NOVEL NEXT Chapter 4: The Grind Begins
With 284 days remaining until I entered Hogwarts, I devised a meticulous daily schedule to maximize my growth. Rest was essential, so I allocated 10 hours to sleep, ensuring my body and mind stayed sharp. The rest of the day was divided as follows:
10:00–10:30: Breakfast.
10:30–12:30: Physical training: sports and stretching. These sessions were focused on building endurance, flexibility, and willpower. At ten years old, I avoided heavy muscle-building, which could hinder my growth. Instead, I worked on developing a strong, balanced foundation for the future.
12:30–13:00: Lunch.
13:00–15:00: Reading and learning. Thanks to the Ravenclaw learning techniques my grandmother had taught me, I gained nearly eidetic memory. I delved deeply into each book, searching for connections and hidden meanings, often referencing earlier material to reinforce my understanding.
15:00–17:00: Meditation and magic. These sessions involved trying to consciously harness my magic. I focused on trying to make small objects move, and recreating the sensations I'd experienced during moments of intense emotion, like during Bellatrix's attack or my grandmother's funeral. To push myself further, I asked Witty to surprise and scare me at random, hoping to trigger magical outbursts. This often resulted in me consoling Witty afterward, as he'd become distraught, and try to harm itself, whenever I reacted too strongly.
17:00–20:30: Reading and learning.
20:30–21:00: Dinner.
21:00–22:00: More reading and learning.
22:00–00:00: Meditation and magic.
This regimen was rigorous but flexible, allowing me to adjust as needed based on my progress.
Two months passed in this relentless cycle. The fruits of my labor began to show.
Through countless scares orchestrated by Witty, I finally achieved conscious control over my magic. At first, I managed to nudge a crumpled piece of parchment across a table. Soon, I was levitating it a few centimeters, then meters. Over time, the strain lessened, and I moved on to heavier objects, eventually juggling multiple items simultaneously.
The challenge of controlling multiple levitating objects, each performing distinct motions, was akin to having ten hands, each doing something entirely different. It tested my focus and pushed my magical control.
During one of my reading sessions, I came across a fascinating text, Rowena Ravenclaw's Basic Notes on Bloodlines and Growth. Her insights confirmed what I'd begun to suspect:
Magical Outbursts as Growth Catalysts: Rowena theorized that each magical outburst in childhood slightly increased a wizard's magical reserves, or "mana," as she termed it.
Three Major Leaps in Magic:
The First Leap: From the first magical outburst until acquiring a wand at age eleven, children experienced the most significant growth in mana volume. Conscious use of magic, especially to the point of exhaustion, could maximize this potential.
The Second Leap: Around age fourteen, mana reserves expanded again, but the focus shifted to refining its quality. Wizards with insufficient reserves would find their mana quality lagging, limiting their potential.
The Final Leap: This occurred around age eighteen and varied greatly among individuals. It was highly dependent on one's foundational strength and training.
Rituals to Enhance Mana: Rowena mentioned rituals, ranging from straight-up dark magic to morally gray practices, that could increase mana reserves or refine its quality. However, the side effects were often severe, making them an unappealing option.
Bloodline Traits: Pure-blooded wizards had a higher chance to awaken unique traits tied to their lineage, enhancing their magic's potency or granting specialized abilities.
Inspired by these findings, I adjusted my schedule to focus even more on exhausting my magic reserves daily, aiming to maximize my mana reserves before receiving my wand.
Through prolonged meditation sessions, I discovered something extraordinary: a bloodline ability I had inherited, tied to my Ravenclaw heritage. I called it Raven Sense.
This ability allowed me to perceive traces of magic, glowing threads and currents invisible to the naked eye. Rowena's notes highlighted two primary advantages of this trait:
The ability to detect and analyze curses and traces of magic, basically, an inborn Revelio.
And a deeper understanding of one's own magic, reducing the effort required to master nonverbal spells.
Currently, I could only sustain Raven Sense for a few minutes at a time before the strain became unbearable. But even in its infancy, the ability was invaluable. I used it to study the magic surrounding Witty, comparing his elf magic to wizard magic.
While I hadn't made significant progress in understanding the mechanics of house-elf magic, the possibilities intrigued me. If I could uncover a way to bypass wizarding wards by replicating elf magic, it could be a game-changer. For now, this remains a long-term research project.
My days were exhausting but rewarding. Every hour spent meditating, practicing, or studying was an investment in my future, a foundation upon which I could build the strength needed to navigate the dangers ahead.
By the time my eleventh birthday approached, I was determined to enter Hogwarts not as an ordinary first-year but as a Ravenclaw heir prepared to carve his path in a world teeming with opportunity and peril.
"Excellence isn't given," I reminded myself as I closed another book late one night. "It's earned. Book by book, spell by spell."
The grind continued.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There will be 3 chapters today! (1/3)
50 chapters ahead on Patreon (Suiijin): Chapter 54: Bloodline Awakening