Learning the Fiendfyre Curse

Learning the Fiendfyre Curse

On Sunday morning, Bell properly worked out his body, which he had barely exercised all week. After sweating profusely, he felt refreshed and invigorated. After a brief rest, Bell once again arrived at the Spell Training Room.

Pushing open the doors to the Training Room, he saw three House-elves busily at work inside.

"Ke Ersha, how are the preparations coming along?" Bell asked the House-elf nearest to him.

These three House-elves had come to replace Lim. After Bell was discharged from the hospital last Sunday, Lim had returned home to receive his punishment.

"We're carrying out the final checks, Young Master. It should take about another five minutes," Ke Ersha said excitedly.

He had never imagined that one day, he would personally serve Young Master Bell. Among the House-elves of the Menethil Family, serving Young Master Bell was recognized by every elf as the most honorable job, and Lim had always been the envy of all the other elves.

When they learned that Lim had been punished by Young Master Bell and might be reassigned, countless elves had eagerly begun vying for the position. These three temporary openings had driven the House-elves into a frenzy. After all, if they could make an impression on Young Master Bell, or even earn his praise, then even if they could not become Young Master Bell's personal House-elves, it would greatly increase their chances of serving him in the future.

Ke Ersha was considered one of the more outstanding House-elves in the Menethil Family. Even so, he had put in a great deal of effort to secure one of these three positions.

Soon, five minutes had passed. Everything was ready, and Bell was about to begin improving the Fiendfyre Curse.

Bell walked to the center of the Training Ground and slowly closed his eyes. He pushed his Occlumency to its limits, gradually recalling the anger he had felt during the previous experiment. Rage began to burn in his heart, and Bell carefully controlled his emotions to keep himself from getting burned by his own fire.

After an unknown number of minutes, Bell felt that it was about time. He abruptly opened his eyes and raised his Wand toward the distant target.

"Fiendfyre!"

A bluish-green flame shot from Bell's Wand Tip. After flying about twenty meters, it sputtered out without even reaching the target.

Clearly, Bell had failed. He had not even managed to ignite true Fiendfyre.

Because some Curses required emotion to be infused into them during casting, certain Curses could reflect part of a Wizard's own nature. The most famous examples were the Patronus Charm and Animagus transformation. When the same Curse was cast by different Wizards, it would take different forms.

Fiendfyre was the same. The color of the Fiendfyre ignited by different Wizards varied as well. The bluish-green Fiendfyre was the Fiendfyre Bell remembered Grindelwald using. So that flame had merely been an imitation of Grindelwald's Fiendfyre.

The failure of his first attempt did not discourage Bell. He had never expected to succeed so easily.

Bell closed his eyes again, this time spending even longer preparing. The blazing fury in his heart grew fiercer and fiercer until his Occlumency was on the verge of collapse and he was close to losing control. Only then did he stop.

"Fiendfyre!"

A violently burning black-red blaze crossed fifty meters in an instant. With a thunderous boom, it engulfed the target. In the blink of an eye, the specially reinforced target, engraved with anti-magic Magic Runes, was reduced to ash.

The black-red flames did not go out. Instead, they rapidly spread outward in every direction. From the speed of their spread, it was clear that if they were not stopped, the space inside the box would collapse in less than a minute.

"Quick! Move!" Ke Ersha shouted.

The three House-elves waved their Wands at the same time. The Magic Runes engraved on the walls, floor, and ceiling activated, forming an All Spells End Barrier.

The barrier enclosed Bell's Fiendfyre and began slowly contracting inward. But the process was far from smooth. In order to successfully cast the Fiendfyre Curse, Bell had truly pushed himself to the limit this time. As a result, when the Curse finally took shape, he had accidentally used a little too much Magic Power, greatly increasing Fiendfyre's strength.

The barrier and Fiendfyre remained locked in a tug-of-war for around ten minutes before the weakening Fiendfyre finally began to falter and was gradually extinguished.

When he saw the Fiendfyre go out, Bell finally let out the breath he had been holding and dropped onto the floor.

It was his first time dealing with real Fiendfyre, after all. He had genuinely been afraid that he might lose control. If he burned down all of Hogwarts, Dumbledore would fight him to the death.

"Young Master! Are you all right?!"

The House-elves hurried over in a panic and helped Bell to his feet.

"I'm fine. I just accidentally overexerted myself. I'll be fine after resting for a while. Clean up over there and replace the target."

Bell walked over and sat down on the sofa in the Rest Area. Looking at the elves, he asked, "How much Magic Power did you use just now? Do you still have enough?"

"I'm sorry, Young Master. We used about half our Magic Power just now. Considering the possibility of unexpected accidents, we no longer have enough Magic Power. We are utterly useless! Please punish us, Young Master!"

"Don't worry about it. You did very well just now. Safety comes first. It seems I can rest a little longer."

Bell casually waved a hand and began thinking about the problem he had just encountered.

The most urgent issue he needed to solve was finding the minimum level of anger needed to cast Fiendfyre and increasing the casting speed of the Fiendfyre Curse. Of course, casting speed could not be rushed. It required long-term training and familiarity. Determining the required level of anger, however, was much simpler. He only needed to keep experimenting, and the rest would depend on his luck.

After resting, Bell continued his experiments. This time, he chose to gradually increase his anger from low to high. That reduced the pressure considerably, both on himself and on the House-elves.

The reason Bell had forced himself directly to his limit earlier was actually to determine whether his current abilities were truly enough to cast real Fiendfyre. Now that he had confirmed it, there was no need to push himself so hard.

Time always passed quickly when one was fully focused. It was only after Ke Ersha spoke up to remind him that Bell realized evening was approaching.

The day had passed in the blink of an eye, but Bell was somewhat dissatisfied with the results of today's experiments. He discovered that the problem he most needed to solve was actually this: My Occlumency isn't good enough.

Bell had always believed that he was already quite proficient in Occlumency. Although he was still far from an Occlumency master like Snape, he did not need to become some double agent, nor would anyone use Legilimency to pry into his mind for no reason, so it should have been more than sufficient.

But during today's experiments, he discovered that adjusting his emotions took too long and lacked precision. Especially toward the end, after repeatedly switching between anger and calm, Bell felt as though he was about to develop a split personality.

Feeling that he was nearing his limit, Bell decisively stopped the day's experiments. He decided to go back and get a good night's sleep. Whatever problems there were could wait until tomorrow.