HP: A Magical Journey

Chapter 3 - Initial Progress

Quinn West hummed a jolly tune as he filled color in a picture book. Quinn enjoyed coloring the picture book. He did feel that the pictures were a little too simple for him, but he didn't mind as he remembered something as adult coloring books back in his old world, so of all the children activities Quinn did to play his part of a five-year-old, coloring was a one that he enjoyed doing.

Plus, he wasn't only filling color in the picture book but also practicing magic. Ever since the day he performed the anger-induced accidental magic, he had made some progress with magic and tried to improve it with a renewed vigor. Currently, he was sitting in front of a low table on the porch of his house in a lotus position (Indian style). If you sat beside Quinn, then you would be able to see a small glass bead(marble) moving wobbly in the space between his legs.

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Quinn had made some progress with his magic and was able to move light-weight objects with moderate success. Like the small glass bead, he could move it continuously without a problem, but he wasn't able to move it smoothly or more make sudden sharp turns. You could say that while he was able to keep the bead in motion, his control of the bead was lacking.

The only thing he could do with magic was move objects. He couldn't do any traditional magic like transfiguration, charms, jinxes, or anything seen in the original work. Moving objects under a certain weight was exciting enough for Quinn. He would stay up late in the night, moving different objects in differents, trying to gain more control of his magic. Plus, another thing that Quinn considered to be an upside to playing with magic was the sleep at night.

It turned out that the magic core theory was true, magicals had magical cores, and the capacity depended on the amount of magic you used, so the saying, 'Magic is a muscle' was true. The more you used magic, the more magical capacity you would possess.

He had gotten this information from Lia, who was practicing magic at home, and Quinn was allowed to watch, so he 'innocently' asked if she could keep making those butterflies that she was making as transfiguration practice, and she explained about a magic core,

"Let's see, imagine there is a bowl of water inside your body, and the water is the amount of magic you can do. If you use all the water, then you won't be able to do magic."

Quinn decided to ask another 'innocent' statement, fishing for a reply, "I want to do a lot of magic and become a great wizard when I grow up!"

Lia giggled at her little brother and pinched his cheeks, "If you want to become a great wizard, then you will have to use magic every day because that way, you will be able to use more magic."

She had explained in words that a child could understand, and even though she had over-simplified the topic and left out a lot of important things, Quinn had understood the gist of it.

Now, what did all of this had to with sleep at night. It turned out that using magic caused some kind of fatigue, and because Quinn wanted to increase his magic core capacity, he was making sure that by bedtime, he had emptied his magic core, and that turned into some of the best nights of sleep of his life.

Quinn had also started putting in more work in things other than magic. He started to take the piano more seriously and increased his practice time.

Quinn knew that his math skills were higher for a five-year-old, but were his mental math skills top-notch? No, so while he still pretended to be just a bright five-year-old, but on the inside, he was training his brain to calculate faster.

Quinn realized that if he wanted to get better at French, he would have to immerse himself in the language, so he actively began seeking his grandfather to talk to him in French. Mostly their conversations were just Quinn speaking and George listening. George would correct Quinn if he made mistakes. On the written part of French, he used his weekly correspondence with Lia as practice, and when writing to her, he would write the same content in both English and French.

George also had Quinn start on calligraphy and made him practice his handwriting. It was a blessing that they didn't use uneven parchment paper and quill and used a fountain pen with normal paper. Quinn's motivation for working on calligraphy was because he thought George's handwriting was cool and wanted his to be the same.

But, not all subjects were fun to learn. There were other subjects that Quinn didn't find appealing.

He didn't like family history, so he just rote-memorized everything taught to him. There was no extra effort in family history from Quinn's side. Similarly, he felt stifled during the meals as he had to use the correct table manners at every single meal, and Quinn felt that he wasn't able to completely enjoy his meals.

Formal dancing was neither fun nor boring, but it was embarrassing to make mistakes while dancing with someone, so Quinn just made sure to learn everything carefully and not make mistakes. Quinn found that embarrassment could be a strong motivator for learning. Quinn put as much work in dancing as piano under this alternative motivator.

