pre-hogwarts 1

Looking outside, at the snow-filled land, I couldn't believe it was already Christmas 1990. In three months, it would be two years since we had constructed the house.

While the exterior was looking like an old building, the interior was futurist for the time, not only for the technological devices but also the refined decoration. The walls were cream colour while the flooring a deep earthly taupe, with thick carpet and comfy couch lined in woven cotton and Acromentula silk fabric.

During those near two years, I had spared no effort into creating devices, so much that the house was nearly autonomous and required it host only with changing sheet on the bed and fill the pantry.

The elves had been somewhat put out of this emancipation, but the time gain for this allowed them to concentrate on more important task fully. Cooking with the programmed cooking robot was ridiculously easy and allowed me more time too when I don't feel like cooking.

~~~

The house wasn't the only one to submit a change, my body too. With the nutritious food of the land, I had shown a ridiculous growth spurt, so much that my ten-year-old body was the one of a thirteen-year-old one.

It was one of the reasons that I had vanished from the mundane world; my maturation was just abnormal and would have raised too much question.

So, rather than going to school like an average child, I had stayed in the land, going through a ridiculous amount of books thank my broken ability.

I had found this side of my power by change. While I knew that I retain all knowledge gain through my craft magic, I didn't realise though that it would apply to knowledge! Now, all wasn't transferable; it could only be used to specify and defined disciplines, like chemistry, runes, maths and the like.

The result? I could use pre-existing knowledge to run simulations. Even without knowing myself all component of the material I was using, my magic does, sort off, a little like archive magic now that I think about it. That way, I had run a potion creation simulation from the absorbed elements.

It had been fascinating to see how the different magic and natural component react to each other, what was the result and how it affect the end result.

From a difficult discipline, potion turns into simple cooking. Even if only the simulation was perfect, all I need was to practice my brewing skill up to perfection. I could easily target the exact part of the ingredients required, eliminating a significant amount of superflux addition and obtain purer results.

It turned the same with runes. All I had first need was to draw perfect replica through the use of a 'Lumos' and absorb them before they vanish. As the light rune was made of magic itself, it also contains its magical meaning.

This was perfectly highlighting the saying that the limit of the DF was the users, as all I was doing could be categorised as 'craft'.

~~~

Far from any civilisation, time seems to have lost its meaning for Alex. The life on the island was simply perfect for him and the elves. With no one to judge you or expect something from you, they have been blooming.

Through the years, projects were created, continued or achieved, and changes happen. One of those changes had been a slight reworking of the house-elves task.

Thunder was still working with his barn and the magical creatures.

Summer had taken over the harvest work, after her return.

Autumn, free from any duty, was the assistant of Alex and the elf to go when help was needed.

Winter had been made librarian, separating her time between hunting for books, and looking over the library.

Spring had been made accountant, all the finance and business of clan was his to deal with.

And finally, Ash had taken over the magical development, and he would pass his day looking through the forest, harvesting magical and mundane ingredients from the forest and made sure that everything was running smoothly. Other than that, he was also responsible for the 'Ash project'.

~~~

The project was concerning the seed bathed in the poison. After months of trial before he access to simulation, they had been able to grow a group of twenty-five trees. Those particular trees were nothing like the other.

After been successfully germinated, those saplings weren't Ash trees anymore. The poison had completely rework the tree genome. The new tree had a dark grey bark, similar to oxidised silver. The wood on itself was the same as one of the roots, mithril wood, and their leaves made of pure mithril.

At one-year-old, the trees were still small, barely a meter high, but were giving their first harvest of leaves when autumn came.

As they require soil rich in iron, the best being on iron veins, and few other minerals, they had been planted on the mountain where the soil was rich from the volcanoes activities.

~~~

Other than those trees, they have been able to grow the cocoa and tea trees and were on the second harvest. With that much cocoa, summer had been able to process them into chocolate, through Alex crafted machines; they were also accumulating tea leaves, which were dried and stored.

