章節 3: Ch 2 - Familial Household

December 10, 1989

Greetings Mr. Silverwood,

Your proposal to hunt down the roaming clans of werewolves has been accepted by our council. I, Lord Verdilak, will be your intermediary with the council during your time in Russia. You are to contact me with any questions, confusions, or updates regarding your hunt. The council will not, however, wait indefinitely for news of success. Many have tried to slay these foul beasts never to be heard from again.

In regards to your requests, should you be able to present the heads of the werewolf clans leaders before the next full moon, I will personally craft you a mirror estate. Such construction has has only ever been gifted outside the vampiric families a handful of times in all our history. That is how important we view the threat of these wolves.

Respectfully,

Intermediary and advisor of the Night Council

Head of the Mirror Eye Family Lineage

Lord Verdilak VI

P.S. They don't like silver or fire.

****** Present *******

"Fire! Fire! Quick get out of bed or we will all die!!"

A Red headed maid screamed and shook her young master. The boy, startled, flailed in his bedsheets and tumbled onto the floor. His disheveled midnight black hair and fearfully dilated heterochromatic eyes sent a wave of pleasure through Lupusregina. Watching as the sheets tied around him and the panic truly set in, she grinned in sadistic delight.

"Ow!!"

Until a baseball sized pearl crashed into the back of her head, knocking her to the ground. She forgot to watch her six. Her amber eyes looked into those of her master's, who she had just fallen on top of. His silver and gold eyes were glaring at her, unamused. Seeing that she was about to get yelled at, she used her guaranteed get out of jail free card, a surprise kiss.

Cherry lipstick coated lips pressed to his, opening his unresisting mouth with her tongue. She pushed down on his body, keeping him pinned, letting him taste every part of her mouth. Then, just as suddenly as she began, she pulled away, got up, and skipped out the room. She flicked him her favorite monopoly card before closing the door behind her.

[This card may be kept until needed, or sold. Get out of jail free]

"That was rude Shyarly, and you could've hurt me. Maybe I should give you fish flakes for breakfast."

"Your yelling was going to give me a headache, and don't sadomasochists like that kind of thing? Whatever, just don't skimp on my meals, or I will spoil your fun for the next week."

Shyarly spoke with a yawn, looking down upon Lupusregina, literally. She was a twelve foot long mermaid after all, with at least eight of those feet being her shark tail. Her straight back pushed forward her immense bust, one of two reasons she was John's favorite familiar. Her cleavage was on full display as her purple hooded blouse only buttoned up halfway, it was made that way. Her hood was down, leaving her face unobstructed save for a tuft hair covering her right eye.

She moved around partially submerged in a floating bubble of water controlled by her enchanted pipe. With a swish of her pipe, a smaller bubble of water floated to her hand, depositing the pearl she had slugged Lupusregina with just moments before.

Lupusregina sighed in defeat. Shyarly can see into the future and ruin all of her clever pranks. Plus, the pearl didn't really hurt her. Lupusregina had spend months designing the finer points on her maid outfit, this wasn't just sexy clothing, it was armor. The short-sleeved ankle long maid outfit had a multitude of enchantments stitched into the very fabrics. While the large left side slit displayed her long legs and black stockings. She re-adjusted her kitty eared hat, that hid her wolf ears, with her long black gloved arms. It had been tilted after she was hit and fell down. She knew what John liked and aimed to please... when she wasn't causing him panic attacks.

"Fine fine I'll behave. Just make sure our master has time to eat before the train departs in two hours." She left the mermaid to tend to John's needs while she went to get breakfast started.

The second floor finally got some enchanted forest themed rugs, that were, like everything else in their home, magicked for comfort, style, and utility. She left the master bedroom, walked across the balcony overlooking the grand foyer, and descended a spiraling staircase to the main floor. They'd only been living in this mansion for a month and it was clearly beyond any of their expectations. More space than any of them knew what to do with.

