Disclaimer: nothing in this work is owned by me. Wait, no, I tell a lie, the plot is mine, as are the inventions. Everything else belongs to their original creators. If I owned even the base for my story, then Harry would have learnt a magic system that made sense.
The rest of the sorting went by fairly quickly after that, the only delay being the ginger Quidditch nut, whose name turned out to be Ronald Weasley. He seemed to have a bit of an argument with the hat, and if one were to read his lips you could find him whispering 'I'm not a filthy snake' before being sorted into Gryffindor. I'm just glad I won't have to deal with him outside of lessons if he's that prejudiced.
"Welcome," the headmaster greeted. "Welcome to a new year at hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit, Blubber, Oddment, Tweak! Thank you!" before he sat down once more.
'Huh, well that was odd, I wonder if- OH MY SOUL KING TELEPORTING FOOD!' I thought, looking at the table now filled with food. There didn't seem to be too much in the way of healthy food, but it was enough to make a decent meal, and I'd been meaning to increase my exercise so the calories would be useful.
"Now that you are all fed and watered, I have a few start-of-year announcements to make." Dumbledore started. "First is that the list of items designated as contraband has been updated to include more than fifty others among its ranks. If you wish to learn about these changes, the list is nailed to the front of the caretaker's room door."
Next he gave a flat look to a pair of red haired twins on the gryffindor table. "Next is that the forbidden forest remains forbidden, and garners a detention if you are caught inside it. And finally, the third floor corridor to the right is restricted. Any who choose to enter will suffer a most painful death." 'well,' I thought to myself, 'that's not fucking ominous.'
Due to idly wondering whether that was where the weird reiatsu beacon package that Hagrid got was, I almost missed Dumbledore perform a complete tonal 180 as he cheerily said, "Well off you pop then!" firmly cementing my opinion that he was a fucking lunatic. Still, at least now I could rest and start lessons tomorrow with peace.
"Is that him?"
"What's with the glove?"
"Why's he up so early?"
So remember when I said I'd be able to start the next day in peace? That was a fucking lie apparently. I'd just gotten inside from my morning run, and had already developed a twitch from people talking about me while I ate my breakfast, and they weren't even being subtle about it either! I was still in my workout clothes for soul king's sake!
Sighing, I packed up my things, grabbed my timetable and left to get ready. I just hoped that my classmates wouldn't be like this, or Hogwarts would be far more of a slog to get through.
"Good morning class! I'm professor flitwick, and from here on out I shall be your charms teacher!" exclaimed the short man happily. "Now ordinarily I would start the first lesson with first years by simply explaining what a charm is, however I have decided to switch things up a bit and explain how magic works, as well as dispell some myths."
I perked up a bit. This could be interesting. "The first thing that must be stated is that magic can be found in everything. No matter what anyone else says, magic is merely the energy produced by the soul, and everything, living or inanimate has a soul. For the sake of keeping confusion to a minimum, let's call this energy 'mana'." A floating piece of chalk wrote the word on the blackboard.
"A witch or wizard is merely someone who is born with enough energy that they can manipulate it. However on its own mana is ruled by instinct. As such, through careful experimentation a solution was reached by the proto-wizards, with the help of the druids who specialised in rituals that used the mana in the air, allowing them to be entirely capable of controlling the effects, at the cost of speed."
Two more words were written, with a line each connecting them to the mana. "A device was made that drew on the magic of the user, but had the ability to intake programmed effects based on a formula, a magic circle similar to those of the druids. This was the first staff, a precursor to wands." Two more lines were drawn and linked together with the word 'staff'.
Interesting, it sounds like wizards are a fusion of Quincys and Fullbringers, or at least their precursors. "Nowadays, our reliance on wands has led many to believe that wandless magic is a sign of great power, but nearly impossible to do. This is partially true, one can brute force the possible randomness of mana without a focus with sheer power. This is also the quicker but less intelligent method."
"The other method is much more time intensive, but also requires less raw mana. This is to learn to make the spell's formula in your mind and guide the mana through it. While more time intensive, it is far more stable and efficient. But enough about that, I've wasted enough time explaining basic history and spell forging. Now who can tell me what the difference is between, let's say a charm and a hex?"
The strict teacher looked at each of us with a serious face. "The art of transfiguration is both diverse and dangerous. One wrong move, a seconds lapse in concentration could result in serious injury, but the control it gives is invaluable. Be warned that I don't tolerate slacking or anything less than complete focus." To demonstrate, she turned an empty desk into a pig and back. McGonagall then went around the room handing each of us a matchstick and wrote on the board.
