Defense Against the Dark Arts Closed

 To say that the girl was surprised would have been an understatement. Her lips parted into a soft 'o' shape, and she looked at the boy with raised eyebrows, kind of like a 'did you really just say that?' expression. She cleared her throat again, her face tone going about ten shades darker. She turned away and slightly loosened her own grip on his hand, eventually pulling her hand away to tuck a piece of hair behind her ear. She was still playing with her wand with the other hand.

 Gosh, she wondered what he got out of embarrassing her like this. She felt like a tomato! Well, more like, she was a tomato. She should just stop blushing - but it wasn't like Ryan was making that easy for her. He kept catching her off guard with things like this, and it wasn't like an eleven year old girl to be able to control it. She smiled a little bit, though, and shook her head.

 "You're interesting, Ryan," She commented, putting her wand down on her desk to write out her answers to the questions that the professor had just put up on the board with her left hand. She was far from right-handed, and anything she did with it felt - and looked - awkward. Probably as awkward as Felicity acted around this Ravenclaw boy. She huffed inwardly, and then looked back up at him, "As cheesy as those movies my mum watches, but definitely interesting." She laughed a little bit, then turned her attention back to her work. 

James Lachoneus wrote: James stood ready, actually finding himself nervous about what would happen. Not necessarily nervous, thinking that Christy was going to mess up, but more nervous about what it would feel like when he was hit by the spell. Would it hurt? James wanted to doubt it, because surely, Hogwarts wouldn't put their student's in any kind of danger... would they?
James shook his head, attempting to clear it of those thoughts, and he stood in a ready stance. It wasn't as if he needed to, but he felt it was appropriate for this situation.
James' hands grew a bit sweaty as he gripped his wand tight. He saw Christy getting ready as he remembered what they were doing, so he let his grip loosen just a bit. He also had a lishgt fear of breaking his wand if not too careful with it. A wand was the greatest thing he had ever had possession of, and he wasn't about to lose it.
James waited a few beats before he heard Christy shout the incantation.
"Expelliarmus!"
James' eyes shut reflexively, and almost instantly, after she gave the magic word, James felt a strong tug on his wand as it went flying out of his hand. He had tried to hold onto it, but it had still managed to slip away. James opened his eyes to see his wand laying a few feet away, in front of him.
James performed a celebratory punch in the air for Christy.
"Yeah! Good job!" he congratulated her, grinning. "You did it!"
"I did it!" Christy exclaimed, "Oh my goodness! Thank you for the advice, James. That's what did it. I just have to focus on it and picture it happening. Oh that felt wonderful!"
"Yeah! No problem! I'm actually surprised that I helped!" he said honestly. "I'm no good at magic anyway, because, well, I was raised muggle..." James spoke as he stepped forward to retrieve his wand.

Christy was so delighted that she had actually performed a spell, and on the first try! This gave her a new sense of confidence with her magick. As long as she remembered to use her imagination, which was one of her biggest assets anyway, she would do well, she knew she would. She heard him mention that he was muggle-born too, "Wait, you were raised muggle, too? I was too! That's why I think I've been struggling so much, but, yeah, your advice really helped! You try it,too, I'm sure it'll help. Just imagine a lasso attached to the tip of your wand when you do it." Christy encouraged the other Hufflepuff boy, as he did for her, hoping it would help him as much as he helped her. Christy always hoped that she could help others here as she did in her muggle classes. She was always used to being the top of her classes, so she had hoped she would eventually excel in her wizarding classes as well.

As James picked up his wand Christy knew it was his turn to try, so she got into position, holding her wand out in front of her, waiting for him to perform the spell on her, "Okay, I'm ready. Go ahead and tryit. I'm sure you can do it!"

Her nonchalance was a quality that didn't not serve her well—At least this was what her grandmother always said. Jo had soon learnt that Ravenclaw was a house for the studious, the learned and those who read all their text books during the summer before even attending Hogwarts. 

She was not that kind of person. 

As intelligent and driven as Josephine could be, it was purely based on the need to excel so that one day she could do something other then continue then end up staying in dead-end Hackney. Not that Jo despised her hometown, it was the opposite actually, most people from Hackney were proud of where they came from and Jo was much the same. 

Late to rise, Jo didn't want to miss breakfast and thought being a few minutes late to class was more beneficial than starting her first day of classes on an empty stomach. Perhaps that was a mistake? She arrived at the classroom to already find it crowded with students, all of them partnered up and practicing a spell. 

Her brow furrowed as she slipped into the classroom, eyes searching for something or somebody that looked just as clueless as she did. 

Her eyes fell on a boy [Kevin] as he spoke and Jo smiled at him as she mad her way over to him. "I got here late," she explained. "I'll be your partner if you like. Not sure how good I'll be though." Given she had no idea what was going on.

