New To This Magic Thing

[Victoire Fontaine]

After a less than restful night in her new dorm, the young blonde had awoken with a new happiness and excitement. The castle had been stunning in the night, now it was day, and she had so much more to see. To enjoy. She was ready and raring to go. Nothing would stop her. Well, an acute amount of tiredness, that showed in a slight darkness around her eyes, but really all she wanted to do with her day was explore. Victoire was not generally a morning girl, as much as she enjoyed the joys of school and learning, she was not so good with waking up. If it was the weekend, or a week day, she just had to drag herself out of bed, and generally either a shower or a quick coffee, that she was technically forbidden from having, the girl would be ready to go. That morning, she was only slightly more excited for morning than she would be on any other given day. Wiping the tiredness from her eyes, she sat up in the bed, and stretched out. Yawning loudly as she did so. Swinging her legs over the side, Victoire ran a hand through her hair, though when it got caught in a knot, she stopped, groaning ever so slightly. It was only over a few minutes of sitting in dead silence her feet hovering above the floor that the girl made any move to continuing getting up. Which she did with a slight jump. The floor was cold, and she'd not actually been ready for that. Now, all she had to do was really wake up. Which the girl did by taking a quick shower to be ready for the day. Once she was done, the girl quickly threw on some clothes, she threw on a pair of dark blue skinny chinos and a simple t-shirt and threw over that a red plaid shirt. She grabbed a clip, and made a fairly poor attempt to tie her hair up. Victoire had dirty blonde hair which sat in unruly curls, falling over her face when she looked down, and rarely actually sat right. It was easily tameable. Once she was ready and had thrown on some shoes. The girl wondered where she could go. It took one small glance to the window to decide that she would go to the lake. After throwing some writing utensils, one of her new books and her wand into her old worn school bag, she left the dorm.

The school seemed, if possible more magical in the day light. With the sun still rising in the east, it illuminated the hallways in a soft morning light. Victoire couldn't believe how lucky she had gotten with this place. How it was truly amazing that of all her family members she was the witch. She couldn't help but have her mouth slightly open in constant awe of everything. The girl was looking all over the place, never settling to look in one direction or even at one thing, everything was catching her eye. Victoire wondered if her parents would ever even be able to enter the school. They were muggles, and from what she'd read this place hid itself from those who were not magical. Victoire took a little longer than she'd expected, but finally she made it outside. There was, she noticed as she stepped out, a lightly southern wind, adding to what would otherwise be, a fairly cold day. She walked happily towards the lake. Glancing back up at the school every so often. How she wished she'd been able to bring her tablet device, she'd be able to take such wonderful pictures to send back home, but she'd been told that her muggle equipment didn't work around magic. Two opposing forces. It was odd, but it meant she'd have to find another way of showing her parents everything about this place. The young Gryffindor walked to the edge of the lake and took a seat, glancing up at the castle, and to the forest. Everything about this place was just incredible. Just simply amazing. From within her bag, she pulled out the first year spell book, and her wand. Victoire didn't expect to be able to do any spells just yet, but she liked the idea that she could at least try. Actually see if she was magical, and that this entire place wasn't just a lie. She looked to the first chapter, a spell called Lumos, which was a light on the end of the wand. She knew it would be a bit difficult to do, since she was outside on a nice day, and it was sunny. But, the books said that it was the easiest spell to do, so she thought she'd give it a try.

