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"Good evening, everyone. Please gather around so we can get started," said Quinn, addressing the DA crowd gathered in the Room of Requirements.
It had been a few months since DA had begun its sessions, and the learning activities were now in full swings — every attending member had assimilated the sessions and their "homework/self-study" into their regular routines leading to a peak learning environment — it helped that Quinn had created a competitive environment to motivate learning (through one-up-ing the others.)
"What're we going to learn today? Revealers? Wards, or maybe something that hinders the opponent — like the Anti-Disapparition Jinx." The usually disciplined Hermione Granger sounded like a child hopped on sugar left to play in an amusement park.
Quinn smiled, "I appreciate your enthusiasm, Hermione."
Hermione blushed a bit out of embarrassment.
"But today, we're going to examine something that would allow you to defend yourself. Defensive spells. That's what we're going to tackle today. The art of protecting yourself — it may be when you are off-balance; when your opponent attacked first trying to the initiative, at times you can't dodge, or whenever in the myriads of possibilities that you might need to stop an incoming attack.
"Duels are short ordeals. When a spell hits, it gets tricky to recuperate using your own magic quickly enough, and that too in the heat of battle. So the objective of defensive spells is to protect yourself at all times and not come in contact with spells or any harmful object."
A decent bone-breaking spell could fracture a vital bone like the femur(in the thigh) or fibula and tibia (in the lower leg) enough to hinder mobility leading to a vulnerable position until they could be mended back — that duration of injury could be converted into defeat(or death) by an opportunistic opponent.
"We'll be starting with the standard Shield charm, Protego." He slashed his fake wand, and an invisible barrier rippled in the air. "A versatile spell that can be used in a multitude of situations — everywhere from a spell to physical objects — this will be a first in the series of defensive spells."
Quinn lazily waved his fake wand, and the names of DA members appeared in the air, every name paired with another — after the Theodore Nott incident, Quinn had taken up to himself to form pairs that would facilitate learning at a higher pace.
"One will cast the Shield charm, and the other will cast a Disarming spell. Then both will switch sides. After you think that you're comfortable blocking a Disarming spell, change spells and switch it up to introduce some diversity of experience."
As everyone shuffled to their pair, a single nervous hand went up from the group.
"Uhm, sorry.. . I'm not paired with anyone."
Quinn nodded, "I know Neville. You will be practicing with me today."
Everyone halted their actions in surprise and turned their heads to look at the pair. Generally, Quinn would go around the room giving out pointers or sit in a corner doing his things, but not once had Quinn paired with anyone during a DA session.
Neville gripped his wand tightly in both hands near his chest: "M-Me?"
"Yes, Neville, you. Now come one, let's not waste time and get started," said Quinn. "Also, before every get's started! Please, gather around; I have one extra piece of advice I want to share," he said to the crowd.
The DA members formed a circle around Quinn and Neville, who faced each other, wands ready.
"I'm going to share a personal tip with all of you. It has served me well when I cast defensive magic," said Quinn. "Neville, would you give me your best Reductor, please," he smiled.
Neville gulped. "Reductor.. . but you said that we aren't allowed to use lethal spells against each other," his voice trailed at the end.
"There's no reason to be nervous, Neville. In fact, good job bringing up the rule," said Quinn. "But, I need a Reductor for me to demonstrate the Protego. I assure you, it'll not hurt me. You can believe me, Neville."
Neville licked his lips. He wasn't sure about it. Neville wasn't feeling comfortable pointing his wand at a friend while arming it with a lethal spell.
He touched his forearm where the Gryffindor common room password was written in magical ink; for years, Quinn had been helping him with the passwords; every week, he would go to the AID office, and Quinn would update the ink.
But then he saw the confident smile on Quinn's face. There was no doubt that Quinn was better at magic than him. He clenched his jaw and nodded after a deep breath.
"I'll do it," he said.
Quinn beamed. He raised his wand, and a Protego shield rippled into existence. "Let out everything you got, Neville."
Neville slowly raised his wand and carefully aimed his wand at Quinn. He glanced behind Quinn, and it was of assurance that everyone had their wands out. If he messed up, they would be ready to defend themselves.
Please, don't mess up, Neville thought — "Reducto!" — A blue spell-light thrummed out his wand and zapped towards Quinn, who didn't even flinch in the face of a that could blow apart his body.
The blue zap banged against Quinn's Protego, and the entire barrier rippled into sight. Neville held his breath as a bead of sweat trickled down his temple. Contrary to his worries, despite the wild rippling, the barrier remained intact and outlasted his Reducto, standing strong even after the blue spell-light fizzled out of existence.
"Now, that wasn't bad, was it?" said Quinn smiling.
Neville hurriedly nodded. He felt his racing heart calm down.
"That's what a good Protego spell can do," Quinn spoke to the crowd. "Now, time for the tip I used to face Neville's Reductor," everyone perked up their ears, "I used the emotion of determination to power up my Protego."
Many confused expressions and head-tilts emerged in the crowd.
"Do you remember how I told you that emotion is an essential part of magic, and how any spell's quality can be benefited by applying an emotion or a mix of them — the question is to identify the emotion that would help, figure out an experience or memory to evoke that emotion, and finally properly channel it in your magic."
