Most of the Winx groan when they see their schedules - Potionology, Magiphilospohy, Magiphysics, Metamorphosis, Magic Invocation, and Magic Self Defense are all core classes this year. Along with Good Manners. This year is going to suck.
Magiphilospohy is basically a debate class, all theory about why they have and use magic and how they should use it - basically, an ethics class with a different name, with Cognitive Analysis happening in second year after it.
Magicphysics, on the other hand, is all theory about magic itself - how they use magic, exactly, and how not to have it blow up in their faces. Literally.
Magic Self Defense and Potionology are for all three years - unfortunately, in Stella's opinion, and all but Bloom agree just thinking about the horror stories they've heard - and it, along with Metemorphosis and Magiphysics only get harder. Metamoprhosis and Magiphysics turn into more advanced versions of the classes, with Metamorphosis turning into Biotransformation in second year and then Metamorphsymbiosis in third - basically, a combination of the first and second years - and Magiphysics and Magic Invocation basically combining into Applied Convergence, which lasts second to third year. The former being theory, and the latter being practical, and Applied Convergence combining them.
Bloom's the only one not dismayed by their schedule - in fact, the other girls think she must be demented to think it sounds interesting. They've yet to figure out that Bloom's a massive bookworm at heart, always wanting to learn more about magic - half the Death Eaters would probably faint from shock, and the Wizarding World would be thrown into utter chaos if they learned the battle-hardened girl they hid behind was so much of a scholar behind her armor. A scholar who happens to like beating her opponents to a pulp, but still.
Clearly, they hadn't paid attention at all while she was still in Britain - what else would you consider someone who constantly had her nose in books but a scholar? What else would you call someone who studied magic years ahead of her grade level regularly? And practiced that magic? What else would anyone with half a brain cell call someone who turned their O.W.L. year into an impromptu N.E.W.T. year but a scholar, someone who loves learning? Its why she could've gone to Ravenclaw, after all.
For just a moment, Bloom has a pang of sympathy for the Sorting Hat - clever enough to learn some form of control over her Fairy Magic by age seven, undyingly loyal to those who earn her loyalty, willing to dive headlong into danger to keep what's hers safe, and an almost obsessive collector - almost hoarder - of knowledge of any and all kinds. Yes, if the Sorting Hat could've had a headache…Bloom would've undoubtedly been the one to induce it. After twenty minutes, she thinks she succeeded in that.
Unfortunately for the rest of the Winx, the first class in Magic Self Defense - directly after breakfast. Bloom thinks it might be Grizelda's slightly sadistic way of ensuring everyone's awake. Or, for a more practical approach, it might be to ensure everyone's eaten something before her class.
Well, only one way to find out.
Unlike her apartment-mates, the rest of the Winx, Bloom is well-versed in pushing her body to its limits and then some - limits most wouldn't think to push, at that - so she's more than interested to see just how they'll be learning to defend themselves.
Hand-to-hand, enhanced by magic?
Purely casting spells?
Going completely magicless? Unlikely, but a possibility all the same.
Still, a self-defense class is sure to be interesting when its actually taught well - and Griselda seemed stern enough to ensure everyone paid attention…
Griselda rakes her eyes over the latest group of Freshmen Fairies she gets to - metaphorically - pound into fighting shape, not pausing in her lecture about taking the class seriously. Most of them look nervous, unsteady - all but one.
Bloom Potter.
She's not fidgeting, shifting on her feet as the older woman tells them she'll teach them to defend themselves over the next three years, that they'll come to hate the very door of the room as well as the room before she's through with them, that they'll get no sympathy from her because eventually they'll need to know this stuff. Great Dragon, she looks like she thinks its a challenge.
"Now," she asks, crossing her arms, "does anyone already know how to fight?" Unlikely, but every few years there's someone who's already been in a situation or two.
Unsurprisingly, Bloom Potter says "I do."
It doesn't escape Griselda's notice that her apartment-mates share glances at that. It does, however, make her nervous.
"Oh, really? How long have you known?"
"Years now. Would you like a demonstration?"
Again with the glances between the other four girls, Griselda's suddenly sure this girl is more than she lets on. Knows more than she lets on. And she's not sure she wants to find out just how much more that is - still, she's got to know what she's working with. As such, Griselda nods and stalks out into the opposite end of the room while saying "Any way you know how to defend yourself is allowed for now, so long as you don't deliberately try to kill someone. However you know how to attack someone, use it."
Bloom nods, and Griselda casts a spell that acts as a timer. As soon as it goes off, Bloom…kicks the ground in front of her, almost like she's scuffing the toe of her shoe. In response, the ground seems to tear up, like she sent a wave of magic through it towards her. A wave that's getting bigger.
Rudimentary, but not bad. Still, Grizelda easily dodges it, simply launching her body up into the air.
And then two large sections of the floor get torn up, lighting on fire like hand-made meteors before they get sent hurtling towards Griselda.
Better, definitely better - less unaimed destruction and more focus. Griselda just counts herself lucky she's fast enough to dodge those mini-meteors.
And then Bloom's magic grabs ahold of her, and she gets tossed around like a ragdoll - luckily, she's able to catch herself and prevent any lasting injuries, as Bloom let go as soon as she tossed her.
