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Post by Emyr Sayer on Jun 20, 2015 22:19:14 GMT -5
Emyr was getting better, and almost as quickly as he had hoped. Charms was turning out to be the hardest class for him, all of the wandwork involved complicated the process to no end. Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures was a cinch, there wasn't even any magic involved for the most part. He could memorise all of the basics in almost no time. He could breeze through Defence Against The Dark Arts, after all defending himself was one of the few things he was good at. Not that he had the techniques down for that. Transfiguration was going... okay, same with potions, and he hadn't even tried to sign up for Divination, or any of the fortune telling arts. Not worth his time.
He stabbed his wand at the rope, determined that this time he would get it to knot right. Instead, it burst into flames, and flung itself into a far corner, smouldering. Emyr raced over to it, and began stamping the damn thing out before the rest of the room caught. "The last thing I need to do is burn the school down. That would not be particularly helpful," he muttered to himself.
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Post by Cordelia Thatcher on Jun 21, 2015 14:30:42 GMT -5
There was a secret room in the library that Delia discovered during her second year of school. It was hidden behind wooden paneling that was impossible to find unless you just happened to know which dusty old book to move in order to activate it. It was amazing and quiet and had a floor covered in pillows on the inside for studying. She had never seen anyone else there in all her years, so she assumed she was the only one who knew about it. And given what had been happening lately, that was amazing.
Ever since last night, she had been lurking in the shadows and using all of the hiding places she knew of. James would be looking for her, and while she was told to be in the library at noon today, she hadn't been paying attention to the time. Instead, she had been studying... That is, until she heard a violent sounding ruckus outside of the secret passageway.
It was probably a bad idea for her to open the door not knowing who was out there, but she did it to make sure whomever was freaking out was alright. She poked her head out, making sure James was nowhere in sight, and exited the hidden corridor - closing it while she saw no one around to try and keep it secretive. But as she turned her head in the direction of the sound, she took in the boy from the lake earlier that week. And he was... Stomping out a fire? "Emyr?" She called out, raising a brow in concern as she stepped forward. "Are you alright?"
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Post by Emyr Sayer on Jun 21, 2015 21:40:42 GMT -5
"Physically I'm fine. Cognitively I think I'm a second year. Tying knots with a wand should not be this hard." He finally put out the last of the flames with his shoe and turned around. "Delia, yeah? Sorry for the racket. Is Charms always this bad." He walked back across the room, and picked up another short piece of rope. "I can do this knot with my fingers behind my back, blindfolded and handcuffed. But every time I try to do it with my wand, it catches on fire!" In his frustration, and completely forgetting that he was supposed to hide his incompetence, he demonstrated with a particularly large gout of flame and one less bit of rope. "Fuck!"
"Tough day, really. What 'bout you? Any particular reason you aren't flitting around some guy?" Emyr stopped, shook his head and immediately apologised. "I'm sorry, that was uncalled for." He fished around for something gentlemanly to add, and it was rather a stretch. "Please excuse my... I don't know, unchivalrous behaviour. I'm not even sure that's a word."
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Post by Cordelia Thatcher on Jun 21, 2015 22:37:24 GMT -5
Tying a knot with a wand? Well, that was something she had learned ages ago, and it came rather naturally to her as did most other things involved with Charms. Her brow furrowed together as she watched him silently, witnessing the rope burst into flame before hearing him exclaim profanity. She couldn't help but to cringe a bit, having some sort of PTSD from the swear word from the last couple of days. "Well," she began, taking another step forward, "The first thing you need to do is calm down. If your mind isn't in the right place, nearly all magic is far fetched, but for Charms it is especially important that you remain composed." He probably already knew this, but she figured she would at least make an attempt to help. Though, given their gender difference, she almost wondered if he would be enraged by her offering her assistance.
"Well, is there anything I can do to help? Not sure just how much I can help with the knot tying, but I can try if you'd like," she offered, smiling slightly. But when he suddenly asked hr why she wasn't entangled with some boy, she froze for a moment, eyes flickering wide for a brief second or two. "I'm... It's okay," she said with a shake of her head, waving her hand dismissively. "You don't need to apologize. I'm actually hiding from a certain guy," she sighed, biting her lip nervously.
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Post by Emyr Sayer on Jun 21, 2015 23:06:18 GMT -5
Keep calm, mind in the right place. Why did you always have to be calm to do these things? Needing to be calm just made things more frustrating. "Calm. Right. I can do calm," he decided, running his wandless hand through his hair. Calm. That was easy, surely. He tried a couple of breathing exercises, and for once they actually did help calm him down. "Composed, on the other hand, isn't really my thing. I don't often need composed." Emyr let out a long breath, and picked up another piece with his wand. He managed to actually get the ends of the rope to cross, but it dropped to the floor before actually knotting at all. "Good enough. I'll stop embarrassing myself in front of you."