Quinn had preached the importance of emotion a lot, though most people here didn't comprehend the role of emotion in spells. He turned to the one person in the room who he knew understood and had applied sentiment to their magic.
"Harry, tell me what you think when casting a Patronus charm?" he asked.
Harry wasn't expecting to be called out all of a sudden. Admittedly, he had only been paying half attention to what Quinn was saying — his Protego was spell was excellent, he thought.
"Er, I think of happy memories."
".. . I was expecting more detail, but okay," said Quinn, "the secret behind Patronus charm is the feeling of happiness — the happier the memory, the better the charm would work — we will learn more about this when we tackle the spell in later sessions. For the Shield charm and the majority of defensive spells, you need to think of memories that would evoke emotions like determination, perseverance, stubbornness, defiance!
"For example, if you have a memory of you were stubborn about accomplishing something and saw through your objective to the end. Maybe your parents, relatives, friends said that you wouldn't be able to do something, but you proved them wrong and stuck it to their faces," that one raised a lot of heads, "memories like these will help you cast a stronger shield that would stand firm against even the strongest of spells.
"Think about such memories. Dive deep to find them, and your defensive spells would be able to withstand more beating, last longer, and even be easier to cast," Quinn finished passionately.
He dismissed everyone and was about to start up with Neville when he heard.
"What do you use?"
Quinn and many others turned to the speaker, seeing that it was Daphne who had raised the question.
"What do you mean?" asked Quinn.
"What do emotion or memory do you use?"
Quinn cleared his throat and sighed deeply before taking up the question. "A couple of years back, I encountered a problem; I think it was the greatest problem of my life at that time and maybe to this day," losing his magic was the worst time of his life, and the summer break he spent regaining it was his greatest show of struggle from him, "I spent an entire summer break trying to solve that problem — be it either day or night, I was constantly working on it," he gazed at Daphne, "I imagined that while facing Neville's Reducto."
Everyone felt the seriousness in Quinn's voice. For many of them, it was the first time they had seen him like this. Different from his familiar jolly self. Those close to Quinn were curious about what he was talking about.
"Though I don't use those emotions anymore," said Quinn nonchalantly as everyone was turning away.
Everyone halted. They once again turned towards Quinn.
"Then what do you use?" asked Daphne again. If he didn't use that memory, why did he answer the question with it, and why did he give them the advice if he himself did not use it.
"Ah, don't get me wrong," said Quinn, noticing everyone's expression, "there was a time I used emotions like determination and stubbornness; there's nothing wrong with them; I just don't use them anymore, that's it."
".. . you didn't answer the question."
"Don't worry about it," he didn't want to say.
"Out with it!" Eddie shouted from the crowd.
"I will tell, but don't try to copy me." Quinn looked at everyone and said, "I use fear as my emotion of choice while casting defensive magic."
"Fear?" asked Daphne.
Quinn nodded. "Fear is a natural, powerful, and primitive human emotion. Fear alerts us to the presence of danger or the threat of harm. It's what teaches us what's dangerous and what's not. A baby who touches a candle flame and gets burned will never touch it again because they know it'll hurt and form a fear of that action.
"Why do we block or dodge spells? It's because we know that they will cause harm to us, so we avoid it. Spells like a Pinching hex might not inspire fear, but I have developed my mind to think what it would feel like if a hundred Pinching hex attacked me at the same. I'm able to think what it would feel like what a spell hitting me would feel like when it's dialled up to eleven. I taste the fear and will do anything to avoid it — my magic while feeling fear would go above and beyond when I'm in danger."
It was a revelation while Quinn was using the summer break when he lost magic to charge his defensive magic. He had noticed that there was another emotion attached to those memories — it being fear — and Quinn was subconsciously drawing from the emotion of fear, and it was giving a substantial boost. Previously, determination was the primary, and fear was the subconscious secondary emotion. After the realization stuck, Quinn switched it up — fear became the primary emotion, and because it was a "dark" emotion, Quinn used determination as the secondary and the emotion that kept fear in check. The result of the experiment was a major boost to power for his defensive spells.
And that was precisely the reason why he didn't want to share this with everyone.
"Don't use fear!" said Quinn, warning. "Fear, while powerful, can cause an internal collapse at difficult situations when pressure is at peak. Magic and emotion are volatile and tricky to manipulate, so I repeat that none of you attempt to use fear as the force behind your magic. The emotions I mentioned before have their own specialties and are much more stable than fear. Moreover, after a certain level, channelling fear doesn't feel pleasant; the aftermath more often than not ends up pushing you feeling all worked up."
It had taken a while for even Quinn to not let the fear dominate him in the aftereffect.
Quinn warned a couple more times before starting with Neville. They followed the same defense-offense system as others, with Quinn shooting Disarming charms just strong enough to challenge Neville but not enough to overwhelm.
"So, Neville, you have been doing good for the past few weeks," said Quinn after Neville blocked a shot, "you have had the best improvement than anyone else," Neville flushed red a little, on inside he was feeling like his delight would fly him out of the room, that is until Quinn said, "that is ever since Bellatrix Lestrange escaped Azkaban."
