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Hogwarts
–Damian Hawthorne–
His eyes snapped open as awareness returned to him instantly, his body feeling energised and well rested despite it still being dark outside. Sighing, he got up, kind of lost as to what to do now. Him being who he was, he barely needed 3 hours of sleep as long as he was not pushed past his limit and was not absolutely exhausted.
That was not a problem before. In fact, it was a blessing for him as it gave him more time to work with the sleep issue becoming a negligent entry in his work schedule. But that was for when he was living in his own lair. Where he had a seemingly endless list of things to do, and could flex his magical muscle as much as he could for as long as he wanted to, without any disturbance whatsoever.
That was not the case here. First off, he could still feel that magical domain of sorts, the seamless merging of wards governed by a central entity into an area of absolute supremacy. Well, at least for the likes of him. Some absurdly powerful people should be able to fight their way out of this, but doing so ran the risk of just shattering the leylines running below, should Hogwarts decide that it was going to go down swinging.
That came with its own can of worms that no self aware mage on the planet would ever want to mess with. If someone did that and the world came to know of them, well then, let's just say there wouldn't be much left by the time someone like the Ancient One reached them. They would find themselves cursed by Mother Magic herself, with whoever killed them receiving a blessing straight from Magic herself.
Even pinnacle wizards like Dumbledore would absolutely trip over themselves for that blessing because that came with not just an overall power boost but also an elevated understanding of magic and its role in the universe. That was priceless.
All those factors culminated in making Hogwarts either an unbreachable or undesirable place, cementing its place in the global magical world. It was one of its kind as well, sitting on top of all four ley lines that ran through Magical Britain, becoming the symbol of magic for the country. It was likely that all magic cast in the country would weaken had it not been for Hogwarts' presence.
That weakened magic will then lead to a weakened magical ecosystem that leads to sub par magical products that eventually lead to a weakened as well as reduced generation of wizards. A domino effect that could, in theory, lead to the outright extinction of a Magical Country, which is why someone like Dumbledore would never relinquish his post as the protector of Hogwarts as long as he was alive.
All of that worked out great for Hogwarts, Dumbledore, Magical Britain, and all the wizards that call this place their home, but it also meant that he would not be able to use his magic freely inside these Castle wards. For as long as he did that, there was a chance that Hogwarts and by extension, Dumbledore would come knocking, and that knock was not something he needed right now.
Once he was out of the system and well on his way to Kamar Taj to become a badass Sorcerer, then sure, he would not mind answering a couple of Dumbledore's questions. Until then, he needed to lie low, and lying low meant minimal magic usage, not showing any proficiency above average, not drawing attention either from the faculty or the students, and keeping any magical shenanigans to the absolute minimum.
For someone like him, who was basically a magical free bird with no supervision whatsoever, save for that one time the Ancient One decided to send a sand clone to compliment his ward structure and the nascent Genius Loci he tried to install there, it was worse than hell. He had to constantly keep his magic in check, twitching as he instinctively tried to use his magic for everything.
The most common of which was trying to connect to the ward scheme around him using his magic, as was common when he was back in his Lair. It was something that relaxed him so much that it was hard to express in words. His body and magic was used to that which is why he had to clamp down on the urge to try to do the same here.
For one, this was Hogwarts' wards and not his lair wards, which was basically a sperm compared to this behemoth that had grown over the course of a thousand years. The sheer number of different functions, different data feeds, different areas of effect, along with the magical creatures under its umbrella, was sure to knock even him catatonic, if he did not have something like the Headmaster's position to blunt that edge and take that information in sips rather than drown in it.
Secondly, Hogwarts might construe that as an attack, as an attempt to take over, and well, that will not go well for him, even with his range of all out magical attacks. The Castle just had multiple ley lines' worth of magic to pump into thousand year old robust wards, and it was just not something he could match up to without something like an Infinity Stone on his side.
Shaking his head, he pulled his luggage out from under his bed, and took out something he never thought he would buy in his life. Weighted vests and weights. Gym weights specifically. He did not expect Hogwarts to have a gym of any kind, so he had to buy his own this time, and what a disappointment it was.
He was frankly spoiled for choice by his enchanted gym he built for himself back in his Lair. On top of having weights that allowed him a full range of motion and could be adjusted for weight with a mental flick, the gym also had a gravity adjustment that just made the workouts that much better.
