You're Being Hugged, Harry

by David Silver

6 - Eager Magic

"Loo mas! Lomas. Lowmas!" Arnavon was swirling his wand the way the book said one had to, but his incantation wasn't making much magic happen. "C'mon... This is a simple one." Noted as one of the simplest in the book. Surely he could manage it...

"Loo mos!" His fur brightened, just in a spot nearest the lamp that hung in the room. He burst into giggles, feeling that bit of magic being redirected, flowing up into his shoulder, down his arm, into the wand. "Wha?"

The wand accepted the magic, and began to glow with the same light from its tip. He had cast the wand lighting charm, though not exactly the way he had planned. "Oh oh oh!" Despite the odd nature of it, Arnavon was giggling with triumph. "Can't wait to show this to Harry!"

---

Harry was having issues of his own. Never had his head felt so heavy. His eyelids struggled. Had someone cast a spell on them? No, it was his professor.

Professor Cuthbert Binns was droning endlessly, speaking of historical facts. Harry could hear scratching. His brain trying to mount a valiant escape from his ears?

Oh, no, that was Hermione. She was dutifully taking down notes at an impressive rate as the rest of the class struggled desperately to even stay awake. How she performed that magic, Harry knew not.

A glance in the other direction showed Ron had completely succumbed to Mister Binns' magic, having fallen forward and gone to sleep. There was no magic to learn, just a lot of times and dates and the long list of other magical things that had happened to other people at other times that were not there.

Not his favorite class, Harry silently decided.

He staggered out of it, trying to shake himself back into readiness. The rest of the class wasn't that better, but they were all pushing out.

Well, except Hermione. "What class is next?"

Harry lifted a fuzzy ear at her. "How?"

"How what?"

Ron was there, suddenly flopping against Harry. "How are you even awake enough to care what the next class is?"

Hermione raised a brow at the both of them. "Were you not paying attention? He was talking about all kinds of amazing things in there." She pointed back into the class they had escaped from. "And it's going to be on the test!"

Harry sagged, just a little. Flopping over would bring Ron down with him. "There's already a test?"

"Were you just not paying attention?" She rolled her eyes at his admission. "How do you plan to pass this class? You do need to pass this."

Harry glanced off to the side, then the other. No teachers in sight. "Can I see your notebook, please?"

Ron perked at that, standing on his own. "What're you gonna do? Borrow it?"

"Just a second or two," assured Harry with an equine smile. "No rule against unicorn magic, and I do know a few of those spells."

Hermione set her hands on her hips. "I want to see what you're even talking about." Out came her notebook. "But if you hurt my notes, I will be so cross with you."

Ron followed as they went to a little nook in the hallway, the notebook being set on a small table. "What are you gonna do, Harry? You said unicorn magic? I wanna see that!"

Harry's horn was glowing with magic not native to the school or the wizards that inhabited it. "Learned this one arguing with my sister. We'd fight over books all the time. I'd be reading something she wanted, or she'd be reading something I wanted. Mum got tired of our squabbling, so she taught us..." He trailed off, a bright flash as the book hopped into the air and pulled apart like a dividing cell.

Two books landed, one atop the other neatly. "--how to share. Thank you, Hermione. You are a real life saver." He plucked the copy of the book free in his magic and tucked it away in his saddlebag.

Ron huffed at the display. "You're going to do that again for me, right?"

Hermione reclaimed her book. "That's between you two gentlemen. You're welcome, Harry, but try to take your own notes next time!" And off she went.

It would not be the last time Harry would copy notes, or books, from Hermione. "I'll make you a copy later, Ron. That spell takes a little bit out of you."

"I'll hold you to that." And off they went together to the next class.

---

Harry let out a gust of air. "Finally." He had survived Thursday classes! Trotting with satisfaction, he almost missed a wave from the side. A large sort. Oh! "Hello there, Hagrid." He weaved through the crowd to get closer to the jolly giant. "How can I help you?"

"Mister Potter." Hagrid nodded at the student he had the most technical authority with. "How have you been adapting to school? Quite a bit different from your native stomping grounds, I imagine."

Harry twitched an ear off to the side. "You're making it sound like I'm a wild animal. My 'native stomping ground' was a palace of crystal, not a forest somewhere."

"Oh, a palace..." Hagrid stroked his beard, perhaps imagining such a thing. "Still, you doing alright?"

"Today was rough." Harry glanced off, but his friends had all gone their different ways. "History class was the worst," he whispered conspiratorially.

"I've heard a few mention that." Hagrid chuckled softly, hands on his front. "But I'm more interested in you. Now, I hear your specific kind of unicorn is quite eager to channel magic externally." He reached then, tapping Harry's horn lightly. "Not like the ones I knew, more internal sorts, those. So I was curious how you were doing with our magic? We use wands, and I know you have one. How has that been?"

"It's been great." Harry drew out his wand, grasping one magic tool with his built in one, glowing with his magic as it was. "Spells work with either." He inclined his wand, then tapped the wand with his horn. "But I try not to use the horn for wizard spells. I don't want to hurt it on accident."

"Now that's a good thought." He nodded, looking a bit relieved. "Unicorn magic, I'm sure you know how that works, but you're new to wizard magic, so until you have that really well practiced, don't go risking yourself about it. We can replace that," He was pointing at the floating wand. "But the rest of you is a lot harder. Now, I don't mean to yak yer ear off, sure you have things to do."

