Chapter 28 - Ch. 28 The end of summer

After being made Heir of the house I started taking on some of the work that came with the title, this involved spending more time in aunt Amelia's office. I went through the properties of house Bones, our finances, vault holdings and allies.

From what I found the family was heavily involved with Dumbledore's order during the war, providing a good amount of funding and using some family properties as order safe houses. I won't disrespect my parents choices, they did what they believe should be done in order to defeat Voldy-shorts. I really don't like the Headmasters style though, too soft-hearted, self-destructive even and naive. Well as a result a lot of properties were destroyed, but I think I'll be able to get the wreckage cleared up and set up some kind of residence. I'm thinking of introducing the concept of apartments and condos to magical Britain, because from what I understand it's already being done in France and there is a great amount of homeless witches and wizards. I think I'll also set some up specifically for werewolves. Food for thought.

The money in the vaults no longer qualifies the family to be a most noble house, but I think that after this year we will be getting a good influx of galleons. The reason being that I've finished studying most subjects beyond NEWT level and I believe I can start properly pushing some developments into this stagnating country. I have a notebook full of things I believe can be made theoretically already and have even some bits in working order. Make them useful and popular and bam, money starts flowing in again. I think I'll also invest into Randolph Spudmore, the creator of the future Firebolt, since I've already done so as Micheal Folster. It'll be an amazing source of revenue.

We have a few shares of things here and there, but I believe we can do more. But that will be in the future when the house has more in its vaults and our reputation gets better. Because as of now, aunt Amelia is the only representative of our family, I'm unknown for now and Susan will take a long time to develop into someone who can help with that. So I'm going to give myself some more exposure by publicly presenting some inventions, instead of hiding them through my other persona.

Aside from those major points, it's just really boring dealing with the paper work, but it's something I'm already working around. I've analyzed my homework quills and recreated them for the purpose of paperwork. I've managed to give them minor Legilimentic abilities to write surface thoughts and orders regarding the paper in front of them. It required a good amount of trial and error to stop them from writing every surface thoughts crossing the mind of the user, but I was able to get a good balance going. So now I only have to read over the doc.u.ment, set it in front of the quill and it writes everything it's ordered to do, even when I'm reading the next paper. Hehehe, I think aunty is going to love my Christmas present this year and make everyone working behind a desk at the ministry eat their hearts out. I can just see the money for this little gadget.

Aside from my duties as heir, I was also able to take some time and visit Christian. The Ward family has invited me to go visit a hippogriff breeder and I had accepted with aunt Amelia's permission. Apparently there has been some hatchling recently, still very small compared to horse size a.d.u.l.ts. I thought it'd be a nice experience.

Aunty let me use our Floo to get to the Ward's home since they were connected as well. I arrived and was welcomed by the Ward parent and child trio. Christian takes more after his mother; she had the same messy black hair, only longer, those sky blue eyes and the same features could be spotted on his face. Mr. Ward on the other hand was almost the picture of an outdoorsman; shortly trimmed brown hair, a bushy beard, piercing green eyes, and the build of a bear almost. It's not really a guess as to where Christian got his looks, but it is interesting to think about how his father hooked his mom. But he got his love of nature from the both of them that's for sure. His dad was basically a mini Hagrid in looks and feelings towards beasts, while his mom was an avide nature lover, always wanting to go in forests or seas to find new and interesting things.

"Grahahaha! You're here kid! Good! Let's get to the portkey, it scheduled to activate in 5 minutes." Said Mr. Ward in his booming voice as he pats my shoulder repeatedly.

"Thank you for the invitation Mr. & Mrs. Ward. I'm really excited to go see the hippogriffs." I say taking his pats without any issues.

"Dear, don't hurt Christians friend. He's always in his own world so making this one should have been hard enough." Said the Mrs with a smile that wasn't a smile, but a teasing glint flashed through her eyes.

"Mom, could you not say that in front of me? Or at least not in front of Aedan." M.o.a.n.e.d Christian. "Plus I can't take all the blame. Who were the people who took me to live in a forrest looking for griffins instead of interacting with anyone who had a kid my age?" He then added with some fake anger.

"Grahahaha! You know you loved our family expeditions, don't even try to deny it boyo!" Came Mr. Wards boisterous laughter.

"Alright boys! That's enough joking around for now. It's portkey time." Announced Mrs. Ward, clapping her hands to get everyone's attention.

Everyone left the room and went to the backyard where a used car tire was waiting for use.

'I mean, I get why they make portkey's objects muggles won't just casually pick up, but it just doesn't feel right to grab pieces belonging in a dump.' I thought with a sigh.

Everyone put a hand on the tire and readied themselves. And then that familiar uncomfortable feeling of being hooked around the navel happened, feeling myself getting dragged as I keep my grip on the tire, until we suddenly land at the destination.

