Tutoring Time

Before you knew it, the new term had started and you found yourself back in class. Transfiguration was still proving to be one of your weaker classes so you made a point to sit next to Blaise in this class since he was the best in it after Theodore. Unlike the stubbornly silent Theodore Nott, Blaise Zabini could at least sometimes tell you what you were doing wrong.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t Blaise who pointed out your problem.

“Your wand movements are still sloppy, Gaunt,” Professor McGonagall critiqued you during Transfiguration class. “I noticed you were struggling with that last term.”

“Of course she only mentions it now,” you grumbled silently to yourself.

“Transfiguration is the branch of magic that is traditionally known for having the most consistently complex wand motions,” the Transfiguration professor continued. “The main reason for that is because most Transfiguration spells require you to trace the object you’re transfiguring or what you’re transfiguring the object into. You struggle in this area due to the above average length of your wand.”

Pansy giggled behind you. Professor McGonagall cast a warning glance back at her. You felt your cheeks flush as you caught onto the unintended innuendo and realised what was so funny.

“How long is your wand, Gaunt?”

You winced as another loud shrill cackle of laughter broke out behind you.

“Fi-fifteen inches, professor,” you stammered. “Mr. Ollivander said fifteen inch wands tend to favor a more spacious and dramatic style of magic.”

“That may be,” Professor McGonagall replied, “But seeing as you are currently fourteen and are still growing, you’ll find it more difficult to wave around a stiff fifteen inch stick of wood as opposed to something shorter.and more flexible. You’ll be able to wield it properly once you grow into it a bit.”

Again Pansy burst out laughing and your face went beet red at the embarrassing innuendo about the size of your wand… and your apparent need to grow into it. But it seemed that Professor McGonagall had finally reached her limit.

“MISS PARKINSON!” she called out, “If I hear one more sound out of you… you’ll be spending tonight in detention!”

The laughter quickly cut off. You looked back and saw that the dark-haired girl was now biting her lip to keep quiet. There was a dangerous glint in her eyes that told you that even though Professor McGonagall had silenced her… she was going to take great pleasure in making a large number of catty remarks about this embarrassing subject at a later time. Beside her, Millicent’s face had gone bright red as she had no doubt caught on to ‘the joke’, and beside you, Blaise had his fist in his mouth and was biting his knuckle in order to hide his amusement at the nightmare of a conversation you found yourself in.

You attempted to shift the focus so you could actually get something out of the mortifying conversation. “Er… professor, is there any way that I can improve?”

“Oh, yes,” the Transfiguration professor said as she returned her attention to you. “There is a spell known as the Flagrate Charm. It allows you to write in the air using fiery letters. Practicing proper penmanship with that spell can go a long way into helping you improve your wand movements as you adjust to the large size of your wand.”

You nodded at the professor’s advice but apparently Pansy couldn’t hold in her laughter any longer and burst out in a fit of loud giggles.

“I warned you, Parkinson,” Professor McGonagall practically hissed. “Detention with me tonight. You’ll be writing an essay where you will be detailing how a young lady such as yourself is expected to behave in public.”

Personally, you felt that the Head of Gryffindor House might have been baiting the girl with the last line about gaining control over your wand and improving your wand movements. But you obviously weren’t going to show sympathy for the girl who had just been openly laughing at you.

You looked back and saw Pansy glaring at you. Yup, she clearly blamed you for her detention and you could see in her eyes, as plain as day, that she was going to make you pay for it.

“Well, that was mortifying,” you complained to Blaise as you walked out of Transfiguration fifteen minutes later.

You made it about three steps out of the classroom before you were grabbed by the collar and shoved against the wall. You looked up and found Marcus Flint towering over you.

“Malfoy, get over here!” he barked at Draco who had been following you out. Apparently not close enough to warrant Flint grabbing him. That special honor went to you. Draco came over and Flint got to the reason why he was accosting you. “The Ravenclaws beat us to the pitch!”

You watched as the other Slytherin first years hurried away and left you and Draco to be harassed by your Quidditch Captain.

Thanks to Gemma’s warning, you had already started brewing a new supply of Headache Cure and Topical Bruise Remover in preparation for this conversation and the impending practices that it was no doubt a precursor for.

”Has the snow even fully melted yet?” you asked.

