During the first two days of my stay at my new house, the only thing I did was eat, sleep and use the bathroom. I didn't even get up from my bed to eat, just had Kreacher bring me some fruit and packed biscuits and chips. While twelve years of fatigue didn't magically disappear in two days, by the third day my body still felt well-rested.
Before I went in search of a room to sleep in, I had ordered Kreacher to clean the house to make it habitable, so while he had tried to drag his feet, he had still done as he was ordered. I still didn't trust him enough to make my food though, that's why I only ordered him to buy me packed groceries, though I told him to leave the money on the counter this time.
The morning of my third day in this house, when the morning rays shined in my room I finally mustered up enough strength to get up. I went to the bathroom to finish my business and came out about 15 minutes later. There was a full-length mirror in the room so I stripped out of my clothes and stood in front of the mirror naked.
The only way to could describe my body was hideous. My hair was very long even though I took a very thorough bath, they were in clumps and did not look very healthy. My teeth had blackened from rot and were aching constantly. The jailors at Azkaban didn't even have the decency to provide their inmates with toothbrushes.
My whole body was thin like a stick, without an ounce of fat in sight, and every time I move all the bones inside of my body ached. My face was so gaunt it felt as if my eyes were going to pop out of my socket.
"Alright, man! You can do it!" I took a deep breath and thought that if anything can make recovery easier, it was magic.
I immediately wore some clothes, went downstairs, and started searching around the house for a particular place. I found what I was looking for just beside the kitchen, with a door on which the label "Potion Lab" was stuck.
I went into the room and looked around. While everything was a little dusty, nothing was broken or unusable. The only things missing were the ingredients, that could be easily procured, I closed my eyes and summoned the Black Grimoire.
It appeared in the air instantly floating for a moment before falling into my hands. I opened it while thinking about mainly three potions. A tooth regrowing potion, a hair-growing potion, and something to remove my malnutrition. I found the first two potions very quickly and luckily; there were spells written at the bottom for removing teeth and hair.
It took some time for me to choose between the many nutrition potion recipes in there. There were some options in there that were very tempting but had some unfortunate side effects. After a while, I chose the safest one among them. While that one required me to drink them daily for a whole month, along with regular exercise and diet. At least it didn't have the side-effect of leaving me blind for a week or making my nails disappear.
I waved my wand and silently conjured some parchment and a quill. I wrote down all the ingredients required and double-checked them.
"Kreacher!" I shouted, and the house-elf appeared immediately.
"Master called," he bowed, but before he could even start his usual mumbling, I interrupted him.
"Is there any place nearby, where you can get me some potion ingredients?"
"Yes, Master. There is a potion shop in the Littlealley,"
"What is Littlealley?"
"It is a small shopping alley for magical on this island,"
Kreacher explained to me that one of the reasons the manor was constructed here on this island was Littlealley, which had an antique shop that was famous for its artifacts. Kreacher had come here often when he was young with his father to serve Sirius's great aunt who liked tinkering with artifacts. I left the rest of the questions for later and got back to solving my current crisis.
"This is a list of potion ingredients," I said while passing the list to him, "Can you get them for me,"
"Yes, Master,"
"Then go, get them and remember to get twice the amount of everything," I ordered him and he disappeared with a pop immediately.
I didn't stay idle while waiting for him, I went into the potion lab and started cleaning all the equipment that would be required. I used my wand for most of them, but for some of them, I had to wash them with my hands because If I used magic on them, then it would change their properties and the quality of the potion would suffer.
I was a bit surprised when I looked into my memories and found out that Sirius was pretty good at potions, while not as good as lily or snape but he was the best out of the marauders, while Remus was very good in Potion theory, his sensitive smell made it hard for him to make potions. Sirius even got an O in his NEWT potion and he was the one who brewed the animagus potion for all of the marauders.
By the time I was done arranging the clean pieces of equipment on the table, Kreacher had reappeared with the ingredients. While I was taking out the ingredients, I asked him for their price out of curiosity and I was shocked at the amount that some of them cost. While the ingredients for teeth and hair regrowing were dirt cheap, some of the stuff required for the nutrition potion was damn expensive.
