A Time to Study ((Brianna & any other 5th years))

[mongaj]

Grabbing his books and some parchment, Landon filled his bag and threw it over his shoulder. He would rather be sitting alone in his room writing, but he knew this study group thing was probably a good idea for him. Not only would it help him with classes, but he may even make a few friends- something Landon could use with his introverted ways. He had noticed the sign-up sheet in the student lounge earlier that week. The creator of the sheet was a girl named Brianna Felicia. Landon knew of her, but didn't really know her personally. When he signed the sheet, his name was the only one on the list, so he really didn't know who else to expect or how many others to expect for that matter. For all he knew, it may only be Brianna and himself. The idea seemed plausible, but it was hard to tell how many others would take advantage of the situation. It was something Landon would have to find out once he got there.

He walked slowly toward the lounge, admiring some of the many pictures that lined the walls of Hogwarts. He found it interesting that he never noticed the same thing in the pictures each time he looked at them. There was so much involved in each scene, and often times he would sit with his notebook and just write. He would write about the characters or the events, but either way, the pictures were full of so much that could inspire great creativity. Today however he was only able to watch as he passed each picture.

Once at the student lounge, he scanned the room looking for a group of students who might be the other 5th years signed up. Noticing only a few younger students and also a boy whom he recognized as a 7th year, Landon pulled back the sleeve of his shirt and looked at his watch. He was ten minutes early. Finding a few empty couches that would allow room for about six students, he took a seat in a quiet corner. Unpacking his bag, he saw his notebook and decided that he might as well use the few minutes he had, and he eagerly began scribbling on an empty sheet.

[aithne]

“Stupid book! Get in there!” Brianna hissed to the large, purely white leather book she was trying to fit into her bag. She was late for the new ‘Study Group’, and hadn’t even picked up the sign-up sheet yet. The group was supposed to begin in five minutes, and Brianna wasn’t even nearly ready. After a few more hectic pushes and shifting of the large black bag she was inserting the book into, she finally succeeded and the white cover disappeared beneath black, causing a sigh of relief from Brianna. Her curly brown hair was messy and flying in all directions, though was quickly solved from a few rapid whacks from Brianna’s blue brush. Her clothes weren’t too bad- though had been quickly pulled out of her closet in he hurry. A black top with a white jacket over the top, and some simple dark blue jeans with a pair of silver flats on her feet, which, as she rushed from the dorm, almost slipped off of her feet. She hurried through the corridors, not even bothering to smile and wave at Julius Markham, the famous guy who invented something Brianna wasn’t sure of. He had tried to tell her, but in about three days and she finally gave up listening.
Stepping into the Student Lounge and glancing around, Brianna panted a little. She had first seized the sheet of paper she had so carefully drawn up from one of the corridor walls, the one she had taken so much time to draw up. It was decorated in her special patterned border, blue and orange. Smiling at it before realising she didn’t have nearly enough time to smile, Brianna had almost sprinted to the Student Lounge. As she looked into it with her brown eyes she noticed someone familiar, with a book and pen. Readying herself and righting her skew-if jacket she wandered over to the boy. Nearby sat a fifth year boy with a book and pen also, but Brianna chose the first one she saw.

“Excuse me, are you…” She checked the sheet. “Landon Campari, Hufflepuff?” She asked politely.

“No, I think you’ll find he is!” The boy answered a little rudely, pointing to the second boy. Trying to smile as she turned to Landon, Brianna scowled at the boy as he turned around before greeting Landon.

"So you are Landon? Nice to meet you, I'm Brianna. Finally I am here! Sorry for the hold-up, I was a little busy with...sleep and all that..." She laughed, then emptied her bag onto the table.

Out cam the white leather book, which sh tucked under a pillow away from Landon's eyes- it contained her fantasies and she hadn't shown anyone before. She smiled as remembered how she had invented a school of witchcraft and wizardry in her mind, with wands and brooms. Her smile faded as she thoguht about her most hated enemy in those fantasies- the dragons. When Brianna came to Hogwarts she was over-joyed, but when she learned dragons were there with her she felt her fantasy coming true, though had only seen one once, which was one too many for her.

