105 Dark Arts

The new Hogwarts students were placed into different houses by the Sorting Hat, which shouted out the name of the most suitable house for each one.

James found it curious to watch the nervous new students. Although much of the nervousness was due to being watched by hundreds of eyes.

Sirius' younger brother, Regulus Black ended up in Slytherin. Sirius clicked his tongue, but he already expected his brother to be different from him.

Regulus looked like his older brother. He had black hair, but shorter and more even than Sirius. His look was more haughty than Sirius' and common among members of House Black. The difference with Sirius was that Regulus was smaller, thinner, and didn't have as unique a presence as Sirius.

Another student who caught James' attention was Rachel Ollivander. Mostly because of her last name which was known to everyone at Hogwarts since they bought her wand from the store of her soon-to-be grandfather.

Like Garrick Ollivander, Rachel had gray eyes and very fair skin. She had shoulder-length jet hair. She was elected to Gryffindor and applauded by all the students at the table.

The last student that caught James' attention was: Bartemius Crouch Junior. For one thing, he caught his attention because the Crouchs were one of the oldest pureblood wizarding families in Britain.

What struck James most about Crouch Junior was his aura. One would expect the son of such a powerful pureblood family to have an aura like Rabastan, Regulus, or Sirius. Confident, haughty, and arrogant, but it was anything but.

Crouch Jr. was all the time looking down at the ground, rubbing his hands nervously and half hunched over. Reminding him of Peter or even worse. In the end, he ended up in Slytherin.

After the sorting, they had a big feast. James started looking at the Slytherin table slyly. He was looking for Gwen, and just as he saw her blonde hair, their eyes met.

After a few seconds, they both averted their gazes, 'What is this feeling...' thought James, feeling a little strange. Not giving it any more thought, he started looking for Emily.

It had been an eternity since he had spoken to her. He thought he would find her eating alone in a corner, but he saw a person next to her talking to her: Severus Snape.

'What a strange combination...' thought James, turning his attention back to his table and his plate of food.

After dessert, the headmaster as usual said a few words. Then he began to sing a happy song, and when he finished they went to their common rooms to sleep. Everyone was tired from the long journey, and the food made them sleepy.

Sirius, Lupin, Peter, and Toby went to sleep after arranging their bookshelves and decorating them a bit.

For James, it was not the same. After everyone was asleep, he grabbed his invisibility cloak and left the common room. His destination: the Room of Requirement.

'I missed the nightly walks through the spooky corridors of the castle,' thought James with a faint smile.

His walk was not stealthy. It looked like he was taking a stroll. Nor was he trying to control the sound of his footsteps or his breathing. This was because he cast Silencio Barriera.

A defensive charm that creates a barrier of silence around the user, muffling external sounds and preventing people nearby from hearing you.

The initial disadvantage of this charm was that the barrier did not follow the user. That is, once cast the barrier remained static. Training can increase the range, but it is limited since the idea is that people can not hear, and if you create a huge barrier, everyone will be inside it so they will also hear you.

However, James managed to remove the disadvantage of the immobility of the barrier. He modified the charm. It's the first time he's done it, and it's much harder than learning a charm.

Now, the barrier followed its caster and lasted for hours. Making it much easier to be stealthy and almost uncatchable with the invisibility cloak.

On his way to the seventh-floor corridor, he ran into Filch and his cat Mrs. Norris, who were on guard and hunting for students who were breaking the rules. James just gave them a sidelong glance and kept walking, not stopping and not trying to make less noise. He was not noticed.

When he reached the corridor on the seventh floor, he performed the strange ritual to make the door appear and quickly entered. This time he did not ask for a large dueling room. Just a medium-sized office with bookshelves full of books, a fireplace, comfortable sofas, and a large wooden desk and chair.

On the ceiling hung two very elegant chandeliers, and the walls were reddish with straight black lines, giving the room a very nice look.

'Cozy,' thought James, taking off his cloak and leaving it on a hanger.

Today, he wasn't planning on practicing his offensive and defensive spells. It would be a night of a lot of reading and practicing transfiguration charms for which he didn't need a great place.

'Before I practice transfiguration charms, I'll read the book on dark magic...' thought James, pulling a leather wallet out of his robes.

