Chapter 217: DA Files: Styles and Imagination (2/2)
”You mean learn how to disarm,” said Ivy.
Quinn shook his head, ”No, it's to learn how to get disarmed.”
The murmurs rose. Discussing. What did Quinn mean by learning how to get disarmed; was there a correct way to get.. . disarmed?
”The best way to learn a spell is to experience it,” stated Quinn. ”Of course, there are spells like Reductor spell which you can't experience and spells like Stunners which are harmful after a couple consecutive hits, but spells like the Disarming spells can be experienced. So what I want you to do is concentrate on how your hand feels when someone disarms you.. . I want a person from the pair to disarm the other person five times in a row before switching the other way round.. . Remember, concentrate on the feeling of getting disarmed.”
The feeling of confusion and doubt grew inside the Room of Requirements as the pair members stared at each other, but.. .
”EXPELLIARMUS.”
Everyone looked in the direction of the chant and saw Daphne Greengrass picking up her wand and holding it straight up for Tracey Davis to cast again — ”EXPELLIARMUS” — the wand flew up once again and fell into the air. Both girls were experienced with Quinn's methods as he had made them understand what it meant to 'pull' while he taught them the Seize-and-Pull spell.
Then another Disarming chant came from another direction, and everyone saw Eddie Carmichael and Marcus Belby staring up towards the ceiling. Marcus raised his hands up and caught his wand that dropped into his hand from very high up.
”Can't you go easy?” said Marcus, ”I fear that the wand might poke my eye out.”
”Hmmm,” Eddie made the sound before — ”EXPELLIARMUS” — and Marcus' wand went flying into the air, really high.
Another two Disarming spell chant was heard, and they turned to see Harry Potter & Ron Weasley, and Ivy Potter & Hermione Granger cast the Disarming spells. Three out of four had gone through the same ordeal just last year — they were just thankful they were starting light.
”Stop staring and start casting!” Everyone turned to see Quinn sitting on the ground, legs crossed, with a big block of dark-gray stone in his hand. ”I want everyone to at least get sick about getting disarmed; that's the aim~.”
The room was suddenly full of shouts of ”EXPELLIARMUS!”: Wands flew in all directions, missed spells hit books on shelves, and sent them flying into the air. Quinn would look up from his rock time-to-time to glance around and thought he had been right to suggest that they practice the
basics first; there was a lot of shoddy spellwork going on; many people were not succeeding in disarming their opponents at all but merely causing them to jump back a few paces or wince as the feeble spell whooshed over them.
'I guess it will take some time,' thought Quinn before going back to his rock.
Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown casted Disarming charms on each other, with frustration building in both girls.
”Ugh, how long do I have to do this — EXPELLIARMUS!” said Lavender.
Parvati picked up her wand with a fed-up expression and aimed it at Lavender as it was her chance to disarm Lavender. Her hand was feeling chaffed at her wand repeatedly being stripped out of her grasp. She winced a little as the wand in her grasp hurt and kept the tens of disarming fresh in her wand.
'Aah, aah, disarming, disarming, disarming, it's so frustrating!' she thought, and the feeling of a wand being disarmed grew stronger with her anger — ”EXPELLIARMUS!”
A scarlet zap escaped her wand struck Lavendar's hand; the wand flew high into the air, and Parvati blinked in surprise as the wand spun in the air and dropped into her raised hand.
”Huh?” Parvati stared at Lavander's wand in her hand with surprise. In her last turn, she was barely able to push Lavender's wand out to a distance outside her reach; getting into her own hand wasn't even in her sights.
”Oh, you did it. Nicely done.”
Parvati turned to see Quinn standing at a distance from her.
”By any chance, were you thinking about getting disarmed while casting?” he asked.
”Y-Yes,” said Parvati, still surprised to have cast the spell so well.
”Now, how about carrying that same feeling but this time channel them towards Lavender specifically,” said Quinn in advice.
Parvati nodded hurriedly, and after returning the wand to Lavender, she once again cast — ”EXPELLIARMUS” — and this time, she followed Quinn's advice. Once again, Lavender's wand was in Parvati's hand.
”It was easier this time,” said Parvati fascinated.
”That's to be expected,” said Quinn with a smile, ”that's how magic is cast — magic within, focused through your wand, shaped by our intents and imagination, made possible with the knowledge and the chant.
”Now, can you explain what you felt and did to Lavender?” asked Quinn.
Parvati nodded and immediately got to sharing her newly gained ability with Lavender as if she had just heard a new hot piece of gossip that was just too good not to be shared.
That day, from Parvati and Lavender, a chain of explanations and demonstrations spread into the entire Room of Requirements as, one by one, people started to understand how intent, imagination, and knowledge worked together to form and shape magic.
”Till the next time I want you guys to practice the spell on anything you can disarm; it can be clothes from hangers, lids from bottles, rings from fingers, anything you can find, BUT!” he raised his voice, ”it shouldn't be outside the four walls of your dorm room. If Umbridge gets a whiff of you trying spells out in the hallways, she will take advantage of the no magic in hallway rule and push you into harsher detentions than needed.”
And with that, the DA meeting was dismissed.
After ensuring everyone was out of the Room of Requirements, the Prefects in DA, with knowledge of patrol routes, led their respective houses back to their common rooms. Hufflepuff and Slytherin took a common route to the Dungeons, while Ravenclaw and Gryffindor took another route to descend a couple of floors to go to their common rooms.
When they were on the fifth floor, Ivy watched as the Ravenclaw group turned towards their common house, but she noticed that Quinn was missing.
”Huh, but I just saw him with them on the seventh floor.. .” She turned to Hermione and asked, ”Does Quinn have patrol duty today?”
”No, he isn't on duty for two more days,” said Hermione.
'Then where did he go?' wondered Ivy as they descended down to the fourth floor, and she looked up the Grand Staircase. He could've gotten down only one floor between the seventh and fifth floor, and that was the sixth floor.
'But what's he doing on the sixth floor,' she wondered.
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Quinn West - MC - Get sick of it to get good at it.
Eddie Carmichael - Ravenclaw - Hey!
Parvati Patil - Gryffindor - So, like, it was so, like.. .
Ivy Potter - Leader of DA - Noticed the vanishing act.
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