"How about using his method?" Albert nodded toward the crowd gathered around the unfortunate third-year.
"What method?" Fred muttered irritably. He'd been hoping Albert would offer something brilliant.
"If you did that, you'd only end up in Filch's office…" Albert said mildly, giving Fred a pointed look.
"You mean the drawer…" George whispered, remembering the infamous "Confiscated and Highly Dangerous" drawer he had glimpsed the last time Filch marched him in. "But who's going to distract him?"
"What are you two on about?" Fred demanded, lost.
"The drawer, Fred. The drawer. Confiscated items. Highly dangerous." George repeated slowly.
Fred's eyes lit up. "That's actually not bad. I've been dying to see what's in there."
"You'll need to learn Alohomora first," Albert reminded them.
"How about you handle that part, and we'll distract Filch?" the twins suggested instantly, hopeful.
Albert stared at them. "Alohomora. Do you still want to learn it or not?"
"Yes," they chorused. "When do we start?"
"Back in the dormitory. You can practise on your desk drawers."
Soon after, Lee Jordan returned with news.
William—the boy who had spectacularly lost his bet—had indeed been given detention. Worse, Filch had sentenced him to scrubbing chamber pots.
"Well," Albert said, standing and slinging his bag over his shoulder, "it seems you two won't even make it as far as chamber pots." He shrugged and headed back toward Gryffindor Tower.
Lee Jordan stared after him, then looked at the twins, who were already riffling eagerly through a spellbook.
Were these still the twins he knew?
"Alohomora," George said, taking out his wand and pointing it at his locked drawer. Nothing happened.
"Focus. And mind the wand movement," Albert instructed, settling into a chair as he watched them try again. Then he turned to Lee Jordan.
"What's gotten into them?" Lee whispered.
"They need the spell," Albert said vaguely. "We'll learn it in Charms anyway. Might as well start early. Want to race them to see who learns Alohomora first?"
"You're unbelievable." Lee grinned, pulled out his wand, and joined the competition.
Albert explained the problems he'd run into himself while learning Alohomora, offering tips on concentration and wand handling.
But at their current magical strength, none of them were likely to open anything soon.
Albert picked up Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection and flipped to where he had left off.
"Giving up already?" Albert asked without looking up.
"For now," Lee groaned. "This is impossible."
Half an hour of failed attempts had dampened everyone's enthusiasm.
"I practised ages before I got it right," Albert reminded them. "Spellwork, wandwork, concentration. And no hesitation."
"Forget it. I'm going to review for this afternoon's class," Lee said wearily.
The twins also wanted to quit—except their grand plan forced them to persevere. Albert was right: they'd have to learn it sooner or later.
Fred asked, "Have you finished that book yet?"
"Not fully. I've skimmed bits. Mostly Dark creatures and how to defend yourself from them," Albert said, turning pages. "For a Muggleborn like me, it's basically a primer on all the dangerous things in the wizarding world—and how to avoid getting killed by them.
Put simply, it teaches you how to escape, avoid trouble, or call for help. Not how to duel the thing trying to kill you.
Useful, yes. But very basic."
Which was why Albert called it an elementary book.
If the whole term was going to cover material like this, no wonder the twins' protective products in the future sold so well. After finishing this textbook, a student still wouldn't be able to cast even a basic Shield Charm. So far Albert hadn't seen the charm mentioned anywhere in the book.
After a full afternoon of practice, the twins had still not managed to cast Alohomora successfully.
Expected.
Albert wasn't surprised.
"When do you reckon we'll actually manage this spell?" Fred groaned.
"Give it a day or two," Albert said without thinking. "All spells rely on magical strength. Since you barely know any spells yet, your magical stamina isn't as strong as mine. Makes it harder to learn new ones. I struggled like this at the start too. Once I learned more spells, everything got easier."
The twins exchanged looks. Reasonable—but somehow it still felt like Albert was pulling one over on them.
"Honestly, Alohomora may be a bit too advanced for you right now," Albert said casually. "You haven't even fully mastered Lumos yet."
A clean hit to their pride.
"I didn't expect magic to be this difficult," George sighed, flopping back onto his bed.
"You don't think it through," Albert said, amused. "The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1 only teaches a handful of spells. And we study that for an entire year. That tells you how hard it is to learn even one spell properly."
Fred suddenly sat up. "According to you, you've already learned nearly all the spells in that book, haven't you?"
"More or less," Albert admitted. "But what we learn is only the most basic level of spellwork."
"What do you mean, the most basic?" all three asked.
"The simplest, surface-level version of a spell." Albert demonstrated by lighting his wand. "This is the standard Lumos. But have you ever considered making the light brighter? Or detaching the light and letting it float in mid-air? Or sending it ahead of you?"
"You can do that?" Lee breathed.
"I'm sure Professor Flitwick can." Albert extinguished his wandlight with a sigh. To perform that kind of advanced control, he'd need to raise Lumos to a much higher level.
Unfortunately, he didn't have anywhere near enough experience to push a spell that far yet.