Roo turned his page and noted down the things that they were discussing, just so if they had to share with their peers, he could say exactly what they had talked about without straying. "Would you...consider Expecto Patronum as a shield, Henric?" Because that was pretty much the only other spell he could think of as a possibility. The second year doodled a tree as he listened to the Hufflepuff talk about things.

He made only a few little bullet points about what Henric said, because Roo thought that it was just his opinion and wasn't sure that he agreed in full. "Shouldn't you use what you know, though? There's a big difference between being uncertain in battle and being certain of yourself." He knew which he would be more comfortable.

Charms class was the only class that he didn't make a lot of notes as he already knew most of the things from Charms School. As much as he had wanted to get away from that school, he also secretly thanked it for giving him this knowledge and that he wasn't a complete idiot. If only they had done wonders with other subjects siiiigh.

Anyways, partnering up time. Yoongi looked around at the other students as they began to do so and at first he wanted to practice alone but then he saw Zander all alone. Poor guy. People must be intimidated by him because he was a Head Boy. .....Nah. "Hey Zander" he called from the other side of the class and waved at him. "Want to be my partner for this?"

Rooney had asked more questions which Henric had to wreak his brain trying to come up with an answer. He didn't mind it, of course. He was a fifth year, he should know this...."Expecto Patronum? Umm it's an advance charm spell...to drive away Dementors and Lethifolds,so yeah...they can be used as a defensive shield, it also acts as your spirit guide to protect you from harm...I think that's what the book says...I'm still trying to produce a corporeal patronus though which it's really hard to do," he replied and shrugged.

"Of course, if you do not use what you know,how would you know that you are certain with yourself in the first place." Goodness,he almost confused himself with this."What I mean to say is, you do not want your attacker to simply know your exact moves, even if you are a master at it... you have to play around with the surroundings too, I think professor Flitwick use that as an advantage,using non-defensive spells as well...to probably distract or buy him some time to come up with an offensive attack." It was just his opinion, but it was a good discussion topic.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Poolicious

COOL!

She's not partnerless anymore. And Thank Merlin, Ava was sitting not to far from her so less effort.

"So, what do you think about the questions? Do you think you're able to cast those spell if you're in Flitwick' shoes?" She asked the first year. "If I happen too be in that situation I think I might puke first then after I get that out of my system I might be able to cast the spells as long as I keep my cool." But that's her. Ava might have different opinion or answer.

Yay, partner! She's really glad that Candice wanted to be her partner since not very many older students wanted to partner up with firstie like her. Maybe because Ava was one of the coolest firstie in this year? At least that's what her secret Santa said, hehehe.

The young lioness thought for a while. What if she was Flitwick at the time? Could she cast that charm? Hmm... "It's uh.... quite a powerful charm, isn't it?" She spoke. "And not to mention there's a lot of pressure at the time, right? So.... I'm not quite sure that I'm gonna be able to perform as powerful as him." Well, she still COULD cast that charm, just not that powerful. "It's quite difficult though, performing the shield charm. I have practiced it for duel but it's... hard." And sometimes she did avoid the spell physically rather than casting Protego.

Adi couldn't resist teasing his friend. "Listen to you sounding like a Professor and all! Those study sessions sure did pay off.'' Naah, it wasn't just that. Benny was naturally more bookish than he was so studying came easier to him.

Anyway.

Adi kept practicing the Disarming Charm for a few more moments before moving on to the Shield Charm. Yep. This one was simple as well but what seemed simple at times could be the most difficult. The Hufflepuff copied the movement Benny had demonstrated earlier, the incantation in his head.

Right!

He was all set for whatever was next!

And then there was Bentley Bellaire-Moore.

Blaise deadpanned at his cousin, obviously not amused he'd fished his wand out of his trunk and taken it to class. Forget considerate, this was utter dung. His cousin knew he didn't want to be here in the first place. Was he trying to be funny? You can't get much done without a wand in this class you know. "That's the point." He mumbled, reluctantly taking the wand and placing it opposite him at his desk.

