New Classes, New Friends
Harry woke up early on Tuesday, like he always did, checking his watch on the nightstand told him it was six-thirty. Yesterday had been a day to learn their way around the castle, but today would be the first day of real class. Thankfully, the other guys in his dorm hadn't brought up what happened that first night to anyone, but he doubted that would hold for too long.
~Najash? You were sleepy looking last night. Are you okay?~ Harry asked his snake, hidden under the tasseled pillow by his head.
~I feel… sated?~ came the muffled reply from under the, apparently Gryffindor coloured, pillow, ~Too full, but in a good way. I think it is the magic of this nest, I will be more alert when I am used to it.~
~I will make sure it's safe for you in class today then, little friend. You can come tomorrow when you feel better.~ He rolled out of bed to find that he was the first one up, and decided to go ahead and get his shower out of the way.
When he returned twenty minutes later he found Neville and Finnigan arguing. Apparently Finnigan was still trying to get Neville and Dean to petition for Najash to be kicked out. Harry realized, as he stood in the doorway, that he'd stopped calling the boy 'Seamus' in his head sometime last night and frowned. He needed Dudley's help here, he wasn't good at dealing with prejudice. It just made him really angry and then he couldn't think straight and made things worse.
"If you stayed away from my bed you could even forget he was there, Finnigan." Harry said, tersely, as he finally decided to enter the room. He strode purposefully over to his bed, where Najash had curled up into the warm spot he'd left, and began getting his school robes in order for the day and the other boys hastened to follow suit.
"I'm planning to leave him here today, by the way." Harry said to the others in general without turning around, "But I was really hoping that it would be where he could come with me to some classes, It'll depend on our schedule." He noticed from the corner of his eye that Finnigan was turning pale again at that, "He spent the whole ride on the train and the sorting feast wrapped around my arm. You won't notice him."
While the others were finishing getting dressed, Harry quietly confirmed that Najash had the energy to move away if Finnigan tried something stupid, and headed down to the common room to hopefully meet Hermione before he got too mad at someone this early in the day.
"Everything alright, Harry?" His best friend asked from the couch in front of the hearth as he stepped off the last stair. "Seamus give you trouble again this morning?" She continued. Harry was red faced and looked to be fighting to control his breathing.
"Yeah, he…" Harry looked past Hermione and noticed that the girl who'd been split from her twin at the Sorting was sitting on her other side, "Hi, miss, uh?"
"Patil, Parvati Patil, Mister Potter." She seemed to be eyeing him rather strangely as she extended her hand to shake, but thankfully she wasn't focused on his scar, "Um, sorry, if this is private I can go on to breakfast."
"She heard Seamus shout the first night." Hermione said from between the two, at Harry's panicked look she was quick to continue "I don't think anyone else did, don't worry, and she's not scared of snakes. You tell him." Hermione offered to Parvati.
"She's right. In India, snakes aren't considered dark; they are often companions of spiritual leaders or healers." Parvati said, "Is, uh… 'Najash' down here with you?"
"No, I didn't think bringing him to class on the first day would be a good idea." Harry responded jokingly. Parvati seemed to frown a bit, much to Harry's confusion.
"I can introduce you after class today maybe?" He offered, "He didn't really want to move much anyways, he said all the magic at Hogwarts made him feel 'full'?"
He looked up in confusion, trying to come up with a better analogy. Words in Parseltongue had nuance he didn't know how to express in English.
"He 'said'?" Parvati asked quietly, peeking around to make sure they were alone.
Harry also made sure no one was in earshot before answering, "Um, yeah, I can talk to him…"
"That's amazing! Even at home, Speakers are rare!" Parvati gushed, Harry frowned and motioned for her to calm down and keep her voice low. "Sorry, it's just so surprising! I thought you might be a Speaker when I found out you had a snake companion, but then you said you'd left your snake upstairs even though Hermione had told me he was small enough to hide… but I hadn't thought that all the magic here might make him lethargic for a while. I bet he gets his energy back soon."
"I hope so." Harry said wistfully. "I'm glad that not everyone is totally freaked by him. I knew he was gonna cause some stares but I wasn't expecting that first night freak-out."
"It'll all work out, Harry. I'm sure." Hermione said. "Now let's go get some breakfast." She tapped Harry on the arm and nodded at Neville, Dean, and Finnigan, who had just come down the stairs.
o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o
"Hey does anyone know when we get our schedules?" Hermione asked as they sat down to breakfast. "I can't believe I didn't think to ask that sooner."
"Right here Miss Granger," Professor Mcgonagall said from behind her while she began handing out the schedules to the first years, "Quite convenient that so many of you are here together. Keeps me from having to traipse up and down from the Head Table." She joked.
