Herbology with Gryffindor turned out to be quite fun.
As first years they were not dealing with any magical plants that were particularly dangerous.
But Professor Sprout made the whole class quite exciting regardless, due mostly to her sheer enthusiasm for the topic.
Charms was the same, mastering wand movements and drilling magical theory while Flitwick dazzled the class with displays of various charms.
And Transfiguration followed the same pattern as last class, theory discussion followed by the matchstick to needle drill.
The other new class was one that Leon had always thought was added to add to the whimsy of Hogwarts in the books.
It never seemed relevant to anything.
Astronomy.
Turns out, Astronomy is actually relevant at all times when it comes to magic.
The alignments of the celestial bodies affected every spell, ritual, and magical phenomena on planet Earth.
Although the effects were basically negligible for regular everyday spellwork.
No one would really notice that a specific spell was performing 2% less effectively on a random Friday.
But Astrology was important when dealing with powerful magics.
And doubly important when dealing with ritual magic.
Though ritual magic was not taught at Hogwarts anymore due to pressure from the ministry.
The Ministry had essentially banned ritual magic.
Essentially, being the key word.
They wouldn’t send aurors to break down your door if you are conducting ritual magics in your basement.
But they had pressured Hogwarts into removing it from their curriculum and banned selling books related to the subject.
Leon had his suspicions as to why that was but it was irrelevant.
It was during Astronomy and after finally cracking open the textbook that Leon wondered what this would mean for magic as a whole once he stole the planet with a plane meld.
New sky, new magic maybe?
The ramifications were impossible to calculate.
The next morning had Theory of Magic on the schedule.
Theory of Magic was completely optional and only worth going to if there was actually a guest speaker.
From what Leon heard about it; there was usually only one or two guest speakers a year.
And today didn’t have one, so he skipped it entirely.
Instead opting to go to Madam Hooch about the fact that brooms weren’t going to be in cards for him any time soon.
Soon Leon found himself knocking on Madam Hooch’s office directly off to the side of the practice field.
“Hello?
Come in, the doors unlocked.”
Leon opened the door and found Madam Hooch behind her desk in a room that was lined with brooms hanging from racks that covered all the walls.
Leon took it all in as he approached the desk under the gaze of her hawkish yellow eyes.
“Hello, I’m Leon.
Leon McKinnon-Prewett.
I should have come to see you earlier in the week.
But I honestly forgot.” Leon said as he took the seat she gestured towards.
“Well, what can do for you Mr.
McKinnon-Prewett?” she asked, looking a bit amused.
Leon sighed, “Well you see ma’am… Brooms don’t work for me.
And before you say that that is preposterous or something like that, it’s not just brooms.
Anything that needs to read my intent to work just doesn’t.
They just don’t work at all.”
Madam Hooch raised an eyebrow at that, “You’ll have to forgive me if I need proof of your claim young man.
I cannot simply take you at your word.”
Leon nodded, “Of course.
Test away.
I already had to prove my Calligraphy skills after submitting an essay.”
“I heard about that.
Professor Sprout was showing off a parchment with a silly little rhyming scheme written like it was some kind of commandment.
So that was your doing?” Madam Hooch asked, she hadn’t really paid attention to it since she never assigned essays or anything like that.
She hadn’t caught the name of the student.
Though Leon didn’t have to introduce himself to her, he looked so much like his father that she remembered him from his Sorting.
“I can’t help how it looks… well I could, but that’s just the way it comes out naturally.” Leon said defensively.
“A quill just moves a certain way in my hand.
I guess my style is a bit…
forceful.”
“Forceful is an understatement, young man.” Hooch chuckled, shaking her head.
“But let’s see about this other claim of yours.
It is a heavy thing to say you are a ghost to intent-based magic.”
She turned in her chair and reached for a standard school Cleansweep resting on the wall rack behind her desk.
She laid it flat across the smooth wood of the floor beside her desk.
“Standard school issue,” Hooch said, gesturing down at it.
“It’s practically desperate to feel a student’s magic.
Go on then.”
Leon placed his hand over the broom and focused on it with the thought in mind that it was simply one of his Dremora minions.
“up” he commanded… and nothing happened… But Leon was just gripped by an idea.
Realization dawning on his face.
