**PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU BEGIN THE SERIES**

Welcome to Fate's Four! Now before you dive into the story there are a few things I would like you to take note of. First is my profile page. On there I have posted series notes, images, and further information on the series as a whole. As well there will always be different polls running there that will help influence the story depending on how people vote. I recommend that you check it out.

The second thing is that I ask you to please please please leave a review and favorite/follow if you enjoy or don't enjoy the story. You have no idea how much each review means, even if it is a short one. I am very easily influenced by reviews, and the more I see the more inspired I am to knock out an allnighter of writing. Also if you leave a comment please check your account PM inbox occasionally. I like to reply and have chats with my readers and many of you have great suggestions and feedback that make a major difference in the story.

I also want to let everyone know that there is a forum for this series. The link to the forum page can be found on my profile page. I encourage anyone interested in the series to go check it out and feel free to post to your heart's content on there. I get a lot of PM's suggesting cool ideas, asking good questions, and debating certain things throughout the story. Instead of having all these things privately in my inbox I would like for everyone who reads this series to have access to the same things. So please go check out the forum and start up a conversation, debate, or topic! I look forward to seeing what you have to say!

Thank you and enjoy!

*********MUST READ FOR NEW READERS BEFORE STARTING! MUST READ FOR NEW READERS BEFORE STARTING**********************

Due to messages and reviews from a few new readers to the series I wanted to leave this quick disclaimer to hopefully clear some things before you jump into the story.

1. This an AU story-meaning things will be different then they were in the books or films. Do not assume that Harry, Hermione, or other characters would act the same, do the same things, or be at the same skill levels as the book or films. This applies to the plot as well, don't assume things will happen in the same order or the same way.

2. This is not an OP character story. As you get further into the series you will learn that my Hogwarts is a little different than the canon Hogwarts. Because of this characters may seem weaker or stronger than in canon. The power levels in my story are different than canon. Meaning even though a character might seem strong, you maybe don't know how strong he is in this world yet.

3. Yes this is a varying perspective fanfic. The story will switch between four different perspectives throughout the series. The four perspectives will be of the four main characters. You can tell who the chapter is about by looking at the top of each chapter for a Character title if you need to. I am aware that many people are not fans of this style(so you don't have to message me and tell me!) but if you have ever read series like Game of Thrones, Lord of The Rings, and many other famous series you will know that sometimes it is needed and more effective in a character driven story. So sorry if its not your cup of tea, but I suspect if you get a few chapters in you might change your mind.

4. Early on in the series there are some OC characters introduced right out of the gates. I understand many of you are looking for familiar characters right off the back but, again, have no fear, your favorite characters are in this series(Just look at Chapter 2 lol). As an avid Fanfic reader I have the belief that OC characters are only ever done well when a sufficient amount of time is spent introducing them and developing them. So again, early on there will be some new faces getting some limelight so you can get to know them.

5. If you have questions or need clarification please just message me!

6. I also recently made a twitter if you want to follow me to discuss the story/series further, ask questions, or just banter! Follow me at OseRSFanfic

October 31, 1981

He lowered his wand as the last lamp lining the main street of Godric's Hollow was extinguished, leaving the previously illuminated shrouded in a blanket of darkness. As he left the cover of the shadows in which he had been waiting impatiently, nothing could be seen except for the small number of softly glowing windows of the houses lining the street's sides.

He made his way methodically along the stone sidewalk, passing a few more houses as he headed towards the large white cottage which had not been there during his last visit to Godric's Hollow.

"Again I have managed to best you, old man," he said with a victorious smile as he stopped and turned to face the house's small white gate.

There, through the home's front window he could see the blood-traitor family he had come to. . . visit. A brown-haired man, stood leaning against a wall with his back to the window and the world outside. The man appeared to be talking to a woman, who was rocking slowly in a large wooden chair, her eyes never leaving the little child in her arms. The child, in its mother's arms, was reaching up into the air, seemingly trying to grasp its mother's long auburn hair, which was only just out of its reach. The man and woman seemed to find amusement in this and both of them smiled and laughed each time the child's hands reached upwards. The sight made him sick.

"They have no idea," he said to no one but himself, the devilish grin once again growing on his face. He pulled his hood off his head and with a quick swipe of his hand unlocked the front gate, making his way up the cobblestone path to the front door. Before entering, he reached into the pocket of his robes and withdrew his wand. With his wand raised, he blasted through the door and quickly made his way into the house. Upon his entry, the woman's screams immediately filled the air.

"Crucio!" He screamed the familiar curse as soon as he entered the home. He pointed his wand at the man, who had turned and attempted to pull his wand from his pants pocket. The man was too slow though, and failed in his attempt to defend himself. He was hit by the curse and forced by the magic to collapse onto the floor. The man's body stretched and curled uncontrollably in the indescribable agony of the torture spell that had been cast on him. The man's agonizing screams of pain and the women's hollow screams of terror were all that could be heard inside the house in Godric's Hollow. It was truly a beautiful sound.

"Please stop! Take anything you want! Stop hurting him, please!" The women begged through tears as she clutched the small child closer to her chest, as if that would be enough to protect him.

"L-lily! C-c-cover H-Harry in i-it a-and r-run!" the man stuttered out between screams of pain.

"Silence, you fool! Crucio!" he spat and intensified his curse on the man.

"James! Please stop!" The woman again screamed out in fear as her husband began to thrash around even more violently, only a few feet away.

"Quiet, you filthy mudblood! I am the greatest and most powerful wizard of all time! I can take anything I want! And you blood-traitors will give me what I want! Crucio!" He cast the second torture curse at the women and she immediately began to writhe and thrash around in pain, just like her husband. As her thrashing worsened she dropped the child to the floor as she fell from out of the rocking chair, joining her husband on the floor He couldn't stop the smile that came as he watched the two of them twisting and writhing on the floor together.

"You fools thought you could hide from me?" he mocked them as he stalked towards the child on the floor.

