A Web Of Magic

Magnus's excitement didn't last long on his first use of magic. His attempts only worked five times out of ten. While that would have been a remarkable achievement to anyone else in his position, he wasn't knowledgeable in such matters. In the end he could only shrug and take what he got. The night soon passed this way.

The next morning after a quick meal which was turning bland fast, he set about going through the books, hoping to find something useful. Trying to recall further memories only left him with a headache. He poked the books with a stick that he had gotten from outside to check for any obvious curses. His parents always cautioned him about cursed books that were found in the wizarding world. Any book that's worth something has a charm on it, beneficial or often otherwise. Especially books that were found in a cabin owned by a crazy witch in the middle of nowhere. The foreign language didn't make them any less ominous. Yesterday he was careless in his excitement and he only realized his mistake later at night.

He picked the two books he could understand first, "Tales of Beedle the Bard" and "Legends of the Legendary". "Tales of Beedle the Bard" was less abridged than he remembered, but still nothing new that would matter to him. The other book was a collection of stories of various legends from all over the world. It looked to be old and was handwritten rather than printed. There was no mention of the author either. 'The first book is like a staple of the wizarding world, so almost everyone has it. What's so special about the second one though? I don't think that a lunatic witch would love to read stories in the middle of nowhere. Hmm, the first story is about a warrior who fought against the invaders. Pretty standard story, even those muggle books I read have them. The second is of a scholar who found some cure for a plague. The third is of a legendary beast, fourth is some shapeshifter, fifth is of someone who wakes up in another world…'

A cold sweat took his back as he was reminded of the witch's words when he woke up in that disgusting cauldron. The words seemed to match the stories in the book, though he couldn't recall his captor's words completely. 'Not ominous at all. What could go wrong when you follow a storybook? Bollocks that's what!' Magnus thought in annoyance. His mum would have admonished him at his use of cuss words, but he always thought they were cool when the older boys used them. He felt like the present situation did give him a leeway with some cussing. He paced around the room for a while till his mind settled down. 'I hope I get out of this mess soon,' he hoped.

He went to the stream nearby and took a quick wash and got the water with the pot. He tried the berries this time. The red one was fine while the purple berry made his tongue numb for a few minutes. When he concentrated on them, the red berries had a brighter glow around them while the purple berry had a dark and dull glow. 'So, bright good and dark bad?' he theorized. He decided to avoid the purple one. The meal of berries while unsatisfactory, filled his stomach. He didn't know how to hunt and decided not push his luck with any potential magical creature that might be lurking around.

With nothing else to do, he went to the bookshelf again and took down the remaining two books. The yellow covered book in pictograms was put to the side. He couldn't make heads or tails of it. The other book in black gave him a sense of familiarity after an intense staring session. 'Ah yes! This is written in Arabic! I did look at the alphabet just before coming to Egypt. Let me see if I can still recall all the 28 letters. Now what story did I make?' Magnus had a habit of linking information to stories to better remember stuff. After some time, he recalled all the alphabets with the help of the story he assigned for them.

'Alright, now let's see, this should be Wands in Widows cu-' he stopped with a blush. 'Shouldn't have looked at that book Jimmy gave. Let's try again, "Wondrous Widow's Cures", that should be right.' He waited for a bit for any adverse effects. If there was a curse on the book, it usually takes hold either when you touch it or read it, at least according to his limited knowledge. Since nothing happened, he continued reading the book one word at a time.

The going was slow, but he persevered. He had nothing to do anyway so he took it as a fun way to pass time. The book should be a few hundred pages at the minimum. He took some breaks in between and his reading got faster the more he read. By the time he felt hungry, he read some 50 pages and understood less than a fourth of it. He learned that just because you know the alphabet, doesn't mean that you can understand a language quickly. The fact that it read from right to left didn't make it any easy. While he missed out a lot of what he read, he could make out that it was a potions book. It was only possible because his mum taught him some basic knowledge of potions and he could recognize some familiar terms and plant names. He couldn't make out any of the recipes though.

It was night time so he closed the book. He ate a meal of berries and the last piece of cheese before going to bed. That night he dreamt of his life in London. What started as a game with his friends in schoolground somehow turned into a battlefield with loud explosions and raging fires. Screams of people filled his dream as a gigantic cackling head of a hag rose from the darkness and swallowed everything.