Developments in Preparations for Easter.

AN: Heads up - this chapter is rather rushed, because a lot of what happens is preparation or repetition of things I’ve already explained, but need to say is happening.

There are a lot of things happening, but none of them are earth-shaking. This is a chapter which is to show how things are being prepared for in the next few chapters, along with what’s happening in the world.

I hope you enjoy - and look forward to the re-written version - I'll likely re-write this to be a good bit more comprehensive, and the Beta will probably turn it into 5 chapters. xD 

This will have to do for now. 

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It is the beginning of the following week that I notice Tonks - by the name of Nyla Dorothea Thompson - sitting at the Hufflepuff table.

The least noticed house. The one one ever pays attention to. I give her a look of such disdain when she looks at me that she blanches, before winking. I roll my eyes, then get to food.

I’ll have to see about partnering with her in classes - not too hard to fabricate. A new transfer student working with the top student of the year is reasonable, to make sure they’re comfortable. Slow start.

A month or so of working together, then we’ll be able to go to Hogsmeade together reasonably with my friends, and then I can easily braid that into a Valentine's day trip as girlfriends, even if people think it’s nothing more than two overly attractive girls who no one had the guts to approach flaunting it.

Because Tonks did pick an attractive form, one which is memorable. She isn’t a blatant standout, like the Susan Bones in the year below her, but she is probably the prettiest 6th year Hufflepuff from an objective standpoint. None of the others really stand out. Some have good features of course - good facial structures, but upset by a flaw or two.

A scar on the face from acne, a just-too-large nose, eyebrows just slightly too fluffy, nothing objectively horrible, just detractors which some people will judge you for.

Easily fixed by advanced healing magic, if you have the galleons for it, or a potion if you have the skill and money to get the ingredients needed for it.

Nyla, is like them, pretty decent looking, but has none of the aforementioned issues. Perfect eyebrows, perfectly proportioned nose, no scars, but lacking in the regality and very fine bone structures bred into higher nobility.

Still, for a ‘commoner’ she is very notably pretty, which is why I’m not very happy with her form of choice. Even if she is a transfer from some lesser institution - of which there are many for various things - profession based schools for kids whose parents are trying to get into a specific profession, like running a shop, or being a magical miner, or being a magical builder.

These schools focus on getting you the general knowledge of these professions, so you can start trying to make unique answers to the problems and earn a noble status after five generations - hence why most Half-Blood children do not go to Hogwarts.

They go to specialty schools, to master a profession.

Older houses, who produce half-bloods, muggleborns and purebloods who belong to older houses tend to go to Hogwarts to try and see if they can get into the highest end professions. We get an average of two transfers per year - usually after they get the results for their OWLs and they realise they’re good enough to get into a higher position than normal.

The Prodigious Half-Bloods. These fill out the rosters for people who drop out after OWLs due to family emergencies, shame from horrid scoring, or likewise. Instead of subjecting their family to ridicule, they are thrown into a lower job, like running a small part of the family's business. Management, not anything requiring magical skill.

So while Hogwarts is the premier magical learning institution in the country, it is also not the only one.

Nyla came from a higher placed school which produces hospital aides, basically nurses, who work with the full-time healers. She did so well, she was pushed to Hogwarts to try to become a full healer.

So the story goes.

This is a more elegant answer than pretending she has been here forever. We got four transfer students this year - which is stupidly large.

Of course, one of them is a political move. She’s a second year, and I know she’ll arrive after her normal 2nd year ends in her original school. Learning that my allies were moving into England to have a stake to force the French ministry into the issues our nation is going to face is interesting.

Forcing an international incident with no personal risk.

The Delacour family is much mire ruthless than I thought, and Gabrielle is much more brave.

Of course, with myself and Dumbledore in the same place - not to mention Harry - I doubt anyone will want to try to do anything, and if they do somehow succeed and get away with it, then we have the whole ICW coming down on them, so she has political, physical and magical insurance.

