20 19. Mana training.

# Hogwarts #

-3rd POV-

Mary MacDonald took Severus's advice and spoke to her friend Lily about what transpired that night.

Lily calmed Mary down and held her to sleep that day.

She continued to hold Mary to sleep for the whole week.

"Thank you, Lily. I feel a lot better now. I am grateful to have you as my friend. I am glad I took Severus's advice." Mary said.

She had nightmares for the whole week.

She thrashed in her sleep and cried, Lily held her close, soothing her to sleep.

Mary already informed her parents of what happened.

They met the headmaster and asked for more severe punishment.

When the headmaster explained about the war situation, Mary's father said 'he didn't give fuck about it''.

Mary came from a very rich family.

Her father owns a multi-billion-dollar company and influences different parts of the continent.

"Lily, can you ask Severus if he can meet my father? He wants to thank Severus." Mary asked.

"Why don't ask him yourself?" Lily wouldn't have suggested this before but Severus had changed, he isn't as anti-social as he was before.

Lily took Mary with her to Narcissa in hopes of finding Severus there.

Narcissa was going through a book on legilimency, since she started practicing Occlumency and had made progress, she was now onto legilimency.

"Hello, black. Have you seen Severus? He has been busy and rarely seen in the library, which I say was his favorite place in the whole."

Lily said as she took a seat in front of Narcissa.

Over the past week, Narcissa and Lily became frenemies.

Lily was fascinated with Narcissa's etiquette and her talent in ballet while Narcissa found herself liking muggle things like car racing and smartphone.

"Since, when did you become friends with Narcissa Black?" Mary whispers to Lily.

"You don't need to whisper, MacDonald. We are not friends, more like acquaintances." Narcissa said indifferently.

"As for Severus, he went to Hogsmeade,"

She informed Lily and ignored them for her book.

"Ah, there he is."

Lily saw Severus making his way towards them along with Regulus Black.

Regulus went to meet his friend and Severus made his way towards the table where Lily, Narcissa, and Mary were sitting.

-Severus's POV-

After returning from Hogsmeade, I went to find Regulus.

I know a lot about Cissy but not everything, so I went to Regulus to get more information on what Cissy likes.

I knew she liked music and dancing. She told me how she was raised to be a perfect pureblood woman, from the way she eats to the way she has to behave.

I knew there were things I didn't know about her, so I am going to Regulus to get more info.

"Regulus, what does Cissy like?" I sat down in front of him.

"Her Sisters, ballet, musical instruments, being cold and mean to her lovely cousin."

"Regulu__"

"Sorry, sorry. Where were we, at musical instruments, and how can I forget her craze for Swords. She even learned how to use swords"

I knew some of them but I didn't know about her craze for swords and sword fighting.

I went to the library to meet Cissy, Regulus tagged along with me.

I saw Cissy along with Lily and MacDonald.

The last time I saw them together, they were pretty much at each other's throats, now they were having a conversation so peacefully.

"Hello, Lily, Cissy, MacDonald. I never expected that I would find you both having a peaceful conversation."

I can't help but poke a bit at their friendly behavior towards each other.

"Well, not all of us, brood the whole week and forget about the date they planned to take me on," Cissy said with a frown.

I was so focused on finding info about those seven this whole week, that I forgot about the date till yesterday.

"I was hoping to surprise you, I have actually planned it out, I wanted to know if you were free next week."

I had nothing planned out for the date right now.

"Where are you taking me then? Can I get a teaser for the date? Or will it be here at the Library, your favorite place?"

Cissy teased me with a wink.

I can't help but forget that we were surrounded by people, and are currently in the library.

"Lily to Severus, Lily to black, you both can have your fun on the date, please stop your PDA,"

I moved my eyes from Cissy and leaned back on my chair.

I noticed MacDonald was trying to say something but she was a bit uncomfortable.

Lily elbows her, and she finally speaks

"I wanted to know if you are free tomorrow, my father wants to thank you."

I read her mind when she mentioned her father.

I saw a glimpse of who her father was, he is a very powerful and influential person in the muggle world, and very protective of her.

I saw him threatening Dumbledore for letting Mulciber go with just expulsion in her mind.

"Severus to earth"

Lily's voice snapped me out of going deeper into MacDonald's mind.

"Will you meet him?"

MacDonald asked me timidly and she seemed to fear that I would say no.

"I will meet him tomorrow, where will we be meeting?"

I had other motives to meet him, how can I not meet a person with substantial influence in the muggle world, especially when he is in debt to me?

"Dad said he will visit in arrive at Hogsmeade tomorrow. Thank you, Severus, I didn't think you would accept the invite and please call me Mary"

Sorry but I am not doing it just due to pure intentions though.

"Ok, Mary"

I said and turned my attention to Cissy.

"You didn't tell me if you are free next week or not"

"What if I am not?"

Cissy smirked as she turned her full attention to me, I saw the book on Legilimency in her hands.

"You might be missing something magical"

I can't help but tease her.

"You think you can surprise a witch with magic,"

Cissy smiled as she played along with my teasing.

"I might. Are you up for the task to find out, what I have saved in for you?"

"Surprise me, Mr. Full of surprises. You have been giving me surprises since you returned, most of which, I loved. I will be waiting for this one as well."

I smiled at her and turned back to Lily and Mary, both of whom were looking at us for quite some time without making a single sound.

"I will meet you tomorrow at the gates, Mary"

I Informed MacDonald after deciding to leave the library.

I got up and start to leave the library. As I was about to leave the library, I saw Lily coming toward me.

"I know you haven't made a plan yet"

She said as we both walked out of the library.

I raised an eyebrow at what was she suggesting?

