Hello everyone!
As promised, we reached the Power Stone goal!
I think we even managed it within an hour, so here’s your bonus chapter.
Hope you enjoy!
I’ll also be releasing one regular chapter a day for the rest of this week.
Next Wednesday will be the only day without a regular chapter, so we’ll still be sticking to 6 regular chapters a week, plus up to 3 bonus chapters if we hit the goals.
Now on to what you all want to see: Chapter 11 The inside of the bank reminded me a lot of the scene from the Philosopher’s Stone, goblins sitting on both sides of the aisle working.
They did not look up at the customers passing them by.
There were two lines of customers at the end of the hall each leading up to a desk with a goblin.
The lines seemed to move efficiently; each customer that reached the desk was promptly escorted away to the left gate by a goblin so the next could be helped.
When we reached the desk my mum simply said: “I would like to see my vault please.” Then, without a prompt from the goblin, she slid her key towards the goblin.
He inspected it a moment before signalling to a goblin to come help us.
He handed the key back to my mother and we were escorted away through a large gate toward the underground cart system.
I felt the excitement rise again as we entered the cart.
“I really hope I get to see the dragon.” I knew it was unlikely.
The Walkers were not an old family and were unlikely to have a vault in the deeper levels.
My mum seemed to notice my excitement, her intuition showing itself, she said nothing though just smiling to herself.
The cart started rolling and deeper we went.
Unfortunately I did not in fact get to see the dragon, but it was a fun ride anyway.
My body seemed to instinctively recognise the thrill of a roller coaster, something nearly every child seems to enjoy.
The cart screeched to a stop in front of our vault and we got out.
The goblin turned to my mum.
“Key please.” My mum handed him the key, he inserted the key and turned it a full 360 degrees and the vault door slowly swung open.
The vault contained a frankly surprising amount of gold.
I turned to my mum and asked: “How much is there?” She answered as she entered the vault filling a bag that she brought that seemed to have an extension charm on it.
“The last statement listed just under seventy thousand Galleons, which is about the equivalent of £190 000.” A good sum for sure.
Enough for a single person to live off the interest in many places in the world at the time.
Not enough for two people living in London though, at least not forever.
My mum seemed to understand what I was thinking.
“I will have to go back to work eventually.
Now that the wizarding world is safer again.” I did not answer, being home all the time had to be a bit boring.
My mum now finished scooping up Galleons and walked out of the vault and the goblin closed the vault behind her.
When we left Gringotts I longingly looked towards Ollivanders.
Me and mum had discussed me getting a wand early, bouncing ideas off each other about perks and downsides.
I had my theory about wandmagic getting in the way of wandless magic.
This theory was supported by how hard my mum was having it, even learning a basic Accio.
We had decided to have her focus on that spell in case she was ever disarmed, but had so been met with very little progress.
I had tried teaching her even using emotion based techniques, but so far the best she had gotten was to consistently get her wand to twitch.
This had led to us both agreeing that getting a wand right now was too early, my wandless magic still had room to grow.
I knew my channels from my trait would settle at age seven then I would likely no longer need to worry about a focus stopping my continued advancement in wandless magic.
I turned away from Ollivanders with a sigh, my mum calmly waited for me with a knowing glint in her eyes.
We went to the apothecary first to get ingredients for the ritual I would later perform.
Only a few of the things I needed were expensive all in all, not setting us back more than 65 galleons.
After that we first went to Flourish and Blotts to try to find more books on magic, books we did not have at home.
Transfiguration, Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts and more.
Unfortunately we knew from Alastor that books on Occlumency were not sold after a ministry ban many years back.
People still owned them but it was kind of an open secret.
I had tried to just ask Alastor to help train me since he knew it, but except for a few exercises he was not that much help.
He learned it through those exercises and then having an experienced Legilimens do the heavy lifting of the learning.
He described it as: step one: The Legilimens would make his presence known clearly in your mind until you could feel it.
Once you noticed his presence he would gradually make his presence harder and harder to notice until you always knew when someone was present in your mind.
Following that the Legilimens would start the attacks where you should defend yourself.
Weak attacks then strong attacks then subtle attacks then strong attack, then precise strong attack.
That kind of teacher was only available to Aurors or people with serious money.
Since the Legilimens did all the heavy lifting, what he knew was not that much of help for me beyond: “clearing your mind, building a mind palace.” So books would have been the next step for me and my mum.
We entered the shop and I was again thrown by the fact that I was in a magical world, a semi-large floor just with books on magic.
“What could be learned just from reading these?” In my old life I had always loved bookshops.
That feeling of all those different lives waiting for you to pick them up.
This place was of course in a completely different league containing not only stories but hundreds and hundreds of different books on magic.
We browsed around for a long time filling up on all areas that interested either of us and the books at home did not cover.
The bill came due at 229 Galleons for all 42 books we picked up.
“Thank God for magic.” I thought as my mum put all those books inside a small bag, before effortlessly swinging the bag over her shoulder.
Our next stop did not fill me with wonder, not because it was not a unique place, but because of the goal of the stop.
To pick a sacrifice.
The Magical Menagerie was a lively place as we entered you could hear many different animal noises despite there clearly being some spells active to limit the sound.
There were cages along the isles through the store with different areas for different species.
