Yo!

I am back with another chapter of "Road to Power". A bit late, but you know how it is. Shit happens and like always my stories are hurt because of it.

Now I would like to remind all of you that I created a discord server for every reader and writer out there. It is going slow, but I hope that with time we will be able to build a nice community. So come and join.

Link: discord. gg/ b7JaQcpuc7 (Just delete the spaces.)

Anyway, like always I tried to answer all the questions you had for me. Unfortunately, I might have missed something. If I did then please contact me via PM or discord. I always answer those sooner or later.

With that said I hope you will all enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 14. Completely wrong

"Please sit down Mr. Hunt," The Ancient One said calmly motioning to the chair that previously wasn't here, "We have a lot to talk about and I highly doubt that you will be comfortable standing there."

I wanted to argue that I was very much comfortable just standing so I would an easier escape route. Unfortunately, then I realized that it was one of the Masters of Mystic Arts and there was no way for me to escape her. That was why I put a strained smile on my face and sat down, hoping that it wouldn't go as bad as I feared.

"I am sorry miss, but who are you, and how exactly you got into my room?" Play it dumb, pretend you didn't know anything. Probably wouldn't work, but hey no one could blame me for trying.

The Ancient One smiled lightly, "Even though I doubt you don't know the answers to your questions, it would be rude of me to just barge in and don't even introduce myself. I am called the Ancient One and I am here to find out who exactly are you, Mr. Hunt. Tea?"

Well at least she was trying to be polite so maybe I was lucky and I would be able to walk away unharmed. Also, I really wanted to taste that tea if Strange's reaction in the movie was anything to go by.

The woman smiled even wider when I accepted her offer and in the next second, a small table with two cups of tea was standing between us. A neat piece of magic, I wonder how long she practiced this particular trick just to surprise people.

"As the current Sorcerer Supreme, it is my job to assess every possible threat to our world. And you Mr. Hunt son of Voldemort somehow became a risk even if a year ago you were a completely normal wizard. Please tell me how you managed to change your entire destiny and how did you find about the London Sanctum," her voice was always calm and polite, never wavering, but I knew that she really wanted or rather needed to know the answers.

The question was how I should even proceed here. I never prepared for something like that and this was probably a mistake. I should have known that the Ancient One would keep an eye on people trying to approach the Sanctums. I needed more time to think.

"I fear I don't know what do you mean miss," True and untrue as while I knew why she was here, I was curious what she exactly knew about me. How much did the Eye of Agamotto show her? Evidently not everything if she was asking those questions, or was it just a test?

The Ancient One didn't look happy with my answer, but she still continued in a polite tone, "Your people have unlimited potential with your ability to use the absorbed natural power of the universe or magic as you call it. No one else can use it, not even the Masters of Mystic Arts. In the past, I had a few dealings with the natural sorcerers or as you call yourself, wizards, and most of those encounters didn't end well. Over the years I decided to keep an eye on your entire community. I saw how a countless number of Dark Lords or just people carving for power grew and died, never posing a danger to the even more mystical side of our world. When you were born it was no surprise that you would be on my watch list for a few years. The son of Voldemort and one of the darkest witches of the British wizarding world."

I should have expected that... again. After all, she was THE Sorcerer Supreme so she definitely knew about the wizarding world. That she kept an eye on the more dangerous individuals was just one part of her job. The part of how our magic worked was very welcome even if it didn't explain everything, though I was confused about why the Master couldn't use it. Didn't they specialize in using different energies of dimensions?

"Thankfully," she continued breaking me from my thoughts, "You appeared to be a normal boy, that was abandoned by your parents and would live a pretty successful life. As such, I crossed you out of my list. Yet here we are, after you for some reason decided to visit one of the Sanctums. Now I can see only glimpses of your future and none of your past. And with what I saw, you are definitely dangerous Mr. Hunt."

She finished and began to sip her tea, waiting for me to answer the unasked question. Still, I was a bit surprised that she would tell me so much. Hell, she even hinted that she could see into the past and possible futures of a person. Guess that was how she acted when she encountered an unknown.

Unfortunately, I still had no idea what to tell her. I wasn't going to tell her everything about me, Salazar knowing was enough. So again I remained silent as this was one of the situations I didn't have an answer for. Given that I tried to mess with the Masters of Mystic Arts, I probably should have, but maybe I was too excited about the idea of learning their skills.

Finally, after a long moment of silence, the Ancient One sighed and spoke again, "I see that you are not willing to share your secrets, but I can't leave before you at least answer a few of my questions. Tell me, Mr. Hunt, why do you seek power?"

Alright, that was a pretty good way out. I could even tell her the truth as it wasn't something that would give away anything important.

