Matthew let out a sigh of satisfaction as he made his way back to his classroom. While he had never spent any protracted time in Britain, he had always heard poor things about the food. He was glad he could report that was a myth as far as lunch was concerned. Making his way through the somewhat empty halls, he rounded the corner and saw several Gryffindors and Ravenclaws lined up outside his door. Twenty students in total, all excitedly murmuring amongst themselves. The bell rang and all the students rushed inside, jostling and roughing one another to get the best seats. Matthew continued leisurely, noting with some amusement that none of the students had noticed his approach.
"Good afternoon," Matthew said as he stepped into the classroom. All eyes turned to him. "You may call me Professor, Professor Nichols, Mr. Nichols, Matthew, Matthew Nichols, Yank, Yankee, or "that guy with the weird way of pronouncing words." I do not particularly care," Matthew said. The last one got a giggle out of some of the students. Matthew smiled whilst looking at the board and beginning to write. After he had finished writing he schooled his features, reminded of the grim nature of his first lesson.
"First order of business, roll call," Matthew said, moving down the list and scrutinizing every face that had declared themselves present.
"Now, for this year, Professor Dumbledore has asked me to accelerate your teaching. We'll be covering-"
"You're only staying for a year?" Ron Weasely asked.
"That was the deal," Matthew answered. "But that might change, who knows? In the future, raise your hand if you have a question Mr. Weasely," Matthew answered. "Let's see… Ah yes. We'll be covering some magical concepts that you would normally cover in the sixth year of schooling. This year of study will be a heavier load than normal. But Dumbledore believes you're all up to the challenge, and I'm implementing a system to give you some breathing room."
Matthew turned to his desk and produced a stack of a particularly inventive no-maj device.
"This is your syllabus," he said, handing the stack to Harry. "Take one and pass the stack," he explained as Harry adopted a quizzical look. The stack began making the rounds until all twenty students had a copy.
"Your syllabus contains all of your quiz dates, test dates, and resources for redoing assignments for partial credit. Another item you will notice is office hours. This hasn't been implemented by any of your other professors to my understanding, so I will briefly explain it. Office hours are times when you can come to this room and ask me for help with anything, anything at all. Any questions?"
All of the students were too busy staring at the syllabus. Some were turning it over as if they had never seen a piece of printer paper in their lives. Perhaps they hadn't. Everything else had been handwritten on parchment. But there were no questions.
"Perfect, on to learning," Matthew said, stepping out of the way of the blackboard. "Can anyone here name an unforgivable curse?" One hand shot up, and one more hesitantly followed. "Mr. Weasely," Matthew said, motioning to Ron.
"The Imperius curse?"
"The Imperius curse is one of the three, and what does it do?"
"I don't know, sir," Ron admitted meekly.
"That's alright Mr. Weasely," Ron perked up at hearing that. "Does anyone know?" Matthew addressed the class. The same hand from before shot up. "Yes, Ms. Granger?"
"The Imperius curse allows the caster total control over the afflicted," Hermione answered.
"Correct," Matthew said. "What about the other two unforgivable curses?" Again Hermione's hand shot up, and again a hesitant second hand was raised. "Mr. Longbottom?"
"The Cruciatus curse, i-it tortures the victim," Neville finished, his voice becoming shaky and his face paling.
"Must have first-hand experience. Poor kid," Matthew thought to himself. "Correct Mr. Longbottom. What of the third?"
Harry's hand raised, as well as Hermione's.
"Mr. Potter?" Matthew asked.
"Avada Kedavra," Harry said.
Matthew nodded. "The killing curse. Unblockable, and nigh unavoidable," Matthew said, a solemn look coming to his face. A hand raised.
"Yes, Mr. Potter?"
"What about the spell you used? The red one. That didn't look like a shield charm," Harry said, leaning forward in his seat, eager to learn.
