Chapter 96: Newt-case
The appearance of Durant had drawn too much attention. I had thought that people would have forgot about him by now, but as they say, once a legend, always a legend. I am only glad that I had put Nyxie in my Newt-case. A baby dragon would have only attracted even more attention.
The Newt-case which I just mentioned is the same one which could passed through electric security at the airport without damaging the system.
"Newt" Scamander owned a suit"case" which had an undetectable extension charm placed on it, along with others. That's what I named it after.
The normal extension charms are strictly regulated by ministry, and the ones who are able to have them legally are usually old families. So, the suitcases at the Potter manor were the legal ones, and could be detected but there'd be no problem. The ones that me, Hermione, and Newt Scamander have are undetectable and they are illegal, but can't be detected easily since they don't emit any magical energy due to the undetectable version of the extension charm.
So, that's just one charm, I had to cast more than a dozen other charms to make it habitable for Nyxie. And she still doesn't like it much. Even now, through our bond, she's threatening to break free in public if I don't go to an Empty compartment right now.
...
After Durant had left, only then did my friends started showing up. It looks like the combined might of Durant and Amelia was too much for them to handle.
Well, it's good, since Durant is not the kind of person who'd socialize. My mom should be present here for that.
Soon, I saw Harry walking up to me while grinning. The Dursleys were standing a distance away.
We bumped fists. "Bruv, you saved me back there. I was stuck outside the barrier! If Jilly hadn't come to help me out, I'd have definitely missed it."
After hanging out with me for years, Harry has been converted into a bro. He even talks like one.
"Well, I just asked her to find you, since I couldn't see you here. Anyway, why didn't you come meet my dad?" I asked, grinning.
"Well, first of all bro, congratulations! You're now what? Chris Martin? Aren't you also now a 'rich second generation spoiled brat' that you were always making jokes about? How does it feel to be one yourself, huh?"
"...."
I just shook my head. To be honest, it's been great upto now, but...I have a feeling that I'll miss the earlier days of being relatively low key.
Harry filed that one away for later burning as he answered my earlier question. "Anyway, I didn't come to greet you because, mate, your dad's scary. Besides, I didn't know if you had a good relation with him or not..."
Just as we were talking, the rest of the friends also gathered. Hannah Abbott, Anthony Goldstein, Terry Boots, Padma Patil, Sue li, Lisa Turpin, Neville, Hermione. And this was just from my year. I even saw Andrea, who was running here.
All of them were fine, but if you add their parents to the theory as well, I can't deal with everyone, at the same time. A few of them would just be left standing like idiots before I even have a chance to meet them
After the disturbance earlier, everyone had gathered here, and after seeing me all alone, without the scary dad, they'll also want to get the first hand scoop of what actually happened and how it happened.
'Well, it's going to be a long reunion, huh?' I had a headache thinking of talking to everyone here.
Why did I make so many friends? Yeah, because I was an orphan with no connections. If hadn't already met my family, I would've gladly greeted all my friends and their parents. Those who would have been good to me would have been filed as good people since they were being nice to an Orphan muggleborn.
But now that I have everything, I can't be sure which ones are approaching me with good intentions and which ones only came because of my family name.
So, I've decided, that I'll not meet the parents, and just make connections with the children. That is, if he/she is worthy of my friendship, then no family background needed, no bloodstatus needed. I'll then greet those friends' parents.
Thus, seeing all of them coming to my direction with their parents, I did the only thing that could be done—I ran into the train.
'Talk to me in the train guys, the parents are too much to handle for now. Besides, I can't deceive them all together about how I found my family; It'll be difficult.'
...
Even as I stepped into the train, the students started pointing fingers at me, while whispering.
'Damn, Harry's gonna have his payback now.' I thought as I walked by all the full compartments. I used to tease Harry a lot about this freaking and a bit creepy attention.
I urgently searched for an empty compartment. I really need to find one. Nyxie us getting restless in there and since it's not made to be a cage for here, she can burst out any time she wants.
