After Lightning Comes The Thunder (HP SI-OC)

[iTzMMV]

/*AN
I have been reading fanfiction for a few years now, with a good chunk of it being Harry Potter fics, and honestly, I got tired of how stale it gets after reading so many of them. So I decided to write one of my own for a change.

Here are a few tags, in case it's not what you're looking for:

Slightly AU

NO bashing.

NO harem.

NO cheats/system.

I hope you enjoy the story!
AN*/

A life of crime may not sound good to most people, but Alan wasn't like most people. As an only child of an upper-class family, he didn't lack many things growing up. He grew up loved, went to a good school, and even managed to get a Computer Science degree. If anything, by most standards, he would be considered reasonably accomplished for his age.

But he would disagree. He had few people that he could say were truly close to him other than his parents. His achievements always felt hollow, and, year by year, he felt he wasn't doing what he truly wanted in life. Almost as if something was missing. The only things supporting him were his family and the fact that life, although bland, was bearable.

That was until their death.

He was at work when it happened. Surrounded by seemingly endless cubicles inside an office so dull and lifeless that it looked as if it was made for machines instead of people. Just as he was finishing implementing a new feature for the app his team was tasked with, he received a call from the hospital informing him his parents had died. The news immediately broke him from his work-induced stupor with its suddenness. It was a car accident - he was told. His mother died immediately, while his father died in the ambulance on his way to the hospital.

After the call, Alan left his work in a daze. The whole drive back home felt like a fever dream, with the cars, places, and sounds blending into a mess of lights and colors. When he finally arrived in front of his home, he left his car with heavy steps, feeling like the world was trying to swallow him. After getting home, he mechanically went to his bedroom and dropped over his bed like a sack of bricks, the usual silence of his home now deafening to his ears. He wasn't able to fall asleep that night.

That day was forever imprinted in his mind.

The first year after the accident, he lived like a hermit. He quit his job, sold his family possessions, and often contemplated giving up. Books were his only solace, helping him escape the harshness of reality while he dived between their pages. And so, he kept reading them, spending his time reading every book or story he could get his hands on. Eventually, through his reading, he found his passion for fantasy and adventure. A passion that ended up giving him the push he needed to change his life.

After some thought, he decided that he would have his own real-life adventure. In his case, the closest thing he could find was becoming a criminal, not the regular kind, but the good kind, if it even existed. It surely would make for a thrilling life. He knew it was a naïve idea, but he didn't care. Without his parents, he would rather die than return to his previous life. For him, it was preferable to risk death or arrest while seeking his dreams, than living a safe but unfulfilling life.

For a year, he prepared. He placed his money into offshore accounts, studied, ordered forged identities, and bought specialized equipment. Then he began. First, he started by smuggling expensive drugs. He still remembered how nervous he was as he used one of his new identities to get hired by a pharmaceutical company as a packager. After joining the company, he started smuggling small amounts of drugs to sell them for cheaper. The drugs were mostly the ones that people needed but were overpriced, like Insulin. He didn't make much money and it didn't take long for the company to notice it, forcing him to bail, but the gratitude of the people in need of their medicine made it all worth it.

After his stint in smuggling, he tried his hand at raiding ATMs, the latter being both more rewarding and thrilling than the previous. If he got caught, he risked a lengthy stay in jail or possibly even confrontations with the police. With time, he really began to feel like he was getting the hang of it. Soon he would do his first big heist on a lottery, he just needed a little more money for the necessary equipment. With this goal in mind, he decided to do one last ATM raid, but it was then that things began to go wrong.

It was supposed to be just another job for Alan, with him having done the routine a dozen times already. It all boiled down to finding a convenience store with a recently filled ATM; Going in unnoticed while the store was closed or empty; Prying open the ATM without compromising the money or activating security measures; And finally, leaving just the way he came, unnoticed.

After some scouting, Alan had already secured a location. A small convenience store close to an unpopulated avenue. When it got dark, he drove his motorcycle through empty streets before parking a few blocks away from the store and waiting for it to close. The store was remarkably unremarkable, the kind you would be able to find anywhere.

Alan checked his phone, the time was one in the morning, with the store having closed one hour before. Feeling it was finally time, he moved stealthily to the back of the store and lock-picked the backdoor with practiced ease. The door opened with a click and he carefully made his way inside towards the ATM, the only sound being the soft taps of his boots as they hit the tiled floor. He dropped the duffel bag with his equipment to the side with an uncomfortably loud noise, picked up the drill, and began to mount it in the ATM. But suddenly, just as he was in the middle of mounting his drill, he began to hear footsteps.

"Who's there? This space is private property," he heard.

His heart went still for a moment before beating with renewed vigor in his chest as he heard the footsteps getting closer. Turning around, he barely spotted the form of a person appearing through the open door before the glare of a flashlight blinded him for a moment. After this brief moment of blindness, he roughly managed to make out the form of a security guard through the spots in his vision.

"Stop where you are!"

"Shit," Alan cursed.

He quickly abandoned his drill and began to rush toward the guard since he was blocking the only exit in the room. After shoving the guard away with his shoulder, he bolted out of the store and moved towards his bike. He was out of breath as he finally mounted his bike, running those few blocks had made his lungs begin to burn. Soon, he accelerated out of sight. While speeding through blurry streets, with his heartbeat still high, Alan couldn't help but curse his luck.

"Who even hires a guard for a convenience store of this size?" He muttered.

When he checked the store in preparation for the raid, there were no security guards. The surrounding businesses probably hired him to watch over the area, and he just stumbled into him during his patrol. At least he wasn't armed, he thought.

But, while distracted by his own thoughts. He failed to notice the car coming from his left while crossing an intersection. He barely spotted a light in the corner of his eyes and turned his head just in time to see what it was. But it was already too late to react. The last thing he remembered was a loud crash, overwhelming pain, and in the end. He could only see darkness...

Alan jumped awake, only to wince and place a hand on his forehead after realizing he had a horrible migraine. But as he slowly started to take account of his surroundings, he began to feel that something was very wrong. The room he was in looked very old, although well-maintained, as long as you ignored the piles of rectangular boxes and weird contraptions that looked like children's toys. He was lying on a big bed covered by blue blankets with the design of a golden bird resembling an eagle with two extra pairs of wings. This was clearly a bedroom, the problem, however, is that this was not his bedroom.

With that chilling realization, he jumped out of bed and went to see the mirror he had spotted above his bedside table. Only to be shocked by the reflection of a child with fair skin, chestnut hair, and hazel eyes. Along with the shock, he also felt the migraine come back with a vengeance. Immediately, he started to remember memories that were not his own. They came as flashes, smells, and sounds like an endless stream of experiences and information. After an undetermined amount of time that felt like years but was probably minutes, he finally came back to his senses.

He still had the same first name, but he was no longer the same person. Now he was Alan Wolfe, the eleven-year-old son of Hokta Wolfe and Elizabeth Wolfe. The new memories helped him form a rough outline of his new family.

Hokta inherited his profession from his father, Shikoba Wolfe. Shikoba was a renowned American wandmaker of Choctaw descent who became famous for his use of thunderbird feathers as wand cores. While trying to expand his father's business to the United Kingdom Hokta met a half-blood magizoologist named Elizabeth, who later became Alan's mother. The Wolfe family came from a line of wizards that went back to the native-american tribes before colonization. Many pureblood families had inherited magical traits and Wolfe's family trait was a deeper connection to nature.

After he finished processing his new memories, he realized this was the world of Harry Potter. One of the fictional books he used to read. He was thrilled. Yes, he died, but he didn't have any family or friends left behind to miss him. Now he found himself in a world where magic exists, it was his chance to finally live his dreams. Unfortunately, his excitement was short-lived. Soon he remembered he was in 1971, somewhere around when Voldemort's first rise to power began.

Also, was this the same world that he remembered? Harry Potter had been a children's books series and both the magic shown and the story told had quite a few inconsistencies. For example, how did Fred and George Weasley miss that Peter Pettigrew was with Ron while using the Marauder's map? Why didn't Lily and James make each other their secret keeper for the Fidelius charm? Why did Dumbledore let Harry stay with the Dursleys while being mistreated? How did the magic work? What about Sirius's imprisonment?

Those were only the inconsistencies that came at the top of his head. If the books became real, the story was bound to have some changes. But before Alan could truly get lost in his thoughts, he heard a knock followed by an excited voice coming from his bedroom door.

"Alan, your Hogwarts letter has finally arrived! Come down fast or I'm going to open your letter myself," teased a beautiful pale woman. She had dark cascading hair and sharp features, looking like she was in her late twenties.

"Wait mum, I'm coming!" he replied instinctively before rushing after his giggling mother as she went down antique-looking stairs.

As he arrived, his mother took a letter from a rustic wooden table and handed it to him with a mischievous smile on her face. After he had a moment to think, he froze as he reflected on his actions. When did he even gain a British accent? It seemed receiving eleven years of memories had a little of a bleed-through effect on his original personality. He took another look at this woman. He couldn't help but love Elizabeth Wolfe as much as he had loved his original mother, although even thinking of her still made his heart ache.

Eleven years of memories of being someone else wasn't something easy to ignore. Was he even the same person anymore? Probably not. But surprisingly, that thought didn't concern him too much. He felt like himself, and for him, that was enough.

"Al, are you okay?" she asked with concern as she looked at her son who had suddenly stood frozen before her.

"Sorry mum, I'm just anxious about opening the letter. I've been waiting for it for so long that now that it's here I'm hesitating a bit." Alan improvised weakly. Now was not the time for introspection. He took the letter from his mother's hands and broke the wax seal with the coat of arms containing the four houses.

"Oh, there's nothing to be worried about, you will have a lot of fun and make plenty of friends at Hogwarts. Also, don't forget that you'll finally get your wand! This whole week you couldn't stop pestering me and your father about it. Come on, why don't you read the letter for me?" Elizabeth spoke softly, as she gave an encouraging sideway hug to her son.

Glad that he managed not to arouse suspicion about his sudden change, and also for the motherly hug that he hadn't received in years, he began to read the letter. The letter itself was written with green ink on parchment and was just like the one Harry received in the books. The Headmaster was Albus Dumbledore with his many titles, and McGonal was already Deputy Headmistress, with the terms themselves also starting on the first of September. Reading the letter had even left Alan a bit moved. After all, receiving this letter was the dream of every child who read the Harry Potter series, and his dream had finally come true.

"Do you want to go with me to Diagon Alley to buy your school supplies? Your dad is still working right now. But we could see him when we go get your wand," his mother asked him encouragingly after he finished reading the letter.

"Yes mum!" he quickly replied. He received his Hogwarts letter and now he was going to Diagon Alley to buy his school supplies. The excitement of living his childhood dream came back in full. All his worries about reincarnation and Voldemort taking the backseat.

"Then hold my hand, we will apparate there," she spoke.

