章 15: 15. Summer holidays
Rufus or dad, was working hard as always, and I was finally finishing up my basic studies from the Lamorak vault. Throughout the entire first year, I practiced wandless magic, as well as my wanded magic. And any magic that is above year three in wandless seems incredibly difficult, any magics that are not of a very basic, do this exact thing, it doesn't seem to work. It feels like the intent gets disbursed before the magic takes hold properly when it gets too advanced. And I have yet to figure out if this is a hard limit, or if there is some trick that I'm missing. I Showed dad my skills in magic, he was very proud of me, but since he himself never trained in wandless magics, he was unable to give any insights.
Rufus POV:
Bursting into the office at Hogwarts of Albus Dumbledore, with a wild look in his eyes, he stumbles upon Dumbledore and Knott standing in their underwear looking intensely down on a chicken wearing a tophat and a suit, standing on a round wooden table. "Clearly the hat perfects the outfit, you cannot possibly tell me it doesn't?" Knott says, looking seriously at Dumbledore, he clearly seems to think about it before saying "You're right, Allen, it does seem to bring the entire outfit together". Rufus is completely gobsmacked by the situation and is unable to say anything other than just stare at the two most powerful wizards in the world, dressing a chicken in a black suit with a black tophat, and for some reason Merlin only knows they were both standing in their underwear even though it was midday.
Knott turns to Rufus and looks at him, "Well if it isn't our favorite father figure, what do you think? It's our grand project, a conjured bird, with the finishing touches of a nice suit and hat". Knott turns and looks back at the bird and the bird clucks and looks straight at Rufus.
Startled looking back at Knott, Dumbledore and a.. A CHICKEN! "WHY ARE YOU STANDING IN YOUR UNDERWEAR! What is that chicken?!? Merlin help me, I thought I was out of my debts with Thomas, how I became friends with you two is beyond me! Can you two focus? Thomas is a first year, and he is doing wandless magics, and is already doing runes, warding and alchemy! And that's besides the fact that he's doing third year work! How am I supposed to keep up with him? What do I do?!?".
Rufus sat in a nearby chair holding his head in his hands, frustrated, a bit scared and lost.
Dumbledore and Knott got dressed, banished the chicken and sat in the chairs around Dumbledore's desk.
They didn't say anything for a couple of minutes, but finally Dumbledore cleared his throat.
"Rufus, Thomas is a bright boy, we are not certain what Rabastan did in the ritual, but it took months for the magic to drain away from the area, even Knott went and cleared the area multiple times before it finally went back to normal. What we have speculated is that the phoenix that Rabastan sacrificed granted Thomas with a connection to the primal forces of magic, meaning he will have an intuitive approach to all magics, or at least all that are not dark. Your only job is to support him, love him and do your best". Dumbledore finished, and took out a bottle while Knott waved his hand and conjured three tumblers, drinks poured, each took a glass and took a sip.
Knott grinned and looked at Rufus, "I hear it went well with Madeye, why not invite him over again? As far as I heard even Madeye had some mad fun with Thomas, so why not continue the training?. And if he is interested in any projects, help him to the best of your abilities, that's all anyone can ask for. And lastly if you find you cannot help him, give him this" Knott takes out a small book from his robes and hands it to Rufus with a knowing smirk.
Thomas' Pov:
A couple of days into the summer, I was at a loss of what to do. I needed to get more books, since I was done with the others. I needed a project, something more long term to expand my learning and knowledge. Something to drive away the boredom, it seems that dad had figured out that I was bored, because one morning 2 weeks into the summer, as I was running around the garden for some exercise and training, Moody appeared followed by a smirking Rufus. I had a bad feeling about this, flashbacks to harsh training and grueling and humiliating duels appeared in my mind. A sense of trepidation rose within me, I guess my carefree summer just got thrown out the window.
Moody smiled with that scarred haunted grin at me as dad waved and started back towards the mansion.
When he was out of sight, Moody took out his wand, grinned at me and and in his most menacing way in what would barely pass as a whisper he simply said, "run...".
The next month were spent dueling with Moody daily, he taught me about chaining my spells together for faster casting, at the beginning chaining spells is all about the wand movements, turning the movement of one spell into the next, but at greater levels when the wand movement is less needed, it more depends on the effects you want, distract, defend, attack, confuse and so on. And now since I had a proper wand this time, I could finally start to pressure him some, I still didn't hit him or beat him, but he had upped his game, and I was really getting into it. My wand work still wasn't where I could go at it without the wand movement, so my spells were more predictable, even though they became a lot faster with the chaining.