"It doesn't matter. I won't get anything done in this lesson anyway. Let's just...discuss what the professor said. D'you think it'd be easy casting against a Dark Wizard when you had a bunch of people depending on you, even if you knew the spell like the back of your hand?"

Watch him doodle at the end of his parchment, not bothering to look interested.

Bentley rolled his eyes and reached for the wand once again shoving it unto his cousin's chest. Today they were going to be productive whether Blaise wanted to or not.

"I know and we're moving on to a new point now. The point where you do your own work and try to make your wand listen to you." Really, they were going to do this thing together in class.

Ben shrugged. "I suppose it depends on if you get scared or not. If you don't get all scared and stuff you'll be able to remember and do it but if you get scared then you might forget."Though if you practiced something enough it would come to you like second nature. At least that's what his mother told him. "Do you get nervous when people are counting on you?"

Cool. Coooooool. Whatever. He'd just work by himself. No big deal whatsoever. It was probably better like this. 'Cause this way when he couldn't get the stupid nonverbal to work, no shame needed. Yeah. Fine. Juuuuuust fine.

So the Gryffindor began to dip his quill into some ink before, oh. HE DID HAVE A PARTNER!! Ahem. Yoongi. Can always count on good ol' Yoongi. "Hey!" he smiled back, quickly getting up from his seat and slinging his bag over his shoulder. "Yeah, hold on... I'll come over," ahem. La la la. This whole sitting somewhere different thing was throwing him off. Riiiiight, he casually slid into a seat next to the Sixth Year.

"So uh, disarming and shield," he started talking as he took things out of his bag and set them upon the desk. "I think it might be kinda hard to get the spells 'cause of the pressure..." he thought it out. "But the pressure might also help with intent?" Zander raised an eyebrow. Huh. Couldn't it do both??? Zander stopped himself, looking at Yoongi. "What do you think?" 'Cause personally, Zander knew that when you're under that kind of pressure you sorta HAVE to get the spell right. But also.... Uh too much pressure can some times be a bad thing right? He wasn't sure, honestly.

Roo had came to the conclusion that he and Henric had very different views on this idea and so he stopped writing down notes and nodded multiple times. "I'm not saying that someone well adversed in magic would only rely on the spells that they were excellent with. Just that it is a different view on the progress of a persons magic." And he knew that in a situation where he was unable to grab a textbook or be taught something, he would go straight for the spells that he was well acquainted with quicker than he would something he wasn't so exact with.

"Besides, in the Battle of Hogwarts, there was more than Professor Flitwick. So someone would have had his back, for lack of better phrase." Just in case Henric wanted reminding.

SPOILER!!: Adi

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

Adi couldn't resist teasing his friend. "Listen to you sounding like a Professor and all! Those study sessions sure did pay off.'' Naah, it wasn't just that. Benny was naturally more bookish than he was so studying came easier to him.

Anyway.

Adi kept practicing the Disarming Charm for a few more moments before moving on to the Shield Charm. Yep. This one was simple as well but what seemed simple at times could be the most difficult. The Hufflepuff copied the movement Benny had demonstrated earlier, the incantation in his head.

Right!

He was all set for whatever was next!

Benny resisted the urge to go all shy over the teasing compliment directed his way by Adi. Okay so he had spoken a lot which was against his more quiet reserved nature, but he was trying to cover their bases. Not to mention, it had just kinda spilled out from his memory and out his mouth. "Funny, Mr. Rehman..." he remarked, carrying on with the teach scenario for his best friend's enjoyment.

Now for the practice, the lion's wand was out and ready once more, focusing on the shield charm. "Protego" Pointing his wand. "Protego..." Point his wand. Benny believed he felt the magic set up however he knew the spell to be invisible most of the time, only appearing as a spell hit off of it. He considered practicing it with Adi, however he supposed that was to be their main activity for the reminder of the class lesson.

Now onto disarming.

