Pick Your Poison (Lesson 3, First Years)

Serenade sat down with a sigh in the classroom. As usual, she was alone but that didn't bother her. Instead, she took out her wand and flicked it, sending a shower of green sparks into the air. She clapped delightedly and began moving the sparks around with controlled movements wit her wand.

"I wonder what we'll be doing in this classroom," Serenade thought as she played with the sparks.

Xaria walked into the room and stopped dead when she saw the sparks. She watched them for a while, thinking that it did look pretty impressive, but went and sat down a few seats away from the other girl.
"Hi, I'm Xaria. Pronounced Zar-ee-ah. Some people don't say it right, so now I just say that all the time," she grinned, folding her arms on the desk and leaning on them. "Who're you?" she asked, watching the girl. She wondered if she had interrupted something, but pushed the thought from her mind. 'Oh well' she thought.

Serenade lowered her wand when another girl walked in. She grinned and replied easily, "Hey. It's nice to meet you. I'm Serenade Locque." She laughed and went on slyly, "Pronounced sair-uh-nade. It rhymes with lemonade."

Serenade smiled slowly at Xaria and put her wand down on the desk. "Sorry about the spark shower, I was bored."

Xaria swiftly took her wand from her robes and put it delicately on the desk. She started smiled slightly at Serenade.
"Well, it's nice to finally meet another firstie around here. I was starting to think I was the only one. Not that that's even possible, but I never seem to see anyone, and it's quite strange... Xaria doesn't rhyme with much, so I just pronounce it slooooowly until people pick it up. It's cool. It looked pretty! How did you learn to do that?" she asked, impressed.

Serenade nodded sagely. "Yeah, I know what you mean about the 'Mysterious Case of the Missing Firsties.' I noticed it too." She grinned savagely and laughed. "Sorry, I like treating life like a great big detective movie. Livens things up for me. Call me crazy, if you like, everyone else does."

Serenade paused, tapping her finger against her chin. "Rhymes with Xaria... Maria? Like that dark stuff on the moon? I think that's what it's called."

The Hitrost looked down at her wand and back up at Xaria, smiling sheepishly. "You mean the sparks? I didn't really learn, per se, I just picked it up by watching other wizards. I don't even know the spell name."