Marauder's Daughter (Eventual Tom Riddle X OC)

Chapter 20: Holiday

"Ok, Ced, I'm ready." I tell Cedric with a grimace. We've been partnering together in Charms class working on the Carpe Retractum charm this week, which is essentially a grappling hook. It can either be used to wrap around an unmovable solid object and bring you towards it, or it can wrap around a movable object and bring it towards you, but only if within your strength to pull it. 

Cedric and I found a small unoccupied classroom and are working on target precision with the new spell, which due to our bright ideas, meant we were targeting around each other. He's already accidentally hit me twice with the boxes, but we're determined to get them to arc around us. I got close on my last attempt though, so we think it can be done.

"Alright, brace yourself, just in case." Cedric says with guilt. He feels bad he bruised me, but I also bruised him too the two times I've hit him on accident. "Carpe Retractum!" He calls out, pointing his wand towards me. He flicks his wrist too soon, so the orange jet of light doesn't hit the boxes and instead hits me, which unfortunately causes me to launch towards him. 

I yell out as I fly through the air and slam into him hard, knocking both of us to the ground with my velocity. My instinct to protect kicks in and I wrap him up and roll into it, which softens our landing, but it still hurt like all get out.

"I think you're getting worse." I say grumpily to him as he's squishing me and groaning in pain. "Get off, you're heavy." I nudge him and he rolls to the side.

"I'm so sorry." He moans out. "I can't get the aim of it right."

"It's like you're trying to hit me." I tease him as I roll to stand up. "I'm going to get revenge for this, at some point and time. It's going to be petty, but it's going to be great." I hold my hand out to help him up, but he eyes it wearily. "Not right now, you're expecting it. Now go take your damn position." I chuckle out to him and he grins and stands back up, nervously running to the spot I was just in.

"Carpe Retractum!" I point for the box directly behind him. The problem with the spell is the jet of magic doesn't fly in a straight line, it's more jagged, so trying for accuracy with this like we are now is difficult. I manage to land it on the box, and whip my wand sharply to the right, away from Cedric, and then back to center. By theory, it should arc around him like a whip. "Yes!" I call out as it passes just barely around him, only lightly hitting the sleeve of his elbow. It launches at me and I catch it in my free arm easily. "Take that!" I cheer out and he grins at me.

"Ok, the arm out theory worked, excellent!" He joins my side grinning proudly. "I promise not to grab you again, I thought of a better way to get the box while you were doing it." I shoot him a curious look, but go and take his place. He locks eyes on the box behind my left shoulder, and I watch the concentration as he performs the spell. He manages to grab the box and whip it around me perfectly, and I cheer for him when he catches it. "We did it!"

"Nice! Now, to test the grappling hook theory." I grin excitedly.

"And what exactly is a grappling hook?" He asks in confusion.

"Like a gun that shoots out a wire, and you can use it to latch onto a building and climb it." I explain. "By my theory, it should work similar to what we just did." I turn and spot a ledge in the classroom. "I hope. Or this will hurt." I admit as I cast the spell. I launch up to the ledge quickly, but miss grabbing the edge before falling. I shoot out the spell again and attach to another ledge, and manage to catch it this time after swinging like Spiderman. "Oh thank god, that was close." I sigh out in relief as I get a firmer grip on the ledge.

"That was brilliant! But uh, how are you getting down now?" He asks with a smirk. I grin at him, and then back flip off the ledge and roll into the landing smoothly. It was about 12 feet up, but I barely felt the impact. "That was well done, how did you do that?" He asks in shock, joining my side again.