The entire notebook page was covered with messy notes and branching diagrams of spell structures.
Rock rubbed the space between his eyebrows and set down his quill.
The core of the Levitation Charm was all about lift and weightlessness, while the Vadi Vasi spell focused on direction and kinetic force. How were their magical waveforms supposed to be compatible?
Theo and Adam exchanged a glance from the side, both unsure what Rock was doing.
"What's up, Rock?"
Theo leaned over, noticing the notebook full of illegible scribbles. "Good lord, what are you studying? I can't make heads or tails of any of this."
"If you've ever opened Spell Theory by Emmerick Switch in the library, you'd know this is spell phonology."
Rock took a deep breath and swatted Theo upside the head without much patience.
"You hear that? Is he speaking English? That's fourth-year stuff, and he's acting like we should've read it already." Theo pointed at Rock and said to Adam.
Adam awkwardly laughed, trying to smooth things over. "Hey, don't interrupt him. Can't you see he's thinking?"
Adam really didn't want to get dragged into that argument. Theo had been dragging him into games lately, and he was already getting hooked.
Theo didn't push it further and turned back to Rock. "Alright, dude. So, spill."
"Spill what?" Rock looked up, confused.
"What you're researching. I saw you practicing spells a bit earlier, then suddenly running back to scribble all that."
Theo pointed at the notebook. "At least explain so we can help a little."
Rock didn't think he was wrong. Theo didn't read much, but he definitely had more practical experience.
So Rock picked up the notebook and started explaining. Adam could follow at first, but halfway through, his head started throbbing.
His weak fundamentals left him totally lost once Rock dove into deeper concepts.
Theo, on the other hand, looked increasingly strange. When Rock finished and turned to him, asking, "So? How do I make something float first, then blast forward?"—
Theo hesitated. "These are your ideas?"
Seeing Rock's expression darken, he immediately corrected himself: "Don't get mad—what I mean is, do you realize you're talking about composite magic?"
"I know. That's exactly what I'm aiming for," Rock said.
"Okay, well… here's my take." Theo shrugged. "Honestly? Sounds cool."
"But don't you feel like you're trying to make a broom that both flies and sweeps? You end up doing both… badly."
Rock froze—not because Theo was wrong, but because he'd run himself straight into a dead end. Simply stacking functions together was pointless.
A proper composite spell needed to produce something greater than the sum of its parts.
Rock picked up his quill again and crossed out the line about lifting something and then launching it. After thinking for a moment, he wrote a new phrase:
"Imbue the object with guided kinetic energy."
The Levitation Charm's magical signature was upward and sustained, while Vadi Vasi's was forward and explosive.
Rock whispered the syllables of the two spells, feeling out the resonance of the magic.
"Wing…ardium… Levi…osa… Vadi… Vasi…"
"Wingardio Vasi!"
No, this was wrong. Without the Levis core, the spell lost its lift foundation entirely.
"Levi Vadiossa!"
Still wrong—too simplified, too rough. The magic structure became unstable.
"Wingardium Vadiossa."
A pulse of magic rose—suppressed at first, then surging upward.
Yes. That was it. Exactly the feeling he needed.
Rock quickly wrote down the new incantation before finally exhaling in relief.
When he turned around, Theo and Adam were staring at him like he'd grown a second head.
"What… what's with you two?" he asked, unsettled.
"It's just—" Theo bared his teeth in a weird half-smile. "I can't believe you actually combined a spell."
"Seriously," Adam added, nodding. "I don't know what it does, but I definitely felt that surge of magic."
Their House Head taught Charms, so they knew how difficult spell-weaving actually was.
And Rock had basically just… performed a live demonstration in front of them.
"Come on, it's not like I created a spell from scratch," Rock said. "I just decomposed existing ones and reassembled them the way I needed."
And honestly, a lot of it came from the bizarre advantage of his inscribed ability.
Once he memorized something, the system helped him recombine structures—as long as he wasn't heading the wrong direction.
Like earlier—he'd been stuck in a blind alley. No matter how he rearranged things, it would've failed.
Rock ignored the two still staring at him and walked over to where he had been practicing.
He had the incantation down. Now came the wand-movement refinement: a lift-sweep paired with a forward strike.
He raised his wand and performed the motion—upward from below, drawing a checkmark-shaped arc, pausing at shoulder height, then driving the wand forward like a sword thrust.
Crack—
A sharp snap sounded. Rock frowned and looked at his wand.
His magic output had completely stuttered. His wrist felt stiff, like he was flipping a switch instead of channeling energy.
"Too clunky."
He lifted his wand again, sweeping a wide loose arc from lower right to upper left. Without pausing, he circled forward gently, pushing out the tip—like stirring a pot.
"The magic flows better, but now there's no punch."
The movement was too smooth, too circular—no explosive core.
Watching the analysis pane shift with each gesture, Rock subconsciously twirled the wand like a mixing spoon.
Flow… buildup… burst.
If his movement needed to fulfill those three elements, then his wrist had to deliver the snap. The arc needed to shrink—tighter, more compact.
Combining that with the explosive force of the first motion, Rock lifted his wand one more time.
The gesture cracked like a whip—energy building in the wrist, then sharply cutting forward at the final peak.
Pop—
A crisp magical sound rang out.
Rock broke into a bright grin.
He nailed it.