Hex The Sneezing Hex, First Year

Rereading the notes that Thomas had hastily scrawled down as the professor cast the spell, he furrowed his brows and scrunched up his nose. This was among the first spells the boy was learning at Hogwarts after all, and his confidence with spell casting as a concept was still rather shaky. He was sure to cautiously document as many details as he could: precise wand movements (with arrows on a drawing nonetheless), underlining the stressed syllable, and other important information for the spell's casting. He was more nervous than he'd ever care to admit, not actually because of the potential dangers of the spell, but due to his apprehension of failing in front of an audience and his partner.

Cautiously, Tommy approached a fellow first-year who seemed fairly quiet, and hopefully not mean-spirited enough to comment on his potential mistakes, and the two partnered up. Surrounded by peers who were excitedly attempting (and often succeeding) in its usage, the young wizard forcibly steeled his resolve and took a few deep breaths. It was all he could do to keep himself focused on the spell at hand, as his mind was preoccupied with thoughts of failure.

Once his breathing was steady and his pulse was regular, Thomas picked up his wand and referred to his notes. Steleus—the Sneezing Hex—had multiple applications, particularly in dueling. When overcome with a fit of sneezing, it'd be nearly impossible for someone to properly articulate a spell, much less aim their wand and fire with the sudden movement sneezing caused. It'd be an immensely useful spell to add to his repertoire, and as an aspiring duelist, the youth wanted to be well prepared.

Taking one more deep breath, Thomas surveyed his partner one more time, trying to non-verbally signal to prepare for his cast. A few beats later, he thrust his wand down and outward, blurting out a hesitant, "S-STÉ-lee-as!" His incorrect pronunciation and hesitation earned him absolutely no hex whatsoever, displeasing the boy immensely. A perfectionist by trade, and easily embarrassed, he quickly surveyed his surroundings to make sure no one saw his mistake aside from his partner, who gave him a good-natured, patient smile. Thankfully, the wizards around him were too immersed in their own attempts at the spell, completely oblivious to his blunder. The flush of red that colored his cheek faded as he regulated his breathing again. Thomas paused to recheck his notes, noting his mistake in pronunciation, and he cast again, this time with far more bravado.

"STÉ-lee-us!" The exclamation paired with the appropriate wand motion, down and out, ended up yielding the sought after result. His partner began having a nigh-uncontrollable sneezing fit, and the boy nearly dropped his wand in shock concerning his success. Stupefied, and unbelievably giddy, Tommy could barely contain the smile that broke out on his face! Pride welled up in the young wizard's chest; progress was being made! Still, he caught himself before he could be too excited, and his smile faded into one of less enthusiasm. It was an expression of (what he hoped was) cool confidence as if the boy expected nothing other than his success.

Once his partner finished sneezing, he offered them a tissue. "I guess it's, uh, your turn now."

Professor Edit: Turning to the next pair, Zahid watched as the first of the two attempted to cast the hex. As the boy's failure seemed more due to insecurity or nervousness than anything else, he waited for a second attempt before interfering.

Observing had been the right decision as the boy had indeed needed no help with the incantation and was successful on his second attempt. After the second partner had taken his turn he nodded to both of them. "Well done, you two."

Steleus learned

Serena walked into the classroom, ready for today’s lesson. She was about to go to her usual desk, but something was different. She quickly realized that all of the desks and chairs were pushed to the side of the room. The first-year looked around for a place to put her shoulder bag, unsure where to put it. At least until Professor Zahid spoke up, instructing them to put their bags over by the desks.

Serena quickly walked over to the nearest desk and placed her bag on top of it. She briefly opened her pack to take out her wand. The badger debated taking out some parchment and a quill but quickly shot down the idea. It would be challenging to write while standing in the center of the room; it would be best to memorize this lesson.

Closing her bag, she walked back to the center of the room, fiddling with her sweater as she waited for the lesson to begin. Luckily, Serena didn’t have to wait long. As the History of Magic professor began speaking about the hex they were learning today, the first-year did her best to commit the details to memory. Both the incantation and wand movement didn’t seem too difficult.

