She then waived her hand over the crystal ball, and Simon heard a young woman’s voice. It seemed to be the voice of Emily, who had guided Simon two days before from the magic carpet to the Great Hall to receive his dorm assignment.
“Good morning,” said the voice, “and welcome to this morning’s announcements.”
Over the next few minutes, Simon heard several people who weren’t present speak about all kinds of things that either didn’t interest him or he had already heard mentioned in the Welcome Ceremony. Finally, after a few minutes of this, it all ended as Emily’s voice said: “And that concludes this morning’s announcements.”
It wasn’t long after that till three more tolls from the bell that had sounded at the start of class were heard.
“We won’t be having Introduction to Enchantments Class tomorrow,” said Professor Hathaway, “but I will see you for Homeroom tomorrow and every day of classes, Monday through Friday. Thursday we’ll be talking about discovery of our magical temperaments and also about this weekend’s field trip. Anyway, to help y’all get to Professor Sinclair’s Class, I’ll send you a green guide-star.”
She swung her wand in the air, muttering under her breath, until a bright green light formed at the tip of her wand and floated to the door. As the light headed out the classroom, the students got up and started following it. It led them through the hallways, stairways, and skyways all the way to Greene Tower in the eastern edge of the East Wing. As it floated on, Simon’s mind was divided between following it and wondering what these “magical temperaments” were that Professor Hathaway was going to teach about on Thursday.
The guide-star faded out as soon as it had entered a classroom on the second floor, Professor Sinclair’s class. Simon had seen Professor Sinclair twice before — but at the time, the Professor had come across as old and stodgy. However, after distributing the syllabus, when he began discussing what his class was about, he made a very different impression on Simon. He still seemed old — but now, instead of old and stodgy, he seemed old and wise.
When the Professor began talking about how magical creatures fit in to evolution, Simon’s heart raced — not with fear, but with excitement. He had always been avidly curious about evolution, and could name every human or near-human species that scientists of the non-magical world knew about, past or present, and give at least some description of a good number of them. To learn now that there were additional species all over the evolutionary tree of life unknown to non-magical scientists — this presented a whole new world for him to explore.
After class, Professor Sinclair summoned a guide-star to guide the students back to the Great Hall for lunch. After lunch, they all had a chance to go back to their dorm rooms to switch out their morning class supplies for those for their afternoon class, Introduction to Potions. They then gathered together in the Common Room and waited for Professor Pendleton.
He finally showed up — a moderately tall, relatively slim man with a trim brown beard and still a decent amount of hair on his head. He wasn’t too old, but wasn’t extraordinarily young either. He wore a pale green robe with reddish-green spiral patterns embroidered all over it.
“You’re Professor Hathaway’s homeroom class?” he asked.
A few muted replies of “yes” could be heard — but his question had anyways been a formality. Members of Professor Hathaway’s homeroom class were the only first-year students who would generally be found in the Hemlock Tower Common Room.
“Okay,” he said. “I’m Professor Pendleton, and I’m going to be teaching you this year about Potions. Come with me.”
He led the whole class all the way to Miller Tower in the northeast corner of the East Wing — up to the top floor. He took them to a room that was larger than any classroom Simon had been to so far this day. This didn’t seen so much like a regular classroom, but more like a lecture hall — with each row elevated higher than the one before it to give every student as clear a view of the instructor’s area as possible.
At the bottom of the hall, at the far end, was the teacher’s desk as well as a few empty tables. And behind all that, there was not a chalkboard, but a whiteboard stocked with dry-erase markers — and a push door on either side of it.
“Find your seats,” said Professor Pendleton as he made his way to the whiteboard, “but make sure that whichever seat you pick is one that you’re comfortable sitting at for the next month or two.” Simon sat down in the third row from the front. He picked a seat on his right-hand side of the class with only two seats between him and the center aisle.
The reason why this room was larger than the other classroom, despite accommodating the same number of students, was that more room was needed for each student. Instead of being given a simple desk, each student had a somewhat larger table with a burner built in on the left side and a cauldron on top of it.
“So,” began Professor Pendleton, after a slow and methodical roll call, “does anyone here know what the most commonly consumed potion is in the United States?” He began walking around the front of the room as he looked around at a befuddled class. “I’ll give you one clue,” he said. “Your parents probably drink it every morning.”
Simon found a wave of agitation surge through his body. He began shaking his hands around vigorously to calm himself.
“You there,” he said, glancing at Simon and then at one of the two pages he had marked during roll call. “Simon Corbin. Do you know what this potion is?”
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“Well —” said Simon, “my parents are both mundies.”
“Mundies or not,” insisted the Professor, “chances are they still drink this potion every morning. Any guess what it is?”
Simon stared in confusion.
“Well,” said Professor Pendleton facing the whole class, “the answer is — coffee. Nothing particularly magical about it, but not all potions are magical. A potion is, simply put, a liquid that has active properties if consumed. A potion can be magical, or it can be chemical, or it can be both.”
Simon raised his hand.
“What is it, Mr. Corbin?” asked the Professor.
“My mom only drinks coffee if it is decaffeinated,” replied Simon.
“Then it is a much weaker potion,” acknowledged Professor Pendleton with a warm smile, “but it is still a potion. And thank you very much for bringing that up, because sometimes a potion has to be weakened by any of a number of means for it to have the desired effect. That will be an important concept to remember in this class.”
With that, the Professor continued walking around the center stage area. “In this class, our focus will be on magical potions — but not to the complete exclusion of non-magical ones. After all, we can not study potions without studying the basics of the fine art.”
