Before I realized it, I had slurped my bowl clean. The soup was delicious, it warmed me up from the inside and really helped soothe my soar throat. I could feel my voice returning to me.

As I was done eating, I felt two pairs of eyes intently staring back at me, they were looking at my movements with awe, and also some fascination. Eventually I realized why....

Table manners..... I was eating with table manners completely unrealistic for a child. Of course, I wasn't a baby, but a six year old would still not be expected to behave as calm as I was.

I had potentially been delivered devastating news and basically acted like nothing had happened at all. I stole a quick glance from Sophie's face, I could see a bit of relief, she was probably happy thinking I was too naïve to understand the situation, possibly for my own good.

In contrast, Dalton's expression told a different story. He was still thinking about my origins. Of course, since he had promised to help me out, it was possibly to help me locate any family members that could take care of me. My display of manners and attitude threw him off a bit. He was speculating who would bother teaching this etiquette to a kid.

An awkward silence stewed between us three. Until Sophie broke the ice and asked some concerning questions,

"So do you remember your name now?", her eyes showing some pity, I wasn't reading her emotions, because she had somewhat blocked me out of her mind, It was just the look she had on her face....

I knew I couldn't run from these questions, and for now it was better to come clean. As for all the lost family and origins bullshit that Dalton worried about.... As far as I was concerned, even if I gave no answer, the situation was completely in my favor. Just the fact that he had reason to believe I lost my memories and couldn't remember anything, only proved to solidify my innocence further.

"No.... I don't remember anything, sorry.....", I replied, she locked her eyes with mine, and I showered her with a puppy-eyes face.

She threw a side glance at Dalton and they both shook their heads a bit, seemingly concerned about my memory loss. However, their contemplation only lasted a few minutes.

"You're still too young, using magic on your body to retrieve or view your memories could be potentially hazardous." He uttered, rubbing his chin to think of something else.

Every single word was like music to my ears, if they couldn't inspect my memories, I was more or less safe with all the stories I had forged to answer their questions. Now this ladies and gentlemen, is what you call plot armor. I won't lie, I was pretty lucky to even make it this far. Definitely plot armor.... Hey I'm not complaining or anything.....

"But this won't do at all would it..... the boy must choose a name...", Sophie mumbled her words, but both Dalton and I had likely heard them.

Choosing a new name... Well yeah, they couldn't just keep calling me boy. Since I was going to stay with them for a while, I definitely needed a name. It was also an opportunity to start my journey in this world. My own name. My own identity.

"Ok, please choose one for me", my face flushed with excitement at that thought, and so I shot her a beaming smile. I wanted her to choose one for me, ever since I had woken up, she had treated me with nothing but kindness. The world had practically abandoned me, but luckily I found them.... Or rather, they found me.

I was grateful, really. I wanted to hold on to them for as long as I could. I also wanted to pay back what I owed them.

I could feel her heart melting at my smile, even Dalton could be seen hiding a flustered grin.

So after a passionate discussion between the two, Sophie managed to win out, with her choice as the final one. I wasn't surprised, she was ecstatic to name a child. Honestly, she was treating me like family. I didn't mind it...

"So how about.....Zack? Do you like it? Is it ok?", She rapidly shot a few questions , awaiting my response with an eager gaze, but honestly, I was fine with whatever her choice was. The name served as an anchor to me. That I was real. I wasn't just a ghost or a parasite.

From today onwards, I was Zack. (A/N: There you go, the MC is named Zack now).

I unconsciously showed a slight grin. It wasn't an act at all, but my emotions had really gotten the better of me for a second.

"Thank you", I replied.

What followed was a long conversation, I can't exactly remember what it entailed, I had gotten lost with the flow. It was something about the rules of the house. Since, I was staying with them, it only made sense that I followed their rules under their roof. Nothing too special, I couldn't leave the pub after nightfall and wasn't allowed to wander around alone. They gave me the room I was resting in as my own. Instead, those two would be sharing the room in front of mine together.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Then to lighten the mood, Sophie shared a few stories with me about her childhood. How she had gotten misplaced like me once. She said it was scary because she didn't know anyone and only managed to be found because they had left a tracking charm on one of her shoes.

A few lighthearted anecdotes and some bowls of soup later. Everyone was drained. The day had been hectic, and so I went back to my room, while those two remained downstairs, cleaning up the dishes and closing shop for the night.

I walked into my room and turned on the lights, I could see the bed was already made, even though I had left it in a mess when I went to take a bath. The room was clean, probably charmed to be so. On a closer inspection, the flowers near the bedside were also in pristine condition. Seemingly just plucked from the soil. I took a whiff...

Possibly also charmed to keep their fragrance. The room smelled like fresh dandelions..

