BBS - Chapter 14 : Just who are you? (Patreon)

The Bat, The Billionaire & The Shenanigans [12]

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

Hogwarts’ Library

–Tony Stark–

So, finally! They were able to get access to the library. It was getting so boring just to roam around the vast castle and just train himself, without magic, as it was apparently frowned upon for him to use his wand and his exotic magic, which was self learned, without supervision. Supervision that was always unavailable.

Also, he had found quite an interesting specimen during the feast. It was an interesting experience, the Great Feast, where all students were present, and he got to see the entire school in person for the very first time.

His first thoughts when he saw what was apparently the whole population of the school were that the numbers were off. Even accounting for the low population of wizardkind overall, there seemed to be far fewer kids than there should be, and as expected, after some critical thinking, he found the reason.

A war. The World War, to be precise. The magical world had its own version of the World War, and just like the non magical world, they too had sides and people who chose sides and died for it, and people who changed sides and lived for it. Either way, it led to a drastic reduction of able-bodied wizards, and that led to a dip in the next generation, which led to the lack of kids in the current generation.

It also explained the castle being mostly empty, as it simply did not have enough kids to teach, which also explained, to an extent, the lack of staff on board, even with the House Elves doing the bulk of the work here.

Dismissing those thoughts, he pushed the interesting kid he found towards the library, feeling the quite dense magic the boy had. The amount of magic might be a bit abnormal, as he too had more magic than the boy, but the density of it was alarming. So was the magical application of using his magic like a sonar.

He had glimpsed its usage back in the Great Hall and had been surprised by it. For some reason, he had expected the magical world to be borderline country bumpkins when it came to modern technology and how those principles could be replicated using magic to create new forms of magic.

He didn’t really believe in the whole Sorting House concept, and that each house had a designated principle that each student had to abide by, but the fact that the very first kid he encountered who had even remotely interesting magic happened to be a Ravenclaw, or rather, chose to be in Ravenclaw.

He hadn’t even entertained the possibility that he could simply frustrate the Sorting Hat into putting him in his desired house. He should have done that! It would have been quite the spectacle, and it was always fun to see Minnie get frustrated with his antics, but she couldn't really do anything about it, as he was just an eleven year old kid who had zero idea of the magical world.

Also, not gonna lie, he was kind of touched that Minnie was openly disappointed by his decision to go into Hufflepuff, as she had expected him to be one of her lions, as she liked to call the kids under her wing. Alas, he had truly picked it without thinking too much of it, figuring that if he could just get himself sorted into the most boring house, as everyone called it, and then made sure to raise as much ruckus as possible, then it would be fun.

Man, trolling in the magical world, especially since the concept hadn’t really taken off here, would be a lot of fun!

Speaking of trolling, “So, what did you do that the Sorting Hat had to listen to you?” He asked the boy, looking down at him.

Sure, he was built far better than any other eleven year old here, but he was a farm boi! His strength came from the farm, and doing chores on the farm, and also using his magic to elevate his body to levels he had not even imagined back in his home world. Well, atleast not without doping himself with some kind of gamma, vita, or cosmic radiation.

Which is why the kid had to look up at him with a frown, shrugging his hands off the shoulder, which took a minute but a precise burst of magic because of his grip, something he noticed immediately. “I simply chose to speak the truth, and did not let the Hat decide for me.”

He watched as the boy took a step back, fixed his clothing before shooting him a look. Not yet annoyed, but definitely not appreciating him invading his personal space.

Noted.

“Really?” he deadpanned at the kid. Bruce Wayne was his name. “You made a thousand year old magical artifact listen to you just by asking nicely?”

“You should try it sometime. Perhaps it can handle your inquiries,” Bruce Wayne said before walking off to the library, looking quite annoyed.

Hoh? Now, that was abrupt. While kinda understandable, he was not one to be deterred, especially since he just saw proof of his suspicions, which was that precise burst of magic used as a telekinetic shock, meant to shrug his hands off. It was a pretty nifty piece of magic, especially since he hadn’t used the wooden stick to do it, which was practically impossible to find, as far as he had seen anyway.

Skipping forward, his feet glided over the floor as he reached Bruce once more, his hand once again finding his way around the boy’s shoulder as they walked to the Library.

“Now, don’t be like that. It’s rare that I find someone interesting.” He smiled and wiggled his eyebrows at the boy as they walked into the library, under the hawkish gaze of the hateful librarian, who couldn't do anything now that he was an actual student in a student term and, as such, could do nothing to stop him.

