Practicing already?Alice jotted down a few notes about the spell before she began. She'd just get notes on the rest of the shields later. The fourth year set down her quill and held up her wand. A tight circle and a flick of the wrist, yeah? Tight circle then flick of the wrist. Circle. Circlecirclecircle. FLICK. She said the directions to herself mentally as she performed them, wanting to get it right on the first try.

When she was content with her movements, she set her wand down next to the quill and began murmuring the incantation to herself. Imiparano? No. No, it was Impi.. Impir.. "Impiriano." She enunciated as best as she could, splitting up the syllables and attempting to stress them just as Professor Romanos had. Was that right?

There were a few things she didn't know. Edita made sure to write them down although her attempts weren't all that enthusiastic. She was sure November was writing down every single thing the Professor said, pauses included. Happenstance rolled her wand along the fingers of her left hand, as she stared down at the incantation they were meant to practice. She muttered it out loud repeatedly, almost like a chant, trying to get the pronunciation down correctly and embedded into her head.

It was always where she mucked up with Charms and she didn't want to muck up on DADA as well.

Taking a deep breath, Ed stood up and fixed her posture. Her wand held with her left hand, she drew a tight circle with it and flicked her wrist testily, without speaking out the incantation. She practiced the movements alone four times before she felt ready to try it with the incantation. Once more, she drew a tight circle with her wand and flicked her wrist: "Impiriano!" Softly, a blue bubble swelled and wrapped around her, making her vision change. From inside, everything and everyone looked varying shades of blue. Amused, she chuckled and her bubble began to fade at the top, leaving a gaping hole. "Ack!" Edita gasped, furrowing her brow and concentrating long enough to close the gap. "You really can't fool around with this, huh?"

Jory had been watching for Alyssa's reaction. he couldn't help grinning as he watched her duck to avoid the book. Instincts, of course.

"No I didn't!'' he called back. Realising what she was about to do, the boy quickly raised his wand. He concentrated and made the circular and flick motion. "Impiriano!'' The blue bubble began to form around him. And just in time, too. The book hi the bubble and fell to the floor. "Missed me!'' he called to Alyssa.

Sarah knew all of the answers to the previous question, yetshe had decided to let others answer so she could enjoy basking in the sun rays for longer.

Practicing was tedious, yet Sarah did it anyway. "Imprano" WRONG. "Impir-ano" still wrong. "Impiriano". That sounded more right. Yet she still had to keep it then. "Impiriano" she saida gain,, "Impiriano" she repeated. Finally "Impiriano".

It was time for.. practice? Had Kat really not been paying attention the whole time. Goodness. But she took down notes of course. She probably wasn't that stupid to just sit there in class, staring blankly at Professor Romanos and the others as they answered her questions. Now was her chance to catch up, and practice the spell. She had the pronunciation down and ready. Kat only had to meddle with the hand movement, as it was a bit complicating. It was an honest opinion, you know.

She had her wand in hand as she practiced the movement. Circle and flick. Ciiiiiiircle and fliiiick. Goodness, why must they have to use two hand movements in one spell? It made things harder, but the challenging part of it interested the Slytherin. However not as interesting as the effect of the spell. She could use this, instead of using Protego... but the Shield Charm was her buddy and that couldn't be denied. Kat did the hand movement a few times before deciding to try the spell out.

"Impiriano!" she said with the tight circle and flick of her wrist. Now, did that suffice?

Oichi decided to give this a go. She was so excited to be learning a new shielding spell. She raised her wand and did a tight circle with a flick at the end. Got it, now for the seccond part. Oichi put her wand down and, "impiriono, no, impariano, that's not right. Impiriano! That's it, I got it!".

They were all doing quite well, if she did say so herself. The trick with the book was a rather nice touch. Very creative. Though in her supervision of the class, she did notice the rather unfortunate way a certain galleon fell through Patrick's almost shield. "Your pronunciation, Mister McEttron." she said, drifting over towards the Ravenclaw, keeping an eye on the book throwers. "Sound it out first. Impiriano. Im-peer-ee-ah-no."

Neat they could practice the spell now!