While it would not put even a little dent in my vault, still one batch of that potion costs almost 10 times the amount an average ministry employee makes in one month. I guess it must be one of the reasons they never give these potions at Hogwarts.
The first potion I made was the teeth regrowing because it would take the least amount of time as well as because my teeth hurt every time I try to eat something that is also the reason I haven't had breakfast yet.
I looked over the recipe about 5 times and arranged the ingredients according to the order I would need them. The most important step, Sirius had learned from his potion class, for making a successful potion was the preparation step. My hand skilfully diced and crushed the ingredients, and whenever the clock, which I had set precisely beforehand with a handy spell, rang I threw the required ingredients inside the cauldron without hesitation.
Half an hour later, after the fumes from the potion had been sucked into the exhaust. I poured the potion into the waiting flask and then stared at it waiting. About 5 minutes later it had cooled down and turned into a milky white color, exactly as mentioned in the recipe.
I didn't even wait for even a moment and immediately performed the teeth-removing spell while pointing my wand toward my mouth. It was just a point-and-shoot spell so there was no complicated wand-waving involved. One second my mouth was full of rotten teeth and the next second all the teeth disappeared and I felt as if I was a 100-year-old man, it was a very weird feeling.
"Webb dere goed nodin," I spoke in old man's voice. It would be the first time I would be drinking a magical potion so my hands were shaking a little. I took a few deep breaths and took the potion in my hand before drinking from it in one go.
It tasted a little like milk that had gone bad, my mouth felt like I had drunk a glass full of glue. About 10 seconds later I started to feel the effect of the potion. My teeth started growing at a very fast rate. While it was not particularly painful, it was very uncomfortable, it felt as if a hundred ants were walking on my gums.
The effect of the potion lasted for about 15 minutes. The moment I stopped feeling the effects, I took out my and silently conjured a mirror and looked at my teeth. They were very white and straight, I had never seen such a perfect set of teeth. I couldn't stop my mouth from smiling widely. I laughed in relief for a full minute, I could finally eat without feeling pain.
Before brewing the other potion, I went out of the potion room, and toward the kitchen. I looked around for a while before finding packed biscuits. I sat at the dining table and ate them with relish.
'I would need to go out and get some groceries today,' I thought while looking around the empty pantry.
While Kreacher could sneak a couple of things and leave the money on the counter without anyone getting suspicious. But if suddenly a huge amount of stuff started to disappear without reason then it would attract attention and I definitely didn't want that.
After finishing breakfast I went back into the potion lab and started brewing the hair-growing potion. There were very few ingredients in this one so the steps were fairly simple. I would just have to leave it to simmer for 30 minutes for it to complete. After completing the required procedure, I set an alarm with my wand and went out of the potion room.
I climbed the stairs with a skip in my steps and went into my room. After stripping myself bare, I stepped inside the bathroom and performed the hair-removing spell. The spell was a continuous chant along with pointing my wand toward the area where I want the hair removed. I removed every bit of hair from my head, my beard as well as everywhere I could see. After checking if I missed anywhere, I went ahead and took a warm shower.
I immediately felt better after coming out of the bathroom, I wore the most muggle-looking clothes before going down. I had just placed my foot on the bottom-most step when my wand suddenly vibrated so I ran toward the potion room. After entering, I took down the cauldron and placed it on the potion table.
It cooled down and turned a very pale lilac color, which was a bit different from the one mentioned in the recipe but it was not different enough that I would have to make another one. I scooped the potion out of the cauldron and poured enough potion for about five months worth of hair.
I took my wand out and waved it over the flask while saying an incantation as well as specifying the place where the hair needs to grow. The potion glowed a little and then settled down. I took the flask into my hands and after taking a deep breath drank from it in one go.
I could immediately feel my hair start growing, I placed my hand on my head and felt smooth and silky hairs sprouting out. The hair stopped growing after 2 minutes, I used the previously conjured mirror to look at myself. While my hair was a bit long it was very shiny, strong, and straight without any clumps. The difference between my present hair and the one from before was enormous, it felt really good running my hand through my hair.
