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Pa(tre)on.com*(/)arcanedruid
10 July 1943
I had just stepped out of the shower and my hair was back to its usual tangled mess. I couldn't help wondering if this was normal or if it was because I was half giant. My hair and beard were growing at abnormal speeds. The first summer I came to this world, I had given up trying to cut my hair short, I would just trim it with magic and leave it. When I looked at myself in the mirror after trimming my hair and cutting my beard, I was both pleased and disturbed by what I finally saw.
In front of me stood a face that was both familiar and equally unfamiliar. My long black hair was combed backwards. My face had lost the baby fat of childhood, and Hagrid's soft, rounded features had become a little more pointed and angular, a little more like the face of my past life. I wondered if my mind and soul were affecting my body. When I shifted my gaze a little lower, I couldn't avoid showing a satisfied smile. A year's work was showing itself. I had trained almost every day for the past year and the effects of that training were showing themselves in my body. Unlike Hagrid's body, it wasn't fat. Its sharp lines were showing themselves. A triangular figure with large chest muscles, abs that were starting to become prominent, and arms and legs that were obviously muscular, my body development was obviously faster than any normal person in my past life. There was probably something to do with the fact that I was half a giant. After taking one last look at myself, I finally left the bathroom and headed for the dressing room next door. I was now using my old house more as a front and spending most of my time in the Radagian mansion.
Most of my belongings were also located in the mansion. I put on a pair of plain black trousers and a simple white shirt, then a thin black waistcoat over the shirt and a black trench coat that came up to my knees. Veronica had stopped by Diagon Alley at the end of the school year to sort out a new wardrobe for me before I came home.
I smiled a little when I thought about Veronica.
I had got to know her well in these few months, and to be honest, she was far from the cold and distant woman she had shown us at school. I think this was the result of her constant suppression of her emotions with occlumency due to the maledictus curse. She was quite fiery.
After the first Hogsmeade trip in the second term, she came to live with me in a pocket-sized mansion. I still remember the first time I saw her in her underwear in the middle of the library, squealing like a little girl and closing my eyes, and she laughed out loud. As she put it, maledictus had a habit of walking around naked because of the time they spent as animals. After this incident, she promised to pay more attention. That promise didn't work out so well, though. The other thing I learnt about her is that she was a ruthless educational administrator. I couldn't help a shiver down my spine at that thought. The woman was really ruthless when it came to training. Especially when it came to dueling, although sometimes I think she enjoyed beating me. The last thing I discovered about her really shocked me. The damn woman was not 20-25 years old, contrary to what she showed. She was 34 and had a daughter two years older than me!!!
Today we were going to go to Diagon Alley to meet her. She was going to stay with us this summer and maybe next school year. Veronica wanted her to get used to me. Normally, the maledictus curse was still a long time away from affecting her too much, but the curse that forced her to have children would be activated when she reached magical maturity at the age of 17.
Veronica had recently been studying the druid circle ritual, and if done correctly, the ritual could suppress not only the maledictus curse. It could also suppress the second curse. Unfortunately, we only had a year to do the ritual. So her daughter had to decide to do the ritual with me or risk getting pregnant. I didn't know the exact effects of the curse, but Veronica didn't last a year, and that says a lot about the curse.
A few days later, Veronica and I were going on an expedition to the forbidden forest. Radagian had left part of his legacy in a ruin in the forbidden forest. According to Veronica, my hard training over the past few months was barely enough for a friendlier excursion into the forbidden forest. The forbidden forest here is not the magic forest on the edge of the school, but the pocket dimension inside the same forest. The climate inside is extremely variable. This allowed it to harbour many dangerous creatures extinct in the outside world. Apparently, some of the more intelligent magical beasts had also settled in the forbidden forest over time. Not to mention the various vigilante wizards who settled there to escape justice, so the real forbidden forest was a chaotic shithole. In addition, according to Radagian, even if the traps placed in the inheritance area did not affect me, he put various tests there to test me. In his own words, he thought it would be fun at the time. haha . It's a pity that I didn't enjoy this idea.
After looking at myself in the mirror one last time, I finally went downstairs to the hall. When I entered the hall, I saw Veronica waiting for me impatiently.
Veronica said, 'Finally, you're spending more time in front of that mirror than some girls.'
Grumbling, I replied, 'If your hair was as warlike as mine, you'd be spending this much time too.'
One thing that separates women in the magical world from women in the non-magical world is that they get ready more quickly thanks to cosmetic magic.
She replied while rolling her eyes. 'If there is nothing else, let's leave.'
Just as I was about to go out, the sound of something tipping over came from outside the hall. Immediately afterwards, a giant spider up to the knees of normal people entered the hall and crawled behind my legs as if hiding from something.
Rubeus 'What happened Aragog?'
Aragog made several clicking and hissing noises. It had not yet learnt human speech. I could only understand him through voxnaturae.
With a slight headache, I turned to Faye and her gang who had just walked in at that moment.
Rubeus said, 'That's enough, Faye. How many times do I have to tell you not to bully Aragog?'
Faye immediately responded with a squeak.
Rubeus said, 'I don't care who started it first. Just behave yourselves while we're gone and don't make a mess. Or I'll ban you all from snacks for a week.'
Cries of protest from both sides filled the room. Not caring much, I signalled Veronica to let's go and the next moment we found ourselves in the kitchen of Hagrid's house.
'I don't know whether I should be more surprised that you have an acromantula in your house, or that an acromantula is being bullied by a group of bowtruckles, or that you're punishing both groups by not giving them snacks.'
Rubeus 'Why are you so surprised that acromantulas are so misunderstood?'
The familiarity of that sentence startled me so much that a shiver ran down my spine. I sound like Hagrid speaking for Merlin.
Veronica grabbed my arm as soon as I finished the sentence 'Sure, sure they are.' and apparated us to Diagon Alley.
We came to a very elite restaurant on Diagon Alley, which apparently could only be entered by reservation. Normally I would never enter such places for two reasons. One, I am poor. Two, I am a half-blood and wizards in Britain are racist arseholes. Even now the manager of the restaurant was talking to Veronica about me. Apparently Veronica had managed to persuade him. A waiter came and started to direct us to our personal box.
I don't know what to expect when I entered the booth, but I certainly wasn't expecting this. There was a girl in front of me who had nothing to do with Veronica. She was short where Veronica was tall. Where Veronica was blonde and white-skinned, she was black-haired and dark-skinned. Where Veronica was well-developed, she was petite. Even stranger, if she had braided her hair instead of letting it down, I would have thought that the person standing in front of me was Wednesday Addams or Jenna Ortega.
When the waiter closed the door behind me, Veronica finally couldn't take it anymore and let out a huge laugh. She wasn't even trying to hide her amusement. She could barely speak over the laughter. 'What happened, did you get something you didn't expect?'
After frowning for a moment, I was distracted by the sound coming from in front of me. 'I don't see what's so funny about this. Now introduce me to our future master, mum.'
I could tell from her tone that she was not happy about it. Veronica took a deep breath and pointed at me and spoke. 'Emily, this is Rubeus Hagrid, master of the druid circle and my student. Rubeus, the cold introvert girl you see here is my daughter Emily Raskalov. I hope you will get along well.'
After this simple introduction, we took our seats and started talking.