After Mat played the River Flows in You for his audience of 3, the headmaster, Mr Bunting, insisted that he should ring Mat's parents so they could hear it. Mat shrugged, expecting this. The way the headmaster called his parents appeared to cause concern. Mat's dad had to come from work early and thought that Mat was in trouble. His mum was coming to pick him up anyway, she asked a confused Mat if he was okay. Eventually the six of them went to the music room after a brief discussion with Mr Bunting assuring that Mat was in fact not in trouble. He sat at the keyboard and played the piece again. He turned around to a beaming audience and Mat couldn't help but feel proud. He felt the magic pulsing the more he played. He asked for either a piano or a keyboard when he finished. It took a while for them to get their wits back, but they eventually did, and they went straight to the music shop, called Higher Rhythm and bought one of the best there was. It was the least they could do after he basically earned the family thousands of pounds.

A week after they got Mat the keyboard, mat realised that while playing music and meditating helped clear his mind to such a degree that he needed less time to sleep. In fact, the theory was that because his mind was relaxed, it didn't need to rest, well, it did but it rested when Mat meditated. It took approximately 4-5 hours for him to get enough to sleep to feel fully energised. He did feel tired when using his magical energy up, but food was the main cure for this. After food, meditation was the next port of call to fill his magical reserves.

Mat practiced daily with the piano, he tried other instruments as well as singing but he was terrible. Turns out he wasn't awesome at everything, he mentally shrugged "aah well" he thought. The link between magic and music was obvious to him. Playing music while pumping his magic into it helped him to understand both intimately. They worked in unison. The golden pulse was not seen by his parents or the few teachers and students who had heard him play. It was felt by all of them though. The sun started changing in The Village the more he linked the music to his magic, it was changing from purple-pink to golden yellow. The Village looked more alive and vibrant now.

Mat practiced with the shield daily, it had become more solid and covered him from head to thigh. He had to keep his hand out, palm first, to keep it going, it wouldn't work any other way for some reason. He could switch which hand he used though, which was good because he reasoned that he would have to use his right hand as the wand hand. He could also manipulate the shield into different shapes and sizes. It naturally formed into an oval shape but could now change it into the shape of his body. He felt it was a bit stronger this way, but it only faced where his palm was pointing. If he moved his head when the shield was in this form, his head would be vulnerable. This was not ideal.

A month had passed, and Mat felt the music and magic was becoming one within him. The shield was a lot stronger, it was oval at the top and splayed out toward the ground, almost like an arched doorway of energy. The next spell he tried to form was Lumos. He decided to try and create a ball of light in his right palm. He could manipulate his magic to the palm, and could form it into a ball, only he could see it. He tried it at night, the ball gave off no light. He tried this for days, always in the dark and finally succeeded, it was a golden light again, different to the Lumos spell. But if it worked, he didn't care which colour it was.

During this month, he had convinced his parents to invest in some tech companies he had 'visions' of. Some were already paying dividends. He also convinced them to place shares in Apple. The shares were low at the moment but knew the company would become giants in the future.

Mat's interest in technology stemmed from the firm he owned from his old life. He may have had a masters in Viking Archaeology, but he used his skills to found a computer game company that focussed on learning as well as entertainment. He was in partnership with a couple of universities that helped him with his research. He had just released his crowning jewel. It took four years of work and to be honest, he was pissed off to not know how successful it was. It was based in 14th century France on the border of English Normandy during the Hundred Years War. He was proud of his achievement. Due to his experience in the gaming industry, he knew how popular it would become and who the main players were going to be. He literally had 20-20 hindsight. EA were already a prominent figure and he decided to get a foothold with them as soon as possible. Other companies like Activision, Blizzard, CD Projekt Red and Valve were his targets for this venture.

