{Edited} The Chaotic Traveler - Chapter 18 (Patreon)

AN: Edited chapters do not count toward monthly quota's.

Sorry for the late post, the move stuff is kicking my ass. I'm working on the next Ouroboros update.

Enjoy.

Chapter 18: Any Danger

'That should be just about it.'

The likely ancient tome in Jin's hand snapped shut, its leather-bound cover making a crisp sound as he checked his watch and counted down.

'Three, two, one, annddd that's twenty minutes.'

The conjured book faded into motes of light as Jin stood, his wand pointed toward a piece of parchment floating in a fountain that the Room of Requirement had conjured for him.

‘Not even a little wet. Perfect.’ Jin scooped it up and smiled at the dry texture. ‘Impervious Charm, mastered.’

Tossing the empty page aside, Jin took a deep breath and threw his hands up in a cheer.

“FUCKING FINALLY!”

It was currently the third week of September, three weeks after Jin arrived at Hogwarts, and he finally finished the Hogwarts Charms curriculum.

'That last one was such a pain in the ass.'

When one removed all the revisionary spells, as well as any Jinx or Curse from the textbooks, they would be left with a grand total of 46 Charms.

‘I might have had to take a backseat on theory work and Spell Alteration, but it was more than worth it to be done with this.’

Jin pulled out his pipe for a celebratory smoke while he gathered his thoughts.

‘There’s only so much egotistical pureblood drivel one can stomach before needing a break from those dry texts.’

Reading was the most arduous part of Jin’s schedule. A schedule he had ironed out with ruthless precision.

Thanks to that effort, along with his learning curve and experience, it took only a few weeks to power through 5th, 6th, and 7th-year Charms.

‘Sounds more impressive than it really is.’ Jin mused. ‘Three of those Charms just shoot different colored sparks from my wand. One literally just manipulates a piece of chalk into writing what the user speaks onto a chalkboard. Plenty of useful spells, of course, but some just have the oddest names.’

One example was the powerful-sounding Eradication Charm.

It sounded impressive and deadly, only to turn out to be a Counter-Charm for deleting a magical construct.

In theory, it could overpower another's construct, but it required overpowering the other caster's mana, which was a plain waste of mana compared to shielding or countering it normally.

Another example was the Pack Charm, an altered version of the Locomotion Charm that focused on packing clothing into a suitcase.

Jin hadn’t yet seen such an overly detailed and useless Charm before. ‘It’s like someone actually took the fucking time, risk, and effort to invent a spell so they didn’t have to waste an extra minute of mental effort on the Locomotion Charm.’

There were other examples, of course, but Jin just learned what he could and moved on. Each formula, equation, and new symbol or combination of numbers added to what he knew, what he could pull on when altering future spells, and his inspiration for what could be done.

Jin’s arithmetic talents lay in Spell Deconstruction and Alteration rather than Construction, which meant he needed every example of a spell formula he could get.

‘The danger in this world might be relatively low, yet who's to say the next one won't be one with Gods, Demons, or man-eating Giants? I need to give myself the best chance I can with my loadout.’

Jin tapped his watch, and a durable, leather-bound book fell into his hands.

‘Occlumency has its uses, but it’s not almighty.’

Entering the mental plane required Jin to be calm and meditate, during which time his body was relatively undefended.

For his everyday life, Jin would only take a peek, sort of from a 3rd person's POV, as well as pull on whatever memory setup he had already built, or his databank of spell formulae to cast wandless magic.

The magical art didn't grant subconscious eidetic memory, since it required conscious effort to pull on memories and see them from his own perspective, without the subconscious perception a Pensieve could provide.

Still, what Occlumency provided was more than enough to satisfy Jin's needs.

'Let's see here.'

Jin opened a page of listed Charms and read down the list.

‘Turning all of these Charms into wandless variations will be helpful toward my experience, but is that the most logical use of my time at the moment?’

He idly tapped his cheek with the tip of his pipe.

'I'm almost at the end of my second month in this world. Ten months is more than enough time, but the question is whether I can afford to spend it on this. What do I plan on doing in this world?'

The world of Harry Potter was filled with many interesting things his memories of other worlds didn't cover, but most of them required money.

‘And to get money quickly, I either need something valuable to sell or something that I can steal.'

His mind turned before he threw out the second idea.

'Not unless I'm desperate. I'm still far too vulnerable, and being caught casting magic with a wand, especially while committing a crime, will get me in Azkaban faster than Umbridge can think of a racial slur.’

Even Jin's fragmented memories were stuck with the horrible woman's existence.

'I can reapproach the idea of stealing when I’m more proficient in wandless casting. But for now, that leaves selling something valuable, and I know something valuable that’s currently being ignored.’

Jin’s gaze turned to the ground as if to look through the stonework of the school to see its hidden basement.

