Chapter 31: Furtim

Waking up on day two of lessons here at Hogwarts I felt a lot more settled with my position. Its usually always the first day where there's some nerves here and there about what needs to be done and where to go. After last nights success with the cloaking spell nearly fully being forged already and the charms placed on my door working well it made me feel accomplished heading onwards. Chucking on my robe yet again I made sure all my equipment for today was in order before looking at my lesson schedule for today.

Today the lessons had shifted to different lessons with one remaining the same as yesterday. I had Herbology, Transfiguration, Charms and at midnight Astronomy. The lessons would then shift around again tomorrow however Astronomy wouldn't appear again till next Wednesday at midnight as it had a set time the class needed to be done at.

Taking a closer look at the front side of the door I could see the charm I had placed that was designed to rebound anyone off that wasn't me. It seemed as though it had done some work as I noted it had been activated a couple times. Honestly speaking, I was surprised that the Slytherins hadn't tried anything more yet considering my position. I was an orphan Slytherin of unknown origin after all, something that was incredibly rare and especially looked down upon in this sort of house. As far as they know I have no magical lineage that they value so highly. There was already the first years attempt and it seemed like they tried to bust into my room however considering Slytherin is a house known for its slyness I imagine the true 'bashing' will be hidden under a veil of secrecy. Like a spell casted in an area I will undoubtedly walk into or something. There would be traps and such like that.

The irony though was that my lineage was hundreds of folds greater than any of theirs. I looked forward to when I was comfortable enough to not have to hide it anymore as I wanted to see the shocked faces of the Slytherins that have tried to cause me harm. Before I could reveal anything though, I had my four main goals to reach this year. First was the cloaking spell I was working on so I could sneak around with ease. Next was accessing the Room of Requirement as a base to work in, absorbing the ancient knowledge left in there to strengthen my abilities especially Occlumency which was extremely loose right now. After that was attempting to develop my own spell, I had thought about since I landed in this world and finally there was the Animagus potion. When all these goals had been reached, I wouldn't need to annoyingly hold anything back anymore.

It was actually harder some times in class to hold back as I was purposely, with some spells, controlling them to work wrongly. It's like pouring a coffee and missing the cup, I was doing something that didn't feel right yet still going ahead with it as I needed to keep on the low for now. It was a suffocating feeling which made me driven to get these goals reached as soon as possible. As long as they were all complete, I would be prepared for anything.

Walking through the Slytherin common room it was still early morning and not many Slytherins were up. The Slytherins that were up however were giving me glares left right and centre. News had fully spread at this point however none wanted to actually contest me due to the fact I had floored those three Slytherin lads yesterday alongside the fact I had the ability to security charm my door. Slytherins weren't like Gryffindors, rushing headlong at me knowing this, I could see in their eyes they were trying to profile my abilities so they could put me in my place.

Unfortunately for them as they tried to gauge my abilities, I would only go past that gauging to a higher level each day. Putting me in this school with its centuries of knowledge was like putting a fish in water. I think some of them hoped I would just break down from the obvious isolation and glares however my expression didn't change one bit as I calmly walked through the common room and out the main door heading first for breakfast then after towards my first lesson.

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The first lesson I had today was Herbology. Walking through the castle I headed straight for the greenhouses outside where we were meant to gather up. Heading into the relevant greenhouse I arrived right on lesson time as the second I took my place the teacher walked in.

"Welcome to Herbology first years, my names Pomona Sprout and in this class, you will be studying magical and mundane plants and fungi. Now, today I have placed a plant in front of all of you at your standing stations…"

Mrs. Sprout continued to rattle on as I just calmly followed the lesson matter. In front of us was the magical herb 'Dittany'. I recognised this plant and actually had used it before in the potion for Nana as it was a magical plant with healing and restorative properties. This plant was one of the main core ingredients for healing Nana up fully. You can eat it raw to heal shallow wounds or you could use it in potions to amplify the effects like I did.

