Monday 6th January
Back
to lessons! After the stress of last terms exams, I never thought that I would
actually be happy to say that. I really am excited to find out all of the magic
that we will be learning this term. It was really great to see everyone again
too. Walking into the Great Hall this morning, Fred and George waved at me. A
huge smile broke across my face as I waved back. Okay, so I got a few strange
looks from some of the Slytherins (and a few Gryffindors), but I didn’t care.
It made me feel well wanted. My group of Slytherin friends were really cheerful
this morning too. Pansy made it her mission to wish all of us good morning
first, before anyone else. She gave Jed and Goyle a hug, but Blondie scooted
away and sat between Jed and Blaise before she could reach him. It was quite
funny. Josie even came up to me and Jed at breakfast and hugged us both.
“Someone’s in a good mood,” Jed mused. Pinching her lips in, Josie shrugged at
him.
“I
dunno,” she giggled. “I just wanted to say hi.” That was a nice surprise too –
very nice. It seems like everyone is in such a good mood today.
*
When
it came to our Potions lesson, even Professor Snape seemed to be in a lighter
mood. He talked us through the topics that we would be covering before the end
of the year: Wideye Potion, Antidote to common poisons, as well as the
importance of major ingredients, such as Flobberworm Mucus, Asphodel and
Moondew. Before the end of the lesson he muttered something to do with the
Draught of Living Death, but I didn’t quite catch all of what he said – Jed, Seamus,
Dean and I were too busy trying to aim Zappits (which are like spit balls, only
they shock you) at the back of Crabbe’s head. Snape never noticed, or if he did,
he let us get away with it.
At
the end of the lesson, Professor Snape handed us pieces of parchment with our
results from last term on. I got 92%, which to me seems pretty amazing,
considering I didn’t know any of this stuff before the first of September. Jed
got 89% – he would have gotten higher if he hadn’t misspelt Wiggenweld as
Wiggleweld every single time. Little-Miss-Show-Off-Granger
got 100%, but I don’t really care. So longs as I passed (you needed to get 80%
correct) then I really don’t care.
*
After Potions was
Herbology. Josie was already sat waiting for us, when Jed and I got there. We
had an interesting lesson. Professor Sprout took the whole class through one of
the greenhouses where we had planted our Puffapod sproutlings, not long before
half term. Puffapods are used to ward off trolls, as they appear to be allergic
to the scent. All of Professor Sprouts Puffapods had been used when the troll
escaped from the dungeon on Hallowe’en, so we were set the task of growing some
more for her.
Some
of the plants had grown better than others. Mine and Josie’s seemed okay. Jed’s
wasn’t bad either, but it was lacking leaves. Pansy’s hadn’t grown at all.
There was a hole where her name tag stood. Holding a hand over her mouth, I
could see Josie was trying to hide a giggle. I don’t see why, but those pair
really have it in for each other. It was kind of amusing though. The day really
wasn’t going well for Pansy.
*
After Potions, Jed,
Josie and I spent our lunch break in Hagrid’s hut. Hagrid expressed how proud
he was of us all for doing so well last term. While Jed and Josie helped Hagrid
with some type of stew that he was mixing in a huge cauldron, I got to play
with Fang. Walking around outside of Hagrid’s hut, I found a large stick and
threw it out for Fang to fetch. Leaping after it, Fang caught it between his
teeth, before galloping back towards me. Dropping the stick at my feet, he
barked before slobbering all over my hand. Laughing, I scratched his head.
“Who’s a good boy?” I said as I reached out for the stick again. Fang twitched
at my side, waiting for me to throw it. I jerked my arm forwards. Fang leapt
forwards, before shooting his head over his shoulder back at me. I tricked him.
I hadn’t thrown it yet. Racing back towards me he barked, wagging his tail.
“Alright, alright,” I chuckled. “Come on Fang, let’s got long.” Throwing the stick,
it flew over Hagrid vegetable patch. Darting to the ground, it skidded towards
the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Charging the towards the stick, Fang looked
like a horse – after all he was huge. His paws slid against the dirt, as he
slowed his pace. He whimpered. Turning back, he left the stick behind and
galloped towards me, barking all the while. “Fang!” I cried. “Fang, are you
okay, boy?” Crashing into me, he whimpered again.
The
door to Hagrid’s hut swung open. Hagrid, Jed and Josie stood in the doorway.
“What happened?” gasped Jed.
“Is
Fang okay?” Josie cried. Crouching down, I rubbed Fang’s back over and over,
holding him near me.
“We
were playing fetch,” I told them. “When something scared him. I couldn’t see
anything though. No one was there.”
“Scaredy
dog,” muttered Hagrid.
