Sleight of Hand
Lily screwed up her face in concentration, she found Transfiguration hard at the best of times, but NEWT level spells seemed to be beyond her.
Today, they were supposed to be making a start on conjuration; simply conjuring a goblet. Professor McGonagall had suggested starting with a simple matter, like stone, then moving onto more complex matters like wood and maybe metal.
OWL Transfiguration had never been this difficult; of course, Lily had always found Transfiguration more difficult than some of her other subject, but this seemed to be impossible.
She tried once more, whispering the incantation through clenched teeth and moving her wand with the precise movements Professor McGonagall had described and demonstrated.
Something began to form on her desk, an outline appearing and Lily concentrated harder.
But it simply disappeared again.
She bit her lip and tried not to swear in frustration. She had never found Transfiguration this hard before.
She watched as Laura flicked her wand and a distinctly bowl shaped object appeared.
'I just can't get it right,' her friend huffed.
'Well at least you can get something to appear,' Lily snapped.
They were interrupted by a burst of laughter from behind them.
Potter and Black had managed to conjure their goblets. In fact, they had gone well beyond what Professor McGonagall had asked them to do.
On their desk stood a pyramid of cut-crystal goblets and each of them was taking it in turns to add another goblet to the structure.
'For Merlin's sake!' Lily hissed, 'Can't they stop showing off for once!'
Laura was laughing though and even Alice and Dorcas were grinning at their antics.
Lily pursed her lips and looked across at Professor McGonagall; she was watching them with a disapproving look, but hadn't said anything yet.
'Why doesn't she stop them?' Lily whined at Laura who was now concentrating more on the growing pyramid on the boys' desk than on her own work.
'What?' was Laura's distracted answer.
'Oh, never mind,' Lily grumbled and tried to carry on with her own work.
She flicked her wand and something began to take shape, if she could just hold on to-
It vanished again though as she heard Black say, 'Your turn, mate.'
It was followed by a, 'Ha!' a short pause, a quiet, 'Oh, bugger,' then-
CRASH
Lily turned in time to see a five foot high cascade of goblets hit the floor and shatter; shards skittering across the floor in all directions. Screams, shouts and laughter rang out across the classroom.
'It's alright, Professor, we've got it!' Black cried as McGonagall rose from behind her desk, her face a mask of anger.
Black waved his wand over the mess and the whole lot vanished as McGonagall stormed towards them.
'Er… Sorry Professor.'
Lily tried not to smile as McGonagall tore into the two miscreants and turned back to her desk.
She concentrated, flicked her wand and spoke the words. A goblet of indeterminate nature appeared and then vanished again just as suddenly.
She just couldn't do it. She looked around as McGonagall walked back past her and Laura's desk, having taken away the points she had handed out to Black and Potter for knowing the incantation prior to the lesson and being the first to perform it correctly.
Lily bit her lip, frustration getting the better of her.
The only Hufflepuff girl taking Transfiguration for NEWT level glanced over at her and snorted, 'Can't you do it, Evans?'
Lily looked up and saw the row of intricately carved, wooden goblets Tara had on her desk. She was about to shake her head when Black butted in.
'What? Evans can't even do a basic conjuration, not so clever after all, eh? Even Peter's managed it. Merlin!'
Lily bit back a retort and ignored him.
She flicked her wand again and at the same time, thought she heard someone mutter her name.
She spun round, 'What did you say?'
Potter looked up from his desk where he appeared to have been writing something, 'I didn't say anything.'
'I heard you say my name.' Lily accused.
'Oh, Evans, get real; the world doesn't revolve around you.'
'Well, Prongs' does.' Black muttered loudly enough for everyone to hear.
'Shut up, Padfoot!'
Lily turned away as they devolved into poking each other and name calling, forgetting her completely.
James grinned and cried, 'You despicable dog!' as Sirius poked him in the ribs with his wand.
Remus' head shot up from where he was modifying his own goblet, but only grinned as he saw what they were doing.
'Mr. Black, Mr. Potter, if you won't be quiet, you'll both be in detention this evening.' McGonagall shouted over the hubbub that was mostly being caused by them.
They subsided back into trying to make the most intricate and ridiculous goblet they could think of and carefully watching Lily Evans, 'Phew, I thought she'd caught us then, Prongs,' Sirius sighed.
'Evanesco,' James muttered; his wand under the desk, as Lily Evans once again tried to conjure a goblet.
It began to appear just as he cast his spell and promptly vanished it before it had really taken form.
'Oh crap,' Sirius said, trying not grin.
Alice Yates, who had just started trying to help Lily, had spotted what they were doing.