Word Count:2730
...................
Leon draped himself over a comfy chair, half-listening to his friend's chat as he practiced a spell. The spell that would make stealthy movement in Hogwarts possible..hopefully.
The whole common room was abuzz with murmurs. The puffs were excited as tomorrow was a Sunday. The whole day was going to be spent relaxing and playing as most of the students had completed their assignments in the weekly library meet-up.
As Leon was staring into the air, murmuring and moving his wand, prefects and a couple of older students suddenly accosted him.
"Can you tell us what exactly happened with Malfoy, Leon?" The female prefect asked, smiling kindly.
'Damn, how does she know?' Noticing the pink head behind her and sending a glare at the stoic-faced Tonks, he explained everything that had happened.
While some thought he was too harsh with his retaliation; everyone showed him support and made sure he wasn't afraid to ask for help.
Especially Diggory, he only left Leon alone after Tonks threatened to hex him.
The prefects even offered to escort him to classes, which he firmly rejected.
"Come on, Tonks. Why did you tell so many people?" Leon dragged the metamorph magus from the group of older students and glared at her.
"Hey! I didn't make the rules. Prefects and the seventh year are supposed to know if bullying happens. Do you think I can use the house spell willy-nilly? Don't worry, only people who can keep secrets know about this."
Leon just sighed and waved her away. It was not like he was afraid of Malfoy's retaliation; he wasn't just in the mood to play with the Slytherins when there was magic to learn.
'We'll see what happens.'
Sunday came around, pouring new life into Hogwarts.
Leon spent the whole day mingling with his housemates and alternating between practicing his old spells- to reduce wand movement- and his new spell.
His second week in Hogwarts moved like clockwork.
New classes and new professors were introduced.
The excitement of getting taught by a ghost didn't even survive the first five minutes into Binn's class. Leon decided to use the class time to complete his assignments as the ghost droned on, reading everything from the textbook.
Other than the boring History of Magic and late-night Astronomy with Professor Sinistra, there weren't many changes except Susan nailing the DADA spells a little earlier than him and Snape letting them brew potions.
And boy was he bad at potions, even with the mental leg-up his previous life provided him, Leon was average when it came to potions, unlike Hannah who looked like she was in her element.
And just like that the time to test the device that would help him traverse the treacherous teenager-infected Hogwarts Castle arrived.
Leon struggled to wear the makeshift gadget in an abandoned classroom.
Three thick ropes hung lazily from Leon's back, emerging from his hand-made harness.
Each rope is attached to a brick-shaped metal on the free end, with a 1-meter length.
Leon cast the Spongify spell with exaggerated wand movement and a loud voice, and he repeated that two more times.
More than half of the old classroom floor turned into a trampoline- ready for his use.
"Testing of phase- 1 prototype named Creepy Crawler *cough* Unseen Streak commences in 3. 2," Leon counted down, solemnly.
And he was serious if you ignore the fact that there are no more phases, and the supposed prototype is his final model.
The Spongify spell he cast on the floor lasts for more than 30 minutes. The spell's duration and power saw a great increase when cast with huge wand movement and in a loud voice. In the same way, whispering and cutting corners in the wand movement reduced the spell's power.
Practice is the only way to go if a wizard wants to whisper the incantation and reduce the wand movements to bare bones while maintaining the power.
Learning most of the charms was very easy for Leon but reducing the wand movement and using a whisper to cast the spell was exponentially more difficult, making him dedicate most of his time to practice.
After all, spells that can't be used when in a pinch are as useful as Ron in the Harry Potter novel.
The Spongify spell which now he can cast in 1.5 seconds, whispering the incantation lasts only about 10 seconds if he wants to affect more than a 1-meter diameter area.
Leon can silently cast some spells with standard output power if he exaggerates the wand movements.
He is quite some time away from casting a spell silently with normal wand movements and standard output power not to mention silent casting spells with bare-bone wand movements.
So, he practiced optimal wand movements coupled with whisper incantation to be battle-ready.
After all, he was going after a troll and a solid foundation never hurts anyone.
"1!" As he finished the countdown, he jumped on the charmed floor and was propelled towards the roof.
He quickly grabbed the middle rope and tossed it to the roof after he reached the peak of his jump.
The metal brick at the end of the rope stuck to the roof's surface and bore his weight canceling his downward momentum.
