9. Beaches are fantastic!
Ignatius Brandt, his mother and his grandparents accompanied by the butler Klaus left for his granduncle's summer house which had a private beach in the Black Sea.
It was situated in Bulgaria, and required them to take a Portkey to the country.
"Welcome dear sister. Fabian. Oh! And is this Selene and her son? My my! How much you've grown!" His granduncle was a jovial man with peppered hair and striking blue eyes.
The summer house was called what his mother translated as Hestian Lodge.
The house was beautiful and as they sat in the living room, the massive house was clearly bigger inside than the outside.
The house was also peppered with odd trinkets like speaking knight's armour, bowing statues and animate swan sculptures that cooed as you passed by.
They sat down and the older generation settled down for some small talks and catching up over some snacks, before they delved into the crux of the matter.
"I looked into our family history. Our grandmother Adamantia had left some old tomes about family history and such. Her side of the family died in a Greek fire accident some thirty years ago, and before that there were some squibs who were let go from the family." His granduncle casually talked about banishing family members who were not magical.
"Was there any mention of some sort of relation to Calypso? That was the name Ignatius mentioned from his dreams." His grandmother informed her brother as his shook his head.
"Of course we know who Calypso is from mythology, but there was no relation to her from our family lore. I checked all the books, and most of grandma's personal library is preserved until now. You can verify yourself, but I don't think it has anything to do with her. Otherwise, it would have been well documented or at least passed down as some legend or story." His granduncle concluded as his grandparents sighed in defeat.
His mother looked pensive as his granduncle looked at him in pity.
"At least, I don't think it is doing him any harm, is it? You mentioned in your owl that he was healing from the water? And that dangerous creatures don't seem to harm him? That's a blessing as far as I see it!" His granduncle jested as his mother glared at the man with annoyance.
"No magical ability comes without a drawback. There is always a price to pay. Just because you don't see it, doesn't mean it's not there. It just means we don't know the price he has to pay yet." His mother ranted as his granduncle raised his arms as a sign of surrender.
"Oh! Always a spitfire, huh Selene! No, what I was suggesting was we can monitor him using this boon, and if we see something wrong or affecting him, then we can discuss that later. After all, we can ask my old contacts for suggestions!" His grandmother frowned at the mention of old contacts as his grandfather narrowed his eyes.
His granduncle knew what those looks meant because he turned to his grandparents and sighed. "I will keep it a secret who I want the information for. Those old foggies will not show any interest in your kid. I know you got out of that world, when you decided to settle down with your family, Fabian. I will ensure they never know of you and your spawn."
His grandfather looked at him, as his cold glare turned soft as he gave the other old man a nod.
There was a pause in the conversation which led to his granduncle to turn to him.
"But it is spectacular to have such powers, my boy. Would you like to show your granduncle your tricks?" He asked him with a grin, as Ignatius turned to his mother for permission.
Seeing her nod with a smile, he gave the old man a nod. "Yes, granduncle."
The old man clapped with a smile. "Fantastic. Come, the beach is private and there are no muggles in sight for miles. You can enjoy the beach and this part of the sea all to yourself."
With that they walked to the back of the house.
The beach was beautiful as it was untouched by tourists or any humans. The sands were beautiful and the water shone brightly with a shimmering glow. The sun looked radiant in the cloudless sky and the fresh gentle breeze kept the summer cold and pleasant.
Ignatius took off his clothes as Klaus waved his wand causing the clothes to fold which he held in his hand.
Since he was with his family, Ignatius was less ashamed as he was not even ten years old.
With a wave to his family, the young boy dived into the sea, as he instantly felt the difference.
The seas were much much different from the lake where he dived. The sea felt like home to his body as he instantly relaxed in the water. The crabs and small critters at the bottom of the sea brushed past him, as he felt they meant him no harm.
He knew in his bones that the sea was his home as he could close his eyes and sense everything in the water around him.
That was also how Ignatius knew his family had decided to join him underwater.
He opened his eyes and glided towards them, as he saw bubblehead charms, partial transfiguration and some other spells used by the adults as they swam close to him.
"What are you doing here?" He spoke under water as his family looked shocked to see his voice traveled under water and sounded so pleasant.
But he couldn't understand them as their voices came out as garbled due to the water.
Ignatius shrugged as they continued to explore the sea together as Ignatius felt the creatures of the sea come to greet him, before going on their merry ways.
