Currently, sitting in Charms' classroom, she was rejoicing that her detention was finally over and she could once again have some free time for herself while waiting for the class to start.
After all the students had arrived and settled down, the diminutive professor plodded out of his office and in his cheery demeanour greeted his students.
“Good day, isn’t it? Neither too windy, nor too cold,” gesturing towards the window. “just perfect for learning a new spell: the Levitation Charm!”
“The Levitation Charm was developed by a warlock by the name of Jarleth Hobart, in the mid 16th century. It is quite an amusing story actually,” the Charms Master spoke enthusiastically to his students.
“On 16 July, 1544, Hobart decided to put on a show for a crowd of wizards, which included the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot of that time. He boasted about his groundbreaking charm that would enable him to fly, and with great pomp he climbed atop the church roof. After several speeches and a rousing performance of the national anthem he leaped off the roof. Sure enough, he’d succeeded!
“But soon enough the novelty had worn off; the impatient crowd booed and Hobart, in a desperate attempt to please the crowd, tried swimming in the air which resulted in doing nothing other than making him look like a confused fish out of water.
“In a rather misguided assumption, Hobart deduced that his clothing was the culprit, hindering his mobility. So, in an act of sheer brilliance - or so he thought - he stripped off his garments, only to find himself plummeting ten feet to the unforgiving ground below. As it turns out, it wasn't Hobart himself who was levitating, but his clothes, enchanted by the Levitation Charm!
“And there he lay, in his birthday suit and nursing broken bones, the Chief Warlock, unamused by his ‘outrageous silliness’, slapped him with a hefty fine.”
Flitwick let the students be amused for a while before he said more seriously, “So what is the main take away from the story?”
Ginny raised her hand. Flitwick acknowledged her but did not ask her; he first scanned his class to see if there was anyone else, but found no other raised hand, “Very well, Ms. Weasley.”
“There are two actually: One: that the Levitation Charm does not work on living beings. Two: the fact that even the most harmless magic can be dangerous if used recklessly.”
“Good! Very good! You’d be very suited to House of Ravens, Ms. Weasley.” he praised. The subtle jab at the Ravens was completely missed by the class - well, excluding one Gryffindor and one mysterious Ravenclaw.
Flitwick also seemed to have noticed and just sighed in defeat.
“Now, to actually learn the spell…”
Flitwick took 20 minutes to properly explain the spell, incantation, and wand movements in a lot of detail. After which he had them practise the actual spell.
After ‘two’ tries Ginny was able to make her feather fly.
“Once again, well done Ms. Weasley! 5 points to Gryffindor!”
During the next hour, the whole class managed to cast the spell at least once.
“Now, we have about 25 minutes left.. Does anyone have any questions?”
Ginny raised her hand.
“Yes, Ms Weasley?”
“Sir, why are we required to learn incantations and wand movements? What is their significance?”
Professor Flitwick, who had been listening carefully, paused for a moment before his small smile stretched into a wide grin; the professor looked positively delighted at the question.
“That, Ms. Weasley, is a very, very good question.” Flitwick looked away from her and walked to the centre, and looked around, “What is the point of using incantations, when in our N.E.W.T. years we are required to do away with them?
“‘It’s obvious’ many a wizard will tell you. They will tell you that it is because an older Witch or Wizard has more experience in casting magic and is therefore able to do magic non-verbally and without wand movements. And while that is true, it is a very, very gross generalisation.”
Flitwick paused, his gaze sweeping over his rapt audience.
“What if I tell you that you, yes you, my dear students, are just as capable of casting Magic non-verbally and without gestures?” Flitwick paused and whispered, almost dramatically, “Even wandlessly?
“Like the mythical Merlin, or our very own Headmaster?
“Like this…”
The class followed Flitwick with their gazes as he walked over to a desk, set his wand aside and concentrated on a Gryffindor’s feather. After a second, the feather in question trembled slightly before - somewhat shakily - taking off into the air setting off a wave of gasps and shocked exclamations.
