Chương 31: ITW,H - Chapter 31 - Two Months of Gains

(Word Count: 2, 026) The next two months went on with a similarly busy schedule. During this time, Harry had managed to level up twice! Because of his new schedule, he was using magic far more often than he was before, making his new leveling speed on average to 1 level a month. Much better than the once per 10 or so months it was when he first got the system. [Name: Harry James Potter-Black Level: 22 15. 8% Stats: [+10] Power: 50 => 60, [8], [28] Control: 74 => 89 Focus: 82 => 90 Classes: Mind Arts 12, Magizoology 10, Dueling 1, [+2] Skills: Occlumency 3, Legilimency 1, Serpensortia 5, [+4] Perks: Potter Family Magic, A Mother's Love, Horcrux, Parselmouth, Black Family Magic, Animagus, Natural Occlumens, Magical Growth, Emotional Empowerment, Harvester, Empathetic Sensing, Insight, Seer, Wide Wormhole, Teamwork Makes the Dream Work] He placed the 10 points into Power, since it was lagging behind.

As it was now, with his Control and Focus being so much higher than his power, he could wield 100% of his power without any issue. Not that that was a bad thing, but it didn't strain at his control as much as it could, so it didn't get trained as much as the others. He could also see the benefits of his Magical Growth ritual. In a mere two months, it had risen naturally on its own by a whole 10 points. Before, it would take just under a year to rise a mere 5.

It was a combination of entering the wizard's growth phase, also known as puberty, using magic a lot more, and the ritual. Power: 60 => 70, [8], [28] And he had the system. Outside of the system, his study group had started going beyond their coursework and had started reading beyond the curriculum. Most of them were still within the bounds of the first year studies, but it's a start. Hermione was already done with the first year's books before she even came to Hogwarts.

She was reading through books even faster than Harry was. He was certain she was already putting Occlumency into practice in organizing her mind, with how quickly she was reading, and she seemed to be remembering everything. Still, she hadn't come to him to practice defending against Legilimency yet. For Harry himself, he was now practicing to consciously evoke a vision of the future, instead of trying to rely on random dreams.

He figured that before he delved too far into scrying spells and their like, which may not even work because of how prevalent the use of wards are, he should try to control the power he had. The first step was to gain control over his dreams, which brought him back to the book on Uagadou's dream walking. However, It doesn't seem like Hogwarts had much interaction with Uagadou, because that one book was the only one he could find on that subject. He couldn't find anything actually stating how it was done.

He had to write to Flourish and Blotts, seemingly the only bookstore in magical Britain, to put an order in for some books from the Mountains of the Moon. In the meantime, the biggest breakthrough was when he spent the four skill points to finally gain the next level in Occlumency. [Occlumency: Level 3 => 4 The magically mental discipline of defending the mind against Legilimency and other mental effects. Level 1: Occlumency is twice as effective at defending against Legilimency. Level 2: No matter how subtle the effects, you will always be aware of any external influence. Level 3: Constructed memories feel as if they are real to legilimantic probes. Level 4: Objective memory.] With the level came a deeper understanding of the subconscious mind, and how memories worked. It was interesting how the brain worked. There were two levels of the mind. Conscious and subconscious. On the conscious level, it is subjective. It will only remember what you focus on.

Everything else was still in there, but inaccessible in the subconsciousness. However, when pulling out a memory for a pensieve, it pulled out the entire memory, it's why an entire room was full, instead of only what the person was actually seeing, and why you could overhear conversations you don't remember listening to in the first place. It was an objective memory.

This new knowledge allowed him to view his own memories in a similar way, though it required him to be actively using his Occlumency in the moment to capture a memory objectively. He would need to go through all of his memories and "view" them as if he were looking through a pensieve to make them objective memories. It would take time to go through everything and convert all of his memories. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

This new knowledge also allowed him more insight into subconscious dreams, and he managed to enter his dreamscape for the first time since he was in the presence of the gods. It wasn't very interesting. There was no beautiful mountain range and magical castle like there was before. The gods must have shaped the landscape to give a sense of awe before he met them.

He hadn't figured out how to actually change anything himself yet, so all he could do so far was to wander about as the world changed around him to form his dreams. Having seen the movie Inception, he didn't want to mess around and accidentally implant a subconscious suggestion in his mind. During these two months, he had also been working with Professors Flitwick and Babbling.

Flitwick was helping him practice wand catching, which was a shielding technique to catch a spell with the end of his wand and batting it aside. If done properly, it was a very cheap and quick defense. If done improperly, depending on the spell used, it could break his wand or he would simply be hit by the spell. It was this risk of breaking one's own wand that this wasn't a common tactic. It was better to just sidestep the spell.