As soon as he held his mother's hand he was beset by a sucking sensation. Apparition it seems, is indeed uncomfortable. The feeling of being squeezed into a tube was not pleasant and left Alan a bit nauseated. At least it wasn't so bad, since it wasn't his first time apparating, in this body at least. Sidelong apparition, however, still took its toll on whoever was taken along for the ride.

After only a look at Diagon Alley, he was left speechless. He may have gone here before in his new memories. But more than twenty years of his previous life made him baffled by the sheer amount of magic being used so casually in everything. From the unfeasible buildings with abnormal structures that defied physics, to the casual displays of magic from the passerby. He could see a man burping bubbles while walking around with a mug that also had bubbles coming out of it. He even spotted a woman reaching up to her elbow inside a petite money pouch to retrieve money to pay for a bracelet, the bracelet itself seemed to actually be a living snake that was stuck eating its own tail. The sheer oddness of the place was striking.

And so, together with his mother, he began shopping. Flourish and Blotts from the outside looked like an old bookstore, with a few collections of books floating on display, accompanied by other books flying like birds in the back. But from the inside, it looked like a huge maze and was filled with the smell of parchment. Instead of walls, there were piles of books strewn around with no rhyme or reason. To get the books that he needed his mom had to ask for the assistance of a young clerk. By her looks, she was probably doing this as a summer job before the next term at Hogwarts began. He really wanted to buy more books besides the ones in the Hogwarts first-year curriculum, but the library was so disorganized that he quickly gave up. After all, he still had his family library at home. It was small and didn't cover that many topics. But it shouldn't lack anything that a first-year student might need.

After that, they went to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. The front of the store had a big glass display set up like a podium. Inside the display, a few mannequins were striking different poses with their clothes transforming into new sets from time to time. The inside of the store was relatively disappointing in comparison, looking like an antique clothing store. The only signs of magic came from the seemingly sentient measuring tape the tailor used and the pieces of clothing made of clearly magical materials.

Leaving Madam Malkin's, they then went to Slug and Jiggers Apothecary to buy potion ingredients. There he saw a variety of magical ingredients, some of them uncomfortably alive. Then they got his cauldron in another shop.

After a while of shopping around, they went to the Eyelops Owl Emporium to get Alan an Owl so he could write to his parents from Hogwarts. When he entered the shop he was immediately hit by a bit of a stench, which was reasonable when you considered the hundreds of owls around the store, many of their cages filled with droppings. The visit to the shop was rather short. Since he liked Barn Owls, he asked the clerk and was quickly led to a section full of them. A few minutes later, he left the shop with the largest Barn Owl he could find.

"We got everything on the list except for the wand now, it's time to go see your father," commented Elizabeth, with the only reply being a nod from Alan.

A short walk later, they arrived in front of an elegant store adorned in white, gold, and blue colors. The colors swirled and meshed around the walls as if they were living and breathing things. There were intricately carved wands on display, together with thunderbird and lightning-themed decorations. The inside of the shop was equally impressive. The walls were full of neatly ordered wand boxes separated by podiums, each holding a single wand on display. But most impressive of all, was the huge animated thunderbird skeleton simulating flight near the ceiling. The bones were white as Ivory, and the skeleton looked surreal with its three pairs of beating wings.

From his new memories, Alan recalled that his family dominated the market for thunderbird feather core wands. They were one of the few that managed to create wands with such core, and of the ones who could they were by far the best at it. Thus, his family relied heavily upon the whole thunderbird theme. His father, with the approval of his grandfather, spent most of the family fortune building the shop. He really wanted to break Olivander's monopoly on wandmaking in Great Britain and expand the family business.

The idea ended up working, mostly. The Olivanders still sold most of the wands in the UK, but Wolfe's Fine Wands dominated the high-end pureblood market. The high-end image that his father, Hokta Wolfe, tried to sell worked perfectly. While Olivander sold by far the most wands, each wand that Wolfe sold generated much more profit. However, his father ended up splurging a bit too much into the shop. Now he would need to work for a few years more than planned before his profit covered the expenses of establishing the shop.

Finished with his ruminations, Alan found himself already halfway into the shop. Soon, he heard heavy footsteps coming from behind the door where his father's workshop was. When the door opened, out came Alan's father, Hokta Wolfe. The man had an imposing presence. He had a thick mustache and bushy eyebrows that made him look like he was always frowning. All accentuated by his wide frame and above-average height. But, his presence was rapidly broken by the big smile that blossomed on his face as he spotted his wife and son.

"Today must be my lucky day, for my family to visit me during work. To what do I owe the visit?" his father asked mirthfully.

"Alan received his Hogwarts letter today, and we have already bought all his school supplies, only his wand is left," his mother replied with a smile of her own.

His smile faded as he gave a long thoughtful hum before replying "We should go to America. Even though I'm good, my father still should be a league above me, and I want Alan to match with one of the best wands we can provide."

"But is it possible? MACUSA is a bit harsh when it comes to security. It would be hard to schedule a portkey to America for the next week, let alone one for today," she inquired with a frown.

"That is true for most people. But being one of the best wandmakers in the Americas, my father has a few contacts. He should have permission to create one or two sanctioned portkeys for us," he answered as his smile returned.

"Hey there Al," his father turned to him. "We will get you a wand today, but you have to wait just a bit while I'm arranging the portkey. We are going to visit your grandfather so you can match with one of his wands."

"Okay dad!" he promptly replied.

Alan was a bit conflicted. On one hand, he would love to experience things never explored in the books, like getting one of his grandfather's wands. But, on the other, he did want to buy his wand at Olivanders like Harry Potter did. Fortunately or unfortunately, he didn't have a choice in this case. He was part of a family of proud wandmakers, and they would never let him get a wand that wasn't made by them. At least, although he suspects that his father wasn't as good a wandmaker as Olivander, he knew his grandfather certainly should be. So it's not like he was losing out on anything.

With the conversation over, his father disappeared behind another door, probably off to prepare the portkey. Meanwhile, he and his mother made small talk, mostly speculating about how his wand would be. He had a surprising amount of knowledge about wandlore and wandmaking, which wasn't so surprising if you considered he came from a family of wandmakers. At least, they didn't seem like they would force him to follow their profession. He liked to know the lore and how the materials worked, but it was more out of curiosity, he didn't actually want to work with it. His mother, in particular, hoped he'd follow in her footsteps and become a magizoologist and come work at her family's Sanctuary. In fact, that's how his parents met. Her family provided some wand materials for his grandfather and, while on a trip to fetch the materials, his father ended up meeting his mother. Things slowly progressed from there.

A while later, his father came back and asked them to follow him. A few sets of doors later, they found themselves in a mostly empty room, with only a wide-brimmed wizard's hat resting over a nondescript table.

"Alan, we will travel using a portkey. Just like when we went to that quidditch game last summer. Do you remember what you have to do?" asked his father with a stern voice.

"Yes, father," he replied.

"Then tell me. What should one do when using a portkey?" His father commanded.

"We have to grab the portkey at the same time and hold it tight until the trip is over. We also should move our legs like we are walking in the air during the landing," he quickly answered.

"Alright then," his father said satisfied with the answers. "I will count to three, on three we will all grab the hat ok?"

"Come on Honey, it's just a portkey. We have used them dozens of times before, and it's not Al's first time either" his mother chided.

His father was about to rebuke her when his mother just took Alan's hand and grabbed the portkey with the other while giving her husband a taunting look. His father's expression quickly shifted from displeasure to shock. He immediately followed Elizabeth's example and grabbed the portkey just as it started to spin. Alan immediately felt himself being spun away in a way that felt not unlike a rollercoaster, with the wind blowing angrily against his hair and clothes. The trip ended abruptly with an impact to the ground where he had to hold in the urge to throw away the contents of his stomach. They arrived right in front of a building. Alan and his mother managed to land cleanly, while his father ended up tumbling to the ground. His father's expression was furious while his mother had a self-satisfied smirk.

"You keep pulling things like this all the time! We are not in our twenties anymore. One of these days someone will get actually injured!" his father raised his tone as he got up and angrily dusted himself.

Seeing how affected he was, his mother replied placatingly. "Sorry honey, I acted impulsively. I just thought that you are too strict sometimes, and I wanted to show how you were being a bit dramatic. I didn't mean to upset you."

His father gave her a serious look and, sensing she was being sincere, softened his expression and let out a weary sigh.

"I'm sorry for raising my voice too, work has been stressing me out lately with the number of commissions I've been getting." he turned to Alan, put a hand on his shoulder, and asked with a somewhat forced grin "Sorry for that Al. Now, are you ready to finally get your new wand?"

"Let's just go get my wand already, I've been waiting all day!" he exclaimed in a try to lighten the mood. Both his parents smiled as he practically ran inside the building and followed after him before he managed to get himself lost.

While reflecting on his parent's interactions, he couldn't help but notice that his father said they weren't in their twenties anymore, but both of them didn't look a day past thirty. In fact, he knew that they were in their mid-forties. The Harry Potter books didn't expand much on it, but they did show that some wizards had a significantly longer lifespan than muggles. He couldn't help but wonder about how magic interacted with the human body to create such effects. Alas, this was a question for another time, for when he had more knowledge about magic. For now, he was just glad that he had a longer lifespan and that he was finally going to get his wand. He did plan to research wandless magic and try to learn it eventually. But if this world was anything like the books, it would be extremely hard to learn it to any useful degree, and it would never match the power of a wand.

Soon they arrived at his grandfather's shop, and Alan was surprised at how different it was from his father's shop. From the outside, it was just a commercial office on the twelfth floor of the building. But from inside, it looked like a huge Choctaw tent that gave off an air of mystery. There were some dreamcatchers of strange designs hanging from the ceiling of the tent. The center of the room was illuminated by a big pyre with blue flames, the pyre's light seeming as if it was being swallowed by darkness the closer it got to the tent's walls. Spread around it were clusters of rustic stands filled with intricate wands that seemed to be arranged in a strange pattern.

Alan was so deep in his thoughts, that he didn't notice that his parents had already gone to fetch his grandfather. Let alone notice when his grandfather stood right next to him. So it was to be expected that his heart almost jumped out of his chest when he heard a deep scratchy voice right beside him.

"So it's finally time for you to get your wand," Shikoba thought aloud as he examined his grandson with an inscrutable face.

Alan's back straightened almost instantly as he received the equivalent of a jumpscare. After taking a moment to breathe, he immediately looked at his grandfather. The man looked to be in his eighties, so he was probably at the very least past 120. He was mostly bald, having only a whispy white curtain of hair covering the sides of his head. His light brown skin was fairly wrinkled, with a few age stains here and there. His slightly hunched back and his thin frame made him look weak, but the firmness in which he held his gnarled cane told otherwise. Most impressive of all were his gold-tinted amber eyes, which exuded a liveness that seemed otherwise washed away on his aged body.

"You," he pointed at me with his cane. "Follow me. The rest of you, stay here."

