2 A Cat's Dillema
Minerva Mcgonagall is a powerful witch. In fact some even say she is the most powerful female wizard in the British Isle. And being a feminist devoid of the toxic feminism that majority of the muggle woman and some British witch tend to show she was an accomplished, wise, knowledgeable and powerful witch. She wasn't arrogant enough to believe that she was the strongest or the best. She believed in the asian proverb that there was a heaven above heaven.
(Unknowingly she raised the flag and would be shown that heaven soon enough and exactly how high it is)
Honestly no one would believe her if she told them that in her youth she was head over heels for a muggle farmer many years older than her and was actually engaged to him for some time. Her lion cubs would probably buy muggle surgical tools to create a new anus for the one spreading such news regardless of it being true. She even spurned the advances of senior Urquhart for a time in favor of a man who was worth less than chomping cabbage in the eyes of the wizarding world.
Senior Urquhart was someone every girl desiring an ideal husband would aim for.
He was supernaturally handsome, kind, patient, understanding, wise behind the years. A rich Pure-Blood. Had he lived he would have become the head of DMLE just as many of his ancestors had been. Urquhart family was historically a light oriented family in british Isle.They have been here since at least 13th century if castle Urquhart in scottish highland which served as a base for freedom fighters opposing the tyrannical rule of Emeric the Evil and Godelot during 13th century were to be believed. Many Historical documents and tests can attest to that. They lost possession of the castle when Emeric the Evil wrestled its control from them. And During the battle against Godelot it was nearly ruined and later abandoned. The Urquharts hoped to get the castle back after his own son Hereaward killed the man by imprisoning him in the castle basement and starving him to death. Unfortunately the Son was as wicked as his father and refused to return the possession.
Apparently Godelot cursed the land to bring defeat to any who took it as their strong hold. This made The Urquhart give up on the castle all together. Although a famous cursebreaker did break the curse at the request of a muggle noble lord Who had the castle given to his son in law as a dowry. By that time it has long been considered a useless property which other than its strategic position and its value as being on top of a leyline bore no significance. It was assumed that to renovate the castle it would cost more than the land's worth. The noble's son in law knew he had been scammed and as a petty vengeance declared his concubine's son to be his heir. Which led to a long succession feud. Eventually it was abandoned and deserted and became a government property.
She actually visited the castle ruins with her late husband Lord Elphintone.
Honestly she was young and so much in love that she didn't realize it until the muggle farmer senior Dougal proposed her marriage. But Only later did he realize that they were people who were wide worlds apart.
Back during her time the British ministry allowed a wizard to marry a muggle with the condition they had to give up on their wand. Only after Grindelwald's defeat did Rapaport's Law and all such laws that demanded racial segregation and forbid marriage with muggleborn came to an end. But by then senior Dougal was no more. As the most talented and free spirited witch of her time even she who had known magic and cherished it was not ready to give it up. And looking back then she regret every moment of it
Even though she broke off her engagement with senior Dougal with tears in her eyes. But she could never let go of her love for him as evident when working as a junior auror in DMLE the rich, handsome and kind Senior Auror Lord Elphinstone Urquhart proposed to her four times and she declined four times with immense hesitation. She just couldn't forget senior Dougal. Lord Urquhart had been patient and understanding of her feelings. It wasn't until Senior Dougal passed away due to natural causes was she able to move on and was able to move on and accept Lord Elphinstone's proposal. They had married and for a brief moment they were extremely happy. They were even trying to have children of their own.
But fate had other plans for her. It didn't last long. Senior Elphinstone was bitten by a venomous tentacula and passed away three days later after suffering immense pain.
The stress from the event caused her a miscarriage. And so ended the line of a pureblood wizarding family on the British Isle. Although senior Elphinstone had a younger brother who in his teenage years had a fight with his parents and ran away from home. There has been no sight of him in thirty years and no children bearing the name Urquhart graced Hogwarts halls. The Urquhart family was considered formally extinct in British Isle.
