21 21. Wotcher!
Ryan finished looking into Aria's presentation on rituals according to the information he found in the Black Library. He glanced at the clock in his study and saw it was close to noon. He had been visiting Tonks's residence daily for the past 3 months, and sometimes Andromeda came to visit here herself to look at Ryan's work for the day.
She had come to tell him about occulmacy but was surprised when Ryan told her he had mastered it already, especially when she saw his mental shields, which she admitted were much better than hers.
Andromeda came to the conclusion that Ryan was a talented natural occulmens, which also explained his frightening retention capabilities since he remembered all words he read from the books, and even her movements in potion making, which he was able to replicate perfectly.
Ryan couldn't say anything to her praises, as he didn't know how to explain that he wasn't talented, but a cheat existence. Ryan was able to sense the magical fluctuations of all ingredients in the potion when it was brewing and was able to brew perfect potions due to that.
He had also witnessed Andromeda teasing her banshee aunt while her portrait yelled in silence due to the silencing charm, as Ryan didn't want a headache due to his sensitive ears. It was the starting week of May, which was the end of the Hogwarts semester.
This is why he was preparing himself to meet Ted and Andy's daughter, the metamorphmagus herself, Nymphadora Tonks.
"Kreacher." He called.
"*pop* Lord Black called for Kreacher?" Kreacher asked after appearing.
"Yes, bring me the box containing the rings from my workshop" Ryan ordered, and Kreacher went away and reappeared with a box containing 3 rings, all with the symbol of House Black. The original rings had contained some nasty curses for those who didn't have black blood, so he couldn't provide Ted one, so Ryan and Aria worked to make better rings than before.
They contained stones which were his crystalized mana, and not wizarding magic, which would render all attacks and space barriers useless if activated. And it also contained traces of resurrection stones he was able to add, providing resistance to soul-based attacks like Avada Kedavra. There were multiple detection and purification spells on it as well to protect its wearer and keep them healthy. There were many hidden functions as well, but Ryan hoped they would never come to use.
"Thank you, watch over the palace." Ryan took the box and said.
"Kreacher is always happy to serve master" Kreacher bowed and said. Kreacher had gotten much younger due to forming a bond with Ryan and had become completely loyal to him. Ryan had also asked Kreacher to find a dead elf corpse, which he bought from the basement where one was preserved for some reason, but Ryan didn't gain any boons from it as his mana manipulation was a much more high-level skill than a house elf.
Ryan did get it as a shadow, which he fused with some wizard shadows to get a caster elf shadow, which was one of his strongest shadows now, on an equal level with the mutant ant shadow he was created to evolve into Beru.
He made 5 other unique shadows as well The first was the mixture of a kelpie, a giant serpent, and the giant water salamander shadows.
The second was of Fenrir Greyback combined with some werewolves, vampires, wizards, a Garphorn, Forest Wolves, Electrobyte Salamanders, Firedrakes, and a bone-spiked roller, which transformed him into a hunched wolf-dragon creature that could generate bone-spikes throughout his body and throw them, and also detonate them, which reminded me of creatures from Monster Hunter.
The third was an acromantula, a vampire, some grindylows, and some frost shell snails, making it into a nightmarish creature similar to a titan from Godzilla, but much-much shorter.
The fourth was the giant venus fly trap combined with various venomous tentacula's, devil's snares, and giant crocodiles from a river, making something similar to a plant-lizard hybrid, but again, much-much smaller than the one he referenced.
And the fifth was the combination of many trolls and wizards, making him look like Tusk from Jin-Woo's original army.
He hadn't given names to them yet, but still referred to his shadows as
1. Gandalf: the elf sorcerer
2. Beru: The assassin ant
3. Jima: the water serpent
4. Xeno: the volcanic wolf
5. Scylla; the frost widow
6. Lante: The poisonous rose, and
7. Tusk: The Casting Berserker.
The rest were insects that he used for spying, ant-soldiers he created by fusing multiple ants with muggle shadows, wolfmen from the fusion of werewolves and other species of magical wolves as he did not like lanky wolves, vampires, wizards, and some magical creatures like Acromantulas, troll's, etc.
