A Web Of Magic

The next day saw Magnus receiving a visitor in the form of Newt. After a cup of tea and biscuits, Newt got on to the reason he arrived. He opened his suitcase and gestured towards Magnus," Shall we?"

Magnus was only happy to once more explore the wonders of the suitcase. This time they went directly into the fully enclosed glass room which showed off the different habitats and creatures living inside the suitcase. The layout of the room was similar to the last time he was here, except for one new addition. On a wooden stool sat a peculiar creature that Magnus had never seen before. It looked like a cross between a sloth and an ape with large yet inquisitive eyes. At first Magnus thought it was a Demiguise which he had read about, but the color was off and it had long claws.

"Caught your interest, has he? He's a variant Demiguise. I call him Segal. You can pet him if you want, just ask him first," Newt said as he started mixing something in a petri-dish.

"Hello Segal, how do you do?" Magnus greeted the creature while making sure not to make any sudden movements. Segal tilted his head to the side and greeted back. At least Magnus thought it was a greeting, it sounded like something between a pigeon and a monkey. Magnus slowly moved his hand towards the Demiguise and asked, ''Can I pat you?"

The creature extended its neck towards Magnus and as he started patting its head, it cooed in delight. 'He's more like a cat or a dog,' Magnus smiled as he thought. "Alright, lad we are ready," Newt called from behind.

He had a bowl in his hand that was half-filled with a green liquid. He separated it into two smaller bowls. In one bowl he poured what looked like blood from a vial. The green liquid turned purple as it came in contact with the blood. The other bowl he placed aside and said, "Right, we'll be needing a bit of your blood now Magnus." A quick [Identify] on Magnus's part showed the liquid as [Blood-Sampling Liquid]. Not very helpful, but it also didn't look harmful. Magnus knew he wouldn't get much information. [Identify] worked much better if he had some prior information or used a lot of magic to power it but in the latter case, it'd become obvious to the person or creature he's using it on.

Magnus nodded his head and pulled out his wand. He placed his left hand over the other bowl and used a controlled Diffindo to make a small incision on his finger. A few drops of blood fell into the liquid which turned purple immediately. With a sign from Newt, he healed his wound and put away his wand. Newt brought both the bowls to Segal and said, ''Come on Segal, you know what to do."

Segal made an unwilling face at first but relented. It drank from the first bowl. Once it was done, it went into a trance and its pupils lit up in red light. The trance only lasted a few seconds and once it was done Segal looked at Newt and shook its head horizontally while screeching something. Newt just nodded his head as if in understanding without saying anything else. Then Segal drank from the other bowl. A few seconds of trance later, it shook his head but this time vertically. It made sounds again at Newt as if telling something.

"Good boy Segal. Here," Newt offered some nuts that he pulled out from his pocket. Segal happily ate from the nuts as it made cooing sounds. Magnus looked at all of this with curious eyes as he waited for an explanation. Newt didn't make him wait too much.

"Well Magnus, since the last time we met, I looked through my old records and spoke to some old friends. I think I figured out what happened to you, at least a part of it. Whatever ritual that hag did on you was similar to some of the rituals that I came across in some old tribes. In those tribes, the shaman would perform a ritual on their warriors where they make them ingest beast blood. When some conditions are met, these warriors or hunters were imbued with the powers of the beast to which the blood belonged. The powers can range anywhere from gaining enhanced senses to complete transformation into the said beast temporarily. Of course, there were many side-effects and failures as they were such complicated rituals. Whatever that hag intended, she put a lot of beast blood in your body."

"Now injecting beast blood into mortals leads to death most of the time as was the case with most tribal warriors. It's like a poison that slowly kills them over time. For wizards though, it is both better and worse. Our magic prevents us from dying due to poisoning, yet it also changes us. Many foolish wizards have tried injecting themselves with magical creatures' blood in hopes of gaining said beast's powers. After all half-bloods do exist between wizards and other magical beings. Most of these foolish wizards end up with mutated bodies. In simple cases, they might grow feathers and claws and in some extreme cases, they end up like chimeras. Wizards of the latter case lose their magic and even their mind after some time. The changes might be irreversible. As a result, such experiments are prohibited throughout the world," Newt paused.

Magnus felt a rising sense of dread from the implications of Newt's revelation. Before he could reveal his worry, Newt spoke again while offering him a piece of chocolate, "Relax Magnus. Your condition isn't quite there. While you did have beast blood injected into you, you also survived the ritual, whatever that did, and are still young. Your body is actively preventing anything bad from happening. The test I did with the help of Segal here was to confirm that."

