On a Friday morning, in late October, Ben made his way to the seventh floor. He didn't have any classes till eleven today. Snape had double potions with the golden trio, and Quirrell was teaching third-years. The only people unaccounted for were: Dumbledore, Filtch and his cat.
Ben ran up the stairs with a bounce, which was the result of a weak softening charm, that he managed to apply to his shoes. They not only became squishy but a lot more quiet as well.
He reached the seventh floor and looked for the tapestry showing Barnabas the Barmy trying to teach trolls to dance the ballet. Opposite the tapestry was a blank wall.
After making sure that no one was around, he walked back and forth three times across the section of the blank wall and concentrated hard on his need to hide something.
A large, illusory door formed on the blank wall which slowly became turned solid. Ben quickly pushed the large door open and went in. Inside he saw mountains and mountains of stuff.
There were huge piles of broken furniture, big stacks containing thousands and thousands of books, stacks of rusty weapons, brooms, empty vials and pots. There were even huge skeletons of Magical beasts. There were a lot of things that Ben did not recognise, but there were also things from around the castle, like the broken furniture, chandeliers and disfigured armour.
"Ah, the Room of Hidden Things, you and me, we're gonna be the best of pals," Ben said out loud, looking around at the mountains of stuff.
Ben originally had thirty-eight septims left. In the past two months, he had tried to find things to sell, but he only managed to earn ten more septims. He had bought the spell tome for [Frostbite] and was left with one single septim. This spell did as the name suggested, it sent out a wave of cold that could give normal humans frostbite if exposed for long, wizards were a lot more sturdy.
The only use Ben could think of this spell was to get a cup of iced tea. It did create a thin layer of frost over the target area, so he might be able to make someone slip.
Ben went over to a large pile of broken furniture and summoned the mist, which transformed into the shop window. He picked up the furniture one by one and pushed it into the mist. Soon his pockets were full of gold. Most of the stuff in here was magical and was sold for more.
He quickly bought the spell tome for [Flames] and with a flash of light, he learnt it on the spot. He aimed at the now empty spot in front of him and a jet of flames gushed out of his palm.
Looking at the dull, cherry red colour of the flame, Ben could tell that it was bout eight hundred degree celsius, a bonfire runs at about six hundred degrees celsius and can reach up to a thousand degrees. So, it was right in the middle.
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Ben could maintain the flames for about five seconds, and it took about thirty seconds for his Magicka to be full again.
'It's not much, but at least I can control it, unlike the fire-making charm.' Ben shook his head as he remembered how he almost burnt the whole greenhouse during Herbology. His wand was getting harder and harder to control and at this point, he was even scared to use it.
At first, he was able to make his matchsticks pointy during Transfiguration class, even though it took a lot of effort and concentration. But as the days passed, the wand's resistance only got stronger. Finally, when he performed the Incedio on the Devil's snare, it went out of control and ended up burning the whole plant.
Luckily, Professor Sprout was close by and quickly cast an extinguishing charm, preventing him from burning down the whole place.
Looking at the small pile of gold, Ben decided to buy the rest of the spell tomes. After a few flashes of light, new spells were added to his status panel.
[Name: Benedict Nigel Brown.
Species: Human[Wizard].
Job: Novice Mage.
Title: Dragonborn[Level 4].
Vitality: 140.
Magicka: 140.
[SKILLS-
Alteration[Level 12(Novice)]: Oakflesh, Candlelight*.
Conjuration[Level 9(Novice)]: Bound Dagger, Bound Sword*, Conjure Familiar*, Raise Zombie*.
Destruction[Level 3(Novice)] : Flames, Frostbite, Sparks.
Illusion[Level 7(Novice)]: Clairvoyance, Courage*, Fury*.
Restoration[Level 7(Novice)] : Healing, Lesser Ward*.
]
[Candlelight: Produces a hovering light for as long as Magicka is provided, the brightness can be controlled depending on the skill mastery.]
[Bound Sword: Conjures a magic sword for as long as the Magicka is supplied.]
[Conjure Familiar: Conjures a translucent Wolf Familiar for as long as Magicka is supplied.]
[Raise Zombie: Can rise dead bodies to fight for you, the Zombie will consume the magic from the dead body and turn to ashes when it is exhausted. Success depends on skill level.]
[Courage: Fills the target with courage and temporarily increases vitality. Target can resist.]
[Fury: Fills the target with anger and makes him attack indiscriminately, increasing vitality for the duration. Target can resist.]
[Lesser Ward: Creates a barrier of Magicks around you which can negate novice level spells. The degree of negation depends on the skill level.]
]
Ben had been practising the spells at night, except for destruction, his other skills were progressing at a steady pace. The easiest to practice was Alteration. He could harden his skin and unless someone paid close attention, no one would notice. Practising Restoration was also a bit tricky, he only had [Healing] till now, which could only be used when tired or hurt, which led to slow progress. The illusion had also been hard to practice since he only had Clairvoyance till now, which actually made his eyes turn cloudy, he could only practice it at night after everyone was asleep.
Clairvoyance was the most useful spell in Ben's arsenal, as his mastery increased, he was able to gain more information about the target. He was also able to use the spell to monitor Dumbledore's location. It usually pointed towards his office.
'Let's see what else we can spend this gold on.'
Well, now that he was practically surrounded by gold, he decided to put his plan into action. He exchanged another mountain of broken furniture for a mound of gold and exchanged all of it for....
A/N: Tudummm Cliffhanger, let me know what you think is going to happen next.