CHAPTER 5: THE INHERITANCE

"We gave him the letter and the suitcase on his birthday that year, he looks excited, when he opened the letter in front of us, he read the content, he took the suitcase, then he rushed to his room, and we never saw him again that day, next morning we saw him still on the same clothes as the day before, looking haggard."

-Annalise Andrews, talking about Edgart's 11th birthday

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It is 19th of August 1991, it is the day where Ed was born, in other words, today is his birthday. The atmosphere is calm on Andrews manor, there will be no birthday party, Ed hates it, but of course, there will always be presents.

This birthday, however, is a little special, it marked his 11th birthday, which means he can open his parents' letter and suitcase. Right now, Ed is still sleeping in his room, he wakes up, takes a shower, and puts on his glasses as always. He then exits his room and walks towards the dining room.

"Happy birthday Ed!" Anna said, and hugged Ed.

Roger also said happy birthday to Ed, they gave him his presents.

"Here, a camera, for you know, take a couple of pictures of Hogwarts, we're quite curious about that place, so bring some pictures will you when you get back home on the holidays?" Roger said, Ed smiled then nodded.

"Here, you also got a couple of things, this is from Richard, books by the looks of it." Anna gave him a heavy bag. Ed checked the content of it and lo and behold, it's books.

"And of course, what you have been waiting for." He put a suitcase on the dining table and handed a letter to Ed.

Ed then took the letter excitedly, he rubbed his fingers to feel the texture of the letter, but suddenly he felt pain from his left thumb.

"Ouch!" he shouted.

"What's wrong Ed?" Anna asked worriedly.

"It's fine, just a paper cut." He said while sucking his left thumb.

He then continued to look at the paper, then try to open it, unlike before, it's easy to take the seal off.

"Huh…" Ed whispered.

He then proceeded to unpack the casing of the letter and read the content of it.

Dear Edgart,

If you read this, that means that you are 11 years old, happy birthday! And congratulations on being admitted to Hogwarts! We wish we could be there for you, but alas, it is simply impossible right now.

We know what you are thinking right now, but we're sorry darling we cannot explain why we left you in that orphanage that night in this letter. But know this, in the future we will meet again, on that you have our words.

In the meantime, we gave a little something, late birthday gifts for the past 11 years. It will be useful for your journey to come. Touch the keyhole of the suitcase we gave you, it will hurt a bit, but it will only be the first time, the next time you want to open it you just whisper 'May the guardian of knowledge guide us' in front of the suitcase, and it will open itself.

We are sorry that we were not there for you, know that wherever you are, we, as your parents will always love you.

Love,

Darius & Isabella Aldrich

"Father…. Mother…." Ed whispered. He then looked at his foster parents and said,

"Roger, Anna, I never say this, but thank you for everything you've done for me, you might not be my biological parents, but I always believed that family does not mean you must have the same blood, in other words I want to say thank you to all of you, for taking care of me, and know that I will always consider you my family and I will protect you will all my might."

The old couple just smiled sadly at him. Ed then took the suitcase and rushed to his room. He put the suitcase on the floor, the handle at the top, and touched the keyhole, and he felt a sudden pain in his fingers, he instantly pulled away and the suitcase started to shake.

"Blood magic huh, the letter probably has it too…" He whispered, looking at the letter.

The suitcase then drops flat on the ground, the handle on the side now, facing Ed, and stops shaking. A peculiar owl symbol appeared on the flat side of the suitcase.

"Wicked symbol." He murmured. Then look at the wax symbol, it's also the same symbol.

When he was about to touch the suitcase, it suddenly opens, he looks at the content of the suitcase, it was black, or accurately speaking, dark, it doesn't look like it has any bottom, 'it must be one of those undetectable extension charms I read in a book.' he thought. He then extends his arm to the inside of the suitcase, he wriggles around and finds nothing, and wriggles more and finds he has touched a wooden thing. He looked inside and saw a ladder.

