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In a small room with a sizeable wooden table, a single chair, and a single shelf bookcase hanging from the wall as decor, sat the sole resident of the room going through numerous books and tomes.
The walls of the room were colored a dark red, giving it a unique look. If another person saw the room's color, it would slightly disturb them as it resembled the color of blood. The resident didn't seem to mind it as he was the one who gave the room its blood-red color.
The single shelf bookcase on the wall was completely empty as its contents were on the table; books and texts spread open haphazardly, overlapping each other, sitting side by side in a manner that made it difficult to track down a book. But, the resident of the room could see the order in the chaos as he was the one who set them in the seemingly random manner.
The room was the Room Of Requirement, transformed into a room with knowledge on Blood magic, and the room gave a single table, chair, and small shelf with books related to Blood magic. Every book from the room was branded with a sigil in the shape of a stylish script reading {RoR}, showing the books' ownership belonged to the Room Of Requirements.
The one who called for the room's services and its sole resident was our very own Quinn West, who wanted to learn more about Blood magic. Blood magic was categorized as Dark magic in Britain and many other countries by their respective Ministries and, as such, banned from use.
Quinn, of course, ignored all that. He was cautious and took all safety measures before practicing Blood magic that affected blood, a person's lifeline.
"Blood magic, also known as Blood Sorcery or Hemomancy or Haemomancy or Hematokinesis. The magic of blood manipulation, a dangerous form of magic, this mystical theurgy is used to cast spells, enchantments, and even curses through blood itself, the very bodily fluid which is the potent force as the essence of life that keeps most living beings alive."
"Well, currently, I don't want to perform curses and spells with my blood as the medium," said Quinn as he rolled up the sleeve of his left hand.
"I just need to maintain a certain temperature...," murmured Quinn, trailing at the end as he saw the veins and arteries in his forearm glow a shallow red before the red glow subsided, leaving his forearm warmer than the rest of his body.
Quinn exhaled, feeling the warmth from the small amount of warm blood traveling up his arm, mixing with the rest of his blood, and within seconds his body temperature was back to normal, with no extra warmth remaining.
Quinn opened his eyes and stared straight ahead, "I need to maintain this for the entire time I am around the Icy vault."
Quinn put an arm on his heart, licking his lip in nervousness as when the time came, instead of his arms, he needed his heart to be the source of the Blood magic. His heart would pump the enchanted blood throughout his body, maintaining the temperature of his body, protecting him from the cruel nature of the death-cold.
Quinn waved his hand, and the table moved away from him, setting itself against the wall. He stood up from his barstool, removed his robes, unfastened his necktie, and unbuttoned his shirt, leaving him with only a cotton vest.
Quinn took a deep breath and opened and closed his hands before channeling his magic into his blood, targeting the blood in his forearms. The magic reacted, and his veins and arteries glowed in a shallow red.
Quinn closed his eyes and took in deep breaths, carefully controlling the magic. Blood was an integral part of a human's body, and any mistake would cause extensive damage to Quinn's body. He didn't want to go to the Hospital Wing and explain what he was doing with Blood magic, and he couldn't even lie about the cause as the damage would be too obvious.
"Slowly... slowly... slowly. Baby steps," repeated Quinn as he increased the target area of blood enchantment, extending the magic from the tips of his fingers up his forearm.
By the end of the day, both his arms' veins and arteries were illuminated in a shallow red glow.
"Heh," Quinn smiled in fascination as he slowly moved his arms, raising them to his eye level, turning them to observe the visible network of surface veins and deep-seated arteries.
"Time to check if I can cast magic with Blood enchantments activated," said Quinn as he stretched his arm forward, palm facing up.
With a crack and buzz, whitish-blue currents of lightning appeared throughout his forearm, crawling around his arm like snakes made from lightning.
"Hmm~," voiced Quinn, satisfied with the result. If he touched someone, then they would be met with a jolt of electricity akin to a supercharged stun gun coursing through their body.
