Prodigal Charms Learner

April 11, 2021
Spell/Incantation: Bandaging Charm (Ferula)
Wand movement: Tap target with wand
Narrative:

Reducio

Though Jack might not have originally considered the Bandaging Charm to be all that necessary with the Hospital Wing open, times had changed. The boy had seen first-hand the many situations during which the charm might have come in handy when a nurse wasn't nearby and readily available. There were also the times when it would have been better not to let the adults know about certain injuries lest they ask questions about them that he didn't want to answer.

That was why Jack had gone from putting the Bandaging Charm as third to learn on his list (after the Summoning and Banishing Charms) to the first by the time he was ready to teach himself third year spells. As usual, he preferred to make the smartest and most practical choices he could when possible and learning this spell first certainly seemed to be one of them.

As usual, the second year began with studying the spell itself starting with its origins and etymology. Apparently, the incantation for the Bandaging Charm was 'ferula' which was Latin for 'rod'. Jack presumed this was a reference to a rod being used to make a splint which was one of the things the spell was supposed to be able to do. That made sense enough, then, he thought. It was kind of odd it had nothing to do with bandages and he might have preferred to call it the Splinting Charm, but he wasn't the one in charge and he didn't control how the magic worked. If it actually created bandages, good for it.

As he reads a little more into the charm, such as how its wand movement was to tap the target and that it didn't produce a light when it created the bandages, he thought about how it could have been so useful to him during his first year at Hogwarts. Perhaps it might not have been useful to Victor when he had been burning alive from the inside, but could it have saved him when he had been stabbed by Selim's shadow during the previous summer? It hurt to think so. Maybe it would have, maybe not, but there was no point in dwelling on that now. What was done was done and nothing could change that. All he could do was prepare for the future.

Taking a deep breath, Jack wiped his briefly-stinging eyes on the back of his hand and stood to stretch. Getting out his wand, he moved his books aside and rolled up the sleeve of his left hand; the one free. "Ferula. fer-ROOL-lah. fer-ROOL-lah," he practiced speaking, saying it slowly and making sure to emphasize the syllable on which the accent was strongest. Finally, when he thought he was pronouncing it properly, he tapped his wand to his left wrist.

"Ferula."

Though his wrist was completely fine, bandages were still conjured up from what seemed to be thin air and wrapped around the area he had tapped with his wand. Any soreness or stiffness he might have felt after having researched so hard and long instantly eased and he tested his newly-bandaged wrist experimentally. Perhaps the charm was useful even when one wasn't injured.

Word Count: 530

April 13-14, 2021
Spell/Incantation: Summoning Charm (Accio)
Wand movement: A wide arch like a rainbow
Narrative:

Reducio

After the Bandaging Charm, Jack was very much eager to learn his original first choice of Third Year spells to teach himself. The Summoning Charm seemed to have countless uses which was probably why, as he had read, it was one of the oldest spells known to wizardkind. Jack was amazed that not only could it summon objects in view but objects out of view as well. He was sure it took more magic and energy and perhaps skill to summon the object the farther away it was from the caster, however. Idly, he wondered how specific one had to be in calling the name of an object and if it worked in different languages, but decided not to waste too much time looking into those things until he had mastered the basics of the spell. From there, he could experiment and learn more about it.

First of all, the incantation was Accio; pronounced AH-kee-o. The wand movement was a wide arch. That seemed simple enough, but so did a lot of charms in theory before they were practiced. Apparently, the object to be summoned needed to be thought of as well as spoken, so Jack thought that perhaps speaking a different language while thinking of the same object would have the same effect. A curious thing he discovered was that while the Summoning Charm couldn't be used on buildings or living things, its counter-spell the Banishing Charm, could be used on living things. Perhaps the force used to draw someone or something toward the caster was different than the force used to repel someone or something toward the caster.

Interestingly enough, however, Jack read that people could be summoned indirectly by summoning things they were wearing or holding, presuming they didn't try to take it off or let go. Evidently, it was risky to move people or living things in this way because they could be injured at the speed of which the magic summoning occurred which was said to be close to the speed of light. The Slytherin boy wondered if it would work on a flying broom and its rider, perhaps to speed up a broom's natural flying abilities or the rider's trip, but again he blocked off that train of thought in order to focus on the main task at hand.

Jack soon read that, as he'd assumed, the further away an object was from the caster to begin with, the harder it was to summon. Even if one couldn't see where the object was and still summon it, he also learned that the caster had to at least know the general location of the object to be summoned in order for the spell to be successful. It was a relief to learn that anti-theft charms existed to keep objects from being stolen by summoning.

When it was time to practice, he decided to start with something small. "AH-kee-oh," he sounded out slowly and carefully at first. Then he tried again; this time with the accompanying wand movement of a wide arch. "Accio book!"

A book went hurtling toward his face so fast, he didn't even have time to see the cover before he had to duck to avoid getting hit in the face. Oops; he had forgotten to be more specific. Not only was he supposed to concentrate on the spell, wand movement, and incantation, but he had to picture the specific object he wanted to summon and where it was he wanted to summon it from, too.

Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he went to go retrieve the random book he had summoned and put it with the others. Then he concentrated harder on a particular tome he could read the spine of.

"Accio 'History of Magic' book!"

Whoosh! That book hadn't been kidding when it said the objects were summoned close to the speed of light. He caught the book in his ready, outstretched hand this time, but was almost knocked off balance by its sheer momentum when he caught it. Still, a success was a success and he whooped in triumph. Then he spent the next half hour summoning other objects with mixed results until they were more or less consistent and he wasn't so afraid that something was going to smack him in the face.

Word Count: 716

April 15, 2021
Spell/Incantation: Banishing Charm (Depulso)
Wand movement: A sweep of the wand
Narrative:

Reducio

As someone with as many enemies as Jack, the Slytherin could think of almost as many uses for the Banishing Charm as for its counter-spell, the Summoning Charm. Thus, once he was confident enough with his mastery of the Summoning Charm, he attempted to educate himself on all that was the Banishing Charm.

