Retirement Plan.
Part 7.
Twycross House. The Wizarding World.
Rooby provided us all with a full English breakfast without me ever seeing him enter the dining room because not being seen is the sign of a good House-Elf.
Not that I'd been paying much attention to anyone other than Dawn as she kept giving me these little looks that let me know she was very happy and she was attempting to play footise with me. Somewhat tricky given the size of the table.
"We have mail" informed Raven as she entered the room.
Like Dawn, she hadn't bothered to wear more than a nightshirt and underwear. Something I knew for certain as the nightshirt rode up enough for me to see her knickers when she came into the room.
"We all have letters?" Dawn asked, "Did they get delivered by owls?".
These two were really enjoying getting to live in the wizarding world. It made sense that they would because they had chosen to accept becoming bound to me in exchange for living in this world and getting to share my perks. They wouldn't have done that if they didn't like this world.
"Yes" confirmed the former Teen Titan "From the college and James has a few extra".
The letter from the school turned out to contain our tickets and instructions on how to get onto the platform as well as confirmation of our place in the school.
"So the train leaves King's Crossing on Monday, September the 1st," said Dawn "I forgot that it's 1997 here so I won't be able to buy a tablet to play with on the train".
I had to since my home was magical and the bits that did contain technology were ahead of what the locals possessed. At least this meant I got to enjoy my favourite one-player games on my Xbox.
"What are your other letters about?" enquired Rachel Roth.
She always seemed interested in any correspondence that I received.
"One is from the Ministry they are just confirming my change of address and letting me know that they have altered my records" I mentioned, "The school register must have changed already since the Hogwarts letters reached you here".
Dawn looked a little confused by this.
"Hold on, I thought this house was supposed to be hidden or protected," she said "How are we even getting mail, and how can they know where we are".
I knew what she meant.
"The defences are meant to keep out people who want to steal from us or do us harm" I explained "I paid for the upgrades so we are safer here than anywhere else, but the defences won't stop people who mean us no harm from finding us".
Dawn looked to be deep in thought for a moment.
"Does this mean we can have people over?" she asked.
I considered this.
"Yes, as long as they don't see any of the special rooms," I said "The spa and the pool should be okay for visitors to access if you trust them, just don't let anyone see the other special rooms or enter our bedrooms".
Raven expressed concern.
"What if someone sends a spy?" she asked "If they don't mean to harm us or steal the defences might not deal with them. They might even know they are spies since someone could be looking into their minds later".
That was a good question.
"I have a lot of control over the defences," I told Raven "I can set them to deal harshly with anyone who has an unfriendly motive for coming here, but any defence has limits. We just have to try to be careful".
Dawn turned to look at my other companion.
"I won't be inviting any junior Death Eaters over" she assured the more powerful witch.
That wasn't my only concern.
"Or any minions of the other Dark Lord," I said.
Dawn shifted her attention back to me.
"Do people still work for Grindlewald?" she asked "He's been locked up for decades".
That wasn't who I meant.
"I was referring to Dumbledore" I explained "Although he's more of a Bright Lord in my opinion".
That made no sense to either of the girls. So I told them how I compared the Headmaster to Celebrimbor from the Shadow of Mordor games. This was something that took a whole.
On the surface Dumbledore seemed to be a nice guy who would offer support and wisdom to those in need when in reality he was no better than the Dark Lord, they both wanted to rule, to control people and destroy their enemies.
Dumbledore was just more subtle about it and had already obtained a great amount of power.
"Celebrimbor talked about bringing light to Mordor and that sounds all good, but really he just wanted power, even if he justified taking that power as being for the greater good" I said "If Dumbledore was a light lord he'd be more like Obi-Wan in Star Wars, he'd protect and guide Harry Potter, but really Dumbledore is just using Harry like a pawn on a game board".
I could have ranted for hours about how Albus Dumbledore was really a villain. However, I spared my companion from getting a lecture. Besides, it wasn't as if Light Lords were much better. There was a reason I considered myself to be grey.
"Evil or not we need to avoid the notice of the Headmaster" stated Raven "I did just steal the stone".
Dawn signalled her agreement.
"Okay fine, I won't hang out with anyone close to Dumbledore" she agreed with a frown "I don't need to be friends with Harry Potter".
There were other people at the school. Plenty of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws who had little or nothing to do with either of the dark lords.
"What about your other letter?" questioned the former part-demon as she sipped her cooling tea "Who is it from?".
I opened it to find out.
"This is from Horace Slughorn," I told her "He's inviting me over for afternoon tea tomorrow".
While he was moving quickly I wasn't that surprised by the offer as I was a young and wealthy wizard, he no doubt wanted to get the measure of me and to see if I was worth adding to his collection.
"Slughorn is offering to help me settle into the Wizarding World" I mentioned.
Dawn finished her toast before speaking.
"He's that professor with the club," she said "I thought he only cared about famous wizards and witches".
Not exactly. Slughorn was smarter and more complex than that.
"He's a man with a network," I told Dawn "He adds people to his web of influence, those with potential and those with links to powerful people, so he can benefit from those connections, but that network also benefits the people in it as you can make your own connections with the people Slughorn knows. If he collects me then I'll get to meet some important witches and wizards".
To me, Slughorn was a true Slytherin. He was cunning and ambitious, without becoming evil, sure he used people, but it wasn't like he wanted to cause suffering and he didn't purposely endanger children, unlike other members of the Hogwarts staff.
Although I could recall that he had a vampire at one of his parties so he could be reckless with the safety of his students even if he didn't mean to be. I would not be relaxed around him.
"Plus I wanted to hire him to tutor us in potions" I mentioned.
That got Raven's interest.
"I read in Hogwarts: A History that we can hire tutors instead of taking
classes," she said.
Homeschooling was also an option, but there was no way these two would allow that. I also did want to go and explore the castle because if nothing else the Room of Requirement was filled with stuff that could be valuable.
"Tutors are expensive" I stated "But worth it given the low quality of teaching in some subjects. I want to hire tutors for Defence, Potions and History of Magic. I'm not spending years of my life getting bored to death by Binns, verbally abused by Snape or nearly killed by a Defence Teacher".
Someone might think this was excessive, but I didn't since I knew that freaking Lord Voldemort is going to be in every Defence Against the Dark Arts class during my first year.
"Anything is better than Snape" declared Dawn Summers.
Raven had a concern.
