Marik
"Cheers to the first free day for us all year!" Alina proclaimed, raising her glass of orange juice up into the air. With smiles all around they joined her, raising their own glasses.
"Although I wouldn't really proclaim a day about to be spent studying, working, and practicing magic as much as we usually do a free day," Harry added.
"Any day I do not have to be sitting in a classroom for half the day or getting demolished by Flitwick is a free day," he said, grabbing a biscuit from the tray in front of him. He stole the butter basket from Alina while she was occupied with the eggs on her plate.
It was hard to believe that it was already November and that today was the first day that the four of their schedules lined up to allow them all to hang out together. They all still spent plenty of time with each other so far throughout the year, but it never seemed possible to get them all in the same room together at the same time. He passed back the butter basket to Alina after she noticed it was missing and had given him a death glare.
Professor McGonagall had not been lying to them when she had warned them that third year is where the true challenge at Hogwarts began. Marik had decided over the summer to only add ancient runes to his schedule, which on its own would not have made his life too much harder, however the addition of a new class along with the professors who seemed to have it out to kill him did make his life much harder.
Since he had been crowned the European Magic Students Dueling Champion two years in a row Flitwick had come to the conclusion that he now needed double the practice in dueling. That meant that two days a week for four hours each session he was dueling with Flitwick, along with another day with the charms professor dedicated solely to charms practice. Apparently to the professor winning the EMSDC two years in a row meant unfortunately that he also got double the effort Flitwick normally put into their sessions, which hurt. . . a lot. . .
Flitwick wasn't the only professor who seemed to be out for his head though. Kingsley had also decided to amp up their private lessons. Two more days throughout his week were filled with lessons, researching, and practicing of all things dark arts. Luckily for Marik though, at least so far this year none of their training had involved anything as painful as bind-breaking. He still shivered when remembering their training lessons on the subject from last year.
Much to his surprise professor Yarnsley had asked him to do private lessons in spell creations again this year. Unlike last year when the professor had him only doing tedious tasks and research that felt more like busy-work, this year though they had already delved into some pretty advanced stuff. Yarnsley, who had come into the year as one of his least favorite professors, only getting beat by Snape and Binns, had moved his way up to one of Marik's favorite professors this year.
Yarnsley had proven quickly this year that he really knew what he was talking about when it came to spell creation. Not only had Marik find out this year that Yarnsley was the second most published wizard in the last fifty years on the subject in Britain, but that Yarnsley probably knew more about magical history than even professor Binns did.
In their private lessons they were spending time examining some of the first known spell creators in history, and their techniques and visions in creating their magic. It was surprisingly one of the more interesting topics he had come across in his time at Hogwarts and had made him excited and anxious for each lesson with Yarnsley.
Outside of all of his private lessons, his classwork and research had kept him from hanging out with his friends more than usual. As busy and hectic as his life had become this year he certainly wasn't the only one who was busy though.
Hermione, the crazy lunatic that she is, had decided to add ancient runes as well as care of magical creatures to her schedule this year. Which meant she was taking nine classes this year. If that didn't fill her time up enough she was still doing private lessons with Snape for potions two days a week and Flitwick had also started doing private charms lessons with her two days a week.
While he certainly had a busy schedule, and out of all them Hermione had probably the busiest schedule, Harry's schedule throughout the third year had proven to be just as busy as the both of theirs. Harry had decided on adding care of magical creatures and spell creation to his electives, which meant just like Hermione he was taking nine classes this semester. However, Hermione did not have to catch up on two years of lessons like Harry had to in spell creations.
Harry had been nervous at first about adding third year spell creations to his schedule, and even professor Yarnsley said it was rare for students to test into a third year course after having not taken the course before. However, Harry had passed the entry exam test with ease and with some assistance from himself and Hermione Harry had caught up quick. Harry was already beginning to dive into advanced areas in the subject.
To go along with his busy class schedule Harry was also continuing his private lessons with McGonagall this year. To makes things even tougher for him, Flitwick had asked that Harry join Hermione in their private charms lessons as well which meant that he had two more days of his week lost to private lessons. So between the three of them they all agreed, third year sucked.
Second year for Alina was no laughing matter either. While Alina only had seven classes this year she had more private lessons than anyone else in the school combined it seemed. Flitwick had starting training Alina on dueling since she had won the tournament for her year, and even had her dueling with Marik often times.
Snape had also deemed Alina worthy of private potion lessons, though from what Alina told him more time in the lessons was spent with Snape bashing her father than on potions. Along with Snape and Flitwick, McGonagall had also started doing private transfiguration lessons with Alina. Flitwick had even tried to throw in private lessons on charms with Alina, but since she literally had no time for anymore lessons they had agreed on meeting twice a month to cover some extra things.
So with all of their private lessons, classes, and studies it actually was not that big of a surprise that this was the first time in the year they had all gotten together in the same room at the same time.
