Chapter 37: Charms Club
The Transfiguration Club had been incredibly rewarding, which made Ezio look forward to the Charms Club the next morning even more.
At the end of the day, charms were the fundamental basis of a wizard's existence. Without magical spells, the wizarding world would become a bleak place; their laziness could no longer be sustained. It was the most basic and most important component, affecting every aspect of their world.
Before this, Ezio had a shallow understanding of spell-based magic. The spells of the wizarding world had undergone several revolutions, each one making the originally complex casting methods more concise and rapid.
However, due to the severe lack of historical records in the wizarding world—the people of Europe had always been terrible at documenting history, likely because their barbaric period had lasted for so long and there had never been a truly unified empire in a meaningful sense—the history was fragmented. The former Roman Empire had achieved a part of it, but Rome had failed to leave a lasting legacy. In this land that emphasized nationalism and bloodline theory, division was the norm, and chaos naturally followed.
The social structure of the Muggle world also influenced the wizarding world, to the extent that something as important as history could not be completely pieced together even after scouring countless books.
A more accurate account would be that the earliest wizards used runes to cast spells, manipulating magical energy through combinations of magical texts. At this stage, magical rituals were prevalent, with endless methods of worship and sacrifice. To control this supernatural power, wizards employed extremely cruel means against the Muggles of that time, which was the main reason for the irreconcilable conflict that later erupted between the two sides.
This situation continued until a thousand years ago, during the time of the four founders. That was the dark age of the wizarding world. The ancient, crude magic made it difficult for the wizards, who were at an absolute numerical disadvantage, to gain a foothold. A large number of wizarding children were killed by Muggles, and the living conditions of spellcasters reached their worst point. Thus, the reform of magic was forced to begin.
Magic evolved from runes to charms. This greatly increased the speed at which wizards could use magic. Although it weakened the expressive power of magic to some extent, this reform allowed wizards a breathing space. They gradually gained a foothold, began to band together for warmth, and started to establish their own secret bases to train the wizarding children they found from the outside.
The founding of Hogwarts was largely to provide a safe haven for the young wizards of that time. They were persecuted in the Muggle world. Even if they were lucky enough to survive, their suppressed magic could easily induce the birth of an Obscurus, and this product of dark magic would bring great disaster, further deepening the conflict between wizards and Muggles.
After a large number of wizarding sanctuaries were successfully established, the wizards, having found a place to settle down, had the time and energy to optimize their magic. Influenced by the society of the time, magic no longer pursued immense power but instead galloped in the direction of fast casting and quick mastery.
As wizards hid their existence and avoided combat and conflict, they, wallowing in their comfort zone, focused on the development of lifestyle magic, which led to the current deformed state of spell development in the wizarding world.
The damaging combat spells used today are almost all derived from curses. For example, the Exploding Charm is essentially an Exploding (Blasting) Curse. Although it is included in the Hogwarts curriculum, this spell should actually be classified in the category of Dark Magic. Similar spells include the Severing Charm, the Fire-Making Spell, the Full Body-Bind Curse, and so on. They all belong to the category of 'Curse' magic.
In addition to these mainstream spells, there is also a type of slang-like magic in the wizarding world. This type of magic is mostly passed down among individuals. The incantations for these spells are also very direct, for example, 'Peskipiksi Pesternomi' (Pesky pixies, pester no me).
This type of slang-like spell is usually not very effective, but as magic is a power that leans toward willpower, such a direct statement of intent can sometimes have a certain effect. If not facing a very large number of pixies, this pixie-repelling charm could work. It could probably drive away one or two of the little troublemakers, but that's about it.
Ezio studied and understood this knowledge in order to learn how to customize his own magical spells. This was a very cool and very useful thing to do.
For example, Snape's self-invented damaging spell, Sectumsempra, which could summon an invisible, shadowless blade to cut through objects in front of it, was excellent in both concealment and lethality. And such a damaging spell does not exist in the official magical registry of the wizarding world today.
If he mastered the ability to customize spells, Ezio could completely develop a series of matching spells exclusively for his assassin identity.
He didn't much like the way wizards cast spells now, with all the colorful lights. It was too conspicuous. If he had to reveal his presence, he would rather hold his broken spear. The killing efficiency of spells was far inferior to what he could do with his own hands.
Developing new magic, establishing his own magical system—this was Ezio's ultimate goal for studying Charms at Hogwarts. Learning the standard spells was not his purpose for coming here.
The next day arrived. Ezio walked briskly towards Professor Flitwick's office. On the way, he met a few other students heading to the same place.
Compared to Professor McGonagall's, Professor Flitwick's club had many more members. On one hand, the difficulty of Charms was lower than Transfiguration. On the other, when teaching, Flitwick didn't need to tailor individual learning plans. He taught casting techniques not found in the books. Mastering these techniques required talent, as well as a flexible mind.
"It's a pleasure to see you all here for the new year," Professor Flitwick said, standing on a high stack of books so he could be at eye level with the other students. "Please introduce yourself, Ezio. You are the youngest member here, but let's not judge everything by age. As far as I know, Ezio has already self-studied all the standard spells up to the fifth year. I hope that all the students who have not yet reached this step will take it seriously. You wouldn't want to be easily surpassed by a first-year junior, would you?"
"Every fourth-year student, if you cannot master the technique of non-verbal casting this academic year, I will be very angry."
The boys and girls who had joined the club last year and were about to become seniors this year looked a little pained. Non-verbal spells were a technique to be mastered in the fifth year. This was indeed a small challenge for them.
But before they had even waited for Professor Flitwick to select new members from the third years, they were met with a first-year newcomer who made them want to scream "freak" in their hearts. Magic that took others five years to learn, you're telling me you learned it all during the holiday before school even started? That makes us look very dumb!
*****
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