Defence Against the Dark Arts: Lesson Two - Obstacle Course (All Years)

Guest

As Finley struggled to answer her, stuttering more than he normally did, she knew he had seen her arching her back, and a slight smirk touched her lips. She bit it back at once, instead straightening and doing some simpler stretches. “The class is elongated for some purpose,” she commented lightly, purposely ignoring his stammers. “Do you think we’ll be doing something in pairs or teams?”

As the Professor came in, she stopped stretching, instead looking towards him as he began to speak of families, including in his apology some crap about knowledge and students, and barely hid an eyeroll. Seriously, if not for the fact that she needed Jake to remained wrapped around her finger, she would have lost it ages ago, what with the man being so… Pathetic in his manner of speaking. Well, not just his speech, but Maddie would never allow such words to fall from her lips.

No, she had most of the Professors of that place on her side, and she intended to keep it that way. They were such wimps in that way; even her, a 4th year, could manipulate them, supposedly ‘educated’ adults. It was a laugh, that was for sure.

As she listened to what the lesson of the day would be, though, her eyes lit up. A challenge. It was what she lived for, and what she thrived on, and she would be darned if she wasn’t the first to attempt it. The moment the question left the Professor’s lips, she stepped forward. “I would, Professor,” she said.

Moving towards the start of the course, she paused momentarily to smile warmly at him. “How old is Ivan now? He must be so adorable! I’m so happy for you, Professor! And for Professor Hollands, too, of course,” she commented, keeping her voice soft so it wouldn’t seem like she was trying to show off her knowledge in front of the class. At the same time, she made sure that her tone was cheerful and happy, with a hint of innocence, and nothing more, even though she really couldn’t give a rat’s behind about some idiotic baby two of her Professors had.

Hadn’t he ever heard of the phrase, “keep work and family separated”? Obviously not.

Eyeing the rope, she took a few deep breaths, mentally preparing herself. Climbing trees and ropes and all that sort of thing was nothing new, and having done gymnastics for a couple years (just because she had nothing better to do over the holidays, and it seemed like a good idea to keep nimble), it was really not going to be a problem. Nodding once to herself, she let her smile drop, instead focusing on the task at hand.

Taking off, she quickly scaled the rope ladder, not once faltering in her steps as she climbed. Soon, she was at the top, and she hesitated for just a second, long enough to slip out her wand, and then allowed herself to sit down, using her feet as brakes to slow her descent. Just before she reached the water, she murmured, “Glacius, and immediately felt the goosebumps rise on both arms as the temperature suddenly dropped.

Reaching forward, Maddie extended her wand so it passed her feet, and allowed the tip to touch the water. There was only one sure way to avoid the grindylows - not enter the water. There was really only one spell that would allow for that, and even though it didn’t freeze it the entire way through, a few inches of the surface turned to ice upon contact with the wand, and Maddie slid quite harmlessly onto the ice.

It shifted beneath her weight, for the spell hadn’t been all that strong, and she very slowly stood up, adjusting her position to spread the weight more evenly, and then started sliding her way across the ice as quickly as she could while being extra careful. She slipped a few times, grazing different parts of her exposed flesh on the ice, but other than that, it was a smooth journey. In a few moments, she was at the end of the pool, and then she simply pulled herself over the edge, and sat down, not quite ready to face the next part just yet.

Her tactic in all of this had been simple: avoid what could be avoided at all costs. She wasn’t going to go looking for a fight if she could simply side step it to begin with. Pointing her wand directly at herself, she muttered, “Ardor glacio,” and then pushed herself off the edge, landing with a soft thump into the fire filled pit, knees bent to avoid hurting herself. As soon as she straightened, she looked around, keeping an eye out for anything that may have been coming her way.

When nothing came immediately, she quickly cast aguamenti, allowing the water that erupted from the tip of her wand to douse some of the flames nearest to her. In any case, with that first spell still in effect, the flames she did miss merely tickled, and she ignored the sensation as she went on. Without warning, a sudden burst of flames hit her in the side, and she stumbled, losing momentary focus, and the water trickled to a stop as she fell to the ground, scraping her knee against the rough ground.