Maggie was perfectly fine working by herself on this exercise. Yup. Going through her notes from the last few classes she copied some of them on her new piece of parchment. About the two charms they were going to cover today. Would they FINALLY be casting them too? Like, not that she hadn't done that but maybe they could improve their techniques a little and stuff.

Now, onto those other questions the professor had asked.

Well aware of Zeke nearby – also excuse you for not choosing her as a partner – Maggie stretched out her legs, pretending not to see him. Right. Now. Intent. Intent was definitely important. She scribbled down everything that came to her mind while trying to put herself in this Flitwick's person's shoes. Hmm.

Meanwhile she continued to do little things like play with her hair or shift around on her mat to catch Zeke's attention. Without looking over to him of course. Nope. She didn't even know he was there. Like. She was busy working on this assignment, she didn't have time for distractions.

Would lying down on the mat be too much?

So it WAS Flitwick, that was cool. But the questions the professor posed... WOULD it be as simple to cast then? Soph thought back to last term when the acromantulas had attacked, and... yeah, it wasn't as easy to think. Her mind got a muddled with worry and concern for everyone around and she didn't have time to really THINK about spells, she had to just shoot them off by heart and hope the ones she thought of on instinct would keep her and the ones around her safe. It had been enough, but... she still didn't like it.

The adrenaline had fueled her a bit, sure, but there was definitely a big difference between performing a spell in class versus in a real life-or-death situation.

Glancing up at the board as writing appeared, Soph gave a short nod at the spells on the board. Yes. Those were at least instinctive ones for her, ones she wasn't all that concerned about being able to perform in a tragic situation.

Soph did not prefer to work alone, of course, but as she looked around... people were partnering up left and right, and soon enough, it looked like everyone had a partner or they were already working by themselves. So. Uh. Welp. She was just gonna... do that, too, then. No big deal. She'd just write down her own stuff and keep an eye out for someone who looked a little lost, in case they needed help.

Text Cut: Parchment

Disarming Charm
Incantation: Expelliarmus
Wand movement: Draw your wand going diagonally to the right, then swirl it upward, kind of like a slanted letter 'b' but make more swirls inside the 'b'.

Shield Charm
Incantation: Protego
Wand movement: Wave your wand in an upward, arcing flick. (OOC: Found this in a past class but also found SO MANY OTHERS.)
- There are variations of this charm, like Protego Totalum, Protego Maxima, Protego Horribilis, and Protego Duo.

I think if you believe in yourself, you can do anything.

It was hard to discuss something all by her lonesome and she didn't want to write out a whole big thing, but she'd happily explain more if someone asked her verbally. She had LOTS TO SAY but for the sake of not cramping her hand, she was gonna keep it simple on paper.

Flipping a page of his notebook and dipping his flamingo quill in the ink bottle, Yoongi waited till Zander sat down next to him before he turned to the Head Boy. He was so excited to be discussing this. Not only would it be handy for the duel tournament and he could use all the information he got but also he wanted to see how Zander thought of the subject. As he had seen him struggle with some spells in classes… Or was it the non-verbal? Anyways, Yoongi listened to what he had to say about the questions before he nodded.

“Filius Flitwick is amazing isn’t he?! I mean , a master duellist , a charms professor and protector of the castle?!” like WOW. Oh right they were supposed to discuss the questions. Don’t mind him, just an admirer of the old wizard. ….Was he still alive? On one hand he doubted it but on the other hand …focus Yoongi!

"I think that anyone can manage the shield charm easily when they have something worth protecting. he said. "Even in dangerous situations cause like you said, pressure helps with the intent" So yeah, he agreed with him on that. "Do we have to practice the spell?" he asked as he looked around him at the other students.

Mmmhhmm.... powerful dark wizard stuff... yep. Zeke craned his neck a little to get a clearer view of the blonde before realising he was rude, and returned his gaze to Angel. GRINS. Hi.

Though... what Angel said next didn't really correlate to what he had been thinking at all. Simple charms, basic charms, as useful as they were, would do little to save them from a mob of professionally trained or psychologically unstable killers. BOOOOOOOM! Dead. Still, he nod shrugged. Concentration would be the least of his problems in a context such as that.

