So he lessened his pace, and thought a little about the two branches of magic he’d just learned of: Legilimency and Occlumency. Occlumency seemed rather a lot like the mind-defense exercises he’d learned from Chaozu, one of Gohan’s friends, through Gohan’s late father, of whom Gohan very rarely spoke. Chaozu was a telepath, and a powerful one at that. It took a very great deal of effort to stymie his efforts to enter Harry’s mind. Even at his maximum effort, Harry couldn’t keep him out for more than thirty seconds. But since Chaozu was powerful enough to casually enter the minds of the entire population of Earth at once, and pluck out whatever he chose, this was not such a loss. Harry believed it might just be enough, but he resolved to keep working on the exercises that he’d been given.
Legilimency had similar promise, but Harry was uncertain of it. He thought it wasn’t his place to be entering other people’s minds. On the other hand, against Voldemort and his servants...in any event, it was something to consider. But it would have to be taken with caution.
He reached out with his mind, and felt a fair number of auras moving toward the Hall. He concluded that he was no longer the only student awake. Within a few minutes he’d reached the hall, and sat down in a seat at the Ravenclaw table. He was the only student at the table at the moment. The Gryffindor table had a modest number; the Hufflepuff table was empty; and the Slytherin table looked to have about the same number as the Gryffindor table.
Harry then began filling up his plate, from the loaded platters that had just appeared in front of him. Everything looked wonderful, and it would be so, if it was as good as the feast the night before.
After thirty minutes of gorging himself on eggs, pancakes, sausages, toast, and fruit, he decided it was. Feeling sated, he sat quietly in his chair.
By eight, the hall was full. Course schedules were then handed out.
Harry studied his schedule for several minutes. He knew it was Monday. This morning he had a double block of Charms at nine with Gryffindor House; Herbology at eleven with Slytherin House; History of Magic at one PM with Hufflepuff House; and then a double block of Transfiguration with Gryffindor at two-thirty in the afternoon.
On Tuesdays he would have Flying at nine with Hufflepuff; double Defense Against the Dark Arts with Slytherin at ten-thirty; and double Potions with Hufflepuff at two. Potions meant Professor Snape. Harry was relieved that he didn’t have to face that first thing in the morning; he knew it wouldn’t go well.
Wednesday would repeat all of Monday’s classes, and add an eleven p.m. hour of Astronomy, with all three other houses. Thursday would repeat Tuesday, without Flying. And Friday would hold an eleven AM Herbology, and a one PM History of Magic.
He thought his schedule looked approachable. With two days a week completely free, and lessons mostly finishing early in the afternoon, he would have plenty of time for his own pursuits.
He then suddenly remembered that he would need his books, and walked out of the hall. Once out, he quickly made his way back to the Ravenclaw portrait guardian. He gave the correct password, climbed through, and went through the right-hand door to climb the boys’ staircase. Once on the first landing, he walked into the room. He unlocked his trunk with his key, took out the needed books and supplies, and put them in the bag. He pocketed his wand – it was too important to place at risk by keeping it in the satchel, and he chided himself for not having it, and his other supplies, at hand. He supposed he wasn’t quite used to carrying it.
He then quickly made his way back to the Great Hall, and sat down in his chair as if nothing had happened. Checking his watch, he found it was eight-thirty. He saw that Terry, Michael, Anthony, and all five girls had stood; and he reasoned that they were readying to leave. He looked at his schedule, and read the appropriate room directions, and followed his year away from the table.
The nine students made their way to the Charms classroom. Harry remembered, from his schedule, that this would be a double lesson, and it would be with the first years of Gryffindor.
When they found the classroom, everyone took seats. Harry sat at an empty table, and took out his wand, as well as ink and parchment and a quill. He’d found it fascinating, a few weeks ago, that wizards and witches wrote with such old-fashioned instruments, but he was used to it now. The Gryffindor first years arrived after another minute, and they also began taking seats. One of the boys came up to Harry. “Is anyone sitting there”, the boy asked.
Harry shook his head. So the boy took the seat next to Harry, and took out the same things. “I’m Ron Weasley”, he said, holding out a hand. Harry grasped it and shook lightly. He smiled as well.
“I saw you at the Sorting”, Harry said. “Good to meet you.”
“Same to you”, Ron responded.
They continued talking for a few moments. Harry learned that Ron had heard about him growing up, because Ron was from a magical family. Not knowing what to say about his own adoptive family, Harry said he lived with “distant relations”, and left it at that. It wasn’t true, but it would serve its purpose. Ron said that he had three elder brothers at Hogwarts: twins in third year and one in fifth; he also said he had a sister who would be here next year, and two elder brothers who had left Hogwarts already. Harry said this was a lot of siblings, and that he didn’t have any. Ron had seemed depressed about them, but Harry had cheered him up a bit, when he said he’d rather have a lot of family, than none at all. This was true.
At five to nine, Professor Flitwick walked in. He stood on a stack of books behind his desk, so that he could see everyone.
“Welcome, Ravenclaws and Gryffindors, to your first year of Charms! For those of you who don’t know, I am Professor Flitwick, head of Ravenclaw House. We must first take the roll, so we shall do that now. When I call your name, please say ‘present’ or ‘here’ in response, and raise your hand.”
Taking the roll took only a few minutes. When Harry’s name was called, he said “Here.” Ron was last, also responding with “Here.” Professor Flitwick then rolled up the parchment and put it away. He continued speaking.
“I see you all have your supplies out, wands included. Good. Now, where should I begin? I suppose the first thing to do, is define what charms are, and what the subject of Charms entails. Charms is the study of manipulating objects, and the study of magical action. That seems to cover a lot of ground, and indeed it does. Charms encompasses everything from simple wand lighting, with Lumos”, and light appeared at the tip of the professor’s wand, “to extraordinarily complex spells like the Fidelius Charm, and virtually anything you can think of in between. It covers personal defense, such as the Shield Charm, which blocks hexes and jinxes and curses. It includes defenses against Dark creatures, like the dementor and the Lethifold, with the Patronus Charm. Also included are spells to control temperature around you, such as Cooling Charms. Clearly, Charms is a subject of considerable breadth, and in your five or seven years in this class, seven if you choose to take it at NEWT-level, you will learn a great number of charms for a great number of actions.” He smiled. “I hope you all copied that down.” He flicked his wand and extinguished it.
Harry had. So had Ron. Harry couldn’t see if anyone else had.
But Professor Flitwick had begun talking again. “Now, on a subject not quite related, the Headmaster has issued a mandate: beginning this year, all professors must grade all of their pupils’ work on the scale used in OWL and NEWT testing. Those, respectively, are your fifth and seventh year examinations. 'OWL' stands for Ordinary Wizarding Level, and 'NEWT' stands for Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests. Those tests will, for most of you, determine your future in our world, so when they do arrive, make sure you do as well as your abilities allow.” He nodded once. “So here is the scale. There are six marks, three passing and three failing. Highest overall grade is O for ‘Outstanding’; it requires a ninety-five percent or greater. Next is E for ‘Exceeds Expectations’, which covers anything from eighty-five to ninety-four percent. The final pass grade is A for ‘Acceptable’, which allows anything between seventy and eighty-four percent. Anything under seventy percent on your exam or assignment means you failed it.”
He shook his head. “First failing grade is P for ‘Poor’, which allows anything between sixty-five and sixty-nine percent. D comes next; it means ‘Dreadful’ and covers marks from fifty to sixty-four percent. The lowest grade is T for ‘Troll’, which is everything under half marks. In my classroom, I don’t bother with marking papers and effort that miserable, I just give a zero mark. You will find most professors here do similar things.”
Here, Professor Flitwick paused for more than a minute and surveyed the room. He had placed his wand on the desk.
“As for attempting NEWT Charms, I do not admit pupils who earn less than a mark of E when they take their OWL exam. NEWT Charms is a difficult course; people who lack the talent would find themselves quickly behind, with little chance to catch up – and that is not a situation anyone likes.”
He shook his head several times. After a minute or so, he began talking again. “So, there ends that tangent. And now, we finally get to the first charms of the curriculum. First, we summon sparks. Hold your wand in your dominant hand, and flick your wrist.”
Harry did so. A fountain of blue sparks jetted from his wand tip. Ron had received a stream of red sparks.
And then, Flitwick was talking again. “Now, we move on to lighting our wands. Keep your wands out, concentrate your will on lighting your wand, and say ‘Lumos’!”
Harry did so. The tip of his wand glowed blue. It was rather bright. Ron’s wand glowed red. Harry looked around, and saw that everyone in the class had accomplished the spell. The Gryffindor students had red glows, and the Ravenclaws had blue.
Professor Flitwick clapped his hands. “Wonderful! Everyone did it on the first go! That is a good start. Whenever you are ready, think about turning the light off, and say ‘Nox’, and that should extinguish the glow.”
Harry muttered the incantation, and the light went out. Around the room, he saw wands go out as everyone said the spell, at their own pace.
Professor Flitwick again congratulated the class for properly working the spell in one attempt. He then told the class they could talk quietly amongst themselves for the rest of the period.
With five minutes to go, he began speaking again. “For your homework, I want you to read the first chapter of Adalbert Waffling’s book, Magical Theory, and then summarize the chapter. I expect summaries to be no less than a foot of parchment in length. You are dismissed!”
The students all filed out to head to whichever class they had next.
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(Posted Sun, 11 Jan 2004 20:28)
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