The sudden light took the room by surprised, causing the Professor Flitwick to jump up in excitement, giving him the image of a kid who had eaten too much sugar.
"Impressive Mr Potter, just like your mother. Have you cast the spell before?" Flitwick asked, observing him with interest and excitement.
...
Seeing he had the whole class observing him, he decided a half truth would be best for the time being, since doing magic outside of school was against the law.
And frankly he didn't want to reveal the fact that his summer residence had been warded, so he could practise magic without being detected. Even if the underage magic law didn't apply to him, due to him being a lord, but he wasn't going to tell anyone about it.
"Yes, I tried the spell last night in my dorm room, before turning in for the night." Seeing the professor nod Harry continued, "However, before coming to Hogwarts, I read most of the theory text books for first year charms. I also read some of my mother's own charms books," which caused Flitwick to glow with interest. "After all, I wanted to ensure that I was properly prepared."
"Excellent, can you explain the secret of charms for your classmates?" his Head of House questioned, checking to see if he had indeed read the text.
"Ok. First, most charms are not about power itself, nor emotions. They are instead driven by your own focus and intent. You have to visualize the spells effects and the results in your mind, if you wish the spell to work," he lectured, seeing the professor nod.
"The Lumos spell is one of the simplest charms around, due to it not requiring any wand movements to define and shape the spell. All you have to do really is visualize the spell, and its effects. Hence the reason it's a first year spell, because the effects are easy to visualize and there is no wand movement to be confused with."
Picking up his wand and turning to face his classmates, he faintly whispered, "Lumos," focusing on the mental image of light at his wand point, whilst pulling up memories of his previous successes.
His wand once again pulsed into life, creating a light on the tip of his wand. "This spell is also considered useful for learning control, during the early stages of learning magic," he explained to the class. He increased the power flowing into the spell to illustrate his point, feeling energy following through him, causing the light to brighten again.
"As you can see, I did not need to shout the incantation, I whispered it. Using one's voice to control the spell's power levels is but the first step in mastering a spell. After years of practise, you don't need any words to casts simple spells such as this; all it takes is a disciplined mind. At NEWT levels, silent casting becomes required for some classes such as DADA, and is encouraged in other classes.
However, do not panic or worry if you can't do it, even some adults find it extremely difficult to cast silently. The spells that you eventually end up casting silently, will be the spells you use the most often," he said before cancelling the spell, and turning back to face his professor, who was sporting a massive grin after hearing his extensive explanation.
"Correct, Mr Potter. It is nice to see you have inherited your mother's talent at Charms. Take twenty points for first casting the spell and giving a wonderful explanation. Take another ten points for NEWT level knowledge," Flitwick replied gleefully, before directing the rest of class to get back to work.
"Want some help?" he asked Padma.
"Sure," she replied, "If you don't mind."
For the rest of the lesson he made an effort to help Padma, which resulted in her successfully casting the spell five minutes before the end of the class. It was faint, and lasted a faction of second before her concentration broke ending the spell, but it was all it took to get her grinning like the cat that caught the canary.
During the lesson, his Head of House quizzed him about his knowledge and about what other spells he could do. He ended up admitting that he was already capable of casting a good dozen first year spells, such as the 'colour changing one', and 'levitation spell'.
He also told Flitwick his own goal of being able to successfully cast all the first year Charms spells by Christmas. By the time he was done listing the spells, as well as his own goals, his teacher seemed to be bouncing with energy.
Finally the school bell rang announcing the end of the lesson, which caused the professor to break off his questioning, in order to assign the task of practising the Lumos charm as homework. Then he finally dismissed the class so they could go down to the Great Hall for dinner.
On the way to the Great Hall, Harry caught a glimpse of the hour glasses which tracked house points. They showed that Ravenclaw was ahead of the pack, with a thirty point lead.
Harry found a free place half way down the table, near some of the older Ravenclaw students, rather than sitting with his own year group. This was mainly so he wouldn't have to make any small talk. Looking over the Great Hall, he could see Padma sitting with her sister at the Gryffindor table.
Thankfully none of the older Ravenclaws attempted to make small talk, instead only talking to him whenever they needed him to pass a plate of food. This allowed him to slip into his own little world as he thought over the day's events, leading him to realize he had told more than he originally intended to his Head of House.
By the end of dinner, most of the Ravens knew he was already one of their Head of House's new favourites. Several other first year Ravenclaw students all but demanded that he assist them in learning the spell upon their return to their common room.
His reply was short and to the point, "No."
He personally didn't care if they disliked it, as far as he was concerned every minute spent "holding their hands" meant less time he had to focus on his own studies. And he especially wasn't about to set the precedent of helping his fellow classmates if he didn't gain anything from it. Besides, if he did everything for them they would never learn to do it themselves.
He ignored their complaints and none to quiet rants. They had nothing on his relatives, whilst most of the older years just watched as the scene played out with passing interest.
After a while, he finally had enough of the not too quiet complaints, since he was finding it increasingly difficult to continue reading his Potions textbook. It was also clear that several of the older students were getting annoyed at the noise his year mates were creating by their complaining.
Finally, his patience snapped. "What do I gain by spending my time helping you? What can you offer me? Every minute I spend helping you, means less time I can spend improving my own skills," he stated angrily, his temper flaring, watching some his year mate's recoil from his sudden outburst.
"What point is there in me doing the work for you? I won't be there in the examinations to hold your hands and tell you what to do!" he exclaimed, watching as some of them sank into their seats, whilst other faces flushed red with anger, before continuing, "If you are having problems, go and fucking see a teacher instead of harassing me! It's not my job to help you!" Harry took a couple deep breaths to calm himself.
"So instead of sitting there and complaining about me not helping you, why don't you make an effort to help yourselves? Surly you can open your charms books and learn more about casting the spell? Surly you are smart enough to be able to open a book?" he challenged, seeing some of the flash red in either anger or embarrassment, whilst the rest of the house just watched the unfolding drama.
"Before you go on and claim you are my friends, I only just met you two and half days ago, and I don't remember that automatically making us friends," he stated coldly, waiting for anyone to challenge him.
Pulling on his robes, to show them the house logo Harry continued, "Just because we are in the same house, does not make you my friend by default! Nor does it mean I have to help you.
Most of you haven't done anything to prove yourself worthy of my time or my friendship! I only consider one of you my friend so far, and I've helped her with the spell. The rest of you have yet to prove you're worthy of my time and energy, let alone friendship."
"And with all your childish moaning, I feel even less inclined to help you. Help yourselves, don't rely on others to do it for you," he preached, before picking up his schoolbag and his books and heading up to his bedroom, so he could study in peace.