Sure, he was only 11 right now, and when he began, he was barely 10, but he didn't choose the gym life, the gym life chose him. Plus, he figured that it would be fine to do lightweights at first with his enhanced body. If he could shake off the strain of high level magic and high intensity combat with chained teleportation sequences without much issue, then he could do some light weight training.
And as it turned out, he was right. Only his body was even stronger than he imagined it to be. He could easily do weight training that most grown men would never dare imagine doing. Even then, he knew he could push for more, but he was taking it slow for now, keeping his age in mind. Instead of pushing for more weights, he just increased gravity in the gym little by little to the point that he could move in about 3 times Earth's gravity with little to no issue.
All of that helped him reach the point of exhaustion much quicker, on days when he was engrossed into experiments and had not used his magic or body much, so that he could help better and quicker, so much so that it had become a habit of sorts, to just hop into the gym late at night so he could get a quick sweat in before heading to bed, tired in a good way.
Now that he had to do the same here, only with completely non magical equipment, he was certain that it was not going to be the same, but nevertheless, he had to try, only to maintain the habit of lifting weights.
Putting on multiple vests and lifting the biggest weights he could lift without coming off as a freak to anyone watching, he began doing the very boring task of exercise. After what felt like forever, he just dropped the dumbbell and sat on the ground, not even winded with barely any sweat forming.
Part of that was due to the room being just at the right temperature, pleasantly cold, just like he liked it, but also because the weights were just too light for them to be of any use. Checking his clock, he saw he'd crossed the 4 AM mark sometime during his so-called exercise and sighed in relief, as that meant he could go up and leave the dorms.
The Great Lake was massive, with a walking path to boot. A couple dozen high speed rounds should help a little, he thought to himself as he put on his shoes and went down to the common room.
Thankfully, there was no one present, with everything neat and tidy, probably cleaned by the House Elves, so he just took a moment to look out the giant windows and then headed out. The common room was nice, with a small library as well, but he could do reading sessions later on. That was what the Hogwarts Library was for.
Having memorised the short path, he thought he was headed the right way, only to turn around a corner and find himself facing an armoured statue, with a gleaming weapon that reeked of magic. Well, everything in here reeked of magic, even the food and the water, but he knew from memory about the statues and how they were part of the defense strategy of Hogwarts.
Shaking his head, he turned around, trying to trace his path back to the Dorms to see where he was mistaken, only to take another turn and find himself facing a washroom that was most definitely not there before. Sighing, he realised that he was lost, with only one way to ask for help.
Clearing his throat, he clearly asked, "Any House Elf bonded to Hogwarts, can you please help me?" It was free to be polite, especially to creatures who were far stronger than people thought them to be. It was just their mentality that made people underestimate them.
See, due to the sheer difference in ambient magic between Hogwarts and outside, his senses were a little unreliable here, registering false positives all the time, but this time, he felt it. A small speck of magic, encompassed by a seemingly unlimited source of magic, popped right in front of him. That part was expected, representing the magic of the House Elves bonded with Hogwarts. What was not expected, however was the voice that greeted him.
"What do you need?" The voice was rough, deep, and the question asked in a curt tone, completely different from what he expected a House Elf to talk like, from both his past knowledge and from how they were portrayed in written works in this universe.
He looked down and had to do a double take as he saw an elderly House Elf, with a sparkling clean pillow cover as clothing, standing upright and looking up at him. What made him do the double take, however, was the cigar in his lips. The smoke curled in front of him before it disappeared, the spike of magic from the Elf telling him who was responsible for that.
Getting over his shock, he replied, "Um, I need to go for a run, around the Great Lake. I memorised the path from last night but–"
"Ah, that's Hoggy's doing. She wants everyone to be asleep till at least sunrise. I suppose she thinks I am an exception to that rule," Was he… Did he just complain about Hogwarts?
Shaking his head, the Elf snapped his finger, discarding or banishing the cigar, and extended his hand towards him. When he gave the hand a confused look, the elf clarified, "Much faster this way. Now, come on, I don't have all day. Someone has to start preparing the food for the screaming brats."
Extremely confused and wondering whether all of this was a dream, he hesitantly took the Elf's tiny hand, and the next moment, they were on top of a well manicured lawn. Looking at the Great Lake, he turned, "Thank…" Only to find the Elf gone, "...you."
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