A Tale of Mastery

The Scottish Highlands, The Wizarding World

January 23rd​, 1972

Within the wild remote wilderness of the Scottish Highlands, a tent was set, and by this tent a camp was marked. The bare nature of the hilly highlands, baren of many trees; for the hills of verdant green extended out seemingly endlessly. It was here that Ebon found himself isolated once again, although he enjoyed this period of stay; for he was a patient man when it came to his wants and desires.

No campfire or food entered his mouth since he'd established his stay within these wild and remote lands; baren of human interaction, far from roads or civilization. He was deep within the highlands, and it was here that he practiced the mortal skill of his magic, and the powerful unnatural wordings of his Eldritch heritage and knowledge.

The latter of which received few and little attention beyond familiarization. Ebon was confident in his grasp over the language, and viewed it both as a subtle scalpel, and a brutish hammer; it functioned in all respects and was truly as versatile as the magicks he now learned. However, the reason for his avoidance of such magic, at least within the public eye outside of the queer old man who worked the Wand Shop, were optics. It wouldn't do for him to be using such a different and noticeably powerful form of unknown magics. To better fit into society, he needed to make efforts to conform.

His understanding of Wizarding Society, or the Wizarding World, as it was called, grew by the day as he devoured books, subscribed to new articles, and formed his own perceptions and opinions on the world he now resided within. Its separation from the mundane was interesting, and he found himself dallying with the thoughts of having a foot in both worlds; although stable identification within 'muggle' Britian would need to be obtained before he could step into that world.

The small populations and old ways of Magical Society removed the need for him to prove citizenship, save a deed of land purchased on the islands; one that didn't even need to be approved by the mundane world. Instead, he simply entered the Ministry, and waited through a line, bribed a few people, and purchased this here plot of land for a paltry sum. It was written off as his land, and was cited to be a magical reserve, with Ebon needing to fulfill a wide range of requirements to establish the land as his own; including wards that protected it from observation by Muggles, paying fees to have the Ministry handle the Muggle side of the paperwork and legal documentations, along with an up-to-standard housing situation. He'd be receiving a Ministry official to inspect his home in two years after filing. With money, everything moved faster, and his shadow supplied him with a lot of money.

He'd tinkered and tottered at the idea of escaping out to America, his homeland calling to him, but he found that Britian -by and large- seemed to be a focal point of magical culture and was of a prestigious nation within the international community. By comparison, the Americas were largely rooted in Native American traditions, which didn't have the same varied histories of brutal conflict that allowed the Old World's magics to grow.

From the times of Rome did Wand Magic grow into the popularity that now infected all of Europe, with many perceptions in the culture believing that Wand Magic was all the energy was capable of. Even with the schools within Africa, Japan, and China proving differently, what with their own castings and practices of magic being more traditional to their muggle folklore and occult history.

Many of these nations, however, were either in a state of regression or desperate growth. Like that of the Native Americans, Africa was a raped continent, and was brutal by nature. China too was a raped nation, brutalized and beaten; its long legacy broken under the avarice of the Japanese, British, and opportunistic Koreans. The Opium Wars didn't just involve muggle authorities but was also a protest by the British Government to have a handle on the nation's magical reserves and resources; it wanted the potion ingredients, and it would get them by any means necessary. The same happened with India; the aggressive and powerful European nations saber rattling over which nations of the world they'd claim and conquer, with their magical counterparts riding the coattails of muggle imperialism. The First Great War wasn't spoken of much, as globally, the European powers were the aggressors that fell into infighting over who would dominate colonial goods and colonies.

Russia too once held great magical history, but with Rasputin's actions with the muggle royal family and his near breaking of the Statue that these peoples so held to; war and the revolution into communism had broken their people's pride. It left the nation crawling to reach back to their former greatness, and with the limited population sizes of magical peoples within all nations, such was difficult after the Gulags of Stalin's regime and the KGB's magical-half's antics in butchering dissidents to their power.

