New beginings
Swaying on his feet, Dazai suppressed the sudden urge to expel the contents of his stomach, feeling as though his center of gravity had shifted with the sudden rollercoaster of movements his body had gone through.
Snape, or Professor Doom and Gloom as Dazai internally dubbed him, had looked annoyingly smug as he took Dazai’s arm and teleported them without warning. Apparition, if he remembers correctly, the wizarding world’s preferred means of transportation it seemed.
Composing himself, he turned to face the man, a pleasant grin on his face, one that only promised retribution, even though the teacher wouldn’t know it yet. “A little warning would have been appreciated.”
“We do not have time for dillydallying, I’m afraid.” The professor answered with no little amount of condescension, already walking away and into what appeared to be a dingy old pub. ‘The leaky cauldron’ was written with fraying letters on a giant board.
“Oh? Perhaps we have time for a drink instead?” He drawled, following behind the taller man at a languid pace.
“Talking back to your teachers is unacceptable Mr Dazai, you would do well to curb the habit now.” Dark eyes regarded him snidely, a sneer twisting the man’s features into something almost bat-like. Dazai had the urge to grin. Although he refrained from setting the teacher off any further, it was only their first meeting, after all. He would have plenty of time to test the limits of his boundaries later.
“My apologies, I was only curious.” He amended, projecting an air of sincerity for good measure. It seemed to appease the man for now.
“This is not your run-of-the-mill tavern, Mr Dazai.” Snape lead him through a crowd of people, all dressed in similarly in dark, long robes. Dazai could already form an idea of what would happen next.
He could feel it in the air, an energy crackling at the walls, lurking within the crevices and fissures of the place. They reached a conspicuous brick wall at the far end of the room, only then did Snape continue. “This here is the entrance to one of London’s magical districts.” He explained, his tone taking on a different tenor, one that underlined his years of experience as a teacher. Snape drew what Dazai could easily identify as the man’s wand, clicking it against the bricks in a pattern that he took no time to memorize. “Welcome to Diagon Alley.”
The bricks folded in on themselves as if pushed by an invisible force, scattering and creating an archway, an opening to a road beyond.
Dazai’s eyes widened, his composure dropping momentarily as he took in the sight before him. A long cobbled road stretched there, rows upon rows of shops and establishments unfolding before his eyes. His eyes darted across the space, marveling at the novelty of such a place existing, hidden just beyond the sight of the regular world.
Throngs of people hustled and bustled to and fro the street, everyone moving with a clear destination, all dressed in those same, distinct sets of robs, ranging from bright colors to dark tones. Dazai suddenly felt wholly out of place, dressed as he was.
“Come now, boy, you can gawk later.” Dazai scoffed, putting on a mask of indifference as he followed behind the man, eyes darting around him, looking for potential threats, and assessing his surroundings. It hit him then, how from this moment forth he would be in uncharted territory. One he would need to tread very carefully.
He could feel a couple of eyes on him as they walked but most seemed to dismiss him a moment later, as if uninterested in the least. Dazai figured they were used to seeing more bizarre things than a teenager wrapped in a lot of bandages.
The first place Snape led them to, was a small shop with a dark circular front called ‘Olivanders’. The store was dimly lit, Dazai noted as they entered, a soft shrill ringing as the door closed behind them. He didn’t have to wonder for long what kind of store it was. For rows and rows of rectangular-shaped, lean boxes filled every vacant space of the shop, shelves upon shelves of them stretching into the depth of the space.
“Ah, what do we have here, Severus?” A voice exclaimed from the counter, popping up from behind one of the fixtures of shelves. He was old with white greying hair, disheveled and curling locks that framed his wrinkled face. His thick eyebrows rose in surprise as he regarded Snape first and then Dazai a moment later. “I don’t believe we have met before, child, little old for a first year are you not?”
Being called a child and a boy was really starting to get on his nerves. “Dazai here is a transfer student, Garrick, he’ll be joining the fifth years if he passes his placement exams,” Snape answered before Dazai could think of a proper scathing response.
“Curious…” The man, Ollivander Garrick, Dazai presumed, muttered, gaze flitting from Dazai to his bandages and Snape before turning away. “Very curious.” He climbed a short ladder, reaching for one of the boxes on the top shelves before hurrying back to them. “Go on, dear boy, try this one.”
Dazai could feel power thrumming in the wooden stick, his senses flaring as he regarded it carefully. A theory already forming in his head even as his fingers wrapped around the object. He was suddenly all too grateful for his forethought in wearing gloves to this exertion. He could feel No longer human thrumming under the fabric, his skin tingling as his ability surged with the need to nullify the power within this object.
It seemed that No Longer Human did have an effect on magic, after all.
“Go on, go on, give it a wave.” Ollivander urged impatiently, making a flapping motion with his hand.
