NOVEL NEXT Chapter 16: Study Group, Time Flies..
During breakfast, I dashed from table to table to table, getting the signatures I needed for the study group. And I then handed it to Professor McGonagall. She gave me the key to the classroom after checking the list. The dashing to let them all know it'd been Approved and to meet me at the entrance. I glugged down some porridge and met them there.
Leading them to the classroom, there was some small talk and questions about what we were actually going to be doing.
"Okay," I unlocked the classroom. "What we are going to be doing is simple, really. We will learn and practise spells and do our homework together." I said, walking into the room.
"What happened in here?" Seamus asked, looking around at the damage.
"Eddie happened," Tim said. "It was awesome."
"Ah, I have a little bit of a magical problem at the moment and I'm working on don't worry I'm completely harmless" I said.
"Now I think when should start with lumos" I said "we all learnt it this week so we can gauge our levels and spot problems" I said. Everyone could cast Lumos, but only Neville and Seamus had a problem. Neville's was weak, and Seamus was the opposite.
"I think I know both of your problems", I said, looking at the two of them. "Seamus you need to calm down a bit, you are way to forceful with you magic you need it to flow for most spells like a stream not like a fire hose." I winked. "And Neville, that's not your wand, is it?"
"Ah, h h, how did you know?" He stutter.
"Easily, you did the spell perfectly; your wand is resistant to you. Now, this wouldn't be a problem if you were an adult, but we young wizards and witches don't have enough power to overcome the resistance that wands put up." I said. "is it a unicorn hair wand?" I asked again.
"Yeah, it was my dad's," he muttered.
"Oh," I said with sympathy ", unicorn hair usually only picks one person, and they are very loyal to it. Maybe you can win the wand's loyalty, but until you do, it will be like training with weights," I said. "You will have to put more power into a spell just to reach a normal result", I explained. Neville looked dejected. He stared at his father's wand. "There is an upside, however," I said, his eyes perked up. "Like weight training, it will make you stronger, and once you take the weights off, for example, getting your wand or winning its loyalty, you'll probably see you better than the rest of our year."
"So why don't we all do that?" Tim asked, "Use the wrong wand for resistance training."
"Neville, how do you feel when you cast magic?" I asked him
"Like its wrong or I'm doing something wrong I don't know" Neville said "I don't really like it."
"That's why, here use my wand Tim try casting lumos with it" I handed Tim my wand.
Tim tried to cast lumos and dropped the wand, "bloody hell, that does not feel right" Tim said.
"The core of my wand is a Thunderbird, even more loyal than unicorn hair, so what you felt was a bit more powerful than what Neville feels," I explained.
"So Neville, I suggest you go to Ollivanders and get your wand," I said. He looked sad. "It's waiting for you, Neville; it's waiting for you and only you to use it. Don't let it sit on a shelf for the rest of its life."
"You talk if wands are alive," Hermione said.
"They are just a different form of alive than what we know. Take a cherub hair wand, for example. If you have a cherub hair wand, you better treat it as your girlfriend because, like your girlfriend, if you treat her wrong, she will dump you." I explained, "The wand chooses the wizard; anything that can pick a life partner is alive in my books."
"My question is, where did you buy your holster?" Seamus asked. "Keeping my wand in my pocket is annoying."
"Ollivanders, I also got a wand care kit for there." I told Seamus, "I'm sure you could mail order them."
"Anyway on to the next charm levitation" i said.
The rest of the study group went well. Everybody made significant progress, and we became closer friends at dinner. We all sat together at the end of the Hufflepuff table. Life at Hogwarts started to fall into a rhythm. Time passed quickly. There were no more attacks on me and my friends, but the Slytherin common room grew even colder for us. Before I knew it, it was Halloween.