"...Harry Potter and the Kneazle Knave."
Robert had heard that name before. Of course he had not heard it in this life, but in his previous one. It was about a boy that destroyed some dark lord as an infant. Or at least that is what he remembered.
He had watched the first movie, because of the girl that he was dating at the time, but he did not really enjoy it. While he had loved reading fantasy novels in the past life, they were the ones mainly aimed at adults, and with hard magic systems. And with Harry Potter, the story was juvenile. There was also the frustration with such a lose system of magic, that had no real apparent rules to it.
So when the second movie, and subsequent ones came out, he ignored them. It also did not help that his girlfriend, that made him watch the first movie, had broken up with him. Or was it vise versa?
Ruminating in his thoughts, Robert was entirely ignoring the story that Mrs. Fornsworth was telling. Though, that was a normal thing for him, as the stories are meant for those of the maturity of children. The question of was this just a random story about said boy, that was fictional? Or was it about a boy that was real?
"Mrs. Fornsworth, is Harry Potter real?" Questioned the young Robert.
"Yes my dear, he is as real as you are."
"So? Is the story true?"
In a mournful voice, Mrs. Fornsworth patiently responded to the question proposed by Robert. "This one, unfortunately not. But the big one, I'm sad to say is true."
"Thank you, Mrs. Fornsworth. And sorry. I shouldn't have interrupted the story."
In his blissful ignorance, Robert had been ignoring the clues given to him. Magic, muggles, and other such things. He had never conceived that his world, that he was living in, was a fictional world in his previous life.
Information was lacking, due to Robert's lack of interest in the movies, and as well as the books. Due to the nature of the story being a pop sensation, he remembered hearing that the story got more mature, and darker, as the story went on. And here he was, in England, in what he could only assume was the general time frame of one Harry Potter, and Robert, he became scared.
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As the day advanced, Robert was lost in his thoughts. He was wondering what he could do, to protect himself. Ignoring just himself, what could he do to protect his family, and friends, if he ever made any? He, for the first time in this life, knew that he should not proceed without some actual plans. Robert knew for a fact that if he just kept on living the way he was currently, he had no chance in succeeding in being safe.
Magic, to Robert, was an interesting thing, a hobby. He had not thought about his future in using said magic. And now, now he had to delve deeper, and more thoroughly into it. It was now his desire to become entrenched in magic. But how?
Study.
Learn.
Perfect.
Robert realized that he now, from this point forward, had to give himself to understand everything there is about magic. If the world was going to be dark, he had to light his own way forward. Knowledge is power, but understanding that knowledge, makes it so much more powerful.
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*1st Person Perspective*
Ok, first things first, I need to try practice casting magic. I know a handful of spells, but I have not even tried to cast a one yet. And for that, I need a wand.
I am not sure why I need a wand? But seeing that my grandparents, and my mother all use a wand, I can only assume that I need one. Even if Mom will not allow me a wand, I can still practice wand motions with a "wand", a fake one at least. Learning how to move a wand correctly seems to be one of the keys to successfully casting a spell.
Spells, I should only try to focus on practical ones. Offense, defense, even utility spells can be useful, if I can learn when to use them.
Why? I was happy just being what I am, living in my family. I was content in just gradually learning about magic. But no, I have to be born into this world, into this situation. And I want to live!!!
No, focus, I need to assume the worst. What is the worst for the time being? I can't get a wand, and that will preclude my from casting magic.
If that is the case, I need to learn to understand everything that I am able to about magic. Knowing the how and the why a spell works, if I can not practice magic, should understand the nuances. I refuse to learn by rote repetition without understanding what I am trying to do. Doing that can likely pigeonhole me into a pawn in whatever happens. I refuse to allow myself to be a piece that could by thrown away without care.
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A few days had passed since Robert had learned that he was in the world of Harry Potter, and he was still formulating his plans, constantly reworking them. Every time he tried to plan out one future, one problem or another one would leave him realizing that that plan would not work the way he hoped.
There was not a single key area of study that would help to safeguard himself from attackers. Each topic would have both it's own benefits and detriments. If Robert would focus on just charms, for instance, while they were quick casting spells, the effects were not permanent, and they were able to be easily overcome. If instead he focused on potions, the time and cost to be able to defend himself completely, were not really feasible for someone in his situation. And with something like transfiguration, he was, at least at this point, ignorant on how to use it in a live or die moment.