Dazai waved the wand, a little relieved when a couple of sparks erupted from the tip. Nothing too extreme but at least he knew that his gloves were effective. Ollivander muttered indistinctly under his breath, snatching the wand out of his grip and immediately turning to look for another.
They went through too many wands to count, Dazai had stopped trying after the first dozen, however, eventually, the man came traipsing back with a new box in his hold.
It was a black ornate wooden box, dust caking its surface as if it had been stashed away and forgotten for years.
“This one, I believe will surely work.” Ollivander hadn’t gotten impatient with time, in fact, it seemed that with each failure he had gotten even more enthusiastic about the challenge that Dazai posed. Unlike Snape who had taken to standing in the corner and glaring at him, as if he’d somehow planned for the wands to rebel against him.
The old man handed him the box and he opened it with curious fingers, gaze catching onto the dark grey, ashy wood. “Threstral hair, very unusual, especially in partnership with black walnut.” He gestured for Dazai to try it out, his eyes narrowed in concentration as he watched with rapt attention.
Dazai could tell something was different as soon as he held onto it, power thrumming through him even as No longer human flared and protested within him. He waved the wand, barely moving his hand in a slight twist of the wrist before it lit up, bathing him in a cold blue-ish light. So bright that he almost shied away from it. His hair ruffled with a sudden gust of wind and the wood beneath his touch seemed to cry out with it.
Snape who had long since leaned against the wall in tired defeat straightened as Dazai’s magic seemed to fill the room.
A headache was forming behind his eyelids but he ignored it as he settled the wand back on the counter. The light had faded as soon as he put it down. It seemed that he had finally found his wand.
“Very curious indeed.” The look in Ollivander’s eyes made him want to crawl out of his skin.
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Dazai patted at the wand holster now strapped comfortably beneath his sleeve, trying to get used to the additional weight there. It grated a little uncomfortably against the scabs he had there, but he ignored it just as he did everything else.
Thankfully, the rest of their shopping trip went much smoother than their first exertion. Dazai feared Snape would pop a vessel if they’d gotten delayed in even one more shop like they had at Ollivander’s.
They went through the apothecary with relative ease, a place Snape seemed all too familiar with, not that Dazai was surprised given the man’s supposed position as a potion’s master. The cauldron shop was next, followed by the book and stationery store. Luckily, they passed similarly, as Dazai went in and out, his small extendable- as Snape had called it- bag slowly gaining more items to its name. Although they had stopped and bought a magic trunk for him to later store his items inside. His muggle-grade suitcase- as Snape referred to it- was apparently unsuited to hold so many items at once.
He made a mental note to come back later for a few more books, as he would need as much information as he could get before starting the term in a few days.
Dazai was starting to realize how useful magic could really be. Although the constant headache he was sporting dampened his mood considerably.
With every store, he collected more and more information about this weird new world.
When he had inquired about the money, Snape had promptly explained how the school had taken upon itself to fund his first year attending Hogwarts, given all the years of education he had missed out on. He followed up by clarifying that they would be passing by Gringotts, a bank, later to open a vault in Dazai’s name, one where he would be able to store his exchanged muggle money for wizarding currency.
Admittedly, he was curious to see the goblins, as he had read extensively about the Goblin wars and was very intrigued to see the creatures for himself. He figured they must be crafty if they got an entire enemy community to trust them with their gold.
The trip to ‘Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions’ a shop name that was a bit too wordy for Dazai’s taste, went with much fanfare, as he had refused to undress in front of the witch but in the end, had charmed her well enough to let him go with a few magically recorded measurements instead. He’d left the shop with a plastic grin and multiple sets of robes now to his name. Snape had thankfully waited outside for this one.
His thoughts faltered, however, as he realized that he’d have to wear them from now on. How any of these people walked in public in these medieval robes honestly baffled him. If the slug was here he would surely be laughing at him.
“I believe this is everything,” Snape said, interrupting his train of thought. Having been walking in silence through most of their trip, it was slightly startling to hear him talk now.
He mentally went through the list he’d gotten a few months earlier and agreed with the man, however there was one thing he wanted to ask about first. “Sir, is there a way for phones to work while at Hogwarts, or would I have to use other means of communication?”
“You will swiftly find that technology and magic don’t blend well. I would recommend investing in an Owl, although the school has its own Owlery for students who do not come prepared.” Owls, of course, why not. Given everything he had witnessed today, he wasn’t even surprised.
“Oh, alright, I’ll think about it.” He could barely take care of himself most of the time, owning a pet would only lead to disasters. Mori would likely make him kill it anyway.
Thankfully Snape didn’t question him. Dazai suspected that the man simply didn’t care enough to, which suited Dazai perfectly.
The walk to Gringotts was spent in comfortable silence, although Dazai’s mind was going a mile a minute, thinking of all the things he had to do before the start of term.