With another breath, Quinn canceled the magic. The glow of the enchanted blood subsided, leaving a sweaty Quinn with his vest sticking to him.
"Ugh," grunted Quinn as he pulled the vest off his torso and immediately casted magic to clean his body and insta-dry his clothes.
"Much better," sighed Quinn.
This wouldn't happen in the Icy vault, but here in the Room Of Requirement, where the temperature wasn't below freezing point, Quinn was sweating like crazy and was on his way to be dehydrated.
"Maybe I should practice in the Icy corridor," considered Quinn as he put his clothes back on, ready to head out for the day. He gathered the books he had bought from his own collection and put the Room Of Requirement's book back on the shelf.
Quinn had found out early that the books marked with the sigil of {RoR} couldn't be taken and had to be left behind. The books could be copied with a Replication charm (Geminio), but the originals stayed in the room.
Quinn was working on a project on the side, trying to create a device that would help him copy the books in the Room Of Requirements as the replicas made from the Replication charm broke down and degraded quickly, usually within a month.
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- (Scene Break) -
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Quinn sat in his office chair, doing the last bit of his homework. It was an ordinary day with no business, and he hadn't entertained a single student, but all that changed when he heard the door chime and looked up to find a student with Gryffindor-styled robes entering the A.I.D office.
Quinn smiled and greeted the student, "Welcome back, Ms. Dunn."
Elora Dunn, a fourth-year student from Gryffindor, nervously smiled as she stepped into the office and silently sat down on the chair set up for the clients.
"Have you decided if you want to hire my services," asked Quinn with a slight smile on his face.
This wasn't Elora's first time in the A.I.D office; she consulted with Quinn once before, but because of the nature of the solution Quinn offered her and her own personality, she decided she wanted some time to think before making her decision.
She looked at her lap and twiddled her thumbs before giving a short nod.
"I see," said Quinn and asked, "Have you brought your trunk with you?"
She once again nodded and replied in her tiny voice, "It is outside."
"Please bring it in. I would enchant it in front of you," directed Quinn as he got up from his chair.
She nodded and got up from her own chair to bring her trunk inside the office.
As she exited the office, Quinn thought back to her request. It was a simple case of someone mishandling her trunk when she was not around. Elora would find her belongings flung around her dorm room at least thrice a week.
She had no clue who was doing it, and her roommates refused to the deed. It was a classic case of bullying, and Elora wanted it to stop, so she came to Quinn for help.
The solution Quinn gave her was a simple one.
"I will enchant your trunk so that if any other than you touches it, then their skin color would change to a color of your choice. The jinx I would place on the trunk would not allow the perpetrator to remove the color from their skin until I want it to disappear. This way, we would be immediately to identify them."
"But-but..." mumbled Elora; she wasn't sure if she wanted to take the approach.
Elora Dunn was the type of person who didn't like confrontation and just wanted the harassment to end. She didn't want to confront her unknown bully.
"Ms. Dunn, we know nothing about your bully, so the only way to catch them is to get some proof. So, we have to catch them in the act, but that doesn't seem to be possible as they clearly act when you are out, so the other option is to mark them for later identification," explained Quinn.
He had also given her an option that did avoid confrontation.
"I can charm your trunk to shock anyone who isn't you. That would inflict enough pain and trauma to keep them away from your stuff. If that is acceptable," offered Quinn.
But, she shut that idea down immediately.
So, here they were, on her second visit, Elora deciding to go with the plan to mark her bully.
"Okay, I will charm your trunk so that it would change the skin color of anyone other than you, and when you spot them, you can report them to your head of the house," answered Quinn.
"But what about if they deny doing it," asked Elora.
Quinn chuckled and replied, "Just as I said, the jinx I am placing is very hard to remove, and I assure you it would stay on their skin."
Elora nodded in return, "Okay."
"Great, now please place your hands on the trunk," asked Quinn, and Elora complied.
Quinn took out his fake wand and made up some bogus wand movement. Elora's trunk glowed in white light before the white glow died down.
"You can remove your hands," smiled Quinn.
