Closed progressing or regressing

[Jonah Edogawa]

There was a small smile on Jonah's face as he watched his Defense book currently in the air. He'd been working on his Charms since last semester, not much during the holidays since he didn't want to practice with Elijah or Sayuri. He hadn't bothered to ask his parents so he wouldn't have to remind them of his failing grade in the subject. So, he'd only gotten back to practicing his spells since they got back to Hogwarts. He was already succeeding at casting Lumos and Nox all the time, Lumos - the Slytherin - had made sure of that. They worked on the Levitation spell after; now Jonah can cast it successfully more often than not. Sometimes, he would still fail, but he'd typically succeed after the second or third try. A far cry from before when he would cast ten times and barely lift a book an inch. Hopefully, by the time the second semester rolled around, he and Lumos would actually get him caught up enough that he wouldn't fail Charms this year. Maybe he should also practice Accio today, he had time.​

 

[Lilith Ilves]

Lilith was making her way though the second floor corridor, elated at everything that had happened since the year started. She had tried out for the Quidditch team for her house and even got in. She had figured more than little things out with Eoghan, which lessened her worries about whatever was between them falling apart because he was trying to fight her on it. The Ravenclaw was abruptly brought back to the reality when she heard some commotion from the abandoned classroom, odd enough, she thought as she pondered whether to see what was going on or not. In the end the curiosity won over as the brunette strode for the door, gently opening it and seeing a boy in yellow ropes, with striking resemblance to Meissa, Jonah then. "Hi are you Jonah? Sorry I don't mean to intrude I just heard something from here and decided to come take a look. We have Defence Against The Dark Arts together, yes?" She asked, leaving out the fact that she'd recognised him not only from those lessons but because of the features he shared wit Elijah.

 

[Jonah Edogawa]

Jonah didn't expect to have company until much later, if at all. While he knew that a lot of people tend to find their way to this classroom, he and Lumos frequently found it to be empty of people at this hour. Also, people tended to not intrude when someone else was using the room, or at least that is what he thought before a girl from his year called out to him, surprising him. The shock cost him his focus on the levitation spell, which made the book drop to the ground, making him flinch from the loud sound. He swallowed and quickly gathered the book, dusting it off and clutching it towards him as he looked at the girl - Lilith. He recognized her from classes and from the truth or dare last year. She was Tori's friends. And Elijah's. His eyes narrowed because she asked if he was Elijah - was it not obvious enough? Ever since his fight with Elijah last year, he'd always, always taken care to wear his Hufflepuff robes, scarf, or tie. He always made sure to distinguish himself from his twin. "Elijah's not here."​

 

[Lilith Ilves]

Lilith narrowed her eyes at the boys bold assumption of her mistaking him for his twin, typical. "If I was looking for him I would ask for him mind you and thank you for pointing out the obvious but I have two functioning eyes and can tell you two apart." She kept her tone even and soft, not wanting to be rude even though the boy had seemed to take offense to her simply making sure it was him. "I do recognize you from DADA and I think the game of truth or dare from last year? But I wasn't sure. Quite honestly both of those are just, well DADA freaks me out at best and the truth or dare I was too busy escaping my own anxiety at the sheer amount of people to fully print everyone's faces in my mind, so I wanted to make sure I had the right person before fully addressing them." As she explained herself Lilith took a few steps into the room, now fully tuned in on what he had been doing. "You are practicing the levitation spell?" She asked, her features peaked with curiosity.

