ดาวน์โหลดแอป
16.06% HP: A Magical Journey [Complete] / Chapter 70: Aftermath: Questions Answered

บท 70: Aftermath: Questions Answered

If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patreón @

[ https://www.patreón.com/fictiononlyreader ]

The link is also in the synopsis.

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

"What do you mean there is nothing wrong with me?"

Quinn was stunned to hear Alan's statement. Here he had been having trouble controlling his magic. Whenever he set his magic free, it would go berserk and hurt him in the process.

Just so that his magic doesn't go out of control, he had tortured himself and detached his emotions from himself. He had learned the very first day he had read upon the emotional aspect of occlumency that blocking his emotions for long periods was harmful. But, he still did it because it was the only way he could think.

Now, the old man in front of him was telling Quinn that he had nothing wrong with him.

"What the hell do you mean by that?"

Alan sighed at his student and explained.

"Quinn, I diagnosed you while you slept. I didn't find anything wrong with you," Alan raised his hand when Quinn tried to speak up. "I know your magic isn't under your control. But, that isn't a disease or injury."

"Then why is acting out and rampaging?"

"Before I answer that, let's go back to the start," Alan suggested and put up his first question. "Tell me, what do you think happened to you?"

"I was clearly under the control of magic or curse. It all started when I fell unconscious in the vault," Quinn recalled the time when he returned to his dormitory. "It lowered my inhibitions. I did plenty of things that I wouldn't do. Plus, vault made it so that I won't return to it for exploration. I was planning to return to the vault but changed my mind and didn't visit. I was clearly under some kind of mental curse..."

Quinn trailed off at the end and then raised his voice at Alan.

"Why in the bloody name of magic didn't occlumency work?! I regularly spend time on that damn magic. Why didn't it work for months, months!"

"Hmm, tell me, Quinn, what is your current system of occlumency defense?" Alan asked a question from his student. He already knew the answer to the question. But was walking his student through the process so that he would arrive at the answer.

"It hasn't changed from the time we ended our lesson," said Quinn. He wondered why Alan was asking him the question. "A shield layer built under a defense layer, with another set of the same configuration following under the first set."

"Correct, and I have to say that you have made noteworthy progress in strengthening your shields. They have grown quite a bit since the time I taught you." Alan gave Quinn praise on his progress before asking. "Now, let me ask you this. Do you think that right now, I am inside your mind?"

"Definitely," Quinn replied almost immediately. He knew his teacher's personality. He had spent a couple of years under his tutelage, and he was sure that Alan was in his mind the entire time.

"Did you sense me entering? Or can you feel me operating legilimency right now?"

"... No, but where are you going with this," asked Quinn. He wasn't following whatever Alan was trying to show him.

Alan sighed before he said, "Quinn, with your current system of occlumency, you won't be able to detect anything as long as they get past your shield. If someone or in this case something passes through your defenses, you will have no idea that they are inside."

"Your defenses will tell you that there is an incoming attack if they are strong enough, but once the attack is inside, your defenses won't do squat." Alan folded his hands on his lap and continued, "Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the system you are following. You can build your defenses until they are at my level. There is no limit there, but your system of occlumency defenses doesn't have any other feature beyond that. Your defenses won't do something that it wasn't designed for."

Alan pointed at himself and said, "If someone manages to break past my covering shields, that doesn't mean my defense is over. I have various fail-safes present beyond that to protect my mind." He pointed at Quinn and continued, "You, on the other hand, have nothing other than your detection layers and shields. You have the castle and the manor inside, and you have sorted the memories in a way that even if someone gets past your defenses, they would have a mighty difficult time to get to the memory they are looking."

"And, while I was teaching you, we never went over the possibility of something like this happening. We worked on legilimens breaking into your mind to get access to your memories. We never worked on something like this that would target you in such a way that would alter your personality." Alan paused and stated, "You don't have a way to protect your mind from being manipulated like this."

"B-But, I-I worked hard on t-this," Quinn was shocked to hear that his defenses were useless. He wasn't expecting to hear that after the time and effort he put on his occlumency.

"I know you worked hard. Your defense-aspect and your efficiency-aspect have grown beyond what I had thought you would be able to accomplish at your current age. I can assure you that your progress is quick, and other than myself and some select individuals, your speed of progress is second to none."