Segal cooed at the mention of its name. "I know Segal, you are the best," Newt responded with a smile. "You see Demiguises have peculiar abilities I'm sure you have read about. They turn invisible when threatened and they also have precognition. They can look into a possible future for a few moments. Segal here is a variant, as such his abilities are slightly different. He can look into the possibilities of anything he ingests. He ingested two samples of your blood, one from last time and one from now. Most of the possibilities from your previous blood sample showed a bleak future. Your recent sample on the other hand, showed much better chances. Your body seems to be breaking down the beast blood and making it harmless to you."

"So, I'll just get better with time?" Magnus asked hopefully.

"Yes and no. A magical creature's blood, or any magical being really, is not so simple. It involves both a physical aspect as well as a magical or in better words a spiritual aspect. Our blood has our imprint in it that makes it difficult for anyone else to ingest. That is why we always use treated beast blood in our potions, never raw. Well, in most benign potions, but that's a topic for another day. Same for the lack of blood transfusions among wizards unlike the muggles. We'd rather use blood-replenishing potions. While your body is handling the physical aspect of the blood, you also need to handle the spiritual aspect. This is the reason for most mutations from beast blood, they don't handle the spiritual imprint of the beast."

"So, what do you recommend I do Mr. Scamander?" Magnus asked respectfully.

"For starters, call me Newt. You do it the same way those successful tribal warriors handled the problem. They'd go on a spiritual journey induced by powerful hallucinogens. They face their beast in a mental battlefield and defeat it thereby solving the problem. You are a bit too young for any hallucinogens, so you have to do it a bit differently. You know about meditation Magnus?" Newt questioned.

"Ah, yes. I've been doing it for a few months," Magnus admitted.

"Then this makes things easy. Meditation is the precursor to something called the mind arts. You should look into them, more specifically into Occlumency. It comes with many benefits, but what we are interested in is to organize your mind so you can trigger your mental battlefield. Now it won't be easy and most cannot accomplish much even with years of practice, but this is the only way to go without any side-effects. We have enough time. Try for a year and see what happens. If it doesn't work, we can then try the hallucinogen method, but I'd rather avoid that. The side-effects are not something you can handle," Newt explained.

"But Newt, I read mentions about Occlumency before and already searched the entire library for books on it, I didn't find any. Is it in the restricted section? I don't think I can enter there any time soon," Magnus objected. His aunt too mentioned it to him during his lessons, but he just wasn't able to find any books on how to perform it. Even Flourish and Blotts didn't have them on their shelves. The manager just looked at him funny when he asked about it. Even if they had it in their stock, there's no way they'd sell it to a kid. They didn't even sell the higher-level curriculum books to him.

"Ah yes. They can be quite rare. You don't have to look in the restricted section lad, there's a reason that's restricted. You just have to know where to look. Who knows maybe the trolls would should you the way?" Newt said with a laugh. 'Uh, was that a troll joke?' Magnus sighed in his head.

"Now there's a few precautions you need to take Magnus. Before you solve your problem, do not perform any forms of self-transfiguration. Attempt nothing that changes your body, either spell or potion. We do not know how the beast blood in you will affect the change. And stay away from magical beasts, especially predators. They can find your smell enticing. That's the reason the room we are in now is completely enclosed. Segal is fine because he's an herbivore and well trained, but others might not be so calm in your presence," Newt warned. They soon came out of the suitcase and Newt left after giving him a late Christmas present. It was Newt's latest compilation of magical creatures, one that wasn't printed or released to the public yet.

'Great, another thing on my plate. There's already some unknown enemy, a dormant blood curse and now this. The world just doesn't want me to live in peace. Even the diagnostic spells taught by Madam Pomfrey didn't pick up anything about the blood curse or the beast blood. I need better healing spells,' Magnus shoulders drooped. He checked his interface to see any changes. Usually the interface updates on information that he knew consciously or even subconsciously. And it didn't disappoint him this time.

[Magnus Webb

Title: Seer Descendant

Traits: Beast Blood (Magic), Blood Curse (inactive), Beast Blood (Deformation)

Body: 2

Mind: 10

Magic: 10

Impact Points: 431

School: Divination Lv2 (10%), Healing Lv2 (10%), Charms Lv2 (60%), Transfiguration Lv2 (60%), DADA Lv2 (50%), Potions Lv2 (80%), Herbology Lv2 (50%), Astronomy Lv2 (40%), Magical Theory Lv2 (80%), Mind Arts Lv1 (20%)

Skills: Wand Magic Lv2 (60%), Wandless Magic Lv2 (10%)]