Extinct in the British Isle because they abhorred and despised inbreeding. And the majority of the families in Britain had become inbred. The Urquhart family too placed some value on blood purity for they did not want to lose prestige and influence and they got around that by arranging marriages to pureblood wizards in foreign land. According to her late husband they even had a bit of veela blood in their veins since they had a few French veela ancestors.
Well that explained the graceful handsomeness and tranquil beauty that the majority of the Urquharts shared. They even had ancestors hailing from Germany, Austria, Hungary and even as far as Spain. This habit of marrying foreigner purebloods from distant land to keep themselves from being inbred brought them immense wealth and knowledge from their foreign kin from all across the globe and along with it the jealousy of the sacred twenty eight. As during the writing of that propaganda based book the seem to scream of pure blooded bigotry Urquharts despite not possessing any half blood or even muggle born ancestors were simply excluded from the book as the ancestor back then had been married to a half veela.
Although all the Sacred twenty eight agreed that they were pureblood without a dispute they simply were not considered 'British' as they had absorbed too much foreign blood and had become for all they considered a 'Mixed Race' family. Their habit of having no kinship with British born pureblood families brought suspicion and scorn for them. Now obviously You could not say that out loud as they have historically held the head of the office of DMLE more than 28 times. Not once or twice but twenty eight times. No single family has held such power and popularity in the ministry's law enforcement department compared to the Urquharts. There had been twenty eight DMLE heads from a single family despite them having near to no kin in Britain. That simply spoke how highly skilled they had been despite near to no say in the political field as that required them to join a faction or align themselves with the purebloods. They had maintained strict neutrality and fairness and many even held the position of judicial officials despite not aligning with any factions. But they were known to be fair and impartial judges. As for a half blood or muggle to face a ministry trial they pray to god for to have an Urquhart to preside over the trial. Because other than that the chance to be exonerated was very slim.
'Fence sitters' the inbred (pureblood) faction used to call them.
'Neutral Arbitrary' the progressive (The fanon light faction as many would like to call) faction called them as they wouldn't hesitate to even judge even a so-called light wizard if there were to be incriminating evidence.
Apparently Elphinstone broke the tradition by marrying her, a talented but half blooded witch. In other words his line from now on would be considered half blood. With the death of her unborn child the family line is formally extinct.
Honestly she always had suspicion about Elphinstone's death. Although Tentacula bite does cause death it isn't as if there isn't an antidote. If the antidote is applied within a few hours than the patient will certainly survive. The plant isn't so dangerous as it is studied even in hogwarts curriculum. However Elphinstone's colleague and partner who is said to have accompanied him during that day was said to be the only eye witness to see him being bitten. Apparently the mediwitch who attended Elphinestone's treatment found nothing odd than tentacula venom and the case was closed as an unfortunate workplace hazard. Regis Nott died in the first wizarding war-a death eater who was killed by the aurors raid. Further cutting off any possibility for investigation.
His son Theodore Nott would be starting Hogwarts this year as would be Harry Potter.
So why On earth did she go on monologuing the past in nostalgia.
It's the letter in her hand and a name written on the list of admittance,
"Baron Delphinestone Urquart
Urquahart castle
Loch Ness"
Baron
A British nobility?
Although her husband's family was formerly a noble family, they lost their land and Title.
They were actually Earl of Highland Council region. That was however in 14 th Century.
For a child to have a lesser ranked noble Title, possessing the same region as his territory, Having the same last name as her husband and have similar first name (Just the E was replaced with D) and residing in the same castle that was supposed to be ruins.
This can't be a coincidence. Did a descendant of the family survive? There was supposed to be a few relatives in the foreign land-
If someone did survive, why did they never contact her? She is currently the key holder of the Urquhart family vault and manages their assets. After her death the gringotts goblin will keep the key until someone with claim to the line comes and claims it.
