Shopping and Schemes!

{Diagon Alley, London}

{23rd June 1991}

"...I have bought you a good set of Potions ingredients, one standard cauldron, 2 sets of crystal phials, 1 standard telescope, and 1 set of brass scales. You got the wand so now all we need is your clothes and books, which one do you want first." Prof. McGonagall spoke.

Rigel snapped out of his daze as he had been focusing on the floating trunk beside them. A stream of mana constantly left her wand and was covering the whole trunk.

"Let's do the clothes first," Rigel spoke, he looked around and the hustle and bustle of the Diagon Alley had increased somewhat. There were more people than ever before and as Rigel admired every witch's proactive dressing sense he began to notice a general trend.

...

[Hadyn Tiffani Lv 43]

[Kayleen Miriam Lv 41]

[Delphia Aubrey Lv 44]

[Emmy Dorthy Lv 41]

[Irving Lewis Lv 35]

[Jeff Benedict Lv 37]

[Keith Travis Lv 41]

[Leonard Edward Lv 39]

...

It wasn't a great difference but from the general trend of what he could see with this very low data, the witches had a higher average level than wizards. It did surprise him a little as he tried to wrap his head around it, but as he thought about the possible reason it started to make sense.

'Females generally had more dexterity than males anyway. And the only disadvantage that witches would have would be in muscle mass but that becomes a nonfactor when using magic. On the other hand, they would be faster and more flexible...' Rigel quickly thought about a possible way that these ratings made sense. 

'So genetically I'm at a disadvantage?' Rigel thought before he pushed that thought aside. It was purely hypothetical anyway, but then Witches roaming around Diagon Alley half-naked in this world made sense if they were stronger.

'Was this the reason that Narcissa came to meet me instead of Lucius?' Rigel thought.

'No, that doesn't make sense, if that were the case then this world would be a matriarchy and the Black family line would extend from Narcissa's branch.'

Several scenarios came to his mind but nothing that would jumpstart his train of thought toward the right area. He stopped thinking about it for now and focused on the name of the shop that was in front of him.

'''Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions'''

'I need more clothes as well, and I totally forgot about converting some Galleons into pounds. I do need to take care of my living arrangements as well, I don't know if I can live in one of the Black's properties if I'm not the heir...' Rigel cursed, he was so engrossed by magic and mana all around him that he forgot some of the essentials.

While Rigel went into the Robes shop ready to be tied down to a chair for the foreseeable future, his mere existence had knocked the timeline away.

...

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{Gringotts, Diagon Alley, London}

{23rd June 1991}

...

"...Well?" Narcissa asked. She had calmed down considerably in the last few minutes. She had thought about some plans but nothing concrete managed to stick. Rigel was too well protected by various parties and laws for any assassination attempts to be viable.

'And he is far more aware of our world than he had any right to be, so tricking him into taking back his claim won't work unless Draco could get some incriminating info on him...' Narcissa thought, she looked at her son who had long blond hair like his father, and his patented sneer down to a tee. She lost the remaining confidence in him successfully pulling off a scheme.

'If he had the smarts to go along as well.' Narcissa thought as she sighed. She had spiled Draco too much and without any competition from his fellow heirs, he had grown too proud and overconfident.

"There is no mention of Cynthia Marlowe Gaunt in the Gaunt Family lineage chart," Umaenock replied as he looked at the piece of parchment and frowned.

"So Regulus just happened to fuck a squib during Merlin knows what he was doing?" Narcissa asked incredulously. The whole situation didn't make sense.

"The only other possibility would be a squib or a witch who is hiding behind some powerful enchantments that the Gaunts couldn't afford with the state of their Ledger," Umaenock replied.

"Fuck..." Narcissa muttered she needed more information to work through this mystery. The heirship claim was already filed so the only way for Rigel to not do the ceremony was to steal the ring that would go to him from Gringotts while making sure he couldn't legally appeal. 

'It would be nice if the Black madness struck him and he fired a couple of killing curses in the great hall.'

"Who were the last members of the Gaunts family registered in their lineage ledger, maybe we could trace Cynthia back to them. I remember their family has been extinct for a while now." Narcissa asked. 

Umaenock nodded as he looked at the chart and spoke, "According to the ledger, the last known heir to the family, Morfin Gaunt, died in 1956 in Azkaban serving a life sentence for the murder of a muggle family. His sister Merope was a squib and she died in 1926, and their father Marvolo Gaunt, the last recorded Lord of the House passed away in 1925."

Umaenock thought nothing of the name but both Narcissa and Lucius shared a glace at the last name. Marvolo Gaunt died before their time so they had never heard that name before, but the fact that the Gaunt family were the last known descendants of Slytherin and the fact that the Dark lord gave Lucius a diary that had the last Lord's name printed on it couldn't have been a coincidence.

"Are you sure?" Narcissa asked, the Diary was a very dark object from what she could distinguish about it.

"It would work, he mentioned that it would bring death and destruction..." Lucius replied, he wanted to speak more but doing it here wasn't a good idea.

"Let's go Draco!" Narcissa thought as she stood up, she looked at Umaenock and spoke, "Try to listen in, on what the accounts manager of the Gaunts is planning about the claims." Narcissa added as an afterthought before she whirled around. 

'It could work, leaving behind my robe did work out in our favor. Now I can go to get it back from him and leave the diary behind...' A simple but nefarious plan began forming in one corner of Gringotts. 

...

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AN - Like the twist? I'll Work toward the first NSFW scene in the next couple of chapters now!

18 chapters ahead on P.atreon!