"Come on father, we are not your clients. We are your family, no need to act so mysterious" Hokta demanded. His only response was Shikoba stopping his walk with Alan and spitting on the ground before promptly continuing his walk. A few steps later he and Alan disappeared behind one of the many curtains around the main room.

"Your father really is something else," Elizabeth chimed amused.

"He is unbearable sometimes," he grumbled.

Meanwhile, Alan's grandfather brought him to a room full of wand boxes piled everywhere. As they arrived, both of them stopped, his grandfather turned to him and began just staring at him intensely. After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, he couldn't stand it anymore as asked. "Aren't we gonna try and match me with a wand?"

"Are you daft?"

"What?"

"I asked if you are stupid, boy. Has my son not taught you anything?"

After seeing the lost look on Alan's face he began to grumble to himself as he paced angrily around the room. "That fool! To not even teach the family rituals. My blood is wasted in that ungrateful wretch."

At this point, Alan was beyond uncomfortable, and honestly a bit scared.

"Give me your hand," Shikoba ordered, and Alan hesitantly obeyed. Only to be shocked when his grandfather slashed his hand with a weird-looking knife that he pulled seemingly out of nowhere.

"Fuck! Why did you cut me!" he screamed as he grabbed his hand. If before he was a bit scared, now he was fearing for his life. Was his grandfather a madman? Was he going to die again?

"Mind your words, boy! We are doing a ritual. Place your hand over this bowl, we need to fill it with your blood," his grandfather explained with an unimpressed expression.

Alan was hesitating. The old man's steely gaze made him want to obey, but the burning cut in his hand was screaming at him to run away.

Seeing his grandson's apprehension, Shikoba decided to throw him a bone.

"You know how our family has some connection with nature right?" he asked. He waited until he saw the boy's slow nod of approval before he continued.

"Normally, one can't know what wand materials will react positively to someone. Instead one has to narrow the possibilities based on the physical aspects, magic, and personality of the person. Then, they still have to try a variety of possible combinations until one matches. Even then, wands of the same composition can react differently to the same individual. After all, at the end of the day, it's the wand that chooses the wizard," he explained.

He handed the bowl to Alan, who hesitatingly picked it up and began to fill it, before continuing.

"But with our family it's different. Our ancestors designed a ritual that could find the magical focus with the highest affinity to a particular person. This ritual requires our family's blood as it relies on our closer connection to nature," he finished.

Seeing that the bowl was filled enough, Alan gave the bowl to his grandfather. Who in turn gave him a small vial that he pulled seemingly out of nowhere filled with greenish liquid. He took the vial. But after everything that happened, he was hesitating in drinking its contents.

"It's just the essence of dittany. It will heal your hand," his grandfather said exasperatedly.

After that, Alan drank the vial's contents. The potion, if it could be called that, wasn't that bad. It had the texture of yogurt while being a bit minty with a slightly bitter aftertaste. What impressed him the most though, was how the wound on the palm of his hand closed in mere seconds. It was kind of disturbing seeing your flesh knit itself back together. But in the end, his hand was looking as good as new. Only slight itchiness and pink skin remained where his wound once was, but it too, soon began fading away.

His grandfather carefully placed the bowl in the middle of a complex and suspiciously red ritual circle that covered the whole ground and began to chant. Alan couldn't understand a single word that he was saying. His voice was getting louder and starting to resonate across the room, making it seem as if everything was vibrating. The blood started to fly off the bowl and began forming complex patterns in the air. When the chant finally ended, the blood in the air formed a trail straight across the room leading to one of the wands on display. His grandfather followed the trail, took the wand together with its box, and handed it to Alan. It was a straight, ivory-colored wand that ended in a slightly rounded point. It sported a grip of the same color as the wand, with a strip of silver metal at both of its ends. Overall it looked slick and elegant.

"The wand is 12 inches. Slightly flexible. It's made of aspen and has a thunderbird feather for a core. It is not as elaborate as most of my works in its design, but in this case, I tried to show how sometimes less is more. But the materials themselves make for an interesting combination..." his grandfather mused.

As soon as Alan touched the wand his hair raised as it sent an electric pulse through the whole room before a miniature storm began inside the tent. He felt as if thousands of volts were jolting inside his body, but they didn't hurt. No, they gave him a sensation of power, he just had to reach for it, but before he could, the storm rapidly faded along that feeling.

"Oh. Ho. Ho, that's quite a strong reaction. It seems you were able to find a good match," his grandfather mused.

With only a few taps of his gnarled cane, the things that had fallen to the ground floated back in place and any scorch marks left by the mini thunderbolts disappeared.

"Now, let's see how well my son taught you. Tell me what you know about this wand," he ordered.

Alan took a few moments to gather his thoughts about what he knew of wandlore before tentatively replying.

"The length of 12 may mean many things. But generally, together with a flexible wand, it means that the wielder has a reasonable personality or is adaptable. It is also believ-"

"Enough! There is more to it than that but, for now, it's acceptable. What about the wood and the core?" his grandfather gruffly interrupted.

"Hmmm... I know that aspen is suited for combat spells and charmwork. While generally matching with skilled duelists and revolutionaries. As for the thunderbird feather, it makes for powerful wands that are good at Transfiguration but are hard to master. As for their combination... Well, I have no idea." he explained.

"It seems that your father at least taught you the basics. What you said is correct. However, what makes this combination so interesting is that the core and the wood's natures conflict with each other. The aspen seeks change, while the thunderbird feather demands control and stability. But, since both natures also complement each other, it is still possible, although tricky, to make wands of this combination. The resulting wand is suited for Charms and Transfiguration while being especially devastating in combat magic. The caveat of such a combination is that the wand is extremely hard to master, even more so than usual for wands with thunderbird feather cores," his grandfather rambled.

After the impromptu wandlore lesson, holding his new wand together with an expensive-looking wand holster, Alan returned to his parents. He stole the wand holster from a nearby table that was holding a few of them on display while his grandfather was rambling about wands. If he asked, his grandfather would probably just give it to him. It was just a holster after all, but the man had been so unnecessarily unpleasant and rude, that he decided to steal it just to spite him. His parents asked about the wand, and he talked about it with them for a bit. After talking, they bid his grandfather farewell and took another portkey back to England before apparating back home.

He went to his room and fiddled a bit with the holster, which was too big for his eleven-year-old arms. Soon he discovered that it could shrink to his wrist size. Whatever enchantments it had, they were quite useful. He barely felt it in his skin, it was significantly smaller than the wand yet the wand somehow fit inside it perfectly. With only a move of his wrist, the wand was placed immediately into his hand, and with another, into the holster.

Now that he had his wand and more time to think about his situation, it was finally time for him to start planning for the future.

/*AN
I'm open to constructive criticism, suggestions, and even your opinion on what you like or dislike about the story and why. In fact, I enjoy discussing and explaining things. Just don't be an ass, please.

I'm sorry if this chapter had too much exposition and info-dumping, but I was trying to establish a bit about Alan's past, and his new family. The next chapter will focus on his planning and preparations for the future. After all, he only has a few months before Hogwarts begins and Voldemort has already begun making his moves in the background.

This chapter has 6.369 words without the author's notes. The average chapter length should be somewhere around 5k words.

I don't have a schedule, but I will try to update it once a month. What I plan to do, however, is eventually finish this no matter how long it takes.
AN*/

 

[BlueRanger O-Doom]

Well this will be interesting.

 

[shakeval]

and interesting start, I hope you've brushed up on your 70's english history and geography.

 

[Xcell]

Hmmm I can't help but Wonder what makes this Harry Potter SI stand out from others like it. As it's not the first time I've seen a main character like this placed in the 60s or 70s in the Harry Potter universe. As I honestly kind of got bored reading this after a bit. As I didn't see anything in the story that made the main character unique from other story like this. Then I just kind of started to skim read. So maybe I missed what made this character unique. As usually stories like this are focused on becoming besties with Harry's parents and stopping voldemort's rise and by far those are the most boring because of how cliche they are for the setting or in my opinion anyway. The best ones with this type of setting are where main characters don't really care about the race war and are somehow focused on uplifting the magical society from being stuck in the Middle ages and want nothing to do with their dumb race war.

 

[Darcksage]

Forgot to threadmark.

 

[iTzMMV]

Hmmm I can't help but Wonder what makes this Harry Potter SI stand out from others like it. As it's not the first time I've seen a main character like this placed in the 60s or 70s in the Harry Potter universe. As I honestly kind of got bored reading this after a bit. As I didn't see anything in the story that made the main character unique from other story like this. Then I just kind of started to skim read. So maybe I missed what made this character unique. As usually stories like this are focused on becoming besties with Harry's parents and stopping voldemort's rise and by far those are the most boring because of how cliche they are for the setting or in my opinion anyway. The best ones with this type of setting are where main characters don't really care about the race war and are somehow focused on uplifting the magical society from being stuck in the Middle ages and want nothing to do with their dumb race war.

Click to shrink...

I don't intend to make this story stand out too much in comparison to other HP SIs. The main difference in this fic is that the main focus won't be on power fantasy or wish fulfillment, they will only be secondary aspects. The aspect of a SI I like the most is the idea of someone going to a different world while having future knowledge. What will they do? What will they change? How will they adapt to their situation? Another reason why I didn't try and make a more innovative and interesting premise is that it would make the writing significantly harder long term, and I intend to finish this fic eventually.

The MC won't become besties with Harry's parents, his interactions with them will mostly be based on his plans for the future. Saying anything more would be too spoilery.

I already read a few fics of the type you are talking about, they can be good reads when done well. The problem, however, is that they require an unreasonably powerful/knowledgeable MC, and I dislike OP characters. Another problem is that they require a lot more suspension of disbelief since it is absolutely impossible to magically uplift HP magical society from the middle ages without burning it and rebuilding it from the ground up.

If fics like those you said are what you like, I recommend Odyssey of a Mage by mootjeman7 if you want a more serious setting, or Not Another Harry Potter Story! (SI Jumpchain series) by NotAHero101 if you want something more ironic and self-aware.

 

[iTzMMV]

Forgot to threadmark.

Click to shrink...

Thank you for warning me.

 

[iTzMMV]

/*AN

Thanks to everyone who supported me so far. Comments, reviews, and follows are a great encouragement for me.

I ended up getting carried away while writing. So here is another chapter.

I hope you enjoy it!

AN*/

A few days had passed since Alan got his wand. He had used that time to think about his situation and decide what his next steps should be. Unfortunately for him, he arrived at the conclusion that he was fucked. An eleven-year-old boy that knew jack shit about magic had to somehow survive through the rise of the greatest dark wizard in modern history since perhaps Grindelwald. His only advantage was his knowledge of reading the Harry Potter books, and none of them went into depth about the period he found himself in.

He thought about just convincing his family to move back to America, but things weren't so simple. It was unlikely that his family would listen to their eleven-year-old son, at least not until Voldemort's forces started to move openly. It was more feasible to convince them to let him attend Ilvermorny and stay with his grandfather while they stayed in Britain, but he was too attached to them already. Losing his parents once was enough for him.

