Wit of the Raven
Chapter 6
At breakfast the next morning, a wide awake Harry alongside a number of his classmates received their schedules. After a brief comparison of schedules, Harry determined that he all of the same classes as at least two other Ravenclaws, as well as Neville, who was terribly excited to learn this. "This is amazing, Harry! The chances that we had to be in the same class . . . well, it baffles the mind. There are thirteen core groups, that is, groups of people who have all of the same classes, except for Magical Transporation One, and some other class . . . uh . . . er . . . I forget it right now, but there are two classes that aren't core classes," Neville gushed, "I was flipping through Hogwarts a History last night before bed, and what happens with the classes is that it starts out with core groups, like this, because Hogwarts likes to give everyone a chance at everything, so that their parents don't choose a career path for them. Pretty sweet, actually. And . . . we all have classes together," he continued, "Because Hogwarts figures that we'll have a better time if we get to know some people, rather than kind of throwing us to the sharks."
Harry agreed that this was a rather way of handling it, and set out to memorize his schedule between bites of his breakfast.
Monday
8:20-9:05 Magical History (W 106) Scamander
9:05-10:05Language (W xxx) Meet in GrHa
10:05-10:50 Charms (W 124) Barnshot
10:50-11:35 Class Meeting (GrHa)
11:35-12:20 Herbology (GrHo 1) Sprout
12:20-13:05 Lunch/Clubs (GrHa)
13:05-13:50
13:50-14:35 Combat Magic (W 644) Dawlish
14:35-15:20Transportation (OS) Meet outside FD
Tuesday
8:20-9:05 Astronomy (PL 2) Sinistra
9:05-10:05 Home Econ (W 124) Barnshot
10:05-10:50
10:50-11:35 Potions (W 016) Snivven
11:35-12:20 Algebra I/Geom. (W 401)Zayne
12:20-13:05 Lunch/Clubs (GrHa)
13:05-13:50 Algebra I/Geom. (W 401) Zayne
13:50-14:35 Herbology (GrHo 1) Sprout
14:35-15:20 Mag. Cult. Lect. (GrHa) Dumbledore
Wednesday
8:20-9:05 Transfiguration (W 235) Fibonacci
9:05-10:05 Care of Mag. Crea. (OS) Kettleburn
10:05-10:50 Illusions (W 190) Pelgang
10:50-11:35 Charms (W 124) Barnshot
11:35-12:20 Charms (W 124) Barnshot
12:20-13:05 Lunch/Clubs (GrHa)
13:05-13:50 Algebra I/Geom (W 401) Zayne
13:50-14:35
14:35-15:20 Magic (OS) Nectarus
Thursday
8:20-9:05
9:05-10:05 English (W 107) Wyrned
10:05-10:50 Algebra I/Geom (W 401) Zayne
10:50-11:35Language (W xxx)
11:35-12:20Language (W xxx)
12:20-13:05 Lunch/Clubs (GrHa)
13:05-13:50 Charms (W 124) Barnshot
13:50-14:35 Transfiguration (W 235) Fibonacci
14:35-15:20
Friday
8:20-9:05 Magical History (W 106) Scamander
9:05-10:05 English (W 107) Wyrned
10:05-10:50 Care of Mag. Cre.(OS) Kettleburn
10:50-11:35 Herbology (GrHo 1) Sprout
11:35-12:20 Assembly (GrHa/Fields)
12:20-13:05 Lunch/Clubs (GrHa)
13:05-13:50Language (W xxx)
13:50-14:35 Runes (W 218) Laromans
14:35-15:20 Obscure Magics Lecture (GrHa/Fields)
Still munching on his toast and concentrating as hard as he could on his schedule, in order to find some sort of pattern that he could use as a mnemonic, he barely noticed Neville tugging on his shoulder.
"Hmm?" he asked.
"C'mon Harry, class."
Harry, surprised that it was almost class time, put down his toast delicately, and looked around for a clock. "Um, Neville," Harry asked, not seeing any clocks, or a watch on Neville's wrist, "How do you know what time it is?"
Neville's eyes lit up, and he looked at Harry with a little disbelief. "Magic, Harry!" He exclaimed. "Tempus," he cast idly. Little red numbers appeared in front of Neville, going year, month, day of the week, day, hour, minute, second, and millisecond, in that order.
Harry closed his eyes, and thought of the incantation. Tempus. For an information spell. Think of information, and time. Maybe the passage of time? Cite examples of time flying, and time going slowly. Maybe an educational pamphlet. What's the wand movement for information? An L, rotated pi over two clockwise. Sharp corners. Implement the time gesture? Hmm, I don't know time. This should be enough. Harry whispered, "Tempus!" fiercely, flicking his wand and remembering, clocks, wasted time, and his old school's sexual education pamphlets, and let the magic flow through it. Instantly, red numbers and letters appeared, far past Neville's milliseconds, although they seemed almost like mere blurs, flipping through 1-9 faster than the brain could process.
