Editing Crucible:Horus (section)

== Background ==

Magical forces have swirled around Harry Piffle his entire life.

So has trouble.

Harry grew up in [[Crucible:Pacific City|Pacific City]], an intelligent, bookish and painfully awkward boy who preferred libraries to athletics and ancient history to school dances. At [[Crucible:Nathaniel Nova High School|Nathaniel Nova High School]], his nervous manner, lack of athletic ability and unfortunate surname made him an easy target for bullies.

Harry responded by retreating into books.

History led to mythology, folklore, comparative religion, dead languages, ceremonial magic and increasingly obscure works of occult scholarship.

Most teenagers who read books about magic eventually discover that magic does not exist.

Harry discovered the opposite.

His earliest experiences were subtle enough to dismiss as coincidence. Objects moved when he was frightened. Symbols appeared in dreams and later surfaced in books he had never read. Words spoken aloud occasionally produced effects that words were not supposed to produce.

Eventually Harry began experimenting deliberately.

His early spells were improvised from folklore, fragmentary manuscripts and half-understood rituals, but Harry possessed an extraordinary intuitive sense for separating genuine magical principles from centuries of embellishment and nonsense.

They worked.

Frequently rather better than expected.