Author Notes - So it's been over a month, and I honestly didn't even realize, so caught up in life as I've been. But, here's my update. I'm basically done with the next chapter, too. It should be up when we've had time to go over it, but we've both got things coming up which will slow down the beta-reading of the chapter. So it'll probably be 2 weeks, maybe 3, for an update. We'll see. I'm hoping 2.
Journal Entry: 34 - Shadow Arts.
Since that day back in late January, when the Room of Requirement first showed me the Book of Shadowed Arts, I've come pretty far. (see entry 1 for more detail)
I find it fitting that this so closely tie into the time the room, when I require it to show me who or what I am, starts calling a "Living Shadow" - among the other things. It was around then that I finally mastered my shadow-jumping, and as of yet, I've found I can shadow-jump to anywhere within 5-kilometers of myself, as long as the area doesn't have some kind of obscene ward scheme going back nearly a millennium, like Hogwarts. Even then, I'm only stopped along the boundaries.
The other nice thing that came with this mastery of my basic shadow abilities was the room providing a book - which it hadn't before - which gave me access to 'High Shadow-Magic'.
Which is what the Book of Shadowed Arts entails.
The first few chapters, I found, were on the creatures of shadow, everything from the Thestral, to the Drømmeskygge.
What's a Drømmeskygge? Think Shadow Phoenix, like Thunderbird is Lightning Phoenix and you're on the right path.
Specifically, they are a creature of rest and peace, most commonly found in quiet ruins and still clearings. The birds value quiet and stillness, which is why owl-like features can be seen in many graveyards and old ruins. Indirectly, this leads to an undeserved and grim reputation for the bird. When it encounters people in distress, it will make an effort to preserve it's peace or scare them away, so it can be left alone.
If these fail, it'll often move away for a time, so that it can be left in peace. Rarely, they'll make an attempt to help alleviate those in distress' cause, though the reason for that seems to be entirely mysterious.
Then, it goes into the dangers of summoning each of these, and how overuse of the higher-shadow arts can (and has) spawned shadow Demons, which are commonly called Dementors.
So don't overuse them (which means no summoning unless you need it, or once a month, whichever comes first, for example.)
There's also ways to make weapons of shadow - mostly light thrown things, like darts, daggers, etc. There was an explanation for swords, arrows and even an aegis, but they were all theory, and seemed like 'someone did this and we (the author) are not sure how' instead of 'this is possible, here's how you do it'. Kinda frustrating.
The top-level, though, has 2 specific things.
Summon Aragami, and Transformation of the Shadow Emperor.
The Summon Aragami basically takes someone's soul (preferably an enemy) and turns it into a memoryless husk which serves you.
If you're not careful, they can regain memories and turn against you though, as proven by the Wolf-Queen, who won her freedom by summoning an Aragami, only to be slain by the same Aragami in turn.
That same Wolf Queen was one of a long line of Shadow-Emperors, which was a title given to the greatest Shadow-Mages in the east.
Specifically China, but pretty much all of Asia respected them.
The author of the book - Asket Malarin, an Egyptian Shadow Mage, theorizes that the Pharaohs used a similar thing to the Transformation of the Shadow Emperor to assume their forms - but they used their element instead of Shadow. Which gave them the visage of a powerful animal, and that animal usually was linked to a god, who they would be said to personify.
Or maybe the god gave them the element and their mastery of the element gave them the form which the god preordained for them? Interesting theories.
Either way, it's a rough 'how to' for summoning, making pacts with, and using shadow-magics for summoning creatures, weapons, and even armor or barriers.
Weapons, armor and barriers can use your own, personal shadow, so come at no risk. The other stuff is all risky, though, so you need to be careful with the 1-month rule.
Or else Dementors.
When I finished each part of the book, I did manage to get a basic 'how to train' out of the room - notes of people other than me. Most recent ones were from 228 years ago - of other people who used the book and how they did it - what worked and what didn't.
Long story short - they were too scared to even attempt summoning the shadow-bird, had Thestrals to go stare at outside, and didn't want to mess with other creatures of shadow at all. Mostly, the creatures of darkness do deserve their reputations. Shadow can be a place of solace, but mostly it is linked with fear, and a lot of the creatures mirror this.
But the notes of the three people before me, all agree you should start with weapons, then move to armor, then, finally, wrap up with the barrier. I find I must concur with this assessment.
I have not, but there was notes on one prior shadow mage, Jon Collins, who summoned an Aragami. He said they could also make traps of shadow, (like mines, from the sound of it) along with what seemed to be free-control of creatures of the night in general, like the common Owl, or even rats.
I've been studying to replicate these abilities for my personal use, since they sound pretty useful.
Summoning an Aragami sounds useless in general, since when daybreak hits, the Aragami dies.
This brings into question the validity of an Aragami defeating an army and freeing the Queen of Shadows, as the book told.
Maybe the same one was summoned many times? Whatever it was, he didn't risk it. In the end, he never figured out the tricks to Aragami's more finite control of Shadow.
From his notes, and my trials over the last month, I can say he was looking at it wrong.
Shadow magic is not exactly comparable to Arcane Magic - it's more akin to Divine Magic, and I'm pretty sure it is, actually from a divine source. Some god or another.
All that aside, this means it's innately harder to control by mortal means. You can do it, you just have to treat it like water as opposed to clay. Which means making a container for it - out of normal magic.
Until you can figure out how to 'freeze' the 'water' which is shadow magic. Then you can use all Shadow magic for this stuff. That sounds really hard though, with the basic control given with the exercises outlined in the book of High-Shadow Magic.