I sat on the bed and promptly laid down to face the ceiling. Intriguingly, there were no windows, but the room felt cool. I was shocked to see the sheer charms and enchantments in this room alone. Of course, this was the 20th century, so you could pretty much forget about air conditioning. I guess wizards really had their own ways from the start.

I stared at the ceiling and began thinking of my next steps. I now had a roof over my head, albeit temporary, at least I didn't have to worry about being homeless for now....

The next step was to gain strength. But how do I gain strength?.....

Come to think of it? How do wizards get stronger anyway? Naturally with age?

No, that didn't seem right..... I knew the movies by heart, there were many children who outclassed their peers of the same age in terms of magic. There were a lot of factors that affected their mastery. At first I thought lineage, but soon removed this thought from my head. Hermione was part of the golden trio, she was a muggleborn witch, and yet one of the brightest students of her year.

Lineage clearly didn't impact the results. So what did?

Talent?.... maybe. But again, I got rid of this idea. Nevil Longbottom.... he was talented, there was no doubt about it. His talent shined bright in his later years. Cutting Nagini in half and standing up to Old Snake(A/N: He means Voldy) himself... That was talent in my books. But his magical prowess did not shine bright in his early years.

Talent was not the answer.....Not entirely...

A few things cycled through my head, but eventually I settled on two main factors.

Knowledge and Practice.........

My theory was simple, as long as one was sufficiently knowledgeable and an avid practitioner of magic, they would get stronger. It was reasonable to say that talent would determine your progress, but in my books, working hard itself was a talent. I knew for a fact, no one was as infatuated with magic as I.

My will to gain that strength was extraordinary. I was going to prove it.

Wandless magic, my first hurdle. I was still 6 years old. If I could master wandless magic within the next few months. I would have formed a good foundation to begin my magical journey. There was absolutely no way any other child had even touched upon this boundary. Unless they were magically gifted in the first place.

I didn't care, my goal was set. It was time to start.

Originally, I was going to start practicing and try to move things with my mind. But I noticed things were not as simple as they seemed. Magic was a muscle. Not something that I could force out of my body, since it hadn't activated even when I was close to death. That just meant that I had to slowly get used to magic. A controlled regime of practice. But I needed to first understand what magic was viewed like within this world.

There were of course, many theories on what magic was like in Harry Potter. But now that I was in the wizarding world, things were bound to get complicated. The best way to gain knowledge was books. What better way to start than to search this convenient bookshelf in my room?

I was sure it contained some books on magic, after all. Dalton and Sophie were both wizards, probably accomplished in their own rights. It was obvious they would have some books lying around.

So I got to work, listing the useful books in my mind, I shuffled through 50 books, reading their titles, looking at the cover, judging what they offered.

*Fables of the wandering mage*........

*A comprehensive history of Alchemy: 7th Edition*......

*Fantastic beasts: A Magizoologists guide*....

*Arithmancy: Advanced Edition*.....

*Potioneers Cauldron*...

*A guide to momentum: Introductory*.....

............................

These were the few books that I considered somewhat familiar. All the other ones were far too complex to understand, and didn't really offer anything related to my problems.

Within these, I immediately ruled out the magizoologist guide, the alchemy history and the arithmancy books. Those were useful, but for now I probably couldn't utilize them well.

This left Potioneers Cauldron, Fables of the wandering mage, and a guide to momentum.

I couldn't exactly create potions yet, it was probably far too early to experiment on that level, and between the two remaining, the introductory book seemed suitable for the occasion.

I painstakingly arranged all the books I had taken out of the bookshelf, grabbed the momentum book and went straight to bed. Laying on my back, I slowly flipped it open. My eyes scouring its pages for anything slightly useful to me.

The book mainly discussed about the mechanics of momentum, how objects would be affected by movement spells. Why it was important to master the aspect of speed control, while using spells like *Arresto Momentum*, *Carpe Retractum*, *Accio* and many others. The book was insightful. But didn't touch upon the element of introduction to the spells. Rather, it focused on the principals of speed, while using these spells. It was useful in a sense, but for now I couldn't even perform the spells in question, as I had no wand.

Seemed like I needed to search deeper. If not, then I could only rely on instinctive control and try build my magic from the ground-up.

I didn't get a wink of sleep that night, because like a bookworm, I skimmed through almost every book I could get my greed hands on. Even the boring ones related to arithmancy. One word of inspiration was enough to guide me. Unfortunately, my efforts were for naught. No book discussed the introduction to magic itself.

*Haah*.....I could only rely on myself right now, but after finishing my exhaustive research on the bookshelf, I couldn't help but fall into a languid slumber at the crack of dawn.....