Cross looked around in the Room of Requirement, noticing that it looked just like a normal room. There were mirrors on the wall but other than that it was bare. Cross spread out his strings, scanning the entire room but finding nothing out of the ordinary.
Cross said "I want Forbidden Magic!" books appeared out of thin air, piling up on the ground. Cross was surprised that it actually worked and started checking the books, to his surprise they were actually Forbidden magic books!
Cross sat down and started reading the Forbidden 'Dark' Magic books. He quickly realized that all magic classified as 'Dark' magic was forbidden. but it didn't make any sense. Some of the Dark magic described were barely able to be used as pranks. Like for example the Slipping Jinx, it caused the target to slip constantly and wore off after 5 minutes.
Strangely it was classified as Dark Magic. Cross kept researching and really thought he needed some dummies to practice on.
Sure enough.
Dummies appeared in the room, they even had wands and everything. Cross smirked and started reading through the books, after a few hours. He had read through all the forbidden books, he memorized them all, so he didn't need them anymore. The room understood and the books all disappeared.
Cross stood up and dusted off his robes before starting with the most basic Dark Magic spells. He pointed with his finger and said in Elven "Slippio!" the dummy he was pointing at started to fumble around and slip on the floor.
Cross laughed and continued to practice all the Dark Magic spells in the Forbidden books for the rest of the day.
The string clone teleported to the Room of Requirement when everyone went to sleep and merged back into Cross, giving him the memories of the day. Cross noticed that he also got the training the clone learned, this gave him an idea.
He brought out a new clone and threw him a pile of books, advanced spells, beginner's potion making, beginner's charms, beginner's transfiguration, and advanced Ligilimency. The string clone sat down and started reading as Cross started practicing again, completely without a wand.
For anyone else this feat would be amazing, but for Cross it was only natural. The wand, for him, was only a cover up and used in front of others. Even just his fingers were enough to cast magic, he noticed that his strings were capable of casting magic and were in fact stronger than just using him fingers.
Since Cross was an Elf, really he didn't need a wand at all. While wand could make his magic more stable than when he was using his hands, he felt that it wasn't natural. Basically to him and other magical species, magic was an innate trait. Capable of being performed flawlessly with the use of a crutch such as wands.
The days passed like this, with Cross occasionally going to the kitchen and stuffing his bag full of food before teleporting back to the Room of Requirement to practice.
Very quickly, a month and a half passed.
Cross merged with the string clone and stood up seriously, the string clone had finished memorizing all the books. Cross had gained all the knowledge of the books the clone read as well as the events of the passing days. To his surprise, nothing really happened. He was just the same as before but he was closer with Daphne, Draco, and surprisingly Hermione.
Tonight was the last night Cross would practice in the Room of Requirement for a while. He was getting bored of practicing constantly, well himself, that is. He would still send a string clone here to keep gaining knowledge and practicing, while he would go to classes.
Something to note was that the string clone had learned Draconian during the month and a half. If Cross were to put his power on a scale of 10, he estimated he would be at a 6. This was among the entire student body, he was already way ahead of the first years. It was not even a fair comparison.
Cross stood in front of 3 dummies and had a serious expression on his face, he pointed to the dummy in the middle and said in Elven "Imperio!" the dummy turned around and destroyed itself by smashing into a wall.
He turned to the dummy on the left and said "Crucio!" the dummy had no scale of pain but it crumbled to the ground and stopped moving.
He looked at the last dummy and said "Avada Kadavra!" a bright green light shot out of his finger tips and blasted the dummy to dust.
Cross took a deep breath and said in Elven "Cleanse my soul! Light of the Divine Tree!" a golden green aura surrounded his body and seeped into his skin. Cross felt refreshed and happy, he had learned all of the Dark Magic in the books, with the Unforgivable curses being the last ones.
He was ready to take a break. While the Dark Magic didn't take too much of a tool on him as the book said, he was mentally exhausted. Practicing without rest for a month and a half gave him excellent results, but the toll on his mind was a lot.
He made a string clone and gave it instructions before teleporting out of the Room of Requirement to the Founder's Room in Slytherin and going to sleep in his bed.
The next morning
Cross woke up and wore his Slytherin themed uniform before looking over at the egg and Carl's blood cocoon. He was perplexed, even after a month and a half nothing changed, except the egg was a lot colder, even the glass was frosted.
Carl's blood cocoon was slowly dimming and shrinking, but it didn't look like it would disappear anytime soon. Cross actually missed Carl a bit. He hoped that damn Badger would hurry up and come out so he didn't have to talk to other people.
He cracked his neck and exited the room to the common room before sitting down and entertaining himself by playing with his strings. Strings shot out from his fingers and latched onto two skeleton dolls.
Cross manipulated the skeletons to fight each other with his fingers, constantly moving them and creating a fight scene. He sighed at the fact that he had no music.
Shortly after Daphne came down and saw Cross playing with two skeleton dolls. She tilted her head and looked at the two skeletons fighting to the death... well they were already dead so.. to the destruction?
