Chapter 23

After the professor Flitwick finished pairing up the students, Allen ended up with two Hufflepuff girls, who looked at him with a tint of suspicion in their eyes. One of them was the previous girl who raised her hand, asking if they could try to cast the charm if William failed.

Allen coughed, trying to end the uncomfortable situation "S- So, who wants to try it first? I can give you some pointers"

"You" The girl from before pointed at him with a frown in her eyes "I want to see you try it" She finished, hitting Allen with her index finger on his chest.

"A- Ah Sophia, you don't have to be so rude!" Interjected the other girl, moving Sophia's finger out of Allen's chest.

"Wh- Why don't we start with self introductions, then we can try to cast the charm?"

Allen nodded, rubbing his chest where Sophia hit him.

"My name is Elsie Wright, bu you can call me Elsie if you want, I don't mind"

Sophia just crossed her arms and looked the other way, refusing to continue the conversation. "My friend here is Sophia Bailey, you can also call her by her first name, I'm sure she doesn't-"

"I do mind, in fact, refer to me as Bailey, I don't know you nor do I want to be friends with such a rude person" She squinted her eyes as she looked at him.

"Sophia! I'm sure he didn't do it on purpose"

Allen sighed. They must be talking about what happened at the feast with the Sorting Hat.

"Yeah, I didn't do it on purpose, the hat just… touched some buttons on me and that's what happened. You can call me Allen, even if we are not close. Actually, I'd prefer for you to call me that, even if you hate me"

They stayed silent for a moment and they looked at each other before speaking.

"No, Lionheart" Allen felt his skin crawl at the mention of his last name "I will not refer to you using your name, even if you prefer it!"

"Don't mind her Allen, she's just a bit mad because, well…"

"Because they didn't take any points from Slytherin! Even after that demonstration! They really do get preferential treatment" Sophia pointed her finger at Allen again.

"No, the professors decided to not take any points because the term hadn't started yet, but I'm to be in detention for a whole month after class, so no, we do not get preferential treatment" Allen said coldly.

Tired already of the conversation, he casted the lighting charm in front of them, stopping them from talking any further.

'Lumos' Allen exclaimed, and the tip of his wand brought fort a shining white light that illuminated his surroundings, on the back he could hear Professor Flitwick speak "Ah, good job Mr Lionheart, I knew you had in you!" Which only enraged Sophia more.

She took out her wand and proceeded to cast the lighting charm. 'Lumos' but nothing happened. Ashamed by the situation she continued to wave her wand over and over trying to get the spell to work.

Looking at Sophia, Allen could tell that her magic was in the right direction, but it lacked the power to cast it.

"Stop Bailey, stop, you are gonna poke your eye if you continue waving your wand like that"

"Urgh, then what am I supposed to do?!" She screamed at him.

"Sophia, please, we are gonna get in trouble" Whispered Elsie to her friend.

"First, calm down, I don't know what you have against me, but I don't I did anything to you" Sophia looked at him with a murderous glare but decided to do as told and put her wand down.

"Okay, now, I can see that you are going in the right direction, you can picture the light coming out of your wand just fine, but you lack the power to do it, so you just need to cast it while pushing your magic forward, a bit more forceful than the others"

She stayed silent for a while before answering "How can I do that?"

"What?"

She scratched her head in frustration "I said how can I do that! I don't know how to feel my magic or whatever"

Allen moved his hand towards his chin and stroked his chin. She doesn't know how to feel her magic? Then how are they supposed to use it? Is it… Can I feel my magic move because I trained it or because of my eyes? But William was able to feel it when he used the Wand Raising Charm...

He thought about it for a moment then it occurred it to him, if she can't feel her magic, why not make her able to do it? "Okay, give me your hand, we are gonna try something"

"M- My hand?! What are you trying to do?!" Sophia moved her hands away from him as fast as she could.

"Come on, its so you can feel your magic, I'm not gonna do anything to you"

She looked at him with suspicion on her eyes but gave up after Elsie begged her to just get it over or class would finish without them being able to cast the charm.

"O- Okay here" She pushed forward her right hand, the one she uses for magic and Allen grabbed it with both of his hands. She blushed as he grabbed her hands, whether it was because of embarrassment or anger was another thing.

"Stay calm okay? So you can feel my magic" Allen rubbed her hands and activated his magic again, he could see her magic on her chest, her light while not as strong as Armand, it was relatively the same size as William's. He pushed through his magic, remembering the same joyful emotions that activated it in the first place, then his willpower gave it direction, it flowed like a river until it reached his hands, he let out a bit of his magic which entered into Sophia's. He diluted his magic as much as possible in case the mixing of each other would cause a problem and only a few strands were going into her magic.

