Discimer - I don’t own anything. As the corporations say these days, you will own nothing & be happy. I don't, and have never cimed to, own Marvel or Disney or any of its characters. With that out of the way, let’s goooo!

  Secret Lair

  –Damian Hawthorne–

  Things spiralled very quickly after the gifts he gave the two girls at the second dinner. It was a calcuted risk to expose his capabilities to such an extent, but he had gone to great lengths to make sure that nothing and he meant, nothing, about the suit could be used against him in any manner.

  First of all, the suits themselves were locked down so tight that nothing short of a high level Sorcery spell should be able to pry the protections apart so that anyone could glean something off of the enchantments he carved in them. While doing so, they should also be able to stop the destruction sequences built into the suits, and also stop the magical ping that will be sent out, and stop the second self destruction sequence that was hidden.

  Secondly, the only thing of value in that entire suit was the efficiency factor. He had done nothing new, only added a way for the sisters to use so little magic that it bordered on just a light job, and used that little magic to power the entire thing. The flight, the shielding, the transfiguration, all of that was already present in the magical world.

  He just used higher quality enchantments and added the efficiency matrix to make sure that the little girls could actually use it. He could still remember when he saw them the next week, at the third contractually obligated dinner, nding in front of him in those suits, breathless and grinning wide.

  “Thank you so much, Big Brother~!” Just a simple thanks had him smiling naturally at the front door of the Hawthorne Mansion. It was…not something he could expin with words. He just had the urge to just go back to his ir, build them a suit a dozen times better, add in lethal weaponry and long range teleportation matrices, before giving them the upgraded suits.

  Things smoothed out significantly after that, even with the likes of Thomas who was apparently affected quite badly at his disappearance, an event that he still didn’t understand the cause of, nor did he ask because he had a hunch that it was something significant that led to him being stranded in the Siberian Taiga, one of the most inhospitable pces on the pnet.

  He supposed they would tell him in due time. Plus, it was not like it could change anything. He was already here, having not just survived but in many ways conquered that inhospitable white forest and become so much stronger than most wizards alive, and only growing stronger.

  At the third dinner, he showed them some easter eggs he’d built into the suit, as a surprise. Their faces when the suits lurched in pce before bsting off at speeds no Nimbus could ever hope to catch. Honestly, he only had the idea to build this when he was doing the final security touches.

  Hell, he spent more time locking the entire thing up than actually building the enhancements into a viable ptform. The suits were a lightweight alloy with hardened ptes for critical areas. They were obviously not capable of growth along with the user, so he expected some adjustments in the coming year but that was fine.

  High strength alloys were one thing, but self changing high strength alloys were an entirely different thing, so he chose that alloy to create what he thought at the time to be a one time apology gift. Now, he could actually see himself upgrading them to the point that Dumbledore might just try to confiscate them when one of them inevitably took them to Hogwarts.

  Shaking his head, he began floating down, at the st dinner he was obligated to attend, as part of the gentleman’s agreement he had with the Hawthorne family in exchange for them to sponsor the fast tracked exams he was going to give in only a year’s time.

  In two days, the train was due to arrive at ptform 9 ? and he would be getting shipped to the premier wizarding school in the country, where he would be expected to get sorted into one of the four houses, sit in csses for hours on end, tolerate the gripes of an admittedly talented but fart too gone Potions master, teenage hormones, magical pranks from ghosts and seniors alike, not to mention, the series of magical accidents that were headed Hogwarts’ way now that Harry freaking Potter was headed that way.

  And all of this for 7 years? F*ck that. He was not going to do that. He might as well consider himself crazy already. Thankfully, he had a background, flimsy as it may be, to bypass Hogwarts entirely and become an adult in the eyes of Magical Britain's ws.

  Shaking himself out of the thoughts that came whenever he was flying towards a location he already knew the route to, he was about to accelerate his fall when he sensed something, smiling as he pulled himself up at the st moment, a suspicious Eleanor shaped wind tunnel passing as he ducked once more, the sound of Catherine ughing entered his ears.

  The girls were liberally utilising the stealth feature he built into the suits the st time he met them, all in a bid to py a magical high altitude game of tag, with him. Thankfully, the family had a way to not just track them down but also force the suits to go into a limp mode of sorts, disabling all control from the user and bringing them down to the location of the locator relic.

