The New Marauders and the Trickster God

Chapter 9: Halloween

Finally, it was Halloween. Loki was eagerly awaiting the feast in the evening. Still, for now, they were stuck in the charms lesson with Professor Flitwick.

Said Professor reminded them how important the correct pronunciation was to get the right result. Not like some idiot who got a buffalo on his chest. Afterwards, he let them practise the levitation spell.

Everyone tried hard to get it right, but the feather they were supposed to levitate didn't move one inch. Loki watched Harry's and Neville's attempts when he heard Hermione correcting Ron's pronunciation. He mentally shook his head because this would only lead to a catastrophe, but it wasn't his problem.

A few minutes later, Neville was quite frustrated and depressed. Ever since the beginning of the year, his spell work has been horrible and rarely worked at all. That was when Loki intervened.

"Neville might I see your wand please?" he asked.

"Sure, it isn't that it's working at all."

Loki took the wand Neville held out towards him and scrutinised it before he frowned.

"Say Neville is that originally your wand?"

"Huh? No, it belonged to my father. Granny said that it was a powerful wand and that I should be proud..."

"Sorry and no offence but to be honest, your granny is an idiot" he flatly stated. "Everybody knows that a wizard should never use the wand from someone else if it can be avoided. A wand and its owner form a bond so that most of the time, only the original owner can use it properly. The only exception to this is elder wands, which only respond to the most powerful magical around, hence why they are so rare."

"So you mean I only do so poorly because it's not my wand?" Neville perked up upon hearing that.

Loki looked straight at Neville or better it was more like he looked through him. In reality, he took a good look at the boy's soul and magic.

"Yes and no, while that is a deciding factor there seems to be something else" he couldn't accurately pinpoint it. Still, it seemed that Neville didn't channel his magic through the wand but on an entirely different way.

"Would you mind trying something?" Loki asked, and Neville looked at him quizzically.

Loki showed him some hand movements and repeated them a few times so that he would remember them.

"Now I would ask you to imagine what you want the feather to do while you move your hand the way I just showed, alright?" Neville nodded.

Neville took a try, but nothing happened. Loki corrected some minor mistakes. It took a few more shots, but the feather floated in front of him in the end. Harry, who also tried it out of curiosity quickly also had his feather floating.

"As I thought, you both are more proficient in hand magic than wand magic..." he explained.

"Hand magic?" Harry was confused.

Loki grinned before he started to explain. "There are three ways of channelling one's magic: Focus-based magic, hand magic and mind magic.

"Normal wand magic belongs to the first category and is the most natural and most common way nowadays. There are wands and staffs, voodoo dolls, and everything you can name to channel your magic through. The upside is that depending on the focus, it can boost the spell's power, but you have a problem if you lose your focus.

"Then there is hand magic. It's like you saw based on different movements of your hands. You might think that this form is less potent than focus magic since you have no focus to boost it, but that is wrong. In this case, your hand's movement is the focus, so the more accurate your move is, the more power has the spell. The upside is that there is no focus you could lose in the heat of a battle. Still, the problem is that this form is harder to master since you have to be far more precise and the aiming can be a bitch and a half.