Kieran was standing in his meditation spot, he knew he had the trace, but his aunt was registered as living with him, meaning any magic he performed would be her responsibility and ignored by the Ministry, Mr.
Craig had explained the entire process; even placed himself as the watcher of this specific household.
Any spell Kieran cast would only be known by Mr.
Craig..
He ran his thumb across the wand.
The wand felt like an extension of himself in a way he could never truly explain.
It had only been a day since he received his wand, yet it feels as if it had always been a part of him.
Getting an owl was a fun experience too, he got a male, greyish-white screech owl, he named Silas.
Silas was currently resting in Kieran’s room, while Kieran intended to confirm theories.
He always wondered what effect a wand would have for a wizard capable of wandless magic, an effect he did not imagine was the huge boost he got to his magical reserves the moment he held his wand.
He could only assume it was a one-time boost, happening due to the bonding process.
His pet theory was that every single wizard and witch went through this boost when the wand bonded to them.
The true theory he wanted to test, despite the accidental discovery, was if the wand would have an amplifying effect on his wandless magic.
The grass was fluttering due to the small breeze; he took a deep breath of the cool spring air.
He entered his deep meditation state while his eyes were wide open, focusing on the magic within him, and slowly lifted his wand to point at the grassy area in front of him.
Imagining the body, he knew the best; himself.
He focused on the emotion of sturdiness, the concept of completeness and with his eyes wide open, he casted an attempt of a 3D illusion.
He felt his magic leave his mental magical landscape in the form of his forest.
The magic travelled through his body as it reached the wand.
He felt the magic being amplified within the wand as it travelled through it.
Then, as the illusion was cast, he looked into the blue eyes of his perfect 3D copy.
He felt a tension he didn’t realize he had, fade.
He walked forward and around the copy as it stood still.
It is perfect…
Hand waving through the illusion made it dissipate, nothing unusual there.
Now…the next step!
…
Victoria finished rolling the buns, preparing to put them in the oven.
She wanted some freshly baked goods ready for when Hector came home from work.
She thought fondly of her son.
Abigail did warn them that the moment Kieran got his wand, he would likely become very busy with testing it, yet Victoria still underestimated just how excited her son got with his new wand.
She smiled fondly, thankfully Craig registered Abigail as part of the household, allowing Kieran to use his magic at home without getting in trouble with the Ministry of Magic because of the trace.
She felt no worries; her son had always been very cautious with his magic.
She heard footsteps behind her and looked towards the door, expecting to see her son, but instead of her son, it was her husband who stood at the door waving at her.
Waving?
Since when does my husband wave at me?
Victoria frowned and felt her eyes narrow as she stepped confidently and quickly forward, seeing her so-called husband take steps back to avoid her.
“Hector why aren’t you coming to give me a kiss, you always do that when you get home…” she said, with a small, exaggerated pout, trying her very best to look sad.
She noticed the face of Hector look hesitant and took the opening, efficiently covering the distance and giving her son a tight hug, watching the illusion dissipate with amusement as her son complained at her.
“Muuuum! That was a very hard illusion to make!” Kieran groaned, as he was forced to watch the illusion break.
She gave her son a small smirk, akin to the one her husband likes to give their son.
“Well done at making the facial expression seems normal, but I know my husband far better than you, sweetie. Your dad got ways of showing his body language depending on who he is with, that made you feel off the instant I saw you.”
She cupped her sons head in her hands, giving him a gentle smile, “The body language of Hector the dad, and Hector alone with his wife, are very different sweetie. Something I am sure you will get better at,” she said, followed by giving her son a warm hug.
“Congratulations on finally managing 3D illusions, Kieran.”
…
Kieran shared the success of achieving 3D illusions with his dad when he came home and was forced to endure the relentless teasing once his dad heard about his failed attempt at fooling his mum.
For the demonstration with his dad, he was asked to look like Theodore, which he succeeded at, but when asked to look like Albus Dumbledore, a person he had only ever seen as a picture, he failed.
The illusion had obvious flaws.
His parents helped him realize his limits; he had to know the target well for his illusion to be flawless.
The next day Aunt Abi apparated him to Mr.
Craig’s house.
He wanted to test his limits and Aunt Abi and Mr.
