Bab 10: Black
A/N: Pat-reon: HelloDarkness07
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It was almost Christmas now, with the holidays starting in a few days. I was sitting in the Library, wanting to spend some time with Darla White, my first friend in Hogwarts before she leaves for Christmas.
My first term at Hogwarts had gone on well enough, I suppose. Nothing eventful happened, not even on Halloween, to which I was eternally thankful. I just went to classes, aced the practical portions after 2-3 tries at most, and spoke with my small list of friends.
Well, three acquaintances and a single friend, Darla.
As for my classes, I am enjoying them all. Even History of Magic, if you can believe that!
Charms was my favourite, and it's not at all because of Professor Thrud Rowle. She played a small part in my enjoyment, but not much. It's not like I can even do anything about it, I'm 11!
Anyway, Charms was easy for me. Every spell I learned, I would read and try to understand the theory as much as possible before trying it. Not just for Charms, but for every Wanded subject. Charms was just the one subject where I shined the brightest.
Every spell I tried, was successful in a maximum of 5 tries, and sometimes even the first try. Out of all the spells taught, I found the Fire Making charm(Incendio) the hardest, and that took me 5 tries to successfully cast at the given candle.
But I didn't stop there. After finishing my homework, and daily practice, I would try and try, until I could get all the spells to come out wandlessly too. I was mastering spells as I go.
I hadn't begun with silent casting yet, but I could keep my voice limited to a whisper, no matter the spell. This is the first year though, and later years might force me to raise my voice.
The same thing for Transfiguration, which I found a tad bit harder than Charms. Where casting Charms had us twirling our wands in smooth, delicate motions, Transfiguration required rigid, and decisive Wand movements. I am good at Twirling my wand smoothly, but not as good at making rigid movements.
I think that my last few years of casting only Charms has had an effect on my magic too. Charms are easier for me, while Transfiguration spells are harder.
That was even more surprising, considering that I'm a bloody Metamorphmagus, and should have been a master at this subject!
Transfiguration isn't just waving my wand around an object and turning it into something else. You have to have sufficient magical power to force the object to change, focus on the transformation, including the final image, and also say the incantation right.
And boy, are the incantations confusing. There are different incantations for different types of transfigurations. Even under inanimate to inanimate transformation, which is what we were going to learn for this year, there were a dozen categories.
A few for when the original is of the same volume as the end result, a few for when the original is of higher mass, and a few for when the original is of lower mass. Among them, spells are further divided according to the actual mass the initial object has, and then according to the actual mass of the final result.
The spells also depend on the actual mass of the object, the expected mass of the end result, and the difference between them. For now, we were just going through objects with same, or similar mass.
For example, the Matchstick to Needle transformation, the first spell we learned, at the beginning of October. This might tell you how much theory Dumbledore first had us learn, before even beginning the practical.
Before every new spell, Dumbledore would first take at least one full class to explain it, with us taking notes. Then, 2-3 lessons would be spent trying the spell, until everyone gets it right. Yeah, it was extremely boring for the smart ones.
Anyway, I still managed the Transfiguration spells at least partially during each class. But I was still amongst the first to complete the spells. I'd tried using Transfiguration spells wandlessly, but it didn't work, at all.
And by now, in the three and a half months that we've been here, we were only taught 5 transfiguration spells. Five.
The spells were to transfiguration Matchstick to Needle, needle to matchstick, pincushion to matchbox, and back, and finally wooden plank to pillow. We hadn't begun reversing the last one yet.
As for DADA, it was going superb. It was the only class where we had a form of physical exercise, other than the flying lessons, but they were just once a week. Other than learning simple spells like Lumos, Lumos Solem, Incendio, Aguamenti, and Petrificus Totalus, we were also put into a practice of dodging.
Can't die of the Killing Curse if it never hits you.
Potions was exciting, because it allowed me to see what kind of man Slughorn is. He was a pure Slytherin at heart, and was already beginning to cultivate the smarter students, which included me, Ana, and Darla.
