Summon my Balls

"I still can't believe they wouldn't tell you what the first task is," said Tracey out of nowhere in Charms class, as they were practising the Summoning Charm. "How are you supposed to prepare?"

"They said it was supposed to be a test of our courage against the unknown," said Oleandra with a shrug. "And that we weren't allowed to get teachers to help us, or bring anything except our wand. Accio!"

"Well, the first one goes without saying, but it would be useless to try to bring random magical artefacts and potions hoping they'll be useful, if you don't know what you're up against in the first place," observed Daphne. "Accio!"

"Do you think clothes count as external objects?" asked Oleandra. "They wouldn't force me to strip if I showed up wearing my battle robes, right?"

"I daresay they might ask you to change into regular robes before the task starts," said Daphne pensively. "Your Lethifold also hides in your clothes, yes?"

"It's a shame the Summoning Charm wouldn't work. I could bring in my robes from the outside, but I don't think I could handle changing in front of an audience," said Oleandra with a small laugh. "If only I could transform like a magical girl."

"But you are a magical girl?" said Tracey in confusion. "Aren't we all?"

Tracey didn't watch Muggle television, so she didn't know about anime, which was both a blessing and a curse in and of itself.

"You know…" said Daphne slowly. "I think there might be a spell that does something like that. There's a spell for everything, and many fantastical things Muggles think up have a basis in real magic."

"AHEM!" coughed Professor Flitwick loudly behind them. "Is everything going well here, girls?"

Oleandra's heart nearly jumped out of her throat; the diminutive Professor could get quite sneaky when he wanted to. It was rather easy to overlook the short man in the first place.

"How about a demonstration, Miss Greengrass?" squeaked Professor Flitwick. "Let's see how good our champion is at Summoning Charms."

The room was full of rubbers balls bouncing around; students were supposed to Summon them from a distance to their hand, but sometimes, they poured a little too much vigour into their spell, making the balls overshoot their target and whizz past them.

And just to be clear, a Summoning Charm wasn't like your usual summoning magics in Muggle literature; the spell attracted objects to you; it didn't summon angels or demons from other planes of existence to Earth! Well, maybe if you were sufficiently powerful, and such creatures turned out to be real.

"Er, why not—" said Oleandra, pointing her wand at a bouncy ball. "Accio."

The ball rolled lazily along the ground, before hopping up into Oleandra's waiting hand. Whoops, she had slightly underpowered the spell.

"Good!" beamed Professor Flitwick, before addressing the rest of the class. "Now, I hope you have been keeping up with your reading, because we are increasing the level of difficulty."

The teacher waved his wand, and an open box filled with small holes appeared out of nowhere. With another flourish of his wand, all of the stray balls in the room flew into the box, and the box's lid then clapped shut.

"You can resume your practice," called Professor Flitwick. "The first five people to Summon a ball from within the box will be awarded five points; remember to guide the magic, and good luck!"

The classroom was soon filled with calls of, "Accio!"

"I got one!" called Hermione excitedly not even a minute later, earning her five points for Gryffindor.

Try as she might, Oleandra couldn't get a ball to come out from the box through a hole; all she heard was the sounds of rubber hitting wood, as her magic tried to pull the ball through the shortest path, which turned out to be through solid matter (which obviously wasn't the way to go).

"Accio!" said Daphne, and finally, a ball emerged from one of the holes and flew into her hand.

"How're you doing that?" Oleandra grumbled. "Accio! Accio! Accio!"

"A little bit of finesse goes a long way," said Daphne in satisfaction. "You haven't been reading the required material, have you?"

"I've been busy!" said Oleandra defensively.

After the class, Oleandra decided to cut some corners and ask Professor Flitwick whether he knew about magic that allowed one to quickly swap clothing instead of going through an entire library's worth of books.

"Before you ask, Miss Greengrass," Professor Flitwick warned her, "I will not divulge any information about the first task. It is up to you to—"

"But I am still your student," Oleandra insisted. "Am I not allowed to ask you about Charms?"

"In that case, by all means, Miss Greengrass," said Professor Flitwick. "What is your question?"

Oleandra described what she was attempting to do, and after giving it some thought, Professor Flitwick determined it shouldn't have anything to do specifically with the Triwizard Tournament's first task, which was still a mystery to Oleandra.

"I do believe that what you are describing is called the Quick-Change Charm," Professor Flitwick explained. "It used to be fairly popular in the far east among practitioners of Ninjutsu. Foreign wandless Charms aren't exactly my speciality, so I'm afraid you'll have to consult the library. You can ask Madam Pince for the particulars."

"It's not in the Forbidden Section, is it?" asked Oleandra.

"Of course not!" Professor Flitwick laughed in his high-pitched voice. "The Onmyou Agency, the Japanese version of our Ministry of Magic, has systematically eradicated all knowledge on their branches of dark magic, so there's nothing dangerous in any of the books on beginner's magic Hogwarts exchanged with Mahoutokoro a few hundred years ago."

"Does that mean they have no dark Wizards?" asked Oleandra, intrigued.

"It's difficult to say," Professor Flitwick said. "They like to keep their affairs under wrap; but as far as we know, they haven't had any major incidents on the level of You-Know-Who since the eighth century, during the days of Abe no Seimei and Ashiya Dōman. They're mostly preoccupied with sea monsters and their rampant fantastic beasts nowadays. You can ask Professor Binns or Professor Hagrid for the details if you're interested."

Oleandra thanked Professor Flitwick for the information before leaving the classroom for lunch.