Chapter 26: Black Lake Fishing Incident
After leaving Professor Flitwick, Ethan quickly finished his meal in the Great Hall and returned to his dormitory. On the way, he tried several fire spells he knew, but the advanced incantations were beyond his current ability, and he couldn't cast them successfully.
"Am I really gifted in fire magic?" He began to doubt the professor's assessment, though he told himself, "Perhaps it's too advanced. I'll experiment with simpler spells later."
With no evening classes scheduled and no desire to visit the library, he just wanted to absorb what Professor Flitwick had taught him.
He repeated the phrase multiple times, marveling, "The wizard is a god, what an incredibly fitting comparison!"
Remembering the Harry Potter films and the Fantastic Beasts franchise, he recognized numerous magical phenomena that defied conventional spell explanations.
The wizarding world held countless secrets awaiting his investigation, prophecies included.
"Let's begin our exploration by mastering magic!" His motivation surged.
His three roommates were absent from the dormitory.
Draco, ever the social butterfly, was chatting with older students in the Slytherin common room alongside two companions. As the sole heir of a pureblood family, he had understood since childhood the significance of networking, and his father's lessons on building relationships had become fundamental to his worldview. Since the academic year had commenced, he had spent every spare moment in the common room, engaging with various peers to cultivate connections.
Ethan refrained from judging this approach. Draco's behavior was not unreasonable, yet Ethan believed relationships proved unreliable when it mattered most, and real power was what counted.
"Lumos!" Following Professor Flitwick's instructions, he spoke the incantation while waving his wand, attempting to adjust the spell's intensity.
He repeated the exercise endlessly, and the wand's glow flickered on and off.
"Phew. Still nothing." Ethan's frustration mounted. His palms ached, yet his resolve remained unwavering. Still, the wand's light refused to brighten or dim as intended.
He tucked his wand away, massaging his tender wrist, when it suddenly struck him. He had promised to meet Hermione at the library around noon.
"Oh no!" The dormitory clock read 8:30; the library had long since closed.
"I'll apologize tomorrow." On top of his failed spell practice, he had also completely missed meeting Hermione, compounding his irritation.
Feeling rather down, he decided to take a stroll around Hogwarts before curfew to clear his head.
He walked out of the dormitory and made his way to the Black Lake. He sat cross-legged by the shore, enjoying the damp evening breeze, and stared blankly at the water.
He was unwilling to accept that over an hour of practice had yielded no results.
"Is this all I can do? Am I just not talented enough?" he asked himself.
"No, I can't be that kind of person!" he roared inwardly, filled with resentment.
"Lumos!" he raised his wand and shouted the incantation at the Black Lake.
He'd cast the spell just to release his frustration, barely moving his wand, yet the result exceeded anything he'd anticipated.
A blinding flash erupted from his wand tip like a miniature sun, illuminating a wide stretch of the Black Lake before cutting down into the depths, revealing the dark world beneath the surface.
Ethan stared at his wand in disbelief.
He lifted his hand slightly, and the beam of light responded, sweeping upward from the lake floor through the sky and vanishing into the endless stars above.
"Holy crap!" he exclaimed.
He swung the towering column of light in sweeping arcs, wielding it like a massive lightsaber, each motion accompanied by a rushing sound.
"I will destroy you in the name of the moon!" he shouted, driving the beam of light into the Black Lake.
"Splash!" a giant head broke through the surface, spraying water at him.
"Brother, I was wrong! I'll leave right now!" Ethan panicked at the sight of the giant squid. He quickly extinguished the light and fled toward the castle.
He sprinted into the castle, heart pounding, descended into the dungeons, crossed into his bedroom, while his mind raced with thoughts of the spell he'd just cast.
"Lumos!" he repeated the incantation, trying to recreate the effect, but nothing happened as expected.
However, he discovered that the powerful magic hadn't gone to waste; the spell now burned brighter than it had before.
"Huh? What does this mean? I want either the freedom to adjust the spell's effect or to reproduce that towering pillar of light from before. This isn't doing either right now."
Despite multiple attempts, he couldn't recapture that previous emotional state no matter how hard he focused. It seemed to have been a fluke, something sparked by his emotions at the moment, which actually pointed to unexplored potential within him.
He abandoned the idea of recreating the pillar of light and turned his attention to refining his magical control instead.
Perhaps the overexertion from the Wand-Lighting Charm played a role; after several tries, the spell's brightness began stabilizing around its original level.
"It's not bad, not bad at all." He had achieved part of what he'd wanted, and although that extra benefit never materialized, he was still quite satisfied.
However, after practicing a few more times, he stopped when his three roommates returned.
He was a little curious why the three of them had returned so early. "Why didn't you stay out longer?"
"The Head of House had business to attend to and summoned several prefects, so everyone else dispersed too," Draco said, sounding annoyed.
"Oh? What happened?"
"I don't know. He didn't say."
"Alright."
Although they had spent four days together, Ethan's relationship with the three of them remained merely cordial, and they didn't have much to talk about.
After all, he had grown up in the Muggle world, while the other three had grown up in wizarding families; they simply had nothing in common.
Since he couldn't practice spells, Ethan read before bed and went to sleep early, looking forward to Potions class the next morning.
The next morning, having spent most of the night thinking about the unexpected spell, Ethan came to the Great Hall yawning. He first explained to Hermione why he had stood her up the day before, then sat down listlessly to eat breakfast.
After drinking a cup of coffee, he finally felt a little more refreshed and started thinking about whether he should get some kind of energizing potion.
"Aren't you finished eating yet? Class is about to start." He was still thinking about where to get some potions when Hermione, who had already finished, came to his side, looking a little anxious.
This was their first Potions class, and also the first time Gryffindor and Slytherin had a class together.
"Yeah, almost done." He stuffed the last bite of sausage into his mouth, wiped the grease from his lips, and kept chewing as he followed Hermione toward the underground Potions classroom.
As he walked out of the Great Hall, he saw Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat, wandering in the corridor.
This skinny gray cat was Filch's loyal assistant. Whenever someone broke the rules, she would lead Filch over to punish the offending student.
However, this not-so-cute cat had taken a real liking to Ethan.
The moment she saw him, she meowed and ran toward him, rubbing her head against his trouser leg.
"She's so good to you. We can't even get close to her." Hermione was a little envious. She loved small animals and had once tried to pet Mrs. Norris, only to have her hand swatted away by a claw.
"Haha, maybe I'm a druid."
Ethan took out a few dried fish he'd prepared especially for her and fed them to her. Meanwhile, Filch watched with evident delight and waved and called out to the cat.
"Come back, Mrs. Norris!" Filch clearly didn't want any students touching his cat.
At her owner's call, she reluctantly left, turning back every few steps.
Ethan shrugged helplessly and went into the basement with Hermione.
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