Neville started, as red numbers came dangerously close to forehead. "Bloody hell Harry," he gasped, as Harry cast finite and sagged, slightly drained, "You didn't need to put so much energy into it . . . bloody hell, energy is leaking through with heat. Don't try so bloody hard," Neville commanded, slightly concerned, "You're going to get Burnout if you don't relax." Neville sank in his chair, before sitting up again, and adding, "Er, Burnout is when you cast too much magic, and. . . ."
"I know," Harry interrupted, "I got it over the summer." Remembering Snape's words, he refrained from adding that he seemed to be an anomaly.
Neville looked concerned, and asked, "Are you completely fine now? I've heard that you can completely lose your magic if you Burnout while Burned-out."
Harry's eyes widened. Snape hadn't told him that. "Er, yeah, I'm fine," he muttered. Harry grabbed a slice of toast, and gestured for Neville to come. "Class, remember?" he said between chews. He felt a headache coming on. He knew he shouldn't talk while eating. Harry groaned quietly, and held his head with his free hand, gesturing to Neville, who had just stood up, to lead the way.
They found their first class with Newt Scamander with surprising ease, after Harry had the bright idea of asking a portrait for direction. He knew it was intelligent to ask for directions. The portrait, one of a friendly witch by the name of Lucia Black, famous for her achievements at "Breaking" artefacts, essentially cleansing them of their harmful attributes. She had been happy to explain Hogwarts' system to them. Year One had students mostly in the East and West towers, and Year Two had students mostly in North and South. The numbers denoted first what floor, and then the number, like they usually did. GrHa denoted Great Hall, GrHo was Green House, OS meant Outside the Castle, and FD stood for Fields. The easy way to tell what direction you were going in, until you learned a spell, or memorized the directions, was to look through a window, as all of the windows had two directions on them, the directions parallel to the window.
When Harry and Neville strolled into class, Neville idly discoursing on the subject of the different applications of water spells, the first thing they realized was that they were the first to get to class. Harry took the chance to examine the classroom and commit it to memory, while Neville practiced his obscuring water charms. It was a small room, with around twenty chairs, arranged in sort of semi-ellipse, all facing towards the board, a chain unbroken except for directly in front of the door. There were pictures of what seemed almost like old movie posters, except with moving people, their actions looped.
Harry moved towards the poster, which read, 'Agincourt,' so intent on the actions of the people inside the poster, that he missed seeing a thick history book lying in his path. He tripped, and began to fall, and his arms, flailing out to find something to hold onto, touched the poster by accident. Suddenly, he wasn't falling anymore, he was terrified, and clutching his crossbow with his sweating hands, his knuckles pale with fear. He wondered when the French would strike, the damned French who had–
Suddenly, Harry was lying on the ground again, and his head was throbbing from where he'd hit it. Neville was standing over him, and Harry heard someone coming in, his or her footsteps reverberating through his head. "Are you fine?" Neville asked, concern in his voice. The steps came closer, and as Harry's head began to clear, the steps became simply very loud.
Harry pushed himself off the ground, so that he was sitting up, and asked, pointing at the picture, "What the fuck is that?"
Neville, understanding in his eyes, raised his eyes to look at the poster, his lips moving to form an 'O'. "That's an Impo Trailer," Neville stated. "You see through the actor's eyes, feel what the actor feel, see what the actor sees. Even think what the actor thinks. Agincourt is considered a classic."
Harry shook his head, which still remembered who it had been, several seconds before. "Really fucking vivid." Harry stood up, said hello to the newcomer, a girl. She smiled nervously back at them, and sat herself down in a desk. Harry knew that he should be friendly, and after fully standing up and tried to start a conversation. "What house are you in?"
"Hufflepuff," she responded, quietly, but firmly, her voice unwavering.
Harry smiled a little broader, and sat down next to her. She had come to class early, like he knew he must. If she proved to be intelligent and resourceful, as well as timely, Neville approved, and she wasn't completely horrific, then perhaps they could add her to the quartet. "What kind of magic do you like?"
The girl sat up a little straighter and informed them proudly, "I'm a chixor."
Neville started, and stared at her for a second, completely dropping his charms. "She's in, Harry," he muttered, his voice clearly telling Harry not to argue.
Harry raised an eyebrow, but asked, "I and Neville are the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor of a quartet, respectively. You want to be the Hufflepuff?"
The girl smiled, and nodded. "Hannah."
Harry returned, eloquently, "What?" He began to feel a headache coming on again. He knew that he wasn't being eloquent.
She repeated, "Hannah. It's my name. Hannah Abbot. He's Neville, and I suppose you're Harry, but who else are you?" she asked.
"Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom," Neville answered for him.
Hannah instantly shot back, "Longbottoms and Potters have been allies since a little after we were born. Childhood friends?"
Harry shook his head. "I was living with muggles, so. . . ." Upon seeing the look of confusion on Hannah's face, Harry clarified, "My parents are dead."
"Oh," Hannah responded quietly. "I'll have to add that to the page."
"Page?" Harry asked.
Hannah grinned, "The one on the most eligible bachelors joining Hogwarts this year."
