Soulless Cheshire

Here's the second chapter! (technically the first)

Hope you enjoy and please PM if you have questions or suggestions!

Chapter 1

It had been almost three years since the boy was brought to the muggle orphanage. He had changed a bit since his introduction to the world outside of Azkaban. His jet black hair was swept up and pushed back in such a way as to leave the forehead exposed. The boy's stare was unnerving, his eyes were just as black as his hair and his iris' matched his pupils. Behind the gentle smile sat a set of perfectly white teeth.

As usual, the boy sat beside his window and stared off into the world. He stayed back far enough for the sun not to touch him, but close enough to observe the goings-on outside. The boy had been practicing for years to hone his magic. Since discovering his ability to replicate a Dementor's aura he had explored other sorts of elemental and nature-oriented magic.

He could summon up fire, but it cost a great deal of magic. Freezing things was much less strenuous, but it required far more concentration to maintain and more time to create. In addition to fire and ice, he could command water and cause high wind. He favored these magical abilities less, however, as the wind required him to be outside and he could only manipulate water, not create it. The boy was able to influence plant life and force it to grow, but doing so required hours of deep meditation for very little result. He had tested his abilities here at one point and after an entire day of meditating on a sapling it had only grown a few feet.

These were incredible achievements in magic, but he was unable to do more than one of these at any time. It was all relatively small scale. The ice only worked if he was completely focused, even then it took about an hour to coat his room in frost. With fire he could torch a tree, maybe two, before collapsing in exhaustion. The diversity was useful, but hardly impressive in terms of power.

The boy was pondering all of this as he sat looking out his window. He had reached a bit of a wall in his magical studies. Having received no actual training there was nothing left he could learn. His strongest magic was non-elemental, the simple pushes, pulls, and levitation. These things he could do easily and with great power. These powers, however, meant relatively nothing when compared to the elemental possibilities.

It was in this way that Mrs. Watt found him. The caretaker had brought an older woman with her to visit the boy. The woman was quite tall and had her chin raised in a proud sort of way. Her gray hair and the lines in her face betrayed her age. As Mrs. Watt knocked and opened the door into the boy's room, the other woman walked in with great poise and thanked Mrs. Watt for her politeness.

Mrs. Watt smiled and greeted the young boy, "Hello Niccolo, this is professor McGonagall. She would like very much to speak with you about your schooling."

Niccolo's smile widened for a moment, he nodded to Mrs. Watt before turning with an expectant sort of look towards McGonagall.

"Does he speak?" McGonagall asked quietly, after a moment of silence, to the woman beside her.

"Of course, but only if absolutely necessary." Mrs. Watt said with a reproachful sort of look at the professor. She then turned up her nose slightly and left the room, closing the door behind her.

Professor McGonagall looked put off for a moment before turning back to the boy behind her. "I am Professor Minerva McGonagall. I am here to extend an offer for you to attend Hogwarts Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

Niccolo smiled back for a moment before responding. "Alright."

McGonagall seemed shocked for a moment. Usually students had questions, especially those in the muggle world.

"Have you perhaps heard of our school before Mr..."

"I have." Niccolo said cutting her off mid-sentence. "I know about Hogwarts. I've been down to attend since I was brought here. The aurors ensured it."

"I...see." McGonagall was once again stumped. "I'm sure you have questions then?"

"Not at all. I simply need my acceptance to be sent and to be shown Diagon Alley."

"Your acceptance can be sent through me. I have your letter which you may keep, I will guide you to Diagon Alley as soon as you are ready."

"Thank you." Niccolo said as he got up. He walked past McGonagall and opened the door for her to pass through.

As they made their way out of the orphanage McGonagall explained to Mrs. Watt that they were going to buy his school materials for the upcoming year. She simply smiled and wished them a good trip before seeing them off.

It had been a relatively uneventful trip to Diagon Alley. Once they had gotten out of sight McGonagall had apparated the two of them to the Leaky Cauldron. It had taken the better part of half an hour, but eventually Niccolo convinced McGonagall to leave him to his own devices. The woman had let slip early on that she had a very busy schedule. Niccolo found it a relatively easy task to persuade her to go where she was really needed. She taught him how to call the night bus before leaving him.

Left on his own, Niccolo made way immediately to Gringotts. He had been given a pass card by the professor for a set amount of money from the Hogwarts vault. The amount would be transcribed upon the card and the card would limit purchases to the items listed on his letter. Niccolo tossed the card aside and strode into Gringotts confidently. He had heard the guards say his mother's name on their rounds. It was a simple matter for his blood to be confirmed by the goblins and for him to withdraw a substantial sum from the vault. Armed with his new fortune Niccolo made his way to Olivanders for his wand.

As he entered Niccolo heard a voice from the back of the shop. "Ah, now who do we have today?"

A man, who Niccolo could only assume was Olivander, stepped out from behind the back curtain. He was a crazed-looking sort who didn't bother to introduce himself as he stepped forward to speak with the boy.

"You must be a muggleborn, what might your name be child?" Mr. Olivander asked as he peered at the boy.

"I need a wand." Niccolo said, ignoring Olivander's question.

Olivander was taken aback by this, he usually liked to take the time to engage his customers in conversation. He turned about muttering something about impolite children and moved to gather a few wands for testing.