Then came the 'but' of the sentence.

"But... your progress in the emotional-aspect is lacking. While you are able to detach your emotions so that become nothing but a buzz at the back of your head, and that allowed you to keep your magic in check all this time..."

Alan had seen the memories, and with his level of legilimency, he didn't just watch the memories like a film and was able to feel what Quinn was feeling during his memories.

"...You have done nothing to make sure that your emotions won't be manipulated. The one to blame here is time. You just didn't have enough time to devote to the emotional-aspect while you learned other magic."

When Alan said Quinn's progress was below himself and some other individuals, he didn't consider that Quinn devoted time not just to occlumency but various other fields of magic.

Quinn had recovered from the reeling shock that his occlumency had failed him because he hadn't designed it sufficiently.

"...Shields."

Quinn said something that Alan wasn't able to hear, so he leaned forward and asked. "Pardon, I didn't get that."

"Shields, you said my shields are strong. Why didn't they stop the magic from entering my mind? Even if my emotional-aspect occlumency was lacking, my defense-aspect was strong enough to block out an attack."

Alan nodded to that question and gathered his thoughts to answer. "Friar? was that his name. Yes, Friar. The ghost who gave you the riddle said that another ghost had ceased to exist because of that vault. What did you think about that?"

"That the vault was harmful to ghosts, what about it? I am not a ghost," said Quinn. He would have answered better if he was in another time, but right now, Quinn was defending his occlumency.

"Alright, what are ghosts?" asked Alan.

"A ghost is the imprint of the soul of a once-living magical, and as such, a type of spirit. These fleshless spirits are either afraid of death or have some extremely potent connection to the locations they haunt." Quinn gave him the textbook definition of a ghost.

Alan smiled as the words were right there. "Exactly, they are imprints of souls. Imprints of souls have similar properties as actual souls. You get what I am talking, right?"

Quinn gave it a thought, and after some time, he exhaled.

"The curse was soul-based. Is that what you are talking about?"

Alan made a face that said, 'kind of, but not really.'

"The curse was emotion-based, but I can safely conclude that the curse definitely had a soul aspect. It might as well have been the entry point as after that your neither your mind nor soul had no defense for your emotions."

Alan gazed at Quinn as he thought about how to explain it to his student.

"Emotions are connected to both mind and soul. Some believe that it might even be connected to the body as negative emotional states can affect physical output. But, emotions are definitely connected to mind and soul. Mind connection, you already know, and the existence of ghosts show conclusive proof of the soul connection."

They remained in the mortal world because they had unfinished business, whether in the form of fear, guilt, regrets, or overt attachment to the material world who refuse to move on to the next dimension. The choice to come back as a ghost was emotionally based.

"You never noticed something was wrong with you the entire time the curse was active. You made decisions and acted in ways that you wouldn't have. A lot of things should have triggered some suspicion inside you, but it never did. Not once did you think that there was something wrong with you. All of this was because the curse was acting on your emotions and, in turn, your personality. It attacked from two sources, both closely connected to magic; Mind and Soul."

Quinn just grabbed his head and groaned. He was regretting the decision to dive into the second vault.

"What about my magic rampaging out," Quinn questioned. "How is that connected to my magic? What about the changes the curse bought to my magic before it broke?"

"About that, I have no idea how did the curse, if we can even call it that at this point, increased the capacity of your magic, but I can tell you that the increase in control was because emotion and will is an essential aspect to magic. The curse definitely brought your emotions close to your magic. Your magic responded to your emotions better than ever while you were under its influence."

A magical's emotional state can affect their inherent abilities. For instance, an agent of the Statute of Secrecy Task Force was said to have produced better results with their Inn Charm after channeling the goodwill they received from inn-keepers they met on their travels into their spell-casting.

While in service, Gareth Greengrass, a senior researcher in the Department of Mysteries, at one point, documented over seven hundred instances of spells being cast in anger. He found they were all more powerful than even the casters themselves had thought themselves capable of producing.

"The curse targeted your emotions with cardinal sins, or the capital vices, or the seven deadly sins."

Quinn collapsed back into his bed, and while gazing at the ceiling, he asked, "Do continue."