Our first practical lesson was the Boil Cure Solution, 3 weeks after September 1st. All the previous lessons had us practice cutting, dicing, crushing, and every other action required during Potions, and that was after a total three hours of lectures.
Other lessons were not that interesting. Astronomy was astronomy, interesting, but not as exciting on the magical spectrum. Herbology was just magical gardening, with more chances of harm than the usual. But since we're first years, the harm was limited to scratches and cuts.
The flying lessons were exciting in the beginning, but now, it felt limiting. There is no limit to magic other than the ones we give ourselves, is what I truly believed in. And so, the possibility that wizards could fly on their own was zero, is something I highly doubt.
Plus, the school brooms would shudder mid-flight. Scary as fuck.
Thankfully, I had gotten used to the Castle now, so at least I didn't get lost anymore. That.. was an embarrassing experience, knowing that my Pseudo Eidetic Memory was useless in front of the magical maze that is Hogwarts. It keeps on changing every once in a while.
The most annoying part of my school life though, was definitely parchment and quills. I practiced a lot during the summer, okay, that doesn't mean it's not annoying as hell. Which is what brings us to now.
"Hey kids, what've we got here?" Tom Dodderidge says, sitting on our table and taking my piece of parchment from under my hand.
Darla and I were working on our Potions homework, a 12 inch essay on the properties of Asphodel.
Sighing, I say, "Potions homework, Tom. Could you please give it back, I still have to finish the Transfiguration homework too."
Shrugging, Tom hands it back, and asks, "Why are you two not out playing? It's the first snowfall!"
Darla looks up, finally, and freezes. Believing that it's because Tom is a Slytherin, I hold her hand under the table in reassurance, and tell Tom, "Believe it or not, we're getting our Homework over with, so we can actually enjoy our Christmas holidays."
I then look behind him, and finally see that he wasn't alone. Behind him, was a beautiful girl, about 15 years old. Damn, I'm too old and too young for her, at the same time!
"Hello there. I didn't catch your name." I say, finally realizing that Darla had frozen after looking at this girl. And is that a blush I see, creeping up her neck?
Oh, oooh!! Damn!
The older girl rolls her eyes, and says, "Because I didn't give it to you, Aves. That is your name, right?"
I nod, wondering what she wants.
Tom points his thumb at the girl standing behind him, and says, "That's Cassiopeia Black, our fifth year Prefect. She heard your name from me once and wanted to meet with you, don't know what for."
Now suspicious, I use my Telepathy and try to listen to her thoughts. She does have an Occlumency shield, however, and I only hear a few snippets. She can hide her memories all she wants, I don't want them, but she cannot silence her thoughts completely.
'Aves.. too similar… definitely a descendant.. squib… hidden… marriage?'
At that point, I stop using my Telepathy, she knows I'm an Aves.. well, from the Aves family. At least I know what hearing the thoughts of a weak/mediocre Occlumency user feels like.
Smiling up at her, I ask, "What can I do for you, Ms Black?"
Cassiopeia is beautiful, no doubt, but I now know that she's going to try to manipulate me. So, I wasn't surprised, when she says, "Come with me." And starts walking out of the Library.
I look at Tom, to which he just shrugs, frowning in worry, while Darla finally comes out of her shock and returns to her homework, red faced.
I gather my stuff, and say, "I'll be back, but if I don't, I'll meet you here tomorrow at 9?"
Darla just nods, not looking up, while Tom gets up and leaves before me. Giving one last concerned and pitied glance at Darla, I go out to find Cassiopeia Black.
Finding her standing right outside the Library, her hands held in front of herself in a prim-proper way, I approach her. Before I can even open my mouth, Cassiopeia tilts her head towards the corridor, and says, "Walk with me, Aves."
I join her, and after we're alone, I ask, "Again, what can I do for you, Ms Black?"
Cassiopeia scoffs, and says, "Are you always this polite?"