“I don’t care,” Flint snapped. “Ravenclaw got first pick for training time. That means I had to schedule our practices around theirs. Parkin’s got their first practice this Saturday morning so we’re going to be out there Saturday afternoon.”

Well, you certainly saw this coming.

“Er… I can’t make Saturday afternoon,” you informed him, “I’m supposed to tutor one of the Hufflepuffs in Potions.”

“I don’t give a shit!” Flint snarled. “Plan that on your own time. If you wanna be on the team then you’ve gotta go to practice.”

“No, look, I’ve got a note,” you insisted. “We had to get special permission from Professor Snape to use the Potions classroom.” You reached down into your school bag and pulled out the signed note that you had been carrying around since Professor Sprout slipped it to you earlier in the week for this express purpose. “See? It’s signed by both Professor Sprout and Professor Snape. Professor Sprout said I could earn some House Points if I do a good job.”

“Fine,” Flint growled. He didn’t look happy. Come to think of it, you couldn’t recall ever seeing him happy. But there wasn’t much he could do when your tutoring session had been made official and was signed off on by two different Heads of House. “But you’d better show up for practice Sunday afternoon or you’re off the team! And don’t go arranging anymore Puff tutoring sessions until after our match with Ravenclaw. I don’t care if Sprout offers you FIFTY points for it!”

You let out a sigh of relief as he turned and rounded on Draco.

“Malfoy, we need to get Higgs ready to face Parkin on her Nimbus Two Thousand so you’re gonna be needed at both practices.”

“How many nights did Ravenclaw actually book the pitch for?” Draco found the nerve to ask.

“Two,” Flint answered. “Tuesday and Thursday night. But also Saturday and Sunday morning. That leaves us with Monday and Wednesday and Friday night. We’re in last place so you two are gonna be at all of ‘em until the match against Ravenclaw.”

“But… we have Astronomy Wednesday night,” the reserve Seeker tried to protest.

“Not ‘til midnight, smartass,” your captain countered. “That leaves plenty of time for practice. If you two wanna make the starting lineup then you’ve gotta put the work in!”

The only reason you could think of why Skye Parkin would choose to set her practices for two weeknights instead of three when she had her pick of the schedule was because she didn’t want to overwork her team. That was a stance that the ruthless Captain Flint clearly didn’t share with his Ravenclaw counterpart.

Flint stormed off and left you alone with Draco.

“So much for reserves only attending occasional practices,” you remarked.

“This is stupid,” Malfoy complained. “You’ll get by okay since you only have to hover in front of the hoops. Flint’s gonna force me to race against Higgs every night on one of the school's slow Shooting Stars.” The shoddy and obscenely slow state of the school’s broomsticks was one of Draco’s most common complaints.

“We’ll only have to deal with that for the rest of this year,” you gave him your usual reassurance, “When we’re second years we’ll be able to bring our own brooms. Then things’ll change.”

Your mind once again flashed back to the impulsively purchased Nimbus Two Thousand that was sitting waiting for you at Quality Quidditch Supplies back in Diagon Alley. Maybe next year you’d finally get to use it.

The week progressed and on Saturday morning you woke up eager for your one-on-one tutoring session with Gemma. You remembered how close the prefect had gotten to you during your first special lesson with her and spent some extra time in the shower ensuring that you smelled especially clean. Since this was a tutoring session that was meant to improve your spell casting, you left off your outer robe to ensure your movements were less inhibited but you took extra care to ensure that your buttoned shirt, jumper, trousers and shoes were immaculate. You actually tied your green and silver Slytherin tie twice to ensure that it was perfectly straight then spent some extra time in front of the mirror to ensure that your hair was neat, although, given Gemma’s fondness for ruffling it, you weren’t sure how long it would stay that way.

You emerged from your room and made your way across the common room to the girls hallway. You immediately bypassed the two rooms occupied by your fellow first years and continued down past the second, third, and fourth years before you eventually reached the rooms for the fifth year girls and spotted a familiar door to the single room occupied by the fifth year prefect.

“Tempus!” 8:03

Was it too early? Saturday was typically a day to sleep in. Still, you spotted a handful of ambitious early risers out in the Slytherin common room and you had no doubt that, if the Ravenclaw Quidditch team wasn’t already on the Quidditch pitch, they were in the Great Hall having breakfast before heading there for their morning practice.

