After the mornings' rather annoying antics we all gathered for morning breakfast, receiving our schedules from the rather taciturn Snape. The Slytherin head of house retained his nigh-on permanent sneer as he dropped the small sheets of parchment before us, intensifying as he reached Harry. The man had a serious issue with Harry for some reason and it seemed completely unjustified considering the politeness that the boy showed the contrite adult.
Snape left in a swirl of cape towards the teachers' table leaving us to assemble our breakfasts, which included many British staples: Sausage, Muffins, Sunny-side-up Eggs, Bacon, Beans and the unusual addition of crumpets. Needless to say we were fed marvellously, all of the students holding their stomachs or burping every now and then. The house elves were truly dedicated to our well-being it seemed.
Conversation was light and harmless as year groups slowly started forming, the entirety of Slytherin's first year forming around Harry as he became a sort of figurehead for the age-group. We were fine with that since his presence would take a lot of the attention from us and thus shield our actions and choices of study from the nosy masses. Being friends with him was also a bonus as it would allow us to make some suggestions.
~Be the voice that whispers to the throne so that when the peasants rebel it is not you who is boned~
'Who did that quote come from?'
~Me! Hahahaha!~
Shaking our head we sauntered from the great hall, the gaggle of students behind us conversing jovially as they wondered aloud how the class was going to be. Hermione was beside us with a nervous curl to her lips, bushy brown hair framing her black-green robes as she tightly held her books to her chest. Out of everyone in Slytherin she was the closest to us. Speaking out against the no-name had supposedly earned us her favour.
Casually holding our study bag we crept through the halls of the school whilst asking for directions to our first class which just so happened to be Transfiguration, one of my favourite topics. Lunaris disliked the topic as it made very little logical sense based off our understanding of science but it was perfect for me as it seemed to require a deep seeded trust in oneself alongside a fair dollop of creativity and willpower. My brother's favourite subject was after this upcoming class, charms. He loved charms almost as much as I did, but, where I was merely intrigued he was downright thirsty for any hint of knowledge about the subject. My preference for it simply came from the idea that I could branch into enchanting in the future.
After a twenty minute search we finally reached the amphitheatre-like classroom, ten minutes early luckily.
"Ummm, Sol, could we run through the textbook together?" Hermione was glancing between us and the floor, her buck-teeth nibbling into her lower lip.
"Of course. I was looking to see where you were up to anyway."
She smiled as we slumped into our seats at the front of the class. Our next ten minutes were filled with light exchanges of ideas followed by practical demonstrations of spells that we had already learnt. All of them were easily cast the first time much to the surprise of the cat on the desk who was likely the teacher's pet.
Students quickly began filling the classroom as class time drew nearer with most of the Slytherins clinging to their own social groups and strata. Gryffindors stuck together for the most part with only a few outcasts or socially awkward members hanging around their counterpart house. There was a division in the seating positions with the red and gold house to the left and the green-silver to the right.
In the last few seconds leading up to class the doors to the room boomed open as a red-head and his possie of pansies rushed into the room winded.
"O-oh, bloody hell, thank Merlin that the teacher isn't here..."
One of the pansies, a boy with a mixture of grey and black hair, guffawed loudly before breaking down into giggles. The other idiots followed the imbecile in his unbecoming display of tardiness. All of the Slytherins were practically glaring daggers at the trio. We never felt more accepted than that moment where everyone of our house-mates shared our view on them.
The trio, in the meantime, laxidazically strutted down the main walkway towards backmost seats. Many of their fellow comrades shook their heads sullenly, no doubt decrying their placement in the same house with the dunderheads. A crooked smirk worked its way on the cat's face however; the moment barely caught from our peripheral vision.
Things started to settle as books were pulled onto desks followed by quills and ink. The atmosphere was still jovial but that seemed to get cut as soon as the thwacking sound of transfiguration echoed throughout. We, Lunaris and I, gaped openly at the amazing display of magic that had just occurred before us; the stern deputy-mistress of the school phasing from a black tabby cat to her usual appearance and garb.
"Mr. Weasley, Mr. Finnigan, Mr. Thomas… it appears the three of you are in need of a watch, as you are precisely one minute late. I shall be speaking with you after class, gentlemen." She gestured to their seats, which they quickly sat down into, not wanting to draw more attention to themselves.
"Wonderful." She dryly stated before flicking her wand to a massive chalk board that hung behind her upon the wall; framed with numerous notes and varying depictions of magical creatures. "Now I wish for all of you to flick to page 10 of your transfiguration books..." She waited for a moment, starting once all page turning had completed. "Today's lesson shall be in the laws and rules of transfiguration as a whole and the dangers that follow in practicing this school of magic."
