clarity [madeleine]

[BRÍGH ENNIS O'DALAIGH]

6 February 2026

Brígh turned the handle on a disused classroom, the hinges creaking as she pushed it open. She withdrew her wand, lighting the candles around the room with a silent spell. She'd somehow gotten herself signed up for a tutoring programme for Charms. She thought perhaps it may look good on her CV, but she also wanted to get Addy off her back for never doing anything productive. The first tutoring session would take place with a Hufflepuff called Madeleine, who Brígh vaguely knew but hadn't bothered to really speak with her before.

With another wave of her wand, the desks crowding the centre of the classroom were swept out to the sides. Brígh tapped her chin thoughtfully, considering the curriculum of charms that she'd missed. She conjured a block of stone to the centre of the room, and tilted her head. It was a weird looking block. But she'd need something for Madeleine to practice her gouging charm on. Perhaps she should have done this outside, Brígh thought. But it was much too cold.

The minutes ticked past, and there was no sign of Brígh's student. She chewed on the inside of her lip as she checked her watch again, noting that Madeleine wasn't actually that late. It was just that she'd gotten here terribly early to prepare, acting much more like Addy than she would have liked to admit. With a grimace, Brígh made her way over to one of the desks lining the walls, leaning against it. She pulled out her magical cell phone and scrolled through her messages with Addy. Her best friend was still as stoic and resolute on the Cheese front, unfortunately. Maybe Madeleine had some insight into Cheese's life behind closed doors. After all, she was a Hufflepuff as well.

@madeleine

[Deleted]

▲

Seeking out help with charms was, to put it simply, embarrassing. Fall term had gone exactly the same as how she had remembered it the first time around, but the spring term of sixth year was apparently a whole different thing entirely. She wasn’t sure why that was, but within the first few weeks she realized that she hit a roadblock and had started struggling with certain subjects. Her grades were still decent enough, except they weren’t at the level of where she wanted them. The old habits of trying to live up to where her brother had been, in order to please her parents, weren’t there anymore. Quite frankly, they were failures and frauds, as far as she was concerned. She hadn’t even gone home for Christmas, since there wasn’t a winter home to go to. That one still pissed her off. Why did they have to sell the winter home, out of all the properties?

Despite her irritation over her family’s financial situation, she still knew that she needed to get her grades back up to where they were presentable again, so she went out of her way to ask for a tutor in charms. The name of the Gryffindor girl that was supposed to help her out sounded familiar, but with the way Maddie was with names, she neither cared nor figured that it would be important unless she was able to actually learn something from the tutor. Everyone had to earn their place in her life, so she figured that was fair enough.

Purposely arriving ten minutes late to the classroom she had been told to go to, Maddie walked into the room with a purpose, immediately stopping at the clump of desks and setting her wand down on one. “My gouging charm sucks, and it’s already embarrassing enough being stuck a year behind where I should be. So show me how to do it so I won’t have to waste either of our time any more than is necessary,” she stated forcefully to the girl, who was leaning up against a desk near one of the walls. Apparently this was her tutor. She definitely didn’t look familiar, and certainly didn’t seem like she was going to be memorable at all either.

BRÍGH ENNIS O'DALAIGH ● 376 ● Mortal Projections by Djo

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[BRÍGH ENNIS O'DALAIGH]

Perhaps it was the Brígh had overestimated her capabilities in teaching. She'd never tried it before. But Addy had been complaining about her lack of involvement (Gobstones apparently didn't count?) and she had always been talented with charms. After speaking to James about restarting Phoenix Rising, Brígh had a feeling she might have to take on more of a leadership goal, even with Kat's help. She had wanted to help her fellow students for the real world. Where there was no warning when someone wanted to hurt you. And of course, her first student was Madeleine Chevalier, the sister of former Triwizard champion Emile, who had tragically passed away. If Emile had known more, would he have been killed? Could he have somehow protected himself?

Brígh smoothed out the front of her robes, banishing thoughts of a long dead champion. She offered the young witch a smile, which did not last long as Madeleine stomped into the room and spat out venomous words. Brígh chewed on the inside of her cheek as she appraised Madeleine, who slapped her wand on the desk. She arched a brow at her brash tone. "Well, are you focusing right? Or too busy thinking about other things?" asked Brígh after a moment. "Let me see you try."

@madeleine

[Deleted]

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She realized she must not have been clear enough about what her intentions with being tutored were: the Gryffindor girl was supposed to be showing her how the spell worked. Not asking her to recreate it, which Maddie was obviously terrible at and why she needed assistance in the first place. Even going as far as telling the other girl to get on with it so they could stop wasting time was supposed to tighten things up a bit, just so they could each be on their own way. But no, she wanted to see what the Chevalier girl could do. Which was not much. Maddie stood there and stared at her dumbly, because it wasn’t like she was ever distracted during class. Some spells simply didn’t work for people. Everyone knew that.