He had been waiting for this moment for over six months now. Ever since he had been told of the prophecy by his servant Peter, who had been the Potter family's friend, he had been planning this. He had never taken the subject of divination or prophecies seriously, still, he would not risk having his life's work and plans thwarted due to his own ignorance. Better to play things safe. Since Peter had informed him that the family was hiding under the fidelius charm, he had ordered Peter to find a way to become the Potter's secret keeper.

The blood traitor Sirius Black had been the family's first secret keeper. However, he was easily able to manipulate that situation to work in his favor. Using his control of certain ministry personnel, he had the Daily Prophet print rumors about Sirius Black, fueling speculation that he was at last following the traditional dark path of his family and joining the Death Eaters.

Obviously, he would never have let a blood-traitor like Sirius Black join him, but just starting the rumors made it all too easy. Peter went to Dumbledore and suggested the change of secret keepers, just to be on the safe side in light of the rumors. After five months of his servant's usual endless failures, Peter had finally succeeded, for once.

The child on the floor began to cry more loudly from inside the dark black cloak, in which it was wrapped. The noise pulled him from his thoughts. The time to gloat and reminisce was over. It was time to finish what he had come for. He moved the black cloak covering the child aside, off the child's face, allowing him a clear look at his victim. He stalled a moment, enjoying the frightened look on the child's face and savoring its screams and cries before he raised his wand.

"Harry Potter. . . Time to die. Avada kedavra!" The green light shot forth from the tip of his wand towards the child. The child's cries turned to screams upon impact. However, before a victorious smile could even begin to form on his face, the green light shooting from his wand began to change direction, just as it hit the small child.

His wand began to emit smoke and jagged cracks formed along its shaft. The green light from his killing curse crept backwards onto itself and up the wand towards his hand. Before he could cut the curse off, his wand shattered and the curse, with nowhere else to go, shot backwards towards him. He took the full brunt of the curse and went flying backwards. As he collided with the wall behind him and fell to the ground the bright, green-lit world which surrounded him began to fade into gray and black.

As his world faded into darkness, the agony and pain left the previously cursed man and woman on the floor. Their senses slowly adjusted and the first thing they saw, only a few feet away, was the cloaked man who had entered their home. He exploded into green flames on the floor, only with a loud, hollow sounding scream.

When the bright green flames and loud screams disappeared from the room, the world inside the small home in Godric's Hollow was silent. The only sound that could be heard was the whimpering of the small child.

The child who was, somehow, still alive.

Marik

August 15, 1991

Marik Ose had never been more anxious a day in his life than he was today. Over the past week he had slept hardly more than two or three hours at most each night, and last night he had even managed to not fall asleep for a mere measly minute. Normally the lack of sleep would be a bad thing and a damper on his spirits, however, the small amount of sleep he had gotten this week was not a bad thing at all, in fact, it was quite the opposite. He was certainly tired, and he was currently yawning at an average rate of three-yawns-per-minute, but none of that mattered. Nothing in the world could get him down today. After all, today was finally the day he would be getting his first chance to see the wizarding world up close and in person, and he had absolutely no idea what to expect.

It had been exactly a week since Marik and his family had received the life-changing news. Exactly a week from the day that Marik knew would definitely go down as single-handedly the greatest day of his life. That day had started off as just the average, typical bad school day for Marik Ose, but it had quickly shifted into undoubtedly the most abnormal day of his life.

Marik had been adopted at the age of two by his parents, Alden and Aubrey Ose. Alden Ose was an officer in the United States Army and had been stationed for some time in New York City. It was there where he had met and married Marik's mother and the two of them had decided to adopt a child. Marik had lived up to his sixth birthday in New York City. After his sixth birthday, though his family had not lived in the same country or city for more than a year at a time, always seeming to move on to the next place just as he started to actually get settled in.

Marik had turned eleven in November of last year and his family, shortly after his birthday, had been ordered to move from their previous stationing in Cairo, Egypt to the city of London in the United Kingdom. So again, just like the many times before, Marik was forced to leave his school, house, and if he had actually had any, friends behind.

London had been the worst of the places he had lived in so far. Because he was always moving Marik would not deny the fact that he had quickly become a loner. After all, it was pointless for him to attempt to try and make friends when he moved to someplace new, especially when he knew everything had an expiration date of around a year on it. His only friends had been either made up, his parents, or his books.

While he would have obviously killed to have some real friends his age, being a loner and keeping to himself was something that he had gotten used to and normally was not a problem. He had more than grown used to it by now. However, to his classmates in London being a loner and someone who kept to their books was a problem and they all made it their life's mission every single day to make Marik aware that it was a big problem. That day, a week ago, in school had been no different.

Marik had started his day off at school sitting quietly at his desk in class, reading ahead in one of his books, just like he did every day. While he was reading ahead his teacher rambled on about some new formula and some difficult equation that Marik had already learned. As always Marik had sat in silence, not bothering anyone else, and just trying to keep to himself and get his work done. However, that day, as usual, Dudley Dursley had made keeping to himself an impossible feat.

Dudley Dursley was a large, and by large he meant fat, a boy in his class who had made it clear to Marik that being smart and reading books was apparently a very bad thing. Everyone else in the class did exactly what Dudley did, or said to do, which meant that since Dudley picked on Marik, everyone else in the class picked on Marik. Marik assumed Dudley had it out for anyone who could read due to the highly likely possibility that Dudley still did not know how to read, although Marik had yet to confirm that.

Marik had been in the next chapter of his algebra book when the teacher had asked him to answer a question that apparently, to no surprise to him, Dudley had answered incorrectly moments earlier. Of course, Marik knew the answer to the question right away; after all, he had not made less than an A- on every test in the class so far. Marik prided himself on being at the top of his classes wherever he lived. His mother had tutored him no matter where they lived growing up and seeing her proud smile at his good grades was one of the few times no matter where he lived that actually made him happy.

