Richard browsed the Library as though he hadn’t read the books that lined the shelves. Josh, his third student of the day should be arriving at any moment and Richard was going through in his head the things he would like to teach the boy.

He was interested to see if the boys enjoyment and talent with defensive magic translated into a skill with warding. Warding was more difficult than normal spell casting, but it was eminently useful it would be a boon to anyone the boy chose to work with in the future.

Before he let his thoughts get too carried away, he took a breath and centered himself again and prepared himself to wait at least through their first lesson together.

Josh wasn't sure what to expect as he headed toward the Morrigans' library. He hadn't had a chance to ask Amber or Kalmin about their lessons earlier in the day, and as he turned a corner into the library he was beginning to regret it.

He'd worn comfortable clothing and brought his wand. Even though he obviously wouldn't be dueling, it felt good to change out of his dinner clothes--at least he was doing something to prepare.

Mr. Morrigan was facing away from the door as he walked in. Not knowing how to address him (he'd been taking cues from Amber, but she wasn't there to take care of those things for him now), Josh stopped some distance away, waiting for Mr. Morrigan to acknowledge him and doing his best impression of a completely calm and self-possessed boy who was mildly eager to begin his studies. His impressions seemed to fool most people. At the very least, Josh doubted that the true state of his nerves was blazed across his face.

Richard turned around when he heard Josh enter the room. The boy was standing quietly to one side of the door. He seemed anxious, but there was no visible fear or uncertainty, which Richard took as a good thing. Richard nodded to him and motioned to one of the comfortable chairs that dotted the library. “Please, have a seat.”

Once Josh had sat down, Richard sat as well. “I am pleased that you were able to join us here. My Grandson doesn’t get many visitors during vacations from school, and I believe he has missed out somewhat because of it.”

He thought for a moment, “You say you have a head for defensive magic. Have you done anything beyond the shield spells that they teach at Hogwarts? Have you done any research on your own? I need to know a little bit more specifics about the baseline of what I’ll be working with before I can begin teaching you anything in depth. “

Josh settled into his chair. "I'm glad to be here. I'm usually traveling between my sisters' houses with my family during the summer. It's...nice, to be spending time with friends instead. Very different."

He swallowed. Mr. Morrigan's questions brought him back to the initial meeting in the dining hall, and he couldn't help wincing a little internally. His experience seemed very inferior and, well, juvenile compared to the rest of his friends'. But he knew he couldn't fake a background like theirs, so he decided it would be best to be honest.

"I'm...I'm no scholar," he began. "But I've done well in my DADA classes, and this year I've picked up a few small shield spells. Nothing too complex," he added quickly. Josh decided against mentioning the fact that his parents had made him learn the spells after the Hogwarts attacks.

Richard nodded, "That's nothing to be ashamed about. Outside of an actual time of war, people who have training like your friends are few and far between. I'm inclined to think that your friend Amber has actually had more training than my Timothy."

"Shielding is an important step to understand warding. Warding is very simple to understand in concept, much harder to understand in practice." Richard pulled out his wand and conjured a quick shield, a blue light was visible, emanating from his wand.

"A shield spell is a defensive barrier that his anchored to your wand. With a ward, you anchor the spell to something else. Unless that something is innately magical, the ward will never increase in strength, it will only weaken. That's why wards that are made to actually defend against spells are rare. Most wards are in reality a shield, tied up with another spell."

Richard looked at the boy, "What spells do you know already that you believe would be useful in conjunction with a ward line?"

Josh paid as careful of attention as he could. It was nice to know that his friends were a rather unusual group--at least he wasn't behind by the real world's standards. At the same time, he was determined to prove that he could be just as capable as they were. He didn't want to compete with them, but he did want to catch up to them. After years of being the youngest and smallest in his family, he didn't want to be the weak link in anybody's chain.

When Mr. Morrigan asked him a question, Josh tried to give as reasonable of an answer as possible.

