 astronomizzle ♧ gryffinDORK | & the rest is drag ♣ #badluckDerf
At the very last moment, instinct jolted Iris into action. Her breath hitched as she yanked her wand up, fingers tightening around the familiar grip. No time to think—just react.
"Impedimenta!"
The spell shot from her wand in a raw, unfocused burst of magic, wild with urgency rather than careful intent - too forceful and too chaotic. It struck the charging pumpkin head-on, but instead of smoothly halting its momentum... it was blasted backward with alarming force, the impact cracking through the air like a misfired hex. Which, well, it kind of essentially was seeing as the gourd was hurled several feet back down the track, spinning wildly before a jagged chunk of its side was blown clean off, bits of orange flesh and seeds splattering onto the ground.
For half a second, Iris simply stared.
Eyes wide.
Mouth agape.
Straightening and remembering to breathe, she forced herself to refocus...though not until she chastised herself a bit. Sloppy execution, driven entirely by last-minute desperation - no control, no finesse. If she had hesitated even a second longer, she would have had a grinning, sinister-looking jack-o'-lantern sitting smugly behind her as a marker of failure. But it wasn't near failure that had her muscles feeling so tense at the moment. A sharp prickle of realization crept up her spine. She had been thinking too much ....as usual ... her mind wandering into theoretical applications, breaking down the spell’s mechanics rather than focusing on its execution, speculation on bind runes and pushing the limits of spellwork and laws of magic. Worse still, there had been a flicker of thought, a moment of instinctive panic, that had veered toward annihilating the pumpkin with Bombarda rather than tastefully stopping it with Impedimenta. The result? A spell fueled more by force than control. Sloppy like something Nyle might accomplish on a good day.
Well. At least, technically speaking, she had stopped the pumpkin.
Shaking off her lingering surprise, the petite Ravenclaw adjusted her grip on her wand, pushed up her glasses, and inhaled deeply. The next pumpkin would be coming soon and she had absolutely no intention of repeating the same mistake. This time, she would focus. This time, she would cast with precision.
…and hopefully, not accidentally explode her pumpkin again.
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When you're stuck in a moment and your spark has been stolen .................................................. ...........
this is our time to own it, so own it.....................................
baby we were born with fire and gold in our eyes |