He also wanted to change the shape of the world, get rid of the bigotry, racism and corruption that was strife when he left. He hated the idea of social classes and the aristocracy, the fact they could do things most folk would be imprisoned for. Therefore, he decided to invest his money into a law firm that stamped down these and get a foothold into the media sector. Even though he knew about the upcoming popularity of social media, the sheep tended to listen to the news on TV and the shite the newspapers spread. It pissed him off, and he knew the wizarding world would be worse. Blood purists? Fuck that mate, he would have to gain allies quick to make sure the muggleborns were equal in that society. Hopefully the war would have ended by the time he goes to Hogwarts and most of them would be dead in prison. Somehow Mat thought it wouldn't be that easy. These were long term plans though

It wasn't long until Mat's 9th birthday on 2nd December. Already the tips to his parents into companies were already paying out. This was noticed by the bank his mum worked for and she was offered a promotion because of it. Things were good. Mat had decided to, instead of just absorbing all the knowledge he could about the world for himself, he would help his peers in any subject that they needed him in. He became quite popular in school because of this. His parents organised a huge party for him. Mat wasn't really that bothered about that, it was a nice gesture.

It was a snowy Tuesday and his parents had booked the local community hall for a disco. Everything was set up, the DJ had the turntables and speaker system in the right corner and nibbles were on long tables at the left side of the hall. There were lights set up around the room with decorations wishing him a happy birthday. It was pretty sweet.

People started to stream in, the hall was big enough that both adults and kids stayed. It was getting quite rowdy and Mat was socialising with everyone. An hour or so into the party he sat down and watched the DJ play. He focussed on the sound, he had no idea why he was doing it. It was calling to him. Salt n Pepa, Push it, was being played, Mat could feel and see the soundwaves coming from the bassline and the kick drum. He was hypnotized. It was small at first, like a small pulse that emanated from the speaker. The more he focussed the more he could see. He could see the many other frequencies being projected forth from the sound system. The more he concentrated, the more he could see. He began to notice a rainbow of colours coming out in different angles. He noticed that when a pulse of a kick drum hit a wall it changed from a shimmer in the air to dull silvery colour, then it darkened more, once a fracture of it hit another surface. He could see the reverberations in the sound. Was this magic as well? Or could he see sounds? He found it fascinating and beautiful. He didn't even like the song.

Mat had to peel himself away from watching the soundwaves as people were starting to ask him if he was okay. The party ended and everyone went home. Even though he did no real exercise that day, the party tired him out, he went to sleep early. He woke up on Wednesday morning refreshed. He did his usual business and settled down to watch his memories of yesterday evening. He had studied this recorded memory phenomenon and decided that it was not a photographic or eidetic memory he possessed; because most of the interviews with people with those wonderful brains do not report anything that he can do. He decided that it was his brain being used as a storage device like the hard drive of a computer and his magic was helping retrieve everything he has seen in a way that would not overload his mind with information. The visualisation of The University was possibly his mind creating something that he can conceptualise, so the brain does not have to delete most of what he sees.

He sat in The Temple watching his memory of the sound waves last night and smiled. He could not see deeper into the phenomenon because it was a memory, so he decided to experiment. Coming out of his meditation, he thought of how he would conduct this experiment. He looked at his hand and made the motion to click his fingers. He accessed his magic and focussed. The world blacked out around him and he all he could see was his hand and the point of where the sound would come from. He then clicked. A small golden pulse emanated from his hand. He smiled at this and tried to make it louder, the exact same colour appeared. "Huh, that's weird" Mat mused.

He decided to clap his hands and the golden colour came out again, the exact same shade of gold. Mat was confused. What was the difference between him making noises and him hearing them? Why could he see different colours from the speakers yesterday? Where was the colour gold? He found this very odd indeed. He tried slapping the wall, no difference, he tried hitting two coat hangers together, same outcome. He huffed and sat down on the bed and started to think. Why is the colour gold the only colour I can make? What does that mean? I made different sounds, in different frequencies, with different objects and it was the same colour as my shield. He came to the realisation that he could see different colours from other things. Was it just music he could see, or could he see other things? What about voices?

He went downstairs and turned on the T.V. He found a nature documentary, a repeat of Life in the Freezer with David Attenborough. He sat in front of it, crossed legged and started to focus. The volume was on moderately loud, nowhere near as loud as the speakers at the party though, and not loud enough to wake his parents. He stared, fixated on the speaker under the screen.

