Life After Death - An Erica Black Continuation (4)

five

2021

"Hello class! as I'm sure you all know; my name is Miss Black and I am covering your lesson today. I'm afraid your usual professor has actually left you all some work to get on with seeing as your NEWT's are merely weeks away. so if you could all get into groups of no more than five, that would be wonderful." 

Willow was sat in her mother's chair, flicking through a copy of a children's book: 'Seeing Everyday Magic' and her sister was helping by handing out a small stack of questions to each group.
"If anyone has any questions, just call me over and ill do my very best to help you out, okay?"
The students nodded in agreement, their noses already buried in their work.

Willow slowly grew curious of what the older kids were doing, she climbed down from her chair and wandered over to a friendly looking girl with freckled skin and crazy red curls who reminded her an awful lot of her auntie Ginny- the only obvious difference Willow could identify was the girl's bright blue eyes. The little girl taps the redhead lightly.
"Hello?" she looks surprised by the child's approach.
"w-what are you doing?" her small voice stutters.
"Oh, I'm revising spells i learnt last year; this one," she holds up the flashcard to show the girl, "transfigures a bowling ball into a balloon" she explains kindly. The girl nods understandingly for a moment before speaking again. 
"what about that one?" she whispers, pointing towards another card.
The red headed girl pats the empty seat beside her "Do you want to sit? You could help me revise and I could tell you all about them" she offers as the small timid girl climbs into the seat and nods up at her.

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With five minutes left of lesson, Erica finally makes her way over to the two girls. 
"Hello Dominique, it's been a little while since I've seen you- how are you finding the work?"
"Miss Black," the teen nods, her curls bouncing. "It's going well thanks- Willow here has been helping me out with my revision" she chuckles "She's really super". The older  woman smiles proudly at her daughter.
"I'm glad to hear it, she's always had quite a head for learning" she laughs lightly.
"I've got a free next lesson Miss, I don't suppose this room is free, is it?"
"It is Dom, you'll have to put up with the girls and I though I'm afraid" she grins.
"Thank you Miss"

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"Bye Dom, Give your mother my love when you next write her." she smiles brightly, holding the door open as the girl leaves her classroom. 
She stands in the doorway for a minute as her next class lines up outside. "Thank you guys, come on in" following the last student in, she walks purposefully up the aisle to her desk.
"Hello 6th Year Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Now, today i was going to have you do some practical work- and we still will, but due to the current circumstances," she gestures to the twins playing quietly under the desk, "instead of practical spell work, you will all be doing some hands on teaching..." she smiles brightly, watching the student's faces carefully for any sign of disappointment. Luckily, there was none- not visibly anyway.
"you will all be expected to chose a transfiguration spell- any thing you've learnt in this class over the last six years. And then I want you to spend ten minutes revising your chosen spell and  try to teach the spell to the rest of the class as if we've never learnt it before. Okay?" The students all nod in understanding, some more enthusiastically than others.

One girl chose to teach the 'pawn to queen' spell, another taught the class how to perform the 'lapifors' spell. Half the girls and boys had gone and little did anyone know, Willow had been watching intently whilst her sister fiddled with the incomplete puzzle that sat between them. 
Suddenly, a boy stood up and began presenting one of the spells Dominique was talking about earlier. To Erica's surprise, her eldest daughter stood up and walked over to him, looked him dead in the eye and spoke clearly and unprompted;

"I know this once. It turns a b-bowling ball into a balloon. Like this" she says waving her little hand to imitate the wand motion Dominique had shown her previously.
"no." the sixth year boy spoke indignantly "its like this" he moved his wand in a slightly different manner.
The tiny girl held out her hand expectantly and smiled at the boy when he reluctantly handed over his wand "like this. You're doing it wrong." she stated matter of factly waving the boy's wand with a firm grip and a concentrated expression. The room fell completely silent for a moment before a group of girls a the back of the class broke out into obnoxious laughter.
"Girls, what're you laughing at?" Erica calls across the classroom.
"Miss.." one of the girls spoke up through her giggles, "She's right, the little girl is right. Tony used way to much wrist and didn't punctuate the motion with a flick at the end... Her's was perfect" the blonde Ravenclaw girl splutters, her friends still giggling aroung her.
The boy, Tony, blushed a violent shade of red and shuffled back to his seat. 

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"Mummy.. Do we hhhaaavvveee to leave right now?" Willow whined softly as her sister huffed,
"Mummy! can we go home yet?"

Erica sighed in amusement, "Yes Willa, Not just yet Lottie" she chuckled lightly, leading both girls through the maze that is the Hogwarts corridors, her eldest skipping to keep up, carrying a small stack of paperwork in her spare hand whilst her twin dragged her feet, grumbling to herself quietly. 
after a few more steps, their mother sighed again and stopped to scoop up the girl, taking a moment to straighten out her shirt collar before taking her other daughter's hand again tightly and continuing down the hallway.

"Ah professor McGonagall, I was just coming to find you" the dark haired woman smiled brightly as she bumped into just the witch she was looking for.
"Miss Black, I've heard only good things about your lessons, the students all seem to love you" the woman smiled kindly at the teacher and her two daughters. 
"Thank you Minerva, I look forward to the next time" she beamed, she'd always found teaching invigorating, "Say bye to Professor McGonagall girls" she prompted. 
"Good bye pofessa Mgongal" smiled Willow shyly.
"Bye.." pouted Lottie, her face buried in her mother's neck. 

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"Honestly Molly, it was hilarious- This boy was like sixteen- a sixth year student and she blatantly showed him up in-front of the whole class" the women chuckled as they watched the twins play quietly.