Harsh Lessons Prodigal Solo

Your RP of the Blindfolding Spell for Prodigal DADA Learner has been approved. Your detail in this post is wonderful, well done!

Spell: Disarming Charm
Incantation: Expelliarmus (ex-PEL-lee-ar-muss)
Wand movement: Diagonally downward to the right, with a counterclockwise spiral at the end

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Knowing in advance what today's lesson would be about, Liana decided to spend an hour of her free time furtively practicing the wand movement and pronunciation of the spell in her own room. With the mock wand carved from a piece of pine clasped tightly in her palm, she kept repeating the diagonal downward line, from left to right, ending in a counterclockwise spiral, whispering the incantation under her breath, over and over again.

''Expelliarmus. Expelliarmus. ex-PEL-lee-ar-muss.''

She wouldn't draw her mentor's anger, not today. It wasn't cheating if she learned something in advance, right? Well, it probably wasn't cheating, but it would be lying if she pretended to be studying it for the first time when the tutoring session started. Or at least concealing the truth. Either way, she so wanted to impress her tutor, and it was nigh impossible to do that without a pinch of trickery.

The last minutes before 10 a.m. were ticking away when she ceased her practice and went down to the yard where the lesson would take place. Her heart was fluttering with excitement and apprehension. She hoped it wouldn't cause her to forget all she'd taught herself in the past hour and just monumentally fail her first observed attempt... and let on yet again just how mediocre a student she really was.

When Liana arrived, the dark-haired Russian was already waiting for her.

''Good morning, Mr. Blavatsky,'' she greeted him politely.

''Always on time. Gud habit,'' the man responded. Which, coming from him, was a huge praise, and meant that he was in a good mood. ''Today we learn Disarming Charm. Is a simple spell, but has one flaw. You know what flaw?'' His accent was barely audible today. Another good omen.

''The incantation is pretty long, five syllables. It takes longer to pronounce it, which slows one down in a duel,'' the girl offered eagerly, reciting a piece of knowledge from one of the previous lessons.

''So. You know ze incantation, then. You've been reading about it on your own, eh?'' Blavatsky inquired. So much of impressing him with being successful on 'first' try. She nodded in response, suddenly crestfallen. ''Well then, show me how you cast ze spell. Aim at me.''

The girl obeyed, unpocketing her wand imitation and leveling it at the man. Liana's heart was pounding so hard she could hear her pulse resonating in her ears. Now that he knew she had studied independently, performing less than perfectly would only serve to markedly lower the man's opinion about her abilities. Which added a considerable amount of stress to the situation.

''Expelliarmus,'' she incanted, tracing the learned pattern in the air with the tip of the pine stick. To her immense joy an amusement, the man proceeded to make a show of dropping his wand on the grass as if it had been knocked out of his grasp.

''Gud. Now opponent has no weapon. But is not time to relax. Not everyone needs wand to hurt you,'' he moved his hand in what looked like much the same pattern she had drawn with the fake wand. ''Expelliarmus.'' A fulgurant scarlet light flashed in the space between them, and the girl was blasted backward, her right hand tingling painfully, deprived of the piece of wood she had been holding. The soft lawn cushioned her fall, and she quickly scrambled back up to her feet.

''You can cast without a wand!'' she exclaimed excitedly. It was such a rare skill; so the man could do wordless and wandless magic. No wonder he had been a duelling champion in his time.

''Yes. And you never know who else can do it. So when you disable or disarm your enemy, is no cause to relax. Keep attacking. Be wary. Finish ze work quickly, before zey can surprise you. And always expect enemy to be better, smarter, faster, more skilled than zey seem.''

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Once again, she placed the stick back into the wooden dummy's grasp, a stick much like the mock wand Liana had been using when she was still too young for a real one. The target didn't have to be holding a wand for the spell to work. Anything clasped in their hand would be knocked out of it. But the dummy in thd DADA classroom held a wand imitation nonetheless, likely to mimic a duelling situation. She had knocked it out and replaced it half a dozen times during this training session. If the spell was particularly powerful, the enemy, too, should be sent flying. Therefore, the goal presently was to make the target itself be pushed backward due to the force of her spell. The redhead aimed at the effigy.