Europe seemed to be in a state of semi-stagnation, a rolling tide of cultural stagnation with Dark Lords being struck down by societies and institutions of arguable ineffectiveness. Magic did not seem to be advanced beyond more broad schools of wand-magic being explored and advanced in depth and complexities; but it left more ancient schools of magic like Ritualism, 'Dark' Magic, and Alchemy to flounder in obscurities left only to apprentices of masters, blood-bound teachings, and secretive orders of knowledge passed down by strict requirements of worthiness. Whether that be by blood, power, or feat; pedigree within all forms of magical society was noted as important. Some placed greater importance on such things, with Russia welcoming all its magical population, as did America. Japan, meanwhile, echoed back to its past; imperial royalties, dynamos, shoguns, and clans of great importance riddled the Japanese ecosystem, with new blood being true second-class citizens.

Europe held great similarities with France, Britian, and Germany each holding their own conceptions of pureblood dogma, believing in inherent superiority over the Muggleborns of the world.

America, as practically a new-born nation, held opposing views publicly; but was inherently 'ruled' by those of importance. They were filled with the rich old-wealth peoples of various European powers, exiled or disfavored by their motherlands. The Magical Congress was a mess that Ebon didn't want to even touch with a hundred-foot stick; reeking of corruption and power-plays that tried to manipulate the masses.

Britian was a nation embroiled in a period of recovery; legendary for the actions of Geralt Grindelwald and Albus Dumbledore, two great wizards who effectively dictated the second Great War. The defeated Germany was under great scrutiny, few wanting another Treaty of Versailles, and the Communist state of Russia were the new monsters in the background as they rushed to create atomic weaponry. The Cold War between the Americans and the Soviet Union saber-rattling the frightening power of nuclear weapons were largely a muggle worry; as the scale of such weapons were believed to be overly exaggerated, and capable of being withstood by powerful enough wards.

With the soaring phoenix that was Albus Dumbledore, Britian seemed to be shifting. His seemingly progressive politics encouraged the unity between the historically disenfranchised and discriminated Muggleborns, along with weakened laws regarding those with magical creature blood, rose tensions in houses that opposed those things. Furthermore, the man seemed to champion the exclusion of Dark Magic, espousing a political belief that shouted the sanctity of life from the rooftops. Which was understandable, as every life taken, or rather, a magical life taken, was a tremendous alteration to their population.

Within magical Britian, across England and Ireland, there were a total census of roughly 18,000 Wizards. Such a paltry population was repeated across all nations that held magical populations; regulating this off-shoot species of humanity to be overshadowed by the growing billions of humans that muggles were starting to produce. Their regressive societies, while propelled by Dumbledore's policies, were inherently held back by ancient traditions and old histories; change was not something people enjoyed, let alone a population that tended to live for two centuries.

Although, such a lifespan seemed to be a legend from the past. Wizards and Witches tended to live such ages, but only outside such horrific circumstances such as the last two Great Wars that even in the post-war baby-boom, only barely recovered and stabilized the population of the isles. Menopause still occurred at the ages of forty and fifty years of age, squibs limited magical populations, and the 'marriage arrangements' between powerful houses meant that while bloodlines continued; many families only produced enough spawn to 'fulfill their duties', which meant a son to continue the family name. And if not that, then arrangements for a daughter to birth a male son that would obtain her maiden name and continue the family that way.

Elderly individuals that should be considering retirement, instead rose up to fight in war. Paired with a horrible outbreak in several magical diseases, such as the Dragon's Pox, which directly coincided with the Spanish Flu that by itself claimed more lives than the first World War ten million lives over; populations were kept in check.

The Magical World needed to become more progressive if it was to survive the coming century, as without increased birthrates, cultural progressiveness to at least catch up to the muggles; then when they were found by the Muggles, they could at least attempt to integrate. Even if Ebon doubted such an integration would be successful.

His studies within the realm of global politics were interesting, and largely done during 0000 and 0400. Without needing sleep, Ebon found it easier to go by Military time, as 0400 was the sixth hour of the day, whereas 1900 was the nineteenth hour of the day. He'd even found it possible to convert the Tempus spell between AM and PM and military time. He'd formed a rigorous schedule designed to help him study the magic of this world, which he'd found to be going at a stellar rate.

Whatever had been done to expand his mind seemed to have increased his rate of retention and learning. Even physically, he found himself learning at a great speed, as he had a section of time split off for physical activities, which he found most enjoyable engaging in sparing against animated constructs or summoned prisoners from the Trapezohedron. He'd tested his physical abilities and found them beyond mortal capabilities; he was stronger than the strongest strong man, he was faster and more enduring than the greatest sprinters and runners. He was more agile, reactive, and accurate than any sportsman, which when translated to facing the horrors of his shadows, meant he performed adequately.