Lex hopped up the moment they were given the go ahead to. Vivi was meant to teach her a few blocking spells but that didn't happen so she was happy to be learning them now.

She thought to do it all in one go...but then...she remembered charms class and the broken desk and the fact that it wouldn't work no matter how much she wanted it to. That being the case this probably wouldn't work right away either and other people were getting so she didn't want to be the one that wasn't getting it. Practice it was!

She gripped her wand more firmly and began with the tight circle. With each circle it got a bit tighter until she was positive her wrist would give in. This was a good sign, yes?

The incantation would be next.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roselyn

They were all doing quite well, if she did say so herself. The trick with the book was a rather nice touch. Very creative. Though in her supervision of the class, she did notice the rather unfortunate way a certain galleon fell through Patrick's almost shield. "Your pronunciation, Mister McEttron." she said, drifting over towards the Ravenclaw, keeping an eye on the book throwers. "Sound it out first. Impiriano. Im-peer-ee-ah-no."

Patrick nodded understandingly at the professor, looking at his wand in his hand as he repeated the incantation a few times. "Im.. Impeer- Impeereeahno." He made sure to get it right. "Imperiano. Imperiano." he began letting his wrist turn the wand in a tight circular motion, with the quick flick to finish it off, repeating the incantation over and over again. Finally, feeling confident enough to give it another go, he waved his wand and once more cast the spell.

"Imperiano!" He exclaimed, flicking his wrist just at the apex of the final syllable, The invisible bubble around him suddenly shimmered with a blueish light, appearing more solid. The Galleon instantly fell to the floor from its position about a foot above it and rolled a short distance. Reaching down for it, Patrick decided to once more test out the effectiveness of the spell. He flipped the coin again, but just as it passed through the shield, Patrick's it caused the spell to fade again, the shield vanishing into a thin, barely visible blur around Patrick. Again, when the penny hit the point where the bubble should have deflected it on it's way down, the penny was only slowed down to a crawl.

"Imperiano!" Patrick cast the spell again, getting tired of his attempts not working. The bubble immediately shimmered back to full strength. The Galleon was however still passing through the bubble's edge, and as the bubble returned to full strength, the Galleon, caught with one half inside the bubble and the other outside, was instantly split in two with a loud chink. One half dropped to the floor within Patrick's bubble, and the other bounced off and landed a few feet away. He almost dropped his wand.

"I'm sorry, professor, I'll work on it." He said, looking at the professor apologetically, the bubble around him vanishing shortly after he lost his concentration on it.

"Keep trying. Practice makes perfect." Medea nodded encouragingly before moving the class along.



"Everyone! You're attention please!" Medea waited until their attention was up to the front of the class before continuing. "We'll be moving onto the next shield. I'd like you to at least practice this one for a few minutes, even if you don't feel comfortable with the Impiriano shield yet. I believe it was Miss Campbell that defined the effects of the Loricatus shield, but for those who did not hear..."

"Loricatus is a temporary self armoring invisible shield, quite useful against exploding, severing or...puncturing spells. When I say self armoring, I do truly mean, you wear it like armor, close to your skin. You may not be able to see it, but you will be able to feel it. If you've done the spell correctly, you'll feel a weight against your skin. The weight is not so restricting where you can't move, but this will feel more as if you're wearing an extra layer of clothing."

She paused to let them process this for a second or so. "Practice can result in a lighter feeling shield, and so will the range of the spell. This is not an easy shield to cast over one's entire body, so you shouldn't feel frustrated if this doesn't happen right away. You should expect to achieve it over your hand or arm for now if you have not already practiced before." Had any of them? Medea would have been quite pleased to hear of any reading ahead in their school books.

"Does anyone know the wand movement of this spell?"

Alyssa ended her shield spell with Finite and turned to hear what Professor Romanos had to say. She had heard of the Loricatus spell but had never seen or needed any use for it...yet!...!!

She knew that it was a spell for shield that cast an armor around the caster? Now that was a neat trick. Raising her hand she gave the wand movements. "Professor the wand movement is twisting your wand in your fingertips and as you do that you flick your wrist."