"You aren't a millionaire" she pointed out "We need to be careful with your money. We need books, supplies, and they'll be other expenses".
I had an idea about that.
"How do you feel about emptying another Gringotts Vault?" I questioned.
It didn't take her long to catch on.
"The Lestrange vault" she realised "You don't just want the Horcrux".
Dawn wasn't far behind.
"We can steal from all the Death Eaters," she said.
Alas, it wasn't that simple.
"Aside from potentially damaging the magical world's economy it would be too dangerous to do that," I told her.
Raven explained further.
"I can't just keep teleporting, I'd have to rest for a time, and the goblins might not be as stupid as the wizards," she told Dawn "They'd notice the pattern and set a trap".
Those weren't the only reasons.
"Besides, if the vaults are discovered to be empty and we start spending a lot someone will connect the dots," I said "From the books, we know that the Lestrange vault is only checked once a decade or something like that, so unless that time is very soon it could've years before anyone notices the vault is empty and since the Lestranges are locked up in Azkaban the goblins have no reason to admit that a vault has been emptied".
Dawn saw the wisdom in this.
"And you can keep all the gold in the storage space that only we can access" she realised "The goblins or the Aurors can search this whole house and never find it".
Robbing the Malfoys might seem like a good idea, but Lucius Malfoy has the ear of the Minister of Magic and influence with the other Death Eaters, so I didn't want to go against him yet.
Plus he runs businesses and bankrupting him could put people out of work, people who are just trying to support their families.
"The Lestrange gold is cursed" reminded Raven "So I'll need a special chest to hold it. That means going to Diagon Alley. I'll see if they have any bigger-in-the-inside chests at a second-hand store. I can pretend to be a student who's trying to save some money".
I felt sure that in time she'd be able to remove the curses on the Lestrange fortune so that we could spend some of it. There just wasn't any rush.
Twycross House. The Wizarding World.
Within Raven's workshop, held in place by dark energy was one of Voldemort's Horcruxes. It was secured like this because Horcruxes are very dangerous even if they haven't had a chance to influence somebody.
Raven had a plan to save the cup and this was going to take a lot of her focus. As such she'd insisted that Dawn and I stay behind a screen she'd put up. It looked rather flimsy, but if she felt it was secure enough then I trusted her.
It was risky to try to save the cup rather than destroy it, but the relic had a lot of value as it was the creation of Helga Hufflepuff, the celebrated Founder of Hufflepuff House.
In Hogwarts: A History it was described as a shining golden cup with two finely wrought handles on either side and a badger engraved on its surface. The reality matched up.
The cup was said to possess many magical powers, though the exact nature of those powers is not known. Perhaps we would discover them once the cup was cleansed of the dark magic currently infesting it.
Hogwarts: A History suggested that since Hufflepuff was brilliant with food-related charms and with house elves, this meant that the cup may have been the very first dining utensil at Hogwarts to assist in the magical transportation of food from the House-Elf Kitchens.
If so then it would be useless outside of the school as anything other than an interesting decorative piece, or as something to sell for a lot of money, yet I still desired to possess it.
The cup remained with Helga Hufflepuff until the time of her death, then it was passed down through the Hufflepuff family, and through the centuries until it made its way to Hepzibah Smith, a descendant who kept the cup as a priceless heirloom.
Back in 1946, Smith showed the cup to Tom Marvolo Riddle, who was at that time employed at Borgin and Burkes. She attempted to impress Riddle with the cup as she knew that he had an interest in relics, and not because she wanted to sell it.
Along with the cup, Smith possessed Salazar Slytherin's locket. That was another Horcrux that I intended to claim at some point. For now, it was secure at Grimmauld Place.
She could try to take it, but Raven wasn't sure what would happen if she teleported herself into the house without first being told the secret. I'd rather not risk her safety when there are other ways to get what I wanted.
Voldemort came into possession of both the cup and the locket by murdering Miss Smith. Her elderly house elf, Hokey, mistakenly remembered putting poison in Smith's cocoa and the poor creature took the blame due to the young Dark Lord altering the elf's mind.
Smith's family realised the cup and the locket was missing shortly after her death, but by that time Riddle had resigned from his post at Borgin and Burkes before vanishing. He would not return to Britain for many years and when he didn't he would no longer be Tom Riddle.
Riddle transformed the cup into his fourth Horcrux, using Smith's murder to fuel the magic. Many years later he left it in the care of his trusted Death Eater, Bellatrix Lestrange.
Although she did not know that the cup was a Horcrux, Lestrange treated the object with great care, storing it in her family vault at Gringotts Wizarding Bank, a place considered to be impossible to plunder, although the reality was different.
In addition to the bank's extensive security measures, it was protected there by a spell which would cause any object to multiply exponentially if touched by anyone other than the vault's owners. Another curse would make the objects become hot enough to burn the flesh of anyone trying to remove them.
All of this I explained to Dawn as Raven prepared to do some impressive magic.
"That doesn't make any sense," said the Key in human form "If you can just make copies of things like the cup, then isn't everything in the vault basically worthless".
It would seem that way.
"Duplicated items are temporary" explained Raven from where she stood making notes "True creation is very rare in magic, so the duplicated items will cease to exist after a time. You can stretch out what you have, and transform something, but actually making something from nothing is beyond most magic users, and most transformations can revert over time or be reversed".
This made sense to me.
"That's why the stone Raven stole for me is so valuable," I told Dawn "It truly transforms less valuable metals into gold. The gold it can make is real gold".
Raven had easily cleaned out the Lestranges' vault by filling a chest that was big enough on the inside to hold everything.
I'd peeked inside before it all went into storage and saw that I now had a vast fortune in gold coins, silver armour, the skins of great creatures, the bones of dragons, potions lept within jewelled flasks, goblets, plates, bracelets, amulets, necklaces and rings.
As well as a skull with a crown that I suspected had an interesting story behind it.
"I'm ready!" called out the former Teen Titan.
Watching, I saw a bird made out of shadow come out of my companion before it flew into the Horcrux. Then it flew out of the cup while holding what I could only describe as a dark ghost snake, which the bird then ripped apart with its claws.
"Stay behind the screen" insisted Raven "I need to purify this room of lingering dark magic".
Dawn and I did as we were told.
"What the hell just happened?" the Key wondered.
I had a fair idea.
"Raven just sent her soul-self into the Horcrux to attack the bit of Voldmort's soul that is in the cup" I explained "She attack the cup spiritually rather than physically, so it wouldn't be damaged".
