Part One
Coversion Factor: 1 pound = 0.453592 kilogram, 1 yard = 0.9144 meter
07:00 A.M.
Grounds, Udagamandalam Academy of Magic(உதகமண்டலம் அகாடமி ஆஃப் மேஜிக்), Tamil Nadu, India
25th May, 1985.
Hadrian replaced his trousers with shorts of same colour. He went from the changing rooms to the grounds when he sensed a faint magical energy. He surmised it be a ward of some kind. Guru Pathik was a man with a lean build. He was sitting on a rock with a whistle when the students gathered. Then he blew his whistle and asked all the students to gather in rows of four. He got up from the rock and started speaking:
"Welcome to Physical Development and Combat. I am Guru Arjun Pathik and I am going to be your instructor till the school authorities decide to fire me for the tough regimen I put students through. Hopefully you all will root for me as students have done in the past seven years. Now on to better talks. Let me provide you with an overview of what we will be covering in this class. First we will start with conditioning of our bodies. Look around the grounds. You will be able to see a circular track divided into four laps. Each lap is of four hundred meters each. An average 15 year old child can cover 100 meters in 11-13 seconds. But I will allow it be 20 since this is your first class and you are 5 years of age. That will mean your minimum time for 400 meters should come out be 1 minute 20 seconds. So this means our entire running track will be covered in 5 minutes 20 seconds."
"But what are the laps for then, one might ask? The three lap boundaries in between refer to weighted clothes. After the first lap, everyone of you will fasten a 5 kg belt around your waist and go in for the second lap. The next weight would be a 10 kg belt and the final weight would be of 15 kg. This will be done for 1 hour. You can run independently because your lap will not be dependent on anyone else. The next hour will be given to dodging. We will start with wooden balls. Then we will move to wooden chisels. And finally to wooden knives."
"After you are deemed competent in running and dodging, we shall be focusing on gymnastics and yoga for flexibility. After that we shall work on strength. We will be working with lifting stones, rubber tyres and finally see that slightly steep slope of the mountain? We will be doing uphill stone dragging. After these, we shall work on balance. Starting with wooden plates, standing on one leg, or one hand."
"After these, we will have you working on speed and precision. You will be given wooden daggers to throw at first static targets while you will also be stationary. Next on dynamic targets while you will be stationary and lastly when you also will be moving. After these, we will cover the most unpleasant part of combat. Pain Tolerance. Hot sand, cold ice, punching bag training, fall training, staff and baton hit training. There is also a part of electrocution training which is taught to select few students."
"Only after all these, we shall move to martial arts. You will be trained in the oldest martial art style of the world, Kalaripayattu. Kalaripayattu is divided into four stages: Maithari; body control exercises, Kolthari; wooden weapon training, Ankathari; metal weapon training and finally Verumkai; unarmed combat. You see? Even before your actual martial art training, you would have completed its first stage. After Kalaripayattu, we will train in magical combat. Till we reach magical combat, you will have learnt enough spells from Transfiguration and Charms to apply here. You will also be taught combat spells here. As for the rest part of our class, that is a secret, an execution of that class I'm sure you will notice now. Now lets get started."
With that he got up. Hadrian looked at the time and thought, 'Oh its nearly 7:05. Wait-what?! But he has been talking for nearly 17 minutes! What?! How?!' And then he looked at his fellow classmates and saw many had reached the same conclusion. Guru Pathik smirked and said, "Yes, yes I know you would notice. This is a part of Dimensional Magic. Time Dilation. For the last 20 minutes I have spent talking inside this time ward, 5 minutes has passed in the outside world. So why do your watches show real time? Because their mechanics is not affected by change I cause with Dimension Magic. Time Dilation and Time Compression are used only for short instances in combat, which boosts speed and attack power respectively. Now lets get to running, shall we?" With that, he clapped his hands and everybody fell into line.
09:00 A.M.
Mind Arts Classroom, Udagamandalam Academy of Magic(உதகமண்டலம் அகாடமி ஆஃப் மேஜிக்), Tamil Nadu, India
25th May, 1985.
Hadrian was dragging his feet after that physical development. 'This is physical development?! This is more like hitting hot iron to reshape it into a desired shape. No wonder Māmā Dhiraj is an expert in battle magic.'
Guru Pathik had put up another time dilation ward at the end of the class for them to take a shower. All the students walked into Mind Arts classroom where Guru Sarpanchal was sitting on a matress on the ground, looking a bit translucent? Also there was another chair behind him where no one was seated. There was a big matress spread out in front of him. After all the students joined, Guru Sarpanchal spoke:
"Welcome to Mind Arts. I am Guru Suresh Sarpanchal. Knowing the name of the study, I know many of you have a clear idea of what we are about to expect in this class. Still, I will provide you with a basic summary of what we are going to do. First of all, we will start with meditation techniques. We will be seated in Lotus Yoga Pose or Padmasana. We will be doing medication techniques till you find your mindscape. A place where you will find your memories. It will a formless space at beginning. Finding it is the starting factor of Occlumency."
