Mystery Egg-Kun makes an APPEARENCEEE
Hogwarts
So much has already happened today! Looking around the room, she lets her breath out. She only has a couple more hours of solitude before she’ll have to attend dinner and be sorted, then be shown to her official room for the rest of the year.
Opening the trunk, Mei begins to pull out all the bags full of shrunken clothes, books, and all sorts of other supplies. Some of the charms placed at the beginning of the trip were about to end soon and she didn't want anything to get damaged.
Starting with the books, Mei realized that all the available space was taken up by the books she was researching the previous night.
As politely as she could, she says, “Thank you Hogwarts for going out of your way to find me all these books! I don't need them anymore for the moment, would it be possible for you to put them back till I need them again?” In a shimmer, all the books faded away as if they had never been in the room in the first place.
Wtf she mouthed, “Magics fricken awesome.” Looking around real quick, she adds,” “You're pretty awesome too Hogwarts”
Now... What's the spell for unshrinking? Unsheathing her wand, she tries to think back on if she had seen the enlarging spell used at all during the trip. Oh! When she first arrived at Flourish and Botts a package had arrived and Mei watched the employee do a simple wave and say “finite.” Huh, that seems pretty generic, she makes a note to read about the spell's limitations.
Trying it first on her clothes, she realized her mistake too late as the bag began to swell before spitting clothes all over the room. “It's been a long day.” With that, she sets a 10-minute timer and falls back on the bed for a quick nap.
~~~~~
Once all the clothing was collected and arranged in the wardrobe compartment of the trunk, Mei started on the books. There was so much unexplored knowledge in this world just waiting for her to read it! While she would need to prioritize, she was nothing if not efficient!
Her hands linger on the little green book on languages when she comes across it in the pile. Instead of moving to put it in the trunk with the others, Mei slips it into the front pocket of her robe. She figured she could ask some of the other students at dinner about it once she was sorted. Thinking of sorting, she checked the clock. Still another couple hours till dinner.
Putting the last of the absurd amount of books in the library compartment, she sets aside the catalogs she got while in the store. They carried most of the catalogs for the other shops in the alley, Mei hoped she grabbed all the ones she’d need. Laughing to herself quietly when she remembered that she grabbed all of them. Shuffling through the packets, her eyes froze before zooming in on a colorful display on the front of one of them. The shop was called Zonkos and seemed to be full of prank and joke items. Made her think of the twins. “I wonder if they'd ever work there or start their own business.”
Hurrying over to her to unpack stationary stuff, Mei snags a quill and pot of ink before plopping down on the floor. She set the ink and quill down to flatten out the catalog in front of her. Un-capping the ink, she gently dips the tip into the jar. Mei thought that it was pretty cool that wizards still used ink and feathers, the book she grabbed on the subject was unexpectedly thick. She had briefly flipped through it when packing the book up and thought it was absolutely fascinating that the quills absorb and channel your latent magic. It got her thinking about what other commonplace things we use that interact with magic like that. Her current bet was on houses gaining sentience, the castle definitely lends credence to that idea.
“Do fountain pens work the same as feathered? Maybe if the ink container is made of a magically occurring material… How would wand woods work for that?” looking around for her journal to write down her questions, she realizes she still has a bit of things to pack.
The astronomy equipment was so subpar she couldn't help the full-body cringe when her view panned over it. A muggle-made telescope is definitely first on her list once she gets more money. Another idea hit her like a tsunami, “Where the hecks my journal?!” grabbing a fresh one off the pile of journals she got in the alley, Mei opens to the first page and adds the title “Magical Babies: 1st Edition” flipping 5 more pages in to leave room for a table of contents, Mei sketches out a series of fish eye lenses and frame structures. After, she starts to add notes about possible places runes could be added for either efficiency or power or for picking up different types of light/filters. At the bottom, she creates a “learn more” section for looking up if something similar has already been done as well as what runes could possibly work.
On the next pages, she lays out the rune sequence she created the night before for blocking magic waves from harming muggle technology. She figured to get it on paper now before she ‘forgets’, she also hopes it helps her case if she tries to patent the work. Make sure you have a good paper trail.
