Wingardium Leviosa.
Kara hadn’t meant to sleep in as late as she did. She told herself 5 more minutes of sleep but when she awoke again with the sun shining through the window in their dorm, she realized she was about to be very late. She looked at her watch, she had 45 minutes to get to her first class. She jumped out of her bed and rushed to fix her hair and brush her teeth. She put her hair up in a messy ponytail and fumbled putting on her shoes, not bothering to tie them all the way.
Kara had always advocated highly for breakfast; it was part of her morning routine that she never missed. She knew if she wanted to have breakfast that morning she needed to get there as fast as she could. She made her way out of the Hufflepuff entrance and flew past the kitchens, all she needed to do was get up the stairs and round the corner.
Whether it was a combination of her not having her shoes tied, not paying attention to where she was going or the speed at which she was going, what happened next added to the chaos of her morning.
As she rounded the corner, she was hit very forcibly by something that sent said thing flying, along with her open book bag. In the daze of it all, Kara hears is a heavy thud followed by the sound of her books scattering across the floor. When she finally registers what has happened, she realizes she has just knocked someone to the ground.
That someone was Lena Luthor.
“Oh. My gosh. I am so sorry!!! Are you okay!” She nervously fidgets with her glasses before extending out her hand to help the girl up. Kara at this point is beet red. She can’t believe that of all the people she would run into today, it had to be her. It takes a few moments for Lena to reach out and grab Kara’s hand to help her up. Almost sensing the girl’s nervousness Lena was quick to respond.
“Do you usually knock people over this early in the morning? Or am I just lucky?”
“No! ummmm. No! I really am so sorry; I’m running late and wasn’t paying attention. Are you okay?”
Kara had expected the girl to be furious, she waited for the heated words and prepared to continue her apology, but it never came.
The girl simply laughed.
“I’m fine, but I can’t say the same for your books” She says as she points behind them.
Kara hadn’t realized how close they were. After she helped Lena up, she still hadn’t let go to the death grip. With another deep blush she quickly let go and took a nervous step back.
Lena cleared her throat and knelt down to help the pickup Kara’s belongings.
Trying to play it cool Kara says the first thing in her mind and extends her hand out “What a way to start my first day huh? I’m. I’m. Umm Kara. Kara Danvers!”
Kara internally scolds herself, why was it so hard to introduce herself?
“Lena Luthor, it’s a pleasure to meet you Kara.”
Still in shock that Lena hasn’t caught on to her nervousness, she shakes her hand and gives Lena a little curtsy. Before she could do or say anything else to embarrass herself, as if on cue she felt her stomach rumble, reminding her that she was still indeed still running late.
“Well Lena Luthor it is a pleasure to meet you. Oh shoot. I’m going to be late. I am very sorry again and I hope that this isn’t the last time we run into each other!” She says as she quickly turns to make her way into the Great Hall.
“As long as you mean in the figurative sense and not the literal Miss Danvers.” She hears Lena say to her as she continues down the hall. Over her shoulder she makes one last response before she disappears.
“No guarantees!”
Once inside, she rushes to join an already seated Winn and Barry.
“Well well well, if it isn’t sleeping beauty. Glad you found time to finally make it to breakfast with 20 minutes to spare” Winn says looking down at his watch “Alex waited for you but had to take off, and we tried our best to hold off but honestly we were too hungry and counted you as a lost cause.”
“Yeah yeah, it's fine guys sorry I’m late. I accidentally slept in and have been in a rush all morning” Kara proceeded to fill her plate with various food as Winn and Barry watched in horror as she scarfed everything down without stopping to breathe.
After breakfast the three of them made their way to the greenhouse for their first class Herbology followed by Potions. Most of the morning goes surprisingly well for Kara, she only had one mishap in potions and thankfully it wasn’t anything serious. Kara made a mental note that Potions may not be her best class but did find out that Winn happened to be a huge Herbology nerd.
The trio ate lunch together that afternoon and prepared for their afternoon classes; Flying and Charms.
