1. As usual, thanks to Silverly for proofreading.

2. This was in the edit to the AN to the last chapter, but I'll repeat it for good measure: PLEASE LOG IN TO REVIEW. I do not accept guest reviews, and will delete them. The ONLY exception is if it's a guest who I know who it is and the user in question confirms it (I have left guest reviews to re-review chapters of a story under rewrite while making it clear who I was). This is stated in my profile and has been stated in my profile for a few years.

I will respond to the one posted for the last chapter before I added that to the AN in the end chapter notes, since I initially didn't mention this in the last chapter's author's notes and that's my fault, but for future reference, if you have something to say, I want to know who's saying it. Put a name to the person giving advice/criticism/etc., look at their profile to get an idea about them, that stuff. Preemptive thank you for cooperating with this request in the future, as I will not make exceptions again.

3. I own nothing.

Prologue II

July 16, 1986

It was early morning when McGonagall returned to the house the next day. Waver's mother had seemingly already left for work, leaving Waver to wait by the door on his own, back straight and expression carefully kept neutral.

"Are you ready to go, Mr. Velvet?" she asked.

"Yes, Professor." The answer didn't need to be said, as the child evidently was unskilled at hiding his emotions. Nodding, McGonagall led him out of the old building. The route she led him down was winding, and not long after the two had started walking Waver had already began to beg for a break.

"I do not believe I have ever met a child so physically incapable of walking this far." McGonagall commented. Waver simply scowled and refused to make eye contact as he sat on the log in the nearby forest she had led him into. "Just how often do you exercise? Being this frail cannot be easily achieved."

Waver simply continued glaring at anything and everything that wasn't McGonagall and scoffed. "It's unimportant. It'll only take time I could use for studying or detective novels, and neither of those require physical capability to do."

"That sort of mindset will not serve you well in the future, I hope you understand." McGonagall scolded sternly. "How do you expect to navigate a castle if you cannot manage to walk a few blocks?"

"I said that it's unimportant!" Waver seethed, standing up again. "I don't know what you're going on about, 'it won't serve me well.' Knowledge, that's what's important in life. Nothing else matters. Let's go." His back was turned as he said this.

McGonagall didn't move. "Mr. Velvet, please come back here." Waver stopped and turned around, still with the same sour expression on his face. "It is evident you do not take criticism well. However, behavior such as this will get you in trouble once you get to Hogwarts. I would advise you to stop, and this will be your only and final warning." The reasons for his haughtiness the night before were readily becoming apparent. Waver, as far as McGonagall could tell, was academically gifted and he himself knew it. At the same time, knowing this gave him a feeling of superiority, and anything that went against that narrative of self-importance would be fervently denied. Discovering magic the day before would likely have encouraged that narrative, now that McGonagall thought about it.

Waver stood in silence for a minute, seemingly debating mentally with himself to attempt to calm down. "Yeah, whatever," he said, finally. Waver had apparently decided on the approach of pretending the conversation didn't happen.

McGonagall continued to lead Waver through the forest, frequently stopping whenever he ran out of breath. By the time they reached the dirty old boot that marked their destination, they had to stop about fifteen times.

"This is the place?" Waver asked incredulously when McGonagall pointed it out to him. "I thought we were buying textbooks! We're in the middle of the woods!"

"We are," McGonagall responded. "To reach the stores where we can buy your textbooks and other supplies, we need to get to London first. The Department of Magical Transportation has graciously provided us with this," she picked up the boot, "portkey." She turned to him. "Please grasp the boot, Mr. Velvet, it'll deploy fairly soon."

Waver looked quite plainly that he had no desire to lay a hand on something so filthy. His reluctance was evident in both his face and the slowness with which he reached out. The two stood there, holding the boot and looking rather ridiculous, when a rush of wind erupted around them. McGonagall was used to the sensation, but Waver clearly was taken by surprise by the sudden large amount of spinning.

Waver was promptly greeted with a chattering crowd of people upon returning to the ground, though he didn't seem to bat an eye at it as he was too busy trying to regain his bearings. It seemingly didn't take him long to realize they were in a crowded street, glowing and bright in its buzz of activity.

"This is Diagon Alley." McGonagall stated. "We will be able to purchase your supplies here. That portkey will be used once more, for you to return home this evening."

"About the supplies," Waver looked slightly uncomfortable. "You told my mother yesterday that costs would be covered somehow, would you mind explaining? We don't have a lot, and there's a lot of required supplies listed."

"The school has a fund for students in financial situations such as yours to cover the cost of your supplies. I have the money with me. We will be buying most things secondhand, but it should be suitable." McGonagall answered simply.

"Oh," Waver still didn't look entirely comfortable with the explanation, as much as he tried to hide it. McGonagall supposed the boy did not like the idea of needing assistance. Waver glanced at the boot in his hands. "How did it do that? There has to be a mechanism, magical or not. How was this teleportation device first created?"