Not to mention the Veela community will rise from every country who has one large enough to take revenge.

The move, therefore, is a complex move of political design. I have no doubt Gabrielle will have a level of protection here no one before has had. She’ll be ahead in theory, but likely behind in practicals. The French schools go a bit slower from what Fleur has taught me. A nine year education, with a year at ten years old for primers, then the normal five years to OWLs, followed by three more years for NEWTs.

Considering NEWTs are almost like a Degree from Uni, I’m not so surprised. England's 2 year structure is not feasibly held for any but the best.

Which is the point, I suppose.

So I watch, and attend classes with Nyla for the first week, and things go well. Nothing personal happens at all. Professional interactions.

The second week things warm up a little, and I offer to help her a bit outside of class, which she accepts.

Week three, we ‘practice in private’ for a few hours every week - in reality we go on simple dates. I just pull us to the edge of the wards and we Apparate out to London or wherever else we please and take bit of time.

This eases my stress immensely, and allows me to increase my progress on magic, as she joins me in practice.

While I am far beyond her in skill, it’s good to get a feel for what one of the higher end combatants in a normal person’s opinion. Not the best, of course, but someone in the top 500 of England. Better than most Death Eaters and probably somewhere in the middle of the DMLE’s Auror rankings.

While I adjust to having less personal time and more together time with someone who is as close to an equal as I am likely to find while in school, nothing very important happens.

Well, except for one thing.

Umbridge's life has become even worse from Tonks’ intervention.

Particularly, whenever I prank Umbridge and make her life hard, Tonks figures out a way to compound the prank and make it worse. Then the Weasley twins compound upon that and make it worse.

Like the day I made a spell to make everything she touches pitch black. So her clothes were black, her chalk was black, her wand was black her desk, paper, everything was black.

She couldn’t write, she couldn’t get any colour on anything, and she looked ridiculous.

Tonks had added in a spell which added funeral music to whenever she tried to write, speak or otherwise interact with anything, so unless she sat quietly it was like an orchestra was quietly playing around her.

The Weasley Twins had just done a bunch of obnoxious pranks to force her to act and do stuff so the music, and indeed everywhere she went was like a trail of black.

The castle could have resisted the magic, but it seems to like messing with her too, because the floor she walked on was dead black and the more she tried to get rid of the music, the more the sound effect travelled. By the time lunch came around on the day of this prank, the armour was singing funery songs along with the orchestra in sombre baritones, the doors eerily creaked when she opened them and, all in all, she looked like Halloween walking, and sounded like it too.

Most fitting considering her repugnant soul.

Other happenings were my stats breaking various check-points, and giving me various perks. The Night before Valentines, my status looked like this -

Aubrey Hawthorne

Titles - Queen of Ravens and Shadow, Morgana, Dragon of the Wall

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Level 110

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Age - 16

Race - Human (Draconic (Fire) Lustborne (Ice))

Sex - Female

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Str - 445

Dex - 510

Agi - 488

Con - 504

Int - 618

Wis - 642

Luk - 620

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HP: 405,713 (854,311)

MP: 3,588,393 (5,793,412)

STM: 618,120 (1,369,753)

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Stat Points - 35

Skill Points - 0

Perk Points - 2

Diplomatic Visibility - 10**

And my new perks were as follows -

For Breaking 450 in Agility, your Body has been Modified per the Archmagus Perks.

The Quick

This perk makes every skill you use on another, if it has any sort of countdown, from increased pain, to pleasure, to poison, it activates in half of the time. So if you stab someone with a knife with poison which kills in 10 seconds, they will die in five.

This works with all skills, and does not have any effect on your personal skills, meaning if you have a skill which gives you 10 seconds of increased power, you still get all 10 seconds of power.