However, Flitwick's philosophy was that it was better to have the technique in his back pocket just in case. For Babbling, she was having him go over the parseltongue vocabulary and trying to piece together words and grammar. Progress was very slow on that end, but if Ron could actually speak a word of parseltongue just from overhearing Harry sleeptalking, then Professor Babbling could do it through intense study.

It had been over a week since they had last met, and rumor had it that she was summoning snakes and trying to talk to them. She had really freaked out her third year class. Aside from helping her out, she had gone over several of the parseltongue spells he had access to, and explained the differences to him. Language helped to shape our thoughts and intent. Not just on a personal level, but on a social level.

The belief and meaning that humanity places behind words and symbols shape the way they interact with the world. It shaped the way wiccans interacted with magic. They weren't just using language to communicate with each other, but also to communicate with one's own magic. The more thought that went behind the language used in casting a spell, the more meaning and intent is placed into the spell. It helped their magic know what exactly they were trying to do.

It's why they used a bastardized Latin language, and not the English they use for everyday talk. Of course, there were spells that were in English, but they were like poems and made to rhyme, like Ron's spell to turn his rat yellow. But when they, and their magic, get used to casting a spell, they start being able to just point-cast, or cast silently.

They no longer require the extra wand movements and language to provide extra meaning to their magic, their magic remembers their feelings and the simpler intents to cast that specific spell. This was all spell theory and philosophy. There were other competing theories and schools of thought around this, but it was the one that made the most sense to Harry. He remembered the way his magic reacted while in the presence of the goddess Magic. There was a sapience to one's magic.

And if there was, then there needed to be some level of communication between the two of them. Aside from his own personal growth, Harry had also been helping Neville with his spellcasting. Neville struggled to cast any sort of spell, largely due to not having his own wand. He was using his father's wand, which had a unicorn's hair as a core. Unicorn wands were notoriously loyal to their wizard, and would hardly work at all for anyone else.

Basically, it allowed him to cast the "wanded" spells, but it didn't help at all with his Focus or Control, so he had to do it all on his own. Ron actually had the same problem, using a hand-me-down wand from Charlie, which also had a unicorn core. Ron didn't exactly have the motivation to try and improve. His wand had been passed through several Weaselys already, so it wasn't nearly as big of a problem. He was able to cast relatively fine, so Ron figured that his spellcasting was already good enough.

"I don't need to cast like Merlin," he said. Harry explained everything to Neville, who looked like he was about to cry. Harry had to explain that it had nothing to do with how much he was or wasn't like his father. It's just how the wands work.

"The wand chooses the wizard, Neville, and unicorn wands only ever choose one. It would be better to get your own wand. It would make casting spells so much easier," Harry said. Still, Neville wanted to use his father's wand. This required putting a lot more power through the wand to get it to work, so Harry had Neville practice expanding his ability to channel magic, by channeling as much as he could for as long as he could. Over this time, Neville was able to cast a bit more reliably.

This would take a long process before any significant progress, but there was at least a noticeable improvement. It was now the day before Halloween, and there was something that concerned Harry. [Fate Quest: Troll in the Dungeon! The first night of Halloween in the castle! You just know something bad will happen, and it will! A troll is let into Hogwarts, and Hermione is in danger! This is the pivotal moment where the "Golden Trio" really came together!: Go With Canon!: The teachers won't arrive in time! Bring the rest of the gang along and rush to Hermione's rescue! Save her life from the troll. Reward: +1 Magizoology Go A Step Further: Don't just knock the troll out! You're much more powerful than the OG Harry was when he faced the troll. Show off your skills and slay the beast! Reward: +1 Dueling Damsel in Distress: You're the hero here, go and save your princess! Don't take your team with you and save her yourself. Reward: +5 Focus, Prevent the Entire Incident: Somehow, someway, stop Professor Quirrell from unleashing the troll in the first place. Reward: +5 Power Get Hermione to Safety Beforehand: Why leave her in danger's path? Get her out of the girls' lavatory before the troll is unleashed, or make it so she never goes in the first place. Reward: +5 Control Note: You can complete several of these options at once.] Theoretically, this quest should have already been completed.

Hermione, while still not the most popular person, did have friends due to their study group. She wasn't bullied or ostracized by anyone. Right? She seemed to be enjoying herself here at school. So she shouldn't have any reason to be crying in the bathrooms during the Halloween feast. The fact that this hadn't already been completed was concerning. He remembered the way Fate wanted things to go a certain way, and that she would "nudge" things along to make some things happen.

She wouldn't target Hermione, would she? … No, she definitely would.