[POV Change: MC first person]
'I doubt I was much older than this in my last life, and even if I was, I have none of the life experience or any memories that go along with it. It alienated me from all the other 'brats' at the orphanage and I never once made a true friend there, knowing I was part of a different world than they were - especially after my first magical outburst that meant I wasn't a squib.'
'Now, with my class mates and everyone else, I feel a weird sense of belonging and befriending them doesn't feel like a chore or something beneath me since I'm 'so much more mature than them'. And my thinking definitely changed... a ward by Dumbledore to keep my emotions muted, maybe?'
'I'll try to get Patrick to look into it... And sure, I know more about what is to come and I have some goals most of them couldn't stomach, but I think I could finally try to make some friends here. The isolation always gnawed at me, even though I tried to pretend it didn't.'
"Are you still with us?" Hermione asked, and she looked genuinely worried.
I hadn't said much since we entered the Great Hall, which was a huge difference compared to our trip here, and I guess it showed - especially to someone who is as smart as she was.
'Or someone I suppose should be smart - and that's also something I need to get over quickly. I think I know all these people, at least for some I know their motives and future experiences... but I can't really say it's like that, can I?'
'Harry isn't a Gryffindor, Hermione isn't either. We're all three years older, and I know jackshit for certain. I need to start living in the now and not just scheme and look on from outside.'
"Yeah, just going over the timetable in my head. I'm kinda surprised by the amount of free time, and I hope there's a bunch of clubs and stuff. Just studying and getting better at magic sounds like a chore," I answered with a shrug.
"I thought you wanted to hole up in the library for the forseeable future," Padma lightly quipped. "You basically ignored us for half an hour after we entered your compartment, and you just kept reading..."
"Okay... but you didn't want to hole up in the library?" I asked with a raised brow.
Padma blushed and mumbled, "Don't change the subject..."
I shook my head and gained a small smile.
"Yeah, sure. I intend to read enough for a hundred Gryffindors, but that doesn't mean that's all I want to do," I replied with a shrug.
"A hundred of us, eh, little firstie?" A mirthful voice came from behind me.
What I saw was an absolute vision in maroon and tasteful pink. Nymphadora Tonks. I knew in my mind that no comparison was fair because she could look like anyone she ever wanted to look like. But by far, she was the prettiest witch I had seen thus far.
"Sorry, Ms Tonks. What I will make up for in reading enough books for a hundred of you, I'll allow you to make up for in mischief. I mean acts of bravery in challenging the established school rules."
"Wow, you really get us," Tonks countered while wiping away a fake tear to play along. "How'd you know my name and my reputation so fast though, kid? I don't think we've met before."
"I'm a 14 year old boy. Why wouldn't I know of the prettiest girl in school?"
Tonks looked clearly unimpressed at my compliment. It shouldn't have been the first time someone said something similar. She did recognize, though, that she wasn't going to get a straight answer from me, I supposed.
And she did kind of have a certain fame since she and the Weasley twins were known for taking jokes a little too far these last years, so knowing her really wasn't a stretch.
And why wouldn't she know of her own beauty? She could look however the hell she wanted, after all. But it looked like I miscalculated a little bit still.
This world ran on stupid wizard logic and not harem fanfic logic. And I'm only the third choice of protagonist after Harry and Neville. The girls won't line up for me just because I'm a bit more mature than the other pubescent boys and even with pregnant N.E.W.T. level witches among the students, flirting with a girl who's 20 years or older, just wasn't going to work as a 14 year old.
"I'll tell you what I told the Weasley brats when they tried to get into my knickers two years ago: Keep it in your pants, firstie. Take on someone your own size," Tonks eventually retorted with a wink and pointed to her nose where a shallow scar was slowly starting to show. "Looks like you have some takers there anyway with your mystery scar and cute face."
"Holy shit, I'm jealous," I uttered under my breath as I watched her sway away to the Gryffindor table after that declaration.
"Jealous? Don't you mean enarmored?" Padma asked with slightly rosy cheeks as she, too, watched Tonks walk away. The metamorph's current face did have a sort of universal beauty, I couldn't fault Padma for thinking what she was likely thinking.
"Nah, I heard there's a metamorphmagus among the seventh years. Didn't you see her recreate my scar without a wand? It's a special bloodline ability of House Black, and I'm jealous of that," I easily admitted and turned my attention back on the people at the table with me. "Unless reading a little faster than the other kids at the orphanage is a sort of bloodline ability of House Macnair, I don't have anything like that. I'll become someone of renown regardless, but the ability is still way too convenient."
It probably looked like I made a ludicrous promise to myself and the world because nobody else commented on it. So we spent our remaining breakfast with idle chatter and expectations on our first lesson: Charms with Slytherin on the third floor.
