บท 13: First Week at School
6th Sept 1991
My first week at Hogwarts was uneventful to say the least. Classes were extremely easy, given that I had covered the material years ago. Herbology wasn't something I excelled at, however I did learn a thing or two about gardening from mom. She told me quite often that homegrown plants were always better than the ones in the market. So our garden had quite a few odd magical plants in it.
The reason I put effort into the subject was because just like potions, Herbology was an underrated field. After all, in the omniverse they were so many magical plants. Plants that can heal any kind of disease or injury, plants that can grant powers, even plants that can grant immortality. With my Metamorphosis Magic, it will be extremely easy to fuse and create different varieties of magical plants. It's a shame that's so far, we have only come across something as mundane as Puffapods.
The first and only Astronomy class involved looking through the telescopes at various celestial bodies and learning about them. It was interesting to learn that wizardkind had long since known about the existence of black holes and wormholes. In fact, right now the cutting edge research in astronomy was in the field of Dark matter and Dark energy. I guess wizards did have reasons to be proud. After all, Muggles haven't even seen a black hole yet in 1991 and Dark matter and Dark energy is still purely theoretical.
Charms was interesting but we haven't done anything except the theory behind the wand-lighting Charm. Professor Flitwick knows how to keep kids entertained with his cheerful demeanor and occasional colourful use of charms while he talks about the theory behind the magic.
Transfiguration started with Professor McGonagall writing the transfiguration alphabets and how the alphabets translated to the 26 letters of the English language. This was followed by the transfiguration formula, where we had to input mass, density, specific gravity etc.
Even in a class filled with Ravenclaws, very few could change their matchsticks to even resemble needles. Hermione got 5 points for being able to turn her matchstick silvery and pointy. I was awarded 10 points for successfully turning mine into a needle. Everyone was surprised, but not overtly so. After all, I was a Ravenclaw. It was expected of me.
Hermione was a bit jealous, but I promised to help her later. Speaking of Hermione, thanks to the talk during the train ride she was not trying to answer every question in class.I could tell that it was difficult for her to restrain herself, but she would only try to answer when no one else was able to. Because of that no one called her a know-it-all. In fact, she had even become friends with another Ravenclaw in our year, Padma Patil.
Defence against the Dark Arts would have been fascinating, if it hadn't been ruined by Quirrelmort with his fake stutter. But the award for the most useless class went undoubtedly to History of Magic. Professor Cuthbert Binns would literally quote the book verbatim, making the class entirely redundant. I quickly designated the class as a free period. Only Hermione would listen to Binns droning voice in the hope that he might say something off the book.
Our first potions class was on Monday, but as it was a single period it was devoted to theory. We learnt about the various safety measures to be observed while brewing potions. On Wednesday, we had our first potions practical. Professor Snape had us working in pairs to create a potion to cure boils.
I had already practiced this a few times at home, but I had an even bigger advantage. Thanks to my glasses, I could see exactly how different magical ingredients interacted with each other. This allowed me to make changes on the fly. By the end of the class Hermione and I had created a potion blue in colour that emitted pink smoke, a sign that the potion had been brewed to perfection. Professor Snape didn't award us any points, but he also didn't make any snide comments.
As I already knew all the stuff being discussed in classes, I made efficient use of my time by finishing the homework assignments in class itself. Of course I had to do it sneakily and when Hermione saw me doing it, she frowned. But she didn't say anything as everytime a teacher asked me something I answered readily.
And speaking of writing, I have been using black ballpoint pens and paper instead of parchment. Of course, I submitted homework assignments on parchment, but no one gave me a hard time for using pens instead of overpriced quills and writing on Muggle notebooks. Hermione had started out with quills and parchment, but when she saw that there was no problem in using pen and paper, she switched. Of course, as she did not have any at hand, she had to borrow some from me.
Today was Friday and we had just finished our last class of the day. This meant that for the next 2 days, we were completely free. Just this morning, Harry had received a note from Hagrid asking him to visit. So we had decided to set out at 3 o'clock. The house elves had been true to their word and the fare provided had significantly improved. After having a delicious lunch of pepperoni pizza, Hermione and I went to our charms lesson while Harry and Neville headed off to potions in the dungeons. When we met again it didn't take a genius to figure out that Harry was in a bad mood.
