Chapter 13 - Level 13 [ part 1 ]. Troll attack (1/2)

Day before Halloween was very exciting for me. I had a ton of new spells and abilities to try out.

First thing I did is learning all new spells from a spellbook in my free time. Some of them I already knew, but just could not practice, so I mastered them. It was surprisingly easy. I spent around half an hour to master each spell. Not learn, but master. Which means I can cast their empowered versions with ease.

Also, I was quite surprised with the speed of learning and mastering, but then I remembered that my magicka characteristic was improved 11 times. Now I had immense talent, enough to breeze through first and maybe even second year.

I was also trying out chantless and gesturless magic with spell I mastered to the peak, ”Fire-Making Spell”. During training using personal spellbook functionality I tried using it wandless as well but got severely burned in hands. Thank god that was just virtual burns, although pain was real!

I forgot that this spell was a charm, so while using it with hands I need incredible focus and concentration to charm item before me and not my hands which circulate all the magic to be used. Wands are really too convenient. They make every spell so much easier.

Anyway, I tried wandless magic with some other spells from spellbook. Charms are no go, because while going through hands charm can be applied to yourself as well, so channeling and concentration needs to be very precise.

It was easier with ”Knockback Jinx”, because the idea is to send a type of force into the object and not to charm it. However, sometimes force was very weak and other times I would send force in the direction slightly off the target. One time it was even send in the opposite direction which is into me.

I experimented the whole day, whenever I got a free time, forgoing all the reading for that. Now, I can understand why spellbook is so useful and is part of the system. I can virtually try any spell in any way I want to and if got unsuccessful or hurt in the process, it will disappear in the next session of experiment, because all of it was just virtual training.

Overpowered. Can't wait to have more powerful spell to experiment with. And then there is simulation, but I had no time to try it, too engrossed by experimenting.

That is how day passed.

Halloween came. To me it was just another day and I honestly did not understand all the fuss around this festivity. However, when we got to charm lesson and started training levitation charm, my heartbeat quickened. Finally, the moment of troll attack is near.

I didn't care about lesson one bit, because mastered this lesson month ago, so I let my partner Neville try the spell any way he wanted. I was looking after Granger and she was successful with the spell to annoyance of Weasley. After lesson, I went after her, but then heard how Ron was saying not very nice things about her. I wanted to really beat him up, but it won't help the situation.

I went after her, to check if she is okay, but apparently, she wasn't. She was crying and running somewhere. I was going after her, but when she entered the girls' bathroom I was thinking if it was appropriate to enter there as well.

I decided to save and go in.

〖Save ⟳〗

I entered and heard person's crying. I shouted:

”Hermione, are you okay? It's me Magnus. I saw you running away from class and got worried. I am asking forgiveness in advance for bothering you, but I need to make sure you are okay. Please, can we talk.”

Crying went softer and quitter, but still there were no words.

”Did something happen? Did somebody hurt you? Just say a word and I will deal with that person!”

I said with gusto, trying to sound confident and funny to make situation a little bit lighter. Maybe it was speech or maybe it really helped but she calmed down a bit and exited the cabin where she locked herself in.

She had teary face and red eyes.

”Am I a nightmare?” she asked.

”What?” I was very surprised by a question. ”Why would you ask such a stupid question? Of course, you are not. You are smart, brave and kind person. You got in Gryffindor, after all.”

”But n-nobody t-talks with me and I h-have n-no friends, and s-s-so no can s-stand me and …” She was stammering and blabbering some nonsense. And started spilling tears once more.

”Stop! I am your friend and will forever be! I can stand you just fine and I can talk with you as long you want! If you want to talk about something, then let's talk. Anytime, anyplace. Just stop crying, please.”

”Can you talk with me now?” She asked

'Wow, she really was shaken that much by words of the redhead? Damn.'

”Of course, where?”

”Here!”

”Um… In girls' bathroom? Are you sure?” I asked to make sure she meant it.

She blushed due to embarrassment. She must have forgotten where we were for a moment.

”We can talk outside.” I offered.

”Yes, let's do that.”

And so, we talked right outside of bathroom for hours. Thankfully, I had come up with some life stories in these 2 months. Soon, the floor was empty and there was nobody bothering us.

She calmed down in the first hour, but I did not want to break the atmosphere, so I just continued conversing. We both delved deep into magic knowledge, so we had a lot of topics to talk about, plus we came from muggle background, so we had a lot in common.

We discussed all sorts of topics: our lifes before school, magic theory, history, connection to science, muggle world, magic world.

At some point in time I smelled something very nasty and wanted to ask Hermione but noticed that she became terrified looking behind me. I turned around and saw some bad shit there. Ugly, stinky, giant monster with a club looking stupidly in our direction.

At that moment of time, I heard hurried steps from path opposite to where troll came from. Harry and Ron came from the pathway. The first thing they noticed was Hermione and me.

”Hermione, Magnus, there is a troll that…” Harry wanted to say, but Ron interrupted him with the loud cry.

”Harry! It's a troll!” They both looked at the monster and apparently troll either did not like the sounds or looks we were giving, but he got angry and went after us.

”Run.” I said

But Granger was just frozen in fear, while boys were apparently still dazed.