Paragraph 11 : What Hogwarts Students Should Learn

This mess reminded the four friends that it would be nice to have a way of communicating discreetly, especially without having to meet in person. There were obviously a few ways of communicating among wizards, but not a single one fitted their specific needs : owls ? Slow and very conspicuous. Flying notes, like at the Ministry of Magic ? Fast, but hardly less visible. Judith asked Professor Flitwick if there was a spell that would allow to send messages to friends. He answered that he hadn't heard about such a spell, but that after all, trying to invent this very spell might make up for a good training for a student. After all, some students had come to see him years ago to ask him for advice, because they wanted to create a magical map. The four of them thus met with Professor Flitwick in an empty classroom after the end of classes, and he gave them details about how magical research worked. The heart of spell research was a quest for an adequacy between the wizard's will and the wand's will. Getting the wand's will was the most difficult part, and the only way to achieve this was to trust it with powers. Whenever a wizard would cast a spell, a fraction of his powers would be temporarily transferred to the wand, which would perform the corresponding task, then release the powers back to the wizard. This meant that, for the wand to retain for a longer time part of the wizard's powers, it would be necessary to use a potion. They would plunge the wand in the potion, cast a powerful spell, and the wand would feel trusted enough if it was able to keep a significant part of the wizard's powers. The more powerful the spell, the more willing to help the wand would be. Casting an ordinary spell would make it easier for the wizard to get cooperation from the wand when attempting to discover an innocuous spell, and harder to find a spell associated with dark magic. Conversely, casting a spell known to pertain to dark magic would make it more straightforward to invent a spell in the field of dark magic, while making it tougher to make a breakthrough in the domain of positive magic. Communication with the wand was most important. With time and experience, this kind of communication would become more and more efficient. That was how wizards could detect magic, especially dark magic, the intentions behind it, and what kind of spell had been cast. 'Priori Incantatem' and 'Finite' or 'Finite Incantatem' relied a lot on this, though at a very basic level. The wand can in turn gather knowledge and experience from its wizard, and you can expect the next owner of the wand to be able to benefit partly from these, provided that he would prove trustworthy to the wand. Just like the wand will subtly kind of converse with the wizard, providing him with information about the magic surrounding him, the wizard must in his way talk to the wand, until the data passing from the wizard to the wand, and from the wand to the wizard hopefully results in an agreement. The wand will then accept to accomplish the new spell. The ability to get an agreement from the wand is what makes a person a wizard or a witch. All wizards and witches already have had this experience, typically at Ollivander's. When for the first time a wand agrees with the wizard's or the witch's will, they will feel magic itself around them. Once the wand has accepted to perform the new spell, the inventor has to brew a second potion, throw in it a parchment with the desired name for the spell, and pulverise the potion to a cloud. From there, whenever rain from this cloud will fall on the wand of a wizard or a witch, this person will be able to use the spell. A same spell can have as many formulae as people want. Once rain carrying the means to perform the spell had fallen on their wand, they could in turn brew the same potion, insert a parchment with a new name in it, and pulverise their own potion in a cloud. That was very convenient to allow wizards speaking other languages to use new spells with an easy to remember and to pronounce formula. Many ambitious inventors wanted to give their name to the spell they had devised, but other wizards proposed then neutral and descriptive formulae. That is why these days, all wizards were using one single standard formula, while in fact they could use others with the same effect. Professor Flitwick added that apparently, what they were trying to achieve was information Apparition. He allocated to the four a little room, where they could brew the initial potion - the potion that would help their wands retain some power - practice cooperation with their wands, and try and find the spell they needed. Professor Flitwick gave them the keys to the room. He also set a limited number of hours per week and a schedule that they should abide to in order to use the chosen room. He said the recipe for the two potions would be available in this room shortly. He led them to the room. This one didn't have as beautiful a view as the room in which they had brewed the Intuition Potion, but it was fully furnished. In actuality, the only window of this room was a plain rectangle without any intricate embellishment, and since the room was on ground floor, the view was nothing more than a long patch of grass. This time, there were no cobwebs, and every piece of furniture was in its place. There even was a chimney. Judith took out some Floo powder from her pocket, ready to see if this one had a link to the Floo Network. Seeing that everyone was startled by her initiative, she asked rhetorically

Am I the only one here who is cautious ?

Ann started giggling. Eager to set the conversation on a new course, especially a course that would prevent Ann from getting the same sort of unstoppable laughter that she had had at her house, Eleanor noted

Since we don't want the others to be able to use this communication spell, we will just have to dip our wands in the potion number two