Matthew Woodward
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The First Spell
🕑 Added 2020-12-07 23:19:43 +0000 UTCAt long last — after all the stories his parents told him from when they were there — Matthew was finally a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In the previous night, after the feast with his new housemates in the Great Hall, the prefects escorted him and several other first-years to the Ravenclaw common room, where he was brought into his new dormitory to sleep for the first time in the castle. It was an eventful experience for him — even more than he could’ve ever imagined how his family described it.
When dawn struck, the sun rose from behind the mountains and shined bright rays of light through the windows of Ravenclaw Tower. The sunlight glided onto Matthew overtime which caused his slumber to end, his eyes soon opening and blinking a few times to adjust his vision. Today was the first day of lessons — however, he had no idea what he’d be attending that morning.
As soon as the wolf sat up from his bed, he looked around to see Feran and Lee, the bull and hyena he met last night, were still asleep. He also noticed something dark resting atop of his luggage.
‘That’s odd,’ he thought. ‘I don’t remember that being there...’
He shifted out from underneath his bed sheets and reached out to take the dark object into his hand, lifting it off his suitcase. As he grabbed hold of it, he soon realized it was very soft — almost like a soft blanket. Once he turned the soft object around, he saw a familiar navy-blue stripe going down the inside of it and instantly recognized what he was holding — it was his brand-new Ravenclaw robe; that robe would be the representation of his house throughout the entirety of his time at Hogwarts, and he LOVED it.
Later on that morning — once Matthew, Feran, and Lee had gotten dressed into their new robes — a young pantheress was sitting by herself on a soft blue sofa reading the ‘Standard Book of Spells’, waiting for them to come down.
“Well, good morning, boys,” she greeted Matthew, Feran, and Lee with a wide smile, closing her book and standing up to reveal herself in her own new robe.
“Morning, Kara!” The wolf greeted back.
“We’ve got Charms first today, I’m so excited!”
“Yes!” responded Lee with pure joy.
“Do you think we’ll learn a spell?” The bull asked.
“I hope so — it’d be really cool for sure.”
Ten minutes later after making their way throughout the castle for the first time without guidance, they made it to the third floor where the Charms Corridor was located. Outside of the classroom door were several other first-years dressed in their new robes that varied between red, yellow, and green, chatting with one another excitedly. The atmosphere was fantastic — everybody was thrilled to be there and was anxious to start learning spells.
A few minutes later, as the students continued to chatter, the Charms Class’s door suddenly opened by itself.
“Come in!” A voice called out from inside.
Once the children had entered the room, they were greeted by a mouse in a black suit — roughly two feet tall — standing on top of an upholstered stool near the large pair of windows. The class itself had two rows of desks on each side of the room, flanking both sides of the teacher’s towering chair with small bookshelves up against the windows.
“Good morning, first years! Have a seat and we’ll get things started momentarily. Make sure to fill up all the spaces,” he called out to the students.
Matthew shuffled into the first row with Kara following closely behind, while a student had already claimed a spot in front of him; a Hufflepuff to be specific.
“Hello! I’m Lanya,” she said happily.
“Hi, my name’s Matthew!” The wolf extended his hand out and shook her hand softly, smiling wide.
Lanya was an albino Shurian that had a white hide and a pale-yellow undertone, along with red-slit eyes; he’d never met any of her species before. She wore a familiar black robe — the same as every other student — that had the strips of the badger house’s color going down the inside, with a cardigan and skirt underneath.
As the students got comfy in their seats, the short mouse looking down at them all began to speak once again.
“Alright, class — welcome, welcome! My name is Professor Flitwick, and I will be your Charms teacher! Now, here in Charms, you’ll be learning the essential spells used by witches and wizards in everyday life. Today I have a VERY special first lesson for you all...You’ll be learning how to cast your first spell!”
The announcement was soon followed by cheers and several students whispering ‘YES’ excitedly.
“Now, a reminder to you all: learning to cast a spell can be very tricky at first, so don’t beat yourself up over being unsuccessful the first time. But to be sure you get the best result, you must pronounce the incantations clearly and keep your concentration on the task at hand. As we progress through the year and the rest of your time here at Hogwarts, the Charms will become more of a challenge, however, I’m sure you will all succeed!”
Matthew watched as Flitwick spoke down to the class, fascinated by the words coming out of his mouth; his excitement was boiling up inside. After all the times he’d seen his parents use magic, he was finally going to learn how to control it himself.
“So, the first spell is a rather simple one — one used by everybody in the world at one point or another — the light spell.”
The wolf, along with many other classmates, got even more excited than before. It was a spell Matthew had seen his mother use countless times to read books in bed when he was just a little boy.
“Now, with that said and done, I’d like you all to bring out your wands, please...”
Matthew, along with the rest of the class, unsheathed their wands from the pocket inside their robes. Once they were out above their desks, Flitwick began to speak again.
“Right — with every spell, there must ALWAYS need some form of motion with the wand. Most spells just need a simple flick, while some others may involve swishing or zig-zags. In this case, the light spell is cast with just a flick. So, I’d like you all to practice your wand flicks before we move onto the incantation...Oh, and remember: do NOT flick excessively. We don’t want anyone snapping their wands on the first day.”
Immediately after, all the students began flicking their wands — most did it perfectly, while some did it a little too light, or a little too hard. Matthew was always a good listener when someone had grabbed his attention, and this was one of those cases; however, he wasn’t able to master the flick. He didn’t even flick at all — his arm was completely stiff the entire time and he never realized he was doing it wrong.
