Put to the Whetstone PV: Bridget Closed

@Jackson Valentine

Admittedly, her offer to help Valentine with spells had slipped her mind for a while. In the days after their introduction, she'd found herself much too busy. And then Halloween had come. One of her closest friends having been kidnapped that night and dealing with the aftermath was more than enough to drown out any thoughts of the offer. It was only when she'd passed him in the Great Hall nearly a week after that fateful night her memory was jogged, and feeling bad for having forgotten him, she made it her immediate priority to find room in her schedule and owl him to set the meeting up.

She arrived at the location they'd agreed on, one of Hogwarts' unused classrooms, about 5 minutes early. Being on time was important, and being early was always a good idea because it gave one time to observe and prepare. She made sure not to be too early, though, since she had no idea if Valentine was the sort to be early or late, and to use every last possible minute on her homework. Naturally, she had her wand on her, and had changed out of her school robes for leggings and a sweatshirt. Just because they were expected to wear their uniforms in official duels didn't mean she wanted to wear the long robes to practice. She also had her bookbag with her, filled with a few choice objects: books, for one, along with a fairly thick stick and rocks of various sizes she'd collected outside. Casting spells at other students, especially duelling spells, could be detention-worthy, so without any dummies to use, they would have to make do with other targets.

The room was surprisingly well-kept, dust-free, and looking rather akin to the DADA classroom when it was time to practice spells, what with the tables and chairs lining the walls, well out the way. The window was open as well, cold air flowing into the room. It was immediately obvious Valentine had done all this, since she'd seen the state of similar rooms in the Hogwarts castle, all of which looked, well, disused. And there he was, looking surprised for some reason. Why was that? He answered that question for her, stating aloud that he wasn't sure she'd come.

Bridget frowned slightly. "Oh. Of course I came." She could imagine why he thought that. It was likely at this point he didn't know many Slytherins, or at least not any Slytherins well, so most of what he knew was likely rooted in stereotypes. Regardless of what he might have thought, she'd said she'd be there, so she was.

Well, time to get down to business. He was clearly excited, ready to go. She lifted her bookbag off her shoulder and set it on one of the pushed-aside desks, laying out the makeshift targets. They could position them later as needed. Turning back towards him, she tilted her head to the side, thinking. How to start wasn't so hard once you knew what you were doing, and in preparing the classroom, he'd already done most of the work. The question now was more what to start with. "Do you have a spell in mind you'd like to work on?"

For the duration of this training session and possibly future sessions, Valentine suffers -3 to all his stats as a result of his relative inexperience.

@Bridget Collins

Uuh.

He wasn’t sure if she’d like his answer. Mucus ad Nauseam was one of the most deadly spells available to the first year arsenal. As his eyes flickered between the older student and the objects she had brought for practice, however, he figured that she hadn’t come prepared to teach him that. As such, he aborted his initial answer, instead opting for something which she’d probably find more doable.

“The Knockback Jinx,” he replied thoughtfully. “Well actually, Incendio is a better example, because of the wand movement.”

He took a moment to demonstrate what he meant with a triangular swish of his finger through the air before continuing.

"Your wand always ends up where you started because the wand movement ends at the same place where it begins. We can cast Incendio and Flipendo at plastic bottles all day, but what if the object is moving? What if we're trying to hit something that's moving to the left and Flipendo's wand motion moves our wand to the right? Is there any way to actively correct our aim?"

It wasn’t a redundant question. It was something that had been bugging him for a while. Hitting objects on a table was something a toddler could do given enough time. But the art of striking an intelligent, moving being that was determined not to be hit was a skill that required theoretical knowledge, that mere tenacious trial and error could not teach.

“Or maybe we should start simple?” he offered, not wanting to get too ahead of himself. “So you can see what I’m capable of and where I’m lacking.”

@Jackson Valentine

He hesitated before answering, perhaps simply indecisive over where to start. That was only natural, she supposed, since this would be the first time he'd practiced spells outside of class, at least as far as she knew. Even as a first year three months into his Hogwarts schooling, he would still have a fair amount of spells to choose from. Valentine settled first on the Knockback Jinx. A good place to start, as far as she was concerned. For younger students, Flipendo was the most powerful spell they had in terms of straight damage. Most couldn't take more than a few of those before losing consciousness. In other words, it packed a punch. He brought up Incendio to explain a question he had, specifically how to compensate for a moving target while performing the wand movement.

"I think it's something that gets easier as you get a feel for it. I guess, part of it is pointing your wand the right way to start with, but the other part is concentrating on where you want it to go. So even if your wand isn't pointed directly at your target, focus can compensate." Hopefully that made sense. It was hard to describe something you were already doing when you weren't entirely sure how you'd gotten to that point.

