Snapshots and Thundersnow
Chapter 5: Beginning Elementalism

"Well well, another Weasley! A great deal of ambition, I see... intelligence, yes... a lot of bravery, and a desire to stand out from the crowd... very interesting... so what do to with you... you'd make a fine Slytherin, but... much better to put you in GRYFFINDOR!"
Elementalism was the class Theo had really been looking forward to. Still aching a bit from Defense Against the Dark Arts (he'd not gotten his declinare off quite fast enough, and Blaise's expelliarmus had been a tad too strong), he ran as fast as he could to the dungeons, brushing off the questions of his fellow Slytherins as to why he was in such a hurry.

He hadn't told them about this class. There was no need to brag about it, and now that someone was actually asking, he didn't really have time to answer. Perhaps he'd tell them later tonight, if they asked again. Unlikely. They'd probably be busy pretending they weren't ineffectual prats... Malfoy still couldn't figure out why Theo didn't want to help dream up new ways to 'get' Potter.

"He sent your father to Azkaban!"

As far as Theo was concerned, Harry Potter was at the bottom of the list of 'reasons why dad's in jail,' somewhere well below 'Voldemort,' 'Lucius Malfoy,' and 'old age.' It wasn't worth trying to explain that.

He admonished himself for being distracted. Then again, best to get it all out of his system before class. His first stop was the Slytherin dormitory, to grab his books, then he was sprinting off again.

The reasoning behind having Elementalism in the dungeons was simple—there was a bit less risk of having someone blow out a wall. (That had happened once, according to Professor Azar, which was why the class had been moved to the dungeons in the first place.) Theo didn't like the dungeons—he could only take so much gloomy gray—but he was too excited to really mind right now.

Camella Winston, a 7th-year Flame Mage, was already in the classroom. Azar was not. "The Professor's gone to get some potion ingredients from Snape," she explained as soon as he set his books down. "You're going to be making your focus crystal today, you know."

Theo nodded. "I didn't know there was a potion involved."

"Didn't you read your book?"

"No. I'm not a Ravenclaw, remember."

"How true."

Theo had discussed Elementalism with Camella once or twice the year before, when he'd come to speak to Professor Azar about starting lessons this year. He could tolerate her, which was important, seeing as they were the only two in the class. She did seem to have a bad habit of assuming that everyone in Hogwarts read their textbooks from cover to cover before arriving...

He sat back and watched her practice, which consisted mostly of shooting fireballs across the room into a large tank of water, until Professor Azar came in.

"Ah, Theo, excellent." The old Wind Mage placed several jars and flagons on the desk next to Theo's, went into his office, and returned with what appeared to be a cauldron made of glass.

"Should I have brought—"

"No, no, yours is metal. You can't use a cauldron that conducts electricity to make a Shock Mage's focus crystal!"

This made a lot of sense. To hide his embarrassed expression, Theo picked up his textbook (a rather tattered copy of An Introduction to Electrical Magic by Nimbus Franklin, the only one the bookstore had) and turned to the chapter about the focus crystal.

The focus crystal of the Shock Mage contains both the spirit of the individual wizard, and the intangible essence of lightning. Like wands, a wizard will get the best results with his own focus crystal. The creation of the focus crystal is the first and most important thing a Shock Mage will learn.

It is important to have a cauldron made of an insulating material, and not a conductor. Begin by filling the cauldron with three litres of water and add a teaspoon of scarab wings...

Percy stared at the ceiling and lost himself in thought.

He had a break after the sixth-years, which was good. Neville had taken a wand to the face, and one of the Slytherins, Zabini, had managed to send his partner slamming into the wall rather than just his partner's wand. (He'd been thoroughly embarrassed about it, too, which was more than Percy might've expected out of a Slytherin.) All in all... they'd done a sight better than Percy's class had. There'd been some hospitalizations for that one.

Of course, Percy's class had also been dealing with Gilderoy Lockhart as a teacher, and his pairing Oliver Wood and Marcus Flint hadn't helped matters at all...

He had sixth-year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs in an hour and a half. He wished the gap was shorter. Less time to think.

Ron hadn't recognized him!

This pleased him, but in an odd way he was also disappointed. Sure, he'd taken great pains not to be recognized. Some very small part of him had insisted that he still had a chance—his brother would know who he was—it wasn't as bad as he thought—once a Weasley, always a Weasley. If Ron could just see through his mask, everything would be fine. But Ron hadn't seen.

"You know," he commented to Hermes, who was sitting on his desk looking stately, "I could sit here and sulk for another hour and a half."

Hermes hooted.

"I agree wholeheartedly." Never mind that Percy didn't have the vaguest clue what the owl had meant. "Who, Hermes? Who am I now?"

The screech owl looked at him reproachfully. Then, no doubt by coincidence, he took to the air, fluttering his wings enough to cause A Wizard's Guide to Elementalists to turn several pages back. He proceeded to fly up to the top of the bookcase, where he perched and ignored his master's bemused look.

Percy started to turn back to what he'd been reading, a historical account of the importance of Elementalists in the war against Grindelwald, but a passage on the page Hermes had turned to caught his eye.

Ice Mages are usually born in the far north, leading some to believe that environment is a serious factor in Elementalism. Whether true or not, it is a fact that the last Ice Mage to be born as far south as Britain died in 1791.

Aha!

"That's who I am," Percy breathed, looking up at Hermes. How had that owl done that? "I'm the first British Ice Mage in two centuries."

If Elementalists could be major players against Grindelwald, why not against Voldemort? (He flinched when he allowed himself to think the name.) He had to do something. He'd had a hand in starting this mess and he was going to have a hand in fixing it. Then Perfect Percy Weasley could finally be put to rest, and only the Ice Mage would remain.

