Kyle didn't know much about Cho Chang, Cedric's future girlfriend and Harry Potter's unattainable crush, besides the fact that she was in Ravenclaw. But now, there was something new he could add to that: she was helpful.
After all, not every Ravenclaw would go out of their way to help others; many preferred to immerse themselves in their own thoughts, often revolving around schoolwork or intellectual pursuits. That didn't mean they were indifferent—they just tended to be more reserved. If someone asked them for help, they would usually oblige, but they rarely took the initiative.
Cho Chang was chatting with her friends nearby, so Kyle simply glanced at her and then looked away.
"It's only the first class, and we barely made it," Mikel groaned, clutching his hair in frustration. "What are we going to do for the rest of the year? We can't leave an hour early for every lesson! If this keeps up, I'm bound to be late one day."
"Don't worry, the professors at Hogwarts won't expel you for being late," Kyle reassured him, giving him a comforting pat on the shoulder. "At most, they'll just deduct some house points. Speaking of which, I've got something that might help you out."
"Something good?" Mikel and Ryan leaned in with curious expressions.
Kyle pulled out the map Cedric had given him and spread it across the table. "You can thank Cedric for this. Without it, you'd have been lost for much longer."
Mikel was still trying to figure out what it was, but Ryan, whose father was a wizard, immediately recognized it. "A map of Hogwarts?" he gasped. "Where did you get this? Can I make a copy? I swear I'll return it after class."
"Of course, we're roommates!" Kyle grinned, then turned to Mikel. "What about you? Want to copy it too?"
Mikel was tempted, but after some thought, he shook his head. This was his first time in the magical world, and he didn't want to miss any opportunity to learn, especially during an important class like Charms.
"Can I wait until after class to copy it?" Mikel asked.
"Sure," Kyle nodded, tapping his wand lightly on the map. "Geminio."
In an instant, a perfect duplicate of the map appeared beside the original. Kyle picked up the copy, gave it a quick once-over, and then handed it to Mikel.
"Here you go. The magic on this should last about a week, so you can copy it whenever you're ready."
Mikel took the map with a puzzled look, then glanced over at Ryan, who appeared equally confused. Ryan shifted awkwardly, glancing between Kyle and the duplicated parchment, his face growing warm. He was about to say something when a voice interrupted them from the front of the room.
"Nice Doubling Charm, Hufflepuff. Five points!"
Kyle jumped in surprise and looked up, his eyes locking on Cho Chang across the table. She was smiling slightly, but it wasn't her who had spoken. Upon closer inspection, Kyle realized there was someone standing right in front of him. The person was so short that they had been completely hidden behind the table.
"Thank you for your praise, Professor Flitwick," Kyle replied with a polite nod.
Flitwick smiled warmly. "I'm just being honest. Mr. Chopper, is that your name?"
Kyle nodded again. "Yes, Professor."
"Well, it seems my memory hasn't failed me yet," Flitwick chuckled, then turned his attention to Mikel. "May I take a look at that map?"
Mikel, initially unsure of who the small wizard was, quickly realized after hearing Kyle's address. He handed over the map with both hands, stammering slightly. "Yes… yes, Professor."
"Thank you." Flitwick took the map and examined it carefully, sensing the magic within. After a moment, he handed it back to Mikel with a satisfied nod. "Ah, the magic is stable. If nothing unusual happens, this copy should last until noon in about eight days."
He winked at Kyle before adding with a slightly regretful tone, "If the end-of-term exam was on the Doubling Charm, I would have given you an Outstanding. But for now, I can only award Hufflepuff three more points."
"Professor!" A young Ravenclaw witch raised her hand, looking curious. "Can't objects created with the Doubling Charm exist permanently?"
"No, Miss Mittal," Flitwick replied. "If that were possible, we wouldn't need so much parchment in Muggle stores. Copies made with the Doubling Charm eventually fade."
"And Dumbledore can't make permanent copies either?" another witch asked.
Flitwick shook his head. "Not even the headmaster can make them last forever. Even if the copies could last a hundred years, they would still eventually disappear."
"Now, that's enough about the Doubling Charm," he said, clapping his hands to refocus the class. "It's a bit advanced for you at this stage. Let's begin today's lesson."
Turning to the class, Flitwick addressed the room. "Today, we'll be learning one of the most basic and essential charms—the Lighting Charm. The incantation is Lumos. Everyone, pay close attention…"
Kyle wasn't surprised that their first lesson in Charms involved the Lighting Charm. It was considered one of the simplest and most fundamental spells in the wizarding world. There were no complex hand movements involved—just a wand, the correct incantation, and focus.
