Do You Even Lift?

[Phineas Ellis]

To anybody looking on, it might have appeared as if Phineas had a personal vendetta against the tree stump some six feet away of him. Actually, he just needed something large and inanimate to practice his stunning spell on. He'd just about got the hang of the wand movement, but his aim was absolutely atrocious - surprising, given how excellent his aim was in the computer games he played at home. He groaned as another spell shot off to the side, disappearing into the grass several inches from the stump. What was he doing wrong? Professor Styx was not going to be happy if Phineas couldn't cast this spell by next year - never mind the fear of falling behind his peers. He didn't want to be stuck casting stupefy while everyone else had moved onto the more advanced, exciting stuff.

Gritting his teeth, he launched into another attack. "YES!" he yelled, punching the air with both fists and falling to his knees as the spell met its target. "YEEEEESSS! GET WRECKED MATE! COME AT ME! DO. YOU. EVEN. LIFT?! Probably not, you're a tree stump. YEAHHH!"

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian enjoyed being outside at Hogwarts the most. He knew it was kind of a waste of the awesome castle, but the grounds were just more interesting! And they were easier to navigate too. The boy had been getting lost inside the castle from his first day.He was sure he wouldn't be any better at it now, so he would continue his strategy of following any classmates he could spot to his lessons. As long as he was reasonably sure of which houses he had classes with, that strategy was pretty good.

There were often interesting things to see outside. It was where he had met Jacob and seen his awesome frisbee, so he was hopeful that he would encounter something as cool as that. But instead he spotted a boy he vaguely recognized casting spells at a tree stump. Abian stared at the situation for a moment, confused. Was it some sort of evil magic tree stump? Just as he started to approach to ask what was happening, the boy seemed to have hit his target. He was clearly very happy about it too. Abian couldn't help laughing at what he yelled at the tree. "Good job!" He said encouragingly. Then he paused. "What were you doing?" He asked, grinning. "Do you think that tree stump is magical? It probably doesn't lift either way." He added as a joke. "And you definitely beat it."

 

[Phineas Ellis]

Phineas was so deep in self-congratulation that he didn't even realise Abian had approached until he spoke. Blushing, Phineas got back to his feet. "I'm practising!" he told the Hufflepuff, with a grin. "I'm gonna get good so Professor Styx can't give me any detention." He cast another stunning spell at the tree stump, though this one missed by a good five inches. "It's not magical, it's a tree stump! See if you can hit it," he challenged. If Abian had a brilliant aim, Phineas knew he was setting himself up for embarrassment, but it would be kind of fun to have someone to practise with regardless.

 

[Abian Hunter]

The boy told him he was practicing, and Abian stared at him. "Practicing for what?" He asked, dumbfounded. Had he missed something again? The boy's next words made him nervous. "Wait... does he give detention if you don't do it right?" He asked nervously. He would be taking Defence Against the Dark Arts this semester and would hate to get in trouble for simply being bad at the spells, which he expected would be the case. He watched as Phineas aimed another spell at the tree stump. He hesitated when the boy asked him to try it. He knew he had the option to pretend to try and make a goof out of it, which he usually did, but he hadn't actually learned this spell yet. He decided to just be honest. "I haven't learned that spell yet... I dunno if I can." He said with a shrug. He had no idea what the spell would even do if it hit, or what might be required from him before he could cast it. It seemed like a bad idea to just try an unknown spell without thinking.

 

[Phineas Ellis]

Phineas shrugged. "Just practising. When we're second years we can join the duelling tournament!" That wasn't really Finn's aim, but he was certainly more likely to sign up if he could reliably hit a target than if the only thing he could knock out was half the audience. He laughed at Abian's question. "IDK mate, but I'm not gonna give him any reason to give me one." Who knew what creative punishments Styx thought up in his free time? He was probably dying to try them out! "Oh! That's OK - I can teach you," Phineas said, not seeing how that could possibly end badly. "All you have to do is point at the thing you wanna hit and say Stupefy. Go on, try it."

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian's eyes widened slightly at the news that there was a duelling tournament that they could apparently join when they were second years. His mind immediately went to an image of old-timey sword fights, with knights and stuff. Only to quickly realize it was clearly about spells, as Phineas said he had been practicing for that. Abian blinked as he processed this information, and he felt a little uneasy as Phineas didn't really reassure him about the detention thing. He hoped that wasn't really what would happen, because he didn't want to be in detention for simply not being good at the lessons. That would seem unfair to him. But when Phineas told him with full confidence that he could teach Abian the spell, Abian perked up. "You can? Cool!" He said, eager to get started. Maybe if Phineas taught him this, he would actually be able to do it before anyone else in his class. That was an exciting prospect. "Okay, and what does it do when it hits?" He asked. as he still wasn't entirely sure what the spell did. He pointed his wand at the tree stump and then decided to just give it a go. He would perhaps see what it did. "I guess I'll see. Stupefy!" To his delight, a spell actually shot from his wand. He missed the tree stump by a long shot, but he was delighted to have made anything happen. That wasn't always the case.