Sophia felt a warm sensation on her hands, it wasn't Allen's hands, nor the embarrassment from touching a boy's hand either, it was different, and it continued to travel all the way to her chest. Surprised by the warm sensation, she put her free hand on top of it, then Allen let go of her hand. "Okay, it looks like you felt it just now, so try it"

She shook her head, trying to get rid of shameful thoughts and picked up her wand back again 'Lumos' She spoke with certainty, imagining her wand emitting a source of white light and her magic responded in kind, she felt it, not as strong as before, but she felt the same warm feeling traversing through her all the way to her wand, then it lit up.

"Ah! I made it, Elsie, look! I did it!" Sophia pointed at her wand while grabbing Elsie by the shoulder with her free hand.

"Ack!, Yes! I see it! Stop shaking me so much!"

"Professor Flitwick! I did it!" Sophia shouted across the classroom.

When she looked towards the professor, she saw two other wands who lighted up, Armand's and William's, both of them were explaining the process to their group.

"Oho, congratulations Ms Bailey! Five points for being the first Hufflepuff to successfully cast the lighting charm!"

She puffed her chest, proud of being able to cast the charm.

"Alright Elsie, your turn, give me your hand"

"Wha-? Y- Yes!" Elsie put her hand forward and Allen grabbed it with both of his hands.

"You are not gonna do anything weird to her, right?" Sophia asked him with squinted eyes, suspicious of him.

Allen looked her way "I'm just gonna do the same thing with you, make it easier for her to feel her magic so she can cast the charm"

After saying his piece, Allen looked back to Elsie, taking her hand and calling forth his magic again, strands of his magic went from his body to Elise's via her hands. She could feel a warm sensation going through her body, then it went all the way to her chest just like Sophia's.

Elsie looked up at Allen, when he looked back at her, he let go of her hand. "Okay, I'm sure you felt it just now, can you try it?"

She just nodded her head while taking out wand 'Lumos' As she casted the spell, the same warm sensation from before appeared in her chest, running all the way to her wand, it pushed the magic lighting up the tip of her wand with a white light.

"Ah! I did Sophia!" Elsie exclaimed, before grabbing her friend by the shoulder with her free wand and shaking her, just like how she did to her.

"Ah, ah! I get it! Stop shaking me!"

Elsie let her go and called professor Flitwick to look at her. "Professor, I did it!"

"Good job Ms Wright! Good job" The professor praised her. "Now class, if you all would please look at Mr Lionheart table, his group mates have managed to cast the lighting wand charm, as well as Mr Malfoy's. I'll give ten more minutes before we change the teams so we can all benefit from their teachings" Flitwick cried before getting off the tower of books he was in, going around each table to help them as well.

"Hmm!" Sophia let out small noise "I guess that even if you are a Slytherin, you are good enough to teach"

"Sophia! Don't be like that!" Elsie complained to her friend. "I'm sorry Allen, but that's the way she compliments people"

"Mm, I don't mind, I've dealt with worse" Allen just nodded his head. "But you talk as if you've know each other for a while, did you know each other before Hogwarts?"

"Yes, actually, well… we've know each other since kids"

"That's right! We've been friends since we were kids! Elsie's family is a branch of my family, so that also makes us family!" Exclaimed Sophia while putting a hand to her chest, proud to share their relationship.

"Oh, I see" So she's a pureblood, and Elsie might be a pureblood as well, but their personalities are completely different. The same thing with Armand, could it be that this isn't the same Harry Potter world, but almost identical to it? A different universe?. Allen continued to wonder about the sudden information while stroking his chin, until a hand slammed his table, taking him out of his thoughts.

"Hey! Pay attention to your teammates! Why'd you go and wander on your own?"

"Sorry, I tend to do that when I think about something" Allen apologized, showing a regretful smile.

Sophia blushed a bit, then quickly looked to the side, trying to evade Allen's eyes.

"W- Well, as long as you know"

"That's right" Elsie interjected. "Do you want to be friends Allen? Since Sophia is like this, a lot of people tend to evade us when we talk to them. But you are the first one to take her head on!" She made a victory pose with both of her hands.

Allen chuckled. So she's a sheltered princess that doesn't know how to make friends? "Okay, let's be friends from now on. How many classes do we have together?"

"Um, Charms, Transfiguration and Herbology." Finished Elsie as she took out her time table from her backpack. "Actually, transfiguration is right after charms! Do you wanna go together?"

Allen thought for a moment before speaking, he looked towards Armand and William, they were talking animatedly with their respective group mates. "Sure, if you don't mind my friends tagging along" He finished pointing with his thumb at his friends behind him.

"Of course not! The more the merrier!"

"Mm" Sophia just nodded along with Elsie.

"So about the homework…"

They continued to talk until it was time to change group mates. The next kids kept on pestering Allen about why he burned the hat and how he did it, not even trying to cast the lighting wand charm. He decided to not help them and at the end of the class they were the only two who couldn't cast it, earning themselves extra homework for the next class.