[1990 Pt.8]

[August 12, 1990.]

Nathan turned over the small handle he had been working on after returning from Russia. It was an idea that he had come up with a few years prior when he had been wondering about magical weapons he could create for himself.

He had to reopen one of his older notebooks after returning from the Quidditch World Cup, it was, after all, a matter of the highest priority that Nathan created a weapon that could act as a trump during any fight. The modified flare gun was supposed to surprise the enemy for a few moments so that Nathan could get away without violating the statue of secrecy or could actually violate the statue properly but when he had seen at least fifty wizards carrying around firearms, his belief in the flare gun lessened. Their guns, after all, could fire ten times faster than his own before they had to reload. It was worsened by the fact that they were using magic just like magic to enhance its performance just like Nathan.

So Nathan had slaved away for two days as he engraved various runes upon the small handle of a sword he was crafting.

Magical swords, after all, were not prohibited by international law. He smirked internally as he imagined the reaction of wizards when they came across a lightsaber. One that was far more than just a sword.

Originally, Nathan had shelved the idea as he had deemed it too complicated. A lightsaber was not a laser or a blowtorch. A laser would not stop travelling once it had been lit and would burn everything in its path unless turned off. A blowtorch would not burn things fast enough to act as lightsaber.

Then the final problem was that neither solution allowed for haptic feedback to Nathan. A lightsaber made out of a laser or a blowtorch would have the problem of being a heavily enchanted torch that set things on fire rather than a sword that could clash against things.

It hadn't been until recently that Nathan had finally solved two problems that had actually stopped the successful development of a lightsaber. The problem with the blade of light not having a fixed shape or size was solved by warding and spatial manipulation that Nathan had recently made a lot of headway in while it was runes that would allow for a lightsaber to evolve beyond a simple sword and into something that could be called a true trump card against monsters.

The idea had been to ward a jewel to project a certain spatial boundary in the shape of a sword that would contain the super-heated plasma allowing for a sword that could cut through almost anything.

The whole idea not only became feasible with space magic but became rather simple with it. Nathan, however, seeing that the magical project that he had planned on giving at least two weeks had turned into a four-day endeavour had decided that he would delay the creation of the sword just so that he could push it into a piece of art. After all, warding and spatial magic were very ill-understood branches of magic, the former since it was a new branch of magic and the latter being a branch that not many were stupid or desperate enough to delve into.

In the two days since Nathan had actually started to actually work on the project, he had come up with multiple avenues.

One of the craziest and yet very possible ideas Nathan had come up with was the use of fiendfyre instead of normal magical flames in the blade.

The spatial boundary could be specifically tailored to prevent any of the flames from escaping while also being set to collapse upon themselves to extinguish any flames after the blade was turned off.

The resulting sword from such a crazy idea would not be more effective against humans since normal magical fire would be enough to cut through their bodies anyway, but rather it would create a sword that could cut through most magical defences, including the magical resistance of beasts like dragons, werewolves and basillisks.

Suffice it to say that such a weapon, if Nathan could make it safe for the user through the use of enchantments and other methods, could very well be a trump card that Nathan could use to pull himself above Voldemort's more magically enhanced forces.

Nathan stopped writing on his notepad when he heard a knock on his door. It seemed his father had taken exception to him staying awake till five in the morning.

[AN: Nathan is suffering from the late-night motivation syndrome]

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[August 22, 1990.]

Wandless magic was fleeting, abrupt and unfocused. It did not make for a reliable partner. Nathan had read the quote in one of the few books about the practice of wandless magic. And he agreed with the idea behind the quote.

Wandless magic occurred in bursts and, due to this, was very unreliable for consistent use. Nathan with the control that he had honed for years through the practice of levitating pebbles could make his own wandless magic more consistent than that of a normal wizard but even still the effort had never been worth the returns he gained.

The only high-level spell that Nathan knew that could be cast reliability with wandless magic was apparition and that was due to how fleeting the spell was. All it took was the blink of an eye before the spell would move the person.

And while Nathan found Apparition interesting and useful as a magical spell, he did not find it comfortable. He did not know it himself but side-along apparition was very discombobulating and Nathan did not like the idea of using something like it in combat, no matter how cool the spell looked when used in a duel. So having finished with his lightsaber project, Nathan decided to look into magical movement techniques and methods. Suffice it to say that he was not pleased by it.

No, Nathan did not wish to use something like apparition when he could create a better travel option. The first idea that Nathan had made was to create a bubble of space around him before folding the space in front of that bubble. It would allow him to travel at ridiculous speeds while defying both gravity and friction. Nathan already had the spells created and just needed to practise them after he returned to Hogwarts.

