Nick Kane
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Gateway 7
🕑 Added 2024-10-17 22:34:36 +0000 UTC
Upon hearing my offer, the professor’s face lost all emotion, settling in an impassive blank mask.
“And what would be my duties?” He asked in a bland tone.
“Teach some students, do research with local materials, and help cultivate this world’s ingredients there.” I shrugged. “Essentially, help set up the base for the entire craft there.”
“And the payment?” He pressed on.
“I’m the king of one of the biggest nations in the world and you know of my power,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Just ask.”
He sighed and leaned back on the armchair, shooting me a complicated look.
“I still have a duty I must perform here, it will probably take a few more years before it’s finished.” He started slowly. “I’d like for you to begin the process now so I won’t have to do it all by myself when I can finally come.”
“Are you saying this to avoid having to do all the hard work?” I needled him.
“Not likely.” He replied with a snort. “More than likely I’m inviting more unto myself by having to fix whatever you and your people cock up.”
“Makes sense.” I nod in agreement. “How about it like this, I’ll come get you next summer break so you can spend a month fixing things to your liking and getting to know the place.”
He stopped to think for a moment before nodding.
“That’s acceptable, I’ll start gathering what you’ll need to start the process.” He said while getting up. “When will you leave?”
“One or two days after September first, so we have a little over two weeks.”
He nodded before turning to Xeno.
“Xenophilius, thank you for having me.” He turned to Luna. “Miss Lovegood, now that you are correctly applying yourself, I expect results.”
“Yes sir!” Luna agreed with a smile.
“Mr. Lupi I-”
I interrupted him.
“For God's sake man, I’ll be your employer soon enough, just Alex is fine.”
“Then Alex, thank you for the opportunity.” He said before moving towards the Floo.
Just as he is about to disappear, I respond to him.
“You’re welcome, Severus.” I said with a teasing tone.
He doesn’t quite manage to hide the small smile on his face this time.
___
I spent the next few days finally learning magic.
Transfiguration, Charms, Jinxes, Hexes, and Curses. Everything I could get my hands on, I tried to learn.
Luna was a bit miffed at first since she couldn’t really do magic at home thanks to some magic tracking the government did but, apparently, thanks to now having two people casting there Xeno said it was fine for her to do so too.
Honestly, even after he explained it to me I still didn’t understand how that worked, so I just decided to put it out of my mind and focus on my training.
___
On the day of the World Cup, we left early in the morning to catch the portkey that’d take us there.
When I expressed doubt over it being able to work on me, Xeno assured me that the Floo was much less likely to work and, since it did, portkeys should be fine.
The walk was pleasant, the rising sun and the ambiance of the countryside giving a relaxed atmosphere punctuated by the sounds of chirping birds.
After a while, we reached the meet-up point for everyone who was going to take that particular portkey. We weren’t the first ones there, as we saw a middle-aged man and a teenage boy talking underneath a tree.
“Amos and Cedric! How have you two been?” Xeno exclaimed with his usual enthusiasm.
“Ah, Xeno! And little Luna as well! We’ve been good! How about you?” He said before turning to me and extending his hand. “Ah, where are my manners? Amos Diggory and this is my son, Cedric.”
“Oh, this is Alex!” Xeno answered before I could. “He’s visiting from the colonies so I decided that him seeing his first Quidditch match in the World Cup finals would be a great idea!”
“You don’t know Quidditch!?” Cedric exclaimed, approaching us with the kind of frantic energy only true believers can have. “I know that Quodpot is more popular there, but-”
“Alex is not that interested in sports,” Luna interrupted him. “And the only thing he knows about Quidditch is that is played on brooms, so we decided to not tell anything more about it until we’re already in the stands.”
At that, Cedric’s eyes lit up and he smiled broadly.
“Where are your seats? Seeing this will be amazing!” He asked us.
“We’ll be sitting together,” Mr. Diggory said looking at us with amusement. “When Xeno told me his plan I couldn’t help but want to see it too.”
I was rolling my eyes at them when I heard a commotion a little ways away and soon enough a group of seven arrived.
Heading the group was a redhead middle-aged man and with him were six teenagers: a pair of twins, two girls, and two other boys.
After a quick introduction, we got back to walking towards the portkey spot.
There wasn’t that much conversation most of the way there, as most of the other kids were too busy complaining about the hour.
“So Alex, what brings you to our side of the world?” One of the twins asked once the complaining had mostly come to a close.
“Are you perhaps spending the year at Hogwarts with us?” The other twin finished.
“Nah, I needed a magical focus that could hold back my power and, after learning that wands could do it, I set out to get the best one from Ollivander.” I said while pulling out my wand. “Unfortunately, he could only get me this temporary one, so I’ll need to go looking for materials for him to make one that actually fits me.”
All of the teens were giving my unusual dark blood-red wand glances when the non-redhead girl, Hermione, approached me.