Wincing slightly, she got to her feet, thanking Merlin she had been smart enough to use the flame-freezing charm earlier; she was not burnt, simply grazed and slightly cut. Turning around, she saw a fire crab in the distance.

“Shit,” she cursed under her breath, realising her mistake at once; she had been looking out for things coming to attack her, and in that moment, forgot how fire crabs functioned. “Idiot! They shoot the stuff from their ass,” she scolded herself, quickly casting flipendo in the direction of the fire crab. It toppled over and she momentarily fought the urge to flip it the bird, with self-control barely winning, and then she moved on, conjuring up the water once more.

She made the rest of the way without much incident, except for that one bloody salamander that refused to be frightened away by the water. In the end, Maddie had to use a more offensive spell to push it away, but she had managed to do so before it got too close.

There had been one thing bothering her since the start of the course, and she was reaching that stage; how was she expected to cross a void? Water, fire, climbing… All this she could do with ease, but Maddie wasn’t sure how she would handle this one. And now, facing it directly, she was even more limited than she thought. There was no way she could jump over it, and it was impossible to walk around. It seemed too deep to jump down, walk across, and then climb back up, and for a good minute, she simply stared at it.

“Why couldn’t there have been ropes?” she murmured to herself, knowing that at the very least that would have helped. And then, it hit her. “Of course! Ropes!” she cried in frustration. “Finley, you lifesaver!” Indeed, it was Finley that offered her the solution, and not because he was there. No, Maddie had been helping him practice some of the spells he had learnt, and since he was a year older, she had picked up on some of what he had been studying.

For example, ventus. Concentrating as hard as she could, she murmured the spell, and curled her lip in disgust when nothing happened. It took another couple tries before it worked, and a thin piece of rope emerged from the tip of her wand. Maneuvering it, she anchored it to the other side of the wall, and then repeated the spell many more times. In a few minutes, she had built herself a makeshift rope bridge, only a few feet wide, but enough for her to crawl on. It held her weight, and very quickly and nimbly, Madison got herself to the other side.

Standing straight, she lifted her wand, preparing herself for what was next. A boggart. She glanced around, a frown on her face as she surveyed the empty floor. Where was it? Cautiously taking a few steps forward, she kept her wand in front of her, glancing around as she continued forward. Movement caught her attention and she spun to see a figure approaching.

“Riddi-” she started, and then the word died, and she fell silent at the sight that walked towards her.

Finley. Only, he wasn’t alone. He was with someone else. A girl. He was holding her hand, and as Madison watched, too stunned at the appearance of her friend to speak the spell, Finley looked her in the eyes.

“Meet my girlfriend,” he said, voice lacking his usual stutter. At those words, he turned his head towards the female latched onto his arm, bent down, and kissed her on her lips. And he didn’t stop, instead wrapping both arms around her as she appeared to lean into the kiss, pulling him closer and closing her eyes.

“Who is she?” Madison tried to say, but it came out as a half-squeak, and she continued to watch as Finley - her Finley, made out with some… some dark-brown haired female. She blinked, not quite believing it, already trying to figure out ways she could ruin the bitch who dared to claim Finley as hers, when reality came crashing down. DADA. Stretching. Obstacle course. Boggart. “Riddikulus!” she cried, and let out a giggle as the female tripped and fell backwards, pulling Finley down with her, and they landed in a pile of limbs, flailing about as they tried to stand and failed.

The boggart vanished as soon as she laughed, and Madison let out a deep breath. She was done, but she didn’t care. That experience with the boggart had shaken her more than she expected, for the shape it had taken had not been remotely what she could have ever imagined. Normally, it had to do with her sister dying, if previous classroom experiences had any say. But this time… Maddie shook her head, trying to get the image out of her mind.

No, Finley was still hers. She still had him in the palm of her hands. And he would still be her prize at the end of the day. But if he was just a game, why had she felt so jealous? Analysing it just confused her even more, and so she pushed all thoughts aside, instead focusing on the here and now.

