章 82: Chapter 82
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Ethan was kept by the Enforcers for another hour before they were satisfied, and decided to let him go. He had been quite cooperative with them as well, as he only hid his vision from them.
He was led to a room, where he was surprised to see Tracey already waiting. He had expected them to interrogate and keep Tracey for much longer than both him and his parents, since she had Nefartari in her earrings.
Sitting next to her, Ethan directly asked her, "So, how did it go for you?"
Tracey unexpectedly grinned, and replied, "They asked me a few questions, and did a series of tests on me and the earrings. They pissed off Nefertari with their probing, but once they found out that she could not take over without my consent, they let me go."
Ethan found that surprising, which must have shown on his face as Tracey added, "They also said the earrings can't be removed, and that this should all be kept as a secret."
"They can't be removed?"
Tracey had a mischievous air to her as she smiled snarkily, and nodded. Ethan knew her well enough to understand that it was a lie, but she did not want the Enforcers to find out, in case they were watching them.
Then, she asked him, "What about you?"
Ethan shrugged, "They spent some time asking me questions to determine whether I was possessed."
She nodded along, "Understandable."
To this Ethan snorted, "It was not just about Ramesses. They were also asking about before that. Apparently, I'm too good for my own good."
This caused Tracey to roll her eyes, and after a moment of silence, Ethan added, "I'm sorry, for everything that happened. I did warn you about danger, but I wasn't expecting this."
Tracey did not seem to be sorry for it though, snorting scornfully instead, "What's there to be sorry for? We freed a kick-ass lady from eternal imprisonment, I got an awesome teacher, and you somehow defeated a thousand years old wizard."
"Thousands of years old."
"Whatever. All I'm saying is that it's fine, I would do it all over again."
That did not help much with Ethan's guilt. Still, she clearly did not want to talk about it, so he changed the subject, "So, that kick-ass teacher of you, what will she teach you?"
This got Tracey excited as she started praising Nefertari, and boasted that she would get better than him at everything in no time. This made him laugh, but he let her talk.
Some time later, Ethan's parents also arrived, and they were all free to go. Ethan did ask about Bill Weasley, but they would be keeping him a little longer, as while he was fine, he was with Gringotts.
Although it was obvious that Rakepick and Snyde acted independently from Gringotts, as the goblins would never have the guts to pull off something like this, nor did they stand to gain much, but Weasley might still have some unique insight into the actions of the two.
Also, Ethan could smell politics in there, but he honestly could not care less.
Ethan returned home first, while his parents accompanied Tracey back home. Apparently they wanted to speak with her parents, probably to speak about everything that had happened and apologize.
He tried to gauge how that had went from his parents' expressions when they returned home later, but he could not discern anything.
With the trip now finally over, the only thing that Ethan did regret was not learning Snake Charming. Of course, he got much more than that, but it remained yet to be seen whether it would be of any use against the Basilisk.
But then again, maybe this too had changed. Maybe there would be no Basilisk attacking students for his second year. Or maybe the students this time would not be so lucky as to see the reflection of its eyes.
Fortunately, the summer had only started, and so he intended to use the rest of his time to prepare for the incoming school year. Even if he could not get Snake Charming, Ethan still had many things he could improve on.
Charms and Transfiguration were restricted because of the Trace. The Trace was something that followed every magical children when they became 11 years old, and would warn the Ministry of Magic if the children were to use any spells.
Since using magic outside of school was forbidden for children under 17, Charms and Transfiguration were off-limits. Wandless magic did not help either, since the Trace was on the children, not their wands.
The only reason Ethan had been able to use his magic freely in Egypt was because the Trace did not extant to other countries, and even if it did, the British Ministry of Magic had no power over what happened in other countries. Or it was limited.
However, even in the United Kingdom, the Trace was not all powerful, and had its limits. Magic was in constant motion, and so it always slightly fluctuated. If the Trace reported all fluctuations, then it would be impossible to manage.
That was why forms of magic that used minimal amounts of magic, such as Potion making, Mental Magic and Runic Magic would pass under the radar.
So, that was exactly what Ethan intended to work on. Well, not Potion making. It was not that he looked down on it, but Ethan knew that he was not particularly talented in the field, especially not when compared to Mind Magic and Runic Magic. Any amount of effort he put into Potion Making would yield several times the results if he put it into these other two forms of magic.
Especially with Mind Magic. He had always been talented at it, but since he absorbed Ramesses' spirit, his mind had gotten monstrously strong. All he needed was some training to regain his complete control over it, and he would truly reach Master level.
Becoming a Master in any type of magic was a humongous achievement, and meant becoming one of the world's best. To become a Master, one had to be at the top of that particular field. For example, all Hogwarts Professors were Masters in their own field, and some in more than one.
So, although Mind Magic was not inherently offensive, it could only help, especially since it was possible to weaponize. For now, Ethan did not know any spells that belonged to Mind Magic and that were offensive, but he was more than good enough to form an attack without the structure of a spell, as he had done with Quirrell.
The only two Mind spells he knew at the moment were Legilimency and Occlumency, something he intended to resolve soon.
In comparison, Ethan's expertise in Runic Magic had not been drastically improved by his trip to Egypt, not like his Mind Magic had been, but Ethan believed that between the two, it might be the one that would be the most useful to him to deal with the giant serpent.
After all, with the proper enchantments, Ethan might be able to create weapons and armours that would be especially effective against a Basilisk.
In any case, he had the rest of the summer to figure it out.
Author's Note: So, I decided to add a proper ranking to magical practices. In the canonical world, the highest academic achievement is NEWT, but here people can go on to get a professional licence for a particular field by passing another harder exam, which might be required for some of the more demanding jobs such as Aurors, and for the best of the best, they can pass a Master exam, which, if passed, certifies one to be at the top of their field. Of course, there are some minute differences between Masters of the same field, for example Dumbledore is slightly better than McGonagall at Transfiguration, but the difference is small enough for them to have the same rank (in Transfiguration).
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