So no matter where he lived, his grades were one of his highest priorities. However, living in London with people like Dudley, for even the short period of time that he had, began to quickly change his mentality. For people like Dudley, having good grades meant you needed to be punched. So as he answered the teacher's question correctly he knew he was about to be in for a world of trouble from Dudley.

As soon as the teacher had turned around back to her chalkboard to explain the next problem, Dudley, from his seat directly in front of Marik, had apparently decided that Marik's beatdown would happen then and there, instead of after class. Dudley had immediately turned around in his seat and pushed all of Marik's books off of his desk and onto the ground, scattering his notes and materials all across the floor. The students all around him had just snickered in response, like they normally did, as they watched Dudley pick on him. Apparently, after having decided that Marik needed more punishment, Dudley had uncapped Marik's water bottle and emptied its contents onto Marik, drenching him and his clothing in his own cold water. Not wanting to get in trouble with the teacher for interrupting the class, Marik just sat there and took it, bottling up his anger and waiting until Dudley had decided that he had had enough fun and turned around.

That was when the first strange thing of the day took place. Marik had collected his books and materials from the floor and had resumed sitting quietly at his desk as he had been before. Only now with his uniform soaked and most of his notes crumpled and torn. After a few minutes of sitting there drenched in the water, he had started to get cold. As his body started to shiver he had wished to himself that his clothes would hurry up and just dry off already. That's when it happened.

As soon as the thought had left his head his clothes had somehow magically dried themselves off and felt as warm as they did fresh out of the dryer. It had taken all the self-control he had in him to not shout out in shock as he examined his uniform. Sure enough, as he had looked them over he had found that they had indeed somehow managed to dry themselves off, almost like magic, which at the time had seemed impossible.

Marik's mind from there had immediately started racing with a flurry of thoughts, all wondering at how this had happened. He looked around the room to see if maybe he was under a vent, or if the air in the room had turned on recently. Nothing he saw had helped him come to a reasonable conclusion though. He had been sitting nowhere near the vent, and all of the fans in the room had been still turned off.

Over the rest of the lesson all of his thoughts had been entirely on trying to figure out how his clothes had randomly dried themselves off, nothing he thought of made sense logically though. As the final bell rang and signaled the end of the school day the only conclusion he had managed to come by was that his clothes had dried off, because he had wished them to dry off, which he had admitted to himself at the time, was impossible. This was when the second strange thing of the day happened.

Dudley had apparently felt that Marik deserved one more bout of punishment before they both went home for the day. Without warning just as the rest of the class had started to stand up and leave for home, Dudley turned around and punched him hard square in the chest. Following impact with Dudley's fist, Marik had fallen to the floor, coughing uncontrollably, as all the air had been knocked out of his body. All around him students were laughing at him as he had hunched over and gasped desperately for air. All Marik could do was wish that the pain would go away, and Dudley would get some payback for all he did one day.

That's when the second weird thing happened. All of the sudden the air had returned to his lungs and the pain in his chest had gone away. At the same time, all of the laughs in the room had turned to screams of panic. As he had looked up from his spot on the floor he had seen that Dudley's desk had randomly exploded into a towering spire of bright red and black flames. The entire classroom had jumped from their seats at the sight, screaming in fright as the flames roared intensely and filled the classroom with light and smoke. Marik had just stared from his spot on the floor, his jaw agape at the sight and wondering if again he had made this happened just by wishing it.

After a few seconds, the raging fire in the classroom had died down and the chaos of the classroom died down with it. Marik had still been stuck on the floor in an awe-struck daze, staring at the desk where the flames had been only moments before. He was only woken from his daze when his teacher had pulled him up from the floor and dragged him off to the principal's office. It was in the principal's office that Marik had learned that Dudley had told the teacher that Marik had been the one to start the fire in the classroom, and somehow the teacher had believed this to be true. Marik had, of course, attempted to argue against this, but deep down he couldn't help but shake the notion that he had in fact somehow been responsible for starting the fire and his mind was too busy racing to put much effort into his argument.

Following class and his meeting with the principal during the entire trip back home Marik's mind had been deep in thought of the day's random events, wondering how the weird things that had happened in class had actually happened. When he had made it home he had taken a moment outside their front door to mentally prepare himself for an 'I'm-disappointed-in-you' lecture from his mother. His teacher had called his home after meeting with the principal not only telling his mother that he had received a B+ on the last test, which he had gotten on purpose to avoid another beating from Dudley's fist, but also that he would have detention for the next week because of the desk-on-fire incident. Instead of walking into a lecture of disappointment from his mother though he had walked into the both of his parents sitting in their living room with an odd looking older man.

The man had been strange looking, to say the least, resembling somewhat of a Gandalfian appearance if Marik had to best describe him. The mysterious man sitting on his family's sofa had been dressed in an eloquent looking set of bright purple robes that were dotted with a pattern of bright golden stars that seemed to almost twinkle whenever the man had moved. The man's beard had been the longest beard Marik had ever seen and stretched all the way down to the man's belt buckle, rivaling the lengths of beards the Dwarves from his fantasy stories even had.

Nothing about the man had looked normal to Marik. Even the man's spectacles had seemed to be different somehow and the glass lenses had appeared to be some sort of crystal instead of normal glass. After Marik had managed to collect himself from staring at the strange sight the man posed the odd looking man had introduced himself to Marik as Albus Dumbledore. He had gone on to tell Marik and his parent's that he was the Headmaster of a school called Hogwarts, which was a school of witchcraft and wizardry.

At first, Marik had thought it was all an elaborate joke but as Albus Dumbledore began to explain further he slowly came to the realization that he was being completely serious. He and his family were told that there were two separate worlds living together. One world was filled with those of magic, and the other filled with what Dumbledore called muggles. Apparently, Marik's parents were muggles and Marik was a wizard. His father had not liked being called a muggle, whether it was offensive or not.