One thing was for sure: nobody would ever find out what she had just seen. She would make sure of it.

Guest

“Do you think we’ll be doing something in pairs or teams?”

Finley nodded at her question, not one hundred percent confident in being able to talk without first squeaking. What was the matter with him? But, Finley's indecision as to what was wrong was masked by the fact the professor entered the room only a moment later. The talk of his family made Finley smile. He had been there when Naomi had Seen the child being born healthily, and in a weird way, Finley felt like he was closer to the baby than he really was.

But most of all, he was glad Professor Newbury was happy.

As the course was explained, the colour washed out of Finley's face, leaving him quite pale in that moment. Was Professor Newbury serious? But even as he questioned the man's sanity, he saw Madison step forward to go first. Concern ate at him as he watched he start the course, climbing up to the top and then slipping out of view. They couldn't see any more than that, though Finley could see the professor's face as he watched. Jake's face didn't show anything was wrong...

"Okay, who's next?"

The call for the next person made Finley moved forwards, he was shaking but he needed to know Madison was okay. He let out a small sigh at the bottom of the ladder before grabbing hold of it and starting his way up it. It took a fair bit of strength for Finley to pull himself up the flimsy ladder, pausing a couple of times to steady the rope ladder in his course. But after a good minute or so, Finley reached the top, and sat still for a moment, catching his breath an contemplating the challenge before him.

Taking out his wand, Finley took one more deep breath and slid down the slide, plummeting in to the water. The Grindylows moved quickly, but Finley equaled them, thinking hard on the spell he needed and clearing his mind of anything else. Relashio. Relashio. Relashio. The Ravenclaw repeated, pointing his wand at the Grindylows that advanced at first. Kicking as hard as he could, Finley hurried to the other side, continuing with his onslaught of the Revulsion Jinx. He felt a few grab him as he neared the edge, pulling him under the water with ease. Panicking for a moment, Finley tried to swim against the beasts before remembering his wand.

Shooting the spell at his feet once more, Finley freed himself and kicked forcefully to the surface, grabbing on to the side and pulling himself weakly up on to the edge. Spluttering out the water from his mouth, Finley once again took a moment to pause, collect himself and get himself ready for the next obstacle.

Fire.

Pushing himself to his feet, Finley took a moment to assess the situation before him. Salamanders could be defeated with the Freezing Spell - as could fire. Fire Crabs... Finley frowned, his mind going blank. Pushing his sodden hair from his eyes, Finley simply decided on the spell that would get him through the pit quickest. He'd hope the Fire Crabs weren't quick enough. Yes, that was the decision that Finley went for as he cleared his mind once more as Professor Ellingston had taught him the previous year, concentrating only on the effect he needed.

Glacius. Glacius. Glacius. He repeated against and again, pointing his wand at the fire and Salamanders before him. Slowly they began to freeze over, and Finley couldn't help the small smile that appeared.

Checking the location of the Fire Crabs, Finley aimed his wand around them and then readied himself. Running on ice wasn't going to be easy, but this was-

Pausing, Finley quickly took off his shoes and pointed his wand at them. Focusing hard, he thought of the idea of turning them in to ice skates. A second or two passed, Finley urging them to change and slowly the blades of ice skates appeared on the bottom. This was the only sport Finley had ever been capable of doing. Pulling on the skates, Finley checked one last time, and then sprang on to the ice, almost running in the skates past the fire crabs in a blur before reaching the other side, unharmed, and clear of fire. Jumping out of the skates on the other side, Finley left them there - not bothering to waste time transfiguring them back.

The void before him was a space he knew he could not jump, and for a moment, the boy paused.

How could he possibly get across?

Looking around him for a clue, Finley was left with nothing. His mind was blank. There didn't seem to be any way he would be able to cross... And then his eyes fell back to the skates he'd just taken off. If he could transfigure them in to skates...

Bending down the Ravenclaw once again thought very clearly on what he wanted. It was based on mythology, Hermes, the messenger of the gods and his shoes. Finley had read about Hermes a number of times, and he knew that it could work. The picture was clear in Finley's mind, and only a second later, the shoes mirrored that image.

