Study group/Spell Practice Closed

Willie was generally not a person who had pride in himself. His mother always said,"A prideful wizard is a complacent one Willie. Never let any form of pride make you think that you, or others, can't possibly get better. Perfection is a lie that encourages standing still and I want my son to always be moving forward." He took those words to heart and ever since he has put, at the very least, 300% into his craft. Even so, he would not deny that the words sent his way by Sally were feeding into his ego just a tad, however small it may be. 

Then, he heard Darius's plea and he almost felt sorry for the boy. Not because he was further ahead than him, he was definitely not some slitheryn who thought himself better than others, but because Willie knew that his methods were less than ideal. He often tested spells on himself so that he could learn exactly of their possible applications. The only reason he wasn't dead was because he took extreme precautions and he made sure to learn a counter-spell before anything else.

Just as he was about to say something he saw a bolt of magic strike Darius, causing him to begin swelling. Willie had used that on himself once before and he knew that it wasn't going to be a fun experience for the poor boy. A small part, a dark part, of his mind suggested simply watching. "This could be amazing research material! Look at him! If we just use-" He forcefully shook the thoughts from his head. These moments of sudden lack of care for other's well being were getting more and more frequent and he didn't know why. For now though, he would help a friend in need.

"Finite!"

The bolt flew from his wand and the effects were immediate. His face reformed first, then his body, then his hair. It wasn't as quick as he liked but it was something. Another minute and he'd be fine other than a bit of dizziness.

Darius' body began to feel normal again. He could feel his bones getting harder, his organs were putting themselves together, so were his hair and everything else. Yes, that process was slow, but he felt extremely relieved by that feeling.
He was still crying though, still a bit shocked. The boy tried to stand up, but it was still difficult, his legs were all shaky.
"T-thanks, Willie..." He murmured, leaning against the ground to help himself stand up.
His brother warned him that he could have been experiencing some weird 'magical' stuff... Now he truly understood what he meant. It felt really odd and scary, but not very painful, so he was okay with it.
Darius immediately fixed his sleeves to make sure they still covered his arms, then he sat down on the floor, waiting for his legs to harden.
"Woah, that was cool..." He said, chuckling nervously. "Don't worry Sally, I'm okay but... Please, be careful the next time" He said to her with a smile to show her he wasn't angry.

When Darius fell down and begun crying, Sally felt like her heart shattered. Oh no, what have I done? She leaned down to see if she could help him, but it was no use. If she touched him, his skin would go inside like the last time and who knows how that feels like, so she just watched transfixed.

His voice sounded all wrong too, muffled and like how a teddy bear would speak if he could. Do we need to take him to the nurse? she was wondering.

"Finite!" came Willie's voice and then Darius begun to harden. Sally let out a sigh of relief. Thankfully Willie was here and knew just what to do, otherwise she wouldn't have had the least idea how to manage the situation.

"Thank you Willie! That was great. You know so much!" That pang of envy again. Sally told herself not to feel so. Willie was her friend, at least that's what she thought, and friends are proud of each other's accomplishments, not envious, but she couldn't help the feeling.

Then she looked at Darius and began a stream of apologies, hoping that would make the situation better. She couldn't see him crying and a few tears appeared in her own eyes. She hadn't meant to hurt someone.

Then Darius said he was okay and smiled, and Sally felt better. "Yes, I will be very careful from now on."

She extended her hand to help Darius up when his feet seemed to solidified.

"Can you teach me that spell, Willie? The Finite spell, I mean. And I better practice Spongify again too, on some thing, not some person." she said.

As soon as Darius started walking well again, he began to jump from excitement, feeling his feet hard again. Then he looked at Willie with shiny eyes.
"Sally's right! You're so cool! Please teach us! Please please please!" He begged with big and cute puppy eyes. His behaviour could look childish, but he was just so excited and ready to learn all those things he couldn't help but be joyful.
Yes, Darius felt a little bit of envy too at first, but he understood that Willie's skill was caused by his big effort. And he wanted to put a lot of effort in it too!
He wanted to learn as much as he could, so he always looked up at expert people, dreaming of being as great as them.
Not for nothing he was a Gryffindor: determination was the fire that stoked him.
He was just a little naive and insecure, but he could have done a lot of things with his determination.
"Where did you learn that? Did you hurt yourself while training? Don't worry, I can handle that!" He said, starting to rumble.

Willie honestly didn't know what to do in this situation. All of this praise was new for him. Despite all of his efforts he rarely received praise from others. Not even his mother would praise him all that much and on the rare occasions that she did there was always an undertone of, "you can still do better." For just a moment poor Willie's mind shut down until he came back to earth. His eyes felt watery for a moment before he blinked them back. Now's not the time or the place. He had never been so happy in the presence of others before now.

