Chapter 4: Wingardium Leviosa
The following morning at breakfast, the Potter family owl, squiggle (named by a very young Lily) came flying into the great hall with a letter from James' parents:
Dear James,
Well done on getting into Gryffindor! We're so proud of you. Try not to get in too much trouble with that cloak and map. And don't forget Hagrid wants you to visit on Saturday for lunch at 12 o'clock.
Albus says hi and Lily sends a big hug. Love from Mum and Dad x
James smiled to himself and made a mental note to reply later that day, then picked up the timetable that had just been set in front of him. James and Micah chatted excitedly about their first class which would be charms with Professor Flitwick.
"I wonder what charms we're going to learn today", said James. "I can't wait to actually be able to use magic instead of just watching mum and dad."
A suddenly very nervous Micah replied, "We're going to have to do magic already? But I can't! I don't know how! I'll be the worst in the class…"
"Don't worry, no one else has done any magic before either" said James with a laugh, "Come on, we should go. This castle is so big, and we don't want to be late to our first class."
Three wrong turns and a moving staircase later, the two boys eventually managed to find Professor Flitwick's classroom. They took the only two empty seats, at the back of the room and waited impatiently for class to start.
Five minutes later James was brought out of a daydream by a squeaky voice saying "Good morning first years. My name is Professor Flitwick."
"Good morning Professor Flitwick", rhymed the whole class.
"This morning we will be learning Wingardium Leviosa" squeaked Flitwick, before toppling off the large pile of books he was standing on. He was a very small man.
When he had dusted his robes, he drew the classes attention to the feathers that had magically appeared in front of them.
"The wand movement required for this levitation charm is thus." said Flitwick, demonstrating the "Swish and flick" movement. "All together now!"
The class attempted the movement, except for James, who was busy watching the beautiful red haired girl he'd seen at the sorting ceremony. Summer Watts was a muggleborn witch whose parents had been delighted when she received her Hogwarts letter. She was trying to appear confident but secretly she was scared about learning magic. It was a whole different world than where she grew up, in a small muggle village just outside Cornwall.
When it was time for the class to attempt the wingardium leviosa spell, Micah's feather twitched slightly but did not levitate. Seeing this, James confidently raised his wand, pointed it at his feather and said "Wingaaardum leevosa". He definitely was not expecting what happened next; his feather turned bright pink and exploded, showering the one person James wanted to impress with little pieces of feather. Summer turned to look at James with a shy smile, picking feather out of her hair, making James go bright red.
"I uh…meant to do that," he said quickly.
Summer laughed. James thought she had a very pretty, musical laugh, but the thought made him blush more so he quickly turned away. Summer turned back to her feather to attempt the charm, "Wingardium Leviosa." She almost whispered the incantation, but it worked. James watched in amazement as Summers feather floated high above her head. Professor Flitwick applauded so enthusiastically that he fell off his pile of chairs again.
"Miss Watts has done it! See here everyone! Well done!"
Summer turned pink as the whole class turned to look at her. She didn't like being the centre of attention.
By the end of the lesson, most of the class, including both James and Micah had managed to levitate their feathers and they went to lunch happily talking about the lesson.
James was still feeling embarrassed about showering Summer with feathers, but tried to take his mind off it by planning his first prank of his school life. Of course, his mum and dad must not find out that he was already planning pranks. It was only his first day of school after all.
