2 Chapter 2: Spirits

(Year 1991)

(General POV)

  With a smile on his face, Savrin continued moving down the halls of the castle with a slight skip in his step. A minute ago he had felt the presence of someone watching him, and after figuring out who, or rather, what it was, he couldn't help but smile.

"Who would have thought there would be a sentient castle in this world of all places?" He spoke softly as he let his hand brush against the wall as he continued walking. Even back in Genesis it was rare for a construct to gain sentience, and after everything he had learned about this world he thought it would be thousands of years before something like it came into being.

After a little prodding here and there he had an idea as to how it happened, and after checking a few more details it made sense. The castle itself was just shy of a thousand years old, and since that time it had been the home of thousands of witches and wizards in this world.

With the amount of magic coursing through it on an annual basis, the castle itself was able to absorb a fair deal and literally create life for itself. It also helped that the area it was built upon was blessed by magic, as Savrin could feel the magic in the castle to be much denser than the surrounding areas.

  Feeling a touch playful, Savrin sent a jolt of magic into the wall and almost instantly he could feel the presence watching him react. Had the castle been human, he suspected the reaction would have looked something like the human jumping a few feet in the air before it ran away. It was amusing when he felt the presence of the castle move away from him, but he could feel it nearby as it continued to watch him.

"Won't you stop hiding and come introduce yourself?" He asked quietly, knowing the presence would hear him no matter how quiet he was. Focusing intently on the presence, he felt as though it was shaking its head at him, but at the same time he could feel the presence nodding its head. 'A castle with a dual personality? That's new.' He thought.

  Even after getting into the library and moving towards the History section, Savrin could feel the presence watching him from a short distance, but he ignored it for the moment. From what he could tell, the castle was unable to speak to anyone, so it reporting his own presence in the castle was impossible, which was why he hadn't been worried when it found him.

  Flipping through the pages of the books around him, Savrin read about the Witch Hunts, Founding of Hogwarts, Goblin Rebellions, The Ministry of Magic, a prison called Azkaban, the wizarding bank called Gringotts, and the International Wizard Confederation, or the ICW as most called it.

The more he read, the more he learned how stupid this world was, and for a brief moment he contemplated on letting them all kill themselves. However, knowing that would most likely result in his own death, Savrin decided that he would need to do something before it became irreversible.

Peeking out the window of the library, Savrin noticed how the morning rays from the sun were already lighting the sky. 'At least I have a better understanding of this world.' He concluded with a tired sigh before he waved his hand and the books went back to their positions on the shelves where he had taken them from.

"I'll be back." He spoke to the presence that had watched him since he entered the castle. With that, he disembarked back to his little tree to get some sleep.

  -----

  Over the course of the following days, Savrin frequently returned to the castle at night to peruse the books in the library, or sometimes he would just wander the halls to study the place. Honesty, the idea of freely sharing knowledge like this had never occurred to him or anyone else in Genesis, so he was taking the time to really get a feel for it.

Whenever he returned to the castle, the presence would always appear and follow him around. It was only after the seventh day that he decided to confront the spirit of the castle to figure out why it wouldn't come to meet him, but that's when things went wrong.

Setting a trap to capture the spirit was quite easy, but in no way had Savrin expected what came next. The magical barrier slammed down around the presence, isolating it to a specific portion of the floor and making so it couldn't retreat. When he was only a few feet from the spirit, four more presences made themselves known as they appeared out of nowhere and began to assault him.

Savrin actually had to take a step back as the four new spirits formed a line between him and the one he had bound. "Where the hell did you four come from?" He couldn't help but ask. There was no way he could have missed them before if they were in the castle, but the fact that he didn't know where they came from was a little unnerving, yet more than a little intriguing.

  Focusing on the spirits around him, Savrin noticed how the closest one seemed to be the largest of them all and was giving off the impression of a shield. The spirit standing just behind it gave off the feeling of a spear ready to be thrust upon him at any moment. The two final spirits were standing beside the barrier he had created to bind the first, comforting it in a sort of way.

He checked to see if the spirits were going to try and undo his barrier, but it seemed they didn't even know where to begin, which was fair. If they were actually capable of scratching his barrier it would have been quite impressive to say the least.

"Let's all relax. I'm not trying to hurt you, I just want to talk." Savrin spoke calmly, hoping to ease the situation somewhat before he had to kill the spirits. In these forms they wouldn't actually be able to harm him in any way, but they could still irritate him if they were strong enough.

