Disclaimer : I don't own anything in the world of Harry Potter, that's J.K.Rowling's job. The plot is mine though.
Chapter 2 : Essence
The Professor sat in his usual place behind his desk and watched as the class entered the room one by one. These were rapidly turning into his favourite classes of the week. He had seen most of them around outside class and he was beginning to get a good idea of what they were like.
Such a wide range of abilities and talents. Should be an interesting year, especially with that…His thoughts were interrupted when he noticed Ron sporting a large black eye. I wonder what happened to Weasley. I didn't notice that yesterday. If I didn't know better, I would almost say he looks proud of it! Ah well, none of my business.
If anyone were to ask McGonagall how he got it, she would certainly have said that Malfoy gave it to him in an unprovoked attack, earning the Slytherin a week of detentions. In reality Ron gave it to himself tripping over Neville's bag, but as there were no Slytherin witnesses it was all too easy to blame it on Malfoy.
"Ah good to see you all back here again, lets get started shall we? I can't stress enough how useful it is to be able to master what I showed you last time. To be able to cast curses and hexes at your opponent with random words would be enough to put off even the best of duellers. Does anyone here know what Lumos actually means?"
Parvati raised her hand and answered, "Sir, it means light in Latin doesn't it?"
"Yes that's quite right", he went on. "But how old do you think magic is? It is certainly older than English, in fact in reality it predates even the Romans, but very few records exist for further back than then. What do you suppose they used for the light spell? They just said lumos. It would be just like us saying light. But as you know, that wouldn't work. If you tried to teach the first years to use the word light to light their wands they certainly wouldn't be able to do it straight away. Here is the big question. Why?"
He left the question hanging for a few moments.
"I'll tell you why. Tradition. For thousands of years people have been using the same word over and over again, so now magic itself almost associates that word, with light. As I showed you last time it is possible to concentrate on an idea yourself to make it work, but without the easy routine that is engraved into magic, it makes spell casting a lot harder. That's one of the reasons why new spells are always so difficult to create. A person has to imagine absolutely perfectly in their mind what they want the spell to do, and to associate the words to the effects. Most people prefer to continue using Latin words as using everyday ones can sometimes be confusing."
He took another moment to take a drink from his flask, which as always was right there on his desk. He could see Hermione was waving her arm in the air again.
"Yes Hermione?"
"Professor, Sir, erm, does that mean that magic has a memory? That it's alive?"
There were a few sniggers from the back of the class about 'Cruelty to magic' but either the professor couldn't hear them, or he chose to ignore them.
"You can think of it that way if you like, but technically no. It isn't alive. I prefer to think of magic as a big jumble of paints all mixed together. Using spells creates patterns in the paint, and the more a spell is used, the more often this pattern appears. It isn't a very easy thing to imagine actually, so perhaps you would be best just accepting what I say for now.
"Right, I want you all to have a go at something. Nice and simply, I want you to use the lumos spell to light your wands. As you do so I want you to concentrate as much as you can on how you feel and what it feels like. I'm sure your Professor Flitwick would kill me for saying so, but I want you to gradually let your technique get worse and worse. Start mumbling, waving your arms around, standing on your head if necessary, and take careful note as to what feels different. In theory it should be possible to perform the spell no matter what you do, as long as your mind stays focused."
With that the professor made an action like lighting a match along with a strange psst sound, and his wand lit.
"See? Off you go then, and I'll come round and watch what you are doing."
With that the class began the lighting and putting out of their wands. The whole thing looked like a set of complicated Christmas tree lights. After a while the various actions started to get more and more extravagant, with some people even standing up so they could move about more. The professor moved over to the first desk, Neville's, and tried to get some idea of his aura.
He had picked up this skill during his short stay in India, and allowed him to get a general idea of what someone's personality was like. He couldn't completely see auras, that was a skill people were born with, but with practise he could get a rough idea.
Hmm well, not all that much power there I'm afraid. Hard working, and very determined though. I'd better not discourage the boy. "Yeh, that's not bad there Longbottom. I reckon you could do quite well if you put your mind to it. Try using your left hand as well, it's always useful to be able to use both hands if you're in a hurry."
He wandered over a few seats back to where Malfoy was sitting. He'd heard many conflicting things about Draco, it seemed either people strongly liked him, or couldn't stand him. Hmm, about normal for someone his age really. There is something more sinister here though as well. I reckon he has quite a lot of secrets this one. "That's pretty good Malfoy, you still need to apply yourself to it fully or you won't get anywhere. Nobody can unless they really care or believe in what they are doing."
Malfoy looked around the room smugly, but nobody else seemed impressed. He went round another few students, saying fairly similar things. Harry was next. Even before he got close to Harry he could sense the magic that was coming off him. It was almost like a constant light coming off him, but of course nobody could see it. Only the professor was aware of it.
"You've got yourself quite a lot of power there Potter. And… something deeper. Lots of pent up emotion. I reckon you should be able to use that to your advantage. Perhaps in a few weeks time I will show you how you can. You might find it a lot easier to perform some of the new things. When you next try and cast and outwards spell, really try and put your feelings behind it. See if you can tell any difference."
The last person for him to check on was Hermione. He just walked over to her desk and stood there and looked at her for a lot longer than any of the others. How odd. There only seems to be half an aura here. That can't be right, nobody has half a… oh, hold on a minute, there it is, just much fainter than the rest. I wonder why that could be? Surely not. I haven't seen anyone with an aura like that since…well there is no harm in trying. I had better check that out sooner rather than later anyway.
Hermione was just starting to feel uncomfortable under his gaze when he spoke, "Hmm, I don't think you quite believe all this do you? You seem to have somewhat of a block. I reckon I could help you with that if you wanted. Meet me in that Room of Requirement Dumbledore told me about first thing tomorrow morning after breakfast, I gather you know where that is?"
Hermione nodded, "Yes Professor."
The professor turned back to the class. "Well that's about it then for today, just try and take extra notice of what magic feels like when you are using it in other subject. Don't deliberately use any sloppy techniques though, or Flitwick will have my head. He was a fierce dueller at his peak, almost a match for me." He winked and moved back to sit down at his desk.
Down in Greenhouse One, a small and rather large teacher was bouncing up and down in frustration, waving her wand around frantically. Nothing was happening.
"Why?" she said to nobody in particular as jumped up and down some more. "Why do I have to do this? I'm perfectly happy using my wand, without the need for all this madness."
She waved her wand about some more, causing a few sparks to jump off and set fire to one of the small plants nearby.
"Arrg!" Professor Spout shouted in frustration, "I'm going to have Dumbledore's head for this!"