Chapter 2: Chapter 2
Full Metal
Chapter 2
The Express
Today was the day. The day I finally attended Hogwarts. Standing around my living room, I tried not to sigh as I waited for my family to get themselves ready to be at the station by 9:00 a.m.
My grandpa wanted me to wear wizarding robes, but honestly, screw that. Wizards were already taking over my schooling, I wasn't going to let them take over my fashion too. Flannels and jeans all the way, baby.
Casting a quick cleaning charm on my combat boots, I relaxed into my couch seat as I watched my mother run around the house looking for her camera. The same camera was sitting at home. Sighing, as I watched her walk around the house for the tenth time, I waved my hand.
Slowly, the camera levitated off the television, interspersing itself into my mother's path. To give her at least some credit, it didn't take her that long to find it when it was floating in the middle of the living room.
"Come on baby, smile for me! It's your first day!"
I rolled my eyes. "Mom, this isn't kindergarten, can we just go?" Hey, I'm a teenager, I'm allowed to be rude and angsty. I tried not to look at my mother pouted, bottom lip quivering, a slight tear leaking down her cheek, but it was useless. I have no idea how a woman in her 40s managed to look so cute and innocent. I felt my will crumble as I consented to a single photo (she ended up taking eight).
Getting up out of my seat, I tried not to send a glare at my father standing in the doorway leading to the kitchen. Smirking to myself, I cast a summoning charm on his bagel and then quickly flicked my wand back into my wand holster. I bet he was already regretting his decision to disillusion it, heh.
After shooting a brief glare at me, he allowed my mom to take a few more pictures before finally deciding to end my torture. With him helping, it wasn't long before my trunk was shrunk and in my chest pocket as I stood next to the open fireplace, fire roaring a merry green.
SAGE STOPPED HERE
Sadly, they wouldn't take my advice to remove our house from the floo-powder network, bloody wizard homes. What they didn't know was that I was actually working on my own designs for a secret tunnel. It would lead from the basement to the ward line of the ranch, I would need to learn how to make a portkey before I could start though. Sigh, so much I had to prepare for and the clock started to tick the moment I got my invite to Hogwarts.
I waited for my father to go first before stepping into the fireplace behind him, I then took a pinch of floo-powder and spoke loudly and clearly.
"Platform 9 ¾."
There was a flash of green as I took a step forward, the step was to make sure that I didn't shoot out at the other end of my journey. Something that they never told you about in the books was that the floo system gave you a little extra momentum when it sent you on your journey. Instead, they used it as a laughing matter in the books because, Haha it's funny to watch someone shoot out of the fireplace.
Green flames engulfed my vision as I was swept away through a magical equivalent of a wormhole. If I ever got my hands on how the floo system worked; I was going to reverse engineer the hell out of it before making major improvements. Granted, I would have to figure out a way to get the information out of Malfoy senior since he had a stranglehold on making floo powder market.
I stepped out of the floo powder network and into the hustle and bustle of the wizard train station, it was beautiful. The bright scarlet red of the steam engine was a sight to behold. Before I could rush forward an arm shot out from the side pulling me into a headlock.
"Still not paying attention to your blindside," I heard my brother say as before he ruffled my hair. Sending a little magic through my body, I was able to limber up enough to get out of his crushing hold.
"Max, I thought you would still be in Brazil for quidditch practice." My dad said, stepping forward giving my brother a bear hug.
"Talked to the coach, how can I miss seeing our families little genius off on his first day," Max said grinning at me.
"Sure, that's why you're here and not because you wanted to check out the 7th year quidditch hopefuls," I replied with a roll of my eyes.
"You wound me," Max gasped, holding a hand to his chest while the other pulled our mother into a hug. I shook my head at his antics as he gave our mother a kiss on the forehead. I could help but squint my eyes at him, damn did he get larger somehow. As siblings go we looked a little like our parents, but it was easy to tell that my brother was growing now that he was far from home.
Max was easily six feet and almost a half a head taller than our parents. His shoulders were a lot broader now and I could tell he had the dragonskin coat I had gotten him for his last birthday adjusted. Damn, quidditch was working out for him alright.
Mom started to smother him so I gave dad a wink before rushing onto the Hogwarts Express. It didn't take me long before I found an empty cart in the middle of the train. Pulling out my trunk, I unshrank it before then stuffing it up top in the compartment storage. Once I was sure everything was secure, I cast a few alert charms before making my way back off the express.
