Chapter 62
Allen knew that his parents knew something of the future. Especially after seeing the three vaults holding an horcrux each. But he didn't expect them to have planned so far ahead ever since they first came to Hogwarts.
He put the journal back inside his bag and massaged his eyes.
'I don't know what's worse, the fact that they left me to do it. Or the fact that even if they planned ahead, they didn't see their own demise.'
*Sigh*
A disappointed breath left his mouth.
'Let's continue this later, I don't want to think about it for now.' At that moment, an owl came flying through the room, landing in front of him.
"Hmm?"
The owl carried a thick square package, once Allen picked it up, the owl cried, begging to be rewarded in some form, but since he didn't have anything at hand, the creature left, not without pecking him on the finger, causing him to bleed a bit.
"Ack! Stupid owl!" Cried Allen as he sucked the small cut on his finger.
What the owl brought was nothing more than his 'research' into the Wand Raising charm, paired with a letter from Mr Ollivander. He quickly tore open the letter to see what he had to say.
'I hope my letter finds you well, Mr Lionheart.
I've given a read to your small research into my charm and if I'm being honest. It's the first time I have heard or read something like that.
I appreciate the curious mind to know more about magic, but it should be done in moderation and where it's supposed to be used. This charm was designed for wands only, so my feelings regarding human experimentation are a bit miffed at best. I hope you stop from that line of thoughts.
Now, regarding the sudden sentiance of your wand, and that room you spoke of. I've tried it at different times of day and with different intent with my own wand, and yet, nothing of the sort seems to be happening. If I hadn't seen your wand personally, I'd have said that you are trying to play a joke on me. I've read that you have also tried to cast the charm wandleless and succeeded, and I believe that's where it stems from. The charm was never meant to be casted in such a manner, but you subconsciously altered it to be able to be cast that way, and the later iterations, even after you began to use your own wand to cast it, the charm was already modified, causing these changes.
There doesn't seem to be any problem as far as I can see with a wand gaining a bit more consciousness, after all, the wand chooses the wizard and can change their allegiance, yours is only more… temperamental.
Be sure to make it happy, and if you have any other findings, I'll be glad to take a look. In the meantime, I'll continue to find a way to achieve the same end result on my end.
What wandmaker wouldn't be happy when their own wand expresses themselves? And in such an explosive manner as well! You're truly lucky, Mr Lionheart.
With regards, Garrick Ollivander.'
"So basically… 'I don't know, it's amazing tho, I also wanna do it.' *thumbs up*"
"Argh!" Allen scratched his head out of frustration. "What the hell?! Aren't you the sole wand maker for the whole magical britain? And even the creator of the damn charm! What the hell!"
He kicked the desk to try and get rid of his frustration but all he managed was to hurt himself in the foot. "Ouch!" Goddammit!"
A sudden knock on the door snapped him out of his frustration. "Everything alright, Allen?"
"Wha-? Ye- Yes! Elsie! Everything alright, it's just- I hurt my toe against the desk!"
"Oh, okay, well, hurry up. We are about to eat breakfast."
"Sure thing, thank you!"
Elsie's giggles reverberated in the corridor as she walked away.
*Sigh*
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Through the whole summer break they continued to practice their transfiguration spells, while Armand focused on William, the girls pestered Allen all the time. And even after finishing their second year transfiguration curriculum, they went towards the next topic, whether it was potions, charms, etc.
They didn't manage to get very far with some of them, but at least they would get a starting point ahead of their peers.
One thing that happened over the summer was their constant practice with a fake mandrake leaf in their mouth. It was enchanted so on the last day when you took it out of your mouth, it would change colours if you failed to keep it inside.
"So any specific reason why we are practicing again with a leaf?" William asked.
Armand suddenly stood up from the couch, opening his eyes. "To keep us busy, most likely."
"Urghh."
All of them groaned in unison at his response before continuing with what they were doing.
—-----------------------------
One after another, students were walking in-between a sea of people. Some were pushing, others tried to evade the multitude of people. Adults trying to make way for their children to pass through, while others talked amicably without a care in the world.
Rolling wheels could be heard inside the Hogwarts Express. Kids dragged their luggage around, looking to occupy an empty compartment, and yet, all of them were already full.
"Did you guys bring anything interesting to pass the time?" William asked.
"I brought a set of exploding snap. The one we used at Sophie's house." Elsie chimed in, taking out a deck of cards.
"Nice! Are any of you up for a game?"
Allen closed his book as he looked at his two friends. "Sure, why not."
—------------------------
The sorting went faster than Allen expected it to, there were a few people here and there who looked his way, wondering if he would snap again in a fit of rage at the sight of the sorting hat.
Their fear was unfounded as his reaction was mild at best and uninteresting at worst.
But everytime a fellow student would look his way, wondering his reaction, he would stare back with his Mystic Gaze, bringing forth their fear of his green eyes, something they didn't miss the whole summer, and to be honest, weren't expecting to be subjected to so soon.
The sorting went faster than he expected, but also slower as well.
The whole time he was fearing for something to happen, but nothing did. It wasn't until they were in their dormitories that Allen could finally feel at ease.
