Welcome everyone to another chapter of "Road to Power".

I know that it has been some time since the last update, but I really have a lot of shit to do lately. Besides, I said in the last chapter that I needed to take care of my other stories (That's still in progress.) so with all of this on my shoulders, I really don't have too much time to write.

I don't know when it is gonna change as with every fucking day I realize that I have even more to do or am too lazy to do anything. I don't plan to abandon my stories. I will finish them even if it is gonna take years, but let's hope it won't take that long.

I am glad that so many of you are interested in this story. Your reviews are really helping me adapt some things to the plot as after all even I can forget about some important parts of both MCU and HP (Even though I already spent hours on both wikis). It is still a work in progress and truthfully I only have more detailed plans for years 2 and 3 of Hogwarts, after that I have pieces and bits of ideas that still need a lot of work... At least I am not going in blind.

With that said I will now leave you to this new chapter where you will find out about some new twists.

PS: Did someone gave me a shootout after the last chapter? I noticed an increase in views during one of the days and I am curious what happened there. If someone really did then thank you a lot.

Enjoy.

Chapter 10. Mystery

It definitely was the most painful thing I had ever gone through. In my old life, I got hurt a lot, be it some random everyday injuries, cuts from some jobs that went wrong, or even a few wounds from bullets. The last category was definitely the most painful, but I was mostly lucky enough to only get shot in places that wouldn't cause too much damage.

With this ritual, it was a lot different. Apart from my entire body burning with pain, I could feel magic screaming in my mind and my soul twisting from whatever the ritual had done. I never thought that you could even experience pain in some of those places, but it looked like magic would never stop surprising me. Still, it would have been fucking nice if Salazar told me that it was so painful.

If only the old snake wasn't a portrait...

Thankfully all of the agonies went away after a few short moments and I fell down on the cold floor with rasping breaths. The chill temperature of the chamber was definitely more welcome than whatever just the ritual did to me.

I didn't know how much time it took me to finally gather my bearings, but when I did, I still felt like I would fall over at any moment.

With shaky steps, I approached the silent portrait of Slytherin, sat down next to it, and leaned against the cool wall. This small action provided me with more comfort than I would ever expect.

"It worked?" I asked simply and thanked anyone who was listening that at least my throat was working as it should.

The portrait was silent for a moment and I was too tired to check what he was doing, "It should. From what I observed everything went without any problem. Now tell me how do you feel?" Salazar asked finally.

How did I feel? Well, that was an excellent question.

I shrugged, "Apart from the remaining pain I mostly feel good, thanks for the warning by the way," I remarked sarcastically. He told me that it would hurt a bit, but nothing like that. Shaking my head I went back on the track, "Definitely tired and my entire body aches, I will probably feel it for a few more days. There is one more thing, but I don't really know how to describe it. It is like I can feel more of my entire being, like something was finally opened inside me. Do you know what I mean?"

"I do," he replied almost instantly, "This ritual was meant to prepare you for other rituals and changes. It opened you to the magic of the world and I am not talking only about your body, but also mind and soul. It didn't make you stronger or smarter, but it opened your being to the world and now you can feel it. It might not change your outlook on the world, but it will definitely let you understand more of yourself."

I groaned lightly, "And here I thought that it couldn't get more complicated."

The ancient wizard instantly fired back, "And I thought I was working with an adult in the body of a child not the opposite, so don't whine."

I was too tired to come back with some intelligent response so I would let him have this round. At least the guy wasn't boring, definitely not what I had expected from one of the founders.

"So what now?" I asked, "With this out of the way, we can move onto more rituals, yes?"

"That will need to wait a bit. We rushed your ritualistic knowledge because you didn't want to wait another year to go through this. I could accept that, but now that we don't have any deadline, you will learn all the basics perfectly, and only then we will move onto more advanced things. Trust me what you just did was very easy. I created this ritual so it could be performed without years of studying. Any strengthening rituals will require more advanced knowledge and ingredients. Besides your whole being will need a month or two to adapt to the changes my ritual caused," Slytherin explained in detail.

"So I am back to square one, but now I just can continue with my normal studies?" I asked slightly disappointed even though I understood the reasons.

"Of course not!" Salazar almost shouted, "Yes you will continue with both ritual studies and schoolwork but remember now that we don't have a deadline, I can help you with other things. You didn't think that the great Salazar Slytherin only knew how to create rituals, did you?"

I sighed deeply trying to no let my annoyance show itself, "Of course not..."

"Good. I have much to show if the student isn't an idiot," I got the feeling that he was talking about my 'father', but I didn't really have any reason to defend Voldemort so I just let him talk, "I was always more interested with more delicate arts of magic, but I am sure you will find some use for them," he then paused for a moment like he was thinking about something, "But before we move onto what I can teach you, I want to finally know what are your plans regarding the Philosopher's Stone. None of my descendants ever spoke of it and I really want to see what it can exactly do."

Right... With so much shit going on lately I only skimmed through the events that would be happening in Hogwarts when I was explaining everything to Salazar. He asked me a few more times about the subject already, but I only gave him vague answers as I was busy with the preparations for the ritual.

