One of the classes that Robert had wanted to like was History of Magic. And he would have, if it were not for the fact that the teacher, Professor Binns, had a voice that carried no inflections, he was completely monotonous in voice, and always carried the same pace of speech. If it was for that fact that other ghosts that Robert had interacted with in the school, he would have assumed that it was a trait of ghost. No, it was just Professor Binns, himself, that was like that. If he ignored that, the class was interesting, with the knowledge spewed from Professor Binns' mouth.
The class, with a syllabubs written on the chalk board, listed the main topics that would be covered throughout the year, with a time frame on how long each portion would last. Interestingly enough, the course did not cover the breadth of the history of the magical world, instead focusing on different historical highlights. At least for Robert, this did not bother him, as he had been looking over history books since moving in with grandparents with his mother. But for most of the children, this could be a detriment into not knowing the full history of their magical heritage. It was not for him to question the standards of the class, when numerous children had sat through the professor's lectures for a very long time.
Defense of the Dark Arts was taught by Professor Green. She was an excitable teacher who seemed to enjoy the subject she taught, but due to it being her first year teaching the class, she tripped over her own knowledge on how to express said information. At least with the class that he was in, with the Ravenclaws, the children ignored her mistakes, not knowing any better. It would be seen if this class was going to be worthwhile in the long run.
And the final class of the first day, was taught be an over energetic half goblin, Professor Flitwick. Where Professor Green had the energy of someone new to their position, Professor Flitwick had the passion of one who truly and utterly enjoyed their work, no matter how many years they had been at it. And the best part for the children in the class, he knew how to teach towards and age group. It was a remarkable skill, if someone would think about. Professor Flitwick taught children, teenagers, and all the way to young adults, and, at least to his introduction to the diminutive professor, knew how to instruct all the age groups.
When all the classes for the first day were over, Robert immediately went to start on the homework that was given them to do for their next class. It took him all of an hour and a half, and that was not pushing himself to finish in a timely manner. In reality, it should have taken a third less time than it did. All his other year mates had yet to begin on their own work, complaining that it was too much work, and other such grumblings. Children…
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The head of house of Hufflepuff had already arranged a place for Robert to work on his craft skills. While it was placed at the exterior wall of the castle, it was still relatively close to the Hufflepuff dorms. With only a forge and an anvil in the room, it seemed rather spacious without anything other than support pillars in the room.
As it was still the first day in his new work room, and with very little in the room, Robert had to plan out where things were to be placed, to make work efficient, and safe. Safety was an issue in this room, as he knew that he was going to need the forge, and it was in no way separated from the rest of the room. This was not a safe practice, when Robert knew that he was going to have a lot of dry wood in the room. And that was ignoring the fact that he did not know what the humidity would be like in the room, which could lead to warping of wood. Ignoring that, working with wood would produce a lot of wood chips and dust, that would not be safe to near the forge. Yes, magic could help to alleviate some of those concerns, but the would want to talk to Professor Sprout on partitioning off part of the room, separating the forge from the rest off the room.
For the time being, pulling out all his tools and equipment in his chest, Robert set about setting up the room for production purposes, keeping everything as far away from the forge as possible. While limited on what he could bring, Robert still had everything that he could start developing the room further into a properly function workshop. If he did not have something need to make something, he could still make what was needed to produce the original thing. And the first thing that he was going to make for the room, was a table. A good large, solid, and steady surface was one of the most useful things when it came to wood working.
With his first project in his head, and with no place to start working on the project, Robert returned to the Hufflepuff common room, and sat at table, by himself, and started to design said project. Since it would be the first project, and would likely be changed out in the future, when he himself needed something different, he kept the design as spartan as possible. He would be able to utilize in other ways in the future, when it would no longer be his primary work surface.
With design in hand, he went to Professor Sprout to requisition the supplies that he would need for his first project. She did question Robert on the requisition, but easily agreed to his needs. As for his desire for separating the room into two rooms, she easily acquiesced when Robert explained his concerns. She did not question him on why he was not using magic to help out on his worries, as he was still a first year, and likely did not know a lot of magic.
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Tuesday Robert had Potions, Transfiguration, and Herbology, in that order.
For Potions, Professor Snape was the teacher. He was somewhere in his mid-twenties, if Robert had to put an age on him. As for his appearance, he had an unhealthily pale skin tone, which did not help his appearance when his face was framed with dark and oily hair. His outward appearance was an expression of his demeanor. He was a cold and humorless bloke.