"Flipendo is a good place to start. And we'll build up to moving targets, I promise," she assured him. Getting a feel for how to aim, period, was important before making things harder and she needed to knew what he was capable of. "It's a spell you'll want to have in duels or otherwise and a fairly decent gauge of overall skill. I mean, if you really want to start with the basics, you could always use a Sparks Charm. Practicing those isn't a bad idea with their function in calling for help, but for right now, I'd say to go ahead with Flipendo. The Sparks Charms aren't very effective gauges of power anyhow." She turned towards the assorted targets she'd brought, trying to decide which one would work best... it would probably be better to start easier and get progressively more difficult.

Picking up the largest rock, she muttered, "Spongify." The rock, as she intended, became almost rubbery. A weird texture for it, but they really didn't need to be hurtling stones into things. She was pretty sure that counted as vandalism even if Reparo could fix anything they accidentally broke. For the moment, she set the rock down with no intention of having him aim at the ground; none of his opponents would be that size. She had the feeling just telling him to start casting wouldn't work great--first time and all--and should probably start by explaining the basics.

"Okay, so first, your stance," she began, turning towards him. "You want to square up to your opponent. Feet pointing towards your target, the foot of your dominant hand a bit forward, wand out in front of you. Don't be on your heels and don't lock your knees; you want to be able to move quickly." She modeled the stance since visuals were generally a bit easier to follow. "There's not really a specific stance you have to follow, just find something comfortable that helps your aim and keeps you ready to dodge." You had to be ready to cast a spell and transition right into dodging and her duel had quite clearly demonstrated the importance of not getting hit and how far that could go towards victory.

"After that, I'm sure you remember the three parts of spell-casting. Incantation, wand movement, concentration. The goal is really to get the first two to a place where you barely have to think about them and can trust your muscle memory to do the work. Concentration is key and part of it is visualizing what you want the spell to do."

All that at once was probably a lot to keep track of, so she left it there for now, and besides, she was of the mind that the best way to improve was to do. The more times he cast a spell, the better he would get at it.

"I know it's a lot, but give it a try." Turning her attention back to the rock, she readied her length of laurel wood. A swish and flick of her wand, an incantation. "Wingardium Leviosa." The spell felt a little off, a little like it had before it backfired on her in her duel, but she was able to stop it, the spell still working.

Bridget lifted the softened rock through the air until it was about the height of the average student's chest. Keeping it there would require concentration and she could use the challenge of doing that and observing Valentine's attempts. Taking a few steps back to where the desks were stacked--she had no idea at this point of how his aim was--she gave him a nod. "Whenever you're ready."

Bridget Collins vs rock

Reducio

Bridget cast Softening Charm at rock.
Wisdom DC: 11
Wisdom Check: [d20: 15] + 9 = 24, success
Bridget cast Levitation Charm at rock.
Wisdom DC: 9
Wisdom Check: [d20: 2] + 9 = 11, success

DC for hitting the rock (Jackson): 12

For the duration of this training session and possibly future sessions, Valentine suffers -3 to all his stats as a result of his relative inexperience.

@Bridget Collins

Something was thrilling about the prospect of casting spells like the knockback jinx. It was distinctly different from normal day to day magic like the locking or packing charm; in the same way that firing a gun was different from operating a screwdriver. It was a rite of passage in a sense, handling something dangerous, to feel the responsibility resting on the palm of his hand when he wielded his tool as a weapon of virtue.

He offered Bridget a nervous glance, the boy inside him swooning in the significance of this moment. He would likely have wished his mother was here to see him had he grown up with one. Instead, his heartfelt yearning turned to the only other female character in the vicinity. Maybe Bridget didn't care, but for a beautiful moment, he felt like he was taking his first steps out of the cradle of infancy once again. With all the naive notions of teenage ambition riding on the back of his mind, he took a step forward, waved his wand in the corresponding movement, and laid claim to his status as a young adult.

"Flipendo," he uttered, his voice low and firm. Some liked to scream and shout when they cast their spells. It gave them power, strength, and motivation. Valentine didn't need the first two and didn't lack the latter. He desired control.

Jackson Valentine vs rock

Reducio

Reducio

Valentine cast Knockback Jinx at rock.
Wisdom DC: 9
Wisdom Check: [d20: 9] + 7 = 16, success
Accuracy DC: 12
Accuracy Check: [d20: 17] + 7 = 24, success

Manifesting in a blue ray that lingered in the air as it trailed forward, the boy's first knockback jinx traveled in a direct path, striking the rock on its side. As if possessed, the small object absorbed the spell's directional vector and darted toward the tables. Upon contact, it promptly wedged itself between the surface and underside of a pair of tables, coming to a stop only when friction bade it so.

Only after being certain that the rock wasn't going to fly back out of the desks and strike him did Valentine lower his wand. He turned to Bridget with a thoughtful look. First tries were poor indications of long term performance. This was just an appetizer to hint at the limit of his abilities. Only with a larger sample size could he truly determine the degree of his skills, latent skills, and unexplored potential.

