While most Hogwarts students had the dubious honor of immediate classes following their arrival, First, Third, and Sixth years had a few days to gather their wits. It was in this time that the Third and Sixth years decided on their schedules and First years learned how to get around the castle without getting lost, hexed, transfigured, or exploded.
For the Inverses, they found themselves “invited” to a meeting in the Headmaster’s office on the second day. Harry found himself transfixed by the sheer number of marvelous little…things in Dumbledore’s office, but Lina took it in stride. To her, it was another sorcerer’s study, if a particularly exotic and well-stocked one. In fact, Rezo was the only one who had come close to having this much stuff in such a small space. But then, Rezo had also much more space to work with. She left those musings for later, of course, as they had a number of professors looking at them.
The previous day had mostly consisted of memorizing classrooms and the best routes to get to them, so they recognized the faces. Gourry was with them; apparently this was going to be the “so what exactly is your world like” conference.
McGonagall they knew, of course, from the Sorting. Deputy Headmistress, Transfigurations teacher (whatever that was), and head of Gryffindor House itself. She was probably the only teacher that had already earned Lina’s respect; she had iron in her the likes of which most could only dream of.
Flitwick was the only person shorter than them, owing to his goblin ancestor. Lina rather thought he, like Zel, would be used to being treated as a freak and resolved not to be party to such out of respect to her friend. As to the man himself, he seemed a cheerful man, likable but not the type likely to control an unruly classroom.
Snape was Flitwick’s opposite. Tall, thin, and mean summed him up. He seemed to particularly dislike Harry, but clearly Lina was not to be his friend, either.
Quirrell was barely worth noticing. Lina and Harry had seen more than a few sorcerers broken by their adventures. They were usually fairly capable of managing their own affairs, but to have such a victim teach? Not the cleverest of decisions.
Professors Sprout and Sinistra were absent, as their subjects were only tangential to the casting of magic.
And of course, Dumbledore himself was there. “Lina, Harry. Please, take a seat,” he said, gesturing to some rather comfortable armchairs. Once they were seated he continued. “As you have no doubt guessed, the entire staff is well aware of your otherworldly origins.”
Harry nodded. “And you haven’t told the students,” he observed.
Dumbledore smiled. “The existence of other worlds is NEWT level material – that is, something only certain students of sixth and seventh years learn. The magic to make the journey is all but lost to us.”
“But you made those talismans,” Lina objected.
Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled. “Yes, well, I do have some small talent.”
McGonagall sighed. “Really, Albus,” she reproached. “Yes, Miss Inverse, but they were not easy to make by any means. The work began when Mr. Potter, that is to say, Mr. Inverse vanished, and the only reason we were successful at all was because Stonehenge was well known to us and we could duplicate the journey.”
Lina nodded slightly. This was slightly more in-keeping with what she knew of magic to go from one staff to another. Although it begged a question: why was Harry worth the effort? “So it would be fair to say that you know nothing about me, my magic, or anything I’ve taught Harry.”
“Not to put too fine a point on it, but yes.”
Lina nodded and considered. “Well, from the little I’ve seen, my magic is better suited to combat. Most of the spells I know”
“Explode in a violent fashion,” Harry finished for her.
Lina was irked but didn’t correct her brother. “Well, yeah. Some of them don’t explode as much as others, though.”
“This is ludicrous,” Snape muttered. “Headmaster, I seriously doubt that these children, even one as old as Miss Inverse, have any magical secrets worth learning.”
Lina growled. “I will not have my sorcery called into question by a mere alchemist.”
This caused reactions in the staff. Snape turned purple. McGonagall looked scandalized. Dumbledore remained politely neutral, and the rest were merely shocked. The moment passed in an instant. “You dare,” Snape bellowed as he pulled out his wand…
“Severus,” Dumbledore said quietly.
Snape shuddered like a mad dog on a chain, his wand pointing at Lina’s face. Lina returned the look unflinchingly, but her hands were cupped over her chest, ready to produce any number of spells. Fireball, of course, top of the list. But Snape’s wand was down a moment later. "Fifty points from Gryffindor," he spat. No one so much as bat an eye.
“Miss Inverse,” Dumbledore continued pleasantly, “you will treat the staff of Hogwarts with respect. Now, perhaps rather than a debate on the merits of magical styles, a discussion of the underlying theory is in order.”
Lina lowered her hands and nodded slightly. “Fine. Simply put, a spell is a sentence composed of chaos words. The words shape magic into the form of the spell. Understanding of the words is critical; a single change of inflection can produce dramatic changes in effect or power. A good sorcerer can mold his spell to suit the needs of the moment.”
“Could you give us an example?”
