First Assignment for the "Charms Class" at "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges and Assignments)"
Write about a Charm going wrong, using one of these prompts: 'Tickle', 'Face', 'Big-headed' or 'Obvious'
Entry for the "Unheard of Pairing Challenge" - Fay Dunbar/Fred Weasley
Thanks to my fellow Gryffindor goingondreamer for having a look at it :)
I hope you all enjoy this one! :)
If there was one person in Gryffindor who had a low self-confidence it was Fay Dunbar. She had always felt that she was not enough for anybody, but she had never showed anything of this to anyone. She had held her head high when Wood had denied her a spot at the Quidditch team of Gryffindor, even though he had been holding her on a reserve spot since her first test practice. She had looked up when the boy she´d had a crush on had laughed at her. When she had been the only girl from her dormitory without a date on Valentine´s day. Fay had even been able to ignore all the nasty comments the Slytherin students from her class had been making about her. She had always taken pride from her intelligence, from her work ethics and she had lived considerably good with that. But today she felt so low that she was not able to keep her head up. Everybody laughed at her, fingers were pointed at her...
It had all started only minutes ago during her Charms lesson. They had been practising charms who coloured fire and everything had went well... well, until her mind had drifted to her potions homework for a split second and then it had happened. Somebody had said she had performed a "Seamus" - the flame had exploded, burning all the notes she had had on her table while the colour that had been inside the flame erupted and spread, leaving pink specks of paint all over her school uniform and her face. She had sat there, totally flabbergasted by this sudden event, staring at her wand and the now empty glass that had been holding the flame.
And now she was running down the corridor, trying to wipe at least some of the paint away. Her eyes were glued to the floor, making her collide with other students a few times until she reached a empty classroom. She threw the door close behind herself and buried her face in her hands. Slowly she sank to the floor, leaning her head back against the wooden door while hot, salty tears started to stream down her cheeks and sobs escaped her tight chest. She felt so horrible and embarrassed right now that she wished that a hole in the floor would open and swallow her. She slung her arms around her legs, not caring about the fact that she did spread the paint even more over her clothing.
"Having a bad day as well, huh?"
Fay´s head shot up as she heard the voice coming from the shadows, her heart skipping a beat in shock as she saw the owner of the voice approaching her. His tie was undone, just like the top buttons of his white shirt, his red hair was a mess, as if he had driven his hands through it a dozen times and his skin looked a little bit pale. He was nearly the complete opposite of the Fred Weasley he was normally, doing all his pranks, always having a naughty twinkle in his eyes while he grinned. His brown eyes were roaming over her appearance and she was sure that his mood would be immediately lightened up by the sight, but the only response she got was:"Wow, what happened to you?"
He sat down on the stone floor opposite to her, his legs crossed, a casual look on his handsome face.
"I... A charm... I lost concentration and... and the colour of the flame came out...", she stuttered in a low voice, pushing one strand of her brown hair behind her ear.
"Ah... I know... Pink isn´t your colour."
He smiled at her and leaned forward while his arm reached out so he could wipe the mixture of paint and tears away. She gulped at the feeling of his touch and looked down at the floor again as she felt how her cheeks started to glow.
"Hey, no need to look so sad here! It is only a little bit of paint!"
"They... they laughed about me. All of them."
He nodded slowly while pulling his wand out of his pocket. She gave him a surprised look as he said:"Come on, stand up. I know a pretty good cleaning spell, I will have you fixed up within a few seconds."
She took the hand he was offering her and he pulled her to her feet, waving his wand over her body while mumbling a few words. The pink paint disappeared from her skirt and blouse and Fred smiled at her in a encouraging way.
"Now hold your head up again."
"Why... why are you so nice? We never had any contact, I did not think that you even knew that I existed...", Fay asked, looking up at him.
"Are you serious? I am impressed by the way you act like you don´t care, how you stand up again and again! You are strong, Fay!"
"Well, I don´t feel strong", she whispered and looked down at her hands. A shiver ran down her spine as he put two fingers under her chin to make her raise her head and look into his eyes.
"There was no way I could not notice you. You are modest, you don´t try to be in the spotlight and that does annoy people as much as trying to be in the spotlight. I think that is beautiful."
She gulped and tried to look normal, but she blushed and blinked a few times. Fred gently cupped her cheek and whispered:"Stop thinking so much, Fay. I can see the wheels working inside of your pretty head."
No one except her mother had ever called her pretty or even beautiful and the way he looked at her was making her experience a warm feeling in her stomach. She had never thought that someone would secretly admire her, but now she felt her heart race at his touch.
"I... I don´t..."
He leaned forward and his lips gently brushed over hers, then he murmured:"You don´t need these people. They are not able to see under the surface."
"But you did", she smiled, feeling like she was flying. The light touch of his fingertips made the end of her nerves tingle.
"Come on, fairy. Let´s go and show them that your head is still up. There is going to be much more needed to pull you down than a charm gone wrong."
He took her hand into his and opened the door and as they were walking down the hallway together Fay smiled to herself. This damned charm may have tried to ruin her day for a short moment, but without the charm gone wrong she would never have learned about the fact that she had somebody who liked her the way she was and she never would have felt so happy and self-conscious as she felt now with her fingers entwined with Fred's, all eyes on them.