I looked over at the powerful witch.
"Did you destroy that bit of soul?" I questioned.
She shook her head.
"Destroyed isn't the right word," she told me "Fracturing your soul makes it vulnerable, but you can't just destroy a soul I took it apart so that it can't affect anything".
Dawn was still confused.
"Soul-self?" she asked.
Since I couldn't answer that question as I didn't fully grasp the soul-self thing myself she would have to talk to Raven about it.
As for the more powerful spellcaster, she performed some sort of ritual that cleansed the area of bad vibes or whatever it was she was worried about.
"James, that's another romantic date you owe me" Raven insisted as she handed over the cup "I expect a candle-lit dinner for two this evening followed by a movie of my choice in the theatre room, then we'll go to my bedroom. Until then I need to get some rest".
Dawn looked annoyed.
"You can't hog him" she insisted "When he is going to spoil me?".
Raven shrugged and made her way out of the workshop as I placed the cup in the storage space.
"Are you going to let her make demands of you like that?" the former Sunnydale resident questioned.
I didn't see it that way.
"Raven is doing a lot for me and not all of it is safe or legal" I pointed out "It's not unfair of her to want something in return, and I don't think she has much experience with romance so she's just making sure that she gets what she wants".
That seemed to satisfy the Key in human form.
"What are going to do with the shiny thing?" asked Dawn.
I had a few ideas.
"Only Voldemort and the Lestranges know where this cup has been," I said "I have to keep it hidden while Voldemort is at the school, but once he's dealt with I think I'll claim to have rediscovered the cup and use it to boost my renown, or if it has any special powers I'll keep it for myself".
Dumbledore would not doubt try to claim the cup since he might suspect that it is Horcrux, but since Raven had cleared of the taint of Voldemort I wasn't worried about that or where it ended up on display if I should hand it over.
As for the cup's powers. Perhaps some research was in order. I should drop by the alley and see if they have books on Helga Hufflepuff.
"I'm going to the ally, can I treat you to lunch while we are out?" I asked, "I'll throw in some ice cream".
Dawn eagerly accepted my offer and we soon headed off to the ally. I had a feeling that over the next few years, she would try every strange flavour combination that the parlour offered.
Retirement Plan.
Part 8.
Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. Diagon Alley.
Dawn smiled as she sat down and admired the treat in front of her. She
could imagine the disapproving look she might have from her older sister had she ordered something like this when back in her old world.
One of the great things about this new life was the younger Miss Summers didn't have to worry about what Buffy thought about anything. She was very far away.
"So what flavour are you trying this time?" asked James.
Dawn grinned at him before saying anything.
"Strawberry, peanut-butter ice cream with hot fudge, whipped cream and shortbread crumbles" she answered "I don't even know what shortbread is, I just know it looks yummy".
She really liked living in the magical world. She knew that it would have people who would look down on her for not having a wizarding family, however, she was going to make an effort not to let that bother her as she wasn't just some witch.
Dawn Summers was the Key, her blood could break down the barriers that separated this world from those around it. She'd fought demons and vampires, she cast magical spells far more impressive than anything a Hogwarts student would ever manage without any schooling.
How many of them would have been brave enough to move from one dimension to another and start a whole new life? None of them would have dared.
"I think I'll stick with more traditional flavours," said James.
She'd have accused him of being unadventurous, only he certainly wasn't since like her he'd chosen to start a whole new life in this world.
Okay, so she hadn't had a lot of choice in the matter. She'd been dying in some sense due to the spell that had created her falling apart. Still, it had been tough to leave her friends behind despite them starting to forget that she'd ever existed just as she lost her own memories.
Thinking on it, perhaps that had been another reason to leave. They'd been Buffy's friends, not hers, she'd been dragged around and put into danger because she was the Slayer's sister.
This fresh start meant that she finally be her own person and aside from the people in her new group, no one here even knew Buffy Summers existed. Not unless that TV show also existed here, and if it did would anyone in the magical world ever watch it?
"Sounds boring" commented Dawn when she decided she wanted to talk rather than think "Don't you like any food that's not boring".
James gave the matter some thought.
"I'm one of those twisted people who likes pineapple on his pizza" he admitted.
Dawn made a sour expression.
"I know I shouldn't judge, but really fruit on pizza," she said "That is wrong".
"Everyone eats fruit with their pizza" James pointed out "The tomato is a fruit and they use them in the sauce when making the pizza".
She'd never thought of it like that.
"I actually like anchovies on pizza so I'm a freak too" she confessed.
James took out some paper and a pen and began to write as Dawn enjoyed the remaining surgery goodness in front of her.
"What are you writing?" she wondered.
He didn't look up at her he just kept penning.
"An ad for tutors," the wizard told her "I figure that the Daily Prophet must have a job section or something like that".
Dawn recalled James mentioning the hiring of tutors before.
"We've still got all of August to prepare for Hogwarts and we'll be behind the other students" he said "They'll know more spells than us and might be able to brew some potions".
Dawn dug further into the ice cream as James talked.
"Have you gotten any spells working yet?" he asked.
Of course, she'd tried out a few to test out her wand.
"I can make my wand light up and I've gotten things floating" she answered "I've been reading our school books".
Dawn pondered something for a moment. She was glad that there was a lot of background noise as that made it unlikely that anyone would overhear them. Once they got to the school they would have to be more careful about what they spoke about in public.
"If this going to be like the books then won't everyone be useless at magic to start with?" she asked.
James finished the ad before speaking.
"Maybe," he said "But the students will be young adults, not little brats. We don't know what they learn in the magical version of High School. They might get lessons using their parent's wands before they get their own, and the children of certain families will already know a few curses I'm sure".
The children of the Death Eaters might be dangerous even in their first year of school.
"That's why I'm planning on hiring a duelling instructor, in case we ever up in a magical fight" he mentioned.
Some training was always a good idea.
"So James, I know you are busy tonight, but what are doing after this?" Dawn wondered.
Perhaps they could spend some more time together, and they could even have more sex as that had proven to be rather enjoyable for both of them. Although she'd not planned that so far so quickly. Was she just competing with Raven?
She'd gotten rather attached to James very quickly. It was nice to have someone in her life who saw her as more than just Buffy's kid sister. James didn't even seem to care that Buffy existed.
That the Slayer was her sister had always been a factor for everyone else in Dawn's life which greatly affected how they treated her even as she became an adult.
"I was just going to do some research" he answered.