But the spells, as useful as they were in general transportation, needed too much time to perform the same roll apparition did in combat and thus Nathan found himself in the courtyard for the creation of a technique that, if he succeeded, would be very disastrous for any of his enemies.

Nathan had put his wand at one of the windowsills of the manor. The technique he wanted to create would after all be executed wandlessly.

He took a sharp breath and called upon the familiar warmth that always wrapped itself around his core whenever he performed magic.

Nathan knew wandless magic was different from wand magic. There were no spells to cast. No incantations to recite. No wand movements to follow.

It was all about the intent. It was all about the will. It was all about the change that the caster wanted to enact upon reality.

Nathan knew that and thus he pictured what he wanted to do in his mind clearly. Nathan wanted the next step that he took to become equal to him taking ten steps. Nathan wanted to cover the distance of ten steps in a single one. Nathan pictured the path he would take and the time he would spend on that path clearly. And he finally pictured how there would be almost zero strain on his body from the rapid acceleration and retardation.

It was unlike an apparition that depended completely upon an unrelenting will to reach a destination. It was not Destination, Determination And Deliberation.

Nathan would simply take a single step and cover the distance of ten with it. 

He felt the fluid-like warmth of his magic flow down to his right foot. He knew that his magic would act upon his will if his right foot moved so Nathan pushed his leg off the floor and took a step.

Magic surged out of his foot like an ocean wave before retreating just as quickly. The world blurred around Nathan for a microsecond before he fell face-forward on the ground. He instinctively cushioned his fall using his hands but his clothing that he had enchanted cushioned his fall too.

Nathan turned on his back and found that he had moved exactly to the location he had wanted while not having to apparate.

He looked at the spot he had been standing on and could see that the floor had cracked where his left foot had been. That was something he would have to fix. He could not afford the technique to break the ground whenever he used it.

"I still count this as a success," Nathan knew that the skill if he mastered it, would allow him a very nasty surprise for people.

[A|N: Yes he performed a flash step and I can't for the life of me like apparition as a combat technique. The way Harry described it in the books was enough for me to realize that Apparition while very practical for transportation, just isn't worth it in a fight.]

[A|N: If you like the story, favourite it and write a glowing review with 5 stars please.]

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[September 1, 1990.]

[King's Cross Station, London.]

"I will be back during Christmas," said Nathan, as he hugged his father, who hugged him back and said, "Bye son. Remember don't practise magic alone, especially Transfiguration and Alchemy. And don't take any of your divinations too seriously."

Nathan loosened his arms around the man as he looked up at him, suddenly feeling a lot more sentimental than before. He couldn't help but say, "I will miss you, Dad."

"Me too, lad. But you got to go, studies are important."

Nathan snorted since he found his father's words a little funny for no reason making him say, "I could drop out. I could help you all with the shop."

"Don't let your mother hear it, she will actually start ranting about how her little Nathan has been spending a lot of time with his good-for-nothing father and doesn't want to study anymore." Nathan smiled at his father's smirk before saying, "I am gonna go."

His father smiled at him without replying and Nathan turned around before walking towards one of the many entrances of the train.

He gave his father one final glance before he entered the train along with his trunk, which now held an actually expanded space. It was bare-bones and only had a single large room in which the walls were lined with magical and non-magical books. There was a small conjured table and several beanbags, along with a double bed, along with several other conjured cabinets, a few of which were enchanted to hold artefacts and magical apparatus and ingredients. It would be months before Nathan could get it up to the level of a small apartment.

Nathan started walking down the compartments and it was around the back that he finally found his friends. Orion, Alan and Jacob were occupying the compartment as they chatted about their respective summers and their holiday homework.

Nathan walked in and greeted them by saying, "Hey boys," and got various greetings in response before he asked, "So how did the summer club go? Mine and Alan's was pretty good."

"Superb. I learned three new spells too. Honestly, the club is worth it. Elemental magic is one of the most developed sections of magic. It is in one word- beautiful," Nathan could see Jacob's eyes glaze over as the boy seemed to be experiencing a flashback thanks to his own description.

He turned his eyes towards Orion who was looking a bit jealous of Jacob, their eyes met and Orion blushed before giving a shy smile and said, "My club was nice too. Though I still have headaches from all the legilimency performed on me. Did you know Professor Snape was a legilimence?"

Alan looked a bit lost as he asked, "What's Legilimency?"

Nathan answered before Orion and said, "Mind-reading."

"Yeah. Though don't let a legilimence hear you say it. Most of them have sticks up their-" Orion sidestepped the expletive before he continued and said, "They don't take kindly to someone simplifying their work so much."

