Back to Basics PV Fin.

Dee left the Ravenclaw common room in a rush, sprinting down the stairs two steps at a time - three when she dared. So what if she was technically a legal adult now? You were never too old to break the rules about running in the corridors when you were late to an appointment. Especially when you had been the one to suggest the meeting in the first place, even if it had been two weeks ago and it had slipped your mind while you'd been lounging in your pajamas on the couch in the common room with a cup of tea, a cauldron cake from Aly's stash, and an Ancient Runes book in your lap.

She took the corners at speed to the main stairwell, then rushed down two more sets of stairs to reach the third floor. Hardly slowing down before she reached the Charms classroom, she opened the door with more force than was necessary, face flushed and out of breath. The messy bun her hair had been in up in her common room had halfway dissolved, and she pulled the hairtie out even while she bumped her hip into the door to make it fall shut behind her.

"I'm so sorry," she promised Althea, who was, of course, already waiting. Dee wasn't that late, only about ten minutes - Aly or Peri would barely bat an eye at this, more than used to Dee time at this point, but Althea was a new friend, and not familiar yet with Dee's rather loose concept of time. It had taken one of her classmates nudging her and asking if she wasn't meant to be leaving for her to realise that she'd gotten lost in the runes and forgotten about the time. "I was studying and sort of lost track, but I didn't mean to keep you waiting." The apology came easy and sincerely, very unlike the stiff half-apology she'd forced out the other day at the lake. Superficial mistakes were easy to take accountability for, but then, it was also a fair assumption that those mistakes would be forgiven.

With her elastic around her wrist, Dee gathered her hair - perfectly untangled now, and falling in soft waves down her back - to twist it back up into a bun, even as she surveyed the stack of books and guides on the table. "Well, you came prepared, didn't you," she remarked, lips twitching in amusement. She picked up one of the books to leaf through it, skimming spells and theory, then moved on to one of the spell-casting guides. Opening it on a random page, she scanned the advice it provided, then looked up at Althea. "Do these actually work?" Breathing exercises and mental tricks, they seemed absurd to Dee, who had never struggled that much with basic casting - her crux had been consistency, the uncompromising demand of herself that every single cast had to be, if not flawless, at least average; and she'd been unwilling to accept the contradiction inherent in that requirement.

Setting the books down back down on the desk, Dee rolled her shoulders and then started on a series of easy flexibility exercises for her arms and hands that she usually used for duelling warm-up. "So... what are we doing today?" she asked cheerfully. "Which spells do you want to work on?"

@Althea Valeden

Althea’s mind had quietened to a static flatline at some point during her wait. Her palm tingled ever so slightly from her repetitive fidgeting, and she mindlessly went to retract her hand to pull back her wand on the table – Until it almost flew off the table at the sharp bang of the classroom door crashing against the wall. Althea’s hand fumbled to catch her wand and bring it back to safety, startling upright in alarm to see the perpetrator of that bombastic entrance. Oh. Despite her earlier, overwhelming anxiety, Althea found most of it temporarily numbed in favour of the sheer bewilderment of seeing Dealla so dishevelled. It was not as if the Ravenclaw girl looked bad; she doubted that was possible. The first time they met had the brunette was soaked in the freezing water of the Great Lake, drenched in wet robes, tangled hair, and all. At that current moment, Althea felt as if she had disrupted something; a good morning, most likely.

“It’s fine, I didn’t even notice the time passing,” The instinctive dismissal of the breathless apology rolled off her tongue almost immediately. Realising that Dealla had been late because she was doing her own studying made Althea feel a twinge of guilt. Though the other girl had offered, it was indeed a Sunday morning ideal for personal activities. Surely, whatever she had been doing before she had rushed down here was better than tutoring someone she met two weeks ago in an empty classroom. She repeated, “No wait at all.”

Althea settled back down to her seat as Dealla approached and bundled her hair into a neater bun. She kept her hands busy by tidying the parchment that had unravelled from its rolls, trying not to notice the attention directed to the generous stack of books she had brought to a practical application session. Dealla’s comment on her prepared materials made her reconsider the stack on the desk. To be honest, she had not truly considered what she would need for today. She just brought everything she had related to charms, and fished the most convincingly titled guides in the library for the occasion. The speed in which the Ravenclaw girl browsed through the contents of one of the books in the stack was almost impressive, and Althea found herself smiling incredulously at the question sent her way. “I really don’t know. Meditation and bonding with your wand… I mean, I don’t think even muggles buy meditation tricks,” Althea pointed at one of the books sandwiched in between the books that suggested the idea. She actually had read that one before, in her third year. She felt her cheeks flush at the memory of having actually tried the advice to ‘bond with her wand’ after one too many failures to master her transfiguration spell of the week, the embarrassment blissfully diluted by time.

