If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patreón @
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The link is also in the synopsis.
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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]
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People came into the room with their problems. They sat in the chairs, talked about what troubled them, opened up, and poured their worries onto the man behind the table. When they were done, the young man behind the table would give a solution, and the people would leave happier than when they entered.
Not all problems were memorable, and the man behind the table encountered the same types of problems every day. So when people came with unique questions, the man became happy because it made his job fun and interesting.
And it turned out that today was the day that he was going to get to talk to a person with quite the memorable issue.
...
Quinn was standing in front of a potion cauldron watching the Fanta orange liquid simmering slowly over medium heat.
There was a sheet of paper floating with a clip on it. A pen was levitating above the paper, which was controlled by Quinn. Its purpose was to write notes about the potion.
Walking over to a nearby wall side table, Quinn looked down at a long brown worm with red veins all over its body.
"Braid Wigglers. My god, these things are gross," said Quinn, disgust clear in his voice.
Nonetheless, despite the heavy disgust in his voice, Quinn put on himself a thin white cloth glove. And without hesitation, he picked a very thin scalpel and started to cut the body of the worm.
Blood spilled onto the wooden board. But because of charms on the wood beneath, the blood beaded up on the surface of the wooden board. Quinn had charmed the surface of the wood to be hydrophobic. Any liquid that made contact with the wood wouldn't get absorbed but would end up beading on the top.
The beaded up blood slid to the side of the board and drained out the board through a small outlet pipe built into the wood board into a container for later experimentation.
'Uwaa, gross, so gross,' thought Quinn, even though he was enthusiastically cutting the worm and poking the magical worm's internal organs.
'Yuck, to think that something this gross worm would grow inside a person and at maturity would try to escape through the rectum,' gagged Quinn and recalled what he learned about the Braid Wigglers. 'Holy crap, look at these claws; these would surely rupture the inner lining of the colon as it wriggles out of the anus. Haha, so gross~.'
The Braid Wigglers was just one of the many parasitic creatures that used a magical human's body as the host. Quinn had been reading about all kinds of these creatures as a part of his Healing magic education.
The Fanta orange-colored liquid brewing inside the cauldron was a potion that killed the Braid Wiggler and dissolved its remains into something more suitable for passing out of the body naturally.
"I would like even more to operate on a person who has a fully matured Braid Wiggler inside their body, though. Those need to be taken out through surgery," muttered Quinn as he beckoned the clipboard and operated the pen through magic to take notes on the dissected Braid Wiggler.
As Quinn continued to take biological observations on the dissected Briad Wiggler and kept an eye on the cauldron brewing potion, he heard the door chime ring.
"Now?" groaned Quinn as he looked at the glass wall as if trying to look through it before looking at the bloody Braid Wiggler. "I'll be back; you wait here." A tender green pyramid-shaped ward manifested around the bloody carcass of the centipede-like creature for temporary preservation purposes.
He walked towards the workshop door and gave a cursory glance to the potion, checking the progress.
'Hmm... another half hour of simmering before I need to touch it. That would be enough,' noted Quinn as he walked past the cauldron.
Quinn was about to put a hand on the door's handle when he noticed that he was still wearing the bloody gloves.
"Oops," blinked Quinn. He removed the gloves and tossed them into the cleaning hamper with other dirty gloves. 'That would've been bad. If I went out wearing those.'
Just before opening the door, in a second, Quinn fixed his clothes with magic. He opened the door and entered his office with what he called a 'TV host's' smile on his face.
"Pardon the wait," Quinn said, greeting the person that was in the room as he closed the door to the workshop. When he looked up at the client, he trailed off, "Thank you for your patience..."
In his office stood Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived, The Chosen One, The-One-With-The-Scar, and other titles that people use to refer to the boy who had been credited with vanquishing the latest Dark Lord.
"Mr. Potter, welcome to A.I.D.," said Quinn as he sat down on his barstool, turning into 'the man behind the table'. "How may I help you today? Please take a seat, make yourself comfortable."
Harry silently sat down on the chair while keeping his gaze on Quinn.
Ever since he could remember, Harry recalled the way people looked at him. Anyone who wasn't a friend or family would immediately look at his forehead to glance at the infamous scar. And, because of that, Harry had been conscious of how people looked at him.
Over time, he had come to judge people depending on where their eyes went while talking to him. Harry was fine with people glancing at the scar once and had become used to it; to Harry, it was the norm. If they glanced at the scar from time to time during their talk, Harry's view of that person would drop considerably. But if they spend their entire time looking at the scar, Harry would deem them as someone who wasn't worth talking to.
In the very few meetings Harry had with Quinn West, he had noticed that Quinn hadn't looked at his scar even once. Not a single time had Harry seen Quinn look at his scar. He didn't show any interest whatsoever.
Even now, Quinn hadn't looked at his forehead scar once. And that only happened with family members or the people whom he had spent a lot of time with. When he entered the room. Quinn gave him a look over him before maintaining firm eye contact.
So even before talking to Quinn West, Harry's impression of him had improved considerably.
"I'm here to get answers to some questions," started Harry after making himself comfortable in his chair.
