Chapter 103: 31st October 1991, Thursday: Part 5

Seamus seemed to be the first to pick up on the fact that George shouldn't be privy to that information, "how do you know Professor Flitwick taught us Wingardium Leviosa? Slytherin doesn't have charms class until tomorrow."

George tapped the side of his nose while saying, "I have my sources, but they're confidential."

In truth, George could be easily privy to this information simply due to his good relationship with Flitwick. He was by far the professor George was most familiar with ever since the incident with the alarm clock, they talked about charms at the end of most classes. It wasn't uncommon for Flitwick to set George extra homework to push his talents to the limit, George must have been shaping up to become Flitwick's prodigy. That being said, he knew the information about the Wingardium Leviosa lesson because of his hindsight. That specific Charms lesson was perhaps the most important one of the entire year when it came to affecting all of Hermione's future relationships, George would be remiss to forget it.

Neville took a few seconds before he timidly answered, "not so well. Professor Flitwick wanted us to make a feather fly into the air, but I couldn't do it."

"It wasn't just you Neville, nobody could do it. Seamus even set his feather on fire", Ron said whilst pointing towards an irritated Seamus.

"Ron, I told you not to bring that up again", Seamus grunted.

Harry then turned around and said, "what about Hermione? She made the feather fly really high."

Ron turned to Harry and rebutted, "she doesn't count. She's good at everything."

The group went silent once again, George looked around and could tell that there was something that all the boys were feeling guilty about. This made him feel even more confident that everything was going according to plan, but he still wanted to hear it definitively. Only Neville could give him that confirmation.

George turned to Neville and offered, "I know we don't normally do this, but, would you like to practise with me? Maybe I can give you a few tips."

Neville's face lit up after hearing George's suggestion, "when?"

"Right now. I'm a bit busy this afternoon so I've only got this lunch break to spare", George said whilst checking his watch, "if we start right away then we should have half an hour to practice."

He stood up from the bench and Neville mimicked his actions immediately after, George interpreted Neville standing up with him as his unique way of saying yes. Clearly, Neville must have struggled so much in Charms class that he was desperate for any sort of extracurricular support. George nodded at Neville with a smile before grabbing another sausage and preparing to leave, but he was stopped by Ron's irritating voice.

"What makes you so good that you can teach Neville? It's like Seamus said, you haven't even been taught the spell yet", he asked George condescendingly.

Even George's speech about hating Slytherin wasn't enough to make Ron control his ego, he had to get in one last jab before George left. Ron was the sort of boy who couldn't handle people being more talented than himself, hence why he insulted Hermione behind her back. He would get better at controlling his pride in the future but for now, he was a petulant child who always thought he was right. George merely answered Ron's doubt by turning around and brandishing his wand at the annoying boy.

George waved his wand and eloquently said, "WinGARdium LeviOHsa!", just like Hermione.

The goblet in Ron's hand suddenly floated out of his grip and hovered above him, Ron just stared at it rising in befuddlement. It kept flying upwards until it was seven feet off the ground and was directly above Ron's head. The group of boys plus a few of the other first-year Gryffindor students watched in amazement as the goblet remained suspended in the air just like the pumpkins illuminating the room. This was a level of mastery even Hermione could not match, for now. All of those extra assignments set by Flitwick were already starting to pay off.

George then put away his wand and said, "I think that proves my qualifications."

George looked down at Neville and saw him innocently smiling at the floating cup before looking up at him in reverie, George gave him a cheeky wink in response and turned to leave. Then he acted as if he had remembered something and turned back around to Ron to address the annoying boy one last time.

He said in a slightly raised voice so the other Gryffindors could overhear, "oh yeah, I almost forgot. I haven't quite mastered the spell yet so you should probably try and grab the goblet before it falls, I would hate to hear that you get drenched in pumpkin juice because of my incompetence."

George and Neville then heard the faint giggles of children as they left the Great Hall, they were laughing at Ron as he attempted to stand on the table and stretch for his goblet that was ever so slightly out of his reach.

George and Neville were now standing outside the castle in an open field beside the Forbidden Forest.

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"Why do we have to do this outside? It's freezing", Neville said whilst shivering in his own tight embrace.

Frost had started to form on the trees in late September, the Black Lake was already covered in a thin sheet of ice. George and Neville were producing plumes of frozen moisture with every breath. George assumed that it was probably around five degrees Celsius, although, the heat generated by his body somewhat distorted his natural thermostat. He was still feeling pretty warm all things considered. His big transformation in September seemed to have permanently increased his core body temperature and nothing made him feel cold anymore, if anything, he always felt too hot in the castle.

