Chapter 9: A Thoroughly Charming Morning
Sometimes Angelina thought that Lily Evans was part songbird.
Angelina had endured her first wake up in the Girls' 7th Dormitory à la Lily's rendition of "Once Upon A Dream" from Disney's Sleeping Beauty approximately forty-five minutes ago. Lily had been flitting about as she pulled on her sweater and skirt, doing a lovely set of ballet twists and turns and leaps. Once she had dressed, Lily twirled around in waltzing circles while waiting for the other girls to follow the extremely important practices of every-morning-personal-hygiene (which includes bladder relieving, warm showering, hair washing, leg shaving, tooth brushing, make-up applying, hair drying, and freshly laundered uniform dressing). She had even pirouetted down the corridors to the Great Hall, breaking her near continuous whistling and humming to scold Emily, Elizabeth, and Angelina on being "cranky, whiny, morning slags". And now, they were eating their breakfasts in the too bright, too chattery, Great Hall.
Or, at least, Angelina, Emily, and Elizabeth were eating breakfast, their eyelids drooping and their cereals becoming soggy; Lily had chugged her orange juice and scarfed down her toast in a manner of minutes, but her roommates hadn't noticed because it seemed to be that their dear Lily was humming to herself yet again.
An obnoxious group of boys, however, had.
"Holy hell, Evans!" Sirius Black's voice rang out, quite rudely. "Blimey, James. You're in love with that?"
Suddenly, Lily's face heated and turned an ambiguous red shade. James swung his head around to stare down at the girls, eyebrows wrinkling in confusion.
"What are you talking about, Sirius?" he queried.
"Blimey!" Sirius repeated, mouth gaping. His cries alerted Elizabeth, Angelina, and Emily to danger, and their heads darted up from their plates. Elizabeth and Emily raised matching eyebrows while Angelina tilted her head to the side, blinking furiously and staring at Lily. The girls had no idea why Sirius was so frantic, but he had said Lily's last name…
Face glowing, Lily grabbed her bag and stormed out of the Great Hall without a look back at her best friends and the Marauders, sitting at the long Gryffindor table. A large majority of the upper year Ravenclaws had turned to watch her leave; Lily's brilliance for academics had given her friends throughout the other houses, but the heaviest concentration of Lily's friends and acquaintances outside of their brave Gryffindor Tower lay in the Ravenclaw House. All of the students admired her for her natural intelligence and her dedication to knowledge and many of the young men in the house had ventured to ask her to Hogsmeade on the numerous trips since 3rd year.
James' face turned from jovial into jealous as he watched one of her dates from the spring of the previous year wink at his mates, tug the napkin from his lap and drop it onto his empty plate, and follow Lily quickly out of the hall. Sirius patted his best mate on the back consolingly a few times with his right hand, grabbing the remains of his muffin and popping it into his mouth with his left. Peter hadn't bothered to look up and was busy trying to poke the yolk of his egg so it would break and soak his toast. Remus raised an eyebrow and looked at the Emily, Elizabeth, and Angelina.
The three girls looked at each other and sighed dramatically before rising from their places on the bench across from the boys and preparing themselves to comfort for the raging ball of fury that would be Lily Evans in Flitwick's early morning N.E.W.T level Charms classroom.
"Of course!" Angelina yelled before blushing and looking meek as a unanimous "Shhhhh" resounded from around her. "I mean, of course Lily's being odd today!"
"Like she isn't every day," Elizabeth joked.
"No, Liz. You're odd every day," Emily deadpanned, her eyebrows knitted together.
Laughing and sniggering at the bickering twins, the Marauders awaited more explanation from Angelina.
"Guys, come on. How long have you known Lily Evans?" Angelina asked, hands on her hips.
"The train! We met on the train, and she smiled, and I smiled, and she blushed, and I grinned, and she giggled, and I ruffled my hair-!"
"I think she means legitimately spoken with her, James," Remus interrupted, chuckling softly. "As in, you know what she likes-"
"Yelling at Prongs!" Peter interjected.
"What she dislikes-"
"Prongs being alive!" he yelled again.