Marik had still been skeptical, though, even with hearing everything Albus Dumbledore told him. A world of magic just seemed too good to be true, like something out of one of his fantasy books. It wasn't until Albus Dumbledore proved it to him and his family, that Marik finally had believed all he said to be true. Albus Dumbledore took out a weird looking white stick that had grooves all over it from one of the many pockets of his robes and twirled it around gracefully in the air. As soon as he had stopped moving the stick around Marik's mind had been completely blown. The teacup Albus Dumbledore had been holding had somehow turned itself into a bouquet of flowers, much to the surprise of Marik and his family.

Albus Dumbledore with a small bout of laughter had helped Marik and his family regain their composure after seeing magic for the first time. When all jaws had been successfully retrieved from their spots on the ground Albus Dumbledore had told Marik the five greatest words he had ever heard in his life, you're a wizard Marik Ose. It had been at that exact moment that Marik had accepted all the man said to be true and immediately wanted to know how he could learn how to do that teacup-bouquet trick along with everything else magic related.

After a very long conversation with Albus Dumbledore, Marik learned that people like him raised in non-magic families were unaware that they were witches or wizards until around their tenth and eleventh birthdays. Most only found out when they received an invitation to a witchcraft and wizarding school, which was why Marik was only just now finding all of this out. From some more of his questions to the Headmaster, he had also discovered that all of the strange things like Dudley's desk catching on fire, his clothes drying on their own, and his pain disappearing after being punched were bouts of accidental magic. It was through these bouts of accidental magic that Albus Dumbledore had discovered that Marik was a wizard.

At first, his parents had been skeptical of the man and everything he said, even after seeing him perform magic before their very eyes. After all, Marik's father was about as hard-headed as a person could get, and convincing him of anything as strange as all this was almost an impossible feat. However, after a while of talking to Dumbledore, and mainly when his parent's learned that his magic could become dangerous and even deadly if he did not learn to control it, his parents had agreed reluctantly that Marik could attend the school.

Marik had again asked one more time just to make absolutely sure if they were all honestly being serious about all of this and confirmed that this was in fact not just an elaborate prank on him before he allowed the excitement to sink in. After Albus Dumbledore and his parent's confirmed it all again to be very much real it was impossible for Marik to control his jubilance. He found himself from that moment on to be in a nonstop rush of excitement, fueled by anticipation to know everything about this new magical world.. Unfortunately, though, Albus Dumbledore told him that his questions would have to be saved for another day as he had to go greet many more new students and their families.

Before leaving Dumbledore had left him with a book titled: Introduction to the World of Magic that explained a little more about the wizarding world and would answer many more of Marik's questions. Albus Dumbledore also gave them all the notification that in exactly one week's time a professor from the school would come to gather them and take them to Diagon Alley, a wizarding town in London, to get his school supplies, as well as anything else he may need for the upcoming school year.

And after Marik had waited for what to him had felt like a few hundred years that day was finally here, and from looking at the clock on his nightstand a few feet away, it appeared that at last, it was finally just about that time. Reaching over to the nightstand Marik picked up the small picture frame containing the framed letter Dumbledore had given him that day a week ago. His acceptance letter to Hogwarts had immediately become the most prized possession that Marik owned, and he had found himself rereading the letter countless times over the past week, each time to make sure that this was all not a very detailed dream. Marik pinched himself lightly on his forearm to again make sure this was, in fact, all real.

It really still is real. He thought with a smile to himself as he read the letter one more time.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF

WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme

Mugwump, International Confed. Of Wizards)

Dear Mr. Ose,

We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on 1 September. We await confirmation of your acceptance by no later than 31 July.

Yours sincerely,

Albus Dumbledore

Headmaster

After allowing himself another few moments to take in the letter and the excitement and anxiety it created inside him each time he read it, Marik carefully set down the picture frame again and got up from his bed. After a well-needed stretch he quickly made his way downstairs, jumping two steps at a time, to his family's dining room where he grabbed his usual seat at the table. As usual, as soon as he sat down he picked up a breakfast roll from the basket at the table's center and began dipping it in some butter as he sat there waiting anxiously for a knock on their door.

The book Dumbledore had given him lay open on his lap, where it had basically been glued to for the past week. He had only stopped reading it and put it down sparingly at his parents' request, finding it impossible to not reread over and over again. It was impossible to not want to learn more about the magical world he would soon be a part of, and each time he read the book it only seemed to make his curiosity worse, creating two new questions where there had previously only been one. This current read through this morning would be his fourth he believed if he had counted correctly.

"Marik son, stop shaking your leg so damn much you are spilling my coffee!" his father announced, sounding annoyed as he wiped up a puddle of coffee from the table.

"Sorry dad, I'm just excited and nervous!" he said, apologizing half-heartedly.

"Really? You are excited? Did you hear that honey? Marik is excited! We hadn't been able to tell with you not shutting up about it for a second over the past week," his father said sarcastically, earning a slap on the back of his head from his mother. Marik rolled his eyes at the sight.

"How much longer until the professor gets here do you think?" Marik asked his parents, knowing full well they knew just as much as he did.

"Albus said sometime shortly after breakfast time, so it could be any minute now I guess," his mother answered from her side of the table. Just as his mother finished her sentence there was a loud knocking on the door.

"I WILL GET IT!" he shouted in excitement as he ran to the front door at full speed, knocking his chair over in the process. As he arrived at the door, he allowed himself a quick second to catch his breath before he opened the door. The door swung open revealing an older, not very friendly looking woman. The woman looked to be around fifty or so years old and had a scowl that could scare even the bravest man. She was dressed in a set of dark green robes that looked somewhat similar to what Dumbledore had been wearing. Unlike Dumbledore's bright colored robes this woman's robes were much simpler looking and did not have a pattern adorning them. If Marik had not seen Dumbledore wearing attire somewhat similar a week ago he would have for sure thought the woman standing in front of him was crazy.

