Shadows of Wizardry
Chapter: 03
AN: I finished this chapter quite a while ago but my editor told me to wait on posting lol. Hope you guys enjoy it.
(Arise)
I stared at the humanoid shadow kneeling before me with a grin. The shadow human eyes that flowed eerily in the darkness stared back at me blankly.
"Rise." I ordered.
The shadow human rose instantly at my command.
"Destroy that headstone." I commanded and pointed towards a grave head stone.
This was probably a dickish move but it looked old anyway and I needed to test the capabilities of a standard human turned shadow.
The shadow human's glowing eyes snapped to its target and it didn't waste time in quickly approaching the headstone. The fist impacted the stone and sent cracks cascading through it.
Hmm. Strong but not overly strong. Looks like even with reduced strength, it has a higher strength output than an average human due to not being instinctively restricted by his own body. This combined with their undead nature, results in a terrifying force. Impressive. The shadow reeled its hand back again.
"Stop." I said and the shadow obeyed.
I should probably head back now that I've confirmed shadow extraction worked. A problem suddenly occurred to me. Where was I going to put it? I couldn't exactly just have it follow me around.
If the wizards back home discovered my powers, I would probably be labelled a fucking Dark Lord. Draco's memories showed me how backwards the wizarding policies were on dark magic.
"Is there anywhere you can rest, without being seen?" I asked and the shadow human nodded.
So they were capable of understanding complex commands? Good. I then proceeded to watch in fascination as the shadowy figure crouched down and slipped into my own shadow that was visible due to the bright moonlight, causing it to stretch and darken to accommodate its form.
My heart raced as the figure disappeared into the darkness, leaving me alone in the comfortable silence of the graveyard. My shadow returned to its normal state after a few moments.
{Pre-requisite has been met. Unique Skill unlocked}
{Skill added to Skills}
I jumped slightly at the sudden notification, wasn't this the skill that allowed the Shadow Monarchs to store things and their armies in their shadows?
Did that mean I needed to meet prerequisites in order to gain other unique skills? Was it caused by my Shadow's action of entering my shadow?
Things to ponder on in the future.
Shadow Storage seemed pretty useful. Unlimited storage is never useless, not to mention the coolness factor of being able to extract things out of your shadows. I would definitely need to experiment with this, when I am in a safer place.
Well okay then.
I should probably get out of here, should I try to grab another shadow? It was kind of creepy standing out in the middle of a graveyard especially since I knew ghosts exist.
If I saw some little child ghost in a dress crawling across walls and shit I wouldn't hesitate to start shooting spells. I silently debated whether staying here to grab another shadow was worth the potential encounter with a demon child.
Though I guess I could test out the range of my shadow extraction. How far away could I use it from?
"Hey!" A shout echoed and My heart jumped in surprise, my wand snapping up.
Not today Satan.
An overpowered "Diffindo" was on the tip of my tongue. I still wasn't that great at using it but it was currently my only attack spell.
Instead of a ghost I had been expecting, I saw a man dressed in a typical security attire running towards me, a flashlight in hand. I almost sighed in relief. Relaxing just a bit more even though I had been caught.
Yikes, I must have caused too much noise and attracted a guard. I probably shouldn't have decided to practise the cutting charm while I was trying to be stealthy and go unnoticed.
Damn it, I knew this had been a risky and even dumb idea. I just knew I wasn't going to get another chance like this in hogwarts. It's not like I could go unnoticed in a magical school where even major secrets spread around easily.
Draco Malfoy leaving to dig up corpses? Yeah, I wasn't risking that.
Even if I didn't account for the headmaster who I was quickly learning to either be insanely more powerful than the original was meant to be or people were spilling out some insane rumours.
I'm pretty sure I can get away without my father or mother noticing since I was keyed into the floo making me able to leave and enter as I please without an alert.
It just didn't change the fact that this was going to be noticed by the authorities either way. Ah well, I guess I would rather live life a little on the edge than bore myself with plans on top of plans. Perhaps I had left a little bit of sanity within the void.
