Opening Pandora's Spell Box for the First Time

Although the visit had been temporarily called off, Andy still kept the matter in mind.

This book alone showed that Pandora Lovegood was an expert in spells, with a deep understanding of charms.

Compared to others, her ideas seemed somewhat fanciful, yet they aligned perfectly with Andy's own understanding of magic.

If he could obtain the research materials she had left behind, they would surely be of great help to him.

After finishing—sleeping through—a History of Magic class, Ravenclaw's lessons for the day came to an end.

From now until lights-out at eight in the evening, all their time was free.

"Andy, shall we go to the library?" Hermione suggested as she packed up her notes.

So many books in the library were still waiting for her attention. It would be terribly rude not to read them.

"Let's go tonight!"

"I need to write home first, then find an empty classroom to practice spells." Andy organized his textbooks, shrank them with a Shrinking Charm, and slipped them into his Wizard Robe pocket.

Hermione fell silent for a moment.

She had originally planned to head straight to the library, but after seeing Andy cast so skillfully, she suddenly realized that practicing magic was clearly necessary too.

But the Little Witch was rather thin-skinned and felt too embarrassed to bring it up herself.

"Want to come with me?" Andy invited her.

"Sure!" Hermione put on a reluctant expression, then nodded after a moment's hesitation.

After writing home, Andy took Hermione to an Abandoned Classroom on the Sixth Floor of the castle.

"How should we practice?" Hermione looked around, drew her wand, but had no idea what to do next.

She had used magic at home before, but only superficially. She had never studied it in depth or practiced it deliberately.

"Practicing magic doesn't mean just waving your wand around like an idiot."

Andy had plenty of experience in this area. "First, you need to become proficient with a spell. Then you practice on stationary targets, followed by moving targets. Finally, you improve your mastery of the spell."

"Mastery?" Hermione could understand the earlier stages of training, but improving a spell's mastery... that part confused her.

"Hmm... how should I explain it?"

After thinking for a moment, Andy flicked his wand and softly said, "Incendio!"

A burst of flame shot from the tip of his wand, forming a fireball. Under Andy's control, it circled the classroom once before losing its magical support and going out in midair.

"Is that what you mean by mastery?"

Hermione could use that spell too, but she could only make a small flame burst from her wand. Unless it caught on an object, it would quickly extinguish itself.

"Mm-hm!"

Andy explained, "It's not just the Fire Curse. Other spells can also be controlled according to our will."

"When I was little, I went with my parents to watch Wizard Duel competitions. Those powerful wizards often used combination spells—for example, using Transfiguration to shape flames into different forms."

Hermione was clearly interested. "So what should I do now?"

"Start with the simplest Lumos Charm. Try throwing the light from your wand tip outward."

Andy said, "If you can do that, the later exercises will become much easier."

"I understand."

Hermione nodded, then asked, "What are you going to practice?"

"I want to try blending emotions into magic, like this..."

As he spoke, Andy waved his wand.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

"That was an ordinary Petrification Curse," Andy explained.

After calming himself, Andy tried to imagine someone he truly hated standing before him.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Andy cast again.

Hermione said expressionlessly, "It doesn't seem any different."

"Of course not. It's difficult—or maybe I'm using the wrong emotion."

With that, Andy fell into deep thought.

Seeing this, Hermione did not disturb him. She ran to a corner of the classroom and practiced throwing out the light from the Lumos Charm on her own.

The Petrification Curse was the simplest offensive spell. Even First Year Little Wizards—er... First Year Little Wizards like Hermione—could master it.

The Petrification Curse was White Magic. Aside from the incantation and wand movement, casting it required the desire to attack.

"Is my emotion still not intense enough?"

"But emotions are really hard to control. Fake feelings are fake feelings; they can never become real."

Andy recalled what he had read in the book.

Modern Spell Theory mentioned that wizards could enhance the power of spells under extreme emotions.

So... was what mattered the extreme emotion itself, or the unstable magic brought about by extreme emotion?

Just as Little Wizards could make whatever they wanted happen when their magic erupted.

Perhaps both were equally important! Andy tried to interpret magic from the perspective of the world itself.

Without question, Harry Potter was a children's book, and its theme was love and friendship.

Harry had survived Voldemort's Killing Curse because of his Mom's love for him.

Love itself was an emotion, a force of the heart.

Setting aside the fairy-tale nature of the story, let's return to reality.

Harry's Mom was clearly a great mother. Faced with Voldemort, who was too powerful to resist, she had, in her despair, transformed her love for her son into a powerful protective magic and ultimately reflected Voldemort's Killing Curse.

But casting magic always required magical power.

More than that, in those circumstances, Harry's Mom obviously could not have held a wand and cast some Guardian Spell on Harry.

She had used Wandless Magic!

"Maybe love born from despair caused some unknown change in her magic."

Just like the Obscurus that emerged from Little Wizards under extreme negative emotions.

Of course, that was difficult to achieve!

No one could make themselves feel such extreme emotions without actually going through it all.

But Andy happened to be an exception.

Because Andy had truly died once.

Not only had Andy died once, he had also experienced what it felt like to lose his world, lose his family, and lose his friends.

Andy recalled those memories he had forcibly buried.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

Whoosh! The magic within Andy seemed to respond to his emotions. His power, which had been gradually settling, began to boil.

A beam of magic shot from the tip of his wand, striking a table in the Abandoned Classroom at tremendous speed.

The table was visibly petrified by Andy's spell.

"You did it?" Hermione looked utterly astonished, as though she had discovered a new continent, staring at Andy in wonder.

She had not believed Andy's nonsense in the first place.

Blending emotions into magic—there had been nothing like that written in the books.

But the Petrification Curse Andy had just cast was obviously far more powerful than before.