'The Basilisk corpse is likely still down there, and that thing's worth a fortune. But to get into the Chamber, I need to speak Parsel, which leaves me with two options.’

He wrote out his thoughts.

‘One of which involves possibly explosive spell experimentation and a time investment, and the other would involve manipulating a fourteen-year-old boy, likely being monitored around the clock by one of the strongest wizards, who is also technically my boss at the moment, into doing what I want.’

He paused to shiver and give a mental prayer to the poor lad.

‘Better to go with the first option. It lines up with what I wanted to do anyway. I’m only missing one component to begin.’

His eyes raked back over his list of Charms before flicking to the Room in annoyance.

'A whole bloody school, one of the most renowned institutions in the world, with a library filled with thousands of books, and they don’t have any more interesting Charms for me to play with.’

The Room summoned what Jin requested, but it turned out to be useless spells like sending a paper airplane to your friend, animating toys to dance, or making socks wet.

Jin honestly had no idea why that last one existed.

‘I get that it’s a school, so it’s likely that the odd Charms I’m finding are actually from students who invented or brought them in, but where’s the good stuff?!’

Many books mentioned various Charms and spoke of amazing things one could do with them. Still, none of them actually provided a spell formula.

A few times, Jin found an incantation word from an author who may have been trying to show off, but that did nothing to help him deconstruct a spell formula to add to his databank.

It wasn't like Jin could just waltz into the library's restricted section. Wards existed, and Jin's instincts practically screamed at him the one time he tried.

‘Which means I’m going to have to go shopping again and hope I can find what I need.’

Jin eyed up the meager funds he had left over from his first month and hoped he had enough.

A quick call for Gol got him a ride back to Diagon Alley.

'Something tells me it's going to be hard to get what I need.'

0000

“Oh, that’s easy to find.” Ole Edgar, the owner of [Wisdom’s Library] and the hidden punch wizard who socked Jin in the face on his first day in the world, commented from behind his counter. “It’s right around the corner.”

“Wait, seriously?” Jin blinked in surprise. “You have Arithmancy stores here? Where I can just walk in and buy spell matrixes normally?”

The old man shot him an odd look. “I don’t know what ass end of the world you’ve been in, son, but Arithmancy has been around longer than the wand; of course, we have dedicated shops for it.”

"But, I mean…" Jin felt like his overly detailed plans had just been slapped in the face. "You don't have to be licensed for it or something?" 

“To buy a spell formula?” The old man looked thoughtful for a moment. “Well, I admit the topic has been discussed, considering the mortality rate of Arithmancers, but it simply wasn’t viable with the lack of interest in the first place.”

Jin held up a finger to protest, realized he was arguing against his good fortune, and decided to focus on another topic. “How high’s the mortality rate?”

“How high? Hmmm.” Edgar ran a hand through his beard in thought. "Sixty-five percent or so, I'd say."

“Sixty-five percent?” Jin’s brow twitched, an idle drop of sweat rolling down the side of his head. “And that’s normal?”

“Depends on who you ask.” The older man shrugged. “Most research areas have a degree of risk. Spell Creation, Curse Breaking, and Rune Combinations are among the highest, of course, but as long as there is money to be made, there will be lives ready to risk being lost.” A melancholic air took over the man. “I can't count how many bright lights I’ve personally met over the years that got snuffed out before their time, quite gruesomely at that.”

“Gruesomely?” Jin paled.

“Oh sure, immolation, implosion, nether portals, memory loss, micro black holes, gender changes, permanent disfigurement if you’re lucky. You never really know what magic will do when you mess with the fiddly bits.” Edgar drawled on while casually describing, in far too much detail, the many ways in which one could die a gruesome death.

“I see.” Jin finally managed to cut in, five minutes into the older man’s descriptions. “About those directions?”

“Hm? Ah, apologies. I do tend to get lost in fond memories.” The genial smile sent his way seemed that much darker.

Jin didn’t know which point to poke at first.

The old man pulled out a map and put it on the counter, pointing out a side street. “Just turn right out the door and make a left at the first alley; Forsaken Owl is the name.”

“Forsaken Owl?” Jin repeated the odd name.

“Curious, isn’t it?” Ole Edgar tugged on his beard with a damn near twinkle in his eye. “You’ll find out soon enough.”

It was then and there that Jin decided never to return to [Wisdom’s Library]. ‘Any old man who twinkles should be avoided.’

000

[Forsaken Owl] wasn’t what Jin was expecting. But then again, he hadn’t expected an Arithmancy store to exist in the first place.

A narrow alleyway led to a dark-purple gothic-styled building tucked between a barbershop and a brewery, where Jin found the sign set at an odd angle.

‘Is that thing exactly forty-five degrees?’