  His words did nothing to calm the spirits, but after he decided to remove the barrier that bound the first spirit, he could feel them all somewhat relax slightly. "Can we talk now? I'm just trying to figure out what's going on here." He said again, being sure to keep his arms at his side to hopefully put them at ease so they wouldn't run off.

He waited a moment before he felt the closest one give him a nod. With a smile, he conjured a rectangular table with six chairs around it, two on each side and one on each end. None of the spirits moved to sit, and it was only after he was seated himself that he understood why.

Being an entity that could bend magic to his will, Savrin could more or less picture the spirits in front of him and already considered them as beings. However, despite his views the spirits did not have physical forms for which they could sit with, simply being floating wisps that made them what they were.

"Hold on, and bear with me for a moment." He said before magic spun around each spirit for but a moment before it seemed to disperse, and in its wake were five beings standing there staring at themselves. None of them had any features, and they were all identical. All of them were blue humanoid masses of energy that were all the exact same in every way, save for the spirits that reside inside of them and that was it.

  "Wow." One of them spoke quietly before it let out a gasp. "I talked!" It shouted in surprise. "Of course you bloody talked!" Another of the spirits said, sounding a little angry.

"Yes, yes, you can all talk. Halleluiah. Anyway, where did you four come from? And you. Why is a spirit hiding from someone in its own construct?" Savrin asked, getting right to the point of the whole thing.

"First you tell us who you are!" One of the spirits said defensively. "And what you are!" Another of them said before Savrin could even think of who to answer the first question. "I also want to know how you created our physical forms!" A third spirit said.

Contemplating on how best to answer, if he even wanted to, Savrin finally let out a sigh before replying, "My name is Savrin Kincade, and I am the last Zetric. I am a magician who is simply in search of answers to this world before I decide if, and how I should fix it. As for how I gave you physical forms, well I'm just gifted in magic. Now it's your turn."

There was silence for a minute as the spirits seemingly contemplated over his words. When he first arrived here it had crossed his mind to see if there were any species like his own in this world, but after learning the state of things he discarded that idea, so by telling them of his race it really wouldn't answer anything for them.

"We are the protectors of this school." The spirit that felt like a shield stated. "By attacking the spirit of Hogwarts, you provoked our wards!" The one that felt like a spear added, making Savrin frown for a moment as he tried to make sense of the situation.

  Focusing on the four new spirits, he looked over them closely for a minute, and it was only then that he thought he knew what they were.

'Guardians? How in magic's name did someone in this world create guardians?' He asked himself. Everything about this castle confused him, as it had things that were far too advanced for this world. The fact that someone in the world managed to create a guardian was praiseworthy, but the fact that they created four of them was astounding.

Back in Genesis, the number of mages who could create guardians were few in number, but they were so powerful they were beings second only to his kind. Watching them more closely, he realized they were not in fact the spirit guardians he was thinking of, but imitations created by infusing the spirits and magic of strong mages into the castle.

However, that shouldn't have created the spirits he was seeing, but somehow it had happened. 

  "You are the founders, Godric Gryffindor, Salazar Slytherin, Helga Hufflepuff, and Rowena Ravenclaw. I understand then. This actually makes more sense than if someone in this world actually managed to create sentient magical guardians. But it still doesn't answer why you would hide from me when we essentially are inside of you." Savrin finished, looking pointedly at one of the two spirits who had remained silent thus far.

"You frighten me." Was all the spirit of Hogwarts said before its blank humanoid appearance seemed to frown at him. How he could tell what expressions they were making was impossible to explain, but he could see them for who they truly were.

"You're not going to harm the children, are you?" The final voice that hadn't spoken yet asked, sounding annoyed more than anything.

"There is no gain from harming children. In fact, that would be counterproductive for bettering the magic of this world. If anything, my goal is to help make them stronger." Savrin answered honestly, seeing no need to hide this truth.

"You mean that, don't you?" The spirit of Hogwarts asked, its frown lessening as it stared at him with wide hopeful eyes. To see a spirit without facial features change expressions was truly something to behold for sure, and for the first time in a long time, Savrin let out a small chuckle.

"Yes. The world is dying, and I am going to fix it. And now that you all know about it, you're going to help!" He said, causing each of the spirits to sit a bit straighter.

  Before either of them could react, Savrin bound each of them in place before he pulled them one by one and placed their spirits into a gemstone he pulled from his storage dimension. The Spirit he thought to be Godric Gryffindor went into a ruby, Salazar Slytherin went into an emerald, Rowena Ravenclaw went into a sapphire, and Helga Hufflepuff went into a topaz.

