The rest of the morning passed peacefully enough. After a hearty breakfast the five girls cracked on with their essays in the library, each taking a unique stance to the task. Whilst Limestone chose the obvious route and entitled her essay Why werewolves are a class five beast, Leanne chose a more political approach surrounding the stigma associated with werewolves and whether it was justified or not. Lavender chose a similar route but whereas Leanne’s was a more balanced argument, Lavender’s was a heavily biased piece on how such derogatory views were unfair and unfounded. Susan’s essay meanwhile was a brazen attack on the Ministry and how their recent attempts to integrate werewolves back into magical society were all a sham and failing badly leading to an even greater divide between werewolves and the rest of magical society. Scoti meanwhile had entitled her essay So, you’ve befriended a werewolf: The dos and don’ts of having a werewolf for a friend and taken a totally satirical approach to her assignment. For example, she wrote:
During the night of the full moon, even if your friend has taken wolfsbane potion you should ensure they are safely and securely contained. Yes, your friend may look cute as a werewolf, but do not attempt in anyway to communicate or play with them during this period. Your werewolf friend is not a dog and treating them as such is a sure-fire way to get yourself killed or to also become a sufferer of lycanthropy. On the other hand, if your friend breaches containment and comes after you, do use their canine instincts against them by throwing sticks and toys as far away from you as possible to distract them. Squeaky toys are especially useful in this situation and will ensure you escape and avoid the last thing you ever see being your insides on the outside of your body.
Other highlights included sections on fleas, a werewolf’s appetite, and a lycanthropy sufferers’ natural affinity for fighting and destruction amongst other topics. Leanne had simply taken one glance at her friend’s report, closed her eyes and shaken her head in disbelief. Susan meanwhile had read Scoti’s essay stone-faced before lowering it onto the desk and uttering one word “Run.” Scoti though had been prepared and immediately distracted the other girl with one of Teeth’s spare toys, a squeaky duck, thus immediately proving one of the points she had made.
Susan was still being amused by the toy as they departed lunch, even if its head was now hanging by a thread. As the poor decimated duck gave another horrifically painful quack, Leanne closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and decided to approach the matter head on.
“Do you not think you’ve killed that poor thing enough yet?”
“What do you mean? Quackers is perfectly fine,” Susan objected.
Quackers chose that precise moment to lose his head entirely. As it bounced across the floor Leanne gave her best friend a knowing look.
“Fine,” Susan grumbled picking Quackers head up of the floor and throwing the entire toy into a conveniently placed bin in the entranceway of their Charms classroom.
“I am glad to see you found something else to chew on aside your wand Miss Bones and I do hope you can continue to restrain yourself,” Flitwick praised from the front of the classroom.
“Oh, don’t worry sir, I’ve plenty of spare chew toys for Teeth she can utilise or even better, a dental bone,” Limestone jested.
Even Leanne couldn’t withhold a snicker at that last bit. “True,” she murmured under her breath earning a glare from Susan in return.
Flitwick overlooked the clear jibe. “That would be much appreciated Miss Pie. Just as long as she isn’t causing any further unnecessary damage to her wand that could cause it to malfunction, I am satisfied.”
“My wand is perfectly fine, look,” she pulled it from her robes and before Flitwick could intervene gave it a swish and a flick and cried “Lumos”.
A speck of light flickered for a moment at the tip of Susan’s wand before going out.
“A decent first attempt,” Professor Flitwick commented, “but please do not attempt any new spells in future without my clearance, understood,” he added politely but with a firm undertone.
Susan took the hint. “Understood and apologies sir. I just wanted to prove them wrong is all.”
“That is all well and good but without proper preparation even the simplest of spells can go array. Miss Granger, you look eager. Mind informing us what could happen if you take this charm for granted and do not maintain concentration when casting Lumos?”
Hermione was only too happy to reply smugly from where she was already sat near the front of the classroom. “Although a simple spell to cast, the light created by the Wand-Lighting Charm is fire and therefore the caster’s utmost concentration is necessary to prevent both their wand and any nearby flammable objects catching fire.”
“An excellent explanation. Ten points to Gryffindor and I hope you all took heed of what Miss Granger said. Fire magic, however miniscule it may seem, should not be trifled with. Now girls, would you kindly take your seats so I may proceed with today’s lesson,” Flitwick instructed.
The Hufflepuff girls proceeded to do just that as Hermione returned to totally blanking them even though she ended up sat next to Limestone once again as that was the last free seat in the classroom.
“Right then, I am aware a few of you have already had success with the Vermillious charm in your Defence Against the Dark Arts tutoring session with Alastor Moody this morning but for most of you here, this will be your very first attempt at a spell. Lumos is an extremely useful spell to know and a very simple one to cast due to being easy to pronounce and requiring simplistic wand movement. Just remember what Miss Granger said and remain focused when casting it. I would prefer not to have to put out any unnecessary fires if we can help it,” Professor Flitwick explained to his class. “Now, watch me closely, Lumos,” he cast with a swish and flick of his wand. The tip of his want lighted up immediately to oohs and aahs from the class. “And to extinguish the light, Nox,” he cast with another swish and flick of his wand. The light at the tip of his wand disappeared. “Do not worry if you cannot cast it straightway, patience is the key when learning new spells and over time you will discover it gets easier even with more complex ones. Now, go ahead and try for yourselves. You will find a picture of the required movement in your textbooks and if you would like another demonstration just put up your hand and I shall come over and assist when I can.”
*
“Hmm, I was afraid of this,” Flitwick said deep in thought.