"Of course, if you've questions, we at A.I.D will do everything possible to answer them," nodded Quinn, internally interested in what Harry Potter had in his mind.
"What can you tell me about Peter Pettigrew?" asked Harry bluntly while watching Quinn's reaction trying to see if he could glean something out of his expression.
But Quinn had been subtly using his occlumency to control his expression. The summer vacation had taught him lots of things, and one of those was to fake facial expressions when he had to detach from real emotions using emotional occlumency.
There were three levels of emotional detachment provided by emotional occlumency: One, detaching emotions from your face. Two, detaching emotions so that they would become a buzz in the back of the head, reducing the bluntness of said emotions in the judgment-making process. The third and last level was to completely cut off emotions from magic.
One had to activate the previous levels to activate the next level. And currently, Quinn was only using level one of emotional detachment. Which he usually did when he was cautious.
Before the sin curse, Quinn wouldn't use level two much. He didn't use level three at all. But, after the sin curse, Quinn had developed a dislike for levels two and three because detaching his emotions didn't feel good. He only proceeded to level two when he was at a heavy disadvantage.
Using emotional occlumency to control facial expressions drained every emotion from the user. And that was just parading the fact that someone was using occlumency to hide their emotions. But that could be bypassed by simply faking the facial expression, which was what Quinn was doing.
It surprised Quinn that Harry asked him about Peter Pettigrew, but he didn't show that surprise on his face.
"You would've to be more precise with your questions, Mr. Potter."
The first rule that Quinn abided by when giving out information was to not answer vague or broad questions. Quinn wanted the requester to ask precise questions so that they only got the information that they asked for. It was just something Quinn did to make them think they were getting more information because they would ask multiple questions.
There were exceptions to this rule, but currently, those exceptions didn't apply because the inquiry from Harry raised some questions in Quinn's mind.
Harry took a moment in silence to think of a more well-defined question.
He knew that Peter Pettigrew was a Death Eater. The problem was that before returning to Hogwarts this year, he had heard a talk between his father, James Potter, and his godfather, Sirius Black, and from what he was able to eavesdrop, they were having a pretty heated discussion.
At that time, Harry had thought little of that conversation and believed that the two Aurors were talking about a Death Eater's escape.
Then, he would occasionally hear conversations about Peter Pettigrew from multiple individuals across the year: his mother; Lily Potter, uncle/professor Remus Lupin, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Flitwick all had talked about him sometimes.
After hearing so much about that person, Harry got interested in Peter Pettigrew. He asked multiple people about the Death Eater, but no matter who he asked, the people would invariably change the subject without telling him anything.
The only thing he knew about Peter Pettigrew was that the man was a Death Eater. And that had been in Azkaban for twelve years before breaking out this year.
"What did Peter Pettigrew do to end up in Azkaban?" asked Harry.
Quinn, who had been sitting on his barstool, nodded at the question.
The second the words Peter Pettigrew came out of Harry Potter's mouth, Quinn made an executive decision to use Legilimency to infiltrate Harry's mind.
'His shield is weaker than his sister's,' thought Quinn as he broke in without the bespectacled Potter's knowledge.
And as Harry was thinking about what to ask, Quinn snooped around and found the entire backstory about why Harry came asking about the question.
'He doesn't know the details about the night he got the scar. His parents and family haven't told him about Peter Pettigrew's involvement.'
Quinn saw some memories that showed some major decisions from James Potter and Lily Potter or Marauders in general. Quinn was able to make a quick glance of a photo wall in the Potter cottage.
'They erased Pettigrew from all the photos. They erased every evidence that Pettigrew ever existed as their friend while in Hogwarts.'
That didn't surprise Quinn. Given what they lost that day, it's no wonder that they didn't want to have any memories of Peter Pettigrew.
'This Harry Potter is insightful,' thought Quinn when he heard Harry's surface thoughts. 'He knows how most of the Death Eaters escaped imprisonment because of the Imperius curse defense. Not surprising given that his father is an Auror.'
Harry realized that the only Death Eaters who went to Azkaban were outspoken and fanatic supporters of Voldemort.
Twelve Death Eaters had gone to Azkaban after the war; Bellatrix Lestrange, Rabastan Lestrange, Rodolphus Lestrange, Barty Crouch Jr., Augustus Rookwood, Antonin Dolohov, Thorfinn Rowle, Gibbon, Jugson, Mulciber, Travers, and, finally, Peter Pettigrew.
'Except Peter Pettigrew, all of those were avid supporters of Voldemort and didn't or couldn't use the Imperius curse defense,' thought Quinn as he stared at Harry. 'He knows that and realizes that Peter Pettigrew must have done something outrageous to end up in Azkaban.'
"Mr. Potter, I know about Peter Pettigrew. But are you sure that you want to know?" asked Quinn. "You might not like what I'll tell you."
Harry frowned at the question. He didn't give it a second thought before nodding.
"It's related to you and your family. There is a reason why your parents haven't told you about Peter Pettigrew," once again asked Quinn, making sure that Harry really wanted to know.
Harry's frown deepened. It surprised him a little that it was related to his family. However, most of the Death Eater-related activities could be connected to his family.