Serena followed the professor’s advice and practiced the incantation a few times. “STÉ-lee-us…STÉ-lee-us…” After feeling satisfied with her pronunciation, she moved on to working on the wand movement. She moved her chestnut wood wand down and out a couple of times.

Alright, Serena was ready to try actually casting the spell. She turned to the student nearest to her. “Do you want to partner up?” The badger asked.

The other student nodded, and the two turned and faced each other. Serena raised her wand and aimed it at her target. She quickly moved it down and out towards the student and shouted out “STÉ-lee-us!”

Her partner immediately started sneezing up a storm. Serena tried to not giggle at their plight, but it was kind of funny to see someone uncontrollably sneezing. She then waited for the hex to wear off and for her partner to cast it on her.

Professor Edit: Sending a Gryffindor to grab his partner some tissues, Zahid walked over to the next pair just as the Hufflepuff successfully cast the hex on her partner. "Well done, Miss Bowen."

Steleus learned

He'd almost been late to class after falling asleep during a study period. Just barely slipping into the class, ready to throw himself into a seat only to find the desks and chairs stacked and for a moment he'd wondered if he'd just gone into the wrong classroom only for the doubt to instantly clear up as Professor Zahid walked through the door. Turning into the realization that for once in his life he'd actually shown up before the teacher.

An amazing feeling that felt all sorts of wrong for someone like him.

Still, shrugging it off seeing as how he wouldn't have to deal with a certain Hufflepuff getting irritated at him, he dropped his bag against one of desks alongside his classmates whilst he lazily listened to the mans words. Easily taking a hard pass over the volunteer territory and frowned a bit once the man excused them to practice with a partner.

He couldn't say he was looking forward to having this spell practiced on him all that much, but at least it wasn't anything like that gross slug spell he'd seen being cast around the school. So with that in mind he wasted zero time in nabbing a partner. Better to get it over and done with in his opinion. Turning around as the group dispersed he locked on of his Slytherin classmates, the boy in question standing slightly to the side and looking around as if unsure on who to ask and he pounced.

Simply steeping up to the boy and giving him a small smile he asked, "partners?"

The smile turned more real when the other gave his own nod, smiling shyly with a "sure, would you..go first?"

Shrugging Elsian eyed his own wand, twisting it in his left hand before switching to his right as he looked back up. "I don't mind, you sure though?"

His partner merely shrugged giving a lopsided grin and well who was Elsian to push? If anything the other probably wanted another example or time to mull over the teachs words. So, with that decided he walked over to one of the tissue boxes, letting the other grab some as Elsian himself mouthed the incantation, trying to get the pronunciation right before actually trying to do any magic.

"Steleus…" he mouthed, "STE-le-us...no no..." he frowned pushing out the sounds of other students before he tried again. "STÉ-lee-us," he said flicking his free hand in a quick downward motion towards the empty space beside his partner in practice.

That time sounded right.

Giving the other a nod to warn him that he was ready he brought his wand up with a hum, forcing himself to think on the movement the Professor had shown them. Downward and quickly, and probably equally important, towards the target. Feeling ready enough he focused back on his partner, bringing his wand swiftly downwards and towards the other with a firm "Steleus." keeping the pronunciation of STÉ-lee-us in mind as he did so.

For a moment nothing happened and Elsian wondered if he'd done it wrong, but then the other froze before quickly bringing up a tissue to sneeze into. Again, and again...and again. Elsian his part gave the other a simple sorry behind a hand, hiding his smile as the hex seemed to slow down and the other gave him a playful glare.

He moved to grab some tissue himself just in case as the other straightened, figuring his partner was probably ready to try himself.

Professor Edit: Walking over to the next Gryffindor-Slytherin pair, he kept an eye on the first partner's attempt on casting the spell. For a short moment there it seemed like the boy had failed but then the other boy broke out into sneezes. "Well done, Mr. Cox."

Steleus learned

Percival took a second to look at his horribly written notes. He had never been one to spend an exuberant amount of time on his notes. The handwriting of his notes was messy and only included the basic information of the spell. "STÉ-lee-us." "STÉ-lee-us!" he mumbled to himself trying to get the pronunciation right.