Pushing open the door, Jin entered what could only be called an OCD perfectionist's home. If that home was also set to a forty-five-degree angle.

'This is hurting my eyes.' Jin rubbed the bridge of his nose and squinted as he looked around.

The interior was dim, with opaque windows that let in only a bare amount of sunlight, while most of the light came from floating balls set into wall-mounted sconces.

Everything from the bookshelves, benches, tables, and more was set at an eerie angle.

The building didn't extend far from left to right, but rather rose somewhat up and down. And it was freaking Jin out.

'This feels like a haunted house.'

A direct path to the clerk led from the door, and Jin approached what looked like a tall, hunched figure behind the counter, shrouded in shadows. "Hello?"

“Ah, a customer.” A deep, ominous voice responded, black pupils opening behind what seemed to be a metal mask. “How may I be of service today?"

“Err…” Jin paused in confusion, squinting to try and make out anything besides the general outline of a body. “I’m, uh, looking for a spell formula?”

“Yes.” The dryness of the voice was only matched by the unblinking eyes as the mask tilted at a forty-five-degree angle. “Perhaps, articulating a specification may help narrow that description down.”

“Right.” Jin cleared his throat and decided to ignore the weirdness of the being before him. “I’m looking for the spell matrix of the Patronus Charm.”

“Hm, another one." The shadowy figure shuffled oddly, an arm moving at an unnatural angle.

“Another one?” Jin couldn’t help but question.

“Indeed.” The shopkeeper’s head rotated without its body moving, which freaked Jin out internally as it read a ledger. "One hundred and twelve copies I have accumulated over many years. Ninety-eight of which were sold last year alone. The Forsaken Ones have been good for business.” 

“Forsaken Ones?” Jin blinked. “You mean the Dementors?”

A sudden chill ran through the shop as the shadowed figure's head rotated back to its angled, unblinking stare.

The way the black pupils narrowed made Jin freeze.

“Aisle four, section six, row one.” Was all the being said.

Jin felt like he'd upset the shopkeeper. "…Thanks.”

He turned and tried to ignore the piercing stare on his back.

‘I feel like I'm either about to get a side-quest line or get my Achilles tendon shanked, and I honestly don’t know which one I’d prefer.’

As he walked down the indicated aisle, Jin found clearly marked borders for different sections, each containing a different spell formula and a plaque listing its name.

Some were new, and many were the staple Charms learned at Hogwarts, but all of them offered an interesting selection.

Each section had five rows of shelves with three different labels.

The top row was labeled Basic, the second and third were labeled Variations, and the bottom two were simply labeled Unfinished.

A quick look at a Basic Levitation Charm scroll brought up the formula he knew. Still, looking at the dozens of variation scrolls, Jin realized just how lazy magicals really were.

‘This is ridiculous. One variation to stir a pot. One to help with laundry. One to bounce things up and down. Well, maybe that last one could be interesting.’

The less said about the unfinished section, the better.

‘The sixty-five percent mortality rate makes sense if this is what people waste their time on.’

And it wasn't just how random they were; the equations Jin glanced at honestly hurt to look at for his perk-boosted brain.

‘Who the hell mixes up spell layers like this? Were they trying to kill themselves?’

Most of the unfinished scrolls listed nothing. Just a bunch of crammed-together equations that may or may not have made sense.

Quickly moving on before he gave himself brain damage, Jin found the section for the Patronus Charm and raised a brow at how empty it was.

A stack of scrolls stood on the base row.

The variation rows were entirely empty.

And the Unfinished section had a bare three scrolls.

Jin grabbed the base scroll.

'That was easier than I thought.' He popped the lid and took a quick look, then furrowed his brows. 'I don't recognize the content.'

The feeling of eyes on the back of his neck hadn't faded since he left the counter, and Jin had no plans to stick around any longer than he had to.

‘I’ll figure it out later.’

Tucking the scroll under an arm, Jin considered the Unfinished scrolls and eyed up the price tags. ‘Ouch, I can’t afford those.’

The Unfinished scrolls were nearly double the base price, each.

‘I’ll come back for them when I have more money.’ Jin turned away and kept browsing.

"Is that all?" The shopkeeper's voice rang out a few minutes later as Jin dropped three scrolls on the counter.

One was the Basic Patronus, but the other two were things he couldn’t resist.

"Yeah, you have an extensive collection. I wish I had more money on me." Jin honestly praised.

Some of the spells made him itch to play with them, such as the Obliteration Charm, which erased the tracks one makes as they move, or the Amplifying Charm, which could massively increase the volume of an item or person.

He didn't want them to use, only to take their parts.

The cores of each spell were missing from his mental databank, but Jin didn't have time to memorize them in the shop, as he felt the eyes on the back of his neck intensify when he stared at an open scroll too long.

He put those two spells back and instead made a mental note to come back and get them at a later date.

