Harry Potter: A Real Tale

Leon didn’t see more Slytherins on his way to his dorm. So, tossing the matter to the back of his mind, for now, he excitedly opened the book- Mastering the Senses.

Wizards, even magical creatures for that matter, depend on their senses to perceive their surroundings.

The irony that we, the wizards, the benders of the world, the children of magic, use organic senses to perceive the world that we shape with a thought is lost on most, but not on me. And if you are reading this, you too can be saved, it's not too late.

Without further ado, let's see how we can master our senses and toy with the senses of our wayward brethren.

Now, what are senses?

They are just endpoints of the brain, the mind.

Control your opponent's senses, you control their minds.

And the first step to control others is mastering our senses so we can master our brain.

Below are the exercises you must do to efficiently use your brain.

While my boring master left me alone and expected me to practice them for three years, you as part of the Astraeus line are lucky to have me as your ancestor.

I wrote down my spells which will temporarily augment your mind to a high level, I created them, and many more awesome things, after I toiled away for three years practicing the exercises.

They will give you a taste of what you can naturally achieve if you complete the exercises.

While I am giving you such precious knowledge it doesn’t mean you get to skip the boring parts, start doing these exercises from today. Suffering Hard work will always be a constant companion, nonetheless a boring one.

The spells are divided into three sections: Remembrance, Understanding, and Boosting.

Each section had a couple of spells under it, and Leon vaguely understood what each section meant by their names.

‘Awesome spells!’ Giddy, he excitedly turned the page.

Except, the next page was white, and the next too.

Nothing was written on them. However, words quickly started to appear.

‘HA HA! You must at least master a spell before proceeding any further. The experience the spells provide is invaluable to speed up your exercises. Believe in me, I never steer anyone or anything wrong.’

The Hufflepuff hurriedly read more about the spells, starting with the memory boost charm from the Remembrance section.

Explanation appeared under the spell as he focused on it.

The spell was supposed to improve his ability to remember minute details in any of his memories.

Curbing his excitement, Leon focused on other spells.

The remembrance section contained spells related to memory power. Memory boosting spells, retaining new memories, recalling dreams, recalling forgotten memories, and many more.

Understanding, or Noticing as Leon dubbed it, section contained spells that can improve the sensitivity of senses and notice things the brain generally dismisses or can’t notice.

‘It essentially turns every sense into 4k HD from 240p.’

The boosting section contained spells that improved the brain’s overall performance, but most spells gravitated towards improving the brain’s processing speed.

“Bullet time here I come.’

The shine in Leon’s eyes slowly diminished as he read the warnings related to the mind spells.

No more than one mind charm at the same time, at least a seven-day gap must be maintained before casting the spell of the same section – were the main ones.

‘Damn! With these restrictions, the use of these spells isn’t much. But I guess they still are cool and versatile.’

Shaking his head, Leon chose a spell from Understanding that would augment his sight.

Just as he whispered the spell, his world changed.

He was able to see beautiful patterns on the stone walls of his room and his wooden table.

‘My skin isn’t as beautiful though,’ Leon grumbled.

He could feel the spell straining his eyes and brain. So, he quickly dispelled it when he started to feel pain.

With some breaks, he was able to cast(master) the spell, perfectly.

The page turned on its own.

That was quick. As a reward for nearly being as talented as me, I will bestow upon you a spell worthy of my name. It is very versatile - who cares if it can’t work on sorcerers and people who learned Occlumency and have a little bit of talent in it?

Vis Quod Cupio

Leon literally shivered in his seat with excitement as he read what the spell could do.

While most people think three-word spells are useless, I beg to differ.

While they are certainly useless in duels or battles and are hard to silent cast, secrecy is a great part of deceiving your opponent's mind. So, I don’t see why my master grumbles that the spell is a waste of magic.

‘But ‘Sorcerer?’ Is this a title? What’s with this classification?’

A knock on his door interrupted him as he was about to cast the spell.

He hurriedly opened the door to see Susan and Hannah standing outside.

“Let’s go! It's time for dinner. What were you doing? Why aren’t you in our corner, practicing spells? And what did the headmaster want?”

Susan barraged him with questions and dragged him from his room with never-seen urgency.