“Well, I sure am glad you’re here to help me out Britney,” she rolled her eyes at the Gryffindor girl as she picked her wand back up again. “At the desks, I presume?” The whole thing was so trivial and pointless – if the dragons had just done a little bit of a better job a year ago and her parents were complete idiots about finances, she probably could have gotten off scot free and never had to worry about school or work again. But no, here she was back at Hogwarts and seeking help from someone that wasn’t being very much help to her at all. What was the point then?

Pointing her wand at the desks, she muttered the incantation, Defodio, and watched as a fine layer of dust sprang up from the tops of the group. From where she was standing, it didn’t look like there was even a hint of damage done to them. At best, she had a solid charm that could be utilized by the house elves conducting their maid duties in the dormitories. A fine achievement on her end. “You might need a microscope to check for damage,” she admitted. Rather defeated by the whole ordeal, she found a chair and planted herself in it, aggressively tapping her foot on the ground as she waited for her assessment.

BRÍGH ENNIS O'DALAIGH ● 357 ● I'm So Glad by Joe Hisaishi

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[BRÍGH ENNIS O'DALAIGH]

Brígh fixed Madeleine with a glare. "It's Brígh," she corrected, but was fairly certain she had done it on purpose. She heaved a great sigh, and watched carefully as Madeleine performed the charm, to almost no effect. Brígh's lips twisted downwards as she stared at the untouched desks, thinking. In her opinion, there was no such thing as a simple spell or charm. It depended on focus and the way that one channeled their magic. "Do you have difficulty with other spells?" asked Brígh, wondering if perhaps her wand was ill suited towards her. She turned and spotted Madeleine sinking into a chair, tapping her foot aggressively as if it was Brígh's fault that she couldn't perform the charm.

Planting her hands on her hips, Brígh faced Madeleine. If she had known how difficult the girl was going to be, perhaps she wouldn't have taken on this tutoring role. But then, how will you learn? asked a voice in her head that sounded suspiciously like Addy. "What were you thinking about just then? How boring and pointless this is, or that you wanted to gouge out a massive chunk in those desks?" asked Brígh sharply. Magic depended heavily on intent, and if Madeleine wasn't willing to put in the work and focus, then what was the point of wasting both of their time?

@madeleine

[Deleted]

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There weren’t many students at Hogwarts that would instantly correct her like that. The Gryffindor clearly didn’t want to be called Britney, so Maddie left it at that. For now. She’d whip it out at the end if Britney here wasn’t of any help to her. What was the point in memorizing names of useless people? The only ones that deserved that luxury were those that provided her with something. That hadn’t happened here yet.

Britney asked her if she had difficulty with other spells, and she shrugged as she leaned back into her chair. “Doesn’t everyone?” she said as if that was a fact. There had been plenty of classmates that struggled with charms or counter curses both here and at Beauxbatons. The only difference is that she would have been socially flayed alive at her former school for not being able to cast a spell as simple as this one was supposed to be. She simply didn’t feel like it was necessary to be casting a destruction spell that would make a group of desks explode. That had all started after her injury, though she doubted being scorched by dragon fire could cut off her magical nerve endings. At least the doctors hadn’t told her that.

“I was thinking of the incantation,” she lied despite it being the first option Britney expressed. “Listen, I don’t need to make these things look like they’ve been thrown off the astronomy tower to pass,” Maddie explained as she pointed at the desks with her wand. “There has to be an easy way to break like, the top or something, right?” She wasn’t even sure if her professor required a fully gouged out object or to show that she understood what it did in practice. Either way, repurposing it as a dust-be-gone charm was certainly not going to get her passing marks.

BRÍGH ENNIS O'DALAIGH ● 310 ● Queen of the Gaels by Adrian Von Ziegler

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[BRÍGH ENNIS O'DALAIGH]

Madeleine gave Brígh a careless shrug, leaning back in her chair and admitting that this wasn’t the only spell she had trouble with. Brígh hummed, contemplating this. She wondered briefly about wand lore and perhaps if Madeleine here was ill suited towards her wand. ”And this is the wand that chose you when you were eleven?” asked Brígh thoughtfully. It was probably a long shot, but the seventh year wanted to ensure all the bases were covered. She then asked if Madeleine was thinking hard of the incantation and Brígh fixed her with a glare.

”Well, actually you kind of do. You need to have strong intent to actually perform the magic correctly. Perhaps picturing the desks careening off the Astronomy tower, maybe even hitting an annoying student or three as they crash to the ground, would be helpful. Since thinking of the incantation seems to not be working so well,” she recommended with a smirk.

”Cutting corners won’t help you pass. You need to mean it, to be deliberate. Like you really want to take a chunk out of it. To really destroy it. It’s the same with other spells - what are some that you are really good at?” asked Brígh, twirling her own wand between her fingers. She thought for a moment, wondering if there was a charm that would help Madeleine focus. When one came to mind, Brígh wordlessly pointed her wand at a desk and split it in two. ”Repair the desk,” she said, crossing her arms and watching Madeline intently. Perhaps if she could focus on repairing the desk rather than destroying it, she could similarly shift that focus to other charms. It was worth a try, at least, and bought Brígh time to consider what other options she could suggest to help her.