The group checked their schedules, "Cool." Harry said, relieved, "Our first two classes are with Hufflepuff! We can see how Dudley's doing." Their first two periods of the day were Herbology and Charms with Hufflepuff, then Transfiguration and Defense after lunch with the Slytherins.
"I'm so excited for Transfiguration!" Hermione said, which made Mcgonagall smile as she returned to her seat. "It looks to be very interesting, but the books said it was also very difficult to perform properly."
"Too bad we have to wait until Friday for Potions." Harry lamented.
"Wait," Neville asked him, "you actually want to be in Potions?" At Harry's nod he was flabbergasted, "But, Snape teaches that class!"
"Professor Snape." Hermione corrected.
"He's the Head of Slytherin," Neville pressed on, "and he hates anyone thats not in his own House. Especially Gryffindors! The way the Weasley twins tell it, he'll dock house points for breathing too loud."
Harry frowned, they had to be exaggerating didn't they? "I'm sure it's not that bad, the twins probably did something to prank him or something like that. What class are you most excited for Neville?"
The group, even Finnigan, chatted amicably about the classes they were most interested in. Dean agreed with Hermione, that Transfiguration seemed like the coolest kind of magic. Parvati Patil wasn't sure what she was actually interested in, her sister Padma was the brainy one. Neville wasn't sure he'd do well in any class except Herbology because he had a hard time casting spells, but he did mention the greenhouses he kept at home and was happy he'd have something here to remind him of home.
"Look Harry." Hermione nudged him about quarter-till-eight and pointed to Dudley and another boy wearing Hufflepuff robes were walking over holding their schedules.
"Hey Big D." Harry greeted happily when the two arrived, "These are the guys in my dorm, Dean and Fi-Seamus, and that's one of Hermione's roommates, Parvati Patil." He quickly introduced the Gryffindors who were present. Lavender and Fay were probably still in bed according to Hermione. "You already met Neville, obviously."
"Hey, nice to meet you all." Dudley replied, he raised an eyebrow at Harry apparently almost calling Seamus by his last name, "I'm Dudley Dursley, Harry's cousin."
"And I'm Justin," the other boy offered, "Justin Finch-Fletchley." the two took seats at the end of the table, "Mister Diggory, in the third year, told us that we only have to sit at our House tables for important feasts, so Dudley wanted to come sit here for breakfast."
"I kinda told the guys that I'd try to get you to sit with us at Hufflepuff for lunch too." Dudley added sheepishly.
"Maybe dinner?" Harry asked, looking at his schedule, "I'm going to have to run back up to my room at some point during lunch and switch out books, but you have just Potions this afternoon." He sighed, "Lucky you, I don't get that class till Friday morning."
Dudley and Justin put food on their plates as the group began comparing notes on how their dorms and common rooms were arranged. The Gryffindors were definitely jealous of how close the 'Puffs were to the Great Hall. Dudley laughed when Hermione complained about the stairs again.
"At least you won't have to worry about getting out of shape. I'm gonna have to figure out a time I can go running or something. Maybe around that lake?"
He glanced at Harry to see if he'd join him. Harry shook his head and mimed stairs with his hands, to everyone's amusement.
At eight o'clock a flurry of owls flew into the Hall; delivering, according to Neville, the daily mail. Harry and Dudley were surprised when Hedwig landed on the table between them and held out her leg, burdened with a letter. While Harry was unfastening the letter, Dudley offered the snowy owl a few strips of bacon; who snatched them out of his hand with an angry bark.
"Sorry girl!" He said to placate her moody glare, "I was going to check on you today either after breakfast or before lunch! I didn't forget. Right Harry?"
The others at the table chuckled at the exchange, as Harry joined his cousin in apologizing to the beautiful bird.
"Who's the letter from?" Hermione asked when it became apparent that Harry and Dudley had forgotten why their bird was visiting them in the first place.
Harry broke the seal and began reading, "It's from Hagrid, he's inviting us to have tea with him. He lives in that cottage on the edge of the grounds." Harry glanced at Dudley's schedule, "We don't have free periods at the same time until Monday, you guys wanna go Sunday afternoon or something?" Dudley and Hermione nodded.
"Who is 'Hagrid'?" Justin asked, "Is he a teacher?"
"You remember the really BIG guy last night? The one that brought us across the lake in those boats?" Dudley answered, to which Justin nodded, "That's Hagrid. He said he was the groundskeeper when we saw him in Diagon Alley, when we went to get our wands. He was a friend of Harry's parents and got Hedwig for us as a birthday gift for Harry. I'll introduce you, he's a good guy, and he seemed to really like magical creatures when we were talking at the Alley."
Dudley frowned slightly, "We can't all just show up at his door though. Let Harry, Hermione, and Me go see him the first time, just in case there's no room. That cottage didn't look too big."
"No worries mate, I was just curious. If there's room I'd love to go some time later, though."
