Open Improving on the Ordinary

[Solomon Tofilau]

After realizing just how much down time they actually had at school without access to things like video games or tv, Sully had been determined to squeeze as many toys and games into his bag as he could this year. His was excited to see what sort of games they could set up by mixing in spells and stuff with regular sports equipment and had already busted out his football to try it a go out on the lawn.

Currently, Sully was working on figuring out a way to play football without touching the ball, swapping between banishing and summoning spells to push it along the grass to where he'd set up his shoes to mark the goal. It was a little muddy still after the winter, but Sully didn't mind being barefoot, he ran faster that way. His aim was a little rusty after not being allowed to use magic all break, but Sully whooped when he managed to just fling the ball inside of his right shoe. Trying to summon the ball was a little trickier though, no matter how many times he yelled the summoning charm, the ball seemed like it was just slightly too far away and Sully groaned, shoving his wand in his pocket to go get it the boring way. By hand.

 

[Amy Jewel]

Amy was walking out on the great lawn, mostly just because she could, when she saw a familiar face. Is that Sully? she wondered. She walked towards him and watched for a moment. It looked like he was playing soccer, but not using his feet? Could that be it? She shrugged, and went over to him."Hey, Sully! How was your break?" She waited until he'd answered before asking her next question."So, um, what are you doing?" She was interested in what was happening, but mostly in how it was going. If it was what she thought it was, it was a great idea for fun.

 

[Solomon Tofilau]

Sully slowed up his jog when he spotted Amy, giving her a grin and friendly fist bump. He and Amy had bonded pretty quickly last year whenever they were doing stuff on the lawn and Sully hoped she'd be down for something even more interesting this year. "Amy, hey! It was chill as," He said easily, deciding to leave out the fact that he'd actually really missed his family. "Psyched that we can do magic again now, aye,"
When she asked what he was up to, Sully beamed, motioning his wand at the football nearby. "I'm playing football, but with magic, right? So like football, but you can't touch the ball with your feet either. Watch!" He said, before casting a summoning charm with a shout, cheering when the ball whizzed towards him. Redirecting the ball was a little tricker though, and while Sully was busy trying to work out the angle for the banishing charm, the ball nailed him solidly in the thigh. He staggered with a grunt and burst out laughing as the ball dropped lamely near Amy. "It's a work in progress. Wanna try?"

 

[Amy Jewel]

Amy returned Sully's fist bump and grinned."It's weird going home and not doing any magic." She listened as he explained what he was doing, and was intrigued. She watched as he demonstrated and laughed."Sure, I'll try! Looks like fun!" She was glad to do something that would help her practice the world's she'd leant last year, but not have to do anything boring, like studying it again.

 

[Solomon Tofilau]

Sully nodded furiously when Amy said it was weird not being allowed to do magic over break. "Right? It's so unfair. But at least it means I don't have to really do any homework," Sully said, shrugging. He would have loved to show off a game like this to his little brother, but apparently that was illegal for wizards, which was lame. It wasn't like his brother didn't already know now that Sully was magic. Sully grinned when Amy agreed to try and play, loping back over to his makeshift goal. "Sweet! What if you tried like, using a banishing charm to score a goal and I can block it," He said, trying to set up in a goalie stance before remembering he said you weren't allowed to touch the ball. "Oh, I could try a shield charm, I think that works on footballs as well as magic, right?" Sully guessed they'd find out, readying his wand. "Hit me with your best shot!"

 

[Amy Jewel]

Amy shrugged."Let's give it a shot!" She pulled out her wand and pointed it at the ball."Depulso!" The ball shot off, but not in the direction of Sully's goal."Bummer," she said. She ran over to the ball and had another try."Depulso!" This time it headed in the direction of Sully, and Amy hoped that his shield charm would work. Then all they'd have to do was practice!

 

[Solomon Tofilau]

Sully was primed and ready when Amy fired off the first spell, but the ball went skidding off in the wrong direction and he tried to stifle a laugh. He could remember helping that girl Phoebe last year with the rocks and knew it was easy to get your aim off if you hit the wrong spot and called out to Amy encouragingly. "Come on, give it another go! This way this time!" He said, a bit cheekily. At Amy's second attempt, Sully definitely got what he'd asked for, scrambling for his wand as the ball sailed his way. He had a brief moment of introspection wondering if he should have made sure Protego actually blocked things other than spells before watching the ball slam into his hastily cast shield charm. For a moment, Sully thought his shield might break, but he let out a breath of relief when the ball bounced harmlessly off it, watching it launch backwards away from the goal. "Oh sick! It worked!" He cheered, watching the ball arc through the air. "Oh, watch your head!"