"Occlumency is the art of shielding your mind from mental intrusions. Occlumency is divided into many levels. Level I: Memory Arrangement and Perfect Recall. Level II: Rudimentary Shields. Level III: Emotional Mastery. Level IV: Mind Palace. A contruct of your own choosing where your memories will be protected. Level V: Parallel Thought Processing. An advanced process, where you divide your thinking capabilites into separate streams, allowing you to think multiple things at once. I will warn you thoroughly that unnecessary creation of thought streams can fracture your mind if left uncontrolled or the strain becomes too much. Level VI: Attachment to Magical Core. This is a strenous process, the completion of which will allow you to bend magic according to your will and it will greatly augment your previous occlumency levels. Level VII: This level has no name. But its goal is to develop a form of occlumency where the effects of offensive capabilities against a legilimens are seen and felt on the physical body itself. There are side-by-side practices of developing fake memories to confuse a legilimens."
"Legilimency is not divided into stark levels. But there are still certain stages you have to achieve. Here is how I divide them into stages: Stage I: Feeling emotions from others. Stage II: Looking for surface thoughts. Stage III: Probing a verbal legilimency to look for memories. Stage IV: Mental Conversations and Commanding. Stage V: False Vision Creation. Stage VI: (A) Psychic Attacking. Causing physical damage through Legilimency. (B) Psychic Healing or Psychic Surgery. Extremely hard to master since a legilimens need to have a tight leash on their control when looking for healing. Stage VII: Aura Projection. Manifest a form of your inner aura and projecting it through the mind into the real world. Usually advised to create the form of your physical body to avoid deception."
"There is also a mind arts tactic involving both occlumency and legilimency. That is the Trojan Horse tactic. You allow a legilimens to attack your mind. Then through occlumency, you bind him in your mind for the time being. Then with Legilimency, you follow the mind link to the attacker's mind and plant a 'leech' or a 'trojan horse', mask its signature with the signature of the legilimens. The next time your minds are connected, you can retake the leech, thus taking information from the attacker's mind."
"Some of us here may get their mindscape very quickly, as if it is second nature to them. They are referred to as Natural Legilimens or Occlumens depending on the type they are practicing. Also, there is an interesting sub-class about Mind Arts which is difficult to master and is rarely used. That is Psychometry. The art of reading the past events surrounding a particular object by touching the object, as if to look for memories with respect to the object. The reason it is rarely used because there are spells for same. This is mainly used by high level curse breakers when they are entering an area where active magic is nullified or is volatile in the area."
"Okay... enough about the intricacies of Mind Arts. Now lets proceed to meditating. Try not to fall asleep, okay?" With that, Hadrian noticed that Guru Sarpanchal was starting to look more and more translucent and then he burst into mists. Then the area on the chair shimmered and out walked Guru Sarpanchal from there. 'What? Wasn't he looking like a 30 year old man? Why is he looking old now?
"Ah you must be wondering what happened. That was Aura Projection. How hypocritical of me to advise that your real-life appearance is to be maintained when I myself did not do it. But I get tired of looking old. Also, I was quite the handsome man in my youth, so why not?" Guru Sarpanchal had a cheshire grin on his mouth. Hadrian thought, 'My two teachers so far had a sense of humour in them. If this is the level of magic I'm about to expect, then I'm sure I will be one of the most powerful wizards in Britain when I return for Hogwarts.'
With that, he, along with his classmates got in the Padmasana position and began to meditate.
10:00 A.M.
Transfiguration Classroom, Udagamandalam Academy of Magic(உதகமண்டலம் அகாடமி ஆஃப் மேஜிக்), Tamil Nadu, India
25th May, 1985.
Hadrian was walking towards the transifguration classroom, thinking about the contrast in the environment of the two classes he had. One demanded energy while the other thrived in tranquility. While the other was tiring, this was relaxing. Also it completely prepared the students for transfiguration since transfiguration requires concentration and will. He entered the transfiguration classroom and took a seat in the benches provided. Guru Karthik was seated on his chair with notes on his desk and a cascade of calculations on the board behind.
When all settled down, Guru Karthik started to speak: "Welcome to Transfiguration Class. Transfiguration is a branch of magic which involves changing of the structural molecular integrity of a given object to that of the another object. But then, no wizard would ever go hungry or poor, if that is the case. But we don't see such things happen, do we? So? Of-course, there are limitations and rules about what you transfigure, how you transfigure. Are we changing it permanently or temporarily. Transfiguration is a serious branch of magic where the smallest mishap might lead to horrifying ends. So I would request all of you not to be careless in this class."