This particular spell they were learning had piqued Percival's interest. They were actually learning a hex, specifically, the Sneezing Hex. While the spell did carry some dangers, it did not deter his excitement.

The Professor had talked about the different applications that the Sneezing Hex could be used for. Mainly dueling, which made sense seeing how it would be difficult to duel while sneezing. He had a hunch that trying to aim a spell while sneezing would be hard.

Percival looked about the classroom to see who he should partner with. His gaze fell on a Gryffindor boy who looked almost as excited as he was. Percival stood up and walked over to the other boy. He had fiery red hair, and Percival was half tempted to make a joke about it. Though his parents would probably disprove of him doing so. Percival could hear them now talking about how he has to act like a proper Pureblood.

The boy shook himself from his thoughts just as he got to the boy. "Hey want to be partners?" he asked with his most polite grin. After the boy had agreed, the two stood across from one another. Percival drew his wand from his pocket and held it in his right hand. He couldn't actually believe that he was going to hex a fellow student. Different emotions ran threw him, some guilty, and some excited.

Though in the end, he took a deep breath to clear his mind. To properly execute the spell he needed to focus on the spell. Not these trivial things called a conscious. Percival brought his wand down and the outward. "Steleus!" he called out loudly and clearly using the pronunciation STÉ-lee-us.

Percival felt a grin cross his face as the other boy began to sneeze uncontrollably. A small snicker fell from his mouth as the other could barely even stand. Though it hit him that he would soon be on the receiving end of the hex.

"Ready?" he asked his partner as the other's sneezes slowed to a halt.

Professor Edit: The next pair was also a Gryffindor-Slytherin one. It seemed to be a popular combination, something he had not expected given what little he had heard about the history of the houses and their rivalries.

Zahid observed as both partners took their turns in hexing each other - to moderate success, especially on the redhead's part. Well, that's what practice was for. "Well done, you two."

Steleus learned

History of Magic was surprisingly not Hanako’s worst subject, as a lot would think. With his amazingly slow memory and hesitance to be interested in anything into anything other than plants and snakes, he was surprised himself. History here is just like the other History back in the muggle community. A story. And he liked stories. Despite how awfully dull they could be.

No subject to beat his hate towards transfiguration. Even thinking about the classes made his head numb.

Despite his mutual relationship towards History of Magic, he was pleasantly surprised to be revealed that the class will be learning something more practical today. A sneezing hex! He could feel the impish grin on his innocently adorable face at the thought of this playfully technically harmless hex.

“ STÉ-lee-us , STÉ-lee-us… STÉ-lee-us?” He muttered under his breath repeatedly like a mad man as his wand twirled between his fingers. He continued his string of STÉ-lee-us’s until he decided to practice the wand moment. Even if his incantation wasn’t loud, better safe than sorry.

A quick downwards. Outwards towards a target, to this he imagined each of his enemies. Repeat.

Unable to constrain his excitement, he sprung from his table and rushed towards the two tables where nicely placed tissue boxes sat. Taking 4 tissue pieces, he scanned the room for a victim student without a partner.

His eyes landed on a girl that just stood up, possibly on her way to the tissues, or to find a new partner. But before she could, Hanako whistled, trying to get her attention. Once her eyes were fixed on him, he made a bunch of odd hand gestures and pointing.

His attempt to tell her ‘ Don’t grab tissues. Let’s be partners ‘ seemed to be understood as she made her way towards him. He ignored the odd looks he received from several other classmates and gave his partner a thumbs up.

He had no idea who this lady was. And he was not determined to know. He gave his partner half of the tissues and patted her on the shoulder. “ I make you sneeze first, ya~?” Before she could protest, he lightly pushed her shoulders to the other direction, indicating this was none-negotiable.

Once he received a firm nod from his quiet partner, he swiped his wand downwards and outwards towards his partner. “ STEI-lee-us”.

Nothing. No sneezing. Disappointment.

