The Avery Heir
“You wish to meet Alex?”, the matron of the small orphanage asked the rather strange looking woman, eying her robes suspiciously, there had been a lot of strange murmurs about some kind of cult recently,”What for?”
“Well, I am the Deputy Headmistress of a private, boarding school called Hogwarts -believe me its too late to change the name- and we are currently visiting orphanages like this one in the search for potential students with a special talent, one that we believe Mister Eisenwerk possesses”, the woman exclaimed, pulling out a rather expensive looking envelope, decorated with a strange -almost medieval looking- wax crest,”I think one of our graduates actually works in the nearby hospital… Doctor Frederick Smith?”
The matron’s eyes lit up when she heard the name of the famous doctor, while he retired two years ago, he still held an impressive reputation, nicknamed the ‘Miracle doctor’ by many locals. Frederick had always danced around the question of how he did the procedures that he did, as no other medic seemed to be able to cure the patients cured by Smith. His go to response for why he couldn’t tell was that he had ‘entered a legal contract not to share his knowledge’ at the medical school he attended. The prospect of young Alex Eisenwerk attending the same school was indeed enchanting, though the woman still had a few questions,”If I may ask, what is this ‘talent’ that Alex shares with Dr. Smith? The only thing I could think of that he is good at is getting abandoned by foster families, can’t seem to stay at one place the boy”
A smirk appeared on the robed womens, badly aged face,”It is a rare genetic quirk that is not very well known outside of our school and a few sister schools. As it is passed from Parent to child, most children with this mutation are enlisted by their parents from a young age, attending the elementary school version of Hogwarts or one of our sister schools. This is why we look into orphanages trying to find children with said mutation, we don’t want any talent to be wasted. It is called the MA-Gene, or Matrea Anterso Gene in long form”
“I must admit that I have never heard about it but to be fair, Biology was never a field of study I took interest in. I will escort you to his room, miss...”
“Professor McGonagall”, she chimed in, storing the letter in her handbag -as green as the rest of her outfit- once again,”Lead the way”
Things had gone rather smoothly for Minerva McGonagall so far. She didn’t need to use a single compulsion charm on the Matron, a true blessing that was, the last two orphans that she had to introduce to the magical world -both living in west london with their adoptive families- were under the guardianship of very Religious people. It had taken more magic than turning a needle to an elephant just to get the guardians to listen and twice as much to convince them that magic wasn’t something bad.
This would be the last student she would have to introduce to the magical world this year; she had gotten rather lucky, only being assigned five children, three orphans and two muggleborn. Minerva snickered mentally at the memory of the look Severus had made when Dumbledore told him that he was assigned 12 students. At least the student numbers were finally going up again, she had been a little worried when the class sizes didn’t seem to increase since the fall of You-know-who.
The Matron -a rather short woman in her early 40s, late 30s but still holding a rather youthful appearance(quite the opposite to Minerva, who looked way older than she actually was due to all the stress. She had to search up some of those muggle hair dyes before the year starts, else her graying hair would be visible)- led Minerva through numerous passageways, up and down a dozen staircases before finally arriving at the small, wooden door with a sleek metal plate on the front, inscribed with the name: Alex Argus Eisenwerk. This muggle house was honestly built more like a maze than some parts of Hogwarts, well atleast Alex wouldn’t have too much of a hard time navigating the hell that was the halls of Hogwarts(she herself could only manage with multiple direction charms).
“He should be inside, never made that many friends Alex. Don’t know why though, he is such a kind boy, though his physical gentleness could be a bit of work. We have to hide the other childrens pets ever since he accidentally killed a girls rabbit while hugging it”, the matron’s face -Ellie her name was if minerva remembered right- was perfectly calm but the look in her eyes wasn’t a pleasant one,’not a hufflepuff then’, Minerva thought, as she walked closer to the door. Ellie was retreating, something about a report or what not,”Just tell me on your way back where we can get his supplies if he accepts”
Returning with the usual,’the teacher present will buy the supplies together with the student’ speech, she waved Ellie off.
