Finding a book that would teach him the basics of Advanced Spell Casting, a book that was literally titled, 'Advanced Spell Casting', Loki sat down in the corner of the library to see if there were any exercises in the book that would help him with finer control over his spirituality.
After a little bit of page flipping, Loki found himself a page with an exercise written on it that beginners could try.
'Place a paper flat onto the desk, and use your spirituality to burn a specific geometrical pattern into the paper without letting it catch fire or damaging it in any way.'
'Huh. Is this hard?' Loki wondered since several rituals required one to rub their spirituality to light up a candle before they began.
Loki pulled out a parchment from his bag and was about to begin testing the method when a piece of chalk flew through the aisles of the library and hit him on the head.
'Ouch! Who did that?' Loki questioned but then he saw that there was a note attached to the piece of chalk.
Pulling out the note Loki began to read it out loud.
"Do not practice the method of improving control over your spirituality inside the library. Get out!"
Loki immediately looked in Madam Pince's direction and found her glaring at him, so he immediately understood what needed to be done and placed the book back on the shelf before exiting the library under Madam Pince's scrutinizing gaze.
Once outside, Loki moved to his favourite spot under a tree at the edge of the black lake where he began to try and burn a geometric pattern into the paper without letting it catch on fire.
Soon time passed.
'This is hard!'
Using more of his spirituality to rub the paper would cause the paper to tear while using very little of his spirituality would do nothing to the paper. And if he used a medium amount, the paper would set itself on fire.
There was clearly a fine amount of spirituality that needed to be used, but Loki was unable to figure it out easily.
Loki spent the next few hours practising and as sweat collected over his brows until he finally did figure out the fine amount of spirituality needed to make a burn mark on the paper, but it still took a lot of effort and focus on his part to do such a thing.
As the sun began to set in the evening, Loki washed his face with the cold water from the black lake and set off for the Great Hall to have dinner and then go to detention, his detention today was back in professor Snape's hands.
Eating a quick dinner, Loki skipped on his way to the dungeons and then knocked on the door to Professor Snape's office.
"Enter."
"Good evening Professor Snape!"
Snape did not reply or lift his head to acknowledge Loki's presence in any way, he kept reading the book on his table with interest and left Loki to do his work.
Moving to the barrel in the corner of the room, Loki began to roll it to the table on which he was working and once there he pulled out his own copy of 'On Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore' and got to sorting the ingredients.
'Huh, can I take some of these ingredients for my own potions?' Loki wondered as he mindlessly sorted the ingredients by checking about them in the book.
"Professor, can I take some of these ingredients for my own potion sometimes?" Loki asked Snape his random thought.
"Has Professor Flitwick not taught you that it is dangerous to experiment with magic?" Snape asked.
"Does that apply to potions too?" Loki asked.
"Yes. Unless you're a dunderhead you should be able to figure out why experimenting with potions is bad for you."
"Is it because of the fumes that are released while making a potion? They can easily enter the body and cause harm?"
"The art of potion making is something that has existed even longer than the art of magic. I do not expect you to comprehend the traps and intricacies of potion-making when you still know only as much as a troll."
"I understand Professor." Loki nodded as if he wasn't just insulted and went back to silently sorting the ingredients.
'Now that I think about it, is it dangerous for me to consume potions that have ingredients in it that are not a part of the Error Pathway since it could lead me to madness if I consume potions with ingredients from a different pathway?'
'Too bad I can't ask anyone about it right now.'
'I could learn about it if I set up the Tarot Club.'
'But how do I set up a Smurf account for myself in the tarot club? I only gain illusion abilities in the next pathway and even those I think are limited to light not sound.'
'Hmm…I'll see what I can do. I'll ask Kreacher, he probably knows about it.'
Once he was done with detention Loki did not directly go to his room in the dungeons, instead today he had to attend a class at Midnight, the Astronomy class that was the highest room in the astronomy tower.
Once inside the Astronomy class, Loki chose a secluded corner to listen to the class since he couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't fall asleep during class.
But his worries were for nought since as soon as the professor stepped into the room, she asked everyone to shut their textbooks for the night.
"Today we will be observing the moon and the stars!" Professor Sinistra said calmly but with a hint of joy in her tone.
'The Moon!?' Loki thought alarmed.
'Is that alright to do?'
Each pair of students was then set up near a window, with Hermione and Loki pairing up once again, along with a telescope that looked out of the window into the heavens.
"Astronomy is a crucial part of Magic because the heavens have a profound effect on how it functions."
"On the Full Moon days, magic might obtain a quality of completeness that you might need in your potions, while during New Moons magic might obtain a quality of emptiness that you might need for a ritual like the Animagus ritual."
"As such each phase of the moon and the night skies has a particular quality that we all need to be aware of to do whatever they wish to do without troubles of natural obstacles..."
As Professor Sinistra blabbered on, Loki sank deeper into his strange thoughts.
'Is the entire Wizarding world already corrupted by 'Her'?'
'Or maybe 'She' hasn't gotten to the moon in this world yet? Maybe someone stopped her?'
'There wasn't anything about 'Her' in the Black Manor library but I doubt anyone would've written about it anyway. Even Walburga herself probably didn't know much about 'Her'.'
'So do I look at the moon or not?'
But Loki took the risk and looked at the Moon through his telescope since his spirit vision had not caught any signs of corruption in Professor Sinistra.
'And I'm sure people would be behaving a lot more wildly if the entire society was corrupted by 'Her'. Wouldn't she have gotten her sefirot if everyone was corrupted too?'
And after nothing happened to him, Loki relaxed, 'At least simply observing the moon will not corrupt me. Like looking at it, it is probably safe to use the moon's influence to make a potion as Professor Sinistra explained earlier.'
'It's good to know that.'
*Yawn*
'I guess I can sleep-'
"Stop sleeping Loki!" Hermione whispered into Loki's ear as she pinched his sides.
'Or not…'