Hi everyone, I'm back!
3rd POV
'Thank you, magic, thank you for blooming in me, thank you for choosing me.' Henry touched his forehead to the ground as he bowed, his magic mixing with the ambient magic surrounding him.
He kept his head down in a bow with both of his hands in front of him to support his weight.
'Thank you for giving me the chance to be in your presence, thank you.., thank you…'
By the time he completed his first bow, about two minutes in, the magic around him had already reached his house. The bubble of magic completely encompassed the small garden, with him as the center, and its boundary touched the house.
After two years of bowing, he was now able to use his magic, and not just his physical actions, to express his gratitude. He did this by bringing his magic up to the surface like he was getting ready to cast a spell, and instead of willing it or directing it, he simply held it there and slowly filled it with his thoughts of gratitude, and when he bowed, he released the magic.
He was getting better at doing this – using his magic to express his gratitude, rather than actually thinking of words inside his head. While he still thought of the words in his head for now, he was slowly starting to convert to using just his magic to express his gratitude.
He actually preferred doing it this way, as sometimes he felt like words just weren't enough to express his gratitude towards magic and how thankful he was. He liked to think of it as a package; he would pack all of his gratitude in his magic and send it around him so that it would hopefully be received by Mother Magic, and she would know of his gratitude and reverence for her.
He lifted his head from the ground and started getting ready for his second bow, one to the sun.
'Thank you, sun, for your light, thank you for giving life and energy to us, thank you for the warmth, thank you rising, thank you…, thank you…, praise the sun,' he thought as he gathered the magic inside of him. He held his magic to the surface and filled it with thoughts of gratitude towards the sun. He slowly lowered his head to the ground and bowed.
At the lowest point where his head touched the ground, he released the magic. He chose to release his magic here, as it was the lowest point his head could be at while bowing in the seiza position, to show his humility.
It was his way of saying that even with the gift he had been given, he wouldn't be arrogant, he wouldn't feel superior to others, that he accepted that he would make mistakes and had limitations, and that he would be a continuous learner.
As he released his magic packed with gratitude, the whirlpool of magic swirling around him expanded greatly, completely enveloping his whole house and covering most of his neighbors and part of their houses.
He raised his head from the ground and moved his thoughts towards the next bow, one to everything.
He gathered his magic once more, 'Thank you, fate, for bringing me to this world, thank you, time, space, gravity, life, death, thank you, universal forces, thank you…, thank you…, ' he thanked everything he could think of. He even thought of his parents and Ella and thanked them for coming into his life.
He lowered his head and released the magic he had been holding.
The intense concentration of magic around him expanded even further and ballooned to about forty meters around him, covering almost 8 joined houses, two on each side.
He rose from the bow and repeated the process, gathered magic and filled it with gratitude, this time towards Mother Earth, and lowered his head again.
'Thank you, Mother Earth, for nurturing us, thank you for giving us food, water, air, thank you for being our cradle, thank you…, thank you…,'
The magic around him grew, both in quality and quantity, almost doubling in size and thickening and saturating the area even further.
That is what he did every morning; he woke up earlier than anyone in the house, even though his mother already knew about the magic he practiced, he still quietly came down the stairs and sneaked to the garden purely out of habit.
He walked to the grassy area of the garden, surrounded by flowers that bloomed vibrantly, and he sat down in a seiza position. He gathered his magic and colored and mixed it with his thoughts of gratitude, bowed, and released it at the lowest point where his head touched the ground, and rose up from the bow and repeated the whole process again.
Gather, bow, release, rise, repeat.
After the bows, before his morning magic practice, he sometimes reflected on his bows. He was curious about what would happen to the magic around him if he bowed again, for a fifth time. Would it expand even more? How far would his magic cover?
However, he never tried this, as he didn't want to be greedy during his bows. He didn't want to taint his worship with his desires and thoughts of greed and avarice.
He wanted his bows to be a pure act of devotion.