"Yes, I want to know. No need to continue asking" he said while nodding firmly, wanting to get the point.
"Alright, you asked for it," said Quinn before dropping the truth bomb on Harry Potter's head.
"During the First Wizarding War, Peter Pettigrew was a member of the Order of the Phoenix but became a spy when he was coerced into joining the Dark Lord. He was made the Secret-Keeper for the Potters when they went into hiding with the use of the Fidelius Charm. He ended up betraying the Potter family."
Quinn stared straight into Harry's as he revealed the hidden facts.
"He personally led the Dark Lord to the Potter residence that was the Secret-Keeper to, and that day the Potters lost Fleamont and Euphemia Potter. That was the day when you got the scar, and the Dark Lord was defeated. He also killed twelve non-magicals in an attempt to escape the Aurors."
Quinn went silent after he finished speaking and closed his eyes. He gave Harry time to absorb the information.
Harry Potter was close to his father, James Potter, and his godfather, Sirius Black. And to them, Fleamont and Euphemia Potter had been an extremely influential part of their lives.
For James Potter, they had been his parents, the ones who had given birth to him and raised him to be the man he was today. He had had an excellent relationship with his parents, who loved him very much, and he loved them back with all his heart. Before he got married and started his own family, his parents had been his only family.
For Sirius Black, they were the parental figure he never had. The nature of Sirius' relationship with his family during his early childhood was unknown, but at the age of eleven, Sirius earned severe disappointment and disapproval from his family by being sorted into the Gryffindor house. Sirius, in turn, became increasingly rebellious, flaunting his house affiliation and disdain for his family's pure-blood values. When Sirius ran away from home at age sixteen, the Potters took him in and treated him as their own family.
Harry Potter had grown up listening to stories about his paternal grandparents from both his father and godfather. When they talked about their death, he had been told that they had died in the war against Voldemort. But not that they had been killed by Voldemort himself, or that they were there on the day he got his scar.
"... What is the Fidelius Charm, and what do you mean by 'Secret-Keeper'," asked Harry after a long pause and with pain evident in his eyes.
"It's an immensely complex spell which involves the magical concealment of a secret inside a single living soul. The information is hidden inside the chosen person, or Secret-Keeper, and is henceforth impossible to know; unless, of course, the Secret-Keeper chooses to divulge the secret," explained Quinn. "If a dwelling is protected by this spell, it will then become invisible, intangible, unpalatable, and soundproof. An extremely old spell, one of the most ancient there are."
After another pause, Harry asked, "Peter Pettigrew was the Secret-Keeper, and our house was the secret? And he gave the secret away to Voldemort?"
"Yes," said Quinn shortly.
"... Why?" asked Harry, licking his dry lips. "Why was Peter Pettigrew made the Secret-Keeper? Why did my parents trust him so much?" He wanted to know. Harry desperately wanted to know.
"... Mr. Potter, do you know about the Marauder's Map?" asked Quinn, as that was the only thing he could think of to answer that question.
Harry, who was looking down, raised his head to look at Quinn and asked in surprise. "How do you know about that?"
The map was a secret known to him, Ivy, Hermione, Ron, and the Weasley Twins. The Marauders and his mum knew, but he wasn't counting them.
"It is my job to know, Mr. Potter," replied Quinn before giving a short reason. "And I have communications with the Weasley twins."
He omitted the part about Ivy Potter because Harry didn't know about it. And Quinn was okay with it staying that way.
"Mr. Potter, there are four Marauders. You know three of them, and we are talking about the fourth."
Harry's eyes widened to the size of saucers. He didn't know the identity of the fourth because he was told that the fourth Marauder was no longer with them. Harry just assumed that he was dead, and the other three didn't want to talk about it.
"Pettigrew had been trusted, and he broke that trust."
Another long pause ensued as Harry stared in the distance, thinking about what he had just heard. He hadn't even noticed that Quinn had gotten up from his seat, had gone to the workshop, and quickly continued to work on the potion, and came back to take his stool.
"... How do you all know of this?" asked Harry, his eyes focused on Quinn.
"I keep track of general happenings, Mr. Potter," replied Quinn as he took out a sheet of paper and started writing with a fountain pen. "Do you read the newspaper, Mr. Potter?"
"Newspaper? No, why do you ask?" replied Harry and then immediately asked. "Was it printed in the newspaper? Then Ivy or Hermione would've known. Both of them read the newspaper."
Hearing that Harry didn't read the newspaper wasn't surprising. There weren't many preteens, even teens, that thought of picking up a newspaper.
"No, detailed information about Peter Pettigrew isn't published in the Daily Prophet," answered Quinn, continuing to write on the paper from his memory. "The only thing present in the Daily Prophet is that Peter Pettigrew escaped from Azkaban and that he was a heinous Death Eater who killed twelve non-magicals."
"Huh? Are you implying that the Prophet didn't write the entire story?"
"Yes, but not really," said Quinn as he turned the paper he was writing on upside down and capped his pen. He was done writing. "They did write about Peter Pettigrew's entire story, but not this year."
"What do you mean?" asked Harry in confusion.
