Bones asked Alan to sit for a moment while he finished the last of his dinner. After Alan found a chair, he began to survey the office decor.
With just one glance, his eyes landed on a fully functional rune workbench. It appeared far more sophisticated than the one at Lily's house, boasting three full rows of crystal spheres for testing and simulations. Bones noticed Alan staring at the table with a look of recognition, which piqued his curiosity. he knew this was specialist equipment; a set like this could easily cost a scholar thousands of Galleons.
"Do you recognize that workbench?" Bones asked, setting down his fork.
"Yes. Last Christmas, I stayed with the Potters, and Lily had one in her study," Alan replied truthfully. "That's where I first started learning the basics. Yours looks even more advanced than hers."
"I see. It seems your progress is even faster than I imagined. How have you been continuing your studies since then?"
"Currently? I use this," Alan said, reaching into his linen spatial pouch to pull out his rune disk. He was meticulous about his tools, putting them away carefully after every session; in fact, he carried almost all of his essential possessions with him daily.
"Oh?" Bones raised his eyebrows, surprised to see a student in possession of such an item. While not as expensive as a full workbench, a rune disk still commanded a price of several hundred Galleons and wasn't a common find in a schoolbag.
"James and Lily gave it to me, along with a reference book for recording sequences," Alan said with a small smile. "I've memorized most of the characters in the text. Now I'm focusing on flat magic runes and trying to practice disassembling and recombining sequences."
Bones re-evaluated the boy once more. He was only a second-year. Ancient Runes was an elective that didn't even begin until the third year, yet he claimed to have mastered the fundamentals and moved on to application. Under normal circumstances, that was impossible; there were strict physiological and magical requirements for applied runic work.
A few conjectures formed in his mind. He hastily finished his meal, wiped his mouth, and walked over to him.
"Alan, try to catch this," Bones said, extending his right hand.
A small, glowing orb manifested in his palm. With a gentle flick of his wrist, he sent the sphere floating toward him. Alan concentrated, drawing on his internal magic as he reached out to firmly grasp the light.
He could feel that the orb lacked any physical temperature, but the magical density within it was far greater than a standard Lumos, even if the light it emitted was softer. "Oh," he murmured, his brow furrowing.
Bones was stunned. Most students his age couldn't even make contact with a manifested orb without it popping like a bubble. "What is it? Is something wrong?"
"Yes," Alan said, looking at the sphere in his palm. "When I felt the magic inside, it seemed very concentrated—stronger than a typical Lumos—but the brightness is actually lower."
"You can sense the magical density within a spell?" Bones asked, his voice laced with disbelief. he summoned another orb, this one much more brilliant than the first. "Feel this one."
Alan reached out and took the second light. After a moment of focus, he looked up. "This one has much less magic inside than the first, yet it's incredibly bright! How did you manage that?"
*How did I do that?* Bones thought. *I want to know how you can sense external magic so effortlessly. It's supposed to be impossible for someone your age!*
He kept his expression neutral, but his mind was reeling. He began to wonder if the boy was entirely human, or perhaps some rare humanoid creature with an innate affinity for magic.
Alan was oblivious to the "not-human" label being placed on him. He simply found the technique fascinating, weighing the orbs in his hands and attempting to probe their structures with his own magic. Soon, the brighter, less dense orb became unstable under his touch; it flickered once and extinguished with a soft puff. The dimmer, denser orb persisted much longer before slowly fading away.
*So, this technique increases stability,* Alan noted. *Less magic but high brightness equals a short duration and poor stability. More magic but low brightness equals a long duration and high stability.*
Bones watched him manipulate his spells with superb control. Even if it seemed far-fetched, this boy's talent was a massive understatement compared to Lily's "not bad" description.
"Alan, come sit. Let's talk," Bones said, gesturing to the desk. Once they were seated, he asked softly, "Do you know why I had you catch those orbs?"
Alan thought for a moment. "To test my understanding of rune structures and magical output? One orb had a higher concentration of magic but was tuned for efficiency and stability. The other was the opposite."
Bones felt a bit speechless. *It wasn't that complicated; you're over-analyzing,* he thought. "No," he said aloud. "I just wanted to see if you could catch it at all. Only someone with exceptional control over their own magic can hold a manifested orb without crushing it. I only adjusted the ratios on the second one because you mentioned you could sense the density. I had no idea you could actually feel the internal structure of external magic."
Alan realized he might have overshot the mark. "Is that unusual?"
"Highly unusual," Bones muttered. "I heard from Professor Flitwick that you're in his Charms Club. You must have heard that underage wizards usually struggle with magical stability and control?"
Alan recalled his conversations with Flitwick and nodded.
"Exactly," Bones said. "Learning runes requires immense precision. In applied research, if your control slips even slightly, the results can be disastrous. Most young wizards lack the physiological maturity to handle that kind of work until at least their third year, which is why the elective starts then. By that age, their magic has stabilized enough to make research viable. For a lower-year student to even get started is... rare, to say the least."