—-------------------------
The next couple of days passed by in a flash, classes began normally and before they could tell it was already over a month of being in Hogwarts.
Allen suddenly stopped in his tracks as Sophia and Elsie looked at him with a questioning look. "Anything wrong, Allen?" Asked Elsie, seeing him a bit pale.
"No, it's nothing. It's just… Don't you feel like time went by a bit too fast?" The two girls looked at him weirdly.
"Actually, I feel like it's the opposite! Even after all your tutoring, I still feel like we don't have enough time to do our homework." Elsie gesticulated with her hands, making exasperated movements. "And it's only our second year, what is wrong with the professors?!"
Allen raised an eyebrow, amused by Elsie's reaction, but now that he thought about it, she was right. He spent this last month doing nothing but reading in the library. Hadn't visited the Room of Requirements ever since he arrived.
'Right, I haven't seen… Oh Fuck! Helena! I didn't greet her! But she didn't come either. How come? Dammit.'
"Everything alright, Allen?" Sophia asked.
"Ah! Um.. Actually. Can you girls help me with something?" He asked a bit doubtful.
At his question, both girls perked up, excited to be asked for help.
They continued their walk towards the Black Lake and sat down under a tree. After he finished telling them the situation, but changing a few things, the two of them looked at him with a frown on their faces.
"Did you really forget to greet her?" Elsie said dryly.
"How could you forget?! It's like if you didn't talk to us for a month!"
"I… I just got too busy!, C'mon!"
"It's only been a month in the year, we are not that busy!"
"But you just said we were!"
"Well, and now I'm saying that we aren't." Elsie crossed her arms, pouting as she looked at him. When Allen turned towards Sophia, she was doin the exact same thing.
*Sigh*
"I'll go tell her I'm sorry… Tomorrow, since today I have to tutor both of you about the skurge charm."
The two girls still looked at him with suspicion but shrugged their shoulders, letting their makeshift class start.
Allen breathed a sigh of relief seeing how they decided to move from the topic.
The rest of their day went by studying and review the topics for the next class. Practicing through all of the summer let Allen go wild with his magic, something it wouldn't have been possible back at the orphanage, and while they concentrated in transfiguration, he made sure to not let the other branches of magic slip him by.
One in particular was occlumency, he was finally done constructing the third defense after destroying it and building it back again and began with the construction of his mindscape. In the end, he decided to go for a Hogwarts lookalike, since he still has the Marauder's Map, even if he's not that familiar with the layout of the castle, the more he spends here, the better it will be for his mindscape, and with a map to show most of the structure, it's better than nothing.
"So, did you girls get it? That's the main difference between the scourgify charm and the skurge charm, even if they sound similar, one it's multipurpose for general dirtiness, and the other works only with ectoplasm, and apparently, if you use it on ghosts, they feel a sense of discomfort."
A glint shone in Allen's eyes as he said the last bit, remembering what he made the castle's ghosts to go through with his Mystic Gaze and his 'touch ghost' spell. Most, if not all of the ghosts in the castle now fear him.
"Yeah! I get it, but… When would we even use it? It seems… kinda useless, don't you think?" Questioned Elsie, posing her index finger to her chin.
"Well… Yeah, since it's really specific, it's really useless for everything but what was designed for. But I guess it doesn't hurt to learn everything we can.
Any other questions?"
"Yes! Is there any place we can practice?" Sophia chimed in, jumping out of her seat.
"Hmm… I'm… not sure, maybe we can look for Peeves to see if he made a mess somewhere, from there we can check if there's any ectoplasm that needs to be cleaned off before it begins to extend."
The two girls nodded up and down with a joyous look, their hands itched to try the spell.
Allen let out a chuckle before taking out the Marauder's Map. "Gimme a second then. I'll go look for him, you girls can stay here."
"Wha-! No fair! Let's go together! We can take Peeves just fine, and if not, you can always scare him away, can you not?"
A sigh escaped his mouth as he put back in the map. "Alright, you are right, then let's go! And if any of you get ectoplasm all over yourselves, I'm not helping!" Allen flashed them a cheshire grin as he said that.
"Then that just means you are a bad teacher!" Sophia closed her eyes as she said that and stuck out her tongue in a mocking manner,
"Hahaha."
They laughed as they walked back again towards the castle.
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One thing he forgot, no, it's not like he forgot, it's more like he didn't know when it would happen. And now that it did, it was too late to do something, and, well, it's not like there could've been done something to evade this, after all, they would stay here for the next five or six years, give or take.
Who?
Well, the messy classroom filled with ectoplasm, ink that spreads the more you try to wash it, and a variety of pranking objects sprayed around.
It was none other than the Weasley twins.
'Well… Now what, should I return the map so they can give it to Harry on his third year? But… I'll leave the school earlier than them… so, maybe not now, and it's not like it contributed a lot to the plot anyway.
Yeah, it's fine.'
He tried to convince himself as a bucket of water fell right on him and laughter could be heard from the hallway.
Sophia and Elsie tried to hold in their laughter but let out small chuckles behind him.
Allen casted a drying charm with both of his hands and scourgify to top it off before looking at the half-opened door where two redheads were laughing their ass off.
'Damn kids.'