Casting a longing glance at the book, Leon let himself be dragged.

“He just wanted to personally give me the book I talked about. And I lost track of time reading the book. It’s awesome.” He answered and silence fell as Susan concentrated on navigating the Hogwarts corridors.

“Why the hurry?” Leon asked as Susan still didn’t leave his arm.

“While we flew around our house team- the remaining members- started their routine practice. I couldn’t look at Hannah imitating an abandoned Kneazle as she watched them practice. So, we joined them and missed our snacks. Now, we are hungry!”

“Hey! That’s not true!” Hannah retorted.

“How is it not true! If you had just sniffed and meowed, I bet people would have picked you up to pet you.”

“But the practice was fun,” the naïve Hufflepuff muttered.

Susan flicked her friend’s forehead.

“I can’t feel my legs because of that practice, do you think I like to run around the grounds? I won’t be joining you guys tomorrow; I like my legs as they are, thank you very much.”

“Don’t be such a fairy,” Hannah pouted.

That did it.

Susan didn’t show any mercy and started to tickle her friend.

“You.. are.. weak.” Hannah squeaked out between her laughs, trying to brave through tickles before changing her mind and running away to join Tonks but not before showing her tongue to Susan.

Susan smiled at her friend before nudging Leon.

“Any bright ideas on how to change her mind- regarding the tryouts?”

“Her problem is playing in front of a crowd, right?”

“Yes!”

“And she is joining our senior team members' practice tomorrow, without you.”

“Yes! She just needs a nudge. Hannah lets her imagination run wild and is shy and afraid to be the focus of a crowd. Maybe you should join the tryouts if she sees a familiar face I can convince her to join.”

“That was my first idea too when you asked me to help on the day before yesterday. But what happens If she gets selected? Hmm! I think I have a better solution that will work long term.” Leon whispered his plan to Susan, while she looked a little reluctant at the start, she quickly gave in.

“I think it will work! We shall try,” she reluctantly said as they reached the great hall.

A hopeful Susan sat beside her friend who showed her tongue again making Susan boop her nose.

“Tonks! You said I should tell you if Malfoy bothers me again, right?” Ignoring their byplay, Leon focused on the metamorph magus.

The seventh-year raised an eyebrow at Leon.

“Hmm! Cousin Draco bent to public pressure again and wants revenge? If his and his gang’s screams didn’t let everyone know he got beaten I don’t think he would have come after you. What did you do to them this time?”

“Nothing! I caught Goyle or Crabbe loitering in a corridor near our dorm and he tried to attack me. It seems Draco spread his net a little too wide and missed me.”

“Hmm! Leave it to me! If you taught him a lesson, I would have to consult my other seventh years before using the spell. But I don’t need to now.” Her hair started to change colors rapidly as she got excited. “I so wanted to use this spell from so long ago. A seventh-year used it on a Slytherin who bullied me in my first year, I can’t wait to see the spell in action again.” She let out a little laugh and dismissed his further inquiries about the spell.

“Patience, little firstie you will see!”

……………………………………………..

“You were supposed to shout after you see him, Crabbe. How hard is it to remember to shout? We were keeping an eye on the corridors beside yours; a little shout and that smug bastard would have been toast.” Malfoy grumbled for the nth time as the first-year Slytherins gathered for dinner.

“I told you that you and your minions aren’t enough to deal with him, Malfoy. Instead of listening to me, you ran towards him the first time he let his guard down, and that too without a plan. Our seniors won’t be pleased to know you have messed with a Hufflepuff twice with no results other than the display of your inadequacy.”

Daphne tutted.

“And you weren’t exactly silent about your second failure, you have many eyes on your Draco.”

The Malfoy huffed and got up to leave the great hall.

She watched him away and remarked.

“Don’t forget the favor you owe me for telling you the corridors that lead to the badger’s dorm.”

Draco glared at her, before nodding.

‘The little fool!’ Daphne thought, ignoring Pansy’s glares. ‘If he acted like this without his father’s name, he would have been chewed up and spitted out in the Slytherin.’ Her grip tightened on her spoon.

‘How did the sorting hat even think he was Slytherin material?’ Daphne just couldn’t bear to see how the blonde was wasting his family’s influence.

