Even though he was still fighting to become adapted sensing the miasma pervading everything magical, Robert was finding magic magical once again. Seeing the household magic that his family used, and realizing each strand of magic had it's own flavor, though still permeated in that dreadful filthy magic, he felt like it was remarkable at what magic could do. Know the problem is for him, is that he is trying to differentiate each strand of magic to see what each and every one of them did.
The hard part to that task, was that he was hiding his capabilities from his family. Yes, he did love them. And yes, he completely trusted them with this secret. The problem, though, was that there was a communication barrier between his family and that of himself.
And it hurt him that he was not truly able to open himself up to his family. Robert had for a long time developed deep connections with each of them, all of them having special quirks that endeared him to them. Just trying to speak of any part of his new ability, and leaving them without an understanding of what he was trying to navigate through, left him frustrated. The hate of not telling his family lost to the frustratingly difficult conversations.
So alone he trudged, step after agonizing step, in making his new sense a boon.
Without a wand, he was still limited in his capacities to use magic on the regular. While being able to see the strands of magic that each spell was drawing out, he had not the knowledge on how to 'weave' them in order to magic them last. After his first accidental wandless magic, he had not been able to replicate that again. Robert understood what the problem was, but knowledge eluded him on how to achieve that step.
Excluding magic that required a wand, Robert was starting to become comfortable with potion work. With his new sense, and the knowledge in the books regarding ingredients and their properties, he could notice in depth what was going on while the potions brewed. And in this case, unknown to himself, Robert was making a mistake.
Instead of completely understanding a single potion in breadth and depth, he kept on going through a small but wide array of different potions. For a normal magical person, this would have been the right way to advance in potion making, but in Robert's case, he could have advanced further going the a different way. If he would have focused on just one simple potion, he could have understand what each ingredient brought to the potion, and what each step did for that part of the potion. Alas, he was ignorant of this fact, at least for now.
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1 June 1990
Today was the final day of Robert's elementary school years. From there, it was going to be seven years at Hogwarts. And this would began what would be the final seven years of his formal education in magical society.
Tears were shed by the children that would be going to be leaving Hogwarts, or one of the other magical schools in a few months. Of the handful of children in his class, only around ten, two of them were squibs, not like Robert cared about them in any way. And Robert, he did not truly care about any of the children.
Just seeing these children, nearly everyday for years, he had seen them grow up and mature, to an extent. They all were still extremely childish. Robert could not develop a connection, on his end, with the rest of his year mates in this school.
Not counting the squibs, all his class mates that would go into the wizarding world, also shown signs of filth in their magic. With some presumptions, Robert could only come to the conclusion that accidental magic caused wounds in their magical aura allowing their magic to become essentially diseased. That was helped by the fact that the children that used more accidental magic than others, were more diseased than those that rarely had cases of accidental magic.
The squibs that were in his class, like Robert, were not infected in any ways by what he considered magical filth. But the problem with them, was that neither of them had an aura of any size. Yes, they did have a magical aura, like all wizards and witches do, but it was barely noticeable in any of them. At least they had an aura, unlike muggles. Well, some muggles that Robert had interacted with, due to his family connections, did have an aura. But did not affect him in any way.
"Hey, Robbie." Yes, other than Robert himself, he was called by Robbie by everyone else, to his chagrin. "Thanks for being a friend to me first the past few years. I'm sorry that you can't go to Hogwarts with the rest of use." This was said by a future witch by the name of Katie.
With some confusion, Robert responded to Katie's statement. "Huh, what do you mean about not going to Hogwarts? It's not like I plan on going to Durmstang or Beauxbatons."
Katie squinted at Robert, with her own sense of confusion. "I know you've never mention it, but you are a squib. So...no Hogwarts?"
With both forefingers pointing at himself, Robert shook his head. "Umm, not a squib."
"You're not?"
"Nope."
"But..?"
"What, that I never talked about accidental magic that I used? Why should I? It wouldn't be like I was doing the magic on purpose."
"What?" Now, Katie was completely confused. All the rest of the wizards and witches in all the school boasted about whenever they had a bout of accidental magic, though they did not always talked about what cause said magical outburst.
"But… but? I told you about what happened the first time I used magic. And it was so embarrassing when I think about it."
"Good for you, Katie. Now that you remind me, I have the ammunition to use for next year. Especially when you start asking me for more help in your homework. What was it, something about your dress? And in public? If only, if only more people knew about the true you?"
"Don't you dare Robbie, or else."
