34 Breakthrough

One day in late March, I was in the room of requirement all by myself. What was convenient about the room was that I could ask it to set up a random scenario of targets, and it would provide it. During this last random placement. I found myself ducking an angry bIudger in the room of requirement, with three wooden mannequins surrounding me. Once I had dodged, I pointed my wand at a stationary target and shouted, "Reducto."

A red beam of light burst out of my wand and hit one of the mannequins, reducing it to ash. Seeing the target reduced to ash, I've found that the blasting curse while not sufficient on living things, works fantastic against objects.

In an attempt to punish me for my lack of attention, another bludger nearly took my head off. While I've gotten pretty good at keeping track of multiple bludger as well as being able to hit them with spells. Sometimes, it can be challenging to keep track of everything when spell-casting gets involved.

I quashed my instinct to hurl the blasting curse against the bludger, if I used the blasting curse against it, I would eventually run out of bludgers. Instead I chanted, "Immobulus." and a pale blue light hit the bludger freezing it in place. What was fascinating about the Freezing charm, was that it had so many applications to it, it was only limited by the imagination.

Continuing on, I turned to face another mannequin, and shouted, "Diffendo." This time, no light burst from my wand, but the mannequin was split into two pieces by the Severing charm. The final two bludger coordinated their assault. but, I quickly froze them in place, like I had with the earlier one.

As for the final mannequin, I pointed my wand at it, but this time, I chanted, "Petrificus Totalus." This time a small burst of light erupted from my wand, but that was the only indication given that a spell wast cast. It was difficult to know if you hit a inanimate object Full Body-Bind curse, because other than the small flash of light. The spell was invisible, similar to the severing charm. It was curious how some magic spells revealed burst of color, and others were nearly invisible.

The total time to take down all the objects was less than a minute, I was pleased with the visible progress that I had been making over the past two months. Deciding that I had enough practical training today, I turned my attention to the ward that had been left in the room of requirement.

Trying to take down the wards, had been a blow to my pride and a lesson in frustration. I had figured that it wouldn't it take me more than a week or two, before I had figured it out and taken it apart.

Apparently, the universe thought I needed humbling, I had felt that since I was so far ahead in my classes, that this would have been a breeze for me. I was even almost finished learning all of my second year charm and defense against the dark arts spells. Even moving onto live mice in transfiguration didn't slow me down at all. Although I will admit, trying to transfigure an animal required a more considerable amount of concentration, due to living creatures having a higher viciousness level.

And yet, even with all of that, it had been nearly 6 weeks since Charlie had laid the ward down and I was still struggling with taking it apart and I still didn't feel close to taking it down. Deciding that I wasn't getting anywhere by myself, there was only so much one could learn from a book, and I felt that I needed some advice if I wanted to move forward.

After calling forth the vanishing cabinet, I made my way to the tower to speak with Anton on the subject. Thankfully, Anton did not start his caterwauling as soon as I arrived, even though I didn't have the ring.

As I haven't felt the need to visit before, Anton looked gleeful at my arrival. "What can I do for you, Alex?" He asked.

Frustrated at my lack of progress, I said, "I need some help. I've been trying to learn how to bring down a ward, but I haven't made any progress in the last six weeks."

Stroking his bushy beard, Anton replied, "Well that isn't very surprising, wards are an advanced area of magic."

"I know, but taking them down should be easier," I argued.

"Well, why don't you tell me how you are trying to bring down the ward." Anton soothed.

After gathering my thoughts for a moment, I said, "Well, the counter spell for this warding spell is, 'Tollere Impedimentum.' And all the instructions from the spell books seem to be worthless, I successfully casted the counter for the wards dozens of times. And while I can tell that I release a burst of magic, nothing seems to happen to the ward."

Anton eyed me thoughtfully, and explained, "You know, there is a reason why this magic is advanced. You can't just wave your wand and say the incantation with this type of magic. You have to be able to insert your counterspell into the ward's knot."

Before I could interrupt, he continued, "It's not an actual knot in your spell. That's is just what we called it back in my day; it's kinda hard to explain. It's best to think of it as a specific starting point for your counterspell, And that's just the halfway point. Once you've successfully attached your counterspell into the ward, there is more work to be done."

Confused, I interjected, "How do I find the knot?"

Anton shrugged and explained, "Like any other skill, you have to practice until you get better at finding it. Some people are better at picking up signs than others. What you need to do is to study every aspect of the ward, you won't see it, but you should be able to eventually at least feel it. But, remember this is normally a skill developed over time, don't be discouraged if you can't do it right away."

Ignoring his warning that I might not be able to sense it. I nodded my understanding, and asked, "Once I've found the knot, then what do I do?"