I was surprised to see Neville here instead of the infirmary. After all, during their first potions class, Neville was supposed to make a mistake and melt his cauldron, sending him to the hospital wing. As we were on our way to Hagrid's Hut, Neville told us what had happened.
Apparently Professor Snape had targeted Harry in class (Big Surprise!). Now, as I had warned them before, both Neville and Harry had studied a couple of chapters of '1000 magical herbs and fungi'. Harry couldn't answer the question about The Draught of living Death, but he did answer where to find a bezoar, and about Monkshood, Wolfsbane and Aconite being the same plant. Snape had remarked that perhaps Harry wasn't completely hopeless after all, before deducting 5 points from Gryffindor for not being prepared enough. Harry and Neville had then partnered up and together successfully brewed an acceptable portion for Curing Boils.
Hagrid lived in a small wooden hut on the edge of the forbidden forest. As Harry knocked on the door, we could hear several booming barks from the inside, which could only belong to Fang, a big black cowardly dog. Soon Hagrid opened the door and ushered us inside. Hagrid's house was a simple one-room affair with an open fireplace and a massive bed in the corner.
"Make yerselves at home", said Hagrid, letting go of Fang, who started straight at Neville and started licking him over.
Harry introduced us as Hagrid offered us tea and rock cakes, shapeless lumps with raisins that almost broke our teeth. But we pretended to enjoy them nonetheless. Harry told Hagrid about his experiences in Hogwarts so far with us three supplementing every now and then. When Harry told Hagrid about Snape's lesson Hagrid told Harry not to worry about it, that Snape hardly liked any of the students.
When Harry kept insisting that Snape seemed to hate him, Hagrid changed the subject by asking me how my mum and dad were doing. I guess Hagrid must have known about the Marauders bullying Snape, and he just didn't want Harry to know about his father's schoolyard actions.
As we were talking about how my sister would be starting Hogwarts next year, Harry took a piece of paper from the table and started reading it.
"Hagrid!" said Harry, "that Gringotts break-in happened on my birthday! It must have been happening while we were there!"
Hagrid said nothing but anyone with eyes could see that he was acting shifty. After sometime, we said our goodbyes and started on our way back to the castle. As I looked at Harry, I knew he was drawn to the mystery of what was in that vault.
Like I said before, I don't care about canon. However, one cannot deny that Voldemort was at his weakest at the end of 1st year. If he gets away, then it would almost certainly be impossible to get to him without going through a bunch of Death Eaters, and even then the bastard may escape. That is why, the events that culminated in Harry going off to protect the stone must take place.
After dinner, all of us went to our dormitories. But at 10 o'clock, I exited the Ravenclaw common room, having already cast a powerful disillusionment charm upon myself. A few minutes later, I was standing in front of the Room of Requirement. 'I need a place to practice magic' 'I need a place to practice magic' 'I need a place to practice magic' I thought. Soon an ornate door stood in front of me.
I went inside to see three dummies standing in a corner for spell work. On one side there were blocks of different metals. Another area contained everything needed to brew potions. The room provided ingredients if necessary, however the final potion cannot be taken outside in that case.
I spent some time practicing my spells both from inside and outside the Grimoire. Now that I had achieved sufficient proficiency with the Fire Ball spell, it was time to take it up a notch. Yellow flame has a maximum temperature of 1000°C while White flame can reach temperatures upto 1500°C.
The next spells in the fire magic department such as 'flame fortress' and 'flame tide' were too mana intensive, and currently out of my reach. So, I set about trying to increase the destructive power of my current spells.
Once I was done casting spells, I went to the corner that contained blocks of different metals and practiced gravity magic. A new spell 'Event Horizon' allowed me to create a pseudo singularity with enough pressure at its centre to crush anything. I watched with satisfaction as the metal blocks were pulverized into nothingness, before being reformed by the room's magic.
