Ch4. Wandlessly

Harry already lost count how many times he shrieked 'Lumos' with a finger pointing forward, expecting a light-show. He could perceive magic yet he could not manipulate it. He tried everything. Forcing, pleading, begging, coaxing, and even uselessly swishing his hands around, imitating wand movements. Nothing worked.

He would be depressed if he didn't know how hard wandless magic is supposed to be. Instead, he persisted. Every day for three hours, he tried to squeeze some kind of wandless magic out of himself. Unfortunately, his magic has never reacted.

But… that didn't matter now. Earlier he just experienced his first real accidental magic during his rage-filled fit. While his mind was certainly too preoccupied to pay attention to the finer details of his accidental telekinesis, he could still recall how his magic reacted to his emotions.

Harry understood it then. You do not force magic with your will to work according to your intent. Nay. If he wanted to cast spells wandlessly, he needed to gently guide magic with his will while sending her his desired result with his intent. Magic responds. It just doesn't like to be forced and is very fickle and extremely demanding.

During his outburst, he was angry. Not really murderous, so, his intent was forceful yet not damaging. His will merged with his anger, giving birth to the accidental magic. Because of the raging intent without any real intention to destroy, the magic was confused about what Harry wanted it to do, therefore it went for the obvious. In short, things floated.

Thankfully, Harry remembered the feeling and started to practice.

Oh, it was not easy to use it, alright. Willingly using wandless magic was like trying to push a car forward with bare hands. Magic is the car while the hands are the will or intent. It was very demanding but at least Harry now had a direction! This was, after all, the first step to being the first chantless and wandless wizard in the modern age! Now that he knew what to do to become such, he was not going to be satisfied with some wand magic! No, he was going to learn every bit of wand magic completely wandlessly!

…

After numerous tries at wandless magic, Harry was mentally exhausted.

He tried to move a piece of paper via telekinesis again and again. Needless to say, it was a very demanding task. His body, mind, and magic were not used to such a task and he had to put his entire being into molding his magic's ability to be used this way. And damn if it wasn't hard to focus his magic!

After a slight contemplation, Harry understood that wands really are a crutch for wizards. Worse yet, they are a debilitating crutch! Yes, they help wizards with focusing their magic, making spell-casting almost effortless. Heck, even an eleven years old child who never heard of magic, never studied any magic theory, and doesn't even know how to feel his magic can learn and actually cast a spell in a few hours of training! Wands are certainly one of the wonders of the magical world right next to the philosopher stone!

Yet, using a wand also conditions the user's mind, body, and worse yet, magic, into being dependent on them. No wonder wizards who learn to use magic via wands have a hell of a time trying to cast wandlessly! No wonder Dumbledore or Tom can wandlessly do at most some parlor tricks! No wonder the wizards of this world are so inept at real magic and the magical ability of modern wizards has degraded so much!

If we compare wizards of old, Merlin, founders, La Fay… hell, that's just wizards from Britain! They were legends! Made artifacts that are praised as the pinnacle of magic even after thousands of years, created the magic schooling system itself! Now that Harry thought about it… these legendary wizards were actually mostly self-taught or at most got some references from books! All of those wonders made by them were achieved via experiments. Trial and error. They had no fancy magical castle with almost useless teachers nor a library full of books from all over the world to help them learn magic. Yet, they became legends.

Oh, they used wands too. Or staves. Whatever was available. But their magic was stronger, better, … healthier! Albeit Harry's theory sounded half-crazy and his conclusion was unproven, he was willing to bet he was right. After all, his Otaku senses were tingling!

If someone proficient with wandless magic were to use a wand, his spells would gain immense strength, precision, and focus. In the end, the end result of a spell depends on the wizard and his ability. Not some focusing stick.

Harry didn't wait long for at least a partial confirmation of his theory. Harry knew he can't force his magic too much lest he wants to injure his magic and practicing wandless magic while having ninety-five percent of his magic blocked was as demanding as it was frustrating. For every two minutes of practice, he spent the next five minutes gasping for air, five more trying to calm his mind down, and five additional in meditation to regain his magic. It was thanks to these regular breaks he noticed a slight improvement every time he exerted his magic after them. Without his special perception of magic, he would no doubt miss it but he noticed. However small the improvement was, it was actually a lot more than his first meditation attempt. Hell, he would actually even say his magic felt denser and more lively! But that surely can't be possible. Nay. He must have been hallucinating because of his immense desire to find a cheat-code for power-up.

With renewed fervor, Harry leaped back to practicing his wandless magic on the piece of paper for hours to come.

…

Durselys arrived home in the evening, welcomed by their eerily quiet and dark house. The air was chilling and every time they breathed it created a milky foggy air, creating a scary atmosphere.

Dudley paid the weird feeling in the house no mind. He was happy and excited! Instead of two additional presents, he got five! All because that FREAK was not with them! He saw snakes, giraffes, elephants, and many other animals!

Best. Freakless. Birthday. Ever!

Yes, he was content. Now if only there was the freak at hand for a quick punch. Meh. He is too tired and will deal with him tomorrow.

As Dursleys entered the house Petunia's and Vernon's faces twisted in disdain and slight… fear?

They felt the shift in the air and trembled because of the eery atmosphere of their house. The second they stepped through the door, coldness gripped their hearts and they gulped. What madness made them leave the freak in their house alone for hours! What if he did some freaky ritual that summoned demons or ghosts! As they slowly crept through their hall…

"Yeeessssss!"

A loud exclamation of joy sounded through the house, making Vernon and Petunia shriek and fall on their asses, gasping for air. Vernon has almost gotten infarct! He stood up as his skin turned purple and steam started to rise from his head. His narrowed eyes glared at the cupboard where the freak was hiding. He charged his way through the hall and slammed the door of the cupboard open. His temper rose a magnitude higher when he saw freak's apparent joy. Today was his son's birthday! Freaks have no right to be happy today!

Vernon was on the verge of releasing his anger on the freak when he saw the reason for freak's happiness. His heart almost stopped as his purple complexion instantly turned gravely pale. His beady eyes widened and he staggered backward.

There. In the boy's hand! Slightly above his palm, a piece of paper floated.

When Harry saw Vernon's expression, there was only one thing going through his head.

"Shit." He exclaimed.

Hearing him, Vernon purpled up yet again as rage swelled in him. He opened his mouth and shouted.

"BOY!"