Chapter Two

I was not really pleased with the letters, Go somewhere called "Diagon Alley", where the fuck was that supposed to be?

So, I did the only thing possible, I sent the letter back since it said to respond by the end of the month.

It went something like this... You daft cunts...

[If this is some joke, it was well made, but if the letter is serious, then I must say, I am appalled by your stupidity.

You expect us to know what these things written in the letter are, where they are located, and most important of all, where the location is supposed to be.

If "Magic" is real, then I am having a hard time believing in it, I have not witnessed anything supernatural in all my eleven years of living.

If this is, indeed, a joke, then I would like to kindly ask you to keep these letters to yourself, someone might be stupid enough to believe it and go searching for the places listed.

You also seem to know where my brother and I live and sleep. That is a basis to file an investigation since stalking someone in their house while sleeping, is a good enough point to file a restraining order.

Do not send another letter like this again.

Keep away from my family.

Thank you.

Ares Potter.]

I thought it was quite good, I liked how I wrote the "Thank you". Folding the paper up and walking outside, I looked around, and lo and behold... I found an owl... Owls were not common here...

Damn, was this wizarding school real? I thought that magic would be taught in families, kept secret, and guarded by magical beings contracted to mages, not taught in school.

What kind of crappy fanfiction was this?

And could I get a gun? I would rather have a gun. I would feel safer with a gun in a school of prepubescent children where all of the could point a want and explode me in a thought.

They must have been taught magic before going to school, right? Yes, I would like a gun.

Who would give a level-year-old a gun?

Sighing, I raised the mail in my hand and waited for the Owl to notice, it did a few seconds later. Turning its head nearly 180 degrees, it tilted its head to the side curiously, before I waved the letter in hand.

Jumping from the lamp pole, It spread its wings and flew towards me. I watched as it grasped the letter with its feet and flew away. Staring at the bird that was flying away, I blinked a few times and took a deep breath.

No matter how this ended up, this could only go bad. If the letter was indeed a joke, and the Owl was a trained one, we would remain here until we could start working, move out, and get our own apartment.

Or, if this school was real, then... when was the last time a school of magic ended well?

I sighed deeply as I turned around and went back inside, hopefully, nothing would come from this... But somehow, I had a feeling that this would be the end of normal life... or at least, as normal as our life could get.

>Next Day<

I blinked at the woman that was standing outside the door. She was old, wearing green robes and a hat, a witch's hat, of all things...

"Hello, Mr. Potter, I assume? I am here about the letter you sent us."

She held up a letter and I noticed my handwriting on the paper... Bloody hell.

I stepped to the side and let her walk inside. She did so, her steps measured as she strode into the living room. I hummed and followed her, Harry was already there, sitting on the couch as the woman sat in one herself. The others were in the kitchen, looking like something unnatural was happening with us three sitting in a room at the same time.

I sat down next to my brother, elbowing him to get him into a proper position. I straightened my back as I stared at the woman in front of me, eyes narrowing.

There was silence for a moment but Harry knew what was going on, I would handle the speaking, and I was determined to not be the one to start the conversation.

The silence stretched for a while before the oldest of us spoke up.

"So, in the letter, you mentioned that you did not know where to get the required items, am I right to assume that you have no knowledge of the magical world?"

I stared at her for a moment as she returned the stare unflinchingly. I pointed at the vase containing flowers that were on the table.

"Prove it."

She blinked and looked at the vase. Nonchalantly, she took out a stick from her sleeve and pointed it at the vase of flowers. The next second, the vase turned into a cage and I assume that the flowers turned into parrots since their number corresponded to the flowers previously present in the vase.

Harry seemed impressed, judging from the "Woah" he let out but I wasn't, not at all.

[Vase- a vase made out of glass.]

That was still a vase, just changed form, and those flowers were still flowers. I was unimpressed and my face would have shown it if I allowed it.

Humming thoughtfully, I nodded. Still, impressive or not, that was magic at work, I could feel the mana rolling off of her and the cage with birds.

"Alright, but why invite us to a school? Why is there even a school in the first place?"

She rose an eyebrow but proceeded with talking.

"Magic can be unpredictable before it matures, have you noticed weird occurrences around you? Since your magic is maturing, feats of accidental magic are common. Hogwarts teaches the young who don't have magical parents about magic to prevent any Muggles from knowing that magic exists."

I rose an eyebrow at that, Muggles? Before I could ask, Harry beat me to it.

"Muggles?"

I didn't reprimand him, since it provided me the opportunity to get more information, but let's be honest, an eleven-year-old Harry Potter wasn't suited for tactical plays.

Looks like the old woman was more than pleased to explain something to a child that reacted normally.

"Muggles are the people who can't use magic, sometimes, a wizard or a witch is born to Muggles and the parents don't know how to deal with their new situation."

Ah... Racism... great.

I inhaled through my nose.

