A Stronger Defense Prodigal Solo

Spell: Impediment Jinx
Incantation: Impedimenta (im-PED-i-MEN-ta)
Wand Movement: Horizontal Line

Things happened too fast. Having a shield between you and harmful spells was undeniably useful, but the ability to slow things down, to give yourself more than a split second to react, was just as beneficial, if not more so. Thinking back on all the disasters she’d faced in the previous year, a trend became apparent: the horrors that turned the already awful events for the worse happened much too fast for them to do anything about it. Spiders raining down from accidentally levitated clothes, finding their victims and injecting their curse. A spear first, then a knife, veering off course and striking students instead. Vampyr mosps closing in to sting. Even having the possibility of slowing down such horrors just enough for them to be avoided was something Bridget jumped at.
 
This time, she hadn’t asked Katrina for help. She didn’t really need it for this spell, and as much as she appreciated her friend, she worked better alone. Practicing in solitude meant she could go as long and as hard as she wanted to. Could push herself harder and harder and harder. Maybe having someone to keep you from going too far was a good idea, but she wasn’t going to get to where she needed to be by playing it safe. Keeping herself and her friends safe was well worth her blood, sweat, and tears.
 
She’d only allowed herself a day off after learning the Shield Charm, and even that felt like too much. She had needed to get on top of her already accumulating pile of homework, though, but the next day after school she was at it again. Bridget entered the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom with more confidence than she’d had previously; it had been fine last time, and even if she learned otherwise, so be it. She could adjust. For the time being, this was the room where she would improve her arsenal of spells and, by extension, her chances of survival.
 
Armed with her wand in her dominant left hand and a bouncy ball in her right, she was ready. The ball she’d gotten from a younger Slytherin [NPC]. It was his little brother’s favorite toy, apparently, and he’d taken it with him to Hogwarts to get back for the little brother trashing his toy broom, not that she particularly cared. Stolen toy or not, it was just the thing to aid her practice. Her idea was simple: she’d throw the ball up in the air and try to slow its descent with the Impediment Jinx. If she missed or failed, the ball was too light to do any harm to the damage. It was better than asking Katrina to run at her, anyways, and the Slytherin theorized the spell worked the same way in both scenarios. With the ball, she’d simply be fighting against the force of gravity rather than Katrina’s forward movement. That lead to another conclusion she’d surmised—the spell essentially applied an opposite force on the target. Her physics was a little rusty, but it seemed to make sense.
 
With several deep breaths in and out to clear her mind of any distractions, she was as ready as she’d ever be. Tossing the red rubber ball up in front of her, she moved her wand in a horizontal slash. “Impedimenta!” No telltale turquoise light came forth to signify some amount of success. She was seeing a pattern in her inability to cast these spells on her first try, but that was why she was practicing. The brunette retrieved the bouncy ball.
 
Focusing on the outcome she wanted, not too unlike the Levitation Charm—she’d read the Impediment Jinx could in fact be used to levitate the target—she tried again. “Impedimenta!” Much to her surprise, it worked, turquoise light shooting out of the strip of laurel wood. Maybe she was getting this one faster than Protego, even if it missed. She supposed that even if the spell slowed things down she’d still have to be fast enough to land it.
 
Much like she’d done previously, she just kept practicing. After the first success, not every cast left her wand; she found concentrating on what she wanted it to do helped, and each time the spell worked, she didn’t have to focus quite as hard. On her ninth try, she hit the ball, watching with interest as it slowed. The effect wasn’t particularly strong and lasted only a second, but it had done what it was supposed to do.
 
Bridget kept pushing herself. Harder. Faster. Better. Success only came when you worked for it, so she was going to work for this one. It was only when her stomach growled insistently and a glance at her watch told her she’d either be going to dinner now or not at all that she stopped. With one final cast that left the bouncy ball suspended in midair, barely dropping, for a good eight seconds before slowly gaining momentum and hitting the ground, she snatched it up on the second bounce, shoved it in her satchel, and headed to the Great Hall for food.

Word Count: 854

Both of your RP spells for Prodigal DADA Learner have been approved. This is some wonderful work, I enjoyed how detailed your stories were.

Spell: Spider Repelling Spell
Incantation: Arania Exumai (ah-RAHN-ee-a EX-oo-may)
Wand Movement: Point Wand at Target

Bridget had been doing an excellent job of getting into the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom each afternoon to practice fourth year spells for the first week or two of school, but then, like always, things had gotten busy. Homework started piling up and she had three new elective courses to contend with as well, so she'd been swamped. Her free time was used to practice her flying and later her spells when she'd made the switch to duelling. Add in the fact she spent time catching up with her friends and researching the spider curse and the advanced spells had been pushed to the side. How could she devote time to spells beyond her current year if she barely had time for all her required work?

