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Who: Hermione Granger & Stephanie Brown
What: Magic talkin'.
Where: TMU Library and then...TBA, because libraries are not good places to demonstrate curses.
When: Givdi evening.
Warnings: N/A

Hermione personally thinks that she's an excellent teacher. It's a bit of bigheadedness that she allows herself, and she's quite prissy about it. Defensive, perhaps. She had, after all, coached her friends through their OWLs and the first year of their NEWTs, before Events Had Occured. Alright, perhaps sometimes she could get a little condescending, but really- they should have listened in class. Right?

This time will be a little different. Honestly, she's quite excited at the prospect of getting to explain magic from the ground up, without the wizarding world's absurd assumptions and prejudices getting in the way. On quite another level, she feels like she herself could do with a refresher. The life of a politician hardly lends itself to sparring and dueling, after all, but she feels like it would be prudent to make sure her reflexes are still sharp, curses fresh in her mind...

Well. She puts it out of her mind, tucking her tweed jacket (of course she owns one, and not a very fashionable one, either; a sensible, librarianish one) closer around her and flicking her hair uselessly behind her ear over and over as she waits at the doors of the library. Makes sense to meet Steph here, right? No point unwinding at home only to have to go out again and lecture or be lectured about curses and how to avoid them.

Anyway, curses she can do, but unwinding is a mythical power which Hermione hasn't yet mastered.

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"If I don't think it's life or death at the time, I'll try to keep the wand intact. It might make a good bargaining chip, if nothing else," It might be a little weird that Steph is talking about this like it's totally going to happen. Not that she's planning to cross any magicians, but she knows her own luck, and her own ability to get herself into trouble. She's expecting to come up on the wrong end of a wand at some point during her time in Baedal.

Edited 2012-02-18 14:55 (UTC)

"Oh- true," Hermione agrees, though she wonders how well some of the Death Eaters here would take to bargaining with a Muggle.

She also wonders just what Steph has planned that makes her so urgently need to be prepared to deal with this kind of thing, but decides to hold off on questions until later. She could offer help, after all.

She needs to do something.

"There's such a thing as wandless magic in my world, but it's not good for dueling unless you're very good at it- it requires a lot of concentration."

...And mental concentration is one of Hermione's strongest skills, which would make her reasonably good at wandless magic, though she much prefers to use her wand anyway. It's only recently that she's started practicing without it.

"When you have to do things in rapid succession and be sure of your aim, a wand is always better," she concludes, and then gives Steph a smile. "Want to see some of the more common spells, then?"

"I won't count on disarming someone being a way to stop them using magic, then," though it's good to know it's harder to not use a wand. At least for the type of magicians that come from Hermione's world.

"Definitely," despite the fact she should be taking this seriously, Steph grins. Magic is cool, even if it's potentially dangerous. "I wanna get changed before you start throwing them at me, though."

Not that she expects that to happen straight away, she's just giving Hermione a heads up.

"Oh, of course! I'll just show you what they look like first," Hermione explains. "It's worth being able to identify them. Most have an incantation that goes with them, though at a certain level most witches and wizards stop using them because yelling what you're using gives your enemy a split-second advantage. Of course, it's like wands all over again- it's harder to cast non-verbal spells, though in a duel they're definitely faster and more useful."

She spins to turn her back to Steph, continuing, "So- a Reductor Curse. Usually used to blast through walls, but-" there's a sudden break in her sentence when suddenly she's thinking about (remembering) the effects it can have on the human body, but she carries on as if nothing's happened "-well, that's the primary use. Like so- oh, give me a moment-"

She waves her wand, but it's not a Reductor Curse the first time around. Rather, she wordlessly conjures a brick wall, about a meter and a half high, the bricks appearing one by one and building themselves up from the ground in rapid succession with cement filling itself into the spaces, her wand dancing like she's conducting an orchestra- and then she flicks her wrist-

"Reducto!"

-and blasts a hole in the center, the rest of the bricks coming crumbling down after.

"It'll definitely help if I know what to look for. Or listen for, as the case may be," it's unfortunate that wordless spells are an option, in Steph's opinion, altough it doesn't surprise her that it's possible.

She goes quiet after that, listening to Hermione's explanation and then watching her build the wall. She notices how Hermione is waving the wand around, and wonders if that's part of spellcasting. And if she'd be able to memorize any movements that go with certain spells.

The Reductor Curse drags her out of her thoughts, because that was pretty intense. She doesn't flinch, but her eyes widen a little, "Note to self: don't get hit by that." It looks like it'd be unpleasant.

"Yes," Hermione agrees, looking a bit embarrassed- yes, she can go from blasting holes in things to sheepish in seconds. It's a skill. "But most people will use to to remove obstacles in their path rather than people. The biggest thing to watch out for is not to get hit by any debris. There are more specific spells that people will actually aim at opponents- probably the most common is a Stunning Spell. Just knocks people out if you're doing it right, and it's painless- though taking too many in quick succession can be dangerous to the heart, that's usually only if you have a pre-existing condition, or if you're elderly or especially young or pregnant- you know. The sort of things you can't go on rollercoasters with."

She gives her another half smile. "It's distinctive, luckily. You'll see a jet of red light, so that's just a matter of dodging, and the incantation's Stupefy, though it's usually one of the first things people learn to do non-verbally because it's so useful."

"I am allowed to go on rollercoasters, so hopefully it won't kill me," Knowing it comes in the form of a jet of red light is helpful, although the idea of something that can instantly knock her out is kind of terrifying. She doesn't like being unconscious, because god knows what people can do when you are.

"How long does the effect usually last? Or does it have to be reversed with another spell?"

"It depends," Hermione says, sounding apologetic. "Anywhere from minutes to hours, depending on how strongly you cast the spell. There is a spell to wake up Stunned people, but it doesn't have to be used."

She pauses. She can see the idea's unappealing- rather understandable- and tries to help, adding, "Really, think of it as like a blunt weapon. It's magical, but it has the same effects as somebody hitting you with- well, anything else, really. You just have to get out of the way fast. The fact that it's magic doesn't really change that."

And she's assuming, she realises, that Steph knows these things and can fight- she must, after all, be asking for a reason.

"Yeah, I'll just... keep out of the way of that one. I think I'd rather deal with getting a hole blown in me," That's a bit of an exaggeration, and she realizes it. "Sorry, I'm fine." She isn't trying to make Hermione feel guilty about what her magic can do, so Steph forces herself to stop worrying.

"What's next on the list of things that can kill me?" Maybe not the best joke to make, but it's a start.