DADA enthusiasts PV Emma Wynn Complete

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Emma had arrived early to the Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. While it was becoming one of her favorite courses, namely because she enjoyed knowing how to protect herself and others, that was not the reason she was early, nor the reason she was in the front. Emma had not quite figured out her way around the castle, and she had a dreadful fear of being late. So instead she made sure she left plenty early to make it to class on time. She had been waiting for the door to open, and as soon as it had, she moved quickly to the front. Honestly, there had been no reason to move quickly, as it seemed most preferred the back of the classroom, which meant the front was easier to get seats, especially when being early.

Humming, she carefully pulled his quill, inkwell and parchment out of her bag, placing them on the table and straightening them, making sure they were ready for the frantic notetaking that would happen once the professor began to speak. She left her wand in her bag, not sure that she was truly ready to cast more spells. That was just another reason she chose to sit up front. She wanted to be able to clearly see and hear what the professor was saying so she had less chance to make a fool of herself. She knew little about casting spells, and while logically, Emma knew that no one would be paying attention to her, she still couldn’t help but feel a failure when she couldn’t get something on the first try.

Shaking her head slightly, she came out of her thoughts only to spy motion out of the corner of her eye. Emma watched as the boy pulled out the same items as she had lined up on the desk, and then pull out his wand. Her eyes widened slightly, wondering if he knew something that she didn’t. “Ummmm….excuse me. Do you know if we’ll be using our wands today?” She reached out and her hand hovered for a moment, but then she withdrew it, figuring if they didn’t hear her, she could raise her voice a little….or more likely just forget about the whole thing altogether.
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@Emma Wynn
mentioning Olivia Feather, Amber Bullhorn

A squeaky sound had him turning his head, hoping it was either Olivia or Amber arriving late, but he was wrong.

A girl had her hand out, almost like she was reaching for his arm or something, but she quickly kept it to herself. She wore black and yellow robes - Hufflepuff - and had a normal look to her, despite her long fiery hair and blue eyes, like one of those faces you could swear you've seen before.

Not in a bad way, of course.

Edmund didn't understand most of what the girl had said, honestly; her voice was so quiet and he had been busy hoping to do something exciting in today's lesson that he didn't pay attention. He only caught the word wand, which didn't help. He took a long awkward second to think of what she could possibly have asked - did she forget her wand? Was she asking to see his? Or asking about its core? What?

"Uhhh... did you ask about my wand?" He asked bluntly, so he wouldn't look like an idiot by handing it to her, in case it wasn't what she wanted to know. "Sorry. I didn't hear anything you just said. I'm Edmund, by the way. Guess we're partners for today's lessons, not that I think we're going to do much,"

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Emma really wasn’t sure what had brought her to try to touch the boy. She had really just wanted to see if he had known something she had so that she could have the time to mentally prepare to start casting spells. She hadn’t done many, but she struggled with the most basic of things it seemed. It didn’t help that many of the other students did the same, all Emma could see was that she was failing. Emma didn’t like failing, and it made this whole magical school experience even less desirable than she had first thought. It was just a struggle, and she was still in the finding her way around, and trying to make friends stage. It was all just a bit much.

Quietly taking a deep breath and holding it, Emma realized that she was starting to panic a little. Letting it out slowly and just as quietly, Emma was glad when the boy said something. At least he didn’t think she was some weirdo just trying to touch him randomly. Emma nodded mutely, and then realized he might want more words. Clearing her throat, she said “Yes, I was asking about your wand. Do you know if we’ll need them for class today?” Emma thought to herself that that wasn’t that bad. She had managed a whole sentence without making a fool of herself.

She blushed slightly as she realized that she hadn’t even introduced herself. But really the wand issue had seemed more pressing. “Nice to meet you Edmund, I’m Emma. Our names start with the same letter.” Emma’s blush deepened and she looked down at the desk, mentally berating herself. That was just really stupid. Grabbing onto his last sentence determined to change things up, she said “Oh? I don’t know. It doesn’t seem like there’s a rhyme or reason to practical vs. theory. Have you been enjoying classes?”. There she had said something perfectly normal and hopefully the whole names starting with the same letter would be forgotten.
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@Emma Wynn

Because the Hufflepuff girl spoke quietly, almost as if she was afraid of how he'd perceive her, Edmund leaned in to pay attention to every word he said, keeping eye contact, nodding a bit. At this point, he was more than used to interacting with timid people, and he wished he had a constant Improved Hearing Spell on so he never missed what they had to say. As someone who enjoyed talking a lot, he had to work on listening.

"Well, I sure hope so," stated Edmund, a bit louder than intended, with a shrug, looking around the classroom with a defeated expression, doubting that they would do something with their wands.

He wished to cast spells and do something exciting today - he was a wizard, for Merlin's sake! Hearing and reading about spells would never be as exciting as casting them. As big of a nerd as he was, the boy wanted to show his parents he was a prodigy - perfect in every corner of magic.

The Hufflepuff girl introduced herself as Emma and made a small comment about their names.