Sirius let a barking laugh escape from between his lips and clapped Peter on the back heartily. Remus hid a smile and caught Angelina's brown eyes with his own champagne colored ones, making her flush almost to the color Lily's face had been moments before. James' face, torn between amusement and horror at having had Peter make a joke at his personal expense, was causing Emily and Elizabeth to snicker and giggle loudly as they pointed at his visage's conflict of interests.
Angelina felt a short tap on her shoulder and blinked, breaking her eye contact with Remus. Twirling on the spot, she spun around and came face to face with a blue and bronze crest adorning black robes. As she raised her eyes, Angelina began piecing together the Ravenclaw badge with the chiseled, slightly scruffy, chin and cheekbones and the deep dimples.
"Oh, hi," she breathed, smiling up at Bradley, the intensity of her blush increasing tenfold.
"Hey, Angelina."
"Have a nice breakfast?" Seriously, as if her heart racing while looking at Remus weren't bad enough, now it was trying to break the world record for the fastest lap around Hogwarts' grounds.
"Yeah, it was great. It is still a bit disconcerting to see all of the food appearing out of thin air, though." He smiled again. Angelina giggled. "I was…Well, I heard that Gryffindors have Charms class with us Ravenclaws…"
Angelina giggled again and let her lips curl back into a smile. He looked nervous, she realized.
"Well," she began, hesitantly, teasing him. "I do suppose I could show you to the classroom."
She picked up her bag from the floor behind the bench and slung it across her shoulder before beaming at the remaining Gryffindors and giving them a slight wave goodbye. Bradley's face melted into a relaxed, relieved expression and he held out his arm for her to take. Angelina laughed quietly as they walked the same path that Lily had taken several minutes before, her not-so-observant eyes missing Remus' frown, James' and Sirirus' raised eyebrows, Peter's blank stare, and Emily's and Elizabeth's dropped jaws.
"How was your Potions class yesterday? Are you excited for Charms?" Angelina asked once she and Bradley had made it into the bustling corridor.
He shrugged. "Both are alright, but I'm generally more of a Defense Against the Dark Arts kind of guy."
Angelina counted whatever blessings a great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson-grandnephew-grandwhateverkindofrelative of Merlin had given her that Bradley was not in her Defense class.
"Oh. Well. Flitwick's a great guy, though, so no worries there," she joked.
"I know."
"Uh, you do?"
"He is my head of house, you know. He helped me get settled with the transfer and everything."
Angelina just about died under his teasing grin, and went back to thanking that great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson-grandnephew-grandwhateverkindofrelative of Merlin, for they were rather near to the first floor Charms classroom. Desperately wanting to prove herself worthy and capable of intelligent conversation to this new boy, Angelina decided to provide him with a rather interesting tidbit of Hogwarts information.
"Charms is the only class on the first floor."
Bradley's soft "Oh?" inspired her to continue.
"Mmhm. They moved it down here once Dumbledore gave Professor Flitwick the job. Apparently, his small size makes it rather difficult to get up and down the moving staircases."
"Interesting." Angelina beamed up at him. "But what did they do while he was a student here?"
She blinked, a frown coming across her face. Drat! Why in Merlin's dirtiest robes did he have to be a curious, constantly seeking affirmation and never ceasing to desire knowledge Ravenclaw?
"I, uh…"
"It's fine, Angelina. I was only teasing." His smirk quite nearly made her swoon and she suddenly remembered why they were walking arm in arm in the halls on the first floor just after breakfast.
"Here we are!" She grabbed his upper arm and pulled him back a few steps, walking into the classroom they had passed.
Professor Flitwick was bounding across the room, setting up art canvases on easels in front of every table. Angelina selected a table towards the front and bit her lip as Bradley sat down on the chair next to her. Squeaking and greeting and waving to all his students as they entered the classroom, Professor Flitwick fell off of his stool upon seeing the Lily Evans enter the room with Carson Peters, his house's top Charms student. Angelina and Remus, Sirius, and James, who had all swaggered in together without a word to Angelina, all let their jaws dropped as Flitwick called their attentions to Lily and Carson.
Brad nudged her in the side, asking what was going on.
"Oh. Carson Peters. He'd be wonderful for Lily…"
"Yeah? I don't know your Lily, but Carson's a pretty cool guy, one of my dorm mates." He smiled at Angelina again, and she returned it before they both faced forward and waited for Flitwick to begin his lesson.