“I just realized that I may have a solution Madam Hooch.” Leon said as he let his hand drop.
“One failure does not mean that they will all be failures.
I’ll hear your solution when we’ve given everything enough tries to determine the truth.” She said, indicating for him to try again.
Leon complied, over and over again.
Madam Hooch swapping out brooms multiple times and even having him stand with broom already between his legs and try to fly.
Nothing worked.
“Well now we’ve confirmed that what you say is true.
But you said you have an idea to fix it?” she asked as she put the last broom back up on its rack.
“I need to make a broom myself.” Leon said, “Well, not make one from the ground up.
I’d just need to be included in making a custom Bound Broom.”
“A bound broom?” Madam Hooch asked with a nod.
“That could work.
Binding would tie its enchantments directly to your magic.
Expensive, mind you.
I have a couple of my own for racing and bad weather.
It’s a highly sophisticated process, involving the craftsman anchoring the magic to a specific witch or wizard during the final polishing stages.”
“Exactly.” Leon said, offering a bright smile.
Internally he had no idea what she was talking about.
Saying Bound Broom had been a slip up.
He meant ‘Bound’ as in shove a Dremora into it.
To Madam Hooch, a “bound broom” meant a high-end, premium piece of wizarding gear tailored by a master craftsman to align perfectly with a single wizard’s magical fingerprint.
But to Leon, the word Bound meant something entirely different.
He of course didn’t mention the real details to her after the slipup being conveniently filled in.
He couldn’t enchant a broom himself.
But there was something that he could do that he hadn’t thought of until he envisioned the broom as one of his Dremora.
What if he just took a Dremora and infused it into a broom?
That’s how Daedric armor was made.
Sure, his Dremora didn’t operate the same way, they had real souls that were corrupted into being his loyal Dremora, not Vestiges.
But if he applied the same principles… it might work.
“If you can get a custom bound broom I will allow you an exemption to the first-year rules.
Only if you store the broom here in my office.
But don’t get your hopes up.
There is usually a waiting list that’s months long depending on the manufacturer.” Madam Hooch said with a wistful look in her eyes, “As for right now, there would be no point in having you standing around on the pitch with everyone else flying.
For every Flying Lesson that you can’t participate in, how about you write down an ‘essay’ for me?
Each ‘essay’ will be a full description of a different broom.
Their technical specifications.
Manufacturer.
And a little tidbit about the history of the design.”
Leon beamed at the offer.
“That sounds brilliant, Madam Hooch.
Honestly, I’d love to do that.
Deal.”
“Excellent,” Madam Hooch said, her hawkish yellow eyes softening with approval at his enthusiastic attitude.
“I’ll expect the first one by next week.
Choose whichever manufacturer strikes your fancy first.”
“I think I’ll start with the Nimbus Racing Broom Company,” Leon said.
“I hear their upcoming designs are supposed to be something truly special.”
“Well then, Mr.
McKinnon-Prewett, you are dismissed for the day,” Madam Hooch said, gesturing toward the door as the chatter of the arriving first-years began to echo from the pitch outside.
“Enjoy your free morning.
I look forward to seeing your handwriting again.”
“Have a great lesson, Ma’am.” Leon said with a smile as he headed out the door.
Returning to his dormitory.
Leon made sure that he was fully alone before he called out, “Gasket!”
A moment later, with a pop like a firecracker, the two headed elf appeared.
“Master called for us?” Gasket asked in that double voice of his.
“Yup.
Then bring them back here.” Leon then reached into Coldharbour and pulled out six coin purses with a hundred Galleons in each, “This should be enough for at least one.
If you have enough for more, get them.”
Gasket did an awkward little bow and snapped their fingers.
The bags vanished, “Yes Master, right away Master.” And gasket vanished as well with a sharp crack.
Half an hour passed before a loud crack shattered the silence of the empty dormitory.
Gasket materialized right in the center of the rug, their two bowler hats slightly askew from the rapid transit.
The conjoined elf was practically buried under the sheer length of two pristine, identically wrapped, elongated parcels.
The brown packaging paper was crisp and stamped with the elegant gold embossed seal of the Nimbus Company.
“We have returned, Master Leon.” Gasket said, the two heads speaking in perfect unison.