Elora looked at the trunk with suspicion, so Quinn asked, "Do you want to see the effects."
Elora nodded hesitantly, and Quinn put his hands on the trunk, and instantly his skin turned the color of mustard. The jinx stained every bit of his skin in a mustard color.
Quinn looked at Elora with a mustard-colored face and asked, "It will be something like this. Quite easy to spot, right?!"
Elora nodded with a stunned expression.
Quinn chuckled and removed the mustard color from his skin. He pointed at the trunk and asked, "Please place your hand on the trunk. I have to recast the charm."
After recasting the charm, Quinn said goodbye to her as she exited the office.
"I hope your bully would leave you alone, Ms. Dunn..." he paused before adding, "I hope you would help me out when I come to claim my I.O.U."
Elora looked back towards Quinn to see him with his hands behind his back and a slight smile on his face. She nodded and exited with Quinn smiling as she departed, closing the door behind her.
It took two days before Quinn saw the results of his nifty jinx on Elora's trunk.
Quinn was talking with his friends in the Great Hall, but his eyes caught the sight of Gryffindor girl running into the hall. It made Quinn grin when he saw the mustard color on the girl's skin.
'Teresa Grant, sixth year,' thought Quinn as he recalled the name of the mustard-colored girl.
Quinn watched as Teresa Grant ran to Elora with tears streaming down her face. She yelled at Elora, and Elora shrunk back because of the yelling. Thankfully, McGonagall came running to the scene and interrogated Teresa for her loud yelling.
Elora, in the panic of confrontation, looked towards the Ravenclaw table. Her eyes met Quinn's. Quinn nodded towards her, and she nodded back, showing determination.
'Go get 'em, girl,' thought Quinn as he observed the conversation. Elora told McGonagall her side of the story and how she charmed it so that she could know who was messing with her trunk.
McGonagall turned to Teresa and asked her if she was the one who was mishandling Elora's cousin. Teresa buckled under the pressing glare from McGonagall and confessed.
When McGonagall asked Elora to undo her charm, the mustard color drained from Teresa's skin with a twitch of Quinn's finger.
'Task completed,' thought Quinn before returning to chatting with his friends.
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- (Scene Break) -
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Quinn stood in the Icy corridor, facing the Icy vault. He was standing just up the steps, stretching his body before walking into the vault region.
"Let's do this," said Quinn as his breath became visible in the cold.
With a deep breath, Quinn began using Blood magic. Under his clothes, all of Quinn's veins and arteries in Quinn's chest become visible with a red glow. The left side of Quinn's chest glowed exceptionally red because Quinn's heart glowed up.
"Haa~. Haa~," breathed Quinn as he felt his body warm up in the cold.
"It's working," spoke Quinn, smiling.
With another deep breath, Quinn descended the steps to the Icy vault. The moment he stepped down the last stair step, a cold that could kill instantly descended on Quinn.
Quinn groaned as he still could feel the harshness of the cold.
"Ugh!" groaned Quinn as he stood still on the spot. Quinn felt something and looked down at his hand, seeing his fingers turning blue.
"Dammit!" yelled Quinn as he ascended the steps back to safety.
He immediately put his hands on his chest, wanting the heat from his chest to warm his fingers. Quinn stomped on the floor because of the first failure.
"I have to increase the area," was the observation that Quinn came up with just seconds in the Icy vault region.
Currently, Quinn was only heating up the blood in the heart region. He hoped his heart would pump the warm blood to all parts of his body, but he was wrong.
"The heat is leached off too quickly," growled Quinn as he noticed that the warming the blood in his heart and sending it to the rest of his body wasn't enough.
"Okay, Quinn, you can do this," Quinn spoke to himself, psyching himself up.
Quinn hadn't tried to use Blood magic on the majority of his body at the same time. He deemed his entire body to be an area too large for his current mastery. But seeing that the limited use wasn't working, Quinn decided to proceed with it.
"No risk it, no biscuit," quoted Quinn before clapping his hands loudly and jumped up and down to psych himself.