"That's a bit above your current level," McGonagall answered. "I'll be able to explain it in a few years, once you have a better grasp of the basics." Waver flinched at the statement, but otherwise said nothing.

McGonagall led him from shop to shop, purchasing the requisite materials as they went. Waver didn't seem terribly interested in most of the more mundane purchases like cauldrons and robes, the latter in particular he seemed rather eager to escape from once he had been fitted. He had refused to explain why he was so upset after, his defensive attitude similar to when McGonagall had inquired about his physical health earlier that day. The attitude carried the same underlying message: "Do not humiliate me." McGonagall decided that for his own sake, it may be a good idea to probe him a bit to discover what might have bothered him so, and potentially calm him down before it got worse.

"Did someone try to humiliate you in Madam Malkin's?" She asked. "It would not do to dwell on it if so."

"Of course not," he answered, continuing to refuse eye contact. "And if there was, I wouldn't want to talk about it."

What a difficult boy. She couldn't force the truth out of him without overstepping boundaries, and he wasn't exactly breaking any rules or acting as openly angry at her as before (likely because in this case, McGonagall wasn't the one to cause his anger). McGonagall supposed that it would be sensible to simply wait for him to calm down. Perhaps after term started, she could inform whoever his head of house turned out to be (as she highly doubted this boy would ever be a Gryffindor, given what she'd seen of him thus far) of this if whatever it was seemed to still bother him.

The one thing that did seem to thoroughly excite Waver Velvet was textbooks. McGonagall had suspected this based on her prior observations of the boy, and had thus left purchasing them for last. He seemed quite heartbroken that he was limited to only buying required textbooks, though he seemed reassured by the presence of a library within Hogwarts itself. McGonagall was almost certain by this point that this was the sort of student who read all his textbooks cover to cover before term officially started.

Waver was physically exhausted by the time they had finished shopping. McGonagall felt somewhat sorry for him as they trekked back through the woods where the portkey had been placed, now with the additional load of Waver's new belongings.

"The train leaves from King's Cross at eleven o'clock am on the 1st of September. Here is your ticket." McGonagall said as she handed it to him. "The platform is accessed by running at the wall between Platform 9 and Platform 10. I assume, since it is a Monday, it'll be difficult for your mother to accompany you?"

"That is likely the case."

"In that case, an escort will be sent to retrieve you the morning of. You will likely have to take a portkey again." McGonagall sighed. "Good day, Mr. Velvet." And she left without another word.

Well, if Tom Riddle could buy books despite growing up in a poor muggle orphanage... just reusing Dumbledore's explanation to him in Half-Blood Prince.

Also was unsure how they got students outside London to Diagon Alley in a timely manner, the simplest ways would be Floo and Portkeys, but with Waver's parents being muggles their fire would not be in the Floo network outside of exceptions like the Dursley's in GoF. So I just went with Portkey. If anyone has a more definitive answer, I'd love to hear it.

Review Replies:

green0photon: Most of the story doesn't take place in Hogwarts, actually. Remember, Harry began attending in the 1991-1992 school year. This means during the events of Philosopher's Stone/Sorcerer's Stone/whatever you want to call it, Waver would be a sixth year, not to mention he'd be in a different house because Gryffindor is honestly the only house I cannot see any argument for placing Waver in. I'm not entirely sure what not being canon-compliant would do to improve anything, and I feel it'd go against the spirit of what I'm trying to do if that makes any sense. I can't think of a portion of HP canon that I dislike that Waver would be in position to influence, the only one of the books whose plot I actively take issue with is OotP and Waver would have been out of school for two years by then.

Guest: Sort of an AU Waver I guess? With two main divergences, those being the different magical rules/culture in HP and no Rider (since regardless of my love of Rider, there's no logical way to include him in the story as far as I can tell). I'm aware canon Waver (pre-character development) thought he was the greatest genius to ever live, I have a two page character analysis of the guy sitting in the planning notes for the story. It's mostly he at this point knows basically nothing about magic beyond "it's real," compared to canon Waver at the time of Fate/Zero who was nineteen and had been studying for years, or trying to anyway. The "firmly thinks himself as a genius" aspect of his personality will hopefully be clearer once he starts being the POV character in the next chapter as up to this point the narration is mostly how McGonagall sees him.

I am aware that he's English, so I'm not sure why you pointed that out. Is that about what I said regarding Japanese text in the AN? That wasn't meant to imply Waver isn't English, it was just a note on how hard accents are to translate properly. Fate/Zero was written in Japanese, what Waver (and to some extent Rider) is saying is understood by the audience via translation convention and written in Japanese despite being said in English in universe. It's hard to write an English accent into Japanese and that may be why he lacks one in English translations.

If you have more specific advice on what lines or such to change, I'd love to hear it if you're willing to log in though~

-Glace