Enjoy~

For Reaching 500 Dexterity you have been awarded a Perk

Finesse

Some people have skill with their hands - they can pick locks, parry any weapon, catch arrows… dodge bullets if they’re far enough and know where the person is roughly aiming, or know where they’re aiming and are faster than the other person by a certain order of magnitude.

You can do those things, but they all lack finesse.

This perk makes any movements which require extreme precision easier to do, more visually appealing to when done properly.

+25% passive bonus to all Dexterity based skills

For Reaching 450 Agility, you have been awarded a Perk

Alert

You are never surprised and may attempt to defend against or dodge any attack, even ones you are not aware of until they are taken upon you. Also, when you enter combat, you move at twice the normal speed for the first 3 seconds

For Reaching 500 Constitution, you have been awarded a Perk

Extreme Environmental Tolerance -

You are not damaged by hazardous environments, You no longer need to breathe and do not suffer from temperatures between 200K and 350K (-100F to +150F). You are immune to most radiation (up to 1,000 mSv - the amount experienced during unshielded exposure to space).

For Reaching 600 Intelligence, you have been awarded a Perk

The Greatest of All Time

You have achieved the highest pre-17 years of age int score ever in this world. Therefore, you get a pile of special bonuses, and a useful boon.

First is your Mana Pool Cap, which was scheduled for when you physically aged to 17. This has been moved, as with all others who broke the record before you. It will now not be locked until you turn 21, whereupon it locks. This cannot be changed.

Secondly, you get +10,000 mana per level from here on out, and this does not stop even after you turn 21, meaning your mana pool will continue to grow after it locks - unlike everyone else's pool of mana. While this is fractional, it is better than nothing.

Thirdly, your mana pool is immune to any forms of Syphoning, or corruption or exploding from here on out. Meaning if your mana pool exceeds what your body can handle, then you will not explode. You also cannot have your magic ruined by someone cursing you - ANYONE or ANYTHING - and of course unless you give it up - nothing can steal your mana.

Last, and certainly not least, you gain the Title as the first “Type O”. (1)

Unique Title - The Type O

Due to the fact that you have broken the record for most int ever - as the 2nd after Merlin - you have created a new ‘level’ of mana pools. Every master mage who does the measuring will need to make new tools to measure, just for you, because you will now break the specialty equipment which can detect even Type N’s.

+3/10 relationship with people who like those with power.

+1/10 with all good-aligned mana-heavy professionals.

-1/10 with all evil-aligned mana heavy professionals.

While these are very exciting perks to have, I am not very happy with the implications of some of them. I have the most raw mana not the most total magical energy which would include shadow mana, divine mana, and other sources which I don’t yet know about.

Which means there are certainly people who can kick me around like a football still, if not with normal wizarding magic.

The other perks are all what I expect from this level of stats. I’m 99.99% sure that my stats are basically the highest in the world outside of other physical immortals, and probably better than a good number of them.

Annoying as that is to have to consider.

Of course, Valentine's day was fun - I got to go out with Tonks - and we enjoyed ourselves. The highlight of that day was, to my surprise, when we ran into Moody and Shacklebolt sharing a drink in the Three Broomsticks. When we came in, both subtly perked up and glanced at us.

So I got a private room, and when I was allowed into the small upstairs private dining area, I told Madame Rosmerta that Moody and Shacklebolt were welcome to join us, but that she should make it seem like they’re getting a room to themselves, to make our groups seem separate. She nodded - perhaps used to strange requests when dealing with Albus’ friends, and then, ten minutes later, Moody, Shacklebolt and Rosmerta - with our orders in tow - came up to the room.

“It’s been awhile.” Moody growled, and I responded with a nod.

“Did you need anything?” I asked, giving a look of impatience.

“No.” Was his curt reply. Shacklebolt gave him a reproachful look, then cut in.

“What we’re visiting is to wish you a happy early birthday. Time turners mess with physical age, and it’s not many times you turn seventeen. So, we decided to come give our gifts, since we probably won’t be able to stop by for the next few months. Don’t worry about holding them until you’re 17. You should find them useful soon.” He explained, pulling a box from a pocket, while Moody pulled his wooden box from a pouch.

