"Armor Protection"
Ivan stood up from his bed again and waved his wand, but the result was disappointing. He failed to cast the Armor Spell.
He tried several more times, but each attempt ended in failure.
"What's going on?" Ivan frowned. "I definitely have enough magical power, so why can't I cast it?"
Then, Ivan remembered the description of the Armor Spell: "You need to strongly believe in protecting yourself."
"Strong, protect yourself, belief…" he murmured.
"Yuumi!"
Suddenly, he had an idea. He picked up a box from the floor and threw it in front of his adorable ragdoll cat. "Come on, hit the box towards me!"
"Meow?" Yuumi didn't quite understand what Ivan wanted but obediently followed his command.
The ragdoll cat swatted at the box, sending it flying toward Ivan's forehead.
"Armor protects me!" Ivan shouted.
Seeing the box coming toward him at high speed, he waved his wand instinctively. A faint white light appeared at the tip of his wand, but quickly faded away. "Pop."
In the next moment, the box hit an invisible barrier in front of Ivan, as if it had collided with a wall. "Success!" he exclaimed, a smile spreading across his face.
He picked up Yuumi and laughed. "No wonder the Armor Spell didn't work. It seems that this kind of magic needs to be powered by emotion."
Ivan felt proud that he could figure out the Armor Spell by himself, without a teacher. It was a magic spell that even many Aurors at the Ministry of Magic struggled to master, and Ivan was just a little wizard who hadn't even started school yet.
He was determined to improve and began to practice the Armor Spell. He spent two hours working on wand movements and another hour practicing silent casting techniques.
Unfortunately, the requirements for the Armor Spell were too high, and Ivan couldn't manage to cast it without a wand just yet. "I estimate that the magic power needed for the Armor Spell is about 10, which is ten times heavier than the Illumination Spell."
"The wand is a great invention," Ivan thought. He set his wand down but picked it up again to feel its effects.
As mentioned earlier, Ivan's Sycamore wand was a good match for him. He was able to successfully cast most spells from the first to the fourth grade after a few tries. Of course, the effects and power varied. Mastery required more practice and skill, which he was still developing.
"That's enough for today," he said, glancing at the alarm clock on his bedside table.
Before he knew it, it was almost nine o'clock. This meant Ivan had been practicing magic for nearly eight hours since he returned home.
"I don't feel any physical changes, but I am a bit mentally exhausted." Ivan noticed that casting spells felt like solving a challenging problem. Even though his body wasn't tired, his mind felt the strain.
"Meow~~"
Even Yuumi seemed affected by Ivan's long practice session and started yawning.
That night, Ivan had a good rest. He also noticed that after casting several spells, the intense energy from the Obscurus inside him seemed calmer.
How should he explain it? It felt like he had found a way for the restless Obscurus to release its energy.
Ivan wasn't sure if this would lessen the threat of the Obscurus, but for now, he didn't have anything else to do.
Practicing spells and learning new ones excited him. The calmness of the Obscurus was a surprising and pleasant development.
"Huh?"
While washing up in the shared bathroom, Ivan noticed something unusual in the mirror.
It was an owl!
Attached to its leg was a letter, and Ivan could see Hermione's name written on it.
"This must be a passive divination trigger," he thought.
"Hermione's letter for me?"
Ivan quickly finished up and returned to his room. He opened the window and waited for a moment. Soon enough, Hermione's owl flew in as expected.
"Coo~~"
He took the letter from the owl and, without using his wand, summoned a bowl of cereal for the owl with a levitation spell as a treat.
After reading Hermione's letter, Ivan learned that she was inviting him to her home.
Since she found out about Ivan and his background as a Muggle, Hermione's parents hoped he could stay with them for a few days. The orphanage where He lived was close to their home.
Clearly, Hermione had her own motives for this invitation. She seemed to want to catch up on her magical knowledge before they both started at Hogwarts.
Being a descendant of Merlin, Ivan was impressive to Hermione. She was proud of their friendship, but she also knew her magical talent didn't match his.
However, this didn't bother her. Rather than feeling jealous, Hermione was eager to learn from him.
Even though they were the same age, Ivan felt like a talented, humble, and kind older brother to her, someone she wanted to learn from seriously.
"Staying with them for a while?" Ivan thought about it and realized that Hermione's invitation sounded great.
First, he needed space to practice magic, but the orphanage was too small for that.
Also, he was worried about someone catching him casting spells, and he didn't want to use the forgetfulness charm on people he knew.
By staying at Hermione's house, he could communicate and study with her while having much more space to practice spells.
Overall, this invitation would help him avoid many problems during the two weeks before school began.
"Thank you for the invitation…"
After deciding, Ivan quickly wrote a reply and waited patiently in the orphanage for Mr. Granger to pick him up.
Around nine o'clock the next morning, Mr. Granger arrived at the orphanage.
He showed his dental qualification certificate, and Ivan agreed to stay at Mr. Granger's house for a few days since he and Mr. Granger's daughter would be attending the same school.
Studying together would help them adjust better to their upcoming school life.
Mrs. Granger thought for a moment but then agreed after asking Ivan to call her every day to let her know he was safe.
"Great, Ivan!"
In the car, Hermione excitedly shared all the magical knowledge she had learned the day before. "Those books are really well written! Especially the basic spells for first graders. I successfully cast a spell yesterday!"
"Magic is amazing!"
Thinking back to her parents' surprised faces when she had cast a spell, Hermione still found it hard to believe.
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