You likely hesitated too long because the sound of a door opening behind you drew your attention away from Gemma Farley’s door. You turned and saw Lysandra Yaxley about to step out of her room… which, you noted from the nameplate, she shared with Evanora Rowle. You tensed as you still vividly remembered the vicious fifth year tearing into Pansy and Draco at the last Quidditch match. The tall, dark-haired witch blinked in surprise at seeing you standing in the hallway outside her dorm room and hesitated for a split second but then she smirked and stepped fully out into the hallway.

Your eyes went wide in shock when you realised that the seventeen, possibly eighteen, year old witch was wearing nothing but a black bathrobe. Her sleek and stylish bathrobe hugged her figure in a way that traditional school robes never would. The robe was tied closed with a silky silver sash which made it easy to notice the way her waist tapered inward before her hips and thighs flared outward. The robe ended a few inches above her knees which gave you a full view of her long, smooth, albeit fairly pale, legs. Her feet were encased in a pair of simple sandals that displayed her toes and black-painted nails. Your eyes flicked upward to one of her hands, which was holding a small basket that contained her wand and an assortment of shower supplies, and you saw that her fingernails were coated in the same black nail polish. The cuffs of the robe's loose sleeves were embroidered with silver embellishments.

The snug silver sash tied around her waist briefly snagged your attention again before your gaze shifted up to her notable swell of her chest which was completely concealed by the overlapping folds of her silky black robe.

“Not as big as Gemma’s.” The thought flashed through your mind as it did an automatic comparison between the boobs in front of you and the ones that had been pressed into the back of your head back in September and then into your back earlier that very week.

The collar of Lysandra’s robe had similar silver embroidery to her sleeves and the small opening bared her neck and a good portion of her collarbone. It wasn’t a lot of skin but it was more than you’d normally see with her shirt buttoned and her Slytherin tie tied.

Your gaze finally reached her face and you saw that her mouth was curved in a small wicked smirk and that her lidded dark eyes were narrowed at you.

Normally, you found Lysandra Yaxley to be very intimidating, especially after the incident at the Quidditch match, but you knew that this unexpected encounter would completely change the way you looked at Gemma’s friend.

Before you could completely finish that thought… Lysandra lunged.

“Caught you gawking, ya little bugger!” Your heart stopped as she leaned in and grabbed your chin and her polished black nails pressed into your cheeks. Her wild dark eyes were less than five inches from yours and her mouth was stretched into a wide teeth-bearing grin.

Nevermind! This witch was still bloody terrifying!

But it was in that moment where your life was flashing before your eyes that you came to a shocking discovery: Lysandra was a fair bit taller than Gemma. Not super tall like Tamsin Marvolo-needs-to-stand-on-a-bench-to-get-in-her-face Applebee but a good few inches. This meant that Lysandra had to lean down a fair bit in order to get her terrifying face so close to yours.

And that caused the top of her robe to come open.

Not a lot. Only a couple inches. But at the bottom of the deeper gap you spotted a small crack. A crack formed by two boobs being pushed together by a snug bathrobe.

Cleavage.

It was barely an inch. Just a small portion of the top of her boobs. Maybe enough for you to slip two fingers in… before you likely lost that hand. But it was the first cleavage you had ever seen up close and in person. Knowing that this glorious sight might be the last thing you ever saw, you stared down into that forbidden valley for as long as you could.

Lysandra’s hold on your chin tightened and she jerked your face to the side and tore away your view of the ‘forbidden valley’. She leaned in closer and you jumped in alarm when you felt teeth clamp down on the top of your ear.

“YAAH!” you yelped. It wasn’t a hard bite. More like a nibble if you were being completely honest. Your reaction was mostly out of shock and surprise. You definitely weren’t expecting that.

“I warned you back at the match,” she whispered in your nibbled ear. “I bite. That’s the price you pay for gawking at me.”

She used her hold on your chin to twist her your face back so she was staring you in the face again. The fifth year’s dark eyes were sparkling but she still wore the same wide toothy smile.

“We’re gonna need to do something about those wandering eyes of yours,” she remarked. “We wouldn’t want Gemma to get jealous now, would we?”