When engaging these creatures, he tended to summon forth Librarians. These creatures were hordes of mortal knowledge and prided themselves in their attainment of forbidden studies; but they were also more than capable of being shaped and bent into a humanoid form to act as masterful martial teachers. They had him learning from scriptures and manuals of defense and offense for various weapons or had him practice for hours on end to memorize a specific form, kata, or strike to their qualifications. Bound to his will and ordered to act as truthfully and forthright as possible when teaching him, these alien creatures professed their disbelief for how quickly he was attaining quality experience and skill in ordering his new body. For in the scant eleven months he'd regulated himself into isolation, he had blitzed past any metric of progress a mortal entity should show.

His reason for devoting two hours a day to mastering his physical body was just that. He'd noted he was unnaturally strong, powerful, agile, and so on; and a lacking mastery of the physical self would possibly lead to unexplainable happenstance. By learning control and discipline, by mastering his unnatural physical self, and exploring his new body, would he gain the experience required to temper it, not for greater strength, but for control. His physical training, however, was but a small slice of his education; and moving to his magical education lent far more substance.

Wand Magic was fascinating in its sheer versatility, and he'd found himself using the 'Apparition' spell -soon obtaining the required license to legally use the spell- to teleport himself to Diagon Alley, and several other smaller or less famous shopping centers around Britian to obtain knowledge of its teachings. More specifically, he found that Arithmancy was a form of math that he quickly devoured. As a man who at best, disliked mathematics prior to his transformation, his new mind devoured the language of physics like a starved beast. Applying subjective facts and associations in the realm of symbology to various numbers then created a loose structure that bound each wand-stroke, each intonation and utterance of word, and the understanding of intent and visualization of magic to the system of Wand Magic.

It was fascinating that the rote and mindless practice of a specific magical spell would lead to a shallow, but practical, application of that spell. But, by understanding its arithmancy, to understand the feel and pulse of the magic as it was deployed and exploded unto the world; redefining it, one could shape and alter the magic in a very intuitive way. Not to mention that Arithmancy was how Wand Magic was created in the first place, with Ebon deigning to create a few spells himself.

Muto and Fragalum were the standard 'general transfiguration charms' and were within the first-year curriculum. They would later be studied by higher class students of Hogwarts into the nature and innerworkings of transfiguration, held two paths of study; generalized charms that allowed a versatile, but limited in scope and depth reworking of matter, or specifically organized and detailed arithmancy and charm-work that allowed one to alter a specific item into an even more specific item. Then there were higher levels of casting that worked by meshing two separate transfiguration spells into one cast, like Muto Fragalum, which worked as a high-volume, but low detail, transfiguration spell.

In his rough five-months of dogged experimentation, that Ebon would admit to just being him reveling in his separation from human needs and a maddened endurance challenge of creative drive and self-improvement, did he create for himself several standardized and more refined transfiguration charms of his own design. Each one worked and functioned a little differently, some worked better for large volumes -excellent when transfiguring gaseous substances- and others were more nuanced on detailed work like inscription, embroidery, or carving. Then there were even more fine-scope spells that functioned on a mole level, measuring out specific molar weights, then combining specific elements and forcing unnatural bonds through the manipulation of valence electrons; the smashing protons into atoms to creature new isotopes that were inherently unstable. He expanded these studies into an experiment involving biochemistry, leaving for the mundane world to try and well-up books about the topic, finding little of worth, and instead deigned to interrogate his Librarians about the knowledge and education of highly advanced physics, chemistry, and biochemistry majors.

Everything they taught him stuck, and he effectively earned PhDs within months. With magic everything that was taught could be immediately applied in practical experimentation. He made massive breakthroughs in material sciences, created outright mystical substances that forced him to page through magical society's knowledge of magical metals like goblin silver, orichalcum, adamantium, Mythril, and others of such note. Orichalcum was the only metal he could get his hands on, the goblins accepting of his gold, but unwilling to sell their culturally important metals; leaving him to deal with Greek metal markets where they produced Orichalcum.