"Uff! The harness is not comfortable," he muttered rubbing his waist. The harness was already charmed with a cushioning spell, there was nothing more he could do but increase its size.
He quickly used a spell and tossed the rope- rope A- in front of him.
The middle rope- which he named the stand-by rope- got detached from the roof as rope A got attached to the roof at some distance in front of him.
As the rope was attached to his harness, he swung like a pendulum. And at the extreme position of the swing, he tossed the other rope- rope B- making it stick to the roof.
Without a delay, rope A detached from the roof making him swing again.
After swinging across the room for some time he stopped testing the device and took a break, gasping on the floor.
Leon charmed the metal alloy bricks at the end of the ropes with a sticking charm.
The middle rope with standard sticking charm and ropes A and B with a variation of the sticking charm.
He found the spell in a book, a slight change of wand movement, and adding 'Temflux' to the Spongify spell made the charmed object lose its stickiness when he wished.
But there was one problem.
"Damn! My hands are tired." Leon muttered as he evaluated the unseen streaker's performance.
And unlike the device's name, he won't be unseen if someone looks at the roof.
Once he uses the middle rope- standby rope- to take rest he has to cast finite to resume movement and cast the stickiness charm again if he wants to stop for some time.
He also had many near misses where he thought the movements ropes- Rope A, B- were going to miss the roof.
The above reasons made the unseen streaker a high-maintenance and error-prone device.
'Resounding failure! I overestimated my fitness and the device's comfort level. At least, I didn't waste too much time creating this device.'
This makeshift contraption was created by the Hogwarts elves after he gave them a rough diagram of what he needed, he just had to charm the alloy bricks at the end of the ropes.
The variation of the stickiness spell will only charm an object for 15 minutes when the said object bears his weight; the less force scrutiny it undergoes more time the spell works.
He also read that these scrutiny problems vanish as he ages aka grows in power.
If he doesn't do something like using a sticky charm on a train's wheels to stop it, he won't come across the scrutinies undoing his magic.
'I should do something nice for the elves,' he noted again and started to brainstorm. 'I don't have money to buy a broom. I can borrow one on the day of the troll-watching, though.'
Borrowing was the last resort, if it had anything to do with Leon, he knew he was going to be on many late-night strolls. So, he was making something for the long term.
Time didn't wait for Leon to stop banging his head against the wall for an idea, it kept on moving.
Just like in the first week, he spent time with his friends while simultaneously practicing charms.
And on the day of the second week's picnic, he sat near the lake, leaning against a tree and watching Hufflepuffs play and mingle.
His male batchmates were arguing about the quidditch teams whereas some older girls dragged Susan and Hannah away.
"Of course, you shouldn't miss a single Harpies match-" Justin's voice grew heated.
Leon didn't know whether Justin's sudden fanatism of quidditch rose because he wanted to mix with his half-blood and pureblood friends or the beautiful women the harpies' team had; it didn't matter anyway.
If flying over Hogwarts grounds except on the quidditch field wasn't permitted, Leon knows his batchmates would have been flying over the lake, not arguing about quidditch under shade, and to be honest it was on Leon's bucket list of Hogwarts too- flying over the lake at night.
Maybe Leon would have joined their argument if was not frustrated with his lack of progress regarding Unseen Streaker 2.0.
Even if he included the Leviosa spell to control the ropes which is supposed to be learned in Halloween's week, the physical strain is just converted to mental or magical in this case.
'There must be a better alternative.' He racked his brain. 'With magic, only my imagination is my limit.'
With a sigh, Leon observed his housemates as some played chess, some cards, and some walked on water.
'Wait a minute, are they walking on water?' Leon did a double take as he watched some Hufflepuff's walking on water, laughing.
'No! They are skating!'
Two students stood on the water, well into the middle of the lake while a dozen students raced towards them.
The two students were waving their wands in big circles, generating multiple waves the size of a big dog.
The other students tried to balance themselves as the waves crashed into them, the water underneath their feet buckling them. Most failed, falling on the lake like it was solid before sinking.
Tossing his problems aside for a minute he watched the magical game.
"Can't you guys just jump over the waves?" Leon shouted as people formed the starting line.
A Hufflepuff glanced back to see Leon before concentrating on the game.
"The spell doesn't facilitate taking your legs off the water, Firstie, you can only glide on the water. You can't move up or down only sideways-"
"Concentrate on the game, David. The Firstie took off."
