Always Training Prodigal Solo

"Locomotor Mortis!" Oliver cast the leg-locker curse, waving his wand in an irregular L shape. With a purple flash, both of his legs went stiff before snapping together with an audible slap. Oliver yelped in shock at how fast his legs moved, probably the fastest they ever had. This shock completely lost him any time to react to his loss of balance. The boy collapsed with a thud on the tiled floor. He had been standing under the stairs on the ground floor, practicing spells before classes started.

"Hey, first try!" Oliver exclaimed with a little smile as he leaned up to look at his legs. He tried to get up but couldn't manage to erect himself. Straining himself with all his muscle power, the boy pushed against the floor and wall but to no avail, he could not lift his upper body without the help of his legs. He took his wand and cast the general counter curse on his legs. Nothing. He tried again before remembering that the counter curse wasn't so simple as a general one. Oliver took a moment to look up at his book from where he lay. He could try learn the counter curse, but they weren't easy and in less than an hour every student in the building would be leaving their common rooms for class. He would be seen laying on the floor shooting spells at himself.

The boy had a plan, it was risky but he was sure he could pull it off, he had time. The Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom was only a floor away. If he could get there, Professor Pendrast could easily counter this curse. Hopefully she was there before classes started.
Oliver looked at the stairs and then smiled to himself, he was already nearly there. Pulling his hands to his chest, Oliver begun to sausage roll towards the stairs, picking up speed as he did a nice drift to turn to the first step.
"Aha!" Oliver grinned and grabbed the steps, pulling himself up. By the third step, Oliver was already sweating profusely, red in the face and panting like a dog. It would feel like an eternity before Oliver finally reached the top. Tears were coming from his eyes, his shirt was completely drenched. Pulling his own body weight was not an easy task for Oliver. Now with a less enthusiastic smile, Oliver begun to sausage roll down the corridor. Considering how tired he was, his rolling speed was impressive. He was going faster than he could run.

It wasn't long before Oliver was at the door to the DADA room. He looked in to see if there was any students before rolling in, calling for Professor Pendrast with panic.

"Alright Terry, hopefully this doesn't hurt you... or worse, kill you. Just keep moving or else I won't know if it worked," Oliver was crouched over a bowl in the Hogwarts grounds, close to the herbology glass houses. In the boys bowl was a small rollie pollie insect. Every few seconds, Oliver would tip it with his finger so the rollie pollie would hurry across the bowl to the other side. In this moment, Oliver would quickly wave his wand and cast the spell a few times. Weak flashes came from his horizontal waves of his wand. None of the attempts bothered Terry as he skittered across the bowl to the opposing wall before rolling back down when the incline became too steep. Oliver smiled,"oh, Terry."

It was time for lunch, Oliver moved over to his backpack and sat on the grass, taking out some tupperware with delicious... salad. Oliver was trying to cut down lately, especially after going a bit overboard on the cakes during the Christmas season. "Mmmm, this is great, you want a... leaf, Terry? ...Terry?" Although Terry was always silent, there was something off with it this time. Oliver looked to his left where he had left Terry about two meters away. He shrieked as he could see a small tit swooping down from the sky, aiming for Terry. "NOOO!" Oliver released a high pitched scream and lifted his wand. "IMPEDIMENTA!" the boy yelled, panicking but having trained long enough to be able to hold his composure even when shaken.

With a perfect turquoise flash, the bird froze in its descent. Oliver took only a fraction of a second to take in his handiwork before leaping on the bowl, shielding the rollie pollie with his entire body before the spell timed out. A small pelt could be felt on Oliver's back as the bird hammered into him before flying off.
I did it, Terry! I did it!" Oliver exclaimed, kneeling before his rollie pollie friend. Impedimenta!" he cast on Terry, freezing the insect for a few seconds. Oliver laughed and swung a punch at his own face. "Impedimenta!" the Ravenclaw cast on himself. His small fist froze in its trajectory towards his cheek. Until a second later it returned to full speed and walloped Oliver in the face. Rubbing his now sore cheek, Oliver couldn't help but smile, proud of himself. He could already see himself freezing people in fist fights and delivering them a hundred punches before they could even move again.

It had been nearly a month of trying, Oliver was past the point of frustration and was now just moving and talking like a robot as he couldn't get any enthusiasm for trying anymore. Under the stairs on the ground floor, the boy had a bouncy ball, which he would throw at the wall and attempt to protego away. However the shield would never form and the ball would always try to hit Oliver. He had a good catch though, which would soon inspire him to sign up for the Quidditch team as a keeper.