I took a deep breath of satisfaction, finally feeling like a human being. I looked at the ingredients for the last potion and hesitated, this potion was a very complicated one. It would require three hours of continuous effort and I would still have to leave it in the dark for a whole day for it to settle.
After a few moments, I decided that I would go out and buy groceries first and brew this potion after I get back. I cleaned the potion table and placed all the remaining ingredients in the cupboard. After cleaning all the equipment, I placed them in their proper places before going out of the potion lab.
I went into my room and took some muggle money as well as a bag of galleons that I had Kreacher withdraw from Gringotts. After putting both of them inside my pocket, I went in front of the mirror and checked if anything looked out of place, I looked normal except for my face being a bit gaunt and my clothes being way too big for me. I used a bit of glamour to turn my hair blond and my eyes blue and also filled my face out a little using transfiguration to not stand out too much.
After being satisfied with my look, I walked out of my new home. I was walking toward the shed that was just beside the front gates when I suddenly heard a screech. When I looked up I saw Buckbeak flying in circles above me before he dived and gently landed in front of me.
I bowed while maintaining eye contact with him and when he returned it, I went toward him with a huge smile. I immediately started brushing the feathers around his neck gently and he crooned in delight.
"Were you lonely, Buckbeak? I am sorry I wasn't able to meet you these last two days," I said, and he lowered his head a little and nudged me gently, "Do you wanna go for a ride?"
He nodded and screeched a little before lowering himself. I went around his middle and mounted him in one smooth motion before getting comfortable.
"Let's go!" I shouted while squeezing my legs. The winds rushed through my air as he flapped his wings and suddenly we were flying above the trees.
I flew on buckbeak for quite a while, just enjoying the warm sunny day and cool wind combination. The muggle-repelling ward around the manor was quite extensive, in fact, an area of around 15 miles around the manor was mostly just largely untouched forest and came under the protection of the ward. So buckbeak had quite the area available to him for him to hunt without worrying over any muggles sighting him.
"Thank you, Buckbeak," I said to buckbeak after we had landed in front of the manor. He screeched happily and flew back into the forest.
I walked toward the shed with a little smile on my face. Opening the shed, I found three broomsticks left by the precious occupants. Two of which were in proper working condition. The only town on this island was about 40 miles away and I couldn't apparate because I hadn't been there before and I didn't trust Kreacher enough to side apparate with him.
I took the best broom from the shed, before walking out of the manor. Before mounting the broom I applied a small disillusionment charm on myself, which took me three tries as it was a complicated spell and Sirius didn't have much practice with it.
I slowly took off and started to move toward town, after a while when I was a bit more comfortable Sirius's instinct took and increased the speed to the maximum, and the broom flew very stably and smoothly. It took me about half an hour to reach the outskirts of the town. I flew over the town while looking down for a few minutes before I found a market. After looking around for a while I found a deserted alley and landed inside gently.
I shrunk the broom and put it in my pocket, and after removing the disillusionment charm on me I walked out of the alley without gathering any kind of attention.
The first shop I went into was a small vendor who was selling all kinds of fruits and vegetables. I bought all kinds of green vegetables as well as all healthy fruits.
While I could not cook anything more than a packet of noodles, I had found a couple of household charms in Sirius's memory, that only required you to place the ingredients as well as utensils on the kitchen island and the dish will be ready without your input in a few minutes. While they would not taste the best, they would definitely be edible and that's all I cared about. I shrunk the groceries and put them inside my pockets when no one was looking.
After searching around for a while, I found a small mall that had all the remaining items I needed. I bought all the ingredients that a normal kitchen required like flour, bread, butter, spices, and of course chicken and eggs too.
I was a bit relieved after accomplishing the most important of my chores so I just browsed around the market after that. I was buying ice cream when I saw a barbershop across the street, and feeling a bit of hair in my eyes, it was exactly what I needed.