Dealla’s question on their agenda for the day made her perk up ever so slightly. Althea pulled out a textbook from the top and began flipping, “I wanted to try using the Banishing and Summoning Charm. I learnt it back then, but um, it doesn’t… go right.” She was not really sure whether she should be copying the stretches that Dealla was doing. She lightly flicked her wand in the air. Probably best to stay put if her wand is in her hand.

@Dealla Prince

"Oh?" Dee asked curiously when Althea dismissed her late arrival without a hint of hesitation. "What were you so deep in thought about then? I doubt it's our little practice session." She raised her eyebrows and made a bad attempt at wagging them at the Hufflepuff. "Anyone on your mind, perhaps?" The words were drawn out, teasing, and taking a stab into complete darkness. It was less that she genuinely thought that Althea had been daydreaming about anyone, and more a test of reflexes, to see how she'd respond to being teased.

The claimed no wait at all was clearly a lie, but Dee was happy enough to roll with it when offered, and proceeded to poke through Althea's possessions without being invited. Her nosiness was taken in stride, however, with no protest when Dee started leafing through books and guides, not even when she asked about some of the absurd suggestions. It was a small relief to find that Althea didn't seem to put much stock in the latter either... even though Dee had grown to see her wand as something of a partner. Not alive, clearly, but infinitely more than some soulless object. She'd had to learn how to work with it. Wands did have personalities, of sorts. Snapping the guide shut, Dee shrugged. "I think the meditation is nonsense, but knowing your wand is not a bad idea, in itself. What are your wand components?"

She hopped up onto the desk, then drew her own wand, presenting it on a flat hand. "Mine is cherry wood and phoenix feather, for example. Phoenix wands are said to have a mind of their own... and while that is overstating things, I had to learn to cooperate with it rather than work against it." She shrugged, twirling the wand around her fingers in a smooth movement and slipped it back into her sleeve. "I don't know if that's the same for all wand woods and cores, but it might be worth looking into."

Curious, Dee watched as Althea picked up another book from the stack. "Oh, good choice," she nodded. "Banishing and summoning are very useful. Well, summoning more so than banishing, honestly. It's a great charm to know when you're already in bed with your socks off and realise you forgot your book next to the pillow pit." She'd also tried summoning full water glasses in the past, but chose to not tell that particular story. "They do sort of come as a pair though, don't they?"

She finished her little warm-up, then bounced back onto her feet. "Okay!" She clapped her hands. "Let's get started. I think..." She paused, considering, then nodded. "Let's start with something small and light, like..." Taking a searching look around, her eyes settled on the mechanical pencil that was sitting on the desk. "Like that." She set it on Professor Fresnel's desk at the front of the classroom, then moved back to stand beside Althea. "How about I do a demonstration, and then you try? And then we can try to figure out what's wrong?"

Without waiting for a reply, she turned to face the pencil, focusing her eyes on it. The movement came easy, a fluid motion that started half a breath before the incantation. "Accio." As if pulled by a thread, the pencil came zipping across the room, and Dee snatched it from the air with an easy nonchalance, presenting it to Althea with a flourish. "Ta-dah! Your turn."

@Althea Valeden

Dealla’s teasing comment about the subject of her thoughts made Althea’s cheeks warm slightly. There was certainly no person on her mind earlier on, and nothing important or interesting either. How does one explain that their mind just blanked out for ten minutes because rolling a wand like a rolling pin used on dough was that entertaining? Even she would laugh if she heard that from someone else. “Nobody,” Althea tried to avoid looking at the other's wiggling eyebrows in an effort not to laugh, “I… was thinking about charms. I love charms. Yes.”