"Marik if you steal any more of my butter I will cut your hand off with this butter knife!" Alina shouted at him as he had once again tried to steal more butter for his next biscuit.
"You two sound like a married couple the way you fight," Hermione commented, her nose behind a charms book.
"SHUT UP!" Alina shouted and threw the roll she was holding at Hermione across the table. It was hard to tell whose face was more red. Hermione's from anger, or Alina's from blushing.
"Ahhmm!" someone cleared their throat. They all looked up to see McGonagall staring disapprovingly at Alina throwing a roll at Hermione. He laughed as Alina blushed more and mouthed sorry to the professor.
"So what should we do on our free day?" Harry asked, changing the subject.
"Go to our potions lab of course," Hermione answered first, returning her attention back to her book.
"Or we could go outside and sleep by the lake," he proposed, knowing fully well it was a lost cause. He waited for Hermione's lecture.
"Marik you have been trying to get me to help you with your ancient runes project for weeks now and today is probably the only day I can. Harry has been terrified that another house elf will pop in unannounced while is working on his animagus work so now is his only chance he has to have us all look out for him. And Alina will not shut up about trying the second batch of animareavelo potion I brewed so today is the day I get to shut her up," Hermione lectured them all.
"Alright alright we get it!" he said, rolling his eyes defeated. He had known from the minute he had woken up that morning that he would be spending his day in their potions lab working.
"I have not been talking about it that much!" Alina said, clearly lying.
"What are you wanting help on in ancient runes Marik?" Harry asked him from the other side of the table.
"I'm trying to finish mine and Hermione's rune staves out of the unicorn horn, which is a challenge enough on its own. I also need her help double checking my rune theories for something else I'm working on," he answered Harry, trying to steal a roll off Alina's plate at the same time. He failed and earned a soft slap on the back of his hand.
"Is using the unicorn horn better for making rune staves? I know for a fact you can just buy normal ones at a supply shop," Alina asked him.
"They are a lot better than normal ones. Unicorn rune staves are almost impossible to find in stores and normally sell for a few thousand galleons," Hermione answered, never lifting her gaze up from her book.
"What makes them so much better?" Harry asked, sounding interested.
"You are able to draw a lot sharper and cleaner lines with them first off. So that narrows down a lot of the failures and risks with each rune. Plus the magic in the horn adds some extra magic to the rune. Which means it opens up a lot more new possibilities of possible runes to create," he answered.
"Huh that is interesting. I still am at a dead end with my resources. I thought I had an idea for crystallizing some of the blood in my galatic way-viewer but all my tests with it ended up coming up negative so I am back at square one," Harry said, looking disappointed. Harry had come up with three different ideas since the start of the summer for his share of the unicorn resources, and all three of his ideas had ended up at dead ends.
"What is this other ancient runes thing you are working on Marik?" Alina asked curiously.
"You will see today if Hermione proves my rune theories to be correct," he answered her, a secretive grin on his face.
"Why do you gotta be so secretive huh?" Alina asked him, looking disappointed that he would not just tell her already.
"Because I tell you everything! I gotta have a few secrets!" he said back to her.
"Ya ya ya. Well what are you gonna work on today then Hermione? Our free day can't just be all about us," Alina asked Hermione.
"I actually finished a lot of the spell theories and calculations for my new spell creation magic last night, so I am going to try the first two spells today!" Hermione said excited, and for the first time that morning lifted her nose out of her book.
"Ooh, so we finally get to see what Hermione's secret project is then?" Harry said.
"If you are lucky and nice to me you just might!" Hermione responded and gave Harry a wink.
"Get a room!" he added at seeing them both wink at each other. Both of his friends immediately began to blush. Hermione was just about to say something back to him but was interrupted as the mail owls began swooping into the Great Hall. The normal large brown Ministry owl swept over them and dropped Hermione's copy of the Daily Prophet on the table in front of her. Hermione quickly picked it up and began reading.
Ever since his encounter with the Minister of Magic and Hermione and Harry's discoveries in the minister's office last year they had all been keeping a closer eye on everything the minister and the ministry did. Fudge had made numerous attempts to schedule interviews with them for the tournament over the summer, as well as interviews following his and Alina's victories. They had all agreed though to ignore the minister's requests though, not wanting to give the bastard an inch.
Everything he had overheard the minister say that day in his second year had been enough for him to have about as low opinion for the minister and the ministry as one could have. However, the shady paperwork for the Lex Sanguinis project that Hermione had found in the minister's desk somehow found a way to lower his opinion further. Since then they scanned the Daily Prophet everyday for any clues or possible information about the project. Harry and Alina had even gone so far as to ask their parents questions here and there about things going on in the ministry to try and get clues. So far all of their searching had led them nowhere. Nowhere besides still thinking Fudge was an absolute dick.
