Alter Forte: Chapter 5

The following months passed by in a blur of reading and practicing magic for Brian, balanced out only by the unfortunate tedium of still being required to go to school. He devoured his newfound treasure trove of knowledge about magic with relish, taking only a few weeks to read through them all despite having to deal with regular schooling on top of it all. He eventually finished them all and the information those books conveyed went a long way to helping Brian solidify his plans, with two of them being particularly interesting. The first was A Beginners Guide to Magical Theory, which had answered several of Brian's questions about magic as a whole.

"Though it left me with almost as many questions as it did answers," Brian mused to himself as he sat at his desk, contemplating what he'd learned. He flipped open the book in question, quickly flicking through the first few pages until he found the page he was looking for.

"While intent, willpower and magical strength are all certainly important when using magic, runes are, by far, the most important aspect of magic. Historians around the world continue to debate how wizards learned of runes in the first place, but their existence is crucial when using magic. It is through runes that wards are powered, that magical artifacts are enchanted and even that wand's function. The purpose of runes is quite simple; they act as a way to speak to magic itself and rewrite your will upon the world, at the cost of your own magical power. Wand movements are an example of this, with each stroke and swish of a wand movement for a spell helping to convey your intent to magic, which will act as you command it. Of course, over time as wizards grow used to how various runes shape and control their magic to accomplish certain tasks, they can adjust their magic to accomplish the same task without a rune, although the difficulty of controlling a spell without the proper runes is increased significantly," Brian read for what had to be the tenth time, closing the book. The entire book was a fascinating breakdown of how magic actually worked, something that all the required books for his first year sorely lacked.

The book had also gone into detail on incantations, a topic Brian had been quite curious about. It turned out that, much like runes, the language used in spell incantations wasn't something made up pointlessly, it was the verbal equivalent of runes that helped wizards communicate with their magic and guide it to do what they needed. While not strictly necessary, the additional way of guiding magic helped wizards to further clarify their intent when casting a spell. It helped to control a wizard's magic and also ensured the spell didn't go further than what the wizard using it wanted it to do. Various phrases were more commonly used with different runes to varying effects, which was a topic spell crafters often dedicated their lives to according to the book. Apparently at some point muggles had heard the language and the bits and pieces they'd learned had come together and changed overtime into Latin as muggles knew it. Brian was extremely relieved when he read that particular section, thanking whatever deity existed for not making his study of Latin be completely useless, even if it meant he'd probably have to relearn large pieces of the language to apply it to magic.

"If only my parents would buy me a book on runes," Brian thought with regret, looking down at the notes he'd made. His parents had adamantly refused to buy him any more books for the time being, leaving him to flounder around on the subject by himself. McGonagall had mentioned the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery during her initial explanations to his parents of the wizarding world, which left him hesitant to try any wand magic before Hogwarts, which left him hesitant to try wand magic at his home. However, he also distinctly remembered Hermione Granger claiming to have practiced using several spells, so he'd attempted a simple lumos. To his relief, despite waiting for an hour afterward in tense silence, he'd never received a notice from the ministry.

With the knowledge that he was safe from any potential expulsion for underage magic, for the time being at least, he worked his way through his course books to the best of his ability. Transfiguration in particular was fascinating to Brian. He'd attempted it wandlessly countless times before he got his Hogwarts letter, but he'd never had any success. Once he actually started practicing some of the more basic spells in the book he had on the subject though, his failure made sense. Transfiguration seemed to be the most strict when it came to accuracy with wand movements to form the necessary runes, so without a knowledge of runes he was pretty sure he didn't have a chance in hell at transfiguring anything.

The book on magical theory aside, one other book Brian had gotten from Diagon Alley really stood out to him, Maintaining the Statue. The book was a look at how various ministries enforced the Statue of Secrecy, major incidents of the Statue almost being broken, and most interestingly to Brian, an entire chapter dedicated to the International Confederation of Wizards.

"While ministries around the world are required by the agreements made in the Statue of Secrecy to hide the existence of magic from non-magicals, there are occasions when the local ministries aren't sufficient to contain the problem. When the Statue was first formed in 1692, the creators of the Statue foresaw ministries needing assistance to maintain it, and thus formed the International Confederation of Wizards to help maintain the Statue. While the International Confederation of Wizards has long since grown into far more than its original reason for forming, becoming a behemoth of magical and political power that's respected as the single most important wizarding association on the planet, at its core maintaining the Statue of Secrecy continues to be Confederation's ultimate mission and goal." Maintaining the Statue- Chapter 4 The ICW

"The books never went into almost any detail about just what the hell the ICW was, so that chapter is probably some of the most relevant information I've gotten from these books," Brian thought to himself. It painted an interesting picture that left Brian with multiple questions. For one, why the hell hadn't the ICW interfered with Voldemort's reign of terror in Britain? He knew for a fact Voldemort had blatantly attacked muggles and risked exposing magic to the world during his second reign of terror, Brian could remember that much from the books. While he wasn't certain, he was relatively confident Voldemort had done the same during his first rise to power, so it didn't make sense that the ICW hadn't involved themselves. It wasn't a question any of his books answered either. Still, without a way to answer any of his questions, he was forced to focus on his magic more, to limited results.