"Nice to see you again, Hagrid." Harry tucked the wand away. "Thanks for thinking of me."

"Not a problem at all, Harry." He swatted the student that was also a horse on the rump. "Off with ya!"

Harry snorted and started forward reflexively. "Don't do that," he grumped, but he was going, leaving Hagrid behind. He made his way quickly back to his own room, drawing the copied notebook along the way. "I can at least..."

His words died as he turned the corner to see Arnavon waving and swishing a wand about. The end of it was glowing softly, a fact that Arnavon seemed quite happy about. "Oh, Harry! There you are!" He pointed the glowing wand right at Harry. "Look what I did!"

Harry slowed to a walk, eyeing the wand. "Where did you get that?"

"Your mom sent it. It was Star Swirl's old wand." Arnavon hugged the wand with obvious affection. "And I used it!"

"Star Swirl's?!" Harry inclined his head faintly. "He never told me he had a wand."

Arnavon held out the wand towards Harry. "For unicorns, it's a bit of a, what would you say, a handicap? I bet he was embarassed he ever needed one. Not me!" He swished the wand with renewed giggles. "I don't have a unicorn horn, just two tsuki ones, and they don't work like this." He angled his horns at Harry, the risk of magic happening from them being about zero.

"Um, congratulations... What did you do?" He was still eyeing the wand. "I didn't learn any spell like that. Well, any wizard spell like that." His horn began to glow without much effort. Making things glow was practically the first thing a unicorn learned how to do! That and grabbing things one really wanted.

Arnavon showed the proper swish of the spell. "It's the wand lighting charm," gushed the smiling tsuki, bubbling with joy. "And I cast it. I read your book." He tapped quickly at the book of spells required of first year students. "They said it was one of the simpler ones, so I started there. And I did it!"

"So Tsuki do have magic?" Harry inclined his head a bit.

"I'm not sure they do," admitted Arnavon, scratching his cheek with the glowing tip of his wand. "But I did it anyway. It was amazing. Um, do you know how tsuki magic works?"

"So tsuki do have magic?"

"Sorta!" He bounced in place, a touch of exasperation shown. "We don't make magic. We move magic. We do things with magic that's already there." He raised a big furry hand to point at the magic lamp that hung in the room. "See that?"

"That is a light."

"Yes." Arnavon bobbed his head. "When I did the spell, I soaked up some of its magic and put it here." He began to tap quickly at the glowing end of his wand. "If there wasn't any magic around, I'm not sure it woulda worked. It felt so weird! But cool! I did it!" He began to swish and wave the wand wildly, overcome with the joy of his first spell.

Harry couldn't help but feel a bit of that infectious cheer, laughing a little. "Well, there's your first." He set his bag beside his bed and flopped onto the bed with a loud huff. "At least you didn't have to suffer through the most boring class ever."

Arnavon suddenly forgot his wand, bounding over to Harry in a single great jump to land next to his bed. "Was it that bad? wanna tell me about it?"

Harry set a hoof on his friend's fuzzy cheek, not that he didn't have one of his own. "That's nice of you. It's just this history class. The teacher just goes on and on and on with dates and stuff. It's so dry I thought I'd blow away with the wind."

"You can't do that." Arnavon returned the favor, his hands on Harry's round equine cheeks. "Your mom would be really sad if you did that."

"I wouldn't like it very much either," laughed Harry, sitting up suddenly and almost crashing against Arnavon in the act. "But I made it, and Hermione took notes!" Out came the notebook from his bags, floating up onto the bed to land just in front of Harry. "I better get reading if I want to pass the test."

Arnavon considered the book a moment. "Huh... If I want to learn, I better read about things too, besides just magic. What was this about." There was no hint given on the book itself. "Hiss?" It said 'His' on the cover. Well, alright, a hint had been given, but one one Arnavon put together right away.

"History," reminded Harry. "Wizard history, about wizards, on their world."

Arnavon inclined his head. "Oh, not sure how much I can use that, truth told. I'm not a human, I'm not from their world. I don't plan to go to their world." He stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Maybe I can skip that one."

Harry frowned a little. He was also not a human, and didn't have to go to their world... but... "My parents were human. I really should know where they came from. It's their world I'm stepping into." He willed the notebook open. "That excuse works for you, Arnie, but I'm going to read."

Arnavon clapped his friend on the shoulder. "If you need any help, lemme know!"

Author's Note:

Harry survived day 1 of history class! Yay! There are many more to go... It is my thought to do each class at least once, just so we're clear on what they are and how Harry fits in them, then we can press forward in time. We don't need to cover EACH AND EVERY DAY of Hogwarts.

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Comments

[Booster Spice]

The lesson for sleeping in. Very useful.

[harts fire]

grate chapter it sure looks like Arnavon can do magic.

[whiteone9]

"Loo mas! Lomas. Lowmas!" Arnavon was was swirling his wand the way the book said one

A typo has been eliminated

[David Silver]

10978153
What strange magic is this?!

[Da Fennec]

Arnavon way too late apparently he doesn't understand or realize Hogwarts is on the human's world

[David Silver]

11145799
Welcome aboard! Good thoughts.

[tsaukpaetra]

Heh, we never did name of his roommate.