What he discovered upon researching the Banishing Charm was that not only did it repel objects from the caster, but it could cause them to fly away from the caster towards a specific target. Even better was the fact that unlike the Summoning Charm, the Banishing Charm worked on living beings. If a bully or someone else got too close for his comfort, Jack could banish them easily with this spell. A large part of his fear of hugs would be alleviated.

The wand movement was relatively simple; just a sweep of the wand. Doing so sent the target away, but to send the target toward another target, the caster had to imagine and concentrate on what secondary target to send the first toward. As with most things, the more power and flexibility that came with the spell, the more difficult it was to master. Still, the second year Slytherin was more determined than ever to figure out how to do so. Besides, the Banishment Charm had limitations that the Summoning Charm did not such as the fact that it could only banish whatever was in view and was aimed at by the wand.

It seemed that the incantation, 'depulso', was derived from the Latin word 'depulsio' which meant 'driving/pushing away'. The word 'pulse' in English also referred to a pulse of energy, so with the prefix 'de-' in front of it, the incantation 'depulso' suggested the meaning of 'a negative force of energy'.

If it was a negative force of energy acting on whatever one pointed their wand toward, Jack could see why the spell could be used on living things unlike the Summoning Charm. If the principle was based on pushing away with a force from the wand, it didn't matter what it was pushing away to rely on pushing. For summoning, however, that wasn't the case, so that explained why the two were different.

"De-pul-so," Jack practiced saying without holding his wand. "Depulso. de-PUHL-so. Depulso." At last, when he thought he'd finally got it, he decided to try it out. It was also nice not having to name whatever it was he wanted to banish away from him unlike the Summoning Charm.

"Depulso," he said, sweeping his wand while gesturing toward his bookbag. The bag went flying away from him until it hit a wall. He stared for a minute. "Oops." Papers and quills had erupted from the open bag and went flying everywhere. Sighing, the boy put his wand in his pocket and went to go pick them all up.

Word Count: 477

April 15, 2021
Spell/Incantation: Windy Spell (Ventus)
Wand movement: A 'V' shape
Narrative:

Reducio

The Windy Spell reminded Jack a lot of the Banishment Charm and he thought it was a good spell to follow that one up with. Both the Windy Spell and the Banishment Charm seemed to conjure up invisible forces to drive back others. The Windy Spell might have been more useful for making the force seem more natural than outright magical banishment, however, since it used a jet of spiraling wind. Furthermore, when he looked into the Windy Spell, the redhead learned that the wind from it could also be used to entrap people. That would have been very useful indeed if he'd been able to learn it in the past.

He also really liked the incantation and wand movement for the spell as both seemed very direct which made them easy to learn and remember. The incantation was simply the exact Latin word for 'wind', which was 'ventus'. The wand movement was a simple 'V' shape like the letter that the incantation stated with. How could he go wrong with that?

For this spell, the Welsh boy decided to practice it outdoors but away from prying eyes. He went around behind the shed where they kept Quidditch equipment and attempted to sound out the spell before testing it. "Ventus. VEN-tus. VEN-tuss. Ventus." Just for good measure, he made a 'V' in the air with his wand without speaking the incantation and was satisfied with his performance.

Finally, he thought he was ready to practice the real thing. "Ventus," he called, performing the 'V' wand movement with his wand while concentrating. The spiraling wind whipped from his wand and began to rip up blades of grass from the ground. Jack grinned at his success. He waited for the wind to die down before trying again just to make sure the first time wasn't a fluke. "Ventus!"

This time, the wind was slightly stronger than before. He noted this mentally before realizing with some growing concern that his new spiraling wind was headed straight for a nearby tree with a nest of newly-hatched birds. The birds were too young to fly away and their nest was about to be demolished. Jack whipped out his wand again.

"Finite Incantatem!" he yelled, making a shield shape with his wand tip before pointing it straight at the wind. It was just in time, too. The spiraling air instantly ceased blowing and the nest was safe. Jack mentally cursed himself for not having been more aware of his surroundings. He would have to be more careful about that in the future.

Well, at least he thought it was safe to say he'd learned the Windy Spell.

Word Count: 441

April 16, 2021
Spell/Incantation: Wand-Lighting Charm Variation (Lumos Maxima)
Wand movement: Flick wand, draw wand back, then flick wand again
Narrative:

Reducio

While the Wand-Lighting Charm certainly came in handy at times, Jack didn't see too benefit in learning its variations which was why Lumos Maxima and Lumos Duo were saved for some of the last spells he decided to teach himself of the third year charm curriculum. Lumos Maxima, which seemed the less puzzling and perhaps more straightforward and useful of the two, was supposedly meant to create a brilliantly blinding flash of white light from the tip of the wand that could be used to temporarily blind and stun opponents. Jack decided to start with that one.

The wand movement was a little more complicated than most spells' seemed to be. In order to perform it, one had to flick their wand, draw the wand back, then flick their wand again. Then again, since the variation was a little more complex than the original, it made sense that the wand movement would be, too.

As with its predecessor, the 'lumos' part of the incantation was derived from the Latin word 'lumen' which meant 'light'. The secondary part, however, 'maxima', directly translated to 'very great' or 'greatest' in Latin. This, too, seemed to make decent sense to Jack.

Supposedly there was a variation of the Wand-Lighting Charm called Lumos Solem which produced sunlight. He wasn't sure if it was more or less bright than Lumos Maxima, considering they simply seemed to be two different kinds of light. However, as that wasn't something that was taught to them in third year charms, Jack decided not to worry about it for the time being.

Instead, the boy attempted to practice speaking the incantation aloud, focusing on the syllables and which syllables had accents on them so he could put special emphasis on them when speaking the spell. "Lumos Maxima," he began, simply saying the incantation as he read it to get it memorized. "LU-mos MAX-i-ma. Loo-mos Max-i-muh. LOO-mos MAX-i-muh."