While he was able to work his way through most of the first year books in the seven months he had before Hogwarts, transfiguration was a field he struggled with because of the strict mastery of wand movements that it required. He was able to manage some of the more basic spells, but the ones towards the end of the book stumped him, leaving him with half transfigured results that frustrated him to no end. Some spells, such as the tripping jinx were relatively easy to replicate wandlessly, but others were far more difficult and, in some cases, outright impractical due to the significantly larger drain they had on his magic than their wand versions. Despite that though, Brian was confident he had prepared himself to the utmost for Hogwarts, an accomplishment he was quite proud of.

Linebreak

Before Brian knew it, the date was September first, the day he was due to board the Hogwarts Express. While the morning of Brian's departure involved more than a few tears from his mother, the family headed to Kings Cross Station and went inside, his father pushing along the cart that had Brian's school trunk with all his supplies for Hogwarts.

"You excited Sport?" His father asked cheerily as they walked, looking towards Brian who was scanning around the station as the family made their way towards the platform.

"Of course I am! I finally get to practice magic!" Brian declared with false excitement, looking around to make sure his declaration wasn't heard by anyone around them. Left unsaid was the hundreds of hours he'd spent practicing magic already, both with and without a wand. His mother glanced down from her position beside him, offering Brian a sad smile.

"Just be sure you don't forget your father and I once you're learning all that fancy magic at Hogwarts," His mother said to him softly.

"I won't mother, don't worry, I'll be sure to write," He said to his mother reassuringly as he looked around. He was much more focused on the increasingly blatant wizards and witches he saw among the crowd as they moved closer to the entrance to Platform 9 ¾.

"How the hell has the magical world stayed hidden this long, this is ridiculous," Brian thought to himself, watching as hordes of wizards blatantly dressed in robes all moved through the station. Though in fairness, even they didn't stand out as badly as the witches and wizards who'd attempted dressing as muggles. Some just wore clothing that was blatantly wrong in some way, like one wizard who Brian spotted wearing a woman's nightgown and a pair of trousers. Others wore clothing that was decades out of date, or styles that just didn't make sense.

"Oh, that's right, memory charms are bullshit," Brian thought to himself, watching as one family of particularly eccentric looking wizards got stopped by a security guard, only for the guard to step away moments later, looking utterly confused and very apologetic towards the family.

"This should be the entrance," His father said suddenly, making Brian focus on his immediate surroundings once again. In front of them was the last pillar before the one labeled platform 10. At first, it didn't look like much, but when Brian tried to focus, he could faintly sense the magic coming from it in waves.

"Well then, off we go," Brian said happily, quickly running through the barrier. The feeling as he ran head on into what looked like a brick wall was interesting. It was almost as if his entire body was submerged into honey for a moment before he was spat back out onto the otherside, his parents coming through shortly after.

"I wonder how the barrier knows to allow muggleborn parents through? Is there some way of identifying them? Can all muggles make it through the barrier? Do you need to be aware of magic to get through? Another thing to look into I suppose," Brian mused to himself for a moment as he took in his surroundings once more, while moving away from the pillar that acted as an entrance to the platform with his parents following behind him, looking around

"All this, hidden away behind a pillar," He heard his mother mumble to herself in awe. Brian had to admit, it was an impressive sight. A row of fireplaces lined the only wall, where witches and wizards were pouring into the platform by Floo, the fires constantly flashing green, with families clustering together all around the place talking with the children occasionally causing some small measure of chaos as magic was blatantly on display. All over the platform, owls were also present, some caged and others roaming free, adding even more chaos to the mix. Even the structure of the platform was older than the rest of the station, the style looking far less modern than the rest of the station had. Most eye-catching of all though was the bright red train labeled Hogwarts Express, with a sign overhead declaring its departure time as eleven o'clock.

"It is pretty incredible," His father agreed before looking down at Brian.

"I guess this is it," Brian said to his parents softly. He'd grown to care for his parents in his new life, they were more than he could've ever hoped for and he was grateful to them for what they'd given him.

"But even so, that train, and think of where it leads, I have no doubts that going to Hogwarts is the right choice. I've longed to go there even before I was reborn. More importantly though, I can't help fix things if I'm not at Hogwarts. It's the center of everything in the books," Brian thought to himself. He looked up at his parents, watching as tears threatened to form in his mother's eyes.

"I'll miss you," He told them sincerely. At that, his mother couldn't contain her tears any longer, pulling him into a tight hug.

"And we'll miss you Brian. You better keep your word and write to us," His mother told him.

