expelliarmus!

There's a kid in my second period class named Petan who's fluent in English. A few weeks ago, he was reading the Harry Potter series before class. I watched his wee heart sink as he read the ending of book six.

Petan was absent for the speaking quiz last week over "there was/were" and "could/couldn't." I almost gave him a 10 anyway, because the quizzes are mindnumbingly easy for him.

I reconsidered, deciding to have some fun instead.

Today I called him to my desk to make up the quiz.

Number one: Name three magical creatures Hagrid takes care of.
He put his hand on his head and started pacing.
"Buckbeak... Wait, really?"
Yes! Three creatures. Go.
"Buckbeak... Fluffy... and... I can't remember."
That's OK. Question two: make a sentence using "there was" or "there were" and quaffles.
"There were waffles at breakfast this morning."
Quaffles?! At breakfast?
"OH! There were two quaffles in the Quidditch match."
That's better. Four dragons.
"There were four dragons at the Triwizard Cup last month."
OK. Now, could and couldn't. Could you be a seeker if you played Quidditch?
"Yes, I could."
Could you do magic when you were three years old?
"No, I couldn't."


I think he got a kick out of it. I sure did.