One Less Problem

[Abel Smith]

Abel was doing some last minute cleaning before leaving the Duelling Chamber for good this year. To be honest, there was nothing to clean, and no reason to be cleaning because the elves would surely do it, but the Slytherin was nervous and trying to deal with some severe anxiety about this coming year. He would not be returning to the home he had grown up in, and instead would be staying with Killua for as long as time would permit. It was a crazy notion, to actually be staying with Killy in a capacity that was not school, but it was his only option at the sudden turn of events that he had not been expecting. He had assumed that, since he had been a werewolf for a year now, his family had accepted it enough to keep him, but it did not work out like that. Now, he would be imposing himself upon Killy and his family, and that did not sit well with the Slytherin. He hoped that he would get in contact with some more willing family members before he became a burden to his fellow Slytherin and his family, otherwise seventh year could be a very lonely year indeed.

Abel caressed the stage as he walked, smiling as he thought about the duels that had happened upon that stage. He hoped that next year would be as eventful as this year, with regard to the SDA. It was keeping him distracted and on his toes and that was what he felt he needed. he was not going to be taking many classes next year at all, so it was perfect. At least the place was not half as dusty as it was when he first got in here, which was a testament to how things were getting started. Hopefully next year he would be more able to get involved and have a lot of fun while doing it. Abel pursed his lips as he straightened up his robes and leaned the broom back against the wall. It was time to get back to packing for his trip to Australia.
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[Aliyah Wright]

Aliyah had finished all the studying she could do with her charms and transfiguration books and her wand hand was getting twitchy. Luckily for her, the Slytherin House was located just up the hall from the dueling chambers in the dungeons. There had to be some practice dummies and stuff she could summon and banish in there. Exams were starting the next day and after the school year ended, she wouldn't be allowed to use her wand at all over break. It was going to be a tragic separation and she wanted to spend as much time using curly laurel wand before it would be lock away in her mother's desk for what seemed like an eternity. Walking by her mother's home office would be torturous knowing that her wand was in there and she couldn't even touch it. But alas rules are rules and she wasn't about to get in trouble with the ministry over a little bout of underage magic. For the next couple of months she would have to suck it up and take it as a lesson in self-discipline, but today she was going to enjoy every last swish and flick.

Aliyah could her some faint nosies coming from the dueling chambers. Someone was in there. Curious, she slowly peeked her head into the doorway to see what going on in there. "Awww nooo Abel. You aren't about to lock up are you?" The first year scurried up to the SDA leader with a small disappointed pout. She should have figured that things would have been shutting down around the castle for the end of term, but perhaps her older housemate would make an exception for her. She respected Abel. Instead of being a jerk about their little collision in the owlery her very first week at Hogwarts, he fixed her broken cage and invited her to join the Student Defense Association. And he definitely seemed nicer than his friend Koala or whatever the other older boy's name was. All in all, the eleven year old was enjoying her interactions with the more senior members of Slytherin. "Please...just thirty minutes." she continued to purr, hoping to wear him down with pure cuteness.

 

[Abel Smith]

Would he ever need to wear sleeves again? Australia could get very warm, as far as he knew. Possibly warmer than New Zealand? His native land was far warmer than either environment, and he often had trouble getting the weather to agree with him, and especially his very pale skin. Perhaps this change in home would benefit him and stop him from catching colds upon his return home, or getting atrocious skin-burns during his first week of school. A young voice startled him for a moment, being one that never liked being snuck up on, but he soon settled when he saw the familiar face of Aliyah, a Slytherin first year that had joined the SDA under his suggestion, so naturally he remembered her. Especially under the circumstances of their first meeting, he doubted he would ever forget her. "Well, I was actually. It's time for the chamber to gather enough dust to give me an asthma attack upon return." He was also hoping to see if he could speak with the Head Boy for a moment, give him well wishes and hope of a safe journey, Merlin knew Raziel probably needed it. Abel doubted the silent seventh year and his equally silent young friend would be able to compile two words to say any well wishes to each other.

