Winifred had actually been rather glad to receive her tutor assignment from Trishna. She had liked him pretty well, and he certainly was much nicer than her head of house. Ravenclaw was lucky. So was Gryffindor. Heck, even the librarian was probably nicer than mean old Sanpoophead. Her tutor was another fourth year who was in Ravenclaw. Winifred didn't know Zoe very well, but she hoped that the girl would like her and wouldn't be mean. When Harcroft had helped her last year, she had worked really hard to do better, and it had helped. And now that she had a proper wand- well, the sky was the limit, wasn't? (Well, maybe not. For Winnie the limit was more like the limbo bar on its highest setting.)

She was meeting the Ravenclaw by the lake. Winnie wasn't sure what she needed to bring, so she packed her Charms, Transfiguration, and Defense book into her satchel, along with a few scraps of parchment and a self-inking quill. She figured that was all she needed for tutoring, and her wand was carried securely in her hand as she found her way out the front door and down toward the lake.

Winnie stood at the edge of the water, peering out over it, wondering whether or not the giant squid was anywhere nearby. She always liked watching the squid. Winnie had heard that he would save drowning first years by putting them back in their boat, so the squid had to be super nice and definitely the sort of animal that she would get along with. Lord Fluffybutt didn't like the squid, though. At least, that was Winnie's conclusion after she had tossed him in the lake to go swimming with the squid and he'd scratched her and hidden from her for a week.

She turned when she saw a flurry of robes coming her way, and smiled at Zoe. "Hello! I wasn't sure what to bring," Winifred immediately launched into conversation. "So I got a few books and little bit of parchment and a quill and my wand. But I don't know if I should be practicing spells at you- I'm still afraid I might blow someone up." Even though, so far this week, her new wand was out performing her old one by miles.

Zoe was excited to tutor. She had never really helped out another student as a tutor, more of going over a spell that a housemates didn't understand with them. Still, she was sure she could be a great tutor. Which is why Zoe had refused pay, her family was wealthy as it was and this was should be volunteer work. You tutor to help other people learn, not just so you can get money.

Since the young witch wasn't the best as Transfiguration and DADA, she opted for Charms for Winifred, the girl she was told she would tutor. Zoe knew Winifred lacked skills in wandwork, but she didn't know how bad she was. She needed supplies for the spells, though, so she had to choose some plan. Finally she decided they would just do a list of spells, and progress. First Zoe would do the Hover and Summoning Charms, which hopefully Winifred could do or else Zoe would need a lot of patience, next the Hot Air, Mending, and Banishing Charms, then the Tickling and Cheering Charms if her wand hadn't backfired yet. If needed the young witch was willing to move onto more.

Bringing with her a crystal glass, which the house elves had kindly let her borrow, and her Charms textbook, Zoe took her wand and ran down to the lake. Another girl was already there. How did Winifred beat her? Zoe always arrived early for things... maybe the trip to the kitchen slowed her down. Oh well.

This girl seemed like a second Ayla when it came to mouth. Were all Hufflepuffs like this? "Oh no Winifred, it's fine. Every thing we're practicing is undo-able. And we're practicing Charms. I have a nice long list we can work with so we're just going to start from First Year material and just sort of go from there." Zoe put down the glass and book onto the grass. "So first, we will work on the Hover Charm. I'm sure you know the incantation, would you care to levitate this book?" The young girl sat down onto the grass and motioned to the Charms textbook.

Winifred was relieved when Zoe said that everything they were doing would be easy to undo. "That's good to hear!" She had been worried that might not be the case. But Zoe was a Ravenclaw, so Winifred trusted her magical skill and knowledge, and hoped that these tutoring sessions would prove to be successful so that Zoe didn't feel like she was wasting her time with this. Winnie knew that it would be frustrating for both of them if she didn't show any progress.

"Levitation?" Winifred asked, peering at the Charms textbook that Zoe sat down on the ground. Winifred was not entirely sure that she remembered the incantation properly, and looked nervously at Zoe before peering at the Charms book again. "I think the spell is something leviosa, isn't it?" she asked. "I'm sorry I don't remember well. I don't have a very good memory most of the time." Probably because Winifred didn't really study in an attempt to commit things to memory.