“ Uh… one second “. Embarrassed, he turned away from his partner and racked in brain to remember what he was doing wrong. Incantation? Perhaps. He turned back to his partner with a carefree grin. “ Let’s forget about that, partner~”

Once again, he swiped his wand downwards and outwards towards his partner. “ STÉ-lee-us “

The focused look he had on his face quickly morphed to a curious one. Did it work?

w/c : 472

Professor Edit: After the Slytherin boys failed first attempt, the kid's face was the picture of disappointment. Zahid was about to tell the boy that it was not the end of the world as he seemed ready to give up when the boy rallied himself and gave it a second try, this time successfully. "Well done, Mr. Tone."

Steleus learned

Willow was always excited to learn a new spell, although through her first year there had been so many to learn that it got a bit overwhelming with the amount that she was expected to remember. Although, the adult wizards seemed to handle it just fine. So she hoped that overtime it would become second nature. As per instruction she set her bag down on the perimeter and watched the demonstration. A sneezing hex? Apparently it was good for dueling, which was not something that Willow was looking forward to doing someday. It actually scared her a bit. This seemed pretty harmless though, just her kind of spell.

Quickly she found a fellow Hufflepuff and bounced over to them, "Hiya! Do you want to be partners for this?" After they agreed, Willow suggested them practicing the incantation together first. "STE-lee-us. I honestly wouldn't match that spell to this effect but..." She shrugged, "Guess it works! STE-lee-us, STE-lee-us." She kept repeating it, bouncing back and forth with her partner to the rhythm of the syllables, ending up in a fit of giggles. They then began going back and forth with the wand motion, Willow's eyebrows creasing in concentration to steady her hand and get the movement precise.

"I'm ready to try if you are! I can go first if you'd like!" When the other girl agreed, Willow took a couple steps back and took a couple deep breaths. "Steleus!" Willow practically shouted it with confidence, moving her wand downwards and towards the other girl. A couple sniffs later, her partner erupted into sneezes. "Wait! Wait! I'll grab you some tissues." What was she asking them to wait for? It's not like she'd be able to stop sneezing. Quickly Willow made her way to grab a few tissues, stuffing a few in her pockets for her turn to be hexed and returned to her partner who was already recovering. "I know we had to, but I'm still sorry for doing this!" She offered the girl a few tissues, waiting for her to attempt the spell on Willow.

Word Count || 344

Professor Edit: The next group whose attempts he observed consisted of two Hufflepuff girls. They both seemed quite eager to take their turns testing out a new spell. But where the first one succeeded on her first try, the other girl needed a second attempt as she had aimed over her partner's shoulder the first time around. Still, "Well done, you two. Give yourself a little more time to aim properly though, this is a practice lesson, not a duel.", he added with an encouraging smile to the second girl.

Steleus learned

Elspeth was... well excited might not be the exact right word, but she was at least looking forward to adding another spell to her arsenal. Knowing how to make someone else sneeze seemed an oddly specific charm to know, a bit of a risky one given all of the muggle illnesses floating about in snot, but a spell was a spell and Elspeth wasn't about to turn her nose up at the chance to practice more magic. It was also interesting getting to learn practical technique from Professor Zahid, given that she'd spent most of her time in his class trying not to drift off in the warm sunlight that poured through the windows. Now might be her chance to prove that she wasn't a completely terrible student.

The classroom felt more open in this new setup. She'd never realized just how much space was in the History of Magic room until everything was pushed to the side. The first years all gathered together, waiting for the lesson to begin. It was hard to believe that it was already the end of her first year at Hogwarts. Everything had gone by so quickly, it felt like a bit of a blur to her. What had once been a room of mostly quiet, nervous new students was now a bustling throng of chatter and whispers between friends about summer plans. She smiled slightly. It was nice to feel like all the growth that had been promised to them, but had felt impossible at the beginning of the year, really had happened just under their noses.

Professor Zahid was beginning the lesson with a demonstration now. Elspeth was always amazed that students would volunteer as victims to these spell demonstrations. Having to sneeze a bit didn't seem like the worst, but she had yet to be at the point end of a wand and the experience seemed a bit too anxiety inducing for her to raise a hand to volunteer at this point. Vang's sneezes wore off quickly enough, though. Which was good. She always worried that the professors might make a mistake and accidentally send a student to the hospital wing. But they were practiced enough that they knew what they were doing. As much as the growth from the last year seemed evident now, it was clear that she still hadn't developed the trust she needed to really thrive yet.

