Time passed more quickly than I had expected. Before I knew it, a year had passed since my ‘rebirth’.

 

After the first few chaotic months, I had settled in well and fallen into a routine. 

 

I had also received my much awaited Hogwarts letter. It had arrived by owl-like in canon. It was a strange sight to see an owl carry a letter though.

 

The contents were as follows:

---

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin: First Class, Grand Sorc. ,Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. Of Wizards.)

Dear Mr Prince,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

The term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.

Yours Sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress.

---

The letter was what I had expected but damn did Dumbledore have a lot of titles to his name. It gave me a clearer idea of his power and the influence he holds.

Pity he didn’t use it to its full potential.

Coming back to the letter, it came attached with a parchment listing the things I needed to buy if I decided to go to Hogwarts.

The uniform required me to get a set of robes, a pair of protective gloves and for some reason a pointy hat…

I think the last one was just for formalities sake because I don’t think anyone actually wore those. 

Next up were the books which I already had except for the DADA books which needed to be bought because they kept changing the teacher every year and each one preferred a different book.

The rest of the books I had were Eileen’s books which I could still use. The curriculum at Hogwarts had not changed much over the years so her books could still be used.

And last but not the least, I needed to get a wand. Eileen had promised to take me to Diagon alley for shopping soon. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t excited about it.

Over the years Eileen had continued working at the Three Broomsticks Inn and it was doing quite well.

I had met Rosmerta too when she took me to Hogsmeade. Speaking of the magical village, it truly was a fascinating sight.

The buildings were old fashioned and outdated like I had expected and the road was made of cobblestone. It reminded me of a medieval RPG village with all its shops and places.

Anway after I learnt that Rosmerta was looking for suggestions for new drinks. I had an idea. I proposed to her that I would give her some suggestions for the drinks and other foodstuffs if I got a cut of it.

She was sceptical at first but agreed to humour me. I had her introduce some popular muggle drinks that were popular in the era I was in. I changed the names of some that were not whacky enough and made some small changes to them.

 

I also gave her the suggestion of a different type of Butterbeer. I am not sure if this was the one she made in canon but the one I gave the recipe for was the Butterbeer from the theme parks.

I had gone there a few times in my previous life and had quite enjoyed it. And then google being google had sent me stuff related to it and I read the recipe for it once.

Anyway, the butterbeer was sweeter than the other variants and the products used to make it were cheaper. Rosmerta liked it after tasting it so it should probably do well.

I had many other ideas like introducing milkshakes, more cocktails and other stuff from canon that didn’t exist yet but I held them back. I didn’t want to give her all my ideas at once.

I would instead release them slowly which would make her appreciate me more and thereby giving me better deals.

The drinks I suggested worked within my expectations with some exceeding them too. Eileen was ecstatic and Rosmerta was happy too. 

Her business was booming with my drinks being the main selling point. I was sure the others would catch onto this soon but for now, I had a monopoly of these drinks which earned me a hefty profit.

That and I wasn’t too worried about others copying me since the wizarding world had this weird tradition or more precisely mentality of sticking to one shop. Especially the purebloods who use the same shop for generations.

I didn’t know why they were so hesitant to try other options.No wonders half the shops in Diagon alley lasted for centuries. They had built up such a high reputation that no competition stood a chance unless they did something unique and better.

So being the pioneer of wizard drinks, I had a headstart compared to others. Well, I still couldn’t beat Ogden’s firewhiskey but it wouldn’t be long before I came up with something as whacky….

The money I got from these drinks was actually pretty decent and I gave it to Eileen who bought potion supplies and began making potions.

She sold them as a batch in the inn every weekend when the students visited. It was an idea I suggested and it worked well. 

There was a potion shop in Hogsmeade but the prices were way out of a common student’s budget. Eileen sold them in bulk at lower prices so students piled money and bought sets which they then shared amongst each other.

This side business also bought in some good money. Honestly, at this rate, I felt that the vault wasn’t even needed but of course, I wanted the vault. You can never have too much money after all.

I had many more ideas to make money like this in the magical world but I didn’t reveal them all. I couldn’t get too hasty since I didn’t want to attract too much attention.

I decided to hold them off at least until Eileen opened her shop and I got my pureblood status. This would deter half the bad people since the laws for a pureblood and laws for a muggle-born were different, to say the least.

Thus before I knew it, a year had passed and it was finally time for my Diagon alley visit.

Eileen wanted to get Lily and her parents to go with us but they had received a letter through Mcgonagall who insisted that she be the one to show them around as it was tradition.

Speaking of Mcgonagall, after learning that we lived in the same neighbourhood, she had come to visit us just to check upon us.

She came to our house to thank Eileen for informing Lily and her parents. I had not expected her to do this as I was under the impression that she would not like what we had done.

I then realized that I had been holding a bias against her and I felt stupid. Reading so many fanfics and theories had built this up in me and me comparing all canon characters to their book parts had made me biased.

From that point, I decided to let go of all biases I had against any canon character and then judge them on my own.

Of course, I would still be suspicious of some characters because of their actions in canon but I wouldn’t let that affect me too much. I would just take the ‘trust but verify approach.

McGonagall also came to see how Eileen was after marrying Tobias. She had been quick to spot the signs that the marriage had not been a happy one.

She was also sympathetic to me since she grew up in a household similar to mine. Of course, her father was not bad like Tobias had been but she understood how Eileen felt giving up her magic.

Her mother too had married a muggle but hadn’t said that she was a witch. Eventually, she had to after her young self started manifesting magic. But the relationship between them was never the same again.

