Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

'Have you heard the news from magical Britain?'

'From Britain? I don't think I have, but I'm sure Albus would have informed me if it was important.', answered Katharina Fortounis while sipping her tea. Katharina was visiting her good friend Helena and had brought her 3 year old son Sebastian aswell. Normally she would have just left Sebastian with his nanny but today that hadn't been an option as his nanny had fallen ill with some type of wizard flu. Her dear husband couldn't take hime either because he was out doing Merlin knows. So it had fallen upon her to be a dutifull mother and take care of Sebastian. Sebastian was a troublesome child who was always up to something but would always swear it was an accident. The boy hadn't even had his first bout of accidental magic but still managed to get up to constant misschief. Thruth be told she wasn't particularly fond of him and his only saving grace was that he looked nearly exactly like a male version of her. Sebastian had inherited her heigh cheekbones, stark black hair and massibe blue eyes.

'Maybe he's busy', said Helena,'because its certainly not insignificant! Their dark lord has fallen!'

'Voldemort, really? Thats a surprise, who beat him? It must have been someone really powerfull if they managed to outclass Lord Voldemort! I heard even Albus was afraid to fight him.', responded a shocked Katharina.

'Well thats the most interesting part', said Helena,'apperantly it was the Potter heir.'

'The Potter heir? But that's impossible, he's only a baby!', exclaimed Katherina.

Helena raised her hands in a calming gesture and said:'I know Katy, but apparently the boy stopped a killing curse and rebounded it onto the Dark Lord. He's got an occult scar on his forehead shaped like a lightning bolt to prove it!'

'He's got an occult scar on his forehead?', said Katharina,' well I suppose it must be true then. Everyone knows occult scars only happen under extreme circumstances with large amounts of magical power thrown around.' There handn't been a sighting of a occult scar in over a hundred years. The last person who had one was supposedly the Slavic dark lord Nicolai the Terrible who had gotten one after miraculously surviving the Dementor's Kiss during a public execusion organised by the ICW. Ofcourse he died only 5 minutes later courtesy of a killing curse to the face cast at him by a nearby auror. But the point still stood: Occult scars were rare! And an infant recieving one, that was unseen!

'Well it's great news regardless of the dubious circumstances, don't you think?';asked Helena pointedly.

'Definitely'; responded Katherina,' Ofcourse we weren't really in danger even if his plans were bigger than just Britain; because we're purebloods of greater lineage than probably even him. I don't even disagree with his beliefs; though obviously you can't tell the ICW that because I have to insist I'm grey and not dark there.' Katharina was running for Chancellor of the ICW ,you see, and only neutral politicians could be elected as Chancellor. That was the reason politicians like Albus Dumbledore or Quincy Archambeau had never been elected even though they likely had the support. 'However I don't agree with his ways of achieving his beliefs. Violence and mass murder? What good are they? If there is nobody left to follow your laws, then have you really achieved anything other than mass murder? Plus wars have the added affect of ruining the economy. Just look at the current happenings, the entire world's economy is in shambles due to the lack of trade with wizarding Britain. Ofcourse people blame the goblins but anyone with any sense knows thats all rubbish.'

'You're right ofcourse', said Helena,'still I find it incredible that a boy younger than your Sebastian managed to beat a darklord.'

Katherina's face turned into a frown and said:'Speaking of Sebastian, where is he? I haven't seen him since we got here and I know he can't have gotten up to much in your garden but considering Sebastian's troublesome nature, it seems prudent to ask.'

'I sent him off to the gardens with Sibby', answered Helena while frowning and a few seconds later shouted:'Sibby!'

Suddenly an elf appeared into the room with a loud crack and said:'What can Sibby do for mistress Helena?'

'Sibby!', shouted Helena,'tell me where Sebastian is this second!'

Sibby flinched due to the loud tone in wich her mistress spoke and said:'Young Sebastian wished to play with the Hippogriffs outside but Sibby is not worried as young Sebastian told Sibby that young Sebastian is experienced with playing with hippogriffs at young Sebastian's home.'

'What!',shouted Katherina while visibly panicking, 'We don't own any hippogriffs!' And Katherina continued to run as fast as she could out of the patio towards the garden with her friend hot on her heels. Only Sibby stayed behind and uttered a single 'oh'.

Panicking Katherina tried to locate her son with a 'point me' charm and ran in his direction. But to her dismay the Helena's garden were massive and it felt like hours while trying to get to her youngest son. To be honest, garden was probably not the right word to describe a place of this magnitude, grounds or even park were more accurate. Eventually after loads of running Katherina arrived out of breath to find Sebastian completely unharmed without even a misplaced hair on his head. The 3 year old boy was riding one of the hippogriffs and he was obviously having a lot of fun if his giggling was anything to go by.

His mother, filled with rage and worry, screamed:'Sebastian Percival Sage, get down here this second or I'll make you regret it!'

Immediately Sebastian stopped giggling and grew fearfull, he looked at his mother with wide eyes and then... he fell. Out of nowhere Sebastian had lost his grip of the hippogriff he was riding and fell to the ground and screamed loudly. The hippogriffs, frenzied due to the chaos that was unfolding; ran at the young boy and attempted to maul him. Katherina, frozen in shock, could only watch as her youngest son got mauled by a hippogriff. Helena too watched in shock, expecting the worst. No boy could beat a horde of frenzied hippogriffs, not even a full grown wizard or witch could do that. There was a reason hippogriffs were classed as tripleX creatures by magizoologists. But then, out of nowhere a massive shockwave passed through the garden and launched the hippogriffs of Sebastian. Katherina, with tear filled eyes, ran to her child and embraced him. Too distraught to even realize that she had just witnessed her son's first bout of accidental magic.

 Sebastian came out of his tumble with the hippogriffs safe and mostly unharmed. The only trace that the hippogriffs had left on him was a scar on his left cheek.

An occult scar on his left cheek.

Chapter Text

7 years later

‘Slow down Mr. Sage. I know you have tendency to add your ingredients with haste but you must handle with patience! Otherwise I fear you will never achieve anything in the field of alchemy.’

‘Yes professor Miller’, said Sebastian while trying his hardest not to grit his teeth. If Sebastian were to be honest he’d have told his parents ages ago that he didn’t particularly respect his tutors teaching ability. When Sebastian had after tons of begging finally received an alchemy tutor, he’d naively expected to be studying subjects with a little more glory. Like the elixir of life or permanently turning a man into a woman. He’d even have been happy with something smaller like the distillation of sea water. Not something as simple as turning pebbles in sand.

‘Do not worry my boy’, said professor Miller, apparently interpreting his grimace as frustration towards himself and not at him, ’I’m sure one day you will find a few ounces of patience inside of yourself! And when that day comes, you can rest assured that I will be cheering you on from the sidelines.’

‘Patronizing twat’, thought Sebastian. Sebastian was fuming on the inside. You see, the ten year old was of the opinion that he was perfectly able to be patient if he was interested in the subject, he just couldn’t care less about his tutor’s lessons. The old American insisted on teaching Sebastian the basics before he’d even consider teaching anything remotely interesting regardless of the fact that Sebastian had reiterated on numerous occasions that he already knew all the basics to the alchemy. Professor Miller would always just smile when he brought that up and say: ’good for you!’ and then continue to go on with whatever mediocre lesson plan he had prepared for the day. So you may be wondering why didn’t Sebastian just ask his parents for a different tutor. Well the young boy new that if he were to do so that his parents would not only not hire a new tutor, they would also sack his current one. The only thing Sebastian could achieve from his complaints was a slap to the face and a lecture about how much of an ungrateful brat he was. But it wasn’t like his parents could afford a new tutor. The Sages were one of the richest families in Europe and that was without even taking his mother’s family’s fortune into consideration. No, there was a much dumber (in Sebastian’s opinion) reason. His parents (well he said parents but the boy didn’t think his father actually gave a damn about his studies) didn’t approve of alchemy. To put it simply, Katharina Fortounis was of the opinion that alchemy was for people who had no magical power and could barely use a wand. She herself was much fonder of charms and transfiguration. So when Sebastian first asked for tutors she had hired people who taught in those two subjects. After a few months when she discovered that he had no apparent interest or talent in those subjects, she berated him and sent him to the family library to find something he was good at. It was the that Sebastian discovered the wonderful art of alchemy. For months he had read every book on alchemy he could find in the hopes of making his mother proud. When he had finally read everything he told his mother of his talent and how he wanted alchemy tutor, expecting to receive his mother’s praise. But the praise never came, his mother had been furious with him for wasting so much of his time on such a useless subject and refused to hire him more tutors. But at this point Sebastian was already far too in love with the subject of alchemy to give up. Through sheer determination and large amounts of irritating his mother, he finally managed to convince his mother to hire him an alchemy tutor. And so it was that Sebastian had received professor Miller. And even though Sebastian didn’t think the American was much of a teacher, he was still better than nothing.

‘Well Sebastian I think we’ll call it day and finish up with our lesson. Our next lesson will be on Wednesday the 28th and I have a treat in store for you. As you know alchemy is heavily influenced by the positions of the stars and moon respectively. But what you may not know is that next week’s lesson falls on a full moon, as such we will be able to utilize the full moon to make a Lapis transformation.’, said professor Miller while getting up from his chair and reaching out to shake Sebastian’s hand.

‘Sounds good’, said the raven haired boy as he shook his tutor’s hand. And for once Sebastian was actually speaking the truth. A Lapis transformation was rather interesting, maybe not as cool as a metal one but still better than everything his tutor had thought his so far. The boy didn’t know all that much about Lapis transformations, only that it basically was permanently transforming one type of stone into another and that it was extremely time consuming. It could also as far as Sebastian knew, only be done during a full moon. Though that was the case for all metal, stone and wood transformations, other than the philosopher’s stone of course. Nicholas Flamel’s philosopher’s stone was the exception to a great many rules, which only made it more impressive.

Together the boy and his tutor walked out the lab and into the house’s drawing roomed, which currently contained his brother Nicholas. Nicholas Sage was a tall boy in his last year at Beauxbatons. Unlike Sebastian, he had inherited his father’s blond hair and light blue eyes. But his personality was all their mothers, he was a pureblood through and through and thought everyone else to beneath him. Nicholas was the family’s heir and sweetheart, and everything Sebastian could never be. When his sister had still been around they used to tease him behind his back and call him pureblooded dork. But now they’re was no longer anyone around for Sebastian to rant to about his brother idiocy. His sister’s relationship with their parents had never been particularly stable, even worse than his if Sebastian’s was to be honest. His sister and parents had always clashed on politics and what the role of a girl was in pureblood society. Of course his mother, as Chancellor of the ICW, valued work but Katherina Fortounis was still of the opinion that a woman’s role in society was as a baby maker first and everything else second. Cecilia Sage on the other hand had no interest in children or providing heirs and wished to become a hitwoman. An appalled Katherina had told her daughter that there was no chance in the slightest that she would ever allow a child of hers to be a hitwoman. The Chancellor of the ICW was of the opinion that only muggleborns and halfbloods with no better options became hitwizards, certainly not purebloods of Cecilia’s stature. The final straw for Cecilia had been when her parents had gone behind her back to offer her hand in marriage to Vincenzo Baggio. An older man with a large belly who had at the time recently been widowed. He was also the Italian representative on the ICW and could have been a useful political ally for Katherina. Cecilia had been all set to marry the Italian as soon as she graduated. Until the night before her graduation ceremony and only a week away from her wedding, Cecilia had made a runner. Somehow she managed to leave Beauxbatons and went off into the night sky without anyone noticing, and has till this day never been seen again. What made it even more impressive was the fact that Beauxbatons was located on an island of the French coast and could only be accessed by boat, a boat which only ran twice a year. So somehow a teenage girl had managed to get of an island warded against all types of magical transportation without a boat, it was still to this day one of the biggest mysteries in the magical world. After Cecilia had run away their mother had become even more strict with her remaining children, desperate to prevent something like that happening again.

