Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Harry Potter. This is an amateur, non-profit work. I write for my own enjoyment.
A/N:
As promised, the lessons on magic. But somehow the lessons became lectures; I had re-written it, divide the chapter into two, and still... But well, enjoy reading.
Chapter 6: Wands and... History Lesson?
"Could you teach me magic?" Harry finally asked. "Like what my father did?"
{So, you're aiming to be powerful enough to finally defeat me.}
"That's – that's not what...," Harry spluttered.
Voldemort only smirked, {No need to lie, Potter. I will always know.}
His voice turned serious, {Now, having a goal is good. You have the drive to learn. Always remember that. And being ignorant will kill us both. We are unfortunately stuck in this predicament until our souls parted to the next life. Death, I'm afraid is not possible and I intend to keep it that way. So, you will learn everything I teach you and YOU WILL LISTEN TO ME.} The threat in his voice was obvious.
{We will start the lessons this morning, after you've woken up. There is no point in practicing magic only in your dreamscape. Furthermore, you need the rest; your magical core needed to be recharged for the lessons.}
Harry simply nodded. He was going to learn magic! He will be as strong as his parents. Like his father who managed to hold Voldemort on his own. Like his mother who managed to thwart Voldemort's plan and devised a way to keep him safe. Oh, he had to learn from his parents' killer, that was true, but it was necessary. If he could use it to defeat him later, that would be sweet revenge.
Voldemort, in his part, had been thinking of his better options. Being trapped in a ten year-old boy, reduced to a mere presence while bound with the boy's mother's protection was not a situation that he could have ever imagined. And there was nothing he could have done to solve this. And he had no control of the boy, as long as the boy and the protection thought of him as a threat. So, he improvised.
He'd make the boy started to rely on him, and learn to trust him. He'd teach him magic, something that the boy had craved. That'd be a good start. He'd be like a mentor, of sorts. And not without saying, keep the boy alive. He had a nasty suspicion that his other self – the rest of his soul not intended to be the Horcrux, had managed to get away that night and will try to find the boy again to finish the work. And what about his followers, were they looking for revenge? He had to deal with that as the time comes, one way or another... And finally, he'd gain control of the boy, even if it'll take years, and no one would have thought Lord Voldemort would be resurrected in the one who had defeated him...
...
The next morning, Harry woke up feeling better than he'd ever felt. He got breakfast of some toast and rejoiced the fact that he wasn't forced to cook breakfast for the Dursleys anymore. He planned to use his newfound freedom and the privacy of his new bedroom for the magic lessons. Plus, he had no more school for summer break had just started (and he didn't mind at all that he had missed the last few days of school) and he was now free!
This summer would be interestingly different for Harry...
{You need not be so worried for your magic lesson, Potter. I am not going to ask you to kill someone.} Voldemort finally said, amused after Harry hadn't stop fidgeting since finishing his breakfast. Harry had gone back to his room to begin the lesson after informing Aunt Petunia he wanted to be left alone for the rest of the day. Not that she cared.
"I'm not worried –", Harry began but stopped.
Wait, does that mean Voldemort couldn't read his mind anymore? Why? And how did he read his mind last night? Then it hit him: the dreamscape! Voldemort could read his mind there, but not in real life.
Harry grinned.
'I didn't have a wand!' thought Harry. There was no comment. 'Voldemort is an arsehole!' added Harry in his mind.
There was still no answer, no angry comment from Voldemort. This would be loads better than he initially thought. But then again, Voldemort could simply act like he didn't know what Harry was thinking, so he could use it against Harry later. It wasn't a comforting thought, not at all.
Finally Harry asked out loud, "How will I perform magic, really? I didn't have a wand. That's what the wooden sticks are, right? I saw you, my dad and my mum all have wands to do magic."
Harry had thought about that fact and he realized it was quite funny really; he had read in fantasy novels in the school library that wizards use wands to perform magic. He guessed stories may have some basis in real life after all.
{Sticks?} Voldemort grimaced. {Well, in a way it is. And it was a good concern. And next time, just ask if you had any questions. I didn't want you to muck up any spells or rituals because you are too afraid to ask.}
Harry simply nodded; that will take some time getting used to. Uncle Vernon usually decked him if he asked too many questions while Aunt Petunia would berate him.
{So, to begin with, yes, wizards and witches perform magic with wands, which is a type of wood with magical core in them. A wand chooses the wizard, so to say, that is most compatible with it. To most wizards, the wands acted like a magical focus for the wizards that refine their magic, make the spells more precise, and with it they'd be able to regulate the right amount of magical power required for each spells so they will get what the result that they wanted.}
"But I don't have a wand," Harry interjected again.
