Enhancing Talent

Following the record on the parchment, Vaughan found his dormitory.

Slytherin dormitories usually housed four students, though the arrangement was adjusted according to the number of incoming students. Vaughan was fairly lucky—only three people had been assigned to his dormitory.

The other two did not deserve names, and Vaughan could not be bothered with them. If they were sensible enough, perhaps they would move out soon.

The moment he pushed open the dormitory door, a large cat with orange-red and golden fur darted over, planting its front paws on Vaughan's chest and vigorously rubbing its fluffy head against his chin.

"Alright, alright, Fruit Tea, you clingy little thing. You're too heavy!"

"Meow~"

"You must be starving, huh? Sorry, pets weren't allowed at the feast in the Great Hall... Alright, stop rubbing against me. I'll feed you some dried fish. Tomorrow morning, you can have breakfast with me." Vaughan soothed the affectionate cat, smiling happily.

In his previous life, he had merely been an ordinary corporate drone in a first-tier city, with no time or energy to keep a pet. He had bought Fruit Tea because it was clever, hoping it could help keep an eye on Scabbers.

But after spending so much time together, he had grown increasingly fond of the clingy big sweetheart.

If he felt this way about a cat, then what about his family in this life... As he fed Fruit Tea dried fish, Vaughan thought of Percy, Fred, George, and Ron's shocked expressions when he had been sorted into Slytherin, and felt a headache coming on.

Who knew what Mum and Dad would think!

But there was no helping it. He was a transmigrator, and he had always possessed an adult's mindset and ambitions.

Fortunately, he had drawn max-level Occlumency from the beginner's gift pack.

Otherwise, leaving aside whether the secret of his transmigration would be exposed, the thoughts of an adult alone would likely have terrified the Sorting Hat.

No matter how cruel a child's nature might be, limited by their immature knowledge and values, they still carried a measure of innocence and foolishness.

Adults with mature values were different. Their actions could be constrained by laws, but their thoughts could not. The casual malice within every adult thought was probably enough to earn them a visit to Azkaban.

Setting those thoughts aside for the moment, Vaughan groomed Fruit Tea's fur while silently saying:

"System, claim the reward!"

Several lines of information appeared before his eyes:

[Claim Reward]

[Free Talent Point +1]

[Magic Power Scale +50]

The air trembled faintly—a fluctuation of magic power.

Fruit Tea noticed the disturbance and looked up at Vaughan. Seeing nothing unusual about him, it relaxed and continued gnawing on its dried fish.

Vaughan opened the system panel.

[Host: Vaughan Weasley]

[Magic Power Scale: 432 (an ordinary adult wizard has 500)]

[Talents: Charms 7, Dark Magic 6, Transfiguration 7, Potions 10, Herbology 6, Divination 2 (maximum value: 10)]

[Spells: Occlumency LV5 (MAX), Shield Charm LV3 (3/8), Disarming Charm LV2 (2/4), Levitation Charm LV2 (1/4), Petrification Charm LV2 (1/4), Fire-Making Charm LV2 (2/4), Lighting Charm LV3 (0/4)...]

[Potions: Elixir to Induce Euphoria, Invigoration Draught, Blood-Replenishing Potion, Hair-Softening Potion, Hair-Growth Potion, Beauty Potion (Master-level, includes formulas for multiple types)...]

[Fame Points: 17]

[Free Talent Points: 1]

[New mission updated, pending review]

Vaughan looked over his various stats. It had been roughly two months since he received his acceptance letter and started school.

Compared to then, his magic power scale had increased by 62 points. Fifty of those points came from the reward he had just claimed, while the additional twelve had been natural growth over the past two months.

Based on the standards marked in the system's brackets, Vaughan had previously guessed at the pattern of wizards' natural magic power growth.

Since each young wizard awakened their magic and experienced magic surges at different times, there was no universal model. But one thing was certain: natural magic power growth was related to magical talent.

The higher one's talent, the more magic power naturally increased each month.

There was likewise no universal model for that. Vaughan guessed that the talents with the greatest influence on magic power growth were Charms, Dark Magic, and Transfiguration, while the other talents carried less weight.

It might also be affected by one's developmental stage.

Over the past few years, he had closely observed his brothers, both older and younger, yet he still could not calculate an expected value from his own circumstances.

Magic power was not so simple, but improving his talents could not be wrong!

After all, they also affected the learning, mastery, and development of magic.

Vaughan carefully sensed the surge in his magic power for a while. Once he confirmed he could still control it freely, he turned his attention to his talents.

He needed to consider where to place the new talent point.

"Based on past comparisons with Percy, Fred, George, and my own experience learning spells, a talent score of 7 can be considered exceptionally good."

"Combined with the original story, it's probably about the same as Hermione's, perhaps even a little higher... Mm, for now, it's enough for learning spells."

"Dark Magic is a little low, but it'll be hard to learn any Dark Magic in the short term anyway."

At that thought, Vaughan frowned slightly.

As for Dark magic, not only was it difficult to learn, but casting it also required mustering the corresponding emotions.

To use Avada Kedavra, one needed sufficiently intense killing intent and vicious thoughts.

To use Cruciatus, one also needed enough cruelty and bone-deep hatred.

Those Dark wizards and Death Eaters were mentally unstable and looked utterly deranged, but they had not been born that way. It was more or less related to their abuse of Dark magic.

Vaughn rubbed his chin. "Before learning Dark magic, I need to find a way around that problem. Dumbledore probably has some tricks. Before he started believing in the 'power of love,' he was also a Dark magic powerhouse. Unfortunately... with his personality, there's no way he'd teach students to study Dark magic."

"The other person with a traceable record, who's proficient in Dark magic and hasn't gone mad... Snape!"

This Slytherin Head of House was not only a Potions master, but also a Dark magic master. Even while he was in school, he had been able to develop Sectumsempra.

As long as Vaughn could cling to his thigh, he could kill two birds with one stone.

Perfect!

"So, Dark magic talent: PASS. Herbology talent: PASS. Divination... my greatest weakness. Even if I improve it, it'll be useless. PASS!"

"That leaves only Transfiguration!"

Transfiguration was the most complex and vast discipline. It was not merely a few individual spells, but an enormous body of knowledge overlapping with Charms, Dark magic, and Potions.

From the simplest transformation of inanimate objects, to living transformations, then spell transformations and human transfiguration, every improvement in Transfiguration could be said to be all-encompassing!

It was also the only kind of magic that required no incantation from the very beginning.

Vaughn stopped hesitating and assigned that free talent point to Transfiguration.

The increase in talent was silent and subtle, nowhere near as obvious as an increase in magical power. But when Vaughn drew his wand and lightly tapped Fruit Tea's dried fish—

A completely different sensation immediately flooded his mind—

His magic flowed into the dried fish like a babbling stream, soaking into it and tracing its most minute internal structures before feeding them back into Vaughn's thoughts.

The entire process no longer carried any of its former difficulty or vagueness.

As Vaughn's thoughts shifted, he easily pried at those structures in his mind. Many little tricks suddenly became clear, and he smoothly adjusted and altered them like silk, then projected his imagination into reality through magic.

Pop!

The dried fish turned into a lively, jumping mouse!

Fruit Tea's eyes went wide, and it pounced on it at once.

According to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, transforming an object could not change its essence.

In other words, Fruit Tea had gotten a mouse that tasted like dried fish...

Meow~

Double the happiness!