The Winterwell Manor Closed

She smiled back. “Yeah, but won’t that make it all the more rewarding? To watch people scream in terror because of our advanced magic will be so satisfying by the end of this whole ordeal. And it’ll help us get better grades in transfiguration class! I’ve heard that it’s one of the hardest classes there is. So imagine how cool we’ll look if we already know how to do it!” Her eyes had regained the shine that had faded away at the study’s doors.
She placed the textbook on her lap and started skimming it, looking for any useful information.
“There’s a spell here... Vera Verto...” she murmured, watching a picture of a young witch transforming a rat into a clear goblet. “No, that won’t work...” She glanced up at Amaya. “We can’t exactly make the entire student afraid of a water goblet.” She awkwardly chuckled and went back to scanning the textbook. One spell in particular caught her eye. “Avifors...” Birdie whispered. “That’s the spell we need. Avifors...” She whispered again, awe-struck. “Oh, it sounds so cool! When we’re at Hogwarts or anywhere else we can use magic, we should practice that! Maybe we could ask the professor or older students for extra help! They’ll think we’re being studious, but they won’t know that they’re accomplices in our plan!” She giggled mischievously. Her feet shifted in anticipation. “We just have to wait until the school year starts!”

“Yup! And once we get better at the spell, and Conjuring in general, we’ll probably be ahead of our class once we get to it! Not only that- if we get the hang of Conjuring in general, then we’ll be able to do many more pranks! Imagine how we could scare students, just walking about, doing their thing: suddenly conjuring a mouse (we’ll have to check that the mouse is a okay one first), or a fake bug, and the thing is, if we get good at hiding the motions and whispering the needed spells, then... Gosh, we’d be able to get away with it!” Amaya sighed dreamily. How great it would be, bringing fear into everyone’s hearts for a eternity. And no one would no the culprit!

“Yup! Avifors... cool! Not even just that, we could set of dozens and dozens of chickens all around Hogwarts! Just imagine how far we could go!”

Amaya peeked over at the book, finding herself examining every detail. “Oh and we could even conjure more companions for your chickens! How real are the Chickens, anyways? Would they be a perfect replica of a real, living one?” Amaya scanned the crisp pages carefully, looking for any answers to her building questions.

"If we do it well enough, probably! It's just more motivation to get better at the spell." She chirped. "Shame we can't practice magic right now, but we can do that on the train and in Hogwarts. For now, we could just use sticks to practice the hand motions." She flicked her wrist like the woman in the photo was doing. "Although I don't think that my chickens need any more companions for right now. They have the others to play with! Maybe when the chicks are grown up. Besides, we don't even know if the thing will transform into a chicken. It just says, 'a bird'. So that could be a songbird, or even a penguin! Though it would be pretty cool to have someone's shoe turn into a penguin..." She trailed off. "...But that's besides the point! The point is, we don't know what kind of bird it'll be, so we can't rely on a certain species. Not that I think it matters. I mean, pretty much any species of bird can be just as terrifying as a chicken. Unless it's a kiwi bird, but I think it's pretty unlikely that it'll be one of those tiny things."

“Mmmmkay... Look! There’s also one called Avis... But since it’s Conjuration, it may be a little harder... Maybe we should stick to just mastering Avifors first? Let’s try it out!”

Amaya felt a little strange, barely replying at all, but the excitement was getting the better of her and she quickly whipped out her wand.

“Avifors!”, Amaya called, waving her wand firmly in a sideways figure eight. To her dismay, only a spark skidded out, a pleasant blue.

“AVIFORS!”, Amaya concentrated harder, feeling the magic flow through her wand arm. A form of a bird appeared, causing Amaya to lean forward in excitement, only for the bird to turn back into grass. Amaya had been hoping for a flock of birds to explode out of the grass, but... eh. It was good enough.

“AVIFORS!”, Amaya chanted once more, and this time, she could feel a sudden rush of energy and magic flowing out of her wand, enveloping her in a soft warmth. A small budgie appeared, sky blue and full of black patterns laced on it’s back, preening itself. Judging by her tan-ish nose, she was a female.

“Sky!”, Amaya cried out, the budgie chirping in agreement. Amaya took it as the budgie liking the name. Amaya, unexperienced with “pet” birds, placed a finger out in front of Sky. Sky gave Amaya a small, wary glance, before hopping on. She seemed to have already been finger-trained. Amaya smiled in glee, offering the budgie her shoulder. Sky hopped over, beginning to play with her hair, tugging at the strands as Amaya cooed and offered Sky praise.

Birdie's eyes went wide as she watched her friend take out her wand and start practicing for real. "WAIT! THAT'S NOT- !" She paused as the grass transformed into a tiny budgie. "She's really cute, but... uh... we're not allowed to use magic outside of Hogwarts..."
She sighed. "I think you'll just get a warning from the ministry. I don't think they'll make too much of it since we're first years. We should play it safe for now.'
Birdie awkwardly smiled. "On the bright side, we know it works! So... uh... that's good, right?" She shrugged. "For now, we could use these." She reached over to a nearby rose bush and snapped two bare twigs off of it. "Just so we can practice the motions and the pronunciation without any real magic or repercussions. I know it'll be sort of boring to practice without any real effects, but it'll help us get practice for the real thing."
She turned away from her friend and began whispering the spell and getting the wrist flick right. It wasn't particularly hard to get it right, judging by Amaya's example. "I think we'll be perfect at this spell in no time!" She chirped after a few more attempts. "This is going to be so much fun."

Amaya dropped her wand, gazing down at the grass in shock. In her excitement and eagerness to try it out, she’d forgotten.

Amaya gazed at Birdie with sheepishness. Wondering if her parents would get the owl or only her, she’d quickly stepped to the side, flushing with embarrassment. The only thing soothing her was the soft chirping of her budgie, and the warmth that she’d brought with her. Amaya would have to take a trip to one of the pet shops later, on her way back.

“I mean... It should be... better then terrible, right? Cause we did already get our houses and all...,” Amaya winced. “And yeah! The spell itself doesn’t seem... that hard... but... if we had to do it under pressure, then... Yeah. We’ll need to practice it a lot.”

Amaya quietly hummed, as Sky silently climbed up closer to her neck, before rubbing her head on it. Then she scratched her head, using her long, sharp claws, climbing back down to play with Amaya’s hair once more. Amaya found her falling back into a more calm state, breathing deeply and finding that she couldn’t regret it, not when she’d gotten a pet budgie — especially one already pre-trained! And one as sweet as Sky.

Amaya sighed. “Do you think that we’d be ‘learning’ Avifors later on? In the Transfiguration curriculum?”

Amaya brightened. If they could master it, and they were supposed to learn Avivors later on, then they’d already be one step higher then the rest of their classmates! But... that would make their planned prank less impressive.

Amaya frowned, fingering her wand once more, before picking it up and trying the motion once more. She resolved that she would make the motion quicker and sturdier, as well speaking the chant quicker. She quickly searched for her strange ability to speak really quickly, and tried it, though it wasn’t really as fast as she’d hoped.

Amaya glanced over at Birdie. “What do you think the classes at Hogwarts will be like?”