"Now lets take a look at the basic transfiguration formula. The intended result is taken as 't', body weight as 'a', viciousness as 'v', wand power as 'w', concentration as 'c' and finally spell incantation as 'Z'. The formula looks like this: t = (w × c × Z )/(a × v ) . The things you need to have is visualization and intent. You have to visualize what to transfigure to, the complexity is gained if you take attention to detail. Intent is required. You cannot force it, you have to want it. There is also proper wand movement and incantation."
"Today we shall be transfiguring matchsticks into hairpins. Note there will be various strata of this class. First you will see many of you would produce an outer shaped hairpins while the inside is still wooden and it will soon revert back into a matchstick. You have to consider some laws while attempting transfiguration. First will be a basic law, that is called, Law of Conservation of Mass. It means mass can neither be created nor destroyed, but can only be changed from one form to another. But then what is conjuration? You are changing air into the required result. Please note that food cannot be created by conjuration, except for a few beverages which will have no energy in them. This is one of the exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration. Enough explanations, now lets have some hands on experience. Now take out your wands and lets get started."
With that, the students started their transfiguration with varying levels of success. Hadrian got it in the second try. After five minutes of non-stop muttering of incantations, Guru Karthik spoke up: "All right, all those who could transfigure it, congratulations, while all those who couldn't, you have the rest of the period to try. For those who have successfully done it, please attempt to keep it longer for today. Maintain the transfiguration. Try to increase the amount of time the matchstick remains a hairpin."
With that, Hadrian started with the master's instructions. After thirty minutes, nearly all of them have successfully managed to not only transfigure, but also retained their matchsticks as hairpin. Guru Karthik then continued, "Excellent! Now we shall move to our next part of the class. Mass Shifting and Shape Allocation. We shall make various shapes of hairpins, with only the given mass of matchstick provided. In this lesson, we shall shift mass to give shape. Now here, proficiency is based on how intricate and finer the shape is. So without further ado, let's get started."
With that, the students resumed their transfigurations. After 20 minutes, Hadrian had managed a spiral at the end of the clasp of the hairpin. Some had gone for rings, some for beads in between while others have gone for kinks. Guru Karthik then started to speak, "Well done all of you! I will be giving you one homework which is to be submitted by the fourth class. In the homework, I want brief explanations of transfiguration rules and expected procedures to follow while transfiguring a mouse into a goblet, which will be our next transfiguration till we master this completely. Note that you will be marked on a basis of 10, with marks given for the detail used in transfiguration. Now then, I conclude today's class. Good day to you all. Thank you."
11:00 A.M.
Greenhouse Tier One, Udagamandalam Academy of Magic(உதகமண்டலம் அகாடமி ஆஃப் மேஜிக்), Tamil Nadu, India
25th May, 1985.
Hadrian walked over to the greenhouses, excited about his herbology class. The transfiguration class was incredible. Who knew that even basic transfigurations require this much thought? Nevertheless, he enjoyed his class. He entered the greenhouse and saw Guru Nayar setting up equipments.
When all entered the greenhouse, Guru Nayar started speaking: "Hello class, I am Guru Prakash Nayar and I will be your Herbology instructor. In these classes, you will expect the following. First we will start with gardening, potting, watering and manuring techniques. I will ask each and everyone of you to wear dragonhide gloves. We will cover up a great variation of plants in the magical world. Some of the classes will take place in the Botany Lab, where microscopical properties of magical plants will be studied, along with extraction of ingredients from them. While in the lab, you will use lab coats and gloves made of hide of a shadow chimera. Guru Pathik had slain one long time ago and we used the skin to create gloves. Warm and slightly fluid in the inside due to the shadow powers of the chimera and tough on the outside, just like a chimera's skin. The reason is many times we shall work with volatile, explosive and dangerous plants. Now then, we shall proceed to potting techniques."
With that, the class started. After forty five minutes, everyone's hands were covered in mud and clothes were stained. Guru Nayar spoke up, "Okay class, well done. Quite the strainous exercise, isn't it? Now you will find that through the end door, there are changing rooms and showers. Those who wish to shower can take a shower while others please get cleaned before you go for lunch. I conclude today's class. Good day to you all."
12:00 Noon
Dining Hall, Udagamandalam Academy of Magic(உதகமண்டலம் அகாடமி ஆஃப் மேஜிக்), Tamil Nadu, India
25th May, 1985.
With the morning half of his classes complete, Hadrian walked to the dining hall with kinks in his legs. What a strenuous day. Atleast for next of his classes, he will be seated. With that, he proceeded to have his lunch and continue his rest of the classes.