“One solution would be to gather enough magic power to wipe it out by force if only the problem of interfering magic wavelengths didn’t exist… If one powerful enough wizard took action with just a simple countercurse, it could be done for sure, but I don’t know any at least in America…” Luca heard Quentin clearly. Standing in place, he observed with intent every move of his Healer. Quentin took a bottle of a pale pink potion and looked at it for a while.
“‘Draught of Living Death’ who knows, in theory, it has a chance of fooling any ritual that subject is dead, therefore expulsing the demon power from this world. Doesn’t work like a charm but always worth a shot. Lay down here boy, no need to bother going near other patients’ beds, I will only try it for half an hour.” he waved a wand to transfigure his desk shorter and put away the clutter on it for Luca to lay on. Then he took out a small needle, capable of measuring doses in 1/1000ml from a big, white cabinet. With utmost attention, he took only 5/1000ml from that bottle of potion and fed it directly to Luca’s mouth. Luca immediately upon contact of his tongue with the liquid blacked out, his heartbeat slowed until complete standstill.
“Yeah, too optimistic, too optimistic. But I found a perfectly working solution. Well, rather foolproof if you are a hardass, big boy, tough man, generally resilient.” as Luca woke up from the coma, he heard Quentin’s joyful voice. After the remnants of grogginess and discomfort passed, Luca sat down, his legs hanging in the air, and asked the smiling Healer that stood aside with scorching eyes locked on his chest.
“What am I supposed to do?” asked Luca uncertainly.
“See, following the magic fluctuations and disruption as your heart stopped and started I figured the seal works by halting your heartbeat. The magic power contained within is extremely stable, it won’t do anything else. Its method to do so is relatively simple, destroy the cardiac muscles it latches onto. Can be said a very cost-efficient method, the sacrifices needed to cast this ritual should be hardly many. My idea is that upon activation it will give you a chance to move for up to a dozen seconds, of course painful, but you would be able to move freely with that miniscule damage. So the only thing that needs to be done, is to regrow the damaged muscles before you die, in at most three minutes, and force your blood to flow again. New and healthy as a baby, no seal, my job is done.” Quentin handed the boy two vials of potions, called ‘Muscle-Gro’ and ‘Restart’.
“Drink this if the seal activates?” Luca sought confirmation, this seemed awfully sketchy for a fix.
“Mhm, trust me! Just go do your business as usual, as long as these potions are on hand. Here, have a bag to keep them. This might be the first case of successfully cracking a Great demon ritual from such angle, only because of ‘Living Death’ to reveal thoroughly what method it uses. I have to go rub it in my esteemed peer’s faces, well, share the ingenious method to benefit our patients. Go do whatever you want.” Quentin took out a wallet-like small purse and gave it to Luca, then quickly wore coloured in green and black vertical stripes top hat hanging beside the entrance and run away almost jumping.
Luca looked at the vials that were supposed to save his life and carefully put them inside the purse after confirming it was lined with cotton and some sort of runes were glowing on its surface after closing it. Big worry out of his mind, he took a minute to sort things out. He was now a member of the wizarding community, his father kind of had a part in saving him inadvertently, he was now in a magical village and was about to go to some magic school.
“Vilemyr Inn huh…” Luca buttoned up his shirt and left after muttering the name of his destination. None of the surroundings changed on the return trip until he walked out of the elevator into a scene of pandemonium, nurses and Healers hurrying to and from along the ‘rainbow’ corridor levitating comatose patients before them using wands. Wails of pain came from the lobby, along with cheers and curses. Luca quickly slipped by the walls in the direction of the exit door, inside the lobby dozens of wizards wearing two distinctly coloured outfits sat and shouted at each other, their limbs curved in ways they should never be curved, with bloodstains and traces of beating on their faces, some growing cacti from their ears, steaming like a kettle from their nostrils, and other varied freakish occurrences befalling them.
“Red team for the win wooo!”, “This is an insignificant temporary setback, tomorrow you can only cry to mommy!”, “If not for broken leg I would kick your ass, damn dirty cheaters! Team Blu for life!”, “Blind monkeys of team Blu must be dreaming! How many times do you have to be beaten to understand how pathetic you are?!”, “Ava… don’t make me finish saying it bastard!” as Luca tiptoed in front of the portraits, he had to cross two wizards lying down with a receptionist nurse trying to diagnose them.
“Firewhisky overdose… Straight to morgue…” she shook her head dejectedly. Luca widened his eyes and run out in panic, his suitcase rolling over the stiff guy’s legs.
Crossing the black curtain, a carnival seemed to be in full bloom. A giant flame dragon flew above the houses in circles, it seemed to Luca that he could jump high enough to touch it, a crowd of wizards shouted “Make it bigger, make it bigger!” as they shot beams of fire at the sky from their wands. Despite the dragon’s size, most of them had serious trouble aiming, their wobbly bodies leaning on each other. Pack of creatures looking like half-men, half-horses stood in a circle, angry looks on their faces, passing with one hand holding his neck a half-naked wizard among themselves, punching him all over during the process. As if normal, passers-by didn’t even look their way. A thing that could only be described as a one-on-one incarnation of a green, Irish leprechaun conjured a pile of gold and stood atop it, giving a serious speech to a group of blue-clothed excited witches sitting on the ground and clapping their hands. An announcement replayed itself loud enough to be audible even in such a ruckus,
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“Today’s match of Reliable Excavation-Demolition versus Builder’s League United ended with a victory for the Red team, this puts them at the lead of one, I repeat, one point ahead of the Blu team. How will the thrilling, historic rivalry continue in the next game tomorrow remains to be seen, judging from the team’s coaches' bet on who can drink more of Ogden’s Old Firewhisky, they won’t be able to guide their squads to triumph anytime soon. Players will have to give it their best without strategy support, all predictions overturned!”