‘What’s up, lil bro?’ said Nicholas, ‘did you enjoy your little alchemy lesson?’

‘Sure Nick’, responded Sebastian, ‘I learnt some really cool stuff.’

‘I’m sure you did lil dude’, said the older boy with his usual condescending smirk,’ what did you learn today? How to turn salt into pepper? Sounds fascinating.’

After taking a look to see that professor Miller had already left the room Sebastian answered: ‘Salt into pepper? That’s the type of thing they’d teach babies like you Nick. Miller teaches me much more advanced things.’ Sebastian knew he wasn’t exactly telling the truth but he simply couldn’t stand Nicholas knowing how rudimentary his alchemy lessons really were.

Scowling at the insult Nicholas answered: ’Oh really Sebby, do tell.’

Fuming at the nickname that he knew his brother only used to irritate him, the younger boy said: ‘Well there will be a full moon during next week’s lesson so I’ll be learning something really cool then. Probably something even you’ll be jealous of.’ That was only a half lie. Lapis transformations were cool in Sebastian’s opinion, only he doubted his brother would agree.

‘Oh really?’, Nicholas said while sneering at his younger brother, 'and what exactly is Miller teaching my little brother that I’d be jealous of.’

‘Professor Miller will be teaching me Lapi-‘, Sebastian was about to say Lapis transformations but then he saw his brother’s face light up into a smirk and realized that was exactly the kind of answer his brother was looking. So like any intelligent brother in a sibling rivalry, the ten year old decided to lie and tell his brother something that actually would impress him, ‘water into wine’, he smirked,’ professor Miller is teaching us how to turn water into wine.’

‘WATER INTO WINE’, his brother gasped with a disbelieving look but then he turned skeptical and said: ‘yeah right and I’m the Minister of Magic.’

In a split second Sebastian decided to double down on his lie, he grinned and said: ‘Oh really? When did you get elected Nick? Oh but this is amazing news, we must celebrate! How about I make us some wine?’ Sebastian joyfully looked on as his brother gaped at him. Sebastian could have that effect on people. Though he’d been told his jokes were very hit or miss, sometimes people laughed and other times people were appalled. Sebastian’s personal opinion was that he was a comic genius, others would describe him as an idiot with no filter. Good thing Sebastian didn’t much care what those people thought of him.

After opening and closing his mouth like a fish for a second, Nicholas finally answered while grumbling: ‘Sure bro, please make us that wine.’

‘Oh I’m sorry Nick, I can’t actually make you that wine yet. Though you’d know that if you’d been properly listening. Remember we were talking about next week’s lesson bro, not this week', replied the younger boy, relieved that he wouldn’t actually have to try and turn water into wine just to prove his brother wrong.
‘Oh, well you’ll just half to make some for me next week instead’, Nicholas smirked evilly, ‘that is, if you actually are learning how to make wine from water.’

‘Oh fuck’, thought the panicking preteen. Sebastian had made his bed, and now he would have to lie in it. ‘Well’, thought the ten year old, ‘might as well make one final attempt at trying to talk my way out of this.’ So he sneered at his older brother and said: ‘As if that would be worth my time Nick, if mother catches me practicing alchemy outside of my lessons I’ll be dead. Why run that risk just to prove something to you, dear brother?’

‘Well’, said the older boy, sneering right back at his older brother, ‘what if I were to make it worth your time?’

Sebastian doubted his brother would offer him anything worth taking his offer but he was still curious as to what he’d say so he answered a simple ‘I’m listening’.

‘How about we make a deal’, said a grinning Nicholas, ‘if you manage to make your little wine transfiguration, I will not only never call you Sebby again but I’ll also convince mother to let you practice alchemy whenever your little hearts desires.’

‘You could do that’, asked a shocked Sebastian.

‘Sure’, said the older boy, ‘I’m mother’s golden boy remember. All I’d need to do is convince mother that you learning alchemy was in the family’s best interest and she’d go along with it. So, have I peeked your interest yet?’

That he had. Being able to practice alchemy whenever he wanted would be like a dream come true for Sebastian. It was what he had wanted from the beginning, but after his mother immediately refused he’d settled for the more realistic goal of being taught by a tutor. And never being called Sebby again would be a nice bonus too. Despite all that Sebastian still wasn’t sure he wanted to accept his brother’s offer. Nicholas Sage wasn’t in the business of giving stuff away for free, and if he was prepared to offer all that he’d definitely want something big in return. So he answered:’ What’s in it for you Nick. We both know you don’t give away stuff for free. Also, how do I know you will keep your promise?’

‘Ah such a clever little brother you are Sebby, couple years ago you would of agreed immediately and you’d be swearing an unbreakable vow right now to which you didn’t understand the conditions’; said the older boy while smirking. Then, seeing his brother’s panic at the mention of an unbreakable vow, added: ‘Don’t worry lil bro, you don’t have to swear an unbreakable vow if you don’t want to, we can just swear regular oaths instead. As for me wanting something from you, you’re right. What do you know Lughnasa?’

‘As is the Gaelic harvest festival?’, seeing his brother nod Sebastian continued, ‘only that it falls on the first of August and that Dark Wizards supposedly perform rituals on it. Though that’s all speculation of course.'

‘Of course’, said Nicholas,’ well it just so happens that I’ve managed to acquire the location of where the festival happens, not an easy feat I assure you. So a few of my friends and I plan on attending, though obviously we both know mother wouldn't approve.’

Sebastian snorted and said: ‘that’s an understatement if I’ve ever heard one, mother would have your balls for just thinking about attending it. Just think how badly it would reflect on me and the family’s reputation if you got caught at a dark wizard festival’, the ten year old added in a bad imitation of his mother.

‘Indeed’, said the blond teen, ‘which is exactly why I can’t get caught. That coincidentally brings me to what I want from you. If you end up losing our little bet, I want you to cover up my absence while I’m at festival. I don’t care what you do, just make sure neither mother or father finds out.’ Then the older boy grinned at his brother and added: ‘So, have we got a deal lil bro?’

Ah, Sebastian really tried to think about it as if he hadn’t already made his decision. But the poor boy didn’t succeed, getting to practice alchemy whenever he wanted was simple too good an offer to let go. Sebastian figured he’d probably be able to manage a water to wine transformation with enough time. So he reluctantly responded: ‘Alright Nick, but I’m going to need time. Obviously it can only be done during a full moon and I’ll be busy with my lesson during the next, learning how to do it of course.’

‘Of course’, said Nicholas while sneering at his brother, ‘No worries about the time Sebby, I’ll give you until I come back from Beauxbatons in the summer.’
‘Alright’, answered the ten year old, ‘Shouldn’t we be swearing the oaths?’

‘Course, how could I forget’, said the smirking older boy, ‘Just repeat after me:

I, Sebastian Percival Sage, swear upon my magic that in the event that I cannot provide a sample of a water to wine transformation of my own creation by the first of June that I will do the following: I will do everything in my power to cover up my brother’s, Nicholas Robert Sage, absence while he attends the dark festival of Lughnasa and in the event that his absence does get noticed I will take the blame. So mote it be.

After Sebastian had repeated the oath, Nicholas chanted an oath of his own which to Sebastian’s not particularly expert ears sounded about right.

After all that had been settled, the younger boy said: ‘Ok then, I’ll get right to it.’

Immediately the blond teen frowned and said: ‘Right now? Sebastian you’re not even dressed yet, have you forgotten about the ball or something?

Crap. Yes he had. With all the negotiating Sebastian had completely forgotten what day it was. The 21 of July and the day of the winter solstice. Also the day of one of pureblood society’s crown jewels, the Yule Ball. For the rich and the wealthy, the Yule Ball was one of the two biggest events of the year (the other one being the Litha Ball, which falls on the summer solstice). For them it was the perfect time to socialize while not so subtly showing of one’s wealth and power. It was even used to scout out potential suitors for one’s children, though arranged marriages had fallen out of fashion for all but the elite. Naturally a gathering such as this was always hosted by an important member of society, usually a politician trying to better their standing and acquire support. This year Sebastian’s mother had received the honor of hosting the event. Katharina Fortounis however considered herself above things such as organizing events, so she had delegated the job to a fellow party member. That party member being an other grey politician by the name of Bartemius Crouch. Mr. Crouch was in Sebastian’s opinion, the most boring man you could ever meet. He was a stickler to the rules and distrusted all that was outside of the ordinary. He was the type of man who would refuse an invitation to go somewhere because it was past his self-assigned bedtime. Sebastian had often thought that if Mr. Crouch was a type of spice, he’d be flour.
Nicholas grinned at his younger brother and said: ‘Well you best get dressed then.’

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Sebastian was standing in front of a mirror. In his reflection he could see himself wearing a pair of extremely expensive royal blue dress robes and white shoes so shiny he could see his own reflection true them. His normally thick black eyebrows had been trimmed by one of the elves to bring out his large blue eyes and he had applied cream to his scar to make it less visible. Sebastian had possessed his scar as long as he could remember but he didn’t know had he had gotten it. When he was younger he’d asked both his parents how his scar had come into existence and why they couldn’t just heal it but he’d never gotten a straight answer. His mother in particular would get rather angry and deflective whenever he’d brought it up. The closest thing Sebastian had gotten to an answer was when his father had grumbled out a quiet ‘hippogriffs’ and ‘unhealable’ when Sebastian had been in a particularly annoying and inquisitive mood. Though that hadn’t told him much because when the boy had looked up hippogriffs in the family library he’d read that hippogriffs were extremely dangerous and usually killed whoever had aggravated them but in the case that they didn’t, they weren’t likely to leave any permanent scars. Unhealable scars, as Sebastian had found out, could only be conceived in three ways:

One, the victim had been stabbed with a type of magical venom.

Two, there was dark magic at play.

Three, it was an occult scar.

Option three had quickly been crossed out as an option when Sebastian had discovered occult scars were extremely rare and in general only happened to very powerful wizards. Now Sebastian wasn’t a squib or anything but he’d never really shown any particularly impressive magic as far as he knew anyway, that was one of the reasons Sebastian had been so taken with alchemy when he’d discovered it as he’d never before been so talented at a subject. Another reason why option 3 was impossible was that there was a registry for occult scars and Sebastian hadn’t been on it. So excluding that there were only 2 options left, venom or dark magic. At the time venom had seemed the obvious option to Sebastian, after all, why wouldn’t a big 4x rated beats have venom as well? But no, after farther research Sebastian had learnt that Hippogriffs in fact did not have any venom. The reason they were so dangerous was their unexpected aggressiveness and the fact that they always stayed in pack, not venom. So that had left the black haired boy with option 2, dark magic. Dark magic was by far the hardest to verify, due to the fact that Sebastian barely knew anything about it and that his mother kept all the books on the dark arts in her study. Still, someone using dark arts on a baby and somehow coupling that with hippogriffs was something the ten year old was highly skeptical about. Were cursed hippogriffs even a thing? Sebastian doubted it. So his scar remained a mystery him and he was no closer to solving it than before his father had let those clues slip. If Sebastian were to be honest, he’d say his scar was cool. It was on his left cheek and in the shape of a traditional firework. Fireworks were cool, no? Sebastian definitely thought so and had told his mother as much, but the Greek woman still insisted that Sebastian covered it up whenever he was in public. It was like she didn’t want people to know about it. Besides wearing fancy dress robes and covering up his scar, Sebastian was also wearing his hair back in the traditional style for young purebloods. It was long and slick back due to several growing and sticking charms applied by his elf Tuff. Other people would have described Sebastian’s appearance as that of a rich and elegant young pureblood, the boy himself would describe it as that of a douche.

