Magic is Complicated & The First Week

Three days. Three bloody days. That's how long it for me to be able to effortlessly cast Tempus. And that was a day 1 spell! Magic is way harder than I thought, dammit! The fan-fictions lied to me! The only mercy was I did confirm the 'magic works as muscle' trope -- the more I exhausted my reserves, the more I felt I could use later. That's why I started using magical telekinesis before bed, since it exhausts my reserves as well as testing my control.

It's been a week since classes started. Things are going well, but seriously, magic is way too hard compared to what they showed in the books and movies. And yeah, I tried wandless magic too. It's almost impossible! It's relatively far simpler to use mana (what I call raw magic power now, deal with it) to act like you have minor telekinesis. To do actual MAGIC wandlessly requires control of not only how much mana you use in a spell, but intimate knowledge of how raw mana converts itself into other energy and phenomena. A wand essentially acts like a measuring cup - you can control how much you pour in and pour out.

I've also learned certain things about magic that I never knew - namely, the four most important facets of any spell: intent, emotion, concentration and model. Yes, there are things called spell models. For example, the swish and flick movement accompanying the chant of 'Wingardium Leviosa' is a substitution for the model. Models are essentially the steps you have to take to convert your mana into your desired result. Intent directs the mana, concentration focuses it, emotion amplifies or adds nuance to the effect and model makes sure all the steps in between work well i.e connects cause and effect. Since a wand or a ritualistic set-up acts as a focus for mana, the model is substituted by movements and the chant to increase concentration. Alternatively, your model needs to be explicitly used instead of implicitly for wandless magic, and that's why wandless magic is rarely used. All of history's greatest weren't morons who didn't think to use wandless magic, it was just way easier using a wand. All this knowledge was obtained from the entire first bookshelf in my dorm library. My god, I still have so much to read and do.

I also learned this fun fact: you can do away with models entirely if your intent and concentration is strong enough, and you have enough mana, kind of like diet reality warping. In short, if you start working without models, you essentially replace models with your visualization prowess i.e you start focusing on the end result and let the mana itself figure out a way. To reach this stage, you have to have practice inhumanly hard for a very long time, and basically have the mental capacity to visualize things down to their smallest details. The most well-known example of this type of casting is Merlin and his nemesis Morgana, and even they couldn't do any of their most powerful spells without a model.

There's also a difference between the emphasized magic casting topic focused on between different classes. To be good in Potions one needs to be able to process and create models well, but for Transfiguration the models are far less important but visualization ability becomes necessary, and Charms is a health mix of both, to give a few examples.

At the end of this crazy, stressful, infuriating and yet amazing week, I still had some major questions like 'what exactly is mana' and 'how are movements able to replace models'? To that, Professor Coolidge, our Charms teacher, merely smiled at me and said if I ever found out I should tell him. Guess only the Ancient One can help me with these questions, she/ he is perhaps the most knowledgable person on Earth about metaphysical energies. Guess I'll figure out their gender once I figure out if the universe I'm living in is MCU or Marvel.

On a more social side of things, my relationships with my roommates are going well. As previously thought, I get along with Jalen best. Mostly because we can talk about back home without people acting like we're speaking a different language.

Alicia, on the other hand, is a totally different story. All my conversations with her have gone like this:

Me: "So, Alicia, how's life? How was (Healing/ Transfiguration/ DADA)"?

Alicia: "Yes"

Me: "Sooo... well I suppose"?

Alicia: "I guess"

It's like talking to a robot! Thankfully, I was able to get her nose out of her Healing textbook and hang out with me on Saturday. It was a fun relaxed time. We went to the terrace at the back of the school and watched the sunset while playing cards and talking about life and classes and everything in between. Seriously, someone needs to invent the internet soon or I'll literally die of boredom. We plan on making this a weekly thing, which did bring a smile to my face.

In less positive news, the kids who disliked me from the sorting seem to have banded together in Wampus under one banner. Not against me specifically, but against the 'ills of magical society' but they don't like me that much either. Their definition of 'ills of magical society' seems to be very vague, but it doesn't bode well that the very tiny amount of confirmed blood purists, all the stereotypical schoolyard bullies, a few upper years who I think are racist due to some things they've 'insinuated' in my hearing range and a few just plain psychos have all joined them. Like seriously, one dude in their group named Richard Knight hit a kid from the back with three different jinxes just because he "didn't like the boy's voice".

Things aren't bad because the teachers run a tight ship with respect to discipline and the group's members have been behaved till now. Everybody has the right to believe what they wish and the teachers can't and won't change that. One of the most outspoken supporters and recruiters of the group is Graydon Creed from the second year. He's pretty weak in terms of magical ability, but he is, by all accounts smart and as hell and charismatic to boot - a dangerous combination. I'll keep an eye on these guys to make sure I'm prepared if they try anything against me, though the hubbub about me seems to have begun to quiet down. It's also kind of weird that they don't publicly say the name of the organization, just referring to it as 'the organization'. Damn these weirdos...I just want the rest of my years remain as peaceful as this first week was, but I have a nagging feeling that might not be the case.