C014 - Flitwick's attention

At the end of Monday's first double lesson in Herbology, I could safely say that I had a new second-favorite subject in school after Charms. Professor Sprout was much nicer than I could have hoped, AND she was great at her job. I didn't know yet if I had a green thumb or not, but I had all the knowledge needed to excel in this particular class.

The first ever magical plant Professor Sprout introduced us to were Bouncing Bulbs. They were literally just a stem with a giant almost fist sized purple bulb at the end crowned with a few leaves. According to the professor, these were still young Bouncing Bulbs, and even then, they packed a punch, literally.

We didn't do anything with the plants, no harvesting or repotting, but we were allowed to step closer in which I suspected was a test in our herbology affinity. And Neville and I both stuck out like sore, green thumbs. Where others had to dodge a swing to the noggin, Neville's aura prompted the plant to lay its bulb in the young Longbottom heir's outstretched hand.

Something similar happened for me. Somehow, my incredible reflexes kicked in once more, and I firmly grasped the bulb that was trying to land a jab on me. I did that three times, and then the plant started to become obedient, just like every plant in a neighboring pot. Sentient plants were weird. Fun, but decidedly weird.

In any case, our first real hands-on experience after that was with Dittany, the plant most infamous for its wide array of applications in the field of healing. It wasn't even a full day ago when Harry and I chugged a Dittany-based potion to get rid of our scars like they were soda.

Planting Dittany seeds and repotting maturing forms of the purple-flowering restorative was pretty straightforward, but Professor Sprout still praised me for my delicate touch when I was done. And once more at the end of the class when she asked Neville and I to stay back.

"Mister Longbottom, you're as promising as your grandmother made you out to be. You weren't joking when you said your talent lied in herbology during the house introduction. If you want, I would like to invite you to work here with me after classes. Think of it as tutoring and gaining experience in one," Professor Sprout offered once us two boys were standing in front of her. The both of us towering over her more than a full head. A bright grin threatened to split her face once Neville shyly nodded in confirmation.

"And you, Mister Macnair, were a pleasant surprise. Filius told me that you were a rather curious student for someone who grew up in the non-magical side of the world. I'd have to agree. You certainly have the makings of a fine herbologist," Pomona Sprout praised with a grin. "Are you interested in the same offer I just gave Mister Longbottom?"

"I must admit I'm tempted, professor, but I'd like to wait until all clubs are announced and I've had all the classes for the first time," I tentatively pondered out loud. "I might not want to do it full-time... but I'm sure already that I wouldn't mind some more experience for free."

"Hehe, for free? You're allowed to grow your own plants from seeds and keep them. I don't offer this opportunity to many," Professor Sprout countered with a calculating smirk.

That stumped me a little.

"You.. wouldn't happen to allow us to find wild herbs in the forbidden forest and keep them, too? Like herbs gathered during Professor Flitwick's survival club?"

"You catch on as quickly as Filius said. Indeed, that is an option," the herbologist professor said with a thumbs up.

"In that case, I might not end up here as often as Mister Longbottom, but I'll be sure to come around often," I easily agreed. This tied in too nicely with one of my plans for this year.

As both Neville and I were ushered out of the greenhouse, I found Harry and Hannah Abbott out there waiting for us. Hannah looked at me with furrowed brows, and Harry didn't look anywhere. Despite his new clothes that should have helped him become more confident and then later more outgoing, it was going to take a while to break Harry out of his shell.

The shell he needed to put up to survive the last 14 years... yeah, it made sense that he was still not a social butterfly just because his clothes suddenly fit.

Hannah immediately gulped down some saliva and asked in a worried tone, "You okay, Nev?"

"Yeah, it's all good. Professor Sprout offered me a sort of free pass to come to the greenhouses whenever," Neville answered with a shy smile, likely because Harry and I heard his girlfriend calling him by his nickname.

"And him?" She asked with a much lower voice that I still heard regardless.

"He got the same offer, I'm not surprised... I just wish it didn't happen anyway," Neville whispered back, and I frowned for a small moment before relaxing once more.

Neville and I were nothing to each other. Of course, he would dislike my presence after the Weasley twins announced my grandfather to the great hall. I just hoped it wouldn't affect his relationship with Harry in the short-term. The two had talked on three separate occasions now, and I was sure the shared friendship between their mothers would make them great friends eventually without my presence.

Alice Longbottom would surely scold her son if he didn't try everything to reach out.