It was probably a good time as any to finally talk about some of my plans in detail. I wasn't moving from my position in the nearest future anyway...

The rest of the winter break went without a hitch, I mostly focused back on normal studies and tried to perfect everything that I already knew about rituals. Salazar explained that while he could fight pretty well in his prime and could teach me a few things, fighting wasn't something that he really enjoyed. Like he told me after the ritual he was more interested in the more delicate arts of magic.

Runes, rituals, mind arts, warding, and some potions.

I was a bit surprised that he wasn't a master Potioner, but I guessed that fanon was again affecting my judgment. Still, almost everything that Slytherin could teach me would be useful - I wasn't really interested in potion making, but the ancient wizard said that some elixirs would be required for rituals.

Warding I needed to learn as according to some things I read, it could be one of the possible ways to beat the trace, even if it was only a temporary fix. Besides, with how many things wards could do if one had enough power and time, I was pretty sure that they would come in handy sooner or later.

Mind arts I wanted to learn even before that so no explanation was needed there. I really hoped that having a teacher would speed up my progress.

Rituals I was already learning and runes were so interlaced with the first subject that I needed to learn it either way. At least Slytherin told me that one of his descendants managed to find a new way to use runes and I would be able to use it after I got more experienced and older.

All in all, I had a lot of shit to do, not that I was complaining. After all, power didn't come from sitting around and doing nothing. You needed to work for it and even then it wasn't certain that you would get it. Who knew if I would succeed.

My plans for the Philosopher's Stone were slowly moving forward. I did more scouting of the third corridor to discover if there were any wards that would inform Professors if someone was to cross them. To my surprise, I only found one and after searching through some books and conversing with Salazar, we found a way to get past it without destroying the ward.

It was a bit tricky, but after some practice with a similar ward that I learned to create, I could slip past it unnoticed. The part of the canon where all of the traps were designated for first years was definitely true with how easy it was. No first-year, even one with an adult mind, should be able to enter the room. And the less we talk about the Golden Trio, the better. At least they didn't know about the ward so it was always something.

With this final thought, I focused back on the situation at hand.

I was only eating dinner, but there was something that caught my interest in the two weeks after the winter break finished.

When I came to Hogwarts I tried to find out how many students there were and even try to find out as much about them as I could. I was just curious and I didn't really think that this informations would help me now. To be honest, it was a miracle that I even noticed it when I was casually going through the students during the welcoming feast after Christmas.

After all what normal person besides maybe the Headmaster and Professors did a headcount of all students.

Apparently, I was the person and I found two people missing. At first, I just thought that maybe they just missed the feast and I should just leave the matter alone. In the end, my curiosity won and I did some digging during those two weeks and now I finally have my answers... Well almost as I still didn't know what the hell happened to them.

One of them was a second-year from Gryffindor that I talked with a few times and it was the only reason why I noticed that it was him missing so fast. The second person was a bit harder to find, but due to them being from my year it was still pretty easy. I doubt that I would be able to discover who they were if they weren't from my house or in my age group. It also helped that both of them were muggle-born.

Still, with this discovery, the question remained. Why weren't they in Hogwarts?

I reasoned that maybe the first year's parents decided to take him out from the school, but that still left the second year. Salazar was no help so I just decided to ask someone else. After all, it couldn't be just me who noticed their disappearance, right?

"Hey, do you mind if I ask you something?" I said to a sixth-year girl that was sitting a few seats away from me.

She turned to me with a raised eyebrow, but still nodded with a small smile, "No problem kiddo. What do you need?"

I looked at the plate before me and began explaining, "I know that it might sound weird, but I always liked observing everything around me, including people. So after the winter break, I notice something very weird. One of my classmates from Ravenclaw is missing and if I am not wrong then the same applies to a boy from our house. Do you know what happened to them?"

Yeah, I could have worded it better, but I was a bit frustrated with the lack of any answers so I decided to be blunt about it.

The girl frowned before she scooted a bit closer to me, "I'm surprised you noticed already. While most of the pure and half-bloods already know about it, usually it takes months for first-years to figure it out if the missing person wasn't from their house or they weren't friends with them. They always go to professors with this, but I guess I could explain, but you still should go and talk with McGonagal about it later."

Alright, that definitely raised even more questions in my mind. I was missing something that was common knowledge to everyone apart from the first-year muggle-borns.

Even then I nodded, "I will, but I really want to know now."

The girl giggled a bit, "Curious little thing, eh? We don't know all the details, but those disappearances happen almost every semester. Sometimes it is one student, sometimes more, but there are rare times that no one is missing. From what I was told, this process began a year after you-know-who was defeated and those who disappear are always muggle-born."

This wasn't something I wanted to find out. But the girl still didn't explain why exactly they disappear. I voiced my question.

"They just disappear. Both students and their families. Not a sign is left after them. If the ministry found out what happened to them, they are definitely keeping this information to themselves," she explained

My eyebrows raised at the incredulity of this situation, "And no one ever tried to find them? Tracking or even protecting them? Maybe wards? Anything?"

