Path to Power: Training

07:00 P.M.
Healing Arts Classroom, Udagamandalam Academy of Magic (உதகமண்டலம் அகாடமி ஆஃப் மேஜிக்), Tamil Nadu, India
25th May, 1985.

Hadrian walked in the Healing Arts classroom which was a sight to behold. Painted in marble white, full of human body models which were blurred by an obscuring charm, put on a spinning pedestal with a number of buttons on it, a couple of chairs around the models, a board with symbols on it and a faint smell of antiseptics, which is to be expected considering this is a Healing Arts classroom. Gurvi Deshai was standing near a model herself while she waited for the rest of the students to come. After five minutes, all had entered and Gurvi Deshai began:

"Welcome to Healing Arts class. I am Gurvi Aadarshini Deshai and I will be your Healing Arts instructor. Healing Magic is an extremely important branch of magic whose demand will be there as long as wizardry and witchcraft is alive. It is a very diverse field of magic. But before we attempt healing, whether magical or non-magical, we need to know about the anatomy of wizards and witches."

"As you can see, this class is equipped with human body models, which we will be learning through observation. You will see that there are buttons on the pedestal upon which they have been placed. There are three strata of buttons, all of which are charged by runes which either have a function of themselves or will carry out a specific spell. The first stratum contains buttons which will show the various systems in the human body and the magical sources inside human body. The second stratum contains buttons which will depict mundane injuries and the changes human body goes through both internally and externally when mundane injuries take place. The third stratum contains buttons which will depict magical injuries. So let's get started." With that she took out her wand and casted, "Finite Incantatem! "

The obscuring charm on the models lifted and all sprang into attention. Gurvi Deshai said, "Everyone press the button called the skeletal system." With that, a cacophony of buttons being pressed were heard. After all had completed that, Gurvi Deshai began again, "The skeletal system is one of the systems of the human body and it's main function is provide a framework for the body and provides support to muscles and protection of delicate internal organs. It also helps in movements and locomotion. First we shall start with the collection of bones which make a body remain upright."

"The backbone or vertebral column keeps the body upright. It is an important feature of phylum Chordata of which humans are part of. The vertebral column consists of 33 vetebral bones which are divided into five regions. This is the Cervical or the neck region, containing 7 free vertebrae, the Thoracic or chest region, containing 12 free vertebrae, the Lumbar, containing 5 free vertebrae, the Sacral containing 5 fused vertebrae and the Coccygeal containing 4 fused vertebrae. The last bone of the coccygeal vertebral column called the coccyx is also called the tailbone. The tailbone is located on the dorsal side of the body while in line with it, lies the vermiform appendix on the ventral side. When the appendix gets elongated unnaturally, it causes the tailbone to bulge out, which causes severe pain. The expected remedial is removal of appendix. The first cervical vertebra is called atlas and the second cervical vertebra is called axis. Atlas helps in up and down nodding of head while axis helps in sideways nodding of head. The space between every free vertebra is taken by an intervertebral disc. The joints of the vertebral column are termed as cartilaginous joints. With this we conclude our basic information of the vertebral column. Now we shall move on to the rib cage which protects the lungs and heart."

And the class continued. While healing arts might not be as complicated as runes or arithmancy, it makes up for the sheer amount of information. They went through all the systems of the human body. Now it was time for magical energies inside a human body. Gurvi Deshai spoke, "Please press the button saying chakras." As the students did so, they found the human body lighted up in seven colours from the genitals to the head.

Gurvi Deshai explained, "Chakras or discs are pools of energy located in the central axis of the human body which controls various physical or psychological attributes of the body. Let me be very clear that this concept of magical energies and pathways is very much still a hypothesis. We have seen this theory explaining most of the magical problems, so we accept it as a credible theory. A Mind Healer is more in tune with this than healers, mind you. Because we mostly deal with the physical side of healing. However, healing as a whole should never be limited to the physical. So this is taught to students at the very earliest."

"Now you can see that there are seven chakras which have a specific colour codec and is linked to a natural element. The seven chakras in order of their position in the human body from bottom to top are listed in the chart on the board. Look carefully and note that down." With that, everyone's attention focused to the symbols drawn on board. The board looked like this:

"So you can see these are the magical energies reciding in the human body. Each chakra has a core set of functions, which are vital for the human body. We are now going to discuss the various functions the chakras perform and the ailments that follow in their misalignment." Gurvi Deshai went on explaining all the functions of the chakras which took up most of the time. 

After she had finished with her explanations, she said, "This will be all for today. Next class we will be starting to deal with physical injuries such as wounds, their types, fractures and their types and burns with their types. We will be learning about dressing of wounds, wrapping of fractures and making salve for burns. We will also learn spells for the same. For now, I would want all of you to go through what has been taught today. Thank you class. Good night to you all."

The class departed, the fatigue of the day reaching them and their shoulders drooping down. Well two more classes to go. Better get to the Etiquettes class. As they say, never waste the time of a goblin. With that, they fastened their paces towards the classroom.

08:00 P.M.
Etiquettes, History and Politics Classroom, Udagamandalam Academy of Magic (உதகமண்டலம் அகாடமி ஆஃப் மேஜிக்), Tamil Nadu, India
25th May, 1985.

