Harry Potter and the Potter Grimoire

Chapter 22: Teaching Alphas

Harry sighed as he slipped into the desk. As soon as his bag touched the floor, a parchment appeared on his desk. The term Pop Quiz was atop and the questions were on the board. He pulled a quill out and rapidly started to answer. All twenty questions, each increasing in difficulty were answered to the best of his ability. Even the one asking about the reaction between an Incarcerous and a stone turning curse upon collision. The only one that gave him a major pause was the last question. "What happens when a vampire bites a werewolf with intent to turn it?" His answer was cheeky, but he doubted it was inaccurate.

Nicolas' face was set in stone as he flicked through the answer sheets of the pop quiz he handed to the fifth-year students. Only one was even remotely interesting to him in the answers. His lip actually twitched slightly at the last answer on the paper. 'The Courts would hunt them both down until their corpses were drained'. Accurate, but not what he wanted. That could be said for most of the work he glanced through however. Of the required material, most did not have mastery over the basics baring Dark Creatures and Curses, which was covered by a werewolf and an Auror respectively. Luckily it would be swift to catch them up with the new curriculum. Nicolas hid a grin as it was nearly as if he planned it this way.

"Okay class. Here is what we will cover. What makes magic either Dark or Light, why the ministries of the world have outlawed certain magics, and what the ICW does. We will also be reviewing for your OWLs, and we will be utilizing our secondary classes every week as a catch all. We are graced with three hours together today, so let's get started." Nicolas turned, and flicked his wand towards the gigantic black board that made up a makeshift wall hiding the stairs to his personal office. In a fit of animalistic movement, the blackboard started to walk towards the front of the class as all the pop quiz questions from before were erased vigorously with animated erasers. Taking up a piece of chalk, Nicolas started to draw.

Harry in the fourth row had the perfect seat in his opinion. It allowed him to see the entirety of the teaching area, without having to worry about the Ravenclaws who crowded the front. It also put him in a middling position in the room, which according to his training with Sirius, is one of the best places as it allows for movement to any portion of the room quickly. Remus also mentioned it put bodies between you and the most obvious attack orientation of the door to the rest of the castle. But, all those aside, Flamel was teaching and even with those thoughts in Harry's head, the lesson was deeply engaging.

"What makes magic Light or Dark?" Nicolas asked as he finished drawing a large diamond on the board, formed by arrows. "And before someone says that it's about something stupid like intent or what you do with it, will find themselves scrubbing the trophy room." Snickers followed the Professor's winning grin. Nicolas scanned the room and saw a single hand raised.

"Potter"

Harry didn't even remember raising his hand, but the professor called on him anyway. "Could it be how the spell is created?"

Nicolas smiled largely. "That is exactly correct. Now, there are two theories on Spell Creation. One is that we, as Magicals, are discovering new ways magic moves and are figuring out how to manipulate it. If this is the case there are a finite number of spells, curses, etc. Now, the second one is much more appealing to contemporaries who say that we are creating spells to make magic suit our needs and desires. This follows the concept that we have multiple spells for similar actions. Who can give me an example?" In a moment, a half dozen hands shot up, most of them Ravenclaws. With a careless point, he pointed to Isobel.

"The levitation and Locomotor charms do basically the same thing."

"Exactly. Take 2 points for knowing a spell from your NEWTs level Charms class. Now, the key is to know that they seemingly the same thing. While the Locomotor charm does not require concentration, the Levitation spell does. However, interestingly, the Locomotor charm was invented or discovered first. As it does not make things levitate, it is an Objector. Can anyone tell me what an Objector in magic is?"