Leon suppressed his questions as Susan was more worried about her friend than explaining how Quidditch was the next best invention after sliced bread to a newb.
He searched the stands to bother his classmates but found none.
"Up!" The captain shouted after a whistle.
"You got to be kidding me."
Leon's eyes followed the first years as they gained altitude.
Every first-year Hufflepuff participated in the tryouts except Leon and Susan.
The first years followed an older Hufflepuff lead, warming up.
With a nod from the captain, an old student raised her wand to the sky.
It was the metamorphagus.
Multiple rings made of light appeared in the field.
"Follow the Chaser, we will be evaluating your maneuvers." The instructions from the captain made the Chaser take off, leaving behind a surprised group of first-years.
Justin, the muggle-born, shot after the chaser, snapping the remaining out of their surprise.
Hannah quickly gained the lead as Justin couldn't follow the Chaser who performed a vertical C maneuver, perfectly.
Hannah too fluidly changed her direction by climbing up in the sky, imitating the chaser. But there was a difference in skill between the senior and the junior.
The chaser was always darting into the center of the rings even as she performed multiple maneuvers that required perfect control of one's broom.
The first years were a little less elegant.
Justin was hailed down after he veered off the path, missing a ring.
Hannah, Ernie, and Smith were fighting with their brooms not to hit the ring as they followed the chaser.
'Man, I didn't know the difference would be this big.' He thought, watching the professionally trained chaser and the amateurs.
'I guess, Madam Hooch really knows her stuff.'
Ernie was called down next, leaving Hannah and Smith to tail the Chaser.
Smith became Hannah's shadow as she was always a little ahead of him. He couldn't overtake her, and he was getting vexed by that.
As they were following the chaser who was flying in a pattern that looked like someone drew a corkscrew path in a moving car that applied an unhealthy number of brakes, Smith nudged Hannah's Broom.
She caught herself quickly only for him to tail-end Hannah's broom, sending her spinning.
Hannah hit Smith's broom with her legs exactly on his palms as she lost control, proving her nickname wasn't without truth.
The result was two participants missed the next ring as the crowd failed to follow what had just happened.
The captain sent a disappointed look at Smith before starting the next trail.
Ernie Macmillan and Smith fought for the keeper position, but Hannah didn't participate.
Smith eked out a win with a fracture to show for it as he did a risky save.
Madam Pomfrey, appearing from nowhere, quickly rounded up on him and he was ready to fracture his shoulder again in no time.
Smith didn't try for the beater position, leaving Ernie to tousle with his older housemates for it.
The outcome was bleak as he couldn't compare to people who finished their growth spurts while he was still undergoing his.
Still, the boy didn't look even a smidge disappointed. He looked just as happy as he first stepped into the field as he exited it.
The older students underwent the trials for Chaser and Keeper too.
They also couldn't fly as elegantly as the chaser.
'I guess, consistent practice for a whole year would make a difference no matter how talented you think you are in your leisure rides.'
The tryouts quickly came to an end.
The captain thanked everyone for their support with a kind smile and announced the results after a quick discussion with his teammates.
Hannah was in for the chaser and Smith was a reserve keeper.
An older student got the beater position.
Ernie and another older student were selected as reserve members.
As Leon tried to, quite unsuccessfully, remember the Quidditch players' names a high-pitched squeal disturbed him.
Susan hugged the heck out of the shy girl whose face was so red that it looked like steam would be coming out of her face any second.
Leon didn't know if she was shy to be hugged in front of so many people or excited to get selected or the most likely scenario, Susan was suffocating her.
Saving Hannah from bursting her veins, he congratulated her.
The Hufflepuff's table was very lively that day with every member recounting the tryouts with most casting Hannah a curious glance, making the girl hide behind Susan.
Leon woke up the next day with a 'nothing can stop me' attitude.
The success of his friend lit a fire under him, he wasn't going to beat himself up over his lack of progress in reaching the Un stage.
...…
"Will of the Magic or World's will. It is an amalgam of sapient beings' will- consciousness. At least it is the most popular theory regarding the omnipresent but ever-elusive semi-sentient will that permeates the world.