She shook her head, losing her thoughts as she walked over and said "What are you doing here?" Cross looked up and smiled "Waiting for you, of course." Daphne smiled beautifully and said "Let's go then." Cross waved his hands and the two skeletons flew back to the place they were at before, then he left with Daphne.
The two skeletons looked at each other and one of them said "Honey, I'm sorry! I didn't mean it!" the other skeleton snorted and turned her head away saying "Just like you didn't mean to go see that other girl." the other skeleton said "Honey, I love you no one else!" the female skeleton said "Hmph! Tell that to your mistress!" before walking away, leaving the other skeleton heart broken.
A while later
Cross was sitting in class with a half-Goblin teacher, who kept looking at him strangely. Cross rolled his eyes and felt he really needed to find something to read, these classes were too boring. He had already mastered the Leviosa spell.
It clicked!
Cross knew what path he should take. He quickly communicated with the string clone. He excused himself and left the classroom before disappearing.
He walked back into the class with a thick book in his hands and a straight face. He sat back in his chair and started reading with one hand and fake practicing with the other hand. He looked over at Hermione perfectly making the feather float in the air.
Cross felt a little evil today and secretly pointed his wand at the feather before whispering "Spark." the feather caught fire and the class was startled, Hermione was the most shocked and looked at Cross, who was chuckling on the side.
She really felt like crying, its hard enough trying to compete with him and now he set her feather on fire. For an 11 year old Hermione this was too much and she ran out of the room, with tears in her eyes.
Cross sighed and mumbled "It was just a joke... for fuck sakes."
The class ended shortly after and everyone went to the Halloween banquet. There was tables full of candy and junk food. Cross sat down in a bad mood, he wasn't expecting Hermione to lose control of herself and start crying because he lit a feather on fire.
He looked around and saw that Hermione was missing, he sighed and started to eat from the insignia labeled plates while shooting his strings into the ground and shooting around the school. He found Hermione crying in a bathroom.
He sighed again and left the table, going to the bathroom saying "Need to go." the prefect nodded and said "Just come back fast." Cross nodded and left.
He walked through the halls and heard a loud crash coming from the bathroom Hermione was in. He frowned and walked into the bathroom and saw Hermione hiding under the sink with a giant troll smashing things and making a racket.
Hermione looked at Cross and shouted "Run!" Cross ignored her and dug his finger in his ear as he said "Noisy." he waved his hand and extremely fine strings came out, slashing at the troll.
The troll turned around, only to be cut in 6 pieces. The flesh falling to the ground and splashing blood all over the place. Hermione was stunned silly, she couldn't even understand what happened. Cross waved his hand and the troll turned into deli meat.
Hermione looked at Cross with her mouth open so wide you could fit an egg in it. He sighed and mumbled "Am I going to have to obliviate her now? Why did I even come here.." he scratched his head in frustration and was about to say something when he heard foot steps.
He looked at Hermione and said "Keep quiet about what you saw, I will find you later." before teleporting away, but to Hermione it looked like he disappeared into thin air.
Not even a second later, Ron and Harry ran into the bathroom shouting "Hermione! Are you okay!?" before seeing the troll deli meat and gasping. Hermione said softly "I'm fine..." Harry pointed to the troll meat and said "What happened?" Hermione shook her head and said "I don't know, there was a flash of light and then this."
Ron poked at the troll and said "Blimey! That's some light!" Hermione smiled a little and McGonagall rushed into the bathroom with Snape and Quirell. She immediately said to Ron and Harry "Explain yourselves!" Hermione interrupted and said "It was my fault professor. I read about Trolls and thought I could take it. If it weren't for someone saving me, I would have died. Ron and Harry helped."
McGonagall said "And this is..." as she looked at the Troll meat. Hermione added "All I saw was a flash of light." The teachers were silent and Snape said "This.. Is not something a First year can do.." McGonagall nodded and asked "Did you see anything else?" Hermione shook her head and kept silent.
McGonagall nodded and said "Return you three." and the trio left the bathroom.
McGonagall touched the Troll corpse and frowned as she said "Seems like a very controlled Severing Charm." Snape frowned and said "Severing Charm? How could that be? None of the first years could do this." McGonagall frowned and said "No matter, the danger is gone. Professor Quirell, clean up." before leaving with Snape.
Cross was already back at the table eating, he got back a while ago. Completely impossible for anyone to even suspect him.
The feast ended and everyone went back to the common rooms over their houses.
Cross was talking with Daphne in the common room, when an older Slytherin student came down and said "Anyone good with a broom? Our seeker is sick and we need a new player."
Cross was silent and ignored him, but obviously he wasn't getting away that easily. Daphne said "Cross is good with a broom!" the guy looked at Cross and said "Good, get ready to play Quidditch tomorrow." before leaving, not even giving Cross the chance to refute.
Cross sighed and said to Daphne "This is attracting unnecessary attention!" Daphne giggled and said "You can use some attention. You sit and read all day!" Cross rubbed his eyes and said "If I play will you let me go?" Daphne said "Only if you win!"
Cross groaned and said "Fine." Daphne cheered and said "Goodluck!" before skipping up the stairs in a happy mood.