Rhythm of My Life RPG+ Finished

Syrah had this weird thing. She didn't like to admit to doing it, especially when her mother would walk in and make fun of her for it, but she still did it. A weird habit to say at the least, an embarrassing one she did her best to hide. The young girl enjoyed reading, she enjoyed learning, and the two often coincided with each other. However there were sometimes where the subject she would read about would interest her particularly, such as when reading the textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Syrah loved learning about magical creatures and when she enjoyed reading something so much she would curl herself into a ball, propping the book open on her knees with one hand ready to turn the pages and the other up by her mouth where she would chew on her thumbnail and stare, unblinking at her book.

On the inside, Syrah would be completely unaware she was in such a position, way too intent on the book in front of her. On the outside, she looked absolutely ridiculous, a fact her mother would laughingly point out. And so when she had a book she wanted to look through as excitedly as she did the work of Newt Scamander, she would try to find a place alone.

Since coming to Hogwarts she had, surprisingly for such a large castle, only found a few good spots. There was this one corridor that lead to a dead end, which was almost always empty, but during busy hours a lot of students would walk by and Syrah feared one would notice her. So she skipped that one today. There was another tiny unused, as far as Syrah could tell, classroom that worked most of the time. The only downside was this one moving painting that would make fun of her though. The painting was some old guy Syrah didn't recognize and he was almost always napping so it wasn't an issue most of the time. She had popped in just to check, but the painting was awake so she left with him calling jokes behind her. Her last place was the Ballroom. It was along shot most of the time. Not because there was anyone ever in there - there wasn't - Syrah was just afraid of someone seeing her go in, she was pretty sure she wasn't allowed in there by herself. So usually she would pass it by since someone was almost always walking by.

She got lucky, at least with the Ballroom, this time. It hallways were empty as she made her approach. She smiled to herself, thankful this one was available since her her other choices were not. Taking one last look around the hallway she grabbed on the large ornate handle and tugged. And nothing. She tugged again before realizing it was locked. This was the only place she had left. The library had people, the study room had people, the common room had loud people and even her dormitory had a couple of people. She hadn't found any other places yet and she didn't want to go looking for one right now. Defeated, Syrah dropped her head onto the door making a shark sound against the old wood. She did it one more time out of frustration, just to make sure the door understood her point. Then she just let her head rest there for a second, her hand dropping from the handle.

Then she heard a voice from inside, "Who is it?" the voice asked. Syrah froze, then sighed. She figured it was simply one of the numerous paintings from inside. Most of them knew her by now, but thankfully they were all kind enough to leave her alone when she was reading.

"It's just me", she called out, "Syrah. I just wanted to read a bit, but the door's locked."

"It's just me," someone called out as if Ami already knew her. Her heart jumped and she wondered who it could be. Was it Asher? Could it be Albert? No, the voice was too high to be theirs- or Hunter's, in fact. Maybe it was Amadea? No, it could be- how would she know that Ami would be in here this late at night? It didn't sound like Mia or Nora... Ami sighed in defeat. Nope, no one. "Syrah." Ah, so that was who was at the door tonight. Frowning slightly, Ami bit her lip in thought and sighed again when she realized she'd never met this girl in her life. "I just want to read a bit, but the door's locked."

"Jammed," Ami called out before she could stop herself. "It's not locked, it's jammed." Ami rolled her eyes to herself, mentally chastising her overall nerdiness, and added, "If it were locked, the handle would rattle slightly. It's jammed, so the handle doesn't move at all." 

Why would this girl want to read here- in the ballroom? Did she not like her common room, dormitory, or bed? Of all the rooms in the ginormous castle, why did she have to pick this one? Ami slowly stood up, stiff and unsteady, and she drifted over to the door mindlessly, as if in a daze- one could nearly mistake her for one of the many ghosts wandering Hogwarts. The screeching sound that had accompanied the chairs earlier was back with a vengeance as Ami dislodged the chairs from under the handles, setting them off to the side. Slowly, she cracked open one of the ballroom doors, spotting a young girl, a little bit shorter than her, with dark chocolate hair. Her head held high, her eyes glinting, she looked the picture of royalty.