"Lumos" The girl carefully said. Hoping that was how to correctly pronounce it. When Victoire finally thought that she had it, she held up her wand and looked at it closely, she wouldn't be disheartened if this didn't work, she was very nice to it, but it would be nice. "Lumos" She said, her voice not as confident as she told herself it should be. Unsurprisingly the wand did not light up. She'd just have to try again.
​

 

[Perseas Stratis]

Perseas was in a perpetual state of unrest from the moment he decided to go to bed after the sorting ceremony.
The celebrations ceased and while other students were entering the sweet realm of dreams, Perseas was laying awake amongst crumpled bed sheets, huffing and puffing. He was feeling dog tired but instead of surrendering to an unconscious slumber, he was staring into darkness until he decided that his eyelids were never going to grow heavy and got out of his bed. He dressed up warmly, carefully, not to wake up any of his roommates or worse, his twin brother. In a big enough backpack, Perseas packed rolls of parchment, bottles of different color inks and his collapsible telescope. Like a shadow he sneaked out of Gryffindor common room and managed to stealthily pass by the patrols set by the prefects before reaching the entrance hall. The double doors closing behind him might have echoed several floors above the ground floor but Perseas was already outside, disappearing in the darkness.

Without risking a lumos charm, his eyes got used to the starlight, the only light source that night as the moon was at the beginning of its cycle. The third year arrived at the lake, reflected on its serene surface the dark veil of the sky decorated with diamonds. It was the heaven's gems he wanted to imprint on parchment, so he found a nice spot at the lake's shore, set up the telescope and started gazing. The roll of parchment started filling with circular sketches and Perseas was scribbling down notes in tiny letters under the light of a single lantern. Until the sky gained a tint of lighter blue and only the brightest stars retained their spot up their, Perseas had created a quite detailed star chart with the constellations he had the opportunity to study that night. Tired but extremely happy with his work, he packed his stuff and found a tree. He sat down a tree and leaned back against its trunk to close his eyes and rest for a couple of hours.

The sun had found its place higher at the now blue sky. A beam of light penetrated the rich foliage of the tree and winked on and off on Perseas' face as the soft breeze was swaying the leaves. He woke up frowned, the blinding light was the first thing that welcomed his opened eyes. He stood up, struggling to muffle his yawns and stretched his arms up in the air, his muscles stiff from sleeping against the rough bark of the tree. Deciding it was time to return back to the castle, he picked up his backpack and began walking along the lake's shore. Perseas' was watching absent-mindedly the golden reflection of the sun on the murky waters when he heard someone casting the wand-lighting charm. He spotted a girl by the water practicing with her wand but with no success.
"Wave your wand in a circular manner." he advised as he approached her. "Sorry for cutting you off. The name's Perseas." he apologized for interrupting her and told her his name. "Focus on the effects of the spell. Imagine the warmth of the light orb against your skin. Visualize your wand's tip illuminated." he instructed the girl. He guessed she was a first year, possibly trying her first spell. "Why don't you give it another go?" he smiled encouragingly.

 

[Victoire Fontaine]

When the spell did not work the first time around the girl grew nervous within herself. What if she actually wasn't any good at magic. She was perfectly good at reading up on things and reciting things. She was good at maths and languages, things she could study and work through. She admitted that she wasn't excellent at creative writing, but she could manage, magic she knew nothing about, what if it wasn't something that she could easily just pick up like any thing else. She figured that with a bit more practice that she might be able to get it, but for now, it appeared it was beyond her. Victoire could easily remember her father's surprise at the letter, the sheer disbelief that she could be magical, and that a magical world even existed. It wasn't something either of them had expected to be something that was, and yet they were both true. What was obvious now was that she'd have to work hard at the magic. Sure, she'd only had her wand about a week, and she'd only been at the school a few hours, but she had wanted to see if she could. This was a spell, which according to the book was the easiest spell for a young witch or wizard to master. She just wondered if her lack of magic heritage meant that things were a little more difficult for her. She tried a few more times, but she grew increasingly frustrated as it didn't work, and because of this increase in frustration, she knew that she was pronouncing it wrong. Almost angrily mixing the french and the english. She sighed heavily and just glanced out at the lake. She must be doing something wrong. Must be. In an attempt to reign in her anger, the girl pulled up bits of grass with her fingers. Grabbing a fistful and just pulling. Once she'd decided that the grass had suffered enough, and her anger had in part subsided she tried again. And once more nothing happened. Victoire had been moments away from throwing in the towel, when she heard a voice. Looking up, she realised a boy, a little older than herself was speaking. She focused on him, as he appeared to be trying to help her. The boy instructed her to move her wand in a circular manner, then he introduced himself as Perseas, which Victoire was sure was not an english name. She listened as he continued, imagine the wand lighting up. Imagine the spell working. She pondered this for a moment and realised she had nothing to lose by listening to this older boy who would know what he was doing.

