The Contract
1677 Words
Chapter - 02
A month 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.
Five years ago
Alexender was brought to the orphanage five years ago along with his sister Nicole by the man in black. The man in black found the siblings on a snowy night when the girl was staying under a bridge while Alex went from shop to shop looking for a job all day and after working for the whole day he finally earned enough money to buy them a meal. When Alex finally returned he found his sister burning with fever at that time the man in black showed up and helped them. The man in black brought the siblings to the orphanage and settled them there. Leaving his sister with the nuns in the orphanage Alex followed the man outside and made a deal with him. The man signed a slave contract with Alex according to which he needed to follow each and every command of the man in exchange of which he will provide a good life to his sister. Hesitant at first Alex agreed to follow the man for his sister but what he thought might be a mere paper contract turned out something that completely flabbergasted him.
The man took out a stick from his clothes and started writing in the air and the words as if came out alive floated in the air. When the man finished writing he turned towards Alex and said
"Open your shirt"
Even though Alex was a bit dumbfounded he did as he was instructed.
The man pointed towards Alex's chest and mumbled a few words before asking
"Are you sure you want to be my slave and won't regret it in the future?"
"Yes," Alex replied weakly.
"Will you stay loyal to me under any circumstances what so ever until the day I annulled the master-slave contract?" the man continued.
"Yes," this time Alex replied with more resolution in his heart.
Saying this the man in black took out a circular disc-like object and told Alex
"Cut your finger and when I say drop some blood here" pointing towards the disc the man told.
The man mumbled a few more words and pointed towards Alex the words which were floating in mid-air divided into two parts. Half flew towards Alex and half towards the disc. As the words came in contact with the disc they engraved themselves on the disc
"Now"
As soon as Alex heard it he bit his finger and dropped some blood on the disc. Soon the other half of words touched Alex's chest and he felt an unimaginable amount of pain throughout his body. The man in black used the stick in his hand to cut his finger and soon a few drops of blood floated towards Alex's chest and entered his body. After going through the pain for about five minutes Alex finally felt some relief, he got up and looked at his chest only to find a visibly large snake tattoo on his left part of the chest. Alex although felt fine but there was some sort of heaviness in his heart which 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 some heaviness in my chest" Alex replied so that he could find some answers from him.
"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. 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 explained patiently.
"So that's why I feel uneasy that explains a lot" knowing the reason and that it won't affect him any other way, Alex was at more at ease.
"You are not afraid?" seeing how calm Alex was the man looked surprised.
"Well I am afraid but what is bound to happen will eventually happen so no use crying over it" Alex explained his reasoning.
"Good I like that you can assess the situation so calmly"
"So should I call you master from now on?" Alex wanted to confirm the way they are going to address each other.
"Yes"
"Master about the orphanage"
"Don't worry I will take care of it, from now on you only need to get stronger"
"From getting stronger you mean to learn that weird thing you were doing?" Alex was still sceptical about the things he saw earlier.
"That weird thing is called magic and yes you will learn it, I followed you all day today and from what I can see you have the aptitude to learn magic"
"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?"
"Wasn't it because the coal pieces missed me luckily?" Alex looked confused to how just missing a few coal pieces can grant someone magic.
"Then what about when at the bar when the boys were teasing that girl the beer bottle just happened to break in that guy's hand?" the man explained further.
"Wasn't it an accident?"
"No, they were all caused unintentionally by you. When a wizard grows many unexpected events occur around him 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'"
"So that's how it is"
"We are not supposed to meddle with those kids until they turn eleven years old 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 that you should not tell anyone about this" the man warned Alex.
"Yes master"
"From now on until you turn eleven I will come to the orphanage and train you"
"Yes master"
"Here take these books, before starting your training you need to understand more about the wizarding world" saying this the man in black took out a few books and handed it over to Alex.
"Now I will come next week so before that learn everything from these books" after handing over the books the man in black disappeared into thin air leaving Alex dumbfounded.
"Thank you, master, for the grace you have should to me and my sister I will follow you with all my heart" saying this Alex knelt on the spot he was standing. 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 coming 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"
"Hmmm" nodding to the nun Alex put the books he had on the bedside table and sat beside his sister and checked her temperature.
As soon the nun left the room Alex first had the food she 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 sprang out of the bed to see 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 bother surprised.
"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 commotion erupted outside, Alex leaving his sister to rest went outside only to see few trucks parked outside and some people unloading them. Seeing this Alex remembered how the man promised to take care of the orphanage for them.
From here 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 and guide him in the ways of wizardry. This continued for about three years until he was proficient with magic and after that, for the next two years, he would send him to various places to gather ingredients for him. The man would send him to hunt beasts or gather herbs all around the world and in return, he would provide the church and orphanage with donations.
Now all this is going to come to an end and soon he would leave on his last job and after completing that, he can live a peaceful life with his sister.
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- Writer
