Heh, I was going to wait for weekend to post anything, but then I realized that I have a family get together (unfortunately), so I am not going to have a lot of time. So the first new chapter is today. I will try to update "Life dictionary" before weekend as well, but right now I am in the process of checking and smoothing it. It will take some more work. So here you have a new chapter on Lady Magic. I hope you will like it.
I would also like to thank everyone who posted a review/followed/added story to favorites. I feel way better when somebody actually like what I write :).
As SlySn4ke asked me to put the welsh words so that they are easier to decipher, I decided to give you all the words here (the idea of Welsh/English following each other does not bode well with me) I will give you all the words (with a little bit of explanation), I am currently using, at the beginning of every chapter, so that you can read them before reading actual story.
Bendithio - blessed (a name for all who serve Old Religion, so everyone who trains to be Hybarch, no matter what level is he at, if he was blessed by Magic in a special ritual)
Cylch - circle, ring (a gathering of Bendithios and Hybarch in the place where magic is strong)
yr Uwch - elder
Hybarch - reverend (title of priests of Old Religion)
Bendithia chi - bless you (a way to say good morning)
Bendigedig fyddo - blessed be (good bye)
Blaidd-ddyn - werewolf
Crefydd - literlly: religion
Ddoeth - leader (a way to show respect to a respected person, unofficial)
That's it, I hope I didn't miss anything. Anyways, I like reviews :) and I hope you will like the chapter.
K.
PS. As always: forgive me my quirky language.
Chapter 2 The arrogant survivor
Carwyn managed to get to the renting agency a few minutes after twelve. It was nothing like offices in States, but by now he wasn't expecting those.
"Good afternoon, sir" he greeted the young man sitting behind the desk.
"Good afternoon" muttered the man in response.
"I am Hybarch Carwyn. I would like to rent an apartment" the man eyed him disbelieving. "Preferably near the National Magical Library of England or the place where Wizengamot meets."
"Really?" muttered dismissively.
"Yes, really."
"Come back with your father, boy."
Carwyn saw red for a few seconds. He managed to calm himself somehow.
"My father's dead, boy."
"Then with your legal guardian."
"I don't have one."
"Then, boy, I can't rent you an apartment."
"Call your boss, would you?"
"No, I would not, boy."
"Call him or I will call him."
"Look, kid..."
"The name is Hybarch Carwyn and I want to speak with your boss."
"Fine, kid. You will get what you want."
The man stood up and opened the door on the other side of the room.
"Mrs. Bishop, there is a kid here, who wants to talk to you."
The old woman walked into the room behind the young man. She was dressed in a fine set of robes. Carwyn recognized silk after he had spent three hours at Twilfitt and Tattings. She stood next to the desk.
"My lady" Carwyn stood up. "Thank you for seeing me."
Her eyes widened at his sight.
"Lord Potter, it is an honor to see you in my establishment."
"Not a lord yet, Hybarch Carwyn, ma'am. Your... employee said that I must speak with you, should I want to rent an apartment here" Carwyn looked pointedly at the man.
"Ah, yes. Unfortunately, you are not seventeen yet. So renting the apartment to you would be illegal. You understand it, of course."
"Yes, yes. However, I am the United States citizen, ma'am. I have a passport and all that. I was emancipated in States. I hope we could use that as a validation for my request."
She eyed him carefully.
"I am afraid that British law is rather strict in that regard, however since it is you, I think we will manage something."
"Of course, my lady."
Mrs. Bishop figured it out pretty quickly after they sat down at her office.
"Heir Potter, Hybarch Carwyn, if you prefer" Carwyn nodded. "I knew you father, you know."
"It seems like everybody here knew my parents."
