Ch 15 The Fall Part-1

Sirius P.O.V

Sirius was sitting cross-legged on the ground in the usual meditation pose he used while doing his occlumency training but this time he didn't have his eyes closed nor was he sitting still, instead he was continuously moving his hands from time to time just with a bit of hesitation as if scared of something.

But the weird thing was, his eyes were open but he couldn't see, his ears were open but he couldn't hear, his nose was open but he... W-Wait he could still breathe otherwise he would be dead.

To understand what happened to him or why he was doing whatever he was doing, we have to go back to a few days ago when Beth the veteran curse breaker was teaching Sirius a common spell mostly used by curse breakers to check whether there is a Ward in front of them or not.

Sirius had innocently asked at that time, "Do they keep this spell ON all the time? How would that work,"

Beth had replied at a time in disdain, "Of course, they don't? Otherwise, they would get magically exhausted before they even went through half the tomb. They just use it at a place where they think they are most likely to encounter a Ward,"

"And what happens if they miss some?" Sirius had asked the dumb question reflexively and Beth didn't reply, instead just looked at him as if she was looking at a particularly intelligent monkey.

Anyway, after that Sirius asked her, How did she do it, Did she also depend on luck and experience?

She had proudly bragged that during her extensive diving into tombs and ruins when she was young, she had ultimately developed a skill where her senses would tingle in advance every time she was about to come into contact with a ward, No matter how faint or old the Ward was.

Now, as to the reason why he was blind and deaf, we need to understand a concept that he had seen in his last life in a video on youtube.

In that video, a nerdy spectacle-bearing guy explained that our human body was equipped with senses that were tuned to detect changes and not absolute measurements. To keep our minds from getting overwhelmed by the constant sensory bombardment we experience all the time, our senses set different limits for detection for our senses to make sure the only information that arrives in our brain is the one we absolutely need. For example:

If a thousand different people were singing in sync and suddenly one of them went off note, it would be easy for us to pick him apart, but if they were all in sync it would be almost impossible for us to determine which sound belonged to whom.

Normal-temperature water could feel cold to our senses if we put our hands in hot water first and vice versa if we put our hands in cold water first then that same water would become hot.

Shine a torch outside during the day and no one will even notice but do the same thing in a dark cinema hall in the middle of a movie, you'll be thrown out faster than you can say sorry, and God forbids you do it during Valentine's day, then Only God could save you from those horny teenagers. The absolute brightness of the torch remains the same in both instances but we can only feel the one in Cinema Hall.

And the reason for all that is the same, "Sensory Adaptation", means that our senses get adapted to things ridiculously fast and that they can only pick up things that are a bit unique or that stand out.

Anyway, using that information about human senses, Sirius devised a plan that could help him get the skill that Beth had earned from a whole life of Dangerous Curse Breaking adventures.

Beth was a bit skeptical about it all but was interested enough that she agreed to help Sirius experiment.

So that is the reason Sirius was blind and deaf, with the assistance of a mild curse that Beth knew about, while surrounded on sides by a ward that she had created just for this. And what he needed to do was constantly move his hands around while sensing the ward in advance and somehow avoiding it.

The ward was created in such a way that it could change its shape randomly while staying in a fixed circle around him. And to keep him motivated Beth had added a function that would make the ward shock him every time he touched it by mistake.

Of course, the minute Beth was bored of just watching him get shocked and left him alone, the first thing Sirius tried was the hack that had never failed him in any endeavor that involved his mental capacity.

He immediately went into his Enhanced Occlumency mode and then started straining his senses to get a feel for the ward. He didn't get the results immediately as he had excepted but he didn't give up and believed in his hack with all his might.

And he wasn't disappointed as about a week after he had started, he was faintly able to feel a thin screen of magic surrounding him that was constantly changing its shape. He was obviously jubilant with that and that emotion broke his concentration and his perception of the ward.

But after the first success, the second one wasn't too far away as only an hour later he felt that awareness again and to verify it he even tried toughing the ward ('Ow! Ow! which wasn't a very bright idea,') but it proved that it was working and that was all that mattered.

And he kept on turning that state ON and OFF until he was able to get a solid feel of the ward every single time. He didn't stop and celebrate after that as the work was only half done, as he couldn't maintain his enhanced half-grim for very long so he needed to be able to sense that awareness in his normal state otherwise it would have been a moot point.

So very slowly he started decreasing the amount of magical strength he sent into maintaining his half-grim state while maintaining that perception of Ward. And the moment he loses the thread connecting his awareness to the ward around him he would start from scratch.

It turned into a routine for him, he would arrive at Beth's house in the morning and immediately go into the circle of the ward and sit there while constantly straining his senses until he exhausted his mental and magical strength.

And after that, he would head straight to the book of the day that Beth had picked for him, which he would read and comprehend front to back, and later ask Beth to clear all his doubts if he had any.

By that time, he would have mostly recovered his magical strength so they would go straight into the practical side of the magic he learned that day and continue until he was exhausted again.

As the days progressed with his schedule filled to the brim from training, he found out that not only did it improve his awareness of his surroundings it also increased his magical control as he needed to increase and decrease his magical strength continuously.

He already had a lot of magic due to his strong soul and the increase in magical control allowed him to actually use that reservoir of magic that he wasn't able to before—due to his shoddy magical control.

After about 3 weeks of following that routine religiously without taking any breaks, he got a very welcome surprise.

//

Wasn't able to upload anything last week, because my Laptop needed repairs. Sorry!

Anyone who can't wait can go to: pat reon.c om/lazywizard