Things had progressed… better than expected, Alex was quick to convince that magic was real(apparently he had thought he was some kind of ‘x-men’? Whatever that was) and he was more than eager to learn it.
The concern of money came to his mind but she assured him that he had some sort of vault in the wizarding bank, that was what his letter said anyway(She was still unsure of why Dumbledore had added that enchantment to the self-writing quill for the Orphan letters, he just avoided the question when asked or gave vague answers, not that she minded. It helped lower the stress on the Hogwarts vaults and made the Goblins very happy when they could reactivate an inactive vault and Happy goblins were good goblins) and the letters -written by magic quills- had never been wrong for as long as she could imagine.
The rest of the day -until they arrived at Gringotts that is- was rather uneventful.
Alex’s mind was blown, he was magic and would be going to a magic school, the things that this Professor McGonagall did so casually with her stick(wand) were incredible, she had made water appear for him when he became thirsty like it was as simple as moving a finger and the way she transformed her clothing into one more casual just with a swisching of her hand made him question everything he had ever thought he knew. Of course strange things happened to him as well, marbles levitating, spoons becoming burning hot within seconds and so on but he could’ve never dreamt of powers like the professor demonstrated. His awe only grew when he entered the big, magical shopping alley alongside McGonagall, Shiny cauldrons and strange trinkets had littered the busey street which was used by all sorts of People, some of which he wasn’t sure were even human.
His head already felt ready to explode from all the wonder he experienced when they entered the Bank. It was by far, the most impressive building in the alley, more than twice as big as every other shop and carved out of solid Marble and Granite. Even the doors -guarded by small creatures which McGonagall explained were Goblins, the owners and Employees of Gringotts- would intimidate even the bravest of men, nearly 4 times as big as an adult and also made out of solid Granite(there were no hinges and he could guess that they opened using magic).
Inside were even more of the Black eyed goblins, some counting gold coins, examining gemstones with strange equipment or talking to very rich looking wizards and witches. The one they walked to sat near the back of the gargantuan hall, in front of a small desk with the words ‘Hogwarts student account exam’ engraved into its wood,”Another one? Sure are more than usual this year” the voice of the small goblin sitting in a very expensive looking chair was both high pitched and like a chain smokers voice at the same time somehow,”Have ya’ explained the test to him”
“I did not, I know how much you like to explain it Riptooth. Did the others stop mocking you by the way?”
“Of course they did not, not that I blame them. The way some of your kind… well most of it, are dealing with us is rather unpleasant, anyone would develop a grudge after one meeting with the… was it the malfoys? Anyway”, he turned his attention to Alex, who was watching the conversation with great interest,”We are gonna do a test to find out what vault ya’ have access too, the test isn’t very precise and only shows one, maybe two families but its the best we’ve got. You just have to prick ya’ finger, let three drops of blood fall on the paper and I will do the rest”
A rather plain looking needle and paper -which wasn't there prior- laid on the dark Wood. Alex moved to grab the needle but halted just before his fingers touched the metal, these goblins had an air to them, one that he knew only of greedy people, trying to make you sign something. He knew those kind of people, their help always came with a price,”and what is the benefit to you, surely you don't do this without some kind of compensation?”
A hearty laugh followed by a sharp toothed grin escaped the goblin -Riptooth McGonagall called him?-,”With that attitude you are gonna get very far in Gringotts but right now, don't worry, the fee for this test is scaled to your vault, 2 galleons for low class, 5 for middle low, 10 for middle, 50 for well off, 200 for low rich and 500 for rich, though I would be surprised if you got anything higher than well off”
Reassured that he wouldn't be losing all his money(it felt weird to say that as he had never owned much), he pricked his finger -wincing at the quick pain- and let 3 drops fall down, just as he had been instructed to. The Guttural chant of Riptooth caused words to appear on the page, Lines Gliding around the paper like snakes:’Avery family(PB)’
“YES!” The scream of a nearby Goblin snapped Alex out of his daze.
