7. Bet

Adam suddenly got sucked in by something in the world of darkness where he and Hermione were just chatting before he appeared back inside the Ollivanders shop. He looked left and right to see if he was actually back to the reality. He could see that both Ollivander and professor Flitwik were standing there in shock. Adam did not know what had happened in the outside world except for knowing that Golden light had hit him in the forehead. Adam saw that both wands had already separated and were floating in the air while slowly revolving around each other.

Adam did not immediately walked to the wands as he felt a bit weak. He did not know what had happened but he was feeling weak all over his body right now. He glanced at Hermione, who happened to wake up at this moment. Her condition was worse than Adam as he could see her legs shaking and having difficulty to stand.

Adam saw that Hermione was going to fall so he immediately moved his weak body forward and held her shoulders to support her.

Hermione was still a bit absent-minded so she did not react to Adam's touch. Adam looked at Ollivander who was looking at both wands with strange glow in his eyes, Adam asked, "Mr.Ollivander, what was that? Why did wands react like that?"

Ollivander was suddenly awakened from his strange state and looked at Adam with complicated look, "Mr.Taylor, I may be experienced in the world of wands but this was the first I had seen this scene. I am afraid I can't explain anything to you."

"Aren't these wands created by you? What is the wood and core of these wands?" Adam asked hurriedly as he felt that these things would probably let him understand the phenomenon that was caused by these wands.

"I did not create this wand, Mr.Taylor. In fact I am not capable of creating such perfect wands." Ollivander said as he looked with faint trace of sadness and longing at the wands that were floating in front of Adam and Hermione , "My grandfather used to tell me about the stories about our ancestors. He used to tell me how great the wands they created were. I never believed it but now I can see why my grandfather used to say that. I never thought that after so many years I would be reminded of my Grandfather's words."

"So are these wands created by one of your Ancestors?" Adam asked while looking at Ollivander in expectation. He never imagined that he would get some powerful wand at Ollivanders like how protagonist of the story has a powerful weapon.

"It isn't just created by one of my Ancestors, Mr.Taylor. It is the best creation of our very first Ancestor who had stepped his foot into wand-making. No one managed to reach the height that he was at in wand-making." Ollivander sighed sadly as he had thought that he could be called one of the best wand maker of their family, but now reality had hit him and showed him that he was not even worthy of his Ancestor's shoes in terms of wand-making. "Sadly, these wands were only part of our family legends so I don't know any details about these wands. But rest assured, I will definitely look into it"

"How can this be possible?!!" Hermione who had just woke up shouted loudly. Adam looked at Hermione in surprise. She noticed his gaze and lowered her head a little bit. She could feel her ears burning as she noticed that Adam who was supporting her had his face just a few inches from her face. But she soon gained her composure and looked at Ollivander and asked, " How is it possible for wand made up of wood to exist after nearly 2372 years? They should've been long turned into dust."

Adam thought that it was magic so everything was possible at first but then he noticed that what Hermione said made sense because there were really no wands left from the time of ancient Wizards. He looked at Ollivander in hope that he could answer this question.

"Wands would indeed not be able stay without turning into dust after such a long time, even with the help of magic. But I really can't answer you right now without looking into family records." Ollivander sighed once again as he really did not know about these wands. These wands were completely out of his scope of knowledge. He thought for a second and said, "Now that these wands chose their owners, You can take them away. These wands were not created by me so I won't accept any money from you. I just hope you will take care of them properly."

Adam saw that Hermione was going to decline this offer so he immediately spoke before she could say anything. Adam felt that if they were to really pay for these wands with its true value then they might not even be able to afford them.

"Thank you, Mr.Ollivander. We'll definitely take care of these wands with all of our heart."

Adam gestured Hermione to get her wand and slowly supported her to walk few steps in front of them towards the wands. Adam could feel dissatisfied gaze coming from Hermione but he didn't care about it.

"I can walk by myself. I am okay now." Hermione said as she pushed Adam away in dissatisfaction. She took the feminine looking wand in front of her while Adam took his wand that floated in front of him. Both wands made a shattering sound then with a bright flashing light, both wands turned into new looking wands.