Neville rolled his eyes, and turned to Harry. "Haxors and chixors are trained in gathering information off the GWM from an early age, so essentially, Ms. Abbot is an invaluable resource for homework, new spells, and whatever needs to be seen. She could also make the rest of your life on the web miserable for the rest of your life if you piss her off too badly, so . . ."
Harry turned to Hannah, figuring that she was the expert, and asked, "GWM?"
"Giant web of magic. Legend has it, that Thoth got bored, and decided to see how large he could stretch some spider silk with magic, before it broke. He stretched it around the world, and then realized that it could fairly easily hold information, among other things. He built a caster that mimicked the original process, except with intangible threads, and used it until it completely covered the world. There are some new theories that when you write the omega to connect to the web, you're actually tapping into the electro magnetic field, which would explain the lack of access at the poles, but Thoth stands by his word, and I stand by Thoth."
"Thoth?" Harry asked, becoming more and more aware by the minute how much he'd need to learn.
"God of magic, first class. He's actually Djehuty, but the Greeks called him Thoth, and it kind of stuck. Don't try to invoke Thoth though, you'll just end up wasting a couple of virgins. Unless you're into necrophilia." Hannah giggled, and Neville twitched. Harry mentally noted to look up human sacrifice as it relates to gods, before hearing the door squeak open again. A stream of students came in, a few in twos, conversing among themselves, but the majority of them were loners, walking in quietly and taking desks as far away from the board as possible.
Neville, noticing them coming in, inclined his head towards Hannah. She cocked her head to the side, and replied, "We'll see."
Neville's lips pursed, but he simply nodded. Harry and Neville sat down in seats around halfway between the board and the back of the room, across from the door, and took out their books, in anticipation of the teacher's arrival. Several seconds later, the teacher marched in, a tall, greying man with a messenger bag. The room instantly became silent, and he nodded in approval before taking a bit of parchment out of his bag, and letting the bag drop to the floor.
"Just say here, if you are. Say nothing if you're not," he muttered, before yelling, "Abbot!"
"Here."
"Brooks! Dock! Johnson! Johns!"
"Here."
"Here."
"Here."
"Here."
"Smith! Potter! Longbottom! Kingsley!"
There was another chorus of Heres, and he continued,
"Black! Dock! Williams! Greengrass!"
"You already said my name, Professor," Dock, a rather short girl with mousy brown hair informed the teacher among a chorus of Heres.
"Good to see you're– Knightsbridge!– paying attention."
There was silence, and he repeated, "Knightsbridge!" More silence. "Very good, I abhor people with last name Knightsbridge. McAndrews!"
"Here."
"And we're all here. Good. I am Newt Scamander, you can call me Scamander, Professor, Professor Scamander, or Maestro." A few kids giggled at his inclusion of Maestro, but he silenced them with a look. "There will be a pre-test, to see if you're fit for this class."
The room began to mutter darkly, and this time he simply ignored them. "Ms. Clock! What is the name of this fine establishment?"
"It'sDock," Dock muttered under her breath. "Hogwarts," she replied sullenly.
"Wonderful, you all pass!" He clapped his hands together excitedly, and Harry decided that he liked Scamander. "Now everyone, pull out your books. I see that misters Potter and Longbottom have already done so, good job, all around. This first class will be fun." He drew out the f as long as humanly possible, giving it a slightly menacing air. Harry resisted the temptation to laugh out loud.
"Can one of you tell me how you guys would've been chosen for your houses, four hundred years ago, in the early days of the founders?"
Neville raised his hand slightly. "Longbottom?" Scamander asked.
"Much the same way as it is now, Professor Scamander?"
"Not at all, not at all, Mister Longbottom, but not a bad guess any other guesses?" No hands rose.
"Very good. No one likes a smartass." He cracked his knuckles, and smiled. "Well, initially, Gryffindor was stupidity, Slytherin was betrayal, Ravenclaw was fear, and Hufflepuff was mediocrity. Now, they changed it in order to attract more students, but from this, we can easily see the polar opposites of each of the houses. . . ."
Harry smiled, and leant forward in his desk, so that he could hear Scamander better. This, at least, was going to be an interesting class.
Around nine o'clock, Professor Scamander finished his enlightening lecture about Hogwarts, and assigned around 20 pages of reading for the next day before shooing them off to their next class. On the way out, Neville asked Hannah about whether or not she had decided to join the group, but she simply replied that she was still thinking about it. Neville nodded, and accompanied Harry to the Great Hall.
Once they reached it, Harry noticed that the regular tables were gone, and that in their place were a number of seats, set up in the same manner as a concert hall, facing towards a raised platform, a stage. Harry and Neville took seats somewhere in the middle. Around two hundred first years filed in, the lights dimmed, and the headmaster walked onto the stage.
After a brief round of applause, he addressed the crowd, "Hello. You will all be required to take a modern language for the first three years of your tutelage here, unless you are already proficient in it. The options this year will be Japanese, French, Spanish, Mandarin, German, Russian, Portuguese, Italian and Arabic. Also, in years past, people have requested that Hebrew be added as a language. If you can find a teacher, we will pay him or her. The teachers will now present their language to each of you! Thank you, I'm out." He gave a nod, and swept out of the auditorium.