"Ah, you must be young Mister Marik I presume?" He nodded nervously as she extended her hand out. He reached his own hand out and shook it. "I am Minerva McGonagall, but you can call me Professor McGonagall," the professor added as they finished shaking hands. If McGonagall was any indication of what the rest of the professors looked like at Hogwarts, Marik could imagine the school being very strict. He already felt like he needed to behave himself just standing in the presence of the woman's glare and school year had not even started yet.

"So you are going to be one of my teachers at Hogwarts then? What subject is it that you teach?" Marik asked his future professor excitedly, wanting to know everything he could.

"Yes Mr. Ose you are correct, I will be your transfiguration professor at Hogwarts," McGonagall responded with a smile. The woman's smile looked like it did not belong on her face but seemed to be friendly and earnest enough.

"What is transfiguration?" Marik asked curiously, not having heard the word before. He had come up with so many questions throughout the week while he read the book Dumbledore gave him and her introduction had only added a few questions to his list.

"I will be more than willing to answer that question as well as all of your other questions today Mr. Ose, but I am afraid we are on a bit of a tight schedule and must be off quickly. Are your parents ready?" McGonagall asked him, looking at a golden pocket watch chained to one of the pockets of her robes.

"Yes ma'am they are, I will go get them now," Marik answered the professor and went back into the dining room to get his parents and basically dragged them outside the house to where the professor was waiting for them.

After his parent's exchanged pleasantries with Professor McGonagall she explained to them that they would be traveling via an enchanted car to first pick up another family like his, and would then be headed to Diagon Alley. After all of the small travel details had been explained Professor McGonagall led them all to a small two-seater silver Volkswagen parked in their house's driveway. His parents seemed to be just as confused as he was when the professor opened one of the doors to the car, all of them probably wondering how they were to all fit inside the small car.

"Woah!" was all he managed to get out as he and his family all climbed inside what they had thought to be a small car. On the inside though, the car was anything but small. The interior of the car was more like a limo than a two-seater. Lining both sides of the car were two long rows of seats and the center of the car had a large table stretching from end to end with all sorts of odd colored drinks and bottles scattered about. He and his family slowly found a seat at the far end of the car next to Professor McGonagall and before they had a chance to even get used to what was happening the car lunged forward and they were off.

They made a short drive from his family's home to a nearby neighborhood in London where they picked up the Granger family, whose daughter Hermione had also just like him found out that she was a witch.

As soon as the Hermione girl had introduced herself to everyone inside the small two-door car she began firing off questions one after another. Marik had to admit that he was impressed with all of the questions the Hermione girl was asking Professor McGonagall, a majority of them were questions that not even he had thought of over the past week. She had apparently read the book that they had been given by Dumbledore even more than the four times he had read it through he judged from the multitude of things she was asking that he did not even remember reading. Hermione, he found out, was the same age as him, and through one of her questions he learned that most students attending Hogwarts in their year would be around eleven or twelve years old, so around the same age as them.

As Hermione asked all of her questions he took mental notes of all the answers Professor McGonagall gave her. While the professor talked and answered Hermione's questions he also observed the first witch his age he had ever knowingly met. Hermione had dark chocolate-brown eyes that matched her long brown hair that she wore straight down her back where it stopped a few inches under her shoulders. She was average height and build to most of the girls his age, and honestly if she had not been asking Professor McGonagall why witches and wizards needed a wand to cast magic she looked just like every other normal person he knew.

"Well Miss Granger I must admit the subject of wandlore is one that little is known about, but basically a wand connects with a witch or wizard and is used as a way to channel a witch's or wizard's magic," Professor McGonagall answered Hermione's question.

"So you can't do magic without a wand? But Dumbledore told me that I did accidental magic before, and without a wand too, so surely you can do some magic without one right?" Marik asked the professor, chiming in before Hermione could fire off another question. However, from the look on Hermione's face, she was interested in the answer to his question just as much as he was.

"Very good observation, Mr. Ose, if class were in session I might have awarded points to your house for that one," Professor McGonagall answered and continued her answer quickly, sensing that her response had brought up more question ideas from the pair of newly pronounced wizard and witch in the car. "There are types of magic that do not require a wand and many spells that can be cast wandlessly, but it is a very difficult thing to learn. Many people discover that they cannot master it at all."

"Do they teach wandless magic at Hogwarts?" Hermione followed up the professor's answer with another question.

"There is not a specific course on wandless magic, but there are some professors in the upper-level courses who cover the subject somewhat and might award extra points if a spell can be learned both with and without a wand," The professor answered Hermione and Marik made a mental note at the professor giving them a way to earn extra points. He would definitely take note of that. Magic school or not, extra points in schoolwork was like music to his ears.

Throughout the rest of the car ride, he learned a few different new things that had not been in the book Dumbledore had given him. Most of what Professor McGonagall explained to them went over his head, but he slowly began to grasp what certain things were and what other things she said might have meant. Although no matter how much the professor tried to explain what quidditch was it still made no sense at all to him.

He and Hermione were also told by Professor McGonagall that they would be getting their books, supplies, clothes, money, and wand today at Diagon Alley. She had also given both he and Hermione their class schedules for their first year and promised that the books they would be purchasing today would thoroughly explain what each subject was better than she could.

Looking over his class schedule Marik discovered that he would be taking six core classes and would have the option to pick one elective in his first year. The six core classes were charms, dark arts, herbology, history of magic, potions, and transfiguration. Even though he had his class schedule now, he still had absolutely no clue what any of the subjects listed actually were about.

At the bottom of the schedule, he was given were the books he would need for each class, along with a list of the possible electives that he would have to choose from. As a first year, it appeared that he would only have the choice between astronomy, divination, and spell creation. Professor McGonagall added as they read off the electives that they would have the choice to also take care of magical creatures, as well as ancient runes during their third year.