All the compartments in the train have scarlet curtains, and around the doorknob, there's a sigh which shows it's occupied or not.
I went into a random empty compartment and locked the door.
"...?" Only after closing the door did I realize that the compartment was infact, not empty.
If I was surprised, the two girls sitting in the compartment were even more surprised; One had even drawn her wand.
Both of them were in Slytherin uniform, one had light-blond straight hair and dark blue eyes and light skin tone.
The other was a fair skinned girl with brown eyes and wavy brown hair.
They were— Daphne Greengrass and Tracy Davis of Slytherin.
"Um... why was there an unoccupied sign on the door?" I asked. Judging from their reaction, they weren't expecting other people.
"Oh!" Tracy put her hand on her head, as if she only now remembered it.
Daphne, who had already drawn her wand, turned her head to glare at Tracy.
Tracy looked down meekly under Daphne's fold glare, "Ah... sorry, I forgot to lock it and change the sign."
"Anyway, sorry for intruding, I'll leav—" Just as I was about to leave, Nyxie burst out from Newt-case.
'This girl.' I sighed helplessly. Nyxie doesn't like staying in the Newt-case; Point noted. If I didn't have good background right now, I'd be worried if they had seen that the small bag in my hand was actually a space extension bag that can house living beings. But, now? Who cares? 'It's a family heirloom; Got a problem?'
If I accidentally showed some unique magic? 'What are you overreacting for? It's a family magic.'
In short, It's like I've got a new grandma now.
"Wow! Is that a dragon?! You brought a dragon to the school?!" Tracy Davis couldn't just let it go.
I turned to her as I was leaving. "No, she's an A.A.T. (Advaned Animated Transfiiguration) done by a genius Enchanter. You can say, she's a perfectly disciplined and safe pet. And my father will be meeting Dumbledore for the permission."
Advanced Animated Transfiiguration is wizarding equivalent of an A.I. (Artificial Intelligence).
With that, I started leaving again. "Wait!"
This time, it was Daphne Greengrass who had spoken up.
I sighed, "Look, I'm only leaving in the first place because you guys were treating me like an intruder, even drawing your wand." I glaced at her Daphne's wand, which she quickly put away. "If you don't want me staying in this compartment for the rest of the trip, then I'm not wasting any second here while the other compartments are getting filled. So, do I still wait?"
Tracy Davis nodded eagerly while Daphne looked at the Nyxie, before nodding hesitantly.
I had planned to stay alone in my compartment for this trip since technically, I still don't have the permission to have Nyxie with me. That'll only be possible when I get my Head of House or the Headmaster to give me written permission.
But now that the dragon's out of the bag, I think I'll just stay here. Nyxie won't agree to go into the bag again for me to go into the crowded aisle, where upon seeing her, many would react like Tracy. And students like Percy Weasley would ask me if I had permission.
I sat down on the seat opposite to the two. "So, you were saying?" I asked Daphne why she asked me to wait.
"I want to buy that Dragon from you. You can name the price." She said expressionlessly.
"...."
How I wish I could just leave. But that would be more damaging since Nyxie won't agree to go into the Newt-case again. And going out with her visible would be asking for the Percys to come and annoy me.
"She's not for sale." I said simply, not bothering to get angry at Daphne. There'd be many people like her in the future, asking to buy Nyxie. But I must persevere. For Nyxie to not have to live invisible all the time, I have to take this much. Though I'd still give back some damage.
"Find something else for your sister." I said, making her expressionless eyes widen in surprise.
Yeah, she hasn't shown much interest in Nyxie herself, so I'm guessing it must be for her sister. It was just a wild guess, but I guess I guessed true, if her reaction had anything to say about it.
"How did you know?!" asked Tracy, who was more surprised than Daphne.
I shrugged, "Magic?"
"..." 2x
Daphne still didn't give up. "Then just tell me the name of the Enchantmenter who made her."
