Clara Goldstein's Test

Clara thought fast as Professor Newbury grabbed his wand. Obviously, he was going to go easy on her--she was a student after all, if he really wanted to, he could probably take her down within seconds. Still, that didn't mean he was just going to let her win. After a moment's consideration, she decided her first move would have to be used to test what level of difficulty he would throw at her.

"Expelliarmus!" she shouted, as soon as he turned to face her. He knocked it aside with a flick of his wand. His lips twitched upward, but he didn't retaliate. He was waiting for her to try again, playing on the defensive for the time being. Okay. She glanced around the classroom, looking for anything she could use to her advantage. No chairs, no desks aside from the professor's, which was several feet behind him...she kept that in mind, a plan beginning to form in her head.

"Stupefy!" She aimed it at his legs. He jumped backwards and grinned, but still did nothing. "Depulso!" She aimed higher, and he casually swatted it aside again. Then he took a step forward.

"Flipendo," he said, and she leaped out of the way. She modified her plan, thinking quickly.

"Expelliarmus," he shot at her again, and she jumped back to her previous position, while at the same time pointing her wand at the floor slightly in front of her and saying "Spongify!"

He gave her an odd look as a small patch of the floor softened and turned rubbery. Then she pointed her wand at the desk behind him. "Accio!"

The desk slid forward across the classroom floor, and would have steamrolled him if he hadn't dived out of the way. It shot toward Clara, and she jumped on the bouncy floor in front of her, springing high into the air and landing with a slight wobble on top of the desk that now stood where she had been standing a moment ago. "Expelliarmus!"

Professor Newbury, preoccupied with rolling to his feet, was caught off guard, and his wand was ripped from his hand. It flew across the room and landed near the door.

"Petrificus totalus!" Clara tried, but he was too quick, and dodged it easily. She stood atop the desk, panting slightly as she tried to think, building up her energy for one last burst.

"Points for ingenuity, I suppose," the professor said with a slight chuckle. He balanced lightly on the balls of his feet, watching her movements carefully, prepared to dodge again. Clara caught her breath and planned her next actions carefully. She still needed to conserve her energy for the next two stages.

"Flipendo," she said, then immediately switched her aim to floor at the professor's feet and said, "Glisseo."

Technically, it was a spell for turning stairs into slides. But Clara figured that, logically, in the absence of stairs, it should make other surfaces slippery too.

As the professor sidestepped, his foot slipped slightly--enough to throw him a little off balance. "Petrificus totalus!" Clara struck as quickly as she could, taking advantage of the moment, however brief. Professor Newbury's arms snapped to his sides, and his legs locked together.

Clara clambered off the desk, feeling a little drained.

(OOC: I didn't think there were any problems, but if there are, please tell me.)

Clara shook her head, taking her time to finish her chocolate so she could plan her next course of action. She knew she couldn't hope to dodge everything--she was not the most agile of people, and she never relied on athleticism if she had any other choice. She gazed around the room, assessing the objects, and trying to determine which directions the water would come from. Can I use any spells other than the Seize and Pull charm? If I could, I would just freeze the water, but he probably doesn't want me to do that--that would make it too easy.

The smallest object was a pinecone, about the size of her fist, and the largest was a table, the size of a small oven. I do not want to get hit by that. Either he's very confident in my abilities, or he's charmed it so it won't hurt if it hits me.

It was a random assortment of things as well--a chalkboard eraser, a chair, a quaffle, a mixing bowl--Clara sized them all up, determining which order they would be thrown at her. Then she nodded at Professor Newbury to signal she was ready.

A jet of water shot at her from the left, and she jumped backward to avoid it, her head twisting to look for its origin. She saw nothing. The first object flew high through the air, and she pointed her wand at it. "Carpe retractum!"

A whip-like beam of light shot from her wand and snagged the object, and she jerked her wand to the side to fling it past her. A second later, another jet of water sprayed from above her head, on her right side. Again, she stumbled out of the way, just barely missing it, and feeling clumsy and off balance. The next object hurtled toward her.

She repeated her previous actions, keeping track of where the next object would come from, and being ready to leap aside at a moment's notice. The next jet came from the left again, and shot at her legs. She jumped forward this time, and looked toward the next object--an old boot. It flew at her head, and she caught it with another carpe retractum, but as she did, another jet of water approached from her right. Reflexively, she swung the boot around, and knocked the water aside. Some of it bounced off and splashed her, but a look from Professor Newbury told her to keep going.

