Charms

Virgil and Rabastan went to the Slytherin table in the grand hall. The table was already full of food and dessert but not enough students to eat it all.

"Don't you feel like all this food is going to waste?" Virgil felt slightly annoyed as he sat down.

"When has the ministry ever been efficient with their money?" Rabastan shrugged and started eating.

"Or maybe Hogwarts is misplacing funds." Virgil couldn't think of any expense the school had besides the teachers' salary. If anything, the school should be making money from its herbology and potions department.

While they were eating, Dalilah came over and sat down with her two followers. "You two actually got up so early, I thought you'd be crying, homesick in your room."

"Dalilah." Rabastan glanced to the side with a bit of annoyance. "Can you let us enjoy our food without berating us so early in the morning?"

"Come on Rabastan." The corners of Virgil's lips curled. "I think Dalilah is projecting her insecurities onto us."

He looked into Dalilah's eyes who was a little flustered by his words. "Did you cry?"

"Who cried?! Don't say nonsense!" Dalilah jumped up like someone stepped on her tail.

Rabastan watched as Dalilah started stuffing food into her mouth to hide her embarrassment. His eyes turned towards Virgil like he discovered a whole new world. "Does this work too?"

He mumbled to himself and started thinking of new ways to stop Dalilah's poisonous tongue.

Virgil finished his cake and rose from his seat. Rabastan swallowed half a cup of juice and followed behind him.

Dalilah glared at them both but didn't follow.

"Do you know where the class is?" Rabastan walked next to Virgil with his hands clasped behind his head.

"It's on the south side of the third floor. It shouldn't be too hard to find." He looked up at the staircases moving above his head. He couldn't see them moving so much last night but the whole thing seemed pointless.

They climbed up the stairs and made it to the third floor. The two walked through the halls and made it to the charms corridor.

Walking into the class there were a few students already seated. The classroom was large with theater-style seating. Messy books were scattered all around the class and a giant blackboard donned the back wall.

Virgil climbed the stairs and sat in the middle row. There weren't enough people to justify sitting in the back.

"I saw the charms instructor was part goblin, how could someone fall for those ugly creatures." Rabastan leaned over and whispered.

Virgil started flipping through his charms book and didn't look over. "Better than a troll or a Hag."

Rabastan thought about the pictures he saw in books and immediately felt uncomfortable. "Why put worse images in my head?"

Virgil finlay turned his head with one raised brow. "Aren't you the one who brought it up?"

As the two were talking, more students walked into the classroom and took their seats. Dalilah walked into the classroom with Severus and the others.

When the six sat around Virgil and were about to speak, the back door of the class was pushed open. A short man wearing what looked like a tuxedo robe with shiny black hair parted in the middle and a handlebar mustache walked in 

Every step he took required him to swing his legs around and seemed to take tremendous effort. Even so, a smile was plastered on his face and his eyes beamed with joy.

"Hello, student! I am your charms teacher, Professor Flitwick. Also the dean of Ravenclaw." As he spoke in his jovial tune, he was flicking his wand about like a conductor.

Books scattered around the class danced through the air at the sound of his voice; They gathered in front of the podium in a neat stack. 

"Charms is a very broad subject. From producing light to flying through the air." When his voice fell, his foot came down on a book and he flew through the air.

The student stared wide-eyed as he landed behind the podium. "Put those books away, you won't be needing them, today is a practical class."

Everyone's eyes changed from shock to excitement. There was no loud yelling but hushed whispers of joy.

Even those Slytherin students around Virgil had rare smiles on their faces. When everyone put their books away, Professor Flitwick raised his wand.

"Today I'm going to teach you the levitation charm. You have to move your wand with a swish and a flick."

Everyone watched as he demonstrated with his wand. "Pull out your wands and try it with me now, a swish and a flick."

Everyone started reaching for their wands and Virgil did the same. He placed his hand at his side and pulled it from his invisible spellbook.

The moment the twisted wand appeared, those around Virgil shuddered and a chill shot down their spines. It felt as though a predator had locked them in their sights as prey.

The feeling vanished as quickly as it came when the wand was suppressed by Virgil.

Virgil instantly knew the fears of those around him when he held the wand. Rabastan feared his brother's death and Severus feared Lily's scorn. 

When the feeling of fear disappeared they looked around with their wands in their hands in confusion. 

They only saw the other students practicing with their wands. Not wanting to stand out, they held up their wands and practiced the movements.

"Good, good!" Professor Flitwick tapped his wand on the podium to draw their attention. "Now that you have the wand movement down we can move on to the incantation."

Professor Flitwick turned his wand towards his desk and flicked it. "Wingardium Leviosa."

A stack of feathers flew from a box on his desk and spread out through the air.

An array of feathers flew and landed in front of each student. "Repeat after me, wing-GAR-dee-um leh-vee-OH-sa."

"Wingardium Leviosa." All the students started repeating the words and the classroom became a bit noisy.

"Now, add the wand movements and make your feathers float!" Professor Flitwick saw all the students seriously participating and felt a burst of joy. He was afraid some of the Slytherin students would cause trouble. 

To prevent this, he changed his first lesson to a practical class to occupy their attention.

Virgil felt a bit funny going through all this trouble for such a simple spell. He remembered reading about it once and casting this spell.

"Wingardium Leviosa." Virgil flicked his wand toward the feather and it started floating in the air.

"Very good Mr. Shafiq! 5 points for Slytherin." A burst of joy came from Professor Flitwick at the podium when he saw a student succeed.

Virgil waved his wand and moved the feather through the air at the amazement of those around him.

While Virgil was playing with the feather, the next person to float the feather was none other than Severus.

When he succeeded he saw the amazement and jealousy in the eyes of other students. This was something he never felt and a fire was lit in his heart.

Soon, the time for class ended and all the students left the class. In the end, the only ones who succeeded in casting the spell were Virgil and Severus.

Not because the spell was difficult, but because young witches and wizards had a hard time restraining their emotions. Emotions caused one's magic to fluctuate wildly, this allowed young witches and wizards to do amazing things when their emotions got out of control.

Learning proper magic would allow them to control this, but they also lost that sudden wild magic.

The Slytherin students surrounded Virgil and Severus like they were heroes as they walked back to the common room. They still had time before their next transfiguration class.

"Severus, I didn't know you were so talented. Why didn't you say anything before?" Shane looked Severus up and down like he was watching some kind of rare beast.

"Did you practice before school started?" Henry stood on the other side and shot him a questioning look.

"Obviously he kept quiet because he wanted to make a blockbuster. It's just that he didn't expect Virgil to cast the spell first." Dalilah glared back at Severus and didn't forget to throw salt into his eyes.

"Of course Virgil cast the spell first. Everyone knows he stays home and reads books all day." Rabastan shrugged his shoulders next to Dalilah. He didn't care at all about not casting the spell.

Virgil led the team down the narrow tunnel and arrived in front of the wall. "Pure blood."

The door opened and they all walked into the common room. Only a few were sitting inside and the rest were in class or other places in the castle.

The freshman walked to an area with large couches surrounding a coffee table. When they sat down, Henry instantly started complaining about the next class.

"Transfiguration with Hufflepuff, can they even use magic?"

Virgil watched as everyone but Severus' faces turned ugly.

Henry didn't realize he just insulted everyone who failed to cast magic in the last class and continued. "Maybe those mudbloods are squibs and Hogwarts made a mistake."

Virgil raised his brows and sat back on the couch to enjoy everyone's twisted faces. While mingling here was a waste of time for him, his activities during the day were limited.

Besides, today was the first day at school. Anything else would seem odd.