"Probably true. Both you and they are rather famous." Carwyn had no idea why his parents were famous and why he was famous. It seemed that there was more to it than just killing the Dark Lord. The worship to him as soon as his name was said was way over the top. He was slowly starting to feel uncomfortable. "But both I and your grandparents were part of society. I still am, of course. Your parents' marriage was quite a scandal, you know. She was a muggleborn, marrying into old pureblood family. Well, we do marry half-bloods, but muggleborns? No. Anyway, to the renting."
"Yes."
"I cannot rent you the apartment until you are over seventeen. But I have a lot of free apartments right now. People run away during the war from London. They sold a lot of apartments and now they will start coming back. The market will boom. A lot."
"I am not really good at business."
She raised her eyebrows.
"I can rent you an apartment since August, till then you can choose one and live there. For free. We will sign the deal on July 31st, when your birthday is."
"I am not even asking why" Carwyn said. "Everybody keeps helping me and I just want to ask what is there for you in it?"
"Heir Potter, you just saved us all. After the devastating war, you killed He Who Must Not Be Named. You are a hero. Everybody wants to help. Everybody feels grateful towards you. Why wouldn't we want to help you?"
"I don't buy it, ma'am."
"My husband was murdered by You-Know-Who. We were neutral family. But Millie was great in Arithmancy. You-Know-Who wanted him. And you couldn't say no to the Him. Millie saved my life and my son's life. When You-Know-Who came, he bought us time to create a portkey. It was during the first war. My son was eighteen. We both escaped."
"How many people like you are out there? And how many will be willing to help me?"
"Lots of them are out there. How many will be willing to help you? I do not know."
"Just great. Let's say, I do believe your motives for a while, alright?" Even if he didn't, but there was little choice.
"Sure. It was a pleasure. Max will take you to look through the apartments and give you the keys."
The apartment search was boring. Max, whom Carwyn continued to call "boy", was looking at him with ridiculous amounts of respect, opening the doors before him and calling him "Lord Potter". Thankfully, Carwyn wasn't picky. He chose third apartment they went to, just because it was the closest to the Ministry of Magic, where Wizengamot meetings were held. As it turned out, it was also the most luxurious place in London, where many Lords had their flats. The place had a kitchen, two bathrooms and four rooms, but Carwyn didn't care for all that. Apparently, he had inherited lots of money. And renting an apartment in a high-end place wouldn't damage his cause. The flat was also almost empty, only kitchen and bathrooms were equipped.
"Ok, boy. That will be it. I won't need anything else."
"Of course, sir, Lord Potter. Thank you for not telling Mrs. Bishop. She would fire me."
"No problem. Just watch out for future, Max" he waved his hand. The man stood uncertainly.
"Sir?"
"Yes, boy?"
"Could you sign my paper?"
"Sing your paper?" Carwyn raised his eyebrows.
Max nodded.
"Fine. I will do it, but tell me, where can I get a mattress and a blanket?"
"Mattress and blanket, Lord Potter?"
"Yeah. To sleep, you know?"
"Of course. The best place would be House and Accessories on Merlin's Alley" he said after a moment.
"And that is where, exactly?"
"At the end of the Diagon. You have to go left. And the shop is on the right."
"Great, thanks."
He signed the paper and the boy disappeared.
Carwyn closed the door behind him.
"Circe. This country begins to creep me out."
He found his best shirt and jacket from the suit. He even put on a tie before going out. Thankfully, he never untied it, because fixing his tie was something that Carwyn never managed to grasp. The change of his attire managed to do it. Even without robes, no one asked any questions when he was buying a mattress. At least up until he signed his name on the bill.
After that, Carwyn almost ran away from the place, sending his new mattress straight to his apartment.
"Ok. That was funny the first time. The second it was boring. Now, it is just blasted madness" he groaned to himself. "It's time to find out what the hell is going on that switched off everybody's brain."
Flourish and Blotts looked like a good place to start with. The bookstore was dusty. Carwyn caught as he entered.
"Merlin, didn't these people hear about modern attitude towards business dealings?"
He managed to escape the curious eyes of the employee and found his way to the history section.
