Chapter 31: The First Day - (Part 2)
Compared to the other two classrooms the 'History of Magic' classroom was much simpler. Charms was set up for students to practice charm spells and potions to of course brew potions. This class though looked like a muggle classroom with desks around the room and a blackboard at the front. Taking a seat allowed myself to get lost in my thoughts again as I waited for the professor to arrive.
The professor of 'History of Magic' was of course Cuthbert Binns, a quite unique teacher. He died in his slumber when he fell asleep in the staff room and he continued to teach even after his death. I couldn't tell if he was just that set in his ways or if his love for history was that strong it 'tethered' him to this world.
The students all began to pile in and as we all were eventually seated Binns seemed to walk through the wall of his office to the right and stand at the front of the class. The students around seemed surprised to see a ghost was teaching us.
"History of Magic, in this subject you will be learning the history behind the wizarding world. Giant wars, Goblin's rebellions, all sorts of subjects will be taught to you. Today though I decided to start off with a different sort of lesson considering talk of recent events"
[Canon Shift – Due to the Descendant of Merlin becoming a rumoured topic, (Binns) has changed his subject matter to Merlin]
As I saw this text appear in my retina, I chuckled to myself. As I heard him mention 'recent events' I instantly had an idea of what was coming next. Merlin was set in stone within history, Binns was a lover of history so something like Merlin's descendant would of course be a topic he'd want to ramble on about at first chance. It helped me though as I wanted to know more details about Merlin wherever I could.
"I'm unsure if some of you first years know but there's a rumour going around that the Descendant of Merlin has been found in this age. Now this is especially serious considering who Merlin is as a wizard"
A Hufflepuff boy raised his hand and Binns pointed over to him as he did so.
"What's your question"
"Are you talking about the same Merlin from the muggle world?"
"Good question. You see, Merlin's influence was something that didn't just covered the Wizarding world but it also left its mark in the muggle world. That's just how important a wizard he is. A lot of the man's history is shrouded in a veil of secrecy however his power, intelligence, meticulousness and resourcefulness are all recorded in history. He was sorted into Slytherin whilst here and was said to have been taught under Salazar himself. Being taught under a founder is…"
Binns really was someone who rattled on. He continued to drone on and on about different facts surrounding Merlin. What information they had and didn't have etc. I looked around the class and some students were starting to fall asleep due to his monotonous voice. I took in all the information he told despite a lot of it being common knowledge. There was one main thing he mentioned though that stood out, it was that the Wizarding World specifically knew Merlin was shrouded in mystery. Unlike the founders of Hogwarts who had items left behind, descendants and so forth, Merlin vanished like he was never there leaving everyone confused. Binn even started to talk about rumours in regards to Merlin leaving school early back when he attended however soon after he said they were only rumours and he specifically dealt in 'facts' here so just 'ignore that information'.
Talking and talking, on and on, eventually even I was starting to get tired of the same monotonous voice going into detail about Merlin and going off in tangents at every turn. Thankfully for me and the rest of the class the lesson ended as he was about to go off on a major tangent again.
"End of the lesson already? Well class I hope you enjoyed your first lesson. This one was a special one, next we will be talking about the goblin rebellions…"
All the students quickly got up and left towards their next class. I followed behind with questions floating in my mind.
Merlin. I wondered how I would discover more about him considering he was so enigmatic…
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The final lesson of the day was Defence against the Dark Arts. This lesson would be interesting for a number of reasons however the main one was that I don't recall there being a mention of the defence against the dark arts teacher in the books before Harry joined. It wasn't Quirrell at this point so I had to wonder who it could be.
Heading into the DADA class, the tables seemed to be pushed aside as the first years gathered in a standing group. At the far end of the room was a projector that seemed to be activated by magic. Above us was the signature dragon's skeleton. Looking up at it, I felt a strange sensation that couldn't be put into words, a fleeting feeling as it passed as soon as it came. My gaze then landed on the DADA teachers' door as it opened, walking out was a teacher I had never seen before or heard of.
A bald teacher with a stern smile. He walked down and casted a spell lighting up the projector.
"Welcome to your first DADA lesson, My name is Olaf Buttonwood. Here you will learn not only spells but about dark creatures that exist within the Wizarding World as well. Imps, Zombies, Gnomes, they all exist and are creatures you one day may have to combat"
My impression on this man was pretty basic, he was practically vanilla as a teacher. Just did his job with not much complaining. Sadly, for him he was destined to not be the DADA teacher next year as Quirrell would take the post. The position was cursed after all. Looking around the room he pointed towards a Ravenclaw next to me and asked a question.