Hadrian walked into the classroom to find Goblin Balthazar dressed in expensive looking robes. His robes were silky black, which Hadrian was sure to be made of Acromantula Silk with a sky blue trim line which tapered into designs along the edges of the robe, the sleeve ends having the same design and an emblem of a shield and sword in golden embroidery on the left chest pocket area. When all entered, Goblin Balthazar spoke in a deep voice:

"Welcome to Etiquettes, History and Politics class. My name is Balthazar and I am a Warrior Class Goblin. While addressing me, you shall say Warrior Balthazar. We shall be conversing in the native language of Tamil Nadu, Tamil, however we will also learn to communicate in different languages, including Mermish, the language of Merpeople, Ghukliak, the language of Goblins, Sindarin and Quenya, the languages of Elves and Sylvan, the language of Centaurs. Also there are other languages which cannot be learnt unless you are born to be so. The best example would be Parseltongue, the languages of Snakes. There are other languages which are no longer spoken either because the species are extinct or there is no documented study. These include Khuzdul, the language of Dwarves and Shadar-Kai of Dementors and Lethifolds, respectively."

"Now we shall be moving on towards magical ettiquettes, history and politics", saying so, Warrior Balthazar launched into a deep discussion about the hierarchy status of various countries, then he moved on to the political hierarchy of Magical Britain, the establishment of Wizengamot and the 28 founding pureblood families. Hadrian found out that he was someone who was among the topmost echelons of Magical Britain. 

Warrior Balthazar discussed about the history of wizards, their various acheivements and incidents in history, the most notable among them were inter-racial wars, between Goblins and Wizards, deal of Elves with Wizards, the two wizarding Wars, the one by Gellert Grindelwald and the one by Voldemort. He also mentioned the person who stopped the first and resisted the second, Albus Dumbledore. Speaking about Dumbledore, Hadrian got to know about two other figures in magical history, Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel, world's most celebrated alchemists. His own grandfather's name came up, with Fleamont Potter inventing the Sleekeazy Potion and then Warrior Balthazar spoke about the Dragon Legion, led by his great grandfather Charlus Potter and his ally, Arcturus Black, followed by a recent renowned person, Damocles Belby, the inventor of the Wolfsbane Potion.

On and on the class went. Finally Warrior Balthazar had stopped with the history lesson and said with a bow, "These are the important events in our magical history. We will be discussing them in details next class onwards. Thank you for your time."

The class bowed back, offered their salutations and went for dinner. 

09:30 P.M.
Astronomy Grounds, Udagamandalam Academy of Magic (உதகமண்டலம் அகாடமி ஆஃப் மேஜிக்), Tamil Nadu, India
25th May, 1985.

Hadrian walked up to slight plateau of the Astronomy grounds. There was a huge three dimensional celestial sphere in the middle, which was surrounded by brass astronomical telescopes, while Guru Pathankar was standing near one of the telescopes. After the whole class gathered, Guru Pathankar spoke:

"Welcome to Astronomy Class. As you can see, we are at the grounds reserved for this class. There will be some classes taken in the Astronomy Classroom, when the weather would be unsatisfactory. Sometimes we will make a visit to another place close to the Doddabetta Peak, which is the astronomical observatory of Udagamandalam, the Radio Astronomy Centre. For now, we shall be looking at the scale of the universe."

"The comoving distance from Earth to the edge of the observable universe is about 14.26 gigaparsecs or 46.5 billion light years or 4.4 × 10²⁶ m. The observable universe is thus a sphere with a diameter of about 28.5 gigaparsecs or 93 billion light-years or 8.8×10²⁶ m. Assuming that space is roughly flat (in the sense of being a Euclidean space), this size corresponds to a comoving volume of about 1.22×10⁴ Gpc³ or 4.22×10⁵ Gly³ or 3.57×10⁸⁰ m³."

"We shall be explaining the expansion of the universe by using the Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker metric. The Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker metric is a metric based on an exact solution of the Einstein field equations of general relativity. The metric describes a homogeneous, isotropic, expanding (or otherwise, contracting) universe that is path-connected, but not necessarily simply connected. The general form of the metric follows from the geometric properties of homogeneity and isotropy; Einstein's field equations are only needed to derive the scale factor of the universe as a function of time. Depending on geographical or historical preferences, the set of the four scientists– Alexander Friedmann, Georges Lemaître, Howard P. Robertson and Arthur Geoffrey Walker – are variously grouped as Friedmann, Friedmann–Robertson–Walker (FRW), Robertson–Walker (RW), or Friedmann–Lemaître (FL). This model is sometimes called the Standard Model of modern cosmology, although such a description is also associated with the further developed Lambda-CDM model. The FLRW model was developed independently by the named authors in the 1920s and 1930s."

"Next we will be talking about alignment of planets and occurrence of important magical events which can be deduced using Astronomy", Guru Pathankar dutifully explained today's course. After a gruding one hour, finally Guru Pathankar spoke,"Well, that will be all for today's lesson. I will request to make a lunar chart about the satellite of Earth, that is, the Moon which is to be submitted by the next class. Thank you and good night to you all."

11:00 P.M.
Dorm Room, Udagamandalam Academy of Magic (உதகமண்டலம் அகாடமி ஆஃப் மேஜிக்), Tamil Nadu, India
25th May, 1985.

To say Hadrian was tired would be the understatement of the century. He was absolutely knackered after his first day of classes. He surmised that since this is the first class, it would take time getting used to. But he sincerely hoped that he can keep up with the pace. Changing into his dhoti again, he gave a long yawn and went to sleep. After all, he did have to wake up early.