Ellie followed Gold up onto the stage. Took her a minute to get settled, but once she did, she was all ears.

Her mouth dropped open as Gold spoke, though. Glass was made from SAND?!?! Who knew...

'Re-ver-toe-skew-tum' she mouthed as Gold had said it. And her eyes shone bright when the pretty blue shield went up. Ooooh! Things were so much cooler learning them this time around. When her head wasn't throbbing and stuff. And all you had to do was point? Even better. Cuz remembering all the wand movements AND all the spells she'd learned this year, was going to be the death of her. Death by thinking. If that was at all possible.

"Right. Re-ver-toe-skew-tum." she said agian, out loud this time. Haha. The 'skew' part sounded funny. Ellie smiled at the thought. Skew. Skew. Skew.

"Revertoscutum. Revertoscutum." she repeated. Then she lifted her wand up and pointed it in front of her. Point! That was all. "Revertoscutum." she said.

What had appeared, was not much. There was a little wisp of light blue. That's all. Booooooo.

So she was going to try again, of course. "Revertoscutum!" Louder this time. Because she thought things worked better the louder you said it. Like when you were telling a little kid to clean their room...they won't listen until you raise your voice. Even if it's just a bit. Spells seemed to be the same way. At least to Ellie they were. Stubborn spells...

This time their was a fairly distinguishable blue shield. Like the 'Cinderella' color blue. Very, very, light. And it was really small. Probably only as big as Ellie's head. Which, no, was not big, thank you very much. And it vanished within a few seconds.

She gave a meek smiley thing like: :/ to Gold, unsure of whether that was a GOOD attempt, or if she would definitely die if any glass was thrown at her.

Nolan couldn't help but feel...a LITTLE guilty about what he was coming to tell Lexi. She was going to kill him when he told her about what he had read in the cards! Honestly though, he felt it was just a...coincidence that she was going to get the stomach flu around the same time he did. It wasn't his fault entirely, right?

He quickly snuck into the duelling area, smiling in relief as he saw Lexi was there helping a few other students. He'd already checked a few areas and was glad he caught her before she stared feeling...under the weather. Sigh.

"Sorry to interrupt," Nolan said to the students, nodding in acknowledgement to Truebridge as well. "Professor Carlton, when you have a moment, can I speak to you in the hall?" he asked. He smiled once more before sneaking back out into the hallway again.

Lexi hadn't even been aware that another professor had come into the room until she heard Nolan's voice. She watched Nymphy and Marie for a second or two longer then turned to face the Divination professor. Hmm. He needed to see her out in the corridor? For some reason, she couldn't help but think something ridiculous had happened, and she was about to get questioned. She tossed all those thoughts aside, though. She wasn't a student anymore. Of course she wouldn't get questioned of anything ridiculous happened.

Oh! What of something had happened at home? What if Ty or Allie...or even her mum or dad...were in trouble? With a slight look of fear on her face, Lexi just nodded a few times. "Oh, erm, sure. I'll be right on out," she said, her voice a little weak.

She turned back to Nymphy and Marie with an apologetic look. "I do apologize, but apparently I'm needed elsewhere. I'm not sure how severe the situation is, so I may or may not return. You two can keep practicing if you'd like, though," she said. "Practice makes perfect, so just keep it up...you're both doing great!" Worried about what sort of news Nolan had to tell her, Lexi wasted no time in turned and heading out the dueling arena.

Gold watched, legs crossed, as Ellie worked on the shield. She seemed to have the pronunciation right. Which meant it would only be a matter of time, before she had her shield up.

The first attempt was fine, given that it was what it was - a first attempt. "I didn't get it the first time, either," she told Ellie, quite truthfully. "Keep trying." Which she need not have said, because Ellie was quite persistent. In fact, pretty much all Ravenclaws Gold had met so far, were like that. They kept trying, until they succeeded. Gryffindors were a different kind of persistent, altogether. The 'you listen to me, we have to do this, even if it sounds reckless,' kind of persistent, sometimes.

Eh.

Oh, and look at that! "That was a good attempt," Gold said, with an encouraging smile. "Keep working on it. You'll be able to do it properly, in a few more attempts."

SIGH.

