“I almost forgot, I actually brought a traditional wand too.”
Using the table for cover, Mason pulled the Elder Staff out of his bag.
He was barely taller than the staff himself while standing; sitting and holding it made him look like a hospital patient clinging to an IV pole.
“Which tradition is that supposed to be…” Even the well-read Hermione was at a loss for words.
“Celtic, maybe.”
“Just so you know, the Ollivander family has been making wands since before the Common Era.”
The entire classroom took notice of Mason’s oddly shaped wand—or rather…
branch?
Professor Flitwick hopped down from his stack of books.
He had just demonstrated a few basic wand-waving movements and was about to emphasize the proper pronunciation of incantations, but there was no rush.
Mason’s wand had piqued his interest.
Even for a branch, such a long, straight stick was remarkably rare.
“The ancient Celts did indeed have a custom of crafting large wands.
You are quite right, Mr.
Jones.”
Flitwick pulled a stool over with a charm and nimble-footedly climbed up, leaning in to inspect the Elder Staff in Mason’s hand.
“A very unusual material.
It resembles oak, but it’s far tougher.
The head carving is also very close to ancient Celtic style, though they wouldn’t shave the bottom of the wand to a point and cap it with iron.”
“Precise wrist movements increase the success rate of a spell, regardless of the wand’s length or size.
You will come to understand this in time.”
For a given trajectory, a heavier wand made precision much harder to maintain.
After casting a few spells, your wrist would be thoroughly exhausted—how could you duel anyone like that?
As a former dueling champion, Professor Flitwick’s disdain for oversized wands made complete sense.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t Mason and didn’t understand the glory of the Elder Staff’s ten percent spell power bonus, which, in the right wizard’s hands, was not inferior to the Elder Wand at all.
First-year students had plenty of spells to learn, but the main assessment was on the Levitation Charm, so Professor Flitwick only covered the broad strokes in this first lesson.
The actual practical practice for the Levitation Charm would take place next class.
The unlock progress for new spells in his Omni-Magic Manual had reached ninety percent—and on two separate spell lines, no less!
The next Charms class wasn’t until Thursday, which felt ages away.
Mason took a quick look outside.
The classroom wouldn’t host lessons for other houses until tomorrow, meaning he could stay here and practice his spells right now.
His roommates had already abandoned him, rushing back to the dorms to write letters.
Seamus hadn’t blown his own face black yet, either—that would probably happen next class.
“Ahem—*Wingardium…
Leviosa!*” The heavy Elder Staff traced a swirly line in the air, and Mason immediately felt a small portion of magic flow out from the staff’s tip, acting on his target: a piece of parchment.
The parchment twitched violently on the table as if suddenly hit by a cramp upon waking up.
Then, under Mason’s expectant gaze, a few sparks shot out of it.
“Wait, no—” Mason hastily wrapped his hand in his robes and patted out the sparks.
“The pause in the middle was a bit too long, though the pronunciation seemed fine,” Mason mused to himself.
“I thought so too, but the pause wasn’t the only problem.
Your hand shook a bit when you swung the stick…
I mean, wand.” Hermione looked up.
She had just finished organizing her notes, leaving only her and Mason in the classroom.
“Whoa, I thought you’d already left.”
“Almost.” Hermione paused, lowered her head, and quietly packed up her things.
“I wasn’t trying to kick you out!
I just…
well, you know…” Mason felt a bit self-conscious.
Hermione took a deep breath, neatly organized her books and notes, cradled them against her chest, and walked silently toward the classroom door.
“Thank you,” she said without turning around.
She was probably just hungry.
Mason focused his attention once more, this time gripping the staff with both hands.
Megumin really had corrupted him, making him think single-handing a staff looked cool.
“*Wingardium Leviosa.*”
The parchment lifted as if caught by a breeze.
After a slight flutter, it drifted up into midair under the guidance of the Elder Staff.
Mason clearly sensed the direction of the magical flow; that “tethering” force connected the parchment, the Elder Staff, and Mason into a single line.
Though it could only affect the parchment, he could move it anywhere within his line of sight simply by thought.
Furthermore, the Levitation Charm consumed varying amounts of magic depending on the target’s height and weight.
Mason didn’t know if wizards in Harry Potter’s world had a maximum mana limit, but with his own cap of 150 mana (100 base cap + 50 from wizard robes), discounting the weight of holding the staff, he could keep that parchment hovering until the end of time.
With that, new spells were unlocked.
[Bitter Cold Wind: Frost School spell.
Continuously spews a blast of bitter cold wind forward for 5 seconds, causing slow and minor frost damage.] [Mana Cost: 15 points/second, increasing by 3 points per level.]
[Howling Wind: Evocation School spell.
Forcefully knocks back all creatures within a certain area in front of you, potentially dealing collision damage.] [Mana Cost: 40 points/cast, increasing by 8 points per level.]
*Where is my Crimson Hellspike?*
By Mason’s usual gaming habits, he preferred to concentrate early-game limited resources on building up a single school of magic—for example, the Crimson School.
It boasted the auto-targeting, high-frequency damage of [Crimson Hellspike], the crowd-control staple [Animate Dead], the convenient school crafting item [Crimson Essence], and when paired with the [Crimson Scepter] dropped by the King of the Dead alongside the infinite sustain of the [Heartstop Spell], even a modest setup was enough to steamroll most early-game bosses like a breeze.
The only real difficulty with going the Crimson route at Hogwarts was hiding the bloody stench on his person, which might easily draw a crackdown from the White Demon Lord himself.
Setting that aside, Mason inspected the details of the two new spells and was pleasantly surprised to find that the spell descriptions included partial breakdowns of Weather Charms and Knockback Jinxes.
If he gained an understanding of those two spells beforehand, he might be able to fill most of the progress bars for several more new spells.
If one spell could bootstrap another, then seven years from now, he would definitely force the Noseless Freak to sing “Fly Me to the Moon.”
Transcribing [Bitter Cold Wind] required no special ink quality (White).
The spell knowledge included techniques for refining frost magic; once winter arrived, Mason could just slap his hand on the Black Lake to refine plenty of it.
On the other hand, [Howling Wind] required ink of at least Superior quality (Green).
Mason had no leads on that for now, and the spell knowledge didn’t include mana-refining methods.
Considering that the key catalyst for the Evocation School was emeralds…
he now had yet another reason to earn money.
By the time Mason finished packing his things and walked into the Great Hall, he saw a large crowd squeezed against the wall.
Most prominent was Hagrid, who held a wooden board twice the size of two young wizards and was hammering away relentlessly.
Elaine’s voice was intermingled with the occasional exclamations of praise from the crowd.
“Hey!
Mason!” Standing on a wooden crate, Harry waved toward him.
*Is this the efficiency of special privileges?* Mason had to admit he had understated Dumbledore’s favoritism.