"It triggered your emotions when you felt things that were even remotely in connection to the cardinal sins," Alan listed all the seven sins. "Pride. Greed. Envy. Sloth. Wrath. Gluttony. Lust."

"Let's talk some examples of how the curse affected you," spoke Alan as he got up from his chair and walked around Quinn's bed.

"First, let's take an example of how it amplified your emotions from something small to an exaggerated state. Your first duel in that dueling club of yours."

The mention of the event bought Quinn's memory of the duel against Miles Bletchley to the surface.

"You felt a little insulted by the way he looked at you. Tell me, what would you have done if you had another chance and weren't influenced by the curse."

Quinn didn't have to think much about it, and he answered, "A single Disarming spell and end the duel within seconds. I would have ended the duel so fast that he wouldn't have a chance to even twitch a muscle, but I wouldn't have humiliated him by not even drawing my wand. That was too flashy for me."

Quinn could hear Alan's footsteps as he walked around, "That was wrath. He insulted you, and that triggered wrath. Your opponent just looked at you funny, and I think you decided to humiliate him even before the nasty spells he shot."

"I guess you are right," Quinn thought about the times he had been angry in the last few months. Some regrettable decisions flashed through his mind.

"Next, let's move on to the times where the curse took advantage of your body to take effect," Alan spoke, moving on to the next observation. If Quinn could see his teacher's face, he would have found a huge shit-eating grin on the old man's face.

"Body? When did the curse affect my body?" Quinn wasn't sure there were changes to his body. Quinn was sure that his body wasn't touched by the curse.

"I am talking about puberty, Quinn."

Quinn froze in his bed, and he immediately knew Alan was talking about lust.

"I am sure that you wouldn't have included those memories in the memory package, but you were working with logical thinking that spanned for days on end. So, a lot of those ended up in there."

Alan laughed for a while before continuing.

"Lust triggered in short, but many bursts, and that was because of your hormones. You were so affected by it because you started to feel attracted to the fairer sex." Alan chuckled at the embarrassment his student was feeling. "Lust just took over from that point on. I really saw youth in there."

Quinn had spanked the monkey, jacked the beanstalk, auditioned with his hand puppet, charmed the snake, took the dog out for a walk, or wanked... twice a day without fail.

Now laying in his bed, Quinn remembered the times he had been doing something and just ended up staring at the passing by girls. Then there was the incident with Daphne.

'Dammit, why did I have to say that Daphne,' Quinn mushed his face into the pillow. Lust might have been the most enjoyable, but just like others. It made him do things he regretted.

"Let's move on, please."

A muffled shout from Quinn made Alan laugh.

"Alright, let's move on to the case where curse made sure that you won't go back to the antechamber. Only one sin kept you away from the vault."

Quinn gritted his teeth and almost snarled, "Sloth."

"Yes, sloth." Alan had gone through Quinn's memories, and the one sin that was as far away from Quinn was the sin of sloth.

Quinn West was a busy person. He had magic to learn, and Quinn made sure to spend every productive minute of his time learning magic. So, Sloth was Quinn's mortal enemy.

"Surprisingly, it didn't affect you that much, didn't it? Except making sure that you didn't go to the antechamber, skipping your morning runs, and the frequent short flashes of zoning out, all you got was becoming extremely rowdy if you were awake past your bedtime."

Quinn didn't say anything because it was true. The reason sloth didn't take root inside Quinn was because...

"Greed didn't let me be lazy," said Quinn as he stood up from the bed. The talk about sloth made him want to get away from the bed.

"Right, about that. I never understood why you spent that much time in the library? I know you like to learn, but the time you spent in the library was unusually lengthy. I, for a fact, know that you like to use magic as much as you like to read about it," asked Alan as he watched Quinn stand up from the bed and stretch.

Quinn spoke while he stretched his body.

"I had tricked a professor into signing a pass to the Restricted Section of the library. The problem was that there is a curse on the position of the Defense Against Dark Arts position. No professor lasts more than a year. I think it has been going on for decades. The teacher I tricked was the Defense Against Dark Arts professor."

A strange flash passed through Alan's eyes as Quinn mentioned the Defense Against Dark Arts professor.

"I was sure that the professor would be gone by the end of the year, which meant that pass would only last for a year. So, I had to make sure to squeeze the maximum out of the one school year I had," Quinn made eye contact with Alan and continued, "My magic was increasing by the day, and my control was getting better, so the decision I made was to spend all my time in the library."

