New Lord of Dreadfort

Dreadfort Castle

POV of Domeric Balton

"You'll like Barrowton." His aunt Barbrey Dustin said with a gentle smile "There are a lot of horses there. You like horses, don't you?"

"Your bribery skills need some work, Auntie." He said. She mussed his hair affectionately and murmured 'cheeky brat' as he packed the last of his bag inside the wooden trunk. It reminded him of the trunk that he used in Hogwarts when he was a young student.

Except that this trunk neither had an expansion charm nor a featherweight charm.

I was a wooden trunk. Simple as that.

Thankfully, the servants picked up the trunk for him as he frankly doubted that he would have been able to lift it himself. His young body was rather weak at this point. He needs to start working out as soon as possible.

"I'm going to miss this place." He said and meant it. He knew that he wouldn't be gone for long, but he was going to miss the relative comfort and safety provided by this castle from the harsh world out there.

Traveling on horses in a cold climate was not comfortable at all.

His aunt stayed silent as they moved out of the castle where both Roose Bolton and Maester Wolkan waited for him along with the aunt Dustin's guards who would escort him to Barrowton.

"Keep up your studies Domeric. You're a smart lad." Maester Wolkan said with a smile, the loyalty compulsion charm subtly making him more truthful and loyal to him.

"I will Maester Wolkan." He said with a smile before he moved on to Roose Bolton whose complexion looked far paler than it usually did. No one else noticed it as the man used leeches on himself on a weekly basis to keep himself healthy and had a natural pale complexion as a result. But he did and he knew that the Withering curse was already rotting him from the inside. The man was already dead. He just didn't know it yet.

"Goodbye son." Roose Bolton said, and he froze for a moment.

It was the first time Roose Bolton had called him a son. In fact, he didn't remember Roose calling him his son even when he recovered from the horse accident.

What with this sudden show of attachment?

He felt like he should read his mind to find out what Roose Bolton was thinking but he had already sentenced the man to die. He didn't want to violate his mind anymore.

So, he simply nodded and climbed on the horse carriage Lady Dustin was seated in.

They left the castle soon afterwards and once they were at a sufficient distance from the castle, he wondered if Roose Bolton knew that he was going to die. And calling him his son was the last bit of affection that the cold-hearted sociopath could manage.

He would probably never find out.

The road ahead was long and Domeric decided to use it for planning things that he would do after he returned to the Dreadfort.

First of all, he needed to improve his body and learn swordsmanship and melee fight. He might be a wizard, but he wasn't living in a magical world anymore. In this world personal power came from cold weapons and combat arts. Swordsmanship, spearsmanship, archery, knighthood and more. If he wanted to gain power, he needed to learn one or more of these melee and cold weapon arts.

Luckily, he had his Occlumency. In his past life, his Occlumency was very good, near the photographic memory but still a bit short. But he realized that after he gained the Symbol of Deathly Hallows his Occlumency also improved and reached to eidetic memory level.

With his eidetic memory, he can learn these war arts even just by watching. Of course, he still needed to train after learning these moves from others to improve his muscle memory and reflexes. But he was sure that he could learn a hundred times or even more faster than other geniuses.

Well, that didn't mean he would abandon his magical powers on the contrary he would try anyway to improve his magical powers. But in this world magic was too thin and the only stable source was Weirwood trees. So, there was a possibility that his magic recovery rate wouldn't be enough on a battlefield. Plus, he didn't want to others learn that he was a wizard. At least until he became powerful enough to doesn't care.

Also, his ultimate goal wasn't to improve his magic and melee arts separately but to combine them and become a magic swordsman. Like Godric Gryffindor who is one of the best duelists in magical history if not the best. He defeated countless people in the duel and hunted countless dangerous magical creatures with his dual style with one sword and one wand.

In his second year at Hogwarts, he had a chance to use to Sword of Gryffindor against the Basilisk, the guardian of Chamber of Secrets. A shame that then he didn't know anything about swordsmanship and sword itself. He just swung it like a stick.

Later he learned that the Sword of Gryffindor was not just an enchanted magical item that could absorb features that make it stronger but also a magical focus (foci). A special kind of focus that especially strengthens melee supporting spells, charms, and curses. Diffindo, accio, depulso, and many more…

He didn't see anyone using this kind of magic with a sword-type focus, but he saw Alastor Moody using Depulso with his staff-type focus. That banishing charm had a 180-degree area effect with staff at the center not a pinpoint-like attack from a wand.

'Can I make a 360-degree area effect Depulso attack with a sword? That would be very helpful at a crowded battlefield.'

While Domeric daydreamed about his magic swordsman style, time passed slowly.

A week after departing from Dreadfort, a group of Bolton riders caught up to them and gave them the grave news.

He was the new Lord of Dreadfort and its surrounding lands.

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Author Note: Bonus chapter. This chapter was published in the name of my first Patron and for people who contributed their power stone. Thank you.

Thank you, Jibreel, for becoming my first Patron.