The old castle became lively once more and students poured into the halls with gloomy expressions wishing winter break didn't pass so fast.
Alas, the gloominess only lasted for mere hours as the students interacted with their friends.
A young crew of Gryffindors jubilantly talked while walking to their classes, they spoke fast as if they would forget their words.
"And then I made a dive for the snitch beating Sirius," James laughed loudly to Remus and Stiles while Sirius wore a bitter smile
"You cheated," Sirius kept saying over and over
"Glad you two had fun I spent my holidays studying," Remus sighed while shaking his head in clear exhaustion
James, Stiles, and Sirus looked at each other and then burst into laughter, "Typical, the bloody hat made a mistake not putting you in Ravenclaw," James said through his laughter
"Aye! If I was put it Ravenclaw we wouldn't have met," Remus retorted
Stiles chuckled softly, "My break wasn't too special. Me and mom Portkeyed over to the U.S. Though I did learn some wicked spells,"
Sirius inspected his friend and then patted his shoulder while smiling brightly, "Hey, you seem more energetic! Glad you fixed your issue mate and you need to bring me to the States sometime,"
Stiles nodded with an easy smile, "Yeah I finally figured out how to fix my constant tiredness, and I'm going to bring all of you to the States," he purposefully said the word 'states' in a British accent earning the group another round of laughter
In the courtyard, Severus Snape and Lily Evens talked excitedly.
"Severus you must tell me what happened! You went silent for a while and then you came back looking like this!" Lily said with a bright smile
Severus had a small smile on his face, it was filled with genuine warmth, "I can't really go into details but, me and mum moved. Don't worry we are still close enough for us to hang out, things are finally looking up for me,"
Lilly hugged her first magical friend, "I am so happy for you Severus,"
All around the castle friends were catching up, making Hogwarts feel warmer even in the cold.
Though not everyone was having a fun time with their friends, in the Slytherin rooms a small meeting was being held.
Lucius Malfoy, Bellatrix Black, Bartemius Crouch Junior, Rabastan Lestrange, and Mulciber Junior sat inside a small room with a serious look on their faces.
"I reported news on our new divination professor to our Lord," Lucius started the meeting
"What are our instructions," Crouch Jr asked eagerly
"Keep an eye on him to determine if he is fit for our cause," Lucius replied
"How is the recruitment plan going?" Bellatrix asked curiously as she was deemed unfit to recruit
"Good so far, I was planning to take that second-year Severus Snape under my wing but he suddenly seemed to be more independent," Lucius frowned
Bellatrix nodded adding, "I heard my sister talking about how my cousin's little group hasn't been bothering him lately. Seems to be because of what Professor Morpheus did,"
"Yes I mentioned that to our Lord and he seemed to like this professor's courage," Lucius smiled in amusement
"Well, it wasn't good for us. That Snape kid is bloody good at potions he would be a great aid to our Lord," Rebastan grumbled
"I agree, who are our other candidates," Mulciber Jr said
Like that the next generation of death eaters continued their meeting.
*Morpheus pov*
With the students being settled in with their normal schedules finally my first class ensued.
I stood in front of my third-year students and began my lecture, "First I want to say congratulations, everyone performed exceptionally in their midterm exams, I didn't have a single student who failed. Now that you have a feel for divination and hopefully can perform small feats on your own I want to touch on something you might not know about divination that will help you with your other classes as well,"
Seeing my class prepared to take notes I continued, "I do want to clarify this isn't just for divination, what I'm about to talk about is also taught in enchantments and runes. I'll stop beating around the bush now since I'm sure you are all eager to know what I'm talking about. Magical control, this is a very complex topic that you most likely will never fully understand,"
"Magic control is your ability to control the output of how much power you put into a spell, a rune, or even a divination. I will use runes as an example when making runes if you put too much power into the runic engravings your runes could break. In contrast, if you put too little power into a rune it could fizzle out," The students were paying very close attention
"You must find a perfect sweet spot, and when you learn to control your power output you can make spells stronger or weaker depending on the situation,"
I paused for a second to allow the students to digest what I was teaching.
Seeing the students waiting for me to continue I began once more, "Now why is this important for divination? It's simple when you think about it, for certain types of divination if you put too little or too much power into the process a chain reaction could occur causing the time and effort you put into the spell worthless. For example, when using a crystal ball if you put too much power into the crystal it could shatter, if you put too little you will get a blurry vision at best,"
"Yes?" I called on a student
"Professor, how will we practice our control?" he asked
"There are many methods to practice control you can find some in the library if you look but, what I will be teaching you is what I found to be the best method. In this case, I have training wands used by kids to practice casting magic. They can only cast the most basic of spells, too much power the wand will break, and too little nothing will happen,"
Adding I said, "For children of your age, you will need to try hard to lower your output as these wands are meant for kids who haven't developed their magic, do not worry about breaking a wand I brought plenty,"
Another student raised their hand, "Yes Ms?"
"How come I've never heard of a training wand?" she asked I could hear a little embarrassment in her tone
I laughed, "There is no need to feel embarrassed about not knowing what a training wand is, they are quite expensive causing mainly purebloods to buy them,"
With that, I passed out some wands and sat down prepared to watch the fun.
Right away a student's wand crumbled as he tried to cast a Lumos.
Flicking my wrist another wand was sent his way.
I expect these wands will be completely spent by the time these students learn a semblance of control.
They are lucky they are learning it now when I learned about magical control I was already an adult and struggled quite a bit.
I saw Xenophilius was a little better than some of the students as I told him to practice when he asked me to teach him.
Well, might as well get some stuff done while they struggle. Next class, I will go around and help them. In this class, they will get a feel of what I'm asking for.
Trial and error is one of the best teachers.
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