His experiments with highly advanced Transfiguration, a magical practice that was by its nature temporary, led him to the more permanent older brother of the school, Alchemy. How he was using Transfiguration in his experimentation was truthfully little different than micro-telekinesis and the forcing of unnatural atomic anatomies to produce truly odd materials with baffling properties. The materials he produced were by their very nature radioactive isotopes, with uneven protons, odd polarities, and all number of strange properties that would baffle scientists at large.

Alchemy was distantly linked to the even more primordial ritualism, and he'd gotten sucked down a rabbit hole of wanting to produce his own 'magical material'. Mythril, a legendary material rumored to have been used in the construction of Excalibur, was an alchemical product like how Orichalcum was. Orichalcum, something that through his base-magics and not his Eldritch shenanigans, he could reproduce after analyzing the material make-up through custom magics inspired by very advanced machines designed for chemical and material analysis. Orichalcum was an alchemically produced metal, a fusion of alloys and magical reagents and resources, that was ultimately 'the greatest magical conductor', if one excluded Mythril from the list. It used various highly conductive materials, like copper and silver, and magically overcharged those properties into something resembling a super-conductor that functioned at room-temperature. Of course, the techno-barbarians that were magical society didn't know how huge that was for the yet developed field of computer science, and instead just oo'd and aw'd at its ability to 'conduct magic well' within various artifacts that were made from it.

Alchemy helped his studies by adding an element of permanence. Transfiguration held rules that shied away from Alchemy's strengths in permanence, but what one could do with Transfiguration was by far more versatile; just not lasting when faced with physical or chemical change. While there were methods of hardening a transfiguration to those things, otherwise combat-animations would be utterly useless, generally Transfiguration's greatest enemy was Time. Alchemy side-stepped this by leaning on the rules of Equivalent Exchange, and with additional knowledge of ritualism, one could use Alchemy to permanently alter an object magically and physically. Alchemy and Ritualism worked wonderfully, as Rituals tended to work on the rules of Sacrifice. Something must be lost, for something to be gained; but while Magic tended to spit in the face of physics, the law of energy conservation itself was something too powerful for all rituals to break in enforcing that 'belief'.

When looked at through that lens, Rituals tended to become less intimidating, and more just requiring attentive attention to detail, for on the micro-state, Ebon was altering atomic bonds and creating a new form of matter in a mass of several kilograms. Stuff like this, on a mundane scale, tended to require particle accelerators, and caused fission and fusion reactions. Thus, being careful with rituals that altered the very fabric of reality and added on additional properties to matter that basically told reality to 'make metal good, strong, and conductive' needed to be handled with care.

'Which wasn't even getting into biological ritualism, or spiritual ritualism; for much like the science of biology and biochemistry, that was a whole 'nother can of worms.'

For as related the fields of science were, so too did Ebon find that the schools of Magic to be of similar stretches of similarity. He did find it ironic that despite the subjective applications of symbology on numbers, both seemingly diametrically opposed and dichotomous fields of study -magic and science- seemed to both work off math.

Beyond Transfiguration, his schedule was full to the total twenty-four hours allotted within a day. Four hours for Geopolitics, History, and Social Studies. Two hours for physical practices, sparing, martial arts practice, and weapons mastery. He also used that period of time to practice what the Wizards called 'Dueling'. After that, at 0600, he started to practice his Eldritch Knowledge, while also popping into the Trapezohedron for a few internal hours to manage the prison. Then at ten, he started to practice Transfiguration and Alchemy, which he did for four hours, before transitioning over to Charms, Jinxes, Hexes, and Curses. That lasted four hours, before he rotated to Divination, which he spent two-hours scrying various places all over the world and practiced with his Patron in his innate abilities to manipulate probability, divine the skeins of fate, and all that good stuff.

He'd learned that this world was chock full of prophesies, but the problem with being an Outsider, was that he didn't exactly feel any urgency or impetuous in reporting his findings. He easily divined when various volcanoes would happen, and when various natural disasters would occur, and even found local prophesies dictating stuff about Dark Lords and such crock. He still worked on his Divination lessons, but he'd be honest and say he largely just used it to look at naked women around the world.

Then there was Runes and Language Studies. To which he had good news! He was now fluent in Latin, French, German, Russian, Japanese, and Mandarin! He also knew three separate runic languages, including Elder Futhark, Hieroglyphics, and Classical Chʼolti, or the Mayan written language.