While the other fields such as Charms or DADA aren't much concerned with the Magic's will, the transfiguration branch heavily relies on it.
Today you will be turning these snuff boxes into rabbits." Professor McGonagall started her class like always, her stern eyes observed everyone like she was trying to find the students who weren't listening.
"Remembering everything about an animal you want to transfigure the object into is nearly impossible and time-consuming."
"You would have to know how many organs it has and how they interact with each other, what makes up its blood, and how its brain works. Even a small gap in your knowledge could leave you with a dead animal If we didn't have the will of magic assisting us." She rapped her knuckles on her table and sent a stern glare at a Gryffindor as she continued her lecture.
"But with its assistance, you don't even need to know what color the animal's blood is, because the Will of magic takes care of the details for you."
"While brute forcing with your will may work with charms and most inanimate transfiguration, the delicate and complex structure of an organism makes it impossible to just will an animal to exist.
Our objective is to make the transfigured animals independent. We don't want to create meat suits that need real-time instructions from us to know not to fall off stairs."
"The world's will makes this possible while letting us tweak with the animal's free will- to make it docile or even make it lazy is easy enough, you do it subconsciously. But there is more to how we can tweak the personality of at transfigured animal- You are very far from learning how to influence a transfigured animal, Miss Potter. Hands down."
McGonagall glared at the unrepentant potter for a second before resuming her lecture.
"Masters of transfiguration tried isolating the world's will and transfiguring objects into animals away from it, the results were not animals but flesh abominations of no use.
While we don't know how it was formed or how to influence it. The magic's will while helps us in transfiguration, it also restricts us.
The major example is how no wizard can fly without external help or body change. And a minor one is that transfiguring anything into Chimera is impossible."
'Wow! There goes my horned rabbits.' Leon wanted to engineer a deadly mundane beast; it was on his mind after McGonagall used a lion's roar- a lion transfigured from a table – to silence a class once. But it seems his dream of mixing animals won't come to be.
"While we don't know why the magic's will is actively preventing us from taking to the skies, it does make runes and spells possible. And no whatever results you get in today's class can't be called chimeras.
Refer to Will of the World vs Will of the Wizard for more information on the magic's will."
The details about the book appeared on the board.
'I guess the World's will already have well-formed nodes(impressions), the animals that exist, and push our magic towards these nodes when we try to transfigure things. No well-formed nodes no help.'
Leon's eyes twinkled with stars as he theory crafted.
The practice session started as many of Leon's questions were answered- things like why gold was the toughest metal to transfigure.
The existence of magic's will even sprouted some theories of how spells came to be in his head.
As he was lost in thought, imagining staff-wielding wizards laughing at the wizard's small wands before getting surprised by the little stick holders, McGonagall's impassive voice snapped him out of his thoughts.
"Daydream later, Mr. Astraeus."
The practice session began with everyone enthusiastically trying to give birth to a life.
While some grunts of the students may let an observer doubt the process of birthing, Leon ignored those noises and concentrated on his task.
'Life! I am going to create life.'
His inability to grasp the meaning behind a transfigured life didn't diminish his excitement in the slightest.
Time passed quickly and Leon's heart suddenly burst with excitement.
An adorable fluffy rabbit appeared on his desk, wiggling its ears, innocently looking at its creator.
Leon stroked its soft fur as the rabbit contently closed its eyes, enjoying his caresses.
'Fluffy..no.. Hagrid took it. Whitey.. No, it's even lazier than naming a white-furred Japanese dog Shiro.'
"No names, Mr Astraeus." McGonagall ordered. She was standing behind him from Merlin knows when.
With a wave of her wand, the yet-to-be-named adorable rabbit turned into a snuff box before the snuffbox turned into two snuffboxes.
"Try transfiguring both at the same time."
The professor left after instructing him like she just didn't make an adorable rabbit disappear.
Leon gaped at the professor before shaking himself of the fluffy rabbit's charm magic.
'That's why horned rabbits are awesome. Nobody expects cute things to gore them to death.'