"So what's the word?" he asked Hermione who as scanning the cover intently.
"Any clues on the project? Or news on Fudge?" Harry added.
"No. And no. Look at this though," Hermione said as she laid the paper down on the table for everyone to see.
SALE ON ALL WITCHES UNDERWEAR
Madame Hugginton would like to announce that all witches underwear will be on sale this saturday for 50% off! Now is the perfect time ladies to get that sexy pair of lace that your man will love! Men now is your best chance to replace that pair of old undies you have had since your days at Hogwarts that your wife hates! Whatever your need is, Madame Hugginton has what you need.
"Wow Hermione you perv. Didn't realise you would be so excited about getting some new underwear. Planning on showing it off?" he asked Hermione sarcastically. She threw the roll Alina had thrown at her at him while blushing fiercely.
"Not that article you idiot!" she shouted at him, pointing at another article on the page.
Breakout at Azkaban!
Early this morning at around 3:45am a large explosion was heard by one of the prison guards at the maximum security prison Azkaban. While most of the prison's floor plans and schematics are top secret to only a few top personal in the ministry, a worker did tell this reporter that the explosion took place in the highest-security ward of the prison. This reporter was told that the highest-security ward of the prison is located around one-hundred feet under the ocean and is defended by not only countless thick walls but also a number of powerful enchantments.
Though the exact number is still unknown it has been confirmed by the ministry that over at least eleven prisoners escaped in the midst of the explosion, all of which were being held on life sentences. The most notable escapee from the prison is none other than possibly the most infamous prisoner to ever be held in Azkaban fortress, Bellatrix Lestrange. Bellatrix was currently serving her twelfth year inside the prison since being charged with over fifty-three counts of murder, twenty-six counts of torture, five counts of robbery, two counts of kidnapping, and ninety-three counts of breaking the International Statute of Secrecy and had been sentenced only weeks ago to receive the dementor's kiss.
While it is unknown if any of the prisoners have been captured or if there are any leads Minister Fudge did say this: "We are currently doing all we can to recapture Miss Lestrange as well as the other escapees, and we beg the magical community to remain calm."
Fudge has been criticized by some members of the International Federation of Warlocks for informing the Muggle Prime Minister of the crisis."Well, really, I had to, don't you know," said an irritable Fudge. Fudge has also come under criticism by other high ranking ministry officials for not doing more in response to this issue.
Regardless of whether you agree with the minister or not, there is one thing everyone can agree on, Bellatrix Lestrange and the other prisoners are extremely dangerous. The ministry pleads anyone who sights a prisoner to immediately report it. Further information on this topic will be released in the next issue.
"Damn, over eleven prisoners. The aurors are sure going to be busy now," he said after he finished reading the article. He looked over to Alina to steal the butter tray from her again and noticed she looked a little off. "What's wrong?" he asked her.
"Bellatrix Lestrange is my dad's cousin," Alina said coldly.
"What? I didn't know that!" Harry said.
"Yeah, he never talks about her or the rest of his family to be honest. But I remember finding a book with his family tree in it when I was young and he told me about her then," Alina put down the roll she had been eating as she spoke.
"What did Sirius say about her?" Harry asked.
"Nothing really. Just that he was her cousin, they had met a few times, she was crazy and in prison because she was crazy," Alina answered.
"I wonder how they escaped. From what I have read about the prison there is no way a prisoner could have cast any magic from inside their cell," Hermione said.
"Maybe they had help from someone on the outside," he added to the conversation.
"Who would help someone like her escape?" Alina asked Harry.
"Voldemort," Harry answered bluntly. They were all quiet for a few seconds after that.
Harry had come clean when Marik was in the hospital last year and told them everything he knew about Voldemort. From that they learned that somehow Voldemort had come back to life and was looking for ways to get his powers back. He had tried in the first year while possessing Quirrell to get his hands on the Sorcerer's Stone but had failed when they fought the troll and the professors fought and killed Quirrell.
Marik also learned in the Chamber while he was fighting Tom Riddle that Tom was actually Voldemort before he became the dark lord. No one still knew how Tom was actually there though, or if someone did they weren't telling him. All they currently knew now about Voldemort was that he was out there somewhere. And as long as he was out there Harry was an enemy and a target. Whether Voldemort was still looking to regain his power or already had it and when he might strike again they had no idea.
"Well we will keep an extra ear out from here on out on all this. Harry if you hear anything else you will let us know right?" Hermione asked Harry, giving him a glare in the process.
"I promised I would didn't I?" Harry answered.
"Mhmm. Well let's get going to the lab. If we stay here any longer Alina is going to gain ten pounds from all the rolls she is eating," Hermione said, earning a panicked look from Alina who was now looking down at her stomach.
They all followed Hermione as she led them from the Great Hall towards their potions lab in the dungeons. Snape had again agreed to let Hermione use the lab this year so again the four of them had made it their headquarters. Even though they all four were never in there at the same time, you could bet that there was always at least one of them there at any point in the day.
