The First Gothic - Book Two - A Wizard In Practice
Part 9
Proudspire Manor. Solitude. Skyrim.
Since I had some time to kill before I was due back to the College of Winterhold I'd retreated to Proudspire Manor in Solitude for some solitude. I already had the stones I needed for my research project, and if that proved to be too dull for even old wizards then I could come with something more exciting. Like what I was doing right now.
Down in the basement I'd worked to transform what would have been the Housecarl's bedroom into a magical laboratory and I was now attempting to use my own version of Ancient Egyptian transmogrification spells to make a present for Hermione.
At his Christmas party Slughorn had gone into great detail about what he'd done right after finishing school. He toured the larger Wizarding World and had learned the histories of magics that hadn't been practised for thousands of years. While in Egypt he'd attended a lecture by a magical archaeologist who talked about how it was the Egyptian gods, who had really been Wizards and Witches of great power, and the not the Olympians who first blended man and animal together to bring into the world creatures that were not part of nature.
I knew that the Olympians had created the first Minotaurs and Centaurs to fight in wars against other groups of magic users, and that this partly why the mundane people of Ancient Greece had worshipped them as gods. That and the whole being able to shoot lightening from their hands thing.
Now here I was trying to emulate their feats and all to get someone I loved a nice pet as a late Christmas present.
The centre of my lab was mostly taken up by a large vase which contained the ingredients for this spell, cauldrons hadn't invented when the spell had been written, and inside the vase was a sort of potion that was made up of many things, including some of my own blood and hair. Which was a bit weird in my view, but I was perverting nature here and that always involved something yucky.
There were actually a few versions of this spell and for a while I'd suspected that Voldemort might have done something to his pet snake to make it so intelligent and loyal. However upon further research I'd dismissed that idea in favour of Nagini being Tom Riddle's familiar. Somewhat like how Fawks was Professor Dumbledore's familiar.
A familiar was an animal that shared an intimate and affectionate bond with a magic using human, but they are more than just mere pets. A familiar was a consciousness being in their own right and deserving as much respect as any other person. A familiar has its own name, personality, and independent desires and thoughts. But they only have these things because they are bonded with a magic user. This bond increases the life span of the animal as well.
Also a familiar, as a wizard's partner, could perform tasks such as the carriage of messages, aid in spellwork, provide companionship, and guard and protect the wizard from danger. Unlike pets, familiars actually understand the speech of the human they share their life with and in some cases have even been known to converse with the human they bonded with.
Another thing that was odd about familiars was the fact that Squibs, who can't use spells, can have a proper familiar. Which to me explained a lot about the Caretaker Filch and Mrs Norris.
But I wasn't taking an animal and making it my familiar in order to make it more intelligent I was taking an animal and making it part human using a complex magic ritual.
The next part of this complex bit of magic was charge the potion with power. Which I did by shooting a bit of lightening into the vase, which did it no harm as the magical power was consumed.
Now the potion in the vase was ready for the soul. The ability to capture souls had been lost to the wand wavers when the Roman Empire had fallen, as it had only been known to a few priests and the rise of Christianity was responsible for that groups lose of knowledge. Horcruxs were only a pale imitation that lost art.
But in Skyrim capturing a soul really wasn't that hard and I'd found a full Black Soul Gem when looting that Keep. So while I might not be willing to kill people for my experiments, putting a captured soul to good use well that was something I was willing to do.
Now all I need was the cat and I had brought one earlier and then stunned it so the poor moggy wouldn't be awake for the ritual. A cat was suitable for this spell because it was one of the animals the Egyptians held in great regard and since the book on these rituals, that I'd gotten from a contact in Knockturn Ally, did say that a cat was a good choice. Of course no one in this world had used the spell in thousands of years and they hadn't used soul gems back then so I was taking a risk here.
Still I was confident that the runes I'd carved around the vase would prevent an explosion or a fire from getting out of hand. Once the stunned cat was in the potion I began the ritual my speaking the words of the spell as I did my fox head amulet ensured that I heard a translation.
The form is vessel, rendered anew. The base is stone, bathed in blood. The gem is fire and elements rarefied... Baset, grant the power... So that I may mold this creature... That it may be reborn... That it may serve me... arise creature!
I dropped the ground as purple coloured gas filled the air and since I'd put a lot of power until the spell it took me a few moments to recover enough to stand. Once the smoke had cleared the head of the animal I had twisted to my own dark designs slowly raised it's head above the rim of the vase and looked at me.
"Meow" said the cat.
Normally I never acted like a mad man, in case it became more than an act, but this time I couldn't help myself.
