Chapter 3: Digging Around Diagon Alley
It's been 8 years since I have been born into this world. Today I'm going to Diagon alley with my family to buy school supplies for Cedric. He'll be joining Hogwarts this year.
I'm still 3 years away from owning the wand but that has not stopped me from learning. I have already unlocked various skills and minor spells on both offense and defense by reading various books available in the Diggory family library.
And also being a neighbor of Weasleys made me quite proficient in quidditch and the chaser position along with Ginny works quite well for me in our mini version of quidditch.
I also noticed I gain Character Points(CP) by doing good deeds such as helping mother or Mrs. Weasly around in gardening by my special brewed herbicide potion with my past life knowledge or tutoring Ron & Ginny on basic wizarding etiquettes.
I even managed to brew few high-level potions as Strength Potion which gives me a boost of +5 on strength and Mana Potion increasing my MP by +10.
I even made a lite version of Polyjuice Potion adjusting the awful taste to mint, which does not require any toenails or hair from others. It on use makes my body of adult body but face needs to be kept hidden as it is the same baby face of mine. With an adult body and my face and red eyes, I look more like those album stars of high school musicals. To not stand out in the crowd and for sneaking around I need a robe with a hood. I decided to name it GrownUp Potion.
Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions is perfect for that and why would Amos or Ceyl suspect an 8 year old interested in new clothes.
But before that, I need money as the pocket money of 8 years old amounts to 1 galleon. Although in Chamber of Secrets Book, the Weasleys completely emptied their vault which consisted of 1 galleon and a pile of sickles, which could be equated from $50 to $75, and they had to buy everyone books, plus robes, a wand, and cauldron for Ginny, etc.
It didn't really hit me until now just how hard the 50 galleon fine for the Flying Ford Anglia hit the family. Also, it made it that more surprising to me that when they win the 700 galleon Daily Prophet Grand Prize, they spend the better part of $17,500 on a trip to Egypt (I suspect that a good chunk of it may have been spent getting out of debt, but they didn't tell any of the children). Finally, it meant Fred and George's 37 galleon bet with Bagman was over a thousand dollars on something of a longshot.
I asked my mom to first go to Apothecary for some potions supply unknown to her I packed some of my home-brewed Herbicide Potions along with Mana Replenishing Potions and Strength Potions for little side income.
Mr. Francis the Apothecary shopkeeper is a friend of the family so Ceyl has nothing to worry about and allowed me to go while they went to Ollivander's to buy Ced's wand.
Mr. Francis is an old spectacled bald wizard with a kind grandfather nature. When I asked to test the potions made by me and as these are already approved by Ceyl he has no problem giving them a check but when he found my potions effectiveness he was shell shocked.
Of course, I have confidence in them but I need to confirm few things as "Mr Francis how much enhancement does my potion does if we make a rough percentage estimation?"
"Well knowing you for years I should not be surprised but still this is as incredible as your mother's and she is a potion master.
And these new surprises you made in as modification is surely beyond grandmaster level.
Well not to be much surprise for me since I have two PHDs and one-off them is on Biochemistry. So these world's potions with my genius mind are no doubt easy peasy go with cheesy.
Ok talking in percentage terms can you give me a tentative estimation?
Mr. Francis said in his view strength potions give around 25% boost (Reem blood gives around the same but is difficult to find) to an average wizard and mana replenishment potion gives around 5% to Adult wizards.
The herbicide potions even select narrow & broad leaves and act as selective weed-based.
The more important thing is now I have a general idea how an adult wizard's stat looks like.
If 25% of strength is 5 then an adult's strength stat would be somewhere in between 20 and MP 10 is 5% means normal adult MP to be around 200. Of course, Mr. Francis gave an average adult wizard analysis there are people far beyond the definition of normal.
These all will be an instant hit and for my total 6 vials of potion, I got 90 galleons.
1 galleon is 17 sickles or 493 knuts. And I got a lot of money to spend. But I should open a savings account.
Just then my sweet dear dad is here to rescue and after a few goodbye words with Mr. Francis, we left for Gringotts.
Gringotts Wizarding Bank is the only bank of the wizarding world and is owned and operated by goblins. It was created by a goblin called Gringott, in 1474. Its main offices are located around the North Side of Diagon Alley in London, England.
In addition to storing money and valuables for wizards and witches, one can go there to exchange Muggle money for wizarding money, which appeared to not be very difficult, as shown when Hermione Granger's parents did so while paying for her school supplies. The currency exchanged by Muggles is later returned to circulation in the Muggle world by goblins.
