Welcome everyone to another chapter of "Road to Power".
Before I begin this AN I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas. Just remember to stay safe.
Now onto the normal part of my author notes.
I am happy that you all liked the conclusion of the first year. I know that a few of you worry that it is going to take too many chapters to move onto MCU stuff. Well, don't worry as it will come sooner than you expect. After all, I don't need movies to touch the huge universe Logan found himself in. I can also say that the 2nd and 3rd year won't be as long as the first. I can't say anything about the further years as even I don't know what I am exactly going to do in them.
With that said this chapter will cover the Summer and after that, we are going straight to 2nd year where the first major changes will appear. I hope you will like all of them.
Like always I tried to answer your questions via PMs. If I missed you then please ask the question again in a review or PM.
IMPORTANT: After some thought, I and Eleventh Crow(my beta for "Grimm's Evolution") decided to create our own discord server. We want to create a community for both writers and readers. This sever will let you talk about both my stories and other fanfictions you like. Writers will be able to talk between themselves and help each other. Just remember to follow the rules.
Link: discord. gg/ b7JaQcpuc7 (Just delete the spaces.)
With that said enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 13. Morals
Summer was really a beautiful time. I finally had a room all to myself and didn't need to listen to the squabbling of a bunch of eleven-year-olds. It got annoying really quickly and even though my use of magic was limited in the Children's Home, the few months of peace were worth it. Besides, it gave me the much needed time to catch up on what was happening in the mundane world during my absence.
Unsurprisingly not that much had happened or I could even say that nothing happened. Tony Stark was still supplying weapons and appeared in news more often than I thought one person could. Banner's situation was a bit harder to dig into as I didn't want to be too obvious in my search. Still from what I gathered, he was spotted somewhere near Japan. What the hell was he doing there, I had no clue.
And that was pretty much it as the rest of the major events probably happened in the shadows and I had no access to such information. After all, it would be a few more years before the MCU started for real. Though I was curious about how my future actions and the addition of the wizarding world would change the future timeline. For now, I didn't really change anything to cause any major changes, but I knew that it wouldn't stay like that for too long.
I had plans and a lot of them could mess up the timeline. Not that I expected for nothing to change, after all only a fool would think that a blend of universes and an addition of an ambitious man wouldn't cause any shifts in the world.
Still, I had a few more years to prepare for anything major to happen. Of course, there was also the war against Voldemort that needed to be dealt with, but I hoped to completely avoid taking part in it.
Harry and his friends managed to defeat Voldemort in the canon, so why would they need my help now. I knew that the whole war could have gone a lot better and probably fewer people would die, but due to my connection to Tom Riddle, it was safer for me to stay away.
It was probably wishful thinking that everything would go as planned, but a man could hope, right?
In the end, I would probably somehow end up in the middle of the war. After all if whoever put me in this universe wanted me to stay away from the wizarding world, they wouldn't put me in the body of Voldemort's son. Instead, I would be a normal mundane in MCU without any knowledge of wizards and witches.
Oh well, there was really no point thinking about this now. Whatever needed to happen would happen and I just would adapt, like I always did.
It was already a few weeks into the Summer and there were still a few things that I needed to do before going back to Hogwarts.
My first task on the list to do during the Summer was to arm myself with a melee weapon of any sort. If I could use magic whenever I wanted, this wouldn't be hard as even with my current skill in mind-altering spells, I should be able to get what I wanted in any shop.
Unfortunately, my anti-trace wardstone needed some time to charge every time I wanted to activate it and I wasn't planning to stand still in a shop for an hour. It was easier to just borrow two kitchen knives from my Children's Home. I would return them one day... probably... not.
I fought with less in my last life so it wasn't that bad, as after all those knives were only for surprise attacks, not straight-up melee combat. And while I would love to have a normal gun, there was no way a twelve-year-old would be able to buy one.
Then for the next two weeks, I just stayed in Children's Home learning more magic under the ward and planning escape routes in case I became a target for the kidnappers. It was quite a boring task, but necessary nonetheless.
Next on my list was a visit to Diagon Alley to both buy my school supplies and visit Gringotts to get rid of my bottomless bag filled with some newly created gold. In the future when I would be able to use my magic freely, I probably would just use disguises and sell the gold to the mundanes all around the world. That way I would definitely be able to get more profit and still avoid any suspicion, but without magic, it wasn't possible.
So for now I would just settle with goblins. Hopefully, the little bastards wouldn't scam me too much...
In the end, I wasn't sure if they did. I just went to the first teller I saw, gave him the bag, and asked for an exchange. The goblin didn't even look surprised and just told me to wait, before coming back with another bag full of Galleons. And just like that my business was done. Really it was the most confusing exchange I had ever done. I knew that goblins didn't care about humans, but I still expected at least one question.
Oh well, not that I was complaining. This whole thing was risky enough and for goblins to just give me what I wanted was pretty nice.
