When two letters arrive in the post for the Potters inviting them to a school for wizards Pippa is beyond excited. She was ready to start fresh somewhere new where she could actually be someone, where she could be special.
However, Hogwarts was not...
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On Halloween morning I woke up to the smell of baking pumpkin wafting through the corridors. Even better when Professor Flitwick asked for our homework I actually had homework to give him.
"How did you find it, Miss Potter?" He asked as I handed back the giant camera he'd lent me.
"It was f-fine." I shrugged. I can't believe I nearly said homework was fun.
He announced that the rest of the class was ready to start making stuff fly, so I was stuck reading and taking notes about the wand-lighting charm. Yay!
Professor Flitwick put the class into pairs to practice. Esha and Lia were paired up which meant I could just sit and watch them for the rest of the lesson.
"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practising!" squeaked Professor Flitwick, perched on top of his pile of books as usual. "Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too -- never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest."
I rested my chin on my palm as I watched my friends bicker about the best way to lift the feather. It was oddly comforting, and reminded me of home. I nearly nodded off a few times but Celia was there to pinch me awake again. I'd been getting more sleep in the last few weeks not a lot more but enough so that I didn't see any more dead relatives.
They found it very difficult. Ayesha and Celia swished and flicked, but the feather just lay on the desktop.
"Here, watch me," I told them, pulling my wand from my pocket. "Wingardium Leviosa." The feather floated effortlessly into the air before landing back on the desk.
Ayesha and Celia repeated my actions without much luck until finally about forty minutes into the lesson their feather lifted off of the desk without my interfering.
My friends weren't the only ones in the room who had been having problems-- a few seats down Ron and Hermione were arguing.
"You do it, then, if you're so clever," Ron snarled.
Hermione rolled up the sleeves of her gown, flicked her wand, and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
Their feather rose off the desk and hovered about four feet above their heads, higher than I'd gotten mine.
"Oh, well done!" cried Professor Flitwick, clapping. "Everyone see here, Miss Granger's done it!"
I slouched in my seat a bit scowling at her. "Bloody know-it-all."
Hermione and I spent the rest of the lesson in an unspoken competition to see who could get their feather the highest. I won, obviously.
"Alright Pips." A Slytherin nodded as we passed them.
"Hi Pips." A group of Hufflepuff girls waved from the other side of the corridor.
By the time we got down to the greenhouses loads of people were nice to me, it was like I was Princess Diana.