He clenched his hands into fists before channeling magic throughout his body.
Under his clothes, the red glow of Blood magic gradually increased from his chest to his entire torso. His fingertips glowed as the red glow traveled up his arms. And from the soles of his feet, the magic climbed up towards his hips.
Quinn craned his neck as the red glow crept up to his jaw, passing through his neck. The capillaries around his eyes also glowed up, and even the eyes' whites were glowing a very faint red. The only part of his body that Quinn left were the regions that were too close to his brain, not wanting to risk any accident to his brain.
"Yeeeesss. I did it. I am the best!" celebrated Quinn as he felt Blood magic activated throughout his body. He stayed still for a while to stabilize the magic before once again descending into the frozen vault region.
Quinn walked into the deadly chill and immediately felt it. It was cold, freezing, but now it was barely tolerable. He still felt chilly, more chilly than he had ever felt, excluding the first time he stepped here.
"W-working like this would be a-absolutely miserable," complained Quinn as he closed in on the snowflake icicle, his teeth rattling because of the cold.
Quinn couldn't increase the temperature of his blood because any more than this and his blood would start boiling, and no one wanted that.
The snowflake icicle was a sight to behold. It was beautiful to look at if you could ignore the biting chill. The way it slowly rotated gave it a unique feel of vitality in the frozen area of icy blue.
Quinn raised his gloved hand and touched the icicle, but the second the leather glove came in contact with the icicle, it started to freeze, causing Quinn to snatch his hand back.
"Shit," thought Quinn as he brushed the sudden ice deposit on his glove.
"Of course, if the area around the gate is so deadly, then this thing attached to it wouldn't be a walk in the park," grumbled Quinn as he raised his now ice-free gloved hand to cast magic on the snowflake to check its composition.
A minute in the vault area, Quinn was immersed in studying the flake. Three minutes, he felt that the cold had increased. Five minutes in, and Quinn was getting slightly irritated. As seven minutes came to pass, he was shaking in his clothes, feeling really cold.
When the ninth minutes passed, Quinn turned away from the snowflake and rushed back up the stairs, running away from the cold.
He gasped for air the second he felt the cold decrease. The red glow of Blood magic subsided as Quinn's focus limit reached.
"L-Less than t-t-ten minutes is the limit-t," stuttered Quinn as he heavily breathed.
Just under ten minutes was Quinn's time limit for continuously maintaining Blood magic throughout his body. Quinn had plenty of magic to spare - No, he had loads of magic to spare.
The problem was Quinn's concentration. He could only concentrate for ten minutes while working on the icicle, and that too with deteriorating results. It was quite the effort on Quinn's part to keep most of his body's blood warm and make sure that blood stayed warm.
Quinn sat down on the floor but immediately stood up because the cold stone stung his bottoms.
"Ouch!" said Quinn as he rubbed his behind.
He began pacing the corridor, thinking about what to do next. After thinking about it sometime, he concluded.
"I can't raise the temperature of my body through Blood magic, though I can work on my mastery to keep the current temperature," noted Quinn. He could keep the Blood magic from deteriorating with this pace.
"But, this isn't enough. I need more..." thought Quinn. Quinn's time in the vault region was excessively uncomfortable. He needed to make it more comfortable so that he could work without constantly feeling like a popsicle.
"I need to increase the surrounding temperature," reasoned Quinn, but it was easier said than done. He did not know how to increase the temperature in the frozen hell. His grasp on fire magic wasn't on the level that would work against that level of cold. Any heat he could produce would be snuffed out in an instant.
Quinn closed his eyes and sighed. He opened them to look at the vault, "I have to work with what I have." Quinn would slowly work on increasing his efficiency. But right now, he had to work with what he had.
"Things I do for magic."
Quinn cracked his knuckles as the glow from Blood magic crept on his body.
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Quinn West - MC - Exploring the frozen hell - "I run hot."
Elora Dunn - Client - Gryffindor - Hates confrontation - Free from her bully. - Owes a favor.
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