5 Chapter 5
Isle of Skye, Cross Manor and Grounds
The scene that greeted David took his breath away. All around him were vast rocky hills, covered in snow, with the barest of green underneath. His new home, the manor itself was situated on the top of a rocky hill.
"What do you think Master?" Mel asked, excited to show him around.
"It's amazing… Don't you think it's all a bit too large for just the two of us?" David replied, feeling slightly out of place.
"It's the perfect size for me master, so much cleaning I can do. It truly is perfect. Not to mention the little masters and mistress' running around in the years to come," she replied off-handily.
Hiding his pain David quickly responded, "Right… Well, lead the way Mel, it's freezing out here."
"Isn't it just perfect?" said Mel as she opened the grand oak doors with a snap of her fingers, "we have three floors but I have placed the majority of the manor under stasis, you'll find that the doors that do not open are rooms under said stasis."
"Ours huh?" David smiled, then asked her to continue, "Okay Mel, on with the tour."
"Very well Master, we shall start with the ground floor," she replied, bouncing on her heels in joy.
---
David loved his new space in the 'dungeon' the goblins and Mel had prepared for him. Its walls were impervious to spell damage and thus allowing him to finally begin practice of more destructive spells that the Hogwarts professors would most definitely not allow. And thanks to the warding by the goblins, all magic performed here was undetectable by the ministry.
"Confringo!" he called out.
Greeting the incantation of the curse was met with an explosion of fiery orange and the stone statue David's wand was aimed at burst into rubble.
With a muttered Reparo the statue reassembled itself and David continued his onslaught of blasting curses.
"Well done Master, the strength of your curse has greatly improved since you've begun," Mel said after watching him perform a very much improved spell.
"Thanks, Mel, I wonder if it can finally penetrate a shield charm?" He asked, somewhat to himself.
"I believe the best way to determine that is by firing it at a shield Master," and with a snap of her fingers, a pale blue shimmering wall appeared in front of the statue.
"I believe this will imitate the strength of a standard shield charm; Portego I believe it's called."
"You really are amazing Mel, I've only met a handful of House Elf's, but you are quite different to all of them… Anyway, let's test it, Confringo!" he finished with a roar.
Greeting the curse was a shattering of Mel's shield and destruction of the practice statue.
"I do believe you have mastered this particular spell Master," Mel said encouragingly.
With a nod of his head, he replied, "Agreed. What's next on this list Mel?"
"Diffindo, Master."
With another quickly muttered Reparo, David immediately began practising the cutting curse under the watchful eye of his House Elf.
"Diffindo!"
---
While Mel was off preparing lunch, David opened a copy of Magical Drafts and Potions and began brewing a Sleeping Draught in his new potion's laboratory. The room itself was not stocked with rare and difficult to obtain ingredients, but rather standard items useful for first to third years beginning their study of potions.
After several minutes and successfully completing the brewing of the potion, David vanished the liquid in his cauldron and ascended the stairs to eat some of Mel's delightful cooking.
"Mel, I was looking at our potions stores and while we have a respectful amount of standard ingredients, some of the more obscure and rare items needed for advanced potions…" he tottered off.
"I know Master… more than half the greenhouses are still empty, but I simply lack the skill to care for the plants. Not to mention the cost of some of these ingredients…" Mel replied in slight shame.
"For now, let's worry about how we are going to care for these potential plants… Any suggestions?" David asked, all business-like, for rare ingredients were going to be a must in the years to come.
"I know of a House Elf, Master, quite skilled in Herbology and the caring of magical creatures," she immediately replied.
"I see, will there be any problem in getting this Elf to work for me?" David asked quickly.
"Well… she is a young elf and was let go from her family recently, I heard the Hogwarts' Elf's gossiping about her. The problem is, her whereabouts are unknown, she is probably out in the wilds exploring and waiting for her death…" Mel explained with dropped ears.
"I assume you mean the need for House Elves to bond to a Master or highly magical location to survive? I'm also guessing your reluctance is the fact that you have to track down said Elf?" David asked, slightly worried about the unknown elf.
"Yes Master, I don't know how long it will take…" she replied, unconfidently.
"It's fine Mel after you drop me off at King's Cross you can go searching for this Elf. I can take care of myself for however long it takes," David replied, not willing to lose this opportunity at losing a skilled Elf.
"I'd hate to leave you by yourself for so long…" replied Mel with her ears dropping even further.
"Mel, I'll be fine. We still have close to two weeks of holidays, let's make the most of it."
---
David's days were spent practising various spells in his practice room with the assistance of Mel. Such as the Finite charm, which David decided to go above and beyond in his training for as it was such an important spell to master. Along with Finite, David also extensively practised Expelliarmus, Stupefy, Petrificus Totalus and Incarcerous.
All these spells were well beyond a first-year student, especially Incarceous, this left David with quite a lot of downtime spent in recovery. To fill the hours, David took to practising far easier standard first-year spells for his various classes.
Potions, without the constant presence of his Potions Professor, was quickly becoming a favourite of David's and he was speeding through the first and second-year potions material and quickly came to a head with the lack of certain ingredients. Sending Mel to further improve their supply cupboards remedied this, but as David improved in his potioneering skills, fresh supplies of even more ingredients were going to be a must.
Their library was also slowly coming together, Mel was slowly purchasing rare and obscure books on all sorts of subjects. Which helped improve his knowledge in enchanting and warding, leaving David comfortable in his belief that he could recreate the Marauders Map in his second year, after borrowing it from the Weasley twins to determine just how the Marauders tapped into the ward stones of Hogwarts to monitor the location of everyone in Hogwarts in real-time.
