48 Ch 18 The Trip Part 1
Sirius was in the enormous training room of his manor and standing in front of a wall on which a series of runes were drawn with some space between them. Every rune had a distinct function and Sirius had enlisted Remus's help in making them work. The runes were sketched with special ink and needed a touch of magic every time Sirius required to use them.
The runes were designed so that Sirius could measure various aspects of his body like his speed, strength, and other physical attributes. And the reason he needed them was that he found out that, as he became adept at controlling his half-grim form, he gradually got stronger and faster with time. So he felt that he needed them to take notes every now and then to keep track of his progress and figure out what worked and what didn't.
"Here goes nothing—" Sirius said while taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, standing in front of one of the first runes. He accessed his inner place and found two glowing orbs hanging there each representing his animagus forms. He gravitated toward the bigger one and gently stirred up his Beerus form.
Sirius felt his bones and muscles strengthen as his body grew more streamlined and buff and he felt himself brimming with power. He remained calm, resisting the temptation to revel in his newfound strength, and the moment he felt his nails growing and hairs lengthening on his arms; he utilized extreme control to halt the transformation at that exact point.
He opened his eyes and holding onto that form punched with all his might at the rune on the wall, and he felt his knuckle hit with a loud sound but he felt no pain as if he was hitting the wall but the wall wasn't hitting him back (Magic was even subverting newton's law here).
The last time he had measured his attributes was about ten days ago and he had obtained very satisfying results with his strength being five times as much as a peak human and his explosive speed being three times as much so he was looking forward to finding out how much he had improved in the last one and a half weeks.
As he was looking at the rune calculating the number, he heard a familiar popping sound from behind him before he turned around and found Kreacher standing there, "Master, someone is at the door," the elf announced
"Who?" Sirius asked puzzled, as he knew that it was too early for Remus to be home and no one knew about this place except for him and Dumbledore and he knew that Headmaster is too polite to arrive unannounced.
"It's a witch and she is asking for White,"
"A witch?" Sirius was alarmed now, as he knew that it couldn't be a neighbor since no one lived around for miles and miles, and more importantly "White," was the name he used when he used the disguise with glamour on his face which meant that it was someone he didn't want knowing his real name. And the one thing that disturbed him the most was that the ward around the home didn't even alert him about someone entering the perimeter.
His mind was coming up with various possibilities from horrible ones like Aurors standing at the doors to take him to Azkaban to delightful ones like a group of college girls being stranded on their vacation. With his senses now alert and heightened Sirius left the training room holding his wand tightly in his hand and went toward the living room.
The moment he looked at the person standing on his doorstep through the one-way glass on his door, he reflexively hid his face back immediately.
The one standing outside his house was the last person he expected as he knew that he would never give her his home address. Sirius took another peek and saw that she was still standing outside but he saw that she was quickly getting impatient and Sirius knew that she wasn't the kind of person who go back if no one came out. Instead, she was the kind to break into the house to check if someone's home or if they were pretending.
After brainstorming for a few moments, and concluding that the only thing he could do was face the problem head-on, Sirius took a deep breath and went toward the door. Of course, he didn't forget to apply glamour on his face first before going out toward the door.
"I thought you were never going to open the door," Celine said with a smirk the moment he opened the door. She was standing there wearing muggle clothes which were the height of fashion in the 90s.
"What are you doing here?" Sirius asked with a frown and continued before she could get a word in, "No! More importantly, How in Merlin's name did you even find my place?"
Ever since the incident where they had both been tied up upside down due to Beth's ward, Sirius didn't have much interaction with her at all. Every time she saw him when he went to Beth's house for his lessons she would grit her teeth and mutter curses under her breath.
And then Eventually, unable to bear his presence, she would silently slip out of the room after a while of watching what he was learning. And Sirius was very busy planning his trip to Herpo's tomb, so he didn't bother with her either and instead focused on learning as much as possible from Beth.
"Shouldn't you welcome me inside first," Celine asked with a smile and a raised eyebrow before ignoring his questions and entering through the door rudely, "Don't you know its impolite to keep your guest standing at your door,"
"It's also impolite to come to people's houses uninvited," Sirius asked, with his eyebrow twitching, while looking at the woman moving in his living room and looking around curiously without care, "And don't ignore my question. How did you even find this place?"
