After a healthy breakfast with his mum and dad, he waved goodbye to his dad as he drove away.
While his mum went to her study room to get some work done regarding the accounting of the house finances, Kieran went to sit in his outdoor area his dad had built for him.
He sat in the silence of nature, listening to the birds chirping and the leaves rustling.
He positioned himself in the lotus position, focusing on his breathing.
Finding the centre in himself with meditation as he has done ever since he was reborn into this world, that he now knew was the world of Harry Potter.
His meditation had allowed him to live in the present, his mind adapting to his body in a unique way that worked for him.
The meditation had always been present, his older mind and instincts had rarely taken the frontal seat in his mind, only being forced to the front under great emotional distress.
The rest of the time, his older mind took a backseat, allowing him to live a carefree life in the present, only shaping his personality a little bit.
But that changed a bit today.
He had access to wandless magic, and he could use a form of illusion magic.
He wanted to know how his magic worked, and that required thinking with theories and experimentation.
He awoke his magic through falling from a wall almost seven feet in height.
This fall from the wall, he remembered it clearly.
Kieran genuinely thought he was going to die, his last moments of his previous life flashing before his eyes.
To think he would instead awaken magic and discover he had reincarnated into the world of his favourite book series.
It was mind boggling.
Kieran thought back to Mr.
Craigs theories, what he said about emotions and magic, his own conclusions regarding intent being the focus of the magic, a focus that the wand empowered or enabled, depending on the wizard.
As he recalled the books and his knowledge of Harry Potter, he could not help but initially agree with the theory.
One of the core themes was that the strongest magic was love, and that the love of Lily Potter, protected her son against the most feared Dark Lord the world had ever seen.
Kieran didn’t fully agree with that statement, however.
I can agree with love being a very powerful emotion, but so is hope and deep primal fear.
Love is a powerful emotion that can trigger an ancient magic like Lily Potter did, but love is not absolute.
Kieran recalled the feelings of wonder he felt when he casted his first magic, in the form of glowing letters in the air.
Illusion magic.
His main emotion was wonder at feeling this new sensation within himself, through meditation he had started seeing it as white energy that he now realized was like white flames, flowing through his body.
He was positive that if his main emotion back then had been fear, he would have been unable to produce the illusionary letters.
Certain spells has to require specific emotions, much like how the Patronus Charm requires happiness.
If magic is the fuel, and intent is the focus, what exactly is emotions then?
Kieran focused on his breathing, entering his deep meditation, feeling his mental space.
He felt his magic move throughout his body, spreading to his chest, following his veins to all his limbs.
He enjoyed the warm feeling of magic coursing through his body, cycling through him.
He remembered what happened when he awakened his magic, that white flame he saw within himself.
He tried to do as he did when he awakened his magic, convincing his mind that he has a metaphysical space within his mind, created by the white flame, his magic.
He succeeded.
While his eyes were closed, it felt as if he was watching within his mind’s eye, seeing a space surrounded by white lightning, a white flame in the middle.
While focusing on his deep meditation, he held his hand in front of him, slowly pushing the white flame through his body as he remembered the feelings of wonder he felt when he discovered magic.
It reached his palm.
He felt something drain from him, and as he opened his eyes, he saw it.
Hovering in front of Kieran’s sitting position, was a floating blurry image of an indistinct woman, wearing an extremely colourful outfit, the colours vivid and clear.
Trying to concentrate, Kieran reached out to the floating image, trying to make the woman’s face more distinct, but the moment he tried, the image shattered into glowing pieces, slowly disappearing, as he let out a sigh.
Not that easy huh…
Kieran tried several times, but he kept failing at making his aunt distinct, only the colours were distinct.
As he sat in meditation, he felt the white flames within him growing dim, his magic reserves were still very small.
He wondered how it grew properly; he wanted more magic reserves to be able to perform greater magic.
He tried to remember how the books worked, the specifics was never truly stated, but a lot could be learned from the way the world of Harry Potter worked.
Some wizards and witches became great, capable of unleashing great and magnificent spells, others simply became…average.
What separates them?
Is it truly just talent?
He refused to believe talent was the thing that decided if someone was great or average.
He recalled Neville Longbottom from the books, he was born untalented, he became strong despite having less talent.
What was it that truly separated the normal from the great…
Kieran considered himself.
The excitement he felt at the thought of learning magic, to master magic, to delve into the deepest aspects of this wonderous reality.
Could the defining trait that separated the great from the normal, be something as simple as passion?
Passion means you use magic more, you experiment more, you innovate more, you embrace magic more.
For the Neville example, it was especially after book five he started becoming strong, when Bellatrix Lestrange was free.
