Chapter Ten: Diagon Alley
August arrived quickly with me doing nothing but practicing magic and eating dragon meat. However, I soon consumed all the meat and was forced to visit the Diagon Alley in order to resupply again.
Teleporting to London, I appeared in a small, secluded alley that was relatively close to the leaky cauldron. Then I made my way to the said location and entered the Diagon Alley without much of a hassle.
I traveled down the cobblestone street and only halted at a shop called Magical Menagerie that sold pets. Getting myself a pet wasn't really a plan of mine since I was an irresponsible brat and would probably starve the poor thing to death, but I still stopped by from time to time to see if there was Niffler for sale.
Sure, it sounded cruel, but I planned to feed one to my flames to see if I could gain the magical ability to detect precious metals and gemstones. Nifflers also had a belly pouch that could store a freaking lot of stuff. I didn't desire to have a belly pouch myself like some freakish kangaroo-human hybrid, but devouring the creature will give me an insight to the nature of its magic. It may help me create a new kind of Expansion Charm, or whatever.
Anyway, seeing that I was unlucky today, I left the menagerie and continued walking for a few minutes until I came across a small side street. It was a special area where numerous grocery stores and other shops that sold food and drinks were gathered at one spot. My target was a small shop that went by the name of The Falcon's Nest.
Entering the humble shop, I was greeted by a man in his forties, wearing black pants and a red shirt. He was tall and muscular with dirty-blond hair that was swept back, and with some of it being styled into a ponytail in the back. His face sported a bearded chin-strap and green-colored eyes, one of which was covered by a black eye-patch and with a triple set of parallel, linear scars passing vertically, at an angle over said eye.
"You again," the older man noted, giving me an odd look.
"Yeah, it's me," I replied casually and approached his counter. "And I am here for some delicious dragon meat. Can you provide with some?"
"What happened to the 100 pounds that I just sold you?!" he demanded, shaking his head in bafflement.
I rubbed my belly and grinned. "Who knows, but that doesn't matter anyway. I have the coin, and you have the meet. Do we have a deal?"
Before the shop owner could say anything, the door opened, and another customer stepped in. This one was a young girl that appeared around two or three years younger than me. She was quite pretty with the charms of a young princess, but there was an unnatural emotionless expression clouding her angelic face. Her steel-grey eyes that barely contained any sign of life halted on me for a few seconds before turning to the shop owner.
She greeted the owner in a monotone and very formal tone, requesting a few pounds of dragon meat from him.
"Unfortunately, there is nothing left, Miss Greengrass," the shop owner explained with a weak smile.
My brows rose at that. The only Miss Greengrass with blonde hair was Daphne. Her family was well-known due to their history, status, and so on, and since her father was a big player in the Wizengamot. There was also a report in the Daily Prophet some time ago mentioning that her younger sister Astoria Greengrass took the title of the heir - for some unexplained reason.
"Well, I have some dragon meat left if you really want some," I offered, giving Daphne a roguish smile that made her expression warm up a little. The shop owner muttered something under his breath, accusing me of being a glutton.
Suddenly, the door to the shop opened again, and an even younger girl with bushy brown hair that was wearing a pink dress rushed into it. She was followed by a tall, black-haired, and good-looking woman with really pale skin. The older lady was clad in luxurious robes that showed off wealth.
"Duffy, Duffy, Duffy!" the little girl sang mockingly. "Where is daddy's dragon meat?"
The expression of the older woman turned grim for a second when her eyes stopped on Daphne, but only for a moment before turning 'friendly' again. She scanned the room and snorted towards me for no reason before asking Daphne why she hasn't bought the dragon meat yet.
"Good lady," I interrupted rudely, making every eye turn towards me, especially the pair of the older lady. "Please wait in line because the next delivery of dragon meat is going to be all mine. Do you understand?"
My tone became threatening towards the end, and I used my newly gained magical abilities to assault her with my mind-bending ability through my eyes. Azazel's ability wasn't as powerful as the Imperius, but its effect was definitely superior to the Confundus Charm. I was already able to use it with my eyes before devouring the basilisk, but the potency of the ability only grew with the enhancement of my eyes.
That said, I didn't have a good impression of Lady Greengrass. And nobody snorts at me like she did and gets away unpunished.
"Hey!" screeched the bushy-haired girl. "You can't talk to my mommy like that!"
