[Mass Thread] DADA Practical Revision

If Destrey had to sit through one more hour of kids making notes and whispering into their hands, she was going to stab something. That was why she'd scheduled a practical revision session this afternoon.  

Still, she was sitting in a chair in the corner of the duelling chamber with her nose buried in some book.  The cover was old enough for the title to be barely legible.  And, well, to be honest, Destrey wasn't really reading it, either.  She just wanted the kids to be intimidated when they finally arrived.  Assuming they weren't usually intimidated by her.  God.  What a horrible thought.

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What it says on the lid.  Your character can come in and practice any spells they need to learn/improve.

For those of you who are new or don't know her, Destrey doesn't care about the students, and she demonstrates spells on them in her class.  She'll be keeping out of the action in this thread for the most part, but if you do one of the following things, she might curse you (or give you a detention, may the odds be ever in your favour):

1. Speak to her or ask her for help
   
2. Do something spectacularly stupid (according to her definition of stupid)
   
3. Show signs of blood prejudice
   

Goose would have rather stayed in his dorm and practiced. He felt so useless sometimes, and the wand in his hand had become more of a symbol for his defeat than a channeler of his power. Because what use was a wand when he could hardly use it?

He was still taking the potion Lupin had made for him over the summer. Physically, he felt better than he ever had. He rarely got so tired as he had before, could run and jump and be active without paying for it the next day, and had even been able to take to flying rather well. There was no doubt that the potion had helped.

But his magic was still so hit or miss. There were days when all he could conjure were sparks. Other days he managed to pass on just fine, but the good days were far and few between, and he felt himself losing hope. His thirst for knowledge, his desire to be something worthy of the second chance he had barely managed to secure, it all made for the disappointment feel much more than unfair - it was personal.

But he knew he'd do better with others around. He could at least ask Professor Ashcroft questions - if, of course, he could work up the nerve. Goose wouldn't count himself as timid but there was no denying that Ashcroft was unnerving.

So he slipped into the class and immediately set to work, setting up a stool a few feet away and taking up his stance, trying to think of his breathing, trying to pretend that he didn't know the truth, that his magic was going to fail him yet again.

"Flipendo."

Blue sparks. And the stool remained.

Merlin.

"Stay away from my sister." That was what Shylock had said to him on the station.  The words were a lot different from the sentiment, as Christian had learned during his first class when Professor Ashcroft had turned someone's nostrils inside out.

But it was difficult to stay away from Professor Ashcroft when she was the one taking the study session.  Besides, she surely wouldn't do anything to Christian, not when she knew he was Selwyn's brother, would she?

So he was feeling pretty confident as he slipped inside the duelling chamber, just in time to see Goose launch a spray of sparks at a chair.  Christian winced.

By now, everyone knew there was something weird about Goose Dyllan. Nobody knew exactly what it was, but it was hard to ignore with things like this interaction with the chair happening all the time.  Christian had overheard some of the blood supremacists in their house laughing about it, saying it was because he was muggleborn.  Except they didn't say muggleborn.

"Hey," he greeted Goose, before glancing at Destrey.  She didn't seem to be paying any attention, which Christian took as a good sign.

"You wanna practice together?"

Goose heard a voice and he turned to see Christian Thorfinn approach. This was exactly what Goose was conflicted about, the frustration of revealing his weakness even further to his classmates meeting the understanding that he would only get better with help. But, even that was pretty doubtful. If the Lupins couldn't help him, how could another first year.

"Hey," Goose responded, nodding at the other Slytherin. "Sure. What do you need to work on?" At least he could be helpful to someone else, if his magic was going to refuse to come out a play nice for the day.

To be honest, Charlotte wasn't sure why she came here. She didn't have the problem with any spell but she guessed the reason why she came was the person who leads this class. It was Destrey and she was really... something. She wass probably the only one who didn't care about the students at all.

Seeing students cursing each other could be funny, unless if they go too far and chose some serious curse.

So she came and opened her notebook with all spells just reading how she should do them, while two boys, probably much younger than her decided to practice together. This should be amusing.

"Um."

He had been expecting Goose to ask for help.  It was obvious the other boy was having trouble.  But, maybe it was a sore point with him, or he was embarrassed.

Christian was saved from answering immediately by the door opening again, he twisted round to see an older girl entering the room.  

She looked like she was just going to watch them.  Christian sent another glance Professor Ashcroft's way.  Was it worth possibly angering her to get this girl out of the room?  Shylock made it sound like possibly angering her was never worth it.  Instead, Christian let out a deliberately loud sigh and hoped it might catch Destrey's attention.

Now, back to Goose. If he was back home, he would probably already know the problem.  It came with the territory. His mum would know Goose's mum, and it wasn't as though his parents were above discussing Christian's classmates at the dinner table.  It was so weird being at Hogwarts, where he didn't know everything about everyone.

"I've been having trouble with the jelly legs curse," Christian finally decided to answer, deliberately choosing something that was weird rather than painful.  

"Maybe we could test it out?"

He would deal with Goose's problem later.

At the sound of a rather loud sigh, the kind of sigh that indicated someone was bored, Destrey raised her eyes. Boredom was not an emotion usually associated with her classroom. Terror, yes. Interest, for a certain kind of student, certainly. But rarely boredom.

At the centre of the room, the two first years were all ready to begin cursing one another, so they could hardly be bored. Destrey wasn't fooled by Christian's spell choice, but she could correct that later.

"Waldorf," she snapped at Charlotte.

Destrey marked her place in her book before striding across the room to loom over the girl, because... Well, why wouldn't you intimidate a person if the opportunity arose?

"This is a practical revision," she said slowly, in a tone clearly intended for the slow of thinking.

"This," she flicked the edge of Charlotte's notebook, "does not look practical to me."