The ten year old left his room and made his way down to the drawing room where he could see the rest of his family had already arrived.

‘Leaving it a bit late Sebastian, the portkey leaves in 1 minute so grab on.’, said his mother, while holding on to something that seemingly looked like an old tennis ball. But considering his father and brother were also touching the tennis ball and his mother likely had no idea what tennis was, Sebastian assumed it was a portkey and grabbed on. And he was right as, because not ten seconds after the boy had grabbed on the tennis ball started growing and he felt a familiar tug at his navel. Though it wasn’t the first tile Sebastian had used a portkey; one could never really get used to the sensation. It felt as if gravity felt appearing and reappearing and was charging some of his intestines as a fee for doing that. Still Sebastian braced himself for the last reappearance of gravity because there was nothing more embarrassing than falling face first onto the floor of another man’s drawing room. One could feel the end coming as your vision always went cloudy when you were about reach your destination. And so when Sebastian’s vision did just that (which he was glad for as otherwise he would see falling face first into a brick wall) he landed like any son of house Sage would without seemingly any difficulty, the trick was to simply bend your knees into a 90° angle (kind of like making a curtsy). In the room there was a house elf waiting for them who said: ‘Follow Winky please sir’s and madame, I will be bringing you’s to the ball room.’ Well not exactly the ball room they discovered once they arrived to where Winky was bringing them. There was a long line waiting in front of a door that lead into a large room. Behind the door was an old wizard with long grey hair slowly announcing the names of everyone who entered the room. Sebastian was not used to having to wait inline as usually his mother insisted on coming late, mainly so she could make a fashionable and impressive entrance. But today that was not the case as Katherina thought the supposed host of a ball could hardly arrive late to it. So they had to wait in line for what seemed like hours to Sebastian, though it was likely only 5 minutes. Once the finally reached the door, his mother whispered: ‘Remember to behave as somebody of your station for once’, obviously she hoped to avoid another incident like that of the last ball where Sebastian had switched the children’s punch with that of the adults because he was bored. That little switch had resulted in a bunch of children losing the little manners that they had and doing whatever pleased them. One teenage boy had decided to jump from a balcony onto the chandelier while wearing nothing but a pair of socks thinking it was a great joke. It wasn’t. The only thing that had saved the boy was that it was a magical chandelier that didn’t fall down immediately so they had enough time to levitate him to safety. The host, Adonis Schoenmaeker (South African representative on the ICW), had not been impressed with the boy and had barred the boy’s family from ever entering her home again. Later one of the guests had discovered exactly what Sebastian had done, after realizing her 6 year old daughter was behaving rather strangely. Officially they had never caught the person who mixed the punch bowls but Sebastian knew better. He had suspected that his mother and at least a few other people knew what he had done judging by the fact a house elf had been ordered to follow him. Sebastian had known though that he wouldn’t get in any large trouble as no one was prepared to accuse the Chancellor’s son of doing anything if they wanted her political support.

The ballroom they entered was massive and richly decorated with flowers, floating candles, beautiful paintings and traditional yule decorations like garlands and mistletoe. In the middle of the room there was a massive dance floor which already had several couples and courters spinning on it. In one corner there was a glass tank filled with rich blue water and an orchestra of mermen dressed in green dress robes. An other corner of the room housed some type of bar serving firewhiskey and faerie cocktails. The remaining two corners of the room were meant for people to talk to each other. Right passed the entrance was the host of the ball, waiting to welcome his guests. Usually the host was accompanied by their significant other and children but on this occasion the host was standing all on his lonesome. Bartemius Crouch, you see, had no remaining family. Long ago he’d had a wife and child. But then, ruffly around 8 years ago, it had come out that Crouch’s heir was actually some type of terrorist. At the time, you see, Britain was in some type of civil war. And unlike his father, Bartemius Crouch junior chose the wrong side. Junior got sent to Azkaban in a trial in which his father famously said ‘you are no son of mine’. That line was both the end to Barty Junior’s life and to Barty senior’s aspirations to become the British Minister of Magic. Before the famous Crouch trial, Barty had been all set to become the next Minister of Magic. A lot of people you see, credited him partly with the fact that they’d won the war. But after seeing Junior’s begging and his father’s stone cold expression, people started to have sympathy for the son and thought the father’s measures during the war might have been a little too harsh. And then several months later when the son died, public opinion was that the Junior’s story was that of a tragic accident and the heat towards his father increased tenfold. Soon the polls made it clear that Crouch’s certain win wasn’t so certain anymore. All that combined with his wife’s demise (likely due to grief over her son’s fate) drove Crouch to hysteria. Crouch started to do more campaigning and tried to make it seem like he could relate to your average British wizard, which was one of the large complaints people had against him. Bartemius Crouch did a press conference in which he famously refused to talk about anything other than the (at that time) way too large prices of wands. Crouch was quoted to say things like ‘I like a nice big wand to warm me up’ and ‘bloody inflation, I prefer inflatables’. The effect of Crouch’s campaigning was quits the opposite of what he’d expected, the public believed him to be even more out of touch with reality and he became a laughingstock. All this ended up in Bartemius losing the election to underdog Cornelius Fudge who was highly incompetent and was only voted in as he was thought to be better than Crouch. Barty, shocked by his defeat, refused to accept it and announced he was forming his own government. Crouch created a council existing of him, Pandora Lovegood and his house elf Winky. For a month they voted on laws in his attic and then published the results in the Quibbler. The result of this was a whole bunch of chaos and disorganization, not the best start to Fudge’s ministration. So, in an attempt to calm things down, Fudge offered Crouch a deal: Crouch’s government would have to dissolve, but Barty got to be the British representative on the ICW. This was a win-win for everyone: Fudge was seen to end the chaos and got Barty to leave the country, and Crouch got to have the feeling that he was serving his country in some way. So Bartemius Crouch accepted and left for Brussels, where he still till this day lives for most of the year. Only when he was hosting balls such as these does Barty return to his Family’s manor near Norwich.

Immediately upon seeing Mr. Crouch, Sebastian’s mother steered her family towards him and greeted him like an old friend. They slipped in to meaningless pleasantries and Sebastian was forced to stand their looking like he was interested in what Crouch had to say. After Katherina had finished her conversation with Crouch, she steered her family to another politician and had more meaningless conversations with them. And so Sebastian’s night went on as he followed his mother from one important person to the other and he occasionally answered a question or two about whether he was excited to attend Beauxbatons and if he was enjoying his Yule. No and no. For the first question his honest answer would have been that he’d much rather attend MAL (Magical Academy of Leuven) with his best friend Kevin than go to Beauxbatons but was being forced to do otherwise by his mother. And as for the second question, let’s just say Sebastian’s ideal Yule celebration didn’t include patronizing politicians, social interaction with as much flavor as the packeted cheddar you buy to put on your hamburgers, his mother’s constant scrutiny or dancing. But Sebastian was a good son, or at least a smart one, so he just nodded at the questions and smiled. But once his father went of to do his own thing; Sebastian decided that he too had had enough and went of to get himself a drink. So the ten year old left towards the bar in the corner and tried to get the bartender’s attention. The bartender was a pretty faerie with long blond hair and looked harmless. But one shouldn’t be fooled by her appearance, faerie’s were viscous. In fact, they were so wicked that the only reason they even got employed was because of their beautiful looks and because they served amazing cocktails. Not that Sebastian had ever had one but he’d heard that faerie cocktails were very hit or miss, you could find yourself having the time of your life using dance moves you’d never even dreamed of, or you could find yourself in a trance in which you broke into a muggles house and binged The Brady Bunch until your eyes fell out.

‘What do you want child’, said the faerie, ‘perhaps a cocktail.’

‘I think I’ll pass, thanks’, said Sebastian with an uncomfortable expression, ‘just some butterbeer please.’

The faerie sighed dramatically and said: ‘You’re no fun.’ Then she cave him his drink anyway.

With a mumbled ‘thanks’ Sebastian left the bar with a drink in hand and decided to go towards an area at the back where he’d seen people his own age were hanging out.

‘Sage, finally decided to grace us with your presence’, said a sneering blond boy Sebastian recognized as Draco Malfoy. Draco was in the ten year old’s opinion a spoilt brat. The boy thought himself above everyone else just because he was a Malfoy when in reality Sebastian severely outranked him as the Chancellor’s son. But unlike Draco, Sebastian was polite and never pointed that out
.
‘Yes Draco, did you miss me?’, asked Sebastian forcing a sneer of his own.

Draco guffawed and then said: ‘Of course, not you buffoon. Malfoys don’t miss anyone and especially not someone as idiotic as you.’ Draco laughed at his own insult and few seconds later the kids around him joined in. The other kids viewed Draco as the highest ranking child in their group, simply because they couldn’t think for themselves and Draco had told them so. And as Sebastian had never corrected them out of misjudged politeness, they tended to pick Draco’s side over his own.

‘Now now Draco, there’s no reason to be mean to Sage. We all know you love him really’, said a grinning dark skinned boy called Blaise Zabini. Blaise was by far Sebastian’s favorite of the other pureblood kids that attended these balls. He wasn’t as stuck up as Draco and he had streak of mischief that could rival Sebastian’s own.

A girl with red hair called Freya Mikkelsen snorted and said: ‘Draco certainly does not, we don’t all write poetry about Sage you know.’ Freya was obviously referring to that one time Blaise had shown up to a ball serenading poetry about Sebastian’s ‘great blue orbs’ to all who would listen. The ball after that, the boy with the great blue orbs had of course gotten back at Blaise by handing out flyers for the Blaise Zabini fan club.

‘Ah yes’, said Blaise,

‘There was one a boy named Sebastian Sage who had the greatest eyes.

They were massive and blue and managed to captured my affections.

Oh how I wish they won’t fade with age cause that I would despise.

But for now his great blue orbs have been the cause to my erecti-‘

‘SHUT UP’, shouted a blushing Sebastian, ‘there’s shit poetry and then there’s just being crude.’

Most of the younger kids were eying Sebastian and Blaise with confusion but Sebastian had spent too much time around the dark skinned boy to not know what word was coming next.