Mei flips the journal pages till she is on the last 20 pages and makes a column for random questions she thinks of. Copying down her question about the finite spell and a note to experiment with wand wood and ink reservoirs. She finally sets it down and starts packing up the astronomy and potions things.
Mei couldn't stop the smile that started as she grabbed the potion bag, she let her fingers linger a little longer over the top of the trunk while changing the settings for the new compartment. She couldn’t quite explain how good she felt thinking that she had someone who has barely even met her but believed so strongly in what she would accomplish. Yes, she was Maijimas favorite student this year but she couldn't shake that this hit differently. Other than Maijima, who is honestly used to disaster genius children, she had only ever had her parents' support but both of them worked so much that it seemed like she had to create an explosion to get any attention. So having not one, but two teachers giving her so much positive attention before classes even started was mildly overwhelming.
Gathering up her stationery, she puts all the journals on a shelf and rolled up the rest of the extra parchment she got. Mei had been both shocked and overjoyed when she saw the sheer variety in size and thickness they had available in the store for parchment. She could pretty much make a schematic as absolutely large as she could ever want. The best part is that since it’s parchment, and therefore more magic durable, you can fuse parchment to section to allow you a closeup view or zoomed-out.
Grabbing another journal for business and world domination plans, she gets up off the ground now that she's successfully packed everything away and hops on the bed next to mystery egg-Kun. Mei thinks about what she can add to her list to start a way to make more money. She currently doesn't have any of her savings from back home nor is she being school funded anymore on her projects.
Meaning, Priority Number 1: find a solid source of funding
In the meantime, she sits back to think about what she could do right now to make some money before meeting with the Goblins in a month.
Priority 2: Finish the business proposal for goblins and all other documents in time for the meeting in 1 month.
“Oh!” There have to be enough muggle-borns here that she could sell her runes idea per electronic, then it might entice some of the magic-raised students and staff to buy too. What would need to be prepared for that?
Short-Term Business Idea 1: sell magic/tech runes to muggle-borns
- Need to create a power source for charging
- Will they be internet connectable? For a price MUWAHAHHAH
*crick*
Mei sat up from where she was lounging to look around for the sound. It seemed close.
*scritch*
Startled, she looked down to see Mystery Egg-Kun was moving around a bit. Setting her journal and quill down, Mei reaches for the large egg. The surface of the shell is rough and kinda looks like a desert rock. Once the egg was moved carefully to her lap, she noticed it seemed warmer than earlier that day. Mei sat on her bed with her hands gently resting on the egg. It vibrated in her lap every 15 seconds or so.
After about 6 minutes of this, Mei realized that the vibrations were actually small little magical pulses. Concentrating, she tried to focus on the connection between their hands. Her own magic welled up and traveled down her fingers. The moment her core seemed to mesh with the egg, the room got swelteringly hot and it felt as if electricity was sitting heavy against her skin. Without realizing it a manic grin spread across her face again when the egg cracked near the top. Yellow light filled the room as the creature in the egg created a bigger crack near the first one.
The light dissipated as magic in the room calmed down, Mei heard the smallest little peep before a pure white head popped out of the top of the cracked egg. Molten gold eyes met Mei's own Yellow Crosshairs and with an almost audible snap, the two were connected by soul and magic. Mei could both feel and see the shimmery strand connecting herself to the little baby bird in front of her. “Hey there little one, my name is Mei. Do you have a name yet?” Mei asked the beautiful little creature while she shifted to lay flattered so she could move the egg farther up her chest to be closer.
Mystery Bird-Kun tips its head to the side and while she wasn't sure what to expect for an answer, it definitely wasn't a voice inside her head saying, “You’re bond mate, you help with the name? I not know many.”
“We can totally do that! Uhm, what do you think of the name Ninlil? It can be traced back to the Sumerian period and it roughly means Lady in the Wind. Which I have a feeling fits you pretty well.”
“I’d say you're right considering that's a Thunderbird,” Both Mei and Ninlil squawk as they turn to see a small blonde girl standing in the doorway smiling like she has no worries in the world.
Not one to be overly surprised by others' weird behavior, mei just asks, “My name is Mei Hatsume! How do you know that?” The now-named thunderbird finished clambering out of its shell and wobbled over to plop down on Mei's chest.
