A Web Of Magic

As he looked over the interface, Magnus got an idea. 'What if I use [Identify] on the interface? Will it tell me its origins or at least what some of this means?' Once he had this thought, he did not delay and immediately used [Identify] on the interface.

[Seer Descendant: Increased competency in Divination

Body: Strength, endurance, resistance. A.d.u.l.ts: 5+

Mind: Mental resistance and endurance, perception and learning. A.d.u.l.ts: 5+

Magic: Magical capacity, resistance and potency. A.d.u.l.ts: 30+

Beast Blood (Magic): Magic +200%

Beast Blood (Deformation): High chances of uncontrolled deformation

Blood Curse (inactive): Magic -40%, Excessive use of magic can cause Internal Petrification, Tracking Enabled]

Even if the origin of the interface wasn't found, Magnus felt excited with the rest of the explanation. He already had an inkling about the title, so he wasn't surprised at the description. The explanation of the stats was a welcome addition. He always wondered how his compared to the others, but now he had an estimation. 'My body is at half that of an a.d.u.l.t, no surprise there. My mind stat is 10 so does that mean I'm better than some a.d.u.l.ts? My magic stat is still at 10 but it'll grow with time. I saw at school that most fifth-year students and above had around or over 30 in magic. Is it because they are Hogwarts students?' Magnus wondered as he went over the stats description. But his happy curiosity soon turned into a grimace as he went down the list to his traits.

'So, Newt was right. There is a danger from this beast blood despite the magic boost it offers. And there's the blood curse just as Aunt Viola said. Tracking Enabled? Does that mean they can track me right now?' Magnus turned gloomy but it was soon replaced by a determined expression. 'I'll get rid of them one way or another and get to the bottom of this. I will find them mum, dad.'

It was a few days after Newt left and Magnus's mood recovered. He decided to tackle his problems one step at a time. For now, he needed some ingredients and he planned to go to Diagon Alley for them. He donned some black robes and stood in front of his fireplace as he counted his coins. 'That should be enough for now. I don't want to exchange currency in Gringotts just yet. I'll leave it for next year,' he decided. He threw the floo powder and was off to Diagon Alley in a swirl of green flames. He made sure that no one was paying attention to him and popped into an abandoned alley.

He pulled out his wand and tapped himself as he muttered," Hominum Dissimulato." It was one of the spells he picked up from Prof. Flitwick's books. It took him a month to get it right and that's saying something as he picked up all the first-year spells in the same duration. Even then it was only the basic version and that was only made possible because he reached Lv2 in Charms.

Just as the incantation finished, his body outline seemed to shimmer and he appeared one feet taller and his face looked different. He didn't actually get taller of course, it's only an illusion and if anything touches his head, it'll pass right through. He grew in height in the last few months and was just shy of 5 feet. After the spell, he appeared just under 6 feet in height. 'Alright, this should do it. Now I can buy some items without being denied.'

Magnus planned on getting some of the potion ingredients while enquiring about possibly selling his own potions. He visited all the apothecaries one by one and stocked up on all of his supplies. He also enquired about the sale of potions and was left disappointed. To sell potions legally, one would need a license from the ministry. He could also sell it to the shops directly, but they would only pay him 60% of the price and that too after a testing process which might take a week. He didn't have that kind of time now. 'Oh well. next year then.'

He reached home by lunch time. He had to constantly reapply the spell every 15 minutes and felt mentally drained. 'I should find an alternative.' He ate a quick lunch and took a nap. He had a lot of experimenting to do later.

He woke up later, had a quick snack and holed himself up in his makeshift potion lab, the guestroom. He laid out all the ingredients he bought neatly in rows on the table. He looked at them in concentration for a few seconds. The ingredients started glowing one after another in different colors and intensities. He had been seeing a similar scene every time he concentrated his vision on an ingredient or other magical objects ever since his last birthday. He searched for different vision related conditions in the Hogwarts library. While there wasn't an exact finding, the closest he came across was a very rare ability called Mage Sight. It allowed the user to literally see magic. Merlin was said to have possessed Mage Sight. Magnus assumed his condition allowed him to see the magic in certain objects. He did use [Identify] to find out what they meant but he was limited to the ingredients only used in the class. Still, he had some conjectures that he liked to verify on a larger scale. It wasn't convenient to do so in school but there were no distractions here.

He put two ingredients close to each other and looked at them closely. Their colors seemed to blend in the space between them and gave rise to a new color. 'Interesting. How about this?' This time he brought another ingredient and slowly a new color showed up in between the three. 'What could it mean?' he went into thinking mode for a few minutes. He then used [Identify] on them and understanding came to his mind. 'Can it be?'

He moved aside all the ingredients and placed only the ingredients for the Wiggenweld Potion in one spot. As the ingredients got closer, the color at the intersection of the ingredients turned close to white. Once all of them were almost on top of each other, only the color white was left glowing around them. Magnus grew excited as he repeated the same procedure with the ingredients for all the potions that he knew while he used [Identify] simultaneously. He wrote his preliminary conclusions in a notebook. He preferred to use notebook and pen when he was by himself. For him, the quill and parchment were strictly for school purposes only.

'First, beneficial potions like curatives and antidotes give a white glow. Second, potions that are detrimental like the Herbicidal potion gives black color. Third, potions that are neither curatives nor very harmful like the Pompion potion give grey color. Then what about the other objects that glow? Are they also ingredients? But what are they ingredients of? I don't think a wand is used in a potion,' he thought as he penned down the details. His [Identify] just revealed their normal functions when he used it on objects other than potion ingredients. He decided to brew one beneficial potion and one harmful potion to test his hypothesis.

A few hours later, he held a Wiggenweld potion in his right hand and an Herbicidal potion in his left. The former had a white glow around it while the latter a black. ���Well that confirms it. But it isn't exact though. The Herbicidal potions isn't meant for consumption in the first place, it's for removing weeds. I can discern poisons this way, but I can just use [Identify] for it. Makes potion experimenting easy though. Can I invent new potions this way? Hmm, food for thought,' he wrapped up his experiment with satisfaction. While he didn't know all the details, what he did know excited him. [Identify] just showed him what an ingredient does but not what it could be mixed with. This ability on the other hand can show him what to mix but not their proportions. 'Can I use divination to find out the proportions and the process?' he excitedly thought.

For the rest of his holidays, he brewed all the potions he wanted to but he stayed away from experimentation after his cauldron cracked. A quick Reparo fixed it, but he didn't want to risk his house blowing up. So, he staved off further experimentation till he reached Hogwarts. Still, it wasn't without any results. He brewed his very own unique potion he named "The Glue Potion." In small quantities, it can help glue different objects. When you throw the potion at someone or something, it envelops them/it in a sticky cocoon. His next mode of action was to find an antidote for it. It wouldn't do to tell others about it before he made an antidote, especially with people like Fred and George around. Who knows what they'll get up to? He learned whatever he could and played with his friends in his free time. The vacation came to an end all too soon and he was off to Hogwarts once again to continue the rest of the term.

[Impact Points+20]