Cassius had always known that Hogwarts would be a gilded prison.
And if Albus Dumbledore was the warden, then Cassius would enter already bound by invisible chains.
Chains, however, could be broken.
Or better yet—never forged in the first place.
So, in the waning weeks of summer 1989, Cassius decided to act.
~
He arrived at the Ministry of Magic alone.
No parent to hold his hand.
No guardian to sign his papers.
Just a boy in finely pressed robes, a black satchel over his shoulder, having entered the inconspicuous phone booth calling in, and announcing himself as a visitor to the lady on the other end of the phone, a visitor who was here to take his examinations.
Getting to ride that very same phone booth like it was an elevator until it stopped right in the middle of a freeway style pedway, with hundreds of floo chimmneys pouring out a crazy amount of wizards and other magic creatures like goblins, not gawking at the crowd of onrushing witches and wizards all arriving for purposes at the ministry like Cassius or simply arriving and heading into work.
Walking up to the security desk where a wizard was blatantly sleeping on the job, after knudging the guy pretty hard he awoke startled but went right back to a near sleeping state once he realized it wasnt his boss who woke him.
The conditions for entering the ministry were really lax considering the war only ended 10 years ago, and even then Death Eaters were still among the free population, sure they had declared they were under the imperius curse and not to be held accountable for their actions or had bought off the ministry with a small fortune to maintain their freedom.
The only required security check was to give up his name, and hand over his wand for tagging, but Cassius could only answer with his name, he did cheekily offer to hand over his training wand, which just got a raised eyebrow from the guard, who probably wondered why a brat bothered to walk around with a training wand, even keeping it in a hostler like a veteran duelist.
With the 'check' completed Cassius was allowed entry to the ministry, next up on the incompetance checklist, with nothing more than that simple check he now had access to close to 80% of the overall ministry, with only the Department of Mysteries, and the high level office being off limits, while all others were open for him to take a tour if he wanted to so long as he didnt cause trouble.
But that wasnt his purpose here today.
At nine years old, Cassius had requested to sit for his O.W.L.s.
The clerks sputtered at first when he arrived at the correct department and handed over his appointment form, to confirm his arrival for the examinations today.
A youth who hadn't even entered hogwarts yet taking the O.W.L's was a thing unheard of, sure it had happened a couple of time throughout history, but not in the last 100 years at the very least.
But Cassius had chosen his battleground carefully.
Not Charms, not Transfiguration, not Defense—subjects that required a wand and displays of power.
Instead, he requested examinations in Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and Muggle Studies—fields that existed wholly in parchment, ink, and thought.
There was no law preventing a candidate from attempting them early.
Not even the ministry could interject, any student not yet graduated from hogwartz was free to take the examination, afterall even if Cassius failed the exam they could just advise him to study in Hogwarts first before retaking the exam in his fifth year, and the only real loss at least to Cassius would be the examination fees.
And so they allowed it, even if he was strongly discouraged from doing so.
~
The chamber was stark: a long oak desk, sheets of enchanted parchment that glowed faintly when marked, and a panel of examiners watching from the shadows.
Cassius sat straight, quill in hand, eyes gleaming with the steady brilliance of one who had lived and died through magic riots, who wore a diadem of genius, who had ten idle slots humming ceaselessly in his mind.
In Arithmancy, he reduced complex matrices to their primal functions, showing not just mastery of numbers but innovations that made even senior examiners exchange startled glances.
Where others saw equations, Cassius saw symphonies waiting to be conducted.
In Ancient Runes, he didn't merely translate.
He contextualized, linking disparate scripts across cultures and proposing fresh interpretations of half-forgotten inscriptions.
One examiner muttered, almost reverently: "It's like speaking with Rowena herself."
And in Muggle Studies, well this was the only subject where Cassius had to dumb himself down, quite literally since the Wizarding worlds understanding of the muggle world was reverse logic, and thus he mostly just had to vomit out facts recorded in the text books rather than stating actual facts as witnessed in reality.
By the time lunch had rolled around, all three exams had been completed, shocking all the examiners and even the lady who checked him in were shocked.
The traditional O.W.L examination provided 3 hours to write each exam, and Cassius had completed 3 exams in the span of a single exam timeline.