Thankfully she was an excellent maid that knew how to get things done. She entered the kitchen, slammed down today's breakfast menu on the counter, and threatened to disembowel Kreacher if breakfast isn't ready in 10 minutes.

Despite being a maid, most duties are already fulfilled by this grouchy elf, her main duty is to order him around so things get done right. No one else can honestly stand him.

She set up the table for breakfast and found she wasn't the first one there. The last of a sake bottle was poured into a small shallow plate where a slug was leisurely drinking.

Tsunade.

Only three of John's familiars had met the prerequisites to evolve and then undergo the ritual of humanization: Shyarly, Tsunade, and herself. Shyarly was his first familiar. She was a regular short finned shark that was feasting on the remains of a school of dead mermaids. Some hunters captured a group of mermaids just south of Norway and left their dead brethern to become fish food. The highly magical mermaid flesh was changing and evolving the shark, when John found her shortly after leaving England two years ago. He used stolen knowledge of rituals to quickly bind the shark in a familiar bond. Then stored all the rest of the highly magical mermaid remains until he could prepare to humanize her.

Tsunade wasn't an accident or a surprise opportunity like Shyarly. Once his boat reached the shores of Sweden he immediately located a magical creature breeder that focused on endangered creatures and bought a rare opal slug.

Lupusregina took a small pinch of salt and threatened to drop it on the slug. Alas, Tsunade took a human form and grabbed Lupusregina's wrist, glaring at her innocent appendage.

"If you don't spend more time in your human form, you may end up like Shyarly. Top half human, bottom half slug." She waited for the hung over woman to talk, but the slug woman just downed the rest of her sake. Lupusregina had to consciously restrain her hands from doing something that would make the irate blond truly furious, fondling her as she drank.

"That's not how it works and you know it." Tsunade finally responded. A drop of sake trailed down from her lips and fell into the sizeable valley of her fair skinned cleavage. Barely missing the deep blue sapphire that hung on her necklace. Her gray short-sleeved kimono with a deep neck line was the only thing supporting her breasts, that and the table upon which they rested.

A cough from Tsunade brought back Lupusregina's eyes. Tsunade was slightly glaring with annoyed brown eyes framed by her straight blonde hair. "You should still stay in your human form. It's much more pleasing to my eyes, John's too."

"That's because you're both perverts."

"The familiar bond goes both ways, even if not equally. That makes you a pervert too, by definition." Lupusregina grinned as she started pulling down her top to look like Tsunade's V-neck. Until Tsunade pushed her away.

Ten minutes later, after Kreacher and Lupusregina finished setting the table, Shyarly and John came down to eat. Lupusregina immediately got up with a napkin and went to Shyarly.

"How did you get this white cream on the side of your mouth. Where you snacking on something before the rest of us? And here I was slaving over a hot stove just for you." There wasn't any 'cream' on the side of her mouth, but watching her and John go beet red was worth it. They were all perverts that got the innuendo and it was all John's fault.

A familiar bond goes both ways. Though not evenly, the person shapes the creature and the creature shapes the person. John used rituals that better enhance and control how he affected and was effected by his familiars. Therefore, he has no one to blame but himself for how any of them act. And Lupusregina would never hesitate to use that fact if she ever needed too.

*** John ***

Once everyone sat down, John took his thumb nail and cut into a page of his blood bound Grimoire. The page he cut into, titled "Yoruichi", began to bleed. Then he took an Amber Ring, a magical foci containing bone fragments from an ancient sabertooth, and dipped it eight times into the blood. Eight is a well recognized number of stability. The blood contained his memories and thoughts of a fictional character from his previous life, Yoruichi Shihouin.

His shadow cat familiar, named Yoruichi, ran up to his out outstretched hand and licked up the blood from the ring. This familiar crafting procedure was made from a dark wizard who couldn't move on from the death of his loved ones. The fool believed that if he remade their image and shaped their mind with his memories of them, it would be as if he had never lost them. Ignorance. The limited window through which a person sees and understands others would already make that impossible. Add in the fact the humanization ritual further undermined his plan to recreate his loved ones, and all that's left is a pitiful fool.