Once he thought he had gotten the pronunciation down pretty decently, it was time to start practicing his wand-flicking. He imagined it was similar to the 'swish and flick' wand movement of the Levitation Charm and thus decided to attempt it in a similar fashion. Flick, draw back, flick. Flick, draw back, flick.

Finally, it seemed time to put everything together. Jack flicked his wand, drew it back, then flicked it again, enunciating as clearly as he could, "Lumos Maxima."

A bright white light blossomed from the tip of his wand, causing him to watch in wonder before he quickly had to shield his eyes from its radiance. This, of course, caused his concentration to waver which caused the light to dim and fade. Still, though, it seemed he had managed the trick of it. Pleased with his work and not really keen on causing another attention-attracting flash of brilliant light, he decided to stop there with that variation of the Wand-lighting Charm and move on to the next.

Word Count: 485

April 16, 2021
Spell/Incantation: Wand-Lighting Charm Variation (Lumos Duo)
Wand movement: Slind wand across the ground and point
Narrative:

Reducio

Lumos Duo seemed one of the most ridiculous and misleading of all the incantations Jack had learned thus far. It didn't seem all that useful, either, except for very particular situations. Still, a spell was a spell and since it was one of the variations they were to be taught of the Wand-Lighting Charm, the perfectionist in him made him determined to master them all. This was why, though he had a feeling that even the Singing Jinx had more use than this particular variation of the Wand-Lighting Charm, he chose to learn Lumos Duo first. After he had just gotten the hang of Lumos Maxima, it only made sense to follow it up with learning its other variation.

Jack's research told him that the extremely bright, intense beam of light that the Lumos Duo spell variation created could be used to force ghouls to retreat and hinkypunks to solidify, causing the Slytherin to wonder if the original version of the Wand-Lighting Charm wasn't strong enough to do either of those things on its own. The light could also supposedly be used to attract Chizpurfles due to their attraction to magic. Jack thought the spell's beam of light reminded him of a lightsaber from the franchise Star Wars and wonder how many other students familiar with the series had also had the weapons come to mind with Lumos Duo.

Sliding the wand across the ground and pointing was the required wand movement for the spell. Jack found this interesting, but not objectionable. What he did find objectionable, however, was the spell's incantation. 'Lumos', like its predecessors, had its origins derived from the Latin word for light, 'lumen'. 'Duo', on the other hand, meant 'two', which Jack found very confusing because that meant that the incantation's literal translation was 'two light' or 'light two'. He supposed that was supposed to refer to the power or intensity of two lights being put together in order to focus into a single beam, but he didn't like how it could be misinterpreted. Whenever he heard the incantation, he kept thinking that the spell created two lights or two sources of light rather than one single, intense beam.

Irritated but no less determined to get the spell down, Jack tried to commit the spell's true effect to memory by imagining Darth Maul's double-sided lightsaber as 'two lights' which was what 'Lumos Duo' could have been translated into. He hoped that by doing so, he could have an easier time remembering that the variation with that incantation created a beam of intense light much like a lightsaber.

"Lumos Duo," he practiced saying. "Loo-mos Doo-oh. LOO-mos DOO-oh. Lumos Duo." Then the redhead slid his wand across the ground and pointed. He practiced the movement again and again until he could do it seamlessly in one long, fluid motion. Then it was time to put the incantation and wand movement together along with concentration.

Slide across the ground, then point. "Lumos Duo!"

At that, a single, focused beam of light shot out the tip of his wand, just as he'd concentrated on and imagined. He held it steady for a few minutes, then waved his wand around a bit as if it were a lightsaber, making lightsaber noises for fun. When he eventually had enough, grinning at himself and his silliness, he performed the Wand-Extinguishing Charm with a sweeping motion of his wand in the shape of a wave, saying, "Nox." The light immediately went out.

Well, it was nice to know the same spell could be used to extinguish the variations of the original spell as the original itself.

Word Count: 602

April 16, 2021
Spell/Incantation: Singing Jinx (Cantis)
Wand movement: Point wand at target
Narrative:

Reducio

Now that he had gotten what he had thought of as the more practical spells out of the way, it was time for one of the more fun ones. Jack was amused that the professors taught jinxes at all, as if it encouraged use of them against their peers. Even if one of the more minor dark charms, jinxes were still dark charms and more potent than hexes. Nevertheless, Jack wasn't about to turn down learning something new; especially when he could already think up several fun pranks and creative uses for the spell.

When Jack researched the history of the spell, he was surprised to find that it had been used on the enchanted suits of armor in Hogwarts Castle. This surprised him because he hadn't realized that beings (or things?) without vocal cords could be jinxed to sing, but perhaps this was because the suits of armor were enchanted to be able to speak or at least act or seem alive anyway. The catch was that the target of the spell had to know the lyrics to the song they were jinxed to sing. If some but not all the suits of armor knew the lyrics to the Christmas song, 'O Come, All Ye Faithful', that they were made to sing, didn't that mean they had a brain or soul or memory of some sort? Wasn't that even stranger than singing without vocal cords?

Deciding not to think on it too much, Jack thought he would try the spell on an animal some time to see if he could amuse Jake Morris. The only thing would be that he would have to sing a song to the animal quite frequently in order to get them to learn the lyrics (if they even could, for he wasn't sure what the memory capacity of an animal was). Since Jack liked to practice spells on his own and without help, he knew he would have to use an animal to test his spell on - especially because he didn't dare testing it on a suit of armor when he didn't know if they could talk or who they talked to. Animals, at least, he was confident wouldn't be blabbing about how he sang to them.

Thus, every day for a week, Jack went to the owlery in the evenings right before dinner whether he was sending a letter out or not. He waited until no one was around before he did so in order to sing undisturbed and unheard by anyone except the owls in the owlery. The song he chose to sing was something he thought Jake would like; a song called 'A Possible Hero' from a movie called Bartok the Magnificent that he had given Jake for his 12th birthday the previous summer.