Worse of all, this world already had inconsistencies with the Harry Potter books. In the books, he didn't remember reading anything about Wolfe's Fine Wands or Thunderbird feather core wands. So there was no guarantee that if he waited it out Harry would be born and would kill Voldemort because of the prophecy. The prophecy might not even exist this time around. If Voldemort conquered Britain, he knew it was only a matter of time before his eyes turned to the rest of the world. After defeating Dumbledore and getting his hands on the elder wand, no one would be able to stop him. Hiding and hoping for the best wasn't a sound strategy.

With these thoughts, he realized he would have to intervene with the plot somehow in a way that weakened Voldemort's forces. The first thing that came to mind was killing future Death Eaters like Lucious Malfoy, Barty Crouch Jr., Rabastan Lestrange, and others while they still were at Hogwarts, but he quickly dismissed the idea. He doubted he could do so under Dumbledore's eye, let alone pass through the scrutiny of their powerful families. Besides, he never killed anyone before. Saying and thinking about killing someone is one thing, actually planning and doing the deed is another matter entirely. He didn't know if he had it in him to actually go through with premeditated murder, no matter how justified.

Another alternative that he thought up was converting future Death Eaters. Severus Snape eventually defected to Dumbledore, and Regulus betrayed Voldemort. If possible, he could even try to stop Peter Pettigrew from joining the Marauders and the Order of the Phoenix. Thus, removing the possibility of him becoming Voldemort's spy in the future. But to convert Snape, he would have to remove the wedge between him and the Marauders. Which would be difficult if he also wanted James and Lily to conceive Harry. Maybe the prophecy would never be made by Trelaway, but he didn't want to ruin his chances of an easy way to defeat Voldemort. As for Regulus, he would have to think of a way to change his mind earlier. Probably, trying to reconcile him and Sirius while distancing him from the rest of his family.

There was also the problem of the Horcruxes. He could get rid of Rowena's Ravenclaw diadem in the room of requirement as long as he found a way of destroying it. It would take a very long time before he could learn and properly control Fiendfyre and he sure as hell wasn't killing a basilisk for its poison. The other location he knew was the Gaunt's shack, where the Gaunt's ring was hidden. Unfortunately, five of Voldemort's Horcruxes existed at the moment, and the location of the rest of them was unknown at this point in time.

Alan stopped himself before he could get lost in his plans. Planning was important, but he was thinking about things too far in the future and with too many variables to take into account. For all he knew, the characters from the Harry Potter books were completely different from their real counterparts. The only thing he could do right now was work on tangible things, like improving himself. His plans could all fail or turn out to be useless but, by being his best self, he will have a higher chance of surviving what was to come.

Before he could start working on himself, he needed to have at least a basic understanding of magic and its branches. This way he would know what he should spend his time on. With this in mind, he made his way to his family's library. He had neither Dumbledore's nor Voldemort's genius intellect, and decades of magic study, let alone their extraordinary magical talent. But he would be damned if he couldn't at least be a match to a single Death Eater by the time he graduated from Hogwarts.

Going through the books inside the library left Alan greatly disappointed. He knew the library was small, being composed of only a few dusty bookshelves, but he had no idea of just how little variety it had. Besides books on subjects from the first year up to NEWTs that any household with a few generations of wizards had, the library only possessed wandmaking, wandlore, and a few ritual and potion books. The basic books were good as they would help him when doing self-study. But, unless he wanted to become a wandmaker, he wouldn't amount to anything in the outside world with them. Unfortunately, it was pointless to become a wandmaker if his goal was to survive Voldemort. With that conclusion, he grabbed a few introductory books on magic and began to dive into them.

Magic was complex. According to the books, the first wizards harnessed the power of magic through rudimentary forms of potions and rituals. Both fields of study were heavily intertwined with each other, as potions were a form of localized ritual. Later wizards became able to use magic directly as the knowledge of wandless magic began to spread. There were many periods when the discovery of new branches of magic revolutionized the world, but the single most important invention in the history of the wizarding world was the magical focus. Their discovery was to wizardkind the equivalent of what the discovery of fire was to mankind.

A magical focus allowed for an unprecedented level of power, finesse, and control over magic. Not only that, but they could also be used with arithmancy and runes to create actual spells. Spells that anyone could cast with the right movement and the right incantation. After they spread, whole new branches of magic were discovered, and there wasn't a single one that didn't end up being expanded. Eventually, wands became the predominant form of magical focus due to their size, control of magic, and ease of use. The magic revolution was long past, having mostly stagnated during the last few centuries, but magic as a field of study still was complex and highly developed.

Finished with the books, Alan had decided which branches of magic he would focus on during his study. The priority, for the moment, would be Charms and Transfiguration. Both subjects were favored by his wand, and would be essential later on when he began his study of advanced DADA and dueling, two subjects with the potential of becoming the cornerstones of his future survival. He would also study the other Hogwarts subjects, and begin his practice of wandless magic. It was generally weak and it would take years of training before it had any use, but it could prove useful in a pinch if he ever found himself without his wand. The study of wandless magic would also help him in the future when learning nonverbal magic and complex spells.

Another subject of interest was Rituals since his family's connection with nature gave them some affinity with them, but they were so complex that he decided to leave them alone until he had a better base of magical knowledge.

However, out of all the branches of magic he read about, Occlumency was the one that he thought he needed the most at the moment. There were two main reasons for that. One was that he had knowledge that he couldn't let anyone else know. The other was that it could significantly enhance the memory and concentration of its users, which would be invaluable to speed up his learning at Hogwarts. This subject took a lot of time to master. Usually only being learned during adulthood since children lack the patience and disposition to learn it. Only people with important positions in the Ministry and old families were expected to have the basics of occlumency down since the subject was highly regulated. So, for now, he would just try to learn the basics of shielding his mind and organizing his thoughts.

Now that he knew what he needed to learn, he just needed to create a routine. But before that, he would first ask his mother or his father to teach him. After all, having a teacher would make the learning process much easier. Since his father was still at work while his mother was free at the moment, he began to search for her. When he went to check downstairs, he found his mother reading the Daily Prophet while having some tea.

"Hey mum, could you help me study for Hogwarts?" he requested.

"But you are going there to learn already. Why the hurry to study?" she inquired as she raised one eyebrow.

"Because I don't want to be left behind. All the children of those old families already know most of what we will learn in the first year," he explained.

"Since when did you care about them?" she frowned.

"I don't care about them. But I want to be the best student of my year," he declared.

"Starting to sound like a Ravenclaw aren't you?" she mused with a hint of amusement.

"Will you teach me or not?" he pressed.

"Sure, I will. But what do you want me to teach you?" she relented.

"Charms, Transfiguration, and..."

After getting his mother to agree to teach him, he finally organized his new routine until Hogwarts began. In the morning he would wake up, have breakfast, and do an hour of light exercise before studying his first-year books; After lunch, he would train in transfiguration and charms with his mother; After dinner, he would train wandless magic, and just before he went to bed he would train occlumency. He wasn't a machine, of course, so he often paused his studies to talk with his parents or listen to the magical radio.

Studying the books had been quite straightforward. The only problem was with Astronomy, Herbology, and Potions since he couldn't practice them at home. The training with his mother on the other hand was proving itself quite fruitful. The trace had been a concern of his at first before his mother clarified amusedly that there were some benefits to having a family full of wandmakers. He had hit a bit of a slump in the beginning because it was hard to memorize the correct wand movements and incantations. However, after they started to become muscle memory, he began to learn the first-year spells at a good pace.

He suspected that the speed of his learning of Charms and Transfiguration wasn't just because of his wand. His mother had explained to him the most important aspects of casting any spell. They were the amount of power you put into the spell, the strength of your willpower, and how well you visualized the spell. Since he mostly had the mind of an adult, his willpower and visualization should be leagues above other children, thus explaining his learning speed. His wand, however, would indeed be difficult to master. Every time he cast a spell he felt it hard to control the amount of power that went into the spell, almost as if his wand was on a hair-trigger. Sometimes he would cast a Lumos and the light would be so strong that it would be blinding. Another time he would try to transfigure a match into a needle and it wouldn't even turn silver due to lack of power.

He found Charms and Transfiguration to be very different subjects. While Charms added or changed the characteristics of something, Transfiguration changed the form of the thing itself. This was reflected in the level of demand they had for the caster. A Transfiguration spell generally required significantly higher power, visualization, and willpower than a Charm did. For this reason, Transfiguration was generally considered a more rigorous subject. However, Charms weren't weaker by any means as, when mastered, they could be used to devastating effects.

His wandless magic, however, had little to no progress. His best result so far was making a feather tremble slightly when he tried to make it move. As for oclumency, there wasn't much progress either, but at least he could empty his mind within half an hour fairly consistently. If the dusty tome he found in the library was correct, he would be able to start learning basic occlumency training after he could empty his mind in mere moments.

Before he realized it, two months had already passed and now there was only one week left before the first term at Hogwarts began. Since his parents would miss him during his time away, they decided to make a family trip. They brought out an old expanded trunk they had lying around and filled it with clothes and things that they might need. Alan became excited when they told him they would use an expanded trunk, as he thought it would be like the one that Newton Scamander had. He was greatly disappointed, however, to find that the trunk was only expanded to the size of a big closet. Apparently, expansion charms were highly regulated, and Scamander's suitcase was very illegal.

The actual trip was to visit his mother's family sanctuary, which was located somewhere in the British Isles. His mother went there for work twice a week. Since she was a magizoologist who specialized in medical magic, she only had to do regular check-ups on the animals. Except for when there were emergencies, she generally had a light workload. His father, on the other hand, had to spend most of his days making wands, attending to clients, and managing the shop.

Alan was curious about his mother's family's Sanctuary. He never went there in his memories, although he had met most of his mother's side of the family. He knew that their sanctuary raised many species of magical beasts, although they specialized in hippogriffs. They also cultivated many magical plants, some of which produced wand woods. Part of the reason why they began to make dealings with the Wolfe family in the first place.

Having gathered everything they needed, they went to the living room and stood before their rather antique-looking fireplace to take the floo to the Sanctuary. Not the most exciting method of transportation, and as all magic means of transportation seemed to be, it was rather uncomfortable, although it was hard to deny their usefulness. Alan took a pinch of floo powder from a small bag above the fireplace before standing inside the fireplace.

As soon as he spoke the Sanctuary address, and threw the powder to the ground, he was engulfed in emerald-green flames. Together with the flames came an unnatural pull from the fireplace where he felt as if he was being roughly dragged around a tight tubulation. Soon he reached another place with a flash of flames only to find himself standing in a campfire in the middle of a clearing. He stood aside as his parents arrived and began to examine his surroundings.

