Both teachers stood up, a balding white man waved his hand to close the door, and lean african-american of them spoke addressing the students.

“Good morning class one C, my name is Johnson, the head teacher, here is McKinzie, assistant teacher of Offense Against Incoming Hazards.” the wizards started walking on both sides of the row of students scrutinizing them and their nameplates. “Goal of this class is for you to learn how to neutralize possible threats in advance, best case scenario completely prevent a dangerous situation before it unfolds, hence the name of the course. Can anyone tell how this is accomplished?” he asked the first question. Many people rose their hands up, including Luca. It seems a lot of little wizards already read their pile of textbooks before enrolling, out of envy as they were watching their parents or older neighbor children cast spells.

“You there, Fritzel.” Bryce got an opportunity as the teacher was at his position in the row.

“Wizards are encouraged to first take out their wands and control any approaching danger from a distance, no matter what it is.” he answered straight from the opening page of their textbooks.

“That's right, you can talk it out later if this danger is an intelligent creature, but to minimize risks - start fighting when you feel threatened.” Luca received an appreciative pat on the shoulder teasing Ringo’s tiny ears by the way, and a longer lookover as the teachers recognized him. “Of course, this advice works outside the wizard-only villages most of you come from, where it’s forbidden to have private duels or harm each other in any way, and critters and vermin are cleared regularly. As you can guess by the props in this classroom, we are all about practical spellcasting here, for your junior years against dummies, from third grade against your classmates, fifth grade against us - teachers. Theory on how to deal with hazardous magical creatures and plants gets checked at the end of each year, where you have to defeat random creatures you learned about either one-on-one or attacked by a group in specifically prepared test rooms, animals provided courtesy of Texas Ranches limited liability company.” Johnson said in one breath, returning to his desk as McKinzie stayed at the back.

“Alright, as today is your first time spellcasting, please remember three principles - intent, chant, direction. Intent changes according to what you wish to accomplish, for example, our first spell - petrificus totalus - aims to fix the body of the target in a position as if turned into a stone statue. During the chant I just said, you have to keep that in mind and connect your magic power to the wand simultaneously - it takes care of direction for you, skipping a dangerous step and the possibility of magic power backfiring that plagued wizards before the wand’s invention. Advanced spells require gestures or other catalysts, we chose petrificus totalus for a reason of it being the most basic, you don’t need anything but a single brain cell to cast it.” he scanned the audience listening carefully. “In case of problems, the esteemed portraits of late Offense teachers are here to guide you from behind. Stand up, aim wands at your dummies, and have a try.” after instructing, he looked at the class in commotion. Wizards taking up their wands, looked over at each other for the brave to attempt first.

“Petrificus totalus!” Winnetou shouted, a gray beam of light hitting the dummy in its arm made it change pose, from standing relaxedly on legs open wide, arms spread aside, to a sudden leglock, arms pushed to the body. Dummy lost its balance and leaned back on the wall.

“Admirable accuracy for the first spell, keep up aiming for the head.” nearby McKinzie encouraged. A successful case emboldened the rest of the class, for a while shouts kept coming from around Luca, although most of them failed to make light come out of their wands. The boy concentrated, numerous failures trying to use wooden wands flashed in his mind as he looked at the black monstrosity in his hand with a complicated mood. Scared to fail yet again, excited because this time possibility of success seemed great, mourning for all the wands he pointlessly shattered, Luca took a deep breath and consciously poured his magic into the tentacle. The connection between him and it lit up in his senses, he felt as if an additional limb, hollow inside, grew in his mind that could have his magic poured into.

“Petrificus totalus!” he shouted imagining the wooden dummy turning a sculpture. An overwhelming waist-thick beam of grey turned the entire room into its colour, briefly imprinting itself on the retinas of the audience accidentally looking at it. It hit squarely at the heart position of the dummy, Luca having an excellent feel for targeting. The dummy didn’t move as it was supposed to, it only began to truly stonefy, turning the same shade of grey as the beam hitting it rapidly, eventually the grey spread all over it and started affecting the floors. A small circle clearly dyed differently beneath the now stone sculpture stopped spreading, only then the audience came to their senses. Another commotion broke out because of Luca, five painted teachers gathered in a frame behind him.