"It's alive!" I shouted "Alive!".
The normal looking cat jumped onto the floor and then seemed to study me with eyes too intelligent to be those of an animals.
"Transform" I ordered.
The cat did just that and like a Animagus it went from being a simple beast to a human being. Only this case the human being had cat ears and a tail. Which I hadn't expected. It should have looked like a cat/human hybrid rather than something right of an anime.
"Well you can wear a hat and hide the tail" I said.
She, because it was a female, would need clothes at some point but she didn't seem to care about being naked, and she had a nice body. Her tits weren't very big, but she was a little curvy and petite like Luna.
"You should call me..." I started to say.
"Daddy!" said the neko.
I had been about to say 'Master' but I had put part myself into creating this rather cute catgirl so it wasn't an inaccurate way of addressing me.
"Fine you can call me that" I said.
Rather than reply the neko hissed at me and somehow made lightening appear at the tips of her fingers, then she pounced at me.
The Room of Requirement. Hogwarts School.
While I could have just teleported straight into the room without concern, as so few people knew about it. I used the secret passage that led to this room from the Hog's Head, which was a pub I'd brought from Aberforth Dumbledore who was Professor Dumbledore's brother. The old man had sold the place for more more than it was worth, but I was a developer and I would find a way to make a profit from the building sooner or later.
"She's gorgeous" Hermione said as the pet I'd made her transformed back into her black cat form "What's her name?".
I thought about it for a moment.
"Well she's a cat person who can cast lightening spells so how about Thundercat?" I suggested.
I was really bad at naming things.
"Wasn't that a cartoon?" my girlfriend asked me.
"It was so only a Muggleborn would understand the name and they won't expect her to be able to transform into a neko" I replied.
The Wizards might as the Deputy Headmistress of this school could transform into a cat, but Thundercat would only obey me, and Hermione because I ordered her to obey Hermione and no spell to expose or force an Animagus would work on Thundercat because she wasn't a human being. Besides even if she was exposed Hermione could just deny that she knew that Thundercat was anything more than a normal feline and people would believe that because she was Hermione. Of course then I'd have to recover Thundercat, but Hermione could use a bodyguard and friend as there were still a few Junior Death Eaters at this school.
"Why do you still have your hood up?" was my girlfriend's next question.
I'd kept it up to cover what Thundercat's nails had done to my face.
"She was a little frisky after her transformation" I explained.
Which was putting it mildly really.
"She attacked you?" Hermione asked in concern.
"You could say that" I said "but don't worry I calmed her down".
My girlfriend got the wrong impression.
"Did you and Daddy have a fight?" she asked the cat as if it was a baby "Never mind Mummy is here now".
Apparently Thundercat was now our daughter.
"Well she hurt me" I said "but I wouldn't call it a fight".
Most people would call it rape if not for the fact that I'd actually gotten rather horny myself once Thundercat had moved past the foreplay stage and had stopped making me bleed and started making me feel good.
"The book told me that the transformed creatures can be a lot like the person who created them" I informed my girlfriend "I guess she takes after her Daddy".
However while I could be rough in the bedroom I'd never made anyone bleed, well not unless they were a virgin and I certainly never tried to claw anyone's eyes out.
"I thought she was for me" Hermione joked "Shouldn't I have gone first".
Despite her words I knew she kidding as my girlfriend didn't do the whole girl on girl thing. She left that to the Carrow Twins, and oddly didn't seem to care about the incest.
"So you aren't in the mood" my girlfriend then said more seriously "I guess I'll just have to do my homework like a good girl and get the highest marks in my class yet again".
It was a toss between as to which actually made Hermione happier, sex with me or academic achievements.
"I have plans for this evening" I told my girlfriend "but if you want to me to make a booty call later in the week I'd be happy to oblige".
"You better be" teased Hermione "or I might have to get myself a new boyfriend".
Technically we were married, but no one in this world could ever know that so we never referred to each other as husband and wife.
"We can't have that" I joked "I'll have to remind you who you belong to".
But that could wait as I had something else I wanted to do tonight.
(Line Break)
Destroyed Magical Village. Wales.
The village itself was completely abandoned with marks of devastation seen all over the buildings. I saw a sweetshop that was a shadow of what it once was with broken windows and overturned counters. A joke shop next to it looked like a twisted mockery of what it once was what with merchandise all burned. Scorch marks could be seen all over the village with nearly every house burned to the ground or at least ransacked.
It was hard to believe that there had been an all magical village in Wales not so long ago. It had never been as popular as Hogsmede, but it had served people well enough until the Death Eaters had destroyed it.
