Chapter 17 - 17. Into The Magical World
That same evening, after making a call in advance, Bobby\'s parents arrived at Magnus\' home. Magnus\' grandparents were also there and it looked very lively with so many people.
"Bobby, come with me. Let\'s go to my room." Magnus called his friend who shyly sat between his parents.
Bobby looked at his mum and she nodded. So, he happily went upstairs with him.
"So, are your parents okay with the money or not? Don\'t tell me they came to give it back." Magnus asked.
Bobby explained, "They have agreed but they want to ask your mum and dad if they approve of this."
"Hmm, then I guess there won\'t be a problem. Come, I will show you the portrait... of wait... I will let you feel it. I still don\'t know how to make you see it." Magnus said.
Bobby was obviously excited about this. So, when Magnus took out the painting from behind his bed, Bobby started touching it all over.
"I hope I won\'t be called a paedophile for this. Remember, it was not me who started it." Arthur\'s voice came. He had learned all kinds of new vocabulary due to being hung in a place with too many public interactions.
"What\'s a paedophile?" Magnus asked.
*Cough* "Although you are too young, you should know such things. Little Magnus, Paedophiles are those degenerate adults who are attracted towards children... in an adult way..." he explained.
Magnus\' eyes widened. He understood what he meant by "in an adult way". He had seen some magazines he was not too proud of and knew some stuff he could not talk about with his parents.
"What are you talking about, Mag?" Bobby asked with a tilted head.
Magnus looked at where Bobby\'s hand rested on the portrait, "BOBBY, move your hand away. T-That\'s where the man in portrait\'s pee-pee is."
"EWWWW... Pervert..." Bobby pulled his arm back quickly.
"Hey, it wasn\'t me." Arthur voiced.
"Why can\'t he see you, Arthur?" Magnus asked.
"How would I know? Maybe because he is not magical or something like that?" Arthur guessed. He was also a muggle so his magical knowledge was limited to what he saw Merlin performing.
"Were you able to see moving portraits when you were alive?" Magnus inquired.
"Hmmm... now that you mentioned it, yes I did see a few of them, well, there were only a few ever made back then." Arthur went deep into thinking and started mumbling.
Magnus turned to Bobby, "Maybe I should wait for Sirius to come. I will show the portrait to him. He is also magical and if even he can not see you then maybe something special was done to the portrait."
""Who\'s Sirius?"" Arthur and Bobby asked at the same time.
"Oh, he is the kid I told you about, Bobby. He is from some Most ancient and something House of Black. His whole family is magical but he said his parents are racist towards nonmagical people or first-generation magical people." Magnus explained.
Arthur scoffed, "Huh, Most ancient my butt. I\'ve never heard their name and I knew every magical human and noble lord in England at that time."
"That sounds bad, Mag. There are such bad people in this magical world too. Are you sure you want to join it?" Bobby asked in worry.
"I want to. I am gifted to have been born with these powers. Maybe someday I can beat all the racists out of their racism." Magnus said with his fist held together.
"Haha... that\'s like my inherit... I mean, good spirit, Magnus. You got a good spirit." Arthur praised him.
But then all of a sudden, Magnus remembered something. He was going to be leaving for the new school when he turns 11.
"Bobby, I have something important to tell you." Magnus turned serious.
"What is it?" Bobby asked.
"Sirius told me that there is a magical school in Scotland. Where all young witches and wizards are taught. I will get my acceptance letter when I turn 11 and will go there." He revealed.
Bobby just stood there, silently, "Will you stay there forever?"
"Of course not. I will get the holidays. Bobby, you are like my brother. I might be going there but it will be temporary. Once I have studied everything, I will show you cool magical things. We could even start our own business to make something with magic." Magnus said with a heavy heart.
"I understand, Mag. If I had magic, I would want to study it too. Don\'t worry about me, you become the best magician in the world." Bobby replied. But he felt sad.
Magnus went ahead and patted his shoulder, "My brother, why are you getting sad? With magic, we might be able to live forever. We have our entire life to have fun, but before that, we need to grow, get stronger and richer."
Bobby nodded. ~Yes, we will have our whole life to have fun.~
"That is why, from tomorrow. We both will go out in the early morning to exercise." Magnus blurted.
"Yes, we sho... wait, What? No, Mag, I don\'t even wake up before breakfast." Bobby shuddered even thinking about exercising.
"That is why I will come to your home every day and do this." Magnus put his hand on Bobby\'s arm.
Bobby looked at him weirdly. "Is something supposed to ha... AAAA.... it\'s hot..."
"This is how I will wake you up every day, soldier. Before I leave, I will turn you into a good chap." He muttered.
At that moment, Arthur silently watched the two brothers in all but name, laugh and joke. He smiled, ~Magnus is really a mixture of me and Merlin. Ah, I miss those old days. I wonder what that old bastard is doing in that s*x dungeon they call a school.~
...
Hogwarts,
"Merlin, why did you have to be so cruel to Arthur? That jolly bloke must be mentally challenged by loneliness in all these years." A portrait spoke to the portrait to its side. It was a portrait of Sir Cadogan, a wizard and sworn Knight of the Round Table.
An old and heavy voice scoffed, "Huh, his mind isn\'t that easy to break, Cadogan. I\'m sure he\'s cursing at me and everything around him at the moment. *ACHOOO*... See, he\'s probably cursing me right now."
