Chapitre 30: The Secret of Enhanced Spellcasting
The family returned to England on August 3, leaving Harry, Draco and Sirius to enjoy the rest of their summer in peace. They played a lot of Quidditch and explored the woods around the chateau, but mostly Sirius helped the boys as they practiced spells.
Harry and Draco already knew dozens of incantations, and they had been memorising wand movements ever since Cassiopeia had given them practice wands, but it proved to be rather a difficult task for the boys to combine the external technique with their magic. On the day they were working on the Levitation Charm, the weather was sweltering, and they hadn't had any luck. Harry was getting rather annoyed.
'Come on, Aries,' Sirius urged. 'You have to envision the feather flying. Picture your magic reaching out through the wand and lifting it up into the air.'
'Wingardium leviosa,' Harry intoned for the fifth time, and this time, finally, his feather soared gracefully into the air.
Draco clapped. 'You did it! Now it's my turn.' He hopped off the fence on which he was sitting and ran over. Harry levitated the feather back to its spot on a large rock. Draco drew his wand and slashed it at the feather.
'Wingardium leviosa,' he said, and the feather moved slightly.
'Focus, Draco,' Sirius said. 'Your wand isn't a battle-axe. Try to ease up just a bit.'
Draco tried again, and this time sent the feather soaring.
'Well done,' Sirius said, clapping Draco on the back. 'And only on your second try.'
'Good job, Draco,' Harry mumbled, but his heart wasn't in it. He wasn't used to being beaten by Draco in lessons, and didn't think he liked it.
'I want to try again,' Draco said, but Sirius stopped him.
'Wait, it's Aries' turn.'
'No, it's all right,' Harry said glumly. 'I'm done for now. You go ahead.'
Sirius frowned, but went back to helping Draco. Harry felt something roar in anger deep inside him. Sirius was supposed to be his dad, wasn't he? And Harry was always the best in lessons. Draco provided stiff competition, of course, but this time he had got the spell in half the time it had taken Harry.
You're being stupid, he told himself. Draco was only a bit ahead of you, and he had the chance to watch Dad working with you.
But Dad's working with him now.
Harry thought back to his first conversation with Draco, in which he had promised not to steal Draco's parents if Draco wouldn't steal the Squibs. They had kept that bargain, but they had never discussed what to do if Sirius came back into the picture.
You wanted Dad to give Draco some attention, remember?
Shut up.
Harry wandered off into the woods. He snorted. Dad and Draco probably wouldn't even notice. He followed a little stream as it wound its way through the trees, kicking clods of mud into the clear water as he walked. There was a sudden, angry hiss.
'You're disturbing my nest, human,' he heard, and turned around to see an enormous adder.
'Leave me alone,' Harry commanded, and the snake pulled back.
'I have heard of you, my lord,' it hissed back. 'You are the great wizard who speaks the noble tongue.'
'How great a wizard can I be, if it takes me five tries to get the Levitation Charm?' He sat down by the side of the stream. 'Draco got it in two.'
The snake laughed. 'There is more than one kind of magic, is there not? Can this Draco speak with serpents?'
'No.'
'Then there is at least one way in which you are his superior.'
'I don't want to be his superior,' Harry said, but the hissing rang false even to his own ears.
'If that's true, then why does it bother you that the other boy outperforms you? Does he always do so?'
Harry shook his head. 'No. If anything it's usually the other way around.'
'Does the other boy storm off when you surpass him?'
Harry laughed despite himself. 'Sometimes, but not often.'
'Is this Draco your bitter enemy?'
'Not at all. He's my cousin, practically my brother.'
The snake slithered closer to Harry. 'Forgive me, my lord. I am afraid I do not see the cause of your frustration.'
Harry paused. 'I guess I'm used to being the centre of everyone's attention,' he said, but that did not feel right either.
'Is everyone paying Draco a great deal of attention?'
Harry sighed. 'No. It's just my dad.'
The snake hissed triumphantly. 'Now I understand. You are possessive of your parent. You wish to keep him entirely for yourself.'