After that the kids spent most of their time dancing with one another, much to Sebastian’s annoyance. When Sebastian had been seven, his mother had arranged for Sebastian to have formal dancing lessons together with his cousins in Greece. The only problem, Sebastian didn’t really get along with his cousins. Much like Draco Malfoy, he considered them stuck up brats that constantly had an irritating air of superiority around them. And Sebastian’s cousins considered him an immature child who didn’t know how to behave properly. The lessons had been taught by Sebastian’s great aunt Cassandra who was a sour woman and didn’t particularly want to be there. She took her frustrations out on Sebastian every time he made even the smallest mistake. Seeing this, his cousin Clio decided to try and trip Sebastian as much as she could to get him in even more trouble. The lessons had ended with Cassandra’s whip getting a good workout and and Sebastian’s bottom in pain. And ever since then the raven haired boy had hated dancing and tried to avoid it at all costs. So when all the other kids went of to dance with each other, Sebastian retreated to the bathrooms and waited it out. He kept himself busy by naming all the magical properties of several different alchemy ingredients and by the time he was done Sebastian didn’t know how much time had passed. He left the lavatory and made his way back to the ballroom and was pleased to see that the dancing had stopped and people were starting to go home. He could also see that his mother was shaking the hand of the French minister of magic which likely meant that she was saying her goodbye’s. He did the same by waving at Blaise who grinned at him with a knowing smile and then Sebastian made his way towards him mother seeing that his father was doing the same. Not long after they left the ball and Sebastian was pleased. The Yule ball was over, Sebastian could finally start enjoying his yule instead of being filled with dread for that wicked ball.

Chapter Text

It had been 5 months since Sebastian had promised his older brother that he could turn water into wine and he was yet to succeed. Nicholas was graduating in only three weeks and Sebastian hadn’t even attempted to create anything. And it wasn’t like Sebastian wasn’t trying, he really was! He’d just had no idea how difficult it would be when accepting the challenge. Water into wine transformations were some really difficult procedures, no wonder that that Jesus wizard had become so famous after he’d done it! Sebastian had once again read every book in his family’s library hoping there’d be something in there about it but much to his dismay, he’d found nothing. But Sebastian had not given up, he decided on a new approach to his problem. He would ask around if any of his friends knew anything about it. Not that many of his friends knew much about alchemy mind you, he really only knew one person who shared his love for Alchemy: Miss. Crimson!

About a year ago Sebastian had been reading his favorite alchemy magazine, Tinctures Today, when he had stumbled upon an advertisement that managed to catch his attention:

Hello fellow alchemy enthusiasts! Are you, like us, also obsessed with alchemy? Do you too love alchemy as if it was one of your closest family members? Do you also have alchemy flowing in your veins? You can’t get enough of it, right? But you’re missing something, no? A person to share your obsessions with and talk about every single alchemy related thought you have. A person to discuss all your newest theories with. A person with whom you can talk to about alchemy without being judged.
In a world like ours where alchemy is looked down upon by people who have neither the skill or temperament to study the noble art, such a person is hard to find. But no longer must you suffer!
For the first time in our history, Tinctures Today is setting up a program where you can find that person! On the first of May, Tinctures Today are proudly starting the Heinrich Muller Pen Pal Project. Named after the recently deceased alchemist, the Heinrich Muller Pen Pal Project will be connecting alchemy enthusiast from all over the word with each other. No longer will you have to celebrate your alchemy achievements on your own! Each participant will be connected to a person with whom they can talk about anything and everything, creating with one another a bond that can last a lifetime! And that’s not the only thing the Heinrich Muller Pen Pal project will be organizing! We will also be creating monthly competitions in which you and your Pen Pal can compete to win amazing prizes like gold, extremely rare recipes, legendary materials and so much more! The challenges themselves will consist of essays, creating new recipes, brewing potions, creating tinctures,…
Don’t miss out! If interested, please write an owl to our editor Dragan Illicic before the first of May.

And that was exactly what Sebastian had done. He’d immediately sent an owl to the editor, giddy at the taut of having someone to discuss alchemy with. Of course his best friend Kevin Jacobs tolerated him whenever he went on one of his alchemy related rants but Kevin himself knew nothing about alchemy, so it really wasn’t the same.

For the rest of that April, Sebastian had excitedly counted down the days until it was finally May. Then when that day finally came the raven haired boy had received the name of his new pen pal, sort of. Sebastian had been confused, why wouldn’t they just fill in their real name? Were they hiding something? Because ‘Miss. Crimson’ sure as hell couldn’t be their real name. Well in theory it could as wizards often had quite peculiar names, take Flamel or Dumbledore. Hell, Sebastian had even heard of a pureblood family in Canada that were called the Whippersnapper’s. So ok, wizards had weird names and Crimson could be one of them. The problem was, Sebastian had been educated by his nanny in all the important family’s from all over the world and he had never heard of the Crimson’s. Just to be sure Sebastian had checked the ICW family registry (not something which was open to the public but as both the son of the Chancellor and as an excellent bullshitter, he’d easily gotten access to it) and there were no Crimson’s registered. And yes a particularly inquisitive person might state that not everybody is registered there, and they’d be right: muggleborn children aren’t registered until they start attending a school of some sorts. But Sebastian highly doubted a muggleborn child knew alchemy. And before you think him to be prejudiced against people of lesser blood, he isn’t. Sebastian had never really understood why people looked down on muggleborns because as far as he was concerned they were just the same as him. The reason Sebastian didn’t think a muggleborn child could be good at alchemy was far more practical: muggleborn’s didn’t know anything about alchemy! Even in the wizarding world alchemy was considered a pretty obscure topic that only the families with a large family history and an even larger library knew much about. Of course alchemy was taught at most of the world’s premier academia but few really had any talent for it and as such most quit the subject within their first year and opted for potions instead. So the likely hood of a muggle born child knowing about it was next to none, and that wasn’t even mentioning the fact that the advertisement had been in a Wizarding magazine. So all this proved was that Miss. Crimson was in fact a fake name, which made her quite the intrigue to him. Alchemists ,as a rule, always used their real names, they were a proudful lot and always wanted to boast about it when their discoveries got published. So that somebody would be using a fake name could only mean one of two things:

1. They didn’t want to draw attention to themselves for some reason.

2. They signed up as bad joke and entered a fake name.

Sebastian hoped it wasn’t the latter and realized there was only one way to find out: send Miss. Crimson a letter. And he did exactly that. The raven haired boy wrote a letter to her in which he first introduced himself as Sebastian Sage, then wrote about his experience in alchemy and asked about her’s and lastly he asked where she was from and if he could know her real name. Also, as he didn’t know where she was from, Sebastian made sure to write the letter in both French and English, just to make sure she could read it.

Then for the next two months he had received nothing in the way of a reply. The lack of contact went on for so long that Sebastian was sure Miss. Crimson wasn’t going to write back. But then, just when the 9 year old had lost all hope, a letter arrived. It wasn’t a particularly long letter but he had still been thrilled. The letter itself had contained only a somewhat detailed summary of all her alchemy experience and interests, but Sebastian had felt like he had just rediscovered a long lost friend. Finally someone who understood him! Miss Crimson hadn’t written much but from what she had you could practically feel it oozing love and care for alchemy. She was obviously extremely dedicated to the subject and though she continued to refuse to give away any personal details, Sebastian thought she was perfect!

Over the next year Sebastian had been in constant communication with Miss Crimson trough owls. In their letters they spoke about what they were studying, gave each other advice and commiserated over the occasional mistake they each made. They had even participated in a few competitions, and in one of those competitions they had even won the third place prize with their joint essay on how moon cycles could influence common poisons (the answer of which was that it made the poisons more potent and while that didn’t really have much of an effect on humans because poisons were generally already designed to kill and you can’t kill someone twice, it did have an effect on creatures who were generally considered immune to poisons. For example if one was to brew an already powerful poison during an eclipse, you could theoretically kill a dragon). The prize for their essay had been 50 galleons each, but Sebastian hadn’t really needed the money so he let Miss. Crimson have his share as well as her own. But through all their letters Sebastian still hadn’t come any closer to discovering her identity. The only thing that he had found out so far was that she spoke English and not French.

Anyways, currently he was writing down a letter asking her if she knew anything about water to wine transformations and if she could answer his letter as quickly as possible. Sebastian was on a bit of a time crunch with his brother’s graduation in three weeks and was really hoping that Miss Crimson didn’t live too far. Because even if she did know the answer, it would be kind of useless if she lived somewhere in the Australian Outback and her letter only arrived after the deadline had passed. Usually there was a space of about two and a half weeks in between their letters but Sebastian was hoping that a good chunk of that time went into constructing the letter as opposed to actual travel, but he really didn’t have a clue where she lived. Regardless of all that, Sebastian sent her the letter with an owl and hoped for the best.

Remarkably, it only took 3 days for Miss. Crimson’s owl to arrive. And as soon as Sebastian read her message it became clear why. She hadn’t really written down much, only a single name: ‘Vesta Altadonna.’

Vesta Altadonna was not an unfamiliar name to anyone who studied alchemy. To them, she was as infamous as any Dark Lord. So it would come as no surprise that Sebastian knew exactly who she was.

Vesta Altadonna was an Italian pureblood heiress who lived around the Nineteenth century. Growing up, Vesta could be described as an extremely attractive girl who could be extremely loyal to those who were her friends and extremely wicked to those who were not. When Vesta was fourteen, she developed an obsession with alchemy. At first her parents, not quite understanding the extremity of her interests, had encouraged her and gotten her teachers from all over the Italian peninsula to tutor her. After all, a girl who was extremely intelligent, gorgeous and had a rare talent for alchemy was practically unheard of. Vesta’s father was sure she would be an extremely sought after bride and reconned he’d be able to demand anything he wanted as a price for her hand. The Altadonna’s, you see, were broke. Because of their penchant for throwing large elaborate balls, funding politician’s and drinking, they’d used up practically all of the family’s fortune. By Vesta’s father’s estimations, they would likely run out of money within the decade. But Federico Altadonna saw his daughter as a way out of his problems, her betrothal would solve all of the family’s issues. And he would have been right too if it weren’t for the fact that Vesta Altadonna didn’t stray away from the taboo. After about a year of studying alchemy under her tutors, the girl discovered something that interested her far more: Dark Alchemy.

Dark alchemy, also sometimes referred to as Necromancy, is a branch of magic that doesn’t much differ from regular alchemy. For the most part they share the same techniques, structure, reliance on astronomy and use of runes. They also both have a main objective that all their practitioners try to achieve, but that is where the two branches differ. Regular alchemy’s objective is to discover the Philosopher’s Stone, a feat achieved by Nicholas Flamel in the fourteen hundred’s (suspected to be around that time but as they are immortal who really knows?). Dark alchemy’s objective on the other hand is to create conscious life, or rather recreate it. Now while that may not sound like a particularly dark objective or something worth the bad reputation it gets, it really is! To understand that, one has to take into consideration the measures people go to achieve it. To recreate life, Dark alchemists are prepared to kill, to harvest blood and body parts. The most famous example of dark alchemy, one that even muggles know about, is that of Viktor Frankenstein. Frankenstein was a Swiss dark alchemist who lived not that long before Vesta Altadonna. He, like many other dark alchemists before him, was convinced that he could find a way to restore the dead. Viktor dedicated his life to his work on dark alchemy, and after 30 years finally decided to attempt it. First he went to a nearby village and slaughtered the muggle population (something which was still legal at the time) and harvested all the best body parts. Using those body parts, he created a freakishly large body. Then using runes, spell work and Merlin knows what else, he attempted to animate the body. But much to his horror, he had made a mistake that would eventually lead to his demise. Viktor had indeed managed to create conscience like he’d set out to do, but he’d created the conscience of an infant. And a human infant inside an eight foot tall freakish monster was never going to be a recipe for success.

