Disclaimer : Same as the first chapter.
A/N : Hey guys! Welcome back to another chapter!
Chapter 3 : Diagon Alley
Swan woke up the next morning at approximately six a.m to a lovely feeling. He was super exited because today was the day he would make his reappearance in the wizarding world after nearly ten years of absence. He was going to make as big a scene as humanly possible and put a big show up at Hogwarts to 'provoke' Dumbledore. After all, it was him that almost succeeded in placing in the hellhole that was the Dursleys residence as his dad told him. Swan little about Dumbledore's motives for placing him there but wasn't about to be forgiven just yet. He would assess the man when he saw him, and he was far from being defenceless.
He quickly got out of bed, put a pair of sweat pants and a muscle shirt on (weird for a ten year old but there you go) and exited the apartment. He headed to the park where he started jogging for an hour until the gym opened and he could go and exercise his upper body. People knew him well for he came regurlarly so didn't ask any questions as to why he was carrying fifty kilos around with no form of support.
When he was finished with his morning routine, he headed back to the apartment to shower and change into slim green jeans and a t-shirt, put a ball-cap on so as not to be recognised by the people in Diagon Alley too quickly and subsequently get mobbed. Then he sat down to have some breakfast. There he met Raven and after some toast and a few eggs, he fell into the shadows and shadow-traveled with Raven at his side. It was realy cool to travel and have someone who is traveling next to you at near light speed. They reappeared in an alcove in a side street next to the Leaky Cauldron. The bar was a little dingy but overall ok. They approached Tom the bartender.
"Hello sir. Could you please open up the barrier to Diagon Alley?" Raven asked in the most polite voice he could muster wich, mind you, was not a very pleasant one due to the fact that each time he tried to be polite it did wonders to his voice.
"Of course. Come with me." He replied.
He led them to a wall, took out his wand and taped a code of some sort by tapping his wand to certain bricks. And before Swan's eyes, the wall slid and reshaped itself to form an archway. Swan was amazed even if he already could do almost any spell you asked him to do, he had never seen anything of the like. 'Oh I love charms!' He thought.
"There you go. Call me if you need anything, I must return to the bar. Good day." He said in an even tone, probably due to the too silky, exaggerated and nerve gritting voice Raven used before. Then he left.
Swan and Raven made their way past the archway and into the alley. Even at nine o'clock, it was already packed and they had to struggle to get past the initial crowd. Swan was surprised, he had yet to be recognised, but that suited him just fine. The further they got from the arch, the less people they saw and the lesser the chances they got recognised were. If Harry's hunch was correct, Raven was leading him to the clothes store. Swan supposed it was so that they would not get underestimated by wearing muggle clothes when they would enter Nocturn Alley. That way people would give them a wide birth.
He was proven correct when he red the sign obove Madame Malkin's shop. They where getting robes. When he thought about it, he realised he didn't have any. He quickly followed Raven into the shop where he was met by two young girls. They brightened up when they caught sight of them. 'They must be thinking of how they are going to play with me. As if I'm a doll.' Swan thought with an internal grown. He knew these looks all too well from the muggle clothes stores and he had a feeling that he wouldn't like Raven's next sentence which very well be a death sentence.
"Now Swan I want you to behave like a good boy. And don't think too highly of your looks. You're still ten remember, and if I recall correctly-" Raven started but didn't have time to finish his -no doubt- extremely embarrassing sentence as Swan cut in.
"Yeah yeah dad I know! Now why don't you go play with that lovely blond I saw you eying earlier. I know she liked your looks, although I think she loved mine more, and I know you absolutely adored her big-" He was cut off as a dagger was rapidly approaching his head. With a huff of annoyance, Swan deftly caught it centimetres away from his face with his hands. Not even a little slice was visible and he chucked the dagger back at Raven before turning around ignoring the spluttering and muttering of the man. There he laid his eyes on two flabbergasted expressions wich made him chuckle. He closed their mouth and the two girls had the decency to blush a bit before dragging him to the back of the store where they started trying clothes on him, leaving him most of the time in his boxers wich didn't go unnoticed by Raven who smirked. Swan realy had good looks.
Two hours later, a smug looking Raven and a flustered Swan came back out of Malkin's store five hundred galleons poorer. Swan had bought five every day robes, one forest green with silver linings, much like a Slytherin one, the second was royal blue with gold linings, the third was smoky grey with black linings, it was Swan's favourite as was Raven's. The fourth robe was creamy white with red and gold linings and the last was blood red with contrasts in the color that realy made it look like flowing blood. Swan had also bought two dragon-hide battle robes. Both of them were the same forest green except that one had a Basilisk's head embroiled in the back and the other had a phoenix embroider on the front. Swan had also gotten a dress robe. It was light blue with white linings giving the impression they where lighting bolts by being shaped like some.
