Hex The Sneezing Hex, First Year

backdated to first year

Violet glanced around the History of Magic classroom before sitting on an empty desk besides de window, as she listened to the professor talk to the class about what they were learning today. The sneezing hex, a hex that Violet had been waiting for exitedly and impatiently. To be honest, she really couldn't wait until the moment she was going to able to actually cast it upon someone and make them sneeze. The Slytherin smirked behind her textbook as she continued to listen to the professor and took notes about the spell.

When the moment to practice finally arrived, Violet looked around at the class to see if anyone would want to be her partner. Since Violet barely knew anyone at Hogwarts because of her lack of social skills, she waited for someone to come to her instead of all the way around. A minute or two passed before a Hufflepuff girl approached her. ''Uhm...you wanna be partners?'' the girl asked, looking deseperate. Since Violet felt the same thing as the poor badger, she accepted with enthusiasm and asked the girl to sit down.

''Okay, so I start first.'' Violet said, not even bothering asking her partner who was going to go first. That day was a once in a lifetime experience, and she, Violet, wanted to go first. She wouldn't wait even one second.

The badger girl's face looked scared and pale, as if she was prepared for anything. Before Violet even opened her mouth, the Hufflepuff's face went red and she actually - that is to say, literally, no wand needed - sneezed.

''D-did I just..?'' Violet asked, her eyes blinking in perplexion. ''Oh, nono, that wasn't you, that was me! You didn't cast any spell, right?
''N-no...I mean, I don't think I did!''
''Okay then, hurry upppp!!!''

Still frightened by what had just happened, Violet rolled her eyes and pointed her wand at her partner's face. To be honest, she had not payed much attention to the wand movement at first, since she wanted to get a good grasp of the pronunciation. She would read the wand movemnt later. She didn't want her partner's face to explode...or did she?

'''Come onnnn, Carrington, can you hurry, I want my turn to come soon!! The Hufflepuff said, looking at some of the classmates that had already casted the spell. Violet however, had barely started. The pronunciation already printed in her lips, Violet now looked at her notes for the wand movement. It wasn't exacly easy, thought not the hardest either. Violet did the wand movement without saying a word just to take a grasp about what she was doing. When she finally got it, she started.

Steleus!

Violet's eyes glistened as she did the wand movement while pronouncing (STÉ-lee-us), and the wand movement: downward quickly then outward towards her partner over and over again. Nothing happened.

Her partner was telling her to hurry up more and more. Well that wasn't a patient Hufflepuff,, Violet thought, as she glared at her partner once more. She made it again. d}Downward quickly then outward towards her partner. Steleus!

521

Professor Edit: There were quite a few students that were in a hurry it seemed. There was enough lesson time left by far for everyone to get their turn - several of them even. But while the Slytherin girl seemed visibly rattled by her partner's haste, she did manage to cast the hex after only a couple of tries. "Well done, Miss Carrington.

Steleus learned

Backdated to Cosmo's first year

Cosmo had found that anytime a teacher cleared their classroom of furniture it was always a good sign exciting things were ahead. Indeed, Professor Zahid announced that they would be learning the Sneezing Hex and she felt a grin tugging at her lips. This was the kind of thing that she had imagined when she first heard stories about Hogwarts from her mother; harmless little spells that she could use to pull pranks and make people laugh. It was a shame she had to wait until 17 to cast at home, she thought wryly. It would have been nice to see if the sneezing hex worked on her puppy.

Once the Professor finished his explanations people began to partner up, eager for a new spell in their repertoire. "Dyou wanna test it out on me?" Cosmo asked the boy next to her. She waited for his smile and short nod, before they backed away from each other a little. His first few attempts miss-fired, hitting others and adding to the soft sneezes slowly filling the room. The third attempt hit true, starting as a tickle that built slowly. It made Cosmo scrunch up her nose, before letting out a tremendous sneeze. The boy had a delighted expression on his face, and he slipped his wand away, ready for Cosmo to try.

She readied herself, and ran the incantation experimentally over her tongue a few times before actually attempting to cast. Like her partner had, Cosmo missed several times before striking true. "Steleus," she shook her head and aimed again, "steleus!" Her partner was kind enough not to snicker, and Cosmo was glad of it. One last aim, one last "steleus!!" and the boy erupted into a fit of several sneezes one after the other. Cosmo let out a victory "whoop!" subtly looking around for Professor Zahid to see if he noticed.