The ball, her miserable performance in her duel, and the kidnapping of her friend had come like a series of unexpected blows. The shock had served as a reminder that things were bad. Perhaps her advanced spells needed to be a higher priority. Every spell would surely prove useful someday, and as for duelling, maybe the focus required to cast the fourth year spells would improve her ability to cast other, easier spells. At any rate, it was high time she got back to her advanced work.

This time, her practice would look a little different. Instead of heading towards Professor Pendrast's classroom, she made her way to one of Hogwarts' disused corridors with its empty rooms collecting dust. Her chances of coming across spiders here were much higher than in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, which was perfect for the spell she would be attempting. Frankly, Bridget was nervous. Her boggart was spiders--the ones that had cursed Slytherin, that is--and purposefully seeking out your worst fear wasn't something people tended to do. She was already a little jumpy, but she had to do this.

Hogwarts had spiders everywhere and Bridget would know; she'd been hyperaware of their presence in the weeks following the spider attack. It didn't take her very long to find an arachnid in the first empty classroom she walked into. It was perched atop an old desk that was pushed against the wall. The Slytherin raised her wand but the incantation wouldn't come. She reminded herself this spider couldn't hurt her, but the logic did nothing for her quickening pulse and urge to back away from the scary black thing. It had been months, she really had to get over this...

Quite anticlimactically, the spider crawled into the gap between the desk and the wall, disappearing out of sight. Bridget sighed. The spell, if she recalled correctly, would go through things to reach the arachnid, but she'd have no visual of how the attempt went and her concentration was currently spotty at best. It would be better to just find another spider. But what then? Would she freeze again, hesitate too long? This was a fourth year spell and she couldn't afford the splintered attention that came with overcoming her fear being half the battle.

It was embarrassing, really. Why was it such little creatures she'd never been scared of before affected her so much? The things that had cursed her hadn't even actually been arachnids. Bridget wasn't about to give up so easily, but was it really worth potentially wasting hours of her time without making progress? The truth was, she didn't think she could do this on her own. Facing spiders was like duelling Lana Monet if not worse, and if the effect of the weird feeling the Ravenclaw gave her on her performance in the duel was any indication, how would she manage a completely new fourth year spell? Should she just skip to a different spell, pretend the Spider Repelling Spell didn't exist?

Then she had an idea. Sherlock. Her rat had gotten her attention in the store by distracting her from her fear of the spiders that apparently counted as pets, so surely he could help her now. Maybe that was what she needed: company. If she didn't have to face her fear alone, maybe she could do this. The trip to retrieve her pet also helped her regather her composure. It was easier to think straight when she wasn't so on edge. The little grey rat was naturally excited to get out of his cage and climbed eagerly into her cupped hand, and soon enough she was back in the same disused hallway.

It didn't take long to find another arachnid, this one large and on its web in the top corner of the room. At least this one couldn't scurry out of sight so easily. Bringing her wand up, she closed her eyes for a moment to gather herself. She could do this. But not really. Not without help. But maybe it was okay to need a little help.

Reopening her eyes, she tried not to focus on the spider, on her fear, on how much this spider looked like those spiders. She instead felt the shuffling in her pocket, the warmth spreading to her from Sherlock's small body. She could do this. Pointing her wand at the spider, she incanted, "Arania Exumai!" There was a brief flicker of light at the end of her wand, but it quickly died.

Bridget tried again. "Arania Exumai!" The pronunciation was clear and spot-on, and as scared as she was of the spider, that same fear helped fuel her spell. In a burst of blue light, the successful spell hit the arachnid. It was blown from its web and fell to the ground. Bridget jumped to the side as it hurried past her to some new hiding spot. She'd known going in, of course, that the spell could prove lethal to small spiders. After everything she'd been through with spiders, or at least spider-shaped shadow creatures, she doubted she would have felt bad if the spell had killed it, though it looked like the spider had big enough and her spell had been on the weaker side.

Bridget was quite surprised she'd succeeded so quickly. She would still need more practice, but this was definitely a start. It was also a little bit of confidence in her spellcasting earned back after her failure of a duel. "Thanks, Sherlock," she said, stroking the rat in thanks. She knew she wouldn't always have him around to help, but she was glad to have him now.