"I want freedom. Freedom from anyone trying to chain me down. Freedom to do as I want and travel the worlds that are waiting out there," A very simplified answer, but that would be all she got from me... for now.

"So you really do know about the multiverse. At this point, I am sure that you and the old Mr. Hunt are two completely different people," And you are right Ancient one, congratulations. Now, what would you do with this knowledge?

"And what will you do when your homeworld will be in danger? Will you leave it to be slowly destroyed or use your newly gathered power to help it? What makes you different from those that came before you and tried to do the same exact thing?" The Ancient One fired off her questions. This time her tone was firmer.

Well, that escalated quickly.

"I am no hero and I am not a good person. I want to reach my goals, but I won't destroy the world to achieve them if that's what you worry about," I knew it wasn't, but what was I supposed to tell her? That I would go and become a superhero who would save everyone?

Definitely not and even if being an Avenger would be fun, I wasn't that kind of guy. This wasn't even my world, just a place that someone placed me in. Maybe with time, it would change, but for now, it was hard to identify with a world that was always a work of fiction for me.

"I feared that you would say that," The Ancient One said suddenly with a sad smile, "I can see that you are older than you look, but you still have a lot to learn child. Remember you may have your goals now Mr. Hunt, but is it what you really desire? When you will have an answer, find me, and maybe then we will talk about the Mystic Arts."

With that, the woman opened a portal and quickly disappeared from the room. I was left sitting there completely confused at what just happened. Did she really leave me just like that?

And what the hell was that bit about my goals and desires. For me, those were the same things, weren't they?

My conversation with the Ancient One left me confused for a long time. I tried to understand what she exactly wanted from me. An answer about what? My desires? I saw them in the Mirror of Erised and for me, they were the same as my goals, or at least I thought so.

Still, she said that if I gave her the answer then the Mystic Arts might be finally open to me. How long it would take me to come up with one, I didn't know, but I definitely wasn't going to give up. Those skills were too important to lose and maybe just maybe, the Ancient One was onto something with her question.

Now I was left with a few days until the second year of Hogwarts and during those few days, I began wondering about a few things. Or rather two things...

First was the entire fiasco with the Chamber of Secrets that should happen this year.

Of course, I wasn't going to let it happen. The Chamber was too useful for me, only to lose it so the plot could follow canon. Maybe I had the Room of Requirements available to me, but if I let the young Voldemort enter the Chamber again, he might discover something that would point to me. No, it was too big of a risk to leave the diary Horcrux in the hands of an eleven-year-old girl.

I would just steal it from her either during the feast or when she tried to go to the Chamber for the first time. Riddle might be good, but he would never expect someone to know about him, thus any trap should work, at least I hoped so. Besides he would be in the body of a pre-teenage girl. If that didn't make him weaker then I didn't know what would.

The next thing on my mind was Hogwarts' education or rather when I could finish it. To be honest I didn't really want to wait seven years to leave Hogwarts. While I was pretty sure that later on, I would find a way to leave the school unnoticed to deal with other things, I would still be wasting a lot of time sitting in lessons.

My plans were to at least finish half of the fourth year material during this year and if I kept my current speed then I should be finished with the basic education at the end of the fourth year. The electives also weren't a problem as I was already learning runes and for my second subject, I could take Arithmancy even if it didn't work like all of the fanfictions pictured it.

It worked with numbers, that was true, but it wasn't necessary for creating spells. Helpful maybe, necessary? No.

It was used to study the magical properties of numbers, including predicting the future with numbers and numerology. To be honest, if Salazar didn't tell me that it could also be used to predict how a new ritual would work, I would never bother with the subject.

With those plans, I was pretty sure that I would be wasting my time if I was in Hogwarts until my NEWTs. That was why I would be going to either McGonagall or Dumbledore if it was possible to only pass OWLs in Hogwarts and then maybe instantly go for NEWTs somewhere else. It might bring more attention to me, but at this point, it was that or two more years of wasted time. Besides the war would be starting somewhere during this time, so the sooner I got out the better.

Now I just needed to decide who would give me a better answer. The Headmaster or Head of my House.

Decisions, decisions...

Something was completely wrong. Like very, very, very... wrong.

Harry and Ron were supposed to arrive during the feast after they crashed Arthur Weasley's flying car. So why the hell were they sitting with me in a compartment on a train to Hogwarts?

Did Malfoy Senior change his plans? He wanted to discredit Arthur with his actions, so it wouldn't make any sense for him to just suddenly change his plans. Also, my appearance in this world couldn't change enough to affect this event.

So why the hell Dobby didn't block Harry from reaching Platform 9 and 3/4? Maybe he was too late this time... Yeah, that must have been it. I would find Ginny and then just take the diary away.

"Logan, how was your summer?" Harry's voice finally reached me.