"When they caught Pettigrew, the newspaper covered his story, but not to the sufficient extent," Quinn pointed at Harry as he continued, "Their main story at the time was about how you, the Boy-Who-Lived, vanquished the Dark Lord. No one was actually paying attention to Peter Pettigrew."
"Wizarding Britain was in an after-war celebration, and no one really cared about Peter Pettigrew. Unlike the inner circle Death Eaters, he wasn't from an influential background or famous in any way. Those days, the Daily Prophet, which was the mainstream media, had been suffering from the oppression of the Dark Lord's regime. They found themselves free and wrote about the most famous of the Death Eaters. The unknown Peter Pettigrew slipped away from the public eye. Of course, many people knew about him killing 12 muggles. The papers had covered that when they wrote about his trial, but that wasn't nearly enough to trump what the others were being charged."
"Peter Pettigrew's contributions and deeds went unnoticed at that time because the media focused on the inner circle of Death Eaters. Of course, that doesn't mean that what he did wasn't published, just, it wasn't visible enough to anyone who wasn't particularly looking for it."
Quinn stopped talking for a second before continuing,
"It has been over a decade since the end of the war. A decade is a long time. It isn't weird that people have forgotten about Peter Pettigrew. Even though he played an important part in the course of events, it was never brought to light."
"But why didn't they write about it now?!" asked Harry, baffled. Pettigrew might not have been well known back then, but he was now. "Pettigrew is the first to ever successfully break out of Azkaban, a momentous event. That is a huge deal! Why didn't they write about him now?"
"The answer is easy, Mr. Potter," replied Quinn with ease and flow. "Censorship is the cause why Peter Pettigrew's deeds haven't been brought to light."
Quinn didn't give Harry a chance to respond with a question, as he continued.
"As you know, there is a new radical group active. The Novellus Accionites, who support the Dark Lord's ideology and work in his name. The ministry has tried to downplay the Novellus Accionites activities because of their ideology. They don't want the public to think of this group as the new Death Eaters. So what do you think will happen when they find that the person betrayed the Potters to lead the Dark Lord to the Boy-Who-Lived escaped Azkaban at the same time a group is flouting the Dark Lord's name?"
"... Everybody would think that Novellus Accionites are the Death Eaters as they would think that Pettigrew started the group? Is this why?" answered Harry after some consideration.
"Correct, Mr. Potter. The ministry is actively trying to suppress anything related to the Dark Lord. Recently they have started arresting the Accionites and putting their members on trial. The ministry really wants this to be over. Hence, they are keeping a tight leash on what is written about Peter Pettigrew. It helps that he hasn't made any appearances and has completely disappeared after his escape."
"How do you know all of this?" asked Harry after Quinn finished speaking. From where he sat, Quinn looked like an expert on this topic. "You said that people don't know much about Pettigrew, so how do you know so much about him?"
Quinn smiled peacefully. He then answered the question.
"I said that people who weren't looking for what happened wouldn't be able to find the truth. However, Mr. Potter, I was looking for the truth. I've actively looked for the story behind Peter Pettigrew. I wanted to know about the first man that broke out of Azkaban, which led me to all kinds of information. Everything is out there; you just need for someone good to go looking," Quinn then pointed around the room as he continued. "And, as you know, it is my job to know about things. I wouldn't be able to solve problems quickly if I didn't know enough."
Quinn had been surprised when Harry asked about Peter Pettigrew, even though Quinn hadn't been surprised that Harry came to him.
A.I.D. had a reputation that had been built upon real results. Quinn had a very high completion rate that spoke for itself. So Quinn didn't think of it as anything other than obvious that if a Hogwarts student wanted to know something, they would come to him for answers. As such, Harry Potter coming to him wouldn't be something difficult to imagine.
"There is an archive of old Daily Prophet and other newspapers in the library. I just went there and spent some time finding information about Pettigrew. No matter how close-knit the Order of Phoenix was, people talked, and at that time, lots of people had been interested in listening to what was said. I found about the Fidelius Charm from a niche monthly magazine that discussed interesting magic, and there was an issue where they talked about nothing else other than that charm because of its involvement with you."
"... I see," spoke Harry, taking a breath before looking at Quinn and saying, "I don't want anyone to know that I was here. Especially my mum. She mustn't know that I know about Pettigrew. I need time to take things in."
"That's fine, Mr. Potter. I don't want anyone to know that I'm the one who told you this. If you reveal what I told you this to anyone, then I'll say that you found it on your own," said Quinn as he slid the paper he was writing on towards Harry. "These are the names of the newspapers and magazines I went looking into with the edition number and date."
Quinn also passed Harry an inkpot and a parchment, "Copy everything down on that paper to this parchment in your handwriting. I will burn that paper after you're done."
Harry and Quinn had the same wish, and that was to not let anybody know about their involvement, they smoothly reached an agreement.
"... What do I need to pay for this and the information," said Harry pointing at the thin roll of parchment.
"Oh, nothing, you don't need to pay me anything. Just, as I helped you out, help me out if I ever ask," replied Quinn, trying to establish a connection with the Golden Boy, a golden opportunity.
