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The calm and serene lake was a beautiful sight to experience. The steady, undisturbed water of the lake's surface reflected the sky above and the lake's surrounding scenery. The scenic beauty was enhanced as the lake was surrounded by lush green.
The current location was as described. Quinn and Lia were sitting at the lakeside with fishing rods set up in front of them.
"Neither of us knows how to fish," Quinn said as his other sibling stared at the lake. One could only watch the reflection in the lake for so long before it got boring. "This is a bad idea."
"We just need to give it time. Fishing is all about patience, my little brother," pointed out Lia. She then raised her wand to send a pinching hex on Quinn's upper arm.
"Ow! Why would you do that," glared Quinn at his sister as he rubbed the hurting spot.
"I am spending my precious free time with you," Lia took out a bottle of beer from the cooler beside her and popped the cap off with magic. "Be grateful."
"Yeah, yeah. I am Lia West, look at me, I am a big business lady," Quinn mocked his sister. He rubbed the red spot on his arm and whined. "Dammit, this still hurts. Couldn't you have been gentler?"
"Like you are any better. I am Quinn West; look at me. I will be the big magic guy in the future," Lia imitated Quinn, her voice filled with sarcasm. "But I am stupid enough to lose all control over my magic, so maybe I won't be the big magic guy."
"I am going to be the 'big magic guy'. This is just part of my glorious journey to the top," said Quinn, and gave his sister a sideways glance.
Their grandfather had been caring and supportive throughout the ordeal. He just wanted Quinn to be safe and didn't care about anything else. Elliot had been supportive in the same way and always spent time with Quinn when he wasn't under the magic dampening potion. Ms. Rosey had scolded him some before taking care of him in her own way.
Lia, on the other hand, showed a different reaction. Quinn's elder sister hadn't known about the entire ordeal until she returned from spending a month in Barcelona for work.
The first thing Lia had done after she was told of the situation was giving Quinn a tight slap. If you asked Quinn, it was a really tight slap.
Quinn, who hadn't been hit in this manner, was shocked. He had been hit with magic during his duels with Elliot. Sure, he had been hurt by backlashes while he learned and experimented, but he hadn't been slapped on the face in this life.
After slapping him, Lia had made him sit in front of her and recount the story in detail. She had listened with a stoic face that closely resembled George when he was in his serious mode. Lia's momentum swept Quinn, who was in shock after being slapped, and he retold everything that happened.
She was the only one to actually scold him for being careless. And after screaming and yelling at Quinn, she hugged him tightly. Quinn could still clearly remember her tears on his shoulders as she hugged him.
Before she went back to work, Lia freed herself up for a weekend, and here they were, West siblings camping overnight at a lakeside.
"Do we have food in case we don't catch any fish," asked Quinn. He wasn't optimistic about the prospects of catching fish for their meal.
"Unlike you, I make sure to prepare for things," quipped Lia at Quinn's recent screw-up.
Quinn winced and sighed, but the younger sibling couldn't say anything in reply because what she said was true, and the whole ordeal was rather recent.
"Excellent, what are we eating tonight?" asked Quinn. He was getting hungry as they had skipped lunch.
"If, and only if we don't catch any fish," Lia stressed her words because she really wanted to fish. "Then we are going to eat Beef Stroganoff."
Quinn liked the sound of that, "Nice, that sounds perfect."
He looked at his sister and said, "You know you can just cast a bubble-head charm around your face and go into the lake to catch some fish."
Lia finished her beer before replying, "I want to catch fish with the rod. Otherwise, I wouldn't have rented them. And, I know what you are thinking, but no, I am not going to cast one on you so that you can go diving."
"Oh, come on, why not? I know how to swim."
"You are going to sit here and relax," said the overprotective hen.
"Buzzkill," grumbled Quinn.
"I am in my early twenties. I travel all the time. Between you, who is stuck in a castle for the most part of the year, and me, who do you think has more fun?" said Lia as she chewed on some jerky.
"You travel for work," countered Quinn.
"Ha!" Lia laughed, "I don't work all day long. My nights are free for me to do whatever I want. My nightlife is much more colorful than yours."
"Don't you feel embarrassed when you compare yourself with a teenager?" asked Quinn because Lia's nightlife was indeed more colorful than Quinn's. He would usually spend his nighttime in the Room of Requirements repeatedly practicing spells, manning potion cauldrons, or hunching over different materials, trying to find what worked for them.
While it may be fun for Quinn, it wasn't what you usually considered fun.
"Nope, no embarrassment here," came Lia's joyful reply. She looked at her brother before saying, "But Quinn, you should really spend some time on things other than magic. Get a hobby or something."