"Again?" he asked.

@Jackson Valentine

His attempt went well, the spell working and finding its mark. Although not necessarily indicative of his current skill--consistency was important, too--it was a good start. There was something interesting she'd noticed in the strength of the cast; specifically, that the Flipendo hadn't had much force behind it. The observation was something to watch for. Maybe it was just the result of nerves and focus being directed to casting and aiming properly rather than channeling magical power. If it wasn't, if Valentine was lacking in the power of his casts, then that would be something to improve upon. The force behind a spell wasn't everything, but magic wasn't very effective without potency.

As she thought over what she'd observed, she retrieved the rock from where it came to stop under a desk. The softening effect hadn't worn off yet and it was easy enough to cast the Levitation Charm again to prepare for another attempt. Valentine asked for confirmation of another go at it, and she nodded. You were never going to get better at anything without practice, and lots of it. "Again."

________

She'd been helping him for about a month now. With December here, break was right around the corner, and after winter break came the next stage of duelling, something she was somewhere between excited and nervous for. Valentine had definitely improved over that time; it was only natural that the practice of a variety of spells and repetition would lead to getting better at your casting. Bridget had found herself benefiting from the sessions, too. They indeed took up her time, but they did not waste it. She got to practice some of the spells she didn't use as much to make reasonable targets for him, even finding ways to have them move around a bit. There was also value in being able to explain something to someone else, to know it well enough to teach.

It had been quite a while since they'd started today, and it was looking like a good time to take a break. Spells hitting a little less frequently, movements getting slower, the occasional spell not working at all. This was the point where continued effort wouldn't do you any good, and, if anything, you'd get frustrated. In the case of magic, that could mean backfires, which were optimal to avoid.

She voiced as much. "Let's take a break." Tucking her wand away for the moment, she shook out her arm--maintaining spells to provide a realistic target could get tiring both physically and in terms of concentration, so she could use a bit of a break, too. Bridget crossed to where the desks were stacked, leaning against them to wait.

There had been a shift in the atmosphere of these sessions, at least for her. The first few weeks had mostly just been formal since Valentine had been a practical stranger. Now, mostly due to repetition, she felt more comfortable. The relationship between mentor and mentee wasn't really a dynamic she'd had before, but it seemed to be going well. That fact was likely ensured by the nature of their interactions. Duelling was something she enjoyed, not to mention something that didn't require a ton of socializing. He would ask her questions sometimes, but only rarely were they unrelated to spell-casting, and most of the time they were simply hard at work. She also quite liked the idea of preparing even just one first year for the reality of their school. Maybe it was secondhand satisfaction at seeing the results, maybe it eased the guilt she felt for what had happened to Victor. Either way, her rather quick decision to offer to teach him seemed to have been a good one.

She would leave the length of the break up to him. Wanting to get back into things as soon as possible was completely understandable, and she wouldn't fault him for wanting a little longer to recenter. Magic wasn't exactly easy. That wasn't to say it was always hard, more that it was taxing, requiring skill and concentration every cast. There was such thing as too long of a break, and with her busy schedule she wasn't a fan of being idle, but that was unlikely to be a problem. Valentine seemed to have plenty of his own drive.

@Bridget Collins

A bead of sweat hung from Valentine’s brow, trickling down his cheek when he turned to face her. By now, it was a common sight to see him pushing the limits of his magical potential. The abandoned classroom had become a haven for the restless boy, a place in which he felt that his efforts were most purposeful. A lion could not remain in its cave once it had tasted the savannah plains, the sweet scent of endless possibility. The dangers that lay between the grasses would not deter him now. Jackson Valentine was the sort of individual who confronted his problems head-on.

He was an avid learner, but he wouldn’t have learned even half as quickly without the help of his Slytherin mentor. It sometimes begged the question as to why she so willingly offered to help him. This thought occupied his mind far more than she might have imagined, even if she had already expressed her opinions on the dangers that lurked within the school. Even then, he wished to know just what exactly she was preparing him for. The general populace at Hogwarts didn’t seem to share her seriousness - he couldn’t tell if it was due to ignorance or apathy - but he figured she knew a little bit more than they did.

How so? Throughout their sessions, the younger boy had noticed something abnormal with the girl he was training with. Initially, he had only seen flickers of darkness, easily misidentified as the dance of a shadow upon her wrist when she flicked her wand. It was usually only for a split second that the streaks revealed themselves. Besides, Bridget concealed it well with her deliberate choice of long sleeves, such that even he was forced to second guess if he was seeing things when he initially caught a glimpse. If it was a tattoo of sorts, it was certainly a grotesque one.