I suppose I wouldn't be able to obtain any more shadow corpses anyway. I frowned, this would definitely be investigated. Rumour about some guy dressed up in strange black robes digging up graves was bound to spread around.
Luckily I was wearing a very concealing hood so I wouldn't be recognised. Now, how to go about this in the best way possible. I didn't want to kill the man for doing his job or even permanently harm him.
A spell came to mind, that'll work.
My wand swished in a practised if not slightly wonky manner.
"immobulus." I calmly stated. A pale blue light shot out moments later.
I clicked my tongue in annoyance as the spell missed, hitting a headstone behind him. The slightly overweight security man stumbled back, eyes widened in shock he dived behind one of the gravestones comically slow.
It seems I needed to work on my wand aim, turns out it's not as easy as you think it would be aiming a wand and actually hitting a moving target. The security man kept peeking like he was in some sort of movie.
The gravestone my spell had hit hadn't even sustained any damage.
"SHOTS FIRED SHOTS FIRED. SUSPECT IS IN POSSESSION OF A MACHINE GUN." The man's voice suddenly screamed, gasping for breath.
A bit of an overreaction if you asked me.
"Get him." I ordered seemingly nothing.
Green eyes peered out of my shadow a moment later, as my shadow stretched and enlarged. The shadow humanoid climbing out and obeying, instantly sprinting towards the man.
The security guard screamed and made a run for it. I didn't blame him for his reaction. The shadow humanoid with his burning green flames that were his eyes looked fucking horrifying.
Especially since the shadow human was fast. The security guard stood no chance with his geometrically endangered form and fat little legs as my shadow body checked him. I winced as he fell over.
This is going to be a rough night for him.
"Restrain him." I called out and made my way towards them as my shadow body locked him.
The man struggled, looking terrified. My shadow remained steady as it easily restricted his movements.
"Puh-please don't hurt-"
"Immobulus" I calmly called out with the motion of my wand. My magic moved and the pale blue light of the spell shot out. This time my aim didn't miss and he was hit.
I didn't make the spell affect his entire body since that would require me or someone else to cast a 'Finite' spell on him to end it. So instead I focused on his neck.
I controlled the magic with some difficulty and an intense amount of my enhanced imagination helping me force my intent into the spell as I focused to only freeze all movement in the neck.
All movement in his neck ceased.
"Release him." I ordered.
My shadow immediately obeyed and the man fell to the ground, hands clasped around his neck as he tried to breath. After a while of struggle his face went blue and he succumbed to the call of Morpheus.
After making sure that he was indeed out cold, I released the spell. The man's face regained colour after a few moments as he finally breathed in oxygen. My shadow climbed back into my shadow with a single command and I decided it was time for me to leave.
I'm pretty sure he would be fine. That had been more of a test, since I hadn't been sure if 'Immobulus' could be used in certain places or if it simply froze any moment of any target it hit.
Now that this is over, I should probably head home before the reinforcements arrive. Pretty sure he was screaming at someone on his radio and I didn't want to stick around this creepy graveyard anyway.
I made my way to the edge of the graveyard and hopped the fence. I started retracing my steps to the leaky cauldron. I kept to the shadows while walking through the empty streets of London.
I made it to the unassuming wall that leads into the Diagon alley. Remembering the familiar sequence that was the secret code, I tapped certain bricks around the large gap in the wall.
The wall opened up and I made my way through, quickly finding the nearest floo and disappearing in a burst of green flames. I sighed in relief as I appeared back into Malfoy manor.
I dropped my robe into my shadows. No way I can excuse my way through that. If I get caught in black robes, at best they would assume I am an edgelord.
I started sneaking out of the living room. I carefully reached the bottom of the stairs making sure to make no sound and went to move up them only to freeze at a distinct feminine voice calling out from behind me.
"Draco?"
Spinning around I was met with Lyra Malfoy in a silky gown staring at me in confusion.
She hadn't been there a moment ago.
Ah shit.