Lina thought for a moment and reached into her robe. She pulled out a book that looked to be a small diary. “This is one of my workbooks. It’s for the spell Flare Lance – I’m trying to get it to make angles. The first few pages are the original spell.”
The professors took the book and flipped through it in turn. Snape was the quickest, determined to dislike anything that came from the girl.
“This is all one spell?” Flitwick asked, amazed.
“Where were you holding this book?” McGonagall asked.
“Huh? Oh, I enchanted my robes like I did Harry and my capes,” Lina said easily.
“Already?” McGonagall asked in surprise. “And you, Mr. Inverse?”
“I still have some trouble with that spell,” Harry confessed. “I didn’t want to risk my robes.”
“A good bit of thinking. Five points for both of you, for skill and courtesy.”
Snape twitched.
“Fascinating,” Dumbledore concluded. “Absolute gibberish, but fascinating.”
Lina nodded. “I didn’t think to bring any primers on chaos words with me,” she confessed. “I assumed magic was magic…I seem to have been mistaken.”
“Mistakes make life worth living my dear,” Dumbledore enthused. “I myself have made a few. What fields of magic do you study?”
“White, black, and shamanism,” Harry said quickly. “Shamanism is then air, earth, water, fire, or astral based. Black magic also covers chaos magic, due to extreme similarity, but chaos energy is a different level.”
“I see,” Dumbledore murmured. “We will arrange for a practical demonstration somewhere a bit…less fragile than my home.” He smiled. “Now, unless there is too much more to ask…”
“One moment, Professor,” McGonagall asked. She looked at Lina. “I told you the other day that your jewelry was not acceptable.”
“But,” Harry started.
“Yes, Mr. Inverse, you did say they were magic, and now that we have the opportunity, I would like to be convinced of their importance.”
“I purchased them off a mazoku…a demon,” Lina clarified, seeing that the proper term meant nothing to them. “They are magical amplifiers. The gems are each made to tap a dark lord from a different world. They are unique and irreplaceable; should they be lost I seriously doubt I will ever encounter their like again. They do not leave me, Professor, even if I must leave this world to keep them.”
McGonagall measured the conviction in Lina’s voice and nodded. “I will want to see this amplification at your demonstration.”
“Not a problem.”
“Very well. Off you go.”
Classes began the very next day. And for Harry and Lina, it was an adventure.
Peeves was good to his word. Which is to say, he was on his best behavior any time Harry or Lina so much as looked at him. This made the Inverses wildly popular when walking through areas Peeves was known to enjoy pranking.
Filch and his vile feline companion were a different matter entirely. He seemed to hate everyone and had no greater desire than to see students punished in ghastly ways. Lina’s talismans in particular aroused his ire, no doubt because she bent the very rules that were Filch’s greatest weapon.
Filch’s new assistant didn’t help his sadistic desires, but seemed to be working famously with the students. Gourry, having decided that keeping the grounds was too far away to protect Lina, had taken to patrolling the corridors. The simple man had outwitted the magical maze by the sheer expediency of not thinking about it. While he was absolutely lost amidst the classrooms and couldn’t remember any passwords at all, he was more than capable of showing lost students to the Great Hall, the library, and several other landmarks. Even a few second-years had commented that he had found shortcuts that they had missed. His response to rule-breaking took the forgiving-but-firm approach that defused incidents rather than threatened dire punishments, making him an instant hit with some of the routine troublemakers and an instant joke among Slytherins.
The classes themselves were…unexpected. Astronomy, Herbology, and History all made sense, although having a ghost teach History seemed a bit…off. Professor Bims was quite useless; Harry studied his textbook and ignored the drone, then moved onto more interesting lessons when, invariably, he had ‘learned’ all he could stand. Still, he reckoned he was using his time smartly enough; Ron had a miserable tendency to fall asleep.
Charms was a surprise. They were expecting methods for enchanting objects, but what they got was a wide variety of general use spells, some of which did indeed enchant objects. Clearly, however, it was not a class exclusive to the makings of charms, amulets, and talismans. Harry found the class much more interesting for it; enchantments were all well and good but there was a certain appeal to relying on nothing but your own ability, and these Charms promised to considerably enhance the breadth of those abilities.
Then came Transfiguration. Whatever Lina had been expecting, it wasn’t McGonagall turning her desk into a pig. Harry found himself slipping out of his chair as the implications swam through his mind. Lina, being a bit cleverer, reached her conclusion a bit too quickly and found herself half-sprawled on the floor, looking dazed, embarrassed, and outright disbelieving.
“Are you alright, Miss Inverse?” McGonagall asked, ignoring the sniggering students.
“No,” Lina said flatly. She hauled herself upright and looked squarely at McGonagall’s desk. “Did you really just transform your desk into a pig?” she asked dubiously.
