HP: The Arcane Thief

Chapter 9: The Threat

****

While Axel practiced his magic, the system gave him a surprise.

*Ding*

[Mission Completed

•Making a good impression on the people in this compartment:

Rewards:

->+1% Approval (Total 7%)

->Information on your Enemy.

Information will be transferred whenever you give your approval.]

Axel paused.

'What the f*ck?'

He was still thinking about how to start on his mission. Until now, he had just tried to tolerate their presence a little and answered some of their questions while trying not to be rude. And they were already impressed?

'I mean, what the actual fuck?'

Is making a good impression so easy these days? He was a cripple for god's sake! He had totally expected to be called a cripple, squib, mudblood and whatnot.

'Why, system?'

[The children in this compartment have good characters. Not everyone will be like them.]

'So, that's it.' Axel went back to practicing, no longer paying attention to the other occupants.

He knows that he's incredibly weak right now. He is no longer as dextrous as he used to be. It seems that he's still quite fast but there's no accuracy in his movements.

Overall, he'll get his ass handed to him in a real fight, magical or muggle.

The only thing he has going for him is his mind. As something that was supposed to take the most damage, it is ironically the best weapon he has on him.

But his mind can't help too much if he has no attack power. That's why he has to learn magic as soon as possible.

"Lumos," he mumbled.

He was whispering the spell incantation in a hushed tone and there was enough lighting in the room that the weak light produced by his wand didn't disturb anyone.

After an hour, the Lumos charm had improved a lot. He just couldn't get used to the sharp pain that shoots up from his chest to his arm and the headache was a bitch.

And the rate of improvement had slowed down a lot. So he just switched to Levitation, which was even more difficult and painful.

"Axel?… Axel!"

An hour later, he heard someone calling his name, pulling him out of his zone. By now, he had managed to lift the piece of paper upto a foot high for a short moment.

"Hm? What?" He looked up to see the others looking at him with concerned or uncomfortable gazes.

"Your... condition doesn't look good. You should stop for now," said Rose, her green eyes containing genuine worry.

Feeling something wet, Axel touched his nose and his finger came red. The veins around his eyes and forehead were bulging out a little.

'How's my situation, sys?'

[Axel, after suffering from numerous injuries over the years, your body has developed a self-healing mechanism.

While is it extremely painful, the intense practice that you are doing is actually beneficial, as it is gradually stimulating your nerves to start functioning the way you intend them to.

As long as you eat well, there's no long-term harm being done, only improvement.

That being said, the system did not calculate that you'd be willing to use this method.]

Axel scoffed. It's not like he was willingly doing this. But he knows his luck. If he'd lazed around like others, he'd have been dead multiple times by now. Thus, he's learned to stop complaining and just do whatever's needed, even if he doesn't like doing it.

Looking at everyone's uncomfortable faces, Axel calmly took out his handkerchief, wiped the blood off his nose, and stood up.

"I'm fine. Excuse me, I'll take a break. I need to go see a friend since I came here without informing her."

Rose couldn't even react before he had picked up his bag and left. He knew that for these pampered kids, keeping on practicing even after this would put him into the category of a lunatic.

The mission he had gotten from the system was already completed anyway, so there was no need to stay.

'As expected, I just don't fit anywhere,' he mused. It was the same in the muggle world, and it was the same here.

While searching for an empty compartment, he passed by the compartment which he'd left due to that bushy-haired girl. It was now filled with students a bit older than him.

The bushy-haired girl could be seen talking animatedly with a girl who looked about two years older. The appearance of the girl was a bit attention-grabbing.

This girl had violet eyes, and a beautiful heart-shaped face with attractive features, framed by light purple hair.

'Even the rude bushy girl found friends, huh?' Axel remarked as he continued searching. An empty compartment in this train is really hard to find. Especially considering the fact that many teenage couples are meeting each other after holidays, so they all need some... alone time.

Axel opened what looked like a storeroom, only to see two people eating each other's mouths.

