Lottery Tickets

A/N: From this chapter onwards, all PoV will be written according to Lana's POV unless stated otherwise.

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Long story short, I was successful on my first try without splinching myself. Though it was true, that apparating was very disorienting. And yes, I vomited several times that day and a few days afterward.

My apparition practice took a lot of my physical and mental energy. So I needed to stop my morphing practice altogether for 2-3 weeks. But I kept meditation to help me process things during the days.

I am proud to say that I'm now proficient enough to apparate from my room to the nearby alley of the Leaky Cauldron after 7 grueling weeks of practicing. I do not vomit anymore nowadays. But sometimes, the slightly disoriented feeling still lingers.

Even though I wanted to replicate Potter's smooth apparition technic, in reality, I couldn't do it. Though with each practice, it became less and less noisy. The process is also getting a lot smoother the more I practice.

Because of this, suffice to say that I am highly impressed by Potter's magical capabilities. He is even able to do the smooth version, albeit accidentally. It showed how much magical prowess he had even at one of his lowest physical and mental points in his life.

This led me to realize that I need to be careful around Potter in the future. I don't want to accidentally become his enemy or anything like that. It'd be counterproductive to my goals.

When the summer holiday ends, I'm happy that I've done 3 of my tasks in the phase 1 plan. Now, aside from daily practice of morphing and occlumency, I started to train for my confoundus and obliviation task. Also, I still apparate and disapparate every other day so that my skill stays sharp.

Compared to the apparition, I find confounding much easier for me. I'm unsure why, but my confounding skill is more potent and smooth.

As a newbie in magic, I used the same technique as my other practice: intent, willpower, and imagination, plus a bit of desperation (emotional factor- I find it increases my magical potency significantly. I don't know how or why, though).

It didn't even take me more than 2 days to pull it off.

My initial attempt was actually to Ms. Sally. I was hesitant at first, but the situation was calling for it. See, I needed some money to go to this shop, so I "asked" her to give me £50 and after that to forget about it.

In the beginning, I did not know if it worked or not, but after a few seconds, she got up from her desk, fetched her wallet, and gave the requested money to me. And after that, she continued her work as if nothing had happened.

I felt awful after that. So, I just stood there in front of the desk for some time. I was also scared if I failed, and Ms. Sally remembered it. But then, to my surprise, she looked up at me, greeted me again as if she had just now met me for the first time that day, and asked me if I needed something. Well, I was worried over nothing.

The weekend after I got the money from Ms. Sally, I went to Chargin Road by apparating into an alley nearby to the road.

The first time I went there with Ms. Sally, I saw a lottery ticket shop. They sold lottery tickets from several different lottery providers.

So after morphing into one of my characters, a slender man in his late 20s with an average face that is forgotten easily, I go to the shop and buy £40 worth of lottery tickets from 3 different providers: 10 tickets for £1.5 each goes to the National Lottery Institution (a bit expensive, because the prize is the biggest); 10 tickets for £1 each goes to Lotto; and 10 for £0.5 each goes to EuroMillion.

Using my magic, I wish it to give me insight or will it go to my eyes (or anything) so that the lottery numbers I chose were the winners. Also, I add some healthy dose of desperation as well.

*sigh*

I seem to be desperate for anything.

Alas, no matter. If it works, then it works.

After buying the lottery tickets, I went back to the orphanage. I don't need to go to the Leaky Cauldron yet as I'm penniless right now, so I waited for the lottery announcement in the meantime.

The announcement will be posted on the shop in about 4 weeks. With this, it starts phase II of my plan.