"Alright. I'll help you out," said Harry as he stared at the parchment in his hands. His mind was too preoccupied to think about Quinn's words and readily agreed to what sounded to him like a fair deal.
"It was a pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Potter," said Quinn as he walked to the door while Harry exited.
Harry briefly looked up from the parchment and nodded. When the door closed, Harry once again looked up at the closed door. When he had entered the room, Harry had two things he wanted to ask, but in the end, the first topic had turned out to be too much for him.
'I'll ask him some other day,' thought Harry as he walked away. 'Maybe she will tell me before that day comes.'
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Quinn West - MC - Had a memorable customer.
Harry Potter - Client - Can't say that he left happier than when he entered.
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If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patreón @
[ https://www.patreón.com/fictiononlyreader ]
The link is also in the synopsis.
.
[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]
.
-*-*-*-*-*-
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After his talk with Harry, Quinn went back to study the butchered-up Braid Wiggle. He was wearing a fresh pair of white cloth gloves and used his magic to separate the guts, but then stopped even before his fresh gloves were stained with blood or bodily fluids.
He once again cast the tender green pyramid-shaped short-term preservation field before taking a seat. He thought about the conversation.
"That was unexpected," sighed Quinn.
Quinn still thought that the A.I.D. had developed into a place where students would bring their problems more than they brought to the professors. But he never would think that Harry Potter would come to him, given his close connection to the professors.
Remus Lupin, Rubeus Hagrid, and Albus Dumbledore were part of the Order of Phoenix in the First Wizarding War, and Harry had grown up with plenty of contact with the above members. Lily Potter, his own mother, was a professor and another viable option. Even though Minerva McGonagall wasn't part of the Order of Phoenix, she was Gryffindor's Head of House and had good relations with Harry's parents.
Ivy's case was different from Harry's, and her interactions with Quinn had started with purely academic purposes. But because of several series of events, their interactions had increased beyond that point. If those events hadn't taken place, Quinn imagined that his interactions with Ivy would have been limited to the annual purchase of study notes.
"I wonder how he will proceed with the knowledge he has now," wondered Quinn as he tapped his finger on the tabletop.
Quinn had read Harry's thoughts when he was exiting the room, and in those thoughts, he had seen impulses of confronting his mother, but from where Quinn was reading, they weren't strong enough for Harry to react on.
"He would definitely share the new information with his sister. That one is inevitable. The first thought in his mind was to share that information with her," murmured Quinn as he continued to tap on the table. "At least he has no intention of telling her the source of information. Let's just hope he does his due diligence before talking to anyone about it."
"I'm really looking forward to seeing how this entire thing turns out," smiled Quinn. He then thought about asking some people some sleeper-favors inside Gryffindor.
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- (Scene Break) -..
Quinn took a deep breath in Hogsmeade. "The air's free of something and with that..." Quinn took another deep breath with a smile on his face.
"... What?" uttered Eddie, a confused furrow in his brow.
"Ignore him," said Marcus, eying Quinn, who had a confident expression on his face. "He started intending to say something cool and wise sounding but very quickly realized that he doesn't have anything fitting to say." Marcus sharply pointed at Quinn and continued, "Look at him. Always plastering that confident look on his face, expecting us to buy it, which is complete bullcrap."
Quinn clicked his tongue as he gave Marcus a side look, "You're getting too smart for your own good."
"Nope, we are spending too much time with you," Marcus shook his head as he responded.
Quinn queried a brow as he said, "So you're saying that my presence is making you smarter. Huh, never thought it like that. That is good to hear." A soft yet wide smile made its way to Quinn's face as if he was feeling fulfilled after doing a good deed.
"No! That isn't what I mean-," rebuked Marcus but stopped and sighed, shaking his head, "You know what, leave it." Marcus narrowed his eyes at Quinn and complained, "You know how annoying it is when you lead the conversations that way. Don't do that."
Eddie chuckled at the side as the three amigos moved across the streets of Hogsmeade.
"What are we going to do today?" asked Marcus as he and Eddie followed Quinn.
"I have got to pick something from Scrivenshaft's. Then we'll have fun," answered Quinn as he led the group towards the West family-owned business.
He had gotten a MagiFax message from home in which it said that there was a package for him at the shop and that he should pick it up today. When he wrote back for more details, all he got back was that it was a surprise.
'They could've just shrunk it and sent it to me via an owl,' thought Quinn, and that made him wonder what was it about the package that it couldn't be sent directly to him.
Eddie and Marcus looked at each other and shrugged. They knew that Quinn's family owned the Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop in Hogsmeade. Quinn never talked about his family, so they didn't know much about it. Both of them knew that Quinn's family was loaded, but neither of them knew about the true extent of Quinn's family wealth.
Quinn, Eddie, and Marcus entered the door as the door chime above the door rang to announce their entry. There were a substantial number of customers inside the store, which were mostly students browsing through school supplies.
"Good morning, Gary," greeted Quinn as he walked towards the counter.
At once, he saw something different in the shop manager of Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop.
