𝐇𝐚𝐥𝐟-𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐝

A Caged Bird

Rewritten

"Concentrate, Aurora."

Aurora the Creature hated wandless magic. Loathed it. It was utterly impossible to do without breaking something, and she always ended up exhausted. It was one of her weak points, which is why Albus insisted that she master it.

"I am," she growled at the Headmaster, glaring at the stupid piece of crumpled paper that was as good as her enemy right now. Several times, she'd tried to set a single piece of rolled-up paper on fire without using a wand, and several times she'd set the desk on fire instead.

"Not hard enough, set it on fire,"

"How about I set your beard on fire instead?" 

Her threat was dismissed with a single look even though Aurora was completely serious. Sweat dripped down the back of her neck, there was an ache in her head that matched the one in her chest, she'd let loose all of her powers and yet couldn't direct it at a single piece of paper. Her magic crackled around her like a force, she'd singed several items and at one point had set the drapes on fire. Black scorch marks decorated the place, almost everything in the room had been a victim to the fire, all but that blasted piece of balled-up paper.

"This should be easy, Aurora, you have quite a long way to go if you cannot even do this." Aurora felt deeply insulted, her pride bristling. Aurora was powerful, she knew that, he knew that. Lighting an insignificant piece of paper on fire would not help her on a battlefield.

She released an exasperated huff. "Isn't the point of war to destroy your enemy? If it comes to it, I'll just set the whole bloody room on fire and be done with it." She licked her lips and winced when she tasted blood from where she'd bitten down.

Dumbledore, standing calmly behind a protective shield, looked at her idly.

"The point of this activity is not to measure the amount of magic you have, but how much control you have over it," his blue eyes twinkled smartly behind his half-moon spectacles and by the Harpy, Aurora was ready to buckle to the ground.

"As we can both see, you have an extraordinary supply of magic for a Harpy," he waved a hand around the room in a general manner, "but you've not learned to control it. I assume this has been an issue in the past?"

Aurora was really tempted to set his beard on fire. Unfortunately, the man had deduced the urge from her glare about an hour ago, and was smart enough to cast a shield around himself.

The Headmaster hummed, looking deep in thought.

"Perhaps you lack the incentive?"

Incentive? What fucking incentive? At this point, the only thing that kept Aurora going was her wounded ego. She had no real interest in lighting a piece of paper on fire with wandless magic, not when she knew that she could handle herself in a fight without that particular field of magic. What Dumbledore was failing to grasp was that no matter how much magic she had, her Harpy side would always overthrow it in a fight. It isn't in a Harpy's nature to fight with magic alone when they had so much brute strength to weaponize. If it came to a fight, Aurora's Harpy side would always be her first weapon of choice, until she was forced to use magic.

Damn it all to Hades, the stupid cause of this whole thing was still frustratingly unharmed, laying on the half-burnt table innocently and mocking her.