But until he had enough strength to establish himself, Anduin didn't dare let his guard down.
Off to the side, Orianna saw Anduin standing stock-still in the snow, staring straight ahead. She thought he looked kind of dazed, and he wasn't paying her any attention at all. Her big eyes darted around, and a mischievous smile spread across her face.
She bent down, packed a snowball, took aim at the back of Anduin's head, and tossed it at him playfully.
But just before the snowball hit, it suddenly stopped in midair. Anduin turned around and glanced at it without lifting a finger. The floating snowball shot back even faster, smacking Orianna square in the face. The force knocked her right off her feet. When she sat up, she still seemed not to realize what had happened, and stared at Anduin in a daze.
"You're too weak." After leaving Orianna those few quiet words, Anduin turned and walked away from Clock Square.
Orianna stood rooted to the spot, watching Anduin disappear into the distance. Only after a long while did she blush and yell, "What a weirdo!"
Anduin, already far away, had no idea he'd just done something spectacularly dense. Wearing a thoughtful, bewildered expression, he continued wandering through the snow. Gradually, the flakes swirling around him began circling his body as if under someone's command, but he seemed not to notice at all.
At that moment, Anduin had slipped into a mysterious state of understanding. It felt as if he'd grasped something, yet at the same time, nothing at all. By the time he came to his senses, he'd walked all the way to the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Snowflakes swirled around him like a nebula formed by spiraling stars.
A thought crossed his mind, and the snowflakes around him spun up into the sky as if caught in a storm.
"My Levitation Charm! It seems to have broken through some sort of limit." Anduin sensed the snowflakes around him, feeling as if he could control them at will, rather than needing to concentrate as he once had to make an object float and move.
Now, anything within a certain range of his body that could be affected by the Levitation Charm was under his influence—not just these snowflakes, but air, and perhaps even water.
"So I can't stay cooped up for too long. I need to change my mood once in a while," Anduin mused, realizing how much he'd changed.
"I wonder if I can do that, too!" Anduin suddenly thought of something and tried channeling his magic.
Magic surged around Anduin, and his body slowly floated into the air without the aid of any enchanted equipment.
"So it really works. Does that mean I can fly without a Flying Broomstick from now on?" The question Anduin had just realized was whether, with his improved control, he could use the principle of the Levitation Charm to make himself fly. He'd tried something similar before, but no matter how he cast the spell, he couldn't lift himself off the ground.
Anduin hovered half a meter above the ground, moving up and down, back and forth, having the time of his life.
After playing around for a while, Anduin descended and considered how useful this ability might be. So far, it didn't seem all that practical. He'd just tested it and found he could only reach a height of five or six meters; going any higher was exhausting. He was slower than a Flying Broomstick, too. But it did look really cool.
"With practice, I should be able to gradually increase my speed and height," Anduin reckoned.
Even so, he'd gained a great deal that day. The timely snowfall had let Anduin make huge strides in controlling his magic while in a state close to "enlightenment."
Anduin could tell that it wasn't just his Levitation Charm that had improved. He could sense the magic throughout his entire body much more keenly.
He took a deep breath, gathered his thoughts, and left the edge of the Forbidden Forest. After getting his bearings, he headed toward Hagrid's Cabin.
Ever since his moment of enlightenment in the snow, Anduin had stopped staying cooped up in his room all day. He still went out now and then to admire the snowy scenery and chat with Vivian. But the Christmas break soon approached, and Anduin packed his things and set off for the station, ready to head home.
On the steam train, Anduin and Vivian sat facing each other, chatting as they admired the snowy landscape outside the window. Charles was riding with friends from his House, so the two of them were alone in the compartment.
"Anduin, what are you writing? Have you decided where you're going after Christmas? My father's taking me to France for a holiday. I've heard the perfume there is famous. I wonder if he'll buy me a bottle." Vivian watched Anduin scribbling away and kept chattering about the holiday.
Hearing Vivian bring it up made him realize that before returning to her family, she had lived in Muggle Society too. Maybe that was why the two of them had so little trouble relating to each other.
"France? You'll have to take plenty of pictures, then. I'm planning for Christmas right now, trying to figure out what gifts to get my friends. By the way, what do you want for Christmas?" Anduin really wasn't good at choosing gifts. If he went by his own preferences, he'd give people books, but he doubted many of his friends would like them.
"If I tell you what I want, where's the surprise? If I asked you what gift you wanted, would you tell me?" Vivian rolled her eyes at Anduin.
"If you could get me a copy of the Magic Rune Collection, that'd be perfect. I've wanted that set for ages, but it's too expensive. Or a set of two hundred standard potion bottles would be nice, too." Anduin looked up at Vivian with shining eyes. He knew her family was pretty wealthy, so getting something nice would be ideal.
"Uh..." Vivian hadn't expected Anduin to be so blunt. She turned away with an angry pout and ignored him.
Anduin couldn't figure out what Vivian meant. Was she going to get it for him or not? But he didn't dwell on it and instead asked her for advice about gifts. "What do you think I should get a family that's just had a baby? I was thinking of giving them a few toys. What do you think?"
Vivian saw how utterly oblivious Anduin was and didn't know what to do with him. After thinking it over, she replied, "What toys can a newborn even play with? Their parents have probably already bought everything they need. If it were me, I'd get some bedtime storybooks or a Music Box that plays lullabies. What do you think of that?"
Anduin thought she had a point. He crossed out part of what he'd written and started again.
He went on to ask Vivian for advice about gifts. Anduin was the ultimate clueless guy when it came to social graces. He was fine when it came to figuring out what other guys wanted, but when it came to women, he had no idea.
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