I figured out the 'mine' of shadow pretty quickly. Just use a regular landmine spell, replace the 'explosion' bit with 'shadow magic' bit and boom, shadow landmine.
It's more complicated of course, but the Arithmancy is pretty hard, and I'm not going to duplicate my notes on it here, that sounds stupid. Go read Arithmancy Journal 17, entry 8 for those details.
Interestingly, the Shadow Mine seems to delete whatever activates it, living or not.
RIP random mouse which ran on the third test-trap.
When I say delete, I mean there was no trace of the trap or the thing which activated it - usually just random rocks, or in that one case a mouse - hitting it. I don't dare try anything larger though. It'd be really bad news if it also deleted, say, a House Elf who popped in next to me for dinner or something.
Which they started doing in mid-February after I missed dinner 3 days in a row.
Other than that, Shadow Daggers, and Armor, were pretty easy to make. Darts, less so. Swords were also not too hard, and by late April, I was pretty sure I had all of the 'basic stuff' down.
Now I have a sword, armor and backup dagges on me always.
The really cool thing about shadow-armor is it looks like a cat-suit. Just full-body, pitch black and skin-tight. So you could wear it under other, actual armor, and use the shadow from that armor, cast on your skin, to make the armor and probably a few daggers, without having to 'dip into' your own shadow - which I found was not infinite!
It was awkward having to explain to Sarah why I had no Shadow, and that yes, it was coming back, probably.
Probably.
It came back 2 days later.
All in all, I found that wearing looser, more shadowy things is better when practicing shadow-magic, and began doing so.
Wearing 3 layers in an ice-cold Room of Requirement wasn't how I imagined practice would go.
Today, though, I'm putting these studies up for now. I want to focus on really bringing in my skills and rounding myself out.
Not magically, socially. I've become a bit of a recluse over the last year, with all this training and tournaments and so forth. So I've called the gang together for this Hogsmede. We're going out to do some shopping, then, we're set for a Picnic.
It's Hogsmeade Weekend, and it's sunny, warm and generally good out.
We plan to just go out, find a nice spot by the lake and relax. The house-elves have even agreed to supply us with some light food. We just had to ask nicely (which shocked Adrian. I wonder why?)
Myself, Daphne, Astoria, Sarah, Alicia and Adrian, anyways. Cedric said he didn't want to do something 'that girly' and instead was going broom shopping when we finished in Hogsmeade. No one else had time, due to detention stopping them from getting out.
Alas.
I put down the pen as I wrap up the final entry, summarizing the journal on Shadow-Magic so far this year, and nearly jump out of my skin as Sarah nearly tackles me out of my chair.
"Ready?" She asks, all too excitedly.
Cursed early morning energy. This is what I get for waking up early to get my work out of the way before she wakes up though - I'm groggy, grumpy and not fully awake. Inversely, she - fresh out of bed, you can tell by her hair- is too energetic.
"Yea. Just need to get some food and coffee for myself. Put the journal up with the others and such before we go.." I mumble, closing the journal with one hand, before lazily waving my wand and watching it go flying off onto the shelf in question, which holds all of my journals from this year. All my others are in my trunk, for now.
As I do this, the vibrating Sarah is almost bouncing off the walls with her energy. I really want to sigh, but refrain, and get dressed.
Somehow she's done getting ready before me, in spite of my head-start.
"... but yea!" She continues our conversation, which is covering Jase and his lack of fashion sense, and his very stunted growth in comparison to his stellar first and second year at Hogwarts. He's a bit of a hot-topic in my year, though I'd seen it coming back in first year.
Stellar stats make it hard to want to try, because it's all too easy.
"Jase is really slipping recently. You can tell he's stressed because what used to be much better cared for hair is starting to look a bit more messy, and his robes are a bit ruffled. I think he's probably not sleeping so well, due to his poor performance, and it's affecting all aspects of him." She continues, reiterating one of the main points every girl had noticed.
Jase is a pretty good looking guy, there's no denying it. His jawline is pretty firm, and it's really hard not to notice his eyes, either. But his fashion sense and lack of self care is what stops him from getting active female attention.
The consensus seems to be 'wait to see if he gets better'. I'm hoping for his sake, he does. Cormac is a good example of what will happen if he doesn't.
"I agree, it's a shame, really. I thought he would make a good rival of sorts, for when I grew up. He could academically keep up at first, but after a while it became apparent that while he had natural talent, he relied on that over studying. Now he's realizing it, too, and, well, it's taking its toll. We've seen how that can affect some people. Cormac and Markus Flint are good examples. They've both had repeat years threatened, I hear. Talent does not equal skill, after all." I agree and add my own points, again. This is a familiar, well tread conversation topic.
Other people - specifically boys (though some girls)- and how they handle themselves. Very important conversation topics, since it helps you get a sense of where you stand socially with others, when you can see how they feel for other people. Then you see how you are treated in relation to those people you talked about, and you can see how the person you're talking to feels about you, in a roundabout sort of way.
If they complain endlessly about a lot of things to a person, but get along with them better than they do you, then it's likely they have more issues with you. Or they have one very big one. Being able to figure things like this out is important from a social standing.
Doing it with friends like this is a sort of mock-up for when they need to do the real thing with someone more naturally positioned to themselves. Most people outside of Adrian, Sarah and maaaaybe Cedric would need this scrutiny, for example.
And neither Adrian or Cedric care for the roundabout word games, really. Adrian can play, but he blatantly hates them all. He'd like it more if people were more direct with their opinions, all the time.
Don't we all?