As for the spirit of Hogwarts, Savrin couldn't seal it into something other than the castle without killing it, something which he was very loath to do. As far as he was aware, the spirit of the castle was the grandest accomplishment of this world, and he wasn't about to take it away.

The reason he could take the spirits of the founders was because they were put into this place to protect it by an outside source, whereas the spirit of Hogwarts came from magic itself, like its own entity.

  Once he had sealed away the founders, Savrin looked to the lone spirit sitting opposite himself at the table.

"Fear not, I am simply borrowing your protectors for a short while. I need some answers, and once I have no more need of them, I shall return them to you stronger than before. I will also give you a gift." Savrin said to the once again terrified spirit.

Vanishing the table that separated them, Savrin walked over until he was towering over the spirit who looked to be shrinking in on itself. Placing a hand on its head, Savrin let his power flow inside the spirit.

By my name I give unto thee, Presence.

By my power I give unto thee, Strength.

By the grace of magic, I give unto thee, Form.

May you carry the blessing of magic eternally.

The ritual lasted less than a minute, and when it concluded the spirit from before was completely changed. As the remainder of the magic from the ritual swirled around them as it dispersed into the air, the spirit, which was now free of its binding, looked itself over.

No longer was it a silhouette of a person with no features. The spirit of Hogwarts had evolved into something far greater. It looked like a beautiful young woman who seemed to be overflowing with magic. Her hair was like white flames as it danced around her, and her eyes were like stars.

"You changed me." It said as it admired itself.

  "I will be keeping these spirits for a while, so in their absence you can now freely control the wards they placed if you feel yourself or your residents threatened. I might stop by to get some information every now and then, and hopefully you will be more accommodating." Savrin spoke plainly.

Unlike the frown or look of annoyance he was expecting, the little spirit wrapped her arms around his waist before saying, "They are my family. Please bring them safely back to me." Smiling at the audacity of the spirit, Savrin promised her he would bring them back soon.

(Image of the Spirit)

-----

  After leaving the spirit with a bit of information that would be helpful to it, Savrin departed back to his tree in what he now knew was the Forbidden Forest.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing, you daft bastard?!! Why am I trapped in this rock?!" The voice of Godric shouted from the ruby in his hand, making Savrin frown.

"I can store you in a tub of shit just as easily as the ruby. Don't test my patience." He spoke, silencing Godric's shouting as well as the whispers he could hear from the others.

"Now that we've calmed down a touch, allow me to explain why you're here. I want you to explain your past and anything you can about what is happening in the world today. Also, I want you to explain to me how you understand magic, as well as how you would better the world if you could." Savrin said, surprising the spirits of the Founders.

  For the remainder of the night, Savrin listened quietly as each of them took a turn explaining their own past, and what they knew of the present. Unsurprisingly, none of them knew the state of the world, nor did they know anything that had transpired since the time of their deaths. Hell, they didn't even know how long it had been since they died.

They were simply the manifestations of magic that resembled their previous selves because the magic had come from their previous selves. Like blood in a way, only it had the power to do so much more.

  After hearing all they knew, Savrin couldn't help but think about the history book on the Founding of Hogwarts. It seemed a number of things were recorded incorrectly if the words of the founders were anything to go off of, however he trusted them a lot more than he trusted words in a book that could have been written by anyone.

"How many witches and wizards were there in Britain in your day?" He asked the spirits. "What is Britain?" Rowena asked, sounding confused at the unknown land.

"Britain is the name of the country we are in." Savrin answered simply. "What happened to Albion?" Godric asked, sounding a little shocked that the name of the land hand changed.

"Probably changed due to a takeover or something. Anyway, how many witches and wizards were there back in your time?" Savrin asked again, not the least bit interested in the name change of some country.

"In the days of the master and disciple, there were anywhere between five to six thousand witches and wizards wandering Albion. A decade or so after we created Hogwarts, we saw an increase each year in the number of witches and wizards born, and the number only seemed to be rising each year. The numbers based on those who either attended Hogwarts or the families of those who attended Hogwarts back in the day were around eight to nine thousand towards the end of our lives." Rowena explained.

The number was small to be sure, but given how magic was probably just gaining a foothold in this world at the time, it sounded about right. He'd need to check with the Ministry of Magic to see how much the number had improved over a thousand years since the census was taken and see what he could do to improve those numbers, but at least it was something to go off of.

