They had been led to the Slytherin dorm room the previous night by the prefects, all of them only having the position due to their blood and family. Charles stretched and got up from bed. He had gotten a dorm with Blaise Zabini, Theodore Nott and Draco Malfoy. The top gang of Slytherin.
Already he could see their mistrust and glances. He ignored them and went outside spending some time in the Scottish late summer weather. He had begun a routine of jogging and exercising every morning and he would not stop that simply because of school.
He came back with time to spare and got ready for the day. His robes whilst not being the luxurious quality of the upper echelon was still elegant and expensive. With that out of the way he filled up his backpack with all first-year schoolbooks so he would always be prepared and some of the books on Occlumency for Professor Binns class.
At breakfast he sat down near the edge of the table as to not upset the power struggle in Slytherin. That would wait a few months. A quick breakfast with egg bacon and bread later and he was on his way to the day's first class. Charms.
"Daph, I heard Professor Flitwick was a duelling Champion, do you think he'll demonstrate for us?"
Charles chose to butt into the conversation seeing as he had some inside knowledge. "I think he does private Duelling classes for all those who prove themselves in second year and up."
That got their attention and the bubble of energy turned on him. "Oh, how do you know?" She asked curiously, no negative emotions at all, no prejudice. "I'm Tracey Davis by the way." Ah the other Half-Blood. "Charles Ambrose, as to how I know. Well, my grandmother was a four times Duelling Champion and very good friend with Filius at school. He comes to my place from time to time and enjoy a cup of tea."
Charles ignored the calculating look that Daphne sported and continued talking about charms and duelling with Tracey. They reached the classroom not a minute later and sat down for the lesson. He found a seat on the left most table at the front close to the window.
Flitwick entered and jovially hopped onto a pile of books to see over his desk. Why he didn't just shrink it Charles had no idea. The attendance went as usual, but Filius paused a second on Charles and offered him a smile before carrying on.
"Charms is the application of magic in its most focused form, it is the use of magic through incantations and wand movements in the most precise manner to create the desired effect." He began in his squeaky yet enthusiastic voice.
Charles raised his hand eager to clarify certain things. "Yes Mr. Ambrose?" "If Charms is all about Incantations and Wand movements, then how do some remove those altogether and simply point and cast a charm with a thought?"
"A good question, for those not I the know." He said then pointed his wand and made the books start doing the macarena across his desk. "As you can see, no incantation nor specific wand movement.
In truth you will not learn about this until fifth year, but I can see you're eager.
With supreme control over your own magic or through magical memory can you use this method of casting. That means either a level of control most adults lack well into the decades or excessive repetition."
With that he went back to the normal lecture on magic and charms. It was halfway through when he instructed the class on the Lumos charm.
Charles took out his wand and focused, he looked closely at his magic and did the instructions and incantation. From what he could see, the words dragged and roughly shaped magic into the preferred form, in this case light and the movement refined it.
A bright light appeared on the tip of his wand. He didn't notice the 2 points he got from Filius and continued the experimentation. He tried different things from lengthening the incantation to changing the wand movement. In some cases, nothing happened, in other he could see the magic react violently and used Pure magic to stop it.
He decided to follow his own instructions, IIW and focused on a red light appearing. "Lumos." A bright red light appeared, and the light seemed more stable than his other attempts. Still fuelling the spell, he thought of a green light and the Lumos flickered to the new colour.
Doing some quick Arthimacy, something he had studied over the summer he tried something new. "Lumos Orbis." A bastardized latin but with the IIW it got the intent across and created a floating orb of light.
It was the exact same he did with Pure magic only the current seemed sharper and stronger. He looked up to see that the class had almost emptied and only Filius remained with the last student closing the door. "Oh, sorry, didn't notice the time."
"Sorry!?" Filius half shouted a wide smile adorning his face. "You made a new spell on the fly. Albeit a refined and better working version exists but still. I am very proud and I'm sure Annabeth would be too."
"Thanks Filius. I need to go now though. Got Potions."
"Not go, then you need to run Charles." Filius said with a chuckle. Charles ignored it and sprinted out the door enhancing his body with magic running faster than any human ought to.
He barely reached the dungeons in time and was still panting by the time Snape entered. He swooped in like an apex predator near gliding across the floor slamming shut the windows with magic and making the whole room glummer.
He took attendance and this time halted on another name. "Potter… Our newest celebrity." He continued as if nothing happened before turning to Potter again. "Potter! Tell me, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
"I don't know sir." Harry Potter answered meekly giving in under the unrelenting glare of Snape. "Pity, it seems you did not inherit your mother's skill." He spun around his cape billowing as he flicked his wand towards the front.
Various diagrams and ingredients showed up and rearranged themselves into the recipe for Boils Cure. "Begin!" he snapped and flicked his wand. The supply cabinet opened. Charles had decided to do something risky and had sat with Neville Longbottom who was switching glances between Charles and Snape.
"C'mon Longbottom. I heard you are some kind of Herbology prodigy. I want you to use that, we split tasks. You make ready the ingredients and I do the Cauldron work."
"Ok." Neville answered and they both hurried for the supplies they would need. Once laid out ahead of them Charles began stirring the Cauldron having added the first ingredient, kelpie skin. With it swirling he began helping Neville whilst keeping an eye on the Cauldron.
He had to protect it twice from sabotage and thrown ingredients. He 'strategically' deflected them back into their own cauldron.
At the end of class Neville had not developed a phobia for Snape and that was victory enough for Charles. They had talked quite a lot and Neville had mentioned his grandmother Augusta. "Wait Augusta Longbottom?" Charles asked remembering the diary of his grandfather, a muggleborn who had been a close friend of Augusta.
"Yes?" "In my grandfather's diary he mentioned Augusta a lot. They were close friends I think."
Before they could continue Snape silenced the room. "Bottle your results and bring them up here." Doing as ordered Charles filled a few vials of the potion and marked the one he would deliver with their names.
He peered down at the potion sniffing it and swirling it around. Taking out a piece of parchment he noted an EE at both of their names.
Outside of class he said goodbye to Neville and hurried to catch up with Potter and Weasley.
"What are you doing snake?" Ron said almost identically to Draco. "Not her for you." Charles said and ignored his spluttering. He looked at Harry and handed over a note before walking away.
"What's that mate?" Ron asked once the snake was gone. Harry had tears in his eyes, of anger or sadness he knew not. He handed the note over to Ron who read it carefully.
Victorian flower language: asphodel is a type of Lily meaning 'my regrets follow you to the grave' and wormwood means 'absence' typically symbolises bitter sorrow. If you combined that, 'I bitterly regret Lily's death'.
"I need to talk with Professor Snape when the day is over."
