Entering Diagon Alley was quite simple.
His ‘mother’ was quite familiar with the entrance procedures, and it turned out that a wand was not a necessity when tapping the bricks to open the way.
The Leaky Cauldron had been just as grungy and dilapidated as the books described, and Leon had no idea how the patrons of the establishment could stand it.
Diagon Alley itself was quite a spectacular sight.
The movies didn’t do its fantastical nature justice.
It looked like an impossibility made real.
Magical energies buzzing every which way and thrumming through the ground in a way that set his senses off like nothing else ever had.
The very air felt magical.
And despite himself, Leon found a sense of childlike wonder creeping through his veins.
This was a bright spot in his otherwise drab life so far.
His ‘mother’ led the way towards Gringotts.
She needed a wand, he needed a wand and school supplies.
Galleons were necessary, and they had brought a thousand pounds to exchange just to be safe.
Should be 200 Galleons worth of pounds.
Plenty to purchase all of the school supplies and more.
Allowing his minion to take the lead, they quickly found the entrance to Gringotts and entered through its lavish front doors into the reception area.
Leon waited behind his minion as she conducted business, exchanging the Pounds for Galleons without fanfare before turning around and heading back out towards the Alley.
“What’s going on?
Shouldn’t we ask about the Prewett Vaults and such?” Leon asked in irritation as they crossed the threshold back into Diagon Alley.
His ‘mother’ minion looked confused for a moment before realization dawned on her face, “I apologize master.
I did not think to inform you of how these things work.
Gringotts is run by Goblins.
The Wizards would never allow them to actually be in charge of inheritance matters and such.
They are purely a financial institution.
Bound by magical oaths, laws, and such intense regulation that for all intents and purposes, they are slaves.
For Bloodline claims and Family Bloodline checks, we need to go to the Ministry.
Even if we weren’t dealing with Noble Houses with seats in the Wizengamot.
Even common households would never trust Goblins to manage it.
We need to go to the Department of Genealogical Affairs Office if I remember correctly.
They will provide us the necessary paperwork to present to the Goblins to claim our Vaults, Deeds, and Heirlooms should there be any for us.
But we’ll need our wands first.”
Leon nodded to himself that made sense.
Most Fanfictions that he had ever read essentially had Gringotts running the magical worlds finances with an iron fist.
It almost always made the wizards out to be utter morons who allowed the Goblins to have complete control over their economy.
And usually, it’s always a bloodline test in Gringotts itself.
But no one in their right mind would give the Goblins that kind of control over their treasury and economy.
Especially with their penchant for rebellions.
And the Wizards would be especially keen on making sure that they were in control of the Noble Houses genealogies and such.
Now that he thought about it… didn’t that make most Fanfic writers pretty stupid… He certainly hoped that if his own life was a fanfic he would at least have a competent writer.
But that was probably not going to happen.
Anyone who came up with the concept of Leon’s existence should be shot.
Leon had been born into this world for conquest and to enslave it.
With a grudge a million miles deep, that could only be sated with genocide.
Only a madman would write such a character.
Leon shook off the strange thoughts and followed after his Minion.
Minion mother would need a Wand when at the ministry to sign and confirm her magic is indeed who she claims to be.
And Leon needed his for the start of classes at Hogwarts.
So, it just made sense that they headed straight to Ollivander’s wand shop.
The Ollivander’s was just as described in the books.
Faded paint, a window with a single wand on display.
And scrunched between two buildings like a giant had forced it to fit like an ill-fitting puzzle piece.
The chime of the doorbell sounded as they entered the Shop.
Simultaneously Leon heard a gasp from behind the counter.
Garrick Ollivander, an old willowy, and eccentric looking man, was staring at Leon’s ‘mother’ like he was seeing a phantom.
He stumbled from behind the counter and approached without saying a word looking astounded beyond beliefe.
“Matilda McKinnon!” he exclaimed after a moment, “It’s really you!
I never forget a face, nor a wand.
I remember.
Ten-inches, Willow, with a Unicorn Hair Core.