Quinn also witnessed that how grooming and nurture could change a person over time. He noticed that his way of speaking had changed, and he was using words that he never used before, plus the way he walked and sat also changed. He found that his back which had always found the backrest of a chair or sofa, now remained straight, away from the backrest.

Quinn understood that he was changing for the better, but it was still eerie to realize that he changed without him noticing the change.

(Scene Break - George West P.O.V.)

George West was a learned man. He knew the importance of education and knowledge and held them in high regard. He had expanded his family business by using the knowledge he gained from learning and experiencing.

He had been alive for a long time and knew about the importance of learning from mistakes and accepting failures, but he had learned it the hard way. He had let the death of his wife overwhelm him and made him forget about his son. He had made a mistake that had cost him his relationship with his son. He was fortunate that his son was willing to give him another chance and fix their relationship, but then tragedy struck again and claimed the life of his son and daughter-in-law, taking them away from their children.

When he got the news, it broke him. He and his son had just started to fix the crack in their relationship. Why did this tragedy have to occur to this family? He got this close to do the same as he had done many years ago and throw himself into work to avoid grief, but then he remembered about his grandchildren and made him realize that he couldn't let himself drown in misery and picked himself up for the sake of grandchildren. He wasn't going to make the same mistake as he once did.

He took his grandchildren under his care, and he knew that he was doing the right thing when he saw his granddaughter. When he saw Lia, he saw a young child who was about to lose her childhood by maturing too early. George took both of his children under his care and provided the parental support that they had lost. He made sure that Lia wouldn't have to worry about her baby brother alone and made sure that both of them would have a normal childhood.

He was able to connect with Lia fairly quickly, and even though she ended up developing a slightly mature outlook on life for someone her age, he knew that she would be just fine within a few years.

As she grew, George saw Lia showing interest in the family business, so he began mentoring her in the breaks. He was building a foundation for her, just in the case if her interest turned into something serious. He had to say, Lia had impressed him year after year. She always had top grades, the willingness to learn and apply herself. And, more importantly, she had the qualities of a leader. He would be willing to groom Lia as his successor if she committed herself to the family business.

On the other hand, there was his other grandson, Quinn. He was only a year old, and he didn't understand the meaning of death, and it hadn't affected him as much as his sister.

George was not sure how to describe this child. From what he could see, this child was the same as any other child his age, but since he had started his education, Quinn had proved himself anything but an ordinary child. He picked up things very quickly and would always complete his work without complaining.

Quinn's teacher praised him when he asked for Quinn's progress and complimented him for being the easiest student they had ever taught. Not only that, but they also lauded Quinn's learning ability. George wasn't surprised to hear the teacher's opinion as George taught Quinn both French and Family history, and he knew Quinn's capability. He knew that Quinn wanted to learn French and actively tried to get better at it. He also knew that Quinn didn't like learning Family history, and he could see the difference in the effort he showed while he learned French and Family history.

George knew that if Quinn had been a normal child, he would've made a fuss about learning something he didn't enjoy or even outright refuse to learn. But Quinn, despite not enjoying learning Family History, still learned it without any prompting.

But, the thing that stood out most to George was Quinn's interest in magic. Magic would always succeed in attracting Quinn's attention. No matter if it was something as common as levitating cutlery to the dining table, or something flashy as sky-firework charms, everything made Quinn's eyes sparkle.

George noticed that every time he talked to Quinn, magic would always sneak into the conversation, and Quinn would especially active while talking about magic. He noticed that while children Quinn's age wouldn't stay in one spot for long, Quinn would always sit and patiently watch whenever Lia would use magic at home, or when West's manor's elf, Polly would clean the house using elf brand of magic, he would follow her all around the manor as she cleaned. Polly, who was a prideful elf, walked around the manor instead of apparating so that Quinn was able to follow her while she moved around the manor.

