10 Exploring the Mechanics! Part -1
{Potter Manor, Unplottable}
{1:01 P.M, 1 August 1991}
Alex stumbled again as he came out of the floo. After getting his and Harry's wand they had hightailed back to the Leaky Cauldron and returned to Potter Manor. He took a few steps to evacuate the landing area and then looked around the room.
The room where the Potter Manor's fireplace was located in a small room attached to the main hallway, Alex assumed that this room was specifically decorated to receive guests. That's why the dragon's bones were hung just outside the room.
Even without reading the caption, Alex could tell that most of the family portraits that were hung around the room were from different battles throughout the ages. While at first wizards wielding swords seemed a bit unreal, the moving pictures quickly depicted that an enhanced sword could be a far more deadly weapon than a wand if used properly.
"These are from a very long time ago," James' voice came from behind him. He wasn't aware that James was standing behind him. He was too engrossed in looking at the work of art in front of him.
A middle-aged man, clearly an ancestor of the Potter family judging from his messy hair, was standing in a battlefield. His face was cut across the cheek and his wet hair stuck to his forehead. The roar leaving his mouth was silent but Alex could image the intensity as his brown eyes gleamed with magic.
'''Lord Auston Holden Potter 1462-1521'''
Alex looked down and read the name. The Potter Lord waved a longsword with his right hand deflecting spells while he used his left hand to fire curses. The duration of the loop was too short, the whole picture was just a 5-second clip of the battle.
"Can I have a sword?" Alex asked.
"No," James replied as he chuckled a little, "Those were old times when magic and dueling weren't fully developed. Using a sword in a duel is a little redundant now, with transfiguration you could transform anything in your environment to block spells and with a bit of charms spellwork, even deflect spells," James started explaining but then he looked at Alex's blank face.
He resisted the urge to slap his forehead and spoke, "Don't worry about the sword, how about I teach you a spell?"
Alex's expression brightened as he nodded.
"Come on, we'll make a competition out of it, The first one to get the spell down gets to use it on Sirius!" James grinned as he started walking toward the dining room.
"Harry?" James shouted.
"Yeah, Dad?" Harry's voice came from the kitchen, he was already aiming his wand at a small spoon as he went through the motions of the Levitation spell.
"Wingardium LeviOsa~" Harry chanted as he flicked his wand toward the spoon. The spoon did shift in position a little but the grin on Harry's face said 'I-totally-nailed-that'.
"Come on little Merlin, I'll teach you a spell," James said as he ruffled Harry's hair.
"Not the hair!" Harry tried to dodge but ultimately failed. The four of them huddled around the dining room table and James conjured a wig on the table.
"Alright, what I'm teaching you is called the color-changing spell, come on take out your wand," James instructed and both Harry and Alex pulled out their wand from their front pocket.
"Alright, the wand motion for the spell is a slightly long squiggly line like this..." James told them, Rose nodded with a serious expression as did James. James held his wand in front of him and from an imaginary top right corner, he drew a diagonally downward squiggly line.
To Alex, the wand movement looked like a slightly flat sine curve that was rotated along the Z-axis. His previous computer science habits kicked in as he perfectly sketched the wand movement into thin air.
"Excellent Alex, just like that!" James praised, he was surprised at how easily he got it down. For a simple spell, the hand movement of the color-changing spell was surprisingly complex. Even the more difficult levitation spell was a simple swish and a flick.
While James praised him, Alex marveled at how his magic moved. By simply moving his wand in a preset motion, his magic slowly moved along his veins and collected on the mana nodes, the point where two mana veins meet, at the center of his palm.
'Would it work the same if I try to do the same wand movement with just my hand or my finger?' Alex thought, but he kept his experiments to himself.
"Now clearly say Col-Lo-Varia as you imagine the color of the wig change into any color you want. Focus on changing the color of the wig." James finished.
'Alright, first spell. According to the canon the three basic principles of spell casting were, wand movements, incantation, and intent. Let's first try this with the Rowling system in mind.' Alex thought. Even though he had established that magic wasn't as simple as described in the original world, it should work if he followed the instructions.
Alex closed his eyes and concentrated, he focused on changing the color of the wig from black to bright pink. He opened his eyes and carefully, neither too fast nor too slowly slashed his wand downward in a curve.
"Colovaria~" Alex incanted, his focus was broken at the last second as he felt his mana rushing out of his hands into his wand. His wand then fired a small spell that traveled from his wand and hit the wig.
Everyone stared wide-eyed as the black color of the wig lightened. Instead of becoming Sakura pink, it was somewhere close to the Belle Delphine pink.
"Wow, your first spell, and on your first try!" James jumped as a bunch of notifications appeared in front of Alex. Alex had to ignore them as James' loud voice drew some attention toward their little group.
Lily walked out of the kitchen with a questioning look on her face, she heard some commotion regarding a spell. Before she could reprimand James, he showed her a pink wig exclaiming, "Lily look, Alex learned the color-changing spell, and on his first try too."
The couple shared a look trying to convey their happiness through eye contact as Harry complained, "Dad I didn't get to try!"
"Of course, here." James came back and placed the wig back on the table.
Harry was under some pressure, he hadn't felt it ever before but now he could somewhat understand what Ron was always talking about. He sneaked a glance at Alex before he concentrated on the wig.
"Colovaria~" Harry repeated, a spell left her wand and under his excited look, half of the wig's color changed from pink to red. He was a bit disappointed by the effect but James whipped and started dancing.
"Both my sons are a genius! Who's the best? I'm the best! Who's the best? I'm the best!" James started jumping around with Rose quickly joining him. Somehow James had managed to proclaim himself the best based on his son's achievements, Lily stared at him with a blank look on her face.
Harry's slightly disappointed look disappeared as he stared at his dad with an amused look. Lily shook her head but even she gazed at Alex and Harry with a proud look. Though her eyes frowned in concern when she saw Alex once again in a slight daze for a few seconds before he recovered and smiled at James.
'Is he experiencing some headaches or something? This is the third time this has happened today?' Lily thought as she made up her mind to talk to him about it later.
...
Alex stared at the notification in front of him when James started dancing.
...
[Congrats! Yer a wizard Harr-Alex! II]
[After buying your first wand learning your first spell is the second step into your goal of becoming the next Voldemort. The G.O.A.T of Magic.]
[Gained access to the Spells tab]
[+5 Exp]
...
[Learned new spell: Colour Change Charm (Tier I)]
[+1 Exp]
...
[Color Change Charm (Tier I): Level 1 {1/50}]
[The Color-changing charm, changed the color of the target into the desired color. The strength and intensity of the colors depend on the caster's focus.]
[Mana Cost: 1 Mana/Use]
...
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AN - I'm going to divide the magic into tiers, simple spells like the color-changing charm, and all household spells would be categorized as Tier I magic and cost very little mana.
P.S.- The Story now has 15k+ words, so any form of reviews and powerstones are appreciated. More people would discover this story in that way, Thank You!
