2 Chapter Two: Marauding Hogwarts

[12 years later….]

I finally managed to plunder the Marauder's Map from Caretaker Filch's office without enjoying detention with that creepy guy, and was now finally able to enter the Room of Hidden Things safely.

My skill with the Disillusionment Charm was good enough after letting my fire devour a copy of the Invisible Book of Invisibility. But I still needed to know if someone was about to walk around the corner and spot the door to the legendary room. The Marauder's Map would prevent that from happening.

And depending on what I would find, I also needed to visit the dwarves of Switzerland to get myself a safe bank account – since I didn't trust the goblins. They looked like larger versions of gremlins in business suits and were just annoying, unreasonably rude, and greedy as hell.

One Galleon was worth 50 pounds, but if you wanted to trade a Galleon back into muggle cash, you would only get 15 to 20 pounds, depending on the mood of the teller.

And I had to keep up my profile as a poor orphan anyway. The Ministry was paying for my education, and they would probably stop and ask questions if I ended up shoving all the galleons I hoped to find in the Room of Hidden Things into my vault.

Having said that, I moved up towards the seventh floor. It was the last week of this school year, and the students were mostly chilling around outside, talking about their summer holiday plans.

'Fuck!'

My mood sank when I got spotted by my personal Draco Malfoy. Her name was Dysnomia Travers, and she was an arrogant and spoiled little beast that liked to bark nonsense at every opportunity.

"Vegaz!" she screeched, and I watched the little blonde girl with chubby cheeks approach me with Cassius Warrington and Miles Bletchley following at her sides, just one step behind her to symbolize their position as followers.

"What do you want, Mia?" I replied with evident annoyance in my tone. "Shouldn't you have your beauty sleep at this time?

"Stop butchering my name, you stupid muggleborn," she hissed, stomping her a foot hard on the ground to show me how angry she was. "And it's Heiress Travers for you. Show some respect to your betters."

"Of course," I replied with a shrug. "But do you have something of importance to say, or can I go now?"

Dysnomia waited a moment before she kicked Warrington, causing the unreasonably brutish-looking eleven-year-old to blink at her in confusion for a few seconds before his eyes lit up in realization. His chubby face turned towards me.

"Vegaz!" he grunted, trying to look intimidating. "Enough is enough. You don't show us the proper respect we purebloods deserve, so I am here to challenge you to a duel!"

The pesky trio acted more annoying than usual in the last time, so I expected them to do something to finally get back on me for ignoring them. It was ridiculous, but Dysnomia seriously believed that muggleborn should stop what they were doing and bow to her in respect whenever she walked past them.

"Alright, but no seconds and the duel will be tomorrow after dinner," I replied in a bored tone, yawning. "I will tell Flitwick about it so he can act as a referee. He is a former champion, after all."

Warrington appeared unsure for a moment before narrowing his beady eyes before inhaling a deep breath to make his chest and himself appear larger. Some prey animals do that in the hope that predators would lose interest.

"Fine," he spat and pointed a meaty finger at me. "You wish you were dead after I am finished with you, Vegaz!"

I scoffed. "U-13 duels are heavily regulated. Do you plan to kill me with a cheering charm or what?"

Warrington and Bletchley grunted and stepped forwards with their fists lifted and ready to be swung around aimlessly. However, Dysnomia stopped her minions from doing anything foolish by putting a hand on their shoulder.

"Enough," she ordered as if she was talking to dogs. "We wasted enough time already. Let us join our fellow Slytherins in the dungeons. The air around here stinks."

The two goons nodded dumbly. Bletchley couldn't resist and hissed like some awkward snake. He always did that when he wanted to threaten somebody. It only made him look absolutely moronic because his long and pointy ears and pointy nose made his face faintly resemble that of a goblin. The greedy warrior-banker creatures loved to hiss at people, too.

Anyway, their blonde boss gave me a sneer before the trio turned on their heels and strutted away. I summoned my wand into my hand and pointed the tip towards the fat arse of Warrington.

'Flatuladfremo!'

My self-made prank spell hit the backside of the boy and summoned a roaring fart from his arse the echoed into the hallways. Students that were close turned around and wrinkled their noses in disgust. Some laughed loudly.

Warrington started running all of a sudden, appearing panicked.

"Ah, yes…" I muttered in realization. "There is a chance that the fart will pull some solid material along with it."

Heiress Travers and Bletchley rushed after their fellow Slytherin, and I turned around to continue my journey towards the seventh floor.

The Hogwarts castle was enormous, and one could easily waste ten minutes or more just by climbing all these stairs towards the top. Some magical elevator would be a nice addition to the ancient castle indeed.

…

There were no students in the area when I finally reached the seventh floor. I put the Marauder's map away into my pockets and approached the wall across the tapestry of some crackpot that wanted to teach trolls how to dance.

Walking back and forth past the hidden entrance of the legendary room and focused my mind on the Room of Hidden Things. Eventually, an archway with a large and highly decorated wooden door appeared in the wall.

