PRECEDENT : Draco Malfoy II

34

On the way back to Hogwarts, I sit in a compartment with some of the other Ravenclaws who don't speak as much. Mandy was so loud I could hear her all the way down the platform, and unfortunately for her I have better things to do than listen to anything she says. My money freshly converted and in my purse, I puruse the only thing I've decided I need before going back to Hogwarts. It's a book on wand magic. I saw Ollivander, and he insisted my wand is well-suited to me, or at the very least it will be. He's a wandmaker, but I'd still like to check myself.

After returning my luggage to my dorm, I head down to the Great Hall. Finding a spot at the end of the table, I read to try to get caught up on Transfiguration. It isn't a class that I find particularly difficult, but I know Professor McGonagall expects exceptional students. In between bites, I practice the wand movement for the vanishing spell. It takes me longer to eat than usual, which is fine since I'm stalling from going back to my dorm.

Draco is at the table next to me, only a bit closer to the professors than I am. He looks at me once. I try not to look any more than that, but every so often, I catch a glimpse of his blond hair out of the corner of my eye.

"Is that the vanishing spell?" Hermione asks.

She's standing behind me. I turn my head to look at her, offering a quick nod.

"I'm getting close to accomplishing it on a kitten now," Hermione smiles. "How close are you?"

I shrug my shoulders, "not very close. I am able to conjure snails, snakes and birds though."

"Conjuring?" Hermione sits down next to me. The table jolts at her sharp movements as she digs through a bag, "that is N.E.W.T. curriculum. Are you sure?"

I nod. When I'm bored with the Sagum I force myself into other classwork, and in second year, Draco conjured a snake in a duel so I figured it couldn't be all too difficult for me, "yes. I know conjuring is technically harder, but I'm better at technical magic anyway."

She pulls out a book that I can only imagine makes her shoulders ache from the slam it makes against the table. Hermione digs through the book, looking for the section on conjuration.

"How many birds?" she asks.

"A flock of a dozen or so," I offer, looking down at the page in her book. "The texts make it seem more difficult than it is. It requires precision to not create hybrid creatures or suffering ones. You can take your time when conjuring something. Ten minutes, even."

"You have to vanish objects quickly," she agrees.

Vanishing doesn't require precision so much as certainty. You must be determined to make the object into non-being and therefore everything. I find it easier to make something out of everything than to turn something into out of being something altogether. The finality of such a process is something I find difficult. Also, vanishing requires power to get it done all at once. A quick burst.

"My wand isn't all that good," I pull it out. "The blackthorn doesn't agree with me."

She looks at my wand. It's thirteen and a quarter inch, so far too long for a witch like me. Longer wands, especially those approaching fourteen inches, are made for people who have a big force of personality. Hermione or Ginny would be suited to such wands, or even Mandy. Not me. The core is unicorn hair, so it is consistent, but it is also consistently inadequate. The blackthorn is suited to power and dark arts and not precision, which is perhaps why the wand does not like to obey me. My magic is not one that draws from a brute force, an infinite well. Additionally, blackthorns best suit witches and wizards after they've gone through hardship. I'm still waiting for what suffering is enough for the wand.