Emilla Potter

Winter in the castle

January ran away in a blink of an eye. The castle ground were cold and snowy. The lake froze, which meant a lot of ice-skating for some of the students. Rachel and Evelynn taught Suzy to ice-skate. Katie wasn't a fan of winter's sports, so she stayed in with her Gryffindor friend, Alicia Spinnet. One saturday Evelynn was walking to the unused classroom to duel again, and she had to walk through the courtyard. She got into a war between Lee Jordan, Fred and George Weasley. They charmed the snowballs to fly towards people and she wasn't an exeption. Luckily after two hits she used the shield charm to save herself.
Lessons were slowly coming back to life. The christmas break acted as a delet button on lots of students mind. Everybody had to get used to school again. Evelynn tortured herself by staying awake on all of history of magic lessons. One time Rae even asked her if she was really Evelynn Grace Prince, cause she rarely saw her stay awake on Binns classes before the break.
Dueling was the best thing of all in the whole come-back. She finally learnt a handful of spells, enough to use as first practice.
Snape even taught her one called levicorpus. It picked up the victim from one of their ankle and flew them up into the air. They just hang there until somebody says the pair of the curse, libera corpus. She became better and better. Lots of times she learnt to protect herself, but she wasn't the best in attacking. Once she was a bit sour after four rounds of great using of the shield charm, but without any attack.
- You should think of it from another perspective - Severus sat down on a desk. - You are learning incredibly fast - he said, but she just sighed.
- No! Don't do that! - he forced her to raise up her chin - Now you can defend yourself. The next step is attacking. You'll learn it... eventually. Give it time.
She was still sad about not learning as fast as she imagined.
- But you still always win... - she looked down on the floor.
- Yes, but I am older and I have been learning more than you - he looked at her - You haven't been watching me close enough. Pay attention!
- To what? - she looked confused - I pay attention all the time.
- Almost. You really did what we started in december - he smiled - I am proud of you, cause you didn't stop with meditating.
- How do you know?
- You are more composed with yourself - he said simply - You can lie better - he pointed it out after seeing his daughter's sarcastic expression. - Yes, you can. I can't always tell anymore which one of the learnt spells will you use until you use it! - he tried to encourage her more.
In the common room Via and Lynn played wizarding chess a lot. After a usual duelling session the man suggested to her, that she should play. Chess was all about tactics and the use of risks. She was still learning. On a thursday evening Via and her were playing again in the corner of the common room while Jess and Emma were sitting a chatting on the couch. This was quiet unusual from them. They were always in a corner or around a table. Not much later everybody could tell why were they sitting there. The quidditch team got back from practicing.
- Hello Cedric! - Jess greeted him weirdly loud. The boy waved back in confusion. When he looked away he saw the chess playing duo and pulled a chair next to them. He was watching the match, and sometimes he helped them with useful tactics to win. Both of them practiced with each other so they could win against the Diggory boy. They started to play every evening from eight to nine o'clock. On thursdays they start at seven, so after the quidditch teams practice, one of them can try to play againts the seeker. He learnt to play from his father and he was really good at chess.
On saturdays she usually found herself in the middle of a prank either by the Weasley twins or by Peeves. She almost got crushed by a piano after the poltergeist let it fall off from the air. Two things were helpful in that second:
One: she knew how to use the shield charm properly.
Two: professor McGonagall was close to the actions place and when Peeves shouted "Falling Piano, Run away Allegro" she was there in two seconds. Sadly the instrument already was on the floor that time, but thanks to the shield charm, Evelynn lived with only a few scars. McGonagall was furious and shocked. The first thing she did was to take her to the Hospital-wing and ask Madam Pomfrey to check her. Then she hurried away just to come back with the principal and the potion professor. By the time they got there Katie and the Weasley twins heard about what happened and ran up to her. They were surprised as Snape looked at Evelynn with worry in his eyes.
- I only have one question, after all his - McGonagall said after the scars healed. - When, where and how on earth did you learn to cast a proper shield charm?! - she asked still in shock. Evelynn looked at Snape, who was looking at the principal. So she looked at Dumbledore who almost unnoticebly shook his head, saying no.
- I learnt it after the last prank of Peeves - she improvised thinking of her eveningly meditations - This was the fourth time of him throwing something at me.
- What was the four things? - the transfiguration teacher asked.
- First was water from a toilet - she said, and sadly it was true - the second was that blue paint, if Madam Pomfrey remembers...
- Oh! You can be sure, I won't forget that for some time, darling - the healer assured her then looked st the professors - It didn't want to disappear. We needed to use the skin cleansing potion at least ten times - she looked like she re-lived the moment.
- The third time it was a bunch of pixies - she continued after the professors looked back at her. Then the piano.
- And how did you deal with the pixies, Miss Prince? - Snape asked curiously.
- I used rictumsempra mostly. I put them in a cage and asked the Fat Fryer to get them away - she answered. McGonagall looked at her impressed. Snape was trying really hard to not show that he is proud. Dumbledore smiled and nodded.
After Hufflepuff got ten points and Slytherin's team won over Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff was on second place in the house-point competition.
January ran, February came. It didn't knock. The whether was freezing and dry. The quidditch teams were happy about that - at least the start of the match is easy - but not many students liked the cold wind. Cold or not, Evelynn still went out to the ice. She doesn't need a broom she needs ice-skates.
The chess practices were showing progress. She won over Cedric, and even a friend of him, Tom. She tried to connet the dots as in between duelling and everything else. Chess, meditation, skating, studying. The classes started to focus on the exams. The term ended in April, and the exams started then. All of the teachers were talking about the exams as if these were the hardest things they'll ever do.
The students lived in the believes of April is far-far away. Evelynn, Rachel, Suzy and Katie were against that thought. Obviously they played and had fun too, but they were almost the only first years in the library. Emily, a slytherin girl was one more with them, but other then her nobody thought of studying. Emily soon began to study with them. They only met in the library when they accidently came at the same time, but those times they asked questions from each other and tried to help the other when she got stuck somewhere. Emily was a genious in history, so she was the one who taught them everything they should've learn from professor Binns.
As days and weeks went by Snape was surprised to see how fastly Emilla improves in duelling. After a really good duel they started to talk.
- Now you can try something - he started. Emilla raised her eyebrows. - Try to cast levicorpus without saying it out loud.
Emilla got shocked. But she didn't lose her control. She took a deep breath, then pointed at the man. She didn't say it out, but when she thought of it...
"levicorpus" Snape was in the air hanging upside down.
The girl laughed in her success. Then she just thought of "libera corpus" and Snape was on the floor rightside up. She screamed in happiness, even danced for the win! Severus laughed with her. Even after hours she went to sleep with a huge smile.