"Alright, so Alina will stop asking she gets to go first," Hermione said as they all piled into the room. Hermione began taking some of the flasks out of one of the nearby cabinets.
"Oh would you stop it! I haven't been that bad," Alina said again, and again it was clear she was lying. Ever since Hermione had brewed another batch of the animarevealo potion, this time with a few substitute ingredients along with a different brewing process, Alina had been begging to try it out and find out if she was an animagus like they had done their first year. From what she and Harry had told them her father Sirius was also an animagus so Alina was hopeful that she would be too.
"Okay, so how does it work?" Alina asked as Hermione poured the black liquid into a flask.
"It's simple. You drink it and find out if you are or are not an animagus," Hermione answered, handing the flask to Alina.
"And you hope to god you don't throw up," he added, remembering the horrid taste of the potion.
"Is it that bad?" Alina asked them, looking scared now.
"No. Mine was actually quite delightful," Harry said looking smug. They had learned back then that the potion apparently tasted better if you were in fact an animagus.
"Okay, well here goes nothing," Alina said as she downed the glass that Hermione had just handed her. Immediately Alina seemed to have a better reaction to the potion then he or Hermione had. Alina's hands were firmly planted on the table and slowly were beginning to change. Small hairs began poking out of her hands at the same time as her fingernails began to grow and sharpen.
From the shape her hands were taking it appeared that Alina's hands were morphing into large paws, much like Harry's had. The hair on the back of her hands started changing to a bright tawny-yellow color. Multiple rosettes formed across her hands like spots as the paws continued to grow. After about thirty seconds the paws seemed to stop growing and what once had been hands were now paws that looked like a cat you might find in the safari or jungle.
"Woah. . ." was all Alina said as she stared at her paws, moving them around in the light to get a better look at them.
"Hermione cast the spell so she can know what it is," Harry said, his eyes fixed on Alina's paws.
"Right. Animarevealo!" Hermione aimed the spell at Alina's paws and purple letters began to form themselves over them.
"A Jaguar! That is so cool!" Alina shouted. She was practically bouncing around the room in excitement.
"Congratulations Alina! That is so amazing," Hermione said to Alina. He could tell Hermione was a tad jealous, so was he to be honest.
"A Jaguar sounds cool. You are going to have a pretty coat of fur I bet," he said to Alina, giving her a congratulatory hug too. He had seen jaguars a few times growing up and had to admit it was a pretty badass thing to be able to transfigure into.
"Really? You think so?" she asked him, still looking excited.
"Yeah I do," he answered. "Much cooler than a mountain lion that is for sure."
"Haha, very funny. Congratulations Alina. You will have to tell McGonagall next time you see her. I'm sure she will be excited to hear," Harry told Alina.
"Yeah, I will! And you have to help me on working on my animagus magic now," Alina told Harry.
"Of course I will. Why don't I do my animagus stuff next so you can take notes.,"Harry suggested. Alina looked like she was going to explode in excitement at getting to watch.
"Me and Hermione will be on house elf duty!" he joked. Harry shivered at the joke.
"Not funny Marik! I still have nightmares about that!" Harry yelled back. Hermione reached her arm across the table and smacked him.
"Alright, but seriously, I do need everyone's help this time. Marik if you could use your shadows and darken the room that will help out a lot. McGonagall told me that since my animagus form is a nocturnal one out in the wild it will be better to do this part of the ritual in a dark area," Harry explained to him.
"Okay, I can do that. Just tell me when," he responded.
"What can I do Harry?" Hermione asked, wanting to help however she could.
"You are in charge of room temperature. I need it to be about the same temperature in here as you could imagine a cold night in November would be," Harry explained to Hermione.
"Okay," Hermione said, nodding her head.
"Alina you just take notes and observe. You will have to do this too one day. And all of you are in charge of keeping an eye on me. This is the second most dangerous ritual stage of an animagus transformation. I will have a lot of natural instincts and adrenaline flowing through me. So if I get out of control stun the hell out of me," Harry explained. Harry didn't have to say anything after that. A free chance to stun Harry, Marik was all in on this now.
"Okay, so I will start the first ring of the transformation first. When I do that and get down on the ground Marik and Hermione that is your signal, okay?" he asked the both of them. They both nodded. "Alright wish me luck," Harry said as he readied himself.
A gold ring started appearing under Harry's feet as his friend closed his eyes and began the ritual. Slowly Harry moved from his feet to all fours as his hands finished changing forms. On his cue Marik called on the shadows around them in the room to expand, making the room almost pitch black. He could see all of their breath in the dark room as Hermione began lowering the temperature in the room. He should have brought a jacket.
