Oh, well. Her eyes hardened. Soon. Soon, she'd master it.
Ginny hurled the pebble at the Aztec wall. "This is SOOOOO annoying!"
Harry smirked.
"All month! All freak'n month! And I'm still no closer! ARGHH!"
"No one ever said spell discovery was easy." Ginny grumbled, picked up a twig and switched it for the pebble she'd just chucked away.
Harry's face firmed. He nodded. "Again." "Ginny, we need a half dozen eggs, the hens were short this morning."
"Yes, Mum," Ginny said, and made her way to the back of the muggle shop, glaring at every cardboard box now that she was out of sight.
She found her quarry, all lined up muggle style on the shelves.
She scowled, generally annoyed at everything that wasn't a successful self-switching spell, which included what sat in front of her. Eggs. Damn eggs sitting there so smug and in boxes.
As she had for seemingly every waking moment she could for the last month, she pooled her magic, and went through the motions,
She mentally picked out an egg. She threw the spell.
She held the spell.
She both threw the spell and held the spell.
Her eyes widened in shock. Her heart leaped. It worked!
Immediately and without thinking, she actualised the rest of the spell, and realised, to her horror, and a split second too late, that she was about to switch with an egg, on a shelf, in an open cardboard box, in a muggle food shop.
Her view point shifted and she felt a hammer like force smack into the top of her head. The world fell down around her and a massive crash announced the depositing of several shelves of tins, boxes and bags, along with the shelves themselves, onto the floor. She fell with it, hard.
"Ginny!" Molly Weasley appeared as though by magic and immediately started helping her out of the wreckage. "Ginny, what happened? Are you alright?"
Ginny nursed her head and frantically looked around. Several customers were staring, looks of utter shock on their faces. One whispered to another, "Did I just see that girl teleport?"
"I—" Merlin, this was embarrassing. "I had an accident, mum."
Molly Weasley goggled. "At your age?"
Ginny nodded.
Her
mum
looked
around,
business-like, pulled out her wand, and surreptitiously fired off a spell that Ginny knew would alert the obliviator squads.
They left just as a pair of wizards in waistcoats and flatcaps entered, nodding to her mum as they passed, both whistling jaunty tunes.
That night, after being fussed over for several hours, Ginny found herself back at The Rookery, once again, for what seemed the thousandth time, facing off against Luna.
Fire burned in Ginny's eyes.
"Begin!"
The duel started as their duels always did, with Ginny charging forward, closing the distance and swatting away every spell that came her way. Luna countered as she always did, with shields and swatting of her own. The closer they got to each other, the more frantic the swatting got and the more Luna had to rely on her shields. Ginny was just faster like that.
Soon they both started to tire.
Ginny retreated in a hail of stunners and stingers.
Luna chased, but never quite managed to catch up.
They both reset, and they both started at it all again. This would go on and on until one found an opposing. A tiny sliver in their opponent's armour to sneak a spell through, and that one was always Luna.
But not this time. Ginny grinned from behind a tree. This time, that sliver would be a Merlin-damned gaping hole, wouldn't know what hit her.
and
Luna
Ginny dived out from behind the tree and sprinted towards the other side of the clearing, Luna close on her heels.
She passed a stone on the ground, pooled her magic, formed her intent, and fired the spell, still running at full tilt. The spell connected, Luna passed the stone a few seconds later, and Ginny felt the spell catch. Her hand glowed red. She felt a little yank and Luna's back popped into view in front of her. She loosed the spell and had just enough time to catch the look of utter shock that appeared on Luna's slightly turned head.
The stunner hit. Luna's face blanked, and the witch who'd gone undefeated for the whole damn semester, the witch who'd kept her learning trick after trick and still staying one step ahead of every single one of them, fell, with a quiet thud, onto the leaf padded ground.
Ginny panted. She stared. She bent over double, hands on her knees to support herself. She'd won. She'd won. Ginny sucked in huge gulp of air. She'd damn well won! Ginny straightened her body, raised her fists to the sky, and let out the loudest, most ferocious, and most triumphant war bellow that her ten-year-old girl's throat would give her.
Then she cast a finite on Luna.
"Wow! Ginny!" tackle-hugged her.
Luna
bounced
up
and
Ginny stumbled backwards, just managing to keep her balance. "That was amazing! What was that?!" All dreaminess had gone from Luna's eyes, replaced with nothing but sharp enthusiasm. "It wasn't apparition. I'd have heard the crack! You didn't silence yourself either! And the Rookery has key-in apparition wards anyway!"
Ginny couldn't help but grin. "If I tell you, will you promise not to suddenly learn it in less than a week?"
Luna pouted. "Fine."
One hour later, Ginny was sorely regretting telling Luna how the self-switching spell worked. "HOW?" she cried, crawling on her hands and knees from where she'd just been awoken from losing yet another duel.
"It's your face, Ginny. And the way the your fingers move. I can see when you're going to switch just before you do it." Ginny groaned.
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