"What are you doing up so late at night and why are you dressed like that?" Lyra asked, getting closer to me.
I pushed down the surge of itchy irritation that quickly started bubbling up as my sin of wrath made itself known and I quickly composed myself, letting a smirk play on my lips as I met Lyra's gaze.
"What are YOU doing right now? I was just thirsty and decided to get a drink." I redirected the question back to her.
Lyra narrowed her eyes, clearly not convinced by my explanation. "At this hour? Also why are you acting so strange?"
"I'm not quite sure what you're talking about, I merely came down here to get a drink. Stop sticking your nose where it doesn't belong." I responded and started making my way up the stairs.
That last part was a slip up as my Sin of Rage amplified what would have been brief annoyance. I should probably start looking into Occlumency, I clicked my tongue.
There was just so much magic I wanted to devour.
Lyra didn't stop me, simply opting to observe me closely.
I quickly made it to my room. Shutting the door silently and flopping onto my bed with a loud exhale of breath.
-Scene Break-
As I finished reading the page, it moved onto the next page on its own as I lazily waved my wand. Using the levitation charm to move the pages is a good way to practise the charm.
It had been a day since my little excursion outside into the muggle world.
Tomorrow I will be attending the supposed best magical school in Europe, Hogwarts. I had everything packed and ready to go, so I was mainly focusing on absorbing as much knowledge as I could.
Shadow storage had turned out to be pretty interesting.
Turns out it doesn't have a limit on what I can store, other than the fact that living things can't enter my storage. There's also no limit on the quantity as far as I can see. It was basically a pseudo-inventory.
It was easily exploitable and I already had a couple of books stored, darker family books that wouldn't exactly be accepted in Hogwarts.
I had decided to name my first shadow, Larry. Just for simplicity's sake. A few more in depth experiments had shown he was likely at the peak of human physique by normal standards which was a good start.
It didn't put him anywhere near the level of a wizard but he would be a good body shield. As for my progress it was coming along nicely, though I did need some actual experience in terms of fighting to see where I was at.
I looked over to Larry doing press ups, I was trying to see if exercise could boost his physique. I hadn't seen any improvement yet but it was worth a try.
Name: Larry
Grade: Normal
Skills: None
Larry didn't have any skills as of now and I wasn't too sure on how he could obtain any since he was at the end of the day just a normal human. I snapped my book shut as I finished reading the last page.
I closely inspected the piece of wood I had asked Dobby to bring me. Quite the useful little house elf.
Speaking of Dobby, I had an important task for him. I took out a pouch filled with galleons.
"Dobby." I called out.
The house elf immediately popped in existence.
"Yes draco sir?" Dobby asked, his large innocent eyes looking excited at being called on.
I tossed him the pouch.
"Go get me the Wiggenweld, Exstimulo and a Draught of Living Death potion." I ordered, looking at the small book beside me with their names listed to make sure I pronounced it correctly.
"Dobby be going doing that Draco sir." Dobby answered back quickly and obviously excited at my request.
"Make sure to be discreet, Dobby. I don't want anyone knowing." I commanded and the loyal little house elf beamed.
"Yes Master Draco sir." Dobby quickly responded.
I nodded. Watching the small house elf disappear in a pop. I had recently read about the two potions when I was skimming over a basic book about potions, mainly out of curiosity. Turns out Harry Potter had overshadowed how insane some of these potions were.
The Wiggenweld Potion could heal minor injuries and sterilise wounds. It also worked as an antidote for the Sleeping Draught and the Draught of Living Death.
The Exstimulo Potion greatly enhanced the magical abilities of wizards and witches who consumed it.
The Draught of Living Death was a potent potion that induced a deep, deathlike sleep, akin to suspended animation. It was an advanced potion taught to sixth-year students at Hogwarts.
I wasn't sure how many potions the galleons in that pouch could get me, I'm assuming potions weren't cheap. This was the best I could do at the moment before I could start brewing them.
All these potions had caught my eye, since I could see good uses for all of them.