"Yes..." He said rather blankly, knitting his eyebrows in a moment of confusion, but the corner of his lips tugged upwards. Rolling his wand around the table, copying a cat's mannerisms, he answered her question, rambling, as always. "I have. Herbology and History of Magic are my favorites, though I got an E on my homework, which annoyed me, cause I was sure I had answered everything correctly, you know, but I guess not. Potions and Transfiguration are going great for now, and I have to work harder on Charms and Astronomy. What about you?"

Reducio

I'm so sorry I took a while!

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Emma while speaking, noticed that he had leaned in a bit and that he seemed to be engaged. It was confidence boosting, at least a bit because she knew he was listening and she was starting to feel that maybe she wasn’t being rude or boring. Although if he had to lean in, she should probably speak up. However on the other hand, it was fairly loud in the classroom so maybe that was simply why he was leaning in.

She almost chuckled at the boy’s comment. Just from the words, she could assume that he was frustrated with the lack of casting spells that had been occurring in class. But Emma knew it would come soon. After all, wasn’t that the whole reason they had wands? It always seemed that the first classes of any subject, whether magical or muggle always was meant to outline expectations and necessary rules. Though it would be nice if they were the same across the board, as Emma quite liked following rules, and didn’t want to break any unintentionally. But Emma could also just review those notes from time to time to make sure she kept the rules straight for each class.

Grimacing slightly, Emma could not believe that she had been so foolish as to make that comment. Even more so as Edmund seemed to smile a bit. She couldn’t quite tell if he was making of her or not, and really why shouldn’t he? That had to be the most awful comment she could have made in her rambling state. Bringing her head back up as he began to answer her hastily asked questions, Emma was glad that he had lots to say. It seemed like she hadn’t scared him off at least.

Grinning, Emma felt she had met a kindred spirit when he made the comment about the E on his homework. Emma always wanted to do her best and while E was acceptable, she’d rather get an O. “I love Herbology as well, Transfiguration and DADA seem to be my other favorites, at least so far. Potions I’m kind of iffy about, and Charms and Flying I’m struggling a bit. I just don’t see how anyone could want to willing put themselves up in the air on a think piece of wood that could potentially fall out of the sky.” Scrunching her nose, she still thought it was so foolish for that. After all, it made no sense that there wasn’t some sort of seatbelt or some kind of magic plane that was just so much safer than a broomstick.

“Do you know much about magic? It’s all new to me and I can tell you it’s still a bit of a shock to be in a school for witches and wizards.” Emma asked, curiously. Either way, she didn’t really care, other than maybe some of her questions might be answered, and there always seemed to be more popping up daily. She really should start a list.
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@Emma Wynn

"Ah, Potions," Edmund scrunched his nose, as the thoughts of his third lesson came to mind. "I drank a Potion and ended up in the Hospital Wing, unable to remember what I had been doing before waking up there. Don't recommend it... But, ah, Herbology and Transfiguration, you get me! Some of my friends aren't into it and I dunno why,"

Edmund gesticulated his disappointment while shaking his head. He was glad the girl was talking to him. For a second he thought he'd have to be quiet during today's lesson because he was seated next to someone shy. Thankfully, it wasn't that case.

"... Well, I know why, they want to monkey around in class and not have to write so much on their homework, which is ridiculous. That way they'll never learn anything, right?...

His mother's report card motivated him to always dive deep into his studies. Perhaps overworking himself at age 11 wasn't the best way to go at it, but the boy couldn't stop himself. He was a Gryffindor, after all: stubborn, determined, and hot-headed. If he promised he'd never let Eliza down with his perfect scores, Edmund would do anything in his power to keep it.

When Emma talked about Flying lessons, Edmund frowned, surprised she'd say something like that. To be fair, he should have expected it. Most, if not all, of the first years he had met seemed either terrified or not into flying at all. It confused him. Of course, it did. Being the son of a famous Quidditch played, and taught to fly since he was 4 years old, Edmund was used to it. It was not as scary as everyone made it out to be.

"Flying is the best! If you're scared, I can teach you, you know. I taught Amber how to. Well, sort of. It was fairly easy," He offered, with a shrug. He wouldn't mind setting up extra flying lessons with other first years, but he doubted their professor would allow it.

At Emma's final question, he frowned.

"Ah, you're a muggle-born," Let out Edmund a bit bluntly, before recollecting himself, making a face at how that sounded. ”Not that there's anything wrong with that... Merlin, that sounded so accusatory for some reason, didn't it?" He laughed awkwardly at his own comment, running his fingers through his hair. "I didn't mean it like that... To answer your question, I know a lot because I'm a pureblood. This is normal for me,"

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Emma gave a nervous chuckle, at the same time wondering what had happened. After all, it seemed strange to just drink a potion, but she didn’t really know him so maybe that was a regular occurrence? “Did you intend to drink the potion, or was it a joke or something?” She asked, her voice growing a tiny bit louder, but only because she thought it might be hard to hear her over the rest of the room.

