Combat Training 2026 Official Thread

Made by Ophelia Vanderbilt

Date: August 4, 2026
Location: Campgrounds
Department: Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures
Group: Custodes Bestiarum (Keeper of the Beasts)
Word Count: 616

Coming from their cabin, Zephyr went to the area where combat training was being held. Once he received the summer camp schedule, he couldn't wait to get started. He expected the activity would be something related to wands, maybe even some practice for a few defensive spells or some sort of dueling. What he found instead was an entire open field set up for running, physical exercises, potions, and even fencing. Was it unusual for him to see those kinds of activities? For someone who grew up in the muggle world, not really. If truth be told, it was one of the activities he would be looking forward to the most. Physical activity? Oh, bring it on.

A grin appeared on his lips as soon as he arrived. There were several students already present doing some warm up exercises while the others were probably just exploring the place. For his part, he took a moment to observe the area, the running track, and the tents. This is more of his sort of thing. As much as he enjoyed magic, there were days when he needed a break from constantly thinking about spells and magic or anything else that came with being a wizard. Physical activities gave him something different to focus on, it's more satisfying this way than relying too much on magic to do everything for him. Growing up around the farm had a lot to do with that perspective.

Aelwyd Vale, their family farm was not really the sort of place he could spend the entire day just sitting around. There were plenty of other jobs that required him to be on his feet. And even if there were no assigned tasks to him, you would see him running, climbing, hiking, swimming, and anything that gave him a reason to move. While at Hogwarts, flying was obviously another favorite of his. But before any physical activities, warm up first. It didn't matter how excited he was to get on a broom or how convinced he was that he could just jump straight into whatever activity he wanted to do. Cold muscles were a stupid way to get injured, and his dad made sure he knew how much trouble an injury could cause around a farm.

Before going for a run, he started stretching. He rolled his shoulders first, then his neck and arms, and finally his legs. He cracked his knuckles and took deep breaths. “Alrighty.” Jogging was first on his list, but he had no idea how long the running portion would last or what pace they would be expected to maintain. Better to save his energy than burn himself in the first few minutes. He was also interested in trying fencing later. He would not pass an opportunity to learn that! The moving targets was interesting to him too, spells or brute force were not going to get anyone very far, he would have to think about his timing and accuracy. Hmm...tricky part.

There's also the medical tent which was expected, considering how physical the activities were going to be. Magic could fix a lot of things, but knowing how to deal with an injury without using a wand was not a bad skill to have. He bounced on his feet once he had finished stretching, feeling more awake now. He put his attention to the running track first. “Might as well start.” He came here to try different things and he was excited for all the activities. If combat training was supposed to teach them how to handle themselves when magic was not enough, then he was more than happy to find out exactly what he could do without his wand.

Abilities: Calming Presence | The Muggle Condition
Stats: Sta: 7 | Eva: 8 | Str: 7 | Wis: 5 | Arc: 8 | Accu: 5
Action: Warming up / Stretching first
OOC Notes: Open to any interactions

Date: August 4^th
Location: Campgrounds
Department: Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures
Group: Custodes Bestiarum (Keeper of the Beasts)
Word count: 270

After a quick walk from the cabin, Thomas found himself in the area where the combat event in their schedule was meant to be heal. Now, Thomas wasn’t one to fight, at least not if he had the choice. Still, he had decided he’d give it a try and so here he was. He was pleasantly surprised when he saw that this wasn’t a duelling event, instead there were multiple activities; something he felt like he could have known earlier if he had bothered to ask.

Out of all the options available to him, he felt drawn towards the small bearing tent. Inside, he could see first aid kits, a small selection of potions, most of which he recognised thanks to a lot of time spent watching his mother brewing. He could also see strange humanoid shapes laying down. Hopefully these are just training dummies and not actually injured students. Though I guess this is Hogwarts, and the infirmary is more often than not filled with students, so it could be possible. Hopefully it’s not though.

Making his way inside the tent, his worries quickly vanished as he saw that the human shapes were nothing but slightly creepy training dummies. Slightly creepy because they were seemingly enchanted to mimic light injuries. Shallow cuts, light bruises that sort of thing. Having sufficiently looked around, Thomas took place at one of the stations, and looked at the dummy in front of him before asking out loud: “Now, what am I going to call you? Hmm… you look like... a Doug?” He pondered it a bit longer, before deciding “Yup, Doug it is!”

Abilities: Prodigal Charms | Calming Presence
Stats: Sta 6 | Eva 7 | Str 5 | Wis 10 | Arc 6 | Acc 6
Action: Looking around/ Naming the dummy
OOC notes: Open to interactions