The quiet intensity in Anduin's room at the Leaky Cauldron was electric. Having established a secure base and a plausible cover story, he plunged into the core of his training. The primary subject of his immediate investigation was the fundamental difference between his old, wandless "Strength" and the standardized magic he now wielded.
"It is inexplicable. The flow is different, the sensation is cleaner, yet the direct, primal connection I felt when casting without the wand is entirely muted," Anduin mused, pacing the confines of his small room.
He picked up the Dark Picture wand. The feel was still perfect—a seamless extension of his will. He performed the simple, well-known Levitation Charm, Wingardium Leviosa, with the clear incantation and decisive flick of the wrist detailed in the textbook.
The magic flowed, channeled by the ebony wood, feeling like a pure, clean electric current. The book rose effortlessly.
He released the wand and set it aside. He closed his eyes, adopting the posture of profound stillness he had cultivated for years. He bypassed the wand, bypassing the incantation, reaching deep for the cold, electric fire of his own innate power. He remembered the precise, internal path the magic had taken when channeled through the wand. He focused on that path—the specific route of the power from his mind to the target.
Slowly, deliberately, he opened his eyes. Before him, the heavy textbook he was studying on the mechanics of Transfiguration began to lift.
The sensation was entirely different from his earlier, painful 'telekinesis.' It was less a straining mental push and more a subtle, elegant siphoning. He was not brute-forcing the object; he was channeling his own internal magic along the template provided by the spell structure.
"Fascinating," he breathed. "The wand is not just a tool; it is a stabilizer and a smart channel. It takes the raw, chaotic energy and forces it into an efficient, repeatable circuit. My old method was primitive, brute-force application. It required massive internal effort for minimal return. The wand provided the solution—the perfect schematic for the magical circuit."
By mastering the spell with the wand, Anduin had inadvertently learned the internal blueprints necessary to cast it without the wand. He had reverse-engineered the magical process. Unbeknownst to him, he had just taken the first, decisive step toward mastering silent, wandless magic, an achievement only possible due to his unique combination of intense mental discipline and years of forcing raw power into his consciousness.
Compared to other eleven-year-olds, his accumulated magical endurance and total 'Strength' were already monumental. Once he understood the method, mastery became a matter of disciplined repetition.
The goal now was solidification. Anduin spent the remainder of the morning locked in his room, casting the Levitation Charm hundreds of times. Sometimes with the wand, sometimes without; sometimes with the full Latin incantation, sometimes with only the intent. He was building muscle memory not in his arm, but in his mind—carving the spell circuits deep into his consciousness.
The intensity of his focus was such that the outside world, for hours, ceased to exist. His training was broken not by fatigue, but by a sudden, demanding protest from his digestive system.
GRRRRROWL!
Anduin glanced at the clock on the bedside table. It was well into the evening; he had completely missed lunch and was on the verge of missing dinner. He quickly calmed his racing mind. Discipline demanded he balance work and rest, particularly nutrition.
He went downstairs, his robes rustling softly, and found Tom wiping down the counter behind the bar, reading a crumpled copy of the Daily Prophet.
"Evening, young man! Don't tell me you slept straight through the afternoon again!" Tom called out, mistaking Anduin's intense magical isolation for simple laziness.
"Hardly sleeping, Tom. Merely sequestered in deep study," Anduin joked easily, falling into the comfortable banter they had established. "Surely you aren't complaining that I didn't come down to prepare the midday meal, are you? I thought you enjoyed my simple offerings."
Tom bristled, folding his newspaper with a snap. "I'm complaining about you starving, boy! I was about to send up a tray of biscuits, thinking you'd passed out from exhaustion!"
"My mistake, my fault entirely. I will make amends," Anduin grinned. "Tonight, I promise a culinary performance that will be worth skipping three meals. Something with extra sauce." He headed for the small, perpetually greasy kitchen.
He emerged later with a dinner that was anything but simple—a hearty stew, thick with herbs and root vegetables, served with freshly baked bread. Tom poured Anduin a large glass of Butterbeer—the strange, slightly frothy, sweet magical beverage that smelled of caramelized sugar but tasted surprisingly light and refreshing.
"I saw you with that paper just now, Tom. Anything new on the state of things outside Diagon Alley?" Anduin asked casually, while tearing off a piece of bread.
