Shadows of Wizardry
Chapter: 04
Updated Dumbledore's Pov
(The Hogwarts Express)
I sat in silence as Crabbe and Goyle played a game of Wizarding chess, which was pretty popular in the wizarding world apparently. Naturally I had taken the seat closest to the window while Crabbe and Goyle sat opposite to me.
The Hogwarts Express hadn't started moving yet as hundreds of children boarded it. There were muffled shouts of excitement as the chaos of children being left alone in a magical train ensued.
Since we were early, we got one of the good cabins. There were the normal train seats at the front of the train which were basically a magical war zone for chaos to breed in.
My focus was more on the book in front of me. That was until the door suddenly burst open. Standing in the doorway was a young girl about my age with silky chocolate brown hair running down to her back.
Two warm eyes the same colours as her hair shone with relief as she spotted me.
Pansy Parkinson.
My eyes softened just a tad, she was a Slytherin girl who had stuck by Draco's side despite the fact that he continuously made a fool out of himself. Overall a sweet girl with decent magical talents and an above average magic pool.
I'm pretty sure I knew of her from the movies, didn't Draco and her have some sort of marriage arrangement at some point? Plus wasn't she meant to be ugly?
"Draco." She beamed happily, walking inside and closing the cabin door behind. The war zone of the untamed magical children battling outside as I swear I saw a firework shoot behind her.
"Crabbe, Goyle." She nodded a bit more passively towards them.
They both grunted in response.
Normally Draco would ignore her but he was an idiot.
"Pansy." I greeted in a reserved manner, with a nod of my head and a small smile.
Pansy froze and her eyes widened minutely. She quickly regained her bearings a moment later. Sending me an unsure smile.
She sat next to me hesitantly.
"So what are you up to?" Pansy asked after a moment of silence, other than the low curses of Goyle as Crabbe took one of his knights out.
I closed the book, I suppose I should socialise a little bit. The train's journey was going to be over eight hours long and everyone was having the arrival-angst that one does on a journey.
"Nothing much, just reading up on some transfiguration. I've decided to take my magical studies seriously from now on." I replied, using the same excuse I've been using with everyone who asked.
She smiled happily.
"That's amazing Draco, I'm sure with your natural talent, you will finally reach the top of our year." Pansy responded cheerfully.
I raised an eyebrow. She was just a bundle of joy wasn't she? Surprisingly she got into Slytherin, where most of us were blood supremacist and enjoyed acting broody.
A bit like Draco tried to act but smarter.
Slytherin did possess a lot of talented wizards and witches. Mostly since it was filled with purebloods. Since blood purity was a real boon. Mainly for increased magical pools.
A child of a house represented what they had to offer after all.
The Slytherins represented the orthodox and conservative beliefs of the wizarding world, whereas Gryffindors represented the progressiveness and "light" of the wizarding world. Which explained the massive rivalry between them.
A rich magical heritage would always mean more potential but the sheer inbreeding had its many disadvantages.
Purebloods were indeed magically superior to the non-magicals but adding new blood to the family tree made it much stronger.
Which was why half-bloods like Rose Potter and Dumbledore were above the norm. Powerful blood being refreshed. A good pedigree indeed meant more power in this world.
Which was extremely important within the wizarding world. Even if the inbreeding was indeed a problem they seemed blind to.
So the blood supremacists did kind of have a point. But being afraid of a bunch of new wizard families was a bit stupid.
Me and Pansy continued speaking while Crabbe and Goyle kept playing chess.
A few minutes later Pansy spoke about what she had been doing during the holidays, her voice animated with enthusiasm at being able to speak about her interests, I feigned interest while silently assessing the information she spoke of.
Charms, politics—classic Slytherin topics.
Turns out her favourite class of magic was charms.
"I spent a good portion of my holiday brushing up on Charms," Pansy declared proudly, her eyes glinting with excitement at the chance to speak about her favourite subject.
"You know, mastering subtle spells is my talent." Pansy said a bit shly, as she snuck a glance at me.
I smiled.
"Plus they make household chores so easy." She added with a smile.
"I'm glad to hear your holiday was eventful, I've recently taken an interest in transfiguration." I replied calmly.
Pansy's eyes lit up in interest.
"I'm happy for you Draco, transfiguration is a difficult but powerful class of magic. I always knew you were special." She said softly.
I raised an eyebrow. This girl is way too kind to be a Slytherin.
"How are your brothers?" I asked, changing the subject.
She clapped her hands.
"They will be coming to Hogwarts in two years, they're all so excited." She exclaimed.
I went to speak but the cabin door burst open.