Ten minutes later, Griselda is soaked through with sweat and calls a halt to their 'demonstration' - Bloom using her as a new cleaning rag, more like - while the red-head looks hardly affected by the strain using so much magic must've been. In one instance Grizelda's not going to try a repeat of, she got close enough to try and land a spell on her through physical contact, only to nearly get her hand scorched black before she was thrown into a nearby wall.
Needless to say…Bloom doesn't just know a little about defending herself. Griselda actually pities whoever Bloom gets paired up with - she may well have to take her on herself, actually.
Popping her back, neck, and shoulders a few times, Griselda says "Excellent demonstration, Bloom. Now, back with the others. As for the rest of you ladies, that is a taste of what you'll be learning. Now, I'll pair you up and we'll begin with some more basic techniques."
It doesn't escape Griselda's notice that Stella's quietly asking "Bloom, you wouldn't have actually hurt Griselda…would you?"
Bloom just snorts, and says "Stella, she's the prof- teacher for this class. I figured she was fully capable of blocking or dodging anything I could throw at her." Literally. Bloom would feel a bit guilty if she accidentally hurt Griselda, really hurt the woman, but that is the risk you take when you teach people how to defend themselves.
Griselda inwardly groans, this is going to be a long three years, she can already tell. Bloom's clearly had to fight too long to hesitate or pull her punches - she's not innocent like the rest of her year, not wide-eyed and squeamish or worried about getting hurt. She'll have to ask Faragonda just how she found the young woman, because even on her first day things aren't adding up.
None of the teachers were told much about her, she was even registered as a Fairy from a minor planet despite the detail that she looks so familiar somehow…
Faragonda said she didn't want Bloom being treated differently from any other student, that Ms. Potter didn't want her true identity getting leaked somehow. There's only a few people that would be in a situation like that, though - Princes or Princesses from Royal Families. Its not even an uncommon practice.
Their identities are hidden from everyone but the Head of the school they attend, and the Headmistress or Headmaster is bound to secrecy by a spell. People can figure it out on their own, but its made much harder by the detail that usually a Prince or Princess in the Magical Dimension is practically layered with spells to keep any pictures not authorized by their parents from leaking into the mainstream media. If you were really desperate, you'd have to go to a history book and look up pictures of dead members of a royal family for comparison…and that's unreliable, most of the time. There's no guarantee that a current Prince or Princess will look anything like their ancestors, after all.
Alternatively, the hidden Prince or Princess could tell their apartment-mates the big secret. Something that would happen if - usually - somebody figured it out and there was an incident that guilt-tripped said royal into telling their roommates everything.
But, still…why does Bloom Potter look so familiar?! Griselda brushes it off for after classes are over for the day, satisfying herself for now with the idea that she met the girl's mother at some point in the past.
The rest of the day passes in a blur of introductions and explanations of the classes Bloom's currently in - Magiphilosophy sounds like something of a bore, but at least Bloom can talk circles around people's heads in it.
Magiphysics sounds like the Alfea version of Arithmancy, honestly - calculating how much power to put into a spell, how various spells are structured, how to set up a magical ward. In all honesty, it sounds utterly fascinating and Bloom's so glad Hermione let her read her Arithmancy and Runes books - she doesn't need the Sight to see she's going to be experimenting with Fairy and Wiccan Magic in the near future, that's for sure. Hermione will kill her if she doesn't take extensive notes.
Likewise, Potionology is something Draco would, Bloom's sure, gladly splinch himself into tiny pieces to participate in - maybe he'd take Hermione, and they'd share the burden of the spell to see these classes.
And McGonagall and Whiz-giz would be talking Transfiguration and Transformation for a solid week if she ever introduced them - the tiny man can turn himself into anything, anything at all at just a snap of his fingers.
Magic Invocation is a purely practical class that Bloom's going to have some fun in - its all about using magic, learning to channel it. Hands-on stuff, as compared to the theory that is Magiphysics in the period before.
Plus, the teacher said there was a project for their midterm and finals in Applied Convergence, which Magic Invocation leads to, based off what they learn in the two classes. And Bloom has got two wonderful ideas for that - according to the book she got from the library, 'Convergence' is the combination of two separate magics. Usually, that's magics cast by two separate people…but Bloom can access two different forms of magic…this is going to be fun. She purposefully didn't use her wand or Wiccan Magic against Griselda so that word wouldn't get out about some of the things she can do - ace in the hole, and all that - so hopefully it'll be perfectly legal to combine two types of magic she can use for the projects.
She legitimately cannot wait.
AN: Hey, everyone! Sorry I'm a little late - homework and stuff, sorry! Plus, I realized I actually didn't know what classes were taught in Alfea, beyond one like Transfiguration thanks to Secret of the Lost Kingdom, so...yeah, had to go researching. And then fabricating an entire class schedule, since there were descriptions for...two classes, I think it was. And literally no class schedules. Ergo, this is the result - a run-down of the entire three years at Alfea, with Griselda getting her wings handed to her on the first day of classes. At least Bloom knows when and how to hold herself back, if only so she doesn't get expelled for...what would the term be, anyway? Accidental 'fairy-slaughter'? Either way...this year is going to be sorer than the rest!
Anyway, enjoy! Please review! PS, gotta write a paper, so I may be late with the next update...so sorry, but school.