After a good thirty seconds Harry's feet started to shift into their animagus form. Marik tightened his grip on his wand and looked around the room ready at any second to hex the shit out of a house elf. Luckily for Harry though no house elves popped in. He could see from the increase in the cold heavy breaths Harry was breathing now that Harry was draining a lot of his magic in this ritual. Harry remained focused though and looked to be continuing the ritual as a third ring started to form under him.
From what Harry had told them over the summer the third layer was as far as he had gotten with his ritual so far. Harry had gone on a trip with his father and Alina's dad to work on progressing his ritual and had ended up adding the third layer during that trip. Marik had yet to see it in person though. Slowly as the third ring became brighter the rest of Harry's arms and legs sprouted fur and shifted their form. Outside of his torso and head the rest of Harry really did look like a mountain lion. As more of the third ring formed a long tail began sprouting out of Harry's. . . well. . . you get the point. It took all the strength he had to not laugh at the sight of a Harry torso and head with a tail. Honestly though as amazing as animagus magic was he would have killed to have a tail too.
The third ring seemed to have become as bright as the other rings at about the same time as the tail became fully grown. Harry's breathing was much heavier now at this point as Marik could see a constant stream of white breath coming out of his mouth. It was clear from the sweat, heavy breathing, and strain Harry looked under that people were not lying when they said this was one of the more difficult forms of magic. Harry's face began to strain more as he started to create the new layer he had not yet added to his ritual.
A fourth dim golden circle started to form under him as his body tensed up more. As the circle got brighter Harry's body began to shake. It looked like he was in pain as small orange-brown hairs began to sprout out all over his torso. His shirt began to shift into the hairs and torso of his mountain lion form much slower than the rest of his body had.
After a good five minutes of straining and trying to form the fourth layer of his ritual Harry's torso looked to have completely shifted forms. Outside of his head, which looked oddly out of place now, the rest of Harry's body resembled a large mountain lion. It was truly impressive to behold. After another thirty seconds one by one the layers of Harry's ritual faded and his body began quickly shifting back its form.
When Harry's body was back to normal his friend collapsed to the floor of their potions lab looking absolutely exhausted. Marik returned the lightning in the room to normal as Hermione stopped her spell and went over to help Harry up.
"Should we stun him?" he asked, hopeful he still might get to stun Harry.
"Shut up Marik," Hermione shouted as she helped Harry over to the couch.
"That was amazing Harry. Congrats on adding a fourth layer! It looked so tough," Alina said to Harry as he sat down on the couch.
"Thanks Alina. And it was hard. It takes double the magic to complete and hold each layer so that layer is the toughest besides the final one," Harry replied through heavy breaths.
"When will you be able to do the last layer?" Hermione asked Harry as she wiped the sweat off him with a rag.
"Well McGonagall said after I get this layer down I should wait a while. She told me that I'm supposed to practice getting this far at least ten more times before I move on. So hopefully sometime after Christmas I can," Harry answered her.
"Well I guess that means we are fucked again this year on getting a transfiguration 'M' then," Marik joked. To be honest the odds of him beating Harry in transfiguration were pretty slim anyways. He had to give credit where credit was due.
"You're damn right," Harry said laughing, it seemed he had finally caught his breath.
"Alright Hermione you want to go ahead and do whatever it is you wanted to do now," Marik turned and said to his friend.
"Yeah, Hermione! I'm excited to finally see it in action!" Alina said excited.
"Wait you know what it is?" Harry asked her, looking upset Hermione had told Alina something she had not told him.
"Of course I do! I'm Hermione's favorite after all," Alina said. Marik knew for a fact that Hermione favored someone else in the room more than Alina. The blush she now had on her face when she looked at Harry only added to his point.
"So what it is then?" Harry asked Hermione.
"Well you all know that Alina actually helped me come up with the idea for this over the summer when she told me all about the spell creation magic she was working on. We decided that since everyone else had a signature type of magic that I needed a signature type of magic of my own," Hermione started to explain.
"What do you mean signature type of magic?" Harry interrupted her to ask.
"Well Harry you have your transfiguration and animagus magic that no one else can do, Marik has his shadow magic that only he can do, and Alina is making progress on her white magic already. So like I said we decided I need a signature magic of my own," Hermione answered Harry.
"But you are like the god of brewing potions. Isn't that a pretty damn good signature?" he asked Hermione.
"That's exactly what I said," Alina responded with a warm smile.
"Yeah, I guess. But anyone can brew potions. I wanted something more unique," Hermione explained.
"Well what did you come up with?" He asked her, he was very curious at this point. Knowing Hermione it would probably blow his mind.
"Well you will see soon! I finished the wand movements and incantations a while ago for two spell ideas I had. That was the easy part. With my magic idea though the math and calculations are ridiculously hard and complex and has taken me since the day after the tournament until last night to finish. The two spells I made so far are sort of the same concepts but are applied in different ways," Hermione explained more.