"I will mother, don't worry," He said, pulling away from the hug after a moment and turning towards her father.

"Good luck son, I know leaving the house for so long can be scary at your age, but I feel like you made the right choice going to Hogwarts and we support you. Your mother and I love you," His father told him with a reassuring smile, passing him his trunk as he did so. Brian took from him with little effort, mentally thanking the weightless charm the trunk had on it.

"I love you too," He told them both quietly, turning away and walking onto the train.

Despite the train not being due to leave for another twenty minutes, many of the compartments were packed full with children of various ages, which Brian looked at in interest. While he didn't have any real plans of making friends with his fellow students, networking was going to be necessary at some point, especially with how biased much of the wizarding world was against muggleborns. It took him a while but Brian eventually found an empty compartment to settle down in for the ride, free from the noise of the other children. He quickly entered the compartment, placing his trunk on the shelf up above the seats and shutting the door. Digging out a book from his trunk, Lord of The Rings, Brian settled into his seat and began to read. While in his current life he'd done his best to read more useful books, he still couldn't resist the temptation of a good story provided on occasion. And a long train ride was the perfect opportunity.

Unfortunately it wasn't long before a knock at the door to his compartment disturbed him, forcing him to put his book down. Opening the door, he saw a young boy with brown hair who looked about Brian's age already dressed in his robes, his trunk resting on the ground beside him as he waited at the doorway.

"Sorry to bother you. I was looking for somewhere to sit and saw this compartment was mostly empty. Do you mind if I sit with you?" The boy asked timidly. Brian considered the matter for a moment. If he turned the boy aware, the odds were pretty high he'd offend him, not to mention even if he turned this one away, another child would probably try sitting with him instead. He probably wouldn't get away with monopolizing an entire compartment, even if doing so would be more peaceful.

"Sure, you can sit with me," Brian agreed after a moment, moving out of the doorway.

"Thank you so much!" The boy replied excitedly, entering the compartment. He dragged his trunk into the compartment, the sound of the wood scraping against the metal making Brian wince.

"Here, let me," Brian said, stopping the boy from doing any further damage to his trunk. Drawing his wand from his sleeve, he pointed it at the trunk.

"Wingardium Leviosa," He incanted as he used the proper wand movements. The trunk rose into the air, sailing smoothly onto the shelf above them under his direction.

"Wow! My mom and dad use that spell all the time! I tried practicing it from our books but I couldn't get it quite right. You must be really good at magic!" The boy babbled, visibly impressed. Brian glanced at the boy in sympathy for a moment. While he'd managed the wand movement for Wingardium Leviosa, he could definitely relate to struggling with wand movements, the strict wand movements necessary for transfiguration were still an issue for him.

"It took a bit of practice, but I managed the spell eventually, what's your name," Brian asked, trying to change the topic in order to avoid making the boy feel bad.

"Oh! I completely forgot. I'm Damien Bell, it's nice to meet you!" The boy declared happily, completely forgetting the previous conversation as he extended his hand.

"Nice to meet you too Damien, I'm Brian, Brian Williams," He told the boy, shaking his hand as he did so. The boy grinned as he sat down across from Brian.

"So, what house do you think you'll be sorted into? My parents were both Gryffindors, but personally I'm hoping for Ravenclaw, knowledge is the key to success!" The boy said, rambling slightly. Brian smiled slightly at the boy, his words reminding him faintly of his own views.

"Ravenclaw is where I'm hoping too," He told the boy, opening the book he had still sitting on his seat as he did so. To Brian's surprise, the boy seemed to take the hint, retrieving a book of his own from his robes as he began to read in companionable silence, only stopping their reading in order to buy food from the trolley for lunch. The two chatted while they ate before they resumed reading. Soon though as the train approached Hogwarts Brian had to stop reading his book once more to pull on his robes. As he did so, he looked out the window to see a castle in the distance that the train was rapidly approaching, Hogwarts awaited.

Sorry it took 3 days to get you guys this chapter out, preparing for Brian going to Hogwarts has been somewhat difficult. If you look on Harry Potter wiki at the sorting of 1988, you'll see canon actually tells us almost no-one that is in his year with only two Slytherins being mentioned at all. Unless of course you count all those random characters that Warner Bros made up for their games like Harry Potter Magic Awakened. That means while writing this chapter I had to draft out and plan any characters I wanted or needed in Brian's year at Hogwarts, which took longer than I planned. Thankfully in both the year above Brian and the year below, there's at least a few characters already created, such as Percy Weasley, Oliver Wood and Marcus Flint above him, and the Twins as well as Cedric Diggory in the year below him. My planning of these characters actually ended up being somewhat pointless anyway given where the chapter ended only revealed a few of them, but at least I have them planned out for future chapters , if you enjoyed this chapter leave a review and tell me your thoughts on what I did well or how I could improve.

Next Chapter: January 22