DADA: Lesson Three - Petrificus Totalus (Years 1-4)

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Though she looked calm and prepared for the lesson, Lyra was annoyed at herself for not being quick enough to answer Professor Newbury's question. Then again, the Gryffindor kid seemed to need the points—Gryffindors rarely did well in the class, and the kid's attempt at casting a spell before the lesson even started did not help their reputation at all. She supposed it was what happened when you put together a bunch of kids whose definition of courage was 'causing trouble'.

Truth be told, Lyra didn't care much about points. Though Ravenclaw wasn't doing as well as Slytherin and Hufflepuff in the House Points race, she knew that Ravenclaws were at least always examining life and questioning everything. The more artistic ones worked hard on improving their craft, and some students focused their energy on mastering a subject. This, however, didn't stop her from feeling conscious about her reputation in class. After all, as a First Year Muggleborn, she had a lot to prove.

She glanced quickly at the Gryffindor, who seemed like he'd rather run 20 laps around the Hogwarts grounds. There was a hint of a smile on her face. The kid can have his points for now. Her time will come. For now, she needed to focus on learning how to cast Petrificus Totalus and understanding the theory behind the spell.

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Anya stood quietly on the cushioned floor as the gryffindor answered Professor Newbury's question. She had never really been one for answering teacher's questions. She was always fearful of having the wrong answer and she was sure that having no asnwer was better than having the wrong one. She also did not know much about the spell that they would be practicing today. Defense against the Dark Arts was not one of her best classes.

Though it would have been nice to be able to provide an answer, Anya was proud that the Gryffindor had been able to redeem himself. While she had laughed slightly when his wand had been taken from him, she felt that he had not thought about the consequence of acting before instructed. The Ravenclaw girl seemed rather annoyed at the Gryffindor. Anya figured that this was because the Ravenclaw had known the answer.

Anya maintained her silence as she waited for further instruction.

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"This. Has. Got. To. Stop," she panted, to herself, as she ran down the corridor, skidding around corners and past rooms. The Gryffindor was late - and not just by a few seconds or even two minutes - for Defense Against the Dark Arts, and she had been mentally scolding (and at times, verbally) herself as she ran. She hadn't been late to class for a while now, having gotten into a routine, but somehow, today, she had messed up the timing when she stopped to chat with a friend.

Finally reaching class, more than casually out of breath, she burst in, tried to find her footing, and then toppled over as the uneven soft material dipped slightly beneath the weight of her. "Ooohh," she muttered, although it was muffled as her face was buried in the cushion that was the floor. Pushing herself to a seating position, she looked around, slightly dazed from the suddenness of the fall but completely unharmed.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry!" she blurted the moment she caught sight of the Professor. "I didn't mean to be late I was -" Her eyes drifted to the two words on the board and her features lit up in excitement. "Ooohhh is that why the floor is so weird today? That's the body brandi..." She paused, frowned a little. "No, wait. Binding. Body-binding spell. Curse? Hex? Something... Right?"

Slowly, she got to her feet and cautiously made her way closer to the front of the room, where she sat down again. This was going to be an interesting class.

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A look of relief crossed Stephen's face upon seeing Kayleigh enter the DADA classroom. There was amusement mixed with the relief—Kayleigh, after all, had fallen to the floor and just as quickly brushed the embarrassing incident aside with her boundless energy. How she could do that, Stephen didn't know. All he knew was that Kayleigh made his classes a lot more fun, and that he wanted to get to know the girl more.

If it were any other girl, Stephen would probably have been more hesitant to approach. There were so many little cliques at Hogwarts, and the pureblood prejudice towards muggleborns didn't help. Kayleigh, however, did not seem to care about such things. She had acted so friendly towards Stephen, all because they both found the crups cute in Care of Magical Creatures. He wished the other Hogwarts students would be more like her, except perhaps not as energetic, since Kayleigh already had enough energy for both of them.

He moved closer to Kayleigh, who luckily had not chosen to take a seat too far away from him. 'Hey, Kayleigh,' he whispered with a smile and a wave. Kayleigh would probably not hesitate to use Petrificus Totalus on him, but at least he knew that with her, it would be fun.