Once he had done this for an entire week, the Slytherin boy finally decided to test out his ability at performing the Singing Jinx. The wand movement was extremely easy in that one simply had to point their wand at their target and speak the incantation in order for a pink light to shoot out and make the target sing if it hit them. The incantation for the Singing Jinx was 'cantis' which supposedly was derived from the Latin word 'cantare' which meant 'to sing'. Before he entered the owlery to try the spell, he practiced saying the incantation on its own without his wand.

"Cantis. Can-tiss. CAN-tis. Cantis."

Then, when he was adequately satisfied with his pronunciation, Jack stepped into the owlery. He pointed to a school owl he thought looked decently familiar enough, concentrated on the song he wanted it to sing, and pointed his wand at it while calling out, "Cantis!"

The results surprised Jack. Owls may not have been as melodious as songbirds or as precise in pronunciation as parrots, but they sang better than he'd expected. Or, at least, the one he'd jinxed did. Delighted, Jack listened and sang along, imagining what Jake would think when he got the chance to show him his new magic trick.

Word Count: 676

Name of Spell: Immobulus (Freezing Charm)
Incantation: ih-MOH-byoo-luhs
Wand Movement: Two mountain peaks

Reducio

Liam walked down the halls slightly waving to people as they passed by. It was free time for the students and some may have been going to the library or to meet up with friends. Most of the time Liam would have gone to the library during his free time until he had to be back in his dorm. But he wanted to see if he would be able to do something else today, somethings he's been wanting to do for a while but never had the guts to take action on. Liam had spotted a few interesting spells he wanted to learn early in a book, and what better place for that but in a classroom. Liam opened the door to the charms classroom just enough so he could see if somebody was inside or not.

When he saw nobody he opened the door all they way and entered the room. He placed the book down on the nearest desk and closed the door to the classroom. Liam opened the book and flipped to the page of the spell he found the most interesting at the moment. Immobulus the freezing charm, out of the three spells in this book Liam wanted to learn early this spell caught Liams attention the most. Liam scanned the page passing by the pronuciation and reading the wand movement. Liam pulled out his wand and began prancing the wand movement without saying a word. Tracing two mountain peaks in the air with his wand.

He repeated this movement in the air silently five times before he was semi confident in it. Liam was about to start prating the pronunciation of the spell but doubt overcame him. And Liam continued to practice the wand movement a few more times until he was confident in himself. Liam was about to move onto prating the pronunciation of the spell when he realised he had no moving objects to practice the spell on. Thats when he got the idea, he would just push a desk across the room and use the spell on it while it was still in motion. "ih-MOH-boo-luhs... That doesn't sound right maybe its i-MOH-byoo-lus" Liam shook hies head. "No that can't be it." Liam stood there thinking for a minute before it came to him.

"ih-MOH-byoo-luhs. Yeah that sounds right!" Liam smiled happy with himself and began to continue prating the pronunciation. "ih-MOH-byoo-luhs. ih-MOH-byoo-luhs. ih-MOH-byoo-luhs. ih-MOH-byoo-luhs." After a while Liam was feeling a bit confident to say it at a normal pace. "Immobulus. Immobulus. Immobulus. Immobulus." Liam smiled and walked up to a different desk and pushed it it began to slide across the floor. "i-MOH-byoo-luhs," Liam said as he waved his wand in the correct wandmovment. The desk slid across the floor and crashed into the wall before stoping. Liam winced as he realised he said the spell wrong. Liam walked up to the next desk and tried again. "ih-MOH-byoo-luhs," he said as he did the wand movement. Suddenly the desk stoped out of the blue when it would have crashed into the wall like the last desk.

Liam smiled proud of himself and fixed everything up. He was going to try the other spells he wanted to learn as well. But he knew it would be better to come prepared next time, besides he didn't want anybody to walk in on him. Liam grabbed his book and wand after he pushed the desks back in place and left the room.

578 Words

[font=black jack]Spell: Freezing Charm(Immobulus)
Incantation: ih-MOH-byoo-luhs
Wand Movement: A kind of mountain with two peaks
Word Count: 433[/font]

A week has passed since the start of the school year. You were interested in all the courses, but your favorite was unsurprisingly, the charms. But you found the course too simple. So, you took the second year book from the library and here you are in the charms room.
Through the window, you see the sky of a bright blue, cloudless. You also hear the noise of other students playing in the park. It's Saturday, that makes sense. But you, you want to study. You want to be the best at what your mother stood out for, to do her honor. Besides, you don't know if your mother would appreciate it if you stayed locked up in this weather. You don't care because she's not here.
You sit on a table and open the book to a random page. You come across a charm that looks good: the Freezing Charm. Interesting! According to the book, this charm can immobilize a target (alive or not). The formula would come from the Latin "immobilis" meaning immobile.
What are you going to immobilize? You take a paper bird from your bag. It's a gift you received on your birthday last year. You fold the wings, you unfold them and the bird starts to flutter around the room.
It's perfect. You continue to read the paragraph related to this charm. The formula, the movement of the wand, the ethymology ... Everything is there!
You take out your wand, clear your throat and say out loud by making a mountain with two peaks with your wand:
-[font=black jack] ih - MOH - byoo - luhs [/font]
The paper bird that a second ago was flitting quietly around the room froze in the air. If it is completely frozen, it nevertheless remains in the air. It does not fall. You grab it with a wave of your hand. You hope the effects are only temporary because you have not yet mastered the general antisort. To check, you do the same thing as earlier: you fold and unfold the wings of the bird. And he starts to fly quietly again.
You decide to try again, to make sure it wasn't just beginner's luck. You point your wand at the bird again, you make the mountain with two peaks and you repeat clearly:
-[font=black jack] ih - MOH - byoo - luhs [/font]
The paper bird freezes again in the air. You're happy, it wasn't just a beginner's luck! You gather your things, put them in your bag and leave the room, being careful to leave everything as before.

