[King's Cross Station, Muggle London.]
[TPP]
Nate exited the Hogwarts express. His first year at Hogwarts just ended and he was happy with the progress he made.
His study in Temporal manipulation was making good progress. He would be learning increasing or decreasing the relative time of an object next year.
His charm repertoire also increased in utility thanks to regular suggestions and ideas from Flitwick who was impressed with Nate's knowledge of Charms. The man was overjoyed to even explain Goblin's societal structures. Nate realised that there were no more Goblin Kings but the whole race worked through an Oligarchy. The only thing all Goblins recognised was Gold and treasures. If you could be rich in such a cutthroat culture, you would be respected immensely.
You could still find a stupid goblin but you would be very hard pressed to find one that was not knowledgeable. It also pointed to how people don't realise that Slytherin house's portrayal of cunning was wrong.
You don't have to be cold and ruthless to be cunning. Truly cunning people were the most jovial and personal people. The best showing of cunning that Nate found was Horace Slughorn, Albus Dumbledore and Filius Flitwick. Filius Flitwick was born and raised as a goblin when eleven he joined Hogwarts to study wand magic due to his heritage. He explained to Nate that most goblins that were successful were accommodating.
Acting cold to people just drives them away. This would lead to enmity eventually.
His other classes were also going fine. He was also allowed to meet the Centaurs when he asked Dumbledore for permission on acquiring their help for his project.
The meeting with the Centaurs had been filled with an awkward Nate trying to not damage their pride by mistake. He had requested help in finding herbs and trees that could thrive in tropical climates for his island. He had explained the idea of the contract that would help life thrive in the forest of his planned island. Nate's initial plan to get Centaur watchdogs and gardeners for his island had been going well until they hit a small snag related to how exchange of things would work. The Centaurs had stated quite magnanimously that anything taken from the forest by oneself would belong to the person gathering them.
Nate had been alarmed by this because he was sure that he did not want to allow such a thing. He wanted the Centaurs to have monopoly over the forest because they would not destroy it and only trade enough to not damage it. When he asked them to allow none to hunt in there, they had been reluctant because the hunt was considered sacred in their culture. He explained that the only beings that would enter the forest would be werewolves who would be in a barricaded area that would allow them to run through it albeit with restrictions.
The next was another explanation of the trade agreement that the Centaur tribe would be responsible for exchanging raw materials like herbs, flowers and other magical ingredients like Hippogriff feathers and Unicorn hair in return for potions, enchanted arrows, etc. The enchanted arrows had been rejected while potions and enchanted astronomical tools had been accepted after a bit of arguing among the centaurs themselves.
The tribe had been satisfied by the fact that they would free of the Ministry's foolish attempts at showing supremacy.
The agreement of moving from the Forbidden Forest had been finalized between Nate and Ronin of Tribe Halasius in a single meeting.
Finally when the school year had ended, Nate had used the Room Of Requirements and an hour later he decided on a region of water in the sea that he found safe enough to pull out the sea bed from. Though this may still blow up in his face because Geo-engineering was not something that wizards could perform perfectly. Yes they could control the weather but changing the terrain or weather still had untold consequences.
He would be raising the wards to avoid detection from the ministry after getting there using a broom.
"Nate, why are you spaced out on the platform?" came the voice of Nate's Grandma, she was frowning as she looked at Nate.
"Sorry I just started thinking about holidays and stuff."
"Don't space out randomly, someone might just crash into you."
"I have read in your letters that you have made friends with a son of Arthur Weasley? One of the twins?"
"George Weasley, he is an okay person. He isn't pushy like his twin." Nate said.
She smiled, "It is good you are making friends with others."
[Grey Manor, Scotland.]
[TPP]
The fireplace in Grey Manor burst into green flames. Out walked of the inferno, Nate Grey in casual clothes.
He saw his grandfather, William Grey who was sitting on the couch.
And greeted the man as he took a seat at the armchair, "Hello, grandfather."
The flames roared again and Veronica Grey walked out of them.
"Dear", she nodded towards William who nodded back.
William then looked at Nate and returned the earlier greeting, "Hello to you too rude-boy. So how was your first year at Hogwarts? I hope Dumbledore didn't give you trouble because of the duel."
Nate chuckled, "No he did not give me any trouble. The duel was him doing me a favour. I wanted to see what actual duelling feels like. It was not at all serious."
"I saw the memory Nate, that seemed like a serious duel to me." Veronica blurted out.
"Just throwing around elemental spells and charms doesn't make it a real duel grandma."
"Oh ho! What do you think a real duel between you two would look like?" William asked sceptical believing the boy was downplaying the level of the fight.
"I am pretty sure that I would get my arse handed to me if I fought the man right now, but by my fifth year in Hogwarts I would most probably win. You need to understand that among wizards like yourself and say Bellatrix Lestrange. You guys duel trying to get a single hit on your opponent. You throw curses at your opponent hoping they would hit and try to end it as fast as possible.
Wizards like Dumbledore and I have such large reserves that we don't need to save energy as much as you. The only time he will hit me with a curse moving in a straight line is if I am cornered or he doesn't want me to be in that area. You guys fight like you are in a sword fight, we fight like we are in a war. All kinds of deception and attacks for that one winning move."
"So what should I do if I am fighting someone like you?"
"If you were fighting someone like me and are not already dead that means that either I don't want you dead or your death is going to be painful. The best way would be using the Fumos charm. Then use gemino curse on an arrow of the sagitta curse. It will buy you around ten seconds. Use it to escape."
"And what if someone wants to do a lot of damage before dying?" William asked Nate.
"Get as close as you physically can and if you reach within a meter of me, use Fiendfyre. I don't think even I am walking unscathed out of it." Nate said thoughtfully and then he added, "The person who called the Fiendfyre definitely won't survive though."
"It is interesting to hear you speak of killing so casually." William said bitterly.
"We were just discussing hypothetical scenarios." Nate deadpanned.
"Of course, dear." Veronica chimed in, "But you still did not tell me what a real duel between you two would look like?" she added excited.
"Well I would have used the mind arts for one. I would use the Tesseract. Illusions and Runes would have been used offensively instead of defensively only. Charms like the Lux Stellae or Nihilus would be used.
I assume he would also make use of charms extensively. He would be using transfiguration aggressively. Alchemy and Battle Appirition would be used. I also know that he was good at arithemancy so I think self crafted spells would not be a stretch. His Phoenix would also get involved in the fight. I am also sure that he has a good grasp of the dark arts."
"Seems like he has a greater arsenal than you." William said mockingly.
"He is a century old. I would be more disturbed if he did not have a greater arsenal than me. And you are underestimating the destruction the Tesseract is capable of. And if you think it is such issue that I don't have something like a Phoenix maybe keep an ear open for things that could be "
William blinked and nodded,"What are you planning doing during the break?"
"I was thinking of doing the homework the school provided and looking to fly using my broom." Nate chuckled.
William shrugged and said, "You can do that and still have free time. Why not take up a hobby?"
Nate knew he won't have much time with the island but he asked nonetheless, "What kind of hobby?"
"Chess was more or less a hobby for me. Your mother likes Quidditch."
Nate nodded and then said, "No, I am fine Grandfather. And I think there is no need to look for a familiar, I think I will find it on my own."