Childhood

The next morning, Arcturus received a letter, from the store Borgin and Burkes, informing him of the availability of some of the materials he needed for the ritual. Thus he decided to go there and use the opportunity to finally inquire about the locket that Kreacher was hiding.

He didn't draw any attention to him upon getting to Knockturn Alley, after all this wasn't his first time going to such a place.

When he entered the store, he went straight to the counter where one of the owners, Mr. Caractacus Burke was standing.

"Hello Caractacus, it has been a while." was Arcturus' greeting to the man.

Burke simply looked up from the watch he was cleaning and said, "Arcturus, what can I get for you?"

To that the Black patriarch took a parchment from his inner pocket and gave it to the shop owner.

"I want the items in that list, also, I have some questions about an artifact that has reached my ears" he said.

The clerk took a quick read of the list and went through the door that was behind him, returning a few minutes later holding a small trunk.

"They're all in here, what about an artifact?" Mr. Burke said while putting the trunk atop the counter.

Arcturus opened it and examined the contents, satisfied with the quality he answered the man, "It's a heavy golden locket, with a big letter S engraved in it, supposed to be magic resistant."

Caractacus pondered for a moment, suddenly his expression changed to one of reminiscence, "I know of an artifact like that, bought and sold it a few years ago." he said.

Arcturus wasn't satisfied with the answer and demanded more from the man.

"It'll be ten galleons for more about the locket, I can't just be giving free stuff now, can I?" was Burke's response while smirking at Arcturus.

This prompted the placement of two pouches on the counter. "There, one's for the itens the other for the information, now spill it!" Mr.Black said in a slightly angered tone.

"Perfect. Well, the locked you're talking about is a very special artifact, I bought it from a girl from the Gaunt family, it cost me ten galleons and later I sold it for an arm and a leg, if you want to know who bought it you'll have to give me more than ten galleons, we do need to keep our customers' identity hidden." the shop owner started, and looked to see if the man would give him more money.

Arcturus glared at the man for a whole minute, then said, "I don't care who bought it, I want to know about it."

The look of disappointment was clear in Burke's face, nevertheless he continued, "Fine. That locket was said to be the locket of Salazar Slytherin, from what I discovered, it is a very good tool to safekeep a small item. The only way to open it is to speak in parseltongue, and when locked it is resistant to all the magic spells or curses that a wizard could throw at it."

Mr. Black gave the man a small grunt in appreciation, took the trunk with his itens and left the store, he went back to the Leaky Caldron in order to return to Rosier Manor.

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After the move, Rosier Manor became more lively, mostly due to Robert's presence, which made the couple of elves shine with happiness.

The occupants of the house got in routine, with both Mary and Susan leaving early for work and Arcturus and Melania looking after the one year old. The old couple was pleasantly surprised with the rate at which Rob developed, he was quick to start babbling about, trying to communicate with them, he also didn't stay put, since he had already managed to walk.

When Robert celebrated his second year alive he received his most liked present for years to come, it was a broom designed for children to learn how to fly them, this made Susan, the ever overprotective mother, to give Mary a big scolding, the like of with prompt the blonde woman to alway check with her friend if she was fine with her presents for Robert.

The toddler didn't notice the tension between the two, he was too occupied with his broom, to which he was a natural. According to his grampa, he was just like his dad, a really good flyer.

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The next year came, and with it, the first ritual, all the preparations were done, and Susan had made sure everything was as safe as possible for the procedure. It was quite underwhelming, since it was done at midnight of the seventh of July, the child at that point was already asleep.

The next few months became the most exhausting ones, because Robert seemed to have more energy than before, and he wanted to burn it while he had company.

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The high activity of the child only diminished when he became four years old, the year that the Black couple decided to start teaching him.

The initial subjects were Etiquette, History, Languages and Pureblood Culture. The adults feared that Rob wouldn't want to stay put and take lessons, but they were surprised when after the first lesson the toddler asked to "play proper" again, this became the synonym for the etiquette's class. History class became story time, languages class became the time they played with words, as for pureblood culture, that was named "the time to let gran talk".

The boy took easily to the classes, focusing his energy on them. He started spending more time trying to learn how to read so he could get ahead, especially in history.

It was in that year that Susan became a full fledged healer at St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.

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During his fifth year alive, Robert was mostly found at his home's library, he had encountered the splendid life in the books. He only read the ones that his grandparents allowed, but that was fine by him, until that moment his favorite was one called The Tales of Beedle the Bard, it was a book full of stories, all of them allowed the boy to use his imagination and play as the characters with the adults.

This was the period where he was at a peak of curiosity. He tried reading many books, but decided to stick to the story ones since he couldn't really understand the magical ones.

Another positive development was the improvement of his linguistic abilities. The library was full of books in french or latin and Robert was bound to find them, he ended up finding a french version of The Tales of Beedle the Bard and thanks to Melania's encouragement he read both in order to learn more about the language.

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Some changes started appearing during the sixth year, now he was invited to parties, alongside his mother, he got to meet a lot of children, a few were his age, there was the boy Draco Malfoy, who wanted to be just like his dad, but Robert didn't like him very much because he made fun of him for his lack of a father figure. Alongside the Malfoy, were Crabbe and Goyle, they were bigger, both in height and width, not really smart those ones, Robert spent time telling them of the stories that he read, they liked the ones that had food in them.