Whenever Quinn saw the lanky man he would dress casually and, most of the time, he would have a work apron on and would've ink stains all over his fingers and clothes, uncombed clothes, and overall, no personal grooming. But today, Gary was wearing a pressed checkered shirt and a new set of pants with no ink stain on any part of his body. He also had very neatly combed his hair, clean shaved, and had cleaned up quite well.
"... Gary, you look great. What's up," asked Quinn, smiling at the man he met whenever he came out to Hogsmeade.
"Good morning, Mr. West," greeted Gary nervously, trying to do a proper greeting, fumbling as he tried.
'Okay, something is wrong,' thought Quinn as Gary didn't call him, 'Mr. West.' Quinn had asked Gary to call him by his first name, so the sudden name change was suspicious.
"... Gary, you are acting weird. What is wrong? Tell me, and I'll solve it," said Quinn, trying to reassure his acquaintance. Also, he was part of the family business, so if Gary had a problem, Quinn would try to make it disappear.
"Nothing is wrong with me. The package is waiting for you in the back room," replied Gary stiffly, clearly looking nervous and anxious.
"... I see," said Quinn and glanced at the door that led to the backroom. He turned to look at Eddie and Marcus and said, "... You guys wait. I will be back."
He glanced at Gary as he walked to the back door, and he could see that sweat was beading on Gary's forehead.
Just behind the door was the staircase that went up to the second floor. Quinn climbed the steps; with each step, the stair beneath him would creak because of his weight.
There was a single corridor on the second floor, and on that corridor were three rooms: two on the sides and one straight ahead. The two rooms at the sides of the corridor were storage rooms filled with shop merchandise and raw materials.
Quinn stared at the white door straight ahead. He had been into the room before. And that was why Gary hadn't specified the room and had just said the backroom. It was the door to the same room in which Quinn had told his secrets to his grandfather, George West.
Quinn opened the door and entered the room. He already knew what was waiting for him inside.
In the room, which had been completely fixed from the last time Quinn's magic had gone ham on it, sat a woman in front of a table, looking over some books. She had been peacefully reading and looked up from the books, which looked like ledges.
"Oh, you're here. Good morning, Quinn," greeted the woman when she looked at Quinn.
"What the hell, Lia. You could've just told me you were coming. For a second, I thought I was going to get jumped and get kidnapped," sighed Quinn as he closed the door and walked towards.
The woman, Lia West, Quinn's sister, smiled as she got up from her chair, walked towards Quinn, and hugged him.
"It is called a surprise, dummy," said Lia as she broke the hug. "Aren't you surprised?" There was a mischievous look in her eyes and a playful smile on her face.
"Of course, I am surprised! If I didn't peek into Gary's mind, I would've bombarded this room with spells," said exasperatedly Quinn. He had used a light Legilimency probe on the shop manager's mind and extracted Lia's face and name in the few seconds Quinn maintained the probe. He sighed as he then asked, "What did you do to Gary? He was all jittery and stiff in his shoes. I haven't seen him dressed properly before this."
"Hmm? I didn't do anything to him. I just asked him to bring me the shop account books. I thought I would audit them as I pass the time while waiting for you. And for his clothes, I am not sure how he usually dresses; this is my first time visiting this particular shop," answered Lia as she and Quinn sat down.
"I see; he was getting audited. That is why he addressed me by our family name," sighed Quinn and reached for a biscuit from a platter on the side of the table.
"I didn't say anything to him. And his accounts are all fine. I can't see any discrepancies, and the shop is pulling good profits. He shouldn't be nervous if he knows that his shop is working properly," talked Lia as she studied her brother.
"Anyone would be nervous if the owner popped one day and asked for the ledger," said Quinn as he cleaned his hands with magic. "So why are you here?"
"Isn't that obvious, dumb baby brother of mine? I'm here to see you. I was in the country, and I was talking to grandfather one day when he mentioned you had —what is it called, oh, yeah— Hogsmeade weekend, so I decided to visit."
Quinn sighed once more before another smile made its way to his face. He was happy to see Lia while at school.
"How have you been?" he asked while observing Lia. As he was studying Healing, Quinn's eyes automatically looked for signs about her health. He didn't use magic, but he could tell that she was healthy.
"I'm great. I went to Peru for a week with my friends," started Lia, telling Quinn about her vacation.
"Oh, did you? How was it?" asked Quinn. He was interested because he hadn't been to Peru while traveling.
"It's a beautiful country. We had lots of fun. I brought you some souvenirs. They are at home."
"Bought a company in Thailand," informed Lia with a proud smile on her face.
"Wait, did we have holdings in Thailand?"
"No, we didn't. This is the first one, and I took care of all of it. Grandfather handed me the project. It will be my biggest project to date. I have already submitted a ten-year development plan for Thailand."
"Congratulations!" cheered Quinn, happy for a clearly prominent occasion for Lia's career.
"Thanks! What else I did, hmm," thought Lia with a finger on her chin before her eyes sparkled and she spoke with a brag in her tone, "I entered a flying-horse tourney in Greece and won the entire event."
"Seriously! Woah, that is awesome! Did you get a trophy?" asked Quinn, clearly impressed by this event.
"I did. It's at home."
"What else did you do?"
