Chapter 49: 49 Tinkering
Lucas had been in the Room of Requirements often, working on a way to elude the bracelets detection and he was finally successful. Naturally, he had been in the Forbidden Forest a few times to avoid Dumbledore's suspicions of him not going there, however, he hadn't actually dome anything, he merely had walked around for a while.
He had faced a few problems with the bracelet that mainly had stemmed from his unwillingness to deconstruct it, because maybe the old man had built in a detector just for that. It wasn't that far fetched when thinking about how the artifact worked. If it was made to catch magic used in its vicinity then it surely would detect magic used on it.
Another option had been to overload it by spamming all kinds of magic next to it, but again he didn't know how much it could take before that or if Dumbledore would get notified once it stopped working.
He had to get a little creative.
That brought him to his current project. As he already had experience with creating dolls he had crafted one for himself. One that looked just like him, enchanted to be connected to his mind. And because the mind realm worked differently to reality there shouldn't be a problem with distance. The only downside was that he had to focus one of his thought processes purely on the doll, otherwise it wouldn't work, making him effectively half as strong as he could be.
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It didn't take long for Lucas to arrive at the now familiar entrance to the Forbidden Forest. The doll with the bracelet around its arm running off into a different direction to the one he would take.
Not wasting any time, he stepped into the dark, shadowy depths of the forest, his senses alert as he fully made use of his magical abilities. The air was thick with the scent of earth and moss, the sounds of creatures echoing through the trees.
Lucas wandered deeper into the forest, his footsteps quiet against the soft ground as he let his instincts guide him. He didn't have a specific destination in mind, but rather sought to let off some steam, away from the prying eyes and judgmental whispers of the castle.
As he walked, he picked up small tremors in the ground, which grew stronger the closer he got.
It didn't take long for three giant spiders to emerge. They were bigger than a fully grown man, with thorny looking abdomen.
Once their slender eight legs dug their bodies out of the ground they locked onto their unfortunate prey.
Lucas standing in the middle of three Thornbacks just looked at their behaviour, unimpressed. The doll was far enough away that he could be certain the bracelet wouldn't pick up on anything.
With a calm demeanor, Lucas observed the spiders charging at him. They weren't far away, so only after a short few seconds they would be close enough to bite him.
As the Thornbacks advanced towards him, their massive claws clicking menacingly against the forest floor, one of them suddenly went ablaze, screeching in agony.
The other two didn't flinch for even a moment, instead they sped up, feeling the danger the little human posed, even if they couldn't comprehend what had happened.
But when they closed the distance to only a few meters, they began to float into the air, helplessly flailing their sharp legs around.
A moment later one of them was squashed against the ground with a dull and muffled sound, its haemolymph splashing everywhere, followed by a crunchy noice, as its exoskeleton was flattened as well.
The other one in the meantime was pulled apart piece by piece. First the legs, then the abdomen and lastly the cephalothorax, until it was all suspended in the air like you would only see in a museum.
A cruel sight indeed.
But Lucas learned a lot, better than he could have from any book. His domain picked up on any- and everything happening to the three spiders, from their anatomy, to the force their exosceleton could withstand. He didn't have to test what elemental weakness they had, because there was nothing left to test. With them inhabiting an area so close to Hogwarts, they had been studied down to the last minute detail.
It was far easier and faster to do it this way.
Having seen what he wanted to, he reduced their bodies to ashes and moved on.
It was not enough to get rid off of that feeling the castle had started to give him lately. He felt like a caged animal in a zoo, forbidding from doing anything.
A few minutes of walking later, Lucas stumbled upon a beautiful clearing with a crystal clear stream running through the middle. Here the warm afternoon sun brought out the vibrant colours of the normally gloomy Forbidden Forest.
Lucas approached the stream, the soothing sound of running water was pleasant to his ears, as he knelt down to splash some onto his face. The cool water felt refreshing.
As he sat by the stream, Lucas allowed himself a moment of respite, letting the tranquility of this unusual place wash over him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, allowing himself to be fully present in the moment. There is just something magical about such places that welcome you to reflect and ponder.
And Lucas wasn't against it.
As he said to himself back then, he wouldn't be so strict with his thoughts and hold them tight with his Legilimency. Instead he let his mind wander, allowing his thoughts to drift wherever, influenced by his emotions.
'What am I doing? Since when have I been this way?'
'I didn't feel bad last year when I used all those people to get into the restricted section, and now it looks like I have lost my empathy. '
'But is it bad?'
'I obviously haven't lost all of it, otherwise I wouldn't love my mum so much. But then what is different about the others? They are just as much real people with real lives as she or I.'