"I have my piano and violin. Playing instruments is a hobby," said Quinn as he got up from his seat and stretched. "Magic is my hobby and passion. Doing magic is all the fun I need," Quinn said as he looked at the blue sky.
"That is probably true," said Lia. She could still remember how her dear brother had become so attached to her first-year magic theory book.
"You did a terrific job on MagiFax, Quinn," Lia praised Quinn. The invention of MagiFax was the thing that really opened her eyes to Quinn's passion for magic.
"Hmm? Oh, that. Thanks. I actually have some design improvements for it. Even though MagiFax hasn't been launched, when it does, I'm sure it will gain traction at a professional level. I have a few designs for models for personal home use. Remind me to give you those when we get home."
MagiFax was set to launch in a few weeks, and the first motive for it was to set its feet in the professional environment. If MagiFax was a hit in the professional market, then the personal home use market would open up. By using the reputation from the professional model launch, they could launch models suited for home use.
Lia remembered something and shared it with Quinn because she knew he would love to hear about it.
"Quinn, do you remember the pitch meeting you did for MagiFax?"
"Hmm, yeah, what about it?" asked Quinn as he looked for jerky in a bag. 'Where is that jerky? I just saw it.'
"Well, you said that it would probably take a year for someone to figure out how to make MagiFax, but no one is anywhere near to figuring it out."
That caught Quinn's attention. He got up from squatting near a bag and turned to face Lia. "How do you know no one has gotten close to figuring out the design? No, wait, did anyone get their hands on a MagiFax unit? There's still a few days until the release, right? Did you disconnect it from the network?"
"No, no, nothing like that," laughed Lia. "I actually set up two separate groups of researchers in order to make them figure out how MagiFax works. I gave them a year's worth of time to work out how MagiFax was designed because you gave us that estimated time. But neither group is nowhere near figuring out how it works."
Lia's motive for setting up research groups was to get a proven estimate of the time taken to figure out the design of MagiFax. Even though Quinn had said one year, she couldn't just take his word for it, so she set up two separate groups to research the design of MagiFax.
Her doubts turned out to be correct, as Quinn was wrong in his estimate, but she wasn't expecting the result she saw. She was expecting them to figure it out quicker, but almost a year had passed, and both teams were not even close to figuring out how it worked.
"Really? I really thought it would take at most a year," Quinn thought his estimate was a pretty accurate one as he hadn't actually invented something new to make the MagiFax. All the magic used was already discovered; he just found new practical ways to use it.
"Are you sure you hired the right people? Did they have adequate qualifications?" Quinn asked to confirm.
Lia widely smiled. "Yes, all of them are learned, magic researchers."
'They might not be good ones,' thought Quinn but didn't say it aloud.
"Come on, let's make that Beef Stroganoff, already. We are not going to catch any fish," said Quinn. He was really getting hungry and the jerky had gone missing.
"Alright, get all the stuff ready. We will start then," Lia didn't want to get up, so she instructed her little brother without making a move.
"Roger!" saluted Quinn and ran off to prepare the food.
...
After Quinn was done setting things up, he smiled and finally hoped that he could get something to eat.
Just as he was about to call out to Lia that the meal was ready to be prepared, he heard:
"Quinn! Quinn! I think I caught something huge! Come help me out!"
Quinn's jaw dropped before he gritted his teeth as he ran towards Lia.
"Dammit! I am hungry! This better be worth it!"
.
- (Scene Break) -
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It was after dinner, and Quinn was sitting with George in the parlor. The grandson and grandfather pair were playing chess as an after-dinner activity.
Quinn was expressionless, as the magic dampening potion's effects were already over, and the limit was a single dose a day.
Currently, he was clamping on his occlumency to detach his emotions from himself. All his emotions were like a buzz in the back of his head; he could still feel them, but they were at a distance.
"How are you feeling? Any problems?" asked George as he made his move on the chessboard.
Quinn stared at the chessboard and the pieces at the middle of the squares.
"I haven't felt any problems with my body yet; no weakness, loss of appetite, or anything else. Everything seems fine right now," Quinn answered as he moved his bishop four spots diagonally.
"What about your magic? Any improvements on that front? How is it coming along," asked George as he took one of Quinn's pawns.
Quinn stayed silent. He had no expression on his face, so George had no idea what his grandson was thinking about. Quinn spoke after they had exchanged a few moves between them.
"It hasn't been going well, at least not at a level I want it to go." Quinn's voice was quieter than before. It was the only difference George could discern in the voice of his grandson. "My connection to the magic is weak when I take the potion; it gets difficult to draw out the magic under that condition. On the other hand, my magic is just too turbulent for me to even get started when I am not under the effects of the potion."