 

[Phineas Ellis]

"It knocks you out!" Phineas said happily. "Well, if you cast it at a person." He took a careful step back as Abian waved his wand. His aim was a bit off, but it was a good first attempt."Nice! Have you really not cast it before?" he asked. It had taken him quite a few goes to cast Stupefy successfully. Obviously Phineas was just a really good teacher. He turned to face Abian. "OK, but try it more like this. Like - Stupefy." Phineas hadn't actually been pointing his wand at Abian when he said the incantation, but as usual his aim was a little off, and he watched with horror as a jet of light shot from his wand and headed straight for the Hufflepuff.

 

[Abian Hunter]

Once Phineas told Abian what the spell did, he felt a little more nervous about it. He had just sent a spell in a random direction that could knock someone out. What if it had done something worse? Maybe he shouldn't just say any spell any random kid told him to try, but he was still proud he had actually managed to make it work. Though a part of him was a little mad there was no professor here to witness it. "Never." He said as Phineas questioned if he had cast it before. But then the boy told him how to do it even better, and Abian paid close attention. At least, until the boy's spell headed straight to him. He only had time to widen his eyes in shock before he was hit. Then, everything went dark.

 

[Phineas Ellis]

Finn saw it all happen in slow motion. Then Abian was lying on the grass, passed out cold, wand still resting in his limp hand. Finn said, rushing over and dropping to his knees beside the boy. He slapped his face a bit, shook his shoulders, put his face right next to his ear and yelled, "ABIAN!" but nothing woke him up. What should he do?! If he went for help, he was bound to get into trouble, but he couldn't just leave Abian lying unconscious on the ground forever! After a second he scrambled to his feet and went running across the lawn. "HELP! MAN DOWN! I REPEAT, MAN DOWN! REQUESTING BACKUP! I NEED A PROFESSOR!"

 

[Katherine Alicastell]

It wasn't often that Katherine had the time to spare for a stroll in the sun, not when there was no much work to be done in her office, but even the headmistress needed a break every so often. In most cases, Katherine's time outside was spent patrolling, the forest in particular, so it was nice to have a brief moment to enjoy the fresh air and not trouble herself searching for misbehaving students. Brief it was, as only a few minutes into Katherine's walk, a first year came charging across the lawn shouting for help. Merlin. There never was a dull moment at Hogwarts. "Slow down." The headmistress said, holding her hand up to signal for the boy to stop running and yelling. "Tell me what's happened. Who is down?"

 

[Phineas Ellis]

Professor Alicastell wasn't usually somebody Phineas was relieved to see, but in this case he couldn't think of anybody more qualified to help. "It's - my friend - he was - we were practising and - he's knocked out!" Finn said quickly, deciding that waking Abian up was more important than admitting to the headmistress exactly why he was unconscious in the first place. "Over here, come on!" Turning on his heel, Finn started to run back to the tree stump, where Abian lay still on the grass nearby. "It was just a - a stunning spell. I don't know what happened! Can you wake him up? Is he gonna be OK?" Maybe, just maybe, if Abian was perfectly OK, Finn wouldn't get told off for this.

 

[Katherine Alicastell]

A student knocked out was never a good thing to hear, but until Katherine could see this friend of the boy's, there was no telling how bad the damage was. By "practicing" the headmistress could only assume he meant spellcasting, which didn't exactly quell her fears of what may have happened, given how wildly dangerous magic could be in inexperienced hands, which was exactly why there were rules in place against using it unsupervised. The woman quickly followed after the young boy, already in the process of withdrawing her wand to assist in whatever trouble they were in, and soon found the spot where the student lay unconscious. Before Katherine could further question exactly what had lead to this situation, the boy mentioned a stunning spell, which was something of a relief to hear. A simple spell with a simple solution. "And I presume this stunning spell came from you?" The woman asked, despite how certain she felt about his answer. "He'll be fine in a moment. Rennervate." A brilliant flash of red light, and the revival spell wasted no time in doing its job of reversing the effects of the stun, while Katherine pocketed her wand once more. "Young man, are you alright?" There were too many students to be remembering either of their names at this stage, especially such fresh faces, but after today they'd both no doubt become quickly memorised.

