28 The Metric Series (III)
A/N: That was a long break, XD.
***
Before approaching Dumbledore for guidance, Adrien realized that he still needed to test the plausibility of the spell he wanted to create. Could it actually be made?
His spell, in theory, entirely depended on the relationship between numbers and magic. Already, he had thoroughly investigated the relationship between numerals and magic, specifically how numbers could affect magic; however, he still needed to assess the reverse relationship between the two.
In other words, how magic could affect numbers.
Was it possible to depict numbers through magic instead of manually? If so, to what extent? And, were there any limitations or constraints involved?
During the primary investigation, Adrien had automatically assumed that if numbers could influence magical energy particles, then magical energy particles, in turn, could influence numbers.
This was paramount to verify since the spell he was trying to create relied heavily on that assumption, and an incomplete understanding of it could introduce potentially lethal variables into the spell creation process.
The spell was, in many ways, no different from a mathematical function. It required an input to produce the desired output. If magical energy particles could not influence numbers, then his spell was impossible to create.
And, the input had to be a numerical value since a mathematical operation was being applied to the function. His spell was to be designed to compute a wizard's Magical Power value by dividing two parameters, and for the mathematical law of division to be applicable, those parameters needed to be able to be expressed as numerals.
Upon realizing his casual blunder, Adrien berated himself for nearly forgetting about it. As a scientist, it was important to carefully consider the assumptions underlying any experiment and take appropriate precautions to minimize the risks of dangerous or unexpected outcomes — in this case, through a simple verification test.
He blamed his forgetfulness on magic itself. The mystical phenomenon was too intriguing, and whenever he investigated its properties, he always found himself getting absorbed into it unknowingly.
Nevertheless, he carried out the verification test; fortunately, its results were positive.
To verify whether magic could affect numbers, he needed to manually manipulate magical energy particles to match the magical fluctuations invoked when writing numbers and observe the effects if any.
It was a relatively straightforward task.
He performed the task over a piece of parchment in his briefcase's study. Manipulating magical energy to match magical number fluctuations proved easier said than done, even for a natural prodigy like Adrien.
Magical number fluctuations were awfully subtle and precise, so it was almost impossible to perfectly replicate them manually.
In fact, if Adrien didn't have his Truth Eyes, which granted him an uncanny degree of control over magic, he would have never been able to do it. It took him over a hundred tries, and even when he finally managed to pull it off, it was just barely.
Every single magical energy particle had to be manipulated precisely.
Upon pulling it off, what he observed was simply...magical. Once he accurately recreated the fluctuations, the corresponding number engraved itself onto the parchment -- almost as if someone invisible was inscribing it by hand.
The revelation had elicited a wicked grin on the young Frenchman's flawless face, and he nearly bellowed, 'Eureka! Pythagoras, come see!' in elation.
After recording the discovery in [The Magic Series Codex], he investigated whether the phenomenon he observed held true for all numbers and operators, and amazingly, it did.
With that, he was ready to receive guidance from Dumbledore, and eagerly, he sought the old sage.
Dumbledore was eager to guide his godson in magic. Though he didn't show it, he was delighted that Adrien had come to ask him for help.
The boy, unlike his nephew, rarely sought him, not even for a casual chat, and he feared that a rift would form between the two of them as a result, degrading the father-son relationship he had envisioned to one of mere circumstance.
Additionally, for quite some time, he had been worried that the sudden loss of his parents had profoundly affected the boy's personality, as mature as he was. After all, he was just a 10-year-old child at the time.
He had even consulted his brother for his opinion on the matter. Unlike him, Aberforth was quite experienced with parenting, having raised Aurelius in the wake of his mother's absence.
Aberforth found the entire situation rather comical. He found it hard to believe that his obstinate brother was this troubled about a 10-year-old, even though it was his godson.
Who could blame him? Growing up, he rarely saw the man show concern, not even when his sister was sickly. Unknowingly, seeing him fret about his godson slightly improved his perception of him.
Though, despite that, his view of him was not entirely positive. He still held some resentment toward the Hogwarts Headmaster.
Up until Aurelius was born, the two were merely on civil terms and barely spoke much, and although he did appreciate Albus's effort to stay united as a family, he still disliked him.
