"Is that why Neville also can't get anything right?" Seamus asked curiously drawing all eyes to the nervous wreck of a boy.
"That might be one of the problems but the biggest i've seen is a lack of self confidence. Magic requires a firm will to use and if you constantly doubt yourself your magic will of course be weak or faltering. As for his wand causing problems I don't know since i've not exactly stared at him while he casts a spell." I said honestly.
"Ten points to Ravenclaw. Indeed as Alex said magic relies heavily on the will of the one casting it. A strong will might find even the most powerful of charms easy while a faltering will the easiest charms a mountain to climb over. He is also correct that wands can interfere with the process of casting spells if the personality of the wand dislikes the spell in question. Another example of wands resisting their wielders is if the wand doesn't belong to them." Flitwick said seriously.
"Blimey, I never thought so much went into casting even simple spells. Sorry for all the grief I gave you over it Neville." Dean said sincerely.
"I-it's fine." Neville squeaked out nervously.
Class after that was pretty quiet since I just started helping people out on this side of the classroom since I was already here. As expected Neville's troubles came both from his wand that I knew in truth belonged to his father and from how weak his will was. Between his family that almost thought him a squib and constantly compared him to his father and his own self doubts he was practically as low as it got willpower wise. -
I didn't look down on him though as even with all this disadvantage he still somehow managed to squeeze out some magical effects. If he fixed these problems he might even be talented enough to rival Harry, as expected of the backup prophesized hero. It was a fun little tid bit Potter fans in my past life noticed in that the only reason Neville wasn't the hero was because Voldemort went after Harry instead of him that night. All the other conditions were fulfilled for him to take that role instead of Harry. Still later in the original story once Neville stopped getting in his way and earned the recognition of that wand his performance was no worse than Harry's showing his talent.-
It wasn't my business though so I just gave him the advice to believe in himself more and moved on. Finally class ended and we headed for lunch. Terry and Mike were still curious about the trick I pulled to suppress the explosion with my bare hand. But once I explained it was like my spiritual perception technique and not exactly teachable they dropped it with disappointed looks. Lunch had tacos this time and I shamelessly stole all of them. They were kinda bland but that was probably going to be fixed in time.-
After lunch was history of magic that I flat out zoned out in to do my charms homework and read the arithmancy book. Finally we headed for the common room to do our newly assigned history homework. It took maybe thirty minutes at most and I spent the rest of the evening finishing up the arithmancy book. Dinner was not altered this time and so nothing worth really mentioning. I tempered my body a bit until it ached and washed away the now mostly normal sweat that the activity released. -
Clearly whatever the foul smelling stuff was had been more or less purged from my body at this point which was good as it meant I could start tempering my body earlier in the day and not needing to camp in the baths for it. I might even be able to get away with double the tempering if my body recovers from it before the evening attempt. The next morning I woke up and tempered my body once more and cleaned up my sweat before waiting in the common room for my friends to wake. -
To pass the time I read one of the public tomes on the bookshelf in the common room on the topic of ancient runes. In truth it was just a primer on base Futhark or nordic runes for those not aware. Thanks to my [linguist] skill I quickly picked up the language and easily had a basic grasp of it when Terry entered the common room.
"Runes seriously? I know that's a third year topic. Are you trying to make the rest of us look bad?" he said dramatically.
"Nothing for it mate, I'm too good at learning." I said with a shrug.
"Looking forward to potions?" he asked after rolling his eyes.
"A little. Simulating potions based off the recipes is far less engaging than actually boiling the things, more profitable too!" I said greedily.
"Right you did say Snape made you do that didn't you. Blokes a menace even if you're laid up. " he said with a groan.
I wanted to argue that he was just strict but held my tongue as I could tell how pointless that would be. Snape made it hard to like him without understanding his story and even then he was a bit of an ass in general. -
Finally Mike got up and we headed for breakfast where I devoured far more food than I normally did much to the horror of my peers. There was no helping it as I had tempered my body effectively twice in a row so my body was fiending for calories and protein. The only person who didn't seem weirded out by my rate of consumption was Hagrid at the staff table and that's probably because he was eating just as much.