Old Jack owned a villa somewhere along the coast, though no one knew exactly where. It was built right next to a towering rock pillar rising out of the sea. From a distance, it looked like a crumbling ruin—and, as one got closer, that impression proved entirely accurate.
With a cheerful biu!, the Rolls-Royce appeared inside a tunnel that opened on both ends. Outside, seagulls danced in the air and waves crashed below in a glorious spray of blue and white. The air here was leagues fresher than anything London could manage on its best day.
The two stepped out of the car. Without needing a prompt, the boot popped open and their suitcases floated out obediently, hovering behind them as they exited the tunnel.
Outside was a narrow path clinging to the mountainside. After quite a walk, they reached the edge of a cliff. Jack, with a practiced motion, drew his wand from his sleeve and gave it a wave. Enormous stones surged from beneath the waves and flew upward, assembling themselves into a sturdy-looking bridge.
Across that bridge stood the villa—or what remained of it. It had once been beautiful, that much was clear, but now all that remained were four bare walls and an eerie, empty space within, guarded only by a lone wizard statue.
They stepped through one of the rock walls—an illusion rather than solid stone—and entered a dazzlingly ornate hall of gold and grandeur.
Every time Charles visited, he couldn't help but glance at the wall to the right. Jack had once told him there was a hidden tunnel behind it that led straight to a vault in Gringotts. But the passage had long since been abandoned, and not a single sound had come from it in years.
Upstairs were several rooms that had once been offices. Now, they served as living quarters.
Charles followed his hovering suitcase into his room. It was utterly bare—at first.
But two seconds after opening his case, the room transformed. A soft and comfortable bed unfolded, followed by a wardrobe tall enough to hide in, a beautiful desk and chair, and a warm little lamp that blinked cheerfully to life on the tabletop.
Jack's room was already set up, and, judging from the smell, he'd also gotten the kitchen ready.
"What do you want for lunch?" Charles called, opening the pantry. It was fully stocked with bread, meat, vegetables, fruit, jam, and—his eyes twinkled—those two caramel puddings Penny had sent them that morning.
"Anything's fine," Jack replied. "I'll fetch some water first."
The large tank above the kitchen obediently floated after him. Charles had always admired Jack's mastery of the Summoning Charm. One flick toward the ocean and—shoom!—fresh, drinkable water filled the tank. It might as well have been Evian.
Charles sliced some bacon—of mysterious origin—and a cucumber, then fried the former and threw together a few simple sandwiches. Once the water returned, he boiled a kettle for tea.
They didn't eat in the kitchen, of course. Instead, they sat at the cliff's edge, where waves pounded the rocks far below and seagulls wheeled over the sea like drunken dancers.
After devouring a sandwich, Jack turned to Charles. "What do you think magic really is?"
Charles had pondered that question for years. He answered without hesitation, "I think it's a form of energy. Like electricity."
It was his own way of making sense of magic. Jack, for his part, had his own fascination—with Muggle inventions like televisions and computers, which he studied like a curious magizoologist.
Unfortunately, Jack's "Reparo" spell didn't work on electronics. Luckily, Charles had picked up enough to fix them himself. If not, their winnings from betting on the 1986 and 1990 World Cups would've been used up ages ago.
"Exactly," Jack nodded, pointing toward the narrow path they'd walked earlier. "Right there, my first teacher, Professor Fig, told me, 'Magic is just a kind of power. What matters is how you choose to use the power you have.'"
He turned to Charles with a glint in his eye. "If you had the most powerful magic in the world, what would you do with it?"
Charles looked up at the sun and answered thoughtfully, "Achieve controlled nuclear fusion."
Jack didn't bat an eye at the strange Muggle terminology anymore. His memory was patchy at best—he seemed to be missing large portions—and he'd long since stopped trying to understand every foreign phrase that came out of Charles's mouth.
Charles didn't bother to explain. He knew from experience that detailed technical talk about Muggle science just made Jack grumpy. If confused, Jack would rather ask the neighbors than endure a lecture.