He felt like a mermaid or a Disney princess as magical fishes and creatures came to him and brushed against him. He was shocked when a massive squid floated close to him before wrapping him in tentacles.
His granduncle was about to cast a spell as his wand was drawn out, but his grandmother stopped him.
After having greeted the young boy with his tentacles, the squid rubbed its suction on him, before floating away.
That continued to happen as massive creatures would show up as they continued to swim in deeper waters but none of them were aggressive towards him. Shoals of fishes would swim about him and his family before playfully butting their heads against him.
The whole scene felt so calming as Ignatius felt so welcome in the sea.
Eventually, his grandparents waved their hands at him, as he held out his hand to try something new.
He tried to manipulate water as it obeyed his wishes and gathered into a ball around him and his family.
He somehow knew directions under water despite wandering around the water the entire time.
He knew which way to go and as he projected in his mind to be at the beach, he felt the water gain speed. He had closed his eyes to concentrate, but when he opened his eyes, he could see the surface.
He swam upwards as the beach looked like twenty metres away.
He pointed to his family to follow him, but they all were looking at him with wide eyes.
He didn't get what was wrong, as he swam like a fish under water while he waited for his family to follow him.
"What was that Iggy?" His mother asked with shock, as he looked at his mother as if she said something weird.
"What do you mean? I just tried something new! I wanted to reach the shore so I brought us to the shore faster. Why?" He asked his mother who looked at him and then back to her own parents who were sighing in sync.
His grandmother replied instead. "Ignatius, you didn't travel through the water, you apparated us all through the water. Only, it didn't feel like a side-along apparation should, nor should a boy of six know how to apparate. Let alone have the ability to apparate and bring five side-alongs with him. Do you understand Ignatius?" His grandmother patiently explained as his brows furrowed.
"What do you mean, grandma? We were just swimming for a few minutes. You didn't even change the spells, no?" He asked since he remembered bubblehead charms and partial transfiguration were tiring and even NEWT level students hold them only for about an hour or so.
His grandmother shook her head instead. "We are older witches and wizards, Ignatius. Our magic only grows stronger as we grow older. Our spell held for about three hours. For three hours we spent almost swimming along the deeper ridges as I noticed the sea bed was getting deeper, and you clearly brought us back to our location using apparation. We all felt it."
Now he looked at her in confusion. "But I don't know how to apparate." He told her as his grandfather asked him something else instead.
"How did you know where the beach was? I don't think you kept track of where we were to trace our way back, either."
He thought about it, then shook his head. "Uh! I uhmm, knew. I knew where the beach was."
Even with his adult and rational mind, he couldn't explain as it was simple instincts. He could try to explain he had spatial cognition under water like magnetoreception in pigeons that were like proprioceptive abilities, but this was 1930s and science like that will sound worse even to muggle scientists let alone to orthodox wizards.
His grandparents instead knew what he meant, as they whispered to each other.
After a few moments of their quiet whispers, his mother looked at him. "Do you feel tired?" She asked as he shook his head.
"Better than ever!" His mother took that in stride as his granduncle turned to him.
"When you say, you knew, was it like instinct? Like you don't think when you breathe, you just do?" He asked hitting it closer to mark as he nodded eagerly.
His granduncle seemed to be happy about the answer as he turned to his grandparents with a smug look. "See, I told you. It is not like ritual boons, but like blood gifts. It is not something that was caused by curses or rituals, it is quite literally a gift."
He had no idea what that distinction was supposed to mean. But at least someone doing it with rituals or curses sounded wrong, since he knew the simple answer was the Goddess in the other world did it to him, before he travelled to this world.
But he kept his mouth shut as his mind continued to think of ways to use this gift.
He didn't feel tired in the water. What were his limits though? He apparated in water, and that is something you teach seventeen year old students who are almost adults.
He shouldn't be able to do that now. And yet, travelling in the seas was as simple as thinking clearly where he wanted to be.
And if the way his senses improved under water, this ability or gift was like a muscle. The more he used it, the more he would be familiar with it.
The magic was unbelievably easy, and if he cannot tire in seas, then that was a trump card, his own hidden ace.
Can he carry sea water with him? Like some sand and sea water inside a glass vial which he wore all the time?
Or perhaps, if he wore a pendant that was cloned or quantum entangled to simultaneously touch him and touch some part of the sea? Will that work?
Wasn't there a charm for that? Some Parton, no patronus? No! Patronus was that glowy thingy wasn't it?
