About the future (Tricky and Star)

Richard sighed, sitting down behind the desk of his very spartan office. The office was almost bare, with a door to his personal quarters opposite the door to the classroom, two filled bookcases and the desk and chairs. The solid oak desk was probably the most striking feature of the rather barren office and that was why Richard loved it so much. It was oak, a brilliant wood to transfigure, and it was large enough to put all of his work on it and still have room to spare. And right now, he was marking some summer work while he waited for his newest apprentice, Evangeline Starr.

Eva was feeling nervous as she headed towards proffesr Romain's office. Once she arrived at the dorr she knock and waited for permission to enter.

With a flick of his wrist, the door opened on it's own. He gestured to the chair opposite his own,

"Sit." he paused a second, "I hope you brought your gloves."

Eva entered the classroom and sat in the chair proffesor Romain indicated.

"Yes, " she said while pulling out two pairs of gloves from her bag. "I brought my dragon hide gloves that were on the school list and i also brought my leather gloves."

Her fingerless leather gloves where one of her favourite possessions as they were the last thing her mother had given her before her death.

Richard frowned a little bit before nodding,

"Good thing you brought the leather. Dragon's hide is rather tough to work with as it tends to stop most low level magic." he mused before pulling out a pair of leath gloves from his leather over coat, "Right."

He stood up as he pulled his gloves on,

"You are here to learn the branch of Transfiguration that I learnt from my duelling teacher back in Germany." he smiled and put his wand on the desk, "You're here to learn Active Transfiguration. A combination of movement, physical attacks and something called 'magic by proxy'."

He started to pace a little,

"When you are good enough at 'magic by proxy', people will think you are a genius at wandless magic." he chuckled and clicked his fingers on his left hand. The tip of his wand, still on the table, glowed briefly before the pointer finger of his left glove elongated into a metal claw, "Magic by proxy. Not truly wandless, as you still use the wand. You just don't have to be touching it."

Eva took a book, small bottle of ink, a quill and parchment out of her bag, she placed the parament ontop of the book and ink on the desk, dipping the quill in the now open ink she started to take notes on what professor Romain was talking about. Pausing every now and then to see what he was doing.

When she finished she looked up at him with her quill poised over the parchment ready to take down more notes.

Richard opened his hand, his wand glowed slightly on the desk, and Evengeline's quill shot out from her hand to arc gracefully into his. He smiled a little,

"This is a practical lesson Miss Star." he smirked a little, "It will always be practical."

He raked his now claw-like pointer finger across the top of his desk, scarring it,

"The first law of Active Transfiguration..." he paused to fix her with a cold stare, "You learn everything through experience. If you need to know something, I shall drill it into you until you can recite it from memory."

He waved a hand at her gloves,

"Now put your gloves on, put your wand beside mine, and take a few steps away from the desk."

"I was only taking notes so that i did not forget anything, i did not mean any disrespect," Eva said as she done as she was instructed.

Once she had her fingerless leather gloves on she looked at professor Romain for futher instruction.

Richard waved the concern away,

"Do it in your own time from now on." he instructed her before pointing to her wand, "You need to be able to feel your wand."

He scratched under his chin a little,

"Although that might be a bit hard for you to grasp at this point with no reference..." he paused a second before snapping his fingers and smiling, "Got it. Do you remember the feeling you got when you first touched this wand? Describe the feeling, in as much detail as possible."

Eva nodded when she was told to make notes in her own time.

She thought carefully on how to answer the question she had been asked, "I felt warm, happy, and complete as if i had discovered a missing part of me. Sorry i'm not really explaining it well but that was the best way i could put it into words."

She was worried that she had not explained it enough.

Richard shrugged,

"Doesn't matter if I can understand it." he smiled, "It matters that you understand it."

He moved to stand beside Evangeline, looking at his own wand,

"When I first touched that wand... I felt a rush that felt like a surge of adrenaline that I couldn't describe at the time. It felt like the blood in my veins was singing... I later learnt that it's the thrill you get from fighting for your life." he shrugged, "Apparently it wanted me to fight."

He nodded to Evangeline,

"Now I want you to imagine that feeling... imagine what it feels like, magically, to hold your wand... once you've got that, I want you to shout, as loud as possible, Lumos." he smiled a little, "Got it?"

She listend as professor Romain in structed her on what to do and nodded when he asked if she had it.

Closing her eyes, Eva took a deep breath and imagined that she had her wand in her hand and concentrated on that image until she felt the completeness; that she had tried to explain to him.

Raising her right arm until it was bent at the elbow, as if she was passing something to someone she shouted, "LUMOS" at the top of her voice, as she opened her eyes.

She looked twards her wand on the desk and noticed that the tip was glowing very faintly.

He hummed a little as he went over to inspect Evangeline's wand, just to make sure that it wasn't acting on its own. He frowned a little,

"Mmm... looks to be acting on commands given by proxy..."

Richard grinned widely,

"Awesome! First shot!" he remarked before holding up a hand, "High five!"

Eva looked at the professor to see if he was serious before high fiving him.

"I take it with practice the light will get brighter?" she asked. Then had a thought, "Where can i go around here to practice where i can be alone or alone w ith only those i trust present?"

