CH 12

We'll be starting with the mending charm and moving on to the others after christmas,' the tiny professor explained, waving his wand to reveal his year plan on the board.

'A theory lesson,' Ron groaned quietly from beside him. Even Hermione seemed a little let down. She was already capable of performing this charm. It was her use of it to fix his glasses that had initially inspired him to learn it, but at least she wasn't going to get bitter about his improvement as she had done in transfiguration.

The soft scratching of quills soon filled the room as the class resigned themselves to only taking notes. Harry flicked a little further through the textbook to the banishing charm, noting with a touch of amusement that Hermione had already done so.

The banishing charm was really only the reverse of the summon charm and after a cursory glance through the chapters on its specifics and a cheerful skipping of the history of the charm Harry decided to quietly try it himself.

Withholding as much of his magic as possible he whispered the incantation and aimed it at the ink pot of Zacharias Smith, a rather pretentious Hufflepuff. A soft ripple of air crossed the class and the ink pot gently slid across the desk to the far side, spilling ink across Zacharias' notes.

Smiling, Harry returned his wand to his sleeve just as the Hufflepuff student look around indignantly. Charms wasn't going to be too much of a stretch for him this year as long as there were only a few essays.

The spilt ink had spattered a familiar, poisonous green across the parchment Zacharias was waving angrily in the direction of Professor Flitwick. It wasn't too far from Ancient Runes to the first floor girls' bathroom. He could sneak out and satisfy his desire to see Slytherin's serpent on the way to class tomorrow morning after breakfast.

Hermione perked up through the lesson, clearly glad to be back into the rhythm of taking notes and was even happy enough to let him borrow them tomorrow when he asked after class. Harry didn't really need the notes for the charm itself, but Flitwick's first homework of the year, six inches on the applicability of the mending charm, could be easily summarised from his friend's overzealous note collection.

'Did you flick any further through the book?' she questioned him eagerly on their way back to the common room.

'Not really,' he admitted, 'nothing more than a skim through the summoning and banishing charm. I was curious, but they both looked quite useful.'

'They do,' Hermione agreed, seeming glad of having someone to discuss more advanced topics with all of a sudden. She seemed to have gotten over her surprise at his improvement and come to terms her newfound competition. 'Summoning is one of the most useful charms, it will save everyone so much time at the library.'

'Madam Pince will murder you if she catches you summoning books, Hermione,' Harry grinned.

'What she doesn't know won't upset her,' Hermione gestured vaguely, 'it doesn't hurt the books, so it's fine.' She bounced animatedly along the corridor, alongside him as a puzzled Ron trailed behind them.

'Harry,' she began as they reached the portrait-covered entrance to their common room. 'In return for lending my notes for essays would you give me some pointers for casting the spells themselves?'

'Of course,' he agreed readily. 'You don't really need them, but if you want.'

'I understand all the theory, of course, but my spells never work first time. I thought it might be worth trying how you visualise them.'

'It's just a good way of focusing the intent that has to accompany your magic,' Harry explained. 'I've some mind-clearing exercises that are supposed to help your focus. I can teach you those.'

'That's a good idea,' Hermione enthused. 'Ron needs those. All he does is think about how long is left until the next meal.'

Ron threw her a mutinous look, but didn't actually deny her accusation. His friend couldn't really argue with it after his attempt to transfigure his guinea fowl into something resembling lunch earlier.

'I'm going to the library,' Hermione decided. 'I want to get the essay out of the way before all the other professors give their first homework as well. Come on Ron.' She skipped out through the portrait, trailed by a rather crestfallen Ron who had probably been looking forward to relaxing by the fire.

They had left him alone in the common room so he pulled a chair up close to the fire with the intention of waiting for the others to come back down from the dormitories. Staring into the fire reminded him of the camp at the World Cup and, unable to resist his curiosity, he retrieved his wand.

Picturing the serpent he had conjured from the ash he slashed his wand violently at the fire. Nothing happened.

Never one to give up straight away, Harry imagined the basilisk forming from fire instead and repeated the wand action.

The head of the flaming basilisk lunged at him from the fireplace, fangs agape, and he threw himself backwards out of his chair.

It flared out of existence the moment he looked away from the fire and he pushed himself back to his feet, swearing under his breath and brushing at his singed robes.

Standing his chair back up he firmly replaced his wand up his sleeve to avoid temptation, but he couldn't ignore the shiver of excitement he felt. He had done it again, with fire no less. Harry couldn't wait to try conjuring it again in the Chamber of Secrets.

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