“Hm.” The shopkeeper didn’t truly respond, but the tone sounded more approving than before, so Jin felt it was safe to ask another question. 

“Why were the unfinished Patronus scrolls so expensive?”

“Rarity.” The masked being answered easily. “Unfinished they may be, but each is a viable growth path. The Patronus Charm is notorious for how difficult it is to alter.”

“Even the odd scrolls?” Jin couldn’t help but recall how bad some equation combinations were.

The shopkeeper seemed to shuffle in a way Jin took for amusement. "Indeed. Every path is viable. Growth is key. Danger is acceptable."

“How much danger?” Jin pinched his chin.

Black eyes narrowed in a way that told Jin there was no hesitation in the speaker's voice. "Any danger."

“Uhu…” Jin trailed off at the look.

A tense silence started for a moment before it was broken.

“Would you like a bag?” The shopkeeper asked politely.

Jin blinked and shook his head. “I’m good.”

“Very well, that will be nineteen Galleons and six Sickles.”

Jin paid the… man and left.

Whatever that shopkeeper was, something told Jin it was the product of a spell creation gone wrong.

0000

‘This makes no sense!’

Jin scowled down at the scroll spread across his desk, candles lighting up his hut alongside the backdrop of a crackling hearth.

'What part of this is a spell?'

After returning from his shopping trip with his liquid funds almost entirely spent, Jin cracked open the Patronus Charm and got to work.

One minute led to two, and two to four, as Jin studied its contents with a frown that only deepened as time went on.

It took an hour before he finally blew his top.

“This makes no fucking sense!”

Jin slammed a fist down on the desk.

“What doesn’t, boss?” Bron’s squeaky voice cut in from the side, turning Jin’s death glare from the scroll toward the House Elf. “Ah! I’s sorry!”

Jin blinked at the young elf in surprise. “Bron? What are you doing here?”

“I’s…” Bron looked up fearfully. “I’s just be seeing if you needs help, Boss.”

Jin’s eyes softened as he pushed aside his annoyance. "Sorry, bud. You just surprised me, is all."

He reached down gently and patted the little guy on the head.

Bron flinched at the touch, then brightened at the warm contact. "Is ok, Boss. Do you’s need help?”

“I’m not sure you could help with this.” Jin didn’t think Bron was secretly an Arithmancer and tried to reject him calmly.

But the loyal little elf wasn’t to be deterred. “I’s can help, Boss! Ready for orders.”

Bron saluted resolutely, and Jin couldn't help but chuckle.

"Alright, why not." Jin grabbed the back of Bron's shirt and easily lifted him into a sitting position on the side of the desk, then pointed at the scroll. "I'm trying to figure out the spell formula for the Patronus Charm.”

“You cans do it, Boss! You beat up all those other Charms already.” Bron raised his hands in support.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I don’t understand this one.”

Bron tilted his head in confusion. “Waz don’t you understand?”

"This part right here." Jin pointed to the center of the mathematical equations, arranged in runic shapes he didn't recognize. "All other spell matrixes I've dealt with have a core. A formula that generates the main effect of the spell. From Light to Fire, to Stunning, and so on. Every other equation added acts like a magnifying lens, specializing what that effect does and how it does it. But this one is missing its core."

Bron looked like his head was steaming as he tried to follow along. “Waz about da other parts?”

"Your English is getting worse, bud." Jin jokingly poked the tennis-ball-eyed creature between the eyes. “Take a breath if you need to.”

Bron took an exaggerated breath and asked again. “Whats about the other parts?”

“Better.” Jin nodded approvingly to the happy elf and answered. “The first layer I've never seen anywhere else. So, I'm focusing on the second layer, which deals with how the spell is fueled. The closer the layer is to the core equation, the greater its impact on the spell. This is usually where the mana cost is put in. By making the fuel the first or second layer, it makes a large difference in how much mana the spell costs.”

Jin pointed at the third layer. “But this matrix has the mana cost in the third layer, meaning it's very mana intensive.”

“Waz the second then?” Bron looked highly curious, and Jin was proud of how the little guy was following along.

“The second also deals with fuel, but it had an odd equation that I only found in the Cheering Charm before this. It deals with emotion and requires a large influx of it to cast.”

“Is Emotion bad?” Bron wondered.

“Not necessarily.” Jin rubbed his chin as he explained. “Emotions are not as common in Charms as many might think; it's Dark Arts that typically need emotion. Charms themselves don't require emotions to be cast.”

Fairy tales and imagination often misrepresented emotion.

“All that happens is that it draws more power from their core to overpower a Charm or alter the caster's intentions behind a spell, which can result in things a caster doesn’t want.”

Jin paused to tap the scroll.

“Magic is very literal to the formula and will of the caster, so I find it's better to have a logical mind for casting Charms to not waste mana or disrupt spell casting."