Both Adam and Hermione were surprised but they had now gotten a bit numb to these wands as they had already seen so many surprises brought by this wand. Both of them suddenly thought of the black world where they spoke some weird things, they immediately turned red with shame. Somehow their thinking was still the same as if they were connected to each other which brought them even greater shame.

At this moment, Professor Flitwik who was still standing without speaking anything made a sound as if he woke up from the sleep.

"That was wonderful, really wonderful. I might be able to have a breakthrough in my magic after a long time. Thank you, Adam and Ms.Granger. You really helped me a lot this time around."

"Professor don't thank us, we... "Adam said but he was immediately interrupted by Hermione, who completed his sentence for him.

"...don't even understand what happened with these wands."

Both of them looked at each other then turned away from each other's gaze as both of them could remember the dark space of nothingness when they looked into each other's eyes.

"You still helped me so you should accept my thank you." Professor Flitwik said as he took out pocket watch from his robe and looked at the time and hurriedly pulled Adam and Hermione towards the exit. "We don't have much time left. Mr.Ollivander, I am really sorry but we must go now. I will let them come here later for you to have a chat with them."

Ollivander could not even open his mouth when he noticed that the Trio had already left his shop. He sighed softly and put on a closed sign at his door so he could go back to his ancestral house after a long time to check the past records about these wands.

Professor Flitwik pulled them out of the Diagon Alley, back to the leaky cauldron. He quickly explained few things to Hermione's parents which were basically lies that he did not manage to get all of our supplies and they'll have to stay here for a while. Mr. and Mrs. Granger asked Hermione if she was hungry or if she needed more money but she declined then they left the leaky cauldron.

Professor Flitwik was talking to Tom, the owner of Leaky cauldron. Adam guessed that they must be talking about place to use magic. Adam glanced at Hermione who just stood silently while making sure that she won't be looking at Adam. Adam could only laugh at this situation. He asked,

"Are you really not hungry?"

Hermione glanced at him then looked at her feet before replying, "We don't have time to waste. We'll have to go for the duel in 50 minutes." She wanted to say that she was not hungry but she noticed that somehow she was not able to lie to Adam. She felt really uncomfortable when she was thinking about lying to Adam. She didn't know why she felt like this so she didn't mention it to Adam.

Adam smiled at how innocent this little girl looked in front of him. He could not help but pat Hermione's bushy brown hairs that were properly set, probably because she also wanted to have good impression on her future professors.

"Hold on for a while, Duel will end in minutes then we can calmly sit down and eat something delicious."

Hermione slapped Adam's hand and looked at him angrily, "Don't touch my hairs." She took 2 steps away from Adam and stood there silently looking at him with vigilance.

Professor Flitwik came back and took them to a room upstairs. He told them that they could use magic in this room as they please. Hermione who always tried to follow rules could not help but voice her concern,

"But Professor, didn't you say that we can not use magic outside Hogwarts till the age of 17?"

Adam secretly laughed in his mind as he saw professor Flitwik slowly explaining Hermione about the magic that is used to locate underage Wizards. Adam was not surprised to hear that ministry of magic could not accurately detect the use of magic of underage Wizards at the place of wizard gatherings.

After few minutes Professor Flitwik started explaining basic information that beginners needed to know so that they would not have an accident, like speaking incantation clearly. Hermione listened to it with full concentration, while Adam just heard those things and ignored it as he already knew such basic things.

Professor Flitwik started telling Adam about Disarming charm. Adam did not expect Professor Flitwik to start teaching it right at the beginning. Adam knew that Disarming charm was difficult compared to Levitation and wand lighting charm(Light charm in his system). But he still followed Professor Flitwik's advise anyways.

After few minutes of explanation, Professor Flitwik demonstrated Disarming charm on Adam before letting Adam try and perform Disarming charm on himself. Usually Professor Flitwik would not let anyone use magic with just after few minutes of teaching but right now he did not have time left so he had to let Adam practise right away.

While Adam tried to use Diarming charm, Professor Flitwik saw that even Hermione was trying to use this spell. He quickly stopped her and told her about normal easier wand lighting charm. She was not happy at professor Flitwik but she still listened to him and practised wand-lighting charm.