As he sat innocent on a chair like a well behaving child a well dressed witch entered with a smile that looked like it had been stamped on her face.
"Congratulations Mr. Cassius you've passed all your exams here today, these are your O.W.L certificates, and your report card as well.
Three certificates.
Three perfect grades.
Outstanding. Outstanding. Outstanding.
As he looked over the paper, Cassius beamed with pride while rolling his eyes inside, having already reached a point to be capable of taking the N.E.W.T's in these subjects already.
After thanking the lady, along with the examiners, and even the lady behind the desk Cassius packed up his new certificates into his robe pocket, one with the undetectable extension charm on it.
His robes having been modified by Grindelwald.
with his business in this department finished Cassius took his leave.
~
Success was only the first step.
The second was freedom.
Cassius submitted his next request with calm precision: emancipation under magical law.
Having already filled out the relevant paperwork, before arriving at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and approaching the receptionist before calmly handing over the filled in form.
It was an archaic clause, one buried so deeply most clerks had forgotten it existed.
But it stated that any orphan, upon demonstration of sufficient magical competence and with the consent of their orphanage director, could be recognized as an adult in the eyes of wizarding law, similar to emancipation in the muggle world, doing so would free Cassius from the potential clutches if it were ever found he had a living guardian who could take over parantage of since magical law would force him to stay with that person, but if emancipated even as a youth he would be an adult and not subject to the laws of children.
Cassius had arranged the details long in advance.
The orphanage director—she viewed Cassius as a darling child, while Cassius spent the majority of his time in Austria, he had enrolled into and already graduated from Muggle general school, having graduated from high school at the age of 8 and being invited by numerous colleges and universities to continue his education, in the eyes of the ladies running the place Cassius didnt need to be there any longer except for the fact that he refused to be adopted.
The Ministry balked.
He was nine.
Nine!
But the law was clear.
The exams proved competence.
The orphanage had no objections.
And so the ruling was made.
Cassius—was now an adult wizard in the eyes of the law.
No guardian.
No Trace.
Free to practice magic, to own property, to contract, to weave his empire without oversight.
He had stepped out of childhood and into sovereignty.
Ripples
The news spread faster than fire on dry parchment.
A boy had sat the O.W.L.s.
A boy had passed, not just passed, but excelled beyond even the most gifted Hogwarts graduates.
A boy had claimed emancipation and been granted it.
Some called it scandalous.
Others hailed it as genius.
Though by the time the news was spreading the man/boy behind the myth had simply vanished, even the most investigative journalists had failed to locate where Cassius had gone, though none of them could imaging he'd retreated to the muggle world.
Dumbledore surely heard it.
Cassius wanted him to, afterall as the Supreme Mugwump of the ICW all magical orphans within the british iles technically had Dumbledore as their temporary guardian, though he'd failed to attend the emancipation hearing thus voiding his rights in the case.
This was the first move in their quiet war.
Not an attack, but a declaration: You will not bind me. I am already free.
~
From his condo overlooking London, Cassius read the latest edition of the daily prophet with glee, seeing what his simple action of taking control over his life had caused such ripples in the magical world.
Meanwhile the second attack was already underway.
More than half of the new Hogwarts intake this year were muggle-borns.
More than half of those were his own creations—synthetic witches and wizards birthed from his blood, trained in magical riots to give then a better chance at proper magical standing, and careful grooming to ensure loyalty and adherence to the new world doctrine.
They would march into the castle with wide eyes and eager hearts, believing themselves simply lucky children touched by magic.
In truth, they were seeds of his New Dawn, scattered through the soil of Hogwarts itself.
Cassius felt his hand in his pocket touching the cold silver of Rowena's diadem, just a few more years and Cassius wouldnt even need it anymore his own mental faculties capable of surpassing it's power, which could gain him prestige if he were the student to recover the millenia lost relic, though Cassius had plans beyond this for the artifact.
His mind stretched outward, tracing probabilities, shaping futures.
Time was running thin.
The real story was about to begin, and Cassius couldn't wait to break the henderson scale.
But for now, he stood alone in the shadows, emancipated and unseen.
A boy in body, a master in will.
AN: Henderson scale is how far off the plot something is, the higher the henderson scale rating the greater the scale of derailment from the original work or timeline.
Current Henderson Scale Rating: 0.25