Daphne Ludwig took out fifteen gold coins from her dragon-hide purse and placed them in Mr. Ollivander's hand. The completion of the wand purchase also meant that their Diagon Alley trip was drawing to a close, and Jack would return to the Ludwig Manor, which, despite its grim appearance from the outside, was genuinely somber within.
A month later.
"Oh, dear, I was calling your father, darling. Duke, do you remember where I put that vampire bat I prepared?"
Indeed, Jack was loath to admit that his gentle and somewhat naive mother had prepared a vampire bat for his pet.
"Mother, I believe the Hogwarts letter explicitly stated that pets can only be..." However, Jack's proper London accent was cut off by Mrs. Ludwig.
"Hogwarts? Oh, darling, you do realize our family are all dark wizards, don't you? And that Dumbledore, your headmaster – your father and I don't care for him. He's certainly a formidable figure but belongs to Gryffindor. Do you understand?"
Jack wanted to shake his head and express that he didn't understand at all since he couldn't see what any of this had to do with taking a vampire bat to school.
"Sigh, it seems I will have to do some disguising myself," Jack thought, unable to rely on his unreliable parents.
With the butler's help, Jack managed to pack his luggage and then received an unexpectedly adorable vampire bat.
Unlike ordinary bats, it was quite small or rather, about the size of a butterfly. Moreover, it was particularly understanding, fluttering around on Jack's hand.
"Dearly, Nana seems to like you very much."
Indeed, Nana was the bat's name, but based on Jack's experience of experimenting with thousands of bats, it was indeed a male.
The world was crazy, and if this bat could talk, Jack would be very keen to discuss its thoughts on its name with it.
"Apparate!" Duke demonstrated his excellent magic in front of Jack for the first time, casting an Apparition spell.
After a moment of dizziness, Jack found himself before a train.
"Go on, child." Duke tried to affect a stern fatherly demeanor, but then said, "If you don't end up in Slytherin, I expect you'll be receiving a Howler."
A Howler? That didn't sound like anything good.
When Jack boarded the train, he wasn't surprised in the least.
Trains like this existed in his era, only it was a magical exclusive called the Magic Steam Engine. He heard the Church was building their trains, too, but that was just a rumor.
The train was now packed with wizards from all over the world. As the best magic school in the wizarding world at the time, Hogwarts had such appeal.
The price of the crowd was the noise.
As a group of snotty nosed kids walked past Jack, yelling loudly, he wished he could turn them into corpses.
Regrettably, Jack had a principle: no killing children.
He often took pride in this one point. Yes, those hypocrites from the Church had no principles at all.
"Make way, please, make way."
"I say, are you blind? Jack?" Draco said in surprise after bumping into Jack.
Jack also curiously sized up Draco. One month not seen, the young man seemed even more frail. Honestly, if it weren't for the lack of the smell of corpses on him, Jack might have thought Draco was a necromancer as well.
"Haven't found a place yet?" Draco asked, always graceful in front of others, especially since the person before him was the heir to the Ludwig family.
His father was actively seeking the support of the Ludwig family.
Jack raised an eyebrow; he indeed hadn't found a suitable spot. He didn't wish to sit with the foolish first-years. The platinum blonde noble, however, he found acceptable.
So Jack took the seat next to Draco, surrounded by the latter's entourage.
Pansy, a girl with nice features, constantly had her eyes on the platinum noble, which made her look especially foolish.
Jack shifted his attention away from the girl.
Later, Draco went out, leaving proudly and returning jubilantly.
"Guess who I've just met?" Draco asked, his eyes filled with pride and disdain.
Jack didn't pay much heed to Draco's self-importance and ignored him.
Goyle obliged to engage, "Who did you encounter, Draco?"
"That savior, I mean Harry Potter! He really has a scar like lightning on his forehead. It's ridiculous!" Draco said.
Lightning? Jack recalled the boy he had encountered at the entrance of Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions – the savior?
It seemed he didn't get along with Draco.
"What's important is, he was sitting with the Weasley family. I mean, he and those paupers are a perfect match! And I almost forgot, the compartment also had a mudblood! The moment I entered, I could smell their poverty and disgust," Draco dramatically feigned retching.
Mudblood, a term for a wizard whose parents were both Muggles.
In Jack's view, the status of a wizard should be determined by sheer strength and not lineage – and certainly not by some concept of bravery and character.
That was just the thinking of the weak.
"Draco, your voice is too loud; I want to sleep," Jack said coldly, his young boy's face and voice strangely authoritative.
Draco closed his mouth.
And so did his entourage.
The train continued on, through mountains and over valleys, finally coming before an ancient castle.
"This castle reminds me of the castles of vampires," Jack couldn't help but state. Vampires, a high-level undead being, one which only an intermediate necromancer could craft.
"What did you say? Vampires, I have heard there are vampires in the Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts," Draco spoke up from beside him.
Right nearby, Professor Quirrell shuddered uncontrollably upon catching the word 'vampire.'
Jack made a note of the name Forbidden Forest; he was quite interested in what a vampire would be like in a world without necromancers.
The vampire bat in his pocket trembled at the mention of its kin.
So Pansy asked with concern, "Ludwig, the button on your chest is wriggling quite fiercely!"
Indeed, Jack had transformed the vampire bat into a button on his pocket before he left.
If Professor McGonagall knew, Jack might as well pass his final exams with full marks.
"Miss Parkinson, thank you for the reminder; I believe my button is homesick."
Weird one. That was Pansy and the others' appraisal of Jack. Undeniably, he was handsome and elegant.