Seeing that her two senior schoolmates didn't respond, Ariana pressed again,"So, can I practice a few spells under your supervision or not?"
"Why don't you show us the Mending Charm you just did one more time first," Cedric suggested cautiously.
Ariana nodded and crushed the biscuits on the table again. She pointed her wand at them and repeated the spell. Just like before, the biscuits reformed under the glow of her wand, perfectly restored to their original shape.
"Are you sure you've never practiced this before?" Lucas asked, his tone serious.
"Of course. Is there a problem?" Ariana looked at the two senior boys, genuinely puzzled.
"There's a big problem," Cedric sighed, beginning to explain."The difficulty of the Mending Charm depends on the complexity of the object's damage. For example, restoring a crushed biscuit like this is extremely difficult. In class, we only practice with parchment, and even then, we don't tear it into tiny pieces usually just in half. And no one gets it right after only a few tries."
On top of that, Cedric had already noticed that Ariana's wand movements were off, yet the spell had still worked.
"Do you want to try another spell?" Cedric asked.
Ariana realized something wasn't right. Instead of choosing a spell herself, she asked in return,"Do you have any recommendations?"
Cedric thought for a moment."The simplest spell isn't actually the Mending Charm it's the Wand-Lighting Charm. I'll demonstrate first, and then you can try."
"Lumos!"
When Cedric finished the incantation, his wand's tip glowed with a soft, warm light. If you leaned in close, you could even feel a slight warmth from it.
Ariana carefully copied Cedric's wand movement and chanted the spell. A bright light immediately appeared at the tip of her wand.
Lucas stared at her in disbelief."You really haven't practiced this before?"
"I really haven't," Ariana shook her head. "If you don't believe me, you can teach me a third-year spell."
Cedric was about to object he didn't want her taking unnecessary risks but Lucas, still unconvinced, ignored him and pulled out his own wand to demonstrate a more advanced spell.
"Accio Book!"
Lucas's wand flicked, and a book flew straight out of his suitcase and landed in his hand. Unfortunately, it knocked over most of the other items inside the suitcase.
But no one was paying attention to the mess on the floor.
"This is the Summoning Charm, which isn't taught until third year. It's the only thing I managed to learn during the holidays," Lucas said.
"There are only two months from when you get your acceptance letter to the start of school. Even if you bought third-year textbooks, there's no way you could've studied this far ahead," he added.
Ariana didn't immediately try to imitate him. Instead, she asked,"How do you know the summoned book is yours?"
After all, the incantation didn't specify whose book was being summoned. How did you know it was this particular one?
"The Summoning Charm uses the same incantation for everything. The key is that you must visualize the specific object you want to summon," Lucas explained.
Ariana nodded and was just about to try it when the compartment door suddenly swung open from the outside.
"Excuse me, have you seen a toad anywhere? Neville's toad has gone missing," a sharp voice asked.
Before any of them could answer, Hermione Granger spotted Ariana and immediately called out,"So it's you, Miss Corrine! Looks like you're about to cast a spell. Let's see what you've got."
"Oh, it's Miss Granger," Ariana said coldly.
Hermione clearly wasn't welcome, but she still felt the need to warn her."After you left the other day, Professor McGonagall hasn't smiled once. She's the Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts you can be sure she'll give you a hard time when school starts."
Hermione thought she was being kind, but to Ariana, the comment was more irritating than helpful.
"Only elementary school kids care about a teacher's attitude. Hogwarts is clearly a technical secondary school," Ariana responded indifferently.
Hermione tried to argue, but Ariana didn't give her the chance."You wanted to see me cast a spell, didn't you? And you're looking for a toad. Well, I was about to practice the Summoning Charm. If you want to watch, why don't you describe the toad's appearance for me?"
Hermione was visibly annoyed at having her "kindness" rejected. But hearing Ariana's offer reignited her competitive spirit.
"I've read about this charm in history books. It's an advanced spell. We're only first-years you can't possibly succeed at this," Hermione said, convinced Ariana was aiming too high.
In her mind, Ariana hadn't even mastered the basic spells, yet here she was already trying to learn something taught in higher years.
Ariana's expression remained cold as she said,"If you're not interested, please leave."
Being dismissed so directly made Hermione's cheeks flush with frustration. After a minute of silent fuming, she still reluctantly described Neville's toad.
"I'll be waiting for you to fail," she said flatly.
Ariana waved her off and signaled her to stay quiet. She mimicked Lucas's wand movement and confidently chanted the spell.
"Accio Toad!"
Half a minute passed with no sign of the toad. Hermione was just about to mock Ariana for aiming too high and failing
When suddenly, a toad came plummeting from above right onto Hermione's head.
Ariana blinked, briefly surprised, then smirked."Maybe the toad knew you've been looking for it all along. Even though I cast the spell, it landed right on you."
Hermione was so furious she couldn't form a single retort. She grabbed the toad and stormed out, slamming the compartment door so hard it echoed down the corridor.
Cedric chuckled."Seems like you've had quite a few… encounters before school even started."
Not wanting them to mistake her for someone like Hermione, Ariana explained."The compartment door was closed. Anyone with the slightest manners would know to knock first. She didn't knock, didn't introduce herself just barged in and demanded we help her. I really don't like that."
In the magical world, as long as you weren't a dark wizard, people generally didn't have strong opinions about others. Their worldview still had a somewhat medieval simplicity to it.
"She didn't mean any harm, though, right?" Lucas mumbled, trying to defend Hermione.
"I never said she meant harm. I just don't like people like her," Ariana shook her head, making the distinction clear.
Lucas sighed, helpless."Girls always have so many rules."
"Since the topic of new classmates isn't very pleasant, let's talk about Hogwarts instead," Cedric quickly changed the subject."Do you know how the Sorting works?"
Ariana caught his hint and replied,"I bought a lot of books in Diagon Alley, but none of them mentioned how students are sorted. And now you're asking instead of telling me directly, I guess keeping it a secret from first-years is tradition."
Cedric and Lucas exchanged glances, both surprised by how quickly she picked up on it.
Lucas said, "I can already tell you'll definitely end up in Ravenclaw. You're incredibly talented and sharp."
Cedric frowned, a little displeased."Hey, I was the top student in our year. Not every smart person goes to Ravenclaw, you know."
After their playful bickering, Ariana chimed in,"Since it's tradition to keep the Sorting process secret, I won't push you. But could you tell me about the characteristics of the four Houses?"
If Ariana had seen the movies, she wouldn't have needed to ask. But all she'd ever seen were a few short clips like Harry Potter fighting a bald wizard with no context and no mention of names. She was practically a blank slate when it came to this magical world.
Through Cedric and Lucas's explanations, Ariana finally understood the qualities associated with each House. She rubbed her chin thoughtfully and made her own assessment.
"Judging by my personality, I'd probably fit best in Slytherin."
Cedric immediately panicked."Lucas didn't explain it properly. Slytherin values ambition and cunning, sure but above all, they care about blood purity. If you're not a pure-blood, even a highly talented half-blood would have a rough time in Slytherin."
"Huh? So that House is like Durmstrang in Germany? They only take pure-bloods?" Ariana frowned."But why are there still half-bloods in Slytherin?"