"Damn! They're everywhere!" Exclaimed Axel as he shut the door.

He did eventually find an empty compartment since this magical train was quite big. Sitting there, turning the blinds and locking the door this time, he asked the system.

'Hey Sys, I want to access the reward I got from the mission.'

He had still not accessed his mission reward about the threat to this world.

[Ok. Here it is…]

*Ding*

Information suddenly entered his mind, causing him to wince due to the uncomfortable sensation.

He carefully browsed through it and soon, a peculiar smile came to his lips.

'Well… I'm fucked, aren't I?'

He had expected it to be difficult… But this is Hell Mode.

'What in the hell is this NetherWorld?' he asked.

[NetherWorld is a dimension connected to this world. As the name suggests, it is a dark domain. Its inhabitants are all creatures with an affinity to dark magic whether they are intelligent species or not.

An example of the inhabitants of that world is Dementors. Dementors are not creatures of this world. They are one of the few species that have the ability to travel between the two connected dimensions.]

Axel slumped in his seat.

'And this Voldemort bloke… After he almost died, his wraith form somehow ended up there?'

From the basic knowledge, he already knew that this Voldy dude was super powerful and even almost won the war.

[Affirmative. Voldemort already had a high affinity with dark magic. He could even communicate with Dementors and fly using darkness.

He thrives in darkness. Once he was there, he found ways to restore his power back to his former level and even surpass it. During the last decade, he's conquered a majority of the NetherWorld and his forces increase every day.]

'So…If he suddenly decides to attack, how am I supposed to defeat the guy?'

[Host need not worry. While he's been trying to find a way back into this world, he has only had minor breakthroughs. He has found ways to influence this world but he still can't directly enter.]

Axel snorted derisively.

'And that fills me with so much joy…' he replied, his thought dripping with sarcasm. He still has to fight an army + Voldemort.

If the guy is going to conquer or destroy the world, Axel will have to do something anyway, with or without system.

There's no doubt. He. Is. Fucked.

…

Fortunately, no one disturbed him for the rest of the train ride, allowing him to practice his magic and Occlumency in peace.

When they reached the destination, he changed into his uniform. It was mostly similar to the muggle schools in Britain, except instead of a blazer, you wear an open black buttoned robe and a hat(optional).

Coming out of the train, he started walking along the crowd to wherever they were going.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!"

Up ahead, he said a giant of a man waving his hand in the air.

'Damn, this guy could easily snap any kid in two.'

Going there, he found Rose, Neville, Susan, Daphne, Hannah, and the bucktooth girl as well.

Seeing him, Rose waved, "How are you now? If you're not feeling well, there's a hospital wing here."

Axel shook his head, feeling exasperated.

"I'm alright. Thanks for asking."

He gave himself a mental thumbs up for leaving her compartment since his training had resulted in soaking his whole handkerchief in blood.

After sitting in the self-driving boats, Axel got his first look at the castle. Under the moonlight, the view of the magnificent castle above the hillock, linked with the back of the Lake, looked breathtaking.

'I'm going to be living in a freakin' castle?!' He thought in amazement. He has been homeless for three years. So the thought of living in a huge castle seemed quite novel to him.

Reaching the bank, they walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.

"Everyone here?" The giant asked, looking at everyone. There were quite a lot of students.

According to the system, after the economic bloom in Britain, many magical families migrated here. Plus, Bellatrix forcefully passed many laws which improved Hogwarts even more like restarting dueling, alchemy, and some other subjects. So now, many foreign families send their kids to Hogwarts for their magical education.

The man raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.

The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. This lady seemed one of those no-nonsense, always serious kind.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."

She pulled the door wide. The entrance hall was big enough to drive cars through them. Speaking of cars, Axel had seen many strange and enchanted ones in Diagon Alley.

The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.

They followed Professor McGonagall into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your Houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your House will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your House, sleep in your House dormitory, and spend free time in your House common room.

