Chapter 3: Entering The Shack.

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Few Days Later…..

Sweat dripped down the side of his face, but Gale kept on smiling. In the back, Aberforth watched in astonishment as the hardworking lad before him sped washed the dishes with much elegance.

There were many reasons he didn't bother cleaning. He didn't care for cleanliness, he was too lazy, and nobody complained, but the seriousness Gale possessed was something he hadn't seen in a while.

Stopping for a moment, Aberforth watched as the youngster displayed his youthfulness, sponge, and soap a blur. The constant noise of scrubbing and water flowing was very much different from previous times, which were all filled with solitude and isolation.

Grudgingly, the middle Dumbeldore brother accepted the fact that this could become regular in the future. It wasn't like he was that antisocial.

Leaving the room, Aberforth went back to attending to the rest of the customers, the door slamming to a shut behind him.

Meanwhile, as he washed the dishes, Gale was deep in thought. It was easy to get lost in thought while doing the dishes. Especially in a small place like this. There was something almost idyllic about the constant swishing and soft scraping.

The only problem was that he was using up a lot of soap. Mostly because the dishes had become extremely oily and grimy over the years. Yes, years. It had been a drag to sort through.

As his roughed calloused hands whirled about with the sponge, covered in white foam, Gale was thinking about the cards.

"The cards have fallen…." He muttered. From the little information he had, Gale could surmise a few things. For one, his transmigration, or whatever it was, had been planned through…. By someone. Though, right now, he was in the dark.

Whatever being had sent him here, had taken into consideration the threat of mind-reading, and had done something about it. Gale wasn't sure what it was, because he couldn't tell.

Whatever these cards were, they were most likely not common… As for whether others could see them? Gale doubted it. He was mostly sure that the cards were reserved for only himself, and possibly….. Others. Why was this? Intuition.

[Really think we'd bring you, friends? You're all alone. Heh. So, nothing much has changed.]

Gale read through this and sighed. Both in relief, and sadness. The relief was that there wasn't any retarded chuunibyou who had transmigrated alongside him or some psychotic murderer. It was honestly a trope that he wasn't a fan of.

The sadness? Why did the dumb line of text have to be so mean? True, he barely had anyone he could call a friend, but that was only because he looked like a cliche macho delinquent who dyed his hair. No one believed him when he said that he swam a lot. Bunch of jerks.

[I'm not dumb. You are dumb. You don't understand anything. Dumb idiot.]

Another thing that Gale found, besides the jerk status of that "dumb line of text", was that it could read his mind. Extremely fun.

Putting that aside, he had made much progress with the Ten Rings. He could now control them somewhat better, which was nice. Gale could use them as whips (Mostly hitting himself.), "fly" (Extremely awkwardly), and shoot the rings out….. Efficiently?

Sort of? Though, Gale felt that it was the rings doing most of the work. It was sort of creepy honestly. They shifted and acted in line with his instincts sometimes.

He wasn't a prodigy, like Shang-Chi, who learned that crap in like a day.

But Gale would say that he did well for a complete novice. Might have helped that he was indeed good at street fighting. It was easy to him though, with his strength and good instincts, beating people up was easy. Not that he did it much. Gale was an average student.

Scouring through Hogsmeade, he hadn't found a single card. Nothing much interesting happened besides him somewhat cleaning up the sitting room upstairs. It was hard work, but rewarding. Gale always felt like his calling was a janitor. Maybe because he was a germaphobic though…..

If he were to guess, some optimal locations for cards would mostly be in Hogwarts or the Shrieking Shack. While he knew that the Shack wasn't haunted, there was still some unease to it. A creepy, rotting old shack abandoned long ago…. Just sitting there on that old hill. Waiting…

Or he was just feeling the effects of reading too many horror novels.

Every single day felt agonizingly slow, which gave Gale conflicting emotions. For one, he loved every minute of Hogsmeade and the Hog's Head. That old Victorian vibe and the rustic Medieval charm, not to mention magic…. But a few major threats loomed above… And he wanted them to pass by quickly.

Maybe Gale could even stop some of them from happening. It wasn't like he had a hero complex or anything. Just didn't want people to die. Especially himself.

And helping others was fun. It was a surefire way to subtly brag without much complaining. Gale was a show-off. He liked showing off at times. With lots of style too. And he felt showing off could be very funny. At least in his opinion.

With the Ten Rings, Gale's confidence had risen a lot. Many physical situations could be solved using them. Now that he thought about it, in Harry Potter, a good part of the many situations presented could have been dealt with using brute force.