Rolling my eyes, I turned to the little girl. "Sorry, little Miss, but your mommy needs to respect the fact that I am first in line, don't you agree?"
The bushy-haired girl looked unsure for a moment, but her eyes eventually lit up in realization. She began to nod wildly. "Yes, mommy needs to wait until it's her turn!"
"And all the future dragon meat in this shop is mine!" I declared with an authoritative tone, giving the older woman a hard glare that made her flinch slightly.
"Mommy, I want a new dress!" the bushy-haired girl demanded, jumping up and down impatiently. "Buy me a new dress, Mommy. I want a new dress!"
The older lady blinked in confusion before nodding with a gentle smile. She and the little girl left the shop and left me, the owner, and Daphne alone.
"Was that your mother?" I asked bluntly.
Daphne hesitated a moment before shaking her head sadly. "No, my mother died some time ago."
"Sorry to hear that," I said before grabbing a few stripes of smoked dragon meat out of my mokeskin pouch. "Have some. It's delicious."
"Thank you," Daphne replied shyly, accepting my gift with a faint smile. She then turned away and started nibbling on the smoked dragon meat, looking as if she had no idea what she is doing.
"Your step-mother seems to be quite annoying," I commented with a snort, making Daphne swirl around to stare at me with wide eyes.
The shop owner said nothing, but he didn't seem to disagree with me.
"Hey, you should be coming to Hogwarts in about a year, isn't that right?" I asked Daphne, making her nod in silence. "Then make sure you enter Ravenclaw. Everyone other House is full of irritating baboons. Trust me, you don't want to share your living space with them for the next seven years."
Just like that, I ended up telling her about Hogwarts and my personal opinion on Slytherin, Gryffindor, and Hufflepuff. Then I listed all the benefits and advantages of being a member of House Ravenclaw. Daphne listened attentively to my blatant Ravenclaw propaganda, munching smoked dragon meat all the while.
"My mother was in Ravenclaw," Daphne muttered with sadness clouding her features.
She and I were currently sitting in a corner of the shop. The owner was even so helpful to conjure us two seats since it didn't look like we would leave anytime soon.
"Well, your mother must have been fiercely intelligent," I praised, making the blonde girl beam with pride.
"What about your mother?" Daphne asked curiously. "What house did she visit?"
"Ehm… well, I am an orphan," I admitted, shocking the young girl. "And I have no idea about my parents. Not even the people of the orphanage. All I know is that they found me as a baby in front of their door in the middle of the night."
"Are you… a muggleborn?" Daphne inquired with a whisper.
"Maybe, maybe not…" I replied with a shrug. "But I don't really care."
"Me neither," Daphne whispered silently, smiling mischievously while looking absolutely adorable.
We continued to chat for quite a while, mostly about Hogwarts and what she can expect in the first year. Daphne also told me a bit about herself and her family, explaining that Astoria was the new heiress because her father married Violetta after the death of her mother. She even confessed that she wants to run away from home because her father plans to marry her off to an older boy that she doesn't like.
In response to that, I asked for his name and almost choked on my food when I heard that she was to be married off to Boraxius Parkinson.
The Daily Prophet didn't report much negative news about members of old pureblood families, but I recently heard two older boys from my house talking about that Boraxius guy. He was caught operating several brothels filled with muggle girls of all ages that he abducted and turned into pleasure-slaves by drugging them with various mind-altering potions.
Stuff like that was absolutely and highly illegal. It still happened in secret, but some magical communities punished such actions with death. Not because they cared for justice or for the muggles that were harmed, but because these girls all have parents, friends, and so on. Their disappearance would be noticed for sure.
About two hundred years ago, in the USA, some guys did something similar and ended up abducting the daughter a powerful mutant with the ability to turn into freaking air and control the winds. What followed was one of the biggest losses of magical blood in history. Half of the US-American wizarding community was exterminated in under a year, ruthlessly cut to pieces by an invisible reaper that used the wind as a deadly scythe.
That said, I noted the name Boraxius Parkinson in the back of my head.
Daphne and I carried on and chatted comfortably for several hours until she was forced to call for a house-elf in order to get back home. Before leaving, she shyly told me to not forget about her until she was old enough to join me at Hogwarts.
The shop owner shook his head at me after Daphne was gone.