Also with the book came an assortment of colours and pencils, a large blue folder with lined paper inside, and a couple of Brianna's books for classes. After the books tumbled out a pink, fluffy ball of something, with tiny eyes. "Alico!" Brianna burst out, hugging the Puffskein to her chest. "Hope you don't mind, Landon, if Alico studies with us. I didn't know she was in there, but then again she is so good at hiding! She won't bother us though, and if her tongue heads for your nostrils just blow her a raspberry and she'll stop." Brianna smiled, blew a raspberry in Alico's face as if to show, and laughed again as the creature hid behind a pillow, which Brianna then sat on comfortably.

[mongaj]

After writing for a few minutes, Landon saw a girl enter the room. He recognized her as Brianna, and he watched as she approached the older boy in the room and asked if he was Landon. He smirked as he knew the boy's answer would be a no, and then Brianna came over and greeted him.

In no time, the contents of her bag were emptied, strewn across the table. Among the items was a small ball of pink fluff which Brianna quickly addressed as Alico. Landon wasn't too fond of Puffskeins, as he didn't really see the use of them, but he smiled warmly anyways, realizing it was probably a 'girl thing' to enjoy them so much. "Yeah, I'm Landon," he said finally, once Brianna seemed situated. "Are we expecting any more students?" he asked curiously. He still was unsure if it was just to be the two of them or if more students had planned on coming. Also, he wasn't even sure what subject they would be studying, as it wasn't included on the sign up sheet. Regardless, he had came prepared for any class that he had even though the great number of books weighed his bag down significantly.

Tucking his notebook away, he folded his hands together and leaned his elbows on his knees. "So where should we begin?" he inquired.

[aithne]

Brianna snickered not unkindly as Alico blew a raspberry at Landon, then listened carefully to him. She didn't know him that well- would maybe stop for a chat in the corridor with him, but not enough to have a drink with in her case. He seemed nice and he wasn't a wretched Slytherin, so that was fine with her. Smiling at him she looked down at the list to check for other members who had put down their names. With a small sigh she showed the magically-protected list to Landon.

((EDIT: I've removed this part of your post. Please check your PMs. Ivy Tunstall H4))

She scowled at the list, wishing she had put a small charm on it to test the truth of the writer. No matter, she thought to herself dropping the shiny paper onto the small table.

"Well I expect if anyone else wishes to join then they can just come, though of course only fifth years. And as for the subject I don't really mind, just anything we could improve on and all that junk. I'd love to practise my Charms though, maybe some simple spells to begin with then proceeding?" She loved charms- it was her favourite subject by far and she was fair skilled at it. She opened one book and checked most of the spells inside, then asked Landon which he would like to practise with first.

[mongaj]

Brianna showed Landon the list. Sometimes it amazed him at how immature people could be. Figuring it was either younger students or Slytherin students who wouldn't be caught dead in a study group with other houses, he simply ignored the childish writing on the list. "Well then," he spoke up, "I guess for now since it's just the two of us, Charms would be a great place to start." He thought momentarily, deciding where to start. "How about we start with a basic," he suggested. "I know that we learned this charm years ago, but sometimes I have trouble with it when the object is something larger."

Landon stood up and pulled his wand from his pocket. Searching around the room, he found the perfect target. Forcing a focused concentration, he stared at the empty chair by the fireplace and with a swish of his wand chanted, "Wingardium Leviosa!" The chair slightly lifted a few inches from the ground and hovered for about ten seconds and then dropped loudly back to its original position. "Well that was pathetic," Landon said with a chuckle. He wasn't a natural at most things, and he wasn't going to pretend that he was a great wizard either. He didn't feel he had to impress anybody, and he was there to learn and practice anyways. "Any suggestions?" he asked Brianna. "Maybe you should give it a go, and I can observe your technique. That may teach me something," he said with a shrug.

[aithne]

Brianna smiled, and then watched carefully as Landon agreed with her charms practise plan and cast the lifting spell. She herself was fairly surprised- she knew the charm well, using it often for most every-day things- to annoy her Puffskein when she wanted a harmless laugh, to search for something, everything. She watched as Landon didn’t succeed in lifting the chair, but didn’t react, just watched carefully. She wasn’t completely sure what she herself did- and she smiled encouragingly at Landon as he spoke again. A lot of boys she knew would have looked embarrassed or would have made up a hurried, lame excuse about why the spell had failed, and Brianna respected Landon for not doing that. She watched hard, brown eyes narrowed, as the Hufflepuff tried the charm and then rose, her long cream coloured wand in her hand.