During the year he also met some girls, the first was Pansy Parkinson, she was a quiet girl, she also liked the stories, and would ask Robert to tell some of them to her, whenever they met, she seemed to open up with Draco more than the other, which started to make her a little mean.

He made friends with the Greengrass sister, Astoria, the younger, and Daphne, the older. They were both energetic, Astoria more so than her sister, the three would play reenactors of the tales that the older ones knew.

These were kids that from those days onwards started to go to playdates with each other, in an attempt, by their parents, to strengthen and forge families alliances.

During one of these playdates, Robert, Daphne and Astoria were playing around the border between the forest and the clearing closest to the manor, their fun was interrupted by the sound of ruffling leaves, they turned to see a small golden colored horse looking creature, full of curiosity, both sides moved to each other encounter.

Upon looking closer they could see that the animal had a small circular bump on its forehead. The animal and the kids played around until Happy came looking for them, the elf was surprised by the scene and scared the young animal back to the forest.

It was under the angry stare of three children that Happy the house elf talked about all the creatures that lived at the forest and that the animal who played with them was a unicorn foal, or a baby unicorn, when he saw the confused face of the trio upon hearing the unknown word.

After that day, Robert chose to go to that area to read, hoping that he would get to see the foal once again. His wishes turned true one day when he was interrupted by the same golden animal and a big white colored one.

He recognized them, since he had started to look for books on unicorns, and proceeded to play with the foal. Their play only stopped when it was dark and Happy had gone to take him back to have supper.

That became one of his favorites spots, where he would often be found reading a book while sitting by one of the trees.

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The next year was a ritual year once again, now Robert had some understanding of his surroundings so Arcturus had to explain to him what was going to happen and how he should behave during it.

Susan had made sure that her son didn't go through any risks, she confirmed that Rob wasn't sensitive to magic, so he could partake in the ritual.

The procedure was a success, thus allowing for Robert's classes to increase in number, now he would start learning about magic.

The first thing he had to learn was to control his emotions for accidental magic started to happen, seeing as now his body had an easier time manipulating magic. And, in order to do so, his grandfather taught him something called meditation. According to Arcturus that was the best way to calm down.

It was during this year that he learned about Hogwarts, in a book called Hogwarts: A History, upon stumbling upon such a book he asked his grandparents if they could teach him some of the subjects that were said to be taught at the school.

Thus he began to study the theory of these magical subjects, although he couldn't practice them, for he didn't have a wand yet, he got to know what he was going to study in the future.

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After one year of learning meditation, Robert didn't partake in many accidental magic situations, he also became a quieter child, focusing more in absorbing every single thing about magic that he could find.

This led to a decrease in his interactions with his friends and a growth in the concern that Susan felt.

She feared that he would close himself out and be a loner during his Hogwarts' years, so she intervened. Susan decided to limit Robert's time at the library or with a book in his hands, the boy didn't like this one bit and threw a tantrum.

The aftereffect of his outburst was the destruction of a small shed used to keep some tools outside of the manor, the shockwave of the magical explosion gathered the attention of all members of the house, since this was a collective day off for them.

The sheer power of it frightened all those present, Rob burst into tears and promised to not yell at his mother again.

Arcturus, afraid of another outburst decided to continue the boy's study in the Mind Arts.

Thus Robert got to know about Occlumency, he was curious as to why he had to learn it since every book he read about it only mentioned the practice as a means to protect one's mind.

His doubt prompted the older man to explain the benefits of a user of the art. The most needed for Robert was the ability to have more control over his emotions through the utilization of memories connected with desired emotions.

It was a hard process, the first step was to clear his mind, a step he hadn't managed yet.

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His ninth year was a more energetic one, he had found out about the Quidditch league, this was thanks to his aunt Mary taking him to a game that was being played near their house.

He was fascinated with the moves and acrobatics that the players managed to pull off, especially the seekers.

He had stopped flying when he outgrew his first baby broom and his mother refused to buy a bigger one. But now… Now he wanted a broom, if nothing else but to feel the wind hitting his face as he goes from here to there at a not so safe speed.

Robert's new interest was the motivator for the reform of the quidditch pitch, Mary had said that if he was going to fly, he was going to do it while playing the game. It was obvious that she missed her days as a member of the Slytherin team, now she could at least try and feel the wind again.

Other than the reform this also prompted his new Cleansweep Six, a gift for him to use at home and at Hogwarts.

His newfound interest in the sport led to an improvement on his physical condition which made him grow a bit more than he had grown in the past years.

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His next year was more of the same, he spent his time reading, playing with the foal now turned proper unicorn, since his horn grew, walking around the magical forest and flying with the aethonans.

This was a interesting year, there was a Quidditch World Cup, where the final took five days to finish with the Canadians winning over the Scottish.

There was also a new Minister of Magic, a man called Cornelius Fudge, Arcturus said that the man only wanted fame and power, a vision shared by the resident ministry worker, Mary.

During the year Robert was really anxious, because he knew that the day of which he gets to perform magic was getting closer. His state of mind wasn't very detrimental for him thanks to his advancements in occlumency, he had finally managed to clear his mind to a point where his grandfather agreed to give him the next steps.

Now he had to organize his memories, that was done by first clearing his mind, tham putting every memory that he had in chronological order, this was the longest phase of learning the art, and it was where a good part of those trying to learn got stuck.

Rob chose to do the exercise right before going to bed, since he realized that he had a better night sleep that way.