There was another brief round of applause, before a large blond woman, smartly dressed in a two piece suit, came out onto the stage. "Hello kids."
The crowd echoed, "Hello," and the woman smiled.
"You kids are boring. I was expecting at least ten of you to know my name." There was silence, and she rolled her eyes. "I am Mrs. Gabrielle Istari. You may call me Professor Istari."
Neville tapped Harry's shoulder, and whispered, Harry, "Seems like a bitch."
Harry nodded solemnly, as she continued. "If you have a problem with your language, then you will come to me to request a transfer. I present to you, the heads of the individual languages." Istari seemed to stalk off the stage, and was quickly replaced by a white haired man, who appeared to be full of life, simultaneously looking no younger than 70, and no older than 30. Harry remembered the longevity of wizards, and placed him at around 100.
"Ah, French!" he began. "The French have, for centuries, been the epitome of fashion. As well, French is, and always has been, the language of love. Go French!"
As he was trotting off stage, a boy yelled, over the applause, "And know your enemy!" The teacher gave him a military salute, and continued to walk offstage, to much laughter.
Another man, although this time clearly much younger, maybe forty if one took into account the rate at which wizards aged, appeared in front of the podium, as if by magic. "Lots of people speak Spanish," he enunciated, through a strong Spanish accent. "And it's easy! Only one accent, same letters as English! You want to go to South America? Learn Spanish!"
Several more teachers gave their brief speeches, although the only ones that stood out were the Japanese and the Mandarin teachers. The Japanese one had walked off after yelling, "Robots!" and the Mandarin teacher mentioned that more people spoke Mandarin than any other language, and that although it was intensely difficult, it would end up being worth it, seeing as the muggle Chinese economy was blooming, and had just regained its former momentum, and that if you looked back just 15 years, the Chinese economy was growing at a rate of 70 percent, and, yes, it was definitely a valuable investment to learn Mandarin. At the end, Istari came back up, and ordered everyone to write their favored language in the language box on their schedules. Harry glanced at his schedule, and sure enough, the word Language had disappeared in favor of a blank box. She left the stage, and the hall burst into noise.
Harry thought for a second, before turning to Neville and saying that Chinese looked like the best bet to Neville, who looked unsure. "Well, the muggle economy is blooming, but the communists have never liked us. Wizards and witches, I mean. They know that they need us, to avert the very worst earthquakes and such, but they don't have very good rights, and we can't legally do business with muggles. Besides, Chinese is extremely difficult to learn. Do you have any second choices?"
Harry thought for a second, before remembering the gibberish that people had been telling him. "French, probably."
Neville nodded, approvingly. "Probably me too," he said. "You should go with that. Since the French successfully invaded England a ways back, which is where we come from, there are loads of French words already in English. Spanish is easier, but French... c'est magnifique! Er, magnificent. I'll probably join one of the more advanced French classes, since I already know a bit. A lot of the purebloods learn a language at home, since we can't really learn any magic except for the most elementary potions. I suppose I could take Arabic, since it would open up a gigantic portion of the world, but it looks hard. Now Spanish, that looks easy, but I can't envision myself ever going to Spain, except for the Tapas." Neville gave Harry a completely obvious wink, and nudged him, saying, "Besides, France already fulfils my nude beach quota. I mean. Culture. Quota. Of course." Neville glanced from side to side, mock nervously, and Harry elbowed him in the chest, suppressing a chortle.
Harry thought objectively for a second. He didn't really need the financial incentives, since he seemed to have a small fortune in his vaults, enough to live off of if he didn't lead too extravagant a life style, and France wasn't exactly a bad country to do business with, although they weren't too fond of the English. Most importantly, taking an easier language would leave more time for actual magic. He wrote French into the box, and let Neville lead him to Charms, after Neville noted that it was nearly 10:05.
Charms was taught in a classroom arranged in nearly the same way as the history room, by an amazingly average looking woman. Her name was Guinevere Barnshot, and Harry supposed that she would be the perfect extra in a movie, with shoulder-length dirty blond hair, a slightly small nose, almond shaped eyes, and thin smile. Nearly everything about her screamed nondescript. However, she knew her stuff. She started off class by letting some of the kids show off their charms, and Neville's mastery of the Obscuring Water charm earned a raised eyebrow from the chixor they were 'wooing'.
Harry decided against showing off his spells, on the grounds that he probably wouldn't be able to practice any of the practical portion of the class, if there was one, but noted that Dock had a nice cutting curse, very clean, although Barnshot expressed some aggravation at her using her desk as an example. McAndrews had a neat Pack, although he seemed completely exhausted after that, and Barnshot expressed her further aggravation, before praising him for the advanced wand-work. Harry noticed that only four of them had decided not to show off some spell, Harry, Hannah, and two boys, Smith and Johns. Harry supposed that they must be familiar with a form of magic that wasn't charms, or naturally secretive, which was entirely possible, since Smith was a Slytherin, and Scamander had intimated that Slytherins were as subtle as Hufflepuffs were blunt. Of course, there was always the possibility that they were simply muggleborn, and didn't know any charms. However, judging by the identical smirks on their faces, Harry somehow didn't believe it.
