"But do you have to move them? Quickly?"

"Dunno. Seems like a more connected society's more take-over-able, but maybe it's not strictly necessary."

"I haven't begun thinking seriously about how to take over the world but I bet 'hadn't invented trains' is not the only reason nobody's done it yet either."

"Well, ask Timothy, not me, he's the one who's thinking seriously about it." He tries levitating two rocks at once. No go. He tries levitating two leaves that have been tied together. That one works. Tied together loosely enough they'll unravel in midair, and then he can keep them both up separately? No; one falls.

Miranda writes down these results - "What determines which one you're levitating when you're trying to do both and then one falls?"

"Hmm, feels like I picked a place to hook onto and then that's the place where the spell stays? If we knew more magic someone could try crumbling a rock I'm levitating or something..."

"I accidentally set some parchment on fire in Transfiguration when I tried my chimera wand! I might be able to do it so it comes apart in the middle if we used a bit that was shaped right."

"Oooh!" So they try that.

It takes her a few tries to be able to burn through the middle of levitating parchment instead of just crisping it up around the edges, but eventually she manages it. The half with the anchor-y thing he noticed stays up and the other flutters to the ground and Karen has to stomp on it before it sets anything else on fire. Miranda doesn't have enough precision to burn right through an anchory-thing even if he identifies where it is for her.

Still! Not bad, for a day's experimenting! And it's now a little past dinnertime.

Better nip into the castle and get food. Dinner lasts a while, they can still grab something even if they aren't precisely on time.

Yeah. And he and Karen go off to the Ravenclaw table. He tries to ignore Zachariah pointedly but it's hard when Zachariah's also ignoring him.

Miranda winds up across the table from Timothy in a recently vacated spot.

"Miranda! How was your first day? You were looking forward to Charms, right? Did Professor Winkelstern let the Ravenclaws filibuster it, he complains that they are very hard to keep on topic."

"He chided your brother for chatter and things were mostly pretty quiet and topical after that. We did experiments with the levitation charm, me and him and one of his housemates, after classes."

"Oh? Discover anything?"

"Yeah - it anchors onto a small piece of what you're levitating and if the thing comes apart in midair only the piece with the anchor bit will stay up!"

"That's fascinating! Can you choose where you're anchoring?"

"Didn't get that far but I bet it's possible, that would help explain how Professor Winkelstern could get things to turn over."

"Got a lot of homework?"

"Yes, but we got most of that done in the library before we went out to experiment."

"Good for you! I really recommend those savory rolls, they're excellent."

"Thanks!" She yoinks one.

And he asks the Malfoy girl what she thought of potions and Gamp what the Herbology lesson was and then reminisces delightedly over a prank someone - he has no idea who - played with singing mustard a few years ago, he is definitely not mentioning it to give them any ideas and it's funnier the first time anyway but it was the most memorable day of the year...

"Swan wanted a singing mustard leaf," Gamp volunteers.

"They make good whistles," says Miranda.

"What do you need a whistle for?"

"Nothing in particular, it was just cute."