"Lumos." Hermione said as she waved her wand in the air. Bright light appeared at the end of her wand. It lasted couple of seconds before disappearing. Hermione was so elated that she proudly raised her head towards Adam and gave him a smug look. Adam just laughed at her appearance but he somehow started feeling that he could now perform this wand-lighting charm.

Adam waved his wand and clearly said the incantation of wand lighting charm, "Lumos." Same phenomenon appeared as his wand burst into bright light which lasted for couple of seconds before disappearing. Professor Flitwik and Hermione were surprised but Hermione's smiling face had already became angry in few seconds. She snorted at Adam then continued her practise of wand lighting charm. She looked angry but she was happy in her heart as she felt that Adam really had good chance to win the duel.

Under professor Flitwik's guidance, Adam managed to let his wand produce red light of Disarming charm but he could still not use the spell properly. Professor Flitwik was surprised with Adam's quick progress but this was definitely not enough for him to win the duel.

When there were only 15 minutes left, Professor Flitwik stopped Adam and Hermione, "Now rest for a while, You don't want to run out of magic before the duel, do you?" As he said this, he created 3 chairs out of nothing. Atleast it looked like he created them out of nothingness.

Professor Flitwik started telling tricks about duel that he had mentioned before. In fact those tricks were just silly things that Adam already knew. Duel didn't just mean that Wizards can only use magic, in fact they can even fight hand to hand. It was just that powerful and experienced wizard would not let their enemies get close to them. Professor Flitwik advised Adam to rush to Draco Malfoy, the moment he started casting a spell and catch him off-guard. Ofcourse this option was only to be used if he could not match Draco in terms of magic, which was very likely in professor Flitwik's eyes.

There were only 5 minutes left before the time of duel. Adam would be lying if he said that he was not nervous but he was still quite confident in his own abilities. He was sure that he could beat 2-3 Draco's in hand to hand combat if he failed to beat him in magic.

Ofcourse Adam had his own secret weapon that made him impossible to lose this duel. He had tried levitation spell that he bought from his system shop. He found that even though magic he used in this spell was higher than normal magic, but its effect was also stronger compared to the normal magic that he used without system.

Only regret that Adam felt was that he was still not strong enough to use levitation charm on living beings.

How did Adam know this?

It was a simple process but quite dangerous for himself.

Adam secretly tried using levitation spell on Hermione and he also failed it miserably which caused Hermione's well set hairs to stand straight in the air which made them even messier compared to every day mess that her hair were in. Luckily Hermione was practising levitation spell at that moment so she thought that it happened because she failed in using magic. Otherwise Adam thought that she would definitely eat him alive, for the wild cat she was.

Even though Hermione had failed this spell in the start but Adam was still surprised to see the speed at which she learned these magic spells. In just 30 minutes, Hermione managed to execute two spells which was really unbelievable speed. Even professor Flitwik could not believe his own eyes, when he saw her like this. Ofcourse Adam could also do it, but he didn't want to take Hermione's spotlight. Adam was even wondering if Hermione's learning speed had something to do with her wand. Adam had felt strange feeling in his own wand whenever she used her wand. Adam wanted to see what it was but he did not want to talk to Hermione about this in front of professor Flitwik.

Professor Flitwik went to talk to Tom before leaving so Adam took this chance to check his status window.

Name: Adam

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Age: 11

Magic Status: Active

Level: 6

Special points: 12200

Gold: 1590

Tasks:

1.Visit Diagon Alley and explore 5 places/ shops. 4/5 completed.

Reward: 500 special points and 20 gold per shop.

2.Learn different types of magic. (permanent task)

Reward: Minimum 1000 special points and 100 gold per spell. (Rewards vary according to difficulty of the spell. Learning spells before entering hogwarts will give ten times the reward.)

3.Read books about magical mysteries. (permanent task)

Reward: Special points and gold according to difficulty and information level of books.

4. Win the duel against Draco Malfoy.

Reward: 1000 Gold

Map (nearby secret space) : None.

Shop: ☆Basic Transfiguration, 500 Gold.

☆Disarming charm, 1500 Gold. (Power varies with the strength of the user.)

☆ Apparition, 40000 Gold. (Warning: Maximum distance traveled with current magical level is 100M. Trying exceed this limit may cause Splinching. Frequent Apparition may cause headache, depletion of mental strength and strain on human soul that may lead to long term soul problems.)