Later that very same day…
In the dilapidated mansion, located about 20 miles from Shere, a village in the Guildford district of Surrey, England, a swirl of leaves rose from the ground, unprovoked by any wind, to announce an arrival. A second later, Clare and Henry appeared on that exact spot, through apparition.
Henry, who was holding his mother's hand through the apparition, promptly let go as soon as he touched the ground in favor of clutching the edge of the huge stone-carved fountain that decorated the front garden of their new home.
"Revelio," Clare raised her wand and gave it a wide wave.
Henry rose from where he was leaning over in an effort not to puke up his breakfast.
"Are you doing okay, sweetheart?" came his mother's soft and light voice as she came up to him and knelt down to rub his back.
He smiled at her concern and tried to give his best smile despite the shaky legs, weak stomach, and the spinning feeling that still lingered from his side-apparition with her.
"I am doing okay, mummy," he said, pausing, "at least a lot better than the last 2 times."
He shivered a little, remembering the feeling; it felt like he had turned from a solid entity into almost a liquid form and was sucked from one end of the very narrow rubber tube and forced out the other.
After a couple more seconds, he finally got some strength back in his legs, and they no longer shook.
"Anyone close by, mummy?" he asked, slowly letting go of the huge stone fountain that seemed to be falling apart as he looked towards what would be their new home once they had finished cleaning it up.
"No, just some rats scurrying about," she answered him in her usual airy tone.
They walked towards the mansion, pushed open the huge wooden doors, and stepped inside, using the key the previous owners had given them.
"Cough—cough," Henry cleared his throat after coughing a little from the dust in the air currents that had kicked up from when they had opened the door.
Clare flicked her wand towards the window on their right side, which opened right after.
Henry also heard some other windows opening, and he felt her magic spread out throughout the area. He turned to look towards the windows on their left.
'Did she open all the windows, in the entire mansion, all at once?' he thought, amazed at how a simple unlocking charm could be modified by the wizard/witch.
She turned towards Henry and tapped his head with the tip of her wand.
"Aerem tene"
He felt her magic cover him as a filament of thin parchment-like substance moved from the top of his head, down towards the base of his neck.
She then proceeded to do the same thing to herself, and afterward turned back to the room.
She raised her hand with her wand in her grasp and held it there for a second before tracing a small closed circle with the tip of her wand. Henry felt the ambient magic of the surrounding area mix with hers and spread outwards; he assumed she was covering the whole house.
"Ventus"
Henry felt a powerful gust of wind, which almost knocked him down, blow up all the dirt in the room, and carry it out through the open windows.
This went on for about 10 more seconds before she lowered her hand.
"There, that's a little better, isn't it?" she asked, turning towards him after dismissing the bubble-head charm she had cast on herself and him.
Henry nodded dumbly, still immersed in the breath of her magic, her skill, and her finesse. He thought he knew the limits of her magic, having seen her use it around the house, but apparently, he had only seen the surface.
A/N: Henry's expectation of wizards and witches is really low because of his prior knowledge of the wizarding world; he knows most adults in the magical Britain can't even do a shield charm, so he is expecting all the unnamed wizards, including Clare, to have just the knowledge they got in Hogwarts.
He knew his mother was a bit more skilled than the average Joe, but he doesn't know of her obsession with magic and how capable it made her. He doesn't know she has held off Death Eaters before. This is the first time he truly got a hint of how capable Clare is, and how she can use spells non-verbally and without any wand movement, like the tap on the head and a point to the windows.
He felt her magic, and he saw how she was able to bend simple spells taught in the 5th year and use them with such finesse. Clare still needs to say the incantations with some spells that she doesn't use often, like the bubble-head charm and windy spell, but not the unlocking charm, even if it was modified to open all the windows in the house all at once.
I also wanted to show Henry's growing capacity for sensitivity to magic. He is now able to constantly feel whenever she uses magic, which he could only do sporadically before.