Chapter 333: The First Week of School
In Transfiguration, after a brief talk on Animagi, Professor Edward formally began the lesson.
After half a period of theory, Edward flicked his wand and set a match in front of each student, then told them to practice changing a matchstick into a needle.
By the end of the morning's lesson, only a few students had managed partial transformations.
Professor Edward was not surprised. Transfiguration was arguably the hardest subject of all. Having a handful achieve even partial change on the first day was already beyond his expectations.
He assigned homework and dismissed the class.
First-year schedules were light. That morning held only Transfiguration.
In the afternoon came Charms and Herbology.
The Charms professor was Luke. He had previously served as mayor of Hogsmeade, but chose to retire, passing his duties to a successor and applying to the castle to teach Charms.
He made the change decisively, leaving his old rival, Lach, wide-eyed and openly admitting Luke had outstripped him.
Unlike the mayor of Bree, Luke had no great hunger for power. Once he became a wizard, he had likely made his choice quietly.
He groomed a successor early, and once that successor earned Kael Black's approval, Luke handed over most responsibilities without fuss.
He then devoted most of his time to studying magic, stepping in only when his successor faced trouble beyond his ability.
Thus Luke's command of magic grew steadily, surpassing many wizards. In Charms, he showed both talent and strength.
After successfully securing the Charms professorship, he resigned the mayoralty, came to the castle to teach, and pursued more advanced study.
Phoenix House shared Charms with Thunderbird House that afternoon.
Professor Luke also served as Head of Thunderbird House.
He taught with humor and kept a light classroom tone, excelling at teaching through play. In the midst of dry Charms theory, he would punctuate the lecture with elegant spellwork, holding the students' attention from start to finish.
Even when the bell rang, they left reluctantly, chattering about the spells they had just seen him cast.
After Charms, the students went straight downstairs, out of the castle, and hurried to Greenhouse One.
The greenhouses stood near Kael Black and Arwen's private gardens, separated by a high, thick hedge.
From the moment the school was planned, Kael had a hedge planted outside the garden.
Under magic, the hedge grew tall and dense, shielding the garden to keep mischievous young wizards out.
Besides the White Tree and the mallorn, many rare flowers and herbs grew within, and they could not survive the rough handling of children.
So only Kael, Arwen, and those they permitted could enter the garden.
Outside the garden, the glasshouses—numbered One through Seven—held many magical plants.
The higher the number, the rarer or more dangerous the plants inside.
The herbarium rooms in the Tower of Amon Sûl, once open for general use, had become Kael's private apothecary, wholly separate from the public greenhouses.
The greenhouses were tended by Professor Marglas, the Herbology teacher.
Marglas had been among the first witches of the initial accelerated training class. She showed clear talent for Herbology, caught Kael's eye, and upon graduation, remained at the castle to care for his herb beds and the garden's flora.
Over the past ten years, her research and skill in Herbology had soared. She even cultivated several remarkable magical plants.
She had also traveled to Mirkwood, Fangorn Forest, and the Old Forest, and, by fortunate chance, gained the friendship of Radagast the Brown, the Wood-elves, and the Ents, receiving many seeds.
She planted those seeds in the greenhouses and began successful cultivation.
She even transplanted a Huorn-bred willow from Fangorn Forest and set it in Greenhouse Seven.
This feat astonished Kael at the time and made him value her all the more.
So when considering a Herbology professor, Kael thought of her without hesitation.
Marglas was a plump, cheerful witch with brown hair and blue eyes, often beaming. She wore a stain-hardy brown dress and a dust-gray hat.
She seemed gentle and down-to-earth, yet her ambitions were large.
She aimed to raise more White Trees and mallorn, turning Weathertop into a grove of White Trees and mallorn like the Golden Wood of Lothlórien, and perhaps even lovelier.
Because of her friendship with the Ents, and mindful that the Entwives had vanished and the Ents had lost the means to continue their kind, Marglas sought with magic to raise new Ent saplings, a way for the Ents to survive.
Kael supported her aim. If a way could be found for the Ents to return, the friendship of their people would be assured.
When Phoenix and Dragon students arrived at Greenhouse One, Professor Marglas already waited within.
The interior had been enlarged with the Undetectable Extension Charm to the size of a football pitch, its climate kept steady by Temperature Charms and the like.
Since this was a first-year classroom, Greenhouse One held plants of little danger.
By far the most common was dittany, grown in swathes by Marglas, and the day's first Herbology topic.
Dittany had potent healing power. Its sap could be made into Essence of Dittany, which healed most wounds.
Many wizarding households grew dittany now, keeping Essence of Dittany as a staple potion.
Even so, household harvests could not match Marglas's. The Essence of Dittany from her houses sold not only in Diagon Alley, but far afield, and was worth its weight in gold.
In this, Marglas was a hidden magnate. But she loved Herbology purely, spending most of her time in the glasshouses, tending her wonders.
She also brought Herbology to bear in defense.
Drawing on a killer vine from Mirkwood—a dark-mutated vine, tainted by shadow—she bred a stronger Devil's Snare.
Devil's Snare dwelt in dark and damp, its snake-like tendrils able to seize and strangle any who strayed near. Even a beast caught in it could not break free.
Its one weakness was light and fire.
That weakness Marglas left deliberately, to ensure the plant could be controlled.
Even so, she cultivated a special specimen—Devil's Snare that feared neither sunlight nor flame, with iron-tough vines and no apparent weakness—kept as her personal protection.