Craig had promised to help him once he got his wand.
Privately, Kieran thought about having them try and teach him direct spells.
He had used wandless, nonverbal casting for six years.
He was soon entering Hogwarts, and he didn’t want to reveal his wandless, nonverbal magic instantly.
He needed to learn to use incantations, wand movements and casting spells that other people over the centuries had created.
When they arrived, he saw that Mr.
“I assume you have some initial plans for how you want the months leading up to September to go. As promised, I have taken days off and we will help you test your limits until your time at Hogwarts begins,” said Mr.
Craig as he pulled out his own wand, with Aunt Abi joining with her rowan wand.
Kieran took out his red oak wand and looked curiously at Mr.
Craig, realizing he never actually asked about his wand, something he seek to rectify, same with Theodore next time they meet.
“Mr. Craig, what is your wand made out of?” he asked.
Mr.
Craig twirled his light brown wand fondly, before answering, “Alder wood and phoenix tail feather, nine and a half inch, it has been good for nonverbal spells. Now, what is your wish list regarding spells, Kieran?”
Kieran nodded and went on to list Levitation Charm, Disarming Charm, Summoning Charm, Water Conjuration Charm and Unlocking Charm, his aunt, the former Gryffindor, blinking at the large wish list and Mr.
Craig, the former Ravenclaw, casually nodding.
In the first test, he found himself remembering the words of Hermione Granger from the books when explaining how to pronounce Wingardium Leviosa properly, he pointed at the pillow in front of him with his wand.
“Wingardium Leviosa!” he chanted and watched with satisfaction as the pillow floated up.
He decided to experiment with it and kept supplying the spell with magic as he moved his wand around.
The pillow took a whole journey through the entire living room before he failed at the concentration, and it fell down with a plop.
Over the next weeks, Kieran had the most fun he has had in a while.
He had been learning the spells mentioned in the books.
His specific choices were mostly out of nostalgia and usefulness.
He practiced with his 3D illusions, having not forgotten about Project THP.
Today was where he would test how hidden he could truly become.
He was alone, having convinced his aunt to teach him her family’s tracking spell, discovering that while it indeed tracked the magic of the surroundings, it also tracked the magical signature of wizards.
The difference he discovered, was that magic needed to be present for the magical signature to exist.
His method of draining his magic, hid his magical signature.
Knowing this, he had her teach him different versions of the spell.
Instead of having it track any magical signature except caster, he got her to teach him the version that allowed it to track any magical signature, including caster.
He casted the spell and watched as it floated until it was right next to him.
As he walked around the room, it followed him quietly.
His goal was not to change his magical signature, that was likely impossible.
The goal was to mask it.
His ultimate goal was to become The Hidden Prankster and never be found in his entire time at Hogwarts, even if the owners of The Marauders Map were trying to find him.
It is a challenge, it will be hard work, but that is the point.
It is fun!
It will force me to innovate, it will force me to think in different ways, and I can even advance my illusion magic at the same time!
The point of his illusions was to hide reality, to misdirect.
With his 3D illusions he believed it was possible to hide from detection, even from spells designed to lock onto magical signatures.
Across from him stood his full body mirror, originally added to his room to test his illusions, and now this mirror would be bearing witness to his greatest illusion work yet.
He viewed himself in the mirror and casted his 3D illusion of himself, feeling it activate.
In the mirror nothing looked different.
He casted a perfect 3D illusion of himself, over himself, even over his clothes and wand.
A perfect projection of his magic, perfectly covering his entire body, leaving no opening for his magical signature to escape, hopefully.
He moved his arm up and down while concentrating, seeing the illusion properly follow his movements flawlessly, showing no signs of being present.
He moved the arm faster and jumps around.
The illusion stayed covering his entire being flawlessly.
He continued making various faces, making the illusion adapt to each facial expression in real-time.
Finally, he empowered the illusion with the concept of invisibility, watering the illusion with magic, adding more and more magic, until he instinctually feels it had reached maximum capacity.
He took a step forward, glancing at the hovering ball of light that was the tracking spell.
Another step.
A third step.
He walked outside his room.
The ball is not moving.
He disabled his illusion, watching the ball of light float toward him.
