Progress Pt.1

[1988, Grey Manor]

[Nate's POV]

He was lying in his room on his back as several metal marbles revolved around his body in various complicated patterns. An hour passed like this for the young man. Then another. And after some more time the balls dropped as if the strings holding them in the air were cut. Nate then gathered the balls rolling on the ground wandlessly and put them into a box.

This was one of the three wandless execises he has been practising for the past three years, this one for control aspect of magical strength. Early on he had realized in his magical training that he had aptitude in control and power aspects respectively while his area aspect was average, not that any wizarding child practices wandless magic because the only things you can do with are too basic and a first Hogwarts could do more complex magic.

The most commonly used wandless magic is banishing, summoning and levitating. Then is the conjuration and control of the elements freely, which also when done with a wand has greater efficiency and control.

Nate had practiced elemental conjuration and control to an extreme degree, he could raise the ground in front of him as a wall without much trouble and quickly enough to act as a shield. He could generate strong gusts of wind to clear dust and debris quite easily. He could create water or condense it fast enough to create a veil of water around himself or a pillar of it to launch at someone. He could create a ring of blue cold fire which did not burn people and only burned on his command, it was his masterpiece in wandless magic, an idea he copied of Gellert Grindlewald, well copy would be an exaggeration, it was inspired by his P rotego diabolica in the movies where it was blue unlike how it was supposed to be black, it just looked similar since it would not devolve into beasts if left uncontrolled.

He called it Ignis Stellarum, the fire was not a new or modified spell, it was an instinctive piece of magic like apparition. It would only harm those that the conjurer wished to harm. It looked beautiful. It could be put out only through mundane methods like water, sand or running out of fuel. It could not be removed or undone with Finite or Retro Nihilium. According to his grandfather, it was good attack magic, at least for a ten year old without a wand. 'A cold fire that only burns when asked to. An instinctive piece of magic no less, it is great for a ten year old, amazing even.' were the words of his grandfather. His father had slapped his back while the women in the house were kissing his forehead or hugging him while praising him. He had grown to appreciate it- the love, the worry, the protectiveness, all of it; He loved his family. They were the reason he worked hard, to make them proud and thus feel proud in himself.

He knew he was not normal. He was someone who had lived before though now only the memories remained, and the memories pointed to this world as nothing more than fiction. He had grown afraid of death in his heart he knew, not because he was afraid of death itself, he was afraid of losing himself again, afraid of forgetting his mum, dad, grandma and grandfather. Forgetting the love he has for them. He was afraid of another next great adventure. Leaving everything behind. He knew, he was not similar to Voldemort in his fear of death, Riddle was afraid of losing power and he was afraid of losing himself.

And thus he had chosen a goal- His Goal as his grandfather had asked . He would become tyrant. Not a Dark Lord, Not a Hero but a Tyrant. A tyrant of such great power that even death would step back at his word. Such was the ambition he- Nate Alexander-Irene Grey, had setup for himself.

For the past three years worked on the four branches of magic as if his life had depended on hit. He was better versed in Norse Runes than most. He could cast solid illusions wandlessly though they lacked the power to be greater than an eagle. He still had to master temperature and smell. He could employ occlumency to hide his mind, organize it and to protect it to some degree. His wandless magic had come along nicely. He had decided that he would not try to learn all magic.

Magic like potions, dark arts , herbology, tranfiguration and arithmancy were branches of magic he was not going to learn other than counter-curses. He maintained several journals about these branches though for important things to remember, methods to counter a problem. He could now match his grandfather in chess and even employed legilimency probes against his grandfather.

Nate knew that it was a bad idea to neglect them and only learn the branches of magic he liked but he knew that Potions knowledge and information could be outsourced. Same with herbology. Arithmancy was a game of probabilities. His two greatest weaknesses could be considered fatal against people who he had to compete against in the future.

Transfiguration was the go-to for Albus Dumbledore which Nate had decided to deal with transfiguration using illusions. Thus he had foregone temperature,taste or smell in favour of animated, solid, visual and sonic illusions for now. Animated illusions were another great thing he had achieved. It was a trump card which even his family did not know about. He could create an eagle that acted real without a wand, with a wand he could most probably could create a Dragon although unlike a transfiguration which used a large amount of magic for such a feat, his illusion would require far less magic. Though it would not breath fire that would burn just yet. The only problem with illusions is that just like how a competent legilimence can take control of tranfigurations from their master, a competent illusionist can unravel illusions cast by others. Though there was no chance of sending an illusion back to its master.

The Dark Arts were as Snape had described ' ever-changing and eternal'. Necromancy, Blood Magic, Soul Magic, Rituals, Dark Creature Breeding, Dark Potions, Curse Arts and dark enchantments. Most people think that Voldemort 'just' mastered the dark arts and pushed them further. What is the worst he could do? Well the simple answer is he could fuck anyone up. I, not for a second, believe any Wizard could face him in a full duel and win without dying himself. The Dark Arts as a branch of magic are so deep that the only branches of magic that could compete with it are obscure ones like Time, Love, Space,etc. The taboo for example is one of the strongest and complex enchantments ever cast.

People truly underestimate Voldemort. The man could throw killing curses with the thickness of pillars. Voldemort took the power aspect of magical strength to an unprecedented scale through rituals. The man was quite literal in the use of ' If it doesn't work, you are not using enough of it.' He used massive consumption spells to demonstrate power. While I do not know about Riddle much but I do understand his problem solving abilities. Riddle always solves a problem with three steps. The first was manipulation, followed by threatening and finally magic. If it didn't work, he rinsed and repeated.

The only answers I could come up with for facing the destructive capabilities of the dark arts was Elemental Magic and Enchanted Weaponry and protections. Since I was aware of my inadequacy in transfiguration and dark arts.

A combination of the elements, runes and charms is one of the most effective ways I had thought up to counter the dark arts. But the best way to fight them was to run away, fight at home field advantage,etc. Don't get hit. Move first to hit hard. That was the motto I was planning to abide by against the dark lord.

But the more important thing that would be occurring today which would help me in my goal was that I would be buying a wand.