{.6. Feel the Magic}
Ally Montague wasn't very good at magic, it was a given at this point. She was brilliant at wandless charms and some other aspects of wandless magic, however spell work was not her strongest point. Which is how she ended up sending her Toby into the hospital wing when he was teaching her a stunning spell in the Room of Requirement.
She didn't know how it had happened but one minute she was close to doing it accurately, next thing that happened he was going splat against the wall after he knocked his head. Ally felt terrible, all Toby had wanted to do was to try and build her confidence as she had been embarrassed yet again in Defence.
She didn't know what was wrong with her and she had started to think that maybe it was her wand, her father made her use her mother's old wand instead of getting her a new one. She knew that the wand chooses the wizard so maybe she'd have to ask Perseus to take her to get one; her brothers didn't know that she had her mothers old wand.
She was now sat with Toby holding his hand after she had levitated him to the hospital wing. She had got him a glass of water and some food ready for when he eventually woke. It was peaceful in the hospital wing as Ally tried to read her book to Toby. She knew that he didn't like the book she was reading but she couldn't help it, she felt terrible.
She wished there was a way for her to stop feeling guilty, she knew that Toby would never blame her. He would always be so kind and gentle but so supportive always which is why he was Ally's best friend. They were slightly opposites but they just worked. Ally loved Toby's friendship more than anything and she cherished it more than anything in the world, she truly needed to stop practicing magic on him or it could be worse before long.
She continued reading her book to Toby and putting on her different voices, she enjoyed reading to him but she never really read out loud, she never really had a reason too. Maybe when her new niece or nephew was born she'd be able to read The Tales of Beedle the Bard to them. That made her feel happy as there was a lot of cute stories in there that she had loved.
Her peace was destroyed however when she heard the dulcet tones of Sirius Black and James Potter. She really couldn't get away from them. She tried to move the curtains so they wouldn't see her and thankfully they hadn't. She didn't want them to laugh at her for putting her friend into the hospital. She had wondered where Remus was but she had to assume he did come to the hospital wing yesterday.
She continued to read to Toby, she wasn't sure what book it even was it was something she had found in her suitcase. Madame Pomfrey had said that it would only be an hour or two before Toby woke up anyway so she wasn't too concerned she had just hoped she hadn't hurt him too bad. She ended up drinking the water she left for Toby and groaned. She tried using her wand to put some water in the goblet and groaned out in pain. She used her finger and muttered 'aguamenti' she felt elated when the water came flowing freely to fill up the goblet.
"Is that how your magic works?"
Ally jumped and dropped the goblet spilling it all down herself. She turned to see James standing there with a cocky smirk upon his face, looking at her and she scowled.
"Bloody hell Potter, announce yourself first next time please!" She snapped holding her hand to her chest to try and calm her heart rate
"I'm sorry Ally, are you alright?" He asked laughing before moving to help her
"Yes I'm fine," she said with a smile she cleaned the water that spilled on the floor and put some more water into toby's goblet.
"What happened to him?" He asked
Ally frowned and just shrugged. She didn't want to tell the truth, she didn't want to say that she had caused it. It was embarrassing for her and she just couldn't bear it anymore. She had to be homeschooled, she had to just stay with Atlas.
James Potter had a feeling he knew what had happened but he hadn't wanted to a embarrass the girl because he had seen first hand how shy she would get when she couldnt do things and he just wanted to be able to help her as best as he could, even if he wasn't a teacher.
"Want to come say hi to Remus, Sirius and Peter sweets?" He asked with a small smile
Ally nodded, grabbing some chocolate before she followed James across the hospital wing, he raised a finger to his lips and grinned.
"Alright prongs mate? Where've you been?" Sirius asked "we were just teasing Moony about—"
"Look who I found!" He cheered pulling Ally out from behind the curtain
"Hi Ally!" Peter beamed
She smiled at the boys and waved. She didn't know why she was here, she wasn't exactly friends with Remus Lupin, they only spoke in group scenarios but she didn't know too much about him personally except that he was exceptionally kind and quite reserved.
She was glad to see he was looking slightly better today though, he didn't look as pale. He even had a smile when she entered the cubicle and didn't look like he wanted to just cry at any given moment. Ally was happy about that.
"What brings you here Cece?" Remus asked with a small smile — it wasn't that he didn't want to see her, it's just around the moon his feelings were heightened and Ally looked beautiful and it was making it incredibly hard for him
"Oh I'm over there with Tobes, I'll just go. Don't want to ruin boys club. Anyway, here's some chocolate Remus. I hope you feel better soon," she said with a smile placing the chocolate down on his bed
"Al don't leave!" Sirius pleaded in the most dramatic fashion
"I must, I don't want Toby to wake with nobody there," she said with a smile "I'll see you boys later, James we have tutoring tonight don't we?" She asked with the most hopeful tone in her voice
James' eyes widened in realisation that he hadn't cancelled their tutoring session as he had an unscheduled quidditch practice ready for their match against Slytherin. He looked between the boys working out what to say and she just laughed.
"It's fine James, I'll ask someone else. Enjoy your night," she smiled leaving the room
She had felt quite deflated that she couldn't get tutored tonight, she had wanted to just so she could be ahead and be on track with the work. She was struggling with the new switching spell in transfiguration and clearly she was struggling with the stunning spells in Defence. Her last resort was one of her brothers and she didn't really want to turn to one of them because despite how patient they were she didn't want to make them feel ashamed of her.