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Lucifer had followed closely behind a Gryffindor. A small one, who had, quite literally fallen at his feet when they stepped through the door. Raising an eyebrow at the stupidity of the child, Luke had stepped around the witch and moved away from the others.

He caught sight of the board, with it's two words scrawled on it.

This lesson might just be interesting.

Moving to stand behind his sister, Luke checked the professor wasn't looking before he lowered his voice. "You'll work with me." He told Lyra, his tone as cold as always when he spoke to his sister. This was too good an opportunity not to be capitalised. Firing spells at his sister for the sake of 'learning'. Yes, Luke was going to make sure that he held the upper hand, make sure Lyra was reminded of her place before they went back in to the Muggle world for the summer.

"Isn't the spell a body freezing spell."

"Not quite, Ryder. But quite close, actually." Jake responded to the boy, giving him a small smile that said well done. The kid might be a spot of trouble due to his eagerness to try things out, but he wasn't a bad kid.

Only a moment later someone tumbled through the door.

Just about managing to keep a laugh from leaving his lips, Jake moved forward slightly with a smile on his lips. "Are you okay, Kayleigh?" He asked, but the witch was apologising for being late, and then her eyes moved to the board.

"No, wait. Binding. Body-binding spell. Curse? Hex? Something... Right?"

"Right, you are!" Jake responded with a smile towards the first year. She was adorable - Jake had learnt this much already from the two lessons he'd taught. "Take five points for Gryffindor for your answer." He added a moment later, turning his attention back to the class as a whole.

"Please partner yourselves up and try out the spell. We will be using only this spell, if I see anyone attempting to use any other spells, I will be putting you in detention. When you're ready, please begin." Jake explained, before remembering. "Oh, and spread out, so that you're not falling in to the walls or each other."

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~ In a Relationship ~ 36 ~ Father ~ 6' ~ American Accent ~

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[[OOC: Note that Jelena is an NPC though she is Elleon's sister and a first year. She is only there to interpret for him.]]

Elleon had been waiting quietly with Jelena for the professor to start the class. He had no idea what the spell was and when he asked Jelena, she couldn't help him either. This added to his worry. Besides experiencing studying at a Hearing school for the first time, Elleon was completely clueless to this magic thing. He knew he would have to speak some time or other - it was the whole reason his parents doubled his speech therapy classes - but he'd hoped he had some time before using his voice.

He kept his eyes on the board, trying to sound out the words in his head, involuntarily shaping his lips to form the words. Why did the spell have to have such a long name? He tapped Jelena's shoulder and asked her to help him with those two terrifying words. He watched her lips carefully as she said it for him and tried to mimic the shape a few times until Jelena nodded enthusiastically. But he still wasn't confident and turned his attention back to the board.

It wasn't until Jelena waved her hand in front of him that he realised the professor was speaking. He didn't look at the man though but kept his eyes on his sister, watching her interpret. He didn't bother answering, since he didn't know the answer but kept his eyes on Jelena as she interpreted the answer another boy gave.

He nodded his head and was about to thank her when a movement caught his eye. It was a Gryffindor girl getting acquainted with the floor. He grinned, guessing she wasn't hurt since the cushion would soften her fall. He saw her lips moving and turned to Jelena for the interpretation. He grinned again. She was funny. He asked Jelena for her name, having missed the professor's concerned question and Jelena spelled it out for him. Kayleigh. It was a nice name.

When the professor called for them to partner up, Elleon could feel the nervousness building up. He'd have to use his voice to practice the spell. Sure, he'd spoken before - he had to, in speech therapy - but he'd never done it publicly and he was terrified of his classmates teasing him.

He glanced around the class and decided he could pair up with the girl that fell down, what was her name? Kayleigh. She seemed the friendly kind and probably not one to laugh at his funny voice. He indicated her to Jelena and smiled as his sister agreed. Making his way to the girl, he requested Jelena to interpret for him.

"Hi. I'm Elleon and this is Jelena. Would you like to partner up?" he signed, waiting anxiously for the girl's reply. Elleon knew he looked strange to her, using his hands while Jelena talked for him and he hoped with all his heart she wouldn't reject him as a partner. He'd never have this problem if it was a school for the Deaf.