The chalk followed her words precisely and only stopped to draw a small diagram of a sheet of paper transforming into a pincushion.
"Now, who can tell me what the first rule of transfiguration is?"
Hermione instantly shot her arm into the arm as the rest of the room conferred with their books in confusion since most people focus purely upon the spells. I calmly raised our hand.
"Yes, Ms Emyrs?"
"The first rule of transfiguration is Gamp's Law."
The woman smiled happily, our words transferring to the board where a small diagram of air turning into food played out and was accordingly crossed out.
"Correct! 5 points to Slytherin Ms. Emyrs..." She paused for affect, as the rest of Slytherin nodded in contentment. "Gamp's Law states that food cannot be created from nothing." More diagrams were drawn behind her as she continued. "Now, to clarify, you can summon, multiply, or transform existing food but you cannot create food from thin air."
She paused for a moment, looking across the room to see if her message sunk in. "Ms. Granger, would you be able to tell us what other effects or things cannot be made from nothing?" Hermione almost looked like she was going to die happy right then and there. She has a serious attention issue it would seem.
"Life and Love, professor."
"Excellent answer Ms. Granger! 10 points for Slytherin." A groan from the Gryffindors filled the chamber for a few moments much to the annoyance of their head of house. She quickly established order once more before explaining Hermione's answer.
"That is correct, you cannot create Love from nothing or Life. This law relates to potions in many ways and as you will learn in later years, you cannot create love where there is an absence inside someone. In the same way you cannot create a living being from a lack of life within the focus of your transfiguration."
Quills were moving rather swiftly over parchment between me and Hermione, both of us absorbing the nuggets of wisdom that our teacher had given us; knowledge that was supposedly above our years level. I almost scoffed at how much fuel she had just fed Lunaris with. He'd be spending the rest of the day connecting dots... And we haven't even finished all of the laws yet.
"Moving forwards, does anyone have an idea of the second law?"
This time Daphne put her hand up, getting called upon by McGonagall.
"The second law of Transfiguration is Conservation of Mass & Nature... It states that the target of transfigurations cannot be of differing sizes or densities. We cannot add anything to the target's size nor can we take away from its size."
She smirked a touch as confidence filled her posture. Daphne seemed really cute with her back straight and her long blonde hair framing the peculiar expression she sported.
"Ah, correct but using incorrect terminologies." Her smirk dropped into a vexed pout.
I put up our hand, Lunaris cackling to himself as this was simply physics.
"Yes Ms. Emyrs?"
"Could I clarify what she was intending to say?"
She curtly nodded her head, putting her hand behind her back and giving us her full attention.
"The second law of transfiguration, otherwise known as the Conservation of Mass and Nature; as stated by Ms. Greengrass, is defined by the concept that one cannot create nor destroy mass. In this way her explanation of size differences makes complete sense!" Daphne smiled at our acknowledgement, despite not gaining any points for her explanation. "However! The second law also refers to the basic limitation of our ability to instil properties into an object purely based upon transfiguration. We cannot force an object to truly gain a rat's instincts, as it goes against transfiguration's nature... Admittedly this limitation is often circumvented through the integration of Charmwork, which supplies the behaviours or properties that Transfiguration alone cannot instil. Charms are usually included into the basic transfiguration spells however so we will have no such issue, I believe..."
McGonagall's eyes were shining brightly in enjoyment as her wand flicked and the chalk wrote all of our explanation out for the rest of the class. It was clear as day that she was happy as she nodded deeply, looking at us with some newfound expectations.
"Very well done! Ms. Greengrass and yourself will each get five points for an excellent explanation of the second law." Daphne smiled gratefully at us whilst Lunaris cackled inside at the expressions of the Gryffindors, who were all acting like we were a wild magical creature free inside of a zoo.
"Who can tell me the third and final law?"
A random Gryffindor spoke up this time.
"Law of Reversibility?"
McGonagall was pleased.
"Indeed! I will explain this myself this time..." She shot a look at us before continuing onwards.
"The Law of Reversibility pertains to the possibility of each transfiguration being reversed. We can transfigure a pen into a cup of the same mass but can also turn it back, as if getting on and off a broom." More scribbling of notes ensued before she started speaking once again.
"Of course there are exceptions to this rule... Vanishing being one of them... But all you need to know is that each Transfiguration accomplished, whether performed by a master or a student, can be reversed. The only difference is amount of magical power and perhaps the level of willpower put into the transformation."
Lunaris and I smiled as we wrote down a list of things that we needed to study whilst copying down her nuanced descriptions of more complex knowledge. The will power and magical power comment wasn't missed by us either as we considered the fundamentals of casting magic; based upon Lunaris's theory of where our magic is sourced.