Dawn had by now almost finished her ice cream and as she enjoyed the last spoonful she wondered if she should invite the young wizard to study with her or if she should give him some space so as not to seem clingy.
She decided not to risk coming off as overly demanding and to spend her afternoon doing some research of her own, or maybe she'd try out the hot tub, if she could figure out how to waterproof her books with a spell then there was no reason why she couldn't do both.
"Let's go find the Daily Prophet's office so I can post this ad," said James as he stood up "And then I want to check out that second-hand book store".
At least they could spend a little together before they went off to do their own things.
Twycross House. The Wizarding World.
As she and James watched the movie, one she'd picked out at random and had turned out to be something based on a major historical event, she found herself leaning into him and enjoying the feeling.
Odd since one of the many words that could be used to describe her would be reclusive as she had always been cut off from people. She'd never been the type to get attached.
Things had changed when she'd accepted the offer to start over in a new life, one free of her creator where she would be free to feel without any concern for harming others.
She felt a little bad about abandoning her teammates, yet she needed to leave them behind for their sake as well as hers. It would have been very selfish to stay and put them in such peril.
Trigon could not have been stopped by them and even by some miracle he was driven away he would never be defeated. He would always be a threat, a menace waiting to strike.
Now she was free of him, she would not be his portal and she would not doom a planet of innocent people. Just knowing that was like a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
Here in the new world, she was free to live her life, to feel, to come out of her shell, at least as much as she was comfortable with, and as it turned out she was happy to connect with someone.
She'd chosen to embrace this new existence, to enjoy it and to open herself up, and so far she'd not regretted doing so.
Ironically by binding herself to another she had in fact liberated herself from the confines of her old existence. Raven was not connected to Trigon, and she was no longer part demon, and with no loss in her level of power.
This emancipation from her old status had led her to want to embrace her new existence and that had led to her being a little forward sexually, however, she didn't think it too reckless looking back, it would have happened sooner or later and James didn't think less of her for it.
Unless her empathic powers were failing her she knew that the wizard found her attractive and liked her. He was clearly impressed with her powers and seemed intelligent. She could certainly do worse and frankly, she had done.
Given that James could turn into a dragon and had magical powers it was hard not to compare him to Malachior, but he was different, Malachior had been a dragon pretending to be a wizard, not a wizard who could choose to turn into a dragon.
Raven could not close herself off completely from others and had no reason to anymore, and she would not let Malchior stop her from trusting someone else. That would only be allowing the dragon a victory over her.
Moving her thoughts back into the present the former Teen Titan pondered about how she'd gotten quite a lot out of this bargain even before finding herself in this fancy house.
While Raven had never been materialistic the monks who had raised her had seen to that, it was nice that James would be able to provide for her without concern for money.
Books of ancient lore and magical secrets were rarely on sale. It was also nice to have a very comfortable home and not to worry about getting a job.
She'd not really planned to become a superhero, she more or less stumbled into the role, but this civilization didn't make use of such people. She didn't think that anyone around here had a place in their organisation for a crime-fighting mistress of magic.
Well maybe the DMLE would hire her if she wanted to go back into crime-fighting one day, as unlikely as that was, but she'd need to pass her exams before she even began to think about a career, and from what she knew of the Ministry of Magic she doubted that she'd ever work for them.
She'd not ever given much thought to any sort of career or schooling because until now she'd never had a future to look forward to.
That was another thing which had changed. Barring sudden death due to accident or injury she could expect a century of life ahead of her, maybe more if they figured out how to use that stone she'd stolen for James.
Perhaps she'd devote herself to uncovering the mysteries of magic in this reality and even others if they managed to figure out how to get Dawn's powers as the Key to work dependably.
She'd already stolen enough money to live off, and her lover, if that was a suitable term, was unlikely to want to break the contract that bound them so she was free to explore and learn.
How much could she discover about the magic of this dimension and maybe others in a century?
The idea appealed to her as did spending her life with new people. So far Dawn was proving to be agreeable company as they had some interests in common.
They both had nearly destroyed their own worlds because of the desires of a creature of great evil. They both had magical gifts and a love of learning. Those were things you could base a friendship upon.
Oddly she didn't mind sharing even though every she knew about relationships suggested that she should. Although her experience was limited to books and what she'd seen of others.
Not that this was a typical romantic relationship by any means and there was a good possibility that James would add to this group. Maybe Raven didn't mind so much as she liked being part of a team.
James was also pleasant to have around as was to be accepted given how this had all been set up. Already things had been arranged so that she aided him in his goals in exchange for him doing things that pleased her.
Perhaps it wasn't romantic, but it certainly seemed to be working for them so far. He would provide for her and she would assist him.
The movie came to an end and she felt James shift.
"Do you want to go upstairs?" he asked.
That was part of the plan. She hadn't experienced enough sex to form much of an opinion on the matter, but she'd participated in the act enough to know she'd like to find out more.
"I'd like to spend the night with you," she said.
With that, they headed up to his bedroom to spend more time together doing something they would both enjoy.
Retirement Plan.
Part 9.
The Gaunt Shack. Little Hangleton.
I'd come to this charming little bit of the British countryside because it was the ancestral home of the Gaunt wizarding family, a run-down place located in a clearing in the woods near a road that was just outside the village of Little Hangleton. The area was pleasant and would be more so once we got rid of this horrible building.
I would make my way into the village sooner or later as I had business within a certain graveyard. I didn't want Voldemort returning to power in case he attacked my home, killed any friends I made in this world, or disrupted my ability to shop in Diagon Alley for needed supplies. Beyond that, I didn't much care about the conflict.
The former Gaunt residence was a shabby little shack that had once housed Marvolo Gaunt, his wife, their son Morfin, and daughter Merope. While time might be to blame for its current poor state I remembered from the books that it had never been the kind of place that anyone other than the poorest of the poor would want to live within.
This was odd since they should have been able to improve the shack with magic. I could only assume that centuries of inbreeding had taken away the intelligence required to plan out such improvements and the magical skills needed to carry out such designs. Nor did they have the wealth required to pay others to do the work as I would have.
Even taking into account that the Gaunts hadn't lived here since the 1940s and things were more primitive back then this place still seemed shabby. Perhaps the presence of a Horcrux here hadaffectede place making it seem even uglier than it really was.
What really mattered about this location was that after the last of the Gaunts had died or been locked up in Azkaban, the residence was then used as a hiding place for one of Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes, the ring that he stole from Marvolo Gaunt after framing the man for the murder of the Riddle family.