Startling green eyes that scanned the cabin framed by a heart shaped face greeted me, beautiful red hair fell back to the new arrivals lower back. Her hair is silky and radiating a shiny shine.
Behind her stood a boy with dirty orange hair. He wasn't really note-worthy compared to the girl standing in front of him. A girl with bushy hair peeked from behind him.
My memories quickly supplied her identity, Rose Potter.
She was already dressed in her Gryfindor school robes and her arms crossed as she locked eyes with me. A smug smirk spread across her face.
"If it isn't the little lizard, how's life? Are you feeling lonely not getting your ass stomped in our duelling classes? Don't worry I'll be sure to give you a repeat this year and the next" She said with an infuriating grin.
I calmed myself as the itch that was my Sin of Wrath made itself known.
Just as bitchy as my memories suggested, I suppose being raised with parents and essentially being the child of light for the light faction would make her arrogant.
Pansy sneered, briefly surprising me.
"Oh! Is the eager slut of the light here to offer her behind to the Great house of Slytherin? I know all the light families have already taken turns besmirching your 'Rose' off its petals." Pansy said with a nasty sneer.
That was an abrupt mood change, I looked at her in genuine astonishment. Compared to the soft-spoken girl who was eager to speak about how her holiday had gone, this girl was a little demon.
Rose, grit her teeth. Uncrossing her arms and balling her fists. I silently appraised her. She was the strongest in our year. Which wasn't surprising when she was destined to kill a certain dark lady.
She had an infamously short temper. Though she wasn't as bad as she seemed. She was extremely kind to everyone except Slytherins and especially me since I had picked multiple fights with her in the past.
"I don't remember asking a worthless bitch like you for your unwanted opinion." She growled. Then she turned to me.
"Nothing to say little lizard? Need your little slut to protect you?" She asked.
I stared at her blankly, trying to reign in my newly gained explosive temper. Pansy went to speak but I raised my hand. She stopped. Staring at me.
"Why should I waste my time on you? Your petty need to insult Slytherins to hide your loneliness and have more meaning in your existence is pathetic." I spoke slowly and quietly. Even as my anger rose.
She flinched minutely.
"What would you know!?" The boy next to her, Ron Weasley, finally decided to pipe up.
"I know I'm not interested in wasting my energy on trying to give your small, barely functioning brain the long-winded explanation it would take for you to understand. Though I can understand why it's so small. Your family is too poor to afford bigger ones." I replied uncaringly.
Rose went red. I saw her delicate small hand presumably inching towards the wand holster under her robes. I raised an eyebrow at her. Making it known I knew what she was reaching for.
I was under no delusion of grandeur and superiority. I know she would beat me as I am now. Rose had been extremely talented in duelling and magic. Her magic reserves were insane for her age.
I had just started fully grasping magic and had only been studying for a week or two. Even then I had mainly been focused on learning spells. Any combat with another wizard was yet to be seen.
The whole compartment was looking at her, Crabbe and Goyle were snickering as Pansy stared at me in shock. Rose growled and slammed the compartment door shut after a moment.
Finally the silence that ensued was broken by the loud ring of the train horn. The Hogwarts Express had started moving. It seemed we were finally departing from the platform 9
Oops, seems even though I can withhold lashing out my Sin Of Wrath made me quite the nasty talker. Also turns out Pansy was quite the little spit-fire herself. Maybe she isn't as innocent as she seemed.
"That. Was. Awesome." Pansy started gushing and I rolled my eyes.
After a while of excited talking Pansy finally calmed down.
"Have you heard about the new Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher?" Pansy asked.
That grabbed my interest.
"Lockhart?" I questioned, unsure if canon was still even a thing in this world.
She nodded.
"I've read some of his books, he's really impressive. Apparently everything he did was real too." Pansy said animatedly.
Knowing that he had stolen achievements from other wizards with his only true talent of memory charms made him seem pathetic. A thought slipped into my mind, having a shadow wizard who was good at manipulating others memories could be useful.
I pushed it to the side.
If he was still coming to teach Defence Against The Dark Arts (DADA) at Hogwarts did that mean the events of the Basilisk were going to still take place? I should be safe since it didn't target purebloods.
A brief search of my memories showed the encounter with the Weasley Family. With a lack of Rose Potter who was presumably with her own family I couldn't remember seeing Lucius slip the cursed book in.
"Though there is something a bit fishy about him." Pansy admitted and I smiled.
Expect a Slytherin to notice something with Lockhart was up, now if only that old overpowered goat with the supercharged magic stick could get the memo.
