Harry Potter 50 Shades of Gray

A week later and Cyrna seriously evaluated the benefits of skipping her history and astronomy classes. She had never liked history, and while astronomy was interesting, the material was a waste of her time. It seemed as though wizard folk, for all their magic, lived very much in grounded reality. Most didn't seem to think that they were just one planet among the many in the universe. Well, most didn't even think about the universe at all. And this resulted in first-year astronomy being the basics that muggles would have learnt in middle school during their science classes.

While her memory was a bit rough, she didn't think she had regressed enough to fail to remember that: our planet, Earth, exists in a solar system that orbits the sun; Mercury is the smallest planet closest to the sun… and so on.

There were some interesting parts in the lecture when Professor Sinistra had gone off on a tangent about the prophetic properties of the planets, but those parts, Cyrna soon discovered, were not testable for the first-year course. And though she knew that magic existed, she was still skeptical about predicting the future, fortune-telling, and the like.

"Not enjoying Astronomy?" Daphne asked when she saw that her friend was listing pros and cons for skipping class instead of taking diligent notes.

Cyrna grimaced.

"Ah."

"Yeah."

"Oh, well I rather like it. You know before today's lesson, I never wondered what the stars were, even though I saw them every night." Daphne faltered, a shadow flickering across her face. Then, she blinked, gave her head a gentle shake, and pulled on a smile. "But that aside, I just wanted to let you know that I won't be attending Herbology or the flying lessons."

Cyrna studied her, but let it slide. "You're allowed to skip classes and still get the credit?"

"Not at all," said Daphne, quickly dashing Cyrna's hopes. "You need make a request to the Department of Magical Education. If they approve of it, you'll get a slip. I received approval because I already have my credits for those courses."

Feeling rather disappointed, Cyrna took her time to stretch before she ambled over to fields near greenhouse number four. The rest of her class was already there, so Cyrna silently sidled up to Theodore. He gave her a sidelong glance then turned back to the front, looking like he'd start dozing off in the next minute.

Cyrna only paid Professor Sprout half her attention until she began the practical section of the class. Professor Sprout spent a few minutes going over the fire-making charm then demonstrated how to gather the spikes of the Spiky Bush—a rather territorial plant that would attack anything that breached its radius. As the professor demonstrated the technique, tempting the plant to attack by stepping within its radius then stepping diagonally backwards to dodge the incoming spike, Cyrna thought that she really needed to stop being surprised by the magical world.

Apparently being potentially skewered by a plant was fair game in the lesson plans for eleven-year-olds within their first month of school. The kids didn't even blink an eye.

Professor Sprout was now digging up the spikes that had been embedded deep in the ground. "The emulsion from the spike is needed for several medicinal potions we keep stock in the hospital wing, so at the end of this lesson, we'll be sending these spikes to your Head of House." She clapped her hands—"Get to it then. Take your positions—good. There we go. Now, I want ten spikes from each of you."

Cyrna had a distinct lack of desire for pain, so she didn't fool around for this lesson. Once a few Slytherins had submitted their work, Cyrna followed suit, her spars with Perenelle coming into fruition as she sidestepped the projectiles with surprising ease.

Wiping the dirt off the last spike, and wrinkling her nose a bit when some got stuck beneath her nails, Cyrna carried them to the professor. She gave her robes a surreptitious sweep as Professor Sprout counted the spikes.

"Looks good," said Sprout, "Now, let's see you end a harvest with an incendio for that one over there." She pointed to the Spiky Bush sitting a distance away from the other students.

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