Name of spell Wind Charm
Incantation VEN-tuss
Wand Movement Clockwise Twirl of Wand
@Zoë Fresnel

@Zoë Fresnel
Name of spell Singing Jinx
Incantation CAN-tis
Wand Movement Point wand at intended target
Word Count 511

Name of spell Lumos Duo/Lumos Maxima
Incantation Loo-mos Doo-oh/Loo-mos MAX-i-muh
Wand Movement Slide wand across ground and point/Flick wand, draw back, flick again
Word Count 415

Name of spell Banishing Charm
Incantation De-PUHL-so
Wand Movement A sweep of the wand
Word Count 453

note: this post was edited later on 06.30.21 (in my timezone) to add the Muffliato Charm; I'm assuming this is alright since my previous spells had not yet been approved. If not, let me know and I'll make changes!

Spells Learned ・ Minor Healing Charm
Incantation ・ Episkey [eh-PIS-kee]
Wand Motion ・ Move wand in a circular motion¹

Reducio

date ・ 09.06.20
word count・ 1982

From the very first day Thora'd been back at Hogwarts, she'd already been looking forwards. After a refreshing summer away, she knew she was sufficiently prepared for what was sure to be a stressful year, being well-rested and organized to a fault. She knew full well she was ready for whatever the school year had to offer, both academically and in terms of Quidditch - in fact, she was eagerly anticipating its commencement, however full it might make her schedule. Perhaps she wasn't at all looking forward to the dangers that somehow always popped up in some form or another, but… that was an issue for another day. In fact, she'd been looking so far forward that she'd already began studying year four spells - well, just one, to be specific.

For once, it wasn't just simply due to the fact that she was a chronic overachiever - although part of it was a desire to do more than what was required of her - nor the fact that she was constantly thirsting for knowledge (one could call it an obsession, honestly). No, Thora knew she needed to learn Episkey as soon as possible simply in the interest of safety. Anyone paying the slightest bit of attention would be able to see that Hogwarts was only getting more dangerous by the year, with more hazards appearing at an unbelievably fast rate. Episkey was only a minor healing charm, but it would surely be helpful as Ferula was, if not more so.

See, she'd learned Ferula very early on in her second year, and though it had seemed pointless and something she likely wouldn't need at the time, it'd come in useful - very much so - just a mere few months later, at the Masquerade. It'd practically been life-saving, and from that moment on, she'd only begun to try even harder to learn all she could, even if that took studying ahead, extra effort, or paging through books meant for more magically advanced students. That was doubly true for healing spells, as the success of her bandaging charms had spurred her into conviction that any sort of healing spell would be immensely more useful than damage-causing ones. Well, maybe that wasn't entirely true, but she'd never been one for attacking of any sort and healing spells were often helpful in countless applications.

Anyway, it was needless to say she'd been extremely excited upon finally locating the Minor Healing Charm in her year four textbook. She'd thrown herself into learning it immediately, losing track of time and studying well into the night as she pored over the page, silently mouthing the incantation and practicing the wand motion lest she awaken her dormmates. As much as she wished to see its success, she had no injury to heal - not even a single cut nor bruise, somehow - and it wasn't exactly the smartest time to be speaking aloud. In any case, it was only September; she'd plenty of time ahead of her to experiment with it.

And that time came far quicker than she'd originally anticipated. An early October day had seen Thora training alone, soaring through the grey, cloud-cloaked skies in the comfort of her typical hoodie and leggings - she preferred saving her Quidditch uniform for matches and the occasional team practice, if at all possible. The dark skies made for rather dreary weather, the heavens looking ready to split and pour down rain, but it appealed to the girl, somehow. It was really quite typical for autumn weather in the Scottish highlands, and perhaps that was what made it so attractive to her; she'd always disliked change. Besides, it wasn't quite raining yet, which was she was definitely grateful for - broom-riding when the handle was slick with rain was no fun, and flying droplets significantly decreased visibility.

Nevermind - almost as soon as the thought had crossed her mind, the first droplet landed on her exposed wrist, then another, and still another. Groaning, she gripped her broom harder on instinct, but didn't pause in her flight. Rain certainly made for suboptimal Quidditch conditions, but she was no stranger to such weather and wasn't about to be deterred. She'd trained plenty of times in the rain, and so she could adjust to it quite smoothly despite disliking the combination of wet weather and flying. It was only a light drizzle, so although surely the sheen of moisture coating her broom handle would adversely impact her grip, it was nothing to worry about, really… right?

Wrong. Oh, Thora was absolutely and completely wrong. She was no amateur when it came to flying, having had plenty of experience from Quidditch, but somehow, today simply wasn't her day - not in the slightest. As she looped around one of the hoops, a tricky little turn requiring her to practically turn on a dime, she'd righted her broom a little too far, throwing herself off balance - a stupid mistake, really. Heart leaping to her throat, the girl began to panic as she lost control of the broom and it sent itself on a downward plunge, while its rider really only had one leg hooked onto the seat and was fighting to swing her full weight back atop the broom. And all the while, Thora's grip was worsened by the drizzling rain, the slickness of her Silver Arrow's handle making it incredibly difficult to re-balance herself.

An intense fear gripped her as she scrabbled; very rarely did she take a tumble from her broom and wasn't excited about doing so today, especially with water beginning to pool on the grassy ground. Besides, she was falling from a dangerously high height, and surely she'd be seriously injured upon impact. And even then, there wasn't a single soul out on the grounds - everyone had likely been driven indoors by the rain -, so who would find her if she was too weak to help herself? How could she have been so dim, made such an amateur mistake?