"Are you always this rude?" I ask, ignoring the politeness comment. Dumbledore knows how polite I am, ask him, lady.
Cassiopeia smiles, stopping in an empty corridor, and says, "Well, at least you have some cheek. Good. And it's not about what you can do for me, but what I can do for you."
Sighing, I ask, "Very well, what can you do for me?"
Cassiopeia brings her hand to my cheek, and runs her nail over it. Shivering, I step back, as she whispers, "A lot of things, Aves. A lot.."
"Okay, get to the point, lady." I say, gritting my teeth at my hormones, and bringing my bag in front of me.
Why in the Hell, did I have to start puberty this early?!
Smiling amusedly, Cassiopeia says, "I have an advice for you, in return you'll owe me a favour."
"Yeah, I don't want it." I say, and start walking back towards the library. Owing a favour to a member of the House of Black, is not something I'll ever do, let alone someone as crafty as Cassiopeia.
I remember her, from the fanfics. If she's even half the manipulative bitch the fanon version is, then I'll be screwed five times over before I even pass out of Hogwarts.
Suddenly, my hands snap to my side, and I freeze into place. The Petrificus Totalus! This Bitch! I can't even open my mouth to yell!
"I did not say you could leave, Aves." Cassiopeia says, and now she sounds annoyed.
With the twitch of her wand, I float up into the air, and towards her. It is only now, that I noticed something. There aren't any portraits here, so even the Headmaster is blind. Damn it, she's crafty.
Pointing her wand at my head, Cassiopeia whispers, "Confundo! Legilimens!"
At first, it calms my mind, and I wonder what I was doing. It was very.. confusing, everything. Who even am I? Next, I feel something slowly invading my mind.. what is a mind?
It was a light, that was slowly entering through the useless rabble that was outside what looked like a dome.
But then, my mind clears, and returns to its ever present state of Zen, as my telepathy fights of the external forces acting upon my mind. I allow the Legilimency probe to reach deep inside my clutter of useless memories, and keep it there. Meanwhile, I follow it to its source, and enter the mind of my attacker, Cassiopeia Black.
Only this time, I don't just hear her thoughts. I'm right inside her minds, through the Shield. It was as if I was physically there, but my experience in my Mind Palace building told me, that I was currently inside her own Mind Palace, no, just a Mind World.
She didn't actually build anything. There was just a white picket fence, expanding over infinite distance as far as I could see, on both sides of what looked like an open gate. I was standing inside the door, and on the other side of it, was my own Mind.
This was just a small representation of ME.
As for her Mind World, Cassiopeia's memories were spread all around, with no noticeable pattern to them. For fucks sake, she hadn't even sorted her memories?! What kind of Occlumency is this?!
If this is the official Wizarding Mind Protection, then I'll be terribly disappointed.
Having no idea how long she'll stay ignorant of my presence here, I start my work and focus on my telepathy. Within a single moment, my telepathy finds out where everything is in the cluster fuck that is her mind, and TAKE it within me. One by one, pages appear from everywhere around the messy Mind World, and enter my head.
As they do that, I see them getting thrown all around my Mind Palace, and just shrug. I'll sort them later.
You see, I take my privacy very seriously. Someone trying to manipulate me with words? I can handle that, this is just how the world works. Everyone manipulates everyone.
But using Legilimency on a first year? Along with a Confundus Charm to disorient him first? Yeah, I take offense to that. Not much, since I use Telepathy on an almost daily basis too, but I do take it, when the first year is me.
Well, I'll copy all of her memories as compensation. She's a Black, she's bound to have knowledge of some secrets.
In the middle of my job, I hear Cassiopeia's voice inside my head say, "You'll walk back to the Library, and study with the mudblood. When you leave Hogwarts for the summer, you will go to Gringott's and ask for a complete Genealogical Record, and then bring it to me. You also owe me a big favour, that you'll feel you're magically bound to fulfill, which I'll call in when I wish."
