Chapter Ten: Wands at the Ready
The new year had arrived and the girls were getting ready to go back to Hogwarts. Hermione and Ginny were saying their last goodbyes before taking off for King's Cross. Molly gave Ginny a kiss on the cheek and Hermione a big hug. After seeing the girls off, they all Apparated back to the Burrow with Harry and Ron going in another direction. Hmm...
The train was huffing and finally came to a stop. Every single student entered the castle and into their common rooms. The decorations had gone and the Great Hall was no longer covered with garland and tinsel. Hermione was setting up a plan for the next six months. As there would soon be finals, she and everyone else would finally be ready to take action. Ginny, on the other hand, felt like she didn't need to study and practice right away. She thought it was necessary that they wait until Easter to go over every spell they learned over the last few years. After all, they knew all the spells they needed to already since the battle the previous year.
Nobody really seemed to care about the tests and spells right away. However, other students were spending some of their free time reading and writing. Some were in the Great Hall, others were in the library, and some of the other students were in their common rooms just struggling to perfect their skills. Ginny was not at all surprised; being with Hermione has that affect.
The next day in Transfiguration class, Professor McGonagall explained to everyone the importance of transformation. Basically, it was just the usual lesson about keeping a clear and open mind, focusing on your primary target and not letting your guard down. Ginny practiced on Arnold. "Avifors!" And just like that, Arnold turned into a bird. The class oohed and ahed. McGonagall flicked her wrist and Arnold turned back into his Pygmy Puff form. "Very good, Miss Weasley," she said.
"Now each of you must know that precision is of the utmost importance. When you leave Hogwarts, you always have to remember the key to maintaining a proper way to transform animals and objects. Learning new lessons when a person is a seventh year is supposed to be a challenge because it's much more advanced. When a student reaches his or her final year, the spells you have learned in your previous years are supposed to help to prepare yourselves in order to see if you have remembered every skill and technique in and out of class."
Everybody, of course, felt like they were ready. Hannah, on the other hand, still needed a bit of a confidence boost. Even though she was a DA member, she still felt a little anxious when it came to her spell-casting. Nevertheless, if it was easy for Neville, it should be easy for Hannah. The two spent a lot of time together in Herbology lessons. Of course, Neville previously had feelings for Luna.
Some of the students had decided to go outside for a walk in the snow. During that time, Hermione, Ginny and Luna were practicing their dueling spells, kind of like what they did in the Room of Requirement for DA meetings.
Hermione was quick on her feet. Quickly she yelled, "Stupefy!" But Ginny was quick, too. "Protego!" she shouted and a shield had appeared. "Levicorpus!" Just like that, Hermione was dangling upside-down. Luna managed to help her stand upright again. "You two keep doing the same spells," she said. "Why don't you come up with new ones?" Ginny said, "We don't really need to learn any new spells, Luna. Besides, we have plenty of time left until the end of term." Hermione was trying not to think about the snow in her boots. "You guys need to focus. June will be here before we know it, and we still haven't mastered basic training yet," she said. "Why don't we just kick back in the common room for a while?" Ginny asked her. "We're always doing that," Hermione told her. "Oh, that's right," Ginny said, "because all you ever do is take your work seriously." Hermione replied, "You say that like you don't know me!"
"Oh, believe me," Ginny scoffed, "I know you very well enough."
The two hardly spoke to each other for days after that. At one point, Hermione decided to go to the Owlery and send a message to Harry and Ron. Little did she know, however, that Professor Flitwick was also there. "Professor Flitwick?" she asked. "Oh! Miss Granger," he squeaked. "Nice to see you out and about."
"What are you doing up here, professor?"
"Oh, I was just cleaning out some owl feathers. It's very hard to keep an area clean with all these birds flying around."
"I can see." "Well, what are you doing up here?" "I was going to send a note. But I can tell you're busy. I can come back later," and she was just about to leave, but Flitwick stopped her. "Oh, no, please. Do come in, I get very lonely up here." Although he was not entirely lonely because of all the owls up above. Hermione found an owl with clean feathers and after giving the note it went flying away knowing its route.
"So, I've been meaning to ask you," Flitwick was saying, "what are your plans for your NEWTs?" "Same as always," Hermione told him, "what other reason is there?"
"I see. Well, these tests are Nastily Exhausting for a reason. Seventh year is supposed to be the hardest. I hope what you're going to do will be worthwhile." Hermione looked at Flitwick still cleaning the owl pens and having to levitate feathers high up into the tower. "Not exactly a fresh environment to do some cleaning, is it, professor?"
"Oh, I don't mind at all. It's easy to get rid of the feathers, especially if you're an expert at Charms, which you and some of the others don't seem to have a problem with." The owls started hooting. "Nice to see you have it all under control. Would you like some help?"
"Oh, I'd love some, but don't you have anything better to do with your time?"
"No, really, it's all right. No bother." She pulled out her own wand and levitated all the feathers. "Wingardium Leviosa," and just like that, one by one, the feathers all landed right in the bin next to the door. "Oh, thank you, Miss Granger. That really saved me a lot of time."
"You're welcome, professor."
Hermione went back to the Gryffindor common room and Ginny turned to her and apologized for her attitude, but Hermione told her she didn't have to. Anyway, it was time to go to sleep and the girls went to bed by the time midnight rolled around. "So, you were helping Flitwick in the Owlery all this time?" Ginny asked her. "Oh, it was nothing at all. Actually, it was a lot of fun. Although I'm not all that keen on picking up owl droppings." Ginny groaned with disgust.
The next day, everyone in Charms class were casting random spells all over the grounds. Ginny rose a pear from a basket. Luna set a brazier on fire with Incendio. Hannah repaired a entire box of candles that have been pushed off by Slytherins. Flitwick and McGonagall were impressed with everyone's success. Flitwick announced, "Well done, everyone. You've all performed remarkably. Especially you, Miss Abbott. You've come a long way. That will be all for today. Class dismissed."