"So we only have to take seven classes? I can't take any more than that?" Marik asked Professor McGonagall after finishing looking over his class schedule. He was disappointed that he would be limited to how many classes he could take, he wanted to know everything he could from all of the classes. Hermione looked at him with a slight drop of her jaw, as if she had seen a ghost, but then quickly looked towards the professor with a similar look of curiosity at his question.

"I can assure you, Mr. Ose, seven courses will be more than enough for you during your first year. However, during your third year if you are still feeling like seven courses are too few you will be able to add as many electives as you can fit into your schedule," McGonagall answered him, shaking her head, seemingly amused by his question.

"Good! I just want to learn everything I can about magic," he replied to the professor happily. The professor's answer seemed to bring as big a smile to his face as it did to Hermione's.

Marik wanted to take all of the classes he could. Just looking over the schedule alone he had no idea what half of the courses would even be about, and the curious part of him was already desperate to know everything he could about all of the subjects. He was sure Professor McGonagall was right when she said that seven classes would be enough for him his first year. After all, half the things she was telling him about magic were flying over his head, he could only imagine being in a classroom having to learn this stuff would be just as confusing to someone new to magic like him. It would probably be about as bad as his first year taking French had been, this all already felt like a new language to him.

As soon as he and Hermione finished looking over their schedules they began firing off even more questions at their future transfiguration professor, trying desperately to discover what each course they would soon be taking was about. Every answer the professor gave them seemed to create four more new questions for the both of them. Marik was simply left in awe of just how much he had to learn about magic the more the professor talked and at that prospect of being able to learn so much about magic and this new world he knew for a fact that he had never been more excited for school than he was now. As Hermione's and his questions seemed to finally slow down a little bit in their pace the car slowed down and pulled over to the side of a low-populated street and parked.

"If all of you would follow me and please try and stick close. Diagon Alley is never busier than the weeks just before school starts," McGonagall announced to their group and led them into a small pub across the street. Everyone else walking on the street that walked past the ragged looking pub seemed to think that it did not even exist. He admitted to himself that he honestly probably would have never even noticed the place either unless he had seen McGonagall walking towards it. It certainly didn't look like a place he would ever have thought he would be walking into.

"This is the Leaky Cauldron," The professor announced to the two families as they entered the pub. "It is the most common entrance into Diagon Alley for muggles to take. Come now, stay close," she announced to them again and continued to lead them towards the back of the pub.

In only a few seconds inside the world of magic Marik's mind was already blown. Throughout the pub, he could see at least fifteen different people, who all he assumed, were witches or wizards doing some sort of magic or using some sort of magical object.

He saw a waiter behind the bar pouring what looked like an odd-colored ale into one of the nearby glasses without even using her hands. In front of her two men were playing what looked like chess with pieces that seemed to move on their own around the board. Even the tables and floor seemed magical, as the tables cleaned themselves and a large broom swept the floor on its own. There was even a man who was as tall as at least three men and as wide as four sitting in the far corner. It was truly an amazing sight to behold. After basically dragging him and Hermione out of the bar and pulling them from their amazed dazes, Professor McGonagall led both of the families out the back of the pub into a small well-lit alleyway.

"Well, Dijon Alley sure is small!" Marik's father sarcastically joked, earning an elbow into his side from Marik's mother.

"Diagon Alley is just up ahead," McGonagall said with a glare towards his father that rivaled any glare his father had probably ever been given in the military. "Miss Granger, Mr. Ose, please pay attention to this part, next time you come through here I will not be here to guide you," Professor McGonagall said to him and Hermione as she approached the large brick wall in front of them and took out what Marik assumed was her wand. She raised her wand up and proceeded to touch a series of bricks surrounding one of the bricks at around eye level that was a slightly lighter shade of red than the others around it.

"Left, left, right, up, down, down, down, left," he mumbled to himself trying to memorize the pattern, which ironically was the same as the cheat code for infinite magic in one of his Playstation games. As the professor touched the last brick with her wand the wall in front of the group started to move on its own. The bricks separated outwards from the center of the wall, leaving an archway where the wall had just been only moments prior, and revealing in its wake the most amazing place Marik had ever seen.

As Professor McGonagall led them through the archway down the wide street of Diagon Alley Marik's eyes didn't even know where to begin to look. There were hundreds of people walking around in colorful robes, pointed hats, and holding all sorts of creatures he had never seen before. He saw a man outside the first shop they passed who looked about his dad's age with his wand out changing the color of a little girl's robes from black to a vibrant pink. To his left in one of the other nearby shops, there was a group of young kids who were for some odd reason looking at a broom that looked like it was lined with gold trim.

On the other side of the street was a bookstore that Marik could see had books flying around the room, moving themselves from one shelf to another or into a customer's outstretched hands. The store beside it looked just as unbelievable and had enough weird looking objects in it reminded him of sort of a Frankenstein's lab. Hermione seemed to be as awestruck as he was as they continued to follow the professor down the street. Professor McGonagall led them down the main street, past many of the crowded stores, each one proving his internal claims of nothing can beat that wrong each time, towards the tallest building in the center of the street that looked from the outside like a much bigger and magical version of his parent's bank.

"This is Gringotts Bank. Whenever you would like to convert your muggle money into the wizarding currency that your children will be able to use in Diagon Alley, among other places in our world, it will be done here." Professor McGonagall reached into her robes and pulled out two pieces of parchment and handed one to both Hermione's father and his father. "Headmaster Dumbledore has had an account and vault already set up for both of your families, so whenever you wish to transfer or store funds simply send a request to the address on that parchment and Gringotts will automatically transfer it from your muggle banks." McGonagall again reached into her robes and pulled out two small bags. "Here is the money that we pre-arranged to have transferred for your visit today," McGonagall stated as she handed Hermione and himself a bag each, "and if you would again follow me I think it is time we start getting your supplies. We should start with your wand."

From the bank, the professor led their group to a small nearby shop. The shop in comparison to all of the other vibrantly decorated shops along Diagon Alley looked like it was the blandest one on the alley. The only distinguishable feature was the shop's name printed on the window, Ollivander's Wand Shop. Other than that Marik thought the shop looked almost run down and abandoned.