"Let me check," she added, pulling her own Charms book out of her bag, flipping to the index to see if she could find the leviosa part. "Can we practice saying it before I try it?" she added, still flipping through her pages. "I remember something in Charms class about how if you said it wrong you would end up with a buffalo on your chest. I'd really rather not end up smushed to death by a buffalo a week before my birthday. I don't think that would be very fun."

Zoe was honestly shocked that Winifred didn't know the incantation to the first charm she had ever learned, the first charm probably most everyone learned. She didn't want to show her surprise, and tried to keep her face more or less smiling. This was going to be a lot harder than she thought. Just stay calm and patient, the lack of it will likely stress out Winifred, maybe make her do even worse.

The young witch watched as the Hufflepuff girl attempted to find it in her Charms book. Was her memory honestly that bad? She forced a small laugh after the girl's comment about a buffalo on her chest not being very fun. "The incantation is 'Wingardium Leviosa'. It's pronouced win-GAR-dee-um lev-ee-OH-sa." Zoe drew her pine wand from her wand pocket at the front of her robes, pointing it at the book.

"Watch me. Wingardium Leviosa." Almost instantly the Charms book began to lift off the ground, and Zoe moved it around in the air with her wand. "You can move an object once levitated by just moving your wand as you would like the object to," she explained while making the book go left and right in the air. Zoe then lowered the book back towards the grass and then dropped the spell, placing her wand next to her. "Now you try. Remember, win-GAR-dee-um lev-ee-OH-sa."

Winnie- had she any sense of shame- would probably blush when Zoe explained the charm. But Winifred was, as most people knew, quite shameless. Instead she dropped her book and smiled brightly. "Oh, right, I knew that!" she said simply, watching the Ravenclaw girl as she levitated the book and moved it back and forth gracefully in the air.

"Win-GAR-dee-um lev-ee-OH-sa," the Hufflepuff repeated carefully. That was simple enough, she figured. As a fourth year she totally had mastered a first year spell, right? She couldn't be quite that terrible?

As luck would have it- she wasn't. New wand clutched confidently in hand, she pointed it at the book. "Wingardium Leviosa!" she called out loudly, and the book jumped from the ground and hovered mid air. She beamed brightly, looking over at Zoe. That had gone very well! Now if only Winnie could do that with charms that were in her own year. But as her concentration on the spell broke, her glee overtaking her focus, the book fell back to the ground with a loud thud.

"Sorry about that!" she said. "I got distracted. I was just so glad I didn't blow up your book! I think this new wand is really a lot of help." Winifred refocused, and levitated the book again. She moved her wand back and forth. The book didn't move quite as gracefully as when Zoe had done it, instead jerking quickly back and forth in the air. Even so, that was better than Winifred would usually do. "See, I totally have this!" She lowered her wand, and the book plummeted to the ground again.  "What's next?" she asked, obviously enthused by her initial success.

Oh, of course she knew that. Zoe was able to spot a lie easily, and also how the girl seemed to legitimately not care. Oh well, as long as the Hufflepuff learned how to do Charms with her new wand Zoe would be satisfied with the tutoring lesson.

As soon as Winifred levitated the book a wide smile broke out on Zoe's face. "Great job Wini-" the Ravenclaw was cut off by the book thudding to the ground. Zoe nearly hit her forehead with her palm, but made no movement. And Winifred had been doing so... kinda... well! "Don't worry, just try again." Soon the book was levitated again and Zoe clapped a little. "Good Hover Charm," the young witch complimented. Unable to really think of another comment that w0uldn't make Winifred feel bad, she simply moved on to the next spell.

"Ok, next up is the Summoning Charm. I'm sure you've heard of this one, I personally find it one of the easiest and most useful charms. We'll use my book again." Zoe pointed her wand at her Charms book and said under her breath, "Depulso." The book flew several feet away and then once again hit the ground.

"The incantation is Accio followed by what you are trying to summon. For instance," Zoe put her wand down so it wouldn't perform a spell. "Accio Charms book. However, if you point your wand directly at an object and just say Accio, it will summon the object you are pointing at. I'd like you to try it both ways." Zoe hoped her book would not end up in the lake or, as Winifred had mentioned earlier, blown up. Then again, buying a new one wasn't hard. She could tell her mother by mirror to buy one and send it by owl.

Winifred watched as Zoe shot the book backward, and paid attention as she described how to do the charm. Accio was relatively simple. Winifred had managed that one well enough when they had practiced. Well... well-ish. When she'd done her Charms exam she'd had to accio a marble and it had more rolled to her than it had flown to her. But it was still something!

