To cast a spell, a wizard needs to complete an internal system. Unlike in fantasy novels, the Harry Potter world had no such thing as naturally existing mana. Hence there were no sorcerers. Instead, wizards were something like reality warpers, capable of manipulating their surroundings by simply the power of their soul. But if that was all it took, then every living being could have been a wizard. No, it takes the presence of a special system to connect with the world. All the spells that fly, are merely, what's visible of commands that change reality.
The system has three components. The primary magic circuit which is based on the deepest parts of soul and being. The nodes, what manage to give magic it's required nature and the auxiliary circuit that shapes the spell .
Primary magic circuit is where the five spells Richard had gained along with the fire,dark and affinity to swords lie. Every living being has a primary magic circuit. But only wizards have that connected to the spell system. It can be anything. Eidetic memory, homicidal tendencies, split personality, quick temper, laziness, affinity to animals, anything that makes someone special .
The nodes on the other hand are emotions. White magic generated to cast the patronus to the dark magic needed to cast the killing curse, different magics need different types of emotions. Like how different electronic devices need different amplitudes to work with, emotions, or nodes transform the spell nature to the spells need. But there are some residues. Like how a transformer produce heat and electromagnetic force when they work, Nodes create a physical residue. This residue is what remains in a body of a wizard as their magical force, making them into magical creatures as time passes. And thereby making the wizard specialise only in these aspects. This is why, Metamorpomagus are only produced in pure blood families. And also why dark wizards are not able to use the patronus and vice versa. Because the bodies of those wizards contain more magical power than muggle born wizards, who can only accumilate this in time. This is also the reason for magic to interfere with technology.
Magical beasts mostly develop in these two parts in their system, making their versatility almost nill.
The third part, is greater in beings with the ability to think, imagine, dream and calculate. In other words, beings with wisdom. That is the auxiliary circuit. This is what is used the most at the current wizarding era. To give a thought an effect and bring it to life. Humans have many thoughts, but are unable to hold on to one thought for a long time . And their auxiliary circuit is similar to that. Innumerable amounts of small paths, simply not strong enough to bend the reality on its own, but still able to provide the versatility that built the wizarding civilization with the help of a wand.
The wizards directly use their auxiliary circuits first, then use the wand movement to give micro changes in magic through the nodes and use the power of the soul present in the wand core to bring their thoughts into reality by completing the system, completely ignoring the primary circuit. Heck, according to what Richard discovered, the wizards have barely even touched the primary circuit, with the strongest magics ever weilded being limited to the nodes. Even Harry survived because of his mother's love. The strongest positive power of all human emotions, also known as nodes. Only Animagus magic counts as primary magic because it allows wizards to take the shape of their soul animal.
However Richard had stepped into an alternate path, his magic using the primary circuit as its basis. So that meant, he needed more time to master the spells taught at hogwarts.
And so, he began to actively focus more on his magic than everything else. The first year barely influenced the entire story line anyways since anyone with a reasonable amount of brain cells could see that it was simply Dumbledor's test on the boy who lived, as well as being a trap for Voldemort. Richard had scoffed as he remembered the tests that were meant to protect the greatest alchemical product in wizarding history. For heavens sake, even three first years managed to clear it, with basic spells.
Besides, the magic in interacting with the characters had long worn down, making Richard feel as if he was babysitting a bunch of grade schoolers. He was simply too grown up in mentality to deal with brats.