"No, you see, I know that in a death day party there's going to be a lot of food, right? But it's not gonna be edible food but rotten one, so I was trying to create a spell to block my sense of smell but still being able to breathe." Allen said hurriedly after seeing Helena's face.
Her suspicion seemed to diminish after Allen explained himself. Then, suspicion became curiosity as Allen was able to craft a spell for something so specific without the aid of his wand or an incantation. "How did you do it?"
Seeing how he managed to convince her, he let out a relieved breath. "Ah, about that, maybe we can learn about each other later, since I haven't told my friends about it.
There's a reason as to why I came here to practice it in the first place."
Helena once again looked at him with suspicion but turned her head towards another side. He was right, she was going to respect his wishes, but that didn't stop her from wanting to know, since it was in her nature to seek knowledge.
Allen changed the topic before she could say anything else. "So, is Sir Nicholas really scared of me?"
Taking her out of her thoughts, Helena looked back at him, her head turned a bit to the side. "Scared… yes, but more than that, I guess he's scared about what you can see inside each of us. As I've told you before, We all feel something different, but its always something similar, fear, nervousness, others feel like you are peeping at their souls, making them scared of what you could do."
Allen let out and exhausted breath, while his eyes did have a couple of powers that he himself hasn't understood properly, it didn't make him some kind of monster. "Yet, he invited me to his party." He raised an eyebrow with a questioning look.
"Yes." Helena answered clear and simple.
"Why?"
As I've told you-"
"No, I understand that all of the ghosts can tell I've died, but I don't think that's enough reason to invite me, nor is enough reason to look at rude ghosts, which I'll gladly do, to be fair. But I want to do it knowing the real reason."
After a couple of seconds, Helena spoke again. "Give me a moment."
"Take your time." When he finished speaking, Helena disappeared from the Room and after a few minutes, she passed through the wall with Sir Nicholas behind her.
"Ah, Sir Nicholas, I thought I wouldn't see you until your death day." Allen extended his arms, showing that he welcomed the ghost.
"R- Right Mr Lionheart, I'm glad you accepted my invitation."
Allen just hummed in agreement. "You can call me Allen, Sir Nicholas, it's okay, actually, I would prefer it."
The ghost nodded with a bit of nervousness.
"Now, I would like to know the real reason as to why you've invited me. And please don't lie to me."
Sir Nicholas nodded and after a minute of silence, he spoke. "Have you heard of the 'Headless Hunt' Mr Allen?"
Allen frowned his face. The name sounded familiar to him somehow, yet it didn't. "I think I have, but can't remember the specifics."
Sir Nicholas nodded, more relaxed now that he had something to talk about. "It's a ghost organization that consists of decapitated ghosts, as it name implies."
Allen nodded, letting the ghost continue talking.
"Well, I've trying to join their organization for a while now, but haven't received any response. After much deliberation I decided to invite their members to my death day and see if they will let me join in their ranks. They accepted the invitation but I'm worried that they might… belittle me, for a lack of a better term, since my head is still a bit attached to my body."
"Hmm, I see. Then, what you want me to do is…?"
"If they, for some reason…" Sir Nicholas cleared his non-existent throat. "Belittle me for my condition, I was hoping Mr Allen could give them a disapproving look."
Allen looked at Sir Nicholas with a questioning look. "Hmm, I mean, I can do it, but it doesn't feel right with me, since this is the first time we've talked Sir Nicholas, and while it doesn't take me much to do it, it still feels a bit unfair to do you a favor, without giving something in return."
"That, That wasn't my intention at all, of course!" Imaginary sweat dropped from the ghost's forehead. "I also wanted to discuss the favor with you, but since there were still a few days to go, I thought I would find first something to help you with."
Allen had a pensive look on his face before answering. "I know what I want. Whatever happens in the party, no one will tell what happened there. How's that?"
"Excuse me for asking but… Are you planning on doing something dangerous?"
"Of course not. I just want to try something, and if the Headless Hunt is as rude as you say, then I suppose it's okay to be a little rude as well." A tint of his eye's green light appeared on them for a moment before disappearing.
"Understood, then I'll talk with the rest of the ghost that I've invited. To not tell anyone what happens in my death day.
Now if you'll excuse me."
"Take care Sir Nicholas, see you at your death day." Allen waved at the ghost before it vanished through the wall.
"Can I ask what are you planning on doing?" Helena spoke from the side.
"Ah, yes, actually, I'm going to need your help, so I might as well tell you." Allen crossed his arms and nodded his head at what he said.
"And what if I don't want?"
Allen shrugged his shoulders. "It's not like I can force you to help me, so if you don't want that's okay, I'll just have to improvise on the fly."
Helena let out a breath before looking back at him. "Okay, I'll help, but only if you tell me how you were able to create a spell without the use of any focus or incantation." She bargained.
