Upcoming Year, and Testing Out Wards.

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The designated room for Quinn's magic in the West manor was a spacious hall with ample space and had sturdy walls, ceiling, and floor just in case magic hit the walls. The sturdy walls would prevent damage to anything outside the hall, protecting the structure of the entire manor.

In that hall, with no decor or furniture, Quinn sat in the dead center. He sat in the lotus position, his back straight and eyes closed. The room was dead silent, with not a single sound that could disturb the peace.

In the middle of summer, Britain was always hot. While it was because of the heat, the main factor that really made the summers uncomfortable was the humidity content in the air which made the entire experience uncomfortable.

And, even in that humid climate, Quinn dispersed more and more conjured water into the air of the room. Slowly increasing the moisture content in the room to where the water droplets dripped from the walls, but Quinn didn't stop and kept on pumping more water in the form of thin mist.

He even made it so that the water won't condense and start dripping in excess, and the air would retain more and more liquid.

At some point, Quinn felt that if he increased the humidity content of the room, it would get difficult to breathe, so he stopped dispersing more water into the air.

He stopped and instantly changed gears. Instead of dispersing water, Quinn was releasing cold energy and escalating the chill as the cold built up in the room.

The room's temperature dropped as water in the room condensed, and the humidity in the air formed a hazy white mist. The floor around Quinn froze and started to spread outwards, slowly creeping towards the walls.

As the temperature dropped below the point where warming spells were proving to be inefficient, Quinn turned to Blood magic to warm up his blood, and it came easy as breathing because he had experience using it daily for months.

And the current level of cold was nothing compared to the Icy vault that was colder than any natural spot on the planet. Currently, Quinn wasn't even trying to push his Blood magic and kept it on the down-low to be comfortable in the current temperature.

'I need more water.'

With that thought, Quinn, once again dispersing more water into the air, but unlike the previous dispersion, which was gradual and gentle, Quinn pushed his magic to create waves and waves of dispersed water.

He also kept rolling out the cold energy, and because of it, the dispersed water instantly turned into mist, and the visibility in the room dropped because of the white fog everywhere.

With each passing minute, the walls, floors, and ceiling of the hall started to show deposits of ice sheets, getting thicker with time and renewed water supply in the form of mist.

Slowly, the hall looked a lot like the Icy vault, albeit not as cold. The walls were a frozen icy-blue, and the scene looked from the time of the ice age.

Quinn stood up from his spot, looked around, and sighed a white plume.

"I need to be much quicker than this."

Quinn's third year at Hogwarts was going to be a dangerous one. Tom Riddle, a.k.a. Voldemort's first Horcrux, was going to wreak havoc in Hogwarts by releasing the Slytherin's monster from the Chamber of Secrets.

"I need to be much faster than if I want to escape from the Basilisk," murmured Quinn.

The Basilisk was a giant serpent, grander than any known snake species. It was known to be the King of Serpents, a snake species that could be the apex predator in most ecosystems and food chains.

The Basilisk wasn't a naturally growing creature and needed a magical person's assistance to give birth to. Herpo the Foul was the first one to breed a Basilisk. He accomplished this by hatching a chicken egg beneath a toad which resulted in the creature known as a Basilisk.

But just putting an egg under a toad wasn't enough. Extremely harsh conditions were needed to breed the King of Serpents. Everything from the toad's type, age, gender, and various other specifications, to the hen who laid the chicken egg used, were harshly stringy.

The egg and toad needed to be perfect and compatible with each other, and the magical breeding the Basilisk required to maintain constant care for a Basilisk to be perceived.

It was nature's way to limit a magical beast like Basilisk to spread its population on Earth. In exchange for the transcendent abilities, natural law took from the Basilisk the capabilities to breed on its own and needed assistance from another species to come into this world.

Looking a Basilisk directly in the eye causes instant death, but an indirect look will merely render the victim Petrified. Because of these deadly capabilities, it was categorized as an XXXXX creature, meaning it was a known wizard-killer that couldn't be domesticated because of its immense powers.

Quinn didn't want to confront a beast that could kill him with a look, and he didn't want to be petrified for most of the school year just because he wanted to meet one.

"I am staying the hell away from the damn monster," was the decision Quinn made when he thought about the upcoming school year.

He had given thought to the feasibility of taking the dairy turned into Horcrux from Ginny Weasley and throw it away into the Room of Lost Things and forget all about the Basilisk incident.

The plan was totally doable if Quinn moved quickly and took the diary from Ginny around the start of the year, but this plan wasn't full proof as Ginny Weasley had the Horcrux diary for around a month before she came to Hogwarts.

He didn't know how much influence the Horcrux had on Ginny Weasley. Heck, he wasn't even sure if what the books depicted were the full capabilities of the Horcrux diary.

Then there was the whole issue of destroying the Horcrux. Room of Requirements had surprisingly less information on Horcrux. Quinn knew how to create a Horcrux. He even knew that Fiendfyre could destroy the Horcrux, but there was nothing more than that on Horcrux destruction.

Basilisk's venom wasn't listed in the text he had written, and that was a surprise. This told Quinn that Basilisk venom was a new and accidental discovery.

