Chapter 8

8 October 1989

"Mom, what are you making for breakfast?"

The young man, who was slowly starting to change from just being in the form of a child, to one that was slowly morphing into that of nearly a teenager, called to his mother as he entered the kitchen. At a height of 4'11", slightly taller than an average boy his age, Robert was closing into the height of his mother, Beth. She was a little more than half a foot taller than her son.

It was starting to dawn on her, as the time progressed, that her son was no longer just a child. Before long he would be leaving her for most of the year, when he was going to the magical school of Hogwarts. It was only 11 months till that took place. She was definitely sure that he was going to Hogwarts, even though he had never shown off any accidental magic throughout the years. She had still felt his magic coursing through his body, slowly growing stronger the older that he got.

It was rare, if not unheard of, for a child to not show signs of not having used accidental magic in some point of time. With all the new emotions that children are encountering, and not knowing how to deal with them, they do not know how to tamper in their feelings. At some point for children, their magic just burst out for some reason or another. But for her son, Robert, he had been freakishly mature for a child, at least when he was around her and her parents.

Before long, he would be getting his acceptance letter to Hogwarts, get his wand in Diagon Ally, but most assuredly not from some mass market store such as Ollivander's. While yes, they were fully functional wands, and he had such a slew of different wands, they were only just that. A custom wand, made by one of their family's relations was a much better idea. You get what you paid for, and a custom wand would be better in the long run.

But, there was still time till her Robbie left home. She would instead of fretting over the losses the future would incur, would much rather spend time with him. And of course, as any parent rightfully should, trying to make him embarrassed, hard as it may with her son. It was a challenge fully accepted in the name of love.

"I not making anything today. It's time for you to start learning to cook for yourself. What are you going to do once you are out on your own? Starve?" Beth asked.

"Do I have to? You know I already can cook adequately enough. I just found a charms book last night that I haven't studied before."

"You call that swill you cook food? It's barely edible."

"Then why did you have seconds last time I cooked?"

"I was hungry. It's not like it was any good."

"Sure, Mother. My food is horrible, Mother. I'm a failure in the kitchen, Mother? Since I'm such a failure, that even with your expertise, I won't ever be able to cook well enough for you, Mother?"

"Sarcastic aren't you?"

"Who? Me? I don't even know that word. Maybe you should teach me what that word means. What was that word again, Mother? Sarcasm? I'm such a failure of my wonderfully smart mother."

"Okay, I give up. You've won this one. But, please, can you make breakfast today? I've got a full plate of things I need to do today by noon." After having lost her verbal sparring with her son, Beth finally gave in and begged him to make breakfast on this day.

"Sigh, fine. Do you want something simple or do you want a full breakfast today?"

"Simple will suffice. Maybe that one dish? Umm? Strata?"

"I guess I can do that. It won't be as good though. If I knew you were going to want that, I would have started it last night. It's a ton better when it marries before it's cooked."

"Sorry," regretfully Beth conceded.

It was amazing, that her son was a better cook than both her and her mother. Robbie did not take after either of their talents in the kitchen. He knew more recipes than either of them combined, though it did not help that they basically knew only the same recipes. Her son had not just studied well in scholastic achievements, but also culinary. And the worst part of his culinary expertise, he just changed or added simple things and created something unique.

What she did not know, was that due to his previous life, and one of the girlfriends he had in that life, he was forced to learn to cook. While he was no way near a level of a professional chef, in knowledge, he had developed a passion in trying out different cuisines, and learning what made them different from each other. It was a hobby of Robert in his past life, that had led him on a culinary journey all over the world.

"Give me some time. I'll have it done in an hour or so. Though, do you want it sweet or savory today?"

"Surprise me!"

"Women!"

"Don't take that tone with me, young man."

"Fine Mother. Your wish is my command."

And with a smile, as she went to do whatever she was going to do, she said to Robbie, "You're the best son ever."

At last when she left his presence, he let out a laugh. One filled with the joy of spending time with his mother, and also filled with an evil glee. Robert knew what his mother liked and also what she did not like when it came to food. But he also knew what was just inside of her comfort range when it came to eating. With a free range on what he prepared, of course it was still going to be strata, he had to have fun at his mother's expense.

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After his mother suffered through his masterpiece, Robert went about his normal day. As it was only around 9 in the morning, he had time to do a light workout, mostly aerobic exercise, with a bit of anaerobic thrown in there. His body was stronger now, than when he first started exercising, so he was able to push it slightly further, but still keeping it within a reasonable limit. He did not miss how his body ached nearly all the time, towards then end of his previous life, and wanted to halt all those pains as much as he could, in this life.