I entered the barber shop and a bell rang above my head. There were three huge chairs placed in front of a huge mirror and a man in his 50s was washing his hands in a sink.
"Take a seat, son. I'll be right with you," The barber said while looking up at me and nodding his head toward the chairs.
I took a seat at the nearest chair, it was a bit worn out but still comfortable. The barber came to stand behind me after getting a scissor and a comb.
"What kind of cut do you need—" he stopped speaking the second he ran a hand through my hair and gasped loudly, "these are the smoothest and silkiest hair I've seen in my 30 years of career, what kind of product do you use my man," he said while continuing to run a hand through my hair in fascination.
"It's a family recipe," I said with a small smile, "Just make my hair more manageable but also not too short,"
"You just relax, son. With hair like this I'll give you the best haircut of my life," he said with a gleam in his eyes.
I decided to trust the barber and closed my eyes to relax and let my thoughts wander. There is one last stop I have to take before my day is over. Kreacher had told me that to access the magical alley you have to go into the bathroom of a pub called PUBISLE.
When I opened my eyes about half an hour later, I was very glad to have trusted the barber because when I looked into the mirror I was very satisfied with my look, the hair made my face go straight from normal to the handsome category.
"You just need to eat some meat to fill up a little and you could even be a model," the barber said while I was admiring myself in the mirror. I gave the barber a very generous tip for a job well done.
"Do you know a place called PubIsle," I asked before leaving the shop.
"Oh, it's the small pub two streets away, not many people go there," he said before shrugging, "except for some weirdos with robes,"
"Thank you,"
I left the shop and after walking for a while, I found the Pub hidden in a side street with very little sunshine. I would have missed it if the barber had not told me about it, the entrance to the pub was a small wooden door with a mold-ridden sign with PuBisle written on it.
The pub was very normal looking with low ceilings, wooden beams, and an unlit fireplace, just a bit dark and empty. There were 5 round tables with chairs unevenly place between them, there were only 4 customers and the barkeep in the whole pub and the weird thing was that there were two bathrooms in the place, one on the right and the other on the right.
Kreacher didn't tell me that there were two bathrooms, that blasted elf. I went up to the bar and ordered some fish and chips before I left for the left bathroom which turned out to be a dud. I came out after a while and my order was already there so took a table and had my lunch.
After I finished eating I left toward the right bathroom the second I came close to it, I knew that I was in the right place because I faintly felt a muggle-repelling ward. I opened it and went inside, I walked in the dark for a while before I suddenly exited into a small street with a handful of shops.
LittleAlley was a lot smaller than DiagonAlley from Sirius's memories, there were hardly 10 shops in there. There was a bookstore, an ingredients shop, a pet shop, an antique store, and some other shops. It was almost empty compared to the hustle and bustle of DiagonAlley.
I went into the bookstore for a while and browsed it but it didn't have many books, just a lot of books about different kinds of birds. I was very disappointed with the book collections so I left after a while without buying anything and went across the street into the pet shop.
The second I entered the shop I was struck with a weird cacophony of all kinds of bird squawks. The pet shop was huge from the inside and it was almost the size of a park, and it was filled with all kinds of tropical birds of various colors from the size of a palm to the size of a person. I looked around with my mouth wide open at the amazing scene in front of me.
"How can I help you, My man," A voice came from behind me and took me out of my trance. A colorfully dressed man was standing behind the counter that was just beside the door.
"um... I am looking for an owl," I told him after clearing my throat.
"You've come to the right place then, Come with me," he said and started walking into the maze of cages. I followed after him blankly, still amazed by this magical sight.
"Is the LittleAlley always this empty," I asked curiously.
"You must be new here," he said with a chuckle, "The mating season ended two weeks ago so obviously it is a lot less bustling. This island is famous around the world for its large population of exotic magical birds. Every year in the mating season people all across the world come here hoping they could get a magical bird for themselves. There were even rumors of sightings of phoenixes here," he said in a mystifying tone, "But alas I haven't seen it yet,"
"Oh, I see,"
"These are all the owls that we have in stock, right now," he said while waving his hands at a collection of various species of owls.