 

[Abian Hunter]

As Abian woke up, he was immediately confused. Why was he sleeping outside? His head kind of hurt. For a moment, he looked at the lady standing over him uncomprehendingly before it clicked who she was. But that made everything even more confusing. Why was the Headmistress of the school there when he woke up? Frowning, he rubbed his head as he sat up, noticing a worried looking Phineas hovering nearby. The sight of him and the tree stump was enough to make him remember a few things and understand a little better, and he glanced from him to the headmistress and back. “Did you just stun me?” He asked, before he realized a question had been asked of him. He looked back at Professor Alicastell. “Oh, yeah, I think I’m fine. I feel fine, at least.” He got to his feet slowly, then grinned at Phineas. “Good job with the spell, by the way. It totally knocked me out!” He looked down at himself as if to make sure everything was still there. “Do you think mine would work too?” His fingers twitched as if he was eager to grab his own wand and try too, but he quickly decided that wasn’t a very good idea. It was then that he noticed his wand was still on the ground where he had fallen, and he quickly bent to pick it up and pocket it. “Not that I would try that on you.” He said quickly, glancing at the professor. It only now dawned on him they might get in trouble for this. He decided to clarify. “Phineas didn’t mean to knock me out, Professor. We were practicing on the tree stump.” He said, hoping it would help his friend. "He was teaching me, but then he sort of accidentally knocked me out. Which I guess did teach me something!"

 

[Phineas Ellis]

Phineas winced. "Maaaaybe," he whined, resigning to the fact he was going to be punished. He was more concerned about Abian than losing a few house points. Fortunately, all the Headmistress had to do was cast a quick spell to wake the Hufflepuff up again. Relief washed over him as Abian got to his feet. Well, that was easy! Maybe she wouldn't have to punish him, after all. But he knew that this was wishful thinking. He hung his head as Abian tried valiantly to get him out of trouble. "My aim sucks," he added, his eyes pleading as he looked up at Professor Alicastell. "I just wanted to practise. And then Abian came and I wanted to help him practise, too. I'm really, really sorry. Are you gonna take house points?"

 

[Katherine Alicastell]

Compliments from the boy who had been stunned was, in itself, stunning. Katherine certainly wouldn't have felt the same way if she'd been in his position, but she was still rather impressed by how well he'd taken it. Not everyone was so kind after being on the receiving end of a spell. The Headmistress glanced toward the mentioned tree stump with a small frown. It was better than them dueling each other in the middle of the grounds, unsupervised, but that still didn't make it a hundred percent fine. "I understand you didn't intend for this to happen, but the fact is that it did, and it was careless. The school has regulations in place to avoid this sort of situation from occurring in the first place, rules the two of you should be aware of by now. If you want to practice this sort of combative magic, you should be doing so in the dueling chamber, in the presence of a staff member. Whether against each other, or against inanimate targets, that is where you should be, not out here in the open where any student may be caught in the crossfire." Obviously, there were no hard feelings between them, and while nothing had really come of the stun, it could have been so much worse. Knocking someone unconscious was no safe thing, and healing magic could only do so much if he'd managed to seriously injure himself on the way down. "I'm not the one you should be apologising to, but thank you. I will be taking ten points from the both of you, to ensure this doesn't happen again. If you want to continue this practice, I'd advise heading to the dueling chamber. In future, think before you make a decision like this. It isn't just your safety at risk." Her tone conveyed that she wasn't pleased with what had transpired, but she wasn't angry, either. It was kids being kids, but as long as they learned from the experience, there wasn't any need to be harsh. Perhaps they'd be upset with the point removal, but actions, whether remorseful about them or not, still had consequences, and they were best learning that lesson sooner in life rather than later. "Now run along, and be careful."

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian still didn’t feel completely steady, but he was glad to be on his feet again and no longer knocked out. He did think it was pretty cool the spell had worked, if he was honest. The professor didn’t look very happy when she looked over at the tree stump, and Abian knew they were in trouble before she even spoke. He had heard of the dueling chamber before, but had always assumed that was only for the older students. Maybe next time they could practice there, though he didn’t think that would stop him from being knocked out. Abian grimaced slightly when the Headmistress took ten points from each of them. Who lost points for being knocked unconscious? He hadn’t lost points yet, and he hoped no one would know it was him if they noticed the fewer points in the hourglass. The last thing he wanted was some angry prefect on his tail. He knew he had to say something and scrambled to think of what words to use. He wasn’t going to apologize for being knocked unconscious, but he still wanted to be polite. “Thank you for the advice, Professor.” He said eventually. “C’mon Finn, let’s check out the lake or something.” He hoped Phineas would know better than to argue about the points, as in Abian’s experience arguing with a teacher never did anything good.