It was not happening. It was not working. It was not going to work. Sh did not realize it, nor did she understand it but her fear was the prevalent far most would have in her situation. What if she was incapable of magic despite being born from magical parents? What if she was a Squib? Even the word sounded unpleasant, a likely intent. Magic was an inborn, inherent trait passed down in someone's DNA as a dominant trait, however the lack of power -- the "Muggle gene" could lay dormant as a recessive trait for generations on both sides of her family tree. It would be an unlikely event but it has happened before and it was indeed possible that such was true for her as well.

She was scared more than angry. Embarrassed.  

She ran the motions over again in her head, they were perfect. She reviewed the word, she enunciated it just right didn't she? Yet there was nothing, no magical discharge, no discernible effect. Her parents sent her here, didn't they know? How could they not know that she lacked! How dare they do this to her! They had set her up for failure by actively preventing her from learning magic before she entered Hogwarts. 

"Are you sure? I'm positive you were getting really close to it. Everything you did seemed in line with what everyone else was doing."

"Yeah," she admitted with slumped shoulders. "I noticed that too," she replied. That was the problem really. if there was a discernible difference, it would be easy for her to identify what had gone wrong but on the surface they would be the same. Magic is not all about the dance and song however, there was something more. something necessary that was missing or rather was not realized and controlled.

She would make her way to her desk and scribble the word over and over again on a sheet of paper with a disheartened sigh. Her time in Hogwarts would be indeed brief. 

Kevin turned when a girl's[Josephine] voice addressed him in an effort to catch the sound. He'd started to doze from the wait, and he took a moment to size up the girl. More accurately put, he wanted to know how she should react to the girl in question...a Ravenclaw and arguably the House Slytherin got along with best given banal ideologies of Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. So his suspicions dropped a notch.

"I'll gladly have you as a partner - we're just disarming each other to prove we can use the Disarming Charm." He spun his wand through his fingers throughout the brief explanation to catch the girl up.
"Kevin Reagan by the way, and if it's all right with you, ladies first Miss..." He gave pause for her to introduce herself since he didn't know her name. If they were going to fling magic at each other in class he figured they could exchange names.

An excited grin formed on his face, after all an academic like Ravenclaw usually housed was a kindred spirit as he saw it. Effectively this could be considered a form of exchanging pointers or getting another take on things from a different angle. As he kept that thought in mind, he stopped playing with his wand.

The boy was silent for a few moments and Jo crossed her arms over her chest as he looked at her. Did he need a partner or did he just want to spend the class daydreaming? His silence lasted just a beat too long and Jo was about to open her month to ask him if he had lost the ability to speak when he finally spoke. 

"Disarming? Right, I've actually read about that." Surprise, surprise. It was last night when she'd been surrounded by her studious housemates who were busy preparing for their classes. Jo felt out of place amongst her fellow Ravenclaws and decided she should at least sort of prepare for the next days lessons. 

Josephine quirked a brow at his comment, lips curling into an amused smirk. Ladies first? She was hardly a lady. "How chivalrous of you, Kevin," Jo responded, retrieving her Hornbeam wand. "I'm Jo Tindall." Never Josephine, not since she'd been a little girl anyway.

"Now if I remember correctly," she mused out loud, more for her own benefit then that of her partners, "pronunciation is important. It's not so much wand movements with this one." Jo readied herself, mimicking the actions of some of the other pairs in the class and moving several paces backwards to give herself and Kevin enough space to properly practice. Her wand in hand, she watched as he stopped toying around with his and focused. 

Good, she needn't ask him if he was ready. Wand held in her left hand, her green eyes stared ahead determinedly as she spoke clearly,  "Expelliarmus!"

Something about her comment on chivalry struck him as sarcastic and earned an eye roll in response. Just like he was convinced that her introduction as Jo was just meant to mess with him. Still he opted to hold his tongue instead of just asking if it was short for something right off the bat.

The monologue on the basic key points earned a smirk from his end. Did she think him stupid or just want to make sure they were on something of an even field before things began? The practice swishing on the other hand made him wonder if he was over thinking things. Was she that lacking in confidence over such a simple spell? His grip tightened moments before she cast her spell to express his tension and hopefully cheat any results.

Unfortunately, magic is not so easily beat and his cherry wand was wrenched, or rather propelled from his grasp despite his best efforts. He nodded a couple times while silently fetching the wand. But he couldn't help the question of the purpose of dueling braces that chained the wand to the bracer. After all if this was the result of a newbie...a serious veteran should easily snap the chain, rip the bracer or even break the wand.

He stooped to pick up the wand while finding himself agreeing with his father that wands work as good focus points at the start before becoming more of a nuisance as one grew better. He swore to make sure to take his old man's advice on ditching the wand and voicing spells as fast as he could.