What was she hiding? He had considered the possibility that something with malicious purpose was lying beneath those robes, a sinister hypothesis only further backed by the recurrent hag incidents at the school. Though he highly doubted that she could have blended into the student population if she was secretly a monster, the chance that his hunch might have some merit to it fed his growing anxiety. He had been meaning to find out for a while now. Yet, the prospect of uncovering something never meant to be seen remained as a deterrent. He never once allowed his feelings to show, for both his sake and her own.

The session in question progressed as it would on any other day. His features strained as the practice grew heated, demanding every ounce of his concentration. His chest rose and fell beneath his light blue T-shirt, soaked with a thin layer of dampness that contained the salts of his effort. He almost didn’t hear her when she called for a break. It was the change in her stance that had alerted him of this when she moved to the side of the classroom for a rest. Still panting from the exertion, he nodded eagerly and mouthed his agreement.

Coming up alongside her with their backs against the desks, Valentine reflected on his dark thoughts. He wasn’t so foolhardy as to ask her directly on the off chance that she was, in fact, something abnormal. Instead, he opted for a more subtle approach, something which she was unlikely to notice if his suspicions were misplaced.

Instead of returning his wand to his pocket, he waved it around, mouthing incantations without saying them out loud. He also covered the tip with his left hand, ensuring that nothing dangerous came out of it. To the observer, it looked like he was simply practicing while idle, an exercise not uncommon to the diligent first-year. As they recovered, however, the curvature of his hand shifted into the shape of a cup, turned slightly to the left such that its opening faced to the right where Bridget was standing. He hesitated briefly, contemplating the moral consequences of what he was about to do.

“Verdimillious,” he uttered quietly.

In his face was not a twinge of regret, but only of stoic duty. As always. A shower of green sparks erupted harmlessly into his cupped fist, only a small handful shooting out from the side towards Bridget. She would hardly be disturbed. She wouldn’t even be blinded. The wave of sparks that descended upon her was like a misty squirt from a spray bottle. Yet, as they fell upon her arms, he observed intently the manner of her reaction.

To further bolster the credibility of the accident, he exclaimed almost immediately with a tired tone, playing into his exhaustion as a cause for the miscasting, “Crap- sorry.”

Actions:
Showering Bridget with Green Sparks.

@Jackson Valentine

Yes, he'd definitely needed the break. She could see that as he crossed the room to join her. Sweating, breathing hard. In comparison with some of the Muggle sports she'd played as a child, duelling wasn't the most taxing physically, but there was certainly the mental strain, and besides, if you did anything for long enough, hard enough, you were sure to get tired. It was important to be prepared for the strain. Duelling could be a painful sport, demanding your best effort through hard hits and distractions. Perhaps more importantly, the school had a way of thrusting them into situations that tested their stamina. Surrendering to exhaustion while you and your friends were in danger just wasn't an option.

Valentine certainly was eager to learn. Even while resting, he wasn't still, instead practicing various wand movements. In contrast, Bridget had let her mind wander for a moment, making a mental list of what she had to do later. She had some reading to do for Potions, as well as homework questions in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Maybe she'd have time to practice Reparifors; that would definitely be a good thing to have for the next stage of duels. And right, she needed to write home so her parents could send her something for her dormitory's gift exchange...

The eruption of green sparks caught her eye, and she blinked, surprised. The source was obvious enough--Valentine had apparently cast Verdimillious. On accident, as his exclamation made clear. And for a moment, she didn't question the story; it was just a mistake, an accidental cast, no big deal. But that was it, wasn't it? You didn't just cast spells without meaning to. Her eyes narrowed slightly. Sure, he was already performing the wand movements and perhaps he'd inadvertently shifted from mouthing incantations to saying them aloud. All reasonable enough, except there was that third requirement for every spell cast. Concentration. If he hadn't meant to cast the spell, had just been idly working on the wand-waving and incanting, why would the spell have worked?

Or perhaps she was putting far too much thought into it. Why would he be purposefully casting the Green Sparks Charm? "It's... fine," she responded finally. It wasn't like he'd even done anything with it... wait. Periculum was primarily used for calling for help, but Verdimillious had another use. Oh. Was it possible he was trying the very same thing she had? She looked at him again, suspicion replaced by simply trying to gauge his expression. It didn't reveal much, but the way his wand was pointing did. The sparks had been directed at her arm, the one with the black veins. She glanced down, almost hoping that for some reason something different would've happened this time, but of course there was nothing different, nothing revealed. Analogous to the fruitless search for any sort of answers on the curse, really.

"I've already tried that. Doesn't do much." Tugging her sleeve up a bit to better display the curse and the fact the spell hadn't done anything, she sighed quietly. Her hope of finding a solution had practically faded altogether now that she knew even the Professors hadn't had any luck. What was worse was she was pretty sure the black was spreading. It wasn't as much of a worry for herself, but what about her housemates who'd had it worse? What about Illowy, who had taken eight spiderbites? How much longer would they even have?