Learning A New Spell (Tag Nani)

Jim checked for the thousandth time to make sure that his wand was in his pocket. He felt a little dumb for trying to find somebody to teach him the Patronus spell, especially when he should probably learn spells that could knock Leroy unconscious in a split second. But the Patronus was something that he actually wanted to learn after hearing a bit about it. His reason always felt dumb whenever he thought about it, but truthfully, he felt that if he could conjure a happy-enough thought to produce one, then maybe he wasn't totally brought down by his werewolf curse. He had heard that some of the other students could do it, and he was hoping either one of them or maybe a teacher could help him learn it. Seeing that the door to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom was ajar, he pushed it open, the hinges squeaking slightly as the door swung open. "Um, hello?" he called out. "Anyone in here?"

Nani was sitting on a desk with a big book in her hands.. one of the DADA's text books of the sixth year.. she sighed.. only 500 pages.. Because Quidditch's stuffs she lost two lesson of DADA and now the teacher forced her to recover them staying in class out from the normal time.. in a nutshell she couldn't leave the class thanks to the teacher's spell!
She snorted.. still three hours in that class.. luckily she liked that discipline so it wasn't so bad stay close in the class.. buuut in that free time she could practise a little more with Quidditch! This year Gryffindor won't win the svhool cup and Fionn won't mock her!
Lost in her thoughts she didn't even hear soemone enter in the room.. when she raised her look from the book Nani jumped.. It was Jim the boy she helped a little time before.. "When the heck did you come in?!" she asked coming down from the table..

Jim jumped, seeing that the classroom actually wasn't empty. Nani was there. "Oh, sorry, didn't mean to...startle you." He awkwardly shuffled into the room, always feeling embarrassed. It seemed like he was never going to get over his awkwardness, no matter how hard he tried. "I was just looking for help with a...spell." He straightened his school robes, clearing his throat as he tried not to stumble over his words so much. "The Patronus, to be exact."

Nani smiled.. "That's ok.." she laid her book on the desk listening at his words.. "The Patronus.. I know this spell.." she nodded with a finger on her chin.. "A good spell if you've problems with dementors.." she chuckled.. not that she had usued it a lot of times.. only for practice at home with her brother.. "Why do you need it?" she asked curiously..

"Oh, you do? That's cool." It seemed like Quidditch wasn't Nani's only talent if she could do a spell like the Patronus. It was supposed to be pretty advanced, although Jim knew that a couple of classmates could only conjure it. He gave a little shrug. "I just felt like going for something more difficult, I guess. I guess I'm kinda average when it comes to spell-casting, so I wanted to see if I could get something more advanced under my belt, you know? Ugh, this is sounding weird." He face-palmed, feeling like he was making no sense at all. And he couldn't really say his real reason for wanting to learn it. Nani would think he was nuts.

"That's ok!" Nani laughed.. his explanation was becoming a little complicated but in the end she could understand him.. Those were also hers motiivation to learn that spell.. "I asked to my brother to teach me the Patrouns in the same way!" she chuckled looking for her wand.. "His patronus is a eagle.. Grandma has a bear and mine is a seagull!" she laughed taking it from her bag.. "I don't even know why we have those animals!" she laughed.. "I don't look like a segull!"

Jim laughed along with her, not feeling totally noobish anymore. "Makes me wonder what mine will be," he said, thinking out loud for a moment. He wasn't sure if he really had a favorite animal or anything that would pop up as his Patronus. He gave a little shrug, pushing the matter aside. "You, think you could teach me?" he asked. "I don't know if I'll be any good at this, but...well, better to try than not try at all, right?"

Nani smiled.. "I think it's because the Patronus reflects the wizard personality.." she mumbled scratching her head didn't notice that he wasn't even talk with her but only thinking out loud.. She was still lost in her thoughts when he asked her to teach it to him.. she blinked raised her look from the floor.. "You want.. what?!" she asked not sure that she understood waht he asked.. one thing is lear it one thing is teach it! Sitka took seven days teach her that spell.. and.. and are we becoming crazy?! The worst teacher in the whole school!