'…'
'I don't know.'
'Do I know anything about them?'
'As a matter of fact I do, more than anyone ever should. But then why do I care so little about them?'
'…'
'Maybe it's precisely because I know that much. Should I try to get to know someone I haven't used Legilimency on? That would narrow it down to only a handful of individuals, who are mostly wary of me now.'
'With whom would I even start? Maybe Daphne, I haven't actually talked to her yet. Harry could work as well. Our first session should be soon as well.'
'Let's start with Daphne, Ron probably talked his ear off about me already.'
As Lucas came to his conclusion the bushes at the edge of the clearing began to shake.
'Took you long enough.' Lucas thought as he got up. He had felt them approaching and subsequently circling him a while back,
Out of the scrubs came five Mongrels, the magical version of wolves.
Lucas's senses sharpened as he stood up, his mind instantly shifting into a combat state, his grip over his feelings as strong as ever.
The Mongrels, with their sleek, wolf-like forms and sharp teeth, moved with predatory grace as they encircled Lucas, their grey eyes gleaming with hunger and aggression. It was clear that they saw him as prey, a lone wizard in their territory.
But Lucas was no ordinary prey. With a smooth flick of his wrist his wand appeared in his hand and a sharp blade made out of compressed air was shot at the leader.
It tried to dodge the attack, but when it wanted to move out of the way it found out that it couldn't move anymore. Helplessly it could do nothing against the spell, except pray that its natural magical resistance would block it, but alas it was cleanly cut in two. The spell was only stopped after cutting through a tree and hitting another.
It was decently powerful for a flick of the wrist with nothing really behind it.
Now with the feeling of frustration and restriction that the castle gave him put into his wand another vertical cutter was shot at the mongrels, but this one was immensely more powerful than the last. It cut everything in its way, from the magical beasts to the trees, everything was cleanly cut in two. Even the forest floor was cut open creating a long gash, because the spell ended up being larger than Lucas.
'It is fascinating how much emotions can affect magic.' He observed the destruction before him. With this one he discarded the thought about compressed air, because at the end of the day it was limiting. 'As I thought. There is a reason why they don't teach physics.'
It was something he had speculated lately and was empowered further when he imbued his emotions into it. The question he had asked himself was, if magic can accomplish the impossible, than why limit yourself within the confines of the known. There was a reason spells weren't taught with physics in mind.
He had made a mistake when he had begun learning magic and he was going to rectify it. He had been too strict. Looking at everything with reason and logic behind it.
The cutting spell wasn't meant to cut like a knife, no it was meant to seperate on its own without a medium. There was not supposed to be a force orthogonal to the cutting surface. 'That still leaves open the question: Why does it work based on my understanding of physics?'
'Somewhere in the trifecta of body, soul and mind is physics. However, it seems to only play a minor role. It excells in control, though. It is far easier to create a flame to bake cookies with it than with the other way. So maybe it takes away control from Mother Nature and let's us be fully in charge, if that makes even a little bit of sense. Sigh, I don't have enough time to look into it.'
'But this might also be the reason why the unforgivables are so strong. They are one of the most basic and ubiquitous concepts found in nature: pleasure, pain and death.'
'Then what about fire?' Lucas thought as he turned to another mongrel with his wand. 'Fire is heat.'
Before his eyes its fur started to melt, before burning ablaze.
'Concepts.'
Even the ground surrounding it caught fire and turned a dusty brown. The plants a short distance away started to wither away.
'Concepts are the foundation.'
It was more than just burning and maybe what Inflamare originally was supposed to be. 'Does Dumbledore know this? He has to.'
'But then what are conjurations? How can Aguamenty create water out of thin air? Wait no it can. Creation could. But then how does it know what to make?'
'Mind. The mind does. Fuck, the more I learn about magic, the less I understand.'
Moving his wand to the next wimpering in fear mongrel, beautiful amethyst crystals started to sprout from its body until it was fully encased.
'It does work, but it seems like just creation is not enough. Or I don't understand it enough. Maybe I should combine concepts? Questions and more questions, but no answers.'
'Then how does an obscure concept like time work? Or destruction?'
The moment his wand turned to another one, it turned to ashes, dispersing by the gentle breeze. 'It's the same with creation, isn't it?'
The last one looked at him with pure fear as it exploded into a million peaces. 'So depending on the combined concept the outcome changes. But what about pure destruction, how would that look like? Is that even possible?'
'There is also that aspect that the old man in that weird shop had showed me. He somehow managed to incorporate a concept into his mind and maybe body? If I am not wrong. How did he do it?'
'Now I regret being greedy.'
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