Chapter 459:

Chapter 459:

I was more or less wrapping up my little foray into this world.

I didn't want to extend my time here to more than a day, or thereabouts.

Frankly, this was just me keeping busy without forcing myself to deal with the truly stressful and important matters. It certainly helped with how high-strung I'd been recently, a nice relaxing shopping evening.

That was until I found all that was unholy in this world.Th

Racist assholes? I could deal with that.

Hell, give me petulant Gods back home.

This, however, was too damn far.

I felt my pyromantic tendencies flare up. No one would ever know, a little bit of fire, and this place would burn down. I'd honestly be doing the world a favor.

I'm not usually someone who takes shots at other cultures. I honestly believe it's the height of ignorance and the domain of the uneducated to dismiss another's societal differences out of hand. That isn't to say, you should blindly accept everything about someone else's home. If you go to another country and they perform ritual sacrifice, you wouldn't be xenophobic to say something bad about that. But to simply point at and label it backwards or barbaric because it's different is where a line should be drawn.

And I found myself stepping over that line.

Because this is unacceptable.

What is God's name was this monstrosity?

I was curious, and decided to take a look over at one of the fashionable clothing stores. And staring at one of the window displays, it nearly made me throw up in my mouth.

I don't mind Robes. They're not for me personally, but they're a staple in many Magical societies. But this....I had no words.

Why would any living creature want to wear something like this? It's like they took all the worst parts about Victorian Era clothing, and stitched it together with the cliché Wizard attire, then thought they could do worse by adding some flamboyant feathers, fur, and lace.

And if that didn't make it bad enough, there were genuinely people pressed against the window admiring it.

[It's just clothing.] Ddraig snorted within my head. [Honestly don't know why you're so obsessed about it.]

Imagine if instead of clothing, it was the equivalent of scales.

[.....burn it down.] Ddraig spoke after a beat.

I knew you understood me best, Ddraig.

I could feel my Magical Energy rise to the surface.

Fire is the answer to every problem. If you claim it doesn't solve the problem, you're just not using enough! Or you can just burn any dissidents. If there's no one to tell you it's not working, then no one can prove otherwise!

{Am I really going to have to be a voice of reason here?} My Zanpakutō chimed in.

[Burn it!]

{Don't take advice from the Dragon about burning things}

Oh fine.

[Party pooper]

{You have other things you'd rather be doing anyways. Don't waste your time caring about something that won't overly concern you.}

Yeah yeah.

The only reason I was checking out this place was because it was near where I actually wanted to go.

'Flourish & Blotts'.

A bookseller.

Color me interested.

I hummed as I pushed the door open, the insides being vastly larger than the building would appear from the outside.

At this point, it seems like a standard magical effect to increase the space of facilities. Perhaps a necessity that came from hiding in modern times? Diagon Alley wasn't that big to accommodate what was thousands of Witches and Wizards, it made sense that they needed to add more.

However, I felt my eye twitch as I saw the state of this place.

Stacks and stacks of books, which was good....if they weren't haphazardly thrown all over the place.

Literally towering stacks of books that were tilting back and forth because they were about to fall over. There were more, on the staircase leading to the second floor, a hazard for anyone trying to walk. There were archways made from books barely held together by friction.

What the fuck was wrong with this world?

Ignored it, Wilhelm, you had other things you wanted to do before going back home.

Instead of being supremely bothered by the layout of this place, I walked to the front desk.

"Can I help you, Dearie?" A kindly old woman looked up from the counter.

"Yes, I was wanting to make a rather...large purchase. I figured it would be more appropriate to ask rather than find everything myself. Would it be possible to get two sets of compulsory texts for Hogwarts students?"

"For which years?' She responded.

"Every year?" I blinked.

"The Texts sometimes change from year to year." She gently explained. "Do you have someone attending?"

"Possibly my Daughter. Just came over from out of Country and wanted to take a look at everything before making a decision." I casually explained.

"Oh wonderful!" She happily clapped. "You'll find that Hogwarts is the foremost Magical School in the entire world."