After
a little bit of persuasion, we finally managed to get Fang back inside. I have
no idea what could have scared him so much though. Hagrid seemed to think that
Fang just got scared of a bird or something rustling in the bushes, but I
didn’t see or hear anything move. Fang seemed fine by the time we left, so
that’s all that really matters.
*
I found out that I
passed Charms and Transfiguration too. Professor Flitwick had given me 94.5% –
apparently, I would have gotten 95% if the movement of my feather had been a
little more steady. After giving out our test results, Professor Flitwick went
on to tell us a number of spells which we need to learn by the end of the
academic year. There are loads and they all sound a lot more complicated than
Wingardium Leviosa, which I feel like it took me forever to get.
The
first of the new charms that Professor Flitwick told us about is a softening
charm called Spongify (which literally sounds like it’s spelt: sponge-ee-fye).
This spell is supposed to make things slightly rubbery or bouncy. The wand
movement for this spell is pretty easy to remember too, you just have to make
an ‘S’ shape.
The
next spell that he taught us was the fire-making charm, Incendio (which, like
Spongify, is pronounced exactly as you would imagine: in-sen-dee-oh). This
charm produces fire. That sounds a good idea now that it’s freezing. I’d like
to be able to start a fire whenever I want – the one problem is, is that I
wouldn’t know how to put it out… maybe Aguament (the water-making spell) would
do. The wand movement is kind of like the outline of a flame to – sort of like
a slightly curved, upside-down letter ‘V’.
The
third charm is a spell to lock doors, so that they can’t be opened manually.
This spell is called Colloportus (it’s pronounced Cull-low-poor-tus, with
emphasis on ‘poor’ part). This wand movement is a little more difficult;
Professor Flitwick had to draw it on the blackboard, because none of us could
understand what he meant. I guess in a strange way, it kind of looks like
you’re drawing a straight edged letter ‘P’ in the air. You point your wand out
and trace a horizontal line from left to right, then you go down a little,
before going back horizontally left, towards where you started, then you drag
your wand down. Like I said, it’s complicated to explain.
The
next charm was the unlocking spell – which makes sense, being as he was going
to teach us how to lock stuff. The unlocking spell seems a little more
complicated. It’s called Alohomora (pronounced al-loh-ha-more-ah) and involves
making a sort of backwards ‘S’ shaped wand movement. The unlocking charm only
unlocks locks that have been locked with magic though. If you lock your door
with a key and lose the key, they spell doesn’t work in the same way – which is
like what happened to Professor Quirrell earlier in the school year.
The
spell that Flitwick talked to us about, he did say that he didn’t expect any of
us to get, as it was the hardest First-Year charm. “Even some of my Fifth-Years
are still struggling,” he warned us. This spell is known as the dancing feet
spell. It forces the other person (or thing, as Professor Flitwick explained
that we would be testing it on a pineapple near the end of the year) to dance
uncontrollably. The spell is Tarantallegra (pronounced: ta-ron-ta-leg-gra),
which I remember Josie using to make the cups dance on Hallowe’en. The wand
movement looked really complicated though. Again, we had to get the professor
to draw it on the board. I guess in a way, it kind of looked like a jaggedy
lowercase ‘n’ with slightly curly ends.
Whilst
in class, I decided that I’d better draw these wand movements out, so that I
don’t forget them. I knew keeping a stash of Hogwarts napkins in my bag (and
pockets) would come in handy. Here we go:
Last
lesson of the day was Transfiguration. Like with Charms, Professor McGonagall
told us that there were a bunch of things that we were going to have to learn –
sadly a lot of it is theory. I don’t mind theory work, I like understanding how
things happen and why, it’s just that it tends to be overly complicated. It’s
often too difficult to understand by just reading it out of the ‘A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration’ textbook when
McGonagall sets us a chapter to read for homework. More often than not I have
had to get Josie to explain it to me and sometimes even she doesn’t get it
first time around.
The one thing that I’m worrying
about most is some equation that the professor keeping going on about. Although
she didn’t go into any detail about it, Professor McGonagall wrote this on the
blackboard: Transfiguration formula variables:
Bodyweight (a)
Viciousness (v)
Wand power (w)
Concentration I
Unknown variable (Z)
I have
no idea what that means, but it reminds me heavily of Muggle Maths, which
scares me, because I really hate Maths.
On the
plus side, I did score 97% in last term’s Transfiguration test. Professor
McGonagall said that it was one of the highest grades in the class. I guess
studying loads really does pay off. I’d hate to think what my grade would be
like if I didn’t study as much as I did – I guess I have Josie to thank for
keeping me on task.
-
Josie -