With the chocolate, cookies had been added on the list of available product. As it falls under her duties, Autumn and Summer had been cooking and perfecting recipes along with Alex. Due to their success, they had been approached several times by industrial wanting to poach the recipe. That had been the last straw, and now, they only practice home deliveries with a closed list of customers and limited order.

~~~

Being free of any distraction that the land represents, Alex has been focusing on his studies. This had led him to operate another massive change. He had entirely swapped the library to another location.

The construction of the library had been an excellent opportunity for Alex. Not only he had been able to use his craft magic, but it had also needed a significant amount of study on his part. The fact to have a precise aim to them had been a great motivation.

He had first sent Winter to stones quarries to collect scraped stones. From the different samples, he chose a light grey sandstone. Due to his particular ability, he obtains other slabs of rock with variant colour shame. While the rest was stored for possible future use, he had started to construct the building.

The construction had needed him to study architecture as he was unwilling to use a single block and crave it. By mixing the magical method of construction with mundane expertise, he had only needed four days to raise the building with Winter help.

He didn't use expansion charms for two reasons. First, the available space on the island, but it was the second, which was more important, the future. As he knows he would go to one piece, and didn't know if Ward, enchantments and the like running on ambient magic would still hold, he was unwilling to construct and enchants something until he found a means to harvest and store magic, magical being exudes.

More so if he can found a way to take the island with him. If he does, the Ward surrounding the island will fall, without the support of magic, and his reserve wouldn't hold for more than a few seconds before being drained dry.

~~~

The shelves of the library had been used and modified to fit into the new place. Each discipline had now its chamber while the hall in between the two sides would be used as a reading place.

The building was made of only two floors, the first for mundane and the second about the magical world.

Instead of torches, he had created magical lightbulbs. With a diamond envelope, crafted crystals which would float inside. Those bulbs had been simple. The crystals were crafted like a phosphorescent gem with a 'concentration' cluster to up the light given and a 'gathering' one for absorbing a larger amount of daylight. A 'link' was on each crystal and a 'gravity-suppression' on the inside layer of the bubble, making them float, the external one with a 'resonance' rune.

A second rune was added on a dial at shoulder high on the wall. In turning the dial, he would select the number of crystal activated and light level.

Winter had been excited at her new place. With chamber per subject, browsing the content would be simpler. With window, the site wouldn't give the impression of oppression anymore.

As he wasn't going to let anyone visit the island without trusting them, he didn't bother with Wards.

~~~

After emptying the library, he turned it into a Vault. Galleons, Sickles and Knuts had been piled into high columns on three different places, along with a crate of armour, rack of weapons, chests of gemstones, piles of ingots or cabinets with potions ingredients.

As the personal Vaults in the offices became obsolete, he deconstructs them, gaining a further understanding of space folding and space extension. With the bare bones learn, all was left was running simulation with different runes system to discovers with one was better suited.

~~~

While he had started alone, Alex had seen two new companions enter his life, Frost, a kitten kneazle and Cloudrider, a foal Hippogriff. After bounding with the two, he added and carved them in a life-like version on his bracelets. Playing on the lower branches of the tree was Frost, strands of its fur had been used to simulate his fur on the carving. The second was Cloudrider, the Hippogriff, flying around.

Both share a particular feature, their white coat. Frost was part of the largest group of kneazles leaving on the land. Due to the crops, a large number of rodents could be found, and the clan had long since introduced kneazles to hunt them.

As the groups mingle with each other in mating season, they keep the blood pure while avoiding consanguinity. As an intelligent creature, they had regulated their population on their own, keeping their numbers relatively low, thus able to eat to their full.

Frost was the runt of the first litter he assisted. Rather than leave it to die without given a chance, he had taken it with him, nursing it as he could. Thankfully, the mundane world had far better knowledge of those things than the magical one. While it was kneazle, the kitten wasn't different from an average cat at this time.

With the help of a vet, he learns enough to take care of it. With proper care, the little fellow turned into a real monster.

Being now two years old, he was the biggest of all kneazles of the land, and never return to the pack.

Cloudrider was a little different, being already born when he arrived, it had been the first to approach Alex while still a foal. With the passing of the years, the two had formed a close relationship, to the point that the prideful creature would always approach Alex when he came.

It had made Thunder ecstatic, and the little elf had taught everything he could to them. Seeing another pair of hunters after all those years had brought the little fellow to tears until Winter rubbed it on his face that Alex had first created a library.

That had fuelled another of the legendary spat between the two elves, for the shame of the four others.

~~~

With now part of two XXX creatures into his bracelet and enough mastery on his magic, he would need to found XXXX creatures part to integrate to his bracelet, other than the snake.

While he was going through Care of Magical Creatures textbooks, he had from his mother, scribing down the one he knows he would encounter in his first year he would be able to add.

"So, Troll, Unicorn, Phoenix, centaur, and merpeople for XXXX, for the XXXXX one there the dragons, acromentulas, Basilisk, and perhaps Werewolf, if Remus appears in the third year, I should be able to snag a bone or two..."

-You do know that you have Acromentulas here, right?-

'True, but I want a part of a creature who I share a particular link with. I killed the snake, Frost and Cloudrider I share a bond with. From the amount there at Hogwarts, it wouldn't be difficult to hunt one, and if a centaur show itself and attack me, then, I not without taking care of it.'

-How about visiting the dwelling, then? You had finished the book since long ago, heck, you even absorbed the extracted memories for their metalwork. The dwelling will have smithies their; you could perhaps found a hidden treasure. That ' primal amber' there refers to could be the solution of several of your problem.-

'...!'

CS words rang true to Alex. After emptying the raided dwelling, he had never put a foot back there. Knowing the history of that clan, he know CS was right, they were bound to possess large smithies their.

"Autumn."

Hearing her master call', the young elf draped in a fur uniform to fight against the cold pop-in.

"Master need Autumn?"

"Yes, could you bring me to the dwelling in Surrey, please?"

She says nothing but tends her hand before the two vanish from the land.