Jim shrugged a little. True, the Patronus did reflect the wizard's personality. But he didn't exactly know what his personality was. He was kind to his friends, but stand-off-ish to everybody else. He loved Evaine, yet he couldn't resist Aurora or Perseus. He tried to be a good person, yet sometimes he got so mad that he wanted to kill people. What exactly did that make him? He pushed the thought away. This wasn't the time to be brooding on things. Jim blinked in surprise, startled for a second by Nani's reaction. "Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to...I just..." He sighed, trying not to trip over his words so much. "I just thought that, well, you're pretty good at teaching Quidditch stuff, maybe you could do the same with spells, that's all."

Nani scratched her head.. Yeah.. good at teaching Quidditch.. but.. would she be able to teach a spell?! It was difficult but how could she say no? When she saw someone looking for help Nani couldn't help but go and help him!
She sighed.. "You don't have to apologize.." she smiled.. "I'm just nervous.. this would be the first time that I teach soemthing taht isn't Quidditch.." she smiled blushing slightly.. "We can try.." she chuckled.. "At least we tried.."

"You and me both," Jim said, cracking a smile. He was feeling pretty nervous about this himself. Then again, he usually got nervous when he was learning something new. Even when he learned to ride a broomstick for the first time, he had been a little anxious before he had come to love it. "Yeah, trying is better than no trying at all," he agreed. He was just glad that Nani was willing to do that much.

"Good!" Nani smiled.. "Do you already know something about the Patronus?" she asked trying to understand on waht she had to focus better during this lesson.. "Maybe it's better if I show you.. before we try.. What do you think?" she smiled pointing at her wand.. "Maybe this could help.."

"Just that it's used to combat dementors and that it comes from thinking of something really happy. Is that basically everything? Or is there more to it?" That seemed to be the spell in a nut-shell, but Jim wasn't exactly an expert, which was why he was asking Nani for help in the first place. "Yeah, a demonstration might be nice." Some people did learn better from watching somebody than just being told how a spell worked. Jim figured it was better than nothing.

"Yes.. at a glance this is all!" Nani smiled.. "But don't think only because are necessary two thing it's a easy spell!" she warned him.. then she paused and took a deep breath.. "Ok.. " she whispered and raised her wand.. Thinking only at her happy memory Nani said firmly.. "Expecto patronum!" and from her wand a white light came out and turned into the shape of a seagull.. it started to fly around her and then flew towards the big chandelier on the ceiling and perched on it.. Nani smiled and with a move of her wand it disappeared.. "See?"

Nani certainly made it seem easy. It only took her a moment for her to shoot out a little silver seagull out of her wand. Jim smiled a little as he watched it fly around. "Okay, happy memory, expecto patronum, got it." He let out a nervous breath as he held his wand firmly in his hand. He wasn't sure at first which memory to go with. He surprisingly had a lot to choose from. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that a lot of good things had actually happened to him recently. He settled on the moment when he first met Evaine, Todd, and Brieanne and realized that he was actually going to have friends this year. He pointed his wand and yelled "Expecto Patronum!" But it didn't exactly work. Instead of an animal of sorts, a little silvery wisp just popped out. Jim groaned. "Darn it. I was hoping I could get it on my first try."

Nani smiled.. "At least something came out!" she laughed softly.. "At my first try absolutely nothing popped out! I chose the wrong memory.." she laughed covering her mouth.. "Try again.." she pointed at his wand.. the second try is always better, at least that was grandma said..

Jim nodded. Maybe the memory he chose just wasn't happy enough. Come on, come on, think... Evaine suddenly popped into his head, beautiful as always. That was how Jim saw her, at least. She was always beautiful in his eyes. Maybe the moment he realized that he loved Evaine would work. Taking another deep breath, he pointed his wand and yelled "Expecto Patronum!" But try as he might, nothing popped out by another silvery wisp. Jim ground his teeth in frustration. Why couldn't he get this right?

Nani smield when he tried again.. confident that something will happen this time.. but her expectations fell when from his wand came out again a little flash.. "Mmmh.." she mumbled.. "Just to know.. which memory did you choose?" she asked trying to not be too much intrusive.. "For example.." she tried to explain at him why her first memory didn't work.. she didn't want him to lose hope about this spell.. "the firts memory I chose was about the first time I flew on a broomstick.. I was happy..but not enough!" she laughed.. "Maybe I can help you.."