She sat back with Toby who gurgled after a while, rubbing his eyes. He smiled at Ally, he thought about laughing at her but he didn't know if it would have helped her embarrassment from earlier on in the day — even though he was used to her dodgy spell work.
"So, Ally. Rumour has it you've mastered the stunning spell," he said with a wink
"Are you feeling ok Tobes? Do you need anything?" She asked laughing off his joke
"I'm ok sweetheart, it didn't even hurt that much," he said with a smile.
Toby was always the kindest to Ally, she thought that he was a brilliant Hufflepuff and he embodied Hufflepuff house. He was always so incredibly patient with everyone around him and she loved seeing how nice he was to the younger students. He would always help them no matter what their issue was and the majority of Hufflepuff house saw him as an older brother figure or just in general a brother.
"Are you sure Tobes? I feel really awful about knocking you against that wall," she worried
"Ahh so it was a terrible spell accident that got you in this mess Tobes?"
They both looked towards the curtain and saw Luke there twirling his wand through his fingers. If Ally was not his friend she thought he might have looked very attractive in that moment — but it wasn't the time
Luke walked in and sat on the other side of the bed smiling up at Toby. Ally blushed and felt even worse about the situation: she had to talk to her brothers about getting a new wand over Christmas. She couldn't keep hurting people who were trying to help her. It was the same with Sirius last year when she was practicing the 'incendio' spell, she accidentally set Sirius' trousers fully on fire which caused him to have terrible burns on his legs for a little while after.
She had always been told by Atlas while learning wandless magic that she had to feel the magic flowing through her veins and believe that she could produce it from her hands. She thought it must have to be the same with the wand magic she just couldn't do it, she felt like she was getting in her head so she smiled at the boys.
The more she thought about it the more upset she began to feel after getting in her head. She got up and kissed Toby's forehead before she left the room. She moved to the exit of the hospital wing with tears streaming down her face. She couldn't keep hurting others, she knocked into the end of a bed spilling the contents and the glass vials onto the floor with a loud crash. She let out a groan and bent down to pick the stuff up, she let the tears flow freely when someone bent down to help her.
The scarred hands took the glass shards from her. She wiped her eyes and looked to see the kind smile of Remus Lupin. She carefully picked the remaining glass shards up and watched Remus cast a spell to get the remaining things on the floor up safely. She couldn't believe that he helped her like that.
"Did you hurt yourself?" He asked
"No, I'm fine," she whispered
"Then why are you crying Cece?" He asked
Remus knew that Ally was a sensitive soul. He remembered Sirius saying about the time he practically spoiled one of her birthday dresses and she had been upset about it, he couldn't blame her Sirius has always been wild and can easily upset someone without realising.
He also knew that she had been bullied — she would never call it bullying but everyone else knew it was — he had seen the torment, especially after he stood in front of her boggart and every body had laughed at her.
He knew that she was ridiculed much more than she needed to be as she was a kind soul. He had noticed that, the way she gave him bars of chocolate to help him as she knew it was nice ( despite not knowing the true reason why he was constantly ill ) despite not being the smartest person she would always offer her help to those that needed it, she was also extremely understanding towards others which was helpful as she would always be impartial in situations.
"I'm sorry, I don't mean to cry," she chuckled "I just feel bad about constantly hurting my friends when they let me practice my magic on them," she explained
"Your friends don't mind helping you Ally, they are your friends and you know, On the contrary to whatever you think, your friends want you to succeed that's why they are so willing to help." Remus explained "And you know James feels awful about not being able to help you with transfiguration tonight. He always says how much he really enjoys helping you," Remus stated kindly
"I know, I know. It's just rubbish sometimes," she said "are you feeling better?" She asked quickly changing the subjects and wiping her eyes
"Yes, I'm all free to leave now," he said "Cece, there's a party in our common room Friday night. Would you like to come?" He asked
Ally thought about it for a few moments before she nodded with a smile. This is the second time she was invited to a party and she couldn't help but feel elated! Even though she would most definitely have to ask Toby and Luke for help on the outfit choice she would be wearing she couldn't wait to experience a proper Gryffindor party. She had heard before that they were absolutely wild and nobody partied like gryffindors so she was truly excited to find out.
"That would be amazing Remus, thanks," she beamed
"It's no worries Cece. Lily said something about a study group also, she said she'd let you know on the next prefect duty." Ally nodded and smiled
"That sounds great Remus thank you," she said
"but just so you know and feel free to tell me if this is unhelpful but we all doubt our magic sometimes, even I have, but if you feel the magic running through your veins and believe in it you can do wonderful things," he said smiling as he squeezed her shoulder leaving
Ally smiled and wiped the last few of her remaining tears before she rejoined Luke and Toby. The boys were laughing about something Ally had no idea about but maybe she could get better and feel good about herself, because if a marvellous Wizard like Remus Lupin doubted himself it meant that people get similar to her. That was the most comforting thought Ally could ever have.
***
Unedited
Happy Birthday Remus John Lupin, sixty one never looked so bloody good.
Also had a bit of a plagiarism issue with this story. It's not cool, even if it's just Ally's name is rather get asked if I don't mind because it's so unique and like it has a bigger meaning for the whole story and a potential other route I'm looking to go down once this is finished.
Just don't bloody plagiarise and lie to me about it. Thanks guys xx
What do we think of this story so far? Does everyone like Ally? Please let me know all your thoughts so far.
See you next time, Rhi xx