A Spoonful of Detention

This piece was written for the Verdant Raven 2026 Writing Battle competition and placed in the top 32 for the genre.

Prompts were:

250 words

Genre: Arcane Studies

Character: A disciplinarian

Object: A Spoon

Professor Hargrave plopped a bowl of soup and a fork on the table. He then returned to his desk.

             Cian called out, “Professor, can I have a spoon?”

             Professor Hargrave scratched a few more lines into his parchment.

             “Can you? You may have a spoon when you can transfigure one.”

             Cian’s stomach growled. The bowl had melded with the table, and his tongue couldn’t reach the broth. He sensed Hargrave’s silent mirth.

He didn’t deserve detention! It wasn’t his fault Hargrave’s robes had caught fire. While Cian was attempting a transfiguration spell, Gemma Peterson had leaned in a little too close, her chest brushing against his arm.

             Sparks flew.

             Out of his wand.

             Now Cian was here with the scent of singed robes and inaccessible soup.

              His eyes closed. Finding the atoms in the air, he knitted them together to join the tines. The fork vibrated as he concentrated.

             A dozen forks crashed to the floor. None were even a half-spoon.

             “So you can complete a multiplication spell,” Hargrave said.

             Cian growled and threw his wand. It bounced off the floor, and the forks followed, barely missing Hargrave’s horrified face.

             He emerged from behind his desk and walked toward Cian, retrieving the wand on the way.

             “Professor…I.” Cian would never eat lunch now.

             Hargrave aimed the wand. At once, Cian’s hands turned to spoons.

             He looked at Hargrave, mouth agape.

             “Look at that,” Hargrave said. “Your wand does work properly.” He returned to his desk, leaving Cian to his soup.