Chapter 35: Augmentum
Noting the date today, May 2nd, it seemed I would be ahead of schedule far more than I could have guessed. Whether it be due to my talent, my own hard work or a combination of both the goals I had set out for myself were being conquered one step at a time. Today would be the day I would fully create the spell I sought to create.
The day progressed like any normal one, I went to lessons and dodged a few snakes before heading to the RoR, 'Furtim' casted onto myself, late at night. As I entered into the RoR that had become all too familiar to me at this point I took myself into the centre of the room, just before the combat zone.
I knew and memorised the pathways the magic within me had to travel through, all I had to do now was saturate those pathways and form a spell that, when cast, would direct the magic without me having the control it all myself. This part of a spell creation process was the most important part, the step into creating a spell. With this complete I could be referred to as a pseudo-grandmaster wizard as I was creating my own spell.
Taking a stance, I took a deep breath and directed the magic within me through my veins, nerves, muscles and five viscera one more time. It was like a warm current flowing into different areas of my body. I had long gotten used to the 'safe' amount of magic to send through my body. Flash backs to when I first started itched out my brain reminding me how trepidatious this spell creation process was. One day early on during the process of making this spell I sent too much magic as my concentration snapped, causing the veins in my arms to nearly burst. The soreness lingered for days despite me taking potions to numb the pain.
That's how delicate a process this was, I was tampering with the human body something that was incredibly fragile even if you were a wizard with magic.
After an hour of guiding the magic through my body, confirming the correct pathways, I steeled myself for the main event. Instead of sending one stream of magic around my body I sent multiple, spreading out through my body like a spider's web. My concentration laid fully inwards as the magic I had within me was feeling sapped for the first time in a while. I started to wonder midway through the process if my capacity was even enough…
My veins filled with magic, my nerves were coated with magic and my muscles were breathing alongside the magic directed into them. I felt myself pale due to the difficulty of this procedure however any break in concentration now would lead to a dangerous situation.
Eventually, the magic within me saturated all the pathways I wanted it to be directed towards. This would be an 'overall' augment, one that wouldn't be viable to use for a time due to the amount of magic needed. After all I hadn't even activated it yet and my magic capacity was on the lower side already. Taking the wand in my hand I lifted it in front of my vision and closed my eyes. As the spell name is uttered and the effect formulated in my mind, the spell should be created…
"Augmentum"
The magic that saturated the pathways of my body seemed to 'awaken' instead of just lying there in the moats of my body. Activated by a phrase, a command, it got to work. The veins that held magic strengthened beyond belief, my nerves that were coated strengthened and the muscles of my body tightened in response to the magic activating. My skeletal frame even toughened as the magic activated.
My whole body felt completely different, it was like taking a huge weight of my back. Movement seemed to increase to explosive levels and in my vision, even the slightest movements within the RoR were caught. This spell was strengthening all 'human' aspects of a wizard. It was a combination of magic and the human body at work, a spell that no other wizards would seek to create due to their vanity and also due to the difficulty itself.
In the few seconds I could keep the spell going I launched a fist out, a simple punch forward, and the wind whirled in response. The library zone of the RoR took some damage as some pages seemed to be caught up in the punch, flying around a bit. As I retracted the punch the spell un-casted leaving me in a magic exhaustion state.
The spell was created, 'Augmentum' was complete. With the spell now created it should be possible to focus on specific areas of my body instead of doing the whole thing like I did just then. With that, I can negate the extreme magic consumption needed to keep the spell going, activating it in bursts. Sitting down on the floor I enacted the handy breathing method for a while, filling up my consumed magic.
This spell truly was a magic hungry demon. I had casted with a wand as well so using the spell wandless was a far-off dream for now. As my capacity started to feel full again, I picked myself off the floor sat down upon and looked at the combat zone ahead of me. I felt the need to give it a proper test run.
Walking into the middle of the zone, the combat dummies I had long gotten used to kicked into action. They started to use different manoeuvres to psych me out and soon after spells were casted at me from every direction, attempting to pin me in one spot. As the spells came crashing towards me I casted a spell with a hushed tone;
"Augmentum"
To the eyes of the combat dummies, I vanished from their sight as if I was only a spectre. The spells that should have reached their marks collided together creating a cloud of smoke from the collision.
Focusing on what I wanted to augment this time, I sought to augment my legs and my nerves for speed and reaction time. As these two aspects of me were augmented, the spells coming towards me seemed to slow down. Taking this moment, I darted towards one of the dummies and used 'Diffindo' cutting off its arm that was holding the wand it originally casted.