Anyway they made their way down the alley and found themselves in front of Flourish & Blott's book store. They decided to chance a go so they entered the store. The place was pretty cramped with books and bookshelves but what the hell, it was a book store. The two of them browsed the different sections in hopes of finding new spells they could practice. Swan came across a book wich talked about Occlumency but he already had some realy sophisticated shields in his head courtesy of Raven so he didn't need it.
It's when he was in the defence section that he came by an interesting book. It looked pretty old and was leather-bound. He picked it up and read the title 'Grey and Dark magic for the beginners'. Well he wasn't exactly a beginner but he was curious about what the book contained. He opened it up in the middle and what he saw made his eyes bug out. The page was covered in spells and their respective effects and incantations. He read a few descriptions and he concluded that the book contained some pretty nasty spells indeed. He flipped the pages and saw that all of them were covered in writing.
He he motioned for Raven to come over. Swan gave him the book and looked closely at his features. When he saw a sinister grin and an evil glint in his eyes, he knew he had understood what this book was worth. As they couldn't go to the counter with a dark arts book without arousing any suspicion, Raven put a glamour on the book so that it looked like the standard first year transfiguration cilabus. They paid for it and quickly exited the store.
Next in in line was Nocturne Alley. Swan having already changed from muggle clothes to robes waited patiently for Raven to finish changing into his. He checked that all his daggers were in their holsters, ready to be used and that his wand was in it's holster on his wrist. Finaly Raven exited the changing room in a bar and they departed.
Once at the entrance of the dark alley, they slowed down, pulled their hoods up and confidently strode in Knockturn alley. Here at least they didn't have to worry too much about ministry employees or aurors making a visit and putting their nose in other's business.
Swan was looking for something particular so Raven and he decided to seperate so that Swan who wanted to surprise his father, could find the 'something' without Raven breathing down his neck. What he was looking for was a enchantment that enabled the enchanted object to pass through magical chields. His goal was to enchant his gun bullets with it so that he could reach a target even if it was behind a chielding charm because muggle gun bullets couldn't get through any magical shield. Too many times when he was fighting witches and wizards, his guns would prove to be ineffective due to the fact that the wizard or witch he was fighting would just erecting a shield and the bullets would just bounce harmlessly off of it. He didn't find any information in Diagon's book store so he came to Knockturn.
He headed down the dark alley toward Bogin's shop. He knew the man fairly well and he knew Swan meant business when he saw him. The fact that money was not an item made making business with Borgin that much easier. When he arrived, Borgin was not there and the shop was as always filled with dark artefacts and other questionable items.
There was shuffling and Borgin's head apeared from a trapdoor in the floor. He acknowledged Swan with a grunt.
"What d'you want?" He asked in a gruff voice.
"As usual I'm looking for knowledge. You see these bullets?" He asked while taking out his gun and fishing a bullet from the magazine. Borgin nodded. "Well I would like for them to be able to pierce magical shields without loosing speed or accuracy." As he said that Borgin's eyes lit up.
"I think I've got just what you need. Come with me lad." He replied. He set off for the back of his shop Swan trailing behind him. They arrived at a small potions lab. The left of the small room was where the cauldron and their set-ups were situated and on the right were countless potions stacked on shelves, all laballed and classified. Borgin headed for the shelves, pulled a vial down and presented it to Swan who eyed it critically before turning his questioning gaze to Borgin.
"Come with me and you will understand." He motioned for Swan to follow him. They came up to a cauldron and Borgin lit a fire under it. He then uncorked the vial and emptied it's contents in the cauldron and waited. When what Swan assumed to be a potion started boiling, Borgin asked him to pass over a few bullets wich Swan gladly did. He dumped them in the sizzling liquid. When the bullets made contact with the green liquid, they glowed an ugly purple and returned to normal after a few seconds. Borgin took a pair of metal tweezers and proceeded to extract the peaces of metal from the cauldron. Swan was shocked when he laid his eyes on them. They now absorbed all the light around them in a one centimetre radius and they gave out a slight red hue.
Of of couse Swan wanted to test them out emidiately. If it worked he had loads of ideas for the future of this potion. Naturally, Borgin, always the one for experiences wanted to be the ginee-pig. Swan loaded his shield penetrating bullets 'SPB' as he now wanted to call them and took aim at Borgin's arm. He had already erected a shiel and was impatiently waiting for him to fire.