I turned to look at the trio that barged into my compartment and shrugged, "Pretty good. Some time away from school was definitely welcome, but after a while it got boring when I couldn't use magic. What about you three?"

I didn't really lie here. After all, I couldn't use magic freely and time away from the kids was godsend.

We talked a bit about our Summer, or more like the three talked while I just answered a question from time to time. They were still too young for me to have a comfortable conversation with them, but I could at least try. At least it gave me an opportunity to try and ask a few subtle questions about Harry's home.

Unfortunately, the boy dodged every question about this topic so I just gave up and went back to my thoughts. It wasn't until Ginny Weasley came into our compartment that I went back to the land of the living.

The girl looked... normal. Like she never had the soul-sucking Diary in her hands or tried to write in it. Well maybe it was still too early for any signs to show, but I wasn't going to just ignore it like that. First I tried to feel magic around her just like Salazar taught me and when that didn't show anything, I used a wandless spell that I learned during summer just for this occasion.

It was supposed to detect any traces of foreign magic in a person. Mostly used by healers, but it should work for what I wanted to see.

Only it didn't...

Huh, maybe she didn't write in the diary yet. Or she really doesn't have it, I thought as I felt the outcome of the spell. This isn't good.

While I didn't wish any harm on the girl, I would prefer for her to have the diary. After all, I could easily recover it and Ginny would be free of its taint. Now I had no clue where the hell the Horcrux was, and that was something dangerous. Maybe I didn't mind changes to canon, but this was Horcrux, not some random event that didn't matter in the long run.

Shit. Now I have to check every student in the castle and prepare a trap that would work for Riddle if he got a stronger body... Why nothing can be easy.

This school year would so good if it wasn't for the lost diary. There was nothing dangerous this year that could mess my plans and I would have had the whole year just practice magic and perform more rituals.

Unfortunately, Salazar agreed with me that if there was a chance that the diary was in Hogwarts, I needed to find it. After one month of constant searching, I was pretty sure that the Horcrux just wasn't in the castle. I didn't know why or how, but it just wasn't here. Evidently, something made Lucius change his plans.

"So you are stopping the search," Salazar said after I walked into the Chamber. I wasn't in the best humor, but who would be after a lesson with Lockhart.

The man was so annoying that it really took everything to stop myself from cursing the man. I was really wondering if I shouldn't go along with my plans to get rid of the man early. I would just need to find a good way to do it.

Maybe a trip to the Forbidden Forest would solve the problem, I thought amused, before shaking my head and addressing the portrait, "Yes. I am just wasting time at this point. I will leave the wards and traps at the entrance just in case, but I am ninety-nine percent sure that the diary isn't in the castle."

Salazar nodded, "So be it. At least now we will be able to focus on what we need. I want to finally discover what the Philosopher's stone is hiding and you need to perform another ritual. Your body had enough time to rest."

I raised an eyebrow, "Which ritual do you have in mind now?"

The ancient wizard smirked, "One of the few rituals that affect the mind. My favorite to be exact and don't worry it is harmless. I and most of my heirs used it without any fail."

"Alright, you got my attention," I reluctantly agreed. I wasn't too keen on messing with my mind. My occlumency was good, but I still had a long way to go to master my mind, "What are the effects?"

"It affects the speed of your thought process. While the improvement isn't that big, you will definitely notice the change. You will like it and it will help you with your studies. If it wasn't for the need for steady occlumency shields, it would be the second ritual you have ever performed, but I prefer to play it safe," Salazar explained and it instantly made more sense even if I was a bit curious how my shield would help with the ritual.

I voiced my question and Salazar was happy to answer, "They will keep the magic contained to your mind so it won't mess anything in your body. It will be tiring, but I am confident that you will succeed. After all your strength lay in defensive mind arts..."

That didn't exactly fill me with confidence, but if Salazar thought that I was ready then I would trust him. Still, it wouldn't hurt to devote a bit more time to my occlumency practice. Just to be sure.

"Alright lad, prepare the ingredients, and let's see what the Stone is hiding."

Oh yes, it will be a long night...

And this is it for today's chapter.

I hope that the conversation with the Ancient One was somewhat original and some of you enjoyed it. It will play an important role in the future and I hope you will like it.

Surprise, surprise, the diary isn't in Hogwarts. Where did it go? Well, you will find out very soon. I am pretty happy with what I came up with.

Now one last thing. As you all see we are finally in the second year. No need to worry, it won't take me 3 chapters to get to Christmas, but one. That's right. The first half of the year will be very fast and while the second one will slow down a bit, it shouldn't take longer than 2-3 chapters. After that even I am not sure as a lot of things will change and I still need to plan the finer details.

With that said I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Let me know what you think and join my discord.

Link: discord. gg/ b7JaQcpuc7 (Just delete the spaces.)

Have a good day/night.