Hogwarts: Starting with full Unforgivable Curses

After some thought, and combining his previous research findings on magic, he finally determined his target: "Perhaps I can try the 'Marking Charm'! This spell should meet the requirements."

The "marking charm" itself is not a particularly advanced form of magic; it is quite common in the daily lives of wizards.

For example, when some wizards get lost in the forest, they will use "marking charms" to leave marks on tree trunks or rocks. These marks are usually bright red, which are not easily covered by the natural environment and can clearly indicate the direction. They are very practical basic charms.

But Dylan knew very well that a spell's basic properties did not mean it could only accomplish simple tasks.

Just like Voldemort's "Dark Mark," although it is essentially a form of dark magic, it also incorporates the core principle of the "marking charm" at its source, which uses magical energy to leave a specific mark to achieve the effect of information transmission or deterrence.

From this perspective, since "marking spells" can be integrated into complex fields like war magic, they naturally have the potential to be applied to the research of "consensus" magic.

However, Dylan himself could not determine in advance what kind of effect it would produce, which was one of the important reasons why he chose this spell.

In his view, the harm caused by uncontrolled regular spells can mostly be reversed by subsequent magic, unlike black magic, which is difficult to repair once damage is caused and may even leave permanent sequelae.

Choosing a marking spell satisfies research needs while minimizing experimental risks, making it undoubtedly the safest option at this stage.

After determining the spell, Dylan formulated a preliminary experimental plan: first, he would cast a "marking spell" on himself to observe how the spell would change under the influence of magic, and then adjust the direction of his subsequent research based on the changes.

He took a deep breath, focused his attention on the wand, and slowly raised his arm, pointing the tip of the wand at his chest.

Without further hesitation, he clearly recited the incantation for the "marking spell": "Mark manifest!"

When casting the spell, Dylan deliberately abandoned all his subjective understanding of the "marking spell." He did not try to optimize the spell's effect or adjust the output intensity of the magical energy. He simply completed the entire casting process in the most conventional and basic way.

At the same time, he was also secretly mobilizing his own soul power, deeply fusing his will with the magical energy of the "marking spell," attempting to transform the "marking spell" into a "fulcrum" to leverage magic and guide it to produce the expected reaction.

The moment the spell took effect, a sudden realization flashed through Dylan's mind, and he finally understood the similarities between magic and other types of magic.

"I see... 'Consensus' magic has so many things in common with potion-making and ritual magic."

Whether brewing potions or performing complex ritual magic, it often requires something other than a wand. Brewing potions requires all sorts of potion ingredients, from common mandrake to rare phoenix feathers, each with its specific function. Ritual magic, on the other hand, requires all sorts of mediums, such as ancient runestones or special plant sap.

In Dylan's view, these potion ingredients and the mediums of ritual magic are essentially equivalent to the will of each individual in consensus magic, or cognitive magic.

They originally existed independently, but under the impetus of some force, they gradually merged together, eventually forming a unified and powerful collective will.

Given this, based on the principle of similarity in sympathetic magic, it is entirely possible to combine potion-making and ritual magic, which have similar logic to cognitive magic, to further leverage the operation of cognitive magic.

By understanding the logic of fusing magical potion ingredients, we can comprehend the process of individual will converging, and by using ritual magic as a medium, we can adjust the direction of collective will.

Dylan's thoughts raced. Every spectator in the lakeside stands had the desire to watch the game clearly. These desires converged to form a powerful collective will, which was the core energy source of the current cognitive magic.

What I need to do is to use my personal will as a guide, and through the fulcrum of the marking spell, integrate my research needs into this collective will, thereby influencing the direction of cognitive magic.

Just as he figured it all out, a faint yet unusually clear "hum" suddenly came to his ears. The sound didn't seem to come from the outside world, but rather from the vibration of the magic of cognition itself.

Dylan could clearly feel that he had successfully cast the "marking spell"—a faint warmth came from his chest, a sign that the spell was taking effect.

More importantly, the "marking spell," which serves as the "fulcrum," is undergoing some unknown change under the influence of cognitive magic.

He was secretly on guard. Previous research had shown that if a wizard overemphasized the dominance of personal will over cognitive magic, he might be backfired by the changes in the magic itself.

The damage caused by this backlash may be more severe than the physical damage caused by black magic. It may directly affect the wizard's mental state and even distort their understanding of magic.

The buzzing sound lasted for a long time, spreading rapidly outwards like ripples from Dylan's body.

It passed through the water layer at the bottom of the lake, crossed the mermaid village, and spread to every corner covered by the magic of cognition—whether it was the audience in the stands on the lake shore or the principals on the referee's platform, they were all covered by this fluctuation invisibly, but most of them did not notice it.