His mother's family Sanctuary surprised him with its size. It seemed to encompass many acres of land. Whatever magic they used to keep this location secure from muggles and poachers should be quite potent. Another shock he had was just how alien all the fauna and flora looked to him. The plants and animals looked as though they came straight out of a fantasy book, which was technically true since he was in the world of Harry Potter.

Soon after arrival, they were greeted by his uncle and his cousin who came out of the woods surrounding the clearing and approached them. Elizabeth's grandparents had retired years ago, so they weren't there to greet them. His uncle was a gruff-looking man with tanned skin and messy dark hair, who looked to be in his mid-thirties. His cousin, on the other hand, was a short young woman with chestnut hair and a bright disposition. They were Richard and Samantha Hunter, respectively. The Hunters were a magical family, but unlike the Wolfe, weren't considered a pureblood family by the skewed British standards.

''Welcome to our family's Sanctuary Mr.Wolfe," Richard said to Hokta with a polite smile. Then he turned to Alan as his smile became warmer.

"You're welcome as well Al. It's been so long since I've last seen you, and how much you've grown! Last time I saw you, you didn't even reach my waist," he spoke cheerfully.

"What about me? You won't welcome your own sister?" His mother chimed playfully.

"You work here for Merlin's sake. In fact, I think we see each other way too much already. If I didn't need someone to heal the hippogriffs after they play too roughly with each other, I'd have told you to stop coming long ago," he replied dramatically.

"You speak big words for someone who can't even remember to lock the Puffskein kennel. Last time it happened, it took weeks to find all of them," she teased.

"It only happened because-"

"That's enough banter already, we still have a lot of work to do today. Why don't we begin the tour by showing our daily creature care routine to them?" Samantha cut them off amusedly.

"Sure, sure. Let's start the tour then. Follow me, everyone!" Richard said as he began to walk purposefully.

Richard and Samantha proceeded to guide Alan's family through the Sanctuary while showing their creature-care routine. They saw Augureys, who looked like a cross between a phoenix and a vulture; Bicorns, which looked like deformed buffalos on steroids; They even saw a rabbit with antlers, which apparently was a Jackalope. The plants didn't disappoint either. There they saw a great area of forest taken over by Devil's Snare, and large patches of Venomous Tentaculas. There even was a large Whomping Willow. Through the tour, they ended up seeing many more plants and animals, but the stars of the show were the Hipogrifs that they saw flying around in the skies. Elizabeth even let Alan feed one, much to his father's concern.

After the tour, they were guided to Hunter's Manor where they would spend their time for the next few days. The manor had a simple appearance, being mostly made of wood, but was quite large. In the magical world, housing was quite inexpensive with most well-off magical families having a manor or two. The really expensive part was warding, but since the Sanctuary was already heavily warded, the manor was clear of wards. Once inside, they had supper and then were guided to the guest rooms so they could rest. Soon they fell asleep due to the tiring day of exploration they had. Sometime after they had begun to sleep, they were woken up by the sound of explosions. Woken by the noise, everyone hurriedly gathered together in the manor's living room.

"What is happening?!" his father demanded as they heard another explosion.

"I'm not sure! None of the magical creatures we have are capable of making this much noise," answered Samantha.

"It's poachers," stated Richard with a grim face.

"What should we do then?" asked Elizabeth worriedly.

"We are escaping through the floo right now. I'm sure there's a fireplace in the manor we could use," Hokta stated.

"We can't leave the magical beasts behind!" exclaimed his mother.

"It's too dangerous to try to stop them, we don't even know how many of them are there. Also, we have Alan to take care of, we can't fight them," his father pleaded to his mother.

"Hokta is right, it's too dangerous here Elizabeth. Take the floo to the ministry and warn the Aurors while your husband takes Alan home" his uncle said before they could continue to argue.

"But what about you and Samantha?" she asked.

"Someone has to hold back the poachers here while the Aurors arrive" he replied.

His mother looked very conflicted but, after glancing at Alan, she gave one last resigned sigh.

"Let's go," she said.

After that, he and his parents went to the fireplace while his uncle and cousin went outside the manor. Arriving at the fireplace, his mother stepped inside it before throwing a handful of floo powder.

"Auror's office," she uttered.

However, instead of being engulfed in emerald flames and being transported to her destination, only sparks went off the fireplace.

"Bloody hell! They have cut the floo's network connection," she cursed.

His father quickly grabbed Alan's shoulder and began to apparate before both of them were thrown to the ground as the apparition failed.

"Damit. They also set up an anti-apparition ward, we are stuck here," he spoke as he brought himself and then Alan off the ground.

"We should help Richard and Samantha" she stated.

"And bring Alan close to the fighting? I doubt they are having a friendly conversation with the poachers," he rebuked.

"What else could we do? We are stuck here and the Aurors aren't coming. Either we fight the poachers off or we hide," she voiced.

"We should hide then," he replied.

"I'm not leaving my brother and niece to fight the poachers alone! I'm going to help them with or without you," she declared.

"Okay. Okay. I will help them as well, but we should at least hide Alan. It's too dangerous for him," he compromised.

Alan thought about arguing with them, but in the end, decided against it. He doubted they would listen to an eleven-year-old anyway. It was smarter to act as if he agreed with them and then leave his hiding spot to follow them. The situation was dangerous and he didn't know many spells but he wouldn't stay hidden and leave his family to deal with the poachers by themselves. The poachers seemed organized since they cut off the floo and apparition meanwhile, no one in his family was trained for or used to fighting. If he left them to deal with the poachers they would likely end up captured or even killed. He'd just have to be careful so he doesn't get captured himself and make a greater mess out of the situation while he tried to find a way to help his family indirectly.

After the discussion, they looked around the manor for a minute and finally settled for one of the guest restrooms. Alan was all but shoved inside it before they closed the door and he heard some spells being cast on its other side. After the casting was over, he heard the retreating sound of his parents' hurried footsteps.

Three minutes or so after they left, he tried to open the door to no avail. They had clearly locked it, but he knew the Unlocking Charm. He drew his wand from its wrist holster and, feeling the familiar thrum of power coursing through his arm, he cast the spell he had practiced exactly for this type of situation.

"Alohomora"

The door still was locked. He didn't know what spells they used, but they should be some fairly powerful ones. He knew a dozen first-year spells and even a few second-year ones, of them the only ones he knew that could potentially open the door were the Severing Charm and the Box Blasting Charm. He decided to try the Severing Charm first.

"Diffindo"

The door didn't receive a single scratch, even when he cast it again. Whatever they cast on the door made it extremely tough. Seeing that the Severing Charm had little to no effect, he decided to try the Box Blasting Charm. He only learned it because he thought it might be useful if he found some locked chest inside the room of requirement. The charm was primarily meant to open containers and boxes rather than doors, but with a bit of extra visualization and willpower, he should be able to make it work. It would blow the door right out of its hinges, but it should suffice. Hurriedly he went to the other side of the guest room before he cast.

"Cistem Aperio"

Immediately he saw a flash of light coming from the door as he heard a small explosion. After he blinked away the spots of light from his vision he was surprised to find the door only slightly damaged, with a few faint cracks running down its wood. Seeing his progress he decided to try again, this time placing more power on the spell. He could feel a rush of power rushing through his arm and gathering at his wand.

"Cistem Aperio!" he shouted, giving his all.

The door exploded and he fell to the floor as he was peppered with splinters of wood, many of which ended up cutting him. His ears were ringing and he was blinded for a few moments. After the ringing stopped and his vision returned, he slowly stood up. He checked his cuts and was relieved to find that none of them went too deep. Of all the times it had to go off, his wand had decided this was the time. Not only that, but just in the week his family is visiting the Sanctuary it gets raided by poachers. He was starting to question his luck.

Having recovered enough, he left the guestroom and made his way toward the entrance of the manor. As soon as he opened the front doors, he managed to spot flashes of light coming from a clearing in the distance. After making sure there weren't any poachers around, he began to run through the trees toward them and, a few minutes later, he slowed down and began to walk stealthily as he hid behind a tree. After getting close enough to the clearing, he finally saw what was happening through the trees. His uncle and mother were behind some transfigured cover while slinging spells at the poachers. The poachers themselves were all covered in dark duster-like coats and were firing back at them. What really worried him though was that he could spot his father and his cousin lying on the ground while unconscious, if the movement of their chests was any indication.

He felt surprisingly calm considering the situation, with the adrenaline running in his blood sharpening his concentration. Before acting, he began to think of his situation. There were around seven poachers, with three of them on the ground having already been incapacitated. He could try to sneak attack them but he would at best take one of them out if he even managed that. He only knew a few spells, with only the knockback jinx and the severing charm being of any use in a fight. Seeing that he couldn't be of much help directly, he began to look for things that he could use. He didn't have to look for long, a few dozen meters behind the poachers were many magical beasts stuck with thick ropes from the Incarcerous spell. They all looked a bit groggy as well, so they were probably hit with overpowered stunners multiple times.

Of all the beasts that had been caught, his eyes immediately went to a Griffin. It was bleeding from many places and one of his wings was broken. His fight with the poachers was likely the reason for the sounds of explosions earlier. The Griffin, even injured, was the most powerful of the magical beasts there, and certainly the proudest. If Alan managed to free him it would likely attack the poachers instead of fleeing. With this new plan in mind, he began to approach it carefully as he silently moved around the clearing. When he got close enough the animal went alert immediately, but after Alan gave it a deep bow the animal seemed to become less tense. Slowly, he began to cut the animal bindings one by one using the cutting charm. The action reduced the Griffin wariness even further. When the ropes got loose enough, the beast stood up and shook them off. It gave Alan a small nod and then let out a mighty screech before charging toward the poachers.

In the clearing, the fighting stopped as both parties heard the sound and turned to see a furious Griffin charging toward them. Richard was the first to recover and quickly stunned one of the poachers before he grabbed Samantha and began to carry her away. Elizabeth caught on quickly and did the same with her husband, albeit with more difficulty due to the weight difference. Meanwhile, the three remaining poachers retreated in different directions as they began to bombard the charging Griffin with spells. Within minutes, the Griffin had mauled the three of them to death and was now resting against a large tree as it bled even more injured than before.

The sight of the brutalized remains of the poachers served as a cold shower for Alan. The adrenaline-fueled calm in his mind was quickly replaced by disgust and a fair bit of nausea. He had never seen such a sight outside of pictures of war on the media and shocking videos on the internet.

In the end, the anti-apparition wards the poachers set up ended up causing their own doom. After the commotion was over, Alan returned to the clearing where the fighting had happened. His mother and his uncle had returned as well and were restraining and disarming the surviving poachers. When his mother saw him she immediately got angry.

"Alan! What are you doing here?! You were supposed to stay hidden at the manor. A Griffin just killed three poachers. What would happen if it thought you were one too?" his mother berated him.

"I was the one that released the Griffin. If I hadn't done that, the poachers would have gotten you and uncle as well. I saw you fighting against the poachers and decided to help," he justified himself.

