Leon nodded still distracted by the wand in his hand.
He took out the seven galleons Flitwick gave him and motioned for Ollivander to take them.
"Your wand is already paid for young Astraeus; Didn't I say your house commissioned it," Ollivander said, shaking his head.
'Did they know that the wand will only choose their heir?' Leon wondered.
"Is my family famous for seers?"
"No, young Astraeus. The reason why your House commissioned the wand was quite a mystery, though. Even though my grandfather's father objected to creating a wand that wouldn't choose any wizards, your house waved away his objections by saying that the wand would choose someone from their bloodline. The chance of making a wand with never-before-seen components enthralled my great-grandfather, making him forget his weak objections. Though, he thought that your house was trying to prove that a Vaelix was a real magical beast and the wand was going to serve as symbol and proof of Vaelixes."
"Vaelix? What's a Vaelix?" Leon doesn't remember whether the extended canon mentioned a magical beast with that name.
'But Ollivander is saying, no one here knows what a Vaelix is.'
"According to your house, Vaelixes are supposed to be fog-like ethereal creatures that hunt Dementors and reside outside of our reality. And it seems your ancestors didn't lie, the wand did choose their heir. But, I knew my ancestor was wrong as your house didn't use the wand to prove the existence of Vaelixes, they just let House Ollivander safeguard it."
"Only house Astraeus and Ollivander know about the wand, and the Vaelixes are said to be very rarely spotted even by your house members."
Leon went into deep thought wondering whether his transmigration was predicted.
His transmigration into a house connected with otherworldly spirits that hunt malicious otherworldly spirits was too on the nose.
Ollivander gave him some time to digest the information and changed the subject.
"Are you interested in buying a wand maintenance kit? It's only 7 Sickles! But for 1 galleon you even get an enchanted wand sheath." Said items flew towards him as the wandmaker waved his wand.
Leon just nodded and passed him a galleon.
The sheath snugly fitted to his forearm.
"All you have to do is twist your wrist to sheath or eject your wand, Mr Astraeus." Olivander helpfully pointed out as Leon was trying to take out his wand from the sheath after he slotted his wand in it.
'I should think twice before keeping important things in weird holes,' Leon thought bemused and with a twist of his wrist, a wand appeared in his palm making him reflexively close his hand, catching the wand.
And again, with a twist of his wrist, the wand disappeared. The wand somehow suddenly disappeared even as he was touching it.
"How? How did it disappear?"
"Magic only cares for intent and will, Mr Astraeus. If you have a sufficient amount of those anything is possible."
With that, Ollivander bid his goodbye and retreated to the back of his shop.
Leon gave the shop one last look before exiting it and met with Professor Flitwick who was waiting for him outside.
"What do you know about House Astraeus, professor?"
Professor Flitwick looked taken aback at his question.
"I think it is better if you read your house records instead of asking others, Mr Astraeus. But let me give you a tidbit of general information about your house."
Professor Flitwick gestured to follow him and spoke.
"House Astraeus looked after the wild Dementor- dreadful magical creatures, they are- population in Britain, even before the formation of the Ministry of Magic."
"And after the Ministries formation and employment of the Dementors in Azkaban, a wizard prison, they were the ones to run the prison smoothly, keeping the dreadful creatures in control."
The Professor paused to let Leon digest the information.
"As the last Astraeus you are supposed to access at least a trust fund account. Sadly, when I inquired about your vaults the official response was the bank was following your house's last head will, and access to house Astraeus Vaults was barred even for the heir until some conditions were met, they didn't elaborate on the conditions, though."
"A friend said an owl will reach you, the last Astraeus, after Halloween."
Leon nodded, taking in the information.
'I should trust Professor Flitwick, right? I mean if the professors of Hogwarts are after orphan vaults like some in fanfics, there isn't much I can do to make a difference. Or maybe I will just send a letter to Gring-'
Leon's monologue was interrupted as Flitwick stopped in front of a huge white building.
"Go on! Get your vault records, I will be waiting in the ice cream parlor," Flitwick said and walked off not giving him any time to ask any questions.
'Damn, Maybe I should not take some fanfic seriously I mean this is a real-life with real consequences. After all, cheating someone who can teleport and live nearly two centuries for money is not wise, and other families wouldn't let such things happen because if that can of worms gets opened, their family can also be next line of getting their assets seized.'