"I...I don't know, exactly," he began, not wanting to seem too arrogant. "But if the attachment works like glue, then maybe a Sticking Charm? Or if the ward line works like a rope, then the "incarcerous" hex--the one that binds your opponent with ropes. Or, if it works completely differently, then maybe some form of a Summoning Charm."

He fell quiet, hoping that at least one of his answers would be close.

Richard nodded, "Well, that wasn't exactly what I meant, though in interesting thought. For the most part, the anchoring of the wards is an act of will, and the correct motions and incantations. I had meant, what spells do you know that you think would be effective as a part of a ward. Your Incarcerous Hex was a good thought, anyone who crosses the line you set finds themselves bound and awaiting your pleasure to deal with."

Richard pulled a small stone out of his packet. There were runes covering the entire surface of the stone, and he set it down on a table next to his chair. "This is a Ward Stone. These are necessary for any of your longer lasting or more powerful wards. They prevent the magic from decaying too quickly. I could lay down a ward to keep people out of this room without one, but it would be gone by morning. Using this Ward Stone, I could keep that same ward functioning for more than a year."

"Ward Stones come in different sizes and specifications. This one is a generic Stone, and I will be sending it home with you when you go."

Josh nodded back. It made sense. He was also pretty confident in his strength of will--you didn't spend 11 years as the youngest kid with three older sisters without any--and hearing that it was tied to warding made him relax slightly.

When Mr. Morrigan produced the ward stone, Josh stared at it hard, though he did his best to seem unfazed. He'd never actually seen one before, but he'd heard about them. This one, while very clearly a magical thing, wasn't too outwardly exciting. It didn't glow or shoot sparks or float, but it emitted an aura of substance. Josh liked it, and he was happy to hear that he'd get to keep it.

"Thank you, sir," he said, not taking his eyes off the stone. "If this one is generic, what are the others like?"

"Well, Ward Stones will come in different sizes, and shapes. Most of them are cubes to prevent them rolling off when you set them down and walk away. Their size will be determined by the number and types of spells you will want to tie into the wards since that will determine what runes need to be carved on them. This stone will support most utility and defensive spells. But you will not be able to tie any offensive spells into these wards. For example, you won't be able to set this under your bed at school with a ward line that will stun anyone who crosses it."

"Perhaps next summer, if you find you want to return, I can take you down and show you the Ward Stones for Caer Morrigan here."

Richard sat back in his chair, "I will assume that you have learned Lumos and Nox at this point in your career. So we will work from that point. The first think you will need to do is to place your wand on the top of ward stone and the opening incantation is 'Praesentia.' This will be common to all Ward Stones and will, essentially, open a storage space in which you can place spells."

"It does not hurt the casting to touch the Stone once you have activated it, but any spell you attempt to cast into it, the stone will attempt to implement. The top of the stone will be for activating and implementing the ward itself. Any spells that you cast on the faces of the side will be integrated into the ward itself, and any spells that you cast on the bottom of the stone will be implemented inside the ward line only."

"When you have cast the spells you want to include, you will conclude by touching your wand to the top of the stone again and incanting, 'Practicus.' This will activate the ward and any spells that you have set to it."

Richard leaned forward to continue, "This means that should you place the Nox spell onto one of the side faces, and a Lumos spell on the bottom, the area that you demark as the warded area will be lit, while from the outside it will remain visibly dark. This is what we will be testing here today."

"The delineation of the warded area is the hardest part to explain and to perform, as it is solely an effort of will. When you activate the stone to input your spells, you must focus on the area that you wish to include in your ward. I will tell you now, that this will only work for the level of warding that you will be working with now. When you get to higher levels of wards the lines will be delineated with other things, be it silver or some form of inlay in permanent wards, or with blood."

