Everybody's Fool
Chapter Nine
Authoress Note: Okay, I got to thinking; I don't really want to drag each year out to a hundred chapters or something to that affect. I'm thinking maybe twenty at the most unless a certain year just absolutely needs more?
Don't get me wrong, I have enough ideas for this fiction that I could very easily do fifty to sixty chapters per 'school year' but it's up to you all if you want it that long per year or not. So let me know.
Anyone notice anything interesting about Hermione's new friends? I've been waiting on someone to say something but… I'll let you figure it out. ;)
And this chapter is rather shorter than I had planned but I want to focus on the final course of their day Introduction to Rationality and Logical Reasoning in its own chapter. It plays a very important part to the building blocks and the overall tone of the story.
It will take me a little longer to get the next chapter out. I have to refresh my memory on a lot of things in as short amount of time to keep the delay from being longer.
They found the boys that evening all holed up in Blaise's room, going over their potions homework when they relayed the offer of testing out of languages and then the tutoring offer they had been given, which was rather generous since they were just first years.
The rest of the evening was spent going over as much of their work as they could before they separated so the boys could go add Ancient Runes to their schedule and so the girls could get ready for the upcoming days ahead.
Before long it was the first Friday that they had been at Ireland Academy of Magic and Hermione was looking forward to today more than any other day. She had five classes, all of which were a part of the reason she had chosen to come to this school over any other.
Because of the fact that Hermione would be leaving the campus that evening to start a thorough inspection of her properties she had plans to use her time-turner later in the evening so she could finish all her homework during the daylight hours and then leave for Granger Manor, her first stop, after she finished the required homework.
Quickly changing into a form fitting pair of workout pants and a tank top, Hermione placed her school uniform inside her gym bag before shirking it and placing it inside her book bag before heading down to the dining hall, not surprised to see Blaise, Justin, Michael, and William already at the table, working on what had to be their third cup of coffee based on their level of alertness.
When Hermione sat down Blaise immediately poured her a cup of coffee as Justin and Michael piled a plate rather high before setting it down in front of her.
"Thanks guys." She said, giving them a grin before she took a sip of her coffee, glad when the hot liquid started to jolt her awake.
"We all have Self-Defense this morning right?" Hermione asked, glad to her Justin reply in the affirmative that even the rest of the girls had the same class.
"We all have the same schedule except for Magical Theory, we all range from Year Two to Year Three, except for Rosalie, she's in Year One. " Blaise said, pushing a bagel towards the girl he was speaking to and then returning to his own bagel which had honey of all things spread across it.
"Madam Liu is our self-defense instructor, rumor has it she's tough as nails." Justin said, shuddering as he took a sip of his coffee, leaving time for the others to reply.
"We'll make it. Gymnastics has been tough but I've managed a handstand and to get my back hand spring down this week. I've got to work on some backhand spring drills this weekend while I look over my estate." Hermione said, giving them all a tight smile, as she had been sore all week and hadn't found a potion to take the edge off yet.
Once the rest of the girls arrived they had a few minutes to eat before they had to make their way to the room that their Self Defense class would be held in.
Entering the classroom the first thing that caught Hermione's attention where the desks that where lined up against one wall while the rest of the room was wide open space, expect for the walls, which were covered in almost any weapon that was conceivable.
"Welcome. For now grab a seat while we go over the syllabi and then we'll move into a warm up. While in this course you are required to master five weapons before you can move onto the second portion of this course. What weapons you master are completely up to you and I'll need you to have a rough idea of what weapons you want to use before you leave here today as I'll run over a few of them. Since half of you are leaving school tonight to work on your projects for Running a Wizarding Household you will pick seven weapons and write a parchment page and a half on them, due next Friday. Once you finish your papers you will narrow it down to the five you want to learn for the first portion of this class. For now I just want you to do a mile and a half run, one lap around the room is a quarter mile and I'll time you so we have a base to go off of." She said, smirking to herself when they groaned before lining up as required.