"I will have to see how he conducts himself to make any opinion of him." I replied.
Pansy nodded along and glared at Goyle when he started cursing loudly after Crabbe checkmated him in their game. The door opened as the trolly lady walked in as if she was in Afghanistan.
A strange dragon firework exploded behind her as she shut the door.
She took a deep breath before smiling.
"Anything from the trolly dears?"
I nearly laughed at the absurdity of it. Taking out my pouch I nodded.
"Everything." I smiled.
She rolled her eyes and I raised my hand, looking at her in a deathly serious manner.
"When I say everything, I don't mean everything on the trolley. I am talking about every treat this train has in stock." I said.
Pansy giggled and the two playing chess laughed.
She looked a bit flustered.
"Surely you want to save some for the rest of the train, no? Miss Potter is only a few compartments down from you. There are many more to go as well. You are one of the first compartments I've been to." She hurriedly added.
The devilish grin I sent earned a tired sigh and a low mumble of 'pureblood brats'
I sent her a friendly wave as the entire compartment was filled with sweets. Seriously, I had expected a lot but I think I may have gone a bit overboard. It was a good thing I was rich. Why have money if you aren't going to spend it?
It felt even better knowing technically it wasn't mine and I didn't have to work for it.
"Sweets anyone?" I asked and all three of them immediately dug in.
-Scene Break-
I quietly read my book as the sky darkened, it had been a few hours and the common hyperactive activity of everyone had died down. Even the magical warzone outside had grown silent.
Pansy was sleeping beside me, Crabbe and Goyle were both dozing off. The sky outside was darkening rapidly. This allowed me to focus back on the book I had been reading.
"A Minds Castle: A Comprehensive Introduction to Occlumency"
I figured it couldn't hurt to get a grasp on the beginnings of Occlumency and its theory. Plus I couldn't really practise magic properly in this cramped compartment, not easily anyway.
The book was pretty useful, the first step into the art of occlumency was simply clearing your mind. Which was a bit easier said than done. You had to essentially learn to clear your mind without any conscious thought on command.
Luckily, the book provided me with many small meditation techniques to help with this. Such as focusing solely on an object like a candle or water. This would help you achieve that state of mind.
Once you could do that you needed to be able to follow a moving object in the same way. This would make the learning process of the flow state much easier.
The book described this as a 'flow state'
As an example of why it's essential to learn with a focused and aware mind initially, the subsequent step into organising a mind palace and constructing mental defences would be more fruitful.
With heightened awareness, you'd have a clear understanding of what's located where and what should be revealed or kept private. Without meditation or clearing your mind but it could be grainy/mixed with other thoughts like an unintended strings leading to other memories and associations
An organised mind would be simpler and quicker to comprehend than a disorganised, cloudy, or even an insane mind, where navigating the mindspace would be challenging.
Of course, mind defences normally came pretty quickly after this. Since with an organised mind it made it easy for any mental invaders to go through, so a bit of a double edged sword. Not for me since I had my overpowered Mental Fortress skill.
Getting this down was the first step into Occlumency. There were multiple levels in occlumency with the third stage normally being where wizards stopped trying to advance. It was also the stage most purebloods started learning to get up to when they entered the third year.
Apparently the mind wasn't mature enough before that with the hyperactivity of a child making it hard to master, which was why Draco hadn't been taught it yet.
Closing the book, I decided to get dressed up into my robes while everyone was asleep.
-Scene Break-
We exited the compartment, fully dressed in our black robes with the symbol of Slytherin displayed proudly on my chest. We navigate our way through the hundreds of students leaving the Hogwarts express.
The cold night sky greeted us as we exited.
"Attention, firs' years!" A thunderous voice echoed, with a heavy accent grabbing everyone's focus. "First years, gather around here!"
Amidst the bustling crowd, Draco glimpsed a colossal figure looming over them—a massive, 11-foot-tall giant.
A group of nervous younger kids walked over to the lumbering giant that was Hagrid. I nearly laughed at the looks of terror from the younger kids as they stared up at Hagrid shouting.
"Come along now, follow me," the giant beckoned, his voice resonating with authority. "Any more first years? Watch your step, everyone! First years, stick close!"
We were led away from them and towards dozens of carriages with our luggage disappearing, most likely it was little house elves taking our luggage for us. My eyes trailed to the nightmarish creatures pulling the carriages.
Thestrals had quite a disturbing appearance. I would describe these creatures as being very sinister and spooky. They had big, bony figures and their face was dragon-like, bearing white, glittering eyes that lacked both expression and pupils.