“They had exactly three in stock, but the shopkeeper was stubborn.
He wanted two hundred and fifty Galleons for each, so we could only buy two.”
“Two is perfect, Gasket.
Outstanding job, as always, you are the best elf a man could ask for!” Leon said, swinging his legs off the bed and stepping down onto the floor.
He didn’t mind the price at all.
He walked over and patted Gasket’s shared shoulder.
Gasket was tearing up from the praise and struggling to not show it.
Leon picked up one of the heavy, long parcels, feeling the immaculate balance of the mahogany wood even through the protective paper.
“Take the spare one and hide it safely in the Room of Requirement.
Actually, put it in the chamber where we found the Vivarium.” Leon instructed.
“This first one is staying with me.
And I might end up breaking it.”
Gasket nodded in perfect unison, their tiny tailored gears jingling as they gripped the remaining package.
“As you command, Master,” Gasket echoed, that strange, layered vocal resonance ringing through the room one last time.
With another sharp pop, Gasket and the spare Nimbus vanished into thin air, leaving Leon completely alone with his new toy.
He looked down at the crisp packaging and pulled it into Coldharbour.
He would deal with the experimenting tonight.
For now, he was reading Magical Drafts and Potions in preparation for Potions class with Professor Snape.
If any class had a reputation, it was potions.
And Leon would rather be on Snape’s good side.
Tonight was going to be interesting.
He hadn’t checked how many souls he’d accumulated from the Vivarium yet.
But it was a lot.
Everything that was dying, whether through predation, misfortune or old age was quietly donating their souls to Leon.
And a full ecosystem had a lot of death in it.
He needed to test a few things now that he had such a wide variety of souls.
The petty souls that he had converted into a few scamps and atronachs so far had come from mundane animals.
And he’d never handled a Grand Soul before.
From what little Leon had seen of the Souls that he’d been getting from the Vivarium was that beyond mere grade, the race of the soul seemed to matter too.
At least, when it came to magical species.
He couldn’t predict what kind of dremora a Goblin soul would become.
Only that it should be powerful.
Grand Souls were the equivalent of a Black soul after all.
But that was for later, Magical Drafts and Potions was taking up his attention at the moment.
And it turned out to be a good thing that Leon decided to crack the book and read it before the class.
Snape had targeted him off rip.
Not with the single-minded intensity that he targeted Harry Potter with.
But enough to tell Leon that Professor Snape probably had beef with his parents in some way or another.
He’d ask ‘mother’ at some point.
But thankfully, with the refresher and active reading just prior to the class, Leon was able to at least answer the questions that Snape hurled his way.
And with his Basic understanding of Tamriellic Alchemy, he only manage to lose 1 house point throughout the entire class.
And that was because he almost made a mistake.
Not because he actually made one.
It was, after all, ridiculously easy to just follow the instructions that Professor Snape had drawn on the board.
It was clear and precise to the second.
So, Leon made it through Potions unscathed, but wondering exactly what it was that his parents might have done to make Snape hold a grudge.
More than likely Gideon Prewett had done something and since Leon looked so much like him, Snape had decided on some minor pettiness to get back at a dead man.
For a master Occlumens Snape was quite the emotionally driven man… Maybe that was actually the key to occlumency?
With classes over for the day.
Leon headed back to the common room immediately and took a long, hot shower, then crawled into the bed.
It was still very early, too early to be going to bed, but with so few males in the school and a full dorm room to himself, no one would even notice.
Once he settled down to make it look like he was asleep.
Leon transferred his mind Coldharbour.
He took a moment to himself before looking at the number of souls trapped in Coldharbour and couldn’t help but shake his head in wonder.
There were a tremendous number of Petty, Lesser, and Common souls.
So many that Leon didn’t bother counting.
The number of Greater souls was at least manageable, a few hundred.
And he had a surprising number of Grand Souls.
He could easily distinguish which Grand souls came from which species.
They didn’t look different.
But they held a sort of internal structure that was obvious to Leon’s metaphysical senses.
About 300 Acromantula Grand souls had accumulated, Leon also noted that a lot of his lower tier souls were also Acromantula, he didn’t know how that was a thing, but he’d figure it out eventually.
Of Goblin souls, also grand, Leon had 122 of them.
