Chapter Text
Thirty-seven hours and twenty-four minutes was the exact time Jimmy had left to complete his second term assignment. To be fair, the teacher had told the entire class about it on the first day. But Jimmy worked better under pressure, or maybe he was just a slacker and didn’t care to admit it.
Either way, he had barely two days to get his shit together. Which wasn’t a whole lot of time to formulate a potion (from SCRATCH, might he add) capable of creating a teeny tiny galaxy the size of a marble. Why his Prof had given him that particular choice was anyone’s guess.
Jimmy Novak was a third year student at Aclos’ Academy, a prestigious private secondary school for up and coming young witches and wizards. Not only was it damn expensive, but you had to be invited! It piled on the pressure—some days more than he could handle. And it didn’t help that his parents were the snootiest richest assholes in Manhattan. If Jimmy Novak failed, everyone would hear about it. His parents would be shamed. He’d probably wind up homeless.
Wracking his brain, and scraping his blunt nails across his scalp in the process, he stared at the over lit laptop screen begging the details of the potion to magically reveal themselves. Unfortunately, actual magic wasn’t that easy.
It required intense concentration, intricate knowledge of nearly every substance in existence, and an innate talent that lacked consistency in his opinion.
Jimmy again ran his fingers through his hair, leaving the soft brown locks darting out in every which way. He squinted at the computer harder. Nothing came.
The problem was, everyone in the class had been tasked to formulate a new and original potion. It required you to harness your knowledge of magical chemistry and be aware of how certain properties interacted. One wrong mix, one wrong word… and kaboom; dorm room sucked into a time void. Jimmy Novak never to be seen again. It was probably why the school had parents sign a waiver in the case that anything ever went wrong (e.g. death, transfiguration, dismemberment, among other horrific possibilities).
Such is the magical life. There were days, whole weeks in fact where he dreamed of being a regular. A non-magical guy living a hunky-dory life.
Pushing his laptop back further on the desk, he dragged his textbook closer and skimmed through the chapters to the section on physics and galactic properties. Surely, there had to be clues in the one inch thick section.
Two hours later (thirty-five hours remaining on the educational ticking clock), Jimmy squinted at the text below his face, a spark of hope flickering in the recess of his conscious mind.
”Wisdom of the Past”
The abridged overview spoke of a spell; an old incantation designed to draw on the accumulated knowledge from the speaker’s past lives. The once theorized concept of reincarnation had been proven by Harker Boomsen in 2112, nearly a hundred years ago.
In the eyes of the school, it probably counted as cheating. But technically, he was only obtaining help from himself, so really… did it actually count? Jimmy decided it couldn’t hurt to “help himself”.
Besides, the spell seemed easy enough and one he’d never done before. He always enjoyed trying something new, regular spellwork could be somewhat dull. Unfortunately, there was no way of knowing what extent of knowledge he’d receive. For all he knew, earlier versions of Jimmy Novak might have been just as mediocre as himself.
Good enough to get in to AA’s, but not so amazing he excelled. It would figure.
Quickly, he moved about his room lighting candles with the flick of his fingers and a single direct thought. He arranged the Altar in a symbol of respect to the spirit world and made sure to include a personal object of significance—for which he chose a bracelet made for him by his best friend Charlie, a beautiful red-headed witch he’d known since birth. She was his dearest friend and closest companion.
Once everything was set, he opened the book and went over the words in his head a dozen times before he was sure he knew every syllable. You don’t mince diction and enunciation when dealing with this sort of thing.
Jimmy spoke the words clearly, “Carmina autem meus animus ex praeteritorum, in sapientia, in requiem mihi. Et nunc, et semper, et in quantum respicit.”
Around him, the air tickled… carrying power in its particles as it wooshed across over his skin. His small dorm room (single bed on the right, desk on the left, totally littered with books) began to darken save for a single light source emanating from a nexus formed by the two arcs of magic streaming from the tips of his fingers. He felt the expanding pressure, the displacement of air before him.
With a crack of lightning and thunder, raising the fine hair on his arms, a solid shape appeared. Its presence extinguished every struggling candle, closing out all light sources , leaving the room in stark blackness. The air went stagnant with the void of magic; an eerie moment of suspension.
Standing stock still, Jimmy lowly registered the lingering hum of power at the end of his fingers and the centre of his chest. It reminded him of the time he downed an energy drink in three seconds flat.
Not sure what to expect, he flicked his fingers for light—
“Holy shit!” he screeched, leaping back two feet and tripping onto his bed, his eyes bugged out in shock. The springs bounced him in place until he settled, jaw dropped in stunned silence.
There was too much to take in, and what he did twirled around his mind as sentence fragments: Looks like me... Half-naked.... Wings?!
The identical being before him opened his identical mouth: “I imagine that is a form of expletive, as I see no blessed excrement in the vicinity. For which I am immeasurably thankful.”
Gaping, Jimmy stared wide-eyed at the half-naked man standing in the centre of his room (one that happened to share his features). Although, not exactly a man—not if the freaking giant black and navy wings were anything to go by. “Uh, um, are you—wha-what are you—I’m—” Holymotherfuckincrap. “I’m confused. Really, really confused,” he rambled.
Hello understatement of the millennium!
The winged doppelganger tilted its head, blue eyes narrowing into slits. “Why would you be confused? You are the one who requested me.”
Ok, so, apparently drawing on wisdom of the past didn’t just drop niblets of intelligence into one’s brain, but literally dragged a long dead past life right into his damn room! How was he supposed to get his assignment done now!? And how the heck did he get rid of this guy, or whatever he was.
Floundering, Jimmy blabbed an explanation, “I was only trying to harness knowledge from my former lives. I didn’t expect… you, whatever you are.” He paused, nose scrunched. “What are you?”
Please don’t be evil. Please don’t be evil. Although, it’d be kind of wicked to have a legit evil twin.
Wearing dark cotton pants and still no shirt, the being drew in its wings in a strange gesture of letting down his guard and said, “I am an Angel. And you, James Novak, are a reincarnation of my human soul.”