Unfortunately, he had found that books regarding the nastier side of curses such as his Malediction were heavily regulated and therefore, he was unable to gain more in-depth knowledge on them just yet. Luckily the restricted section could probably be bypassed in the Room of Requirement during his second year.
---
A couple of days before Christmas, David went to Diagon Alley under the watchful eye of an invisible Mel to do some Christmas shopping and purchasing a bird of some sort for the delivery of letters and gifts.
The Magical Menagerie was quite empty of customers but packed to the brim with all sorts of animals. Browsing through the store David found himself in the avian section and was looking over the various owls, ravens and odd falcon or two. David's attention was immediately taken by a grey and white owl when the shop assistant came up to him explaining just what kind of owl it was.
"It's an Eagle-owl, just came in. In fact, its-" said the shop assistant.
Stopping the assistant from going on, David said, "I'll take it, if you could prepare all the things I'll need to care for it while I look over some of the cats you have. Thank you."
As David was casually looking over the cats as a small grey kitten started meowing to grab his attention.
"Well aren't you just the cutest little thing," he said the grey creature.
Seemingly happy with David's opinion of itself the kitten started purring contently as he scratched it above its head through the bars.
"I wonder if I can smuggle you into Hogwarts along with my owl…" David said to himself as he played with the kitten, "Well if I can't you can keep Mel company back at the manor while I'm off at school I suppose."
Leaving the store with an owl cage in one hand and a small grey cat perched on his shoulder, which turned out to be a cross between a Russian Blue and Kneazle, David informed Mel that there were just two more stops he needed to make before returning home. A gift for Hermione and a pair of hiking boots so he could go exploring.
---
Sending off his new Eagle-owl with a gift and letter for Hermione, David decided to take a walk around the rocky white hills that were part of the Cross family ancestral home. He soon found himself looking sitting on a ledge taking in the breathtaking scenery that was the Isle of Skye.
As he decided to return, David's attention was taken by the falling of a few small rocks off to his right. Drawing his wand and investigating he soon found what was causing the mysterious moving, a glossy blue egg the size of his palm and from its movement it was close to hatching.
Gently levitating the egg David returned to the Manor and placed it on top of his bundled-up scarf.
For the next half-hour, he watched the egg with anticipation, having no idea what kind of creature's egg could possibly survive in the freezing conditions outside.
His patience was soon rewarded as the cracks on the egg expanded and exploded in a flash of blue flame. What greeted David was a small bird with blue and gold plumage along with wisps of blue flames emitting from its body.
"Surely not… a Phoenix? But they're meant to be red and gold…" David muttered under his breath in awe, recalling what he had read about them in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
"Not to mention being native to Egypt, India and China…" he mumbled.
With curiosity getting the better of him David help his hand out to the Phoenix and was immediately nipped on the finger aggressively, drawing blood. Following the attack, the Phoenix flashed again with brilliant blue and golden flames, incinerating the already smouldering scarf and immediately David felt a bond with the bird.
"No way… I've bonded with a Phoenix…" he said, dumbfounded.
Following the bonding, the blue bird approached David's bleeding finger with slight apprehension and wept a single tear onto it, trilling happily as knit itself back together immediately.
"Well little fella, I guess you're going to need a name."
---
"Well Mel, I guess I can leave King behind, you can use him to send letters and purchase whatever you want as you take care of the manor," David said to Mel.
"I'm assuming you'll be taking the cat and Phoenix with you then Master?" Mel said with slight annoyance in her tone.
"Yes and no, also, they have names, Mel. I'll be taking Nala with me on the train, Hermione will love her, and Fitz can just flame himself over to my quarters at Hogwarts easily enough once I call for him," he replied, playfully scolding Mel.
"Very well, Nala and Fitz then," she said with a roll of her eyes, "You'll have to bring a carrier with you for Nala, you can't just walk around King's Cross with a kitten on your shoulder, you wouldn't want her running off before you get on the train."
"Alright, alright. I'm assuming you already have a carrier ready?" David sighed.
Snapping her fingers with a smile, "Yes Master, right here."
"Well, get in Nala. I'll let you out when we get into our compartment on the train. We should be off Mel, Hermione said she would be at the station early."
---
"David!" shouted Hermione as she spotted walking out from behind a pillar.
"Hey Hermione, how are you?" replied David, looking around and noticing she was alone, he asked, "No parent's?"
"I'm great David, it's nice to see you again and no, no parent's, they had to drop me off and head into work early," she explained quickly.
"Oh, well let's go find an empty compartment before we catch up, I'm already getting cold," David said while shivering.
---
"Oh! I loved your Christmas present David, a first edition of Hogwarts a History! Just how did you find one?! Must have cost a fortune!" Hermione exclaimed.
"That's a secret Hermione, and I'm glad you liked it. Thanks for the set of self-filling quills, I've already used them a ton, I can't believe Hogwarts has banned muggle paper and pens, it's ridiculous!" David said in reply.
"You're very welcome David, and I know… I suspect one of the pure-blood families has a monopoly on the sale of parchment and quills… anyway just what do you have in that carrier?" she asked curiously.
Smiling and removing the blanket that covered the cat carrier with Nala inside, David opened its door and introduced Hermione to Nala.
"This is Nala, she's a cross between a Russian Blue and Kneazle, so she's really intelligent, magical and can detect suspicious and distrustful people," David explained.
With bulging eyes, Hermione exclaimed, "Oh my god she's so beautiful!"
"Nala this is Hermione, she's a close friend of mine so you better behave," he warned his overly intelligent kitten.
Rolling her eyes in annoyance she leapt out of her carrier and straight into Hermione's lap, curled up and went right to sleep.
David and Hermione soon found themselves dozing off as the Hogwarts Express sped along to Hogsmeade Station.
