Chapter 26 - Classes

Now let's talk about the classes. Since I am far ahead in the subjects, they are too boring for me. My last two months of training brought was helpful as I was able to do spells incorrectly without causing any suspicion. I made it so that I correctly performed the spell only after a few students have done so already.

Transfiguration was interesting class but only for the ones who were seeing magic for the first time. Only the base knowledge of doing the spell was given in the first class and then we were told to do the spell. In the next class the more detailed explanation to complete the spell is given and then most of the students can do the spell very easily. By the end of the two classes most of the average and above average can do their spells. Interesting way of taking class but for 11 year olds but I think this way is good as it makes them think on the spell themselves before the teacher shows the correct way. But the spells we were doing in class were transfiguring toothpicks and buŧŧons so boring for me.

The first few classes in Charms were full of theories but it was still fun because of the funny antics the professor would perform during the period to keep children interested. He did funny stuff or said funny comments or changed into a different interesting topic during the time when he felt children were getting bored. He also showed beautiful charms to increase the children's excitement on magic and it made children more interested in gaining knowledge about magic. After the theory classes doing charms was much easier. So far we have only cast the lumos charm and the levitation charm. I had to control my magic to not bright up the whole classroom when I performed the Lumos charm.

Potions is like if you ask a Professor who taught in Masters classes in colleges to come and teach in students in primary school when he was totally not interested in doing so and just wanted to continue his research. He has the knowledge but does not know the way in which it must be taught to children but mainly he was not interested to spend the effort. Snape teaches as if we know every preliminary steps and just writes the steps on the board and tells us to follow them. We get to know what steps should not be done and more about the steps only when he scolds the people who have committed mistakes and explains their mistake to them. He was not too difficult on Ravenclaws and his main targets for sneering at were the two remaining Hogwarts houses. He liked tormenting Gryffindor the most. It was his way of taking revenge on them for pranking him in his school days.

I guess he is here only because he gets protection from getting arrested by being here with Dumbledore. Out of school, he will be on veritaserum and talking about his deeds as a Death Eater to the DMLE in no time as he was a half blood and was not protected by the pureblood laws. His life aim should have been to just stay in his lab and cook up new potions but due to the war he was stuck here teaching dunderheads.

Astronomy is at night and I don't know why this is still taught in Hogwarts. It is heavily outdated and I have never read any person using it in the novels. The only use of astronomy is while doing rituals but since they have banned rituals it that makes the whole class useless. Another use should be divination and that too is useless if you are not a seer or a centaur. They even do not know that non magical people have even stepped on the moon and have telescopes that can see far away into the universe.

History of magic is much worse than I thought. You cannot stay awake in the class if you are listening to his speech. You have to concentrate on other works to stay awake. It was mostly on Goblin wars and his voice was monotonous without any change. So for most of the students it was the nap time.

Herbology is showing different types of plants and explaining the various methods to grow, harvest and use them. The teacher was good but I had no particular interest in the subject. I did not think growing and harvesting plants would ever come in to use for me. Only the uses of different plants was important for me.

DADA consisted of nothing interesting in this year and most of the time is spent on theory. It was mainly about initial instructions about light and dark magic and explain the ways to defend against many kinds of spells. Also, the teacher was not good as I think all good teachers will be afraid of the DADA curse by now. Spells start in second year.

I liked the Charms, Transfiguration and Herbology a lot. Even though I know a lot from the books, practical classes do help in correcting small things here and there. The three teachers were very well versed in their fields and had a lot of experience which I lacked. It helped me make my knowledge in the fields more thorough and spells more efficient .

Since I was just planning on hiding my magical strength and not intelligence, I asked a lot of doubts from these three and Snape. They were happy to answer my theoretical doubts even though it was not part of the curriculum, even Snape and McGonagall. Snape grudgingly answered my doubts but I think he was happy that I asked good doubts and I was most probably his best student since I made the best potions in class. I did not need to hide in potions since there was no magic involved. I think McGonagall likes teaching and is always happy to help others including me in her subject in spite of everything.