I wanted to destroy the ring and then claim the Deathly Hallow known as the Resurrection Stone so as to help weaken Voldemort and to increase my own power. With that stone, I could question some of the greatest magic users of all time (at least in this world) on a variety of magical topics and this would make learning magic much easier.
That was the least the stone could do if used correctly. I could help to solve murders by questioning the victims, I could speak to historical figures to learn more about the past and find out the location of lost treasures by seeking information from those that hide their fortunes. Assuming that I could find some way of compelling them to talk to me.
Of course, I would use the stone carefully as it was possible that the magical artefact was actually meant to drive people to kill themselves. If there were any hints of that then I was going to throw the stone in the ocean after putting it into a very heavy and secure box.
Although there was little evidence of this aside from the tale of the Three Brothers the only two people to die while possessing the stone didn't really die because they used it.
Dumbledore was cursed by the ring the stone was attached to because his desire to speak with the dead and seek forgiveness from them overrode his common sense. As for Harry Potter, he'd decided to die before he used the stone. Were as Tom Riddle openly wore the ring and he never tried to kill himself.
"Don't worry, James. This won't take long" assured Raven.
Best for her to take her time as we wouldn't be heading to the graveyard until it began to get dark. While Raven had staked a claim to my invisibility cloak and therefore could go unseen, I felt it best that Dawn and I avoid getting seen by anyone while messing with a grave.
"There's no rush," I said.
"What's the matter with you?" Dawn Summers asked, "Did something happen with Slughorn?".
She must have picked up on the fact that I was annoyed by the fact I couldn't think of a better name for myself as a wizard. Even Dawn was a good name for a witch, and Raven was a brilliant name for a witch. James the Wizard just sounded so stupid.
"No, the meeting meant well" I told my companion "He's agreed to tutor us a couple of times a week".
I hadn't been much of a meeting truth be told. Slughorn had served afternoon tea, with little sandwiches and cakes, before he spent time talking about him, he'd mentioned all his contacts. Clearly, he'd been recruiting me for his little club and it wasn't until we discussed the price for his tutoring sessions that I began to think he might just be interested in my family money.
"Potions will be so much more fun without Snape," said Dawn.
How that man was even allowed near students was a mystery to me. Even if he had turned spy and helped save the country that didn't mean the magical people of this nation should let him near their children. I really tempted to do something about Snape, something lethal, but he hadn't done anything to me yet and I didn't intend to interact with the man unless I had to.
"So what is bothering you?" enquired Dawn.
She wasn't going to let this drop.
"It's hard to take myself seriously as a wizard when people call me James," I told the Key in human form "I need a proper wizard name like Magnus or Mathonwy.
Raven turned to look at me.
"As in the Celtic Sorcerer who had to rest his feet in the lap of a virgin when not at war?" she asked.
Okay so maybe a different name.
"No virgins here," said Dawn with a snigger "You made sure of that".
Yeah, I needed to go back to the drawing board and look at my options.
"And I'm ready!" called out Raven.
Once the crude dwelling was covered in dark energy she made the entire shack fall apart like it was being built only in reverse, and by the time she was done, there were neatly stacked piles of wood next to what rusted remains there were anything metal.
"Neat spell" commented Dawn.
"Thank you," said the dark-haired witch before she walked into the spot where the shack had been "James, do you know what the ring actually looks like?".
As a matter of fact, I did.
"It's just an old ring," I said "A gold ring with a black stone. I'm sure that I don't need to remind you that it is cursed".
I knew that Raven could handle Voldemort's magic, she had done before.
"There's dark magic here, has been for a long time," she said "I'll need to come back and cleanse this entire area".
That would be wise
"Okay, this is it" declared Raven a moment later.
With her powers was carrying a heavy-looking box that must contain the ring. The box while old looked to be valuable.
"It's got a compulsion charm on it and some nasty curse I can rid of," she promised.
The thing about compulsion charms, a type of spell which can compel a person to perform a certain action, is that they aren't that hard to resist as long you are aware of them.
Ginny Weasley being a little girl, feeling homesick and lonely was compelled to write in the diary due to such a spell and that worked, but even then with the diary having taken hold of her she still managed to resist long enough to try getting rid of the Horcrux for a time.
Voldemort must know that a magical compulsion that he'd put on the ring wouldn't work on someone with the skills required to get past the defences he put up. Perhaps he was so arrogant that he just assumed that his compulsion would be more effective because he'd placed the spell on the ring himself.
Even teenagers who aren't evil can be very sure of themselves and do underestimate those they see as inferior despite them often being the superior ones.
I opened the box just to make I had the ring.
"It is a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing" I quoted.
Raven raised an eyebrow as she stared at me.
"Did you just quote Boromir?" she asked.
Indeed I had.
"It seemed fitting," I said.
I got the feeling that Raven's approval of me had increased.
"Good work" I praised as I placed the ring in extra-dimensional storage space.
Removing all of the defensive spells hadn't been much work for Raven, but she'd told me that cleansing a Horcrux took it out of her so it could wait until tomorrow.
"Let's head into the village," I said "We can handle all of our business here in one day".
Graveyard. Little Hangleton.
Like the now dismantled Gaunt Shack, this graveyard was located just outside the village of Little Hangleton. Both the graveyard and the Riddle House were clearly visible from the hillside above the valley as I'd seen for myself when walking towards the village from what remained of the Gaunt family's property.
By the time I'd gotten here, it become dark enough for us to do our work with little fear of anyone seeing me and if they did there were spells to handle that problem by messing with people's minds. I felt certain that Raven could handle that business.
From up on the hill I'd been able to see that there was another graveyard behind the local church. I figured that the one I was in now must be for the Riddle family rather than the whole community. This was easy enough to confirm since nearly everyone here had the name Riddle on their gravestone.
As for Mister Frank Bryce, the Riddle's groundskeeper who was thought by the local muggles to be the one who killed Voldemort's family, he lived in a cottage on the grounds that was located right next to the graveyard and was separated from it by the stone wall that wouldn't have kept hidden me from view if he looked out in the graveyard while I was working.
Due to one set of the cottage's kitchen windows facing the graveyard, I'd know that I would need to deal with Mr Bryce before coming here. I didn't want him to know about the coming switch as he might end up letting Voldemort know about it. That could very easily happen as the Dark Lord was known to enter people's minds.