Adam silently looked through the changes of his status window. He was excited to see that his level had went from level 3 to level 6. He didn't know what this level was in the beginning but now he was sure that this level showed his magic power level. He was one hundred percent sure that his magic level had grown because of the wand.

Adam noticed that his gold had already reached 1590 which meant that he could now buy more spells. He got 500 gold from Hermione's task when he proposed her to join Hogwarts in the world of complete darkness where he could not control his stupid mouth. While he also got 1000 gold by learning wand-lighting charm. Now he really wanted to buy new magic spells but he controlled himself as he didn't want to waste opportunity to get more gold by learning those spells by himself.

Adam's eyes now moved on to spell shop. He saw that Basic Transfiguration spell was still there with 500 Gold price which was now affordable. But then he saw the price of Disarming spell, He was shocked but still controlled himself because Disarming charm was really advanced spell compared to Levitation and wand-lighting charms.

Adam slowly looked down at the 3rd spell that appeared in his system shop, it was Apparition. Adam didn't understand why did it not appear when he had traveled with professor Flitwik but he ignored it as he thought it might not be possible to copy all the spells with his strength and he was possibly right about his guess. Now that he had reached level 6, Apparition had been added to his system shop.

At this moment Adam's eye caught onto the price of Apparition, 40000 GOLD!!!

Adam stood up in disbelief, Hermione who was sneakily trying to practise magic saw him standing up with ugly expression on his face. She was immediately worried about him, she ran upto him and asked him what had happened but he did not reply as he was still looking at his status window in disbelief.

Hermione shook him again and again, finally he responded to her calls.

"I am fine, Hermione" Adam said with a stiff smile on his face, which made her even more worried about him. She thought that he was nervous and afraid of the duel. She thought of something and suddenly gave Adam a tight bear hug. Hermione's mother gave her tight hug whenever she was afraid of something so she thought of doing the same for Adam.

Adam was a bit surprised at her reaction but then he recalled how Hermione used to give tight hugs in the movies. He closed his status window without giving it another glance then gave Hermione equally tight hug in return.

Professor Flitwik who had gone to talk to Tom had finally returned and as everytime when he left these two little kids alone, He got another surprise when he got back. He saw these two little kids hugging each other tightly without even closing the door. There was only one thought in his mind, 'World has definitely changed.'

Professor Flitwik faked a cough and then said, "It's time for the duel. so let's go there quickly." He did not even wait for Adam and Hermione to separate and simply walked out of the room. Adam and Hermione separated from their hug and followed behind professor Flitwik. Hermione did not think much about this hug as her hug was purely out of her worry towards her friend, while Adam knew that Hermione's hug did not have any other meaning hidden in it.

Trio soon arrived at the 'Flourish and Blotts'. As soon as they arrived at the door, they saw Lucius and Draco Malfoy waiting with small crowd of people who looked like nobles. They were all from pure-blood families. Adam didn't know them but he was sure that most of them were definitely pure-blood families. What puzzled him was why Lucius invited so many people.

Professor Flitwik left the group and went to talk to some of his acquaintance to understand the situation. But he soon returned with bright smile on his face.

"Don't worry these people are here to join in on the fun. Most of them came to buy school necessities for their children as they were out for the meeting in ministry of magic. Let's go and finish this duel." Professor Flitwik said as he led them towards Lucius Malfoy. Adam had breathed sigh of relief when he understood that these people were not here for him.

"Professor Flitwik, how come are you here? Are you also here to join in on the fun?" Lucius Malfoy asked politely but everyone could tell that there was not even a little bit of politeness in his words.

"Lucius, how can you say those things to these two little kids? and how did you accept the duel? You know duel is not a child's play." Professor Flitwik said in anger but he did not act that aggressive as he was also not going to provoke Malfoy family in front of so many pure-blood families.

"You misunderstood me. I was just teaching this little muggle-girl about the world of magic when this boy came out of nowhere and proposed a duel. How can I harm our pure-blood family's reputation by declining a duel? so I could only reluctantly accept this silly duel. You know it is really insulting for me to accept this duel but I have to do it." Lucius said with a sneer on his face. Everyone burst into laughter. Hermione was really nervous, she hid behind Adam and held onto his shirt from behind. She really wanted to run away right now but she knew that this duel had been set because of her so she could not just leave Adam to deal it by himself.