He snapped the illusion back on, watching it stop.
He couldn’t help it, he threw his head back and laughed, jumping up in the air with his arms raised, celebrating.
He did it!
A spell designed to track down magical signatures could not find him like this!
The Hidden Prankster was possible!
…
The 31st of July, Kieran stood in Mr.
Craig’s living room, wand ready.
Opposite him stood Mr.
Today is the birthday of Harry Potter, he is being introduced to the wizarding world, discovering his destiny.
Good luck, Harry Potter, I am staying the course, you can fulfil your destiny, I will just be doing my own thing.
Kieran put Harry Potter out of his mind and focused on his opponent.
Mr.
Craig accepted Kieran wanting to duel, just disarming, but Kieran must admit he enjoyed the thought of duelling.
The sound of spells clashing, two wizards trying to outsmart the other, the thought alone made his heart, beat faster.
Mr.
Craig and himself had been duelling every day for the past month, and the man showed no mercy!
Breath in, breath out.
Today was the day.
He would disarm Mr.
Craig, by hook or by crook!
…
Craig looked across the room at the eleven-year-old young man, seeing the determined expression.
His growth in the duels is remarkable; I wonder what ideas he has had that makes him this confident.
In the beginning of July, they just stood still as he casually disarmed Kieran.
After ten disarms he was convinced the young man would call it quits.
He didn’t.
Kieran was disarmed over one hundred times the first day.
I knew he was a hard worker.
I knew that he is used to losing due to Hector beating him at chess consistently and constantly across six years, but seems I sometimes still underestimate young Kieran.
The duels got more interesting over the first week once Kieran tried to avoid his disarming charm by running from it, but it was futile.
After the second week, I stopped going easy on him.
I stopped chanting, using nonverbal.
He is truly his aunt’s nephew; his face was priceless.
Craig took out a galleon and threw it into the air, watching his opponent carefully.
The moment it landed on the floor, he whipped his wand at Kieran.
Expelliarmus!
He watched and listened as Kieran loudly said the same incantation and the spells clash in the middle, creating a flash of red light.
Of course, spells clashing in the middle was a rare feat, Craig had learned to do it through years of practice, and yet he gave himself 10% chance that it would actually clash.
He saw Kieran point his wand.
Not allowing the young man to get the upper hand, Craig moved to send another Experlliarmus.
He smirked as he watched Kieran roll on the floor, avoiding the red light from the spell landing where he stood.
“Oof!” Craig exclaimed, as he felt himself getting hit in the back of the head by something soft, distracting him, only barely moving out of the way as Kieran yelled “Expelliarmus!”
Craig quickly looked back, seeing a pillow.
He used a nonverbal Accio to distract me!
He started to pay more attention to the objects in the room, keeping track of Kieran while sending several Expelliarmus after the young man, watching as he either blocked them with his own Expelliarmus, or avoided them.
He is more agile today… Did he seriously copy my ability to forcefully make spells clash?
He is even more consistent than me!
Craig thought to himself, moving himself into position to still be facing Kieran, no matter how much the young boy rolled around.
Kieran tried his Accio trick several more times, but after the first one Craig refused to fall for it again, all his attention was on the agile young man that was using the rooms furniture as obstacles, while constantly trying to make objects be summoned toward Craig, with the aim to hit Craig in the back, to no success.
After a while and a lot of positioning, they have somehow switched positions from where they had started.
With Craig standing near where Kieran first rolled over to at the start.
Craig watched Kieran stumble.
Finally!
Time to end this.
He stepped to his left, to position himself properly in a way that will make Kieran unable to dodge, and just as he put his foot down.
He slipped.
Such was the surprise, that Craig failed at regaining his balance as Kieran pointed his wand at him and yelled “Expelliarmus!”
Craig felt his wand get thrown out of his hand, landing near Kieran’s feet, while he knelt.
Looking down at the puddle of water he stepped on, his eyes widen.
When did he conjure water?
Last time he was in this position…was at the beginning after his roll, after he distracted me with the pillow.
Did I really get outmanoeuvred by an eleven-year-old?
Hmm…Now…How do I convince him to not tell Abigail…
Step into the Restricted Section
You-know-where/Murtageyra
We are inside Hogwarts there ^^