Magic Theory

The Condiment Question

    His parents could not understand Matthew's sudden fascination with Hogwarts, but now the war had made its way to him. He could lose a friend to it. The entire school would be impacted. It would lose a good teacher who cared deeply about each student that walked through her doors. Matthew promised he would not tell though. He would steel himself for whatever was to come. He felt bad for his classmates; they would not be so lucky.

    He sat at his table for a while mulling over things until he realized he was still alone. Straightening his glasses, he stood up to look around. Courtney and he usually met up for lunch after his Defensive Magic 115 class and her Potions 212 lab. He had been late, of course, but he expected her to have met up with him so they could walk to Native Magical Practice together as usual. He caught her at the Thunderbird table taking up a little more of the bench than whoever she was talking to did. Their backs were too him so he could not see her acquaintance, but she did not have any Thunderbird friends that he knew of so to see here there was odd. Whoever she was, the girl was small with dark hair that went to her waist.

Making a disappointed face, Matthew sat back down to finish his meal. He thought about the homework he had to do that night and decided to take something with him now and skip dinner later to study.  The room was still bustling with students who came and went as they pleased. Matthew checked his watch and decided now was as good a time as any to head to class. He would get a good spot in the front. Courtney would groan about it, but he knew she always did better when they sat in the front. He waited by the front door for a moment to see if Courtney would come and meet him. He watched as she chatted. Her friend would often twirl her hair around her finger, and once when she did Courtney grabbed her wrist to look at it. Courtney hopped up, bumping the table and grabbed her bag before bounding to the exit. She greeted Matthew with a red face and was self-consciously pulling her shirt down.

"We're sitting in the front today, aren't we?" Courtney huffed as they walked up the stairs.

"I didn't know you knew any Thunderbirds," Matthew said, grossly curious.

"That's Stephanie. We have potions lab together and we just started working on a project today. When you weren't at the table I asked her if she minded me joining to talk about it."

"She's in potions 212? I thought first years had to take 101 of everything to be assessed for which classes they took next," Matthew said with a note of jealousy.

"Azalea apparently told Ginreedy that Steph was advanced. After about a week, he agreed and switched her into my class. She's really good. I'm glad he assigned her to be my partner. She's cute, too," Courtney said with a far off look on her face. "If we become better friends, I might invite her to the Winter Ball. As friends," she added quickly,

"Right." Matthew winked.  "Friends." She shoved his shoulder and laughed as they entered the room. Matthew took notes during class while Courtney doodled on her parchment as she usually did when she was not sleeping in class. Matthew knew that at least she was absorbing information while she was conscious.

They split for their other classes after agreeing to meet in the third floor of the library after Courtney finished dinner. Matthew went back to his room during break between classes to feed Sunny as was his routine. His last two classes of the day were a breeze as one was Magic in Theatre and the other was Alchemy 109.

Matthew went to the library to begin on his homework for classes he and Courtney did not share. The first floor of the library was allowed a certain amount of noise for casual study groups and classes. The second floor held rooms where students could practice physical magic such as duelling or potions that tended to explode if done wrong. These floors were charmed so that their noise didn't affect the rest of the castle. The third floor was saved for the more studious groups who were working together but still tended to prefer silence. It had a few soundproof rooms along the walls for those who wanted to study in absolute silence. The fourth floor was restricted for teachers and advanced students, although going in without permission was punished leniently. The school did not want to censor their students but knew that knowledge was a powerful weapon. They preferred not to punish students for trying to learn.