As the group entered the shop Marik noted that the inside of the shop looked about as bland as the outside of the shop did. A thick layer of dust could be seen on every countertop throughout the store, and besides a few old-looking chairs positioned in the front of the store the only other feature that stood out in the shop were the rows and rows of shelves lining the floor behind the front counter. After McGonagall rang the bell on the store's counter an older looking man with a few remaining long strands of white hair, which only outlined the lack of hair on his head much more, approached the counter from somewhere in the back of the store.

"Ahh, Minerva McGonagall, it is always a pleasure. How is the the nine-inch fir and dragon heartstring holding up these days?" the man Marik assumed was Ollivander asked the professor.

"It is holding up quite well Ollivander, I have two first years for you today. This is. . ." McGonagall started to respond to the man before she was interrupted.

"I'm Hermione Granger sir!" Hermione enthusiastically told the man as she held out her hand and he shook it.

"I'm Marik Ose," Marik quickly added, following Hermione's lead reaching out and shaking the man's hand as well.

"Well, it is very nice to meet you both. Now, I'm sure you both must be anxious so let us see. Hmmm. . ." Ollivander went back into the rows of shelves behind the counter and returned after a few minutes with a large pile of wand boxes that he then divided into two piles for Hermione and Marik to try out. Hermione ended up finding her wand after just two attempts. Hermione's first attempt had snapped the wand she was holding in half in a flurry of flying pieces of dark purple wood. However, her second attempt with a different wand sent off an amazing array of blue sparks that looked like fireworks right when she took the wand in her hand. Hermione's skin seemed to radiate and glow with a bright sheen after she held the second wand for a brief moment. Marik could only pause what he was doing and watch on in awe at the sight.

Ollivander told Hermione that her wand was ten inches, brown Vinewood, with a core of unicorn hair. Hermione had immediately tried to ask what all those items were and what the significance of them in her wand meant, but was hushed by Professor McGonagall before she could get any answers. For Marik, it had taken a few more attempts to find his wand. After setting two of the wand boxes to flame with a crazy black fire, giving himself the worst case of hiccups ever, exploding a picture frame of a weird looking cat on the counter, and making his father bald (which McGonagall unfortunately quickly fixed), he, at last, found his wand.

Just like with Hermione, as soon as he took the wand into his hands the wand sent out fireworks, which appeared to be a light shade of green this time. His body seemed to be filled and radiate with the same sort of glow that Hermione's had a few moments after him having the wand in his hands as well. His wand, Ollivander told him, was thirteen inches, white rosewood, with a core of thestral tail hair. All his wand ingredients sounded really interesting but he had absolutely no idea what a thestral or rosewood was. . . yet!

After they had gotten their wands McGonagall had proceeded to take their group to a robes shop a few shops down, where they had to buy a few sets of school robes, dueling robes, and one set of dress robes. After to Marik what felt like hours of boring clothes shopping, they finally finished buying everything in that shop and left to continue their trip.

The next shop they were taken to was the shop resembling Frankenstein's lab that Marik had seen earlier that day. The shop was a large supply shop that according to McGonagall had a little bit of everything inside. Marik certainly couldn't argue with that. The more he walked around the more crazy looking objects and things he seemed to find. Here they bought all of their potion and herbology supplies that they would need in the upcoming year.

Out of all all of the courses he had been told about by Professor McGonagall, potions and herbology seemed to be the most straightforward and easy to understand classes to him. And by straightforward he meant that they were the only two classes that he could even vaguely understand what they might be about. His mother had jokingly told him after learning that in herbology he would be learning about magical plants that he would be grounded for the summer when he came home if he had not learned how to keep her garden from dying so much, which Marik knew based on his mother's gardening skills was an impossible feat even with magic.

His dad added to the joking when he told everyone Marik would need to study extra hard in potions to pass, and proceeded to tell the story of how one time when Marik was eight he made lemonade for his dad but instead of adding sugar had added flour. Marik admitted that if mixing ingredients in potions was anything like mixing ingredients for drinks or cooking recipes he would indeed have to study extra hard.

After the group had checked out with all of their potion and herbology supplies they lastly headed to the bookstore. Professor McGonagall took the parents to the store's register to get their core class books and told Hermione and himself to decide which elective class they wanted to take and find the books for that course on the store's shelves.

"So which one do you think you are going to pick?" Hermione asked him, but without pausing continued. "I can't decide between spell creation and astronomy. Divination does not sound interesting at all to me. I've already taken some courses in grade school that had to deal with astronomy so maybe I wouldn't be clueless like I am in all the other subjects on one hand, but on the other hand spell creation does sound so fascinating doesn't it?" Hermione asked him, and Marik could see the cogs turning in the girl's head.

Marik had also been thinking about which elective he wanted to take ever since Professor McGonagall had given them their schedules on the car ride here. He agreed with Hermione that out of their choices divination seemed like the least interesting one. Marik had used to want to be an astronaut when he was a kid and the subject of the cosmos always had interested him, so astronomy did certainly seem like a good and interesting choice. However, he wanted to learn every spell that there was and figured that learning how spells were created would probably help more with that than astronomy would.

"I think I want to take spell creation," Marik responded, pausing for a brief moment before continuing. "It sounds like it would make all of the core classes easier. I mean we are going to be learning new spells in all our classes, so I think knowing how they are all created would help out with that a lot," he answered and received a nod of agreement from Hermione. "I think you should take it too, that way we can help each other study since we are both new to this and everything," Marik said, hoping he was not being too forward with his request.

He had gone his whole previous personal and education life alone and friendless, he did not want to miss an opportunity to go through his wizarding school career with at least one friend that wasn't a book or made up. Plus, Hermione had asked questions he had never even thought of, seemed to lust and thirst for knowledge of this new magical world just as much as he did, and although he would never admit it, seemed to be maybe just as smart as he considered himself to be. It would benefit him to have someone to study and practice with.