I arrived just in time to hear my brother being grilled about sleeping with his quidditch team's groupies. Wincing at that, I pulled out my modified levitation spell. Applying it to my own dragon hide trench coat, I walked past my mother and pulled my brother along with me. This gave him a chance to escape while our dad distracted our mother with the rest of the parent's round. I hadn't seen Snape's version yet, but that didn't mean I wouldn't make my own.
I could hear my dad burst out into laughter behind us as he watched my brother try to make his escape.
Max raised an eyebrow at me before giving me a cheeky smile.
"Thought the law was no underage magic?"
Smiling back, I shrug before a little yellow note appears in my hands. My brother gave me a grin before swiping the paper and looking it over.
"You have paid for my silence in full." Max laughed, shaking his head at my antics. I gave him a copy of my spell with a brief description of how to apply it. My brother gave me a smirk before his wand snapped into his palm. A quick flourish and his dragon hide trench coat started to bellow behind him all badass like.
A lot of those who knew Snape turned and pointed at us but we ignored them as I followed my brother to the pack of quidditch hopefuls. Honestly, I didn't know why I followed along until I remembered all of the mothering. Halfway across the train platform though, a bright pink missle latched itself onto my back.
"Wotcha!"
"Hey, Nym," I said to the bright pink metamorph hanging off my back. She gave me a pout before getting off my back then slugging me in the arm.
"Thought, I would have gotten you that time." Tonks pouted after slugging me in the arm. I couldn't help but snort at her, but there was no way I was going to give away sensory magic. Not out in public anyway or, without some contingencies in place. Tonks then pulled me out of my thoughts with her question. "So, who's spell?"
"You're gonna have to ask the little genius right there, Tonksie." Max said, he smirked down at me before turning to walk away. I couldn't help shooting him a betrayed look as he left. Nym turned to look at me with large puppy dog eyes. I was about to fold for a second, then I got over it before flicking her in the cheek.
"When you can walk ten paces without tripping over your own foot. I said as I looked around the platform.
"No fair, you said the same thing during edicate classes," Tonks whined. Shrugging, I hooked an arm around her waist before twisting us both. Tonks squeaked as a group of redheads almost ran her over. That was my cue as I tried really hard to hide from Mrs. Weasley, bloody woman trying to get me to look after Ron and Ginny. Man, bump those twins, I don't need that baggage in a magical highschool/college equivalent of a boarding school.
Sneaking around with Tonks holding down the distraction, I never got the chance to see Harry Potter. Honestly, at this point, I didn't care as I left Tonks to deal with that mess and ran for my parents for cover. Once I was back with both of my parents it didn't take long before the last whistle rang out alerting everyone.
I gave my mother a quick kiss on the cheek before trying to vanish, but my dad caught me into a bear hug. I was then grabbed by my brother who came out of nowhere to also deliver a bear hug damn near crushing my ribs. After giving out my final goodbyes, I ran onto the train before it had a chance to move.
Putting my headphones on, I started up my walkmen as I headed for my train car. As I got back to my train car, I was surprised by two people already sitting inside it. One was female and reading a book while the other was a guy with shaggy black hair looking out the window.
They both turned to look at me, so I had to pull down my headphones to hear them.
"Names, Roy Mustang, I had already booked this train car," I said pointing at my luggage up in the railing. The one with the shaggy hair made to get up from his seat, but I waved him off. "Don't worry about it man, plenty of carts, but no one said you had to travel alone. So easy introductions then."
The one with the shaggy hair took a moment before he responded voice a low.
"Harry."
"Nice meeting you then mate," I replied plopping myself down into the empty seat beneath my luggage.
"Willow," The girl sitting in the corner squeaked out from behind her book.
"Cool, what book is that anyway?" I ask striking up a conversation trying to at least bring her out of her shell.
Willow looked at me over her book taking a long consideration before she finally said something. "Enchanter's guide to the enchanted."
"Nice," I replied before pulling out my own traveling tome. "Runic Works of Reginald Ormondo."
Willow gave me a raised eyebrow before putting the book back up. I couldn't help but chuckle at that, just as shy as I have heard. Harry wanted to say something but before he got the chance, someone pulled open the door. We all turned to look and saw the large redhead standing in the doorway.
Can't I set in here the other carts are full, I snorted at that bald-faced lie. Before anyone could say anything, Ron took a seat anyway right next to Harry. Things were awkward for not even ten minutes before he couldn't hold it in anymore. He turned to Harry and asked the bloody question of the year.
"I heard you talking to me, ma before we walked through the portal. Can I see it?" Ron asked clearly, far too excited. Willow pulled down her book a little and I tried not to groan from Ron's foolishness. I knew that once he got it confirmed, then his sister would be here not too long afterward.
