Hermione Granger and Sky Vortex

Chapter 5. Experiments.

The next day was overcast, with light rain drizzling outside. Hermione's parents had left for work, leaving her alone at home. Looking out the window, she noticed a dark cloud against the grey sky, oddly reminiscent of McGonagall's pointed hat, and thought: 'Everything's changed so fast! Just a few days ago, I had no idea about magic, unicorns, or wizards... And now, I'm about to step into that magical world myself!' This thought thrilled Hermione. She was eager to take a closer look at her magical supplies from Diagon Alley.

Yesterday they returned home late - her parents wanted to check out a few other stores "...since we are already in London," as they said. So, they all went straight to bed upon arriving home. Now, with nothing in her way, Hermione was ready to dive into magic! She decided to start methodically. She quickly prepared breakfast, ate while watching the raindrops slide down the window, and then went to her room to go through her purchases from yesterday.

The amulet interested Hermione the most. She found it among the other items and carefully removed it from the small paper bag it was in. Now, the amulet just seemed like a plain blue stone in a setting. It looked so unremarkable that it wouldn't have a chance to catch anyone's eye. Hermione turned it over in her hands, trying to see if there was even a tiny spark inside, but the stone stayed dull and uninteresting.

'Could it really have been just a glint of the sun?' Hermione thought, 'Did I imagine it glowing from the inside?' Then she decided to try something different, using a flashlight to light up the amulet from all sides. Still, no glimmers showed up. What's more, when Hermione tried to shine the light right through it, the stone seemed to swallow the light instead of reflecting or letting it pass through. This struck Hermione as pretty weird. Feeling a bit upset, she decided to tackle the amulet's mystery another day and moved on to the rest of her stuff.

The next thing she picked up was her magic wand. Holding it in her hands, Hermione gave it a wave like she did back at the store, hoping to reconnect with that magical feeling. But nothing happened this time. 'Guess that's the special magic of Ollivander no one gets,' she thought. After fiddling with the wand a bit more, Hermione put it aside and turned to the books.

She was mainly keen on books about spells, especially those with diagrams showing how to move the wand. Hermione went over a few spells carefully, paying close attention to their descriptions and pictures. After practicing the motions a few times, she decided to give it a real go. Focusing, with her wand in hand, she aimed at a book in front of her, waved the wand, and loudly said:

"Locomotor!"

Nothing happened. She kept trying, varying how fast and loud she was, but the book didn't budge. It was like magic just ignored everything she did. After flipping through the spell book, Hermione tried a few different spells, but nothing changed. It seemed there was something else required for magic than just getting the moves and words right.

The History of Magic book kept Hermione hooked for hours. It felt like a fairy tale to her, just a really long one. It started with mysterious stories about magic from the few sources that have survived to our times. Long ago, there were people who could do amazing things. They were called shamans, the first to explore magic and use it in daily life. Their magic was simple at first, meant to help their tribe survive by finding food and dealing with bad weather. But over time, they began to use magic for their own gain, sparking the initial conflicts between magical and non-magical people...

Hermione got lost in tales of ancient magic, learning about how the first magical societies formed and fought for power. In times when the lines between good and evil were blurred, wizards didn't think twice about using dark spells against their foes. The stories were filled with fierce battles, where all tricks were fair play. Reading on, Hermione learned about the first magic laws introduced to control the previously unrestricted use of magic, which had started to threaten human existence.