"Jackpot!" I whispered with a pleased smile, quickly stepping through the door.

My first thought was that the Room of Hidden Things was simply enormous. I felt like inside a large basilica-like room. Pillars were shooting up towards a ceiling that was far away. There was so much space available that I felt like entering some small pocket-dimension. Extension charms had their limits, and the more you stretch them, the more unstable these spells would become.

And there were even three giant windows with colored glass to my right, left, and across the entry into the room, portraying what must be the Forbidden Forest, the Black Lake, and the one across me showed the Hogwarts castle itself. They let sunlight pass through, illuminating the area to a comfortable level.

I let my eyes wander around and spotted two dozen mountains of random stuff piled on top of each other. There were numerous pyramids of books and even more towers of haphazardly stacked seats. I also noticed some luxurious-looking chandeliers, old iron armor and weaponry, old and dusty furniture, and so on, and so on.

"Hmm, I should have brought a Niffler with me," I muttered as I began to enter the narrow valleys between the mountain of trash and hidden treasures.

There was most likely a fortune hiding here somewhere because I already found two galleons by accident in abandoned classrooms during my times when I explored the castle. It was easy to lose such large and heavy gold coins, actually. The school uniform had crappy pockets, and jumping or running would easily empty them if you weren't careful.

Mokeskin Pouches were also rather expensive, starting around 40G for the cheapest model!

The Mokeskin Pouch would prevent people from stealing my stuff since only the owner could access its content. Additionally to that, the skin of the Moke lizard would make the pouches shrink to the point that it was impossible for a stranger to physically interact with them. Quite a useful item to have.

That's why I hoped that I could find a free one or more around here – the extras would be traded for some extra money.

"Ah, and the diadem is hiding somewhere around here as well," I mused as I stepped over some old brooms.

I was slightly hesitant to do that, but the thought of Voldemort's soul shard made my Devouring Flame react with excitement. My magical fire wasn't really sentient, but it reacted to potential food, and the thought of munching the soul of a Dark Lord made the gluttonous fire that filled my body react slightly euphoric.

There weren't many opportunities to make use of my magical fire as yet, but the seven Lay Lines directly below the ancient castle nourished me with small portions of delicious magic, making me feel energized in body and mind. Because of that, I actually required no sleep at all and used my nights to read or to finish my assignments. The Extremis Virus allowed my body to function perfectly without sleep, but it didn't support my mental 'stamina' just as well. Doing serious studying day and night would eventually exhaust my spirit, mind, and brain to some degree, and only sleep helped me recover in that case. However, the potent magic of the Ley Lines helped against mental fatigue, turning Hogwarts into a perfect place for learning.

And when I wasn't studying all kinds of magic, I would travel wherever I wish with the help of my awesome and super-lovely teleporting ability.

The enhancements from the perfected Extremis Virus were also doing their duty, granting me an outrageous amount of physical power for a boy of my age.

Reaching my full potential would take a while since my body was still developing, but I was quite confident that no human that wasn't a mutant or enchanted had a chance against me in hand-to-hand combat.

Even less so when I started to heat up my body, turning my hands hot enough to melt and liquidize stones. Additionally to that, I could even fill my lungs with hot plasma and breathe a stream of intense fire that cut through trees like a hot knife through butter.

Freaking hell, I felt like as if I could rival a fire-breathing dragon in a few years.

My physical appearance also enjoyed a beauty-enhancement since the Extremis Virus perfected my biological makeup. For a boy of my age, I looked a bit older, quite athletic, and fit. My blonde hair was swept back, which my face look less boyish and more mature. Along with my deep-blue eyes, I was a serious little ladykiller!

Though, my interest in women at this time was rather lacking due to the physical age of my body.

Magical humans matured faster than normal ones, but I was still too far away from the point where I would feel comfortable. I felt too much like a child right now, and my past life felt more like a movie I saw once in a distant past. Right now, I felt more like a little brat that was simply smarter and more mature than the rest.

And speaking of magical people and their biology. It was true that they matured faster since most fourteen-year-olds around here looked at least two years older than they really were. Veela would mature with around fifteen directly into young women, and then stay young and beautiful for the rest of their average lifespans of approximately 200 years.

Magical humans were generally also rarely fat or obese, and a few levels prettier than normal humans. The books I read on this mentioned that the magic of our bodies would react to our personal wishes, and if you kept wanting to look beautiful every day for several months, your magic had a chance to react and help you out a little bit.

This explains why people like Severus Snape looked like some kind of Nosferatu creature with long and greasy hair, yellow teeth, bushy mono-eyebrows, and a big crooked nose that was pointy and sprouting thick and long hair out of its large sniffing holes. The legendary character of the Harry Potter world was such a piece of shit that his appearance changed to adapt to his personality.

Long story short, Severus Snape was a crappy human and professor.