Luca carefully walked towards the door of Vilemyr Inn Zuri identified for him before, stalls full of goods getting presented before their shops by shopkeepers returning from some mysterious activity booming with business.
“Phoenix Wings nine Sickle, promotion on Cockatrice McNuggets, only today half-price for fans of team Red!”, “Hangover potions, one Galleon per vial! Don’t let pain ruin your mood!”, “‘Daily Seer’, pay just five Knuts to find out about the latest news from barbarian-occupied frozen lands of Canada! A must-read newspaper of interest to all ages!”
Fortunately for the boy, dirt roads seemed enchanted to accommodate any number of people walking on them in parallel without congestion or a feeling of overwhelming crowds. Now as he arrived in front of the entrance to the Inn stood two imposing three-meter-high green giants, impressively groomed long green beards hanging to their belly buttons. They were clothed in classic red doorman hotel uniforms, somehow the look perfectly blending all their features into an extremely pleasing to the eye combination. One hand bending in a welcoming gesture toward the entrance, bowing according to the highest etiquette to any coming customer. Luca nodded back and hurried inside, after crossing the black hole that for some reason changed how he smelled from vanilla to mint, another pair of similarly looking employees bowing to anyone that left was the first thing that he noticed.
Next, his eyes befell the interior even more magical and luxurious than the St. Jelweth’s Hospital he left. Square, multiple stories atrium containing a golden detailed rotating globe fountain that shone brightly in a straight beam of light adorned with falling akin to snow particles of gold, staircases covered in a carpet with moving figures hunting various mythological, or magical, beasts, leading to the busy restaurant on the first floor, silver stairs down into a dimly lit rustic-brown wooden drinking pub, reception manned by the same kind of unrealistically beautiful women he saw on the trip to Connecticut. One of them quickly noticed the lost in wonder boy looking around, and walked up to him with a smile.
“Hello, welcome to Vilemy Inn, the largest wizarding hotel in America. Are you here to meet with friends before going to Ilvermorny?” she saluted and asked familiarly.
“No, I’m a new wizard told to register with Mr. Grimsditch.” replied Luca.
“Boss is working the bar downstairs, you can recognize him by serious lack of hair… He’s bald.” lady tried to find a less direct way to relay this information but failed to think of a good choice of words. Luca bowed as a thank you and headed down. A cloud of smoke blocked his vision at the foot of the stairs, clearly kept from spreading up by a spell. Luca dived into it, strangely it seemed not to invade his lungs. Past it, he saw a fairly typical bar with circular wooden tables, billard, darts, and mugs of beer levitating to people ordering them. If any difference between what he saw on television in no-maj society and here, perhaps the quality and variety of types of wood used and everpresent pipes, hardly a single customer didn’t smoke. All surfaces were meticulously polished, in exotic but natural colours like redwood bar stools, atmosphere ideal for leisurely chats.
Luca was once again surprised by the size of magical spaces, it must have hosted 500 wizards currently with only one staff recognizable, the bald, wrinkled man waving his wand like an orchestra conductor sending and receiving orders from behind the counter. This must be Mr. Grimsditch, thought Luca with certainty as he started walking towards him. That’s me, kid, resonated in Luca’s head out of nowhere as the man turned his piercing gray eyes on him and twitched his lips slightly upwards before going back to sending orders. What? flabbergasted Luca could only chuck this as a hallucination induced by stress as he rubbed his eyes to sober up.
“Excuse me, I have to talk to Mr. Grimsditch.” Luca had to politely ask a wizard to vacate a seat in front of his target before talking face-to-face with him. As he prepared to explain, the bald man already handed him a key, an envelope, a black business briefcase, and a leather sack tied with a string.
“Room 485, 4th floor, Luca Granger, born in July 1978. Welcome to the wizarding world and all that. Put down your bags and read the guide on your new bed there, now scram.” after saying that Mr. Grimsditch shooed Luca out with one hand, second picking up his pipe and taking a puff showing an exaggerated intoxicated expression.
Luca had no choice but to turn on his heels in doubt, could wizards read minds? How does that work, like reading a book or a series of pictures? Is it through my eyes or a third-person perspective like a movie? Can a year of my life be compressed into a second or something? Where is the privacy? As he left with his head and face full of question marks, trying hard to hold all the items in his two hands, Mr. Grimsditch smiled to the point his wrinkles doubled, and a group of old wizards by the nearest table laughed outright.
“Hey, no-maj kids are the most fun.” sighed one of them blowing a car-shaped smoke trail to move above Luca’s head following him out, his black eyes behind glasses shone with interest.