Professor Edit: While her partner did end up sneezing it seemed to be by pure luck because whatever she had cast was not a proper Steleus. "Try to be a bit more mindful when casting a spell.", Zahid reminded them before demonstrating the correct way to cast it once again.

Steleus not learned

As you included neither the proper incantation nor the wand movement of the spell, you did not learn it.
You can still learn the spell by making a new post writing how you try again - just make sure to include both the proper wand movement and the pronunciation this time.

Green : talking
Purple : thinking

Granted permission to Godmod Avery Chen

On the same day that Hildegard and Avery had their little conversation about the Wizarding music, they ended up pairing together for Professor Zahid's lesson.

Usually Miss Schneider was not that much interested into his classes, because she was more of a charm casting person.
She would usually sit on the back and take a few notes, making just enough efforts to be considered a decent, a little bit bellow average.
However that day it was different, the teacher was trying to teach them the sneezing Hex, a useful hex for duelling.
And so the girl was captivated this time, and after the professor's explanation, she directly asked Avery Chen to be her partner.

-Hey Avery, can we train on this together ? She asked to the music fanboy.

Mister Chen agreed, asking her however some time for him to practice the wand movement and pronunciation.
Hildegard in the other hand overlooked Professor Zahid's order to practice them separately, completely out of proud.
Instead she took that practicing time to walk with a limp into one of the table that had tissue boxes on it and putted a few inside of her robe's pocket.
She then slowly walked back to her friend, her left leg sliding on the ground.

They distanced themselves from each other leaving around 6 feet of distancing.

- Can I start first ? She asked Avery.

He agreed again, making Hildegard believe it may be because of her morning lend, even if the Slytherin boy was most of the time quite gentle anyway.

Pronunciation : STÉ-lee-us, wand movement : downward speedily outward on the direction of the target. She repeated to herself several time.

-Okay I memorized it, I am sure I can do it ! The girl thought.

Hildegard pointed her wand at Avery, getting into a duelling position.

-Steleus She spoke while doing the wand movement she had memorized earlier.

As the pale Slytherin was not satisfied wanting something more perfect, she quickly did it again.

-Steleus She repeated, moving her wand downward as fast as she could, outward on the direction of Avery.

Still not satisfied, she did it yet again without caring about Avery's state.

-Steleus

She then looked at Avery, to see how her three attempt actually did, then quickly glimpsed at professor Zahid wondering if he saw it and if he approved what she just did.

World Count : 396

Interacting with : @Avery Chen

Professor Edit: "This is a practice lesson, not a duel, Miss Schneider. Give your partner a break and a chance to practice the hex himself.", Zahid admonished the Slytherin. He was tempted to take points off her house there, but she did let up and gave her partner his turn - which was a success - so Zahid merely narrowed his eyes at her in warning, before giving them both a nod. "Aside from that, good work you. Miss Schneider, Mr. Chen."

Steleus learned

Professor Edit: "This is a practice lesson, not a duel, Miss Schneider. Give your partner a break and a chance to practice the hex himself.", Zahid admonished the Slytherin. He was tempted to take points off her house there, but she did let up and gave her partner his turn - which was a success - so Zahid merely narrowed his eyes at her in warning, before giving them both a nod. "Aside from that, good work you. Miss Schneider, Mr. Chen."

Steleus learned

Backtracked to First Year

Noah was pretty interested to learn such an interesting... hex. One could be interested in a hex, but to make others sneeze? He already knew a hex to make people throw up slugs. But yet, the sneezing hex seems so interesting. He definitely knew people that he wanted to hex

The boy looked at him, nodded, and stood still.

"Get ready, Steleus!" Noah said, pointing his wand downwards and outwards towards the unfortunate victim, who strangely enough, wanted to be targeted. The boy began sneezing, but Noah was casting out of pity, not anger, so the spell shouldn't have hit him too badly. "Listen, man. I'm sorry to do so, but I need to do it at least one more time to satisfy the professor. You can do it to me though!". The calm before the storm, was how Noah was feeling. The professor was walking by, suggesting tissue boxes for those of us who wanted a handkerchief after being hit by the hex.