 

[Amy Jewel]

Amy ducked quickly as the ball bounced back. Luckily, she did just in time. The ball went over her head and she laughed."It worked!" she cheered with Sully. She ran after the ball and kicked it back."You have a go! Maybe you can hit it better than me!" She laughed, since her first shot wasn't the greatest. The holidays hadn't been the kindest to her, since she couldn't practice her magic. But, being at school would be great, and she'd be learning new spells too.

 

[Solomon Tofilau]

Sully let out a giddy breath of relief when Amy was able to duck out of the way of the ball. Her aim might be a bit funny, but at least she had good reflexes. "Yeah okay, cool. We can trade back and forth, like penalty kicks," He said happily, switching spots with Amy in the goal and lining up the ball with the goal a few meters away. Sully made a show of testing the wind and carefully eying the angle from the ground, mostly to see if he could make Amy laugh before finally casting the spell with a cheerfully loud Depulso. It was a little low still, coming it closer to Amy's knees, but the ball zipped towards the goal and Sully crossed his fingers. "Come on, Amy, get it!"

 

[Amy Jewel]

Amy agreed with Sully about going back and forth. She laughed as he made a big show of testing the wind and checking angles. It was good that they could joke about her bad aim. Sully cast the spell and the ball came flying towards her. She cast a shield charm, and it thankfully held. The ball bounced back, and she started jumping with excitement."At least I know I can protect myself!" she laughed."My knees would've gotten a beating then! It was a great shot."

 

[Solomon Tofilau]

Sully cheered when Amy managed to defend the goal, forgetting for a moment that he was the one trying to score. He tried to catch the ball with a levitation spell as it bounced back, but missed, groaning as it rolled past him and had to chase after it. "Right, my turn for goalie now," He said, catching his breath as he jogged back over to Amy. "I wonder if you could play tennis or something with shield charms, that'd be mean, aye," He said, trying to imagine what that might look like and making a mental note to find where that tennis ball he had got to. "But yeah, come on, first person to score gets to be champion." Sully declared, spreading his arms out to protect the goal.

 

[Amy Jewel]

Amy laughed."If you find a tennis ball, I'll come give you a hand with that one!" She liked the idea of playing sports with magic. It wasn't something she had considered before now. Sully said that the first person to score would be the champion and she grinned."Ooo, challenge time!" She got the ball into a good position and aimed."Watch out for your head!" she said, then waved her wand to cast the spell. The ball shot off. She cheered for Sully, hoping he would deflect it instead of hitting him.

 

[Solomon Tofilau]

"I think I've got some somewhere," Sully said, already trying to work out how protego tennis might work. He was still musing about it when Amy launched the ball again, having to bring his wand up instinctually as he made a dive for the ball. Sully was pleased he was just able to deflect the shot, but his landing was a bit rough and Sully winced, getting onto to his feet with a slightly late flourish. "Nick of time, aye phew. Good shot, I think my wand nearly went up my nose." He laughed, inspecting his wand both for damage and maybe boogers.

 

[Amy Jewel]

Amy grinned."Let me know when you find some, and I'll come give you a hand." She watched Sully deflect the ball, but threw her hands over her mouth when he fell."Are you okay?" Luckily, he sounded alright, and Amy laughed at his comment."Try not to let that happen. Imagine going to the hospital wing with your wand stuck up your nose!" She laughed again at the thought, since she was sure that it had happened before.

 

[Solomon Tofilau]

"Yeah, I'm tough," Sully said, flexing his arms and laughing when Amy asked if he was alright. "I guess there are probably worse places you could stick a wand," He added cheekily, brushing the dirt off his hands. Grabbing the football, Sully spin it in his hands contemplatively. "What do you think happens if we both levitate it at once, could you like tug-o-war it you think?" He asked, tossing the ball up and down a few times. Amy was pretty good and Sully was starting to worry he might not win their little shoot-out, so maybe it was time to change the game up a bit.

 

[Amy Jewel]

"There definitely are worse places!" Amy thought about a tug-of-war."Hmm, that might happen. We could try it!" She wasn't sure if levitating would work, or if they would be better to try summoning it at the same time."If that doesn't work, maybe both of us summoning away from each other might. We should try both!" She wondered if Hogwarts had ever had a competition similar to what she and Sully were trying to accomplish. Muggle games, but altered with magic. That'd be cool, she thought.

