Open A Better Aim

[Aerin Park]

Aerin pushed a pin into the bark of a tree and hung a small bell on it. Usually most students wouldn't be out on a rather gloomy day, but Aerin didn't need it to be warm or sunny. She wanted a day with little people outside, and luckily she got one soon after coming back to Hogwarts. She went a good distance from the tree, quickly finding where she had left her bow case. For Christmas, Aerin's parents got her a set of enchanted arrows, they were blunt, with a wide bottom, "So you can practice at school", her father said.

Aerin took out her bow and an arrow and notched it. Focusing on the slight tinkle of the bell, she aimed at the sound, and let go. A grin of satisfaction formed on her face after hearing the bell ring at the impact.

 

[Eoin Armati]

No matter the weather, if you could not find Eoin in the library, then most likely he was down by the lake studying the creatures and plant life. It was where he was heading right then, a couple of books he had borrowed from the library tucked under his arm to help with classifying what he found and his notebook to record it all in. He was quite looking forward to spending some more time down by the water, quite missing the ocean from back home now he was at Hogwarts for the new semester. But on his way to the lake something caught his attention, a classmate he recognized with a bow and arrow. "Are you allowed to have that at school?" He did have to wonder, frowning as he pushed his glasses up his nose with a spare fringer, "You could hurt someone."

 

[Aerin Park]

Aerin frowned when she heard a boy's voice, and thought about ignoring him for a good second. "I don't know, does it look like it would hurt?" She asked, in a fake, innocent-sounding tone. She knew the answer to the question; Aerin knew they were enchanted, or at least that's what her parents said. The most they would do was leave a light bruise on a person. She was sure that quidditch or any other thing in Hogwarts was more dangerous than a blunt, rubber-tipped arrow. She got another arrow from her case and fit it to the bow, ready to aim once again.

 

[Eoin Armati]

His frown only got deeper at that, giving the girl a rather strange look for a moment. Was that supposed to be a trick question or something? "Well... yeah," he answered, almost uncertainly after a moment, "They might be blunt but I bet it would still hurt if you hit someone in the head with one. And they could still blind someone if you got them in the eye." And from what he could recall, wasn't this girl blind herself? A blind girl firing a bow and arrow did not sound like the best of ideas in his head. How would she know if there was anyone nearby she might end up hitting by accident?

 

[Aerin Park]

Aerin waited for the boy to stop talking, his voice was a little familiar. They were probably classmates. As he stopped talking, she looked for the sound of the bell again and aimed for it. She let the string go and quickly there was another ring. A hint of a smile formed on Aerin's face. "You wanna give that bet a try?" She challenged, raising a brow to his general direction of the voice. She wondered if he would take the challenge. Aerin lowered the bow and put in another arrow, instead of aiming again, she held it to him, almost offering it. She doubted the boy would take it.

 

[Eoin Armati]

The strange look he was giving the girl remained on his face as she simply nocked another arrow and hit it at the bell she had hung up. While he supposed it was impressive, he still didn't really think it was a good idea to be firing a bow and arrow in the middle of the school grounds. Blunted arrows or otherwise. "There isn't a bet," he responded, shaking his head as he made no move to accept the bow as she held it out to him, "I still think it is a dangerous and I do not want to try it myself, either. Thank you very much."

 

[Aerin Park]

Maybe she should've done this on another day. Any other day without this dude bothering her. Aerin simply didn't understand the boy. "You said that you bet it'd hurt if someone got hit in the head." She replied, still holding it out. "You can shoot at me, besides it's not like you can blind an already blind person." Aerin chuckled a bit before adding, "Coward." She had a lazy smile on her face, her original plan for target practising was being compromised, which she didn't appreciate much. But an interesting situation was forming and Aerin did like interesting situations.

 

[Eoin Armati]

Had this girl gone completely mad? In what version of events did she think that he was going to shoot an arrow at her head just to prove some point? Especially as he was still convinced it would actually hurt despite what this girl seemed to think. "I'm not going to shoot an arrow at your head on purpose. What are you? Stupid?" And she could call him a coward all she wanted to, he was hardly the sort to get riled up at such a comment and was more than happy to ignore it.

 

[Aerin Park]

Aerin was not often called stupid, in fact, she had never been called stupid before. "Only a little, lily liver" She said, giving the boy a nickname that she'd probably call him for the rest of her stay at Hogwarts. Aerin raised the bow and aimed, not at the bell, but at the boy. The arrow couldn't hurt him too much, she knew that for a fact, but a scare was as good as actually hitting him. She would learn about whatever magical precaution the arrow had.

 

[Eoin Armati]

Eoin huffed, "More than a little if you really think shooting someone in the head with an arrow is a good idea." He'd already made up his mind on the matter. This girl was not someone he wanted to associate himself with. And when she turned that bow and arrow on him, his eyes widened a little. "You even think about firing that at me and I'm going to tell on you and you'll get that stupid bow and arrow confiscated." And he wasn't kidding. Besides, it was not like she could see him to hit him in the head, but that didn't mean he wanted to play with his chances.

 

[Aerin Park]

"You're rather talkative." Aerin snickered as she pulled the string, not paying much attention to his words, but rather to the sound. The fact that he was still talking made it easier to aim for the boy. Aerin focused on his voice and as he finished his sentence, Aerin let go of the string and let the arrow fly. The arrow flew until it was a good half a meter's distance from him. It stopped mid-air and dropped to the ground. Not hearing any sound of impact, Aerin wondered what had happened. "Lily-liver, did you disappear or something?"

 

[Eoin Armati]

He opened his mouth to say something to that, but he realized that this stupid girl was ignoring him and was going to fire that arrow right at him. Eoin quickly ducked out of the way, not really wanting to test the theory of whether it would hurt or not himself. But it seemed as though he didn't have to duck in the first place, the arrow had just stopped and dropped out of the sky before it had even reached him. Seemed like they had been charmed not to hit people. But that certainly didn't mean he was going to stand for this. "You missed," he snapped as he straightened up again, "And you better say goodbye to that bow and arrow because I'm going to Professor Kingsley."

 

[Aerin Park]

Aerin was confused and disappointed, she was sure it would have made its mark but it seemed she needed more practice aiming at people, but she’d worry about that later. Aerin got her wand out, “Accio arrows.” the arrow towards the boy and one of the arrows near the bell had come, but it seemed she needed more practice with the spell to be able to get all of them. She started packing her things up.

Aerin didn’t really care about getting her bow and arrow confiscated, she’d just wait till she got back home to practice again, maybe wand practice would suffice for now. She wondered if the professor would even believe him, a blind girl doing archery seemed a little too awesome if you don’t see it for yourself. “Are you gone now?” She asked, hopefully the boy had gone away.