Noah took the moment to look around for a partner. A Gryffindor boy walked up, his hair was dyed green and purple. He asked if Noah wanted to be partners with him, and Noah smiled, agreeing.

"Ok, you want to be the victim of the Sneezing Hex?" Noah asked, wondering what the boy would say.

"Steleus!" Noah cried, with a hurt anger, and pointed his wand towards the boy, disappointed that he had to hex an innocent victim. Its my turn now. Go ahead and hit me, boy. Noah was thinking that, while squinting.

Professor Edit: Watching the Gryffindor try to cast the spell, Zahid noted that the boy's pronunciation was a bit off base so he made his way over to correct the mispronunciation before demonstrating how to cast the spell correctly again. "Try to be a bit more mindful when casting spells, Mr. Jupe."

Steleus not learned

As you did not include the proper incantation of the spell, you did not learn it.
You can still learn the spell by making a new post writing how you try again - just make sure to include both the proper wand movement and the pronunciation this time.

Backdated to Mei's first year

Mei walked into the History of Magic class to see the desks pushed up against the wall once again. Mei looked at the board. "Oh! We are doing another spell. I wonder what this one is going to be." Mei walked over and took her seat and waited for the professor to start explaining.

Once everyone had stopped talking and put their things away the professor began explaining to the class that they would be learning the Sneezing Hex. The professor modeled the hex on a volunteer. The boy began to sneeze almost immediately. However the boy did not sneeze for long.

Mei began to practice the incantation. "STEE-lee-as. Hm. No that does not sound correct. STAY-LAY-AS...Nope that is not it either. STEEL-lee-us. Darn it! What is it?!" Mei listened to other students pronounce it. "Oh, it's STÉ-lee-us." Mei practiced this over and over again. Unluckily Mei continued to pronounce it wrong a few more times. Mei kept practicing until she was able to say it right every time.

Once she able to pronounce the incantation correctly she began to practice the wand movements. "Downward and out. Downward and out." Mei repeated to herself doing the wand motions along with her words. Now that she had this down it was time to find a partner. She looked around the classroom laying her eyes upon a girl with blonde hair wearing Hufflepuff robes. Mei walked over to her. "Hullo. Would you like to be partners with me?" The girl nodded with a small smile.

"Would you like to go first or shall I go first?" The girl pointed to Mei. "Okay then." Mei stood apart from the girl and raised her wand. "STEE-lee-us!" Mei said as she moved her wand downwards and out. Nothing happened. Mei tilted her head to the side slightly confused. The girl laughed. "What? Did I say it wrong?" The girl nodded still laughing. "Oh! Oops. Okay let me try again." Mei raised her wand once more. "STÉ-lee-us!" Mei said again moving her wand downwards and out towards the girl.

The girl did not do anything for a short second and then began to sneeze uncontrollably. Mei smiled proud of herself and then went to go get her partner some tissues. "Here you go." The girl smiled and took the tissues and wiped her nose once she stopped sneezing. "Okay, now it is your turn. Are you ready?"

The girl nodded her head and stood away from Mei. Mei prepared herself. The girl then cast the hex on Mei nailing it her first try. Mei began to sneeze. In fact she sneezed so hard one time that it knocked her onto her rump. Mei laughed still sneezing. The girl was also laughing as she walked over to help Mei off the floor. Mei walked over and got herself some tissues and wiped her nose. She walked back over to the girl and smiled giving her a high five. "Now that was pretty funny!"

Word count: 502 words

Professor Edit: Making his way over to the next pair, Zahid observed their casting progress. As both were quite quick to succed in hexing the other, with Miss Hagikura needing no more than two tries and her partner following her now taking more care to enunciate properly, he gave them a nod of approval. "Well done, you two."

Steleus learned

Noah was one of the few kids who struggled with the Sneezing Hex. Listening to the professor, he tried to figure out what he needed to be mindful of. Was it the wand movement? The incantation? Or that he didn't have determination? He decided to give all three a try together, as that is a necessary component to spellcasting.

Noah casted wrong the last time, and he was lucky the professor decided to give him a second chance. Nodding, with a grim frown, he turned and faced the boy again. "I- am very sorry. But I need to perfect this. I promise! You can hit me with the spell soon!" Noah felt tears coming down his face, he never felt that way before, but he was determined to continue.