He only had 24 Centaur souls though.
The fact that the souls were different made Leon unsure what the final results of conversions would be.
Especially since the Dremora he made retained their memories from life.
But otherwise, they were blank slates.
They didn’t know how to utilize Magicka.
They weren’t even good at moving around at first.
Like the petty souls he’d turned into scamps.
They spent a lot of their time trying to move around like they would have as rats.
Their bodies were foreign to them.
They needed time to adapt.
Morty-1 had seemingly defied this adaptation period so he may be wrong about higher quality souls needing time to adapt.
But for now, none of that was really important.
He wanted to be able to fly.
As much as the fanbase made fun of quidditch, the idea of flying around on a broom was just fun.
So, he grabbed all of the Goblin souls, and all of Centaur souls and threw them into the Waters of Oblivion to start the conversion process.
He needed at least one Dremora after all.
And while Morty-1 may not be able to communicate with the New Dremora due to the language barrier.
Leon would be able to command them just fine.
And having direct access to native speakers of the languages from the Vivarium would probably speed up Voldy’s development of his Translation spell.
With that done, Leon headed to the Vivarium to check on the progress that Morty-1 was making.
“So, any progress with that translation spell Morty-1?” Leon asked as he entered the mansion and saw his minion glued to the monitors.
“My Lord, you’ve returned.” Morty-1 said, turning his attention to Leon, “I have made some progress, yes.
But the translation spell will still take a while.
But I do have much to report if you have time My Lord.”
Leon gestured for him to continue.
He had time, and none of the souls in the Waters of Oblivion seemed close to being done with their conversion.
Morty-1 gestured at the observation systems panel, “I will start with what I have discovered about the observation systems.
It tracks and monitors everything that is alive inside the Vivarium.
At all times.
With audio and magical analysis of health, fertility, and basic projections about expected lifespans as well.
Tracking and observation parameters can be input at will.
And the monitoring station can be expanded to accommodate more observers as well, though I am unsure how many observers we could expand it to hold.”
Morty-1 utilized his wand to tap a few spots on the monitor and the screens changed.
Zooming in on a unicorn it displayed biometric data that meant nothing to Leon, but he was sure someone out there would kill for this level of unintrusive analysis.
“As you can see.
It monitors everything.” Morty-1 tapped another spot on the monitor and the view changed, showing an X-ray scan of a goblin city, “Perhaps the most… intriguing thing that I have discovered is that the Goblin tunnel network has to be actively maintained.
Unless they plate the walls with that metal there.” Morty-1 pointed with his wand at the X-ray image bringing Leons attention to the fact that the entire city was fully encased inside of a sheet of magical metal.
“Without that metal, they would need to run the constant maintenance that they run on the tunnels.” Morty-1 again shifted the view, this time to a goblin cart that was like a giant snowplow, only the ‘snow’ was a thin layer of the tunnel walls surrounding the rail, “The stone, ore veins, gems and other things in the ground are constantly, if slowly, regenerating.
They seem to have figured out how to stop it around their cities, but fully coating their entire tunnel network seems like something they either can’t afford or don’t want to do.”
Leon frowned, “What do they do with all the extras stone?”
“They vanish it!” Morty-1 exclaimed, “These goblins have developed their own version of wands.
It’s not a wand mind you.” He once again tapped the screen and it zoomed in on an old Goblin who was wearing a strange glove with sharp metal thimbles over the fingertips.
“This glove thing is basically a wand.
Not all goblins have them, and from what I can tell, they don’t actively teach their population magic.
The ones that are using these wand substitutes seem to have large apprentice organizations around them that they train.
Outside of those groups I have not seen wizard types of magic.
But these ones seem very good at transfiguration adjacent things like the vanishing charm.
They routinely clear out piles of material that the scrappers pull off the tunnel walls.
I have witnessed dozens of spells that I have no name for and no understanding of.
Their magic is of great interest to me.”
Leon didn’t know what to do with all this information.
The fact that the vivarium was actively regenerating was something that he had already assumed just because of the storage vaults it wasn’t really a surprise.
Though it was mildly surprising that the inhabitants, namely the goblins, had to contend with it constantly.
It was interesting.