"This plant in front of you is called a 'Dittany' plant which is used for healing wounds. Whenever handling this plant make sure you don't have fire as it can release flammable vapours! Today I will be showing you a spell used to cut off the leaves of this plant cleanly, harvesting it skilfully. Don't worry about messing up the plant in your attempts, I specifically picked this plant as it's the one that's most abundant in this school"

"The spell to use in order to harvest the plant is 'Diffindo' the cutting spell. Point your wand at the area you want to cut and cast the spell at it. For example…"

Mrs Sprout brought up her wand and pointed it at one of the leaves. She smiled as she simply uttered;

"Diffindo"

The leaf was cut off skilfully and fell into the palm of her hand where she then placed it on the side. She continued to use 'Diffindo' to cut the plant up, harvesting it perfectly before setting her wand aside.

"This would be a perfect harvest of this plant here; I'm not expecting you on your first lesson to manage this but by the end of the year I hope you are near this level with this sort of procedure!"

It looked like Mrs Sprout was doing the same as the teachers yesterday, making the first lesson a gauge of our abilities to see where we were all at. After showing us how to cut the plant up she moved us into stations appropriately split up from each other. The spell 'Diffindo' was a severing charm after all so there was some layer of danger when using it near others as you could cut them.

Thinking about it, this spell is rather efficient in terms of… killing. It was nearly an instant cast unlike spells that shot out towards an opponent. Using 'Diffindo' would directly cut something, if the output was increased to a really high level, you could probably… behead someone. It was a chilling thought that had come to my mind however thinking on it made me realise that there was the chance I would have to kill in this world. I didn't know when that time would come but I'd have to steel myself and my emotions not to hesitate. Occlumency in ancient times was used to supress emotions when in the act of killing so the brain didn't break down in battle so maybe if I reached that level, I would be more okay mentally after killing… I'd have to cross that bridge when it comes to it though.

The lesson proceeded similar to the ones yesterday. I followed along with the other students, keeping their pace and the lesson ended with Mrs Sprout telling us next lesson will be more learning based and this practical was just to test our abilities. The 'Dittany' plant though was something we needed to learn the properties of as it was within the end of year test for the first years in herbology.

The next lesson of the day was Transfiguration with McGonagall. She showed interest last time in me due to my independent attitude so I hoped she didn't single me out too much. If she did though I could probably use it as a shield to fake my abilities, acting dumb to points if she expects too much…

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Transfiguration class was setup just like it was explained in the books. Rows of school like tables and at the front there was the black board that McGonagall would write on. I took a seat in the middle back of the class and waited for the lesson to start.

Eventually as all the students pooled in, McGonagall appeared with a stern look on her face. She walked over to the blackboard and wrote the words 'Transfiguration'. Turning back to us she started to speak;

"Welcome first years to your first Transfiguration lesson. I'm Professor McGonagall and I'll be teaching you the wonders of transfiguration for the year. Now transfiguration isn't an easy school of magic due to its intricacy in how the spells are needed to be casted. It's probably the most scientific school of magic..."

Most scientific… Hearing that here made me realise how important transfiguration would be going forward. The ability to change objects at will was something that would be useful moving forward in this world. Transfiguration was after all essentially manipulating the molecular structure of something so it wasn't wrong to call it 'scientific' to some degree. That level of manipulating though made it also dangerous.

"As powerful as transfiguration is though, its still difficult when the object you're trying to transform is of large mass and size. For instance, say if I wanted to transfigure an entire dragon, that would require me to cast enough magic to encompass that entire dragon and then transfigure it into something else. It would be extremely difficult and near impossible. So, there are limitations"

McGonagall looked around the class at the first year's difficult expressions. She had given Transfiguration such a grand opening compared to the other classes making it seem harder than them all. She smiled as she explained;

"Of course, I'm not expecting you all to be perfect from the start so do not worry about making mistakes. Mistakes are needed in the pursuit of perfection that's required in transfiguration. However, if you mess around at all, then you will leave my classroom and not come back. Transfiguration is as great as it is dangerous. If you attempt to show off or not take this class seriously, I will personally doll out punishment"

McGonagall had drawn the students in with the wonder of transfiguration, calmed them down in regards to learning it then harshly explain the results of messing around with it. You could tell she was experienced just from her words at teaching this lesson.

