Heading down to the Great Hall for breakfast, Richie finally met up with his chronically late roommates.
After giving them a rough explanation of his morning, the guys totally understood. They had been wondering where he'd run off to so early. Once they heard about his close call with the upperclassmen in the common room, they relentlessly ragged on him for it.
After breakfast, the four of them headed off to their Charms class together.
Third floor, West Tower: the Charms classroom.
It was a small, tiered lecture hall completely packed with books, big enough to fit maybe thirty kids. A few students were already inside.
"Oh, looks like we've got this class with the Hufflepuffs," Stephen whispered.
After the Sorting, the prefects had handed out house crest pins to the first-years so everyone could tell who was who. The pins on the early birds across the room were definitely Hufflepuff yellow.
The boys snagged seats near the front and waited. Soon enough, the rest of the first-years from both houses filed in, and the small room quickly filled with the noisy chatter of twenty kids.
The Hogwarts bell chimed. A strange-looking, incredibly short man hurried into the room and practically scrambled up to the podium. Watching him, Richie noticed something funny—was there a little stepladder hidden behind that desk?
"Alright, everyone! Welcome to Charms!"
"I am your Charms professor, as well as the Head of Ravenclaw House, Filius Flitwick. You may call me Professor Flitwick."
Standing on his hidden stool, Professor Flitwick was just tall enough to be seen over the desk. He gave his wand a sharp flick. Instantly, several framed certificates and gleaming gold trophies floated off the classroom shelves, spinning lazily in mid-air.
While the first-years stared in awe, Professor Flitwick offered a small smile.
"As you can plainly see, I am a bit on the shorter side. However... I am also a certified Charms Master under the International Confederation of Wizards, and the All-England Dueling Champion of 1971 and 1975."
"These are just a few of my credentials." With another casual wave of his wand, the trophies and frames zipped right back to where they belonged.
"So, I expect you all to work hard in my class and not underestimate me based on my appearance. Otherwise, you'll find out this professor knows how to throw a punch, so to speak."
A wave of laughter rippled through the classroom.
"For our very first lesson, we will start with the absolute basics: the Levitation Charm." Seeing Flitwick get down to business, the students scrambled to open their books. At the exact same time, a pure white feather materialized on the desk in front of each of them.
"As the first spell most wizards ever learn..." Flitwick lectured. "...the standard swish-and-flick is the absolute core of this magic... As for the incantation, enunciation is everything..."
Twenty minutes later, the enchanted chalk buzzing behind Flitwick finally stopped, leaving the chalkboard completely covered in notes. "Alright, use the rest of the period to practice on your own!"
The kids, who had been itching to try for the last twenty minutes, instantly whipped out their wands.
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
"Hey, why isn't my feather doing anything?"
"Oh, come on! I swear I saw it lift a little, but now it's completely dead!"
Incantations echoed from every corner of the room. Richie, however, was just taking his sweet time underlining notes in his textbook. He'd mastered this spell back at home ages ago.
The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1 stated that as a foundational spell, the Levitation Charm required incredibly precise wand movements and perfect pronunciation. But the book said absolutely nothing about needing strong emotions or willpower. As long as you nailed the wand motion and the words, the spell worked.
And that had proven true. Just by practicing it step-by-step at home, Richie had pulled it off.
But... did it really not require intent or emotion? Richie paused, his quill hovering over his parchment.
Weren't the words and gestures just a form of psychological suggestion?
The highly specific incantation combined with the strict, rigid movements were basically the wizard's way of telling their own brain: I am casting the Levitation Charm.
For the subconscious mind, that kind of hyper-focused suggestion was an incredible trigger. That's why, after practicing the words and gestures enough times, a wizard could subconsciously tap into their magic and cast the spell on autopilot.
During his two months of prep before school, Richie had formed a theory: If a wizard's active consciousness or emotional intent could cross a certain "threshold," they could completely bypass the need for incantations or gestures, achieving silent, wandless magic!
It wasn't just a wild guess, either. Let's not forget—Richie's "brain-flicks" and his stunt with making the newspaper float (which was basically a Levitation Charm) were literally silent, wandless magic.
Maybe it was because he possessed an adult soul from a past life, giving him a much stronger grip on his own consciousness and self-control, allowing him to smash through that "threshold" so easily.
The annoying part, though, was that he was stuck there. Aside from the brain-flicks and the Levitation Charm, he couldn't cast anything else silently or wandlessly.
Stuff like the Scouring Charm or the Wand-Lighting Charm? No dice. But the second he used a wand, said the words, and did the hand motions, they worked perfectly.
Logically, those spells were super simple too. They didn't need crazy emotional intent; just standard words and movements. So why couldn't he brute-force them wandlessly like he did with Levitation? Was the mental "threshold" for them just too high? Or was his whole theory fundamentally flawed?
He'd thought about asking Aunt Annabelle, but she'd only lectured him on what wands did and why they were so crucial to wizards. For everything else, she'd basically told him to figure it out himself. Fine. If he had to figure it out himself, he would. Made things more of a challenge anyway.
Back in Charms class. Richie raised his wand, but didn't flick it. He opened his mouth, but didn't make a sound. He just focused his intent.
Under his gaze, the feather smoothly lifted off the desk.
"Oh! A beautiful Levitation Charm! Take two points for Ravenclaw, Mr. Harland!" Professor Flitwick squeaked from the front.
The chaotic noise in the classroom died instantly as twenty pairs of eyes snapped toward Richie.
"Merlin's beard, someone actually did it!"
"It's a Ravenclaw!"
"Nice job, Harland!"
Nobody even noticed that Richie hadn't followed a single step from the textbook.
Seeing the class getting distracted, Flitwick quickly clapped his hands to regain order. "Keep practicing, everyone! Use Mr. Harland as an example."
"Mr. Harland, since you have mastered the Levitation Charm, why don't you try making the feather spin? Just like I did with my certificates earlier. Remember to put a little thought into it."
Richie slowly nodded.
Spin... spin... The feather started moving through the air, completing a wide, horizontal circle around an invisible center point.
Huh? Richie blinked in surprise.
I meant spin in place, not orbit the desk... The feather paused, then immediately started doing a vertical loop-the-loop instead.
"What the hell?" Richie frowned. His concentration slipped, and the feather drifted lazily back down to the desk.
That shouldn't have happened. The concept of "spinning" was pretty straightforward; there was no way he was visualizing it wrong. So why wasn't the magic doing what he told it to do?
Refusing to accept defeat, Richie stared at the feather, raised his wand, and went through the fake motions again. Right on cue, the feather floated up—and immediately started flying in giant circles again.
??? Richie stared at it, wide-eyed and totally bewildered.
"Whoa, Richie, that's incredible..." Terry leaned over, watching the feather do laps in mid-air. Thinking Richie was just showing off advanced techniques, he eagerly asked, "How are you doing that? I can't even get mine off the desk... Can you teach me?"
"Uh..." Richie was at a complete loss for words. Still, with Terry looking at him like he was some kind of spell-casting guru, he couldn't exactly say no. Shoving his confusion aside for the moment, he started coaching his roommate.
"Like Professor Flitwick said, the most important parts are the incantation and the wand motion. The pronunciation is Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa. And the movement is just a swish and flick, and then..."
"And then... wait, what?"