4 Progress! And a secret revealed

Chapter 4 –

The strangest coincidence happened with Nathan Frye, of Norfolk village today. He had just finished his game of football with his mates from school and he was returning to his cottage up the hill, when he realized that the road he generally rides his bike, back home had been closed due to construction work. Apparently, the government was laying down some piping for sewage disposal away from the hill, that led toward a far-off sewage disposal station. Because of this, Nathan had to take a detour from the usual bike trail and follow the old abandoned road through the unkempt gardens.

Following the overgrown trail on foot, as the bike would have been damaged had he continued riding it through the woody, rocky and overgrown trail, Nathan arrived at what could only be described as an Abandoned home. It was built using what Nathan would describe as Nordic Architecture, completely different from the homes and cottages that are found either in the town or in the surrounding area. It was built like a typical old longhouse, built with wood, and windows that were crooked and had no glass on them. The door leading to the entrance was rotten and had been deformed. But what caught Nathan's attention was not the rundown appearance or its odd placement in this locality, his attention was instead caught on the glowing figures that could only be called runes.

He did not have any knowledge of Runes, technically. But he could swear that he's seen the shapes and figures in some Video Game he played in his past life. Plus, the figures were glowing.

Nathan decided to abandon his bike, near the tree on the inside of the outer fencing and approached the inner fencing of the home with trepidation. On taking a couple of dozen steps towards the glowing figures, he was washed over, right outside his natural occlumency barriers, with a weak sensation to turn around and leave. Simultaneously, he noticed that the figures on the fence glowed a little bit brighter, and then died. They had taken the color of the wood on which it was etched, all power that it previously possessed was gone. It was now only eerily visible as carvings on rundown wood.

'Seems like I have landed either on an old magical home or at least an old magical hideaway.' He mused internally.

Upon further inspection, Nathan was no longer hit with any compulsive effects and he deemed at least the outside surroundings of the home, safe to explore. The only thing remaining was to step inside. He was confident that the owner of this house is dead, mainly because of the state of its maintenance and upkeep. And he wasn't afraid of traps that may have been placed on the inside, based on the carvings on the outside and the state of the rotten wood, most if not all of the runic entrapments would be dead, or overrun by animals by now.

Nathan hesitantly stepped foot through what remained of the door of the house, and he could see that the interior wasn't all that different from what the picture outside was portraying. There were what remains of a broken table, that had caved in on itself, scattered remains of chairs, fireplace filled with soot and ash that covered a couple of feet outside of the fireplace itself. All in all, Nathan concluded that there was no chance of traps having survived the assault of time, in this place. Though he still stayed on edge, you never really know with magic.

It took Nathan all of over thirty minutes to survey the entire home and the only thing that did not die due to the onslaught of time, was an old Leather trunk, that looked like it had been treated by resin magically. It was covered with some lightly glowing runes too. Though the lock on it was broken, so it could easily be opened.

Upon inspecting the Leather trunk, he found it was filled with all sorts of Books and Journals, dated around the early nineteenth century. The books were written in what could be described as old English, and fortunately, Nathan could easily translate the writing into a more modern lexicon, given time.

The books were labeled 'Compendium of Magical Household charms'; 'Introduction to magic for the young'; 'Potions for the dimwitted'; 'Hogwarts: A history' and so on.

Despite it being filled with basic Magical Theories for the first and second-year students, of Hogwarts, for Nathan, this was a treasure trove of knowledge. Everything he's achieved till now has been through trial and error. And his progress was quickly reaching a crescendo, disregarding his growing magical capacity, that is. With this, Nathan could finally take a guided step into the mysteries of magic and lay the foundation for his magical education.

Upon realizing the value of the contents of this trunk, Nathan decided that he should take the trunk home with him. Securing the trunk behind his seat on his bike, using some twine and rope, he heads off on the trek back home, whistling a merry tune, waving a final goodbye to the Abandoned Nordic Home, of the Norfolk Village.

oOOOOOOOOo

Nathan had practiced the instructions with extreme diligence. He had started with the levitation charm, as mentioned in the book.

While he could easily use his magic to make a book float with his rudimentary form of telekinesis, Nathan wanted to be able to do it, without the heavy focusing needed the way he was doing it now. Based on the book, wands choose the wizard because a wand does the part of imbuing a wizard's intent on the magic he wields. Without a wand, that has to be a manual process. Nathan had hypothesized that if he didn't use a wand, and made himself self-attuned to imbue the intent on his own magic, he wouldn't be hindered by a wand in the future. On the flip side, wands also act as amplifiers to magical energies based on the animal core in the wand itself.

His attempts at the levitation charm while consciously imbuing his intent, had varied results for him. While he could see that when he continuously thought of 'making the book fly', instead of 'making the magic make the book fly' he got much better results. He needed much less magic to do the same thing he'd been doing before, but his control again was all over the place. Imbuing proper intent would need severe willpower from his side, but Nathan is anything if not diligent.

It took him three months to properly imbue his intent without consciously and repeatedly shouting 'Become Blue.' Or 'Become twice as large.' Or 'Light upon fire' in his head.