Ariana's unfortunate demise was his fault alone. In his eyes, he was still a sinner, arguably the greatest, and he had yet to forgive him.
Nevertheless, he gave him his honest opinion, explaining that although the two barely spent any time together -- something Albus couldn't help due to his hectic life -- Adrien didn't resent him nor see him negatively because of it.
He attributed Adrien's seeming lack of interest in him to his character. The boy was reserved and exceedingly mature for someone his age, and Aberforth knew this well, having interacted with him plenty.
Dumbledore forced a wry smile upon hearing his brother's opinion. In truth, he had already surmised that the situation was partly due to Adrien's character; however, it didn't stop him from being worried.
With his intellectual mind, he wondered why this was the case. Eventually, he came to the conclusion that he was afraid of botching their relationship, afraid of making yet another mistake...
So, he resolved to capitalize on the opportunity Adrien had presented him. He saw it as a chance to bring the two closer and polish his parenting skills, which he needed to improve.
When he heard the boy's grand plan for the spell he wanted to invent and his knowledge of magic and Arithmancy, Albus was beyond stumped.
Never had he imagined that something like Arithmancy could be used to measure the strength of a wizard. It was incredulous to think about. Before then, he had only considered the magical discipline as a means for divination, nothing more.
The fact that his godson, a 10-year-old boy, not only begged to differ but was actively trying to prove it by inventing a complex spell was nothing short of jaw-dropping.
It was indeed, as Nicholas said. The boy was an unparalleled prodigy, one even greater than the ill-fated Tom Marvolo Riddle.
Albus was elated at the fact that Adrien was taking an interest in pushing the boundaries of magic. It was of paramount importance to the survival of the wizarding world, and he knew this well.
The wizarding world needed innovators, not traditionalists. Adrien reminded him of his younger self, and Albus was glad he was walking on the right path. Nicholas would be proud.
Albus explained that the spell creation process was tripartite, with each part corresponding to the three major components of a spell: wand movement, incantation, and intention.
However, before a wizard could even attempt creating a spell, they needed to have an elaborate vision of the spell they were trying to make.
In other words, its framework, the precise action the spell would perform.
A spell was a controlled manifestation of magic, a tool for wizards to affect reality. Without a vision for said tool, manifesting it would be impossible.
Adrien especially understood this even before seeking Dumbledore. He already had a clear plan for the first spell of The Metric Series and even drew part of his inspiration from the Patronus charm after studying it in great detail.
The plan was simple.
The spell would convey magical energy particles into the magical energy channels of a wizard until they were saturated.
Then, upon saturation, the number of magical energy particles present and the time taken for those particles to exit the wizard's body would be numerically quantified.
Lastly, the Magical Power (MP) function would be applied to the quantities, before being displayed in a mist-like conjuration no different from the one in the Patronus Charm.
He chose that visualization method because the Patronus Charm was his favorite spell in the entire Harry Potter series, even eclipsing spells like Protego Diabolica, Fiendfyre, Riddikulus, and Sectumsempra.
Not to mention, the spell required a great deal of intent, and Adrien theorized that using this intent as a component for his spell would increase its creation success rate.
It was a reasonable line of thought, as the more complex or powerful a spell was, the greater the intent, and concentration required to cast or create it.
To prepare for the spell-creation process, and in the process of studying it, he had already mastered the spell completely and could produce a corporeal Patronus.
Unexpectedly, and somewhat expectedly, his Patronus turned out to be a Thunderbird. It made sense considering his character and the significance of the magical creature in his life.
Adrien was shocked at how easy it was for him to conjure a Patronus. It had only taken him two tries to produce one, which was even more surprising than the fact that he could create one at the tender age of 10.
That, in and of itself, was a testament to his overwhelming talent and magical prowess.
On greater thought, though, Adrien realized that the fact that he could cast a corporeal Patronus at age 10 wasn't as grand as he made it out to be. In fact, if anything, it was somewhat realistic.
After all, Harry Potter could cast one at age 13, and he didn't exactly have the most remarkable talent in magic.
Although Harry possessed outstanding magical talent, he was nowhere near the level of Voldemort and Dumbledore.