"Good morning, students! Welcome to your seventh and final year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"
Flitwick's amiable greeting spawned raucous jubilation from the Marauders and good-natured cheering and clapping from the remaining students of the class. "I have no doubt that my fellow professors have already expressed the seriousness of N.E.W.T. exams, so I will not bore you with stern lecturing!" Angelina could have sworn James and Sirius had fainted with relief and joy. "We'll just dive right into a refreshing pool of charmwork!" And then she really did swear.
It was not that Angelina did not enjoy Charms, she just wished that Professor Flitwick might have decided a "refresher" to review their previous work was in order, rather than a headfirst plummeting into "refreshing charmwork".
"Now," Flitwick began, "I am unsure whether or not I should make an approximation of how many of you talented N.E.W.T. level students are familiar with Georges Seurat. However, you all will be experts on his artwork after today's lesson!"
Angelina let her eyes roam and glance at the other students. James and Sirius were talking, Remus looked mildly interested, as did Peter. Lily looked ready to squeal with excitement and even the twins looked excited. Glancing rather stealthily at Brad, she saw he was smiling as well. Was she the only person in the entire classroom who had no idea what the bloody hell Flitwick was going on about?
"Seurat was a particularly gifted wizard who completed his education at Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, located in France. Impressionism inspired his creativity and his creative works became a pinnacle and important force in beginning the post-impressionist movement. Now, I would like to assume that many of you are curious as to why I am bringing up French wizards and art movements." The nodding heads of his students brought a smile to his face.
"Georges Seurat was an extraordinary student in Charms, and, with his boundless creativity, he combined two simple wand movements into his own means of creating artwork! By synthesizing a color changing charm with the jabbing motion used in provocative charmwork, Seurat developed a means of creating artwork of dots! He used the color charm to vary his hues while the jabbing motion allowed him to create precise points of ink! An entire style of painting is now named after him, pointillisme. The International Association of Brilliant Charms and Charming People, the organization in charge of charm regulation, coined his technique as the "Seurat Charm". Today, my lucky N.E.W.T pupils, we will fancy ourselves des artists français and learn the Seurat Charm!"
He punctuated his excitement with a loud clap, hopping off his chair and standing before an easel at his desk. Every student stood up and rushed forward, hoping to see the charm in action. Angelina watched, eyes wide, as he spoke "coulourithis" and he turned to face the class. As he showed them his wand, he deliberately pointed out the very tip of his short wand.
"After speaking the color charm, the tip of your wand will turn a specific color based upon your desires. You can merely think a hue or an intensity of a hue, and it will appear."
The class watched with wide eyes as Professor Flitwick made the tip of his sturdy oak wand change from red, to orange, to yellow, to green, to blue, to indigo, and to violet. Then, his large smile taking up half the space on his small visage, he demonstrated the sharp jabbing motion, having once more turned his wand to his easel. A small point of color appeared on the clean sheet of parchment. He continued jabbing and soon had created a scene of stick figures in large pointy hats holding wands, different colored sparks shooting from them. The Charms students clapped uproariously for his work and he waved them off, shooing them to go back to their seats and begin working.
The rest of the double period was spent in good fun. Angelina laughed hysterically as Bradley tried to paint a purple hippopotamus to rival her own orange one. James and Sirius were both doing (and absolutely butchering) self-portraits in an attempt to show off for Emily and Elizabeth, who had chosen to draw each other. Peter succeeded in using the charm to great effect and had a lovely painting of a bunch of grapes by the end of the period. Remus spent his time pointillisme'ing a snapshot of the Hogwarts Grounds by night. Every student's attempt had paled in comparison to Lily's: Lily absolutely gushed and glowed because of the praise she received from both Carson Peters and Professor Flitwick upon her amateur completion of Un dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte, a remake of Seurat's most famous work.
When she had finished arguing with Bradley over whose hippopotamus was more realistic - he had won - and bid him farewell as she wandered up to the Gryffindor Common Room before lunch and a free afternoon, Angelina realized why Lily had been so excited in the morning : Lily had absolutely adore Charms for six years, and she certainly had to have been looking forward to the N.E.W.T year of the class. And now, after spending such a charming morning with Bradley in Charms, Angelina thought that maybe she was certainly looking forward to the N.E.W.T. year of the class as well.