Preparing to cast the hex, he pronounced the words, "STÉ-lee-us." Noah pointed his wand towards the victim, and looked at him with tears coming down his face, and a determined expression. The wand moved downwards then towards the victim, and his determination was to be on the good side of his teacher, the pronunciation was correct, so he decided to do it again.

"Man, I really do apologize, you know what? You can hit me with a water balloon later. STE-lee-us!" Noah cried, pointed his wand towards the ground then out towards the boy. His heart raced, but he wiped off the tears as the boy began to sneeze without pause.

For preventive measures, Noah tried to forget all measures of compassion towards the boy, as he cried out the spell once more, "STE-lee-us!" He, once again, pointed downwards then towards the victim.

"How did I do?"

Word Count: 275

Professor Edit: Zahid suppressed a sigh. What was it about practicing a hex that made the students think they had to do it as if under duelling conditions, hitting their partner as many times as they could? "Better, well done. Don't worry about not succeding on the first attempt. That is why we practice spell casting, after all.", he tried to console the boy. "Just remember to give your partner a chance to breathe, too, Mr. Jupe."

Steleus learned

Most history classes were a struggle to stay awake in, but for this one Matthew perked up the moment he heard they'd be learning a new spell. And this wasn't just any old spell - it was a spell that made people sneeze, which had the potential for peak prank plans. Making another student burst into a sneezing fit in the middle of class had to be a way to waste at least a couple seconds of time that would otherwise be spent on lectures. Low amount of time though it was, it was something.

Drumming his fingers on his thigh, he listened carefully and bobbed his head with each new bit of information, silently replaying the word in his brain. Steleus. STÉ-lee-us. Curbing his impatience at the desire to start practicing immediately, his eyes followed the professor's careful wand movements. Right, right, he was pretty sure he had it.

When the lesson was over, he turned to a girl sitting next to him and grinned. "You first, then," he offered, figuring watching her do it would give him even more pointers on the right way to cast. It took a couple of clumsy tries but she eventually got it, launching him into a fit of sneezing that was surprisingly forceful.

When it was over, he smeared snots on the sleeve of his robe with a wry smile at the girl's look of disgust, then prepped his own wand. "Steleus," he practiced, tongue tripping over the unfamiliar word as he moved his wand clumsily. A slow downward motion, then outward. Nothing.

He brought up a mental image of how his partner had done it when she'd managed to correctly hit him, and he cleared his throat. "STÉ-lee-us," he enunciated carefully, trying out the wand movement with more confidence as he concentrated - downward swiftly, then outward towards the girl.

WC: 309 Words

Professor Edit: When he made it to the next pair he observed the Slytherin boy now hexing his partner. It seemed he had used his partner's previous casting failures to learn from, as he avoided her mistakes. "Well done, Mr. Gray."

Steleus learned

backdated to first year

Earl was a huge fan of afternoons. The heat and the chattering of students had him nodding off most days, head hidden in the crook of his elbow as he snoozed away behind a pile of books.

Today looked a little bit different however. No goblins would be sipping out of teacups in his dreams, or so it seemed. Because desks had been pushed to the side, and students were slowly trickling in, stacking their bags and books upon them. Our puff followed suit, crawling underneath one of the tables and wrapping his arms around his bag. He fit perfectly in the small space, and seemed perfectly comfortable, as if sitting underneath desks in a somewhat dusty HOM classroom was something he did on a daily basis.

What looked like a rather meanspirited spell was demonstrated. Earl's brows furrowed as he slid forward on his stomach, setting the bag aside, and propping his head up on his palms. Why did they need to make other people sneeze? It seemed like the spell wouldn't be very useful outside of April fools pranks. Still, after the demonstration and pairs were formed, he climbed out from underneath the desk and shook the dust out of his clothes.

"You and me?" he mouthed at a tiny Slytherin girl sitting across the room from him. She nodded, relief blooming over her face. She'd been looking at the dwindling numbers of single people with concern, unable to speak up and ask someone to pair with her.

He met her on the side of the classroom, where she hopped up on one of the desks, legs dangling over the edge. Her wand was tucked behind her ear, tip sticking out between dark red curls. "You wanna go first?" she asked, giving an unsure smile, not quite meeting his eyes. Earl nodded, sitting down criss cross and pointing his wand at her lazily. "STEleeus". Nothing happened. Earl raised a perfect eyebrow and tried again, arching his wrist gracefully and pointing square towards her chest. "Ste-lee-us".

