My name is Emma Nightingale and I am a
first year Ravenclaw student. Originally, I am from Germany; this is why
this whole Hogwarts experience is even more exciting than I would have
thought. It is my first time to be away from home for such a long period
of time. I would have never imagined that I would be homesick that
easily, but my parents still are not really comfortable with owl post,
which is why I do not hear from them that often. I'm taking the Charms
class because thinking back, I would say that most of my accidental
magic was a display of charms. As those displays were rather helpful, I
cannot wait to actually be able to do those things all by myself! I
would have never believed that what I did was actually magic, mainly I
believed myself to be lucky that I was able to repair broken objects
quite professionally, or make the occasional book fly to me when I could
not reach it. Having watched DeVito's "Matilda", I wished these
abilities to be talent instead of luck, but I never managed to repeat
them consciously. This is why I am even more amazed to know that it was
more than mere luck, but magic instead!

What
interests me most about Charms is the multitude of applications that
they have in everyone's life. Reading about the levitation charm, I
cannot keep myself from wishing that the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery was
not in effect: It would be so handy to just levitate my trunk upstairs
to my room instead of carrying it all the way! Or using Lumos for
nighttime reading without mum ever noticing due to the lamp being hot -
there are endless possibilities! I would love to learn a lot about these
handy spells! Additionally, there is the theory. Whereas theory by
itself does not appear to be too interesting, I imagine it to be quite
handy, especially with respect to other subjects and getting a better
grasp on what I am doing now. While many of my classmates grew up
knowing about magic, it is a whole new field of study for me, which is
why I am most interested in how things work. This is where theory is
bound to come in handy, as it is probably essential to know the limits
to not accidentally endanger oneself. I really look forward to learn all
I could, from whatever sources available!

For
my Charms Journal, I will chose a more or less traditional journal
entry. However, talking to other girls of my age I must admit that my
ideas of a "traditional journal" will more likely rather be some
thoughts and observations, as well as notes on what I wish to look up
for further reading.