Lessons
Dorea handed him a time table, before he could even start to eat and Tom simply stared at it with glee. There was no math on it. Not even a single lesson! And also, no etiquette training and no economy class! This school was amazing! His first lesson of the day was charms and they had it together with the Hufflepuffs. While he walked there with Constance, he told her about the fight he had the day before and his worry, that Abraxas and Gordian would run to Dumbledore.
Constance chuckled and shook her head. “No, they are pure-bloods! They would never admit, that a mud... a muggle born defeated them in a fight. They would not even admit it, if you told them, you were a half-blood.”, she explained and looked over to Abraxas, who was hurrying past them, his bruises still very visible. “What about Miss Noodles? She won't get in trouble, right?”, Tom asked with worry in his voice. Now Constance started to laugh. “Your big, sleepy snake? No, they would have to admit, that you can actually control her and a parselmouth with muggle blood is the biggest insult to those old pure-blood families there is.”, she explained. That made Tom feel much better.
Their Charms Professor was called Burke, he was the head of Slytherin house, and Constance knew him already. Apparently, he was her father's colleague's older brother. He already sat behind his desk and didn’t even look up, as the students sat down. The Slytherins on the right, the Hufflepuffs on the left. Burke started the lesson once the class had quieted down, by checking the attendance list and writing something down on the blackboard.
They didn’t actually do any magic at first, but copied a lot of formulas and sketches of hand motions onto their parchment. Then they practiced the wand motions. Professor Burke complimented Tom’s fluid motions and then snapped at Malfoy for gripping his wand way to tightly. (“It’s a wand, not a knife you want to stab someone with, Mr. Malfoy! What would your mother say?”)
It soon became apparent, that Burke was strict, but fair. He didn’t let mistakes slide, but also gave points and compliments, when his students did good. While Tom drew the edgy shape, that was needed for the light charm “Lumos”, into the air, Burk made Alice Axman stand in front of the class and showed everybody how flawlessly she held her wand. Alice, who, judging by her cross necklace and rubber-sole shoes was from a muggle family as well, grinned widely at the Professors compliment, completely ignoring the glares Gordian and Abraxas shot her.
Then, at the end of the lesson, they finally got to try the new charm out. Only three wand tips lit up at first: Tom’s, Alice’s and a boy’s who Tom believed was called Ben Jinn. Alphard Black scooted over to Tom and Constance. “Hey, Riddle, snake boy, how are you doing that?”, he whispered. He had never been so close to Tom. In fact, he was so close now, that Tom could smell the almond like scent of his hair. Tom felt a blush creeping up his neck, into his cheeks. “Ahm, you just have to do the movement, think of light, and say “Lumos”, like Professor Burke said.”, he stammered.
Alphard nodded and tried again. In the meantime Constance had managed to light her wand up and excitedly showed Tom. By the time the lesson ended, almost everybody had managed to cast the Lumos and Nox charms and Professor Burke told them, that they had done a good job and gave both houses five points. Then he told them, that they had to research the wand movements and uses for “Aguamenti” as homework.
Then they had transfiguration with the Ravenclaws. Tom was quite excited to see the subject Minerva was best in so far, until he entered the class room and saw the teacher. Professor Dumbledore wore a lime green robe with sparkly yellow lemons made from sequins on it. On his red hair sat a big, green hat with the same pattern, and lemon charms were woven into his beard. Seeing him alone made Tom angry.
The lesson was really boring. Dumbledore explained a lot of transfiguration theory, painted diagrams and little, smiling lemons onto the blackboard and told them to copy the diagrams. Alphard copied the lemons too, giggling like a maniac. They didn’t even get to do transfiguration jet, but Dumbledore said, that they would not actually transform anything yet. Only in the next lesson they would transfigure tooth picks into needles.
By the time the lesson was over, Tom felt incredibly tired. He had expected a lot from Dumbledore, but not that his lessons would be boring. Hopefully the next lesson would be more interesting. Tom yawned, while he sat down at lunch next to Constance. “That... was so unbelievably boring”, Constance mumbled, while loading a pile of vegetables onto her plate. Tom nodded. “Yeah, this is the most boring lesson ever. How could a man as glittery as Dumbledore be this boring?”, he yawned.
“Tom! Tom!”, Minerva suddenly screamed from the other end of the hall and ran over to them. She waved a newspaper in her hand. Constance tilted her head to the side. “Please tell me this is about the Magpies winning!”, she said, suddenly awake again. Minerva slammed the newspaper down, in front of Tom, taking a seat at the Slytherin table with wide eyes.