Well, as long as he did not break any of the library’s rules, that is, and there were many!

___xx___

“So,” he said, leaning forward to make sure the shrew did not kick him out of the library, looking at the boy who was currently doing his best to hide behind the mountain of books both of them had gathered and placed on the massive table. Interestingly, some of the books were the same for both of them. Some of those were history books, basic magical theory books, and more. “Find anything interesting?”

Bruce was currently reading through a book that described basic magic theory that would go on to become the base to create magic that would generate light. It was interesting enough, if only it could allow him to generate any electromagnetic wave instead of just visible light. That light too was very weak, and practically incapable of creating anything really powerful.

The magic itself did not support that. He knew that because he had read that book first before handing it over to Bruce, who had engrossed himself in the book.

Now, the only reason he had been able to go through that entire book in just a few hours was that he had been messing around with his own body for years now. Basically, ever since he had gotten a hold of his magic, and realised what it could do to his body, he had been doing everything possible to make sure that even without his suit, he could hit just as hard, move just as fast, and do just as much damage with just his body.

Obviously, he was nowhere near his goal, but the benefits were undeniable. For one, he was pretty sure that unless the knife was really sharp and there was enough force behind it, his skin could not be punctured. He had used the Butcher’s knife they had in the barn, and it barely even left a mark, even if he really pressed it into his skin.

One of the other benefits of doing that were the mental benefits. Not only was his thoughts much clearer and it was far easier to connect the patterns, but he was able to parse and retain information at a frightening rate. Far more so than the average person. Bruce here was capable of fast reading as well, judging by the pile of smaller books in front of him that were done, but he was still a bit slower than him.

His smirk widened at the obvious gap between them, but it was obvious. Just by looking, he could tell that Bruce came from an obviously well-to-do family, and while he was grumpy, he was well taken care of, or maybe Bruce just put on that mask for the rest of the world and was just a really sweet boy to his parents.

Once again, the thought made him snicker. 

Bruce ignored his line of questioning at first, but at his snicker, Bruce sighed before setting the book down, snapping the book shut, but he could tell that Bruce was using a small yet precise burst of his magic to make sure that book did not shut completely, and Bruce did not lose the page he was reading.

A magical bookmark created using magic skills that most Seniors in here did not have. Yup, Bruce was special alright. Bruce here might even be able to use the Spider-Man cloak, or the defense aura, without much issue, especially if he could modulate the strength and frequency to reduce the energy consumption, which was pretty steep at this point.

He knew what to do to reduce the energy usage, but he just knew that it was going to take ages to get to his preferred levels, so he was just procrastinating, especially since he had received quite the ego boost that day, when he had accidentally discovered the roof sticking aspect of the defense cloak, in front of the Headmaster no less, who had been quite liberal with praise.

His ego was boosted when the man just could not get enough of it, and repeatedly asked for demonstrations until he was quite literally out of magic, and even then, the old wizard admitted that it would be basically impossible for any elder wizard to learn because it required the body and the magic itself to be acquainted with the feeling of wandless magic. Experiencing that was impossible without knowing how to use that level of wandless magic in the first place. It was a chicken and egg issue, and one that could only be resolved before wizards got a wand and had their magic systems be used to that amplifying presence.

Bruce here should be more than capable of doing that.

Bruce grumbled, “What do you want? Why aren’t you off with the students from your House?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Who says that I can only study with members of my house? Are you really subscribing to that theory, despite being someone born to presumably modern sensibilities?"

Bruce just continued looking at him before resuming his reading, the book unfurling in his hands without him ever moving his fingers.

Show-off.

He hummed happily, then paused immediately as he felt a gaze boring holes into the back of his head, before he silently continued reading the absolutely fascinating Goblin War that ended the same way the previous dozen Goblin Wars ended.

Spoiler - It involved Money and Goblin hussies.

Even as he read the book, the million dollar–sorry–million pound question rang in his mind.

If he was able to do all this and become so proficient with wandless magic because he was an adult soul born in a kid wizard’s body, which must have done something to his magic, otherwise, there would have been countless other wizards with the same capabilities as him.

So, if he was unique for that reason, then how was Bruce unique?

As he peeked at Bruce from the book, a silent question formed in his mind.

Who are you, Bruce Wayne?