"You, do you know where Zombie's dwell in our world?"
"Uh… I believe it's the western part of the United States of America?"
"Close, close. It's the southern part of the USA. They are usually recognisable due to their stench and greyish body colour"
"If one of these Zombies tried to attack you… what would you do?"
The bald teacher Olaf pointed at another Ravenclaw in front of him. This Ravenclaw girl thought for a moment before putting on a brave smile.
"I'd defend myself and beat it back with spells of course, looking for an opening to run"
"How would you beat it back? What would you do?"
The girl was at a loss for words on what she would do as Olaf grilled into her. Looking at him he seemed to be the type that enjoyed teasing his students like this. The girl managed to utter a response after some time.
"I-I would… cast a spell at it?"
"What spell"
"Uhmm…"
Honestly it was starting to get painful. No wonder why he was never really mentioned anywhere. He just seemed to enjoy teasing students instead of teaching, probably why he didn't stay on the job long.
"The spell you would want to cast is a 'Knockback Jinx'… more specifically, 'Flipendo'"
Olaf started to speak seeing the girl was reaching the peak of her panic trying to find an answer. He pointed his wand at a mannequin to the far side of the room and casted 'Flipendo' knocking it back and onto the ground.
"This spell only knocks back an opponent but say a Zombie is attacking you it's a good spell to use to knock them back and gain some distance. If you have good aim like I do you could knock them down, gain distance, knock them down again until they can't reach you easily"
He seemed competent in his knowledge of combatting dark creatures considering the advice he was giving. I wonder if he hunted creatures before getting this position.
"Now, all of you stand opposite a mannequin. Try casting 'Flipendo' and knocking the mannequin onto the floor. If you knock it back only a few steps then it's not strong enough"
Was this really a first day lesson we should be doing? I guess it was similar to Potions and Charms where the teachers were trying to gauge out abilities individually and progress from there teaching us what we needed.
Standing opposite my mannequin I pointed my wand out it and remembered when I was training in the woods near New Leaf. Back then I tried a myriad of jinxes, spells and such against the trees alongside other objects. I remember practicing my aim too at times, aiming for small objects. 'Flipendo' was of course one of the first spells I practiced with out there. Pointing my wand at the mannequin, I casted;
"Flipendo"
The spell shot out and collided with the mannequin making it move back a few steps however it didn't fall over. Olaf walked over to me clicking his tongue.
"Not enough power Mr. Osbourne. You need to put more oomph in it. I commend the attempt though as it was your first time"
I nodded at the 'advice' and waited for him to leave. Honestly speaking I had managed to put dents in the trees near New Leaf increasing the output to dangerous levels. Here though I restrained myself to a decent level. He after all said himself if we only knocked them back and not onto the floor then it wasn't good enough so I decided to do just that.
It was honestly exhausting keeping this pace but I wanted to keep the heat off of me. Near the end of the year or next year I imagined I could go wild then…
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The final lesson of the day came to an end and all the students headed off to either their common rooms, the library if they were attentive or off to socialise. There was some time before dinner and I planned on going since I missed lunch. Since I had time to kill, I decided to take a stroll around the castle taking in the sights.
Whilst it was important for me to increase my strength here in this world, I wanted to enjoy it as well. Times like these were needed sometimes even for me, for my mind to relax. Walking out to a courtyard I spotted a group of students, a few Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, chattering away. Looking at them they seemed to be Seventh years. I walked past the group taking a few glances, as I did so though my eyes locked with someone in particular. I mummed quietly to myself;
"Isn't that… Tonks?"
One of the seventh year Hufflepuffs in the group was Nymphadora Tonks. Now that I thought about it she would be appearing here considering it was 1990 school year. She was supposed to be attending the ministry of magic student programme though so I could only guess she was preparing for that and would soon be heading to and from the ministry. I sat down on a bench in the courtyard and decided to eavesdrop a bit to satiate my curiosity…
"So, Tonks, who have you been assigned to at the ministry then for that student programme?"
"I've been assigned to Alastor Moody at the Auror Office"
"Mad-eye Moody!? He's one of the most famous Aurors of all time! Half of Azkaban's inmates are only there due to his work!"
Seems I was right, she was assigned already and was just in the preparation stages as the year had just started.
"Yep, it's that Mad-eye Moody alright. I look forward to working under him"
Oh, you poor girl… I thought she would know at this point he was a slave driver giving her menial tasks and such. Having myself a little laugh at her misfortune I raised my head to some students ahead of me. Slytherin first years. They walked over to me with a playful arrogant look in their eyes. Looks like I will have a cliché event happen after all… how could I make this as simple as possible to deal with?