Professor Barnshot had the class give everyone a round of applause, before flipping a switch on her desk. Instantly, the lights went out, the door slammed shut, and blinds rolled down, creating complete darkness in the room. A light sprung up around Barnshot, who strode to the middle of the classroom. "Right," she began, "today's class is going to be the beginning of our beginner level charms. We're going to be showing you a series of lower level charms. Everyone get out some parchment. Lumos Minor is a lower level version of the Lumos charm, and yes, Potter has got the trick. Lumos is, yes, as Mr. Potter just showed us, a nice flicking of the wand. And... actually, it seems that, yes, Mr. Potter has lit up the entire classroom with his diffuse light. Please, Mr. Potter, don't over do it. No, Ms. Dock, see, the motion is all in the wrist–"
Harry pursed his lips, narrowly denying the temptation to scowl. He thought, 'Nox,' and was somewhat placated when the light instantly died out, and he couldn't see his classmates' less successful attempts anymore. He realized that he wouldn't be able to make the spell actually less powerful, as his staff seemed to have a lower limit that he couldn't cross, which made weak spell casting very difficult, without making the more difficult spell casting any easier. Suddenly, Harry remembered that he had managed to cast it without lighting up the room completely while at the hotel, but quickly remember the burnout that he'd suffered after that.
Harry racked his brain for something that Snape had taught him over the weeks that would possibly allow for him to at least make it seem like he had a good control of his magic. Harry briefly considered a strongly charged Lumos Minor, followed by an average Nox. Or perhaps a Nox Minor? Harry briefly considered the idea, before discarding it. It wasn't worth the energy it would take Harry to cast the two spells, especially since Harry wasn't sure what combination of spells to use. The regular Diffuse Light spell, obscured with the Obscuring Water charm? Suddenly, Harry had it. If Harry could remember the way that Snape had taught Harry to loop one spell around another, in order to combine them, he might be able to... "Lumos Minor, Tor," he whispered, not taking the chance of wordless magic with a new spell. The light quickly spread across the room as he flicked his wrist, but came back under his control as he smoothly followed it up by continuing the flick, smoothly turning the wand in a circle. Harry felt something be right, almost like something clicked in the magic, but not quite, and the light was completely under his control. He rolled slightly more than half of it up into a tiny ball, and threw it in his pocket, before anyone noticed him doing anything unusual with his magic. He briefly supposed that Snape's secrecy was rubbing off on him, but he had a feeling–no, he knew that it wasn't a bad thing.
Once the last people had finished figuring out the charm, and there was a low light circling the room, Barnshot took her place at the center of the room again. "Now, in the Caribbean, there arose a style of magic that became internationally famous, although its roots can be traced back to West Africa, where many of the witches and wizards had been enslaved from. You'll learn more about that in History, I bet. Anyways, it only became famous around the world after its use in Haiti, and some surrounding isles. It's called, Vodou." The word appeared in the middle of the room, rotating around, so that everyone could see it. Harry thought it was a very neat presentation, and figured that it was probably a good time to pull out his pencil, which he seemed to have forgotten to do when he'd pulled out his paper. A few seconds later, a map of the Americas appeared, before zeroing in on half of an island. It read, 'Haiti', and next to it, there was a picture of the Haitian flag, the official languages, the capital, gross domestic product in purchasing power parities, currency, population, percentage of the population that was magical, and time zone. Harry wisely decided against trying to copy all of it down, deciding to write down at least the capital, the population and the GDP in PPP. "There are several interesting things about this charm, most specifically that it's extremely easy to make it an enchantment. But we won't be exploring that just right now. First of all, you have to find two objects. The purpose of the charm is to link them. Depending upon how you cast it, you can make it so that the other object is, say, diseased, when something specific happens to it. We're just going to work with movement, here, since it's the easiest, probably. Does anyone know the wand movement for movement based charms?"
Harry raised his hand, and after Barnshot pointed at him, quickly thrust his wand forward, thinking of movement. His desk was abruptly thrown backwards, and Barnshot smirked. "Ah, yes Mr. Potter, a quarter of a merit point for being more prepared for class than necessary. And for demonstrating one of the basic laws of physics. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Harry pushed something, most likely the air, very strongly, and the air, or something, pushed back very strongly. This is the main problem with movement charms, and this charm quite nicely gets rid of it. Everyone take one of these–" she pulled 13 identical toy yachts, illuminated by miniature lamps, out of one of her sleeves, and thrust her wand forward strongly, banishing each of them to one of the desks. "And link it to the person to your right's boat, and we'll see something interesting. You link it by casting, Connect: Movement." The letters scrolled around the center of the room, and Harry wrote them down, hesitating but a second before adding in the colon. "Vodou is also practiced extensively in New Orleans, or as the French liked to call it, La Nouvelle-Orleans, and as New Orleans is, obviously, part of an Anglophone country, and it was such a vital part of their life, they eventually developed a clever system and rather straightforward system of Vodou, so that you didn't need to memorize a bunch of non-Latin letters. Um, you'll have to concentrate on first your boat, then the second. It doesn't matter when you say the spell, although you can't move onto the second boat until after you've finished the incantation. Once you've finished casting, keep concentrating, at least partially, on your boat. Oh, right, McAndrews, please refrain from practicing at this point in time. And everyone, be sure to only link it to one boat, don't link your boat to two."