However, while his time learning such languages would help him in interacting with people, he largely didn't use or practice creating runes with those languages; and instead just used Eldritch symbols, characters, and languages. All very powerful and spooky, of course. He had seven blackened obelisks whispering profound messages, each acting as a pylon that were spread in a star around his properties, acting as his land stones -marking his land's boundaries- while also providing him extremely powerful wards.

At the center of his camp were thirty-seven head-sized black stones, carved with unthinkable runes, organized at specific areas; dug into the ground to act as further stabilizing influences for his Wards, along with power-sources and batteries. Then there was the spatial fold where he kept his Admin Wardstone, a horrifically complicated Wardstone that functioned as a sentient -but not sapient- entity that watched his land and organized it to his desires.

The land felt comfortable to one such as his nature, but he imagined others wouldn't enjoy the feeling of uneasiness, which he just blamed on 'aggressive anti-muggle wards'.

Lastly, were potions, which he only did for two hours a day, and were a field of study that he quickly grew towards ignoring. Not out of a lack of talent, but merely a lack of supplies. Getting into the 'groove' as it were, meant that he performed his schedule as many times as possible without interruption. To properly study potions, Ebon spent the majority of his allotted time at markets, trying deal with annoying merchants and reagent hunters who tried haggling and scamming any amount of gold from his infinite shadow. Just tossing ludicrous amounts of gold around would get him robbed, so he at least had to put on the fiction that he had a real end to his pockets.

Even then, his potions craft had expanded to a moderate level of proficiency, but sadly it was a school of magic that was learned over the course of years; the most powerful and insane of potions needing to be brewed for several months and managed intently by a master of their craft over that period. It just wasn't possible for him to cram that amount of practical skill into two-hours of study a day, while also needing to procure his own reagents, supplies, regulating him to quick-brews and not the masterful representations of the crafts.

This meant that he'd taken a side-step of the practice, tentatively ignoring the practice, in favor of its theory.

His studies had gone gloriously, in his own opinion, all leading up towards an auspicious day.

Today was that auspicious day.

Not because the 'stars aligned' or some other such crock, but because he finally felt like he was capable of preforming within Wizarding Magic to a suitable level! He could now, with full confidence, claim himself to be a Wizard.

The thought filled him with joy!

Of course, then came his reason for Apparating to the Ministry. Tests.

"Hello." Ebon stated blandly, as dull and bored as the man who slowly looked up from his receptacle behind the welcome desk within the ostentatious Ministry lobby. Honestly, that statue was just gaudy.

"Reason for your visit?" The man questioned dully.

"Masters verification with Madam Marchbanks." He reported blandly.

"Appointment name?"

"Ebon Chaoskampf." The man raised an eyebrow at his name, Ebon deciding to give himself a last name out of necessity, and grunted affirmation.

"Head down Hall Seven, find room 722. First, I need your wand for verification of test authenticity."

Ebon nodded and drew out his wand from his sleeve's shadow. The man grimaced at the gruesome length of bone, obvious in its texture not being that of wood. His wand also eerily pulsated when in one's hand, while being warm to the touch, and if they listened closely; they'd hear whispers within a maddened tongue. The man didn't seem to want to touch his wand for any longer than he could, and quickly cast a few detection spells, before shoving it back into his hands.

He then gave him a medallion pass and sent him on his way.

Ebon navigated through the halls of the building and found his room number.

Entering, he was greeted to large barren room, a single chair sat against a wall. He waited patiently, and in thirty minutes time, an old woman of a grouchy stature grumbled her way into the room. Her eyes glared at him, and she hummed.

"Ebon Chaoskampf, I presume?" She questioned.

Ebon stood and smiled, bowing slightly in courtesy, "Indeed, madam."

She frowned further, "How a man without a single academic record to his name successfully applied to be tested for Masteries, I'll never know." The hidden words were that she didn't want to know. Ebon just smiled; glad his handsome bribes were paying off.

"Now then, lets see." She muttered, pulling out a paper and sighing. "You'll be testing in mastery for Alchemy, Transfiguration, Defense of The Dark Arts, Charms, and Divination." She glared at him, Ebon just smiling on. "If you, in some unthinkable fashion, pass these examinations, which I'll also remind you will take place over a duration of a week to complete all of them, you will have made history. Frankly, I think you're a fool and an idiot who thinks himself too highly, likely comparing himself with Merlin or Dumbledore; or perhaps someone of a darker reputation." She sneered, "Regardless, the examination begins now. We'll be starting with Divination, as that one takes the longest."