She didn’t criticize Eileen for her poor decision either but even called her brave for leaving the wizarding world to marry a muggle. She found it regretful that Tobias turned out to be such a man.

It was quite interesting to learn more about Minerva who I hadn’t known much about other than that she was a teacher.

Overall I had a better impression of her than I did before.

….

“Are you ready?” Eileen asked.

I gave a nod as my answer. 

“Hmm..hold my hand now, we are going to apparate.” she gave a hand which I grabbed.

Eileen nodded and with a loud crack, we apparated. Apparating was a weird experience and the next moment we were in the streets.

Apparition felt like being folded and thrown around like a ragdoll. I felt nauseous but fortunately didn’t throw up. 

“Oh you did well on your first try Severus, most people puke on their first attempts,” Eileen said.

 

“I can see why…” I retorted trying to fight nausea. I recalled a life hack I had seen long ago. I don’t know how I even remembered it but it helped. I pressed my thumb on the tendons between my fingers.

It seemed to have done the trick as my nausea reduced significantly.

“Are you alright? Want to take a rest somewhere?” Eileen asked, seeing me hunched over.

“That's not necessary, just feeling a bit nauseous. I feel better now.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes..”

Eileen nodded and proceeded to walk as I followed her. We received a few stares for our attire but Eileen didn’t pay it any heed.

I didn’t care either although inwardly I felt weird wearing the robes. I had just about gotten used to 70s fashion and now I was wearing something older.

Soon we reached a street called Charring Cross and right in between a tiny bookshop and what seemed to be a record shop was a dingy inn with the sign ‘Leaky Cauldron’ that seemed out of place.

When I said out of place, it really felt out of place like a hut in between two skyscrapers.

The building if you call it that as it looked more like a shack seemed ancient. The people around didn’t notice it at all seemingly walking past it as though it didn’t exist.

“This is the leaky cauldron huh?” 

“Yes...it's been here before the street was even planned,” Eileen answered.

“So do they use muggle repelling charm to keep these people away?” I asked pointing at the oblivious people.

“Yes ever since it was invented, the Ministry regularly strengthens it. They also have wards around it that power the spell. I did read that they used to use a fidelius before but it was too hard and expensive to maintain...Though they did put it under a fidelius again during the war with Grindelwald. Only those that could be trusted were allowed to know the key.”

“Well then, now that we are here, shall we go in?” Eileen asked.

I agreed and we went inside. Once inside, I was met with a bizarre sight. It felt like I had walked into a time capsule.

The pub was filled with people wearing clothes from the medieval ages- robes, pointy hats and all the generic witch or wizard attire.

The movie had portrayed this but it couldn’t have shown the awful smell and dirty filth everywhere. 

People were noisy and loud like most pubs had. They were spilling their drinks, gossiping and animals were running around. The empty chairs were arranging themselves.

The tables cleaned themselves albeit inefficiently as they just made the floor dirtier instead.

Some people were wearing some muggle attire may be trying to blend in but they were the ones who stood out the most because they were wearing clothes that went out of fashion years ago.

Ignoring the smell, I followed Eileen who had walked up to the innkeeper, a man named Tom who nodded at her and led us to the backyard.

“Severus, look at what I do care. It will be helpful for you if you ever come here on your own.” Eileen pulled her wand out of her holster and began tapping the bricked wall in a pattern.

I did as she suggested and memorized it. I did have plans to come here after all.

After she finished tapping the walls, they parted one by one to reveal a  narrow pathway.

Eileen beckoned me to follow and I trotted along beside her. 

“Is this the only entrance to the alley?” I asked. I knew that one could use floo powder like Harry did but I was curious to know if there were more.

“Well, there are a few more ways to enter the alley. First is the one we just came in through. Second would be the floo powder by which we can appear directly inside but you need to get your house registered before you can floo in and the house must not be from some other country.”

“Besides the floo doesn’t work for long distances so you can’t be too far. Portkeys are the best for long-distance travels.”

“I see, what about apparition?”

“Ah yes...I almost forgot you can apparate but not around Gringotts where they have set up a ward. I was not sure if they expanded it over the years so I apparated outside.”

“The last one would be apparating to Knockturn alley but its not a good place to apparate too. The people found there are shady and might jump you if suddenly apparated there.”

Hmm...Knockturn alley sounded like a grey black market of sorts. I might need to procure some hard to get things from there in the future so I put it on my places to visit.

Of course, I wouldn’t step into it until I was sure I would not be completely defenceless. Only after I was confident in dealing with the threats there would I go in there.

We soon reached the end of the path and we entered an open space. The cobblestoned path extended into forks and diagon alley was before my eyes.

The name was a desperate attempt at a joke that I didn’t want to comment on. The place looked like a worse version of Hogsmeade. The shops were much older and when they wanted to expand it, they just built stuff on top without a care.

Truly an architect’s nightmare. The building’s were probably only standing and had not collapsed because of magic. No wonder the weasleys had such a house, if this was the norm then I wouldn’t be surprised to see other buildings which followed minecraft logic.

It almost looked like an npc town with all the weirdly dressed people walking about.

The street was filled with people to the brim. It was Hogwarts season and I guessed everyone was here for the same purpose as me, to shop for supplies.

There were a few signs indicating where the shops were.

“So which place are we hitting first then?” I asked.

“Gringotts. Its time to get the vault back from those goblins.” Eileen answered, annoyance in her voice.

“Alright.” I was a bit excited and nervous about visiting Gringotts. I was eager to see what an actual goblin looked like but was also nervous as I wasn’t sure if I would pass the inheritance test.