"The four Houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each House has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your House points, while any rule-breaking will lose House points. At the end of the year, the House with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever House becomes yours.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."

She said, glancing at a red-haired kid who had a smudge under his nose before she left.

This kid had been eyeing Rose for quite a while. His eyes were constantly alternating between her eyes and her scar.

As soon as the stern-looking Professor had left, this guy had walked right up to Rose who was standing with Axel and others. He hadn't wiped his face even after Mcgonagall's warning since he was too busy staring at Rose.

"Hey, you must be Rose Potter! The-Girl-who-lived!" His loud words caused everyone's attention to be focused on Rose, making her frown.

Rose shifted on her feet uncomfortably, her hand flicking her hair back to hide the scar.

"What is it?" She asked, annoyed.

The boy seemed over-excited to be talking to the famous girl of the legends. His eyes went wide and his mouth gaped at her.

"Wow! You really are her!"

Though it seemed he didn't know what to say next, so he just went—"How was it? Do you remember how you got this from You-know-who?" He asked, pointing at her scar.

???

Rose seemed quite taken aback to answer. But Susan blew up.

"You!... You insensitive prick! Why would you want to make her remember something like that?!"

Her parents were murdered that night. According to Susan, anyone should have enough decency to know not to ask her this.

All the other kids who wanted to talk with the girl who lived glared at the idiot. They'd missed their chance.

At this moment, a Blond arrogant-looking kid came up to them while laughing.

"Oh look at your face, Potter. Gonna cry? You miss mommy and daddy?"

Rose, not looking the least bit bothered, just smirked as she gave the boy a middle finger.

"Shut up, daddy's princess. We all know you're the one who's going to cry into your pillow tonight. After all, you're missing your daddy after not getting head pats for a whole day, right?"

With that, Rose pulled all of them away from the two odd kids.

"That guy is Draco Malfoy...We don't get along. And his mom doesn't get along with my aunts," she explained to Axel, looking a bit embarrassed as she had forgotten to keep her pure image for a moment.

Axel looked at her differently.

"Uh...Sure."

He once again made a mental note not to get in conflict with her. From what he's seen up until now, she's a vicious one. She even knows how to use her immense fame and reputation to ruin someone since she'd threatened him with that on the train.

Though Axel didn't know that it wasn't too surprising. She was a marauder's child and raise by a marauder too. You can't expect her to have no fangs…. or prongs.

They began talking about which house they were going to be sorted into.

Rose and Neville wanted Gryffindor like their parents. Susan wanted Hufflepuff like her Aunt and Parents. Hannah also wanted Hufflepuff since she wanted to be with Susan. Daphne wanted Ravenclaw since her mom was a Ravenclaw and her A-hole dad had wanted her to be Slytherin.

Only Axel was left so they all turned to him.

"Ravenclaw," he said decisively.

He had it all figured out. From the basic knowledge he'd got from the system, only two houses get a whole room to themselves: Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Of course, he can't go to Slytherin because of its bad reputation and his status of being an orphan with no distinguished background. So the only one left is Ravenclaw.

Daphne smiled and Rose looked a bit disappointed. She could have helped him much more easily if he was in Gryffindor.

***

A.N.: So, how was it? Now the power scaling has changed. The chosen one can't just say Expelliarmus and defeat the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord will be having the power befitting the one who was dumbledore's equal before he got jacked up in the Netherworld.

Also, Nether can also mean Hell. Hence....Hell Mode ?.

Now, I know some of you (very few edgy ones) might be uncomfortable by this sudden change, but leave it to the expert to worry about it. I'll make it a story you'll not be disappointed in. So, just ask whatever you want to ask and don't go, 'I don't like this and that because now this would happen.' Most of your fears are redundant. I know what I'm doing. Voldy won't be popping up any time soon.

Give out POWERSTONES Y'ALL!!!

If you want to read ahead and support this piece of art, consider subscribing to my Patr eon.

Pa treon.com/Snollygoster

It has till Ch 18

It's a new month!