Dankinus Teaches a Class
A ragtag group of students gathered across several years found themselves in the observatory atop the tallest spire in the castle. The walls and roof were illusorily replaced by a wide open background of black void interspaced with stars of varying sizes and colors. They were murmuring amongst eachother trying to guess what they had been called here for. The other teachers had given them a hallpass to come here without complaint which seemed odd enough.
Abruptly the closest and largest moon fell from the sky and bounced across the floor like a ball, leading to Headmaster Dankinus floating slowly down from above - Upside down with his beard and robes bunching up under the effects of gravity. His pointy hat was tossed over to rest on the corner of the blackboard. "Greetings, Salut, Hello, Shalom and Konnichiwassup fine students! You have chosen or been chosen to recieve special instruction!"
He began to write on the blackboard... Perfectly legibly despite being upside down while writing it. 'Professor Headmaster Sir Dankinus Theodore Manastone Esquire' was written, he tapped it with the chalk "You should all know me, afterall I'm the one who welcomed you to this fine school. But if you don't I am the headmaster of this school aswell as one of its most tenured professors. I also have been knighted for my contributions during the Great Wizard War and studied extensively in many subjects including Wizarding Law and Bird Law."
He retrieves a box of chalk sticks and proceeds to upend it, leaving them to fall upwards past him and land on the floor. "Each of you use your spell of choice to retrieve one of these pieces of chalk. No wrong answers."
----- Students Here -----
"Good work. Now tell me, why do we call the name of a spell while casting it?"
(Knowitallstudenthere)
"Correct. It provides intent and shape for the magic flowing through our wands. By assigning a specific gesture and phrase we can consistently repeat the same spell as many times as we desire. Whether or not you already knew this its quite a large part of inventing new spells. First you achieve your desired result, then you develop the manuevers and words that can shape the magic into the desired result. A mold of sorts that can be filled with ease so that you don't have to invent it all over again every time."
"Accio Chalk" He stated simply, the chalk rose and flew into his hand. "Two words are involved in this spell the first of which is Accio... I summon. The second is Chalk which is the target of our spell. But must we use them?"
(Knowitallstudenthere)
"Correct indeed, some wizards needn't use words to achieve their spells. They can form the spell with their will and visualization instead." He swishes his wand in the direction of a chalk stick on the ground. It proceeds to lift and join the first two in his hand.
"This is part of the lesson today. Not everyone - Heck not even half of you will be able to do this without years of training. But I will attempt to guide you through this and a few other things to practice and determine if you have the talent and knack for them. So let us begin." The chalk was discarded again as he waved his hand vaguely and the many sticks across the room were called back to the pile on the floor with some force.
"We'll begin not by jumping into the deep end but starting small. Using only the spell, not the target. Picture the chalk in your mind, and simply cast Accio or your spell of choice on its own." He demonstrated with a simple "Accio" and one of the chalk sticks lept up and flew to his hand again. Turning it over and beginning to draw on the chalkboard.
'I summon' 'Chalk'
"Begin. Don't worry if you can't manage it, just keep trying. I'll give you five minutes of practice before I move the lesson on. Do your best and offer any tips you can think of to your classmates. I'll be going around the room giving pointers aswell." And true to his word he began to float around the room, offering slightly cryptic advice to various students.
-----Students Here-----
A little over five minutes later he returned to the front of the classroom. A decent chunk of students had managed to retrieve a stick without calling it by name, though the flight speed was poor for almost all of them. Some of the younger students still struggled. "I'm proud of your hard work students, we'll be moving on now to the second part. This is the hard one and I will be pleasantly surprised if even a tenth of you can make this leap. Now we will remove the words entirely. You simply will imagine the spell and direct it with your mind and will. Visualize it in your minds eye aswell as the chalk. Bring it towards you and enforce your imagination on reality."
It was obviously easier said than done, but he made it seem like something anyone could do. Those who had recieved his earlier tips found it a bit easier but only those who had true talent could achieve results within a single day. Nevertheless they were given several minutes to practice in silence with their chalk on their desks. Oncemore Dankinus traveled around the room pausing to offer advice here and there.
"If you can't handle imagining both at once its alright to just attempt to call the Chalk to you with its name and try to mentally perform the spell itself. Any progress is good progress. But don't be disheartened if you fail here, even your parents and teachers struggle or struggled to learn this. Were merely testing for hidden aptitude today."
-----Students Here-----
Around ten minutes later with a small group of students managing to pull it off either due to practicing on their own in the past, natural talent, or their parents giving them lessons, Dankinus twirled in the air and landed on his feet at the front of the classroom. "Tricky I know, this is something you can work on throughout your time here at Hogwarts as a side project. This is not part of your grades or even required as a grown wizard.
"The next one I suspect none of you will manage. Do your best to prove me wrong because now...Were trying it without a wand. Indeed it is possible to manipulate magic with out a piece of wood. Each of you will have your stick of chalk and ten minutes to use whatever words and gestures you feel will help to cast your spell of choice and retrieve the chalk without using your wand to do it. The lesson is twofold now."
Oncemore he wrote on the chalkboard beside the previous words.
'Travel to me' 'Make full use of Air' 'Distant Grasp' 'The shortest path' 'With great speed' 'Carefully' 'Agile' and a dozen or so other random words and their intents translated alongside Accio.
"You will both be attempting to cast without your wand - But also to develop your own phrasing and words to do so. You won't have the assistance of your want, so it may be quite helpful to lengthen the spell and define each little variable. For example..."
A shimmering field arose between him and the pile of chalk, before he spoke again "Chalk, Accedo Abutor Ventus Agilis Effugio Offendiculum" A piece of chalk rose into the air swaying on an invisible breeze. It floated lazily forward before moving to the side around the shield and ultimately landing gently in his hand. "The more clearly you can imagine what you want to happen the easier it will be to will it into existence. In this case I called for Chalk to come to me making full use of the air and to avoid obstacles with agility. Go ahead and try it yourselves, whatever phrasing comes naturally. Typically your favorite spells will be easiest to clearly imagine. "
He pulled out a glowing potion and took a few sips of it as the first of the students began attempting the seemingly impossible task. He seemed to perk up before heading over to walk down the rows of desks and offer small corrections and new phrases for each student to utilize in their attempts. It was left somewhat unsaid that he was teaching them both to cast without a wand and giving a lesson on creating their own spells at the same time.
-----Students Here-----
The students had a good fifteen minutes to practice this time, with Dankinus making a full lap around the room giving hints. This sounded easier in theory but in practice it was significantly harder of the two techniques, not to mention the fact that it was combined with inventing your own spells at the same time the way he had set it up. Still Dankinus moved to the front of the room and clapped his hands once "Good work everyone, You have the remaining thirty minutes of class to practice whatever of these you find the most interesting. I will be available for more detailed instruction if you have questions or need advice."
----Students Here-----
And indeed that was the entire rest of the class, thirty more minutes of free practice time with these odd lessons interspaced by the headmaster wandering around and providing surprisingly helpful insights tailored to each student he stopped by. He certainly had a reputations of not being lucid but this was a clear reminder that he was quite the wizard and teacher when he wasn't busy doing something else. By the end of the class he even handed out little instructional booklets that went further into the arts of wandless casting, wordless magic, and even creation of new spells - The latter of which stated that they should only test them with the assistance of a teacher or a student in their final years incase of misfires and accidents.
The booklet was confusing at first, each question redirected to a random page further in the book rather than being easily read straight through. But when one followed the winding path from page to page it proved quite informative.