While being at the age of 10, he was relatively stronger than most kids his physical age, some were still much stronger than him. But, Robert was not worried about that. The only thing he was proud of, do his physical training earlier in life, he was more flexible then most boys. Even with worrying about his physical well being for his future body, he made sure that his body would be able to move how he wished it. It was well worth the effort, to him, for all that he worked in allowing his body to be as flexible as it was.

After having his exercise completed, and having thus washed up from it, he began his next task, that he did when he did not have school, he studied. While for a normal child, school would be the time when they studied, he essentially blanked out while classes were going on, just going through whatever motions were needed, with the bare minimum of effort required. But when not in school, he put his desire to expand his knowledge to work.

He still wished to protect his family from whatever the world of Harry Potter brought about, but he still did not have the ability to engage in the necessary learning that he needed for that. So instead of trying to just delve into protect those he cared about, he took joy in learning whatever he could. It did not matter to him if it was based on the muggle world, or the wizarding one, all of it could be interesting depending on how he looked at it. And all of what he was learning, could at some point be useful.

It was interesting to Robert in seeing how spell casting had changed throughout the ages. Originally, most spell that were cast were ones based on utility. As the wizarding population grew, and tension mounted between different ideals, more aggressive spells started to become more common. And from there, spells designed around defending the ever growing number of attacking spells.

That was a simplified version of spell casting growth, it was a fairly accurate description of it. Like muggles, it became and arms race to find even more detrimental ways of using their abilities. That is not to say all magical innovations were solely based around warfare, but it was a common trend. And, to this day it was still happening.

After these pontificates, that Robert did while studying, he went about practicing what he could with his own spell casting, or potions when he wanted something different.

Potions were a conundrum to the young scholar. As he had kept on learning about all the different types of ingredients that were used in potion making, he had yet to grasp why's behind a specific ingredient was used in one potion, when a different ingredient, which had similar properties, was not used. At the point he was in his education, he was still in the time where he needed to learn only through constant memorization. He did not have enough 'science' of potion making, even through all of his studies, to make the step that he wanted to make. Robert was able to easily brew simple potions that did not need in magic infused in any of the steps, but at this time, that was it.

As for his spell casting simulations, since he was still not casting real spells, Robert kept trying to refine his wand motions, making them quicker to execute. For example, where once in time, where he had to use a several centimeter circle, for a circular, or semi-circular, he was now able execute a steady shape in an orders of magnitude significantly smaller. All that in turn, once he would be able to cast spells, he would be able to complete them quicker than others, at least hopefully.

With wand in hand, started through his normal routine of the multitude of shapes that were required in spell casting. Sometimes, he purposefully tried to rush each movement, at others, making slow and deliberate shapes.

From wand work, Robert went to his final type of practice, utilizing a practice he used in a his previous life. He grabbed a stack of note cards, shuffling them, to rearrange whatever random pattern they were in, and started to grab whichever card was on top. One side of each of the card had a description of the spell, and he would have to remember the words involved with the spell, and the wand motions needed to use that spell, which was told on the back of the card.

The stack had gotten to extremely large. No matter how minute, and useless, the spell was, if was a magic that needed a wand and words, he added them to the stack. His collection of note cards contained jinxes, charms, hexes, transfigurations, and spells not easily categorized in any specific category. If there was a spell that could be added to his collection, it would be added, no questions asked.

With how many note cards Robert accumulated from browsing through his families' library, he had more cards then he could cast in a day, and would only usually go through fifty or so of them a day. And with the first card that he had drawn today, it was one that he had not seen in a while, and truthfully he could not remember the spell to cast it. Since he did not remember the spell, he studied the back of the card, and attempted to remember it.

When he thought that he had the information in his head, he took his wand, stood up, and attempted to cast the spell. Unlike a spell which he had memorized previously, he took deliberate care to make sure the wand motions were performed correctly, and in the correct order. Then, since this spell was not based on a Latin based word, he slowly sounded out the spell.

"SVET."

After sounding out the word a couple times, and trying to get the combination of an 's' and a 'v' in one fluid sound, it was time to properly practice the spell. With a jab motion, followed by an upwards swish motion, and with the correct pronunciation, he practiced the spell. And for the first time ever, his magic exited his body and into the wand that he always practiced with, his first successful spell was completed. But, that did not mean that his magic was done with him.

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I hope you are liking the story so far. And thanks for reading