I channeled my inner magic through my right index finger, moving it in a circle before jabbing at the snapped in half pen on the table. "Reparo," I said, commanding it.
Nothing happened. No surge of power, no movement of the pen.
I sighed and picked the magical theory book back up as I leaned back in my comfy chair. Flipping through it to the index I started to look through it to see if there was something I missed.
It didn't work with any of the colors of mana, not any combination I had tried. Not even my colorless internal magic worked.
Even a book named magical theory spent almost the entire book describing how wand movements and syllables of the incantation worked together to create the spell. Nothing about how the spell actually did what it did.
Putting the book down I collapsed back against the chair with a small frown. That did not help me learn how this kind of magic worked.
I looked around the small but comfortable hotel room in thought. Bed, small table, bathroom, table and chair. A small TV. Nothing expensive, it was on the edge of town so prices were lower. Luckily London's public transportation network is pretty good.
Maybe there was something special in the wand? Something that acted as a catalyst?
Either way, that was the next step. To find myself a wand.
There simply was not enough information on how to recreate these damn spells and my finger simply was not doing it even after a couple of days of trying. My best odds of figuring this out was to get my hands on a wand, learn to cast the spell and then reverse engineer from there.
Going to Ollivanders was out of the question. I had no idea exactly how he figured out which wand fit to which user.
If it was anything soul related I would stand out like a spotlight among a bunch of candles.
I shook my head and got up to get changed, putting on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt before pulling a cloak with a hood from my bag and folding it up so it was easy to carry.
Most of my random crap I would leave in my hotel room. Nothing dangerous or really valuable. The few objects that were, were magical but looked innocent enough, like my armor.
Before leaving I took a look out the window to figure out if I should wear the coat as well. It was slightly cloudy but there was no rain today.
XXXXXXXXXXX
I frowned slightly as I watched the brick wall behind The Leaky Cauldron. Before making my way through the pub I had put on my cloak and pulled the hood up so Tom would not recognize me.
I likely could just have walked through anyway, but honestly I didn't feel like pretending not to understand him completely again.
Now, the question was how to get past that damn wall. I could hardly ask Tom to open it for me again.
In hindsight it would have been better to pretend to be a foreign squib, but who thought I would need to get in here twice this close together. Besides, hindsight is always twenty/twenty.
Finally I got tired at inspecting what looked like a brick wall and shrugged before channeling my internal magic through my index finger while tapping the bricks I saw Tom tap before.
A whole lot of nothing happened.
I stared at the wall in front of me before I tried it again. Nothing happened.
Ok, that was seriously getting annoying. I 'saw' the magic when he used it. It was just a simple pulse of clear magic, no real focus or affinity to it. That should have worked!
Giving the wall a small glare I tried it once more, putting a bit more power into it. Nothing happened once more and I started to contemplate that perhaps I needed to preform a manual override on this damn wall, but before I had time to try something that might have been a tad indiscreet I heard somebody clear her throat behind me.
I blinked and turned to find myself face to face with hat with a vulture on it, the owner hidden by the brim.
Taking a step in surprise brought the owner of the vulture hat into my field of view as the angle changes "Well, young man? Are you just going to stand there or are you going to go through?" she said sternly.
I cleared my through and looked down slightly as if embarrassed "I...kind of forgot my wand at home, Ma'am. I was trying to figure out how to ask Tom to open the path without looking like a fool." I said, thinking quickly of a excuse.
The old lady, who I could only assume was Neville's grandmother - I refuse to believe there are two people who would be seen alive in that hat - shook her head "Young people today. You know, my grandson is the same way." she complained, confirming my suspicion "Now, step aside."
I quickly got out of her way and she pulled her wand, tapping the bricks with it which caused it to fold in on itself to reveal the alley.
"Thank you." I quickly said to her, following her into the Alley.
The old which simply shook her head "In my day, people did not forget their wands. Youth today..." she said, grumbling to herself as she walked away.
I looked after her for a moment before looking back at the brick wall. Getting through from this side only needed you to walk up to it and it opened. The big question is that why it didn't open to me from the other side? Maybe the wand did something with the magic as it was channeled and the enchantment on the wall did not recognize me.
Shaking my head I pulled my hood back on and continued through the alley. More people out today, but it still wasn't crowded by any means.
Making my way through the alley I checked the signs of the stores more closely this time. From what I could see, only Ollivanders sounded like they sold wands.
Not having any luck I stopped outside the bank, tapping my finger against my left in thought. Well, it was kind of a long shot to find some here...but what about Knockturn?
There was after all no reason to assume this was canon...not that canon actually described much about what was in there.
Hell, who know, maybe I get lucky and find a super trunk filled with time turners and books teaching me ancient magic laying around just for me to find.
Yeah.
Right.
I'll be lucky if I don't find something that want to eat me.
That did bring something to mind through and as I walked to find the place the alley split I made a mental note to pick up a copy of the Daily Prophet on the way back to the hotel.
It would at least make it possible to find out if there was some kind of major difference like Voldemort being the Minister of Magic or something like that.
...I really should have checked that earlier.
But first, I need more muggle cash. Time to throw a bit more gold at the goblins.
AN// Many thanks to Rufus Shinra for betaing this part.
