Kieran’s 7th birthday arrived and passed.
He would never admit it, but he was looking most forward to April Fool’s compared to a birthday, especially because this year’s April Fools would be a complete challenge.
Aunt Abi was now aware of his illusions that makes him capable of making himself and objects invisible, she was also aware that he could leave the property to hide.
He would have to be extra creative to avoid her revenge.
He turned a page in the current book he is reading.
A Study of Sound in Magical Practice, by Euphemia Whistlethwaite.
He got sent the book by Mr.
Craig following his question regarding the opposite extreme of the Sonorus Spell.
Mr.
Craig admitted he never really considered it but managed to track down an old book from one of his acquaintances who worked as a magical musician.
Said musician was happy to hear a young kid was interested in his field, so he happily gave the book to Mr.
Craig who then sent it to Kieran through owl mail.
Reading through the book, Kieran had created the private goal of adding sounds to his illusions.
Sounds combined with the invoked emotions of the illusions would create a very potent illusion, but he was nowhere near that goal yet.
Sound magic was unsurprisingly complicated.
Tomorrow is April Fools; I wonder if I will succeed.
Knowing he was facing his aunt that was fully willing to use her magic to prevent being pranked and to take revenge should the prank succeed, Kieran had prepared extensively.
He was however mentally preparing himself to fail, refusing to let out another undignified screech.
The plan was simple…he would put a very potent emotional illusion on Aunt Abi’s morning tea.
It would not be too dangerous since Aunt Abi liked her tea, room-temperature, rather than very hot.
The emotion he would put into it was that of extreme heaviness.
It should make his aunt unconsciously prepare to use a lot more strength to lift the cup, the illusion wouldn’t change the look of the cup.
The illusion just needed to be within her eyesight, which the teacup would be even if she didn’t focus on it.
The question was, if he would get away with it.
He remembered Aunt Abi had a tracking spell, but he had managed to convince Aunt Abi to explain how it worked.
Turned out it was a Gray Special, created by Aunt Abi’s late parents in a collaborative project.
It worked by tracking the nearest wizard or witch that wasn’t the caster, locking onto their magic.
To avoid this spell, he planned to hide in the shed, covered by an illusion with the emotions of normalcy and shyness.
Finally, he planned to wake up early, to drain his magic and spend the last of his magic on the prank setup.
Finally, he planned to setup an ongoing ball of light within his hiding spot, to drain any new magic that recovered by adjusting its brightness.
If there is no magic to track, the tracking should not work.
I am a genius!
…
Abigail woke up and immediately looked around her room, finding nothing out of place.
She dressed herself and cracked her knuckles and did some light stretching.
Her nephew successfully pranked her last year and she swore to herself, that would be the first and last time he pulled off a successful prank.
High on the glory, her little nephew would definitely try and prank her again and find a good hiding place.
She fully expected him to make himself invisible somewhere using his illusions, but her tracking spell should track him down.
The question was when he wanted to launch the prank.
She carefully opened her door, finding nothing wrong and headed to the kitchen finding her tea ready with Hector and Victoria sipping their own morning tea, with Victoria reading the newspaper and Hector doing a crossword from the newspaper.
Abigail was immediately on guard, since she saw no sign of her nephew.
She checked the chair before sitting down, seeing Hector look up at her.
“Abigail, there is no chance he would use the same trick twice. All I will share is that he woke up before me and I have not seen him since,” Hector said with a faint smile.
Abigail knew her surrogate big brother well enough to judge that he was being honest, which made her drop her guard just a little.
She prepared to take a sip of her morning tea.
She grabbed onto the handle and unconsciously flexed her arm, and with all her strength she lifted the tea toward herself, launching the tea right into her own face. Read the latest chapters at novelping dot com.
All of them froze.
Abigail felt her left eye twitch, she was about ready to blow a gasket, before she closed her eyes and took several deep breaths.
She casually opened her eyes and looked toward Hector, seeing his mouth twitching, clearly trying his best not to laugh.
This display only made her glare at him.
She pulled out her wand and made herself dry again, before slowly getting up.
“He knows I hate mornings. Out of three years, he has aimed for the morning two times. My dear nephew is about to discover certain actions have terrifying consequences,” she said while casting her spell, a glowing ball of light appearing, she was aiming to track down Kieran, to give him the payback he deserved.
Abigail just stared at the tracking light that just hovered next to her, showing no sign of moving toward Kieran.
“That brat found a way to avoid my spell…Guess I will have to get creative.”
…
Kieran silently sat in the shed, invisible due to his illusions.
As the hours passed, he snacked on the food he had prepared, trying to be as silent as possible.
The more hours that passed, the more confident and celebratory he got, convinced he would succeed with a prank twice in a row.
As noon arrived, he saw the sun’s light enter through the window of the shed, squinting at how bright it was.
Is the sun usually this bright?
He quickly looked across the room where there was a mirror, he used it to make sure he was truly invisible.
But as he looked at the mirror, he went pale.
The light from the too-bright-sun was penetrating his illusion; the light was revealing him.
He needed to move.
Now.
He barely got to react before the creaking of the door was heard, someone was entering the shed.
“Kierannnn~ Are you in here?” his aunt sang as she airily walked inside the shed.
Kieran repressed a shudder when he watched her eyes go to the wall where the illusion was broken by the light.