They looked similar to horses excluding their large wings that sprouted from their back. Overall, they looked quite dangerous. If my memory serves me right then only those who had seen death could see them.
The carriages themselves looked simple in design with headlamps attached to all four sides. Opening the door I got in first, giving a hand to Pansy who looked shocked again before smiling and taking my hand.
Crabbe and Goyle got in after use, sitting opposite to us once again. The carriage started moving a while later as the Thestrals began pulling us towards the castle. I glanced outside the carriage at the beautiful large castle in the distance.
Hogwarts Castle was a massive imposing structure with towering spires, with thousands of windows barely visible from the distance. The castle was made out of a grey stone with many towers and courtyards.
It was surrounded by a massive forest, a section of it looking nightmarish. I'm assuming that was the infamous Forbidden Forest. Filled with all sorts of dark dangerous creatures and herbs.
There was also a massive lake. I could see barely visible lights coming from there, probably the first years getting their little magical introduction to Hogwarts.
I let an eager grin spread across my features. Let's see what Hogwarts has in store for me.
-{Dumbledore}-
Seated in a grand, throne-like chair, Dumbledore was currently occupied with a piece of parchment as he wrote on it with his quill and pen. His sky blue eyes scanned the papers calculatingly.
The room he sat in was none other than the headmaster's office which was adorned with an array of enchanted artefacts that held an aura of vast magical power signifying their powerful capabilities.
Dumbledore's office contained a number of spindly-legged tables supporting various frail silver instruments strewn about on them. All of them carrying a faint hint of magic.
Tall bookshelves lined the walls, filled with ancient tomes and magical volumes he had liberated or collected among his many years alive, their spines glinting with faded gold lettering.
The old headmaster was currently trying to push through a new law in the wizengamot with the banning of more dark books containing dark spells that made skin rapidly rot.
'A nasty spell indeed.' Dumbledore thought, a weary sigh escaping his lips.
The aged headmaster's thoughts turned towards the Cold War that was currently happening.
Many suspected or hoped that the Dark Lady had perished after the large trap Dumbledore had arranged when Servus had informed him of Voldemort's intentions to kill the Potter family.
Dumbledore knew Voldemort was out there, scheming and waiting for the right chance to reignite the wizarding war. She had always been incredibly crafty and intelligent. Too intelligent to let herself die in such a way.
The ensuing battle after the trap had been active and destroyed the entire area around Godric's Hollow. The grounds now cursed with the vile magic Voldemort had carelessly used.
Even with preparations there was a reason Voldemort was considered the most dangerous Dark Lord/Lady in centuries. The only good thing that had come out of it was the safety of the Potters and the war being put on hold.
It had allowed the Ministry to regain its bearings and for rebuilding to take place, society had slowly started healing and Dumbledore was able to amass forces with the victory giving a very much needed boost in morale.
The thousands of wizards and witches lost still didn't weigh any less on his consciousness.
Unfortunately it seemed the Dark Lady's movements were starting to pick up pace once more, with the attempt from one of her followers on the stone last year Dumbledore knew it wouldn't be too long till she was back for good.
He suspected that she had wanted the stone to speed up her slow recovery. Luckily by refusing to allow her to obtain it, Dumbledore had bought the wizarding world a while longer of preparation.
Dumbledore frowned as he thought about the vampiric Faction. Not many wizards knew of the outside world since the wizarding world had its own dimensional plane separated from the muggle world.
The Department of Mysteries dealt with artefacts pertaining to the supernatural world on the outside. To the highest-ranking officials who knew of the supernatural world at the Ministry, making sure the various factions remained oblivious to them was a priority.
Voldermort though had broken that law and allied with a large family inside the vampiric faction. The Carmelia house to be exact. Bringing outsiders into the wizarding war had made it much more chaotic and with rumours of the werewolves getting involved it certainly wasn't looking good.
His quill scratched across the parchment, the only audible sound in the calm atmosphere. When suddenly, a loud alarm jolted through the calmness, shattering it as Dumbledore blinked and glanced up in confusion.
The electric blue aged eyes of the headmaster sharpened. His sharp intelligent eyes snapped to a spherical device that sat carefully on a pillow that was on one of his shelves. It suddenly cracked and shattered.
Dumbledore quickly got up, the pieces delicately floating up with a wave of his hand. He inspected them with a deep frown. That device had contained the prophecy of the Dark Ladies' demise.
"What does this mean?" He mumbled softly. A wave of his hand and the device rebuilt itself easily, only to start cracking a moment later.
He sighed as he allowed it to crack.
Dumbledore didn't know what this meant, but he was sure it couldn't be anything good.
-END-