[1990 Pt.3]

[7th July, 1990.]

[The Leaky Cauldron, London.]

Nathan exited the floo and was immediately bombarded by the chatter of the many guests of the Victorian-era pub.

He walked up to Tom the Barkeep who greeted him by saying, "Alexander's boy, aren't you? What can I do for you on this lovely morning son."

"I am supposed to meet someone in room number 5, Tom."

Tom nodded towards the stairway and stated, "Number 5's on the second floor."

Thanking the barkeep, Nathan walked up the stairway to find himself in a hallway with many rooms.

Nathan walked forward and looked above the door frames even as he read the markings above them, "Three, Four, Five…."

Nathan opened the door and walked in to find Alan talking with a middle-aged man. The man had small brown hair along with a very prominently receding hair and Nathan could see a calculating glint in his eyes as he broke away from the conversation he was having with Alan to look at Nathan.

The calculating glint slowly receded and was replaced by an amused one as the man asked, "Mr Grey, I presume?"

Nathan nodded even as he was surprised by the raspy tone of Watson's voice, "You presume correctly, Mr Watson. It is a pleasure to meet you, sir."

Mr Watson grinned before saying, "Mr Waynewood has been telling me all about the research you have done about me. He was also saying that I have impressed you with my books." The man chuckled when Nathan dipped his head with a smile.

"Saying that you survived a fight against Lord Voldemort should impress anybody with a rational mind."

The smile dropped very slightly and became more fake just as the calculating glint in Watson's eyes returned, "Mr Waynewood tells me that you are a half-blood. Not many people call him Voldemort."

Nathan winced internally at the mistake and offered a sheepish smile before saying, "Merely a slip of the tongue, Mr Watson."

The man nodded in understanding before saying, "Try to keep such mistakes to the minimum, Mr Grey. Many people from the previous generation still flinch at the name of Voldemort for a reason."

Nathan nodded even though he was scowling internally at his unintended slip.

"Follow me…. you two still need to meet the others," saying this Watson got up from his seat and slowly walked out of the room. Alan got up from his seat to follow the man and pointed to the new pair of glasses, before he said, "Yo, thanks for the enchanted glasses for my birthday."

The words made Nathan smile and follow his friend towards the stairs he had arrived from. The glasses Nathan had given him were a prototype for another project Nathan was working on. They allowed Alan to see enchanted or cursed objects if Alan willed them to. Enchanted objects without negative emotions would be surrounded by a white glow, while cursed objects with negative emotions would be surrounded by black glow.

Nathan and Alan followed Watson to the exit of the pub, where Watson settled the bill with Tom. Stepping outside, Nathan could hear the steady hum of car engines on Charing Cross Road. They strolled along the sidewalk until they reached an expensive-looking car parked on the side of the road. Nathan's attention was drawn to the car due to the enchantments he sensed on it, some of which were familiar.

The car boasted various charms, including heat regulation, impervious charms likely for visibility, space expansion, and several comfort charms like cushioning and softening.

Watson smiled, stopping in front of the car and opening the door with a smirk. "What do you think about my car?"

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It took them roughly half an hour of driving before they finally arrived at their destination. Nathan and Alan exited the vehicle along with Judas and started to look around.

They could clearly see several buildings that were probably built during the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

Watson parked his car and exited a moment later before he said with a sheepish smile, "I 'borrowed' one of the abandoned warehouses for the club when I decided to teach."

Alan raised his eyebrows before shrugging and asking, "So which one is it?"

Watson nodded towards one of the larger warehouses before saying, "That one."

The trio walked towards the one pointed by Watson with a sedate pace and as they approached closer to the warehouse Nathan started to feel the magic imbued into the walls of the warehouse. Deciding that showing his ability in magical sensing wouldn't be that big of a reveal, but would definitely get Watson interested. Nathan touched the wall of the warehouse and his eyes got a little unfocused. He could feel repelling wards aimed at muggles, magical creatures and wizards. He could feel a space expansion charm. He could feel a basic sense scrambling charm aimed at making a person feel unwelcome and unnerved.

It took all but a second for Nathan to find out all the charms that the place was making use of. This is why Nathan believed his method of warding was superior- a wizard wouldn't be able to simply come and sense such spells much less interact with them if it were his ward that was placed on the place.

"You know how to sense spells?" Watson's impressed voice dragged his mind out of its unfocused state and he replied, "My family makes a living enchanting objects. It is a useful skill to know and I asked my mother to teach it to me."

"You can sense spells?!" Alan cut off Watson's reply with a surprised and annoyed whisper, "How come you never told us?!"

Nathan shrugged and simply said, "It never came up, Alan. And it isn't really something that is difficult to pick up. It just takes time."

"Years, if I am not wrong. You must have started learning spell sensing as a toddler. A curse-breaker friend of mine once offered me lessons but I never had the time thanks to the war."

Alan, however, was focused on Nathan as he said, "You need to teach it to me. Mate, this kind of thing will probably have massive uses in detective work."

"I assure you I have worked as an auror for a long time and I have never seen anybody need it. We can call upon a curse breaker if we need to detect magical spells that were cast upon an object or a place."

"How do they even know what to look for?"

"Magic, especially the kind of magic that a curse breaker would be called in to take a look at, leaves traces that remain there for a long time even after a wizard has broken the spell," Nathan whirled around and his right arm immediately stiffened as he prepared to cast a wandless summoning charm upon the forth voice that had intruded upon their secret chat when he found a two familiar faces in front of him. One was Cedric Diggory and the second one was Hestia Jones.

His hand loosened before he heard Hestia say, "You know I have said this before, you trust your eyes too much, Grey." Nathan's eyes widened in realisation a moment later when Hestia turned into Tonks.

Alan clicked his tongue with a frown before saying, "Tch! Diggory, I didn't know you were in the club too," the annoyance however quickly disappeared when he turned towards Tonks and asked, "I didn't know you took lessons under Mr Watson too, Tonks."

She gave him a wry look before asking, "Why do you think I recommended it to you? Judas here knows a thing or two about fighting with his wand." Nathan blanched when he realized what kind of meaning she was throwing at the man in the presence of two twelve-year-olds and an eleven-year-old.

Watson looked at her with a deadpan and she gave him a mocking look, making his eye twitch before he smirked and said, "Nymphadora is completely right, lads. I will teach you to fight with your wands too."

His words made Alan gape at him before giving Tonks a fearful look as he was reminded of her sensitive nature when it came to her name. Tonks however had blushed at his words and Nathan could imagine that the image of Nathan, Alan and Cedric using their little leg to fight was not something she had needed.

Nathan noted something else which he had missed before- Tonks' hair wasn't changing colour despite her emotions.

Alan looked a little lost before he suddenly brightened as looked at Watson and asked, "Mr Watson, when are we going to begin the lessons?"

"We start now, of course."

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A|N: 

Hope you all liked the chapter. These chapters in the summer club are to show how most wizards use magic. There will be a lot of world-building in the next chapters.

If you want early access to up to ten chapters, become a patron: P)(a)(t)(r)(E)(o)(n).(c)(o)(m)/dukeofvirtue

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