Mourning at the loss of the apex chimera that was going to grace the world, Leon continued his practice.
Turning two snuffboxes into rabbits wasn't that difficult, he partially succeeded.
As he was going to try again a giggle, and multiple gasps rang out followed by the professor's voice.
"5 points from Gryffindor, Ms Potter. Class isn't the place for your jokes."
Even Leon, who didn't know the professor for long could tell there wasn't much heat in her voice.
He craned his neck trying to see the joke of the girl who lived, but the professor obstructed his view.
McGonagall walked away from her table letting him see a rabbit struggling in Potter's arm as she shielded it with her body.
'No horn. But what's that?'
A black pawprint was visible on the forehead of the cat.
Rose dropped the rabbit on her table, warily eyeing the professor's back.
Every inch of the rabbit was covered in paw prints and two life-like drawings of a cat with glasses outlined near its eyes, on either side of the rabbit.
'Is that McGonagall's cat form?'
A smile graced his face as he examined the rabbit.
Leon quickly turned around and started waving his wand around the snuffbox.
A rabbit with a claw mark on its forehead appeared on the table.
With an excited grin, Leon observed the rabbit.
'Wait a minute, I wanted a badger drawing on the rabbit. Where is it?'
Leon dispelled the transfiguration and tried again.
After 5 minutes of transfiguring and dispelling the snuffbox, the transfigured rabbit got a faint outline of badger on it.
'God Damn! How did she do it?'
Leon closed his eyes and felt the connection to the snuffbox.
The link always felt like his mind was connected to the objects under his magic via a tiny ethereal thread.
As his problem was details, he tried to increase the size of the thread.
It didn't budge.
He tried to wrap the thread around the snuffbox.
There was movement but nothing groundbreaking.
Cursing, Leon transfigured the snuffbox into a rabbit and wrapped the thread on its side.
A detailed badger drawing appeared on the rabbit.
He repeated it on the other side of the rabbit.
The whole process took more than 5 minutes as the immaterial thread wasn't easy to control.
As he admired his rabbit, ignoring the coos of Susan and Hannah, a thought ruined his mood.
'I am less talented in transfiguration than Rose. No way, right? She must have practiced before.'
Leon shook his head at that excuse. As he knows it was just an excuse. If she wanted to practice something she would have practiced some combat spells due to her unique fame, not customizing rabbit's skin.
Leon turned around to see Rose struggling to turn two snuffboxes into rabbits.
A hopeful thought sprouted in his mind making him turn around and continue his practice.
A minute passed before two rabbits eyed the world, tilting their heads, prompting Susan and Hannah to snatch them into their arms.
Leon turned to see Rose again.
She was still trying to transfigure two snuffboxes at the same time with little success.
'Never again,' Leon grimaced as memories of his past life flashed through his mind.
An eleven-year-old excitedly ran to his mother's office, holding his prize for getting a national rank in an exam.
This was the first time his mother called him to her office, and he was excited to see her reaction. Even his teachers were very surprised and praised him for getting the rank.
But his medal lay forgotten after she demanded him to do better next time, and he did work harder but it was never enough for her.
Leon clearly remembered every pattern of his mother's floor. After all, he spent countless hours staring at the floor as his mother's cold voice disparaged his efforts.
The Ceo of her company always had better achievements when he was younger, and Leon couldn't measure up to him.
Slowly he lost the passion he had for learning and stopped meeting his mother.
While Leon knew the bitter truth of how crossing a 1% talent is nearly impossible, it didn't mean that he didn't learn anything from his efforts after he stopped vying for his mother's love.
He learned that no one is talentless, and everyone has an area in which they are talented.
The image of a ditsy girl entered his mind, making him smile. And a part of his job was leveraging these various talented people for that ditsy girl.
He reminisced in his happy memories before he concentrated on the present.
'I think, Rose can help me meet the guardian of hell.' Leon decided, watching the Potter girl practice.
'Cerberus, here we come!'
.....
A/N: How do you like the fic? Your reviews, comments, and powerstones will let me know your interest level. So don't be shy with them.
Edit: The publish timer is not working.