TORMENT (Harry Potter Sequel)

Chapter Fifteen

As she flicked her wand, it began to slowly levitate upwards in the air.

"Oh," Tom said, "I remember," he paused for a second, "I don't think I can do it."

"What?!" Alannah shot him a weird look, "This is like the easiest thing ever!"
Tom shrugged, "I'm bad at magic."

"How bad we talking because this is like the third spell you're ever taught."
"I don't know any spells," Tom spoke unapologetically.

"Huh?!" Alannah was dumbfounded, "How'd you even get in?"

Tom shrugged again, "It was probably a mistake," he suddenly changed the subject, "Did you change your hair?"

He suddenly noticed it, Alannah definitely looked different from yesterday.

She nodded, not caring much about the abrupt subject change, "Yeah I change it everyday. I don't know what to do with it so sometimes I put it up, sometimes I let it down, sometimes I put in buns, I kinda just go with the flow."

"I don't really even know how my hair works," Tom said, scratching the back of it, "I kind of just let it do what it wants."
"Yeah it looks like it," Alannah looked at him scathingly, "It's so spiky and dark."
"Yours isn't that straight either," Tom commented to which Alannah blushed, embarrassed.

"I do the best I can, it just always comes out curly!"

"Wasn't trying to insult or anything, I was just saying," Tom's tone of voice rarely changed.

"Are we gonna do the spell or are we going to keep talking about hair?!" Alannah said, desperate to change the subject.

"I like hair," Tom said randomly, more to himself. Alannah sighed.

"What the hell are we even doing..." she murmured.

"So what's the spell?" Tom asked, trying to get back on topic.

"You forgot?! How?" Alannah was still dumbfounded.

"I don't speak 'magic' how am I supposed to remember all the random words?"

"'Wingardium Leviosa,'" Alannah enunciated carefully.

"Wingardium Leviosa," Tom repeated. Without even gesturing his wand, Tom's quill began to fly upwards into the air.

"Woah, are you doing that?" asked Alannah pointing to the quill. Tom turned to it, unsure of how that happened.

"I guess," he shrugged, his tone and expression not showing his surprise. He waved his wand around and watched as the quill followed it. It was kind of fun.

"You improved," said a different voice from behind both Alannah and Tom. Alannah jumped when she heard but Tom didn't react at all. It was the voice of Professor Huntail and he didn't sound all too impressed. In fact, he sounded a mix between snobbish and somewhat angry, "I wouldn't expect that of you." After saying that, Professor Huntail turned on his heel and left to walk around and inspect the other groups in the classroom.

"Wow, rude," Alannah said, looking back to Tom who was still playing around with his wand and the quill, "Wonder why he's so grouchy," when she received no reply she spoke again, "Hey, did you hear me?"

Tom, still clearly distracted, responded half-heartedly, "What?"

"The Professor... he was rude to you... didn't you hear?"

Tom put his wand down and watched the quill fall like a feather down back on his desk, "Hear what? What did he say?"

"He said, 'You improved. I wouldn't expect that of you.'" Alannah repeated the Professor's words in a less than flattering impression.