Another famous example of dark alchemy was that of Irena the Insolent. Irena was a deputy of Gellert Grindelwald during the Wixen World War that thought herself to be above following orders. She had had enough of following Grindelwald and wanted to make her own decisions and figured all she needed was an army. So she started trying to recruit people but soon realized that nobody was interested in joining her army. Seeing that, Irena decided to take another approach: literally creating her own army through necromancy. Arrogant as she was, Irena thought her plan genius and figured someone as talented as herself didn’t even have to study the subject to be able to achieve it. Irena read the synopsis of a book and got right to work, and surprisingly the results didn’t turn out half bad. While the animated corpses could hardly be classified as sentient, they were still capable of acting like an army if you gave them the right instructions. Honestly, Irena found that their lack of self-worth made them even better soldiers and decided that she must of made them like that on purpose. After all, she was the greatest witch of the age! And for a while her army worked quite well and she managed to take out quite a few of both the light and the dark’s troops. But then, during a particularly gruesome fight, Grindelwald’s men started to throw around waves of fire. The fire sent Irena’s animations into a frenzy and they stopped following her orders. In the chaos that followed, Irena was killed by her own creations. Not that that should come as a surprise considering it was the fate of most dark alchemists. Irena the Insolent, however dead she may be, would forever go down in history as the first person to create Inferi.

Anyways, back to Vesta’s story! Once Vesta had discovered dark alchemy, she became even more obsessed. She started to spend all her time studying the subject and rarely went outside. Due to her lack of public appearance, people started to become suspicious. So one night, some of her friends broke into her lab and discovered exactly what Vesta was up to. Appalled by their findings, they naturally told everyone and within a week everyone on the Italian Peninsula knew Vesta Altadonna was a dark alchemist and was not to be trusted.

Where before Vesta had hundreds of hopeful suitors vying for her hand, now she had practically none. Only the freaks and the perverts were still interested in marrying her. Vesta’s father, distraught by the whole situation, decided his best choice of action was to end Vesta’s education and get her married as soon as possible. And that was what he did! Within a week, Vesta was betrothed to an old man from Sicily who’d already been married four times before her, and only a month later she was married. Vesta found married life to be horrid and unfulfilling, and she found her husband to be vile and disgusting. However, even though she was now married, the girl remained undeterred of her one true love: Alchemy! But because her husband wouldn’t allow her to practice alchemy, the girl had to become more cunning and creative when doing it. Vesta started to practice alchemy after her husband had gone to sleep and for the next five years he never her caught her, though that never stopped him from punishing her physically whenever he suspected anything.

But one day when Vesta was practicing while her husband had gone off on a business trip, her husband came home early due to cancelations and caught her red handed. Incensed by the perceived slight towards him (Vesta’s husband was a rather insecure man), he started destroying everything around him. Once he had torn apart her make-shift lab, he started beating Vesta herself. But Vesta, by now used to her husband’s beatings, thought it best to just stand there unresponsive and let him take out his anger on her. But how wrong she was! Her husband mistook her submission for indifference and became even more furious. In his wave of anger, he decided he had to do something to her that would really hurt. So he left the room and his wife and went up to the third floor nursery, in that nursery was their 3 year old child sleeping peacefully without a care in the world not knowing what was about to happen. What happened next could only be described as a crime against humanity but let’s just say the child didn’t survive it. The child’s mother was distraught and would never be the same, but she wanted justice. She took manners in to her own hands and poisoned her husband. Then she fled, but not before visiting her parents and killing Federico for good measure. After that the story becomes vague, Vesta became an international fugitive as she was blamed for both the deaths of her husband and father as well as that of her daughter. Nobody quite knows for sure where she fled to but what we do know is that she likely died 70 years later in Argentina. Just before her death Vesta published a book containing her life’s work: The Book Of Souls. The Book Of Souls (Liber Animae in its original Latin version) was a massive tome containing every alchemical discovery, both light and dark, Vesta Altadonna had ever made. It is quite possibly the greatest book on alchemy, or even magic in general, the world has ever seen. But sadly due to Vesta’s status as a criminal and the dubious legality of some of her discoveries, the book soon got banned. The authorities of the time tried to track down and destroy all of the book’s copies and possessing a copy without approval was worth a one way trip to prison. But while their efforts did manage to prevent the book from reaching the general public, it didn’t totally eradicate it. Even today, if one has enough money, they can easily acquire a copy of The Book Of Souls.

Sebastian stared at Miss. Crimson’s note with horror. The ten year old realized that if he wanted to win his brother’s bet; he would have to acquire a highly illegal book and possibly perform dark alchemy. Now this is the point where a normal ten year old would give up and resign himself to losing the bet, but Sebastian wasn’t a normal ten year old. He really wanted to be able to practice alchemy whenever he wanted like his brother had promised, and admittedly there was a small part of him that was extremely curious to see what was inside The Book Of Souls.
For the next five days, Sebastian constantly changed his mind on whether or not he should try to buy the book. Until he finally made his decision: He would win this bet!

‘Time to start scheming’, Sebastian thought as he spent the rest of the day coming up with a plan to buy The Book Of Souls. Really there was only one place Sebastian knew that could possibly sell the book and that was Extern Alley.

Extern Alley was the dark market of magical Brussels. If one had enough money, they could buy anything they wanted there whether it was obscure potion ingredients or the heart of a virgin. Sebastian reckoned he could place an order there for the book in some type of bookshop but he wasn’t sure because he’d never been before. Of course the boy knew where it was, but it was the type of place that adults had been warning him about since his birth and Sebastian had up until this point, never thought it worth the hassle. But tomorrow appeared to be an excellent day for exploring.

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The next day Sebastian got up at 6am just to be sure he wouldn’t run into anyone. Not that there was a big chance of that happening with his brother and father not home and his mother not being much of a morning person, but still one could never be too safe.

Sebastian was wearing black robes that covered most of his skin and a scarf in the same colour to cover up his identity. After all, it wouldn’t do for anyone to recognize him where he was going. After a quick breakfast consisting mostly of stale bread, Sebastian left his house and made his way towards the magical district. Brussel’s magical district was accessed through the city’s sewer museum. The entrance to the museum that was traditionally ran by squibs was a large building with Roman Columns at the front. Once Sebastian entered the museum, he came across a ticket desk where he was asked for 8 euros. Sebastian, not having any muggle money, gave the woman at the desk a galleon instead (which he knew they preferred anyway) and walked down the stairs. On paper the money was classified as a fee to see the museum exhibits but in actuality it was much more of a toll to see the alleyways. The toll money that was collected here was used to improve the roads and for other general needs, this had the interesting effect that the occasional muggle was funding the magical alleys. Not that many, of course, as it was still a museum for sewers, not exactly a hotspot of activity. But occasionally it did happen.

While Sebastian walked down the never ending stairs he wondered about how the muggles thought the museum stayed in business. After all, a sewer museum was in the ten year old’s opinion not exactly a stable business idea.

Finally after what felt like a million stairs, Sebastian reached the bottom. There he could see 4 different sewer ways leading into 4 directions, he chose the one going south. If Sebastian had been a muggle, he would of only seen 3 directions as the South passage was heavily warded against muggles.

After only having walked 10 meters in the south passage, Sebastian felt a wave of familiar magic falling over him. Whereas the rest of the sewers were cold and damp, this area felt warm and cosy (kind of like being wrapped in a thick scarf). The Southern passage was also nicely lit with floating lanterns that gave a welcoming effect.
After a brisk 3 minute walk, Sebastian arrived to his destination. Here the sewers lead into 4 different passages ways for Sebastian to choose from. The first passage was painted red, the ten year old knew this passage led off into Rustic Alley.

Rustic Alley was the main shopping district in Magical Brussels, it sold anything you could want (if it was legal) and also housed the local Gringotts branch. This was the area Sebastian was most familiar with as he’d spent many a day touring trough shops with his best friend Kevin just to pass the time.
The next passage was painted yellow, from that direction Sebastian could smell a delicious scent and he was sorely tempted to follow it. This passage led to Nutrition Alley, magical Brussels’ food court. Nutrition Alley housed stalls, restaurants and café’s that would cater to your every desire, whether it was sweet or savory or magical or muggle.

The third passageway was painted purple, Sebastian knew this led off to where his mother worked: Jurisdiction Boulevard. This area was massive, kind of like a city inside a city. It contained the ICW building, the Belgian Ministry of Magic, all the administration buildings, the courts, the Guilds and the Auror complex.
The last passage way was the one the ten year old had come for. It was painted black and covered in skulls that made it look incredibly melodramatic to the raven haired boy. This passage, of course, led into Extern Alley, the underworld of magical Brussels.

As intrigued about entering the fourth passageway as Sebastian was, he knew he had to get some money out first. So the boy followed the red path and made his way towards Rustic Alley. Once he reached the end of the pact, Sebastian emerged in a large crowded square with market stalls all around him. The ten year old cursed, he’d forgotten today was the day of the Faerie market.

The Faerie market was probably the wizarding world’s largest market, and definitely the most famous one. Wizards and witches from all around the world came to Brussels just to be able to see the event that only happened twice a year. To be honest, market wasn’t really the right word for it because it was far larger than that. Of course it contained loads of market stalls ran by mostly faerie’s and other magical creatures, selling just about anything under the sun for reasonable prices. But it also had loads of musical performances, comedians, carousals and loads more other attractions which were what really drew the crowds.

Sebastian tried to make his way towards Gringotts but was slowed down significantly due to the large amount of people in his way. If the preteen was being honest with himself, he’d also admit that his penchant for stopping at stalls that interested him wasn’t really helping either. But really, they were advertising dragon rides. Who wouldn’t be interested?

At one of these intervals, Sebastian found himself in a crowd watching a group of leprechauns attempting to do improv.
‘Alright people, we need a type of magical species’, said a grinning leprechaun with a large ginger beard.

‘DRAGONS’, bellowed a large man who likely wasn’t sober.

‘Excellent, so we’ve got dragons but where exactly are they? We’re going to need a location mybdear crowd.’, said another grinning leprechaun.

‘A sanctuary in northern Africa’, said a bespectacled woman with an extremely squeaky voice. Sebastian thought this was a particularly uninspired suggestion but kept his mouth shut.

‘Great, lastly we’re going to need to know what exactly our dragons are doing,’ said the leprechaun with the large beard.

Sebastian decided he wanted to spice things up and create a more entertaining performance, so he shouted: ‘Writing fortune cookies!’ Much to the amusement of the crowd.

‘Very funny boy’, said a glaring a leprechaun, ‘but we’re going to need something that’s actually possible.’

‘Alright, what about hosting an open house then?’, said a grinning Sebastian.

‘I said possible boy, dragons cannot host OPEN HOUSES’, said the leprechaun that was clearing getting angry.

‘Sure they can’, responded the ten year old easily, ‘they’d be all like: grrrrrrr welcome to my habitat, as you can see it’s very spacious and has lots of room for hiding human corp-

‘Did somebody say fighting a dark wizard? I’m sure I heard that ‘, said another leprechaun seeing his comrade’s growing anger. The other leprechauns enthusiastically played on with that scenario knowing full well that nobody in the crowd had suggested it.

Sebastian harrumphed. These people were no fun. Bloody leprechauns!