"Hello, Syrah," Ami said slowly, warily. "Were you... um, looking for something...?" She didn't offer to let Syrah into the Ballroom, and her long, lanky frame blocked her from seeing any of the stars in the sky. Unfortunately, she forgot to pause her music before she went to the door, so Mystery of Love from Call Me By Your Name was clearly audible, the soft harp background music leaking into the hallway- nope, nope, not a hallway. The corridor, that's right. "You look a little bit, er, lost..." Ami suggested slowly but firmly, crossing her arms over her chest. "Can I help you?"

The voice from inside the Ballroom returned. And as it continued to speak Syrah realized her mistake. That voice sounded nothing like the wise old witches and wizards commonly found in the moving paintings, it sounded more like a girl, a young girl, like herself. It was another student. Someone else had beat her to this quiet place and apparently barred the doors so no one could enter. Even Syrah didn't do that. It seemed a bit extreme. Of course, when Syrah was in there by herself she would hate if someone came in, but if it happened she would simply leave. Apparently this girl hated company even more than she did. Wonder what she was doing in there.

Syrah smirked a bit at the girls response, correcting her like it even mattered. Clearly this girl had a lot of confidence, she sounded pretty young though still. Syrah hoped she wasn't an older student, they always seemed to look down on First Years. Well, Syrah had a lot of confidence too, but she didn't go around correcting people on things that didn't matter. She inwardly shrugged and began thinking that maybe she should just leave. She really didn't want company and the girl inside clearly didn't either. Before she could make a concrete decision, though, the young witch heard movement from inside.

When the girl finally opened the door after a bit of screeching and moving, Syrah recognized her. She couldn't remember a name or a house, but she had seen the bright head hair and freckles around the castle, and specifically remembered seeing her at the Sorting Hat ceremony, which mean this chick was eleven, just like Syrah. Instantly she got a little annoyed. She did not like how this girl greeted her, "Hello Syrah", like the two knew each other personally, and the other witch was giving off a way too 'mature' vibe. Syrah hated it when people looked down on her, and hated it even more when they had absolutely no reason to, like this girl. They were the same age, same year, this one had nothing on her. 

In response Syrah's back straightened at well and she met the girls eyes. "I'm not lost." Syrah assured. "I come here all the time, usually its empty, though." Syrah moved her head a bit, trying to peer into the Ballroom. She could hear music going from inside. Syrah, at least, couldn't read with music on, so she wondered what this girl was doing in here. Maybe she was actually practicing dancing? There was music after all. The girl had only opened the door a crack, just enough to let Syrah see her, but not really anything else. The only thing she could make out happening in the large room besides the music, was a soft glow from some sort of light. 

Once again, Syrah thought of simply leaving. First come, first serve, right? But now she also felt some sort of competition... no that probably isn't the right word, she thought. Either way, right now she felt like leaving, was losing. "I come here to read, like I said. Why are you here?" She inquired.

"Why are you here?" Syrah asked, and Ami let her hands fall to her sides, before immediately bringing one hand up to tug on her hair- one of her many tics. Maybe the Slytherin wouldn't notice her absolute inexperience in socializing? She sighed in defeat and stepped back from the door, allowing Syrah a proper view of the room. She swept her arm dramatically, gesturing to the room and the ceiling dotted with the floating stars. "I- I mess... I mess around," Ami mumbled, looking down at the ground. Stupid stutter. Stupid anxiety. She hated it, all of it, but she couldn't help it. She probably looked like such an idiot, it was a wonder she didn't get beat up at this school more often. Panicking slightly, Ami wondered what Syrah would think of such a strange, anxiously dumb girl. 