However, he found himself smirking at Aliyah's little show, and sighed beside himself. "Okay, thirty minutes. But then we have to get our butts out of here mid-spell or no, promise?" Without waiting for her response, he abandoned the broom to the wall, and walked back to the stage, sitting himself on the edge. "Is there anything you wanted to do in particular?" If it were spell practice she was looking for, which Abel naturally assumed would be the case, it would require professor supervision, which could easily be acquired by the Charms professor, Professor Joussane, he had earlier assisted Abel in cleaning. "I can call Professor Joussane back, he was lurking around earlier. You can practice a little if you want."
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[Aliyah Wright]

Aliyah laughed lightly at his comment about the dust and beamed brightly when he agreed to let her stay. She couldn't tell if the older boy was just humoring her or being politely sarcastic, but either way the young witch didn't particularly care. It was thirty minute of practice that she might not have had otherwise and Abel had taken all the first year exams already. Maybe he could give her some pointers. "What I want to do is get a O on my Charms exam. Do you think you can help with that Mr. President?" she said with a sigh as leaned against the dueling stage. Even with the decent effort she put forth in the class and studying that she did outside of it, the Slytherin wasn't going to feel complete confident in her preparedness until she was sure that she could adequately perform the spells. Aliyah looked back up at the boy who was now sitting. She would have sat too, but that would have made her look even more like the little kid she actually was and she couldn't have that. Being cute to get your way was one thing, but not being able to be taken seriously was something else entirely. At least she wouldn't have the stigma of being a first year floating over her for much longer. Perhaps growing would be a nice way to spend break. Was there are charm for that? The eleven year old had small growth spurt during the school year and had sprouted to 4 feet 7 inches tall. "I didn't get to practice the Banishing Charm as much as I should have in class and I never actually got to try the Disarming Charm with another person." she added. If Abel game, she really did want to work on Expelliarmus with him, because practicing with dummies would not be as much fun.

 

[Abel Smith]

Half an hour would not be so bad. He had the entire day to do what was needed, this session, as it were, would not be the thing that broke him today. Besides, he would rather be here doing what he promised he would do on day one when asked to take the role, than running around the castle looking for Raziel, or packing to leave his home for a land he had never been to. It was also better than cleaning. A lot better than cleaning. The sixth year found thinking about first year exams to be something very different, almost relaxing. Being in sixth year meant that his Charms exam had been far more difficult than Aliyah could ever hope to imagine until she herself took it, and his next exam, in seventh would be even harder. He was fortunate to not have any serious exam worries this semester, and found the prospect of someone actually coming to him for help in Charms exciting. He had never felt particularly helpful to anyone but Killua, and that was only on the subject of lycanthropy, which he knew all too intimately. He chuckled at his designated title, though. He had never actually been called that. "Well, thinking back to my exam... there was quite a bit of writing. If you took notes, I'd really suggest reading them, first up. You'll be asked about the purpose of some charms, and the incantations of them." If she did not cover herself in the academic side of the exam, he doubted she would be able to do the practical, and even if she did, her chances of getting a good mark would be severely compromised.

He nodded as she explained further, and the Slytherin frowned slightly. There were few that actually enjoyed having their wands taken from them. Being disarmed was never a happy occurrence, but neither was not actually using it on someone. Whether this was in the exam or not, he felt that she needed to know how to disarm someone regardless. "Well, I can certainly help you with those." Professor Joussane was lurking about, so there was supervision, and they were some of the first spells he learned. "I don't want to get out the dummies as I just got them all away. But you can disarm me, if you like. You can try and banish the chairs if you like," he added, nodding his head to the stacked chairs in the corner of the room. "Which would you prefer to try first? How's your aim?" If she could aim well, then they could get started. If her aim was off by a long shot, perhaps it would be wiser to show her how to stand and focus through duelling techniques first.
​

