23 23 - Knockturn Shopping and Emancipation Preparation

One by one, I read the covers of each book and realised that I already knew 8 of them, which left me with 23 remaining, making it 31 books overall.

The remaining 21 were different language books with multiple books for each language. The languages included Russian, Hindi, Portuguese, Indonesian, Turkish, Korean, Vietnamese, Egyptian, Polish and Greek. There were also 2 books that I couldn't read but decided to buy too as they looked to be in Egyptian Hieroglyphics of all things.

The owner of 'Crystal Words' whose name was apparently Mr Gray, was very happy with my purchases and rang the price down as 80 galleons which I managed to haggle down to 50, making it so that I spent around 2 galleons per book (aka £10) which was a fairly good deal, all things considered.

Leaving the store, I once again found myself walking around the alley under various layer of stealth spells.

Making it back to Diagon Alley and feeling like I could breathe properly once again, I stared at Ollivanders for a second before making up my mind.

Walking up to the store, still heavily disillusioned, I took out my money pouch, duplicated it, and added 50 galleons into it. I know I said 100 but i'm running slightly low and want to be ready just in case of some emergency.

Using a wandless 'spell' that was just a push of my will which opened the door, I levitated the pouch that I had moments ago made unnoticeable, and placed it onto the desk, removing the charm on it as I did so, once again making it visible.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ollivander looking around in confusion, no doubt confused why the door opened but nobody was there.

There was a note tied to the pouch that said 'Sorry about the deal, here's compensation'.

I know it was unnecessary and maybe even a bit dumb but my conscience can rest easy now and I can finally feel relaxed knowing I have no unfinished business here.

Making my way towards the Leaky Cauldron, I found myself back in Muggle London which was both refreshing and uncomfortable at the same time.

I'm guessing it's because my instincts make me feel safe when i'm surrounded by magic but the magic is a lot thinner out here making me feel almost as if I don't belong.

Finding a taxi, I decided I might as well try to increase my legillimency skills and tell the driver where to go through mental commands.

I used to have reservations in using the legillimens spell but it's not as if I'm reading his mind and uncovering his darkest secrets or anything, all I can see are his current thoughts and i'm directing his will to do what I want.. which is pretty much just the imperius curse but, it's not important.

After a long drive, I was finally outside of the orphanage.

It was almost identical to the last time I came here, only Miss Laurel decided that she'd hug me even more after I got her that tea-set as a Christmas Present which had her smiling for days for some reason, I really don't understand why she's so cheerful, especially towards me, but hey i'm not complaining.

The whole time I was in the Alley and in Muggle London, Archie was inside one of my large pockets on the inside of my coat which he could now fit snuggly into after his little shrinking incident, I also spotted a raven flying over me a few times throughout the day.

I wish I could say fun and interesting things happened during my stay at the orphanage, but alas, I don't have ridiculous things happening to me every year like a certain main character.

I made sure to keep practising my martial arts everyday and at this point, I can perform all of the correct katas and movements with no problems, it's ingrained into my body through muscle-memory. I now know Karate, Kung Fu, Judo, Aikido, Jujutsu and even some Kendo, all to a very high level.

With my mind completely organised, it's a lot easier to think about what move you have to use in what situation and after practising for almost a year now, my hand-eye coordination and muscle-memory are in tip-top shape. Now with the 'Super Contact Lenses' that I invented, i'll be able to react a lot faster in intense situations, which will no doubt help with using martial arts efficiently.

As for Kendo, well I found a kendo dojo a few miles away, and learned all of the correct moves and stances from the master there, but i'm really not a fan of all that protective gear.. I mean, maybe if they used real swords it would be more fun.. but they don't, so while i'm still pretty good at Kendo, I haven't really dedicated much time into practising it.

Honestly, I don't plan on using martial arts all that much, considering magic exists and all, but I remember always thinking to myself that if I had the chance, i'd definitely become a martial arts master, and well looking at the abs that I have right now, I don't plan on stopping anytime soon.

Though I will admit that London isn't very passionate about martial arts, I did meet a Japanese man who taught Karate, and after reading his mind, I really grew a lot of respect for him, unlike most of the others here, who were just pretty good, he was a true master.

Looking at his memories, I saw how good he was at fighting, it felt like it was out of a martial arts movie or something, but afterwards I felt kinda bad for intruding on his privacy like that, didn't stop me from learning everything I could from his mind though, I'm not one to turn down free knowledge and it's not like anyone was hurt, it's just kind of immoral.

..

Throughout my time at the orphanage, I really tried increasing my magic control to as high as it could get, I ended up leaving to go to the woods where I used as many spells as I could, any damage that I did such as chipped wood, I would transfigure into different things like small animals or objects, then i'd make them all do different actions at the same time.

I tried holding a spell mid-air, then creating another one and holding that too, it was a lot harder than simply casting the spell out of your wand, not to mention the amount of magic used compared to just shooting it, but I figured in a fight it could catch somebody off-guard, and it would be useful to have a spell on hand that could be fired at the same time as another spell from my wand or hand.

By the time my birthday was coming up, even my magical control, much like my magical power, had hit a limit. I could control around 9-10 different things to do different actions simultaneously before I started struggling and getting a headache, forcing me to stop and it didn't really improve until the day finally arrived.

August 16th, my birthday. Once I fall asleep, I'll be unable to wake up until at least tomorrow, but once I do, i'll unlock it all. My family vaults and properties, I become Lord Ignis and Lord Merrygold, even my magic will undergo a maturity.

I wanted to just fall asleep in the middle of the day, but I stopped myself. For one, it would raise questions considering I do have to come back to the orphanage everyday, and me being found but not waking up will only cause problems.

The day seemed to pass ridiculously slowly, like trying to fall asleep on Christmas Eve as a kid, it takes forever.

The whole day I spent exhausting myself, exercising from running to practising martial arts movements, I pushed my magical control to its limits, holding 3 different spells simultaneously while casting normally at the same time, transfiguring multiple things and moving them at the same time independently.

Finally, it had reached 7:30pm and I was tired mentally, magically and physically and was completely ready to fall asleep.

I locked my door, just to make sure nobody came into my room, lay in my comfortable bed, and slowly found myself losing consciousness until finally, I was asleep.

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