Puffskeins, Kneazles, Cats, Toads, Rabbits, Snakes and perhaps 10 more species.
As we walked through the store I got more and more uncomfortable.
I’d better decide quickly before I chicken out.
I tried to psych myself up by thinking about my mum being in danger.
Then my thoughts shifted to Alastor.
Suddenly little Tonks sneaked her way into my thoughts, and that is what truly made me settle.
The thought of that little girl being in danger while I stood powerless to protect her—my first friend—made the guilt of choosing an animal for the sacrifice lessen to a manageable degree.
I went straight past the cats and Kneazles, I absolutely refused to pick anything that was even remotely resembling a cat.
In my last life every single pet I ever had had been cats, I had loved every single one from the day we got them to the day they sadly passed.
I idly thought about my last pet, Asterix, a Norwegian Forest Cat mixed with regular domestic cat heritage.
He had still been alive when I had died, I hope he was doing well.
I shook my head trying to clear my thoughts and stopped before the snakes.
I pulled up the quest again: “Quest issued: Sacrifice for power – Conduct a ritual using a sacrifice.
Reward: 1.
EXP.
2.
+3 Spirit.
3.
+3 Magic.
4.
Unknown.
(Depends on the sacrifice you choose).” I nodded to myself, my theory of the fourth reward clear in my head.
An employee spotted us looking at the snakes and hurried over looking happy.
“Can I help you at all?” Addressing both me and my mother, his eyes going between us.
As my mum’s response was just to look at me with a neutral expression the man’s eyes also settled on me.
“Yes please.
Do you happen to sell any magical snakes?” I asked, turning towards the different terrariums along the wall, missing the man’s nod.
“A few, none of them purebred magical snakes though, unfortunately.
But we do have some mixes between a magical parent and non-magical ones.
He walked over to one of the terrariums and gestured toward the snake that was curled around a branch inside.
“This one is a mix between an Ashwinder and a Russell’s Viper.” The snake was around a meter long, with ash grey scales and red eyes.
The man then turned toward another terrarium, pointing inside and continued: “Now this one is even rarer.
A Runespoor mixed with Black Mamba.
An extremely venomous and dangerous combination.
We had to ward the Terrarium to stop a potential escape.” The snake inside was looking out through the glass toward us, its body coiled.
Most of its scales were a deep matte black, but streaks of vivid orange ran down its body like molten veins.
It was larger than the other, almost twice the size.
The most distinctive feature though was that it had three heads.
As I got closer it hissed toward me showing its teeth despite me being behind glass.
“Mum, this one.” I said.
Turning toward her.
She looked at me, then at the snake, and then back at me before nodding.
The attendant looked very pleased.
“That will be 240 galleons.
The snake is the only one we know of its type.
I found it as an egg while travelling, a truly rare find.
Its venom has magical properties.
Do you need a Terrarium or food for it?” He said with a big smile.
I winced slightly at the price, but my mum didn’t react at all.
“No, just a box to transport it in.
We have a Terrarium at home and food left in the freezer.” My mum lied smoothly, impressing me.
When we got home we went straight to the cellar and prepared the ritual.
Putting the warded box with the snake down at the side for now.
After we carefully finished all preparations for the simple empowering ritual.
I took up a pen and paper and looked toward my mother with a solemn nod carefully writing down.
The lines not to cross in the pursuit of power: 1.
Killing or harming innocent people no matter the power it will give, unless it is in self defence or to defend a loved one.
“I won’t prioritise saving someone that is for example under the Imperious curse if it means danger to me, or someone I love.
But if I can safely neutralize them without doing so, great” Letting an innocent die because it makes things easier for me.
Only as a last resort.
“Hopefully never again, Lily and James” Punishing someone in a way that is not fitting of what they have done.
Punishing people based on things they have not done yet, or only based on my knowledge from canon.
After finishing the list I looked at my mother again.
“I promise to live by these rules.
They are the lines I won’t cross even to grow stronger.” As I said those words I set the paper on fire.
“not leaving that type of information lying around…” My mum seemed satisfied I kept my promise even without knowing what I had written down.
She truly trusted me.
After keeping my promise I carefully cut into my finger spilling a few drops into a bowl with ingredients that I placed inside the ritual circle.
Then, very carefully opened the box with the snake.
One head repeatedly struck toward me.
Another hissed continuously.
The third remained eerily still.
All this despite the snake having all its three heads covered carefully with cloth-bags.
The shopkeeper had helped us with this so that we could safely transfer it to a Terrarium.
I caught it with my magic, having been prepared that it would be harder than an animated object.
It was harder than lifting over 50 kilos for me to hold the snake.
Not only did it use more magic but also took a big strain on my mind.
Nonetheless I held it firm as I entered the ritual circle with the snake floating in front of me, the bags still over its head and a knife in the other hand.
After I entered with the snake the candle flames rose slightly.
I looked at the snake and mentally thought: “I’m sorry for this, but it won’t be the last bad thing I do to get the power I need.” I forced my hands to stop shaking and cut into the snake from where the three heads grew into the body all the way to the end of its tail, bleeding it into the bowl.
The action caused the flames of the candles to rise even higher.
I then took the bowl from the ground and drank deeply.
After I finished it all nothing happened for a few seconds, then pain flared in my chest and I passed out in seconds.