Althea glanced at her wand when Dealla mentioned the merit in knowing her wand and its components. It was difficult to forget what it was made of – Chestnut wood and phoenix feather. The old wand maker in Diagon Alley made sure she knew all there was to its structure, even pointing out that it was “fit for witches and wizards with an unjustified sense of insecurity”. She had been mortified that day, but now knowing that her wand and Ollivander had probably recognised her critical flaws before she ever could... Perhaps she should return to Ollivander's wand shop next school break for some advice.

Althea nodded curiously as the other girl shared details about her own wand, “Oh, we have the same wand core. 29,7cm, chestnut wood and phoenix feather.” She pondered what the brunette mentioned about the wand having a mind of its own and having to learn to cooperate with it. Was that why it rarely listened to her when she attempted spells? She supposed it made sense, similar to trying to work with a difficult teammate in a group project.

When Dealla agreed to her choice of spells and even offered a little snippet of real-life application session, Althea had to hold back her amused incredulity at the notion that someone allowed a pillow pile in the dormitory for that scenario to happen in the first place. She supposed she was more Muggle than magical now, if she found fetching a book magically with accio rather shocking in essence.

Althea watched as Dealla wrapped up her stretches and began searching for something to practice on. Almost immediately, the other girl's gaze fixed on her mechanical pencil. She barely had the time to blink before it was picked up and placed on the desk at the front. A demonstration would help, she supposed, but there was an issue. She tried to say as much, “Oh, uh, I need to-” Before she could mention that she had not tried casting accio or remember anything beyond the incantation since her failure streak in attempting to do so three years ago, the Ravenclaw was already turning to face the desk.

The casting and incantation flowed like water off a duck’s back from Dealla. As soon as the last syllable was spoken, the mechanical pencil instantly shot into the other’s waiting hand in a fluid motion. Althea felt her mouth drop in amazement at the ease with which the Ravenclaw cast, as easily as one would breathe, and she barely regained her bearings when the pencil was presented to her with a swift motion. “Oh.” She blinked. She reached out a hand to accept the object, standing and walking to place it on the professor’s desk. When she returned to where Dealla stood, she took several, certainly non-subtle glances at the open book at her desk that depicted the wand movement. A shallow arch, draw a shallow arch. Althea adjusted her grasp nervously and drew an arch in the air, “accio.” Before them, the pencil did not so much as roll on the table. The Hufflepuff decided to try again, taking another glance at the open book, “accio.” Her target remained mockingly still. Perhaps she was not drawing a good enough arch. She turned towards the desk and tried to trace the arch on the open book, attempting to transfer the motion in the air, not daring to face Dealla.

@Dealla Prince

To Dee's immense delight, Althea blushed when asked who she'd been thinking about. Was there actually someone? She'd have to find out. She didn't mind that Althea wasn't immediately willing to share what had actually been on her mind - Dee enjoyed a mystery as much as the next Ravenclaw, and she also knew what it was like to have a secret crush... no, that part was a lie. She'd been incredibly direct and also astonishingly successful in her love life so far, hag curses and giant brain-eating centipedes aside. "Yeah, don't we all love... charms," she drawled, grinning impishly. "Speaking of..."

She perked up when Althea revealed that she and Dee shared the same wand core, clasping her hands around the edge of the desk she was hanging out on. "Oh?" She raised one hand for a cheerful high-five. "Lucky~ They're supposed to be pretty rare, and pretty powerful once you've learned how to handle them." Leaning forward, she flashed a conspiratorial smile at the Hufflepuff. "See, we just gotta unlock your potential or something." Which Dee, in her never-ending optimism, had no doubt they would. The spells Althea had picked were straightforward enough, and Dee could cast them in her sleep. This was going to be easy. (And little did Althea know, there was, in fact, a giant cushion pit in the middle of the Martial Eagle dormitory. They had frequent story nights in there.)

With an encouraging smile, Dee stood back to let Althea attempt to summon the pencil herself. "You can step a bit closer if you want," she suggested. "It's easier if you can see it clearly." Which, of course, didn't replace clear and determined visualisation, but it did make it so much easier to fix the object in your mind.

But Althea seemed unsure, almost unnerved as she stood there, wand in hand. Instead of facing forward, focusing on the mechanical pencil, she kept glancing at the book that was laying where Althea had placed it earlier, opened on the Accio page.

