The weeks following his meeting with Eric and learning about druids, Kieran had decided to change his approach to how he viewed his magic.
Knowing he had the potential for druid magic and realizing that no books existed around the topic, forced him to experiment instead.
His way of viewing his magic since he awoke it had been seeing it as a white flame that spreads warmth throughout his body, and using that warmth combined with various emotions, he managed to create the expression mindset of his illusions.
Knowing about the potential of nature magic, made him wonder if he could change his mental approach.
The white flame was his magic, the fuel for the illusions.
What if he instead used water, but not just any water.
Eric during his lessons mentioned a specific kind of crystal-clear water that supported the most sacred of trees that the Leshy protected.
This water was the core of a Leshy’s domain.
He no longer struggled creating instant 2D illusions, getting into the mindset was simple.
He didn’t even need any gestures anymore.
Before the druidism lesson, his limit for distance for his illusions was at the end of his skin, but feeling the nature magic inspired him.
If his magical senses could pick up nature magic from outside his body, could it be possible for his internal magic to be projected outward, without being in contact with him at the point of creation?
It took some weeks, and a lot of patience, but eventually he managed to convince his mind that anywhere within his eyesight was still in contact with him.
His logic was simple.
Nature magic existed around you, and he could interact with it, there it should be possible for other magic to still be connected with him outside his body.
He succeeded.
He could now conjure 2D illusions anywhere within his eyesight, but he still struggled with the fact that the further away he conjured the illusions from his body, the more draining it was for his magic reserves.
The mental exercise of converting his white flame to the crystal-clear water turned out to be simpler than he anticipated.
He started seeing his illusions as plants, the magic was the water for the plants.
The more water he provided at their creation, the longer they would last.
If he consistently watered the plant, it would stay alive for longer, and finally if he added too much water, it would drown and shatter.
Where the original mental magical landscape where he imagined his magic was a room surrounded by white lightning with a white flame in the middle, that mental space had after his mental exercises become a crystal-clear lake in the middle of a small forest.
A benefit he never expected was that the moment his mental magical landscape changed to the current one, his illusions became easier to use, easier to create; the emotions came easier for him.
It was a breakthrough he never imagined, and it gave him so much more experiments to consider and made him question a lot more of how magic worked in this world.
He started to wonder how other wizards and witches mental magical landscape looked like.
Everyone must have them, but maybe they never realize they do due to lacking the mental exercises and the meditation expertise to reach it.
Taking their growth of their magic for granted.
Maybe Mr.
Craig’s mental magical landscape would be a library, or Aunt Abi’s a clearing at the end of a rainbow…it was not like he could check, but it was a fun thought to have.
Maybe he would one day find a way to create teaching for this subject, allowing others to learn how to view their mental magical landscape.
Currently, however, he had no idea how to teach it or explain it.
It was more a reflex for him ever since he reincarnated, borrowing the meditation practices from his former life; that then allowed his older mind to retreat, allowing him to grow up as a kid.
As he performed his draining exercises as he had done since he was 5 years old, he started paying more attention to his mental magical landscape, and he noticed something.
When his magic recovered after being drained, a small sapling appeared within his mental magical landscape.
The forest and its trees within, was a complete reflection of his magical reserves.
I wonder how big I can get this forest during a lifetime…
…
The day before his eight birthday he was sitting in the kitchen in front of his mum, his tongue sticking out while he concentrated.
His dad and aunt sitting beside them, observing the exciting and quiet chess match.
After months of chess matches with his mum, his dad, his aunt that had reluctantly agreed to play, and Mr.
Craig whenever Kieran visited him.
He knew today was the day, the day where he would finally beat his mum in chess, for the first time.
His mum had the philosophy that letting your child win was bad for their growth, therefore she showed no mercy, forcing him to get better if he ever wanted to defeat her.
No matter what move she made now, Kieran’s next move was a guaranteed checkmate.
His mouth twitched, holding back a smile as he watched his mum sigh in defeat and move her queen, leaving Kieran to say the words he had been waiting to say for 3 years.
“CHECKMATE!” he raised his arms into the air and wooed, his dad in celebration lifted him up.
“The champion has bested the great and mighty Victoria Gray; can I get some celebration?” he yelled as he held Kieran up above him.
Aunt Abi started cheering and clapping alongside them, while his mum rolled her eyes fondly and clapped.
When Kieran was back on the ground again, his mum gave him a hug.
“Congratulations sweetie, as promised you can decide today’s dessert since you beat me,” she said.
“Mr. Craig recommended something during our last correspondence, can we try some liquorice ice cream mum?” Kieran asked with a big smile but looked confused when he heard his aunt groan.
…
After he turned eight years old the 20th of February, Aunt Abi’s lessons continued.
For the March one they went to Ireland to see the Hill of Tara, it was a beautiful place with a stunning view.
It was entirely muggle related, but he enjoyed the lesson, hearing of the ancient monuments, the oldest being 2000 years old.
For preparation regarding this year’s April Fool’s prank, Kieran had been working on the side project of finding a solution for the obvious light weakness for his invisibility illusions.
He had named the illusions with the light weakness as his imperfect invisibility illusions.
His goal was creating a perfect invisibility illusion, one that allowed light to pass through it without revealing that something was there.
He never managed finding a solution while his mental magical landscape was the white flame, but something changed after it became a forest surrounding a lake.