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She nodded at the question from the Professor - of course she was okay; the floor was one big cushion! - but forced herself not to say anything, instead giving herself a mental pat on the back for getting the name of the spell right.

Before she could celebrate verbally, though, a voice from beside her made her turn, and her smile widened at the sight of her friend. "Hi Stephen!" she said, happily, although there was still a light blush to her cheeks from her earlier fall. It was embarrassing, but hardly something worth fixating negatively on. Besides, if it had been any of her friends, she would have laughed, and she expected the same in return; it had been, after all, funny.

As the news of partnering up was mentioned, Kayle smiled, wondering if she could partner with the Hufflepuff that was her friend, but before she could ask, someone else was approaching and making odd gestures with his hands, an older girl speaking for him.

Sign language.

Kayle's eyes went wide as she recognised what he was doing. Her mother had spoken before of deaf people and how they communicated, and while she didn't really know any signs, BSL and ASL and SL had been an interest of hers for a short while. Short, for while she had thoroughly enjoyed doing research on it, she hadn't learnt more than the alphabet and a few basic things before growing bored and moving onto her next interest.

And now, she regretted it. Making a mental note to do more research on it - it would be worth it if she could communicate with the boy in front of her that seemed really nice - she waved at him, knowing this was the sign for hello. It was the easiest one she knew. "Hi! I'm Kayleigh! I would love to!" she exclaimed, nodding her head at the same time. Then, she paused, and tilted her head. "How are you going to do the spell? Do you know non-verbal magic?" she asked, genuinely curious.

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Elleon focused his attention on her lips and managed to catch the greeting, introduction and the word 'love'. From the nod of her head, he inferred that she had agreed to partner up with him. Then she started speaking again and he caught the first three words, 'spell' and 'magic'. How are you...spell...magic Elleon's brain worked automatically to find meaning from what he'd gathered but there were too many holes. She could be asking how he was and then another sentence about the spell or she could have been asking how he was going to do the spell and there were other possibilities.

He glanced at Jelena who had been waiting for him and watched as she rapidly fired off a series of signs so Elleon could understand what Kayleigh had said. He nodded once. It was a common enough question and one that Elleon had a practiced answer to just because he'd answered questions like that many times before. These were what he called 'standard Deaf questions', questions that people not informed about Deaf people never failed to ask. He understood why they asked these questions but it still irritated him sometimes especially when they were really dumb questions. Oh, you're deaf? So you can't hear? Can you hear me? Those were questions he sometimes didn't bother answering.

"No. I can't do non-verbal magic. Not yet," he signed. He paused for a while and gave Jelena a meaningful look. I'm going to speak. No need to interpret it said.

He took a deep breath and opened his mouth. "But I can speak a little," he said aloud, his voice feeling thick and heavy in his throat. He'd said it slowly so that she would be able to understand him through his Deaf accent. He'd only used his voice in speech therapy classes so he didn't know how other people besides his teacher would react. He'd heard from his friends that some might laugh or shrink away but there were others who didn't mind. But a glance at Jelena told him that he'd done well with his pronunciation and he smiled at the encouraging thumbs up she gave.

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She focused quite intently as the female... Jelly or Jell-something (Kayle hadn't really caught her name; she was too caught up in the fact that she was about to see people were talking with their hands) signed what Kayle assumed was what she said, and tried to figure out which gesture was for what. But, of course, she couldn't, and instead was filled with even more fascination to learn.

At the interpretation, she nodded. "So h-" she started, but trailed off as she saw that the boy was opening his mouth. The words made her smile, and she let out a surprised laugh. It wasn't a rude one, but one that was conveyed her awe; she wasn't in the least bit bothered by the weirdness of his tone. "Oh my gosh, that is amazing you are amazing!" she said, the words tumbling out, her eyes shining in joy. What amazing people there were in the world!

"That is so cool. Seriously." Kayleigh paused, tilting her head slightly as she thought about something. "I want to learn to sign," she commented, lightly, shrugging as she did so. It was a passing thought, one that was more to herself than anything, for not a moment later she smiled widely and went, "So, do you want to go first or what?"

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