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"Hassan, go get Victoria and bring her to the ritual room." A black mist erupted behind Virgil and disappeared.

Virgil closed his book and left the room. He went down the stairs and turned left. To the right were the dining hall, kitchen, and the entrance to the basement. To the left was a more formal reception room, a spell practice room, and what he called the ritual room.

The ritual room was a stone room reinforced by magic. In the back were pantries filled with organs from magical creatures, jars filled with plants, and a separate cabinet filled with Virgil's body parts.

Virgil grabbed his magic book and it flipped open to a page on its own. Virgil slapped the page and injected his magic.

The projection of a large complicated magic circle appeared on the ground and Virgil released the book. The book continued to supply magic to keep the circle from disappearing while Virgil went to the cabinet.

Inside were three shelves filled with jars. The top shelf contained blood, the second contained hair, and the third had the most jars that contained a white powder.

"A few more months and I can add another fake circuit to Hassan and Kiara." Virgil waved his hand and dozens of jars from the third shelf flew out of the cabinet and arranged themselves around the magic circle.

These were his nail clippings from the last ten years ground into a powder. To make a familiar one had to use parts of their body. Hair, eyes, blood, anything that contained circuits.

"Victoria will be used to breed my next body, making her my familiar may help me pass down my circuits." His eyes flickered and he wasn't too sure. Losing his magic circuits would severely weaken his power.

His brows furrowed and he fell into thought. "Should I make the circuits I have now into a magic crest?"

While he was thinking, the door to the room was pushed open. Hassan walked in with a passed-out Victoria slumped over her shoulder.

Virgil raised his head and motioned towards the circle. "Place her in the center."

Hassan nodded before dexterity walking between the jars and placing her down. She jumped backward when she was done to get out of the way.

Virgil stretched out his hand and all the tops of the jars were unscrewed. After floating them aside he crossed his hands in front of his chest in the shape of an X. He snapped his fingers and the clothes on Victoria's body turned into fly ash. 

"Let's get started." He didn't have time to enjoy her mature body and took a deep breath to concentrate.

The magic circuits on his body lit up in a silver glow and he started drawing in the air with his hands. With the movement of his fingers, silver streaks were formed over the magic circle to make it more three-dimensional.

As the streaks were drawn, the white powder would flow from the jars and fuse into the streaks. It made the lines shine bright like burning phosphorus powder.

Soon, a complicated web-like network was formed into a sphere and Victoria floated in the center.

When the last line was drawn, Virgil slammed his palms together. "Haa!"

Magic poured from his body like a tide and fused into the sphere. The sphere glowed with a blood-red light before it began to shrink and fused into Victoria's body.

Circuits were imprinted on her skin like tattoos and the sphere started to dim but continued to fuse inside her body. The sphere flashed and vanished as it completely fused with her soul.

Victoria fell to the ground and Virgil started to collapse. Hassan appeared next to Virgil and kept him from falling. "It seems more serious than when you created Kiara."

Virgil felt the weakness of his body and shook his head. "I should be grateful, if you guys didn't have your own magic power to supply the circuits I'd be drained dry. Only the initial activation is a big drain and other times it's just a trickle."

Virgil felt a little better and stood on his own. He grabbed the book that completed its mission and flipped to his workshop. "Place her in an experimental room and keep her asleep."

The book flew from his hand and enlarged itself. A wooden puppet with human facial features stepped out of the book and picked Victoria up.

It carried her back into the book and the book shrunk back to its original size. "Let's go to Diagon Alley, we still have a lot of time before night falls."

Virgil placed the book at his waist and turned to Hassan.

Hassan shook her head and disagreed. "The house elves are pestering my clones guarding the territory. They keep complaining that you haven't eaten today."

Virgil touched his stomach and felt a little hungry. "Let's go."

The two left the room and went to the dining room where the table was already set. Chicken, mashed potatoes, and corn were placed at Virgil's seat.

Hassan didn't disappear but sat down and started to eat as well. She too needed food to stay alive.