Nothing.

"I think you have to do the hand thing" she piped up, demonstrating with a surprisingly elegant loop of her arm, keeping her elbow locked, fingers pointed in his direction. She hadn't yet touched her wand. "O h. See you're smart."

The Hand Thing™ was done a couple times. Before long she'd climbed off the table and was holding his arm, carefully helping him describe the same motion as the professor. "Why didn't you pay attention?" she demanded with a small frown. Earl's cheeks took on a rather pinkish hue. "I spaced out in the middle of his speech and kind of only spaced back in when everyone started moving."

"Try now. Exact same motion. Don't forget to keep your wrist straight, you move too much." Earl hid a blush. He cast spells the way his mom did. Or rather, tried to. She'd always had a certain flair, a graceful way of standing, as if she was commanding the world and knew the world liked her enough to obey. She'd had the same grand gestures, the same way of arching her wrists and pushing her sleeves up, gnawing on the inside of her cheek while she focused on incantatio-

"E a r l."

He startled guiltily. "I did it again didn't I..." Following the same rigid movement. Downward quickly, outward towards her chest. "STÉ-lee-us" a fit of sneezes overtook the tiny girl in front of him. It only lasted about fifteen seconds, but Earl squealed anyway, going to pull her into a hug. "THANK YOU"

"You're welcome."

words: 600

Professor Edit: It was always heartening to see students helping each other and so he left the pair to their own deviced at first to help another pair and it seemed to have been the right decision, as the Hufflepuff managed to cast the hex correctly under the direction of his classmate. "Well done, Mr. Gray."

Steleus learned

When Seren walked into the room today, and saw all the desks moved back, her stomach sank a little. Was she in the wrong room? She looked around, and saw the Professor, so no she was in the right place. Her expression turned anxious at his instructions to place their bags out of the way. How was she to take notes, if she did not have a desk, or her bag with her quill and her parchment? She did as she was told, her eyes tight with her worry. What if she failed to learn the spell, because she could not take her notes?

She moved to a place out of the way, where she could watch and listen, but was increasingly worried about her ability to do the task today's lesson would be setting them. She took slow, deep breaths, trying to calm herself down as she waited for the Professor to continue. When a volunteer was called for, she almost put her hand up, but her worry kept her from volunteering... And after the volunteer went up, she found herself glad it was not her. Even more so after the Professor cast on the poor student! The idea of being forced to have a sneezing fit in front of the ENTIRE classroom was horribly embarrassing to even contemplate!

She listened carefully the pronunciation and, even as she continued to listen and pay attention, she already began to practice the spell under her breath, afraid she would forget the right emphasis before she actually cast the spell.

When they were told to practice it, and the movement, she put her wand in her pocket, and raised her voice up to normal. "STÉ-lee-us! STEE... No, blast how did I get it wrong again?" She glowered at the floor, took a deep breath, and muttered "STÉ. STÉ. STÉ-lee-us!" until she felt firm in it. She then took her wand back out and began to practice the wand motion... Wand held out, pointed at nothing at the moment as a target then moved it slowly down and out at that spot. She repeated the motion over and over, speeding up each time, until she was doing it with a decent confidence that she was getting it right. This time she would be casting a hex at someone, so she wanted to be very sure she got it right.

At the instruction to pair up, she got nervous again, and grabbed some tissues just in case, and found a partner. She let the other student cast first, to be polite and also to see it in action once more. She found herself bending over with her sneezes when they got it right on the second try (She was glad it had just fizzled the time they said it wrong..), and used one of the tissues to blow her nose until the sneezes subsided, then straightened again.

With a determined face, the young girl straightened her back, standing firm as she gazed at her classmate. She raised her wand, and again moved it down and out, as she determinedly enunciated "STÉ-lee-us!" at the other. When they began to sneeze, she found herself taking a huge breath of relief... And then handed them a tissue. They continued to practice a few times, until she pleaded a break, needing her breath... All the sneezing was getting to be too much!

WC:570

Professor Edit: Stopping next to the next pair, Zahid observed as the young Ravenclaw hexed her partner. "Well done, Miss Yong."

Steleus learned