"The History of Magical England... Victorian Times and Their Impact to The Wizarding Kind... The Third Goblin War... The Great Four... Hogwarts: A History... yes... here we go!" he muttered to himself. "Modern Magical History."
He took the book of the shelf and opened it. The list of chapters immediately draw his attention. Under the number 24. was his own bloody name. "Harry Potter: The Boy Who Lived" was clear. Carwyn suppressed a groan. He was in the bloody history book! There was no possibility that it was connected to the death of the Dark Lord.
"Are you looking for something, son?" asked the voice behind him.
Carwyn jumped, startled, and turned around. It was an owner or an employee standing a few feet away.
"Actually, yes. I do. I am Mercury Goldstein" he said using a name of one of his colleagues from the Clyth. "I am looking for some information on Harry Potter, if you don't mind."
"Foreigner, are you, son?" Carwyn nodded. "This one would be good. And The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century, I suppose. Although, they are not yet updated, of course."
"Of course" Carwyn forced a smile.
"Our dear Mister Potter. He saved us all. A real hero, if you ask me. All alone against the You Know Who." Really, Carwyn had no idea "who". He had no idea what the Dark Lords' name was and obviously nobody was going to use it anytime soon. "Fantastic boy."
"I will take all of them. And about his family maybe?"
"Well, I don't have anything on Potters solely, but there is one book on all noble families. The History of British Nobility. A lot did our Mister Potter. No wonder you have interest in him. We all thought that he had abandoned us, but it turned out that he was out there all the time. Fighting. They will have to update the books, though, and chocolate frog cards."
"Chocolate frog cards?" this time Carwyn groaned.
"Ah, yes. You don't have those, do you?" the man smiled. "Chocolate frog cards are in chocolate frogs, sweets. They are not chocolate, of course" the man chuckled at his own, so very hilarious joke. "They are collectibles. With the greatest wizards of all times."
"Where can I get these chocolate frogs?" groaned Carwyn.
"Sweets' shop, son! Isn't it obvious?"
"Nothing is obvious in this madness" muttered Carwyn to himself. Thankfully, the man didn't hear him. He was just going on and on about how great Harry Potter was. Carwyn paid for the books and went to the sweets' shop.
He walked out of there with the biggest box of chocolate frogs that they had. It contained 99 chocolate frogs. When he asked the shop-assistant "why the hell 99 and not 100?", the women looked at him strangely.
When he walked out of the shop, he checked the time on his phone. It was four pm already and Carwyn decided that he had enough of English idiocy. He walked down the street, ignoring disgusted looks that some shot him. The street was full of wizards. They were all rushing. Carwyn looked around. Bookshops, apothecaries, groceries. Nothing seemed to draw his attention. Until he saw a big, colorful display. The entire building was colorful. The sign above the door said Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. The shop looked so out of place with a big sign saying:
WHY ARE YOU WORRYING ABOUT
YOU-KNOW-WHO?
YOU SHOULD BE WORRYING ABOUT
U-NO-POO —
THE CONSTIPATION SENSATION
THAT'S GRIPPING THE NATION!
Whoever owned it, they asked for death. They were blunt. Carwyn thought that was mad. But funny. He always admired the courage. He thought it was foolish, but deserved admiration.
He decided that maybe the owners were interesting enough to deal with some more English stupidity. He pushed the door and entered. The shop was packed with customers. Most of them were kids. Carwyn pushed through the crowed. There were all kind of rather clever products in the shop. Fake wands, some minor love potions, muggle tricks. Anything really. But Carwyn wasn't into jokes.
"Hey, mate. Are you looking for something?" the redhead, tall guy appeared in front of him.
"Just browsing. I am not really into jokes, but you do have some cool stuff here" he answered.
"Thanks. Are you a muggleborn?"
"No."
"Strange. Nobody around here wears muggle fashion."
"Yeah, I noticed."