Was she right?

Sophie smiled when professor Romanos mentioned her name. Yeep, she had mentioned it. She also knew the answer to the following queiston, since she had done her homework on that spell and everything. And King Arthlin had cast that spell perfectly.

"You kind of twist your wand in your fingertips while you flick your wrist, professor." She said out loud after raising her hand. Thinking about it, sounded like a very tricky wand movement... Sophie looked at her own wand and wondered if she'd be able to do it in her first try.

Patrick nodded appreciatively at the professor, thankful for her supporting attitude. He wasn't used to that at home whenever his mother tried teaching him a few things. Any mistakes on his end were always met with a shout, or maybe even a smack on the head. Mrs. McEttron had never been the most affectionate of women. All memories of family difficulties aside, it was time to move on with the class. With a 'down, but not out' attitude, Patrick was ready to do his best with whatever came next.


Patrick had read a lot about this specific spell, and found it absolutely intriguing. He remembered the movement, but he was having a hard time finding the words to describe it. He held his wand up in front of him and began to twist and twirl it in between his fingertips, flicking his wrist up at the same time. "Something like.. Like this, Professor." He muttered, still trying to hold on to any shot he had at impressing the instructors at Howarts that he so dearly looked up to.

"Right." Medea nodded to the three students. "Thank you for the demonstration, Mr. McEtton. A bit trickier of a wand movement. You twist, or roll in other words, the wand between your fingertips while you flick the wand upwards. For those who did not see Mr. McEtton's example, watch closely." Raising her wand, she slowly demonstrated the wand movement, rolling the wand between her fingertips while flicking up with her wrist. Though it was one of those ones where practice really was necessary.

"I suggest you all practice the wand movement the most until you are comfortable with it. Nothing vastly dangerous will happen if you misspeak the incantation." Another perk of the spell. "When you're ready, you may begin. We will be starting the duels shortly, so use your time wisely. If you have any questions, or need any help, please don't hesitate to ask."

OOC: There will be another 24 hours, give or take, before we start the duels to give you all a heads up.

With the wand movement down she began working on the incantation part of the spell. It was pretty simple and usually it wasn't the incantation that made the difference for her. Her pronunciation was usually really good thank you very much. The problem was...well she didn't know but the point is, saying the spell was easy.

She was about to practice them together when the Professor asked another question.

Yeah...

This one she definitely didn't know--Oh! But the others did! Ahem. Time to do what came rather easily to her. She raised her hand right after the others did. "It's just like Sophie and Alyssa said Professor, but see, they already said it so there's no real need for me to give the answer. I'd just be repetitive." And that answer came with a sweet smile.

And she said the others were right which meant she was right too. See how that worked?

Now onto the next spell. This time she started with the incantation first. Might as well get it out of the way. She only repeated it about three times though before she was ready to start on the wand movement. Once she did she realized it wasn't all that hard. Wand movement good....incantation good...this couldn't possibly fail!!!

Patrick was comfortable enough with this spell that he could begin to attempt casting immediately. That wasn't to say it would work very well. He raised his wand, running through the movements a few times before practicing the incantation a few times. "Lori- Loricatu-s" He stammered through it. This one was a bit of a tongue-twister when you've never really tried it before, or if it's been a while. "Loricatus. Loricatus. Loricatus." He repeated over and over to himself until he was confident that he had it right.

Following the professors example, he tightened up the twirling of his wand, and flicked upwards with his wrist slightly quicker than he had done in his example. More confident now that the professor had told him what he was doing wrong. "Loricatus!" He exclaimed as he flicked his wand up, focusing mostly on his arms. After all, he didn't want to jump in over his head on his first go. Almost immediately, it was as if all light was slightly distorted around his arms, akin to a chameleon effect, but only for a short second before any and all visual cues that a spell had been cast vanished entirely. At the same time, Patrick's arms dropped a few inches.

"Wow, that was.. Unexpectedly heavy. Feels protective, though." He said, more to himself than to anyone else, as his arms got used to the extra weight. He wasn't usually proud of himself with his spellwork, but in this case, he felt he had done well for someone who'd only tried it once before.

