Apprentice Illusion
On Halloween morning, the whole castle smelled of delicious Pumpkins. The dungeons were looking extra creepy with the bats hanging on the ceiling and huge spiderwebs on the walls. During the potions lesson, Ben thought that Snape looked even more in his element today.
"Today we will create a potent Herbicide." Snape, still dressed like a bat, seemed to glide across the classroom.
"Do not let one drop find its way to the Greenhouses. Watch closely." Snape hissed in his waspish tone, he was clearly not in a good mood today.
Ben decided to focus on his cauldron and not get in Snape's way today. He had focused on potions since the start of the semester, potion making was a lot easier for him to get used to, it was sort of like making salt crystals in the chemistry lab.
Ben had already finished his Herbicide potion, he had the whole day free after this, except for the flying lessons in the evening.
"A decent attempt, don't let it get to your head, Brown."
"It won't, Sir."
"At least you are not as insufferable."
Snape didn't make things too difficult for Ben, not being Harry Potter probably helped.
After the class was over, Ben rushed to the seventh floor. He used [Clairvoyance] to make sure that Dumbledore was in his office and he knew that Quirrell had his classes to take care of.
Inside The Room of Hidden Things, Ben opened up his status panel.
[Name: Benedict Nigel Brown.
Species: Human[Wizard].
Job: Novice Mage.
Title: Dragonborn[Level 7].
Vitality: 170.
Magicka: 170.
[SKILLS-
Alteration[Level 13(Novice)]: Oakflesh, Candlelight.
Conjuration[Level 12(Novice)]: Bound Dagger, Bound Sword, Conjure Familiar, Raise Zombie.
Destruction[Level 15(Novice)]: Flames, Frostbite, Sparks.
Illusion[Level 20(Novice)]: Clairvoyance, Courage, Fury.
Restoration[Level 13(Novice)]: Healing, Lesser Ward.
]
He had been practising spells the whole week, he had decided to focus on levelling up Illusion this week and had even been staying up late. With healing, he did not need as much sleep.
When his Illusion reached level 20, it was as if a veil had been lifted from his mind, a lot of blurred memories containing knowledge on Illusion spells were now available to him. His [Fury] and [Courage] had become a lot more complex, he felt that he would be able to influence stronger magical creatures with them.
The biggest change was [Dual casting], earlier he could only cast spells with one hand at a time, dual casting was very complex and needed a lot of concentration. Now, with his knowledge, Dual-casting of illusion spells had become possible, although it still took very strong concentration.
Dual casting almost doubled the power of his illusion magic, although it was hard to measure the strength of illusion spells. His [Clairvoyance] spell could now show him a complete path to reach his target when dual-casted. It was like a GPS now.
He found a somewhat intact chair to sit on and started dual-casting [Clairvoyance]. Dual-casting was also the fastest way to level up his skills. He practised transfiguration on the broken furniture while he recovered his Magicka.
After about five hours of grinding, when Ben was already reaching his limit, he managed to level up Illusion to level 25. Another surge of memories flooded his head like cold water and washed away all his fatigue. His illusion skill had reached the Intermediate level.
Ben opened the store and filtered the results to the Spell tomes. There were three new spell books available, they were all three times more expensive than the novice spells, but Ben was not lacking gold now. He bought all three spell tomes and with three bright flashes of light, the knowledge of spells was engraved into his brain.
[Calm: A smoothing wave of Magicka washes over the target and drains all aggression from him. Can be resisted if the target's mind is stronger than the caster.]
[Fear: A chaotic wave of Magicka brings forth the deepest fears of the target and makes him flee the place. Can be resisted if the target's mind is stronger than the caster.]
[Muffle: An intangible Magicka barrier covers the target and stops any sound from escaping. The effect is better when cast upon yourself.]
Ben sat there with his eyes closed and processed all the new information in his mind, it did not take him long as it was already a part of him. He cast [Clairvoyance] it cost him only half the Magicka than it did before, he had become twice as efficient in illusion magic.
One spell that Ben had been desperately wanting to learn was the [Muffle] spell, he cast the spell upon himself and felt a wave of Magicka cover his entire body, there was no visible change but he could no longer hear his footsteps. The spell seemed to cover the small debris on the floor too as stepping o the broken glass did not make any sounds either. It did not work when he kicked the chair though. It seemed to be limited by the size of the object and not the degree of noise made by it.
Ben had tried learning the silencing charm or the Imperturbable charm, but they were still too advanced for him to cast. The magic theory behind the spells was just as important as the spells themselves.
The [Muffle] spell when combined with [The potion of brief invisibility], will make Ben a living ghost.
With his newfound ability, Ben was dying to use it and what better day than today? He was ready for the biggest prank of his life. He was going to make this the most memorable Halloween for all the Hogwarts residents.
'Well, with the trolls coming in, this was already going to be a memorable night.'
Ben exited The Room of Hidden Things and walked back and forth three times in front of the empty wall. This time he came to a room full of small vials containing bright orange-coloured liquid.
Ben knew that The Room of Requirement can provide potions. Dobby had found antidotes to butter bear in this room and after a bit of experimentation, Ben had deduced the room could provide any potion that did not take more than a few minutes to concoct.
Ben stuffed his small space enchanted pouch with these potion vials and left the room after requesting a passage near the Quidditch Pitch for his flying lesson. He found this pouch in The Room of Hidden Things.
The extension charm was strictly controlled by the Ministry and was not permitted to be used on items for personal use. So, this pouch was pretty much illegal and probably the reason why it was hidden in that room.
Ben went out of the Broom closet and walked towards the Quidditch Pitch with a skip in his steps.
"You seem pretty chuffed?" Inquired Terry Boot when Ben got to the Quidditch field.
"Oh, I just love flying."
"Yeah, try not to get detention this time." Advised Anthony Goldstein.
It had become pretty much a record by now, every flying lesson Ben went off on his Broom, ignoring Madam Hooch and spent the hour after class polishing broomsticks.
"I'll try."