"But that's the thing - if he had that much latent talent, why not nurture it as much as he could?" She asks. "He's the complete package if he just puts in work and takes care of himself!" She continues, and, as we round the final bend to the great hall, I spot him, the object of our conversation, picking up his dropped bookbag.
Now, why does he have a bookbag on the day of Hogsmeade? He doesn't have a detention - I'd know if he did. Also, no classes?
Odd.
As he brushes past us, I hit him with an observe while I continue my chatter about how boys just don't take care of themselves well enough with Sarah, keeping it arbitrary so as not to seem directed at him, but plain enough to make it clear I'm not hiding my opinion of people - like him - who aren't taking care of themselves.
Jason "Jase" Moore
Level 18
HP - 32,903
MP - 23,863
STM - 8,547
Age - 14
Race - Human (⅔) Mixed.
Gender - Male
Str…
Reputation -4/10
Jason does not like you for 3 simple reasons.
You're better than him at everything for no reason. You're clearly a spoiled brat. You have all the free time in the world while he has to do hard work all day.
Or at least he did.
Recently, Jason found a workaround to his lack of free time - which is to say, he's forcing other people to do his work for him, so he can focus on becoming more powerful in any way possible. He does this in hopes of proving he's the greatest mage ever - and he views you as a direct roadblock to proving that, seeing as you're little miss perfect.
He is particularly stressed about his fraying friendship with Mandi, who would have followed him to the ends of the earth before, but after finding him bullying a younger student, things have been rocky to say the least.
Well, if anything, this is a simple one for me.
Go to Mandi and bring her away from this maniac.
You must wonder why I say 'maniac' when I see that. Sure, lots of mages want to be the best.
Well, it says he'll do anything. I've never seen that before.
Secondly, he's jumped three levels in one month. He's doing something which is very new and not part of his routine. This is worrying, because gaining 3 levels in 1 month may not be hard for me, but I understand I am a bit of an anomaly.
He is not.
I think he's doing something amoral as a result - lord knows my killing of sapient creatures sure is amoral. Which is also where I get a fair amount of my power.
All of this taken into account, I feel like Mandi - the Huffliest-Puff ever is too good for him.
Hypocritical? Sure! But at least I come with a sweet package deal-of-awesome, which is all of my other friends.
All that aside - she's proven she's a very good student over the years. Not a prodigy for anything in particular, but generally talented in academia. Booksmart, I guess. A bit like Harry's friend, Hermione, but a lot more demure, I suppose. She's had a friend all this time and so has had less reason to become more domineering, which seems to be what Hermione did when she came to this world, alone.
Hermione is still a genius and her skill with academic fields is outstanding, don't get me wrong. She's just very dominant, as am I. So we clash. I figure given a few more years to really settle into our niches, we'll get along better.
Just not now.
Mandi? She, I could get along with. Maybe I can set up an Academia club of some sort next year? Dueling club is dying down, and I barely do anything for it anymore, aside from doing some of my dueling practices there, to help inspire the students who are sticking with it, or to defend my spot as the best duelist in Hogwarts.
That's not that hard, these days.
I'll focus on that some other time, though. For now, I suppose I should focus on my day today - and have as much fun with the gang as I can.
"What for breakfast, though?" I ask Sarah as we settle into our spot. She rolls her eyes and grabs her usual, pancakes, the strawberry sauce, and some bacon.
I grab my normal, too. Loaded hashbrowns, an omelette, and three slices of bacon.
"The usual, I see," she replies as I do, and I smile. Daily routine, here. A small, pleasurable, daily routine.
"Of course. I need this, just like you need that." I tell her, cutting a piece of my omelette and eating it quickly, she makes a face.
"Never did like eggs much," she retorts, and I stifle a scoff of derision.
"And strawberry syrup is too sweet," I retort. She smiles slightly, but sniffs as she pours way too much of that red goo on her plate, and then starts the process of mopping it up with her pancakes.
"You say that, but I swear what you call coffee is 80% sugar, 10% coffee and 10% dairy." She retorts, and we continue this way for the whole of breakfast. Trading light barbs about meals is a nicer way of showing we don't agree on everything.
It helps we mean half of what we say - she really does loathe eggs, and genuinely, that strawberry stuff tastes like raw sugar.
It takes all of twenty-minutes to finish breakfast, and then, we're off. Quickly we find Adrian and Alicia, who are just now getting to breakfast, and break off. I go sit with Adrian at Slytherin, and she sits with Alicia.
Cedric isn't down yet, and probably won't be until we're all done.
As soon as I sit at Adrian's table, I pour myself a cup of coffee, and then pour a light amount of cream and sugar into it, so that it's not bitter and black, but it's still mostly coffee.
"Morning!" I chirp, finishing my morning coffee prep as Adrian swallows his first bite.
"I suppose you're here to make sure I don't waste too much time?" He queries with a grin. "After all, women should not be kept from shopping, least of all by a man's morning appetite." He continues, before sighing dramatically and looking dejectedly at his stacked plate, full of meats and eggs.
"Oh, shut it and eat already. I need my packhorse to be strong, and dying of starvation halfway through the trip just won't do.." I trail as he chokes on his next bite, looking like he wants to laugh, but is stopping himself. "And if you think I'm joking, you've another thing coming. I tend to buy more than I can reasonably carry back, and now that you and the others are coming with, I can really let loose." I chirp, putting on as sadistic of a smile as I can for him.
He rapidly pales, and by the time I'm done, and he's swallowed his bite, he looks rather faint.
"Can't you just shrink it, or bring a trunk to put it in?" He asks lightly, like I'm some kind of Dragon.