“I thought medusas were gone long ago, Greeks hunted them to extinction.” they started joyfully backseat commenting on the event. “Never seen before jinx! Did this kid invent a transmutation hex?”, “Look at his enormous black rod!”.

“Strange…” McKinzie walked up to the dummy and rapped his knuckles on it.

“Professor, have I done something wrong?” Luca asked weakly under the impression that his sorcery failed in some manner, effects not consistent with others' operation.

“Not necessarily, aim at this one and replicate it. Unless you feel weak, dizzy?” he pointed at a dummy on his left belonging to Junfeng that couldn’t hit it, his two successfully cast curses flying into the floor.

“I’m cool, petrificus totalus.” Luca shrugged the hesitation off and did what was asked to the exact same effect as Johnson also made his way to inspect the dummies-turned-sculptures.

“What about my dummy?” Junfeng put up his hand to inquire how he should practice now, the entire class frozen because of this incident.

“You are hopeless, get out to change your glasses. May as well aim for the wall, sprinkle or two of luck and you can hit it.” a painted teacher jeered him from behind.

“Doesn’t matter, you can keep training on them. Mr. Granger, are you sure about not feeling anything unusual?” Johnson apparently noticed the same thing as McKinzie, so he had to be certain.

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“Yeah, all good.” Luca assured him.

“How about making as many dummies here turn to stone as possible? Everyone, we will go one by one from the end of the class, meantime keep casting to at least be able to shoot a spell out, if you can’t until the end of this lesson, a homework to write two thousand words describing what you learned from those failures.” Johnson proposed and waved for the students to proceed, those not yet skilled jumped to resume yelling the chant.

“Hey, you are a freak, but at least school will not be too boring if you keep making a mess, am I right?” Winnetou told Luca as he passed by, which elicited a reluctant grin on Luca’s part.

“Wicked!” Tolkien put up his hand for a high-five, Luca could only hit it vigorously much to Ringo’s displeasure expressed with a meow for affecting his balance with sudden movements. Next, he proceeded to cast the spell fifty-eight times in a row, turning all dummies in the classroom to stone, to the astonishment and dropped jaws of all seven present teachers. After every one of them, they collectively inquired about his health. Luca indeed felt progressively more tired, by the end, he was sweating profusely sitting because of wobbly legs, despite taking a couple of five-minute breaks in the middle as the teachers insisted on.

“Miracle, this boy has too much magic!” McKinzie exclaimed after calming down.

“So that's the only reason… my curse is different… professor?” asked Luca panting like a dog.

“Basically, yes. Your… wand allows for much more power to flow into it, and your speed of gathering magic is also the best I ever saw. Under this circumstance, minor deviation from the intended effect is normal. Those mannequins will ‘depetrify’ in a day or so, while spells cast by your colleagues can at most last ten to twenty minutes on inanimate objects, this should give you a hint as to how abnormal that is.” Johnson explained looking at the boy with interest. “I’m awaiting the surprise on our next practical lesson.” he added, turning to the rest of the class as the time of his course ended. Luca’s show spurred their competing spirit so that all of class 1C managed to cast the curse. “Pretty nice, none of you are useless. Next hours on Friday we will read the first chapter and learn about the leading cause of wizard’s premature deaths in America. Dismissed.” McKinzie waved his hand to open the door to fulfill his assistant’s job. Bryce holding two bags and Luca’s roommates came to him, gazes like watching a rare animal in a zoo.

“Too exaggerated, I felt drained casting twenty curses, and my tiny beam is probably less than one-hundredth of yours.” Bryce said handing him his bag. Luca took it and stood up with an effort, declining Bryce’s attempt to help.

“Eat more and exercise, thats my secret.” he hoarsely threw as a joke, even such a brief rest enough for his magic to replenish itself. The group got encircled by other students trying to ask Luca for advice or inquire about his information, many of them surprised that he came from no-maj background. Winnetou had to take charge and lead the little wizards still excited and chattering to the next class, Charms. Passing other groups of students going up or down the main staircase, they reached the right door on the third floor, this classroom had rows of benches and tall desks rising higher on both sides, blank portrait frames behind, the middle of it empty until a rectangular lectern with two female wizards of advanced age standing behind it overlooking the crowd. The rowdy little wizards pushed themselves behind the desks, many trying to be closer to Luca’s group. The head teacher waved her wand as she counted sixty people entering the classroom, to close the door with a bang and gather students' attention.

“Have you already cast first spell in previous class?” she asked, pointing her wand at the nearest student on her right.

“Yes, professor. We learned petrificus totalus.” a ginger female student of Pukwudgie house answered her holding her head up with pride.

“Such a simple weak jinx, my lesson of Charms deals with the broadest and most varied application of magic. Here, instead of a vulgar light show that wizards use to attack or defend each other most commonly, we measure every twitch of our wands, every letter and hyphen, control of power we were born to use with precision and purpose. Nuanced and tailored to any of your wishes and temporal needs Charms, cleaning, summoning, moving, celebrating, elemental conjuring, food-making, tailoring, hairstyle cutting, anything you would want to do and think of - made by magic.” the older witch with a head of grey hair gathered on her neck by a simple clip, introduced her course. The room, including Luca, was absorbed in her words, imagining themselves wielding their wands every day throughout life to make it more comfortable and convenient, resting on their couches while a wave of a wand brings them snacks or drinks. In the meantime, the portraits behind students welcomed four latecomers, past teachers of the subject no doubt.

“Please refer to me as Professor Fieldstein, we will start with a practical lesson that I hope awakens your desire to explore the wonders of what you can do with a wave of your wands. Charm introduced today is lumos.” she said and the tip of her wand lit up to add to the warm sunlight illuminating the room. The light started increasing and decreasing in intensity, changing colours, and eventually detached from her wand to hover still alternating in the middle. “On this simplest of charms you can see the essence of this course - control over your magic, the malleability of spells, and a perfect exercise method. It requires you to continuously provide the right amount of magic for the chosen intensity of light, take charge and bend the spell to your will to alter it smoothly and detach it from the wand as a master’s achievement, this will signify a genius accomplishment in it and is not required in the official curriculum, but I’m one of the advocates for it to eventually be. Start trying to cast it by yourselves and keep a constant brightness for as long as you can today.” she stepped to patrol the left side of the room including Luca’s seat, as her assistant took the other side.

Every student in the room chose to take out their wands and observe Luca’s effort first, as he took out the absurd black forearm-wide tentacle under the pressure of their gazes. Sighing softly, he concentrated his mind on making his wand glow. Made curious by her pupil’s gazes, Professor Fieldstein also stared at him, recognizing Luca as the boy from yesterday, and rising her thin brows at his wand.

“Ekhem… Lumos.” Luca cleared his throat uncomfortable from earlier shouting of the petrifying spell’s chant and muttered. A flash of radiance rivaling the Sun itself erupted, along with screams, shouts, and panicked whimpers of Ringo as he and Luca himself suffered the most, the kitten’s and his temporary vehicle’s eyes closest to the point of supernova.

“Aaah, I’m blind!”, “Pain, it hurts!”, “Ouch, ouch, ouch!” and other expressions of distress occupied everyone but the assistant teacher's mouth, she was lucky enough to have her back turned to the scene. Luca groaned sitting on the floor, the flashbang messed with his sense of balance, holding Ringo clawing at his trouser legs. For a brief second, the only person not crying their eyes out didn’t know what to do, seeing her colleague rubbing her eyes with her palms to relieve the pain, she decided to summon a qualified Healer, her knowledge of first aid spells ending in just wound-closing and disinfecting ones.

“Romanda, quickly go to the infirmary and tell them to send an eye specialist or whoever thinks they can help in what is going on.” she ordered a woman in the painting, that snorted to acknowledge her task and walked briskly inside the frame, disappearing at some critical point.