Chapter 7
Potions is the very subject about which we had a rather vague opinion even before the classes began.
Firstly, we fully agree that potions are an extremely useful thing, allowing even the most uneducated magician to achieve the desired result. Why do we think so? Because in fact, any effect of a potion can be repeated using magic, the only difference is how much effort and knowledge it will require. And naturally, in many cases it is easier to just use a potion, such as for healing wounds, etc.
Potions are essentially magic in liquid form. And this is most confirmed by the fact that when brewing almost every potion, it is necessary to manipulate the wand, which ultimately imbues it with magic, for the same reason, even if a Muggle or Squib has the necessary knowledge and ingredients, they simply will not be able to prepare a potion, which is also far from the last reason why pureblood families simply abandoned Squibs, sending them to the Muggle world, instead of making potion makers out of them.
In general, we saw the benefit of this subject for ourselves, unlike Herbology, so we tried to pay more attention to this subject, although strictly in terms of lessons. After all, this benefit was not so great that we would spend our free time on potion making.
By the way, about how our first lesson went. Unlike our fears, fortunately, Snape was not biased towards us because of our last name. And the main role in this, as it seems to us, was played by how much we differed in appearance from our uncle, who was cooling off in Azkaban. But Potter was not so lucky. In appearance, except for his eyes, he was the spitting image of his father. Which awakened in a man with an already difficult character his childhood traumas, for which he did not hesitate to take it out on the Gryffindors. Poor Neville, who was already worried about his clumsiness, as well as the fact that his father's wand did not suit him, that he managed to mess up the order of actions and his cauldron ended up melted. Although he was undoubtedly lucky that we were nearby and Regulus managed to freeze the potion before it spilled over the boy.
- Why didn't you tell your neighbor, Mr. Black, that you can't throw porcupine quills into a boiling cauldron? - Instead of praise, the professor pounced on us, seemingly offended by Regulus's demonstration . - Or perhaps you decided that your classmate's failure was an excellent opportunity to brag?
"I was concentrating on my potion, sir, and only because of the unusual sound did I manage to react," Regulus answered calmly.
"I'm taking 3 points from Gryffindor," Snape said before turning away from us and heading towards Harry's cauldron.
- What kind of swill are you brewing Potter, are you trying to poison someone? Minus a point. - the professor said before he got rid of the contents with a wave of his wand and although we don't want to do this, in his defense we can say that judging by the color of what Potter and Weasley brewed, they seemed to have managed to mix up the steps in preparing the potion, so the minus point was well deserved, although it fully showed Snape's bias, who didn't even bat an eyelid when he looked at the Slytherins' potions, whose results looked even worse, especially Crabbe and Goyle.
But what can you do, that's the kind of person Severus Snape is.
But what became our favorite subject during our 2 weeks at Hogwarts was charms. We earned literally tons of points for our house in this class. Impressing the professor with how easy the spells came to us. He was especially amazed when we demonstrated the wandless levitation charm.
Were we worried that we would be in danger because we were too revealing of our abilities to others? Not at all. Firstly, no matter how genius we showed ourselves to be, it only showed in how easy spells are for us, which is not something out of the ordinary, wandless magic is actually not that difficult. Even remembering the Harry Potter films, in the fifth year, Hermione used a wandless Confundus, which, by the way, according to the same Barty Crouch in reverse, is too difficult a spell even for a fourth year. In addition, we are not going to stop developing, but on the contrary, to build up strength and knowledge. We even eventually made a list of what we are going to focus on.
1. Metamorphism. - although from the canon there was only a known case of the innate use of this magic by our cousin Nymphadora Tonks, in fact, in the Black library there are books in which metamorphism is described precisely as magic that can be developed as a replacement for animagus and from what we managed to glean on this topic, it becomes obvious that innate metamorphism is rather an extremely rare exception than its main manifestation. And, perhaps, it is worth explaining the two main reasons why we are interested in this magic. Firstly, it is the ability to achieve significantly better physical characteristics by changing the structure of muscles, and secondly, biological immortality. Purely technically, if you have the ability to influence your body as you wish with the proper knowledge, it is quite possible to achieve this, even in our past world they knew what was needed for immortality, they just did not have the necessary technologies and means for implementation.
2. Magical medicine - no matter what country you look at it from, experiments with magic will always have the risk of causing injuries, so we simply must learn at least the basics to be able to heal wounds or at least hold out until we end up in the magical hospital Mungo.
3. Combat magic and, from purely aesthetic preferences, primarily ice magic.
4. Rituals. - this point is closely connected with the first. Without rituals, you cannot become a metamorphmage, however, even without this, ritual magic has many benefits.