"I'm talking about after all of that. You don't think I come unprepared?" I ask, and he gives up, going back to his food, and allowing me to chatter with him about anything which strikes my fancy.
Really, he's just too easy.
After chatting his ear off, then sliding down the bench to bid Astoria and Daphne a good morning, as well as check if they needed anything before we got on our way.
Then I departed with Adrian to meet up with the rest of the crew, Daphne and Astoria saying they'd be along in a few minutes.
We arrived to find an equally defeated Cedric sitting between Alicia and Sarah. Quickly he engaged Adrian in a conversation about the latest in Quidditch, and I joined the existing conversation of fashion trends - and how to stay ahead of the curve with the changes to skirts going around.
The cuts are going through another set of seasonal changes, and it's hard to stay on top with all the slight alterations happening.
I'm constantly impressed that there's not like, a score for people's fashion sense, or a stat for how aesthetically pleasing things are to an average person the system has worked out. It's things like that which remind me, it's not really all encompassing. Sure, it can help you be more able to make good looking things, but if you have wrong ideas about what looks good, the system can't fix that.
It's probably the same for everything else…
"But really, Lady Rosewisse wearing such a risky cut on her skirts - to her knee - people are just abuzz with the possibilities and ramifications. Sure, the French wear things like that, but we're not French. Knee cut skirts don't make sense in springtime, northern Scotland!" Alicia is saying, quite heatedly, and Sarah is shaking her head.
"That's why you have a thermal under-layer, like skin-tone tights, which you apply heating magic to! You could even spell them to be see-through until they're so far under the skirt, which eliminates the risk of any skirt issues. You can't tell me you don't wear Safety-Shorts in some of the skirts you have, it's the same idea, but specialized for our country! You could even spell the tights, if they're of Acromantula Silk, to be resistant to damage in some way. I'm telling you - it's just the way forward!" Sarah rebutts firmly, and I find myself nodding along.
I've seen similar waves of Fashion go through in past lives. Generally it'll get more and more Risque until there's something that happens which causes people to fully cover up again. Usually it's a war, a major set of natural disasters changing the way the global temperature feels, or some kind of rampaging mythical thing which changes the world.
The last one is pretty unlikely around here, I guess.
"I agree with Sarah. Fashion is going forward, if you look at Renaissance dresses, they have three layers. If you look at dresses now, we have one layer, which is thinner than any prior, and they also don't have the pants under the skirts, either. Shortening is the only way to get less fabric. So that's what'll happen. Now, I think we should absolutely wear things under our skirts, like Sarah suggests, but what that is, will be up to the person at hand. Hopefully they'll have the sense to make sure everything matches." I chime in, grinning widely at Alicia's shocked look and Sarah's similar look.
I guess I am known as a conservative dresser, so advocating shorter skirts is a bit out of tune, from a not-my-perspective.
"I suppose, yea. I could take High-socks as well. It's just I don't like people being able to see much of my legs. Looser garments are just more comfortable for me." Alicia replies, a bit quieter, and I nod in complete agreement.
"Aubrey is like that, too. She only wears loose pants or skirts, even when out in London. When we've been out together when she visits, she always dresses in the latest patterns and designs, but makes sure they're fully concealing. I think it's a good way to differentiate her from others, though. Not a lot of Muggles dress in super conservative clothing anymore, so while she doesn't look out of place, it's not ever hard to find her. Fashionably covered, as it were." Sarah chimes in, and I nod to confirm when Alicia looks to me in apparent shock.
"I knew Muggles had been getting to wear shorter skirts and those god-forsaken things they call skinny-jeans, but I figured it wasn't really fashionable. You're telling me it's actually catching on?" She asks in disbelief, clearly reading into it a bit.
Not incorrectly, though.
"Yea, it is. I don't like it much. I may 'dress like a grandma' as some girls at the beauty shops have said, but at least I'm comfortable. I couldn't imagine skin-tight black leather being comfy in summer." I add in. Long summer dresses with long-sleeves are really nice, and yes, mostly older people wear them, but they're surprisingly flexible, breathable and with a pair of safety-shorts I can do a backflip if I need to.
It's a bit of tricky skirt-management, but it's doable with practice. Don't recommend trying it without ample padding to cushion the falls from initial attempts.
"You're on the lighter-end of conservative dressers in school, so if they call you a grandma in London, I'd hate to see what they call me." Alicia says, shivering at the thought.
I grin largely as I imagine it.
"Just wear a summer dress with no sleeves. Those are viewed favorably over my full-sleeve versions for whatever reason." I mutter ruefully, earning a grin of amusement from Sarah and one of confusion from Alicia.
"Why don't you like people seeing your arms, by the way? Most of the time I've known you, you've worn full sleeves. I can hardly remember when I last saw your bare forearms." Alicia ponders, and I sigh. This is a hard topic to really explain.
"Wearing more clothing is just comfortable for me. I dislike direct light on my skin except if I'm specifically doing physical exercises, when I need to have skin bared. Like if I'm dueling with swords or I'm doing a workout. Having fully concealing clothing is usually fine, but I don't like cloth clinging from sweat, so I usually go without. As a result, I wind up relatively tanned, since I do most of my workouts out-doors or in areas with direct sunlight, like the sunroom/gym in a couple places I visit with some regularity. It was novel the first time I saw it, but I'm coming to realize it's common, because it allows you to get sun and not be outdoors with people staring at your scantily clad form. But I digress..." I trail off, re-orienting myself onto the original conversation.
"The whole issue with shorter skirts or deeper cuts will be irrelevant in five years when everyone is wearing knee-length gowns outside of formal events, or in 20 years when knee-length is universally accepted." I finish, trying to put things back on track.
