Albus awoke from a pleasant dream and groaned. Today he would have to have lessons and that would mean showing his magical ability, which so far was none. He sat up in bed, stretched and got dressed reluctantly when he saw that the other boys in his dorm had already gone down to breakfast.
As he entered the hall, the ceiling above appeared to be raining, with dark rain clouds clinging to the sky. Albus spotted Zacharias and quickly sat down next to him, piling his plate high with bacon and toast. He watched Zach take a sip of his pumpkin juice and nudged him, pointing towards the staff table, specifically the empty seat to the right of Professor McGonagall. "where do you think the professor is?"
Zach looked at the seat thoughtfully, and started to say," I dont know perhaps one of the other teach-" he was cut off by the doors of the great hall banging open to reveal a dark hooded figure, who strode into the stunned hall, walked to the available seat next to dumbledore and pulled back his sodden hood to reveal- "Uncle Ron! What are you doing here?" Albus cried, although his shout was drowned as the whole hall laughed with almost disbelieving looks as Ronald Weasley revealed himself to the surprised hall.
"Ah, Mr Weasley, you made it.." McGonagall said in a stern and disapproving tone. Ron's ears turned a shocking shade of red as he bowed his head and stumbled into the seat next to McGonagall and pilling his plate high with everything he could eat, shoving formula into his mouth Some pupils laughed, Albus just shook his head; his uncle had never been the most delicate eater.
Professor Brown started to walk up to the beginning of the table, handing out a piece of parchment to each Gryffindor and tapping it with her wand to reveal their timetable. When she reached Albus she gave him a gentle smile and handed him his timetable, filled with his lessons for the week. "Yes! We have charms first, then transfiguration and defence against the dark arts with the Hufflepuffs!" Although Zacharias seemed ecstatic about their lessons,Albus felt his stomach plummet, how would he get through a whole day of magical lessons? He sighed, resigned to the fact he would just have to go home after he failed all his exams, or, even worse, repeat his first year and have his brother and sister go through Hogwarts without him.
"Attention students, I would like to introduce you to the new Defence against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Weasley. He will be replacing Professor Wilbur who, after 5 years has decided to go and teach at a school in Brazil. First years to their lessons promptly to ensure they will not be late or I may have to transfigure the pupil into a map, or a stopwatch! That is all" Every first year, apart from some of the Slytherins, stood up and left the hall.
Albus, feeling rather sick, glanced at his timetable, and followed Zach to their classroom noticing with distaste that Rowena was in their class. He had forgotten about her. He entered the filling classroom and took a seat at the back, next to Zach and another boy, whose name he did not know. As Professor Flitwick, a minute man with a greying mop of hair, appeared in the room, Albus pulled out his wand, a magnificent oak and dragon tear masterpiece, one of Ollivander Jr's finest.
"Today everybody we will be learning a simple charm, a very useful little thing to have up your wand, the levitating charm. Although the incantation is important, the hand movement is often key when producing a spell. For this spell, you must swish your hand upwards and give a sharp flick of your wrist. Everybody practise it quickly."
The class all began to move their hands, though not all in the right way. Flitwick walked round the room, correcting hand movements and congratulating those who had got it right. The boy next to Zacharias was doing what looked like a mad wave, before Albus showed him how to do it. "you want to really flick it, not just wave it. There you go! I'm Albus, what's your name?l" asked Albus gleefully. He was helping someone, not asking for help, but helping them!
"Scorpius. Scorpius Malfoy. I've been practising magic all summer but I haven't got the hang of it yet. ' the boy, Scorpius, gave Albus a grateful smile and demonstrated the correct hand movement.
Professor Flitwick cleared his throat with a squeaky cough, and proceeded to recite the incantation, wingardium leviosa, to the class. "Now, remember, do not forget the hand movement or it shall not work. Find a group of three and practice." As people stood up from their desks to try and find a group which was difficult as no-one knew another well enough yet. Albus, Zach, and Scorpius huddled together, deciding to try it one by one on Albus' quill. Scorpius went first; he gave a flick of and whispered the incantation. The quill wobbled slightly, as if it was protesting Scorpius' magic. Zach cast the spell and waved his wand expectantly. The wand did nothing.
It was Albus' turn next. He swallowed, his hand shaking slightly, "Wingardium leviosa,"muttered Albus. He swished and flicked. A surge of power flooded through Albus, and seemed to burst out his wand, flying the quill high in the air.
The whole class stopped, even Professor Flitwick stood there, mouth open in shock. Albus looked around the classroom selfconciously and smiled. He had done magic! In fact, he had produced the amount of magic only an extraordinary fully trained wizard could have produced, or so he was told by professor Flitwick.
Albus felt uplifted throughout the day, as he exceeded in all his classes, (and managed to gain Gryffindor a number of house points) especially Defence Against the Dark Arts, in which he managed to repel Professor Weasley's bat bogey hex with great ease.
At the end of the class, Ron pulled him to one side and whispered proudly,"Bloody hell Albus, I see you have inherited your fathers powers then, eh! Keep up the good work." Albus grinned, and jogged out of the room to catch up with Zach and Scorpius, with whom he had become rather close.
When he entered the great hall, people started to whisper and stare at Albus, some not even bothering to do it discreetly. Albus frowned, not liking the attention and not knowing what it was for. He sat down at the Gryffindor table, a little downhearted, until James came over and reassured him that they were only staring because word of his powers had spread through the school like wildfire, and he shouldn't worry about it, in fact he should be glad they were talking about his wealth of power, and not a lack of it.
Once again uplifted, he made his way to the Gryffindor common room, say down in an arm chair that enveloped him, and started on his essay that Ron had given him, how to produce a curse and it's counter curse.