Mana

He stood there, trying to get out of his stupor. Noah felt different, great even, almost like a chrysalis breaking free; his restraints were now lifted. His wand was a member of his body, it emanated with a rhythm and resounded on his body. For one thing, he was sure, wands were greatly underestimated by the movies and books.

"So, how much will it be?" He asked, breaking out of his stupor.

"It will be... 20 galleons."

"20 galleons?" He deadpanned. "Why is it not worth the same as the other wands?"

"See it for yourself, it is obvious to me that it is worth way more than regular ones." She crossed her arms, Petra wasn't backing down on the price.

"10 galleons. Because... first, this artifact was lost inside your shop. Second, it seems you didn't know what it did. Third, this wand will only work for me. You even said it, the wizard finds the wand."

"15 galleons." She decided while crossing her arms.

"13 galleons, not raising it anymore." He demanded with the strongest voice a kid could muster.

"Ahh, fine! Deal." She accepted the coins and set him off, all she wanted now was getting him out before he could break more of her merchandise. That day she would remember as the one when a kid almost bankrupted her.

***

Noah looked once more around him, rummaging through the streets for any sign of life. Ever since he stepped inside the Knockturn Alley, every caution was minimal. Other than lots of suspicious individuals walking around the dirty hole, the shops, and their available services were quite alarming as well. Noah didn't know if he was supposed to be surprised or not. After all, Knockturn Alley is, as a matter of fact...

'A shithole. Filled with elves running errands for their masters through the bulk of people; market of magical drugs and highly dangerous poisons. Domesticated creatures inside their cages, waiting to be sold. I am an ass kisser of Lady Luck actually, to get somewhere without a crowd is impressive by itself after all.'

He moved along looking out for a specific store which could offer wand tracker remotion. After minutes of overzealous steps, he finally found it. 15 long minutes of smuggling and he was out already; 50 galleons more light. His next destination was to buy a trunk. This time around, he went overboard. Aside from the money needed to buy his alchemy materials, all of the remaining went into buying it. Charms for enlargement and shrinking when needed; magical lock to prevent anyone aside from him to see and enter inside it (made possible by enlargement charms, featuring an entire basement room for storing his things).

'If I don't die here, then I will die by the hands of Oliphia. Maybe I could buy my way out with some candies...Uhm, don't know if a grown-up will fall for that, but I still got my acting skills. Now I just need to buy the rest anyways.'

"You want to die, don't you?" She rebuked slowly, staring at his soul which would be reaped.

"Forgive me! I've lost my way into the crowd, these directions are way too confusing. Also, I thought of buying some candies... you know, for everyone." He pleaded with puppy eyes.

"..." Her silence stretched for long seconds of internal conflict.

"Sigh! Don't you ever do that again! Do you know how worried I was for you!" She looked away, avoiding to look into his eyes.

Sigh! I can't even trust Noah, he's still too immature to take care of himself. Well, I guess that's my job...protect him until he can look out for himself. A smile erased her frown, taking care of kids was her passion at the end of the day.

"Come, it's getting late." She took his arm and apparated back to the orphanage.

...

"SURPRISE!" Confetti exploded into his face.

"CHEERS NOAH!"

All the children shoot their congratulations at the nauseous boy.

'What?? Are they all wizards?! Is this a wizard's orphanage?'

After the horrible feeling of apparating and right after getting confetti thrown at his face, confusion hit him at the sore spot.

"....??"

"Ah Noah, don't look that lost. We are just celebrating your awakening... we all thought you were a squib." The girl with curly black hair said as she petted his head.

"..." And now he was being caressed.

"I will have to agree with Victoria on this one, we were worried sick for you." The blonde smiled.

"But we wouldn't judge if you were though!" The brown-haired kid gushed as smugness took hold of his face.

"...Thank you guys! It means a lot to me!" He squealed, just like any other child of his age would do.

"What are you all waiting for? We have a cake to cut!" Lisa screamed from the kitchen.

Never had Noah felt such a warm feeling, so new for someone whose life was always so lonely and difficult.

'I don't know if there will be a new Voldemort. I don't know how Hogwarts will be like... but I have one certainty, and that is:

This gonna be fucking awesome.'

It was as they said, one only value something when they don't have it. Now think about something they never had to begin with, but always craved for.

***

That night was filled with laughs and joy-filled screams. Noah went up to his room by the end of his little party. Even though he was tired as hell, there was no time to waste. Because for what he could gather, a wizard would go through different awakenings in their lives, as their mana (a name which he decided to use) became more condensed. If that was true, then his magical-prowess was pitiful. Steeling his resolve, he enlarged his trunk and went inside by a set of stairs.

'How am I going about this? While the rest of them had years to ascend in prowess, I am just a newborn... a newborn about to enter a magus academy. Maybe, I can do it like those cultivation novels? I mean, magic is real, so it isn't so far-fetched... but no, probably gonna kill myself in the process. I would just be messing around with my body.

Then, can I practice it somehow? Just like muscle training - the more you do it, the more you can take it; that is if you don't go beyond the body limits. Yeah, that's way safer. Though, what can I practice with this wimp capacity? Lumos... Wingardium Leviosa... those two are the less body requiring.'

Taking his wand from his robes, which fit pretty well the boy, he raised it and demanded.

"Lumos." He murmured while grasping at anything that he could feel inside of him into a single push, like when he acquired his wand. His mind imagined light coming out of his wand, down to its most chemical form, fótons pouring out of it within light's velocity.

Just as a blinding light enveloped all of the basement, his body fell limp to the floor. An excruciating pain spread through his chest cavities, making it impossible to breathe or even scream out of pure pain. Everything Noah could do was to lay flat on the floor while screaming into the silence of the barren room. 10 minutes passed and he started to feel his body coming back into action. He, of course, had no notion of how much time passed as it seemed to take an eternity. Making the vow to never do that again, he understood the risks of self-teaching. He could die if he did another error such as this. He knew it wasn't the best of ideas to continue doing it, but... if he was true with himself, he didn't feel like stopping it.

If he stops, then he will be weak.

If he continues, he either dies or catches up with the other children.

It is best to die than to live as a weakling. The sensation of helplessness which his past life provided every time it could, was what he didn't want to ever feel again.

He was given another life, it would be a waste to refuse to fight for it and instead cower away in fear.

'Death is a given for everyone, life isn't. You can't live in the shadows of fear. Running away from a challenge is the same as refusing life.

And I miss a good challenge.

Now, what can I do to continue practicing but not dying at the same time? First, I need to address the output of a spell, because I am sure as hell that Lumos isn't that powerful, I had put way too much mana into it, stepping into the thin line of my limits.

But how do I go about that?

Maybe I could create a metric system for how much mana I have in my body and how much a spell demands. It will probably be imprecise, but it is better than nothing.

Ideas, ideas...' 1 hour passed and he had it.

'I will use the Lumos light's range as the metric. Every 1 meter equals 5 mana, so a normal Lumos requires only 5. Mine reached about 4 meters, so my maximum capacity is 20.

Okay, now I only need to diminish my output to 5 mana. If a spell is envisioned by the mind, then the more detailed it is, the more it will cost. It makes sense that I got paralyzed after channeling that one, my mind thought all the way down to fótons. I don't know how I didn't die. Huh, maybe the body has security locks on it, that way I can't channel something that is way above my league. It makes senses, else a lot of young wizards would kill themselves because of the lack of control.

Lucky me.'

It took him that hour of thinking to recharge his batteries and start again. Little by little, he took control of his mana and by the end of the day, he could control it around his body without hassle. Soon, he came out of his trunk and rapidly fell asleep on his small bed.