June 1986
After having been in the wizarding world for a while, and having starting to immerse himself in magic, Robert was getting frustrated with his studies on said topic. It was magic, but it seemed so limiting. Everything was planned and executed in one spell without any real creativity. Each spell did one thing and one thing only.
Yes, there were spells that let somebody control their spell after casting it, but their was no MAGIC to it.
To Robert, magic should be magical. But to the normal person, from what he had studied, if you need something done, use the specific spell that was intended for that task. Levitate something, you use Wingardium Leviosa to lift the object. It was as simple as that. But the question is why are is that person not just using magic for something simple, instead they use that spell.
The real question the this revealed, is how did the original witches and wizards use their magic? Even with all the history books detailing the wizarding world that Robert had read, not a single thought was spent on this. And these books talked about all the feats that ancient and historic wizards were able to accomplish.
It could be as not having the information from that time period, due to stories not having been passed down between generations. Or, it could be historians not having the interest in recording the knowledge of their ancestors. And the only final thing that Robert could assume, was that it was purposefully stricken from annals of history for some reason or another.
It was just frustrating Robert with the lack of in depth knowledge on this subject.
And the reason he thought on this topic, is that he could not cast magic. No, that is incorrect, he had been able to feel his magic flowing around in his body, and had attempted to cast magic. His magic was right about ready to explode out of his body, wanting to go into his wand, but his body felt pain as the magic was trying to make its own exit.
There was some knowledge that Robert learned in his past life, as an older man, if you feel pain, then there is something wrong. Yes, a human body can recover from most injuries, and even get stronger from them. However, in the long run, there will be long term adverse affects. And with this understanding Robert never attempted to push out his magic from his body, he will let it release when his body was ready.
Like with his magic, Robert was exercising everyday, but he was not pushing his limits. His body was still growing, and it needed to grow without impediments caused by forceful pushing of its limits. It was still an enjoyment for Robert to not have to wake up everyday without pains in his joints, always trying to recover from the deluge of wear and tear from a daily life.
And it was nice, with this youthful body, he was able to slowly up his flexibility. From having a body which could not easily touch it's own toes, to now being able to do that with ease. This was one pet project of Robert's that he did accomplish, slowly though. There was no point in enhancing his body if it would hurt him in the long run.
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"Granny, why don't we have house elves?" Inquisitively asked Robert.
"We don't need them," Mary Wickham answered her young grandson.
"Why?" Yes, Robert still was using the age old annoying question from a child.
"There are three of us in this household that can use magic, we can do everything that is needed. And personally, I enjoy cooking."
"But Granny, this house is so big, isn't it a lot of work to do?"
"It would be take a lot of work to clean the house all the time if we didn't enchant the unused rooms with stasis charms. Just keeping the house clean only takes an hours worth of work a week, and that is if the house is really messy. Is that answer enough for you?"
"Then why do wealthy people have house elves?"
"Status is one reason, and the main one. They are also lazy."
Robert had heard some of the kids in his class talk about there house elves the previous day. Yes, he had heard about them previously but had not really considered them. He had agreed with his grandmother, even before hearing her response on why the family did not employ any. They had magic, they were capable, and it did not take much time, so there was no point to needing any of the elves' help.
This was a common occurrence that Robert employed. He found something out, and if it was innocent enough that a child could contemplate on the subject, then query one of his family members. All children did this in one way or another, it was just that Robert had a mature mind when questioning his family then other children did.
Though, on Robert's part, he was not as willing to take the adult response of 'I said so' or some other such answer. He understood that that when that answer came up, whoever he was asking question of, did not want to delve further into a subject. Robert knew that either they did not know the answer, which they might not have questioned themselves before, they were just tired of answering, or that it might be that they did not think the topic was age appropriate for a child. Though, there might be other reasons on why they did not feel like answering a question in full.
"Are we wealthy, Granny?" At last, Robert had an entrance to the question that had always been bugging him. He did not know if his family was rich or just well off.
"We have more than enough money for any such needs that we might have need of."
"Then why do you always wear simple clothes?"
And with a genuine laugh Mary and responded to his question. "My clothes, Robbie, are comfortable, and they are practical. I don't need to wear ostentatious clothing for day to day use. Now, if you had never noticed, some of my formal attires and gowns, they are of high quality, but still simplistic. I would rather wear quality clothing any day over flashy and gaudy pieces any day."
"Don't you want to stand out?"
