As soon as Liz entered the door home, her father asked her, not for the first time, whether she had learned anything while she was out. She was getting awfully sick of it. What did he expect, some random wizard would teach her how to unlock a door at the Leaky Cauldron? Maybe she'd meet a witch on accident at the restaurant and would learn a body-binding charm. Choosing to ignore him rather than point this out, she simply walked up to her bedroom, intent on playing video games for the rest of the night; the diner was closed, so she didn't have anything else to do. Her plan was completely interrupted when the power went of.
"Lumos!" She turned to see her father with his wand in front of him, a creepy light illuminating his face. At her questioning look, he explained, "Your mother's looking for a candle, since she can't use magic."
"Alright, I'll go help her," Liz agreed, but was stopped by her father's hand in front of her. He winked and whispered, "Or we could take this time to teach you that new spell I keep bothering you about." She opened her mouth to respond, but he shushed her and continued. "Have you ever heard of Lumos?"
"Yes," she replied uneasily. "Professor Smith taught it to us. But I didn't do too well with it..."
"Try again," he encouraged. "It takes a few times to learn."
She hesitated for a moment before whispering, "Lumos." The wand didn't even spark. She sent him a look, and he simply nodded, gesturing for her to try again. "Lumos. Lumos!" On the third time, she thought she saw a wisp of light, but if it was there at all it fizzled within half a second. She sighed, frustrated, as her younger brother Marcus bounced into the room. She sighed; he was coming to Hogwarts next year, so he was probably looking at how to work the spells, too. She frowned at him; more people there was slowly heightening her self-consciousness and making it harder to perform the incantation.
"Lumos." It was hardly a whisper now, and absolutely nothing happened. "Louder," her father encouraged with a good-natured smile. Liz's father was very good-looking, and his grin instantly helped her relax. "You need to be confident when you say a spell; if you're timid, the wand will recognize it and it won't work."
"Can I try?" Marcus asked, bouncing on the living room couch. Liz scowled. "No! LUMOS!" Finally, a bright flame-like light burst onto the end of her wand. She was delighted and practically screamed with glee, deciding instead to simply laugh happily. Her father smiled at her, and suddenly her eyes were flooded with light.
"Power's back," Marcus observed. She rolled her eyes in reply, though the happy feeling in her gut didn't waver. "Nox," she declared just after her father. Nothing happened again. She sighed, handing her wand to her father. She had learned one spell that day; she was happy enough as it was.
