Self experimentation
The part about a firestorm wasn't exaggerated at all as literally everyone in the green house at the time felt his magic flare up as he drew his wand. The professor confiscated his wand until the end of class more out of safety then a punishment. She did note that while he was calm and friendly most of the time he also seemed to have a fairly short fuse for things that can cause irritation. She saw the entirety of what happened so she couldn't really blame him for losing his temper after the whip vine slapped him far enough to leave red marks over and over again.-
Unfortunately most magical plants tended to have similar defensive traits and so she knew this was definitely going to be a bad class for him much to her disappointment. Neville was a natural with the plants though so while her expertise didn't appeal to Nick it wasn't totally lost on her students. Once the class was finished Nick grouped up with his friends who wasted no time at all teasing him. "You should have seen your face , it was all red and puffy!" Tracy said while cackling loudly.-
"What was that spell you were about to cast mate? It made the hair on my arms stand up before the professor stopped you!" Ron asked curiously. Everyone nearby stopped to try and listen in for his answer since they had a similar reaction to his magic. Nick shrugged "Sorry to disappoint but it was just an overcharged fire summoning charm." he said honestly. "Must have been crazy overcharged if it made us all feel like that." Tracy exclaimed in surprise. "In case it wasn't obvious I was positively livid at that moment so holding back was the furthest thing from my mind." Nick admitted embarrassed.-
"It's a good thing you're on our side then isn't it?" Harry joked and everyone laughed. Once all the famous nonsense vanished (Mostly thanks to Nick) the boy who lived thrived at Hogwarts and really opened up in the last week. He still had a small problem with keeping to himself most of the time but that too was slowly vanishing as he took the initiative to speak on his own more often. "You guys head on without me I've got a bit of work I still need to do." Nick said as he separated from the group.-
He made his way to his workshop while flicking his magic sense on and off in an attempt to remain safe while also not bursting a vessel in his nose. It proved unnecessary as he felt nothing off the entire trip and made it to the workshop just fine. He was paranoid and knew it but considering the dark lord had made an attempt on his life the previous day he felt it warranted. The man had apparently not decided to try again since there were no foreign magics in the workshop after a quick check letting Nick lock the door behind him and relax.-
The reason for the secrecy was because he didn't want to reveal that he was using illusion magic spells on himself to speed up his understanding of them. Personal experience was a heavy focus in the Celebrimbor style and Nick knew that casting the spells gave him that but he didn't want to bully some of the other students to practice leaving himself as the target. Having your sense's messed with was a very unfun thing to experience but at least this way he can understand the spells better having felt their effects on himself.-
Obviously he wouldn't use the darker fear based illusions but the rest were all fair game in his opinion. Nick took a deep breath and pointed his wand at himself "INVORTO!" he said and immediately the entire room seemed to move and Nick found himself standing on the "ceiling" alongside all his tools and equipment. This illusion messed with one's sense of gravity and as a result made them think they were standing on the ceiling even while on the ground. 'This spell would give someone a complex if used outside.' Nick thought as he walked around to acclimate himself to the strange sensation.-
He even tried to jump and was immediately overcome with an instinctive sense of vertigo as he could no longer tell up from down. 'For a moment there I felt like I was about to fall into the actual ceiling.' Nick noted when his heart rate settled from the sudden strange sensation. "FINITE INCANTATEM!" he spoke and dispelled the illusion restoring the world to the way it was supposed to be. He pulled out a note pad and wrote down the spell alongside it's possible use to disorient an opponent.
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