"So you know how to cast them, right?" Incantations and wand movements, they had to discuss those too... no? It wasn't even a matter of ACTUALLY discussing them for him, but more a point of confirming that they both weren't stupid and knew this stuff. Lessons had happened, and Circe knows he's been using them for years now.

And Maggie... MAGGIE. Had she even noticed he was there? She seemed so lost in work, work, the work was boring, she should pay attention to HIM.

The 11 year old rolled his eyes at his cousin's persistence, this time dropping the darn thing to the floor and nudging it further away with his foot. He didn't want to talk about it and wasn't going to work at it. How did he plan to get better? He didn't. Why was this so hard to understand? He could be a wizard in other ways. Lots of people did it.

"I don't get nervous about stuff like that. It's the perfect time to prove just how awesome I am and I usually deliver." Blaise was a performer. Years of afterschool performing arts classes together could have told his cousin that.

He delivered, that was his thing. The fact his wand didn't work and was slowly changing this annoyed him to no end.

"What if the guy was way bigger than you and you knew he knew all the best spells that you haven't learned yet?"

No, David did not know how to cast those spells, but he wasn't going to say so yet. "Protego Maxima," Davie repeated under his breath, jotting that down too. "Yes, that seems to make sense. Is it very hard to cast two spells at once?" He sort of tilted his head at Hady, as though she had a lot of experience doing so. "I bet the professor was pretty good at keeping calm and carrying on in that sort of situation, though, if he was a master dueler. Maybe he just visualized his opponents as another champion dueler was all."

The sound of discussions was like music to her ears. As she levitated things from under the sheet on her desk, Astrid caught bits here and there. Her head would occasionally nod when she agreed with something mentioned, or she would tilt her head and consider. She was even glad to see the one's who decided to work on their own jot down their thoughts.

Levitating the last few items from her desk and setting them on a planned spot in the room, Astrid clapped her hands to regain the student's attention once more.

"I heard a lot of interesting points, great job everyone." She smiled them and continued. "For our main activity we are going to defend a fort today. Everyone please stand." She almost sing-sang. With a swish of her wand, the small objects she had placed on each corner of the room grew, grew and grew, until four castles big enough to house several students stood tall and proud; a red, a blue, a green and a yellow (thanks to magic the classroom WAS wider than normal). By the windows, away from the students, dummies of each house color stood at attention.

"We are going to put to play our casting and intent abilities. How well can we cast the Disarming and Shield Charm." Another wave of her wand and the mats disappeared. "Seeing as we have studied these charms, all years will be able to use both to help protect and defend their fort. Sixth and seventh years can choose to cast nonverbally." They've been doing so well with casting nonverbally she decided during this challenge they could have a choice.

"The goal is to keep the dummies from invading your respective castle. As you can see," Astrid walked over to the dummies and raised one of their hands. "They have 'wands.' They are not real wands, but they have been formatted to shoot sparks from them. The sparks are only enough to shove you. Not harm, but it can be rather annoying." Try charming several dozen and having them 'cast' on you. She still had bruises in areas she couldn't reach to apply bruise paste on. "The way to 'defeat' a dummy is by either disarming it or toppling it over."

Were they ready?

"To your castles please." This was going to be fun. The students would have an opportunity to apply what they discussed moments ago right now with these dummies.

After the students gathered in their respective spots, Astrid commanded the army of dummies to the center of the room. "May your intent be strong and your aiming on point." A flick of her wrist. "Go!"

The dummies grew alive. Blue and red dummies marched toward their castles, as so did the green and yellow, arms raised. It didn't take long before the first shots were fired.