With his no nonsense attitude, his teaching method rankled the feathers of his classmates, who did not have the attention span to stay focused through his safety minded class, often incurring losses in points as they became distracted. For children, Professor Snape was not a quality instructor. For Robert, who did know how to stay focused, Professor Snape was a fount of knowledge. He was the first instructor in Hogwarts, that Robert was able to truly enjoying learning, as the pace of the class was not at a snail's pace. Professor Snape was straight to the point, with little extraneous fluff.
For Transfiguration, the professor that led the first years to the great hall, Professor McGonagall, was the teacher. Like Professor Snape, she was not full of mirth, she was strict and demanding. However unlike Professor Snape, she knew how to teach young children, which frustrated Robert. He understood the need to go at a more plodding pace, and he agreed with it, but he was not a true child. It was annoying to have the same thing repeated in multiple ways, to get through the importance of the lesson.
The Hufflepuff Head of House was the final teacher of the day, in Herbology. Like with all the other teachers, Professor Sprout explained the goals of the class, and what was to be expected from the conduct in the class. Her biggest thing that she demanded, was that when she gave an instruction, it was to be followed immediately, as some of the plants in the greenhouses could be extremely dangerous, if not handled correctly, much like Professor Snape was trying to explain earlier in the day when he was speaking of safety. The difference in the two professors, was the Professor Sprout added levity towards the warnings, giving humorous examples that could happen with some of the plants, where Professor Snape, just said to follow his instructions, and let the subject wander onto his next topic.
Herbology was going to be one of the classes that Robert would have a lack of interest in it. It was not the it was boring, or any such thing. Instead, it was that the subject seemed to be scattered for him to become engrossed in the subject. There were too many variables that had to be factored in when dealing with plants. It was just not one worth the stress to become engaged in this subject, not that he did not blame others that share his lack of enthusiasm.
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Like the day before, after classes ended, and Robert headed to the workshop. With some amount of glee, Professor Sprout had procured his requisitioned supplies already, letting him able to start on his project. Much to his chagrin, unlike the wood that he was used to working with, in Gramps Rett's workshop, all the wood had been utterly infused with magic, which his senses allowed him to pick up on. He had not considered this possibility when Professor Sprout had given her proposal, but it was going to have to be something that he regrettably dealt with. C'est la vie.
Instead of lamenting of having his work being corrupted by magic, and therefore becoming lesser than what he hoped for, he trudged forward, work with his skills the way he had learned them. The material would still be cleansed of some of it's magic, due to the ritualistic methodology of working with it, but he would never cleanse it as much as he wished. It would ultimately still be a chance to practice his craft.
After inspecting the material for defects, he shuddered, the material was of poor quality. He had wanted two large slabs of wood, for the top of the table and a stabilizing shelf towards the bottom, of around one meter deep, two meters long, and around two centimeters. Yes, he did get something that was deeper and wider than what he had requested, but the wood was full of knots. And the planks that he had requested, for legs and braces, they were twisted.
It was his own fault. Robert had not specified the quality of wood. And with someone ordering it for him, without the knowledge that his mind held, they would not nor could not select it properly.
He had two options that he could think of for going forward with this project. Either he redesign his plans, and deal with something even less than ideal for an initial table, or he could learn how to transfigure the material into something of better quality.
If it was the first option, he would be less than content with the final product. Instead if he went with the second option, more magic would infuse the wood, and it would take him even longer to start working, since he had not learned how to do this type of transfiguration, even theoretically. Maybe if his skill set was not based around crafting high quality magical crafts, the first option would be the lesser of the two options, and second would be the more advantageous.
But he wanted quality, and quality is what he would craft. Still, though, he would make sure that he learned the way to transfigure the quality of wood, in case something like this situation happened again. He did not wish to be complacent in his crafts, and find using magic as an option instead of physical efforts. It was Robert's self enforced pride that prevented him from taking the easy way.
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Sorry for taking so long for an update. It wasn't that I was forgetting about the story, it was the fact that I was originally designing a story in the Harry Potter world ignoring the story line that JKR wrote. I want to use the story line in my own story, and I actually want to use some of my more memorable fanfic characters (Daphne Greengrass, Pansy Parkinson, Tonks, etc). I also need to find a semi-realistic reason for Robert to interact with Harry Potter, who he is ignorant about Harry's trials and tribulations. I want for him to be a mentor type character to Harry, and encourage him to integrate into his role in the wizarding world.
OK, here is my recommendation for a fanfic on fanfiction#net THE Survivors. I love the story, but it's one of the stories in which I both hate and love the ending. It will be one of those stories that it will take me a while to reread.