"So, Emotion is bad." Bron concluded, copying Jin's chin rub.

"I didn't say that." Jin hid a smile at the little guy's actions. "Emotion plays a lot more into Jinxes, Curses, and Dark Magic. Although I wouldn't really go as far as calling many of them dark. But that's a discussion for another time."

Jin waved it off. “For now, just know that emotion is neutral; it's neither good nor bad."

“N-e-u-t-r-a-l.” Bron sounded out the word and nodded. “What else?”

“That’s it.” Jin frowned at the diagram. “Most Charms have four or five layers at a minimum. Reaching anywhere up to thirteen layers for specialized versions, theoretically."

Jin hadn't actually seen a thirteen-layered spell before. Still, the theory books specified it as the final number for some reason.

“But this one has a missing core, followed by something I’ve never seen before, and then two layers to fuel it.”

It was incredibly basic compared to even most 3rd-year Charms.

“So’s it be a mystery layer.” Bron narrowed his eyes at the scroll. “We’s be needing to solve the mystery.”

"That would help." Jin was tempted to drop a Sherlock Holmes hat on the little dude's head. "But I've never seen it anywhere before, and it has minimal relation to others I've tried."

"Hmmmmm." Bron focused harder, and Jin was about to tell him to relax when he jumped up. "Oh! I's be see dat shapy before!”

The words came out like a shotgun blast, and it took Jin a moment to process what was said. “The shape?”

He looked back down at the formula and ignored the equation to study the runic layers, something he hadn't really paid attention to, as they were usually just a custom design by their creator.

He saw a circle within a triangle divided by a line. ‘Why is that oddly familiar?’

Jin pulled on his meta knowledge, but fragments were incomplete. He was sure he had seen it in a Harry Potter movie, but where was the question.

"Where did you see it, Bron?" Jin focused more intently on the hopping House Elf.

“The school.” Bron pointed toward Hogwarts with a large grin. “Its be in a case I cleaned.”

“Take me there.” Jin held out his hand without a second thought.

"Aye, aye, boss!" Bron excitedly grabbed his hand, and Jin had only a moment to widen his eyes as he recalled that Bron was the worst of his House Elves at side-along apparition before they both vanished from his cabin to land in an old hallway on the sixth floor of the castle.

It would later be said that the groans echoing throughout the hall that night started a new legend among late-night prefects.

000

After ten mentally traumatizing minutes and an unidentifiable bit of sludge that Bron had to vanish, Jin stood in a fresh pair of pants before a glass case containing dozens of Quidditch Champion trophies, each one bearing a plaque describing its star seeker.

“Which one, Bron?”

“Theres.”

Jin followed the finger to a plaque that bore the symbol he had seen on the spell formula.

[Jameson Peverell, Seeker of Slytherin, 1612.]

‘Peverell.’ Jin’s eyes widened as dozens of memory fragments snapped into place with the missing piece. ‘Why is their family symbol on a spell formula? Is it speaking of the Peverell Family or the whole Master of Death stuff?’

“Oh, I’s see it somewhere else, Boss.” Bron’s comment drew Jin’s eyes from the plaque.

“Where?”

“Where…..” Bron tried hard to remember. “Oh! In dat book boss had me read.”

“I made you read a book?” Jin asked in confusion.

“In da room.” Bron’s comment made Jin recall the stack of journals he had told Gol to make Bron look through for anything important.

The House Elf's traumatic thousand-yard stare said it all.

"Good job on that." Jin coughed awkwardly into his fist, his comment brightening the little dude's expression. "Where is it?"

"In da Room." Bron held out his hand excitedly, making Jin practically teleport to the other side of the hall to avoid the appendage. "I take."

“NO!” Jin almost choked on air as he held up a hand. “I mean. Don’t tire yourself out. I’ll ask one of the others to take me.”

"I cans do it, boss!" Bron came closer, which only made Jin more nervous.

"No, it's ok!" Jin definitely didn't hear his voice crack as he called for the elder House Elf. “Gol!”

“Boss! Comes back!” Bron tried to run after Jin.

"Yes, Sir?" The well-dressed House Elf appeared without pause and took in the scene of Jin climbing a wall to get away from a hopping Bron.

“Take me to the room, Gol!” Jin’s words told Gol everything as the elder’s eyes seemed to show some pity.

"Right away, Sir." Gol popped closer and karate-chopped Bron on the head. "Listen to your orders properly, Bron."

“But I wanna…”

“Orders.” Gol specified, and Bron saluted like a soldier.

“Aye, aye.”

Jin climbed down and sent Gol a thankful look. ‘If the reprimand comes from me, Bron will think he offended me and get all depressed.’