“These are shrunken trunks. To enlarge them, just tap your wand.” He growls, and I nod.

Trunks for holding the gifts mean there’s probably a lot of smaller gifts in the trunks.

“Most of what’s in there are books for advanced professions. Well, mine, at least. I know a good few healers, curse breakers and Aurors, and got a few from overseas friends, too. I figured you would like something practical.” he explains, and I nod as he continues. “Of course, there are a few other things in there I think you’ll like. Surprises, see. You’ll like them.” Then, he abruptly stands and tromps off out of the room.

Shacklebold explains his trunk is full of other useful things, which sould go well with what Moody got me, but he’s not wholly sure, because Moody would only cackle when asked what his gifts were.

“In short, check them for traps.” He concludes with a drawl, before giving polite farewells, and leaving us to our date.

The trunks were, in fact, full of useful things, and trapped to a level I’d never thought anyone might attempt.

Moody had the previous 100 years of advanced coursebooks for the three professions he mentioned, and then supplementary books, a pile of tests (which had no grading rubric, but a note to ‘give them back when done’) and a cask of Ogden's Finest. ‘To help with the books. It goes well with it.’.

Shacklebolt, on the other hand, had no books in his trunk, but a pile of premade foodstuff which goes impressively well with Ogdens, and all of it preserved with magic to not spoil. The other stuff in the trunk was various tools which the professions use ‘to get you practical experience with the material you’ll be learning’ the note had said.

With some moderately new material to learn, I settled in, and learned.

The books from Moody were impressive, in they had the basic level all the way to the master level. So instead of generic healer books, for the generic title of healer, there were extremely advanced followups which were used for the master-healer courses.

Curse Breaking and Law-Enforcement had the same, except the books in Law Enforcement went all the way up to the knowledge needed to be the head of the department.

Well, what was needed twenty years ago, but still, the sample test and the texts which hold the answers and the included advanced and auxiliary texts were very immersive. So my training was split, until Easter, into three groupings.

Shadow Magic, Professions, and the Ritual magics I’m going to be attempting shortly.

I may not need to do the rituals until I am 21 now, but 17 is an extremely important magical age, and as such, there is probably no better time to multiply my gains than that time anyways. It will look much more natural, too, since a lot of older families and houses do it that way.

I can always add more magical object sacrifices later, and removing that part of my rituals to make the most gains to my literal stats has allowed for massive increases in the expected gains, which seems to be good. Focusing on improving ONLY my raw capabilities is extremely important.

This of course, makes me decide how I prioritise my stats. After consulting what I know of the calculations, I decide upon the following configuration.

Wis > Int > Agi > Con > Dex > Luk > Str.

The reason for this distribution is it seems like wisdom increases mana the same as int, and also increases the ability to regain mana. It’s magical stamina. Int is more the ability to use it all at once. Int also helps with growth in general, but the growth is not fast. It is, in reality, pretty slow. Less than 1% increase per 10 points of int. I’ve not figured out the exact number, but it’s not worth making it the only stat I focus on - even if it should be high, due to the fact most of my magic comes from a combination of int and wis, primarily.

With the time spent, I do spend time recording what Alyss brings me about threatening creatures, or the various lost bits and bobs I’m being sent to get by the divine quests. Of course, I also get a few reports about orphanages which need help, private schools who need funders for the coming years, and other things.

It turns out Alyss is not just good for tracking, but is able to read logistics reports and calculate any number of things which we may otherwise need.

I can’t help but to be impressed.

So I make a plan - during the morning I’ll handle my personal obligations, in the afternoon, I’ll see about getting control of the private schools and orphanages which Alyss has found, and during the evening I’ll go hunting for the dangerous beasts with the bow and arrow.

