Another month went by, classes had become practically automatic. Staros turned eleven with barely anyone noticing. Daphne and Tracey both gave him some sweets while Blaise gave him a card, neutral gifts both so as to not indicate any kind of attachment. Similar gifts were given by or to other students in the house, the only indications of preferences being levels of respect for status either in the house or familial with more powerful individuals being granted more lavish or more personal items while lesser beings were given what essentially amounted to acknowledgment only. The only difference in normal tradition was Staros sending out cards to people in other houses. His 'traitorous act' was ignored after Professor McGonagall awarded Slytherin twenty points for thoughtfulness though Staros later explained to any who asked that remembering little things like a birthday often netted huge returns later on in life, even if it was just being given a chance to talk. Some did wonder how he knew so many birthdays.
On the other hand, Staros' father sent him one of the first newly available in the US, magically functional laptop computers. Several students were heavily impressed with the item and everyone wanted to look at it. Draco practically drooled over the device, asking a million questions that were surprisingly intelligent and was perhaps the best conversation Staros and Draco had been involved in since they first met. Draco was turning into a magical IT geek, writing his father about the device and sending off for brochures from American suppliers. Staros was amused with Draco's antics, especially his father's return letters claiming that if it was 'muggle-based' it couldn't be worth anything, but not once did the usually spoiled and arrogant Malfoy demand one of his own or get petulant about not having full access to it. Well, he did stare at it a lot.
Staros was, of course, forbidden to bring the computer to classes as it was severely distracting. However, each of the professors, including those who Staros had yet to have classes with, took a couple of days to look over the invention and question him about it. Hermione went ballistic with her first sight of it, begging to examine the charms, runes and everything else about it she could think of, most of which was so far above their grade level as to be 'magic' to the young magicals, much like nuclear particle physics to the average fourth grader. She was not alone as many of the Ravenclaws also wished to examine it, a number of the first- and second-generation students being at least passingly familiar with computers.
Staros and Harry continued their friendship slash association, much to Ron's dismay. Between the two of them, they managed to keep the worst of the house rivalry from reaching explosive proportions, not that there weren't any confrontations. The Weasley twins made damned sure of that with pranks at least once a week on random houses, but primarily Slytherin. While no one in the school could match their sheer genius, there were several groups who at least tried and it started to turn into a giant inter-house game to see who could prank who worse. Thus far, only the professors and actual classes had remained safe.
On another positive note, Staros had gained a little bit of a following from other upper class students, mainly those trained in one form of martial art or another. Neville turned out to have been trained a bit in long sword fencing while Draco had been schooled in the finer art of the rapier, most likely due to his family's origination in France. Some of the other students had training in smaller weapons like daggers, primarily the females since wearing a dagger had become something of a fashion during the height of English dueling and women were expected to both be able to fend off attackers but not show any martial leanings. The obvious trade-off led to the use of stilettos and push daggers as a form of defense for women. Now several times a week, the small group could be found crossing training blades down by the lake. Carcerous, while initially found to be intimidating and disturbing to the more traditionalist house-elf bondage types, had been accepted as a capable instructor for most. Draco refused to be taught by an elf, which came as no surprise, but he was not the only one.
September done and gone, the chilly (-er) winds of October began. Charms classes had moved from theory to practical, Transfiguration was starting to make sense, Herbology was definitely turning out to be fun, Potions remained a bizarre mix of anticipation and horror, History still boring everyone to death, Defense continued to disappoint, and Astronomy stayed about the same. Professor Snape did indeed thoroughly examine Staros' alchemy kit and did order in some of the better made measuring, weighing, and mixing tools that mundane science had perfected. In exchange, Snape showed Staros a few tricks of the potions trade that Staros promptly shared with Daphne, Tracey, Blaise and Hermione, knowing full well that Hermione would share with Harry, Ron, and Neville. In this way, all of their potions skills improved, but nothing could be directly linked to Staros. To date, only Neville, Crabbe and Goyle showed no talents at all in Potions, but Staros suspected that Neville might get better since he did wonderfully in Herbology. Crabbe and Goyle were just hopeless.
One of the more interesting results of classes happened during the middle of the month in Transfiguration. Having 'mastered' the matchstick exercise, Professor McGonagall now had tem trying to turn a fork into frying pan, which was explained to be a little different since the iron involved resisted transfiguration, or many other magics, plus the differences in mass.
Staros sat staring at his fork, having tried unsuccessfully to transfigure it for almost a half hour. He kept running the 'tips' that Tracey's parents had sent through his head trying to figure out what they meant. Apparently, imagination was a key element to transfiguration, as well as attention. How? Imagination and attention seemed mutually exclusive.
"AHA!" exclaimed Staros, rather loudly, as he figured it out and with a wave, turned his fork into a frying pan.
"Mr. Marcus, congratulations and five points to Slytherin," said McGonagall. "However, I would appreciate it if you kept such outburst to yourself in the future."
"Yes, ma'am, sorry, ma'am," Staros said quite happily.
"Perhaps you cans hare the reason for your outburst and success?"
"Oh, yeah…" Staros began. "Well, I was given some tips regarding how transfiguration worked. They didn't make the slightest bit of sense to me until just now."
"Indeed, and what were these tips, pray tell?"
"Well, I was told about imagination and attention which seemed to me to be completely opposing ideas. How can you pay attention if you're spending time day dreaming? Then it all suddenly fit! Attention to details WHILE imagining the result! I just looked at the fork and refused to see it as a fork but as a frying pan. I imagined it as one, going over every detail I could about a frying pan, the weight, the feel, the shape, everything. Then I made it change. The rest, as they say, is history."
Professor McGonagall smiled at him.
"Indeed, Mr. Marcus. Those are some of the beginning points of how transfiguration is accomplished. Well done."
After this revelation, within five minutes, virtually everyone in the class had transfigured their forks into frying pans and back again. The few exceptions were Goyle and Pansy, both of whom became more frustrated at their lack of success. Draco tried to help Pansy, but this seemed to piss her off even more. Goyle just quit and sulked.