Everyone except McAndrews, the boy who'd cast Pack and seemed rather relieved to not have to do any more spellwork at the moment, set about trying to figure out how to work the spell. Harry closed his eyes, and considered what would need to be done. He wanted to link the two boats. The incantation was Connect: Movement, and the wand movement was a forward thrust. Movement was running, or jumping, or leaping, or driving. Harry opened his eyes, and cast, "Connect: Movement". He thought of the joy of running, of leaping, and skipping and riding the train, or in the car, the wind whipping past his face, and on a whim, imagined the joy that would be felt when he was skipping alongside a girl who was all pale skin and– Harry lost the image, when a baby blue light darted forth from his wand, striking his boat first, and then the boat of the girl next to him, Someone Brooks.
Harry waited for several seconds for the other to finish figuring out the charm, and noticing that they hadn't yet, absentmindedly poked his boat forward a few inches, and was rather surprised, despite himself, when Brooks' boat was poked forward a bit too. She turned her head towards him in annoyance, before scowling at the boat again, and casting, finally getting it right.
Once everyone had successfully completed the charm, Barnshot walked over to Neville's desk, and picked up his boat, raising it over her head, causing all of the other boats to rise up too. The class 'ooh-ed' and 'ah-ed', all rather pleased with their performance. "Notice that all of the boats stay in the same point unless I move their center of gravity. If I rotate this boat around its center of gravity, then none of the other boats will move, except in their rotation." She demonstrated, and Harry realized that although it was a ring, Barnshot was demonstrating that it was a very limited ring, and could not be stretched or shrunk, but only rotated and shifted. "Now, notice what happens when McAndrews casts this, tying his boat and the one to the right of his, Longbottom's. McAndrews?"
He very casually cast the spell, with the air of someone who had done it a million times before, and Harry briefly wondered if he was a Charms specialist. However, all thoughts of Charms specialties were driven from his mind, when the blue light struck Neville's boat. There was a whooshing sound, and instantly, all of the floating boats disappeared. There was stunned silence for several seconds, and Barnshot took the opportunity to move back to her desk and turn the lights back on. "This is living proof of the 'No Casual Time Travel' rule. Because magic is instantaneous, the command to travel shifts from the first, to the second, and to the third, et cetera, to the thirteenth, and then back to the first, instantly, so that it's informed to travel constantly, forever, in an instant. Instead of letting it return to back where it was a few seconds ago, ah, slightly more advanced physics than you're required to know at this point, the powers that be decided that it would be much easier if they just had a law to intervene whenever someone did something silly like that. Tearing holes in the cosmos is just a little too annoying for them. Any questions?"
The stunned silence continued. The vanishing act had been completely unexpected, and Harry doubted that Barnshot's explanation had truly penetrated anyone's head. He quickly ran what she had said through his head again, and wrote down, 'No casual time travel' and 'Physics' in his notes.
Barnshot smiled, and dismissed the class. At the sound of her dismissal, Neville turned to Harry, and muttered, "Holy shit." Harry thought that summed up his feelings rather nicely.
Hannah came up from behind them, and smiled at Harry. "You picked up the charms pretty quickly. Are you a charms master?"
Harry smiled, and shook his head no. "I much prefer Runes and Potions, really. I just figured that I should know a little about charms, although I prefer the less obvious Runes and more subtle Potions."
Hannah nodded, and ordered, "Show me a rune."
Harry's smile faltered for a second, before he had the perfect idea. "Verde," he whispered, turning the head of his staff green, before lifting up his shirt and drawing a lightning bolt shaped rune onto his stomach. "This is eihwaz," he explained, "Eihwaz is the rune for defense." He finished drawing, and blinked hard as he felt his skin rearranging itself. "Every substance has an innate ability to do anything, and runes will draw out that ability. For example, punch me as hard as you can."
Hannah looked slightly worried, and asked, "Are you sure?"
Harry laughed, "So this is what a Hufflepuff is like. Yes I'm sure. Think of me as Harry Houdini, instead of Potter."
"This is how Houdini died," Hannah muttered, before rolling up her sleeve, and punching Harry in the gut. Harry didn't move, didn't even flinch, and didn't seem to feel it at all. In fact, it had felt rather like hitting a steel wall. "Wicked," she whispered.
"That why I love it," Harry replied.
"I'm in," Hannah announced gleefully. Neville, who had been asking an irritable Barnshot a question about disguising charms, appeared next to Harry, and Harry gave him a thumbs up. Neville glanced at Hannah, and raised his eyebrows, along with a thumb. Harry nodded, grinned, and raised his other thumb up.
"Nice," Neville breathed. "Welcome to the team, Abbot. We're still looking for a Slytherin, though. Preferably female, to even it out.".