"A ladder? You mean this whole suitcase is a bloody room?" he mumbled.

He then goes inside the suitcase, climbing down the ladder. All he saw was darkness, he slowly descended, all he heard was his foot touching the ladder, then he suddenly felt a ground. Once all his feet drop down to the ground, the room slowly turns bright.

The room has some sort of Gothic style decoration, it is like a living room, there's a fireplace surrounded by chairs and sofas, a piano at the side along with some other musical instruments and a gramophone, pictures of a man and a woman resting at the top of the fireplace. The room has no window, but it is bright. The room temperature it's just like he likes it, cold, but with a feel of warmth in it because of the fireplace. There's also a bar and a kitchen next to the place.

"Holy shit." Ed cursed.

He touched the place, getting the feeling of soft sofas and armchairs, he played the piano for a while, and he saw that there's a door. He walked toward the door and opened it. Inside the other room is dark, he can't see a thing.

He brings out his wand and thinks about using it, but because of the underage magic law he doubted whether he should do it or not. He only read the theory of the magic books he bought, he never practised it.

"Ah, the hell with it." He mumbled. "Lumos." He whispered, and a light ball suddenly appeared at the tip of his wand, then it separated from the wand and hovered beside him. "Nice, first try." He mumbled excitedly.

He then looked around, when he saw the scene, his jaw dropped, he saw rows and rows of shelves, filled with all kinds of books.

"Holy mother of god…." He cursed once again. His face showed excitement, but then suddenly a voice sounded behind him.

"So, the son of Darius has finally grown up" a dignified voice said.

"Who!" Ed turned around and pointed his wand to the voice's direction, the wand showing a red light at the tip of it.

"It appears you're considerably more talented than Darius, a nonverbal spell at the age of 11, and it's your first try by the looks of it, simply marvellous." The voice continued.

"I said who are you!" Ed shouted again.

"Put your wand down boy, if you don't want to get beaten." The voice warned.

But Ed ignored it and continued to point his wand at the source of the voice.

Then he hears sounds of heavy flapping getting close to him and prepared for the worst. The flapping sound was getting closer, and closer, and then he saw a gigantic owl flying towards him, the owl landed in front of him, slightly shaking the ground.

Ed's face paled, but he continued to point his wand at the owl. But the 8ft tall owl said.

"It appears an introduction is necessary, I am Gilligan the Knowledge Keeper, the Guardian of the Aldrich Library."

"So, you're- "

"A member of the Aldrich family? Last time I checked, yes." The Owl cut him off.

Then Ed put away his wand, but still alert.

"What are you exactly?" he asked.

"I am a guardian, a spirit if you say, my job is simply guarding and keeping the library and secrets of the Aldrich family, while also training a youngling like you."

"The Aldrich family? It's not just father and mother that owns this place?" Ed asked.

"If you asked that question 200 years before, yes, but now, only your father, mother, and now you, are aware of the place."

"Aware? There are family members that are not aware?"

"It's not that we didn't tell them, it is simply impossible to tell them now." The owl answered.

"What do you mean?" Ed asked once again. The owl just turned around and walked weirdly.

"Follow me." The owl ordered.

They walked through the countless rows of shelves, Ed saw every shelf were filled with books, some look new, some look old, while some doesn't even have a cover, just parchments tied together, they then walked towards a wall, and he saw what looks like a family tree.

"This is the Aldrich's family tree, the ones who glow are the ones who still live." Gilligan explained.

Ed scanned the entire tree, he saw a couple of glowing names, him, his father, and his mother included.

"You see there, the one named Ingrid." The owl points at the name.

"Yes."

"She's one of your distant relatives, she is a hero in her world." The owl exclaimed.

"Her world?" Ed asked.

"Yes, her world, a world different from your own, a world that still uses swords and shields as their weapons, and magic roams free."

