Miss Gamp had clearly paid attention in her Charms lessons and Connie, perhaps pre-emptively and spotting nothing wrong with the intonation or the wand movement, foolishly thought that this ordeal might be over. Against her expectations the niffler merely bounced for a moment, but before she could congratulate Miss Gamp on good work under duress her wand backfired dramatically, banging into Miss Gamp with force before rattling to the ground. The niffler flew into the air, arching towards the Hufflepuff table where it landed and immediately meandered about its business as though nothing had happened.

She rolled her eyes. This was what came from communing with nature – nothing but disaster.

“Miss Gamp, are you quite alright?” She asked solicitously, trying to locate where her wand had rolled to, frowning at the dots of blood on the stone until she identified them as coming from her own sleeve. Rather quickly as it happened…

“I suspect I have come away worse off.”

---

MJ made me beautiful