While Alex was immersed in his thoughts something fell in his lap bringing him back to reality. Finding an envelope in his lap Alex had a faint smile on his face, so this is it huh... The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and had a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H. Turning the envelope over Alex saw in emerald-green ink his address was written. Mr Alexender Ashbridge Hope Spring Home orphanage 40 Crown Street London Looking at the envelope Alex recalled what happened a few days ago when the man in black came to visit him. Alex was going through the last of the few books which remained when the man appeared once again in the middle of the night. "Master" Alex greeted his master while kneeling in front of him "So how's your study going?" the man asked while sitting on the chair. "Master I am already done with most of the books and the rest will be done by the end of this month" Alex replied honestly. "Good, you have not disappointed me" "Master overpraises me" "Now do you remember what I told you the last time?" coming to the topic at hand the man asked seriously. "About my last job?" "Yes, but before that, I want to ask you something, how far can you go for me?" wanting to know the extent of Alex's loyalty and devotion he asked. "I can kill anyone you ask me to and won't die and will continue to serve you until you want me to" Alex replied. For him to serve someone, one must not be willing to die for him but one must strive to grow stronger in order to live and serve him till the end. "Since I know where you stand I will tell you what you have to do from now on. Soon you will receive a letter from Hogwarts your final job is to protect someone there" pleased by Alex's reply the man started talking about his final job. "Who, master?" "Harry Potter" the man replied with a solemn tone. "The one who was behind the disappearance of 'The dark lord'?" Alex has read the name mentioned in many books and the boy was no less than a legend in the magical world but why would someone like him will need protection. He wanted to ask but was hesitant and in the end, gave up on the inquiry. "Hmm... Can you do it?" the man looked at Alex wanting to hear from him the affirmation. Alex just nodded in return "You are not going to ask why?" "You must have your own reasons" Alex wanted to ask but he didn't want to meddle in bothersome business but more importantly he didn't want to question his master's order. "You don't need to meddle with his affairs much just protect him when he is in extreme danger, we need to let him grow into a powerful wizard," the man said to which Alex nodded in agreement. "Since the matter is discussed I will leave now, soon someone will come to help you get everything you need for your first year" saying this the man was about to leave when he was stopped by Alex. "Master... well you see the thing is... well" Alex was hesitant and could not even finish his sentence. "What is it? why are you hesitating so much?" seeing Alex like this the man was a bit taken aback. He has never seen the boy hesitate about anything, he would say everything that was on his mind without any reservations. "Master I have made quite a bit of muggle money over the years but where do I get the money to buy the necessary items? I don't have any Galleons on me. Will you be kind enough to exchange some currency for me?" for the first time Alex spoke such a long sentence but he was so embarrassed that he completed it in a single breath. "Here take this it will be enough to last for a while" after looking at Alex for some time the man faintly smiled and gave Alex a pouch filled with Galleons. Maybe because Alex matured quite fast for his age that the man never noticed but seeing the naive and embarrassed Alex for the first time he felt happy but somewhat guilty too. "Thank you, master" Alex replied in his calm tone once again. "I will be leaving now wait for the letter" and the man disappeared from the room. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Brother" just as Alex was about to open his letter he heard his sister calling for him as he turned around he saw her running towards him. "What happened?" Alex asked with concern. "Brother I just got a letter addressed to me, all these years no one wrote to me but today I got a letter for me, see" saying this Nicole extended a letter to Alex. Looking at the letter in her hand Alex was a bit flabbergasted and instead of taking the letter, he was looking at his sister with a complicated gaze. "Brother, why are you looking at me like that?" noticing that Alex was looking at her weirdly she touched her face. "Nothing" Alex looked at the letter and as expected it was from Hogwarts and was addressed to his sister. "Nicole, why don't we go out today?" taking the letter and stuffing it inside his inner pocket of the jacket he asked his sister. "Huh.. why all of a sudden brother? Shouldn't we read the letter first?" "I have something to tell you, we can read the letter after that and we haven't gone to the city for a long time" Alex wanted to explain some things to her first before she read the letter. "Well if you say so. Since that's the case you have to buy me anything I want, promise me" "Okay" "Let me go tell reverend mother first" without waiting for Alex to reply she ran inside the building. Soon the siblings hitched a taxi to the city. The two of them walked around and while Nicole bought dresses and shoes for herself Alex carried them around. After spending hours of window shopping around the streets of London she finally stopped and they had something to eat. After roaming around for a while Alex bought themselves icecreams and they sat on the bank of Thames admiring the beauty of the Luminous city, not many people can be seen around them. "So what is it brother that you wanted to talk about?" finally Nicole looked at his brother for some answers. Alex didn't reply right away but looked at his sister for a long time trying to find the right words to explain the situation to her. After that Alex looked around for a while and said to Nicole "Nicole, do you see that rock over there?" pointing towards a fist-sized rock Alex asked?" "Hmm..." As soon Nicole replied the rock came flying towards Nicole catching her off guard. Nicole cried out in surprise and closed her eyes but after some time sensing that nothing happened she opened her eyes only to see the rock floating in mid-air in front of her. Looking at the rock then at her brother she looked confused and when she was about to ask his brother the rock suddenly crumbled into a fine dust. "You must be confused and might be thinking that it's all an illusion but let me assure you this is all real and what I just did is called magic," Alex asked with a smile, he was sure his sister would be confused to hell by now. "Brother, are you making fun of me?" Nicole thought that his brother was trying to dupe her into some prank. "Have I ever lied to you?" Alex asked with a sincere face. "No, but it doesn't make any sense if what you are saying is all true why would I never see anyone do it? I should have seen it a few times all these years" Nicole tried to reason with her brother. "Not everyone is born with the aptitude of magic and it's what differentiates us from them," Alex said while pointing towards the people walking around them. "What do you mean by us? Are you saying I can use magic too?" catching the key point from his words Nicole asked with surprise. "I have never seen you do that but you must have used it subconsciously otherwise you won't have received the letter today" taking out the two letters from his jacket he handed them over to his sister. "You also got the same letter?" looking at the names on the letters she asked her brother. "Hmm... I got mine today too" Alex nodded his hand in affirmation. "So how long have you known about this magic thingy?" giving the letters back to Alex she asked his brother. "About five years or so" Alex replied. "Does it have to do something with that strange man who comes to our room in the night?" Nicole asked trying to confirm her doubts. "You know about him?" taken back by her words Alex asked her. "I only got to know about him about a year back and don't know much about him. At first, I found it strange that you knelt in front of windows or chairs so I would try to stay awake at nights but as soon as the man would turn up I don't remember anything after that" she said while stating the facts. "I met him on the day we came to the orphanage and he helped me train all these years and he was the one who would send supplies and donations to the church" since his sister knew about the man there was no point hiding things about him. "So what now? shall we open our letters?" "Why don't we just enjoy ourselves today and I will explain to you more about magic and stuff back at the orphanage and then we can look into it?" Alex replied while storing all the bags in the small pouch given to him by the man. "Wow... this small bag could hold so many bags how convenient. Why didn't you used it from the beginning?" Nicole said while taking the bag from Alex. "Well you were not aware of it and it would be troublesome to use it in front of all those people" Alex tried to reason out with her. "Whatever..." not interested in Alex's explanation she took his arm and dashed towards the street. They spent the next couple of hours once again roaming around the shopping stuff for Alex but now Nicole would ask Alex now and then to show her his magic and prank the people around them. * * * * *