The professor from Beauxbatons did not manage to inquire anything, so he looked a little disappointed. In fact, Felix also heard some hints about an alliance, and he who is both a Professor of Hogwarts and School Board Member of Beauxbatons should be the most suitable person to become a bridge between them.
But at the moment, even the competition event is not clear, so now you can’t rush to draw help, so the total alliance topic can only be considered as overthinking.
And neither does he intend to get involved in it.
If he had to choose one side between the two schools, there is no doubt that it would be Hogwarts. Just like if you ask the same question to Nicolas Flamel, his answer certainly would be Beauxbatons.
For the next few days, Felix stayed in Beauxbatons’ library, leafing through interesting material to fill his knowledge base.
His biggest gain there would not be a specific magic, but a new, fresh perspective on knowledge.
Felix first noticed the anomaly in the alumni gift section of the library: Both Hogwarts and Beauxbatons would buy new books to stock the library every year, and in addition to that, they would also accept gifts from alumni, in the form of rare ancient books as well as academic results from well-known alumni.
For an example, Professor McGonagall’s Transfiguration Insights, Flitwick’s Charms Research, Snape’s Potions formula, if there is no designated successor, they will all end up in Hogwarts.
And Felix discovered that in terms of understanding of the same magic, there were slight deviations between the Beauxbatons’ collection and what he perceived, not personal bias, but an overall variation.
This type of perception cannot be described in words, but nevertheless, it is present in a true sense. It is like two compasses, one shifted 0.01 degrees to the left and one to the right.
In the middle, separated by Beauxbatons and Hogwarts.
…
In the middle of the night, the sky looked like a black velvet cloth, with the full moon passing just a few days ago.
In a makeshift office, Felix spread out a piece of parchment and tried to record the sudden inspiration that came to him –
‘It’s like putting a thin veil over your eyes, and over time, you naturally lose sight of it; it doesn’t affect your vision, but it’s still there.
If you use colour to represent the difference, Hogwarts is transparent silver-white, and Beauxbatons is navy blue – it’s not about which colour it is, but everything you see will be tainted with that colour.’
“Perhaps it’s a difference in perception of magic brought by subtle differences between cultures which do not influence spellcasting, yet …” he paused to ponder.
Felix couldn’t help but reflect on whether he is being too sensitive, but he quickly found a way to verify it.
The next day, he borrowed a pile of huge, thick books from the Beauxbatons Library.
Then, he used the Occlumency to temporarily block his knowledge of the Shield Charm, including the Humanoid Shield Charm, the Protego horribilis as well as other types of derivations of that Charm, and even the knowledge related to that Charm was also sealed. Then he picked up a thick book, as he leafed through the introduction of the Shield Charm, and started to learn it from the beginning.
This process is really awkward, whenever the old magic knowledge appears, he will immediately shield that memory, then he will consider himself as a blank piece of parchment, a little wizard who knows nothing.
What he wanted to do was, in fact, was to temporarily put aside his past knowledge about magic, and his experience related to it. Then he would start again from the most basic foundation, and learn the shield charm all over again, by excluding the previous traces and perspectives as much as possible.
He didn’t know if this would be of any use to him, but his intuition told him that it would be a good way to experience the magic.
He actually tried the simplest ‘Lumos’ spell as a starter, but unfortunately, it became so instinctive that he could still use it even after shielding his knowledge about that magic, as he couldn’t able to block his instincts.
After weighing his options, he selected the Shield Charm. As one of the sixth-level magic that he mastered, it also had extremely strong potential, unlike some simple spells that had the same effect even after further practice.
It took less than an hour for him to re-master the spell, and a thin layer of magic barrier appeared in front of him.
Felix couldn’t help but groan to himself, “I’ve never cast such a weak shield charm before, it can be broken with a snap of the fingers.” But this is actually the same level as the first shield charm he successfully cast when he was yet to enrol in school.
Only that memory was a bit too distant.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve had this exhilarating feeling, so I hope it will bring me a pleasant surprise. What follows will be the process of constant familiarization with magic. In addition to extensive practice, there is also the analysing of the Magic Spell.” Felix became familiar with the process and looked at the pile of books in front of him, all of which related to the shield charm.
He opened one of the books, read the contents carefully, understood, and then adjusted his movements according to what it said, then paused in the middle of it to continue reading the book, after reading it, he continued to practice, and the cycle continued.
His understanding of the shield charm progressed at an alarming rate, and the power of the charm continued to strengthen, quickly reaching level two, three, until the level of four when he gradually perceived the difference.
