Hold Still || Elias

Saturday, September 25, 1920
Spellcaster's Society Club Room
4:17 PM

Rae was thrilled Professor Barlowe had taken the initiative to offer them the Spellcaster's Society. For the girl who was already obsessed with sharpening her wand work on her own, the club provided her with a more structured environment in which to do so. That didn't mean the Slytherin girl had thrown away her own private sessions. Hardly. Rae still returned to her usual spot out by the lake nearly every night while the castle slept, relentless while she worked. It had been a routine she'd fallen into back in her first year when her wand more often fizzled and sparked than it did what she told it to.

She'd come a long way since then. Where before it was a roll of the die whether her magic cooperated, she and her wands had gone on to build a solid foundations. It acknowledged her determination and ambition, and the two had become the pair the wandmaker had seen when she'd first been given her wand.

It never wavered now, fuelled by her intent and the raw will that coursed through her. Rae had set to never be the weak girl she once was ever again and while one could argue she'd achieved this, the fire that burned inside her demanded more. It was never enough. So long as there were spell she couldn't cast, her work would never end.

It was that very drive that saw her waltzing into the club room that afternoon. With a bit of time left before dinner and no desire to work on her divination essay, that familiar itch found her. Rae craved the controlled chaos she'd found working on her latest spell and couldn't wait to perfect it.

Rae summoned one of the dummies that hung back against the wall, ready to unleash the pent up energy she'd been stuck in the library with earlier and couldn't get rid of.

Taking aim, back straight and the tip of her wand glowing with anticipation, Rae prepared to cast. It was then that she caught the movement from the corner of her eyes. Someone else had entered the room, likely looking to practice. Rae cast a glance over her shoulder, curious about the newcomer. Her wand arm lowered, a spark of recognition lighting her eyes.

"Hey, Elias," she greeted, an easy grin slipping into place. She'd seen the first year around. He didn't often seem like he was having a good go of this whole...Hogwarts business but she'd never thought to pry. "Come to knock around a few dummies?"

Company...company could be interesting. Her mind was already pivoting from the hunk of wood and metal, a myriad of ideas already dancing in her head. Unless, of course, the boy was adamant he only face the dummy. How dreadfully boring that would be for her.

Elias froze in the doorway, one hand still on the heavy door handle. He had come here straight from the common room, where the older Ravenclaw students had been practicing something with glowing circles. Those had made him dizzy just watching, so he had left. Elias had sort of been hoping that the club room would be empty so he could practice his own spells.

Instead, there was an older student here already. A Slytherin with her wand out, the tip glowing with some spell. She must have been about to cast when she noticed him.

She knew his name. How? She had been in Charms, right?

“Um...” He shifted his bag higher on his shoulder, the leather strap digging into the muscle. It felt heavier suddenly. He knew her face, had seen her around the castle - but her name escaped him. He frowned, his face flushing a little from embarrassment.

The room had practice dummies lined up against the far wall. Their painted faces seemed to stare right back at him.

What if the girl decided the puny first year would make better target practice than the dummies? The Slytherins had a bit of a reputation. Especially older ones... they knew lots of scary spells. His face went even hotter, and the room felt smaller.

His eyes flicked to the door behind him. It was still open. He could back out, make some excuse about forgetting something. She was busy anyway, wasn’t she? Had been about to cast something important-looking.

“I was just...” He glanced at the dummies, then back at her glowing wand tip. “Looking for somewhere quiet.”

His hand twitched toward the door handle, but he somehow found himself taking a half-step forward instead. His footsteps echoed too loudly in the quiet room, and the door swung shut behind him with a soft thud.

Wait. Why had he done that? Now he was properly trapped.

His wand handle pressed against his leg through his robes, but he didn’t reach for it yet. She already had hers out, the tip still glowing. His hands were sweaty, and he wiped them against his robes.

Was he...alright?

Rae watched the boy gain some colour, silenced by what looked like his own discomfort. She couldn't imagine why. He'd only just gotten there. Usually, from what she'd seen of this set of first-years, they waited until after they'd embarrassed themselves before growing flustered. Elias hadn't waited. It was there in the way his eyes flickered back to the door as if he were contemplating escape, though from what she couldn't say.

Perhaps he was just born that way, always operating with a nervous little tick. He'd looked overwhelmed on the very first day of classes. In charms, when the professor had tried spooking him, the boy had bent without issue.

There wasn't so much as a 'no, thank you' to be found on his lips. It was a poor showing but there was time still to break coax a bit more resilience out of him, if only for the principle of the matter. Couldn't have the professor with the cane and funny accent from across the pond thinking he could intimidate them without cause. That simply wouldn't do.

But that was a matter for another day, when she felt the boy might be more receptive to such teachings.