Springy and beautifully suited to charms and healing.”
Then Ollivander’s gaze snapped down to Leon, taking him in for a moment before looking back at his mother then back at Leon again with a surprised look in his eyes along with recognition.
“Oh my… It’s like looking at his father at the same age.
Minus the freckles and brilliant red hair.
Oh, dear me!
I apologize I was caught up in the past.
But Matilda dear, you should have returned sooner!
Everyone believed that your entire family was destroyed.
No survivors.
And… Molley is going to be beside herself when she discovers that she has had a nephew all along.
Even an illegitimate one.” Garrick gained a vacant look in his eyes before suddenly snapping too once more, “Apologies young man, I seem to have forgotten my manners.
I am Garrick Ollevander.
It is a pleasure to meet you!
I assume that you are here for your Wand?”
Leon nodded reached out to shake the man’s hand, “Leon McKinnon… apparently.
Only just learned about all this today.”
They shook and Leon’s mother cleared her throat, “We are both here to get a wand… I lost my old one, unfortunately.
Many years ago now in fact.
“Oh dear.
A mother and son sale.
How exciting!
Which one of you wants to go first?”
Matilda stepped back, allowing Leon the spotlight.
Garrick smiled broadly and started whipping out tape measures, strings, calipers, and other random measurement devices that Leon wondered about.
Was all of this actually necessary?
Or did the old man just like the spectacle and enjoy creating an experience?
“Hmmm… interesting.
Which hand is your wand hand?” Garrick asked while still examining the various measurement devices.
Leon didn’t respond with words, he simply raised his right hand.
After a few minutes of seemingly useless measuring and poking and prodding, Ollivander had apparently gleaned what he needed, and he practically sprinted into the back.
Leon looked back at his mother with a raised eyebrow and she just shrugged.
Garrick returned a few minutes later with his arms full of wand boxes and lays them out on the counter before opening the first box, “Beech and unicorn hair, 11 inches, slightly springy… try it”
Mr.
Ollivander held the wand out for Leon to test.
Leon reached out and the moment that his hand barely grazed the wand it was snatched away with Ollivander looking at it like he was comforting a small child.
“No Unicorn hair cores that’s for sure.
Look at her she’s terrified of you.” Ollivander said as he slid the wand back into its box.
After a few moments with a contemplative look in his eyes, Ollivander turned to another box and extracted it before handing it over, “Rowan and Dragon Heartstring, 12 inches, rather rigid.”
Leon actually got to hold this wand at least.
But it was immediately apparent that it was not for him when he gave it a little wave and a deeply sulfuric stench filled the air.
He handed it back without even needing to be told.
Then came another, and another, and another.
Leon seemingly went through every wand in the store.
His hand had touched hundreds of them at least.
Ollivander himself seemingly became more and more ecstatic as the pile of tested wands grew larger.
He started adding in wands with Cores from creatures that weren’t in his normal repertoire.
Veela Hair, Basilisk Horn, Thestral Tail Hair, Troll Whisker, Coral.
Dittany Stalk, Wampus Cat Hair.
None of them worked.
After a particularly explosive outburst from a Snallygaster Heartstring wand, Ollivander paused and seemed to have a Eurika moment, and sprinted into the back of the store once more.
He returned cradling a single box and opened it to reveal a pitch-black wand.
Like many that Leon had already seen before.
But just from seeing the box open, Leon knew that this was the one.
He could practically hear the wand demanding that he take it.
Ollivander extracted the Wand with care and held it in his hands, “Ebony, Thunderbird Tailfeather, 13 Inches, unyielding.
Perfect for transfiguration… give it a try.” He spoke as he handed the wand over to Leon.
The moment Leon’s hand clamped around the unadorned Ebony hilt all ambient noise seemed to fall utterly silent.
The shadows seemingly locked into place and deepened into unending pits of darkness.
The lights grew dim and a low, resonant thump like war drums in the deep sounded out and seemed to shake the very earth.
At the same time, a faint crackling wind carrying a bitter chill softly caressed Leon’s frame.
Ollivander was standing there with a triumphant grin.