"So, you're saying-"

"Yes, our family is also known as the Knowledge Seekers, we travel between worlds, collecting countless amounts of knowledge, at least we were, until the ban was enforced. One of our family members usually stays in the world and has kids. Usually, we can bring them back to do the initiation, but it's not possible anymore because of the ban. Now, we are known as the Knowledge Keeper and because of your parents breaking the ban, they are hunted right now." The owl explained.

"Ban? What ban? Who's chasing them?" Ed asked.

Gilligan looking at Ed solemnly said, "A story for another day." And turned around. "Follow me" he said once again.

Ed then followed Gilligan towards an altar, with shelves of books at the altar side.

"This is the initiation altar; you just need to touch the altar with your arm and follow my lead." Gilligan said.

"Wait, what does the initiation do?" asked Ed.

"In short, it let me knows what elements I will teach you, when you touch the altar I will proclaim you as the member of the family, and some of the books from these shelves will fly out, these books are elemental books, every element you can think of is on these shelves, I will also know your 'special abilities' from the bloodline."

"Special abilities?"

"Our bloodline is unique, every member carries a specific gene that is unique to the other, for example, your father can talk to animals, Ingrid there can turn into a mist."

Before Ed could ask again the owl continued.

"That is why you shouldn't cover your majestic silver eyes with those abysmal glasses, it is a symbol of your family, every member has it." The owl said sternly.

Ed just nodded quickly and touched the altar with his wand arm.

"I, Gilligan, the Guardian the Aldrich Library, The Keeper of Secrets of the family, proclaim you as one of our own, May the Guardian of Knowledge guide you."

The altar then glowed blue, and the owl symbol that was seen on the wax and the suitcase was burned to the back of his hand. After that, a book flew out from one of the shelves.

"The ice element." The owl said.

Another book came out. "Lightning", another one, "Fire", and another one, but the owl looked at the book annoyedly and muttered something about how unlucky the family has been for the past couple of centuries.

"And Space" he said annoyedly.

"What's wrong?" Ed said.

"Nothing, space is a powerful element, but as I said, because of the ban, you can only use it in this world, otherwise you will be hunted." The owl said hurriedly.

"The first book that came out is your strongest one, so we'll study the ice element intensely, now follow me, your parents gave you something."

"Wait, what's my bloodline power?" Ed asked.

"It's an invisible shield." The owl casually said.

"Oh, like a shield charm?" Ed asked disappointedly.

"Yes, but unlike the shield charm, it can stop anything, at least on a small scale, you can't block a nuclear blast using your power."

"Holy shit, that's great!" Ed shouted.

"It seems your mouth is as dirty as your grandfather's" the owl exclaimed.

The two walked for a couple of minutes, and stopped in front of a desk, on top of it lay 8 books, each with different colours.

"This is what your parents left you." The owl said flatly.

"Books?"

"Not just any books, read the one on the left side."

He then walked towards the book, the book has a title, 'The Philosopher's Stone' it said.

"The Philosopher's Stone?" he asked the owl.

"Just read it."

Ed Then read the book and saw a familiar name.

"Harry Potter? The one I met when I was going to Diagon Alley?" Ed said.

"Yes, that Harry Potter."

"Wait, that means-"

"Yes, these 7 books contain the events that will happen in the next 7 years, at least a version that has no you in it."

"Meaning?"

"In this multiverse, there are similar universes, and there are universes that are entirely different. The example of similar universes are the universe that contains the story of this book, and the universe that has you in it. Every story that has been written is somewhat real because the multiverse is infinite."

"So, theoretically let's say, I wrote a world that only has me in it…"

"Then that world exists. but that's only theoretically, our family is different, we can only have one counterparts, in other words, we don't have 'another universe me'"

"What happens when, let's say, Harry meets another universe harry?"

