Prompts:

Transfiguration

Write about someone trying to master (an aspect or the entirety of) the subject.

(dialogue) "It happened again, what do I do?"

(word) articulate

-x-x-x-x-

"Avis!" A single feather flew out of his alder wand. Slowly making its way to the floor. "It happened again, what do I do?" He had been practising for hours and still he wasn't able to conjure more than one pathetic feather. Regulus put his hands in his hair, brushing it backwards, and sighed hard. He would never master the spell. But even with that thought in his head he raised his wand again. "Avis!"

Regulus saw a hand appear from the corner of his eye, but only reacted when the owner placed it upon his shoulder. Shocked he turned around, only relaxing when he saw the person before him. "Barty! Do you want me to get a heart attack?" The ravenclaw before him chuckled. "I'm not scary enough for that Reg". The blond moved his gaze from Regulus to the wand he held and ended on the pile of feathers on the ground. The evidence of Regulus' practise.

His blue eyes back on Regulus, Barty spoke again: "You don't articulate it right".

"What?" the confusion on the young wizard's face almost made Barty laugh again. But he managed to swallow his laughter and explained: "the spell. You say a-VIZ. the right pronunciation is AH-viss".

It took Regulus a lot of self control not to hit himself on the head. Of course the charm didn't work! He should have asked Barty for help from the start. He'd just been so keen to prove his parents - and teachers and the other students - that he didn't suck entirely at transfiguration.

His wand back in the air, Regulus spoke the incantation once more: "Avis!" A little yellow bird flew from the tip of the wand with a loud bang. Happily chirping it flew around the room and landed on a cabinet at the other side of the room. Meanwhile the smoke formed by the charm left Regulus and Barty coughing.

Waving the fume away the two boys smiled at each other. "You mastered the spell".

"I did".