The most magical birthday

In two days I'll be seven years old, and apparently, it's a BIG thing.

What everyone knows, is that seven is the most magical number. What nobody knows, is why this one in particular. This is why arithmancy exists. From what I understood from my mum limited talk on the subject, it's the equivalent of scientific research in the wizarding world. It's basically the understanding of magic and the universe through numerology.

My mum herself is a researcher and thus very good in the discipline. She told me once that finding out why seven is the most magical number is one of the most common researched field of study. And without tangible results yet.

What we DO know, is that after a wizard or a witch turns seven, their magical core reinforce and stabilise itself for the first time using ambient magic. From that moment, accidental magic is less dangerous for the child, as they can start to access their core without sequels. It's also the age at which kids are allowed to read magical tomes of various nature, and where magical gifts are typically awaken (natural legilimency and occlumency aside).

Why not before ? There is a risk that the child would want to 'practise' (more like play) using their parents wands or by sheer willpower. This kinds of things are not dangerous once or twice a year, but if more regular, it can leave lasting damage to the kids core.

This is why despite my best attempts at coaxing them, my parents never taught me any magic nor gave me access to the magical part of the library. But all that will change soon.

But first, I will have to do my first magical ritual tomorrow. It appears that rituals are not banned, they are just deemed as 'dark magic'. And 'dark magic' is not banned per se. It's use is simply not appreciated by the ministry. Something most purebloods (like my parents) couldn't care less.

So my father and I will make a camping trip in the forest, do a nature's blessing ritual, and stay there until Magic deems I'm seven (weird way of saying it I know, but folklore says magic is alive and if you go beyond 7, it's because magic deemed you worthy enough to wield her gift). This way, the magic my core will absorb will be only untainted magic, which I've been told is way better than 'normal' environment magic (more chance to awaken a gift). The worst, is being in a foul environment, since it can corrupt your core (explains some stuff about Riddle though when you know about his living condition, and also another reason for which purebloods look down on muggleborns).

The ritual is also pretty simple, we'll wash in the forest river butt naked and sacrifice some fish or game we'll catch on a small stone altar of our creation while thanking mother Magic for granting us her gift.

I honestly can't wait, especially since I'm pretty fond of camping now, with our dad taking Luna and I out regularly. We've become quite the seasoned campers with Luna. I also can't stop marvelling at the wander that is wizarding tents. Such an incredible piece of magic in my opinion, especially when you know some wizards can put an entire mansion inside (though at this level it is quite rare).

That aside, during the last three years, four major things happened to me.

The first is that I started fencing (and met the Patil's). At first, I wanted to practice a popular sport, so I started looking into what WERE the popular sports. Aside from quidditch, there is only duelling. THAT'S IT.

Wizards don't need to practice a sport to have a healthy body because of magic. So being the utterly lazy bunch they are, they don't do strenuous activities, and thus sport is not popular at all (aside from quidditch of course). I did go to a quidditch match with my family when I was five, but it wasn't my cup of tea. The fact that the match is basically decided only by the seeker tends to ruin the efforts of the other players in my opinion.

So I wanted to start duelling, but they only have magical duelling course that start when you are eleven, and you need a wand (of course...). So when I started to whine to mum that I wanted to do duelling before having my wand, I learned that fencing was a thing in the wizarding world. Just not in wizarding Britain.

Turns out that in 1656, Altair Black, firstborn and heir of Antares Black, himself head of the most ancient and noble house of Black, lost his wand arm in the finals of the duelling world cup. Said arm was cut clean by French duellist Jonathan Delacour using a goblin forged sword wielded with his left hand. Not liking that his heir lost the final and his arm (even if it was reattached during the following hours), Antares justified his son loss by saying using a sword in the noble art of duelling was nothing but barbaric, especially since said sword came from those goblins mongrels. The other heads of house of course supported Britain finalist (and most importantly, Antares Black) and decided to declare wielding a sword in duelling illegal in Britain. Doing so, they made sure to have an excuse if they ever lose to another sword wielding Frenchy (without realising they were basically banning themselves from using the world's strongest dueller's duelling technique). Finally they also demanded compensation from the goblins for them taking part in the maiming of the house of Black's heir (which led to the 17th goblins rebellion, but that's another matter altogether).

So because of that, you can't legally duel while wielding a sword in wizarding Britain, and thus fencing is not popular.

Lucky for me, dad being the editor of the only censured free and knowledge dispensing newspaper in wizarding Britain (his words, not mine), he had many contacts. Turns out he knew EVERY diplomats in wizarding Britain because all of them were subscribers of the Quibbler. That's the day I realised the quibbler was really more than met the eyes (though I have yet to find out how and what is hidden).

And lucky for me, when Ishir Patil was lifelong assigned to wizarding Britain as wizarding India's diplomat, his twin brother Hunar Patil (and his family) decided to come along to support his brother in what he knew to be a difficult assignment. And as it turns out, Hunar Patil is a terrific fencer who accepted to teach me in exchange for me having regular play dates with his two girls, Padma and Parvati.

You may want to say "Just that ?". It turns out wizarding Britain is full of xenophobe who couldn't give a toss about an Indian family. What a surprise ! So a few weeks after moving in they realised they would not be easily accepted here, so my father coming to Hunar with a request was a merlinsend opportunity to make at least some acquaintance. It turned out well for them, since they became family friends, and ultimately became friends with the Diggory's too (not the Weasley's though, let's just say the matriarch was not fond of these 'strangers' and leave it at that).