"Nothing, he is himself, while in the other universe he is himself. That problem only exists when you talk about time, this universe has a specific timeline, you cannot change it, it is the law of the multiverse, the consequences of tampering with time is unimaginable, I'm sure you've read about the consequences of it, the past and the future cannot meet, and the time turner only complete the timeline, not change it, it's the same with these books, if you change something from this book, you're not actually changing the timeline, you only complete it, you can however, travel to the world where the future is different, but as I said before, universe travel is banned."

"That's a lot to take in." Ed mumbled. "So, what do I do with these books?"

"Use it of course, to survive the coming storm." The owl said vaguely.

"What storm?" Ed said.

"Read it first, then you'll know." The owl said. "And here, the eighth book, contains the information of this world that the family have written."

Ed then took the book.

"All right, now is the time for training, the first thing I will teach you is occlumency, it will help during your studies and make this place a secret, not that it can be discovered anyway, it has a protective charm that protects everyone from knowing this place, unless you told them."

"Fidelius Charm?"

"Yes, but more powerful, the trace magic that those ministry folk put on you don't work in here as well, so you can practise to your heart's content here."

"Brilliant!" Ed said.

"I won't teach you Hogwarts spells except the Occlumency and Legilimency, I will only teach you the elemental magic that chose you, but you can practise Hogwarts spells here and I will convert those elemental magic to spells that are like the magic of this world, so it won't bring suspicion. We will train every night until 1st of September, I won't teach you while you are at Hogwarts, I will only teach you during the holidays."

"Wait, if I stayed at Hogwarts during Christmas, would you still teach me?"

"Yes, it's the holidays after all."

"Okay, brilliant!" Ed shouted, looking excited.

"All right little Edgart, for now go rest, we will start tonight, I expect great things from you. Oh, I almost forgot, there are rules about this place."

"Okay, what are the rules?" Ed asked.

"First rule, you will not tell this place to other people unless you can absolutely trust them, and for more protection, you and the other party will make an unbreakable vow, I will be the witness"

"Okay, easy enough."

"Second rule is do not misuse your power for doing something considered barbaric, such as killing without reason. Trust me, I will know"

"Okay…"

"Third rule, this is important, this applies since the birth of the Aldrich family and the consequences will be severe if you're careless because of the magic behind it. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT, choose your lifelong partner too easily, you need to know them thoroughly first before actually choosing him/her to become your partner."

"Wait what? Why? That is quite random, is it? talking about a member's love life."

"I said because the magic behind it, you see, we, the Aldrich Family, cannot afford illegitimate children because of the bloodline power, we cannot afford to randomly spread our blood, so the one who build the family cast a magic that, as long as a member of the family fell in love, the love is mutual between them, and that member chose him/her as his/her partner in life, that other person will be marked by our family crest into the back of his/her hand, those two will be stuck together forever, after they are marked, they cannot love another, even if both of them fell out of love, this is cruel but effective, although this rule only apply to the initiated, in other words, you."

"W-well, that sounds problematic." Ed stuttered.

"As long as you're careful, you will be fine." Gilligan said sternly.

"But why not just use an unbreakable vow?"

"The Aldrich family is already small, if the only members died because of the vow, we would go extinct."

"Okay, fourth rule, this only applies to you because of the situation, in this library you can only read books that are connected to this universe, you cannot read any books that came from another universe, this is to avoid suspicion."

"Wait what! That's unfair!" Ed whined.

"A necessary sacrifice for your safety until the trouble has passed, besides, if you want to be powerful, these books are enough."

"What trouble?" Ed asked gloomily.

"As I said before, a story for another day" The owl said mysteriously. "Follow me, I will show you where you will train."

Ed then followed the owl towards a door besides the door to the living room.

"This is the training room, everything you need for training is inside, oh while we are at it, this whole place has an outside function, where if someone is near the suitcase and is looking for you or someone inside, you can hear their voice, so don't worry about people calling you but you can't hear it." The owl explained.

Ed then entered the room and checked it out.

"Don't train now, you need to rest first, the first training will be tiring." The owl warned.

