— July 8, 1962 —
***
After breakfast at Jacqueline's, we headed home. I tried my best to hide my breaking smile, but it was hopeless — I finally had my treasure! The bracelet and wand burned in my pocket, and I could barely keep myself from pulling them out right there. Ariel watched my excitement with amusement. But what could I do? I'd been waiting for this moment for so long.
From the moment magic awakened in me, I was obsessed. I dove in headfirst, absorbing everything I could — not just as a witness to miracles, but as a mage myself. Only the constant race for survival kept me from truly enjoying it.
Honestly, I'm a terrible actor when it comes to playing the innocent child. I just couldn't keep up the act. As soon as I was strong enough, I stood on my own two feet. As soon as my vocal cords developed, I started talking. Maybe in some novels, heroes can stoically endure silence just to avoid standing out, but I'm definitely not one of them.
***
In my room, I finally exhaled with relief and pulled out the bracelet. I poured my mana into it, whispering the code words:
Museum — Gaunt — Sixty — Thailand — Magic — Thirty — Explosion — Russia — One — Veela.
From a hidden compartment under a decorative stone, a bundle of papers fell out, expanding as it landed. The pages were bound together, covered in tiny handwriting. Even if Gaunt had found them, I doubt he could have made sense of it.
I unfolded the sheets and searched for what I'd been thinking about for the last two years. There it was — Lerach's masterpiece! No, I didn't want to turn myself into a living artifact. That was a step too far, and I'd find my own path. Still, I couldn't call it useless. What fascinated me was the preparation of all the soul shells before a series of rituals and elixirs — though Lerach warned not to attempt them before sixteen or twenty, to avoid developmental issues.
Lerach also had an interesting theory: developing all the shells would create a synergistic effect, making them much more powerful than if you focused on just one. Their resistance to outside influence would increase, too — though even he didn't know by how much. There were no records after that.
That's why Lerach had the basics of many types of magic, but rarely more than that. I needed to choose six types — one for each shell, with the seventh constantly trained by cycles of exhaustion and mana replenishment.
[First shell — physical body.]
This can be improved by biomagic, metamorphism, and healing. There's also necromancy, but I'm not nearly sick enough to turn myself into a lich.
Healing is useful, especially since it affects more than just the physical shell. It's a good source of spells in a pinch, but I wouldn't want to study it permanently.
Metamorphism, though — at high levels, you can transform into anyone, partially or completely. You could even become a dragon, if you wanted. That's why I chose it. Even without creating a spatial pocket for organics, it's incredibly useful. With it, you can become anything — stone, angel, demon. The only downside is you can't copy soul abilities, just physical ones, but that's still impressive. Plus, I'll be able to change my harpy form into something more palatable and blame my transformation on this art.
[Second shell — prana.]
Here, the options are yoga, vampirism, and blood magic. Blood magic lets you strengthen — you guessed it — blood, using prana. At high levels, you can control an opponent's blood, send curses, or use your own blood as a weapon or charm.
Vampirism, as the name suggests, lets you absorb others' mana and prana. But after reading about the side effects, I immediately noped out — you can pick up things from an enemy you'll never get rid of.
Yoga, though, focuses on strengthening the whole body, every cell, through prana and mana. It doesn't give you multiple forms like metamorphism, but it lets you use your trained form to its absolute limit. Even an ordinary person could become a superman — bend steel, bathe in lava, run at impossible speeds. At the highest level, you can even maintain eternal youth. Definitely useful. I'll take it.
[Third shell — astral body.]
This can be developed by necromancy, spiritism, shamanism, demonology, and spirit magic. I've already said I'm not touching necromancy with a ten-foot pole.
Spiritism lets you communicate with souls, banish them, and use them in battle. I don't know why it isn't just lumped in with necromancy. Shamanism and demonology are more about summoning and making contracts with the otherworldly. Shamanism is somewhat acceptable, but demonology? That's like negotiating with a tiger while pulling its tail. No thanks — you need to become a tiger first.
Spirit magic, though, focuses on your own soul and strengthening it through rituals, training, or absorbing other astral bodies. You can use spiritual energy in battle — you can't punch a ghost, after all. Useful and convenient.
[Fourth shell…]
Here, you can only call the Creator and ask how to strengthen it.
[Fifth shell — emotional, sensual spirit.]
Not many options. You can go dark and strengthen spells with negative emotions — the crueler, the better. Or you can go light and use positive emotions. Neither appeals to me; it's too easy to slide into extremes.
But you can take a knight's move and choose love magic. Yes, it exists, and woe to anyone who laughs at a mage of this art. They'll end up bringing you gifts and swearing undying love. I'm not joking — love mages are the best seducers and diplomats, able to win over even archmages.
