build me up buttercup [s.black]

[10] Charms

a) Give the incantation and b) describe the wand movement required to cast a silencing charm.

Exam season had finally begun and one of the first ones was Charms. They were to sit the theory exam in the morning, followed by the practical exam in the afternoon. Aisling smiled as she scrawled her answer onto the parchment. So far she had been asked about cheering charms, severing charms, freezing spells and levitation charms. These were all charms that she had revised particularly hard thanks to Professor Flitwick's subtle hints that they were very likely to come up.

She finished her paper and read through it a couple of times to check that she had answered every question as thoroughly as she possibly could. Once she was satisfied with her own answers, she looked around the room to see who else had finished. Lily was sitting three rows in front of her to the left and Aisling caught her eye. Both girls smiled at each other and Lily gave Aisling a subtle thumbs up, which she guessed meant that Lily had completed the paper too. She glanced at Sirius who was leaning backwards in his chair and doodling on a spare piece of parchment. As she carefully turned around, trying to look like she was stretching her back, she caught sight of Alice - who was sucking on the end of her quill and looked as though she was checking her answers over. Aisling pulled a spare piece of parchment from the pile on her desk and began writing down all the charms which hadn't come up in the theory exam, meaning she could be examined on them that afternoon.

She was halfway through writing down the incantation and wand movement of a stunning spell when she got the strangest feeling that she was being watched. She snapped her head up quickly and locked eyes with Sirius, who was tipping back in his chair and smirking at her. She fought the urge to smile at him and went back to her notes.

A few minutes later, their time was up and her tiny charms teacher collected in all the papers using a summoning charm. As she picked up her bag from outside the hall, she looked across the corridor and saw that Sirius was once again staring at her, leaning up against a wall and smirking.

"Ash!"

She pulled her eyes away from Sirius's and turned around to see Alice making her way towards her.

"Not bad, right? You were right about those silencing charms though! Aren't you glad we all went over them last night? Not so sure about my answer for the severing charms though, but hey! That's only one question."

Alice beamed at her and swung her bag over her shoulder. Aisling smiled back, she would be extremely surprised if her friend didn't get Outstanding in all of her O.W.L.s. The girl was far more intelligent than she gave herself credit for. They waited outside the hall for Lily who, along with Alice, said that she was going down to the lake for a bit before lunch. Aisling decided to go up to the dormitories and get in some last minute practice for their practical exam. She set off up the Gryffindor tower alone with her nose wedged firmly in 'The Standard Book of Spells' by Miranda Goshawk.

"Well I'll be shocked if I don't get an E in that exam, actually I wouldn't be surprised if I got an O."

"Prongs you're so intelligent, not to mention modest."

"Shut up Moony, you'd be arrogant too if you had my brains."

"Well thankfully I don't."

"What about you Padfoot, how did you think it went?"

But Sirius didn't answer. He was too busy watching the hair of the girl in front of them swinging as she walked briskly through the corridor. He wanted to talk to her, to be around her. He wanted to hear the lyrical rise and fall of her voice as she spoke, and the sarcastic edge to her voice when she responded to his flirting. He could just go over and talk to her; she was right there. But something was stopping him. This was a strange experience for him, he never got nervous around girls. Then again, he never usually stayed interested in the same one for this long.