“Looks like Hogwarts is about to have a Transfiguration prodigy on their hands.
It is said that Thunderbird Tailfeather Cores can sense hostility to their partner and can respond almost autonomously.
Preemptively casting spells to help save you from danger.”
Leon smiled as he looked down at the wand in his hand.
“I’ll take it.
And a care kit, and wrist holster if you have them.” Leon said, still smiling.
Ollivander turned to his practically ruined shop and sighed, pulling out his own wand and giving it a flick, the shop restored itself into order within moments before he turned to Leon’s mother, “Your turn my dear.”
What followed was practically the same ordeal Leon went through.
Over the course of nearly an hour and a half, Ollivander had Leon’s mother test nearly as many wands as he had until he finally found the one.
Opposed to how excited Ollivander had looked when he figured Leon’s wand out, he seemed somber and melancholy when the new wand accepted its wielder.
“To see a witch completely reject the timber of her youth is exceedingly rare, madam.
Your old Willow wand would snap in your fingers today.
This is Black Walnut…
it is the polar opposite.
It is a wood that demands absolute internal alignment.
If its master harbors a single doubt, a single hesitation or lie to themselves, it turns fails to deliver.” Ollivander’s voice shifted slightly, “But the Rougarou core…
a savage, dark predator from the Americas.
A strong affinity for curses and dark magics.
To go from a unicorn’s hair core to the tooth of a swamp-beast.” Ollivander shook his head with a deep sigh, “It tells me the war didn’t just break you, Mrs.
McKinnon.
It re-forged you entirely.
Into something far different from the bright young lass who first came to me.
Please, remember your Heart young lady.
The world is not as dark as it sometimes seems.”
Though Leon knew that his ‘mother’ was unmoved, because of his mental link to all of his Dremora, she made an Oscar worthy performance of looking like she was deeply moved by Ollivander’s concern and gave him a warm hug.
Thanking him for his concern and promising that she had not forgotten herself, and that Leon had become the rock that guided her purpose now.
After a few minutes more of mother chatting with Ollivander, in the name of gathering some intel.
Ollivander filled them in on what had happened, The-Boy-Who-Lived, and the general chaos that had subsided gradually after You-Know-Who’s defeat.
Leon’s ‘mother’ seemed like an absolutely perfect spy for gathering up to date information on the wizarding world.
She fell into the role of a mother that had only just returned to the Magical side of things with fear in her heart absolutely perfectly.
If Leon couldn’t sense her emotions and thoughts, he would believe it all from her performance.
“We must go now Mr.
Ollivander.” Mother said, “Need to go to the ministry to clear things up and get access to our family vaults.”
“Oh!
I almost forgot.
That’ll be 132 Galleons for everything.” Ollivander said sheepishly as they were about to head out the door.
They quickly settled their accounts, Leon’s wand safely strapped to his wrist via a wand holster that would adjust its size as he grew older.
The wand care kit tucked under his arm.
Wand care was quite easy.
Brush a few droplets of a specialized Alchemical oil on the wand, rub it all in with a dry rag once every 3 to 5 months.
And if you want to get super fancy, polish it with some beeswax every once in a while, to keep it nice and shiny.
Leon wasn’t about to waste time polishing his wand… Pause… just so that it looked shiny.
Anyway, the pair left Ollivander’s and headed for the streets of London once more.
Leaving Diagon Alley, returning to Charing Cross Road they headed south, past the Leicester Square Tube, then cut across Trafalgar Square before stepping onto Whitehall.
A grand sweeping avenue that serves as the heart of the British Muggle Government.
They moved through the street, Leon enjoying the touristic view until they came upon that almost iconic, rusted red telephone booth.
They slipped inside and Leon shoved a coin into the mechanism, while mother dialed the secret code 62442.
The was a mechanical *Click* that resounded throughout the booth, a pleasant-sounding voice welcomed them to the Ministry of Magic.
Then it felt like the floor fell out from underneath them as the telephone booth plummeted deep into the earth below.