"Enough with the lecture already. We get that it was tough! Show us already," he shouted at her. He was ready to see this unique magic already.
"Fine! Sorry jeez! The first spell could be a little risky so that's why I wanted you all here before I tested it," Hermione moved to the center of the lab and closed her eyes. "Here I go." Hermione just stood still for a few seconds concentrating. He was getting impatient and was about to say something before she finally raised her wand. "Aevumcorporro!" Hermione cast the spell she had created.
He noted the incarnation itself was one that sounded tough enough just on its own. The wand movements she had used with the spell also required three complex movements. Most common spells only had one movement or two movements to them so that said something too. For a few seconds he just stared at his friend waiting for something to happen. However Hermione just stood there with nothing changing or happening. He guessed her spell creation had failed.
"Well let's figure out what went wron. . . HOLY HELL WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED!" he found himself screaming. All of the sudden Hermione's body had vanished into thin air. As soon as her body disappeared the door to their potions lab opened and Hermione walked inside with a huge smile on her face.
"How. . . You were. . ." Harry started to say.
"Here. . . and then. . ." he added on to Harry's sentence.
"There. . ." Harry finished their sentenced. Apparently he wasn't the only person there whose mind was blown.
"Congratulations Hermione that was incredible!" Alina shouted to Hermione as she ran across the room to give Hermione a hug.
"You think so?" Hermione asked Alina, looking unsure.
"Oh my god yes! Look how much you blew both of their minds," Alina said pointing at him and Harry. He was still too perplexed to respond.
"Okay. What the hell just happened?" Harry managed to say from the couch. It seemed Harry had managed to compose himself from having his mind blond quicker than he had.
"Okay, so it is kind of hard to explain," Hermione started to say.
"It's kinda hard to process too," Marik interrupted her, shaking himself out the daze he was in.
"Okay, so my spell creations are all based around time. I did a lot of research and currently there is nothing out there that uses time as a form of magic. So I worked on a way to use time as magic.
"So far that spell and the other one I will try in a minute are as far as I have made it though. For that spell, it takes into account that time is a component quantity of measurement used to sequence events. As well it is constrained to the limits of the fourth dimension in our dimension in which time flows in constant progress from the past, to the present, to the future. So with that in mind the spell changes the quantity rates and alters the material reality of not only my conscious experience but the conscious experience of our dimension," Hermione paused and cleared her throat.
"Along with all of this the spell incantation and wand movements have to coincide with the magic since the circularity of both dimensions have different quantifiable rates of change. With all that in mind the spell only works when the caster's mind is fully aware of all this. Plus the caster has to be fully aware of the exact time and physical location they are casting the spell in both the third and fourth dimensions as well as know their location and time of where they will arrive at the end of the spells incantation in both dimensions.
"Those parts aren't so bad but what really makes it tough is that the magic itself breaks the laws of the fundamental universe of the third dimension but not the fourth dimension. So as a result for the correct sequence of irreversible successions to occur in the proper order the magic must be pushed as an almost flowing stream of liquid current through the third dimension of the mind and changed to a more solid form of magic in the fourth dimension. Plus, the wand movement hurts my wrist a little," Hermione finished saying, shaking her wrist.
Even though they were in the dungeons of the castle the chirps of crickets could be heard around them. Their room had gotten so quiet the sound of a pen drop would have probably shattered eardrums. He looked at both Alina and Harry on the other side of the room. He was glad to see that both of their jaws were also currently dropped to the floor.
"Guys?" Hermione said, looking worried at how they were all acting.
"Umm Hermione. . ." Alina started to say.
"WHAT?" he shouted at her. The only thing that made any sort of sense out of everything she had just said was that the wand movement made her wrist hurt. Everything else she said may have been spoken in a different language for all he knew.
"What do you mean what?" Hermione asked him, apparently not understanding how he and everyone else in the lab was confused.
"What as in literally every word you just said went over our heads. How the hell did you make a spell with all that lingo and big words!" he answered her.
He reached over to her notes on the spells and took a look, hoping they might shed some more light on what she had tried to explain. Looking over the notes only made his head hurt worse. The first seven pages were nothing but math problems that looked like they would make a rocket scientist cry. The next three pages were graphs that appeared so complex it looked like half of the lines were coming physically out of the page. Even the last two pages of incantations and movements alone looked even more difficult than the other pages had.
"Should I try to explain it again? Maybe I did a bad job," Hermione asked. She started to scratch her chin thinking of a better way to explain it.
"NO!" everyone besides Hermione shouted in unison at response to her question. Their heads would literally probably explode if she tried to explain all of that again.
"Hermione I think it is safe to say that no one, and I mean no one else in the world will be able to understand what you just said," Harry said to her.
"I think this magic will certainly be unique to you and you alone. I already have a headache from pretending to try to understand how this all worked," Alina added. He agreed with Alina. No way in hell was he going to try and make sense of Hermione's notes.
