Sean only had one set of Hogwarts robes, but fortunately he no longer needed to attend most classes. Wearing his own clothes wouldn't be a problem.
After spending half an hour in the bathroom, Sean sniffed his sleeve.
The smell had finally faded a little.
Sitting at his desk, he lined up three syringes filled with magical creature blood.
The first contained Dorset Flower Fairy blood.
The second held Devon Pixie blood.
The third came from a Serbian Thumb Lizard.
Sean picked up the first syringe and activated his Magic vision.
The blood inside emitted only a very faint white glow.
Perhaps it was because the sample was small—or maybe the fairy simply didn't possess much magical power.
Sean stared at the syringe for nearly a full minute without blinking.
Nothing happened.
He shook his head and picked up the second syringe.
The Devon Pixie was famous for its mischief. It was related to the Cornish Pixie.
Fortunately, Sean had read about them beforehand and had cast Immobulus on it before opening the cage.
Even so, the Magic vision showed no reaction to the pixie's blood either.
Finally, Sean picked up the last syringe.
The Serbian Thumb Lizard.
Honestly, he wasn't expecting anything.
Sure enough, the blood only emitted a faint thread of white light.
Nothing else changed.
"Figures," Sean muttered, collapsing back onto the bed.
"The Magic vision probably isn't interested in creatures like these."
"My guess is that it only reacts to magical beasts with powerful magic, like Fawkes."
He stared at the ceiling while thinking.
"Creatures on Fawkes's level… Kettleburn definitely doesn't keep those in his office."
Sean began listing the magical creatures at Hogwarts that possessed strong magical power.
"Fawkes…"
"The basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets…"
"The Acromantula in the Forbidden Forest…"
"Unicorns…"
"Trolls…"
"Hagrid's hippogriffs…"
"Thestrals…"
"Do centaurs count?"
Sean sighed.
Every creature he had just named—
He couldn't beat any of them.
Even the relatively gentle unicorns and the normally peaceful hippogriffs had extremely strong magical resistance.
Sean wasn't even sure if his current magic could pierce their skin.
Dark magic probably could.
But Sean had no intention of doing something like that.
"Maybe I could ask Hagrid for a little bit of Buckbeak's blood?"
Then he immediately shook his head.
Considering how much Hagrid loved Buckbeak, asking to draw blood from it might get Sean beaten to death.
After an afternoon of rest, Sean's magical power had fully recovered.
He sat cross-legged on the edge of his bed.
The Magic vision activated.
Sean focused intensely on summoning Fawkes, this time pouring all of his magic into it.
A blurry phantom appeared on the carpet.
Slowly, it began forming from the bottom upward.
When Sean saw the talons, he knew it was working.
Three seconds later—
A phoenix appeared in Sean's dormitory.
But it was only about half the size of the real Fawkes.
At that size, it looked more like a domestic rooster.
"Well… it's smaller," Sean said.
"But I wonder if it still has Fawkes's abilities."
He jumped down from the bed and crouched in front of the tiny phoenix.
The real Fawkes possessed incredible abilities.
Its tears could heal wounds.
It could carry several people while flying.
Its song was magical, inspiring courage in the pure-hearted and instilling fear in the wicked.
Sean crouched down and grinned mischievously.
"Little Fawkes… cry for me."
"Come on, give me some healing tears."
The tiny phoenix turned its head away with a cold, proud expression.
Even though it had been created from Sean's magic, it seemed to possess its own awareness.
Sean picked it up in his arms.
He held it like a farmer proudly carrying a colorful rooster during the Lunar New Year.
Gently stroking its feathers, Sean noticed the little phoenix seemed to enjoy the attention.
"Little Fawkes… can you carry me?"
Sean reasoned that the real Fawkes could easily carry three people.
This one might be smaller—
But surely it could handle just him.
The tiny phoenix flapped its wings.
As if understanding him.
It lifted into the air.
Sean grabbed onto its claws.
The phoenix flapped again.
Sean's feet slowly left the ground.
The little phoenix carried him around the dormitory, flying several circles beneath the low ceiling.
Sean was certain that without the ceiling, the phoenix would have flown him right out the window.
"Ah—!"
Suddenly his hands grabbed nothing.
The claws vanished.
Sean dropped onto the carpet with a thud, landing squarely on his backside.
He stood up and rubbed his sore rear.
Looking at the clock on the wall, he calculated the time.
From summoning to disappearance—
The phoenix had lasted about four minutes.
"So all my magic was drained just to summon a miniature version of Fawkes for four minutes."
"The problem is clearly insufficient magical power."
Sean carefully evaluated his own magical reserves.
His body naturally possessed above-average magical power.
But because of the Magic vision, his maximum capacity seemed to have increased further.
If he had lived like a normal first-year student, he would still have had the most magic among them.
But nowhere near his current level.
Right now, Sean's magical reserves were already comparable to a strong third-year student.
That was because he had been practicing magic daily since he was five and a half years old.
Every day he practiced until his magic was exhausted, then rested and repeated the cycle.
Over time, this gradually increased his magical capacity.
It was the most basic method of strengthening magical power.
All wizards improved this way—through time, practice, and age.
If Sean's magical power were measured as ten, a typical first-year might only have three.
But even with ten units of magic, Sean could only summon a miniature Fawkes, and afterward he had no magic left for any other spells.
"It looks like I need at least double my current magical reserves to summon a full-sized Fawkes and still have magic left for other spells."
Sean mentally calculated his magical resource management.
He still needed Scarlet Fern and Hopwort Roots to complete the ingredients for the Magic Power Restoration Potion.
That potion could accelerate how quickly his magic recovered during the day—
But it couldn't increase his maximum magical capacity.
"I wonder if there's a potion that increases magical power itself…"
Sean doubted it.
If such a potion existed, it would surely be famous across the wizarding world.
Yet during all the years he spent around the Leaky Cauldron, he had never heard anyone mention it.
Not even the potion shops in Diagon Alley sold anything like that.
Later, Sean "borrowed" a few Scarlet Fern plants and Hopwort roots from Professor Sprout's greenhouse.
He didn't dare take too many.
Those were precious plants.
Taking too much might provoke even the gentle Professor Sprout into anger.
Meanwhile, Snape eventually discovered that several valuable ingredients had gone missing from his storage room.
During one of his upper-year Potions classes, he angrily demanded to know which student had stolen them.
Of course—
No one admitted anything.
Furious, Snape punished the entire class by making them copy the textbook repeatedly.
To Read 80+ advanced Chapters, head over to P@treon
patreon.com/DarkVerse146