#time for magic

[craftcliniciancreative]

there is a major storm brewing where I live. while part of me fears potential fallout from flash floods, another part of me can’t help but think “perfect time to do magic”

[amongthefantasyofroses]

Let’s do this.

[adventurechronicales-blog]

First lesson

Come morning, Ada and her friends woke up to the warm, early September air. Down in the massive stone Grand Hall, they sat together at antiquated looking wooden tables. Perhaps a dozen other students were there.  There were plates of eggs, bacon, toast, sausage, muffins, as well as pitchers of milk and juice.

“Good morning, everyone! I trust you all slept well?” The headmaster, in purple robes with gold stars and a matching hat held his arms up in a welcoming gesture. 

A few muttered responses are heard. 

“Well, in an hour, your first lesson starts.  I expect to see you all on the practice lawn bright eyed and bushy tailed with minds ready to learn.”

Ada shot the headmaster a look of utter annoyance.

An hour later, all the students were gathered on the practice lawn, looking much more awake. Ada adjusted the sleeves of her pale blue dress. Val stretched out, the baggy sleeves of her mint green dress sliding down her arms.

A skeleton walks onto the field. “Hello, young ones! I am Professor Tarsilious, and we will be starting with safety today.”

Ada just stares blankly at him.

“Lets start with you,” he gestures for Val to come forward.

“This can’t be good,” Unrak muttered to Ada, who nodded in agreement.

Val stepped forward. Four steps in, she tripped over her own feet.  As she was going down, the professor faced his palm to her, dousing the ground around her with water. When she hit the ground, she ignited.  The wet ground didn’t ignite.

Professor Tarsilious sighs, and lowers his head for a few seconds.

“Sorry! I didn’t mean to!” Val profusely apologizes. “I can’t really control when I ignite.

Professor Tarsilious shakes his head. “That wasn’t lack of control of your powers, that was sparked by your own lack of confidence. Am I right to assume when you tripped, you feared igniting?”

She nodded, blushing.  

“You may step back.” He gestured to Ada. “Your turn.”

Ada stepped forward, wringing her hands nervously. The professor points to a foot cubed block of wood. “Levitate that.”

Ada raised her right arm half way, reached out with her left arm, snatched her fingers shut on air, and flicked her hand up. The block popped up in the air, slowly rotating counter-clockwise, and abruptly fell.

“Yes, that was a nice lift off, but your shock at your own powers working would have kept it airborne.”

Ada drew her eyebrows together with her mouth slightly open.

“And yes, I am a mind reader.” 

Unrak muttered to Ada again.

“Is there something you wish to share with the class?”

“We were just wondering...where did this school come from?” 

“Over a thousand years ago, the greatest magic users of the age banded together to help those, who, put nicely, could use a master of magic to learn from.”

All the students sat down.

“These magic users were originally making an army to fight a cruel sorcerer, who wanted nothing more than to rule the world with magic.  And fear. He wanted his army to keep non magic people as inferiors, slaves, if you will. He thought that magic was all the power anyone needed.”

“How did that go?” Ada asked.

“We won the war.” The sorcerer was killed. Without him, the original reason for the academy was gone, but we had created a very good thing, and saw no reason for it to end.”

“Why wasn’t any of that included in the letter?” Unrak asked.

“That’s a good question.  I don’t know.  Anyway. Back to the lesson.  The safety lesson.”

What I chose to work with for this post were minor ideas that became important later on in the Harry Potter series. First, Neville Longbottom proves to be very poor at magic, until the fifth book, that is.  He had been using his father’s wand.  When he acquired his own, the results of his magic changed dramatically. It is the wand that chooses the wizard in that world.  Given there are no wands in my world, I changed it to the instruction.  Val was never taught to have confidence in herself, whereas Ada is self taught.  This causes them to make simple mistakes.  

The idea for the teacher being able to read minds comes from legilimency, magically invading someone’s mind.  Tarsilious is taking a look at the student’s minds to both anticipate potential disasters, such as what he did with Val. This also helps him get to know his students, both their abilities and their personalities. 

As to the magical history, part of the idea is from Lord Voldemort, and his take over in the final book when ‘Magic is Might’ became the Ministry of Magic’s new slogan. The school served its purpose, but still thrives a thousand years later.  This is similar to  The Order of the Phoenix, a secret society formed to stop Voldemort and his death eaters.  The biggest difference is that between Voldemort’s fall when he tried and failed (for the first of many times) to kill baby Harry Potter, the Order became dormant.  They did not fall apart, but without the Death Eaters reeking havok everywhere, the Order had peace.  When Voldemort came back in the 4th book, the order had to get ready for round 2. Since my academy is training the not-so-secret society, they saw no reason to discontinue.  

 http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Magic_is_Might

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Voldemort

http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Hogwarts_founders

http://www.glamour.com/entertainment/blogs/obsessed/2015/09/fascinating-harry-potter-fan-theories?mbid=social_fb_fanpage

http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Legilimency

http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Order_of_the_Phoenix