Delia actually offered to help him with his knot-tying, but he shook his head. "Thanks, but given how often the things I try to do result in spontaneous flames, I think it's safer for the both of us if I stop for the moment." He regretted the snide remark twice as much when he saw her tense up. Apparently, not only was he doing a poor job of controlling himself, but he was also accidentally landing hits in a fight he hadn't intended to start. What an absolutely fantastic day this was turning out to be.
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Post by Cordelia Thatcher on Jun 22, 2015 0:24:39 GMT -5
Delia observed the boy further. He was taking in deep and steady breaths and exhaling them slowly, which was perfect, but when he began his charm, she realized his form was a bit off. He was flicking his wrist far too much, which was likely half the reason it was catching on fire, but at least this time around it didn't burst into flames. "You're getting better already," she told him with a soft grin, walking over to the piece of rope and picking it up off the floor. "You flick your wrist a bit too much, though. You have to be a bit more gentle with it." Pulling out her own wand, she demonstrated a composed stance, a calm breathing pattern, and a soft wrist flick to knot the rope.
"I'm not sure if this is helping or not.. Not exactly the best teacher, but we can take a break if you wish," she agreed, nodding her head slowly. She glanced about the library nervously, biting her lip still, and heaved a small sigh of relief. It was sad that she had to constantly watch her back and live in a constant state of paranoia, but she didn't have a choice in the matter. James would be looking for her, and she had to make sure he never found her.
"Did you ever end up finding anything fun to do?" She asked, referencing his question he asked the group down by the lake. "Nothing too terribly exciting seems to happen around here, unfortunately."
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Post by Emyr Sayer on Jun 22, 2015 21:37:24 GMT -5
What Cordelia said made complete sense- of course it had to be a smooth motion, why the hell had he thought that jabbing the thing like it was just a stick was going to help? "Thanks. I think that explains a lot of what keeps going wrong. I am starting to realise why most people spend years learning this stuff." He decided to keep that in mind for a later, when he'd actually get the damn thing to work. Emyr also thought he should probably try to find a couple of books on technique, as well, and wondered why he hadn't figured that out earlier. And then, of course, she managed to do it first try, smoothly moving her wand as if it was as easy as breathing.
"More helpful than the Charms teacher, that's for sure. Thanks for the tips, though." Emyr was keeping his own eyes out for whoever her stalker was. If he could help a little bit, he would. He knew what it was like to be hunted, and didn't wish it on anyone. Except maybe Samuel Smythe, and Delia's hunter. He wouldn't mind hunting them all that much, give them a taste of their own medicine. He forced himself to calm down again, breathe carefully. He was on edge, like something bad was in the air, and he didn't think it was to do with Cordelia.
Emyr laughed and shook his head. "Nooo, I've found out that magic is a lot harder than I thought it was. I'm starting to wonder whether you guys even have time for any fun."
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Post by Cordelia Thatcher on Jun 23, 2015 18:24:53 GMT -5
"It definitely takes a good bit of time in order to get this stuff down, that's for sure," she told him with a nod. "So don't feel discouraged if you aren't getting it right off the bat. I wouldn't even get as far as to setting the rope aflame if I was just starting out." She offered him a reassuring smile, hoping he wouldn't beat himself up over it so badly. He was behind, sure, but he already seemed to have a natural talent if he was still new to the whole idea of magic - it was just too hard for him to see it yet.
He mentioned the Charms professor and her lack of help, and Delia shrugged her shoulders lightly. "I don't know anything about her since she's new this year, but I know that English isn't her first language just by the way she talks. It seems to upset her a little bit whenever her students can't grasp what she's saying, so I think she genuinely cares though," she added. "So try not to be too mad a her, yeah? I'm sure it's just as frustrating knowing she can't get the material across as it is for you not being able to understand her." She paused for a moment, biting at her lip absently before shaking her head. "I swear I'm not trying to preach. Forgive me."
No time for fun? Well, Delia hadn't been able to uncover any fun since returning this year due to unforeseen circumstances, so she could definitely agree to that. "There are usually fun things to do, but I must admit I've been a bit to... Preoccupied to enjoy any of those things," she confessed with a small sigh. "Guy trouble and my studies have been consuming me thus far."
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Post by Emyr Sayer on Jun 23, 2015 20:55:34 GMT -5
"Thanks for the reassurance. I was just really not prepared for all this. Overestimated my apparently non-existent academic skills." Of course, what he had thought he could do was more than a little bit insulting to the other students. But he hadn't known them then, and he'd only had a vague understanding of magic anyway. He'd thought it was probably like Muggle schools, in that they spent far too long teaching you lots of rubbish that you'd never actually use. Apparently not. "You're dealing pretty well with the idea of someone appearing at school, sixth year, without a basic knowledge of magic. You're not going to run to the nearest teacher and rat me out, are you?"