“You doubt your eyes?” McGonagall asked curiously.
“Only when they don’t make sense,” Lina said. “That kind of magic isn’t possible.”
“I think you might wish to listen to your professors about what is and isn’t possible, Miss Inverse,” McGonagall said sharply.
Harry looked to Lina. “Zelgadis?” he mouthed.
Lina nodded. If they could turn desks into pigs, could they turn a man back into himself? Determined to master this new branch of magic, Lina threw herself at trying to turn a match into a needle. The first dozen simply burst into flames, the 13th exploded after seven tries, and the last had a metallic gleam to it. Which was still better than almost anyone else; only Granger was able to produce a more dramatic change. Gryffindor earned many points that class.
After that came Defense Against the Dark Arts, which Harry was much less nervous about when he realized that the local style of magic didn’t have a formal black magic school, and so they weren’t going to all use Lina as an example of the enemy. Although he did get the distinct impression that most of her spells had a big enough boom to be considered Dark.
Lina was having trouble with nomenclature, and had already dismissed Quirrell as useless in learning anything worth knowing. She busied herself with understanding how curses, hexes, and jinxes matched against her knowledge of magic. She quickly realized that the comparison couldn’t be made; only the most severe curses were in the same league as a simple flare arrow. Most of the spells were more akin to Martina’s twisted efforts; annoying and overcomplicated but disturbingly effective in their own way.
Lina smiled as her own words came back to her. The most powerful spell in the world doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t know where and when to use it! This class would enhance her arsenal greatly, particularly with restraint spells. Halcyform had nicely demonstrated the weakness of her usual approach with things that weren’t afraid to die. Next time she went up against an immortal sorcerer, she’d be able to slow him down a bit more.
Things went bad with Potions. With Slytherins. Lina could see no possible way that having Snape, Head of Slytherin, teach Slytherin and their ancient rivals in the same class could possibly go wrong.
Sarcasm is a universal principle that translates in all four worlds, it seems.
Snape took roll. “Ah, Harry Potter,” he said softly, a sneer growing in his voice. “Oh, excuse me. Harry Inverse.” He turned the surname into something like a slur, which would have earned him a fireball only a few days ago. However, Lina found herself partly restrained by Harry before she could rise out of her seat.
“That’s another five points from Gryffindor, Miss Inverse,” Snape snarled. “This is a respectable school, not a backwater village.” He ignored the jeers from the Slytherins, of course.
Snape began his lesson with a loving rendition of how potions could do anything you could ask, and concluded with a rapidfire interrogation of both Inverses.
“Mr. Inverse. What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?”
Harry frowned. “I’m not certain, sir. I think they’re both used in sleeping potions, though?”
“Was that a question or an answer?” Snape asked, mildly surprised that Potter’s spawn had come close to an answer. “Let’s try our newest star. Miss Inverse, where would you look if I told you to find my a bezoar?”
“Easy,” Lina said lazily. “The guts of a beast. Cattle, goat, sheep, something like that. They fetch a decent price if you can prove they’re real. It’s usually more reliable to buy them from a butcher than to hunt up the goats themselves.”
“I did not ask you about petty economics,” Snape snapped. This was not going at all well. “Very well, Mr. Inverse maybe you can redeem yourself. What is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?”
Harry got the distinct impression that no answer would satisfy Snape. “I don’t know, sir. Wolfsbane doesn’t grow anywhere near my home, and I’ve never heard of monkshood.”
“Well, perhaps if you are not hopeless, you may learn,” Snape said nastily.
After that Snape divided them into pairs. Harry worked with Ron while Lina was paired with Hermione; no doubt he wanted the two Inverses separate for some twisted reason. And indeed, throughout the lesson Snape found every possible mistake either student made to be affront to everything from logic down to their ability to read.
Harry rushed out of the class with Ron in tow. “Stupid mean heartless hypocritical…” he muttered.
Ron looked white. “Blimey, Harry, I’ve never heard of a teacher going on a student that hard. And you almost got those questions right, too. I wonder what got him?”
“I did,” Lina sighed, catching up. Hermione was half a step behind. “He insulted me yesterday and I let him have it right back.”
“Well that was stupid,” Hermione said rather crossly. “No wonder we lost so many points yesterday.”
Lina shrugged. “I’ve gone from being respected”
“Feared,” Harry interrupted lazily.
“RESPECTED,” Lina said loudly, “by royalty to just being another student in the space of a month. It’s a bit of an adjustment.”
“You can’t be serious,” Hermione challenged. “Royalty?”
Lina looked at the muggle-born girl. “Believe what you want. It doesn’t matter anyway. As long as Snape teaches me what I want to learn, what do I care about points?”
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