A frown slowly replaced the smile on Dee's face as Althea hesitantly cast a spell that, unsurprisingly, had no effect at all. Dee would have liked to say that it was better than backfiring, but honestly, anything would have been better than this. Backfiring, at least, contained some magic. This was... mostly sad. "Um," she said, reaching out a hand for the book, even while Althea turned to desperately trace the movement on the book page itself. She flipped it shut. "Let's... try without this, maybe. I can just..." She trailed off, trying to think about how to word this. "You rely too much on the book." At least, that's what Dee thought, whose unerring confidence had carried her through most of her life. Not that she didn't use books to study, but to her, they were a base to build on. Inspiration rather than strict instruction. "Magic has to feel right, you know what I mean? Like. You have to believe that it will work, or it won't. Or rather, you have to know it'll work."

Did she? Know what Dee meant? If not, how was Dee supposed to explain this? There was just a trace of doubt in her expression as she turned towards the the pencil again. "Maybe watch me again? Really look." Her second Sumoning Charm was not nearly as precise as the first one, the movement slightly off, the incantation a little mistimed. Sloppy, even. But it worked, anyway, yanking the pencil from the desk and allowing Dee to snatch it from the air in an easy, quick motion, almost without looking. She turned towards Althea, eyebrows drawn together. "See?"

@Althea Valeden

Dealla’s optimism had been almost infectious when the Ravenclaw girl perked up at the knowledge that they shared a common wand core of phoenix feather. Patting an uncertain hand against the brunette’s offered one had almost convinced her that it was only a matter of “unlocking her potential”, something far more complex and soothing to her pride than simply being magically inept and defected as a half-blooded witch. For a moment, having that asserted so confidently by such a talented witch of her age had been a temporary relief, feeding into a nice illusion of hope.

Then came the application of that optimism, dragging along the crushing reality that fractured that illusion almost instantly. What little of her anxiety that had been dampened flared with full force as her mind’s eye blurred and the image of the mechanical pencil fizzled into a blur even as her eyes fixed on its physical presence before her. Even as she shuffled forward at Dealla’s prompting, the static in her head did not clear, and further made the stillness of the stationery weigh even heavier. Out of the corner of her eye, Althea saw Dealla’s previous smile dissolve into a confused frown. She frantically began to read the instructions on the open book again, trying to find what she could have possibly missed, only to have it be swiftly flipped shut by the other girl. The comment about her overreliance on the book made her tense. The lack of physical page illustrations and printed text further withered away the last of her stability. There was no substance if not from her books and notes. The textbooks are always right, and she rarely was. How will she “feel right” without the unshakeable and solid instructions on the pages? She has not believed in anything but printed text and theory for years. Althea watched in her silent panic as Dealla demonstrated another successful casting of Accio in front of her, that expression of confusion, fading of her earlier enthusiasm sending a mortified chill down her limbs.

Althea tried to place the mechanical pencil closer this time, raising her wand to draw another stiff arch in the air. Yet, her breath constricted one syllable into the incantation. She snapped her arm down. She mumbled, “Sorry– Sorry, I can’t do it. I need the book.” Althea slipped past Dealla, reaching out a hand to try and grab it.

@Dealla Prince

Making a mental note that they would work on Althea's high-fives next, Dee watched with anticipation as Althea tried, failed, and panicked. Reached for the book, like a crutch that wasn't just useless but actively keeping her from learning to walk on her own... or at all, judging from the lack of response that the pencil had to spare for Althea's spell. She'd hoped that taking that crutch away would help, but instead of limping forward - which would have been fine, they could work on jumping and running later - Althea stumbled and fell.

Dee's repeated demonstration seemed to only make things worse. It wasn't like Dee didn't notice the panic in Althea's eyes; it was hard to miss. She just didn't know what to do about it. Couldn't relate, couldn't figure out how to explain something that was so basic, so natural, so instinctive to her. If magic could be learnt purely from books, Muggles would be able to do it, too. It was something innate to wixes. How could she explain how to make her heart beat?

But that clearly wasn't helping Althea, who made another mechanical attempt at summoning her pencil, movements stiff, and froze halfway into the spell, breathing shallowly. Dee grimaced, trying to find the right words to say. To take the pressure off, that she'd unwittingly put on. To soothe the panic. She watched Althea reach past her, stretch for the book, desperate, and instead of doing something helpful, something kind, found herself with her wand in her hand.