"Well, you've got your work cut out for you," Jack said, pretending to understand and offering a suitably dramatic response.
He picked up another sandwich and added, "From what I've seen, just learning a handful of spells properly is enough to get you through Hogwarts without dying."
Charles grinned. "Including the Killing Curse?"
He had a complicated relationship with the Unforgivable Curses—curious to learn them, terrified of the consequences. He wanted to dabble, yet dreaded ending up as a dementor's midnight snack in Azkaban. All things considered, he preferred to admire them from a safe distance.
Jack answered matter-of-factly, "Of course. The Killing Curse, the Levitation Charm, and the Throwing Curse. All part of the essentials."
Charles's mouth twitched. "I'd rather not go to Azkaban," he said flatly.
"No worries," Jack replied breezily. "I know people there. I could get the Dementors to set you up with a deluxe suite."
Charles grabbed the rest of the sandwiches off the plate and started eating. "Well, I might as well have a good last meal."
Jack chuckled and ruffled his hair. "I'll go buy you some spider legs later."
Charles immediately nodded. Whenever the old man went shopping, he came back with things that definitely weren't from any regular supermarket. Spider legs were among the more acceptable ingredients—and, oddly enough, the neighbors (including the Dursleys) loved the dishes, as long as they didn't know what was in them.
After finishing their lunch, the two moved to the courtyard of the ruin to begin Charles's magical training.
With a wave of his wand, Jack summoned a hefty rock from the mountain and began carving it with a flick of his wrist. Before long, it had taken the shape of a humanoid stone figure.
"When I was at Hogwarts," Jack began, "Professor Hecate once told me—in a real battle, the simplest spells are often the most effective."
Charles nodded in agreement.
Jack raised his wand and, with deliberate slowness, cast a spell at the stone man. "Leviosa!"
The spell hit. A bright pillar of violet light erupted beneath the stone figure, lifting it a full twenty meters into the air.
"That," Jack said to Charles, who was craning his neck to follow the motion, "was the Levitation Charm I learned at school."
Then he canceled the spell. The light vanished, and the statue began to plummet.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Jack cast just before impact.
The stone figure floated again, this time without the flashy light show.
"This is the modern Levitation Charm," Jack explained. "It's been refined over the years—cleaner technique, smaller magical cost. Some of the unnecessary flair has been trimmed off."
As he spoke, he demonstrated the subtle wrist flick that was part of the updated casting method.
"I kept working on it from there and developed an improved version," Jack said, turning his wand toward Charles. "Wingardium Leviosa!"
Suddenly, Charles felt the ground disappear beneath him. He was floating in midair, with no point of contact anywhere around.
Jack gently lowered him back down. "In battle, the Levitation Charm can be used to control an opponent—suspend them in the air, limit their movements, give you time to take aim."
Charles nodded, impressed. "That's clever. It's a form of control, but indirect."
Jack smiled. "Do you know what a counter-spell is?"
Charles thought for a moment. "You mean a spell that undoes another spell's effect?"
Jack shook his head, and then—quite unceremoniously—pointed his wand at Charles. "Crashflat!"
Charles dropped flat on the ground as if a mountain had slammed down on him. He couldn't move a muscle.
Jack released the spell and continued, "I learned that on my travels. In Muggle terms, Leviosa is anti-gravity, and Crashflat is added gravity."
"I call spells like these oppositional spells—they operate on the same principle but with reverse effects. What you were talking about is called a Dispel."
Charles pushed himself up, glaring. "You could've told me first."
Jack laughed. "Lesson learned."
"But I get it now," Charles said, brushing himself off. "Both spells manipulate gravity. You could levitate someone and then slam them down."
"Exactly," Jack said, helpfully casting a quick cleaning charm over Charles. "There are plenty of these counter-pairs. Once you're comfortable with this one, we'll move on to combining the Summoning and Throwing Charms."
(End of Chapter)
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