---
OOC: Main activity time! (:
Goal: Everyone works with their house in order to protect their fort by applying the two charms they discussed.
- all students are allowed to use the Disarming and Shield Charm. Keep in mind that they have been reviewing these spells; their level of skill is up to you. ^__^ The sparks the dummies shoot are not enough to hurt, maybe just enough make your character stumble.
- the castles are big enough to house students, they are welcomed to inhabit them. Just remember not everyone fits. XD
- four posts maximum to complete the task. Two using the Disarming Charm and two using the Shield Charm.
- The activity will end on Thursday, October 22 @ 12 PM GMT -6. If you have any questions or concerns don't hesitate to VM, PM or DM me. Have FUN! <3

Oliver liked being partnered with Norah, but now it was time for an activity so they had to part ways. She was cool and all, but not they were against each other so she was his enemy. That's just how it had to be. Oliver waved and ran off to his own castle. At least they weren't directly against each other. He couldn't be enemies with someone who has given him a chocolate frog.

Oliver ran toward the green castle. The classroom should be set up like that all the time. It would be so much cooler than just desks. He immediately entered the castle. He had expected it to be bigger, big enough to fit all the Slytherins at least. No matter how it looked from the outside it was magic, so it could be bigger on the inside. But it was smaller than expected, definitely not big enough for them all. Since Olly had gotten there first, he could stay inside. Those were the rules, obviously.

"You can never invade Castle Slytherin!" He yelled dramatically. They were only dummies, but that was okay. It meant they he didn't have to worry about actually hurting anybody. Because he might have. Oliver was very determined to defend the castle against whatever invaders there may be. And there was one now.

"STUPEFY!" He flicked his wand toward the nearest dummy.

Eerrrrr. Was it just him or was Yoongi way too excited about this stuff for it to be real? Uh. Sure. Zander nodded his head to the question. He wasn't completely convinced that the Flitwick bloke was as great as Baxter or Yoogni were making him out to be, but apparently the Sixth Year was in love so Zander wasn't about to question it. Ahem. Riiiiiight. Yeah, sure.

But anywaaaaays, "That's true," he said thinking it over. 'Cause last year when it came to the spiders in the Greenhouse, Zander had cast a pretty mighty shielding charm and charms wasn't even his best subject. So pressure must help with intent at least a little bit. Though it could probably have opposite effects on some people... Zander was sure that could happen too. Some people crumbled under pressure, while some people died. Zander was sure he was the latter.

"Errr... Oh! We need to write down incantations and stuff," because he was sure that was a part of the instructions. SEE, Zander DOES listen SOMETIMES. "Incantation for the shield one is Protego
and the wand movement is errrr.....I think straight line drawn downwards?" He held his wand in the air doing it as he spoke to remind himself. Yeah. Sounded about right.

HE was sure he knew the one for the disarming charm as well, but he'd let Yoongi have it. And also NOW it was time for practice. Oops. Must've got a little carried away with all of Yoongi's fangirling over that Flitwick character. Zander respected that though.

Speaking of the main activity...

The clapping of hands drew Benny's attention back to the front of the room and Professor Baxter as she stood there which was no doubt the woman's intention. Defending a fort certainly sounded cool and all connected with the previous talk of Flitwick and the Battle of Hogwarts. Well what do you know. The Gryffindor obediently stood up as requested before watching as the so-called forts were built up around them in the corners of the slightly-enlarged room. Their colors made it clear this was going to be a house by house activity which meant.

Bye bye Adi.

Benny got the gist of it all even if he was hoping it didn't prove too difficult. Not to mention he wasn't all too confident in his non-verbals, especially in times of quick action. Good thing they had a choice this time around. "Good luck," he told his best friend before heading off to the Gryffindor space and taking up a spot to claim as his own outside it. Let the younger kiddos climb into it.

As for the assortment of red dummies heading their way,

and the few occasional sparks flying towards them and their fort,

"Expelliarmus!" he cast, aiming his red light towards the nearest would-be attacker's 'hand.' Take that and lose your fake wand.

Adi finished up doing some last minute practice at the same time as Benny and just as Baxter got their attention. He listened carefully to the instructions. Ohh! It was all Houses for themselves! Noooo problem! The PROUD Hufflepuff was all set to defend his House's fort! Yup!

"Right back at you,'' Adi told his bestie as he stuffed his belongings back into his bag. Right! Time to head over to the Puffer fort! He was going to stand out here to defend it. Mhmmm. And there was the first dummy heading at him and the rest of his House.

