A Web Of Magic

The next day they had Charms in the morning followed by Transfiguration in the afternoon. Charms was shared with Gryffindors and Transfiguration with the Slytherins. The Charms class was in a classroom in the Charms corridor on the third floor. There were nine Gryffindors in total, five of whom Magnus already met. He was relieved to finally sit with people he knew. Fred and George sat to the right side of him while Roger sat to his left. Fred took a look at the Ravenclaws and exclaimed," Blimey mate! I have more brothers than you Ravens!"

"Well, you can take Percy if you want. The guy is talking our ears off about not embarrassing him," George added.

"I'll pass on that offer, thank you very much," Magnus retorted. He knew how talkative Percy gets once he starts going. They discussed their first day experiences. The first thing the twins did in their tower was to try if the girl's dormitories really kept the boys out. And as expected they had bumps on their heads when their feet slipped on the entry stairs. Magnus smiled at their antics; they just cannot sit still. If it were him, he would have had someone else check it for him.

The class finally started as Prof. Flitwick got on a stack of books and started giving an introduction on charms. After half an hour of theory, he showed them their first spell. The Wand-Lighting charm, Lumos. "Now why don't you all give it a try. Just a swish and a flick and say Lumos clearly," he encouraged them to try. It was clear he didn't expect them to succeed on the first class as he kept consoling them even before they started.

Magnus had no problem with the charm as he had already done it before. But looking at his peers around him, he was sure that none of them bothered to try it beforehand. He shook his head and gave his wand a swish and whispered," Lumos." A bright light lit up at the tip of his wand and stayed steady without any flickering. It immediately caught the attention of the professor and the rest of the class.

"Well done Mr. Webb, well done. Five points to Ravenclaw. A perfect example of the wand-lighting charm. Why don't you help out your friends now?" Prof. Flitwick said overjoyed. It seemed like he found a talent this year despite the low turnout. He'll have to pay more attention to Magnus now to see if his performance remained consistent.

[Impact Points+5]

'Oh, so house points also grant me impact points? Very interesting,' Magnus thought. He previously thought that house points had no meaning beyond encouraging students. But now it's a whole another game. The twins kept making funny faces at him while pointing exaggeratingly towards their wands. Magnus rolled his eyes as he taught them how to do the charm. When he turned towards the other side, he saw that his housemates got the wand movement correct but were struggling to manifest the light. He gave them some tips too and soon they had an unsteady light that kept going on and off intermittently. By the end of the class, few succeeded though not to the level of Magnus.

[Impact Points+1]

'Nice, helping other students also grants points.' He was worried he would have to fix broken toys to get points from other students.

Transfiguration in the afternoon was with the Slytherins. The first thing Magnus noticed when he entered the class was the tabby cat sitting on the teacher's table. It looked at them once sternly and went back to doing whatever cats did. There was no professor in sight. Magnus assumed that the cat was the pet of the professor just like that of Mr. Filch. He hoped it was better than Mrs. Norris, none of the seniors had anything good to say about that one. As the last of the students filed in, Magnus counted the Slytherins, there were nine of them. 'So, only Ravenclaw got the short end of the stick huh,' he mused. A moment later amidst the surprised gasps of the students, the tabby cat transformed into Prof. McGonagall. To say Magnus was impressed was an understatement.

"Transfiguration is one of the most complex and dangerous magic you'll learn at Hogwarts. Anyone messing around will leave and never come back to this class. You've been warned," Prof. McGonagall said sternly. What followed was a lengthy lecture and a lot of notes-taking with plenty of warnings interspersed in between. Magnus was surprised at the amount of caution the professor was expressing. The book only warned him twice so he decided it wasn't very serious. Not to mention, transfiguration came easy to him. 'Hmm, maybe I should take some precautions from now on,' Magnus decided.

Once the formula for transfiguration was discussed, she gave them a demonstration by changing the desk into a pig and then changing it back. Magnus was amazed at the ease with which she transfigured objects. He only managed to transfigure small objects till now. The only live subjects he transfigured were insects. He never found a rat to try some of the advanced transfigurations. The twins offered to give him Percy's rat, but that only pissed Percy off. 'He doesn't even like the rat,' Magnus mentally scoffed.

"Now usually you wouldn't be doing any spells in your first class, but since we have a double class, I'll teach you your first spell," Prof. McGonagall flicked her wand towards the shelf behind the blackboard. Matchsticks flew from the shelf to land in front of each student. Each student had three matchsticks. "Watch closely. Precise wand movements and an attention to detail are the key. One, two," Prof. McGonagall flicked her wand and the matchstick on the table turned into an intricate silver needle. She picked the needle up and showed it to them. "Now try it yourself and see," she encouraged.

All the students did as they were instructed. Right away there were plenty of mishaps. Some matchsticks were burned and some exploded. Roger's matchstick turned one third, Noah's cracked and Eva's changed shape but still remained wood. All in all, Magnus was the only one with a completely transfigured needle. He even added some flowery decorations to the needle which didn't escape the professor's notice. She put out the fires caused on the Slytherin side and came near Magnus as she said with a smile," Well done, Mr. Webb. This is a good example of a perfect transfiguration. The attention to detail can clearly be seen. 5 points to Ravenclaw."

[Impact Points+5]

The class ended with a homework of 9 inches on the limitations and dangers of transfiguration to be submitted next week. History of Magic was a bust. While the history of Emeric the Evil was interesting, the ghost Prof. Binns s.u.c.k.e.d away all the joy from the subject. They shared the class with Gryffindor who were all asleep half-way through the class. Magnus wondered if the man was even aware of what's happening around him. He supposed that Prof. Binns did not possess much of his mental faculties due to him being a ghost. As per what he read, ghosts are just imprints that the dead wizards left behind. They would have to be incredibly powerful to leave behind an intelligent ghost. Magnus decided to complete his homework during this class and read up on the subject by himself, more so than he already did.

Herbology was nice but the greenhouse left them all sweaty. Magnus decided to consult with Prof. Sprout later on how to grow the plants in his own house effectively. It did net him 5 points. Flying lessons with Madam Hooch were fun, but while Magnus liked flying, he wasn't keen on playing any quidditch. First-years weren't allowed to play anyway, so that's a discussion for another time.

Astronomy was a nice change of pace as it was held in the Astronomy Tower during the night. He only read the book but had no practice in this subject as he never used his telescope before. It was fun finding all the stars, but he wasn't sure how the subject fits with the rest. They didn't do any magic in the class, so it didn't seem to much better than muggle stargazing he did when he visited a planetarium during a school trip. All in all, his first week went well and he fell into a routine along with his peers and got used to the Hogwarts life.