John couldn't berate to much, he didn't expect Lupusregina to turn into such a menace at times. Or Tsunade to be quite so big a drunk, he had been aiming for Hokage Tsunade after all. But he wouldn't complain, the wolf was an excellent maid that scared the snot out of Kreacher, and Tsunade was quickly becoming a healer from apprenticing under a certified medi-witch at St Mungo's hospital.

After a hearty breakfast, John decided to make sure everyone was on the same page before they split up. "I'm off to school now, but I'll be back most nights, definitely tonight. Shyarly will be sealing my memories today, so nothing is compromised when I go under the hat. Don't bother contacting me. The alchemical magic will make it so I can't properly think about the knowledge that gets sealed, despite knowing it." He gestured to the resident mermaid.

John's third magical foci was a deep sea pearl bought from a community of Veela in Sweden. Crystal balls and pearls are magical foci that strongly enhance mental schools of magic, like occlumency, legilimency, and prophecy. He knew Shyarly was more than capable enough to safely extract, store, and return his memories. He also knew that since she told him she can't see what will happen to the knowledge the hat gains after connecting to his mind, he should assume something bad.

"And I also have too keep up with all the paperwork for your 'noble' house." She used finger quotes because their was no respect for his fake noble lineage. It's amazing the ancient and most noble lineage he can make up and get certified from a corrupt government. With his 'line' now magicked by a government, he was indistinguishable from any other noble via magic detection. One more thing Kreacher hated about him.

"Tsunade will continue with her apprenticing. Thanks to Shyarly's insight, we know that if she keeps improving, she can join her teacher in doing a check-up on the big G later on."

Tsunade's foci was an ancient Egyptian rune inscribed sapphire that hung on her necklace. This was a rare type of foci that didn't have a magical core to resonate with her magic, making her spells weaker. However, the runes greatly enhanced magic control and the effects of healing spells. It was time consuming to find a certified medi-witch healer familiar with runic foci that would also be chosen to visit their target: Grindelwald.

Grindelwald was a prisoner in Nurmengard Castle, and received frequent check-ups. His medical staff is chosen at random the day of his check-up to prevent any kind of planned prison break. They didn't plan to break him out though, John only wanted a line of communication with the powerful charismatic seer.

"Do you really think he'll be interested in anything you have to say? He was thoroughly beaten into submission years ago. He might just be a broken man awaiting death at this point."

"That may be so Tsunade, but I hope it's not. A war is coming, the scale of which moldy-warts and big G never could have fathomed. The muggles have taken a bit of a lead on us magicals but maybe there is enough time to give the magical world a fighting chance." Had Grindelwald won the war, they may have been able to stop the muggles before they had world ending weaponry. Now the muggles can literally use a scorched earth stratagem should they feel sufficiently threatened. "Lupusregina, you'll be heading to France, good luck."

France was the place to be, at the moment. Lupusregina was searching for Nicolas Flamel, Apolline Delacour, and Fenrir Greyback. She had her work cut out for her.

Nicholas' death had recently been foretold by several in the seer communities. If they were going to take advantage of his vast alchemy knowledge, they needed to do so before dumb-as-a-door destroys the philosopher's stone. The problem is finding him.

Apolline Delacour is Fluer's mother, and the best person for them to contact fluer through. Fluer grows into an accomplished curse breaker, being able to work for Gringotts, and is a tri-wizard contestant. There were no downsides to making contact with her early, but this was also the least important priority.

Fenrir Greyback was the real purpose for going to France. Lupusregina is a Russian born lycan, a wolf that can take a human form. Lycan's are immune to the effects of a werewolf bites and she, specifically, is able to wield a silver weapon thanks to her bond, making her the nemesis of werewolves.