Even Thora had underestimated her own strength, though, and with a quick maneuver, she looped her other leg around the broom, twisting it slightly, and rotated her body just enough to position herself squarely atop it. But the ground was rushing towards her at an alarming rate, the green hue of the grass filling her vision entirely. She jerked the handle of the broom upwards in a desperate attempt to correct her trajectory, and although she began to level off almost immediately, the end of the handle still would collide with the ground. Thankfully, the angle at which it did so was shallow enough to make the initial impact relatively soft - well, it was still jarring, but it certainly could've been worse.

In an attempt to save herself from having to slide across the now-damp grass while the broom lost speed, she unlatched her legs from where they were locked around the seat and dove to the right, tucking her body into a ball so she could roll and not… you know, splat onto the ground and only add to the stupid ungracefulness of this whole situation.

With her momentum quickly spent, it didn’t take very long for her to roll to a stop, where she sat up - hey, nothing was broken - and the whole brunt of what had just happened to her hit her. Hard. See, thinking back, she technically could've paused the broom in midair to climb back on; it wouldn't exactly have been an easy task, but it'd likely have a better and cleaner outcome than crashing into the ground. In any case, it was the obvious thing to do, but then again, thinking straight wasn't exactly possible when one was quite literally hanging in midair. Well, perhaps she could put that plan into good use if she ever ran into a similar… er, mishap.

But now, she needed to get indoors soon, as wetness had begun to seep through her clothing, sending her shivering. To make things work, there was the walk back up to the castle to be considered, and the rain didn't seem as if it would let up soon - in fact, it was only raining harder, the droplets now pelting down. It was a good thing she was no stranger to rain. Finally taking a look around, she located her broom several meters away and realized her leggings had ripped, and an interesting mixture of diluted blood was running down the exposed skin and soaking into the black fabric. Fun. She could take care of that later, couldn't she?

Pulling herself to her feet, she picked up her now slightly-scratched broom and began to trudge back up to the castle, berating herself the whole way. That whole practice had gone wrong in so many ways - it was bad enough that she'd managed to fall off, and even then, there'd been so many obvious ways she could've remounted her broom, absolutely none of which involved a painful landing. Perhaps she wasn't the most experienced flier, but she was no rookie at the sport and such an accident was just absolutely unacceptable and a product of her own foolishness. She couldn't fix what'd already happened, though, and so tried to push the whole stupid accident away into a dark corner of her memory.

A lot of rain and about ten minutes later, Thora'd finally made her way back to the dorm and was perched on the far edge of her bed, her scratched knee brought up to her chest and her spellbook flipped open and resting next to her. She hadn't wanted to go to the Hospital Wing, lest she had to explain how she'd collected such an injury, and had originally opted to treat it with some Band-aids - sometimes good old Muggle technology came in handy, after all. However, her book of spells had caught her eye and she'd realized: she wasn't banged up too badly, but now wouldn't be a bad time to experiment with the minor healing charm.

And so, with a deep breath, she picked up her aspen wand, examining the injured area. She wasn't quite sure how large of an area had been scratched, it being rather difficult to roll up leggings past the knee, but perhaps casting Episkey at the general area would heal it in its entirety. Oh well, she'd just have to see, wouldn't she?

"Episkey," she incanted, waving her wand in a perfect circle. The spell wasn't supposed to give off light, so it was rather difficult to tell whether or not it'd been successful; however, absolutely nothing happened, so she supposed she'd failed. Enunciating more clearly this time, she tried again. "Episkey." Although her wand did sputter a little this time, there was no other indication her casting had done anything at all. Again, then.

With an inhale, then an exhale, she forced her focus off of the little accident and channeled it into casting the spell, making sure to speak loudly and clearly. "Episkey." Immediately, her injured knee flashed through a quick sequence of temperature changes before fading to the standard body temperature, the scratches disappearing without a trace. Utterly impressed, Thora poked around at the area, somewhat surprised as she felt absolutely no pain. Of course, that was what the spell was supposed to do, but seeing it happen for herself was undeniably cooler than reading about it had been.

Even though she'd had a foolish fall, there had certainly been a silver lining. It seemed mastering Episkey exceptionally early hadn't been a mistake at all, and she knew now the sacrifice of her early days of third year, where the workload had been light, had not been for naught. After all, the Masquerade was coming up soon, and if it stuck to tradition, there was no doubt a healing charm would be immensely helpful.

Spells Learned ・ Exploding Charm
Incantation ・ Bombarda [bom-BAR-da]
Wand Motion ・ Move wand in a series of straight lines in this order: left and downward, right and downward, straight leftward, and rightward and upward

Reducio

date ・ 06.19.21
word count・ 1515

As her third year progressed, Thora had begun to see mountains of homework like never before - it seemed to happen each year as she graduated to the next grade, honestly. She'd also slowly chosen to invest even more time into training for Quidditch than previously, especially after she'd been promoted to first string chaser. All that had built itself up into what was often a grueling schedule, which, on most days, consisted of some combination of classes, homework, and Quidditch practice. Perhaps one could argue that near-daily Quidditch training was unnecessary, but Thora always wanted to be as well-prepared as possible and in top form on match days, so that was just the price she'd have to pay.

Obviously, she'd long fallen out of her old habit of studying ahead, of poring through spellbooks in her free time out of sheer curiosity. It wasn't that she'd lost the thirst for knowledge that had so characterized her throughout her lifetime, and that was evident by the high quality of work she'd always strive for that demonstrated not only a desire to excel but a genuine interest in the topics taught, but simply something unfortunately born of a state of constantly being occupied. Having the time to read about - let alone master - higher-level spells seemed almost laughable, seemingly something that was only possible with the time that came with the unoccupied nature of younger children… until now.

It seemed quite late - in the year, that is - to be studying away. In fact, the latter half of June seemed an absurd time to be doing anything academic-related at all, exams having just drawn to a close and slowly brightening weather drawing people outdoors, a well-needed break from the long periods of being cooped up often brought by the long wintry and rainy seasons. It was a time of celebration of having survived (quite literally) another year at Hogwarts, a time of carefree joy and freedom from much work. Such a significant shift from stress to lightheartedness could certainly be felt around the castle, and Thora could perceive just as well as the next person. After all, she was beyond relieved that there were no more exams to be taken, despite anticipating results that would likely be slightly under her sky-high expectations, and that she'd practically made it through her third year at Hogwarts, which seemed a harder feat with each passing year.