Richard frowned a little,

"I'm not really sure... you have to understand that the first time I set foot in this castle was to begin my teaching career." he paused for a second, "Although the other teachers did mention something called 'the room of requirement'. Opposite a tapestry on the seventh floor there is a blank stretch of wall. Walk past it, three times, thinking of what kind of room you want. On the third pass it appears. Ask for a secret or secure room or something."

He shrugged,

"If not then you can come in my office whenever. You're my apprentice now so you're allowed." he smirked, "But no house parties."

Eva listened to professor Romain as he answered her questions. laughing slightly when he mentioned parties, "Sorry sir, i am just not the party type."

Once she composed herself she looked at him, "I will see what this room you mention on the seventh floor is like. What limits should i put on myself when i pratice? As i don't want to overdo it and end up exhausted or with a magical drain."


*PLEASE NOTE*
This characters post has been temporarily been taken over.
The real Eva will still come on from time to time to answer her owl post, check posts and to join us in the chat box when she can.
She is currently swamped due to her work placement rotations, exam studdies and uni classes.

Richard thought about it for a bit before shrugging a little,

"It's entirely dependant on you." he replied thoughtfully, "I mean I was able to redirect a banishing charm through my hands after the first two sessions, but I was a prodigy in magic by proxy..."

He hummed a little as he thought,

"Have you been taught the levitation charm yet? It's an easy spell that can be easily redirected to your hands, meaning that the spell flows into the wand, is converted by the wand and then is transferred to your hands to finish casting."

"We have not yet been taught it, but i have read about it." she replied.

Closing her eyes like she had earlier to bring the feeling she felt when she had her wand in her hand. Once she managed that she opened her eyes and intonded 'Wingardium Leviosa' making a quill on the dest hover about an inch of the desk. Looking at professor Romain she asked "Is that good for a first try at that particular spell?"



*PLEASE NOTE*
This characters post has been temporarily been taken over.
The real Eva will still come on from time to time to answer her owl post, check posts and to join us in the chat box when she can.
She is currently swamped due to her work placement rotations, exam studdies and uni classes.

Richard smiled,

"Is it good that you can do a spell, by proxy, that you haven't been taught yet?" he chuckled and he held his hand out for another high five, "Miss Starr that is brilliant!"

He stared at the quill a bit before grinning,

"Yup, that'll do." he turned back to her, "Use this spell when practicing. You'll find that after awhile it will become more power with a wand, a side-effect of your training in magic by proxy."

Eva gave professor Romain another high five.

She was glad that she had taken him up on his offer of apprentice. Giving him a small smile she concentrated and kept practicing the levitaion spell but she could not get it to hover more than an inch in the air.

"I am greatful for the opertunity you have given me professor," she said while practicing.

*PLEASE NOTE*
This characters post has been temporarily been taken over.
The real Eva will still come on from time to time to answer her owl post, check posts and to join us in the chat box when she can.
She is currently swamped due to her work placement rotations, exam studdies and uni classes.

Richard smiled a little and patted Evangeline lightly on the shoulder,

"You're my apprentice now Evangeline. Call me Richard." he shrugged a little, "Or Dick, or Rich or even Tricky Dick. But you don't call me 'professor' or 'sir' when working as my apprentice."

He grinned,

"We're equals when doing this Evangeline."

Eva paused her practicing when the professor patted her shoulder, to listen to what he said.

"If we are equals then i insist that you call me either Eva or Angel. I think i like Tricky as a nickname for you, of course it will only be when we are alone," Eva felt a little strange calling him by his name but she could work with a nickname.

" Ermm... Apart from 'Lumos' and Wingardium Leviosa' what other spells or charms are easy to practice with that are safe when i am practicing alone?"

*PLEASE NOTE*
This characters post has been temporarily been taken over.
The real Eva will still come on from time to time to answer her owl post, check posts and to join us in the chat box when she can.
She is currently swamped due to her work placement rotations, exam studdies and uni classes.

Richard thought about it for a few seconds,

"I suppose you could try summoning and banishing charms. But you don't learn them until late on in your third year..." he muttered, almost to himself before he shrugged, "I suppose a few low level jinxes won't hurt too much. After accidentally casting a joke jinx on yourself, you'll find yourself very motivated to do the counter curse."

Eva laughed slightly, "I guess jinxing yourself would have that effect. I will make sure to read both the spell and its counter before i do any practicing alone."

She though for a bit before asking, "If we don't learn them until third year i guess its something i should try with you before i try going it alone. What are the incantations to those spells?"

Richard raised an eyebrow,

"Banishing spells?" he frowned a little, "I'm not sure to be honest."

He shrugged,

"My teacher taught me the banishing charm without any incantation. He said that it built strength." he rolled his eyes, "Just a long way of saying he couldn't be bothered to tell me. Even if it did do me some good."

Pointing his finger at the nearest window, he fired a wandless and non-verbal banishing charm from his fingertip. The window exploded outwards violently, all of the shards being pushed against the wall by a second, less powerful, banishing charm,

"Helped a great deal." he frowned a little, "So I'm going to teach you that way. You use your willpower to use the spell in this way. You force your magic to act as a concussive force. Visualise and then do it. Simple, and as infuriating, as that."