~~~

As Alex had control of the Wards, she was able to pop them directly in the main cave, where he found the house, gold and corpses. Giving the elf a light nod, she pops away, ready to return when he would be finished.

Passing the still present skeletons, he frowns for a second, before snapping his finger. Every skeleton in a radius of a meter and twenty gradually turn into dust, before reforming into 25*25*25 centimetre bones cubes.

This was another side of his power, a sort of bubble-like the Ope Ope no Mi, but invisible, where he could use his power freely. The range depends on his longest limb, and as his tail was nearly as tall him, he had a further reach than his arms would have allowed.

Linked to him, he was also able to store everything in this bubble, other than a living organism.

~~~

Feeling the sudden change of his subconscious, he closes his eyes for a second, before saying.

"CS, status, please."

-Coming.-

Just as he finished, the translucent window opens before his eyes.

[Name: Alexander Evans]

[Age: 10]

[Race: Evans]

[Magic power: 186]

Skill:

[Pocket space:Lv4 00.56%]; [Frost: Lv1 18.16%]

Ability:

[craft magic]; [Evans form]

'As I thought, my pocket space had expanded and level up... wait, what are those change, what going on CS, I though the HP hadn't power level?'

-It's doesn't, but from the amount of magical theory, your experiment on first-years spells on the past year, I was able to draw a rough system to give a quantitative to your reserve. The 116 represent your total capacity. Based on your mastery of the Lumos charms, I was able to calibrate a magical value, where 1 would be the constant use of a Lumos spell for an hour at its weakest output. For what I had observed, first years spells and minor jinxes require between 7 and 9 MP. This is a base for 'wandless' magic.

Your magical index is so huge because of your constant control exercise and use of magic. In your actual state, you could throw around twenty of such spells before needing rest. Of course, spell with higher requirements are possible, but mastery of spell reduce the cost, so better made your way slowly, useless you really need them.-

'Well, it always good to know where I stand. What about 'Frost', I don't remember using it.'

-It through passive use, by exposing your body to the cold, you slowly build a better immunity to cold, it won't get past Lv1 passively, but at that time, you could run naked in the snow for hours and don't get frostbites, at Lv10 I doubts that even that admiral ice cube would turn you into an ice sculpture, but you're far from it, so don't dream.-

'Well have a natural resistance against one admiral is always a bonus.'

Focusing on his first skill, he obtains further info.

{[Pocket space: A separate area accessible to you uniquely. Lv4: 16*16*16 space available for storage.

Ability: time (stopped-flow; x1), chamber (x2)

Restriction: living being.]}

'... Does it mean what I think it means?'

-Yep.- Smugly say CS, rolling the P. -It simple you have a limit of 16 meters on tri-dimensional sides, the ability to separate it into as you see fit and be able to apply a time stop on one of them.

You gain another chamber and time ability, on each Lv gain, so work hard!-

~~~

Alex stays dazed for a second before he snaps back and remembers why he was there in the first place. Storing rapidly all the transmuted bones, as well as the coffin and marble of the belvedere, he starts to roam the cavern, searching for other entry.

Thankfully, the place was sufficiently lighted to found it easily. Passing the natural opening linking what was, in fact, a chain of caverns of different dimensions, he froze at the sight open in front of his eyes.

-Now we know why those fucker were here, still to think that such a thing exists here *whistle*. If mundane were to see, it would be chaos.-

'Try a war rather. Do you see the length of this vein?!'

What they had in front of them was a sight he would have through only possible in fantasy movies or books.

The cavern was the largest he had ever seen, easily able to house dozen of a large stadium. A rail circuit links the two group of four enormous blast furnaces, for the carts delivering the mined ores, through a system of chains to bring and empty them in.

A fleeting thought couldn't help but register that there were disturbingly similar to one of the dwarves under Erebor. But what was accaparing all his attention was the literal glittering river of gold and silver ore running on the far wall, into the abyss beneath. More than just metal, he could quickly make the large gemstones half revelled underneath the layer of rock.

-You think Tolkien had seen it and used it in his book?- Asked CS also choked, half-jokingly.

