On Wednesday evening of the first week of school, Harry and Ron had just finished their dinners. They were standing at the exit of the Great Hall, along with a bustling crowd of students from every year, looking at a temporary notice that had suddenly appeared on the wall beside the doors.
It was undoubtedly the work of their new Magic Open Class professor, little Professor Annie. Two lines of crooked, enlarged, glowing magical letters had appeared on the wall: To all students and staff: Tonight at 7:00 p.m., the first Magic Open Class will be held in the largest classroom on the third floor of Hogwarts Castle. I'll be teaching some little tricks for Wandless Magic. Anyone who's interested is welcome to come and listen! —Your Professor Annie Hastur.
"So, Harry? Have you decided? Are you going? I think I might check it out."
Ron turned to ask Harry, who stood beside him. He was quite interested in the first open class. Professor Annie had written that she would teach techniques for Wandless Magic, and that was incredibly important to Ron.
After all, even now, in his second year, Ron was still using the same old, battered wand. Merlin knew how many owners it had had before him. It couldn't be helped: there were simply too many children in the Weasley family. They could almost form a family Quidditch team.
On top of that, his family wasn't particularly well-off, and their income depended almost entirely on Mr. Weasley's job at the Ministry of Magic. Ron was the youngest boy in the family, so almost everything he owned—including this wand—had been passed down from one older brother to another. So many people in his family had used it before him that it had eventually come his way. If you looked