What's Ritual and What's Not?

It's been a couple months since Harry had 'moved' in with the Marchfield family. His magic had progressed incredibly quickly, and if any of the official magical world had found him they'd be regaling him as a prodigy of the ages, perhaps with a comparable talent to Merlin himself.

Of course, Harry had no idea how strong he was, especially compared to other magical folks as he hadn't found any proof that they existed at all. Still, that only encouraged him to continue practising and working on new abilities.

Recently he'd managed to finally incorporate elemental magics into his repertoire. Fire was almost laughably easy to conjure, though he wouldn't dare try to use it in the loft, as the insulative material covering the place was incredibly flammable.

He'd attempted to use most 'Types' from Pokemon. Fire, Water, Electric, Ice, Psychic, Ghost, Rock, and Poison. Though, for the other Types like 'Bug', 'Dragon', and 'Fighter', he had no idea where to start, or if it was possible.

Still, he'd made good progress. Aside from his ability to conjure fire, he could conjure small amounts of water, Electricity, Ice, and control Earth to a limited degree. Of course, being able to create the elements didn't immediately make them useful though. While he could summon fire, he couldn't really direct it anywhere, he could 'kinda' throw it, but its range was terrible and it petered out almost immediately. If it did manage to hit something it wouldn't be strong enough to burn anything.

Electricity was pretty dangerous too... If he lost concentration and didn't focus on it entirely then it'd turn and shock him instead. The only 'technique' he'd managed to make was a sort of taser, where he summons electricity in his hands and presses it against the target.

Aside from his magic practice, he'd also begun looking for somewhere to learn how to fight. He'd learned a lot by trying to mimic his games, so he thought he'd try the same with Street Fighter... Unfortunately, his status as a 'missing child' made it impossible to join anywhere.

He'd managed to join one club at one point, they were one of the only ones that didn't ask for his parents permission, nor ask any questions about who he was. But all that was ruined when another child recognised him as 'the boy from the posters'. He'd quickly fled before anything else could be said... Hopefully the kid would forget what he saw, otherwise the police might begin heavily patrolling the area.

Harry had also begun teaching himself to swim. He'd head to the beach under the Ignore spell and copy what the other swimmers were doing. It was tough and pretty scary, but he was making quick progress... Soon enough he might be able to swim in the deeper areas... Though, he might hold off on that until he found a way to protect himself with magic first. The idea of drowning wasn't an appealing one in the least.

Another thing he'd discovered during his 'isolation' was the fact that he'd begun to feel... Jealous? He didn't know exactly what it was, but whenever he saw a happy family, a group of friends, or simply two people talking to one another, he'd feel a twinge of whatever it was.

It was more apparent when watching his 'target' Owen interact with his parents. Despite the troubles he'd been causing for them, it was obvious they all still loved each other. Something Harry had been doing his best to alter, but simply couldn't.

The more time went on, the more he'd begun to yearn for what they have. He wanted companionship. But had no idea how to go about it. He hated other people, which made it incredibly difficult to make friends he could 'bear' to be around.

Children his age were immature and annoying, older teens avoided being around him. And adults would immediately report his presence to the authorities... He'd considered stealing a dog or something but knew the thing wouldn't be able to live comfortably in his current 'abode'.

So, he'd begun to try and fix the problem the only way he knew how... Via Ritualistic magic.

He'd begun to expand his knowledge on ritual magic through other books not related to Satanism. His current book was simply too biased towards the religion that it made everything about its core concepts.

It was a difficult subject to research, as it was considered fantasy by everyone, and it was difficult to extract the 'good' information from the 'bad'. He'd almost been suckered to try a ritual from a fantasy storybook due to just how real it seemed.

Regardless, there were a few points that always came up. Rituals were based on intent, the quality of materials, and magical power. This was probably why his first ritual failed, the incantation stated that his 'faith' towards the dark lord would always be strong, and that he'd continue his service.

Harry held no belief in Satan and had never dropped a penny in his service. So while the materials and magical power were there, the intent simply wasn't. This was also why the ritual concerning his relatives worked, he'd created a personalised incantation, all while holding strong intent and emotions towards it, only making it more effective.

Materials were a huge factor too, it didn't just mean 'a sacrifice', no. It meant the kind of sacrifice, what they were feeling, and Harry suspected it also mattered how 'evil' or 'good' they were. Both seemed good is different kinds of rituals, though the strongest possible seemed to be Nuns for some reason.

The reason for this is likely because they held everything that was of value to certain beings. Pureness, Goodness, and Belief. Harry himself was considering sacrificing his virginity for something, but he still had no idea what.

Regardless, the point was, if he wanted to make a ritual to create himself a companion, he'd likely need sacrifices with loving, familial bonds... Fortunately, he was living directly over some people who met all of those criteria.