Whitney Writes…

On a frigid February morning, everything changed. They were working on the Disarming Charm, Expelliarmus, in Charms class. After weeks of partnering with Fadama, Cirice was realizing no one was ever partnering with Joanne, and so on that day, she got slotted with Cirice and Fadama.

When Cirice had been sparring with Joanne, she made a show of her wand not doing anything more often than it was successful, as it seemed Joanne never got her wand to respond in any manner.

The girls rotated, and Fadama took Cirice’s place. And before Cirice could whisper to Fad to take it easy on Jo, Fadama blasted Joanne’s wand from her hand with little effort. Joanne’s wand flew so far, she had to interrupt half a dozen other sparring partners to fetch it, drawing the professor’s attention. Once Joanne reset, before she could blink, Fadama disarmed her again. It took three more times before the professor arrived to their grouping, going beside Joanne and asking her do demonstrate the technique of her blocking with him watching closely.

When nothing happened and Joanne’s wand went flying, the professor scowled. He instructed Fadama to do nothing this time and for Joanne to perform Expelliarmus. As she made the wand motion and said the words, nothing happened.

“Again,” said the professor.

Once more, nothing happened.

A dozen more times the professor made Joanne demonstrate she could not conquer this simple charm. Her face was growing red with embarrassment as group after group stopped to watch the disaster.

Finally, the professor took Joanne’s wand and studied it. “Strange,” he mused, “it’s almost like it is doing no magic what-so-ever. Ms. Rowling, do you have a dud of a wand and no one has caught it?” He rounded on Fadama and cried “EXPELLIARMUS!!” and Fadama’s wand went flying and she stumbled backwards. “Oh, goodness, Ms Beauton, I do apologize for that, I didn’t expect it to react.” He turned back to Joanne. “You and I are going to the Headmaster’s office. Class dismissed,” he called back to the rest of them.

Inktober 2025, Prompt #21: BLAST🧡🖤👻🎃