Once again jamming the shoes in to place, Finley felt himself lift off of the floor and across the void. A grin was in place with his movements, but when he was ninety percent of the way across, Finley felt the movements falter. Looking down, he noted how the shoes were back to normal. Flailing for the side, Finley just managed to catch a hold so as not to fall. "Oh M-Merlin..." He muttered to himself, straining to keep his weight. "Oh Merlin." He continued to mutter, pulling himself up millimetre by millimetre.

Another few minutes of his muscles screaming at him to stop, and Finley rolled on to the side. Sweating profusely, and believing he'd been only too close to falling to what surely would have been his death, Finley remained led out on his back, panting. Professor Newbury was mad, Finley decided, together with Professor Jameson and Professor Balan.

Rolling on to his side, Finley got back up tiredly and moved to the last obstacle. An obstacle that he had hoped to never have to come across again. Boggarts. Finley stepped in to the space, looking around to try to find the creature. Out of the corner of his left eye, the shape of his father emerged.

Quick as he could, Finley thought clearly about what he wanted to happen. His father hanging upside down by his underwear, that was what he focused on as the foul words began to leave his father's mouth.

Using the wand movement they'd been taught the year before, Finley did the one thing he hadn't done throughout the whole course. "RIDDIKULUS!" The Ravenclaw bellowed, watching the image he'd set out in his head come to reality. A laugh left Finley's lips. The boggart retreated, and heavily, Finley crossed the final line of the course, submitting his time before he sat down, panting but feeling better about himself and his own capabilities than he ever had before.

Guest

As Lux listened to the professor talk and describe what they would be doing, she could feel a smile growing on her face. This was better than she ever expected it would be. Lux loved a good challenge and add to that the fact that there would be a certain amount of pain, it felt like she was in heaven. She began running through the different spells she could use and how much she would let herself feel the pain before allowing herself to get across. She didn’t anticipate much difficulty in getting through but the fun would be in relishing the danger she would be in. Although, she didn’t think the professor would let them get very banged up.

When she saw Madison going first, Lux wasn’t surprised. At all. She would have gone first had she not been thinking about the things the creatures would do to her and how much she would enjoy it. But when Finley went second, that was when she decided she had to do something. She was not about to let a stuttering wimp out do her. No way would she ever let that happen.

As he disappeared, she stepped forward and waited until the professor called for the next person to go before raising her hand and volunteering to go next. Glancing up at the rope, she cracked her knuckles and let out a deep breath. This was the easy part. Making a small jump, she made sure to have a tight grip on the rope before scaling it. The feeling of her muscles bunching and releasing to pull her weight up was relaxing. It wasn’t difficult at all and the only thing she needed to focus on was keeping her balance and making sure she had a tight grip. She reached the top in no time and pulled herself into a sitting position at the start of the slide.

Glancing down, Lux could see the grindylows swimming around, waiting to drown their next victim. She took a minute to imagine what that would be like, running out of oxygen and suffocating to death. That would be fun - feeling the life drain out of you slowly and not being able to do anything about it. Drawing herself out of her thoughts, she pondered how she would get across. She had two options, freezing the water and sliding across or taking a swim and using Relashio.

Deciding that the first would be too easy and that she wanted to see the creatures, she didn’t hesitate to push herself off the slide and dive into the water. Breaking into a breaststroke, she forced her eyes open and caught sight of the creatures drawing closer. Fascinating! She was so absorbed in watching them that she was too slow to react when they pulled her down. In her panic, she struggled, trying to get out of their grip as her lungs burned for oxygen. Get a grip, Lux and think! her brain yelled at her. She pointed her wand at the creature and yelled out a relashio, relieved when they let her go. Kicking her feet, she propelled herself to the surface and took a deep breath of glorious oxygen, then smiled wryly. Well, now she sort-of knew what it was like to drown. For the rest of the swim, she made sure to have her wand ready and got across without any more setbacks.