"Oh, this one is my favorite. Listen to this. I found an old Oakshift 79 broomstick, but not any Oakshift 79, no, it was Jocunda Sykes's Oakshift 79 that she used for the first-ever flight across the Atlantic."
Jocunda Sykes was a woman who was famous for flying across the Atlantic Ocean - the first magical to do so. The broomstick that she used for the historical event would be absolutely priceless.
"No way! How did you manage that? Where is it? Is it also at home?" exclaimed Quinn.
"At home, no. I sold it," smiled Lia.
"Huh?" blinked Quinn, confused by the sudden reversal. "Why would you do that?! That thing is really priceless."
"I found two bottles of Dagueneau Seibel," Lia said as a very wide smirk made its way towards her face.
"... no, you didn't," said Quinn with a face full of disbelief. "From 1905? Are they from 1905?"
"Yes, the 1905 Dagueneau Seibel," nodded Lia smugly. "And I found two of those. I traded the broom for two of those bottles. The guy I traded was a big broom collector, and he didn't even blink when I put down the offer." She raised her hand and showed two fingers. "TWO! I found two. Haha!"
Dagueneau Seibel was a type of magical wine enjoyed by people who liked to indulge in wine. And Dagueneau Seibel, 1905 was an edition of Dagueneau Seibel, coveted by wine collectors. An edition that, with time, had become increasingly difficult to procure. Dagueneau Seibel, 1905, had become a collector and wine lover's dream.
But the reason Quinn and Lia were so animated about this wine was that their grandfather, George West, loved this wine. George only ever had a tasting pour of said wine; a tasting pour was half a regular serving. And after that single pour, George West had proclaimed that Dagueneau Seibel, 1905, was the best wine he ever had.
After that day, George tried to buy a bottle of Dagueneau Seibel, 1905, but was unsuccessful in acquiring a bottle because it had become increasingly rare, and no collector was willing to part from their bottles.
Another reason that this wine held a special place in George's heart was because the wine was as old as him. George West was born in 1905, and so was Dagueneau Seibel, 1905.
"It seems this year I will be winning the birthday gift contest as well," smirked Lia smugly. If you asked Quinn, she was too damn smugly.
Every year, both siblings would compete on who could get a better gift for their grandfather, and even though both George never told them whose gift he liked more, both grandchildren compared gifts and decided who got the better gift.
In that competition, Lia, who literally traveled almost all the time, got gifts from around the world and had the edge over Quinn, whereas Quinn's reach was limited. But Quinn didn't give up. Even if he couldn't find exotic items like Lia, Quinn explored the non-magical and found items that would be unfamiliar yet interesting items that would work inside a magical home.
But Dagueneau Seibel, 1905 was just another level. This was something that Quinn couldn't top. Even if he found something amazingly interesting, there wasn't anything George had tried so hard to find.
"This year, I'm going to make grandfather say that he likes my gift," smirked Lia as she giggled at the defeated sight of her brother. "Oh Quinn, you won't be beating me this year."
Quinn groaned because things weren't looking good. This competition was an annual affair that both he and Lia took seriously. And neither of the siblings liked to lose.
"You, you, came here to rub this in my face, didn't you?"
Lia laughed louder and nodded,
"... Yeah. I was so excited today. And I am not disappointed. This feels good~."
"Dammit! I will remember this humiliation," grumbled Quinn as he put his head in his hands. "I'm going to destroy you next year. I am going to utterly leave you in the dust."
"Yeah, we will see about that, you squirt," scoffed Lia, smugness oozing out of her.
After the West siblings got back to normal from their competition crazy state, Quinn suddenly stood up and exclaimed, "Oh, I forgot!" He looked at Lia and said, "You wait here. I will be right back."
Lia watched as Quinn ran out of the room, and she waited for around two minutes before Quinn returned. Quinn wasn't alone when he returned and had two other people in tow.
"Lia, meet my friends and roommates; Eddie Carmichael and Marcus Belby," introduced Quinn as he presented his two best friends to his sister. He turned to Eddie and Marcus and introduced the other way, "Eddie, Marcus, this is my older sister, Lia West."
Eddie and Marcus, who were shocked, stood still as they stared at Lia.
When Quinn had come running to them in the store to find them, all Quinn had said was that he wanted to show them something. He didn't tell them what he wanted to show. He just hurried them to follow him; he practically dragged them to the room.
So when the two entered the room, they had no idea that they would come across a stunningly beautiful woman. The two froze in their spots as heat rushed to their faces as they stared at the woman who was just introduced to them as Quinn's sister, Lia.
"Hello, it is nice to meet you two. I have heard a lot about you two," smiled Lia brightly as she stood up and from her chair. "Thank you for taking care of my troublesome baby brother."
"N-No, it is fine."
"Ah, h-he isn't trouble."
Eddie and Marcus stuttered as they replied to Lia. The two couldn't look away from Lia, partially because she was just too pretty, but primarily because the thought of looking away wasn't anywhere in their adolescent heads.
Quinn smiled widely because Lia always teased him by saying that Eddie and Marcus weren't real and that Quinn had made them up because he didn't have any male friends.