"Now, there are 4 branches of transfiguration. In order of difficulty, they are Transformation, Untransfiguration, Vanishment and Conjuration. We will be learning about transformation first. As you progress in years at this school you will encounter the other branches…"

Hearing that vanishment was a branch of transfiguration got me interested. I knew about vanishment and even the spell casted which was 'Evanesco' however there was much more danger in regards to casting this spell and the difficulty was many times higher than you could imagine. It was a branch you would learn in your fifth year and something you would be tested on in your OWLs. It was one of the most difficult spells you would learn in that year and at that level you would only be able to vanish small organisms like snails and such. When you tried to vanish mammals, the difficulty would increase tenfold.

If this spell was used against a human, it would be the deadliest spell in existence. The thing is I don't think anyone had the ability to cast it as an offensive spell against others, the magical capacity needed to cast it at a human and cause them to disappear into non-existence would be immense something even Dumbledore couldn't do and maybe even the founders weren't capable of. This would be due to many factors, a humans soul was hard to 'vanish' mainly and I knew this first hand considering how I ended up after dying and my soul stayed living in that 'darkness' for so long. If that level was reachable though and it could be used against a person, the killing power would be frightening. You could just vanish someone like Beerus does with his Hakai, erasing them from existence. At my level right now though, that was a faraway dream.

"So, students, in front of you is a match and I would like you all to transform it into a needle like such…"

McGonagall casted a spell at the match next to her and turned the match into a beautiful needle.

"This is the starting point as we transform non-living things. There's margin for error here, however when it starts to become living things we transfigure, that's when you will need to be concentrating at your fullest potential…"

McGonagall then let the class commence as we all tried to transform our matches. I sat on my desk and transformed my match into a needle but made it a bit misshapen. McGonagall walked directly over to me and picked up the needle I had made.

"It's a good first attempt Oz, however it seems that your control isn't up to scratch due to the misshapenness of the needle. Refine that control and you will be on your way to succeeding"

The teachers always mentioned control with me as I was purposely suppressing my acute control I had by reflex. The years of using the breathing method, directing magic to my fingertips and out my body to move objects, those years made my magical control grow to insane levels. When casting a spell with a wand I had basically perfect control over most spells I casted.

"Okay Professor"

McGonagall smiled as she saw I had taken in her advice.

"Honestly I wonder why you became a Slytherin, I would have liked you in Gryffindor"

McGonagall left me with those words as she went to help the other students struggling. It seemed she had taken a liking to me somewhat after seeing my calm and independent attitude in Diagon Alley. I sat there with a sigh looking down at the needle I had made. She would find out one day, probably by the end of this year, why I was placed in this house…

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With McGonagall's lesson ending we had some break time. Usually this would be the time for Lunch however I skipped lunch wanting to read books instead at the Library. Heading into the library, I walked towards Irma who was at the librarian desk. Seeing me walk in she put her book down and spoke;

"Back again? What books do you want today?"

She seemed to understand that I was interested in books as much as her, getting right to business.

"Do you have books about wizards hunting creatures? Like what spells they would use to hunt… how they would hunt… that sort of thing? Also, more spells on charming doors"

Irma took a moment to think before lifting her wand and casting a spell, books flew over to her and landed in the desk in front of me.

"These books are what you need on those matters, now off you go"

I liked this woman, she didn't question my motives and just let me read whatever I told her I wanted. She probably saw a kindred spirit in me in regards to books and curiosity. She was also aware of my wand and how it was a façade of the elder wand. With all these things layered she seemed kind to me and helped me with no question.

Taking the books over to at spot in the library I began to read them. The reason why I picked these sorts of books was to narrow down the final part of the cloaking spell which was to erase my scent. I thought that when wizards hunted creatures, especially those with strong senses, there must be spells in order to hunt them down.

Reading through the book there were a bunch of handy spells, tracking spells and such were scattered within the pages. Eventually I found the spell I wanted, specifically a charm.