“I can do the charm on something the size and weight of the chair, but am not completely sure how I do it. Charms is one of my best subjects so it does come a little easier to me, though I have a point. With large objects what I often do if picture really clearly where I wish the chair to be, and in my mind see it flying steadily up. I’m not sure if this will work with you but it usually makes my Leviosa a little stronger.” She smiled then flicked her wand, saying clearly and loudly, “Wingardium Leviosa!” In her mind she pictured the red-gold chair rising into the air slowly, and from her mind’s view imagined her wand moving to one side, the chair following not long after. In reality the chair rose almost exactly like her mind’s view, hovering about two feet from the ground. With a happy smile at the fact the charm was successful, Brianna slowly moved her wand with a short flick to one side, and the heavy chair did the same. Feeling a little more confident Brianna lifted the wand higher- the chair followed, but then fell slowly to the floor with a soft ‘pat’. Brianna laughed off the mistake, though saw why the chair had fallen fairly quickly.

“I got over-confident, something which actually occurs quite often with my spells. Been trying to work on it, but before it broke you could see that to start everything has to move slowly so you can get used to it.” She smiled, slotting away in her memory a small note to practise the charm with another chair later, and perfect it until it was perfect. She sat back down beside Alico and smiled again, though this time more to herself. She knew she often got too confident with her charms which often made her wand less sure, and caused the current spell to falter or fail, like it had done. But she was still pleased that she had cast most of the spell correctly and with a giggle as Alico jumped on her head, she stroked the furry pink head gently as she sat.

[mongaj]

"I'm impressed," Landon commented as Brianna demonstrated a successful display of the levitating spell. He stood up again and readied his wand for a second attempt. "So if I just envision the chair rising and going where I want, then it may be done more simply," he stated, repeating the advice Brianna had given him. He was glad that she hadn't been boastful in the fact that her charm was much better than his. This made him a little more open to listening to her advice. He felt she truly was there for the same reason as he was- to learn. He hoped however that he could prove as useful in the time to come.

Focusing back on the chair, he did as Brianna explained. Picturing the large chair rising slowly and then moving slightly to the right, he spoke in a clear voice, "Wingardium Leviosa!" The chair rose as he had planned, although a little quicker than he had anticipated. It was in the air at least. Maintaining focus, he cleared his mind of all thoughts except of the chair. Moving his wand faintly to the right, the chair followed. Starting to envision the chair slowly landing, he felt something land abruptly on his shoulder, and the chair fell the distance to the ground and landed with a loud crash. Landon's face turned a shade of pink as he turned to see what had interrupted his concentration.

((Sorry the posts are getting short I'm struggling for inspiration lately... hopefully they will begin to improve as we go along... so far this post seems like it will be fun ))

[aithne]

Brianna smiled as Landon repeated the advice, liking him already. She wasn’t the worst-looking girl and in her third year a boy had once tried to impress her by casting ‘accio’ sadly, the ‘cat’ he was meant to be charming towards him turned to ‘rat’, which flew at Brianna, who had knocked it away reflectively. She laughed as recalled the rat heading towards the open door from which Professor Foxcroft, the DADA teacher, had soon emerged from. The rat hit the teacher full on and the Gryffindor who had cast the spell had been given half a weeks detention. Brianna almost laughed at the thought, then thought back to her point- Landon was a proper boy with proper thoughts, who had come to the Study group to learn and she liked that. That was what Brianna was there for too and watched on as Landon cast the spell correctly, waving the chair from one side to another. Brianna was relaxed and was watching so intently that she barely noticed Alico jumping onto Landon’s shoulder, causing the spell to fail and the chair to crash. With an irritated sigh Brianna quickly snatched the pink fur-ball from Landon’s surprised shoulder, apologising as she gently pushed the Puffskein back onto the couch, though glowering at it.