Harry for his part didn't take it as much before taking a hand and pulling back his shaggy bangs.
"Bloody wicked, so you are Harry Potter." Ron tried to whisper, but it was clear for all of us to hear. I couldn't hold in the groan anymore.
Signing, I spoke up stopping the fool from continuing. "He isn't looking for lackies Ron, so piss off."
The look on his face was priceless as he finally realized it was me who was on the other seat. He went to speak but I already had my wand out tip glowing, daring him.
"You're killing the vibe, so go hang out with the twins or your sister."
"It's not a big deal," Harry said, trying to help the redhead with too much interest in his scar. Ron looked at me then looked at Harry before he got up and left the train car.
Harry then turned to me to ask why I had to run off the redhead. I shook my head and let everything go back into silence for some time. Willow had gone back to reading her book while I noticed Harry looking at my walkmen. I pulled down my headset just in time to hear Harry asking about the music I was listening to.
"It's an American band called Metalica," I answered easily. "Want to listen?"
"Thought muggle devices couldn't work in the castle or around magic," Willow asked from behind her book.
"That's only if you use it directly on electronics," I replied as I remember my own experiments and their explosive results. Willow didn't say anymore as I went to pass over my walkmen to Harry.
Harry had the walkmen in his hand as the door to our train car was pushed open once more. My wand was already out in a deflecting motion but that was when I noticed that the magic was not aimed at me. Instead, it was aimed at the walkmen in Harry's hand. I turned to find Malfoy of all people standing at the doorway.
"How dare you bring that filthy muggle thing here?" Malfoy sneered at us. I couldn't believe this fucking little asshole just did that. I wanted to fucking rage as I heard the little pops of the capacitors in the sony walkmen. Harry was even more surprised as a little smoke started to rise up from the now-dead walkmen he was holding.
Instead of replying to Malfoys jibe, I channeled a little bit of magic to my throat and used one of a gamers most beloved thu'um.
"FUS!" I whispered but my will had my intention and magic did the rest. A wave of force spread out from me in a shimmer of blue to my eyes before Draco and his lackeys were tossed from my compartment door.
Willow cracked a smile behind her book while Harry's eyebrows shot upwards. There was much shifting and shuffling until Malfoy was able to untangle himself from his goons. Before he could do anything my wand was already out and a red glow was on its tip.
Draco took one look before his face twisted into a snarl.
"Wait until my father hears about this."
"I would prefer you to tell your mother," I replied with a smirk.
"WHAT!"
"Just saying, I'm willing to help her conceive a better heir since the one before me is so lacking."
"Watch your mouth, you filthy blood traitor!" Malfoy squawks indignantly, hand reaching for his wand. It was already too late as a disarming charm fired from my wand followed by a brandishing spell. None of his goons had a chance as the car door slammed shut before being secured by a locking charm.
"Well, that happened," I replied by picking up my walkmen. Sighing I frowned at my now dead device, bloody Malfoy. Can never have anything good when he is around.
I really needed to solve the magic and electronics issue, pronto. I noticed Harry looking at my walkmen with a look of sadness flash across his features. I knew he regretted asking me to listen to it since it was me passing it over that drew Malfoy to our compartment instead of walking by.
"Sorry," Harry said, frowning at the device.
"It's alright," I said, putting my now dead device away. "Eventually, I will figure out a way to keep magic from shorting out electronics."
"That's not possible," Willow said from behind her book.
"Yeah, but that's what magic is for, to do the impossible," I replied as I then took out a notebook from my coat pocket. Along its spine were glowing blue runic scripts flowed. Both of them could feel the book thrumming with power.
The book opened with a wave of my hands and I smiled as the illusionary work I had put into the thing lit up the train car. It took me countless hours to get the illusions to animate pictures the way I wanted it. Hell, I had to deconstruct how wizard chests were made to even get this to be halfway presentable.
I had taken the scripts for the wizard chess animation then matched the illusions to animations. It was the work of genius, but it still wasn't complete yet. It wasn't up to my standards, but it made a damn good first impression.
"The only limit to magic is your imagination." Harry watched in awe as a scene played out above my book as if it were a movie. Willow's eyes widened in surprise and I could only smirk at her. Twisting my book around, I showed her the runes, it's like the viewing mode on a pensive.
"What's a pensive?" Harry asked clearly still in awe.
"A magical artifact used to view your memories, but I have never heard of someone deconstructing the runic work for anything else," Willow whispered before putting her book in her lap.
"I have been playing around with the projection runes. What do you think, so am I a shoo-in for Ravenclaw?" I returned trying not to be smug.