“I’ve always enjoyed plants, and seeing some of the interesting ones that exist and move is just really cool. Transfiguration, I’m kind of waiting for the bigger things but I think it’s so interesting to be able to change one thing from another.” Emma was enthusiastic, happy that they shared a love of certain classes, mainly because it was something to talk about. She rambled slightly, grabbing onto the topic with both hands.

Tucking one side of her hair behind her hair, tired of it in her face, she was glad that Edmund didn’t seem to be bothered by her awkwardness. She had resigned herself to going to the school, and the classes were interesting, but she really had been worried about making friends especially with how hard things had been making friends at her muggle schools. It was only when her extroverted best friend sat down beside her and made conversation that she had made her first friend, rather than acquaintance. Only to have to give it all up, as her best friend didn’t understand why she couldn’t use a cell phone to keep in touch while at her new boarding school, and why they had to communicate via letters. But at least Emma’s best friend hadn’t ‘completely dropped her, though she could see distance growing between the two already.

Emma’s eyes widened, surprised at the way the conversation had turned, but thinking that this boy must be more into academics than sports, which Emma could understand, as she was awful at anything athletic. “I think it’s all about differences in personality. Mainly some are better at the more athletic pursuits and others like you and I prefer the academic. Everyone wants to be good at something?” Emma put a question mark at the end of her last statement, not feeling comfortable writing them off as monkeying around but knowing that some of that behavior did happen or they showed off which made her just as uncomfortable. But Emma didn’t like conflict and they were having such a nice conversation that she didn’t want to disrupt it.

She hoped that he didn’t think her a scaredy cat, someone who wasn’t willing to take adventures. Only to be fair she tended to be a rule follower, and preferred to keep both feet on the ground. She had no clue who Amber was. “I could always use some help. I swear that’s the one class I’m afraid I’ll definitely fail.” Never mind that she had sneaking suspicions that she was going to be awful at the whole magic thing and fail all of her courses, to be sent home in disgrace. But Emma tried to push those thoughts away, knowing that it was just her brain preparing for the worst.

Emma wasn’t impressed by the tone he used, although at least he didn’t call her that other term, the one she had heard only once and been very confused about. All she knew was she had not liked it. Though his later sentence had her unscrunching her face, relaxing to know that hopefully he wasn’t going to hold her blood status against her. “It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean it like that. What was it like growing up with magic? It seems like such a different world.” Emma wanted to know more about other’s experience, especially growing up in the magical world.
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@Emma Wynn

"Eh, well... I drank it out of spite, actually," confessed Edmund, looking away. He shouldn't have mentioned the Potions incident. He scratched his arm, hoping the girl wouldn't berate him or call him stupid. It hadn't been one of his best moments, he knew, and though there was no way he could explain himself for putting himself in danger like that, he could pretend it hadn't been a big deal. "But I'm fine now, so it doesn't really matter, ya know,"

He hummed to what she said, lips curling upwards in a small smile. Emma was just like him! He had a talent for plants and animals, which Granny said came from his mother, which helped him with classes such as Herbology, and soon, Care of Magical Creatures.

"You won't fail, I'll help you. Don't worry about it. If you want, we can go after classes end. Use a school broom and practice outside," suggested Edmund, pointing over his shoulder. He missed flying already, and it would be great to have some company, instead of crashing into some innocent student again.

There was that question again: what was it like growing up with magic? He didn't mind it, of course. It must be different for them, too. The problem was that he never knew what to say exactly. Eddie tried thinking of a proper answer - something exciting to impress her, or something cool and scary to make Emma think he's cool, but magic was common to him.

He shrugged awkwardly, "It was... normal. It's all I know. I mean, you'll get used to it eventually and you'll understand what I mean,"

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Emma was unsure how to react, and so froze, looking at Edmund like she didn’t know what to make of drinking a potion out of spite. But since she didn’t really know him and wasn’t fully comfortable, she just kept silent and tried her best to smooth her face into a somewhat pleasant and not surprised look. Emma just nodded mutely, not sure how to answer that except in the affirmative. After all, it could have been much worse. Or at least she assumed. And hopefully Edmund no longer felt the need to drink random potions. But it wasn’t for her to say one way or the other, honestly. They had just met after all.

She was nervous but she did need to get over the whole fear thing. At least when it came to brooms. Although honestly she just wanted to avoid them altogether, but that seemed irresponsible because what if there was an emergency and the only option was a broom? That was how Emma’s brain worked, always jumping to the worse case scenarios. “Sure, though I’m not sure I can fly. Maybe it’s like sports, you either have talent or you don’t?” Emma asked hesitantly but slightly hopefully. Though really it wasn’t like Edmund was trying to force her or anything. Honestly she could easily say no.

Emma widened her eyes. She couldn’t believe magic could ever become humdrum normal. It seemed like every hour, she was seeing or hearing or learning something new and that completely amazed her. “Well still, definitely lots still to be learned I’m sure. Have you gotten lost in the castle yet? They should sell maps or something.” Emma abruptly switched topics, unsure of what else to say and her brain had a habit of jumping from topic to topic depending on how she was feeling.
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