The Temple
‘… deities are strange yet necessary evils. From the Greek, roman, Shinto, etc, pantheons, to the Christian God, they all exist, however they are technically two different types of being, this entry is focused on the former.
It is unknown where deities originated, or how, and if known by themselves they refuse to share.
Deities are entities that are powered by belief and acts of worship. They exist in the space between this universe and the void, where they protect the universe from ‘The Olde Ones’.
When temples are built, when prayers are made, and when stories are told they grow in power, feeding off the spiritual energy generated. All efforts to measure this energy has failed.
Deities are fickle creatures. The only guaranteed way of gathering their attention is through the use of their priests. Priests are beings who have sacrificed their magic in service of their chosen god in exchange for a greater connection. This leads to a feeling of unease near true priests. Outside of the priesthood it is possible to gain the attention of deities, however this usually is in the form of curses and trials, and should be avoided outside of very specific circumstances.
It is generally considered good social etiquette to give some form of worship on days of magical significance, such as Yule or Beltane, for the deities sacrifice in their eternal defence against ‘The Olde Ones’…’
-excerpt from the updated ‘A Hunters Guide: How to not die stupidly’ by an unnamed Hunter.
It’s almost impossible to explain London’s magical district. Yeah, it’s not just two alleys, it’s an entire city within a city. I’ve spent most of my time here just exploring the place and trying to get a basic understanding of where to find everything. I’ve only really managed to explore Diagon alley, but there’s a city square that has a map of the districts that was quite helpful.
From what I’ve discovered, Diagon is basically the Highstreet. There's a little of everything, from bookstores, where the walls are made of parchment with flowing words, and the books and scrolls form the fruit and bark of towering trees, to apothecaries, where the ingredients float isolated in bubbles above your head until you speak their name, and they float down to you. Diagon doesn’t have one speciality or theme like some of the other areas do.
I have to say that it’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen, and the casual magic that was so prevalent at the cauldron is just as common in the streets. Wizards calling their hats to themselves with a flick of their hands, witches with hair made from flowing water, hell, there’s a man walking down the street with a trunk that has thick legs like an elephant following along behind him. Every time you turn your head you see some new, impossible sight.
After exploring nearly the entirety of Diagon I looked at my watch and realised I don’t have much time left, so I headed back to the orphanage. Whichever way you look at it, I’m definitely in some variation of the harry potter universe. And I’m also seven years older than potter. And I’m completely screwed when Voldemort comes back. Just looking at the casual displays of magic on the street there’s no way in hell I’m ready for a wizard that brought this country to its knees.
So right now, I need a plan. I need to prepare for Hogwarts. I need to be ready for the inevitably dodgy defence teacher. And to do that I need to start learning. So, the next time I manage to get back here, my best bet is finding a library and trying not to die before I’m ready. Again.
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It was a while before I managed to get back to Diagon. The caretakers decided to check on me while I was away and found my bed empty, its funny that the only time they decide to care is when I’m away. I know that’s unfair on them, but it would make my life a lot easier if they just ignored me. Upon discovering my jaunt into London, they decided that I was obviously ready to go back to school, let me tell you, year 6 is a hell hole. Luckily the original Charles didn’t have any friends, so nobody noticed any changes in my behavior. And while I could ace all the classes, except for history, I decided the best thing going forward is to fade into the background. To get good enough marks people ignore me, but not brilliant marks. Don’t speak up in class, keep to myself at lunch, etc. its just not worth the extra attention, especially when I’m going to be spending as much time as I can at the alley.
With my days taken by school it was harder to sneak out, but luckily kids are given free reign on the weekends as long as they’re back by curfew. So, the next Saturday I once again found myself in Diagon, this time at an earlier hour. During the week id managed to get a little notebook and pen to detail any notes, luckily my nerdiness from my past life came in clutch again.
Obviously, I can’t just write down my notes in English, so I needed a code. What I decided on is a simple code where you make three, three by three grids like a tic tac toe board and write out a letter in each space. Then when you write words each letter is written as the border of the grid they’re in. if they’re in the second grid you ensure there’s a dot somewhere near the letter, and the third grid there needs to be two dots. If this seems over complicated and unnecessary, that’s because it is, but I really don’t want to risk muggles seeing notes on magic, or more importantly, anyone seeing notes on the future.
Early on I decided not to make assumptions based on book or fanon knowledge, but there must be some little grain of truth in there, things like potter being a parselmouth or the location of the room of requirement. Things that I can’t risk forgetting. Even just general things I should know that might be obliviated. So, the overly complicated code stays, I’m just going to have to get used to writing and reading it.