The bank, an imposing snow-white multistoried marble building, was impressive, almost intimidating, as he read the warning clearly engraved into the walls of the structure. Despite the dramatics, it seemed that those Goblins really weren’t fooling around.
The inside of the building was even more remarkable, as he gazed at the vast marble hall flanked by long counters stretching along its length with doors leading off to the vault passageways with around a hundred goblins sitting at them.
The goblins themselves were pretty small, Dazai thought with no little amount of amusement, thinking of a fiery redhead who would have been offended at the comparison. A sneer was etched permanently on their features as they dealt with their clients, doing little to hide their distaste toward the wizards they interacted with.
“End your ceaseless staring and move.” Snape hissed at him as Dazai lingered a few seconds too long at the entrance of the hall. Walking briskly in front of him, his robes fluttering dramatically as he marched to the first available counter he could find. With a huff, Dazai followed once more behind the man, reminding himself half-heartedly that murder would not help his mission this early in the game. Instead, he plastered on a grin and listened attentively as the teacher expressed the purpose of their visit.
A pair of steely grey eyes moved to regard him as Snape finished his request, looking at him critically, gaze honing in on his gloves as if he knew of their purpose. Dazai’s eyes narrowed as he watched the Goblin with a similarly precarious stare, contemplating the pros and cons of deliberately removing one of his gloves.
He waved the thought away as the Goblin- Gornuk- as he had introduced himself, walked away, appearing a second later with a golden key in his hand and a small pouch. It would apparently refill itself directly from his vault, almost like a credit card. Maybe he could piss Mori off by spending lots and lots of money.
“Your vault number is 1809, we look forward to doing business with you Mr Dazai.”
“The honor is mine, Gornuk-san, thank you.” Years of attending boring meetings with Mori had trained him well in the boring game that was politics, even if he had no particular interest whatsoever in the field.
Something shifted in the goblin’s eyes, a strange sort of satisfaction and intrigue flaring momentarily before his expression twisted back to a disinterested sneer, already moving on to the next client.
“That was practical,” Dazai muttered as they walked out of the bank. Fingers rubbing idly against the newly acquired key. He could swear he saw amusement flash in Snape’s eyes, but maybe that was a little too fanciful.
“You’ll be staying in one of the rooms above the leaky cauldron.” Snape suddenly explained as they traced their steps to the entrance of the alley. “You are to remain there and not wander too much. Merlin forbid you get yourself lost before you even make it to the castle.” Dazai scoffed in offense at the man’s condescension. He was promptly ignored. “I’ve instructed the barkeeper to give you access to the floo network linking the pub directly to the train station, you better not miss the train, am I understood?”
‘The floo network?’ He almost asked but thought better of it. It seemed that Snape was hell-bent on forgetting that this was Dazai’s first contact with the magical world. There was only so much one could learn from school books. His resolve to go back to ‘Flourish and Blott’s’ only strengthened. “Yes, Professor.” He intoned, doing nothing to hide his bored tone. Mind already flitting to the next task on his agenda, even as Snape looked as if he wasn’t done talking.
“Well, I’ll be off.” The man replied with a suspicious look in his eyes. “Do try not to cause trouble.” He was gone with a loud crack, making him almost startle, if not for his years of training in maintaining his composure.
Dazai didn’t know what to make of the man yet. Only time will tell, he thought lightly, turning to enter the Leaky Cauldron. He’d send Mori a quick update and then he’d try and get a little rest.
The barkeep, or Tom, as he insisted to be called, led him up to a small room at the end of the corridor of the second floor. It had a four-poster bed, a desk, and a bathroom. Idly, Dazai noted that it was bigger than his container. The door thankfully locked from the inside and he jammed a chair against the handle for good measure.
Dropping his shoulders, tension slowly dissipating from his form, he realized just how tense he’d been while out in the open.
Unknown territory usually brought out of him a different sense of paranoia. He supposed he would have to get used to it for the months to come.
Sitting on the bed carefully, he marveled at the rough texture, it wasn’t soft in the least, but it was way better than the fraying mattress he had been given upon his seclusion to his metal home.
He wondered if he could even get some rest on such an unfamiliar surface. Not that he usually managed to get any amount of sleep.
Pulling out his phone from his suitcase, he made sure to stand in the far corner of the room, away from anything remotely magical, before turning it on. The screen flickered for a few seconds but ultimately worked fine as he typed a quick message to Mori telling him that everything had gone as planned.
He hesitated, thinking about sending a message to Oda and Ango or even Chuuya, but ultimately, he decided against it. He’d barely been gone a day after all, not counting the hours he’d spent on the plane.
Sighing heavily, he flopped back onto the bed. It was pretty late, so his impromptu trip to buy more books would have to wait until tomorrow.
His eyelids fluttered and against his better judgment, he found himself falling asleep.
Chapter 3 already up on the link here