‘Lucius dropped the egg with this one.’ She thought, remembering the way Draco’s grandfather, Abraxas Malfoy, controlled everyone in a Greengrass party with his words alone.

…………….

‘Damn! Bastards! Every one of them! I will show them, I will show them you won’t get to live unscathed if you mess with a Malfoy.’

Draco fumed and walked towards his dorm, not noticing his wayward cousin standing in the shadows, looking at him with pity in her eyes,

Nor did he notice a small light, the size of a finger hitting his legs.

…………………….

“Done! Now we get to watch the show, just keep an eye on Draco in class and in the great hall.” The seventh-year crashed into her seat in the great hall.

The Hufflepuff Trio nodded their heads as Tonk's eyes shined with anticipation.

……………

Squirrel finished the theory part of the class, not going out of character even once.

‘At least he gets an A for effort. I can’t see myself stuttering for one and a half hours in each class every day.’

The class fell silent as Quirrel waved his wand around, clearing space for spell practice.

It was the only time in his class when the teens' eyes showed something other than boredom and frustration.

‘Power commands respect.’ Leon too admired the professor’s wandwork when a loud fart disrupted the silence.

Heads instantly swiveled towards the source.

Malfoy’s pale face flushed as everyone looked at him in disgust and displeasure.

Another long farting sound echoed in the class, originating from him, making him stand up.

Laughter erupted as he ran away from the class.

‘Was that the result of the spell? It makes people fart? That’s it?’ The way Tonks hyped up the spell, he didn’t believe that was it.

…………

Leon was struggling to remove a magical root from its pot in the herbology class when he heard a high-pitched scream.

He turned around, only to see Draco wearing a corset and tight leggings.

‘Damn! That’s gonna haunt me for the rest of my life.’

Draco ran away again under the giggles of the female students while the boys just averted their eyes, uncomfortable.

The leggings were too tight and displayed everything.

‘How does this spell work?’

Leon asked around and found out that Draco’s dress change happened when he was bending to take a small shovel.

So, many people got to see him, bending over in tight leggings.

‘Does the spell only activate at the perfect time? And how does it choose what to do with its target?’

‘The curses we learn in DADA aren’t this versatile. Hmm!’

Leon eyed Tonks as she laughed at Draco’s predicament as Susan narrated the events with enthusiasm.

‘Hmm! Even Susan doesn’t like him.’

Suddenly the Gryffindor table started laughing very hard pointing at the Slytherin table.

“What’s happening?” Leon wondered.

There was nothing unusual going on near the Slytherin table, even the Slytherins were confused.

“It’s the spell, Leon. The spell is our house’s inheritance. It has many layers. I wonder what they are seeing,” Tonks glanced at the professor's table before watching the Slytherin table with interest.

Suddenly the Hufflepuff table started to laugh too.

Something like a hologram appeared above Malfoy. You may say that’s not too bad until you see that Malfoy was in the corset again and was being pursued by a drooling muscular troll that had hearts in its eyes.

The Hologram Malfoy was too eye-catching, a little too much lipstick, and mascara along with long eyelids and bald spots made the hologram Malfoy look like a circus reject.

He was dancing out of the Troll’s arms by dancing around them.

The two tangoed in the air, as most of the Slytherin and Ravenclaw tables were confused at the other house table’s mad howls.

The Troll caught the Hologram Malfoy before its eyes shined looking at the original one.

Malfoy too suddenly got to know why everyone was laughing at him as a huge figure suddenly appeared in his sight and tried to hug him.

He reflexively dodged making him fall off from his table.

“Silence!” Snape’s voice echoed, followed by a bright flash of a spell that hit Malfoy. The holograms dissolved like watercolors as a red-faced Malfoy took his seat under the combined glares of the Slytherin table.

‘I guess this was humor before the internet came around and the era changed.’

“Who created this spell? It’s too awesome.” Leon didn’t sweat much on the pranks pulled by the spell, the content of which can offend many people online in his previous life.

He was more concerned with the complexity of the spell and the way it took decisions in real-time.

“It was a joint project. Some students of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw got together to create it, to opt out of the corridor wars of ‘that’ period.”

Tonks answered while smothering her laughter.

‘Cool! I wonder when and how can I create a spell with such complexity?’