"Don't look at me like that, you lie flawlessly when you want to but I am used to your schemes. You did the same when you promised to take me on a ride after dad taught you how to drive, you said to me that you were waiting to get dad's permission to take his car to take me out on a ride but in reality, you just forget about it."

I looked at her beautiful green eyes that were sparkling with playfulness.

"Didn't I take you out on the ride anyway?"

I smirked as her expression changed into annoyance.

I still remember her face after I made the car drift around the corner in traffic, she was so freaked out.

"Stop smiling like that, I know you are thinking about the drift and my reaction to it. I didn't think dad would teach you all that"

She shoves me playfully and laughs along with me, remembering the incident, it happened just last year. Mr. Evans was so pissed at us after finding out that Lily puked on his brand-new seats.

"He is so passionate about cars. He wanted to pass it on to his children but both you and your sister weren't interested in it. So when I turned 15, he taught me how to drive and all of his tricks. He even taught me how to repair the cars. He is very obsessed with them."

Mr. Evans was very enthusiastic when he taught me about cars.

"Since we are talking about Cars, I think you should take Narcissa on a long drive after your date, she recently got interested in them after I told her about them."

I saw that Lily was a bit of sadness in her eyes when she said.

I stood in front of her, held her in her place, and asked

"Why are you sad?"

"No, I am not. It is just that I suddenly miss Dad and Mum, that's all. They are angry at you for not visiting them. Mum said that she will make your favorite pie, and Dad will probably give you an hour-long lecture before taking you out on your boys' trip as he calls it"

Her sadness morphed into a full smile when she mentioned her father.

I didn't know why she was sad but I didn't read her mind, not now or before.

I know she diverted the topic but I didn't want to mention it right now as she was smiling and laughing about our past memories, I will ask her later.

"Yes, our boys' trip, I might just visit them for a pie and the trip"

"Sure, they would love to have you, but be ready for an hour-long lecture. They know about the incident and I got my lecture last year after I told them what happened"

"I don't think I can escape Mrs. Evans's wrath even if I am prepared, she would scold and then feed me like I was starving for a week."

"That she will"

We both laughed as we walked in the hallways, I missed this, I missed having these laughs and pleasant times with my best friend.

This was the Lily I fell in love with, cheerful, mischievous, and positive, overall, a small ball of sunshine.

Though I find myself falling for Cissy as well, she is different from Lily but she too holds the same place Lily does in my heart.

Both of them have their own separate charm.

After spending some more time with her, I went back to my dorm.

----

That night, I went back to the Room of Requirement.

I practiced elemental manipulation.

It was rather easy yet hard at the same time for me.

It required a person to have control over their magic and perfect focus on the task they do.

Due to my Occlumency and prior experience in wandless magic, I was able to conjure elements with just intent, but the manipulation was taking time.

The creation of the respective element was easy compared to manipulating the element.

I wished for some training dummies to appear; the room was filled with a lot of dummies.

I closed my eyes and stretched my hand forward, I willed for a fire to appear in my hand.

A few sparks start to ignite on the top of my palm, just in a second the sparks change into a full-blown red fire that reached the roof of the room.

The fire was wild and was raging in all directions, I concentrate on the raging fire to change into a sphere of red fire, I launched this sphere of raging red flames towards a dummy.

The dummy got obliterated, not a single piece was left of the dummy.

Then I put palms facing each other and created a red flame but they were not as wild as they were before, I stretched my palm away, widening the red flames.

I created a shield of red flames in front of me.

Right now, I was trying to levitate myself using telekinesis, I was also trying to fly using magic as well.

I knew Wizards/ Witches are born with the innate ability to fly but they usually use it with the help of something like a broom, or a carpet.

I know that an unsupported flight was possible using magic.

Shaking my thoughts about flight, I tried to create a flame that would be able to heal wounds, I was trying to merge the flames with spells that are used for healing the wounds.

I am not going to be just satisfied with the ability to create and control elements, I am going to do more than that.

People in the past were ingenious for using magic with this proficiency but they weren't that perfect, most authors who wrote those scrolls took a lifetime to figure their method out.

I am going to take their method and make them reach new heights.

I was trying to create a sentient fire like the Fiendfrye but with more sentience and control.

I was practicing to give them sentience, which was a bit hard.

After practicing fire, I started to practice the next element, water.

Each element came with its perk for my body.

Fire manipulation gave me the ability to resist fire and increased my stamina.

Water manipulation helped increase my reflexes.

Air manipulation made me feel lighter, swift, and faster.

Earth/soil manipulation made me durable and so on.

Many other things were a plus to them.

After I practiced with regular magic, I used my mana to do the same. Controlling elements was a lot easier this time but the effect of this energy wasn't as strong as the normal magic yet.

I summoned the two giant ice knights, I started to infuse more mana than what is required to maintain them.

With the increase in mana, the giants start to grow in size, and spikes on their bodies grow shaper.

Along with mana, I infuse the giants with a constant flow of ice that made them more durable but it was not enough.

After I exhausted all of my mana, I unsummoned my shadows.

I noticed that the more I use my mana, the more the rate of production of mana in my body increase.

So, I exhausted my mana every single by offering magic spells and infusing my shadows with mana.

After two weeks of constantly infusing my shadow fox with mana, I was able to change the fox.

My Fox became way bigger and its teeth grew sharper.

Its claws carried poison as I infuse the fox with a curse that would paralyze when a person is hit, this curse turned into poison on the fox's claws and teeth.

I summoned the shield and sword that ice knights carried when I battled them.

I studied the enchantments placed on sword and shield which canceled the spells.

I reconstructed the swords and shield using transfiguration. I added my own enchantments onto the sword and shield making them more stronger and durable.

After I completed my practice, I went back to my room to get some rest.