SNAKE

9 | troll

Time passed by quickly. Cora grew even closer to her Slytherin friends and was mostly spending time with either Pansy and Daphne or Draco. She also spent a lot of time in the library, managing to finish all her assignments, reading ahead for her classes and even reading extra books in the library. She was at the top of most of her classes, competing mostly with Hermione and Draco.

It was already October 31st and the majority of students was very excited for the feast that would be served at dinner. Cora wasn't one of them. During her time at Hogwarts, she had learned from both books and her friends that October 31st was the date when her parents died and she and Harry became The Boy and The Girl Who Lived.

Slytherin and Gryffindor first years were sitting in Charms class. Most students were paying attention, but Theo and Blaise were teasing Cora trying to cheer her up. It worked, but Professor Flitwick cleared his throat so everyone would pay attention to him.

"One of a wizard's most rudimentary skills is levitation: the ability to make objects fly", said Professor Flitwick. "Do you all have your feathers?" Some students nodded and others showed their feathers.

"Good", continued Professor Flitwick. "Now, uh, don't forget the nice wrist movement we've been practicing. Swish and flick. Everyone." Every student did as he ordered and said the words 'swish and flick'. "Good. Oh, and enunciate!... Wingardium Leviosa. Off you go then."

Everyone grabbed their wands and started trying to do the spell. Instead of trying to do the spell, Theo and Blaise continued to joke around with Cora, making her giggle a bit.

"Would you stop? You're breaking my concentration", complained Daphne to them.

"Oh, relax, Daph", said Blaise. "It's an easy spell. I bet even Weasley can do it."

"I doubt that", chuckled Draco. They all turned to look at Weasley.

"Wingardium Leviosar", said Ron as he moved his hand and wand frantically. The group of Slytherin friends giggled at him. Theo imitated his movements and the group giggled even more.

Hermione, who was sitting next to Ron, flinched and stopped him. "No, stop, stop, stop. You're going to take someone's eye out. Besides, you're saying it wrong. It's LeviOsa, no LeviosAr."

"You do it then if you're so clever. Go on, go on", snapped Ron.

Hermione raised her nose, pointed her wand to the feather and said perfectly, "Wingardium Leviosa." The feather levitated all the way to the middle of the classroom.

"Oh, well done!", said Professor Flitwick. Hermione shot Ron a smug look and he turned away from her, crossed his arms and pouted. The group of Slytherins were still watching the scene and laughed.

"That's not a good look on you, Weasley", said Pansy just loudly enough for her friends and Ron to hear her. He pouted even more and the group of Slytherin friends kept laughing.

"See here, everyone", continued Flitwick. "Miss Granger's done it! Splendid!"

Cora rolled her eyes annoyed at the Professor's praising of Hermione and did the spell. Her feather levitated even higher than Hermione's and even moved around a bit to her command.

"Wonderful, Miss Potter! Brilliant! Seems like you've mastered the spell!", exclaimed Professor Flitwick. Cora smirked towards Hermione.

"Wingard Leviosa", started to repeat Seamus several times until his feather sort of exploded and left his face all burned as well as a bit of Harry's face.

"I think we're going to need another feather here, Professor", said Harry with wide eyes.

~