Watching a scared beaver run with its tail tucked

--June 23rd, 1990, Reinhardt Manor--

It had been twenty days since Alaric's tenth birthday and he was, to say the least, bored.

His sister was off at Hogwarts in all of her Slytherin glory, finishing her second year.

It would be exactly a week before she came back home on June 30th.

His grandfather was out doing business, accompanied by Daniel.

The only people who were at the manor with Alaric were Helen and the other servants.

'sigh, I hate starting over.' Alaric thought while lamenting over the fact he had to yet again start from the ground up with his magical training, sure he could brew potions to help accelerate his growth, and he could use his personalized training method to grow his magic reserves quicker than anyone else, but what really irked him was the weakness of the magic around him.

Alaric was currently in his room practicing his free magic control but was finding it quite difficult to connect to the magic around him.

'Not only is the magic in the air more... watered down, but it's harder to connect with it while in this underdeveloped body.'

'not only that, but it seems like my body is actively trying to make things harder on me'

'Leaving the child body dilemma aside for now, what is wrong with the magic now.'

'Not even 400 years ago at my last death was the ambient magic this weak.'

During Alaric's last life, he had been born in the late 14th century and lived until the very early 17th century, although he lived a long life, most of it was spent in reclusion studying, and experimenting with magic.

He remembered the days when the world was rich with ambient magic all around.

Wizards were able to erect great castles and fortresses, and others were master duelists who could level a castle on their own, now, the standard of magic has greatly fallen, and Alaric believes it has to do with the natural magic in the world being diluted.

Only Wizards the likes of Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and Voldemort have reached levels comparable to those of the past.

No matter how many books on the matter he reads, according to the diaries of past family heads of the House of Reinhardt, the matter of why this happened is unknown.

That's right, the issue is a known one, mainly by those who truly wish to become powerful, Alaric was willing to bet that the three names he just thought of all knew at least some tidbit of information relating to the topic.

'Although the family has kept extensive records, they still only have theories as to why this happening.' Alaric thought rubbing the bridge of his nose.

'The earliest mention of the levels of natural, or rather "pure" magic if you will, was recorded in the diary of Lord Baldric III the head of House Reinhardt in the late 17th century, and my past lives grandson.'

As Alaric was trying to surmise what happening based on the information he had, he suddenly came to an epiphany.

"The Statute of Secrecy!" blurted Alaric

Unbeknownst to Alaric, while he was engrossed in his thoughts, Theodoric who had just returned to the manor via Floo Network, had come to see how Alaric was and caught the sudden outburst.

"what about the Statute?" asked an interested Theodoric, who, seeing all of the books sprawled out around Alaric, was intrigued, to say the least

"Oh, um, grandfather, I didn't expect you to be home so soon," Alaric said while letting out an awkward chuckle

"Is it a problem that I returned earlier?" Theodoric said with a raised eyebrow

"Of course not."

"So, are you going to elaborate on why you suddenly blurted out the Statute of Secrecy?"

"Sigh, well, when I was messing around with wandless magic, I felt that the natural magic in the air almost feels, weak."

"We'll be having a conversation about you trying to do wandless magic later. I know you feel that with your quite honestly superb control over your lighting magic and fire magic, all wandless magic must be easy, but always be careful Alaric. The only reason that elemental magic comes so easy to you is because of the blood flowing through your veins." Theodoric said with a stern look on his face

"Yes, grandfather," Alaric responded with a pitiful voice

"Sigh, I'm sure you are," Theodoric said with obvious sarcasm due to him knowing his grandson's personality. "Now back to your observation, yes, it is a known fact among the upper echelons of magical society that the magic we feel all around us is watered down compared to a few centuries ago."

"None of the noble ancient houses have been able to come up with a reason for this change, not even our house, which has detailed records going back a few millennia."

"To be honest, I am quite impressed that you, at a mere ten years old, have drawn the same conclusion we, the lords of ancient houses have also come up with."