“Good, very good! Now as for some of you, the flick must also not be too gentle, otherwise, the charm will not work.”
Even with the extra advice added by the professor, his arm remained stiff along with his hand. There was something odd about his movement that he just couldn’t get right.
After a few more moments of letting the students practice, the mouse spoke up once again.
“Alright — now that everyone’s gotten the hang of their wand movements, now comes the most challenging part — the incantation...now, might I remind you: the incantation must be pronounced VERY clearly. The wrong pronunciation might cause someone’s hair to catch on fire. So, with that out of the way, the incantation is called ‘Lumos.’ Two syllables: LOO-mos. Everybody with me, without wands, please...”
“LOO-mos!” The class followed along with the professor, although some ‘lews’ could be heard alongside ‘moss.’
“Now that you all know how to properly pronounce the incantation, combine with that with your wand movements and you’ll have...” he reached into his own wand pocket to bring out his own. “This...”
Suddenly, Professor Flitwick’s wand formed a white ball of light at its tip. The students were amazed, he didn’t even say the incantation — he just whipped his wand out and the light appeared!
“Everybody...you may begin...”
The class eagerly began flicking their wands and attempted to pronounce the spell correctly with it.
Next to Matthew — not even a second later, the familiar light shined in his face from the side. Lanya had achieved to cast first try, and she smiled with joy.
Before Matthew did anything, he remembered the times when he saw his parents using the spell and got excited. He was there — he was about to cast that charm for the very first time.
He waved his wand for the first time and quietly spoke, “Lew-moss,” but nothing happened. Confused, he soon tried again. “Lew-moss,” but still no result.
After a few more tries, he put his wand down on the desk in front of him and his mind started to wander. ‘How could I not do it?’ He thought. ‘I must not be powerful enough...I knew this would happen! I knew I wasn’t gonna be good at this, I suck...’
“Having trouble?” Kara asked him, clearly seeing he was troubled.
“I...I can’t do it.”
“Here, lemme help...say the spell for me,” said the feline.
“Lew-moss.”
“Again?” She asked. “A little louder this time.”
“Lew-moss!” He said more aggressively with another supposed ‘flick’ of his wand.
The pantheress giggled shortly after, making his ears fall back with embarrassment.
“Nono, don’t be sad! I see what the problem is...it’s your wand movement and pronunciation.”
“What!?” He asked. “But I did everything he said...”
“You did, indeed! But just not correctly. Here, I’ll show you...”
The female shifted closer to his side and brought out her wand in front of her. The first flick she attempted was perfect.
“The problem with your movement is that you’re not flicking your wrist. If you wanna flick your wand, you have to flick your wrist; it’s like throwing a basketball into a hoop — the same wrist movement.”
With that in mind, he properly flicked his wrist and perfected the wand movement from just a slight tweak.
“Lew-moss,” he spoke again.
“Oh, and the pronunciation: LOO-mos...’ Loo’ as in when a cow goes ‘moo,’ and ‘mos’ as in the word ‘most’ but without the T at the end.
Immediately after, with the correct flick of his wand, he attempted the incantation once again.
“Lumos...”
And thanks to the few tweaks he was given by Kara, a deep whistle came from his wand, and the bright light finally formed at his tip. He was amazed at himself, stunned by its beauty. He had finally cast his first-ever spell, and that frown turned to a wide smile while his ears rose from behind his head. Kara couldn’t help but giggle at his amusement of what he had achieved, and with the light flick of her own wand, she also created a light next to him to join in on the fun.
“Excellent! Well done, all of you! Splendid!” Cheered the professor.
From the other side of the room, he could even see Feran and Lee had also managed to cast the spell properly, both smiling over at him happily while the bovine gave him a thumbs up.
“Now, another spell! To counter the light charm, ‘Nox’ is the incantation for that.”
And shortly after, the entire was able to deactivate the Lumos spell with another flick.
Once class was over, the students were dismissed and scattered off to their next classes. Matthew, along with Kara, Feran, and Lee, made their way down the castle corridors and spent their time talking about their first experience in Charms class: about how nice Professor Flitwick was, what other spells they might learn in the future, etc. Everything about that lesson was fascinating to them, and they were already anticipating the next one. The only thing that wandered through Matthew’s mind was if the other subjects would hold up the same.
The wolf and pantheress slowed down as the other two carried on walking and chatting so she could talk to him alone.
“You did great in there, y’know,” she told the lupine. You had it in you the entire time, but just wasn’t doing the technique as properly as you thought.”
“When it didn’t work the first time, I was starting to think that I wasn’t powerful...that I was a squib or something like that.”
“Well, you clearly aren’t one!” She giggled.
“Yeah...thank you for helping me, Kara. That meant a lot.”
All she did was smile wide at him.
“You’re very welcome, Matthew,” said the feline. “Anyway, I gotta head to Potions class now, so I’ll see you later?”
“Yeah, definitely!”
“Awesome! I’ll see you then!” She shouted down to him as she ran past the bull and hyena.
And from that day forward, Matthew had gained a new friend.
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Another story done! I had a lot of fun writing this one cuz of the use of the Lumos spell. There will be plenty more magical moments you’ll see in these Hogwarts stories overtime and I can’t wait for you to see them all^^
This adorable pic was done by the amazing Jailbird!
Kara belongs to my wonderful friend, HellKara from FA^^
