54 Arrival Part 4

We arrived to the seventh floor after a few minutes of climbing the stairs, I was irritated and just flew with Daphne up there, since no one could see us. We slowly walked through the empty dimly lit corridors, that gave an ominous feeling to anyone walking them in this hour. Ironic, that the safest place on the planet could project such feeling.

The outcome of tonight was unexpected for me, I wasn't naïve enough to believe my existence wouldn't change much the story, but I had no plans for it happening now, and this soon.

It was time that I seriously prepare myself.

I didn't need to walk three times in front of the entrance, as it immediately opened upon my arrival. 'The perks of being Hogwarts' master' I chuckled silently.

"So, why are you here?" I finally turned to my blonde friend. "I hope you're not thinking of reading books at this time of the day." Because that's not going to happen while I'm nearby.

"No." She shook her head. "I'm just here to practice before I get some sleep. I still haven't adjusted to all the changes in my body." I nodded in understanding, as I was suffering from the same thing.

"You brought your workout clothes with you? Or should I ask the room to conjure some for you?"

"I didn't bring anything with me." She shook her head.

I gave her temporary access to the room. We avoid keeping two people in control in case the room gets confused over which one to obey if we ask different things.

She asked the room for a booth to change in, while I did the same. I changed into my workout shirt and pants, along with some very comfortable featherweight trainers. I had them with me in my expanded pouch.

My mind stopped working for a second as I look at her new outfit. While the pants were somewhat baggy, it still hugged her waist, displaying her fit body's curves. My eyes slowly rose to her developing chest, before noticing she was crossing her arms, then I met her eyes and noticed the risen eyebrow.

"Ahem… Errr sorry, hormones…" I turned awkwardly, before she burst into muffled laughter, which annoyed the hell out of me. Did she do it on purpose?

'I am a rocc…' I slowly channeled my Occlumency as it started taking effect, bringing me back in control.

"Ahem, let's get started then…" The scenery changed, displaying a road sandwiched by trees and greenery on the sides. The scent also adapted to the scene, filling us with energy. Lamps illuminated the road, as we started jogging. I made a conscious effort not to look her way in my vulnerable teenager self.

We ran for about ten minutes, followed by stretches and warmup movements. I then started practicing sets of moves, while she took out her wand to practice her control. Watching the tournament did give me a lot of ideas, one of which would be to surprise my enemies with Close quarter combat once they were in range, it would give me a trump card they didn't have, especially once you add magic to the mix. So, I started practicing Karate after finding an interesting dojo in London. I also needed the physical exercises to get used to what felt like a new body to me after the rituals I went through. They didn't give short term benefits, but increased my overall body potential, and that included all the aspects of it. I did have access to the Black and Greengrass libraries too, after all. You can imagine the deadly combination all four major families provided. (Slytherin and Ravenclaw too.)

Soon I began with Wandless magic, working on my telekinesis. My skills in magic were still there, that means my control didn't just disappear overnight. I just need to get it back, by practicing some more until I adjusted to the changes. We predicted that by the start of the first task, I would already have perfected my control. My physical strength and body coordination also increased, but it wasn't noticeable yet.

I asked for a wooden cube, and started working on levitation. The objective was to levitate it slowly, while controlling every movement. So, I need to first give it just enough force to cancel gravity's effect, then slowly increase the force to give it upwards acceleration.

I focused my magic, which used to feel like a warm fluid all over my body in and out. However, now it felt like a lava in a volcano, ready to erupt at a moment's notice. Once I began the spell, the cube immediately shot upward, so I cancelled it, and asked the room to bring it back.

I deliberately chose an object with low weight to practice my control, and avoid killing Daphne or myself in the process.

I tried again, this time using as little Mana as possible, while closing my eyes and blocking all other thoughts to concentrate. This time it slowly started levitating. There was a way I could easily control the spell, and that's by limiting the force applied by modifying the spell structure itself, which would be a lot easier right now, but it wasn't the point of the exercise.

I slowly decreased the mana output, forcing my target to decelerate. Now I focused on maintaining the current output, while the object slowly fell to the ground. I exhaled a breath I had been holding, then began again. I did it over and over again, until I could hold it still. It was still shaking, a sign of lack of control on my part, but I'll take it as a win.

I didn't bother training with my wand, because I could still use all my spells, except that they'd all be overpowered. Wandless magic took precedence in my case, as it would train my Wanded skills at the same time. I moved on to the Protego charm, doing the same thing. I tried to decrease the shield's power, until it was at an optimal level, while tinkering with its size. A perfect shield only protected the vulnerable parts, and that mean where the spell would hit. Having a bigger Mana pool certainly increased my proficiency with Wandless magic, as it was the one thing I lacked.

Daphne was doing the same exercises as me, albeit more advanced and with a Wand. She was having more success than me, obviously.

"That was fun." After 2 hours of endless casting, we were both exhausted.

"Yeah…" she said, panting from exhaustion.

"Mmm…" I heard a soft moan, and I immediately turned toward the source, noticing Daphne stretching. It went for a minute, before she stopped finally noticing my presence there.

"I'm going to shower, see you in a bit." I had to turn before she could notice anything. I fucking hate puberty. I had to ask for cold water to calm my nerves.

"WHY IS THE WATER SO COLD?" a shrill voice interrupted my shower, I just realized I didn't specify cold water for mine only.

"Ehm, sorry about that." Dammit! Now she'll start getting ideas. Not that they'd be wrong, but still!

We quickly showered (separately), and made our way back to the dorm, bidding each other a good night. I opened my trunk, and went to my private apartment. I never sleep in my dorm's room; you never know when an old goat will ambush you. I quickly fell asleep, teenage dreams making the night a lot more enjoyable.

On a more serious note, though, I really need to find a solution to this distraction of mine. Occlumency isn't enough anymore, unless I become some kind of living robot by blocking all emotions. Maybe I should look into some potion to fix my horndog problem. At this point, I'm tempted to just cut it and be done with it. Just kidding.