章 46: Chapter 46

To read up to 15 chapters ahead: https://www.patréon.com/SlyOW

-------------

Ethan thought he had gotten pretty good at magical runes thanks to his self-study through the school year. He had managed to create a pretty potent weapon after all.

Practising with his mother crushed his delusions. Granted, she was a monster in magical runes, but sometimes she would speak of concepts like they were basic, and he would be left looking at her with gawking eyes, struggling to follow.

As annoying as that could be, Ethan did feel himself progress at a rapid speed. Studying by himself was good, but it had its limits. He was good, but he wasn't omniscient. He needed a foundation to work from, which was what his training with his mother was for.

However, as much of a gap there was between Ethan and his mother for their lessons, it wasn't as intense as the lessons with his father.

Ethan and his father faced each other in a circular arena, a storage room they had cleared for this training. Henry stood sideways as he said, "I originally planned to wait a few years to teach you about duelling and magical fights in general, but time waits for no man. Alright, I want you to attack me."

Ethan showed no hesitation as he immediately unleashed the combo he had used against Quirrell, starting with Incendio, unleashing a strong jet of flames to blind his father, before firing a Flipendo through the flames.

As he was about to finish with Diffindo, however, he suddenly felt his entire body go stiff. As the flames disappeared, Henry was nowhere in sight, until Ethan heard him speak from behind him: "Blinding your opponent can be a good tactic, but you shouldn't be blinding yourself in the process."

As his father tapped him on the shoulder, Ethan felt the full-body bind curse disappear, freeing his movement as he turned around, but he did not see his father. Looking back in front of him, Henry was back in the same spot he had started in, a smirk on his face.

Rolling his eyes, Ethan readied his wand, and without any cue, he used Flipendo. The light blue spell moved quickly, but Ethan's father swiped his wand to the side, deviating the spell off its course before using one of his own, "Expelliarmus!"

"Protego!"

The ethereal barrier Ethan built in front of himself flared into a deep blue as the red spell struck it. Protego was not a spell within his First Year's curriculum, but it was the basis for Custodia Malum, so Ethan had learned it.

Seeing his father was about to attack again, Ethan stomped his foot on the ground, using martial magic this time as a short wall appeared in front of him, just in time to stop the little fireball fired at him.

The transfigured wall burst upon impact, revealing Henry was no longer there. This time, Ethan expected it, and so without turning around, he weaved his wand in a circular motion, sending one of the larger pieces of debris from the broken wall behind him.

His father was slightly farther than he thought he would be, but the piece of rock was large enough to still block the spell. Holding out a hand, Ethan carefully but quickly disassembled the same piece of rock before it could crash into the wall, turning it into many small pieces.

Wingardium Leviosa, and telekinesis in general, were best suited when used for one target, as each item that was lifted by the spell would require careful manipulation.

One way wizards had managed to circumvent that was by linking several objects together through magic and lifting them as one. This meant that every object would follow the same trajectory, but it still allowed the wizard to move more than one object at once.

Telekinesis was a spell Ethan had worked on for many years now, and he had always relied on his willpower. Adding that experience to his powerful mind, Ethan was capable of lifting several entities at once without grouping them up. His father did not know that, however.

So Ethan formed two groups within the rubble, one that flew very fast towards his father, composed of the majority of the rocks, while he made a smaller second one, this one slower, but also following the first one for cover.

As expected, Henry teleported away to dodge the missile-like rocks, only to find another group of rocks to have appeared right in front of him.

A small smile appeared on his face as he gave a sharp tug to the side, and Ethan suddenly felt his control over the rocks disappear as they smashed into a wall, and before he could raise his wand again, a red light hit his hand, sending his wand flying.

Clutching at his hand, which was quickly turning red from the firm grip he had been keeping on the wand, Ethan beckoned his wand over with his mind as he said, "It's not fair; I barely know any spells for duelling."

Henry had already holstered his wand as he replied, "Let that be your first lesson, then. There will always be people with spells you don't master."

Ethan muttered, "Not if I can help it."

Henry smiled, shaking his head slightly. "It's not a matter of passion; many wizards have created their spells and never shared them."

He looked at the surrounding rubble and continued, "You did pretty well for your first duel. Your use of Transfiguration is particularly impressive, although it makes quite the mess."

He waved his wand around and said, "Reparo."

The room started repairing itself as Ethan was brought back to his first Charms class, and so he couldn't help but ask, "How come Reparo can repair objects indefinitely?"

Henry looked puzzled as he asked back, "What do you mean? Why shouldn't it?"

Ethan elaborated, "The definition of a charm is that of a spell that adds a property to an entity. Disarm for Expelliarmus. Levitate for Wingardium Leviosa. As for Transfiguration, it alters the very nature of the object, which allows for the changes to become permanent. But how can Charms do the same?"

"You haven't learned about it in class?"

"Professor Flitwick said it was too early."

Henry stared as he asked, "What did he say exactly?"

Ethan shrugged, replying, "I think he implied I should find it on my own."

Henry snorted, "Then you should do that. Besides, it feels like you are already on the right track. You have all the information you need already. You just need to... connect the dots, so to speak."

Ethan narrowed his eyes at his father, trying to gleam anything else, but he remained tight-lipped, his face merely displaying his usual smile.

Sighing in defeat, Ethan decided to change the subject as he asked, "I should be getting the letter from Tracey any day now. But her parents will probably say yes, at least according to her."

Henry nodded. "Good. I'm glad you got to make good friends at school. I met my best friends at school. We were the terrors of Ilvermorny."

Seeing no trace of sorrow on his father's face, he decided to ask a dangerous question: "How come I never met any of them?"

Henry chuckled. "Well, it's hard for us to see each other. Two of them are always on some adventure and impossible to find, and the other two are caught up in MACUSA to the neck."

MACUSA was the American government, thus the American equivalent of the Ministry of Magic. It was massively larger, and things were quite different over there. They had to deal with a lot more wizards, and the American magical scene did not work the same as the British one.

"What about mom?"

Henry scratched his beard, left uncomfortable with the question, "That's why we were worried. Her time at Durmstrang was tough; it was the school her father had gone to and was expelled from, so her name did not help."

Placing his hands in his pockets, Ethan shrugged and said, "It wasn't so hard for me; had it not been for that loser of a vampire, the entire school would have ended up loving me. It should be fine by next year. I suppose it's thanks to Voldemort that people have somewhat forgotten about Grandpa."

It still felt weird to call Gellert 'Grandpa', especially since they had never met.

Henry frowned. "You should be careful around his name. There's a reason people did not want to pronounce it."

"I know the Taboo spell placed on it. But he is not in any shape to scare me or come for us."

Henry's gaze turned to the ceiling as he sighed, "I suppose, but you can never be too careful. There definitely is something we don't know about that story."