The ten year old remembered he had better things to do than watching this crap and made his way further into Rustic Alley. Thankfully for him, the improv stand was already on the outskirts of the faerie market and he didn’t have to walk much farther until he reached the bank.
Gringotts was a large building made from marble and jewels. The front of it consisted of pillars and archways that wouldn’t of looked out of place in ancient Rome. All in all, it gave exactly the sort of elegant but intimidating look the Goblins had been hoping for. Right in front of the building was a large board which stated:
For those who take, but do not earn, Must pay most dearly in their turn, So if you seek beneath our floors. A treasure that was never yours, Thief, you have been warned, beware.

Sebastian felt a shiver going through his spine as he read that. Only a fool would attempt to steal from Gringotts, and Sebastian was many things but a fool wasn’t one of them.

The ten year old entered the imposing building and immediately found himself in a large line of people waiting to be served. One of the large downsides of the faerie market was that during the event, Gringotts was always full of people trying to access their accounts. This process was slowed down even more by the fact that most of these people were from other countries and so had to withdraw their money from their international accounts which was a whole process in itself.
Finally, after waiting for what Sebastian could have sworn took several hours but was actually only 15 minutes, he reached the teller.
The teller was a larger goblin with pockets of hair growing out of all of his orifices that was, much to Sebastian’s confusion, eying him distrustfully. After all he was Sebastian Sage son of the Chancellor of the ICW, why would anyone be suspicious of him? But then after a few seconds of confusion the boy realized that the teller was staring at his outfit and not his face. That made more sense because he was indeed wearing all black clothes and covering most of his face.

Sebastian lowered his scarf and said: ‘I would like to access my vault.’

‘Oh yes’, sneered the goblin, ‘and what vault may that be.’

‘The Sage vault’, responded an irritated Sebastian.

‘The Sage vault’, said an extremely skeptical teller, ‘don’t waste my time filthy beggar. You do realize you need a key to the vault and you have to pass blood identification to access high profile vaults. And if you’re found to be lying, you’ll regret ever being born.’

The goblin grinned, obviously thinking that he’d managed to scare the boy of with that statement. But unfortunately for him, he was incorrect. Sebastian simply returned his grin with an even bigger one and dropped his key on the teller’s desk.

A shocked goblin responded in not quite as deep a voice as before: ‘Sorry sir but I’m still going to need a sample of your blood.’ Next he took out a needle and small rune inscribed piece of parchment. The goblin gestured to Sebastian to stick out his finger, and once the boy had done that, he poked the needle into his finger until a drop of his blood fell onto the parchment. Once that was done, the parchment soon confirmed the raven haired boy was indeed who he claimed to be and the goblin gestured to another goblin to come over.

‘Creszia will bring you to your vault.’

Creszia was a small goblin with violet eyes and a toothy grin. If Sebastian were to guess, he would have said she was female even though she had a receding hairline.
Sebastian followed Creszia out of the lobby down a long flight of stairs. Past the stairs, the pair reached a line of minecarts waiting to go down the track. The duo entered the cart at the front and soon they were off. The minecart flew down the tracks at vomit inducing speeds without a bother. Personally Sebastian was of the opinion that this was one of the two worst sensations in the world. The other one being entering a bathroom after his uncle Frank had been in it.

Luckily for the ten year old, they didn’t have far to go. The Sages were one of the oldest families in Belgium and as such had their vault built directly under the bank. Newer vaults however were much farther down as they’d been built much later.

The minecart stopped and the ten year jumped out pretending to be much less queasy than he actually was. Using his key, Sebastian opened the vault and walked inside. Immediately after entering, he was surrounded by piles of galleons, jewelry, art and other precious goods such as pensieves and wands. Sebastian reached down and started filling a bag with galleons. Sebastian found that one good thing of having mostly uninterested parents was that they were prepared to give you things like a key to the family vault if it meant that they didn’t have to create a trust fund.

Soon Sebastian had filled his bag and after a jaunty salute to the portrait of his great aunt Agnes, left the vault and reentered the cart where Creszia was waiting for him.

After that Sebastian made quick work of leaving Gringotts and Rustic Alley all together, filled with both curiosity and dread at seeing Extern Alley. After no more than 10 minutes, he found himself back at the point between the different alleys with the coloured passages (this place was often referred to as Point Rainbow by the locals). This time Sebastian chose the black pathway with the skulls and made his way towards Magical Brussels’ supposed ‘underworld’. And once he got there he was somewhat surprised.

Sebastian had expected to see drunks and prostitutes littering the streets but for the most part it just looked like a less crowded Rustic Alley. But don’t mistake the fewer amount of people for less of an atmosphere because you’d be terribly wrong. Once Sebastian made his way into the street there seemed to be music coming from all around him and there were groups of people dancing and having fun. Alongside the music there were also amazing smells coming from different stalls littered around on a what seemed to be the main square. One in particular seemed to smell divinely and the ten year old approached it to have a better look.
Behind the stall was a woman wearing a headscarf with a friendly smile who seemed to be serving some type of soup. Sebastian would have called the woman pretty if it wasn’t for the large scar covering most of her face, not that he could really judge considering his own scarred appearance.

‘What exactly are you serving miss?’, said Sebastian.

The North African woman smiled at him and responded: ‘Gnome soup, it’s delicious and I will only charge you 3 knuts.’

Sebastian made a face, he’d never had gnomes before and wasn’t particularly enticed to eat them. So he answered: ‘Maybe another time. Would you happen to know where I can find a shop for rare books.’

The woman frowned: ‘Mo might be able to help you with that kind of thing. You’ll find his place if you take the side street to the left, then walk straight on till you find Baxton’s brewery. Once you reach that go right and after a few buildings you’ll Mo’s Mart.’

Sebastian thanked the kind woman and started following her instructions. Unfortunately he forgot some of the directions and ended up getting lost twice. Not that he really minded as he got to see more of the alley including a shop that seemed to sell flying carpets (which were highly illegal). In the end it was mostly a coincidence when the ten year old stumbled upon Mo’s Mart, not that he was complaining.

Once inside, Sebastian felt liked he’d found heaven for books. All around him were stacks upon stacks of books containing all types of knowledge, from simple cook books to elaborate tomes about ancient Egyptian runes. Sebastian saw a book called ‘Vigorous Tinctures’ by Cassius Frugi and immediately picked it up, he’d heard of that book before and was not passing up any opportunities to acquire it.

Sebastian continued his way going deeper into the store which appeared endless as every turn he made he came across more shelves of books, there were was definitely some type of space enhancing spell work at play here. On his way to find the mysterious Mo who owned the shop, the raven haired boy acquired a few more books on both alchemy and astronomy that appeared interesting until eventually he heard voices and followed them. Doing that he discovered some type of square pay desk in the middle of the shop, at it were a tall dark man and a Filipino girl who appeared to be not much older than himself.

‘Look Mia, you can’t just take books without paying for them’, said the older man.

‘I wasn’t, I was going to come back with the money to pay for them’, said the newly christened ‘Mia’.

‘Sure you were, just give back all the books you owe me and we’ll consider it water under the bridge’, said the clearly exasperated man.

‘I didn’t take any’, said the girl before suddenly walking away.

‘Bye Mia’, shouted the tall man while she was leaving.

Sebastian who clearly been listening, said not a little surprised: ‘Are you just going to let her go?’

The man looked up, only just noticing Sebastian’s presence, and said: ‘Oh don’t worry about Mia, she always comes back with the books she owes. How can I help you young sir?’

‘Just these books’, responded Sebastian while gesturing at the reading material he’d picked out.

The other man glanced at them and said: ‘Alchemy huh, complicated subject for a boy your age.’

‘Yeah I’ve heard but I’ve never experienced it to be so’, answered Sebastian.

The shopkeeper smiled at him and said: ‘You new around here, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before. What’s your name?’

‘Uhhh’, for a second Sebastian mulled over how to reply but then said: ‘Please call me Bas, you’re Mo I assume.’

The shop keeper grinned at him and said: ‘Right in one Mr. Bas. You owe me 1 galleon and 14 sickles if those books are all you need.’

‘Yeah about that’, said the ten year old, ‘I’ve got another book I may be interested in but it’s not strictly speaking ‘legal’, could you help me with that.’

‘Hit me’, responded Mo without blinking.

‘The Book of souls by Vesta Altadonna’, said a nervous Sebastian.

Mo looked taken aback and said: ‘Alright I can see what you mean with not really ‘legal’, you really do like alchemy don’t you?’

‘Yeah’, replied the ten year old, ‘so do you have it?’

‘Not on me’, answered the taller man, ‘it’s not exactly the type of book you leave lying around for everyone to see, even in Extern. But if you give me some time, I might be able to get it for you.’

‘How long?’, asked Sebastian without fully being able to hide his relief at the older man’s confirmation.

‘Come back in 3 days and we’ll see’, said Mo, ‘but for now you only have to pay me for the books in your hands.’

Sebastian did just that and quickly after left the store, excited to started reading his newest reading material. He retraced his steps and with a final thumbs up to the friendly soup lady, left Extern Alley. And for the first time since he’d made the bet with his brother, Sebastian was truly confident that he might be able to win it.

Chapter Text

‘One pretzel please’, said Sebastian while handing over 2 knuts.

‘Here you go’, smiled a rotund German man as he complied with Sebastian’s request.

Sebastian took the pretzel and sighed in pleasure, the food in Extern Alley really was as good if not better than anything he’d had in Nutrition Alley and it was definitely cheaper. Sebastian had been coming here every day for the past week, constantly checking to see if Mo had acquired the Book of Souls. But unfortunately for Sebastian, the shop owner seemed to be having a hard time in tracking his book down. ‘Oh well’ Sebastian thought, it really wasn’t the end of the world as he’d been using this as an excuse to discover more of the Alley. So far he hadn’t really found anything that made it worth the bad reputation that it got. Sure there were a few shady people wearing large dark cloaks that you wouldn’t want to meet on your own, and there had been that one time when Sebastian had seen a particularly nasty looking stall that sold human hair and teeth ‘for all your polyjuicing needs’. But for the most part Extern Alley just seemed to be a cheaper Rustic Alley, albeit a cheaper version that also sold things with questionable legality like the book Sebastian himself was buying. Though admittedly Sebastian had only seen a small part of the alley so his views could be way off. For all he knew there could be a whole part of the alley that specialized in the sale of Veela slaves.

On the other hand, the people there were nothing like those that frequented Rustic Alley. For a start those in Extern Alley, from what he’d observed so far, tended to be far friendlier than their Rustic counterparts. They seemed to have much more time to chat with each other and give one another a helping hand when they required it, Sebastian had first thought this might have something to do with the fact that people in Rustic Alley usually lived there and were there for not in a rush. But now Sebastian was starting to suspect otherwise as he saw how people went so far and beyond just to help one another, much more than was expected of someone where Sebastian came from. There definitely seemed to be a type of close group spirit which they all shared, and the ten year old had found that it was starting to extend to him as he was spending most of his days there. Just today Sebastian had found himself returning waves and greeting from various people making their way through the alley.

Another interesting difference that the people of Extern Alley seemed to share was there diversity. Because whereas most of the people in the places that were considered to be more respectable were white and European, here Sebastian had seen people from all types of ethnicities such as Arab and Chinese. Just the other day Sebastian had been talking to another boy his age that claimed to be from El Salvador. Also there seemed to be a ton of magical beings like leprechauns and faeries living here, which as far as Sebastian knew were all prohibited from entering Rustic Alley unless the Faerie Market was on.
A last difference was how common scars were on the people in Extern Alley. Where Sebastian came from scars were rare due to the fact that most of them could be removed with magical healing, so much so that he had often caught people staring at him whenever they caught sight of his scar. But here you couldn’t walk 10 meters without stumbling upon one. This confused Sebastian but the only real explanation for it was that the people here couldn’t afford to pay for a healer, that theory had also had the result of making the raven haired boy hesitant to ask anyone about it. Whatever the reason, Sebastian wasn’t unhappy about it. To him, the scars gave him a sense of belonging that he’d rarely felt before. It also had the added effect of making him blend in much better with the locals, due to his scar Sebastian didn’t come across as the out of place rich boy that he really was.