Soon enough the telephone booth bottomed out with a heavy mechanical thunk, and the automated voice announced their arrival at the main atrium.
The doors slid open to reveal the bustling, gold-fitted atrium of the Ministry of Magic.
Leon barely pause to admire the Fountain of Magical Brethren.
The statue was a hideous thing in his eyes.
Guided by his ‘mother’ she makes a beeline straight to the lifts.
Honestly, Leon was not in the mood to dilly dally.
He wanted to return to Diagon Alley ASAP and get ahold of all those juicy textbooks on magic and magical theories.
Boarding one of the golden grates they rode it down to Level Two.
The home of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, where, they made their way past offices until they made it to a quite tucked away section behind the high-profile Auror offices.
There a nondescript sign was positioned over a door like any other.
The Department of Genealogical Affairs.
“This department holds the Master Ledger of British Bloodlines.
The Ledger is an artifact dating back to the times of Merlin.
Said to have been made by Merlin himself.
It keeps an accurate accounting of all wizarding families in Britian.” Mother explained as she grabbed the handle and pulled the door open, ushering Leon into a rather strange room.
The entire thing was rounded, with terraced steps going down to a circular patch of tiles that was maybe 20 feet across.
There, a woman who appeared to be in her thirties was seated at a desk just reading a paperback book as she leaned against a massive, opened book that occupied the entirety of the desk she was seated at.
And that was all that was in the room.
Aside from a couple of chairs in front of the desk.
‘Mother’ started the rather long march down the stairs with Leon in tow.
The woman at the desk noticed them when they reached the circular patch of tiles at the bottom and flinched, rapidly shoving the book in her hands under the desk and straightening her posture as they approached.
“Can I help you?” she asked as Leon and his ‘Mother’ approached the desk.
“Yes, yes, you can.
My name is Matilda McKinnon, and I would like to check on my familial status and register my son as the Heir for both the McKinnon and Prewett households if the option is available.” Mother spoke succinctly.
The woman looked absolutely stunned.
She was absolutely stunned.
She could go weeks without anyone visiting her office.
Usually the busiest times were when pureblood families were intermarrying and setting up some kind of complicated hereditary scheme, and even then it usually was a matter of a few hours of work.
At other times it was to register muggleborns that wished to establish a house, though those were extremely rare and only took a few minutes to register.
The book in front of her, the Master Ledger of British Bloodlines, basically did all the work, she just had to operate it.
But that wasn’t the reason why she was stunned.
She was stunned because Matilda was standing across from her… with a boy she claimed to be her son.
“Is that really you Matilda?” she asked, hesitation in her voice.
Mother smiled, “It’s me Mafalda.
Good to see you after so long.”
Mafalda jumped out of her seat and rounded the desk, practically tackling Matilda in a display of affection that nearly had Leon laughing.
This was the kind of reunion that you got to see in movies or books.
And Matilda or Mother, played along perfectly.
Apparently, they had been housemates at Hogwarts and good friends back in the day.
“How did you survive?
It all happened so fast, the Aurors said that most of the bodies were reduced to mist.
But that they had confirmed all of McKinnon’s were dead.” Mafalda asked after composing herself.
“It is a long story Mafa.
We can go over it all, but we are on a bit of schedule.
Maybe we can set up a time to meet up and chat about everything after we take care of business.” Mother said with a shake of her head.
“Ah, right.
What was it you said again… Oh!
I suppose he’d be Gideon’s boy… I don’t suppose that he somehow faked his death along with you, did he?” Mafalda asked.
“No, and I didn’t fake my death.
Just ran away and… didn’t come back.”
“Ok, you two just sit in the seats right there.” Mafalda gestured to the two seats obviously meant for visitors, “I’ll just work my magic, and we can have the paperwork sorted soon.”
What followed was nearly three hours of total bullshit in Leon’s humble opinion.
Sure the first fifteen minutes were productive.
Matilda had to magically sign, with her wand, a page on the massive book before them.
The book confirmed her identity within seconds.
Then, Leon had sign the book with a special quill that somehow drew his signature with his blood.