Aim must be important, then, if Zoe wanted her to try both. Winifred didn't want to accidentally summon a clump of grass or a tree. She'd try it first by summoning the book by name. Winifred lifted her wand and pointed it at the charms book. "Accio Charms book!" It  scooted forward on the grass, sliding along the ground toward her. "Oh no!" Winnie exclaimed. She hoped that wouldn't ruin the book! "I bet I got it all dirty!" The book skidded to a halt and bumped against Winifred's feet.

She picked up the book and dusted it off, handing it back to Zoe. "I don't want to try that other charm. I don't want to sling your book into the lake or something." It was at least semi successful. "I'm sorry I'm not very good at this. I never have been. But I promise I am trying very hard. I guess you didn't expect to have to work so hard when you offered to tutor, huh?" Winnie asked.

Zoe cringed slightly when her book began to drag through the grass. She wanted to quickly Finite it to make sure it was okay, but she didn't want to make Winifred feel bad! Fact was, if she came to class with a very dirty book it would seem like she didn't care about her things and had mishandled the book.

Taking the book back slowly, Zoe looked it over. It was a little bit dirty, but her mum could surely fix that. "Don't worry Winifred, it's, uh, fine." She placed the book back onto the ground. Zoe instantly felt bad once Winifred said that she was doing badly and giving Zoe a hard time. "Oh no Winifred, don't feel that way! I am completely fine with you as who I'm tutoring."

Pausing a few seconds to pick up her wand, she, once again under her breath, banished Winifred's book this time. "Maybe this will motivate you. Thing is, when you do any spell you have to want the effects and concentrate. Do that, and I have total confidence in you." This time, Zoe did keep her wand raised. If the book did fly at Winifred, it might hit her. In that case a counter-spell or Accio of her own would probably be needed.

Winifred was glad that Zoe was being patient with her. She liked that. Maybe Zoe wasn't so bad after all. She seemed to think all Ravenclaws were a bit too hard to handle and somewhat obnoxious. Winnie liked her own house and Gryffindors the best. But it was easier to have a tutor in her year, she guessed. Though Harcroft had done a fine job helping her with Transfiguration last year, and even Dax and Fauna had helped some. But older students were busy this year not only with exams but also with the tournament.

"I hope you mean it," Winnie said when Zoe tried to reassure her that she didn't mind tutoring a bad-at-magic Hufflepuff. "Cause you might be stuck with me for a while. But like I said, I do try really hard. It's just... not everyone is good at magic, I guess." Of course, most people weren't quite as bad at it as Winifred was. (Other than Ambrose, of course.)

Then Zoe mentioned concentrating, and wanting the effects. The Ravenclaw even said she had confidence that Winnie could succeed! "Oh, that's right! I'm supposed to be confident, too. Harcroft told me last year that maybe I was so bad at magic because I didn't think I would ever be able to get it right. Something about being confident making it easier to cast spells. But I guess if it was that easy, though, nobody would be bad at it."

Even so- she was rambling, and she had her charms book to summon to her. "Right then, back to work," she said to herself. Winifred pointed her wand at the book, and took a deep breath. "Accio!" she called out loudly.

And, unsurprised, the book did not come toward her. Instead a clump of wild flowers that were growing just to the left of the book lifted up into the air and came flying at her- roots and all. Winifred dropped, falling face first in the grass to try to avoid getting pelted in the face with dirt and plant. "Drat," she muttered, still laying on the ground. "I knew that was too good to be true!"

"As long as you try hard that's what counts. And it doesn't mean that you're bad at magic, maybe there's just something that's stopping you from doing spell correctly, mental or physical." Which was what Zoe was praying that was. Maybe Winifred's new wand was picked in an inefficient way or the wood or core or something didn't want to show what it could do. Maybe Winifred just had little self confidence or had a hard time putting effort or meaning behind her spells.

Then something was just sort of put off in Zoe. Winifred's comment made Zoe feel that she not only had little confidence in her abilities, but also in her old tutor's and Zoe's ability to give useful advice.  Zoe watched Winifred try the Summoning Charm again, and watched the flowers fly at her instead. The young witch moved her wand quickly, as she had been taught to for the Dueling Club she had been in previous years. "DEPULSO!" She said it loudly and with a lot of feeling, hoping that would make it easier to hit the moving object. The Ravenclaw had confidence in her aim, as she had hit a few moving objects before with spells. Winifred hit the forest floor right before the spell was cast, but she wouldn't have needed to. The flowers ended up harmlessly in the lake.