George had a hunch that Quinn would grow up to becoming a person who dwelled in the mysteries of magic or at least does something closely related to magic. And, even though it was absurdly early for talking about a child's future, George couldn't help but think that Quinn's future would be deeply related to magic.

George didn't want to decide his grandchildren's future careers. He wanted them to follow what they loved, which was evident as even though he was mentoring Lia, he wouldn't force Lia to take over the business. She would be allowed to leave at any time, and only when she gives full commitment would he seriously groom her for leading the family business.

Back to Quinn, George wanted to see his grandson's limits and how much Quinn could learn before leaving his direct supervision by enrolling in one of the magical schools. He began to replan his original plans for Quinn's education and development.

(Scene Break)

Another year had passed, and Quinn had used the past year very productively. He had increased the things he could do with magic. From making light-weighted objects move with limited control, Quinn had upped his capabilities. Over the year, Quinn had gradually found objects that weighed more and experimented and practiced with them. By the time he turned six, Quinn's control over objects had increased substantially.

The six-year-old still couldn't do anything more than move objects, but Quinn felt like he had pioneered the usage of magic in the area of push and pull. When Quinn mentioned that he could move objects, what he meant was that he could use different combinations of push and pull to make the object move.

In the case of Push, he could just apply a single push or apply a continuous push. The single push was akin to hitting a billiard(pool) ball with a cue stick or hitting a golf ball with a club. Whereas the continuous push was akin to pushing a trolley(cart) and apply force continuously to keep the object moving,

Pull was similar also push and had two types; the single yank or the continuous pull. The single yank was simply applying the pull just once, and the continuous pull could be a continuous pull force applied like a train engine pulling the carriages.

By using multiple combinations of these four types of forces at different powers, Quinn could do all kinds of things. It didn't provide total control like controlling a remote-controlled car, but with creativity and practice, possibilities were vast. He had attained a trickshot level of control and could control objects as long it was possible with push and pull.

Of course there were limitations,

The range was a huge limitation. His current range was only five meters as he didn't know how to get his magic across that limit. He could reach any object as long it was within a five-meter radius with him as the center.

Another limitation was speed. The control deteriorated with an increase in speed. The faster the object, the less control Quinn had on it.

Focus also hindered Quinn's ability to do magic. Quinn found out that to be able to do magic which wasn't high-emotion-fueled wild accidental magic, he had to focus and maintain the intent of the action. So, while the single push and pull were simple enough as their focus time was short, but continuous counterparts were harder as Quinn needed to constantly think of the power, direction, where to apply force, and how to apply force. So, complexity was bad for Quinn.

Then there was one problem that had caused Quinn a lot of problems, and it had taken a lot of willpower from Quinn to overcome. The problem was the bad habit of using hand gestures while using magic. While this habit had provided him with better control as gestures helped with focus, it made him think it was similar to wand moments, and that was against what Quinn was trying to accomplish. So, he tried to get rid of hand gestures, but it had taken everything from crossing his arms to sitting on his hands to put his hands behind the back to break that bad habit.

It took Quinn more than a month to get rid of that instinct to use hand gestures and another two months to get his control to the level provided with hand gestures. Now, Quinn could do the same things by just thinking about the execution of the magic.

Quinn's non-magical education was also coming along splendidly. He had gotten quite good at the piano, and formal dancing was also coming along marvelously. Quinn felt confident that he could dance in front of an audience without embarrassing himself and his partner. Quinn's calligraphy was still a work in progress because of his child's hands, and from his teachers' expressions, he could say that he was doing quite well.

But, things were about to change because two years after the day Quinn transmigrated, Quinn was ready to make a huge step in his pursuit of magic.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- (Some information about the characters.)

Quinn West - MC - 6 years old - in pursuit of the magic.

Lia West - Elder sister - 16 years old (6th-year student) - Beauxbaton Academy Of Magic.

George West - Grandfather - Good guy

Polly - West family house-elf - Cleaning Expert.

In this chapter, we saw things from George West's, progress on magic, some technicalities about what Quinn could do, and a time skip.

Let's see what I can come up with in the next chapter.

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