"It- it's pretty much- pretty much the only s- sp- spell I know... I know how to pr- properly... properly cast- m- my mom made it, s- she in- invented it, when she was... when she was at H- Hogwarts. S- she, uh, she taught me how to... how to do it after I got my wand. S- said it was the only charm... the only charm that was actually usef- useful. I d- doubt that, though." Shut up, shut up, shut up, her brain muttered darkly. You are so stupid. Just stop talking, already. Ami quickly finished off her train of thought, saying, "She uses it as a flashlight, I use them as stars." And memory practice, Ami reminded herself, and taking out her wand, she corrected the star that Syrah had made her mess up on. Smiling to herself, she walked back into the center of the room, sitting down on the cold floor and lying on her back once again. Ami pointed her wand at the doors, trying to close them, but in vain- they only shifted slightly, and she sighed in defeat. Nope, not going to happen today.

"The ballroom was the first empty room I came upon," Ami said quietly, waving her wand again. Another couple of stars appeared, and squinting, Ami shifted one of them slightly so it was in the right position.  "I- I mean, I'll leave, if you want," she said quickly, jumping to her feet. Yes, she should probably leave now... let others get their well-earned privacy. She'd find another room, and recreate the hundreds, thousands of stars there instead. "Silencio," Ami tried, pointing her wand at her speaker, but the music stubbornly kept playing, much to Ami's exasperation. "Drat. I really thought it was going to work that time," she muttered to herself, walking over to the speaker. She paused the music and looked back at Syrah. "Y- yeah. I'll j- just leave, I guess."

It was strange, as soon as Syrah asked in rebuff why the girl was in the Ballroom, her attitude completely changed. She went from a cross-armed, guarded, confidant little girl to a stuttering, shy one. Syrah rumpled her brow in confusion momentarily, until her gaze followed the girls arm sweep of the room. That's when she saw the stars floating in the air. Little balls of shining light, breathing, growing smaller and larger on their own, Each had slightly different colors ranging from blue to green to purple and red, and they each stayed floating in their place. It was amazing. Syrah herself had no skill in magic yet. She did not know a single spell and was extremely eager to learn any and all magic. To her, this simple light trick to the girl in the Ballroom, was extravagant and mesmerizing. She almost missed the girl's continued speech.

Syrah didn't even know people could invent spells. Her mind expanded as she thought of the possibilities. How would one even go about creating something entirely new? The witch or wizard must be extremely skilled in magic in order to create a new spell. There was no way Syrah would be able to do anything like that for years, she was sure. Though, the girl did mention that her mother invented it while still a student at this very school. Maybe you didn't need to be as skilled as Syrah assumed, though she was still sure she would not have the ability being a first year at least.

The girl continued talking and as she did more and more questions rose in her mind. Her mother uses this spell as a flashlight? Isn't there already a spell like that? In fact, she knew there was a spell like that. Syrah didn't know much about spells or charms, but she was aware of Lumos, a light-creation charm that lit up the tip of the casters wand. Though she was unsure if one could make that light detach from a wand and float in the air perpetually. Perhaps that was what was different between Lumos and this girl's mother's spell.

And then she watched as the girl seamlessly moved her wand towards the stars and changed the location of one of them. The girl then left Syrah in her stupor and the door, open wide now, and sat below her stars in the middle of the room. Syrah took a few steps in, slowly, amazing by the girls creation. Syrah snapped into focus, though, when the girl mentioned leaving. 

"No! No, you can stay. Show me how you do this." Syrah said, it was a command, but her tone was still stuck in amazement and she remembered quickly to add, "Please." The Slytherin had not missed the girls failed  attempts at other simple spells, and so she knew there was no reason to be intimidated by her peer. She wasn't before she noticed the stars, but once she saw them there was a tiny opening for intimidation to sneak through before the failure of the other spells. Syrah didn't like that, and she loved the spell and so she knew if she could learn it from this girl, not only would there be no excuse for this girl to be better than her, but she would also, finally, know some magic.

"No! No, you can stay. Show me how you do this. Please."

