Chapter 26: Nyx's First Mission

Waking up next day I heard the soft hoots from Nyx across the room. It was like a soft alarm waking me up early. I got myself out of bed and headed over to him in his cage and gave him a petting alongside some food.

"I better write a letter then for Nana and Melony… At least let them know all is well"

Before I could indulge in some more reading, I thought to write a letter and send Nyx off with it. It would be his first little mission. I was quite happy with Nyx as a name for this owl I had gotten, it rolled off the tongue nicely. I had a few others in mind too as I thought of Nyx, names like Archimedes, Aster, Azrael, Kuro or maybe even Almond Wigglebutt the 4th. Nyx seemed to instantly like the name 'Nyx' though as I named him so I refrained from trying the others on my mind.

Writing the letter, I mentioned about being here in Diagon Alley, relaxing before the school year and about that I would be heading off to school the day after I send off this letter. I didn't know how fast Nyx was but it would probably take some time getting the letter to them over in Cornwall. After writing for around 20 minutes, I sealed the letter and put the address on it for New Leaf. Turning, I went to look at Nyx however found that Nyx was right next to me, looking at me and then down towards my hands.

"I wonder why your eyes are like that Nyx… I wish you could outright tell me"

"Hoot Hoot!"

"I'm sure you're being very profound right now but I don't understand owl"

Nyx seemed slightly frustrated as it spread its wings trying to get me to understand how he was able to see despite his eyes being seemingly blind. Eventually Nyx hopped onto my lap and used his beak to pick up my wand from my pocket. He seemed to gesture towards it and use his wings to point at it then his own eyes.

"Could it be that… you are able to see magic?"

"Hoot!"

Nyx spread his wings out with a happy expression as I seemingly guessed correctly. So, he could see magic? Then was there something unique with my magic?

"Is the fact that you can see magic and the reason you allowed me to be your owner connected?"

"Hoot!"

Nyx nodded and jumped up onto my shoulder as he did yesterday. It seemed he liked being close to me like this, perching on my shoulder. If Nyx picked me due to my magic, then could it be that my internal magic is unique to look at? Maybe due to how I've trained its purer and the amount is much more which intrigued Nyx. The manager of Eeylop's seemed to exclaim that Nyx had 'finally' found a companion, he must have been in that shop for a while catching the eyes of students who were refused by it due to Nyx seeing small amounts of magic. Now I thought about it, this owl was certainly prideful wanting nothing but the best master.

I didn't mind that though, actually it made Nyx even more interesting to me as a pet. Being able to see magic and having all other senses enhanced allowed Nyx to navigate despite being blind. It did make me worry though if he would be able to find New Leaf as it was a muggle orphanage…

"Nyx, I got my first mission for you. I need you to take this letter to New Leaf orphanage located in Newquay, Cornwall. It's to the far south west of here… do you think you'll manage"

Nyx seemed to scoff as he grabbed the letter from the desk and hopped to the window waiting for it to open. Seeing his eagerness, I chuckled a bit. It seemed I was worrying too much, this owl definitely had tricks up his sleeve.

"When you get there a girl called Melony will probably be fawning over you and will look after you, treat her and Nana well. If I find out you bite them or something I will reduce the amount I feed you"

"Hoot!?"

Nyx seemed scared about the prospect of not receiving food. I smiled as I stroked him over a couple more times and then opened the window.

"You do know where Hogwarts is right? I'll be there instead of here when you come back this way I imagine"

"Hoot!"

Nyx seemed to be telling me 'Don't worry about it' as he jumped from the window and soared off up into the sky. Seeing him fly you wouldn't think he was blind at all as he dodged all obstacles reaching high into the sky.

"When I get to Hogwarts tomorrow, I'll let someone know about Nyx… Should be fine then registering him. If McGonagall asks anything about how I got him if she notices I'll just say Nana and Melony sent some money or something…"

Heading back to my desk in the room I sat down and took out some books to read. These books were ones that spoke on magic creation and the complex process of building your own spell. This was something I wanted to do this year and was my ultimate goal. I had some ideas and the main one was the utilise the amount of magic I had in comparison to others to give myself a burst of strength in certain situations. I wanted to increase my speed, strength and reactions using magic as the driving force essentially augmenting my strength.

This idea was difficult though to put into practice and create, I had to memorise all the safe veins and such within my body to pull magic through strengthening them. The way magic creation worked when building from the ground up was like visualising a code in your brain that the spell would enact. When that code was perfect you would give that code a command which would be the spell name like 'Lumos' or something. It sounded somewhat simple when worded but in reality, you had to have extreme control over your magic, my control was definitely much greater than others my age making this goal possible however even with my increased control, this goal of mine would be difficult.

Besides that, as my main goal, I had a few other things I wanted to work towards in Hogwarts. The first was figuring out how to get around the castle undetected so I can go to the Room of Requirement or other places at night. I looked into cloaking spells within the books I already had and planned to buy some more books later today on the matter, layering all that knowledge with what I would find in Hogwarts I hoped to be able to cast a cloaking spell good enough to evade the prefects and teachers' eyes. Honestly, it shouldn't be too difficult… When this step was achieved, I would be able to do basically anything during the night.

