8 Potions, Charms, and DADA
Tuesday, 5th September 1989
Today the Ravenclaw Students have their first double lesson of Potions together with the Hufflepuffs. After Breakfast, they hurried to their classroom. Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls.
After settling down and preparing his writing utensils, Snape appeared at the door with his dramatic waving cloak. His serious-looking face and the dark atmosphere of the dungeons directly quieted the class down. Snape started the lesson by taking the roll call.
While observing the class with his dark cold eyes he continued the lesson with his famous speech which he most likely practiced before a mirror in the past, "You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word — like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death — if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."
More silence followed this little speech. Until he suddenly started to question the students about their first-year coursebook "Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger". After fruitlessly trying to catch some unprepared Ravenclaw he instead decided to harass the Hufflepuff students. Until he probably decided that he intimidated the class enough.
The lesson continued by putting the Students in pairs. He instructed them to brew a simple potion to cure boils. Matthew was paired with Blake. Snape told them to get their potion ingredients from the storage cabinet. With the help of the AI he was able to choose the ingredients which contained the highest amount of magical energy, meaning he collected the most potent ones.
Under the critical eyes of Snape, they weighted dried nettles, crushed snake fangs, and prepared other ingredients they needed for their potion. The AI Chip can discern the most effective preparation method. Matthew could swear he saw a flash of acknowledgment inside of Professor Snape's eyes. While he continued to prepare the Potion with slight adjustments from the AI Chip.
While for the other students the whole lesson was a stressful ordeal. Matthew calmly finished his perfect blue-colored potion. Afterward, he bottled and labeled his potion and left it on Snape's desk. While getting a nod of approval. In the end, Snape instructed them to write 3 inches about boil cures until next week.
~ Scene Break ~
"That was terrifying! My potion instead of blue turned into a poisonous-looking violet." Exclaimed Roger frustrated on their way to the Great Hall.
"You ground your Snake Fangs not enough, so they retained their poison during the brewing process." Replied Matthew.
"How are you so good? When I watched you stirred your potion counterclockwise every three times instead of seven times, but your potion came out perfectly." Asked Roger frustrated.
"Well, I just had a feeling that would cause a better magical reaction than the method described in the books. I have no idea how I knew that. Maybe I am just naturally talented." He lied., " Well at least nobody blew up their cauldron. I heard that was a common occurrence."
After Lunch, they attended another lesson on transfiguration and later the History of magic. At the end of the day, Matthew spends his free time in the library again after completing his potion and transfiguration homework.
~ Scene Break ~
Wednesday, 6th September 1989
Professor Flitwick started the charms class with a roll call while standing on a pile of books. He introduced the principles of casting magic with a wand, "The purpose of a spoken incantation and a specific wand movement is to subconsciously focus the spellcasters intent. Every spellcaster needs two things to cast a spell. Intent and Magic. Can someone tell me why our incantations are all in a modified form of Latin instead of English? Yes, Mr.Mason please."
"If our incantations were in English it would be pretty easy to cast spells accidentally. So to prevent any accidents we use a dead language. Also in a modified form so we wouldn't cause some accidents if we ever needed Latin. According to "An introduction of ancient Magicals" the ancient greek magical community was wiped out overnight because of a disaster caused by their collective magic during a national holiday. They cast all their spells in ancient greek back then, like their spoke word."
"Well done Mr.Mason, 5 points to Ravenclaw." Squeaked Professor Flitwick happily.
In the later part of the lessons, we practiced the wand-lighting charm "Lumos" and the wand-extinguishing charm "Nox" which I already mastered wandless. For successfully casting the spell on the first try I earned another 2 points for Ravenclaw. The rest of the lesson passed unspectacularly.
~ Scene Break ~
In the Afternoon it was time for our first lessons in Defense against the Dark Arts with the Ancient looking Professor Mark Williams. According to his introduction, he was an Auror and later Auror instructor. Mad-Eye Moody was one of the last Aurors he instructed. He retired before the first signs of the Wizarding War against Voldemort even started.
Although he knows his stuff due to his high age his teaching style is quite slow. He started us on the basics of recognizing dangerous situations, how to get help and how to avoid them. Later in the lesson, he taught us how to summon red and green sparks and creative ways to use them as a distraction. He even showed us some neat tricks to change them into different colors that weren't usually taught. In the end, every student was able to cast the spells flawlessly and instantly.
After an exhausting day of magic casting, Matthew retired to the Ravenclaw common room with his friends. They spent the afternoon playing around and resting before dinner. As they completed dinner he retired to his Dorm to catch some sleep. While lying in bed he began to mentally communicate with the AI Chip, 'Please update my Status.'
[Beep! Status updated.] [ Matthew Mason, Wizard(Rank 1) Strength: 0.5, Agility: 0.7, Vitality: 0.6, Mystical Energy: (1.9) 2.3, Status: Exhausted but healthy]
'Hmm… What is the meaning of Wizard(Rank 1)?' [After further analyzing the different Wizards in proximity the AI Chip created a rudimentary ranking system to categorize the different power levels of Wizards. Rank 1 Wizards are generally young student-level Wizards in the age range of 11-15. Rank 2 Wizards are the general adult wizards the mystical energy value reaches that stage naturally at the age 16-17. Rank 3 Wizards are exceptionally powerful Wizards that reached that level through their talent, practice or high age in this category for example are Snape, McGonagall, and Flitwick. Finally, Professor Dumbledore is a Rank 4 Wizard even possibly approaching the Rank 5 rank. Barely qualifying as a Rank 4 wizard is Professor Williams due to his high age and career as an Auror. But also due to his age, he isn't able to show that level of power.]
'Interesting. But I will surpass them and reach heights that were never seen before. But I need to do something about my physical stats. At the moment they only hinder me. AI Chip devise the most effective workout routine based on the Databases current knowledge.'
[Beep! Task established. Complete in 4 hours and 14 minutes. Proceed?]
'Yes. I also should write to my parent about my non-magical education since I don't want to place all my cards on the wizarding world with their bigotry' Matthew confirmed and closed his eyes for the day.
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