The next day in Utopia.
Just like when teaching "Aurora", they pushed the tables together again, but this time Sterling specifically required that Harry be the first to try.
Sterling specially went to the hospital wing for two bottles of Pepperup Potion to prevent accidents and temporarily requisitioned several cushions, placing them behind each person to prevent falls.
After confirming all preparations were complete, Sterling extended his hand.
"Magical Shaping is magic without incantations or wands... If you must use incantations to remind yourself, you can say what you want to shape."
"Cup your hands as if holding a sword, then feel your flowing magic..."
"Question! How do I feel my magic flowing?"
Ron raised his hand, and Terry and the others nodded in agreement. For them, magic was just something they "knew existed, knew roughly how much they had, and knew when it ran out." Nothing more.
Sterling thought for a moment.
"You can cast other spells to find the feeling. Your most practised spell, the kind you can cast successfully without concentration, then feel how your magic reaches your wand."
The six tried, and quite unexpectedly for Sterling, Terry chose a very obscure spell, the Wand-Extinguishing Charm, the opposite of Lumos, magic that eliminated light sources.
Ron chose a prank spell. He was actually the first to sense magic flow, half a minute faster than Harry.
After about ten minutes, all six said they vaguely felt magic flowing. Sterling was proud of his social circle's quality. This was actually quite talented.
Sterling continued teaching. The difficulty of magical shaping mainly lay in use after learning; just getting started wasn't terrifying.
Soon they reached the magic externalisation stage.
Unexpectedly for Sterling, everyone's magic was theoretically colourless. If one practised Thirteen Magic, it would be coloured. His current colour, for instance, randomly switched between purple, red, and blue.
Terry and Padma were indeed colourless.
Harry was pure gold, Ron's was two-thirds gold, Neville's one-fifth, and Hermione... by Sterling's sharp eyesight, had a faint hint of gold.
But this colour seemed only visible to him. From their mutual conversations, Sterling judged that in their perspective, these were all colourless.
"Now use imagination to shape this magic's appearance."
"Right! This part isn't learning anymore; it's practical magic application. Let Harry go first; Ron and Neville, prepare to catch him!"
Seeing Ron close his eyes, Sterling quickly reminded him loudly, fearing he'd have to carry six people to the hospital wing alone...
Madam Pomfrey would expel him from Hogwarts.
Under six pairs of watching eyes, Harry suddenly felt immense pressure. But having experienced being watched before, facing mere attention from six people, Harry quickly adjusted.
Imagine... what weapon?
Mysteriously, a sword appeared in Harry's mind. Wrapped in deep red leather at the grip, with a silver blade inlaid with a ruby.
He instinctively wanted to shape this weapon.
At this moment, Sterling suddenly widened his eyes.
With Harry as the centre, layered shockwaves spread outward. Golden light points began gathering on his "colourless" magic, vaguely showing a sword's shape...
Hermione exchanged amazed looks with Padma.
They'd previously thought Harry the "Saviour" just had fame and some talent... They hadn't expected something real!
Ron grew even more excited, genuinely happy for Harry as if he'd cast this impressive magic himself.
Only the relatively well-informed Terry frowned and approached Sterling.
"Why aren't you stopping him? Those shockwaves are magic, right?"
Sterling was somewhat surprised. He hadn't expected such operations in the present world, but Terry recognised it immediately.
But Terry spoke truth. The time when interrupting spellcasting would cause backlash had passed; Sterling should act.
Sterling was certain Harry had learnt magical shaping, but what he was truly shaping absolutely couldn't be completed.
Just these instinctively spreading magic waves were probably approaching his magic output limit.
"Harry, stop!"
Sterling threw a Draconic Lumos at Harry. This light orb was purple-black, and the moment it illuminated Harry, all anomalies around him vanished and he collapsed softly.
Just as Sterling had initially used Mourning the Demon Dragon to devour the self-awakening Hero's Heart, dragon-transformed magic could also cancel magical shaping split from the Hero's Heart.
"Magic... replenishing... potion..."
Ron quickly stepped forward, shoving a potion bottle into Harry's mouth. The deeper he pushed, the more Harry thrashed. Ron was amazed. This potion's effects were so immediate! He pushed deeper several times.
Was there an Undetectable Extension Charm inside? He'd been pouring so long without feeling the potion's volume decrease?
"Ron! You didn't remove the cork! Harry's going to choke!"
Hermione, just finishing eye contact with Padma, shrieked sharply. She quickly made Ron release the nearly eye-rolling Harry and had Neville feed him the potion.
"Thank you... Hermione..."
Harry's eyes brimmed with tears. Anyone poked in the throat dozens of times would tear up.
Sterling marvelled silently. Ron had nearly assassinated the Saviour to become the third Dark Lord.
He'd just been asking Terry about magic externalisation feelings and hadn't noticed Ron's recklessness, treating Harry's mouth like scrubbing a cauldron.
Neville... Neville still hadn't figured out what happened. Since the magic externalisation stage ended, he'd been habitually looking for Trevor.
Ron devoutly apologised, offering to write a week's homework as compensation.
Harry accepted the apology but returned the compensation.
Let Ron write his homework? Were Professors McGonagall and Snape blind? Or did they think Gryffindor really had abundant points now?
After recovering, Harry looked up for Sterling's guidance.
"What were you trying to shape just now? If magical shaping creates magical artefacts, the consumption is beyond what you can handle."
Harry described the sword that had appeared in his mind. Sterling didn't recognise famous magical world items, so he looked at Terry and Ron, who both shook their heads.
"However, if you weren't shaping that specific thing, you should be able to cast successfully. I feel you've basically learnt it."
Sterling smiled. When watching Harry attempt magical shaping, he'd actually activated magical vision.
He'd touched another small tail of the "threads".
In Sterling's perspective, the golden threads within Harry constantly waved when he used magic, as if absorbing some substance.
Then Harry successfully accessed that substance that could replace magic, achieving the miracle of completing Avalonian magic in the present world.
The "threads"... their veil grew ever lighter under Sterling's exploration, as if another breeze would reveal all their secrets to him...
Harry's performance fooled the other six. Though Sterling said Harry had actually succeeded, they now considered Harry and Sterling the abnormal batch and didn't plan to compete with them.
Harry was the Saviour; Sterling was something unknown but fiercer than the Saviour.
They gave up learning Sterling's unique magic, but Sterling still promised to try modifying the magic to a level they could use.
The seven parted at Utopia's entrance. Sterling had Terry return to the common room first while he went to ask Professor McGonagall some questions.
Suddenly, his pocket grew heavy.
A stone fell into his pocket. When he pulled it out, it became a note with Vivian's hasty handwriting.
"Come to Avalon tonight, locate my position."
The back had another line:
"I sent this through the treasury access Maleficent opened for you, but you can't put this stone back. Don't let her know about tonight's meeting."
The note's end had a rough butterfly sketch.
Sterling felt something was wrong.
Why did he need to hide his meeting with Vivian from Maleficent?