"Well. . . what did you think at least?" Hermione asked. She looked kind of upset.
"Bloody amazing!" Harry answered immediately.
"Fucking mind blowing!" he added. Hermione seemed to light up at their compliments.
"Show us the next one!" Alina said in excitement.
"Okay! So for this one I also had to take into consideration the continuum sequences of the. . ." Hermione started to explain.
"NO!" they all shouted in unison again.
"Show us Hermione. Don't waste your time trying to explain it," Alina said.
"Fine! Everyone keep an eye out on this potion flask," Hermione pouted for a second before she again looked to start focusing. All of their eyes were watching the flask on the table intently.
"Aevumobjoporro." Hermione cast the spell that sounded somewhat similar to the first spell. His eyes were fixed on the potion flask waiting for something to happen. Again it seemed like the spell had failed.
Just as he started to get doubts again, just like Hermione's body previously had, the potion flask on the table suddenly vanished. As the three of their jaws dropped to the floor again Hermione made her way over to one of the cabinets in the lab. They craned their necks as she opened it and when she did they could see on one of the counters the potion flask that had previously been on the table was there.
"Wow. . ." they all said again in unison.
"That is truly incredible Hermione," Harry said as he stood up and walked over to Hermione and gave her a hug.
"It is so cool Hermione!" Alina said, congratulating her friend.
"I don't even know where to begin Hermione. That magic is amazing," he told her. Whether he understood what just happened or not it really was incredible.
"Thanks you guys. That's as far as I have got so far so that's all I have right now to do," Hermione announced sounding happy from their reactions to her magic creations as she found a seat next to Harry on the couch.
"Take a look at my ancient runes theories then while I put the runes into the unicorn horn rune staves I carved yesterday," he said, levitating his paperwork over to Hermione as he made his way to the lab table.
It had taken him six hours yesterday to carve each stave alone. Unicorn horns were an extremely tough material to work with. It had taken borrowing one of the school's diamond drill bits along with an obsidian chisel to get the exact dimensions they needed for their staves. It was no wonder buying a unicorn rune stave was so expensive, it was a pain in the ass to create.
It would certainly be worth it though. The sharp point a unicorn rune stave had was so much better than any other stave on the market. With a point as sharp as it was, it allowed for almost perfect rune drawing, and the closer to perfect the rune was the better results the rune yielded.
He took out the two unicorn rune staves from his bag along with the rune stave he had borrowed from the school. Unfortunately the stave he had now was just your average run of the mill stave, so he would have to be extra careful with his carving. Thankfully though this would be the last time he would have to use a crappy stave.
Taking his time and concentrating as much as he could he began to carve the runes into the stave on the handle of the first unicorn horn rune stave. Alina had made her way to the table and was looking over his shoulder as he slowly made progress through it. The two runes he was adding onto the staves were simpler ones that just added some stability and extra magic storage to the staves, so both of the runes were fairly easy to draw. It only took about five minutes for him to carve them into the first stave. The unicorn stave glowed bright as he finished the last rune signaling they had been carved successfully.
"Alright! Let's try this baby out," he said as he used the newly carved stave to carve the runes into the other unicorn stave for Hermione. It was so much easier and went so much quicker with his new stave. The runes seemed to practically carve themselves as he just barely moved his hand to form the lines of the rune. "Here you are Hermione!" he announced to her as he finished his carvings on the second stave.
"Thanks Marik! I'm so excited to try it out," Hermione said as she walked over to the table to take a look at her new stave.
"Well what did you think of my theories?" he asked Hermione. Hoping all of his work checked out to be correct.
"Everything seems to check out as being correct. I recognize most of what I saw although I'm a little foggy on what your application for this is," she answered as she handed him back his notes.
"Well if you didn't find any mistakes how about I show you," he said grabbing his new stave from the table and two blank rune stones from his bag.
He was excited to finally get to do the project he had been working on since the first few days of the summer. He had come up with this idea early on during the summer and had spent the majority of his time, whenever he worked on ancient runes, trying to find the right theories to make it work. He slowly and carefully carved the two complex rune drawings from his notes onto the stones as everyone else in the lab watched.
These two carvings were by far two of the most complex runes he had ever drawn so far. Each one utilized over fifteen different straight lines along with a complex circular pattern on their edges. It would have been near impossible to do if he had not got his hands on the unicorn stave. After about thirty minutes of carving he was finally satisfied that they were about as perfect as they were going to get.
"Marik they look great and all but they didn't activate," Hermione said as he set the two runes on the table.
"Yeah, I know. These two aren't like standard runes, they won't activate yet until I activate them," he answered her.
"How do you do that?" Alina asked curiously.