Ami started, staring at Syrah in surprise. Show her? Like... show her the spell? Why would she want to know? Was the spell actually that cool? Honestly, she thought of it more as a silly little parlor trick more than anything, but, different people meant different opinions. Ami hit play on the music, but lowered the volume a considerable amount so she wouldn't have to yell over it. The song had now changed to a song in a different language- should one be well versed in k-pop, they would immediately recognize it as the Twice's iconic song Likey. But enough about that- moving on, Ami thought to herself with a small smile. She'd have time to pump up the music another day.

"So we'll start with the spell, the incantation itself," Ami began without hesitation. "This particular spell has roots in Dutch, unlike most of our spells, which have roots in Latin, as well as some Greek. You'll find that it has a much sharper, harsher incantation than most charms- zwevendous -than most other spells. Literally translated, its stem word, zwevend, means 'floating'. This one is an easy spell to transfer to non-verbal, but saying the incantation does give the light a little bit more oomph. It's also just easier to cast the spell if you say the incantation."

"Moving onto wand movement," Ami continued, readjusting her grip on her wand. "Point your wand in the general direction of where you want the light to go- it doesn't have to be exact. Precise location comes from your focus, intention, concentration, and control, not the direction in which your wand is pointed- however, having the wand pointing in the same direction is extremely beneficial."

Waving her wand and muttering the counter-spell to clear the hundreds of stars in the ceiling, Ami pointed her wand at the ceiling, and said, "Like this." Clearing her throat, she intoned, "Zwevendous." A ball of light about the size of a basketball floated up to the ceiling lazily, taking its own sweet time. Ami's eyebrow twitched, and the light suddenly swerved, dipping down and looping back around to rest at Ami's feet. Flicking her wand, the light disappeared, and Ami smiled to herself proudly. "As I just showed you, you can also change the size of the lights. The stars I had before, those were sizes ranging from pebbles to ping-pong- er, table tennis balls. That also has nothing to do with wand movement, only your mind's ability. You try."

This girl was really taking on many roles in such a short amount of time. From annoying overly confidant girl, to shockingly shy and now extremely willing teacher? Syrah thought she might be getting whiplash. But she certainly wasn't complaining. If she could learn this spell, any spell, she'd be happy. And she thought if this girls mother could make up this spell while still at Hogwarts, and a young witch could learn this spell before even beginning classes at Hogwarts, then she could definitely learn this.  

For now she tried to focus on the basics. She shut the music out, it distracted her. Thankfully this one in a different language, which helped, and the girl turned down the music. The girl began with the words for the spell. That was basic and was how most of her current teachers began their lessons. What she didn't know what the girl said about languages. Guess it would have been useful to learn Latin or Greek apparently. She wondered if this girl had some Dutch heritage, why else would her mother choose an incantation with Dutch roots?

Zwevendous - weird, Syrah thought. And difficult to pronounce, even in her head. She muttered it a few times, trying to get it right. "Zwev-" the Zw was difficult, it wasn't seen really in the English language. "Zwev- Zwevendous- Zwevendous."

The girl moved on quickly and Syrah abandoned the muttering to catch up. She could practice the word later, she thought she had it pretty okay for now. Wand movement. Syrah understood this was important as well, but she just thought the movement mattered, not intent and control and everything else she mentioned. Interesting. She tried to keep those words in her mind as she concentrated. She wished she had brought her notebook. Though it would probably look silly to take notes from another student.

All of a sudden, with a single utterance, the girl made all of the existing stars vanish. Syrah stared in awe. Then the girl preformed a trick Syrah thought she could see in a wizarding circus. A ball of light, a pretty large one actually, zoomed in the air, and them around the girl, who for a moment was bathed in color. After a quick note on the size of the stars, which Syrah didn't focus on too hard right now. That, like the color, she figured, were just a bit advanced and she would practice that eventually. For now she just wanted to see if she could produce light and make it hover in the air. 

