*****
Take a small step to the left, turn your body, thereby letting a bright scarlet beam pass by. Waving a wand - compressed air flies at the enemy in a form reminiscent of a sea wave, which is going to absorb everything in its path.
Nev did not defend himself or take the wave to his chest. He acted a little differently - he simply jumped to the side, saturating his body with prana.
A moment and I feel a stirring under my feet. A jump up and a fleeting glance down showed that I had done the right thing - dozens of grape vines grew right out of the ground, which even in appearance seemed much stronger than usual. When did you have time?
A wave of Neville's wand and two tree spears fly towards me. True, this spell took all his strength. My friend's body fell onto the soft grass, but his eyes continued to follow me, waiting for the results. I won't make him wait long.
As if by magic, two ice plates appeared in front of me and took the blow of the spears. As soon as they touched, the wood that made up the shells began to quickly become covered with frost. A second later, the wood was covered with thick ice. In a moment, this entire structure will scatter into thousands of snowflakes, leaving no trace.
Softly stepping on the ground, under a small dance of ice crystals, I moved towards the Neva. The same, seeing the results of his attack, only sadly lowered his head, thereby burying himself in the grass.
Coming closer to him, I saw how the plants entwined the guy, beginning to share their mana and prana with him (quite an impressive sight. As if nature itself supported its child...). Still, he spent quite a lot of energy in this sparring.
- Well, why are you sad? — I asked, squatting next to this "body." And indeed, there was clearly a whiff of sadness mixed with fatigue from him.
"It didn't work out again," he muttered sadly. "But I deliberately placed a trap there before the sparring began, but you still managed to dodge." So I also managed to defend myself in the air from my tree copies, on which I spent almost half of my reserve! And besides, he didn't spare the prana! — he finally couldn't stand it at the end and raised his voice slightly.
Hmm, I didn't even notice this trap, although I was inspecting the clearing before the start of the fight. Although it is quite understandable why I didn't notice: we are on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, here not only the plants, but the earth itself is overflowing with mana and prana. So I discovered another weakness of my vision, even if it had already become much stronger than before. Although I am confident that over time I will be able to discern even such minor changes.
"Don't be so hard on yourself," I answered after a short pause. "Even though you couldn't hold out against me for long, you were able to force me to use ice, although this had never happened before."
There was a rustling sound. From under the thickets (it takes a couple of minutes to grow to such an extent without recharge from the magician - it's worth a lot) Nev's head appeared. His incredulous gaze focused on me.
"But that's true," he said quietly.
- Here you see. So all is not lost. You have room to grow - perhaps it's not worth telling him that I could finish the fight before it started, simply using telekinesis. - Okay, get out of the thicket already. Otherwise, just like a real badger, you "burrowed" into your hole.
Smiling slightly, I watched as Nev looked at himself in shock, and then tried to crawl out of this cocoon without damaging the vegetation. This battle was legendary: one side did not want to let go of their friend, and the other did not want to harm the first. Dead end.
"Use prana or mana, otherwise this will go on forever," I still couldn't stand it after five minutes of watching this theater.
- Exactly! - the under-druid joyfully shouted and, closing his eyes, plunged into himself. In my magical vision, I clearly saw mana flowing through his aura into the plants. They, in turn, as if they had received some kind of command, released their "victim".
Finally, after a minute, it was all over, the grass retreated, and Nev himself stood in front of me, guiltily looking at his feet. Oh, what a small child.
Apparently my thoughts were somehow reflected on my face, since it shrank even more, and there was a hint of nervousness about it.
- What is wrong with you? The last few days you haven't been yourself, you're always afraid of something, you're afraid of me. Nev, what is it? - I still couldn't stand it.
Two weeks have passed since the incident with the cat. The passions have subsided a little in the castle, although echoes can still be heard, such as Potter's ignorance or Argus Filch's hatred.
Just in the second week after the incident, I began to notice strangeness in Neville's behavior. He became even more withdrawn, his former confidence disappeared, and was replaced by some kind of self-pity and slight nervousness. These changes could not please me to any degree, so I arranged training in the open air, away from the castle. And if my fears are confirmed...
"You see, Michael recently told me..." Nev began.
- Michael? Michael Corner? — I asked in surprise. — How long ago did you start communicating?
"A week," he shrugged. - Don't think, he's not a bad guy, despite the fact that we have nothing in common, but he's a good friend.
"Okay," I agreed for a while with his statement, although whoever, but Michael. - Maybe Patil is still friends with you two? — a surprised look and a cautious nod on his part was my answer. - Okay, okay. Let's continue where we left off. What did Michael tell you?
- Well, you see, everyone at the faculty knows that you train on your own, but you don't take me with you. So he suggested that I'm not your friend at all," he somehow added very quietly at the end, shrinking even more in anticipation of something.
Here's the deal. This needs to be done in a couple of evenings. Was he mentally retrained? Although no, here is a standard set of protection against mental attacks on the spot. And where?..
- Nev, where is your potion guide? Lost?
Hearing me, Nev looked in surprise at his right hand, looking for a ring there. Not finding it, he turned his gaze to me and said:
- Looks like it. True, I don't remember exactly when, and there was so much puzzlement in his voice that I immediately believed him.
"Listen Nev," I said, taking out my wand. Seeing this, he somehow tensed up, but then calmed down slightly. "You know that I'm interested in witchcraft," a nod from him. - Do you mind if I do something? Fine?
There was silence. I looked at my friend expectantly, and he was intensely thinking about something, as if struggling with himself. Finally, after almost two minutes, Nev finally looked at me and nodded carefully.