Flitwick glanced at his now awed students, “What if I told you, that you too, could do this, have done this and even better?”
There were a few whispers and a lot of sceptical looks. Flitwick’s grin grew wider as he took in his students' expressions.
“Accidental Magic.”
That was all he needed to say to throw his students into an uproar. Flitwick stood there and revelled in his students' surprise and excitement. Ginny keenly noticed a Ravenclaw had put away her wand and was glaring at her feather with such intensity that she reckoned that if she had a basilisk’s death gaze, she would have bored a hole all the way to the other side of the earth.
After letting his students be excited for a bit, Flitwick decided it was time to pour cold water over them.
“It is quite unlikely, however, that you will be able to harness this power. Did you think wizards who came before you had never thought of this?”
A gryffindor could not hold it and blurted out, “But why? Why can’t we do wandless magic at will?”
Gazing at Flitwick who was enjoying himself immensely, Ginny saw a glimpse of the diminutive teacher’s goblin ancestry in his almost sadistic pleasure at the pouting students' unhappiness and unwillingness to believe that they were, in fact, not the next coming of Merlin.
“You have answered your own question, Mr. Creevy.”
And as you’d expect, the 11-year-old’s reaction was a witty, “Huh?”
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Flitwick chuckled fondly at the confused look on his face. “What do you think is the cause of accidental magic?” he asked rhetorically, “When you were in danger, or when you were sad, or when you were angry and for a very few of you, when you were happy; Magic happened. Magic responded to your unintentional call. Why is that?
“To answer this question, all you need to do is look deeper.” Flitwick looked around his students who were at the edge of their seats.
“You see, children have incredibly pure minds. When they feel strongly, they feel it with their entire being. When they feel happy, their happiness knows no bounds. When angry, they can be little hellions.
“This coupled with the fact that children have uniquely active magic - which settles down as they grow - causes them to be able to do feats of magic few adults could replicate.”
“So professor, are emotions what drive wandless magic?” asked the Ravenclaw girl who had been glaring at the feather… and was still glaring at the feather, this time with more than a little excitement.
“It is intent. It is intent that drives all magic, Ms. Thomson. However, powerful emotions produce the strongest of intents. So you would be both right and wrong in saying that emotion drives magic.
“You will find, however, that using pure emotion to cast Magic wandlessly is nigh impossible. Such pure, primordial emotion is not something we can learn to control. And I would advise you not to entertain such thoughts. Last time someone attempted to do so, became the cruellest Dark Lord Britain Europe has ever witnessed. And even he didn’t succeed.”
The mention of Lord Voldemort immediately sobered up the students, turning the whole class turned so silent, one could hear a pin drop.
“Fret not, however. You will learn more about this in detail in your later years, more specifically your N.E.W.T years…”
-x-x-x-
While leaving the class, Ginny was deep in thought. As an avid consumer of fanfiction in her previous life, she had read plenty of stories in which the mechanics of magic were similar to the world which she had found herself in - where intent is what drives magic. And being in a Magical World, she wanted to take several pages out of the books and recreate modern muggle’s conveniences. Like smartphones, or smartphones or even smartphones! She honestly did not know how she managed to survive so long without it!
Anyway, to achieve this goal, she had to learn Art of Alchemy and Artefact Crafting.
What bothered her was that Runes did not make sense. If the cause of magic was the intent of a living being, then how did magical artefacts work? All magical artefacts to some degree made use of runes. And runes were dead things. No matter how you spun it, as dead things, runes couldn’t possibly formulate intent. Intent as it is requires a sufficient degree of sentience that no material or rune will ever have.
Then what is it that drives Magical Artefacts?
Ginny had spent the better part of her day fussing over this growing more and more frustrated, before she was rudely shocked out of her reverie by a mystical sounding voice.