  Another thing he wanted to do was check in on the muggles, as the non-mages were called here. They had surprised him once before, and he wasn't about to let them do it again.

  Once he got everything he wanted for the moment from the Founders, Savrin decided he wanted to go check out the Ministry of Magic. Hopefully by perusing the records of the past decade or so he would be able to see exactly what he was dealing with.

Making a quick stop to the Three Broomsticks, Savrin got his paper and some directions from Rosmerta before he headed off to the Ministry. Arriving only an hour or so later at a way too crowded building, Savrin began to move around to get information.

Being that this place governed the witches and wizards of Britain, he didn't immediately go search for the records, choosing instead to get any useful information he could by exploring.

  After spending almost the entire day learning about the different departments and what exactly the ministry did, Savrin could safely say that he would not be taking over the ministry.

The idea had occurred to him sometime the day before to just seat himself as the leader and rule on high to better the world, but after learning about the stupidity of the people of this world, he was more inclined to kill them all, which was why the Minister of Magic was off the table.

He knew if he was Minister he would probably have an open rebellion by the second hour of his appointment due to him killing everyone who served him.

  Sometime throughout his exploration he had visited the Hall of Records, and upon finding the information he had been searching for, he wished he hadn't bothered to look. Almost a thousand years prior, the numbers were already quite low, but they were on the rise. Now however, the number of wizards and witches in the UK barely reached three thousand, and the number was actually going down rather than increasing, which was quite unnerving to say the least.

Neither Rowena nor the other Founders could give him any reason why it was happening, and he believed them due to how shocked they sounded. Digging even further in the records, Savrin found records of witches and wizards fleeing Britain and moving to other countries during the First Wizarding War, which actually ended about a decade prior.

During that time then the muggleborn witches and wizards were hunted and killed, which was why they fled. Even now years after the war had ended, many were still fleeing the country.

'I need to find out who this Voldemort is and whoever supported him!' Savrin thought, thinking the man was an infection that should have been killed before it had the chance to fester. As for those who supported him and were still alive, Savrin figured the world could do without a few rotten pieces to better the whole.

  Going back to the Forbidden Forest, Savrin began walking around to clear his mind of the garbage he had learned today, while at the same time he kept his eye out for certain plants and insects. With how abundant everything was in this forest it didn't take him long at all to find all the ingredients to make a few potions he was in dire need of.

Heading back to his little tree house, Savrin set up his equipment before he placed a few enchantments around the room, then got to work. The moon was already high in the sky before he finished his concoction, at which point he lifted the still piping hot cauldron before bringing it to his lips and tilting it back.

In one breath he drank the entire cauldron worth of alcohol. Though not quite as strong as Hell's Piss, the drink he had just created was many times stronger than the Fire-whiskey he had drunk from the Three Broomsticks, and within minutes he could already feel the effects, and in less than an hour he completely blacked out.

  The following morning as the rays from the sun shone through the window into his tree house, Savrin groggily picked himself up off the floor with a pounding headache. With his eyes still closed he reached into his dimensional storage before he pulled out a small blue vial, and after popping the stopper, he downed the contents.

Immediately he could feel a wave of cool wash over him and halt the throbbing he was feeling. As he finally got a hold of himself, he realized he wasn't alone in his little home. Opening his eyes, Savrin saw something that shocked him completely.

Tied up and hanging upside down from the ceiling by his legs was a little boy with fiery red hair. Looking at the boy, Savrin could see him staring hatefully towards him, and the kid probably would have been shouting something at him had it not been the strip of cloth covering his mouth.

Ignoring the red-haired boy, Savrin looked to where his cauldron was placed in the middle of the room with a little blonde haired girl sitting inside of it. She was bound and gagged similar to the little red haired boy, only she looked far more comfortable.

Moving his eyes again, Savrin looked to the makeshift fireplace he had built for himself, and there he found another little girl, this one with raven black hair, tied to a cooking spit with an apple in her mouth.

Finally looking to the last presence in the room, Savrin found another dark-haired child, only this one was a boy, and his hair had been mostly shaved off, leaving a strip that ran down the center of his head, giving him a mohawk.

The boy was tied up and stuck to the wall with a ring of circles painted on the wall around him, and in each circle there was a number of familiar weapons that Savrin remembered being inside his storage space.

  Looking at each child once again, Savrin walked over to his bed before laying down and closing his eyes. 'It's too early for this shit.' He thought, then drifted off to sleep.