CHAPTER 4
Sleeping in a bed was way more comfortable than the cupboard. His body felt the best it had in many years. It seemed to be overflowing with energy this morning. 'Yesterday really did happen. It wasn't just a dream.' After their talk Minerva had threatened the Dursleys about mistreating him again and had assured them that they hadn't seen the end of it. Harry had then been given the bedroom that Dudley used to store his toys.
All that was left now was waiting for Minerva to come and pick him up. She'd promised him that she'd be here by ten in the morning so that they could go and finish their shopping before the rush hour was upon them. Later they'd be able to tour the place with Minerva serving as a guide.
When the minute hand completed three quarters of its tenth rotation of the day, Harry went and stood on the porch waiting for Minerva to see how she'd come. She'd told him to expect to be amazed. And amazed he was when Minerva suddenly appeared outside the house with a pop.
"Good day to you Harry. I hope your night was pleasant and the Dursleys did not trouble you anymore after the talk down I gave them yesterday."
"Good morning to you too Professor. I had the best sleep in years. They allowed me to sleep in their spare bedroom. How did you suddenly appear here?"
"What I did is a form of magic called 'Apparition' Harry. It involves using magic to travel to places you can clearly picture in your mind by turning on the spot and picturing yourself disappearing from this place and appearing at the other. It is the fastest and most uncomfortable method of magical transportation. Do not be bothered about the physics of it for now Harry. It is something you'll learn about if you pursue a mastery in charms. Also do not attempt to do it right now. You are a growing child and your magic remains quite unstable until you attain the age of seventeen."
"I remember 'apparition-ing' Professor. Once when I had to escape from Dudley and his gang I think I apparition-ed and arrived at the roof of my school."
"For your reference, apparition changes to apparate, apparated and apparating Harry. What you might have experienced is a powerful bout of accidental magic. Let me give you a small lesson about magic. Walk with me"
"Magic is a force that is as old as time but one that remains as elusive as it was. While there have been attempts to quantify magic and provide it a structure of some sorts there are still things we don't know about it and we may never know about it too. We do not know where it came from, why it does what it does or how it does what it does. But we know that we can do a few things with it and most people remain complacent with what they know. The thing with magicals is that they live a longer life. And are far fewer in number. So they're also lesser inclined to find out more about themselves and happy to remain in their small little world being insignificant in the greater scheme of things. Which is also why dark lords are a thing in our world. People with too much energy and money left with absolutely nothing to do due to their mediocrity is a very dangerous thing Harry. Voldemort was able to gain power and influence because magical Britain is either too scared easily or too influenced easily. The sense of belonging to a greater faction doing something out of the normal tempted countless lackwits into doing terrible things."
"While magic can be used to do these limited things efficiently, raw magic is and incredible force with unlimited potential. What we do know is that magic seems to work on intent and belief. We do not know if magic is alive but I personally think it is. Now I'm about to show you a basic spell which will be among the first things you learn at Hogwarts. The chant is 'Lumos' and its intended to glow the tip of your wand with a white light."
'Lumos' she uttered and allowed the tip of her wand to glow.
"Do you see this Harry? The chant that I used helped me to focus my magic into its desired effect and my belief in magic allowed it to light up the tip of my wand. This is a part of systematic magic. Systematic magic is when you give structure to magic by using your wand as a focus and your spell as a guide to achieve the effect that you want. Magical Europe uses 'Latin' spells to cast magic. Americans use Mayan and Incan languages. India uses Samskrutam. Japan, China and Korea use older dialects of their current language. Africa uses lots of different languages based on who you ask and so on. But the point is that systematic magic is used particularly because it increases efficiency of casting magic."
"Can we use English to cast spells ma'am?"
"Excellent question Harry. Bear with me as I delve into a bit of psychology. This was experimented on in the 18th and 19th century. While the experiments didn't end up giving conclusive results, some of the things that were determined were that certain languages have gained a particular status in the collective consciousness of different geographical locations. Europe believes Latin to be a 'special' language just like different other regions have different languages that they attribute the special status to. What happens here is that the belief in Latin to be an extra ordinary language reduces the need for belief in magic to do it's work."