Downward quickly, outward toward target. Downward quickly. Outward toward target. Downward- Elspeth repeated the wand motion in her head a few times. She wasn't sure if this was something that anyone else had to do, but with so many spells and incantations and wand movements to memorize, she always felt like she had to just pause and repeat things a bunch of times for anything to really stick in her memory. The last thing she wanted to do today was be responsible for accidentally swish and flicking on the sneezing hex and setting someone's nostril hairs on fire. She'd probably lose points for that...

Professor Zahid dismissed students to begin working on the spell. Elspeth found a spot by the wall to practice by herself for a bit before she'd aim her wand at someone else. Some of the other students were jumping right in to casting, which she always found so cavalier and confident of them. Her spells never seemed to work right on the first go, so she'd always appreciated Zahid reminding students to practice before casting. It made her feel like less of a dolt when she saw other students doing it as well.

"Steh-lee-us. Steh. Lee. Us. Stehleeus. StehLEEus. StehleeUS." The stress was supposed to go on the first syllable when she actually cast it, but practicing stressing all the syllables helped her memorize how to pronounce each. Sometimes this came back to bite her in the butt when casting, though, and she'd get the stress pattern mixed up. "STEH-lee-us. STEH-lee-us. STEH-lee-us. STEH. LEE. US," she whisper shouted by herself into the pillar by the window. The more she said a word, the sillier it sounded to her. Spells, doubly so.

Okay, wand practice. She pulled her wand out and gave it a few swishes, limbering up her wrist. A few twirls and loops and slashes helped her get into her body more, able to focus on the precise movements she was making and needed to make. Okay... what was the movement again? She'd already forgotten, even after repeating it in her head a number of times. Turning her head, she peeked at some of the other students who had moved on to casting. Downward quickly, outward toward target. Okay. There was a small pebble sitting on the window sill that she decided she would pretend to make sneeze, at least for the wand movement practice. Downward quickly was easy enough, at least as long as she didn't let herself get too loosey goosey and slash her wand downward all the way toward the floor. Downward quickly but stop before too far down. She tried to get the movement precise and then repeated it, over and over again, until it felt mechanical to her. Learning spells was at least equal parts focus as it was developing muscle memory. And then, outward toward the target. Which means, when she cast, she needed to start slightly to the left of where she wanted to target. Quickly down, then outward toward target. As with moving her wand down, the more excited she got the less accurate she was in her aim, sometimes missing the pebble by a bit as she whipped her wand to the side. She had to take some deep breaths to calm herself down (although, seeing Professor Zahid walking around and talking to students made that a bit tricky).

Eventually, it was time to cast. As much as she wanted to put it off, it didn't seem like she could for much longer. Besides, this was wizarding school. The whole point was for her to practice spells. And, at worst, this one wasn't going to blow anyone up. The room was filled with the cacophony of students casting at one another, and even though some were messing up, no one was dying. It was going to be fine.

Elspeth looked around and found a Hufflepuff student she'd never really talked to before also looking around for a partner. They nodded toward each other, before shuffling across the room to meet closer to the middle. Elspeth readied her wand. "Do you, do you mind if I go first?" The Hufflepuff nodded at her to go ahead.

She took a big breath out. Okay. Time to focus. She flicked her wand down and out toward the puff while saying, "steh-LEE-us" before almost instantly clapping her hand over her mouth in fear. Thankfully, nothing had happened. One could never tell if a spell was going to backfire or do nothing at all when cast improperly. It looked like she'd gotten a bit lucky. The Hufflepuff wiped some sweat from his brow. Elspeth shook her head. Come on. You've got this. She got into position again and whispered "STEH-lee-us," under her breath. She had it.

Flicking her wand downward, then outward toward the Puff she said, at a regular volume this time, "STEH-lee-us." The Hufflepuff student doubled over with a giant sneeze before grabbing for at tissue as the nose tickling continued. It looked like she'd mostly succeeded! She wondered what Professor Zahid would think, though. He'd ultimately be the judge of whether she was ready or not.

