Chapter 9: The First Day Part 3

After the small demonstration Flitwick had me do, the class continued as usual. By the end of the double period we still hadn't tried any spells, but Flitwick promised we would try the Wand Lighting Charm, Lumos during the next one. There wasn't even any homework, so the first years were especially excited.

The children filed out of the classroom buzzing with excitement. The air was lit up with talk of Flitwick and future spells. Whereas everyone else was leaving, I simply packed up my books and stayed seated at my desk. On his way out Tony shot me an apologetic look and said he'd see me at lunch.

Finally, as the last dregs of students dispersed, I approached Flitwick. The half goblin Professor was busy climbing down his stack of books, trying not to knock any over or fall down. I waited patiently for him to reach the ground then spoke up.

"Hello Professor, you wished to see me?" I asked.

"Yes, yes, hello Mr. Wright. It's nice to see you again." He squeaked, "I wanted to apologize for calling you out in the middle of class. I intended to use you as an example to stop other students from goofing off or day dreaming. Seeing as you were actually furthering your studies, I'm a little impressed. Ravenclaw is truly lucky to have such a talented student as yourself."

A little surprised, I responded. "While I appreciate the compliment, I don't think looking ahead in my books warrants such a response. I'm sure many people have done the same."

"Powerful and humble, eh? Of course, you're right, many students do look far forward in the curriculum and learn on their own free time. While that is impressive, I was talking more about your control over freeform magic. Minerva, or Professor McGonnagal as you know her, stopped by before the beginning of the school year and told me about a brilliant new student that was heading my way. She said it was a certainty that you'd be sorted into Ravenclaw and that you were a natural genius."

Hearing how highly McGonnagal spoke of me truly shocked me. When I made my demonstration with the marble and rock I didn't think it would have such a lasting impact. I even toned it down a bit so as to not arouse suspicion from Dumbledore that I was the next coming of Voldemort or anything. My cheeks reddened from the praise and I felt myself get a little happier. Everyone likes to have their efforts validated after all.

"I don't know if I would say genius, although I appreciate it Professor. When I learned I was different from the other kids I began to attempt to control what I thought were my superpowers at the time. At first I needed to get angry or frustrated to make anything happen, but as I began to get a feel for it, magic became easier and easier. A genius would have gotten it much quicker than I did. If anything, my talent at freeform magic is due to my hard work." And I truly believed that. I had no illusions of grandeur. I knew I wasn't some once in a millenia genius or the next coming of Merlin. My only advantages were the ones I made for myself like my heightened magical perception. If I truly wanted to reach the top of the wizarding world and beyond, I'd have to claw the way up myself.

"So it's true then, you can control wandless magic to such an extent. I have to admit, when I first heard that a student not yet aware of magic was able to have such talent I couldn't help but be skeptical. If you wouldn't mind I'd love a demonstration. I myself am only able to move some objects and conjure candle flames." He illustrated his point by raising his forefinger and forming a small flame.

"It's no trouble at all, Professor. What would you like to see? I can freeze things, summon small lightning bolts, light things on fire, levitate, summon and banish, control, transfigure, and sometimes even animate them depending on the object." I listed everything I could do. I already decided that there was no point in holding back. My skill without a wand was truly impressive, but I wasn't anything special with a wand. Not yet at least. Holding myself back would only be a detriment to any future growth.

As the list of my feats kept growing, Flitwick became increasingly shocked. After I finished it took him a second to collect himself before choosing what he would like to see.

"Let's keep it simple for now. How about summoning some tea from my office and pouring it. See if you can try heating it without making it too hot as well."

I concentrated for a second on the tea set I saw through his door. Slowly, the entire set floated into the air and began floating towards us. As they neared us I placed the cups and saucers in front of us, still levitating. I then concentrated on the tea inside the kettle. Ever so slowly as to not burn the tea, I sent my energy into the kettle. Instead of visualizing a flame, I pictured a heat mirage. This way I wouldn't accidently light anything on fire. After a few seconds, a whistle could be heard coming from the spout.

Hearing the tune, I cut my energy from the tea and moved it over the cups. Deciding to attempt to show off a bit, I positioned the kettle above the empty space between the cups. Then, as I poured it with my magic, I split the stream of tea into two separate streams, each for one cup. Once they were full, I levitated the kettle back to his office.