Word Count: 1073

Spell: Leg-Locker Curse
Incantation: Locomotor Mortis (LOH-koh-moh-tor MOR-tis)
Wand Movement: An upside-down, backward, squared question mark

Slowly but surely, Bridget was making her way through the fourth year Defence Against the Dark Arts curriculum. While getting the spells to work for the first time didn't take more than a few hours at most, unless you counted the time spent researching them to begin with and perfecting the movements and incantations, they required much more than just the initial practice. The key to mastering any spell, particularly more advanced ones, was repetition over a fairly long period of time. The need to revisit the other spells, especially since it took quite a bit of motivation to work on the Spider Repelling Spell, meant it was several weeks before she moved on to a new spell.

Now, though, she finally felt ready to attempt the Leg-Locker Curse. The first question that came to mind was how she wanted to do it. The possibility of a human target briefly crossed her mind, but then she remembered the General Counter Spell didn't work on the spell and the countercurse was more advanced. Besides, she didn't want to ask one of her friends to volunteer several hours of their time to being cast at. She had another way, a better way. The Duelling Room's dummies made for excellent targets, didn't have legs to be locked, and perhaps the setting would also help her get in the right mindset.

Bridget was excited to learn this spell. Every spell had its own use and this one was no exception. The fact only older wizards would have the capability of nullifying the spell was a huge advantage if things took a turn for the worse, and practicing new magic in general was always satisfying. She'd gotten lucky and found the Duelling Room empty when she arrived. It was just easier to practice when no one else was watching.

She settled into the familiar casting stance, her feet squared to her target and wand held at the ready. There was nothing to do now but start, really. "Locomotor Mortis," she incanted, moving her length of laurel wood in a movement rather like an upside-down question mark without the dot. Not even a flicker of purple light emerged from her wand, but she supposed between the more complicated wand movement and the longer incantation she had more to keep track of.

There was nothing to do but try again, so she did. This spell was definitely taking her longer than the Spider Repelling Spell, but she had time. With each cast, the wand movement and pronunciation became a little easier, things she didn't have to think about as much. Every failed attempt provided her with new information, a slight change to make. And finally, she did it. With another cry of "Locomotor Mortis!", a jet of purple shot out of her wand and impacted with the back wall.

The moving dummies were rather hard to hit, honestly, when so much concentration had to go into simply casting the spells, but she needed the practice aiming. The casts got closer and closer to landing, not to mention more consistent in being successful, but she still hadn't landed a hit and she was starting to think it might be worth taking a break.

The Slytherin had always been all effort and focused attempts until she succeeded, but she forced herself to step away for a moment. Setting her wand down, she took a seat where she would if she were watching a duel. She smiled a bit; two of the portraits had apparently taken interest and were trying to tell her how to do it properly, although their advice conflicted and their tutoring quickly deteriorated into an argument over who was right.

Feeling ready to try again, she shut out their voices and made her way back to the same spot. After a few more attempts, she landed a hit. While it didn't do anything as the dummy didn't have legs to be locked together, it was still quite clear the spell had connected.

A while later she finally felt happy enough with what she'd accomplished for the day and made her way out of the room, off to complete her homework and perhaps hang out with a friend if she had time.

Word Count: 705

Both of your RP spells for Prodigal DADA Learner have been approved. I love the detail you put into your stories, great job!

Spell: Bubble-Head Charm
Incantation: Aspira
Wand Movement: A rounded omega shape

In all honesty, Bridget hadn't been in a particular rush to learn the Bubble-Head Charm. For all her belief that every spell served a purpose, that every bit of magic could be useful in the right situation, she hadn't felt much motivation to get around to it. The Shield Charm's use was obvious, the Impediment Jinx and Leg-Locker Curse could serve to end a fight before it started, and it was only natural she would want a defense against spiders. The same could not be said of the Bubble-Head Charm. Why would she need to be able to breathe underwater? An inability to see the immediate use of the charm wouldn't have been enough to deter her from the pursuit of knowledge had it not been for the fact she was busier than ever before. Between her new responsibilities as a Duelling Co-Captain, her training sessions with Jackson Valentine, and worries back home, there wasn't time for much outside her normal schedule.

The conclusion of the second stage of duelling had allowed her to catch her breath, so to speak, and she intended to take advantage of it. Learning the fourth year spell, the final one of the DADA curriculum, had migrated to the top of her to-do list, perhaps simply for the fear Hogwarts would throw yet another bout of chaos at them and the spell would somehow prove useful. She didn't want to regret her procrastination if such a situation arose. There was just one problem: she didn't know where to learn it.

