Tales From Hogwarts: The Forbidden Forest Fallacy

It is now the year 2012 in Great Britain, and a great deal of things have changed since the final defeat of Lord Voldemort. Harry Potter and his friends have grown and matured, and moved on from Hogwarts. But now a new generation is learning at the famous School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. However, will this new generation be able to face the mysterious within the Forbidden Forest?

Alex sat at a surprisingly empty table in the library, though it was far from empty since OWLs and NEWTs were coming up soon. Even he wouldn't be here but he was going to meet Eva here and try to help her out with her OWLs. It was a shame they were in different Houses, otherwise they could just study in the common room.

After a few minutes, a reluctant Eva entered the library and made her way over to Alex. She took a seat at the table, and sighed.

"I hate these stupid OWLs...." she muttered.

"Really? They always say such nice things about you," Alex replied with a small grin. "What are we going over today?"

"Transfiguration," Eva replied with a small grumble. Despite her best efforts, she had never really gotten the hang of transfiguration. It continued to be her most difficult class, thus far, and Eva was really dreading taking that part of her OWLs.

"Transfiguration, well that certainly is a challenge," Alex commented. That was a difficult subject to handle, it needed a lot of focus and dedication to do anything in it. "Vanishment is going to be on the OWLs and is among the most difficult you'll be tested on. How have you been getting on with that?"

"....I tried to Vanish a piece of paper, and instead it went up in flames. Not to well, I think...." Eva admitted with a sigh.

"How," Alex asked before he could stop himself. "Nevermind, it's ok, I guess we just need to practice." He took a quill out of his pack and with a flick of his wand it levitated, showing off the nonverbal spells he had learned earlier in the year. "I want to hear how you enunciate the spell, that might explain why it caught fire instead of vanishing."

"Alright," Eva replied. She took a small breath to calm her nerves, and pointed her wand at the floating quill. She slowly said the spell, making sure to pronounce it correctly....

....And the quill exploded, showering them both with....confetti, of all things. Eva gave a few rapid blinks before slowly looking at her wand.

"....How on earth...."

Alex stared blankly for a few seconds where the quill had been. "...Are you sure that's your wand and not a joke wand?" There was just no way a vanishing spell could go wrong in that particular case. He could understand if it melted or something but to just explode in confetti was more like a charm than a transfiguration spell.

"I-I'm rather sure it's my wand," Eva stammered, her eyes locking onto the object in question. It certainly looked like her wand, and she was pretty sure no one had tampered with it, or replaced it. She kept it locked securely in her trunk every night. And her trunk was charmed that it would ring an alarm if someone tried to tamper with it. Magically, at least.

"....Should I try again? Just to be sure?"

"Maybe try a simpler spell," Alex suggested. He took a book and set it in front of her. "Try turning it to stone." That was something he was certain most fifth years could do well by now.

"Ok." Eva prepped herself, and carefully cast the spell on the book. Thankfully, nothing went wrong, and it turned into stone. It wasn't entirely perfect, granted, but it was as good as she was going to get it.

"Alright, no confetti this time. That's good." she said after a moment, sighing in relief.

"So it's not the wand..." Alex said, thinking. He turned the book back to normal and cast the vanishing spell, "Evanesco." The book almost instantly vanished. "Try saying it exactly like I did."

"Alright. E-van-es-co." Eva pronounced carefully, not casting the spell this time around, to be safe. "Did I say it right?"

"It's a little rigid, a little more naturally," Alex offered. He was not a good tutor, else he might have been able to explain what he meant better.

"Alright." Eva replied, and tried it again, this time making sure to be a bit more fluid and natural with her annunciation. "Is that good?"

"Yeah, now try it on the book," Alex said, making it reappear. Though it was unlikely the extent of the problem was jut enunciation, Alex thought steps were better than overwhelming her all at once. As long as nothing unexpected happened he'd consider it progress.

Eva nodded and concentrated hard on the book, carefully pointing her wand at it. She used special care in casting the spell, and watched with relief as the book Vanished. Eva gave a happy sigh, and slumped back into her chair.

"Well, that's good progress. And here I was afraid I'd turn it into a bouquet of flowers, or something." she joked.

"Was she messing with me," Alex wondered. "Well, at least that wasn't too bad." He was silent for a moment to collect his thoughts, and said, "Ok, now that you've got vanishing, what else is causing you trouble?"

"What? No kiss for getting it right?" Eva teased, flashing Alex a flirtatious smirk.

"Uh-what," Alex asked, taken aback by the question. "Uh, yeah, I guess." He leaned in and planted his lips on hers. Unfortunately his mind wouldn't stop worrying that everyone was looking at them.

Eva eagerly kissed him back and smiled widely at him once the kiss was over.

"Thank you, Alex." she said, winking at him.

"Er... No problem," Alex replied. "Now, uh, back to Transfiguration..." "Good luck focusing now," he told himself, thoughts of Eva now taking up space usually used to access spells and such.

"We could always take a break," Eva suggested, giving Alex a wide smile.

"In fact, I happen to know there's an empty broom closet nearby where we can take said break. What do you say, Alex?" she asked, winking suggestively at him.