"I thought we weren't supposed to be using magic outside of the school?" Harry asked, still trying to wrap his head around everything.
I tilted my hand back and forth in a so-so gesture, Harry was paying attention while Willow was peeking at me from over her book.
Shrugging, I answered his question, "The system is rigged so first generations outside of magical families don't get a leg up on the purebloods."
The look on Harry's face was not one of joy.
"Ohh."
Before I could reply to his lackluster comment, the trolly lady entered the compartment. Harry pulled out a hand full of coins and I settled back into my seat. The compartment was quiet and I had a book in hand. All I had to do now was survive the six-hour journey ahead of me.
O.O.O.O
The station whistle overhead shook me out of the little nap I was taking. The book on enchanting that I was reading before nodding off slipped off my chest. Luckily, I was able to catch it before it fell and hit the floor.
Looking around, I noticed that Willow was already in her Hogwarts robes. That was interesting since Harry and I were still in our regular street attire. Getting up, I stretched myself out as my bones snapped crackled and popped for all to hear.
Ignoring Harry and Willow, I pulled off my badass trench coat and swapped it out for my dress robes. Once I was ready, I sat back down and waited for the train to pull into Hogsmeade's station.
Excitement was in the air as the train let off one long toot of its horn letting all know that we had arrived. Giving Harry and Willow a nod, I turned and made my way off the Scarlet Express. At the moment, I was friends with neither, but I stayed long enough for them to follow me onto the platform.
Once we were off of the Scarlet Express, talk about pandemonium. People were everywhere and since our ages ranged from sixteen to twenty-two, everything was a borderline mess. It was clear many people did not fear the prefects of the head girl and boy as they went about doing their own things.
Backing up, I dodged a blue hex as I put my back to the wall and waited for Hagrid's booming voice. Interestingly enough, everyone brought the volume down when the big man finally made himself known booming in his loud voice about first years.
He did the meet and greet with Harry just like in the book while I cast a simple candlelight charm to hover over my head as I followed along. The candlelight charm was a Skyrim spell of course and it did take me some time to combine a stand-alone lumos spell with a tethered hovering charm to keep it in close proximity to one's body. Bloody wizards thought it was alright to use dim murky lanterns on a dark wet pathway towards the lake.
I received a couple of sneers from the purebloods while some of the first gens asked me about the spell I was using. It was full to see their expressions as I told them about how I had made it to help me take out the trash at night. Wizard or not, going to the trash bins by the stables with no overhead lights a scary fucking thing. Especially with what was available in the dark of the wizarding world.
Getting to the docks at the corner of the lake we were led to a boat that could easily seat five people. Hagrid did his little talk about not rocking the boat, but that was all we had received in way of safety talk.
Shaking my head at it all, I took the seat in the back so I didn't have to share with my boatmate. A self-warming charm had me toasty as we started to glide over the waters of the black lake.
The boat slowly drifted along as a hush fell over everyone. The full moon was high in the sky and there was a slight mist over the dark lake, it created an atmosphere of mystery, magic, and intrigue.
That spiked even more as we floated around an outcropping of trees. Standing on a hill overlooking the lake was Hogwarts. One word sprang to life : magnificent: the castle was huge and stood there backdropped against the beautiful starry night. The gasp of awe I released matched those of my boat and my surroundings.
Now, I knew why the first years came by the lake, the castle was awe-inspiring, to say the least. Picking my mouth back up from off the floor, I reeled back in my excitement as we slowly approached the cliff face of where the castle stood. I could see the lamp lighting up the underground dock. It was time to put on my game face, slapping my cheeks, I prepared myself. It was Ravenclaw or bust, I will refuse all other offers, period.
The boats pulled up to the docks underneath the castle and I waited my turn to get out. As I got out and followed behind everyone, I felt how thick the magic was in the air. For the briefest of moments, the castle's magic pressed down on me and I had to push back, but the magic suppression vanished within seconds of being applied. I furrowed my brows and looked around noticing eroded large runes carved into the caverns' walls surrounding the docks.
Tsk, turning around and ignoring the glitter of magic, I followed the group to the massive double doors that loomed over us all. Hanging back, I took in the chattering that was going on around me. People were making introductions while a few were trying to make friends, idly, I noticed the darker families brats weren't showing much of a united front. That was interesting, since the whole gang was here, from Malfoy, and Nott, to Carrow a few others.
Tonks was hanging out with Suesan and can I say damn what a rack, I wonder what her Aunt Amelia was packing. Shit, Suesan had to already be at around double DD and it was clear that she was perky even with the Hogwarts robes on.