"It is like shifting the goal posts isn't it ma'am? Because they believe Latin to already be a 'magical' language, they don't need to work on their belief of magic but instead only need to cast spells in Latin with clear intent and they can get it to work."
"Exactly. So magic in it's systematic form is like an amalgamation of various concepts working together in tandem. What do you think apparition is Harry?"
"If as you said, it doesn't need a wand or a spell, then does it belong to 'asystematic magic'?"
Minerva laughed, "Close Harry, but it is actually called 'Chaotic magic'"
"Chaotic magic is using magic in it's raw untamed form. Apparition is impossible to do between extremely long distances because our body cannot gather and use that much of magic at once. You can't apparate to the moon. You can't apparate from England to say America or India but you can generally apparate from England to France or Wales if you are powerful enough. Dumbledore at the peak of his power could apparate from Germany to Scotland. Voldemort is said to have apparated from England to Albania but Voldemort had dabbled in a lot of dark rituals which exchanged his humanity for power. To prevent people from randomly apparating themselves from one country to another, the various ministries agreed to put up anti apparition wards around their countries. So you can't apparate into other countries or more specifically, other magical communities anymore Harry."
"So what do people use when they want to travel to other countries ma'am?"
Minerva grinned as she held out a feather towards Harry motioning him to touch it.
The grin on her face worried him but he trusted her to not have ill intentions towards him. She took out her wand and spoke
"This might be a little uncomfortable but bear with me Harry and remember to close your eyes till you feel you've come to a stop. Portus"
Harry closed his eyes felt a tingling sensation in his navel before he was abruptly pulled into what felt like a tube. When he opened his eyes he was lying face first on the ground and his first sensation was to throw up his breakfast but he managed to gain control of himself before he could do so. He looked up to see Minerva's grin had widened and he scowled at her. She held her hand out and he grabbed onto it before pulling himself up and asking
"What was that! Was that apparition? Why was it so uncomfortable?"
"That was another form of wizarding travel which used the feather as a 'portkey'. Once again, 'portkeys' are strictly regulated and most of what applied to apparition applies to portkeys too, but because the object itself doesn't have magic of it's own, you can dump more magic into it"
"Come along Harry we still have a bit of walking and talking to do"
"Could have done with a better warning Professor"
"Ah Harry, you think too much, didn't want you to harm yourself in the portkey. Now, as I was saying, portkeys are another form of magical travel which lie between systematic and chaotic. While the end result is more of a chaotic magic, the beginning is systematic, because you are transferring the belief to the object you use to portkey."
"As to why it was so uncomfortable, it is believed that your body has an internal core somewhere near your stomach which forms a major part of your magical reserves. It is believed that like blood even magic circulates through out the body and it is incredibly difficult if not impossible to control it. Think of it like trying to control your blood flow. Your wand acts like a syringe in a sense. 'Squibs' lack the internal magic required to manipulate the external magic. As to what 'Squibs' are, they are another part of the magical community who are essentially muggles but are born to magical parents. Coming back to our original topic, accidental magic involves purely manipulating external magic while another form of esoteric magic called 'wandless magic' involves manipulating your internal magic. The East was huge on wandless magic in the olden days. But as time progressed, pollution reduced the amount of magic saturated in the air and now it has become a custom to use wands everywhere. There are still places that are highly saturated with magic like the Amazon Rain forest or the Himalayas or even the Sahara desert. When you cast a spell, your internal magic is being pushed through your wand which in turn manipulates the magic in the atmosphere in a way. So when you apparate or when you use a portkey, the place with the highest concentration of magic in your body reacts first, which is why you feel a pull in your navel. Do not think too much of it. These are all things that most magicals never bother learning in their life because they sorely lack the passion about magic. For them magic is just something regular. They lack the excitement and wonder that they need to possess. Never lose your wonder towards magic Harry. Being born as a magical is a privilege in every sense of the word."
"Here we are. The entrance to 'Leaky Cauldron'. It is an inn which guards the entrance to Britain's own magical alley. It is named Diagon Alley"
"Come on now, we have shopping to do"
AN: And I think I'll end it there for this chapter. Next chapter features Daphne.
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