Written for Round 5 of the QLFC. Us Tornadoes are rising in rank! Yippee! :D
(Prompts detailed at the bottom.)
Augusta hunched in her seat with a scowl at her paper. So what if she didn't know what the Substantive Charm did? She hated tests.
A glance to her left revealed Algie sniggering at her plight. She glared and returned to her work, skipping to the next question.
Give an example of a situation in which the Substantive Charm would be an appropriate spell to utilize.
How was she supposed to answer that if she didn't know what the Substantive Charm was? Who made these tests, anyway? Did they hope to fail all the students by giving twenty questions on the same subject?
She gritted her teeth, going back to the previous question. The word substantive sounded as if it meant to freeze someone or make them become still…
After a moment of thinking, she managed to come up with:
The Substantive Charm is used to freeze an object or person in place.
To the second question, she hastily scribbled:
For example, in a duel you could freeze an object that your opponent throws at you.
It was choppy, but she'd never been very good with words. Besides, she'd probably get those questions incorrect, unless she'd miraculously managed to guess the correct outcome of the spell.
Before she could move on, her test scroll was snatched out of her hands. She grimaced. She hadn't even finished the test. On top of all the questions she hadn't answered correctly, she would lose points for the ones she hadn't answered at all.
She always knew she'd fail Charms.
"It is now time for the practical portion of the Charms test," the man in Ministry robes droned on. They were standing outside the Great Hall, waiting to enter and begin their practical demonstration of their skills.
Augusta knew that however bad she'd done on the theoretical portion, she'd do ten times worse on the practical.
Luckily she wasn't first alphabetically. That meant she had some time, and if it came down to it, she could get some information out of someone who'd gone before her. She'd bribed Algie once for that very purpose. The idiot didn't seem to realize that because they were siblings, technically she still owned the money.
She waited with extreme apprehension as people trickled in and out the doors, far faster than she would have liked. She tried to stop some of them but they all seemed to shrug her off.
She could already tell this would be bad.
" – Augusta," the Ministry worker finished. Augusta jolted to attention and hurried into the room, Algie right behind her.
"Hope you're feeling cheerful, 'Gustie," Algie said, a serious undertone in his voice. Augusta snorted.
"As if," she retorted, wondering what he'd meant by such a strange line. "I'm going to fail."
"I suppose this is a disarming experience. You might need to mend that brain of yours afterwards," he added, and suddenly she knew what he was getting at.
"Thanks, Algie," she said, grateful enough to hold back a retort.
He wasn't able to reply, however, as the examiners called them forward. They headed towards opposite ends of the room.
"Alright, let's start with something easy," her examiner said, squinting at her paper. "Augusta, correct?"
"That's me." Augusta relaxed slightly. Her examiner didn't seem so bad…
"Right then, let's see a Levitation Charm."
Just a simple Levitation Charm. Should be easy enough.
"Wingardium Leviosa," she said, swishing her wand. Too late, she realized she'd forgotten the flick.
Her examiner frowned. "Would you like to try again?"
Augusta sighed. It was going to be a long day.
"How well do you think you did?" Minerva asked Augusta, sliding into a seat next to her at the Gryffindor table.
Augusta, instead of replying, gave her a withering glare that caused Minerva to shrink in her seat.
"That bad?" she asked sympathetically.
"Worse than bad," Augusta groaned. "I didn't even do the Levitation Charm correctly!"
Minerva's expression twisted just slightly, and Augusta could tell that she was just barely holding back a sigh of disappointment.
Augusta didn't blame her. She was already mentally slapping herself in the face for her disastrous performance.
"Let me guess, you're going to fail Charms," Algie said, suddenly appearing behind them. He squished himself between Augusta and Minerva.
"Way to be blunt, Algie," Augusta muttered, using her fork to stab at her empty plate.
"Way to destroy Hogwarts cutlery, Augusta," Minerva snatched the fork out of her hands.
"You should probably eat something, you know," Algie commented as he got situated and grabbed a plate. "Trust me, trying to sleep with an empty stomach is torture."
"That's the least of my problems," Augusta muttered.
"Well, you can't redo your Charms OWL if you die overnight, Augusta, so I suggest you eat," Minerva said, heaping some mashed potatoes on Augusta's plate.
"Mum will kill me if I let you die of starvation, so you should eat," Algie agreed. Minerva rolled her eyes.
"In that case, perhaps I shouldn't," Augusta retorted. "After all, if she's busy screaming at you, she can't exactly scream at me."
"You'd be dead, so it wouldn't matter either way," Minerva pointed out. Augusta rolled her eyes and decided to continue sulking.
"Are you going to retake your Charms OWL? Mum's probably going to make you. Dad will too, you know how he is with grades."
Augusta straightened. Her pride could endure plenty of things – such as failing her Charms OWL – but no way would it allow her to retake Charms and fail again.
With bravado she didn't truly feel, she scoffed. "Charms is completely unnecessary. A total waste of time and a soft subject."
Minerva and Algie glanced at each other.
Augusta stood up from her seat and grabbed her books. "I promise you, no descendant of mine will be taking Charms for their NEWTs. It would be a complete waste of potential."
With a final huff, she stalked away with her head held high.
Team: Tutshill Tornadoes
Position: Beater 1
Round Prompt: Augusta Longbottom, 5th Year
Word Count: 994 words (excluding Author's Notes)
Prompts Used:
Prompt 4: (scene) sitting an exam
Prompt 13: (word) ridiculous
(A/N: So it was never confirmed whether Algie was Augusta's brother or brother-in-law. I decided to make him her brother. And of course, we know that McGonagall knew Augusta, so it's safe to assume they were friends or acquaintances in Hogwarts.)