By the way, I discovered that wizards use more simplified means of writing than the ones I admired among Muggles. Sharpened bird feathers are used by dipping them into inkwells. Instead of feathers, we use a brush, which is softer and more nimble, it is easy for her to draw even complex hieroglyphs in a small space, and the pen in this sense is very rigid and unusual. I asked Sensei why he didn't use a ballpoint pen, and even showed him one that Dudley-kun had given me. Sensei replied that certain potions could be added to his ink, for example, to make the notes indelible or so that only the person who wrote them could read them, or only read them, but it was impossible to make a copy using magic. And a ballpoint pen is only suitable for inconsequential notes or notes of study notes.

I got into it. Yes, secrecy is also very important in the world of magic. Probably, any potion master would have torn off that translation of the "Medical Scroll of Potions..." that Sensei and I are doing together.

I decided that I would definitely learn how to use feathers, even if they were not very comfortable. Ideally, of course, I would find a writing brush, but something told me that this could be a big problem in England.

There are only a couple of recipes left to figure out.

We were having lunch, and I was thinking that the days of August were coming to an end. I'm probably going to be sent back to the Dursleys in Little Whinging tomorrow morning. Still, I have to get ready and get ready for the local school.

"Today you're going to show me how you've learned to control your magic", Sensei suddenly broke our silence. Maybe he realized that I was just spending time with him? Or does he want to decide what to say to Aunt Petunia?

"Very well, sir," I said.

After all, my entire daily routine in this house is strictly regulated, and I didn't suffer from bullshit. Getting up around seven in the morning, warm-up, eye exercises, washing, a short cold shower, breakfast. After breakfast, I spent about two or three hours doing control training, and then almost before lunch I read something in the library, learning about local etiquette, types of potions, or historical events and trends in magical Britain.

I helped with lunch, we had lunch, and the hours of "working out" came. At five o'clock we had tea and sandwiches, and after that Sensei allowed us to help in the laboratory. Dinner was around eight, and after that I did a control workout, combining it with strength training. Usually, the second training session was "floating," because sometimes sensei would call me to help in the lab before dinner, and sometimes after. And if he didn't call at all, then I read books. I took a bath before going to bed and went to bed around half past ten.

They were forbidden to go outside: Snape-sensei said he wasn't going to look for me all over Coakworth, but it seemed to me that there were other reasons for that. However, maybe he didn't want to "shine" with me anywhere. Still, he's a spy, and my presence and near-apprenticeship could have a bad effect on him. And yet, he did not refuse, despite the possible violations of Director Higekane's plans or the displeasure of the Dark Lord's henchmen with another unspeakable name.

* * *

We did the translation in the library, but Sensei decided to take my exam right in the kitchen. To begin with, he put a glass of water, a feather, a candlestick with a candle and a small pot of earth in which bob had buried on the dining table.

Under Snape-sensei's gaze, the candle wick lit up.

"These are different elements: water, wind, fire and earth," he explained, taking out his wand. "Try to influence them in any way. Don't be afraid to let go of your magic, if something goes wrong, I'll back you up. Get started."

I was looking at the candle, so beautifully lit by Sensei, and suddenly I remembered Sasuke. His clan was masterful at controlling fire. Already at an early age, my friend was able to blow giant fireballs. In my mind, I repeated all the seal gestures he used to form this technique.

Suddenly, the candle flame flickered and increased to several centimeters. It turned out to be a ball. And this ball pulsated suspiciously.

"Finita," muttered Snape-sensei, preventing the ten-centimeter diameter fireball from exploding.

How interesting! I used mental manipulation-commands that are supposed to influence and transform the chakra into fire. But I didn't own them then! My element is the wind...

"Don't get distracted, Harry, let's continue."

"Yes, sir."

Nevertheless, my theory about orders is confirmed: you believe in them and you know that they will work, and they work. I knew that the seals were effective, and they met my expectations, despite the fact that I remembered them in my mind. I wonder what would happen if I did them live and tried to skip the magic? However, the mental version is somewhat more convenient. Besides, one hand is always occupied with a wand when performing magic. I decided to use my own former element. Once upon a time, Captain Yamato and I came up with a joint water storm technique so that we could resist Sasuke's fire element, whose power increased by an order of magnitude after my friend became a student of the snake sannin Orochimaru....