@madeleine

[Deleted]

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What in Merlin’s scraggly beard did this have anything to do with her wand? Just because she wasn’t completely adept with every form of magic out there, that didn’t mean her wand was useless. It had done plenty of good work for her when she wanted it to organize the clothes in her walk-in closet, or tweak the color of a blouse. If this was the difference between doing simple spells and blowing up desks, then she was fine with it being gentle and basic. Out of most of her belongings that had been sold off by her idiot parents, this was one of the few that remained. “Yes. And it was made by an excellent French wandmaker, mind you,” she sent back. Again, she didn’t believe that any of this had to do with the wand as much as it did with her being rather apathetic towards casting the spell.

Her teacher, Britney or Brígh or whatever, went on to explain that intent needed to be injected for the spell to actually function as it was supposed to. The problem was there, then: Maddie didn’t give a damn about actually damaging the desk. She had spent so much time out of the loop before having to repeat her sixth year, that she was simply done with it all. Trying to find the energy to want to do this was almost useless because it didn’t really matter. She was positive that if she failed, she could cry and plead with the professor about how her injuries were making life difficult. There was no way that wouldn’t work.

She nodded her head though as she listened, then watched as the girl smashed the desk up with her own spell, splitting it in half. She was then told to repair it. Maddie stared at the desk dumbly, and then back at Brígh. “I didn’t ask for help on repairing charms,” she said flatly before casting the repairing charm effortlessly.

And then she sort of put it all together in her head. The thought of wanting to fix the desk was just the opposite of the one that wanted to destroy it. Because she was used to fixing things, it was done subconsciously. But there was still an effort somewhere in her head to want to put it back the way it was. Her epiphany showed itself on her face, though she refused to say tell Brígh that she had finally understood what she was doing wrong. Instead, she cast the gouging charm on the desk she had just fixed, this time doing slightly more damage than it had previously. And all thanks to her own brain!

BRÍGH ENNIS O'DALAIGH ● 444 ● Darling by Skott

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[BRÍGH ENNIS O'DALAIGH]

Brígh rolled her eyes. She didn't care in the least who had made Madeleine's wand, only that perhaps it was ill suited to the girl. She wasn't entirely certain about most aspects of wand lore, but she knew the wand chose the wizard. Or witch, in this case. "What's the core?" she asked, more out of curiosity than anything. Brígh didn't suspect a mismatch between wand and witch, especially since Madeleine didn't seem to be having trouble with any of her other charms.

Another way, then, thought Brígh. She pointed her wand at the desk and wordlessly smashed it. She reminded Madeleine that intent was as important as anything when casting a spell, and that without proper deliberation, the charm wouldn't work. She simply instructed Madeleine to fix the desk. The Hufflepuff shot her a scathing reply, that she didn't ask for help with repairing. Brígh did not respond, instead opting to arch a brow in challenge. How had this girl ended up in Hufflepuff? She was so far removed from Cheese, they could have been in different universes.

Madeleine cast the repairing charm effortlessly, and a moment later, Brígh saw the pieces starting to click together behind her eyes. She couldn't help the faint smile that spread across her lips as Madeleine turned back to the desk, and cast the gouging charm. It was much more effective this time than previous times - though still not perfect. Brígh clapped her hands together in delight. "Excellent, Madeleine, really well done!" she explained, pointing her wand to the desk and repairing it. "Now try it a few more times. You can fix the desk in between if you'd like as well, or if you'd rather focus on destruction only, I'm happy to repair it in between," said Brígh quickly. Though the Hufflepuff was not exactly her cup of tea, Brígh felt a surge of pride at the success she had shown today.

@madeleine

[Deleted]

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“Unicorn tail hair,” she answered flatly. Why did that matter? She knew that the real issue here was that she didn’t have the capacity to cast spells like that. Hence getting a tutor. But she was beyond frustrated at both herself and having to deal with Brígh, and the fact that she truly didn’t give a damn about any of this. Plus there was all that shitty life stuff on top of her studies, and she knew that was definitely effecting her spellcasting. Funny that her anger towards her parents didn’t directly translate into blowing up a desk. Even when the gouging charm finally did work, it wasn’t because of those feelings. At least she didn’t think it was…

Brígh was still prattling on about how she should attempt the spell a few more times to get the practice in. Maddie was unable to tell if her sudden excitement was supposed to be condescending or if that was just how it was being translated in her head. Maddie had given the other girl a lot of shit already though, and bit down on her tongue to keep it from saying anything stupid back. As much as she wanted to convince herself that this new revelation was her own doing, Brígh had just given a clear instruction and then the spell worked. It was hard to refute the advice after the fact.

After the desk was repaired again, Maddie cast the gouging charm a few more times on the same one, creating dents of various sizes across the top, and even chipped off a corner of it too. None of them were anywhere close to the example Brígh had given her though. Slightly pissed that she had made progress – but not enough – Maddie thought about how some new family was probably living it up in their former winter home. The next charm that came out of her wand didn’t exactly smash the desk, but it did cause it to flip over and skid across the room. That was something at least.

BRÍGH ENNIS O'DALAIGH ● 340 ● Give A Damn Danny by Ira Wolf

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