"That sounds perfect!" Hermione said excitedly and out of nowhere wrapped him in a hug, catching him off guard. "Spell creation it is! Come over here I think the book for the first year class is over on this side of the store," Hermione said as she grabbed his arm and dragged him to the other side of the store. He had been in the wizarding world for less than four hours so far and already he felt better in this world than he ever had in twelve years in the muggle world, as McGonagall would call it.

He didn't know if Hermione considered him a friend or not yet, but just the prospect of having a friend, and the fact that they had talked all day had made him even more excited and anxious to start the school term than he had been when he woke up this morning. So at least maybe he would have one person at Hogwarts if it turned out Hogwarts was full of a bunch of Dudley Dursleys. After Hermione stopped dragging him across the store and the two of them searched a few bookshelves they found the books for year one of spell creation and made their way back to their parents.

"Mom, Dad do you think I could please buy a few more books while we are here?" Hermione asked her parents with almost puppy dog-like eyes.

"How did we know you were going to ask us that?" Hermione's parents answered and looked at each other laughing. "You can pick out two more books Hermione but that is it for now! Professor McGonagall said the library at Hogwarts will have plenty of other books for you to read," Hermione's parents answered and were shortly after engulfed in a hug from Hermione before she quickly shot off behind the many bookshelves of the store.

"Do you think I could get two more books too?" Marik asked his parents hopefully. He didn't want Hermione to get ahead of him and leave him in the dust already.

"Sorry," Hermione's mother said with an apologetic smile to Marik's parents.

"Fine! But find them quickly. Professor McGonagall said our car will be arriving to take us home soon," His parents answered, shaking their heads. Following Hermione's lead, he hugged his parents and set off to see what Hermione was getting.

"Hermione, my parents said I could get two extra books too!" he said with an excitement as he found Hermione looking at some books in the charms section. "What do you think about us getting four books we're both interested in and then switching after we have read them? That way it's like we are really getting four books instead of just two," he asked her, hoping she would agree to his idea.

"That sounds perfect Marik! I don't know how to narrow it down though! I'm not sure what I'm most interested in yet, or what might be the most useful," Hermione responded looking sad at the prospect of not knowing something.

"Hmmm. . . Yeah, I'm not so sure either," Marik answered, trying to think of any ideas.

"How about this, we are taking seven classes this year, so let's agree on the four we think are the most interesting and get one from each. Does that sound okay?" Hermione asked him.

"Yeah, that seems like a good idea. We also already had to buy two required books for charms so maybe we leave charms out since we already have one more book for it than any other class?" he replied to her.

"Okay, it is a plan then!" Hermione said, a smile returning to her face. "I definitely want to get another history book; you gave me the idea when you said learning about spell creation would help us with all of our classes. I think learning as much as we can about the history of the school and the world of magic as a whole would help a lot too don't you?" Hermione asked him enthusiastically. She definitely had a point with that.

"I think you are right. The required book for the class was an introductory guide to a history of magic so maybe something on the history of Hogwarts then?" he proposed.

"Sounds good to me! You pick one now since I picked the first book," Hermione told him.

"Well… Honestly from listening to McGonagall in the car talk about all the different types of spells and magic there are I want to find something that will help us learn a lot of different spells to cast. Maybe we can find a book of basic spells or something," Marik responded. Like Hermione had said he really didn't know enough about magic or their subjects to know exactly what to look for or what he might be interested in. He did know one thing though, and that was that he wanted to learn to cast as many spells as he could. He figured a book that had a list of spells or at least mentioned a lot of spells would be a good place to start.

Hermione agreed with him on that choice as well and they decided to find a history book and a book on basic spells first while they thought of what other two books they wanted. In the end, Hermione chose for them to also get a book on potions and he had decided that they should get a book on astronomy as well. Even though they were not taking the astronomy elective class Marik did not want to miss out on anything crucial or important if it turned out astronomy was a crucial class. Plus he did not want to fall behind any of the other first years who took the class.

Hermione was ecstatic at this suggestion and completely agreed with his thought process. She even considered changing from getting a potions book to a divination book to do the same but after looking through the divination section they both agreed that they wanted to go with potions and avoid anything divination related.

After they had found the four books they wanted they brought their books to the store's checkout counter where their parents were waiting along with Professor McGonagall. Altogether Marik was leaving the store with the required books for his classes, the two books he would be taking home first before trading with Hermione, plus technically the two books she was reading first. He glanced at the towering stack of his books on the counter looking at them in awe at all he was going to get to learn in the coming days.

After the group had purchased all of their books Professor McGonagall led the party back through the Leaky Cauldron pub to the car that they had all ridden in earlier that morning. Along the way back home the ride was much quieter than previously, as both he and Hermione had already stuck their noses into one of the books they had just bought. When Marik and his family made it back home and said their goodbyes to Professor McGonagall he immediately made his way to the couch in the living room and started looking at all of his books, deciding on which order he wanted to read them in. He would be leaving for Hogwarts shortly on the first of September and wanted to make sure he knew everything he could before it started. He figured the kids who had magical parents would be years ahead of him already, so he had to make sure that he was caught up by the first day of classes, which meant that until he left for Hogwarts it was operation-no-sleep-only-read-and-take-notes for him.

He stacked the books in the order he wanted to read them knowing he would not be able to finish them all but could at least start most of them. He decided on the following order:

The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1 by Miranda Goshawk

A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot

Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling

The Dark Arts, and How to Defend Against Them by Quentin Trimble

A Spill of Spells by Asuna Modwip

A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch

An Introduction to Spell Creation by Fiona Findings

The Magic of the Cosmos by Carl Sagan

One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore

Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger

Proud of his pile books and anxious to start diving into them he picked up the Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1, which he had already started reading in the car on the way home, and began to learn all he could about his amazing new world of magic.

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