“What do you mean by other types of magical foci? And you only learned of wands recently?” She asked with a curious gaze.
I was debating how to respond to her question when we arrived.
On top of a small hill, there was a torn piece of rope, with a motion from the adults everyone knelt in a circle surrounding it, and, one by one, we each grabbed a piece of the rope.
“It’s time!” Mr. Weasley exclaimed “Three, two, one-”
We were suddenly spinning, either high in the air or in some in-between space, and there was a lot of screaming.
After a few seconds, the screaming stopped, and I could enjoy the novelty of the trip.
“Let go!” Mr. Weasley screamed to be heard over the wind and, after a quick look a Xeno and other at Luna, I did.
With my reflexes landing upright it was trivial, which wasn’t the case for the other teens as they all hit the ground on their backs.
Seeing this, I quickly snatched Luna from the air in a princess carry before she could fall into the pile.
Having done that, I look around us and see ahead a sea of tents, with a lot of people dotted around.
“Amazing isn’t it?” Mr. Diggory said, stepping up beside me.
“Yeah.” I nodded in agreement. “How many people are here?”
“Now? Not so many. Later? I’d say at least ten thousand have tents to spend the night and one hundred thousand are expected to come to watch the game.” He explained with a jovial tone that really didn’t convey the mind-boggling number he just mentioned.
“That’s a lot of people.” Luna, who was still in my arms, said while snuggling deeper into my chest.
“Yes, it is,” I said while looking down at her, trying very hard to conceal my amusement at the situation. “Do you plan on staying there long?”
“Just until we reach the tent.” She answered before turning around and pretending to sleep, with snores and everything.
I rolled my eyes at her and turned towards Xeno, who was talking with Mr. Weasley.
“Xeno, where’s our tent? This one decided it was time for a nap.” I said, indicating Luna in my arms.
He snorts at the sight, and shares a look of fond exasperation you can see on parents everywhere with Mr. Weasley, before turning to me a motioning me to follow.
As we walked, I noticed something that I never thought possible: wizards' eclectic taste in clothes doesn’t come anywhere near their taste in tents.
Wherever I looked, dozens of tents of varying sizes, types, colors, and themes clashed with one another.
There was even a tent with a pen for peacocks of all things beside it.
Once we arrived at our tent, a decently sized black thing stylized in the shape of the Lovegood home, but still not big enough for all three of us together, Xeno opened the flap for me to enter.
Once inside, I’m reminded that magic here is utter bullshit and that I should stop being surprised by it.
The inside of the tent was almost an exact replica of the Lovegood home, with the main difference being that the kitchen and living room occupied the first floor and a stairway by the side led to a second floor with three bedrooms.
After depositing Luna in her bed, I go downstairs to see Xeno getting comfortable with a book and a cup of tea.
“I’ll stay here until Luna awakes. Go explore and have some fun. Just be here in a few hours.” He told me while pointing me to the entrance of the tent.
“Sure.” With a shrug, I left.
___
I spent a while wandering through the campsite, seeing more and more people arriving and getting set up.
Soon enough, the different groups of people started to mingle and show off to each other, which from what I’ve seen tends to turn into Conjuration ‘duels’, where each person showed off a feat of conjuration and the most flashy wins.
Which makes sense since, according to what I’ve read, Conjuration is one of the highest forms of Transfiguration, coming second place only to Human Transfiguration.
Although I’m pretty sure that’s only because of how comprehensive Conjuration in general is. It goes from easy first-year spells to crazy feats, for mortals that it. For instance, an Italian wizard cast an ‘All roads lead to Rome’ spell to conjure over a dozen pathways throughout the campsite that all lead to his tent so he didn’t get lost in the afterparty.
Anyway, while I strolled through the campsite, I saw a lot of magic, and I tried to not approach every person with a cool spell that I saw.
Keyword tried, because I definitely failed.
I went from person to person, learning whatever I could. Nothing high level, but a lot of utility and flashy spells, most of which will be hilarious seeing the reaction from the people back home.
It was while I was learning the ‘Sakura petal rain’ spell from a cute Japanese witch that I heard it, it was faint but to me, it was clear as day.
After learning the spell I made my way toward the sound and soon enough I was facing a large green and yellow tent, charmed instruments were playing beside it, a barbeque grill letting out smoke and the delightful aroma of meat in the air, and an eclectic group of people sitting down on a table in front of the tent, drinking beer and singing.
I’d found my people.
I quickly approached them and, after arriving at their table, used my newly learned ‘chair-conjuring’ spell to summon the traditional plastic bar chair of Brazil and sat down.
I didn’t say anything, I didn’t have to, with spirits as high as they are all I got was a glass of cold beer in front of me and, after making a motion, a lit cigarette in my fingers.
And once I started singing along, all was well in the world.