Barry had grown up loving Quidditch and couldn’t wait to begin flying, at lunch he had talked about how his family was huge Holyhead Harpies fans and how he hoped to become good enough to play for Hufflepuff.
Winn was more of a Puddlemere United fan but maintained that he had no desire to ever play Quidditch and would leave the flying to the professionals.
“My philosophy is to keep my feet on the ground whenever possible.” He says as they stand outside waiting for the start of their first flying lesson.
“That’s fair, but if I ever make the team you better come watch me play.” Barry tells Winn teasingly.
Kara watched Winn and Barry banter back and forth while she just smiled, enjoying their easy-going personalities. Out of the corner of her eye she notices the boy from the sorting had walked out to the field and made a beeline straight for Kara. With a sly smile he stopped right in front of her blocking Winn and Barry from her view.
“Hi, I’m Mike” He says to her while extending out his hand. Not wanting to seem rude she skeptically shook his hand and quickly put her hands in her robe pockets and waited for whatever else he was going to say.
“I’m Kara. Danvers.”
“Kara.” He says like he’s committing her name to memory. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I noticed you the other day in the Great Hall and wanted to introduce myself.”
Kara simply nodded acknowledging what he had said, but not really having a reply.
Not taking too kindly to Kara’s silence he clears his throat and moves slightly to turn to Winn and Barry.
“Not to brag or anything but I grew up on Quidditch and I’ve gotten pretty good at flying, it’s only a matter of time before they’ll let me play on the Slytherin team.” Mike tells the group with a smug smile.
“I thought they didn’t let first years try out?” Winn asks confused.
“Well, when you’re this good, anything is possible.”
Kara and Barry tried their best to hide their laughter but were unsuccessful. After realizing that he hadn’t made quite the impression he anticipated, his smile quickly turned to a scowl. “What? It could happen. You’ll see!” he says as he storms off, leaving the trio to simply laugh the encounter off.
Madam Hooch made her way to the field and waved her hands calling the group in to begin their lesson.
“Good afternoon everyone and Welcome to your first flying lesson. Today were going to keep it simple, now please make your way to one of the brooms in front of you.” Kara and Barry find brooms next to each other while Winn moseys a little farther down, not entirely thrilled to be there.
“Now, with either your right or left hand extended above the broom your command will be ‘up’ like so”
Madam Hooch effortlessly calls her broom stick up and motions for the class to do the same.
“Up!” “Up!” Kara tries a few times but isn’t having much luck, her broom lay motionless in the grass.
“Up!” Barry commands his broom, it doesn’t quite lift off the ground but there is some movement.
This continues for a few minutes, Kara and Barry attempting to get their brooms to move. As she starts to get frustrated, she looks down the row of students and notices that Mike had indeed been successful which for some reason only makes her more frustrated.
“And who might you be?” A voice brings her out of her frustrated state.
“I’m Kara. Danvers.” She responds attempting to leave the frustration out of her tone.
“Well Miss Danvers, when calling up your broom you need to be assertive and direct. Like such.”
“Up!” Madam Hooch shows her again while the broom instantly flies up to her hand.
“Now, try again and this time try with more assertiveness.” Kara closes her eyes and prepares to try again.
“Up!” She commands and finally she feels the broom hit her hand and goes to maintain a firm grasp.
She opens her eyes and is surprised to be met with smiles from both Barry and Madam hooch.
“See, you could do it all along you just need to believe in yourself more.” Madam Hooch says with a nod as she walks off to assist the other students.
“See K-Dawg I knew you could do it! And look I figured it out too. Easy Peasy.” Barry tells her with excitement as she watches him finally getting a hang of it and the broom following his command.
Their excitement gets cut short as they hear commotion off to their right. Kara spins around to see what’s happening and witnesses Mike in all his glory. While Madam Hooch was helping Kara, he had taken the liberty of mounting his broom and had kicked his feet off the ground sending him flying. He was a little shaky at first but as he leaned more into the broom he shot straight off into the sky. He stayed relatively close at first but soon zig zagged out of sight past the roof of the castle. Madam Hooch was quick to mount her broom and follow him leaving the other students behind watching with curiosity. It doesn’t take long and she appears in the distance with Mike who Is clutching his right arm. As soon as she lands, she steadies Mike who is clearly in pain and begins to walk back to the group.