Historically, the Lighting Charm was even used to differentiate wizards from Squibs due to its simplicity and near-perfect success rate. If a person couldn't perform this charm, they likely weren't a wizard at all.
After demonstrating the casting process, Professor Flitwick encouraged the young wizards to try it for themselves. The room soon flickered with lights of various brightness as students attempted the spell.
Kyle wasn't the first to succeed, but when his wand lit up, the glow was steady and consistent. The light resembled a soft, steady electric bulb, shining with a calm, white glow. Unfortunately, there were no extra points for this, as Kyle wasn't alone in mastering the charm—seven Ravenclaw students across the room had also managed to produce stable lights with their wands.
Hufflepuff wasn't far behind, though. They had six successful wizards, making the competition between the two houses fairly close.
"Don't forget what I said earlier—stay calm," Flitwick reminded the class in his high-pitched voice. "You must remain steady, just like when holding something fragile. And remember, pronunciation is crucial! Don't mispronounce the incantation."
With the professor's encouragement, more students began producing steady, glowing lights with their wands.
Kyle glanced over at his two roommates—Mikel and Ryan were still struggling to get their wands to light up properly.
/////
Ryan was making some progress. He had switched from the weak, intermittent flickers to a steady flashlight mode, and the frequency of fluctuations was steadily decreasing. It seemed like he was close to achieving success.
Mikel, however, was struggling. The light on his wand was wildly unstable. At its brightest, it was blinding like a searchlight, but at its weakest, it barely glowed like a firefly and looked as if it might go out at any second. The more erratic the light became, the more anxious Mikel grew. And the more anxious he became, the less control he had over the spell. It had turned into a vicious cycle.
"Hey, um..." Kyle tried to offer some help, but before he could say anything, he noticed Mikel suddenly take a deep breath and sharply raise his wand.
For reasons Kyle couldn't explain, a sense of foreboding rose in his chest, as if something terrible was about to unfold. The feeling hit him so suddenly that he didn't even have time to process it. Almost instinctively, he turned away, bowing his head and squeezing his eyes shut.
At that exact moment, a blinding flash of light filled the Charms Classroom, as if a flashbang had just gone off. The burst of light was intense but brief, disappearing after a second, though its effects were catastrophic.
The unexpected brilliance caught most of the young wizards off guard, blinding them. Cries of pain and panic quickly filled the room as students clutched at their eyes, stumbling, pushing, and trying to escape the classroom in disarray.
Even Professor Flitwick wasn't spared, though his years of experience kept him calmer than the frantic students. Fighting off the discomfort, he called out in his high-pitched voice, "It's okay, everyone, don't panic! Stay calm, you'll be able to see in a moment!" Despite his reassurances, his words did little to quell the pandemonium. The classroom remained in chaos, filled with the sounds of panicked students. If anyone had walked in just then, they might've thought Voldemort himself had stormed the school.
To make matters worse, Flitwick had been turned in the wrong direction the entire time, his back facing the students as he yelled his comforting words at the wall.
The four wizards in the painting behind him were thoroughly unimpressed. Although they had been startled by the sudden flash, as portraits, they weren't affected by the aftermath. To them, Flitwick's current behavior seemed as ridiculous as a Tebo warthog with a lump on its head.
...
At that moment, in the Charm classroom, the only ones who managed to stay unaffected were Kyle—who had instinctively dodged the risk—and a few other fortunate students. Despite their own good fortune, there wasn't much they could do to fix the situation. Instead, they focused on comforting their fellow students and helping those who had fallen in the chaos, trying to prevent a stampede from happening.
After several tense minutes, the blinding aftereffects of the light finally began to wear off, and the students' vision slowly returned.
"Oh, Merlin's beard, what a disaster," muttered Professor Flitwick as he rubbed his eyes, shakily climbing down from behind his desk. In his attempt to reassure the young wizards, he had inadvertently gone the wrong way, tripped, and taken a tumble.
Now, Professor Flitwick was furious. In his decades of teaching, he'd witnessed countless magical mishaps—students getting hit by a misfired Accio, cows summoned with the Levitation Charm, locks exploding under a faulty Unlocking Charm. None of these things fazed him because they were expected in a classroom filled with students still learning magic.
But never, in all his years, had he imagined that a simple Lighting Charm could cause such chaos.
Gritting his teeth in frustration, Professor Flitwick led the now somewhat recovered students toward the culprit, both angry and curious to confront them.
Mikel, however, was lying motionless on a desk. Professor Flitwick called his name several times, but there was no response—Mikel remained still, looking oddly peaceful. Sensing that something wasn't right, the professor hurried over to check on him.