"Here, hornbeam and unicorn hair, yew and dragon heartstring, maple and phoenix feather, and finally blackthorn and unicorn hair." Olivander watched carefully as each wand failed his customer. "No...most certainly not...hmm, a bit closer with the core here I think, ah that's the proper wood. No...no, none of these will do. Blackthorn and phoenix feather, that's the combination for your wand. Try this, blackthorn and phoenix feather nine inches utterly unyielding."

Niccolo took the last wand from the hand of the older wizard. Silver sparks flew from the tip and a massive grin split his face.

"Yes, there we are. Quite an odd combination, but we were lucky to find a few others that were close. That will be seven galleons child."

Niccolo put the money down on the counter and inspected the wand more carefully. As a wand is an extension of the owner Niccolo found that he was able to feel the magic in it much as he could feel his own magic.

Feeling an alien presence within his wand Niccolo looked up at Olivander and asked, "the spell, what does it do?"

"I'm impressed, that is a charm designed to track any use of underage magic. I've never known a child to discover it in such a way."

Niccolo's grin faded slowly, but remained on his face as he spoke again. "Thank you, Mr. Olivander."

Niccolo stepped outside and immediately began directing his magic at the wand and the aberration within it. The charm came dangerously close to sounding as he assaulted the thing with his magic. Soon he discovered that he could not remove it without going over the alarm's parameters. He resolved to wait until he was allowed to use his magic freely before attempting to remove it again. This meant he would have to spent a few days without magic, but he had reached the limits of his ability anyway. Those days would be better served studying ahead and looking into the issues he had run into on his wandless magic.

The rest of the day passed quickly. No one worth talking to, but time efficiently spent nonetheless. Niccolo had obtained a trunk with a few extra charms in order to contain anything he wished to purchase. He would get a better trunk later, once he had enough things to need the extra room. Niccolo decided to finish his trip early in order to get a jump on the studying he intended to do. To finish out the afternoon he decided to go to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions.

The shop was nice, he supposed. Within, he found two boys already being sized. The blond child to the left seemed to be bragging at the bespeckled boy on the right. As he entered, the woman working with the boy to the right asked him to step up as well. The blond turned his towards him, surprised at having not heard him.

"Who are you then?" The boy demanded.

Niccolo looked directly at him, still smiling, but gave no response.

"It's polite to give your own name before asking others." The other boy said with mild reproach.

"Hmm, fine, I'm Draco Malfoy. Now who are you two?"

The other boy grimaced for a moment before muttering, "Harry Potter."

Draco paled drastically before trying to play off his shock by directing a question to Niccolo. "And you?"

"Niccolo." Was all he said.

Harry seemed glad for a moment that the conversation hadn't turned on his newly discovered celebrity status. Draco looked ready to try to strike up conversation again when he was interrupted by a rapping at the window. Hagrid arrived just in time to rescue Harry who took the opportunity to escape immediately, leaving Niccolo alone with the Malfoy heir.

"So are you one of us, or are you a filthy mudblood." Draco asked, still recovering from the shock at having met Harry Potter. The woman measuring them (presumably Madam Malkin) glared at the boy for his comment. Niccolo gave no response to indicate whether he had been insulted.

"There you are." Madam Malkin said as she motioned for Draco to step down. She was attempting to get him out of her shop. She brought the robes to him and bustled him towards the door in an attempt to get him out before the Niccolo, who was wearing his muggle clothes, would be forced to answer.

Just before the Malfoy was out the door the two heard a quiet voice say, "I'll see you at Hogwarts, cousin."

Both Draco and Madam Malkin were visibly surprised at this before the door shut on the former. The rest of the fitting passed in silence with Niccolo smiling gently, as always.

There's chapter one!

So we've found out Niccolo's name and his wand! I actually put A LOT of thought into his wand. It took me awhile, but I think I found a good match. It is a bit on the short side, but there is a reason for that later.

At this point his last name is hardly a secret, but you won't have it for sure until it's stated by McGonagall at the sorting ceremony. There have been three intentional clues thus far as to his mother's identity and personally, I think I overplayed it. McGonagall was actually really hard to write for me because of her tendency to address students as Mr. or Ms. blank. I had to have Niccolo interrupt her to protect his identity!

Niccolo met Harry! Those two might meet again on the train, but then again, maybe not. Draco and Niccolo will be interacting a bit more on the train. Speaking of the train, that's the next chapter!

About the wandless magic! Niccolo's wandless magic is extremely weak. If he were to char two trees he would be unable to cast magic for a few hours at least, not to mention a fair bit of physical exhaustion. The ice takes too long to use in a fight, for now. Neither wind nor water manipulation are very far along right now. Anything he can do with wind he could just as easily do with his push, pull, and levitation abilities.

If you paid attention in the last chapter then you noticed that Niccolo displayed some sort of barrier type ability in Azkaban. He hasn't needed a barrier again since then, so he hasn't developed the ability much.

If you were wondering why he could tell that the tracking charm on the wand was a thing, then I want to point you towards the previous chapter. I very very VERY briefly stated that he could "feel" his own magic once he started accidental magic. Basically, he has learned to feel the magic within himself. That is the reason that he's had such impressive developments, and the reason he could feel the charm on his wand.

As always I hope you enjoyed, and Please Review!