Family History
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'I wonder how my parents reacted to my death, they'll get over it I'm sure, although I am not sure if there was even a body left for cremation.'
So, after giving myself some much-needed self-therapy to deal with the situation better, I looked for my dad to ask about the family tree and the Brown family history.
After a small history lesson with my father, I learned much more about my origins. Turns out that the Brown family has been living in the British Isles since the 1100s when they first came over from Scotland, and the first wizard in the family, Robert le Brun was born in 1334. I think I remember seeing his portrait, he had a beard even longer than Gandalf. He established the Brown wizarding family and bought the piece of land on which this cottage and the entire village of Upminster were built.
'Looks like I finally got good beard genetics. I am going to be such a chad.' I remember thinking.
It turned out that I, was named after Benedicte Brown, who married Angelica Travers and brought the Brown family to prominence in the early 1700s, I didn't find his portrait anywhere. Just three generations later, all our lands and wealth were gambled away by his great-grandson, Cenhelm Brown leaving only the brown family cottage.
'I remember that fat drunk bastard. I will definitely set fire to his portrait.' I could feel a strong dislike in me for that guy even though I just got transmigrated this morning. I guess there are his memories affecting me and I have already become a part of this family.
"Floreat majestas!" I said as I looked at the Brown family's coat of arms on the wall, it had a Lion holding a fleur-de-lys(a lily flower) surrounded by decorative vines.
'Maybe I will be able to bring the Brown family back to prominence, that's probably what my parents hoped for when they named me Benedict.' It means the blessed one. I remember my mother telling me that.
'All of that can wait, we are doing quite good for ourselves for the time being.'
Last year, we sold our flat in central London and moved back to the family cottage. Father said that it is because he hated living in the city, surrounded by the Muggles, but I know it is because he wanted to fix this cottage. I think Nigel wants to work on returning the Brown family to its glory days again. Now that I will be going to Hogwarts this year, he and mom will have a lot more time on their hands, I think they are planning on starting some sort of business. He works in the Department of Magical Transportation, so we must be doing alright financially. If Weasleys can feed a family of 9 people on ministry salary, we must be doing just fine with only 3 mouths to feed. Mom used to work in the ministry too, and she met dad while working desk jobs, duplicating pamphlets that instructed witches and wizards on how to stay safe during the first wizarding war, she took a break when I was born. Nigel got transferred to DMT after the wizarding war and even got a promotion a year later, so she didn't need to work and decided to focus on taking care of the house and looking after me.
'I guess that explains why I am a lot closer to mom.
I think the reason I was so comfortable calling them mom and dad was because Benedict's memories were affecting me, they were my parents and I could feel the love that Benedict had for them. I just hoped that this didn't affect my love for spicy food and fried chicken. In a way I was already Benedict, there was not much distinction left. My newfound love of pumpkin juice and pumpkin pie was a testament to how much I had changed.
Later, at the dinner table, I was welcomed with the amount of food, that I thought was impossible to be finished by just three people. The huge pumpkin pie was enough to fill me up, there was also roasted chicken, a whole lot of pastries, stew, pumpkin juice, elderflower wine and whatnot. I was reminded of the huge wizard appetite when all of the food was gone and I even had some space left in my stomach.
'Where does all that food even go?' I remember thinking while looking at my father's thin frame.
After dinner, I went back to my room and decided what to do in the week before going to Hogwarts.
'I don't have my wand, so I can not practice my spells, and using magic without a wand, let's say I don't want to accidentally blow up my room.'
You see, even a child can use magic without a wand, the problem comes in controlling magic without it. Using wandless magic could have unexpected or volatile results if not done properly. Accidental magic is a great example of this, the user is not usually in control of it. I can't even perform spells with a wand so, wandless magic is off the table for now. There is also the problem of a ministry monitoring all underage magic use through the Trace, although in my opinion, I won't be traced here if I use magic. The Trace usually doesn't work in places with a lot of magical activity, such as Hogwarts, Diagon Alley and wizard residences. I think the concentration of magical energy in such places interferes with the Trace. The Brown family cottage, which has been a wizard residence for more than 6 centuries, should be able to cover any magic I perform here from the Trace. I should still be careful though, there wasn't even a lot of information about the trace in the books and was only used by J.K as a plot point. Knowing that most of the pure-blood wizarding kids performed magic in their homes and never got any notices from the ministry and only muggle-born kids got caught, I think that my conclusion is likely correct. The laws in magical Britain are only enforced if you are caught, which is hardly ever. They are usually only enforced when they endanger The International Statute of Secrecy.
'I should focus on reading through the first-year books as much as possible for now and make myself familiar with course books so that I will know what to expect at Hogwarts and then I can make some plans accordingly.'
"I'll start tomorrow. I'm still as lazy as ever eh." I said, stretching my arms above my head and then going over to my bed and falling on it like a sack of potatoes.
A/N: The Trace is such a load of bullshit plot device. A lot of inconsistencies that I had to make sense of. I decided that it does not work in places having high magical concentration. Let me know what you think about it.
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