You gave as much of a frantic nod as you could considering her hold on your face.

Then the terrifying girl leaned in even closer and audibly sniffed you.

“Is that Irish Spring?”

You blinked in surprise and then gave another frantic nod.

“Might have overdone it just a bit,” she informed you. “And while I’m pleased to see you take your personal hygiene seriously, if you’re not going to use a wizard soap, at the very least have some national pride and use a proper English brand like Pears. That stuff’s been around for nearly two centuries.” It sounded to your terrified mind that ‘the biter’ was looking to improve your flavor.

She released your chin and then with the same hand grabbed you by the shoulder and spun you around then gave you a shove in the back so that you nearly slammed into Gemma’s door… which she reached around you to knock upon.

“OI! GEMMA!”

It took about a minute for the door to be pulled open and upon seeing Gemma you quickly realised that, yes, it was too early. Her sapphire eyes were only half open and her auburn hair was a bedraggled mess. Her wand was grippled loosely in her hand and she was still in her sleep clothes which consisted of a black t-shirt adorned by an aggressive black and yellow wasp with its stinger poised to strike, a pair of green and gray flannel-patterned pajama pants, and some fuzzy slippers.

“Morning, dear,” Lysandra greeted her friend as she grasped your shoulder with her free hand. “It appears that you have a young gentleman caller.”

Gemma gave a slow blink then flicked her wand to check the time. 8:06

Your encounter with Lysandra only spanned three minutes. But it seemed like longer.

“Gaunt, you’re early.”

“Er… we never actually set a time but I thought we could get a headstart?” you attempted to explain. “You were right about Flint. He came after me and Draco for Quidditch earlier this week. He scheduled our first practice for this afternoon and told us that we’re to attend every practice from now until the match with Ravenclaw. So… if we can’t get this spell down today, I don’t know when I’ll be able to arrange time to work on it and still keep up with all my assignments.”

Gemma blinked again. She didn’t seem surprised by your busy Quidditch schedule. But also, she had very clearly just woken up.

That was when Lysandra chimed in. “If you need some time to get ready, I suppose I could borrow him for a few minutes,” she offered. “I’m sure he knows how to use a loofah... and I could use a tasty snack.”

Your eyes practically bugged out and you decided it was within your own self-interest not to respond. Despite that, you couldn’t fight the bright blush that lit up your face from the conjured image of you helping a nude and soaking wet older girl with her loofah in the shower. Maybe it would be worth getting bitten and/or eaten afterwards?

That certainly woke Gemma up. She grabbed you by the arm and yanked you into her room.

“That’s not funny, ‘Sandra,” Prefect Farley attempted to admonish her friend.

“Sure, it is,” the other girl replied and then made a point to throw her head back and laugh.

“You know that’s against the rules,” the prefect pointed out. “As a prefect, I’d have to come in there and separate you two. And if you think us being friends is going to stop me from hexing your exposed bits… well, you’d be wrong.”

“Oooooo, possessive,” Lysandra cooed, “I guess I’ll leave you crazy kids to it.” She turned and winked at you. “See you next time, my tasty shower buddy.”

You felt your face heat up again as Gemma hastily shut the door. But you could still hear Lysandra laughing as she continued down the hallway to the bathroom.

“I’ve said this before…” you said when the prefect turned to face you. “But I’ll say it again because it bears repeating: that girl… is bloody terrifying.”

Gemma nodded, “You might want to keep your distance from ‘Sandra. She’ll eat you alive.”

That was certainly a sharp departure from her previous response back at the Quidditch match. But between the biting and the sniffing… getting eaten alive sounded like a distinct possibility.

“I don’t take Divination but I’m not seeing any loofahs in your future,” Gemma informed you. “Besides, you might be able to go down our hallway but there are gender wards protecting all the bathrooms. If you tried to follow ‘Sandra into any of the girl’s shower rooms, you would’ve been thrown back across the hallway and she would’ve laughed at you. That’s probably why she offered in the first place.”

“Erm, okay,” you responded and were once again reminded why older girls were so dangerous. At least Gemma seemed to like you. “Oh, and before we start… I feel the need to point out that while your pants are appropriately pro-Slytherin… your shirt is Hufflepuff colors.”

