Soon, the new trio in Gryffindor were practicing quite well.
Neville is the leader, Hugo is the technical advisor, Ron is responsible for being cute.
Although it's quite different from the original work, it seems to have a more protagonist-like presence than the original.
Neville, the Son of the Champion, along with his advisors and henchmen, are starting to exert their power. So, I, the Child of Prophecy (though the specifics of the Prophecy are still unknown), can't fall behind.
Herman looked down at the feather in front of him, flicked his wand upwards, and said with a slight twitch of his wrist, " Wingardium Leviosa."
The feather seemed to be lifted by an invisible thread, floating lightly to eye level, where it hovered, without even the slightest tremor in the downy feathers at its edges.
Herman kept his wand pointing, feeling his magic flow out smoothly like water, enveloping the feathers, without any excess or interruption.
He held the position for a few seconds, then slowly withdrew his wand, the feather falling back onto the table as if nothing had happened.
Very good, extremely elegant. Herman felt incredibly elegant right now.
But then a dissatisfied murmur came from the side.
Herman turned his head and saw that Draco was staring at his feather.
The feather did float up, but it wobbled and spun in mid-air like someone drunk, with such large amplitude that it almost hit the head of the student at the next table.
She gritted her teeth and recited the incantation again. The feather trembled and spun even faster, as if it were trying to rise into the sky by waving its flowery hands.
Herman couldn't help but burst out laughing.
Draco immediately heard his laughter, turned her head and glared at him fiercely. "What are you laughing at? You think you can do it perfectly the first time?"
"I did it the first time," Herman said truthfully.
The truth was like a sharp knife, making Draco so angry that she threw her wand on the table, her eyes turning red and tears welling up in them.
Seeing this, Herman quickly went over to comfort her. After all, it was not honorable to make a teenage girl cry, especially since Draco usually took good care of him. He said, "Um, don't cry. I'll teach you. It's just a small mistake."
As he spoke, he moved closer to her, and the distance between them suddenly shrank to less than an arm's length.
The scent emanating from Draco was not perfume, but rather a faint smell of laundry soap mixed with ink—clean and refreshing, quite unlike her usual spoiled princess attitude.
Herman's gaze lingered on her profile for a moment, the sunlight streaming in from the corner of the window, making the fine downy hair around her ear almost transparent.
At the same time, Draco felt Herman's breath on her face. Her eyes were no longer red, and she didn't have time to cry. Her face turned bright red, and she began to feel shy.
Herman sensed something was off and quickly looked away, stepping back slightly to focus his attention on Derako's hand holding the wand. He reached out and took Draco's hand, saying, "You're raising your wrist too high. Pull it back a bit, make the movement smaller. Try imagining you're holding a butterfly when you wave it. Too much force and you'll crush it, too little and it'll fly away."
"You were probably too hasty, using too much magic power and your posture wasn't correct, which caused it to spin."
As he spoke, Herman took Draco's hand and guided her in waving her wand. Draco blushed even more, but after Herman adjusted the angle of her wrist, she tried waving it once, and the feather successfully flew up. Although it was still a bit wobbly, at least it didn't spiral upwards.
Seeing that the spell had succeeded, Draco, disregarding Herman holding her hand behind her, exclaimed happily, "It really worked! That's wonderful!"
"Lower it by one inch, and when you pull your wrist back, make sure it's smooth and natural, don't suddenly stop." Herman continued to instruct her, this time subconsciously reaching out to correct Draco grip.
Previously, he had only held the back of her hand, but now he touched her palm directly. When his fingertips touched her soft, white, and warm palm, Draco's hand visibly paused, her breath seemed to skip a beat, and her ears quickly flushed a light pink.
Herman realized he had crossed a line and the atmosphere was starting to get awkward. Just as he was about to pull his hand back, Harry's unhurried voice came from beside him. "If you two get any closer, Professor Flitwick will think you're practicing a ballroom dance. This isn't a ball."
Draco recoiled as if burned, lowered her head to readjust her grip on the wand, and the light pink on her cheeks deepened.
Without looking up, she simply whispered quickly, "Um, I can practice by myself."
Harry sat in the window seat behind them, the feather in front of her hovering steadily in mid-air, even more steadily than Herman had been, at eyebrow level, completely still.
She didn't even try to maintain it; she simply rested her chin on one hand and casually let her wand hang down with the other, her posture as relaxed as if she were daydreaming.
Herman glanced at her, then at his own feather that had fallen back onto the table, and sighed inwardly. He still had a lot to practice.
At the end of the class, Professor Flitwick clapped his hands at the front of the classroom. "Today's assignment is a paper on the Levitation Charm, twelve inches of parchment, due next Monday. Also, given that both houses have outstanding students, such as Hugo, Neville, Harry, Herman, etc., Gryffindor gets ten points, and Slytherin gets ten points." He glanced at Neville, Hugo, Harry, and Herman, indicating his approval.
A low cheer erupted from Gryffindor, and Neville scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
Ron patted his arm from the side. "The method you just taught me really worked. When I used it again later, I was able to do it consistently."
Neville said modestly, "You're the one who learned well; you just didn't notice the details at first."
As Herman packed up his books and left the classroom, the feeling of casting the spell was still swirling in his mind.
In summary, the key to quickly getting started, besides paying close attention, was his precise control over magic, which minimized the loss of energy during spellcasting.
With the same amount of magic power, others might need to expend 30% to maintain stable movements, but he only needs 10%.
This is probably a concrete manifestation of what Dumbledore meant by "his mastery of magic is extremely rare among his peers."
But Herman knew in his heart that this precise control ability did not necessarily come entirely from so-called talent.
He is a time traveler, and his soul possesses the experience accumulated from two lifetimes. If his soul had weight, it might weigh more than twice as much as that of people his age.
Therefore, with the same amount of practice, he can grasp the key points of spellcasting faster than others: the arc of the wrist, the flow of magic, and the position of the emphasis in the spell.
These details might require repeated trial and error for a real eleven-year-old to find, but he, with his experience from his previous life, naturally knew which direction to adjust.
To put it bluntly, he's using an adult's mind to learn a child's skills.