I was pretty psyched about Charms because I had already tried the spells highlighted in the first year spell book and managed to cast all of them to various levels of success in the bathroom the night before. That also gave me plenty of questions about intent in spellcasting and magical theory in general.
All in all, I had high hopes for Professor Flitwick and him being as excellent as I thought him to be.
The classroom for Charms was divided into two sides with two rows of tables on each side arranged in an ascending manner, a wide open space in the middle and the professor's table with two blackboards flanking it opposite the door.
As Professor Flitwick watched us fill in, a beam of light from the windows shone on his diminutive form that made him look like a benevolent saint about to teach the unwashed masses. I eventually noticed that both houses somehow divided themselves perfectly with Slytherin students on one side of the room and us Ravenclaws on the other.
Ravenclaw first years counted thirteen, with five young wizards and eight young witches. Slytherin, on the other hand, had eight wizards and only six witches.
For the Slytherin male faction, I counted Draco Malfoy, Blaise Zabini, Theodore Nott, Gregory Goyle, Vincent Crabbe, and three boys that weren't in the books. Austin Pucey, whose brother Adrian was part of Slytherin's Quidditch team, Zachary Avery, a boy like me who was the spawn of some vile death eaters most likely, and Castellon Burke, who gave me no impression other than the infamous 'Borgin and Burkes' shop in Knockturn Alley.
For the girls, there were two additions as far as I was aware. Daphne Greengrass, Pansy Parkinson, Tracey Davis, and Millicent Bulstrode were as expected. But I did not know the two other girls, girls that Isobel introduced in a whisper when she saw me look at the Slytherin students.
"... and those two at the front, the two red hairs, are Natalie Rosier and Isodora Selwyn. I imagine Isodora and Natalie would have been in a similar situation to yours had they been sent to a muggle orphanage. Instead, they were raised by the late Lady Vinda Rosier," Isobel whispered, and my eyes nearly bulged out.
'They were raised by a freaking general of Grindelwald? Holy hotcakes, imagine if I was raised by someone like that,' I thought with yearning before shaking my head. 'At least nobody brainwashed me or found out my secret along the way. My memories should be enough privilege already.'
"Vinda Rosier, the name rings a bell... Grindewald, right?" I whispered back, pretending to have read the name in a foot note of a history book. And it looked like Isobel was none the wiser as she calmly nodded.
"Yes, Lady Rosier was one of his generals during his conquest. She was acquitted of any charges when Grindelwald... turned himself in after Dumbledore's victory. A lot of them were let go with nary a punishment 'to stop magical blood from running out even more' as the official reasoning."
I had to say, the reasoning was sound but letting people go who aided the nazis in a ploy to eradicate whole cities and destroy the magical world in an almost global civil war so that they can reign over the ashes of the world was... hardcore. Dumbledore really lost his marbles as early as fifty years ago.
'Well, in my pretty biased opinion, that was. I'm not going to read up on the delicate balancing act the magical world had to get through to not be completely ripped apart.'
"So they attended the P.S.Y. course with you?" I asked curiously as I started handing out the books from my pouch to the Ravenclaws sitting next to me. Something not only Professor Flitwick watched with an approving nod but also most Slytherins did with calculating eyes.
Even the three other boys of Ravenclaw saw it, but we kind of left them hanging earlier when we went to breakfast without them and the three formed a group that was keen to ignore all of us on the first day.
"Yeah, I met Lady Rosier a bunch of times, too. Scary witch. Scary smart. And scary insightful. She could read you like an open book with no secrets left to hide. My mom said her skin crawled every time she met the woman, but she still didn't tell me to stay away," Isobel described in reminiscence. "Vinda Rosier earned her reputation as the deadly rose of France and then some."
"So Miss Rosier and Miss Selwyn over there were quite lucky with their living arrangements then?"
Isobel only nodded in response.
With everything prepared for class, I cast a quick 'Tempus' to see it was a minute before it started. I leaned back forward and away from Isobel behind me, saw Hermione already preparing her parchment for the notes she'd take during class next to me on the left and Harry calmly drawing his fingers over the cover of the textbook on my right, deep in his own contemplations.
Isobel sat behind me on the slightly raised desk next to Padma on her right and Mandy on her left.
"Already familiar with the Tempus charm, Mister Macnair?"
I turned my attention to Professor Flitwick to give him a nod in confirmation, "Indeed, Professor. One of the books I read mentioned that it was barely a spell, so it was the first one I tried after getting my wand."
"Oh? You read a book fast enough to learn a spell on the day you went shopping with Professor Babbling?" The Charms professor curiously inquired.
