Taylor offered tribute to the feathery Royalty on her head, soon followed by more treats from Luna, Mira and a reluctant Harriet. It soon became apparent that magic school had a higher tolerance for the strange. Other kids from Ravenclaw also offered their tribute, all which Nap gobbled happily. Nap thrilled and even flapped her wings in what Taylor thought might be appreciation, although she’d have to be careful with that much food or Nap might get fat.
The image of a fat bird trying to fly and flailing miserably sent her into fits of giggles.
Pocket full of smuggled food, Taylor returned to the dorms to leave her potion and history supplies and get things for the charms class. She also took the opportunity to feed the workforce. Bity had started to buckle against her control wanting to take a bite out of Dum. Best nip that in the bud.
With her new nest and hive set up, Taylor started to migrate what she thought were useful bugs to the tower. There were many types of spiders and other critters she wanted some time alone with to examine and see what they were and could do.
Taylor tried to set up her expectations for the class with a very low bar, but didn’t manage to control her excitement. There were so many cool charms in the book and the chance to learn them properly pushed away all the morning sourness. The brief contact she had with their professor in the morning was enough to at least hope the class would be magical, no pun intended.
Unlike potions class, charms wasn’t difficult to find at all. It was close to the Ravenclaw tower, a corridor away from the tower entrance. That made things a lot easier.
The charms classroom was bigger when compared to Potions. There were rows of double tables spaced around, memorabilia piled against the walls, shelves filled with books and even more books piled where the teacher’s desk should have been. It was vibrant and whimsical. It also had a warm, slightly cluttered academic feel, with bookshelves, candles, and various objects around.
Taylor approved of the place. What would she find among that many books? Secrets? Interesting stories? Mind bending forbidden truths?
They weren’t the first to arrive: a group of Gryffindors were in the classroom already. Of the half dozen, two garnered Taylor’s attention.
The first one was Ginny. She was smiling and gesticulating in broad movements; she fit very well in the gold and red colors. The second was a blond boy with shining blue eyes and an a wide, expressive mouth. He was carrying an old camera with a big flash unit attached to the side. The boy was taking pictures of everything.
Ginny made a beeline for them as soon as she saw them.
“Good afternoon, Ginny.” Luna greeted.
“Would you believe it?” Ginny said in lieu of greeting. “My stupid brother convinced Harry to steal dad’s car so they could come to Hogwarts. Doesn’t Ron know that Harry could’ve gotten hurt? Or worse, expelled? What was he thinking?” She went on and on about her complaints. Clearly, she was still obsessed with the Potter boy, and maybe a tad fed up with her brother.
More students trickled in and in no time at all, the room was packed with bright eyed children.
Like the potions classroom, the charms professor office was near the ‘teacher’s desk’. Unlike Snape, Flitwick didn’t swish dark robes or spoke like a brooding vampire, he hopped onto the pile of books, smiling.
“Welcome, welcome to charms class! Charms is the oldest branch of magic we know of. Long before potions, long before transfiguration, witches and wizards were charming things. A charm is an act of will made real. When you cast your first successful charm, you won’t just be moving a feather or lighting a candle, you’ll be doing what every witch and wizard before you has done, back further than memory goes.
“Some of you will find charms come naturally. Some of you will struggle at first. Both are perfectly fine. What matters in this classroom is not talent, talent is an accident of birth. What matters is practice, attention, and a willingness to make mistakes in front of others. I have been teaching for many years and I still learn something new every term. Magic rewards the curious.
“Now! I know some of you have already had a difficult morning.” He beamed at them. “Charms class will be different. In this room, we celebrate mistakes because mistakes mean you are trying. The only thing I ask is that you pay attention, ask questions, and never — never — be afraid to say you don't understand. Are we agreed? Wonderful. Let’s begin with a practical demonstration!”
The professor swished his wand (“Here it comes!”), and out of nowhere, there was a perch in the middle of the classroom. Another swish (“Up, up!”) and the perch levitated away from the ground, gently moving toward Taylor. There was a third swish (“And down!”) and the perch was by her table.
Taylor had stopped paying attention to the professor to watch the magic, and found it surprising that the man was now standing on her desk.
“You’re magnificent, aren’t you?” He said, offering Nap a treat. “But dear, you can’t sleep on her head all the time, she’s going to get neck pains when you’re done growing up.”
Nap somehow seemed to understand Flitwick; she hooted back.
“Yes, I know it is the most comfortable perch, but just a little while, let her rest while in class?”
Nap hooted again, flapped her wings and landed on the perch.
Taylor was left wondering what the heck had happened.
Class was magical in the best sense of the word. Flitwick was attentive, didn’t mind questions and even encouraged active discussion and working together among students. Instead of starting with theory, Flitwick immediately had them learn their first charms spell.
“The levitation charm,” he said, swishing his wand slowly and pronouncing the words very clearly.
“Wing-gar-dium Levi-O-sa”
Taylor realised then that she hadn’t mastered the spell at all. Her levitation was barely passable when compared to the professor. Her wand work was sloppy, her pronunciation atrocious. It was a miracle the spell worked at all. A wide smile crept into her face without her even noticing it. Yes, this was a proper magic class.