"Take that. They are real," humped Quinn at Lia before looking at Eddie and Marcus. He had to do a double-take when he saw the slightly open jaws of his friends.
"... Seriously," said Quinn in disbelief before sending harsh pinching hexes towards both of them.
Both Eddie and Marcus felt excruciating pinching pain on the sides of their waist as they squealed and snapped out of their dazed state. The two realized what they were doing, and their cheeks burned up for different reasons as they turned their faces towards Quinn, who was making an expression that promised pain afterward.
"Hello, I'm Marcus. Nice to meet you. We didn't know that Quinn had a sister. This is surprising," said Marcus, turning his attention to Lia and this time talking to her properly. He still found Lia very beautiful, but that feeling was overridden by the death stare from the guy who slept in the same room as him for most of the year.
Lia turned towards Quinn and pouted, "You don't talk about me?"
"Don't start," sighed Quinn, shaking his head.
Eddie and Marcus talked to Lia for a short while before leaving the West siblings alone to catch up.
Lia and Quinn remained in the room, talking, trading stories. Lia told him about the places she went, the people she met, the things she had experienced. Quinn would talk about the magics he learned, the students he had had contact with and fun tidbits about his school life. The two siblings talked for an hour or so before Lia had to leave.
"Do you have to leave so soon?" asked Quinn. He wanted to hear more from Lia. It was nice to see a family member after so many days, and the short time together felt that it wasn't enough.
"I have to. I have a portkey arranged for travel. I would have stayed longer, but the Thailand ministry requires that the people entering the country come at a time they specify. As such, I need to leave now to prepare for the trip."
"I see," nodded Quinn before his eyes shined, and he spoke, "Buy me books related to body magic. Thailand has a rich culture of body magic, and I would like to enrich myself with it. The books I have aren't that advanced, and I would like to have more information with me."
One of the reasons why Quinn practiced Muay Thai —which wasn't widespread in Britain— instead of Kick Boxing, was because the few books that Quinn had on Body magic referenced the use of Muay Thai for developing a base physique before starting learning Body magic.
Quinn had been slowly and consistently building his body by exercising every day because he wanted to study Body Magic one day. So when Lia mentioned Thailand, he immediately thought of getting more books, and Lia going to Thailand was perfect.
"Alright, I will hire a local who knows about Body Magic to pick out a selection," nodded Lia.
"I want everything on the subjects, so instruct the one you hire to get books that have extensive knowledge. I don't want books that describe things easily. I want the real deal that goes into depth."
Lia ruffled Quinn's hair and said, "I know, I know, you don't have to repeat it every time I go abroad. I already know what kinds of books you want."
"Then don't try to filter the books you hand to me. I want every one of them. Don't take out books you think are dangerous," said Quinn as he narrowed his eyes on his sister.
"I did that one time! Sorry for being a good sister and looking out for her brother," humped Lia and ruffled Quinn's rougher than before.
"If I don't say it every time, you'll do it again," retorted Quinn and removed Lia's hand from his head.
"See you later, alright?" said Lia. The two stood near the floo-fireplace inside the shop.
"Yeah, see you later," replied Quinn and watched Lia as she threw in the floo-powder and vanished inside the green flames.
Quinn looked behind to see Gary almost lying on his chair. The man looked like he had the most tiring day of his life.
"Don't worry, Lia said that your accounts are fine, and she was satisfied with the way you run the shop," said Quinn, giving Gary the good news to relieve him of his worries. "You don't have to worry about anything."
"Really?" asked Gary feebly but with hope.
"Yeah."
"... I want to close the shop early today."
"Of course."
.
- (Scene Break) -
.
The same day, Quinn was back in his dorm room reading a book on 'spell damage to muscles' when Eddie suddenly sat on his bed with a jump.
"You know I don't like people on my bed," said Quinn without looking up from his book.
"Do you have any other siblings," asked Eddie, not getting up from Quinn's bed. "Maybe a twin sister or someone near our age."
Quinn abruptly looked up from his book and spat, "Do you want me to beat you up?"
"... No."
"Then sod off from my bed."
Eddie got up from his bed, and as he did that, he heard Quinn speak up.
"We'll be waking up an hour early tomorrow. We're going to have an intense workout session. It will be fun."
"Come on! Not fair! I just asked a question!" whined Eddie and groaned.
"Yeah, whatever. Go to sleep. You have a busy day tomorrow."
Eddie walked to his bed with slumped shoulders, but before climbing up his bed, he spoke,
"... You didn't tell me if you have another sister."
Quinn closed his book with a snap and got up from his bed, "I'm going to beat you up."
"Wait, wait, wait! I was just kidding! Wait... Ouch! Aaah! Stop, no, not the nut tap! F**k!..."
Marcus, who stepped out of the bathroom, looked at his two friends as Quinn was trapping Eddie into a head leglock.
.
-*-*-*-*-*-
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Quinn West - MC - I will win next year.
Lia West - Big sis - Haha, I am the winner!
Gary - Shop Manager - Had a stressful day - Want a drink and then go to sleep.
Eddie Carmichael - His horniness doomed him - Stop! Aaah! I am sorry!
.
-*-*-*-*-*-
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