Bella's heart pounded like a runaway Bludger as she sprinted through the winding, stone corridors of Hogwarts, her footsteps echoing off the ancient walls. The castle was a labyrinth at the best of times, but in the panic of being late, it felt like the moving staircases were conspiring against her. Hannah was close on her heels, her laughter mixing with their hurried breaths.
"Move faster, Bella! We're going to be late!" Hannah's voice was a mix of urgency and amusement, her hair bouncing wildly as she kept pace.
They skidded into the Charms classroom, barely managing to stop before crashing into the desks. The room, filled with floating candles casting a warm, flickering light, was already full of their classmates, all of whom turned to stare at the latecomers. Professor Flitwick, who was perched atop a stack of books to reach his lectern, looked up, his sharp blue eyes narrowing behind his spectacles.
"We got lost," Bella blurted out, trying to catch her breath. Her cheeks flushed pink, not just from the run but from the embarrassment of being caught.
Beside her, Hannah stifled a giggle, but it escaped anyway—a sound somewhere between a snort and a laugh. Bella shot her a mortified look, wishing she could vanish into the floor like a House-elf at the sight of a sock.
Professor Flitwick's eyebrows arched even higher, a look of faint disapproval settling on his diminutive features. "And is there a particular reason your friend finds this amusing?"
"She's mental, sir," Bella responded with a straight face, though the corners of her mouth twitched with the effort not to laugh.
A heavy silence filled the room, broken only by the soft rustle of parchment and the occasional creak of wooden benches. The professor's lips pressed into a thin line, and he sighed, as though resigning himself to the peculiarities of teenage witches.
"I trust you don't require a map to find your seats?" Professor Flitwick's voice, though mild, carried the unmistakable weight of authority.
Bella and Hannah scrambled to their places, slipping into their seats with as much dignity as they could muster. Around them, their classmates exchanged amused glances, but none dared laugh outright. The air in the room, thick with the scent of old wood and parchment, buzzed with suppressed giggles.
"Five points from Hufflepuff," Professor Flitwick announced, his tone almost disappointed, as though they had let him down personally.
Bella winced and mouthed a silent 'thanks' to Hannah, who offered a sheepish grin in return. The professor's gaze swept over the class once more, ensuring everyone was paying attention before continuing.
"Now, where were we before Miss Brown and Miss Abbott so rudely interrupted?" His tone softened slightly as he addressed the class, as though a teacherly patience had replaced his earlier irritation. "Ah, yes—the Levitation Charm. One of the first spells a young witch or wizard learns. It tests your magical skills, wand control, and, above all, patience."
Professor Flitwick's words hung in the air as he demonstrated the wand movement once more, his tiny wrist flicking with practiced ease. "Swish and flick, remember. And the incantation is 'Wingardium Leviosa.' Not Levio-sah, Miss Granger, but Levio-sa."
Bella's mind, though still buzzing from the morning's chaos, attempted to focus on the task at hand. The room, with its high, arched windows letting in beams of pale, autumnal light, was filled with the soft flutter of feathers as students practiced making them float. Each time a feather hovered above the desk, the class collectively held its breath, as though one stray thought could send it plummeting back down.
By the end of the lesson, Bella's arm ached from repeated attempts, and her mind was cluttered with Professor Flitwick's reminder that this spell would undoubtedly appear on their OWLs. As the class packed away their things, the professor assigned them a mountain of homework, his voice full of gentle but firm insistence.
