I spent the next month reading through every single one of my books. Runes for Beginners didn't have anything that I could use right now; it was more like the rules of runes. It included things like how to use languages together and the specific techniques used to make anything from magical artifacts to wards and rituals. After that it did not take me very long to lose my head in the clouds, dreaming of all the magic this world had to offer. After I managed to drag myself back down to earth I started on the next book.
Rituals for the Novice was very useful as it not only went into the rituals that were done during major holidays but minor rituals I could do every day. Part of the reason magical families were so arrogant were the rituals that had been passed down for hundreds of years, each generation adding more. I knew I wouldn't have access to those rituals for a while, so I studied the minor rituals instead. While all rituals need sacrifice in order to bring about an effect, the minor rituals took something equally small.
The ritual I was most interested in was one that replaced the need to shower by sacrificing a fruit or vegetable. Luckily the actual ritual only needed to be done once, every time after I would only need to wake before dawn and hold the fruit in one hand while I faced the sun with my eyes closed. I need to keep my eyes shut until the sun passes the horizon, but the ritual was very useful to people back in the middle ages when bathing was harder.
But I was most interested in the fact that rituals sounded like a computer program. As long as curtain conditions are true the ritual will continue indefinitely. The most powerful rituals were self contained, needing no outside input. The part that got me really excited was the examples of ancient rituals that have been used throughout history and are still active to this day. Like the disappearance of Atlantis or the Fountain of Youth. Thankfully the beginning of the book had a multitude of warnings about the type of sacrifices that were recommended. As the Aztecs proved, too much sacrifice can cause a backlash, and the longer someone tried to delay it the worse it would be.
The third book I decided to read quickly became my favorite, The Land of the Fae. It was interesting to see how many different types of creatures were out there in the world. The way that they interacted with the world and magic itself taught much to wizards before the invention of the wand. It seems while wands had helped wizards have more control over the chaotic nature of their magic it had also weakened its potency. Rituals were the first type of magic wizards used to match up to the other magical races, and many wars were started purely to empower the runes they used. I was horrified to discover that runes had power because of the enumerable lives sacrificed.
I needed a break from the book after I read that so I moved on to my core classes. Charms seemed like it would be the most difficult for me, I just couldn't understand some of the effects I read about. How was a pineapple growing legs and dancing a single charm instead of a transfiguration and animation charm? Thankfully I understood Transfiguration much better, there were not many actual spells as they depended on the will of the object transfigured. That was why students started with simple inanimate to inanimate transfiguration and worked their way up to human transfiguration.
It also explained how the Marauders were able to complete the animagus ritual as they were trying to change themselves instead of forcing the change on someone else. Once I knew that I put the animagus ritual on my list of rituals I have to do as soon as possible. I was curious what form I would get as certain forms would be really cool, a bird for flight or a wolf for the enhanced sense of smell. It would also be really cool if magical animagi turned out to be a real thing. Unfortunately while the different things transfiguration could do was cool, getting my skills up to par could only be done through repetition as transfiguration relied heavily upon visualization.
So I was not looking forward to that, but I knew that I would be able to stick with it and eventually my efforts would pay off. Most of the book was filled with meditation techniques and even some equations explaining the arithmancy of each object we were going to practice with. So I skimmed through that, right now I was more interested in what magic could do instead of how. I knew I would need to learn about this in the future but for now I moved onto potions. When I opened the book I was expecting something simple like a cookbook or something complicated like a chemistry textbook. Instead it was a mix of runes and rituals, the more complicated potions would need long breaks between stages as the ritual needed time to take full effect.
The stirring motions started with clockwise and counterclockwise but eventually runes would need to be traced in order to produce specific effects. Some of the materials need to be burned, melted, or even solidified to combine the materials into something usable. I noticed as I read the first few potions that a single ingredient could have multiple effects so I made sure to grab my herbology book and found each ingredient. I was shocked when I found out that how you harvest a plant will affect what sort of effects the plant will have. The way we were going to be taught first made the ingredients calm, but the book warned that certain methods would have disastrous effects.
The bouncing bulb would produce a slime if massaged that would have a cleaning effect on the skin. On the other hand if the bulb was cut apart and the seeds extracted it could be used in a ritual that will cause the seeds to bounce off the target. I laughed when I read that and decided to look at my defense book next. Sadly it was more boring than I was hoping, it seemed like most of the year was going to be spent taking notes on all the dangers a wizard could come across. Very few actual spells would be learned, so I was going to have to find something better in the library.
I was surprised when I read through my history book and found out that it was actually very interesting. I learned the most about the magical world just from reading this book, it only went over the big events that had occurred in the last 7000 years. And wasn't that a shock, magicals actually recorded history for such a long time. But it was both exciting and terrifying to read about the feats of magic that had been performed over the last 7 millena. The Fog Of Avalon, the Sinking of Atlantis, Drawing of the Veil, the Eradication of the Aztecs. The Drawing of the Veil was the most interesting for the sheer scale involved, a ritual that erased magic from the minds of the non-magical.
