8 Chapter 7: Classes(2)

I woke up early again the next day, got ready and went to the great hall. Today classes were charms again, flying lesson, double Transfiguration and Herbology with Slytherin.

During breakfast in great hall, I practiced clearing my mind. It's hard to instantly clear the mind of all thoughts initially, so the book recommended to instead focus your concentration on one single thought and clearing your mind of others. With this practice it will get easier to remove that single thought from the mind as well eventually.

I decided to concentrate on my wand under the table in my hand and nothing else. It started to warm up but I didn't pay attention to that, my sole thought was the wand in my hand.

I just sat there without doing anything, till the end of breakfast when a student brushed me by accident while walking past. I snapped out of my focus and saw that it was almost time for the class. I hurriedly ran to my class.

' I think this practice I'm doing will prevent passive legilimency that reads surface thoughts but the problem is I will have to learn to talk and act natural, while keeping my mind clear of other thoughts. I can't just be immobile while someone like Snape is trying read my mind. But even if they aren't able to read my surface thoughts, that in itself be suspicious as to how a muggleborn learn to hide his thoughts.'

I will have to only think of things that I'm talking about or doing, specially in front of Dumbledore, Snape and Quirell. I don't think Dumbledore reads every students mind just for fun, I really don't think he is that unkind and frankly that obsessed and paranoid to read every person's mind that he comes across.

Snape and Quirell on the other hand are a different matter. Snape is really paranoid, if he thinks anyone has done something, he just reads their mind. He caught Harry lying on multiple occasions but didn't have any proof, otherwise he would have to confess that he read someone's mind, which is against the law. But he shouldn't be as good as Dumbledore at it, maybe he can just read the general line of thought and not the exact thoughts, because on some occasions like when he caught Harry with Marauder's Map he couldn't find out what it does and how to operate it, he just knew from Harry's thoughts that he is lying about it being Zonko's product.

I don't know if Quirell or rather Voldemort read minds of student or not but I'm staying far away from him, not even gonna try anything in his class except sit in the corner and keep my mouth shut.

My short term aim is to reach the level, where I can show false surface thoughts that can fool passive legimency. According to the book it is achievable in relatively small amount of time if you have the talent for it. Of course if Dumbledore or any legilimens actually tried to read my mind I would be caught. It would just be a camouflage not actual defense from intended attacks on my mind.

Today's charms class was full of theory, so nothing interesting happened. Professor Flitwick also talked about how emotions affect the magic. Next was the first flying lesson with Hufflepuff. To say that students were excited would be an understatement. Kids from Wizarding families were telling all about their experiences with flying in exaggerated manner.

I, on the hand was not as excited. I don't have an interest in flying on a broom. I think it would be quite uncomfortable even with all the cushioning charms. I do have a slight phobia of heights, so I will truly be comfortable if I could fly by myself without the broom. And I will definitely figure it out , either the same method as Voldemort or I will invent a new method.

Brooms were lined up on the ground when we reached there, we each took a place beside a broom according to Madam Hooch's instructions. "Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say 'Up!'"

A few brooms jumped but only a few reached the students reluctantly. Michael even had to bend down little to catch his before it fell back down. Mine only jumped a few inches off the ground, then went back down. I realized that there was no intent in my command which is the most important thing in any form of magic. This time I sharply commanded, "Up", and the broom flew to my hand instantly.

We were then showed how to mount it properly, and told gently kick off the ground. Nothing crazy happened in the class. We were only allowed to slowly hover a few feet off the ground and how to change directions. I found it not quite as uncomfortable as I imagined and the feeling of weightlessness in slowly hovering above the ground was quite nice but I still wouldn't want to do any stunts or even go fast on it.

After the class ended my classmates were still excitedly talking about it. So, I left them after saying I will be going ahead.

" Why doesn't he hang out with us"

"Maybe he likes being alone"

I heard them say behind my back, but I didn't take any offense because they are actually right, I like being alone. It's not like I have anything against them, we did talk a few a few times in dorm, or great hall during a meal. It's just that they are kids and not mature enough to be friends. I'm happy being casual acquaintance with them.

Next class was transfiguration, this was the first class of Professor McGonagall for Ravenclaws. For me personally this was the subject I was looking forward to the most. Transfiguration is the most useful and versatile magic, who needs dueling spells when you can turn whatever enemy throws at you into something else and attack them with it. From what I have read in the text book, there aren't many spells in Transfiguration. In charms , there is a different spell for almost everything, but in Transfiguration, spells are categorized like object to object, elements to objects , etc. There are also subcategories in them, each subcategory has a few spells to use whichever fits the situation the best. The main factor in doing transfiguration is the visualization of the whole process and turning it into intent. Visualization is the main difference maker in transfiguration, some experts can even achieve the same results with different transfiguration spells.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said the moment everyone sat in the class. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

She then turned her desk into a pig and back into a desk. I think this is her routine for every first year class. It really sets student's minds to not mess around in her class but more importantly she impresses them greatly which garners immediate respect for her from the students. She is really the perfect teacher, teaching with fear and respect, which is quite hard to accomplish.