No. Well, he could look it up later. Perhaps his mother might be able to help.
Anyway. The magic of witches and wizards should be able to help him somehow extend this gift so that its benefits don't just end on the seas.
But now, after hours in the sea, he could feel a sense of longing to go back to the way it felt under water. The calming feeling of the water brushing against his skin as he glided with the currents felt almost nurturing like a mother cradling her child, or like a lover embracing you in your sleep.
It was so comfortable, that he never knew he missed the feeling until he was out of the water.
But the somewhat crude attempt at hydromancy was cool. Even more so, when it was wandless.
Could he learn to perform magic wandless? Could wizards learn that? He could feel his magic at the very least.
After all, waking up with nightmares of his time on the Pirates of the Caribbean world left him with enough nightmares that his bouts of accidental magic were enough to wake up even the horses in the stables at his grandparents' house.
After all, even animals wouldn't miss windows blowing, a shield forming around his bed that repelled everything from him, or harmless ghouls that stay in the attics screeching when Ignatius blasted the roof due to being startled by the terrifying looking creatures.
His accidental magic was so uncontrollable, that Ignatius worried about harming his family accidentally, which made it very difficult for him to fall asleep. Which only exacerbated the situation.
But his mother and his grandparents took it in a very different way. According to them, his accidental magic was proof of his strong magic and a sign of powerful magic residing in his body. Needless to say, he did share his family's jubilation of the degree of his accidental damage he caused or the sheer scary situation of waking up to all the stuff in the room vibrating while he himself was floating in the air along with his bed.
At least they had a worried look for his unnatural abilities. Which was a refreshing change from their indifference to his accidental magic. Utterly useless and not at all required, since he knew it was not harmless. At least he hoped not!
Calypso was never portrayed as a malevolent entity in the movies, just fickle and indulging in unrequited love. But who could say. And this was a different world. What if there were gods in this world. What then?
Would Calypso exist in this world? If she did, would she allow someone to be blessed by her, when she herself doesn't remember blessing him?
It would be weird. But who could say?
At least his continued use of his powers hadn't triggered any gods. So there's that!
But he should look into taking advantage of all the resources at his disposal. This was the 1930s, and if he isn't sorely mistaken, then a global catastrophic war is supposed to erupt in the muggle world with a dangerous war fought in the shadows by Grindelwald and his lover Albus Dumbledore.
And he would rather not have his family involved in their lover's spat or their water that spills into the entire magical world.
It would behove of him to be prepared, armed to the teeth and willing to use his resources to secure his family's health, life and freedom.
Because unlike the mental soul-splitting Voldemort, Grindelwald was supposed to be a magical prodigy on par with Dumbledore, and his equal in strategic warfare and orchestrating an upheaval in the magical world.
Plus, if he could be strong enough to secure his freedom, he could meet the cute animals and protect them from cruel fates like the unnecessary slaughter of the Qilin shown in the third movie.
Magical creatures were a rarity and something so precious, he would love to preserve them and save them from the world.
The war would apparently begin in the 1940s, and he could have passed his NEWTs and be an adult by the time the war reached its crescendo.
And as the days passed by, he had a decision to make.
He could either resign to be a mediocre student and hide in obscurity. Or he could reveal his prodigal mind and apply himself to beyond academics and learn magics that would soon be concealed and polished to keep the plebian masses from causing harm to each other and grow a spine.
After all, the scale of magic his grandparents knew was unnervingly better than he remembered watching in the movies of Harry Potter or reading in the books.
With his mind made, the young boy could often be seen spending his time in the library as his granduncle and grandparents watched with amusement as the boy waved his hands and tried to cast spells wandlessly.
The summer house was a pleasant place and his granduncle had no family of his own. His mother also decided to cancel her commitments, as she was a self-employed enchanter who could choose to refuse to work when she wanted.
After all, their House was old money, and they had no need to work to sustain their opulent livelihoods.
Their coffers were overfilled and continued to be piled with money from being stakeholders in various business ventures that they continued to own across countries.
And as such, the older generation decided to lay back and relax as his mother decided to enjoy the summer sun so close to the Mediterranean without becoming completely tropical!
And the adults in the house watched as Ignatius asked his mother to buy him muggle stationery which he used to make notes with clear legible handwriting and cross-referencing notes that made the adults ponder whether the boy was simply a miracle of magic, or something else entirely.
The boy would read through books over hours as he would finish shelves within days which could even take adults months at the least.