The rest of the Harry Potter world was also quite different from the original. Well, obviously, since it was fused with some version of the Marvel Universe. Captain America existed, but he was still frozen in ice somewhere. Rumors about mutants existed even in the wizarding world, but some people assumed that Magneto was some crazy dark wizard that broke the statute of secrecy.

The wizarding world around here was actually its own 'world' and hidden behind something called The Veil. There were books on it in the library. I found out that ancient magicals cast the Veil over important magical communities to separate the wizarding world from the mundane one – mostly areas with three or more ley lines.

Non-magical beings couldn't enter the wizarding world on their own. The Veil was some kind of pocket-dimension – as far as I understand. And only those with magical blood could pass through it, and non-magicals had to be in the company of magicals if they wished to enter.

This stuff about the Veil was an open secret, and while nobody really talked about it for some reason, everyone knew about it.

The best example of the wondrous powers of the Veil was the Forbidden Forest.

It didn't look like it, but that place ten minutes away from Hogwarts could compete with the Russian tundra when it came to size. One could walk for days and weeks in a straight line and still not reach the end of the forest. Also, the deeper you went, the more magical the flora and fauna would become. Stuff like giants, trolls, werewolves, unicorns, dragons, and so on would eventually appear.

Its original name was the Enchanted Forest, but the name was changed to Forbidden Forest after more and more dark creatures made it their home. The muggle world claimed more land nowadays, and magical creatures had to flee and concentrate in places protected by the Veil.

Anyway, another surprise of this world was the fact that James and Lily Potter survived Voldemort's attack. They tricked the Dark Lord somehow, and Charles Potter managed to vanquish the Noseless One.

However, there was also Harry Potter, now officially known as Hydrus Potter. He was adopted by Sirius Black - his old godfather and new father. That was all I could get on this topic from the Daily Prophet. Everything else was mostly just empty air and rumors. But I could guess that Harry ended up with Petunia, and Sirius wasn't pleased with it, so he adopted Harry as his son.

Peter Pettigrew was captured and ended up in Azkaban – even after ratting out many of his Death Eater buddies.

The Lucious Malfoy of this world escaped punishment just like in the one in the original story, but this one also ended up blaming Sirius as the one that put him under the Imperius Curse, forcing him to commit all these horrible crimes. Walburga Black supported the claim because she was hateful and twisted, but they both stepped back when Sirius took the mantle of Lord Black.

Ever since then, no reports were made about Sirius or Harry/Hydrus. The Daily Prophet instead focused the majority of its attention on Charles Potter, the supposed Boy-Who-Lived. He was a little spoiled brat that dared to claim to have defeated Voldemort in a duel.

Yeah, he probably used breast-milk-powered wandless magic to kill one of the most powerful Dark Lords in history.

The Potters basked in the bountiful attention they got from the media and the wizarding population. It showed every time I saw Lily Potter in the Great Hall. She was the Muggle Studies teacher but acted as if she was the light of guidance for all muggleborn students. Luckily, she only focused her attention on the Hufflepuffies and Gryffindor. Ravenclaw had few muggleborns, and most of them were academic elitists that only cared for their books, studies, and grades.

I wasn't impressed with Lily Potter. She was arrogant, had an overinflated ego, and overestimated her importance. She sometimes invited James and Charles to join her in the Great Hall, using the opportunity to promote Charles' popularity.

James Potter would sometimes go around and flirt with the older female students at the Gryffindor table, and Lily would then cause a scene and scream at him in the middle of the Great Hall, berating him about his behavior. The guy always reacted like some little toddler and would look down at his feet until his wife finished her rant. After that, Dumbledore would step in and make some joke about the situation.

I sometimes felt like being part of some crazy sitcom.

"Dammit, this place is way to large!" I cursed in frustration.

Half an hour passed already, and I found nothing I was looking for, no mokeskin bag and no diadem.

Because of that, I decided to make my search more fun and comfortable…

*bampf!*

I burst into vivid golden flames and disappeared before reappearing right below the ceiling of this place. My body started dropping, and I used the next few seconds to scan the area before disappearing and reappearing high up at the ceiling again.

Time passed, and I mentally marked some places that looked promising.

Finally, I found myself a hidden pile of Mokeskin Pouches after a few more minutes of teleporting around. The majority of them were still functional since the enchantment was based on the magical skin of the creature, which would preserve its magical properties as long there was enough magic in the area.

And because they were unused for so long, I could easily claim the small magical bags as their new owner by infusing a bit of my magic into them, binding them to my unique signature.

"Alright, now I will hunt for the gold, hidden treasures, books, and whatever else that might be useful," I muttered with a grin.

The Shrinking Charm was already mastered long ago, and I could cram all the stuff I would hopefully find in the trunks that are randomly lying around here. Next, I would shrink the stuff and store them in my Mokeskin Pouch.

When all that was done, I would teleport and visit the Iron Bank of Switzerland. The dwarves had the best reputation when it came to vaults, and all I needed was someplace where I could store my stuff until I was older.

So, with all that said, I started my wild search for treasure with a greedy light burning in my eyes.

…