We were December. Almost all the students went home to pass the holidays with their families, but me and my best friend had decided to stay at school, because Christmas at Hogwarts is better than anywhere else. We were in the common room revising our lessons while a snow storm was raging outside.

I was trying to light a candle with the fire-making charm. I had a bucket of water beside me in case I set fire to something else that the candle. I know that it's dangerous to cast this spell inside with a lot of flammable objects around, but for the moment all I got was dark smoke going out of my wand and there was a group of third year students who could easily put a fire out.

"Incendio!" said I for the umpteenth time and once again it didn't work. "I don't understand! I'm sure that I'm doing everything right! Sally can you please look at me and tell me why it doesn't work?"

"No need to watch you" she answered. "You pronounce it wrong. You're saying 'IN-sen-dio' and it should be ‘in-SEN-dee-oh’. "

"It's just that? Thank you I'll try again."

"No problem", said Sally "Oh and be sure to focus on the right object. My friends and me are leaving now and we don't want you two to die in a fire." She finished her sentence and left the room. 

I said a few times 'in-SEN-dee-oh' out loud to be sure to pronounce it right this time. I took my wand and focus my mind on the wink of the candle. I took a deep breath and I drew a flame with my wand while saying the incantation. I saw a little flame on the top of the candle. 

I shouted : "Lynn! I did it! I have just lit the candle! Okay it was just beside me, but I cast the fire-making charm!" I stood up and began to do the happy dance. This is how I am, I always celebrate little victory because it's a first step to the bigger ones. 

Lynn wasn't as happy as me. She isn't really good at charms and she was still struggling with the levitation charm. She was trying to move a pillow across the room, but all she could do was lifting it a few centimeters above the floor. I really wanted to cheer her up, so I told her:

"All you have to do is to focus on the target. Then you say the incantation and you switch and flick with your wand and that's it. It's not really complicated. The hardest is to stay concentrated during all the time otherwise the object will fall."

Then I took my wand and pointed it at the teapot that was on the table. I said loudly 'wing-GAR-dee-um lehvee-O-sa' while doing a beautiful switch and flick. The teapot started to levitate and I moved it slowly in the direction of the shelf. 

Suddenly I heard a big noise. It scared me and I dropped my wand. The teapot fell on the floor and broke itself. I looked at the windows because it's where the noise was coming and I saw a big snowball on it. It was probably someone that has found funny to enchant snow to go on every windows. I didn't find that funny at all. It was Lynn's teapot and she got it from her grandmother. 

"I will buy you a new one if you want" I told her.

"But you can repair it, can't you? You just have to cast the mending charm." she replied.

"Of course! I don't really have the habit of using magic in my every day life. 'REPARO'!" 

That spell was quite easy for me:  the wand movement was just an inward spiral, the pronunciation was instinctive (reh-PAH-roh) and the only thing that I had to do during the spell was picturing myself the teapot before it was broken. I cast the spell perfectly and the teapot was exactly as it was before. Hopefully there wasn't any tea in it so I didn't have to was the floor.

"Well, I'm going to take a break now. Enough charms for today!"

It was the first time that I was casting so much spells in one day and I was exhausted.