His mother looked conflicted, but at least she lost a lot of the anger she had before.

"Not obeying me and your father is still wrong and you could have ended up in danger. We will have a talk later after this is over," she declared sternly before turning to her brother.

"As for you Richard, when did we have a bloody Griffin here? Last time I checked they were illegal to own," she spat with a glare.

"A few weeks ago I saw this Griffin being sold on Knockturn Alley during an auction. You know I hate poaching. So I freed the Griffin while the auction was taking place and brought him here," he replied abashedly.

"And it seems they had a way to track it, or else poachers wouldn't have come. What were you thinking?! If you had gotten caught the folk at Knockturn wouldn't have left even a finger of you left for us to bury," his mother spat.

"I'm sorry Betty. I really fucked up," he whimpered.

"Fuck up, you did. Now we can't even call the fucking Aurors unless we want to explain why we had an unauthorized XXXX rating beast at home!" she ranted.

"Alan," she looked at me, "help to look over your father and Samantha, will you? They were just stunned, but they will be very confused when they wake up."

"As for you," she turned to Richard. "You will look over the poachers. they are restrained and we got their wands but you never know."

"Now I will treat that Griffin, it's too injured. If I don't treat it soon, it might not survive past the night," she said with concern.

While his mother treated the creature, his uncle messed with a stone the size of a fist that was filled with tiny runes. When I asked, he said it was the stone that was powering the anti-aparition ward. His uncle stunned the poachers twice more before both Hokta and Samantha woke up. After his mother finished the treatment, she returned and explained the situation to them.

"I understand what happened, but what are we gonna do about the poachers? Send them to the Aurors?" his father asked.

"We can't, they will tell the Aurors about the Griffon," said his cousin.

"If we release them they will come back with more of them, and If we send them to the Aurors they will tell them about the Griffon. I say we obliviate them and leave them to their fates on Knockturn Alley," his uncle said.

"But they will definitely end up as someone's potion ingredients. It would be no different from killing them!" his father exclaimed.

"I agree with him Hokta. Either we do that or we risk sending him and Samantha to Askaban. Hell, after this incident we might get dragged along with them as well," his mother told his father somberly.

"But we can't just kill them. It's wrong!" his father expressed.

"Please, Mr.Wolfe. Don't let my father go to Azkaban just to save the life of some poachers! They probably already hurt many people and beasts before," Samatha pleaded.

"We can do this if it's the only way, but I will definitely regret it later," his father sighed defeatedly.

After the conversation, his parents brought him and his cousin back to the manor while his uncle did the deed. They tried to make small talk, but everyone was too on edge because of the situation. An hour later, his uncle arrived with a ghastly look on his face.

"It's done," he said grimly.

Everyone bid each other goodnight and went to sleep for the night. Alan barely got any sleep after the events of that night. In the morning they returned home as soon as the floo was restored. His parents berated him for leaving his hiding spot and as punishment, they confiscated his wand until Hogwarts began. Those last few days before the first term began were quite boring without his wand. At first, he was worried because of what happened at the Sanctuary, but as the days began to near his excitement at going to Hogwarts dissolved most of the worry he had. However, in the back of his head, he couldn't help but feel this would not be the end of the situation with the poachers.

Now there was only one day left. Tomorrow he was going to Hogwarts.

/*AN

I'm open to constructive criticism, suggestions, and even your opinion on what you like or dislike about the story and why. In fact, I enjoy discussing and explaining things. Just don't be an ass, please.

This chapter has 5.836 words without the author's notes. The average chapter length should be around 5k words.

I don't have a schedule, but I will try to update it once a month. What I plan to do, however, is eventually finish this, no matter how long it takes.

AN*/

 

[Ghostcraft19]

Damn strait

 

[iTzMMV]

/*AN

Hello everyone, I'm sorry for taking so long to release a new chapter but I have been extremely busy IRL. As fun and fulfilling as writing is, it's also tiring and difficult, doubly so when you try to write a (less shitty) good story. So I usually like to spend the little free time that I have on easy and relaxing activities. Thus, for the time being, don't expect updates too often. But as I said earlier, I want to finish this fic eventually, no matter how long it takes.

I recommend re-reading the first two chapters as I have rewritten them correcting mistakes pointed out to me while also listening to some suggestions. Overall nothing too major was changed, but it's been so long since the last update that I doubt any of you even remember the story anyway.

Thank you for reading!

AN*/

Today was the day Alan had been longing for even before he came to this world. Ever since he first read the books as a child he dreamed of receiving his Hogwarts letter, visiting the castle, meeting the characters, and being able to experience the world of Harry Potter. He may have lost that dream as he grew, but coming to this world had rekindled it. Today he was finally going to Hogwarts, and this dream seemed more real each day that passed.

That morning, after waking up to a clock charmed to work similarly like an alarm, Alan practically jumped out of bed. He left his room and quickly descended the stairs before joining his parents who were already having breakfast.

"Morning Al. You woke up earlier than usual today. Excited to go to Hogwarts, aren't you?" His father asked amusedly as he looked at Alan over the Daily Prophet he was reading.

"Morning dad. Of course I am, I can't wait to go there already!" He replied energetically.

"Morning sweetie," his mom greeted as she prepared breakfast using her wand while seated opposite to her husband at the table. Two pans moved by themselves over an antique stove as one fried some eggs and the other toasted loaves of bread, all while a kettle slowly flew to pour more tea for her.

"Morning mum"

As soon as Alan sat at the table, with a move of his mother's wand, a plate and a teacup flew until they placed themselves on the table in front of him. With another wave, his plate was filled with toast, scrambled eggs, and a small assortment of berries on the side. He wasn't a nutritionist in his previous life, but after he started going to the gym, he began to learn how to make a proper diet. Since he was growing, he didn't limit himself much on the amount of food he ate, mostly just making sure to eat a few portions of fruits and vegetables, besides drinking a cup of milk every day while balancing the number of fats, carbs, and proteins in his diet. He also avoided candy, fried foods, and other generally unhealthy foods, which wasn't so difficult considering they weren't nearly as accessible as they would come to be in the future.

Finished with breakfast, Alan went to do his morning exercises since he still had a few hours before the train to Hogwarts left. He arrived at an open space in his home's garden and began to stretch. He ran around the area for around five minutes before doing burpees for another five minutes, repeating this cycle thrice more. After he finished the aerobic exercises, he rested and drank some water. Having rested enough, he began to do beginner calisthenics exercises, which he finished around forty minutes later. He was young, so his body was still developing. Because of this, he couldn't do heavy lifting or train for too long since he could injure or exhaust himself.

After his morning exercises, Alan took a bath and changed his clothes. He checked his trunk one last time to see if he hadn't forgotten anything and went to the front of the house where his parents were waiting.

"Ready to go Al?" His mother asked.

"And did you already check to see if you forgot anything? This is your last chance," his father added.

"Yes, I am ready. I just checked everything back in my room," he replied.

With his confirmation, his mother grabbed his hand and they apparated to an apparition spot close to Kings Cross station. He never went to Britain in his previous life, so this was his first time at the station. After recovering from the apparition and walking for a bit, he began to take a look around. King's Cross was a big station with a functional style and an old look to it. But what drew most of his attention were the people, their style of clothing completely different from what he was used to in his previous life. The saddest thing was that he could easily differentiate the wizards bringing their offspring to Hogwarts from the muggles. It seemed that even in the 70s wizards were already way out of touch with muggle fashion.

His parents guided him to the infamous Plataform 9¾, where you could see wizard families and accompanied muggle-borns going through the pilar. The extensive notice-me-not charms employed around the area hiding the blatant use of magic from the muggles. Following a muggle-born who just ran through the wall with his trunk, Alan and his family walked through it themselves. Passing through the wall felt like passing through a wet membrane that stretched until he fully crossed to the other side before it went back to place. The membrane was also cold to the touch and felt faintly moist.

On the other side of the pillar, he was confronted with the view of a large platform with a surprisingly big red train. A few dozen families could be seen giving their children goodbye, but not many were there since they arrived early. Among the crowd, he couldn't spot any particular character from the books, but even if he saw one it would be hard to recognize them due to their age unless they had a distinguishing feature like the Malfoy's platinum blonde hair or the Weasley's red hair and height.

Now it was time for him to begin his plans to prepare for the future. He arrived early for a reason. First, he had to find the future Marauders and guarantee that Peter didn't meet with them at one of the compartments like in the story. He probably couldn't prevent his sorting, but if he could he would distance Peter from them. Another objective of his was to become acquainted with Snape and Lily so that he could begin to influence Snape and try to prevent possible future conflicts with the Marauders. He didn't really want to join the Marauders or become best friends with the characters from the books, he just needed to be on friendly terms with them so he could have some influence over them. At the end of the day, they were just children and he would find it hard to relate to them.

"Mum, dad. I want to board the train already so I can get a better compartment," Alan said.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay a little bit more with us?" his mother asked with a slightly strained voice.

"Yes, mum. You don't need to worry too much I'll be back in a few months," he replied. Honestly, he was feeling bad about leaving his family so early, but he had to if he wanted to begin his preparations for the future.

"Come here then," his father said before grabbing him and his mother and holding them in a tight hug.

They stood like that for a minute before his father broke the hug.

"Goodbye Al, remember to write letters to us at least once a week," his father said with a sad smile.

"Goodbye sweetie, go make friends and don't hesitate to have fun. Hogwarts will be where your best memories are made," his mother said with moist eyes.

"Goodbye," Alan said flashing them a mild smile before turning around and going to board the train.

...

"The house will feel empty while he is away," Hokta said after he saw Alan board the train.

"I think so too," Elizabeth said tearfully as she finally began to cry as she embraced her husband.

...

As Alan got inside the train, he could clearly see that it was full of spatial enhancements. From the outside, it looked already significantly larger than he remembered from the movies. But from inside it was another thing altogether. It had a second floor, the corridor was three meters wide and the cabins could comfortably fit six students each, giving a general air of both comfort and sophistication.

While walking through the corridors and looking through the little windows on the cabin's doors, he was surprised to find a whole wagon from the train dedicated to a buffet. This actually made sense, considering the trip lasted several hours. People would become hungry during the long trip and, since the train departed so early, most wouldn't have had their lunch yet.

Curious about this place that didn't exist in the books, he began to look around it. It had many large tables filled with different kinds of food surrounding a circular counter displaying many types of candy, manning the counter was an older middle-aged lady with graying hair and soft features. Most of the food on the tables was what you'd expect from a traditional British breakfast with toast, eggs, bacon, and sausages. There were other foods as well, just in a lesser amount.

As Alan was examining a peculiar fruit that he had never seen before, he heard a soft voice coming from the counter.

"Hello there lad. You keep staring at the food. If you're hungry you don't need to worry about paying, the buffet is paid for by the Headmaster himself. If you want I can even help you serve yourself," spoke the middle-aged lady with a kind smile.

