A Web Of Magic

Newt left Magnus's house around lunch time. Magnus was able to get a few saplings of magical plants from Newt. More like he guilted him into it, but he's pretty sure that Newt didn't mind much. "Just some common plants," Newt said.

'How is mandrake a common plant? But at least I got some rare plants. Now I just have to set them up in the greenhouse,' Magnus thought gleefully. He intended to continue his mother's small business of growing and selling magical plants. He dearly needed the income as there wasn't much money left behind. While his aunt did say that he would have enough money for all school years, the information he got from Mrs. Weasley said otherwise. His aunt's estimates were outdated.

True the Ministry pays for the students' tuition as Hogwarts is run by them, but the students have to pay for everything else themselves. That does add up a lot for seven years, more than he had in his home safe and the Gringotts vault combined. The home safe had about 150 galleons, 20 sickles and 10 knuts. The Gringotts vault should have about 10 galleons as per the recent account statement he found in the study. He could go for second hand goods, but he didn't like that. Magic was volatile enough from what he had read and the last thing he wants is for his cauldron to blow up on him because it had some defects he couldn't see.

The muggle money his parents left behind was decent enough, but he preferred not to dig into that except for his household needs. The exchange rate from pounds to galleons fluctuates from 5 to 20 pounds per galleon. Unless as a last resort, he didn't want to go that route now that he didn't have any avenues of income. His father was a painter by profession working in both the magical side and the muggle side, more so on the latter. While Magnus did learn some skills from him, it wasn't enough to make money as of now. He figured selling potions and magical ingredients were his best bet to make money. 'I need to figure out how this works so I can be better prepared. It's all for the future anyway, right now I can only be frugal,' he thought firmly.

He stored his plants properly in the greenhouse. He needed better and specialized books on them compared to the one prescribed by the first-year course. There were some herbology books in the library, but they were also very basic. The next day Mrs. Weasley came back as usual, but there seemed to be something that's stressing her. She didn't talk as much and her shoulders were drooping. Magnus decided to try something on her that he had read in the "Bonds of Flesh" book that he picked up from the hag. He put that memory away and moved towards Mrs. Weasley just as she was preparing the ingredients in the kitchen absentmindedly.

"You seem very stressed today Mrs. Weasley," Magnus started the conversation.

She seemed startled and said, "Ah Magnus! It's nothing dear. Just you know the twins being the twins."

Magnus nodded understandingly, He heard from her about them before and how they drove their mother crazy. Still it wouldn't do well for her to be stressed. He knew from experience that that would affect her cooking. And he didn't want that to happen, not after he had been spoiled by her cooking. 'You are my food source Mrs. Weasley. I can't have you stressing while cooking,' Magnus thought with conviction.

"How about you sit here Mrs. Weasley? Just like this. I learnt a massaging technique from my family books and they are great for relieving stress. Let me give you a massage and you'll feel much better," he advised as he started pulling her to the chair nearby.

"Oh dear, that's sweet of you but that won't be necessary. I'll just take a potion when I go back," Mrs. Weasley weakly offered but Magnus wasn't listening to her. His food was at stake and he really wanted to try that technique. It doesn't even require a wand as it isn't much of a magic. There were further techniques in the book but they required more understanding and wandless magic that he didn't have yet.

As he sat her on the chair, he moved behind her and slowly started massaging her head with his fingers. He was clumsy at first, but he slowly gained proficiency. As her moved to gently massaging her temples, she let out a sigh and the tension in her shoulders relaxed. He received further sighs as he moved to her neck and her shoulders. The whole process lasted ten minutes and by the end his hands were aching. 'The things I do for food and magic. Hmm, she really seems to enjoy it. Maybe I can make a business out of this?' Magnus started calculating in his head. The idea seemed feasible. He filed away the thought for another time. Ever since he became aware of his money problems, he started looking for anything that would make him money.

"Thank you dear, that was wonderful. I never felt so relaxed before," Mrs. Weasley patted his cheek softly and went back to cooking. The cooking went well and she even made a pie as a dessert. Magnus patted himself on his back for his actions as he enjoyed the pie.

As she was leaving, she turned back and smilingly said to him, "We'll be going to Diagon Alley tomorrow for your supplies Magnus. How about you be ready by seven in the morning and I'll pick you up? Breakfast will be at the Burrow."

"Alright Mrs. Weasley I'm looking forward to it," Magnus replied with a smile. He had been wanting to get his school supplies along with extras for a while. Not to mention, his own wand. 'I'll be getting my wand!' he excitedly thought. Granted, he already has his aunt's wand, but that wasn't his and it was to remain a secret.

After bidding her goodbye, he decided to pop back into Hampstead and get some clothes. Soon, he entered the vanishing cabinet in Devon and exited in Hampstead. He packed the clothes he wanted in a bag and picked up an extra pair of sneakers. Once he was done, he went to the kitchen to make himself some tea. He recently picked up the habit of drinking tea even if he wasn't a fan of it before. There's something about the bittersweet taste that started appealing to him recently. As the tea was brewing, he moved towards his father's work area. He didn't move any of his parent's belongings. He wasn't sure he was ready for it yet. There was a bookshelf in the work area and he slowly moved his finger over their spines as he looked over them. They all looked like psychology books. He never read such type of books before and his interest was piqued. He pulled out a book randomly titled "The Art of Persuasion" and sat down to read while drinking tea. The rest of the day was spent going through his father's muggle book collection.