Chapter Six

The Light Magic Movement

"Hello, my fellow Hufflepuffs," Professor Torrindale said pleasantly. "I see that you are all here. Now then, you should all have your textbooks. By a show of hands, who does not?"

When nobody raised their hands, Torrindale continued. "Very good. Here in Charms, you will learn what the name implies. A charm is any spell that changes the nature of an object. They either change a property, or add one. For instance," She held up her wand, "Colovaria!" Torrindale's desk instantly shifted from its dark brown shade to a vibrant green. "Colovaria!" she repeated, and the desk changed back.

"Much of this class will deal with standard introductory spells like the one you have just seen," she continued. "For each spell, you will get to learn about it and see a demonstration before you attempt it yourself. Once that is done, you will all be expected to have proficiency before we move on to the next charm. Now, our real curriculum does not start until Monday, but please, dears, feel free to begin reading about the first charm we will cover, the Wand-Lighting Charm."

"Hey," a voice beside Courtney whispered to her. "Can I borrow your book?" Courtney tilted a bit to see that it was Elijah.

"Sure," she said automatically, then remembered. "Wait, Professor Torrindale already asked us if any of us didn't have the books. You didn't say anything."

"I bought the book," he assured. "It's in the common room. I figured since this was introductions day we wouldn't need them. Didn't expect to have a chance at an early start."

That made sense. Courtney took The Standard Book of Spells from her pouch and opened it on the desk between them. The first spell in the book was, surprisingly, not the Wand-Lighting Charm.

"Try the Table of Contents," Elijah suggested.

Courtney turned the pages back. The Wand-Lighting Charm was in the second chapter.

"So we're starting with a pretty simple spell," Elijah said. "Seems easy enough."

"We're not supposed to try it until after Professor Torrindale's demonstrated it," Courtney reminded him.

"I know, I know." He put his hands up. "Just good to know that this one won't be tough."

He pushed the book back to Courtney. As he did so, the sleeve of his robe came up a little, exposing some black markings.

"What's that on your arm?" Courtney asked.

"Huh? Oh." Elijah rolled his sleeve up a little. Written in ink were the letters LMM. "I scribbled it on my arm a while ago. Earlier this week I joined the Light Magic Movement."

"To end the Dark Wizard path," Courtney remembered. "I saw a few people passing out fliers for it in Diagon Alley, but they didn't really say much."

"We're trying to put an end to Dark wizardry," he said. "Not like the evil curses and stuff that Lochram was talking about. The other meaning. See, nobody can see you when you're in the dark, but in the light, everything is open. Back in the old days, that was when Dark magic meant secretive spells, while Light magic was more open and clear to anyone."

"So the Light Magic Movement means making spells less hidden? So anyone can learn them without a lot of research?"

Elijah grinned. "Close. We plan on bringing all of wizarding society into the light. No longer hidden. The Light Magic Movement wants to let Muggles know about the existence of magic and wizards."

"Say, have you heard of the Light Magic Movement?" Courtney asked as they walked down the corridor.

"Can't say I have," Lynne admitted after a few seconds. "Although, from the name, I'd say… it's a group that focuses on the power of Light-elemental spells… or a group that wants to get rid of Dark magic, like by hiding the knowledge and stuff."

They descended a staircase. Courtney shook her head. "It wants Muggles to know that magic is real. A friend in Hufflepuff is part of the group, and I could sort of see both sides of it, so I wanted to know what you think."

"Well…" Lynne thought for a moment. "The Statute of Secrecy is there for a reason. If the Muggle population knew about us, they'd want magical solutions to all their problems. Then wizards would be constantly drained, and the Muggles would get dependent on us, and there are some problems magic can't fix, but the Muggles won't understand that at first, they'll be telling us to wave our wands around and make a bunch of fish show up or make a flu go away and I'm babbling, aren't I?"

"Only a little," Courtney assured playfully.

"Sorry. I do that sometimes."

"It's okay." After a silence, Courtney spoke again. "I'm sorry, by the way." When Lynne looked at her questioningly, Courtney continued. "I asked the Sorting Hat to put me in Ravenclaw, but…"

"It wasn't you," Lynne figured. "The Hat always takes choice into account, but that doesn't mean it's the only deciding factor."

"Yeah. The Hat said I didn't have a drive for learning… or any ambition at all… and that I just follow what others say. That's not true… is it?"

"Only a little." Courtney pushed Lynne's arm lightly. "What? When you say you don't follow what others say and then ask for my opinion a second later…"

"You're right," Courtney said finally. "It just hurts, you know? Like, the Hat basically said that I was put into Hufflepuff because I didn't have what it takes to be in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor, and if I just agree with it, that means it was right and I do just follow what it said…"

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with Hufflepuff," Lynne said. "You're in the House of the loyal and hardworking. It's not like you got Slytherin."

That was true. "Good point. Anything's still better than that."

Author's Note: For obvious reasons, despite what Lynne said, I am not anti-Muggle, or, for that matter, being unrealistic. The fact is that if you remove the wand part, you would get exactly what people in real life say to police all. The. Time: "Just scan for fingerprints and DNA and find out who stole my X Box", for instance.

Also, the story's central moral conflict - that of the Light Magic Movement - has been revealed. Any reviewers out there who have a thought on whether or not Muggles should be allowed to know about wizards, please go ahead and speak up. If any of you raise a point that I had not considered, I will be sure to, well, consider it.