“I’m terribly sorry; she clearly liked the look of your nostrils. But that was great- I saw difference between the two and if you try it again I’m sure you’ll do better than myself.” Then she looked at Alico, who, although it wasn’t clear, seemed to have a small grin on the deformed face. Suppressing a giggle Brianna stuck her fingers in the corners of Alico’s little ‘mouth’, pulling them down. In return the pet stuck out her long, slobbery tongue and poked it in Brianna’s eye, causing her to yelp and retreat. “No Alico, you are not to do that! We are here to study, so go to the dormitory!” Brianna knew the creature however, couldn’t hear her so pointed one long finger in the direction of the door. Alico got the idea- her eyes went puppy-like but she obeyed, understanding the tone in Brianna’s voice. With a small sigh Brianna turned to Landon once the pink fluff has disappeared and smiled hopefully. “I definitely think you should try that again- you so nearly nailed it, and if Alico hadn’t acted so then you could have held it for ages, I could see.”

(It's fine ;D- i make totally new things in my posts so they seem longer, though mine aren't usually this long. I'm getting better though- my English teacher has even noticed in our last essay!)

[mongaj]

Once he realized it was Alico who had jumped on his shoulder and interrupted his Leviosa spell, Landon couldn't help but smile. "It's alright," he assured Brianna, "the little furball doesn't know any better." Examining the chair, Landon noticed that one of the legs was cracked from the fall. Using his wand, he muttered, "Reparo," and the leg was instantly back to normal. This was one charm that he knew quite well as he used it frequently. It came in handy when he would clumsily break random items. Stepping back from the now repaired chair, he took a look at Brianna. "Well I couldn't have done it without your help, so I suppose it wouldn't hurt to give it one more go," stated.

Turning back to the chair, he closed his eyes once more and cleared his mind. He was very determined to make the spell work this time. Again, he went through the visioning process as he imagined each part of the spell. In a well enunciated tone, he opened his eyes and spoke, "Wingardium Leviosa!" Just as before, the chair rose and hovered a few feet above the ground. This time, Landon slowly waved his wand to the left and the chair followed. He smiled and momentarily lost focus as the chair dropped a little. However, he immediately gained control and thought only of the spell. With a gently swipe down, he finally lowered the chair to the ground easily. Letting out a huge sigh of relief, the smile returned to his face and he happily turned to Brianna. "For a moment there, I almost lost it," he said, wide-eyed. He wasn't in a state of pride, but more so in a state of achievement. Landon was happy that he was able to conquer the spell after a few episodes of trial and error.

"Thank you so much for the advice," he said to Brianna. "I really couldn't have done it that well without you. I would suggest you try it again, but you seem to have this spell mastered for the most part, so how about we chose another," he suggested. "This time you can pick the spell. It's doubtful, but maybe there is one I can help you with," he explained. Charms was one of Landon's favorite subjects even though he wasn't the greatest at actually doing all of them.

[aithne]

Brianna watched carefully as Landon repeated the spell, pausing at one moment as the chair fell, but catching it perfectly as though a magical trampoline had been placed beneath it, and it sprung straight up again. She clapped as he finished, thanking her. “That was brilliant! Nice save too, I would have failed that.” She smiled, and then listened as he asked her to request a charm. She thought hard to herself, wondering what to choose. Sure, there were many she hadn’t completely mastered to the fullest, but those would only take about twenty minutes in her dorm to get. Flicking through her mind she remembered one charms lesson, not long before the Study time was planned. She smiled, though mainly to herself, reassuring her own little mind which shouted at her not to try the charm. Ignoring the little voice she stepped to the same place Landon had been for his charm, and pulled out her wand with a flourish.

Her hand as she steadied herself to the wand weight seemed to waver a little, but she ordered it to calm down and sent calming thoughts down through her body. Brianna’s mother had a job as a counsellor. Brianna focused on the objects around the room, noticing a few people edge away as they caught sight of the determined look in the Ravenclaw’s brown eyes. Wand held out, Brianna pointed at an empty ink-pot on a table nearby, and then flicked her wand to a tiny statuette of an owl which was perched on a shelf. As she did so she said, loudly and evidently, “Transfigorus Totallus!” while visualising in her mind the two objects merging together. As soon as the words left her mouth the objects zoomed collectively, heading into each other. The spell was called to amalgamate to owl and ink pot together into one object, which would most likely be an owl-shaped ink pot, made from stone like the statuette- only able to come apart with the counter charm. But as Brianna watched with her wand still held before her, she knew something had gone wrong. But how? She thought the charm incantation had left her mouth perfectly, and the flick of her wand had gone well enough.