Tom sighed, tapping the front page with a wrinkled finger. "It's just getting worse, lad. The Death Eaters—that's what the followers of You-Know-Who call themselves—they clashed with the Ministry's Aurors again last night, down near the coast. They seriously injured one of the Aurors. I just want to know when this damned chaos will end."
Death Eaters. Another crucial piece of terminology slotted into Anduin's growing glossary. The stakes were getting higher. His training was not for academic credit; it was for literal survival against known, organized terrorist combatants.
As they finished their meal, Anduin performed a small demonstration. Without a word, or even a visible movement of his wand, which was still tucked away, he simply focused his mind on the detritus of their meal. The empty bowls, plates, and cutlery lifted off the table in a neat stack and floated gracefully toward the kitchen sink.
Tom stared, his eyes wide as teacups. Even for a seasoned, semi-retired wizard, such wandless, silent manipulation was a rarity—a display of either unbelievable discipline or prodigious power.
"What in the blazes was that, boy?!" Tom demanded, his voice hushed with astonishment.
"That, Tom," Anduin chuckled, rising, "was merely the efficient result of skipping lunch. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must get back to my studies." He left Tom sputtering in amazement and returned to his room.
Over the next few days, under the relative safety of the Leaky Cauldron, Anduin accelerated his spell mastery. Utilizing the systematic structure of his first-year textbooks, he rapidly worked through the elementary spells, focusing on utility and defense:
Utility: Alohomora (Unlocking Charm), Lumos (Light-Shining Charm), Scourgify (Cleansing Charm), Aguamenti (Clean Water Charm), and Impervius (Waterproofing Charm).
Defense: Protego (Shield Charm), Locomotor Mortis (Leg-Locker Curse—which he mastered as a counter-spell), and Flipendo (Banishing/Repelling Spell).
He discovered that while the Levitation Charm yielded easily to his wandless method, all other spells stubbornly required the wand and the proper incantation. He theorized that this was because the Levitation Charm was essentially the first principle of his innate 'Strength,' while others involved more complex, multi-layered magical paths.
His constant practice, coupled with guidance from the enthusiastic Tom (who was delighted to share spells he knew when Anduin asked for pronunciation help), led him to formalize a Calculus of Casting—a theoretical framework for power:
Skill & Understanding: The caster's technical mastery and intellectual grasp of the spell's intention dictates its purity and effectiveness. Tom's simple Lumos was far brighter because he understood the underlying enchantment better than a novice.
Willpower & Emotion: Offensive spells, especially, were amplified by the caster's willpower and emotional intensity. Tom warned him that Dark Magic practitioners exploit this, allowing their negative emotions to fuel their power, though at the risk of emotional corruption. When Anduin repeated Lumos with powerful, protective determination, the light was noticeably stronger.
Raw Power (The Ceiling): The wizard's total magical strength and capacity determines the upper limit of any spell. This was the one attribute Anduin knew he could consistently increase through his unique meditation and physical training.
Based on this analysis, Anduin shifted his training objective from broad learning to highly specialized, strategic mastery.
The immediate goal was self-protection against potential Death Eater incursions. He needed a spell that was simple, versatile, and held high developmental potential.
He considered the defensive options:
The Disarming Charm (Expelliarmus): Simple, essential, but purely offensive/disarming.
The Banishing Charm (Flipendo): Good kinetic force, but limited defensive utility.
The Shield Charm (Protego): Pure defense, simple, and the foundation of survival.
Anduin, with his 'overbuild' mentality—the relentless focus on a single, core attribute until maximum efficiency is reached—chose the Shield Charm, Protego.
It was easy to learn and directly aligned with his need for defense. Furthermore, Anduin saw its potential. If a simple shield could be mastered to perfectly repel any physical or magical attack, then perhaps a perfect shield, with enough power and precision, could be refined into a kinetic offensive weapon, not just absorbing energy, but redirecting it.
The Shield Charm was no longer just a defensive spell. For Anduin Wilson, it was the focus of his first true magical mastery, the foundation of his personal combat doctrine. He would make the Protego spell the ultimate shield and sword.
Anduin has chosen to specialize in the Shield Charm (Protego). Where should his next major scene take place?