“Now you try it!” Flitwick encouraged.
All around, wands waved, some forcefully, others sloppily. A few shouted, others whispered. Taylor pushed all that out of her head. There was no need to see how others were doing. She knew the spell, she could already cast it, now she just needed to perfect it. She visualized the wand movement, comparing what the professor had done and her own shoddy wand-waving. She repeated that until they looked like they matched. Then she whispered the words, putting the right emphasis on each correct syllable.
“Wingardium Leviosa,” she whispered together with the improved wand movement.
The feather rose and rose, stopping where she wanted it to stop. It didn’t bob and wobble like her levitation usually did.
“Marvelous!” Flitwick called out. “An almost perfect first try! Ten points to Ravenclaw!”
All around, students gawked. By her side Luna had a blinding smile. Ginny looked happy too, while Gryffindor ‘first pick’ Nneka Adeyemi kept switching between her own unmoving feather and Taylor’s floating one. The blond boy with the camera, for some reason, snapped a shot, leaving Taylor almost blind with the flash of light.
A warm something bubbled inside her chest. It was almost enough to make up for the disaster that was the morning classes. Almost.
Among the renewed flurry of wand swishing and shouts, Luna’s soft whispers landed on Taylor’s ears. “Show me how you did it.”
Taylor looked at her earnest friend’s eyes and nodded, thinking the best way to explain her process. Which she did to the best of her knowledge.
Luna nodded along the entire explanation, the smile never leaving her face. “Very categorising of you,” she said when Taylor finished explaining her visualization, how she saw each movement, and how she pushed into the words what she wanted the spell to do. It was, in the end, a cribbed explanation she’d read in the magical theory course book.
Her friend tried a few times, with each attempt, the feather remained unmoving and the frown on Luna’s face grew.
“That won’t do,” said Luna at last. Then she swished her wand in a way that just vaguely resembled the wand movement, and chanted the spell like she was singing a song. The feather wobbled, rose an inch, then fell down again.
“How?” Taylor asked in disbelief.
Luna smiled serenely, “I asked the shimmerlings to help!”
By the end of class, Taylor had improved her wand-waving and pronunciation to the point Flitwick awarded her five more points for going the extra effort. Luna had also improved, even if somehow, it didn’t look like her spell should work. Most of the students managed to levitate the feather in some capacity, with the ones that didn’t being the ones which Flitwick encouraged and cheered the most.
Homework was to read the introductory chapters of magical theory, which would be the subject of the next class on Friday. For those who couldn’t perform the levitation charm, extra practice was also added as homework since they would need to demonstrate the spell again on the next class.
Once class was over, they had a free period in the afternoon, but Taylor had a few other things to take care of: Namely, talk with the professor.
“Miss Hebert! Good gracious, that was some inspired spell casting! Where did you learn that?”
Taylor blushed a pretty shade of red. It was too much to think the professor wouldn’t know she practiced ahead. “Practiced at home,” she mumbled. “mum helped.”
“Ah, but isn’t your mother a muggle?”
Taylor nodded. “She remembered hearing the words from dad.”
Flitwick’s exuberance diminished a little. He nodded sadly. “Daniel, poor boy. It was a shame what happened.”
But Taylor didn’t want to talk about her dead dad she never met. She wanted to talk about classes and horrid professors.
“Professor, since you are the head of Ravenclaw house, I want to make a formal complaint.”
Flitwick blinked, then nodded seriously. “Go on,” he urged gently.
“Professor Snape is a bully, he shouldn’t be teaching us. He’s a horrid man and hasn’t said a single kind word to any of us and he keeps insulting the other students all the time. You said mistakes are fine, but Snape took points for one and even called Pippa Rosewood names.”
Flitwick blinked. Taylor wasn’t sure if that was because it was news to him or because it surprised him to hear her say it.
“History of Magic is a waste of time. It was only the first lesson, but Professor Binns did nothing but read directly from the book. Not even asking questions about it helped, he just read again from the book to answer.”
“I was expecting you to complain about the detention, or the lost points.” Flitwick said, sounding distracted.
Taylor shrugged. After suffering through the first potions class, she could understand why Snape didn’t want Nap inside his classroom, she even agreed in principle. She hadn't known owls weren’t allowed and he could have just told her so instead of… that, but arguing with bullies after didn’t help. Mum had told her many times, and she’d seen it first hand. No, what she wanted was a real potions professor who was willing to teach his students, instead of bullying them.
“I’ll inform the headmaster,” The charms professor said and Taylor took that as the dismissal it was.
Outside charms, Luna and Nap were still waiting.
“Did it go well?” Luna asked.
Taylor smiled. “I think so.”
Luna fell into step beside Taylor, humming a song Taylor had never heard before. “What now?”
They had a free period and then dinner. Later that day Taylor had her detention and at midnight, her first Astronomy class, not to mention reading her mum’s letter and writing back. The night didn’t have enough hours, but she had a few hours to finally explore the magic castle.
“Now,” Taylor said, not hiding the glee in her voice, “now we explore!”
She laughed out loud, maybe a tad maniacally, given how other students looked in her direction. It was all good though. It was a magic school, being a little strange was the norm.