Sunday Funday

Daphne - #244b5e
Dave - #cd0a2f

It was November the 13th, better known as a Sunday, and that meant that Matthew and I hung out yesterday which meant that today was my day to spend by myself. See, we had a bit of a schedule for hanging out on the weekends, on one weekend we’d hang out on a Saturday and on Sunday we’d be able to do whatever we wanted which was to practice spells in the dueling room in my case, and on the next weekend, we’d do whatever we wanted on Saturday and hang out on Sunday. Well it just so happened that the 13th of November was one of the Sunday’s when I could do whatever I wanted, and as Daphne had accepted my invitation to go the dueling room today so that I could showcase some of the spells I’ve been practicing, I picked her up at breakfast and led the way to the dueling room. “This is my first time in the Duelling Room, you must practice here often, hmm? I saw it on the way to the ballroom last month.” Daphne said as we entered the room. “I want to see everything you know!” Daphne said as I looked back at her. “I promise I won’t tell any of your rivals about it. I don’t have the heart to be a duellist but I sure do love watching. At the next match, I promise to be there! I want to see you in action, you are like, Hufflepuff’sgreatest protector in a way!” She giggled and gestured to the dummies I had grown to love during my time here. “What do you plan on being when you’re older? Perhaps an Auror?”

“As a matter of fact, I do practice here, and I practice here quite often. Usually once I’m finished with homework, not hanging out with Matthew, not eating during mealtime, or not spending my time doing something else like taking a walk on the grounds, breathing fire by the Great Lake, or reading a book.” “Woah woah, did you say breathing fire by the lake?” Daphne said, interrupting me. “We gotta do that some time! We can be dragon buddies, just show me how you do it later!” “Oh, I’d be more then happy to. Now back to what I was saying, when you don’t include any of the previously mentioned factors, my practice time here comes up to be about a quarter of my time even though last year, it was closer to half. Then again, last year I didn’t have my brother and I didn’t enjoy morning walks as much as I do now. And yeah, I’ve looked into being an auror. It sounds exactly like something adult me would excel at being. And it sounds fun, just like dueling except more dangerous and you can’t bother to waste any time because that time could be the difference between life and death, or worse, having one or more of your limbs painfully missing. And what about you? Something to do with Magical Creatures perhaps? Or perhaps you’d like to be a healer? And I am by no means Hufflepuff’s greatest protector, that title would have to go to Cedric Diggory I think, even though he wasn’t so much of a protector as he was a champion. But even then, he’ll always be in our hearts.”

I then realized that Daphne’s dorm wasn’t Diggory Diggs so I quickly added “Sorry, it’s just that my dorm is centered around him so I’ve heard quite a few stories about him, stories the majority of the Hogwarts population probably didn’t hear about since he died in June of nineteen ninety five, about twenty seven years ago.” “I've heard of Cedric Diggory!” Daphne said, bringing a look of suis prise on my face. “I have to agree that he represents all of Hufflepuff in a way, he truly had a heart of gold. Everyone may talk about Harry Potter being brave and all, but Cedric will always be our hero.” “Yeah, he and Harry will always be our heroes. And I really don’t mind if duelists from other houses see me practicing here because it’s not like it shows them what my strategy is during the duel itself. Unless of course, they see how powerful my spells are and decide to target me to knock me out first. It happened in all three of my duels so far, although that could’ve been because I look like get knocked out easily, or because I look like I’m slow and can’t dodge very well. Honestly, it was probably one of the latter ones for all three, but who knows?”

By this point, Daphne had sat down at one of the stands. She was wearing a beautiful turquoise dress that had some kind of golden figures on it and her dyed blonde hair stretched a long way down her back. ‘Damn, she is gorgeous.’ I thought to myself as I looked away at the dummies so that Daphne wouldn’t notice that I was staring. I was standing down below wearing black slacks and a white shirt, as well as a black tie that I almost never wore, especially during school time when I’d wear my Hufflepuff tie. “You sure do sound like you have a fun life, David.” Daphne said as I looked back at her. “I really am glad that we met when you weren’t busy! And I’ve heard of some second year spells which I’d like to see! Like the disarming charm or perhaps Incendio? Wait are these dummies fireproof? What about the blindfolding charm?” She giggled and gestured to the dummies I had grown to love during my time here. I got my wand out and walked around although I wasn’t going to use it just yet. “Well, they’re fireproof in the sense that they don’t burn up, but being made of metal they do heat up to very hot temperatures. And I promise you’ll see both the disarming charm and the blindfolding charm. But before I show you those, I’d like to show the basics.”

“Mhmm.” Daphne said once I finished. “I’m going to be a magizoologist, why be restricted to dragons when I can research all magical creatures? I’d heal them too! Perhaps we could work together in a way, no? You could be an Auror who only fights against wizards who seek to harm animals. Lots of people try to illegally trade dragon eggs through the black market and unicorns and stuff I’ve heard.” I thought for a bit before saying “That’s a pretty nice dream and while I’m sure we’ll be able to work together at some point, I’d much rather fight every kind of dark wizard, not just those who seek to harm animals. And really, the more powerful the dark wizard is the better because if it ever comes down to dueling them, then that’s going to be one heck of a battle.”

