Daphne grabbed her wand from the desk and started practising the motions for the spell. "Swish, flick, and point," she said aloud, waving her wand, repeating the motions. Per usual, she did those for a longer time than most, wanting to cast the spell the best she could.

She closed her eyes and pictured the light in her hands. A small, luminous ball, hovering in her left hand, was the goal. It was advice her mum gave when little Daphne told her she had problems with some spell casting. Her weakness seemed to be unfortunate genes, passed from her mother and her mediocre school marks and weak spells. But Daphne wanted to be a powerful witch, and if it meant she needed to work twice as hard, so be it.

She opened her eyes, pointed her wand at her left hand and did one final swish, flick, and point. Taking a deep breath, she said in a strong and stern voice, "Sinistra Lumina!". There was a sharp cracking noise that penetrated the air. Then, it started small, a tiny speck of light hovered above her hand wit. Slowly it grew to the size of a golf ball, settling into the size of a tennis ball. The sphere was dull, a bronze colour, softly glowing. That, too, strengthened into a bright, gold, luminous object. Daphne smiled, even though it wasn't the brightest in the room. But that didn't matter, because with practise it would get larger and brighter. After all, it was only her first attempt.