 

[Jonah Edogawa]

Well, if she wasn't here looking for his twin, then what was she here for? Of course she can tell them apart because he's wearing Hufflepuff robes. He's been doing everything he can to make sure that everyone can tell them apart. He's Hufflepuff, Elijah's Ravenclaw. Yellow, blue. He's in the Quidditch team - even though sometimes he thinks he doesn't deserve it - while Elijah's not. He's the dumb, troublemaking one, Elijah's the picture-perfect one. Okay, maybe he's not been doing everything, he just was sometimes. And great, of course Elijah's friend was exactly like him, and it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand. Why was she here? He just wanted to study. And here she was telling Jonah things he didn't want to know. And now he can't study here because she was here and he'd have to find somewhere else to hide and practice his spells. "No," he said stubbornly, and he would have made for the door but she was standing right in his path.​

 

[Lilith Ilves]

Lilith looked at the emotions passing through Jonah's face, there were so many it was almost impossible to catch a glimpse of what was the strongest one. However she could not shake off the thought that he just looked very sad and lost. In fact if she thought back on the lessons he had been that way for a while. His clear disinterest in her had no effect. "Yes." She challenged him, crossing her arms. "You were and by the looks of it you got it down pretty good, you just need to work on the focus. I know I once dropped a book on my face because I fell in too deep with my... thoughts." Yes it was best to call the daydreams thoughts, that's all they were probably after all. It wasn't like they were real, just inside her own head. "You can continue, don't let me disturb your peace." She told him, urging Jonah to try again. During lessons he'd have others around him and it'd be hard to concentrate, so if she had to be his trial run before that then so be it. "I swear I am not here to judge I'll even close my eyes if it helps, though you should see me when I am practicing. My cat is embarrassed by me at this point and she's only known me for like a month." The Ravenclaw thought back on the look on Kuu's face on a few evenings she had been testing some spells out, yeah Kuu was definitely disappointed, especially after that book levitation incident.

 

[Jonah Edogawa]

No. No Jonah did not have it down pretty good because if he had it pretty good then he would be getting the stupid book to levitate every time he wished. But no. He'd only succeed more often than not and that was a recent development. So no Jonah did not have it pretty good and she had no idea what she was talking about. He just needed to work on his focus she said as if he hadn't been putting his all into focusing on the spell on the book on his wand on his incantation on his movement on his everything. As if Jonah was just somehow focusing somewhere else to get the stupid spell to work right. Little more focus. Pay attention Jonah. Just focus Jonah. As if it were that easy and he could feel the urge to scratch because it felt like there was just something something something crawling underneath his skin that he wanted to shake off. He would have laughed if he had the energy to because don't let her disturb his peace? As if she hadn't just come here and was now telling him to perform and practice spells as if he could do so easily. And she was right there by the door and there was no escape for him unless he pushed her aside but he didn't want to because even though he didn't care about her because she was Tori's friend, she was also Elijah's friend and he was just so tired of fighting everyone who would tell him to do this and do that. And so he turned around, his back to her as he placed his book down and took his wand out. "Wingardium Leviosa." Swish and flick. Nothing. He stared at the book. "Wingardium Leviosa." Swish and flick. Nothing. He stared at the book. "Wingardium Leviosa." Swish and flick. Nothing. He stared at the book. He would have laughed.​

 

[Lumos Walden-Cade]

Lumos didn't really need to look for Jonah these days as he was only really ever in one place. Well, two if he counted the Hufflepuff common room, but since Lumos couldn't reach him in there, (and he'd asked an older student to go looking) he knew he must be practicing his spells in the abandoned classroom. Jonah was making great progress if Lumos did say so himself. He was focusing really well, but it wasn't his focus that was the problem. It was his conviction. Lumos had figured out early on that Jonah simply didn't want to succeed. He wasn't entirely sure why, but he had the power and the knowledge to do so, it was simply himself holding him back. He thought it probably stemmed from the first fight with Elijah, but he didn't really have the place to say that, so mostly he'd been working on Jonah's confidence. Once they got that out of the way, he had no doubts that Jonah would pick things up quickly. He'd picked up Lumos and Nox easily enough once he'd gotten comfortable, and more confident. "Jonah, I-" he paused, realising that Jonah wasn't alone, and annoyingly, it looked like he was back to struggling with the levitation charm again. He walked fully into the room, looking over at Lilith as he did so. "Get out." She's upset Jonah, he can tell by the stiffness in his back and the way he's holding his wand. He didn't care what she'd said, or why. He wanted her gone, and he wanted her gone now. "Leave."​

 

[Lilith Ilves]