"So, what are you interested in?"
"Nothing in particular. Arithmancy and Runes. But you know how it goes."
"Kind of. I am Fred Weasley. One of the owners."
"I am Mercury Goldstein. Curse breaker."
"Curse breaker. Nice to meet you Mercury. My older brother's curse breaker too."
"Cool."
"Yeah. Do you want a tour? We have some things that may interest you."
"Sure."
Fred lead him back to muggle tricks and pushed a curtain behind it.
"How are you on shielding charms?"
"Quite good in fact. Why?"
"That's our more serious line. The clothes that contain the shielding charms. You know, cloaks, hats, gloves and all that stuff. Because of the war."
Suddenly, Carwyn was pushed against the wall. Fred Weasley grabbed his arm and hold him against the wall.
"Ok, Mercury, what are you really doing here?"
"Nothing, I just noticed your shop and went in" scowled Carwyn. "Are you all so blasted paranoid?"
"Yes, we are. So, tell me the truth!"
"It's a truth. I dunno what you mean, idiot!"
"The wards have warned us that you have something on you that's not usual, Mercury. Something that contains magic" someone said. It definitely wasn't Fred, because the voice was coming from larger distance. But it was exactly the same as Fred's.
"My bag. The long one. Open it" he waved his hand, so they could open the bag.
He felt someone removing the bag from his arm and then heard a zipper opening.
"Wow. That's just... wow!"
He felt the body against him relaxing and releasing him. Carwyn jumped from the wall. There were two people with him in the room. Both looked exactly the same. They were twins.
"Man, what's that?"
"It's a stuff. Some people use it instead of a wand, you know?"
"Stuff?! Why the hell do you use stuff?"
"Everybody with my job use them."
"Your job?"
"Yeah, it doesn't matter. It just is like that, so we are more respected."
"Who are you?"
"Nobody. Just Mercury."
"I am George. Do you work for the Death Eaters?"
"No. I do not. I don't believe in killing people and I happened to like muggles."
They looked at him suspiciously.
"Ok, I will just go, alright? I don't want any troubles."
"Ok, Mercury, sorry about that. We didn't want to scare you off. But you know what they say. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you."
"Yeah, I guess."
"Here. Have a drink."
"No, thanks."
The twins laughed.
"Just as paranoid as we are, are you?"
"What can I say? Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you."
They laughed again.
"Here" something was shoved in his hands. "On us. As an apology. Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder. If you need to escape quickly. Lumos won't work. And Decoy Detonators. They will move on their own and make noise."
"Handy. Thank you."
"No problem, Mercury. Just you know, buy yourself a wand, really..."
"This thing will set off most of the...
"...war wards around here. And with all Death Eaters running around...
"...they won't bring them down anytime soon."
Carwyn nodded. All this finishing each other's sentences was causing him a headache.
"So what are you doing..."
"...in our great country?" asked the twins.
"Working" answered Carwyn, looking through the shelves.
"For whom?"
"Myself, why? I am a scientist. You know freelancer in curse breaking."
"Oh, really..."
"Are you that good?"
"I am sufficient, why?"
"Nothing..."
"We just never knew that..."
"...curse breakers use stuffs instead of wands."
"We're just curious" the twins finished together.
"I'm special kind" Carwyn closed the bag with the stuff and put it on his shoulder. "So far, I have been dismissed by three people, assaulted and heard more than enough about the great hero Harry Potter. You sure have a warm welcoming for the foreigners" he quickly changed the subject.
"Ah, that's why you're wearing muggle clothes. Where are you from?"
"Ireland" answered Carwyn smoothly.
"Interesting. You don't have irish accent and..."
"Irish wear robes."
"I spent a lot of my life travelling" Carwyn explained.
"Of course" muttered the twins together, again. They hadn't believed him. Carwyn ignored that.
"I will go now. Thanks for that. I would appreciate if you didn't mention that to anyone."