Hermione came in fourth at 16:20 after Blaise, Kira, and Crystal all of whom had been training in some form or capacity since they were five to seven years old and finished well ahead of her at or below 12 minutes and 30 seconds.
"Get as much practice running as you can. It can and will save your life. The second portion of your homework is to come up with a daily workout routine and yes, you may include your physical education course in your workout, once you get your papers written we'll start on actually training you to use your weapons of choice." Madam Li said, dismissing the students who were almost as tired as they had been all week thanks to their physical education courses.
Muggle Astronomy left them with four hundred pages to get through in one weekend with annotated notes to be turned in the next Friday as well as four chapters worth of outlines, quizzes and questions.
Magical Theory Year Three however was going to quickly become one of Hermione's favorite courses. When they entered the classroom each set had five books sitting on it, one of which was a blank grimoire that was eight hundred pages long, something that intrigued Hermione and it was also the first of three courses she had with the Headmistress, Morgan le Fay.
"Welcome to Magical Theory Year Three. We have everyone from a Year One to Year Four students in here. I will here no remarks about anyone's age. With that being said your first paper will be on 'What is Magic?' which is the same paper we start out with every year. Use what you've learned in your previous two courses to build upon it. This paper is required to be 5,000 words, if you do not know the spell to check the word count ask your classmates. The books on your desk cover Year One thru Three Magical Theory as well as a book on Nature Magic which is vitally important. You will have a test on all four books before you leave for your Yule Break at a rate of one book a month on the last Saturday class of each month. Your second paper, which will be due, next Saturday is on wand lore and wand creation the books for which will be owled to you later this evening if you do not already have them. The blank book is called a grimoire. Use it to track your progress in all of your courses, any side questions you have, anything you want to research further. It is a record of your school progression which will come in handy if you ever take on students privately as a tutor." She said, giving Hermione a pointed look before she handed out a rather large stack of notes.
"You will need to have read over the notes before class as well as the reading assignments because there will be a quiz at the beginning of each class. Most topics we cover in this course take two days to go over, so with that being said we will not start a new topic now. For those of you that haven't taken Magical Theory I and II will find it useful to get the notes from an older student, even if you achieved a perfect score on your tests. We will simply move onto Spell Creation which all of you are taking, since this is just an introduction it won't take long and then you'll be free to go."
As soon as she said that books started flying across the room, landing neatly on their desks with a wave of her hand.
"Spell creation is just that. The components it takes to create a spell. There are two types of spells, the first is one done with a wand or wandless magic. The second type of spell is the spell that is done within a ritual setting which uses the magic within you as a way to obtain a goal. We will cover both in Spell Creation. With that being said, I want two papers at 5,000 words apiece. The first is on what spell creation is in general. The second is to be on what is ritual magic. Aside from that you will have to turn in your reading notes, chapter outlines, and end of chapter quizzes at the beginning of each class. Each chapter quiz is 150 to 250 questions so I would suggest not waiting until the last minute. " She said, before another large book landed in front of them that was just blank pages. "This is yet another grimoire, while you are in this class use this journal only to track your progress on spell creation, any questions you have, where you found the answers and anything that catches your attention about spell creation. It is there as a record of your progress." She said, smiling at them this time.
"That is all for today. Be sure to get started on your reading assignments when you have time and considering it is only nine thirty you have time to get a few books from your personal library or the school's library, but I would suggest starting with your personal libraries first if you haven't taken the time to explore them. For those of you taking Household Charms do not be late, it starts in an hour and a half." She said, effectively dismissing them as they started gathering up their books which were quickly added to their bags before they made their way back to Blaise's quarters to browse his library, as he was quiet larger than the others, only second to Hermione's.
Hermione began browsing before she pulled down a few books on Spell Creation as she sat down to start on her essay, wanting to get as much done as she could before she left for the weekend.