This was much harder than she had wanted it to be. Not quite something like histedius, though, which she was grateful for, but it was still frustrating.

A few more times, then, shall we? "Revertoscutum!" she said. She was staring RIGHT in front of her, as if something were actually there. Dumb shield BETTER come, or it'll be hearing from Ellie, and it would NOT want that. Nope.

And up came the light blue shield. It was fairly larger than the last, too. That was what made Ellie smile. It was a sufficient enough size to protect her upper torso. But not all her vital parts. Because, frankly, all her parts were vital. And then it faded away.

"Revertoscutum!" she said, jabbing her wand a bit. Like she was poking the menacing 'glass' that was 'flying' at her. But nothing happened. Supposing this was because of the frustrated poke she gave, she decided to try again. No jabbing this time. And to calm her slight annoyance, she took a BIG DEEEEEEEEP breath. "Revertoscutum!!" she shouted, louder this time, again. Because that worked. Oh, and with no jabbing. Because that didn't work.

And there was a GIANT pearly light blue shield. And it was large enough to cover the length (and width) of her body. Vital parts and everything. HA! She KNEW shouting worked. She found the secret.

Beaming she looked back at Gold to see her reaction. Yeah, this was pretty sufficient. Maybe she'd do it one more time, if Gold suggested, but she was eager to move on to the other 'spells' Truebridge had so vaguely mentioned.

Best part? No headache! Hehe.

“No jabs,” Gold said, cheerfully.

Other than that – the little jab – Ellie was doing more than fine. Gold hadn’t expected the first year to get the spell right on the first try, and would seriously have been surprised if she had. But, as Ellie raised her voice, Gold had to smile lightly. The Ravenclaw was such a determined, little person that she made Gold want to hug her, and ruffle her hair.

Or maybe bake her brownies.

Because, you know, she was a good baker.

“Well, will you look at that!” She said, smiling at the shield Ellie had managed to conjure. It was a lovely blue, a pearlish colour. “You deserve a round of applause, Ellie.” Because Gold had learned, long ago, how important encouragement and praise were, to a person’s progress. People who were – are – appreciated and encouraged were far more likely to persist and – or – succeed, than those who weren’t, or aren’t. Encouragement. That was one of the keys, to a job well done.

"Let's give your shield a little test, before we move on," Gold said. "I'm going to count to three, and then I'll send something your way." It was enough to mentally prepare Ellie for something. She didn't have to tell what it would be, right? "If it works alright, it will revert the object to its previous state." Gold gave Ellie a friendly smile. "One, two.... three."

She moved her wand, and four, little birds flew out of it, right at Ellie. Not angry, out-to-eat-you birds, just normal birds. But yes, they were headed straight for Ellie. If all went well - as Gold hoped it would - the Ravenclaw's shield would turn them into eggs.

Ellie smiled. "Thank ya, thank ya!" she said all hollywood like.

She liked this kid. A lot. Nice. Pretty. Helpful. All well rounded and stuff.

"Okay, let's go." Determinedly, she held up her wand. Her arm was extended all the way to prevent any urges to jab to follow through. And she was ready!

One.

Two.

Three.

BIRDS! Awww birds! How could Ellie possibly revert birds? They were cute and innocent. They didn't deserve to turn to sand.

So, without really realizing it, Ellie had not casted. She just let the birds go flying around. FREE.

Gold waited.

Waited.

Waaaaaaaiii -

Oh my!

"Ellie! You're not casting!" Gold said, as she vanished the birds before they did something they shouldn't. Or even disturbed the other people in the arena. "Focus, mmkay?" She asked, her voice friendly but firm. She remembered how she had lost a duel because she couldn't bring herself to blast a flock of birds, even though those had been out to get her! Shaking her head, she looked back at Ellie.

"Take a deep breath, and we'll try again."

This time, a bunch of flowers shot out of the tip of her wand. Yes, no birds. Which meant no eggs. Just seeds.

Well, hopefully.

Ellie looked up at Gold. "I..uh..awwww..." POUT. She missed her first opportunity to try it out for real! Dumb trick birds. Why do animals have to be so gosh darn cute and innocent? "I'll focus now...I'll focus." Focus.

