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"What's so important about this spell anyway?" Zacharias Smith commented as Neville raised his shaking wand towards the dummy placed in the center of the Room of Requirement.
Harry turned around from Neville's side and smiled fakely at Zacharias. "This very spell saved me from Voldemort himself now; I suggest you listen up." Zacharias shut his mouth as Harry nodded back at Neville, who was struggling to breathe properly.
The dummy raised its pretend wand as Neville bellowed, "Expelliarmus!" His wand flew backward from his hand, and everyone ducked. As everyone regained their stance, Neville muttered, "I'm hopeless."
Harry frowned and held up his own wand. "You're — you're just flourishing your wand too much. Try it like this. Expelliarmus!" Harry flicked his wand much sturdier than Neville, and the dummy's wand flew to the side. Everyone stared at Harry at how effortlessly he had made it look compared to Neville, but we weren't intimidated but rather even more interested than before.
The line continued, and a few people, specifically younger students, struggled with grasping the defensive spell. Once it got to my group of friends in the line, we studied each other's movements. Angelina was first, and she executed it flawlessly, which made Lee's sloppy attempt rather embarrassing. But he deflected the wand nonetheless.
Next was Fred, who did it without a thought, as did George. When it came to me, Harry gestured kindly for me to start, and I raised my long wand towards the dummy. "Expelliarmus!" I cried, and the wand launched from the dummy's hand. Harry smiled as I followed Fred and George to the back of the line, who praised me.
"Escpelleumeis!" Lee mocked me, and I glared at him. "I never understand how that thing translates you."
Angelina hit his arm while George rolled his eyes, and I ignored him. When Neville was at the front of the line again, Harry made us gather around him. "That's all for today. Great work, all of you, and the time between meetings, I implore you to practice. We'll let you know the next meeting time but for now, have a good night, fantastic job," everyone clapped for him while some kids groaned, not wanting it to be over. But we collected our things and rushed out of the Room of Requirement in groups of two or three.
When my friends and I got back to the common room, we saw many people still scattered around the room studying. We sat down in our usual spot and began buzzing in excitement about the D.A. but eventually, Angelina declared we better start on some of our homework. I worked on a Potions essay while the boys pushed away Angelina's buggering and started discussing future orders for the twins' inventions. I couldn't hold back the smile on my face at seeing Angelina's deadly stare towards them as they raved over the cost of different chocolates.
