Practice Makes Perfect
"Wrong!" Aldric snapped as he watched his Lucas attempt to draw the wand movement for Obscuro onto a piece of parchment. Lucas' father was far from a strict man typically, but when his 10 year old son had finally shown an interest in something vaguely academic, he'd made it his goal to teach his son everything he could.
"It isn't a circle, Lucas. You need to.. Watch again." Aldric raised his wand, almost lazily beginning to create a circle with his wand, before slashing diagonally down just before the circle would have been completed. "Obscuro." He muttered, before a blindfold appeared over the eyes of the practice dummy. Lucas couldn't help but be a little unimpressed as he watched the spell in motion, his young mind having wished for a little more.. Flashy and perhaps more explosive, those spells would be cool to learn, but his father would never even consider teaching him something remotely explosive.
"Draw that, Lucas. And remember, ob-SKOO-roh. Not ob-SKUR-O, or any other variation you could thing of. Remember SKOO-roh. The SKOO is emphasised." Lucas simply nodded his head, returning to tracing the motion on the paper, just as his father had demonstrated.
"Obscuroh.. I get it." Lucas mumbled, butchering the pronunciation which only gained him an exasperated sigh from his father.
These drawings had actually been what had played a huge role in Lucas being able to memorise wand movements, as he'd hang the most accurate drawing up on the wall and either with some stick or even just his finger, he'd spend hours tracing these drawings, which by the time he reached Hogwarts, he'd accumulated an impressive number of drawings on his wall.
Reducio 
When he had gotten to Hogwarts, he'd leapt on the first opportunity possible, and set about practicing. He'd returned to the DADA classroom fairly late, when he was certain it would be empty, and set about clearing out the centre of the room, making sure no desks or chairs were at risk of catching a stray spell. He wasn't entirely sure on the rules of what he was currently doing, but he didn't want to add any more risk of breaking unnecessary rules. Finally after having cleared out the space, he finally dragged one of the human shaped dolls into the centre of the room, and backed up around 10 steps away from it.
Lucas took a deep breathe, remembering all that his father had told him. ob-SKOO-roh. After all the practicing he'd done, surely this couldn't be hard? If it was hard, he'd be more embarrassed than anything considering how much he'd prepared.
All the time having spent tracing the wand movement payed off, as now that Lucas finally had a wand in his hand, the movement was almost second nature to him. He lazily launched the wand into an anti-clockwise circle, before finally adding the slash diagonally downwards. "Obscuro." He said calmly, only raising his tone slightly to emphasis the SKOO. Sure enough, just as Lucas had hoped, a blindfold appeared, pulled tightly around the eye level of the practice doll.
Lucas couldn't help but grin at his successes, but he wanted to ensure it wasn't just beginners luck, and quickly moved to remove the blindfold. This time, he'd be faster, fast enough to actually use it in a fight if need be. "Obscuro!" He repeated, his wand whirling around as quickly as he could while maintaining accuracy. Sure enough, once again, the blindfold appeared, having wrapped itself around the dolls face. Confident now that it wasn't some kind of beginners luck, Lucas cast his mind back, thinking of what other spells his father had taught him.
Practice Makes Perfect
"Lucas, pay attention. This spell is very important." Aldric began, having woken Lucas up much earlier than usual to teach him the disarming charm. "I trust you know of the disarming charm?" which Lucas responded to with a simple nod. The thought of learning this roused Lucas from his half-asleep like state, his attention completely focused on his father, except from a brief few moments as he reached for his quill and a piece of parchment.
"The wand movement is quite nice for this spell, just pay attention and make your little drawing." Aldric rose his wand up, before slashing it straight downwards, adding a small spiral back up once it had reached it's lowest point. "Did you get that, or do you want me to show you again?" Lucas shook his head, having had much more success in his drawing than he had with Obscure, but then again, it was a nicer motion.
"Expelliarmus, right?" Lucas asked, his pronunciation fairly accurate off the bat. Aldric reached for his own piece of parchment, writing down ex-PEL-lee-ar-muss "Is that not what I said?"
"It was close, but you said more ex-PELI, but it was a good effort. Anyway, watch." He turned to face a practice dummy, which held a small stick in it's hand. "Expelliarmus!" Aldric said, as his wand launched into the motion. There was a flash of scarlet light from the tip of his wand, and suddenly the stick was flying free of the dolls hand.
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After his successes with Obscuro, Lucas' confidence was at an all time high. He reached down into his bag, pulling out his trusty twig which he had found for this exact purpose. If he was practicing, he might as well go through it all at once. Lucas made his way over to the doll, placing the twig in it's hand, as if it was holding a wand, and tightened the dolls grip around it as much as he could.
He then returned back around to his spot, roughly 10 steps back away from the doll once again. ex-PEL-lee-ar-muss he recalled, remembering how his father had corrected his pronunciation mistakes. He had half a mind to see what would happen if he slightly misspoke, but it felt like an unneeded risk, and he'd rather not be stabbed in the eye by a flying stick, or something potentially worse.
"Expelliarmus!" He snapped, his tone far more aggressive than it had been with his earlier spells, as he slashed his wand down with aggression that mirrored his tone, adding a small spiral looking motion at the bottom. He wasn't sure why he'd done it so much more aggressively than earlier, but it had just kind of felt right with the manner of the spell. Sure enough, though, there was a bright flash of scarlet from his wand, and the twig flung itself out of the dolls grasp, but unfortunately, it flung towards him, hitting him square in the forehead. "Ow.." He groaned indignantly, rubbing his forehead. It was sure to leave a bruise, but he'd probably be able to come up with a better story than an accidental self sabotage.
Perhaps it was his needless aggression, or a lapse in concentration that had lead to this.. somewhat unpreferable outcome, but it was worth another shot. A wand would certainly hurt his head more than the twig had, it might even knock him out which would be an embarrassing end to a fight. After having replaced the twig in the dolls hand, he returned to his spot, taking a long deep breathe. Calm, Lucas. He thought to himself, ensuring he was fully concentrated on the task at hand, which was to simply disarm, not to fling the stick at himself or anything stupid like that.
"Expelliarmus." He said once more, enunciating much clearer and calmer than he had done previously. In a similar manner, his wand was much smoother in it's downwards motion, and the spiral at the end was cleaner, not the rushed mess it had been previously. The familiar scarlet colour flashed once more, and the twig flew cleanly out of the dolls hand. Lucas had began to duck instinctively, but it hadn't repeated it's earlier trajectory, and instead had fell onto the floor a few feet to the right of the doll.
Practice Makes Perfect
@Lucas Chapman
Your RP for 'Obscuro' and the 'Disarming Charm' for Prodigal DADA Learner have been accepted and you may now apply to add them to your trunk.
│ │ | │ │ | STA: 10 • EVA: 15 • STR: 5 WIS: 20 • ARC: 10 • ACC: 20 | │ │ | • Calming Presence • Perfectionist • Evasive Maneuvers I & II • • Nonverbal Magic • Wandless Magic • Occlumency • Legilimency • | │ │ | │ │ |