Back to the point, I’d used my time stuck at school to come up with a list of things id need. Number one on that list being occlumency. I need a way to guarantee my mind is safe. Not only is my future knowledge dangerous, if unverified, but the idea of being obliviated or having my memories altered terrifies me. Hell, its cannon that Big V used to torture people by planting fake memories in their head. I need a way to stop that from happening to me. As a side note, a lot of fanfictions used to talk about occlumency helping with memories and thinking speed and much more depending on how OP they wanted potter to be.
Next on the list is some form of wandless magic. It looks possible from everyone doing it on the streets, but I could be mistaken about that. I just really want some way to defend myself for when I start actually exploring the district. While Knockturn alley isn’t a hell hole like the books said it was, more of just a lower-class area than anything else, I have heard rumours of other places that could be quite dangerous. I also wanted to learn It because I don’t want to spend the next year and a bit just reading over everything that’s possible. I have access to magic now, I want to use it.
The last, and probably most important thing I want to do is make money. The orphanage gives allowances on curfews for jobs if you keep your grades up. The reason I haven’t filled out a fake job form already is because when you do get a job, they cancel your allowance. The allowance isn’t a lot, but its more then nothing and should help me buy one or two things while I look for a job. Also, it’s a magical job, maybe I’ll learn something cool.
So now I do the arduous task of asking strangers where I can find a library, luckily being a cute 10-year-old, most strangers don’t mind answering my questions. After a little bit I’ve managed to find three libraries surprisingly. One is a rather well-known name. flourish and Blotts does a library program, where you pay a fee of 1 galleon monthly and your allowed to read any of the books in their shop. You aren’t allowed to take any out of the shop though. Theres another library in Horizont alley, the residential area of the district, but it only lets you in if you have family staying in the alley. The final one I’ve managed to find is in another alley, Unkan alley. Unkan alley, from what I’ve found, is the international trades section of the district. It hosts everything from tombs magic to magical items to unique and expensive familiars. Also, familiars are really common here, and apparently an exception to Hogwarts pets’ rules because familiars are bonded to your magic? I need to do more research on that.
Anyway, the library in Unkan is my best bet. Not only is it free but its not technically a library, even though people seem to consider it one. It’s simply called The Temple of Knowledge, but most people call it the Temple, and it’s a combined area of worship for lots of different knowledge gods. Yeah, discovering that gods are real and actually have effects on the world was a trip, but that’s a whole other barrel of fish to get into, I’ve just added it to the research list. Because the Temple is a place of worship, they do accept donations but they’re not strictly necessary, so now, lets try and find Unkan alley.
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The magical world, I’ve learnt, loves to over complicate things.
See because Unkan alley is kind of a hodge podge of international trade, some fool decided that it should be in a different dimension. To be fair, the reasoning behind it all, once I found it, was quite clever. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t frustrating to find though. Because the alley is in a different dimension its technically not on British soil, so a lot of normal international trade laws, or even national trade laws, can’t be policed. Instead, there’s a building in Vertic alley, which is basically just a continuation of Diagon alley as more high street, that acts as the only entrance and as an embassy. The aurors can only ensure you don’t leave the embassy with anything overtly illegal. Unkan alley is not only for international trade but also houses a street called Spritule Alley, which holds a temple for nearly every pantheon or god you can think of, and some you cant. Because Unkan holds such Spritule and isn’t policed by the aurors, instead an offshoot of the temple of Themis, the Greek god of justice, polices the inside to ensure no funny business. You really don’t want to commit crime in Unkan, Themis held to the eye for an eye type of justice.
As you can see, it took me a lot of investigating to actually find this place. Its one of those things that all the local wixen know about so it never really comes up in conversation. And even then, trying to find the entrance and then actually finding the Temple was awfully hard. It took me nearly three visits to find everything because nobody can just give you a straight answer, and exploring Unkan just isn’t in my capabilities right now.
Its not dangerous, per say, but its definitely not the place an unattended child should be. With the lax laws, you’re just as likely to be escorted out by a well-meaning adult as you are to being given directions, and until I’m capable of defending myself I’m not ready to explore a place this dodgy yet.
On the upside, after a lot of searching I eventually found the Temple. And by merlin, its beautiful.
As a side note, swearing by merlin is more of a safety thing for people. Swearing in a specific gods name is dangerous and can often get you cursed in some way where the severity of the curse depends on the god and the circumstances. Swearing on a god, or group of gods is a lot less dangerous but can often lead to the closest temples deity taking offence. This has led to swearing on merlin, as the near universally accepted best wizard so far, or creating some creative explicative. Or just saying fuck. That works everywhere.
