I was lying on my bed in the gigantic room that belonged to me in the Granger mansion on St. James's Place, Westminster. Hermione was lying on my chest. We had slept together since I got back from Gringotts and told her about my heritage. Of course, I didn't talk about being heir to Merlin, nor the son of the Lady Magic champion, but I made it clear who my mother was and what crimes she committed against people like her. I also told her that I didn't plan on hiding and that I would go to Slytherin when we got to Hogwarts.
Of course she tried to convince me otherwise. After all, I couldn't understand why I insisted so much on being Slytherin and the cause was quite simple: privacy and difficult access.
See, I haven't cared about the wizarding world since I came here and that said a lot. I didn't know which version of Dumbles I would face. Was it the kind and tired old man who makes mistakes over mistakes for a calling far greater than only he could see? Or was it the Dark wizard in disguise who manipulates everything and everyone to get more and more political power than he already possessed? Or maybe a healthy mix of the two?
That was the problem. Going to Slytherin would grant me less access. Shake wouldn't be able to break through my occlumency barriers even if I gave him time to do so, but Dumbles…he was another story. It was clear that Voldeshorts feared the old man. So much so that he never really stood up to him face to face, letting his minions do the dirty work during the war. He only acted personally when he was informed of the prophecy that foretold his end at the hands of the Savior of the magical world.
Now if that doesn't say much about the old goat I didn't know anything else. Protection and time was what I wanted.
In 7 years I would be lord of 3 influential houses. Not to mention the muggle wealth that awaits me and my family as all of our investments (something I kept instructing my parents) made me increasingly secure in a political and magical position.
No wonder Malfoys dominated the ministry. Money had as much or more power than a wand supposedly bequeathed by death itself. Anyway, I needed to grow up and have positive fame. Going to Slytherin would make it a bit difficult to get positive publicity, but with the right moves...
I smiled mischievously as I came up with a prank for my first day at Hogwarts.
Hermione POV
Castiel fell into our lives suddenly and decisively when I was 3 years old. Now, I was always very smart. My IQ was already higher than many geniuses and although my EQ was a problem I wasn't incapable of reading people. If anything, my rationality and objectivity made it easy.
Of course this also led to me being incredibly strict and rules-friendly. See, rules were the things that ensured order in my life. Without them... I would be so lost. Of course that changed because of the blond boy who became my little brother.
Castiel may not have realized but he was divine. It wasn't normal for such a cute child to exist. I knew that. His body was modeled perfectly too and his golden hair and red eyes were no signs of an ordinary person. He once told me that having divine blood was problematic and although I took it as a joke I sometimes have doubts. He was just…very handsome.
Time passed and he took my mother from me with ease. Of course I didn't care. I knew Mom loved me and I really wasn't a big fan of physical displays of affection. But there was something about the blonde that almost made him look pitiful. Maybe the fact that he's not embarrassed by Mom's hugs and caresses even in public. That said a lot.
But what was important was the magic. He told my parents he could see the future. I didn't believe it until I saw him take the television remote and say, 'See me ignoring Copyright' and he spoke sentences before turning on the TV just so we could hear the same being said by the reporter. He even continued doing this 6 more times. A channel where a cartoon played. A dramatic movie. A horror... And even a very explicit pornographic movie.
Not that I understood that at the time. Since then he has told me about the hidden magical world. Dangers and wonders. He told me about occlumency and strongly suggested not to drink anything offered by a wizard or witch who lived long periods of time in the wizarding world. He also made me perform exercises and train basic manna control or as he called it 'play with magic energy to do magic'. He played too much.
Last week, we had our Hogwarts letters delivered. It was nine days after my birthday, which was in September. September 19. I knew that thanks to this I would have plenty of time to study the school books as classes would start on September 1st and so I gained a year of magical training free of bad habits that I would learn if I followed models'retrograde and retarded hard' of the Hogwarts teachers. I was also surprised that Castiel received his letter at the same time as me, but he said that his core awakened earlier than usual and it was expected that his first maturity would also occur prematurely.
I was sad that I wasn't from the same house as him. And yes, I believed what he said about qualifying. He was a seer after all. If there's something he doesn't know, it won't be long before he knows. I was pretty sure he already planned everything he would do during our school year and how he was going to dominate them all… although I was looking forward to seeing him, I wasn't ready to hand my cute brother over to the girls he guaranteed he would win over.
Damn it!
I honestly wasn't enough for him? The worst thing is, I couldn't even really blame him for being honest. This bastard brat even met our parents saying things like 'I'll become king of the harem and have lots of cute wives to be your mommy daughters,' and the so-called mom was screaming excitedly hugging my Castiel.
I sometimes felt so jealous of her and all the hugs he gave her. Not like me who had to play the card to stay away from school to sleep with him. Of course, if I were honest with my feelings... It would be easier, but I was too proud for that.
POV mc
"Mione, wake up, we should train spells from the first year books quickly. After all, the trait can't monitor us until we enter Hogwarts next year," I said as I poked my sister-wife in the cheek.