And who knew what would happen if Neville ever found out who my father was. The very man imprisoned in Azkaban for the murder of his father among countless other things.

"If being with me in public lowers your chance of a friendship with Longbottom, leave me alone for a while," I whispered to Harry with our backs turned toward the Hufflepuff couple as we made our way to lunch.

Harry looked at me from the corner of his eyes before he nodded.

'I suppose he is unsure about all this? Either I'm the closest thing he has to a first friend or he has no clue how to navigate such complicated relationships in the first place,' I idly thought as Harry didn't bother saying another word.

After lunch, where I once more ate something the others weren't served: pasta with pesto, the Ravenclaw girls minus Isobel sat with me in the library to do our Herbology homework. Isobel herself sat together with Daphne Greengrass, Natalie Rosier, and Isodora Selwyn from Slytherin at another table. I saw all four of them receive a letter at breakfast earlier, so they likely had something to discuss.

During History of Magic, I sat at the very back for the first time, and to my surprise, Mandy followed my lead and sat next to me. The freckled girl shot me an annoyed look when I tilted my head in her direction and whispered, "I asked some seniors. Professor Binns is useless, and we should use this time to read up on other things or the actual curriculum."

I merely smiled at that and wondered how her conversation with her roommate Hermione went earlier today when she told the bushy haired witch that she would sit at the back willingly. Diligent Miss Granger did give us the stinkeye from the front row table, so I had an inkling how that conversation went.

Harry, in the meantime, sat next to Neville a row before ours to the left with Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott right behind them to the left of us. Hannah still didn't like me, not that I thought it could have changed since the hour before lunch, but Susan kept looking at me from time to time.

Half an hour into the lecture of the ghost posing as a competent teacher, Mandy nudged my arm gently. I looked to her, showing her she got my attention, and the girl leaned in way too much to whisper into my ear, "That symbol, what does it mean? Is it a rune?"

She immediately backed off, blushing at the closeness she initiated, and I looked to the History notebook my mum left behind. Selena Macnair had doodled this particular symbol plenty of times in all her notebooks, but History was apparently as sleep inducing then as it was now. The history notebook was practically littered in it.

The stylized capital A with the rounded bottom I had found on that Ancient Greece style short sword in the Macnair vault. I still didn't find it among the one runes book I leafed through, and I didn't have the time to ask anyone if it meant something to anyone other than my mother.

Thinking over my options, I went ahead and gave Mandy the truth, "I don't know. It clearly meant something to my mom, but I haven't asked anyone yet. I found it on an item in the family vault. Maybe that's where she got it from?"

The witch was blushing even more and meekly nodded, not offering if she knew anything about it. But I somehow doubted she did.

After history was over, I found myself once more in the presence of Madam Hopkirk and listened to her tell us more about what kind of 'amazing' work they were doing at the ministry, going into more detail on the auror department this time around to give us a small peek into our rights in magical society.

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It wasn't until Transfiguration early the next morning that I finally saw the full roster of the Gryffindor first years. With 'merely' ten new students, this years Gryffindors were the smallest bunch of us together with Hufflepuff, who also had ten new students. It was a little weird because there was so much emphasis and love dished out for the house of the protagonists, but this time around Slytherin had the most students at fourteen with our Ravenclaw house having thirteen students.

And, it made kind of sense that Gryffindor had the least students. Both Harry and Hermione didn't come to the house, same as Neville, who was sorted into Hufflepuff. In return, from what I could see, they 'only' got Sally-Ann Perks, who wasn't mentioned once after being the girl who was sorted before Harry in canon and Michael Corner, who should have become a Ravenclaw originally.

Someone I wouldn't mind not having to talk to ever if all the boasting I heard from him in the hallways so far was any indication.

As I sat down at the very front with Hermione and Mandy flanking me and Harry sending me a betrayed look while flanked by Lisa and Isobel at the table behind me, I watched the cat at the table in front of us. Animagi, to my knowledge, were the pinnacle of the human transfiguration branch. A pinnacle I really wanted to reach just to satiate the inner fanboy in me. I really wondered what my inner animal was, too.

A pig because I more or less lazed around for fourteen years before coming to Hogwarts, which I was starting to think was done against my will? A fox because I'm trying to play dirty tricks on one of the most powerful wizards in the country? A wolf because a lone wolf was a decent description of me before coming here? Maybe a raven because of my secret cunning and playfulness?