"Any sugar, Profesor?" I asked with a slight smirk on my face. Flitwick's jaw was dropped to the floor. He couldn't believe his eyes. He had never seen anything like that before, not even from the likes of Dumbledore or Tom Riddle. Shaking himself back to the present, he asked for two cubes.

I plopped them into his tea with my mind, then began to stir them in without a spoon, just magic. Lastly, I levitated the tea cup off of the still floating saucer, right into his hand. As I waited for Flitwick to get over the display I sipped my tea. It was a little on the warmer side, but for my first time heating a liquid like that it wasn't bad.

"That was… Wow. Mr. Wright, I have never seen anything like that before. It was incredible! You must be the most talented freeform wizard that has ever roamed these halls. If even a fraction of that talent translates to your wand magic, we could very well have a new Dumbledore. Take thirty points to Ravenclaw for your astounding display of magic." Flitwick was positively giddy. Not only had Hogwarts gained a peerless talent, but in his own house as well.

"Now, as much as I enjoyed that truly amazing display of magic, your lunch break started nearly fifteen minutes ago. If you don't get going soon you'll miss it." At that moment my stomach rumbled, emphasizing his point.

I quickly thanked him for the points and ran off towards the Great Hall. I got there in only 10 minutes, leaving just enough time to have a decent meal. As I sat down next to Tony and Michael and loaded my plate up to the brim, Micheal spoke up.

"So, what happened after class? You were gone for a while. Did you lose any points? Was he mad that you were reading in class or what? You have got to tell us!" Tony repeated the flood of questions as well. I had to explain to them how he simply congratulated me on my knowledge and apologized for calling me out. I left out the part where I showed off my magic. While I didn't care enough to hide it, rubbing it in my new friends faces would only poison any future interactions.

We ended up talking about Flitwick's class for the rest of the lunch break until the bell rang.

"Alright, let's see… We have History of Magic with Griffondore next. I hope it's fun, I bet there's some really cool things that have happened in the past!" Tony exclaimed hopefully. I didn't want to burst his bubble on how bad Binns would be, so I let him continue daydreaming about it.

As the second bell rang marking the beginning of the period, a ghost floated through the wall and stopped at the podium. After a moment of confusion, the students realized that the ghost would be their teacher. Binns didn't even introduce himself, but instead started simply reading from the ghostly version of the book on our syllabus. He read it completely verbatim, making many kids groan as they realized how bad this class would truly be. At the beginning of class, the students tried to take notes. After ten minutes, a quarter of them were asleep and another quarter had stopped taking notes, preferring to talk amongst themselves about inane topics. By thirty minutes, only one person was left taking notes.

A girl with large, bushy hair and buck teeth slightly too large for her face was furiously taking notes. She had already written more than three pages of notes, and Binns had only gone through six pages of material. I instantly knew that it was Hermione Granger, the brains in the golden trio, and the only reason Harry and Ron survived as long as they did. Yet, since the troll attack hadn't happened yet she was still a bossy loner with no friends.

In fact, I could hear Ron Weasly making fun of her as she scribbled notes. Harry laughed a bit at Ron's jokes, but you could tell he felt a little uncomfortable about making fun of her. Hermione pretended to not notice, but the slight scrunch of her eyebrows betrayed how she really felt about it. Once again I realized how detrimental Ron really was to the group.

I had nothing against the kid, not really. He was just a normal kid doing kid things. However, that's exactly why he was an issue. Hermione was a genius, labeled the smartest witch of her generation. Harry was incredibly talented and powerful when it came to practical magic. With Hermione's smarts and Harry's power, they could be an unstoppable duo. However, with a normal kid like Ron in the picture they were both held back from their true potential.

Not to mention that Harry was a child of prophecy and would end up bringing Ron into a lot of dangerous situations, situations he wasn't made to be in. That with his envy and jealousy for Harry made a dangerous combination. I wouldn't manipulate Harry into ditching Ron, even if it increased his survivability. However, if they happened to split because of something I did, I wouldn't fight to keep them together.

They were both real people, not characters on a page. They had their own lives, own thoughts and actions outside of the plot. With the butterfly effect, the plot was already a gone thing. No matter how hard I tried to keep it together, it would unravel, so why spend my energy. Best case scenario I would only manage to make it turn out worse.

The original timeline was built on so much luck it was ludicrous. Instead of banking on that happening outside of the books and in a real world, I realized I had to change the future to assure the wizarding world's survival. Steeling my will and assuring myself that my decision was the right one, I approached the red head.