Ilvermorny Beginnings: Schedule and Classes

The next morning, I ran to my door and opened the lockbox outside, to see a box nestled within, accompanied by a note that simply read "Thank you for letting me make something that pushed me to my limits. Hope you use it with the same fervor I felt when I made it". It was signed J.J. and the back read 'brought to you by the council of four'. I don't know what 'the council' is, but I assume they are somehow related to wandmaking.

I opened the box gingerly, and finally grabbed the wand within. By god it was gorgeous: dark, twelve inches and sleek as all hell with a black-ish grip. The moment I touched it, I knew I had found my precious. I don't know why, it just felt... right... as soon as I touched it. Like I'd found a missing part of me that I hadn't ever known existed.

Before I got ready for the day, I found myself thinking about how much I liked my dorm, especially because it was built in the style of an apartment. I had flatmates, but the room was private, so I had a nice balance of social contact and privacy. My flatmates were also part of the reason I was liking it here: Alistair Dew, who from my first impressions is like a male Hermione but tolerable, Edward Carmichael who apparently is the heir to a huge conglomerate called Eden but surprisingly humble, and finally Jalen Brooks, who's from Harlem and the one I get along with best, at least during the the time we spent talking. We had a nice chat last night, playing Blackjack and talked about our pasts. Seems like I'll have a good seven years. Also, we're inside a library. That's right, out whole dorm is a huge library, that we have access to 24/7. I have already made a plan of attack -- I'm going to start with the bookshelves on theory of magic, followed by elementary charms, transfiguration, potions etc. all the way up till quasi-soul magic like the Fidelius and it's derivatives. There also seems to be a bookshelf that was removed, because there's a hole in the wall where the shelves were ripped out. Eh, I'll ask someone later.

Anyway, after a quick shower and changing into robes, I also finally got my schedule! We had to place our hand over a machine? contraption? in the common room. The machine then printed out a schedule on a piece of paper. Here's what mine looked like:

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Schedule of Classes, Year 1

Student Name - Arjun Richards

MTuWThF 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM: Breakfast

MWF 10:10 AM -11:30 AM: Defense Against the Dark Arts / Taught by: Prof. Rionach Steward

TuTh 10:10 AM -12 PM: Dueling / Taught by: Prof. Alissa Myrkowicz

MWF 11:40 AM - 1:00 PM: Herbology / Taught by: Prof. Tesselina Duke

TuTh 12:10 PM - 1:00 PM Lunch

MWF 1:10 PM - 2:00 PM Lunch

TuTh 1:10 PM - 3 PM: No-Maj & Wizard Studies / Taught by: Prof. Janice Washington

MWF 2:10 PM - 3:30 PM: Creature Care / Taught by: Prof. Alona Angeni

TuTh 3:10 PM - 5:00 PM: Beginner Studies of Ancient Runes (Elective) / Taught by: Prof. Myriah Blood

MWF 3:40 PM - 5:00 PM: Charms / Taught by: Prof. Grant Coolidge

TuTh 5:10 PM - 7:00 PM: Potions / Taught by: Prof. Cassiopea White

MWF 5:10 PM - 6:30 PM: Transfiguration / Taught by: Prof. Emaline Goode

MTuWThF 7:10 PM - 8:30 PM: Dinner

MTuWThF 11:00 PM - 6:00 AM: Mandatory Return to Dorms

Note: The first week of charms classes will introduce the Timekeeping charm 'Tempus' so that students will not have the excuse of being unable to tell the time starting second week of classes. A map of each floor is included on the back.

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Apart from the sheer joy and disbelief that's hitting me right now just being in a school for WIZARDS, I'm also pretty happy I got my desired elective. We were offered the choice between Healing (which Alicia decided to take), Beginner Studies of Ancient Runes, Beginner Arithmancy, Divination, and Foreign Studies. The last one was for people specifically interested in working in the diplomatic affairs branch of MACUSA.

I had a hard time choosing between Arithmancy and Runes, but since these electives can be taken anytime and we work on a semester system, I'll just take Arithmancy next semester. Only the electives are semester-long, the rest are for the whole year. I'm interested in healing just because knowing a few healing spells can save your life, but I guess i'll just ask Alicia for some quick tips, or peruse the books in the library. I also have a plan for getting a healing factor, so I'm not in that much of a hurry.

The way the classes work is fascinating. You can graduate after 4 years and have the wizard equivalent of a high school diploma, or do well in certain subjects and stay another three to study them and graduate with a 'college' degree. Later on, once I reach the college phase of my education I can also take more electives for example, Ritual Magic, Defense against Dark Creatures, and finally, ONLY after headmaster permission 'Grey Arts' i.e the Unforgivables and certain other dark and dark-leaning spells. The people in this class are never more than 20 per year (according to a sixth year I talked to last night at the banquet) and have to also study ethics each class for at least a third of the time. The class was a direct response to Grindelwald's reign of terror so that MACUSA could have some Aurors that could fight against Dark lords in a more versatile way or, to put it bluntly, take out major threats.

All that's a long time away, right here, right now, it's time for my first class!