Time passes quickly when you’re keeping yourself occupied with things that interest you. Like how to best maim, torture or kill someone, instead of worrying about getting older. While that sounds a bit extreme, it is essentially what my time at Hogwarts was like, especially the first few years. Wingardium Leviose? Levitate an object and drop it on someone, courtesy of an unknown movie I watched called “Philosophers Stone”, anyways.

-Excerpt from Celestia Ravenclaw’s Journals.

-

“You wanted me to stay behind, professor?” I ask as the rest of the students leave. Severus gives me another appraising look before sitting down at his desk, leaving me standing. Power play much?

“Indeed. You had some questions regarding my teaching methods?”

Giving a nod I think back to how perplexed Severus left me after our little conversation at the beginning of class. I suppose my impression of him from foreknowledge might not necessarily apply to the real deal.

“Potions, like certain kinds of spells, can cause lasting damage, and are equally, if not more volatile. Usually if you fail to cast a spell properly, the caster is not harmed. While it may cause adverse effects on its target. Which is why the professors at this school have the students cast on inanimate objects for the first year, and slowly move up to animate or living ones as the students gain more knowledge and experience.” He finishes his short lecture with a raised eyebrow, and I respond with a nod telling him I follow along.

“Experimenting with potions, or not following the necessary steps is as dangerous as spell-crafting. Do you know why I tell the first years to clean everything they use with a prepared rag instead of teaching them the scourgify spell? Or why I don’t give any sort of explanation as to why?”

As I am not experienced with education, I had pondered that after he wrote the instructions, and only logical thinking gave me an answer.

“As you said, potions and making them can be volatile, which is why we often have precise instructions, and they may sometimes take days, weeks or months to make. An unclean room or workplace may introduce foreign objects into the potion, and depending on the ingredients added, may make it blow up and harm, maim or kill the brewer or those around. As for why you didn’t mention it, my best guess would be to have students either deduct the answer themselves, ask you, or research on their own.” I finish, noticing my eyes have wandered while I was talking, I look back at Severus.

“Indeed. Now I assume you have been taught by someone competent, at least after seeing your performance in class and the questions you have asked. Do you have an interest in potion making?”

Involuntarily I raise an eyebrow, this is so outside of how I perceived Severus to be that I am caught off guard.

“My mother taught me, and yes she is very competent. I understand the role potions has in the magical community, and while my mother wants me to become adept at them, and I will take the study of potions seriously, I have no interest in potions, nor a career in making them. They have a place in our society, but I don’t want to spend my time on them, I’d rather hire a competent maker or buy the ones I would need.”

A blank face leaving me no clues to his thoughts is what meet me, and it makes me prioritize reading about occlumency more after seeing it first hand.

“I see. While you are in my classroom you are allowed to brew in alternative ways, or experiment with potions if you would like, but only after consulting me.”

I give him another nod.

“Very well, now leave.”

I leave the room and close the door, a smile on my face as I realize I may come to like the grumpy bat over the years.

* * * 

A couple of months have passed, and the ground outside the castle is coated in a layer of snow. 

Most of the professors have not been what I expected, they are more logical, more reasoned and obviously more knowledgeable than the books and movies portrayed them. In true Ravenclaw fashion I have stayed behind classes in charms and transfiguration in addition to potions, asking questions so I can narrow down or speed up my study. Both Filius and Minerva have been forthcoming in their knowledge, with barely any questions as to why I am curious. They are proper professors.

I have sought out both Bathseda Babbling regarding ancient runes as I would like to try creating my own clusters and inventions with the use of Dovahzul, but none of the books I have skimmed through truly explained the difference in rune languages, and if the power differs, which apparently they do. Which is why I want to try creating different objects with the use of dragon runes.

Septima Vector has also explained arithmancy and what it can be used for. There has never been a lot of information regarding his study, and it is surprisingly a somewhat newer study, only a couple of centuries old. Fanfictions have always portrayed it as something grander than it actually is. It’s glorified math. Sure it can be useful in predictive analysis, it seems to be a waste of study for me currently, but I may come back to it later when I’m done with Hogwarts.

Contrary to expectations I have not been hailed for a meeting with the esteemed headmaster. I haven’t had enough interactions with him, -as he’s only seen during meals in the great hall-, to know if he’s also different from what books and movies portrayed him as, but he is not someone I want to underestimate. I don’t think I will have any issues with him, but I don’t think I can ever trust him either, time will tell.

The room of requirements, or RoR is a godsend. I have spent a lot of my time in there trying to learn spells, one of the first I tried is protego or the shield charm. There are variations, and different spells for magical and physical defense, but that particular one will defend against most common jinxes, charms, hexes and some curses, but not the darker kind.

Learning the spell with a wand and off-hand was both easier and more difficult than I expected. While magic is very much rooted in intent, that’s not all there is to it, if not we would have a million different variations of the same spell. The incantation is not a necessity, but a tool for easier visualization, while the wand movement is what is important. I did ask Filius about it, and once sufficiently mastered you don’t need the wand movement either, as your magic and muscle memory knows what you want to produce.

Transfiguration and some of the more complex spells do require formulas for casting, but they are not a lot harder than what simple addition and multiplications “muggles” use in their daily life, and it is more instinctual than a thought out process after the first couple of tries.

Magical power is a real thing, but again it’s not simple. You aren’t born able to only use certain spells requiring certain power, your magic can grow. There are a lot of factors when it comes to magic. You have a certain amount of power when you’re born, but this can grow overtime by practicing, almost like a muscle, and there are generally only a few spells that anyone who uses magic daily won’t be able to use by their late twenties or early thirties, but a lot of it has to do with mindset, will, and intent.

I have spoken to the Greengrass sisters a few times, and while I am not a cunning mastermind, -i often prefer the direct approach-, my experience in society has Emma did let me catch on to them trying to gauge my interest in politics, views on magical blood, and a few other things. While they are very pretty, for eleven years old, it’s quite obvious that in this world both their parents are death eaters.

The next couple of years will probably be uneventful, as I am sure Harry James Potter will bring a lot of irregularity to this school, but only time will tell.