Taking On The Magical World 18 Chapter 18

There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanis.h.i.+ng step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending.

And you could feel the magic pulsing through the whole castle, I dearly wished I could look at the Hogwarts castle with my third eye in all its glory, but I do not want to blind myself, a tough lesson that I learned when I looked at my mother with my third eye. You do not use your third eye on somebody who is far stronger than you or you will be blinded and for how long depends on how powerful the person you looked at.

It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot. The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other, and the coats of armor could walk.

The ghosts didn't help, either with directions. It was always a nasty shock when one of

them glided suddenly through a door you were trying to open. Nearly Headless Nick is always happy to point a new Gryffindor in the right direction, but Peeves the Poltergeist was worth two locked doors and a trick staircase if you met him when you were late for cla.s.s. He would

drop wastepaper baskets on your head, pull rugs from under your feet, pelt you with bits of chalk, or sneak up behind you, invisible, grab your nose, and screech, "GOT YOUR CONK!"

Even worse than Peeves, if that was possible, was the caretaker, Argus Filch. Me and twins managed to get on the wrong side of him on our very first morning. Filch found us trying to force our way through a door that unluckily turned out to be a door that was not really a door at all, but solid wall just pretending. He wouldn't believe that we were lost, he was sure that we were trying to break into it on purpose and was threatening to lock us in the dungeons when we were rescued by Hagrid, who was pa.s.sing.

Filch is never alone, he owns a cat called Mrs. Norris, a scrawny, dust-colored creature

with bulging, lamp-like eyes just like Filch's. She patrolled the corridors alone. Break a rule in front of her, put just one toe out of line, and she'd whisk off for Filch, who'd appear, wheezing, two seconds later. Filch knew the secret pa.s.sageways of the school better than

anyone and could pop up as suddenly as any of the ghosts. Me and the twins started to hate the squib, and it was our dearest ambition of to give Mrs. Norris a good kick.

I swear to myself that one day I will capture that cat then carry out horrible experiments on it, I think the cat noticed my intentions, so it decided to stay far away from me.

We have to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets. I for one am a fan of star gazing even in my last life I was, I would love to get away from my foolish dad and step mom and look out into the sky for hours on end.

Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout, where they learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi and found out what they were used for. I did really great in that cla.s.s and even handed out some tips I picked up over my years of raising magical plants to Professor Sprout and I was able to get my house 20 points for a job well done in that cla.s.s.

Easily the most boring cla.s.s was History of Magic, which was the only one taught by a ghost. Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him. Binns droned on and on while they scribbled down names and dates and got Emetic the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up. Me and the twins use that time to catch up on other cla.s.ses and chit-chat if we want.

Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk.

"Wands out everyone, today we will begin with floating the feather in front of you. You will have to use the floating charm so watch me carefully. --Wingardium Leviosa" Professor Flitwick shouted the chant and waved his wand as the feather started floating.

"You guys try it now," he said, and everyone started practicing the spell.

I know that I needed to shock the Professor Flitwick so that he would teach me dueling. I shouted the chant and waved the wand, the feather started floating up.

"Great job Mr. Lovegood, ten points to Gryffindor. Everyone did you just see Mr. Lovegood perform a great floating charm. If you do as he did, I am sure you will be able to do accomplish the same results as Mr. Lovegood" praised Professor Flitwick.

The twins and Lee where stuck with the charm, so I decided to help them out.

"Alright, think of yourself as a gust of wind trying to carry way some leaves. Now gently steer the feathers up until it lifts up."

As I continue to explain to the twins the other, the other students and Professor Flitwick listen.

After two tries, the twins are able to succeed, then Lee and more students who tried my method also succeeded. Professor Flitwick gives me a silent nod of approval.