"So I've heard." I had yet to form a thorough opinion.

"It makes sense then." She nodded in understanding. "Especially with the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher changing every year, the books needed also change."

"Pardon?" I frowned. "What do you mean that a Teacher is changing every year."

"Oh forgive me." She placed her hand lightly on her chest. "You just told me and I already forgot." She leaned, looking around. "You-Know-Who did something, a curse or what-have-you, and no Teacher can persist for more than a year in the position."

"A teacher dies every year!?" I was now very concerned.

"Oh Merlin, no!" She laughed. "Just some reason or another that they leave or are.....forced to leave."

I.....am finding it difficult to understand. "Why don't they just remove this Curse?"

"You-Know-Who was a very powerful Wizard, not even the Great Dumbledore was able to remove it. Who would you expect could do so?" She said as if it were obvious.

"You-Know-Who?"

"Indeed." She nodded.

"Who is that?"

"It's you-know-who"

"Yes, I don't know who."

"The Dark Lord"

"Grindelwald?" That was the only Dark Lord I've heard about.

"Grindelwald? What does he have to do with anything?" She looked confused now. "Grindelwald was defeated by Dumbledore during the War."

"Yes, and who is this Dark Lord then?"The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.

"It's You-Know-Who!"

"I don't know who!"

"How do you not know!?"

"I was living in Japan my entire life." I fought off a sigh.

She hesitated, looking around again before once more leaning in. "His name was....Voldemort." She whispered, a tinge of fear present in her voice.

...that's a stupid name.

"And this Dark Lord did something after Grindelwald?"

She looked clearly uncomfortable with the line of questioning. "It was a Dark Time, you shouldn't ask about it. But it doesn't matter any longer, he was defeated by the Boy-Who-Lived."

"....."

She looked at me again. "Don't tell me you don't know about that either?"

"I have no idea."

Her expression changed drastically. "Why, Harry Potter of course!"

"Oh, is Harry Potter some kind of powerful Wizard like Dumbledore?"

She let out a laugh. "He's just a child. Bought his books right from me just this last year for his first year of schooling!" She puffed up proudly.

"Pardon, are you saying that a School Student defeated this....Dark Lord?"

"Yes, it was just about ten years ago." She looked off into the distance. "If not For Harry Potter, who knows what would have happened?"

"Ten Years...and you said he just bought books. Wouldn't he have been an infant?"

"Why, of course." She nodded.

"Shut up, Ddraig." I grumbled.

[Just saying, it makes me depressed to see my user not be able to use even the most basic of baby spells. You think if we get Kunou she could figure it out before you?]

"I'm ignoring you."

[It's alright to admit.]

"....admit what?" I was annoyed that he got an answer from me even after I said what I did before.

{Don't – }

[That it's too difficult for you.]

Caution to the wind then.

I took out the Staff of Magnus.

"LUMOS!"

A second sun appeared overhead.

[***]

Canon-Omake, Date with Venelana.

I had my chin resting on the table, and across from me Venelana was doing the same.

I don't know how long we'd been like this, but we were staring at each other for a good while at this point.

"You blinked, I win," Venelana suddenly smiled.

"Dammit, I got lost in thought!" I huffed.

"No being a sore loser~" She giggled.

"I'll make you sore."

"I'm sure you will." She smiled. "We can do that now if you want."

"Oh?" I perked up, but forced myself to settle down. "Jeez, I thought I was the horny one. Is there even an off switch for you?"

"Sweetie." She reached over, playfully patting my cheek. "I'm almost always horny."

That explained a lot.

And I could relate.

"It's not that don't want to take a tumble in the bed sheets –"

"Or anywhere, I don't mind getting adventurous." She interjected.

Jesus Christ, this woman was going to be the end of me.

"But! I wanted to spend some time with you too." I took her hand into mine, giving her a smile.

"And I enjoy this about you immensely." She returned the warm smile. "What did you have in mind?

I'm up for just about anything."