Taking a deep breath, Syrah focused on the tip of her wand. "Zwe- Zwevendous." It wasn't very confident, and Syrah wasn't surprised to see her dull wooden wand do absolutely nothing. She forgot the movement. Again. "Zwevendous." Flicking her wand up towards the air. Nothing. Syrah sighed in frustration. 

"Zwevndous!" She said a bit more forcefully this time. Her wand flicked again and a tiny bit of yellow light popped out of the tip, faltering and falling towards the ground, going out before it even touched the Ballroom floor.

Ami grinned with pride as Syrah managed to get a floating ball of light to emerge out of the tip of her wand. She opened her mouth to say something (something encouraging, of course) but then the light burst before it even hit the ground. Ami grimaced in sympathy- but, of course, no one was perfect on their very first try- that itself was a universally accepted truth that a precious few dared to defy. However, when you looked at the fact that Syrah had no idea that this spell had existed before fifteen minutes ago, she was doing remarkably well. 

"That was excellent," Ami breathed in awe, stepping forward. Just imagine! She had taught her this spell. Really, she was quite proud. She really did remember things her mom taught her. "Really quite astonishing. Well done." Slowly reaching out, Ami adjusted Syrah's hand position on her wand just slightly. "Try again," she suggested, stepping back once more to give Syrah some space. After all, didn't repetitive practice make perfect- or, near perfect? 

"Remember- zwevendous," she said with a smile. "Sharp and crisp- like a Pringle. Ooh... you guys don't have that here, do you? Like a potato crisp, then. And don't flick your wand as much- just point. Flicking will dispell the concentration of the spell; focusing your magic through your wand into one particular point will help your spell be more successful, powerful, and accurate."

As Syrah attempted the spell again, Ami let her mind wander, and to her surprise, her thoughts ran to Syrah herself. Okay, if you want to be like that, fine. A Slytherin, obvious by her robes; confident and presumably from a good family, evident from her posture and the way she held herself.  A clipped British accent so unlike her own American one that was found nearly everywhere at Hogwarts, so clearly, she was born and raised here. Considering that even without a crystal-cut clear pronunciation of the spell and lack of intense concentration (Ami had seen Syrah's eyes wandering), she'd managed to produce light. 

Her magical potential must be through the roof; it had taken Ami herself twenty or thirty attempts to even produce light, let alone floating light. It had taken weeks for her to be able to produce the lights consistently, and another week to master the spell to banish all of the lights; all of this extra time was brought about by Ami's mom's reluctance to let her go to Hogwarts right away, along with complications with visas and passports.

She was quite proud of herself when she thought on her success more. She realized she was holding herself to too high of a standard for a young witch whose never cast a spell before. Yes it was a small light that withered quickly, but it was still a light. Her temporary teacher seemed very pleased with her and Syrah grinned at herself and the girl.

"That was pretty cool!" She exclaimed. "I'm not anywhere close, but I know it'll take time..." Listening to her teacher's advice she tried again, without the flicking. She always though magic would require more movement of the wand, in addition to the incantation. But according to this girl it was more in your head than anything else. It is magic, and Syrah was looking at it through a more practical way. There really is no science to magic and it shouldn't be treated as such. 

She concentrated once again, pointing her wand ahead and above her. She wanted a small ball of light. Just a simply yellow color - no white - no yellow is fine. "Zwevendous!" She shouted. And nothing happened. She dropped her arm that was holding her wand down in sudden surprise and disappointment. It had just worked, why didn't it work again, even a little bit? scrunching her eyebrows at herself she raised her wand again. Slightly frustrated. 

Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself. She knew she would fail again if she was all riled up.  She pointed her wand once more and visualized what she wanted. A small white ball of light, about the size of her fist. She wanted to go upwards towards the ceiling about halfway up before going out. Zwevendous!" And with that a ball of white light was produced. It rose just bit, hovering for a millisecond before, poof, it went out again. She grinned.

"This is a really cool spell. Tell you're mom she's a genius!" She smiled at her new friend. Speaking of which, "Hey I never actually got your name. I'm sorry. I'm Syrah Steele, Slytherin, obviously. First Year."