Naturally, the location needed water so she could test the effectiveness of her cast. Bridget was sitting at her desk in her dormitory, tapping her quill against the wood. She'd formed a list of options and she had problems with all of them. The Great Lake had been the first thing to come to mind, but that would be cold, muddy, and she was liable to be seen, and that wasn't even considering whatever creatures the water hid. Again too public was a fountain, although at least she wouldn't have to contend with nature. She supposed running the risk of being seen wasn't the worst possibility. Still, these spells took her a while to get right and she'd rather not have an audience. 'Bathroom sink' and 'goblet' had both been jotted down and crossed off her list being not exactly sanitary and ineffective, respectively. She had no idea where it was, so searching for the rumored room that contained whatever you wanted it to wasn't a realistic option.

The thirteen-year-old sighed, looking up from the list. It seemed she'd just have to settle for a fountain or something. Then, her eye caught on it. An idea sparked. The pool in the dormitory, of course. Secluded, cleanly, effective... As if encouraging her it was the way to go, the pool started to glow. She'd seen it happen a few times before; it was said to glow when those in the room were calm, had a creative or cunning idea, or were resourceful.

Rising from her seat, she reached for her wand. No one else was in here... perfect. Ordinarily, this would be where she just started casting, but lack of attention toward her advanced studies meant the incantation and wand movement she'd taken time to perfect might have been forgotten, at least to an extent. And trying out a spell for the first time by herself without confidence in her ability to say it right or move her wand just so was not a smart idea. So, retrieving her spellbook, she held it up in one hand with her wand in the other, reading with the soft glow of the pool as her light source.

She silently traced the wand movement through the air, a sort of omega shape, but curved. When she was satisfied with that, she repeated the incantation to herself. Aspira, Aspira, Aspira. Perhaps a little more practice would be beneficial, though this was good enough to start. She didn't have all day for this. The incantation wasn't so long as to trip over and the movement fairly easy for its fluidity, anyhow.

Closing the spellbook, she made her way to the pool, kneeling at the edge. Alright, then. This one would be a little different than the other 4th year spells she'd learned, what with being cast at herself. Not having to worry about aim would make things a little easier. Wand movement, incantation... concentration. Bridget breathed in, then out, forcing every other thought away. She was noticing the importance of visualization more and more, so she closed her eyes, picturing the bubble-like thing depicted in the book around her own head.

It took several tries, her spell just fizzling out of her wand at first, until it worked. She could see the slight shift in her vision as her surroundings filtered through the bubble, could feel it when she reached up. It was certainly there, but how effective was it? Only one way to find out. Taking in a deep breath in case it didn't work at all, she plunged her face into the pool.

Like a poorly sealed water bottle when tipped, water almost immediately started leaking in. Not very effective at all. She surfaced, muttering Finite to get rid of the partial bubble. She would get to where she needed to be even if she had little to show for thus far. It wasn't like she expected the relatively minimal effort she'd currently put in to yield impressive results.

Having cleared the first hurdle of getting the spell out of her wand, she concentrated harder on the bubble itself, picturing it as an impenetrable barrier between her oxygen supply and the water. The improvement was slow, but slow was still progress. And finally, she did it. She could feel it even as the spell emerged from her wand, and upon submerging her head, it was quite clear her feeling had been right. This time, there were no leaks. Bridget took her time coming back up, using her ability to stay underwater to study the mosaic at the bottom of the pool without ripples or reflections distorting the image. It was quite intricate, beautiful. Perfect for their House with the crest and many snakes it displayed.

More practice was definitely in order; one instance of casting a spell did not equate to mastery. She'd leave that for another day, though, maybe even tomorrow. For today, her other responsibilities were calling.

Word Count: 1080

Spell: Confundus Charm
Incantation: Confundo (con-FUN-doe)
Wand Movement: A reverse question mark, minus the dot

Here she was, back in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. It was her favorite class because it was useful and she was good at it, and she had no issue thus far with Professor Pendrast's replacement. Professor Lécuyer was competent, already enough to earn her respect, and he seemed a good teacher. She was here to pick up what she'd started last year, her delve into advanced DADA material.

This was still important to her. Of course it was, the school hadn't gotten any safer. If anything, the world was scarier, terrorist attacks with victims her age and apparent resurrection among the worrisome realities of Hogwarts, and that wasn't even mentioning uncured curses and hag dolls straight out of a horror movie.