In this instant, my magic was being sapped pretty quickly however compared to the 'Full Augmentum' this was bearable. I took advantage of the time I had left to dart around to the other dummies, incapacitating them. To me they were moving like slugs however to the outside eye I was probably moving at a ridiculous pace, almost like a blur running around the combat zone as the dummies fell down inexplicably.
As I approached the final combat dummy, I decided to try something else, I un-casted the Augmentum as I arrived in front of it and casted it again, this time solely focusing on my arms. Sending out a fast punch my fist collided with the dummies stomach, sending the dummy flying backwards at the wall with an extremely loud *BANG* following. With all the dummies out for the count, I left the combat zone and allowed the zone to repair them.
I was satisfied with this spell of mine, it functioned as I imagined. A certain level of control was still needed to use the spell however after the spell was created the extreme control decreased to a manageable level whilst in a fight. The only issue this spell had been its consumption of magic. The fight just then lasted for not even a minute and my capacity was already reaching around half left. I would need much more magic within me if I ever dreamed to use Full Augmentum.
It was either that or I would have to learn how to use the breathing method whilst in 'Augmentum' mode however that was easier said than done. Rushing around in a fight augmented whilst keeping my breath steady as the breathing method needed seemed like an impossible task… 'seemed' like it was impossible. With my heightened confidence after creating this spell I felt that it was something I could achieve in time.
I spent the rest of the night practicing with Augmentum, learning its limits and its drawbacks. Time flowed by like a current and eventually I felt my body tell me it must be coming to morning soon. Packing up, I headed out of the RoR. This time though, I didn't directly go back to my room. I headed for the herbology greenhouses.
.
Heading out of the castle I noted that the sky was still dark. I probably had a couple hours before 'morning' truly started here at Hogwarts. With Augmentum now created I only had one final goal which was the Animagus ritual. For it you needed two things. First an Animagus potion which I vowed I could create in a months' time from now.
The second ingredient was a mandrakes leaf. This was to be kept under my tongue for the rest of this month and at the end of the month placed within the Animagus potion I had hopefully perfected by then. Up to this point, practicing making the potion, I had forgone the final steps as it required this Mandrake leaf amongst a couple other things that could only be emulated on the day of creation.
Whilst the leaf was in my mouth, I wasn't to remove or swallow it else I'd have to start again. In a months' time I had to spit the leaf into the Animagus potion vial, adding into it one of my own hairs and a silver teaspoon of dew that had not seen sunlight. Finally, I would also add a Death's-head Hawk Moth. This full mixture was to be kept in a quiet, dark place until the next step.
At sunrise and sundown without fail from that specific event onwards I would have to chant the incantation 'Amato Animo Animato Animagus' with my wand tip placed over my heart. I would need to do this until a lightning storm, when which I could head out to a large secure place and recite this incantation one more time alongside drinking the potion.
Truth be told, the process was incredibly arduous and a lot of the steps could only be done when I did the real thing. It was all well and good practicing the preliminary potions creation but adding the Mandrake leaf alongside the other ingredients HAD to be done on the day. If that wasn't bad enough, I had to keep the routine of doing that incantation until a lightning storm which only fate could decide when that happened.
As annoying as it all was though, it was better to start now than later. Arriving at the Herbology Greenhouses I walked into the specific one with Mandrakes sleeping within cloaked with 'Furtim'. I didn't feel like risking passing out here if one of these buggers woke up and started screaming so I casted 'Muffilato' on myself causing me to temporarily lose my hearing to an annoying buzzing.
Walking around the greenhouse I inspected all the Mandrakes sleeping. I took a deep look at each one trying to find the one with the best leafs. Eventually I arrived on one whose leaf seemed to shimmer in the declining moonlight outside. Taking my wand out I slowly approached the specific leaf I wanted;
"Diffindo"
Whispering under my breath I casted 'Diffindo' causing the leaf the be cleanly cut off. The leaf fell beautifully into my palm as I quickly darted out of the greenhouse, not wanting to take any chances with these annoying little plants.
Looking down at the leaf in my palm I brought it up to my mouth and placed it carefully under my tongue, securing it in that position before heading back into the castle. The dawning sun started to rise over the horizon signalling a new day was soon to start.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
BoiGeorge
BoiGeorge In the original, the animagus ritual was glossed over (also dumbledore helped him which was dumb). This time around its a lot more hands on, with indepth detail into each step. The potion making up to this point was only 1/3 of the full procedure, the rest needed to be done when Oz was fully ready which now he was.
A month of having a leaf under your tongue though, I wonder what Oz will get up to in that month. Maybe he may finally have some interactions?
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