*Sigh*
"It\'s a miracle that you two were even able to work together without killing one another." Sir Cadogan sighed.
"Haha, that is the charm of our brotherhood. In those gloomy days, we probably pulled each other\'s legs to feel better. But, I am now feeling better than anything ever." Merlin proclaimed.
"Why?" Sir Cadogan asked.
"Hah.. you will know. Finally, after so many years, he will be coming." Merline stayed cryptic.
...
Back at Magnus\' house. Everything went smoothly. Adam and Grace told Bobby\'s parents what needed to be known. With ease, Bobby\'s parents paid the whole mortgage. Now, their whole monthly income would only go for their own livelihood and this increased their standard of living by a lot.
On the other hand, Bobby cried every day in the morning because Magnus would come to wake him up and drag him out for running. The chubby redhead boy was starting to lose some fat. Magnus tried to instil some confidence in him. He had unknowingly developed an inferiority complex because of the money problem in his family. Magnus also taught him many subjects as he wanted his best friend to exceed in life.
Also, as Magnus had expected. After he won the award, many more people came to interview him, both on television and the newspaper. Many magazines also wanted to put him on the cover. He was not going to reject the free money they were giving. This way, Magnus grew a small fortune, which he had decided to use for his magical school later.
£900 he had left from earlier he gave to his father. Telling him to invest it in something or somewhere because he didn\'t need it. It was just one and a half years left before he\'d be able to go to the magical school.
In all this time, his magic was as it was before. But, he was eagerly waiting for Sirius to come and give him some books so he could pass his time.
...
*DING DONG*
"Good morning, aunty. Is Magnus here?"
"Oh, Sirius? Good morning. What happened to you?" Grace asked.
As soon as Magnus heard this voice from downstairs, he ran to the stairway and shouted, "COME UP HERE..."
Soon after, Sirius came after dodging Grace\'s questions. This time he was alone. But to Magnus\' shock, Sirius had bandages on his fingers.
"What happened, Sirius?" He inquired.
Sirius just sat down on the bed with a sigh. "My mother happened, what else could it be? That old hag made me memorise and write charms on a paper. 10 times. Each time I stopped, she beat my fingers with a stick."
Magnus was horrified. How could a parent do this to their child? "Did you call the police?"
"Haha, there is no police in the magical world, Magnus. We do have investigators and law enforcers but they are all worthless puppets to families like mine." Sirius replied with disdain.
"Well, I hope you brought me some books introducing me to the magical world\'s laws so I can know exactly how bad this world is," Magnus said.
"Of course... tadaaaa..." Sirius took out a small pouch from his pocket.
Magnus looked at his face funnily, "What? Am I supposed to be surprised?"
*Cough*
"Damn my Dung brain... I always forget you are first-generation. This, my friend, is a pouch with Extension Charm. It belongs to my mother but I\'m gonna burn it later because why not?
"Come here, I have brought all the books we had till the 4th year and some more wizarding world related books. Now, I recommend you don\'t even open anything beyond 1st year before the start of Hogwarts or else you\'ll only get disappointed. It\'s not simple one plus two." Sirius warned him.
"I\'ll be the judge of that. But thank you, Sirius. These books will help me kill some boredom." Magnus showed gratitude.
"It\'s fine, a wizard should help another wizard. I\'m not like my parents. I swear I\'m gonna sell everything belonging to my family once I inherit it." Once again, Sirius started to curse his family.
Magnus then went to the portrait of Arthur and called Sirius, "Hey, can you see something here?"
Sirius looked at him with a raised eyebrow. He walked closer because he saw Magnus standing as if he was holding something.
"Ummm... I don\'t." He replied. But, he then waved his hand and immediately his hand bumped onto something.
"MERLIN\'S BEARD..." Sirius exclaimed.
"What happened to his beard? Did he go bald? Bwahahahaha..." Arthur became active as soon as he heard Merlin\'s name.
"This is a magical portrait, only I am able to see it and the person inside it. He says he is King Arthur Pendragon." Magnus revealed.
"Hmm, never heard of him. But this is amazing, Mag. Where did you find it?" Sirius asked, totally disregarding the king.
Magnus ignored Arthur\'s cursing for not being recognised by his name.
"I found it at the queen\'s house. At the award ceremony, I took it." Magnus revealed.
Sirius blinked a few times. Then suddenly he started howling in laughter. "Ahahaha... you took it from under that old hag\'s nose? Ah, that\'s crazy, Magnus. I think our friendship will be legendary. I can already see ourselves wreaking havoc in the school. But you need to get into Gryffindor. I\'m sure I will go there."
Magnus shook his head at the destructive tendencies of this magical friend of his. "Sure, we\'ll see what happens there. But first, we need to find out why even you can\'t see this."
After that, both friends talked about magical stuff, about the portrait. After a few hours, Sirius also went home. Magnus though opened the first book, officially leading him to the introduction to the magical world.
"Wait... this is just bible..." Magnus complained. So he closed the book and read its name and it really was called "Bible".
He put it aside and picked another book after reading its name. "A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot."
"Hmm, this should be a good start." He muttered to himself and started reading. Of course, after locking his door.
[A/N: Which house will he be sorted into? Any guesses?]
[You can see Sir Cadogan, Merlin and the book on my Discord - https://discord.gg/DgHkrAn OR see them on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mister_immortal_novel]
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