“Don't worry about that, Foultounge over there is your account manager. He is just very happy that the vault got activated, it has a great interest rate and account managers get paid based on the interest rates of their vaults'', Riptooth clarified, pulling out a few documents In the process,”around 4000 galleons, 2 family heirlooms, 1 Grimoire, several partial ownerships for shops in diagon- and knockturnalley. A 20 percent interest rate. Not bad at all, though still far away from the more influential families. I guess you will be in Slytherin then? Every Avery in our records was in Slytherin''
Shrugging, he handed a pouch to Alex,”it's magically connected to the Avery Vault, only you can use it”
“Thank you sir”, Alex bowed and left with quick steps.
“What is Slytherin?” inquired Alex after they had gotten most of his supplies.
“Right, you don't know. Slytherin is one of the four houses at Hogwarts, each house has different values. Slytherins are cunning, Gryffindors brave, Hufflepuffs loyal and Ravenclaws value seeking knowledge the most”, her tone was a lot less tense than in Gringotts.
“I hope I will be in Slytherin”
The next two shops -McGonagall told him- they couldn’t enter together, he had to go alone. The first being the place where he would get his wand -most essential part of any Wizards arsenal, the professor told him- Ollivander’s, makers of fine wands since 382 B.C. stood on top of the old door in washed out golden letters. His entrance was announced by the loud creaking of the door, its splintering wood looking as though it had been there since the opening over two thousand years ago.
“Ah, nice to see you arrive for your wand mister Avery”, came a dusty, almost otherworldly voice from an old man standing beside a boy roughly Alex’s age with pitch black, messy hair,”Mr. Potter here has proven to be a rather difficult customer so far, therefore I must apologize but you will have to wait a bit, I will let the tape take your measurements”
Alex nodded shyly, he had been warned about the man's… peculiar character but still, the way he knew who Alex was before he even got to introduce himself was bone chilling,”So… you are going to Hogwarts too? Had been quite the surprise when I was told I was a wizard”
“Y- yeah it took me by surprise too, I thought it to be some kind of mistake at first, after all i'm just… just me”, the black haired boy quivered.
Hoping to reassure the obviously nervous boy, Alex tried to initiate small talk,”So… you know what house you want to be in? I wanna be in Slytherin.” Guessing from the confused look he got, whatever guide was showing him the Wizarding world hadn’t talked about the houses yet,”Oh, I guess you don’t know yet? No problem, I'll explain! There are four houses, we each get sorted into one. Gryffindor is for the brave, Ravenclaw are the book worms, Hufflepuffs are loyal and Slytherins are cunning.”
“O- oh, thanks for explaining! I think I wanna be in… ”, he paused in uncertainty,”what was the brave one again?””Gryffindor?”
“Yeah that one, that sounds cool! My name is Harry by the way”, the newly named Harry held out his hand which Alex took quickly,”The name is Alex Eisenwerk, want to be friends?”
“Sure Alex! Wait… didn’t Ollivander say you were called… Abby?... Afry? Something like that?”
“Well I found out only recently that my parents were called Avery, never got to meet them though. My mom died giving birth to me”
“Oh… I know that, my parents both died when I was one… guess that's one thing we have in common”
“Yeah guess so… ”, Alex couldn’t help but feel his body warm up, looking at the boy. They were so much alike… this is gonna be a wonderful friendship, he thought.
“Ah, I believe it is this one for you Mr. Potter. 11 inches, Holly wood, Phoenix feather core. Rather curious that this wand would choose you when It’s brother gave you that scar”, Mr. Ollivander pointed to a rather big, lightning shaped scar on Harry’s Forehead that Alex somehow didn’t see before,”Moving on to you mister Avery-”
“It’s Eisenwerk sir”
“Mister Eisenwerk then. I believe that one of these wands is already calling to you… ”, the wand he presented Alex with was indeed reacting rather heavily, glowing a silvery color when it came near him. As soon as he gripped it, he knew it was his wand, it’s energy gently engulfing Alex like the embrace of a mother he never had,”Quite the combination, Yew wood, Phoenix feather core, 15,5 inches, unyielding. Great for duelling and rather handy for brewing potions, I can say with certainty that we are to expect great things of you, both of you”