Fourteen Spells

Five days later,

Jerry held his wand, somewhat nervously pointing it at the wooden door of his room as he murmured the incantation:

"Alohomora!"

A faint stream of magic power slowly flowed from Jerry's body along with his mental energy. It traveled down his arm into the wand, where it was amplified into a blue beam of magical light that shot out and struck the lock on the wooden door with precision.

"Click, click, click!"

The locked wooden door gave a mechanical shudder under the effect of Jerry's Unlocking Charm, then opened on its own.

"Whew, I finally did it!"

Seeing that the Unlocking Charm had worked, Jerry let out a long breath of relief.

In fact, two days earlier, he had gradually finished reading and memorizing all the magical knowledge and spells in the four magic books by intermittently activating Mind Refresh.

But merely reading and understanding the theoretical knowledge in those magic books did not mean he could successfully cast the corresponding magic.

Although the spells in these books were all the most basic and simplest ones.

Based on Jerry's understanding after integrating the contents of the four books, Wizards could cast magic because they possessed a special Wizard bloodline and were naturally capable of producing a wondrous power known as magic power within their bodies.

Magic was founded on this power, which was transformed through incantations and mental energy to produce all sorts of miraculous effects.

To successfully cast a spell, one first had to possess magic power. This was why Muggles and Squibs could not cast magic even if they knew the incantations.

Besides magic power, one also needed a wand.

A wand was like an amplifier and stabilizer. It could amplify and stabilize the magic power one released, allowing one to cast magic more effectively.

It was not impossible to cast magic without a wand, but that required the Wizard himself to possess sufficiently powerful magic power and an exceptionally strong command of magic.

Different wands also differed in how much they could amplify and stabilize magic.

The more suitable a wand was for its owner, the easier it was to cast magic with it, and the more powerful the magic became.

An unsuitable wand would not only make spellcasting more difficult, but might even be completely unusable.

Beyond a wand, successfully casting magic also required a certain theoretical foundation, as well as a clear understanding of the magic one intended to cast.

Every syllable of an incantation had to be pronounced clearly and accurately, and the rhythm and speed of the chanting also had to meet the requirements exactly.

"Standard Spells, Beginner" mentioned a Wizard named Baruffio, who had mispronounced an incantation by saying "s" instead of "f." As a result, he found himself lying on the floor with a buffalo standing on his chest.

Therefore, to cast spells correctly, one had to practice—practice without stopping. With enough practice, one would naturally be able to cast the corresponding spells accurately.

Of course, some spells were more difficult and required more complicated techniques to be cast successfully. These techniques might not be explained in books and required guidance from a professional teacher before they could be learned gradually.

After two days of practice, Jerry had finally found a few tricks today and successfully cast his first spell—the Unlocking Charm.

With his first success, his subsequent practice would become smoother and smoother. He believed it would not be long before he mastered all the spells in the first-year textbooks.

Ten days later, Jerry held his wand and continuously practiced various spells in his room.

The spells taught in the first year were generally quite simple and did not consume much magic power.

Even with the magic power currently in Jerry's body, he could cast them easily enough. Their power, however, was certainly far weaker.

The four magic books—or rather, three of them, since Magical Theory contained only theoretical explanations—recorded a total of fourteen spells:

Softening Charm, Cutting Charm, Unlocking Charm, Levitation Charm, Locking Spell, Mending Charm, Transfiguration Charm, Restoration Charm, Snot Spell, Fire Spell, Knockback Charm, Smokescreen Charm, Wand-Lighting Charm, and Wand-Extinguishing Charm.

Of them, aside from the Transfiguration Charm, which Jerry still could not use very well, he could basically be considered proficient in all the others.

However, among the fourteen spells, only the Cutting Charm and Fire Spell had even a little offensive capability. The rest had no significant attacking use.

More importantly, with his current magic power, the Cutting Charm he cast could not even cut completely through clothing, while the Fire Spell could produce no more than a tiny flame, about the same as a lighter.

Originally, Jerry had thought these magic books would contain the Full Body-Bind Curse, the spell Hermione had used in the movie to freeze Neville in place.

In terms of combat practicality, that spell seemed like the most useful one.

If he knew the Full Body-Bind Curse, then when he returned, he could give each of those robbers a "Petrificus Totalus" and deal with them easily!

But the facts proved that the first-year textbooks did not record that spell. That Full Body-Bind Curse might have been something top student Hermione had taught herself from some magic books in the library, or perhaps it was a spell from upper-year textbooks.

No wonder Ron and Harry had looked so bewildered when they saw Hermione cast that spell.

The two of them might have been poor students, but the first-year textbooks only taught a dozen or so spells in total. It was impossible for them to know absolutely nothing about it, especially since it had already been the end of the term.

Unless the spell was not in the textbooks at all. That was why the two had acted as though they did not know it when they saw Hermione cast it.

Still, even though these first-year spells had little offensive power, they were magical nonetheless. Jerry felt that if he used them well, they might still produce unexpected results.

But to be safe, he felt that before returning, he needed to test the power of these spells when used in combination.

At the same time, he could pick up some Little Red Stars. He had already used up all of his Little Red Stars.

He remembered that Little Wizards seemed to be forbidden from casting magic outside school, or they would be detected by the Ministry of Magic.

However, Little Wizards who had not yet enrolled seemed not to fall under that rule. Hermione appeared to have mentioned in the movie that she had tried casting magic several times at home before school started, and all of them had succeeded.

So during this period before entering Hogwarts, he could cast magic freely, as long as he was not caught red-handed by people from the Ministry of Magic.

The chances of that happening should be very small.

There were not many Wizards to begin with, and the orphanage where he lived was not in central London, but in a small town in Surrey. As long as he was careful, there should not be much of a problem.