Limestone did not bother lifting her head up of the table as she replied, “And what is that supposed to mean?”
For the past ninety minutes she had watched as all her friends and a fair proportion of her fellow classmates had had at least some success in casting the spell. Both Scoti and Hermione had mastered both Lumos and Nox over the course of the lesson. Susan meanwhile had managed to make her wand tip light up for a full thirty seconds, although her wand could not decide on one colour, the light at its tip varying between every colour of the rainbow. Professor Flitwick had told Susan that although peculiar, it was possibly the wand acting of its own accord to prevent boredom. Leanne was currently struggling to make her wand stay lit for more than a few seconds, whilst Lavender had been the biggest surprise of all, although she now seemed unable to extinguish the tremendously bright light at the tip of her wand.
“Tell me, did you have any trouble with Vermillious?” Flitwick queried.
“Not particularly, although the red sparks I produced were a lot darker than my friends. Why?” Limestone questioned back.
“Intriguing. As I informed you the other day, almost nothing is known of thestral tail hair cores due to their difficulty to work with so this is a new experience for both me and you. In fact, I am only aware of one other thestral tail hair core wand and that is an extremely powerful wand of legend,” Flitwick explained. “But what I do know is that wand cores often mimic the personalities of the creatures they come from. Unicorns for example are the epitome of goodness in the world and thus it is almost impossible to corrupt such wands with the dark arts whilst dragon heartstring wands are notoriously powerful and temperamental. Thestrals sadly though are an enigma. Due to their appearance, carnivorous diet, and relationship with death and darkness, they are often seen as omens of misfortune and aggression in the magical community and ranked as “dangerous” by the Ministry of Magic. In fact, this opinion could not be more wrong. Thestrals are actually incredibly smart and docile creatures that can be easily befriended and tamed by those who are able to see them. They will also only attack someone in self-defence.”
“So, what you’re getting at is that you can’t be sure how a thestral tail hair core wand will react due to differences between how the animal itself is perceived by the magical community and how it actually behaves?” Limestone queried trying to keep up with her Professor’s complicated explanation.
“Precisely. If you were to go by the creature’s appearance, diet and preference for dark habitats, you would naturally associate such a wand made with their tail hair to have an affinity for the dark arts but this would in turn contradict how they generally behave. It also does not help that all known branches of dark magic are inherently evil otherwise we may have been able to make some educated guesses at what magic your new wand would be best suited for. Instead, I am afraid to say we have little choice and are left with only a single option, trial, and error,” Flitwick went on placing a hardback notebook down on the table.
“What’s this for?” Limestone asked already dreading the answer.
“I would like for you to keep a journal of all the spells you attempt to cast this year, the result and why you think that result occurred. I will review the journal at the end of the year and not only will it form part of your overall grade, it shall also assist me in ensuring that your practical assessment does not put you at an unfair disadvantage. Now, do you think you can tell me why your wand allowed you to cast Vermillious and not Lumos?”
Limestone closed her eyes and thought long and hard about the question. When she slowly lifted her head of the desk and shook it from side to side, Flitwick decided to try an alternative approach to the question.
“What were you thinking when you cast Vermillious? Or more simply, what reason did you have for casting the spell?”
“Self-defence,” Limestone replied without hesitation.
“Very good. And what were you thinking when you were attempting to cast Lumos?” Flitwick asked politely.
“Not really anything aside lighting the…” Limestone began only for two massive boulders to come crashing against each other in her mind. Her eyes opened wide and she grabbed her wand. Taking a deep breath she steadied herself then cried “Lumos” as she made the necessary motion with her wand.
A blinding flash of light appeared at its tip and Flitwick had to take evasive action to avoid being blinded.
“Incredible,” Flitwick murmured, shielding his eyes with his right arm as a smile drifted across his face. “I think you’ve actually managed to cast Lumos Solem, a much more powerful and difficult version of the spell that I usually teach to sixth year students,” he explained. “Mind putting it out before you blind someone?”
Limestone made the necessary motion and said firmly, “Nox.” The light immediately went out.
Flitwick removed his arm. “If anyone was blinded by that spell, please inform me immediately so that I can have you escorted to Madam Pomfrey.” To his utmost relief, nobody else had suffered any ill effects from Limestone’s attempt at Lumos and he had managed to raise his arm up quick enough to prevent being blinded himself. “Excellent. Now, care to explain to your classmates how you managed to cast such a powerful variant of Lumos Miss Pie.”
“Not particularly but by the sounds of it, I don’t think I have a choice. I realised from what you said that thestrals are not fond of light so instead of focusing on trying to make light with my wand, I focused on envisaging a situation where the spell would be required for self-defence as that had worked earlier for Vermillious.”
“Outstanding. Twenty points to Hufflepuff and I hope you all have taken a mental note of what Miss Pie just said. Every wand core bares a piece of that particular animal’s personality and soul within it, and thus your wand will often mirror their behaviours which may present problems when casting certain spells as Miss Pie just discovered. This is why you need to not just get to know your wand but the animal from which your core is derived from so that when such a problem arises, you have a way to counter it. Take this as an early assignment of next week’s homework. I expect each of you to write me a piece on your wand’s core and the animal it is from, including aspects such as their strengths, weaknesses, and general behaviour. As well as this, I would like all of you to continue practicing Lumos and Nox before your next lesson and lastly a reminder that your sheet of questions for this week’s homework is due Monday. Now, unless there are any questions or you require me to assist putting the light out on your wand,” Flitwick glanced over at Lavender. “Class dismissed.”