 

[Aliyah Wright]

Aliyah cocked her head to the side as she listened and considered Abel's advice. Notes...notes...her charms notes were haphazard collection of half finished sentences and a few stray doodles, but she managed to clean them up as she started studying for her exam. A little late, but something was better than nothing. Admittedly, she found herself distracted more often than not during the lecture portion of the class due to either her own wandering thoughts or the smile of their charmingly young professor. She was able to recall enough information to do a decent job on the hands on practice that they did in class though. Her mother always told her she was an active learner. Just listening to the professor speak would never be enough to get the information to stick in the young witch's mind. She had already forgotten most of what she learned in History of Magic and Astronomy last term. If the information they would be learning builds from one year to the next, Aliyah was going to have an uphill battle ahead of her in some of her classes. Ugh and the incantations. The American had practiced those to death. She had found a nice quiet corner in the back of the library where she couldn't hear anybody and nobody could hear her. She didn't want to anyone to hear her sounding out each of the spells like she was five year old struggling to read a picture book. But regardless of all of that, it was really her stubbornness that brought her to the dueling chamber today. If only she had took advantage of practicing the spells properly in class when she had the chance, she probably wouldn't have been so desperate for some extra practice.

"Great!" Aliyah chirped excitedly. Her eyes wandered from Abel to the chairs and back to the older Slytherin. With Professor Joussane close by and working so closely with an upper classmen, the eleven year old really didn't want to embarrass herself. And sending a housemate to the infirmary because of a mistake on a simple spell in front of a teacher who would be controlling her final grade would most definitely be embarrassing. "I guess we could starting with banishing. And my aim is umm...decent?" she replied not sounding half as convincing as she hoped she would. It was probably her patience and control that needed the most work. She was too eager and quick to throw out a spell and her wand motions and concentration suffered the most.

 

[Abel Smith]

Abel smiled slightly as the look of a small puppy showed on Aliyah's face, with her head tilted to the side. He did not have to be a mind reader to guess that she, like many others before her, kept terrible notes and had not really concerned themselves with the exams until directly before them. When Abel was in her year (and even still fell into the bad habit) he often decided to not study or take adequate notes, and just went with the flow, until directly before his exams, where he would fall to pieces in panic and work himself bald trying to catch everything up. It was probably something that would have him falling into an early grave, or premature balding, but procrastination and distraction were two things that came easily to him. "Well, don't worry about it. I usually lost my notes too, or didn't write any, and I got an E in Charms this year. You'll be fine. I promise." Was he crazy confident? No, as he was no professor, but he made sure his smile was all professional-confidence.

Abel ran his tongue along his teeth, his lips closed, as Aliyah told him that her aim was 'decent'. Decent could mean a variety of things, and rarely any of them good. Decent could range from damn-near perfect to absolutely awful, and he was not looking forward to having Aliyah cast anything if he wasn't even sure how well she could aim. She could hit anything, and hurt someone or something. "Well, first things first, you need to fix your aim. You cannot cast anything that needs a subject, without being able to aim at that object." He stood up on the stage, and ducked under the bars, before holding out his hand for her to grab if she needed assistance. Once she was on the stage, he gestured for her to follow him to the centre, and faced her. "Next year you'll be able to duel, so you will learn more about balance and manners then, but good balance can also help with aim. Grab your wand, and prepare to disarm me," he explained, walking to the other side of the arena. The Disarming Charm was the safest to practise with Aliyah's aim was in question, because he could block that easily and if she missed him, it wouldn't matter. He did not want to think about being accidentally hit with the Banishing charm.
​

 

[Aliyah Wright]

