Kurumi entered the Charms classroom trembling a little. Final exams always brought out the panic side of her. She had stayed up nearly all night studying and reviewing her notes from this term and the term before. There was just no knowing what Professor Descoteaux was going to ask them to do. What if he asked them to charm a pocket watch to sing the time…or use a Disillusionment Charm on a live animal?! Kurumi was pretty sure she was not ready for such high levels of magic.

Taking a deep breath, Kurumi approached Professo Descoteaux, who seemed more concerned about reading his book than observing his students, and bowed slightly. “G-Good day Professor Descoteaux,” she chirped nervously glancing at the stations laid out before her. She supposed it was time for her to get down to work.

Kurumi approached the first station and took out her wand. “Change the teacup into a ball. Then levitate it and drop it into the bucket,” she read from the instructions. Oh, she remembered this. She had melted more than a few rubber ducks and other items in attempt for making a proper ball filled with water. The wand movement had been the trickiest bit for her to handle. Taking a deep breath, Kurumi pointed her wand at the plastic tea cup. “Please don’t melt…or explode,” she pleaded closing her eyes to try and focus her energy on the tea cup and turning it into a ball. Now, mustering all the confidence that she could, she pointed her wand at the cup, traced one clockwise and one anti-clockwise circle in the air with her wand, and then spoke. “Mizurus boru!”

The tea cup began to glow and…melted. Kurumi’s eyes widened in shock, but she did not allow her mind to wander and remained steady in her thoughts about turning the bloody tea cup into a ball. Come on…come on! She repeated over and over again in her head. Suddenly, the melted ball of white goo began to shift and the edges of it reached towards the ceiling. After a few more moments, there was a perfectly round ball.

Kurumi gave herself a mental pat on the back before checking the instructions again. The next charm was simple enough. With a quick swish and flick, Kurumi said “Globo leviosa!” and the ball floated gracefully up in the air and landed softly in the bucket.

Kurumi took a step back and took a deep breath. Nothing had exploded and there was no half melted tea cup on the table. That alone was enough for her to earn 20 points for Gryffindor- in her opinion at least.

Kurumi then moved onto the next station where she instantly felt ill. Well, at least there were no chocolate frogs present. Or were there?! Kurumi’s eyes darting around the room half expecting a flock of them to come jumping out of walls, pounce on her, and cover her in melted chocolate. After a few moments, Kurumi realized that there were no chocolate frogs waiting to attack, Kurumi read the instructions. Freeze the ball and banish it into the box. She could handle that…just as long as her aim was right. The only chance she had of freezing something other than the ball was perhaps a stray spider crawling up the wall behind it. Better than another student any day.

Taking her wand out again, Kurumi flicked her wand twice towards the ball. “Immobulus!” The ball stopped a foot or two above the table. While she had not exactly enjoyed it at the time, she owed it to all those chocolate frogs for helping her aim improve tremendously. “Depulso,” she commanded pointing her wand at the other box. The ball shot, a little too, quickly across the room and made a rather large dent in the bottom of the box. Well, at least she was showing enthusiasm?

Taking another deep breath, Kurumi made her way to the third station and read the instructions. Given the nature of the first two, she had been expecting this task. The expanding of the light wasn’t so much of a challenge seeing as she had performed the charm with relative ease during class. It was the whole making it look invisible that was going to cause the trouble. Just as long as it didn’t explode…

Kurumi trace a circle in the air and then brought her wand down twice to make an X. “Luxra magnifica,” she said with a smile. This charm seemed to work best when she had positive thoughts and a smile on her face. Made sense considering the spell was all about making things brighter in this case. Maybe she had to think negative thoughts and frown when performing it on shadows? She would have to try that sometime.

Now that her lamp was glowing enough to make half of the room appear white in its glow, Kurumi breathed deeply and tried to focus on the task at hand. With her wand, Kurumi tapped on the lamp twice. “Disillusiona,” she said with the confidence of a mouse.

The lamp began to ripple like it had done during class and a smile tickled the edges of her lips. She had done it! Blinking twice, Kurumi looked at the lamp and realized that she had celebrating a little too early. The right half of the lamp was missing, but the other half remained clear as a Hippogriff in an empty broom cupboard.

Frowning slightly, Kurumi tapped the remaining half of the lamp and repeated the incantation. This time, she did not blink until it too had vanished.

Kurumi melted to the floor onto her knees feeling a bit exhausted from all the concentration it had taken from this final exam – particularly the Disillusionment Charm. Maybe now those chocolate frogs could come hopping out of the walls? Chocolate did have some restorative powers after all even if they were not dealing with dementors at the moment