She took a deeeeeeeeep breath, like Gold said. And breeaaattheedd it all out. Okay. Focused now.

She put her wand back up. And..

Ahhh!!! No warning!! "Revertoscutum!" Ellie yelled.

This is what happened:
First, she was pelted with flowers because of her late reaction.
Then, the shield went up midway of the downpour.
Finally, she was being stung in the face by little menacing seeds.

She closed her eyes to avoid any injury there, and kept her mouth closed, too. Seeds wouldn't taste good.

Opening her eyes, she looked up at Gold and bit her lip. "That was... a fail." She had to learn to react quicker. And be focused. Because she wasn't sure she was really focused. Too focused on being focused, she wasn't focused on Gold. Odd, the way these things worked.

Oh my.

"I should have told you," Gold said, at once. Though, inwardly, she knew it was a good bit of practice. The ways she had learned had been ruthless. In the 'oh, Miss Laksh, look here - WHAM! Bird attack! Mice attack! Both attacks together!' sort of way. Maybe that was why she had such quick reflexes, now.

"You're alright, aren't you?" She asked. Only seeds, she told herself, but she was still concerned. She went up to Ellie, and realized that the younger girl was indeed alright. Phew! "Do you want to try that once more, before we move on to the next spell?" she asked Ellie, kindly.

Maybe she would want to, after all.

Maybe.

Ellie furrowed her brow, stubbornly.

"Yes. But this time..." Cue cute smile, "Don't warn me." Well... that didn't make much sense. But what she had meant was to not warn her, as Gold had the last time. Though Ellie had made it sound like she did... Uhmm... She shook her head and giggled. "I just mean, do that again- Not warning me. It's better that way... More real life like." Fixed?

So she went back to her stance, with her wand held out, ready for more flowers to be flung at her. Hmm.. speaking of which, those seeds had surprised her. She thought the shield turned things to sand...Oh! wait! It REVERTS things back! Gold had said that, hadn't she? So flowers turned to seeds, glass would turn to sand... But... what would birds turn into?

Nevermind. Focus. And on Gold.

The first year stared at the older red head. She was ready. Like BAM.

Gold nodded. "You got it, Captain."

Hehe.

"Oh, and I just realized... Avis!" Gold grinned at her simple, little trick, as birds flew out of the tip of her wand, a little bigger than last time, though not more in quantity. Four or five. She didn't actually count, to be honest. Lowering her wand, Gold watched their progress.

Is this how Professor Truebridge feels when he teaches us? It was a strange feeling, a chunk of disappointment when things didn't work out, a big burst of happiness when whoever you were helping out, succeeded. Gold hoped the birds would be eggs, soon.

Because that would mean Ellie = successful with the spell.

Mmm.

Captain? Well that was new. She was used to saying captain. To Nia, you know. But no one ever called her captain. She felt like a sailboat captain! Arg, Matey!

She just realized what? Oh! Birds! "Revertoscutum!" Ellie said as quickly as the tongue-twisty type word would come out without being all scrambled and wrong. And there went her pretty shield! And, with a slight twinge of guilt in Ellie's tummy, eggs were falling just short of where she stood. One fell and cracked open on her shoe.

Frowning, she looked down at it. Poor birdie. SIGH.

Aww. AWW. Gold could see the look on Ellie's face, and it reminded her of how hard it was for her own self, sometimes, to do stuff like that. Of course, she was alright with reversion. Her main weakness was having to hurt birds, you know? She couldn't.

Simply couldn't.

"They would have disappeared after a while, even if you hadn't reverted them," she told Ellie, cheerfully. "Magic wears off. You can't create actual life. Good job on the shield, by the way." She vanished the birds, sat down, and motioned for Ellie to do the same.

"The next spell we have here is Protego," she said. "It's sometimes called the Basic Shield Charm, and I suspect it's the one that is most widely implemented, by witches and wizards all over the world. The wand movement is a short arc, with a flick at the end." She demonstrated it. Short arc, upward flick.

"It's the standard Shield Charm, and I've known a few people get it right on the first try. The more you focus on it, the more powerful it will be. The bad part is that you can't cast, while you're holding it up. The good part is that you can use it for defence and offence, as it can be used to make spells bound back, towards whoever cast them on you."