Richard rose from his chair, "I am going to move over to the door and turn off the lights in the room. I would like you to attempt this warding that we have just discussed. Do not worry if you have trouble with it on your first attempt. We will practice with this for the duration of your time here every day, and I will attempt to teach you other spells that are effective in warding."

"Do you have any questions before we get started on your practice today?"

Josh shook his head. "No," he said, still staring at the ward stone. He didn't have any questions yet, but he knew he would once he'd attempted the spell.

As Mr. Morrigan moved toward the door, he took out his wand and held it poised over the stone. He was nervous, but also a bit excited. He'd never been in the position to try a new magical task without help or distractions, and as anxious as he was not to fail, his nerves hummed with anticipation at the opportunity.

Once the lights were off, he instinctively squeezed his eyes shut, hovering his wand until he felt it come in contact with the top of the stone. He focused as hard as he could on a circular area around the table.

"Praesentia."

He let the top of his wand slide to the side of the stone.

"Nox."

Since Mr. Morrigan had said that it was safe to touch the stone, he reached out and tilted it sideways so that his wand could reach the bottom surface.

"Lumos."

He moved the stone back into its original position and found the top surface again.

"Practicus."

From behind his closed eyes, he could tell that he'd lit something, but beyond that, he had no idea what the outcome was. He finally got the nerve to open his eyes, hoping that Mr. Morrigan would explain whatever had happened.

From his spot near the door, Richard watched as there was a burst of light from a small circular area near the table. And as the spots before his eyes cleared he noticed Josh blinking and looking around as well. "That was a good first attempt son. It is tricky to be able to maintain your concentration on the area you wish to effect, while at the same time casting the spells that you need in your ward. The arts of warding is more intuitive than established, so there isn't actually a great deal more that I can teach you with this. There are different techniques for different types of warding. After you have a better handle with this, likely not this summer, but next year or some other time in the future we can look at a more permanent version of warding, or even some blood warding if you're interested."

He motioned to the stone, "Feel free to practice with that as much as you see fit, for as long as you want today. There isn't anything you can do that will damage anything here with it. Tomorrow, I will teach you some more spells that you may find useful for wards that you may want to put up back at school. And later in the week, before you go home, I'll show you the beginnings of working on the other side of wards. Pulling them down and whatnot."

He smiled, "Do you have any further questions about what happened here today? Or in general?"

Josh started to shake his head, then stopped, realizing that he did have a question.

"How long...do you think this will take to learn?" he asked, gesturing toward the ward stone. He had already committed himself to mastering the light ward spell, but he wanted a better idea of how long the task would take to complete. The fact that Mr. Morrigan wasn't going to be sticking around much longer or giving him further instruction today was disappointing, but Josh had taught himself before, and he was willing to do whatever it took to be ready to move forward by the time of his next lesson.

Richard contemplated Josh's question for a second, and then replied, "Well, this particular ward is relatively simple and easy to learn. When I learned to do this, it took roughly four hours of work and trial and error. I am sorry that I cannot be more specific in my instruction, but Warding is unique to each practitioner. You will develop your own flourishes and methods."

"Warding is one of the more difficult things to learn in the Wizarding world due to its intricacies and its non-standardization. Though if all wards were standard, and done the same way, they would already be obsolete, as anyone who knew how to do the ward in question, would know how to go about unmaking them and I am positive robbery would be a much larger issue in our society."

"So, to answer your question, if you spend your free time this evening, and tomorrow while I am working with your friends, I suspect you will have the grasp of it by tomorrow evening. Now, any last questions, or shall I leave you to your experimentation?"

Josh shook his head. "No. Thank you for the lesson."

With that, he turned back to the ward stone, preparing to try again as soon as Mr. Morrigan was out of the room.

*NEW EVENING*

Richard sat in the library. He was interested to see just how Josh had done with his experimentation with the ward stone. He pulled one of the books on warding that resided on the library's shelves and waited for his student to arrive. He had a bit of time before Josh was to arrive, so he thought he'd do some reading up on the subject in question.