'I wanted Dad to spend some time with Draco,' Harry said in feeble protest, though he knew the snake was right. 'He's my best friend, and his own dad doesn't pay him very much attention, except when he gets in trouble.'
'Do you believe that your parent has come to care for your friend more than he does for you?'
Harry thought about that. 'No.'
'Do you wish for your parent to care for your friend less than he does?'
Harry shook his head and laughed. 'I'm being stupid, aren't I?'
'I cannot judge that, my lord,' the snake replied. 'I do not understand the complexities of human interpersonal relationships.' It paused. 'However, if you value Draco highly...'
'I do,' Harry said earnestly.
'And if you wish your parent also to value Draco...'
'I do.'
'Then it would seem you have received exactly what you wished for.'
'In other words, I'm being stupid,' Harry replied, picking himself off the grass. 'Thanks for listening.'
'Any time, noble sorcerer,' the snake hissed back. He flickered his tongue a few times. 'May I make a small request, my lord?'
'Go ahead.'
'Could you show me some magic?'
Harry laughed and pointed his wand at a twig on the grass. 'Wingardium leviosa,' he hissed, and was stunned when the twig flew thirty feet in the air.
The snake was impressed. 'My lord is a very powerful wizard. Where did you learn the classical tongue of the Serpent Lords?'
Harry stared at the snake blankly. 'What do you mean?'
'You delivered your incantation in the ancient tongue.'
'I said the spell in Parseltongue?' Harry was surprised. He had not meant to do so.
'Indeed, my lord,' the snake said.
'I wonder if that's why the spell was more powerful,' Harry mused. He tried another spell with which he had yet to have much success. 'Aguamenti,' he hissed, and a torrent of water burst forth from the tip of his wand.
'Impressive,' said the snake.
'This is brilliant!' Harry exclaimed, all his anger and frustration forgotten. 'I've got to show Dad and Draco.' He bade the adder farewell and ran off to join the others.
'There you are, Aries,' Draco said when Harry came back. The blond boy was standing alone by the fence where they had been practicing. 'We were wondering where you ran off to. Uncle Sirius went to go look for you.' He beamed. 'I managed the Aguamenti Charm, and Alohomora too.'
'Well done,' Harry said, with a good deal more enthusiasm than he had when Draco had mastered the Levitation Charm. 'I did Aguamenti too. Look at this.' He raised his wand and let out a strangled hiss. A torrent of water once again burst from the tip of his wand.
'Wicked!' Draco's eyes were wide with excitement. 'Did you say the spell in Parseltongue?'
Harry nodded eagerly. 'I didn't even know I could.'
Sirius came jogging down from the house. When he saw Harry he breathed a deep sigh of relief.
'There you are, Aries,' he panted. 'I was worried about you.'
'Sorry, Dad,' Harry replied, feeling foolish about his bout of jealousy. 'I just needed a bit of a walk, that's all.'
'Look what he can do, Uncle Sirius,' Draco said eagerly. 'Show him, Aries.'
Harry levelled his wand towards the feather with which they had been practicing and hissed. The feather burst into flames.
Sirius applauded. 'That was fantastic! I never knew you could do spells in Parseltongue.'
'I didn't either, Dad. I was talking to a snake in the woods and it asked to see some magic. I suppose I forgot to switch to human speech before I said the spell, and the twig shot thirty feet into the air!'
'Do you think Parseltongue makes your spells more powerful?' Draco asked.
'I don't know,' Harry said. 'It looks like it.'
Sirius stroked his beard thoughtfully. 'We'll have to look into it. It could be that the Parseltongue just helps you to focus better. That's why we use Latin for spells, after all. Perhaps Aunt Cassie will have an idea.'
Draco and Harry groaned in unison.
'She's going to go on about this until Christmas,' Harry grumbled.
Draco nodded. 'And once she gets going, everyone else will join in. We'll never hear the end of it.'
Sirius chuckled. 'Or we can keep it a secret.'
Both boys nodded enthusiastically.
.....
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État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
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Power Stone 
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