The blood signature sank into the pages which then morphed into two updated family tree’s showing his Genealogy on both sides of his family going back to the Merlinic Era.
With the geological record in place.
Mafalda retrieved a set of forms from under the desk and handed them over to mother while explaining what she needed to fill out and where everything needed to be signed.
She then proceeded to extract more paperwork from beneath the desk that she handed to Leon.
She explained in excruciating detail exactly what the forms were for and why he needed to fill them.
But basically, they were forms that he needed to file to take his rightful place in wizarding nobility.
Two Wizengamot seats.
And confirmation that he was entrusting those seats to his guardian until he came of age, because he couldn’t actually utilize those seats or sit in on the Wizengmot until he came of age.
If he didn’t file these, those seats would remain empty until he came of age.
Why couldn’t his mother take the Lordship McKinnon?
Because of the established rules, the previous head of the house had specified in his will that the Lordship would pass down to a male descendant.
Each house had its own traditions.
The Greengrass family for instance was Matrilineal only ever passing their Lordship title down to female heirs.
Out of all the Wizengamot members, something like a quarter were Matrilineal, half were Patrilineal, and the rest were dictated by each individual head of house through their wills or the current head decided who to pass their title to and stepped down.
But this paperwork could avoid all that and give his ‘guardian’ the authority to use his Lordship in his stead.
Leon was all too happy to leave to his minions.
He would like it if he never had to sit in one of those meetings ever.
All of that paperwork had really only taken up about 15 to 20 minutes.
The hours that they had spent at the ministry came from Mafalda actually submitting the paperwork in person and the resulting storm of various people who had known Leon’s mother or who saw an opportunity to make the ministry look good to the public.
That was the case with the Minister of Magic himself showing up to talk with Leon’s mother.
Though he did speed up the paperwork considerably, approving things without even reading the paper and trying to get Matilda to commit to an interview with a Daily Prophet reporter.
With most of the day completely wasted and gone after the whole Ministry thing took forever.
Leon and his mother finally managed to make it back to Gringotts with their paperwork in hand and have the Goblins give them access to their vaults.
Entering the McKinnon Vault after a frankly delightful roller-coaster ride, Leon assessed his newfound bounty.
Aside from a minor mountain of Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts.
There were racks of magical artifacts, tools, a collection of old wands, and a small bookshelf loaded with Grimoire’s written in languages long dead and forgotten.
Leon moved all of the books and magical artifacts into Coldharbour, along with nearly half the pile of Galleons.
Then headed out of the McKinnon Vault aiming for the Prewett Vault.
His plan with Prewett Vaults was to gift half of its monetary contents to the Weasley’s.
Why?
To establish ties and allies.
Though he would disguise the donation as merely him trying to make sure his aunt got her due as a dutiful nephew.
He wasn’t planning to start his world domination in full until the 2020s after all.
He needed to have a good relationship with people.
And really, after Plane Melding the Earth he wasn’t planning on doing anything with the population anyway.
Letting the planet continue to do its normal things would provide him with Billions of souls, and allow him to establish cults in his name based off of whatever domains he felt like at that point.
So for the next 20 to 30ish years he could easily build up a massive power base on the side of the ‘good guys’ while having his minions build up a powerbase in the darkness
Having a deadline so far into the future made it a lot easier to maneuver and it gave him a few more decades to unravel the mysteries of Magicka, alongside the mysteries of the HP worlds magic system.
At the moment, Leon had literally 0 idea on how to even execute a plane meld yet.
He might not even figure it out by the 20s.
It was definitely not a part of The Basics, that is for sure.
But who becomes the Father of Coldharbour and doesn’t immediately think of Plane Meld?
He might need to push his plans back even further in the future if didn’t know how to steal planet earth by the 20s anyways.
So, there was no reason to not develop a good reputation and have fun in the meanwhile.
The only thing that he really would not be able to hold himself back on was his vengeance against those damned Prophet worshippers.
He knew that he should just ignore them.
But he was definitely going to establish his own counter terrorist unit.