"Whoa there!" Alicia stops me as I finish. "You mean to tell me there are sun-rooms which are also gyms? So you could work out, literally naked, and no one would know if you had the place to yourself?" She chitters excitedly. "No tan-lines?" She edges, seeing no reaction.
That's a line I'd not thought about, actually. I hold up a hand, though to pause her (and now Sarah's) growing excitement.
"We can talk about the possibilities of tan-line free places later. I'd rather not explain why that may not be the best idea in medical terms with so many people around. Don't want any idiot boys to get ideas about trying to find the sun-room where these things might happen." I say, getting a few groans from a few people at the table, and I can't help but roll my eyes. "And it's not like there are any of these places in Hogwarts or publicly anyways. Unless you have access to a number of ancient family manors, you'll probably never find the gym-sun-rooms." I leave it in a tone of voice which I've used before with this group to mean we'll talk more on it later, because it's not something to talk about openly.
Immediately Sarah catches on and drops it, and with the look on her face, Alicia does too. Adrian and Cedric finish the debate of the Wasps vs Puddlemere a few minutes later, and shortly thereafter, we're joined by Daphne and Astoria.
So we're ready to go to Hogsmede.
First thing we did was get some writing supplies, aside from a minor issue with the new clerk not believing that I needed a 10 galleon bottle of ink, used in complex magical writings (for runes or rituals which you cannot carve, such as on paper or human flesh) it was an unremarkable experience.
Why do I need those inks, you might ask? Well, I need to have them for the Rite of the Phoenix, if I'm ever to do that. On top of all of this, we get our normal writing and paper supplies.
I get some ludicrously expensive paper as well, and cover the ink and paper with the cover of 'special runes assignment from Babbling' which is much less of a lie than it is a half-truth. If she comes to me, I'll say I wanted to write it out first on something disposable before carving the latest sequence she has me working after.
Because it's a pain in the ass which will blow up nastily if I mess it up, and writing it on paper would see the paper disintegrate, instead of the stone explode.
Shame I already figured it out and am just needing to report the relative success, and ask my questions about the sequence which made the thing had brought up…
Now, we're working our way through the book-shops.
"How many book-stores exist in this town?!" Alicia asks in frustration as we exit the fifth one, with two new bags of books, all of which Adrian is carrying, as promised.
"A lot. Probably closer to fifty than five, though I know a lot of them are hidden from most people for safety's sake. If you can't handle the magic, you shouldn't be able to access it, after all. Good way of keeping people basically alive." I reply cheerily, and Adrian pales significantly.
Fifty shops means about 100 bags, and he can't carry that many, he seems to be realizing.
"You can't possibly go through all 50 shops as thoroughly as the last few?" He asks in what I would describe as a gentleman's panic.
"No, but I can ask if there are any new releases I should look into, and give them my latest reads so they know roughly where I'm at. Probably five-minutes to a shop. I only have a couple others I wanted to look through before we let Cedric go, though." I tell Adrian, and Cedric bounces merrily behind me, carrying his 2 overful bags of books.
"Yea! I didn't know about all of these shops! Who knew they had a shop for important supplementary books for each core subject at the school? Well I knew there was one for Transfiguration, but I figured it was a one-off, considering the Headmaster is a Master of the craft, and it's good to be close to people like that. Easy sales?" Cedric says merrily. "I really should have explored more thoroughly before!" He continues, and I sigh
"We've been over this!" Alicia mutters almost imperceptibly, before speaking up. "Yea, you probably should have, though, to be fair, I think most of these were found by Aubrey and Sarah, right?" She rolls her eyes. "And here I thought your habitual exploration of everywhere you go was a bit insane." She jokes, lightly tapping Sarah with her knuckles. Sarah, in response shrugs.
"Picked that one up from Aubrey, actually. She found a bunch of cool stuff in Hogwarts, so when I had a chance, I went out and explored Hogsmede as much as I could. Turns out it's something of a scholarly town, with most of the places around being dedicated to students of either Hogwarts, and academy, or Apprentices. As a result, tons of book shops of all kinds, a couple pubs for older folk and diners for the younger. A coffee-shop and a tea-shop to really round it out. Only one clothing-shop, though. Mostly formal stuff for dances and very, very basic stuff otherwise." Sarah replies, shrugging in disappointment at the relative lack of clothes to books.
She's always been clothes-first. I can appreciate that.
"Don't forget the Quidditch shop!" Cedric says, getting a very serious nod from Adrian. "They sell really good stuff!" He adds, and I nod, this time.
"Some of the best maintenance kits and pads you can buy, and for pretty cheap. Apparently they have a direct deal with the manufacturers, so get the product at lower cost for Hogwarts students. It's to help get people into the sport." Adrian adds, and I blink in a bit of surprise.
"I guess that makes sense." I murmur, looking over at a shop selling texts on mathematics, of all things. "Get the kids into it while they're young and it makes them stick for life. By the time they're old, they're so used to it, they hardly notice the markups when they leave school and pay full price. The monetary losses from Hogwarts sales are paid back 100-fold by graduates who've been hooked by the strategy."
"Economics are pretty interesting, yea." Cedric replies, looking over a few other shops covering history, which was split between two shops. European history, and the rest of the world. Eventually we move on from the section, pondering what to talk about now.
"Really, I think the most interesting prospect is how easily people are tricked or allowed to do something with just a few words or actions. Something like a childhood hobby creating business? The psychology there is impressively implemented. I should remember this for my family's uses later." Adrian takes a shot at restarting the conversation.
