Hermione and Sylvia slipped into their first class of the week Introduction to the Magical World with a few minutes to spare. The class was for children who had been raised in Muggle-born homes and was intended to over the course of the year give them an idea about how they fit into the wizarding world and how to navigate it. Hermione found a seat in the front and Sylvia took a seat in the second row next to a boy who looked like her. A pretty ugly girl took a seat next to her.

Be nice Hermione. It's the soul of a person that counts.

So Hermione turned smiled and introduced herself to the witch who introduced herself as Meisa. Hermione found that underneath the ugly exterior was a biting if slightly self-deprecating wit and a quick mind. So maybe Meisa would be worth making a friend of. The teacher came in with the bell; a balding, portly man who introduced himself as Professor Amadeus Meyer.

The class was nothing like Hermione had expected. Honestly, she had no idea what she had been expecting but not a teacher who came in and asked them to write a list of everything they knew about the wizarding world.

"We need to know where to begin after all, and I would hate to drone on about things you already know! You all look like knowledgeable young children. Don't be ashamed there is no wrong answer here." The professor explained cheerfully to a baffled class of around 25 ten to eleven-year-olds. He waited expectantly until the students began pulling out whatever writing utensils they had with them, pens for most, though Hermione saw a few people using quills or things that looked like quills mixed with a calligraphy stylus. Looking down at her own piece of parchment and quill, that she had bought less than a year ago for Hogwarts Hermione picked up the quill and started on her list.

Use quills to write instead of pens or pencils

Purebloods, half-bloods and mudbloods and blood prejudice are common in Britain, maybe elsewhere?

One wizarding bank called Gringotts run by goblins

There is a Statute of Secrecy in place as well as wards to keep people without magic from seeing our world

ICW as well as individual wizarding governments for each country

Seems to be a thing with Dark Lords or Ladies

Wizards and witches also seem to have a thing about prejudice and stigmas

She looked over her list as she put down her quill and hoped that it was enough information. She'd read up on Hogwarts in Hogwarts: A History but she didn't know much about the rest of the wizarding world yet. Something this class would hopefully remedy. Once everyone had finished their lists Professor Meyer collected them with a wave of his wand and started skimming through them. Realizing he had a class, though he placed them down and asked them to start lobbying questions that they wanted answers for about the wizarding world. This was easier than making a list of things she knew about the wizarding world and Hermione raised her hand.

"Sir? Does the Wizarding world follow ancient customs that were also celebrated in the non-magical world before the Statute of Secrecy came into being?"

"That is a very complicated question, Miss Granger. For the most part, many ancient families celebrate the old holidays and customs but as those raised in the non-magical world come in they bring with them their own cultures and beliefs and that is where some of the bad blood between ancient, mainly pureblood families, and Muggle-borns and some half-bloods stems from. At first, the wizarding world asked those who came from Non-magical bloodlines and backgrounds to change to fit the world they were now in. But gradually a push came for the wizarding world to be the culture that was changing to accommodate muggle-borns coming in. Some wizards and wizarding communities take this better than others. The rest are what most call blood-purists because they take their wish for a lack of change and a return to the old days out on the source of the change. They also often don't marry outside of other families with views like theirs. They really are more traditionalists than anything, though some are more radical than others. The most recent Dark Lord-Voldemort in Britain- used the traditionalists' values and beliefs to build a support base to launch a war on blood purity something that also lends itself to the negative light placed on traditionalist families. Any other questions?"

The rest of the class was spent with Professor Meyer answering questions that they could come up with from the easier ones like 'why a quill? Is it okay I just have pencils and pens?' to 'Why does the Wizarding world only have one bank? What happens if it's robbed, like a major heist?'

Hermione left the class happy. Though there seemed to be no formal plan to the class it had been informative, and there was nothing Hermione loved more than gathering knowledge and utilizing it. She had spent most of the class writing down the answers to the questions being asked, and now walking to her next class Basic Charms her hand was aching.

Basic Charms was interesting with a more formal class structure than Intro to the Wizarding World. The teacher was a serious young woman by the name of Tallis Cauchemar. She had a pair of practical glasses on her face and as she walked into the loud room she flicked her wand and the cacophony of different languages and voices seemed to quiet.

