002 First Year
My birth was not a beautiful sight, though I didn't see much, my head hurt and everything was blurry, but my other senses worked well. I was surrounded by a strange smell that I could not define, it was a mixture of different smells that I knew... but together they were overwhelming. I also felt the taste of blood in my mouth... blood. This taste cannot be confused with anything else, sometimes it has a metallic aftertaste, sometimes it is earthier... but blood is blood... so many memories and seems like ages ago.
Once one of my contractors in China ordered a few kilos of "white", but he refused to pay. Well, actually he wanted to pay once we kidnapped him... but renting a warehouse, hiring doctors, a lot of preparation would be wasted... in the end he paid, though lost his right arm, one leg and tongue, it was a miracle that he survived... a year later I found out that he's out of business, three shots to the back of the head... suicide.
Suddenly I felt a slap in the ass that took me out of my thoughts... instinctively I started to cry... how embarrassing. I haven't cried in years, even when Somali pirates pierced my knee with a drill.
"Boy! Thank you honey, you gave me a son... no, we have a son." I still didn't see much, but I heard a man's voice, it was probably my father. "How are we going to call him?" It was my mother's voice, tired and exhausted but also joyful. "I thought for a long time. Maybe Sambor after your father and Therion, after my uncle Aleister... Sambor Therion Twardowski."
Fuck! I was sure that I would have problems at school. With such a name... it could only be worse if I was born ginger.
A few months have passed since I left my mother's womb... from the conversations I overheard, I learned that I was born in Poland, in 1980 in a small town near the Crooked Forest. It was both good and bad news... good because I was born far away from Hogwarts. I wanted to live prosperous and comfortable life, and not get involved in stupid wars waged by autistic wizards... but my place and time of birth had a dark side as well, 1980 Poland was a communist country, and martial law would be imposed in 1981, standard arrests and murder of the opposition. I wasn't sure how these events would affect the local magic world. In theory, each minister of magic has collaborated with his counterpart in the muggle world.
However, at that moment I couldn't do anything about it, or find out anything for sure... my day was mainly filled with three things: sleeping, shitting and eating, sometimes for fun and more emotions I combined two of these things... I felt that I was living on the edge.
Things got complicated when I was one year old... it turned out that my grandparents actively supported Grindelwald, for which they paid with their lives. Though my parents were not involved in this, they were under surveillance by the Ministry of Magic... but the actions of my grandparents were probably not the only reason... one time I was able to see my family tree, it was surprising. Apart from Jan Twardowski, who was my ancestor, Aleister Crowley was on one of the tree branches, but that was not the most shocking... Francesco Prelati, a 15th century Italian wizard and alchemist, was there too, he became famous when together with Gilles de Rais, sacrificed 200 children, mainly boys, trying to summon a demon... One conclusion could be drawn from this. My family liked to summon various dangerous beings or demons to make pacts with them.
From the observations I made, my family was wealthy, but not rich, and that meant they had too little for me to live comfortably and without fear for the future. So I had to come up with a plan how to get rich quickly, both in the world of muggoli and magic... It would be a good idea to trade in weapons, in a little over 10 years the USSR will collapse and their weapons warehouses will open, but realistically, no one will trade with an eleven-year-old child, I also had no contacts in this world. Drugs, antiques, electronics, gold and other commodities... same problem, I was too young and I was nobody. Legal investments? I did not have cash for them, and although my parents had some gold, I doubt whether they would entrust it to a child to manage them. Conclusion, the Muggle world remains unavailable to me, for now.
The magical world was a mystery to me, I didn't understand their economics, each magical community had its own currency, this was mainly related to the name, because all wizards used gold, silver and bronze. There was only one bank, run by goblins with branches in each country, the perfect monopoly. Ministries and officials controlled everything, a seemingly democratic community, it was just a facade to nepotism, corruption and oligarchy... but that didn't bother me, I was going to be at the top of this pyramid, at least that was my plans.What a mess... but somehow it worked.
One thing that was missing in the magic world, and it was immediately noticeable, was the lack of innovation and technological advancement. Most wizards could apparate, but they used owls to deliver letters and parcels. There were no smartphones, radio or television, as if one day the magical world stopped in place and did not know how to move again... and that was my starting point, if I manage to introduce some groundbreaking invention, the path to my goals will be easier.
In the evenings, lying in my cradle, I tried to cast spells known to me from books and movies, but without success. I wasn't sure at what age the magic power appears in children, some called it mana, others the magic core... I didn't notice anything like that, I was an ordinary child.