Stunning an elderly gentleman was risky, but I'd needed him out of the way for a time. Stunning him was safer than using other spells and less cruel than assaulting him the old-fashioned way before tying him up. Besides, it was one of the few spells that I could actually cast and was rather easy to use. I'd gotten the hang of this morning.
Even though I was here to take an action that could save hundreds, maybe even thousands of lives, I still felt bad about attacking an old man, so to make myself feel better if nothing else, I'd left Frank with some muggle money. Enough that he could go on holiday at least.
I knew that I would need to toughen myself up. I might have to do some nasty things in order to carry out plans, but I wasn't a monster. I didn't wish to make people suffer even if it benefit me.
For now, my focus was on the newest graves here, those of the three Riddles who'd died decades ago and who had been the last of the Riddles to be buried here as no more came after them. The Dark Lord's paternal grandparents and father were the last and had all laid to rest in this graveyard shortly after being murdered by the self-styled Lord Voldemort.
It was also the site where Lord Voldemort would return to power or would have been able to if not for me taking steps to prevent this from ever happening.
"The sad thing is that this isn't the first time I've helped move a pile of bones," informed Dawn "I was kinda hoping those days were over".
It wasn't as if it was much work involved. Raven shifted the dirt and showed us the bones of Tom Riddle Senior.
Tom Riddle was a man I felt bad for even if he had abandoned an unborn son since he'd been magically drugged and repeatedly raped by Voldemort's mother until she got pregnant.
Given that their relationship didn't last very long, he might have not believed that Merope Gaunt was pregnant he could have thought it to be a lie by his abuser to keep him around. It wasn't as if she'd be the first woman to do something underhanded to keep a rich husband.
Even if he had believed her I still couldn't blame Tom Riddle for not sticking around and looking after his rapist. Perhaps he should have kept track of Merope in case she was pregnant, but this had been a long time ago when you couldn't just track someone's progress online.
Thinking on I decided that this was all the fault of Voldemort's mother really. I had no sympathy for that woman at all. If she'd not roofied a man she had a crush on a lot of death and suffering would have been avoided. In fact Merope Gaunt is to blame for a lot of things, if she had made an effort to live and raise her son he might have turned out to be a better person.
While originally I'd intended to rebury the muggle Tom Riddle I realised that it would be safer to destroy his bones just in case Voldemort had some way of tracking his father's remains. I wouldn't put it past the Dark Lord to know a spell for such a thing.
I wondered if his mother's bones would work just as well. She had died a long time ago, but she must have been buried somewhere. Unless her remains were cremated then there would be nothing left and I certainly had no desire to track down her grave.
Raven was easily able to get rid of the mortal remains with her magic and then she replaced them with another old skeleton that had been kept in the special storage place until now.
"So where did you get the fake bones" questioned Dawn.
"They're not fake I brought them for a store in Knockturn Alley" she answered "I was told that they are the bones of a muggle man who died from a sexually transmitted disease in the 1940s. I thought using that skeleton would be extra insulting".
Knockturn Alley had some really nasty crap in it.
"I was happier not knowing that" commented Dawn.
My plan depended on Wormtail, or anyone else trying to carry out the ritual. not bothering to check if anything was wrong with the bones, although how he would do that I had no clue, did they have magical DNA testing? That was another thing I should look up.
As for buying bones that Raven purchased. I didn't want to use any of the other Riddle's remains in case somehow the bones of Voldemort's Great Uncle Jeromy Riddle would somehow work for the ritual. I didn't know enough about magic to know what would happen if he used a different relative's remains. Given that it had been Raven's idea to buy some bones she clearly already thought of this.
Once the bones were in place Raven covered them up with a simple use of her powers and I used a potion meant to speedily grow plants and a packet of grass seeds to make it seem as if the grave was overgrown by plant life.
It needed to look as if no one had ever messed with it, and it should look okay by the time Voldemort took up residence in the manor. Assuming he ever got that far.
This plan to prevent the return of Voldemort to power was far from flawless, but it was just one plan of many and might never matter since I was working to prevent his return.
Taking out the Horcruxes was just part of the overall scheme to defeat the Dark Lord and to make sure that the world I would be spending a lot of time in didn't burn in a civil war.
One of my plans involved using my Deathly Hallow to summon and trap Voldmort's spirit. If I, or rather Raven, could contain the spirit within some sort of object that I could seal away then that could solve a lot of later problems
If I dealt with the Horcruxes then Voldmort's spirit might just fade away even if he wasn't killed in some way while he had a physical existence. Harry Potter wasn't a proper Horcrux and might be enough on his own to tie Voldemort's spirit to this plane of existence, and if he was well we had time to deal with that.
Darkness surrounded the three of us as Raven used her powers to transport us back to the house. We appeared in the hall and soon we were hanging up our coats.
"That's done," I said, "I guess we have the rest of the night free".
Dawn had a grin on her face.
"What are we going to do tonight, Brain?" she asked.
Judging by the confused look on her face it was clear that Raven was not an Animaniacs fan.
"The same thing we do every night, Pinky" I replied "Try to take over the world!".
Raven was not amused even if Dawn had a sudden attack of giggles.
"You two can go be crazy if you want," she said "I'm for a good book and some hot chocolate. I've earned a rest".
I couldn't argue with that.
"So just you and me then" stated Dawn "Want to watch a movie?".
Might as well. I had paid for that home theatre.
"Sure" I agreed "I'll go grab some snacks".
Retirement Plan.
Part 10.
Twycross House. The Wizarding World.
I sat in the living room reading today's issue of the Daily Prophet as I waited for my guest to arrive. Despite it only having been a few days since I'd placed an ad in the paper with the offer to hire a tutor I'd already gotten a reply from Remus Lupin of all people whose letter made him seem rather eager.
At first, I'd been concerned that he might be a spy for Dumbledore who could be showing some interest in my little group for some reason, but I doubted that the Headmaster knew I even existed. At least not yet.
Even if Remus Lupin was a spy sent by the Headmaster the defences I'd purchased for my home would deal with him. He wouldn't be able to simply walk into my house if he had any hostile intent.
With that in mind, I'd decided to interview the man here at my home along with my companion and see what happened. Hence why I was sitting here and waiting for him to arrive.
I knew that Rooby my House Elf would declare Lupin's presence when the werewolf arrived so I was free to read the magical paper and ponder my next move.