Gemma looked down at her black and yellow Wimbourne Wasps sleep shirt. “That’s the price I pay for being a Stinger. Remember, Marvolo, you’re a Hogwarts student for seven years… but you’re a Quidditch fan for life.” She started to turn away but changed her mind and turned back to you. “And another thing, I don’t hate all Hufflepuffs. Just one in particular. And most of her friends.”

Well… since you were on the subject of Hufflepuffs… “Oh, good,” you said. “Because Professor Sprout asked me to tutor one of the other first years in Potions this afternoon. She offered me House Points if I can help him improve. And you know it’s important to her because she even convinced Professor Snape to let us use the Potions classroom. It was enough to get me out of today’s practice. Truthfully, I think that’s what set Flint off and made him decide to have the reserves at every practice.”

“Oh, I don’t think you set him off,” Gemma reassured you with a small knowing smile. “I’m sure even someone as thick as Marcus Flint would eventually realise the benefit of having an extra pair of players at every practice. Especially leading up to such an important match.”

Wait a minute… the way she phrased that it was almost as if…

“And, by the way,” Gemma interrupted your train of thought, “I noticed that someone earned ten points from the Headmaster during the break. Good job, Marvolo, you’re still my favorite.”

You grinned at the praise.

“Now, go sit down over there while I try to make myself presentable,” Gemma instructed as she motioned to the desk chair that you used as target practice the last time you were in her room.

“You look fine,” you quickly assured the messy-haired, but still very pretty, fifth year.

“That’s nice, Gaunt, but I just woke up so I know my hair’s a mess,” she replied. “I’m not going to have you in here all morning with me looking like a slob.”

You went over to Gemma’s desk and pulled out the target practice chair so it was facing away from the wall then took a seat in it. Gemma had gone to the opposite corner and pulled open her closet, which you noticed had a large mirror affixed to the inside of the door. You took a moment to eye Gemma’s hanging assortment of uniforms and robes while she reached up to the shelf above them and swapped her wand for a hairbrush then took a step away from her closet and faced her mirror and set about trying to tame her messy bedhead.

“Aren’t there grooming charms for that?” you silently wondered to yourself as you looked away and stared out Gemma’s window into the depths of the Black Lake.

After about half a minute, you glanced back at Gemma and saw she was still going to town on her hair. You also couldn’t help but notice how snug her green and gray flannel-patterned pajama pants were. You enjoyed the skirt portion of the Hogwarts school uniform, especially considering the fantastic show you got the last time you were in Gemma’s room. And after your eye-opening encounter in the hallway, you developed a sudden appreciation for sleek and stylish bathrobes. But the fact that those snug flannel pajama pants were basically molded to the exact shape of Gemma’s legs gave you a newfound love for sleepwear.

Lysandra was a few inches taller than Gemma. And as a direct result of that, the pale, smooth legs that you saw a very generous portion of out in the hallway were longer and a bit thinner than the more compact pajama-clad legs across the room from you. Even from the back, you could see that Gemma’s thighs were a lot thicker and more pronounced than Lysandra’s. Gemma wasn’t on the Quidditch team but she was a diehard Quidditch fan and a superb flier so you attributed those toned thighs to all the time she spent flying with her legs wrapped tightly around a broomstick.

Considering how often you found yourself pressed up against them, you developed a special fondness for Gemma’s curves. The girls in your year definitely weren’t shaped like that. At least not yet.

Gemma gave a huff and seemed to give up on fully taming her long auburn hair and abandoned her hairbrush so she could tie it back instead. But as she reached up to the top of her head and tied her hair up in a messy ponytail, her t-shirt rode up and your eyes went wide as you got a private view of Gemma Farley’s bum in all it’s pajama-covered majesty. The round cheeks jutted out proudly and were further enhanced by the curviness of her hips.

Oh, what a glorious day! You were extremely glad that you decided to wake up early. Lysandra who? Even getting bitten earlier was worth it if it led to this momentous moment.

You noticed that Gemma was smiling as lowered her arms and turned her head to check her ponytail from different angles. The end fell to just between her shoulder blades. She chuckled as she turned around to face you. “Alright, I think that will do.”