Aliyah nodded as Abel talked about his own note taking habits. It was reassuring. Balancing her note taking with active listening was skill that she was still working on. The first year figured that banishing would be safer and easier to do because it wouldn't be directed specifically at another person, but she understood what the older student was saying and followed his led. A small ball of nerves was beginning to form in the bottom of her stomach. Facing off with another first year in Defense Against the Dark Arts seemed easy, but she might have slightly underestimated what it would actually be like to properly practice with someone far more advanced than herself. "Ok." she said meekly as she took the older boy's hand and hopped on to the stage behind him. Aliyah stood rooted firmly in the center of the stage. She removed her curly laurel wand from her skirt waistband and pointed it Abel's direction. "Ready?" Without waiting for a response, she cleared her throat and swished and twirled her wand in the air. "Expelliarmus" There was something about performing spells that made the young witch smile. Her wand felt like part of her and any magic she created with felt like it was completely hers and under her control. She couldn't say she felt that way about potions or anything else had worked on this school year. Instead of looking up at her target, she watched as the scarlet light shot from her wand and raced toward her housemate. She wasn't exactly sure where it would land, but at least it was going in his general direction.

 

[Abel Smith]

Abel had to remind himself that this was not a duel, because when he saw the spell coming towards him he had automatically prepared to cast a spell. The spell missed him, however, spiralling slightly to his right and hitting the wall instead. Other than the fact that it zoomed past him, it was actually very good. It was a stable cast, very clean, and she held herself correctly. Some people fell over when they cast spells. He nodded, and smiled at Aliyah. "That's good, your aim isn't that bad. I think you should, however, pick up your posture when you cast your spells." He held out his wand, and pointed to the broom. Speaking clearly, he summoned the broom to him, and put it on the ground in front of him. "I think your biggest problem is confidence. You can't be worried about hitting someone when you're using magic, otherwise you probably will wind up hitting someone." Being someone that struggled with confidence, he had similar issues, but now he felt most confident when holding his wand, and had no issues casting spells when necessary. "If you stay on, you'll be duelling. You will be hitting people with spells, and sometimes the duels can get very, very heated." He thought back to Sergei and Tybalt. He was surprised the Professor let it go, but they were both tearing each other apart, so it was even, at least. "You can't be worried about doing something wrong. If you watch the spell, then you're not watching your wand, or your target, and that can be a problem."

He walked back to her side, side-stepping the broom. "I know it's an exam situation you're thinking about, but mustering aim is essential, otherwise you cannot protect yourself, nor can you pass a practical exam." With his arms now across his chest, Abel looked at her intently. "Now, I'm going to stand right next to the broom, and you're going to banish the broom, you're not going to hit me because you will be looking at your target, and you will be concentrating on getting it away from me. Take as much time as you like to cast the spell. Try taking some deep breaths, and stand with your arm stretched, chest puffed and facing the wall, and eyes locked on that broom. Don't even acknowledge that I'm there." He then walked back to the broom. He was prepared to protect himself should her spell get away from her, but hopefully the pressure of not throwing him into a wall would get her to concentrate on her casting.
​

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[Aliyah Wright]

Aliyah continued to watch as her spell flew right past Abel and into the wall. It was disappointing sight to her, but not entirely surprising. The young witch had been too much in her own head for her Disarming Charm to pack any real punch. She unconsciously shifted her weight from her left foot to the right when the older Slytherin mentioned her posture and watched as he summoned the broom with ease. Merlin, if only she could make it look that easy, she would get an O on the charms exam for sure. She gave noncommittal shoulder shrug when Abel went on to questioned her confidence. Although there might have been some truth the boy's statement, self-confidence wasn't ever something the eleven year old felt herself lacking. Her fear of failure or screwing up was something that she usually was able to rationalize away with organization and hard work. It wasn't her, it was the fact that it was pretty much impossible to cover magical mistakes, especially as a first year. Surely everyone could agree that maiming classmates would be something that Hogwarts frowned upon. And to top of that, even though she was growing attached to it, there were times that she swore that it felt like she and her wand didn't exactly see eye to eye. "Well I don't know. I can think of couple people around here who I wouldn't mind hitting with a spell or two." she quickly chimed in with a small smirk. All joking aside, she nodded in agreement with Abel's advice. He had a point with that. If her mind was floating anywhere but the task at hand, she would never be able to perform any spell accurately.