Currently, Sebastian was making his way towards Mo’s Mart for his daily checkup. Sebastian was torn between whether he wanted this to be the last time. On the one hand, the ten year old really needed that book as soon as possible if he wanted to have any chance of winning his brother’s bet. But on the other hand, Sebastian was growing rather fond of the old man who ran the bookshop and knew he might never see him again if he managed to acquire The Book of Souls. In the short time he had known Mo, the shopkeeper had regaled him with fascinating anecdotes of his life, sold him books for amazing prices, given him helpful advice on where and where not to venture in the alley and just been an all-round great guy. And Sebastian knew he’d find it hard to justify his ventures into Extern Alley once he gotten the book, so the boy feared he may never see Mo again.

Sebastian entered Mo’s Mart and immediately made his way towards the center of the shop where he knew the tall North African man was likely to be. And he was right.

‘Hey Mo, what you up to?’, said Sebastian spotting the older man.

‘Ah there’s my favorite customer, I was wondering when I’d see you today. What can an old man like me do for you today?’, asked Mo.

‘Nothing much, just checking how you are doing on my order’, said the younger boy.

Mo’s face immediately grew more serious and he responded: ’Don’t worry about it Bas, these things can take time. But if you must know, I’ve asked my cousin Brahim in Sweden to track it down and he says he should have it for me in a few days. Until then, all we can do is wait.’

Sebastian sighed, he’d really be cutting it fine with the deadline for the bet.

‘Oh don’t look so glum kiddo’, said the shopkeeper, ‘I’ve got something that may cheer you up.’

‘Oh?’, answered a curious Sebastian.

‘Yes well I’ve been thinking for a while about taking you to meet all the guys back at the Ghastly Goblet’, said Mo.

‘The Ghastly Goblet’, stated Sebastian with his arms folded, ‘that place sounds… interesting.’

‘Oh don’t be so suspicious’, said a chuckling Mo, ‘I’m not going to harvest your organs or something, it’s just a name. The Ghastly Goblet is the social hub of our part of Extern Alley, it’s pub where we all meet up with each other. Come on Bas, it’ll be fun! I’ve been telling the guys all about the kid who keeps coming to my store and there dying to meet you.’

‘Are you sure I’ll be welcome there? I’m not exactly a local, am I?’, asked the ten year old.

‘Sure you’re welcome kiddo, if you’re with me you won’t even be conned’, reassured Mo with a massive grin.

‘Ah your words fill me with such confidence’, muttered Sebastian dryly, not able to keep the smile off his face, ‘fine lets visit your pub, but you’re dead if anything happens to me while I’m there.’

The older man roared with laughter and gasped out: ‘Ooooh I’m so scared Bas.’

Sebastian glared but still followed Mo out of the shop. The pair walked down the streets in a direction where the ten year old hadn’t ventured before. Sebastian soaked in his surroundings with greedy eyes and occasionally asked Mo questions like ‘Are those real fingers?’ and ‘What the hell is Ectoplasm and why do I feel an irrational desire to buy some’. To those questions Mo unhelpfully supplied answers like ‘yes’ and ‘don’t worry about it kiddo, that’s just Wilbur’s watch influencing you’.
Eventually the pair arrived at a small building with a sign saying: ‘Welcome to the Ghastly Goblet, don’t make yourself at home!’

‘Charming’

Sebastian followed the older man into the bar and quite frankly, he was shocked. The inside looked nothing like what you’d expect after seeing the outside. The exterior of the pub could be compared to that of a rundown shack, but on the inside it was huge. At the center of the establishment there was a large fire place surrounded by tables filled with laughing people. On the right there was a bar being served by a grumpy looking bald man and 2 leprechauns, and on the left there was a dance floor of sorts. But what interested Sebastian the most was located at the back, it wasn’t currently in use but it seemed to be an arena of sorts.
Mo came to a stop at one of the tables and gestured to the black haired boy to sit down.

‘Lads, this is Bas, the kid I’ve been telling you all about’, Mo said to the people sitting at the table who all returned a greeting.

‘Alright introductions’, there were four people sitting at the table that Sebastian didn’t know. First Mo pointed at a dark skinned man and said: ‘This man here is called Jeremy, he’s the only wand crafter in the world who doesn’t like wands and will swear staffs are better. He’s from Congo but more importantly, he’s terrible with the ladies.’

‘That is not true!’, Jeremy interjected with a surprisingly high pitched voice.

‘Next we have Saladin’, Mo said pointing at the second man, ‘he sells flying carpets, not many, but mostly seems to spend his time drinking honeybeer in this pub. He’s from Tunisian descent and is a descent fighter, not quite my level but then again who is?’

‘I could take you with my eyes closed, old man’, Saladin said much to the amusement of the others.

‘Last but certainly not least we have Lina and Nina’, Mo continued as he gestured towards two pretty women, ‘these beautiful women own a bread shop over in Nutrition Alley, filthy traitors, called ‘Delizia Italiana’. They’re both Italian and twins so you know not to mess with them.’

‘You butchered the pronunciation of our shop, it’s not that hard!’, shouted the twin on the left though she seemed mostly amused.

‘And that’s everyone I think’, said Mo after thinking for a second.

‘You forgot Ruben’, the twin on the right interjected.

‘Ah of course Ruben, don’t tell him I forgot or he’ll kill me’, Mo winked, ‘Ruben is the bald man working at the bar. He may look grumpy but he’s a barrel of laughs really. He makes a delicious drink called Dragon Rum which you should definitely try sometime. Did I forget anything else?’

‘I’m also the best looking man in the group’, Mo added, appearing from behind Sebastian, ‘Now what can I get you two the drink?’

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‘I wouldn’t touch that if I were you’.

Sebastian was reaching for an interesting book called ‘The Life of Ulrich the Ugly’ when suddenly someone had appeared from behind him.
‘Why not?’, asked a very confused Sebastian.

‘It’s cursed, by Ulrich’s daughter supposedly, she didn’t appreciate what the book said about her father.’, answered the voice which he could now tell belonged to the girl behind him.

‘What does it say?’, asked Sebastian curiously.

‘Well I haven’t read it, have I? How would I know?’, responded the girl with raised eyebrows. The girl had long black hair, onyx eyes and looked to be from south-east Asian descent.

‘Why should I believe you? Why would Mo even sell a cursed book?’, asked the 10 year old suspicious.

The girl glared at him and said: ‘A certain type of customer would pay a lot for a cursed book. As for why you should believe me, what reason do you have not to?

Sebastian grudgingly had to agree that the girl had a point, but stubborn as he was he responded : ‘Maybe you want to read it yourself’, suddenly the blue eyed boy realised who she was, ‘or steal it.’

A few days prior, the first time that Sebastian had visited the shop, he had overheard a conversation between Mo and this particular girl. From there he had discovered that she had a habit of taking books without paying for them.

The Asian girl gasped and practically screamed: ‘I do not steal books!’ and in a much quieter tone she added that she only borrowed them.

Borrowing books from a bookshop? That sounded like stealing chuckled Sebastian to himself thinking it best not to challenge the girl any farther, who knows how she would react. She was an alley kid after all so she was probably more dangerous than she looked and could pull out a knife at any moment or worse, she could start crying. From the corner of his eyes Sebastian could see Mo approaching the pair.

‘I thought I heard your dulcet tones, Mia’, said the shop owner as he came to a halt, ‘and I see you’ve met Bas as well. Don’t you two make an adorable couple?

Both of the kids went red after that last sentence and stammered out words of denial.

‘Mo’, shouted the newly dubbed Mia, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about but could you please tell your little friend that I am not a thief!’

‘Ah of course’, chuckled Mo merrily,’ wouldn’t want to give you a bad reputation, eh Mia? Well Bas the girl is right really she doesn’t really steal any books, she always ends up returning them. Sometimes I think she has me confused for a librarian. But she always makes it up to me with chores, I’ll give her that. Speaking of chores, I’ve got another errand for you.'

Sebastian could hear Mia groan even though she responded that she would do it.

‘I want you to deliver this package to old Xerxes. Be extremely careful and whatever you do don’t open the package! Am I clear?’, asked the tall shopkeeper, ‘and you can take Bas with you to help you carry it.’

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‘Where are we?’, asked Sebastian as the pair walked through a rundown area he’d never seen before. They’d been walking for at least 30 minutes through different streets which al looked worse than the last.

‘The Scrims’, answered Mia with look as if that should answer all his questions.

It didn’t though as the boy followed it up with a confused, ‘And that means?’

Mia came to a halt and looked at him as if he’d just declared that he couldn’t tie his shoe laces or ate charcoal for breakfast. ‘You know, the place where all the fights happen. The place we’ve been at war over for more than 20 years’

‘Err no’, replied Sebastian. War? That didn’t sound very good. ‘I’m not from here’.

‘That much is clear yes’, scoffed the Asian girl, ‘Whatever is a Wrinkler doing here?’

‘A Wrinkler?’, exclaimed the thoroughly confused 10 year old.
‘Yes a Wrinkler’, said Mia, ‘it’s what we call people from outside of Extern. So what are you doing here? Buying potions ingredients? Looking for dark creatures? Shady Polyjuice erotica?

‘NO’, exclaimed Sebastian a little took loud judging by the looks he was now receiving, ‘I’m just trying to buy a book.’

‘A book you say’, drawled Mia, ‘yet you come here to buy it? Are there no bookstores where you are from? Of course there are, they just don’t sell the book you’re looking for. Must be a very illegal book huh? Please do tell.’

‘It’s nothing really’, mumbled Sebastian.

‘Aw c’mon Bas, don’t be like that’, complained the dark haired girl, ‘I love everything to do with books, you simply have to tell me.’

This made the boy think. On the one hand, Sebastian really didn’t want to broadcast his very illegal project to the world. On the other hand, how much harm could telling one insignificant alley girl do? Plus she also had information that he wanted to know.

‘Alright, let’s make a deal,’ said Sebastian once he’d organized his thoughts, ‘I’ll tell you what book I’m trying to acquire in exchange for you telling me about this area and the supposed war you’re having.’

‘Deal’, responded Mia without a second of thought.

‘Okay then’, replied the ten year old, suddenly stressed, ‘I’m not sure if you’ve heard of it but I’m buying the Book of Souls.’

‘WHAT’, exclaimed the girl loudly, ‘are you talking about the highly illegal alchemy book? The one which means a one way ticket to wizard prison if the aurors find you in possession of it?’

‘That’s the one’, chuckled Sebastian dryly.

‘Damn’, replied Mia , ‘I’ve always wanted to read it.’

‘You know alchemy?’, asked Sebastian with a slightly disbelieving look. Later when he looked upon this moment, the boy would realize he was being quite arrogant with that question.

‘No’, sighed Mia wistfully, ‘But I’d love to see the book, you know? Must be special if governments across the entire world felt so threatened by it, they decided to ban it until the end of time. Allegedly the ICW’s magical research department studied the book but were so appalled by what they had read, they all burned their eyes and quit their jobs.