Gemma grabbed her wand and came over to the desk and opened her school trunk, which you only just noticed was pushed up against the wall under her window with her school bag set on top of it. You probably would have seen it if you kept looking in that direction while Gemma was fixing her hair. The fifth year glanced over at you and seemed to notice you noticing her trunk and gave you a wry smirk. She retrieved her Potions supplies then pulled out a vial and set it on her desk in front of you.

The fifth year girl stopped for a moment and sniffed the air. “Is that Irish Spring?”

“Er… yeah…” you admitted, “I might have overdone it in the shower a bit.”

“It’s alright,” she reassured you. “It’s good to see that you take your personal hygiene seriously.” Lysandra had said the same thing. And you were pretty sure that at least Gemma wasn’t trying to eat you. “Those Crabbe and Goyle boys could use a refresher in that area.”

Gemma waved her wand and used the Water-Making spell to fill the vial. “Aguamenti! Right, so the trick with using the Colour Change Charm on liquids is to slow it down and take your time. You’re not going to be able to change it all at once like you do with a solid.”

“Really?” you asked. “Professor Flitwick turned some fire green all at once. And that was a gas.”

“Professor Flitwick is a Charms Master,” Gemma countered. “You are a first year student. You’re obviously going to need to go about it in different ways. Look…” She pulled out a small vial filled with a crimson substance that your potion-savvy mind immediately recognized as salamander blood. She pulled out the stopper and poured a couple drops of blood into the larger vial of water. “Watch how it spreads.”

You turned to fully face the desk and watched closely as the red drops slowly spread across the surface of the water. Gemma added another couple drops and you watched as small tendrils of red blood sank deeper into the vial. Another few more drops and the red completely spread through the water. Instead of a vial of clear water… you were now looking at a vial of red salamander blood.

“See?” Gemma said, “That’s what you need to do. Slowly channel your magic through the liquid until the new color fills the entire container. Colovaria!” She cast the Colour Change Charm on the red-filled vial and you watched as a splotch of green appeared on the surface and then slowly spread through the rest of the red water like the salamander blood had until the vial was filled with green water. “Now you try. Picture the color and then ssslllooowwwlllyyy channel your magic into it.

You drew your own wand and pointed it at the green-filled vial then pictured the pulpy orange of the pumpkin juice that you saw so often on the tables in the Great Hall and gave your wand a wave. “Cooollloooovariiiaaa!”

An orange splotch shaped similar to those first few drops of salamander blood appeared on the surface of the green water but it failed to spread properly. It was more progress than you made on your own but it still wasn’t right.

“Come on, Gaunt,” Gemma encouraged you, “Water flows and so should your magic when you’re trying to change it. Try again.”

You took a couple breaths and refocused then pictured the warm milky brown of hot chocolate. “Cooooolloooovaaarrriiiaaaa!” The brown appeared and replaced the orange splotch then spread until it completely covered the surface of the green-colored water but your change failed to sink down into the liquid and only remained at surface level.

“Look, Gaunt,” the fifth year said with a shake of her head, “When you cast the Levitation Charm, the object doesn’t just shoot up into the air. You have to channel your magic and slowly lift it. And then when it’s in the air, you need to keep your magic flowing in order to keep the object floating. Do that. Channel your magic and keep channeling it.”

You were starting to get annoyed. You were embarrassing yourself in front of your crush. This time.you pictured the pale blue of Blythe Parkin’s Tornados uniform, gave your wand a wave, and channeled the amount of magic it would normally take you to lift the vial off the desk with the Levitation Charm. “COOOLOOVAA…YAAAH!”

Instead of turning the colored water blue, your latest attempt at the spell turned THE VIAL blue. You could still see through the pale blue transparent glass but the rippling brown water on the surface and the sea-green water that you saw through the class showed you that your true target hadn’t been affected at all.

“Too much,” Gemma remarked. “WAY too much. Don’t get frustrated. Remember, this is advanced stuff.” She eyed you for a moment and then stared down at the colored vial. “Okay, we’re going to need to work on you learning to channel the right amount of magic. You’re not trying to force it to change. You’re pushing just a little bit.” She paused for a moment as she thought over what direction to take your private lesson in next. “Erm… oh, okay, so there’s this other charm called the Flagrate Charm. It allows you to write in the air using fiery letters.”