''Expelliarmus!''

A flash of red light. The stick flew out of the wooden figure's grasp. The girl picked it up and slid it back between the hard lifeless fingers.

''Expelliarmus!''

Another flash. Another disappointingly average disarmament.

''ex-PEL-lee-ar-muss,'' she took care to pronounce it with accentuated precision, repeating the pattern of a downward diagonal slash with a counterclockwise spiral at the end. A dazzling scarlet flash, and the dummy hit the wall behind it with a hard thud, its wand clattering to the floor on the other side of the room.

That was alright. But she could do better. Yet again, the girl placed the stick into the target's hand and poised her wand for another cast.

@Liana Kerr
Your RP for 'Expelliarmus' for Prodigal DADA Learner has been accepted and you may now apply to add it to your trunk. Wonderful job, I am looking forward to reading more from you in the future.

Spell: Tongue-Tying Spell
Incantation: Mimblewimble (MIM-bull-wim-bull)
Wand movement: Two intertwined loops

For some odd reason, the Tongue-Tying Spell had not been part of her private curriculum with Mr. Blavatsky. Did he not think this spell useful, since he and most of his adult opponents in duelling tournaments wielded non-verbal magic with ease? Perhaps that was indeed the case. The reason didn't matter, really. What mattered was that Liana now had to teach this spell to herself, before any more of the duelling events she'd signed up for could start and leave the girl disappointed in her arsenal of offensive spells.

She studied the pattern of the required hand movement, frowning slightly. This was rather complex. She'd have to practice it multiple times until she felt sure she'd be able to cast it. The incantation, Mimblewimble, seemed a bit silly, not at all resembling Latin, the language in which most spells had their roots. This sounded more like a prank spell someone had come up with recently, using the English word 'mumble' as the basis. That would make it quite descriptive, she supposed.

''MIM-bull-wim-bull,'' she whispered, reading out the pronunciation indicated in the second-year textbook. ''MIM-bull-wim-bull. MIM-bull-wim-bull.'' Once the sounds felt natural in her mouth, she ceased repeating the word and began practicing the wand movement. Two loops, intertwined with each other. It took her some five minutes of focused practicing before she felt confident enough to actually try out the spell. Had she had some other living target to practice on, she'd have already cast at it. However, the only being she could practice on was herself, and so she took extra care to get the knack of the spell before putting it to action.

She hoped the effects would go away quickly. How long could it last, really? In the duels she had witnessed so far, the spell only lingered for some seconds, maybe a bit more if cast by an older, more proficient student. But the effects never failed to clear away. So what were the odds she'd cast so powerfully that she'd require assistance in nullifying the muteness? Well, if that indeed happened, she'd probably write a note explaining what had occurred and bring it to Professor Rion so he could aid her. But then, what if he decided she was too careless by casting magic at herself without supervision, and revoked the permission to use this classroom for practice? Right. She wouldn't go to Professor Rion. She'd seek out Hildegard Schneider, then. She had witnessed her peer casting Finite Incantatem before, and with spectacular success. Yes, that felt like the right decision, which she likely (and hopefully) wouldn't have to resort to.

The girl pointed the tip of her cherry wand at herself. ''Mimblewimble!'' she incanted, drawing the double loop with the wand, and bracing for the effects. The feeling was utterly bizarre. Her tongue seemed to twist around itself, as if tying into a knot. It didn't exactly hurt, but the sensation was far from pleasant, too. She lifted her hand to her mouth, wondering if she could straighten the tongue out manually, but, just as quickly as it started, the tension disappeared, and her tongue was free. If this had happened during a duel, those few short seconds would have cost her the possibility of casting at least two spells.

Now this was something she could use against her opponents.

@Liana Kerr
Your RP for 'Mimblewimble' for Prodigal DADA Learner has been accepted and you may now apply to add it to your trunk. Liana is quite brave for casting the spell on herself.