After having dinner with the Weasleys and Mrs. Sprout with the Delwyn family went their separate ways after saying their goodbyes and giving contacts. Mrs. Sprout then escorted the Delwyn family into their car service. Devlin, Ron and Ginny promised to write and keep in touch.
"This is where I leave you. With this, I would like to again welcome you all to our community. I am honored to have been the one chosen to introduce you to our world."
"Will we see you again next year?" Devlin asks Mrs. Sprout. Despite her limited exposure in the novels and movies, he found her very pleasant and welcoming.
"Sadly no my dear boy. After today, your family has been fully indoctrinated into our community and is ready to move on without a guide." Mrs. Sprout said and then speaks to his parents. " I left you more details with your welcome package. Don't worry about it being exposed, on those part of our magical community is able to view the content. And with that. I wish you all well. Kate, I shall see you in a month!"
And with that, Mrs. Sprout enters back into the Leaky Cauldron and the Delwyn family gets escorted back home with the arranged ride from Mrs. Sprout.
***
"Devlin, Kate, come down!" Devlin woke up to the sound of her mom yelling from the stairs. He looked at his clock and finds that it is only 8:00am in the morning. He slowly gets up and drags himself out his room. In the hallway, he stares at his sister in her pink pajamas and her black hair all messed up.
"Morning." Kate yawned as she starts walking down the stairs.
"Don't yawn like that, it makes me yawn!" Devlin jokingly said as he yawns as well following her down the stairs.
"Shush you." Kate smiled. Devlin follows his sister to the living room to find their mother and father sitting on the couch preparing to say something.
"Okay everyone, I wanted to talk to everyone about yesterday. We all became a part of something more so your mother and I were talking last night and wanted to discuss what things will be like going forward." Devlin's father explained. "Kate, Devlin, now that we are part of this world, new rules will have to apply to us." Devlin and Kate nod their heads.
"First, this should be a given with Mrs. Sprout's explanation, but you can't tell anybody, I mean ANYBODY about this. Not our family, closest friends or anybody. We don't want our children to be the target of a witch hunt. Two, Be safe and be smart. If you are going to practice magic, do it at places where they are allowed. Do not use it on people, unless its for self-defense and also follow the magic law. Three,.."
Devlin and Kate listen intently to the rules his father is giving out. Devlin felt that from this point on, he really can't rely on his previous life knowledge to gain advantage. The only advantage he can have is to have an adult's mindset, pieces of information that might help, but because of his presence it may not be the same and his good memory and education from his past life. Maybe the theories of physics can apply to magic as well.
"...And finally, when it comes to your safety. Please don't hide it from us. We may not be wizards, but we are still your parents. Whatever happens, we are on your side first and our priority is you two. This is all new for all of us, so we will handle this together as a family."
Devlin felt warm inside. In his previous life, his parents were just as caring too. He just didn't fully appreciate their hard work until now.
"Oh and Devlin! You have one regular school year left. I expect you to work hard. I will not cancel your extracurricular activities either. I always believed this, but knowing ballet and gymnastics has advantages not just in sports, but coordination. I may not know magic, but it can't be a bad thing knowing how to move your body. Kate you too, since there is a little less than a month left before you go, we will cancel your gymnastics and ballet classes. But come summer breaks, we will enroll you back in."
Devlin's father works in corporate finance, but as a child and teen, but he was on the rugby team. He was also forced to do gymnastics by his father. He believed there was nothing bad in learning how to move your body. Kate looked down but nodded in agreement. Devlin on the other hand was okay with this. He agreed with this mindset as well.
The Delwyn family then had their breakfast, and his father went off to work. Devlin's mother is a nurse but only works 3-4 days a week and the graveyard shift, so there usually is always an adult in the home.
After breakfast, Devlin went to knock on Kate's door but the door wasn't all the way closed and it slightly opened. Kate didn't notice Devlin entering while she is holding her wand in the air while she stares intently at the book on her desk that reads "Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1."
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"Lumos." She says as she waves her wand in a cursive 'e' shape. Nothing happens. "I don't get it, it says here if I move my wand like so and say 'Lumos', the tip of my wand should light up. How did you make things float?"
Devlin thought for a moment on how he did it. True he didn't use a wand, but the intent within him was. A state of mind also assisted in the beginning of this. After that it became a sort of second nature since he remembered the feeling. "So, um, whatever I felt like levitating, I visualized myself causing that item to float." Devlin went ahead and pointed at Kate's pencil on her desk. "With that i get kind of a feeling? Or an Energy feeling getting stored. So I just focus that energy to be moved to my finger and extend out to that pencil there and.." Devlin swings his finger gesturing the pencil to float. "And it just does it..." The Pencil floats in the air for a little bit. Devlin then swings his finger downward placing the pencil back into her pencil cup holder.
