Entry for "Charms" at "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges and Assignments)"

I imagine Charms must be fairly scary when you start. So, this time, I want you to write about someone in their First Charms Lesson.

Word minimum: 800

You can use up to three of these prompts – but you must use at least 1:

•(emotion) anger

•(word) quill

(speech) "Are you going to reply any time today?"

(character) Scorpius Malfoy

•(word) balloon

•(speech) "Now or never!"

Entry for the "Hogwarts Fair 2014" - Guess the name of the Dragon

OC: Georgina Linstone

I hope you like it, even though it is mostly a OC :) Leave me your opinion :)


Professor Georgina Linstone gulped as she slowly approached the group of First Years standing in front of her class room. It was her first day of teaching at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and looking into the faces of the young students she assumed that they were just as scared as she was right now. One could study Charms for several years and be an expert on this field but still she felt like she knew less than the kids.

She hurried to open the classroom door and walked up to the podium on which her desk and the blackboard were situated, taking her time to open her bag and pull her papers out with her back turned to the class, hearing how every student was taking their seat.

"Okay...," she whispered to herself, inhaling a deep breath before she turned around, a hopefully kind smile on her face.

"Good morning, class! My name is Professor Linstone and I will be your Charms teacher! Charms is a important and also demanding field of magic, therefore I would like urge you all to take this subject just as serious as you would take Potions or Defence Against the Dark Arts, even though our lessons will always look a bit like playing with pets."

The terrified looks on the faces of the First Years told her that she might have exaggerated a little bit within her speech and she hurried to continue:"But... don't worry, this is the first lesson for everyone of us, this your first year, therefore we will start with the easy spells!"

She gave an encouraging smile to everyone and pulled her wand out of the pocket of her robes. This lesson was definitely not going how she had hoped it would – in her head she had always imagined that the students would hang on her lips in interest, their sparkling eyes fixed on her, thirsting for more knowledge. Well – this picture could be thrown in the imaginary bin, she had to deal with the reality now: The young students looked quite concerned and partly discouraged before she had even started to introduce their first topic! Georgina cursed inwardly as she waved her wand, letting white feathers appear in the air and made them land on the students desk, one feather per child.

"In our first lesson we will learn the Levitation Spell. Umm, can anyone tell me something about this spell?"

She looked around, only seeing rather clueless faces and just as she wanted to pick someone she realised that she had forgotten to check the class list to make herself comfortable with the names.

"Um... well, it seems like we got some starting problems...," she murmured half to herself, half to her students, and pulled the paper with the students names on it over to read it out loud.

"See, first lessons are tending to be a bit chaotic and odd, even for a teacher," she chuckled after finishing and felt relieved as she saw a few smiles in the rows of her students. "So... Mister, umm... Malfoy, what do you know about the Levitation Spell?"

Scorpius Malfoy looked up from the his feather he had been staring at, obviously flabbergasted by the sudden question directed at him. From the corner of her eye Georgina could see how a red-haired girl raised her hand, nearly jumping off from her chair, but she wanted to test this young boy first to assess how many students had already taken a look at their school books.

"The... the Levitation Spell... umm...," the blonde boy stuttered, his grey eyes wandering from his teacher through the room, obviously searching for some kind of help to find a answer.

"Are you going to reply any time today?"

Georgina was shocked by her own outburst, normally she was no one who easily lost patience, but nervousness influenced her heavily and as she saw the face of Scorpius she felt like giving up.

"I... I am so sorry, I did not meant to..."

She closed her eyes, pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed:"Okay... the Levitation Spell is a basic charm, used to let things hover in the air. Its incantation is 'Wingardium Leviosa' and always be careful about the pronunciation, children – nasty accidents happen if you say a spell wrong, keep that in mind for every subject. Well, let us try the incantation a few times without your wand so we can be sure that everyone is saying it right. All together, please: Wingardium Leviosa."

Slowly but steady the lesson got better while Georgina taught everybody the right wand movements to execute the spell and she felt relief flooding through her body as she watched the students during their first practical tries.

What had made her think that this would be easy and funny? During her rather short teachers training everybody had told her that this would not be a Sunday afternoon picnic, but still she had believed that she would work her way through this without any big flaws. Hell, she had overestimated this job...

After the lessons end Georgina felt exhausted and she was happy that she would have a free period now. The staff room was empty, except for Professor Longbottom who was reading a book and smiled at her as she entered and let herself fall into the next armchair she could reach.

"How was your first lesson?" Neville asked, a knowing look on his face as Georgina moaned and waved her wand to get herself a cup of coffee.

"I did not expect it to be so hard... I completely messed it up within the first five minutes! But at least I was able to teach them something."

"Every start is difficult, don't ask me about my first lesson! But you will get used to it, it will get better and easier, just be patient."

"Thank you, Neville... What does sooth me is that it was not only my first lesson, but also theirs..."