She'd chosen to start the year off with the Confundus Charm. Why? Well, it was somewhat arbitrary, since it didn't really matter when she intended to get to all of them, but she supposed it had something to do with how she was feeling, how the spell sounded. Confused. A year ago she'd watched Victor Moore die, and now he was back, apparently alive and well. What was she even supposed to do with that development? On a less dire note, the fourth year was dealing with friend issues. She knew she'd messed things up with Katrina, but didn't know how to fix things. How could you take back such horrible words? Was she going to have to be the first to apologize if she wanted the friendship back despite being just as hurt?

More than projected inner turmoil, the spell was useful. It made her think of the chaos of the school, like on the first night. Could this spell stop a classmate, deadset on recklessness, in their tracks? Was that even right, taking away someone's choice? Perhaps the same could be asked of plain immobilizing them, but messing with their mind had worse connotations. She placed such high value on the use of her mind; the idea of the Confundus Charm used on her was frightening. Certainly if she felt that way she couldn't justify doing it to someone else, could she? But at some point, didn't the benefit outweigh the cost, making sense to stop someone who was going to get people killed? Still, the moral implications were a problem for when a situation to use the spell arose. In the meantime, surely it was worth equipping herself with another tool. Even if just to understand it better. Even if she never used it.

As per what she'd often do last year, she pressed open the doors to the classroom after classes had concluded on this particular day in late September, spellbook tucked under one arm with her wand in the other. It was a start further into the year than she would have liked, but she'd been busy resuming the swing of things, had felt the need to brush up on some of the spells she already knew. She wasn't sure if Professor Lécuyer would be in there. A year ago she would have dwelled on the question leading up; now, with a year of performing magic on stage under her belt, she felt fairly confident either way. He wasn't inside, though chances were he wasn't very far if she needed assistance.

The Confundus Charm fell into the category of spells she wouldn't dare practice on a human, especially not at first. There was far too much room for error. She'd just have to judge it by the color light produced and her gut sense of when a spell worked. That was one of the things she'd gained in her many hours of spell practice over the last year, working endlessly to cut the frequency of her backfires. Another reassurance for today: so long as she kept her focus, she didn't think the spell blowing up in her face was very likely. The walls would be her target to start, she'd decided; they'd be unaffected and she didn't want to think about her aim quite yet. Pulling out a chair on the edge of the room, pivoting it to face the chosen wall, and setting her spellbook, opened to the relevant page, on the nearby desk, she held her wand up and out. She was ready to start.

The wand movement and incantation had already been practiced in the nights leading up in hopes of reducing time spent here. One more run-through was probably prudent just the same. The fairly simple pronunciation was repeated, then the movement was traced in the air, eyes first on the book's illustration and then her own form as she made the backward question mark shape. From the ease and accuracy she performed both, it was clear she had the technical bits down.

Now, to actually cast, but she found her wand stayed. Resignation, disappointment, something of that order was already setting in, sagging her posture. It was stupid. She would never get anywhere if she didn't start. Just... well, the first cast especially seemed pointless. She never succeeded first try, not even in her first year when spells were easy and some of her peers could because at that point she'd been behind on the mere concept of magic. The difficulty had only raised since then, and new spells had presently been yielding nothing, not even a few sparks, for the first handful of casts. Maybe she'd sit here all night struggling to get anything out with this fifth year spell.

She pressed her lips together. What a terribly defeated attitude coming from a duelling co-captain, and one who'd gone undefeated last season at that. Perhaps this would take her ages, but there was no one around to watch her struggle and she at least had faith she'd get this one down like all the others before. A breath in, then out. "Confundo." Nothing, no surprise there. She shook it off. Negative thoughts were only going to be a hindrance.

It was easier to keep going once she'd started. Squashing the frustration that bubbled over time took effort, but nothing herculean. She was perfectly capable of casting this spell. Eventually the chair got uncomfortable, so stood for a time, then settled on the floor. Confundo, Confundo, Confundo. As she became increasingly comfortable with the motions, she concentrated harder on visualization. No easy task when she hadn't seen the spell cast properly, but she could imagine the pink light, the dazed look in a target, the feeling of the energy building up inside her and channeling through her wand. Slowly, it did. Sparks shot out. She conceded to herself a few short breaks, as at some point continued effort would be pointless.