Another difficult goal for this year would be working towards making an Animagus potion. I wanted an Animagus form as it would just be convenient to have in the long run before the canon arrives in Hogwarts. I mean, imagine if I got a bird Animagus and I could just fly through the sky? Then travelling around would be much easier. The potion though was a difficult one, probably a good few levels ahead of the one I made for Nana however with the experience built up making that one I had confidence I would be able to craft a potion near the middle to end of the year. I planned to buy the specific ingredients today at The Apothecary. I wondered if they would just sell that potion however, I don't think they would considering how dangerous to Animagus ritual can be.

That reminds me, I'd also need mandrake leaf. If there's none in the potion shops here, I can always just steal some in school. What's the harm in snipping a few leaf's after all? Slughorn did it just fine.

It felt good having a roadmap planned in my brain. Heading on out of my room I went along doing all I needed to do for the day. I had a quick breakfast supplied by the same woman bartender again and headed off to buy some more books and the potion materials required. The shop owners both recognised me and catered to me quickly, I could see galleons in their eyes as they saw me probably remembering how much money I spent last time. I didn't disappoint as I bought a ton more books and copious amounts of potion materials that helped to make the Animagus potion. The Apothecary shop owner noted that I was planning on making myself into an Animagus and applauded my drive, giving me a book on the creation of the potion itself. I asked him if he had a spare potion and he sighed with the same response as last time, not creating for a long time so he would need a week or two to deliver.

Honestly, I didn't mind creating the potion myself as it meant I was able to control what I was doing. It also meant I was learning potion making alongside working towards a goal so it was a win win, getting someone's help while convenient would negate any experience earned doing it myself.

After sorting out everything I needed in Diagon Alley for today I headed back to my room in the Leaky Cauldron and started to read yet again. As dinner came, I headed down stairs and ate. The same bartender lady was around and sat down with me whilst I was eating my dinner…

"So, you start Hogwarts tomorrow. Are you excited?"

"Yeah, I am"

It sounded like a dry answer from me, I was excited about starting Hogwarts but I was more excited about gaining the knowledge Hogwarts had hidden within it. As far as the houses, students and teachers went, I didn't really care as long as I learnt magic and became stronger.

"What house do you reckon you'll be in Oz? I was in Hufflepuff back when I was at school"

"Hmm… I don't know actually"

I understood that each house had its pros and cons. Gryffindors whilst Brave and Chivalrous are Foolhardy at times, Slytherins whilst Clever and ambitious are prideful, Ravenclaws whilst intelligent and witty find themselves over analysing things and Hufflepuff whilst Hardworking and patient are seen as pushovers due to being 'too patient'.

Due to my heritage, I'm set to be in Slytherin. Merlin after all was a famous Slytherin who held all the pros of a Slytherin yet didn't really hold the cons as much. I didn't really mind the idea of being a Slytherin however in all honesty I didn't care at all where I would end up. With that mindset, that hat will probably end up picking Slytherin unless I willed It otherwise like Harry did.

"Hmm… I think you would make a great Ravenclaw. You seem to be intelligent Oz, especially with you coming here those years back and working independently"

I brushed off the ladies' words just letting them flow into one ear and out the other. Come to think of it I never have asked her for her name…

"What is your name by the way?"

"Finally, you asked! I remember your name for 3 years and you never bothered to ask mine once… It's Gwendolyn. You can just call me Gwen though"

I scratched my head awkwardly as she remarked about me not asking for her name.

"Well… Thanks for the meals, Gwen"

"It's no problem, we are being paid by the behemoth that is Hogwarts after all to look after you!"

We talked a bit longer before Gwen had to head off back to work. I finished my meal and headed up to my room for an early sleep. With Nyx on the move with the letter, everything bought that I needed for my first year and everything packed away.

I was ready.

-=[END OF VOLUME 1]=-

End of volume 1 notes:

I'm glad you are all enjoying the rewrite (I hope), I understand compared to the original it took much longer to get to this point however I needed to world build more, build up personalities and such so that down the line there's more to work with. That was the main issue with the original, I got to a stagnant stale point where I couldn't really bring anyone back besides 'The gang' at Hogwarts.

Also, I really wanted to give Oz's Owl (Named Nyx) more love in this version. The original was called Kuro (Terrible name I know) and He just sort of appeared, was used for a bit and then disappeared. This time though, Nyx is not only a unique owl but also one that will help story wise in the long term due to his uniqueness.

I'm looking forward to you all reading the next volume, the first year was also something I rushed and I have plans to create more connections and situations really fleshing it out in comparison to the one before. I have lists of characters that are in the school from the 'canon' and such so interactions will happen.

The main change is Oz's independence. I used things like Dumbledore mentorship and stuff to push Oz up however this time around I refuse to do that. If Oz is like Merlin, he will carve a path forward alone like Merlin did. He doesn't need Dumbledore to hand hold him in a manipulative relationship, he will keep a wide berth from the man and if the man tries anything Oz will have plans to make him back off.

Anyway, that's enough notes, Let's get onto the next year~