Ultimately, his decision was to take his time until going to higher education to get as much information as he can, and try to condense everything down into smaller topics. Robert wanted and hoped to eliminate excess data getting in his way. And that was his plan that he went forward with.
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After talking with his grandfather, the a few days after he found about Harry Potter and then making a semi-finalized plan, he was told to create his own practice wand. Everett, while wanting to help out his grandson, explained to said child that learning magic before your body matured properly, was a bad thing. It would make using magic more difficult. He did not go into further details about the cause of that being the case, and as a child, it was not practical for Robert to question further. He still needed to act as a child.
With his grandfather being a craftsman dealing with multitudes of different woods, which he often had scraps left over, Robert was given the choice of different types of wood to make his practice wand. It did not truly matter what type of wood he used to create his wand, but as Robert was learning woodcraft from his grandfather, he took his time to decide which type of wood to practice with. Both for his woodworking, and his wand motions.
There was such a variety of woods that Robert was learning about in his grandfather's workshop. Hard woods, soft woods, aromatic, and all with such different varieties of colors and grain patterns, that it took him a bit of time to decide which he should work with. Based on what Robert had to work with, he finally decided to use red oak, that had by chance was from the center of a tree. He would be using centering the wand based on the rings, leaving the innermost rings of the piece of wood to become the "core" of the wand.
He ended up creating a ten and a half inch wand with the diameter of the tip being three quarters of an inch thick, with a small bevel. The handle of the wand was an inch thick, except a few bulges, for grip, that were an inch an a half. The butt of the wand was rounded of, to make holding the wand more comfortable. Robert completed his wand by using linseed oil, making the wand show off it's exposed grain.
Robert took pride in his work of several days, though his legs were sore after using a peddle powered lathe to make his wand uniformly round. It was not a wand in the truest since, but he had made it, and put effort into making it into what he wanted. He wondered if this is what his grandfather took enjoyment for in his craft.
With the way Robert crafted his wand, he was able to hold and control his practice wand in several different ways. With the rounded butt, he was able to make bold motions. With the nubs that he had, his fingers would let him have more deft movements, letting him have more intricacy. The nubs also allowed quick forward and backwards motions without his grip slipping. His wand would let him practice his motions in way that he could do, until he was given his proper wand.
And practice he did.
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All the time he was practicing, Robert practiced in front of a mirror, slowly performing the movements described in his perusals. Swishes, flicks, jabs, at first, then followed by more and more complex motions. And when he felt that he was competent in his motions, he would ask one of his family members to review his labors.
While he had practiced the motions correctly, at least for the most part, some of the motions were slightly wrong. His flicks, they were to short, and did not have an abrupt enough ending. His swished were a little to lackadaisical. And the worst part, he found out the instead of using either his whole arm, or just his fingers, he was taught how to use more utilize his wrist more.
Days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months as he was practicing. Since his wand was not a real wand, after having practiced his motions to a competent degree, whenever he was practicing a spell, not a single magical moment happened. But, he felt his magic bubbling up every time he practiced casting each and every spell.
Slowly, and without notice to Robert, his "wand" was being infused with the magic given off from himself as he was practicing. He had not the control of his magic at this point, and should not have until he has a true wand, to be able to detect the changes he was creating.
Outside of practicing to use magic, Robert spent time with his grandfather on woodworking, letting him create simple pieces, and the learning ways to enchant them. He was never given the chance to enchant them, he could not even cast magic yet. But the knowledge in that craft was building up.
As for the rest of the family, his mother and grandmother, he learned about his family heritage, the British wizarding world, manners to be used when in formalized settings, and a whole host of other things. Most of what was being taught by those two women were not in a formalized way, they were weaved into conversations throughout the time Robert spent with them. They were slowly educating him, while trying to not bore a child by sitting through boring lectures.
He had realized what his family was doing, and yet he did not reject their efforts. If he was a child, he would not have realized that they were educating him, they were only trying to let him accumulate his knowledge slowly, through osmosis. It was a type of indoctrination in the wisdom that his family held in esteem.
And as for school...
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Sorry, I don't like this chapter. It took me over a week to write this one chapter, and I still don't like how it turned out. This was a set-up part of story, and I don't feel like I have the skills to write this in a way that I would be proud of. I'm sorry for that.
On brighter notes, I'm almost done writing chapter 10 while I post this chapter. And I finally have started his cheat. It will not make him more powerful without any hard work. I have never completely liked having a cheat that just because of the cheat, it will make someone more powerful.
If you find any mistakes in my typing, let me know so I can fix them. I have trouble editing myself.