Okay, this is just messed up. Barely a moment after Cassiopeia finishes her hypnotic command to me, I feel myself slipping, and let go. Thankfully, I'd taken all of her Magical knowledge, and almost half of her personal memories before I somehow lost my hold.
Mind works faster when you're actually there, plus I'm literally a telepath. My mind is just… different.
Now knowing what the hidden command is, when I wake up and find myself alone in the corridor, I start walking towards the Library. All the while, a camouflaged Cassiopeia kept on thinking how this was going to be so profitable to her, oblivious of her loud thoughts, and foiled plans.
As I enter the Library, I sit back down beside Darla, and silently continue with my homework. Meanwhile, in my mind, a small representation of me starts sorting the newly acquired memories and knowledge.
I don't hate Cassiopeia now, since I did have some satisfaction by stealing her secrets, but I won't ever trust this girl. Not a chance. At least, not entirely. But for now, I'll focus on sorting through the clusterfuck that is Cassiopeia's mind.
~
"Hello, Mason." The soft voice of Helena Ravenclaw says, as she appears through the wall.
Today was the 2nd day of the Christmas holidays, and I was the only person in the First Year Ravenclaw boys Dorms. In the entirety of Ravenclaw House, only 17 students had stayed in the castle, while the others had left for their homes.
If those 17, 7 were the 7th and 5th Year students, preparing for their eventual NEWTs and OWLs, while the remaining 10 were just there to have some fun.
Looking up from my Book of Spells, I stop scratching Sly on the head, and nod at Helena. Sly immediately becomes invisible, and speeds towards my Robe to hide in his pocket. "Hello, Helena. You sure took your time to visit me."
Helena chuckles at Sly's fear of her, and says, "It took time to find what you had asked of me, Child. Mind Arts is not something Wizards usually write books about. It is mostly taught Wizard to Wizard."
Helena had a hidden stack of books somewhere, I guarantee it. She would visit me at least twice a week, to help me understand anything I didn't. And there was a lot I didn't understand, even after all my fanon/canon knowledge. But that wasn't the point.
When I'd first realized that Helena could still touch things in the physical world, unlike the other ghosts, I'd asked her for her help on enchanting something for Sly, to help him stay invisible, indefinitely, without causing him discomfort.
Helena had disappeared for a week, after which she had returned with a book, an actual physical book, with her, with the title "Enchanting Leather Without Runes, by R. L. Solem."
The book was written in bloody 1432! 15th Century book, in mint condition, and Helena said, "I found it hidden within the Library books."
I call bullshit, not to her face, but I do. Don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth. Which is a really weird phrase, now that I think about it. You should always look a gift horse in the mouth. The Trojans learned that the hard way.
After a few days of memorising the book, and a week of practicing the spells required, I enchanted a very thin strip of leather, that I found lying around in an empty classroom. The leather belt was then tied around a struggling Sly, who then immediately became Camouflaged.
It wasn't true invisibility, like Sly's own gift was, but it was like the Disillusionment Charm, which I was still practicing. But, it was enough to give him breaks in between.
A more days of re-enchanting, and Sly could become camouflaged whenever he wanted, and become invisible if he so wished. He could also stay in that camouflaged state however long he wanted to, which could get really annoying sometimes.
Anyway, after the debacle with Cassiopeia, where she used Confundus charm and the Legilimency spell on me, quite unsuccessfully, I might add, I'd asked Helena for help in finding a book on Occlumency and Legilimency.
No matter how much I'd tried, I couldn't replicate the wonderful phenomena that is entering someone else's Mind World. Listening to thoughts and entering the Mind World are completely different.
And I couldn't do it now. Which I suspect, is because I don't have a Legilimency spell to follow like last time. Which is why, I was going to learn the Magical Mind Arts, Occlumency and Legilimency, properly, in the Wizarding way.
And now, 4 days after I had asked her for help, Helena returned, seemingly empty handed. From experience, however, I know that her gown can still hide stuff, including books, and daggers.
Ghostly daggers.