5. Transfiguration. - actually another point that is closely connected with metamorphism. And also, what is no less important, with the proper level of transfiguration, it will be possible to manage to block our main weakness, avada, which bypasses magical shields.
6. Runes are the basis of what is so necessary for creating your own artifacts. And if you choose between regular clothes and artifacts that are enchanted at least with a weak protego, then it is quite obvious what we will choose. Something similar, as is known from the canon, was sold by the Weasley twins when they opened their store.
This is the list of goals we have that we want to be able to achieve. And if we can do this during our studies at Hogwarts, then that would be even better.
And today we should finally have our first flight lesson. Which we were waiting for no less than the others. After all, although purely theoretically we are capable of flying thanks to the wandless Leviosa on our own clothes, this method of flight is quite unpleasant, because the clothes, under the influence of the body weight, dig into the skin, especially in the armpit area. And this is even now, when we do not weigh much - 39 kilograms Andromeda and 36 Regulus. Why such a difference in weight? In fact, everything is quite simple here, although we eat and train, in fact, in the same volume, up to about 14 years old, girls develop faster than boys, but then the situation changes so much that with the same efforts in strength disciplines, the difference in results will almost always be at least around 30%, and where endurance is important, the gap will be reduced to a minimum of 10%. However, all this does not matter, because we are sure that thanks to magic in the future we will be able to achieve physical indicators several times exceeding world record holders. After all, this is MAGIC.
- In order to speed up, you need to press yourself as close to the broom as possible... - lectured a nervous Hermione, who tried to calm down by voicing the knowledge she had gleaned from books to her classmates, and if we pretended to listen so as not to offend the girl, then Neville, who was nervous to the point of shaking in his knees, was very attentive. However, she could not continue forever and eventually fell silent with the arrival of owls carrying mail.
Not once in these days have we caught the look of Malfoy, full of a sense of his own superiority, who had received another package of sweets from his mother. As if he thought that this should somehow offend us.
There is just one big BUT. We simply do not feel longing for parental love. Perhaps, if we did not have knowledge from a past life, everything would be the other way around. However, now we are essentially only concerned with ourselves. Although we are not against showing compassion and generosity towards others.
"He's so nasty," said a frowning Potter, who, unlike us, was quite offended by Malfoy's attitude.
- Don't worry. He's not worth your attention. - We advised through Andromeda, while looking with interest at Longbottom unwrapping his package.
It was funny to watch how he was so childishly delighted with a small glass ball filled with white smoke.
"It's a reminder!" Neville explained. "Grandma knows I'm always forgetting things, and this ball tells you when you've forgotten to do something. Look, you have to take it in your hand, squeeze it tightly, and if it turns red..."
Neville's face fell as the smoke inside the ball suddenly turned bright red.
"Well then…" Neville said, confused.
"You forgot to put on your robe," Regulus prompted.
After which the smoke inside the ball is white again.
- Indeed. Thank you. - he thanked her in return after examining himself.
- What are you looking at Longbottom for? - Malfoy's voice rang out, who, while no one was paying attention to him, managed to approach the plump boy and snatch his Reminder.
This caused all the first-years sitting nearby to jump up, looking menacingly at Malfoy and his lackeys.
- It seems you have no instinct for self-preservation, Malfoy, since you came here without even learning magic properly. - Regulus said, and to add weight to his words, we took out our wands, and Andromeda added. - This time, we don't mind turning you into an ice cube.
- In the common room, in front of the professors? - Malfoy asked mockingly, completely confident that nothing would happen to him, with an arrogant smile on his face.
"What's going on here?" McGonagall asked sternly, appearing right behind the Slytherin.
"Malfoy took the Remembrall away from me, Professor," Neville explained.
Malfoy's face immediately twisted and he casually dropped the reminder on the table in front of Neville.
"I just wanted to see, Professor," he said innocently and walked away, hunched over in fear. It seemed he was trying to make himself smaller and thus avoid the possible wrath of Professor McGonagall, who would simply not notice him.
- Mr. and Miss Black, the Great Hall is not the place for you to point your wands at others, I hope it doesn't happen again. - She turned her gaze to us.
- Okay, professor, we won't use wands in the Great Hall. - We easily agreed with a smile on our faces. After all, wandless magic is quite enough to deal with someone like Malfoy.
- I hope so. - Judging by the look she gave us, she fully realized that we were being disingenuous, but she did not continue this topic and headed back to the professors' table.
"What a pathetic coward he is," Weasley said contemptuously towards the departing Malfoy.
- Yeah, did you see him leaving? Like a little rat afraid of being noticed. - We decided to keep the topic going through Regulus.