But, Quinn didn't have Basilisk's venom as the serpent was still sleeping in the Chamber of Secrets, and he didn't have expertise over the use of Fiendfyre that destroyed a Horcrux. Quinn hadn't even attempted to practice casting the cursed flames; he didn't want to fire Fiendfyre and kill himself in the process.

And, for that, he was practicing the Ice magic.

The Basilisk might be a magical beast, and the King of Serpents, in the end, was a snake. It was a widely known fact that snakes didn't like cold weather, and a Basilisk wasn't any different.

He was trying to produce instant ice and drop the temperature of an area in a short period. Snakes were sensitive to cold, and Quinn hoped that if he dropped the surrounding temperature when he walked around the castle, the Basilisk would stay away.

"If it did get close, then I would just have to terrorize it away with the cry of a rooster," said Quinn, planning to transfigure tons of roosters to kill the shit out of the Basilisk.

But, Quinn wanted to avoid that because if by chance the Basilisk escaped death by fleeing through the pipes, then young Tom Riddle would know his identity, and it would directly put him in harm's way.

So, as the saying went, 'Prevention is better than the cure.'

Quinn wanted to keep the Basilisk away from him rather than confronting it and taking a chance to kill it.

He wasn't even sure if the Basilisk would show on Recon, so to make sure that it stayed away, Quinn had to make sure that giant snake stayed the hell away from him.

Quinn exhaled in the room, which was now sealed by the ice layers, covering every inch of the room.

"Something like this would work," said Quinn. He combed a hand through his hair and sighed, "I have to get better at this."

"Oh boy, this is going to take a lot of magic to sustain, doesn't it," Quinn smiled as he thought about the expenditure of magic. It was not every day he could use magic that took copious amounts of magic, big even for Quinn's reserves.

While Quinn was smiling at the prospect of using magic-heavy ice magic, the door of the training hall busted open with a loud blast.

"Whaoooo!" Quinn was so shocked that he let out a long startled yelp. He jumped back and looked at the busted door.

"Young master! Are you alright!"

Quinn recognized Elliot's voice and immediately adjusted Blood magic so that it wasn't visible on his face or any exposed part of his skin.

"Yeah! I am alright," exclaimed Quinn, with his hand on his heart, feeling the erratic pulse.

Elliot looked inside the frozen solid room, his eyes wide because of the scene. It was not every day that you witnessed something like this in the smack middle of summer.

"What was that, Uncle Elliot? Why did you do that?!" said Quinn, pointing at the broken door covered in ice.

Elliot looked at Quinn, his hands went his waist as he frowned, "Young master when I came here, I saw that the door had layers of ice on it. I tried to call out for you, but you didn't respond."

He steered his hands at the broken door and continued, "When I tried to open the door, it won't budge, so I had no choice to break it open. I was worried that something might have gone wrong."

Quinn scrunched his nose as he looked at the ice-sealed room and could understand the problem.

"Oops," said the fool, showing the silly expression.

Elliot just stared at Quinn, standing in the frozen room, not knowing what to think.

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- (Scene Break) -

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And while learning cold magic to prepare for life preservation at Hogwarts was fun, Quinn needed something else to do, and in his curiosity, he took up warding as the theme for the summer break.

The backyards and gardens were meticulously maintained by the combined effort of Elliot and the house-elf, Polly. Those two worked together to grow the grass fields and gardens in the West Manor. The area around the mansion increased the beauty of the building, giving it a regal look.

They would be devastated if something disturbed the lush greens and blossoming herbs, perennials, and other flora.

"Fire-repellent wards, let's try these," said Quinn, goofily smiling while standing on the beautiful grass. A fire that could ruin the effort put into making the grass look luscious.

Quinn raised his hand, and a red layer of magic originated from it, forming a dome of warding magic. The red layer glowed a little brighter before disappearing.

Warding magic was a branch of magic that could be performed employing either charms or runes or both. A type of barrier magic that 'rejected' phenomenon within the bounds of the barriers. Protective enchantments that exerted control inside the area under the barriers of magic.

For example, in the Room of Lost Things, an anti-summoning ward covered the entire room that rejected summoning spells in the room. Hogwarts was covered with anti-apparition that didn't allow apparition for humans.

He looked above the space of fire-resistance barrier, and a light wisp of fire manifested in the air.

"Let's hope this works," said Quinn as he dropped the fire. The wisp of fire fell down, and the moment it touched the now invisible barrier, a patch of it shown red.

Quinn smiled as the wisp of fire exhausted itself before it hit the ground.

"Excellent."

He upped the ante and dropped multiple wisps of fire, and every single one of them snuffed out by the magic of the ward.

The wisps of fire increased in number until the entirety of the barrier was facing a barrage and did a great job at snuffing every single wisp.

Quinn showed an impressed expression and decided to take it to the next level. He stepped back, and gone were the wisps of fire. Quinn raised his hand and came out jets of flames came out of them colliding with the barrier, and the moment the jets passed the barrier, it snuffed the fire out of existence.

He continued to raise the amount and temperature of the fire. While Quinn was happy to see the ward stand up to the flames, he frowned when the heat and quantity of flames exceeded the current spell's capabilities.