"Oh, so that still bothered you? Okay, yeah, I help you, you help me, I can do that. But maybe the answer won't be what you are looking for, is that okay still?"
"Yes, I'll be the one to decide if it's good enough or not."
Allen shrugged his shoulders again. "As you wish."
"So, let me start by saying that at first I didn't know that I was a wizard."
A confused look showed on Helena's face.
"Trust me, this is important for what I'm about to tell you.
So, I had my first burst of accidental magic when I was five years old, at the time, I thought that what happened was psychic powers. Do you know what psychic powers are? Well, it's okay if you don't.
In any case, I didn't think of it as magic, but I knew I was different, so I practiced my power, in this case, my magic, without knowing what it was. I continued to train doing different kinds of things, like creating fire or water, levitating objects.
All this time, I didn't know I needed to recite incantations or use a wand." Allen casted the Wand Raising Charm as he said so and his wand received gladly.
"Then, that made me able to cast spells without the need of a wand or an incantation, since I just need to think what I want to happen."
Helena was shocked and after a few minutes she spoke again. "You… Use a form of accidental magic, but are able to control it?"
Wondering if that was the true or not, Allen responded. "Maybe? I don't know, I just know that I can. And so I did it to create the spell to block any and all smells" He finished, pinching his nose as if a putrid smell just entered his nose.
"But that's…" Helena drifted off, mumbling something to herself that Allen couldn't quiet understand. In the end, she left the Room of Requirements, leaving him alone to his devices.
"Welp, I guess I need to go back now, maybe we can practice to give physical form to a ghost tomorrow." Allen stood up and levitated all of his stuff back to him, gave the map a last glance before going out and giving the Room of Requirements the dose of Wand Raising Charm for the day.
-----------------------------------
"So have you found a spell to block your sense of smell?" Sophia asked him. They were currently in the library, finishing their homework for the day.
"No, not really, but I can just use a clothespin or cover my face with a cloth so the smell doesn't enter my nose. Not everything has to be solved by magic, you know?" Allen lied, he did found a spell, after all, he made it the other day but didn't want to tell them.
"Ah, I never thought of that, I guess you are right." Responded Sophia.
"So, any progress in transfiguration?" Allen asked, changing the topic of the conversation.
Elsie, Sophia and William looked at him with a piercing glare.
"Eh, um, sorry, but it is just about practicing."
The three of them let out a sigh, while they weren't behind in any way or form in their class, being friends with Allen and Armand required you to pump out all you can do towards magic. So, they were ahead of the rest of their classmates, but behind their two friends, putting them in an uncomfortable middle ground.
Armand close the book he was reading and looked towards his friends. "Transfiguration IS a difficult class to master, you shouldn't feel bad because of your progress. And well, as Allen said, you need to practice if you want to get better at it, there's no shortcut to it."
At the mention of shortcuts, Allen remembered what he read in the Occlumency book, about the use of the Body for an animagus transfiguration. Would it be possible if someone develops their Body, to get better at transfigurations, and not only at the animagus one? But they would need to consciously use their Body to cast the transfigurations and most, if not all British wizards don't even know about the other two dantians. Would it even work?
Allen remained silent for a while and his friends noticed that.
"Do you… actually have a way to make it easier?" William asked doubtful.
"Hmm? Maybe, I'm not sure if it works, and it's also more trouble than it's worth, so I think you guys would be better if you continued to practice like normal."
"Ah! No fair!" Elsie cried, pointing her book at Allen.
"E- Elsie?!" Sophia exclaimed, wondering what made her react like that.
"Why don't you tell us? Or at least help us like you did when we had our first charms class."
Allen scratched his head, wondering if he should tell them. At least he could help his friends feel their magic, which would make it easier for them, but since he already implied another way, they might want to know, so it's better to nip the bud before it grows.
"Right then, I read about this method but I don't know if it works since I can't test it."
His three friends listened intently and Armand also looked his way, curious about what he was going to say.
"Apparently, if you train to become an animagus, since you go through a body transfiguration, you get more adept at the use of the spells." Allen explained in simplest words he could find without talking about the dantians, its not like he was withholding information, but more like he didn't know how they would react and decided to just explain it like so.
"Uh? Animagus? But isn't that like, incredibly dangerous?" Sophia wondered.
"Yes, it is, if it goes wrong, you can have permanent damage, and whats more, it takes too long." Elsie added from the side.
"Oh, you know about it?" William asked surprised about the sudden burst of knowledge.
"Yeah, I read about it since Professor McGonagall showed it to us in our first class."
"Should we ask her about it?" Armand wondered from behind, gathering the attention o f his friends. "I also read in a book about transfiguration something similar.
About how learning the animagus transfiguration gives you a deeper understanding of that school of magic, but they were just speculations and a few interviews, nothing too concrete.
But we don't lose anything by asking her, right?"