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22. Swish & Flick

ANDROMEDA

***

Miles has been teaching me about magic. He first introduced me to the concept of witch descendants. He did one of those expensive programs that traces his ancestors and learned that from his father's side, his great great grandmother lived in Massachusetts, a state that was rumored to be one of the states resided by witches. After questioning a few relatives and digging through family heirlooms, he concluded that the woman was a witch. He also learned that one of his aunts was also a witch descendant, but she had passed away at the age of 72, and he remains the only member with the 'magical gene' as he calls it. Magic is hereditary. It may skip generations. It may skip only once or twice, or it may skip for many generations but it's still there. According to Miles' own research, it is most likely a recessive trait, therefore making it extremely rare. Also, it isn't a secret that witches and humans despised each other. The problem of witches and humans getting together and having an offspring was not an issue they considered. But of course, there were some exceptions. Many witches were enslaved and mistreated by rich humans. The female witches, especially. For some's cases, the male humans had taken advantage of them, resulting in half human, half witch children. Miles' great great grandmother was one of those unfortunate females, and one of the outcomes of it is him having magic. Miles suggested I do the same thing: trace my ancestors to see who in my family had been a witch, and how I came to have the magic genes. I preferred not knowing.

Next, Miles shared how he learned the spells. As he dug through those family heirlooms, he found one of his great great grandmother's journal. He showed me the brown leather covered book and everything in it was hand written. There were some that were personal stories, about how she was mistreated by humans and how her clan had abandoned her to work with wealthier humans with great power. Then, there were a few pages where she had written some spells, along with the shapes or symbols for them. Miles said he tried them, and none worked. His theory is that his magic isn't strong enough to do those kind of spells. He doesn't know what they do and will probably never learn about it. However, he used the symbols to find other spells. As it turns out, there are books in many thrift stores and old book shops that holds old books that no one wants to buy because it is written in a different language that no one seems to know. He found a couple of books that had similar symbols as the one from the journal. When he did one of the spells, he had shattered a mirror in his room.

But overall, it took a lot of traveling and researching to find the spells that Miles has now. And currently, I am practicing them in Miles' greenhouse rooftop. While Miles went to work night shift at a nearby restaurant, I isolated myself while reciting the spells. I don't know exactly what language the spells resemble, but every spell is a mouthful. They aren't Latin like I was expecting. I even put a word of it on Google Translate, but the search engine failed to find a match. If anything, they sound like the language of elves from Lord of the Rings. If only they were as easy as the Harry Potter spells, which I've mastered after rereading and rewatching the series several hundred times of my entire 22 years of living.

"Wingardium Leviosa." I waved my hands, holding my 10th Doctor's Sonic Screw Driver, pretending it is a wand. "Swish and flick. Wingardium Leviosa. Wingardium Leviosa." I'm really going nowhere with this. Lysander and I have been here for two days and I've only managed to do five spells out of many. On the first day, I learned how to put someone to sleep for 24 hours and the first spell I've ever done I learned how to light something on fire as if my finger is a lighter. Miles said if I had more energy, I could make a stronger fire. As for the second day, I learned how to stun someone by great force. If done with little energy, it sends someone flying back with a rough landing, but if done with a lot of energy, it can knock someone out. I also learned the summoning spell, which allowed me to get things without getting up. The catch is that I have to see them. My eyes has to be concentrated in the object I want to get. I cannot summon anything that is beyond my eyesight.