"We should write our parents at some point too, maybe something short over lunch and we send it with Hedwig after last class?" Hermione suggested, "I know they will want to know what Houses we got into." She glanced at Harry's watch, "But right now we should make sure we have the right books for our morning classes."
o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o
Dudley found he disliked Herbology about as much as he thought he would. It was basically gardening, like Harry had done back home, and he'd never really gotten into that. He tried to keep his displeasure off his face for Professor Sprout, but he could tell she definitely saw him make a face when she told the class they would be repotting some kind of magic flower for that class and the next.
"Dudley." Harry said from the next table over, where he sat with Neville, Hermione, and Miss Patil, once they'd gotten started, "Aunt Petunia grows this too! There's a potion you can make with it that protects you from dark creatures."
"Like what?" Dudley replied as he looked at the fertilizer the Professor had left out for them, Dragon Dung. No one else at his table; Ernie, Justin, nor Mister Hopkins (Dudley wasn't sure why he insisted on the title thing) seemed to be any more keen to try it.
"Well. I think the potion I'm thinking of makes your skin burn dark creatures up to as strong as a werewolf for a few minutes." Harry said as he paused for a moment.
"Huh? This flower can protect you from a werewolf?" Dudley looked down at the whitish flower again.
"Your cousin is right, Mister Dursley." Professor Sprout said, apparently having overheard their conversation. "Tego ex Tenebris will make the imbiber unable to be touched by many dark creatures. It only works on creatures that try to physically assault you, but is very good at it. It is often carried by Aurors when they know they are chasing such beings, like a werewolf or vampire." Dudley began scooping the dirt and fertilizer into the new pot with gusto and his friends chuckled.
"It looks like there's some Devil's Snare in that next greenhouse too." Harry discreetly pointed to the plant through the glass, "That plant is more your speed, Dudley. It wraps you up like a snake, to fertilize itself. It's almost like a creature, you know?"
"I think I'll stay away from that one." Hannah said, as she and Susan began turning pale as they looked in the direction of the dangerous flora. Harry and Dudley just laughed louder and the group went back to repotting the Moly Flower.
o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o
Seating for charms class was harder to figure out, instead of tables for four there were five long tables that curved around the teacher's podium like an amphitheatre. Harry and Hermione led the group down to the front and split down the two front rows, with the Hufflepuffs taking the row behind them.
"Have you noticed that all the classrooms seem really big?" Harry asked absently as they waited for the Professor, "Why are there five rows in here when only half the year uses it at a time?" He gestured around while Hermione thought about his question, only about a fifth of the available seats were being used.
"I'm not sure." Hermione responded, "The student greenhouse was at least three times too large for what it needs to be as well. Hogwarts: A History implied that class sizes used to be much larger than ours, and it didn't look like the years above us were much larger either." She chewed on her bottom lip as she thought about it.
"Miss Granger, Mister Potter," One of the other Hufflepuff boys, Macmillan she thought, said from behind her, "I know you're muggle-raised, but surely you know about the war that ended ten years ago?"
Hermione looked back at him in puzzlement. Then she saw all of the other purebloods in the room nervously looking down or away, even Neville was clearly uncomfortable.
"A lot of whole families were killed during the war." Macmillan continued, "Many of those that survived didn't have children either until it was over. Why risk it when you know you could be next?" A few of the others winced at his words.
"Oh." Hermione said, covering her mouth as her eyes widened. "I'm sorry."
She and Harry were saved from the awkward situation by Professor Flitwick, who entered from a side door that must connect to his office, standing up on a stool behind his podium and beginning to call roll. He lost his balance and fell off the stool when he got to Harry's name, much to the boy's embarrassment.
"Now then," The Professor said once he had finished roll with Dean Thomas, "welcome to your first Charms class. In addition to some of the most versatile and useful spells you are likely to learn during your time at Hogwarts, this class will also be where you will be instructed on how to balance and focus your magic."
The diminutive wizard looked out across the nineteen young people, "Has anyone yet to try and cast a spell?" Seeing a few of them glance at each other he smiled, "Don't worry, you won't be in trouble. Tell us, what spell did you attempt?"
Hermione raised her hand, and when he called on her she said, "While we were on the train, some of us were levitating some parchment around. It was tiring."
"You were actually levitating a sheet of parchment?" The Professor returned, highly curious. "That spell isn't usually taught until students have had a month or so to get used to handling and maintaining their magic. It doesn't generally take much magic to power, but it is a spell that is very easy to overpower, causing you to tire. How long did you keep it aloft?"
"We noticed that on the train, Professor, though we didn't know what to call it. We were tired after only thirty seconds or so the first time we tried." Hermione replied.
"Harry kept his sheet up for almost a minute the first time." Dudley said from behind her.
Harry turned and glared at his cousin as the rest of the class looked at him in awe.