Creation magic did not have many spells, but it had the most diverse applications. For instance, mineral fusion allowed me to fuse different metals to create a new alloys. Right now I was working with titanium, tungsten and aluminium. I was trying to create a super alloy with the strength of tungsten, the flexibility of titanium and the lightness of aluminium. It was a game of trial and error, with magic substituting the need of chemical reactions.
Finishing my metallurgical experiments, I moved on to the lone table on which stood the project I have mostly been spending my time on this week. A thick piece of parchment, which presently showed the words "synchronising - 95%".
I had linked the clairvoyance spell with the school wards that I was able to identify thanks to my glasses. As soon as the spell synchronisation was complete, I would link the map to my glasses, where it would appear at the bottom right corner. And like a mini map, the areas will remain greyed out until I have visited them physically. So on this weekend I was going to explore Hogwarts to fill up my map of the castle. Seriously I got lost 3 times already! This place is gigantic.
Next morning after finishing my usual workout, I showered and accompanied Hermione to breakfast. Harry and Neville came down a bit later than usual, which was understandable as it was Saturday.
"Hey Harry", I said taking a sip of blissful expresso, "Can I borrow Hedwig to send a letter home?"
"Sure", he said, biting into some bacon and toast.
"Thanks, mate", I replied. "So what's the plan for today?"
"We should go to the library", Hermione said at once. "We haven't been there yet."
See, that's the difference between 'canon' Hermione and this Hermione. Gryffindor Hermione, lost and alone would have rushed to the library on the very first day. But Ravenclaw Hermione had friends. After classes were over, the four of us would spend time outside in the Courtyard or in the Grounds, talking about our day, about our lives before coming to Hogwarts about our hopes and dreams.
I told them how it was like growing up in a magical household. Hermione told us how she had a hard time making friends in Muggle school, how she had hoped to find like-minded people at Hogwarts. Harry told us how it was like living with his relatives. He did not talk about the boot cupboard, but he did mention how Dudley make sure he didn't have any friends in primary school. Neville told us how everyone in his family thought that he was a squib, so he used to spend a lot of time in the greenhouse beside his home by himself. The realisation that we were the first friends all of us had made drew us even closer.
In the evening, we would head to the common room where Hermione would pile up our table with books from the common room library and set about finishing her homework, while I would read a 4th year book as I had already finished my homework in class. The knowledge that his parents had been top of their class in several subjects had motivated Harry, and he made sure to finish his essays on time, and so obviously Neville did the same. As such, we haven't had the opportunity to visit the school library yet.
"We can do that in the afternoon", I said. "Why don't we go and explore the castle a bit? Hogwarts is going to be our home for the next 7 years and I am dying to uncover all of its secrets." I made my pitch.
Harry was all for it and Neville also agreed. Hermione considered it for moment and decided that we can go to the library after lunch.
So we set off to explore our new home. Hogwarts Castle had 7 storeys and 142 staircases throughout its many towers and turrets and deep dungeons. The castle was built around 990 AD by a wizard architect and four of the most celebrated witches and wizards of the age - Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin.
We started from The Great Hall and then explored the castle for the entire day, but could only cover the grounds and the first floor. As we walked, the little map on the bottom right side of my glasses automatically updated. The areas I hadn't been to yet remained greyed out, but the ones I did showed all the entrances and exits, even the secret ones. And the best thing, as the spell would remain passively active, the map would update any changes to the castle itself.
After having a late lunch, we headed off to the library. As I had once been to the Trinity College Library in Dublin (which houses roughly 5 million books), I did not find the sight that awe-inspiring. Still considering that all the books on the shelves were related to magic, it was a commendable effort. After all, Hogwarts did have the greatest collection of magical texts in all Europe.
As we had already finished our homework, we mostly just browsed the contents of the library. Of course any of the really interesting books were in the Restricted Section. Not that it vexed me. After all, the Room of Requirement gave me access to all the books in Hogwarts, including those in the Headmaster's private collection. Only temporary copies of the real tomes showed up, and they could not be taken out of the room. But they could be duplicated, and those copies you could take for yourself and add to your collection. Which is exactly what I was doing every night at a decent pace. The next day went by the same way, and before we knew it the second week of school had already began.
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