"Brooks is one of two female Slytherins, and her spell was decidedly mediocre. I forget the other girl's name. While she could be trying to conceal her ability, it would make more sense for her to simply not cast it if she was trying to do so. It was some fire-based spell, um, Jad or something."
"Jak, actually. And it's not just for looking pretty." Harry pulled out his wand, and whispered, "Jak." He pulled his forearm forward, and released two large balls of flame. With another confident swish of his wand, he directed the balls to Hannah's feet.
She stood still for a second, slightly shocked, before giggling. "That tickles, a bit, although in a good w-ah! How weird." It was rather weird if Harry thought about it, as Hannah was very calmly doing a pirouette with her arms just flailing to the sides. "Does the fire know Salsa?"
"Of course," Harry muttered. "The question is, do you know salsa?"
"One two three, five six seven . . . no I don't."
Harry laughed, and dispelled the balls. "You have to choose which form of salsa first, silly."
Neville arched an eyebrow, and asked, "What the hell?"
"Jak fills a limb with a desire to dance. It was developed originally as a Pureblood figured out that most of their child's inability to dance came from the fact that he was deathly terrified of being embarrassed. Jak forces you to overcome the embarrassment, although it won't teach you the dance in and of itself. For example, if Hannah was a trained ballet dancer, she would have done a more advanced and fun skill than the pirouette. Instead, she went for the rather cliched pirouette, as she recognized the move as a dancing one."
Hannah narrowed her eyes, before sighing. She glanced at her card, and motioned for Harry and Neville to go with her to the next class. She left, and they followed and listened as she spoke. "Yes, I was never one for ballet. Besides, my parents supported my OR addiction, so I never really cared–" She whipped her head toward Harry, who was looking puzzled. "Aw, you've never heard of OR, have you? Bet you don't have a circle set up, even."
"A circle? OR? I must admit that I have no idea what you're talking about," Harry replied ruefully.
"Well, a circle is how you access the web. And the web doesn't just contain information– well, yes, it does, but not just pure information. It also contains information that can be converted into games, or information that makes up songs, or impos. I'll build you a circle, it'll be sweet."
"You can build circles?" Neville asked, clearly amazed.
"Well, what did you think I'd been doing for the past eleven years of my life?" she asked grumpily. "I mean, I haven't memorized The Code, but I haven't been sitting on my ass, watching daytime impos. Please." She turned back towards Harry, and continued, "As long as you can obtain some chalk and a few sheets of The Code, I can draw you a circle. I have a few extra beta passes for this new OR, too– um, OR stands for Other Reality. They used to call them virtual realities, but they got way too complex. Some people decided that it wasn't virtual anymore, but a true reality, and coined the name. Anyways, these guys kind of revolutionized the world of realities, and my parents have been working with them to design the new AI system. It's really neat, actually, it uses twenty different sets of random number generators to keep it as random as possible for encounters, since RNGs aren't truly random. But, uh, we're there," she trailed off, clearly embarrassed about rambling on.
Harry realized that it was the great hall again, and asked Hannah, vowing to ask her later about where to get The Code, inquired, "What class is this?"
"It says class meeting on the schedule," Neville replied for her. "I bet it's something like discussing the rules and stuff."
Harry nodded, that sounded plausible enough. The seats were still arranged in the same way that they had been for the language selection, and the three of them took their seats. Noticing that their class seemed to be the first one there, Neville and Hannah spoke about some fantastic OR that they had both played, and Harry pretended to be half-listening, while actually he was practicing the Optomancy. He still couldn't do it half as quickly as he had hoped to be by now, although he had gotten it to the speed without the glasses that it had been with the glasses, but supposed that it was sheer luck that he had gotten to actually shifting his eyes at all within the week. He had, of course, spent the first few days actually figuring out the mechanics of an eye, and had actually dissected the replica of a giant's eye, which was around as big as two of his fists.
He closed his eyes, and concentrated, as always, on stretching or compressing his lens. Again, as always, it was taking a depressingly long time to change. He sighed, knowing that practice made perfect, and if he wanted to impress. . . . Harry half started at the thought, wondering who he wanted to impress. It didn't really matter, he realized. Whoever he wanted to impress he was, going to. He knew it. Harry returned to his effort, trying to imagine forcing his magic into his eyeballs. Problem was, he didn't know where his magic was, and he failed miserably.
Harry turned to Neville, and interrupted, "I know this might sound like a kind of silly question but. . . ."
He was in turn interrupted by Hannah, who jokingly reprimanded him, "Harry, Harry. There are no stupid questions, just stupid people."
Neville laughed, and Harry glared at Hannah, before rolling his eyes and continuing, "Is there some sort of central reservoir where your magic is located?"
Neville looked taken aback, and asked back, "You mean, in your body?"
Harry nodded, and Neville shook his head, no. "Magic runs evenly through your blood, oxygenated or non-oxygenated, so it's pretty much everywhere, since even if there aren't veins or arteries in a certain place, there are still capillaries. Of course, magic is going to be strongest in the veins and arteries, so typically when testing for magic, they check here," Neville touched the inside of his upper arm, "Here," indicating his inner leg with his left hand, "Or here," he finished, rubbing his jugular vein.