My reflexes were almost supernatural, according to Moody, he kept saying that the day I joined the Auror force, would be the day I would beat all the records!
Since I was in my third year in magical knowledge, and was even able to use some wandless magics, Moody started to teach me about the basics of elemental magics, and using transfiguration in dueling and battles. It was limited knowledge since even a third year is limited in what they can transfigure and use of elemental magics.
What he did teach me is even transfiguring the ground to be rougher, can be an advantage, make the enemy stumble and they will make for an easier target.
For elemental magic he taught me about wind, water and fire, mostly he taught me to blast wind at my enemy, which can be combined with water and fire to make a dense fog to obscure my target. Even using wind near dirt or sand, can help obscure you, or blind an enemy. But against a more seasoned foe it would not work, since a simple shield would protect you from it, or they would simply blast away the fog or sand. By the end of the summer I was able to use it fairly competently, but he told me to keep practicing with this exact spell, and wait to do anything more with elemental magics, until he said so, even if it wouldn't be before the next summer.
General Pov.
As the night of Thomas' birthday came around, once again on July 24th. 6 dots started to glow on his body, with one glowing much brighter. And with that glow, power coursed through his body, bringing more strength, more magic to him, even refining his ability to feel his magic better. And as the last time, it seemed one of the dots would burn away, and the remaining 5 now went back to being a faded blue dot on his body. And just as they all faded back to normalcy, a golden band on Thomas' head glowed faintly before going back to normal as well. Though this year he did not go through a maturation, it was still an unnatural power up, at least compared to normal children, but yet again it would seem other powers are at play, since no payment of this were to be made. At least not yet..
Waking up on my birthday, now one year older, Dad once again brought me three gifts, a tradition he maintained, something for pleasure, something for knowledge and finally something practical. This year I got an expanding journal, it was very thin, but had thousands of pages in it. I got a complete travelers kit for my broom, which I was finally allowed to take with me to Hogwarts. And finally I got a book about healing, a compendium of basic healing spells, potions and how to identify injuries. Dad knew of my interests when it came to healing, it was different from all my other interests since most of my other pursuits all lead to my want of helping others, one day I would hopefully be able to contribute something to the world.
Now, besides dueling with moody, I started my first enchanting project. I wanted it to be simple, and maybe a bit silly, so I decided to make a "Wand of color change", I didn't really have a name for it yet, so that's what I'm calling it. My idea was to make a metal rod, which when touched to an object, would turn that thing into a color. So yes, it's a prank product, but it's a great exercise for my first enchanted object.
Dad bought me a bar of damascus, since I always loved the way damascus looked, and since I'm not a metallurgist, I have no idea if some metal works better, so I went with what I thought would look great.
Now according to one of the books in the Lamorak vault, which describes the basis of enchanting, the enchantment holds better, if it is enchanted during the molding of the item. So with help from dad, we made a crucible and he even had a spell to make very hot fire, so the steel would melt, and while he melted the metal, I started casting my enchantments. Two basic enchantments I learned were durability and intent, the durability would make it very tough and durable against physical and even some magical damage. The intent would help translate the holder's intent on what to do.
It took less than 10 minutes, but by that time dad was panting with the effort of keeping up the fire, so when he could finally stop, he stumbled backwards and leaned against the wall.
Before the metal could solidify, I started to transfigure the lump of molten steel, this was something that was described in the book as well. Doing this would make it so the enchantments wouldn't be lost, while being shaped.
I shaped it into a 40 cm rod, with curved ends that bulge out, and a twisted shape along its length. Somehow the damascus effect was maintained perfectly, which looked amazing along its length. As it had its final shape, I dissipated the heat with a combination of air and water.
Now it was still only a fancy metal rod, durable and able to read my intent, but not able to do anything with it. That is what the runes would help with.
Runes work as far as I can see by applying a spell or intent into a piece, and applying magic to it. Dad sat and watched while I inscribed 12 runes along its length. I imagine runes as the programming language of the universe. And right now I was programming it to change the color of the thing I intend through the enchantments. Inscribing the runes took way longer than I ever imagined, each line of each rune has to be inscribed in a certain order, in a certain direction in a certain depth.