Adrien explained his plan to Albus in great detail over a cup of tea, and the latter helped him optimize it, further increasing its success rate.
Though, he lied about how he discovered the existence of magical energy channels, merely stating that it was from one of his father's old research notes.
And, fortunately for him, the old sage believed it hook, line, and sinker. Undoubtedly, Dumbledore would have never thought that his young, innocent godson had done something as odious as raiding wizard graves all for experimenting.
As mentioned earlier, the spell-creation process was tripartite, and Dumbledore thoroughly explained each part to Adrien.
The first part of this process was relatively simple for him, identifying the proper wand movement for the intended spell.
Dumbledore stated that wand movements served as a conductor of magical energy; they told it where to go.
To correctly do this, one needed to be able to precisely sense the magical energy as they directed the magical energy around them with their wands.
This was as easy as breathing for someone like Adrien, who possessed Truth Eyes. They not only allowed him to visualize magical energy, but also allowed him to control it precisely.
Adrien decided to merge the hand movements of the Expelliarmus and Patronus Charm to create the hand movements for his spell. He did this for simplicity.
His spell did not require elaborate hand movements. All it did was send a stream of magical energy into a wizard and rearrange its constituent particles for visualization upon exiting said wizard.
The Expelliarmus hand movement was to send out a stream of energy, and the Patronus one was for visualization. He merged the two after countless trials and optimized the resulting product to fit the purpose of his spell.
Next in the spell-creation process was ascertaining the right incantation for the spell. This was arguably the easiest part of the process, as it required just words, no trial or error.
Dumbledore explained that incantations imbued the magical energy particles directed by the hand movements with a purpose, or a task to achieve, and this task is tied directly to the intent of a spell.
He stressed that incantations could not work without conscious effort, intent, or magical prowess of the caster.
Additionally, he outlined that most incantations were derived from the Latin language.
In the Harry Potter world, the Latin language had mystical effects, and Adrien theorized this to be yet another thing due to the world's laws.
Though it has to be reiterated that not all spell incantations were derived from Latin. Some of them were derived from a country's language.
For his spell, Adrien used the Latin word, 'Metior, ' which meant 'I measure' in English. It was simple and straightforward. However, he wouldn't be able to see whether the incantation was suitable for his spell until he cast it.
Last but not least in the spell-creation process was the imagination or intention part. This was arguably the most critical part of the process, and a failure to do it correctly would result in the spell failing or backfiring completely.
A wizard needed a vivid imagination and a strong will to invent a spell. Magic, at its core, was a tool for the creative to bend reality, so this was paramount.
Dumbledore advised Adrien to vividly imagine his spell succeeding to do this as practice. Adrien adhered to his advice and imagined his spell working throughout the day, even when he was about to sleep.
He did this every day for about 3 weeks until he was satisfied with how vividly he could imagine his spell.
During those weeks, Dumbledore showed him several ways of using Occlumency to enhance the vividity of his imagination; the most skillful of which involved the use of the mind art to isolate the feeling and memory of imagining the spell into one part of the mind while focusing on recreating it in the other.
After all the preparations, Adrien was finally ready to invent the spell, and Dumbledore volunteered to be the test subject.
Initially, Adrien was against this, lest he end up killing the old man, however, Dumbledore insisted, justifying his stance by stating that if anything were to go wrong, he could easily disperse the magical energy.
It was enough to quell Adrien's doubts. After all, this was Dumbledore, a wizard of tremendous power. He had no doubt that he could save them both in the event of an accident.
Moreover, he was dying to see just how powerful this seemingly almighty wizard was. He had always been curious about it while reading the books, and now he could quantify it and compare it to his level.
Thus, he eagerly tested his spell, making sure to correctly perform the wand movements, say the incantation, and precisely imagine what he wanted his spell to do using all the concentration he could muster.
Initially, the moment he tested it, there was no reaction; however, the next, a blinding light blue light engulfed his vision, causing him to reflexively close his eyes.
The sound of the restless wind was all he heard, and the moment he opened his eyes, he saw a smiling Dumbledore and multiple large light blue numerals in front of him.
'276, 750'