And yet here she was, seated and leaning against the trunk of a tree facing the Great Lake, her Year 4 book of spells propped open on her lap. She might be hard at work, once again having selected studying over the countless alternatives a homework-less day had to offer, but that wasn't about to stop her from being outdoors, in the fresh air and under the sunlight.

The conditions were opposite those present the last time she'd been poring over this same book: then, she'd been cooped up indoors with dreary skies outdoors, and now, she was outdoors in summery weather. Likewise, whereas the beginning of the year had seen her beelining for a healing spell, one that would greatly aid in defense, she was now studying a charm clearly meant for offense of some sort - the Exploding Charm. It was admittedly unusual for Thora to be seeking out such a spell; she'd never been one for attacks or violence of any sorts and tended to assign greater value to defensive spells. Plus, she wasn't a duelist and thus had no special need or motivation to learn more spells since they just simply wouldn't be too useful for her and there were certainly better ways she could be spending her time.

However, she'd been paging through her book the previous night, and Bombarda had piqued her interest immediately - I mean, who could resist learning a spell that, if casted correctly, would blow stuff up? It was far less likely to come in useful than, say, Episkey, but it promised an impressive reaction and hopefully would be well worth her time.

The spell itself didn't appear too difficult, the incantation proving to be quite simple as Thora practiced enunciating under her breath. The wand motion was a little more tricky, linking four straight lines into a neat triangular shape, but it too was mastered in a matter of minutes. As she would realize, the real problem was finding something to practice on.

Bombarda made things explode, and although it was only supposed to trigger a small explosion, she had no idea what small entailed, and it wasn't exactly like one could choose just anything to blow up. Glancing around to find inspiration, her gaze darted from the castle, to students, to trees, and finally down to the ground. As a bright green leaf caught her eye, she cocked her head to the side, scooting over a little to pick it up. It would be risky, but surely detonating something so small would be a safer bet than attempting to do the same on a larger object. Was that how it worked? She wasn't sure, but as much as it pained her to attempt something with only a vague idea of what would result, this seemed to be her only option.

So, here went nothing.

Walking a fair distance away from the tree she'd just been leaning against, where she left her spellbook, Thora found a fairly open area and placed the leaf down, willing it not to blow away as a light breeze kicked up. "Ugh," she muttered as she knelt down, pinning the leaf to the grassy ground below as she waited the breeze to pass. She couldn't afford her target moving as she tried to make it explode; after all, she could only think of two possible results if that were to happen, neither of which were good. At all. Either the leaf would be moving around while it exploded, or she'd blow up an area of land instead. In other words, this had to be perfect, which put a fair bit of pressure on the girl. It was a good thing nobody else was around.

Strangling her wand in a white-knuckled grip, she forced her breathing to slow, to normalize. She was ready for this. "Bombarda," she said hesitantly, her hand a little shaky as it moved in the appropriate motion. Nothing happened, and she wasn't at all surprised; she knew the casting had lacked both the confidence and focus necessary for it to be successful - but at least nothing bad had happened, right? Bracing herself, Thora pushed more force into her voice, shouting the command this time. Still, she knew within an instant that her wand movement was too shaky, the lines not crisp enough, the angles not sharp enough.

She would try twice more, both attempts just as unsuccessful as their predecessors - although her wand did jerk ever so slightly the third time, sending her fleeing back several meters from the leaf for fear that the explosion would injure her if she stood too close while it occurred. Of course, nothing'd happened, and all that resulted was a sheepish Thora returning to the scene moments later, resolving to try again. She'd get it eventually.

Eventually turned into now as she steeled herself, feet poised to run even as she made the proper triangular motion with a tail at the beginning and incanted loudly, "Bombarda!" Even as she sprinted off, she could tell that it'd finally worked; something previously unengaged had clicked this time, and every aspect of the spell had finally pulled together to create something truly powerful.

And powerful it was - even as she ran, she could feel the blast behind her as it propelled her forward, sending her tripping on her own feet and tumbling forwards. Granted, it'd imploded almost immediately and so proximity had surely played a role in its affecting her, but the punch packed in such a seemingly insignificant word and motion was quite impressive. Flipping over to a sitting position, Thora peered back towards the leaf - rather, where the leaf had been. There was nearly no sign of the green foliage, a few scattered fragments the only signs of its former existence. She coughed as dust settled onto the slightly charred ground, for the first time noticing the small indentation where the leaf had assumedly been, the dirt supposedly filling it displaced and scattered.

The damage it had caused was really quite minimal - almost negligible - but still, she reached for the unsettled soil, brushing it towards the indentation with her bare hands and patting it back into place. There. Surely there had been a… less destructive way to experiment with the spell, but she wasn't really sure where exactly it would be considered alright to cause something to explode. Besides, causing a little displacement of dirt was probably better than destroying something in the castle, wasn't it?

In any case, though, it'd worked, and Thora was happy to have this spell under her belt. Triggering explosions could be rather fun, after all.

note: I'm assuming detonating a small object outdoors is alright, given the fact that causing explosions isn't very easy to roleplay elsewhere; if not, let me know and I'll make the appropriate edits!

Spells Learned ・ Muffliato Charm
Incantation ・ Muffliato [muff-LEE-ah-toe]
Wand Motion ・ Point wand at target

Reducio

date ・ 06.24.21
word count・ 1364
note・ permission to godmod Bridget Collins granted

Thora had never been one to gossip about others, nor was she the type who often discussed information discreet and delicate enough for it to require quiet conversation. In her second year, she'd made a point to remain as updated on schoolwide happenings as possible, more so out of curiosity than sheer nosiness, but although such information did require careful handling lest it be made into rumors and spread out of control, it never required strict, secretive discussions. She did tend to feel safer broaching the topic under the cover of night or through letters, which she believed were rarely intercepted and thus a safe form of communication, but that could be chalked up to a fear of, once again, letting information spread and run rampant. All that was to say that she'd never felt a particular need to isolate herself from others for the sake of secrecy - that was, in her second year.