I intended to restore this place. All the wards were still in place and while many of the buildings would have to be torn down, a few might be repairable and they could all be improved upon. Then I could go on to make the place more defensible than it had been.
My Dwarf allies would benefit greatly from this project as while they didn't know much about building homes no other group could work the same kind of wonders with stone as they could. A good city wall was just the thing a town like I had planned needed, and that was just the start. I wanted a castle of my own and the place would also need watchtowers to help people feel safe.
And they needed the work as the dwarven race was totally destitute. They'd have to be for proud and stubborn creatures to hire out to do a job as degrading as dressing up as cupids and delivering singing telegrams or to sit around for most of the day making dragonhide gloves for spoiled little witches and wizards like they the magical version of a sweat shop. Which they were since they got paid so little for the labour.
I planned to change that. I was going to offer good wages for good work and I wasn't going to pay in gold, silver or bronze as the goblins had control over those metals and I wasn't ready to take those monsters on yet. But I could get around the laws buy giving the dwarves other metals to work with. Ebony, Mithril, Orichalcum, Veridium and Silverite all of which I delivered in small amounts.
The Dwarves weren't making weapons out of those metals, they were using iron like they always did only they had their own magic and with it they could make iron weapons that never rusted and always kept their edge no matter how much you bashed the sword around.
I knew that eventually Mountain Holds of the Dwarves would once again be governed by dwarven leaders who were more than figureheads, instead of the Ministry of Magic when that race declared itself independent. And when that happened they would break the treaties that kept the dwarves from smiting metals like gold and silver or even minting their own money. Of course this would start another war with the goblins, but if all went well that race of little monsters would driven out of the British Isle.
That was still years away, in the mean time the dwarves could help to restore a town that no one had lived in since the 1970's when Voldemort and his Mort Munchers had sacked the place like they were Vikings.
Also since I was creating the first new magical settlement in centuries I had the chance to improve things. Like home security. Defensive wards existed, but there was only so much you could do with those when the house you lived in already had spells cast on it just to stop it from collapsing into a pile a rubble.
The Weasley home was a good example of just how messed up magical architecture could be. That house of theirs was barely held by spells.. It was a crazy structure that couldn't exist without magic supports, and you could put only so many wards on a house. But if the homes I planned to build were put using sound engineering, and therefore didn't magic just stop the roof from collapsing then more defensive wards could be used.
A Muggleborn, such as myself, although the term wasn't technically correct, who hadn't been successfully brainwashed by the insanity of the Magical World could think of things like that but others couldn't. The sad thing was that wizards and witches could afford to be lazy and stupid, because in most cases they lived a life completely free of long term consequences due to poor planning, and when they did suffer because of poor planning they tended to be dead and the dead don't complain or encourage others to learn from their mistakes.
However Muggleborns could have both magic and common sense, if they were smart like me and that was what was so dangerous about us, and it was also why when the revolution came we'd win.
The Purebloods were a dying breed but they still controlled most of the wealth and owned all of the land. I was working to change that and I had life times to spend doing so, but one day the revolution would come.
But again that was years away. For now I had to focus on the present. Like getting the dwarves to build solid structures that weren't completely constructed using stone. The houses couldn't be underground or that small because otherwise the wizards who moved into them would want to expanded their rooms, and then I'd end up with a village full of crazy buildings that would fall in on themselves if anyone ever figured out how to turn magic on and off again.
Dwarf-built structures were even stronger than human ones, even when using the same materials, and the more strength you got through basic properties the less you had to add using magic so I would be able to prevent anyone messing with the structure of their houses. A good, strong, solidly built stone house would do as people could personalise the insides of their homes in small ways. Without compromising their safety.
However before I could go into too much detail about that I had to get the right permits. Buying the land had been easy, no one wanted it, but just because you owned something that didn't mean the government would just let you build anything you wanted on it. I was going to need to present the project in the right way, to make it look like I was building homes for anyone rather than just the Muggleborns who wanted to settle down with another Muggleborn and have babies who wouldn't be cousins.
Which made me glad I was bribing the Minster so much. With enough gold in his pocket he'd happily sign anything I asked him to as long as it didn't look like it would threaten him and restoring a village was in no way threatening, and when the walls went up well I could just tell him that I felt sorry for the Dwarves.
Still there was bound to be a lot of paperwork to sort out and that would mean a trip to the Ministry, and mostly likely I'd likely be there all day so I could really do with a good night's sleep.
With that in mind I teleported myself to my mansion and headed for bed.