Alyssa watched as Professor Romanos demonstrated the wand movements. She made it look so easy that Alyssa couldn't wait to eager try it herself.

Holding her wand in between her fingertips and her thumb she rolled it and then flicked....and her wand went flying!

Alyssa dove immediately after it grabbing it before it hit the floor. She quickly straightened up and looked around hoping that everyone had been too busy practicing that they hadn't seen her almost drop her wand. Now that would have been embarrassing.

'This spell is easier said than done.' Alyssa thought to herself. Saying the incantation Loricatus was the easy part. Doing the wand movement was the harder part. But she knew that practice made perfect so she first practiced rolling the wand with her fingertips.

She knew that it had a lot to do with how she gripped the wand even when it was rolling. So she applied a little pressure on the wand with her fingers even as she rolled. Okay ready for the flick.

Alyssa flicked the wand in between rolls and this time the wand stayed in her hand, only now it was caught between her middle and third finger!

'There's no way I can continue to cast spells gripping my wand like that!' Alyssa thought to herself. Pulling out the wand between her fingers, she placed it back into position between her fingertips and thumb and rolled it again.

This time as she rolled and flicked, she made sure that on the flick, she rolled the wand back into her palm with her thumb and edge of her index finger gripping it. Her proper wand grip, and it worked!

"YES!!" Alyssa said to herself. "Okay let's keep doing this only a little faster now." ....Alyssa continued to practice.

Roll...flick...grip...roll...flick...grip.

Time to practice. Sophie's favourite time of every class. Especially when it was about spells and stuff. Yaaaaay!

Okay, she was given the chance to do the spell like the one she had written in her story. Twist in fingertips... flick wrist. Sheesh, that even sounded complicated, let alone doing it.

Sophie held up her wand and slowly rolled it in her fingertips. Well, she didn't drop her wand, which was a good sign. She tried to do it a bit faster and almost dropped it this time. Not cool.

The flick of her wrist was alright, but whenever she tried rolling her wand in her fingertips it would almost fall off her hand. Welp, she'd try it all together anyway. It wasn't like she was going to say the incantation and cast the spell wrong or anything!

Twist in fingertips and flick of wrist! Her wand flew from her hand and landed on the floor a few inches away from her.

Sophie retrieved her wand and tried again. Twist in fingertips and flick of wri- skflgndkjfgn! She hadn't even had time to do the full movement and her wand was already on the floor again.

Grabbing her wand once again, she decided to do the movement in slow motion. Twiiiiiiii--- o___O what was happening? It was like the whole thing was even more complicated in slow motion.

Twist in fingertips and flick of the wrist!

SweetMerlinWhatInTheWorld. That was DIFFICULT!

Sophie sighed and went to retrieve her wand for the n-th time. She wouldn't practice the incantation, because that was relatively easy and she had already practiced it while writing her story anyway. Just by looking at it written down multiple times on her parchment was enough for her to learn it.

But that wand movement, MERLIN! She had never used that in a spell before and it was TRICKY!

Damon sighed, another one his father taught him. There were few Damon didn't know. He had to know them or he'd probably be dead by this point in his life. He copied her moves though, "Loricatus," And the charm fell over him, he let it fall easily.

He looked to the professor waiting for her next set of instructions.

Alyssa continued to practice the wand movements over and over again until she felt comfortable rolling and flicking her wand without letting it fly out of her fingers or letting it end up upside down in her hand....which she did plenty of both.

But now she was ready to actually try casting the spell. With a roll of her wand and a flick, Alyssa said the incantation.

"Loricatus" and watched to see what happened.

She felt something heavy on her shoulders and she immediately sagged with the extra weight. She looked down at her body but couldn't see anything different about it. But she sure could feel it.

It was heavy. 'Geesh! No wonder people don't use this spell that often. It makes you clumsy.' Alyssa thought to herself as she took a step forward. She felt like the Pillsbury Doughboy when she walked...or worse yet...a Sumo Wrestler...only she wasn't huge.

Alyssa ended the spell.

