Jinxies

[Ellis Gordon]

@'Theseus Greengrass'
@'Gabriel Vablatsky'

When Gabriel Vablatsky, a student Ellis knew only by surname, had asked about jinxes and counter-jinxes, the fourth year was more than happy to oblige having his own preferred jinxes and of course, the dream of becoming a Cursebreaker upon graduation was always right there. "Mister Vablatsky," Ellis said rather formally and professionally. "The key to jinxes is proper wand motion and direction. Unlike a curse, though you should never want to cast one, the intent of a jinx is more to disable rather than harm."

Ellis pointed at a diagram in the open text in front of them on the large wooden table the pair of boys were sitting at. "Like the Dancing Feet spell, with the incantation Tarantallegra. The intent of the caster is to render the target incapable of doing anything else except move their feet exceptionally fast, as if dancing."

He pointed at a sentence. "This is very important. Clear line of sight. Do you remember why you need a clear line of sight, Mister Vablatsky?"

  

[Gabriel Vablatsky]

Gabriel was struggling in his classes and sought a fellow housemate, Mister Gordon, to help him. Luckily, the fourth year seemed more than willing to do so and immediately pulled out the necessary text, directing his attention to certain jinxes, wand motions, and a lot of other things Gabriel couldn't focus long upon. Mister Gordon seemed to be acting as if he were a professor himself, which was almost amusing and exciting at the same time.

Giving off several "Ooh's" and understanding sounds, Gabriel tried to make it seem like he was truly following along. However, the information was seemingly going in one ear and out the other. He just wasn't that great at schoolwork, despite his efforts, and hoped his housemate wouldn't insult his lack of intelligence on the subject.

"Is it because... You don't want to accidentally hit somebody else with it?" He asked, thinking the response was an alright guess. He was also wondering why anyone would want to use a jinx on somebody else intentionally, especially the one they were discussing. Dancing feet spell. well he supposed that could be funny. The word jinx, curse, or hex just sounded so vulgar to the young Gryffindor.

  

[Ellis Gordon]

Ellis nodded slowly. Gabriel Vablatsky wasn't terrible but something led the fourth year to think that he just couldn't process everything as well as he could have under "normal" circumstances. Of course, Ellis couldn't care less if he was part-hag or not. The older boy needed some assistance with just understanding some of Defense Against the Dark Arts topics, and those topics were just the ones that Ellis found quite entertaining and just the right amount of challenging to be fun to practice whether on a dummy or in theory.

"That's right, Mister Vablatsky," Ellis said. "So what would happen if you mispronounced the spell? It is quite easy to do so after all."

  

[Gabriel Vablatsky]

He got it right! Gabriel was somewhat excited until he realized the question wasn't at all that difficult.  But, he needed a foundation to build upon and this was the best way to approach it. Ellis had been a great person to help him and he really appreciated every moment.

At this point, the fifth year suspected his tutor to be tricking him. Gabriel thought the answer to his next question was somewhat obvious, but maybe it wasn't. Maybe the answer was complex and fairly difficult to understand and all of the material he had read prior didn't discuss it fully. Ugh. He found it best to just say what he originally thought, hopefully not sounding at all stupid. "If it's pronounced wrong, something else can occur! Possibly something worse than what was intended, right?" He inquired, wishing that it was at least semi-correct.

  

[Ellis Gordon]

Ellis nodded. It wasn't necessarily so much that he was even better than the other boy in the topic of Defense Against the Dark Arts (Gabriel even had an extra year of practice!), but that Ellis thought his retention was better. Either way, Ellis wasn't necessarily going to spit things or try to talk down to his house mate.

"Correct, Mr. Vablatsky," Ellis said, hoping to give his peer some confidence. "All you need is a hand studying. You'll do fine on your OWLs."

  

[Gabriel Vablatsky]

Gabriel was rather excited at the outcome of their studying session, possibly too overjoyed, so much so that he raised a fist into the air in celebration. "I hope you're right, Mr. Gordon! I definitely needed the help - maybe just some reassurance as well." He replied with a smile as he began shuffling his papers around.

"Thank you for all of your assistance, I really appreciate it!" He felt the session to be rather short, though he wasn't entirely sure if this is all Ellis had in store for him. Although it would have been a poor idea to actually test any spells in their current location, he thought at least some type of instruction on how to do so was needed. Oh well, he wouldn't press his luck after all the help he had been given.