Kate thought about it for a second and then closed her eyes and took a breath. "Imagine a ball of light lighting up on the tip of your wand." Devlin said calmly to his sister.
As if Kate felt something, she motioned her wand with more confidence this time. "Lumos!" A light shine on the tip of the wand.
"So how did it feel this time?" Devlin asked with curiosity
"I felt something this time! Kind of like an energy. When you told me to imagine what was lighting up. Remember that science kit Uncle Ray sent to us? I remembered that." Kate explained
"Oh so feeling and visualization. That makes sense." Devlin thought to himself
"So.." Kate then pointed her wand towards Devlin's face. "How did you know all that?" Devlin blocked his face from the light as it was blinding him.
"I uhh..Mostly luck! I don't know I just had a feeling? When it first happened to me, I was in shock but then thought I turned into a superhero so I kept on practicing until I got used to it?" Devlin couldn't think of a smooth excuse. So he chopped it up to feeling and a childlike answer. "Come on now sis, it's too bright! Turn off the light now!"
Kate then looked at her book again. "Oh, I don't know how to do that. Let me look!" as she waves her wand making trails of light after each motion. "Oh I see it here!" Kate waves her wand in a small wave movement. "Nox!"....Nothing happens and the wand is still lit. "Ugh! This is frustrating!"
Devlin cheered her on. "Come on now! Imagine and concentrate! Try again!"
Kate took a breath again and focused, after a short while she made a small wave with her wand again. "Nox!" The lumos spell was extinguished. "Phew! You are right. When I get the right feeling, a kind of energy is felt and it was like my wand took it to do the spell."
"So the wand is used for focus and where to send that energy. Well this case magic." Devlin was muttering to himself. "If magic is focused, visualized then expended out.." Devlin pointed his finger up and visualized a ball of light to shine on his finger. "Lumos!"
Kate stared at Devlin's finger in excitement to see a ball of light float on his finger. But after looking for a few seconds nothing was there. "Nothing happened Devy.."
"Yea but i felt something but it was like I couldn't move the magic how I liked it like with my floaty spell." Devlin this time closed his eyes and concentrated. He tried to feel that energy once more, he visualized the ball of light on the tip of his finger...but then he gave up. Its like he couldn't move that energy like he can make things levitate. "Do I have a natural gift for levitating things and that's it?"
"Want to try with my wand?" Kate handed her wand to him.
"OH! Sure, I'm curious how it feels with a wand." Devlin took the wand and then peaks at the book to see the motion for "Lumos." Devlin concentrated a little bit and then waved the wand in its proper motion. The moment the wand moved, he felt that energy come up and become absorbed by the wand. "Lumos!" Devlin says with confidence and the wand lights up.
"Oh, so that's the feeling! It's a lot easier than I thought." Devlin had a basic understanding of why wands are so popularized now. Without a doubt wandless magic does exists, but efficiency is how it is with a wand. There was only one problem he noticed. While casting felt easier compared to wandless, he felt uneasy when holding onto the wand. If he had to compare the feeling, wandless magic felt like a river flowing through its natural course, but changing its course was difficult. The need to dig pathways to make it flow in a controlled fashion was necessary to get results. Having a wand is like having pipes installed and the other end is controlling the power with a faucet. The only problem is, Devlin felt resistant. It is possible it's because the wand didn't choose him.
Devlin thought this a little more. In his mind, he thought if he can do everything without a wand that would be better. The problem is the magic he feels. Maybe because he is young, he has trouble controlling it, or just a lack of experience. Then he thought of a plan. "For now, before I go to Hogwarts, I'll train my body and study more about the magic world. Maybe I could ask by sending letters to Ron to ask his brothers or parents."
"Okay! Give me the wand. I want to try the next one!" Kate turned to a random spell in her book to Chapter 6, Levitation Charms. Devlin peaked over and got a little nervous.
"Wingardium Leviosa...why does that sound so familiar?" Kate tilted her head in confused.
"Ah uh well, good luck with that one sis! I gotta go now byeeee." Devlin rushed out of her room in a hurry without giving Kate any time to react.
"Smooth Devlin....smooth..." Devlin sighs calming himself down from embarrassment.
"What's smooth Dev?" Devlin's mom came in view as he walked out of Kate's room.
"Oh nothing Mom." Devlin laughed avoiding the subject. Then a book caught his eye being held by his mom. "Mom...what book is that?"
"Oh this here? I picked it up when we were getting Kate's school books." Ester showed the cover of the book to Devlin. "It's called 'The Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century'. I thought I should read up about the Magic World. There was an interesting story about a dark wizard named Grindel...."
"Oh wait a second!" Devlin interupts with widened eyes. If he reads that book, will he find...