Old Skills and New Lessons

"Such is the whims of magic," Flitwick chortled. "To be clear, there are plenty of spells that are quite generic and that work well enough on many things. Those are the spells you generally learn. But for the best results, and to flex your spellcasting and knowledge, these specialty ones exist."

He laid a carrot onto the table. "Allow me to demonstrate. Scourgify. " Scrubbing bubbles appeared on the carrot and after a moment, it gleamed. "If you would, Mister Potter."

Harry peeled it in moments and cut out thin carrot sticks in only a few more, something that made Pansy look on with astonishment. He doled pieces out to everyone and they took bites out of them.

"Blergh." Lavender stuck her tongue out. "It tastes a bit soapy."

"More than a bit," Parvati said, licking a napkin.

"And if we use this spell instead, it will be less soapy I hope." Flitwick drew a circle around a different carrot. " Mundum crea." The carrot was coated with a thin sheen of liquid before it evaporated swiftly, leaving a gleaming carrot behind. Harry peeled it and sliced it just as fast as he did with the first one and they all ate sticks of the new one.

"Oh, no soap at all," Padma said. "That's nice."

"Really handy if you don't have any water to wash," Harry munched. "I'll try washing one in regular water too, to compare."

Flitwick taught them all the new spell and they practiced cleaning the vegetable that Harry had requested for the soup. Even Pansy took part, feeling like she should and feeling slightly silly for learning and using such a spell. She watched on as Harry washed another group of vegetables by hand. "Why are you doing that?"

"We learned that you can taste magic," Harry explained. "When you use magic while making food, it makes a small difference."

"Truly?" she asked, intrigued.

"Mmhmm. So part of what I like to do is to see by how much and what can be done with magic and what is done without to not change the overall taste that much," Harry said.

"That makes sense I suppose," Pansy mused. She saw the others looking at her. "What?"

"It does?" Parvati asked.

"Well, I've never thought of it when it comes to food. No one in my family prepares food themselves," Pansy said, a trace of asperity in her voice. "But sometimes there are differences in the charms cast by my mother versus my father."

"Oh yeah, we learned that when we compared Wand-Lighting Charms," Parvati said.

After cleaning all the vegetables and practicing the charm some more, they broke apart into their small groups as they usually did. Parvati and Lavender started sewing together, Padma and Flitwick discussed something he had spoken of in class, and Harry continued to make the chicken soup. Pansy watched him for a few minutes. "Do you all just… do what you wish like this?"

"Sometimes," Harry said. "First time we made butter chicken and roti and when we baked biscuits together before the holidays, everyone did cooking things. Other times we all do what we're interested in the moment."

"Should I be helping in some way?" she asked, uncertain and somewhat shy.

"Sure. You can peel the carrots while I prepare the other things."

"Okay," she said hesitantly.

"Peel them like we did the burdock today," Harry suggested. "The skin isn't as rough or thick so you won't need to use as much force."

"Right, okay." Pansy felt a little better, thinking of preparing the root like one would during potion making. She started peeling them slowly with a small paring knife.

"It'll be a bit faster and safer if you hold it point down," Harry said. He demonstrated. "Rest the carrot tip against the board and cut down with the knife away from you."

It was faster and easier to do it that way and she found herself equal parts impressed and irritated. "No wonder you can prepare ingredients for potions easily," she said. "You had some familiarity, despite not ever brewing potions before."

"Yeah, I actually said that to Lavender during our first few weeks. The type of cuts and preparation for lots of the ingredients are really similar to cooking knife cuts." He chopped onion and celery and set them aside, then started working on the spices.

"And you cooked ever since you were little?" Pansy asked, speeding up slightly.

"As far back as I could remember," he nodded. "I used to do all sorts of chores but once I started picking things up in the kitchen and was pretty good at it, the Dursleys decided it was worth more to keep me cooking so they could eat better and entertain others."

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