10 Christmas
A/N: A big giant info dump about Sorcery down below.
---
10th December, 1933:
"Could you please repeat that?" I ask, looking at Merrythought incredulously.
It was the day after my visit to the CoS, and I had just gone through the DADA class, when Professor Merrythought asked me to stay behind. DADA was the third period of the day, after Charms, and Potions, so there was lunch after this and I didn't have to hurry for my next class.
She frowns and says, "You heard me Mr Aves. You're being offered the opportunity to sit for your OWLs one year early, and if you manage to keep up, your NEWTs next year."
I had to use all of my control to not freak out. I literally just got so much new knowledge and my time here is being shortened even more? FML.
I ask, "Why me? I don't think this has ever been done before."
"It has been done before, a lot of times. But the practice of moving students up was abolished once the Ministry came into being. And you're being offered this, because, and let's be honest, you're bored Mr Aves. 4th Year studies are too easy for you. Every Professor thinks so. So, what say you?" Merrythought says, in her Irish accent, and asks.
I nod, and say, "I.. don't have any issues with it. I can sit the exam tomorrow, and still pass, I know that. But can I think on it?"
Professor Merrythought nods, and says, "Very well. But, I need an answer by the end of the day. We need to inform the DME of our decision regarding your attendance before 9. But, also consider this, there's an apprenticeship offer waiting for you, in St Mungo's after you've passed your NEWTs. Think on it."
I nod, and go out of the classroom. Once I'm out, I scowl. Bloody nosy teachers. They already know I'm interested in Medical magics, so they've prepared an Apprenticeship for me, which, while good for me, is also annoying.
Why the hell do they have to keep such a close eye on me? Probably Dumbledore thinks I'm going Dark or something. Bloody manipulative old coot- well, young coot for now.
"What did Merrythought want?" Tom asks, as I sit down for lunch.
I start eating, and shake my head, saying, "Later. I'm going to eat first."
25 minutes later, my group was sitting in an abandoned classroom, because there were so many of them, and I tell them of the offer I just received. There was just me, Tom, Darla, Ana, and Dorea in here.
"Do you want to take the exams?" Darla asks, once I've finished explaining, while Dorea looks upset for some reason.
I nod, so Ana says, "Well, then go for it. The last one to give their OWLs early, was a student in the 14th century. That's 200 before the Ministry banned this practice. You won't get a chance like this again. Plus, if they're serious about the Apprenticeship in Mungo's then you have nothing to worry."
I sigh, and look at Tom and Dorea, who haven't said anything yet. I ask, "What about you two? What do you think?"
Tom shrugs, and answers, "No offense mate, but I always knew you were a genius. You take this chance, or not, you're still smarter than the whole school. But, I'd rather you take this chance. As Greengrass said, you won't get an opportunity like this again."
Dorea sighs, looking sad, and says, "You're already one year ahead of me, and you'll go even more ahead."
I snort, and shake my head. Patting her head, I say, "I'm one year ahead of you and we're still friends. What makes you think we won't be if I'm another year ahead, Dorea?"
Dorea pouts, which still only feels cute on her, and mumbles, "What if you get a girlfriend from the upper years then?"
I look at the others and they're almost laughing now. Controlling my own laughter, I answer, "Well I'll make sure to tell you all about her then. Each and every detail. Not leaving a single thing out."
That does it. Dorea blushes red, while Darla and Ana laugh at her expense. Tom just shakes his head, and mumbles, "Is he blind or is he doing it on purpose?"
I wink at Tom, who chuckles, and hug Dorea close. While this.. opportunity.. came out of nowhere, I can still take advantage of it. I'll have to take care of the Library sooner now.
That night, after telling Merrythought of my decision to accept the offer, and going to the dorms, I make sure everyone's asleep and walk towards the 7th floor Corridor. Putting my left hand on the wall, I tap the 6 points necessary to reveal the door to me. Once the door appears, I turn the knob and enter it.
"Enchanting and Runes." I say, once I'm inside the big library, which then turns into a smaller one.
Once the smaller library appears, I cast the spell, "Tempus Prihibere!" which slows the time flow inside this room to a crawl.
Now, I have 7 hours outside, which means 420 hours inside. But, since I can't realistically spend that much time inside, I'll have to so in small intervals. 7 hours reading, and 7 hours sleeping while reading. Thank God, I don't need food here.
(A/N: I made it so, because if he still needed food, the spell would have been practically useless. He would have had to eat every 2 minutes outside or something.)
"Let's get to it." I mumble and move towards the books.
"Enchanting and What it does, read it, Using Runes in Enchanting, Enchanting basics, intermediate, and Advanced. Okay, let's start with this one."
---15 hours later.---
Huh. I did not expect to succeed this early. I pick up the big tome I just created, and place it in the centre of the room. Tapping the top of the book, with my wand, I say, "Absorb."