Brrrr. Anyway, I say, "So.. did you find anything?"
Helena rolls her eyes, annoyance clear on her face, as she says, "Yes, I found a book. Be lucky that I want your mind to be more secure, for my sake if not for yours."
I poke my tongue out at her, and counter, "I know you like me, Helena. You can't hide that."
Helena chuckles, and she did actually like me. But she was keeping her distance, probably because I'm mortal, while she's a ghost.
Helena then puts her hand in a fold on the side of her gown, into a hidden pocket, and takes out a book. Well, a tome is more accurate, judging by the absolute unit that is the book.
The book was thick, almost 5 inches thick! It had a hardcover, with black leather finish on it, and there were at least 2000 pages on the book. On its front, the title was written in gold embroidery, saying, "The Complete Mind Arts Compilation."
I have no idea what this means, but judging by the title, this book is definitely detailed.
Helena throws me the book, which I catch with my hands and chest, and drop back into the bed. It was that heavy.
She says, "Before you start, you should know, that you cannot show this book to anyone, under any condition. You also have until the end of holidays to finish reading all of it."
So, she'll take this book away too then. To be fair, she wouldn't have a secret stash if everyone knew if it, and could read it.
"Thank you, really." I say, completely sincerely. This book was precious, and I know it.
Helena nods, and says, "I know that your Mind allows you to memorize the entire book, but I'd appreciate it if you take it slow. Don't try the stuff from the later chapters until you've mastered the first ones."
I roll my eyes, and say, "That much is obvious, Helena. But I appreciate the Christmas present."
Helena chuckles, and turns her back to me. As she turns into a silver glowing ball of light, which is unique to her I've noticed, she says, "Enjoy your Yule, Mason. And enjoy the tome."
I wave Helena goodbye, and immediately discard the Book of Spells. I have just 10 days to read this entire book, while not seeming suspicious to the teachers. Joy.
~~Is she gone yet?~~ Sly asks, for the 10th time in the last 5 minutes.
I turn towards the robe, and say, ~~Yes, Sly. She's gone. You couldn't even stay silent when she was here, could you?~~
~~What's the issue? She cannot hear me.~~ Sly says, as he curls up in the corner of my bed.
I say, ~~I can, you idiotic snake! It was annoying the first time, and it was annoying the last!~~
~~Who're you calling idiotic, you two legged dumbass?!~~ Sly hisses, angrily rising up with his hood spreading around his head.
Before the argument can get even more heated, a flash of light is created right in front of me, which makes me hide my eyes.
As the light starts receding, I hear the hiss of my second favourite snake say, ~~So this is the Wizard School. Not that impressive.~~
~~ASH!~~ I and Sly yell at the same time, both of us excited to see him after so long.
Sly and Ash hug a little, after which Ash climbs my leg and sits on my knee. He says, ~~Hello, Wizard. Are you enjoying yourself?~~
Nodding, I say, ~~Yes, I am. And so is Sly, even if he won't say it. But he also misses the other snakes. There aren't that many snakes in the forest outside.~~
~~I can speak for myself, human!~~ Sly hisses, an annoyed tint to his voice. I know he isn't angry, that was just one of the occasional arguments of ours. Sly flicks his tongue out a few times, and says, ~~Unlike you, Ash, I cannot vanish from here to there in a moment. So, I could not visit the Bush before.~~
As the two snakes continue to talk, I pick up the heavy tome and let them have their reunion. In snake years, Sly has known Ash for years more than me, even if the actual difference is just about a month or something. I'll give them their space.
But now, Mind Arts. Not just Mind Arts, the Complete Mind Arts Compilation. I really hope it isn't too hard.
---
A/N: Cassiopeia won't be the enemy, nor will she be his friend, like last book. She'll be someone he's vary of, but not afraid. He'll work with her if the time comes, but he won't ever trust her completely.
How will that affect his eventual pairing, I haven't decided yet. It's still too far away.
Wish me luck! Tata!
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone