Introduction to Magic

All first years were required to take three weeks of Remedial Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, because many students from impoverished families were functionally illiterate. Matthäus found the reading and writing portions to be challenging but doable, and arithmetic was never his strong suit so he was grateful for the lessons. When he could pay attention of course, the sheer wonder and oddity of the situation overwhelmed him sometimes.

The first real class was History of Magic. The first-year students got there a few minutes early. The teacher was at her desk, sleeping. Emma Goldstein was a tiny woman, hardy taller than the average first year student, with bushy grey and red hair. Precisely at eight o'clock, a bell chimed and Mrs. Goldstein jerked awake. There was no flowery, exciting introduction. She simply instructed the children to pull out their copies of A Complete History of Ilvermorny, by Silence McCanless, and she read the story of the school's founding. She spoke slowly and monotonously. Matt was relieved to notice he wasn't the only one struggling to not doze off.

At nine o'clock in the morning on that chilly late September day Matthäus, Ole, and several dozen other children made their way down to the Introduction to Potions classroom on the first floor of the granite castle. Enchanted maps had been provided for students so they wouldn't get lost. Matthäus would sometimes spin in a circle as he walked, just to see the triangle that marked his position on the map turn around with him. The classroom had no natural light, but it was lit by hovering lanterns and candles.

At the front of the room was an elaborately carved hardwood desk that appeared to be quite old, and a chalkboard. Standing behind the desk was the teacher. She was tall, lanky, and pale. She had auburn hair and small blue eyes, along with a rather large hooked nose. The teacher wore long, dark green robes and a pointed hat of brown felt. Matthäus sat at a table in the middle of the room, and Ole, Sarah, and Millie Mae sat at the same table. Most of the students tended to stay with the ones they arrived with or their bunkmates.

"Welcome to Introduction to Potions, I am Harmonia Weasley, and I am honored to introduce you to the wonderful world that is practical magic," She put her hands behind her and looked around the room before pulling out a small book and starting a roll call. When she got to Matthäus she asked if she could just call him 'Matt', and he nodded his head. He had noticed the pronunciation of his name being butchered in odd ways, which bothered him more than his name being shortened did.

Harmonia spent the next hour listing off units of measurement, stirring techniques, temperature control, and North American plants, fungi, and animal bits. The students followed along in their copies of Brews, Salves, Draughts, and Medicines of North American Origin, by Wilford Magnussen. Matt recognized some of the plants, but most were new to him. Some didn't seem real, like Eastern Moonberry, which was said to grow only outside the dens of wampus cats. It was a lot of information to take in, and sometimes he got distracted by the moving illustrations in his textbook.

He looked over at Millie Mae, who was several pages ahead of the rest of them. Since she had learned how to read in the remedial class she had her nose buried in her textbooks all the time. Like most of the other students Matt was disappointed they didn't actually get to use magic themselves during the potions class. He had imagined that magic school would be much more different than regular school, but so far it seemed to be the same if not more difficult.

The next class was Charms, and it was taught by William Hornsby, a rotund man with a comically large white moustache. He wore a cranberry-colored suit with blue trim on the lapel and cuffs. His desk and the shelves behind him were covered in mysterious books and instruments. After the class sat down, he waved his wand, muttered something, and the students' school-issued copies of Chadwick's Charm's began dancing a jig on their desks. Some of the students jumped in shock, including Matt. Ole merely grinned in amusement, but he'd actually seen magic being used before many times.

"Welcome to Charms class, my dear children," Mr. Hornsby had a deep, rich voice, "Charms are spells which add new properties to something, such as how I added the ability to dance to your books. By the end of the year you'll be expected to do the same to an apple. I could regale you with theory for hours… however I prefer practical instruction. Take out your wands."

Excited whispers cascaded throughout the room as students pulled their wands out from their schoolbags or under their robes. Matt pulled out his wand, made from a straight grained piece of golden and dark brown pine wood. It was straight and unembellished, and it felt oddly alive in Matt's hand. Somehow it felt just as serious a tool as any axe or shovel Matt had handled at the farm back in the Dakota Territory, despite how light it was. Matt shook a little bit, and he wasn't sure if it was from excitement or trepidation.

"Now, when casting spells correct pronunciation is of the utmost importance. Improper pronunciation can lead to unfortunate side effects," Mr. Hornsby said as he held up his wand. "The first charm I'll teach you is the wand-lighting charm. Lumos!" he said, and the tip of his wand glowed a bright white light, much brighter than a candle. "Repeat it for me, loo-mohs," He drew out the word to make sure the students knew the proper pronunciation.

"Now you try," he pointed his wand at girl in the front row of desks.

"Lumos!" She said the spell loudly, and the tip of her wand glowed the same as Mr. Hornsby's. She smiled from ear to ear as she waved her wand in front of her slowly.

"Very good, ten points to Thunderbird! And now, everyone else!" Mr. Hornsby was smiling too.

"Lumos!" Matt held his own wand in front of him and said the incantation, half expecting it to not work. The tip of his wand glowed, a slightly weaker glow than his teacher and most of the other students' wands. At this point he'd been surrounded by magic for weeks, but using it himself made it all so much more real. I'm a wizard, a real life wizard! Matt thought back to the many dark nights on the farm when this would have come in handy.

Matt looked around the room, and most of the other students were similarly entranced by the spell. A few were just mildly amused, and a couple seemed entirely nonplussed. Thomas Smith was among the latter group.

Transfiguration was the next class, and it was held in a circular room in one of the castle's many towers. Glass cases filled with various normal objects lined all four walls of the classroom. The bell chimed, but the teacher was nowhere to be seen. The students whispered amongst themselves.

"My sister told me if the teacher is five minutes late we're allowed to leave." Matt heard a boy sitting nearby say.

After another minute, the whispering turned into talking, shouting and laughing. Suddenly, the chair behind the teacher's desk transformed into a man. Several children screamed. Matt was immediately interested in the subject, much more so than the other classes so far. He watched transfixed as the teacher turned mugs into bugs and then back again.

"Welcome to Introduction to Transfiguration, my name is Ezekiel Brown," He waved his wand and a moth flitting about near him turned into a piece of chalk, which he caught and began writing on the blackboard with. "The art of Transfiguration requires skill, knowledge, and focus. It can be dangerous if done improperly."

Like potions, this lesson was more about the principles and techniques behind the magic. Matt was disappointed that they didn't get to transfigure anything yet. He imagined how useful such an ability could be, such as turning a swarm of locusts into a gentle summer rain. He wondered if such a thing was even possible, but he also didn't know what wasn't possible with magic.

Lunch was a gorgeous spread of food as usual, and even after a few weeks seeing all that food in one place still shocked Matt. He wolfed down his first plate, then piled more beef, potatoes, cheese, and carrots on his plate before covering it all in brown gravy. As the youngest in a large and not well off family, he had developed a habit of eating very quickly so his older siblings couldn't steal from his plate. Even though that danger wasn't present at Ilvermorny it was a habit deeply ingrained in him.

Millie Mae had her Charms textbook open in her lap, and she read from it between bites, occasionally turning a page. "Did ya' know there's a charm just for fixing eyeglasses? Did ya' know there's a charm, Slugulus Eructo, that makes ya' vomit slugs?"

Ole groaned and rolled his eyes. So did Sarah, before she took her new glasses off and cleaned them with the hem of her cranberry-red robe. She was still getting used to wearing the glasses after the school nurse had them made for her. Matt just nodded along as he shoveled food into his mouth.

Herbology and Astronomy were much like the other classes, a bit dry but imagination-igniting nonetheless. Defense Against the Dark Arts filled Matt with a sense of dread. So far, other than the tale of Ilvermorny's founding, magic had been presented as benign, helpful, and cheerful. The knowledge of the existence of Dark wizards and malevolent creatures made Matt's stomach turn.

The teacher of Defense was Bill Dalman, a giant of a man. He wore numerous amulets around his neck, and each of his fingers had at least one ring on it. His long brown coat was covered in patches, what looked like burn marks, and strange markings embroidered on it. His stories of hunting down dark witches and wizards, as well as various creatures, across Europe and the Americas thrilled and terrified Matt.

On the Saturday after the first week of real classes the first years assembled at the Quidditch pitch, to learn how to fly on a broom. Carina Shock was the school's athletics advisor, and she would be teaching them how to use the magical vehicles, while also low-key scouting for the house Quidditch teams. First years almost never made it onto the teams, but she could at least know which ones to look out for in the future. A group of short, grey-skinned Pukwudgies watched. Something they found funny happened every first broom lesson.

Sitting astride a broomstick was much more comfortable than Matt had expected it to be, until he began to rise above the neatly trimmed grass. After he got about fifteen feet off the ground, Matt discovered he was deathly afraid of heights. Tall buildings and trees were awfully scarce in the Dakota Territory, so he had no memories of ever being more than ten feet off the ground. He stopped rising, and the others continued to gain altitude. He wasn't the only one to be nervous of course, but he was the only one to be paralyzed by fear.

"What, are you afraid of heights?" Thomas Smith drawled as he sneered at Matt.

Matt did not like that at all, and he wished he could go up and hit Thomas in his snooty face. He couldn't reach the other boy… but he realized a spell could. Matt pulled out his wand, which Carina didn't notice because she was busy chasing down a boy who had gone straight up into the air much too fast.

"Slugulus Eructo!" A bolt of green light shot out of Matt's wand, and it struck Thomas in the chest.

Thomas tried to speak, but slugs and slime came out of his mouth instead of words. Matt laughed, and a couple witnesses laughed. However, his enjoyment of the situation was cut short when Carmina Shock grabbed him by the ear and dragged him on his broom to the window of the headmaster's office. Matt kept his eyes clenched shut the whole way, until Carmina opened the window and shoved him through.

As Matt stood up, George walker looked up from the piece of paper he was holding in his hand and raised an eyebrow. Carmina somehow managed to step through the small window gracefully. Matt looked around the large room with a high ceiling. Shelves full of books, scrolls, and artifacts covered shelves. On one wall there was a giant map of Ilvermorny and the grounds, with moving Gordian knot symbols with names next to them on it. Matt realized that it was similar to the map he used to find his classrooms, but it showed where every student was.

"Well Carmina, what do we have here?" George folded the paper up and stuffed it back into an envelope.

"This boy used a slug-vomiting charm on another student." Carmina said calmly.

"A slug vomiting charm? Well, why would you do that Matthäus? Be honest, boy." George looked Matt straight in the eyes. There was a hint of disappointment in his voice, which reminded Matt of the times his father scolded him.

"I, uh, don't like being up high. Thomas noticed that and he started making fun of me. I didn't like that." Matt's face turned red and he looked down at his boots.

"Look me in the eye boy, is that true?" George said.

"Yes." Matt replied.

George narrowed his eyes, and Matt felt like George was looking right past his eyes and straight into his mind. "Thank you for your honesty, Matthäus. I cannot let an inappropriate use of magic such as this go unpunished, so you'll be spending a few hours tomorrow helping the Pukwudgies tend to the orchard, starting at dawn."

"Yes sir." Matt mumbled.

"Now, Miss Shock would you mind escorting him to his dormitory?"

Carmina nodded, and grabbed Matt by the ear again. Luckily the Pukwudgie house dormitory was not too far away. The common room was empty, as the third years and older were enjoying a day at New Hogsmeade and the second years were eating their lunch. Matt sat down in a cahir in front of one of the firplaces. Suddenly, the flames rose and the face of a man appeared in them. Matt jumped in his seat and yelled.

"Guten Tag, Matthäus Brink," The mysterious man said.