This week, we have been revisiting Lumos,
the Wand-Lighting Charm. I must admit that I was kind of surprised when
this was announced - I mean to say, we learned Lumos ages ago! And it
wasn't even a charm that was that hard. Why did we have to talk about it
yet again? Everyone had managed that spell after a week or two, so why
again? This is why I was definitely relieved that we wouldn't be talking
about the usual charm. Instead, there are some manipulations,
apparently. Spell modifiers. Interesting. And the spell we would be
modifying would be Lumos. So, how could we possibly change the Wand-Lighting Charm?

I must admit that there were many
thoughts in my head, mainly thinking about how the spell could possibly
be modified for other uses. You could imitate a fire. Or make a very
soft light so that you would be able to read at night without being
caught. Or imitate a disco ball. Well, a flashlight and multiple lights
are pretty cool, too. Especially the multiple lights. That would be
funny for sure!

Starting on the
flashlight - no, sunlight charm, the descriptions sounded quite dubious
in my opinion. We're a bunch of kids, does no one see that this a
catastrophe waiting to happen?

The Sunlight Charm

• Incantation: Lumos Solem (‘LOO-mos so-LEM’)
• Wand Movement: Single counter-clockwise loop ending with the wand pointed toward the target.
• Focus: Target of light
• Willpower: Low to very high; determines color and intensity of light
• Concentration: High; Target of light

Well,
five to six seconds is certainly a short time. And faint white to a
golden yellow. Well, at least it's not red. Am I the only person around
who's thinking about laser pointers as of the description of the charm?
At least it seems that the charm isn't too accident-prone. And if
everyone manages to aim at a box, then it wouldn't be too bright. And to
my greatest surprise, this actually did work. Especially, as the charm
most certainly didn't work. I did manage to produce a flicker of light,
for a part of a second. But I couldn't manage to hold the charm - I
think that I was just too excited to see the charm producing some
results that I forgot about concentrating about said light. And
immediately - bam! - the light went out.

Hence,
the problem would probably be my concentration. And a bit more
willpower would be needed as well, it was just a very faint white. But
at least it was a flicker of light! However, analysing and identifying
these problems didn't have the effects I was hoping for. The next few
tries, my casting didn't improve much. The flicker became a little more
pronounced, and it was no longer as faint. But it wouldn't last for a
second! And it was meant to last for 5! FIVE!

I
ended up practicing this charm later on my own. But it's not really my
cup of tea. It does work, somewhat, after some days of practicing. But
the other charm is much more interesting, and much easier as well! At
the very least, it makes some sense. But my favourite is definitely
making dancing lights.

The Dancing Lights Charm

• Incantation: Lumos Numerosa (‘LOO-mos Noom-air-O-sa’)
• Wand Movement: Single counter-clockwise loop, then several rapid counter-clockwise loops.
• Focus: None
• Willpower: None
• Concentration: High. Concentration should be maintained on all the orbs, and determines how many can be created.

For
this charm, the concentration kind of reminds me of juggling. And I
assume that this is why I am stuck on conjuring and controlling 3 orbs
of light at the time. But I'm able to move them as I'm able to work with
balls! This is actually great, I can't stop thinking of how cool it
would look juggling orbs of light in the complete darkness.

It
is hard however to make the orbs move differently than what I am used
to when juggling. Those movements are pretty automatic movements, I
don't have to actually think of how to move the orbs - it's mainly a
matter of intuition! And the conjured orbs follow those thoughts easily.
But any other movement is pretty complicated. It took ages to make them
move in a straight line while imagining their path. Or spinning around
while keeping the same distance from one another - I can hardly imagine
their places if they're moving in a circle!

However
I think that it's kind of depressing that some of my classmates have
easily been able to conjure five orbs, one even managed six! I'm very
behind in comparison to them, with only three orbs of mine. But at least
I was able to make them move smoothly, and not only in a straight line.
And maybe... if I learn to juggle with more than three orbs, those
lights will work more easily! Or I'll have to watch other people
juggling. Anyways - juggling! I've got an academic reason to research a
hobby of mine!

Excerpts about the Charms are taken from Quintessential Magic: An Introduction to Charms (2nd Ed.), Chapter 17.