Wild Boar-Tiger-Monkey-Goat-Wild Boar...

A storm had developed in the glass, and it was rising higher and higher. The waterspout reached my eye level. I mentally pushed him a little to the side, determining his handling. At that moment, it seemed that I could feel the chakra again.

"Finita!" Sensei eliminated the mini-typhoon along with the glass, and the look of his black eyes burned right through me.

"I just wanted to know if he would listen to me," I began to justify myself.

"I hope that without an adult wizard around to stop you, you won't experiment with elemental magic, Mr. Potter," said Sensei.

"I..." it became somehow insulting. He asked for it himself. Besides, I wanted to try printing the cancellation. "I wanted to try to interrupt my magic surge myself, otherwise if it comes out by accident, I won't be able to take control of it."

"Hmm..." sensei ran his fingers over his lips, which, according to my observations, meant that he was hesitating and finding it difficult to make a choice. "Okay. Try again."

He took out a new glass and, removing his wand, waved his hand.

"Aguamenti."

Water appeared in the container, filling the glass exactly to the full.

"Controlling magic is very important. This spell is used for almost any volume of water," explained Sensei. "But it's more difficult to fill a glass than to throw out a whole tub. I used a wandless but verbal spell. But if you concentrate, you can fill a glass with water without a spell."

I nodded. I felt something like that.

The water vortex turned out the second time too. I let him out on the floor and walked around the kitchen with him. Wet cleaning is straightforward. Then, concentrating, he raised a whirlwind over the sink and canceled the "spell". Not very clean water fell into the sink.

"Oh, my God!" I exclaimed, but for some reason the world swayed and went dark.

"You're a stupid, arrogant boy," I heard Sensei's voice through the noise in my ears.

* The falling speed of sakura petals in calm weather is 5 cm/s. The ken is 181 cm.

Part 1. Chapter 13. About magic

August 30, 1988

England, Cokworth, Spinners' Cul-de-sac, Severus Snape's house

"Aguamenti," Sensei's voice sounded like a familiar spell, and I felt water pouring over my face and body. It's cold.

I wonder where he calls her from? I stuck out my tongue. Fresh. Maybe it's somehow "squeezing" out of thin air? I remember that those who are subject to the element of water needed a nearby source or sealed the water right in their mouths. And especially advanced ones, like that blue-skinned swordsman from the Mist, Itachi's partner, transformed chakra into water just like that. Lee told me how this Kisame, when they fought against him as a team, created a sea of a decent area and depth in the middle of the desert, swelling almost a thousand chakra gen's. That's about two full reserves of full-fledged A-class Zenin's. We can say that he spent almost as much chakra on creating a convenient location for himself as his opponents combined, and only a tenth of his reserve was lost.

I wonder if I have some kind of chakra exhaustion that made me faint? But from Sensei's explanation, I realized that they don't have any reserves and the magic is drawn from the outside....

"Potter, I see that you've already woken up, get up," he interrupted my memories.

I opened my eyes and sat up. Well, that's how to get out! There's a whole puddle of water, he must have called for a whole tub after all! And you'll have to dry your clothes.

"Exkuro" A wave of the wand, and I became completely dry. The puddle was gone from the floor, too. Wow! Comfortable.

"It's a household cleansing spell." Apparently seeing the thirst for knowledge in my eyes, Sensei explained. "Cleans dirt, slop, vomit, spilled potions, blood..."

"Everything that is liquid and viscous?" I understood the main direction of the spell.

"Yes. The binding for the spell is the presence of liquid. For dry cleaning from dust, there is another spell `tergeo', but `exkuro' is more universal in everyday terms," he frowned, as if he remembered something.

"What happened to me?" I reminded myself softly. "Why did I faint? Is the magic over?"

"Magic can't 'end,'" Sensei wrinkled his nose. "Unless you fall into some kind of special magical anomaly. But in this case, your body has shut down, having reached the limit on the load on the nervous system from using magic. Your brain sent a signal to your body, and you fainted so that you wouldn't do magic anymore."

"Yeah," I nodded. "So it's just a certain kind of fatigue?"