"So, was I right, did the once pure magic become what it is today because of the statute?" Asked a curious Alaric

"Although I lack the evidence to prove the theory, yes, it is my wholehearted belief that not only the statute of secrecy was a major reason, but I personally believe there is a connection to our ancestor, Alaric III."

Hearing this, Alaric couldn't help but express a confused look on his face.

Seeing this, Theodoric misunderstood it as Alaric being confused about who Alaric III was and why he mattered.

As Theodoric explained to a zoned-out Aalric who his ancestor and namesake was and how he had been a powerful practitioner of "Ancient Magic", or as Alaric knows it, pure magic, Alaric III had learned from and later surpassed his teacher Percival Rackham.

Rackham was a brilliant wizard who Alaric took a liking to and decided to become his student so he could see how not only wand magic but ancient magic alike had developed in the centuries he had been gone.

Although he quickly surpassed his mentor and friend due to having his knowledge from his past lives and a few more secrets, Rackham was a great help in developing the magic ring Focus the Reinhardts are known for now.

Theodoric had come to the end of his speech about the esteemed Alaric III and wrapped it up by dropping a bomb on Alaric.

"One thing that was theorized but never verified was that Alaric III's death may have also been a driving point toward the weakening of magic," Theodoric said with a pensive look

"What!" shouted Alaric

"Oh yes, after Alaric III died, there was a great magical shock wave sent all throughout the world, the family was never able to recover his body due to it being taken away by what could only have been the last True Dragon."

What his grandfather had just said sent a tremor all throughout Alaric's body.

Alaric vividly remembers his latest death, it came at a time when he was at the pinnacle of all things magical, Alaric in his past life was so powerful that he wished to achieve immortality, not only out of ambition but to also halt the endless cycle of rebirth.

So what did he do to achieve this ambition, at first he wished to create the Philosopher's stone, but seeing as how it only stopped Flamel from dying but not aging, he went back to the drawing board, or more accurately, any and every text, tome, whether recent or ancient it didn't matter.

It was during this scholarly escapade that he discovered something that shook the very foundation of his view of the world, Alaric found a way to essentially ascend to godhood!

However, what he found shocked him, the process of ascending to something similar to a god was a costly one.

Firstly, you would need to gather the deathly hollows, go figure.

Secondly, you would need to be at the pinnacle of magic, magainin you could warp realities themselves, you could reverse time, speed it up, fracture it, or better yet, could bring someone back to life.

And thirdly, you would need the blessing of an Elder Species.

Elder Species were creatures who had been around since the begging of time, the biggest example would be the True Dragons, so powerful that they could level whole mountain ranges when they felt like it.

Thankfully for Alaric, he had gained the favor of the last True Dragon, back in his time as Alaric I, who he had shared his secret of constant rebirth with.

The way he gained the favor of Elordia, the last True Dragon, was by vanquishing the Kalrodin, a True Dragon who was hellbent on massacring as many humans and creatures as possible, simply because he could.

It was the heart of Kalrodin, that Alaric I used to bind his bloodline to that of dragons.

So in his life as Alaric III, he gained the blessing of Elordia and he attempted to ascend.

Despite all of his immense preparation and power, fate is a cruel cruel capricious bitch.

During the process of ascending, something went wrong with the ritual.

For some unknown reason, the ritual had been tampered with and it threw everything out of whack, sending Alaric to his death, and now into this current life.

At first, when Alaric had awoken into this new body and learned lightning magic, he thought that he could quickly get back to where he was before.

But it would seem fate is done fucking with his life.

The current body he was in, although monstrously talented by normal standards, was nowhere near on par with his past.

This would make it very difficult to get back to the pinnacle of his past strength, however, Alaric wouldn't back down from a fight, especially not if it meant escaping the endless cycle.

'So I'm guessing that it's actually my fault that the magic in the world ended up likes this huh, how interesting, I did have to drain a metric shit ton of the surrounding magic to perform that ritual so I guess it makes sense.'

