It’s Pure Sweat, Okay!
10: Chapter 10: Talent?
It’s Pure Sweat, Okay!
“C-Can you?” Neville asked, looking a bit overwhelmed by the unexpected favor.
Seeing Hermione get involved just like in the original story, Leon sighed before speaking up.
“It doesn’t need to be that complicated.
What’s your toad’s name?” “Trevor, his name is Trevor,” Neville replied hastily, looking at Leon with an expectant gaze.
“Leon, do you have a way?
Is it some kind of magic?” Hearing Leon’s words, Hermione asked, her curiosity piqued as well.
“Magic can solve this problem, but it won’t necessarily work.
Still, I can give it a try.” As Leon spoke, he drew his wand.
Waving it, he enunciated clearly, “Accio Trevor!” Leon clearly felt a strange, wonderful power surge out from his body along his wand.
Although invisible to the naked eye, he was certain that his spellwork had been successful.
Then, Neville and Hermione heard gasps and cries coming from the other compartments.
A small object, moving so fast it was a blur, rapidly approached amidst the exclamations.
Finally, making a sharp right-angle turn, it landed right onto the table inside their compartment.
It was none other than a plump, ugly-cute toad.
Leon shifted away slightly in mild disgust; after all, this little thing was rather unsightly.
But Neville was ecstatic.
He scooped the toad into his arms and bowed deeply to Leon.
“Thank you, sir.
Thank you so much!” “It’s nothing.
Once you learn this spell in the future, you’ll be able to do it too,” Leon replied with a smile.
“What spell is that?
Why haven’t I seen it in The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1?” Hermione demanded, her eyes wide as she stared at Leon.
“Because it’s from The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4.
It’s supposed to be taught during our fourth year,” Leon explained.
“You actually secretly studied such advanced magic behind my back!
And you even mastered it!” Hermione looked at Leon in utter disbelief.
She hadn’t expected Leon to get a head start, let alone leap so far ahead as to master fourth-year coursework.
Faced with Hermione’s grumbling and resentful glare, Leon quickly explained: “It’s not like I’ve learned everything.
I just picked up a few common, useful spells.
You know my mother is a witch; over the summer, she sent me a notebook that broke down the casting methods and learning steps for several everyday spells.
That’s the only reason I was able to grasp this magic ahead of time.” “Alright then.” Hearing this explanation, Hermione finally breathed a sigh of relief.
She had initially thought Leon had already finished learning all the spells from years one through four.
If it was just a few isolated cases, then it was acceptable.
After all, Leon’s mother was a witch, and it was perfectly normal for an adult witch to teach her child magic.
This was Leon’s unique advantage, and she wouldn’t be jealous of it.
However, Hermione didn’t stop to think about what it truly meant for Leon—who hadn’t even entered Hogwarts to systematically study magical theory, nor familiarized himself with casting via the most basic spells—to have already mastered a charm meant for fourth-year students.
That being said, Leon wasn’t exceptionally gifted either.
He relied entirely on the system’s panel as a reference to gauge his learning progress.
It was only through painstaking perseverance and his mother’s notes that he had barely managed to master the Summoning Charm.
The process could be described as entirely sweat and average talent, with plenty of trouble stirred up along the way.
But the result was satisfying enough for Leon.
Because on his wizard status panel, the section for Spell Mastery was no longer blank.
Spell Mastery: Disarming Charm (Beginner), Summoning Charm (Beginner), Full-Body Bind Curse (Elementary), Unlocking Charm (Elementary), Mending Charm (Intermediate), Shield Charm (Beginner).
The reason he was able to grind the Mending Charm to the Intermediate level was actually due to the chaos caused while practicing his magic.
The uncontrollable Summoning and Disarming Charms had nearly torn Leon’s house apart.
Faced with a mountain of broken tableware and furniture, the Mending Charm, which could fix them all, naturally became Leon’s most frequently used spell.
Bar none.
Leon also had a basic understanding of the Spell Mastery tiers.
An Elementary level meant he could cast the spell reliably, whereas a bunch of spells still at the Beginner level meant he could perform the casting, but the success rate wouldn’t be very high.
For instance, take a Beginner-level spell like the Shield Charm.
Even if Leon successfully cast it, its strength would be incredibly low.
Rather than calling it a Shield Charm, Leon preferred to think of it as a Paper Shield Charm.
And that wasn’t even everything in the notebook.
There were two other spells that Leon had failed to cast successfully so far and didn’t quite dare to study in depth.
Because these two spells were Fiendfyre, and the other was the Patronus Charm.
The former could be considered Dark Magic, just a step away from being classified as an Unforgivable Curse.
The only reason it wasn’t included among them was that Fiendfyre could be suppressed and extinguished by other spells.
It wasn’t that difficult to learn, but if it went out of control after casting, things would take a disastrous turn.
Leon didn’t want to end up homeless, nor did he want to take a trip to Azkaban before even stepping foot in Hogwarts.
So, he merely glanced at the incantation for Fiendfyre and set it aside, paying it no further attention.
The Patronus Charm, on the other hand, wasn’t as sinister, but its casting difficulty was exponentially higher.
Leon had tried it many times, but he could only manage to make a wisp of illusory, translucent silver vapor spill from the tip of his wand.
Leon wasn’t sure if it was due to his magical power capacity or if something was wrong with the happy memory required as a prerequisite for the Patronus Charm.
But since the Patronus Charm consistently failed to appear on his system’s attribute panel, it meant Leon hadn’t mastered it at all—not even at a Beginner level where it might work hit-or-miss with heavily reduced strength.
He didn’t know whether his talent was too low or his mind was too cluttered.
After all, he wasn’t one of those innocent, naive children who knew nothing of the world.
Yet, Leon had no intention of giving up.
After all, the utility value of the Patronus Charm was far lower than the social status it conferred.
There was an unspoken consensus in the wizarding world: a wizard capable of casting the Patronus Charm was practically impossible to be a Dark Wizard.
Dark Wizards, whose minds were corrupted by the negative emotions bundled with Dark Magic, could not summon a Patronus, which symbolized purity and kindness.
It was the same principle as unicorns refusing to let anyone but a pure virgin ride on their back.
Leon just wanted to learn magic, set up his own herbology greenhouse at Hogwarts, and occasionally sneak into the Forbidden Forest to treat himself to a wild meal.
The former was easy enough to justify, but the latter could easily get him labeled as a poacher or someone with twisted intentions, making it highly likely he’d be targeted by the Old Bee [Dumbledore].
But if Leon could cast the Patronus Charm, the Old Bee [Dumbledore] would most likely not peg him as a budding Dark Wizard.
His tolerance would be much higher, which would serve as a safety net for Leon.