Chapter - 02

A month had passed since the day Alex came back to the orphanage. Alex was sitting in the park basking himself in the sun, reminiscing how he met the man in black and how it changed his life.

Eight years ago,

Alexender was brought to the orphanage eight years ago along with his sister Nicole by the man. He found the siblings on a snowy night when Nicole was staying under a bridge. Alex, on the other hand, went from shop to shop looking for a job, eventually finding one at a bakery. After working hard for the whole day, he finally earned enough money to buy them a couple of loaves of bread. When Alex returned, he found his sister burning with fever. At that time, the man in black showed up and asked Alex to follow him. Though Alex was reluctant to follow a stranger who appeared out of nowhere when he saw the unconscious Nicole breathing heavily, he made up his mind.

The man brought the siblings to an orphanage and settled them there. Leaving his sister with the nuns in the orphanage, Alex followed the man outside.

"You know there is nothing such as a free meal in this world." Walking ahead of Alex, the man said.

"I know."

"I will be honest with you. I have some use of you, and only because of that, I helped you. There was no pity, sympathy and most of all affection in my actions."

"I understand."

When the two of them were at a considerable distance from the orphanage, the man stopped. He turned towards Alex.

"I need you to sign a master-slave contract with me." The man said with no visible change in his emotions.

Alex was shocked hearing the man. Even thoughts about the man in front of him being some kind of a psychopath with some weird fetishes emerged in his mind.

Involuntarily Alex took a step back.

"Think about your sister," The man said, and Alex stopped in his tracks. Now that Alex was ready to hear, the man continued, "You are what? five years old?"

"Six."

"Big difference, what I am trying to say is, you have no one by your side. Sure, you can continue living in the orphanage till you are eighteen, but then what? You don't have a heritage to support you, do you? I can make sure both you siblings have a great future even after you leave the orphanage."

"Look, mister, I am grateful for what you have done, but this master-slave contact, I... I... don't have words to explain how I am feeling about this. And above else, I don't think any contract with a child would be valid before the law."

"There isn't anything fishy about the contract. All you have to do is do certain jobs for me, and in return, I will support the orphanage so that your sister can have a decent, carefree life here. And you don't have to care about the validity of the contract. It will be very different from the normal contracts you might have heard of". The man said, with his words shrouded in mystery.

Hesitant at first, Alex agreed to follow the man for the sake of his sister. But, what he thought might be a mere paper contract turned out something that completely surprised him.

The man took out a stick from underneath his robes and started writing in thin air. And the words, as if they had their own will, floated in the air. When the man finished writing, he turned towards Alex.

"Unbutton your shirt," the man said.

Even though Alex was a bit dumbfounded, he did as he was told.

The man pointed towards Alex's chest and mumbled a few words before asking, "Are you sure you won't regret being my slave in the future?"

Now that he has made up his mind, there was no turning back for Alex.

"Yes," Alex replied weakly.

"Will you stay loyal to me under any circumstances whatsoever until the day I annulled the master-slave contract?" the man continued to ask.

"Yes," this time Alex replied with more resolution in his heart.

Hearing this, the man in black took out a knife and threw it towards Alex, "When I say now, I want you to cut your finger a bit and let out a few drops of your blood," pointing towards his finger, the man said.

Alex had no idea what was going on, but he still nodded.

The man mumbled a few more words and pointed towards Alex. The words floating in mid-air divided into two parts. Half flew towards Alex and half towards the man.

"Now" the man yelled.

As soon as he heard the man, Alex took the knife and swiftly slashed a small cut on his finger. A few drops of blood gushed out of his finger. But to his surprise, the blood drops, instead of falling on the ground, floated towards the man in front of him.

When Alex looked at the man, he found that like him, the man too had a cut on his finger, and his blood was floating towards him.

Soon Alex's blood entangled itself with the letters floating towards the man and vanished into his clothes. Similarly, the words floating towards him tangled themselves with the man's blood and seeped into his chest. As soon as the man's blood entered his body, Alex let out a cry in pain. The pain lasted for about five minutes, and all this time, Alex managed to hold back his screams. This was the worst of the pain he had to endure in all these years, but by now, he is already accustomed to the pain.

Finally, it took a while before Alex felt some relief. He got up and looked at his chest only to find a visibly large snake tattoo on the left part of his chest. Although he felt fine, there was some sort of heaviness in his heart that was not there before.

"Do you feel anything different?" sensing the uneasiness on Alex's face, the man asked.

"I feel like I am suffocating, and there is heaviness in my chest," Alex replied, hoping to get some answers from the man.

"What we went through was a master-slave contract, and because of that, you have this feeling. As you can see, there is a snake tattoo on your chest. In reality, there is a living snake coiled around your heart, and if you try to do anything to harm me, the snake will kill you even before you can do anything..." The man said, but to his surprise, there was no change in Alex's expression

"...soon this feeling of uneasiness will subdue as you grow accustomed to this, and it will not affect you in any other way," the man continued to explain patiently.

"So that's why I feel uneasy, well that explains that" Alex was not as surprised as the man thought he would be. Those who come in contact with magic for the first are bound to through a fit around.

"You are not afraid?" seeing how calm Alex was, the man couldn't help but ask. According to the man, either Alex had a great mental fortitude, or he was...

"Well, I am shocked if not afraid, but what is bound to happen will eventually happen. So there is no use crying over it" Alex explained his reasoning.

"Good, I like how you can assess the situation so calmly".

