Alas for the House of the Snakes, Potions seemed to be the only area where they had the opportunity to shine. If the courses of Transfiguration the Ravenclaws shared with them were any indication, pure-bloods were at the bottom of the rankings when "real" and complicated magic had to be practised and the Professor had a modicum of impartiality. To be honest with herself, Alexandra had to admit the subject of Transfiguration was horribly difficult. None of the other classes managed to reach such levels of challenge. The theory was hard enough; casting the spells was tiring in terms of concentration, imagination and sheer power. After having first changed a match into a needle, they then had the task to change it back. By the fourth week of school, they had to transform different small objects built in wood into metal, then to bring back to their original shape. So far, only Padma Patil, Morag McDougal, Hermione Granger and Alexandra herself had managed to succeed all the transformations demanded. Unlike History or Defence Against the Dark Arts, where every class of the week brought no advantage whether you had listened or not, efforts mattered with Professor McGonagall. Achieving the transfiguration for the class and giving back your essays on time limited the amount of homework and assignments you had to give back at the next lesson. The vast majority of the Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuffs, Houses academically-inclined, handled it more or less well. The Slytherins and the Gryffindors did not. Crabble and Goyle had yet to transfigure their first match into a needle. Bulstrode, Vaisey, Nott and the Carrow Twins were still trying to transfigure back the needles in a permanent manner. As sad as it was, the only Slytherin first-year on the level of the Ravenclaws was Draco Malfoy. Which gave a very sad idea how bad the level of the Snakes really was.
In some manners, the same thing repeated itself in Herbology, even if it was more a dilemma to say if it was the Slytherins who were bad or the fact the pure-bloods really disliked putting their gracious and noble hands in the mud. Still, the warm and humid atmosphere of the greenhouse was less and less difficult to handle, as the temperatures in Scotland were dropping at an alarming rate. After a month of studying fungi, they now were studying the different types of magical mushrooms and growing them. A thing that should have been absolutely harmless, if Gregory Goyle had not proved his lack of intelligence yesterday by eating one, which revealed to be the equivalent of a magical laxative. Sending Crabble with him to the infirmary had been one of the funniest things that had happened since September 1st.
Speaking of the other classes, Alexandra had decided she really didn't enjoy Astronomy once the moment of novelty was past. Not only it disrupted her sleep schedule, but seeing the same constellations, stars and planets was boring after a while (which for her was two or three sessions). To add to this lack of interest, Astronomy was rarely an important factor in magic use. There were certain rituals, some potions, a few spells who needed a deep knowledge of Astronomy to function. Most of them were banned for being "Dark" by the Ministry, of course. No, Astronomy was not very interesting. Once she left Hogwarts, Alexandra could buy a non-telescope in a non-magical shop and observe the stars when she wanted, she truly doubted there would be more difference from what was seen in the sky.
Charms, on the other hand, was her favourite class. Professor Flitwick, in her humble opinion, was the best teacher of Hogwarts, as her tiny Head of House managed without effort to put a lot of magic practise in his lessons and give them a clear understanding of the magical theory behind each charm. The first two weeks, Flitwick had taught them Lumos and its variants allowing to use blue light, green light,...then the lessons had taught them useful charms for everyday utilisation: charms to sharpen your quills, prepare correctly your parchment, charms to clean your clothes, the Mending Charm Reparo, to repair objects which had been broken, and plenty of others useful magical tips. The fact that the Ravenclaws were with the Gryffindors also guaranteed a lot of fun, with Seamus Finnegan creating an explosion half the time he drawled his wand, Hermione Granger always looking like she tried to jump at every question, Ronald Weasley giving no attention to the class and sometimes sleeping through the course, Lavender Brown and the other Gryffindors girls gossiping in their corner.
The private lessons of duelling, always with Professor Flitwick, had become her moment where every week she lost most of her confidence and certainties. After one month and one week of magical instruction, Alexandra knew now four transfigurations spells, nine charms, seven jinxes, five hexes and three curses. As far as she knew, only Neville Longbottom and Leo Black knew more magic offensive spells among the first-years than her, a fact she was particularly proud of. It made no differences against Flitwick. In five private lessons, she had not managed to hit her Head of House once. The tiny Charm Masters had not sweated once either, or raised a magical shield, or taken off his smiling grin when they duelled. In fact, calling these spars "duels" was greatly stretching the truth, in Alexandra's opinion. Every round consisted in half a minute of her trying to launch a volley of spells, dodging, jumping, running and doing her best to survive a few seconds to the multiple stream and waves of magic coming her way. Flitwick was simply on another planet compared to Alexandra, moving at a superhuman speed and landing hits with a devastating precision. Last night, he had launched a vast blast of wind to end the last round, sending her like a doll in the middle of a tornado over the room until she admitted defeat. She was still sore of it right now, fifteen hours after the deed.
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