"Oh, thank you for the offer. But I'm not really hungry. I just had breakfast," he replied.

"Okay then. If you start feeling hungry you can just come here," she said as her attention left the boy and turned to where a girl had just spilled some juice.

"Oh, dearie. You made quite a mess, didn't you? Let me help you," she said to a young girl.

Alan took the opportunity and left for the next wagon while taking an apple from the table close to him to munch on the way.

After looking through the whole train, he didn't manage to find any of the future Marauders, nor did he find Lily or Snape. However, he did manage to recognize one person. As he was passing through the back of the train he saw what must be Lucious Malfoy at the very last cabin, with his platinum blond hair that was almost silver and his pale skin. He was a bit stunned at meeting his first book character but quickly broke his stare and began to make his way back to the front of the train.

He still hadn't found the people he was looking for, but it was still early, so he decided to lounge close to the entrance of the train so he could see everyone who entered. After a while of waiting, Alan finally found someone. Just entering the train were two kids, one cute redhead girl with vibrant green eyes and one thin brooding boy with a long nose and shoulder-length dark hair. If he was not mistaken those should be Snape and Lily, and while listening to their conversation his guess was all but confirmed.

"Oh Sev, you're being silly. Even if we go to different houses we can still be friends," spoke the redhead.

"Please Lily, you should go to Slytherin with me. It's the best house, Merlin himself was a Slytherin," replied the boy with a pout that would be endearing if he wasn't aware of who the boy would grow to be.

Alan couldn't help but curse in his mind. His job would be much more difficult if Snape went to Slytherin since he would walk around with bigots and the children of death eaters. He had to try to intervene somehow, having the boy as an ally would help greatly when considering his future talent for potions and curses. With this in mind, Alan walked up to them.

"Hello there, my name is Alan Wolfe. Are both of you first years as well?" he said while giving his best shot at a friendly smile.

The duo stopped talking and immediately looked at new the boy. While Lily's gaze was curious, Serverus's was wary.

"Hello, my name is Lily Evans and yes, we are first years as well," the girl introduced herself cheerfully.

"I'm Severus, Severus Snape," the boy drawled, unenthused by the newcomer.

"Great! Since we are going to study together already, the both of you shouldn't have a problem sharing a cabin with me right?"

"Sure, it wouldn't be a problem right Sev?" the redhead asked as she gave a pointed look at her friend who seemed to be about to refuse the request.

"No, it wouldn't," the boy replied reluctantly.

"Follow me then, I think I found a free cabin over there," Alan said as he began to guide them.

Soon they all were sitting inside a previously empty cabin. This was his opportunity to begin to change things. Maybe he couldn't change Severus sorting, but it was still worth a try.

"I couldn't help but overhear the conversation the two of you were having before," he turned to look at Severus, "you spoke about Merlin being in Slytherin, but there are plenty of great wizards in other houses as well. For example, Albus Dumbledore, who is our headmaster, and also one of the greatest wizards of our time, having singlehandedly defeated Grindelwald in a duel, is a Griffindor" he said.

"Are you saying that the headmaster is the one who defeated Grindelwald?" Severus asked with a slight frown.

"Yeah, it's not spoken about much nowadays but before Dumbledore won that duel people believed Grindelwald to be unbeatable, with him being able to overpower dozens of wizards on his own. After his defeat, however, the Global Wizarding War quickly came to an end, so it isn't wrong to say the headmaster singlehandedly stopped the war. Their duel is said to have been the greatest in recent history," Alan explained to a now intrigued audience.

"Who is this Grindelwald bloke and what was this Global Wizarding War?" asked Lily.

"Gellert Grindelwald was an extremely talented European wizard who eventually became the leader of a movement that wanted to end the Statute of Secrecy and let wizards rule over muggles," he replied to a now visibly outraged Lily.

"What!? Do you mean to say that people actually followed him? That they wanted to rule over people that don't have magic?" she asked with a scandalized face.

"Yes, even though he was defeated and his side lost, many old pureblood families from Britain indirectly supported him. Most of those families have the tradition of having their children sorted into Slytherin, so I advise against going there, especially if you are a muggle-born," he replied grimly.

"I'm certainly not going into Slytherin, that's for sure," she spat.

Alan was not so subtly trying to direct them away from Slytherin and, while Lily seemed to have taken his warning to heart, Severus seemed less than pleased if the dirty look he was giving him was anything to go by. With this in mind, he decided to be a bit more direct.

"Not to say that all of them are bad, it's just that there are many people who are prejudiced against muggles and muggle-borns there. Even half-bloods are not treated so well, by what I heard," he added while paying attention to the long-nosed boy. Severus's reaction to that was actually of surprise.

"Even half-bloods?" the boy asked.

"Yes, even half-bloods. To them they barely qualify as proper wizards, some even going so far as to call muggle-borns mudbloods and saying that they steal the magic from real wizards," Alan told them as if he was sharing a dark secret. Their conversation slowly fading into a somber silence.

He wasn't sure about how much of what he said about the war and about Slytherin was true, since he was extrapolating knowledge he had from the books which already proved to be faulty, but he really wanted to change their fate. Lily was just a kid and she would be treated horribly if she went in that place, meanwhile, Severus would be led around and molded into a horrible person who would eventually come to regret his life.

Although he hadn't noticed before, now that he was paying attention he saw how thin Severus was and how his robes were ratty and seemed to have been put together out of old muggle clothing. The boy was poor and likely neglected at home, it's no wonder he would come to cling to his death-eater-to-be friends. Even if he was a bit of a git he didn't deserve his future life.

The silence that had been established after the uncomfortable conversation was suddenly broken by the sound of someone knocking on their door before entering. As the door opened two figures were revealed. One was a tall boy with dark shoulder-length hair together with steely grey eyes and an aristocratic face that looked like it would make him handsome after he grew up, and the other was a bespectacled boy with messy raven hair. Both of them were sporting cocksure grins that made the trio already in the cabin give them weird looks.

"Any of you mind some more... m-more company?" asked the boy with glasses, who got lost in the middle of his speech as he began to stare dumbly at Lily. the taller boy, noticing his friend's predicament, decided to give some help.

"Hello everyone, my name is Sirius and this here is my friend James Potter. You wouldn't mind if we joined you in this cabin, would you?" he said while wrapping his arm over James's shoulder and dragging him to Alan's side, not giving them any time to answer.

After giving another look at the people inside the cabin, Alan couldn't help but feel like he was going through high school again. Snape was the edgy kid, James and Sirius were two jocks and Lily was the pretty girl all the boys tried to chase after. He didn't know whether to be thankful that most of the people he wanted to befriend ended in the same wagon by coincidence or be angry that he would have to live through his teenage years again.

"I wouldn't mind, the more the merrier after all," Alan replied with a dry tone.

"I don't mind it too, I suppose," said Lily

Severus in turn just grunted while giving James an especially pronounced glare. Alan was already dreading the future amount of teenage drama he would have to deal with. Meanwhile, noticing his friend was still staring dumbly at Lily, Sirius elbowed James before trying to break the ice.

"Ouch"

"So, since we introduced ourselves, why don't you guys do the same? I'm rather curious to know with whom I'm sharing this cabin with, and it's only fair for you lads to do the same," he spoke before turning to Lily and giving what he probably believed was a winning smile "Oh, and the pretty lady too."

Immediately he managed to gather the dirty looks of three people in the cabin, only Alan giving him an exasperated one as the exception. He was eleven years old, but he felt too old for this shit already.

"My name's Lily," she replied curtly.

"Severus," the boy almost gritted out.

"I'm Alan Wolfe, it's a pleasure to meet you," he said in clearly forced cheer.

Sirius seemed a bit miffed by their lukewarm introduction before he was distracted as he seemed to be reminded of something.

"Wolfe? Does your family own that wand shop? Wolfe's fine wands was the name, I think," he asked eagerly.

"Yes, my father owns that wandshop. Why the question tough?" he replied, curious by the line of questioning.

"I just got my wand from there last week!" he said as he pulled a long rectangular-shaped wand that thinned towards the end. It was made of dark brown wood and had its sides engraved with runes.

"It's good to see that the family business is going well. I know a bit of wandlore and since you are a customer I could tell you a bit about your wand if you want."

"That would be great!" Sirus said as he handed the wand to Alan who took it softly and began to look at it.

"Hum... This seems to be dogwood if I'm not mistaken. Usually the wand of a mischievous prankster or a rogue, as for its shape and the runes, they should help stabilize non-verbal magic which is made more difficult due to the wood's quirky nature... It's around 13 inches and rather stiff. It probably indicates a stubborn owner with a strong personality..."

"What is the core? I can't figure this one out without opening it," he said as he handed the wand back to the other boy.

"The wandmaker told me it was a dragon heartstring."

"Then it is capable of powerful spells and is quick to learn new magic, although it is not the most consistent of wands. There are a lot more things you can learn about its wandlore, but I'm only a beginner."

The conversation about wands quickly uplifted the previous mood and now everyone started to hand Alan their wands and ask for him to tell them about their wandlore, even Severus seemed intrigued by the conversation. Alan was rather disappointed to find that only Sirius's wand came from his family's shop, the rest of them had gotten theirs from Olivander. In the end, James's wand was made of mahogany and an unicorn hair, Severus's of hawthorn and a dragon heartstring, and Lily's was made of willow and a phoenix feather.

Now that the ice was metaphorically broken, the kids continued conversing throughout the train ride, only stopping momentarily to buy some candy from the trolley lady when she passed. Eventually, the ride came to an end when the train began to stop with a muted screech of its wheels.

Alan and his new friends made their way to the front exit of the train where they began to hear a deep baritone voice.

"Firs' years ova' here! Firs' years come wit' me!" shouted a huge man that seemed to be slightly over three meters tall, and despite his height, his frame still was stocky. He had wild brown hair, while his rough face sported a great bushy beard that didn't manage to hide the cheer and honesty uncharacteristic of someone with his rough features.

"Wow, how is that man so big?" asked Lily.

"I heard the man is a half-giant, his name is supposed to be Hagrid or something," replied James, who somewhere along the ride had let go of his awkwardness around Lily.

"I remember my mother being particularly outraged about a half-breed working at Hogwarts," Sirius grimaced. "My family is not too fond of them."

"Yeah, there is a lot of prejudice against them," Alan added.

Soon, they followed the large man from the train stop and through a trek in the woods towards a murky dark lake, where the five of them boarded a small ancient-looking boat with a large lantern strapped to a pole coming from its bow. Alan was surprised to find that not only did the boats fit more people than he remembered from the books, but the dozens of boats that he saw indicated a significantly larger number of students than shown in the books. Maybe it was because of the decline in the number of births after Voldemort or maybe not, however, he had already concluded in his mind that the books were unreliable, serving at most as a guideline.

