17) Magical Theory

Almost an hour later, Keith walked out of Dumbledore’s office with a frown on his face.

“Choices…” he muttered to himself as he headed towards his dormitory to get his books for the day.

Once inside, he checked the timetable. Snow purred as she nuzzled against his ankles, making Keith crouch down to pet her.

“Charms, history and Herbology…” he muttered as he gave her pats with one hand and grabbed the books with the other before stuffing them into his bag. Then, he saw the time and shifted his focus to the timetable which said that the first period would start at 9 AM.

He then turned to look at the clock on his bedside table again, which showed 9:12.

That was when the fact that he was late, came crashing down on him. Panicking, he ran out.

Not knowing the location of the Charms classroom, he ran along the empty corridors, panicking more and more as time slowly passed. And that, was until he saw a chubby woman walking in front of him.

He ran over to her and skidded to a halt, panting heavily as he looked up at her. It was the same woman who was sitting beside Professor Sprout in the morning.

“Prof… haa professor! Can you please tell me…” he said, pausing and panting as he spoke, “where the charms classroom is?”

She gave him a surprised look for a second before nodding, “Of course. I guess you’re lucky because charms classroom is right there.” she said, pointing at a door on the right of the corridor which was a few meters from him.

Keith thanked her hurriedly sprinted without turning back. He pushed open the door with so much strength that he stumbled forward a little.

He looked up and stood straight as he stared at Professor Flitwick, who looked slightly surprised with the sudden disturbance.

Before Keith could explain though, he nodded and chuckled, “You did take your sweet time didn’t you? Come in and take a seat.”

Feeling relieved that he didn’t get punished, Keith closed the door behind him and looked at the students.

‘Slytherin…’ he groaned inwardly as he spotted Malfoy sitting nearby. He looked around and hurried towards Hannah who had an empty seat beside her.

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“What did professor say? Like teach.” he whispered softly.

Hannah leaned towards him and whispered back, “About wand safety. He’s done with it though and he just started to talk about the basics of spell casting when you interrupted the class.”

Keith was about to reply when he spotted a familiar face opposite to him, wearing the green and black slytherin robes. The girl waved at him with a wide grin on her face.

“Tracey…” he muttered and let out a soft smile as he waved back. He had expected her to just stop talking to him after the sorting.

‘Well… I think it’s nicer this way.’ he thought as he glanced at the girl with whom Tracy was sitting with.

She had long black hair, a cute face and overall, looked slightly more mature compared to the other girls nearby. But overall, she was a girl who did not stand out much.

Keith went back to Hannah while Tracy shifted her attention back to Professor Flitwick.

“And what did he say about the basics of spell casting?” he asked but felt a sharp pain on his arm. He looked down and saw a hand, pinching him.

Susan leaned backwards and let go of him, “Just listen, he still didn’t get to the main part.”

Nodding, he rubbed the area where she pinched and focused on the lesson.

“Before we get to the main part, can anyone tell me the rules for spell casting? Feel free to take a guess.” Flitwick said, grinning ear to ear as he looked at the students expectantly.

Ernie raised his hand and answered, “Professor, is it the spells? Without spells, we can’t cast them can we?”

“Well… you’re on the right path but that’s not the answer.”

Keith made eye contact with Susan who looked like she had a guess but didn’t wish to say it. He raised his hand up and spoke.

“Incantation?”

“Right!” Flitwick exclaimed as he pointed his finger at Keith, “Anything else?”

This time, Susan answered, “Wand movement.”

“Right again! Now what about the last one?”

Malfoy spoke this time, without raising his hand, “Intent.”

Professor Flitwick clapped enthusiastically, “Correct! Ten points for Hufflepuff and five points for Slytherin. Right then, wand movement, incantation and intent are the building blocks for any spell.”

“Professor.” Keith said, raising his hand up in the air.

Flitwick looked at him and nodded, “Yes, Keith?”

“I saw my parents use magic without any wand movement a lot of times. My sister used to do the wand movements during her first three years at school but even she slowly began to use magic without the wand movements. Is there a reason for this?”

Flitwick nodded, “A really good question. You’ll learn about this from Magical theory class if you pick it up as your optional subject in your third year but I’ll tell you the basics. The wand movements are mostly used to help you get a feel for magic.

“As people use more spells, they get used to it without noticing the changes and in a few years, they can just skip the wand movement part. There’s also nonverbal magic which you could learn based on your needs in the future. It teaches you to skip the incantations too but not completely.

“You’ll have to say the spell in your head for it to work. As for the wand movements, the changes that you do not notice is called the flow of magic in general. You instinctively learn it, similar to breathing.”

Keith nodded slowly, and he still had questions but he decided to keep them to himself for now. He took out a parchment from his bag and began to take notes.

At the corner, he made a note for himself; Magical Theory.