"S-sure! I'll gladly help you guys out with whatever you need. Though I'd rather not have you guys hurting yourself like I have just to catch up."

What Willie did to himself was more or less because he wanted to be an exceptional wizard when he saw his mother again. He knew it was a self-destructive way of doing things but his childish mind saw it as the only option of making her smile. Now though, he was beginning to question why such ideas came about in the first place. He pulled out his notebook full of all of his findings and techniques for learning spells and held it out to them. 

"That's everything I know so far from first-year to second, and a few in third. Take this and we can practice together. Wherever and whenever. I want you guys to improve too, but I refuse to have you all hurt while I had something to say about it...you're my friends, you know?"

The smile that crept onto his face was the largest one he had in a long time. It was a strange feeling, caring for other's wellbeing. It wasn't unwelcome though.

Darius smiled widely as well as soon as he saw Willie's notebook. He looked like a happy puppy. Darius grabbed the notebook and gasped, looking through the pages with curious and excited eyes. Then he looked at the Ravenclaw again, jumping from joy.
"Yay! Thank you! Thank you so much!" He yelled, running towards Willie and hugging him tenderly.
But after a second he realized and pulled away immediately, afraid he could have put him in discomfort. He just felt so happy he couldn't hold back from hugging him.
He put himself together, chuckling nervously.
"Sorry" He said, blushing from embarrassment.
"I felt so happy... And of course! We are friends!" He finally answered with a giant smile and cute, pink cheeks.
He finally had friends, real friends.

Sally audibly gasped when Willie presented his notebook. She put her hand out to grab it but Darius took it before she could, and she leaned over Darius's shoulder, peeking around his bush head to look at the thorough point by point notes that Willie had made. He even made diagrams to indicate the wrist movement! This is treasure, Sally's eyes widened.

"Oh wow! This is so cool, Willie! Friends forever," she nods sagely.

I hope I don't sound like I am friends with him because of the notebook. He was nice before but this notebook kind of seals the deal. Now I will pick his mind and learn with him and then I will know everything!

Then Darius ran to hug him. Sally kind of wanted to join them but her shyness came back just when she was stepping forward.

Will it be weird? Probably. Nevermind.

But she smiled the biggest smile she could muster. These people were her friends despite all her clumsiness, and even though she spongified poor Darius, they still wanted to hang out with her. Things couldn't have turned out any better.

Destrian approached the door of the study room. He heard that there were people inside and hesitated for a moment. He didn't want to interrupt, nor enter some place where he wasn't welcome. But instead of leaving again to return another hour or day, he knocked on the door and entered. After all, he too had to study and he couldn't find himself concentrating anywhere else. He was studying for Defense Against the Dark Arts and Muggle Studies. Especially the latter was quite difficult being a pureblood who had never come in touch with a muggle before. His family had always made sure to shield him from them. They called muggles a pest and Destrian had come to believe that as well, because he was raised that way. But most things that were written down in his book for Muggle Studies told otherwise, which was quite confusing to him. It spoke of all kinds of history and inventions, it spoke about the differences between him and them. But all of it was new to him. Or at least, most of it. 

"I hope I'm not interrupting," he said as he pushed open the door and looked at the people inside. Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, but no Slytherin. Would he be welcome to enter? - Oh bloody hells. He stepped inside and showed them their books, trying to force himself to start some sort of smalltalk. But it was quite difficult to do so while there certainly had been something going on. The sight was confusing. There were people hugging for some sort of reason. 

"Uh- I'm trying to get through the first few chapters without a lot of success, so I hoped I could try here." He spoke with a certain hesitation, eyes on them as he tried to figure out what had happened. Then he finally decided to ask, "What are you guys doing?" He sat himself down and dropped the books on the table with a loud thud. 

A boy entered the room just when Willie and Darius were busy hugging. That was definitely an awkward time to enter but Sally was past caring. Someone else had joined her in her study session and that was all she could think of.

"Hi! I am Sally. Come in, join us!" She waved him over excitedly.

He said he was having trouble with the first few chapters? It looked like he was pointing at his Muggle Studies book while he said that but Sally asked just to be sure. "What subject did you say you needed help with?"

It seemed strange to Sally that someone would have trouble with Muggle studies. Having spent her entire life as a muggle, those were everyday things for her but she guessed that people from wizard families might not recognize them.

And then the boy asked what they had been doing. Sally didn't want to tell anyone about Darius's spongification fearing that it might not only embarass Darius but would definitely make her look incompetent, so she simply said, "Oh we just had a moment of friendship."

Cameron started to read the first chapter of all of his spellbooks. He took his time and said hello to random students that passed him and said hello. He thought about his next class and what he would learn. He felt as though he was alone in the study room but he knew he wasn't alone. His past visit to Diagon alley was fun though he wished he had more galleons on him so he could spend it. Cameron got bored after reading and decided to walk around a bit and stretch his legs.