"Well, since you seem to be the real thing..."

I reached over to the cage and channeled my mana inside, feeling out how the spell that she cast could work. I did it once with the frost nova to observe how the spell interacted with the world.

Seems like the thing only changes shape for a certain period of time, the noises the birds make aren't deliberate, or should I say, they aren't doing so of their own will, magic is triggering their voice... Hmm.

With the amount of magic that's holding the thing together, I assume that it would last a few hours, But I think I got the basics down.

[Would you like to learn the skill: "Transfiguration (false)"?]

I made sure to keep my face impassive as I tilted the cage to the side as if making sure that the cage was indeed real.

Mentally accepting it, nodded at her explanation.

"I am rather interested in the school, "Hogwarts" Was it? Yes, I have noticed some... Unnatural things, but mostly around my brother, Sudden appearance in hard-to-access places, along with others. Now then Miss...?"

I looked at her expectantly and she seemed to get the signal.

"Minerva McGonagall."

I nodded.

"Miss. McGonagall. Your letter mentioned places that I haven't heard of, Where can we find this "Diagon Alley", and if you could escort us there since I'm sure that two eleven-year-olds wandering around Wizards and Witches unsupervised isn't the brightest idea."

She nodded at my logic and got up, Harry and I followed a second later.

Sparing a glance at our frightened "Guardians" I turned back to the door that McGonagall and Harry were walking through.

[Quest received!]

[Task: Improve "Transfiguration (false)" to "Transfiguration (True)"]

[Reward: 50 Gold.]

[Quest received!]

[Task: Prepare for Hogwarts by collecting all the required items.]

[Reward: EXP.]

I hummed as I was putting on my shoes and tied the laces.

Straightening up, I walked out of the house, looking at McGonagall who was patiently waiting for me and Harry.

"If you would grab my hand, we will be leaving for Diagon Alley momentarily."

I rose an eyebrow and walked closer as Harry hesitantly grabbed her hand. Gripping her wrist loosely, my perception shifted dramatically. It was like going through a very narrow tube, very uncomfortable but I managed, mostly thanks to my "Gamers mind".

As soon as the feeling passed, my hand shot out, grabbing Harry by the shoulder, preventing him from falling over. He swayed like a stick in the wind.

"Are you alright, Harry?"

He shook his head and straightened up, correcting the position of his glasses.

"Yes, I'm alright. But where are we exactly?"

McGonagall looked at the... Black building? Hmm. Very secretive my ass.

"This place is called the Leaky Cauldron, through here, we will reach Diagon Alley. Follow me, Children, don't fall behind, the streets are quite busy."

... For some reason, I didn't like the tone she took when speaking. I hummed as we waited for Harry to gather himself before walking into the leaky cauldron.

We didn't even pause when we entered, seeing people enjoying themselves, smoking, drinking, some of them were even holding their wands out in the open.

Like I said before, secret my ass.

Harry looked around in awe, though I didn't see what he was impressed about.

McGonagall walked towards an old-looking door and opened it, hushing us to the other side. There was nothing there, as in, a dead end.

But I could feel it, a few of these bricks had concentrated mana inside, they were connected to each other in a pattern, but the thing was so simple that...

McGonagall pressed a few bricks in the pattern I was suspecting, a circle and I stared as the bricks parted ways. I didn't stare at it because the sight was fascinating, I stared because the "Password" was so simple that a child could accidentally figure it out...

(Hey, System, can I get a gun?)

The system remained silent, like all the other times that I asked it a question and I continued following the older woman down the road.

Looking around, I noticed owls, brooms, and people in robes. There were cauldrons, floating items, and basically, it was really weird.

Humming slightly, I glanced at Harry who was looking at one of the owls, looking at it from my peripherals, I noted that it was a snow-white owl. It was... pretty, but Harry seemed to be taken by it.

Humming, I turned back to McGonagall, leaning to the side, I tried to figure out where we were going.

"If you don't mind me asking, how are we going to purchase the required items?"

I mean, I had some gold, but I doubt that I had enough to purchase half of the potion-brewing tools.

"We are going to the Gringotts Wizarding Bank, where all wizards keep their currency, it's the safest place along with Hogwarts."

Well... that didn't explain much now, did it?

Walking into the supposed bank, I looked at the creatures that wore suits. Long noses, pointed ears... short...

Yeah... these things were goblins.

We walked down the hall, passing the surrounding, desks. and walking to the one that seemed important, right at the end.

"Mister Ares and Mister Harry Potter would like to make a withdrawal from their vault."

The small creature looked up at McGonagall first then at the two of us. I could see Harry look nervous next to me, I would be too, but this guy wasn't really intimidating... I could probably kick him hard enough to crack most of his bones.

"Well, do Mr. Ares, or Mr. Harry Potter have the key?"

Well, shit. I did not have a key in the inventory.