I was probably showing that I had more knowledge than I should have about magic, but if the girl noticed she just ignored the fact and began answering my questions, "They did. Mother said that even Dumbledore was trying to help them, but it never worked. Whoever is responsible for those disappearances is very good. Unfortunately, with time everyone accepted that it just happens even if they are still trying to help. Most of the wizarding world tries to ignore this subject, an unofficial taboo if you wanted to name it."

Damn, the wizarding world was even more fucked up than I thought. Magical children and their families just disappear without a sign and they just accept it.

Now I would probably just join them in ignoring this and continue with my plans as it wasn't really my problem, but to everyone, I was fucking muggle-born. This could become a problem if there really was something targeting people like me. And here I thought my life couldn't get more complicated...

Still, there was one more thing I needed to know.

"And no one thought it would be important to tell muggle-borns and their families that they are in danger after joining the wizarding world?" It was a completely understandable question as Dumbledore definitely didn't mention any disappearances in our talk.

The girl shrugged, "I don't know. As I said, I only know as much as my parents were willing to tell me. I only know the general picture, you would be better off asking McGonagal. Now I need to go kiddo. I have a class in a few minutes," With that, the girl stood up and walked away.

I could go to McGonagal and find out more, but I wanted to keep my interactions with professors minimal. Attention wasn't something that I wanted and I could find out more on my own.

I really wanted to know who could be responsible, but with the HP and MCU blended into one universe, the list of suspects was pretty big. It was definitely the work of someone who could use magic if some of the families were really taken even after magical protections were used. Even then this fact didn't make the list smaller, after all, I didn't doubt that wizards and witches could work with organizations from MCU.

I really doubted that the higher-ups didn't know anything, but I couldn't expect a schoolgirl to know things like that.

Yeah, there was no way I was finding anything while I was in Hogwarts...

The following months didn't help my new problem at all. The only additional info I found was the fact that the oldest kid to ever disappear was in their third year. Not really helpful, but good to know anyway. At least I would be safe if I survived that long.

Salazar had no clue how to help me, but he agreed that it was probably a work of wizards or witches. This fact only made us work harder to find a way for me to use magic outside the school without alerting anyone. For now, we prepared a small wardstone, that Salazar had stored in his office. It would be able to contain any magic from getting out and should stop the trace.

It was similar to the wards placed around the ritual room but on a much smaller scale. At best it would be able to shield a room bit bigger than I had at the Children's Home. The problem with this method was that once the wardstone was activated I couldn't move it or the wards would destabilize. Of course, I could deactivate it and then move it, but that would be a pain in the ass to do every time I wanted to move.

The one thing we managed to discover - or more like I performed some spells Salazar taught me and then he had a look at the results - was the fact that the trace was bound to me and not my wand or anything else.

It was some sort of enchantment that was put on me after I arrived at Hogwarts. Salazar didn't find much more than that, but he was sure that now we could at least try to find out a way to break it without anyone noticing. It was a work in progress, but we already had some basics ideas.

Apart from that, I was progressing quite nicely with my studies. I even managed to perform another ritual about two months after the first one.

It was pretty simple as it only sharpened some of my senses. Better vision, hearing, sense of smell. Unfortunately, I didn't gain night vision but I was happy with what I had. It definitely helped me with paying attention to my surroundings and noticing things that would normally escape me.

To be honest, I wanted to perform other rituals, but Slytherin told me that it was better to start small. Besides we had no way of getting ingredients for the more advanced rituals, they were beyond even Snapes' inventory. At least we had already planned some of the next rituals that I could perform with what I had available to me.

Getting used to my new senses wasn't that hard, but it was getting more and more frustrating to sleep in a room full of snorting children. Thankfully silencing spells were very useful in those moments. Now if they could only stay activated for more than two or three hours I would be happy.

Really, if it wasn't for the mystery disappearances I would be pretty happy with my life.

After all, it was finally time to go after the Philosopher's Stone. I had been preparing myself for those past few weeks just for this moment and I wouldn't fail now.

I visited the third corridor a few more times and even went through the trap door a few times. From my knowledge of the canon, I knew that soon Quirell would go after the stone and I needed to time it perfectly if I wanted to avoid any possible suspicions.

"Ready?" Salazar's voice brought me out of my thoughts.

"I better be, I got only ane shot at this," I replied shortly and began walking to the exit from the chamber.

It was time to see if my experiences from my old life and preparations in this one would help me today.

And that's it for today's chapter.

Yeah, I know that it isn't a nice place to end, but I already had the 3,5k words and wanted to finish the chapter.

Somehow I didn't manage to end the first year this chapter... There was just too much to do and I need to leave the last important event of this year for the next chapter. Sorry, but I can promise you that the next one will have both the end of the year and most of the summer.

Some of you are probably wondering about the disappearances I created and all I can say is that it will be a very important part of the plot in the coming years. If you don't like it then it is a pity, I am not planning to just blindly follow canon so you can expect some new events happening around. Especially after I mixed MCU and HP together.

The next chapter will be out... I don't really know when as I have some shit to do in the coming days, but I will try to post it during the next week.

That would be all for this AN.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. If you have any questions, leave them in review or PM me.

Have a good day/night.