Chapter 85

Diagon Alley had not changed one bit since last year, when Ethan had visited it for the first time, and yet, Ethan had a completely different experience, both because of himself and others.

As they say, it is better to travel ten thousand miles than to read ten thousand books. Ethan's experience in a whole other country had given him a new perspective on things, and a new way to appreciate the beauty of Britain's Diagon Alley.

Compared to the Market of the Sun, it was not as grand, and although it surely was chaotic as well, it was a different kind of chaotic.

The Market of the Sun had vendors spread all over, but in the end, everything was based in one giant place. But for Diagon Alley, there were several levels to it, and the criss-crossed alleys made for a veritable maze.

It was kind of fascinating how it could be so sprawled over the place, without any apparent rhyme or reason, and yet still work. Practically every building was crooked, and looked like it would fall at any moment, but they were in fact supported by another chaotic element of the alley.

Ethan was sure that everything was also reinforced by magic, so that the whole alley would not crumble to the ground at the slightest disturbance, but still, it truly was unique.

The other aspect that had changed compared to the year prior though was the people. As always, Ethan was drawing in gazes, which he believed would probably be the case for the rest of his life.

But these gazes were no longer filled with pure fear or hatred. Instead, they were more complicated. Of course, people were not so influenced by news that they would make such a drastic change as to start venerating him as a hero, but it still did have an impact on them.

From what Ethan garnered, people did not really know how to feel about him anymore. A part of them remembered everything that had been said about him, and everything his grandfather had done. But another, more rational part of them, also were starting to realize that brandishing the reputation of a villain onto a child was not the smartest decision.

These conflicting emotions were all clearly felt by Ethan as he walked through the crowd, accompanied by his family. Summer was nearly over, and Ethan had made plenty of advancement on his Mind Magic, regaining his earlier control over it. Adding to that the sheer strength of his mind now, even if he did not try, Ethan could passively feel emotions from others, at least those who did not protect their minds.

And there were many wizards in this position. Mind Magic was not so common. It was a difficult skill to acquire, and while most children from important magical families did learn Occlumency to protect themselves, and also benefit from its effects on studies, that was only a small part of the population.

This meant that Ethan was approaching the level of Natural Mind Wizards, which was an achievement in and off itself. Natural Mind Wizards, also called Natural Occlumens/Legilimens, did not necessarily have the strongest minds and the best control over it. Most of them actually were quite mediocre in these aspects, as they over-relied on their speciality as naturals.

A natural was a wizard who had the inherent capacity to passively read people's minds, and protect themselves from others. It was a kind of special mutation that made their mind magic work differently from others, so one could not really say that they were a level to be reached.

Still, it was possible mimic the abilities of a Natural Mind Wizard through sheer mastery, and that was what Ethan was approaching.

Moreover, as a child, Ethan's mind was bound to continue growing, and that growth was exponential. From the way Ethan understood it, the natural growth of the mind was more a percentage thing than a strict value, meaning the stronger the mind, the stronger it would get.

Since Ethan did not intend on stopping his studies of mind magic, he was well on his way of becoming capable of mimicking naturals, if not even surpass them.

Moreover, he had just the right spell to put it to use, and that was the Third Eye of Destruction, the spell Bill had given him.

The name sounded ominous and dangerous, but it was actually just a reference to Shiva. Shiva, the Indian God of Destruction, was also known as the Three Eyed God. And so the spell was not called the Third Eye of Destruction because of its effects, but because of its inspiration.

At least, from what Ethan could tell. The instruction to the spell were clear, but also incomplete. Whatever source the notebook had been copied from, it was either incomplete, or the copy had not been thorough, as the parts on the effects of mastering the spell were missing.

Still, it did not matter, because no part about training it was missing. If he wanted to know all of its effects, all Ethan had to do was cultivate it to mastery. Then, who knows, maybe it would really become destructive.

For now though, Ethan was still mastering the basic form of it, though at a great speed. What Bill had said about the importance of one's talent in training this technique was true. Bill had been training in the technique for more than a year, and yet Ethan had managed to surpass him in only a couple of months.

To activate it, Bill had to perform an incantation, and needed a long preparation. Ethan, on the other hand, was already capable of activating it within a second. He also does not have to place his wand on his glabella, but that had more to do with him mastering wandless magic.

But that was understandable. Bill was not particularly talented in the mind arts, and as far as Ethan knew, he also had no special talent for Divination Magic.

Ethan, on the other hand, had what was undoubtedly one of the strongest minds in the world at the moment, and also possessed the power of a seer.

Although that last talent was newly found, seers were very rare, and while Ethan did not control it in the slightest, the talent was there, waiting to be unearthed.

Unfortunately, Divination classes only started from the third year on as an elective. He did have Astrology, but their first year had been nothing but learning the constellations in the sky and their significance.

In any case, Ethan had been making great leaps in his learning of the Third Eye of Destruction, and it was also not as taxing as he originally believed. It only took a small amount of magic to actually activate. It was the mind energy that could be quite taxing, but Ethan had more than enough of it to spare.

But that was enough for Ethan's accomplishments. A few days had passed since his 12th birthday, meaning he had also received his list for school supplies, hence his presence here.

The list had confirmed to Ethan that this second year at Hogwarts would at least somewhat follow the canonical world, as half of the books on the list were Gilderoy Lockhart's adventure books.

If he was to be their teacher, then Ethan assumed the whole plot of the Chamber of Secrets would also take place.

In any case, Ethan was here for his supplies, not to be looked at.

The original plan had been to come with his friends, but it ended up not happening.

First was Tracey. Apparently, the conversation between Ethan's parents and her own had not gone so smoothly, and they still fully blamed them for what had happened, for putting their daughter in such grave danger.

Both Ethan and Tracey thought that was bullshit, that they could not have possibly known what would happen and that they had taken all the precautions they could have possibly taken for them to get this awesome vacation.

Still, her parents had vehemently refused the idea of her meeting with the Grindelwald family. They even wanted her to stop sending him letters, which she had to do in secret now.

Then there was also Theodore, who apparently got his books from somewhere else. He said that his father directly got his supplies sent to their house early on, slightly before the letters were sent to students.

Having connections with the school council had its uses.

Then, from there, Daphne and Tracey had decided to go together, leaving Ethan on his own. Not that it bothered him, they had discussed about it first, they had not just pulled a fast one on him, but that was how he found himself alone with his parents.