"Impromptu date?" I hummed. "Uh...."

"Would you like some suggestions?" She offered.

"Please, I'm floundering here."

She giggled, and touched the Bracelet I gave her before, taking out a piece of paper. "Here you go. This is my bucket list this decade."

I took it, but looked at her first. "Bucket list for this decade? What's that supposed to mean."

"Oh, I just make a list of things that pique my interest every decade or so that I want to do. Not all of them pan out, but it is what it is." She shrugged.

I read the first on the list. "Fly to the Moon?" I furrowed my brow.

"Humans landed on the Moon some years ago, I thought they would have had commercial flights within a few years back when I made this list. Unfortunately, it looks like I'll have to put that one off."

"I could take you there myself...?" It would take ample preparation, but it was....possible.

"Part of the fun would be the flying. I wanted the whole experience, breaking through the Earth's gravity well. The blast off, the landing. All of that good stuff."

"Understandable." I didn't bring it up again. "That sounds like fun. It's something we can do together in the future."

"Then we can have sex on the way back. It would be exciting to do it without any gravity~"

I couldn't even say anything because I had that same exact thought.

I skimmed the list, most of it were things that would require a bit of setup or weren't really possible on short notice, but I did land on one that did make me pause. I flipped the page over and held my finger to it. "Really?"

"What?" She chuckled. "I saw it on T.V. some years ago and I've been wanting to do it since. But everyone I've asked didn't really seem interested. And I wouldn't want to go alone, that would be weird."

"Fuck it, let's do it. I've never done it before either."

She smiled brightly, like a genuine excitement. "Oh, this is going to be fun!" She shot up out of her seat. "But I should probably change." She looked down at the dress she was wearing. "Unless you want me to flash my ass at people when I run."

I reached over, and lifted her dress up to get a good look. "Nope, that's mine." I shook my head, giving her a little pat on her butt for emphasis.

"I should put on some panties too." She noted. "Give me ten minutes, and I'll be right back!"

Who'd have thought she'd want to play Paintball of all things? I wasn't complaining, it sounded like a fun time!

[***]

Venelana and I sat there in silence.

We were sweaty and covered in Paint.

"Here are your participation Trophies." The owner handed us these two little plastic gold-colored cups. "If you come back, we will call the police."

Neither Venelana nor I said anything as he walked away.

"Wow...."

"Yes." She agreed.

"Those kids were ruthless."

"I am surprised myself." She rubbed her boob. "I got shot in the tit several times."

"I don't think it was an accident..."

"Oh, it definitely wasn't. Otherwise, you wouldn't have gotten so worked up and shot those kids in the mouth every time they opened them."

"I confess to nothing."

I expected a fun little outing, shooting each other and some other people with some little balls of paint. We both intentionally kept our standards to that of a normal human, otherwise there would be no point.

But Jesus Christ, those Kids were monsters.

"And we're banned now." She mused. "Do you think we did something wrong?"

"No, I'm sure it wasn't that you went on a rampage screaming 'My Dick' when I got shot in said dick." I deadpanned. "Didn't you say you were a Child Psychiatrist? Cause some of those kids are going to need some recommendations."

"I did indeed."

"Well, a little trauma probably never hurt anyone...." Those kids are going to need a therapist later.

"It builds character." She defended.

"I don't think kicking some teen down to the ground and unloading everything you had into their groin is 'character building'. But then again, I'm not a licensed Psychiatrist."

"Trust me, I went to school."

"That response probably wouldn't make me this speechless if I wasn't technically a high school dropout."

She patted my leg. "There there."

"Well....what now?" I asked.

"I don't know. I didn't expect us to get kicked out so soon."

"So soon?" I raised an eyebrow.

"There were only two ways this could have gone." She shrugged. "Believe me when I say, this is pretty normal for my family and I'm used to it."

Wow, that was something I didn't think was worth unpacking here.

Regardless.

".....wanna go find another one to get kicked out of?"

She smiled brightly. "I would love to."

[***]

A/N

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