"So..." Alex wanted to ask something but was hesitant.

"What is it?"

"Should I call you master from now on?" Alex wanted to confirm the way they are going to address each other. He has to be professional.

The man thought for a while before nodding, "Yes".

"Master, about the orphanage." Since the immediate matters at hand are settled. Now it was time to talk about his compensation.

"Don't worry, I will take care of it. From now on, your only priority is to get stronger..." The man said as he handed an old box to him.

"...here, keep this with you. I will let you know when you will need this."

Alex nodded and stuffed the box underneath his tattered sweater through his collar.

"From getting stronger, you mean I need to learn how to use magic, don't you?" Though he was still sceptical about what he saw earlier, he was not shocked to lose his calm.

"Well, I followed you all day today, and from what I can see, you do have the aptitude to learn magic," The man said.

"How?"

"Today, when you were working at the bakery, and the coal from the furnace burst towards you why were you not hurt at all?" The man asked.

"Wasn't it because the coal pieces missed me, luckily?" Alex looked confused about how just missing a few coal pieces can grant someone magic.

"Then what about when outside the bakery, when the boys were teasing that girl, the beer bottle just happened to break in that guy's hand?" the man inquired further.

"Wasn't it just because the guy had a good grip?"

"No, they were all caused unintentionally by you. When young wizards grow, many unexpected events occur around them due to their unconscious use of magic which they cannot control. We wizards then keep tabs on such kids and try to keep the damage done by them to a minimum and try not to expose the world of wizards to ordinary people whom we call 'muggles'" The man explained.

The conversation between them didn't look like that of a master and his servant, but more like a father and his son.

"Are you one of those who keep tabs on such children?"

"No, I just happened to be at the right place at the right time." The man shook his head in denial.

"So that's how it is," Alex somewhat understood the situation.

"We are not supposed to meddle with the growth of these kids until they turn fourteen. But due to your situation, I made a decision on my own. And since I can use you, I guess it is for the best, but I am warning you, you should not tell anyone about this," the man warned Alex.

"Yes, master,"

"From now on until you turn fourteen, I will come to the orphanage and train you," The man said.

"In magic?" Alex asked.

"No, I will train your body first. I don't want you to be physically inferior to anyone." The man said. DOn't know why, but Alex could feel gloominess emitting from the man.

"Here, take these books. Before we start, you need to understand more about the wizarding world..." By saying this, the man in black took out a few books and handed them over to Alex.

"...now I will come next week. So before that, learn everything you can from these books" Handing the books to him, the man disappeared into thin air, leaving Alex dumbfounded.

"Thank you, master. I won't forget everything you have done for my sister and me. I don't have much to repay you with, but I will try to follow you for as far as I can" By saying this, Alex gave a slight bow in the direction the man was standing in earlier. The man in black saw that from afar and nodded in satisfaction. At least the boy is loyal enough for now.

Alex came back to the orphanage and saw his sister sleeping soundly, and one of the nuns was sitting beside her.

Seeing the boy enter, the nun stood up and told the boy, "You have not eaten anything, right? There is some food on the table, have it before you sleep and call me if you need anything. I am in the room next door." The nun left after she told Alex everything

Alex put the books he had, on the bedside table and sat beside his sister to checked her temperature. After he was satisfied that Nicole no longer had a fever, Alex first had the food the nun left and then he pulled a chair and sat beside his sister while looking at the books he just got from his master. The first book was 'A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot', the second was 'Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century' and the others were 'Hogwarts: A History' and 'Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century.

Alex started with the first book 'A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot' meanwhile taking care of his sister, and soon it was dawn. The nun from the previous night came in the early morning to check on them only to find the boy sitting on the chair with a book in one hand while he changed the wet towel on his sister's forehead. The nun left some change of clothes for them and later brought some food for them.

When Nicole woke up, she was surprised to find herself on a bed and looked around only to see herself in an unfamiliar room. Remembering about her brother, she suddenly got up with a jolt, only to find her brother sitting beside her reading a book that looked rather old, and there was a wet towel on her forehead.

Looking at his surprised sister Alex let out a faint snicker "Don't be alarmed, we are at an orphanage, and we are going to live here from now on."

"Really, brother?" Nicole looked at her brother in surprise.

"Hmm..." Alex nodded.

"...why don't you lie down and rest. You had a very high fever last night," Alex said to Nicole as he tucked her back in bed.

As they were talking, a commotion erupted outside. Alex leaving his sister to rest, went outside to check. Outside he saw a few trucks parked at the gate of the orphanage and some people unloading them. Seeing this, Alex remembered how the man promised to take care of the orphanage for them. Alex now completely relaxed. This gesture from his master now totally blew away his worries.

From then on, the man would visit him three to four times every month and bring him books on Charms, D.A.D.A., Herbology, Potions, Transfiguration, and even Divination. The man would personally guide him in the ways of wizardry. This continued for about three years until he was proficient with magic.

After that, for the next two years, the man did not let Alex use magic in the slightest. Though he continued to read books, the man focused primarily on his physical training. The man would send him to various places to gather ingredients for him. Though they were not dangerous, he had to rely on his physical strength to fend for himself.

For the last three years, the man would send him to hunt beasts and gather herbs from all around Europe. This was the final step in his training, and this made him proficient in Magic as well as his physical prowess increased. In return, the man would provide the church and orphanage with donations.

Now all of this was coming to an end. And soon, Alex would leave on his last job, and after completing that, he can live a peaceful life with his sister.

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