One by one, every book kept in that small room come floating towards the bigger tome, and go into it, but thanks to the enchantments on the room, it gets immediately replaced by another copy of the same book.
It takes an hour, but every book has been absorbed into a single book. Opening it up, I start reading, and smile widely.
While this simply absorbed every book as it was, it is a start. I wanted it to compile the knowledge and sort it all by difficulty or subject, depending on my choice at the time.
I wave my hand, which writes "Enchanting" on top of the plain covered book, and keep it in my pocket.
But, for now, I have a talk to get through. I deactivate the time stop spell on the room, and send out a message to Helena. 'Helena, I'm in the room, waiting for you. Please come.'
I wait 15 minutes, but she does not appear. I once again try sending a telepathic message, but she still does not appear. Sighing to myself, I restart the Time Stop, and start working on improving the book again.
I really hope she shows herself to me, I'm starting to miss her.
---
20th December, 1933:
It's been a couple weeks since I was offered the opportunity to give my OWLs, and I had done it. I had made an enchanted book, capable of storing all the books in its range of 4 meters, and sort all the knowledge within itself.
It takes time though, for this book to absorb everything. Absorbing one book takes roughly a minute, and absorbing the Library takes hours. But, the more time consuming part was the sorting.
It takes a minimum of a whopping 9 hours for it to sort properly. I have done the compiled books for a few subjects until now, as some subjects had more books, and hence took more time to compile.
There was a tome for Enchantments, Runes, Arithmancy, Rituals, Charms, Transfiguration, Hexes and Curses, Elements, Time, Alchemy, and Potions. Well, these were the only one's I'd made until now.
Of course, some subjects have books common between them, like Enchantments, and Runes and Arithmancy; or Alchemy and Potions; Hexes and Curses, and Charms. But it was still doable.
Now, I just have to open the desired book, and placing my hand on the index page, state which sub-topic I want to learn. Easy! I even warded them from the stuff I learned in the Library so only I can read those books! Or well, someone I personally allow.
Unfortunately, I cannot absorb these books directly into my mind. I can store them in my mind, like I did other books, but I can't absorb the knowledge within. It's too extensive, so I'll probably go into coma for a week or two until my head damage heals.
But, these small books are alright too. I'm keeping those 12 tomes in my mokeskin pouch at all times. It was something I bought in Diagon Alley, and cast the undetectable extension charm on it to store my stuff.
That shit is OP. I can store a whole ass plane inside and no one will know. Of course, I also warded it so no one but me can touch the pouch.
But, now, I was saying goodbye to everyone who was leaving for Yule. Dorea had to go, being from the Black Family, Darla and Tom had to go for Christmas, while Ana too had to go for Yule rituals, like Dorea. Leaving me. I usually spent my Yule holidays inside the school library, just reading interesting stuff.
Did you know, that Merlin was said to have time travelled so many times, that no one actually knows when he was born? Some accounts say he studied in Hogwarts under Salazar Slytherin, some say he was there on Atlantis, 10,000 years ago, when it was sunk by the Gods.
Hell, there's mentions of him being there when the Ministry was established. 300 years ago. Or it could be someone pretending to be him, but knowing what I do, it might as well be Merlin.
"Take care, Darla, Dorea. And you too, Ana, Tom." I say, waving my hand at them. We've already said our goodbyes, so there was no tearful flirting by Dorea this time.
"Goodbye Mason! And happy holidays!" my friends chorus.
Once the thestral drawn carriage leaves, I turn back and go towards the castle. I have a subject I need to study. Sorcery.
The journal of Salazar Slytherin, was a very big inspiration for my Compiled Tomes. The book looked to be about 200 pages, but contained thousands of them. He had written everything from how he first encountered a Sorcerer, to how he first learned to create a small shield with his own Wizarding Magic.
The first few chapters were only about the number of languages you'll need to master, and what tomes you should read in those Languages. Helpfully enough, he had copied the tomes and stored them in the Library in the CoS. Next, he explained about what Sorcery exactly is.
Sorcerers use three energies to use their magic. Dimensional Energies, which come from the outer dimensions(which Salazar called Realms), Universal Energies, which come from all over the planet, and the space around it, and lastly, the Personal Energies, which come from inside us.
Muggle Sorcerers first have to absorb the Universal Energies in very small amounts, to create their own Magical core. It's not the same as our Cores, but it is very similar. They won't be able to use any of the Wizarding spells though, or every muggle would have been a Sorcerer, and Wizards would have been dead.
This process ot absorbing Universal Energies, and creating a core, which in turn gives rise to Personal Energies, was not something they do purposefully. It just happens.