His heart started beating fast.
He needed to escape!
Now!
When he watched his aunt fully step inside, he took his chance, and rushed forward, sliding beneath her legs to get out.
He thought he got the drop on her, but suddenly he feels his leg grabbed and then his aunt’s arms wrapped around him.
“Got you, you little brat! Think you can escape your aunt using your illusions? Think again!” she said as she captured him.
She carried him to the back garden.
“Umm…Aunt Abi, any chance finding me is enough revenge?” he asked nervously.
She smiled sweetly and took out her wand and pointed at him, “Rictusempra.”
Kieran squirmed as he started laughing, feeling himself being tickled everywhere.
All his sensitive spots that he had never shared with anyone being attacked all at once.
He never wanted to find out how that spell worked like this.
After what seemed like hours, but was clearly only a few minutes, she seemed to finally decide to show mercy and he lay on the grass gasping for air and enjoying the relief, while Aunt Abi sat next to him.
“…I failed this year…but how did you find me?” he asked, while looking at her from where he was laying.
He couldn’t help but gape when she explained that when she realized he had hidden from her tracking spell, she thought of finding a weakness in his illusions, using light.
Several places on their property she created a strong light using the Lumos Charm to see if she could find a place where the light met illusion and revealed the illusion.
The shed was one of the last places due to her assuming he would pick a more nature specific spot.
Although he failed the prank this year, she at least discovered a weakness in his illusion, a weakness he intended to fix.
…
A week later after April Fool’s, his dad and mum were going on a full day date, Aunt Abi was busy with work, so Mr.
Craig volunteered to look after Kieran for the day.
Kieran was shown around Mr.
Once they sat, man and boy, both wearing a monocle, Mr.
Craig poured some liquorice tea for both of them and summoned some pastries.
“Mr. Craig how do you summon food like that? I read that food is one of the things you cannot conjure in a permanent state,” Kieran asked while pointing at the pastry.
Mr.
Craig took a sip of the tea and nodded to acknowledge he heard the question.
“It is elementary. I have the pastries in my kitchen, on a similar plate as the one before you. Then I swap the contents of each plate with a switching spell. Probably one of the most used spells in a normal magical household. You will learn it when you get Transfiguration as a subject.”
Kieran nodded in thanks and asked Mr.
Craig about his work and how he came to work in the Muggle-worthy Excuse Committee.
“As a Ravenclaw with one of the best N.E.W.Ts in my year, I could specialize myself in almost any direction. My current field was entirely due to a coincidence. I started in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, and they needed a helper for the Muggle-worthy Excuse Committee. I liked the work and rest is history,” he said after sipping on his tea.
“How did you find the various books I have been sending you, you are certainly an avid reader compared to most boys your age, even most adults I know.”
Kieran went on to explain that he had read the entirety of the first birthday gift, The Ministry Explained: A Plain Guide to Magical Governance, alongside A History of Magic, and Mr.
Craigs latest birthday gift, Foundations of Magical Theory: A First Principles Approach, By Aldous Pemberton.
He thanked Mr.
Craig a lot for being willing to send him so many obscure books, most were a fascinating read, especially Creatures of the Threshold: Magical Beings Between Worlds, by Isolde Fairweather.
The creatures on the threshold were especially fascinating, mentioning creatures such as Thestrals, Dementors, Boggarts and Inferi, amongst others.
He was surprised Mr.
Craig was even willing to give him the book considered the topics within, something he directly asked him about.
“Indeed, you are soon entering a different world. You have proven to be smarter than your peers the same age, so I thought it prudent to prepare you for the creatures within the world, even the darker ones,” Mr.
Craig said as he paused to eat a pastry and take a sip of tea.
“Abigail might have disagreed with the book’s topic, but as a former Ravenclaw I believe knowledge itself isn’t evil, it is what you do with the knowledge that matters.”
Kieran nodded at the wisdom; one’s culture and upbringing often created one’s view on magic and knowledge.
Much like how the ancient Celtic magicals considered dark magic and normal magic as part of the natural magic, what mattered was what you used the magic for.
Mr.
Craig clearly had the same principle, just with knowledge, which Kieran saw as expected from a former Ravenclaw.
Kieran tried challenging Mr.
Craig to chess after their talk, he felt he was getting better at considering the strategy.
Nowhere near being able to beat his dad, but maybe he would soon be able to beat his mum!
On the difficulty tier he would rate those he knew from easiest to hardest with Aunt Abi, his mum, Mr.
Craig and finally his dad as the final boss.
Mr.
Craig made dinner and later showed Kieran some moving pictures from his time as Hogwarts, which Kieran asked endless questions about, fully revealing he almost couldn’t wait until he could explore the school on his own.
It was very fun seeing moving pictures containing both a young looking Mr.
Craig, together with a younger looking Aunt Abi.
Mr.
Craig even let it slip that he had a crush on a girl in Hogwarts, but it never became a thing.
Kieran was unsure why; Mr.
Craig seemed like a decent guy.
Either case, Kieran enjoyed hearing about Mr.
Craig’s time at Hogwarts, and wondered if his time at that school would be just as pleasant once it was time for him to head to Hogwarts.
Step into the Restricted Section
You-know-where/Murtageyra
The first volume which I called Pre-Hogwarts, is finished in there ^^