Pulling my head out of the gutter, I sent an idle wave to Hannah before summoning Neville's toad Trevor to my hand.
Sending a slight stinging hex to the shy guy to catch his attention, I then held up the toad for him to see.
"I heard you were looking for a toad, is this him?"
Neville looked at me before squinting at the toad, "Trevor!"
"I have looked all over for that toad, thank you for your help,"
Turning to the side, I had to look over the girl that just spoke. Bushy brown hair, but black eyeliner and lipstick. Even more interesting was the arm warmers with thumb holes and black nail polish. Well, fuck me sideways in the Australian outback, Hermione was a fucking goth babe. That I didn't see coming with, but I can definitely dig it.
Putting a smile on my face I gave her my full attention, "You are welcome, miss?"
This prompted Hermione to look me over before answering. "Hermione Granger, muggle-born."
I winced at that and the raised eyebrow she gave me prompted me to give her an answer in return.
"I'm not a fan of the term muggle-born, I prefer first-generation witch or wizard, then again, I also prefer mundane over muggle any day of the week." As I was talking a few of the first generation types listened in and I could already see them agreeing with me.
Before I could say more, the large doors were thrown open and we walked in and found Professor McGonagall waiting on us. I watched and listened with half an ear as she went through the same speech as the one in the book and movies.
It was easy to see where this was going as she turned around heading back into the great hall. Within moments, Malfoy made himself known to Harry with Ron acting as the hanger-on. Rolling my eyes, I waited and took it all in, even the moment Harry flicked away Malfoys outstretched hand.
Gritting my teeth, I didn't interrupt as Harry made a fool of himself. It was clear to see that no one told him that the heir of a house should always maintain proper etiquette. That would mean that no matter how much he might despise Malfoy since Harry was the last of his house. He should have shaken the hand instead of drawing a line in the sand for all to see and hear.
Shaking my head at the foolishness, I watched as Malfoy gave Harry a smirk before walking over to the side of the little death eater wannabes. Honestly, that was a far better scheme than I thought Malfoy was capable of. Shit, he just caused Harry to isolate himself from sixty percent of the purebloods attending Hogwarts.
Malfoy had played that beautifully, I guess he wasn't totally useless beside his shit tier magical powers. Making a mental note to keep an ear open for Malfoy and his cronies, I followed behind the crowd. The first generations gasped at the magical ceiling, but I didn't lookup. No, I was casing out the joint as my eyes quickly scanned over each teacher.
My eyes quickly honed in then brushed over the form of Severus Snape before flicking to his companion on his right Professor Quirrell. Flicking my eyes further over, I found who I was looking for in the most interesting robes ever.
Dumbledore was looking massively ancient in his robes black as night with twinkling little stars that matched his eyes. That would have been fine, if the man didn't have his robes lined with gold trimmings. Instead of looking into his twinkly eyes, I checked out the smoking hot Aurora Sinistra before turning back to hear my name being called.
"Roy Mustang."
Head held high, back straight, I showed no fear as I walked to the stool. Sitting down, I waited for the sorting hat to be placed on my head. The house I would be in would mark me for the next seven years.
The hat was lowered over my head and instantly I heard it.
"My, my, my, you sonny, have one interesting mind."
"Thank you, Mr. Hat," I replied with a mentality shrug.
"I see we are no longer inside the story you have read about, how interesting." The hat whispered inside my head.
"Place me in Ravenclaw, please and thank you," I replied mentality.
"You have the love of books, but Slytherin would take you so far with your ambitions." The hat whispered back in my mind.
"We both know that they would not survive with me in the snake den," I replied, keeping my frustrations in check.
"Think of the connections you could make, with a mind such as yours, Slytherin would help you every step of the way." The hat whispered so seductively, I wanted to fold, but no, I had to hold firm.
Replying mentally, I kept my tone neutrality. Then I had images of how I would go about learning each enchantment that was woven into the sorting hat. "I will make sure to tear you apart as I research all of your mysteries."
"No need to threaten Mr. Mustang." The hat replied in my mind. Before I could answer him back, I was cut off by the bloody hat.
"RAVENCLAW!"
A/N
Well, here is chapter 2, know that I don't plan to just release all of the chapters I have written as a back-log all at once.
Sadly for you but great for me, I have learned my lesson by releasing my stockpile with Brightest Doom.
Yes, that is why I don't upload so often with that story but only once a month.
Anyway, I hope you all have enjoyed your chapter.
You can reach me here at my discord or join my patron because there will always be early chapters.
Removes the - for the internet links
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TheToFu
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