You nodded at the familiar description but that didn’t help your sour mood any as it brought back the memories of the embarrassing Transfiguration class and all the teasing that followed it.. “Professor McGonagall told me about that during Transfiguration this week. She said that it would help me with my wand movements if I used that spell to practice my penmanship.”

“Oh, having trouble handling your wand, Marvolo?” Gemma inquired with a grin.

You rolled your eyes. You knew she was trying to cheer you up by making a joke but after the week you had you weren’t in the mood to hear more innuendos about your wand.”

“Ah, I bet McGonagall brought that up in front of the class,” Gemma guessed. You nodded. “And I’m sure Parkinson had a field day with that one.”

“Field DAY?” you repeated. “More like a field WEEK.”

Almost as expected, Pansy returned from her detention with Professor McGonagall with a vengeance and spent the week bombarding you with catty comments centered around ‘size’, ‘performance issues’, and ‘overcompensating’.

“Okay then, here’s what you do,” the older girl instructed, “The next time she goes after your wand, you respond with something like ‘maybe you’re interested in my wand because you want to get your hands on it,’” Your eyes went wide at the loaded comeback. “And then before she has a chance to respond, you follow up with, ‘My wand’s too big for you to handle, Parkinson. You’d definitely choke on it’.”

Your jaw dropped and you felt your cheeks heat up as you realised what Pansy would have to be doing in order to choke on your wand. You stared at the fifth year in awe. “That’s brilliant!”

Gemma made a show of brushing her nails on her t-shirt. “When you get to be my age, you know your way around a dirty innuendo or two. Soon you’ll start to hear some about Quaffles. And you’re a Keeper so don’t expect people to stop asking about your Quaffle-handling skills anytime soon.”

It took you a second to work out what Quaffles were and then your eyes automatically drifted down to Gemma’s Quaffles. The large round orbs weren’t quite as big as the large red ball used to score goals in Quidditch but they were still pronounced enough that they were tenting out the front of her t-shirt. Much like the pajama pants, the t-shirt didn’t provide much cover when compared to the full uniform that you usually saw Gemma in.

“Eh-hem,” Gemma cleared her throat. You tore your eyes away from her chest and focused back on her face. Fortunately, she didn’t appear to be upset. “I’m going to let that slide because I basically set myself up for it. But remember, you’re here to learn, not ogle. And you’ve already done plenty of ogling.”

You sheepishly rubbed your nibbled ear from the blatant call out. “Then I guess we’d better start learning. How do I do the Flagrate charm?”

The prefect nodded, “The first step is similar to the Time Telling Charm and that’s to picture the exact color you want to write in. Remember to say the incantation, ‘Flagrate’, and not what you want to write. Then push a little bit of your magic through your wand and start writing. Imagine you’re painting. Apply just enough pressure to leave a mark on the canvas. Of course, in this case, the air is your canvas.”

You pictured the emerald green that fire turned when you added Floo Powder then raised your wand ahead of you and cast, “Flagrate!” You applied a little bit of press, like you were writing with a quill and were pleased to see a fiery green line appear as you waved your wand.

“There you go,” Gemma encouraged you. “That’s more like it. Now that you know how to get it started, the most important part for our purposes today is to keep it going. So when you write, you’re going to write in cursive. Keep the letters together, and more importantly, keep your magic flowing as you write out each word.”

“Okay, what should I write?” you asked.

“Whatever you want,” she replied with a shrug. “Here, I’ll get you started…”

Your jaw dropped as she wrote ‘Parkinson likes Marvolo’s big wand’ in bright pink letters. You turned to gape at her and she smirked back and raised an eyebrow.

An hour of back and forth mutual wand waving later, you learned three things.

First was the Flagrate Charm.

The second thing was that your earlier assessment was correct and Gemma’s Quaffles were definitely bigger than Lysandra’s.

And third, Gemma wasn’t wearing a bra and because of that her Quaffles bounced, shook, and jiggled as she waved her wand around and wrote in the air.

You felt bold by the end of the fiery writing session and ended it by writing ‘Gemma’s big bouncy beautiful Quaffles are the best in Hogwarts’

Gemma folded her arms underneath said Quaffles which made them stand out even more. “I’ll take the compliment but now it’s time for you to turn your attention away from my Quaffles and back to the Colour Change Charm.”