"So then, I take it the 'we' Miss Granger referred to practising with were the two of you?" Flitwick asked; politely ignoring Harry's apparently remarkable control, as he seemed to want, "Extraordinary, all three of you are muggle raised? Even you, Mister Potter? No offense intended at singling you out, young man."
"It's no problem, sir. Yes sir, Dudley and I were raised together. We met Hermione last year after she had already gotten her Hogwarts letter." Harry replied.
"Well, today we will be learning a few spells. But we shall start with two of the most commonly useful ones you will ever learn. First, the light charm, Lumos." The Professor snapped out his wand and it's tip illuminated in a soft white light.
"This spell, like the levitation charm, can use a variable amount of energy." The light began getting brighter and dimmer in succession, like a slow strobe, "You can use more to make it brighter. However, it is generally seen as easier to imagine how much light you want from your wand than to properly imagine how much power you need to lift something with it."
"The counterspell to Lumos, Nox," His wand blinked out immediately, "is required to shut off the spell. It is not common, but it is possible, to drain yourself using spells like this one and leave you unable to wield magic until you have recovered. Hence why our first class is to learn how to maintain control of your magic, and avoid that."
The students began attempting the Lumos charm as Flitwick walked in front of them, occasionally offering advice. Hermione, Dudley, and Harry, in that order, were the first to succeed in lighting, then dousing, their wands; earning house points for their respective houses in the process. Though when Dudley did it the light was rather bright, Professor Flitwick suggested he practice lighting and dousing the wand to get the right brightness and a minute or two later he felt he had it. Poor Neville ended up being the last one still working on getting his spell to work. When he cast it the light was weak and wavering, and Professor Flitwick was advising him on how to push out more power.
"Check this out." Dudley whispered to Justin as he put his wand down and pointed his finger up and away from him.
"Lumos!" He said, a little more forcefully than he intended. His finger glowed from the second joint up, shining with white light like a lantern. Justin was staring at him, slack jawed.
"Dudley, that's amazing!" Susan said from his other side as he put out his finger-light. The rest of the class looked up in time to see it shining.
"Wandless? Intentionally?" Flitwick asked, amazed himself.
"We were learning about feeling our magic using our wands from a book my mother found in Diagon Alley." Hermione offered, since it seemed Dudley was too stunned that it had actually worked so well to answer, "We had been doing the mediation the book described for a month before coming to Hogwarts." Professor nodded for her to continue, "On the train, after we had gotten the hang of the Levitation charm, we started working on the steps the book said to follow to use our magic without a wand. It was even more tiring than when we did it the normal way, but we all got it working with a little help."
"Extraordinary. All three of you?" The Professor was amazed, most people simply weren't sensitive enough to perform wandless magic without a fair amount of training first. "Hmm. If you wouldn't mind, I would love to borrow that book you mentioned, Miss Granger. If it seems like something that can be taught here, I may find some copies to offer an introductory wandless seminar or something."
"Of course, Professor. To be honest, we weren't planning to do much more with it until we got settled in anyways." She replied, "I could bring it for you to next class?"
The class continued from there, with Neville, unfortunately, being left behind as his magic failed to cooperate with him. They moved on from the Light charm to Aguamenti, which shot a stream of water from their wand tip. This spell had to be stopped by an act of will, and neither Justin nor the quiet Gryffindor Sally Smith could get their spells to stop before they had tired themselves. Professor Flitwick gave each of them a small bite of chocolate and told them they'd be able to rejoin the class activity in five minutes.
After the Aguamenti charm came the anti-unlocking charm Alokola, the Professor chose that particular spell to demonstrate another kind of charm. One that lasted a very long time after casting it.
"This spell doesn't actually lock your door or trunk or what-have-you." The Professor explained, "You still have to remember to do that yourself. Rather, it prevents the unlocking charm, Alohomora, from working. This spell will be important to any of you that value privacy in your dorms, so I try to teach it early."
The students each received a conjured padlock and were shown how to open them with Alohomora. Then they were set the task of making them un-unlockable with Alokola. Hermione was first to get her Alohomora to work, but Dudley was quickly behind her and Professor Flitwick gave each of them five points. The anti-locking charm earned Hermione and Dudley five more points each, with Harry netting an additional three for succeeding at both spells right behind them.
The three were the first to finish the final assignment of the class, and Professor Flitwick asked them to demonstrate their wandless levitation spells.
"Wingardium Leviosa." Harry intoned as he held out his hand. Instead of the sheet of parchment the professor had provided, he lifted the charms textbook a few feet off the desktop and began moving it around the room. His classmates gasped and stared, their own assignment forgotten.
"Mister Potter, please be careful of your limits. You have more classes in the afternoon that require spellwork." Professor Flitwick said as he followed the book with his eyes. "Your control and power are remarkable. Take three points for Gryffindor. Mister Dursley, you can earn the same for Hufflepuff…"
Dudley knew he wouldn't be able to lift the textbook, so he pointed at the parchment the Professor had placed for Harry and said, "Wingardium Leviosa." The parchment shot into the air and Dudley almost lost it before he wrested control of the magic again.
