15 Map or Cloak! Part-1

{Potter Manor, Unplottable}

{7:43 P.M, 30th August 1991}

~Hoot~

Hedwig's hoot got Alex's attention away from his thoughts about his progress this past month. He looked up to see Lily standing by the door. To be truthful, he had quickly gotten immersed in learning magic, almost from the first night. Other than a couple of times when Ron and Neville had come to go flying and he had to accompany the rest of the family he had kept to himself. 

It was a comfort thing as well, he was taking his time as every day he woke up to the soft sheets. He was beginning to realize that he really was in the Harry Potter universe. There was so much stuff going on in his mind, from excitement about learning magic to how he could begin creating his empire. Because truthfully what even was his goal? To kill Voldemort? Take over the World? Might as well join Voldemort and then backstab him.

The possibilities had drowned him enough that he wasn't that interested in the family drama. But as the reality began to sink in, he realized that he needed to interact with his family more. At first, to him, this world was just a fictional world with characters he knew and had read about. 

Time really is a powerful concept. Each day and each meal slowly changed his perspective. Sirius had even questioned him about his behavior in a roundabout way, and he had used a simple excuse that since he was young he was used to focusing on something, and magic was truly fascinating. He wasn't lying about that, the distance between him and the rest of the 'family' hadn't changed much, it had somewhat increased because of his anti-social behavior. He was still a little bit on the outside of the family and although he was comfortable here, he realized that he needed to make just a tiny bit of effort here.

"Lily, is something wrong?" Alex asked, he tried to be as sweet as possible about it, which meant he smiled slightly.

Lily's heart dropped a little at the way Alex addressed her again, she knew at the back of her mind that she had missed her baby's real growth years. He was already a young boy who had figured out his identity, expecting him to call her mom was unreasonable. Her mind knew that but somewhere her heart refused to listen. At least she was relieved that he had started smiling every now and then.

"I was just checking to see if you are packed, we have to leave quite early tomorrow," Lily spoke, she smiled easily, and Occlumency helped as she suppressed her disappointment.

"Yeah, my trunk's packed. I'll sleep and wake up early like always." Alex spoke as he gave her another smile, his smile relived a lot of Lily's worries. From how things were before, she would take the small smile any day. Alex was intense, he reminded her a lot of herself when she first came to know about the magical world. A hunger for knowledge and too-mature of an overlook.

Growing up as a muggleborn and then being bombarded by the magical world can be a bit overwhelming, and both Lily and Alex had taken the quickest solution to adapt themselves to the changing situation. In a world of magic, being academically better had opened a lot of doors, but Alex didn't need those since he was the heir apparent to the Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter.

There were a lot of complicated customs that James debated teaching Alex, but then he decided against it, maybe they could get into it next summer when Alex had calmed down on his curiosity and had adjusted to the magical world.

"Alright, sleep well," Lily spoke as she closed the door. She pressed her forehead against the door and sighed, there were countless things she wanted to express but seeing his sharp green eyes always startled her. They held something that she couldn't quite pin down.

She felt a warm hand squeeze her shoulder. She turned around and found a familiar shade of unkempt dark brown hair. She leaned back and allowed James to engulf her in a hug.

"It will be alright sweetheart, just give it time. Time heals all wounds..." James murmured against her ears. It was quite silly to her James comforting her, but she allowed her a moment of respite. 

"I know... I know," Lily muttered as she looked up, his hazel eyes were shining as he stared at her with a soft look. Lily had always thought James Potter was a bully and a moron, it was only when she had allowed him to take her on a date that she realized that he could be such a romantic... at times when he wanted something.

She slapped his chest recognizing the look and stepped away, the pleasant atmosphere was broken as James pouted. 

'Yeah, he's an idiot.' Lily thought and with one last look at Alex's door, she grabbed James' arm and took him toward their bedroom.

'Score!' James thought as a silly grin appeared on his face, forgetting the reason he was even coming to Alex's room.

...

Alex looked at the closed door and sighed, if learning magic had been taxing then evading the warmth of the Potter family had been more exhausting. It wasn't like they were forcing him into all these little family activities, just the fact that they were such a loving family was a little hard for him to accept.

Alex hadn't been a part of a dysfunctional family, both his mom and dad had been there, present throughout his childhood. They had their own problems with money though as their family struggled through his childhood years. The stress of the job and earning enough to make sure he went to a decent college had allowed him to see the struggle in life early.

