Before going off to handle Lockhart's mess, Ted had something far more important to take care of.
An upgrade.
"Hermione, wait here a bit. I'll just pop up to the dorm and grab something, then I'll be right back."
Hermione nodded, though she shot him a curious look. Ted hurried off down the hall, his robes swishing.
Truth was, Ted had been sitting on a pile of experience for ages. He could've upgraded long ago.
He liked to tell himself, 'I'll wait, study more magic from other worlds first. Learn a bit extra, make the most of it.'
But deep down, he knew that wasn't it.
It was fear.
Yes—fear. Because while experience was precious, it still came far easier than the slow, steady grind of learning spells day by day.
Power gained too quickly felt almost cheap. It was too easy to become reckless with it.
Last summer, he'd pushed his Psion abilities up to level four all at once. The sudden surge of power had nearly run away with him—his mind buzzing, psionic energy threatening to tear right through him.
Ever since, he'd worried.
Could he truly handle power that came so quickly?
As a psion, these concerns were only natural. Even wizard traditions spoke of mastering your mind before mastering your magic.
Without that balance, you were doomed to lose control.
Ted couldn't stop worrying that one day he'd start to believe that rush of power meant he was unbeatable.
So for a year, he'd held back.
Slow and careful.
Honing his spells, learning control, adapting magic from Azeroth and DND, and tinkering with alchemy.
He forced himself to grow patiently.
But now things were different.
This wasn't like last year, where Dumbledore had everything under control, pulling strings from behind the scenes. This time was real.
They were facing a half-returned version of Voldemort—young, hungry, and still terrifying—and a basilisk that could kill with a glance.
During the holidays, Ted had wrestled for days over whether he should step in at all. He'd thought of simpler ways to handle it.
He could've told Professor McGonagall everything. Even if Dumbledore might suspect Ted was holding back some secrets, McGonagall trusted him completely.
But then Ted had to ask himself—'Am I going to run forever?'
And the answer was obvious.
No.
Voldemort was coming back no matter what.
With all those Horcruxes lying about, there was no way he wouldn't rise again.
One day, there would be a final battle.
Worse yet, that goblin beast that caused chaos in Diagon Alley over the holidays—it reminded him just how unpredictable this world had become.
Whatever was ahead, it might be every bit as dangerous as Voldemort.
When fighting was inevitable, running wasn't an option.
So Ted made up his mind.
He'd fight. He'd give it everything.
Because this was only the beginning. He'd treat it as a trial run.
Now, he needed power.
Ted closed his eyes, drawing his focus inward. His experience pool held exactly 34,854 points.
'Thanks to those Acromantulas in the forest, he thought with a wry smile. Still a few nests out there—might be worth paying them another visit.'
It would take 15,000 points to bump his wizard level to 5, and another 21,000 for level 6. With the boost from his [God of Learning (Purple)] talent, that cost dropped to 32,400.
He found an empty bathroom and slipped into one of the stalls. Locking the door behind him, Ted let out a breath.
[Upgrade your wizard class!]
[Upgrade your wizard class!]
Ted watched the experience in his pool drain away like water. His wizard level shot up two levels in a row—now he was level 6.
He gained 2 attribute points and 2 skill points.
He put +1 into agility to balance out his weakness. Now at 5, it matched the nerve reflex speed of a healthy adult male—no longer a hindrance.
The other +1 went into spirit, boosting it to 15.
That was three times what an ordinary person had, and about twice the level of a typical young wizard.
This made his control over magic sharper and his spells even more powerful.
His magic power climbed by +1 level, surging through him so intensely it blasted apart the entire bathroom stall.
He hovered in the air as bright blue light flashed around him.
It took more than ten seconds to fade.
Standing there with naked level 6 magic power, plus the boost from his wand and the False-Philosopher's Stone, he reached an effective level of 9.
That put him on par with Snape in raw magic power.
Snape was the strongest among the heads of house, maybe in all of Britain outside of Dumbledore.
Part of it was likely his ancestry, but also years of dark magic and potion experiments that pushed him to his peak before forty.
Ted wasn't even in third year yet, and thanks to his system and gear, he'd already reached it.
He could feel that his wand's blessing had nearly run its course. As his own magic climbed, the wand could no longer add to it.
The False-Philosopher's Stone still had some power left... for now.
What surprised Ted most was that with his naked level 6 magic power, his magic resistance also climbed by 1—now at level 3.
Last year he'd tested it.
Jerry, with level 2 magic power, a level 2 spell, and level 2 magic, could hit him with an impediment jinx, but Ted could shrug it off most times—about seven or eight out of ten.
Hermione's stronger spells he couldn't fully resist, only lessen the effects.
Now at level 3 resistance, could he block level 3 magic outright? That would need testing later.
He spent another skill point to raise his spellcasting level. Now his raw spell level was 5, and with the wand's bonus, that meant level 6 spells.
Not many Aurors reached that level.
Even though he couldn't compare to a dueling master like Professor Flitwick, he was already ahead of most elite wizards.
Before, his enchantments were stuck at level 4, so each spell's strength topped out around there.
Now he could push forward again.
Unexpectedly, reaching level 5 spells granted him an extra skill: level 1 magic penetration.
This countered magic resistance directly, letting his spells ignore 1 level of defense.
So if an opponent had level 5 resistance and Ted hit with level 5 spells, normally it might get blocked. But with level 1 penetration, it was like they only had level 4 resistance—his spells would land clean.
That was huge. So many creatures in the magical world had absurdly high resistance.
Ted looked at the last 2,400 experience points he'd saved and spent them to level up his Conjunctivitis Curse and Sectumsempra to level 5.
The Conjunctivitis Curse wasn't too bad—he could improve it with practice.
But Sectumsempra was advanced magic. It was brutal on his mind.
Casting it four or five times only nudged the proficiency up by 1. He guessed it'd take about 3,000 castings to level up, and after a dozen or so his head already ached.
That was the nature of advanced dark spells—they were exhausting.
These two would be his main attacks against the basilisk, so he had to make sure they were strong enough.
Luckily, his [Scholar (Purple)] talent cut the experience needed for spell upgrades by 20%, or it still wouldn't have been enough.
All his half-year of hard-earned experience was now spent.
The wind blows the egg shells away, but Ted felt happy.
He gave a casual wave, casting a wandless, silent Reparo. The broken bricks and shattered wood rose up and slotted back into place.
It was quite a sight.
He adjusted his robes, stepped out of the stall, and spotted Hermione waiting.
"Ted, are you back?"
"Yeah. Let's go find Lockhart."