She taught some theory initially and gave them instructions on how to turn a much stick into a needle, how to visualize it and how to execute it.

" Transfiguration is one of the hardest magic to get the hang of, there is a high possibility that none of you will be able to do it in first class. It will take several classes till everyone can do it perfectly. So, don't discouraged when you fail to do it but try harder next time", McGonagall said

But I had decided that I will achieve it in this class. I'm going to try my hardest and this time I'm not going to hold back. I visualized match slowly turning silver, it's surface smoother, getting thinner and thinner, it's structure turning from wood to metal, one end of it getting sharp and pointed.

I executed the magic, I expected it to work in the first try but I was disappointed, there were definitely some changes. Some parts of my visualization were executed like it was definitely a little thinner and one of its end was pointed. It was a lot harder than I expected.

"That's some excellent progress for the first try Mr. Haven. Your matchstick is starting to take the shape of a needle. You are only the second student after Ms. Granger yesterday, who has made this much progress and you did in first try to. Keep working on this match, transfiguration is easier in steps, now you only need to visualize turning wood into metal and add some finishing. I would be very impressed if you achieved it by the end of the class", said Professor McGonagall when she came to my bench as she was observing the students. I renewed my efforts after she was moved on.

'I finally did it', I gave a long sigh of relief, I saw the time, ' and with 10 minutes to spare. Man, turning wood to silver was hard', Actually, I had achieved the needle's appearance quite a while ago but from inside it was wooden. It took me many tries in turning it into silver.

Professor McGonagall came to my desk seeing me sigh and inspected the needle thoroughly, " Outstanding Mr. Haven, ten points to Ravenclaw. You managed to turn it into silver, even Ms. Granger couldn't achieve that. You do have immense talent for transfiguration, but don't let it get to your head, you will have to work hard on it, otherwise it will all be wasted."

"I will professor", I smiled at her.

"Next time try to transform it in fewer and fewer turns, eventually you should be able to turn it instantaneously", she advised.

"Yes, Professor"

Then she showed the entire class my matchstick turned needle and praised me infront of everyone once again for completely turning wood into silver. "Remember students transfiguration is just magical transformation, so it's only temporary, this silver needle will turn back into wooden matchstick in a few hours depending on how much Magic is used. Permanent transformation is only possible through transmutation which is very different from transfiguration. It is a branch of alchemy and is not easily done with a wand. In fact, people who can achieve permanent transformation in the whole world can be counted on a single hand because transmutation goes against the law of nature and magic."

'Dumbledore should be one of them, along with Nicholas Flamel,' I thought.

By the end of class, except myself only Anthony Goldstein made a major difference in the match, his needle still looked more like a match than needle, it was just colored silver and pointed at one end.

After the class was over as we were making our way to the greenhouse, I received a lot of thumps on the back and everyone was asking how I did it.

"I guess I'm just good at the visualization part. Don't worry it's only harder at the start, once you get the hang of it, it will become easier. I think", I replied modestly.

Herbology with Slytherin went without any incident. Malfoy and his cronies were there but they didn't pay me any attention. Professor sprout showed them how to take care of different plants, all of them I had never seen before. We were separated into groups of three and then tasked to change the soil of a plant for each group to rejuvenate them by carefully digging it out, removing the old soil, filling in the new mixture and then carefully planting it again.

Finally the day's classes were over. Today instead of ROR, I went to library to complete the homework given by the professors. But that was not the only reason I went to library, homework can also be easily done in ROR, but I went to library because I have to be seen in the library as much as possible, that way, if someone witnessed my skills, I can explain that I learned the magic from library and practiced it in an empty classroom. Hermione was already there when I reached it. She gave me a look of recognition but we didn't talked and did our own work.

Days passed and classes continued, we had astronomy on Thursdays which I enjoyed more than I thought, the looking at starry sky through telescope part, but making charts of them not so much. I did every task teacher's gave at second or third place deliberately in every subject except for potions and transfiguration because I couldn't afford to slack off in potions as one mistake could ruin everything and in Transfiguration I just gave my all, especially in the practical part. I wanted to be considered a genius by doing good in one or two subjects but not a freak by doing best at everything. One more advantage of doing good in studies happened when I slowly gained respect from my peers, so they didn't bother me much anymore and I even helped them sometimes in their homework point them in correct direction sometimes.

I continued to practice Occlumency, and went to ROR to practice spells. I was able to cast a Depulso that can blow away the dummy. I'm now able to cast Expelliarmus with half hearted wand motion, though it's power becomes slightly lesser than the full motion.

Dueling spells weren't the only ones I practiced. I also did Levitation charm which I was able to master quite quickly. And some smaller charms like Reparo, Alohomora and Colloportus.

After these easier charms, I thought to try a somewhat harder spell, something that will be easier to understand in theory but harder to execute. I decided to go with summoning charm Accio after witnessing a sixth summon a pillow to himself in the common room. It is an incredibly useful spell, which is taught in the fourth year. It would not only be great addition to my "arsenal", but also help me test my limit, as none of the first year magic gave me any trouble yet and I want to find out, actually how much ahead I'm from my peers.