And by counter terrorist, he meant just establishing his own terrorist organization that would conduct their own attacks on all the nations that been overrun by their filth.
Leon took a sharp breath to calm himself as he reigned in the bloodlust that thinking about Muslims induced in him.
He knew that his hatred was irrational.
But he couldn’t bring himself to care that it wasn’t fully rational though.
Leon’s dangerous line of thought was interrupted as the Goblin cart came to a halt before the Prewett Vaults and he hopped out.
The vault was much the same as the McKinnon Vault.
Only it had more coin and fewer artifacts, and only one book, which was actually a diary.
A diary written by one Garreth Weasley.
The name Garreth Weasley tickled a memory in Leon’s mind but left him confused.
Why was it in the Prewett family vault?
If he remembered correctly, Garreth Weasley was in that Legacy game.
Not a Canon character.
“I’m in an AU?” Leon pondered for a moment before smacking himself, “Of course you are in an AU dumbass, just being here makes this world an AU.
My very presence will drastically alter the timeline, why assume that I am the only variable?
Stupid.
Stupid.”
“Master… are you okay?” his ‘mother’ asked from where she was organizing the coinage.
“I’m fine, just chastising myself for being an idiot is all.” He waved her off, “Since the McKinnon Estate was fully razed to the ground and incinerated by fiendfyre, we will be moving into the Prewett Estate.
Well, I will.
You will head back to the Muggle world to continue working on the internet plans.
Take advantage of my absence.
Have ‘father’ start a logistics company of his own.
Start expanding, buy trucks, warehouses, and set up full logistics network in England.
I want it up and running within the next six years.
You will continue studying, create your own coding company, and hire tech personnel, give them a weeklong company retreat every year.
I’ll convert them during the retreat and have us developing the cutting edge of Muggle tech within the next decade.
The gaming industry, animation, AI development, UIs, OSs, everything.
Technological development in the hands of Dremora will go faster than it ever did in my previous life.”
Dremora didn’t need to sleep, eat, or drink to remain active.
And they were driven by a singular purpose.
Whatever purpose he gave them.
Though, as he had seen with ‘Father’, some Dremora would not be as useful in certain fields as others.
Hiring and specifically converting coders, animators, IT professionals, and programmers would guarantee compatibility.
The same could be done with the logistics network.
A team of truckers that never got tired and perfectly obeyed traffic laws while obsessively maintaining their vehicles would be profitable beyond belief.
And he could expand even more.
Start more companies internationally, send promising employees on month long paid retreats where he could convert them and boom.
A massively scaling progressive takeover of technology worldwide.
The potential was staggering with a workforce as dedicated as his Dremora.
Leon’s inner evil overlord was cackling as he envisioned the future.
But was drawn out of his thoughts as he turned his attention to the Diary of Garreth Weasley.
He opened it and found that it was heavily annotated by writing that he could easily see was not Garreth’s.
He followed along with the annotations, specifically they seemed to follow along with Garreth’s later years at Hogwarts…
There were several notes and specific circling of key words.
But Leon didn’t know what the annotations were about.
It seemed coded.
Even the Diary itself seemed to have picked up a coded format around Garreth’s third year.
Leon frowned, unable to decipher the code in just a few minutes, he sent the Diary to a specific location in Coldharbour so that he could spend some time picking it apart when he had the time.
It seemed important for some reason.
Important enough that it had been locked away in the vault at Gringotts at least.
After assessing the contents of the vault and cleaning out the artifacts.
Leon and mother returned to the Goblin cart and soon found themselves back in the main reception area where Leon had mother get in line to carry out the plan.
Take half of the Prewett Vaults funds and transfer it to the Weasley’s.
Why not combine the Vaults and dissolve the Prewett house?
Well… Leon had his reasons.
Let’s just leave it at that for now.
After Mother had taken care of that trivial bit of business.
Leon penned a letter to the Weasley’s and paid to have the Goblins deliver it via their owls.
The letter was just a basic explanation and a request to meet at the Prewett estate at the family’s earliest convenience.
