{Harry's room, Leaky Cauldron}
The cup floated in the air, and I slowly directed it towards her. Slowly, I lowered it towards Hermione, who extended her hands forward to create a platform for it to land on. Her wide eyes filled with amazement as she stared at the cup, then up at me, an excited grin stretching across her lips.
"I learned that one yesterday. Now, through the cup upwards," I told her, getting a confused look from her, but she did what I asked her to do.
She threw the cup upwards as it sailed into the air. I carefully aimed and swiped my wand in a V-shaped motion, followed by a swish that ended aimed at the cup, as I imagined it flying backward as a result of the spell.
"Flipendo~" I chanted as a white Jinx flashed from my wand and flew through the air, completely missing the cup, and collided with Hedwig's case, which flew back, hit the wooden wall, and then clanged over the floor.
The cup bounced on the bed once, and then fell over and broke into pieces. I cringed and looked at Hermione, who watched the whole thing in horror as her face slowly turned to me.
"Okay, maybe that was my first time aiming at a moving object," I admitted as a reproachful hoot from Hedwig interrupted me. The owl gave me the same deadpan look it always does.
"Sorry, sorry," I hurriedly apologized to Hedwig and waved my wand at the broken cup beside my bed. I imagined the pieces flying together and gluing themselves back together as I waved my wand in an inward spiral.
"Reparo~" The spell took a lot out of me compared to when I had used it to repair torn paper. I looked at my MP, which had dwindled by a full 15 points to repair the cup, as I walked over, picked up Hedwig's cage, and placed it back on the table by the window.
'Well, it's a good thing Hedwig doesn't like staying in the cage.' I gave the bird a helpless grin, and it did nothing but stare back at me.
'Why do I get the feeling that she's not happy with me?' I thought, and I sneakily looked back. After confirming that Hermione was occupied staring at the now-fixed cup in amazement, I reached into my inventory and extended my hand, full of owl treats, toward Hedwig as an apology.
She looked at me for a few more seconds before dipping her head and eating a couple of her treats as I laid the rest of her stack on the table.
Turning back, I walked over to Hermione and commented, "So, fancy, no? Good as new." I grinned cheekily as she gave me an exasperated look.
"You could hurt yourself practicing those charms inside." She said, but her hands never stopped rummaging through the cup, trying to feel for any cracks.
"I know, I know." I waved away her concerns and sat back down in front of her. "So what do you think, wanna try it?" I asked, and got an excited nod in return.
"Let's see, you wanna start with the Lumos or the levitation charm?" I questioned.
"Well, I already tried the Lumos and Nox before I got the letter and stopped, but it would be a good idea to start from the basics, again." She said as I nodded.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. My eyes dropped as her chest expanded, and I had to force myself to look up as she opened her eyes and pointed her wand upwards, "Lumos~"
The tip of her wand lit up with a very pale yellow as an excited, satisfied smile spread across her face. Still, she let the spell run for a while before she cast, "Nox~", extinguishing the light.
"That looks like it worked, although I'm curious, what color of light did you imagine?" I asked, as her wand lit up pale yellow while mine glowed white. I remember that in canon, everyone's wand lit up a bright white light.
"Yellow, like from a bulb," She answered, confirming my guess. I extended my wand upwards and cast the spell while thinking of red lasers, "Lumos~"
My wand erupted in a bright neon red light, casting a red glow around us. She stared at my wand and asked, "How did you do that?"
"Well, it was you who gave me the idea, since when I cast Lumos I thought about the sun and the white light, so my wand produced white light. But because your light was yellow, I thought maybe I could try something else, so I thought about a laser or red light." I replied as she nodded with wide eyes, then she quickly reached for her bag and brought out her notes.
'Right... and that's why I never got along with the nerdy kids at school. They think along very different lines, and we were never on the same wavelength.' I watched as she quickly jotted down my observations on a page dedicated to the Lumos spell.
"Don't tell me that you have already made notes for everything," I asked, looking at her in disbelief. It had been 3 days since we got our supplies.
"What?" She asked, tugging a strand of loose hair behind her ear, a little flushed and self-conscious.
...
[Hermione's Affection decreased by 1]
...
'Right, she might have been bullied because of her know-it-all nature.'
"You're amazing." I shook my head, changing my tune. "I could never be that dedicated," I joked as she gave me a hesitant smile. I saw her quickly store her notebook back into her bag.
'Right, that was a rookie mistake. I need to be better than that,' I thought as I reached for my notebook, tore another small piece of paper from the last page, and placed it on the bed.
"Here, since we don't exactly have the feather as the book suggests, I learned the spell by practicing it on the piece of paper." I gave her a tip, and the guard that had risen slightly vanished as her eyes locked onto the paper. She nodded, then cast the spell with a smooth swish and a flick.
"Wingardium Leviosa~"
AN: 23+ advanced chapters on P.atreon: P.atreon.com/AndreaHodges