“The Levitation Charm is learned in two stages.
The first stage is simply making an object float.” “The second stage is controlling the floating object.” “For now, we only need to focus on making an object float.” “The incantation is on page three.
Everyone, repeat after me: Wingardium Leviosa.” Following Professor Flitwick’s rhythm, the students began learning the Levitation Charm.
When first learning magic, the incantation was extremely important, and proper pronunciation was even more important.
By speaking the correct incantation and performing the correct wand movement, a wizard could smoothly guide their magic and cast a spell.
Because of this, Professor Flitwick repeatedly corrected everyone’s pronunciation.
The wand movement consisted of a flick from left to right, followed by a jab.
Though it was called a jab, it was really just lightly pointing the wand tip at the target.
A feather had been placed in front of each student.
Nobody knew where the feathers came from, but they looked quite pretty.
Their target for the spell was the feather before them.
Children from pure-blood wizarding families like Ryan had already received some basic training, so they adapted quickly to the lesson.
They soon managed to cast the basic Levitation Charm successfully.
John also practiced the incantation and wand movement seriously according to the instructions.
Once he felt he had grasped them, he pointed his wand at the feather before him, waved it, and recited the spell.
“Wingardium Leviosa.” The moment he spoke the incantation, John felt a strange energy flow toward the tip of his wand.
As he moved it, the magic seemed to leave a trace in the air while drawing out the magic inside his body, releasing it through the wand tip and wrapping around the feather in front of him.
The sensation lasted only an instant before disappearing quickly.
If he could grasp that feeling, then the spell was already halfway successful.
He could sense his magic surrounding the feather, as though an invisible hand had grabbed hold of it.
As John slowly raised his wand, the feather before him actually began floating upward little by little.
John was extremely excited at successfully casting his first spell.
He was also the only student to succeed on the first attempt.
As he moved his wand from side to side, the feather floating in the air drifted along with it, showing that he had already reached the second stage.
Only with stable magical output and extremely precise control could someone continuously maintain magic around an object and move it according to their wand movements.
Even pure-blood students like Ryan had not yet managed that.
“Oh, very good, very good.
Mr.
Merrick has already reached the passing standard on his first attempt.” “Ravenclaw gains ten points.” Professor Flitwick could not hide the smile on his face as he spoke.
“Remember this feeling of magical flow.
As your proficiency improves, you will eventually be able to guide magic freely, cast spells without incantations, and perhaps even without a wand.” “If there’s anything you don’t understand, you may come ask me anytime.” Professor Flitwick did not forget to continue encouraging John.
This was a promising student, and more importantly, one from Ravenclaw.
Naturally, he had to nurture him carefully.
…
The curriculum at Hogwarts was somewhat different from that of ordinary schools.
For first-years like them, the early coursework was relatively relaxed.
There were only two or three classes per day, depending on the schedule.
They had two classes this morning.
After Charms came the rather dry History of Magic class.
It was a strange phenomenon.
Boys who usually disliked history while they were students often became interested in it after growing older.
John was one of those people.
In his previous life, he had only barely scraped through history classes while in school, yet after starting work, he suddenly developed an interest in history.
So John had actually been looking forward to History of Magic.
But he quickly realized he had been mistaken.
For some reason, the moment he stepped into the History of Magic classroom, a chill swept over him, like walking into an air-conditioned room.
The rows of old long desks were covered with all kinds of graffiti.
At the front of the classroom stood only a large blackboard and a podium.
Professor Binns was their History of Magic professor, and also the only ghost professor in the entire school.
As soon as class began, Professor Binns floated through the wall and suddenly appeared before everyone.
There was no introduction and no overview of the subject.
The moment he arrived, he simply said, “Turn to page one of A History of Magic.” Then he immediately began lecturing.
He was like some completely non-interactive machine, speaking continuously to himself.
At first, John could barely keep up and had to hurriedly compare the textbook contents just to figure out what topic Professor Binns was discussing.
Later, John and several other students tried asking questions, only to be completely ignored.
Professor Binns simply continued lecturing directly from the textbook without any interaction at all.
After listening for a while, the lesson started sounding like white noise from a storytelling program, making everyone’s eyelids droop uncontrollably.
Perhaps because this was their very first History of Magic class, everyone tried their best not to fall asleep despite their drowsiness.
Occasionally, someone whispered to a classmate or fidgeted around, but Professor Binns ignored everything completely.
Gradually, the students began testing Professor Binns’s limits, only to discover he seemed to have none at all.
Titus simply gave up and fell asleep on his desk.
Meanwhile, Ethan was asking Ryan for advice on the Levitation Charm, and the two of them openly studied Charms during History of Magic class.
As John listened, he felt as though he were watching those extreme-sports short videos from his previous life with AI-generated narration reading content from wish-fulfillment web novels.
It was interesting at first, but after listening for too long, it became sleep-inducing.
Back then, whenever he suffered from insomnia, he would even play similar videos in the background as sleep-aid white noise.
Still, John remained genuinely interested in the subject matter of History of Magic, so he never actually fell asleep.
Interestingly, halfway through the lesson, they suddenly heard a voice outside the windows repeatedly shouting, “Woohoo!
Woohoo!” However, because the classroom windows were sealed stained glass, they could not clearly see what was happening outside.
They could only vaguely make out some enormous creature flying across the sky.
…
History of Magic was much shorter than Charms.
Perhaps even the school understood that such a dry subject was unsuitable for overly long lessons.
After class ended, John and the others prepared to head to lunch together.
On the way to the Great Hall, they ran into Neville, who was by himself and looked as though he had just returned from outside the castle.
More importantly, his robes were torn apart as though something had bitten through them, and he looked utterly miserable while clutching a furry book in his arms.
“Neville, what happened to you?” Seeing Neville in such a miserable state, John could not help stepping forward to ask.
He looked as though he had just lost a fight badly.
“Oh, John, and…
uh, your friends.” Neville had originally been walking with his head lowered, lost in thought, but John’s sudden appearance snapped him back to reality.
“Neville, what happened to make you look like this?” “Uh, it’s nothing.
Don’t worry about it.
Just a small accident during class.” Hearing Neville’s answer, John and the others exchanged glances.
What kind of “small accident” could leave someone looking this battered?
Were third-year classes really that dangerous?
Perhaps noticing their curiosity, Neville briefly explained what had happened in class earlier.
It was mainly about the Care of Magical Creatures lesson they had just attended.
Their new professor this year, Hagrid, had brought a Hippogriff for today’s class.
Originally, everything had gone smoothly.
Harry Potter had even ridden the Hippogriff and flown around in the sky.
But after seeing Harry return safely, Harry Potter’s archenemy boldly walked up and offended the Hippogriff, only to have his right hand slashed by one of its claws.
The student who got injured came from a powerful family, and his father was even on the board of governors, so everyone was worried Hagrid might be dismissed because of the incident.
After hearing Neville explain the situation, Ryan and the others immediately remembered the repeated “Woohoo!” sounds they had heard outside the window during History of Magic.
It was probably Harry Potter yelling while flying.
Speaking of which, both Ryan and Titus knew of Harry Potter.
After all, he was famous throughout the wizarding world, and pure-blood wizarding families naturally knew about him.
But after hearing all that, John realized none of it answered the question he actually cared about…
“So, Neville, what happened to your…
uh, torn robes?” “Huh?
Oh, this?
Don’t worry about it.
This book bit me.” Neville raised the furry book in his hands for John to see.
The cover had four spider-like eyes, and the edges of the pages resembled the mouth of some monster.
If not for the leather strap tightly binding it shut, it looked as though it would leap up and bite someone at any moment.
Is this thing really a book…?