12 Chapter 12

I did not in any way cherish the thought of being outshone by a child in any way whatsoever, so I started my private studying of the subject of astronomy on the same day that Hermione received her books on it. It would also help me with my plan of grading the essays that she would eventually accumulate and send to grandfather for correction. She was my project, no matter how much the entire thing leaned on other people, mine, mine, mine.

It was a petulant stance from my side, but I had always hated sharing the toys that I was really interested in. Growing up a single child twice probably had not helped overly much in that regard. Thankfully grandfather found my possessiveness amusing rather than annoying, he had the power to make my life fairly difficult if he really tried after all.

In a private talk he had admitted to me that he found my possessiveness, greed you could say even, rather endearing, it being the only negative emotional trait I seemed to have. It offset some of the worries that he had of me being too perfect he had said. After some discussion I found out he shared my view of perfection being a rather worthless goal, it being the last one one would ever achieve.

It had been a nice talk, something I would have more chances to repeat in the future, Abraxas having started slowly shedding the burdens of headship onto father. The transition would be complete in a year or so, after that the man planned to spend as much time with me as possible before I was off to Hogwarts, and during my stay there do some research into the deeper aspects of magic.

Apparently his study into the fidelius charm that our family wanted to apply to a library to make it truly hidden, had awoken in him an interest into the deeper aspects of magic. Aspects he would find ample time to explore in his retirement.

I wished him good luck and gods' speed, not being advanced enough to accompany him in the journey he was setting off for. I wished I could have helped him more than simply pointing him into the direction of rituals and sympathetic connection, but I myself was still only entering the world of the arcane. I might have for all purposes been a sorcerer whose domains stretched out into the ability to control heat and minor telekinesis. With a dash of the mind arts if I used a wand, but I was still very much infantile in my understanding of the phenomenon that was magic.

Which, did not make me as frustrated as I'd expected it would make me. It might come as a surprise to anyone who's ever had the blessing of visiting a conventional school, where one learned how to algebraically calculate the distance between stars and the reaction of a chemical nobody used, but learning stuff, that was directly usable, was actually fun.

I'd learned a lot of things in my last life, more in the realms of physics and chemistry than anything else, but magic was the most fun I've ever had in learning something in a structured manner.

It was I concluded as I created a small heat explosion to punctuate my words directed at the audience, quite literally, a blast and a half. I chuckled at my superior sense of humour and concentrated back on the actual task at hand, namely visiting my mother for legilimency practice.

Grandfather had recently decided that I was stagnating slightly in my attempts to read his mind, and that I would be better served if I attempted my hand in breaching barriers of the more direct kind. Malfoy occlumency consisted of being a slippery little shit, throwing false memories and dodging probes more than actual direct confrontation.

Thankfully my mother had been educated in a rather different kind of occlumency, namely that of the Blacks, who had a more, direct approach to defending ones mind, or so I'd read. "Greetings mother." I said with a nod as I entered her rooms, ever the busy bee she also had quite a full schedule most of the time, conspiring with other high-born ladies on who was to be next on the gossip chopping block. Her methods reminded me slightly of the subversion tactics that KGB agents would use when trying to destroy the moral of a country they'd infiltrated, just more, person specific.

Not that her rather intimidating modus operandi stopped me from returning her smile as she glanced up from a book she'd been reading and running into her arms for a hug.

No matter what faults Narcissa bore, she was without a doubt a mother who would do anything for her child. She did not simply say that she loved me, she showed it to me as well. Hiring the best tutors for the subjects that I wanted to learn, and if unavailable making time out of her day to teach me herself.

With her I learned wizarding customs, traditional dancing and some neurolinguistic programming, which others, and she herself would know by the name of verbal manipulation. Women were indeed gifted in manipulating others, I was glad to have such a competent teacher.

She pulled me onto her lap after the brief hug we shared and asked me how my day was, a typical question really, and one that was quite hard to answer since my days usually followed a very strict routine. That I hated interrupting at all costs. But I told her anyway. I'd gotten slightly more ahead in astronomy, sorcery and other miscellaneous subjects such as philosophy and wizarding history. I'd also almost tripped over one of our estate flamingos on my morning run and had barely avoided falling into the pond, curse this growing body, afterwards I'd had grandfather laugh at me, which I'd gotten back at him for at breakfast when I stealthily drew all the heat from his coffee as he was drinking it, turning it into a sludgy mess, and him into a sputtering one.

We chatted a bit, mother then telling me about her day and so on, before we eventually got into the actual meat of the meeting, namely the legilimency.

Suffice to say her mind was much more easily pinned down than grandfathers, but was also more aggressive, a slight headache building itself up behind my brows by the end of the session.

It was worth it though, I think I progressed a lot.