"Yea - I wonder if other businesses did something similar, what would happen? It'd probably make competition, which could drive prices in both industries, especially if it was another sport or similar - like dueling, explosive snap, or even Gobstones." Cedric takes the idea and adds his own thoughts.
"Competitive gobstones? Snap? Really?" Sarah asks. I nod, having done some research into this.
"Think of competitive snap to be like competitive poker, and Gobstones more like…. Horseshoes. Gobstones is pretty small, but Snap is pretty big, because it's so simple and the skill expression isn't in any way related to physicality." I explain, and her face lights up in understanding.
"But then why does your family play poker instead of snap?" She asks, and I can feel Cedric and Adrian's interest.
Alicia, Daphne and Astoria are having their own conversation some ten paces back.
"Well, it's what my mum and her family played, and since my papa and his folks don't much care, that means we play poker. Nothing too crazy. Papa also likes things to be as magic-free as they can be, considering he's working with magic all day, and it gets a bit boring for him." Honestly, though, magic? Boring? I don't know what kind of world papa lives in.
"Interesting ideology for a researcher to have. I doubt he cares for his job all that much if he doesn't like being around magic all day." Cedric mutters, and I can't help but nod.
"He always seems grumpy after work - some days are worse than others, but not all. He certainly liked being home more than he liked working, I can be sure of that much." I reply, before moving to change the subject. "Either way - looks like we're here. I'll be back in a minute with my last couple books, I don't feel like there'll be much, but I may be surprised."
I get a faint murmur of agreement as I go into the shop, which is a book shop specializing in warding, which is a diverse kind of magic, to be sure.
If there exists a spell, there's probably a ward to suppress it, after all.
I quickly hop over, ask after recent acquisitions, per normal, and am surprised to find a new line of books had been published - specifically by the Dwarves.
The reason this is unexpected is they usually update every other decade, it's been 14 years since the last catalogue update from the Dwarves on their basic technique. Whatever this interim update is, should be good.
So I wind up walking out with a 10 book set, on top of a 3 book primer series on basic, intermediate and advanced Dwarven wards, and the guide for understanding the public wards they put out.
I emphasize public wards here. It's generally accepted that you put out the second-best version of anything you can do, which you could teach. This is done so that people can make their own protections if needed, and unless someone really brings a grandmaster of every type of warding with them, you're probably going to be safe, so long as you have a few different styles in your Ward Schemes.
Still, probably best to keep these from Flitwick. He still doesn't like Dwarves, and I see no reason to brandy these about the tower. When I come back out, arms loaded with books, I can feel Adrian's fatigue spiking. I giggle as I drop the mass of them into the bag.
"Why do you need this many, again?" He asks grumpily. "It seems unlikely you'll finish these all before the year is out…" He continues, shaking the bag of well over 20 books on various academic fields.
He's right, of course. I don't really have that much free time. But... "I'm not going to just let such a good prospect pass me by. I was expecting 10 or so books in honesty. But a new catalogue was released by the Dwarves, and that's just not something you pass up. Of course I bought the whole thing."
"Sounds expensive." Alicia says, looking at the book-bag with apprehension. I shrug noncommittally.
It had been 150 Galleons, but no need to tell them that. It's very rude to blatantly rub wealth in like that.
Also, why would I have that much money on me? Seems suspicious. I could say I wrote a cheque, but I prefer not to lie. Best to just give a non-answer.
"Well, this was the last spot, right?" Cedric asks, glancing around with a smile. He seems to want to stick around town, still.
"Yep!" Astoria chirps, smacking his back with one hand. "Now get off to shopping for that broom you love oh-so-much!" She tells him, then begins to bound off in the direction of Hogwarts - and the lake.
"Hm! Guess I'll see you later?" Cedric replies with a note of confusion at the younger girls shift to playful from shy.
"Yea - later, Cedric." I return, before walking after her, and everyone else chimes in their farewells.
So it's just the girls and Adrian, now.
Within 30 minutes we find our way to the shore, and I lay out the blanket.
"We're ready, Mipsy." I chime, as instructed, and the food I'd asked for - a few of everyone's favorite sandwiches packed neatly in a basket- appears. "Thanks again!" I say to the air, before settling down for a bite to eat, deciding to watch the others for a bit, since I've been directing most of the day, so far.
Quickly, Alicia strikes up a conversation about the inter-house Qudditch with Adrian, and Daphne decides to add her own snippets from time to time, giving them an outside perspective. Seeing that Astoria seems a bit lost as to how to join in, I turn to her after letting them go for a minute.
"So, how's my brother doing over in Slytherin? I've not been able to check up on him as much as I like, since he doesn't want me to be all over him at school." I kick off the conversation with a very easy topic.
Someone in her house who she probably spends a lot of time around, and sees a lot around the school in general. She's telling me about something I should know, and can go on for awhile if there's anything interesting.
"Oh! Uh… he's a bit of a recluse, to be honest. I've not noticed he made any really close friends. It seems like he's waiting for people to approach him, instead of doing the work himself. A lot of the other Slytherin haven't been taking to that well." She trails off, then, before leaning back into the grass. She opts to continue, quietly. "Honestly, he seems to be upset that everyone compares him to you. You're such a big figure in the school for the younger students. You have a lot of friends, you're really pretty, good at basically everything… Being your brother, everyone thought he'd be the same. He's clearly not, and comparing you two just upsets him. Everyone does it though." She sighs, then. I also realize why he's been so distant this past year.
Everyone, and I do mean everyone, is comparing us, both in front of and behind his back. He's surely heard how great I am and people have probably asked why he's not more like me.
