The Dispute Over the Essence of Magic

"Class! Class!"

As the sky began to brighten, the new students who had just arrived at Hogwarts scrambled out of bed in high spirits. They gathered in groups of three or five to have breakfast in the Great Hall, and after wandering through the chaotic stairwells for quite some time, they finally found the classroom for their first lesson: Charms. They waved their wands while excitedly flipping through The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1, discussing the various spells recorded within and the theories they couldn't possibly understand yet.

The house sharing the Charms lesson with Hufflepuff was Slytherin, yet there was only one person in the entire classroom wearing robes with green lining, sitting quietly and flipping through a textbook.

"Baron?"

As soon as Avada walked into the classroom, he spotted the lone figure sitting in the front row and couldn't help but feel surprised. "You're up this early too?"

As a transmigrator, he had been even more excited than the average first-year the night before, and his sleep quality had been poorer, leaving him feeling a bit sluggish even now.

"Good morning, K."

Baron greeted him with a smile. "I didn't expect to see you again so soon. Would you like to sit here? It's quite hard to secure a spot in the front row."

"I'd love to, thank you."

Avada expressed his gratitude, pulled out a chair, set down his bag, and sat in the seat next to Baron, pretending to flip through his textbook—though he had already read the thing cover to cover during the summer holidays.

Gradually, the Slytherin students and the Hufflepuffs with better sleep quality walked into the classroom one after another, sitting in groups according to their houses, forming two distinct zones of yellow and green. In this way, Avada and Baron became the only boundary line between them.

Finally, a wizard as short as a goblin walked in, wearing robes that dragged on the floor. He waved his hand to move a stack of books under the podium, then hopped up onto it, just tall enough to show half his body from behind the desk.

"Let me introduce myself," he said in a high-pitched voice. "I am Filius Flitwick, the professor for Charms and the Head of Ravenclaw House."

"Before we begin the lesson, let's take attendance..." He pulled out a piece of parchment and studied the names on it, his brow furrowing slightly.

"Mr. K!"

"Here." Avada responded listlessly, drawing a few side-glances and whispers—Cedric had only warned the Hufflepuffs not to ask about his name; the Slytherins didn't know.

"Mr. Baron Shafiq!"

"Here."

Baron paused for a moment before responding, wondering why his name had to be prefixed with "Mr." as well.

"Mr. Shabi Nott!"

"Here."

Only then did Avada realize that after calling his own name, Flitwick had added the prefix "Mr." or "Miss" to every student.

"Very good, everyone is here."

After reading the last name, Flitwick put away the parchment with satisfaction, looked around the room, and said, "When I walked into the classroom just now, I noticed that most of you were looking through your textbooks in advance. That is a good habit. So, what are your thoughts on the content of the book?"

Several hands shot up in unison.

"Mr. Macnair." He called on a Slytherin student.

A tall, thin boy stood up and answered with a proud look on his face, "The spells in there are all very simple; I already knew quite a few of them back home!"

"Very good."

Flitwick smiled gently and then called on a Hufflepuff girl. "Miss White, what are your thoughts?"

"It feels... wonderful!" she answered shyly. "I never imagined there would be so many amazing spells in the world, capable of doing so many incredible things!"

A burst of soft laughter erupted from the Slytherin side, causing Baron to frown slightly.

Flitwick called on a few more students and received various answers before nodding and saying, "It seems everyone has a sufficient interest in learning magic. Let me ask a different question: has anyone carefully read the preface of this book?"

For a moment, the classroom fell into silence—they were all eleven-year-old children; faced with novel magic spells, who had the heart to care about that long, obscure preface?

After a long while, a hand slowly rose from under a desk.

It was Avada.

He had indeed read the preface thoroughly, which had been quite useful for his understanding of the magical world. He had originally intended to keep a low profile, but he couldn't bear to see the atmosphere Flitwick had worked so hard to build fall flat, so he reluctantly raised his hand.

"Ho, there really is one!"

Flitwick was somewhat surprised. "Not a single student in the previous few years read the preface... So, Mr. K, would you care to share your thoughts?"

So you were doing that on purpose?

His face twitched slightly as he stood up, and after a moment, he replied, "The preface is written very profoundly, and I didn't understand much of it. But I could roughly tell that it was discussing the nature of magic, why we can use magic, and some of the latest achievements in magical research. As for the various terms mentioned, like 'Essentialism' and 'Covering Theory', I don't understand them at all."

"It's perfectly normal that you don't understand. If everyone could understand everything in the book on their own, what would you need me, a professor, for?"

Flitwick happily told Avada to sit down. "Two points to Hufflepuff."

"Mr. K is right. Ever since wizards discovered they possessed extraordinary abilities and stood out from Muggles, the discussion about magic and magic power has never ceased, continuing to this day."

His expression turned solemn. "Why, as humans, can wizards cast spells while Muggles cannot? Why does the seemingly orderly natural world allow for the existence of 'magic', which disrupts its laws? And what exactly is the nature of 'magic power'?"

"These questions still have no answers."

"However, with the development of the times and deeper research into the mysteries of magic, we have ruled out many erroneous fallacies and are drawing ever closer to the truth. For example, there was once a 'Ontology' that was very popular in ancient times, which believed that magic power was a supernatural energy naturally contained within a wizard's body. But with the discovery of new theories, this claim has been proven wrong. We have at least confirmed that magic power permeates the natural world, and wizards can only use certain traits within themselves to influence and manipulate it."

"Then Professor, how do current mainstream views explain magic power?"

A Slytherin asked impatiently, not even bothering to raise his hand.

"There are currently three mainstream views."

Flitwick did not blame him, but instead followed the thread of his question: "They are, respectively, Essentialism, Covering Theory, and the Intrinsic Theory, which has only emerged in recent decades."

"Essentialism posits that magic is the essence of all matter and energy in the world; everything can be converted to and from magic, and is unilaterally influenced by it."

"Covering Theory suggests that magic is a form of matter or energy that transcends all physical entities, blanketing the entire world from a higher dimension and thereby influencing all things within it."

"As for the Intrinsic Theory, it is a concept born at the beginning of this century, inspired by Muggle science, and it gained widespread popularity shortly after its inception. It argues that 'magic' does not actually exist as a distinct entity in nature, but is instead an intrinsic property of all matter and energy. Everything is capable of spontaneously producing magical effects without the need for external influence. What we call magic is merely the medium that triggers these effects."

Flitwick looked at the expressions of the students in the classroom—some shocked, some bewildered, others deep in thought—and smiled, stopping his explanation to give them time to reflect and digest the information.

"Of course,"

He continued only after a while: "None of these three theories have been proven with absolute, ironclad evidence. If any one of you present here could fully prove or disprove any one of these theories, then congratulations—you would go down in history throughout the entire wizarding world, and even the Order of Merlin, First Class would not be able to cover one percent of your achievements!"

"I truly hope that the great wizard who goes down in history might be born in this very classroom."

Watching the increasingly fervent look in the students' eyes, Flitwick knew he had successfully stirred the atmosphere. He could not help but nod with satisfaction before taking out his wand and tapping the blackboard: "Then, let us take the first step toward that goal by exploring the mysteries of magic!"

"For our first lesson of the term, we shall learn the Levitation Charm!"