Three days later, George successfully obtained a copy of The Guide to Gesture Casting from a clerk at Flourish and Blotts.
Ten days later, George stood in the yard, waving his wand over a locked chest while chanting:
"Alohomora!"
A blue beam of magical light shot out from the tip of his wand, striking the chest accurately.
Most magic, when activated, emits beams of different colors, especially aggressive or directive spells, such as Unlocking Charms, Disarming Charms, and the Killing Curse.
However, some magic activates silently without obvious signs, like the Summoning Charm, the Repair Charm, or the Levitation Charm.
"Click."
A crisp sound came from the lock, and the latch sprang open.
"Finally, success."
Seeing this, a satisfied smile appeared on George's face.
After ten days of sleepless research, coupled with occasional advice from Tonks, who frequently dropped by for a meal, he finally managed to successfully cast the Unlocking Charm.
Through his studies over the past few days, he realized he wasn't some so-called magical prodigy.
The true geniuses were people like Hermione, who could learn effortlessly without any prior exposure or guidance. While spending most of her time understanding the history and common knowledge of the magical world, she still managed to master several spells before even starting school.
More talented still were people like Snape, who was able to invent powerful spells while still a student.
As for Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and Voldemort, they were beyond what could be described as geniuses.
Luckily, George had his own methods.
While it seemed like he had been learning for ten days, in reality, it was more like twenty days.
When his body here couldn't keep going and needed rest, his original self in the Marvel universe took over.
The most important things for learning magic are talent, followed by dedication. Since George lacked enough talent, he compensated with diligence.
In the experimental base in the Marvel universe, his original self didn't have much else to do other than training, leaving plenty of free time. He could practice gestures using a stick that resembled a wand to get the feel of it.
With constant practice and reflection, he sped up his learning of spells.
As long as he avoided the cameras or turned his back to them to prevent anyone from noticing, he was fine. Even if someone did see him, it wouldn't matter much since no one in that world knew what he was doing.
Once his original self was free, George could learn magic even faster, since he'd effectively have double the time to study and practice spells compared to others.
To be fair, if you ignored the fact that it was sort of cheating, learning a spell in ten days was considered quite impressive among wizards.
Most young wizards, after a year of school, couldn't actually master many spells. Some of them could only manage a few.
"Next, I need to practice gesture casting until I'm successful. Once that's done, I can consider learning the next spell."
After experimenting a few more times and confirming that he had fully mastered the Unlocking Charm, George immediately put his wand aside and began practicing the Unlocking Charm using gestures, following the instructions in The Guide to Gesture Casting.
Eight days later, after constant practice by both his main body and clone, he finally succeeded in casting the Unlocking Charm without a wand.
However, while it took only a second or two to cast the Unlocking Charm with a wand, using gestures instead took about seven or eight seconds. Even after mastering it, it would likely still take five or six seconds.
In a duel between wizards, five or six seconds would be more than enough time for an opponent to cast three or four offensive spells with their wand.
No wonder this casting method had been abandoned.
"August twenty-first—today is the day Lockhart is signing books at Flourish and Blotts."
In the morning, George ate his breakfast while looking at the date on his magical calendar, calculating his plans in his head.
He had no interest in that fraud, Lockhart. However, if he remembered correctly, today was also the day Harry Potter would be coming to Diagon Alley with the Weasleys to buy school supplies.
After completing his first year, Harry had returned for the summer to his aunt and uncle's home, where he was despised. Due to the antics of the house-elf Dobby, his uncle had locked him up and forbidden him from returning to Hogwarts.
But his good friend Ron, along with the Weasley twins, secretly used their father's enchanted car to rescue Harry and bring him to the Burrow.
"Guess I'll go make contact."
George eventually decided to reach out proactively.
Compared to Voldemort, who would only resurrect in a few years, he felt that being with Harry and his friends would be more beneficial in the near term.
Many places and things at Hogwarts would be out of his reach if he tried to go on his own. However, with Harry and his friends, it would be much easier.
For instance, getting access to the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts Library—it was nearly impossible for him to sneak in and read the books there. But with Harry, Dumbledore would turn a blind eye. The same went for the Room of Requirement.
So after breakfast, instead of continuing his spell research as usual, George stood by the window in the apothecary's hall, watching the street outside.
About an hour later, he saw a father and son with full heads of blonde hair, walking gracefully into Borgin and Burkes across the street.
"That must be the Malfoys."
"It looks like Harry is already in the shop."
A father bringing his child into Knockturn Alley at this particular time, along with their valuable robes and that air of superiority—it wasn't hard to figure out their identity.
Sure enough, about ten minutes later, shortly after the father and son left Borgin and Burkes, a skinny boy with glasses and covered in dust came running out of the shop in a hurry.
"Where is this place?"
Harry stood in the narrow, dark alley, feeling a chill as he looked around at the surrounding shops, which all seemed to deal in dark magic.
In the shop window next door, there were shrunken heads on eerie display. A couple of shops down, there was a huge cage full of large black spiders crawling all over each other.
Turning his head to the right, he saw two ragged wizards whispering while watching him from a shadowy doorway.
"I need to get out of here quickly. Hopefully, I can find my way out."
Today was his first time using Floo Powder, and something had gone wrong—he didn't end up in Diagon Alley but rather in a creepy, strange shop. He had even accidentally witnessed an illegal transaction involving the Malfoys.
"Are you lost?"
Just as he was about to avoid that shadowy doorway and head in another direction, a steady but slightly youthful voice suddenly spoke from behind him.
Turning around, he saw a boy just as thin as he was, but with a much firmer expression, holding a magic book in his arms, standing right behind him.
"This is Knockturn Alley, a place frequented by dark wizards. It's not safe for someone alone."
"Hello, I'm Harry. I got here by accident with Floo Powder. I was trying to get to Diagon Alley."
Perhaps sensing the boy's kindness, Harry quickly explained.
George smiled at this:
"Hello, Harry. I'm George. You must have mispronounced Diagon Alley as Knockturn Alley."
"But it's okay. They're connected. Let me take you out."