By now news of the recovery of Frank and Alice Longbottom, as well as other long-term patients, had been made public. I'd snuck back into the hospital to finish fixing up people on that ward and I was pleased to see that my perk allowed me to heal people as I'd hoped.
The hospital staff had been given the credit for the recovery of so many, despite them claiming to have done no more than they had before. To be fair it wasn't as if they had any other explanation.
I wondered how this event would affect the life of Neville Longbottom. He should be happier and more confident, he would also use his own wand, and that should help him at school. It would be interesting to compare this Neville Longbottom to the version I'd seen and read about in the books/movies.
Putting the paper down I looked at the typed note I'd prepared to send off to the DMLE to inform the head of that department of the presence of Barty Crouch Junior in this father's home.
Despite my arrival having changed this world in some ways by altering people's ages, an example of this was Harry Potter living with Sirius Black, that Death Eater's recent history hadn't been altered. Perhaps fate did indeed have some sort of plan in place.
My thinking was to tip off the DMLE in a letter typed up in the muggle world and then sent to them via an owl send from the Owl Post office in Diagon Ally so that it couldn't be traced back to me.
This plan was not without its risks, however having Barty Crouch Junior in his father's custody makes him a bit of a time bomb. He needed to be dealt with and this way seemed less risky for my group.
If Junior were to become free and somehow link up with Voldemort the two of them could place a lot of people in danger. However if Crouch Senior were to learn that someone had tipped off the DMLE he might try moving his son and that would increase the risk of him getting free.
Should that happen I might need to deal with Junior myself or rather have Raven do it. She wasn't the type to kill people, however, she had mentioned something about finding a way to deal with the dark wizards without killing anyone. For now, I was happy to leave her to it and focus on my own plans.
"Sir," said Rooby as he entered the living room "Mr Lupin is here to see you".
I wondered why my House Elf talked so normally while others didn't. I really should learn more about this magical species.
"Take him into the drawing room and serve tea" I ordered.
The drawing room was just the space I'd chosen to receive guests in. It was comfortable enough for the role and it kept this living room free for members of my household. Having more rooms than I needed was a novel experience.
"Yes, sir," said Rooby before he scampered off.
House Elves were a subservient race to the wand wavers, yet they could be very firm about some things, such as terms of address. I should be referred to as Master, and it had taken some effort from me to get Rooby to agree to simply call me Sir.
I didn't rush to the drawing room as that would make me seem too eager. Instead, I wandered in after making my guest wait for a short time.
"Mr Twycross," said the wizard as he stood up.
I wondered what Remus Lupin, the man I had hired as a tutor, would think of the owner of this fancy home when he saw me in my comfortable muggle clothing. His clothes were old, yet not shabby, I assumed he used magic to fix them.
"It's just James," I told my guest as I gestured for him to sit.
I turned to my House Elf.
"Please tell Dawn and Rachel that Remus Lupin is here" I requested.
Despite that not being an order Rooby popped right off to do that and quickly returned. Rooby served the tea before vanishing off to wherever it was he spent most of his time.
There were sets that would pour for you, however, I felt it unwise to have pots and cups full of hot liquid floating about. Call me crazy.
"It's Remus then" he replied "I read your ad and I think I can teach you all both
Defence and History of Magic. Have you had any tutoring in either subject?".
If my backstory had involved me growing up in this home it would seem odd that I had no knowledge of Magical History.
"I didn't have the means to obtain an education in magic until now" I explained "When I got my Hogwarts letter my situation drastically. I ended up inheriting this house and the family fortune. I now have a chance to learn magic and I intended to take it".
Which was all true, it just wasn't all of the truth.
"The same is true for my companions" I mentioned.
Due to the Normalcy Perk, there was no chance that Lupin would find it odd that I lived with two young women neither of whom was related to me or my wife.
"These are my companions, Dawn and Rachel" I introduced as the girls came into the room and took seats "I want us tutored as a group".
Dawn was smiling, no doubt pleased by getting to meet one of the more well-liked Harry Potter characters.
"Are you all new to the magical world?" he asked.
He would have trouble teaching us as a small group if we had different levels of experience with the Wizarding World.
"We all received our Hogwarts letter recently" stated Raven "None of us had any contact with the Wizarding World before then".
Again we'd told the truth just not all of it.
"Mr Lupin, do you have any teaching experience?" Dawn asked.
Lupin sipped his cooling tea before speaking.
"You can call me Remus, and to answer your question, I have tutored students before both in Defence and History of Magic" the werewolf "As well as in the subject of Charms".
Perhaps he would teach at Hogwarts. I hoped so since he was supposed to be a good teacher.
Even if I did end the curse of the job of Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts by having Raven cleanse the Horcrux stashed in Hogwarts (the two things did seem to have a connection given that the Horcrux was hidden in the castle the same day that Voldemort was refused a job at Hogwarts) I didn't think Lockhart would last due to him being a total fool and Voldemort's host would have to be dealt with.
As such Lupin might still end up teaching at Hogwarts. However, if Sirius Black had gotten out of Azkaban legally, something else I would need to look into, then Lupin might never be hired by Dumbledore, but that wasn't my problem.
All I could do about it was pay the man well during the time he spent tutoring me. He certainly looked as if he could use the money.
"I want our sessions to focus on Magical History and Defence Against the Dark Arts because of the poor quality of the teachers in those subjects at Hogwarts," I told the werewolf "But feel free to add things to your lesson plans if you think they'll be of use to us".
Lupin seemed pleased by this.
"On the subject of Defence, while I can teach you some basic duelling and offensive spellcasting, my speciality is handling dark creatures," he told us.
I could hire a separate instructor for duelling later. If Slughorn and Lupin's payment for their services was anything to go by I was wealthy than I'd originally thought.
We began to discuss pay and time off. He made the excuse of having an illness to explain why he needed regular time off. Even if I hadn't known about his 'furry problem' I might have figured it out just from the dates he wanted off.
"I can cover the cost of the wolfsbanes potion," I offered "As long as you secure yourself during the full moon and take the wolfsbane potion I have no problem with having a werewolf in my house".
In my view, he was no different than someone who'd been infected with HIV through no fault of their own. As long as Lupin took the right precautions I had no issue with him being in my home and should he agree to spy on me for Dumbledore then the defences would take care of him.
Thanks to my Purity of Body Perk I couldn't be turned into a werewolf, but I could still be killed by one so it was best to take precautions.