"Like this," he picked up one of the runes and placed it face down on his left forearm. He placed the other one directly center of him on the table and took out his wand. "Umbrosio!" he cast his shadow magic on the rune on the table. Immediately both runes started to glow brightly in response to his spell. He couldn't help but let out a small scream and tense his arm in response to the pain as the rune on his forearm started to burn it's magic into his forearm.
"Marik what is wrong!" Alina asked him looking worried when he screamed. He looked over to see all of his friends were looking concerned and had worried faces on.
"Just wait a minute. . . It's almost done," he said through clenched teeth as the pain in his arm increased a little. After another twenty seconds or so the pain died down in his arm and the runes stopped glowing signalling they had finished their magic. He lifted the rune stone off of his forearm to reveal a black and grey tattoo on his skin.
"You made a complex set of runes to give yourself a tattoo?" Harry asked him.
"Kind of, yeah," He started to explain as he looked his first ever tattoo over. He had been unsure of what the actual tattoo would end up taking the form of, but he was happy with how it turned out. "The first rune was designed to absorb my spell, incantation, and wand movement and transfer it's magic into the second rune. The second rune was designed to not only receive that magic but also to combine it all and then transfer it into a singularity. With a few extra carvings I had the second stone create a tattoo as that singularity. What the tattoo actually turned out to be I couldn't figure out how to control. It all just depended on the magic put into the first stone."
"So you're telling me the rune created that art and image on its own?" Hermione asked him, looking amazed.
"Yup," he said examining the tattoo further. The rune had truly created an amazing image that really did fit his shadow magic perfectly he thought. The tattoo was a black and grey image of a figure, that resembled almost a perfect image of Marik, with black hair covering his face as he was on one knee bent over staring at the reflection of his own shadow. The shadow that the tattooed man was looking at resembled the swirling black chaotic shadow figure that he could summon. It was amazingly detailed and had turned out perfect.
"Well while I do think it looks hot, is incredible artwork, and fits you a a lot, why go through all that work for a tattoo? Why didn't you just get a normal tattoo if you wanted one so badly?" Alina asked him as she continued to examine his forearm.
"Because this isn't just a normal tattoo. This tattoo contains my shadow magic inside of it. The rune not only carved the tattoo into my skin, but also carved my shadow magic's incantation and wand movement along with it," he tried to explain to her.
"Yeah I still don't get it," Harry said, still looking confused.
"WAIT! NO WAY! That is incredible!" A wide-eyed Hermione proclaimed. She appeared to have arrived at the answer before his friends.
"Yes Hermione," he said smiling, enjoying her reaction. "Now with this tattoo my shadow magic is stored in my arm along with its incantation and wand movements. So if it really did work I no longer have to actually physically cast the spell to use it," he explained to his two confused friends more. Both of the light bulbs over their heads went off at the same time.
"Woah. . . NO WAY!" they both shouted at the same time.
"So you don't have to say anything or even have your wand to do it?" Alina added.
"Yup. See watch," he drew all of the shadows in the room into his palm where they collected into a small orb the size of a golf ball. His friends all covered their eyes as the room got blindingly bright with the lack of darkness present. He snapped his fingers and released the magic after finishing his demonstration.
"That is amazing Marik!" Alina proclaimed and gave him a hug.
"It is so cool. Why hasn't else ever thought of doing this?" Harry asked.
"I'm impressed Marik. You came up with these theories and runes all on your own already in just a few months of taking ancient runes?" Hermione asked him. The moments were few and far between when Hermione Granger admitted to be impressed by him, he let this moment sink in for a few seconds.
"Yeah. I started working on the concept the first few weeks over the summer and have been progressing with it everyday since then. I know he doesn't look like the type of guy to have tattoos but my dad actually has a really cool half-sleeve on his left arm. I've always loved it and wanted one of my own so it gave me the idea. Don't tell him I have one now though, he may just kill me for doing it without his permission. I'm actually going to use this for my end of year project in the class so professor Babbling helped me out with a few of the carving lines along the way," he answered her.
"Damn Hermione. You need to step up your rune work then or Marik is going to take the 'M' rank for runes and your spot at the top."Alina joked. Hermione went pale at her comment.
"Hahaha you're damn right I am." He said laughing. Hermione's face was starting to look panicked.
"You wish Ose!" she shouted at him. Her face quickly changing to its scary version.
"You two calm down now! Now that we have all successfully pushed the boundaries of magic enough today can we actually go take a break and relax outside?" Alina asked them all.
"I agree. My brain needs a break from all the mind blowing magic it's seen today. And I have been in this lab so much I feel like I have forgotten what the sun looks like," Harry added.
"Yes please!" he shouted as he bolted for the door. His friends followed him as he ran through the castle and out onto the grounds. They found a nice spot out on the front lawn where they summoned a blanket and all laid down. He laid down on the blanket next to Alina and rested his head on her leg as he closed his eyes. McGonagall had lied to them, third year wasn't turning out to be so bad after all.
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