[1990 Pt.1]

A|N:  Sorry for the missed chapter lads, I was a bit sick and had to miss out on posting yesterday. Hope you all like the chapter even if it was delayed.

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[Hogwarts Express]

Nathan and his dormmates had boarded the Hogwarts Express from Hogsmeade after they had been informed of the Summer Club.

Nathan heard Alan ask,"Should I tell my parents about the club?" everyone in the compartment even as he finally wrestled his trunk below his seat.

"You could. Your parents aren't going to really tell another wizard anyway. The problem is whether I should tell my parents or not. We should have asked this from Professor Sprout," Jacob, Nathan and Alan all rolled their eyes at Orion's childish tone, their perception of the shy and naive boy had changed after they spent a year with him. Orion while the most normal child among the four of them, he too was not totally normal. The boy as Nathan observed had periods where he would grow gloomy, pessimistic and melancholic.

Nathan had once asked the boy what he was thinking about during one of his melancholic episodes and the answer the boy had given was, "I am not thinking anything, I just space out sometimes and then when I come out of it, there is this urge to do something worthwhile that I can't seem to gather any understanding of. I want to do something, but I am not sure what I want to do. It makes me restless."

Nathan was no psychologist, but as an adult, it still worried him a bit and he had asked whether this problem was an old one. The boy had answered that it only began a few weeks after joining Hogwarts and Nathan had suggested Orion to try doing different things and see if it helped.

Orion following Nathan's advice tried painting with Jacob, mock duelling with Alan, and playing musical instruments along with Merton Graves, he even tried to learn advanced astronomy but, it was only after he learned a new spell from Nathan that the boy finally found something that would ease his restlessness.

Nathan had been experimenting with the idea of creating wardstones by transfiguring stones into various gems and performing Alchemy on them when Orion had seen him turning a rock into a gem and he had asked if he would teach him the spell to turn the rock into a gem and Nathan had agreed since it hadn't been really time taking to give an incantation and point Orion towards a book so that he could learn the necessary wand movements that Nathan personally did not use.

Since that day, Orion has learned to use the intermediate transfiguration spell and other spells to make various types of jewels. The boy had been delighted to find spells that could help him increase his already large stone collection. Nathan was also happy to see the boy so interested in Jewelcraft because he had been contemplating trying to teach warding to someone other than himself since it was a branch of magic that would be very useful in the coming years and it was also fairly simple to learn.

Nathan could utilize Orion's obsession with jewels to make the boy learn to use his wards offensively and defensively by making the wards activate like a portkey. Orion would be able to banish a transfigured ruby at an enemy while saying a word to unleash an attack of massive proportions by placing a lot of concurrent enchantments on the wardstone beforehand. It would take a few years but Nathan reckoned that the dividends it would pay in the coming war would be worth it.

Nathan said, "We can ask the person we are going to write for the club what kind of excuse we are supposed to make."

Orion nodded thoughtfully before saying, "That makes sense, Nate, have all of you decided what you are going to take? I am planning to go for either Alchemy or Mind Arts. Alchemy can help me do a lot of things. And Mind magic is pretty self-explanatory."

Alan gave an uneasy nod to Orion before saying, "I want you to help me get started on the basics of mind magic if you do choose it, it seems like even the basic understanding of it can be helpful. We can freely change what we will learn every year, but Tonks suggested that I learn under someone who knows both magical combat and battle transfiguration, it is a flashy and useful skill to know the basics of," Alan's tone indicated that he was going to follow Tonks' suggestion.

"I am going for Elemental spell casting," Jacob shrugged and continued, "I will probably take over the hotel from Dad in about a decade and don't really need any special magic to run the hotel. So I am planning on learning anything that actually catches my fancy. Though I do plan to expand the business into the muggle world, it fascinates me how there are so many types of foods that we British seem to miss out on. What about you, Nate, what are you going to do?"

Nathan internally sighed since his thoughts on the matter were very conflicted and he couldn't help but say, "I am very unsure about what lessons I should take. Mind magic is very useful and can help me be a mind healer and protect me from offensive mind magic as rare as they are," and seeing how he still needed to start practising legilimency, the aid of an instructor seemed very tempting to Nathan, " Then there Alchemy, Rituals, Runes and Enhanting- each of them offer great returns but most of them I can learn on my own through books if I wanted," needless to say how his parents had been particularly helpful with runecraft and charms, "Magical combat and Battle Transfiguration are two skills that I can't actually learn from myself without the help of an instructor so I am going for it. But if I actually had the time I would"

"I would say go for magical combat now and learn the other things that you want to in the coming years, it's only our first year after all, maybe we can go for the same person this year?" Alan asked excitedly and Nathan gave him a smile before saying, "I actually decided that too when you declared you will be taking magical combat too. I already have the perfect person I have shortlisted from the list that I think both you and me will like."

Alan nodded with a smile and this time it was Jacob and Orion who rolled their eyes at his behaviour.

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[12 Kennington Road, London.]

[A day later.]

Nathan and his mother were in his room and he was showing her his idea behind warding and how beneficial it could be.

"So all it takes is a single anti-tampering charm and all the other protective enchantments cast on the property are impossible to interfere with if I don't hold the wardstone?"

Nathan nodded in affirmation before saying, "The whole area starts acting like it doesn't have multiple enchantments and is covered in a single enchantment that has many different functions. And even if you can get the wardstone, it has curses of its own that you would have to break in a traditional manner before you can use it to interfere with the wards."

"Hmm… so only two vulnerabilities would remain in a warding scheme, one being the wardstone itself and the second being the enchantments that were placed upon it," Nathan nodded at his mother's thoughtful words, seeing his nod she continued in a more serious tone, "Have you told about this to anybody else?"

Nathan realised what she meant by her statement and smiled before saying, "Nobody other than me is as of yet aware of warding and its uses."

She nodded, her tone firm as she stated, "See that it remains that way, son, what you have created is something many people would like to take credit for."

"Yeah, nobody is stealing my work," Nathan was very truthful in his reply, he had been denied the fruits of his labour in his previous life, and he wasn't keen on feeling like that again.

"Good, as soon as your OWLs are done, you will patent Warding under your name," his mother offered him a smile and then said, "Now let's see how far you have reached in your charms work and runecraft."

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A|N:

I know many of you might be disappointed by his choice for summer lessons but let me remind you that Nathan has no actual combat experience which he can draw from, he is in essence a civilian who despite being a competent politician has no idea how wizards actually go about fights and what their common strategies are. Knowledge like that is very difficult to find in books simply due to the fact that warfare is ever evolving and what was a common strategy two decades ago might be quite useless in modern times.

The summer before the second year of his stay at Hogwarts begins. The story will now slowly be moving away from its focus on magic building to move towards the more world-building aspects of the fic. 

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