Anton replied, using his arms to help demonstrate, "Next, what you want to do is force your magic into the ward itself, similarly to how roots force their way through the ground. This can be tricky, the more skilled or powerful the wizard who made the ward, the higher level of difficulty locating the knot and forcing your way through can be. Likewise, a more powerful or skilled wizard will have less trouble getting through as well. Another thing to keep in mind, every ward needs to be approached slightly different, because each ward will be unique to the wizard who laid it down."

After mulling over everything Anton said, I decided to head back to Hogwarts to practice sensing the knot in the ward. Once I got back to the room of requirement, I pulled up a chair, next to the ward that Charlie left, and began to study it.

The glowing white ward was a simple circle. One fascinating thing about the circle is that it reacts to people. If I'm across the room, the glow is so faint that one can barely see it, but the close I get, the more it lights up.

After examining every inch of the ward, I concluded that whatever the knot is, it is isn't visible to the naked eye. Shutting my eyes in concentration, I tried to feel the magic.

Thirty frustrating minutes later, and I still didn't feel anything. Maybe this was a sixth sense or something like that I needed to develop.

As soon as the idea about it being a sense that I need to develop, I had an interesting thought. When I was home for the holidays, I found a few interesting hexes in Anton's library. The hexes were able to make a person blind and deaf, and it only lasted around half an hour. So I wouldn't need to fear being permanently affected.

Perhaps If I removed my own senses, I would be able to develop whatever I needed to to be able to sense the ward. Hoping this wasn't a mistake, I pointed my wand at myself and chanted, "Inauritus."

Immediately I lost all sense of hearing, and the quiet was extremely unsettling. Usually, even if you are all alone and it's quiet, there is still noise out there that you can hear. But, this spell removed all of that, there was just absolutely nothing to hear.

I immediately realized that I probably should have struck myself blind first. So, that I could hear actually hear myself say the spell. Not wanting to wait, I said, "Caucus."

At once, everything disappeared, it was like I was floating in a sea of absolute darkness. Combined with my lack of hearing, it was probably the most vulnerable I have ever felt in my life.

Knowing I had done this with a purpose, I got back to work. I reached out with my senses trying to feel anything about the ward, and what I found was nothing.

After chasing away a moment of doubt, I continued meditating. Thirty minutes later, and nothing changed except for the spells wearing off.

Determined to continue, I simply recast the spells and started all over again and again all night until it was time for light. When that didn't work, during the following two weeks, I spent every spare moment in the room of requirement practicing.

Finally, one day, when I was meditating next to the ward, deprived of my hearing and vision. I felt something for the first time, it was faint, but I started to feel a sort of energy.

Excited that I was finally feeling something, I continued on. I began to sense other energies all around me. Slowly, as I was able to get a better feel for it, I knew the next step was to try to detect the ward with my senses intact.

Thankfully, it seems that sensing magic for the first time seemed to release or unlock something. As it didn't take very long before I was able to feel the ward again.

Feeling magic was a strange sensation, it wasn't a physical thing, it was more like an awareness poking me in the back of my mind. Wandering around the ward, I continued feeling the energy, on my third pass around, I felt something. It's was like a blip in the energy, I got excited, this had to be it, the so-called knot in the ward.

Eagerly, I pointed my wand at the knot and chanted, "Tollere Impedimentum."

An invisible connection of magic seemed to form between my wand and the ward, and I felt my magic try to penetrate the ward. Anton's explanation made a lot more sense now that I had actually succeeded. It was like even though I had connected with the ward, it didn't want to budge.

Glaring at the ward, promising that it would break before me, I continued. I mentally forced my magic by pouring in more effort. Eventually, I could tell I had some success, as my magic started working its way through.

Ten minutes later, just as I felt like I was about to pass out from the effort, my magic finally burst through, and the ward collasped in on itself.

Wiping the sweat from my face, I shouted, "Victory!"

While I was happy that I was able to dispell the ward. I knew there was room for vast improvement, I'm sure there are experienced wizards who would be able to break down a basic ward like this in moments.

Unfortunately, I was fresh out of wards, Knowing that Charlie loved magical creatures I took Athena to charm him. Athena seemed to sense that I needed her help and was suitably charming.

We struck a deal, a few hours studying Athena, and he would lay a dozen of those wards for me to practice on. Once he put the wards down, I went to work, each time I took down a ward, I seemed to learn how to do it slightly easier.

By the time I got down to the final one, I had gotten the time bring down the ward to a couple of minutes. While I knew that there was still room for improvement, I decided that for now, this was good enough for my purposes.

It was time to revisit the vampire; I would be needing him to help us dealing with the Grendel.