"That's a lot easier today. I almost lost it cause I used too much magic or something." He said, confused, as he made the parchment do a few loops before setting it down on top of the book that Harry had returned to the desk.
"Most impressive, Mister Dursley, most impressive. Take three points for Hufflepuff." The Professor was clapping giddily for the two boys. Hermione demonstrated that she could do it as well, she tried to pick up the book like Harry did but dropped it after a few seconds.
"Very good, Miss Granger. But as I warned Mister Potter, be careful not to use too much magic with two more classes to go this afternoon." He smiled to make sure she knew it was still well done, "I expect great things from this class, until we meet on Thursday your homework shall be to practice the charms we learned in class today, as well as four inches on how you would quantify your own magical limits. Enjoy your lunch, students."
o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o
"Hey Neville," Harry said as he stowed his unfinished letter home and prepared to head upstairs for his afternoon textbooks, "come up to the dorm with me. I have an idea that might help you in class."
"Uh sure?" The boy said, he wasn't looking forward to two more wanded classes today.
The two of them, plus Hermione and Lavender, headed up to the Gryffindor dorm to swap books for themselves and their roommates. Lavender spent the whole time quizzing Harry about his wandless abilities. He was happy to answer at first, but eventually pushed the questioning to Hermione. She understood it better.
Harry was much less happy when Lavender tried to exclude his best friend from their conversation, and cut it off.
When they got to their room Harry found Najash lounging in the sun on his window ledge and smiled. Carefully, so as not to make too much noise and wake his scaly friend, Harry opened his trunk and began rooting through it to the bottom.
"You can't tell anyone about this, Neville. Seriously." Harry said, Neville nodded and promised as he stood up with a wand box in his hands. "Having two wands is some kind of grey area. I can have both, but I'm not allowed to carry both." He opened the box, revealing the Holly wand.
"This wand isn't really mine, but it still chose me at Ollivander's and he agreed to sell it to me. He said the wand wanted something from me, or something like that." Harry held out the piece of wood to his friend, "See if this feels better than your dad's wand. If it does, you can use that until you've had a chance to write your Gran and get your own wand."
"Whoah," Neville exclaimed as he took the wand, "It's… warm. Like there's a fire inside or something." He frowned, "The warmth is gone! Did I mess it up? I'm so sorry Harry!" He tried to give the wand back but Harry just chuckled and began swapping books for he and the other guys.
"It does that." Harry said, "It still works even after it stops being warm, so no worries mate, and every time I picked it up again after holding my redwood wand I would feel the warmth again, so you could probably do that by picking up your dad's wand for a second."
He paused as he found the books needed for his next two classes, "Try it out while I finish this up and make sure you can cast with it, yeah? Just remember you can't walk around with both, so if you use it put your dad's in the box and put it at the bottom of your trunk."
"It should be pretty easy to keep people from realizing it's a different wand if I don't let them look at it too close," Neville said as he lit and relit the wand easily, "the wood is the same colour as my dad's."
Neville spent a few more minutes practising some of the spells they had learned in charms. His water charm summoned a mild but steady stream, and his locking and unlocking charms were now working on the first try.
"Neville," Harry said once his friend had gotten a little used to his magic actually working, "Hermione and Dudley know about my second wand, so they can help divert people, but if it's working that well for you you should write your Grandmother about getting a wand of your own for real."
"I'll do that, Harry. Right after dinner or maybe at breakfast tomorrow. But I don't think I'll be able to get away to Ollivander's before Saturday…"
"No problem, hold onto it until then." Harry said casually.
o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o
"Whew, made it." Ronald Weasley said as he hurried to his seat on the Slytherin side of the room, the last to arrive.
"Try to be on time, Weasley." Malfoy said dismissively, "You represent the great House of Slytherin." The other Slytherins chuckled at the redhead.
"The Professor's not here yet, it doesn't matter, does it?" He replied, "I was just trying to get some food after I didn't get enough at breakfast."
No sooner had he finished speaking than the cat perched on the teacher's desk at the front of the class jumped off and transformed into Professor Mcgonagall.
"Mister Weasley, in the future I would advise waking up earlier to get enough breakfast. I will take points if you are late again." The stern woman said as she reached behind her and pulled out a roll sheet.
Once she had finished the roll call and familiarized herself with the new faces, Mcgonagall began her explanation of Transfiguration.
"Transfiguration is often considered more difficult than other kinds of magic like charms and jinxes. All of you have taken your first Charms class, where you learned the basics of controlling your magic output. That is a vitally important skill, but you will find Transfiguration to be the only branch of magic that almost never cares about that. Transfigurations require however much power they require, no more or less."
