Michael Brown

After professor Flitwick explained everything about the spell, he told us to try casting lumos ourselves. Most of the students immediately did so, though from what I was able to see, not one of them was able to do it on a first try. I didn't want to be worse than others, so I immediately prepared Kenny, my favourite magical parasite. It was time to cast my first spell!

„Okay Kenny, we can do this" I whispered softly to my wand, strengthening my grip on it, and flicked it confidently, just like professor Flitwick told us to do "lumos"

A blinding light exploded from my wand, blinding everyone in…actually it didn't. Contrary to my expectations Kenny didn't emit a strong, bright glow, instead creating several sparkles of weak light, which disappeared into nothing after a few, short seconds.

I couldn't say I wasn't disappointed. I wasn't expecting to turn out to be some sort of prodigy, but I thought that my unique circumstances would give me at least some sort of head start over other first years. It appeared I was mistaken, which made sense when I thought about it. My body was created in a secret government facility, but it was a muggle one. They probably didn't know about magic until recently, so my body wouldn't have any magic amps or improvements installed. I was a normal eleven-years-old child, as far as magic was concerned.

I flicked my wand three more times, hoping something would happen, but the end result was the same as the last time. Some unidentified sparkles and profound disappointment.

"Do you have some trouble with a spell, Michael?" asked Luna, who was currently practicing the spell next to me. Just like the rest of the class she wasn't able to cast Lumos in her first attempt, but she succeeded in her second one, receiving five points to Ravenclaw from our half-goblin teacher. Well, a possible half-goblin. I was fairly sure he was actually some sort of gnome, who was for some reason pretending to be a goblin. I didn't know why he was doing this, but I would be watching him, in case he was planning something dangerous.

"Yeah, I am trying to do this whole 'flick and lumos' thing, but I just can't cast it" I responded. To prove it, I flicked Kenny again, attempting to cast a spell again. Though sparks seemed to be a little brighter this time, it didn't change the fact that my pitiful attempt couldn't be called a successful lumos. "I am starting to think it's some sort of sabotage on the part of the Ministry"

I certainly wouldn't be surprised if that turned out to be the case. They were probably telling everyone that moving a wand in a certain way and saying the spell's name were necessary steps for a wizard until they would become proficient enough to use the spell without them. The official story was that it was meant to help students familiarize themselves with a spell, making it easier for them to cast it in the future. This obvious lie didn't convince me though, as I was almost certain that the Ministry was intentionally sabotaging every young witch and wizard by giving them wrong instructions.

Yes, they were telling the population of the wizarding world that a certain movement was necessary to cast a spell, making everyone waste time and effort on some useless, or even actively detrimental, gestures. Of course people would eventually learn the spell, but it would take them more time than it would take without the Ministry's harmful instructions.

Yes, it was definitely the case! What a devious method of control!

"Can you cast lumos again for me?" Asked Luna, apparently noticing something. I didn't really see the point, as I already found the reason behind my failures, but did so nevertheless. After watching me fail again, Luna spoke.

"I think you are moving your wand wrong" she stated, her voice full of certainty.

"What?" I asked, unable to understand what she was saying. Why would she think that?

"You are doing a little swirl before a flick, when you are supposed to just flick your wand" Luna said, showing me the proper movement. What was she talking about? Yes, we were supposed to flick our wands, but before that there should be a little swirl. I distinctly remembered it from the movie…ah.

"…Right, thank you" I replied with a quiet voice, making her nod and return to practicing the spell. It… appeared I might have done a slight miscalculation by not listening to Flitwick's instructions, instead depending on my fake memories about the movie. Especially as they were learning a completely different spell in that scene.

It was…slightly embarrassing.

Trying to forget the humiliation I was feeling at the moment, I tried casting lumos again, only this time flicking Kenny the same way Luna did with her wand. This time, instead of short-lived sparks appearing at the end of my wand, it started glowing, illuminating my surroundings with a white, bright light.

I was standing there, mesmerized by the sight, barely hearing professor Flitwick, who started speaking.

"Good, good. It seems that all of the students were able to properly cast lumos" he said, looking at all of us with a happy expression on his face "While other spells you will learn during your education at Hogwarts will be more complicated than this one, they will all work on similar premise as lumos, that's why you have to remember to…"

I tuned Flitwick out, uninterested in his speech. Whatever he was saying, it didn't matter at the moment.

The important thing was that I cast my first spell. Of course the spell itself wasn't very impressive (though it certainly had some very interesting applications) and it most likely wouldn't help me survive Hogwarts, but it didn't matter.

The only thing that mattered was that I was able to cast a spell, thus I was a fucking wizard!

It was Friday and I was in the middle of my second History of Magic class this year, unable to stop myself from smiling.

Don't get me wrong, History of Magic was a hellish torture, designed to utterly break students with a sheer boredom and I certainly wasn't smiling because of the content of the class.

No, I was smiling because I came up with a brilliant idea, one that would make the class much more interesting for me.

In front of me lay a notebook.

It didn't look very impressive, with a plain, black cover with the word "notebook #2" written on it. Its pages were old and yellow, making the notebook like quite old despite its relatively new-looking cover. Some would consider this an oddity to be sure, but it wasn't noticeable enough to gain anyone's attention. If someone were to look at it, they would consider it a normal, if a little neglected notebook.

They would all be wrong.

In reality, it was a horcrux, phylactery meant to anchor the soul of a powerful freedom fighter known as Tom Riddle to the material world. Knowing the terrible truth behind the Ministry, I intended to join forces with Tom and bring freedom to the wizarding world.

Even people familiar with the Harry Potter series wouldn't recognize that the notebook I was currently holding was Tom's diary. Fearing that Harry Potter and his merry band of friends would recognize the diary I got at Diagon alley, I decided to glue a new cover on top of the old one, to hide its original appearance. If I could I would dispose of the original cover completely, but unfortunately horcruxes were made to be extremely durable, so I didn't have a lot of options.

To make it even harder for any potential observers to find the horcrux, I also bought four other notebooks, each identical to the diary, differing only in the number of the cover. I intended to switch them daily, always using a different one, sometimes a mundane notebook, sometimes a horcrux. I would of course also switch covers between them once a week to confuse people watching me.

It might have sounded unnecessary, but talking to Tom would be my first real act of rebellion against the Ministry, so I couldn't get sloppy. I even chose to contact him during my classes, where it would be normal for a student to write in his notebook, instead of sneaking out of bed to do it in the middle of the night.

I looked around the classroom, trying to see if I was being observed by anyone in the classroom. Our ghost teacher, Professor Binns, was unsurprisingly still talking about goblin rebellions, explaining the significance of the boots worn by goblin rebels. Luna was the only one actually listening to his lecture, with the rest of the class being in various stages of falling asleep. Actually, several of the students (all of them Hufflepuffs), were actually snoring, apparently unable to stay awake.

Knowing that it was a perfect time to realize my plan, I opened the diary.

There was nothing written there of course, with all pages blank, just waiting to be filled. Knowing the significance of my next action I hesitated, unsure if it was a good idea to openly defy the Ministry, but I quickly collected myself. Gathering my strength and bracing myself for a possible assault of the Ministry's special forces, I took a quill into my hand and started writing.

'Hello Tom'

After finishing writing my greeting, I put away my quill, waiting for the answer. For a few seconds nothing happened, almost making me think that diary being a horcrux was just another lie put into my brain to manipulate me, but then something happened. The sentence I had written began to slowly fade away, absorbed into the diary, with another sentence appearing in its place.

Hello. It would appear you know my name. Who are you?

I grinned.

'I am Michael Brown and we have a lot to talk about'