'I don't know,' say the lost boy in front of such wealth, ' but I know they were robber, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that this dwelling wasn't them, to begin with, but can you imagine what lays beneath Gringotts, if they had so many clans reunited there?'

The simple question silenced the two for a few minutes, while they were trying to take the measure of what they were looking at.

~~~

It was CS that broke Alex out of his state when the boy mindlessly sweeps the cave under his eyes.

-Alex, look!- The sudden cry jolted him back. -Look in the middle of the blasting furnaces.-

Bearing his gaze there, he fails to register for a second, before his eyes widen. Breaking a sprint, he morphs a few step later to gain more speed. Crossing the distance in a record time, he stood in front of a five-meter high thick column littered with runes. Looking at the base, he could see four pipes linking to each of the surrounding furnaces.

A wild grin broke on his face at sight. As blocks of rock appear and transmute into stair circling the column, he rapidly made to the top. There lay his prize, the aim of his coming here.

Embedded half-way in the top lay a blazing uncut ruby the size of a basketball, pulsing with power.

'The primal amber, it's still active.' Giddily though Alex. He extends his hand for a second, before stopping on his track and gives a quick glimpse to the other group. He quickly made the second pulsing ruby at the top, and sigh in relief that he didn't nearly burn all his chance before making sure that he had a spare.

Cooled down, he rapidly climb-down, separate the four furnaces link before deconstruct and absorb the tower.

The backlash of the enormous amount of energy contained in the gemstone and the sheer amount of knowledge drilling his way in his brain gives him an excursing headache before he lost consciousness.

Thank his last-minute forethought, he only crumbles on the floor, rather than fall from the high.

Once he made sure that Alex was alright, CS actively use the boost of energy and aim it toward the absorption of the enormous cluster that had been inscribed on the tower. Burning through an absurd amount of powers, the cluster was digested in a matter of merely three hours for what could have been months, perhaps years of simulation work.

Other than the knowledge brought by the cluster, Alex was gifted with a massive expansion on Dwarven and elder futhark runes understanding, that few living being still possesses.

~~~

Working only after the last dregs of energy utilised and knowledge securely stored, Alex growls painfully at the killer headache.

'I fucked up, right?'

-Yes, and no. You would have to go through it either way, but you lucked on the fact that the amber helped fed the process. It would have taken you at least months of simulations and need your entire focus on the task until done.-

'SO better be a rapid but head-crushing headache that a long wait?'

-Yep!- Smirked CS, before turning serious. -Does it was what we hoped for?-

Alex didn't respond directly, going through the new knowledge to know first, before a victorious smile slowly emerges on his face. 'Thankfully, yes. I can't help but be awed by the marvel it was, while crude, they were able to draw a cluster, able to dry volcanoes to imprison their energy in a gemstone the size of a basketball, to then use it for feeding their furnace and smelt ores. With the schema in my head, we will be able to harness ambient magic in carved stone and integrate them into the cluster. Even if we bring the island in one piece, I would be able to create magic stone to fed the wards. I would be able to easily reverse-engineering the cluster to use other sources. With the vitality of sea kings, the island would be easily protected. Better test them before through. Once we're back, I will craft a prototype and put them in Diagon Alley, the amount of magic released by the wards and the peoples would be a good test.'

-Better, if it works, you would be able to let them feed on the leaking magic of the wards and aminals present to for a loop!-

'While they would still use magic to be maintained, but yes, that way they would be emptied more slowly. The house would also be able to run on them to support the various enchantments I want to implement.'

~~~

In the following months, Alex would pop in the dwelling for three hours every day, where he would excavate literal tons of rock, ores and gemstones. With the help of Autumn, they would make the furnace work round the clockwork.

Each of the four would spill kilos of molten gold, silver, iron, copper, and trace of other metals present in the rocks. From the transmuted cast, Alex would return every day with stacks of 25*10*10 ingots waiting for him.

From the exploitation of the vein, the Vault would see a stable expansion of its number of ingots. To free some space, he would also transmute Galleons, Sickles and Knuts back into ingots, after breaking the enchantments present on them. While the sight of mounts of golden, silver and copper coins was atheistically pleasing to the eyes, space-wise, the ingot was best.

When he saw the number of ingots present in his Vaults, it was clear to Alex that the majority of gold in the world was hidden for the mundane, otherwise, how could the fortune of the Potter, estimated a 68,065,985G be that vast when one knows that a Galleon was equal to 1/4 Oz. With just that amount of gold, they had already 25m3, and the Evans clan had amassed Galleons for the last millennium, before Sigurd rob the Goblin, and Alex start to farm the vein, it could be safe to say that he was the wealthiest person on the globe.