Lux pulled herself out of the water and took a minute to shake off the excess water. She grinned at the pit of fire. Oh yes. Her favourite part. It reminded her of the rituals she’d read about and how some people walked on hot coals as a form of showing courage to their tribe. She’d tried it once and nearly burnt her foot off. It had been fun to see the orphanage manager freak out and rush her to the hospital. She’d received the scolding of her life and toilet duty for six months but it had been totally worth it.

She could see the salamanders and fire crabs in the pit. An idea popped into her head to just run across and relish the flamed around her but even standing here at the edge of the pit where there was nothing to harm her, she could feel the intense heat burning her skin. If she did just run across, the professor might do something to get her out and prevent her from being hurt and she would not want that to spoil her fun. Plus, she might actually die and while she liked to imagine various ways of dying, she didn’t actually want to die. Not right now.

Deciding the next best thing to do was use water, she gripped her wand and cast an Aguamenti and watching as steam rose after the fire was put out around her. She grinned, imagining she was being steamed alive. The first time a fire crab shot a burst of fire out at her, her shirt burst into flames where the fire had landed, eating up the material and scorching her skin in the process until she managed to put it out with Aqua Eructo. Learning her lesson, she cast an Arania Exumai at all the salamanders and fire crabs too close to her, making it across without much difficulty and even throwing in a few Fera Verto at them for some fun.

The void that came after wasn’t that much of a big deal to her. It was easy enough to take off her shoes, stand on them, cast Alarte Ascendare to get her over the hole then Descendo to get her back down before putting them on. The mistake came when she was too confident in her ability to get rid of the boggart. She’d gone to the next obstacle, thinking it wouldn’t be that difficult to say Riddikulus and laugh – she’d laughed plenty of times before; when she made a boy pee in his pants in front of the whole class, when she put glue in the butt long hair of a girl and watched her scream and cry when it dried and she couldn’t get it out, when she tricked someone into drinking the cup of coffee she picked out of the trash can and countless other times. But what she hadn’t expected was what he creature would turn into.

She watched the scene unfold before her. A couple. It wasn’t difficult to assume they were her parents. She could tell by how much she looked like the woman. “I hate her. I hate the baby. I don’t want her,” she could hear the woman saying. No difficulty in assuming the baby was Lux. ”Then get rid of her. I don’t want her either,” the man – her dad – said. ”I wish I’d just aborted her. That would have gotten rid of her for good.” the woman continued.

Lux felt something tickling her cheek. Tears. She hadn’t cried since she was two years old. Nothing could ever make her cry. Nothing except knowing the people who were supposed to love her, take care of her, raise her – the people she was supposed to be able to rely on – didn’t want her. She could deal with nobody loving her. She could deal with everybody in the world hating her. But she’d spent so much time thinking about her parents and why they would dunk her on the steps of an orphanage in the middle of winter without even a blanket or milk bottle or note or clue to their identity.

When she was younger, she would make up stories about how they couldn’t care for her because they had to save the world or because they couldn’t give her a better life. But never did she ever imagine it was because they hated her and didn’t want her. For the first time in her life, she wanted to get rid of the pain she could feel burning in her, making her throat constrict. A shudder went through her body and it took her moment to realise that she was on her knees. No. No. No. How could her parents not want her? She was just a baby. What had she ever done to make them hate her so much? Why? Why? Why?

So many questions. And no answers.

Jake stood quietly at the side of the course, checking each person's progress. His wand in hand in case anything should happen to any of the students who tried the course. Though, of course, Jake had taken the necessary precautions already. The Grindylows were trained to take the students down in to an air tank, when Jake could help them out. The Fire he could quench before the students were hurt too much. The void was bottomed with a crash balloon that took the weight of all of the students easily.

And the Cornish Pixies, or Boggarts, Jake could defeat.

Madison and Finley had fired through the course in a manner that impressed Jake, and neither had required his help, though he had been alert on a number of occasions to make sure that neither hurt themselves. When they'd come to him to ask if they could head to the Hosptial Wing, Jake had agreed and said he would send their reports to them later.