Getting my school supplies was easy enough, though I was still wondering if buying Lockhart's books was a good idea. They weren't that cheap and definitely wouldn't teach me anything. It was just the case of blending in, at least in the beginning. Later on, I might try to remove this idiot from Hogwarts, just to take revenge for making me spend my money on useless shit.
With my school supplies gathered I was left with one last task. Buying all the ingredients Salazar told me about.
Thankfully all of them were available in the shops on Diagon Alley, but the looks I got when I asked for them were pretty uncomfortable. I just told them that I was very good with potions and wanted to practice harder brews. They didn't look convinced, but as long as they got paid, I got what I wanted. I just hoped that Dumbledore had better things to do than spying on me during shopping.
As I dubbed it as my day off from practice, I spent a few more hours in the Alley, browsing through shops and getting something to eat.
All in all, it was a pretty nice day.
"I didn't expect you back this soon," Salazar stated as I walked into the Chamber through the third and only entrance that led outside the school.
A week had passed since my trip to Diagon Alley and I thought that it was finally the time to visit my only real ally in the world. Besides I wanted to see how hard it would be to even get here...
It wasn't.
I just took the Knight Bus to Hogsmeade - and wasn't that an experience - and then went straight to the Chamber. All of this was done during the night as I didn't want anyone to know about my little trip. Besides, I was pretty sure that I would be back before anyone would think to check on me. The ministry worker already visited today so I had nothing to fear from them.
"I gathered everything you wanted and was getting bored with just staying in the Children's Home," I replied after shrugging.
Salazar hummed, "That's good... Did you encounter any problems? I wasn't sure about the availability of the ingredients in the current times and I definitely didn't know how goblins would treat you for a hundred percent."
"It went just like you said. I gave them the gold and they gave me money. No questions asked, just a simple and very fast exchange. The ingredients are more popular than we thought, but a twelve-year-old buying them still raised a few eyebrows," I answered simply.
"As long as they don't go around talking about you then it should be fine, but in the future, you will need to find another way to gather the ingredients. It is one thing to buy some rarer things once, but make it a habit and people will do more than just look at you funny," Salazar responded after a moment of thought.
I frowned slightly, "If I bought them in Knockturn or any other black market then we can be sure that no one would ask questions, but without magic available o me at all times it wouldn't be safe to go there. I am proud of my abilities from my last life, but they won't help me much in this body or against magic. We need to find a permanent way around the trace."
Salazar nodded in understanding, "You are right... Unfortunately, none of my heirs ever had a problem like yours. Only one of them ever mentioned anything about the Trace and he never tried removing it. It is a shame that Voldemort didn't leave behind his method of removing this pesky charm."
I sighed in defeat, "So you have no idea how to remove it?" I wasn't angry or even sad, but some disappointment definitely seeped into my voice. It would probably take us a lot more time if we would need to create a completely new method of removing the Trace.
Thankfully Salazar shook his head, "I didn't say that. I have one idea that might work."
That instantly caught my attention, "Oh?"
"The cleansing ritual. A very complicated piece of magic. Not because of the ingredients or even the amount of magic needed, but the runes you would need to engrave for it."
That didn't sound so bad, "That's it? I am pretty sure that with enough preparations I could pull it off."
Instantly Salazar exploded in laughter, "Child, you don't know what you are talking about. Comparing to what you have performed until now, it would be like comparing a simple fire summoning spell to Fiendfyre. This ritual is older than even me and was used by the druids of old to cleanse any taints to objects and nature. I have no doubt that you could prepare it, but if you even made one small mistake, the ritual would kill you."
This statement caught me off-guard, "Kill me? You said that ritual just won't work if you make a mistake in the runic matrixes."
Salazar chuckled one more time, "That's the case with my and most recent rituals. They were created in such a way that if something was wrong, they just wouldn't work. Druids never made such fail-safes in their rituals. They were perfectionists," the portrait then sighed, before looking straight at me, "Don't get me wrong you can do it, but it will take a lot of time and there are side-effects."
"Side-effects?" I asked instantly.
Salazar nodded, "This ritual can be used on humans, but it always leaves a sign. It can be a small scar that you will never notice or a complete change to your appearance."
"So it is risky and has potential side-effects that would be really problematic," I said quietly.
"And might not even work for your problem," Salazar added, getting my attention, "While I doubt it, there is a chance the ritual would just ignore the Trace... For now, you should focus on finding another way to get rid of it and if we fail, then we can work on the ritual. For it to work it needs to be performed on the Summer Solstice, so we have time until then. Now tell me, did you find anything about the kidnappings in the muggle world?"
Seeing the offer to change the subject, I took it. All this mess with the Trace was only giving me a headache.
"Not much," I answered with a heavy frown, "A few disappearances every few months are not something that would make everyone notice them. For a small community like the wizarding world it definitely is noticeable, but for mundanes? Not really. There are some sites that talk about mysterious disappearances, but most of them are complete bullshit. I would need more detailed information to find anything more specific..."