It took Lupin a few moments to get over the fact that we all knew that he was a werewolf already and that none of us seemed to care in the slightest. Dawn must have hung around with Oz, or at least remembered doing so and Raven used to be part demon. I just didn't care if he transformed one night of the month.
"Please don't let it get around that I'm a monster," he requested.
He didn't need to worry about that.
"I don't gossip" I assured the man "And we'll be using confident contracts so anything we talk about here won't be shared with others",
Dawn and Raven also gave their assurances that they too would use contracts that assured confidently. Soon after that, we got around to sorting out a timetable that would see us taking lessons a few times a week that would be focused on the History of Magic and Defence against the Dark Arts.
Twycross House. The Wizarding World.
Overall I liked Horace Slughorn who was the tutor I'd hired to teach Raven, Dawn and me about potions. He clearly had a passion for the subject and took the time to explain why certain ingredients were needed as well as why potions sometimes had to be stirred anti-clockwise rather than clockwise.
How you stir a potion can change how the ingredients will react to each other. This can be why potions sometimes explode or end up reacting in ways they really
shouldn't.
I learned that only people with magical abilities can bring out the magical properties of certain substances. If a muggle tried to brew a potion they'd just end up with a cauldron of gloop because the magical properties of the ingredients wouldn't react together properly.
They could end up making something toxic due to chemical reactions that don't take place when you are making magical potions since the ingredients react differently when handled by a magical person.
Knowing this I was quite surprised by the lack of health and safety involved in these lessons, but the wand wavers were a durable lot and unless an injury was caused by dark magic they didn't have much trouble healing most wounds due to their medical magic. This made them less cautious than they should be.
There were also factors to consider when making a potion, such as the freshness of the ingredients, even something like the phase of the moon when a certain plant is picked can alter the potency of a potion. That was something I needed to know since I was having my own greenhouses set up.
Even the amount of time a potion was allowed to simmer mattered. Certain numbers meant more in terms of magic than others. Three and seven were the most important by far. As such, brewing certain potions for the wrong amount of time can render the potion useless or at least dilute its effects.
The power of the witch or wizard brewing the potion also mattered. Someone with a lot of magical power, such as Raven, could produce a superior potion as we brought out more of the magic in the ingredients, or at least that was what Slughorn told me.
Overall when it came to potions there was more involved than just a lot of facts that needed to be memorized. You had to try to understand why it all worked the way did if you ever wanted to make a new potion or alter an existing one.
I'd actually been a little surprised that Slughorn had so quickly agreed to be our tutor. Lupin taking the job without much discussion made sense as for him work would be hard to find and I was offering him a lot of money for him to do something he enjoyed doing
Slughorn was different. The overweight man had his contacts and his comforts, I doubted he needed the money. Even if he did I was sure that his services were in high demand. Perhaps he simply wanted to get back into teaching.
For now, I intended to keep my head down as much as possible, but I knew that soon I'd start attracting more and more attention to myself so having this man as our tutor made sense as he'd give us insight into the magical world.
"I see Amelia Bones is still looking to advance her career" mentioned Slughorn.
He was looking over the newspaper as we younger people worked on a simple boil-removing potion.
"Whose Amelia Bones?" asked Dawn.
"She's the chief of police in the magical parts of this country" explained Raven.
I kept my attention on Slughorn.
"How is Bones doing that?" I asked.
Despite my lack of interest in politics, this could impact me and my group.
"Bones has advanced up the ranks of the Ministry rather well since You-Know-Who disappeared despite her department being subject to so many cuts in funding," said the retired teacher "She using this Barty Couch Junior scandal to make herself look good".
As planned I had tipped off the DMLE and let them know about Junior. By the sounds of it, Madam Bones was using the tip to advance her career. Given that she was the chief of police in the magical world she wouldn't have had much trouble in getting a warrant to search the Crouch home. Assuming she even needed one.
"Plus that whole business with Sirius Black didn't help" mentioned the wizard.
We were all working in the kitchen for this lesson. No doubt Rooby would delight in getting to clean up after us.
"What happened with Sirius Black?" I asked.
Slughorn quickly let us know what had happened. Black escaped Azkaban a few years ago and managed to track down Wormtail. He killed the sneaky bastard and there were no dementors around so he got away.
"Once they found the body of Peter Pettigrew then everyone knew that Black was technically innocent" explained Slughorn "Despite him killing Pettigrew later all the charges were dropped. Pettigrew was proven to be a Death Eater and legally he was dead so Black couldn't be charged with his murder. Not when Pettigrew had You-Know-Who's wand on his person. There's a was a huge public outcry".
I could well imagine.
"Fudge was one the Ministry employees who arrested Black and Barty Crouch was the one who threw the poor man into Azkaban" Slughorn was now saying "Black being proven innocent damaged the reputation of both men. A good part of why Fudge got the top job was because he brought Black in. Fudge managed to hold on to his job, and Crouch lost his job at Ministry".
This explains why in the book series Fudge wanted Black dealt with so extremely by the Dementors when the man escaped from Azkaban. Fudge knew there had been no trial and wouldn't want one because he'd be partly to blame for getting an innocent man locked up.
"As for Barty Crouch, the only reason he isn't Minister today is because of his son" I was informed, "If he did in fact break his son out as Prophet says then he'll be lucky to avoid the Dementor's Kiss. He could be charged with treason".
It was amazing what the right word in the right ear can do.
"Fudge will be looking for a scapegoat" Slughorn said "He'll pin all the blame on Crouch Senior like he did with that ghastly Umbridge woman".
Can't say I felt bad for the man. Sure it was his wife's dying wish to see her son free, but he was a terrorist and murderer. Besides, if he spent all his time under magical mind control and hidden away then Junior had never actually been free.
As for Umbridge if she was out of the Ministry due to some scandal then she should be vulnerable when we started going after dark wizards and witches.
"But it's still an embarrassment for the Minister and Bones wants the top job" the old wizard stated, "If anything else like this happens she'll be the new Minister I'm sure of it. Fudge might even retire to avoid getting caught up in the scandal".
I wondered if Arthur Weasley might be the only person at the Ministry who is actually interested in doing his job.
"That should be enough time for your potions to simmer," said my tutor "Let's finish up and see how you're progressing. We can go over the steps and see if any mistakes were made along the way".
As amusing as it might be to further upset the status quo at the Ministry I'd come to this world to learn magic. As such I refocused my attention on the lesson I had a lot of work to do if I was going to become a proper wizard.