Zoe walked over to the Hufflepuff, leaning down and reaching out a hand. "Come now, get up. It's perfectly safe. You did fine for summoning with Accio alone. It was just your aim that was off that time. Just picture the book coming towards you in your mind, then your wand might obey you easier without your aim having to be exact. At least that's what my father said." Most of Zoe's spell knowledge came from three places: her father, a few spellbooks, and experience.

"Try again but use the name of the object, imagine it coming towards you and want it to, and have confidence and put confidence behind your words. I know this is a lot, but if you will ever scrap in any wandwork subject you have to get to a point where you can do that without thinking." Wanting to give some support to the Hufflepuff doing a task that was obviously not easy for her, Zoe added, "If you get frustrated tell me, I'll be able to help you with that. If you want to take a break we can do that as well. It's all up to you." Nervous about what Winifred would do this time, Zoe raised her wand once more. Was it just her or was this tutoring turning a bit into babysitting with spells?

"Thanks, Zoe," Winifred said, getting back up and dusting herself off. "That was real fast spellwork with the flowers! Good too!" She hoped that one day she'd be able to cast spells like that. It certainly would make her life a lot easier in the long run. If she stuck with the tutoring, maybe she'd eventually get there.

"I have a hard time picturing it," Winnie said to Zoe, "without picturing it going wrong. I always think that it's going to come and hit me in the face or something, it's hard to imagine the book just casually floating to me like it's not going to kill me." Because surely if a book went fast enough and smacked you in the face it just had to be lethal.

Zoe assured Winifred that they could take a break if she wanted to. "I want to keep trying," the Hufflepuff assured the Ravenclaw girl. "I know I can do it! I'm just not used to my new wand yet." Among other things, but that was going to be Winnie's standby excuse for a long while.

She closed her eyes for a minute, and tried to think about the book coming toward her. It was hard to picture a successful scenario, but after a minute or two she thought she had it right. Next step was confidence, right? Winnie pointed her wand at the charms book (hers this time). "Accio Charms Book!" she called out loudly, forcefully. The book jumped from the ground and came right to her, dropping out of the air once it got to her feet. She beamed at Zoe. "Told you I could do it!"

But Winifred's attention span, after succeeding in a task, was not always the best. Tutoring was well and good, but she wanted to talk about stuff other than just classes and wandwork. Zoe was her age, after all, so maybe they could be friends!

"Hey Zoe, have you ever kissed a boy?" Winifred asked, picking up her charms book to make sure she hadn't damaged it. Winifred thought a lot about boys, so it was a normal question to ask someone in her opniion.

Zoe smiled when the Hufflepuff complimented her. "Oh thanks Winifred, it was really nothing." She hoped that one day the girl would wake up being able to do Charms, but hoping for that was like hoping for a law that stated all Muggles could know about wizards. It just wasn't going to happen. Not without hard work at least.

"Just have confidence Winifred. I'm sure that even if the book hit you in the face there are plenty of spells and potions to heal anything." That second sentence wasn't true. If the book hit her in the head and caused brain damage, Zoe wasn't sure if that could be reversed. Cuts, broken noses, broken teeth, split lip, even eyeball being poked out, that could all be reversed. If Winifred, however, hit herself in the forehead so hard it did something to her brain, the young witch would feel worse than she had in her life.

The Ravenclaw silently prayed for success at this Summoning Charm, hoping that mentally giving her hope would work. It had to work. This was pretty pathetic. Zoe watched at her attempt again and, it worked!.... sorta. Good enough for Zoe. "Great job! I knew you could do it." She seriously felt like hugging Winifred. Finally she had done it okay once.

As soon as the question left the Hufflepuff Zoe froze. Boy talk?! Seriously?! Ayla was bad enough, but now this. "Uh... no... Look Winifred we have a lot of work to do until you will actually be doing fourth year level magic, can we please continue?" Zoe didn't wait for an answer before she kept going.

