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(HPMM)Chapter 7: Magic practice
🕑 Added 2025-08-27 15:15:18 +0000 UTCThe book spared no details as there were whole step by step illustrations on these methods. Like I said disturbing for the uninitiated. For those who regularly hunted or fished though these things might as well have just been another part of the process. Still I learnt the information anyways as it was better to have it and not need it than to need it but not have it. The author of the book moved on to common plants that were known to grow wild nearly all over Europe with various uses from food to medicine with pictures to accompany.-
I especially paid attention here as I was fairly certain at least some of these plants were used for potions as well or could be sold to the system for coins. Not a lot mind you as some plants like daisy petals only had a price tag of five coins per pound dried but coin was coin. Other plants such as nightshade or poppy had much higher values for much smaller amounts making them worth considering. The final three chapters of the book merely covered situational camping such as in winter or in a rainy area. -
I finished the book in about an hour and quietly put it back where I found it and moved on to a herbalists guidebook that listed plants and their properties and identification. It didn't have chapters and was incredibly dry reading with most of it being purely fact without interesting fluff to it. Still I memorized it all in two hours and moved on to another book that was on animal species to hunt or avoid in general. Pigeons were one of the more recommended birds to hunt and Doves one of the least for ironic reasons. Pigeons were clean meat while Doves were actually dirty and full of nasty diseases and parasites. -
Like I said, ironic. This was exactly the sort of information I wanted though as it would help my survival chances. The few extra ways to save food certainly weren't bad either. Knowing how to make charcoal or how to set up a smoker out of branches and leaves were interesting and useful. When the sun started to set the librarian told me the place was closing so I memorized the page I was on before returning the book to the shelf.-
Dinner was a simple meat and vegetable stew that was more broth than substance and I went straight to bed afterwards. I wanted to train my body to wake up at dawn and sleep at dusk to try and make the most of the daylight. Right now it didn't really matter much as I wasn't really busy since it was summer but after I start learning magic that will change. Being able to make the most out of not only Hogwarts massive library but also the forbidden forest that held vast amounts of magical creatures and plants would absolutely be worth it.-
That said training a sleep schedule was not nearly so easy and I tossed and turned for a good hour before sleep finally claimed me. A dreamless sleep that felt almost like taking a breath and holding it for just a bit too long. I woke up early thanks to turning in early but not quite the dawn time I wanted as it was probably an hour or so after that. Still it was earlier than all but the caretakers who were already preparing breakfast. While I waited for the other children to wake up so I could eat breakfast and scurry back to the library I decided to try consciously using magic.-
I had no doubt that I would likely fail since it was something I had never done before and more importantly something the books said was exceptionally difficult to pull off. If I had to say based exclusively on the information from the books the difficulties of using magic went in order of easiest to hardest. Wand with verbal incantation and specific movement, wand with verbal incantation but no movement, wand with no words but right movement, wand without words or movement, no wand with incantation, no wand with no incantation, instinctual casting.-
What I wanted to do was counted under "no wand with no incantation" and thus I held no delusions of success. Then again there was a lot about how using magic worked that was not really covered in the books so I didn't discount the possibility of success either. For this attempt though I took out a single system coin and set it on my bed. I focused fully on it and willed it to rise. Not even a wiggle, no strange feeling in the chest, nothing. -
I wasn't upset at this failure and simply tried again aa different way, with a more forceful thought of the coin moving. This time I felt a small twinge of something in my chest but it slipped away the moment I tried to focus on it. Still this encouraged me if nothing else and I stared at the coin intensely and mentally yelled with all the intensity I could muster for it to move. It wobbled as a stronger feeling of something filled my chest but feel still the moment my concentration shifted. This confirmed that magic responded to intent as one of it's triggers but there had to be more to it than that or the effect wouldn't have been so little or so hard to pull off.-
I should mention that I was out of breath and red faced as I had all but physically moved the coin to the point my whole body was tensed up from the effort. Still this time I caught the feeling in my chest clearly and tried a different method. This time I closed my eyes and focused my mind on that feeling, that strange something I was certain was my magic.-
At first there was nothing but my thoughts that I couldn't control as I tried to focus on that memory. Then I felt it, the smallest wisp of that sensation at the edge of my mind and I zeroed in on it like a shark to blood. As I focused more and more on it the clearer and stronger the sensation became until it felt as though I was standing in a furnace of heat. My eyes snapped open and focused on the coin as I made a command for it to move and move it did. The coin shot into the air hard enough that it hit the ceiling with a loud "CRACK!" before falling back onto my bed.
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Sorry for the late upload I got distracted and almost forgot.
