-An orphanage in London, 1978-
After the incident that night, I asked Creek to apparate us in front of an orphanage. A year has passed since then. I've been in that orphanage's care among other children. Also, Creek has officially become my family's house-elf. We have already done the pact. I asked him whether there is a book regarding that in my family's possession. I was afraid that I would be doing it wrong. And of course, as guessed he found none of it. My family has no books regarding house elves. So, I asked Creek for the subject instead. The steps he explained to me were simple. We declared a binding oath using our magic, and that's it.
The elf seemed so happy after that.
House-elf is basically slavery, I won't sugar coat it. However, I wasn't going to be actively campaigning for their freedom as Hermione does. We're of different species. I won't claim to understand how house elf thinks, how they feel. Or forcing my views and dictating what's good for them, like they shouldn't be happy with their current condition.
As long as my house elf is happy, I'm fine with that.
Though I don't want to treat Creek like a literal slave, it is a bit hard. I can't pay him a monetary wage, it's insulting to house elves. Furthermore, to treat our relationship as contractor and worker is kind of rude. He's the one who saved me from my predicament. Without him, I wouldn't be alive. You can't repay that. And with him acting as my caretaker, the house elf is more of a family to me.
I also have promised the house elf that I will reward him. Considering his interests in mind, the house elf is happier if I gave him more work. That's not a reward if you ask me. But again, we're too different so our views wouldn't be the same. It is hard to understand the mind of a house elf. So, I need to go around that. The extra "work" that I gave him was to read our family tomes to expand his spell reserves. Saying that it will make him able to help me further in the future. I reminded him of the fact that he was unable to help me in the muggle hospital at that time.
Apparently, it is harder for elves to learn spells. Much harder. I recommend him to learn spells regarding the statute of secrecy first since it is the most urgent. He can learn other spells later.
It is kind of a reward, but I brought that issue to the house elf as a duty.
Another thing is I don't want others to view Creek as beneath them. I know the elves don't mind their own appearance, but as they said the clothes make the man. Or in this case the elf. However, I can't just straight up give him clothes since according to his rule, it's like I'm disowning or firing him. So I also tried to go around that.
First, I told him that a Balthasar's elf should be clean, so I gave him another "work" to clean himself. The next step was the clothes should be clean too, so I gave him another "job" to clean his rag. I did this step by step, now Creek wears a clean white greek toga that he made himself. It looks like the one that the ancient Greeks wear.
At least it is not too different from the house elf rag. Our race has a different perception of fashion. If I told him to wear something that's too different, I'm afraid he will be perceived as a weirdo among the house elves, and I won't allow other elves to think that way. Overall, Creek agreed and is happy with his outfit.
Currently, I can only give those as "rewards".
The house-elf is always staying near me. At first, he can only appear or talk when there is no one nearby. Now, after one year spent learning spells to conceal his presence and our conversation from muggles, he always kept himself visible around me.
My daily life in the orphanage is spent training my magic and advancing my magical studies. Of course, all of those are done secretly. As a baby normally I can't do anything. Fortunately, I have Creek and my magic with me. Otherwise, I don't think I can spend even a day as a baby. It must be so frustrating to be able to do nothing.
Magic is a very wonderful thing. Nevertheless, as mentioned in several stories, not just in Harry Potter, magic is also a dangerous thing. It can be seen in the second Harry Potter movie when Ron tried to cast spells using his broken wand. A wrong step can cause harm, and a baby can't afford to receive harm in the slightest.
I was very fortunate that nothing went wrong with my previous stunt. That was a life and death situation so I can do nothing but go YOLO all the way.
The first thing I did was different from some of the fanfictions that I read. They usually train their magic by trying to do some telekinesis on small objects. They tried to drain their mana pool so it grew faster.
I was afraid that something would go wrong if I did that. I need sufficient knowledge before I try this kind of stuff. Is it safe? How is this different from Wingardium Leviosa spell? How can it be easy if the Levitation charm can't be learned easily even by the descendants of the sacred 28 families? In the movie, it is only Hermione who succeeded in their first class, and they are also using wands.
Experimenting with spells is a very dangerous thing. Pandora Lovegood died when her experiment went wrong. She is an extraordinary witch while I'm still a baby and a beginner wizard.
That's why I tried to learn as much as I could before I experimented with those.
I asked Creek to open a magic book in my field of vision from time to time. This way, I can read the books we have gathered from our family home. Of course, Creek already applied countermeasures to avoid notice or accident even without me asking. I don't think the house elf can prevent the damage from magical accidents, which could be fatal. The accident I meant here is something like having the book slip and fall on me.
The first book that I read is of course regarding occlumency. From all the fanfictions that I've read, occlumency is basically the base and foundation to develop my magic in the future. It is a mind art of defensive nature, mainly created to combat legilimency. It is also a powerful tool to organize thoughts and memories, making it a legitimate way to increase one's mental prowess. Which in turn, will make it easier for master occlumens of that nature to further their magical studies. Because they will easily organize and process the stuff they learned.
It is rather hard to start occlumency study. But for someone with the ability to easily shift their focus between the planes of their selves, it becomes very easy. Being able to easily enter my mindscape is a very convenient cheat ability that I've learned in the void. This made it very easy for me to learn occlumency.
I returned my focus to my mindscape.
The image of the orphanage around me turned into the darkness of the void. The void is what I've most in my mental plane since I've spent my time there near forever. Filled with silence and nothingness. However, in its center lies a floating platform that supports a futuristic-looking machine.
"Can we reverse entropy?"
My question was directed to the machine.
Different from the real world, I can do anything in my mindscape according to my imagination. This means I'm no longer hindered by my inability to speak here.
"INSUFFICIENT DATA..."
"for a meaningful answer, yes, yes I know. That was just a rhetorical question, and both of us know that. Regardless this is our grand goal."
This machine is a mental construct I've designed in my mindscape. Different from magical constructs which are built from mana, a mental construct only needs its creator's imagination to materialize. And so, its capability will depend on its creator's mental prowess.
I built this machine based on MULTIVAC.
MULTIVAC is a supercomputer written by Isaac Asimov in his science fiction works. The machine I built is based on the version in Asimov's short story, The Last Question. I designed it in my mind to compute things and find errors. It is also where I will store my knowledge. With my growing mental prowess, the machine will also develop further and help me with various tasks in the future. It is a subconscious mind that will act as a failsafe and will be the center of my mental defense.
This is one of the big projects that I intend to do in this world. I start working on it after reading all the occlumency books in my family possession. I gambled that I could build my mental defense a bit later. I need this first. A supercomputer that can calculate using all the knowledge that I have.
"Now compute this for me. What is the best way to improve my magical affinities while simultaneously building my mental defense?"