First, Victoire just moved her wand in a circular manner, not saying the word or anything else. She then in her head imagined the wand lighting up. The magic flowing and just lighting up the end of the wand. She imagined the warmth that the orb would give. Finally when she thought she was ready, she raised her wand slightly, imagined it lighting up, and while waving her wand in a circular motion said, "Lumos". This time, almost instantly the wand lit up. It wasn't so noticeable because of the light, but Victoire could see it. She squealed in delight at the result of this. She had done it. Magic. She looked up at the boy, her eyes shone with the happiness surging inside her. She jumped up and in a move that was characteristic of Victoire wrapped her arms around the other boy and gave him a hug. Muttering her thanks enthusiastically as she hugged him. The hug was brief, as she suddenly realised what she was doing. Pulling away she smiled a little more shyly at Perseas. "Thank you, Perseas" She took a small step back and brushed stray strands of hair from her face. Despite having done something she wouldn't often do, Victoire wasn't embarrassed by her reaction, she was just a little more shy now about approaching this elder boy. "I'm Victoire," the girl introduced, reminding herself to not do the usual greeting she'd grown used to in Belgium, and that her french accent was still incredibly strong "I'm muggleborn, I wanted to be sure I could actually do magic" She gave as an explanation to her trying to cast the spell and hopefully as to why she had been so happy at having managed it. Victoire smiled at him, "Are you a Gryffindor". Victoire was much calmer now than she had been moments ago, the spell was no longer going. She'd clearly been too excited about managing it first time around to be able to keep it going. But it didn't matter. Even if the boy wasn't a Gryffindor, it would be good to know, and not that she would, but if he was, she might just go to him for help with other spells. Victoire was new to the magical world, and she was only slowly adjusting to all it's little quirks. She was however pleased that she was in her rightful place, as a Gryffindor and a witch. Victoire had done magic, she was the witch of the family.
​

 

[Perseas Stratis]

Perseas nodded encouragingly and prompted her to give it another go. The younger girl followed his tips and soon enough the tip of her wand was radiating golden light. "That's more like it...erm...okay..." he patted her on her back as her arms wrapped around him and squeezed him. Perseas definitely wasn't expecting this kind of reaction and his surprise had transformed his face which had also blushed because of this awkward moment. Perseas jested with a final, gentle pat on the "I can't imagine what the reaction would be if you have succeeded with your first stunning spell."girl's back before she took a step back. It wasn't something he was usually doing but when he was helping other people, a feeling of completion was surging inside him. He probably should start helping others more often when he could.

A gentle smile touched his face as the younger girl introduced herself and also expressed her concern about her ability to cast magic. A typical phobia for a muggleborn recently introduced to the wizardry world. "Nice to meet you Victoire." he said back, pronouncing her name not with the same French elegance as she did. "You'll be surprised to find out that a lot of the most talented wizards and witches were actually muggleborns." Perseas said to her to further counter her doubts. "Yes, I'm a Gryffindor. I bet you are one too. You look like you belong to the den." he guessed from the fact she asked him straight away if he was from Gryffindor than generally asking him from which house he was. "En garde!" Perseas snapped out of the silence that started lingering between the two of them and pointed his wand at her, taking the appropriate dueling position. "Lumos is pretty simple and won't really help you defend yourself. Not at least against other humans." he said still with his wand at the ready. "You can't imagine how helpful can be the stunning spell against the jerks running around this school. Don't be afraid to jinx me. The incantation is 'stupefy'. Just focus." he prompted her and beckoned with his wand.