Multiple, purple-coloured desks were neatly arranged in the middle of the room, maintaining equal distance from each other.
A single desk, again purple, snaked around the room touching the four walls, various beakers with colorful liquids were placed on the edges of the room.
"Marvellous, isn't it? Now, let's check how well you read the book. Tell me what the three types of enchantment are?" Professor Flitwick wasn't even looking at Leon, he was twirling his wand changing something invisible about the table.
'A Viva! The first Viva I like.'
"Animation, Imbuement, Artificing."
"Go on!" The professor prodded.
"Animation is endowing motion, any type of motion, to an object. Imbuement is of three types- natural, magical, and hybrid. I don't read about artificing though, professor."
"More than enough for now. You will start with animation and move to natural imbuement. I will judge whether you are ready for magical imbuement after you create an enchanted object that is both animated and naturally imbued. You can start making artifacts in your third year, let's not talk about artificing now."
The desk he was tapping bubbled before multiple ropes and beakers full of liquid rose from inside the table.
"Your potions professor will teach you how to make these potions. You don't have to worry. Now, tell me what natural imbuement is."
The professor started to arrange the things on the desk, waiting for my answer.
Leon collected his thoughts for a moment.
"Hardness, sensitivity, elasticity- natural properties of objects like these can be enhanced by adding the essence of other objects. A rope can be enhanced by adding an essence of another rope to it."
Leon took a deep breath.
"However, adding divergent properties is considered wasteful as enhancing produces better results. A wizard can add the hardness of a diamond to a rope but even IF he can wrangle the essence of a diamond the, rope will lose its elasticity. To make a rope stronger the optimal method is to imbue the essence of platinum to each strand of the rope. The resultant rope will be much better than adding the essence of two normal ropes."
Flitwick nodded and questioned.
"Why not we make a rope with platinum itself, Leon?"
"Say its essence is its luster, color or ductility, etc. When we add platinum's essence to the rope, we add every property of the metal, which goes on top of the target's properties. Canceling or enhancing each other. Platinum being ductile won't affect the other properties of the rope like flexibility and other things." He narrowed his eyes at the professor and continued.
"Even Master enchanters can't pick and choose properties to imbue. Like in diamond, its inflexibility and hardness are a big part of its essence. So even master enchanters can't eliminate the presence of inflexibility when they extract the essence of diamond for its durability."
Leon looked at Flitwick wanting him to say he could do it but the professor just keenly observed his student.
"My rope imbued with platinum essence will be stronger than a platinum wire of the same thickness and cheaper too as the platinum essence won't be depleted that easily."
"Why not copper, Leon? Doesn't it have more tensile strength compared to platinum?" Flitwick asked like he was expecting the beginner's mistake.
"Argh! That.." Leon tried to remember the properties and compared them to platinum, the enchanting book suggested reading up on metals but took platinum as an example.
"Pricier things aren't always valuable, Leon. I want you to read 'The Mundane Metals and their Magic' by Erik Eisenhardt and choose the 3 metals you will use for essence. As you would have read. Generally, an enchanter chooses 3 objects and tries to grasp their essence, they can be anything but metals offer more versatility so most choose metals. And platinum is used for its nature of remaining inert to outward influence not for its strength."
Professor Flitwick gestured to the desk he arranged first.
"You can practice animation for now and can carefully pick your three metals later. Trying to manipulate the essence of more than three metals isn't optimal when we take into account the time it requires to even get in touch with their essence."
Leon nodded and eyed his table, deciding to research the heck out of the metals the world has to offer in his free time.
'Hmm! Why not objects like nylon or fibers instead of metal?... I guess I can enchant a nylon rope, giving it some properties of metal for a stronger rope. The Astraeus vault has abundant precious metals; the rarity of metals shouldn't hold me back in my choice. And I will have to buy a book on fibers and synthetic materials. If even alloys have the essence, I don't see why the synthetic materials won't.'
When used, the essence of metal depletes, and it takes time to gather again. If you extract too much, the metals will get destroyed. After all, you took what made it. So, money becomes an obstacle for most enchanters.
The professor hurried to another desk and with a wave of his wand multiple objects appeared out of nowhere like a veil was lifted.
"Professor, are some metals innately more resistant to essence manipulation than others?"
"Yes, inert metals are harder to manipulate and more prone to damage. But it's more about your affinity and talent. Every type of metal has its advantages. Even living metals, though they aren't useful for most cases we need."
'Living metals? Is he talking about radioactive metals? The book he suggested must be good then, maybe I should order some muggle textbook for metals too.'
'Damn! Here I am, not even two months into Hogwarts and already using muggle to describe my old world.'
Leon shook his head and concentrated on the rope in front of him.
'What type of animation is useful for me right now? A rope that slithers, or always tries to curl on itself? Ah! I got it.'
Leon took the rope dipped that was in the potion and got to work.
'Feel it, command it!'
'Feel it, command it!'
Leon fully concentrated on his task, cracking a wide smile now and then as the rope obeyed him, twitching on his desk.
Lost in the visible progress he didn't notice the sun bidding farewell as the world invited darkness.
"Times up! Leon."
'What already?'
"You have to follow three rules to use this lab in the future. No friends- you won't bring anyone here. Follow the curfew -you won't use the room after the curfew. Clean up after yourself- the room should be in the same state as it was when you came in after your use."
"Now! Chop chop, get going." A scroll floated towards him as Flitwick went back to his project.
Leon followed the instructions in the scroll and sorted out the ropes and potions.