He opened the wallet and started searching. Within seconds, he pulled out a thick book with a faded black cover. The pages were yellowed, and the title was simple: Magick Moste Evile. Written in small, barely visible print.

James looked at the book with a slight frown. He was not a fan of the dark arts and had no plans to learn these arts, especially the darker ones (The Occlumency he did not consider to fall into the category of dark magic).

As he would be facing one of the most powerful dark lords of recent times and his group of dark arts fanatic followers, he had to know what methods they would use in a fight and war. He had to know how they would think and that way he could find a way to counter them.

His family had no idea that he had bought this book and a few more of the very dark arts. He bought them when he was at Sirius's uncle's house. On one of those days, they visited Diagon Alley again, accompanying Andromeda to buy some missing things for the wedding.

In one of those moments, he took the opportunity and went to Knockturn Alley, which had many shops that sold objects dedicated to the dark arts.

James opened the first page and started reading. This book was written in the early Middle Ages by Godelot. A medieval dark wizard. Time passed. The only thing that could be heard was the paper as James turned the page.

James already had basic knowledge of the Dark Arts that he was taught last year as they needed to know a few things. For example, the Dark charms are classified into three groups: Jinx, Hex, and Curse.

Jinx was the weakest of the three. It had irritating, but useful effects. For example, the Flipendo was of this type, and more are taught in DADA classes or other subjects.

Also, Jinx can be blocked or removed by a counter-course. James had already learned all of this.

The Hex is a dark charm whose effect causes moderate suffering to the victim. Being more powerful than the Jinx. These could be used defensively and offensively.

The Jinx and the Hex are the weakest and most innocent of the Dark Arts. In the book, they are barely mentioned as he views it with unfavorable eyes. No dark wizard would use a Flipendo in a mortal fight. The most he can do to his victim is a relatively strong blow to the chest and push him a couple of meters. It would be child's play for them.

James felt it was wrong for the Jinx and Hex to be considered within the Dark Arts. He doesn't know how they ended up being considered so when even the dark wizards didn't seem to agree with it.

'Will it be the work of the Ministry? That way, they can teach you those useless Defense Against the Dark Arts books,' James thought with a strange expression.

A curse was used for worse kinds of dark magic. Far surpassing the Jinx and Hex. Curses had many strengths and forms and were reserved for causing immense suffering to the victim.

They were the most wicked, strongest, longest lasting, and least reversible dark spells.

Two hours later, James closed the book. Tomorrow, he would continue with the book. If he continued at this pace in three days, he would finish it. Clearly, he would then have to study it in more depth and analyze it seriously.

He got up from his chair and took the following book from one of the shelves in the room: A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration.

This book on transfiguration was used in both the first and second years at Hogwarts. It was very thick, so they used it for two years.

James finished reading it over the vacation and also studied it seriously. You could say that theoretically he already knew all the content of second-year Transfiguration.

He even studied it at Alphard's house at night when Sirius was sleeping peacefully and snoring. During the day it was very difficult to get him off, and it was impossible to read quietly.

He only practiced a few spells, and now he would focus on completing all the practical spells perfectly.

'First of all, the repair charm,' thought James as he opened the book to an advanced page. Then from his wallet, he pulled out many small-sized stones.

James wasn't referring to the Reparo charm. He was talking about Reparifarge. The non-transfiguration charm. It was used to counteract the effects of a transfiguration that was poorly performed and only partially transfigured the object in question.

It could also be used to return the object to its original state.

An hour passed. James cast the charm Avifors on the stones (turning them into small birds) but he cast it wrong on purpose.

Then remembering the theory, the proper wand movement, and the correct pronunciation, he cast Reparifarge to return the stones to their original state.

James' objective was to achieve the conjuration. An advanced type of Transfiguration and a very complex and advanced magic.

Conjuration was more difficult than normal transfiguration, change, and disappearance. It was taught to N.E.W.T level students, meaning wizards and witches in their seventh year at Hogwarts.

James couldn't wait that long to learn it. He had to speed up his learning process.

At four in the morning, James returned to the common room and was asleep in a matter of minutes.

Classes would start on Monday. So James was able to keep up this routine of practice and study all weekend. During the day he set aside several hours to go to the library and continue studying.

Although he spent less time with the others, the rest of the day was spent with the marauders exploring the castle.

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