"It is incredibly strange," Alan muttered, staring down at his empty hands. "Why is it that immediately after using a wand, I completely lose the ability to grasp that familiar, instinctive feeling of raw telekinesis?"
His analytical mind raced, meticulously breaking down the problem. "Could it be that a wand isn't merely a simple wooden conduit for casting spells, but actually serves a much deeper structural purpose? Does it act as a magical stabilizer? Perhaps my raw, inherent magic used to be wildly active and highly unstable, which ironically made it easier to force out without a focus. In contrast, the wand streamlines the process. It simplifies spellcasting because channeling energy through the core drastically increases the stability and efficiency of the magical flow."
Alan pondered these different tactical possibilities for a long moment. He picked up his black-jade wand, *Dark Painting*, and deliberately cast the Levitation Charm several more times in rapid succession. With his eyes closed, he repeatedly memorized the precise, physical sensation of casting with a wand. He meticulously tracked how the power moved from his core, down his arm, and out through the wood, before finally setting the wand back down on the desk.
He stood up perfectly straight, his knees slightly bent in a relaxed martial arts stance, and gradually released the tension in his muscles. In his mind, he completely abandoned his old, crude method of forcefully brute-forcing the magic. Instead, he visualized and attempted to perfectly replicate the highly efficient, streamlined magical trajectory that the wand naturally created.
After a short period of intense concentration, Alan slowly opened his eyes. The heavy leather-bound book he had been using for his spell practice was already floating silently in the air directly in front of him.
"I understand now," Alan concluded softly. "Using a wand to cast spells allows for a far more rational, structured guidance and utilization of magical energy, which makes the entire process exponentially more efficient. My previous, self-taught method was simply too primitive and crude. Therefore, once my body experienced a vastly superior, optimized solution, the old, inefficient pathway naturally stopped responding."
What absolutely no one could have anticipated was that while merely practicing the simplest, most fundamental Levitation Charm, Alan had inadvertently and invisibly mastered the highly advanced techniques of non-verbal and wandless spellcasting far ahead of his peers.
Years of rigorously practicing his raw mental power and telekinesis had not only drastically increased Alan's baseline proficiency with the Levitation Charm, but it had also made his physical body uniquely hyper-sensitive to the flow of magic.
Simultaneously, due to his years of relentless, daily magical exertion, his total magical capacity and sheer output intensity were already far beyond what any ordinary eleven-year-old wizard could ever hope to match.
Having finally isolated the correct feeling, the most critical next step was to rigorously consolidate it into his muscle memory. Alan spent almost the entirety of his remaining afternoon repeatedly casting the Levitation Charm—sometimes utilizing his wand, sometimes performing it entirely wandless; sometimes speaking the incantation aloud, and sometimes casting in complete, focused silence.
Before long, Alan felt a deep, satisfying certainty that he was gradually achieving comprehensive, absolute mastery over this foundational spell.
Just as he was contemplating extending his grueling practice session a bit longer, Alan heard his stomach let out a loud, demanding growl. Glancing over at his pocket watch, he was genuinely surprised to realize that the afternoon had completely slipped away; it was already late evening, and he had entirely missed lunch. Intimately knowing the vital tactical importance of balancing intense physical work with proper nutritional recovery, Alan quickly calmed his racing mind, packed away his textbook, and prepared to head downstairs for a hearty meal.
"Well, look who it is. Listen here, kid, young people shouldn't just sleep the day away locked in their rooms. You didn't even bother to come down for a midday bite," Tom called out. The hunched pub owner, who was currently reading the evening edition of the newspaper from behind the scarred wooden bar, saw Alan descending the stairs and naturally assumed the boy had simply slept from dawn until dusk.
"I wouldn't happen to be hearing a complaint just because I wasn't down here to cook a proper lunch for you, would I, Tom?" Alan shot back with a polite but knowing smirk. Ever since he had shown off his superior culinary skills to the bartender yesterday afternoon, both last night's dinner and this morning's breakfast had been personally handled by Alan. He was in remarkably high spirits after his magical breakthrough and couldn't resist lightly joking with his host.
"Don't flatter yourself, lad! I was simply worried about you. I was half-afraid you'd gone and starved yourself to death up in that room!" Tom grumbled, though seeing that Alan was still in a lighthearted enough mood to joke around took the edge off his mild annoyance.
"Alright, alright, it's entirely my fault," Alan conceded with a warm grin as he walked purposefully toward the kitchen doors. "I will show off my skills and make it up to you tonight. I guarantee you will be completely satisfied with dinner."
True to his word, Alan expertly prepared a highly sumptuous, multi-course dinner. In return, a highly appreciative Tom poured the boy a tall, frosty glass of Butterbeer. Alan found this unique, non-alcoholic beverage of the wizarding world to be incredibly novel; it possessed the rich, sweet, fragrant taste of butterscotch, yet it completely lacked any heavy or greasy aftertaste.
"I noticed you were intensely focused on the newspaper a moment ago. Is there any new intelligence?" Alan asked casually, taking a sip of his drink.
Tom's face immediately fell, the lines on his forehead deepening. "Things are just getting more and more chaotic out there lately. That You-Know-Who and his vicious band of Death Eaters have violently clashed with the Ministry of Magic yet again. An Auror from the Ministry was even seriously injured in the crossfire this time. Honestly, I just don't know when these dark days are ever going to end." The pub owner was clearly deeply burdened and worried about the deteriorating political situation.