However, things didn't seem to quite work out with the next student. The Grindylows had almost held Lux under water for too long, and he'd only just stopped himself from intervening when Lux fired the spell at the Grindylows. The next couple of obstacles were dealt with quite well, but the last one stumped the Slytherin.

Jake moved a little closer, waiting for the witch to try the spell, but nothing happened...

He waited just a little longer, noting the Boggart moving closer, and as Lux sunk to her knees, Jake moved himself between the two. The boggart twisted for a moment and then the figure of his sister formed - he expected as much and the sad face of his sister was easy enough to dispel with the words Riddikulus leaving his lips only a moment later. A laugh left his lips as he turned his attention back to Lux, lowering himself to her level and cautiously holding out a hand.

"It's okay, you're done for today, come with me." He insisted softly, helping the witch off the course in her own time.

Though, what Jake hadn't acknowledged...

Was the small bundle of baby blankets in the Boggart version of Victoria's arms.

________________________________________________
~ Auror ~ Profile ~ DADA Professor ~
~ In a Relationship ~ 36 ~ Father ~ 6' ~ American Accent ~

Guest

Kayleigh had gotten lost - again - and by the time she showed up at the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, she was just in time to hear the Professor start class, and quickly made her way to the front of the room. At least she hadn't needed to wait to find out what they would be doing that day. As the first person took off, Kayle looked towards the Professor. “Hi” she greeted, smiling brightly at him. “I'm Kayleigh, and I'm new, so I'm not sure I know enough to finish the course but I want to try anyway. Uhm, you won't let us die right?” she inquired, tone cheerful the entire way; she wasn’t completely worried. After all, this was school, and she was a first year, and she trusted her teachers would teach and not harm.

"Hi Kayleigh, I'm Jake." Professor Newbury replied warmly. "And you can try, of course, this is what all of this is for." He paused, a smile appearing on his lips at the question, and Kayle decided that she liked him at once. "Of course not, you won't die, but I can't promise you won't hurt yourself a little bit. But, we can fix that in no time!"

Nodding in answer, she frowned a little. Hurt a little? That wasn’t too bad. After all, she was clumsy by nature, and living in a house that had both a forest and a lake nearby, and with parents who weren’t afraid of her falling down, she got cuts and scrapes and bruises all the time. Her mother just told her to get up and keep going. If it was bad, Aurelia would put some medicine on it, or cast a spell (it was useful having a healer as a mum) and send Kayle back off to play.

So she had learnt how to distinguish between something that needed medical treatment, something she would just wash off with water and move on, and something she would just shrug off. This, therefore, was not really something she was worried about.

Kayle, however, didn't want to go first, though, and so watched and waited as another two other students, both older than her, went forward. She watched them go up the ladder and disappear from sight, and then tried to imagine what it was like.

The moment the Professor called for the next person, without quite realising what she was doing, she stepped forward with a grin, the impulsive side of her winning yet again. This was going to be such fun! Stepping up to the rope ladder, she glanced up, craning her head to see the top. "Woahhh," she exclaimed. "That's high!"

She wasn't scared, though. Why would she, when she had a treehouse at home that had the exact same type of ladder leading up? Okay, so this one was higher, and narrower, but it was pretty much the same, and so Kayleigh didn't much hesitate, instead going straight to the top rather quickly. The moment she saw the slide, she let out a squee of excitement and promptly sat down, pushing off at once. As she hit the water, she kicked upwards, and relaxed, having grown up around water.

"Oooo what's that?" she muttered to herself, as she saw something moving towards her. "It's so cute. Hi there thing!" It started reaching out towards her, and she stared at it, wondering if it was trying to be friends with her. What was it the Professor had called them? Gryf... Gra... Grin... Grinds.. Grinda... Grindylows! That's right! Oh. Wait. Isn't that those things that try and drown... Uh oh. As she came to that conclusion, she felt one tentacle wrap around her foot and her eyes went wide as she felt herself being pulled under.

