The girl sat back on her bed, reading over the instructions once more. Nodding to herself to confirm that she remembered them she held out her right arm, a wand firmly grasped in her hand. She closed her eyes, visualizing again the ball of energy inside her. A faint warmth, like sunshine on a cold winter day, spread through her body as she focused on the magic flowing through her. The teacher said golden light but in her mind it was blue; a soft, light blue that felt a bit like the sky but a bit not.

Taking a deep breath the girl focused her energy, felt rather than saw it move up her arm and into her wand. She felt it stirring in her hand and, opening her eyes, she saw small sparkles bubbling from her wand’s tip. Giving out a delighted laugh the girl moved her wand around a bit, watching the sparks glitter in the air before stopping her flow of energy.

It wasn’t like she hadn’t used magic before, being already 21 years old she had used several spells several times. But never like this. Never just… pure energy. It made her feel giddy like a child on Christmas.

Turning back to the screen of her laptop the girl quickly read through the rest of the lesson, diligently taking notes as she did. After finishing she sat up straight once more yet didn’t pick up her wand right away.

“Wingardium Leviosa…” She muttered, repeating the word more slowly. “win-GAR-de-um… no, wing-GAR-dee-um levi-Oh-sa. Wing-GAR…” She repeated the incantation several times before being satisfied with her pronunciation.

Next the girl picked up her wand, glancing once again towards the screen, rereading the instructions for the movement. From left to right, backwards and flick forwards. As with the incantation the girl repeated the movement a handful of times, trying slightly different ways of flicking her wand at the end and timing the length of each movement before deciding it was good enough.

“Well then, guess I better try this out for real.” The girl’s eyes scanned the small bedroom before focusing on a box of candy on a desk next to the bed.

“Alright… Wingardium Leviosa!” With the previously practiced movements done in time with the carefully pronounced words she focused her energy into her wand and then outwards towards the candy box. With a small jolt the box shot into the air, rising slightly higher than the girl intended.

“Whoops, guess I used too much force.” She giggled, realizing she was using a lot more energy than normally because of all that focusing. Still, the box was floating. Deftly she moved it around, directing its flight with her wand, before letting it drop onto the bed by her foot. She picked it up, plopping a piece of candy in her mouth as a reward for her efforts.

‘For a first lesson that went quite well,’ she thought, looking around the room for something else to try her new spell on.

-Nightreader