"And other students will be using the lab too, so don't be surprised when you see them here."
With that, the lab door closed leaving Leon alone in the corridor.
"Tempus."
'It's time for dinner already.' His stomach grumbled in sync with his realization.
"Delicious food here I come!"
"Where were you, Leon?" Susan asked right after she noticed him.
"With Professor Flitwick, make some space, please."
The Hufflepuff table magically made more space for him as he sat beside his friends.
Leon was used to it already but the way magic played with space still left him in shock.
"I am learning about enchantment." Leon grabbed a soup and started his dinner.
"Why? You can only make artifacts in the third year, after all, they need runes."
"Not artificing, I am learning animation."
"Hmm! But a single rune makes learning animation obsolete. Aren't you wasting your time?" Susan asked, worried.
"Basics are always useful, Susan. And If I learn animation I can use another rune instead of letting a rune take up a place for animating the artifact."
"I guess you are right, but you aren't becoming a rune carver or ward maker anytime soon why-" Susan mumbled about the second part under her breath before returning to her dinner, deciding to trust in their professors.
Days passed quickly and a quiet buzz enveloped Hogwarts as the first quidditch match of the season neared heralding the start of quidditch season.
Susan and Hannah were busy as Hufflepuff vs Gryffindor, the second match this season was approaching. It was just 14 days after the first match.
Well, Hannah was busy, and Susan just followed her around like a lost duckling, their general roles reversed.
Most of the students, including Leon, were excited about the first Quidditch match. But Leon was excited for a different reason.
'Large-scale magic, here I come.' It would be his first time- other muggle-born students first time too- witnessing the magical terrains that are part of Quidditch.
...…
Roars and cheers greeted the Ravenclaw players as they entered the Quidditch field, in a line.
Ravenclaws didn't pull any stops to support their team as multiple small ethereal blue eagles circled the sky before merging into a giant ethereal eagle glaring at the Slytherins in the stands while welcoming its players with a mighty cry.
Leon was jumping in his seat admiring the regal eagle that dispersed after greeting its players.
'But compared to Ravenclaw, the Slytherins are a little lackluster,' he thought.
A couple of Slytherin guys just waved a 2-metre animated flag that showed a snake choking an eagle.
The remaining weren't even holding a card.
Leon was puzzled at their lukewarm enthusiasm, and he was even more surprised when only a single player flew into the field.
But the surprise didn't last long as rhythmic claps greeted him and the Slytherins parted giving way to an ethereal orchestra band that was swallowed in green smoke. Vague outlines of band players and flying snakes were visible as the Slytherins played to tune to accompany their captain onto the field.
'Damn! They are going to get their own bgms.'
Three more players entered the field making the music smoothly switch to a different rhythm.
Then two more and two more.
The Slytherins ended their performance with a big bang, leaving the Slytherins and Ravenclaws to face each other in the air along with the referee.
The referee, Madam Hooch, made the players shake their hands before she tossed something, that looked like a pocketwatch, into the air.
The pocketwatch grew in size and started hovering in the air.
'A roulette. It's a roulette.'
Madam Hooch flew towards it and spun the arrow.
The roulette was divided into 3 equal sections.
The word 'Standard' was boldly embossed on one section with multiple small sections encompassing the other two sections named World's Wrath and Fae's help.
Leon was very excited to see his very first magical terrain and it was not lost on his housemates as he literally vibrated in his seat eyeing the tens of magical options on the roulette.
"You know the game can be just a standard one, right? What if there is no magical terrain for you to drool over." Susan teased him.
"Don't say that. Terrains have a 66.6% chance of being selected. It's more than half." He was positive because Hogwarts didn't disappoint him yet.
And it was going to, he just didn't know.
The whole Quidditch field quietened as the arrow on the roulette slowed down.
Leon stood up and cursed as the arrow came to rest on standard, dashing his hopes of watching large-scale magic.
The images of floating rocks, firefalls, and tornados just remained that- images.
Suppressing the urge to kick the seats, Leon sat down and lightly elbowed Susan, who struggled to suppress her laughs.
Rubbing his hand as his skin turned red due to the pinch he got in retaliation, Leon asked.
"What's the difference between World's wrath and Fae's help?"
He didn't want to rehash the argument of his past life, with his female friends, that pinching causes more pain than his nudges.
Of course, Amelia, the talented woman he worked for, took that as an invitation to elbow the life out of him quoting size difference and she didn't know how much strength to apply.
"Worlds Wrath section contains the terrains that actively and passively make flying difficult for players. Like sticky flames, a magical fire will be raining down in the field. while the flames won't burn you on touch, you will be weighed down on top of sweating like crazy if you keep on collecting the flames. And of course, if a flame sticks to your face, you won't be able to see the field."
"Fae's help will be terrains like bouncy clouds that move around the field. While they can obstruct you, you can also use them to increase your speed or change directions."
"Awesome!"
Seeing the magical yet mundane game start, Leon got bored after a couple of minutes.
He doesn't know anyone playing, he doesn't care who wins the match or the cup for that matter so after a while watching people fly around got repetitive.
"Do you want any snacks? I am going to get them," he asked, wondering whether he wouldn't be bored if he had stakes in the game.
After taking orders from nearly every Hufflepuff who heard him asking, Leon walked out of the stadium.
Multiple tables were left unattended with different types of snacks on them just outside the field.
Leon left after collecting everything he wanted.
'I really should think about a gift to the elves. They are too awesome.'
As he returned to his seat and passed along the snacks, a thought struck him.
'Isn't the castle empty right now?'