And even then, his magic did weird things than what he actually thought would happen. For example, when he attempted setting a page of the newspaper on fire, while the fire itself was visible to Nathan, it wasn't hot, it produced no smoke and burned nothing. That was what made Nathan come to the realization that intent means, really wanting something to happen. And he still couldn't get the fire to behave as it should. Sometimes it was cold as ice, or it'd be hot, burn absolutely nothing.

Intent and Power were key to magic.

And he still had a long way to go, before he was able to do anything drastic yet. Fire, according to the book was easy.

Potions, on the other hand, were even more tricky. There is intent imbued in almost every movement in the potion-making process. While he hadn't yet attempted potion-making practically, he'd come to the conclusion he'd have to imbue his intent while doing every minute process while preparing a potion.

One thing that had finally been set in stone for Nathan, that magic and Science were two completely different entities of the universe.

The difference between magic and science is that with magic, you get an artist's impression of a vista and no two will ever be the same, no matter how much an artist tries. With science, all you're getting is a photograph of what the camera saw. You can't tell a magic-user exactly what to do, because with magic, everyone is different, and everyone uses it differently, everyone has their own perspective, their own niche in which magic fits. The broader your own concept of magic is, the more applications you will be with a lesser amount of magic used to achieve the same result.

oOOOOOOOOOo

"Nathan?"

The sudden jarring sensation of being brought back down to earth made him stumble out of his chair, only catching himself the barest moment before literally falling to the ground.

He blinked at stared up at the figure that stood before him. "Mum?" he asked, wondering. "Where did you-" he broke off his question when he realized that the books were still floating. He stared at the floating books, and spun around, looking at his mum's face.

It had shifted considerably, and he found it to be filled with worry and hesitation.

"What? W-what was that Nathan?" She asked, blinking as if it would prove to be an elaborate illusion.

"I…, I can explain, Mum!" He exclaimed, dropping the magic that he'd finally gotten to work on it's own, this was the first time his mum, had come into his room without knocking In years.

"Explain what Nathan? What was that, Why were the books floatin-" he asked.

Chuckling a little, still a little on edge, trepidation filling him for the fast-approaching conversation Nathan tried to calm her down "Mum, Mum! Calm Down, here have a glass of water and sit down on the chair." Handing her water he filled from the jar by his study table, and gently guiding her to the Comfortable Chair in the room.

Once she was seated, his legs felt like lead, and he stumbled a little, his anxiety working against him in this situation. This time, Jolene needed to catch him, she still looked quite worried.

"I've been studying since eight in the morning, mum," he told her. "And I didn't even realize." Trying to grasp how to start the conversation.

Jolene still looked worried and motioned. He went on, "The only difference is, mum I was studying magic…." he explained.

Jolene didn't look like she understood, but nodded regardless, her astonishment and worry making her unable to contemplate the gravity of the situation. A plate of biscuits appeared in her hand, and he held it out to her. "Here, eat," he instructed. "I'm alright mum, I found out that I could do things, that other people couldn't and I have been trying to understand what it is, that I could do, mum."

Nathan nodded. "That is why I had changed mum, back then, that is why I stopped going out with my friends, and playing for that time," he said. "I just recently got my hands on old books of magic, from an abandoned witches' house, and I have finally gained control over it…... Mum? Are you listening to me? Mum?"

Jolene looked a little frightened he realized, not of him but for him, but nodded slowly anyway.

She slowly munched the biscuit in her mouth, trying to come to terms with the sudden information overload, that her son dumped on her. She was frightened that he'd delved into things he shouldn't have messed with, and hurt himself in the process

"Thanks, Nathan," she said, quietly, thanking him for the biscuit.

Nathan smiled wearily and urged her to continue, "You're welcome," he said. "Can you tell me how you are feeling?"

"How did you come upon the books that you're studying magic from Nathan? And are you sure it is safe? You're not hurting yourself are you?" She said, focusing on her motherly instincts, for now.

"As I said mum, I found the books in a very old trunk, last week when I was returning home from the town park, after a game of football. I have checked everything in the books, and mum there is a whole society of magical people like me out there, These books belonged to an old witch who died in the early 1800s, I have checked they're safe" Nathan blabbed on.

"That's… good?" Jolene offered.

Nathan nodded excitedly, relieved that she wasn't afraid of him or anything. "It is. There is even a school for Wizards and Witches like me, Mum. It's called Hogwarts, all magicals go there to study magic."

"Oh?" she asked, still at a little loss for words, though her worry quickly subsided due to his enthusiasm. "Nathan, my dear boy, you shouldn't have hid this from me, I would have helped you out however I could, in trying to learn all about this magic, or science or whatever it is, please Nathan, promise me that you'll not hide such things from me anymore

Nathan just nodded. "I promise, mum." he said, internally wincing due to the different things he still has to hide from her, but he consoled himself that it was for her own safety.

Jolene hm-ed thoughtfully, and then quickly wrapped him in a hug, and the conversation lapsed into a comfortable silence. She waited a few minutes to see if Nathan would talk more about his mysterious exercise, but when it became clear that he wouldn't, she decided that she will get the information about this magical society and magic in general, during dinner.

The emotional rollercoaster that she'd suffered was enough for her, for now.