It seemed like Cordelia had a bit of a thing for the Charms professor, but Emyr couldn't exactly blame her. She was pretty, even if being outed as that would be just as bad as being outed for what he was. Not that she knew that. "I'm not mad, I promise. Just frustrated, and it's pretty easy to lay the blame on a teacher, especially if there's something she struggles with." He knew that it wasn't fair of him to be annoyed with the Charms teacher at all, and probably partly to do with a general dislike and distrust of anyone in a position of authority, but it felt better than to blame his errant ways for his lack of skill. "Don't worry about it," he replied, waving off her concern.
"The studies I can sympathise with, but the guy trouble? Sounds pretty serious. If at all possible, is the specific sucker better or worse than that pr- gentleman Samuel? Or, please no, is it Samuel?" He wasn't going to lie to himself, he'd lose a bit of respect for her if she was at all interested in Samuel Smythe. Though 'interest' seemed to be stretching the situation a bit, 'terrified' seemed more apt.
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Post by James Novak on Jun 24, 2015 13:08:11 GMT -5
So he was really going to do this huh?
He was going to give that stupid little girl this book hoping that it might calm things down a little bit. Because after that night on the quidditch pitch things needed to calm the fuck down between them just a touch. Sure he was never going to be happy with her mouth she was but he was starting to see that there was nothing more he could do to get her to shut up and behave like a woman is suppose to behave. So instead he would do something kind of nice then come back to her in a few days and see how she felt about it all. That why he had gotten her this book, you know she did say she wanted to go to college and as stupid as that was... well he might at least show that he thought she might have a shot at it.
Now he just had to find her. Auditorium was empty and she wasn't at the pitch, so were could she be? Library was his next guess, and low and behold... there she was. But she wasn't alone... She was with another boy. And he couldn't help what happen next because jealousy and anger quickly took over and any and all good deeds he even thought about doing were long since forgotten.
With his wand in his hand he flicked it and knocked the boy out of his chair with a smile. "Well well what do we have here?" He said looking from Delia to the boy that was now on the ground. "You know I don't think I like you talking to her. Leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth."
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Post by Emyr Sayer on Jun 24, 2015 19:32:58 GMT -5
"Oh fuck. There are two giant flaming dickheads in this school? Isn't one enough for you Americans?" Emyr was on his feet in less than a second, hardly willing to let this moron keep him on his arse. Clearly this was the guy that Delia had been trying to hide from, and he felt immediately guilty that his actions had led to her being discovered. "First of all, the saying goes 'well, well, well three holes in the ground. And secondly, I'm not surprised that you've got a bad taste in your mouth, what with all of the shite coming out of it." To say that the boy's appearance had put him in a bad mood would be an extreme understatement.
A fight was brewing, anyone could tell that much. In fact, you could quite consider the dis-chairing as the first blow, but Emyr would be willing to let that much slide if James backed the fuck off immediately, and he set himself into a fighting stance that was pretty good at communicating just that. "We'd all be better off if you just waited until later to talk to Delia. Or, y'know, never got around to it at all. I think that would suit us all just fine. Whaddaya say?"
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Post by Cordelia Thatcher on Jun 25, 2015 22:25:25 GMT -5
"Rat you out?" She repeated with a curiously raised brow. "I wouldn't get any sort of satisfaction out of seeing you in trouble even if it was any of my business. So long as you can keep your head above the water, you deserve to be here just as much as any of the rest of us," she told him with a nod. "But if you're struggling as greatly as you say, I can definitely meet you here once or twice a week for study sessions. I could benefit from having someone to keep me company while I study anyway. This year is already off to a chaotic start."
Suddenly, he was asking about Samuel Smythe, and Delia quickly shook her head. "Oh, no no no. Samuel and I are civil towards one another, but I avoid him at all costs. He's never been anything but polite to me in the most basic of ways, but I know of his arrogant ways and steer clear of him." She ran a hand absently through her hair as she let out a soft sigh. Apparently things hadn't cleared up between Samuel and Emyr since their interaction at the lake with herself, Annabel, and the redhead she now knew to be named Hallie. "His name..."
A familiar voice struck her thought process and caused her to cease speaking. Her eyes widened in absolute terror, but before she could even run and hide, she watched Emyr be tossed from his chair. No, no, no, no, no! She was about to rush to his side to help him up, but he was already back to his feet. His words were like venom cast back at James, and it wasn't until then that she actually turned around to look at the other boy. "James, stop," she said as she stepped forward and between them, her hands up as she approached him to try and get him to stand down. "He wasn't doing anything wrong. Hit me if you want for disobeying, but leave him out of it please," she begged.
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