My annoyance was a bit decreased with her quick transition from 'it' to 'her,' just from the way I said, 'She's not for sale.' It's also good that she immediately understood that no matter what she offers, I won't sell.
I gave her the standard answer that I'll be giving to everyone. "It's Sebastian Delacour, but it's his one and only creation of this kind which he just gifted to me. He'll not make another for you no matter how much you offer. It's too much hardwork and very time-consuming." I had discussed it with Sebastian earlier, and I had asked the permission to use his name for this.
Sebastian, being quite the genius Enchanter, can technically make an AAT, of a living, cute and obedient pet, but it's too much of a hard work and time waste. His business would only increase when people know that he can actually make such a master piece. So, he's not suffering a loss here.
Nyxie bit at my neck a bit, clearly understanding the whole conversation that we were having. I gently patted her head, and scratched her scales, mentally communicating with her and soothing her.
Tracy's eyes had always been on Nyxie ever since she came out, and finally couldn't resist after she saw Nyxie's cute reaction when I started scratching her. "Ooooh! So cute! Can I pet her? Pleeeeeease?" She was quite the polar opposite of Daphne.
"What do you think, Nyxie?" I asked Nyxie.
Nyxie regarded Tracy with her amber coloured eyes. Then, she jumped my shoulder to Tracy's head and began patting her head with her claws.
"Well, you can't pet her, but she'll pet you. Is that ok with you?"
"...."
Tracy stayed very still as she let Nyxie pat her head.
"Looks like she likes you, since she hasn't just... shredded off your hair with claws."
*Flinch*
Tracy flinched at that. And Nyxie flew off her head to land on mine and started pulling at my hair.
'What the-'
"Alright, alright, I was joking. Nyxie's a very peaceful and cute dragon. As you can see, she doesn't show aggression at all."
Tracy laughed while Daphne looked at me with judging eyes. I know those eyes. 'How is this guy the topper?' The eyes seemed to say.
Well, I was actually a ranker untill my 8th standard. So I know those judging eyes. Even at that time, everyone wondered how I was coming first. But in those days, people always had a very good explaination—My parents owned the school!
So, the explanation that people used to come up with on me coming first was that, it was because my parents owned the school! This young master was a young master afterall.
Though really I didn't cheat. My parents wouldn't allow me. It's just that the study seemed enjoyable in those early years, so I could tolerate studying and I also liked coming first. So I scored good marks with honest effort. But after that, my other hobbies took over and I had to give up on being first.
In this life, I have great occlumency skills, along with so many other advantages, and with mental maturity, it'll be a wonder if I didn't beat eleven year old kids here.
I looked at looked at Daphne as Nyxie stopped making a mess out of my hair. "You don't have to be so suspicious. Yes, I came first through cheating, but you can't use the same method to cheat in this life."
I frankly admitted to cheating. Reincarnation itself is the biggest cheat ever. So, I'm of course cheating. And hard working geniuses like her shouldn't doubt life after doing so much hardwork and still not being able to beat a guy like me at studies.
If I was mentally eleven years old without any cheats, just a muggleborn wizard, I wouldn't have been able to come first due to things like 'History of Magic.' Because Granger and Daphne are also geniuses and they have the patience do boring things like cramming up boring subjects like that.
Though I would have still been the top, or tried to be at the top in magic casting, dueling, and Quidditch among the eleven y/o. And I wouldn't have been bored of these things like I got bored of studying muggle school stuff. I can't ever get bored of magic and sports. So I would've done better than I did in muggle world even without reincarnation and future knowledge.
After hearing about me admitting to cheating, Daphne's expression changed a bit to annoyance.
But Tracy on the other hand, "Really?! How did you cheat?! Can you please tell me? Can you please help me cheat as well?"
'Does she also want reincarnation?'
"... Alright, let me try. Do you have... a white board marker on you?"
XXXX
A.N.:
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