Still, as she scanned through her book of spells, the Muffliato charm appealed greatly to her. While her second year had been characterized by naivety and innocence and marked with troubles, her third year had seen a more cautious side of Thora emerge. Though not completely unscathed, she had personally experienced far less trauma this year, simply because she'd finally learned to make a decision against attending anything practically guaranteed to go up in flames. For example, she'd firmly decided that attending the Blossomball would be too dangerous and so actively avoided even the outdoors on that day, successfully managing to avoid whatever glorious horrors would end up arising there. After that initial participation in her first ball out of sheer curiosity, she'd learned balls were bad news, only attending the previous year's Blossomball as part of a plan to garner more information. So, this time, now that she was without incentive of any sort, she'd simply resolved to not go.

But that by no means guaranteed her safety - no, Hogwarts was clearly dangerous, and although balls did happen to consistently be where such facts made themselves known, the dangers also appeared in various forms throughout the year. Thora was privileged enough to have been caught up in relatively few of these, but among those few had been one that had arguably been one of the hardest-hitting yet, due in part to the lasting result in had left in its wake: the Slytherin attack. Though it had been a year and surely someone had made some progress in regards to solving the infinite mysteries the attack had brought, from its root cause to the specifics of the curse many students had contracted that night and still suffered from, the topic still swirled with unknowns.

Thora herself had been attempting to explore the topic herself in the months since, though her efforts had admittedly faded with time and new commitments. To make up for this, she was putting more work into her research now, spurred on by the sudden availability of free time brought by the conclusion of exams and disgust at what appeared as indifference to the whole situation. Truly, she wasn't actually that cold, insensitive to an extreme, but she still felt guilty about her having traded her focus on finding answers to that which was on her schoolwork and Quidditch. After all, these were her housemates who'd been cursed, one of them being her best friend. Though it wasn't exactly the truest at Hogwarts, housemates were supposed to stick up for housemates, not back down for other responsibilities. It didn't matter that a span of time over a year had already passed since the attack - it was suboptimal, but not inherently bad -, she was returning to her attempts to learn more about the Slytherin attack.

Obviously, she knew this would be by no means easy, so she had pulled Bridget to the library so they could put their heads together and hopefully reap some sort of benefit from their little discussion. She didn't expect much productivity, given the fact that everyone was leaving focus behind for the promise of summer, including herself, but it would still be a good opportunity to trade whatever little information the other didn't yet know. In any case, two brains were better than one.

Thora had been cautious about bringing up the Slytherin attack ever since its occurrence, knowing it had affected Bridget far worse than herself, but she'd finally swallowed her fear and broached the topic, desperate to learn more. Really, she'd avoided the whole story for a long time, for fear of both the truth and how her fellow housemates would react to talking about an event that had surely ingrained itself indelibly onto each one of their brains. Over a year had passed, though, and she hoped that time would be enough to heal some of the wounds, although she knew they'd never truly recover. It was uncomfortable, but she felt that it needed to be discussed and debriefed. Others had done far more than she, but still, she had to try. She was late, but she could still try.

But as they talked, Thora could tell she was speaking to an audience of more than one. As her green hues scanned the room, she'd noticed a young boy (NPC) - no more than a first year, based on his youthful appearance - not far from them, a book open in front of him. The ruse didn't fool Thora, though; she'd seen his gaze dart over to them several times already, and he hadn't turned a page in a suspiciously long while. Though the Slytherin attack was no longer private knowledge, she wasn't comfortable with his eavesdropping - it wasn't his business, after all.

Frowning at the top of his head as he'd turned back to his book, Thora was at a loss of what to do. Of course, they could move to a different table, where few souls were around, or simply to another part of the castle. Or… she could make use of Muffliato, which she'd been studying just earlier the same day. It made her guilty to do such a thing to the boy, but she didn't want him eavesdropping, or worse, getting wrong impressions of what they were talking about and spreading that to others. Besides, it was for his own safety; the less deep you were in the issues at Hogwarts, the safer you were. Age by no means defined the trauma one had been through, within or outside of the school, but strictly speaking about Hogwarts-related trauma, older students tended to have seen more.

"Hold on," she muttered, fishing around for her wand in her deep pockets. Checking to make sure the boy was still bent over his book, angled so that his range of view wouldn't include her, she pointed her wand at him, attempting to remain unassuming. "Muffliato," she whispered, biting her lip when nothing happened. She had to act fast, and the spell wasn't even that difficult to cast. She'd no reason to fail. "Muffliato," she added a little more conviction, and though no light resulted from the spell, she could tell it had succeeded. The boy turned his head from side to side as if clearing it, an action so sudden Thora knew he had to be hearing the buzzing noise the Muffliato charm caused in the hearing of the target. His gaze darted around the room, skimming over them, but Thora had already tucked her wand away, leaving no evidence she was the culprit.

Guilt coursed through her as she and Bridget wrapped up their conversation, but she knew it'd been the right decision. She couldn't afford to have others spreading their incorrect impressions, and it was for the boy's good that she'd cast the spell on him - right?

They finally finished, and Thora turned quickly back to the boy, still settled at his chair. "Finite Incantatem," she incanted softly. There. So perhaps Muffliato would be handy after all, simply as a protection and a precaution. It could shield information from prying ears, and for that she was immensely grateful. There was a considerable amount of information requiring careful handling at Hogwarts, after all.

The 14th of May, 2020
Late Morning
Learning Nebulus

Words: 448
@Zoë Fresnel