"I need to give it to a teenager so which one do you think is the best one," I said while looking around uncertainly
"Well then this one here is a good choice," he said while pointing toward a brown colored yellow-eyed owl, "It's reliable and very docile so it's good for a gift to a kid,"
"Well, then I'll take it,"
"Marvelous," he said and brought the owl with him toward the counter.
I was looking around waiting for the shopkeeper to complete the procedure when my eyes fell on a Majestic Bird placed in a hidden corner behind the door. It was pure white without a single feather of a different color. It was the size of a person's head and was looking at me curiously, with its bright yellow eyes.
"I see that the WindStealer has caught your eye,"
"What species is it," I asked while looking at the bird's hypnotic gaze.
"It is one of the fastest and deadliest magical birds in the world. Don't be fooled by its small size, it's still a hatchling, but give it a month and it will be larger than most of the owls in here," he explained enthusiastically,
"It is faster than the fastest broom in the world, only the new one, Firebolt can barely match its speed but even then you would have to get the world's best seeker to even be able to touch its feather, the way the bird maneuvers in the air and it's very stealthy because of its color and its silent flight so we almost never catch it, It was caught just a week ago by chance, but alas," he sighed while shaking his head, "The mating season had already ended so almost all the buyers have already left. Now I'll have to wait for next year,"
"I'll buy it," I said, having made up my mind the second I laid my eyes on it.
"Don't joke about it my friend," He said with a nervous chuckle, "It is very expensive, usually there is a very big auction—"
"I'll buy it," I repeated while looking at him with a glint in my eyes.
He must have seen something because he didn't ask anymore and just said the price.
"Would you also like to establish a familiar bond with it? It's a bit expensive but it'll be worth it," the pet shop owner asked.
"Yes," I said while recalling from Sirius's memories, about a small ritual pet shops offered when young students come to buy their owls.
The shopkeeper took me into the back of the shop where a runic circle was drawn on the floor and placing windstealer on one side asked me to sit on the other side. Almost instantly I felt a connection to the mystical bird in front of me. I could vaguely feel its thoughts, It was very curious about the world around it and I could even somewhat feel its emotions.
The shopkeeper opened the cage and the bird instantly flew toward me and gently sat on my shoulder.
"I'll call you Swift, How about it?" I said while rubbing swifts feathers gently who chirped in reply.
"They are very self-sufficient so you don't have to worry about feeding them, he will hunt its own prey," the shopkeeper said.
I nodded and paid for both swift and the unnamed owl. After leaving the shop I called for Kreacher, and gave him the cage for Ron's owl so that he can take it back to the manor. I was about to leave to return back and write the letter to harry with Ron's Owl when the shop at the end of the street came into my view, it was an antique shop so I was intrigued.
I entered the shop and found a guy tinkering with a watch on the counter. I looked around the shop and found it filled with a random assortment of stuff, from a wall clock to chandeliers and all kinds of victorian furniture strewn around haphazardly, but my eyes were attracted to a very tall cabinet colored in black with intricate runes covering it all over.
"Hey is this working," I asked in a whisper to the man who looked up and put down his working glasses.
"No, unfortunately, it is not," He sighed and shook his head, "My grandfather was the creator of vanishing cabinets but he died before he could pass on that knowledge to me,"
"I thought repairing it was easy," I asked recalling how Draco was able to do it while in Hogwarts.
"No, repairing it is easy. Any person with a NEWT in ancient runes can do it but it's replicating that is the problem. I've already repaired this one but its other half is lost so its a bit useless,"
"That's a shame," I said while running my hands over the cabinet in regret, "I would've liked one of those,"
"Here, let me show you something," he said while pulling a small rectangle box from under the counter, its length and width were about a meter, "While I've never been able to replicate my grandfather's work. I did make a prototype but unfortunately, it's a bit smaller and cannot transport any live object,"
"I'll take it," I said while thinking about how it would make a lot of stuff easier.
/
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