Once the letter was sent, Leon and Mother headed out into Diagon Alley where the sun had already dipped below the horizon.
Leon noticed that Mother seemed mildly frustrated as they made their way out of Diagon Alley to summon the Knight Bus to take them to the Prewett Estate.
“What’s the problem ‘Mother’?” Leon asked.
“I know that the Prewett’s had a house-elf… but I cannot seem to remember its name.
It’s at the tip of my tongue.
But for some reason I cannot recall.
It’s just frustrating.
If the Elf still lives, it would be so much faster to just have it take us to the estate itself.
I’m not good enough at Apparation to get us out there safely.
And even if I was.
The Estates Wards wouldn’t let me in anyways.” She explained.
Leon shrugged, it wasn’t a big deal.
And though he had been saying the Prewett Estate.
The Prewett’s had actually left four separate Homes/estates.
One of them, the one that they were going to, was in Godric’s Hollow.
It was essentially the family’s main house.
Though they had maintained a small private island just north of the coast of Scotland, castle in the Scottish Highlands, and a beach house on the Devon Coast for vacations.
The McKinnon holdings had been attacked all at once in a massive, coordinated effort by Death Eaters.
They had slaughtered every member of the house, all relatives, and had even found a few squibs who weren’t even living in the magical world.
The culling had been extremely thorough.
The fact that Leon’s mother had managed to slip under the radar was pure luck.
The McKinnon holdings were reduced to ashes, and now, all that remained were the land deeds themselves.
Leon figured that he could use the vacant properties from the McKinnon’s to set up hidden bases as time went on.
But for now, they would remain abandoned plots of overgrown land.
He also intended to get more specialized protections on the Prewett properties, like the Fidelius Charm.
Tough all of that was going to have to wait until he could cast those protections personally.
On top of that, he would use Daedric enchanting methods to ward the places as well, but without access to a steady supply of Black, or Grand souls, Leon was going to be limited to lower end enchantments.
The Basics had covered the Basics of literally everything in the Elder Scrolls universe, which included Dwemer engineering and their Tonal magics as well.
But even with all of that knowledge and all of that power at his fingertips.
Resources were an issue that he could not solve at the drop of a hat.
There was simply too much for a single person to do.
His minions would need to be taught everything, and learning curves were a thing.
Almost any plan that Leon set into motion would take at minimum a decade to bare fruit.
It was just the nature of the beast.
Boarding the Knight Bus was just like it had been depicted in the movies.
Although, as they boarded, another passenger slipped on board just before the conductor closed the doors.
The ride was… surprisingly unpleasant.
Leon had really enjoyed the Goblin Carts that were always mentioned to be hard on people.
But the Knight Bus’s weird spatial manipulations on top of its crazy maneuvering was overwhelming Leon’s senses in a way that really bothered him.
When they finally got off the Knight Bus, Leon swore to himself that he would never again take the damned thing unless it was an emergency and all other options were gone.
He was fairly certain that if he wasn’t so sensitive to spatial distortions and such that it would have been fun.
But that thing was a nightmare of constantly contorting and flickering spatial anomalies that pulled at his senses and left him with a pounding headache.
After recovering for a little while where the bus had deposited the pair.
Leon and his mother turned to the Prewett home.
The Prewett House was a two-story house.
Made of dark oak timber beams and coated in white plaster.
The roof was steeply pitched and looked like it was sagging in several places.
It was fenced off with a wrought iron fence that Leon could feel magic thrumming through, with a large gate that was positively briming with magic.
“Shall we?” Leon said, gesturing to the gate.
“Yes master.”
Moments later they were passing through the gates, which opened for them without fanfare.
The home had an eerie vibe to it.
Like, it looked almost perfect.
The walkway was pristine; the garden was trimmed and well manicured.
Yet the lack of lights from within the house, and an almost cutting silence that enveloped the courtyard area made the place feel strange.
Upon reaching the doorway Mother pulled out her wand and tapped the door three times.
The lock clicked and the door swung open into a dark hallway.
Her wand lit up a moment later, providing illumination as they entered Leon’s new abode.