Although considering he already is a Baron and has procured the castle his ancestor lost he might be already rich and not need it. Maybe he was a newly ennobled one. Regardless if he can prove himself to be a descendent of that clan she will happily hand him over the assets when he graduates Hogwarts. And should he prove to be a real descendent of the clan that would make him her ward and Her his legal guardian. She was an old woman and in no need of wealth. In fact she lives in the castle as such her food and lodging needs no cost. She is relatively wealthy to the point She can retire now and do nothing for the rest of her life and yet have enough savings to pass over to her nephew and nieces. Children to her brothers.
She will not deny her husband's family their rightful legacy.
She could make an assumption that maybe the boy or his family didn't know that he was the descendent of a wizarding family. Maybe they have been living as muggle.
It was also possible he coincidentally has the same name as the castle and chose to buy the property from the government and is coincidentally a wizard. Not so many coincidences sounds a bit ludicrous.
There was also a possibility that he was an orphan. But if he indeed was one then how could he become a baron at such a young age. Regardless of how rich may be, no amount of contribution would wield him a nobility title.
(On hindsight maybe Mcgonagall should have considered that the kid she was going to meet in a few days might just own 8% of Britain's total wealth and was actually an aristocrat that was richer than the Queen. Which gives them all the incentive to ennoble him. As a prepubescent kid regardless of how rich one might be, needs not need to pay any tax. That's a lot of revenue lost. It's a different case if he were to have a noble title and have a legitimate territory to guard which compels him to pay tax and remain loyal to the crown. The government didn't lose anything by giving him the nobility title. In fact the appeal for land returning actually paved a path for them to generate a lot of revenue. In their eyes it was an absolute win. When Delphinestone explained this later Minerva was stunned)
The return later read like this.
"Greetings professor Mccgonagall,
I am honored to inform you that you have been invited to Urquhart for teas and pleasantries. I look forward to your visit to Urquhart Castle By Loch Ness.
Your letter has opened my eyes and made a lot of confusion clear. I would appreciate it if you were to personally visit this humble abode of mine.
I would very much like it if you personally accompany me to diagon alley.
Yours,
Baron Urquahart
Barony of Loch Ness, Highland council"
The letter was short, concise and as one would assume for a noble to write reflecting that he had noble etiquette training and negotiation skills.
Interesting kid.
Thankfully she has been to Loch Ness with her husband. She can apparate there.
When she apparated to castle Uruqhart she saw something she found hard to believe in.
Humble abode
Humble?
Where was the broken reminder of Urquhart castle. There was a new castle in place that was at least one and a half times the size of hogwarts castle.
(Castle picture)
From which point does that look humble to you?
Honestly even before she met the kid he had succeeded to agitate her.
Okay she knew that the kid was a nobility and lived in a castle but isn't this too extravagant for a Baron. One would only think someone with the title of duke to possess this sort of residence.
Suddenly she had this sort of premonition that this kid was going to cause her a lot of trouble.
And this kid hasn't even started hogwarts yet.
As she was about to pass through the front gate she noticed a child walking towards her from the inner section of the castle.
The first distinct thing she noticed about the kid was his hair. No, calling it mane instead of hair would be prudent. Pure white hair Starting from the top of his head to to his heel. A thick side braid. The hair was so wild that no amount of hair gel would tame it.
Honestly outside of albino people or people with some congenital disorder only had white hair.
Or unless their hair has gone white due to stress.
But this kid had hair that seemed perfectly natural colored and was reflecting the healthy light of the midday sun.
As unusual as it may seem it was a natural born hair color. As albino people have pale white skin and red eyes.
His eyes were like molten gold.
The sort that possessed natural warmth.
His skin color however ruled out all the possibility of him being albino. A very healthy tan. As if was done for the beautification process in a tan saloon.
Yet somehow it seemed natural as well.
It was his face that took Mcgonagall's breath away.
If God someday decided that he would participate in a sculpting competition and then took a chisel and hammer to create a sculpture and then animate it by breathing life into it then only perhaps then can this sort of ethereal handsomeness be born.
Compared to this child even a Veela would look like a ugly duckling.
