Whitney Writes…

“Cici, we’re going to miss dinner,” Fadama groaned.

“I have to wait for Joanne,” Cirice said firmly. The pair of girls were outside the Headmaster’s office at the top of the girthiest tower of Hogwarts. Fadama was pacing back and forth past the statue of the phoenix, while Cirice sat cross-legged, fiddling with a button on her robes.

“I don’t get why you hang out with her so much,” Fadama sighed. “She’s clearly not supposed to be here.”

“Fad!” Cirice cried.

“Sorry, Cirice, I know you feel a loyalty to her, being she was your first friend here, but come on. You saw her in there.”

Cirice chewed her lip. Part of her knew Fadama was right. She had known Joanne had been struggling, that she could never seem to get spells right. But she hadn’t known how bad it had gotten. Not only could Joanne not get the spells right, it turned out she had yet to show an ounce of magical talent. Her wand had remained completely unresponsive, not even attempting to perform spells. Despite Joanne’s perfect delivery of incantations, her perfect hand and wrist movements. That was not normal. Even for inept wizards, their wands still performed. And they did some semblance of the spell part of the time.

Cirice sighed, perhaps Fadama was right. Perhaps Joanne didn’t belong at Hogwarts…

Inktober 2025, Prompt #22: BUTTON🧡🖤👻🎃