Author Note: Enjoy the 2k+ word chapter, and leave a review if you like the story so far. Thank you for all the support, and have a great weekend!
Henry Francis Warwick Augustus POV
It had been a couple of months after he had found the book 'A Thoughtful Mind' outside his house on the garden table.
Which had taken him two weeks of constant failure, sitting and meditating and breathing, to find what he was looking for as the book had described, and finally, properly look inside his mind to find the connection with his sister.
Once he had found what he was looking for, he made rapid progress with the exploration of the magical connection. It was a soothing feeling that overcame him whenever he tried to reach out to the connection between him and his sister.
He felt the awareness of her constant presence through the magical connection. At first, he couldn't quite pinpoint the connection, but once he knew what to look for, he started noticing the mind magic at work, constantly, bridging him and his sister.
He found there were different levels and layers to the connection.
There was the awareness level, which involved making the initial connection.
The second level was being able to tell where the person you are connected to is at all times. The floating balloon, which he had come to see as the metaphorical weight of the person, which he still wasn't sure if it was their mind or their soul he was connecting to, would be in different directions, and he would just have to follow the string, or his connection, to find her.
The third level he found was the emotional level, where he felt an understanding of the emotions that the person he was currently connected to was experiencing at that time. This wasn't quite at the level of actually feeling what the other person was feeling; instead, it was the knowledge that came to him of what the other person might be feeling.
He theorized that the next level was actually the level that allowed him to feel the other person's emotions, like the discomfort he had felt when Ella had that small piece of a toy stuck in her baby's flab.
These past months, he hadn't reached this level many times. It only happened two other times when Ella's emotion was strong. First, because of the pain from bumping her head when she fell back while sitting. The other time it happened was when she cried because their mother had to leave for a bit. It wasn't often their mother was away from Ella, so he guessed the separation was foreign to her.
Both of these times, because of the extreme emotions from Ella, thus the fluctuation of magic, their connection had elevated to a higher level, and he had actually felt her pain and sadness. It was definitely weird expressing emotions that were not your own.
He had just been in his class daydreaming about magic when all of a sudden he felt pain in his head and teared up.
He would definitely have to keep working on mastering the connection, as it was sometimes a liability right now. He could only imagine what would happen if he were in a fight with someone and got distracted by errant emotion or pain coming through the connection.
He didn't want to get his head lobbed off just because Ella had stubbed her toe or gotten a paper cut.
He had made some progress in this area, as his current connection with her was in a resting state until he poked and prodded at it and intentionally increased it. This was likely because of that time when he wanted the feeling of the balloon being stuck to him to go away, which had suppressed their connection.
He came to this conclusion because sometimes, during his morning practice and bows, he could toggle between these levels; it didn't always work, but it was a start. He was slowly getting better with practice each and every single day.
While experimenting with this magic, he wondered whether it was possible to pass his own emotions to the connected person and have the other person feel what he felt. If it were possible to feel the other person's emotion, then it would only make sense that he could do the same to them; he had not yet gotten to try this, as Ella was way too young for him to run these experiments, her unformed mind would probably not be able to handle his sort of magic.
The only thing he knew for certain was that this magic of his would improve, and he would discover more and more about it as time went on, with a little bit of luck and a lot of practice.
As he thought, reflecting on his progress in mind magic, he heard a voice. They were driving home from his ballroom dance class, and his mother was driving the car, while he and his sister were seated in the back.
"How was your day at school, sweetheart? I know skipping grades and learning higher material isn't exactly easy," his mother said softly in an airy tone, looking at him through the rear-view mirror.
"It was okay, mummy, I am still able to keep up with the older students," he replied happily with a smile on his face, looking back at his mother through the mirror.
He was very thankful that his parents had allowed him to skip grades, as regular classes had started to get boring. He knew it couldn't have been easy, as Muggle Britain generally discouraged students from skipping a year, so his situation was highly unusual. He suspected a healthy amount of magic and donations were involved, but he never asked, as he wasn't even sure if his parents would tell the truth to their 6-year-old child, no matter how gifted or intelligent he was.
"Speaking of students, are any of the other kids in your class giving you any trouble?" she asked the question just as softly and calmly as she had asked the first question, but he could still discern the concern in her voice.
"Not really, I mean – I am almost the same height as them, so even if they did want to start anything, I am certain it will be fine," he replied, hoping it would put her worries to rest.
And it was true, as the other kids were only a year older than him, and there wasn't much of a physical difference; he was just a little above average in height compared to the other kids his age, so their advantage was negated.
"I do hope you will bring any altercations that happen to the teachers or us, before you have to start relying on your physical advantage," she added, making eye contact with him through the mirror.