"Depulso," she said, flicking her wand in a sharp motion, and watched the book abruptly fly from Althea's reach, shooting across the room with enough force to hit the wall at the other end of the classroom. It dropped with a loud bang, but Dee didn't flinch. Who was she kidding? The gentle, kind approach was clearly not hers. "No, you don't," she said coolly, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "It's an excuse. You're scared. But go ahead, you can get it if you want." It came out dismissive, almost mocking. Because Dee wasn't the nurturing type. She was good at pushing people. Right of a cliff.

If Althea tried to walk towards where the book had fallen, Dee would dart forward, blocking her way. "Wrong answer," she pointed out. "Try again." A small pause, then she nodded towards Althea's wand. "You know how."

@Althea Valeden

Static drowned out her senses and clarity of thought as Althea's eyes scanned the crowded tabletop for her Charms textbook, for that crutch and symbol of stability and security that could dismiss the desperate haze that had overtaken her. She had to see that page, those instructions and diagrams in fine print that could do no wrong, so that she could maybe also do no wrong–

A flick in the air, and Dealla’s voice spoke, "Depulso."

As soon as her fingers grazed the worn hardcover of the textbook, the tiniest lick of friction bit into her skin. Althea's breath hitched as the book was ripped from within her reach and shot across the room. The loud clatter shook her composure further, her wand almost slipping out of her hand and rolling over the edge of the desk if it weren't for the most innate instinct to safeguard her wand, the one and only physical proof of her connection with her magic.

Althea shook her head when Dealla, that skilled, darned perpetrator of the earlier intervention, asserted that her need for the textbook’s guidance was all an excuse. That dismissive tone was like acid atop the salt that the Ravenclaw had dumped on open wounds. As if someone who could cast ‘depulso’ and conjure a whole firestorm dangerous enough to hurt could understand how she could feel. The Hufflepuff’s tone was tight now, “You don't get it, I need to know what I need to do–” Althea made a reach for the book again, making haste to avoid being stopped, until her steps were obstructed by Dealla's taller figure.

At the other girl's “try again”, Althea felt that coil of mortification twist tighter with the blistering heat of frustration. Try again? Try harder? Her jaw was tense as she gritted out, “You saw it yourself, Dealla. There's not even any magic there. I don't know how you can just–” Althea’s hand recklessly drew an arch in the air as she turned to face Dealla, the image of her textbook burned into focus in her mind with yearning for its support, “–cast accio–” Out of her sight, the textbook that had fallen from Dealla's spell floundered and lifted weakly into the air for a split second, dropping back to the ground. In her frustration, Althea didn't register the audible thump of the movement, “–and make that magic happen!”

@Dealla Prince

Althea was so predictable it was almost a little sad. Of course she'd go for the book after Dee had catapulted it out of reach, but because Dee had expected it, she managed to cut her off before she'd taken two steps. She crossed her arms, wand still dangling nonchalantly from her fingertips. "No," she agreed easily, eyes sharp, "I don't understand. I've never been as much of a coward as you." The words came out with a lovely, casual cruelty. Dee's fears had never stopped her from trying, they had only ever pushed her further, harder. They had let her leap chasms. "You know what to do. How often have you read, studied, and memorised this page? That isn't the issue, and you know it." The implication was left unspoken but was just as clear, in the words, in Dee's voice, her condescending expression. That isn't the issue. You are.

Finally, she could see Althea's temper rise in return. Words forced out between clenched teeth, a spark in her eyes. Finally, some spine; the same spark she'd shown down at the lake. Anger was good, sometimes; helpful, even. Anger made you forget fear. And it was happening, Dee could see it. Accio, Althea said, drawing the sloppiest arch of their practice session, just to demonstrate that it didn't work. Except it almost did.

Althea might not have noticed the small thud behind Dee, right where she'd dropped the book, but Dee did. Tense as she was, the sound of he book hitting the floor again, like an echo of its previous fall, rang through her head as if amplified, and her lips twitched into a small smile, anticipatory. Almost satisfied, but not quite yet. She was almost there. Just a little bit further.

"I did," she allowed. "There wasn't any magic there. What's it gonna take for you to actually try?" What was it going to take for Althea to actually let out the magic she had, instead of keeping it locked up tightly, afraid of what would happen when she used it? One last cruelty, perhaps? "Is that why your parents pulled you from school?" She inhaled, eyes alight. "Because they knew you were too much of a coward to manage even basic magic?" And then she held her breath.

@Althea Valeden