After a warning to lower their heads from the half-giant that was useless for everyone but him, the boats soon passed through a dark passage overflowing with ivy and vegetation. As they began to leave the passage, everyone became lost for words when they saw the amazing sight of the castle outlined by the dusky sky. Hogwarts was simply monstrous in size and its design, although predominantly Gothic, hinted at a hodgepodge of influences and cultures. Some of the castle towers and sections even seemed to defy physics as they looked like they shouldn't be able to support their own weight.

Being transfixed with the castle, most people barely noticed they had arrived, having crossed to the other side of the lake. Slowly, people began to get out of their boats and soon were guided to the massive front doors of the caste. The doors were so large they looked as if they could fit a dragon. After a few heavy knocks from Hagrid, the doors opened themselves making a strong gust of wind with their motion. Immediately, Alan felt the aroma of mossy stone and old oak coming from the ancient castle, all the while the wind brushed against his face and messed with his chestnut hair as the sight of Hogwarts entrance hall was revealed.

As he entered the castle, he could feel a subtle thrum of what could only be magic pass through his being. If Diagon Alley felt magical, then Hogwarts felt like a maelstrom of magic, like magic was ingrained in its very existence in a way that felt almost alive. He was so overwhelmed by the castle's presence that he didn't even remember how he found himself standing between Snape and James in a long line of students while waiting for their sorting. The first thing he noticed in the great hall was the enchanting starry sky and floating candles on the ceiling that lent the hall an ethereal feeling.

"Now the sorting will begin. After I call your name you must come forward and sit on this stool. the hat shall decide which house you will join," spoke loudly a woman that Alan could only assume must be Minerva McGonagall. The tall witch had a no-nonsense expression and seemed to be in her mid-thirties, her dark hair was tied in a tight bun that was barely covered by her traditional wizard's hat.

"Alvin Abrams!" she called.

A gangly-looking boy nervously walked through the hall before sitting on the stool and having the ancient sorting hat placed over his head. The hat immediately began to shift, its folds and crevices shifting until they seemed to take the shape of a face. A few moments passed before the hat screamed.

"RAVENCLAW!"

The shout was soon followed by a round of applause.

...

And so the sorting continued. Alan tried to keep an ear out for any familiar names in the sorting while wondering in what house he would be sorted. He was in doubt whether he should force the hat to place him in Gryffindor so he could have better control of the group of people he knew would become important or just let the hat sort himself normally. While he was pondering, he heard the first familiar name being called.

"Sirius Black!"

The boy began to walk confidently over to the stool, but not before sending a mischievous wink to James whose eyebrows were raised to his forehead.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Unlike the rest of the sortings, the hall went momentarily silent before slowly, and rather less enthusiastically than the other times, beginning to applaud again.

"What, He was a Black?" whispered Severus dumbfoundedly.

"What do you mean by that?" answered Lily with another question, as she overheard being next to Snape's other side.

"The Blacks are one of those old noble families that have a tradition of being sorted in Slytherin, so his sorting in Gryffindor will cause quite the drama," Alan replied to them.

James was just staring at Sirius grinning form, looking as if he had just been told the sky was green. Apparently, even though they seemed very close on the train, they didn't seem to know each other previously, indicating that their personality meshed so well together that they just hit it off.

Soon the next familiar name was called.

"Lily Evans!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

After her sorting, Severus began to feel anxious. Noticing the boy's distress, Alan inclined himself closer to him.

"I heard that the hat takes into account the student's wish, if you ask for him to place you in Gryffindor with your friend he might acquiesce," he whispered conspiratorially.

Even if he was still nervous, the boy now had a resolute look in his eyes. Alan wasn't sure if it was enough, but hopefully, this was the last push he needed to direct the boy away from Slytherin.

"Remus Lupin"

A boy with sandy brown hair and soft features began to hesitantly walk towards the stool.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Now it was Alan's turn to feel nervous. He knew all of the Marauders were supposed to meet on the train, but his presence had altered that. He just didn't expect that the aftereffects of his presence would be so great. His shock only increased when he heard the result of the next sorting.

"Peter Pettigrew!"

A short chubby boy with brown hair and a meaty face began to timidly move to the front of the hall.

"SLYTHERIN!"

After the sorting, the boy seemed to be dead on his feet as he practically dragged himself towards Slytherin's table.

Quickly, Alan's mind began to run a mile a minute trying to figure out just how these sortings came to be. His presence shouldn't be able to change things that much should it? As he thought a few hypotheses came to his mind. The books heavily implied that the sorting was influenced by what the students value, like Hermione who despite having all the qualities of a Ravenclaw still went to Gryffindor, Lockhart who should have been in Slytherin instead of Ravenclaw, and many other examples. With this in mind, he supposed that the lack of influence from their encounter with Sirius and James led them to a less biased sorting. God knows James couldn't shut up about how great Gryffindor was during the train ride.

As he was thinking the sorting continued.

"James Potter!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

...

"Severus Snape!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

This sorting, surprising as it might be, wasn't so unexpected when Alan took into account all he had done to influence the boy. In fact, it actually only supported his theory of the opinion of the students being heavily taken into account. But this didn't change the fact that the timeline was already out of wack, the little future knowledge he had had become even less useful. Now only he remained to be sorted from their group and he still wasn't sure whether to let the hat do its thing or choose on his own. Before he could decide, his name was called.

"Alan Wolfe!"

He slowly began to move towards the stool, the closer he got the more doubts began to fill his mind. Had he completely derailed the timeline? How different really was this world from the one shown in the books? As he sat on the stool, he even wondered if the hat would be able to see his previous life. The hat was put on him, the shadow of its brim covering his entire face. Soon after, Alan heard the deep and old voice that had an undertone of friendliness speak in his mind.

"Humm... Most interesting, your mind, that is. It has been a long time since I have last seen a mind as intriguing as yours,"

"But the question remains. Where to sort you? You are hardworking, but far from being honest and fair, and, despite your loyalty to those close to you, it's not one of your defining traits..."

"Maybe Slytherin then? You have some cunning in you, not being bound by rules. You have big dreams as well, but they don't necessarily count as ambition..."

"How about Ravenclaw? You do have an inquisitive mind and desire for knowledge, your dreams are of exploring the world... No, no, no. Not exploring the world, your dreams are of having an adventure, of living life to its fullest."

"I think I know where to put you, the liveliness of the house of Godric would best suit your dreams. Better be..."

"GRYFFINDOR," the hat shouted, this time outside of Alan's mind.

In the end, he decided to let the sorting occur naturally, and he wasn't disappointed. Gryffindor would help him to keep a close eye on many people who would be important in the future. James and Sirius were heirs of old pureblood families, and both Lily and Snape would become extremely talented wizards in their own fields. Another reason, one he didn't want to admit to himself, was that he wanted to befriend them. Deep down, he admired and remembered most of them fondly from the books he read as a child.

He would only have gone against the hat if it wanted to sort him in Slytherin. It would make it possible for him to fight against Voldemort from inside and he was a pureblood, which gave him some protection, but he wasn't touching that mess even with a teen foot pole. If he went there he'd probably go mad within a week.

Getting up from the stool, he walked towards the Gryffindor's table as the round of applause began to die out. Looking towards it he couldn't help but smile as he saw that Sirius had saved him a spot next to him and opposite to Lily, who was between Severus and James, respectively. He already knew both boys would keep competing for Lily's attention all through the years at Hogwarts, but for some reason, he didn't feel so exasperated about it this time. He looked forward to his years at the castle.

With the sorting done, the headmaster gave his speech, and after a few odd words, the tables were suddenly filled with a banquet fit for a king. The headmaster was a very tall man with long grey hair, and a beard that reached his waist, also having a pair of half-moon glasses resting over his long crooked nose. As people began to talk and serve themselves, the hall was quickly filled with chatter, a cheery mood settling over the students.

After the banquet ended, they were led by the prefects to their common rooms. While traversing the castle, Alan again had his mind blown by its sheer size. Even with them being guided and only having to go up to the third floor of the total seven, the trip took more than twenty minutes. He wasn't against some exploration, but he had to find the secret passages around the castle as quickly as possible, or traversing its halls between his lessons would take too much of his time. As for the common room, it was a chaotic mess of red and gold, giving a vibrant and flamboyant aesthetic that brought the feeling of ordered chaos. There was an overabundance of furniture and decoration, each of them haphazardly strewn along the room, each and every moving trinket practically competing for attention.

All the kids having settled from the excitement of the sorting, slowly began scattering to their rooms. Apparently, as one of the prefects had explained, they would be divided into rooms of four where people could decide their roommates by themselves. With this in mind, Alan went up to a moping Severus who was sitting over one large red armchair adorned with golden embroidery after Lily left him to find other girls to be her roommates.

"Hey Severus, want to be roommates with me, Sirius, and James? It's not like you talked with anyone else besides us during the banquet."

"I think that's reasonable," the long-nosed boy replied with some reluctance. What is he disappointed in? Was he thinking that they would let boys and girls in the same dorms? Alan internally lampooned.

"Let's ask them if they want to be our roommates then," he replied before turning and walking with Snape towards the two bickering Gryffindors, who were accusing each other of cheating in a game of wizarding chess.

"You are cheating, there's no way your pawn could have taken mine from that position!" exclaimed James to an equally outraged Sirius.

"Have you ever played chess before!? Why don't you search what's is an en passant!"

"That's rubbish, you're making this rule up!"

"Hey James, hey Sirius. I don't want to interrupt you guys or anything, but we are getting closer to the curfew, so we should decide on our roommates before it. I was wondering if you guys would mind having me and Severus as your roommates," he said, taking the boy's attention from their previous discussion.

"I'd be glad," said Sirius with a grin.

"I guess I don't mind," said James who looked less pleased after glancing towards Snape.

"Let's go find ourselves a dorm then."

And so, the quartet went to the corridor that housed the male dorms and entered an empty one. As soon as they entered, the candles inside the room lit themselves and their luggage appeared over their respective beds. Probably the work of house the elves. The dorm still took its vibrant and flamboyant aesthetic from the common room, but it looked more homely and less all over the place.

Having taken their trunks and organized themselves, the boys kept talking until the curfew arrived and the candles extinguished themselves. Tired after the excitement from the day, the boys bid each other goodnight and settled themselves over their beds before going to sleep.

/*AN

Don't worry about this being a Dollar Tree version of the Marauders. This is a different group, thus they have a different dynamic, so there will be no Marauders, not as they were, at least. Not that this will stop Sirius and James from terrorizing the school everywhere and exploring the castle in the background. Also, don't think that I just shoved Remus and Peter to the sidelines so I could place Alan and Severus in their place, I have my own plans for them.

I'm open to constructive criticism, suggestions, and even your opinion on what you like or dislike about the story and why. In fact, I enjoy discussing and explaining things. Just don't be an ass, please.

This chapter has 6098 words without the author's notes. The average chapter length should be around 5k words.

I don't have a schedule, but I will try to update it once a month. What I plan to do, however, is eventually finish this, no matter how long it takes.

AN*/