Word Count: 1258

Professor Edit: It was always good to see when students noticed their own mistakes. One, it meant they were paying attention to what they were doing and two, noticing your own mistake and correcting it on your own – as the Ravenclaw in question did – was probably less frustrating than having someone else correct you, not that that should be much of a frustration either when it came to the occasional mistake. “Well done, Miss Gollens.”

Steleus learned

Jack had quite the dilemma.

Though he was normally used to studying, practicing, and learning spells outside of class, usually prior to the lesson in which it was taught, the particular spell they were supposed to learn that day was something he couldn't exactly do that with. It was supposed to be the Sneezing Hex, and though he had read about the hex itself thoroughly, he had not been able to practice it yet.

This was because he studied alone to keep it a secret that he actually took his academics very seriously. Unfortunately, one couldn't perform a hex on someone else if they intended to study alone, and if he tried to hex himself for practice, the chances were that he would be too busy sneezing to be able to speak the counter-spell. He wasn't sure how long it lasted, either, so he didn't want to take the chance of simply hoping it would wear off.

Thus, the Welsh redhead had come up with a plan. He reviewed everything he could about the hex beforehand. Reading about the pronunciation, speaking it aloud, memorizing that the color of the light it produced upon successful casting was green, noting that said light formed rings...he looked it over and committed it all to memory. Even as he set aside his bag as Professor Zahid had instructed, he was still reciting details in his head.

The Sneezing Hex causes the victim to continuously sneeze for a short period of time. Maybe later, if one of his fellow classmates would let him, he could time how long it lasted, exactly. It is used in dueling to distract one's opponent. Its incantation is 'steleus', pronounced STÉ-lee-us with the accent on the first syllable. The term is thought to be derived from the Latin root of 'sternuo', which translates in English to 'I sneeze'.

He got his wand out reminding himself that at least this would be the last charm to learn for the year in his precious History of Magic class. If he could manage this, he wouldn't have to worry about not being able to study history in History class until next year.

As a hex, the Sneezing Hex falls under the category of a Dark Charm. Hexes are the second-most powerful types of Dark Charms as they are worse than jinxes, but better than curses. He took a deep breath, trying not to panic. And I'm going to be fine. Because even if I have to hex myself in order to play the fool, it's not like Professor Zahid would let me sneeze my guts out. He's a teacher. He wouldn't let that happen to one of his students...right?

Jack shook his head. No. No! Gotta concentrate. Focus!

The idea was that if he performed the hex on himself, even if he got it right on his second try or so, he could still seem lackadaisical enough to appear incompetent in his studies and maintain his slacker reputation that he (ironically) worked so hard to keep up the entire year. He just had to make it seem like he hexed himself on accident rather than on purpose so that Professor Zahid would be able to cease his sneezing as soon as possible. It was the only way Jack could think to practice the hex without blowing his cover. Still...the idea of performing a hex on himself of any kind and needing to rely on someone else to cure him of it made him absurdly uncomfortable.

It's okay. Last charm of History Class this year, remember? You can do it. Deep breaths!

"Steleus," he said testing the incantation and a wave of his wand. As he'd hoped, it produced green rings of light, but they dissipated harmlessly against a desk. Without a living being to make sneeze, Jack couldn't really be sure he was successful. Still, that was a good test run...and it helped to play up the role he was attempting to pass himself off in. Especially if he wanted to be sure that no one would ask to pair up with him.

"What the - is this thing working right?"

Inwardly wincing at the show of his mock stupidity, he aimed his wand tip at himself and repeated the incantation.

"Steleus!"

There went the green rings of light - right along with his composure.

"...Ah...ah-CHOO! Ah-CHOO!" the boy sneezed, already beginning to regret his decision. If he could only hold out for a little longer... But where was Professor Zahid?

"...ah-CHOO! Prof - professor...? Ah-CHOO!" he called, doing his best to keep his germs from spreading as he covered his mouth and dove for the boxes of tissues that had been kept out.

"Um...Ah-CHOO!...a...a little...ah-CHOO! A little help, please?"