And so, they went. Madam Marchbanks was the Head of the Ministry of Education, and it was by her authority that the Ministry could give out the title of Mastery, which was a prestigious allocation that had great weight anywhere within the world -of course neglecting the mundane world- and was something people worked their entire lives to obtain. At a publicly stated twenty-one years of age, with his time organizing his Prison Realm having him mentally around the age of twenty-seven years, he'd be the youngest recipient of a dual Mastery, with Albus Dumbledore obtaining his own at the young age of Eighteen while he was still within Hogwarts, and Geralt Grindelwald obtaining one at age Nineteen in an attempt to one-up his rival. Neither of the two legendary wizards, however, ever obtained their second mastery until their later years: Albus Dumbledore obtaining his Alchemy, Potioneering, and Charms masteries after his studies with the famous Nicholas Flamel in his late thirties.

The first test that Ebon was brought to be the Divination Test, with him being required to make an accurate prophecy that would come true, or close to true, within a week's time; the more accurate it was, the higher the score. Then after making the prophecy, one would then need to preform various feats of macro-divination, like scrying various locations at certain speeds, scrying specific coordinates on loose information, and reading history based on bones or an object belonging to someone.

For the prophecy, Ebon sat down before Madam Marchbanks within the Divination Testing Room, orbs and pools of water held within bowls spread around; and gave his prophecy.

He leaned back in his plush chair, furrowed his brows, his eyes bleeding an abyssal green. They didn't glow, and at first glace one would think they turned black. The Madam recoiled from the sight, her lips thinning at the eerie eyes that peered at things better left unseen.

"On a Bloody Sunday, within Derry Ireland, a protest will be held. There, twenty-six unarmed civilians will be fired upon by British military personnel, killing thirteen men outright." No cryptic messages were spoken, and instead he just blankly stated what he'd seen. His eyes, still that blackened green, narrowed in mild mannered amusement, "Some are killed helping the wounded, struck down by shrapnel, others are beaten by batons, or injured by rubber bullets. Two were run down by vehicles. They're all Catholics, protesting…ah, something about internment without trail. Don't rightly know the exact case, but they're quite mad about it. The case will be whitewashed, with the soldiers lying about information, painting unarmed civilians as gunmen carrying fire-bombs. Further investigation, twelve years later, will confirm the actual happenings. The event itself happened on January 30th​, 16:10 UTC. A total of fourteen deaths, thirteen immediately, one four months later. The perpetrators would be the British Army, members of the 1st​ Battalion Parachute Regiment." Ebon sniffed, blinked, and his natural eye color of a prismatic purple came back.

Visibly disturbed, but a veneer of professionalism put forth, the Madam gestured towards the various scrying tools. Standing, he let the woman rattle off various locations for him to manifest an illusion of. With flicks of his wand or taps of a finger upon a still surface of water, he conjured forth illusory mists of these locations; complete with moving crowds, high fidelity of the image, and swapped through locations at a blistering pace; not even pausing for a moment in needing to find a specific location, even when given limited information such as merely a set of coordinates.

They were done rather quickly, and quickly moved on to the Charms section.

It was here that he displayed the casting of highly complex and advanced charm work; animating an orchestra of instruments, playing several different songs using them -although the harmony of the music itself pulled no points from a caster's score- then there was an enchantment test, a permanent application of charm work by weaving and embedding a charm into an object.

In this case he was presented with the option to either select any offered item or create one through alchemy himself. He chose the latter and turning an offered chunk of marble into a gleaming blade, he enchanted the weapon to completion, earning himself full marks.

Lastly, there was the Charm Regiment, an exhaustive task where Madam Marchbanks called out the required learnt list of NEWTs Level Spells -a standardized and publicly available list required for the test- with Ebon expected to cast each called out spell to the best of his ability, as quickly as possible, while also accurately striking animated objects floating in the air.

Blasts of fire, lashes of water, charms that floated, moved, pushed, banished, vanished, or physically altered. He cut through stone blocks, turned the opaque transparent, charmed a block of stone to be as light as a feather, and on the test went. Without stopping the woman barked out spell names, with Ebon silently casting them with minimal flicks of his wand, controlling his magic internally the likes of which only a true master of magic familiar with such magic could ever profess.