One thing Quinn hated was the inefficient use of magic. It was one of his best pet peeves. If a magic was supposed to go from one to ten, then Quinn hated when it was used to go to eleven. It was inefficient for a spell to exceeds its limits.

In theory, you could push magic into a base-level fire spell like the Incendio spell to produce extremely hot flames, but you could also use a high-level fire spell to achieve the same result with much less magic.

Quinn clicked his tongue and stopped the jets of fire, thus ceasing the testing of the maximum capabilities of the fire-repellent ward.

"Any more than this, and I would enter danger category."

While Quinn was ballsy enough to use fire magic in the backyard, he wasn't ballsy enough to risk testing the ward he had casted for the first time and damaging the pasture.

With a casual wave, the ward broke down. Quinn turned back to walk to a book on warding.

"Water-repellent, Lightning-repellent, Explosion-repellent,... hmm, room sterilization wards, that will come in handy."

Quinn turned the pages in the book, looking at warding charms he could try, and found an interesting one.

"Oh, this might be fun," said Quinn, packing his stuff and heading towards the mansion.

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- (Scene Break) -

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Elliot sat in the living room, sitting down for his afternoon tea. As usual, he had the most traditional tea setup. An afternoon treat of tea, sandwiches, scones, and cake. A lot of choices to choose from served on special platters.

Elliot looked left and right before taking out a pair of glasses from his pocket, the type that hung from the chain.

He put them on, setting them on the bridge of his nose. Peering through them at a newspaper, holding a newspaper with a pen, doing the daily crossword.

Opposite to Elliot sat Quinn under an invisibility ward. Looking at Elliot with wide eyes, more specifically, he was looking at Elliot's glasses.

'Merlin's beard, he had glasses. I didn't know that,' thought Quinn. 'Man, that is a lot of sugar in your tea. And, you said that honey is better.'

Invisibility ward was a simple warding spell that captured an image of everything inside the barrier. And, when you entered the warded area, it would hide you by displaying a static image of what it captured.

Quinn casted an Invisibility ward on the part of the sofa Quinn was going to sit on and let the ward take a still of everything under the barrier. And, when he sat down under the ward, he was not visible to any on the outside.

That whole day, Quinn sat in different parts of the house, observing people in the manor.

He found that Ms. Rosey liked to read romantic novels in her free time. It was the greatest shock of the day as he never expected the always serious Ms. Rosey to find entertainment in cheesy romance novels.

Polly, the house-elf, liked to spend her break time in the different parts of the house, experimenting with various elf magics in cooking, cleaning, gardening, laundry, and other household activities. Quinn had seen some awful results of the experiment, and he felt a little closer to her as Quinn, too had, his share of failed experiments.

Unfortunately, all fun things came to an end when Quinn sat in the home bar on the manor, waiting for his grandfather to come here to relax like he did every other evening.

Like clockwork, George came to the home bar and walked to the cellar for his choice drink of the evening. Quinn silently waited for his grandfather to come back, and when he did, everything went black for Quinn.

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- (Scene Break) -

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When Quinn came back up, he was still sitting in the seat he had taken before everything went black.

"Mmmm," groaned Quinn, sitting up in the chair.

"What the hell happened," asked Quinn to no one.

"I stunned you," came the reply he wasn't looking for.

Quinn looked to the side to see his grandfather with a glass of whisky in his hand. Quinn sat right up, feeling embarrassed and mortified.

"Sorry," he eked out, looking at his grandfather, his expression both awkward and meek.

"What were you doing under that ward," came a question from George.

Quinn pursed his lips before answering, "Trying it out. I have been doing it all day. Looking at others while under the ward."

George sighed, "You are lucky that I only stunned you. I could have done much worse."

"I am sorry."

"It is alright. Just be more careful while using magic and keep the mischief to the minimum. Now, you may leave. I want to enjoy my drink in peace," said George, taking a sip of his whiskey.

Quinn was quite happy to oblige, standing up with a slight wince and walking towards the door, but before he exited, Quinn asked,

"What gave me away?"

George looked at his grandson and saw a look of strange curiosity. He recognized the look on Quinn's face, seeing the expression quite a few times on his grandson's face.

It was the expression that showed Quinn's cold curiosity towards topics that interested Quinn. In times like these, Quinn was surprisingly single-minded. Purely wanting to know the answers to his question.

"The lighting was different. I brightened the flames of the candles in the room when I entered. I am guessing, but your ward didn't account for that," answered George, watching as the wheels turned in his grandson's mind.

"Thank you, and once again, I apologize."

After saying that, Quinn left the room, leaving George alone. Once again, reminding George that Quinn loved magic.

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- (End of Volume Three: Year Two.) -

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Quinn West - MC - Trying to emulate a Disney Princess.

Elliot Dalton - Butler - Likes sugar and has secret reading glasses.

Ms. Rosey - Caretaker/Maid - Sucker for sickly romance novels (Would love Shoujo manga if she ever got a hand on one.)

Polly - West family house-elf - Leveling up.

George West - Is very cool - Gives really awesome vibes.

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The link is in the synopsis!