Open Swinging Spells

[Tyler Lee]

Tyler knew this was his last year, his last chance to win the duelling tournament and prove he was worth being the SDA leader. He had been frustrated by his losses the past two years, and really needed to pick up the pace. So he had spent some time in the library, making a list for himself of spells to practice whenever he could. He figured it might help him with his NEWTs at the end of the year as well. Tyler had brought the list outside, as it was a nice day and he needed a lot of space to practice in peace. Tyler started off with the first spell. "Avis!" He cast, grinning as a flock of birds burst out of his wand. He watched them fly off, then tried it again, trying to see if he could conjure more at a time.

 

[Salem Lee]

Salem had been busying herself this semester with learning more acrobatic tricks so she could be more like Elara. She was getting the hang of cartwheels, but the aerial thing was still eluding her, her legs not able to get her moving enough to complete the rotation, so she usually just ended up rolling along the grass.

She glanced up from where she'd just rolled when she heard the sound of flapping wings, smiling and pulling herself to her feet when she spotted Tyler further along doing some of his own practicing it seemed. "That's so cool!" Salem gushed, waving a hand in the air to try and coax one of the birds to land on her finger, but they'd already fluttered away before she could catch their attention. "Can you do other stuff? Like a flock of uh... Geese? That'd be pretty scary," she asked. "Oh oh, or can you do other animals? Flock of puppies?"

 

[Tyler Lee]

Tyler was trying to focus on casting the spell again, when he heard a very familiar voice. He sighed and lowered his wand with a slight frown. He'd spotted Salem rolling around earlier, but hadn't thought what he was doing would interest her much. It seemed like he'd underestimated how nosy she could be. "Thanks." He said with a shrug. "No, I just get small birds from this spell." He said, though he couldn't say for sure other people wouldn't be able to summon geese or something with it. "And no, it's a spell to summon birds." He said with a sigh. "I guess for puppies I'd have to conjure them, and I'm not doing that." He said dryly. "I'm practicing for the duels. I don't think puppies would help me win."

 

[Salem Lee]

Salem dropped herself onto the ground now that she was closer to Tyler and any chance of convincing a bird to sit on her hand had literally vanished into the air. "Aw, that's boring," she said, leaning her elbows on her legs and smiling at Tyler. He could be a bit stern sometimes, like his dad, Salem thought quietly, but she liked getting to spend more time with him around school "You could win while they were distracted by all the cuteness," she insisted, giggling at the mental image. "No one would expect it! Puppy horde!" Salem waved her arm to imitate commanding her imaginary puppy hoard, still laughing. "Could you teach me to conjure something then? Like a single bird maybe? Or just a fly?" She asked, drawing her own wand. Salem was under no illusion that she was nearly as good a spellcaster as Tyler, and not just because he was a 7th year, but it'd be fun to learn some cool spells, even if she could only summon bugs.

 

[Tyler Lee]

Tyler sighed as Salem said it was boring, looking at her with a raised eyebrow. "You didn't think it was boring two seconds ago, you said it was cool." He said with a slight smile. "You got bored of it quickly." He smiled a bit at the idea of using a puppy horde in a duel, shaking his head a bit. "Are you joining SDA this year?" He asked Salem. "I could give you some tips." He said though he was a bit skeptical at the idea of Salem as a duellist. He shook his head again at her next question. "Conjuring is upper year stuff, Salem." He said, frowning a bit. "I can't teach you to do that in your second year."

 

[Salem Lee]

Salem blew a raspberry when Tyler called her out. It had been exciting, but now she was bored, it happened. She picked at some grass, piling it up on her knee as Tyler asked her about joining the SDA, shrugging. "I joined the Wild Patch last year and I liked it. And you don't have to fight the plants. Or most of them," she said, non-committal. Honestly, Salem liked getting to see Tyler in action and wanted to spend more time with him before he graduated, but she just knew something like SDA would go terribly for her. She was a very good spell caster and she didn't exactly want Tyler to see her getting her eyebrows jinxed off, let alone the rest of the school.

"Fiiiine," she sighed when Tyler emphasized he couldn't teach her any cool conjuring yet. "You conjure something cool then, I'll watch." Content with that, Salem propped her elbows on her knees, chin in her hands, and looked at Tyler expectantly.

 

[Tyler Lee]

Tyler noticed Salem really didn't give him an answer but didn't press it. He guessed that the SDA just wasn't for her, and if she would be terrible at duelling he figured it would reflect badly on him as well. "Wild Patch seems boring to me." He said, thinking about the person running it. "Aren't you all holding hands and singing songs all day while making flower crowns?" He joked, rolling his eyes. He sighed when Salem asked him to conjure something, hating to admit it. "I didn't take Transfiguration into my sixth year, so I can't." He said, hating to tell her he couldn't do something. The one good thing about having a young cousin around suddenly was that she seemed to look up to him in a weird way. So it frustrated him to ruin that, even a little bit.

 

[Salem Lee]

Salem groaned when Tyler called the Wild Patch boring, dropping onto her back in the grass to show her disapproval. "You're boring," she muttered under her breath. "It is not, we like, dig up plants and get dirty and sometimes eat weird things. It's fun," she said, sitting back up so she could argue with Tyler properly.

To add to her annoyance, now Tyler didn't even want to show her any cool spells. Salem was sure he was just messing with her cause he was older and he could, deciding to chuck the grass she'd been picking at him, though it barely made it past her own leg before fluttering away. "But you just conjured birds didn't you? Do that again," she pressed, making a show of sitting up straighter to prove she was paying attention, in case Tyler thought she wasn't cool or clever enough to show her.

 

[Tyler Lee]

Tyler couldn't help smiling a bit when Salem defended the Wild Patch club, unable to help himself at making a comment at his cousin's expense. "Digging in the dirt and eating weird things? Sounds like a regular Tuesday for you." He teased. Tyler sighed when Salem asked to see the birds again. It was the only thing he could show her, so he supposed he had to. He took a deep breath, then conjured another flock. "Avis." He said, watching as a bunch of yellow birds appeared out of thin air. He directed them over at Salem, where they flew around her for a bit before flying up high in the air.