As the last spell left his wand, a stunner followed by a gout of overpowered flame-generating spell; causing white and blue flames to turn a bag of floating sand into glass, the Madam declared the test over.

"We'll be doing Defense Against the Dark Arts next. Follow." She demanded, her voice lighter and more impressed than the grouchy disdain she previously regarded him with.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was a very boring test. Instead of blasting out magic, it tested a wide range of knowledge and experience in dealing with cursed objects, specific curses and their counter-curses, along with Dark Creatures, along with a heaping of theory. He'd have to preform similar exams to test his academic and theoretical knowledge of all his other Masteries, but there wasn't exactly a practical of Defense Against the Dark Arts, if one excluded staring at various objects and breaking their curses as a practical.

He blitzed through the test, not even needing to cheat by asking his Librarians who he allowed to possess a few Ministry goons with access or knowledge of the answers. He wasn't going to fail just because he didn't know some obscure and very esoteric curse. The counter argument to that stance was that every curse was technically esoteric, although there were common ones.

Submitting his test, he was then guided to a room filled with cursed objects, and it took him all a few seconds to divine how to break the magic binding the 'curse' to the objects. His Eldritch Insight that allowed him to visually sense these things making it child's play to spot weak points within the matrix or weave of a Curse, not to mention spotting out the 'hidden' curses that were placed there to 'trick' an unobservant or unthorough individual.

With two dozen formerly cursed objects out on display for Madam Marchbanks to peruse, she shook her head and ordered him to follow once more.

Transfiguration, a school he most enjoyed, and one that was conceptually simple, but practically difficult.

"Frog." She ordered, and within a room of random junk, nicknacks, and assorted objects of the miscellaneous category, did Ebon need to transfigure whatever object, animal, and or item she so desired. She read out from a page, reading at a rate that would utterly overwhelm anyone but a master.

"Cat to bird, bird to lizard, lizard to button, button to thimble, thimble to haybale, iron ingot, dagger, sword, sword to dagger, dagger to pig, pig to stone, stone to knight, make the knight out of metal, now to stone, animate, order to play a violin." With a wrist like an oiled ball-socket did his wand snap and move like it was guided by an aim-bot. With unerring ease did Ebon transfigured each object to the exact parameters, and as the madam took a deep breath to regain her voice; she grunted and walked out without a word.

He followed her into the Alchemy test room. A room filled with various stones, metals, gemstones, and elements; a piece of chalk placed in the center of the room.

"Transmutate an item of value, and then apply a permanent effect." She demanded.

And so, he delivered. Gathering a smattering of materials, zinc, copper, tin, silver, some ruby, a dashing of carbon, and a bit of iron; he accumulated the materials and with a flick of his wand he animated the piece of chalk to dash out the lines of the formulaic alchemical transmutation circle to create Orichalcum.

The materials were animated to fly into their places within the circle, and an errant wave of the wand activated the circle. The materials melted and streamed along the chalk, isolated from the atmosphere by magical means, these materials stripped themselves of all impurities and imperfections, before alloying into a specific ratio; the extra materials fell out into the by-product section of the circle, and in the center of the circle remained a kilogram of orichalcum.

Snapping his wand towards the Orichalcum, he transfigured the item, or rather shaped it with magic, to transform itself into a resplendent circlet. Gemstones were purified and shaped as he snapped his wand towards them, and then fused onto the circlet; forming a bronze-looking crown that was soon decorated with Elder Futhark runes. The runes blared a gleaming light, and the Circlet of Mental Protection was created.

Without a word he levitated it into his hands, and then presented it to Madam Marchbanks who was staring at the item with a truly gobsmacked expression.

"The Greeks have protected the means of producing Orichalcum for centuries." She whispered.

Ebon smiled and with an errant wave of his hand the circle he'd used to transmute it, vanished. "I wandlessly warded the room from scrying sight. Have fun being interrogated in the pensives. The circle itself is made in an encrypted design of subjective patterns corresponding with alchemical principles." He smiled at her expression of horror, and she glared at him with ire.

Then she sighed, "Well played." She muttered.

"Tempus." Ebon uttered, "We still have an allotted period of seven hours. I believe I can get through most all of my tests in that time. Shall we?"

Marchbanks seethed.