My focus turned back to the book that I had just finished reading was the one that Draco had in his 1st year of Hogwarts, "A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration". It was a basic guide on what Transfiguration entailed as a branch of magic.
Apparently, being the delinquent and blood purist idiot he was, the original Draco hadn't put much effort on clearing the basics or listening to professor McGonagall's introduction, instead choosing to fixate himself with Alchemy.
Transfiguration was quite frankly amazing. It allowed one to create, change, or vanish objects or living beings on a fundamental level. It literally messes with the molecular structure of an object and forcefully changes it to match the structure of another.
The official sub-branches of Transfiguration are, Transformation, Vanishment, Conjuration and finally Un-transfiguration.
Transformation dealt with all the 'changing something into something else' part of Transfiguration. It focused on altering the physical features of an animal or object. It has its own divisions as well.
Namely, Object Transformation, Switching, Trans-Species Transformation and Self-Transfiguration.
The book didn't go into much details regarding the divisions other than Object Transformation. Probably because in the first year, the main focus was on this division. It was the easiest of them all, not to mention it established a base of knowledge for further studies in Transfiguration.
Next comes a somewhat scary branch, Vanishing. As the name suggested, it dealt with vanishing stuff into non-existence. Frankly, it held a lot of potential and likewise it's also the hardest to learn. Nothing else was explained other than the brief mention that it would be taught in the 5th year.
Conjuration was the antithesis of Vanishing. It focused on conjuring things out of nothing. Confused? I am too. This, like its counterpart, held immense potential, but was relatively harder to learn.
The book stated it to be the most complicated of all magical disciplines taught at Hogwarts.
Finally we have De-Transfiguration. It was basically about reversing all effects of Transfiguration. It was a mandatory branch. Not being able to reverse a transfiguration would be a matter of great shame for any student.
This was a lot to take in. Hell, the changing aspect was at least believable, but the conjuration or vanishing part?
The only way I could scientifically theorise it, would be changing the molecular structure of air to match the required object or scattering the atoms in case of vanishing.
Both of these are breaking God knows how many laws of chemistry, but I am gonna ignore that in favour of its usefulness.
"Flintifors." I pronounced clearly, swishing my wand to the left. As the book instructed. I imagined the spell's effect effortlessly with my imagination. It was a piece of cake.
A clear bolt of energy hit the block of wood and I watched in fascination as it turned into a matchbox. I picked up the matchbox and took a match out, lighting it up as I swiped the match across the side.
I was meant to start small with a needle and turning it into a single match stick but fuck it, we ball.
I closed the book on transfiguration, I could practise more transfiguration later. For now there was something else I wanted to check out. I got up and left my room.
"Larry back into my shadow." I called out and he instantly fell into my shadow just as I walked out.
I made the familiar route to the Malfoy library. I started looking through the hundreds of books for the subject I was looking for.
After a while of searching I picked up a book that caught my attention, the book had a black cover with golden outlines and a title that read "A Minds Castle: A Comprehensive Introduction to Occlumency"
This will do.
I had decided that I needed to get a start on Occlumency since there had been a few situations lately that nearly caused me to snap, the Sin of Wrath was proving itself to be troublesome. I guess it was to be expected since it was a curse.
While it wasn't necessarily causing me massive problems, it could become a problem if I didn't quickly find a way to control or at least lower it down to the point that I wasn't outright lashing out.
It was annoying I had to focus on this instead of spending my time on magical theory and spells but it would be useful regardless. It wasn't like there was a time limit on learning spells but my Curse of Mimir had effectively turned me into a book worm.
I began reading, oh boy. This was going to be a long night.
-Scene Break-
As I stepped onto the platform 9 after exiting the Floo, my sister and father followed closely behind. The sight of the Hogwarts Express stood before us, a massive train I had only seen in Draco's memories and in the movies.
The Hogwarts Express was a long, red and black train with shiny, metal wheels and a billowing cloud of steam rising from its chimney at the front. It had the crest of Hogwarts on each carriage.