"Now that you mentioned the sins, I think greed was the most prominent sin out of all seven. It was always present in the back of my head. Guiding me to learn more and more," Quinn sighed as he leaned against a wall with his hands behind his back.

"Sitting in that library made you happy, and that was because greed made it such. Your greed for knowledge was fulfilled while you stayed in the library, and it affected your emotions, making you happy," Alan made some conclusions out from the knowledge he had.

Quinn nodded, but then he pushed away from the wall and point-blank asked.

"Enough of this. Tell me what had happened to my magic?"

Alan stopped his walk and turned to face Quinn. The two stared at each other for a moment before Alan spoke up.

"Your mind, soul, and magic are fine. They don't have anything wrong with them. The problem is that while the curse was active, it increased your capacity and focus, but the way it was achieved was not natural, or should I say the process was artificial."

Quinn felt his heart beat faster as Alan continued to speak.

"I don't think that curse was supposed to break down. I don't know what it was designed to achieve, but it wasn't meant to break down in the middle like it did in your case. With my knowledge, it was meant to go until the end, whatever the end was."

All of this was what Alan had been able to find out from Quinn's memories and an entire night of diagnostics on Quinn while he slept.

"The curse had total control over your focus abilities as it was raising it artificially. So when it came undone, your bond to your magic which was being raised artificially broke down and with it everything you had worked hard to established."

Alan pursed his lips when he saw the despair on Quinn's face. He knew that Quinn had worked hard to build his control since he was five years old. But now, it was all gone.

"O-Okay... Mr. Alan, this isn't helping me," Quinn's voice had a shakiness and desperation in his voice. "W-What does this mean?"

Alan knew what was coming, but he had to continue,

"Your focus ability is gone completely, Quinn, and the reason your magic is lashing out is that it was had been artificially raised. You weren't meant to gain that much magic in that short amount of time. Your own magic is rejecting itself and is trying to get out."

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

Quinn West - MC - No control over his magic.

Alan D. Baddeley - Teacher - Breaker of bad news.

FictionOnlyReader - Author - Don't worry, things will be fixed in the next chapter. (I hope nobody reads this because I am kind of building tension here, but... I know what happens when I do it.)

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

[

Webnovel has been 'shadowbanning' comments recently. This means that any comment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.

So, if you are commenting with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.

]

.

If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and blast those ideas.

The link is in the synopsis!


ความคิดของผู้สร้าง
FictionOnlyReader FictionOnlyReader

Just like always,

Review, comment, add to the library, and share this fic.

Thx

Link To Discord

https://discord.gg/w5dJ82SfMr

next chapter

บท 71: Road to Recovery, Lesson, Closure

If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patreón @

[ https://www.patreón.com/fictiononlyreader ]

The link is also in the synopsis.

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

"Your focus ability is completely gone, Quinn and the reason your magic is lashing out is that it has been artificially raised. You weren't meant to gain that much magic in that short amount of time. Your own magic is rejecting itself and is trying to get out."

Quinn, who had his eyes wide open, started to tap a foot against the floor. He didn't blink his eyes; all his attention was on Alan. He was hanging on his every word. The news wasn't getting good, but it was something he needed to hear.

"If you want to get your magic back, you just need to get it back under your control. The current you doesn't have even a bit of focus ability. You might be the only one at your age who can't keep his magic under wraps even when everything is alright. People don't have magic lashing out against their will. Their magic might not respond to them, but it doesn't act on its own."

Alan was as straightforward as he could be and sledgehammered his way to tell Quinn his current situation.

"Any solution?" asked Quinn. There was a lump in his throat that was threatening to break out.

"It's simple," Alan smiled. The usual smile that he always had. "You need to build it up like you did since you started learning magic. The connection has broken down, and you need to build it back up."

"You could have started to get your magic back the second it went out of control. I didn't need to come back here to help you out," Alan walked towards Quinn while speaking. "The only thing I can actually do to help is to make things easier."

"With your magic rampaging against you, it will be difficult for you to keep it under control." Alan took out a vial from his robes and showed it to Quinn.

