Hocus Pocus - Do We Really Need To Focus? PV A.B Closed

Ana looked spectacularly, obnoxiously perfect. Her hair was in a half updo, secured by a red ribbon reminiscent of her house. Her flawless uniform only added to the overall aura of superb insufferableness. It was also at a stark juxtaposition with various rumors that swirled around the halls regarding her catching fire, setting others on fire, punching more than one first year, and other nonsense. Some of it was based in reality, but the majority of it was utterly ridiculous. In any event, Ana's impeccable appearance made it all the more delicious for her when she was doing something she shouldn't.

She took copious notes as Professor Lian continued her lecture, doing her best to suppress thoughts of Flying later that afternoon. They really ought to move Flying classes to first thing in the day. Whenever Ana had Flying, her focus in any earlier classes, even her normal favorite, suffered. The fact that she flew most mornings before breakfast and most afternoons after classes ended did nothing to dampen her excitement.

It occurred to her that, while she had been zoning out and thinking about flying, Professor Lian had stopped talking and likely given them some instruction. Using her excellent powers of deduction based on the fact she had just been detailing color-changing spells and other students around her beginning to pair up, she decided it was safe to guess that they had been instructed to pair up and practice.

Ana's head turned when someone near her began to speak. "I absolutely know what we're doing, yes," she said, her voice far more confident than someone who barely guessed what they were doing ought to. The speaker's outfit was vibrant, to say the least. Her colors weren't particularly coordinated, and given the fact that Ana was likely at least a head taller than her, she rather reminded Ana of an exuberant child who had been allowed to dress themself for the first time. "I'm Anastasia. When you say darker eyebrows, did you mean blue or?" Despite the somewhat skeptical eyebrow arch that the girl's words earned, Ana's tone was slightly warmer. She had so many plans for changing random first years' hair, seeing as they wouldn't be able to change it back without help and would likely get to walk around looking like morons for a while. The idea of getting to practice on a willing(ish) target definitely appealed to her.

@Anastasia Beckett

Margo raised a brow at the girl - Anastasia's - parchment full of perfectly formed notes. Her own smudged scrawl stood harshly on the page in comparison.

And their notes were hardly the only indication of their differences. Ana's uniform hung off her frame like it was meant to be there - a serious ironing job that Margo suspected would take ages, even with magic. Her own clothes looked softer in comparison, more worn. And, quite frankly, she figured it'd be a pain for them not to be. Ana may look intimidating at a first glance, but Margo just thought of her fancy clothes as a hindrance in an adventure. Besides, it wasn't like confidence was anything new to Margo. In fact, she was convinced that the most confident of shells often hid the shyest of interiors - the main exception being herself, of course. Not like she'd just quoted her mother or anything.

But silly, meaningless quotes aside, Margo was still as enthusiastic to learn as ever. Rainbow coloured dormitory here she came! She grinned and imagined how utterly thrilled Ruby would be when she saw it. But unfortunately, in order for that to happen, she actually had to do some learning first. Which was where Anastasia came in. Margo idly wondered if she could somehow fix the girl's alarmingly pristine exterior as they practised. Surely the Gryffindor wouldn't notice if she 'accidentally' dropped her quill and untied the girl's shoelaces? Or maybe she would. Margo'd never really been one for subtlety.

And Ana, apparently, hadn't either.

Usually, when someone asks somebody if they knew what's going on, they expect an explanation, not just a confident 'yes'. But hey, who was Margo to look down upon some healthy self-assurance? It didn't change the fact that she was still clueless as to what was going on, but it did make her admire Ana a little more.

"So... was that a 'yes, I'm a good student who can now tell this lovely girl the incantation and wand movement' or an 'I'm clueless but my pride will never let me admit it'? She grinned at Anastasia. It was a little like poking a tiger - they could purr, eat you, or anything in between.

Margo then proceeded to shuffle her chair closer to Ana's desk. But at the girl's next words, she dropped its feet back to the floor with a thump. "Dark blue eyebrows?" She giggled. "What an excellent idea. Nice to meet a fellow creative mind."

Margo then offered her hand out for Ana to shake. It felt alarmingly similar to an illegal business deal, not a friendly student exchange. "I'm serous though. You've probably got a better touch than I for spells. She looked pointedly at the girl's outfit. "And it's always reversible.. right?"

Ana would be lying if she said she wasn't intrigued by the girl's demeanor. She seemed the opposite of Ana in practically every way. Certainly not someone that her parents would have ever approved of her having any sort of interaction with. Naturally, that made Ana more inclined to befriend her.

Ana scrunched her nose slightly at the girl's question. It was most definitely the latter, but she wasn't willing to admit that. She'd done the reading, so she knew the incantation and wand movement already. Sure, that wasn't the same as paying attention and actually learning it from a teacher, but it couldn't go too badly, right?

"Both," Ana replied brightly. "I'm not entirely clueless, so assuming the dusty old witch who wrote our textbook wasn't lying to me, I do in fact know the wand movement and have a vague idea what the incantation is. Of course, reading about a spell and actually performing it isn't quite the same, but what's the worst that could happen? "

She twirled her wand between her fingers for a moment. "We were discussing color-changing spells, so it's either Multicorfors, Colorvaria, or Crinus Muto," Ana said. "Wand movements are simple enough, at least according to the textbook." She demonstrated the movements in the same order she'd listed the spells.

"I pick things up quickly enough," Ana said with mock humility. Quickly enough when she actually paid attention, but that was irrelevant. "Reparifarge should work if we botch it. I'll go first and if I make a mess of things, then you'll have an opportunity for revenge."

With the unearned confidence of a sophomore business major, Ana inhaled and readied herself. "Colorvaria!" she said, picturing a lovely navy blue color for the other girl's eyebrows. She cringed as one turned a spectacularly unappealing shade of yellow and the other turned a rather sickly green.

"Well, I think that was the right wand movement, but something went wrong," she said gingerly. "Your turn, then?"