"Oi you Osbourne"
Victim A was already spouting stupid lines, Victim B and C stood behind with grins on their faces. Why was I calling them victims? Well, I already knew how to deal with this dumb situation. Seeing my nonchalant expression, Victim A started to walk over to me with more fire in his eyes.
"Filthy blood, you dare to- "
Ah shut up with your fucking cliches. I pointed my wand under my cloak and casted a spell midway through his sentence. A simple Trip Jinx that made him fall over beautifully onto his face.
Victim B and C ran towards Victim A to help him up and I tripped them two as well. This spell was some fun to play with and I had nice targets to try it on. They all fell into a pile on each other finding it difficult to get up. During that time, I got up and headed for the doors into the castle. Looking over to the group of seventh years they were laughing at the tripped over Slytherins. Tonks seemed to look over at me as I went to enter into the door, I showed a light smile as I left.
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Dinner was quick, heading over to the great hall I took my seat on the Slytherin table and ate my food promptly. After feeling full I got up and left early heading back to my room. Those first years I tripped up didn't appear at the feast so I can only imagine they were too scared to go after I shut them down.
Heading directly back to my room I walked through a practically empty common room as most were still out doing other things before curfew. Heading over to my door, I stood in front of it remembering the charms I read about earlier in the library. Pointing my wand at the door I first casted a rebound charm.
This charm worked by rebounding anyone who was not the caster back. It could be forcefully broken with some spells but it would work as a first layer of security. Heading into my room I closed the door behind me and pointed my wand at it again. This time I casted the locking spell, 'Colloportus'.
This spell was the opposite of 'Alohomora'. To unlock the door, they would need to use 'Alohomora' and that was after getting through the rebound charm. In all honesty I always knew about 'Colloportus' and planned to use it but I wanted to put the rebound charm on first as a warning. Now that the door was locked and charmed from the other side correctly, I felt a bit more at ease. As I discovered more spells, I would just layer more defence on and on.
Sitting at my desk I started to review what I needed to do now. The plan was the cloak spell and I had some ideas as to what to do. First, I needed to successfully cast the invisibility charm. Honestly, I was a little surprised I was even allowed a book about the spell from the library as it seemed like the sort of spell that would be restricted. Then again this is a school of magic, they had to allow students to learn spells like this plus it wasn't like the spell was full proof.
Pointing my wand at myself, I attempted to cast the invisibility charm over my entire body.
"Invisibilis"
The first attempt wasn't perfect, making part of me invisible only but it was a good start. I just needed to increase the output more so it encompassed my entire body. A couple more tries later I succeeded in using the spell, finding the right output and controlling the spell around my body. When I succeeded my entire body became invisible. It was much more instant than the disillusionment charm that spread down your body, like and egg being cracked on your head slowly making you disappear into the surroundings.
"Great… next let's test that"
Cancelling the invisibility spell, I decided to try out my theory from earlier in the library. I had the idea that 'Arresto Momentum' stopped movement as the prefix was 'Arresto' meaning 'to stop'. If I changed the prefix, I should be able to change the effect given to my movement. To new prefix I'd give would of course be 'Silencio'.
This seemed like spell creation however in essence it wasn't. I was only altering spells but combining them together in different ways, not creating a spell from the ground up. After some thinking and planning I decided to start testing my theory, hoping I could succeed.
"Silencio Momentum"
The first attempt worked… sort of. I could still hear my footsteps however my hands had no sound to them. Even when I clapped there was literally no sound, just the feeling of my hands colliding so it had silenced the 'movement' of my hands only. It was a good first step. Just like with the invisibility spell this spell required me to spread my magic across my body evenly. Thanks to the practicing with that spell and getting to learn it I had experience in figuring this out.
A few attempts later I managed to succeed. My entire bodies movements were silenced. I ran around the room and knock-on walls to see if sound would be emitted however it remained in silence.
Cancelling the spell, I felt a wave of elation noting I had reached the next step in the cloaking spell. The final part to make it perfect was cloaking my scent. I would have to look into that more in the library when I had the time.
Looking at the time it had gotten pretty late now. As I went to head over to bed, I heard a bang outside my door as if someone had been thrown back. I smiled noting that my little charm had worked wonders.
If those kids kept messing with me, I'd bring them more hell than before each time, never giving them the satisfaction. After all, they were good test subjects for different charms and spells now they were antagonising me.
All in all, it was a long but successful first day at Hogwarts.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
BoiGeorge
BoiGeorge Not all the days are going to be like this of course, I only wanted the couple of days to be this sort of depth until the year starts to speed up.
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