Harry nodded slowly, wondering how he could use that. Suddenly, he had an idea. Maybe it was like the runes. Since his eyes had an innate magic, he simply needed to bring it out. He closed his eyes again, and forced himself to relax in his seat. He thought to himself,You're already in there, right? Might as well do some work. I definitely could've used you earlier, when I was caught half-blind at the sorting. Concentrating on his eyes, he felt something different. Almost like something had clicked into place. Opening his eyes, again, he reached out with his imaginary magical fingers, running through his eyes, and bit back a triumphant yell as his sight blurred, much quicker than before. Harry set them back to where they had been before, and did the exercise three more times with his newfound skill, before the rest of the classes filed in. When he was finished, he felt fairly tired, his eyes watered, and he had to fight the desire to keep them closed, but he felt like it was worth it.
As the last students found seats, a short and slightly chubby woman walked onto the platform. She tapped her throat with her wand, and called out, "Good morning!"
"G'morning," they replied in unison.
"Have a good day so far? Like Hogwarts?" she asked.
One voice, a few rows back from Harry, shot out immediately, "Yeah!" Everyone laughed, and the woman waited until everyone had stopped laughing before continuing again.
"Well, I'll tell the Headmaster, he'll make sure that problem clears up right away." There was another round of laughter, and again, she waited until everyone was quiet again, before continuing. "Once again, I welcome you to Hogwarts. I am Professor Wyrned, and I'll be teaching around half of you English. I am also the head of the first years. There are a few rules that I need to go over." She held a hand up, in a fist, before raising her forefinger. "First of all, you may not go into room 312 in R. Tower, unless you wish to die a horrible and painful death. It is the temporary teacher's lounge, while the old one is refurbished. Oh, right, R. Tower is our nickname for Ravenclaw Tower. H. Tower is Hufflepuff Tower, G. Tower is Gryffindor Tower, the Dungeons is Slytherin Tower," there were a few more titters in the crowd, but she didn't wait for them to pass before continuing, "and P. Tower is Professor's Tower. Heads of House, Professors Mcgonagall, Snape, Flitwick and Sprout, for Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff, respectively, will not live in P. Tower like the rest of the Professor, but instead reside inside their towers." She glanced down at the podium, presumably at a piece of paper, and continued. "Also, on Saturday and Sunday you will be able to do anything you want. However, to leave the castle farther away than Hogsmeade, you will need a parent release form. All trips to Hogsmeade and to the F. Forest need to be accompanied by a teacher. You may not travel more than five miles into the forest."
After again glancing down at the podium, she outlined the merit point system, and mentioned an option that truly intrigued Harry, the option to negotiate with the head of house for a new reward, in exchange for points. She began talking about the Challenges, which Harry had already heard about from Neville, and he decided to practice some more with his eyes, which were aching much less.
After only two more repetitions of the lens trick, Professor Wyrned asked if there were any questions. One girl in the back asked, "Where are our birds?" Harry had, indeed noticed that his Raven wasn't in the cage when he had gone to his room the night before, but had assumed that it had somehow managed to get itself out of it.
"In the Owlery, at the top of G. Tower. Any other questions?" There weren't any, and Professor Wyrned informed them that they all had the rest of the period as free. Within just a few minutes, everyone left the room. Remembering his mental note, Harry asked Hannah where she supposed he could get The Code, and she shrugged.
"Ask some of the teachers, at least one of them must have it, since there's a Circles class in the higher grades."
Harry nodded, and said nothing. They walked at a leisurely pace to the Greenhouse, Neville and Hannah still discussing various aspects of Wizarding Culture, and Harry practicing his Optomancy. His briefly wondered if he should be slightly disappointed at being a bit of a third wheel, but brushed it off. It didn't matter whether he shouldbe disappointed or not, it mattered if he was disappointed. He knew that.
It had been a good day so far. He simply hoped that his relatively good luck with professors kept up.
A/N: Okay, so it's a little late. Okay, so it's a lot late. Okay, so going to camp actually made me slow down with the updates. However, I HAVE finally updated, (although it's only half of what I had planned on updating- I realized that if I went through the entire day it would be far too long, and take another three months to update. This also happens to be my longest chapter yet, I think, although it's a transition chapter. I'm going to try to avoid describing too many of the classes, although it's what I find to be the most interesting, and keep to the challenges, and the plot, so that I can get to the good stuff, exampli gratia, year four. Not that year four is going to be fun or anything. looks from side to side edgily)
Anyways, it's reviews that remind me that I'm actually supposed to be writing a story, so I wouldn't mind if you pressed the button, even if it's just to write something along the lines of, "ew, you suck. Man I'm glad that I'm not you because you must have small boobs... you homo sapiens sapiens." Don't worry, I won't be offended, since, yes, I do suck popsicles, yes I would be rather flat-chested for a girl, so it's good that I'm not one, and, finally, because, yes, I am, in fact a Human.
tips hat Good night, and good luck. /tips hat
(man, it irritates me the way they don't let non-text into the story.)