Ed nodded, and went to the living room, and he slept on one of the sofas.

After a couple of hours of sleeping, the owl wakes him up.

"Wake up Little Edgart, your training starts now." The owl said sternly. "First I will teach you Occlumency for an hour, then I will teach you the strength and weaknesses of your elements and then we will go straight into practice, this will be repeated every day until the 1st of September."

Gilligan then tells Ed to sit straight, then he invades his mind, over and over.

"Focus, drive me out of your mind!" he commanded.

After an hour, Ed learned a lot, at the end of the lesson he can drive Gilligan out of his mind, but barely.

"Good, you are a fast learner Little Edgart, but this is still not enough, we will train in occlumency again tomorrow, now, let's go to the room I've prepared."

Ed walked to the library, and entered the room Gilligan prepared, and sat in the chairs.

"All right, first, The Ice Element, it is a versatile element, you can kill with it, you can strangle someone with it, you can capture someone, you can even somewhat stop death with the ice element." Gilligan explained.

"But, a lot of creatures are resistant to it, like trolls and giants can easily destroy your ice. If you use it creatively though, it will become a deadly element." He continued.

"Next, lightning, a very aggressive element, it is deadly to almost any creature, even though they are resistant to magic, but electricity penetrates any creature that have blood in their veins, let's take an example of using lightning, you are fighting a Giant, your ice cannot penetrate their skin, you can only damage their eyes, then you need to switch to lightning, while giant's skin is still resistant to electricity, you can aim the spell to their eyes, if you get a direct hit, not only you damage the eyes, you will stunned them, because the electricity will fry their brains, even potentially killing them."

"Next is fire, it is also a versatile element, it can kill, it can incapacitate, it can heal, sounds simple enough right, the ice and fire elements weakness and strength, while not the same, mirror each other."

"And last but not least, Space, it is a mysterious element, you can basically manipulate space, but you need to be extra careful, because where there is space, there is time, if you violated their laws, at the very least you will suffer the consequences, and at the very most, this universe will collapse because of your mistake, so I will only teach you how to teleport using this element, I will not take any chances in this one."

"Okay, any questions?"

Ed just listened to the lecture, trying to absorb as much knowledge as possible. After that, they went to practice, he learned his elements, he learned quite fast, but learning is not instant.

After that day, Ed always wakes up tired, Roger and Anna asked him about it but he always said, "Don't worry about it.", at the end of his training, he's quite adept at occlumency, although not a master, but it's enough. He studied the theories and practised the spells and potions that will be taught at Hogwarts, he's not a master at it yet, but it's a good start, and he learned the basics of his elements and his bloodline power, the owl made an incantation to activate his invisible shield, "Aegis" the owl said." a shield carried primarily by Zeus in Greek mythology, use that as the incantation to use your bloodline power.".

He read the books his parents gave him, he's quite shocked about the events that will happen, he studied it carefully, he didn't really know what he will change yet, because if he made a mistake, the rest of the books will become useless, and at the last day of training, he's preparing for his first year at Hogwarts.

"Any tips before going to Hogwarts?" he asked the owl.

"Hmm… just enjoy yourself at Hogwarts, don't worry about the troubles you will face, after all, this is a school, you should enjoy your youth Little Edgart." The owl advised.

"By the way, Albus will definitely include you in his plans with Harry Potter, so just be careful about it, he will not hurt you, you are his friend's grandson, so naturally he will now about the Aldrich family, you must have noticed it, watching you since you are 5 years old, personally handing you the Hogwarts letter." He continued.

"He knows my grandfather? I know he's watching me, but I didn't know he was that close to the family."

"Yes, he was quite close to Edwyn, along with Nicolas Flamel and his wife."

"Flamel? The one that made Philosopher's stone?"

"Of course, who else is there?"

Ed nodded.

"Well wish me luck." Ed said while getting out the suitcase.