Raising a young House Elf was difficult, and since Jin wasn't truly cruel, he usually let Gol reel in the younger House Elf to avoid that scenario.

A quick trip to the Room had Bron pointing out the journal. "It be this one, boss!"

Jin took the old, weathered journal and carefully looked through its yellowed pages. He found the Peverell symbol on a random page, the words almost too faded to read.

[“I can’t go on, I’ve….. but I can…. my journey for the fabled Elder Wand comes to an end. It has been decades since its last sighting, but I was able to meet its previous holder. Mad, I tell you, the old man was bloody bonkers.... the curse of the Deathly Hallows persists. If only I could…. Damn that…..”]

It went on into a rant with nothing useful in it. Still, Jin confirmed it was, in fact, the Peverell symbol on the Patronus matrix.

‘Where does that leave me?’

Jin stood there and thought hard.

‘When was the first appearance of the Patronus Charm?’

A quick trip out of the Room and back in had the Room forming a large tome atop a pedestal for Jin to read.

The tome described ancient history, detailing the unknown, ancient origins of the spell, as well as the few sightings of the Patronus Charm over the millennia, three of which stood head and shoulders above the rest.

The first was the appearance of Andros the Invincible, who was said to have had a Patronus the size of a Giant.

'How would that even work?'

Jin assumed the spell had been customized if the story was true at all.

The second was by none other than Rowena Ravenclaw during the Goblin Wars in the years leading up to the founding of Hogwarts in 988 AD.

The Goblins released a dozen Dementors to pierce through the castle’s wards, and Rowena had seemingly unleashed an offensive eagle Patronus that tore the creatures to shreds.

One of the few ever recorded incidents of a Dementor being destroyed.

However, the third appearance was the most famous.

It was the tale of a young wizard named Illyius who had summoned a tiny mouse Patronus, but it wasn’t just a single mouse.

During an attack on his village by the Dark Lord Raczidian, the wizard famous for creating Azkaban and gathering the largest concentration of Dementors to date to do his bidding, in the 14th or 15th century, Illyius summoned a single mouse Patronus.

A single mouse fended off a swarm of soul-devouring monsters through a unique ability that no Patronus had before that date.

The ability to multiply.

One became two, and two became four as Illyius’s tiny Patronus became a horde to match the Dementors.

And that's where the story got interesting, as Raczidian, enraged by a village boy matching him, tried to cast the Patronus to counter Illyius, but what he summoned was a horde of maggots that turned on their master, ending the dark wizard's legend for all time.

‘Legend proclaims only those of pure heart could cast the Patronus Charm.’ Jin scrunched his brow at the overly flowery proclamation. 'Somehow, I doubt it’s that simple.’

The tome seemed to mock him with secrets.

‘Wait, the first recorded sighting was in Ancient Greece?’ Jin read from the tome as his mind turned to the story of the three Peverell brothers.

 A quick check in a noble lineage book brought up the Peverell family, dating back to the founder, Antoine Peverell, born in 1214, who established the Peverell family in 1235 after defeating a rival in a blood feud and taking over a castle as a prize.

There was no mention of the family to which Antoine was born.

'Suspicious.'

Jin noted the fact down but didn't let it distract him from his primary focus.

'The spell had been around long before the Peverell family. Which means the symbol didn't originate with them. Yet the lore of the three brothers always specified that each part of the symbol represented a part of the three tools the brothers attained from Death.’

Jin recalled each item.

'The triangle was the Cloak, shrouding one from Death. The Stone was the circle, able to summon the spirits of the dead. And the line down the middle was the Wand, able to make one undefeatable in single combat.’

Together they formed the legendary symbol.

‘The Patronus is far older than the brothers, which means they obviously took inspiration from the spell, so what do all the items have in common? Why is their family symbol related to this spell matrix?’

Jin paced back and forth in the Room as he tried to work it out. 'The Peverell brothers took the symbol from the spell. It's an ancient spell, apparently older than Greece. Is it an ancient runic language or something?'

Jin didn’t feel that was right.

Calling for the Room to bring up runic language dictionaries didn't help.

It took days of research for Jin to realize he wouldn't find it in the school, at least not in the non-restricted section.

Finding the answer was important, as Jin didn’t want to touch the equation without knowing its purpose.

‘If a failed formula just blew up, it wouldn’t be a big deal thanks to my skin. But I just got reminded of how badly an incorrect spell can go when I met that shopkeeper.’

Jin shivered at the memory. ‘I’ll just take things slow.’

One of the tricks of Spell Deconstruction was feeling out an equation with mana.

It was inherently dangerous, and Jin tended not to use it because it was basically guessing on a sixth sense and hoping nothing went wrong.

‘I hate guessing.’

Jin furrowed his brows as he went through options.