Neville froze up. The fresh shield he had brought up collapsed of the shock and daze.
Neville looked around to see if anyone had heard. "W-What?"
"You don't have to worry about anyone listening in. I have cast a silencing ward around us for this conversation," spoke Quinn. "I noticed the name Longbottom while reading upon Bellatrix Lestrange, and after a search in the archives, I found that Frank and Alice Longbottom were your parents."
"I don't want to talk about it," said Neville in a surprisingly determined voice and cast Shield charm, which was immediately met by a Disarming spell from Quinn.
"I don't want to talk about your parents, Neville," said Quinn, "the reason I bring this up is that it's related to your sudden boost in magical improvement."
Neville stared at Quinn skeptically. He searched for something on Quinn's face.
"When we started DA, I noticed that your wand wasn't compatible with you," said Quinn, "the compatibility factor was terrible, and when I asked around, I found out that you always had trouble with magic," Neville looked uncomfortable, "it's not your wand, is it, Neville?"
Quinn already knew the backstory, but he needed to weave it up to proceed with the conversation.
Neville stared down at the wand in his hands. "It's my father's."
"Hmm, I figured. That wand's the reason why you struggled with magic, Neville."
"W-What do you mean?" said Neville; it was the first time he was hearing this.
"The wand chooses the wizard, Neville. You can't just pick up any wand and make it work. A magical and his magical focus needs to be sync for the magical to be able to bring out its magic to the fullest."
The truth of the matter was that in a person's life, they went to get themselves a wand at the age of eleven. Quinn wasn't sure about others, but if one went to Ollivanders, they would be told about the "the wand chooses the wizard," saying.. . but that was it. Once in their lives, people heard that saying, maybe twice if they went in for another wand in their lives.
No usual person would be expected to remember a single event in their lives that happened when they were at the tender age of eleven. By the time people grew up, they would forget about the saying from the strange wand shop owner. Moreover, it was a severe violation of common place manners to ask for people's wands.
So while everyone brought their children new wands because it was expected to do, not everyone knew why new ones were brought except for wanting their children to have new ones.
That's why it wasn't strange that Augusta Longbottom, Neville's grandmother, the old lady, would remember the reason behind buying wands; combining that with the sentiment, had Frank Longbottom's wand end up in Neville's hands.
"Your father's wand wasn't compatible with you, and for four and half years, your magic didn't channel properly. That's the reason why you have been struggling with magic ever since coming to Hogwarts."
Neville remained rooted to his spot. He had thought he was terrible at magic for his entire life because something was wrong with him. Not only him, but everybody else felt the same. His grand-uncle had to drop him off from the top of the stairs just to bring out his magic. But here he was hearing Quinn West saying that it wasn't his fault, but his wand's.
"B-But, y-you just said that I was doing good."
"Wands are complex magical artifacts. Just as wands can fall out of sync with their users, they can also form bonds with those they previously rejected," said Quinn. He pointed at Frank/Neville's wand, "that wand, from what I can tell is made from Ashwood, and Ash wands are known to cleave to their one true master and ought not to be passed on or to be gifted from the original owner, because they will lose power and skill. The wand rejected you previously is now accepting you and is finally conducting your magic perfectly."
"Why now?"
"Tell me, how did you feel about the breakout, or to be exact, how did you feel about Bellatrix Lestrange's escape?"
The mention of the name made Neville's blood boil. That vile woman had turned his mother and father into what they were today. He had spent his entire life seeing complete family; people his age spending time with his family, and all he had were parents driven to madness. It always made him wonder what it would be like.
"I hate that vermin," said Neville acidly. He wanted nothing more but to take revenge against Bellatrix Lestrange for ruining his life.
"You have gained a goal, Neville, and with it come has a resolution. The wands liked it and had offered you its support."
Neville clenched at the Ash wand with the unicorn core. The wand was the constant reminder of what a failure he was. It reminded him of his grandmother's disappointment and how he had let his parents down. It felt him conflicted — the wand was the reason for his struggles, but now it supported him because he wanted to kill her parent's assailant.
"Let's continue," said Neville. He didn't want to continue this topic.
Quinn obliged and shot a Disarming spell on Neville's Shield charm. The shield was substantially stronger than before — focus and deep determination were being amply channeled through the spell.
'Take advantage of it, Neville,' thought Quinn, 'the wand will be the best conductor for you, and when the day comes that Bellatrix Lestrange dies and your goal accomplished, that wand will fall out of sync with you.'
The correct thing to do would be to urge Neville to buy himself a new wand. But right now, the wand in Neville's hands was a constant reminder that it wasn't his fault. It reminded him of the wrongful humiliation he suffered. Those emotions would keep Neville in focus and keep him motivated to keep improving to prove everything wrong.
Determination, perseverance, and defiance were powerful emotions after all.
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Quinn West - MC - Good.. . good.. . let the hate flow through you.
Neville Longbottom - To everyone - "I find your lack of faith disturbing."
Neville Longbottom's wand - Ashwood and unicorn - What is thy bidding, my master.
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