"But 1 hour" she said sounding lazy as she snuggled even closer to me. I knew she was doing this deliberately to distract me. Since we started to grow her body started to develop amazing curves. She was soft and shapely, full of elastic, firm muscles that only made her body more attractive. That's if you don't consider the breasts. Canonical Hermione would have a nice pair of B-cup breasts in her adulthood while my Hermione already had them. She had such delicious breasts at 11 years old !
Of course instilling my manna into her body was responsible for her body's premature growth. That and the exercises made her a beautiful Femme Fatale.
"Well...I think we need a few more hours of rest considering yesterday's practice." Only I understand as I use my evil hands on her tender and succulent body.
It didn't take long and she was up and ready to train.
Months passed quickly and I began to test the limits of my abilities. Considering my reserves of manna and chakra I could compare myself in amounts of energy to an average uzumaki. Nothing scary with Naruto or Karin, but it was still good for someone outside of a ninja clan. I didn't have much knowledge of ninjutsu or genjutsu, but I was an ace in taijutsu after training so much. I also emulated my version of Shushin using chakra and manna to vitalize my body and move at dizzying speeds. I also increased my experience of fighting street gangs that guaranteed guinea pigs for my advances in legilimence as well.
Unfortunately for my more op ability I didn't really have much of an advantage. See, there was a restriction for the Arc of Embodiment. I needed to know what I wanted to create. See, assuming I imagined a sword, as long as I knew what made it up, it wouldn't be a problem, but if you were to imagine, for example, the Excalibur sword... It would be a failure because I don't know how Excalibur was made.
So... I had no problems with simple things like food, water, etc as depending on what I imagined with prior knowledge it wouldn't be difficult to create though. So it wasn't really a useless wish.
Not to mention that thanks to my inherited magical knowledge (apparently Lucien when he gave me the appearance of Gilgamesh gave me his knowledge and talent as well) I could create magic swords with just a thought.
I had already improved the chests my cute sister and I owned and my robes were given a shapeshifter rune to change shape at the wearer's desire. It was a pretty simple rune actually but I had to sacrifice several pieces of clothing to add it to my beautiful, well-shaped garments.
Most of you must be wondering what I meant by sacrifice... it's quite simple: the rune was inscribed and then fed with magic and existing garments that would be scanned by magic before clinging to the garments making them able to change for the previously scanned shapes. That is, if I want my robes to change into a standard Muggle outfit – jeans and a T-shirt – I would need to feed the rune with these clothes before I turn it on. Simple right?
Well... I was thinking about my advances when the elegant old figure of Lucien just appeared in front of me.
"Hello daddy" I said without showing any surprise at his sudden appearance.But I couldn't be surprised by the disbelieving expression on his face afterward. "What's it? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Did you call me…dad?"
"Yes, you said it was so... Was it a joke?" I should have been suspicious after all, but having a father didn't displease me and considering everything he did for me was no different than a real father would do right? I at least imagined it. "If it bothers you I'll pay to call you that."
"It doesn't bother me, Castiel. I was just surprised you agreed." He smiled "I'm honored to be your young dad... But I'm just here to check on you and... Well let you know about the attention you're attracting...
"Yeah, about that, what's with you being champion of Lady Magic?"
"Long story short: I met a beautiful woman in a bar on Ether and took her to a room. After that I found out that she was a goddess in a peculiar world in a magical universe. Nothing really complicated with that although sleeping with world gods brings little benefit to people like me it still leaves a useful imprint in some situations. Was it helpful for you?"
"Yes" I sighed slightly "although it would be difficult to explain the Ambrosius heritage when I become an adult..."
"Well, Lady Magic likes to live among her worldly mortals sometimes... So it's no surprise after all."
"Wait…are you saying that Lady Magic and Merlin were the same person?"
Lucien smiled to see me asking in surprise before seating.
"Yes, but back to the subject at hand. Lady Magic or Merlin gave you their protection and guaranteed your entry into this world, but it's not free, mind you. You are even very lucky considering that the planet you live on is very similar to your previous one and does not have a proper consciousness as is the case with some worlds in the universe where being a body came from. So the world didn't reject you and actually helped in your birth." He paused for a moment before continuing. "But not having a version of Gaya doesn't mean the gods here are any less troublesome. This world has 3 gods that are more powerful so to speak. They are Lady Magic, representing energy, vitality, fertility and, of course, magic. She is the least of the worries you currently have. The next great deity would be death. And you know what it represents. Death is neutral towards you but anything that goes against the laws of life and death has put a target on your back. So without anything based on immortality while living in this world, understood?
"Yes father. Do not worry."
"Well, the last of the deities is the one you should be concerned about. Destiny is a mean, sadistic void when something doesn't go her way so beware of her precognitive gift. Don't use this to go against her plans or you'll go down.
"I see." I thought and really didn't care. I've already said I wasn't interested in the problems of this world and if Lady Destiny wanted to trust the fate of the world in the hands of a traumatized young man I wouldn't interrupt anything.
"Good" he said as it began to transpire "I'm leaving now. See you after a while. Have a good life son.
"Thanks!" he said sincerely. I was grateful to him since he decided to help me out of that endless darkness and after giving me the new chance at life I just admired him more. He was also the reason I treated the adoptive father slightly neutral. I loved him, but I had already decided who would be the father in my heart since I heard his message upon awakening in this world.