Taking off one shoe, the Ravenclaw placed in front of Winifred. "Now, practice what you've learn. We'll use my shoe since it's less dangerous. First, levitate it and then move it away from you. Then drop it and summon it back to you." For her, this was as simple of a task as it got. She just hoped the same for Winifred.

Winifred frowned when Zoe brushed off her question with a total lack of enthusiasm and insisted that they continue. The Hufflepuff girl knew that she was a long way from being able to do fourth year magic with ease, but that didn't mean they couldn't gossip a little while they worked. "I'm perfectly capable of multitasking," she said to Zoe. "So if you wanted to talk while we work, I could totally do both." Which basically meant that Winnie wanted to talk while they worked.

She watched Zoe take off her shoe and put it down. Winnie wasn't sure how a shoe was less dangerous than a book... Levitate it, move it away, and summon it back. That didn't sound too complicated when Zoe worded it the way she had. Easy peasy lemon squeezy and what not.

Winifred closed her eyes again, focusing on the task at hand. She walked through each step in her mind, three different times, before popping her eyes open again and beaming at Zoe. "I totally have this!" she assured the Ravenclaw. "Your shoes is going to be totally fine!"

She flicked her wand at the shoe, and it slowly hovered upward. Now she had to move it away from herself. Winifred flicked her wand- hard- hoping to send the shoe away from her. And away it definitely went. The shoe began to fly- at a much faster speed than Winnie had anticipated- toward the lake. Winifred kept flicking her wand down, hoping to sling the shoe to the ground, but it didn't seem to be listening. "STOP IT!" she yelled at the shoe. "DROP TO THE GROUND DO IT NOW!" she continued flinging the tip of her wand down toward the grass- but the shoe continued to zoom toward the surface of the lake.

Zoe turned to roll her eyes at Winifred's comment. She didn't want the Hufflepuff to see her understanding of her desire to talk, and how she dismissed it completely. Gossip was one thing Zoe didn't want to do at all, especially because she was doing this as a volunteer. The Ravenclaw had already refused the pay, and it would be embarrassing to ask for it anyway because this tutoring lessons were a waste of time. They had barely done a thing so far and already the young witch felt her patience being taken away.

The Ravenclaw waited, breath held, as Winifred readied herself. This had to work. However, she had little faith it would. It was hard tutoring for someone you had no trust in. It was only a shoe, hopefully that would put every living thing in less danger. She couldn't say the same about the shoe.

As her shoe levitated up nicely Zoe let her breath out. Maybe this wasn't so bad after all. "You're doing fine Winifred, now just bring it away." And she did, way to much. Once Winifred started yelling at the shoe and flinging her wand downward Zoe knew she had no control anymore. "No Winifred, that's not how you..." the young witch knew that Winifred's yell drowned out her words. This went really bad really fast.

Once her shoe was over the lake Zoe knew she had to act now or risk losing her shoe to the mermaids. Her wand was pointed in lightning speed. "FINITE INCANTATEM" A second long pause. "Accio my shoe!" The first spell took effect, the shoe losing the power of Winifred's wand and dropping towards the lake. The sole of the shoe touch the water, and soon it was a few centimeters under. Zoe willed her wand to work with her, and was relieved when she saw her black leather shoe fly towards her. The young witch caught it and sighed with relief.

Not paying much mind to Winifred at first, the Ravenclaw cast the Hot Air Charm and dried her shoe. She then put it back onto her foot. "Winifred," Zoe said still putting it on. "That's not how you make a spell work." The Ravenclaw rose and now faced the Hufflepuff. "First of all, yelling does not work. Shoes don't have ears. Neither do wands. You cannot tell your wand to drop a shoe and it will, spell are the only verbal commands wands except. Second of all, anger will not help at all. When you lose control of yourself, you'll often lose control of your wand. The only exception I know of is when all your anger is directed towards one thing that you want to attack and hurt it, then that can be used to fuel dark magic you might not be able to use otherwise because your wand will respond to the power of your anger. Otherwise, it'll hurt your magic."

Zoe took another breath, calmed herself, and continued in a more friendly tone. "Also, waving your wand willy-nilly when it does not do as you wish or with too much force can make spell go out of control. You must always have control over your movements. Once you lose control it is hard to make a spell come back into control without negating it and trying again or letting the spell carry through and dealing with its effects." The Ravenclaw stopped talking to let this sink in. If Winifred didn't learn from her mistakes she would never be able to do anything at all.