"Contra," Matthew began. "A spell of my design, it intercepts the target spell and draws on your magical reserves to overpower it. Truth be told I haven't the slightest idea. The killing curse takes quite a bit of power to perform. Stopping it, if at all possible, most likely takes an equivalent amount of power. Contra can be dangerous. It draws on your reserves with no regard for your safety. Recall there are three points of failure for any magic casting: The incantation, the use of the focus, and the caster's magical reserves. If your reserves can't cope with the drain, the magic won't happen. Contra removes that innate safety," Matthew said. Students were furiously scribbling down what he was saying. A smile came to his face. "But you all should be able to handle intercepting a disarming hex," Every student was excited by this prospect.
"Wands out," Matthew called, there was a shuffling of movement. The students were now excitedly discussing the prospect of such a potentially powerful spell. As Matthew's wand came out, Harry heard that whisper again and decided to ask.
"Mr. Potter?" Matthew responded to the raised hand.
"Forgive me if I'm asking too many questions Professor, but why is your wand er… whispering?" All chatter stopped.
Mathew chuckled. "It seems my wand has taken an interest in you, then, Mr. Potter. As you know," Matthew said, unhooking his wand from that strange device on his belt. "The wand chooses the wizard. But this is an effect of how your magic interacts with the wand, not the wand itself… Except, for this wand. The core is made from Wendigo bone, can anyone tell me why that makes it significant?" Only Hermione's hand was raised. He nodded to her.
"Wendigo are immortal and invulnerable to everything but fire. Therefore, your wand core is still… alive," Hermione trailed off, realizing what she had said.
"Right you are Ms. Granger. Five points to Gryffindor," Matthew said smiling.
"But Professor, isn't it… hurting? Trapped in there, being used for magic?" Hermione asked hesitantly.
"Quite the opposite in fact," Matthew said, holding his wand out for all to see. "By destroying the majority of the Wendigo's body, it was freed from the ever-hunger. The need to consume voraciously. All Wendigo were human once and when you use magic you are teaching them. They are eager to learn and because they are still alive, and still have some agency, these wands can make invaluable allies." Matthew hooked his wand back onto the device on his hip, before drawing the wand out again.
"Now, Contra is different from other spells, your target is the incoming spell, not yourself, and not your enemy. Pair up. Disarming hexes only!" Matthew reminded them all as everyone made to stand quickly.
Twenty minutes later, no one had gotten it. They had all seen their professor do it multiple times as he demonstrated the spell, but no student could quite pin it down.
"In preparation for next week, I'd like you all to read chapter three from your textbook. I heavily encourage note-taking and annotating as you do so. Any questions? Conundrums? Concerns? Cries of outrage?" Matthew asked after he had gotten everyone's attention. A few hands went up.
"Ms. Patil?"
"How do you focus on the incoming spell?"
"Here's an extra bit of homework, for those of you really interested in Contra, Look up how to create a Draught of Magical Nullification. Consuming one such draught will temporarily purge magic from your body. When you do this, sit and meditate. As strange as this sounds, focus on the magic. How it feels in the air around you, really take time to reflect. You'll be more than able to sense the magic of spellcasting around you," Matthew said, looking around. Some of his students seemed a little disheartened by the prospect of extra work. "Writing a paper on this experience will also net you five points on the final. Any questions?" No hands this time. "Excellent, class dismissed. Mr. Longbottom, a moment if you can," Neville looked concerned as he glanced at the departing Harry and Ron, who only shrugged.
"Not to worry, Mr. Longbottom. Just a few things I'd like to discuss if you don't mind," Matthew said.
"Now Professor Sprout tells me you've got a mean green thumb," he said, smiling. Neville hesitantly nodded.
Shorter chapter, but we'll be getting into lengthier chapters soon! This story will mainly be following Matthew's point of view, and I'm sorry to say, that some of you may have to expect disappointment in the near future, sorry :( but to answer a question, the history of the term "Yankee" comes from as far back as 1689! It is believed to originate from the old Dutch word "Jan Kees" meaning "John Cheese." and was used as a derisive term for Dutch Colonists by English Colonists. The most famous use of the word comes from British officer, General James Wolfe, who used the term "Yankee" in 1775 to describe rebel colonists and soldiers of the Continental Army. The term would be popularized later in the same year by a cartoon published in London depicting "Yankees" as foolish and dimwitted, the lyrics from the song "Yankee Doodle" actually directly taken from the illustrations in the cartoon. See you next time!