"Wait a minute!" Alan said in a loud voice before a glare from his friends made him lower his voice and say, "Are we really going to gloss over how Snape can read minds? Oh God! He is going to hang me."

"That is something that sounds like it would be illegal."

"Non-consensual Legilimency is very illegal. Just like non-licensed memory charms. Only people under the DMLE and ICW have free reign with them and only on muggles. Any form of non-consensual mind alteration on wizards is taken very seriously," Nathan had actually been curious about how wizards actually dealt with such cases, so he had studied about it.

Jacob shivered before saying, "B-but what about love potions? I have heard some of the older years talk about them."

"There is no such thing as a love potion. Only lust potions. You can't replicate true love. The only lust potion that can make someone your slave as you imagine is Amortentia and that is very illegal. And a wizard will develop resistance against it very quickly too. You can't keep a wizard under the potion for more than three days and even then they might have brief bouts of clarity in which they might wreck their poisoner."

"Three days is still an awful lot of time to be under someone's control," Alan pointed out.

"If you want, I could teach you three a spell to check your food for poisons, potions or any other unwanted material." Nathan's offer was met with three quick nods and he noted in his mind to give them the spell that he had come across. The spell was a simple one that checked if the food a person was eating was exactly what they believed it to be. It was created by a wizard who was fed up with taverns mixing too much water into his milk. So he created a spell to check purity and it was later discovered by another wizard who had been given poisoned food that it could discern poison as well.

Nathan decided he was curious about what Jacob had learnt in his elemental magic club and asked, "So what spells did you learn, Jacob?"

Jacob turned smug at Nathan's question and said, "Well, I learned the fireball charm, steam-blasting hex and wind-blowing charm. You guys are missing out on a lot. Some of the magic we will learn isn't even taught at Hogwarts."

"Any examples?" Alan asked in barely hidden greed and curiosity.

"On the day of my initiation into the group, I was the only one who joined from our year by the way. One of the older students decided to put on a show for me. The instructor apparated us to a hill and my senior apparated to a small distance away on an open field. I don't know what the spell is yet but I am learning it no matter what. It was glorious."

"Stop being dramatic, you snail and hurry up and tell us." Nathan inwardly shook his head, Alan could be very rude and impatient sometimes.

Jacob sent Alan a glare before his face went neutral and he said, "He created a fire spirit."

Orion gave Jacob a perplexed look before he asked, "What's a fire spirit?"

"It is a spirit made out of fire, of course." Alan's answer was met with three deadpans making him turn his nose up.

Jacob focused on Alan before he grinned and said, "It was not really alive or sentient. It was like an animated transfiguration that was massive. It's at least the size of a mountain troll probably larger. Its body looked like it was made out of molten rocks and fire was flickering from around it. Even the ground was starting to release fumes just from it standing on it.

Then my senior waved his wand and the thing started doing tricks. Things like flips, waving his hand towards me and other things that look creepy on a fifteen-foot giant that looks like molten lava. I even asked my senior the spell's name, want the name Waynewood?"

Alan nodded and Jacob grinned before saying, "Say 'Please Master Dale' and I might just tell you."

Alan frowned and Nathan could see the pride and greed fighting behind the eyes of his friend.

"Please master Dale, tell me the spell's name."-- Nathan smirked as he saw that the greed of his friend won. He could appreciate greed for cool magic among his friends, just like he could appreciate people standing up for themselves as Dale had done.

"He called it Ifrit. It isn't a transfiguration spell, it comes under ancient spellcasting."

"Oh. The spell is going to be a pain in the neck to find out, isn't it?"

"Yeah, my senior has long forgotten the title of the book he found it in."

Alan sighed in dismay, but Nathan knew him well enough to know that his friend would hunt the spell down since he found it cool.

"He also told me that if you practise enough you can make your spirit as large as a giant. Supposedly our instructor can do it.", said Jacob as he knew Alan well too and thus dropped another tidbit that would definitely make Alan's life difficult thanks to Alan's own choice.

Alan hearing this turned to Nathan and said, "Want to search for it together?"

Nathan internally sighed, deciding that he did not need to be too cautious about his learning too much around his friends and said, "I think I know where we could find it. I do study Ancient spell casting though a spell like that is going to be very difficult to perform and even more difficult and tiring to master and cast for a prolonged period. Ancient spells are very time-consuming to perform well. And near impossible to truly master."

"Yeah, even my senior seemed tired after only a minute of casting the spell. "

Alan was about to ask more when the door slid open and the Trolley Witch asked them if they wanted to buy something.

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A|N:

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