It makes me look better, having him be a direct comparison to myself in the school. Theoretically, if there's on prodigy, it's more likely for there to be more in the same bloodline. Usually all skills breed true. So if I'm really good at Charms, my kids will probably also be pretty good at charms, and if I marry someone else good at charms, then the chances go up.
It is not always guaranteed, but it is very likely. This is why bloodlines have specialties, and people in those bloodlines who have a hard time with those are often cast out, or made into a branch-family.
The Potters, for example, are known for Warding and Potions. There's a sub-house, also known as the Potters, who are a much younger house. About half as old as the original, and they're really good at Transfiguration. They're a cadet house of the Most Ancient and Noble house of Potter. If all of the elder house dies, then their cadet gets all their stuff.
This is how the Potters got the Pervelles stuff. They were a cadet house. This is also why they're not monsters at enchanting and making magic items.
They had different specialties inherent to themselves.
So if I am super good at a lot of magic types, it's reasonable to assume my brother is probably going to be good at a lot of magic, too.
But he doesn't have the advantages I have, of being an adult in a younger body, or of the various perks the gods have given me.
The major difference, though, is something Astoria pointed out.
He doesn't put in the same amount of work that I do.
"That's sad. I'd hoped he would do better in school. At least socially. I know he was a bit more lax with himself than I was growing up - I had a perfect score in every class, where he preferred to sit in the upper middle, but some things don't change. I wish I could help him somehow." I murmur, while I lay next to her, lightly laying my head on her shoulder.
"Yea. You can't do everything though. It's something Daphne struggles with, even. She's really good at structured stuff, and I'm more… spontaneous. I do well with things like art, and music and charms! She does better with potions and transfiguration, like a normal Greengrass house member. People compared us, like they compare you two. It's to a lesser extent, but I know it's annoying. People call me fire to her ice. I think they're all just silly, though. You can't compare two people directly, because no two people are the same." She rambles, and I nod, lightly.
"I agree. I just wish others could see it that way. I really, really hope Jasmine gets Hufflepuff next year. Or Ravenclaw. One will be kind to her and the other one I can control a little to at least keep to themselves and not compare us. She'll need the help, though."
"I imagine it'd be hard to compare to you, hm?" Astoria trails. "People compare Hermionie to you, for her high scores in theory portions, but really, she doesn't compare overall. 100/50, I think was what I think her comparison was to you." Astoria completes, and I blink in surprise.
"People have figured out the exact percentages? Like my grades to her grades? I'm guessing it's Theory / Practical." I reply. She nods.
"It's not that her execution is wrong, from what I've picked up, it's that she doesn't have the clear ease of use you do. You clearly practice the magic in your off time - throwing out spells requires very little for you. Sometimes, it's nothing. She requires the full movement and incantation, which while executed perfectly, show a lack of mastery. Just a relative... good… ability to memorize things. It's why Daphne is often up there for top spot, along with Oliver Rivers, who is just really good practically but lacks in theory. The Anti-Hermione, if you will. Which is to say he only gets EE's and not straight O's on his essays." Astoria tells me. I giggle.
"A travesty!" I murmur mockingly, and she nods, giggling away with me.
But it's a good point. Surely there are academic prodigies like Hermione who come through and seem unremarkable because they can't move the goal-posts set by the local titans. Be that myself, or Thomas Riddle, or Dumbledore. Who just mockingly shove the goal out a few dozen meters beyond what others could hope to reach in the next couple centuries.
And right when people are catching back up, another will show up to push it further. With the rapid progression of things, recently having three titans within a century, Hogwarts won't be due for more rounds anytime soon.
In theory.
After all, there are doubtless more Prodigies like Harry than myself or Dumbledore, who just let life take them along where it pleases, since they have no particular need to go forward or break any records.
Harry, as he is now, is more of a follower than he is a leader. Which is fine. So long as someone is around to lead him.
Hopefully he never finds himself needing to lead, or he'll either need to change or have a very bad go of it.
The rest of the Picnic went in a similar fashion. Usually a new topic would come up every 10 or so minutes, and anyone not interested would just lay back and have a side conversation.
Really, nothing too crazy was going on, down here on Earth.
By the end of the day, I go to my 'happy memories' journal, and crack it open, seeing the last entry being the 21st of March - the day after the Vernal Equinox. The entry of Harry having the scar finally, fully, healed.
Which was followed by Dumbledore immediately taking over all of his training, full time. Basically all of Harry's free-periods were with the Headmaster, training. There were some exceptions - usually once or twice a week Dumbledore would have business to attend to.
And he's growing fast. Last I'd checked, he was closing in on my own level,
Harry Potter
Age: 13
Race: Human.
Titles:
...
Level: 55
92 Str
157 Agi
164 Dex
219 Con
175 Int
105 Wis
+1148 or - 758 Luck
Come to think of it, I've not been paying attention to what level I am and where I've been going. I just, haven't really needed to check.
I know I've leveled up a few times and stuff, but I've just been living life. I wonder what he looks like, when compared to myself. I won the Spring tournament, too, and also a few weekend dueling events which were geared towards adults (though anyone could enter) at Flitwicks behest.
With that thought, I pulled up my status window and began reading.
Name - Aubrey Hawthorne
Age - 14
Race - Human.
Titles -
Fate Changer (i)
...
Level 59
156 Str
215 Agi
217 Dex
221 Con
241 Int
244 Wis
212 (237) Luk
61 Points to spend.
Perk Points to Spend - 10
Well, I didn't expect that. I knew I was closing in on 10 points, but I must have gotten lucky somewhere with my perks and been granted an extra point.