After talking some more, Alaric and Theodoric went downstairs and ate a nice quiet dinner.

--July 1st, 1990, King's Cross Station, Platform 9 3/4--

A week had come and gone and Sofia was finally returning from Hogwarts from her summer break.

Alaric and Theodoric, accompanied by Daniel, had decided to make an outing of going to retrieve Sofia and take her out for a nice meal in one of the highest-rated muggle restaurants.

Although the House of Reinhardt may be pure-bloods, they weren't bigoted assholes who look down on muggles, if anything, Theodoric is quite fascinated by muggles and their ingenuity.

*honk honk*

*screech*

*hiss*

"Well, it would seem the Hogwarts Express made it here in one piece," Theodoric said

As the train came to a halt, the doors of the train opening and allowing the flood of students to break free, the Reinhardt group walked toward the unloading area to go and find Sofia.

"I spotted the young miss," said Daniel while pointing towards a group of Slytherin students coming out of the train, one of the members was unmistakable due to the signature ashen white hair of the Reinhardts.

As they closed the distance between them and Sofia, Alaric had noticed that one of the students walking with, and who looked like was cornering Sofia, was Marcus Flint, accompanied by what Alaric could only guess was the buck tooth bitches goons.

As he got closer, Alaric using a little bit of magic, was able to enhance his hearing to tell what they were saying.

"Come on Sofia, stop being like that, one date is all I'm asking for." Marcus "Evil Timmy Turner," Flint said to Sofia while trying to grab her arm as she was walking away

Seeing her ignore him and getting his wittle feelings hurt, Marcus reached out and forcefully grabbed Sofia's arm, eliciting a cry of surprise from her.

"What in merlins beard do you think you are doing Flint!"

"How dare you walk away from me bitch!"

"Yeah! you should be grateful that he even asked you out!" yelled goon #1

"Just because you have some talent in magic doesn't make you any special!" yelled goon #2

'Sigh, now I have to break someone's arm' Alaric thought while sighing

but before Alaric could act, Daniel had silently apparated away from his precious spit beside Theodoric and grabbed the 4th year's arm.

"Gah! who in the bloody hell are you!" yelled the beaver tooth pansy

"My name is Daniel McLeod, head butler and right-hand man of this young lady's grandfather," Daniel replied with a dignified look and tone as he gripped the boy's arm tighter

"Ahh! Unhand me you filthy mudblood!"

Some of the bystanders from the growing crowd had let out gasps at hearing what hill billy Marcus called Daniel.

"Release my son's arm at once or else-" Marcus' father, Zander Flint commanded, but before he could finish the full command, Theodoric interrupted him.

"Or what, Zander, pray tell what you would do to my head butler, and best friend, Daniel?" asked Theodoric in a booming voice. once the voice registered in Zander's brain, he looked over toward Theodoric in horror after realizing he almost made a huge mistake.

As he looked over toward Alaric's grandfather, the temperature of the platform suddenly dropped until everyone could see their breath.

The sudden drop in temperature was a side effect of Theodoric flexing some of his magic, his elemental affinity being ice made a passive effect to where anytime he used a large amount of magic, the immediate vicinity would lower in temperature drastically.

This was what made Theodoric such a difficult foe to best in a duel, essentially making him only weaker to Dumbles, Voldy, Grindelwald, and a select few others.

After getting scared shitless and scurrying away with his ugly ass son, the Flints quickly took the Floo Network to anywhere but there.

Seeing that they were gone, Theodoric went from his cold uncaring look, back to the neutral, but happy expression he always carried when speaking to his grandchildren or friends.

"Well, I think that was ample entertainment for the day, what says you three we go and get something to eat now?"

As the group left the platform, Alaric made a mental note.

'Don't piss off my grandfather for any reason until I'm older!'

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Authors note:

I hope you all enjoy your day and the chapter!

Make sure to add to your collection, and throw all of the good, precious stones onto this LazyCaveman!