She pointed her wand at her desk and it turned into a pig, then she turned it back.
"No amount of practise or experience will make it take any less magic to turn a desk into a pig. Training does improve your transfigurations, though. The better you are able to visualize what you want to change, both its base form and what you want it to become, the faster and more accurate your transfigurations will be. Transfiguration is not easy, it is necessary to feel the magic as it changes your target, to hold the image of the change in your mind through the entire process. Most people can only do this through repetition, so you will be assigned practical homework in this class often. It will be readily apparent if you are slacking."
She pulled out the textbook and began reading passages from it concerning the transformation of a matchstick to a needle, the first transfiguration taught due to it being basically changing one kind of 'line segment' into another kind of 'line segment'. Forty minutes of note-taking into the hour long class, the Professor finally handed out matches for the students and set them to work turning them into needles.
The spell was surprisingly hard to get right, an odd number of students ended up igniting their matches when they cast the spell. Harry and Hermione were the closest to getting it right, both of them had made their matches turn silver, but were still match-shaped. Neville had success in the opposite direction, he was now trying to figure out how to turn a wooden needle into metal.
Hermione frowned as Professor Mcgonagall walked behind them again and she still hadn't finished the transformation. With a final frustrated stab of her wand the match finished its change into a needle.
"Excellent work, Miss Granger. Take three points for Gryffindor." The Professor paused for a moment before turning back to Hermione, "In the future, you might have better luck saying the spell, Miss Granger."
"Oh, I was just so focused I must have forgotten. I'm sorry Professor." Hermione replied, embarrassed.
"That's quite alright, Miss Granger." Mcgonagall put her hand on the girl's shoulder, "Transformations spells of this variety are all truly one spell, with a million uses. The different incantations to the spells are used for getting into the right state of mind to focus. Separating them out in your mind can help many students. If you can transfigure silently then that is a great advantage and you should try and cultivate it. But being able to do so without years of practise is a rare gift."
The Slytherins were watching Hermione Granger with renewed interest. Draco had warned the others that she could cast wandlessly, this was just reinforcing that story. Who forgets to say a spell's incantation and still has it work?
o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o
The Defense classroom was wider than Charms or Transfiguration because it was made to accommodate a set of dueling rows, front and center, but otherwise arranged the same. The Professor, Quirrell, had a horrendous stutter that made him difficult to follow. His stuttering seemed to get even worse when he came to Harry's name on the roll call and Harry got another stab of pain in his scar too.
"In this class." The Professor began, once he'd finished the roll, "You will l-learn how to def-fend yourselves from d-dark creatures." The iguana in the cage behind him made a noise and he squeaked before spinning around, wand drawn. Several students snickered as he turned back around to face them.
"But, be-before we start that. I was the pro-professor of Muggle St-Studies before this year. Many purebloods w-would do well to take that c-class." He took a steadying breath, "What would you say is the greatest d-danger to wizards in peacetime?" The first years looked back and forth between them, "It's muggles! Random, a-accidental encounters with m-muggles."
"Not acromantula?" Ron Weasley asked, shakily.
"No, a-acromantula live in deep wilderness, W-Weasley." He took a second look at the red hair and green trim, "One only t-tends to encounter them when you are l-looking for them." His gaze swept over the rest of the class, "What common muggle o-occurence is most dangerous to witches or w-wizards? Any g-guesses?"
"Car accidents sir?" Hermione offered after he called on her.
"Oh, m-most wizards don't use au-automobiles, Miss. That is more a m-muggle danger alone."
"Professor," Harry said as he raised his hand, "I think you misunderstand, sir."
"What is it you t-think I do not unders-stand, Mister P-P-Potter?" He returned angrily.
"Well, sir. I don't think she meant a wizard driving a car and getting in an accident." Hermione shook her head 'no' when he looked at her for confirmation, "When we would have lunch at the Leaky Cauldron we'd look outside sometimes at the people coming in. It never failed that at least one magical person would walk into incoming traffic. I actually saw someone get hit once too."
Harry shuddered, "He was lucky it was just a glancing hit and he wasn't hurt too bad. I'm assuming it's mostly purebloods who make that kind of mistake, anyone raised in the muggle world would know they don't have right-of-way crossing the street."
Professor Quirrell stared at Harry for almost thirty seconds before smiling and nodding, "Indeed, Mister P-P-P-Potter, Miss Grang-ger. I believe I m-m-may stand corrected." He swept his gaze to the Slytherins, "In that case, the second? From a non m-muggle raised?"
"Death by suffocation? Gagging on the smell of being around them?" Malfoy drawled from the far side of the Slytherin section to polite chuckles from his housemates.
"Ten points from Slytherin for your inane nonsense, Mister Malfoy." The Professor hissed, "Anyone else?"