At night I’ll steal back the things Mars has sent me to find - most of the stuff which has been found is just the generic equipment. I imagine the Artefacts are all in vaults or under heavy enchantments. Still, stealing back a gods weaponry is not so hard - and as I clear out a lot of these objectives, I’ll be able to narrow down the ones which I haven’t got to yet - due to the divine magic Odin has given me telling me where things are.

Annoying, annoying stuff, this. Feeling like I’m being pulled in about eighty directions at once. I’m certain at least one of the stupid things is over on the North American continent and another is somewhere out in the far east. Russia, China or maybe even Japan.

Lost in some war or other stupidity, perhaps.

The other thing I need to keep track of, outside of my studies, plans for easter and plans for the rituals, is the fact that I just don’t have the time to keep up with all of my friends unless I allow them to join me in practice.

So I do just that.

I have the girls join me on Friday after classes and help teach them, I do the training of Jasmine and her friends after lunch on my off-day and I hang out with the guys on Monday during a shared off-period. The fact I’m using the Time-Turner for that is none of their business.

I do a group hangout after lunch for us all to exchange notes, since the lunchtime is an hour, and we only need about fifteen minutes to eat and get to class. Weekly meetings for quick note-passing isn’t as grand as it used to be, but other things are made up for in our group sessions.

I do express my apologies for being so busy I can’t really do whole group sessions - a few people is barely tolerable while I’m doing mass runic calculations or practice of magic from the trainee handbooks.

Healing is getting a firm workout on those days, at least.

No one but me seems to be able to create a directional explosion, and whenever they hit an object with a destructive spell, they get some of the backlash. So, I get a lot of practice with mild to moderate wounds, and undoing strange magical things happening from resonance.

The oddest being when Katie’s shoes grew to three times their normal size and started sinking her in like quicksand. When it was undone, we discovered her shoes had scraped her feet and ankles like they’d been sanded none-too-gently.

And she felt nothing.

It was hard to heal, due to the curse residue and magical anomalies, but I fixed it after a few minutes.

Fun, that. We had a good laugh about the mysteries of magic.

By the time Easter break rolls around, I am very pleased with my progress.

Aubrey Hawthorne

Titles - Queen of Ravens and Shadow, Morgana, Dragon of the Wall

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Level 111

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Age - 16

Race - Human (Draconic (Fire) Lustborne (Ice))

Sex - Female

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Str - 446

Dex - 512

Agi - 491

Con - 506

Int - 621

Wis - 645

Luk - 622

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HP: 405,713 (861,237)

MP: 3,588,393 (5,847,659)

STM: 618,120 (1,418,130)

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Stat Points - 41

Skill Points - 0

Perk Points - 3

Skills -

Leadership - Level 165

Speechcraft - Level 230

Delegation  - Level 150

Battlefield Fighting Tactics  - Level 177

Command - Level 136

Observation - Level 125 (MAX)

Planning - Level 278

Acting - Level 322

Etiquette, -160(MAX)

Persuasion - Level 268

Deception - Level 260

Intimidation - Level 192

Lie-Detection - Level 299

Insight - Level 274

Improvisation - Level 254

Body Language - Level 202

Killing Intent - Level 180

History - Level 337

Mathematics - Level 262

Art (Drawn) - Level 243

Art (Violin) - Level MAX

Art (Smithing) - Level 206

Cooking (General) - Level 230

Language (English) - Level NATIVE

Language (Spanish) - Level NATIVE

Language (French) - Level NATIVE

Language (Italian) - Level NATIVE

Language (German) - Level NATIVE

Language (Hindi) - Level NATIVE

Language (Japanese) - Level NATIVE

Language (Chinese (Mandarin)) - Level NATIVE

Language (Korean) - NATIVE

Language (Swedish) - Level NATIVE

Language (Finnish) - Level NATIVE

Language (Polish) - Level NATIVE

Language (Russian) - Level NATIVE

Language (Arabic) - Level NATIVE

Language (Swahili) - Level NATIVE

Language (Parseltongue) - Level NATIVE

Language - High Parsel - Level 4

Language - Dragon-Speech - Level 2

Art (Dance) - Level MAX (300)