Dylan closed his eyes, focusing intently on the changes in this fluctuation, trying to discern the traces of the fusion between cognitive magic and the "marking spell"—crucial for his subsequent research.

As the fusion of the Marking Charm and Cognitive Magic deepened, a strange, unprecedented feeling arose in Dylan's mind.

This feeling cannot be captured by touch or sight; it can only be perceived and touched by the soul.

Enveloped by this special perception, he could clearly "see" the flow of cognitive magic around him. Centered on his body, they seemed to be pulled by an invisible force, following the guidance of his will, flowing in all directions towards the bottom of the lake, forming an energy wave that was invisible to the naked eye but truly existed.

Whether it was the enlarged school of Heracles and the school of Rainbowfish that had been wandering around, or the mermaids wielding spears, the menacing Grindelows, or the Loba worms floating in the water ready to spray venom, or even the "image-transmitting seaweed" scattered throughout the lakebed to transmit images, all gradually stopped their original movements under the influence of this fusion of cognitive magic and the "marking charm," as if they had been given new instructions.

Dylan could sense that in the "vision" of these affected creatures and plants, only he, marked by the "marking spell," remained—as if he had become the sole "focus" at the bottom of the lake, with all attention firmly drawn to him.

The next second, an even stranger sight appeared: whether it was the ferocious Chirac fish, the cunning mermaid, or the inconspicuous "developing seaweed," they all made extremely similar moves—they all turned around and swam slowly toward Dylan's location as if following some common command, or as if being pulled by an invisible force.

……

On the other side of the lake, Harry was raising his wand to the charging Greendylows when he suddenly noticed that the once ferocious creatures had stopped moving and were just standing there blankly, staring in a certain direction.

Harry, puzzled, turned his head slightly and whispered to Cedric and Draco beside him, "Have you noticed something's wrong? Why are these Grindylows and merfolk suddenly motionless? Are they up to something new?"

Cedric also sensed something amiss. He cautiously looked around, his gaze sweeping over the surrounding water plants and rock crevices, trying to find any potential dangers. In the end, he could only shake his head slightly and say uncertainly, "I don't know... I've carefully checked the surroundings and found no trace of other magical creatures, nor have I sensed any unusual magical fluctuations. I really can't figure out why they suddenly stopped."

"Why do we care why they're not moving?" Draco frowned, his tone tinged with impatience. "Our bracelets are almost full of light points, and we'll be able to complete the test soon. We don't have time to worry about such trivial matters now."

He paused, a hint of worry flashing in his eyes, and continued, "Don't forget, we've already wasted a lot of time. Don't let this little thing distract you and hold Dylan back. He might have already finished his research, or even passed the test, and is waiting for us on the shore." "Now is the best opportunity!" Draco said, swimming forward a short distance before raising his wand at Grindylow, who was still standing there in a daze, and clearly chanting the spell, "Relax and Dissipate!"

A jet of scorching water shot out from the tip of the wand with tremendous force, flying straight toward Grindelwald.

Just as the water jet was about to hit its target, the previously dazed Grindylo seemed to suddenly come to his senses, violently swung his body, and swam quickly in the opposite direction of the water jet, managing to dodge Draco's attack.

Upon hearing Draco's reminder, Harry and Cedric immediately realized that now was indeed not the time to dwell on it.

They swung their legs, quickening their pace to catch up with the fleeing Grindylows, while raising their wands, looking for the right moment to attack.

In an instant, the offensive and defensive situation at the bottom of the lake reversed—originally, it was Grindelwald and the mermaid who took the initiative to besiege the three of them, but now it was Cedric, Draco, and Harry who chased after Grindelwald and attacked him, just wanting to collect the remaining light points as soon as possible and completely complete the test of the second project.

……

Meanwhile, in the water plants near the mermaid village, Viktor Krum was lurking, secretly observing the movements around the stone pillar.

When he saw the merman and Grindelho, who were originally on patrol, suddenly abandon their guard duties and leave in the same direction, he was filled with doubt.

"Why did they suddenly run away?" Krum frowned, wondering to himself, "Could it be that they discovered my whereabouts and deliberately changed their strategy, hiding somewhere and setting a trap to launch a surprise attack when I went to rescue the hostages?"

As the only warrior who can still move around, Durmstrang is in a very dangerous situation – in the first event, he failed to complete the test due to an accident, causing the team to fall far behind in the score.

He absolutely did not want the same situation to happen again, so even after seeing the mermaid leave, he did not act rashly. Instead, he moved his body more carefully and slowly approached the distant stone pillar, fearing that he would fall into the enemy's trap.