What attracts me is that you can strengthen charms for the same cost, and even get mana from sex — or from other people's emotions directed at you. Lerach sneered at this art, calling it whore magic, but I'm fine with it.
Interestingly, both orthodox dark and light mages dislike love between two people. Dark mages see it as a weakness, and light mages fear falling into darkness through lust and jealousy. But my main reason is my veela charms — if you know how to use them, you know how to control them.
I never had trouble finding a partner for the night, and with my new looks, I doubt I ever will. I need to rein in my ability — and strengthen it when needed.
[Sixth shell — mind.]
Here, there's really only one choice: mind magic.
Unlike legilimency and occlumency — which are just scraps of true mental magic — this doesn't stop at reading or protecting thoughts. You can accelerate your thinking, suggest thoughts to others, edit memories, detect lies, and at the highest level, preserve your mind after reincarnation. True reincarnation, not the makeshift version I used.
You can control your emotions, boost all your intelligence stats, and gain perfect memory. Even if there were other options, I'd still pick this.
***
Yes, I understood that by choosing six branches of magic at once, I was giving up the chance to become strong quickly, as I would if I focused on just one. But this wasn't a thoughtless decision.
First, for rapid development, I have word magic, wand magic, and fire magic. Second, I'm not planning to master all six arts — and there wasn't enough knowledge in the book for that anyway. If I find more in other sources, or become a student of the right master, that's another story.
Third, I'm hoping for a synergistic effect, especially since all the types I chose complement each other. Yoga will strengthen metamorphism, which will help with love magic. Mind magic will let me control my emotions and keep me from becoming a total pervert, and spirit magic should tie it all together by strengthening my astral body.
Besides, I'm still young by both Sumerian and modern standards for costly, battle-oriented magic. And finally, any magic — not just dark — affects the mage. Fire mages are often aggressive, earth mages passive, mind mages cold-blooded and cynical.
I like my personality as it is, so I chose not only complementary schools, but ones that, if not cancel out each other's negative effects, at least reduce them. The stronger the mage, the more pronounced these effects become.
At Beauxbatons, where showing off my unique magic isn't a good idea, I'll focus on potions, runes, and numerology. But who knows what life will bring? Maybe all my reasoning is worthless.
A plan is good, but it's bad if you're not ready for the plan to go to hell. The situation with Gaunt and the grimoire showed me how easily life can change, and only strength and knowledge can help you survive, if not win, when danger comes.
***
From this day, my training began. Most of it was meditation — to replenish spent energy or for self-knowledge. Both metamorphism and yoga required me to study every particle of my body, to feel it, to know it.
Astral magic, mentalism, and love magic required the same for my other shells — to understand feelings, analyze mind and soul, my own and others'.
As Socrates said: know thyself, and you will know the whole world. And since there's nothing more complex in the world than a soul — except a more developed soul — that statement takes on a whole new meaning.
Now I was trying to feel my body, somewhere on the edge of my thoughts, reflecting on how easily the money problem had been solved.
"Mom! Look what I found!" I made sure the open bracelet and sheet were visible. Not the grimoire translation, but my personal notes — instructions for transferring money from offshore accounts, written for someone unfamiliar with the Muggle world.
Oh, those childish hands. I had to rewrite about thirty sheets, then gave up and enchanted a pen to write itself from my words in normal handwriting.
"What is it, Arthur?" As soon as she saw the letter, her hands trembled. She took it, read to the end, then sat on my bed, hugged me, and cried.
"Mom, why are you crying? Did something bad happen?" I asked.
"No, on the contrary. I just learned that your dad never forgot about us, and didn't leave us without means. Even though he said he had his last money…" She was already mumbling when I stopped her.
Well, yes, at the time I wrote the first farewell letter, I really did have my last money. Then I won the ticketless lottery, and, with a little magical help, the money appeared again. Well, yes, I stole it — I can admit that to myself.
"I think he was always with us!" I exclaimed, hugging her tighter.
I really am grateful to her. I don't think of her as my mother, more like a good friend, but she doesn't need to know that. True, there's "only" two million on those accounts I gave her. That'll last her a long time, and the rest will come in handy for me. For ice cream… or a dragon, maybe. A whole one. Pocket money, basically. All that's left is to expand my pockets with spatial magic.
"Yes, son, I think you're right," she said, giving me a sly look. Does she suspect? No, that's nonsense.
We didn't move from the coven, but instead of the apartment, we bought a two-story house. Ariel's imagination ran wild, and now we live in a colorful, cozy home straight out of a fairy tale. And, of course, right next door to Jacqueline's house. Brr.
Now I run off into the bushes in the mornings before they smother me to death with their two hills. I won't lie — it's a pleasant way to go, and I would know. I'm something of an expert — but still, I'd prefer to live a bit longer.
Ideally… become immortal. Why aim small?
***
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