She waved her wand through your last fiery missive then turned back to her desk and cast two Colour Change Charms. One to make the vial clear and transparent again and another to make the water clear.

“Okay,” Gemma prompted, “Now push the same amount that you did for the Flagrate Charm through your wand and slowly spread the new color

You stepped up to the desk and pictured the same bright emerald green that you had been writing in for the last hour. You waved your wand and slowly pushed the feather light amount of magic through your wand into the water. “Coooooo…” A bright green splotch appeared. “Loooooooo…” The splotch spread to completely cover the surface. “Vaaaaaaaarrrr…” Green tendrils sank down into the depths of the vial. “Iiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaaaahhhhh…” The tendrils spread and slowly filled the entire vial.

“Atta boy!” She snaked her arm around your shoulders and pulled you down so the side of your face was pressed into her Wimbourne Wasps t-shirt and the big, soft, fleshy, braless boobs that lay beneath it. A wide smile spread across your face as she reached up with her other hand and ruffled your hair. “Looks like my girls are the perfect motivators.”

The best part was that she didn’t immediately release the wonderful side-hug.

“Now tell me: who’s the best teacher?”

“You are,” you replied.

“And if Flitwick asks: who taught you how to cast the Colour Change Charm on liquids?”

“You did.”

“And who’s got the best Quaffles in Hogwarts?”

You smiled. “You do.”

“Good, maybe Flitwick will throw some of those extra points my way,” Gemma resolved as she finally released you and stepped back. “Now, I’m not letting you go on a fluke. I want to see you cast that charm another three times in three different colors to ensure you’ve got it down.”

You were still grinning like a loon when you joined the other first years for lunch in the Great Hall.

“So where have you been all morning, Marvolo?” Pansy eventually asked. “Was Prefect Farley showing you how to handle your abnormally large wand?”

And your day just kept getting better. You waited for Pansy to take a sip of her pumpkin juice before you struck with the comeback Gemma taught you. “You know, Pansy, you’ve been fixated on my wand all week. Are you sure you’re not the one who wants to handle it?”

The short-haired girl choked on her pumpkin juice as Blaise, Vincent and Gregory started laughing beside you. Trust Crabbe and Goyle to enjoy a crude joke. Millicent’s face had gone bright red and Draco’s mouth was hanging open. Further down the table, Daphne and Tracey rolled their eyes, in sync, which was actually kind of impressive. Theodore was silent, as usual. But most importantly, Pansy was staring at you in wide-eyed shock.

You didn’t let her recover and leaned closer to deliver your follow up, “I mean, I’d let you try… but I think we both know my wand is too big for you to handle. You’d definitely choke on it.”

Pansy spat out her pumpkin juice and started coughing violently.

“See?” you said. “Just like that.”

The pink-faced Parkinson wouldn’t meet your eyes as she scrambled to her feet and fled from the Great Hall amid the uproarious laughter from your yearmates that enjoyed the crude humor.

“Wow,” Daphne remarked in an unimpressed deadpan. “The idea of you letting her handle your wand really had an effect on her.” She gave you a pointed look then lost interest and turned back to a lightly giggling Tracey who had a knowing smile on her face.

You weren’t sure what Greengrass was getting at. But still, score one for Marvolo! After a week of Pansy’s catty comments and innuendos it felt amazing to finally get one over on her.

You cast a quick glance at the next table over and saw Justin Finch-Fletchley sitting with the other Hufflepuff first years. He appeared to be finished with his lunch.

“Anyway, I’m off to the dungeons for tutoring,” you announced as you grabbed your school bag, “Draco, good luck at practice. Maybe see if someone else will let you ride their broomstick..” Crabbe and Goyle laughed at your phrasing while Draco looked offended. “Try telling our ferocious friend Flint that beating you on a slow school Shooting Star isn’t going to help Higgs prepare for Parkin.”

“...” Typical. They caught all the crude innuendos but your alliteration went right over their heads. Theodore perked up, though, and gave you a quiet applause. The only noise he made over the course of the entire meal. Different strokes for different folks, you supposed.

---

Marvolo Gaunt House Point Ledger

Current Total: +71

Points awarded by: SS, RH, QQ, MM, FF, +AD