The quaffle was next, and it flew upward in an arc. As she caught it with her wand, she jumped backward, anticipating the next jet of water, which crashed against the wall on the other side of the room. She only barely had time to drop the quaffle before the next object came at her, followed by another burst of water. Right, they're getting faster. By the end, I might not have time to catch one before the next one is thrown.

She jumped backwards again, beginning to notice a pattern in the jets of water. The next one should come from the bottom left.

The next object was a chair. It wasn't too large, but it looked solid, and relatively heavy. She'd barely gotten the words "carpe retractum" out of her mouth when an even larger object was thrown. She caught the chair, and felt her arm being dragged down by the weight. Swinging her wand in both hands, she flung the chair at the other object, hoping to knock it aside. She didn't know how many more carpe retractums she could manage--her breathing was getting laboured, and even though she knew where the water would come from, she still only stumbled back at the last possible second as it shot from the bottom left. Multitasking was not her strong suit.

There were only two objects left, and one of them, a cauldron, was already in the air. She raised her wand, thinking bottom right as she did so. "Carpe retractum," she panted, but the light from her wand was dim, and as it latched onto the cauldron, it fizzled out. Shoot, was all her mind could manage before she dove out of the way, slipping and landing hard on the wet floor. She was disoriented, unsure of what she needed to look out for next. Her eyes drifted to the table, which had begun its upward arc. Wait, no, bottom ri--

As she attempted to scramble to her feet, she was met with a jet of water splashing against her shoulders and knocking her back down to the ground. Everything stopped. She coughed some water out of her mouth, and sat there for a moment, dripping wet. "Ugh," she grumbled, wiping off her face and looking up at the Professor on the other side of the room. Does that mean I failed? Do I not get to go on to the next test?

Clara pushed herself to her feet, feeling drained, physically and mentally. The last test had thrown so much at her at once--literally--and it left her feeling overwhelmed and overstimulated. And even though Professor Newbury had congratulated her on her performance, she still couldn't help but think of everything she should have done better--after all, she'd still failed. Shaking it off, she focused on the box. She still had one more test to get through.

She thought back to her original preparation before entering the room. So far, she'd actually been relatively accurate in her predictions. Defense against people was the first test, defense against objects was the second, so the third...was likely defense against creatures. That made sense, considering the box the professor was sitting on. So what could be in the box? It wasn't a huge box, so it couldn't be anything too drastic. She ruled out dragons, erumpents, and blast-ended skrewts. Cornish pixies, maybe? Gosh, she hoped not. She hated those.

Whatever it was, Clara just wanted to stun it and get it over with. With a sigh, she adjusted her grip on her wand, and nodded to the professor to signal she was ready. Professor Newbury got off the box, and moved to the far side of the room. Then he flicked his wand, and the box opened.

At first, nothing happened. Then an image started to materialize on the floor in front of her. She took a step back, her knuckles white on her wand as she prepared herself for some sort of shapeshifting monst--

She froze. Her breathing was shallow, but the faint scent of blood permeated her nostrils, and it made her stomach lurch.

Her parents lay dead on the floor. Her father's glasses were cracked, and blood ran down the side of his face. Their clothing smoldered slightly, as if they'd been in some sort of accident. Their eyes were open.

Clara's stomach lurched again as she met her mother's glassy eyes. She tried to move, tried to take a step backward, or perhaps flee the room entirely, but she couldn't. Her feet refused to move, her whole body felt numb. It's not real.

She closed her eyes, the image burned into her mind. It's not real. It's not real. It's a boggart. It's an illusion created from your greatest fears. Everything seemed to stack up on top of her--too much had happened, and she was already exhausted. She felt tears start to well up behind her eyelids. Oh, for Merlin's sake, be rational. You know how to make it go away. Stop crying and do it.

She took a deep breath, and the tears dissipated. She opened her eyes, and pointed her wand at the boggart.

"Riddikulus," she rasped. Nothing happened. She cleared her throat, remembering she had to think of something funny. What in the world could possibly be funny? Christ,
just think of something ironic.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Professor Newbury with his hand on his wand, watching her, ready to intervene if need be. She gave him a barely perceptible shake of her head. She could do this.

She pointed her wand again, trying not to look directly at the bodies on the floor. "Riddikulus," she repeated, her voice stronger. A sharp crack resounded through the air. The bodies disappeared.

In their place hovered a Cornish pixie. It wouldn't make much sense to anyone else, but she thought back to before the box was opened, and how she'd hoped it wouldn't be Cornish pixies, and then she scoffed at how quickly her priorities had changed. A small huff of breath, barely a laugh, but the boggart disappeared.

She slowly breathed in, then out. Then she decided she'd rather reflect on this experience later, when she could think more clearly, and pushed it out of her mind.