After a quick examination, he delivered his verdict: "He's fine, but he's in a coma due to magical exhaustion…"
Hearing this, Kyle let out a sigh of relief. By "magical exhaustion," the professor didn't mean that Mikel had drained his magical reserves entirely, but that he had overextended himself—like an ordinary person who hadn't slept for two days and nights.
Professor Flitwick's gaze became distant, unfocused. Magical exhaustion? From a Lighting Charm? This was the second time in a matter of minutes that he found himself questioning everything he knew. Could he really have been at Hogwarts for so long that he was out of touch? In all his knowledge of wizarding history, spanning thousands of years, he had never heard of anyone collapsing from casting a Lighting Charm.
Sensing the professor's confusion, Kyle hesitated for a moment before offering, "Professor, should I take him to Madam Pomfrey? It's probably not a good idea to just leave him lying here like this. She should check him out."
"Yes... yes, you're right," Flitwick said, snapping out of his daze. "Take him quickly. Madam Pomfrey will know what to do."
...
After receiving Professor Flitwick's permission, Kyle quickly cast a Floating Charm on Mikel and guided him out of the classroom. Normally, Professor Flitwick would have awarded extra credit for such quick thinking, but given the current situation, Kyle was lucky not to have points deducted. A reward was out of the question. After all, who needed extra credit at a time like this?
Not long after leaving the classroom, Kyle spotted a cat sitting at the corner—not a cat girl, but an actual cat, with two amber eyes staring at him intently.
"Mrs. Norris? That's great!" Kyle exclaimed, recognizing Filch's infamous companion. "A student's hurt. I need to get to Madam Pomfrey, but I don't know the way. Could you help me?"
Although Cedric had given him a map of Hogwarts that marked the hospital wing, Kyle had never actually been there and wasn't familiar with the exact route. But Mrs. Norris was different—she had roamed Hogwarts alongside Filch for years and knew the castle better than most. Surely, she'd know the quickest way to the hospital.
The cat tilted her head slightly, taking a glance at Kyle and the levitating Mikel behind him. Without a word, she stood up and began walking toward the stairs on the right.
Was that a yes?
Kyle wasted no time in following her.
The three of them—Kyle, Mikel, and Mrs. Norris—made their way through the school, zigzagging between staircases, and at one point even cutting through a hidden passage behind a statue. Within a few minutes, they arrived at a courtyard outside the Great Hall. In the center stood a massive clock, which gave the courtyard its name: Pendulum Clock Courtyard.
When they arrived, Mrs. Norris crouched near the base of the clock, her tail pointing toward a staircase behind her as if instructing Kyle to head up.
"Thank you! I'll bring you some dried fish," Kyle said gratefully, extending his hand to pat the cat's head. But Mrs. Norris skillfully avoided his touch, her ears flattening back like tiny airplane wings as she gave Kyle a warning look. With a flick of her tail, she darted away and disappeared, as if she'd cast her own Vanishing Charm.
"Huh, arrogant," Kyle muttered, withdrawing his hand in frustration.
He had no choice but to shrug it off and continue up the stairs with Mikel in tow. The staircase was a fixed one, so there was no risk of it shifting unexpectedly. All he had to do now was follow it straight to the hospital wing.
/////
Madam Pomfrey, a tall witch renowned for her expertise in healing, potions, and medicinal herbs, was a figure of both respect and mystery at Hogwarts. Rumor had it that St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Injuries had extended an invitation to her three times, offering her the role of vice-president if she accepted. However, she had always refused, insisting on staying at Hogwarts. Though the rumor was widespread, neither she nor St. Mungo's had ever confirmed or denied it, leaving it as one of Hogwarts' minor unsolved mysteries.
As Kyle entered the hospital wing, he saw Madam Pomfrey bustling around, tending to her patients. She handed a green potion to a young wizard in one of the beds. "This is the last bottle of scabies medicine. Apply it regularly, and stop drinking any more potions," she instructed sternly before turning to another bed.
Muttering under her breath, she complained, "Why are so many young wizards getting sent here this time of year? What are those professors doing? So irresponsible!"
It was clear she was in a foul mood, and Kyle hesitated, unsure how to approach her with Mikel's condition. But Madam Pomfrey caught sight of them before he could decide what to say.
"By Merlin's beard! What happened to this child?" she gasped, rushing over to gently place Mikel onto an empty bed. Without looking up, she asked briskly, "Potions mishap? Defense Against the Dark Arts? Why is he unconscious?"