'Okay we need to concentrate harder and try to make this armor s lot less heavier. Let's try this again.' she thought to herself.

Raising her hand, she asked the Professor. "Professor is there any way to make this armor lighter. You know...like Mithril? Super strong but oh so feather light?"

Staying mostly near the stands so she was able to have a clear view of the students, Medea turned her attention to whoever had called out for her. Mithril? "I'm unfamiliar with that type of armor..." Medea frowned momentarily, seeming to think about it for a moment. "But as I've mentioned before, the 'armor' will become lighter with practice. Keep trying, Miss Potter."

Twisty rolly thing. West could do that, he'd seen diagrams in his books and worked on getting them all right. He had, in actual fact, practiced this one before. Not that he was gonna say so. He imitated the professor a few times and then, when he felt ready he tried it.

"Loricatus!" The shield --the armouring spell-- worked quickly, and spread over his entire arm and shoulder, and the majority of his chest.

And what was Alyssa on about? It wasn't even that heavy.

She was about to give it a try when she looked around again--really she needed to stop doing that whenever they were practising spells because that got depressing--and saw that once again, the whole lot of them were getting it. It wasn't that she didn't think she wouldn't get it too though that did cross her mind but she just had to be sure, OKAY?

This meant more wand movement practising.

Lex went over the wand movement once or twice more while mumbling the incantation...she was going to go out on a limb and say it looked...kinda simple...

"Loricatus!" Her breath caught in her throat when she saw the armor spreading but the excitement died quickly when she realized it hadn't gotten very far and, contrary to what some were saying, it wasn't all that heavy...she could hardly feel it actually. Something went wrong. SIGH. Of course something would go wrong! Why wouldn't something go wrong once she had to try it??? She waited for the armor to fade before attempting again.

Alright, Lex, focus. You WANT the armor.

And she did. This being the case she should have had it because she always got what she want. "Let's get it together then." She mumbled to her wand. "Loricatus!" This time, she was pleasantly surprized to see the armour appear--CARRYING WEIGHT THIS TIME, EEEEEP!--and do just what it was meant to do; look like an armor, duh.

Neat!

"Roll between fingertips and flick upwards,'' Jory repeated in his head. "Time to practice!'' He held his wand between his fingertips and gave it a flick. But it was a bit tricky. Twice his wand nearly fell. "I'll get you,'' he thought, determined. He repeated the movement a few more times before finally, he got the hang of it. Well, at least, the wand was no longer trying to escape.

Now for the incantation. ""Loricatus! Loricatus! Loricatus!'' That part wasn't hard. Now to try it out!

Hold between fingertips, roll and flick! "Loricatus!" The Puff immediately felt the effects, beginning on his hands and shoulder. but it didn't feel that heavy to him. Sure, he felt the weight of it but it didn't really bother him. "This is cool!''

Alyssa blushed in embarrassment. That had been a really stupid question to ask her Professor. "I'm sorry Professor. I just read something about it. Maybe it's not real. Okay so concentration and practice will make it lighter? Thank you for answering my question." Alyssa thanked her Dark Arts Professor.

'Okay time to concentrate.' Alyssa told herself. This time, not only did she concentrate on conjuring up the armor, but she also concentrated how it would be. Alyssa rolled her wand with her fingertips and then with a flick, she said,"Loricatus."

This time she felt a strange weight around her arm. Like before, Alyssa couldn't see what it was but she sensed that her arm was now covered by the spell. The Professor was right, with the right amount of concentration the armor didn't weigh much.

Alyssa ended the spell and continued to practice. With each attempt, she became more and more familiar with casting the spell, and she could feel the spell expand to more parts of her body.

...and concentrating as hard as she could to expand the armor even more, with another roll of her wand with her fingertips, followed by a flick, Alyssa said the incantation again. "Loricatus" and like the first time when she had unknowingly cast a heavier armor on her body, Alyssa felt a sudden weight on her shoulders.

However, this time it felt a lot lighter. Alyssa reached up and felt around her body and her head, and even though she couldn't see it, she could feel it. She was wearing an invisible armor.