done the whole pitch about the magical school and left. His poor parents were just coming off the high of their activities and had to be shocked into silence.

Feeling quite hungry, he sighed, shook his head, and stood to go reheat the food, only to pause and sit back down. He supposed now that the cat was out of the bag; there was no point in doing that manually. A mental ping had all the utensils hovering to the microwave, as he began reheating everything.

Pasta for his parents.

Mexican Chicken and Rice for him. His preferred food item, full of protein and flavour. It helped that this new body came with the ability to once more experience all the flavours of food, which meant that he had become somewhat of a foodie. Balancing nutrition and flavour was quite an interesting challenge once he took over cooking for himself, under strict supervision, of course. 

The sound of the food being done seemed to snap his mom out of it, and the smell of the delicious food snapped his father out of it as well. Both of them glanced at each other before Mom made to get up, whispering to herself, “Right, Brucie bear, you must be hungry. I’ll go–” The words were stuck inside her mouth as she watched all the food float from the kitchen and set on the kitchen table. A moment later, he stood up as his parents followed suit robotically, sitting down at the dining table.

They could only watch with wide eyes as he manipulated the utensils, spoons, and even the napkins with his magic, letting them see what he could do with it. It was something that was necessary. If he had known that he was going to have to go to a school someday, a magical boarding school to boot, he would have started far earlier to do something to desensitize them to his abilities.

Sighing, he pulled the plate towards him and told them, “Just eat. We can talk of this later on.”

Both of them glanced at each other before doing as he told them, their movements unhurried as they were clearly distracted.

He sighed internally.

__xx___

“We support his decision,” His parents declared to Dumbledore, who had come very early in the morning, asking about his parents’ decision to get him enrolled in Hogwarts or not.

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow and looked at him. “Which is?”

“I accept the invitation to Hogwarts.” He plainly stated.

“Very well. I am very glad you made the right decision. Anyway, with that out of the way, let’s get going. I am sure if we hurry, we can be done, and you can be back in time to have lunch with your wonderful parents.”

“Is it about the shopping list?” He asked Dumbledore, having read through the entire invitation letter. 

“Yes, as a Muggle-born wizard, it is our responsibility to get you anything that might require prior knowledge of the magical world. So, shall we?”

He looked at his parents, who were clearly still stressed and conflicted about the whole thing, but were willing to support him, so they nodded. His mother had tears in her eyes. 

“Yes, let’s go.”

___xx___

The first thing that he realised after he was brought into the Leaky Cauldron, a place that did not look like the place that held the entrance to a magical world, was that he was stupid. The first thing he should have done with his sensory net was roam around the city and map everything out. Maybe then he might have been able to find more such wizards and magical places as well.

Clearly, he knew how to differentiate between normal humans and wizards, as he could do right now, but he couldn't do all that while being confined to the level of freedom that a regular 11 year old had.

“Hmm, I would suggest pulling back your magic, young man. Many might not be able to sense anything, but many still could, and it is never a good thing to be constantly wasting your magic. I assume it is some kind of extra perception spell you figured out on your own?”

He looked at the man and slowly nodded, pulling back the sensory net he had spent years expanding at all costs, which made pulling it back feel odd.

“While I would normally caution against doing something like that, as your brain might not be ready to handle the influx of all that information, you clearly seem to know what you are doing. Still, I suggest keeping self experiments to a minimum at Hogwarts. You will have access to a world class faculty to help you in all your magical endeavours.”

He just nodded, feeling stuffed as he pulled all that magic back towards him. He wasn’t even able to just cancel it all out, just pull the range to cover just him and maybe a few feet around him. That was the best he could do right now, and it was a mistake that he was going to have to rectify soon. 

From a stealth perspective, it would be disastrous to be walking around with an always active piece of magic that could be detected by another wizard. All this time, he was operating on the wrong assumption that he was a rarity, and as such, he was going to have to adjust his strategy. Hopefully, it would not take him too long, and his time at Hogwarts went swimmingly.

From what he could tell, Seven Years was the standard time period required to graduate, and that should be more than enough time for him to reach an acceptable level of conditioning with his body and find a way to combine magic to create something close to a combat style.

“Good,” Dumbledore nodded approvingly, apparently keeping track of his progress before walking past the counter. He followed suit as they came to a stop in front of a wall. There was clearly something interesting about the wall, based on Dumbledore’s expression. He resisted the urge to use his magic to find out more. Suddenly losing his most used sense was disorienting for a while. Just something else that he would have to train out of his system.

Dumbledore then took out his wand and tapped the wall in a specific pattern, something he memorised immediately, as the wall slid apart and he was hit with a wave of magic that he could sense even without his sensory net. It was….significant, was the word he would use for it.

“Come on, let’s get through the shopping list. First stop, Gringotts. We must deposit the money your parents gave you.” He nodded and followed Dumbledore, his neck on a swivel as he took in all the sights, and resisted the urge to expand his sensory net just a tiny bit to look at everything once more.

___xxx___

After going through the bank with the Goblins, the books, the uniform, and more, they were at their last, and most important stop of the day, according to Dumbledore. Everything he had seen today meant that he was going to have to spend quite some time strategizing and accounting for everything. The books were going to help quite a lot in that regard.

“Go on. You will have to do this alone.”

He gave the man a dubious look before pushing the door open, making the bell ring, presumably alerting the owner that a customer was at the door. The store was not well lit, with dark corners all around and a single wooden counter. So, he walked up to the counter, pausing at the last step before turning around to look at one of the corners with a narrowed gaze.

A moment later, a decrepit old man walked out of the dark corner, looking at him with silver eyes that seemed to shine in the darkness of the shop. The way he had hidden himself made him hesitate only for a split second before he unleashed his sensory net and scanned the whole shop as well as the wizard in front of him.

Only to regret it all a moment later, as he hastily retracted the sensory net, a pained grunt escaping his lips. 

“Ah, you mustn’t do that, dear customer. It is not good for your health.”

Evidently, using his sensory net, which was sensitive to all kinds of data, but more so for magical kind, inside a Wand Store that held dozens, if not hundreds, of magical wands was the wrong decision, along with many other active magical spells.

“Now, what can I do for you, Mr….?”

“Wayne. Bruce Wayne.”

“Ah, Master Wayne, then. Come, let’s get you your first wand.”