I saw hundreds of people in robes with their children saying their goodbyes and carrying their belongings on board in a massive trunk. My father had his gloved hand on my shoulder as we walked.
My sister Lyra immediately said her goodbyes to our parents and sent one more look at me before leaving to go mingle with her presumably slytherin friends.
This is how it had been last year but with Lyra normally sending an insult my way before leaving. Which is why her sudden change was confusing, she couldn't be a tsundere or something right?
I had my expensive-looking large trunk filled with all the books and items I needed for the second year beside me, including some more advanced books on spells.
"Draco, I'm pleased to finally see signs of maturity in you, finally stepping into the man I've long anticipated you would become. Last year's conduct was quite frankly unacceptable. Getting beaten by your fellow purebloods is one thing but being beaten by a mudblood has shamed our name," Lucius said and took a breath.
"I expect better this year. I want to boast of your achievements to the other houses by the year's end. Am I clear?" He questioned rhetorically.
He looked serious, I remembered Draco had been shouted at by Lucius when he had seen his low grades and pathetic duelling placement.
Instead of getting nervous and lowering my eyes like the normal Draco would, I let an easy going smile spread across my face.
"It shall be done father." I replied and Lucius examined me closely before nodding. A small proud smile briefly flashed on his face.
I looked over to my mother.
Unlike Lucius who patted me on the shoulder, she knelt down and wrapped me up in a hug.
"My sweet boy, I don't know what's causing this change in you, but please be safe." Narcissa said and I hugged her back after a moment of thought.
"I'll be fine, mother." I replied with a smile.
Narcissa nodded sadly and sent a glance over my shoulder. I looked over, spotting Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe along with their respective families coming over to use. Lucius immediately straightened and went over to their families.
The game of politics immediately started. Goyle and Crabbe came over to me as their respective families were beaten down by the political power house that was my father.
I'm pretty sure both of their families were subservient to house Malfoy. Allies if you asked anyone but they both relied on Malfoy power.
"Goyle, Crabbe." I greeted them as they both came to stand next to me like the underlings they were.
"Draco." They both nodded with a smile.
"How has your break been?" I questioned.
"Alright, I went out into the muggle world a few times for lunch but other than that I just played on my motion-mirror." Crabbe started.
Ah yes, the motion mirror. It was basically akin to a smartphone that operated on a mirror-like object. I had one myself but I had been too busy studying and experimenting with magic to use it properly.
I had mine packed within my trunk though so I could try it out later. Personally, I think playing around with magic is much more fun.
"My dad took me to see a magical menagerie." Goyle said with a shrug.
The magic menagerie, now that's interesting. A massive menagerie that held various magical creatures for show. I would have to check it out at some point.
"How was it? Did you see any interesting creatures?" I questioned as we started heading to the Hogwarts Express as the horn bellowed.
We carried our trunks easily on board. Giving a brief goodbye to our parents.
"It was pretty cool, the Blast-Ended Skrewt was pretty cool. They didn't have many powerful creatures." Goyle replied with a grin.
"What about you Draco?" Crabbe asked.
We found an empty compartment after a bit of a search and hopped in.
"Me? Ah, I've just been playing around with magic. Had a trip out into the muggle world you could say. Had to get a new wand since my old one broke." I casually listed off my deeds, showing them my new wand.
"Ah cool!"
"That lightning pattern looks wicked!"
I sent a sly grin at them, maybe their company wouldn't be that bad. We sat down after putting our stuff away. I pulled a book out and they both looked at me confusedly.
"I've decided to take my magical studies more seriously, if you don't mind, I'll be reading. Perhaps you two can play some chess." I suggested and they both looked at each other in silent confusion before nodding.
It made sense they were confused, I was already acting much more differently compared to the original Draco. It was to be expected. The old Draco was dead.
I wonder what Hogwarts will hold for me? The thoughts of all the secrets Hogwarts has to offer, made me grin. Something that noticeably unnerved the two sitting in front of me.
This was going to be fun.
-END-