"So the solution to all that is to numb down the magic. By giving you the magic dampening potion, we can level the field. By numbing your connection to your magic, we can make sure that you can work in a calm sea and not in a storm."

Quinn closed his eyes to hide the pain he was feeling. The question came out,

"I lost all my progress?"

Alan nodded and confirmed his fears. "Yes, you lost all your progress."

"But, I can regain it back?"

The question made Alan's eyes sparkle and widen his smile. The old Quinn was coming back, the Quinn who surprised him time after time. He could feel it.

"Yes, you can. You built a tower, and it broke down. You just need to build it again."

Quinn opened his eyes, and there was a glint in his eyes, "I will build a damn pyramid this time. Something that can't be broken down. Hell to it all if I am going to let something like this happen again."

"Excellent, that is the spirit, my child. You did it once, and you can do it again," Alan patted Quinn's shoulders and said, "Now, go meet your family. They had been worried sick since you came home. Go and assure them that everything is fine."

Quinn looked up at Alan and earnestly said, "Thank you for all of this."

Alan smiled but said nothing, prompting Quinn to walk outside the room to meet his family.

Just after he closed the door, Quinn looked down at his left hand, and immediately an orb of white light manifested above it. A simple, small, somewhat dim orb of light.

In the hallway, with no one else but Quinn.

He stared at the dim orb of light, which flickered as if it were almost about to go out. The intensity wavered every second. It would brighten for a moment but dim the next.

The light was weak, but it shone brightly in Quinn's eyes.

.

- (Scene Break) -

.

Quinn emotionlessly stared at the vial that Alan had handed to him. It had been three days since Quinn had returned home, and his daily routine was to wake up, go out for a run, have breakfast, wait for Alan to arrive, and then drink the magic dampening potion to finally free himself from the binds of occlumency.

He looked up at Alan, who watched him, before opening the cork on the vial and downing the potion in one gulp. Quinn closed his eyes and felt the potion take its effects. As Quinn felt the magic dim down, his occlumency also weakened till he was no longer able to keep it operational.

It was a weird feeling, not having his mind operating with occlumency aid. He couldn't remember what it was like before he got the mind-aiding art. Right now, it just felt like there were drapes over his mind, stopping him from peeking inside.

"So, what do you want to talk about?" Quinn asked as he opened his eyes. He looked at Alan, who sat on a chair in front of him. A table in between them separated the young and the old.

"I am going to leave today," announced Alan. "I have nothing else to offer. Your grandfather has the recipe for the potion, and I am sure that he has potioneers at his disposal, so I am not really needed. Your magic is your problem, and no one but you can solve it."

Quinn crossed his legs before asking, "You could always help me out with the emotional-aspect of occlumency. I learned the other two aspects from you; how about making it a complete set of three?"

Alan chuckled as he refused, "I think it would be better if you learn it yourself. Your spoonfeeding days have passed. Learn it on your own: you already know how to disconnect emotions on different levels, so you have already started on the path; just keep going."

"You didn't spoon feed me anything," Quinn sounded miffed. He surprised Alan quite a bit, so Quinn did anything but being spoonfed knowledge.

"Whatever you say, kid," Alan chuckled before continuing on a serious note. "Before I go, I think this is the right time to address some issues."

Quinn furrowed his brows, uncertain, "Issues? You said that there was nothing wrong with me other than that I am the worst magic user in the world... For now, that is."

Alan gave one of those soft stares that Quinn was not used to when they came from Alan.

"What?" Quinn questioned, eyeing at his teacher.

"Quinn, we need to talk about the obliviation incident," Alan's voice was soft. He tried to make sure that Quinn was not threatened and felt as comfortable as he could.

Quinn froze on his barstool and stilled as he stared at Alan with vigilant eyes.

"That incident wasn't in the memories I gave you," Quinn glared at Alan, who showed no reaction at all to the glare.

"True, but a lot of times, patients hide things from their healers. You especially like to hold your cards close to your chest." Alan pointed at his temple and then pointed at Quinn. "You were in a dark state of mind when I first checked. Even though there is nothing physically or magically wrong with you, your mental health is still not at the level I consider healthy."

Quinn continued to glare at Alan for a solid minute before softening his glare. "Alright, let's talk about it." The harshness in the tone was still evident, even if it wasn't as pronounced as before.