"Expelliarmus!'' One non verbal spell sent scarlet light shooting out of his wand after he had done the corresponding wand movement- sort of like tracing out the numeral six. WOOT! It was enough to send the wand flying from the approaching dummy's hand!

And activity time.

Paulina listened as Professor Baxter explained what they needed to do. Seemed pretty easy and she would try her best to defend Hufflepuff Castle even if she didn't really care about competitions or who won.

Belongings put back in her bag, Paulina made her way over to where she needed to be as the first dummies started advancing. Adi got a thumbs up as he managed to disarm one. Now it was her turn and she was going to try it non-verbally because she had really been practicing this method of spell casting in preparation of her NEWTs.

Eyes landing on a dummy, she got ready to cast.

Expelliarmus!

Bulls-eye.

She’d done the activity. Well, sort of. She’d thought about the spells that they were supposed to be discussing amongst themselves, and she’d listened to the others around her who were actually discussing it aloud. Brooklyn hadn’t been too surprised to see those who hadn’t chosen to partner up with anyone else, either. Mostly, Maggie. And now she was going to have to work with her housemate. All her housemates, actually. It was going to be interesting, but then at least they weren’t expected to team up with people from other houses. She could stay away from certain Hufflepuff prefects anyhow. It all worked for her, plus at least she knew her housemates would do the job. They wouldn’t allow themselves to fail.

Another lucky thing was that somehow she’d ended up nearly next to the green castle, so it was easy to step inside after the little firstie she remembered from the opening feast. She wasn’t about to get trapped outside. Not when castles were involved. Aiming her wand out a window opening, she pointed it straight at an approaching dummy. “Expelliarmus!,” she called out, tracing out the appropriate wand movement and barely watching to see if it hit before she’d retreated to head for a new vantage point. Maybe there was a way to gain higher ground, although now that she was inside it really seemed like a glorified kids’ castle. Not like it had towers and stuff like Hogwarts did.

Activity time!

And good that she's partnered up with Candice since she's a fellow Gryffindor. They're gonna be working together to save the forts from the enemy. Woot, this was sooooo cool and fun! And not to mention that they're gonna use shield charm and disarming charm for this activity, so in this lesson Ava would gonna practice those two charms that had been useful for dueling.

"Come on, Candice!" She spoke to the older lioness. There's a big blue dummy came toward their forts. Eeeeeeekkkk!!! The young lioness then cast the disarming charm. "Expelliarmus!" The scarlet bolt from her wand was sent out to the dummy. Not really powerful enough to knock it back but at least the fake wand was thrown out from the dummy's hand.

SPOILER!!: David

No, David did not know how to cast those spells, but he wasn't going to say so yet. "Protego Maxima," Davie repeated under his breath, jotting that down too. "Yes, that seems to make sense. Is it very hard to cast two spells at once?" He sort of tilted his head at Hady, as though she had a lot of experience doing so. "I bet the professor was pretty good at keeping calm and carrying on in that sort of situation, though, if he was a master dueler. Maybe he just visualized his opponents as another champion dueler was all."

Was it hard? Most likely she honestly hadn't tried to do so. "Uh, I really don't know. I've always cast one after the other. I would say it takes a good deal of skill though." It made sense that some skill and practice was required with that as with everything else. The kid had a good point with this and Hady nodded. "That would be help to keep calm. Viewing them as an equal and just an average dueler." She should give that a go sometime.

The fourth year spun around to face the front of the room where Professor Baxter was giving instructions for the activity. This was pretty awesome and totally hands on. That she liked the idea of already. Hady jumped to her feet and gave the younger boy and slight wave before moving to join the House of Snakes.

Choosing to remain outside the castle for the moment she flicked her wrist her wand landing firmly in her hand as the army dummies headed towards them. Sparks were flying and she had to get started. Quickly.

"Protego!" She cast tracing out the proper wand movement shield herself from the sparks that she now knew would push her backwards.