*Death Eaters?* Alan mentally filed the term away. *Are those the radical insurgents who follow this Voldemort character?* He realized he had just uncovered another crucial piece of operational terminology; he would absolutely have to start meticulously collecting and compiling intelligence regarding the political factions of this world from scratch.
After finishing the hearty dinner with Tom, Alan stood up and gave a casual, sweeping wave of his hand. Without a single word spoken, the empty plates, bowls, and silverware resting on the wooden table smoothly floated up into the air and flew in an orderly line straight toward the kitchen sink, exactly under his precise mental command.
Tom's jaw practically unhinged, his eyes widening to the size of Galleons at the casual display. Such incredibly proficient wandless casting—even if it was technically just a simple Levitation Charm—was a highly advanced feat that very few fully qualified, adult wizards could ever manage to pull off so effortlessly.
"You... how in Merlin's beard did you—!" Tom sputtered, pointing a shaking finger at the kitchen.
"Let's just call it the resulting burst of energy from skipping lunch," Alan replied with a charming, mysterious smile. He turned and smoothly ascended the stairs to his room, leaving a thoroughly shell-shocked Tom standing frozen in the middle of the empty pub.
Over the course of the following days, Alan maintained his grueling schedule and continuously learned a wide variety of new, practical spells. He focused heavily on utility charms, rapidly memorizing the theories behind the Unlocking Charm (*Alohomora*), the Wand-Lighting Charm (*Lumos*), the Scouring Charm (*Scourgify*), the Impervius Charm, and the Water-Making Spell (*Aguamenti*). He also began delving into basic Defense Against the Dark Arts, studying the Impediment Jinx, the Jelly-Legs Curse, and the Knockback Jinx.
Some of these spells could be successfully cast simply by meticulously following the precise incantations and wand gestures illustrated in the textbooks. For the more complex spells where he couldn't quite figure out the correct pronunciation or wand inflection just by reading the theory, he humbly went downstairs to consult Tom. Under the surprisingly enthusiastic and knowledgeable guidance of the veteran bartender, Alan was basically able to master the foundational mechanics of all his selected spells.
However, despite his rapid progress, the only spell he could reliably and proficiently execute through wandless casting remained the Levitation Charm. Alan logically deduced that this limitation was because his fundamental mastery and underlying comprehension of the newly acquired spells simply weren't deep enough yet. Through his rigorous training, he also managed to summarize several core, universal patterns governing the laws of magic.
First, he noted that the sheer intensity and effectiveness of the exact same spell varied drastically from person to person. For example, the *Lumos* charm cast by the elderly Tom was significantly brighter and more stable than the one initially cast by Alan. This was simply because Tom possessed decades of practical proficiency and a far deeper, more ingrained understanding of the spell's structural foundation.
Secondly, he discovered that a wizard's sheer willpower and emotional state directly impacted the intensity of a spell. This was a crucial tactical concept Alan gleaned from observing Tom; when executing offensive or defensive magic, the firmer the caster's will and the stronger their determination, the exponentially more powerful the resulting magical effect. After deliberately brewing a state of focused, aggressive emotion, Alan's own *Lumos* became vastly superior to when he simply recited the spell mechanically.
This principle perfectly explained why dark wizards were widely considered to be such lethal experts in combat; Dark Arts inherently relied on intense, malicious emotions, and repeatedly channeling such spells could inversely corrupt and permanently alter a wizard's psychological state.
Therefore, Alan definitively concluded that three primary factors—willpower, emotional resonance, and technical proficiency—dictated the active intensity of any given spell. Meanwhile, a wizard's raw, biological output intensity and their total magical capacity determined their absolute upper ceiling of magical power.
Armed with this profound understanding, Alan quickly adjusted the trajectory of his subsequent study and training regimen.
Alan firmly believed that acquiring immediate, lethal self-protection capabilities was currently the absolute highest priority. To achieve that tactical objective as fast as possible, he needed to rapidly master and completely specialize in one single, highly effective spell.
His criteria were strict: First, it had to be relatively simple and straightforward to learn—overly complex theoretical spells that he couldn't immediately weaponize were utterly useless to him right now. Secondly, it needed to be highly versatile in a combat scenario, preferably possessing an incredibly high ceiling for power output.
He carefully calculated the strategic value of the various self-defense spells he had currently learned, specifically weighing the merits of the Impediment Jinx, the Disarming Charm (*Expelliarmus*), and the Knockback Jinx.
In his past life, when analyzing tactical simulations or engaging in combat, Alan had always heavily favored the 'specialist' methodology—relentlessly dumping every single available hour of training into mastering one specific combat skill until it became an unstoppable, overwhelming force. In short, his military philosophy was simple: if you fail to defeat your enemy, it is simply because you lacked sufficient, overwhelming power.
After careful, calculated consideration, Alan officially decided to pour all of his focus into specializing in the Impediment Jinx first. For one, he had already mastered its foundational theory remarkably quickly during his initial studies, which gave him a distinct intuitive feeling that the spell heavily suited his personal combat style. Secondly, he believed this specific jinx possessed an exceptionally high degree of tactical developability. If it functioned exactly as he hypothesized it would under extreme magical pressure, the Impediment Jinx would evolve into a terrifyingly versatile spell that perfectly combined both impenetrable defense and crushing offense.