"Let's get this clear, what you did was wrong," Alan came out strong without beating around the bush. This matter wasn't when Alan wanted to dance around the topic and bring Quinn to enlightenment.

"Of course, I know what I did was wrong," Quinn growled. "You don't think I know that? I erased a person's life, leaving them without an identity."

It was one of, if not Quinn's biggest, regret out of all the things Quinn did while under the influence of the curse.

"He was a prick, a fraud, and built his entire life by robbing people of their memories," Quinn clenched his hands and spat. "Despite all that, I still feel wrong about erasing his entire identity off of him."

He massaged his temples but couldn't meet the eye of his mind-arts teacher. Even if the fate of Lockhart was the same as canon, it didn't fit well with Quinn that he was the one to cause that fate.

"The reason I am bringing this up is that I have experienced something similar," said Alan, shocking and causing Quinn to look up towards his teacher.

It was the first time Quinn had seen such a somber expression on Alan's face. There was a haunting reminiscence in the mind-arts master.

"You see, when I was young... I was forty years old at that time. Making way into the field of the mind arts. I was well into my travels when I arrived in a country. I won't name names."

Quinn tried to imagine how a young Alan D. Baddeley would look like.

"It turned out that one of the ministry bigwigs there knew about me. He also held an interest in my work, so he offered me an opportunity. An opportunity that at that time interested me a bit too much." Alan looked Quinn straight in the eye and spoke in a grim voice. "He offered me dispensation to experiment on human subjects who were on death row."

Quinn sucked in a deep breath at that. There was nothing wrong with human trials if they were conducted properly, but with how the topic started made Quinn feel that this would not end well.

"It was a rare chance to ethically perform mind magic on humans. At that time, using the Killing curse to execute death row subjects was considered a normal practice. So me experimenting on people who were sentenced to death wasn't a moral dilemma either." Alan leaned back into his chair and stated, "So, as you might have guessed, I readily accepted. I took the opportunity to experiment on death row inmates with no restriction on the things I could do. I was given full reign on how to operate. I didn't even have to care about their health or well beings."

"So, I got six people to work with. Their fates before their death laid in my hands," A faraway look appeared in Alan's eyes as he continued. "I was so arrogant and full of myself at that time. I thought I couldn't do anything wrong, so I did whatever I wanted with the patients. I followed the protocol well because I was a professional in how I did things."

"The experiments went well. The six inmates were left all twitchy and with some tics because of the constant experimentation. I might have gone a little overboard, but there wasn't any permanent damage to any of them. But you see, during the experiments, a single thought plagued my mind."

Alan's gaze locked on Quinn as a self-mocking smile rose on his face.

"I thought, I have never actually seen what would happen if I went all out of someone's mind." Alan opened and closed his fist. "Mind-arts is a controlled art; it needs finesse and subtlety. So I never actually knew what the mind-arts could do if someone turned the dial all the way up. It was a professional curiosity that I shouldn't have tried to sate."

"So after thinking about it, I choose to use the Memory charm. I decided to use an unchecked Memory charm on one of the six people. To see what would happen, what would come out on the other side."

There was a long pause as Alan went silent, and Quinn watched without saying a word as the tension in the room built up.

"The result was that the inmate forgot everything. He forgot every single thing."

Alan tilted his head to the side and elaborated.

"Your guy just lost his identity, but he can still start a new life if he wanted. But, my guy? My guy forgot everything. He forgot his identity, his life experiences, and he forgot how to be a human. I ended up making him forget how to function as a human. I erased a human out of existence, and what I left behind was nothing better than a newborn baby."

Alan derisively laughed at himself. "The jailors thought I drove him mad. But they didn't understand. I hadn't driven him insane. No, I had erased a person out of existence. In a way, I had killed that inmate before the authorities executed him. It hit me a week after I had done it, and it took me time to get over it."

Quinn gulped as he heard Alan recount his story. He felt chills go down his spine as he found out the conclusion of the incident. It was laborious to erase Procedural memories because they were so deep-seated in a person.

Procedural memory was a part of the long-term memory responsible for knowing how to do things, also known as 'motor skills'. As the name implies, Procedural memory stores information on performing various procedures, such as walking, talking, and riding a bike.