  It was a condition to install the stealth feature and get the acceleration feature activated on demand. It drained their magic and stamina like crazy, to go so fast, but apparently, both his sisters were adrenaline freaks and now the onus was on him to make sure they remained safe when going at highway speeds while also allowing enough wind and inertia through that they felt the thrill of the fame.

  Otherwise, if they just saw scenery passing by and did not feel any pressure when either turning or braking abruptly, they would never use it. It would suck all the fun out of the experience.

  Shaking his head, he leaned to the side, as Eleanor whizzed by, trying to hit him with the suit’s forcefield, whizzing past as she double backed to try again. Knowing that they would go on until they both dropped out of exhaustion, he activated the limp mode in both of their suits, as Catherine was revealed to his eyes.

  A determined scowl on her face as her eyes widened in surprise at herself being visible once more, and also slowing down to a halt right in front of him, in an upright position. She pouted at him as Eleanor came to stand in front of him as well.

  As he slowly flew down, both of their suits followed suit, as they touched ground at the front door. As soon as they nded, both the girls flexed their fingers as the suits shimmered before folding in on themselves, eventually becoming a small metallic box that was fixed to them by three straps. The straps receded into the box as well, as the girls stuck their tongues at him before running inside the house.

  He smiled as William and Albert were waiting for him, with Richard corralling them back into the house, to get dressed for dinner. Dinner was now a much more rexed affair, compared to the initial two ones. He also spent a lot more time here, with after dinner activities including walks around the property as well as flight sessions with the girls.

  And just like every time since he gave the girls the flying suits…

  “Can you just make me one?” William practically whined to him about the ck of adult sized flying units. And just like every time, he sadly shook his head, declined his request, and watched the adult, rising star Auror defte on himself before dragging his feet into the house.

  Albert watched with amusement on the side as they entered the living room, with freshly squeezed orange juice handed to him as the members of the family who were avaible gathered into the dining room.

  Which was not a lot. Despite their improved feelings about me, the rest of the family were far too busy and, not to mention, away for their work, so it was just him, the girls, and William for dinner today.

  Albert, as it turned out, did get pretty mad when asked to dine with them, so he had given that particur endeavour up two dinners ago, so it was a pretty standard and quick dinner.

  As soon as the ptes were clear though, the girls shared a look and ran out, the flying suits in their hands to fly once more.

  “I have to say, quite an ingenious way to get them to exercise both their bodies and magic regurly,” William said as they both stood side by side in the garden, watching the girls zip around at very high speeds, creating gusts of wind all around.

  If they actually collided with someone at those high speeds, they were certain to kill any non magical and most wizards, if caught by surprise. It was good then that he had already installed limits in them to make sure they did not stray too far.

  “Yeah, it’s good for their overall growth,” He had become a little chatty as well, speaking in more complete sentences and also staying longer. Once, he even came close to staying for the night, only to realise that it was going too fast and went back home. It would have been nice to have a night out with the girls, but that was for the future, when he was in a much better mental pce.

  As it turned out, his trust issues did not allow him to get too close with the rest of the family, save for the girls, who were far too innocent for him to be wary of.

  “So, Hogwarts?” William prodded as he nodded, watching Eleanor fly into the water, to dodge Catherine’s mad dash before flying out of the small koi pond to chase after her flying sister.

  “Yes, in two days.” He replied before falling silent as they both watched the girls tire themselves out. After that, he just showed himself the door and went back to his ir, ready to spend the next day and a half in his ir before going to the iconic ptform to take the iconic train to get to the equally iconic Hogwarts.

  __xx___

  Knowing the lore, he just walked straight into the ptform, not stumbling like some freshman as he walked into a veritable sea of wizards, both young and old. The train had already arrived, and according to the announcements, was going to depart in two hours.

  Plenty of time for him to find a nice cabin and seat himself. He also only had a single cabin bag, but it was expanded on the inside, so that was all he needed. Within minutes, he found a clean, in the corner cabin and sat his ass down in front of a window, ready to enjoy the journey to Hogwarts.

  A shame that magical births were near historic lows as not a single child came to his cabin but it also meant he had a cabin all to himself. So, ups and downs for magical civilization as a whole.

  After two hours of waiting and three hours of the magical train gliding on the equally magically enchanted tracks, he finally saw it.

  The glimmering castle in the distance, and the ke in front of it. The tracks were coming through the forest, and the forest was above Hogwarts, so they were descending at an angle, creating quite a scenic view of the pce he was going to spend at least a year in.

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