warrior | sirius black

twenty five

twenty five

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"Alright, Miss Winters, are you ready?" Dumbledore asked from his desk, where he was finishing up a few letters that he would send to the Ministry later.

"Yes, sir," Rosie replied with a nod. It was time for her performance evaluation.

"You can give your wand to me for this part, Rosie," said McGonagall. Nervously, Rosie gave McGonagall her wand and took a step back as Dumbledore began his directions.

"Let's start with some simple ones, then we can move on to the more..damaging spells," Dumbledore instructed. Rosie nodded and took a deep breath to increase her focus. Dumbledore's voice rang in her head as she composed herself, "Focus is of utmost importance."

After steadying herself, Rosie looked at the book set across the room and summoned it, the book flying towards her immediately. Using Incendio, the book caught on fire in her palms. Slightly frightened at the fire, she cast Aguamenti to put it out, a jet of water smothering the flame instantly.

From behind her, the Professors nodded to each other, extremely impressed with her controlled wandless and nonverbal magic. Most students and even some adult wizards could hardly perform nonverbal magic --for Rosie to do both effortlessly was miraculous.

Rosie set the slightly burnt and dripping book down on an empty spot on Dumbledore's desk. The aged Professor stood, giving her an impressed nod, and walked a few feet away from her, a motion that Rosie came to recognize that they were going to duel.

"Is she going to duel Dumbledore? Is she mad?!" Professor Gena exclaimed quietly, which Professor McGonagall quickly responded to with a "shush!" so Rosie wouldn't break focus.

Dumbledore raised a hand, signifying that he was going to start, and released a yellow light from his hand. Rosie widened her eyes for a split second - they never discussed Dumbledore using wandless and nonverbal magic as well. After using Protego to protect herself, she used Stupefy, the red jet of light quickly hitting Dumbledore's own protective shield. Rosie sighed inwardly - Dumbledore went easy on her last evaluation but that definitely wasn't the case this time.

The duel went on for a couple more minutes, but it was mostly the two directing spells at each other and protective spells with the occasional Finite Incantantem. Eventually, Dumbledore bested Rosie with a smokescreen and the Jelly-Legs Curse - Locomotor Wibbly. By the time Dumbledore lifted the effects of the curse off of Rosie, the professors had made their notes and were beyond impressed.

Professor McGonagall handed Rosie back her wand, it was time for nonverbal magic only. Nonverbal magic was a lot easier for Rosie and went a lot smoother. As Dumbledore had explained, with the right amount of focus and practice, nonverbal magic would easily become second nature -- and her best friend in duels.

The young witch had managed to scrub pots clean, turn a rock into a happy dog, charmed a nail clipper to trim Fawkes' talons, and caused a thunderstorm - and rainbow - in Dumbledore's office. Much to the Professors' delight, Rosie could perform nonverbal magic very smoothly.

Her next tasks were a bit easier and much less threatening. She handled a particularly nasty Venomous Tentacula with minimal injuries, brewed a successful Draught Of Living Death potion, and produced a corporeal Patronus.

By noon, Rosie was left exhausted and the Professors were beyond impressed. Before she left to return to her dorm room and rest for the train ride, she gave the Professors their Christmas presents and even received a few gifts herself -- Dumbledore had given her a book on advanced defense spells, McGonagall had gifted her packets of Chai tea, and Slughorn had presented her a framed picture of them that they had taken the night before.