In fact, it feels like I've blown away like a balloon.

"You're only eight years old, Mr. Potter. I'm surprised you've lasted long enough, given such a complex effect on the elements. Usually, even powerful wizards, despite the fact that they can pass a fairly wide magical stream, on which the so-called "magical power" depends, cannot withstand it for a long time."

Clear. This is about the same "disease" that our Kakashi-sensei was constantly "sick of" after missions. Nervous exhaustion from using sharingan, as Sakura explained to me. Our Uchiha clan dojutsu commander inherited it from his dead teammate, and unlike Uchiha, his brain couldn't handle the tons of information that came into it through sharingan. But he couldn't "extinguish" it, like a true Uchiha. Therefore, Kakashi opened the blindfold with his red eye only in battle, and then if the opponent was very serious and there was no other way out.

And this means that we need to train in this direction as well.

"Is that why they use spell formulas?" I asked. "To make it shorter, right?"

At least that's how they explained the use of hand seals for techniques to us at the Academy. Because without them, there must be such a delicate control of the chakra, which not every A-class warrior can do. Or you need to have a special genome and a very vivid predisposition, like the Uchiha sharingan. And Rikudo-sennin taught seals at the dawn of time, so he became the greatest Shinobi.

"To some extent, this is true. You drew the right conclusions", Sensei touched his chin thoughtfully. "A spell is precisely a formula of magical will with a set sequence of actions and effects. I've been thinking about it a lot myself..." he broke off and looked at me carefully. "It's amazing that you thought of something like this at the age of eight. Usually, graduates of Hogwarts simply learn spells without thinking about their essence.

"I just remembered how I "called" the water when my uncle became ill. She flew out of the kitchen faucet and landed on him. But it lasted much longer than you said the spell agua... agau..."

"Aguamenti," suggested Sensei.

"Yes, this is the `Aguamenti'," I repeated correctly. "Well, wizards aren't stupid. This is while you're trying to summon this water with your strength and pour it somewhere. It's one thing when you have a "spontaneous outburst" and everything somehow happens by itself, but another is when you try to control this process. To take a simple levitation, if I want to attract something to myself, then I first need to think about what I want to attract. Then I focus on this object, as if to "feel" it, imagine that I take it with an invisible palm, make sure that it flies and hits exactly my hand. There are so many actions at once that you need to control and let the magical effect pass through you! I'm just sure that you're using some kind of formula to combine all of the above. Otherwise, magic is not so wonderful at all.

Snape-sensei smiled from the corners of his lips, and his black eyes sparkled with amusement.

"It's called "alluring charms." In general, to put it quite simply, magic is like a dog. A young magician gets a puppy who can tear his shoes in the hallway, write somewhere, play pranks, and drop things. The puppy does not yet understand how to behave, but it feels the mood of its owner, thereby adapting to the world. Then the puppy grows up and the owner teaches him various commands. `Aport', `Fus', `Nearby', `Place'. Short commands contain whole bundles of instructions. What should a dog do? This is achieved through long-term training on each team of the owner and his pet."

"And it will depend on the diligence of the owner, how many commands will his dog know?" I finished his thought.

"Yes," Sensei smiled slightly again. "And at some point, the dog may become so smart that it will follow the orders of the owner before the order is given out loud."

It's almost like Kiba and his ninja dog Akamaru get it. They understood each other kind of telepathically. That gave me another thought.

And... if you compare magic with a dog. So it turns out that they are all different? That is, there are smarter and easier-to-train dogs, but some don't....

"Trust me, Harry," Sensei chuckled, calling me by my first name, "and the simplest mongrel can be taught magic tricks if you make an effort. As well as spoiling the smartest purebred dog by indulging in whims and lack of discipline. But, of course, if dogs of different categories are trained equally well, then more thoroughbred dogs will have advantages due to the specifics of the breed. Dogs are also bred for various needs: hunting, combat, decorative, diving dogs, and so on."

"And if it applies to magicians?" I asked.

"There are sections of magic to which certain families and clans have traditionally gravitated. They most often discovered some kind of Gift. For example, The Gift Of Divination. But this does not mean that a person with the same gift cannot appear in some other family. My mother was very good at potions, and yours, too, by the way..." he paused and looked away.