"Oh that," She answered airily while unreservedly taking a seat on the sofa, "I left a little tracker on you the last time you were at my granny's place,"
"What?! When did you—" Sirius asked alarmed. He quickly waved his wand over his body with a revealing spell and found an impossibly faint spell on his shirt which he removed immediately, he didn't stop there and searched vigorously for if there were any more, "Why would you do something like this and not just ask for the address like a normal person," he asked frustratedly.
"Where's the fun in that," Celine said smugly before looking at him still searching, and said, "Don't worry, I only put one tracker on you. By the way nice place, you got here. I never took you for the type of person to live on such an empty island,"
Sirius took a deep breath and stopped himself from saying the first thing that came to his mind and instead asked with forced politeness, "Do you mind telling me how you bypassed my wards?"
"That was very easy," Celine said with a smirk, "Your ward has an exception for animals interweaved in it so I just had to use that loophole for it to consider me an animal. It was a neat little trick that works most of the time for the old wards,"
"That is..." Sirius was disturbed, while he knew that as a famous Cursebreaker's granddaughter, Celine was talented, he was still perturbed at how easily she was able to break in. Sirius decided that the first thing he would do after he chased the problem away would be to upgrade them, "Why are you here?"
"Oh! Finally, you ask the most important question," Celine said with a smile and clapped her hands excitedly, "I gathered over the weeks that you are training under my grandmother to prepare for a trip to a dangerous tomb and it has to be an important one if granny's teaching you so seriously,"
"What does it matter to you?" Sirius asked, taking a seat in front of her, not denying anything as he knew that it was pointless since she could find out about it anytime from Beth.
"Well, I was supposed to go on a trip to an assignment for a few months but it got canceled at the last moment due to some reasons," She said waving her hand away before her face brightened up, "So I am free for a few months and I thought that since you don't look like someone who has any experience with these things, I decided to help you out,"
"And why in Merlin's name would you help me?" Sirius asked skeptically.
"Of course, for the Commission! What else?" Celine said with a raised eyebrow as if he was asking a stupid question, "Whatever we find I get 70% of that no matter if it's gold, ancient artifacts, or forgotten magic,"
"What! 70%!" Sirius said in a high-pitched voice while standing up abruptly, "Why the hell would I even agree to that ridiculous price?"
"Why are you getting your knickers in the twist for," Celine said tilting her head calmly, "It's not ridiculous at all in fact It's the standard price we get to take and protect an amateur into dangerous ruins or tombs,"
"I am not an amateur!" Sirius said indignantly, "And not that I am agreeing to anything, even if I was I am the one who actually knows where the tomb is so No Thanks! I don't want your 30%. Instead, I will just learn from Beth like I was before and go on my own as I was going to,"
"As if! At the pace you are learning right now it will be a miracle if you become competent enough before a couple of years have passed," Celine scoffed before she leaned forward and said consideringly, "You are my granny's student so I can consider giving you an acquaintance discount and only take 60%,"
The amount of time she said stopped Sirius in his tracks for a moment and he started thinking about her proposal seriously. He didn't want to wait that long before going on that journey as a lot of things could seriously go wrong.
After considering the pros and cons of the situation for a while Sirius decided that it would be better for him and for Harry to go to the tomb as soon as possible.
"How about this?" Sirius said after a while, "If we find any artifacts and gold we divide it according to your specification but all the books and scrolls of knowledge we find go to me, No questions asked," Sirius had enough money in his vault that he had no need for anymore so he prioritized the things he needed at the moment.
"Deal!" Celine said immediately, she was ready to haggle a lot more so she was happy that he agreed at that ridiculous that was more appropriate for a team of curse-breakers instead of a lone one so she agreed before he could take it back.
"So?" Celine asked excitedly, "Where is it? Whose is it?"
Sirius looked into her eyes seriously and said in a grave tone, "Have you heard of the Greek guy "Herpo the Foul," Celine's eyes immediately widened at the name of the legendary Ancient Dark wizard.