I then turned towards the dummies before raising my wand at one of the dummies as if I was about to cast a spell, and said “And now, the actual spells themselves. Starting off with a basic spell, Verdimillious!” A jet of green sparks flew out of my wand and hit the dummie I was pointing at square in the chest, if you could call it that. “Now normally, this would cause one a temporary loss of vision as I found out from having this spell backfire on me, something I’m quite used to since my spells backfire on me quite a few times every time I practice, mainly because I practice for a few hours at a time if it’s the weekend and up to maybe ten minutes before curfew if it’s a normal day. Now onto the more advanced spells: Bullarum Immortalem!” A bunch of bubbles appeared around the dummy and if it was a live person, then it’d have a hard time dodging my next spell. I aimed my wand at the bubbles before saying “And now for the counter charm, or jinx if you want to call it by it’s proper name, Flipendo!” I moved my hand in the familiar checkmark with a hook and a blur of blue energy flew out of the tip of my wand before hitting my the bubbles I had cast earlier, making them disappear.

“Now a Flipendo isn’t just useful for getting rid of bubbles, it’s also the most powerful spell I know in terms of damage, especially if it’s one of those rare ones that knock you down so bad, it’s almost a Petrificus Totalus of it’s own, except you don’t need to be very strong to stand up. Flipendo!” Another blur of energy shot out of my wand and and hit the dummy sending it flying in the air before it landed on the ground. “Wingardium Leviosa.” I said as I pointed my wand at the fallen dummy, and once my spell hit, I levitated it back into it’s original position. “And now, one of the better spells although I personally feel like it damages one less then Flipendo, despite the fact that it hurts more. Incendio!” Out of my wand shot a jet of sparks which hit the dummy, setting it aflame. “And now for the counter charm, Extinguo.” The fire on the dummy went out moments later, and I pointed my wand down at the ground in front of me before saying “And then there’s also the softening charm, Spongify.” A purple light shot out of my wand and hit the ground below me, and so I turned around and fell as if I was doing the trust fall with somebody. As I softly landed on the ground, I said “And that's almost all the dueling spells I know whose effects you can see with the dummy. There’s two more but I’d rather save those for later. ” I began to stand up, and then I heard Daphne clapping from the stands. “Amazing.” She said. “Yeah, thanks. And the other spells, Rictusempra, Steleus, and Mucus ad Nauseam you can't really see the effects of if you use it on one of the dummies. And then, there is of course, Tarantallegra which you attempted to use on my quill the other day, but you know how it works so I don’t think I should cast it. Anyways, would you like to come down for some practice? I’m not going to cast any spells in you, it’s just that it’s boring to watch me cast the same spells over an over again at some dummy and I don’t want you to be bored. The only part that isn’t boring, is the part when I’m hit by a backfired spell, preferably a Flipendo. It hurts, but it is funny.”
Mentioning @Daphne Sapphirus.

Mentioning : @David Howard Interacting with : David Howard Word Count : 435

November 13th, 2022 : Date 10am : Time Casual Dress : Outfit

Daphne - #244b5e
Dave - #cd0a2f

Daphne thought about my offer for a moment, and once she reached her decision, she hesitantly got out her wand and stepped down from the stands. She walked over to me before placing her hand on my shoulder and looking up at me. “Seeing you in pain wouldn’t be funny to me, David. Unless you… want me to find it funny. Err…” Well, this was awkward. “Um… I can try a few spells on the dummy if that's what you’d like but I don't know much.” Daphne stared off into the distance once she finished her sentence, but before I could do anything, she suddenly got a bright idea. “Oh! I want to show you what I learned in martial arts.” “You know the martial arts!?” I asked in surprise.

“I mean, wow, I wish I knew the martial arts. If you ever get the chance to speak to my brother Matthew, then you should definitely bring up the fact that you know the martial arts. He likes talking about them and he actually knows a bit of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu himself. Now the reason why you say that seeing me in pain wouldn’t be funny to you is because you haven’t seen a Flipendo backfire on me. But then again, maybe you actually wouldn’t find it funny. I’m just going off of the fact that when Matthew George and Landen saw a Flipendo backfire on me on one fine Saturday morning, it looked like all three of them were hit by a Rictusempra. I mean, they told me once we finished laughing that they felt a bit guilty laughing about it, but that they couldn’t help it. And really, I don’t blame them. Anyways, you were saying how you wanted to show me what you learned in martial arts, right? Well, as long as you don’t cause me any lasting damage, I’m down for being used as a dummy for you to showcase your skills on. And after that, I’ll show you the the two spells I wanted to save for later.”

As I was speaking, I put my wand away and took a step back from Daphne so that she could do whatever she wanted, whether that be kicking me in the face, which she definitely wouldn’t be doing in the kind of dress she was wearing, tackling me to the ground, something Matthew had done to me countless of times, or just punching me really hard, something Matthew had only done once. But before she could do any of that, I asked “By the way, which martial arts do you know?”
Mentioning @Daphne Sapphirus.