Nella Dursley and the Wondrous World of Magic

Wingardium Leviosa

Nella checked her schedule once more confused about all these open blocks they had. The only classes she had left in the week were Alchemy on Wednesday and Friday.

"It's because the teachers are overworked. Each subject only has one teacher and there are thousands of us." Olivia had answered during their Thursday lunch period.

Olivia had taken to eating lunch at the Slytherin table and no one seemed to mind besides team Lidia. As long as Olivia wasn't there to cause trouble, David saw no need to intervene.

"Why don't they strike?"

"Strike? What's that?" Albus raised an eyebrow but everyone looked confused. Nella pinched her fingers in embarrassment.

"Oh, well it's a sort of protest. The professors stop working until their needs are met."

"So... what would we do?" Olivia asked curious. Nella shrugged. She could barely remember anything else besides staying home and seeing Mr. Orhine stand with a group of school staff at a gas station.

Just then Nella felt and heard the swish of robes as it passed by their table. Professor Marazion's stringy brunette hair passed the Slytherin's in a hurry to his seat. Once seated Nella could see he had a slight smile around his lips.

"I've never seen Marazion move that fast," Scorpius muttered cocking his head.

"What if he liked that strike idea?" Olivia wondered.

"Maybe that would be just fine. Can you pass the pumpkin juice?" Nella hadn't forgotten his opinions on her attendance at Hogwarts.

"Don't like our head of house Nella?" A member of Lidia's idiots sighed. He smirked with his face resting on his palm.

"Don't worry about who I like or don't," Nella sniffed before drinking her juice.

~ ☪ ~

The common room didn't see enough Slytherin's to be too full and no one else besides Nella wanted to be away from the fireplace in the cold season.

The corner was still cozy with thick silver blankets piled on Nella and her companions. Rupert sat on Nella's lap. The table was full of books, parchments being filled out and Scorpius's head resting on the table unable to continue.

"This is so much more difficult than regular school," Nella groaned.

"This is regular school," Albus muttered as he crumpled his parchment to start another.

"Muggle school then, but my point is this seems crazy. Is it like this every year?"

"It gets worse, and this isn't even your OWL year," Zach Jr., an older Slytherin had splintered off David's group near the fireplace and leaned on the tiny piece of space left on the table with his hand. The common room had a lot of students for a Thursday, however still not a lot of students overall; Nella came to realize that came from the strange blocking of periods and the Slytherin's being shunned by the rest of the houses.

"So, what are your muggle schools like?" Zach had relatively kept his distance until now. Everyone raised an eyebrow. "I'm seriously curious! What was it like Nella?"

"I don't remember much." she gave him finality. She didn't like thinking too hard about what she could remember, she got a weird feeling about it.

"Muggles are cruel aren't they?" Zach sympathetically patted the table before drifting back to his friends.

Maybe he thinks my parents traumatized me.

"Don't listen to him, Nella. Your dad is-" Nella slammed her fist on the table which momentarily shined bright green.

"Please, stop. I don't want to think about it. Let's just finish our homework." As they were about to resume minding 6 business Nella caught an odd squirming in Albus's robe.

Before she could ask, a tap on her shoulder made her heart throb painfully.

"Mrs. Dursley, come with me to the staffroom." Professor Hedgeflower's eyes darted around the room before turning and leading the disconcerted student away from her friends. Outside the common room, Winky briskly made her way to Nella and nodded at the professor sending her off.

"It's time for your second lesson Nella. We'll be having it in the staff room." Winky changed her clothes, robes designed for elf size and her manner of speaking were so different Nella was only certain it was her magic teacher based on context.

There was something more that Nella couldn't pinpoint. She tried to disregard the almost unsettling feeling that this something probably had nothing to do with her lesson but couldn't think of anything else until they finally managed to reach the staffroom.

The staffroom was on the ground floor of Hogwarts through a passageway away from the Grand Hall. Nella was distracted by large Gargoyles guarding the room.

The Gargoyles were menacing and had large cracks like scars. Winky merely waved her hand at them shooing them from the entryway and they parted letting the two by. Nella swore one of them sneezed as they passed.

~ ☪☪ ~

The staffroom was very barren besides one sofa and several mismatched chairs. Nella wondered why they weren't in the nicer kitchen and why the staff put up with such a dreary breakroom.

She didn't dare voice this out loud because today Winky meant business. They started with simple spells. Nella still had yet to completely cast any spell.

"You're supposed to be learning this spell in class but it's the most commonly used spell by elves, and I'll be able to show it to you best. The hovering charm, it is called." A charms textbook was laid out on a low table and Nella read through it to get the spell down. Winky practiced the spell first but used her own non-verbal, wandless elf magic.

Nella gasped at the influx of power. It might have been the constant flow of magic in the kitchen and she hadn't been focusing on their magic but she could feel what Winky had said in their first lesson. Incredible strength backed their magic.

"Is something wrong?" Nella shook her head.

"No, it's okay. Do you want me to try?" Winky bobbed her head forward her ears flapped slightly. Nella's breath hitched in her throat before she could even speak the words.

"Wingardium leviosa!" She shouted and willed their practice pillow to lift in the air. It didn't even twitch and she knew it was no good. It felt like a subtle wall barred her through her wand.

"Try again." Nella tried three more times before the pillow moved slightly.

"Can I try without the wand?" Nella huffed.

"No, Mrs Dursley. We want you to get used to using your wand first." It was what she had said before but Nella was becoming impatient. They continued for thirty minutes before Nella managed to move the pillow once more. It hovered very lowly for a few seconds.

"We'll stop here. Professor Hedgeflower will walk you back to the common room tonight." That ended Nella's second lesson with Winky.

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Yay! She did it! Totally not too standard though. Well maybe. Some first years couldn't get Wingardium Leviosa, but more from just not doing the incantation properly.

Word Count: 1169

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