Hermione found herself sitting next to a boy who spoke Russian, and a girl who was speaking in Spanish. When the teacher came in he Hermione was shocked to discover that though she knew they were speaking in languages she couldn't speak, after Professor Cauchemar did something with her wand, she could understand them. It was interesting and Hermione instantly wanted to learn everything that Professor Cauchemar could teach.

"Hello, class. Today we are to be learning two charms today if we are lucky. The first charm is the Levitation charm the first charm any young witch or wizard learns at almost all the wizarding schools. The motion is a swish and flick motion as seen on the board and the incantation is Wingardium Leviosa pronounced win-GAR-dium levi-OH-sa. You will do it on the feather in front of you. The second is a useful translation spell that is fairly easy and useful, especially in an international school like this one. We'll talk more about it when we get to that point. Don't be afraid to ask for help. If someone gets the charm and think you can explain what you did; help! Okay. Then hop to it!" Professor Cauchemar said.

Hermione was happier than ever that she had gone to Diagon Alley on her eleventh birthday even though she wouldn't be going to Hogwarts. She had bought the books and studied the wand movements, pronunciations, and theory. It allowed her to excel! Unlike in Intro to the Wizarding World where she had about the same amount of knowledge as everyone else she could be ahead in this class, though there were also children who had grown up with magic in this class, so maybe only as good as some the best in the class.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" She said strongly filling her mind with images of the feather in front of her lifting into the air. She smiled as it worked, though she wouldn't admit it she had been scared that even though she had been accepted into two wizarding schools, gotten a wand, knew everything in the Hogwarts first-year curriculum, and was in a magical school in the sky that when she actually tried to do magic with a wand it would fail. Yes, odd things had happened to her when she was a child but they could all be easily explained off as bad luck or a trick of the light, or being sleep addled. Maybe the girl who had broken both her arms after throwing her books into the mud had just tripped, the boy whose tongue she had swelled after a mean common had an allergic reaction, the story her parents told her about her summoning books a dream they had made up when they had stayed up too late. It was one of her fears, that one day they would decide she wasn't magical enough to stay here, to learn and would send her away. Watching her feather float above her head she felt a bit of her fear melt away. She was magic and she would excel. Looking around she saw that she was one of the only people in the room who had her feather floating. Meisa had her feather floating and was helping Neville, who was also in the class, float his feather. Draco seemed to be grudgingly helping people by him learn. A few others were helping as well and as more people got the spell the more students were helping each other.

Hermione eager to learn the translation spell Professor Cauchemar had demonstrated quickly turned to the people sitting next to her and asked if they needed any help. With an hour left in the class, all the feathers were floating in the air and Professor Cauchemar had a small smile on her face.

"Now that I know you all know which end of the wand you use, I think I promised that I would teach you the simplest translation charm I know. The incantation is Intellige Lingua pronounced In-TELL-ige Lin-GUA. The wand movement is a clockwise half twist and then a small swish outwards and up. The smaller the wave the better. I will be removing the spell so you can know if it works. Pair off with someone who speaks a different language than you do and have them talk to you after you have attempted the spell. If you can understand then congratulations. If not keep trying."

Hermione found this spell harder than the Levitating Charm. It hadn't been in the Hogwarts first year book of spells. It took her four tries before he could understand Vladimir the boy she had paired up with. When she nodded with a grin he smiled at her and took out his wand to try the spell. It took him five tries and Hermione felt terrible, even as she smiled and nodded at the Russian boy because for the briefest moment she had felt happy that it had taken him one try longer than she had before he got the spell.

At the end of the class, only half the class had successfully managed the spell, though the other class was close to getting the spell. The professor assigned them homework on the theory behind the two spells they had learned and to practice the spells until they were perfect. Hermione left the class tired from all the magic, but she also felt satisfied with what she had accomplished. She had figured out why in her earlier class she could understand the students but in Charms, she hadn't. She had learned that all the classrooms had wards with a modified version of the translation spell they had learned. Professor Cauchemar had dismantled the spell for the class but it would be back the next day. The professor had told her that just because the classrooms had translation wards didn't mean she could be lax in practicing the Translator Charm.

It was all so very interesting.

HCA

Should I spend time on another chapter detailing the rest of the classes on her schedule?

Also still in need of a few professors.

Thanks.