Willow tried for the fourth time to soften her textbook. "Spongify!" she said, to no effect. She slammed her left hand down in frustration as she gripped her wand more tightly in her right. "Spongify, you stupid thing," she hissed, glaring at the book. The book seemed to taunt her with its resolute hardness and sharp edges. She waved her wand one more time, and just as she was about to repeat the charm, her textbook gave a sharp crackle and burst into a violent flame.
Beside her, Lavender Brown shrieked and leapt back. Willow started to apologize, but she was cut off by Lavender's loud complaint, "Ugh, what is it with you and the fires!" Parvati was quickly by her side, and the two fixed Willow with stares of pure scorn.
Willow trembled, brushing her ragged bangs away from her eyes. She moved towards the crackling fire that was spreading from her book to Lavender's, but she paused as she felt the eyes of everyone else in the room turned towards her. She felt her cheeks heating up with embarrassment. She was vaguely aware of Professor Flitwick's voice in the background, but his words were drowned out by her discomfort. Even as she wanted to put out the flames on the desk, she felt a new fire spark to life where she sat, sharp heat licking up the legs of her chair and reaching up to her curly black pigtails. The heat didn't bother her, but having everyone stare at her was more than she could bear. She stood clumsily as she snuffed the fire from her hair. Her chair toppled over and she ran out of the room.
Professor Flitwick strode down the aisle, casting a freezing spell to stop the fires that were spreading from the chair and deck. The crackling abruptly stopped with a sharp sound of ice forming along its path, and the temperature dropped noticeably throughout the room.
"Well she does one thing well, at least," Ron joked. "Better than nothing."
While the rest of the class returned their focus to their own desks, Hermione's face was already scrunched up in concentration. She alone seemed completely oblivious to the spectacle Willow had created. Her wand hadn't stopped its deliberate waving, and she'd been carefully repeating "Spongify!" throughout the commotion. So far she had managed to soften three of her textbooks.
Professor Flitwick noticed her accomplishments just as she succeeded in casting the charm on her bag. "Splendid, Miss Granger."
Hermione beamed at the praise. "Yes, I think that this is the best y-"
Flitwick interrupted her with a friendly pat on the shoulder. "Yes, very good, very well done. Now would you be so kind as to find Miss Clarke? I believe she could use some extra tutoring on this charm." He patted her once more before rushing off. Neville's charm had just missed its target and hit instead the Professors lectern, which was wobbling around and dumping his papers onto the floor.
"I would be happy to assist Willow," Hermione responded. She began to put her softened books into her bag, which now had such a bouncy texture that the task became very difficult. "Well, I'll just leave these here for now." Harry and Ron seemed to be focused on their own charm spells. She heard their laughter floating after her as she left the room.
Hermione had no trouble finding Willow. The other girl had left singed bootprints that gave off a foul odor of burnt rubber. Hermione followed them down the hallway and resisted the urge to hold her nose. She came upon Willow sitting on a bench in an outdoor hallway, gazing off into the distance.
"I spent almost three months in the wild." Willow mumbled as Hermione approached, without turning to face the other.
"I… I'd heard that, yes," Hermione replied. Her movements were nervous. She'd never actually had a conversation with Willow before. She's made a few attempts back when they had first started school, but Willow had been too shy to say much to anyone the first few weeks. Hermione took a seat beside her on the bench. She waited a moment for the girl to continue. When there was only silence, Hermione returned to her usual demeanor.
"It's obvious that you have some very strong magical skill, even if it is rather limited so far. You shouldn't be too hard on yourself for that. Lots of the first years haven't made much progress so far. Of course, I read all of our assigned books as soon as I got the reading list, so I had a bit of a head start over those who waited until school started. I'm sure that if you spent more time familiarizing yourself with the Standard Book of Spells Grade 1 you would be surprised how much your charms improved. It's all in the textbook, really."
Willow hadn't moved. She was still looking outwards, showing no sign of reaction to Hermione's lecture.
"Are you even paying attention? I know you're having a bit of a rough time, but things will never improve if you don't work at it, after all." Feeling rather exasperated, Hermione demanded, "Listen to me, Willow!"
Willow seemed to snap to attention at that. She immediately turned to face Hermione, her posture straightening. "Yes, Hermione," she spoke clearly.
Hermione smiled with satisfaction. "Good, then. Let's get back to class." She rose and led the way with Willow following behind. "Don't shuffle your feet so much," Hermione said. Willow picked up her feet the last few meters to the classroom.
Back in class, Lavender was still giving Willow dirty looks, but she made no comment as Hermione stood by their desk to give extra help. In fact, Lavender found herself equally benefiting from Hermione's expertise. She copied Hermione's wand demonstration and repeated the proper pronunciation. Soon she had softened her textbook into a rubbery block. She beamed and turned to Parvarti, who had already completed the spell.
Meanwhile, Willow succeeded in tuning out Lavender and everyone else in the room, focused solely on Hermione. With Hermione's help she was able to overcome her frustration. Hermione seemed very patient. She continued offering helpful advice until, finally, Willow succeeded.
"Very good, Willow! I knew you could do it." Hermione gave Willow a friendly pat on the shoulder as she returned to her desk.
Willow felt a certain warmth in her shoulder. It was different from the heat of fire. She wondered if it could be the feeling of friendship. She silently watched Hermione for the rest of the class. She narrowed her eyes at Ron when he teased her, but Hermione seemed not to mind, so she let it pass. Before long the class was over, and they all filed out of the room.
Lavender and Parvarti giggled as they talked about Hermione. "She acts like she's so much better than everyone. She even thinks she's better than the Professor!" said Lavender.
Willow glared silently at them, knowing that Lavender had needed the help. She watched Hermione's wave light brown hair disappear around a corner. Then she returned to the bench she'd been sitting on earlier. With most of the students heading to lunch, no one saw her as she sat down and opened her Standard Book of Spells Grade 1. The softening spell had mostly worn off from the book. Without thinking about it, she pulled out her lighter and flicked it on and off absentmindedly while she read.