When I could finally get a good look around I spotted a one story cottage in front of us. It was old fashioned like pretty much anything wizards used, it was almost considered a hut like Hagrid's, except that this one was professionally made and had proper roof, windows and doors. I mean honestly you'd think ascetics would be absorbed even if they only go in the muggle world occasionally.

I snapped out of my judgy moment when I felt something passing over us. I could see the claws and hooves of a passing hippogriff and an excited smile spread on my face.

Now, before anyone thinks I don't know how dangerous those things are or how to handle them I gotta tell you, Hagrid has loads of first hand experience and I personally looked up tones of creatures with Christian. I know how prideful they can be and how to approach them, and if all else fails I'm pretty sure I can actually pin one down.

"Ah?! Boys be careful, you know how dangerous these ones can be, especially with the newborn around!" Yelled out Mrs. Ward

We got to the fence marking their territory and looked a the wide open space before us. It was a very large space, with lush grass, small h.i.p.s giving the place something more than just a flat plain, you could see the beginnings of a forest in the back of the enclosure and at the moment 7 hippogriffs were relaxing near each other, and in the middle one could see a smaller grey ball tumbling around the a.d.u.l.ts. It's always cute to watch the lack of coordination in an infant.

"It seems that you boys appreciate the beauty of these majestic creatures don't you?" Came the voice of an old man behind us.

A bald old man with a thin grey mustache, wearing a leather duster, dragon hide pants, metal tipped boots and with a lasso at his h.i.p.s. He had scars visible almost everywhere, pretty sure I know where he got those from, and he just looked like he almost came out of a western movie. All he was missing was the hat and I swear the next thing he'd say is that he's teach me how to shoot, then die to make a good revenge story.

"Yeah we're both pretty into magic creatures and hippogriff are the bests I've seen so far." I say to the old man before turning to look at them again.

"Can we interact with them today or will they be too protective cause of the little one?" Asked Christian excitedly.

"Hhmmmm. I do think we can at least go near them since they know I won't hurt anyone. But we won't be able to play with lil'Whitecrown, they'll pounce on you before anyone can do anything about it." Said the old man after thinking for a bit.

As the Wards arrived, the old man who's name was apparently Ben Crypt, guided us slowly towards the resting beasts. We slowly and calmly approached them until Ben stopped us.

"Alright, that'll be close enough. We don't want them to be annoyed at us." He said.

Well, that was until we noticed that little one actually slipped away from the watchful eyes of the others and was heading out way. We all froze at its actions.

"Shouldn't we not be getting near that one, as badly as we want to?" Asked Mr. Ward.

"Yeah we need to back away." Said the breeder Ben as he got up and started to make everyone slowly back away.

As we make our way back the hippogriffs finally notice the hatchling missing and our leaving. Then all hell broke loose as they saw it getting near us and they fly after it.

"Shit! Everyone run!" Yelled Ben.

Everyone takes off, I could actually outrun everyone here easily, but I don't want people to know how freakishly strong I am. It makes people ask questions I don't want to answer.

We run towards the warded fence in the hopes of getting to safety, no one wants to be in the middle of this mess. But suddenly I hear something getting kicked, and then tumbling as sound of pain comes next. My eyes widened as I saw Christian had tripped as we ran. I stop immediately and turn around to go get him. When the others finally realized neither of us were with the group they had reached the fence.

"CHRISTIAN!!! AEDAN!!!" Screamed Mrs. Ward in horror as she saw the approaching hippogriffs and the two boys.

"Come on mate, not leaving here to become hippogriff dung." I said to my friend as I lift him up.

"Yeah now we both get to be dung." He answered sarcastically at the situation.

"Episky." I chanted at his ankle. "Now run mate!" I shouted after.

But it seems to be too late as the hippogriffs are too close.

"Sigh. Mate I'm gonna have to trust you. I'm going to do something you might not understand, but for the next bit whatever you do, do not look into my eyes. Got it?" I asked my friend as he nods.

"Good." I then say as I took off my glasses.

I let my magic build up within me, quickly gathering as my cores rotate at immense speeds to give me what I need. I step in front of Christian, focus my energy into my eyes causing them to appear as if fire is coming out of them. My silver hair starts dancing as it feels the magic coming off of me. My magic builds up, and up, until it's about ready to burst... and then I unleash it.

With almost an audible roar I let out the aura of one of the most dangerous predators in the wild, my aura of the whampus cat, while forcing all of the enraged hippogriffs to look at me. Making them see the image of the beast hidden within my blood.

"ENOUGH!" I declared as they faltered in their advance.

"YOU! SHALL! KNEEL!" I ordered using my predatory aura and magic to force these proud creatures into submission. My legilimency crushing their wills to face me. And slowly they kneel before me, with resistance and fear, these creatures kneel.

I keep up the pressure until both me and Christian reach the fence where the a.d.u.l.ts are speechless at what just happened.

"Let's go mate." I said in a deflated tone.

'What a way to end my summer.' I thought as I was heading towards the portkey with my friend and looking into the sky.