“The Nargles seem to have taken quite a liking to you.” Luna’s sudden arrival made her nearly jump out of her skin.
“Merlin’s bal*****s! Luna! Don’t just pop up out of nowhere like that!”
Luna did not even react at the particularly flowery language spewing out of Ginny’s mouth. Tilting her head slightly, and said, “Sorry?”
“Why does that sound more like a question?!”
After taking several breaths to calm down, Ginny looked inquisitively at her interloper - a quirky girl known as Luna - as they made their way towards the Great Hall. The Lovegoods lived not too far away from the Weasleys and were therefore well acquainted. Mr. Lovegood sometimes even brought Luna over to play as both she and Ginny were of the same age. The original Ginny, much like others her age, found her quirky behaviour weird and disliked it.
“Just out of curiosity, Luna. What do these Nargles you talk about look like?” she had always had this question in her previous life. Despite most people in her previous life brushing off the whole thing as quirk or eccentric behaviour due to her loneliness, Ginny begged to differ.
This was a magical world after all. To magicals, space is meaningless, time is easily bent by 13-year-olds and matter can be shaped into whatever they wish it to be - permanently if you were the owner of a Philosopher’s Stone. So what are the odds of there existing creatures that are somehow related to one’s emotional state that somehow only Luna could see?
‘Pretty darn high’ is the conclusion Ginny came to.
The girl paused for a moment, her eyebrows raising and eyes widening just a bit. “You believe me?”
“Why would I not? Unless you are just making it up?”
“No! They are definitely real! Definitely!” she shook her head vigorously, causing her companion to be taken aback at her sudden vehemence that was such a stark contrast to her normal behaviour. She understood, however, that, unlike the person she would grow up to be later on, this younger version still held some hope that there was someone like her who could see beyond just the mundane world.
Most people just chalked it up to her being weird and no one truly believed in her. Other children felt weirded out, and adults were patronising. It was little wonder that a young Luna was desperate for someone to believe in her, understand her and see what she did. She was unlike Riddle, who revelled in his superiority; over muggles at first and then other Magicals when he discovered he was so much more talented and capable.
“Well?” Ginny urged.
“Er… it’s not that I can actually see it, rather, I just… feel their existence…” Luna’s voice became softer and softer as she spoke. But fearing that Ginny would not believe her, she exclaimed, “But they are definitely real! I swear!”
“Don’t worry, I’m not doubting you.” patting Luna’s head. After a pause, she turned to look at Luna, “I’m going to do something, just tell me if the Nargles do something or behave differently.”
Ginny took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Slowly letting out her breath she released her Magic that she normally kept tightly leashed, letting it once again intertwine with the surrounding Magic and revelling in her regained intensity of her Magical Perception.
She almost lost herself in the feeling for a short moment before remembering that she had a companion.
“So what do you see… feel?” she queried as she turned to look at Luna who was looking at her in a daze.
“T-They seem more active?”
“So they are not greater in number, but more active?”
Luna nodded.
“How many Nargles do I have compared to other First-Years?”
“Much greater in number, around 7 times?” Luna had an unfocussed gaze as if she was concentrating on something imperceptible to the naked eye.
Ginny simply nodded.
“Hmm, then how about this?” Closing her eyes, she operated her occlumency at full force to bring herself to a state similar to the one she would when casting the Patronus Charm: letting the emotion of happiness flood her entire being and saturate it. Involuntarily, a dreamy smile appeared on her face and she almost forgot why she was doing so in the first place, again. Thankfully, her recent advancement in the cognitive aspect of Mind Magic helped her.
Looking at Luna, “How are the Nargles doing now?”
“They feel… floaty?” Luna observed, her confusion apparent on her face. “... happy?” She sounded quite unsure.
Ginny, on the other hand nodded knowingly. “I think I know what’s going on.”
Sighing inwardly she started to carefully rein her magic in. It was not easy to stumble upon a chance to completely unleash her magic like this. However, she had set up her own rules and she had to stand by them.
Besides, she had realised that it was good training for her magic. The act of reining in and unleashing her magic over and over made it adapt to her circumstance and made her control over her Magic much more powerful. It also somehow resulted in a very slight increase in the sensitivity of her Magical Perception. Perhaps having a muted Magical Perception normally forced her to adapt to it, allowing her mind to get used to deciphering something meaningful from the indecipherable mess. That was the only comfort she had.
“Can you also see the Nargles, Ginny?” Luna almost sounded excited. Her eyes searching Ginny’s face for any indication of assent.
“Not quite.” she shook her head.
Although Luna tried not to show it her face, her dismay was palpable. But soon she felt an arm wrap around her shoulders pulling her towards her companion in a one-armed hug.
“I did say I knew what was going on, didn't I?” She comforted the girl. “While I can’t sense the Nargles, I, like you, can also sense much more than the ordinary witch or wizard.
“It doesn’t make us any lesser, Luna, only greater.”
Luna was silent for a while before asking, “What are the Nargles, then?”
Ginny paused for a while before she queried “Have you heard of the theory called ‘Trifecta of Being’?”
“Mhm.” Her interloper nodded in assent. “A witch by the name Agnes Morganach, who lived during the 18th century insisted that a Living Being consisted of three Pillars: the Spirit, the Body and Magic and that the three were deeply intertwined with each other so that changes in one reflect on the other two. She had apparently come to the conclusion from the observation of multiple magicals whose patronuses had changed after experiencing an upheaval. She also theorised that the Metamorphmagi’s abilities are the result of their Magic being much more deeply intertwined with their Body than any other Witch or Wizards, this assumption was reinforced by the fact that Metamorphmagi have slightly higher spell resistance than the average Magical.
“Another phenomenon that supported this theory was when wizards and their wands become incompatible after a similar emotional upheaval.
“This theory, however, was widely challenged by most academics back then, because accepting this theory put them on the same level as the Muggles.”
Luna lived up to her status as a student of House of Ravens as she immediately understood Ginny’s implication. “You mean to say that Nargles are the emotional state of a person?”
“Yes, but it is a bit more nuanced. You don’t directly sense the emotions of a person, that would make you a natural legilimens. And Legilimens, natural or not, no matter how accomplished, would not be able to access your mind without eye contact or some other very intimate connection.
“No, I believe that you sense the change in the Magic of a person caused by their emotional state. The so-called Nargles are how you perceive the changes in the emotional state of a person. And since no person’s emotional state can truly be still, you always perceive everyone.
“This is quite easy to prove actually. Tell me Luna, Did anyone ever manage to surprise you by suddenly popping out of nowhere?”
Luna tried recalling if she’d ever been surprised like that, but drew a blank.
“I’m right, aren’t I?” Ginny smirked when she saw the blank look on her interloper’s face.
For the rest of the way to the Great Hall, Ginny left her companion to her thoughts after the revelation of her ability.
-x-x-x-
Upon reaching the Great Hall, Luna muttered a quick ‘Thank you’ before scurrying away to the Ravenclaw’s table.
“Was that Loony Lovegood you came with?” Aileen looked across the table at Ginny taking her seat next to Gwen.
“Aileen, that’s rude!” Gwen chastised her. “It’s not nice to make fun of people behind their backs!”
“So it’s okay if I do it in front of them?”
“That is also rude! Making fun of people is rude!”
“Okay, okayyy~ Calm down will ya?” She threw her hands up in surrender.
“Luna is actually a great person. She may be a little quirky -” Ginny started.
“-Loony” Aileen muttered under her breath, causing Gwen to send a glare in her direction.
“- but she is a great person once you get to know her.”
Gwen immediately turned to Ginny, her eyes brightened at the possibility of making a new friend. Aileen just rolled her eyes in exasperation, muttering something about social butterflies and weird friends.
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