When true results finally came, it was from a different sort of visualization. Thinking about the attributes of the spell had helped a little, but this time when she shut her eyes, she saw the Common Room. She saw Henry Knight reaching for a door the rest of them had not agreed to opening, were not quite yet prepared to face. What if he'd forgotten what he was trying to do? "Confundo!" Brown eyes were opened to a streak of light, illuminating the room a shade of rose. It had worked; though there was no gauge of how well, she was sure it had. The excitement of achievement mingled with apprehension of what it had taken to succeed. She hadn't really cast it on Knight, but if it worked, didn't that mean she would have wanted it to? Sure, the foolish endangerment of himself and others made her insides burn hot, but he was a teammate and, once again, there was that question of if it was right.

She would continue to practice for a while longer, each cast with varying, but upward-trending, degrees of success. And over the next few weeks she'd keep at it, gaining consistency and playing with the power input; the spellbook had said various degrees of confusion could be achieved. She'd shift her location to the duelling room, too, to gain practice casting it with the added factor of aim. As she knew she could, doubts aside, she did it.

Word Count: 1360

@Bridget Collins
Your RP for the 'Confundus Charm' for Prodigal DADA Learner has been accepted and you may now apply to add it to your trunk. Beautifully written role play, I enjoyed reading what was going through your character’s mind and the call back to past events.

Spell: Conjunctivitis Curse
Incantation: Oculitumescere
Wand Movement: A sideways, leaf-shaped loop ending in a flick downward

The Conjunctivitis Curse was a nasty spell. Granted, it was a curse, so of course it was. She didn't even know that many curses; there was the Curse of the Bogies, which ran in a similar vein of unpleasantness, and the other two had to do more with freezing someone than causing harm. Eyes swelling shut from irritation sounded awful, especially if dragons suffered under it. If ever she wanted to limit someone's vision, Obscuro would be a much nicer choice. But, it was a spell allowed in duelling. Being able to cast higher year spells was an advantage, and she'd take any she could get. She still avoided certain spells, but on the duelling platform, she was willing to play a little meaner.

Things were starting to get hectic, the first stage creeping up with frightening speed. If her own increased efforts to prepare weren't enough, she had duties as co-captain to make sure everything was ready. At least the schedule she'd made herself to help keep track of it all included time for learning spells, either completely new ones or those she had a weaker grasp on. Having corrected many of those weaker spells, like Accio, she figured she might as well try to get another fifth year spell in.

Her set-up was much the same as with the Confundus Charm. The duelling facility was especially busy as of late, so would be a poor place to go for peace and quiet. She needed the focus for the first try. Spellbook on the table and wand pointed at the wall, she was quicker to get into it this time. She'd practiced the wand movement and incantation the past few nights. The movement wasn't so bad, though she did miss the days of point-and-shoot spells. But the incantation. Oculitumescere was a veritable mouthful, a jumble of syllables. She hadn't had the faintest clue how to say it when she'd first read it and had taken many tries to get it down; she certainly didn't want to mess it up and inflict eye-swelling on herself.

Alright. "Oculitumescere." A test cast, really, getting a feel for the incantation and wand motion together. The next try added authority to the verbalization, focus building. As always, unsuccessful casts sprung little bubbles of disappointment, but she was trying to ignore them. It wasn't fair to expect herself to master things first try. So long as she reached mastery, could depend on her abilities in times of trouble, it was acceptable.

Seeing the effects in her mind's eye and in the zone, zeroing in thoughts on the cast--nothing but the cast--got her to her first success. Again, a creature of habit and having developed an effective formula for learning spells over her time at Hogwarts, she gave another good half hour to ensure repeatability.

The next day, she brought her practice to the duelling room. With confidence she could cast it, adding distraction and targeting was the next step. She warmed up on her selected dummy with the spells she knew well--Flipendo, Ventus, Steleus, and so on. As she readied to cast Oculitumescere, she couldn't shake the feeling she was being watched. She didn't want anyone to see in case she messed up. A glance over her shoulder told her that, no, there wasn't anyone particularly interested in her practice. Everyone had their own business to mind. Some fidgeting with her wand and a few more easy spells later, she told herself she had to stop putting it off.

Fine. She squared up to the dummy, pointing her wand squarely at its head. The spell would probably work if she hit the person at all, but might as well hit them right where it would act. Reasonably, that would increase the effectiveness. She imagined eyes on the dummy. She took a deep breath in, centering herself, then released. "Oculitumescere." It struck her target around the neck area. Warmth shot through her, excitement. Another look around; it still didn't look like anyone was watching, naturally. But if they were, they had better be scared. Casting fifth year spells had to be somewhat intimidating, right?

Word Count: 691