"Win-gard-um Leve-osa!" Ron shouted, waving his long arms like a windmill, trying to levitate the feather on their shared desk.

"You're saying it wrong," Harry heard Hermione snap. "It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the 'gar' nice and… WHAT?" Hermione broke off feeling someone tickling her ear with another feather.

"Hermione…" Harry started cautiously.

"What?" She snarled in response, angry that Ron's mistakes had prevented her from being the first student to get the spell right as she usually did.

Harry frowned at the girl but chose not to comment on her ill manners, "Is it safe to say that you've read all of the books for this year?"

Not understanding where Harry was leading with that question, confusion began to leak into her angry tone as she swatted at the floating feather Harry was tickling her ear with, "Yes."

"So you read where Adalbert Waffling said, 'Magic was focused intent powered by the will of the caster'?" Harry send the feather to slap Ron across the face for sniggering at Hermione's confusion, "or where both Miranda Goshawk and Emeric Switch mention something to the effect that spells from other schools of thought might have the same effect even though the words are different?"

The confrontation had drawn the attention of the Charms professor, who asked while Hermione nodded, "Where are you going with this, Ms. Potter?"

"Humor me Professor," Harry smirked, "How old are the oldest records of wizards and witches levitating things?"

"I'm not sure. Probably nearly as old as writing itself!" the little professor squeaked.

"In other words, long before the bastardized Latin we're being taught even existed?" Harry asked rhetorically, turning back to Hermione, "So how then would Ron saying the meaningless words wrong matter?"

Hermione looked down at her books, tears glistening in her eyes, "It… it's…"

"A crutch, Hermione; just like the wand motions."

"What do you mean, Ms. Potter?" The diminutive professor asked, barely aware that all of the rest of the students had stopped working to pay attention to this discussion.

"They're Mnemonics, Professor… ways to remember the feeling of making your magic do a specific thing; completely unnecessary." Harry then lifted her wand, "This too is just a tool, and like all tools is useful but not necessary. While I haven't found much to support my theories yet, I do have enough to form a pretty good idea from the circumstantial evidence available. The wood is a transfer medium, moderating the flow of our magic to the core of the wand which acts as a catalyst, strengthening the magic cast through it by condensing it like a lightning rod; I fond a few books on wand lore in the library last week while Ron was in detention with Professor McGonagall to support this. The extension of that concept then transfers back into us, to explain how magic travels throughout our bodies… from our 'cores' for lack of a better term, along our bones through the bone marrow, or core of the bone, to the apex, our hand, or wand in the general sense, to cast. The only evidence I've found so far to support this part of my theory is that wizards and witches cannot cast through 'replacement' limbs."

Ron and Hermione stared at Harry dumbfounded while Professor Flitwick simply muttered, "Intriguing… fifty points, Ms. Potter."

"Hermione," Harry said quietly, waiting for the girl's eyes to focus before continuing, "Memorizing the contents of the books is all well and good, but it would be much better to not know the wording used in the book and understand the concepts."

The girl nodded sadly, knowing Harry was right.

"Also…" Hermione's head snapped back up with laser like focus, "There are three phrases you should remember about everything you read… 'history is written by the victors'… 'there are two sides to every story'… and 'people lie'."

Hermione sat dumbfounded once again as the rest of the class filed out. Harry had destroyed her world of books being the be-all-end-all authority of everything by showing that knowing and understanding are two different things and that what's written doesn't have to be true.

Hermione wandered listlessly through the afternoon, even forgetting to show up for History of Magic, which worried Harry. When the other girl failed to show up for the Halloween feast that night, Harry recruited Parvati and Lavender to help find the wayward witch.