"HOLY CRAP!" Cadmus dived as Terry Boot's attempt at mental assembly of a wooden box broke down and flew across the room in chunky blocks, hitting the four walls of the nonverbal and wandless class like four giant karate chops. The Ravenclaw boy tried to hide underneath his cloak as his assigned partner Blaise Zabini had to be restrained from doing him bodily harm.
"If you give up, just relax!" Cadmus peered out from behind his desk. The other students also looked up, wiping their brows. Neville Longbottom was lucky the left piece had only taken a few hairs off his head; any lower and his teeth would be on the floor spinning.
"Look at Granger and Brown," Cadmus tapped the wooden box the two girls had constructed, although it collapsed soon afterwards to the class' groans. "Okay, let's not look at them…" he picked up a piece of the box which looked like a rat had bitten it for over ten years. "Not the best attempt, either of you."
Hermione and Lavender simply gnashed their teeth at each other, although neither really understood why they were doing it. Granger was simply one of Ron's friends, but Lavender thought of him as exclusively belonging to the Noble House of Brown (namely herself) and took no other alternative in her mind. The silent war between the roommates could not be understood by anyone else except maybe Harry Potter, Hermione's close friend who also was Ron's best mate. The soap opera of youth was playing itself out at Hogwarts despite the Dark Lord's growing threat.
"You need to cooperate to build the box with your mind," Cadmus held out his glove and rolled his fingers, assembling his demo set with ease. "This doesn't need a charm or curse, just a bit of…"
"Common Sense," the class echoed, Blaise twirling his pencil but still scowling at Terry.
"That's a kind of power many super wizards and witches forget sometimes," Cadmus tapped his forehead, "if you don't use common sense you are a hero, a villain or an absolute plonker." Hermione mouthed Ron under her breath while Lavender continued smiling and looking at the necklace portrait of herself with Ron, who looked rather reticent and with the weakest smile known to man.
"Aside from Common Sense, what are the other two powers that can transcend magical logic?" Cadmus weaved an ethereal mist above the classroom.
"Luck, sir?" Parvati Patil looked up into the mist.
"Love," Hermione blurted out much to her own surprise.
"Wonderful!" Cadmus conjured the words LUCK and LOVE out of his misty clouds.
"Luck doesn't need to be explained, it just tends to happen. Most of you know the Felix Felicis potion, but that potion merely changes the probability. I can't tell you how many wizards and witches have fallen down holes, slammed into walls, scared Muggles, fallen off their brooms and filling up St. Mungo' s thinking they could win a battle against a broken ribcage. That's not luck; luck is neither finite nor infinite. It just happens, and we thank or curse fate for it. Magic doesn't affect luck itself."
"And love?" Lavender cooed, "Isn't love the best?"
"Love is very, very complex–please get off your table, Miss Brown- and is even more difficult to manage than luck and far more unexpected than we realize. You can make a potion for luck but never for love."
Romilda Vane stirred but said nothing, her bench partner Pansy Parkinson groaning.
"Love isn't just ha-ha romance, it also means the most important things they teach all of you here; loyalty, faith, sacrifice, friendship, hope. Passion, feeling, trust, oh the list could go on and on. It is the source of all real magic and is derived from deep magic that is older than wizardry itself. You all know House-Elves? They can Apparate to their masters even here in Hogwarts, where you all very well know it cannot be done. That's why none of you are allowed to own them."
"You sound like an expert, sir," Parvati's remarks made the class laugh.
"In deep magic, I hope that's what you're meaning," Cadmus fingered his snake ring. "I just want you all to know that if you don't put your heart into your spell casting, you will have nothing but emptiness. Dark Arts are the product of moving love outside of yourself- but even then, you have to put your mind to it, if not your heart. Speaking of the Dark Arts, I believe Professor Snape is next for you, so chop, chop!"
The students got up; Granger and Brown's bags were entangled and they tugged at the knot all the way to the door, growling at each other. Zabini and Boot walked up to the desk, looking at each other and putting their wands in front of Cadmus.
"The answer is yes," Cadmus nodded, "I have a feeling Hogwarts will need us." Padma Patil walked past, nodding as if approving.