It must have been about half an hour when he felt a tap on his shoulder "Mat? What are you doing?" Mat jumped out of his skin. And rolled away from his dad

"Jesus dad! Don't do that!" He was on his back looking up at his dad, breathing heavily. His dad just laughed, a full belly laugh, "It's not funny!" Mat admonished "you scared the shit out of me!" it was the first time he had jumped and had this reaction since he came back into this universe. A few flinches here and there but nothing like this. He must have been lost in concentration.

"Oi! Don't swear!" his dad told him off, "you seemed out of it, just sat there not moving, I called for you twice." He still had a smile on his face though.

"Yeah, well, I was concentrating, wasn't I?" Mat replied.

"On what? I thought you were just watching TV. Penguins are cool though." he nodded to himself.

Mat agreed "yeah they are awesome, but that wasn't what I was staring at. Can you keep a secret?" he stared at his dad hopefully.

"Of course I can, I know you're a wizard after all, I've told nobody about that" he sat down on the settee with his cup of tea.

Mat nodded, "true. Well, you know I can play the piano really well?" his dad nodded and gestured him to continue, "well, I think my magic works with the music, I don't fully understand it yet. But last night I could see the sound coming from the speakers. They were all different colours. It was awesome. I tried to see again this morning by clicking and clapping my hands, but I couldn't see anything" he lied, "so I came down here to see if I could see anything from the T.V. speaker, I couldn't see anything. Its weird" Mat scrunched his face in thought.

"Huh, that is odd, sounds cool though, pardon the pun" he grinned, Mat rolled his eyes "well what if its not loud enough for you to see? It was pretty loud there last night. My ears are actually ringing a bit this morning."

Mat was shocked for a moment, his dad wasn't an obviously smart man, but he was a genius with making things, he was a joiner after all. He did have his moments of brilliance though. The obviousness of his thought made perfect sense. "Huh, I never thought of that, thanks dad! I'll try that later, I need food now."

He smiled at his son, "no worries lad." He sat back into the settee with his tea and watched the penguins on T.V., Mat got his food and watched it with his dad. It was a comfortable silence.

Mat's next experiment was to use the stereo system when his dad had gone to work, and his mum was awake. He settled down and got comfy, readying himself for intense concentration again. He pressed play on the CD player and Meatloaf, Bat Out of Hell 2 started. Slowly he turned up the volume so it was loud, but not uncomfortably so. He focussed on one speaker. He didn't know how long it was until he could see it, but he could see the pulse of the kick drum. That was the first sign. The bass was next. The other colours then started to become visible. He focused more and tried to pick which instrument was the colour. Because Meatloaf's voice is so distinctive, he could pick out the green of the voice easily. The guitar was silver and piano yellow. The backing singer's voice was a lighter shade of green. The colour of the sound was not just one colour though, each note changed the colour slightly. With some colours, he was sure he had never seen them before. They was a mix between two colours. And were colours that were two colours at the same time, that didn't make any sense to him. He could pick them out, each instrument with the colour. He was satisfied with that. He skipped the CD to its first track, and watched the sounds again, he picked the instrument's out easily. The same with the next, and the rest of the album.

He laid back onto the floor with a grin and let out a satisfied sigh. It felt good to see the colours, it made him relax. There was something magical about them. He decided to refine this new skill over the coming months.

Christmas came and went. The second semester had started at school. He was progressing further in and was on track to be at GCSE level in maths, science, history and English. He asked the school if they knew someone who spoke Latin and they hired a nice lady to teach him after school, a Miss Jordan. His schedule was pretty hectic. It was school from 9-5 on a weekday, Monday, piano lessons then taekwondo and on a Tuesday, Latin then boxing. He had Jiu Jitsu on Wednesday and Friday. Boxing again on Saturday after Football and Football on Sunday. All the extra classes were about 2 hours each, apart from football which was a full training session of 4 hours. He never felt tired. In fact, Mat felt invigorated by the constant strain on his body. Mentally, he felt on top of the world. The amount of knowledge he had taken in was astronomical and with his meditation techniques, he felt relaxed and calm. The Village helped a lot with his mental fortitude and his constant cool demeanour. He could escape into his own little paradise and it took the weight of the world off his shoulders.