'Oh dear lord, no. It's already starting. Just end me already,' I inwardly facepalmed, hard. Flitwick's casual question sent me reeling to find an answer quickly. I couldn't wait to have been at Hogwarts for a month to explain all my knowledge by saying I read it in a book and not get any attention for it.
"Well, the professor left me at Flourish&Blotts for a while when she browsed the new additions to the runes section of the store," I half-lied since I got the information from a book that Walden had in his library. Thankfully, Tatum Andrews wrote something similar for the Tempus-charm despite saying that the reader should have long known the spell and adding it was only for completion's sake.
"There was a spellbook from a disgruntled muggleborn who wrote the book with one spell every two pages. In the foreword, the author mentioned the easiest spell there was that even a toddler could cast if he could just say the word."
"Ah yes, Tatum Andrews - right?" Professor Flitwick cheerfully asked before adding. "Just remember to take everything he writes outside academia with a grain of salt. Brilliant boy though he was, he has some rather unsavory opinions on matters of gender roles and such things."
'Huh, duly noted. I wondered myself why the title of the book was so needlessly gendered when a majority of spells could easily be used by witches as well. The shaving spell, for example, works for legs, too, after all.'
"Tss, praising a mudblood and hanging around with them like they are not beneath him. What a-," Draco muttered to his posse of friends before Flitwick interrupted him.
"Continue that sentence, and your detention turns from a week to a month, Mister Malfoy. Ten points from Slytherin for your foul language," the professor ordered, immediately losing all of his cheer.
'Dear lord, so Malfoy is worse than canon for staying with his father for another three years? But why in the world would he say something like that in front of a half-goblin? Did someone kick him in the head or use him as Stupefy practice as a kid? That's just asking to lose points unless he's in the presence of his godfather, Professor Snape...'
Malfoy for all his bravado merely scoffed but deflated enough to allow the lesson to start without interrupting it with any more uncalled for insults.
After a quick introduction on the very basics of spell casting, spell theory, and intent, Flitwick began introducing the first spell they would cast in class: Lumos.
He demonstrated the wand movement and pronounciation and cast the spell for everyone to see before giving his students the floor to try.
And, every single student managed to cast the spell on the first attempt. The intensity of the light differed a lot, but most students who attended P.S.Y. schools had a steady, strong glow going for them while those who didn't, which meant those few Ravenclaws who didn't, had various sizes and intensities of light at the tip of their wands.
"Mister Macnair, could you share what you were thinking when you cast your spell?" Professor Flitwick asked when he saw the small, unimpressive spell at the tip of my wand.
"Ah, professor, please forgive me. 'Nox,'" I intoned as the spell stopped, and I recasted Lumos. "This is the regular Lumos, I tried the Lumos Duo variant that acts akin to a muggle flashlight before."
Of course, I did that on purpose in the hopes it would impress rather than annoy Flitwick. Me knowing and being able to perform variants of a spell, no matter how basic, was supposed to show my dedication to learning and finding solutions, even though neither he nor I know the problem it was the solution to.
"Already trying variants, not a terrible try at the Lumos Duo either. Take two points for Ravenclaw," Flitwick praised with an easygoing smile that made me want to jump in a circle. "I might be getting ahead of myself, but does anybody else know another variant of the spell?"
Hermione's hand instantly shot up from beside me as she kept the other hand steady with Lumos still activated.
"Yes, Miss Granger?"
"Lumos Solem, the sunlight charm is one. Lumos Maxima, the bright light ball charm is another."
"Excellent, Miss Granger! Yes, Miss Rosier?"
"There's also the Lumos Varia, the continuous colorchanging light charm that works on intent and Lumos Funicula, the light rope charm."
"Oh my, such well read first year students, what a delight," Professor Flitwick praised in glee. "All excellent examples on the variant of the wand lighting charm! Since you already know so much, your homework should come to you easily. Please write down one variant of Lumos and give adequate examples on where and how to use them."
'Lumos Maxima for caves like Dumbledore did when they went to that Inferi cave to get the fake locket or Lumos Solem for Devil Snares and vampires?' I inwardly thought as I wrote down exactly that, well minus the 'like Dumbledore did...' part.
Hermione saw that I already had two examples and gave me a small, challenging look but didn't otherwise speak on it.
Harry merely copied my Lumos Solem example and left it at that as a note. He hadn't written much during class, I noticed. Which was decidedly different from the rest of us - though to be entirely fair, I only did that to not annoy Flitwick with a lacking attitude.
"Now, let's get those balls of light from everyone more steady. If you don't want to listen, please try other variants you might know or try to color the light in a different color through intent alone. It's quite possible after all. Look," Flitwick ordered as he demonstrated a simple Lumos that created a forest green light before he canceled it.