Leon reached a Gringotts teller while thinking how easy and predictable the world would have been if it was not an AU.
He waited a minute before clearing his throat as the goblin continued writing without looking at him.
His designation plate indicated that he was the gob for general queries.
'What part of his job needs him to write non-stop, and why not use a dictation quill?' Leon wondered and waited for two more minutes. Just when he was about to peek at what the goblin was writing, the goblin looked up.
"Yes?"
"What's the procedure to get records of my house's vault?"
"Third line to my left. Any more queries?" the goblin asked as he resumed his writing.
"Yes! Is there any book with services Gringotts provide and also a book on goblin culture authored by a goblin?"
"Both are available for our long-standing customers, please come back with your heir or head's ring." The goblin replied in a boring tone while continuing to write.
'Damn! I thought I would at least get the Gringotts services book. I also wanted to know more about the goblins, after all, they are a magical race. It would have been interesting to see how they use their magic and how their society works. Goblins even have a different language and maybe a magical language like runes too.'
He stood before another goblin, cursing the Gringotts for the unnecessary information barrier. The goblin in front of him was old compared to the gob that was assigned to answer general queries.
"Can I get vault records of House Astraeus?"
The old goblin squinted at him.
"Yes! Hold this bar. If you are a member of house Astraeus, you will get the records." The goblin motioned towards a golden handle on his desk.
"Of course, you will have to pay a fine of 500 galleons if you are not a member of House Astraeus on the account of level-1 impersonating," The goblin said with a grin that showed his sharp teeth.
'Man, Flitwick will bail me if Gringotts doesn't recognize me, right? I mean Hogwarts itself said I was an Astraeus and Ollivander too.'
Leon gripped the handle ignoring the part of his mind that was seeing scams and conspiracies everywhere influenced by some fanfics he read.
The goblin nodded and gestured for Leon to take off his hand.
The magical banker stared at the handle for quite some time making Leon wonder if Dumbledore would come and pay his fine if he gets booked for level 1 impersonating.
The goblin gave the handle one last look and took an envelope from his desk drawer.
"Here, Mr Astraeus. This envelope contains everything you need to know about your house vault's current situation," The goblin said.
"Thanks."
Exiting the Gringotts, Leon opened the envelope.
It read- "Artifacts- 99, Active commercial Assets- 0, Liquid Assets- *********, Residences- Unspecified. Will under implementation (Classified)."
A paragraph was also present in the document that essentially said that the Gringotts were executing the House Astraeus's last head's will. Any heir will be contacted before three months into their Hogwarts first year as specified by the will.
Confused at the lack of any useful information, Leon looked at the back of the document.
"Artifact- 1 – [redacted]
Artifact -2 - [redacted]
…..
Artifact –99 - [redacted]"
'Damn, Gringotts is just wasting paper and ink at this point. And why the hell are these things redacted? At least let me know the amount of money I have. Did the House Astraeus head remove the money and artefacts from the document or did Gringotts do that?' Leon wondered.
Leon met Professor Flitwick in the ice cream shop thinking whether Gringotts could steal his money. There is nothing, that Leon knows, stopping the Gringotts from doing just that.
'The fanfics made me paranoid or is it cautious?' As Leon grumbled at the lack of information, Flitwick spotted him.
"Order something for yourself and come join me, Mr Astraeus. It's my treat." The professor enthusiastically waved at Leon as he entered the parlor.
Swallowing at the delicious-looking ice creams, Leon ordered an ice cream that looked most magical and joined the professor.
'It's too delicious,' Leon thought after a spoon.
The ice cream in addition to being magically delish, somehow bubbled and popped in his mouth. The green sprinkles it had were magical too. Some were crispy, and some melted as soon as they touched his tongue but somehow it always felt right. It was like the sprinkles and the ice cream were changing their properties according to his taste.
'Well! It is a magical ice cream.'
Finishing the ice cream with speed that could cause a normal plebeian brain freeze, he asked.
"Is Gringotts trustworthy, professor?"
The professor looked taken back for a second.
"It is! The goblin's magic and culture make them trustworthy and fierce protectors of wealth. You don't have to worry."
