A man with pitch black hair and dark black eyes weaved through the crowd in Diagon Alley- one of the most prosperous places in wizarding Britain. The Diagon Alley buzzed with excitement and fervour as Hogwarts was reopening after its Christmas holidays. The students, along with their parents, were busy restocking their supplies or shopping for things they would need at Hogwarts. The poor tried to do with bare minimum they could afford while the students from the rich families were buying things of luxuries.
But amidst this environment of happiness there was a hidden undercurrent—an undercurrent of fear, anxiety, and worry. An undercurrent of something unexpected happening. The faces of people, especially those high in status and influence and would be more aware of the happenings of the wizarding Britain were etched with constant fear and tension.
The man abruptly stopped when a poster on one of the walls caught his eye. With a deep sigh, he studied the image of a man on the poster. There was nothing special about that man. In all probability, the man was a common wizard. A common wizard who had gone missing.
This should not have been a very big issue, but the number of such posters was constantly on the rise. With each passing day, one or two persons would go missing. Some would return miraculously while few would not.
There would also be news about sporadic attacks and violence in some magical establishments. Most of the attacks happened in smaller magical villages and communities, and places like Diagon Alley were safe- at least for now.
And all these things pointed to a certain group, a certain man who was on the rise. The group was none other than the Death Eaters, and the man was being called the Dark Lord.
There was not much information available about the dark lord in the public- only rumours and whispers of people.
The man gazed at the poster with narrowed eyes as he studied the man in it. His face was etched with a frown of contemplation. After a few moments of silent reflection, he resumed his journey.
This man was a transmigrator, who had obviously transmigrated to this Harry Potter world—but not in the timeline of Harry Potter; rather, he had arrived in the Marauders' era, more specifically, in 1977.
In his previous life, he was known as Johns—an average middle-class guy working a 9-to-5 job.
Despite his ordinary and not-so-rich background, Johns had always been drawn to adventure and thrills. With whatever limited resources he could accumulate, he sought every opportunity in his life to experience the thrill of life- whether by jumping from helicopters, diving into deep oceans, or mountain trekking. He was a man who sought the rush of adrenaline in his body.
His previous world was a non-magical one, a realm devoid of fantasy, at least as far as he had been aware.
In contrast, the magical world he now inhabited was something he had once considered pure fantasy.
Tragically, one fateful day in his previous life, one of his thrill-seeking exploits ended in disaster, and he lost his life. When Johns opened his eyes next, he found himself in a new body.
It took him several days to come to terms with his new and almost unbelievable identity. He had to put in quite an effort that all whatever was happening was a reality and that he was not going to wake up any moment in his own world.
Now, the body he had been occupying, he was Antonio Olario—a pure-blood. The Olario family were not a noble or very rich magical family; his family owned an inn in a small magical community.
Antonio's life had been marred by tragedy from the very start. His parents were killed by a werewolf shortly after his birth, leaving him orphaned within days. His grandfather then took charge of his upbringing.
He had graduated from Hogwarts 5 years earlier, in 1972, and as one would expect from him, he returned to his family business. For the past 5 years, he had been running his family inn.
Tragedy struck once again, and in 1976, a year earlier, his grandfather also passed away, leaving Antonio alone.
After his grandfather's death, Antonio assumed the lordship of the Olario family, which did not really matter as the Olario family had very little inheritance. They could not even be compared to a simple noble family of the Wizarding World.
Antonio was not a genius or particularly gifted in magic. He was, by all accounts, an average wizard- able to perform basic spells flawlessly but often relying on luck and pure chance for more complex magic.
Yet, it did not really matter, for the maximum magic he was required to do was to brew wine and beer.
Antonio's series of misfortunes did not end there. Just two months ago, while practicing a spell, a strange magical accident had claimed his life.
And in its wake, Johns from another Earth had taken over his body.
After awakening, Antonio discovered massive changes in his body. His average magical reserve had risen significantly and was still rising continuously. He felt raw magical power churning inside him. Spells which were hard to learn came naturally to him. He felt as if he had suddenly become a prodigy of magic.
In mere months, he had mastered all the spells available to him and he had transformed himself from an average, pathetic wizard to a powerful master of magic.
However, he did not make any loud moves or take any noticeable actions in these past two months. He would run his establishment, deal with his customers, and in the evening, seek new knowledge.
Using the little wealth his family had saved up, Antonio had brought a whole bunch of books- legally from Diagon Alley and illegally from Knockturn Alley; and had expanded his scope of knowledge.
And during those times, when the influence of pure-blood families was still intact, a whole range of magic—which would have been called dark in the Harry Potter era—was still available.
Along with the core subjects like charms, transfiguration and dark arts, he also studied runes and Arithmancy and potion brewing and focused on an all-round development of his capabilities.
Not only spells, he felt that with a bit more practice, he could control raw magic as per his will. This simply meant he could eliminate the need for spells to channel his magic—he might wish, and the magic would do his bidding.
Maybe it was the merger of an additional soul or maybe it was the standard transmigrator golden finger, but Antonio was now a powerful… very powerful wizard.
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