One of the Hufflepuff who was standing deeper into the lake shouted, halting the race countdown.
"Damn!" David shook his head before forgetting about the firstie.
'That's it! That's it,' Leon ran towards Hogwarts excitedly.
His approach to the problem was wrong, he was treating magic like it was an advanced form of science that still follows most of the fundamental rules, but it is not.
He was unconsciously limiting the application of magic.
Leon quickly checked out some necessary books from the library and occupied his corner in the empty common room.
He kept on reading the books and writing something before crossing them out after waving his wand in certain patterns.
The Hufflepuffs slowly trickled in as the night fell, Susan and Hannah too joined him in the corner each reading a book, though Hannah was pouting as she read her textbook.
"Finally!" Leon grinned eyeing the quill that was stuck under the table he was using.
He stood up and noticed Susan and Hannah beside him.
"See you tomorrow," Leon said with a happy smile and ran towards his room.
As his friends looked confused at his sudden mood change, he ran to the bathroom and returned to his room carrying a small wooden stool.
"My first original spell, here I come," Leon muttered and started stacking his trunk and pillows on his study table.
After that, he pointed his wand at the small wooden stool he bought and incanted.
"Ver Lepidus Nolimovens."
Grinning he climbed onto his study table and carefully balanced himself on the pillows before jumping towards the roof of his room, holding the stool above his head.
The Stool's sitting area touched the roof and skidded across it due to Leon's momentum.
After a couple of seconds, Leon came to a stop and hung from the roof, clutching onto the legs of the stool which was magically stuck to the roof.
With a laugh, he swung his body making the stool move forward, still stuck to the roof.
Just like that, his unseen streaker plan's blueprint is complete.
He will just have to ask the elves for a harness with a steel plate on his back and two more little plates near his feet.
With that, he will stick to the floor face down, and coupled with the camouflage charm working better in shadows he will be an unseen streak across the Hogwarts.
'This will be leagues better than my first failure.'
As he was imagining stalking the Troll, the Slytherins, he suddenly fell.
He braced himself and walked off with some pain in his legs. A layer of wood was shaved off from the stool, still stuck to the roof.
This was the reason his final attire would have steel plates that would stick to the roof.
Leon slept that night with a satisfied smile.
Just like that, weeks went by in a blur. Leon spent his free time with his friends and practiced spells to reduce their casting time while learning new spells that caught his eye.
Doing assignments in Binn's class made him save quite some time and he wasn't giving his hundred percent in assignments.
Leon just met the minimum length requirement for all of his assignments and his handwriting was quite wanting.
It's not like he had experience writing with quill and he didn't buy any pens in Diagon Alley, though he doubted whether they even sold pens.
"As you all learned every important variation of Lumos charm, we will start learning Levitation charm today," Professor Flitwick said.
"Unlike Lumos charm the Levitation requires more concentration(intent), and magic(will), to use. Thus, to reduce these requirements we add suffixes to the spell, customizing it to each object."
"You are going to practice this charm on a feather in today's class," he said and waved his wand, making a single feather float toward each student.
'Canon event alert!' Leon thought as he remembered that today was the day a troll graced the Hogwarts corridors and quickly checked the classroom for Hermoine.
He found her sitting with Rose, and Ron was sitting behind them.
'Hmm! I wonder how this changes things.'
Shrugging, Leon cleared his mind and memorized the wand movements for the Levitation charm.
Just like every other charm, Leon got it on his first try.
The feather slowly levitated in the air, wobbling.
And after 10 minutes of practice, he was able to send the feather smoothly zipping across the classroom.
"10 points to Hufflepuff, Mr Astraues. I am excited to see how far you will go in this class."
Professor Flitwick smiled, standing beside him before continuing his rounds of the class to help students, leaving behind multiple feathers in front of Leon.
Leon eyed the feathers and decided to take the hint.
"Let's start with levitating two feathers," he muttered and willed two feathers to float.
Just like every time the connection he feels with charmed or transfigured objects kicks in.
He could feel faint threads connecting the feathers to his mind.
Manipulating two threads individually was a lot tougher but after a while, he got the hang of it.
As two feathers soared in the air like planes, Leon eyed the dozens of feathers lying on his table.
'Isn't Professor Flitwick expecting too much from me? I can feel that controlling a third feather is going to be my limit.' Leon wondered keeping the feathers magically in their place, ignoring the soft wind blowing in the classroom.