Then, Gale blinked. Looking down, he noticed that the frothing foam was now being washed away as he scrubbed his hands. All of the dishes had been hung up, waiting to dry. He had finished. It seemed that he had been lost in thought for quite some time.

Gale didn't have much work here. Aberforth paid him a few knuts or sickles a day. It was a weird payment schedule but Gale was already thankful enough for a place to live. Getting money was a benefit that he liked a lot.

It was surprising, in his opinion. Aberforth didn't seem like the type to give out free charity. Gale had just asked for a place to stay, and some food and such, but the old man went beyond that.

His main job in the Hog's Head was to just organize the tables and chairs, sweep the floor, clean up spills, the menial stuff.

Gale mostly helped clean up at different intervals of the day, and would sometimes wander off when there wasn't anything to do, or he'd finished all his works. As usual, Aberforth didn't care. The reason for this was unknown.

Work hours weren't specified.

Gale walked outside with a broom, thinking about Hogwarts. Or rather, how to get into Hogwarts.

There were four ways as of now. One, through the tunnel at Shrieking Shack, another at Honeydukes, the one behind the painting in the Hog's Head, and lastly, just boosting his way across the lake with the Ten Rings.

Of course, he wasn't going to go in there unprepared. Which was why he was still thinking about a plan.

But for now, Gale just wanted to enjoy the magical village life. He'd taken many side hustles along the way to save up some cash, so maybe it would be nice to try out some Butterbeer and other trademark gourmet in the Wizarding World.

On a whim, today, he was going to check out the Shrieking Shack. It seemed like a fun idea. The place was uneasy, but in the bright day, the horror factor would probably decrease. Right?

A few Minutes Later….

"This place looks creepy as hell...." Gale proclaimed, stretching his legs and arms. He had equipped the Ten Rings, which hung from his arms, glowing. In front of him, was the looming creepy old shack. It sat on a small hill that was overgrown with weeds.

Made of rotting wood most of the paint already peeled off, Gale noticed the front door, long claw marks all across it, as it hung from only one hinge.

The single window in the whole place was shattered and barred with wooden planks. The roof was leaking, and a few puddles had formed after last night's small rain shower. While mostly made of wood, the base was of loose crumbling bricks. A dull red and dirty brown, the house was even in the early noon, creepy. Gale wondered how it was to come at night. He'd only caught glimpses of it in the night, not approaching it.

Walking, he kicked open a wrought iron gate that had been well rusted over the times. Making his way up the small hill, Gale looked back at Hogsmeade, which was bathed in the bright sun. And then, he strolled inside, carefully wrenching open the creaky old door.

The floorboards below him groaned under the weight. Gale waved away some spiderwebs in annoyance, coughing. The room was filled to the brim with dust, covering most of the remaining furniture.

He wondered who the previous inhabitants were. An old broken-down piano lay in the corner and a brick fireplace stood to the side in great disrepair. A few stray streams of light had made their way through the boarded window and above, a hole in the roof let in some light.

Gale relaxed a little, as it was not as creepy as he anticipated. The lone house on the hill vibe was most direly embraced when outside. Inside, it seemed like just another abandoned house. He'd been a few in his previous…. World.

Stopping in the middle of the room, Gale sneezed a little. Annoyed, he raised his arms and swung them down.

*BOOM!*

Immediately, a shockwave rattled the house slightly as the dust was blown away by the power of the Ten Rings. Sneezing, Gale suddenly found himself staring at the corner of the house.

Through the dust, he could see something glowing. It was a light purple and levitated in midair. The difference was that this time, it was floating above a small black pedestal. The pedestal was like obsidian and covered with swirling carvings and three kanji characters.

Looking back at the card, Gale noticed an image on it, much like the Ten Rings, which had a Ten Rings symbol of sorts, this one also showed a symbol of sorts.

This one was different though. The card showed the image of something inky black with a glowing red outline. It was serpentine in form, with a flickering body and a wolf-like head, characterized with razor-sharp teeth and eerie red eyes…..

Gale stepped forwards cautiously, the Ten Rings shimmering in their silver hue. He wasn't sure if it would be the same…. There was something different about this one that caused his instincts to cramp up a little. He sighed, reaching out with his right hand, about to touch the card. As his fingers reached its frame, the pedestal began to shine, and suddenly.....

Gale…. Was somewhere else.

It for sure wasn't the Shrieking Shack though.

Around him, a dark misty haze shrouded his vision.....

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What do you think about the story? Is it coming along decently?