"My accent got through again, didn't it?" Jo asked Hermione bluntly, not without a brief petulant glare at her failed transfiguration. It did not, unfortunately, revert her mostly-needle matchstick into a matchstick. While her wand movements were firm and decisive as required, and mental image impeccably clear, it seemed she was the only one struggling with the pronunciation.
"A little, try again," the witch replied, so far the one to successfully transfigure her matchstick into a needle. It was currently being passed around their fellow Gryffindors who had never seen a needle before. "Reparifarge," she repeated helpfully.
The brunette practiced first, mimicking Hermione's pronunciation before uttering it again, crisply, with her wand. Tucking away the happiness for later, she followed it with another clearly pronounced spell, and her matchstick finally transfigured into a needle.
"Iss pointy," Jo remarked with awe as she held it close to her face, rolling it between her fingers. She studied it closer when she caught the light gleam on its silver tip. "Too pointy, actually," she added, turning to Hermione. "Think someone might stab themselves with it?"
"Why are you so morbid today?" Hermione whispered sharply and Jo's lip twitched, putting the needle down. She tilted her head slightly, towards Professor McGongall who was currently watching Neville's fourth attempt.
"The dare," Jo whispered when a shadow stretched across their desk.
"Another point to Gryffindor. Well done, Miss Bevan."
Jo barely bit back the strangled noise in her throat, mortified she almost didn't, and responded with a small nod, not trusting her voice.
Fortunately, she could keep herself together when she read the dictionary out loud the following night, before Astronomy, where only a few other Gryffindors were present. On the other hand, so many hours of speaking meant she spent the next several days resting her voice, and to her relief, the Scottish witch didn't know about her dictionary reading.