I stood in front of a green, relatively normal-looking storefront. A flowy gold text above the entrance made the name known: Flourish & Blotts. Almost any wizard I had asked for directions to a bookstore pointed me here.

  This is honestly the one building that wasn't much different from its movie representative; this was the place Hogwarts students buy all their books from, at least according to the movies.

  I entered the shop, the door signaling my entrance with a soft jingle that reverberated in the whole shop.

  I had never been to a bookstore before; they're not really a thing in the twenty-eighth century, and I've only recently been going out of the house. Actually, now that I think about it, this is only my third outing.

  From the front, it was visible, but now that I'm inside, it's an even bigger mess than I'd thought. Books were everywhere: in shelves, on shelves, on the ground, there were even some on the ceiling and one in a cage, growling like a wild animal.

  Despite all the fantastical or nonsensical things, the thing that took most of my attention was a relatively normal stack of newspapers sitting near the counter.

  On the front page of the paper, a beautiful dark-haired woman was unveiling a plaque. The title for the paper was, "The First Alchemical Factory of the Wizarding World Unveiled Today by the Head of the Legendary House of Pendragon."

  The plaque itself wasn’t anything special; it simply dictated the name of the factory, no, more important than that was the woman, whose face had been ingrained in my mind. A woman I had listened to and watched for decades. It was Morgana.

  Before I could further speculate, I was interrupted by a young girl of about seventeen or eighteen with hazelnut hair and reading glasses that were... You guessed it, magical.

  "Hello sweetie. Where's your mom?" She said sweetly, after coming back from an aisle I couldn't see. Putting the books she was carrying on the counter, she crouched, bringing her hand to pat my head, at which point I dodged back, causing her hand to miss.

  "Sorry for the misunderstanding, but my appearance is a result of magic; it will fix itself over time, but I would appreciate it if you didn't treat me like a child." I had already gotten used to people treating me like a child at home—though they don't treat me like I'm four, more like nine or ten—but now that I'm here and have a good excuse for looking young, I planned to take full advantage of it.

  "Oh," she answered, clearly surprised but not overly much. "Then excuse me for my behavior, and hello. I'm Anna, how can I help you?" She asked professionally.

  'Good, she's straight to the point.' Taking a look around, I answered. It's time to finally get my hands on some real-life Grimoires.

  "First, do you have the books needed for the Hogwarts curriculum?" I asked. I wasn't sure how I should start my magical studies, but Hogwarts is a foundational school, so their curriculum should suffice.

  She seemed confused for a moment but didn't ask anything. "We still have three full sets of books from Hogwarts's old curriculum, if that's what you meant. As for the new curriculum, we have all the books from the first three years, some of the core books of each major path along with the materials for some of the more popular shared classes, but not all of them unfortunately, as most students get it from the school directly."

  Not knowing exactly what she meant, I decided to ask her for clarification. "Sorry, despite my current looks, I'm 26, but I have never actually attended Hogwarts, so I'm not sure I follow. What even is a major path?"

  Hearing my question, Anna took a moment to get her words straight and started answering. The entire thing wasn't too complicated if you were aware of some current events. I, being new to the wizarding world, didn't have access to such information, so I had to ask follow-up questions and clarification. In the end, in conjunction with the things I had randomly heard or seen while walking in Diagon Alley and some information from my time in Morgana's lab, I put together the basics of what had happened.

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  About four years ago, at the turn of the new millennium, specifically the spring equinox of 2001, Arthur was reborn. Merlin, who had sealed himself under Camelot (which was today's Hogwarts), sensed his re-emergence and broke his seal.

  Merlin's seal was on one of the biggest Ley lines in the world, to the point that even after sealing it, Hogwarts was still built upon it as a place of abundant magic. The breaking of the seal was like a dam had broken down. The influx of mana was so powerful that the school—due to the malfunction of its wards—was under the threat of destruction. But it was at that point that the founders themselves came back. Apparently, for reasons I'm certainly going to read about later, the founders had sealed themselves in Hogwarts as well.

  The four founders, using their connection to the school wards, saved it from destruction.

  Later on, with the arrival of Head Pendragon—who I'm definitely sure is Morgana—who was from a legendary house and had sparked a second wave of disbelief after the first wave of events in Hogwarts, a new chapter for the school had begun.

  Minerva McGonagall remained the headmistress of Hogwarts, though she had offered to step down in favor of one of the founders or the Head of House Emrys (Merlin) or Pendragon (Morgana), but none of them accepted it.

  The four houses of Hogwarts, though, had changed. Apparently, during those first years when the school was still being initially established by the founders, the number of students was so low that the founders basically treated those in their house as personal disciples. This obviously didn't work in current times with the higher number of students, so with some suggestions from Pendragon, changes were made.

  With the founders' own familiarity in teaching, it was determined that the Hogwarts curriculum of Dumbledore's era was immensely inefficient, and so they raised the level of the content taught to a historically higher level since the newly unsealed Ley line node would also apparently help in learning magic.

  The first three years are basically like normal school. The students will learn the basics and a little bit of everything. After that, though, everything changes. The four houses were broken apart in favor of a new system called the major path.

  The students of year four and upwards were divided into the paths of Alchemy, Ward Mastery, Ritualism, Potion Mastery, Charm Craft, Battle Magic, Divination, and Zoology. The paths are basically like university majors, where the students study completely different things, though there were still some unified courses, like Wand Craft and Arithmancy.

  Well... that was all good to know, and Hogwarts sounds like a fun place. Unfortunately, it's also where Morgana apparently spends most of her time, so for me, it's a no-no.

  In the end, I bought all the books from Hogwarts's old curriculum and whatever was available from the new one. These, however, were not the only books I bought.

  The various other books that I bought basically boiled down to: advanced Alchemy, especially some specialized books detailing the making of some specific things, like one about making golems or spatial storage. Extra books on Arithmancy and Charm Craft. Books on the designing of rituals and some specific rituals, like the Fidelius Charm. I also bought basic and advanced books for Divination and scrying magic as I had to learn how to hide myself from them.

  The last thing I bought, and the ones I was most excited about, were two books: one on Apparition and the other about making portkeys. I'm finally only one step away from getting my dream of controlling space, even if it's not purely science... Well, maybe I'll research a non-magical way of doing it, if I have time. I was just so close to doing it.

  Bringing the last two books for checkout, Anna looked at me. "I'm obligated to inform you that using Apparition outside special classes without a license is forbidden by the ministry."

  "Then why sell the book? Whoever wants to learn can just go to the class," I asked, raising my eyebrow.

  "That is due to a petition to loosen some restraints in knowledge sharing. The Head of House Pendragon convinced the other houses on the Wizengamot to do it."

  "Hmm." I nodded.'So she threatened them.' Well, I don't really care for what Morgana does as long as she's not focused on me. Having acknowledged her warning, I asked my last question, "Where can I find an archive of all newspapers for the last six years?"

  "Hmm? If you want something like that, the only place I can think of would probably be the Daily Prophet main office, or if not there, they can probably tell you where you could."

  After also getting a copy of today's paper, I thanked her for her help and left for my next, and hopefully last, destination for today: the Daily Prophet main office in Diagon Alley.