Sebastian felt uncomfortable with that last topic because of his mother being Chancellor and all, even though he didn’t really believe Mia, and quickly changed the subject: ‘You promised to tell me about the scrims.’

‘Right the Scrims’, started the girl beside him, ‘Let me set a scene first. So it’s 20 years ago and Extern Alley’s territory all falls under 3 gangs. At the entrance there the Lupines, that’s us, they’re the friendliest gang by far and are ran mostly by werewolves. To the east of them there’s the Malkavian, our sworn enemies, they’re ran mostly by vampires and their subjugates. The main thing you need to know about them is that they’re assholes, like real pieces of work. They don’t consider anyone outside of their clan to be actual people, just cattle to eat and steal from. And to the south of those two are the Liberati, a monarchy of sorts whose king or queen is decided in battels to the death. They mostly keep to themselves but are by far the most feared, you do not want to cross the Liberati, trust me.
Anyways at the borders between the Lupines and the Malkavian is an area that at that point was called Lower Cobham, now the Scrims. Now Lower Cobham was nothing special, just another area of Extern Alley which housed both residents and businesses, but then 20 years ago they discovered that 2 ley lines crossed in that area. And boom, less than a year later, Lower Cobham is the place to be in Extern. Everybody who’s anyone in the business world has moved their stores there to make use of all the raw magic coming out of the ley lines. It’s one of the richest places in Europe, never mind just Extern, and suddenly both the Lupines and the Malkavian realize something: if they can tax Lower Cobham, they’ll be rich as well.

Now here’s the problem, Lower Cobham’s area stretched over both gang’s territories making it so neither gang can claim the whole area to themselves. The logical solution was for both of them to only be able to tax the parts which fall under their own territory. But being sworn enemies and all, neither gang was interested in the logical solution. The Malkavian, arrogant pricks that they are, strike first. Their leader, a vampire called Nyx, and his inner court all move to Lower Cobham and declare the entire borough to be under their jurisdiction. They started taxing the area like hell which led to a lot of angry residents, who in an act of rebellion contacted the Lupines and asked for their support in removing the Malkavian from their power.
The Lupines, given a legitimate reason to attack, did just that. All of this led to a 20 year on and off war which has led to many casualties and the complete ruination of what was once a beautiful area.'

‘If it’s so dangerous, why are we here?’, asked Sebastian, not feeling totally safe.

‘Well were delivering this package to Xerxes of course’, responded Mia, ‘he’s an interesting old man, bit creepy but he’s certainly not boring. Back in the day, he used to be a renown potions master but he retired about 15 years ago due to the war. He’s one of the few who still lives around here, most moved away.’

‘Err Mia,’ interrupted Sebastian, ‘those 2 dudes have been behind us for quite a while, haven’t they.’

Mia narrowed her eyes suspiciously and subtly looked behind her.

‘They have’, she responded and started quickening her pace.

In response their pursuers did the same and suddenly people started appearing all around them.

The kids both looked panicked at each other and started running, though they weren’t going too fast due to the heavy package that they were carrying.
As they had been talking the kids hadn’t noticed they were being surrounded until it was too late. They ran as fast as they could through narrow alleys and streets. Mia even led them up a ladder and climbed over several walls. But just when they though they had escaped, they discovered a group waiting for them right in front of them.

‘What are you two children doing in our territorie’, said the leader of the group with a smirk. He, like the rest of them, was wearing a large black cloak which protected his skin from the sunlight. Only his face was visible to the two kids. The man had bloodshot eyes, deathly pale skin and very large fangs poking out of his mouth. In other words, the man was a vampire.

‘This isn’t your territory’, replied Mia bravely, ‘you have no claim over the Scrims.’

The vampires smirk disappeared as he responded: ‘Even if that were true child, you are not in the Scrims.’

As the duo had been running away from their pursuers, they had unknowingly entered Malkavian territory.
‘That is our mistake and we apologize sincerely to you’, said Mia with a mounting amount of dread, ‘please let us leave and rectify our mistake.’

At that the vampires looked at each other and seemed to have discussion with only their eyes. Eventually their leader replied: ‘Not so fast. One does not simply enter another’s territory without gifts, you know it’s only common curtesy Lupine girl. So we shall let you leave but first you must give us the package you are holding.’

At this the two children looked at each other, both undoubtedly remembering Mo’s words about not opening the package.

For the first time in this conversation Sebastian spoke up: ‘I’m afraid we cannot give you the package good sir. Unfortunately we are meeting others late and we cannot show up there without a gift, it is as you so kindly explained “common curtesy”. Instead give us a day’s time to return with a more adequate gift for you.’

The vampire locked eyes with Sebastian and responded: ‘Ah, but you were here first so etiquette dictates you must give us the gift and get another one for your latter company. Now hand over the package before I grow tired of this conversation.’

As he said that, the man and his companions closed in on the duo making it so their was no way for them to escape. Resigned Sebastian was ready to hand over the package, Mia however had other plans. Taking the package from Sebastian as if she was about to give it to them, she approached the leader slowly and just as he was about to grab it off her, Mia kicked him where it hurt and made a break for it leaving Sebastian to hastily catch up to her.

And shockingly it seemed to work. It’s unclear whether that was due to how fast they were running or if it was due to how shocked the vampires were that somebody would have the audacity to do that, but they put a fair amount of distance in between themselves and the group.

Unfortunately however, they may have been fast but few people could hope to outrun a group of very pissed of vampires over a long distance.

So from here it was sprint. If the kids managed to make it to Xerxes’ house before the vampires could catch up to them, they’d be safe because no man who was still living in the Scrims didn’t have any protection wards to keep them safe. If however the vampires managed to catch up to them, they would soon be dead.
Sebastian could feel his entire body aching, he felt his lungs vibrating and his limbs were threatening to give up. He was forcing his body to it’s limits just to keep running. Mia led them through a series of narrow passage ways with the thought that the Malkavian would be faster in open ground and although she was correct, they were still catching up.

At this point the kids had reached the Scrims and were only a street away from their safe haven but it was still unclear whether they’d reach it.

The leader of the Malkavian led out an enormous roar and started accelerating. For every meter the kids ran, the vampire ran 5. For every step the kids took, the vampire took 3. For every gasp of exhaustion the children let out, the Vampire stayed silent.

In the end the children never really stood a chance. Even though they could both see Xerxes’ brick house, their pursuer was simply too close. He was nearly in touching distance of their robes and all Sebastian could really do was brace himself for the worst. He wondered whether dying was painful and what happened after death. Would he go to a land of greatness with no flaws or to the fiery pits of doom where he’d undergo near constant torture, that was what the muggles believed at least. Maybe he’d get another chance at life in the form of a cow or dolphin. Or maybe he’d return in the form of a dementor as he’d heard some of the more radical wizards believed.

But just as the vampire was about to grab them by the back of their throats, a massive beast jumped on top of him. The vampire had a brief scuffle with it and won eventually but at that point the hairy creature had done enough, Sebastian and Mia had managed to get to the house.

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Xerxes’ home wasn’t much of an actual ‘home’. A better word to describe it may have been warehouse, and even then it was an extremely old one that had seen better days. The brick exterior wore scars of a seasons passed and what had once been a successful potion’s factory, was now a ruin without purpose. The inside of the building was filled with half-broken wooden shelves and cauldrons filled with smelly ingredients. Sebastian however felt a sensation he had never felt before, the air was thick with magic and he could hear a beautiful song in the back of his mind that disappeared whenever he tried to focus on it.

Sebastian gave Mia an inquisitive look who nodded as if she understood.

‘Ley lines’; she said, ‘that’s what your feeling. This warehouse was built on the crossing of two of them.’

‘Yes it was’, a voice behind Sebastian cackled, ‘I’ve always appreciated the melody, myself. The magic sure helped with my potions too, didn’t it? Top brewer in Europe I was before that vampire scum came here and ruined Cobham. He called himself a king that twat, he sure wasn’t any king of mine. I’m rambling again aren’t I?
The man talking to them had long grey hair and an equally long grey beard. He was short and had a shaggy look about him. Most interestingly though was the eyepatch he wore on his left eye.

‘Ah don’t worry about it Xerxes’, said Mia, ‘we don’t mind.’

‘You’re too kind’, grinned the old man without any teeth, ‘ anyways I believe you two young’uns have a delivery for me.’

As Sebastian handed over the box he had been carrying, the old man’s face light up with anticipation.

‘You’re sure nobody opened this right? Wouldn’t want this little fella escaping, would we? Resourceful little buggers they are, very fast too.’

‘Little fella’, both of the kids exclaimed at the same time.

‘Mo didn’t tell you two what was I the package huh?’, asked Xerxes, ‘never you mind, I’ll take you two round back. You deserve as much for coming all the way out here.’

Xerxes led the two children through a small door at the back of the warehouse that looked to be the entrance for a small garden area. Sebastian wasn’t expecting much as he walked through as he’d earlier seen that the building only had a small outside area. But boy was he wrong.

The garden, more like jungle, was massive. Enhanced by magic, Xerxes had created a landscape that could house all sorts of creatures be it underwater, on the land or in the air. Everywhere he looked, Sebastian could see various creatures running about like hippogriffs, forest elves, nifflers, gnomes and many more.
They walked for a while as the kids stared around in amazement until they reached a glade. There, Xerxes put down the box and told the kids to gather around.

‘Glades, beautiful places aren’t they?, asked Xerxes, grinning, ‘I’ve been looking to fill them with one of these for a while. Problem is finding one, they’re not very sociable you see. Like to hide when humans are about, don’t they? Thankfully Mo knows a guy.’

‘What is it?’, asked Sebastian hesitantly.

Instead of answering, Xerxes once again cackled and just opened the box.

Immediately a creature came flying out thinking it was their time to shine. It was incredibly fast and had a small stature, so catching it would have been near impossible. If Sebastian were asked to describe it, he’d call it an all blue miniature human with wings. A faerie wasn’t the right name but Sebastian wasn’t sure what to call it.

‘A sprite’, said Xerxes as if answering Sebastian’s thoughts, ‘beautiful little buggers but they have a massive attitude.’

‘I can see that’, responded Mia dryly, watching as the sprite was attempting to throw a pile of leaves at Sebastian.

Xerxes laughed and said to the sprite: ‘Mischievous aren’t you my sweet, I think I’ll call you Eris.’

Eris responded to that by doing a very rude gesture with her hand that would not be acceptable in polite company.

As the trio walked back towards the warehouse, a thought struck Sebastian.
‘The hairy beast’, he said, ‘that saved us, is he yours too?’

‘Hairy beast?’, asked Xerxes confused.

‘Yeah massive creature, helped us get away from a group of vampires’, added Sebastian.

‘Oh that’s just Kirby, here I’ll call him for you.’, the old man blew a whistle that was tied around his neck.

The ground around them started roaring as if struck by an earthquake and Sebastian could hear a terrifyingly loud roar. Then out of the ground, he appeared.

‘Kirby the Cerberus, how charming’.

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3 days later Sebastian once again visited Mo’s Mart, only to find Mo standing beside a man who’s appearance was so similar he could have been Mo’s twin.

‘This is my cousin Brahim’, Mo said seriously, ‘he’s got something for you.’

Brahim reached into the pouch he was wearing and pulled out a large black book. It’s title?

‘The Book of Souls’