When no one in the Slytherin section raised their hand he looked back at the Gryffindors.
"I must say that I don't trust your facts about the danger of non magicals to wizards, Professor." Harry said as he raised his hand again. Quirrell glared at him, but bid him explain.
"But, assuming it to be true, I think the answer you were looking for is something to do with guns?" He looked over at the Slytherin section, where they were snickering and ignoring the discussion, "Do you know what a gun looks like? If a muggle attacked you in an alley would you know if they were armed?"
"What weapon could a muggle possibly have that endangers a wizard, Potter?" Malfoy returned, "I don't know what this 'gun' is, but a wizard would simply draw his wand and that would be that."
Professor Quirrell smiled as the exchange continued.
"Wait, isn't a gun what muggles used to call a 'boomstick'?" Ron Weasley asked, "I heard my dad talking about them once or twice."
"A boomstick? I thought the muggles' laws kept them from walking around with weapons like that? How does someone not notice a big boomstick? Even muggles aren't that daft." Nott laughed.
"There are guns not much bigger than my wand." Seamus Finnigan said, "My dad actually has a collection of old army pistols. Most of them I could hide up my sleeve." The laughing abruptly stopped, "Someone trying to rob you would use that. At close range you'd be dead unless you could cast something wandlessly like Harry or Hermione. Guns are no joke."
The Slytherins were stunned trying to take in this new information, Quirrell was stunned to learn about the Potter boy's wandless magic.
"Indeed," Quirrell said, stepping back into the conversation, "Many wizards will use nond-descript alleys or d-dead ends as a convenient apparition p-point. Unfortunately, these are also places frequented by m-m-muggle criminals. Many an intoxicated wizard has been robbed or even injur-ured by a muggle who surprised him with a weapon he d-did not understand."
The class continued with the Professor describing various muggle weapons that witches and wizards apparently were hurt by frequently. Handguns, Pocket Tasers, Switchblades, it was clear that the pureblood students in the room were having their eyes opened thoroughly to the fact that muggles may be without magic, but not without defense.
Harry and Hermione couldn't help but smirk when Professor Quirrell ended the class with an explanation of automobiles, though the Professor described box cars from fifty years ago. He even conjured a sort of misty diagram of the street outside the Leaky Cauldron and explained how muggle right-of-way worked with vehicles.
The class was dismissed without opening their textbooks or using their wands even once. The Professor promised that the next class would begin to cover the book material and they would learn a few simple jinxes for dealing with lesser magical pests before the week was out.
"That was kind of weird, don't you think?" Hermione asked Harry and Dean as they left the classroom, "He was the Muggle Studies teacher for years, do you think what he said about random encounters with muggles being so dangerous was real?"
"It kind of makes sense, I guess." Harry replied as they headed for the common room.
"You saw how the Slytherins were." Dean added, "They had no idea how dangerous a gun is. If they did get mugged they'd probably go for their wand and get shot for it."
"Yeah, I just think he should call it like it is." Harry concluded, "It isn't that muggles are dangerous to wizards, it's that pureblood wizards being stupid is dangerous to pureblood wizards."
"Oy, what does that mean." Neville asked, a little annoyed. He hadn't known what they were talking about in class any more than the Slytherin purebloods.
"He wasn't trying to be rude, Neville," Hermione apologized as she glared at Harry, "but I do agree with the Professor on at least one thing. Wizards raised in the magical world should have to take a class on the muggle world."
"Yeah mate, sorry. On the other side, though," Harry added, "I would have liked to see some kind of class to introduce me and the others raised in the non magical world to this one as well. It sucks being dropped into everything without help. Like, writing with a quill is frustrating when you aren't used to it. Non magical pens ink themselves and don't smear as easily. We've been using those in class since we were eight."
Neville nodded, he could understand that, entering a new world with no proper introduction would be frustrating. Not recognizing a gun would be bad too.
"Wait, self-inking and smear less than a quill?" He asked, finally registering maybe the most ridiculous thing about muggles he'd heard in the last hour, "Are you sure that isn't magic?"
"When we get to the dorm, let me show you some muggle paper. It has faint lines on it to help with writing straight." Harry replied.
Neville nodded fervently, he had trouble with writing straight across the parchment too.
"You know, I've never thought of that." Mcgonagall said to Flitwick after the students had walked past them.
"I hadn't either," Flitwick confided, "but I have noticed that, historically, muggleborns' homework and essays are lopsided and have poor handwriting. It usually sorts itself out by third year or so, so I just assumed it was a lack of schooling prior to Hogwarts, like most magical children."
"Yes, but I believe the muggle custom is to begin schooling between five and six?" Mcgonagall returned, "Breaking habits that were ingrained over years of previous schooling is harder than simply learning something new."
"Perhaps a weekly class to assist in handwriting for first years? It would only need to be for a few weeks. The three… eh… relevant Heads of House could each take a week and it could potentially do a lot of good." The part-goblin was getting excited.