‘It’s obvious that other people had viable ideas. Dumbledore is the only documented wizard to have created a successful variation that lets a Patronus carry a message with the caster's voice, and even [Forsaken Owl] only had three unfinished variations of the spell for sale.’

Jin had checked after the trip, and that Arithmancy shop might have actually been one of three in all of the British Isles.

‘That old punch wizard wasn’t kidding about the lack of interest and the mortality rate.’

Despite his aversion to the old man, Jin forced himself to go back to [Wisdom's Library] for more answers.

It turned out that the main Charms were widely available to the public. Hogwarts had set the standard for what was available, spreading what had once been exclusive to anyone who came to study.

Charms accumulated over centuries, if not millennia, by small conclaves of witches and wizards were now freely taught at magical schools.

A norm Hogwarts had shattered, letting magical kind flourish through the medieval age

And those were just the ones that the founders could share, as many Charms existed that were locked behind family grimoires or libraries, many of which were lost to time behind ancient wards or natural catastrophes.

Each time a family line went extinct, a vault or hidden manor could vanish along with all its contents. Sometimes a family sold a spell to the public; sometimes a stolen spell found its way into the market, or something new came about.

It was hard to say where some of the non-Hogwarts-based Charms originated.

That's why, for over a thousand years, the Hogwarts Charms were so valued. They let people experiment and branch out, creating variations in hundreds of ways.

But at the end of the day, that’s what most of them were.

Just variations.

Original spells with a different core were the truly valuable ones, as each was an untapped gold mine of possible growth paths.

The Patronus Charm was an outlier to that rule.

It had been around far longer than the Hogwarts Charms, yet only a single successful variation existed in the current day, which also wasn’t for sale.

‘If those ancient wizards left a legacy behind, I wouldn’t have a clue where to begin searching for it. Andros, Rowena, Illyius. Each one managed to alter the Charm, and that’s without my advantages, so why can’t I?’

Jin was stumped by the Patronus Charm, something he was sure hundreds had been stumped by before him, as nothing else had a relation to its first layer.

‘It doesn’t matter to me why the Peverell brothers took the symbol. What matters is what relation the symbol has to the three items they made. What ties everything together?’

Dozens of theories came up. ‘Death is the most obvious, but that makes little sense. What connection does a spell that generates an emotionally positive guardian spirit have with death? It’s a conjuration, not a ghost.’

Jin wrote down, crossed out, and rearranged theories for days, only truly testing them in the Room, where he asked for the strongest protection the Room could provide for testing.

A pedestal filled with sand stood at the center of a cluster of six runic circles, with a single line of metal extending from the base of the pedestal to a secondary one outside the circles.

Jin couldn’t understand the runic combinations beyond the simple fact that they were protections, and that’s all he needed as he practiced.

He drew the equation into the sand pit in the center pedestal and channeled traces of mana into the outside pedestal to activate them.

All that was left was to direct his intention into the equation.

If someone wanted fire and cast the spell for water, the best result was nothing. Still, the summoned mana had to go somewhere, and it usually resulted in explosions.

If Jin’s guess was correct, the equation would activate normally. If it was incorrect, well, the results varied.

An attempt at [Power] created explosions.

Trying [Control] gave him a nosebleed from some kind of feedback.

And [Life] generated a wave of something Jin was thankful for the runic circles containing.

A dozen tries came and went, each with its own drawback that hit Jin with minor effects, often requiring him to rest for days between attempts as he went back to the drawing board. Still, none of them connected in a way that answered his question.

‘What the hell is it?’

Jin was thoroughly annoyed by mid-October, having endured a bad attempt that created a wail-like effect that pierced his mind with a headache.

If it weren’t for his experience with such pain from extended Occlumency usage, he might have thrown in the towel for the day then and there.

'Maybe I'm going about this wrong.' Jin sank into his mind as he pulled on his meta knowledge. 'It's obvious people have been trying to crack this on their own for longer than I've been around, so what do I know from canon that they couldn’t?’

Jin cycled through memories before something came through.

‘Animagus forms. Wasn’t it said that the Patronus Charm took form from the innate Animagus form of the caster?’

Jin pondered that point.

‘But why? Why would it pull on the innate form unless…’

It hit Jin like a slap in the face from Hagrid.

‘I’m such an idiot!’

Jin ran to the pedestal and tried again quickly.

This time, his intention centered on a single word.

[Soul]

The pedestal lit up, generating a faint silvery mist before fading as Jin pulled back his mana.

‘It was soul.’

Jin channeled more mana, pushing past the safety limit he'd set before, and watched as a thick cloud of mist left the equation.

A deep thrum from the magic connected to him in a way no other spell had before.

A resonance that felt fitting, like putting on a pair of shoes that were just right.

‘An equation for the fucking soul.’

Jin’s eyes held a mix of excitement, caution, and awe as he gazed at the mathematical formula.