Adam could see that professor Flitwik can not handle this situation so he decided to end this duel thing early. He walked forward in front of professor Flitwik with confident smile on his face while beating left palm with his right fist, as if to tell Lucius that he was definitely going to use this fist to beat Draco to the ground.

"Come on, Mr.Malfoy. I don't think everyone else present here is as free as you to just walk in in random shops and keep spending their family fortune all day long. Even I don't have time to always have a duel with your boy, so can we finish it quickly? I don't think we can create a strong magic with our age so I think we can have our duel anywhere." Adam said while looking at Draco who was standing beside Lucius.

"Boy, what is your name? We can have our duel in this bookstore's basement. I asked him to clean it up for the duel." Lucius asked as he just looked at Adam without any reaction on his face. Everyone present here were probably used to Lucius's attitude so they did not laugh at his calmness.

"I am Adam Taylor. By the way this is really very thoughtful of you, Mr.Malfoy. I initially thought that you would be fighting on the street based on the way you usually look." Adam said with same calm expression and indifferent smile on his face. He did not let Lucius say anything before continuing. "Please don't take offense to my words, Mr.Malfoy. I did not mean to insult you. I just mean that your attitude should bring you quite the troubles on the streets so you should really be familiar with these streets. I even wonder how are you still in one piece and walking around happily."

Lucius was angry but he had conflicted emotions in his heart. He couldn't understand where this Muggle-born boy got his confidence. Either he was ignorant of Malfoy family's power or he was confident in his own background, possibility of latter was higher compared to the prior as he had seen that Adam had known many secrets.

Lucius slowly walked towards Adam and said in low but firm voice so that no one else could listen, "Boy I don't know where your confidence comes from but you better not push my bottom line or you might not even know how you died." Lucius paused and looked into Adam's eyes before walking inside Flourish and Blotts, "FOLLOW ME."

Adam was happy that Lucius was taking him seriously and was doubting his background. This will definitely give him enough time to grow up in this magical world.

Everyone followed Lucius to the basement of Flourish and Blotts. Most of the people didn't even know that there was big basement under Flourish and Blotts. Adam saw that this was plain basement with just few empty wooden boxes in it. Maybe it was completely emptied for the duel.

"Before we start the duel, I want to make some rules clear. This battle is a duel between two Wizards. Two gentlemen. There should be no barbarism in it. So I think that we should decide the result of this duel solely based on magic. If you touch your opponent, then you would be automatically disqualified." Lucius said as he gave a rare smile on his cold face. He thought that Draco would definitely not lose if they compare with magic.

"What do you mean Lucius? There are no such rules in a duel." Professor Flitwik angrily asked. He understood that Lucius wanted to make sure that Adam would not win by any means.

"Professor Flitwik, this is duel initiated by this muggle-boy. So it should be normal for me to set the rules. And you were not in the place when duel was initiated so you should not speak here." Lucius sneered at Professor Flitwik. Lucius was determined to not give any chance to Adam so he was not going to back down.

"Professor, Don't worry. I can handle this duel by myself. You can just stay on the side with Hermione and watch me win." Adam smiled at Professor Flitwik. Then he turned to Lucius, "So Mr.Malfoy I can actually accept this condition but how about we make a bet on who will be the winner?"

"Speak your bet." Lucius asked Adam as he understood that Adam was giving him a chance to get his condition accepted. It was an exchange- his condition for Adam's bet.

"I am not that rich, Mr.Malfoy so only 500 Galleons that I will win. I hope this bet I acceptable to you." Adam said as he took out small pouch from pocket. Lucius did not reply but directly took out same type of pouch from his sleeves and threw it on the ground in front of Adam.

"Mr.Malfoy, you should not throw the money. Especially when this money is a life saving thing for you." Adam said as he gently put his pouch near the Lucius's pouch.

"Enough nonsense. Start the duel now." Adam had once again touched Lucius's sensitive point. Lucius was angry but he could not do anything right now. He just wanted Draco to win this duel quickly so he could leave this place and look into Adam's background.