I was able to do about four runes a day, so almost a week later, it was finally complete.
Dad was beyond impressed, and was ecstatic about my creation, though he didn't allow me to just try and use it.
He insisted that any new creation should be tried behind at least a shield, so he conjured a shield between me and the rod, and only allowed me to press a single finger on it, and be ready to be yanked away from it if anything seemed off.
Ready for the experiment, a shield of force was generated before me, I placed a single finger on my creation and dad stood at the ready with his wand.
At the end of the rod, we had placed a regular ceramic brown cup, I willed through the rod and a bit of magic for it to turn green in color, and the rod pulsed ever so slightly and the cup changed from the point of touching the rod to be completely green in color.
It was a success!
Dad breathed a sigh of relief and pulled down his barrier, he smiled and clapped me on my shoulder, congratulating me. We tested the rod of color change against a lot of different objects, they all worked but the larger or denser the object, the more magic it took, since the rod itself didn't contain the magical energy, it required the user to supply it. I thought that maybe there would be a way to change that, so the rod itself could recharge from the environment, not requiring the user to supply the magic.
So I talked with dad about it, but he had never heard of such a way, there seemed to be no way of containing magic, so after a couple of days of searching, he gave me a book which he said came from Professor Knott, or Alan as he knew him, for some reason they were friends, he didn't come to visit, but it seemed Dad saw him often enough.
The book was very special, it was about enchantments and Alchemy and how to combine them! It had insights and ideas inside I knew were groundbreaking, dad had never heard of the theories within, so I spent the entire next two weeks just reading and trying to understand the book.
The contents of the book described how alchemy could convert surrounding magic into a usable resource. And how enchantments actually do contain some remnants of magics, but oftentimes too small to be usable. But I thought that if I could combine alchemy's ability to convert, and maybe expand enchantments and runes to store it in greater quantities.
With these ideas something occurred to me, Squibs are kinda like enchantments, they have some magics, but not enough to do anything, but they are still considered magicals.
What if I could create a wand, just like the rod, and with the alchemical conversion and enchantments to store magic. And lastly if I can with runes create spells that can be activated with intent, using the stored magics, I would be able to create a wand that could be used by squibs! And like Fred and George did in the books, I could make defensive items that could cast barriers to help protect!
If I could do this, I would be able to make a lot of galleons! This enchantment stuff is really cool! This may be my future career?
But creating any of this would take a lot of trial and error, but anything worth doing takes time, I could do this!
Project Squib wand and Project defense would be my major project for this year.
Now before the summer was drawing to an end, I sat down with dad and tried to finish up my basic Occlumency training. I still hadn't created a proper barrier, and the thing about a mind palace seemed not to do much, it only made my access to my memories a bit easier, but ever since I reincarnated, I have had an easier time of recollecting my thoughts and memories.
We sat down in his office, in two chairs opposite each other. "Are you ready Thomas? Try to feel the edges, feel where I am connecting to your mind, we are not trying to make you stop me, only feel the legilimency probe". I nodded and concentrated, "Legilimence" dad chanted with his wand pointed at me, and as soon as the magic hit my mind I felt only one thing, a warm fire spreading from my core to my mind, heat that enclosed me. And as that heat made contact with dads Legilimency, he jerked and screamed and quickly broke contact!
He looked at me shocked, when he had entered my mind, or tried to, he was immediately attacked by an ocean of fire, he thankfully managed to pull back before it hit him, but even then, the heat from that wave was immense!
Rufus POV:
That heat! I even heard a screech from a bird, like a giant caw or something that rang out, and kicked me out with fire!
Shaking my head and leaning back, this must be that Phoenix! But how?! How could the phoenix be inside Thomas still?
"Thomas, it seems you already have something protecting your mind, I know we haven't talked alot about your circumstance from when I adopted you. But things happened that might have given you abilities, and it seems one of them is the ability to protect your mind!".
Thomas POV:
I was nearly as shocked as dad about this! I mean I feel lucky that I don't have to be concerned about my mind being attacked. Though I did feel the boundaries of the heat, the flames that protected me. If I could better control it, maybe I could learn something more from it?
Well since this type of training was a bust, I went back to my regular schedule, training with Moody, studying, and playing with going through the rest of the Lamorak books for this year.
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