Defensive and Charming

It was that time of year - everything was coming to a halt, or it would soon be that way. His first year seemed like a ball shot out of a cannon, and the ball had sailed through the sky and was soon to meet its landing; except this landing would be his home back in Cork, Ireland. He knew that a test was likely to come in his classes, most likely in Charms or Defense Against the Dark Arts - and for some reason, he was having a bit of trouble executing two spells: Flipendo and the fire charm, Incendio. He had his books open, and researched everything he could about them. He even watched other people cast the spell, but he just couldn't mimic their movements. Maybe it was something with his wand. Connor twiddled the wand between his fingers, and on accident, a blast of something hit the window curtain and blew it up. Frantically, he looked around and muttered "Reparo," and the curtain magically wove its threads back together and was like new once again. Connor shoved his elbow on the table, closing the book in frustration. "Can't anyone help me?" he said desperately.

It had been two months since Bertie had returned to Hogwarts. He had been excited about coming back to the castle, axious to see his friends and catch up with the work. Although the day he'd returned had possibly been his second worst day at Hogwarts, his worst being the day Bertie had fell ill and, well, almost died.

Finally after two months the whispering behinds hands and the edging away from the Ravenclaw had almost come to an end. A boy in his herbology class even asked to work with him for a change. Perhaps people were finally over the fact they believed Bertie to be dead. Hopefully. Vivianna seemed to be on better terms with him and a little less fragile although there was still something about her that Bertie could only feel guilty for, what that was he couldn't pinpoint.

Not having many friends did have its perks at times. It allowed Bertie to catch up on work, do extra reading and get more absorbed into his creative writing - if that was possible. Nobody bothered him in the common room, nobody bothered him at meal times nor in the library. It was rather perfect. He'd once again fell into his own little bubble that was unable to burst.

Walking into the common room, an ancient runes book under his arm, Bertie found a table to himself. At first he was tempted to sit by a young boy he hadn't seen before, a first year Bertie guessed, but didn't want to disturb him, which was rather ironic because in the next breath the boy looked as though he'd gave up.

Taking it upon himself to help Bertie rose from his eat, tucked the chair underneath the table and came to stand besides the boy.

'Are you alright?' Bertie asked politely, a genuine smile of concern creating dimples in his cheeks. The fourth year was shy when it came to people he didn't know but after isolated from anyone his age for three months Bertie was anxious to talk to people. Besides, he had always been one to help the younger students. He'd once been a first year in need and because of that the Ravenclaw had found his greatest friend, a friend who was more of a sister to him: Vivianna Varnes.


(OOC: Sorry for the long post I've been anxious to use Bertie since Janurary so wanted to kind of sum things up about how the past few months had been for him )

He put his wand down while the Fourth Year approached him. Connor didn't want an accidental explosion upon another human being; he didn't necessarily know if reparo would work on one. Presumably, it wouldn't. Of course, Connor didn't know that the boy who approached him was a Fourth Year. To him, he could have been a student in any grade. But he was quite desperate for help, seeing as his exam was coming up and he wanted to be as prepared as possible. "What's your name? I don't quite remember seeing you around here," Connor said.

But he explained his problems to the boy who approached him; and the several questions that followed. Was his wand just having trouble being able to produce the spell? Or was it more of Connor's problem in not being able to move the wand the right way? He sighed. "Because, you see, I've been trying to cast Incendio on this candle wick and Flipendo on the bulletin board, but it's just not working. The most I get from Incendio is warmth, and Flipendo just produces a small tap. What am I doing wrong?" Connor didn't tell the boy that he just caused the curtains to burst - he only hoped he did not see them. He was getting frustrated with his inability to cast those spells. He would have cast others, but he didn't want to seem like he was interrupting the other boy from speaking; so he refrained from using the levitation charm on his quills.

(OOC: That's totally fine! It gives me a better understanding of who Bertie is, and maybe a little bit of how Connor will react to him.)

'I'm Bertie, a fourth year.' Bertie replied, making a conscious effort to keep the friendly smile on her face as he sat himself onto a chair besides the boy. 'I've had some time away from Hogwarts.' Bertie added clearing up any confusion that Connor might have. The Ravenclaw didn't feel the need nor did he intend to delve deeper into the reasons why out of fear the first year would reject him after hearing some extensive rumor about his disappearance. Then again if he was anything like Bertie chances are he didn't listen to the gossip around the castle.

Bertie simply listened until Connor had gotten all of his worries and questions from his chest.

'It's normal not to pick things up right away, with some charms it takes time. It could be your wand movement but by the sounds of it you're already have some effects with the spells even if it is just a slight tap and a bit of warmth. Do you think you could just show me your incendio, just so I can see if it is your wand movement ...?' Bertie ended his first piece of advice with his mouth slightly open and his eyebrows raised giving Connor the cue to say his name.

He had heard the hearsay, and he was inclined to believe a lot of what he heard.  But he was never the gullible eleven year old that everyone believed him to be.  There must have been a real reason for Bertie's disappearance for the majority of the year, which would explain why he was so quiet and reserved to himself - two factors as to why Connor had just now met him.  But even as Bertie was explaining different factors for the use of spells, Connor gave him a little stare as he bit his lip and examined Bertie's face.  He recognized him from way earlier in the year but he didn't ever get to know him.  He returned his focus to the current problem and thought about what to do.  Bertie had wanted to see what he was doing with his spells, but he didn't want to embarrass himself.  Well, Bertie was a fourth year and he seemed timid, so Connor doubted that Bertie would have made any deal out of it.  After all, everyone made mistakes from time to time.  

