Lesson One: Seventh years

Lorraine had been sitting in her class for a good hour now. If there was one thing about Lorraine, it was that she was never late for a class. Ever. Even when she was sick, she would certainly be sitting at her desk with a medical face mask(to make sure no one else caught what she had) if a potion took more than one day to heal her sickness.

As she sat in her chair, tidying up the papers she had taken out on her desk, "Transfiguration, Year Seven, Professor André" was written neatly on the blackboard to her left. Even after four years of teaching this class, the young Half-Veela couldn't help but to be nervous as she read over her student list, she found herself smiling as scanned over her daughter's name.

The first bell rang to signal the students would be leaving for her class. It was only a matter of time before the students started filing in.

Antonia André walked through the halls like she owned the place. Her silk blue Beauxbatons uniform clung tightly to her in all the right places. What could she say? She looked fantastic. And hell, she did have the rights to walk around the halls like she owned the place; all seventh years did. They were the oldest of the student body and they were the head of the rest of the school. It was finally their last year to shine and make a big impression among Beauxbatons Academy of Magic.

Luckily for Antonia, her mother's class was her first one for the day. Lorraine had proved the school wrong the first year when they thought she was going to go easy on her daughter in class. Wrong, it was the other way around; Lorraine was much harder on Antonia than she was on anyone else. It wasn't because the two didn't get along, no, the two were as close as a mother and daughter could get, it was because she wanted nothing more than for her daughter to do well in life.

"'Allo, Mama," Antonia said quietly in the silent room as she was the first to enter. Her lips curled into a smile at her mother while she sat in the closest seat to her mother's desk as it were easier for the two when they needed to talk.

The two Veela descendants looked nothing like each other. If a student didn't have a class with Antonia, then the chances are that they thought the last name thing was a mere coincidence.

Nike quickly ducked under people, her small stature easily letting her through with minimal resistance. Her blue uniform, fitted semi-tightly around her body as she walked down the halls with a pace of someone who's been here for a while. Her hair was in its usual french braids, trailing down her sides as her bottled glasses blocked her unnerving hazel gaze.

It was finally the Seventh Year. The Year she left and the year they went to Hogwarts for their TriWizard Tournament. Something she's been looking forward to. She giggled silently, not expecting anyone to hear her, after all. She was the most invisible person in class.

She ducked under the door to her class, face in her book and only looking up for a second to formally curtsy. "Bonjour Professor Andre." She nearly whispered, just loud enough for the teacher to hear, then buried her face back into her book. Nike quickly and efficiently chose the seat in the middle, her books and equipment put to the side.

Synn strolled down the halls, acting as if he had all the time in the world. A smile on his face, he quickly made friends with multiple girls, their floo address imprinted in his mind... as well as their other assets. But inwardly he was groaning. Class. The bane of his existence. Really, it was bad enough being home-schooled and having your Mother wake you up. But that story was for another time.

He whistled casually, waving to several people of whom he had no clue who they were, before rounding a corner and feeling abso-fucking-loutely ridiculous for no particular reason. Huh. It was a wonder.

Synn shrugged before striding into the class with a stupid grin on his face. "Yo." He greeted the teacher, not really into the titles... but then he sighed. "Professor Andre." He added with a grimace before sitting down... at the opposite end of the room... where a certain other person was.

Once everyone had shuffled into the class, Lorraine had stood up for her desk and took the attendance list with her. These were all seventh years, she knew all of them by now. She went through the list and checked off everyone was there. The professor placed the list back on the desk before grabbing the book that was required for seventh year transfiguration class and placed it in front of her daughter, saying softly, "eet was with my stuff for some reason."

Straightening out and smiling sweetly to the class, she pulled out her wand and pointed it to the blackboard. Under what was already written, the chalk started to write "Geminio".

"Zees ees ze first spell we weell be learning zis year. Geminio ees ze spell that duplicates objects. For example," she pointed her wand at the book in front of her seventeen-year-old daughter, "geminio." As the words escaped her lips, the book shook before another one appeared right on top of it. Putting down her wand, she picked up the two books and showed them to the class.

Lorraine grabbed her wand once more after placing the words back on her daughter's desk. "Now, I want everyone to take all your books and equipment and stand at ze back of ze room."

Antonia picked up the second book and gave her mother a look. What in the name of Merlin was she supposed to do a second copy of her book? The Quarter-Veela didn't even have to mutter even a syllable as the Half-Veela took the book out of her daughter's hands and made it disappear in thin air.

After smiling, she put her wand made out of elm wood behind the back of her ear. Once she grabbed all of her belongings and headed towards the back of the room, she curious to why her mother was having everyone move back. As she passed by Synn with her back turned to her mother, she placed her flirtatious face on and gave him a wink. Every year when they got back to school, this boy just looked cuter and cuter.

Nike rolled her eyes at the flirtatious looks that was being sent between both Ano- wait. What was her name again? ... Oh yeah. Antonia and Synn. They were perfectly made for each other. Antonia with her Veela heritage, and Synn with his usual playboy charms. She sighed and silently picked up her books, puffing a breath of air to get the loose strands out of her eyes.

She quickly made her way to the back, content to just be in the classroom instead of that cold hotel she stays at during the summer. But still, one question made its way to the forefront of her mind. What were they going to do today?

He whistled a cheery tune, collecting his books and making his way to the back just as Antonia, at least- that's what he thought her name was- gave him a flirtatious look, followed by a bold wink. He grinned back charmingly, not trying to wink as he learned the hard way, he just couldn't do it. It looked like a slow blink.