Acrobatics - Level 325

Gymnastics - Level 316

Stealth - Level 365

Lockpicking - Level 212

Pickpocketing - Level 204

Language (“Common”) - NATIVE

Language (“Elven”) - NATIVE

Meditation - Level 150 (210)/150 (MAX)

Martial Arts - Level 235 (9th Dan Black Belt)

Battle Sense - Level 4

Weapons (ALL) - Level 150

Blunt Weapons - Level 167

Staves - Level 167

Bladed Weaponry (All) - Level 225/200 (MAX)

Longswords - Level 235/150 (MAX)

Daggers - Level 235/150 (MAX)

Archery - Level 210 (MAX)

Perception - Level 292

Investigation - Level 255

Tracking - 339

Alchemy - Level 315

Healing - Level 267

Charms (Combat) - Level 374

Charms (Non-Combat) - Level 368

Subskills -

Dimensionalisim - Level 267

Chronomancy - Level 262

Pyromancy (minor) - Level 6

DADA (All) - Level 321

Subskills -

Elementalism - Level 307

Duelling - Level 633

Transfiguration (Non-Combat) - Level 292

Transfiguration (Combat) - Level 277

Potions (All) - Level 310

Herbology (All) - Level 266

Astronomy (All) - Level 232

Ancient Runes (All) - Level 401

Enchanting - Level 289

Arithmancy - Level 356

Care of Magical Creatures - Level 301

Rituals - Level 455

Hunting Magic - Level 60

Soul Magic (Non-Combat) - Level 221

Soul Magic - (Combat) - Level 246

Arcane Magical Theory - Level 426

Primal Magical Theory - Level 209

Divine Magical Theory - Level 242

Druidic Magical Theory - Level 50

Magical Control - Level 210/100 (420/100)

Magic Sensing - Level 30 (MAX)

Mage Sight - Level 16 (MAX)

Shadow Magic (All) - Level 584

Foci-Based Magic - Level 250 (MAX)

Wandless Magic - Level 222

Occlumency - Level 360 (MAX)

Legilimency - Level 268

Read Language - Level All 9/10

Write Language - Level All 9/10

Divine Resistance - Level Level 29

Speech Magic - Level 84

The only regret I have on the matter is how my stat points are going up quickly, too quickly. I’m pretty sure when Strength breaks 450 I’m going to be given the final bodily modification from my perk tree, and it’s probably going to be wings which I can hide like I can my claws and other devilish features, but I’m really not trying to get more things I have to actively hide.

Thankfully, all of my weapons of choice are based on speed and control, instead of strength. While hitting hard is useful, being able to hit an exact point with the correct speed is more important, I think. Ending a fight with the first blow doesn’t matter when you can’t hit that first blow. Higher dexterity and agility beat strength in my mind, due to this distinction.

Of course, at the point I am, most things are much more specialised than I am, physically. My only benefit is I have such well rounded, and high, stats from my excessive training that I am almost the equal of a specialist, though I highly doubt I am, in truth, equal to one of my level at anything they are a specialist in. A shadow user, for example, gets the most benefit from Dexterity and Agility, then Wisdom and Intelligence, then the rest.

There is almost no reason to focus on Constitution, luck or strength for them. Due to the fact I put Agility so low - 5th - as opposed to in the top few like a ‘true’ shadow master, I’m probably not the best outright with the skill, not as I could be.

Though I’m sure I’m good - I’m not absurdly good as I could be. I’m not putting all of my eggs in the shadow magic basket.

These thoughts of course, make me consider the people who will come to fight me, and what they might be able to do.

Thoughts for later - I suppose.

I have a busy Easter break ahead, and little time to waste in getting down to business.