{Yes, unfortunately, you cannot get a wand yet. Not until you get your Hogwarts letter.} Before Harry could ask, Voldemort continued, {Hogwarts is the school for magical children to learn magic when they turned eleven. You should get Hogwarts admittance letter sometime this summer.} Voldemort should remember Harry's birthday after all.
"So I can only learn magic after I get the Hogwarts letter and the wand?"
{Not really. Remember, Harry, you have done magic without a wand before.}
"You mean when I tortured the Dursleys," Harry said hollowly. He had pushed the incident out of his memories, as he hated remembering the incident and the way he had completely lost control.
{Yes. And a very good display of wandless magic too; Banishing charm and Cruciatus curse... I cannot believe you managed to perform that one on Vernon} Voldemort chuckled.
"If I can do magic without a wand, why do I need it in the first place?" Harry ignored Voldemort's last comment; he didn't want to remember the incident.
Voldemort paused. How do you explain this without going to the history of magic itself?
{That will take a long time to answer, and we need history lessons for that. But let me make this easier for you to grasp. There were many types of magic and many types of magic users. In Ancient times, magic users are more attuned to the natural elements, such as fire, the wind, the sea, the trees, and these natural elements can be harnessed by really powerful wizards and witches. These powerful magic users are called Mages, and in the Old Days they did not use wands. These Mages have absolute control of their magic and simply used their mind to control their magic. Others use their bare hands, complex rituals, incantations and staves. In a different culture they might use other things: rings, amulets, so on.
In time however, magic become more diverse as humans added another component to magic: the complexity of a human mind. The human mind is the most magnificent thing ever created; the things that could be accomplished by a human's mere imagination are simply astounding. Thus wizards and witches no longer only harness natural elements; they invented, added things like mind manipulation, illusion and changed people's intent and emotion. With the advancement of medicine, soon magic can cause complex sickness and change the nature of living and non-living things, and affect the nature around him. Wizards and witches wanted more and more complex and precise results, thus more complex spells were developed.}
{Got it so far?}
"Yes, I think."
{Good. Now, in the Old Days, magic users apprenticed themselves to a Master, until the apprentices mastered the magic and become a Master themselves. However, these practices had become increasingly rare; too many types of magic, too complex subjects, too many students but not enough Masters who are willing to take apprentices. It also didn't help as magic users are jealous, miserable bunch of people, who hoard magical knowledge like hoarding gold... familial magic indeed} Voldemort took a deep breath. There seemed to be deeply harboured resentments there.
{Furthermore, the complexity of magic using the power of the mind, rituals and the nature of staves and amulets make it harder for the knowledge to be passed down. A lot of Ancient Magic was lost as the precise steps and requirements are lost with each generation as fewer and fewer wizards are able to Master the magic...
Imagine, we are now unable to Master the sea, the wind, the trees and the rest of the nature to do our bidding. We can only produce the effect, an imitation, not command them like the Ancient ways. The remaining ones who knew simply refused to divulge that information, no matter what was done to them...} Voldemort scowled the last sentence.
Harry shuddered; he didn't know what kind of torture those people had endured, or even whether they were still alive, but at least Voldemort could not learn that knowledge.
{Therefore, to avoid losses of anymore important knowledge, wizards needed a tool. A simple tool that can be used as a teaching aid, as a way to control the wizard's power, and can be used even by the less magically powerful among magic users. So wands were created to be the tool. With its magical core compatible with the wizards' magic, the wand is used to focus the magic, making it more controllable, refined and precise. Even wizards with low magical power can use wands to produce the more complex spells, as less amount of magic was required. So more spells could be invented and taught to others, and soon Hogwarts, the school for wizarding children was then established.
However, like all good things, there were bad things that come with it... Newer generation of magic users had relied too much upon their wands and regarded them as absolutely necessary. Some even made it so that without their wands, they are absolutely helpless. They had lost the ability to cast even a simple spell without their wands. Such weak wizards are not worthy to hold a wand in the first place!
Also, magical authority preferred wands rather than wandless magic and thus promote them. There's a good reason for that: for better regulation of magic. Spells performed with wands can be traced back to the caster's wand, and the boundaries of what can or cannot be taught could be recorded and stated easily. This is the opposite of wandless magic; it is harder to trace back, harder to define the boundaries of good and bad, and well, authorities simply hated things that they could not define and control.
So yes, magic with wands or without, there's the good and the bad. A wand isn't essential; it is simply a tool to help you refine the control of your magic and help perform the more complex spells. And I will teach you both; wandless magic and magic with wands.}
It will be a bit unconventional, really, refining the boy's control of magic without a wand, but then he, Voldemort had done the exact same thing before he got to Hogwarts. Surely the boy could keep up with him?
{Enough with the history lessons. You can perform wandless magic; you've proven that before. Now, I need to determine your aptitude for different types of magic. This can be determined from your accidental magic. Did you remember anything happened to you that are strange and simply unexplainable? Tell me.}