With the Potters, it was a different kind of struggle, they had encountered real tragedy in life, but they had enough money to last for generations. On a fundamental level his and the Potters's mentality didn't match, he was used to saving and slaving away, to gain any advantage he could. That's why even after he got a decent job he just kept on collecting and investing the money in his bank account instead of resting and enjoying his efforts.

Alex sighed, looking at his Mana that stayed fixed at 571 points. He had tried abusing the mana system by allowing his mana to regenerate just by a few points and then draining it in an attempt to gain a +1 boost. But it only works if his reserves are at least half full.

'Fuck it, I'm going to waste some mana, get my bonus and go to sleep.' Alex thought he didn't have OCD but just knowing that he was wasting 1 mana every minute wouldn't let him sleep peacefully. At least knowing what troubles await him in the future.

He put his wand in front of him and tried to cast an accidental magic. Glaring at his wand hoping it would light up was one of the most idiotic things when it comes to mana efficiency, and truthfully he could use his mana to master a more useful spell.

But he had already seen that leveling up a spell beyond level 5 wasn't that useful, sure the mana cost came down but that was it. If every spell followed the same pattern as the levitation spell, then other than the constant lowering of mana cost, the silent casting bonus that he gained at level 5 was really the most important thing.

'And I can't really practice all the spells in my room... burning down the manor would cancel out abandoning 'Alex' so I would be forced to interact with Lily and others...' Alex thought, it was another thing on his mind. He had read countless fictions where the Slytherins and even some Ravenclaw have their own room and if it really worked like that in reality, then he wouldn't mind going into those houses. Though he would like to avoid Slytherin... and Gryffindor.

Alex sighed as the wand flickered on his fifth attempt at casting the Lumos spell with just his intent and incantation. He got another point on his accidental magic skill experience. His mana moved around the mana node on the palm of his right hand, just like it would have when he cast the Wand Lightning spell with a wand. Alex wasn't sure of the reason he was not able to control his mana. The accidental magic skill was his only hope. 

Once he gets little or some form of control he would be able to grind it enough that wandless magic would become a thing.

...

[Skill Accidental Magic leveled up to level 4]

...

[Accidental Magic Lv 4{0/20}: The ability to channel your emotions to perform magic. The greater the emotions and intent the stronger the chance of success.

Chance of desired effect happening: 4% +?%

Mana cost: +96%]

...

Alex read through the updated skill and sighed, the autonomy over his mana was a long time away. For now, he needed to focus on using a wand. He didn't even know why he was so averse to the idea of using a wand. The whole of Harry Potter world was reliant on the wand and if he could somehow leave its clutches then it wouldn't be so bad, but did he really need to?

His frustration over the slow progress quickly evolved into doubt. 

'It was the notification that I got right from the start wasn't it? The interface warned me not to focus completely on the wand and I got tunnel vision on that.' Alex thought. He looked at the 4% chance of casting a spell without a wand and put this project aside. He would come back to it soon enough, but now that he was going to Hogwarts he needed to be more frugal with his Mana. 

He closed the skill interface and picked up his wand, he started casting the Locking and Unlocking charm on the door. The node at the palm of his right hand was the mana node that was used in every spell. It was basically a connection between the rest of his mana network and his wand. But since it was the largest node it could last 4-5 casts before it was emptied, the rest of the mana nodes for the two spells were entirely different. So were their incantation and wand movements.

The wand movement for the Unlocking charm was a straight line upward followed by creating a left-facing triangle with that initial line as the base, something like a mirrored pointed 'D'. The wand movement for the Locking charm was a straight line downward followed by a circular movement and a flick. 

Alex cast these two spells in quick succession for a while, each cast took around 1 Mana so after 20 casts of each spell he got bored and moved on to practicing the knockback Jinx on a pillow. The Knockback Jinx was the only offensive spell that he could even attempt safely in his bedroom, that's why it was his highest-leveled combat spell.

...

[Knockback Jinx (Tier III): Level 6 {193/600}]

[The Knockback Jinx, also known as Flipendo, is a spell in the wizarding world that is primarily used for defensive and practical purposes. This jinx is designed to deliver a forceful impact to its target, causing them to be knocked backward. While it is often employed in dueling situations, Flipendo can also be utilized for more everyday tasks, such as moving heavy objects.]

[Mana Cost: 2 Mana/Use]

[Level 5 Bonus: Can be cast silently]

...

----------------------------------------

AN - A slightly longer chapter as I tried to capture Alex's changing mentality. He's slowly adapting to the wizarding world and will soon interact with a lot more characters. As you can guess by the chapter name, what would you take, The Cloak of Invisibility or the Marauder's Map? The other will go to Harry of course!