Almost the second that they crossed the threshold, Leon felt a tiny ripple in space itself, focused on the area just in front of them.
He didn’t have time to react before there was a sharp *POP* and a house-elf appeared.
Kneeling on the ground, its hands raised in supplication and tears in all four of its eyes.
Yes, that’s right, four eyes.
Because this elf had two heads and a malformed body.
Conjoined twin house-elves.
Who knew that was a possibility?
“Gage!” Mother suddenly exclaimed, “Not that it does us any good master, but I finally remembered the elf’s name.”
“Only a third of our name mistress McKinnon!
Gasket is so happy to see you!” the elf said.
Leon wasn’t sure if he should be thinking of this creature as a singular or plural being.
“What do you mean by a third?” Leon asked.
The two elf heads snapped to Leon with worship in their eyes, “Young master Prewett!
This one is Gage!” the elf pointed at one of the heads, “and this one is Skillet!” they pointed at the other head, “But together we are Gasket!
Any time the master needs us for anything, just call for Gasket!
We’ll do our best!”
“Thank you for the explanation, Gasket.” Leon said, making up his mind that he could just think of the elf as a single individual.
Taking in the house-elf’s appearance fully, Leon noticed how odd the creature was beyond being a conjoined twin.
It was outfitted in a refined, scaly leather suit that clung to its shared torso, fastened tightly down the center by a neat row of gleaming brass buttons.
On its feet were matching pairs of polished brown boots, uncharacteristically sturdy for an elf.
The symmetry of the two heads was striking; each wore a single glass monocle over its outer eye, glinting in the light, while a series of heavy brass studs lined the rims of their large, bat-like ears.
Almost everything about the elf’s getup was entirely contrary to what Leon pictured elves wearing.
In his mind, they belonged in drab, dreary rags, stained pillowcases, or cobbled-together outfits.
Gasket’s fit was different.
It looked like a steampunk butler.
Despite its tiny size and conjoined condition, the creature wasn’t scrawny or malnourished.
It looked fairly scrappy.
“Would you mind lighting up the house and preparing dinner for us Gasket?
Also, I would like to know about any artifacts, books, or anything special that is stored here or in the other residences.” Leon said.
“Right away sir!
Gasket will start right away sir!
Any preferences for dinner sir?” Gasket asked, its eyes locked onto Leon like it was afraid he wouldn’t answer.
Leon shrugged, “If you could get some sushi volcano rolls that would be fantastic.
If not, a nice steak burrito wouldn’t go amiss.
Pinto beans, brown rice, mild sauce, some sour cream and cheese.” Leon figured being specific would be appreciated by the little elf.
The house elf had a huge smile on its faces, “Right away sir!” it cried and snapped its fingers.
Vanishing with an exuberance that brought a smile to Leon’s face.
“I think we should look into getting more House-Elves.” Leon said, turning to Mother, “Creatures that revel in being dominated and enslaved?
They are tailor made for my domain.
Don’t even need to convert them to have their undying loyalty.”
“They are indeed superior to humans in every way.” Mother nodded, “In fact, with their help, we could probably accelerate the capture and conversion of high value assets like coders and programmers.
Magical protections are almost always designed to allow House-elves to go about their business unimpeded.
And they are so docile that Wizards hardly even imagine that they could do anything hostile… But they are expensive.
As in, multiple thousands of Galleons to purchase them from the breeders.
And almost no one would give up their house-elves.”
Leon raised an eyebrow at that, “Breeders?” he asked.
Mother nodded, “The Malfoy’s own the rights to House-elf breeding across all of Europe.
It is why they are so wealthy.
Any house elf in Europe that produces offspring is obligated by contract to give their offspring to the Malfoy’s for training and selling.
Technically they are not actually breeding them.
But that is what it is called.”
Leon had always wondered how the Malfoy’s were so rich.
He didn’t recall from the books, but now that he realized that he was in an AU he knew that basically all the little details he remembered were probably questionable at best anyway.
“Alright.” Leon said as he turned his attention to the house, “Time to start uncovering all of the assets.”