George cracked his knuckles while saying, "we are out here because nobody else is, we have the entire field to ourselves. So there will be nothing to distract you from mastering Wingardium Leviosa."

"Nothing except hypothermia", Neville added while he was breathing into his cupped hands.

George did a double-take after hearing Neville's jab, he could hardly believe his ears.

He wondered to himself, "did Neville just talk back to me?"

Without hesitating or asking permission, Neville had undeniably questioned his judgement. George was filled with satisfaction after realising that all of his hard work restoring Neville's backbone was starting to pay off. Like a dog getting a treat for good behaviour, George felt it was only right to reinforce Neville's comment by warming him up. With Neville shivering beside him, George raised his hand and clicked his fingers. A flame the size of a tennis ball appeared above his palm, this of course captured Neville's attention.

George stared at the flame and concentrated as it grew in size rapidly, it had grown to the size of a watermelon within a second. The temperature given off was enough to resemble a small fireplace so George retracted his hand, leaving the flame hovering in place. Achieving this level of fire magic control was now easy for George since the transformation in September, creating a flame was now as intuitive as moving a muscle. It turned out that dragons and fire magic go together like cheese and wine, it was a match made in heaven.

"Now you have no excuses", George said whilst gesturing toward the roaring fire.

Neville was quick to hobble over to the hovering flame as if he was planning to embrace it in a hug, he held his arms around it and waited for the warm glow to spread through his body. After a minute passed, Neville turned around and pulled out his wand. Determination could be easily read from his chubby face, like a puppy trying to impress its master.

Although George was using this practice session as a cover for his enquiries, he couldn't deny that he took some pleasure from instructing others. It was a very similar feeling to what he experienced exercising with the cousins, part of him liked leading by example. He could only imagine the pleasure he would feel once his plans started to pick up some momentum, he would have to be careful not to be consumed by it as he had before by his anger. George looked at the ground and picked up a rock the size of an acorn and held it in his open palm towards Neville.

He promptly asked Neville, "show me what you got. Try and make the stone float into the air."

Neville looked quite hesitant to do as he was told, "but what if I hit you with the spell by accident, you might end up flying into the air?"

George chuckled before saying, "if you were capable of levitating something as heavy as me into the air on your first try, then you wouldn't need me to teach you. There is a reason Professor Flitwick starts you with a feather. I am significantly heavier than the rock so I doubt I would be the first to start hovering. And in the rare instance that my feet did leave the ground… we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Now, show me what we're working with."

Neville listened to George and then timidly nodded, It would be hard for him to look any less confident in himself as he brandished his wand in George's direction. What he didn't tell Neville was the fact that he had been gaining the defensive characteristics of the Ukrainian Ironbelly. George had conducted some tests over the past month and realised that, even in his human form, weak charms did nothing to him or rebounded back at the caster.

These makeshift tests were merely self-inflicted hexes; George didn't go as far as to test curses because he wasn't willing to risk accidentally crippling himself. Therefore, he had no idea what resistance his body would provide against more potent curses, the three unforgivable ones probably still worked on him. His attempt to mimic the leg-locker curse had been less than successful as his version only bound his legs together for less than a second, he wasn't sure if that meant his resistance was high or his spell mastery was weak. Regardless, when it came to a spell cast by Neville, there was a high chance that it would bounce off George and hit Neville instead.

Neville waved his wand wildly and shouted, "Wigordiome Lefiosa!"

Just as George had anticipated, he neither felt himself nor the rock move in the slightest. It wasn't a surprise since he knew the moment Neville spoke that the spell was going to be a failure. His wrist movements were completely random and his pronunciation was barely comprehendible, it was hard to believe this boy had attended a class teaching him how to cast this specific spell less than an hour ago.

Most wizards would say, "if the great Flitwick couldn't teach Neville charms then nobody could", but George had spent many hours completing homework with Neville and had learned the way that his brain ticked.

If there was one thing George could take from the brief time he had been practising magic, it was that it's unique to every single person. The swish of the wand and the accompanying incantation might sound the same from person to person but that was where the similarities ended. There was simply no way to teach one technique that would work for all sixty students in a class no matter how talented the professor was. It just so happened that for certain individuals, such as Hermione, the curriculum and available literature highly complimented their comprehension of magic, hence why they could learn much faster than others.

Of course the school wasn't ignorant of the different ways students learned magic, if George could work it out in a month then a one thousand-year-old school would know by now. This must have been the reason why Hogwarts offered so much free time to the students and why there were so few lecturers and professors. The only way the other ninety-nine per cent of students could learn how to cast magic spells or brew potions was by meticulously practising it in their free time. Trial and error would eventually allow everyone to find their unique way to learn. Luckily for Neville, he had a private tutor to rapidly speed that process up.

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