“That’s enough learning for today's class is dismissed. Mr. Matthews follow me please” She walks off with a very sheepish looking Mike and takes him to the medical wing. Kara learned later that night at dinner he had broken his arm and would be in the hospital wing for a few days as it healed.
“Well. I think it's safe to say he needs a lot more practice.” Barry laughs out as him, Winn and Kara proceed to their last class for the day. Charms.
As they made their way into the auditorium, they found seats with other Hufflepuffs and listened as everyone talked about the flying mishap Mike had. As class was getting ready to start one last student made their way into the auditorium. Most students hadn’t bothered to notice as they were still engrossed in conversation. Kara had noticed, and her face lit up as she realized she would be sharing this class with Lena Luthor. By fate or sheer lucky the only empty seat was next to her and she was quick to call Lena over. What Kara did find odd was that as soon as she called over for Lena, the entire classroom went silent as they watched Lena take her seat next to the young Hufflepuff.
Weird, Kara thinks to her herself but doesn’t dwell on it for long.
“If it isn’t Kara Danvers. Fancy meeting you here and without being toppled over no less.” Lena tells Kara as she gathers her book out of her bag.
“Okay that was one time and I told you how sorry I am!” Kara responds in a pout.
“Relax Kara, I’m only joking.” She chuckles.
Kara visibly deflates into her chair “You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”
“Not a chance.” Lena quips back.
Class starts easily enough and Kara soon learns that Lena is really good at casting charms.
Wingardium Leviosa.
Seems easy enough.
Wrong.
Kara struggles to get her feather up in the air as she watches Lena keep hers up with ease.
“Jeez this is flying all over again.” Kara says with an audible sigh.
“Wingardium Leviosar!” Kara says as she flicks her wand. Still nothing.
“Look Kara, it's Wingardium Leviosa not Wingardium Leviosar.” The feather in front of Lena floats effortlessly. With a blush Kara corrects herself “Wingardium Leviosa!”
“How long were you going to let me keep making a fool of myself? What is this, the second time today right?’’ She asks Lena as her feather finally lifts off her desk.
“You seemed very focused, I didn’t want to come in between you and your ‘’foolishness’’ as you put it.”
“Well next time please stop me. I can only bear so much embarrassment in one day.” Unknown to Kara, it would in fact, not be the last time.
When class finally finished Kara was about to turn and thank Lena for all her help but was stopped by Winn and Barry asking what her plans for the evening were.
“Probably go back to the dorm to clean up and then I can meet you guys for dinner?” Kara quickly says as she rushes to throw her books in her bag just in time to see that Lena is nowhere to be found.
“Shoot.” Kara thinks to herself as she makes her way out of the auditorium to try and catch up to Lena. Thankfully she hadn’t made it too far and she’s able to catch up to her. She realizes in that moment she probably could have just called out the girls’ name and she would have turned around, instead she reaches out and grabs her forearm causing Lena to stop dead in her tracks to turn to look at her. The way Lena looks at her is more surprised than anything and until then Kara hadn’t really prepared what she was going to say, so she brought her hands up to fidget with her glasses. It was a nervous habit that Kara had, a safety blanket if you will.
“Hey, I just wanted to say thank you for your help in there.” Was the best she could come up with on the spot.
Lena gave her a genuine smile “Of course, Kara, any time.”
To Kara’s horror she wasn’t ready for that to be the end of the conversation so she continues to ramble on, another nervous habit she had.
“I noticed you sitting by yourself during Lunch and I wanted to see if maybe you wanted to eat dinner?” Lena doesn’t say anything, sending Kara into even more of a panic. “I’m sorry. Gosh, I keep saying that to you a lot today. I didn’t mean anything about you eating by yourself, I just noticed and thought if you didn’t already have plans you could eat with us and...”
“Kara. Thank you for the offer, that’s very sweet of you but I do have plans this evening, but I’ll see you around?”