And that mysterious smile.
Mcgonagall was sure if she was even twenty years younger she would have fallen in obsessive love with this kid.
For if the concept of masculine beauty were to take a physical form and incarnate on mortal plane then it was certainly standing in front of her.
And that smile, oh god that awful mysterious smile! As if it was screaming to her 'I know something you don't know.'
And subconsciously Minerva knew that this boy was going to be a troublemaker.
He was wearing a long coat with a vest inside, scarf and pants. Black shoes and a tie. It had a ninth century gentleman vibe to it. Something that can be wore both for a workplace and formal occasion. He had white gloves on his hands. Overall if a noble were to become an auror of the late nineteenth century you would expect him to wear such an outfit. Not a soon to be hogwarts student. They were high quality fabrics. Something you would only see those rich pureblood families wear. They obviously cost a dime.
" Greetings, Minerva Mcgonagall I presume"
A very soothing voice as if someone have poured a hot blanket on top of her soul on a winter night. It was as if bells were ringing. She never knew males could have such a melodic voice.
This kid, he will break a lot of hearts.
"Greetings, Mr. Urquhart I presume"
The boy gave a polite nod.
"Please follow me inside"
As they entered the castle Mcgonagall couldn't help but marvel at the beauty of interiors.
Silver chandeliers, lush carpet and various sculptures. Yet no person or servant.
To maintain a castle as big as this one one would need a lot of servants or house elf.
Yet no one came to greet them
"Honestly, I was expecting a servant to welcome me. Not the lord of the castle himself to come outside and greet me"
"It's okay I live alone by myself. There are no servants in the castle, just me"
"What do you mean you live alone? It would be practically impossible to maintain a castle as big as this one without any manpower" Mcgonagall frowned.
"Hmm….maintenance? If anyone asked me before I received your letter I would say superpower. But Now that your letter cleared the doubt I guess I should call it magic."
Mcgonagall frowned, was this kid pulling her leg, even for a accomplished witch like her it would be impossible to maintain such a large estate all alone. However she decided not to voice it. It would not be prudent to antagonize the boy as it might paint a bad picture and bad impression.
"Where are your parents or siblings? Don't you have any relatives?"
"My parents died soon after my birth. I don't have any siblings or relatives alive that are related by birth. After receiving the land and building the castle I moved in and decorated it myself.''
"Did you inherit the land and title from your parents?"
"Hmm….No I was ennobled"
Honestly nothing made sense. Why on earth would the royal palace ennoble a kid who judging by his age couldn't be more than ten years old.
While ennobling wasn't rare in modern times, someone needed to contribute significantly to the country.
"For contributing to economic prosperity to be precise''
Mcgonagall was startled, "Pardon Me"
"I was ennobled for contributing to economic prosperity."
Mcgonagall was beginning to lose his patience, apparently this boy had the way to get beneath her skin. From the beginning he was giving vague answers that made no sense.
Honestly she was regretting coming here.
Yet she decided to retain her patience and said, "And pray tell what exactly can a ten year old contribute to economy"
The boy tilted his head to the side, honestly he looked like an angel.
" I donated a huge amount of money to orphanages all around Britain. Orphanages, trust fund, cancer institutions, charity fund. I even donated to the queen's treasury, and public fund. I run multiple orphanages with my income alone. I also periodically make donations to countries in Africa, Asia and other third world nations"
Okay so he bought his way into the nobility. Honestly in modern times without serving in the military where gathering merit is arduous there was no viable way to become a nobility. Unless you are a scientist or scholar of great renown that have contributed greatly to countries prosperity, becoming a businessman or an investor and buying your way into the nobility is probably the most viable way.
"Your parents probably left you a lot of wealth'' a logical conclusion.