Ryan was now looking into Scamander's book to get shadows that he could fuse to create some familiar creatures from his previous life. For example, he had plans to look for a Runespoor and a dragon to create a mini Gidorah, or a Cerberus and earth dragon to evolve his shadow into a true Zinogre and similar creatures.
Ryan had plans to create one flying and one tanky shadow for his army, but flying magical creatures were too rare. Even Harpies were hard to come by, but he was looking for them. Litsening to the clock chime, Ryan pushed his little fusion project away and teleported away to leave for Tonks's residence.
He faded into their garden and came out of stealth, then rung the bell. The door was opened by a girl about 16 with bright pink hair and a cute-round face, which looked very much like Andromeda but gave off a more rebellious than refined look.
"Ah, you must be 'She who must not be named' Tonks. I am Ryan, your cousin. Nice to meet you." Nymphadora, who had just come back and was told by her mother that a relative was going to come did not expect a kid to introduce himself with a joke. She snapped out of her shock when she heard her father's laugh behind her.
"Hah, that's a good one. Good to see you, Ryan." Ted spoke while chuckling. He turned to her daughter and said, "As you have guessed, this is my daughter Nymphadora"
"Don't call me that"
"She's a bit rebellious, but I know you both would get along well"
Dora glared at her father, then turned to Ryan and spoke, "Wotcher, the name's Dora, not whatever he said. Nice to meet you cuz-who-came-outta-nowhere." She said, trying to get back at him for teasing her.
"NYMPHADORA!" The three heard Andromeda yell in anger, which Ryan guessed was because she thought he would feel hurt hearing that or something similar, and chuckled.
"Well, come inside. Dora, go arrange the table before your mum gets madder." Ted said, and Dora's hair turned white and she darted to the dining room.
"Huh, she's... expressive," Ryan muttered, amused.
"That she is," Ted chuckled as well. They entered and saw Dora quickly arrange food while Andromeda glared at her from behind.
"Afternoon Aunt Andy" Ryan spoke, and Andromeda's expression immediately softened seeing him.
"Ryan, welcome home. How was your day?" She asked seeing him.
"So far so good. Managed to complete my most recent project as well." He smiled and said.
"Your project?" Ted asked with a raised brow.
"I'll show you after lunch." He spoke and Andromeda guided him to the table. They washed their hands and sat at the table. "So, I heard you completed your sixth year. Feel old yet?" Ryan asked with a smirk.
"Don't know, but I do have the privilege to order a few firsties around as a prefect." She said, supporting a smirk of her own. Ryan chuckled and continued eating.
"Nymphadora, any problems in classes?" Andy asked.
Dora suppressed her urge to correct her and spoke, "No, they are smooth sailing." Andy nodded hearing that.
"Why do you want to be an auror?" Ryan asked, curious.
"Of course, to protect people who can't protect themselves, like James Potter and Professor Dumbledore." Ryan nodded hearing her. His personal bias aside, the public image of James Potter and Albus Dumbledore could indeed be called role models one should follow.
"Give it your best, I'm sure you will succeed with flying colors," Ryan spoke.
"Thanks." Dora nodded with a smile. Ted and Andromeda smiled and they continued their lunch.
After that Andromeda had Dora tell Ryan about many things in Hogwarts, from quidditch to the professors and the castle, about her fun times with friends, as well as the house system, and Ryan asked a few questions in between.
"So be careful of your actions in the potions class, or he would shower you with detentions and take all your house points," Dora told him about Snape.
"That doesn't sound like something a teacher should do." Ryan frowned and said.
"They say Professor Snape is very trusted by the headmaster so that's why he kept him on the job even after the complaints. Plus, the children of most of the important wizarding families are in Slytherin, so no big reason has been given to kick him out." Dora explained what she knew from the Hogwarts rumor mill. Ryan nodded and didn't continue. Andromeda gave desserts after which Ryan pulled out a shrunken box and placed it on the table.
"Is this your project?" Ted asked, curious.
"Yup," Ryan said and opened the box, showing three black and silver rings with the house symbol on them.
