A Charming Hour ((William))

[Lavender Brown]

Lavender Brown pulled off her school robes and looked at her muggle outfit in the mirror. Her jeans were light blue and flared at the bottom. Her long sleeve sleeve smoky blue shirt made her blue eyes stand out. Her brown hair was straight and shiny. She smiled at the reflection. She had looked good for class that day, but now she needed to go to the student lounge to study for Charms. She was practicing the Transfigorus Totallus charm. She took two glass jars of oil with her and her charms book. She would need to write some stuff down as she practiced. She shoved the supplies into her bag and started for the student lounge. She passed by the common room and smiled at the happy faces around her. They were certainly enjoying the beginning of the year. She hoped that it would be better than the last year. The attacks on the school last year had frightened them all.

Lavender sighed as she exited the common room and went through the portrait of the Fat Lady. She started down the stairs and toward the student lounge. She walked by herself down the empty corridors. It seemed that most people were out enjoying the nice weather. Lavender sighed. She would rather be out there, but she had homework to do. She hadn't done that well on the charm and she definitely needed to practice it before her next class. Walking through the door of the student lounge she wasn't surprised to see it empty. Most of the younger years didn't have a lot of homework yet, but this was her last year. She had a ton of homework almost everyday. She knew that this year was her most important year. She would need to score high marks on her NEWTS if she wanted to get a job out of Hogwarts.

Lavender sat her bag down on a table near the back of the room. She opened her bag and took out her Charms book. Reading over the charm once again and how to perform it she took out the two bottles of oil. Raising her wand she moved her wand in a counter clockwise motion twice, then proceeded to move her wand right to left quickly, and then flicked it as she said "Transfigorus Totallus." The bottles started to move together and then they stopped half way through the charm. "Dang!" Lavender exclaimed as she threw her wand on the table. She had been trying to get it for the last day and a half. She couldn't figure out what she was doing wrong. It just didn't make sense.

Lavender collapsed on a chair and felt the tears run down her face. She didn't want anyone to see her in this state, but she just hadn't been having a good year. She was so frightened of being back at Hogwarts. She knew it wasn't safe anymore. She had always thought that no one could hurt her in Hogwarts, but after last year she knew better. She was no longer naive about such matters. It was this built up fear and her inability to perform a simple charm that made her break down. Lavender just sat there crying until finally no more tears would come. Her head was in her lap and her brown hair had spilled down the sides of her face obscuring her vision.

[will]

Will's head hurt. Rubbing it ruefully, he gazed out the window where sunlight poured in with great quantity and landed on his parchment. How he longed to be out there! Trying to keep his thoughts avoided from the sunlight and the beautiful day that was slowly passing away without him, Will turned to his paper. Charms homework. Damn troublesome homework! Sure, it was good for you in the long run but couldn't they just...make homework when it was rainy? Will pondered this as he lifted the feather quill to right down an answer to the difficult question that made his head pound. What an awful way to pass by the time! He glared at the parchment, half wishing it would just erupt in flames. It didn't. It remained solitary and refused to do anything. Will wrinkled his nose in contempt, but he was a Ravenclaw for a reason. He sped through it with a simple complexity, his quill moving across the paper as fast as it could go. When it was done, and rather sloppily at that, Will realized he still had more yet to do. They had to practice the Transfigorus Totallus charm! Will sniffled angrily but picked up his wand and began to practice so it would be over and done with. The spell, however, proved much more complex then the writing assignment. He had trouble swishing it the right way and flicking, etc..... The closest he could get was merging the two things half-way together but then the spell would just stop in mid way. Ugly thing....