Fumbling for her wand, she managed to pull it out from its storage position, and, as best she could underwater, muttered everte statum. At once, the creature was flung away from her, and Kayle broke to the surface, taking a huge breath, and then started swimming towards the end of the pool. More of those cute creatures neared her and she kicked at them, using the same spell to get them away, until she reached the edge and pulled herself up.

"Bye things!" she said, still quite cheerfully. It wasn’t their fault that they had tried to drown her. After all, it was just what they knew, and she couldn’t really blame them. Sitting on the edge, she stared at the fire for a short while, wondering how she’d survive that. “Oh, water, duh!” she commented a moment later.

“Aguamenti, she muttered, and from her position on the edge of the tank, started spraying it around, putting out all the fire she could. It took a long time, for there was a lot of fire, but eventually, as each fire went out, the salamanders did, too, and Kayleigh couldn’t help but feel guilty, calling out a soft ‘Sorry!’ each time. Why did she have to kill them? She felt so bad that she had to put out the fires, but there was nothing else she could do. She knew that there was such thing as a flame freezing charm but she had not learnt how to cast it yet, only the theory, and so the only option was to put out each fire, and the salamanders with it.

The fire crabs were another question altogether, and as Kayle dropped down into the pit, she made her way across, using Flipendo and Everte Statum against the fire crabs before they had a chance to shoot fire out of their bums at her. Did that mean it pooped fire? The thought made her giggle, as she imagined flaming poop, and she continued on her way, making it to the end of the pit without issues.

Almost there.

But then, she was met with the pit, and she had absolutely no idea how she would get across. She sat down, then, at the edge of the pit, allowing her legs to dangle freely, as she thought. Was it possible to make her legs longer and just … step across the gap? Probably, but it was a very very very very very long gap, and she wasn’t sure she would be capable of such things. It would have been so very cool to make wings appear, too, something she knew was technically possible, but she didn’t quite know how to do it yet; she could just about manage to change her hair from curly to straight or vice versa, so doing something like adding wings was nearly impossible.

More experienced metamorphmagi would be able to, she was sure. But she was 11. And she wasn’t capable of things like that. So, absolutely unsure as to how to complete it, she just sat there and pondered. A minute went by, and then another, and another, and finally, she simply stood, shrugged, and decided that there was no other way around it. Casting lumos, she tried to peer down the bottom, but despite the light, could only see, well, black.

“Huh,” she mused, then looked around, and, finding nothing, took off her shoe and tossed it into the pit. Listening for a couple seconds, she heard it land with a soft thud, and knew that there had to be a bottom. It didn’t sound like it was too steep a drop, either, and so, backing up a little, Kayle nodded her agreement with her plan.

She was going to try and jump it.

Taking a running start, she was just at the edge when her bare foot caught on the shoe of the other foot and she tripped over herself, stumbling forward and plunging straight into the pit. “AhhhhhhHHHHHHHHH!” she yelled, not so much from the fear of falling than she shock of it all; she hadn’t realised she had tripped till she found herself falling face first into the black of the void.

She fell for a few seconds, turning over midair, and then landed on something soft and bouncy. “Oof,” she murmured, slightly dizzy from her time in the air, but otherwise unharmed. She raised a hand to her head, pushing her hair out of her eyes, and blinked. “Uhm. Where am I?” she asked aloud, seeing nothing in the darkness, and unable to find her wand (which had fallen out of her pocket as she fell). “Ooooo echo!” she added, moments later, and giggled a little as the last word did, indeed, echo.

She wasn’t hurt, and rather pleased with herself for having come this far. But there was just one problem - getting out.

[[OOC: Permission granted to GM Jake by, well, Jake. <3]]

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No, no, no. This is not happening to me. My parents can't hate me. No. It's all wrong Lux chanted over and over in her head as the tears streamed down her cheeks, her eyes squeezed shut. No. They left you because they could't take care of you and wanted you to be with a family. They wanted a better life for you.

Yeah. Keep telling yourself that the functioning part of her brain shot back. What happened to no more crying? What happened to never showing any weakness? It was all her fault for thinking that her parents were good people. She only had herself to blame for holding on to a glimpse of hope that they could be a family again.

