Chapter four - If At First
Hermione screwed up her brow in concentration and tried again.
"caeruleumflammula"
This time there was a quick flicker of blue light before it disappeared to nothing. Hermione sighed angrily and looked down at the standard book of spells grade one which was lying open on her bed. She had pursued chapter one quickly and this spell had caught her eye, it seemed simple enough, she read the passage again.
Caeruleum flammula is a useful spell that conjures as small, blue coloured flame that although does cause a heating affect can be picked up without causing any discomfort. The flames will not burn anything they touch and is relatively simple and is helpful for every day usage. The wand movement to go with the incantation is a quick, clockwise circular motion whilst clearly saying 'Care-ru-le-am fla-mu-la'
Hermione nodded and said for the fourth time
"caeruleumflammula"
This time to Hermione's shock a number of flames shot out of her wand and fell to her bed, where they burned merrily but didn't scorch her duvet. Hermione nearly whooped, her very first spell and she had mastered it in only four attempts! She looked again at the passage
'…..can be picked up without causing any discomfort…'
Hermione gulped as she reached out a hand to touch the flames, she could feel a warmth coming of them that wasn't nearly as hot as a regular flame but she was sure it may still hurt. Carefully she reached underneath the flame and picked it up. To her amazement it felt only slightly warm against her skin, like nothing more than picking up a sun-warmed rock. Hermione was delighted and looked around for somewhere she could put the flames that would look nice. On her window sill stood a jam jar that she had saved and had been planning to use to store all her pens and pencils that were at the moment rattling around in the draw of the desk. She quickly picked up the jam jar and as carefully as she could dropped the flames into it. There they burned happily. She put the jar back on the window and watched them for a few moments, proud of what she had achieved. Then she turned back to the standard book of spells on her bed.
OOO
Hermione's routine hadn't changed much from before she found out she was a witch, every morning she would go downstairs, eat breakfast before getting dressed and head outside to read. Only now she poured over spell books instead of normal ones. First she read all of her school books cover to cover, making sure to go back over anything she didn't understand and testing herself to see if she had memorized all of it. She hoped that learning all of this would bring her up to speed with her classmates who must already know quite a lot about magic, even if they had never used it before. Then Hermione began to read the extra books she had picked out. She had made sure to pick mostly history books as that was what children of wizarding families would already know a lot of.
She was simply amazed by the things she learnt as she read. The discoveries people had made, the fascinating history that her Hogwarts had and the Great War which had finished the year after she was born. That was the most interesting to read about, how an evil wizard by the name of Lord Voldermort (although the books stated that almost every wizard referred to him as 'you-know-who') had risen quickly to power, causing terror everywhere. How he had killed innocent people and especially wanted the magical world rid of muggleborns (this had Hermione quite worried) and then how he had suddenly vanished. Defeated, it seemed, by a boy barely one year old, a boy named Harry Potter. At this point none of the books could say how you-know-who had been vanquished, only that the killing curse, which had been aimed at Harry, had instead backfired of him. No-one knew whether he was really dead, or just too weak to carry on, but was out there, waiting to return. And no-one knew how Harry had survived the curse with only a lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead, only that he was the only person ever to do so.
OOO
Hermione couldn't remember most of the holidays, she only knew that before long it was her last full day she would have with her parents, and she realised she hadn't really spoken to them since the day at Diagon Alley. So for that one day Hermione put down her books and wand and the three Grangers went for a walk down to the river in the next village and sat and had a picnic together. Hermione savoured every moment that day because she knew that everything was going to change now. It had sunk in what going to a boarding school meant. It meant months without her parents, months without hearing her mother and father speak to her, months without her mum asking her if she had learnt anything knew today. Months without even seeing their faces.
Hey guys, sorry this chapter is very short but the next chapter will definitely make up for, I already know it's going to be stupidly long! Also my exams are now over so you should expect a new chapter every few days! YAY. oh and thank you to spirited wind and lemonade summer for being giving extremely supportive and lovely reviews. You guys are great. Oh AND I've finally found the button that makes line breaks Hooray! sorry if that was annoying anyone, i know it was annoying me!
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Hannah xx