He was unsure if the change was due to him embracing nature more, which could’ve maybe boosted his magical understanding through his nature magic affinity, or if it was just a pure coincidence.
Fact was, he managed to create a form of one-way mirror effect with his illusions.
Allowing light to pass through the illusions that surrounded him from all angles, the light would follow the angles and would look as if it passed right through him.
Creating a perfect invisibility illusion.
He sighed, “Blimey it is mentally taxing though,” he said to himself.
With this, he just needs a successful prank and then perfect hiding ability, and he had lots of hiding places that were perfect combined with his now perfect invisibility illusion, Aunt Abi stood no chance this year!
…
At the morning of the 1st of April, Kieran stood in front of his parents, gaping at them, trying to ignore his aunt’s smug smirk.
“What do you mean with us going to visit Mr. Craig, dad?” he asked, trying to ignore the thoughts that told him that all his plans just crashed and burned.
“Abi proposed that we had a day together with him last month, and Craig responded that only today fit into his schedule, so we are heading there for today. I thought you liked hanging out with Craig?” his dad responded.
Kieran sputtered and stammered.
His dad knew full well why he was protesting and Kieran knew that Mr.
Craig was likely heavily pressured by his Aunt Abi into making this the only day that would work out.
She got him good, and there was nothing he could do about it, other than improvise, adapt and overcome.
When they arrived at Mr.
Craigs house, Kieran did his best at recalling the house, trying to think of a plan of attack.
He saw his family talk with Mr.
Craig, Aunt Abi in her classic rainbow witch attire with a tall hat, making her technically the tallest in the room.
I wonder if Mr.
Craig got around to fixing the loose plank in his bathroom ceiling?
He secretly ventured throughout the house to the various hiding spots he remembered finding in Mr.
Craigs house, and in each hiding spot, he conjured several 2D Illusions creating imperfect invisibility illusions.
He was betting on his aunt assuming he had not yet found a solution for the illusion weakness, so he was trying to trick her with a lot of decoys, hoping to convince her that he was trying to beat her with quantity.
He could not prepare the greatest prank, so he decided to try an old classic, while mentally preparing to get very soaked if he failed.
In the middle of the bathroom, he crawled onto the counter and set up a bucket in the tall ceiling using strings he found in the kitchen and the loose plank in the ceiling.
He then hid the bucket with imperfect invisibility illusions, knowing his aunts guard would be lowered if other people used the bathroom before she did.
After finishing, he headed to Mr.
Craig’s guest room, placing an imperfect invisibility illusion under the bed and lied down on top of the bed…putting a perfect invisibility illusion on himself, while creating a small ball of light to keep his magic drained.
Good luck finding me now Aunt Abi!
…
Abigail while sipping her strawberry tea, looked up, seeing Victoria return from the bathroom.
Finally.
She knew Kieran was likely trying something somewhere, but she highly doubted he would win this year, she changed the terrain without warning after all.
She barely had to pressure Craig into cooperating.
Even if he somehow pranks me, I will just go use a Lumos Maxima in each room to find his camouflaged illusions.
She headed to the bathroom, locking the door behind her and as she stepped forward, she felt a weird resistance on her hat, but before she could react, she found herself drenched in cold water.
She stopped and looked up, seeing the shattered illusion slowly fade away from the hanging bucket.
For a while she didn’t react.
Then she slowly finished what she came here for, then using her wand to dry herself and stepped out of the bathroom with a determined expression.
Time to locate a soon to be very wet little wizard.
Just to check, she summoned her private tracking spell, originally developed by her late parents, but her little nephew had accounted for it again this year.
Somehow he had found a consistent way to avoid being tracked by the spell.
She went room to room with Lumos Maxima, finally spotting the camouflaged illusion under the kitchen table.
Found you, you little brat!
She waved her wand through the illusion, shattering it and found…nothing.
Abigail narrowed her eyes.
Decoys.
Abigail continued her hunt, after 3 hours and 12 different decoys, she started feeling very frustrated and was close to giving up.
She had looked literally everywhere.
Except the guest room.
She finally entered Craig’s guest room and used Lumos Maxima, finding nothing unusual reacting to the spell, she used it in the closet, under tables and finally under the bed where she saw the light react to something…but when she shattered the illusion nothing was there.
She got up and let out a deep sigh while standing in front of the bed.
He wins; I am giving up.
I need to relax.
She sat down on the bed to relax, and her heart almost leapt out of her throat at the startled sound beneath her.
When she looked down, she saw the shattered illusion and her sitting on her nephew, who squirmed under her.
“Aunt Abi, you are so heavy! Get off!” Kieran groaned as he uselessly tried to get her off.
Flustered, Abigail got up, watching her little nephew complain, realizing he had fixed the light weakness in his illusions.
Did I really win by giving up and sitting down?
As she watched her nephew complain, she cannot help the laugh bubbling up, shaking her head, deciding that this does not count as a win for her.
It will be draw, I won’t punish him for losing due to bad luck.
When the rest of the family hear of what transpired, Abigail felt herself blushing at Victoria and Craig laughing at her, while Hector comforted Kieran, who just got unlucky.
After a bit, Abigail joined in on the laughter and relaxed.
I wonder what he will think of next year, she thought with a smile.
Step into the Restricted Section
You-know-where/Murtageyra
The first volume which I called Pre-Hogwarts, is finished in there ^^