Reducio

Professor Edit: Did... Did that student just hex himself? Zahid had to admit, that was a new one. He quickly Finite-d the hex and made his way over to remind the boy of the wand movement.

“Mr. Burnett. Pointing your wand at yourself when trying to learn a new spell might not be the best idea. That is why you are supposed to partner with one of your classmates. And keep in mind, that the spell has a specific wand movement – downward and out toward your target.” He quickly demonstrated the wand movement for the student.

Steleus not learned

As you did not include the proper 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.

Graduated today, oops! Backdated to First Year.

The Sneezing Hex was not a spell which Pericles couldn't have anticipated learning in History class. To him, the unpredictability made the matter all the more exciting. He set his bag off to the side as directed, drawing his wand from a sleeve on the side of his satchel and falling into place with his peers. Although he did not step up when a volunteer was requested, he did not hesitate to locate a (NPC) partner and take to practicing. "Would you like to go first?" The offer was partially made out of politeness, part practicality. Experiencing the spell would help with his cast: if he knew what it felt like firsthand, he could better visualize the effects into fruition. Or, so he speculated. Before the spell struck, he pulled a kerchief out of his cloak pocket and offered an encouraging smile, giving a firm "Ready." It was a good and true cast: he was sent into a sneezing frenzy, face buried in cloth, shoulders heaving with hiss-like projections. It was disorienting, that long stretch of sneezing, and he could certainly see how it could be helpful in a due. Once it subsided, he managed to catch his breath and wheeze an amused "Well done! Ready...?" Though pronunciation (STÉ-lee-us) and movement were fairly simple for this spell, he still took several seconds to reflect on the effect, how long it had lasted and how he had felt. His nose was sore and mouth was dry, though the boy recovered quickly enough. With a swift downward point towards his target, he incanted: “Steleus."

WC: 262

Professor Edit: The Ravenclaw prefect sounded a bit raspy, probably a left-over from his sneezing, but his hex hit true nonetheless and sent his partner into a fit of sneezes. “Well done, Mr. Dralt.”

Steleus learned

Upon entering the class a bubble of excitement grew within Callie as she'd entirely forgotten they had the pleasure of learning another spell today. What was strange though was that the professor was apparently nowhere to be seen. The occurrence was rarther odd to Callie as the man was often there before her but the thought quickly slipped her mind when he walked into the classroom. The idea of learning a spell capable of making someone sneeze was an odd thing for Callie to think about but the desire to learn it was there regardless. While it came off as rather odd on the surface Callie knew that it would likely be handy if she found herself in any duels in the future. Besides the idea of making Thomas or Phel sneeze for a little while was funny to her.

When the time came for Callie to make her own attempt at the spell her usual nerves surrounding practising a spell with others resurfaced. By now the girl was more than capable but she couldn't quite let go of the belief that no matter how hard she tried she was somehow not good enough. After all she was a muggle-born! Doomed to play catch up with some of the others or at least in her mind anyway. "Steeeelus." She mumbled to herself. "This one seems a bit easier. Maybe. Sneelus. No thats not it." Callie complained to nobody in particular as she worked up the courage to find a partner. "STÉ-lee-us! That sounds right! Maybe.." Whilst she spoke to herself Callie repeatedly practised the wand movements until they became slightly familiar.

Before Callie could get even further worked up in her head a fellow Ravenclaw boy tapped her on the shoulder and offered to partner up with a soft smile. Naturally Callie obliged but she couldn't quite dispel her nerves, especially considering he wanted her to make the first attempt. Callie took a deep intake of breath in an attempt to calm herself down even if such an effort was largely in vain. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't quite get rid of the butterflies in her stomach. "Here goes nothing!" She exclaimed before holding up her wand. "STÉ-lee-us." Callie repeated whilst she quickly moved her wand downwards then outward towards the Ravenclaw boy. Afterwards Callie quickly looked up in anticipation to see if she had been any good at her first attempt.

Word Count: 405

Professor Edit: The next pair he checked on were two Ravenclaws. The young girl's wavered a bit, but her spellcasting was seemingly still on point. She would have to practice a bit more to get more confidence but her spell succeeded. “Well done, Miss Jensen.”

Steleus learned