“Yeah of course.” Kara responds rather sheepishly as she watches Lena give her one last smile as she turns to walk away.
That evening after returning to her common room and getting ready for dinner, Kara finds herself wondering why Lena hesitated so much. Had she come off too strong? Before she could delve too deep into the mystery of Lena Luthor, she was interrupted by the stomach growling.
She entered the Great hall and was relieved to see Alex and Maggie sitting by themselves finishing up homework before dinner. It doesn’t take long for Alex to look up and notice Kara walking toward them looking defeated. So, she closes her book and prepares for what she was sure was going to be a very long- winded Kara. She hated that she was always right. Kara dramatically takes a seat next to Alex who reaches her arms out to hold Kara and almost as if on cue Kara begins to tell Alex and Maggie about her day.
“So first off, I woke up late this morning! I had to rush to get ready and was almost late to breakfast. You know how serious I am about my breakfast.!”
“Oh, that I do” Alex states matter of factly.
“Well it gets better; in my rush I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going and collided straight into Lena and sent her and my stuff flying.” Kara is about to continue on with her story but both Maggie and Alex share a glance before Alex interjects. “Lena? As in Lena Luthor?” She asks with a worried tone.
“Yeah? But how is that important?” Kara asks questioningly. Before Alex was able to go into full big sister mode Maggie was quick to step in.
“Kara, do you seriously not know who Lena Luthor is?”
“No? I mean now I do, but I didn’t until this morning.”
Noticing both of their worried glares Kara asks “What am I missing here?”
“Lena Luthor is the daughter of Lionel and Lillian Luthor, sister to Lex Luthor.”
“I don’t know who they are, am I supposed too?”
“Everyone knows who the Luthor’s are, Kar. To be fair I didn’t know who they were until I first got here, mom never mentioned them, but they are bad news.” Alex says in her best big sister voice.
“Yeah Little Danvers they aren’t to be messed with.” Maggie looks around the room before continuing on, she leans in closer and whispers.
“The Luthor’s were rumored to be part of, you know whose army of Death Eaters, even after his death. They’re pretty well known for their views on muggle born witches and wizards not to mention, Lionel Luthor practically runs the Ministry of Magic along with her Brother.”
“Oh.” Kara couldn’t believe what she was hearing. What Eliza had told them about Death Eaters seemed really sinister and Kara couldn’t believe that Lena could come from people like that. Granted, she had just met the girl but something in her gut told her that there was more to this story. She wanted to believe Lena was different.
“Look, Kara we’re not trying to scare you okay? We just want you to be careful is all.” Alex says tightening her grip on the younger girl.
“Yeah, no I understand.” Not wanting to talk about the Luthor’s any more, Kara changes the topic back to her day.
“So anyway, after that I ate breakfast really quick and walked with Winn and Barry to Herbology. God, Herbology was sooo boring. I don’t understand how people have whole careers in it. Then in potions I may have accidentally knocked over my cauldron ruining my Boil potion. Lunch followed by flying. Did you know some kid named Mike broke his arm today?”
“We did.” Maggie scoffs.
“Honestly, he was being an arrogant jerk most of class so I’m not surprised it ended that way. Ummmm after that I had Charms class which was fine, and now I’m here!” Kara practically rushes the last part.
“Seems like you had an eventful day” Alex gives her one last squeeze before letting go when Lucy finally walks up and joins the girls.
“Ugh can it be summer already?”
“Hello to you too Lane.” Maggie responds in her best sarcastic voice.
“So, Ladies, how was everyone’s day?” Lucy asks the table. Kara retells most of her day to Lucy, while they all laugh about how crazy Professor Trelawney seemed in their divination class. “Look, I believe in verifiable evidence not some tea time hocus pocus. That lady is clearly off her rocker.”
“Come on Danvers, lighten up. You have to admit with glasses as big as hers it’s got to be easy to see into anyone's future.” Maggie waggles her eyebrows clearly proud of her joke. Barry and Winn join them not too long after and that’s how Kara spends her evening; with playful banter and dinner with great friends.
She did however, wish Lena could have been there too.