"You might be too young to understand that, but her father is a dangerous man that will kill you if you touch his daughter in the wrong way," he warned gravely. "Her mother might have been a kind and gentle soul, but Damien Greengrass is a heartless asshole."
"He might be dangerous, but I am deadly," I stated with a carefree grin, causing the shop owner to slap his face.
"You must have been dropped on the head when you were a babe," he scoffed with a shake of his head. "Do what you want, but make sure you don't make others suffer for your recklessness. If you want to hunt a beast so badly, you have to do it alone."
I nodded. "By the way… what's your name?"
"Rollo Skandrberg," the shop owner replied with a small snort.
"My name is Johnny Vegaz," I said, offering my hand to the guy. "Nice to meet you!"
Rollo accepted my handshake with a smirk, and I left his shop after reminding him to make sure he had enough dragon meat the next time. In response, he fired a salvo of wandless stinging hexes after me.
"Alright, this guy is dangerous," I muttered to myself as I traveled towards the Leaky Cauldron.
Well, I already knew that Rollo wasn't an average shop owner. The aura he radiated was one of the strongest I sensed so far, only second to Dumbledore. But he didn't felt like a dangerous fighter and more like a silent observer. The eye that was hidden behind the patch was also highly suspicious. It radiated a strange kind of magic that felt harmless but also deadly dangerous at the same time.
Whoever he was, the dragon meat he was selling was delicious…
…and that's all that matters.
…
...
August passed quickly with me studying and practicing magic day and night with little rest in between. I only stopped to get more orange juice and dragon meat.
Rollo was so 'nice' to sell me his entire delivery of delicious smoked Chinese Fireball meat, marinated and cut into small stripes. It 'only' cost me 4500 galleons, almost a quarter of my fortune, but it was totally worth it. The meat of the Chinese Fireball was even more nourishing and tasted freaking bloody wonderful with a nice, spicy flavor.
All this tasty food gave me a lot of motivation and energy.
I added a bunch of new spells to my arsenal and even came up with a bunch of my own – mostly pranking spells.
But the most noteworthy achievement was my success to develop my own kind of Fiendfyre. The idea behind it was to animate fire and give it the shape of an animal. Well, and since I was a Parselmouth, I ended up creating a big, fiery snake in the shape of a king cobra, for the extra intimidation effect. Then I casually fed the snake 25 drops of Soul Essence, which caused the snake to mutate, to become significantly larger and somewhat solid, more detailed, and very lifelike.
The effect of Soul Essence on spells was simply put, bloody awesome. The monstrous king cobra wasn't just a spell anymore, but a magical pseudo-entity bound to my very being. I could summon it whenever I wished through muttering the original Incantation while having the right intent in mind.
Also, I didn't care about the whining of ignorant people. Snakes were awesome and large and fiery snakes were even more awesome. Using Parseltongue had an additional effect on serpents. It seems that the legendary magical tongue improved the smarts of serpentine creatures. I was really proud of my new pet.
"Hmm, I think that I am going to call you Dremoria," I told the fiery snake, looking up to see it hiss in approval. Its eyes were blazing with unquestionable intelligence, making me feel as if I was looking at a genuine living being.
That said, I still unsummoned the snake and watched her slowly fade away, becoming one with magic.
Then I muttered the incantation again and watched a large river of scorching-hot fire pour out of the tip of my wand, slowly forming a massive king cobra before me that nearly rivaled Slytherin's basilisk in size. It took seven seconds for Dremoria to fully manifest with all her deadly beauty, which made the spell a rather poor choice for in combat where quickness mattered.
But once she was ready, her intimidating presence alone would swiftly make me the superior force in most combat situations.
Also noteworthy: the incantation of the spell was Serpentcendium, and would generally summon a 'normal' fiery snake to my command.
Thinking of Dremoria would summon her instead.
"Alright, you deadly beautiful girl," I started with a proud grin. "It's time to sleep for now, but I will do my best to find you a worthy opponent very soon."
Dremoria's fiery being became one with magic again after unsummoning her, and I sensed how her essence moved to enter my body, fusing with my Devouring Flame.
It was an awkward experience to have a pseudo-sentient being fuse with you to rest in your body. But at the same time, I also had 39 drops of Soul Essence floating around inside me. And I was partly a fire-elemental made from a fire that was both sentient and not. My Devouring Flame only ever showed its 'sentience' when it sniffed something delicious to eat.
…