Dark eyes shifted to the door when it slammed shut. It was her only reaction to that spot of chaos. A lot of things had been acting up in the castle since their return. Rae had learned to ignore them. Usually, they resolved on their own, and she didn't think this would be any different.

"Right then," she said, returning her gaze to the boy.

"You've picked a shoddy place for some quiet and now you're stuck, same as me." Who went to the place known to have spells constantly slinging when quiet was what they wanted? She tried to slink an arm casually over the boy's shoulder, hoping to lead him to the spot by the dummy she'd taken from the wall. The dummy itself was banished back in line with the others, no longer necessary when she had a captive audience. "I reckon your first mistake was heading over this way instead of down into the library. No matter." This had worked out well...for her, at least. When the right mood struck, it was always better to practice with someone else.

Rae tried to pat him down, looking for his wand as she prepared him for a practice session he hadn't signed up for. "Come now, we haven't got all day. I'll cast on you with or without a wand, there's no use delaying." A Gryffindor she was not. Rae held no qualms about chivalry or a fair fight--not that this was about to become one--and didn't want the poor boy believing so. That was how you got hurt.

Ah, there it was. She tried to pluck it from his pocket, wanting to drop (read: gently force) it into his sweaty palm so they could get this show on the road.

Turning away, Rae returned to the spot she'd been at first, hoping the boy really did have his wand out and ready as she'd tried to get him to do. Either way, the tip of her wand lit once again.

"We'll start small," for his sake, "and see if we can't work our way up." Never did she check whether the boy was on board. They were trapped together, and the girl had already decided that her vote counted for more. What was he going to do, go through the wall? There was no need. They'd have fun together, she'd make sure of it! Or try to anyway.

"Tarantallegra!" she cast, aiming in his direction. Rae was sure to remove some of the intent, genuinely not out to hurt the boy and only meaning to test his reflexes. It was time to see whether he was the squirrely, light-footed type or the sort to try tanking a hit.

It was important to know one's target.

A flash of light hit him in the chest, and suddenly his legs weren't his anymore.

Wait, what—

Something crawled under his skin, making his legs move without permission. Hopping and kicking in jerky, stupid movements. He tried to make them stop. Stop, stop, STOP. But they kept dancing, like something else was pulling the strings.

He grabbed onto the nearest chair, trying to anchor himself. His legs kept hopping anyway, dragging the chair along with him as he bounced in a circle. The chair scraped against the stone floor.

"Stop," he muttered through gritted teeth, letting go of the chair. His legs ignored him completely, bouncing him backward.

He twisted his shoulders, trying to force his whole body still. His bag slipped off from all the thrashing and hit the floor, books and parchment spilling across the stone. His Transfiguration textbook skidded under a desk while loose quills scattered everywhere like startled mice.

Oh no, his new quill! The one with the silver tip that Dad had gotten him specially. And his homework was getting all crumpled, and there went his bag of Fizzing Whizzbees rolling under the dummies where he'd never find them again.

Another hop sent him stumbling toward the wall of dummies. His shoulder hit stone with a solid thunk, spinning him away immediately.

"What— what did you—" he gasped between bounces. "When does it stop?"

He stared at her raised wand, then at his own wand in his sweaty grip. Was he supposed to do something? Cast something back? He had no idea what the rules were here.

"Um... Colovaria?" he tried, swinging his wand toward her.

The spell went wide, zipping past the Slytherin and hitting one of the practice dummies instead. The dummy's brown leather turned bright purple - like someone had painted it with grape jam.

He stared at it while still hopping around. The purple dummy just stood there, not moving, not helping. It was just... really, really purple now.

Ah, the stand around and get hit sort, then.

That wouldn't do either.

Rae watched the boy prance about, trying to end his own misery as if it were as simple as a polite ask. Her brows arched with a mixture of concern and disbelief. He hadn't even attempted to jump out of the way. The girl was well aware that people acted differently in stressful situations. Fight or flight, something like that. Rae fought, her friends like Benji tended to flee, and Elias, apparently... froze.

The scene grew even more...theatrical when the boy jigged himself right out of his possessions. Books, quills, parchment, they all came jostling out of the bag still slung over his back, and for a moment, Rae could only watch. She was taken aback by how easily he'd let himself go down.

"What— what did you—When does it stop?"

"Alright, hold sti--"

Or not.

Rae shifted the moment she saw the boy point his wand at her, her own already primed to cast a quick protego. There was no need. In the end, Elias's spell went so far askew that there may as well have been an invisible third person in the room whom he was actually aiming at. She supposed she couldn't blame him; the way his legs moved would make it harder for him to get in a proper hit. The sudden jerks and swerves would've compromised even the steadiest of hands.

"It's the dancing legs jinx and if you don't--" Miss. "Hold," Miss. "Still," MISS. Uuugghhh. "I won't be able to take it off." It wasn't his fault, she knew, but after the second miss, she could already feel her patience with undoing it slipping.