After another few hours of wasting his weekend, Oliver's frustration came back and he decided to unleash a powerful flipendo on the bouncy ball. The ball rocketed against the wall before zooming back towards Oliver. "Protego!" Oliver boomed but to no avail, the ball punched Oliver right in the forehead, knocking the boy nearly off his feet and leaving a red circle on his skin. Oliver could hear a giggle from the other side of the stairs as he let out an "ow". "Who's there?" Oliver asked slowly. He hoped it was Dymphna, it was a feminine giggle.

A girl dressed in a large, pink sweater and long, skirt to her ankles came into view with a grin.
"You're an Ilvermorny student, right?..." Oliver didn't recognize the girl fully but he was sure he saw her get out of one of those carriages that showed up when the Ilvermorny students arrived.
"Yep, I'm Nadea, and you are?"
"Oliver... have you come to laugh at me?"
"Well, yes. But I can teach you the spell if you want, it's one of my better spells actually," Nadea smiled, taking out her wand.
"You can try but I don't think my body is capable of producing it..." Oliver winced in memory of his dozen hours spent trying to perform this charm.
"Everyone can do it, just takes some good focus, y'know? Here, cast a spell at me," Nadea waved her wand around to warm up her wrist.
"Uh, you sure? Okay... here I go," Oliver thought quickly which spell he'd use. In the off chance this older student was all talk and couldn't cast the protego either, he didn't want to flipendo her through a window. Instead, he chose his newest learnt spell," impedimenta!" Oliver cast.
"Protego," the girl spoke, waving her wand. The spell sparked off an invisible barrier before dispersing.
"Whoa, you did!"
"Yep, and you can do it too! Just focus on protecting yourself and not stopping the projectile," Nadea told, standing pretty confidentially.
"Okay, got it. I think..." Oliver nodded. Protect yourself, Oliver. Protect.
"Get ready, Oliver... and breath! Breath!" Nadea raised her wand, giving Oliver a clear indication of when she would cast. "Stupefy!" she cast, a red light dashing at Oliver.
"PROTEGO!" Oliver nearly yelped as he heard the incantation. He expected something soft, maybe even a flipendo. But the stunning charm? There was nothing more Oliver wanted right now that to protect himself.

Right before hitting Oliver, the red light of the stun flickered out of existence. Just like that, Oliver managed to cast the shield charm successfully.
"I did it! Wait, stupefy?! You could have knocked me out!" Oliver told with his mouth still open at the memory of the spell flying at him.
"I knew you could stop it though, wouldn't have cast it otherwise," Nadea smiled cheekily.

All your RP spells for Prodigal DADA Learner have been approved. You did a lot of very creative work here, I enjoyed reading through them.

Thank you, professor.

"Okay, Timmy, I'm afraid to say that we're back to practicing," Oliver beamed down at his bowl with a tiny, little money spider inside. It was barely a speck at the base of the bowl. Oliver had only spent two days so far on this spell but he was feeling confident. Offensive spells seemed to be his specialty, even though his favourite spells were more in the Shield Charm lineage. He sat outside the Hogwarts castle on the large green expanse, the Quidditch Pitch in the distance.

"Alright, let's try this," Oliver told his arachnid friend, finding the page in his DADA book. It was by instinct now that when he opened this section, he put his hand on the acromantula picture, not wanting to receive anymore nightmares. "Arania... exu... mai, yes, I remember this... Arania Exumai!" Oliver pointed his wand at Timmy as he cast and unleashed a jet of blue light at the tiny spider. Oliver beamed with a smile,"hey I think I finally did- TIMMY?! NOOOOOOOO!!!!" At the base of the bowl was now a squashed speck with a single, tiny leg protruding out. "Oh, Timmy, no... what have I done..." Oliver's eyes immediately begun welling up, his nose running liquid into his mouth. In a matter of seconds, Oliver was sobbing. "NOHOHOHO!" he pulled his head back and sobbed loudly.

"Yo, what the hell?"

Oliver heard a voice in the distance. He looked over to see a group of 6th years walking the grounds together, all looking over at him. It was only then Oliver noticed how loud he was begin. Now red in the face, with a wipe of his nose on his sleeve, Oliver tried to pull himself together. "But how... how could this happen..." Oliver looked at his book, his finger tracing under the words 'the spell will repel and knock away acromantulas and other large spiders'. "It says repel... it says knock away..." Oliver whimpered over his book, glancing at Timmy's remains and instantly his face begun to scrunch up once again. The Ravenclaw only realised then that the sentence didn't end there, he pulled his hand off the picture of the acromantula to reveal the rest of the paragraph that he had never seen. It continued with 'and may even kill smaller spiders.' Oliver collapsed, completely defeated. He beat his fist off the ground by the bowl of his lost friend. He could never forgive himself.