20 Oz's Core

Since it was coming up to the end of the year, the first years had a lot of homework to go though before the term finished. Oz already had his all done however he was asked by both Craig and Cho if he could help them out as they still had a lot to finish. Currently they were all sat in the library, working on different assignments.

Craig was heaving a sigh at the mountain of homework he still had left.

"Ughh... Why do they give us first years so much bloody homework? You'd think they'd ease us into magic in our first year not dump it all on our heads!".

Cho looked at Craig and chuckled.

"Come now Craig, if you want to be an auror do you truly think not doing homework is the way to go about it? If you don't pick up the pace your surely gonna get scolded by the teachers!".

Craig paled at that thought, especially so seeing as the one class he had hardly any homework done in was potions.

"Ozzy man can we talk about something else for a minute besides work, I just want a second away from it all...".

Oz smirked at Craig. Ozzy was the nickname Craig gave to Oz as it felt in his words 'Cooler'.

"I'm fine with that, after all im all done with my homework its just your sorry ass that isn't".

Craig gave Oz a slight jab on the shoulder for that comment both laughing. Cho stared at them both in slight annoyance but was also amused by the situation as a whole. Craig sat leaning back on his chair looking up to the roof of the library.

"Ozzy I got one question for you though man, how did you get so good with magic at such a young age? When we were on that train you managed to fix the window beautifully! That's something I certainly couldn't do...".

Cho stopped doing her homework when she hear Craig ask this question, looking up into Oz's eyes it seemed she wanted to add her piece as well.

"Yeah... that reminds me Oz, you managed to use that spell to stop me falling off a cliff... how on earth is your magic that advanced already? Most of the first years can barely keep basic spells up but I know the one you used to save me was an advanced spell learnt in later years".

Oz felt a bit bewildered by the questions pointed at him. After thinking about it for a second he decided to tell them how he advanced his core back when he first came to this world.

"When I was five I found my core within me, my magic core that is, I was able to exhaust its magic over and over again with a simple sparkle spell. Doing this allowed the core to grow each time it was exhausted. As for knowledge of spells and such I... found a few books on the matter while in the Orphanage, allowing me to get a bit of a head start".

Craig and Cho both looked shocked at what Oz had said. Craig being the first to respond.

"You found your core at five?! most kids don't discover theirs until 10! I personally always asked my parents when I was younger when my core was going to appear and they'd say it appears in everyone just before their magical maturity!".

Cho looked at Oz deeply with a slight concern.

"There were noble families once who used to try and get their children's cores to present itself earlier than usual to give them a head start but it would always end up with the child becoming a squib or worse dying... How on earth did you get your core to present itself so early?"

Oz sat blankly for a second, mulling over what Cho had just told him.

'I did always think it was strange... I found my core at five and just exhausting it made me stronger than everyone else... Surely this kind of method would be used by nearly everyone if it were that easy. Is there something else at play here? Could it be again that my connection to Merlin allowed for me to find my core easier and use magic easier also? or did that void being give me more than he was letting on...'

Oz looked at both Craig and Cho whose eyes seemed to be eager for an answer.

"I don't know what to tell you both, really. I grew up in an orphanage with nothing better to do so I'd always meditate to relax myself... I never knew finding a core that early was something serious".

Craig threw his head back with a sigh, obviously not satisfied with Oz's answer.

"Ozzy man I swear you're smart most of the time but when it comes to certain things your brain malfunctions. I remember when I saw you on the train you had those wands of yours strapped to your waist like bloody revolvers! I can't believe it took you a few months to realise that wand holsters were a thing hahaha".

Craig and Cho both burst into laughter whenever they thought of Oz's wands at the beginning of the year. It was the only thing they could tease him about considering how on the ball he was usually.

Oz sighed looking at the two of them laugh.

'I can't lie that when I initially came to this world there were a lot of things that took me by surprise. I know the Harry Potter canon and events surrounding it like the back of my hand but my knowledge of the wizarding world as a whole? now thats severely lacking still...'.

Oz looked at Craig who was still giggling to himself.

"Craig you can giggle all your life if you want to, but if you giggle now Snape is gonna curse you for not doing his homework".

Craig's face then dropped.

"Ah shit the homework!".

.

After the study session with Craig and Cho, Oz went to the RoR, this time hoping to break through into the next core level.

'The next level I reach will allow me to be on par with most of the teachers...'

Oz was still thinking about the earlier conversation with Cho and Craig about his core. Such a thing was truly an enigma to him, the only answer he could come up with was that his connection to Merlin came into play allowing for him to find his core earlier or something.

'This summer coming I really need to do an inheritance test, If the Goblins have anything of Merlin's left for possible descendants then maybe I could learn more about my situation...'.

Oz eventually reached the middle of the RoR sitting down on the floor. Looking within himself he saw his core that was a mix of black and white, signifying his connection with both the dark arts and the light.

'Balance... what represents balance in the world? I need to think of a structure that is stable... something that lets both the light and dark magic within communicate with each other...'

After an hour of searching through memories and theorising Oz came up with an idea.

'If I structure the pool of magic within me like a taijitu, then surely that will work? using the dark to stimulate the light and the light to calm the dark... in all honesty this is new territory now, most other witches or wizards would pick the easy route of one side and just focus on that. The only person before me to do this that I can think of is probably Merlin'.

Oz settled on this idea and went for it.

'Well its the only idea ive got, so time to go for broke!'.

With that Oz started moving the magic within him to be perfectly balanced. Oz's core was already ready to breakthrough it was just that the balance within him wasn't perfect, this in turn barred Oz from the next level.

After what felt like hours to Oz of intricately moving around his magic he finally succeeded, an extremely powerful boom of magic emanated from him knocking over all the mannequins in the room. Within himself his core had grown from a pond of magic to the size of a lake and the lake itself looked like a taijitu symbol from above.

'Finally its balanced out... I don't need to worry about that old snake trying to ensnare me with dark magic now on...'.

The breakthrough was a qualitive leap up for Oz in many areas. Having this balance allowed for him to not be bewitched by the dark arts. In response to his breakthrough both his wands let out a strong aura.

"Hahaha, are you two congratulating me or something?".

With a smile, Oz then left the RoR feeling satisfied with what he had accomplished.