HP: The Salazar's Heir Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Magic Lessons

“I wish you were here to teach these things to me, grandfather.”


Sebastian stared at the magical book, a sense of uneasiness lamenting his heart.


“You probably would not give me a second to breathe before hammering these spells into my head.” He chuckled a little, moving his fingers over the cover of the book. “But I do miss that.”


Sebastian was brave, but he was still eleven by heart, an age where people hated to be alone, to be lonely.


‘Do not let loneliness be killed by someone you love. Do not let something that builds you be killed by an individual.’


This was the quote that kept him going even when he felt scared and lonely. One of the many quotes that helped him fight through his fears.


“Do not worry, I will revive the Slytherin name.” Sebastian spoke with determination, “Not just as a name of a Hogwarts house, but as a name known throughout Britain and beyond.”


With that, he sat near the window pane, letting the night wind hit his face. The sensory magic assured him that he wasn’t being watched and that gave him the confidence to open the book of magic.


“Let’s see what you have prepared for me.”


And with that question, he slowly opened the book. The book, of course, was blank, filled with nothing but empty white pages.


Saying nothing, Sebastian pushed the tip of his finger against the uncovered and sharpened edge of the window pane, drawing a bit of blood. 


He let the blood onto the book, the green cover book that felt cold to the touch. 


The blood dripped onto the page, soaking it red before being fully absorbed in it. And in a moment of wait, the stain turned to a word, then to two and soon the page started to fill up entirely with red-inked words –ink formed purely of blood.


Pure Slytherin Blood.


“You did care, didn't you?”


He smiled a little as he read the first page, a page with one simple paragraph written in big letters. 


``My beloved grandson, if you are reading this, then you have reached a stage where you have made me proud. Accept this gift filled with the knowledge I acquired through the years, as a grandfather's gift to his grandson.``


He turned the page and the blood carried onto the next page, forming words into that new page.


``Magic as you know it now, must have changed. Maybe it is stronger, maybe it is faster, maybe it is easier and maybe it is better.`` Sebastian shook his head reading the words, ``Or maybe… it has degraded. But even with changes, the base of magic, the root of magic remains the same.``


It was true, magic followed certain principles and no matter what kind of efficient method you used to cast magic or improve it, the root remained the same. The basic principles never changed and if you tried to change them, tragedies followed.


``No matter if the magic is weaker or stronger, the base that you form will help you adjust to any age of magic.`` Sebastian agreed with his words as while most of the spells were weaker, they still were based on the same principles established at the discovery of magic.


``I will embed all my knowledge onto you. From mind arts to physic manipulation art, from potions to runes and from divine to dark arts.`` Sebastian, despite being the grandson, did not fully comprehend the capabilities of Salazar, so to witness the magic of his grandfather, even if it was a slow process, it was definitely a process that he was willing to go through.


``I have taught you the base, and now I will teach you how to build from that base.``  The more he read, the more he was invested.


``You will learn to adapt to the present form of magic by twisting and turning through the basics and you will learn that naturally as you grow older.``


Maybe he was right, maybe he was wrong. Sebastian understood that only time and experimentation would tell.


``So, what do I teach you first?`` He read, amazed that his grandfather, the man that was certain about every little thing was not certain about the start. ``The mind arts? That is a good place to start but as a Slytherin, your mind is protected from legilimency unless a powerful equipment is used so occlumency can be taught later. Legilimency is a horrible topic to start with, it warps in views and mentality and starting with it would be a mistake.``


Sebastian smiled realizing that his grandfather was worried about his safety.


``Rune is not something that you can use in every situation, so what can be used?``


Even Sebastian thought about what could be learned first.


But when he read the next part, he understood what he was going to learn first.


``Ah, yes. An art that can be offensive and defensive and an art whose complexity depends purely on the spell that you are trying to cast.``


Sebastian read curiously and as he read the name of the magic, he was delighted.


``You will start from elemental magic, a magic by the spirits and for the spirits, yet a magic stolen by the wizards.``


He didn't understand the latter part, yet it didn’t matter. His focus was mostly on magic.


``Now, another question is what element to start with. Air, Water, Earth, Lightning, Fire or some other element?``


Another good question and in Sebastian’s mind, he chose fire or water.


But the answer that his grandfather came up with surprised him.


``I had been a famed duelist in my early years and from that experience I have learnt that it is offense that helps you stay safe. A good offense can be a great defense.``


The element chosen by Salazar was nothing he expected.


``The best offensive element is lightning, electricity.`` Sebastian was a little taken aback. ``The sheer explosive strength, the sheer sharpness and the sheer destruction that lightning can cause is beyond other elements.``


``Fire is a popular introductory element but most do not know that the hottest thing is not fire but a form of electricity.``


This was something that Sebastian didn't know.


``So, we will start with lightning –manipulating electricity.``


Sebastian noticed that just as much as his interest to learn grew, it appeared that even his grandfather’s excitement to teach grew.


``To manipulate electricity, you have to understand what it is first and how it is different from other elements.``


Sebastian was fully invested.


``A good comparison will be between fire and electricity. Both elements are able to produce heat but both are quite different. One can be defined as a calm yet destructive force and the other can be explained as an unsettled and excited element.``


``To reach the fire element, you have to focus on the explosive property found in nature, however to tame lightning you need to grasp the instability and flow of nature.``


That was a bit difficult to understand for him, but Salazar did his best to explain.


``In order to manipulate an element fully, you must grasp it by its root, feeling and noticing its presence in nature first, rather than merely using chants like "Incendio" that produce the element.``


``Electricity is an excited flow found in nature, to understand it relax your mind and body and be one with the calm and serene nature.``


Sebastian did as told and relaxed himself. Upon realizing that he could achieve that serenity by emptying his mind, he decided to learn the next part.


``The next part should be even easier, look for the instability, the chaos or the noise in that serenity. Look for the aspect that does not want peace, that cannot stay quiet for a second and grasp it. Grasp the flowing one and not the cackling one.``


At first Sebastian didn't understand but as he focused more and more, he noticed something.


There were different instabilities, agitated and unsettled forces. And each of them were different.


Some were growing and shrinking, some were cackling, some were fluttering and as he looked a little further, he finally noticed it.


A flowing form of unsettlement, a type of instability that kept moving in a direction.


It was noisy and it was flowing.


So he did what he knew he had to do.


And he grasped it, he grasped it to tame it –and before he knew it, he achieved what he was asked for.


“What…”


He saw sparks, sparks of different colors flowing around the palm of his hand.


He had grasped lightning and all that he needed to do with it was to shape it.


And that was the part of elemental manipulation that allowed for the creation of different element based spells.


Spells were a result of the lack of ability to manipulate the shape and property of the element on its own. 


Spells that Sebastian didn’t have to bother with. 


After all, elemental magic was an art, allowing manipulation according to one's will, rather than being limited to casting only predefined spells.