"Or else what my dear class mate?"
"…" Without words, Katie could only open her mouth, her having forgotten that she had nothing to retaliate with against Robert.
"Kneazle got your tongue?" With some snark, that years of life had helped to develop, Robert had to leave this child speechless.
Pouting, and with stomping feet, Katie left the area that Robert was standing in, grumbling about something, sounding like getting back at him. Childish tantrums, for an adult, they were nothing to fear about them. In a few minutes, she would probably forget about this event, or at least until something similar popped up. There was no reason for Robert to worry about this event. Maybe in a few years, things would be different.
In a few weeks, Robert should be getting his Hogwarts acceptance letter. His immediate family had all gone through the Hogwarts educational system. And, other than his first few years in life, when he lived in America, he had no ties to any of the other magical schools. From having spoken to his mother, the MACUSA did not even know that Beth Dresden, and the now deceased Rob Dresden, Robert's father, had been of the magical persuasion. They had entered the country through muggle means, prohibiting the American magical ministry from even finding out about them.
Beth had been planning on traveling to France with Robert over the summer, before he went to Hogwarts the following autumn. While she was planning on spending some time with him, bonding, they were also going there to start buying some better quality supplies for him. Due to the British ministry being one of the most closed minded in the wizarding world, the quality of the goods produced their were inferior to that of Britain's next door neighbor. His robes, cauldrons, and his wand would all be procured while on their trip. As for the rest of his items, they would be bought in Diagon Alley.
There was one thing, that Gramps Everett that would not allow Robert to buy.
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Opening up the conversation Everett said, "So, Robbie, what have you decide on for your trunk?"
"I'll go with a soft wood, something like pine, as it will be probably be abused being around my dorm mates. 3' wide, 2' tall, and 1' in depth. The trunk lid will have the same width and depth, but only be about 4" tall. As for enchantments, other than extension enchantment, I haven't really decided what else to add." Robert was going for a simplistic trunk as he would be using it for only a few years, and he would make a better one for himself when his skills allowed him make a much better quality trunk.
"I would suggest you put on a shrinking enchantment, and a weight reducing enchantment. You should add one or two security charms to the chest, not that you'll need them, but they'll give you something else to study."
"Should I add a locking enchantment, with a ward to prevent simple unlocking spells?"
"Anything else?" While Everett was not trying to prevent Robert from doing anything to his chest that he did not want, he was trying to coax out of him different ideas that he could use.
"Should I use the extension enchantment on the lid and the base of the chest separately?"
"I'm not saying you are wrong or right, but why are you wanting to do it that way?"
"The chest would have two separate compartments. It should allow me to have more overall room in the trunk that way?" Robert was not one hundred percent sure that he had to correct understand about having a secondary charm, but having a separate compartment was useful in it's own right.
"You are correct. By having two different enchantments, you should be able to get an extra 10% more room out of it, and keep it stable for at least 20 years."
"Fwew, I was right."
"Since that's what you are thinking about making, I need you to properly sketch out the design. I want the measurements of every physical dimension, and where you and how you are going to attach every piece, and whatever other materials you are going to need. After that, I'll give you a price list, and I want you to calculate the total cost of what the chest is going to take for you to make. I'll give you two days."
Robert nodded in agreement to his grandfather's demands, and deciding it was an apt time, request one other thing, "Gramps, can you help me with one other thing?"
"Possibly. It depends on what you need."
"I want to make a bracelet, for my left wrist. I want to have a locket like piece on it, that was an extending enchantment on it."
"And what would you use that for?" Everett had an idea of what Robert was considering as soon as he heard it, but he still wanted to hear it from the proverbial horse.
"Instead of using a holster for my hand, I want to use the locket to house it."
"I'll consider it. But the same with your trunk, I need to see a design for it. But for this one, I want you to write a list of different metals you are considering, and give me a reason why you would and why you would not use that metal."
"I can do that."
"Good. Now, I want to ask, thinking about where you are going to wear that locket, have you thought of any other enchantments to use?"
"Something to keep it dry, and clean. It'd be on my wrist, so thinks to keep up it's condition."
"Not a sizing enchantment?" Asked Everett.
"No need, I wanted to use leather to hold it in place. I'm still growing, so I needed to keep that in consideration."
"Take three days, and I want both of those designs, and we can go from there."
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Done with introducing his cheat, and onward to Hogwarts. I meant to post this earlier in the day, but slightly under the weather, just enough to be an annoyance.