Alan had erased everything that was learned through living. He had reverted the inmate back to a newborn state, who had just entered the world.

"Quinn, I don't know what you feel about obliviating your professor. I don't know if you feel guilty about it, or if you don't consider it your fault as it was done under the influence of the curse," Alan addressed Quinn after letting the story sink in Quinn's mind.

"But whatever it is, don't ignore it. Think about the incident and get some closure, whatever, to put this behind. I didn't get closure for a long time, and I don't want you to go through the same. So, just make sure that you have no lingering regrets about it," Alan tapped the table in between them, and Quinn felt the taps on his shoulders. "Believe me, it will do you good. Clear things when they are fresh. Don't put out things for later and work while the wound is still ripe."

Quinn nodded and got up when he saw Alan get up.

"Come, let's go out for a walk. The mood is too heavy for my liking," said Alan. His usual smile was back on his face.

"You should have seen it coming when you brought it up," replied Quinn.

Quinn didn't comment on the sudden change in Alan's mood. He was used to it, and he didn't understand how the mind of a person with Alan's level of occlumency worked.

The student and teacher, young and old, walked outside the room towards the garden.

"So, tell me more about this A.I.D thing of yours. What happened to laying low, not wanting to garner attention and all that jazz you talked about before you started school?"

"Oh, that. That plan went down the drain in a single year. But let's talk about you. What have you been doing for the past three years?"

"Hmm... Well, I met this beautiful lady whom I have been spending time with."

"Really? You dawg!"

.

- (Scene Break) -

.

"Thank you, Polly, I will be fine from here," Quinn looked at the house-elf and thanked her. "I will call you when I am done."

"Will little master be alright? Polly worried that you get all hurt," asked the house-elf with worry in her big eyes. She knew what was wrong with Quinn and that he had taken a potion that weakened his magic.

"Don't worry, Polly. I will be fine. I will go in there, and when I come out, I will call for you," Quinn pointed at the building in front of him and smiled in comfort.

"... Okay, call Polly if in trouble," asserted the motherly house-elf before popping away back to the manor.

Quinn looked at the building; it was a red-bricked, condemned departmental store called Purge and Dowse Ltd. The departmental store was the magical gateway to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.

The place had a shabby, miserable air; the window displays consisted of a few chipped dummies with wigs askew, standing at random and modeling fashions at least ten years out of date. Large signs on all the dusty doors read:

「CLOSED FOR REFURBISHMENT」

The hospital was placed here because no one could find a better place to house it. Everywhere in Diagon Alley was too small, so people came up with ideas to build it underground like the Ministry of Magic, but it was decided that underground was too unhealthy. Eventually, a muggle building was purchased so that patients could come and go and fit in with the crowds.

Quinn walked towards a window displaying nothing but a particularly ugly female dummy whose false eyelashes were hanging off and modeled a green nylon pinafore dress. He leaned close to the glass, looking up at the very ugly dummy and said,

"I am here to see Gilderoy Lockhart."

The dummy gave a tiny nod and beckoned its jointed finger. Quinn took that as the signal and stepped into the building. Just like the barrier at King's Cross Station to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, he didn't crash into the building and arrived in a different place.

He was in what seemed to be a crowded reception area where rows of men and women sat upon rickety wooden chairs; some looking perfectly normal and perusing out-of-date copies of Witch Weekly. Others sported gruesome disfigurements such as elephant trunks or extra hands sticking out of their chests.

The room was scarcely less quiet than the street outside, for many of the patients were making very peculiar noises... people in lime-green robes were walking up and down the rows, asking questions and making notes on clipboards. Quinn noticed the emblem embroidered on their chests: a wand and bone, crossed.

Quinn ignored all the hustle and bustle of the area and just made his way into the hospital. He found the floor guide on a wall and found the place he was looking for.

SPELL DAMAGE ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Fourth Floor

(Unliftable jinxes, hexes, and incorrectly applied charms, etc.)

He found the stairs and made his way to the fourth floor. It took some asking around, but he was able to find the right place. He stared at the double doors that marked the start of a corridor signposted:

「SPELL DAMAGE」.

He entered the corridor and looked around to find the ward, "Janus Thickey ward, Janus Thickey, Janus, ah, found it."