"Each of you has been given a matchstick. The goal of this lesson is to turn that matchstick into a needle using the spell on the board." Well that was a pretty bare bones method of teaching, but to each their own I guess. Looking down, I drew a small feed of energy from my core and attached it to my Armschienen. A symbol of a skull glowed softly on the palm, and I poked the match with an equally glowing finger.
I started the transfiguration in parts, due to a detail I noticed with my bracer: It required a program input, for lack of a better term. Whether it was caused by the experimental spirit tech that made it, or just Urahara being a dick, the Armschienen can't auto-calculate or draw on the most efficient way to do a spell with its formula. I have to create a general path for it to follow and refine.
On the one hand, this is incredibly straining, both on my mind and my soul, plus it'll take a fucking age once I start having to do the actually challenging shit. On the other hand, it acts as a bunch of kinds of training in one, and I could possibly find a better formula for the spell than the currently used one. It's difficult to verbalise.
First was to locate the elements used, before changing the lesser material, in this case the match head, into the greater material or the wood of the match. This would make the later processes easier. Then I had to change the shape to that of a sewing needle. The final part was to turn almost all of the atoms into iron, barring about one fiftieth of the carbon to make steel. This was especially strenuous, and I had to increase the reiatsu feed but I managed it.
All in all, this took thirty seconds. Not acceptable in the least in terms of practicality, but it was a start, and I would master this. Multivariable transfiguration was far too useful to let go to waste. However I quickly grabbed my spare notebook and wrote down the ordered code to properly record it for the Armschienen.
"Program record. Start. Initial command: locate atomic structures of composition materials. Secondary command: alter secondary structures to match primary compound. Tertiary command: alter form to match internal concept. Final command: alter composition material. Load command chain under designation: variabilis mutatio." I whispered. A small green power sign lit up on the side. Perfect.
"Hey, so what do you think we'll be doing in DADA? I hope it's hand to hand, I haven't kicked anyone's ass in ages! What do you think, Harry?" asked the girl next to me. She was average in height, with shoulder length hair kept in a short ponytail, and had visible lean muscles along her arms when her sleeves were rolled back. This was Su Li, the resident battle junkie.
I let out a sigh. She hadn't left me alone once she realised that I actually worked out, although I did need friends so I won't complain too much. We were waiting in front of the morning DADA lesson. "It probably won't be hand to hand, Su. From what I've seen, wizards tend to lack physical fitness, despite that having an adverse effect on their magic."
She pouted at that realisation, apparently never having thought of that. It was actually kind of cute- and stopping that train of thought there! Nuh uh, I have self control and a desire to not end up distracting myself or losing common sense because of my monkey brain! Nope! "Aw, you're right. All the 'proper wizards' are wimps, they'd have a hissy fit at doing something without magic, especially fighting." she grumbled mockingly.
I let out a snort at that. She was right, magic seemed to result in a lack of common sense. it made things almost ridiculously easy, and degraded most user's brains because of it. After that disparaging thought, the door opened to the classroom and we all filed inside. Everyone collectively winced from the strong smell of garlic in the air.
At the front of the room was the turbaned professor quirrell. "W-W-Welcome s-s-s-students, to d-d-defence a-against the d-d-dark a-arts." the man stuttered. That's going to get difficult to understand and annoying fast. "T-Today, w-w-we w-w-will be p-p-practising the f-first s-spell in y-your d-d-defence t-textbooks, t-the k-k-knockback h-hex f-flipendo."
As he handed out wooden blocks, I couldn't help but notice there was something… off, about the way he talked. I just couldn't place it. Eh, it was probably nothing. I started going through the different ways I could impart the spell effect, and came up with a fairly simple command chain that I tested when we were told to start. The skull lit up on my palm once again as I established a Reiryoku feed to the Armschienen.
It was really simple, the first part was to gather energy in a single point, then launch it at an object. When the impact happens, the reiryoku gets turned into kinetic energy, launching whatever it hits away by a proportional amount. To test, I loaded the energy for a low power quincy arrow, and the wood moved a distance of roughly two feet. At the success, I checked how long It had taken.
20 seconds this time. Better, but it was also a simpler formula. Still, I recorded it. "Program record. Start. Initial command: gather reiryoku into a stable projectile. Secondary command: launch projectile. Final command: convert projectile to kinetic energy upon impact. Load command chain under designation: deturbare." I muttered, and the power sign lit up to show a successful intake. Hopefully no one noticed, like in transfigura-
"Hey, what was that mumbly stuff about?" su asked me, looking at my bracer curiously. FUCK! Okay, random technically the truth stuff, go!