Brianna continued to watch with a completely bemused expression. The two objects went straight past each other, smashing into the wall they were heading for. The ink pot didn’t smash, as was made of unbreakable, charmed glass, but the owl did. The pieces flew into the air, in all directions, but stayed hovering above the heads of the staring students. Brianna turned a deep shade of red immediately. With a scowl at a nearby second year who was staring at her, she pointed her wand at the still hovering pieces, muttering ‘Reparo!’ and watching as it caused the shards to fix once again into a statue. Brianna smiled a little, turning to Landon. “See, the wonderfully talented Brianna has failed! Got any idea’s why? I imagined the objects together, and I think I did the flick correctly. Did the incantation come out right?” She asked him, a small smile on her face from her first joke comment.

[mongaj]

"Thanks," Landon said, blushing a little. His levitation spell was quite impressive if he did say so himself, but he knew he owed his success to Brianna. Taking a seat, he waited for her to decide on the next charm. Watching as Brianna took a stance and entered a state of complete concentration, Landon waited eagerly to see what she had in mind. He noticed her glance from one side of the room to another, however he was unsure exactly what she was looking at. Then, he listened as she preformed the spell. Immediately, he recognized it as a transformation spell in which two objects were meshed into one. Even thought the result of her spell happened so quickly, Landon could tell it wasn't successful as the two objects sped past each other in opposite directions. The one object which he realized was a small statue of owl actually broke upon impact, while the other, a bottle of ink, simply dropped to the ground.

Looking at Brianna, Landon could tell she was mildly embarrassed, but she quickly repaired the statuette and said something about the 'wonderfully talented Brianna' failing. Ignoring her embarrassed sarcasm, Landon knew it was no big deal that her charm was a flop. It wouldn't be the first time a spell failed, and defiantly not the last either. "It's okay," he said kindly, "even the best never get it right all the time."

Thinking back to Brianna's completion of the spell, Landon went through each step in his head. He knew that you had to have complete focus on each object, but he was sure Brianna would have done this as she was the one who reminded him to focus for the Leviosa charm. Next, he tried remembering the correct way to flick the wand. As he recalled, Brianna had done that impeccably also. So what could be the error? he thought to himself. He pondered the only thing left to critique- the enunciation of the incantation. Remembering how Brianna said it, Landon tried to determine if she pronounced it correctly. He remembered learning that the second syllable of 'Totallus' was to be the stressed syllable for the word. That was it! Brianna had stressed the first syllable.

Excited at his discovery, he smiled at Brianna. "I think I may know where you went wrong," he said. Listen to how I pronounce it, and see if you notice a difference. "Wingardium Leviosa," he commanded, bringing the statuette and ink bottle to their original positions. This was quite easy considering they had just worked on levitating a much heavier object. With everything ready to go, Landon cleared his mind and imagined the two objects forming together. With a clam voice and steady hand, he flicked his wand just as Brianna had and shouted, “Transfigorus Totallus!” The objects sped toward each other and collided, falling to the floor.

Landon anxiously stepped over to where the new object had fallen. Looking down he saw what appeared to be an ink bottle, but now it was shaped like an owl's head toward the neck of the bottle, and at the bottom of the bottle were stone claws sticking out. He let out a small laugh and looked at Brianna. "Not exactly what I imagined, but it worked nonetheless," he said happily. "I think you just stressed the wrong syllable when you said they spell," he informed her. "At least that's what I assume went wrong. How about you give it another try," he suggested, looking around the room for some interesting object in which she could transfigure together.