She smiled up at Ellie.

"Give it a try!"

Ellie nodded. "I guess so.." she said quietly. And she watched them all go bye bye. She slowly made her way back to Gold and sat.

Protego. Right. She actually knew this one. She'd never tried it before, but Gold said it was easy. And she was pretty confident in herself. So why shouldn't she?

She moved her wand in the same arc and flick motion the prefect had demonstrated. "Protego!" she said.

And there was the shield. All nice and shieldy.

Gold continued to sit down, legs hanging down the side of the stage, as she watched Ellie work at the shield. Galloping Gargoyles! The Ravie managed to ace it, at the first try! Gold decided she wasn't surprised. Ellie was one, mega-determined person.

“Perfect,” she said. “The more you practice, the better your shield will get. It’s unlikely to stop major jinxes at this stage, but keep practicing, and you’ll be able to work wonders with it.” Ellie ought to give dueling a try. Gold decided she would ask the girl if she was interested in duelling, later.

"We'll test this out, too," she went on, as she rose to her feet and took up a position in front of Ellie. "Histedius."

She cast the spell verbally, for Ellie's benefit. The familiar green ring-like lighting shot out of the tip of her wand, headed straight for Ellie. Hopefully, it would meet a shield on its way forward. If not, Gold was certain she could still stop it, mid-path.

"Alrighty then." Ellie said as she slipped back onto her feet.

Hey! Histedius! She knew that one! That was the one they learned before she left...

Okay, so Ellie did the whole arch-flick movement. "Protego!" The green rings hit the shield and then went away from her. But not towards Gold either. At some kind of weird angle. But at least it wasn't TO anyone.

Good.

Gold was at the ready, to deflect the Knockback Jinx in case Ellie didn't conjure up her shield, in time. Because she remembered what the Ravie had said to her about jinxes, earlier.

But Ellie managed excellently.

"Good job," Gold said, as she lowered her own shield. "Focus on what you want the Shield to do, and it will do that." The best way, Gold had learned, was to concentrate on your own skills, than on what could happen if you failed, or on all the things that could go possible wrong. Because those last bits were likely to cause unnecessary anxiety that detracted from the strength and purpose of whatever you cast.

"One more time before we move on, then?"

Histedius.

The green rings shot right out.

"Thanks!" Ellie said. She liked this positive reinforcment stuff. If only the whole school had a reward system like this. But they actually got something for doing good work or good things. THAT would be awesome. "Okay makes enough sense." she said to Golds little extra tippy tidbit. So the shield was like a really obedient dog. Only it read minds. Okay.

"Sure, one more time." Or a few, she didn't really mind. This was an easy one. At least compared to actually preforming histedius herself. THAT was a hard bother.

Oh! And there were the green rings! "Protego!" Ellie said as she arch-flicked her wand. She concentrated on the rings going back in that angle direction. She wasn't going to try and jinx Gold, even though she knew she could defend herself. It just wasn't nice. This was different, though, cuz Ellie had to practice defending. But she was sure Gold wouldn't just jinx her for no reason. She had said so herself.

Ellie looked back at Gold, "I like your nonverbals." And when she got older, she would learn them. So exciting! Why does staying a kid have to take soooo loooong? Boo....

Protego.

Perfect! Ellie was getting better, with every attempt. Lowering her own shield, Gold beamed at the Ravenclaw.

"Thanks," she said, a light smile playing around her lips. Non-verbals. She had started those in her fourth year and, to be honest, she had only actually gotten proficient in that field this term. "Took me a while to get those," she admitted, tones cheerful. "You'll learn, too."

Right. Now for the next shield.

"The next Shield Charm is Impiriano," she said. "The wand movement is a closed, circular motion. Like this." She demonstrated it, giving her wrist a slight flick. "It's not as powerful as Protego, where magic is concerned. Each spell that hits it, weakens it. The advantage is that you can cast through it and, even if you stop concentrating on it, it will still last. For how long, depends on the ability and practice of the caster."

Impiriano.