'Vim Extermina' was the charm I found that meant 'to erase' and 'stench'. Hunters would use this spell to erase any smells on their body so nobody could sniff them out whether beast or creature. Honestly speaking, this part of the cloaking spell was overkill for reaching the RoR however I wanted the cloaking spell to be perfect when I created it so I could use it down to line.

Alongside learning about 'Vim Extermina' I also gained knowledge of some more spells to put on my door and room now to protect it. Irma seemed to have prepared a few more books this time on the matter. I wondered if some teachers were aware of what I was going through due to my position as an orphan Slytherin, this could be seen as a helping hand from Irma who was probably somewhat clued into what I was going through or 'going' to go through.

Satisfied with what I had learned, I returned the books to Irma thanking her for her help and leaving swiftly towards my next lesson which was Charms.

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I won't bore with the details of the charms lesson as it was similar to yesterday however just a lot more talking this time around. Flitwick explained in detail about wand movements, different charms and such instructing us about control amongst other things. Nearer to the end of the lesson he presented us the same bricks again we used yesterday asking us to cast 'Spongify' on them again. At the end of the lesson most of the students, me included, succeeded in casting the spell.

With that lesson ending I actually had some time until my final lesson. Astronomy was a strange one as it was held at midnight in First Year. With the time I had before that lesson, I headed directly back to my room in Slytherin's dungeons. I wanted to see if I could develop this cloaking spell before dinner.

As I entered my room, I took the time to charm the door further with the spells I had learned from the books read in the library. Shock spells on the door, lock spells, all sorts were placed. This room was to have the same security as a damn vault if I could make it as such. The one thing I hated back at New Leaf was being distracted midway through practicing which sometimes happened especially when I was keeping my magic practice on the down low from Nana and Melony.

Satisfied with the work I had done; I took a position in the middle of my room. Taking a sniff of myself there was a smell of sweat due to the previous act of casting all those spells on my door. It was a good time to test 'Vim Extermina'.

"Vim Extermina"

I took into account this time after practicing with 'Invisibilis' and 'Silencio Momentum' that my magic had to encompass my entire body to work properly. I controlled the spell to coat the entire surface of my body, blocking any smells from it coming out. After the spell was casted, I smelt the same area where I was sweating again and that smell was gone.

I smiled noting that the pieces were all in place. Now was the hard part of fusing those pieces together. I wanted to fuse the spells under one banner so I could just cast one spell instead of doing three each time. This would help with efficiency going forward. I had read into the subject of fusing spells like this and it almost functioned like a program in a computer in my own interpretation of it. This 'master' spell would cast 'Invisibilis', 'Silencio Momentum' and then 'Vim Extermina' in succession using only a single spell name that I would set. The spell name that seemed appropriate here would be 'Furtim' which meant 'Stealth' in Latin.

The complexity reached new heights as I decided to attempt this step. Learning the three spells beforehand wasn't too hard as my control and magical capacity is already pretty high, to the point where I can learn most spells pretty quickly but this sort of fusion of spells required extreme control. Taking a deep breath, I made my first attempt;

"Furtim"

The spell collided with me and coated my body, as it did so though my body only partially went invisible, some of the invisible parts emitted sounds like my right hand that disappeared and finally the stench was fragmented. It seemed my control was off.

I attempted this sort of spell again and again, in doing so I made many errors and failures however each time I got closer and closer to the desired result. I was so focused on this spell casting that I missed dinner. My magic strength within me would wane at times however I would just use the breathing method to get it back up and try again. Looking at the time I only had an hour or so until the Astronomy class at midnight. I would only be able to attempt a few more times.

"Okay… attempt like 200 or something at this point"

The extreme amount of control around three spells like this was really a challenge. However, as I collected myself for a few more final attempts I finally succeeded;

"Furtim!"

My body disappeared, the sounds my body made silenced and the sweaty smell from casting all day from my last lesson in towards the night vanished also. Looking in the mirror there was no sign of me. Now that I had casted it once successfully, I would be able to cast it again and again.

My first goal in this school had been reached. Three more goals remained and when complete, I could run wild.