"Hm? Oh, I use my bracer as my wand. An… incident, meant that I couldn't use a normal one. On the one hand it comes with some neat features, but on the other there are a bunch of failsafes, and its experimental nature means that there are some flaws, such as most spells having to be guided directly the first time." there, none of it was wrong at least.
With an answer gained, she nodded and went back to… trying to force push the block? Guess she finished the regular spell already.
Ducking into an abandoned classroom after herbology, I brought out the Armschienen ginto capsules while putting the stuffy outer robes over a chair, leaving me in my usual white shirt and black trousers, with a blue tie. Plugging each of the capsules in, I pressed the button closest to my elbow, and tried to rotate all eight dials.
Obviously it failed, as I had chosen my first element, but one more rotated along with my cloud dial. It was the sun dial (heh), which if Urahara's cheat sheet wasn't bullshitting me, and I wouldn't put it past him, held the support based concept of activation. So I had a multiplication based dial, and a support oriented one so far? I could work with that.
Whelp I'd put off my training long enough. Channelling the first of my sun reserves through my body I felt the difference immediately, like all of the stress of the classes over the last two days just melted away, leaving me re-energised. Every movement I made was faster, and I felt lighter.
It wasn't like cloud's propagation enhancement, which worked in cold multipliers. It activated, drawing out the potential. Together they could make the user a force to be reckoned with, but the letter said the dials wouldn't let me combine the effects of energies until the third setting. So I shelved that idea and tried something else.
Opening my hand, I drew on more of the imparted sun energy and focused it in my palm. Slowly a point in the centre started glowing yellow, before I pushed and suddenly there was a flame there. It was pale, very nearly grey, with tiny sparkles coming off like stars, nothing like the vibrant sunny yellow of the dial or the glow in my veins.
A scant 20 seconds later the flames extinguished itself as the Sun energy ran out, and I nearly collapsed at the sudden lack of power. "Christ, alright. Don't use all the energy up in one go unless I can't help it. Ugh," I groaned. Dragging myself over to a table, I took out my notebook to go over the dial schematics while waiting for a stockpile of energy to build up.
As I went through some rudimentary designs, I reflected that the power from the dials needed a name. 'Maybe flames? Yeah, that makes sense, although I do need to figure out why the colour faded when it was used as fire. Possibly a purity issue, like It's being diluted by how stretched thin it's getting as well as my inability to use or store it in large quantities.' I thought.
Reaching for my now dubbed Cloud Flames, I tried the same trick from before, igniting the indigo power in my palm. A similar degradation of visible quality occurred, being a dull near grey, and the flame seemingly clumped together lightly, like its titular weather phenomena. At that moment I vowed to achieve the Flame's full potential, not that I wasn't anyway, and figure out how to share them.
The purple seemed to make itself slightly more prominent at that internal declaration, but it was probably just my imagination. Snuffing out the fire in my hand, I drew on the Sun flames that had been quietly growing in the background of my mind, and circled them through my body at a low burn. "Right then, let's get started." I muttered.
Word count: 2663
Ugh, I hate how parts of this came out, something about writing in first person makes my subconscious process it in present tense even when I try to keep everything in past, so if that annoyed you then you'll be glad that I'm probably not going to be writing chapters in first person for a while.
Anyway, I meant to get this chapter out last week but then my brain just decided 'hey what if we're making Harry too strong?' and I had a bit of an existential crisis about that for a bit. So I reworked the chapter a little, and got further distracted making a document for who was going to be part of the 'hogwarts squad' and what powers they'll have.
The squad will be large, by the way. Like smallish club large. And every single one will have at least two dials and a spirit power. Just process that. I'm going to have to make at least eleven abilities. I don't know why I'm doing this to myself, but this is probably going to be over the course of years, so that's something.
And then there's the fact that I'm afraid some people reading this might think the magic is too eclectic, so I'm going to summarize it. Reiatsu or spirit power is the base of everything. Magic evolved from the predecessors of Quincy and Fullbringers. The spirit FBs are stand users (kind of) but don't play a part in this really. The dials are dying will flames, and they are from katekyo hitman reborn.
Dials use a form of compulsion to stop a user from going over a certain output or above a certain energy purity, which determines the power of the aspect. I realize that sounds like a bunch of technobabble but I'm honestly too tired to care right now, so anyone who can understand this, congrats.
The next chapters will not be in first person, because fuck that noise. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, because I did, even if I didn't enjoy the habits I discovered from the format.
Also, a final quick point to make: I'm going to stop leaving ANs every chapter in an attempt to get it to flow better. I might do one every major point, such as the troll fight, the unicorn incident and the end of the year.
Ja ne!