"You don't have to worry mummy, all the other kids already have groups of their own, and I am rarely bothered. Their only interest in me so far has been them asking how and why I moved up grades," he replied patiently instead of brushing off her concern.
"Good," she said, smiling at him, "I only ask that you don't get in any fights and try to make some friends, if you can."
He hummed and nodded, looking at her through the rear-view mirror.
While speaking to his mother, he occasionally pinched Ella's cheeks and caressed them, and he repeated his name in every sentence whenever he turned to her to keep her engaged so she wouldn't get bored.
"Ella, can you tell Henry what you had for lunch today?"
"Ella, can you tell Henry how your day was?"
He had just been talking one-sidedly to her, not really expecting her to understand his words, much less converse back with him.
His mother chimed in on the conversation occasionally while keeping most of her focus on the road.
"And how are you liking your dance classes?" asked his mother.
"I like it!" he replied in a cheery tone, "I think my favorite so far was last week when we did that Waltz routine."
"Oh, good...good. I am glad," she said, "are you making friends with Lina? I noticed you're partnering up with her a lot."
She had been referring to the asian girl he usually partnered up with in every session.
"Yeah, I like to think we are friends. The instructors always pair us up because of our similar skill set," he replied.
"Did you know she is learning to play the piano?" he continued without giving his mum a chance to reply, "She said she might also be enrolled in violin classes soon."
"Is she really? That's a bit much, isn't it?"
"Yeah, but she seems to enjoy it," and while it did seem like she enjoyed playing different instruments, he did wonder if her parents were pushing her too much. She was only a 7-year-old child.
"Mummy?" he said again after the conversation about dance classes had gone on for a couple of more minutes.
"Yes, sweety," his mum said, looking at him through the rear-view mirror
.
"I think I would like to learn how to play the piano too."
"Would you really?"
"Yeah – I think I would," he said once again, thinking about the prospect of learning the instrument.
"But you are already doing so much," she said after about five seconds of pause.
"You are skipping grades, learning harder stuff, doing dance classes, would you really want to add more to your plate?" she questioned.
"The school stuff isn't much different from what I was doing before. Maybe we could move me up another grade?" he said, pausing to gauge her reaction.
"As for adding piano, I think I would really enjoy it too," he continued, "I promise to keep my grades up, and it won't affect my school," he said, looking at her in plea, trying to use his eyes to show how serious he was.
She looked at him for a bit.
"Okay, sweetheart, I will talk with your dad and think about it," she nodded.
"Thank you, mummy! I love you!" he exclaimed in excitement, giving her a big smile.
"Oh, isn't that exciting, Ella? I could play you some songs I learn," he said, turning to his sister and pinching her cheeks once more.
"Would you like that, Ella? Would you like Henry to play you some songs?" he said, once more referring to himself in third person, hoping she would pick up his name.
She looked up at him, giving a laughing smile and flashing all twelve of her baby teeth while lifting her hands towards him.
He held out his finger near her hand, which she clutched. "Ella, can you say Henry?" he asked once more.
"Henry," he said slowly enunciating both syllables.
He had endless patience, and he was willing to exhaust it all trying to get her to say his name, even if it was the last thing he did.
"Sweetheart, she is only ten months old, give her a little more time," came his mum's voice from the front.
"I know, but I am still going to try," he said and steered the conversation by asking her how her day was.
"he…ri," he had heard a small, sweet baby voice say while talking with his mother.
The conversation came to a halt as his head jerked to the source, to see Ella staring right at him with her soft blue eyes.
"he..ri" she once again said, looking right at him as if to really prove them wrong.
"Ohh!" he heard his mother's voice break a little as she exclaimed, breathing out, almost like a choked sob, probably in surprise at the sheer emotion of hearing her baby girl's voice for the first time.
He still hadn't given any reaction, still in disbelief at hearing his sister speak her first word so suddenly.
After the disbelief of what had just transpired had settled, he came to a realization.
"She said my name! Ohhh! She spoke!" he exclaimed loudly while looking at her with a huge grin on his face.
"Ella, you spoke – you said, Henry!"
"heri.." she said once again in a small voice.
"You said it again… oh, you sound so sweet!" he said while leaning towards her and laying kisses on her chubby cheeks and all over her face, making her giggle.
"Mummy, he said my name. Ella said my name," he said, looking towards his mother through the mirror.
"Oh, I heard, she sounds so beautiful," his mother replied, smiling at him, her voice now definitely breaking as tears filled her eyes.
"Yes!" Henry celebrated gleefully while throwing both his arms in the air and pumping them.