It seemed like I saved the strangest for last, Astronomy was weird. On one hand it was used in navigation, but not just on earth. If you knew how it would also guide you through the branches of Yggdrasil. Which were actually leylines that spread through the entire universe. The nine realms being the realms where magic was most concentrated upon Yggdrasil. It also explained why Midgard, at the center of Yggdrasil, was desired by every dimensional demon. The amount of power they could harness if they conquered Midgard would be astronomical. But magic was a universal force that was present everywhere, but further from ley lines decreased the magical density.
Yggdrasil could be used to move anywhere if you knew how, but to go beyond its branches was exceedingly dangerous and most get lost and never return. Most of the fae lived on Yggdrasil and only rarely ventured out of their homes. But Yggdrasil was not only a way of travel but also affected natural magics, the ebb and flow of magic only matters in the more complicated spells. So while Astronomy would be interesting in the later years I was in for a rough few years of memorization. I couldn't spend all my time reading so I also made sure to practice the different spells.
I started with the lumos and nox charms. It was both easier and harder than I thought it would be. It was easier to do because a wizard only needed to form a connection with their magic, the light is a manifestation of a person's magic. It was also used as a control exercise, the brightness and color can be changed when different amounts of magic are applied in different ways. It was harder because without the use of my wand it was always fluctuating. It flickered, changed colors, and would stay where it was put. Eventually I was able to stop the flickering and got it to stay one color, but I could not get it to stop moving.
After I had gone through a few charms I noticed that my wand acted like a valve for my magic, so I would practice with my wand first before trying without. Transfiguration was very frustrating to try and perform wandless. I thought it would be easy because transfiguration was more about visualization than spells. I was very wrong, the control needed in transfiguration was INSANE and any lack of control produced odd side effects. The tamer side effects only caused weird protrusions. The worse ones would give me nightmares for a long time. After I accidentally made something that had too many EYES and TEETH I decided to wait until at least my third year to do any more experimentation with transfiguration.
I could not experiment with the rest of the magic I had read about, I did not have anywhere I could hide to practice potions. I found out that runes needed special equipment to work and I was also worried something would go wrong, explosions were common when practicing rune arrays. I had no target to practice the few defensive spells that the book had actually taught, and rituals needed regents and runes in order to work. Time passed quickly as I lost myself in studying magic, and soon it was the morning I would leave for Hogwarts. I ended up waking up way too early so after I finished packing I sat on the steps and waited for Dumbledore. As I waited I thought about how my life was about to change. I was going to learn magic and hopefully meet someone that would share the wonder I held for this world.
My head was knocked out of the clouds by a voice filled with mirth, "Good morning Tom. Are you ready to head out?" I almost jumped out of my skin when I finally noticed Dumbledore standing in front of me. He smiled and I realized that he had been standing there for a moment, waiting for me to say something. I blushed and nodded as he took my trunk and shrunk it down to the size of a matchbox. "For easy transportation." I then thought of something that would probably give him a good laugh. "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"
He gave a chuckle at that "The first and the third I believe. I rather enjoyed that book and can not wait to see how it will continue. It tells a rather compelling story. When it first came out, the ICW was in quite a tizzy trying to find out whether the story wizarding world had been exposed. There were quite a lot of..." Dumbledore continued to lecture as we made our way to the same place as last time. As he talked we made our way towards the Floo we had taken to the Leaky Cauldron, I made sure to ask as many questions as I could fit in. He seemed to enjoy my curiosity and often went into depth on whatever topic I asked about.
As we arrived he stopped his lecture "... and that is why you must never try to do the animagus ritual for more than one animal. Ah, I see we have arrived. This will be a bit different as we will be flooding to Kings Cross Station. Now take some of this powder, throw it into the fire and call out your destination. Once you call out your destinations keep your elbows in and your knees bent. When you can feel the ground under your feet, walk forward. Stay close to the fireplace as the muggle repelling charm only covers the immediate area." He handed me some gray powder and took some for himself.
I have to admit I was a bit curious how this would work, so without hesitating much I did as I was told. It was a wild ride that almost shot me out of the fireplace but I managed to keep on my feet and not make a fool of myself. I looked around as soon as I was sure of my footing and stepped to the side, no one noticed my arrival. It was very crowded with lots of people going on and off the train. When Dumbledore came through he guided me to the portal between platforms 9 and 10. He had explained that platform 9 ¾ was actually a pocket dimension and the tracks were hidden by some of the best wards available.
When we entered the platform I saw a hundred different examples of magic from people with floating trunks behind them to a man that had a chimney blowing smoke out of his hat. Some were practical, but most were just strange and I was excited to find out what purpose the vines I saw growing out of someone's head was. The fruits at the end of each vine ramped my curiosity up another couple notches. I felt like my head was going to come off trying to take everything in so I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths. When I opened my eyes I saw Dumbledore giving me a sympathetic smile
I was startled when his hand gripped my shoulder. "Exciting isn't it, to be able to see all this magic done without worry all around you." Dumbledore looked almost wistful as he spoke. "The world at large is not ready for things like this. Perhaps some day, hopefully if not in my lifetime then in yours." He then guided me to the train stopping now and then to chat with people. I was too busy thinking about what he had said, I saw all these amazing things and I knew what would happen if we were discovered. Fear and jealousy could cause many to die if not handled correctly. But I also knew that discovery was inevitable, so now I had a new goal. Make sure when we are discovered as few people as possible are hurt or killed.