Chapter 4: Change in Magic, and World Tour (1/2)
Today was Quinn's second anniversary of finding himself stranded in this world. In the last year, Quinn had worked hard on magic, and the more he used it, the more he fell in love with magic. Even though he hadn't even scratched the surface of magic, and Quinn's knowledge was equivalent to a drop in the ocean.
But Quinn was about to take another step to improve his magic. Quinn stood in front of Lia's room, ready to get what he had failed to take last year.
'Last year, I wasn't ready to get the resources to advance my magic, but now I am ready.' Quinn thought about his last year's plan, and after slapping his cheeks for focus, he knocked on Lia's door.
He waited for Lia to respond, and he heard, ”Come in.” from Lia. He opened the door and entered the room. There he saw Lia, sitting on her bed and reading a French fashion magazine. Quinn entered the room with a toy car following behind him. Lia looked up from her magazine and saw Quinn and his toy entering the room. She thought someone might have charmed the car to follow behind Quinn, so she didn't pay attention to it, but in reality, Shun was pulling the toy car with magic as practice.
She saw Quinn climbing up on the bed but then looking behind him as if to find something, and then his eyes fell on the car on the floor, so he climbed down and grabbed the car before climbing onto the bed once again.
'So, cute! He thought the car would follow him up on the bed.' A wide smile appeared on her face as she watched Quinn. Quinn had gotten quite good at acting as a child and sometimes wondered if he should pursue a career in acting. Quinn sometimes joked to himself that he was a method actor who stayed in character all day long.
Back to the situation in Lia's room, she saw her brother continue to play with his toy car on her brother and thought, 'He will not ask me to play with him, then why did he come to my room? Well, whatever. Oh, this dress is nice.' Seeing that Quinn would not ask her to play with him, she went back to reading her magazine.
All of this was part of Quinn's plan; he purposely didn't talk to Lia and continued to pass the time by playing with the toy car using magic. And to be honest, making vroom-vroom noises while moving the car with magic was funny in its own way.
From the corner of his eye, Quinn stole a glance at Lia and thought, 'Now, I just have to wait for a while.'
Last year, before Quinn had any connection to his magic, he had tried to find some answer to kick start his magic and start a connection to his magic. But because he hadn't taken the language of the book in Lia's library into consideration. The books were in French, and that had shut down the entire plan. But this time, he was prepared and was confident that he would score that book today.
So Quinn waited for around twenty minutes and then made his move. He stopped playing with his toy car, climbed down from the bed, and after dilly-dallying for a minute, he made his way to the bookshelf and began his search for that first-year magic theory book and found it on the lowest shelf. A smile threatened to split his face as he gleaned at the cover of the book and clearly understood the writing.
He sat down on the spot and read the book, and the world around Quinn went quiet. He had waited for this moment for such a long time. Now that the book was in his hands, all his attention was on the book. He began reading the words written in French, all unnecessary thoughts vanished from his mind, and he became immersed in the writing.
Quinn didn't know how long he had been reading the book, but a touch broke him out of his focus and brought him to the real world.
”Quinn?” (Lia)
Quinn felt like a bus had hit him. He sucked in a deep breath and dazedly looked towards the voice and found Lia looking at him, but Quinn.exe was currently down. It took Quinn a couple of seconds to reboot and replied,
”Yeah?”
Lia stared at Quinn for a couple of seconds, which made Quinn worried. He hadn't meant to get lost in the book, but he did, and not only did he forgot Lia was still there in the room, but he also took a second to reply, which may have come out as weird, given the fact he was staring at her face.
”What are you doing?” Lia questioned as she eyed Quinn with her school textbook.
This time Quinn was quick to follow as he put on a big smile and showed Lia her book.
”I was reading this book.”
Lia squatted near her brother and grinned.
”Really? How about you read me something from there?”
Quinn nodded rapidly, and then like a child, he loudly recited the first paragraph from the first chapter of the book.
”Magic is a force that changes aspects of the world at fundamental levels. The ability for humans to use magic is a he-hereditary trait passed down from a person's ancestors, which allows witches and wizards to practice it.” (In French)
Quinn purposely stuttered and slowed down his pace to make it more believable for a child his age. Quinn's performance astonished Lia and hugged him with beaming smiling and praised him,
”Oh my god, Quinn, that was excellent! You are a smart one, aren't you? Aren't you~.”