What would that have been like? Would she have turned out different if she'd grown up with a normal family? Perhaps kinder? More compassionate? Less of a female dog to others? But what did she care? She wouldn't ever change a thing about herself. No. Bullying and humiliating others was too much fun.

But would she even enjoy doing that had she been raised differently? What if she hadn't been soaked in an environment where it was either kill or be killed? Where she was forced to look out for herself? Where she had to become who she was to survive? Because that's who she was, right? A survivor. She was never one to give up when the going got tough. No. She made herself tougher and walked through whatever hell threw in her way and she wasn't about to change that.

Lux was so engrossed in her thoughts that she failed to realise the professor had stepped in to defeat the boggart. It was only when he spoke that she realised she wasn't alone. Letting out a muggle swear word, she stood to her feet in one swift motion.

"Leave. Me. Alone," she demanded, her voice hard and angry. It was bad enough that she failed the obstacle course after being so confident she could ace it. She wasn't about to ruin her reputation even more by letting the professor witness her break down any longer. At least it hadn't been one of the other students.

She turned on her heel and stalked out, not glancing back. She desperately needed to do something to vent her anger. Maybe kill something or scream at a younger year until they pooped in their pants and had nightmares about her. Anything to get rid of the intense pain eating her heart away steadily.

"Leave. Me. Alone,"

The help Jake had offered was refused, and the professor moved out of the witch's way as she moved to leave. He understood the idea of failing, of not being able to beat a Boggart. And he knew that people also needed time, so he let her go in that moment. He would ask another of the Slytherins to check on her later for him, and to go to a member of staff should anything be wrong.

With Lux gone, Jake summoned the next person to have a go, and a small Gryffindor witch stepped forward. He couldn't help but smile, and give her an encouraging thumbs up before she started. He watched her closely - being the youngest to attempt the course thus far, he knew the course would go easier on her (to the level of her ability, anyway) so he wasn't overly worried.

The first two obstacles were overcome quite well for a first year, and Jake smiled to himself as she got to the void, wondering how the child would attempt this bit. Jake was more than surprised at her choice, too, the void was obviously way too long for her to jump, but she tried no less.

Shaking his head with an amused smile as she screamed before hitting the very soft bottom, Jake moved to the edge, and with a flick of his wand, it rose up until it was level with the floor. "Nice try, Kayleigh, you did very well!" Jake insisted, giving her a warm smile. "You may go, I'll post up your results later! Oh, and next time you get to a void like that, try the levitating charm on an item of clothing to get across." He suggested, motioning her to the door at the end of the room for her to leave.

"See you next lesson!" Jake added, moving back to the front of the class.

"Would would like to go next?" Jake asked those remaining.

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~ Auror ~ Profile ~ DADA Professor ~
~ In a Relationship ~ 36 ~ Father ~ 6' ~ American Accent ~

Posts : 1364 Join date : 2015-12-20

Admin Closure of Class.

Thank you to those who have posted in this class - unfortunately the professor cannot finish up the class, so an admin will close it. Points will be given as follows:

10 points for attendance
5 points for any question being answered
Up to 20 points for participation

Thank you for your participation - this will still count as one of your three classes.

If you have any questions in regards to the points being handed out (either as a student or professor) please contact myself or another admin via PM to discuss them.

House Points
Ellie Brennham = 10 points for attendance
Kayleigh Walters = 10 points for attendance + 20 points for participation = 30 points.
Elyah Croft = 10 points for attendance
Evelyn Kovak = 10 points for attendance
Finley Allen = 10 points for attendance + 20 points for participation = 30 points.
Lux Bailey = 10 points for attendance + 20 points for participation = 30 points.
Madison Bishop = 10 points for attendance + 20 points for participation = 30 points.

TOTAL:
Gryffindor: 40
Hufflepuff: 10
Ravenclaw: 40
Slytherin: 60

» Defence Against the Dark Arts - Lesson Two (All Years)
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» Defence Against the Dark Arts (Lesson Two - All Years)