We have reached a snowy white building that towered over the other little shops. Gringotts Wizarding Bank adorning its motto Fortius Quo Fidelius, a Latin phrase that means "Strength Through Loyalty".
There is an entire underground world of goblins settled caving below raising an empire of its own. Such a strange world where elves are ugly and goblins are intelligent.
From the entrance to Gringotts, and it leads into a small entrance hall and another set of doors.
Through these doors, even outnumbered by goblins there is a wide hall of marble, long counters extending down its length, with doors leading out to the passageways of the vault, with around a hundred goblins sitting at them.
The vaults run for miles below the city and can be reached by rugged stone, complicated and intertwined passageways by means of magic carts driven by goblins. Dragons and other mystical beasts are lurking in the caves as additional surveillance measures.
Gornuk the executive assigned for us to do the necessities was quite pleasant compared with Goblin standard. I have made a joint account with Dad as legal collateral as I do not own any wand for registration and made this as my official default account for transactions.
Left with 50 Galleons I met mom & Ced in front of Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. Students get their Hogwarts school uniforms there, and wizards and witches can also purchase dress robes, traveling cloaks, and also on very rare occasions, invisibility cloaks.
What I need is some random adult-sized hooded robes for my little side adventure. Ced is busy admiring his 12¼" long Ashwood with Unicorn hair as core wand and I know with my poppy-eyed request he'll give his wand anytime for me to experiment.
After sneaking around some attendants I found the perfect dragon hide shock resistant 150% Skyrim style enchanted robe of crimson red colour at a decent bargain of 9 galleons 11 Sickles. It's just now remained to go home try some new potions out of all new ingredients I bought along with to try the new standard size Copper Cauldron that I have purchased for the price of 15 Galleons at Potage's Cauldron Shop.
The best haul from the tour was of course black Mokeskin leather magical suitcase, bewitched with an Undetectable Extension Charm that could hide the contents from others by flipping a switch on the case. Though its expansion charm is not as large as Newt Schamanders (as I remember he charmed it himself so no such readymade briefcase available) but it still gave me a space for a potion laboratory with safety ward raised and it cost a whopping 100 galleons. Well, it was a gift from my overbearing mother for my first visit to Diagon Alley so no pressure on personal money reserve.
In two days Ced is going to Hogwarts and I need to practice my what little precious time is left with the wand before Ced comes for Christmas break. The wand is not as restrictive to me because maybe of blood relation to Ced.
We are both now holed in my suitcase figuring a way to make a perfected polyjuice potion. Independent of its actual brewing process, the Polyjuice Potion required a good deal of preparation prior to making it. For example, the lacewing flies must be stewed for twenty-one days before making the potion, and the only fluxweed picked during a full moon is acceptable. The total process took approximately one month to complete.
And with stirring of 3 times, counter-clockwise I split the potion into multiple doses and for the first batch, I added the hair of Ced which he enthusiastically donated. With a final wave of the wand to complete the potion I got a ping on my gaming dashboard.
WHAATTT WHAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTT!!!!
The system glowed with a continuous blink
New Skill - Potion – Beginner added.
Wow, so this means if I practice enough I can add various skills to my character as in games. Cool.
So before Hogwarts, my objective is settled. I'll gain access to all Beginner skills required for the Hogwarts curriculum. But the glowing question still glared how to solve the Wand problem for these three years.
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Cedric Diggory POV
Today is the day I have been waiting for. Finally, I'm at Kings Cross Station ready to board the red train of dreams. Weasleys along with my family accompanied as still, two Weasley siblings are in Hogwarts.
But why do I feel like not leaving I have been waiting this day from the time I remember. Yes, the little red-eyed devil is the reason. The bundle of cuteness has grown on me in time. I know how brilliant my little brother is and still being the elder brother I have far behind him in competition. But I know how risky he gets once he gets involved in his magic experiment.
How can I leave him alone with his nature to seek danger from nothing? What if something happens while I am not there to protect him?
No, I know I need to grow stronger to protect him much stronger than him to be called his elder brother. And I know I am No prodigious as Cad, only Hogwarts can help me to grow stronger.
I hugged Cad a little longer than usual but my mind is clear while I start my journey to adulthood. And as Cad loved to call it I have now a clear objective set in front of me, that is to protect my little brother no matter what and I'll grow stronger for that.
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