But his current experiment with creating a Bound Broom was at the forefront of his mind.
“Ok… well.
I am in the process of converting a bunch of the souls that I’ve collected since the Vivarium has been here in Coldharbour.
I’m going to use one of them for a project.
But I figured that you could use the rest to help learn their languages, cultures, customs and history better.
But you are going to have to figure out communication with these new ones yourself.
I’m busy with my own projects… and homework.” Leon said with a shrug.
“It shouldn’t be too hard to wrangle the newcomers My Lord.
They will be uncoordinated and confused, much as I was.” Morty-1 said with a genuinely evil smile on his face.
“I never noticed you seeming confused or uncoordinated Morty-1.” Leon pointed out.
The man had walked out of his transformation like he’d been born a Dremora and was returning to his natural state.
“My Lord, I thank you for the praise.” Morty-1 said, “But the moment that I emerged from the Waters of Oblivion… My mind was in turmoil.
I knew that you were my Master and Lord, and that I would do anything for you.
But my mind was in a state of extreme disarray.
My new body felt foreign and clumsy.
Powerful.
But uncoordinated.
My advantage was that I had a lot experience controlling various bodies as a parasitic wraith.
If these newcomers are in the same state as I was, without your presence to ground them… they will be quite easy to corral and control.”
Leon shrugged, “Whatever.
Use them as you see fit.
Probably get the Goblin Souls to start working the mines and forges.
I already have scamps and a few atronachs extracting Ebony and other materials from the mines, but real miners and goblin craftsmen would do wonders… Anyway, I’m gonna go run some tests.
They’ll emerge by the fountain in the central plaza, They are your responsibility for now.”
“Yes, My Lord!” Morty-1 said and practically sprinted out the door.
Leon shrugged as he examined the Daedric Soul he had just extracted from the first to succumb to the conversion.
It had been a Goblin Soul.
It had emerged from Waters of Oblivion while Leon was talking with Morty-1 The Goblin turned Dremora emerged from the Waters of Oblivion standing at 6 feet tall.
Its body was wider and thicker than Morty-1s by at least double.
Pure muscles that rippled beneath skin that was like living gold, with various shades of luster to it.
And a crown like growth of horns that matched its skin color.
Its face was elegant and refined looking, with pointed ears that made it look like an elf with horns that had emerged from the Baki universe.
Without a single soul or anything familiar around it in the dreary, silent environment of Coldharbour.
That perfectly sculpted, regal face had been a vision of pure panic and childlike confusion.
The mountain of muscle had staggered around on its uncoordinated new limbs, frantically calling out into the empty streets for anyone or anything it might recognize.
Of course, Leon hadn’t bothered to let it panic for long.
He had only observed the newborn Dremora for a brief moment before reaching out with his thoughts and cleanly ripping its soul right back out of its chest.
Without a soul to keep its physical form in shape, the completely naked, six-foot-tall body had instantly immolated itself, dissolving into a quiet shower of crackling blue embers.
And now Leon held the Dremora’s soul in the palm of his hand.
He felt a little bad about the whole thing.
But it wasn’t like this was going to be a permanent affair for the soul.
Existing as a broom would probably end up being just a novel experience in this particular Dremora’s tale a few thousand years from now.
With a spring in his step, Leon made his way into the mockery of the Imperial Palace and retrieved the parcel that contained his brand-new Nimbus 2000.
He unpackaged it and held the broom in his hand.
A sleek shiny mahogany handle with a curved shaft.
The long tail of neatly arranged twigs bound in place golden bands.
The footrests extending from those same golden bands… Experiencing the sight and feel of the thing in person was a fairly big letdown on the mundane visuals.
But in the magical spectrum?
The thing coursed with magical power.
Overlapping and interwoven enchantments showing that the craftsmen who made these brooms really knew their stuff.
Leon looked between the broom and the soul of the Dremora wondering exactly how he was supposed to make this work.
Should he just treat it like an enchantment?
The Basics did not cover how to properly shove a Dremora’s soul into an object.
That was high level conjuration and smithing stuff usually.
After a few moments of indecision, Leon decided to just try to bind the Dremora as if he was laying out the existing enchantments through magicka circuitry.
If that didn’t work and he destroyed or exploded this broom, he would use the spare by laying down magicka following the patterns that were already present in the enchantments of the broom.