- Fine.
- That is great. "You don't have to worry about anything," I said, gradually approaching him. - In the meantime, get some sleep. Somnum.
A barely visible beam of enchantment instantly overtook the surprised guy, plunging him into a sound, healthy sleep. Having caught the falling body with telekinesis, I headed towards the forbidden forest. There, deep in the trees, there is a clearing where Luna and I performed the ritual at Samhain. I think she'll fit. Of course, I hid us with the help of charms, there is no need to distract me.
Finally, after a couple of minutes, I reached my goal. Having examined the surroundings (not only with the help of magical vision) and not finding strangers, I removed the hiding spell from us.
Having conjured a stone bed, almost identical to Poppy's altar, I carefully laid Nev on it. Okay, it's time to get started.
A slight swing - the ground around us becomes smooth stone. Taking the chalk out of my bag, I began to draw a small ritual circle aimed at testing the blood for all sorts of harmful impurities, including potions.
Having drawn a circle next to the altar and rechecked it several more times, I finally turned to the Nev itself. Approaching him, I carefully poured his blood into a crystal vial. Having healed a small wound, he returned to the ritual circle.
Having placed the bottle in the center of the picture, he began to prepare for the ritual itself. In general, this ritual has two types: the first is standard, when he himself determines what impurities are in the blood by checking his database, which was included in it at the time of creation. And since this ritual is already more than five hundred years old, it is not difficult to guess that it cannot detect all potions.
And the second one is not standard. It is mainly used by qualified witch doctors. Its meaning is simple - work not with the values entered in the database, but with those that the magician himself knows. Of course, to use it, the ritual itself becomes much more complicated, but you also need at least basic skills in mentalism, otherwise you risk suffering from mental exhaustion. And as we know, this is not the most pleasant thing that can happen to a person.
Standing in front of the circle, I closed my eyes, concentrating on what was about to happen. Having created a channel between me and the drawing itself, I began to send mana into the diagram itself, while going through all the knowledge I had about potions, their effects, concentration, and so on. It is because of this moment that this ritual is considered incredibly difficult, but not for me. My memory and my skills are the best helpers.
Even through closed eyelids, I "saw" how the drawing began to glow blue from the inside. Now I could not fully concentrate on controlling the energy, which caused leakage.
Finally, after five minutes, I was able to finally relax a little and stop pretending to be another pillar. Opening my eyes, I saw burning lines of text - the result of the ritual.
Having read everything that was in front of me, I clearly felt how that cold rage that had once fallen asleep, but had not disappeared anywhere, woke up in me. Gradually it took over my entire being, giving incredible clarity and speed of thought, but at the same time controlled anger.
Zele Dulling of Attention, Zele Suggestion, and also the Potion of Rewriting. The first two potions served only as a springboard, a kind of fertilizer for the last one - the Rewrite Potion.
Once upon a time there was a clan of Hawks. A fairly strong and famous family, famous for their gift in potions and mental magic. However, three hundred years ago it was cut out at the roots, not even a grain of their bloodline remained in our world. And one Slavic archmage did this.
And here's the thing. Once, about four hundred years ago, the then young Lord Edward Hawke liked a girl, a sorceress from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) - Anna Zlatova. But alas, the most he could count on was friendship, because the young lady's heart was occupied.
However, the English magician could not change with this. For a long fifty years (what is such a period for a magician?) He locked himself in his castle, completely immersed in mental magic and brewing potions. The result of his research was the Potion of Rewriting.
Edward understood perfectly well that he could not win his lady love with mental magic; she was quite knowledgeable in this school, and he could not achieve what he wanted with standard potions. Therefore, his truly brilliant (and also crazy) mind created a potion at the junction of two schools. The effect of this potion was simple - for a brief moment, put a person into a trance, during which all the words he heard become true in which he will always believe. To consolidate the effect, the procedure must be repeated about twenty times. If it seems to you that there is a lot of life, then this is not so. After all, after all the instructions are followed, the person's identity will be rewritten, and the old one will be erased forever, without leaving a trace. Of course, if you interrupt the cycle of twenty repetitions, the patient can be saved. Alas, this was not known in those years. And poor Anna fell at his feet (and he was her close friend, which is why she didn't suspect him until the end, and then it was too late. The original Anna died).
Having learned about her disappearance (and not only she, but also her son was missing), Anna's son began to sound the alarm. In the end, he decided to go to Anna's grandfather, one of the Archmages. Hearing the man's words, he immediately rushed to search for them, but alas, it was too late. What he saw shocked him.
Anna's husband was also exposed to the potion and seriously considered himself a pig and lived accordingly. De Anna herself quickly became boring to the Lord, and he couldn't think of anything better than to give her to his knights to be torn to pieces (as a whore).
Seeing this picture, the Archmage fell into a demonic rage. He massacred everyone in the castle, fed their souls to demons, and took the Lord himself with him, having previously destroyed the castle itself and its surroundings.
There was a silence that was broken after another ten years. The Archmage returned and this time he was much angrier than before. He found everyone in whose veins the blood of the Hawk family flowed and killed them. His furious pace could only be stopped by the British archmage, who later spoke about the reason for all this.
It was then that this potion became known. No one knew how to prepare it, but everyone knew how to detect it, so every potion guide had a "formula" written down.
And now I have encountered this potion live. Someone with a formula that was destroyed, and also savvy in potions and mentalism, poisoned my friend. Well, at least the cycles have just begun. Now we are somewhere in the fifth cycle.
It is because of this that I now want to tear and throw. But nothing, everything has its time.
In the meantime, it's worth taking care of Neva.