It was the ward for permanent spell damage. The door was locked. Quinn took a deep breath, and with a shaking hand, channeled all the bits and pieces of magic that he could muster and unlocked the locked door.

Gilderoy Lockhart sat in his bed. He had a quill in his hand and parchment in front of him. The man was scribbling on it with his tongue sticking out.

He knocked on the door, and Lockhart looked up.

"Yes," asked the man in hospital clothing.

Quinn walked towards the bed and sat on the armchair beside it.

"Good afternoon. My name is Quinn West."

Lockhart smiled and introduced himself, "A wonderful afternoon to you as well. My name is Gilderoy L-Lockhart. Do you want an autograph?"

Quinn smiled and nodded, "I would love to have an autograph."

"Alright, wait a minute. I am going to write up a good one. I am getting better at this."

"Sure, I will wait."

Quinn watched as the man drew on the parchment with his quill. He didn't feel much guilt about erasing Lockhart's memories. The man would have continued to steal credit from people if he got out of Hogwarts unharmed.

Then the time would come when Lockhart wouldn't be satisfied with his current level of fame, and it was inevitable with his personality that he would end up doing things much worse than what he did before.

So, in Quinn's mind, what happened was better for all because from what he remembered, Gilderoy was able to continue his work as an author, after a fashion, getting someone to help him write the book:

「Who Am I?」.

Quinn felt Lockhart got what he deserved. The only thing that irked Quinn was that he was the one to deliver that fate.

"Here you go, one autograph," said Lockhart, handing Quinn the parchment. "From me to Quinn West."

Quinn took the parchment and saw one decent-looking piece of calligraphy. He could see the flashes of Lockhart in there.

His hand went to the satchel he was carrying and took out a box and set it on the bed-top table in front of Lockhart.

"What is this?" asked Lockhart, excitement flashing in his eyes.

"A gift, Mr. Lockhart," replied Quinn, as he got up from his chair. "Please open it. It is all yours."

The man ripped open the box and took out a figurine.

"Oh! Isn't this me! How handsome am I."

Lockhart was so engrossed in the stuff in the box that he didn't notice that Quinn had left him long ago.

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

Quinn West - MC - A journey to regain magic.

Alan D. Baddeley - Mind-arts - Has made his share of mistakes.

Gilderoy Lockhart - Hospital patient - Recovering.

FictionOnlyReader - I lied, kind of - It will take two more chapters.

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

[

Webnovel has been 'shadowbanning' comments recently. This means that any comment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.

So, if you are commenting with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.

]

.

If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and blast those ideas.

The link is in the synopsis!


ความคิดของผู้สร้าง
FictionOnlyReader FictionOnlyReader

Just like always,

Review, comment, add to the library, and share this fic.

Thx

Link To Discord

https://discord.gg/w5dJ82SfMr

Load failed, please RETRY

สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์

ป้ายปลดล็อกตอน

สารบัญ

ตัวเลือกแสดง

พื้นหลัง

แบบอักษร

ขนาด

ความคิดเห็นต่อตอน

เขียนรีวิว สถานะการอ่าน: C70
ไม่สามารถโพสต์ได้ กรุณาลองใหม่อีกครั้ง
  • คุณภาพงานเขียน
  • ความเสถียรของการอัปเดต
  • การดำเนินเรื่อง
  • กาสร้างตัวละคร
  • พื้นหลังโลก

คะแนนรวม 0.0

รีวิวโพสต์สําเร็จ! อ่านรีวิวเพิ่มเติม
โหวตด้วย Power Stone
Rank 200+ การจัดอันดับพลัง
Stone 24 หินพลัง
รายงานเนื้อหาที่ไม่เหมาะสม
เคล็ดลับข้อผิดพลาด

รายงานการล่วงละเมิด

ความคิดเห็นย่อหน้า

เข้า สู่ ระบบ

tip ความคิดเห็นย่อย

คุณลักษณะความคิดเห็นย่อหน้าอยู่ในขณะนี้บนเว็บ! เลื่อนเมาส์ไปที่ย่อหน้าใดก็ได้แล้วคลิกไอคอนเพื่อเพิ่มความคิดเห็นของคุณ

นอกจากนี้คุณสามารถปิด / เปิดได้ตลอดเวลาในการตั้งค่า

เข้าใจแล้ว