Mat refused to do the exams for his GCSE's he felt that he did not want the attention. If he was going to disappear into the Wizarding World, he had to stay under the radar. He refused to take his music to higher levels just in case he made news or gained any sort of reputation outside of his local area. Getting the best results in his year though, that was fair game. He continued to practice his Sine Sight. Sine Sight is what he called the ability to see sound. The sine wave the was the most used physical representation of sound and he thought this appropriate. He was terrible at naming things. He spent many hours practicing Sine Sight. He discovered that when he concentrated, everything resonated. He had a sort of echo location and was aware of everything around him.

It was early spring when he went with his parents to Brodsworth Hall. They were having a picnic in the garden area and Mat and his family were laying on the grass chatting away. He was laying on his back and his hands were palm flat against the grass. He started to go into a trance. He was aware of what he was doing and began to hear and feel everything around him. His eyes were open, and he could vaguely make out colours in the sky and from the branches of the trees overhead. He felt the vibrations of the few people walking around and knew that one couple were exactly 43 metres away from them. He couldn't hear what they were saying though. He could tell that the man had a slight limp, possibly from an injury, he was favouring his right leg but was having no trouble walking. He could tell this by listening to the bass each footstep made on the gravel path.

He focussed this trance like state, trying to feel and hear everything around him. The sound of nature was in varying shades of browns he noticed. Bird trills were in blues and he could tell one bird from the other with the colour sound it made, he had no idea of the species though. He was lost in this trance like state for at least half an hour. Finally, they had to leave, but over time he always sought out places like this. His favourite place was in the garden. He asked his dad if he could build a sheltered area so he could meditate in bad weather.

Close to the end of spring, he had heard of a Muay Thai gym that opened in his local area and he had to check it out. If it was up to his standards he would join immediately and drop boxing and taekwondo. He was the only one there for the first class. The man in there seemed disappointed but was happy for at least one person to join. The man was in in early thirties, had a good stubble and short hair, it was jet black. He was not very tall but he was compact, not much of an obvious physique but if one knew what to look for, this man was in peak condition. Mat was never super athletic back in the day, but he was always active. In his five years at university he had joined the mixed martial arts societies. Muay Thai was his favourite. It felt natural to him. The man's name was Tom and he had been training in the sport for years, since he was a teenager, he had even won a tournament in Thailand and got onto the professional circuit before an injury stopped him from competing professionally. This was a good sign.

They did the usual warm ups and then he got Mat to start hitting the pads. Tom was amazed at Mat's reflexes and strength and told him not to hold back. Mat was shocked that Tom could tell he was holding back. No one else had ever told him to put all his effort into the sport, apart from football. Mat didn't really want to either because most of his sparring partners had been his age. He could easily have a repeat of what happened with Craig, the boy never did properly speak to him after that. They were on the pads for about 20 minutes straight, Mat had built up quite a sweat. Tom had shown him how to use his elbows and knees correctly while in a fight and they moved onto clinch training. Getting in close to the enemy was extremely beneficial in a fight, especially in the Wizarding World. They all seemed like wet sponges there, apart from the Quidditch teams. This is why Mat kept on training in Jiu Jitsu.

Even when Mat did MMA in the old world, he was never taught how to master moves while in the clinch. Tom taught him how to twist, turn and worm himself into position to strike the enemy, usually with the elbow or bring the fighter closer to the body for a knee in vulnerable places. They spent just 10 minutes practicing this, Mat got used to the movements quickly. Eventually he got to spar. They put all the protective gear on and fought. It was tiring and it was fair to say, Mat got his arse kicked. He couldn't help but grin, it was awesome. Over time he got better but always lost to Tom. Tom had a reach advantage and experience, Mat had speed, reflexes and boundless energy. There is no shame in defeat if it makes one stronger. And Mat got stronger.