With that, one of the swinging doors pushed open, and a somewhat younger man with reddish brown hair came in wheeling a cart with several stacks of paper on it. This man wore a blue robe with a brown pattern of spirals similar to that on Professor Pendleton’s robe.
“Now my assistant, Mr. Prichard,” explained the Professor, “will hand out the syllabus for this class. When you get yours, please take one and pass the rest on.”
As Mr. Prichard wheeled the cart toward the center aisle, Simon cringed, concerned that there would be a collision when a cart on wheels hit the stairs. But to his surprise, nothing of the sort happened. Instead, the cart went up the stairs with the same ease as someone walking would.
* * *
After Potions class, Simon made his way back to his dorm room in Hemlock Tower and put his books away. Then, after making sure that Luna had enough food and water, he went down to the Common Room where he found Amy, Lacy, and Ethan studying together at a table.
He approached them, timidly.
“Need something?” asked Amy, looking up at him.
“I have a question,” he said. “What are magical temperaments?”
“Magical temperaments?” clarified Amy. “Well, you see, it starts with the five magical elements — Earth, Fire, Air, Water, and Spirit.”
Simon stared at her, blankly.
“They’re the basic ways magic is channeled,” said Ethan.
“It’ll be clear as you go on in your studies,” added Lacy.
“Okay,” nodded Simon.
“Now,” explained Amy with a smile, “every witch or wizard has the inherent ability to use all five of these elements — but some more than others. And your magical temperament is basically which one of these elements you have the highest aptitude for.”
“And second highest,” added Lacy, raising her pen for emphasis.
“I see,” said Simon. “So we’re going to find out on Thursday which element we have the highest ability for?”
“If only,” chuckled Ethan. “They usually talk about it in Enchantments class on the first week — but they manifest in their own time. First one usually’s clear some time in the first year. The secondary one? Second or third year, usually.”
“So, what element are you?” asked Simon.
“I’m a Fire-type first,” answered Ethan, “then Air.”
“And you, Amy?” Simon turned to his friend from the summer.
“Water-type,” answered Amy. “then Earth.”
Simon looked at Lacy.
“Earth, then Air,” she answered.
“I wonder that I’ll be,” mused Simon, as he idly sat down on the one empty seat.
“You’ll know soon enough,” assured Amy.
Simon was about to get up, but he then saw a small envelope float through the air and land on the table right in front of him. It was addressed to: “Mr. Simon Corbin — Hemlock 103”.
He picked up the envelope and opened it. Rather than containing a sheet inside, it turned out that the envelope was in itself a sheet of paper folded into the form of an envelope. When he unfolded it, he could read the letter written on the inside.
To all first-year students in Homeroom 1-C (Professor Hathaway’s homeroom)
You are each to place your transportational broom in your locker so that it will be available there for you tomorrow during your first-period class.
Locker ports are available in the Common Room of every residence hall. If you have any difficulty locating them, ask a Student Councilor for help.
Respectfully,
Professor Amelia Feng
“What is a Student Councilor?” asked Simon.
“A member of the Student Council,” answered Ethan, “such as myself.”
“So you’re a Student Councilor?”
“I sure am,” answered Ethan.
“So,” asked Simon, “What’s a locker port — and why do I have to put my broom in it?”
“Okay,” said Ethan, “lockers wouldn’t be very useful if they were tied to one place, now would they.”
“Why not?” asked Simon.
“What good would they be that way?” Ethan insisted.
“Well,” mused Simon, “as long as you know where it is so you can go back there to get your stuff.”
“Well, I suppose that could work,” conceded Ethan, “but it’s better if you can get to your locker somewhere close to where you are when you need it.”
Simon sat there, befuddled. He had used a locker several times at the swimming pool. The locker never followed him anywhere. When he needed something he had put in it, he had to go back to where the locker was. But it had always been very useful being able to leave his clothes and other valuables somewhere that he could be sure someone else wouldn’t be able to get to them. Somehow, though, this apparently wasn’t enough for people in the magical world.
“So we have all over the school these things called locker ports,” continued Ethan, clearly not aware how strange what he was saying seemed to Simon. “It’s just the outside of a locker-door, and when you open it — no matter which one you open, no matter who you are — it opens to your locker.”
“And where is my locker?” asked Simon.
“Oh, somewhere in the school’s system,” said Ethan. “But you can get to it from any locker port, as long as you’re wearing your key-clip.”
“It says that a Student Councilor can help me find the locker ports,” said Simon.
Ethan excused himself from his study group and took Simon to a place on the far wall from Drippidy Falls, near the corner — to what looked like five yellow full-length locker doors. He had seen a few similar groups of locker doors throughout the school, including every classroom he had been in — but hadn’t taken much notice of them, as there was so much else that was new at the school. “If you got your key-clip on,” Ethan explained, “you can open any one of these and see the inside of your locker.”
Simon opened the door and saw what looked like a decently spacious storage area. It wasn’t huge, but it was noticeably larger than what one would expect behind such a normal-sized locker door. He wasn’t sure whether this was the working of a space augmentation charm, or if it was simply a result of the fact that this just wasn’t the locker’s true location.
“So you can just bring down whatever you need to put in here,” explained Ethan, “and it’ll be here for you when you need it — wherever in the school you are.”
“I see,” said Simon, closing the locker door. He went up to his dorm room to get his broomstick so he could put it in his locker - nervous about the prospect of learning to fly on it.