……

On the judges' platform, Ludobagman stared at the screen in his hands, his face full of confusion. He muttered to himself into the microphone, "What on earth happened? Why are all the magical creatures in the picture acting so strangely?"

He pointed to the Grindylo and Heracles fish that were fighting the warriors in the curtain and continued, "Look, they seem to be attracted by something. They completely ignore the warriors they are fighting and have turned around and swam away in another direction at the bottom of the lake. This is very unusual. It has never happened before."

Just then, a commotion arose from the lakeside stands, with spectators discussing the unusual behavior of the magical creature.

Ludobagman suddenly seemed to have thought of something, his eyes lit up, and he quickly manipulated the screen in his hand to switch the image to the area where Dylan was.

“I know! It seems Dylan used some special magic to attract the attention of these magical creatures!” Ludobagman’s tone became excited. He pointed to the curtain and said, “Look, everyone! The magical creatures closest to him have all turned into ice sculptures! The way those ice flowers bloom is clearly the effect of Dylan’s magic.”

As Ludobagman said, Dylan in the curtain was surrounded by crystal-clear ice flowers, and inside each ice flower were at least one or two Heracles or Rainbow Balls frozen. These originally ferocious magical creatures were now motionless, sealed in ice, and had lost all threat.

"Look at Dylan's progress now!" Ludobagman zoomed in, focusing the camera on the bracelet on Dylan's wrist. "His bracelet has accumulated quite a few points of light; the original pale yellow has turned a slight orange, and he's getting closer and closer to the deep red needed to complete the test!"

He stared at the curtain, then suddenly looked puzzled, his tone tinged with a hint of teasing: "What's going on here? Is it because Dylan has been busy researching magic and hasn't had time to collect the light points, so these fish are swimming over to give him the light points?"

At this point, Ludobagman couldn't help but laugh. He slapped his thigh and said into the microphone, "Merlin's beard! Dylan, are you that popular? Even the magical creatures at the bottom of the lake are flocking to help you collect light points. This treatment is too special!"

……

On the lakeside viewing platform, George looked at the ice flowers and schools of fish surrounding Dylan in the screen, and couldn't help but stroke his chin, laughing as he said, "My goodness, is Dylan that popular? So many magical creatures are coming to him, it's like they're just here to give him 'experience points'."

"It's definitely not a coincidence; he must have used some kind of special magic."

Fred scratched his head and said with certainty, "We suspected before that Dylan had been standing still because he had discovered some important clue, which is why he was so focused on studying magic. Now it seems that our guess was right—the new magic he developed can not only attract magical creatures, but also easily freeze them. It's amazing."

“I think so too.” Dean nodded in agreement. “But it’s good this way. At least judging from the current progress, he will soon be able to collect all the light points and complete the test of the second project. I was worried that he would spend too much time researching magic, but now it seems that my worries were completely unnecessary.”

The person standing to the side looked at Dylan, who was "surrounded" by magical creatures in the curtain, with an envious expression on their face.

He wants to be this popular too!
……

At the bottom of the lake, Dylan watched the endless stream of fish swimming around him and the frozen ice flowers. He slowly raised his wand, pointed it at his chest, and clearly chanted the spell: "Stop the Curse!"

As the incantation ended, the faint mark left by the "marking spell" on his chest vanished instantly, and the special perception that was deeply connected to cognitive magic also weakened.

He let out a soft breath, looking at the dense ice flowers in front of him and the school of fish that was still approaching in the distance, preparing to attack. He shook his head helplessly and said in a low voice, "I didn't expect the commotion to be so big. I should have controlled the intensity of the magic a little."

He was indeed somewhat surprised. He had only intended to test the effect of cognitive magic with the "Marking Charm," but he hadn't expected that the "Marking Charm" would generate such a strong attraction under the impetus of cognitive magic, causing the magical creatures at the bottom of the lake to gather in his direction.

But then he thought about it again and felt fortunate—at least these fish that came to him willingly brought him a lot of light spots.

He looked down at the bracelet on his wrist; the orange light inside was getting brighter and brighter, almost turning light red.

"It's currently an orange dot; the next step is to turn it into a deep red, at which point we'll have completed the test."

Dylan observed the changes in the bracelet, silently calculating in his mind, "Judging from the current time, there is still enough time left. Since that's the case..."

He slowly raised his head, looking up through the layers of water at the sky above the lake.

A new idea suddenly popped into his mind—what would happen if he could transmit his desire to see the sky through cognitive magic, allowing the creatures at the bottom of the lake to also "see" the sky?

This idea instantly brightened his eyes. (End of Chapter)