The spell refused to work on the books, the goblets, everything. No matter what he used, it was almost as impossible as ever. He was on the point of giving up for the time being and going outside when he realized that he had to practice. In order to win the House Cup, Ravenclaw had to work hard toward it. They were farther behind then the other houses already, which wasn't a good start exactly. Smirking and confident that he could be successful now, Will moved his wand correctly and watched as two stones on his desk merged into one. He smiled arrogantly and picked up the pebble, inspecting it closely. It seemed to have worked well enough...His keen eyes noticed a few lumps where the other stone stood out but other then that, it was...perfect. Was there such a thing as perfection? Will didn't believe so but he left it to the experts to figure that one out. He knew his wasn't perfect but close enough to make him flush with success. Gay and happy now, Will picked up his stone and picked another up to work on. He collected strange rocks from his forest home and stored them in his drawer for remembrance.

He smiled as he strode down the hall, his feet clapping loudly against the hard, cold stone. Hogwarts was a wonderful place, Will knew that. The torches that were already alight glowed dully throughout the corridors, making an eerie shadow follow him around. Will was so excited and confident that he could do it this time, he was going to do it in the Student Lounge. When it came to showing off, Will enjoyed it thoroughly. Embarrassment wasn't a word he understood. Will was never embarrassed or scared of crowds. Let them think what they want and let me think what I want, was always his saying. It worked too. He was never afraid of peoples' judgments, as long as it didn't wreck his esteem for himself. It was all the same in a a way, connected strangely. As he strode rather arrogantly down the halls, he ignored some stares he received. Everyone got stares, it just mattered how the person dealt with it. Will often ignored them but sometimes that just didn't work, and he would have to wave his wand threateningly in front of his face or glare at them until they looked away. He had to do nothing of the sort today, which improved his mood. Even as he turned into the Student Lounge and found it almost empty.

He didn't notice a figure in the chair until he heard sobbing. By this time, he had already taken out both pebbles and was int he middle of the wand movements. His brows connected and he gazed in the direction of the sounds, wondering what in the world could be happening. Who would cry on a day like this? He got up slowly and walked over to the source of the noise, which was a girl he recognized as a Gryffindor in a year above himself. What her name was, he couldn't place a finger on, but he didn't bother to dwell on it. He sat down in the armchair, which she was now stopping her tears and was just laying there, quiet. Will raised an eyebrow, not exactly sure what to do. Was she alright? "Um..." Will said quietly, prodding the girl in the shoulder. "Is everything alright? Why so upset?"

[Lavender Brown]

Lavender jumped at the sound of someone's voice. She hadn't realized that someone else was there. She quickly wiped her eyes and looked up at the person who had said something. "Oh, I'm fine. Just trying to get this spell right," Lavender shrugged. She hoped she didn't sound too upset. She had not had a good day and she just wanted to get this spell right. "I'm Lavender Brown. You look familiar. Have we met before?" Lavender asked. She couldn't place who he was, but she knew that she had seen him somewhere before.

Lavender's eyes glanced back at the bottles on the table. They had separated and seemed to be waiting for her to try and cast the spell again. She glared at them as she shook her head. She liked Charms, but this was getting ridiculous. How come she couldn't get the simple charm to work? Just about everyone else in the class had gotten it before she had, which was one of her more embarrassing moments. It was times like this that she wished she was more like Hermione. She could have gotten the charm right away. It would have been more than easy for her to do that. Maybe Hermione would help her get the charm. Lavender shrugged to herself. She didn't really want to go to Hermione with homework help, but at the same time she didn't want to lose Gryffindor house points just because of a stupid little charm that she couldn't get.

Lavender shook the thoughts from her head as she realized she was not alone. She had trouble paying attention to things. Right now she was more concerned with her Charms homework that she kept forgetting that there was a boy standing next to her. She looked at him and shrugged. "I'm getting a bit annoyed with not being able to do this charm. It's making me irritated and I hate that," Lavender sighed. She wished there was some way that she could just figure the charm out. She thought she had the movement down, but now she wasn't concentrating hard enough on it to get the two items to merge. She glanced back at the bottles. "I don't suppose you could help me?" Lavender asked as she looked back up at him. She waited patiently for his response.