“Hello, I'm Luna, Lovely to meet you,” she said, almost more dreamily than before. “I felt the magic of your connections while on my way to the library and couldn't help myself. That's really something not seen in every millennia. There have been only 7 recorded bonds with Thunderbirds in known wizarding history, the last one being 200 years ago.” Mei and Ninlil share a look at that. “But you only need to look at her white feathers, 2 tails, and 6 wings, and anyone who grew up in the magical world will be able to tell what she is. Be careful with Hagrid, he's going to cry when he sees her.”
“Oh, uh, thank you for the information! She says she hadn't actually known, only what the store owners had guessed what her egg could have been.'' Making a little makeshift nest on top of her chest, Mei sets Ninlil under her chin and walks over to luna. “You said you were going to the library, but would you like to hang out here til dinner? We can ask each other questions!” Seeing Luna's smile turn a little more genuine made both Mei and Ninlil internally fistbump.
“I’d love that! The nargles have been more active since your arrival.” Mei made a mental note to learn what Nargles were.
Sitting side by side on the bed they flipped through a book on creatures Luna had in the bag with her. Going over Thunderbirds and Mei pointing out the creatures that look like certain quirk mutations in her world. Ninlil sat perched on Mei's chest still but with her head on Luna's shoulder, she had sent through their link that the blonde girl has a strange but comforting magical aura.
When it was almost time for dinner, Luna left to put her things away. Mei put on her new school robe so she'd be ready for the sorting. Replacing her normal goggles with a thick headband to pull her hair out of her face. Turning to Ninlil, “Okay girl, you want to come with? It’s sure to stir a ruckus.'' An excited chirp and 2 wiggling tails tell her all she needs to know. Just in the couple hours that Ninlil has been hatched, she seems to have filled out in weight and feathers. She says it's the magic that's helping but said she'd stay small for a little while.
Picking up her little familiar, she settled Ninlil on her right shoulder, her tails and bottom wings wrapping around Mei's neck to the other side before draping off. Her startling white feathers stood out against the dark uniform and were sure to draw attention. Meis glad the thunderbird seems to like being the center of the show just as much as she does.
Doing a last cursory check on the room to make sure all her things are in the trunk. Luna told her that the elves would move it to her new room when she gets sorted. Heading out of her room, she was surprised to see Professor Snape walking up the hall. When his eyes landed on the duo, however, he halted in his steps. Mei heard a trill come from Ninlil and through the bond was told that the dark-haired man's magic got really excited.
“Is that what I think it is?” The normally surly professor asked quietly, stepping closer to the student and bird.
“If by that you mean the mystery egg that followed me, you prompted me to steal, that then hatched in my room and created a magic bond with me? Then yes professor,” Mei finished with a shit-eating grin. “Meet Ninlil, a Thunderbird.”
Giving a deep chuckle of his own that even had the portraits in the hall stopping to stare, Snape said, “As much as I know I’ll regret saying the words within the month,” he shot a look towards the heavens, “but never stop with the surprises Ms. Hatsume.” And the warm pride feeling is back. “However, I must say your luck outways even our resident celebrity whose family is known to be cursed to live interesting lives.”
“Resident celebrity sir?”
“You were sitting with him at dinner yesterday, surely he and his friends were nothing but braggarts.” At the look of genuine confusion coming off his student, Snape stopped and really looked at her. “Are you telling me Harry Potter and his friend said absolutely nothing about his fame and status?”
“Uhm, no sir. They talked about the castle and what they liked to do in their free time and their favorite classes. All I know about Harry is he likes to fly more than he likes quidditch, he's both good at dada and likes it, and I think he comes from a bad home life. Not anything he said specifically but more of what wasn't said between him and his friends. So, sorry sir but I haven't seen any of these behaviors come from Harry, he’s a pretty sweet kid so far.'' Now it was Mei's turn to be caught off guard by the look of confusion on Snape's face. “I feel like this is a conversion for when we aren't in the halls and have more time. Let's go get me sorted!”
Looking down at his student, Snape thought for probably the 125th time that he got very lucky with this one.