When he did it came as no surprise when the bullet ignored the shield while all the same taking it down and came to lodge itself in Borgin's arm, the wich didn't even grunt. He sure had a great tolerance to pain. Blood was oozing out of the wound but Borgin was paying it no mind. Swan healed it quickly however and the two stared at the four remaining bullets in the magazine. It was then that Swan voiced his idea.
"Hum Borgin?" He tried to catch the man's attention as it was still locked on the bullets. When the man turned to face him he continued. "I was just thinking. It might not work but we can try. What if we imbibed a wand with this potion? Would the spells it cast be affected by it?" He asked. He knew it was a big gamble he was making as the wand could easily be ruined by the potion but he didn't care. If he ever came to fight in this world, wich he most certainly would, he would be almost unbeatable as his spells would have the shield pearcing effect on them even befor they left the wand. 'They won't know what hit them.' He thought amused.
If it was even possible, Borgin's eyes grew even wider at the thought and the repercussions it would have. "I am ready to try lad but you know that your wand can be damaged in the process right?" He asked. Contrary to what the public thought, he didn't like to take advantage of his customers regardless of their age. He hadn't made that much money in Knockturn just by abusing his position.
"I am totally ready to take the risk if it means that I have the potential of surprising all my enemies." He replied certainly. And with that they set to work. Borgin added another vial of potion to the cauldron as the last had almost been completely absorbed by the bullets. After it had heated up, Swan slowly took his wand out and looked at it for a few seconds. Then promptly but delicately deposited it in the potion.
Just to to be sure they waited for an hour. By then it was almost mid-day and Swan had promised Raven he would meet him in front of madam Malkin's at one p.m so he decided to end the process. Borgin agreed and put out the fire. When Swan took the wand out of the cauldron he didn't feel anything different coming from the wand other than the fact that it absorbed the light around it in a one centimetre radius. As it had still some potion residue on the handle he gave it a wipe with a cloth and pointed it to Borgin who understood what he wanted.
"Try a cutting curse on me." He said and as if reading Swan's thoughts he laughed. "Don't worry lad. I have been under the cruciatus more times than I can count so I can take a little cutting curse. It won't do too much damage." He said. While Swan disagreed with the man putting the cruciatus curse as top one most painful curses as he himself had already been under it for a couple of times, it was still quite painful. He quickly agreed.
When Borgin erected his shield, Swan cast a mild cutting curse and before his astonished and later gleeful eyes, the spell had the same effect as his bullets previously. The spell took down the shiel without loosing potency and struck Borgin's recently healed arm. It was a total success as a good sized gash apeared on his arm. In a few instants, Borgin was healed and up. Swan supposed that as the spells were partly material and that the wand was just a focus, then the magic that coursed through the body and the wand picked up a small percentage of the fabulous potion in the wand wich was enough for it to gain the ability to pierce any shield. That also meant that the potion wasn't endless and that the wand should regurlarly be imbued with it, about once a year he supposed depending on the amount of magic the user did.
"Borgin? I think I am ready to pay any price for the recipe of this potion so long as it is not too excessive. Haw about five thousand galleons?" He asked the man who emidiately nodded without trying to bargain as he knew Swan would not budge on the price. He led him to a small bookshelf in the corner. It housed about ten books but all of them were manuscripts. Probably Borgin himself. 'Who knew he was a scientist?' He thought to himself.
"There you are. The recipe is page ninety-four I think." He told Swan who inspected the page then fished out a five thousand galleon money pouch and carelessly tossed it to Borgin who deftly caught it. Raven trusted Swan to use the money well.
"Although I trust you with your job you can be certain that you will hear from me if ever this potion recipe is not the right one." He said and the underlying meaning of the sentence was clear. 'If it's a trick you're a dead man'. He then left with an unbeatable wand and four 'SPB's. It was a really good day for Swan.
He he met Raven in front of Madame Malkin's shop fifteen minutes later at mid-day precisely. The two of them decided to go and eat at the leaky cauldron.
"So you found what you were looking for in the alley?" Raven asked. He didn't openly mention Knockturn alley because it would attract too much attention. Swan felt a little smug. "I guess we should just get home for you to find out." He replied cheekily.
A/N : Sorry if you found the Knockturn alley part a bit long but I guess it was necessary. I kind of like the idea of shield piercing bullets and spells. It's kind of OP and I like OP so don't ask me to change it because I won't. And I'm sorry if the grammar is terrible as I am rubbish at correcting them and often overlook them. Again thanks for the support and I'll see you next time!
Squid