 

[Solomon Tofilau]

Sully grinned when Amy was down for his new game, jogging over to her with the ball and pulling his wand back out to levitate the ball somewhat jerkily into the air. He didn't want to float the ball too high, already having to squint a bit to see it against the bright blue of the sky, but it was hard to resist the urge to show off a little. "Oh man, do you think the ball'll try to go two places at once and just pop?" He asked, excited enough about Amy's idea that he almost didn't mind it sounded cooler than his. "We gotta do that next, definitely," Once it was a metre or two above their heads, Sully nodded to Amy for her to go. "See if you can move it or something and then we should try pulling it in different directions." Sully wasn't overly concerned with what might happen if the ball did actually explode from this, it was far more exciting to think about how fun that would be rather than what he'd do if they wrecked it.

 

[Amy Jewel]

Amy grinned. She watched the ball fly up and aimed her wand. Making sure to point out straight, she tried levitating it. It bounced in the air, but didn't really move."Oh bummer," she said, lowering her arm. She thought for a moment, then raised her arm again."Come on, work this time!" She levitated the ball and shot up into the air."Watch your head!" she shouted as if suddenly fell from the nowhere. She covered her own head and hoped Sully had done the same.

 

[Solomon Tofilau]

Sully immediately found it was a lot harder to keep his concentration when someone else was also trying to move the same thing he was. On Amy's second attempt at levitating the ball, he was so busy watching her, he half forgot he was supposed to be trying to move it too, flinching and laughing as the ball shot into the air. "Woah look at it go," He said, shielding his eye to spot the ball as it came down, managing to duck away just in time with Amy's warning. "That was awesome," He said with a grin, offering Amy a high five. "Did you see how high it went! Maybe we can try summoning and banishing it at the same time." Sully offered next. They hadn't really managed what they were trying to do, but it was still cool to watch.

 

[Amy Jewel]

Amy high fived Sully and grinned. It had worked better than she thought it would. She liked Sully's idea of banishing and summoning at the same time."I'll summon it, if you want to banish it?" She wondered how many different types of spells would affect the ball."Then we could switch." She got her wand ready and waited for Sully."Ready?" She summoned the ball and waited to see what would happen.

 

[Solomon Tofilau]

Amy was an excellent partner in crime Sully was deciding, excited when she easily switched tracks to keep messing around with the football. "Sweet, I'm ready." He said with a grin, flourishing his wand. Sully quickly realized it was a lot harder to focus and aim on a target that was already moving, and he hadn't been as quick on the draw as Amy. He was pretty sure he did an excellent job of banishing some grass, but it didn't do much to stop the ball zipping back towards them. Sully briefly considered jumping in front of the ball dramatically, or even casting another shield charm just to show off, but he was kinda more interested to see how Amy would react now to the incoming ball, she was pretty quick on her feet when she was playing goalie already. And it would kinda make him feel better if she messed up too, he wouldn't lie.

 

[Amy Jewel]

Poor Sully didn't manage to banish the ball, but he did do a great job of banishing the grass. She wasn't sure what she should do to the oncoming ball, but quickly performed a shield charm when the ball got close. It hit the shield hard and bounced back off in the other direction."Whoops." She summoned it back quickly, but didn't think about the momentum the ball had. It flew back towards her, and took her feet out from underneath her. She collapsed onto the ground and looked at the ball, which was now only a few feet away."Well, it certainly doesn't like us staying on our feet, that's for sure!" she laughed.

 

[Solomon Tofilau]

Sully couldn't help but laugh when the ball took Amy out. Her shield charm had been awesome, but she hadn't been as fast on the backswing and Sully out only watch when she ended up in the dirt. "You look like you're playing pingpong or something," He giggled, moving over to help Amy up. Once Amy was up and appeared to be unhurt, Sully jogged over and scooped up the ball, spinning it in his hands again. "What'd you say we call a snack break. I need a feed before we take any more hits." He said with a laugh. Sully was looking forward to hanging out with Amy some more, he needed more friends like her who were just game to mess around with dumb ideas. And get hit by a football a few times.

 

[Amy Jewel]

Amy laughed again. She brushed the dirt from her robes and grinned."A snack break sounds great!" She loved the idea of hanging out with Sully, especially if it meant doing something other than studying. What better way to practice magic than in a game? She clapped her hands for Sully to pass the ball to her. She wondered how long it would last before it broke."I wonder how many others would be into doing this. And how balls would pop!" She grinned. It would be cool to have a group of them, even though hanging out with just Sully was fun too.