Jim turned red at Nani's question. He barely felt comfortable talking about his love life with Todd and Brieanne, let alone his other friends. "Um...no, just...give me a moment. Let me try one more time." He cleared his throat, trying not to appear so tense. Come on, Jim. Come on. Think. You can do this. His mind spun through his memories, trying to find one that would be happy enough to make the spell work. His mind came up blank for a long moment before he finally remembered something: when Evaine had seen him as a werewolf, he had been so afraid that she would leave, that she wouldn't want to hang out with him anymore. But she hadn't. She had stayed, despite knowing what he was. Evaine not leaving...maybe that will be happy enough. "Okay, I think I've got one." He rolled his shoulders back as he held his wand firmly in his hand again. He let the memory play in his mind, remembering that happiness, that relief, when he had realized that Evaine wasn't going to leave him, even though he was a dangerous monster. "Expecto Patronum!" For a moment, only another slivery wisp flowed out of his wand, and for a moment, he thought that he had failed again. But then, he saw that the spell was talking shape, turning into some kind of animal. He kept his mind focused, concentrating on that happy feeling. But when he saw what his Patronus was, his eyes widened in horror. Nobody could deny that the shape of his Patronus was that of a great wolf that immediately threw its head back and howled. But the sound didn't last long. Jim's break in concentration made the wolf fade away as the spell disappeared. His wand clattered to the floor as he staggered backwards into a desk, his face pale and clammy. A wolf? Out of all this, his Patronus had to be a freakin' wolf? It had to be some kind of ironic twist of fate, that his Patronus would end up being the animal that he hated, that was the dangerous part of him. How could this have happened to him?

"Ok.. " Nani smiled hoping that this would be his good try.. After three attempts how couldn't this work yet?! She crossed her fingers and watched him recompose, ready for the spell.. It worked! Nani smiled excited.. a wolf.. she wouldn't have ever thought that his Patronus was a wolf.. he looked so calm.. but the Patronus didn't read people wrong.. she turned to him and saw his strange reaction at his Patronus.. probably he didn't expect that the spell could have worked..
"Are you ok?!" she asked worry seeing him on the floor.. "Are you hurt?"

Jim couldn't answer for a moment. He felt close to exploding. Why the hell was his Patronus, his protector of sorts, a freakin' wolf? It just didn't make sense to him. The wolf didn't protect him, the wolf ruined his life, made him abnormal, made him attack friends and innocent people. He took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm down. Nani's voice sounded panicked and it wouldn't do any good to freak him out anymore. "I'm...I'm fine. I'm okay. I just..." His voice trailed off. What explanation could he possibly give? "It just kinda, freaked me out for a moment." He swallowed as he stood up, shoving his hands into his pockets to keep them from shaking. "So, um, besides freaking out at the end, um, did I do alright?"

Nani raised an eyebrow when he woke up from the floor.. Maybe that was a normal reaction.. in the end it was his first successful attempt.. even if it didn't freak her out at her firts success.. but maybe it was because they were two differents persons..

She smiled relieved seeing that he was ok.. "Yes!" she smiled at his question.. "It worked perfectly! Next time try to be more concentrate on your thought.." she smiled.. "And it won't disappear.."

Jim gave a silent sigh of relief when Nani didn't press him. She was a good friend that way. She didn't ask questions, she just went with the flow. Maybe someday, he would tell her what he was, but not now. He felt too exhausted. He forgot how freaking out could do that sometimes. "Concentrate more...right." He nodded. "Um, am I good to go? I don't want to keep you from whatever you were...doing earlier."

"For what I was doing before.." Nani chuckled.. "..in detention.. stuck with this book!" she laughed pointing at her 500 pages' book.. "Helping you was a good distraction.." she winked at him giving a soft pat on his shoulder.. "Keep on training.. like with Quidditch!" she chuckled..

"Oh. Ouch." Jim winced in sympathy. He had been in detention a few times throughout his years at Hogwarts, and they were never fun. Filch seemed to get more creative every year with punishments. And he always enjoyed the hell out of them too. He laughed along with her. "Yeah. I will. Keep an eye out for me at tryouts. You won't be disappointed." He gave a little grin before he gathered up his stuff. "Thanks again!" he called over his shoulder as he hurried out of the room.