She had messed up, definitely. Everything about Jonah's body language said so and Lilith had been a fool to miss the signs. She had gotten caught in wanting to help others too much to see the signs and now she had upset him. Lilith spoke a bit unsure at first, wanting to fix it but not seeing any way she could possibly do so. "I am sorry for coming in I didn't mean to upset you, I'll never come to this room again so you don't have to worry about seeing me." Before she had finished her back was already turned and her gaze met another, gods this must be the rush hour down here today. Lilith all but grimaced at Lumos' tone, though she thought it was very valid and given how clearly upset Jonah was she was very glad he was here and hoped he'd look after the Hufflepuff. "I am sorry, I didn't mean any harm please look after him." She said in passing, Jonah was lucky to have someone look out for him the Slytherin was looking out for him. By the look in his eyes he cared for Jonah and that was good. Hopefully that'd get him more comfortable with the spells. As Lilith exited the room she swore to not stick her nose where it did not belong until further notice.

 

[Jonah Edogawa]

There. Now she'd seen that Jonah did not have it down pretty good. She could tell him all she liked that she wasn't here to judge, but telling him that he needed to work on his focus meant that she already did. It wasn't like he needed more people to see how utterly hopeless he was with spells. Lumos always told him that he needed to focus less. He'd known at first that he just didn't understand the theory first, and he'd obsessed with them that his next problem had been that he focused on everything too much and worried that each little thing was affecting his spellcasting. His accent, his pronunciation, what should he be thinking about, how should he hold his wand, did he wave a little too much, did he need to wave a little less? And then he just expected to fail. He and Lumos had been working on it. Speaking of Lumos, Jonah thought he'd heard him, which shouldn't be because that meant Lumos was here and he would have seen Jonah fail the spells again even though they'd been working on it for so long now and they were going to move on to Accio soon and Lumos was going to be so disappointed in him. He didn't even realize he was shaking just a little. Or that Lilith had already left the room. He thought he should apologize - for wasting Lumos' time, just like how he always feels like he's wasting his siblings' time - but he didn't know how to and the words felt like they were clogging his throat.​

 

[Lumos Walden-Cade]

Lumos was annoyed for two reasons - well, two reasons of many, but specifically two - in his mind, they had all established their friendship groups last year, mostly during Tori's rather chaotic game of truth or dare. Maybe she hadn't meant for it to go that way, but lines had been drawn and that was that. Tori had half of their year on her side, and the rest of them had established little groups outside of that. Lumos was friends with Jonah and Demi, with a bit of Amory on the side (Winnie too but she hadn't been at the study session) and Tori was friends with Eoghan, Lili and the rest of them. Eury and William had kind of walked away as a bit of a match up, which he'd been surprised about, but the point was, they'd all sort of established their normal and now Lilith had decided she wanted to upset that balance. She was friends with Tori, which meant she couldn't be friends with Jonah. Jonah didn't like Tori. Lumos could take of leave Tori, but he did consider her to be a bit annoying. Still, she'd been around him long enough that he basically considered her another sibling at this point and he had an interesting relationship with most of his siblings, so he could understand Jonah's hesitation with Eli. Secondly, she'd upset the delicate balance Lumos had been carefully crafting by shattering Jonah's perception of himself and now he was probably back at square one, which meant Lumos had to go about picking him up in his confidence again. He didn't mind having to do it, but the point was he should have been fine, and would have been if Lilith didn't decide she wasn't happy with the friends she had and wanted Lumos' too. Bloody annoying. Not everyone had to be friends with everyone. Lumos was just fine with his three friends (excluding Nox of course because that was his brother and the only other person he trusted with everything in his life so it didn't count as a friendship.) He didn't say anything at Lilith left, instead walking into the room and sliding onto the table beside Jonah. "I got you a cinnamon donut, they had them on the table in the Great Hall, pretty sure they haven't been there that long, I ate mine on the way to find you and it wasn't too bad honestly." He could just call Dak if Jonah wanted something else. Maybe if he just distracted Jonah and didn't mention the dumb Ravenclaw, they'd get back on track a lot sooner.​