On his way to the back of the class, he saw Nike standing by herself, but he wouldn't willingly go near her during class. There was no way. Since they could use magic in school, he had no idea how one of their 'magical' fights would go. Probably end up with a ruined classroom, something he hoped to avoid in the near future.

Completely oblivious to her daughter's promiscuous antics, she waited patiently for all of the seventh years to move towards the back. Once they were all patiently and curiously waiting among the walls. With a small flick of her wand, the desks were neatly stacked up against one side of the room. "And now we 'ave room to work weeth."

With another subtle flick of her wand, there were just enough pillows for everyone spread out around the room. "Zis spell takes quite a beet of practising to duplicate ze item as many times as you want." Every year she taught this spell to the students, the item would often duplicate a lot more times than they had planned. One year, she had the object fill the entire room. For that reason alone was why she decided to use pillows. If they were to fill up the classroom, no one would get hurt.

"I want you all try to duplicate ze pillow only once every time you try to use ze spell. So eef you do eet correctly, you weell 'ave ze original pillow and ze duplicate. I weel walk around and 'elp. Begin."

Antonia gave Synn a once-over, not caring if he was looking or not. Even if Antonia was being obvious about her flirting, she had to be careful. She was always careful around her mother. If there was one thing that her mother didn't want her doing, it was using her looks to her advantage. Of course, her mother had heard rumours from various people but never believed anything anyone had to say unless it came out of Antonia's mouth.

"My, my, American boy," she smirked at him, "someone ees lookeen' good."

Synn raised an eyebrow, amused and quite weirded out by the display. Sure she's been flirting with him from time to time, though never this bold... and in front of her Mother too. Hm... it might be fun. And it gets a rise out of some people. Fun.

He slipped his out from his holster hidden in his uniform, the spell on the tip of his tongue- when he turned to Antonia. "And who knew the French could look so good in uniform?" He purred out, hand ready to jet out a Protego if Nike made any move to hex him. Something he was, unfortunately, used to.

Nike rolled her eyes, intent on getting the spell down so she could leave and finish her book. Though Magic at the moment seemed to hate her, as the pillows kept multiplying, though not the small amount she wanted. "Geminio." Three pillows popped up and she wanted to cry. She was usually so good at Transfiguration, though this seemed like Charms, where had her talent gone.

"Geminio." She whispered, wand flicking out to copy her Professor's exact movement. "Mon dieu. Vhy ees zis one spell so 'ard." At least her accent was getting better.

"Mon dieu. Vhy ees zis one spell so 'ard."

"Most spells een seventh year are 'ard, mon amie," Lorraine said as she made her way over to Nike noticing she was having the problem that she knew everyone was. At least her number of duplications were in the smaller range. "You 'ave only just started. Don't get deescouraged." Pointing her wand at the duplicate pillows, she made them disappear before patting Nike on the shoulder.

After magicking one of the small pillows to go flying towards her daughter's butt, she called out, "No slackeen' off, mon chéri! To work weeth you!" Lorraine laughed quietly to herself after seeing the confusion in her daughter's face before moving to another student to clear off their duplicate pillows and helped them with their wand movements.

Just when Antonia opened her mouth to say something back to Synn, something soft hit her in the butt. She jumped slightly and turned around bewildered. Who on earth did—"No slackeen' off, mon chéri! To work weeth you!" Of course.

Bending down to grab the pillow that her mother had thrown at her, she turned back to Synn, "I guess I weell talk to you later, zen." With a wink, she had moved to another part of the fancy looking classroom before she started to practice the spell. She had her mother's gift for transfiguration, but not even that was of help. Her mother was right when she warned her over the summer that seventh year classes contained a lot harder magic than she had anticipated. After about ten times and twenty minutes later, she was sitting there with nearly forty extra small pillows piled next to her, the smallest amount of duplicates she had managed to produce once was two. It was so close! Just one more than just needed. Although, after ten times of getting it wrong already, she was ready to just use confringo on the lot and call it a day.

"Mon dieu. Vhy ees zis one spell so 'ard."

Ignore, ignore, ignore, ignore...

He shrugged when Antonia, eyebrows raised at the amount of pillows that surrounded the room. Doesn't seem like anyone was actually getting it. He saw people multiplying those feathered fiends by the dozen. Huh. Maybe they just put too much power into them? He frowned and slipped his wand out of his holster.

"Geminio."

He restrained his magic, putting a limitation on the power behind the spell, chuckling at the resulting creations. 2 and half pillows. Was that even possible? Maybe the teach would know... nah. He grinned and started casting the spell again, and again. Not even bothering to restrain his magic again, this was too much fun. And right now, his goal was to fill the room with the things.

Inside his mind, he heard an evil cackle... or did he do that aloud...?

Lorraine made her way over to Synn and noticed that he just kept multiplying them by the number. With a small flick, all of his spare pillows were now gone. She gave him a smile as she knew he was just having fun multiplying them.

"Now I know eet can be fun, but try to concentrate and zen you weell be able to do ze spell correctly, don't worry."

The half-Veela made her way around the room a few more times before speaking louder than everyone else, even if she did have quite the soft voice, "everyone, you are doing so well. Class ees almost over. I'm sure eef you really concentrate, zen you weell be able to finally do eet! Whoever can do ze spell before we leave weell not 'ave to practice eet for 'omework."