‘Someone. Somewhere. Figured out the math for magically touching the soul. Who the fuck was the madlad who took that risk?’

Jin could do amazing things with Arithmancy now.

He could deconstruct spell matrixes into words and manipulate them to achieve the effects he wanted.

It was a programming language.

The Peverell family's symbol stood for [Soul]. That meant that the Deathly Hallows were connected by something related to the soul.

‘Is that how they do what they do?’

Jin considered what each item really did.

‘The Cloak of Invisibility… is it shrouding one's soul?'

Jin recalled how the golden trio followed him.

‘If their ankles weren’t sticking out and they weren’t talking, I honestly wouldn’t have noticed them. They didn’t have a trace to them otherwise.’

The Stone was self-explanatory, summoning the spirits of the dead.

‘Is it really summoning the souls from the afterlife?’

Still, the wand gave Jin pause.

'Perhaps it's some kind of Soul Empowerment? If you empower the soul, do you empower your mana?'

The intricate connection between a wizard, their mana core, and their soul had been debated for millennia.

One of the main things the legends spoke of, something the journal Bron found spoke of, was the madness the items generated in their wielders.

'Maybe it's tied to the souls of the Peverell bloodline somehow? Or maybe it messes with the users' souls somehow? Harry never seemed bothered by using the Cloak?'

Jin knew firsthand how much a damaged soul could screw with someone, considering his current life.

It was a lengthy train of thought that Jin wasn’t sure he was ready to study.

Either way, what truly mattered was that Jin finally understood the first layer equation for the Patronus Charm, but where did that leave him?

‘Now what?’

Jin looked down at the formula he had bought weeks before and tapped a finger on his desk.

‘The missing core of the spell finally makes sense. The first layer calls on the soul of the caster to fill the core, generating what I assume is a phantom of the caster's inner spirit.'

Jin eyed the other two layers.

'The second layer fills that phantom with an emotion. And the third layer charges it with mana. Altogether, a basic, if highly expensive to cast, concept.'

It was honestly so basic that Jin was internally berating himself for how long it took him to figure it out.

The problem was what came next.

‘No part of this formula specifies a need to defend the caster. Neither does it specify a need to attack a dark creature. Hell, it doesn’t even specify what kind of emotion one needs to use.’

That last part bothered Jin.

‘Why does every text that speaks of the spell focus on positive emotions? Is it propaganda based on Raczidian’s story? They usually speak of love as a requirement. Is it because positive emotion can repel negative emotion-based creatures like the Dementors? Is it a positive-and-negative alignment effect? I doubt a Cheering Charm would repel a Dementor, so it's the soul component that affects them.’

The soul component is what interested Jin the most.

'This is the most basic Charm I've yet to see. It doesn't even have the general equation for the wand, and that’s probably another reason why it’s so mana intensive.’

Every Charm matrix he dealt with so far had the wand component in it, as it helped with mana efficiency and 'mental hotkey' casting, as it were.

The Patronus Charm didn't have a hotkey; it didn't matter how you waved around a wand or what word you spoke; it was a purely power-based spell.

‘Wait, that might be it.’

Jin sat up and quickly wrote down his thoughts.

'The reason every text speaks of positive emotions. It's to force the caster to overpower the spell's intent. All the spell does is call on the caster's soul, something that shouldn't have a barrier to the caster, then fill that spell with a bunch of positive vibes, channel a bunch of mana, and boom, summon a positivity phantom to act as a guardian by just existing. It's the caster's soul, so it will automatically move to protect itself.'

The Patronus Charm literally just summoned something from within. It used the soul as a medium to give magic and emotion life.

'And that's why it's so mana intensive.' Jin tried to cast the spell normally and only got a silvery mist for his troubles. 'I have the mana, but not the sheer positive emotion needed.'

He shook his head and focused on how much mana the attempt cost.

‘It’s the same as casting a dozen stunners with a wand. And that was just the mist.’

One might feel satisfied with figuring out what Jin did, but Jin wasn’t satisfied yet.

'If I can't cast it the way it's intended, I just need to alter it. Why bother with an inefficient spell when I can put my own spin on it?’

Jin's gaze drifted to two scrolls lying beside his desk from his shopping trip, and a grin slowly spread across his face.

‘And I think I know just the way to do it.’

It would be Jin's biggest challenge yet, but at least he had all the parts this time.

Weeks of planning came together as Jin prepared to create a Spell Alteration that might just fill the first of his six spell slots.

A scroll was unfolded as Jin read from the top.

[Bluebell Flame Charm]

His grin widened into a sharp, toothy one.

‘This is going to be fun.’

Chapter End.

AN: Hope you enjoyed! This was a semi-interlude chapter to show Jin's progress so far, starting in September and returning to the current timeline in October. Let me know what you think.