"Neither, Madam," Kyle replied quietly. "It happened during Charms class. Mikel cast a Lighting Charm, and... that was it. Professor Flitwick said he must have overused his magic."
"Yes, clearly he's drained... Wait, what did you say?" Madam Pomfrey suddenly spun around, staring at Kyle in disbelief. "A Lighting Charm?"
Her expression was one of utter incredulity, as though she had just witnessed Dumbledore pole dancing on the Astronomy Tower. The absurdity of what Kyle had said made her doubt the truth of it.
These young wizards are getting more ridiculous by the day, she seemed to think. If they were going to make up a story, at least they could have come up with something believable. Overdraft from a Lighting Charm? Why not just say Filius Flitwick had been knocked out by it as well?
"It's true! The first-years from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw all saw it happen, and Professor Flitwick can confirm it," Kyle explained earnestly, giving her a brief account of the incident in the Charms classroom.
Hearing this, most of Madam Pomfrey's doubts subsided. If both houses had witnessed the event, word would soon spread throughout the school. It wouldn't make sense for Kyle to lie about something so easily exposed, especially when he brought Professor Flitwick's name into it.
Still, she turned to look at Mikel with a mix of bewilderment and curiosity, as though he were some rare magical creature. Never before had she seen a young wizard with such poor control over his magic. From Kyle's description, the magnitude of the Lighting Charm resembled something closer to accidental magic—powerful but entirely unrestrained.
Yet, as she examined Mikel earlier, she had found no evidence of accidental magic. His condition seemed to be nothing more than simple magical exhaustion.
"It's really... an eye-opener," Madam Pomfrey muttered, almost unconsciously.
Kyle nodded vigorously in agreement, fully understanding her disbelief. He felt the same way. If casting a charm were like driving a car, Mikel had essentially floored the gas pedal, burning through all the fuel in a matter of seconds, sending the car rocketing off at 200 kilometers per second. It might seem impressive, but it was anything but good.
It was fortunate that Mikel had only cast a Lighting Charm. Kyle shuddered at the thought of what might have happened if it had been Incendio. He made a mental note to sit as far away from Mikel as possible in future classes—as far away as possible. The explosive genius who would be joining Hogwarts next year seemed outrageous enough, but now they had a "forbidden spell wizard" already in their midst.
Hogwarts certainly does not raise idle people, Kyle thought.
A few minutes later, Dumbledore arrived, having been informed of the incident, and with him was Professor Snape, who had been pulled out of his lesson. Madam Pomfrey guided them to Mikel's bedside, whispered a few words to them, and then stepped aside.
Dumbledore leaned in to inspect Mikel, tapping him lightly with his wand here and there as he assessed the situation. After a while, he put his wand away and turned to Kyle. "Good morning, Kyle. You brought him to Madam Pomfrey, correct?"
"Yes, Professor," Kyle confirmed with a nod.
"You did well," Dumbledore said with a warm smile. "I've heard what happened. If you hadn't helped those students who fell, there would be more than just Mr. Mikel lying here."
Kyle waved his hands in protest. "It was the right thing to do, Professor, and I wasn't the only one who helped."
"But you were the first to act," Dumbledore winked. "Many older students—and even adult wizards—struggle to remain calm in an emergency. You did, and you did a fine job. Your bravery and humility have earned Hufflepuff twenty points."
As soon as Dumbledore finished speaking, Snape, who had been inspecting Mikel up until that point, suddenly turned his gaze toward Kyle, as if only just noticing him standing there.
Kyle, however, didn't notice Snape's shift in attention. Instead, he looked at Dumbledore and asked, "So, Professor, how is Mikel? Will he be able to continue his lessons?"
Dumbledore smiled reassuringly. "Yes, of course. There's a bit of an issue, but it's easily handled. A potion to suppress his magical overload should do the trick. Our Potions professor will be able to prepare it in no time."
"One day," Snape interjected coldly, stepping closer. "I'll have it ready before tomorrow's Potions class for the Hufflepuffs. But before I go, Mr. Chopper, there's something you should remind your friend about."
Snape paused, his lips curling into a mocking smile. "Tell him to keep his feeble brain and his wand in check. Frequent magical overdrafts can leave a wizard severely weakened, almost like a Squib. And I believe you know what that is, don't you?"
"I do, Professor," Kyle replied quickly, his tone respectful but uneasy.
"Good," Snape said, without further comment. He turned and left the hospital wing without another glance at Kyle.
Dumbledore watched him go, then turned back to Kyle. "I think we should leave too. Mikel needs to rest. I suggest you visit him later this afternoon," he said, his usual twinkle in his eye as he guided Kyle toward the door.