Quinn giggled happily and hugged her back, and then made his move. He held the book in front of her and requested. ”Lia, can I have this book? I like it, please!”
Lia couldn't resist the sparkle in Quinn's eye. She looked at the cover of the book and saw that it was a textbook from her first-year and pondered, 'I don't read it anymore, and I guess it won't do him any harm. Plus, he loves magic so much.'
”Okay, you can keep the book, but only if you promise to take care of the book.”
Quinn cheered and celebrated by hugging the book.
”Thank you, Lia! I promise I will take care of the book, pinky promise!” He put out his pinky, and Lia interlinked her own with a soft smile on her lips.
(Scene Break)
Later that day, Quinn sat in front of the table in his room, and on the table was the leather-bound book titled Magical Theory by Irene Joliot-Curie. He rubbed his hands and opened the book, and began reading from where he had left in Lia's room.
Quinn began reading what this book offered, and over the next few days, Quinn would immerse himself in the book whenever he had free time. It was after a week that he finally decided that he had read and understood enough.
So, the next time he was alone, Quinn immediately retrieved the small glass bead(marble) from his pocket and set it in front of him.
Quinn's original approach of using push and pull was an indirect way of influencing an object, but the popular and mainstream uses of magic were to influence them directly.
Quinn stared at the marble as he contemplated his one week of reading,
'Hmm… If I were to slice something with magic, then there would be two ways of doing it. The indirect method would be something like using a magic creating wind blade and launching it towards the target. Whereas the direct approach would be to use something like a severing charm (Diffindo) to directly cut the target.
My approach was the indirect approach. I was creating a push and pull force to affect the object.'
The marble in front of Quinn moved. He was making the marble move with his original pull-and-push method. The marble moved faster and faster, and it came to where Quinn lost control of it, and the marble shot in a straight line away from Quinn, but then Quinn's pupils narrowed, and the marble suddenly and unnaturally came to a dead stop.
Quinn's pull-and-push method hadn't caused the stop, but with the new direct application of magic. He commanded his magic to erase all the momentum of the marble, and it worked. Quinn had used the imagery of a stationary marble and the intent of stopping the marble.
Quinn stared at the stationary marble with a toothy grin splitting his face, and Quinn knew he had taken another step towards improving his magic. Even though things had just gotten much more complicated, he knew it was because the ways he could approach magic had expanded.
He looked at the magical theory textbook and spoke to no one in the room.
”Let's get started.”
Over the next month, Quinn progressed more than he had done in the last year. He had to start from scratch. The only thing that had transferred from his work last year was the range. The rest of it he had to build from grounds up. It was tougher than the four option push-and-pull. This time he was working with new concepts and techniques.
After one month, he could control objects within a five-meter range. Heck, he had improved more than he did in his previous one-year. Now, he could make objects levitate and move them in the air. Previously, he could levitate objects and move them, but it was messy with extremely bad control and mobility.
Now, he had reached the point of magic-based telekinesis. He could attract objects, put them back in their place, do things he could usually do with his hands, and some more. He could fold the duvet when he got up in the morning, he could squeeze the toothpaste out of the tube, and brush his teeth better than he could with his hands. As always, because of Quinn's incomplete knowledge, he would've to do one task at a time. If he wanted to open a drawer to take something out, he would've to look at the drawer, then take out the object, wait for the object to come to him, and then close the drawer.
At the end of the month, Quinn was ready to move on to another type of magical application. He had done enough of telekinesis and wanted to do something, but before he could decide what to do, Quinn was called in by his grandfather and told some shocking news.
(Scene Break)
George looked at Quinn and informed him, ”Quinn, the day after your sister leaves for Beauxbaton for her sixth year, we will leave the manor to travel the world.” (In French)
Quinn blinked twice before inquiring with uncertainty in his voice, ”Travel the… world? What does that mean?” (In French)
”It means we will go to a lot of different and fun places, but we won't be coming back home for a long time.” (In French). George patiently explained things to Quinn.
Quinn understood his grandfather was talking about a long-term world tour. What he couldn't understand the timing of this decision. It would be after their return from this trip that he would get to know the reason for this trip.