Of course, with 10 points to spend on perks, I'm really chomping at the bit to get something new, so I quietly close the journal, and adopt a thinking pose as I look over my options.
Eventually, I opt for the perk titled "Lady (⅓)" - 3pts
I of course buy all 3 tiers of Lady. It's the, altogether, most expensive perk I -can- buy, though that's just because it's pretty generally good.
The effect is really, boringly, simple.
+30, with each purchase, a certain type of skill. One of the three sections is social, another is magic, and the third is mundane.
In the end, buying all 3 gets me a net of +30 in every skill.
Every. Skill.
Also, there's a whole bonus for getting all three. The system calls it a 'set bonus' which, while I don't care for or expect, is nice.
The Set-Bonus, after all, is +30 more in Insight, Persuasion and +10 to Luck.
You have to realize, I didn't think it would do all the skills if I bought all the ranks. I thought it would do some social, some magic and some miscellaneous stuff, or I'd have been on this like white on rice.
+30 broke 150 on a lot of my skills, which, of course, meant a lot of perks.
A lot.
Specifically, I got one for Persuasion, Lie-Detection, History, Mathematics, Art (Violin), Charms, Dueling, Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Rituals and Shadow Magic.
Lie Detection was very straightforward - I can always tell if someone is lying. Period.
Pretty strong in politics. The reason for the lie would be more useful, but at least I can know if they're hiding things.
History, Mathematics and Persuasion fall in the same line. I know where to find historical information if I don't know it, I can calculate derivatives and other complex calculus in my head instantly and, of course, a generic buff to my persuasion, this time the perk empowers me to persuade the opposite gender. Neat.
Violin is moderately more interesting.
It's called "Concertmaster" and it does what it says on the tin.
I can run a concert, as the head violinist. Pretty cool, actually.
Charms, is a flat +20% effectiveness of all magic which falls under "Charms"
Runes, Arithmancy and Rituals are all related.
They all give me bonuses to things involving them. So if I do or make something involving Arithmancy, I'm 20% more effective at it, and get 20% more benefits than I should otherwise.
So if I make a healing spell, it's just 20% better than it would have been otherwise, ostensibly because I know how to do Magic Math good.
Runes are similar. +20% to things involving runes, and +20% effectiveness if it's something I use on myself.
Then Rituals. Again, +20% for rituals I do which impact myself.
These stack.
Every ritual is a mix of Runes, Arithmancy and then the actual ritual magic. I'm getting +60% effectiveness on top of the other stuff just for that. That's at base, I could be getting as much as +120% if it includes charms, and they're additive. If they multiply off of each other, then the numbers are even crazier.
I'm still holding off on Rituals until I need them or I reach my peak - at the eve of my 17th birthday.
Shadow Magic is the most interesting of the 150-level perks I get.
Basically, it removes something the system calls 'taint' from my Shadow magic, where, before, using powerful Shadow Magic could have built up "taint" which would have slowly corrupted my mind, this adds a nice little barrier which washes away the taint, and any buildup I may have had.
Considering I'd not known about taint, I'm very glad I got this perk. It does remind me that some magic is probably not meant for mortal hands and I need to be careful to be sure I'm not doing something I shouldn't be.
Of course, Dueling, being a skill at 300, is the most insane of all the skills.
"Grandmaster of the Forest" it's called, and it does exactly 2 things. 1. Makes it so that I can see what my enemies can do in a duel just by looking at them, and 2. Makes it so that I can't have this done to me.
So literally, anyone who I can't use this on, I need to not mess with, and everyone else is literally below me.
Of course, being below my skill level doesn't mean they're worse at dueling. They could be specialized in one style to the point where they're better than I am, or just have more general magical ability than me. This is only a way to measure one of the, likely hundreds, of skills people have.
Still useful, because it measures their combat-ability in a relatively common style of combat for Wizards and Witches.
With my remaining 1 point, I skim around for nice supplemental perks.
I eventually settle on a stealth enhancing perk, called "Shadow" which, in spite of the flowery text, gives me +10 to each of Stealth, Pickpocketing and Lockpicking.
Resulting in Stealth hitting 150, and me getting, you guessed it, a perk.
Just like "The Grace of a Master." which I got a while ago, this one also boosts my movement and general bodily capabilities, it's focused on dexterity and precision, though, where the other had been focused on speed and maneuverability.
All done with perks, I unceremoniously dump all the points into making stats 250. I get Int, Wis and Luck there. The rest can be done with training. So I get my last few perks - Type N, which makes my mana-pool up to the immeasurable levels, and gives me a flat 25% increase to my mana.
Still people with more mana could see how much I have, so I need to be careful, still.
After that, I got "The Great Weave". This grants a 50% increase to control of mana, and unlocks the limiter on my mana-pool, which I didn't know existed, except for age. This just means it can grow to any size - it will stop growing at age 17, still.
For Reaching 250 Luk I got "Stacked Deck", which is the most insane thing I've gotten all night.
You tend to see things fall in your favor, be they a game of cards, or life events. For example, if you were to cast a spell on yourself which could have side effects, there will be none. It will do exactly what you want it to do, and nothing more. If there's a chance you doing something could do another thing you don't want, that chance is now zero.
Everything you do has the outcome you want it to have, unless there is enemy action taken to stop it from happening. So if someone blocks a spell you cast at them, it won't explode, but it won't go through, either.
Now with that all done, I glance over my full sheet, and nod in approval.
Now, I'm going to go about penning my thoughts on the day. It had been a good day, and one I want to remember, always.