Assignment 8 - Defence Against the Dark Arts: The Dark Arts
Write about someone using a spell normally considered neutral to do some harm.
A Memorable Charms Lesson – 575 words
Professor Flitwick was smiling encouragingly at the first years who were currently sitting in his lesson. It was the usual lesson he held at Halloween and during which they practised the Levitation Charm for the first time. As he did every year, he had warned his students that the pronunciation of the words Wingardium Leviosa was extremely important. Oh yes, it had cost many a wizard or witch dearly only because they didn't say the words correctly. That reminded him of the previous year, when Seamus Finnigan had managed to blow up his feather because of the wrong incantation.
He chuckled lowly at the fond memory. If he wasn't entirely mistaken, it had taken a whole week for the boy's eyebrows to regrow propperly.
That was why he currently watched the class with keen eyes. While Mr. Finnigan had been lucky, he knew that it could be infinitely worse, and he certainly didn't want one of his students to be gravely injured.
All over the classroom the words Wingardium Leviosa were uttered in an attempt to get the feathers to levitate but so far none of the students was successful. That was when he saw a movement from the corner of his eye and when he looked fully he saw a feather floating in the air.
"Very good, Ms. Lovegood! Take ten points for Ravenclaw," he squealed happily. It was no surprise to him, that one of his Ravens managed the spell first, they were very studious after all.
This on the other hand spurred the others on to also get their feathers to levitate. It was Ginny Weasley, who was so frustrated by this, that she carelessly waved her wand while chanting Wingardium Leviosa. With no control over the spell, it shot right through the class room and hit one of the Ravenclaws, Luna to be precisely, square in the chest. Unfortunately, it was cast with so much power, that she shot out of her seat with a shocked and fearful scream before she hit her head at the ceiling. Right afterwards she plummeted back down because in her surprise, Ginny had cancelled the charm. Luckily Flitwick was quick to cast a levitation Charm on his own to prevent the girl from hurting herself even more by crushing on the seat or table.
"I…I'm sorry Professor, I didn't mean to…," Ginny, who had gone pale as a bedsheet, began to stutter, her entire body shaking heavily.
"Don't worry, Ms. Weasley, accidents happen and that is the reason for why you practise here in class so that we can make sure that nothing serious can happen," Flitwick patiently explained her while carefully placing Luna on the stretcher he conjured.
Ginny on the other hand bolted out of the room with tears in her eyes muttering under her breath.
Flitwick shook his head, reminded of the year prior when another girl had bolted from this room because of some careless comments from her peers. He could only hope that Ginny Weasley would be alright but for now he had more pressing things to tend to, namely one of his Ravens who was lying on the stretcher unconsciously.
"Class is dismissed, I expect a two-feet-long essay about the dangers of carelessly casting spells for next lesson," he told the rest of the class before walking out, the stretcher floating behind him.
It seemed that this would never be a lesson without accidents happening.