"I can't take things slow anymore. When I go to Hogwarts I need you to capture a Goblin so I can study their magic." Virgil cut a piece of chicken and glanced at Hassan.

"Don't bring them to the temple, but lock them in a cell inside my spellbook."

"Yes." Hassan nodded and started sending out her clones for intelligence. Five of her clones guarded the territory on standby and the other five were watching a few key targets around the UK.

While eating, Virgil started thinking about Voldemort's Horcruxes. The only one he can get now without trouble was the diadem. He didn't know if Voldemort was watching the ring.

He started looking forward to going to Hogwarts more.

When he finished eating, he stood up and apparated. He appeared in a well-decorated modern room with plastered walls. The next moment Hassan appeared next to him and turned invisible.

Virgil left the room and saw that the house was empty. "Seems like she's out."

This was the house of one of his puppets near the Leaky Cauldron in London. He refused to connect his castle to the floo network. It was no different than leaving a backdoor in his defenses. He would never leave that kind of loophole and control in the hands of the Ministry.

Virgil left the house and started walking down the streets. He didn't have to worry about the muggles seeing him and just watched their vintage cars.

It was the early 70s and some of the cars looked nice and solid. He had collected a few but they had no real value.

After walking for twenty minutes, he arrived at the Leaky Cauldron sandwiched between two buildings. 

Virgil pushed open the door and a musty smell hit his nose. Some of the murmurs in the bar stopped and heads turned when the door opened.

When they saw Virgil's silver hair and nice clothes they started whispering to each other.

Most didn't even know who he was and a few had looks of greed in their eyes. The one or two who recognized him as a Shafiq quickly turned their eyes away. Not one or two people have been cursed by the Shafiq family.

Virgil took in the eyes of those who saw him as food before walking toward the back of the bar.

"Mr. Shafiq, do you need anything?" A hunchback of a man hobbled towards Virgil and showed a kind smile full of missing teeth.

"I'm fine, Tom. Just passing through." Virgil waved his hand and ignored the owner of the bar.

Tom didn't care about Virgil's lack of regard and walked back behind the bar.

Virgil came to the back of the bar and entered a dead-end alleyway. He didn't bother to count the bricks and just pointed forward with his finger.

The bricks started to reorganize and opened a passageway. Virgil walked through and saw that Diagon Alley was less crowded than usual.

He headed towards the south side of Diagon Alley and could see Aurors patrolling the street.

"It seems like Eugenia Jenkins is a competent Ministry of Magic." Virgil saw the apprehensive looks on people's faces but the fact they dared to come out spoke volumes.

Voldemort started making waves last year and the bodies were already adding up.

Virgil arrived at Ollivanders old looking shop and walked inside. What greeted him was a glare from a handsome young man with shoulder-length black hair.

When the young man saw Virgil his glare was replaced by a slight smile. "Virgil, it's you. I thought some filthy mudblood was barging in while my brother was getting his wand."

"Rodolphus, Long time no see." Virgil recognized the man, the head of the Lestrange house and husband of Bellatrix. His eyes turned and he saw Rabastan who looked similar to his brother standing next to an old man with messy white hair holding a wand box.

"I heard you've been busy this past year." Virgil turned his eyes back to Rodolphus and raised his brows.

Rodolphus didn't care about Virgil's casual address even though he was more than twice his age. The two were similar in status and were equals in his eyes.

"Yes, We've been taking back control that's been slowly robbed from us over the years." Rodolphus' eyes flashed and he clenched his fist.

Rodolphus glanced at Ollivander helping his brother with a wand before speaking. "When the weeds are overgrown they need to be dug up by the roots. There are only so many nutrients for the other flowers to bloom."

Virgil nodded in agreement when he heard the words. "Every flower needs a gardener to kill the bugs and weeds for it to survive."

Rodolphus flashed a smile and patted Virgil's shoulder. "You always were a smart boy. I hope you enjoy Hogwarts, we can always use more Gardners."

Rodolphus' eyes turned and he saw his brother walking over.

Virgil knew he had to live up to his identity and wouldn't shed a tear for people that had nothing to do with him. His life and power were on the line, where did he have time to care for others?