We had our first lesson of Charms today, it was just an introduction, but
the history part of it was quite interesting. I wonder if History of Magic will
cover what caused the partial separation of 1000 AD and the 1400s Council of Warlocks.
So we’ve been governed by a law introduced in 1689 (the International Statute
of Secrecy). I wonder if it’s been updated since then, otherwise it must be
ridiculously archaic. Maybe I’ll try to get a copy and see for myself.

Oh and I’m so glad I’m older than 17 so I don’t have the trace. The
Canadian Ministry of Magic sent me a letter when I got accepted to Hogwarts
online though. They wanted to be sure I knew the laws applicable to Canadian
wizards and witches (the usual no magic around muggles, but your house is safe
as long as you’ve put anti-spying charms on your windows, and unless it’s to
save/protect a life). They also mentioned I shouldn’t try to do any magic not
related to my courses until I’ve been tested. Makes sense I guess. Wouldn’t want
to accidentally burn the house down or something…

I always had an affinity with crystals, never imagined it might be linked
to my magic. And I want to try a staff once, to feel the difference from a
wand. I found this place, called Alivan’s, they make wands (I already have mine
though) and staves. I’m going to start putting money aside just for one of
their Hickory staff!

Anyways, back on track, as homework I have to read Chapter 11 in Quintessential Magic and practice the
Wand-Lighting and Wand-Extinguishing Charms. Well better go do those readings
then!

Ok so finished Chapter 11 and even read Chapter 17. I was hoping it would
tell me how to change the actual colour of the Lumos, like make it purple or
blue. But it wasn’t mentioned. I do want to try that Dancing Lights Charm at
some point though. Anyways back to work! First let’s get used to holding a
wand. It feels weird you know. So believe it or not but I actually had to look
on the internet what a loop (the wand movement is a counter-clockwise loop)
looks like. It’s like one of those ribbons that represent cause muggles give
money to, like pink for breast cancer, yellow for troops. So I practiced
looping my wand counter-clockwisely (yeah I just made that word up). Felt
pretty stupid to be honest, but hey, practice make perfect they say.

Next came the addition of the incantation, Lumos. The book said the
pronunciation is “LOO-mos”. French being my first language, I now realize I
don’t necessarily know how to read the pronunciation breakdown. “LOO” is easy,
like the loo, I know that word. But at first I thought that “mos” was said like
“moss”. No wonder I couldn’t get it to work. After some frustrating tries I
checked my notes and came to the conclusion that maybe it wasn’t “moss”, but
more like a “British mosquito”. As I would put it in French, I tried as if it
was an “ô”. The circumflex
opens the o and makes it sounds deeper. And it worked! Except the light was
definitely red. Well, after trying so hard, I guess I just needed to tone it
down a bit.

First though I had
to do the Wand-Extinguishing Charm. This one I verified the pronunciation even
before trying it. Not bad, it was what I actually thought it was. I wasn’t
quite sure what a flick was and the internet was useless on this one, so I went
with my first idea that it was as if I had a small whip in my hand. I
concentrated on turning off the light emitted by my wand and gave it a go.
Worked the first time. It is a pretty easy charm after all.

So it took another
couple of lumos/nox cycles to get my wand to light in a soft yellow, but I got
there. And then I did some experimentation to see if I could get that pearly
white. I also tried to think of a purple light when saying lumos, but that
didn’t work. Maybe I’ll do some research on that when I have time, there must
be a way to change the colour of the lumos that is not linked to how much power
you put into it. Some other times though…