The Temple is in fact a collective temple to a variety of gods dealing in knowledge, wisdom and magic. Like most temples, the outside is a grand affair. White marble columns frame a truly massive entrance, with large heavy wooden doors and silver filigree. Two large statues stand outside, glaring at everyone that walks past. The inside, if anything, is more impressive then the outside. The entrance is a massive area with a domed ceiling. the back of the area, directly in front of the entrance lead on to the area of worship. Along the sides of the hall were doorways that lead to different areas, a smaller shrine for each god or goddess and the library. Standing larger than life, each private shrine had a statue of the deity it belongs to, each statue standing 3 meters tall. Other then the expanded space within there wasn’t any overt magic. After days of seeing magic constantly its absence was definitely noticeable.
Upon entering I was approached by the most stereotypical wizard priest you could imagine, shaved head and beard included. He asked me why I was there, and upon answering he took me to a specific door. I was warned against abusing the books or trying to steal and told how to ask for help, and that as long as I was looking for knowledge id be welcome here.
Something about the priest made me weary. It wasn’t anything obvious, nothing about him or the whole interaction was wrong. It just felt ominous. Like there was something happening, or some type of test that I passed that I had no clue about.
Shaking away my thoughts I turned to enter the library proper. Its time to learn magic!
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Magic is amazing. At 10, magic is also way to overly complicated. Keeping to my list the first thing I looked for was mind magic. Occlumency to be exact. what I eventually found a hefty tomb labelled ‘A Comprehensive Guide to The Mind Arts’. Inside was a detailed explanation of the various mind arts, as well as the first stages for the main three.
The main three branches of mind arts are occlumency, which is the art of hiding the mind, legilimency, the art of reading the mind, and augeromency, the art of augmenting the mind. And I can’t learn a single one of them. Not yet at least. The main three branches of mind magic all require you to be more in tune with your magic. 17 is the age majority mainly because with a proper education, 17 is the age your body is ‘stained’ by your magic. Before this happens, you can use magic just fine, but anything related to the body or mind can cause irreparable damage. This unfortunately includes rituals dealing with the body. There are ways around this, and ways to ensure your body is saturated by your magic quicker, but all of them require expensive potions and routines. The safest way is just casting magic constantly, and even after all this effort you can’t speed up the mind’s saturation, only the body, so not even most purebloods bother trying. The damage of practicing the mind arts before majority include emotional instability, emotionally stunting yourself, and an inability to form meaningful attachments. It’s a sure fire way of creating psychopaths like Big V and Snape.
There is one way around this. If a minor is repeatedly assaulted by a legilimens that they do not trust, over a long time period the mind can form its own reactive barriers that prevent its viewing. This does stunt someone’s ability to learn mind arts however, and quite obviously is akin to abuse. Its also what was done to Potter in the 5th year.
While I could learn it, I don’t see the point in crippling myself. After my majority I have roughly 4 years until Big V gets resurrected, and if I interfere with canon that could be longer. That’s plenty of time to learn to defend my mind. So, with my ability to use the mind arts at an absolute zero until I’m older, my next search was into wandless magic.
Wandless magic works differently to what I expected. So firstly, there’s multiple types of foci. Wands are the most common because they’re the most neutral. Wands don’t have anything they excel at, but they’re not restricted from any magic so they’ve become the mainstream focus. Other foci give marginal benefits but also have downsides and its all lead up to wands being the main tool for casting for 90% of the world, unless you start getting into extra esoteric magic.
What that means is, ‘wandless’ magic is actually ‘focus-less’ magic, it’s just called wandless cause wands are so common. Wandless magic is an actual branch of magic. Through the consumption of materials, chanting and the correct gestures you cast wandless spells. The problem is you must teach yourself how to feel your magic and how to channel it properly, luckily you can find tools to teach you channelling. Channelling is even taught in your third year of Hogwarts, its important for some of the spells learnt from then on, especially if you must form complicated patterns or layers in the air with your wand. Hell, herbology, potions and divination all require channelling your magic in certain ways to boost your efficiency and control, 11 year olds just aren’t expected to have the patience to sit through the meditation and exercises required. Divination also looks interesting; it runs off some sort of a belief system. I make sure to scribble a note in my journal.
Looking at the time it’s getting late, and I still haven’t transferred any of my savings into magical currency, nor gotten a job. So, my next step in my 100 step plan to godhood requires me getting a toy to help with channelling my magic, learn wandless magic, and find a job.