The new version of the shield charm grew darker and darker, no longer colorless and transparent, but has a rusty, dark red, and iron-gray intertwined colour with seemingly burned edges and a brass metallic sheen at the highlighted joints.
“What’s going on here?” Felix felt a little blinded for the first time.
That’s right, he was practicing from Beauxbatons’ collection, and everyone who can leave their insights in the library can’t be that bad, at least not in a straightforward statement, giving wrong solutions.
He had a little guess in his mind, in fact, after each person learns magic, the characteristics of the external manifestation of the spell will be different, but these kinds of detailed problems … actually no one cares about it, all chalked up as a normal phenomenon.
Even if the same person casts the same magic, it is impossible to be the same every time. In the opinion of most wizards, this is not a problem at all, and if you insist on breaking the crucible and asking questions to the end, others will think that you have taken the bull by the horns.
Spell casting distance, spell power, travelling speed, etc., all vary from person to person. These are common knowledge in the wizarding community, and no one will think twice about it.
Felix expected there would be some differences, he just didn’t think that with the same starting point, the differences would be so big when he reached the end –
The shield charm he learned from Hogwarts, at the level of six, is a golden half-armour that is outlined in the air, of course, can also be a shield; but the shield charm he learned from Beauxbatons, at about level four, it looked like a rusty piece of worn iron armour.
“I seem to have found something remarkable.” Felix’s eyes became bright, and he decided to temporarily keep the original shield charm aside and practice Beauxbatons’ version of the Shield Charm to the level of sixth-level charm in a short period of time to see what the result would be.
He also had a very interesting idea –
If the understanding of two versions of the level six shield charm were combined into one, would it take it to a whole new level? And is this, in turn, would help him peek at the level reached by the four founders of Hogwarts?
“Magical creatures… hmm… magical creatures is it?” He always remembered the words of Lady Rowena Ravenclaw.
Only now does he have a direction on how to do it, as he had no clue previously.
Now finally, there is an idea of combining the understanding of the two shield charms together, which might lead to a seventh-level magic spell.
Would that be the case, he is actually not sure, but it is worth a try.
The power of the seventh-level spell is still a minor thing, as Felix estimated that it would not be stronger than those ancient magics he had already mastered, or maybe he can use this opportunity to get a glimpse of the original nature of the shield charm?
That’s right, the original nature.
He had always been curious about one thing, modern magic at the end of the line, will it still have heavy restrictions on the spell casting? Or, to put it another way, is the end of modern magic something that turns magic into a wizard’s innate talent?
As he told the young wizards at the Magic Rune Club, “Maybe we’re just getting back our spell-casting instincts.”
It’s like simple magic like Lumos and Levitation Charm, which Felix can now do just by thinking about it in his head.
The process does not require any incantation, it’s just him simply ‘thinking’ about the cup coming over to him, thus the magic does it for him, similar to the young non-schooled wizard who does all sorts of unimaginable things with their powerful emotions when they’re is in danger.
Only, Felix’s magical instincts were stronger that he didn’t need to amplify himself with emotions.
He had read a quote in a book, “The Accidental Magic of the little wizards may not be powerful, but each one is a spectacular banquet of magnificent compound magic. In the moment of blossoming magic, they are omnipotent gods.”
…
Thinking left and right, Felix felt that the reason why the same spell was learned in two different forms was most likely because he had been in a state of blindness, touching a corner of the true nature of magic.
It was like two people climbing a mountain, starting from the same place, and then later choosing different paths, eventually meeting at the top of the mountain, when they looked up from the top, it turned out that there was more than one path to the top. Or maybe they met at the hillside and then collaborated with each other in order to walk the last stretch.
He recorded these speculations and put them in the thinking room. They were pure fantasy to the little wizard and could be equated with The Strange Adventures of Little Wizard Mick. But for those old wizards who delved into magic theory, it is an absolute gem.
The day before school started, Felix said goodbye to Madame Maxime, the students of Beauxbatons would not leave for Hogwarts until October, and he promised to take care of the group at that time.
He made a trip to Diagon Alley first, entrusted the company to Lupin, and returned to Hogwarts before Lupin drew his wand and hexed him.
He was in a surprisingly relaxed mood when he returned to his ancient runes’ office after a long absence. Then he smiled as he pulled a silver pocket watch out of his pocket and let the Niffler Valen out of it, “This is your new home.”
With an Order of Merlin around her neck and an hourglass in her hand, Niffler kept surveying her surroundings. It meant, “Can I hole up here and look for treasure?
Felix glanced at her, a quill on the table suddenly jumped up and morphed into a small bench, Valen reflexively straightened her body, as she waved her hand and sighed.
———-
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