“Master Aurelian, Master Aurelian, wake up.
Lady Pendragon will be here any minute.”
In a bedroom inside a castle set in the countryside outside Birmingham, a beautiful young girl in a maid’s uniform, her long black hair falling neatly down her back, was doing her best to wake the blond boy buried in the bed.
“Catherine, let me sleep a little longer.”
The blond boy rolled over, dragged the covers up, and sealed himself completely beneath them.
The black-haired maid looked at the lump in the blankets and sighed helplessly.
“Good morning, son.
Time to get up!”
A pleasant woman’s voice rang from beyond the door.
The boy shuddered the instant he heard it.
Still wrapped in his blanket, he rolled hard to the side.
Bang!
The moment he left the bed, a figure flew in through the doorway.
Yes.
Flew.
She landed with one foot planted squarely in the middle of the mattress.
The boards beneath it gave way with a crack.
“I am your son,” the boy snapped, staring at the sunken bed frame as cold sweat broke across his forehead.
“Are you trying to kill me?”
“Ha!
I’m training you, little Aurelian.”
The woman standing on what remained of his bed straightened with a bright, unbothered smile.
Her delicate features were strikingly similar to the boy’s, though softened by a cheerfulness that made her look entirely too pleased with herself.
“As your son, I consider it a miracle I’ve lived this long.”
Aurelian wiped the sweat from his brow, muttered the complaint under his breath, then began pushing her toward the door.
“All right, all right.
I need to wash up and get dressed.”
“Oh?
Is my little Aurelian embarrassed?” Elaine Pendragon laughed.
“I am your mother, you know.
Fine, fine.
Hurry up, or your father will come up next.”
Elaine clearly wanted to linger, but the look on Aurelian’s face had grown dangerous enough that she finally behaved herself and left the room.
“Finally.”
After ushering his mother out, Aurelian let out a long breath and turned to Catherine, who stood to one side with a hand over her mouth, quietly laughing.
“Catherine, why didn’t you tell me Mother was coming?”
He sounded genuinely aggrieved, as if the entire disaster had been her fault and not the result of his own refusal to wake up.
“I did tell you, Master Aurelian.” Catherine smiled at him.
“You just weren’t listening.”
Aurelian paused.
She had a point.
“Fine, fine.
I’ll go wash.
Help me get my clothes ready.
I have something to take care of today.”
Now that he thought about it, Catherine had warned him.
He just had not been awake enough to care.
A faint flush crossed his face, and he escaped into the bathroom while Catherine began preparing his clothes.
…
My name is Aurelian Pendragon.
I am eight years old, and according to family history, I am descended from King Arthur.
I also happen to be, for better or worse, a soul from another life.
Do not ask me how it happened.
I have no idea.
I went to sleep, woke up, and found myself in this world: Britain in the late 1980s.
As you can see, I was born into the sort of life most people would envy.
I have an enormous castle, a personal maid who is both absurdly cute and impossibly diligent, and the kind of family name that makes people stand a little straighter when they hear it.
Unfortunately, I do not feel especially blessed.
That is because I have an unbelievably unreliable mother and an even more unreliable father.
The kick that nearly crippled me just now came from my mother, Elaine Pendragon.
Ever since I turned seven, that sort of thing has happened almost every day.
Sometimes I wonder whether she remembers I am her son, not her sworn enemy.
My parents call it training.
I call it proof that heaven has been working overtime to keep me alive.
As if that were not enough, this world turned out to be a magical one.
Worse, it was the world of the Harry Potter books, a story I had only heard about in my previous life and never actually read.
And somehow, I was born in the same year as the famous Boy Who Lived.
Aurelian washed up while studying the handsome face in the mirror, his thoughts drifting until Catherine’s voice reached him from outside.
“Master Aurelian, everything is ready.
Are you finished?”
“Almost.
Give me a moment.”
Her voice pulled him back.
He quickly finished washing.
Catherine Bedivere was his personal maid and was about his age.
Her elegant old British name had been given to her after she entered House Pendragon’s protection.
A few years ago, Aurelian and his parents had found her alone on the streets of London.
He could not bear to leave her there, so he asked his mother to bring her home.
From then on, Catherine had stayed by his side.
…
A little while later, Aurelian stepped out of the bathroom, and Catherine helped him dress.
“Master Aurelian, you said you had something to take care of today.
Where are we going?”
“Diagon Alley.
I need to handle a few things.” Once his clothes were properly in place, Aurelian turned toward the mirror and struck several poses with shameless confidence.
“Catherine, be honest.
I look painfully handsome from every angle, don’t I?”
Catherine smiled softly and did not answer.
Even so, the fondness in her eyes was difficult to miss.
“All right, let’s go downstairs before Father decides to come up here too.”
Once he was dressed, Aurelian left the room with Catherine and went down to the dining room.
His mother, Elaine Pendragon, was already at breakfast.
Sitting beside her was a man who looked enough like Aurelian to be unmistakably his father: Miles Pendragon, the current head of House Pendragon.
“Aurelian.
Awake at last?”
Miles lowered the newspaper in his hands and gave his son a warm smile.
“Yes, Father.
Catherine and I are going to Diagon Alley later.”
Aurelian pulled out a chair and sat, then gestured for Catherine to join them for breakfast.
“Do you need Bercas to go with you?” Miles asked.
He did not ask what Aurelian planned to do.
His son had been exceptional since childhood, and Miles trusted him far more than most fathers would trust an eight-year-old.
Bercas was the Pendragon family’s house-elf.
Ever since House Pendragon had withdrawn into the wizarding world, Bercas’s ancestors had served them faithfully.
That service had continued for more than a thousand years.
“No.
Catherine will be with me.
That is enough.”
Aurelian refused without hesitation.
“Then be back early,” Miles said.
“There will be a banquet tonight.
Quite a few guests are coming.”
“A banquet?”
Aurelian looked puzzled.
Neither his father nor his mother had mentioned anything about a banquet before now.
“Yes, a banquet.” Miles smiled mysteriously.
Elaine wore the same look beside him.
“You will find out the details tonight.
It will be a surprise.”
“I understand.
Catherine and I will come back early.”
Since Miles clearly had no intention of explaining, Aurelian did not press him.
After breakfast, he and Catherine used Floo Powder to travel to Diagon Alley, the largest shopping district in Britain’s wizarding world.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter.