[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]
---------------------------------------
The first time Harry used his magical senses, he felt as if everything around him had changed.
Everywhere he looked, translucent, free-floating filaments drifted through the air. And wherever he turned his gaze, he noticed subtle transformations in the young Gryffindor wizards. A thin, misty layer of light had appeared around them.
These layers of light were white, varying in thickness and intensity from person to person.
Looking closely, Harry noticed that Hermione, who sat in a corner, buried in a large book, had a magical aura less than a centimeter thick. The other first-years looked more or less the same.
Ron, however, who was making a ruckus with his twin brothers in the crowd, had a slightly thicker aura. Neville, who was diligently practicing his recitations beside Hermione, also had a somewhat more substantial layer.
The second-year students' auras were noticeably thicker, just under an inch, and more intense than those of the first-years. The third-years' auras were even richer and denser, with the Weasley twins' auras being the thickest of them all.
In fact, the twins' magical light was even stronger than that of some fourth-year students.
For students below the fifth year, although the differences in aura thickness were evident, they weren't particularly drastic. However, among the sixth and seventh years, the contrast was far more pronounced.
Harry observed that among the fifth-years, the student with the brightest aura was Percy Weasley, who was frowning disapprovingly at the rowdy students in the common room.
The white light surrounding Percy's body was about seven inches thick, more than a quarter stronger than that of most other fifth-years.
In contrast, nearly all the sixth-years had a layer of magical light over twenty inches thick. For the seventh-years, it was closer to twenty-four inches.
The gap between the fifth and sixth years was enormous, and the difference between the sixth and seventh years was even more striking.
Apart from the white magical light, Harry noticed something else, something centered between the students' eyebrows.
Every young wizard had a small golden orb of light nestled between their brows.
Calling it an "orb" wasn't entirely accurate. Upon closer inspection, it was actually the outline of a tiny figure. This was more noticeable among third-years and older students.
The tiny figure faintly resembled the student it belonged to, moving in sync with them, almost like a reflection.
For younger students, the golden figures were blurred, likely too small to be seen clearly. By the time students reached the sixth or seventh year, the figure was around three inches tall, making its details much easier to distinguish.
What caught Harry's attention was Neville's figure. While larger than those of his peers, it seemed faint and slightly unstable, trembling ever so slightly.
"Is that why Neville has such a poor memory?"
Harry's Own Magical Strength
Harry set aside his thoughts about Neville and raised his hand, eager to examine himself.
A smile spread across his face.
The white light covering the body was magical power, while the golden figure between the eyebrows represented mental strength. The magical aura around his body measured over an inch, still behind that of the second-years but clearly more developed than that of his fellow first-years.
It looks like Neil's meditation method is really effective.
Before coming to Hogwarts, Harry had barely felt any increase in his magical power. Yet after just over a month at the school, his abilities had already surpassed those of his classmates.
This was fantastic. Harry felt quite satisfied.
However, he was slightly disappointed that he couldn't see the golden figure between his own eyebrows.
At the same time, this curiosity led him to wonder: if the difference between sixth and seventh-year students was so great, then what about the professors at Hogwarts?
Professor McGonagall must be incredibly powerful, after all, she had effortlessly cast spells without a wand or incantations earlier that afternoon!
Professor Flitwick must be formidable too. Harry had heard that in his youth, Flitwick had frequently competed in the International Wizarding Duel Tournament and even won the championship multiple times. His precise control over magic in class certainly demonstrated his deep understanding of spellwork.
As for Snape, who always acted as though everyone owed him 18,000 Galleons, his strength couldn't be that impressive. Otherwise, he wouldn't need to rely on bullying students to feel superior, Harry thought with a touch of malice.
And then there was Dumbledore, the wizard rumored to be the most powerful in all of Britain, perhaps even Europe.
"I wonder just how massive his magical aura must be. Could it be as big as a house?" Harry thought.
…
In the blink of an eye, nearly two months had passed since Harry's arrival at Hogwarts.
His biggest realization? The workload was growing heavier, and classes were becoming increasingly difficult.
With professors pushing their students hard, it had become routine for many to stay up until midnight just to finish their homework. Harry couldn't help but wonder if there were no child labor laws in the wizarding world.
Yet, as the vast world of magic gradually revealed its wonders to the young witches and wizards, they felt both exhausted and fulfilled.
Perhaps this was what it meant to be "tired but happy."
One morning, as Harry glanced at the calendar, he noticed that Halloween was approaching.
Back in Privet Drive, every Halloween, Harry, Dudley, and a few other neighborhood troublemakers would paint their faces like monsters and ghosts, hang up signs reading Trick or Treat, and go door to door collecting sweets.
Since Harry was the cutest and had a charming smile, he always received the most candy.
Unfortunately, in the end, he barely got to eat any of it. Most of his sweets were either stolen by the jealous Dudley and his gang or taken away by crying girls.
Luckily, Harry had never been too fond of sweets anyway.
When Harry arrived at Hogwarts, he realized that there didn't seem to be any such Halloween traditions in the wizarding world, which made perfect sense!
After all, in the Muggle world, vampires, werewolves, and other creatures that children dressed up as were merely myths. But in the wizarding world, they were very real. As for witches, they were everywhere.
So, dressing up like them seemed rather pointless.
However, that didn't mean Halloween wasn't special.
Hagrid had started preparing the giant pumpkins early.
Their size was astonishing. In fairy tales, a witch could turn a pumpkin into a carriage for Cinderella to attend the ball. If she had used one of Hagrid's pumpkins, at least she wouldn't have needed to enlarge it.
In fact, no changes to its size would have been necessary at all, only its shape and structural properties would need modification. That, Harry realized, fell under the category of intermediate-level Transfiguration.
Naturally, his mind drifted to what Professor McGonagall had taught in Transfiguration class. At the same time, he strongly suspected that Hagrid had used magic on those enormous vegetables.
Well, suspected might not have been the right word. Harry was certain that Hagrid had done it, he just had no proof.
Two days before Halloween, a rumor spread through the castle: Dumbledore had invited a band of goblins to perform at the Halloween feast.
"Goblins can play music?" Harry was surprised.
Every textbook he had read described goblins as cunning, skilled in magic, and utterly lacking in empathy. Those descriptions were always extremely negative.
"Goblins love music, but they can't compose it. However, they're excellent performers," Percy explained.
Percy was an exceptional student. In fact, Harry often felt that Percy should have been Hermione's brother instead of Ron's. They had very little in common, aside from their red hair and freckles.
On Halloween night, as soon as Harry and his friends stepped out of the Gryffindor common room, they were met with the sweet aroma of roasted pumpkin wafting through the corridors.
This sent a wave of excitement through the younger students.
The first-years, in particular, were thrilled, not just because of the roasted pumpkin or the much-anticipated Halloween feast, but also because Professor Flitwick had promised to teach them the Levitation Charm in that day's lesson.
Over the past two months, Professor Flitwick had only taught them two spells.
The first was the Lumos spell, which made the tip of a wand glow with light.
When Professor Flitwick demonstrated it, the light on his wand shone like a full moon, illuminating the entire classroom despite the drawn curtains. It was steady and unwavering.
However, the younger students couldn't achieve the same effect. Even Hermione and Harry, who had performed the best, could only produce a flickering glow, no brighter than a small torch. And it never lasted long.
It's fine for lighting, but if you tried reading with it, you'd probably go blind.
The second spell was the Shrinking Charm.
There was also a Growth Charm to reverse it, but Professor Flitwick had told them that they wouldn't learn that one until their second year.
Many students had successfully cast the Shrinking Charm, but only a few managed to meet Flitwick's high standards, reducing a chair to a mere inch in height.
Compared to Lumos and the Shrinking Charm, the Levitation Charm, which could make objects, and even people, float, was far more exciting to the young wizards.
Harry, however, wasn't among the excited students.
He had already mastered the Levitation Charm before classes had even started. The same was true for Hermione.
It was also worth noting that, ever since the incident with the three-headed dog, Hermione had barely spoken to Harry or Ron.
This made both of them feel uneasy.
It wasn't that they particularly wanted to be around Hermione, but without her, Padma couldn't handle all their homework by herself.
Ron felt this especially. Padma was more focused on helping Harry, yet Ron was the one who needed assistance the most.
For their first-year Charms class, Gryffindor was paired with Hufflepuff.
Like many subjects at Hogwarts, Charms required students to work in groups. However, unlike other classes, where students were usually free to choose their own partners, Professor Flitwick preferred to assign them.
Unfortunately for Ron, he and Hermione were placed in the same group. Hermione looked indifferent, while Ron appeared deeply uncomfortable.
While he hoped Hermione would help him with homework, he certainly didn't want to be paired with her in class.
After all, anyone in Hermione's group was automatically considered weak.
And since Ron was already seen as a weak student, being paired with her would only make it worse.
Seeing how awkward they both looked, Harry had a strong feeling that something was bound to happen between them.
Unlike Ron, Neville actually wanted to be paired with Hermione. Unfortunately, he was assigned to work with Seamus, which left both of them in a state of panic.
Neville's fear was simple, he had yet to successfully cast any spells during class. He only managed to do them after hours of practice on his own.
Seamus's situation was different. His spells always worked, but the results were often unpredictable.
Harry was paired with a Hufflepuff girl named Susan Bones. She seemed overly excited, gripping her wand so tightly that her hands trembled.
Harry was immediately concerned.
At this level of shaking, it was almost guaranteed that she'd mess up the spell. In the early stages of learning magic, wand movements were crucial.
Harry had a sinking feeling that Susan might be the type to…
"BOOM!"
Before Harry could even finish his thought, Seamus had already proven him right.
The feather Seamus had been practicing on burst into blackened ashes in a fiery explosion.
"Professor… we, um, might need a new one," Neville said timidly.
He was worried that Professor Flitwick would ask him to give his feather to Seamus, since he hadn't been able to make his own feather float anyway.
******
Don't miss other works: Naruto: Sasuke's return
Support me and be 60 chapters ahead of webnovel:
patreon.com/DylanBriak