"Oh!  It's Connor.  And Bertie, I have heard a lot of different things as to why you've been gone but none of it made any sense to me.  I don't really believe anybody's tales until I hear it from the original source.  But anyway, I can definitely show you my incendio."  Connor picked up his wand and set a candle near him, as his target to set aflame, and tried to produce the charm.  He felt a spark of warmth, but nothing more.  He even did what he thought was the correct movement - starting from the right, going up and making a sort of flame shape line, finishing at the left.  "See?  Nothing's happening!  Any suggestions?"

Connor had caught Bertie offguard. Just his name would have been enough information and Bertie couldn't decide what to make of what Connor had told him. One one hand it was nice that Connor hadn't taken them seriously, but the fourth year was suddenly anxious to know what people had been saying. What were the 'different' things the first year had heard? Who had been saying them?

'Thanks Connor.' Bertie said, before watching the younger Ravenclaw cast his incendio charm. The wand movement was... the problem. The diagram of the wand movements in the book were never great, useful but never showed which direction that one should start from. Connor had started from the right then finished on the left. It created warmth but the wand movement wasn't enough to produce the bluebell flames.

'I think it's your wand movement.' Bertie exclaimed, 'You're doing the correct pattern its just the other way around. Try from your left.' Withdrawing his open wand Bertie pointed the tip of his wand at the candle, flicked his wand up in a slight arc then brought it down creating the 'flame shape' that the textbooks described.

A flicker of blue flames were ejected from Lauren wand and the candle was soon flickering a light orange colour. Blowing the flame out Bertie smiled reassuringly at Connor. 'Your turn.'

"Oh, thank goodness!" Connor said excitedly. He was so happy that Bertie had shown him what his mistake was; now he felt completely prepared to use this charm whenever he needed to. He had hoped there would be no more problems in conjuring a flame with the incendio charm, but there was only one way to find out for sure. He picked up his wand again, and pointed it at the left of the candle after blowing out the flame that Bertie had conjured. He made the flame-shaped arc from left to right, and chanted "incendio!" and a flame shot from the tip of his wand to the candle, successfully lighting it. "Thanks, Bertie!" Connor said as he flashed a smile. He wanted to keep on conjuring the incendio charm, but that wouldn't necessarily be valued upon by the rest of the students there.

He looked at Bertie once more; "Oh, there's still the matter of Flipendo. But I looked in the books and according to the text, my wand movement is correct... but what exactly do I have to do from there?" He looked at the bulletin board. He was waiting until there was nobody around to cast the charm, in hopes that he wouldn't have exactly hit anyone during his practice (although it would give for a good laugh). He pointed his wand at the bulletin board in the lower left corner, and made the proper "check mark" movement with a little squiggle at the top of the "check." He even yelled "flipendo" but the only thing that happened was a 'pop' and Connor's wand jerked back a little bit. "What am I doing wrong, Bertie?"

'That's great!' Bertie couldn't help by smile. It was a wonderful feeling when you saw someone learn something new, especially when they were so enthusiastic about learning and eager to make an effort. That was why Bertie liked first years, sure the Gryffindors could be a bit full of themselves and the Slytherins rather cocky by the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff first years were always a delight to help.

Hmm. Flipendo, that certainly had stumped him. Bertie had never been one for jinxes and hexes himself preferring a more theoretical approach to everything - everything apart from transfiguration he'd give that up any day. Connor was right, his wand move movement was perfect and he was saying the incantation correctly.

'I'm not too sure.' Bertie admitted, feeling a little guilty for not being able to help. 'Your wand movements fine and you're saying the incantation right.' It could have been that the bulletin board was too far away for the spell to have a great enough effect. Usually with the jinxes, such as flipendo, they required practice practice practice to slowly increase the casting range and power. Maybe that was the issue.

'Try something a little closer, and a little lighter.' Bertie suggested looking around the room before seeing a bookend on a nearby bookshelf. Walking to the shelf Bertie lifted the the bookend, or at least he tried before returning it to the shelf - that was far too heavy. Connor could try on a book but if the pages became creased that would only annoy the other students.

Returning to the table Bertie sighed. 'I can't find anything lighter, you could try it on the candle?' The fourth year recommended, 'We can always clean up any wax afterwards.'

"I don't remember reading that at all," Connor said with a slight frown. No matter; he would see to it that nobody would be able to say that he had failed at casting a knockback jinx. He'd need it for one of his tricks in the future, possibly! But, he kept that tidbit to himself. He sighed - was the bulletin board really too far away for the jinx? Or was it really too heavy? He was sure that he had read somewhere in the books - or at least by some of their illustrations - that the jinx could be cast from a distance. Maybe it would just take time and practice.

"No problem about using the candle, though; wax is nothing hard to clean up," Connor said as he blew out the candle's flame. In all honesty, maybe using the bulletin board as a target wouldn't have been the brightest idea in accordance to the other students; it would serve as a great and loud distraction, and probably some important documents would have been misplaced as well. Though it would have made for a great laugh, Connor supposed. He pointed his wand at the candle and did the wand movement and said the spell name, and the candle wobbled just a little bit. Nothing happened, which frustrated Connor greatly. "Ugh," he moaned, "See? Am I just not focused, or is the wand not capable, or what?" He scratched his head and blinked a few times out of frustration, but he tried to remain calm.

Bertie silently sighed. It was never fun to see someone getting frustrated because they couldn't do something, he knew the feeling when it came to transfiguration theory. Where do vanished objects go? Into non-being, which is to say everything. How could non-being be everything? For some people they simply weren't great at everything, Vivianna couldn't handle practical transfiguration.

'I don't know much about wands,' Bertie admitted, 'Some wands are more useful for other things but you'll get there eventually.' He added hoping to provide a bit of optimism to the learning process. 'Just keep practicing and it'll come.'

'Flipendo is better used on people than objects.' Bertie mentioned as an after thought. 'If you want we could go to the dueling room and try it on each other?'