Gold held up the blue shield. It was quite like a bubble. "It's excellent when you have to defend yourself against physical attacks," she told Ellie. "Suits of armour, arrows, and stuff like that." She lowered her own shield, and then looked at Ellie with bright, green eyes.

"You know what to do!"

Ellie smiled and shrugged. She'll learn. And she supposed it would take a while. It makes sense. After all, she could hardly get a spell to work unless she shouted it. So casting without any audio at all? That will be horrible.

"Impiriano." she repeated. Best to make sure she was saying things right first, right? And a small circle? Okay. Easy enough.

She lifted her wand "Impiriano!" she said loudly. And the little shield game up for a split second. "Impiriano!" she said, louder. The shield came up and stayed. See? Things work better when you say it louder! "That's convenient." she stated, as she turned her attention from the shield to Gold and it stayed. Not long after, though, it went away again.

"One more time, I think." said the young red head, "I want to try casting with it up." Err. Okay. Now to think of something to cast. Uhmmm... "Does it matter what you cast? Like, does it have to be and offensive spell?" Because otherwise, she could just do a simple 'wingardium leviosa' or something.

Ellie's shield was pretty faint. But it was there, and that was a good sign. Gold gave it a little nod of approval.

"Nope," she said, in response to Ellie's question. The Ravenclaw had tried a couple more times, and now her shield looked more... tangible. "You can cast whatever you want to. I suppose the stronger the spell, the harder it will be." But it was good that one could focus entirely on an another spell, even with the Shield up. "Give it a try, and we'll see how things work out."

She wondered how they were going to test this shield of Ellie's. Maybe they shouldn't. Because Gold wasn't going to shoot arrows, at the first year. Sure, she was convinced she could stop them in case the shield didn't, but she wasn't going to take a risk that huge. Ellie was practically going to be right behind the shield. It would be a split-second decision.

Sooo, yes. Maybe no testing, this time round.

Extra practice ought to suffice.

"Okay." Ellie said and she looked around for something to cast on.

She decided on her shoe. Yeah, that would work. And she used her other foot to take her left shoe off. Then she threw it a little way awayss. And now to practice.

"Impiriano!" she shouted. Sorta. A soft shout. And then once she saw the shield in front of her, she wasted no time. Who knew how long it would last? "Wingardium Leviosa!" she said. Yeah, SAID. Cuz she could already do this one.

As her shoe floated higher and higher in the air she smiled. That was cool. Being all protected and still being able to hurt someone. Gave you quite an advantage. They shouldn't teach this to everyone... Only the GOOD guys, so the BAD guys wouldn't have this advantage.

When her shield disappeared, she dropped the shoe as well. She ran to go get it and put it back on her foot.

"That's awesome." she said. "What next?"

"You're right," Gold smiled. "That is awesome. You're doing great, Ellie." The words were completely honest.

She sat down, as she watched Ellie put on her shoe. "Next is Contego," she said. "It isn't a Shield that will help one, like the other Shield Charms we've discussed until now. It protects objects. In other words, it will shield an object, wherever that object goes, until the spell wears off."

"The incantation is Contego, followed by the name of the object you wish to protect. It's easier to cast it on objects that are a little farther off, than those that are very near. Like Impiriano, you don't have to concentrate on it, once you've cast it. However, it tends to wear off, after the object's been hit a few times. That means you have to keep renewing it, if you want to keep the object protected for a longer time, with this spell." Or you could switch to more lasting Shield Charms, if you knew those.

"The wand movement is a zigzag. Like this." Gold moved her wand in an upward zigzag. "Upward zigzag," she clarified.

"So this is what we'll do. I'll conjure a ball for you, and you can practice on it. Once you think you have the hang of the spell, we'll chuck a few, harmless things at the ball while it rolls away. How does that sound?" She conjured a big, round ball as she spoke, letting it roll away. The ball came to a stop, a little way off from the two of them.

"Errm... okay.." That's weird. You would think that closer objects would be easier. Funny the way magic works.

'Contego. Contego.' she mouthed. Got it. And a zig zag? Ellie zig-zagged her wand upward. Okay.... Her eyes followed the ball.

Deep breath, "Contego!" she said. Her wand went all zig zaggy at the ball. And a little shield appeared on it. It's okay, ball. You're safe, now.