RAVENCLAW!

28. Accidents and Incidents

The first lesson of the year was Charms with the Gryffindors. As the students filed into the classroom Professor Flitwick was already waiting behind his desk, probably standing on a stack of books. Hermione attempted to pull her friends to the front but Harry and Ron struggled against her and the trio eventually settled for the third row. Harry happily took the middle seat in between the two Gryffindors and waited for the lesson to begin. The moment Flitwick cleared his throat a last student tumbled into the room. And of course it was Draco Malfoy. He didn't apologize, he just went to sit in the last free chair in the very back corner and Flitwick let it slide, simply pretending nothing had happened at all. Maybe because it was the first lesson of the year or maybe because he didn't want to take points from his own house as his first act of the year. Harry didn't know, neither did he really care about the answer. The question he was wondering about instead was, what had Malfoy been up to already? What could he have been doing? Because he was very certain he hadn't seen him at breakfast. While all of this Slytherin friends had been there.

Harry was ripped from his thoughts when Flitwick instructed them to attempt the tickling charm on their partners. He paired up with Ron while Hermione was stuck with Padma Patil, whose Gryffindor counterpart was already giggling with her best friend Lavender even though neither of them had their wands out, yet.

"You go first",
Harry said to Ron, hoping that the other boy has at least paid a little more attention than he had.

His movements and pronounciation seemed confident enough but then the broken state of his wand messed up everything. Apparently fixing a wand wasn't as simple as wrapping it in obnoxious amounts of spellotape. A light purple streak shot from the point where it was snapped in half rather then from its tip and just about grazed Hermione's shoulder. The girl immediately started sobbing and tears were streaming down her face when she turned around to glare at the redhead.

"Wh- what- t d-d-it you-u d-d-d-do to m-me?",
she was barely able to force the words out of her mouth.

The other students had stopped doing their thing and curiously watched the scene. Harry could've sworn he heard Malfoy snicker from the back but did his best to ignore it. Finally Professor Flitwick approached them.

"What is the problem over here?"

Hermione opened her mouth to reply but Harry beat her to it, not willing to give someone another reason to laugh at his friends.

"Ron's wand is broken, professor. And as he attempted the charm it was off course and it accidentally hit Hermione and, well... you see what it did to her."

"Ah, yes."

Flitwick didn't elaborate so Harry came forward again.

"Is there something you could do about it?"

"I'm sorry but just as it is with every other charm, we will have to wait until it has worn off."

Seeing the concerned expression on his students' faces he added,
"It won't take very long, I assure you! There is no reason to worry. Everybody, go back to practicing!"

After the other students had complied Flitwick turned towards Ron.

"Mr Weasley, this wand is not fit for any kind of spellwork anymore. I recommend writing to your parents and asking for a new one as soon as possible, we'd want to avoid any kind of serious injury, right? And in the meantime you'd better stick to theoretical practice, hm?"

Ron's face had adapted the colour of tomatoes and he gave an embarrassed nod. Harry felt really sorry for his friend. He knew the Weasleys didn't have the money to buy Ron a new wand just like that. The one he had, hadn't even originally been bought for him but was also a hand-me-down version from one of his older brothers. Harry would immediately offer to give them the money but he knew it was pointless. They would never accept charity, even if Harry didn't mean it as such.