[aithne]

Brianna listened with wide eyes as Landon spoke. Earlier, when he had failed at a sort of easy charm she had thought him not so brilliant at Charms, though could see he had some raw talent in the way he cast his spells. Her views had now changed- as he spoke he seemed to truly know what he was talking about and she listened carefully, knowing the words would help her. She nodded, thinking she had indeed stressed the first syllable not the latter. Her mouth turned up at the corners into a nice smile as she watched Landon ready himself for the spell he would cast. She listened as her said the whole word of Totallus with emphasis and whispered it to herself, readying for the spell she would soon cast. Brianna concentrated as Landon cast the spell fully and looked at the two speeding objects with a smile. They sped together and merged straight away. Landon wandered to them and laughed slightly. Brianna couldn’t see what he was laughing at from her chair and stood carefully, one hand on the couch. She walked to the place where the bird statue and the ink bottle had fallen, and laughed as Landon had done. The little ink bottle looked great- with a smile Brianna picked it up and, carefully so as not to scratch her hands on the pointy claws the bottle held, gave it to Landon.

“Wonderful work, I can see this lesson will be enlightening! I think you should have this-the head unscrews as the lid,” and she showed him it did so, her long fingers scraping at the head and turning it quickly. It did come off- and she weighed it in her hand and was surprised at the heaviness it carried. She gave it back to Landon and listened to his final remark with an appreciative nod. “I agree…” She glanced curiously around the room for something to charm, and saw the perfect things almost immediately.
At the far end of the room on a dark black end table sat an odd blue bowl. Well, it wasn’t really blue. The main glass colour was light blue, but on the glass were about fifty large spots of all different colours- every single colour Brianna knew stared at her from the bowl, the spots shining colourfully no matter what angle you looked at them from. “That one…” Brianna said in a half-whisper, pointing one slender finger at the huge bowl. She looked around for the other perfect object she had seen and saw it as she smiled, pointing now at this too. An extremely dull model of a banana was lying in an open cabinet in the room. It was plain, bland grey and an equally plain, bland black. Grey spots on black background. The contrast between the two objects had appealed to Brianna and she stood up with a determined look on her face, ready for the spell. Her wand was out and she pointed it in the direction of the two.

In her mind she imagined the huge bowl and the banana merging together, into a new object which she wasn’t sure of just yet. Brianna often did that- let the spell go where it wanted, making new things which were much more fun than her own. After visualising the images she wanted to in fast flashes in her mind, Brianna held her wand out with a tense arm and spoke clearly and loudly. Several people looked at her in almost alarm, surprised by this girl who had randomly pointed her wand at them with that eager face. “Transfigorus Totallus!” she almost shouted. The objects flew at each other speedily, just as Landon’s spell had made his do. The bowl seemed to waver a little in the air as they went and for a split second Brianna felt the charm was a failure. She knew if it was she would sulk like a first year would do, but that was just how she was. She didn’t want to grow up- why be like her sister, Lana? The young lawyer had an attitude even older than the Felica parents. Brianna smiled at the thought, but it was ripped in two as she noticed the bowl and banana had gone- instead, about four metres from her lay and odd shape on the floor. Brianna suppose it was a bowl in a way, but it was shaped like one huge banana split in half. The colours were simply amazing and the Ravenclaw girl gasped as she studied them. At a first glance she saw just black- after a blink all shades of blue- her eyes flicked away and when they were back, the bowl had turned green and pink. She kept staring at the flashing colours and smiled happily as noticed her spell had been a success.

[mongaj]

Landon couldn't help it as he failed to suppress the smile that covered his face. His spell had been a success, and he was relieved that he was no longer useless as far as helping each other was concerned for Brianna and himself. His smile widened as she complimented him on his work and handed him the owl-shaped ink pot. It was rather nice, so he took it and happily pocketed it while watching Brianna instantly get to work at picking out the next objects to be merged. So far, Landon was having a great time practicing and perfecting spells with Brianna. As he could see so far, the two of them made a pretty decent study team. However, they had just started, so it was hard to tell for sure.

As Brianna prepared to cast the spell again, Landon studied the two objects she had chosen and watched her every move, making sure she didn't neglect a small detail while concentrating on the enunciation of the spell. Finding nothing wrong with her technique, Landon watched anxiously as she finished. Moving closer, Landon got a better look at the new object which contained a brilliant color scheme that changes when looked at from different angles. Raising his eyebrows, he looked at Brianna and grinned. "Impressive," he complimented, "but not as nifty as my little owl-pot," he joked. As much fun as the transfiguration spell had been, Landon decided it was time to move on and gain some more knowledge with another spell. Thinking for a moment, he came up with another idea.