Leon proceeded with a caution that turned out to be unnecessary.
The moment that he started twisting the Daedric Soul into the enchantments of the broom it was like the soul itself knew what to do.
It snaked itself into the enchantments like red dye filling up a network of clear pipes and tubes.
Once the soul was completely in position, Leon bound it in place with a touch of Magicka.
Fusing the soul to the physical and metaphysical structure of the Nimbus 2000.
That was when the transformation started.
The Daedric soul pulsed.
Filling every aspect of the broom with harsh red and black energies that corrupted and twisted the materials.
The Mahogany shaft darkened into matte obsidian sheen.
Jagged ridges forming that looked like they would be uncomfortable.
The end of the handle curled into a hooked spike.
Red Daedric script manifested along the shaft.
The neat bristles seemed to fray and fan out as they darkened into a bushel of razor-sharp bristles that emitted red sparks and dark mists.
The footrests getting the same treatment as the shaft.
Becoming ridged and with the ends curling into asymmetrical spiked hooks.
When the transformation ended, Leon couldn’t help but feel like the broom was no longer a mount.
It looked more like something he should use as a weapon.
And it certainly did not look like something that he wanted to sit on.
But brooms, even though it looked like you were sitting on them, actually had a cushion/seat charm on them.
Try sitting on a broom handle with your full weight.
You’ll understand the necessity of such charms once you do.
Cheaper broom models have literal seats built onto them for comfort.
A model like the Nimbus 2000 had specialized enchantments woven into it remove that problem and retain aerodynamics.
Leon placed his hand over the Daedric Nimbus 2000 and it instantly snapped into his hand.
He’d barely even begun to want it to move and it had already responded.
Leon grinned and walked outside the palace.
He mounted the broom and took off into the air.
The Dremora soul bound to the broom responding to his intentions with a flawless accuracy and eagerness to please that he found almost the same as a house elf.
The broom was fast.
Ripping through the skies of Coldharbour like a dark comet, Leon circled the mockery of the Imperial city a couple of times.
As he flew he marveled at how responsive and intuitive the whole experience was.
There was no wobbling, shaking or sudden dips.
Leon could feel the Dremora soul that he placed within the Broom relishing the experience as well.
The being seemingly quite happy with its newfound lot in life as a magical flying broom.
The experience of such effortless flight had Leon zipping between buildings, zig-zagging through the twisted arches of the mockery of the colosseum and spinning around the massive towers.
Testing every aspect of brooms capabilities.
The experience was exhilarating.
Though he suspected that it would be lot more fun in his earthly avatar.
He spent a long time just cruising and enjoying the air whipping by before he finally set down in the plaza where Morty-1 was busy torturing a couple of new Dremora that had emerged from the Waters of Oblivion.
Leon gave Morty-1 a look as he approached and Morty-1 immediately cut off the Cruciatus Curse he was using on one of the naked Dremora.
Basically the same as the one he’d seen prior.
But one of the two, the one that was being tortured when he showed up, was silver instead of gold.
Other than that, they were built the same.
Huge muscles, and very naked.
“They refuse to even speak Master!
I am correcting their behavior.” Morty-1 said as he turned to face Leon.
Leon just turned to the new arrivals, “This one is your superior for now.” Leon said indicating Morty, “Do everything that you can to cooperate with him and inform the new arrivals of the same if you can.”
The two new Dremora fell to their knees and said something in a language that Leon did not understand.
Yet he perfectly understood their meaning.
“”Yes Master!””
Leon nodded and turned to Morty-1, “You heard that.
You know what to do.
I’m heading back to Hogwarts to work on my assignments.
Please don’t turn any of the new ones into gibbering messes permanently.”
“Yes Master!
I will control myself.” Morty-1 said and turned to the new Dremora.
Leon didn’t wait and watch, he settled his Coldharbour Avatar in on the giant throne in the palace and retreated back to his Earthly Avatar.
Mission accomplished.
Now… Leon was just going to have to explain his new Brooms appearance.
Madam Hooch was broom enthusiast and collector.
She would undoubtedly be curious about who had made it and what its technical specs were.
He’d deal with that next week though.
For right now.
It was back to the grind.