Aliyah stared back up at Abel and forced herself not to smile. After all the help he had given her, she really didn't want to accidentally offend the boy. It was just that for a brief moment, with his arms folded and his serious face the sixth year Slytherin reminded her father when he was trying to get a point across. She often took Harrison Wright at minimal levels of seriousness. With him being away more often than not, his attempts at instruction and discipline felt like too little too late. She found herself impressed with Abel however. He was a good teacher. Whoever made him leader of the Student Defense Association made the right choice. The first year turned her attention from her housemate to the broom laying on the floor. She raised her wand arm a pointed it a spot in between the two stone bricks in the wall. After burning a hole into the wall with her eyes, she shut them tightly and tried to picture it her mind. Maybe if she could focus on it mentally, she wouldn't have to look at it as she casted the spell. When she was finally ready, she moved her wand back toward the broom. "Despulso!" she said as she swept her wand upward back to the point on the wall. Instead of worrying so much about keeping the broom in the air, she thought only of sending it to the spot on the wall. She was surprised by how quickly it flew. Nothing she summoned or banished in class had moved that swiftly.

 

[Abel Smith]

Aliyah's comment made the Slytherin snort quietly to himself. He was sure everyone in the school had someone they wanted to hex on occasion. Even he had the urge to cast a spell at someone when they were particularly annoying, or if Killua was getting on his nerves. At least she had a sharp wit, or so it seemed. That would certainly help her in years to come. He wiggled his nose in thought as he waited for her to cast her spell, and silently hoped that she would not accidently aim it at him. His arms were once again across his chest, one of his fingers scratching at his wand as he waited for her. He was not feeling particularly impatient as he waited, for he understood that this could potentially be a very offsetting thing, but he did feel something akin to anxiousness. This reflected on him, as well, and while his own reputation was literally one of the last things on his mind, the reputation of the Association depended on him, as well As Aliyah, as a member. He couldn't have her failing her exams, especially since he was now trying to help her. That would be horrible.

Her voice made him refocus on her, and her wand movements, before looking at the broom fly across the room to where he hoped she had intended. He was completely unscathed, and he gave a quick nod to the Charms professor at the back of the room, who had popped in for a moment. "That was great, Aliyah!" he praised, looking over at the broom. "I would never have thought that just a moment ago you were concerned about your exams. Keep that up, and there will be absolutely no reason why you'll need to be concerned about them." He smiled, and summoned the broom back with a wave of his wand and a command. "Do you want to try again?"
​

 

[Aliyah Wright]

Aliyah let out a deep sigh of relief when the broom smacked the spot she and directed it too and slid down to the floor. "That is because you are a good teacher Mr. President!" she added, returning the smile. The eleven year old hoped the older boy didn't minded being called that. Personally, she hated being called out of her name, but with Abel's leadership position and her family's background in the US military, she meant it as a sign of respect. The President of the United State was Commander-in-Chief of the United State Armed Forces and Abel was Commander-in-Chief of the Student Defense Association. The moniker just made since in her mind.

The first year looked from the broom to a clock hanging on a nearby wall. Aliyah had promised to only keep Abel thirty minutes and she didn't intend to keep him a minute over. A promise is a promise. But they had a few minutes left and she couldn't resist one last try at the spell. "Yeah...I think I can do it one more time." The first year waited until the broom was returned to a neutral spot on the stage and readied herself to cast the banishing charm once more. She searched the room with her eyes to find a new spot to focus on. Deciding on a corner of the room, she raised her wand arm and focused on the spot were the floor and the walls met. "Despulo!" she said as she copied the movements she had preformed earlier. Once again the broom sprung to life and raced toward its destination. It wasn't the most graceful landing, but the broom managed to settle upright in the corner. "See, I even put it away for you." she said proudly nonetheless.