"I refuse for my clothes to make a statement about myself. My presence alone makes me standout from the crowd."
"Isn't there a saying about clothing making the man?"
"Yes, there is that saying, but it is not the truth. Someone with real power, created from themselves or their situation, can not be hidden by mundane outfits. And the opposite itself is true, someone without a sense of themselves cannot be made to standout just from wearing better clothing. And the people that don't realize that, they are the ones that should not matter."
It made some sense to Robert. There is a sort of presence that one person with importance can exude. Their posture and mannerisms are a part of that. But, there is also a sort of aura given off by those that have power, and know how to use said power. Though the situation that they are in does change a person's presence.
His grandfather, Everett, is one of those people that know how to standout with his presence. Around his grandson, Everett is just a normal grandfather, nothing seeming that he is something other than what he is. But, Robert has seen that when dealing with certain of Everett's business dealings and acquaintances, his demeanor changes into the same, but different person. Everett becomes a man of power.
"Can you teach me how to show off my power?"
"Robbie, your mother and I have been teaching you how to do that all along." Explained his grandmother. "Everyday, that is what we are teaching you to be."
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School was a chore for Robert. Needless to say with his intellectual advanced knowledge, there was no real knowledge taught to him by his teachers. At such young ages children are taught to regurgitate information instead of learning to contemplate the hows and the whys. In truth, until much later in there education, they are taught that. It is usually not until they are nearing the end of their mandatory education are they truly taught to think for themselves.
Maths, that was such a non-starter that Robert had not paid a single bit of attention to any of the classes that he had been in. Reading and writing, other than learning to use the British spellings of some words, that too was entirely too simplistic for him. Science, that was a laugh. With the school being run by the wizarding society, the students were only taught a cursory understand of modern day knowledge.
As for history, this was the only subject that interested Robert. It was not that the information being taught had any great weight in his understanding, instead it was giving him a perspective about the world from a different vantage point. In fact it was not just one point of view that changed, it was both the he was on the other side of the "pond", and the fact that it was based on the wizarding world point of view.
The class itself only gave Robert a place to start looking for different information. Like any elementary history lesson, they simply broad stokes of history into morsel sized pieces of knowledge. Each small piece of information that Robert was taught, he at least attempted to find out more of the broader dealings and implications behind each event.
For Robert, finding out the Leonardo DaVinci was a squib, though well educated, led him to questioning other such geniuses throughout history. With looking throughout all the history books that he had available to him in his grandparents library, he attempted to suss out other such muggle historical figures, and tried to see who, if any, had ties to the magical world.
Most ancient historical figures of power, did have such ties to the magical world. Either they had actually been wizards and witches, or they had been taught by the wizarding communities. It had been, at least in one point in time, a fact that the main clusters of knowledge were centered around the magical communities. They had the want and the desire to accumulate knowledge, and they had the life spans granted by their magics, that they had the time to invest in learning all that they could.
Unfortunately, before the start of the Renaissance, the wizarding world, at least in Western societies, started to withdrawn from the muggle world. Due to the spread of Catholicism, magic was deemed as evil. And with the small population, in proportion to the muggle one, most muggles had no interactions to wizards and witches. Due to ignorance, and of fear spread through the burgeoning religion, the wizarding started to withdraw more and more from their non-magical counterpart.
The isolation from the muggle society, and the smaller population, slowed down the advancements that had previously been common. As more and more time passed, with fewer new ideals, and less interaction from the outside the world, the European wizarding world came to a metaphorical rut.
While some of the wizarding community had always been adverse to muggle born wizards and witches joining their society, it was not until the isolation that the ideas of pure blood ideology came to prominence. It was their own fear of change that stifled their own development. Being content in their tiny bubbles, hidden from the rest of the world, the wizarding world festered in mediocrity.
Unlike the wizarding world, the muggle world started to blossom as scientific advancements started to propel them to be capable of performing feats that the magical community had taken for granted. Just the printing press allowed knowledge to be accessed by not just the people of higher classes, but instead commoners too started to learn from the accessible knowledge. Add on to the other advancements in sciences and mathematics, the muggle world was able to start being comparable to the wizarding world. And these advancements kept growing until what was the now the modern times, in which the muggle world had progressed beyond the wizarding one. And the wizarding world, in it's self imposed isolation, fermenting hatred of those different from them, was being left behind.
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I'm a little masochistic when it comes to world building. It's needed, but I just keep on wanting to add more things. Hopefully, you enjoy.