Nevilles passion would be overcoming the witch that ruined his family.
Kieran’s passion was obvious to him, he was in this world now, and he would master magic, explore magic and ensure his family was safe throughout it all.
He thought back to the topic of his magic reserves.
Could magic be like a muscle?
The more consistently you trained it, and pushed it, the more it grew?
It was worth trying.
He should aim to spend all his magic reserves each day before bed, and then, maybe a month later, try to compare how long he could use his illusion magic before he was drained.
Today was a little under an hour, even if it only improved by minutes, it didn’t matter.
Consistent hard work had a tendency to matter in the end, even if just to build good habits.
…
Over the next week, Kieran’s daily life became reading simple muggle books, practising writing the sentences from the book, doing his mathematics homework, eating lunch with his mum.
Finally, ending each day with practising his magic, draining his reserves, before his dad came home from work in time for dinner.
He kept focusing and experimenting with the emotions, trying to find out how they worked within the magic system of the world he was in.
He got some fascinating results when he tried using the memory of his former life’s death, the fear, to cast illusion magic.
He expected it not to work.
He was wrong.
It worked, just not in the way he expected.
As he used fear as the primary emotion when creating the illusory image of Aunt Abi in her colourful attire, unlike all other times, the colours were muted.
Aunt Abi was still just an indistinct woman.
However, a part of the memory he barely recalled got sharpened to a completely clear image.
There was a knife on the table in the memory.
It was not his focus; his focus was his aunt.
Yet when fear was the primary emotion for this image, the knife was clear, it was the clearest aspect of the image. Get faster updates on g.com.
The emotion of fear made his magic focus on threats, while the emotion of wonder made his magic focus on the colours.
It was fascinating, wondrous, and completely destroyed my theory that specific spells require specific emotions.
Yet he knew part of his theory was true, the proof being the Patronus Charm.
Happiness was a distinct requirement to create a patronus.
Why was his illusion magic different?
He then recalled the thoughts he had back when Mr.
Craig explained his theories, he wondered why he found nonverbal casting natural.
He had been nonverbally casting illusion magic since he awakened his magic.
He was manipulating the white flames that was his image for his magic, directing it through meditation in the form of intent, into creating 2D images.
Emotions obviously affected the result, the final image changed depending on the emotion he used, be it wonder or fear.
What if emotions did more than affect the result of magic?
What if the emotions not only affected the result but was a direct requirement at the same time.
Certain spells could require very specific emotions for the result, but other spells could require several emotions working in tandem for the requirements.
As Kieran sat and just listened to the nature around him, he opened his eyes and looked at the trees in the garden, watching a robin bird fly above him.
As the small robin started chirping its song, Kieran relaxed and got lulled into the song.
Suddenly, Kieran sat up straight.
“Verbal casting is a crutch for emotions to create a mindset!” He at first yelled the first word, but flinched and said the rest in a whisper, not wanting to scare the robin.
Emotions are just one aspect of the puzzle; the true requirement is the mindset.
He thought back to what he knew about the Unforgivables, the words several Death Eaters used.
You have to mean it.
If you didn’t truly want your target to die, the killing curse would not work.
You needed the mindset of a killer, and not everyone could achieve that mindset.
You could be fuelled by the emotions of hatred, but if deep down you were not a killer, you still couldn’t cast the killing curse.
He recalled what he remembered from the books, the wizarding war had aurors authorized to use the killing curse.
Aurors were protectors not killers.
If they could manipulate the mindset into being one of protection by truly wanting the target to die, to save the majority, they should still be able to create the mindset to use the killing curse.
Some would likely use the emotions of vengeance, others the emotion of sacrifice, the important part was that certain spells must have specific mindsets, but the emotions could be flexible.
Kieran thought of the Patronus Charm.
This emotion has to be a positive one, the mindset would be one of happiness and hope.
He then focused on his current illusion magic.
His mindset was one of expression, and the emotions he used decided the context of the expression, while his meditation allowed him to focus the magic without a wand.
The verbal part of a spell and the wand movements would help bring someone into the right mindset, because they have been taught what mindset is needed for the specific spell…so when they perform these rituals, the mindset becomes automatic.
That must be it.
Kieran considered his illusion magic; it was the first expression of magic he did in this world.
He felt as if it was part of his being, his inner self.
He did not require rituals to invoke illusion magic; the mindset came naturally to him for this particular type of magic, the desire to express himself to this wonderful world.
The meditation could replace his intent.
The true goal for his intent would be to become capable of meditation while moving and actively casting spells, another thing to try and train before he drained all his magic reserves, each day, consistently.