Chapter 7: Mastery in a Book, and A Green-Eyed Getting a Bit Green-Eyed

As I entered the room of requirements again through the mirror, it seemed exactly the same. The previous book was still there, but the locket that I had touched had vanished. When I looked back, the mirror was gone, and all I could see were the potion burners and its cauldron, which were both motionless.

My body feels like it's been run over by a vehicle; my muscles are achy; my vision is hazy; and even walking hurts. Aside from my weak constitution, this is most likely due to my excessive usage of magic, especially since I attempted to amass too much ancient magic for the first time.

I could only sigh at my current situation, massaging my left shoulder hard to at least relieve the fatigue from moving it so much during spellcasting. I grabbed the previously blank book to bring to my dorm because I couldn't tell the time right now.

But, as I saw the pages of the blank book, I finally noticed that the book wasn't as blank as I previously thought, or simply the pages' words appeared when I successfully got out of that chamber. On the very first page of the book, a single statement was scribbled into it to describe what exactly this book discusses.

"A Keeper's Mastery Book," I said aloud.

Seeing this, I flipped the page once, and I saw the table of contents of the book. There are seven sections: I: Mind Mastery, II: Essential Mastery, III: Utility Mastery, IV: Force Mastery, V: Control Mastery, VI: Assault Mastery, and VII: Dark Arts Mastery.

I flipped the pages again, and a single sentence was carved into the page.

[When a secret is revealed, it is the fault of the man who confided it.]

And after that, it entered the first section of the book, which is the Mind Mastery. The title of the section was written at the top of the page in bold letters with a distinct handwriting.

"In the wizarding world, secrets are as easy to discover as they are to conceal," the book said. "If a secret keeper cannot even safeguard their own thoughts from external threat, it is the same as the secret keeper confiding in everyone he knows. To keep secrets hidden, you must first protect your own mind. The study of closing one's mind is known as occlumency. This section will go over how to put the study and how to use this knowledge to your benefit, whether that be to simply blank and empty your mind or even fool external threats."

Well this will be useful…

I continued glancing through the pages to see what the actual content was like. It was not a spellbook, but rather a mastery book, as the title suggests, in which the book improves on the usage of spells, whether to make them deadlier or more effective.

A subsection about the Patronus charm exists in the Essential Mastery section, there is a warning before the subsection begins that if you want to keep using the Patronus charm, you must avoid using the Dark Arts and keep your heart pure therefore one must not study the last section of the book, or there will be dire consequences, which is awfully vague to be honest; how do you keep your own heart pure? By merely avoiding the dark arts?

The sound of a loud bell suddenly rang across the room, making me flinch slightly as it startled me. I turned around, looking for the source of the noise, and noticed a fairly convenient clock hanging on the wall that was definitely not there before.

The clock simply does not show any numbers or numerals; instead, it shows words. I could see the words "charms" and "defence against the dark arts," but the needle had moved beyond them and was now pointing at the word "dinner."

As I saw this, I laid down the book for the day, planning to go get some food as I was famished, especially given the shit I had just gone through.

======

As I entered the large hall, it was already crowded with students consuming the food presented on top of the long table. They were being served full roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, meat pies, sausages, and plain bread. It was a protein-and-carbohydrate-heavy menu.

I limped through the great hall, the two books still in my hand, and sat on one of the Ravenclaw table's unoccupied seats, the books beside me.

I took a plate, hastily loaded it with the appetizing-looking food in front of me, and began to eat. Yet, as I was enjoying my well-deserved breakfast, I observed a female in front of me just staring at me, perplexed and concerned.

It was that Asian girl I saw this morning, Cho Chang.

"Are you alright?" she inquired. "You look pale. And you're not walking right."

"Am I? It's fine, really. I'm just exhausted. Thank you for asking." I hummed while I chewed on my roasted chicken. "Chang, right?"

"It's Cho Chang; just call me Cho." She smiled. "Well, while I can't imagine being in your place, you shouldn't push yourself too hard."

"To be honest, it's not that bad, but I'm worried about what Professor Snape will do to me on the first day of his class; I've already heard some concerning rumours about him."

"Oh yeah, be prepared for that," she giggled sweetly. "He's… special…"

"Special?"

"Let me put it this way," she said. "The more you suffer, the more he likes it."

"Is it that bad?" I sighed.

"I don't think he should be a professor at this point," she admitted, nodding. "Especially now that we're in our OWL year, I'm sure he'll be crueller by the day."

"Great." I smiled bitterly. "More sh*t to worry about."