"Really! How is their magic different from wizards?" Leon asked excitedly.
'Ha! Suck it! Gobs. I have my professor here to fill me in about your magic.'
"It is not important right now, Mr Astraeus. You should concentrate on how wizards you their magic, you are one after all." Flitwick said and got down from his seat.
Money floated away from his jacket to the parlor owner as the diminutive professor walked out, expecting him to follow.
'Damn, I got excited for nothing,' Leon grumbled before he took out the remaining galleons from his pocket.
"I want to browse the bookstore, professor. My wand didn't cost anything as my family had a deal with house Ollivander's it seems." Leon decided to not draw attention to the peculiar components of his wand, otherwise, he would have already asked the professor about the terms 'outside of our reality' and Vaelix.
"Sure, but you won't be finding any new books that are not in Hogwarts library. So better save your money for another occasion."
"I still like to browse, Professor."
Flitwick eyed the young man for a second before relenting as he marched out of the parlor. "Off we go then!"
The main reason Leon wanted to visit the bookstore was to see how much of an AU was he in compared to canon and of course to get an idea of the timeline.
The bookstore was nearly deserted with few customers milling around. The building itself looked like a bookshelf, but this time it wasn't an illusion.
Leon browsed around for some time after gawking at the bookstore.
It didn't take long for him to get his hands on that day's daily prophet.
'Stricter Dark Artifact regulations'
'Bulgarian's new seeker makes waves.'
'Goblins Demands.'
The paper was filled with numerous but unhelpful titles.
Ignoring the Daily Prophet, Leon began to browse magazines.
'House Black's head gets his fourth Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile award'.
'What the hell?' He quickly grabbed the magazine and started reading the article.
'As we all know, Sirius Black, the Godfather of the girl who lived, is trying to turn around the grisly reputation of House black after the fall of Dark lord. He took yet another step in making people forget about his House's dark past by giving out seats in the top box for the winners of the girl-who-lived favorite Quidditch team's trivia contest.
The picture was captured as Lord Black escorted his goddaughter, the girl who lived- Roselyn Potter, and his daughter to a Quidditch match.
The content smile as he watched over his goddaughter and daughter made the Witch Weekly award him with the Most Charming Smile award, making it his fourth. '
"I didn't think you would be interested in Gossip magazine, Mr Astraeus." Flitwick appeared behind Leon, startling him.
"What with this 'Dark lord' and 'Girl who lived', professor?" Leon asked as he mourned the loss of his cheat - future knowledge.
With the loss of his future knowledge, he was not that different from any other 1st year Hogwarts student if you take away his couple years of life experience and the unique, bizarre, outlook he has due to being born in the media age… okay maybe he has some advantages, but they don't qualify as cheats.
He did try various catchphrases such as status, system, etc after the high of being able to do magic went down. He even tried to kill some poor ants to boot up the gamer system before feeling guilty and started searching around the orphanage for mosquitoes.
While he had some questionable moral code, Leon didn't have any cheats.
The danger of this volatile magical world suddenly became more real to Leon as Flitwick made him remember the wizarding world was not just full of magic and grandpas with candy addiction.
"A bad wizard tried to take over Britain but he mysteriously disappeared after he went to attack 1-year-old Roselyn Potter, making her the girl who lived, " Flitwick explained, his cheery tone vanishing.
"Does she live with her Godfather?" Leon asked.
Flitwick eyed the picture with Sirius and his daughter.
"No, she lives with her father in Potter Manor. She will also be at Hogwarts this year."
Leon digested that information, just thinking about the minimum number of events James Potter being alive was going to change gave him a migraine.
"Our supply trip has come to an end, Young Astraeus. Let me drop you off."
With a pop, he was back at the orphanage. Professor Flitwick left after having another conversation with the head matron.
...
Leon sat on his bed, exhausted from the busy day.
He eyed his trunk which contained the ticket for tomorrow's train.
His departure date also caught him off guard as he was hoping to try some spells before he went to the Troll-roaming, Cerberus sniffing yet lovely castle.
Though it is not meant to be. All, because Hogwarts wanted to make sure whether he needed the special funds.
'I did though, stupid ancestors!' he cursed and took out his wand.
He fell asleep admiring it, playing with it.
....
A/N: Thoughts? Suggestions?