Any student that has been sent through the Dimensions, makes a small connection to their own Universe, which fills the core with it's energy. The amount of Personal Energy formed, depends on the person in question.
Wizards have an advantage in this, as we already have a connection, and a better one at that, to the Universe. Our magic. While the Earth is our source for it, we also have a small connection to the Universe at birth.
This means, that I don't necessarily have to go on a trip through the Dimensions. But I still want to. The boost will be a big help to me.
Salazar wrote in his journal, that he knew of a method, in which a Sorcery student can do that step themselves. Well, he devised a method.
A trance induced by a potion, under the full moon's light, and inside a ritual circle, will send out your Astral Projection through the Dimensions. The ritual circle will bind your soul to your body, and this Universe, so that it does not get lost in the Dimensions.
So here I was, walking towards Salazar's room, to ask him a few questions. I'm not taking a potion that Salazar wrote will work. I'm gonna ask him and see for myself.
"Ah! The Aves returns!" Salazar says, as soon as I enter the bedroom/Library.
I show him the Journal, and ask, "I have questions, if you're agreeable to answer them."
Salazar looks at the journal, and sighs. He says, "Sorcery. An Art invented by a God, that can even be mastered by muggles. What do you want to know?"
I open the page I was reading last night, and show it to him. I ask, "You wrote here that it's possible for a potion induced trance to send our souls through the realms. But how sure are you of it?"
"Already reached that part? Did you skip anything?" Salazar asks, looking at me in suspicion.
I shake my head and sit down on the chair. I say, "Last time I came here, I stored all of those books in my mind, and I read them whenever I have the time. I've read all the necessary primers, books, tomes, and scrolls, and mastered those languages."
He still looks suspicious, so I say, "I have a talent with Languages. I had the good fortune of entering the mind of another gifted, whose gift was to understand and learn any language within seconds. When I copied his memories of learning 26 languages, I also somehow managed to gain his skill in understanding languages. So, I don't need much time to master languages."
Salazar whistles, impressed, and says, "That is wonderful. Could you copy the powers of anyone else like that?"
I scratch my head, and answer, "Maybe. From what I know, powers depend a lot on how the brain of the user works. The brains of mind related powered people work similar, so if I get an hour or two inside their heads, I could copy their powers perfectly."
This however does not mean I can get the powers of anyone. I can copy the powers which primarily use brains. Like telepaths, telekinetics, language learning, geniuses, or those that can see things we cannot, etc. Physical powers, like Hank McCoy, Wolverine, or even specific skills of those like Magneto, or even Matter Manipulation part of Apocalypse's, that I can't copy.
Salazar nods, and says, "Do the ritual. But follow thw instructions religiously, or you'll get trapped somewhere you don't want to. I had to do it the old fashioned way, my Master pushed my soul out of my body. But I had my students go through the ritual while I was at Kamar Taj."
I nod, and narrowing my eyes, ask, "Did anyone fail to return to their bodies?"
Salazar snorts, and as if he's insulted I even asked that, says, "I was present when they did that. I made sure they returned. I'm sure a master of minds like you can return on your own."
Shaking my head, I turn back to go to my room, after saying goodbye. The Potion takes 2 days to make, and the full moon is 6 days away. Let's just hope Sal is right, and that he loves his descendants.
---
The next day, since there were only 25 students inside the castle, I had a lot of space for myself. I go to the Room, making sure no one follows me, or even sees me going there, and enter the Library.
"I can't believe I haven't tried this before. Sorcery." I first mumble, and then say firmly.
Immediately, the room changes to a small room, with about 50-60 books in a shelf. I can see the Sorcery primers from the Chamber, along with Salazar's journal in that shelf.
Surprisingly, there were remaining 45 books, out of 58, that I hadn't seen, and were counted in the Sorcery category.
"Why the hell haven't I checked in this room before?" I mumble and shake my head, heading towards the shelf.
While Sorcery is interesting, I wasn't much interested in it except for making portals, Astral Projection (which I can already do), and the Mirror Dimension. Sure, the other spells are alright, but they need the energy from outer Dimensions.
I'm not using anyone else's energy, but mine. Nope. If it was possible to learn Sorcery without going through the Dimensions, I would have gotten started already. Portals use Personal Energies, and Universal Energies, while Mirror Dimension uses Universal Energies.
I have both! But I just need to widen my connection to the Universe, by leaving the Universe.
This doesn't mean that I won't learn the spells that I have access to. I just won't practice them. I'm a wizard, a genius wizard. I can replicate Sorcery spells after learning them on the first try. I think.
---
A/N: So, yeah. He's learning Sorcery, by himself. Literally every MC goes to Kamar Taj. Even my own Baldur went there. So, Mason will figure it all out by himself.
Well, except for Salazar's help.
He'll talk with Helena in the next chapter.
Tata!
