Sorting Out Priorities (Trio)

Harry and Ron stood in the common room trying a new spell they had been taught to do at Charms. The simple accio. Yes, it was a very easy charm, but they had been talking with Ricky the whole class, and in the end, Ricardo seemed to get the hang of it and they didn't. "Accio," Harry whispered but nothing happened. "We must be moving our wands wrong, Ron" he mused as he looked at his friend.

Ron nodded at Harry's thought of why this spell wasn't working. Changing his wand motion slightly, he tried again, "Accio!" Nothing. The spell didn't make anything move towards them. Rubbing his neck in frustration, Ron looked at Harry and said, "Guess we should have paid better attention, huh?"

Hermione was sitting in the corner trying to read her book,, but she kept getting distracted by two boys trying to practice what they had done in charms. She was just going to ignore them, but she couldn't help herself.

She stood and pulled her wand out. "You're doing it wrong," she said. "It's like this." She held out her wand and showed them the proper way to move their wands. "Accio," she said simply, and her book flew back into her hands. "See?" she said, smiling triumphantly.

Ron looked up as a fellow lion got up and joined them. Right away she told them they were doing the spell wrong and then performed it flawlessly. Looking at Harry with a 'is she for real' type look, he glanced back at the girl. "Well, aren't you the clever one..." he said, his pride slightly hurt by being shown up by a girl. "Well, guess it's worth a try..." he added before giving his wand a wave, like she had done, and said the spell just as she had. One of the chess pieces on the board across from his wiggled and tipped over. Smiling, Ron was proud that he had done something. Next time for sure.... Looking at Harry he said, "Give it a go, Harry!"

Harry looked as another lion, or better yet, lioness, got up, and performed the spell Harry and Ron had been trying to execute for over half an hour without any difficulties. His jaw fell but he quickly pulled it back up, and then his focus shifted to Ron's words. He liked how Ron could be so direct at times. Harry knew he himself wasn't and couldn't be like that. Nodding as Ron spoke to him, he aimed his wand at a chair nonetheless, and remembered Hermione's moves perfectly. He pulled his wand back, and uttered, "Accio,"  and the chair was brought to him, but it was only brought back halfway. "Wow..." he said, surprise invading his tone.

Hermione watched as the boys tried to mimic her actions. They were both partially successful, but they could have done better. "Better. Now you just have to focus a little more," she said. Hermione wasn't completely interested in helping her housemates, as much as she just enjoyed being smarter than other people.

Ron nodded a good job to Harry before turning back to his housemate. She told them to focus more, so he shrugged and gave it another go. Moving his wand as before, thinking harder about what he needed the spell to do, and saying the needed words, Ron let the spell fly. Then, holding out his hand, the white queen chess piece sailed into his hand. "Alright!" he said happily, holding the piece up to look at. Turning to the girl he said, "Hermione, right? Ummmm.... Thanks...."

Harry nodded as Hermione gave them further instructions. He turned to the chair, and focused solely on it. He forgot the paintings of ancient gryffindors, he forgot that the gryffindor ghost, Nick, was hovering around, and focused only on the chair he was trying to bring over. He pulled with a wave, and it came all the way to him, and he had to take a step to his side so it didn't hit him, "Wow....Thanks!"

Hermione smiled when they both finally got it. "There you go," she said. She nodded when the red-head said her name. "That's me." She finally took a good look at them and realized that she knew them. She'd met them on the train. Not to mention, one of them happened to be rather famous. "And you're welcome. You might want to pay more attention is class next time."

Ron looked at Harry and then back at Hermione sheepishly. "Yeah. Might be helpful...." he answered. His mother would kill him if he didn't do well in class. That was the last thing he wanted, to receive a Howler from her. That was almost worse than death at home...

"Well, tell Ricardo to stop telling us about his country," Harry shook his head as he thought of how Ricky did not get quiet when it came to Portugal. The boy spoke and spoke and spoke, and he had barely lived there. "If not for him, we would've payed attention," he said honestly. He really didn't know how Hermione could catch everything the professors said. It was maddening.

Hermione shrugged. "Maybe he should pay some more attention as well," she said simply. That was Hermione's solution to everything. Pay attention in class, and study whenever you weren't in class so that you could do well in class. It seemed simple enough for her, but she had a much larger attention span than most of her peers.

"The thing is, he didn't pay attention and he can do the spell better than you me or Ron," Harry said as he widened his eyes slightly at his own sentence. "I don't get how he does it," he shook his head.

Ron nodded in agreement with Harry when he told Hermione that, really, it was Ricky's fault that they missed the needed stuff to do this spel properly. His country was intereting and Ron enjoyed hearing about it. It certainly was slightly more interesting than class, but she did have a point. If they wanted to do well, they needed to pay attention....at least a little better. "Maybe Ricky's just a natural talent when it comes to this stuff. I mean, how can he be better than all three of us put together and he paid less attention then we did?" Ron said with a shrug.

Hermione shrugged. She didn't know Ricky, so she didn't know what his secret was. "I don't know," she said. Hermione hated saying those words, and it was somewhat obvious by the face she pulled after saying them. But she was curious. How did the boy manage to be so skilled? Talent was one thing, but it was nothing unless you had knowledge to put behind it.