Once again, the girl in front of me giggled in response, and our conversation basically came to a stop. I grabbed my glass to drink some water to push the food inside my mouth, but then my gaze turned to what was behind Cho, and I saw a green-eyed boy, getting a bit green-eyed.

It was certainly a surprise for me, as once I saw this, I choked on my water, spilling it all over my food and making me cough erratically. It's amusing and hilarious that the fucking boy-who-lived is envious of me.

"Are you all right?" Cho asked again, surprised by my sudden spill. "I think you should really go to Madame Pomfrey."

I chuckled in between coughs. "Oh, no, I'm alright; I'm simply surprised."

"Surprised at what?" she queried, her face furrowed.

"Nothing." I replied, wiping the wetness off my mouth and the table. When I returned my focus to Potter, he had stopped staring at the two of us, seemingly embarrassed that I had noticed him. Then I turned to look at Cho. "Say, how much do you know about Potter?"

"Potter? You mean Harry Potter?" She asked, turning away. I noticed a redheaded boy obviously whispering to Potter, and the boy just sat there, motionless, as if frozen. "Not much, I talked to him now and then, why are you interested?"

Should I be the wingman, or should I be the devil?

Well, why not both?

"Oh, he's been gazing at you nonstop since I arrived." I shook my head. "I'm sure he has a crush on you or something, but you probably already know that based on how he acts, he's not being very smooth about it."

"Oh." She giggled again, this time covering her mouth. "That's something he does a lot."

"I summarised that much." I chuckled. "Oh well, I'd better go to the common room before he detest me. Nevertheless, I have a lot of work to do; see you around, Cho."

"Yeah, good luck on your assignments."

After that, I took my two books with me, and walked upstairs to the Ravenclaw common room, intending to end this rather eventful day.

======

After the minor amusement in the great hall, I continued to read the book that I had gotten earlier, specifically the first section of the book about mind mastery. Of course, seeing no harm in it, I practised what was told inside—to try to empty and clear my mind every time I went to sleep or did anything else, basically—and while I was doing so, I continued to practise the charms that Flitwick had told me to study, slowly getting through the second-year curriculum.

I did that for about a couple of hours before my roommates returned to the room, intending to sleep, so I had to stop in order not to disturb them and instead just read the book to see the theories of the spells that I had learned.

In the book, for example, it is explained that the severing charm can cause far more harm. The book said that with mastery, the severing charm could be spun like a boomerang to have a more curved path of trajectory and a deeper cut; it could also bounce from the original target, seeking another.

This was basically the talent system in the game, and it was interesting to read in theory, to be honest, as in the game, you could just spend your talent points towards that specific talent, while here, I could only learn it from the ground up.

After getting tired of reading, I finally slept, my mind still blank and clear.

Needless to say, it was a good night's sleep.

The next day, I was supposed to have two classes, Herbology and Potions, the latter of which I was dreading going to because, if the books were to be believed, Snape was not a good teacher.

But, seeing no way to avoid it, I just quickly went my way to the greenhouse, where I met with Professor Sprout. The lesson itself was quite normal; we were taught how to move mandrakes from one pot to another, how to plant dittany, and how to harvest the Chinese chomping cabbage.

All of them were simple, though the mandrake was unquestionably the most difficult. After the lesson ended, I approached Professor Sprout.

"Ah, yes, right on time," she said, bringing the pots of mandrakes to the corner of the greenhouse. "Let me see your schedule."

"Schedule, professor?"

"Yes, yes, I need to determine how much free time you have," she continued, and I just gave her my Field Guide, opening it to the to-do list section.

"Hm, it seems you can attend all of them," she hummed to herself. She took out her wand and marked a lot of things on the schedule. "There we go."

"I beg your pardon, professor? What am I supposed to do during the marked time period?"

"You are to be my assistant," she smiled, patting my shoulder. "Those marked time periods in your schedule are herbology classes from years 2 to 4, so you have to attend all of them. That way, as you help me with my lessons, you can also catch up. For example, the third-year herbology class is tomorrow morning."

"I... have to attend all of them, professor?"

"Well, not all of them." She rolled her eyes and continued to move the mandrake pots. "Just choose between the Ravenclaw-Slytherin class or the Gryffindor-Hufflepuff class. However, I recommend you choose the latter to be more connected to the other houses, and it's also my house."

"Alright, professor, I think I understand." I nodded.

"Don't worry, Mr. Ashworth. You seem to be quite good at herbology, and I won't give you too many tasks, as I already know that other professors seem to give you a lot already." She put the pot on the ground and patted my shoulder again. She seems to like doing that. "Anyway, off you go; I see you have Professor Snape's class after this. Good luck for the rest of the year."

"Thank you, professor. Well then, if you'll excuse me..."