And yet, all the information was compiled systematically as the boy maintained a cross-referencing citation book that held keywords and all the referenced source material.
The adults thought the boy must have finally gone off the rockers when they caught him mumbling the web of science and missing a digital object identifier.
But those days passed by, as the adults would sometimes borrow the book when the boy finally took a rest and went swimming for hours; only to find keywords and references for magical theory, rituals, astrology, astronomy and arithmancy of all things.
There were complex arithmantic diagrams with marked journal entries about differential geometry that made the adults look at the formulae with a bit more detail.
When Selene however saw the formulae and arithmantic diagrams, she gasped as she understood arithmancy as well as a NEWT student due to having a Mastery in Enchanting.
The formula she saw was a simplified substitution that exceeded NEWT level Arithmancy and reached into the realms of becoming an Arithmancer.
The substitution method was not something she remembered reading as the cross-referenced book didn't have anything like that.
Finally at their wit's end, Selene stopped her wayward troublesome child as he returned from frolicking in the sea and Klaus steadily following behind the exhilarated boy.
"Iggy, where did you find this substitution matrix for differentiation of exponential terms. These eigenvalue methods as you call them are not mentioned anywhere in the text you referenced." The boy was startled as his mother flat out pointed at the page as he tilted his head and caught a glance of his grandparents and the amused looking granduncle waiting for him to answer.
"Uhm! I didn't find it in a book. I remember reading about it somewhere before. And I thought, this makes sense. The exponent of a matrix can be a sensible thing, and it is possible to..."
He began to explain to his mother who looked more cross-eyed as he continued to explain.
"...finding the Taylor series expansion was also simple. If Newton can explain e raised to irrational numbers, which can't I expand exponential of a matrix? You see..." He continued to excitedly explain, before he was interrupted by his mother.
"STOP! Stop talking for a minute!" He looked up, as he saw his worried mother who bent over and gently brushed his dry soft hair with a worried look.
"Sweety! You turned seven last week. It was exciting to find books and I know you love reading. You were mature enough to keep away from restricted books sections and cursed sections. And I am proud of you for that."
And wasn't that a worrying thought! Restricted section wasn't forbidden knowledge! It was restricted because some dark arts books or books with curses were themselves cursed!
Some began to tempt your mind, others cast a curse that needed the user to read the book and solve it to find the counter to the curse. And if you were not authorised to read the book, then you are simply fucked!
And this was the most straightforward reason why some books were dangerous!
And there were tomes so dark that they were a rarity and only their family could own it, since it was a family heirloom. But sales and distribution of such material was fined and even a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment.
In Azkaban!
And so, when he heard of it, Ignatius decided to wisely err on the side of caution and not risk going through dark restricted books in secret.
After all, he still remembered when he went ignorantly to swim in the water, and instead of the usual routine of the creatures of the sea coming close to him, they swam further away from him.
He wondered why they changed until he felt black smoke coming from his body and the deluge forming a plume of an old woman with wretched face and jagged teeth screeching and being blasted away, before the fishes and other sea creatures decided to venture closer as usual.
He remembered the book he had opened that talked about dark rituals of sacrificing new borns to prolong your youth. He had found it in the restricted section, but his curiosity was piqued when he found a reference saying that an old book had a ritual to take the power of your vanquished foes.
He continued reading the book, as he didn't feel anything different, despite the disclaimer on the front of the book, on its preface and in literally the first chapter about the book being cursed by the spirit of a dead banshee who despised children for their youth.
He was saved only because the sea somehow also cured him of any curse as the black plume was literally banished from his body.
He felt the blessing had literally saved his life, and decided to keep it a secret from his family lest they restrict him from going to the library.
He had to prepare dammit!
But his thoughts were pushed away as he saw his mother look at him with a panicky look that startled him. "Mama?"
His mother choked a sob as she hugged him tight.
"My sweet baby. You are my special boy, aren't you?" She leaned back as she began to pepper his face with wet kisses as he tried to escape her nagging.
"Mum! Stop!"
"My genius baby!" She cooed as the young child gave in when he knew he couldn't escape her firm grip.
Finally after minutes of lavishing her son with her motherly love, she looked at his grumpy cute face and a chuckle escaped her.
"We should publish your work. I can show you how to write a monograph and we can publish your new ideas. The world needs to see this brilliant piece of arithmancy."
Huh! So after playing a noble chasing pirates, he would become an academic all over again? That was his home field after all!