Maybe he could just dance forever--until the spell wore off anyway. Rae hadn't put too much into it, so he wasn't likely to remain dancing forever. Maybe.

Ah! She knew what she'd do, she just needed to trap him first, make him unable to be moved. When his legs took him closer to the dummies, Rae took aim again. "Expulso!" she cast at the nearby cluster of dummies.

With all the debris in the way, that would box him in--or have him fall over and break something. It was always a little hard to tell with these things. Either way, he'd be off his feet and welcome.

The explosion slammed into him, debris flying everywhere.

One moment he was hopping helplessly toward the dummies, the next the blast sent him stumbling backward. His legs, still twitching under the dancing jinx, couldn't adjust properly. His right arm caught against the sharp edge of a broken dummy as he fell, twisting wrong with a crack that made him cry out.

He hit the floor hard, chunks of practice dummy scattered around him - leather scraps, metal joints, splinters of wood. His right wrist sent white-hot pain shooting up his arm. The bone felt wrong, twisted in a way that made him want to be sick.

Blood trickled from a cut on his forehead where a piece of debris had caught him.

The dancing jinx was finally wearing off, but he didn't want to get up. He couldn't, really - his wrist hurt so badly he couldn't even think about putting weight on it.

"You— why did you—" The words came out broken, his voice shaking with pain and shock.

His left hand found his wand, more instinct than thought. At least it wasn't broken. Splinters of wood from the destroyed dummies lay scattered across the floor - jagged pieces that had cut him when he fell.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

The wooden debris lifted into the air - not the careful, controlled floating from class, but wild and erratic. Pieces jerked and spun unpredictably, his pain making the magic impossible to control.

"I just wanted to practice," he said, voice cracking as tears streamed down his face. The splinters jerked toward her through the air, wild and uncontrolled.

Well, that didn't work.

Rae watched, unable to believe what she was seeing. The boy with the limited self-preservation had danced his way right into the explosion. It was one thing to say that it had added an extra layer of complication to her plans...and a more accurate thing to say the situation was only getting worse. Had she been the same as a first year? She didn't think so. Rae had been a spunky little thing. Even under the effects of spells, she never flailed quite so terribly.

Elias didn't just flail. No. He staggered and tripped and ended up bloody. Talk about committing to the bit. It was almost impressive.

"You— why did you—"

Why did she what? Try to get him to stop dancing long enough for her to end the incantation? That was pretty self-explanatory. She just...didn't think he'd dance into it. Perhaps that had been a miscalculation on her part. A kid who hadn't so much as tried to dodge her initial attack was likely to be one who walked himself into greater danger.

It all made sense.

"Arresto momentum!" she said, slowing down the debris he'd managed to send her way. Rae side-stepped them as they drew closer, closing the gap between her and the crying boy.

"I just wanted to practice."

She crouched next to him, letting him have his little moment before, "That's enough of that, now." she said mildly, reaching a hand out to right him. "This was practice, you're just not very good at it." Not if he didn't know how to dodge. "Nothing we can't fix. No worries there."

Dark eyes looked him over, taking in the blood and the odd angle of his wrist. It didn't look like they'll be doing any more practice. At the moment, the first year was going to need some patching up. Rae rose to her feet, offering her hand for him to take.

"Let's get you to the hospital wing. It's nothing we can't take care of."

The debris had stopped moving when Ruth cast her spell. Elias let his wand drop into his lap, his body heavy and loose like all the fight had drained out of him.

His wrist hurt. A lot. The wrong kind of hurt that made him not want to look at it.

Ruth crouched down next to him and told him that was enough crying. She was saying something about practice, that he just wasn't very good at it yet. But she said they could fix it - no worries.
He wiped his nose with his good hand. She wasn't being mean about it. And when she stood up and offered her hand, she wasn't laughing at him or anything.

But what if she wanted to do more practice like this? What if she thought getting hurt was just part of learning?

Maybe she hadn't meant for him to get hurt? She'd been trying to stop the dancing, right?

Hospital wing. That made sense. His wrist really did need looking at.

But his things were scattered all over the floor. He looked across the room at his bag and books and quills everywhere.
"My stuff," he said, glancing up at her, eyes blinking owlishly. "I should..."

He picked up his wand with his good hand. "Wingardium Leviosa."

His textbooks floated smoothly through the air toward his bag - none of the wild jerking from before. A packing charm made his parchment stack itself into neat piles. The quills lined up in straight rows before sliding into their case.

He levitated his bag of Fizzing Whizzbees out from under the dummies and caught it against his chest. Without really thinking about it, he popped one in his mouth.

Everything packed away like Mum had taught him. His bag settled beside him, ready.

Elias put his wand away and then reached out with his good hand toward Ruth's. The Fizzing Whizzbee was still crackling on his tongue, sweet and sharp.

"Okay. Hospital wing. My wrist really hurts."