Simple, Pure Joy

After returning from Diagon Alley, Loren read through his textbooks several times and began trying some absolutely safe spells.

Professor McGonagall had mentioned a case where someone had nearly lost their life by mispronouncing just one letter while casting a spell. No matter how bold Loren was, he would not dare casually try spells like that.

The introductory section of Standard Spellbook, Beginner listed several absolutely safe spells—spells that would not lead to any irreparable consequences even if you mangled the words beyond recognition.

Loren recognized "Daisies, sweet cream, and sunshine," which was noted to coat objects in a yellow color similar to daisies and sunlight. "Rabbit eyes, harp strings, turn water into wine" could give water the scent and taste of wine. The others were similarly short combinations of words, all low-impact household magic.

Even from their format, it was obvious that these spells differed enormously from the more rigorous Reparo and Lumos that came later.

The magical world divided spells into four major categories: Transfiguration, Charms, Counter-charms, and Healing Spells.

In Standard Spellbook, Beginner, the author, Miranda Goshawk, explained that Charms gave objects specific properties, making them do something rather than turn into something. The latter fell within the domain of Transfiguration.

There were only nine spells formally taught in the first-year textbooks: Softening Charm, Cutting Charm, Levitation Charm, Mending Charm, Unlocking Charm, Locking Charm, Illumination Charm, Repelling Charm, and Fire-Starting Charm. They were all relatively basic spells meant to introduce young wizards to magic.

The book contained not only casting methods, but also the evolution of the nine spells, as well as the eras and circumstances in which their inventors had lived.

For example, the Unlocking Charm, Alohomora, originally meant "friendly to thieves." It had been brought back from Africa by an English wizard, who later became a famous master thief as he had wished. He had also directly prompted the invention of anti-unlocking spells.

Before that, the more popular unlocking spell had been Colloportus, which literally meant blowing a big hole in a door, as well as the even earlier and cruder Open Sesame.

Most spells had evolved from Latin. From the origins and evolution of these spells, Loren could vaguely glimpse a trace of the rules behind magic.

After reading through the textbook, he began trying to cast spells. They already lived on the mountain, far from the town's residents, so there was no need to deliberately find a secluded place. Still, Loren's favorite spot was beside the small lake.

The first spell he tried was Reparo.

Loren tore a five-pound note into five pieces and placed them on a rock. Then he cast the spell on one of the pieces, hoping to turn it into five banknotes. It was a criminally tempting idea, but it failed.

The fragment beneath his wand seemed to exert some sort of pull, drawing over the other four pieces and restoring the note to its original state. The joins were still clearly visible.

After trying it, aside from regretting that he could not get rich this way, Loren had a feeling that the ending intonation of one word should rise a little more. After adjusting it, he indeed found that casting the spell became easier.

After repeatedly casting the spell with the adjusted intonation, he felt that his little finger ought to lift slightly when he waved his wand.

He tried several times according to that feeling. In the end, the restored banknote was almost completely flawless, without the slightest trace at the joins.

It seemed to be something like magical intuition. Intuition was a term he had learned in his previous life. The logic of ordinary people was A = B and B = C, therefore A = C, while some people with intuition could directly arrive at A = C.

Or perhaps it was proficiency. With repeated practice, he could clearly feel himself improving. Loren did not know whether this was an innate magical talent of the body or a Golden Finger granted to a transmigrator.

Each tiny improvement would, over time, always let Loren feel an enormous difference.

Of course, this built-in correction mechanism seemed to fade once he reached a certain level of proficiency. At first, Loren's Levitation Charm required expressive chanting and graceful, rhythmic movements. Later, even if he recited the spell stiffly and swung his wand straight ahead, he could still achieve good results.

Loren adored the spell Colloportus. Although the textbook did not explain how to cast it, focusing instead on the more refined Alohomora, he absolutely loved its explosive, piercing effect.

He began trying it over and over, and his intuition came into play. He adjusted both his intonation and posture, and his wand even emitted light, but there was no effect. The red light struck the rock without producing the slightest reaction.

That evening at dinner, Loren suddenly had an idea and fired one at the Wooden House's door.

With the crisp voice of a child crying out Colloportus, the wooden door that had served the Bates family for who knew how many years exploded with a huge hole in it. A whole day of corrections had made Loren's spell unusually effective, angering Bates so much that he nearly transformed into a Werewolf on the spot.

Only after Loren promised to take full responsibility for all Kitchen work until school began on September 1 did Bates's anger finally subside.

But that was not the end of it. Loren realized that the condition for Colloportus truly was needing a door, and so his exploration began.

At first, he built crude doors out of wood in an Open Ground, then easily blew them apart.

Then he moved to the Cave where Bates hid during the Full Moon Night and bombarded the massive boulder at its entrance with the spell. At first, he could only blast a tiny black mark into the stone. After Loren's unremitting efforts, on one sunny, cheerful morning, he blasted straight through the boulder.

An explosion rang out, and a hole the size of a football appeared through the center of the boulder. It was black, as though it had been blasted open with gunpowder.

Looking at the scene, Loren felt waves of satisfaction from the bottom of his heart.

After that, Loren seemed to awaken. He began treating anything blocking his way as a door and casting Colloportus without pause. In 1990s England, Loren experienced the simple, pure joy of setting off double-bang firecrackers during the New Year in his previous life.

With constant practice, Loren's Colloportus had been corrected into a strange spell. The incantation probably was no longer the original Colloportus either, but its pronunciation was odd and somewhat unclear.

He did not know what spell it should be called now, but as long as it was fun, that was all that mattered.

The rocks and trees on the mountain suffered for it. Booming sounds rang out without end. When Bates came up and saw the scene, it was even worse than when he himself had transformed into a Werewolf.

Faced directly with a wizard's destructive power, Bates was thoroughly alarmed. This was only an eleven-year-old child who had not even started school yet, and he was already like an RPG with unlimited ammunition. An adult wizard was even more unimaginable.

Fortunately, Loren had not used the spell on animals. Bates felt slightly relieved. He was still only a child. Though somewhat mischievous, he was still kind.

That belief lasted less than two days.

Loren began blasting fish. After calculating the amount of fish Loren had hauled up in a single afternoon, Bates realized that the two of them could not finish it all in a week. In the end, he could not help giving Loren a beating and took the fish down the mountain to sell.

That night, Loren leaned against his stool, feeling wronged, but he did not dare say anything. Blasting fish was fun, but I can't do it anymore.

Depressed, he stroked Hānhan the Spectacled Owl while thinking about what he should write to Hermione. In the end, he chose to give up. He could not exactly tell her that he had spent nearly a month playing with double-bang firecrackers.

He was just about to release the Spectacled Owl to find food on its own, as he had done every day lately. The little fool had been living quite comfortably in the mountains, but its feathers felt so good that Loren was getting addicted. His hand kept stroking the Owl.

The little Spectacled Owl blinked, the white stripes on its face twitching along with it. The kitty-headed owl felt wronged, but the kitty-headed owl could not say it.

Besides that, Loren had read Wandering with a Werewolf during this time. It was a good story and a good novel.

Aside from being brainwashed by Lockhart's heroic bearing and perfect smile—complete with illustrations, yes, exquisite illustrations—it only contained a little information about Werewolves, which was of no help to Grandpa Bates.

Loren spent less than five minutes on Alchemy: From Beginner to Master, from opening the book to placing it at the very bottom of his Trunk.

He decided that he would not open it again until at least after school began. It required far too much prerequisite knowledge. It was not introductory at all. It assumed that you had already mastered several subjects, such as Charms and Potions, before you could even begin learning Alchemy. It was ridiculous.