"With all of the rules out of the way, let us delve into the permanent damage that can be caused by transfiguration spells to certain materials..."
I smiled once again.
...
After transfiguration we journeyed into charms class where the diminutive professor, one Mr. Flitwick, was standing on a large stack of papers with a cacophony of knickknacks and instruments littered around the 'podium'. He greeted us with an excited bounce in his demeanour and a wicked grin to his lips.
Me, Hermione and Harry studied for the first five minutes after arriving, the remainder of our fellow classmates taking their sweet time in arriving. After that period of time we took out parchment, quill and book in preparation for the upcoming class. The same three bozos were late again, a goofy smile permanently attached to the red-head's ugly freckled face. The expression must have disappointed the teacher as well since the man docked some points from Gryffindor.
"Amazing, amazing! Let's get started, shall we?" He received a murmur of agreement, the class watching with rapt attention.
"I must apologise for the boring nature of our first class but we must first cover the basic laws and underlying purpose of charms. I understand that Transfiguration had the same issue, however, we must start this way so we can get to the more juicy information tomorrow!"
He tapped a standing board that floated off to his side, the thing hovering about five feet off the floor; at the same height that he was operating from whilst being on top of those papers.
"Wonderful... Wonderful! Now! Let us start with the first law of Charms, although they could be considered aspects more than defined rules." He hummed the last part of his sentence before using his wand to write on the board.
"Firstly we have Magical Intention. Quite aptly, there is an equation associated with this particular 'rule'. This equation is: Intent + Willpower. A stunningly connected concept to you all no doubt, seeing as how all of you have been run through transfiguration today!"
He squeaked out a cough and smiled widely as he continued, his wish to get past this boring theoretical information evident. A rather painful quality to the lesson, 'seeing as how we' needed to copy this all down.
"The second so-called rule is called 'Magical Limitation'. This rule defines the ability of Charms to add properties and take properties from inanimate, animate and even inert objects. This 'rule' is very, very important! You see the ability of charms lies not in the singular usage of a change in property; though they can be just as scary in some cases, but in the usage of multiple changes to, in effect, create a spell that has multiple defined affects." He paused to drink a cup of water as we continued writing his words down.
"An example of this is in the levitation spell, Wingardium Leviosa. We change a property that an object has, such as gravity, to have no effect on it and then change another property, its' speed for instance, and are now capable of moving it in whatever direction we want without gravity pulling it to the ground!" He clapped his hands as if he had just watched a rather exciting part of a stage play.
"Unfortunately there is one single law within charms that keeps us all grounded to reality, not allowing us to run away with our imaginations... This is, the Law of Non-Permanence. This law, and it is a law, essentially states that all charms will fade over time if not sustained via direct concentration, magical charging runes or willpower. Some charms will last longer than others and that is all based purely upon the properties you are capable of imbuing into an object and how they layer over one another."
"This law feeds into the final aspect of Charms which is interaction. You see, charms touch one another when multiple are placed upon a singular item or thing. These layered magical effects can communicate, in essence, with one another and cause an innumerable amount of chaos. A charm to change the colour of something and a charm to make that colour change randomly could well interact horribly if you are not clear in your intent."
He smiled after his protracted speech, our eyes following his little dance as he waved his arms about slightly.
"Hahaha! Now, now, now, let's get into casting a spell shall we!?"
For the rest of the class we competed against one another to see who can complete as many charms as possible; sourced from our charms book. Needless to say Hermione, Harry, Dracoria, Lunaris and I got many points for Slytherin... Dracoria nailing the Leviosa spell on the first try in front of the class. She had blushed so hard that Lunaris called her a tomato.
It was turning out to be a good day.
...
Inside the Forbidden Forest, 1990, 2nd of September, 4PM
A familiar sparrow swooped from tree to tree, its small form gliding in the oncoming shadows of the evening. Beady eyes darted from side to side in anxiety as hoots and howls resounded through the large pine forest.
Acromantula scurried across the forest floor and through the underbrush as webs curled in the lower branches of the trees it was traversing. Fairies glowed incandescently amongst patches of flowers having been left by the constantly growing vermin that were the enormous spiders.
It was on the outskirts of this forest, near to an amazingly beautiful castle, that the sparrow ceased its movements. Sitting upon a branch the sparrow observed the usual hubbub from the school of magic. Thestrals took flight from a nearby clearing and redirected themselves to the opposing side of the school, the Hippogryphs following in their winged squall. Pixies lazily hovered around the sparrow, faint giggles escaping their fae figures.
Hope burned within this small sparrow. Perhaps soon it would meet the one it needed to meet.
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