Colour Your World

Stephanie spent her holidays reading ahead in the hope that she would do much better this year than she had in the past. It was very slow going with herself often slipping into a daydream or being interrupted by her younger sister asking her even more questions about Beauxbatons. It as though Christine thought Stephanie was her personal encyclopaedia and the older girl wished the younger had never gotten a letter.

All the reading she had managed to get in though did not prepare her enough for the actual execution of the spells. Already in today's class where they were supposed to be changing the colour of the cushions sitting in front of them hers would just sit there unchanged or suddenly just fly off the table. It was very odd considering she had said the correct incantation every time. Instead her wand seemed to be blowing air instead of throwing out the spell it was supposed to do. She gritted her teeth and then said as clearly as possible, "colovaria." Stephie frowned at the cushion. "Do you think it looks like I've faded it a little?" she asked the fourth year next to her as she looked at the still brown cushion. It did look a lighter shade didn't it?

Mabel always excelled in school without even trying, but the classes began to get trickier and trickier by the year. She still manged to get good grades, but they weren't as perfect as they used to be. But they were the grades that she earned and as long as she wasn't failing she didn't mind. Today they would be changing the colors of cushions in Charms, which would be a piece of cake. She gripped her wand tightly and pointed it at the brown cushion. "Colovaria," she said clearly and slowly. The cushion did nothing, it remained the brown color it started with.

The girl beside her wasn't doing a good job either, it looked like she was having the same problems Mabel was. "It didn't change," she said bluntly. "Neither did mine." She looked from her cushion to the Stephanie's, they were still the same shade of brown. She tried once more but nothing happened again. "I'm starting to hate the color brown," she said more to herself then the other girl.

Stephanie poked at the brown cushion with her wand. "I was afraid that was the case." Reading the spell was so different to actually casting it. Not even the fact that Mabel was having as much trouble as herself was much consolation. She nodded at the mumbled comment coming from the other girl. Brown was turning to be a truly awful colour. There was no denying that.

There had to be a way of making this cushion turn another colour short of dying it. Stephanie gritted her teeth as she straightened the cushion and pointed her wand at it again. Now what was the wand movement the professor had shown them? Maybe that was where she was going wrong. She tapped the cushion with the tip of the wand before lifting it away again. "Colovaria." Her wand movements were different to last time but still it did not work. "Do you remember if there was any special wand movement with this spell?" she asked.

Mabel usually didn't have difficulty with things, she usually picked things up quickly. But this challenge was testing her ability and her patience. How could someone have enough patience to master this spell? Her and Stephanie couldn't be the only ones that were having difficulty, she should be mastering this charm. But there she was trying to get the stupid spell to work and it just wouldn't. Brown was always an unpleasant color and it was starting to get under Mabel's skin. This was the first time that she had ever had a difficult time with something, this was new to her. And she wasn't taking it well.

"Hell if I know," she snapped, she was annoyed that the other girl was trying to talk to her even though she was the one to respond first and she was only responding back. "I hate this stupid color!" She stomped her foot and raised her wand toward the cushion once more and flicked her wrist. "Colovaria," she said in a more annoyed tone. Still, nothing happened to the cushion. It took all he had not to snap her wand in half. "Why can't I get this?" She said more to herself than to the girl beside her. "What am I doing wrong?" She said in a slightly calmer voice.

Stephanie flinched at Mabel's sudden outburst. She bit her lip and wondered if maybe she should just suffer in silence. That was until Mabel's last question. Obviously it was not directed at her and Stephanie deemed it wiser to keep her mouth shut. Instead she focused on the brown cushion in front of her again. "Colovaria." It was still brown and her brow wrinkled thoughtfully. There was bound to be some secret which needed unlocking.

Maybe she was looking at it in the wrong way. Stephanie tilted her head as she looked at the cushion again. What colour would be best? Blue. Cerisier blue. With that thought in mind she focused on cushion one more time. "Colovaria." There it was. Not quite the shade she was looking for but it was most definitely blue. She turned to Mabel again. "Have you a picture of the colour you want your cushion to be?"