And then, until the very end of breakfast, the whole company washed the bones of the entire Malfoy family, even Hermione joined us in this.
At three thirty, we, along with the rest of the Gryffindor first years, hurriedly approached the flying training grounds. It was located on a flat clearing, which was some distance from the Forbidden Forest.
The Slytherins, as well as the 22 brooms lying in a row, were already in place.
And after a while, the flight instructor, Madame Truc, appeared. She had short gray hair and yellow eyes, like a hawk.
- What are you waiting for? - she barked. - Everyone stand next to a broom. Come on, get moving.
These brooms were quite old and battered, and it looked like someone had tried to pull the twigs out of the ones we came across. Overall, they certainly didn't inspire confidence.
"Stretch your right arm out over your broom!" Madame Hooch commanded, standing at the front of the line. "And say, 'Up!'"
- UP! - 22 voices rang out.
And the stupid brooms we had chosen, instead of calmly rising up to each of us, did something funny. The broom that was supposed to hit Andromeda's hand somehow flew around it and instead flew into Regulus' hand and the same thing happened to his broom! Which naturally caused a surprised look from Madame Hooch, who seemed to have seen something like this for the first time. However, in the world of magic you quickly get used to the unusual, and she did not say anything about it and calmly waited for the moment when everyone would hold a broom in their hand, and began to show how to sit on it correctly and hold it so as not to slip. And then she began to go and check everyone.
"But I've been flying on a broom for many years!" Malfoy's indignant cry rang out, which, judging by the satisfied faces of Harry and Ron, was like balm for their souls.
"It just means that you, Mister Malfoy, have been flying incorrectly all these years," Madame Trick calmly replied, and the Slytherin did not dare to continue the argument, correcting his pose with an offended face.
- Now, when I blow my whistle, you will push off the ground with force, - said Madame Hooch. - Hold the broom firmly, try to keep it level, rise a meter or a meter and a half, and then lower yourself - to do this, you need to lean forward slightly. So, on my whistle - three, two ...
But Neville, nervous, twitchy and clearly terrified at the prospect of being left alone on the ground, had lunged upward before Madam Hooch had raised the whistle to her lips.
" Come back, boy!" cried Madame Hooch, but Neville was rising rapidly, like a cork flying out of a bottle. Two meters, four, six.
We saw Neville's pale face, looking down in fear. His mouth opened wide in horror, he slid off the broom and only thanks to our accelerated thinking, we managed to cast a Levitation Charm halfway down, slowly lowering him down.
- 20 points to Gryffindor! - the frightened woman almost screamed, who immediately rushed to the boy groaning in pain, who, although he was able to avoid serious injuries thanks to us, still dislocated his shoulders due to the force of inertia after the abrupt stop.
- Calm down, boy. You're okay. - After a short examination, she soothingly stroked the frightened Neville's back.
And then she turned to us. " I'm going to take him to the hospital wing now, and you wait for me and do nothing. Leave your brooms on the ground. Anyone who touches a broom in my absence will be out of Hogwarts faster than they can say the word 'Quidditch'. Come on, my dear."
Madame Hooch put her arm around the tearful Neville and led him towards the castle. Neville was limping badly and remembering where else his clothes could press during a sudden stop, we couldn't help but think that perhaps without our intervention he would have felt less pain...
As soon as they were far enough away for Madam Hooch to hear, Malfoy burst out laughing.
- Have you seen his face? He's clumsy - a real sack!
The rest of the Slytherin first years joined him.
"Shut up, Malfoy," Parvati Patil snapped.
"Oh, you're sticking up for that prat Longbottom?" asked Pansy Parkinson, a Slytherin with coarse features. "I never knew you liked fat, whiny boys like that."
"Look!" Malfoy shouted, rushing forward and picking something up from the ground. "It's that stupid thing his granny sent him."
The reminder sparkled in the rays of the sun.
"Give her to me, Malfoy," Harry said quietly, stepping forward decisively.
After which a squabble began, probably familiar to every Potter fan, during which Potter showed his talent for flying and became the youngest seeker of the century, and now we watched as Professor McGonagall took Harry to the castle.
- Ha-ha-ha-ha. That's hilarious, it's so stupid to get kicked out of school. - Malfoy laughed when the professor and Potter had gone a sufficient distance away, and we turned to our classmates.
- Sorry. - Andromeda said.
"But we'll lose a lot of points today," Regulus added.
And before the others could even figure out what was going on, we all drew our wands at the same time and pointed them at Malfoy.
- Aguamenti.
- Glacius.
Two spells were cast at the same time and soon everyone saw Malfoy, encased in a block of ice.