"I shall ask Pomona at dinner and we could potentially announce it at breakfast tomorrow."
o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o
"Neville wasn't kidding, he's that bad." Dudley said as Harry sat down to dinner at the Hufflepuff table. Hermione had opted to stay at Gryffindor and get to know the girls in her dorm better.
"Huh?" Harry asked as he looked at the food on the serving plates.
"Professor Snape, the Potions guy." Dudley answered, "He's as bad as the Weasley twins told Neville he was. He even seemed to have it in for me,in particular"
"No way." Harry said, dismissively waving his hand.
"He literally took points from me for breathing too loudly." Dudley returned, deadpan.
"Oh," Harry wasn't sure how to come back to that, so he decided to just change the subject, "well introduce me to the people here I don't know."
Dudley introduced Harry to the remaining first year Hufflepuffs he hadn't spoken to in Herbology or Charms, as well as a few brave Ravenclaws who came over to meet the Boy-Who-Lived. Harry quickly got tired of every new person looking directly at his scar when they were introduced.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mister Potter." Cedric Diggory said as he shook Harry's hand after Dudley introduced them, "I was hoping I could speak with you for a few minutes this evening so I can answer some questions my father is going to have."
"Why would your father have questions of me?" Harry asked, suspicion clear on his face.
"Oh boy." Diggory groaned. "Can we move down to the end of the table after we eat? Just for a little bit of privacy?"
"Uh…" Harry wasn't sure how to respond to that. "Can you at least give me a hint?"
"It's about my father's work. He's with the Ministry."
"Alright then?" Harry still wasn't sure what to expect, but that wasn't going to stop him from enjoying his dinner.
Once the usual ooh-ing and aah-ing over Harry's scar was done the conversation moved to the wandless abilities that he, Hermione, and Dudley had demonstrated in Charms. At first, Harry tried to talk them through the steps he remembered in Hermione's book, but he ultimately gave up when they started knocking over goblets while dropping their wands onto the table.
"Hermione is planning to take the book to class tomorrow." Harry reminded them, "Professor Flitwick is probably going to be offering a proper class on it soon."
Once Harry had finished eating he indicated to Mister Diggory that he was ready for that talk and the two moved down to the unoccupied end of the table. When they sat back down Harry went to ask what was going on, only for Cedric to draw his wand and begin muttering spells as he waved it in the air.
"Sorry," He said, seeing Harry's nervous look, "those were spells to keep people from hearing what we're talking about."
"What are we talking about?" Harry asked, trying to sound calm.
"Mister Dursley indicated at the opening feast that Headmaster Dumbledore isn't your magical guardian." Cedric began, pausing only for a moment when he saw Harry's shocked look, "My father is currently sitting on the Wizengamot as proxy for the Potter seat, and he was given that proxy by Dumbledore. Who claimed to be your magical guardian at the time."
"He was never, really." Harry answered, "I don't know anything about the Wizengamot or anything like that. But I can add it to the letter I'm sending home to my actual guardian tonight." Harry frowned, "I have no way to know what she'll do when she finds out. But I imagine she'll contact your father."
"I'll write him and let him know. He won't be happy about this, I'm pretty sure that Dumbledore has implied to my dad that you knew about him at least." Cedric was thoughtful. How would his father react to this?
"Uh, one last thing before you leave." Cedric stopped him as Harry made to get up and rejoin his cousin, "I heard from everyone over there that you can do wandless magic? I'm not trying to be a fanboy or anything, but I've never seen someone who wasn't… well, old doing it."
"Sure, I guess." Harry replied, "Wingardium Leviosa."
He pointed at a pitcher of pumpkin juice and levitated it to pour into a goblet in front of Cedric, who watched the process with stunned awe.
"Whoa. That was really cool." Cedric finally said as he picked up the newly filled goblet.
Over at the Slytherin table, Malfoy was watching with rapt attention. Potter had just casually levitated a pitcher of juice with his finger, and he had somehow renewed Longbottom's wand. Was that time magic? Malfoy had gotten a fairly good look at the wand Longbottom was using after the squib had done so well in Transfiguration. It looked like the wand he'd had out the day before, but this one seemed brand new and the other was definitely a family wand.
Dudley, Harry, and Hermione found the owlery after dinner and each tied a letter to Hedwig's leg. They had considered writing one collaborative letter, but ultimately decided that their parents would prefer to read each of their opinions on Hogwarts separately.
"Hey Dudley," Harry said as they descended, "Maybe we should ask our Heads of House if the whole year group for our houses can swap back and forth for meals. It would be good for getting to know people we only see in class."
"I can ask when I get back." Dudley replied. Harry and Hermione both griped about Professor Mcgonagall not being as accessible as Professor Sprout.