She didn't need a humanization ritual to gain a human form, but did it anyways to be able to focus the familiar bond through a foci. Specifically a hollowed silver scepter that uses the blood of the werewolves they've killed as its core. Stronger the werewolf, stronger the foci, and Fenrir is the strongest known. It was a gift from Lord Verdilak for avenging his daughter.

"Finally, I've been waiting forever. I've got so many plans, hehe. Let the best hunt begin!" Her feral smile was in full bloom as she pumped her fist in the air. Honestly, he was just happy he could direct her energy in a way that didn't lead to him being awakened through fear tactics.

Preparations needed to be made once breakfast was over. Shyarly and John moved across blue carpeted floors, depicting ships at sea, and down a rather bland hallway to get to his office. There was still a lot of decorating that needed to be done to give this home a homely feeling. The office walls were covered by bookshelves interspersed with filling cabinets. Three desks stood parallel to each wall, except the wall with the door they came through.

Shyarly moved behind a glossy redwood desk on the right side. She pulled out a fish bowl with green tinted water and placed it between them. John took a moment to focus his mind on the knowledge and memories that would be problematic for someone to discover. He stared at the pearl Shyarly held over the bowl. It began to spin, slow at first but it picked up speed in little time.

The mirror like sheen of the pearl rippled like the surface of water. Memories of his past life began to appear, reflecting the memories he used his occlumency to focus on.

He had been an idealistic activist back then. His beliefs were simple and popular. If global warming is killing the world, let's stop that. If politicians in power are corrupt, let's bring them to justice. If a major disaster happens in another country, let's honestly help them. He had been a fool that honestly believed that's how the world could and would function. He didn't know how old he was when he finally realized a simple truth, actions matter more than words. Maybe he'd always known but found comfort in self delusion.

Those in power would say what he wanted to hear. They'd say things like progress was being made. Yet nothing ever changed, unless it changed for the worse. Humanity was a failure, dooming itself. Eventually he couldn't take it anymore. He had become old, broken, and disillusioned. He welcomed death.

When he awoke in the past, and in a back alley at that, he spent a fair amount of time contemplating suicide. It was only the most primal instincts of self preservation that kept him alive long enough to discover he had magic, an obscurus. A second chance in life with power, real power, to make a change. Now he had a reason to live.

He got in contact with Kreacher, that involved calling its name out loud many times and wondering if he had gone crazy. With the resources of a noble family at his finger tips, anything was possible. He made plans for how to best position himself in the years to come and studied dawn to dusk everyday. It's not like he needed to go to a muggle school.

When he learned that muggle governments were aware of the magical world, and even encroaching on it, he knew this couldn't end well. Nothing good ever comes from those power drunk fools. But even he underestimated how bad things were going to get.

The pearl rippled and changed to show Shyarly's first vision using her pearl foci. It was a vision of battlefields, littered with the remains of countless people, muggle and magical alike. Then a light appeared in the sky, and the vision ended. One battlefield after another, each in a different vision, ending the same way. Then at long last, a vision to make sense of it all. A grand battle held not in any country, but in outer space. A battle in which the muggles easily killed the magicals before launching countless missiles in the direction of earth.

John watched as his reflected memories became a wispy watery substance that dripped from the pearl into the fish bowl below. Once Shyarly collected all of his memories, she activated the alchemist spell, "Liquidus Fidelius". It would only last a day.

For the next 24 hours, no one would be able to access John's memories. This was a temporary fidelius charm without a secret keeper. It also affected him. He still knew everything, but couldn't think about it.

John knew muggles were becoming an increasingly dangerous threat, but couldn't think on the fact that space domination will allow muggles to be willing to sacrifice earth. He knew it would be wise to begin investigating how magic works and reacts in outer space, but he couldn't remember the vision of countless wizards being caught flat-footed as their magic dissipated to nothing in the vacuum of space.