"That's a shame," Salazar said with a sigh, "Let's just hope you won't end up as the next victim."
With that said a slightly uncomfortable silence fell upon the room. We were both worried that the kidnappers would come for me next and there was not much we could do about it. Oh, we had ideas, but all of them, in the end, came back to one thing.
The Trace.
There were no words that would describe how much I hated this little piece of magic. It annoyed me to no end and caused problems at every step. The only time I didn't need to worry about it was at Hogwarts, but the moment I went outside, it blocked me at every step. My reincarnation as a wizard was really both a curse and a blessing...
"So about the ritual I was meant to perform during the Summer," I finally said to break the silence.
The older wizard visible sagged in relief at the change of the subject and began explaining, "The strengthening ritual...
Salazar definitely took enjoyment from my pain.
Just like during my first ritual, the ancient wizard again forgot to mention how painful the new ritual was. Oh, the effects were definitely worth it, but I would destroy the portrait if he forgot about the pain again.
As Salazar said, it was simply called the strengthening ritual. Oh, it didn't give me enhanced strength, but an improved healing factor and a slightly more durable body. Slytherin mentioned that it would be a good introduction to physically enhancing rituals as now my body would be able to handle more improvements.
I once read about it in one of the books that Salazar told me to go through. They described how it was very stupid and dangerous to instantly go from no enhancements to the most powerful rituals that gave you the biggest improvements. Our bodies, souls, or minds weren't prepared for such a sudden change, and in most cases, those who tried such things would die soon after the ritual.
Of course, there were ways to improve fast without the risk of dying, but then you risked your entire being. Voldemort was a perfect example of such a situation. He probably didn't care about the risks of using rituals too often and the creation of Horcruxes definitely didn't help. He was reduced to a snake-like appearance even during the war before he was vanquished by Harry and his mental health also suffered over the years.
Maybe it was for the best as Voldemort wasn't the most intelligent of villans. He wasn't stupid by any means, but there were moments where his decisions were questionable at best and idiotic at worst.
All in all, I was happy with my progress regarding rituals. While I couldn't heal instantly like some of the characters in Marvel, now I could recover a lot faster than any normal human and it was only the beginning.
I didn't test what a more durable body exactly meant yet, but that could wait for when I come back to Hogwarts. For the rest of the Summer, I had a much more important task.
Finding the London Sanctum of the Masters of the Mystic Arts.
After all, they could also use magic, but it was different from what wizards and witches used. Mine and Salazar's hopes were to learn this style of magic that most likely wouldn't alert the Trace. While it wouldn't fix my problems permanently, it would at least grant me the power to defend myself just in case.
I didn't know how I would convince the Masters to teach me, but I could worry about it after finding the place.
London was huge and the movie didn't give too many tips where the Sanctum was exactly. Thankfully in May of this year, Google Maps added the Street View to its option. I never suspected that I would be so happy about this function.
Now a few weeks later and a few days before the beginning of the new school year I finally found it. Thank whoever was listening that the sign was the same on every Sanctum.
Of curse the moment I found it I went there to check for myself - without trying to enter of course - and confirmed that the building definitely wasn't normal. Now I just needed to find a way to convince the Masters...
Yeah, that definitely would be hard, after all, why would they teach someone who wanted power all for himself.
I was so deep in thought that when I entered my room, I instantly went to the window and looked at the road ahead of me while trying to calm myself. It didn't really work until I heard a voice behind me.
"Welcome, Mr. Hunt. It is a nice evening, isn't it?" It definitely was a female and definitely sounded familiar and when I turned around to face the woman I almost had a heart attack.
"Shit," was my simple answer to her welcoming. After all the sight of a bald woman dressed in clothes I instantly recognized said it all. A goddammit Ancient One was in my room drinking goddamn tea!
Why?! I didn't do anything yet!
And here we go.
Sorry for the cliffhanger, but I promise you that the new chapter will be out pretty fast so you have nothing to worry about.
I bet ya didn't expect the Ancient One to appear so fast. Her character is very interesting, even if writing her won't be easy. Why did she come to Logan? Well, I bet you can think of a few reasons, but you will need to wait to find out.
I thought that it was high time to introduce someone from the MCU and from now it will only get better and better. I have so many plans for the next few years of the story and I am excited to share them all with you.
As you all saw I also added a bit more about the rituals and the TRACE. I never liked how fanfiction dealt with this problem so fast and in this story, it will be with us for a bit longer. My way of getting rid of it is pretty original so be prepared.
With that said, thank you all for reading this story.
IMPORTANT: As I said in the beginning AN, I created a discord server. I want to create a community for both writers and readers. This sever will let you talk about both my stories and other fanfictions you like. Writers will be able to talk between themselves and help each other. Just remember to follow the rules.
Link: discord. gg/ b7JaQcpuc7 (Just delete the spaces.)
Have a good day/night.
Next update: Probably "Forgotten".