Home again

After four days of consecutive lessons, Magnus and his aunt decided to leave the lessons for the night as it was disturbing his sleeping pattern. These two days Viola covered some basic theories of Divination and Healing but there weren't any spells taught yet. Thus, Magnus decided to give a read through some of the books in the family library. It was April and school was around five months away. There was no harm in learning things in advance. He always liked reading books and magic books were all the more exciting. Besides, he was dying to cast his first proper spell apart from his attempts at "wandless magic" which gave wildly varying results. He did not want a repeat of his pants on fire. He tried to look through the book given by Mr. King but it was blank. He highly hoped that it was because the book was magical and that he hasn't met the requirements set by Mr. King rather than that he got pranked.

He started with the "Standard Book of Spells Grade 1 by Miranda Goshawk". Though the book looked older and had a few tears here and there, the pages were all intact. It was part of Hogwarts curriculum, one among many that his aunt procured in case he ever got admitted. He could no longer stop himself after reading the first five chapters, so he quickly pulled out his aunt's wand from the desk. He gave it a small cleaning as per his aunt's instructions and familiarized himself with the wand as he went through the motions for his first spell, the Wand-Lighting spell, Lumos.

The first time, as expected, did nothing. He paused as he went through the steps in his head- Pronunciation check, Wand movement check, Intent check. "Lumos" he spoke loudly. The wand tip lit up with a soft white light. While there was a small resistance from the wand, his first successful spell brought a smile to his face. Then he thought,' Maybe I shouldn't say it out loud. That doesn't look cool.' The counter for the spell worked like a charm the first time. "Nox," he spoke and the light went out. With a few more trials, he was able to cast the spell with a whisper rather than shouting out loud. While it wasn't quite silent, he couldn't figure out how to do it at present so that would have to do.

After a week of asking, he finally got Mrs. Weasley to teach him some cooking. She was very reluctant at first because none of her boys had ever wanted to learn from her and thus, she never taught anyone. Moreover, she was of the idea that cooking was only for women and not for men. Once Magnus convinced her against that notion, she begrudgingly compromised. Yet the small smile on her face showed how she really felt.

Thus, Magnus fell into a routine. Cooking in the morning with Mrs. Weasley, reading and practicing spells from the books in the study during the day and lessons with his aunt at night. Two months passed away in this way.

Magnus was very different from the helpless boy he was two months ago. While he wasn't quite yet at the level of calling lightning from the sky like he had hoped, he had learned quite a few spells. Magic wasn't quite as easy as he thought. Each spell he learned took more time to grasp than the previous one as their complexity increased. It didn't help that the books didn't have the best of explanations or print for that matter. Most explanations of theories and workings behind spells felt cut short. He hoped that it was because the books were tailored for 11-year-olds and that they would get better later. 'Why else would they be that way?' he thought. And the print quality was atrocious. Some books were fine as the font looked modern, but others just looked archaic. Whoever decided it was fun to read as a textbook for children wasn't right in their head. It took him sometime to just get used to the writing.

The lessons with his aunt were making a good progress. Divination came easy enough, if a bit convoluted. He quickly realized that Divination is an art and not a science. Logic didn't work well here and only caused him a headache. Healing was the toughest subject he had come across yet. It was the subject he worked most on. Him liking the subject alleviated some distress but it was still a hard task. Luckily, they had a good collection in their library regarding both Divination and Healing, so he did see some progress.

Yet, as exciting learning magic was, he realized the hectic pace was taking its toll on him. So, he decided to visit his actual home in Hampstead. That was where he grew up most of the time and he wanted to see it again. Initially, he did have some fear of going back again as that would cause him grief when he remembers his parents. But talking to his aunt and making peace with their passing gave him some courage to face the situation. He might never truly get over his parents' deaths, but that doesn't mean he has to run away from his grief. He will face it no matter what and come out a stronger person.

Mrs. Weasley wasn't going to come the next day so she cooked him extra and stored the food. After some lunch Magnus locked the house securely and went to the backyard. Behind the house was the greenhouse where his mother grew some plants. She used to sell potion ingredients. The greenhouse lacked care for the past two months, yet that wasn't why he was here. 'I'll take care of the plants later,' he decided. A large tract of land behind the house belonged to them, but it was all in disuse. The garden shed beside the greenhouse was his destination today.

It was made of wood and looked old yet well kept. He unlocked the door using a key and locked it behind him. The shed was plunged into darkness once again. A quick Lumos solved that problem. In the right corner of the shed underneath a shoddy carpet, was a trapdoor.

Magnus tapped on the trapdoor with the wand in the pattern taught by his aunt and it opened soundlessly. He went down the stone steps and looked around carefully. It was a stone chamber with the only entrance and exit being the trapdoor. At the far end of the chamber was a grey cabinet with strange designs. It was a Vanishing Cabinet. As per his aunt they were rare and costly and it took their family quite some effort to procure them. There was always a demand but not much supply. It was connected to their house in Hampstead. Magnus didn't understand why they never used it before every time they visited. He chalked it up to another one of his family's quirks.

He cancelled Lumos and entered the cabinet. Their house in Hampstead didn't have the same protections in place as this one and it wouldn't do to get caught doing underage magic in a muggle area. It felt like he moved from a dark to a bright room and within moments he was coming out of another cabinet. He ended up in the basement of his other house in a corner he had never checked before. He exited the basement and savored the feeling of home again.