Quinn massaged his temple as he spoke after a pause, "I am struggling between two extremities. Too less or too much."
"But are you making progress?" George didn't mind if Quinn wasn't making substantial progress with his magic as long as he made some progress.
The magic dampening potion was harmful to the body. As such, George wanted Quinn off the potion as soon as possible.
"Some progress, sure," answered Quinn as he moved his queen to a more offensive position. "Things are trudging along."
"I see, I see..." George wanted to say something but trailed off at the end, opting to not say whatever was on his mind.
But Quinn noticed his grandfather wanted to say something.
"What is it?"
George leaned back into his chair and took a drink from his whiskey glass. He made up his mind before speaking,
"Do you think you'll be able to go back to school at the end of your break?"
Quinn's hand, which was just above his rook, stilled. He stayed in that position for a second before pulling his hand back and setting it on the armrest.
"At my current progress, I think I will be barely able to get myself to the level required for my fourth-year classes at Hogwarts. I will definitely struggle, but I'll manage. But, I don't know when my magic will calm down. The amount of magic inside my core was raised unnaturally. I don't know how long it will be before it settles down."
Quinn's hand clenched as his occlumency slipped a bit and some of the magic leaked outside, rocking the chessboard. Quinn had to take deep breaths to get his emotions back in his control.
"I don't know how much longer I have to stay like this," Quinn pointed at his face. His expressionless face, the distant state of emotion he had to keep for a part of his day, every day. It wasn't something Quinn enjoyed but had to do it for his own safety.
"If you want to rest for a year, you can take an off-year and join back next year," George suggested even though he already knew the answer.
Quinn raised his head to look at George and gave a tight shake of his head, "I am not skipping a year. I will be going back after the break."
George nodded before speaking about something he didn't completely understand, but maybe Quinn did. "Quinn, I am a businessman. I don't use lots of kinds of magic daily, just some magic that makes my daily life easier."
Quinn felt confused at George's words. He couldn't connect the conversation with them.
"I've read a lot about the magic that there is being in products. Specially, on what is being used by our competitors in their products. I have to keep myself updated on different fields because it helps me be a better leader," said George. "Take the MagiFax for an example. I read how MagiFax works. I know that the Protean charm is used in it, and the other magic used to create it, but I just understand things on a surface level. I don't understand the finer details that you explained, the details that even Lia's teams of researchers failed to deduce."
Quinn was getting more confused by the minute. He didn't understand where this was going.
George looked at Quinn and pointed out, "I don't know how wandless magic works. I tried to read about it when you told me about it, but I couldn't comprehend much of it. I don't know the mechanics behind using magic with an external focus. Just that it is difficult to learn."
"You have been using magic without focus your entire life. You use magic in a different way than I do, but now this situation has come along. You have lost all your progress, and now you are struggling to get your magic back," George paused just a second before asking, "Do you think you will try using your wand if you aren't able to get back your magic to the level you were before?"
Quinn would have frowned if he didn't have his occlumency up, "Are you telling me to start using a wand?"
George shook his head and explained, "Not at all. I am fine with your decisions as long as you are healthy. I don't care if you take time off to build your magic to its previous level. But, what if your magic takes time to get back to its previous level and clearly this is bothering you. Do you think you will switch to using a wand? Because from what I understand, a wand helps you focus your magic, and that is exactly what you need right now."
George really wanted Quinn to stop taking the magic dampening potion, so even though he knew Quinn wouldn't like his suggestion, he still had to try.
Quinn didn't know what to say or think at this point. He hadn't thought of using a wand to get his magic under control. A wand was never part of his magic, so it didn't enter his mind to use a focus to get his magic.
And...
'If I used a wand right now, wouldn't all my hard work would have gone to waste.'
Channeling magic without a focus was something Quinn prided himself in. He felt different from others around him. It made him feel unique.
Quinn would be lying if he said he hadn't considered using a wand. During the time he had been under the influence of the sin curse, Quinn had felt envious of the entire school population because by using wands, their magic came easier to them. The only reason he hadn't used his wand at that time was that pride overpowered envy.
"I don't know," answered Quinn. He didn't know the future of his magic.
He looked at George and asked to be excused
George nodded, and Quinn got up and left by wishing George a good night.
As Quinn walked back to the training hall where he was living since he came back from Hogwarts, he only had one thought.
'Things need to change.'
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-*-*-*-*-*-
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Quinn West - MC - Deep in the Aftermath.
Lia West - Elder sister - *Slap!*
George West - Grandfather - Health is wealth.
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-*-*-*-*-*-
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