The boy gave her a wry smile before shaking his head, "My parents only left me a box which was provided to me by the orphanage matron that I was instructed to open only on my eleventh birthday which just happened to be yesterday, upon opening it revealed itself to be a a decorated piece of short stick which upon close inspection revealed itself to be made out of elder wood. Around 15 inches. The only thing special about this fancy piece of stick is that it is practically indestructible, and despite looking like wood it has the same feeling as holding a cold metal, it simply won't bend or break"
That awfully sounds like a wand. A family heirloom perhaps. But what kind of wand can give the feeling of a cold metal? After all as the boy claimed, supposedly it is made out of elder wood. But a wand that can't be broken or bent. Practically indestructible on top. That sort of heirloom can't belong to the small time family. Honestly, him being a descendent of the urquhart family was now more viable than ever. One of the boy's parents might have been a wizard.
" Then where did you get the money form" She really hopes the boy didn't steal it or she would simply leave him a potential relative or not and never let him set foot on the hogwarts ground.
"Oh! I won the lottery. Well, more like I provided my pocket savings to the matron to buy the national lottery and told her to buy that particular ticket and no other ticket other than that. After winning the lottery which was 750 million pound solid cash she deposited it in my child's account. I donated around 100 million pound directly to the orphanage. That woman is a saint, I tell you. To happily hand over that much money to a kid without greed or remorse only showed how selfless she could be. That sort of thing needs to be rewarded, no?....."
Honestly Minerva didn't care about the amount of money the boy won or the amount he donated, The only thing that kept coming to her mind was "That particular ticket"
"What did you mean by that particular ticket?" she half whispered.
The boy seemed to have a sharp hearing so he picked up anyway and continued to speak. Minerva had a hard time digesting this.
"Oh you know the one bearing the number that kept appearing in my vision. Honestly It started a lot earlier. It started when I saw Barnie with a broken leg set in a cast I thought I was probably hallucinating. And I had an epiphany, an instinctive ability to tell that this had yet to happen but unless something is done about it will certainly happen. I tried warning Barnie but he laughed at me and just called me creep, freak and other mean things and when he broke his leg in the final match of the inter school football tournament he kept telling everyone that I was the one who broke his leg and that I was demon and antichrist. Then I kept trying to convince Penelope to not go to the swimming competition in Ireland and she might have an accident. She broke my nose. So when she almost drowned during the competition and had to be taken to the hospital
She came back and joined Barnie in bullying me. Honestly it got so bad to the point that I realized I cannot stay hereI needed to move out. But I didn't have the money. Then that ticket number started appearing in my mind…."
"You are a seer?" Mcgonagall was truly astonished. Honestly constant fake prophecies and false predictions from Trwaelny that never came true ruined all the respect she had for divination and she subconsciously began to see all seers and so-called prophets as charlatan. But here she is meeting a potential young seer who climbed his way to success with his prophetic powers. Albeit it made his childhood harder if his attempt to help others was only misinterpreted and resulted in receiving scorn and contempt. Now she felt bad for suspecting the boy.
He was actually a kind kid wasn't he?
They have reached the dining hall. As she took a seat she noticed snacks laid in front of the table.
"You knew I was coming?" She asked curiosity peeking.
" I was waiting for you actually" The boy said with a cryptic smile.
She picked up the tea cup.
It was hot with vapor coming out of it.
The timing was too perfect to be a coincidense. There was rwo cup of tea indicating that he knew she would come alone.
Darjeeling Autumn Flush Crop Milk tea.
Cadbury biscuits.
Eclair cakes.
All her three favorite afternoon snacks.
Under no circumstances can this be coincidence.
Not when the boy claimed he had the ability to see the future.
He might just be the genuine deal.
She took a sip.
He got the blend right.
No he didn't get it right, he got it perfect. She would dare say that he got it better than her. A piece of eclair cake as well as she started chewing-
Her eyes widened.
The world exploded into multitude of colors. An explosion of tastes in her mouth.
For a single moment she was in the embrace of senior Elphinestone again. Summer air and warm sunshine touched her skin as if all her wrinkles disappeared and she regained her youth. As if she was holding his hand walking on the road of hogsmeade.
Than the next moment she was back in the dining hall of the castle. She realized she had finished her food.