Speaking of the Ice Mage... he closed the book, put it away, and headed for the dungeons.

Theo felt slightly queasy. He really should've read the book before coming to class.

After allowing this mixture to simmer for ten minutes, it is time for the most crucial step, for the focus crystal must embody the wizard as well as the element. The Shock Mage creating the crystal must add two strands of his own hair to the potion, and once it has stopped fizzing, three drops of his blood.

He had something along the lines of two minutes left to come to terms with this new development. Drawing his own blood was just one of those things that common sense told him not to do. Not that he couldn't manage. Knowing what to expect would have been nice, was all...

He yanked out the two strands of hair and dropped them into the cauldron. The mixture immediately turned from dark blue to a glittering golden color and sent up a great cloud of bubbles. These hung in the air over the cauldron, gradually turning silver and dropping back in.

Camella had turned to watch. "I guess that step's the same for any Elementalist," she observed, "though the Flame Mage's turns red, of course..." Theo gave what he hoped was an interested nod and watched the potion fizz. "You'll know it's time to add the blood when all you can see are the silver bubbles."

That didn't take nearly as long as Theo would've liked it to. It's just a little blood. Getting pricked with a needle. You've done it a hundred times. ...Well, not really, but the time you hugged that hedgehog in the garden was much worse. With that in mind, he picked up his needle (transfigured from a loose thread off his robes) and gave his finger a good, vicious poke. No problems, no problems.

As the third drop of blood entered the potion, two things happened. The first was that the potion turned a blinding, luminescent white, and sparks started shooting from it. The second, there was a loud and prolonged creak as the door to the classroom swung open. Theo jumped and splattered blood on his book. Sigh.

Professor Azar held up his wand and muttered something Theo didn't quite catch, and the blood disappeared. Only then did he bother looking up at the doorway. "Ah... I was wondering when you might come see me."

Theo looked up too, after confirming that he had seven minutes before the next step. He wasn't quite sure why he was surprised. "Professor Winters?"

At least the Ice Mage seemed just as surprised as Theo was. "Hello again, Mr. Nott... you've recovered from being disarmed earlier I see." He nodded to Camella, then looked at Theo's potion. "Shock Mage, I assume?"

"How could you guess?" Theo snorted, an instant before remembering he was talking to a professor. The question still stood though—the sparks that had been coming from the potion were now full-fledged lightning bolts, though they had the courtesy to emerge straight up from the cauldron rather than shooting about the room.

Though he didn't say it very loudly, Theo was certain he caught a "mind your attitude" from the Defense teacher before he fell silent. Whatever he'd come in here for was, presumably, not as interesting as watching Theo make his focus crystal.

Which was irritating, as Theo really didn't care for being the center of attention.

The next-to-last step for the potion was to add a teaspoon of powdered Peruvian Vipertooth horn, which toned down the lightning coming out of the cauldron a bit. It also began changing colors—the book said it would be a dull yellow when it was finished, though right now it was an eye-hurting shade of purple.

Theo glanced at the book for the final step, and panicked. "Professor, is this a spell I should know?"

"No, in fact it's not a real spell at all. Don't worry, so long as the potion's made properly, it should work fine."

"You'll probably never use it again," Winters added knowledgeably. (Well of course, Theo mused, he must have gone through this same process.) "Its only use is to create the crystal."

Theo nodded and returned to concentrating on the potion. For the sake of conversation as the potion shifted to glowing orange, he looked up at the Defense teacher again. "How long have you been an Ice Mage?" That was just to break the ice... he flinched inwardly. Bad pun. What he was really curious about was what Elementalists did after school, assuming they weren't predestined to be Death Eaters. (I'm not going to be a Death Eater! shot through his head.)

"Well it's not something that you just turn into, you know." Theo gave him his best don't-get-technical-with-me look and he shrugged. "I started training four years ago."

Theo nodded. His potion was dark blue again. "What did you do before you came here?"

"Erm." Winters suddenly seemed quite uncomfortable. "I worked at the Ministry, until..."

Theo could guess at until what, but the Ice Mage was spared from having to continue as his potion finally turned yellow. He took out his wand and touched it to the surface of the brew—a shower of white sparks shot up. Stir four times clockwise and...

"Denkou."

His potion exploded.

He was on the other side of the classroom in an instant, pressed up against the wall with his eyes nearly popping out of his sockets. It was only when Camella started laughing that he realized the explosion, impressive as it had been, was fully contained inside the cauldron.

He glared at the room in general. "That wasn't funny."

Camella obviously disagreed, and even Professor Azar had cracked a smile. Winters wasn't smiling, thus saving him from gaining Theo's enmity for eternity... or at least the next five minutes.

After convincing himself the detonation was finished, Theo returned to where he'd been sitting and realized that the potion was now quite gone. Something small and faintly glowing sat in the bottom of the cauldron. Something that looked very much like a crystal...

It was white, with the faintest tinge of light purple, and as Theo stared at it he could see tiny flashes of lightning crackling within. When he picked it up, a jolt of electricity shot up his arm, though the sensation wasn't altogether unpleasant. So this was a focus crystal. He looked up at Azar and was moderately surprised to see him beaming.

"Well done indeed, Theo!" He glanced at his watch. "And just in time, too... we'll begin basic spells in your next lesson, so be sure to bring your protective clothing." His smile was still quite wide. "I expect great things from you, you know."

Theo nodded and hurried out of the room. I'm a Shock Mage now... a real Shock Mage. He held the crystal tightly in his hand, and refused to think about Death Eaters.