I gave the professor disguised as a cat a smile and respectful nod, and tuned out the girls trying to set up for the class next to me. Enough to not realise that Lavender was looking at me with a very tight frown, likely because of the company I kept.

At 9AM on the dot, the cat leapt from the table and greeted the class as Professor McGonagall in her now human form. As opposed to canon, Ron was already here instead of sleeping in - it wasn't his first day anyway. Harry was here, too, but that was to be excused because he was no longer a Gryffindor.

"Welcome to your first lesson in Transfiguration," the professor greeted and got right into the thick of it by telling us how dangerous that branch of magic is, just like in canon.

"Now, Mister Macnair. You knew I was in my Animagus form?" The professor asked once she firmly impressed on us the dangers of botched transfiguration attempts.

"Yes, professor. Some characteristics of the witch or wizard are copied to the animagus form and your glasses were very prominent in the fur pattern of your cat form's face," I explained without telling her I knew from past life experiences that she did that in her first class. "I'm also pretty interested in this particular branch of magic ever since I've heard of it. So I know that you are among the less than 10 registered animagi in the country."

"Three points to Ravenclaw!" McGonagall praised with a pleased smile before turning back into her teaching form. "As many of you likely know, becoming an animagus requires you to register your form at the ministry. Currently, there are eight living witches and wizards that have registered their form, just like Mister Macnair said."

She walked around a little and looked into most of our eyes as she continued with a grave examination, "The animagus transformation is one of the most complicated forms of transfiguration known to wizardkind. It is considered the very pinnacle of the human transfiguration branch and requires a high level of not only magical knowledge but also personal introspection and, of course, luck."

"Luck, professor?" Michael Corner asked without raising his hand, which earned him a short glare from his head of house.

"Yes, luck. Many think that your inner animal conforms in part to your very nature, and they are likely right. But your qualities as a person could be reflected by many animals. If you are strong and resilient, your inner animal could be a fearsome grizzly bear like Lord Ogden! But it could also be a bull ant. Or a gorilla. Or a rhinoceros."

A few kids who grew up in the magical world looked like they didn't actually know all the animals our transfiguration professor listed and I wondered just how these kids spent the three extra years at home if they weren't at those pre-schools for magicals or playing one of three games available in the wizarding world.

It couldn't have been that all of them spent those years buried in books because save for a few, they all seemed mostly clueless. Sure, some appeared to excel in certain classes, but not even Isobel and Padma, the two true nobles of our year mates seemed to have a full grasp on the entire curriculum for the first year.

The rest of the class was some form of transfiguration alphabet and the introduction to the transformation formula with variables like weight, wand power, concentration, or viscousness. Three of those seemed unquantifiable while the first required you to run around with scales, so I really hoped that practice would quickly help you in gaining enough experience to relegate this arcane formula into a mere guiding principle.

Sadly, the match-to-needle spell seemed to be the content of a later class, so there was no practical portion in this first transfiguration class - but it made sense. There was no way we could just learn a spell in the first class, be done with it in two classes, and move on to the next. The year would be filled with learning tens of spells for each class if that was the case... and it seemed like Hogwarts aimed to give us solid foundations... or coddle magicals into becoming mediocre.

With a wink toward Lavender who didn't respond, which gave me shivers, I dropped a small piece of parchment on her table and went toward the second lesson on Charms with the Slytherin students.

As I sat down in the same chair as before with Hermione to my left and Harry to my right, I looked up to see Malfoy looking at me with a sneer.

'Did he hear back from his dad and get a 'do what you want' blank card from the ponce? Or is my 'friendship' with muggleborns and 'blood traitors' like the Weasley twins choosing my standing with Malfoy for me?'

Once we handed in our first homework assignment, Professor Flitwick guided us to play around more with the Lumos charm and I wowed him enough to give me 10 house points since I copied Natalie's achievement from the last class and then some.

"How are you doing that?" Hermione furiously whispered to me when Flitwick was off talking to a Slytherin student on the other side of the room.

"The spell? I practiced a lot," I scoffed with a small smile. "What? Did you think when I wasn't in the library like you, I'd play around and do nothing?"

Hermione narrowed her eyes dangerously and scoffed back.

"Will you tell me how you do this twisted band thing with 'Lumos Funicola' charm?" She asked in a small voice eventually, and I gladly agreed. I even spoke up a little to give all of my classmates listening in some hopefully helpful tips, which earned me another house point from Flitwick after he turned back to see how we were doing.