She was glaring at the cake or the lack of it…
There's no way this could have been made by human hand. She refused to believe that. No human being on earth can create a food this perfect. This could never have been created by muggle food making skills.
She instantly pulled out her wand to check if the food was drugged. If it wasn't then reveal what manner of charm was used to make this food. Even Helga Hufflepuff the creator of charms related to food making and culinary arts could never hope to make something that could be said to have been sent down from heaven to earth.
The Scarpin Revelation spell result came negative.
Specialist Revilio also came negative.
Then she started pulling out the big guns. Special spells for detecting whether the food has been laced with a special sort of potion or charms like love potion and love charms.
Okay now she was plain embarrassing herself in front of a kid who is possibly her relative and future student. There's no way a kid who didn't even know what magic was and mistook them for superpower could actually pull out such complex potions and spells and it was plain as day that it was her who was overreacting.
But such skills in culinary arts. Was this even humanly possible? This soft eclair cake, its taste, its texture- this is not possible even with magic. It has reached the domain of god without any cooking charm or food charm. Simply through the hand of an eleven year old seer.
Honestly for a brief moment the evil thought of convincing him to go to culinary school instead of Hogwarts came to mind before her sense of rationality that had been banished to the far corner of mind returned like an angry dog with a baseball bat in its hand and bonked it to outer space.
The boy actually claimed to be able to see the future and actually used it to buy his way to success.
So that earlier statement of being able to use magic wandlessly to clean and maintain the entire castle might also be true as ludicrous as it sounds.
"Anything more that you have noticed to be odd about yourself" lets dig the grave she dug herself a bit deeper so that no one hears her whimpering when she starts lamenting.
The boy Hummed.
"I can read minds. That is how I escaped and avoided my bullies. Although sometimes I get a bit unlucky. Occasionally this power slips my control and I unintentionally end up becoming a voyeur."
"Legilimency"
"Pardon me?"
"It's called legilimency . Wizards find it offensive to use the muggle term "Mind Reading". So they call it the art of mental navigation. The opposite is called the art of mind shielding. Or simply Occlumency. You happen to be a natural born legilimancer."
"Umm I don't know if it's normal among wizards but I can transform into others if I wish to. I used it to avoid my bullies. And there was that one time I used it to set up two of my teachers in elementary school for a date. Those two had feelings for each other but were too shy to admit it. So I decided to take the initiative. Last time I heard Ms. Aerith and Mr. Kane got married and was expecting a child."
Minerva's mind came to a halt.
Transform into others. Oh dear why does that sound so familiar.
She got up from her chair and put both her hands on the boy's shoulder.
"Show me"
"Eh!"
"Show me" She narrowed his eyes.
So far all the abilities he had spoken of were things that had no concrete proof as they cannot be seen or touched. But before she started lamenting her life choices there should be at least be some proof .
The kid looked at her with wide eyes and nodded dumbly.
Then his hair began to shorten. His skin color began to change before his hair arranged itself to a bun and wrinkles appeared. And lo and behold the boy had become a perfect replica of herself.
Minerva's face was like a monk who had reached moksha.
Before the boys face transformed back to his original.
"Metamorphmagus, that's the name of the ability you have there'' Her voice was shaking. She was adamant in not showing any weakness.
"Oh I can also transform into a bird"
Minerva only looked at him with a face that was devoid of thought.
She only waved her hand asking him to demonstrate.
Natural born animagus are a thing of legend often considered a rumor. It was said the animagus potion ritual was created by studying and observing their powers.
And this was one of the natural born abilities that guarantees you a place in the chocolate frog card.
So the boy transformed.
That's not a bird.
Okay technically it was a bird.
But…..
Minerva sighed, her confidence and pride in herself completely shattered as she kept gazing at the ceiling.
By her side the phoenix turned boy kept chirping happily.
She gazed back at the floor. With Harry Potter also coming this year…..
She sighed again.
The next seven years are going to be quite hard.
She can feel it in her bones.
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