"Sure" they spoke.
This time he hadn't believed them.
Carwyn grabbed all his things from the Leaky Cauldron and locked himself in his apartment.
"Thank you, My Lady for surviving this" he said after his apartment's door closed.
He built the basic wards around the apartment and decided that the chocolate frogs would have to suffice till morning. More English wizards would probably lead him to committing a suicide.
"I am changing my name" he groaned, collapsing on the mattress and opening the candy.
He shoved the frog in his mouth, despite her moving and glanced at the card. It was Albus Dumbledore's photo. Carwyn turned the card around and read:
ALBUS DUMBLEDORE
CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS
Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.1
"And what's on the card about me? Likes milk and screams a lot?"
Carwyn knew that he entered the United States in November 1981. He was one year and three months old back then, so there was absolutely no way that he had done something great in Great Britain. Unless not killing himself counted.
Carwyn thought a little about his life. Somebody dropped him off to the orphanage on 11th November 1981 in Philly. The only information on the letter was his name, date of birth and place of birth. There was nothing more. Nothing about his parents or family. He never understood why anyone would ever leave a baby like that. If it wasn't for his aggressive and untamed accidental magic, he would be there much longer. Nobody wanted to adopt him, because he was too... intense. Other children called him a freak, because he learnt to read when he was three.
He read through the card one more time. Gellert Grindelwald. Ex-boyfriend of Albus Dumbledore and ex-Dark Lord. He must have been an interesting guy.
Carwyn opened another chocolate frog.
The second card was Bridget Wenlock, who was an Arithmancer and definitely someone who Carwyn knew a lot about. The third some guy named Godric Gryffindor, apparently the co-founder of Hogwarts.
"I hate chocolate. And Great Britain" he muttered, opening his "special bag", and taking out some weed. Something for pleasant dreams would go nicely.
He smoked and chose a book without looking. It was Modern Magical History. He opened it at chapter 24.
Skipping quickly, he spotted his name.
...Harry Potter, son of pureblood James Potter and muggleborn Lily Potter nee Evans. During the Halloween night of 1981, He Who Must Not Be Named attacked the house, in which the Potter family was staying after the outrageous betrayal of their Secret Keeper, Sirius Black. He Who Must Not Be Named has brutally murdered James and Lily Potter and attempted to murder their son with the killing curse. The baby survived the attempt for thus far unexplained reasons. In addition He Who Must Not Be Named has disappeared since that night...
Carwyn sat up.
"I survived the killing curse... But that's not possible... Nobody did..." he read the part one more time. "I thought that he misspelled or something... But if I survived it back then... The second time around shouldn't be surprising..."
Carwyn opened his computer. The killing curse separated the soul from the body. It tore out the soul from the body. No one should have the ability to survive it, no matter what. Especially not a one year old kid. So it couldn't be his ability or his work. Someone else must have interfered. At least the first time, if not both. Unless surviving the killing curse once made you immune to the second time.
He searched through the WizNet. Nowhere could he find anything on surviving the killing curse. That wasn't surprising. There was only information about the curse itself and most famous uses. Nothing that would help him. Even the more obscure sites didn't have any information on that.
He couldn't be that special! His mind was irritating enough, depriving him of friends and potential love interest. Now, it was whole new level. Not only would people think that he was boring and know-it-all, but also would think of him as if he was half god or something.
He hoped that coming to Great Britain would change his life a bit. Damn, he was arrogant, but it was a kind of protection towards all who laughed at him, because of photographic memory and intelligence over the top.
And he became a bloody hero of the Wizarding Europe.
Carwyn groaned. His research just got way more complicated. Nobody should ever hear the story about him conquering the Dark Lord.
After all. Carwyn was nothing, if not a survivor. He survived the orphanage, the work at the Clyth, when many others resigned. He survived a mission in Africa.
And he did survive the killing curse. Twice.
1 it is directly from the book