"Oh right, that's how you pronounce it," he offered belated response to her chivalry remark as the wand twirled between his fingers again. "Is it just Jo or is Jo short for something?" He inquired while returning to his former spot and leveling his own wand at her. "Don't think I wont just guess until you tell me." He waited a full silent ten count before flicking his wand at her and muttering, "Expelliarmus."

After all, volume of one's voice shouldn't be an issue, right?

Alex mentally cursed as he hurried with his feet accros the halls. Hogwarts was amazing to be sure but why did it have to be SO CONFUSING !!!!! A map would have been appreciated and he had forgot to ask for directions to class. Which had resulted in him being lost. Finally he managed to get one of the ghosts (People could live on after dead, weird, he thought in the meantime) to give him directions to the classroom in which defense against the dark arts was taught. Then as silently as he could Alexander slipped through the door like a shadow before sitting at a location where he could observe the room decently good whilst avoiding most attention. 

As he sat down at his position Alex observed what people were doing and quickly observed they were learning a spell, how exciting. As he saw most people making some kind of shape which he quickly deducted as being a clockwise spiral and saying the word 'Expelliarmus' 

He then tried to do it like the others and after a few tries managed to get the wand work to be correct but he had a few problems with properly pronouncing it "ex-pelli- armus, no no ex-pell-i-armus." As he did so he tried to imagine the effects of what it might be and from what he saw around the room it was supposed to....... disarm someone ? No Alex mentally said to himself it was disarmement, he must be determined for this to work. As he had read in Eragon (even if it did not entirely correspond) what was needed in magic was determination, imagination, strength and the words. He had all that was needed so had to do it. Prove to himself that he WAS a wizard Then Alex picutred in his mind his magic flowing into his wand, gathering up the spell and he imagined the intent. To disarm someone, disarm them so they could not be a threat and said trying to convince himself he could do it "ex-PELL-ee-ARE-mus." And he felt some of the pressure in his wand release but the only result was a softly glowing blue light which dissapeared after a second. Only leaving Alex frustrated 

As she turned away from Kevin, Jo caught his eye roll out the corner of her own green eyes. She bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from grinning in response to his reaction. She enjoyed messing with people, not with any malicious intent but just to see their reactions and to amuse herself. 

If she knew what was running through his mind Jo would have opted to place down her wand, take several steps forward and punch him right in the face. Alas, she would never know and simply continued her monologue about the spell to herself for her own sake. She was new to this, prior to finding out she was a witch her only experience with magic had been those she displayed when she was growing up—things that she simply ignored as odd things and coincidences, not magic. 

She was momentarily surprised by the instant success of the spell, of course she kept that surprise to herself. A cool smirk on her lips, Jo quirked an eyebrow in the Slytherins direction. "I know that's how you pronounce it," Jo deadpanned in response. "That's why I said it." She didn't say this to be rude, it was simply true. She always chose her words carefully, there was no point in saying something without a purpose. 

"It's short for something," Jo grinned, holding her own wand ready. "Feel free to guess then." 

She waited then, barely hearing him utter the incantation but feeling the wand pull from her hand despite her attempt to tighten the grip she had on it. While others around them struggled, Jo was pleased to have a partner that was competent. "Not bad," Jo commented, she bent down and picked up the Hornbeam wand. "Almost as good as me," she teased. "It would be better if we had a blocking charm, that way it would make it more challenging."

"Wait, you were raised muggle, too?” Christy asked. “I was too!”
Christy was raised muggle too! Maybe James wasn’t completely alone with his muggle background.
“That's why I think I've been struggling so much, but, yeah, your advice really helped! You try it, too, I'm sure it'll help. Just imagine a lasso attached to the tip of your wand when you do it." She told James.
James watched as she got into a ready position a small distance in front of him. James followed suit, holding his wand in front of him, focusing in on her wand.
Okay… James thought, Lasso her wand out of her hand!
James shut his eyes for a moment, and then opened them again. He raised his wand a bit and then swirled it around like the others had been doing.
“Expelliarmus!” he shouted. Nothing happened.
James groaned in annoyance. Maybe he was thinking to hard, maybe he should just relax. That’s what it was like when he was on a stage, performing. Whatever performance he was doing, it wouldn’t be any good if he was all tense and nervous. He needed to relax.
“I am a fluffy cloud.” he told himself in his mind, chuckling a bit at the muggle movie quote.
He re-focused on Christy’s wand, and performed the wand gesture one more time.
“Expelliarmus!” he shouted again, this time with a stronger and more confident voice. With that, Christy’s wand was pulled out of her hand and flung through the air.
James beamed and jumped with excitement.
“YES!”