"For this next one," he said, looking at Brianna, "I know how to do the spell, but I always run into the same problem," he explained. "It's the Engorgio spell, and I'm not going to even try to attempt it," he added, laughing a bit. "because every time I do it, the object does enlarge, but after a minute or two it shrinks to its original size. So instead of me doing the spell and having it fail as always, I will rather watch you and see if I can figure out where it is that I am making my mistake." He looked around and saw a small pillow nearby. "This shouldn't do much harm when enlarged," he said, tossing the pillow her way.

[aithne]

Brianna was a little chuffed still as Landon spoke. She was surprised her spell had worked so well but loved the outcome- the bowl was safely tucked into her bag and Brianna listened closely to Landon, though a smile still on her face to show how pleased she was. The next spell Landon suggested had actually puzzled Brianna for a bit too. She felt she did get the hang of it now after practising with her make-up in the dormitory, but wasn’t so sure. She nodded as Landon spoke and told him that growing then shrinking back again had happened to her too. She wasn’t sure how she had overcome that, but had practised for ages until it had worked. She felt more than uncertain as she caught the pillow deftly in one hand, a small frown etched on her dark skin. She smiled, though more to reassure herself than Landon.

“Ok, I’ll try it for you. But I must warn you I don’t think mine will work either, this odd…thing happens each time I try the Engorgio charm.” She smiled a little more boldly, chuckling to herself inside. “Right- ready?” This time she was talking more to herself than Landon and she pointed at the cream coloured pillow with her wand, speaking clearly with just a little waver. “Engorgio!”

The moment the words left Brianna’s mouth she felt they would at least have some effect. As the power from her wand reached the satin pillow an odd effect took place. Brianna gulped a little. Before now each spell cast could be successfully cast by the other partner, but now Brianna knew this wasn’t the same. Landon couldn’t correctly cast the spell but neither could Brianna in one go. She felt she could have if she was alone- in her room now lay huge eyeliner pencils and enormous brushes of mascara. But Brianna knew the consequence which had taken place in her room wouldn’t appear in the Student Lounge. The pillow, now hit by the spell, was beginning to grow in a very odd behaviour. Parts of it began to grown in odd, spikey ways. Bulges like boils erupted over the pillow and in the end, the cusion looked like a hedgehog with blunt spikes. Brianna smiled a little at the image, seeing that indeed it was quite amusing. She then glanced at Landon, inspecting his face to watch the reaction.

[mongaj]

Brianna seemed confident about the spell, so Landon watched closely, taking in her every move. So far the experience had proved to be helpful, and he wanted to learn as much as he could. Remembering how Brianna had flicked her wand and said the spell, Landon watched the pillow with anticipation. It seemed that she had done it correctly as the pillow began to grow large protrusions. But then, Landon noticed that the growths had stopped, and what was left looked no longer like a pillow, but more so like a ball of cushioned spikes. Biting his lip, Landon gave an awkward grin, not sure if he should laugh or not. He didn't want to hurt Brianna's feelings, but at the same time, he couldn't resist the fun of picking up the deformed pillow and throwing it at her. Deciding a mixture of the two, he gave a small chuckle and commented, "I don't think that was supposed to happen," he said softly, "but that's alright. I mean I can't do the spell either, so I have no room to judge," he said truthfully.

Pondering their situation, Landon wasn't quite sure what to do now. He could give the spell a go, but he knew what the outcome of that would be, without even attempting. Or, they could take a look in one of their spell books and possibly find a fairly decent explanation on how to do the enlarging spell. This option didn't appeal to Landon though, as he was not one who could learn easily from reading text-books. He would rather be taught by example. "So what should we do now," he questioned Brianna. "I know for sure that any attempt I give would be a miserable failure, so that is out of the question." He paused for a moment before deciding his next move. "Maybe you should just give it another try," he said finally, hoping to boost Brianna's confidence. "I'm sure that you just made a tiny mistake that you could easily change this time." Taking the ball of spikes, he threw it at Brianna. He smiled, finally getting the chance to throw the odd looking object that had been teasing his childish nature inside.