[Charms] T1: Lesson 2: Shields and Bindings

[Helia Ollivander]

She smirked, "No big. It's not the first time I've been yelled at, and I can jsut about promise it won't be the last." she nodded assuredly. "So, why so eager for class to start?" she asked reffering to his attempts at bothering the teacher.

[Thom Moen]

He waggled his wand. "I'm running low on spells. I may be a seventh, but it doesn't mean I've actually picked anything up all these years. Most of the spells I know are just dangerous rather than useful. Besides a fresh charm or two might come in useful next time someone tries to eat me." he leaned forward, looking past Halo at Novella.

[Novella Sandler]

Darin stared boredly down at his parchment, speaking calmly into Loiosh's mind. He wasn't going to justify Thom's behavior with a reaction, and if he could help it he wasn't going to let Loiosh or Novella do so either. It wouldn't help anything.

[Erich Aubry]

Erich watches the children squabble from where he has seated himself on the edge of Rainer's desk. He has been with him ever since the battle on the lawn and though unable to hear his thoughts, Erich has still staged an invisible vigil over the exhausted man. Silently and with the help of Rainer's ample supply of magic, Erich bolts the doors and window. Before all the latches have found their hold, before the hinges lock and forbid exits, Erich has sealed the room as soundproof. He has decided to let Rainer sleep.

"According to your dear professor's syllabus," Erich begins suddenly, revealing himself instantly to the students gathered here, "you lucky kids were going to learn a thing or two about barriers." He smiles carefully then, eyeing each of them. "And as your esteemed professor seems to be unconscious, I have elected to instruct you myself." Lowering himself to floor, Erich steps lightly toward the children until he is standing directly before them. There is a fluttering of thoughts, the rapid evaluation of options. Helia's eyes dart from Erich to Rainer and back again before they narrow in recognition. Moen's fear comes in multiples like a nightmare of dragons, heat and magic shimmering like something infrared and cornered. Is that what you wanted to see? Inside himself Thom is a stick figure crying. It is most peculiar, Erich thinks to himself as his gaze settles finally on Novella, that the people you see every day of your life ---the people who walk with you to class, who lie down with you at night, who listen to you tell that same story over again--- cannot find you. Erich rolls his eyes when he realizes it's the ferret in Novella's head driving her actions and speech, when it becomes abundantly clear upon a quick reading of minds that none of her classmates have noticed. Placing his hands on his hips, the young german concludes,

"My name is Erich Aubry and I am here to teach you a lesson."

[Thom Moen]

Thom raised his head, Erich appearing before them. He stared, his eyes fixed upon the man, one that he had never seen before. Thom decided that he could not look him in the eyes, for there was something secret and knowing in them, and so he stared at the near hairline, unblinking. "What's wrong with him?" Thom asked while pointing at Rainer, finding it hard not to look at the ceiling. He was quite intimidated, and he did not understand why.

His hands found a piece of clean white parchment on the desk, and he began in the top corner, tearing slowly downwards, listening to the shredding sound. It was comforting.

[Helia Ollivander]

Halo, despite the fear that threatened to release as a scream, was excited. Okay, so a man that was supposed to be dead, killed by Rainer Freundschaft (now presumably the same that was happily dreaming at the desk at the front of the class), was now standing at the front of the class saying he was going to teach them something. On the one hand, it's extremly creepy, but on the other hand, it's thrilling. How many times do you get to meet a spector. Not a ghost, but something that's obviously alive, simply - well, perhaps complicated is the better word, but still - ageless. Ageless and without a physical body. Call her twisted, call her strange, call her a creep, Helia was excited.

At Thoms question she said simply, "He's asleep. That's all..." though she somehow knew that it was not all. Erich wanted him to sleep. Mr. Aubry did not want Rainer to know what he was telling the class. That in itself was something to be cautious of, and she planned to be, but the thrilling aspect of it continued to prevail in her mind.

"So what are you planning on teaching us, Mister Aubry?" she said as she leaned back in her chair. She didn't mean to seem full of herself or anything like that, she just wanted to get comfortable for this. This, whatever it was, was definatly going to be memorable. Possibly more memorable than Kims posession or even the day she made her first wand. She was speaking with the supposed golden boy of a nine centuries ago. The man that was 'killed' by her teacher. Oh the questions she was planning to ask, but she was going to hear what he had to say himself before she became her nosy, inquisitive self.

[Novella Sandler]

Novella slowly slips back into her own body at the feel of Erich's mind sweeping over herself and her animals-- she remembers, and it instantly brings back the taste of Thom's blood. Darin, back in his own body as well, climbs up her leg to curl up in her lap, sending yellow waves of what is supposed to be comfort, but comes out more as nervousness, into her mind.

Loiosh is still young and doesn't understand, but he senses power and hisses in Erich's direction, but his poison will not come. He is too tired.


Novella watches Erich and watches Thom, but she already feels better than she has since she was tearing the throats from lethifolds.

[Erich Aubry]

Nodding solemnly at Helia's reply to Thom, Erich begins the low pulse that will reanimate and recolor Novella's memories as soons as she regains awareness. "It is good of you to join us Ms. Sandler, I do not think we could conduct this particular lesson without you." Turning back to Ollivander Erich begins again, "Well I thought to teach you how barriers spells are conducted and how you might generate your own. You see, each of us here possesses our own matrix of energy which we manipulate whenever we use magic." At this the blinds draw and the light is reduced to thin blades of sunlight that draw across the floor. "Spells and charms are a directed use of that vital force whether cast on ourselves, others or the surrounding enviornment. A shield charm is the hardening of our auras against outside forces." Pausing for a moment, Erich turns, "Perhaps a demonstration? Ms. Sandler if you would please do your best to tear out Thom Moen's throat with your teeth?"

Erich settles himself on the arm of a nearby chair and turns her hunger on.

[Thom Moen]

Thom raised his eyebrows, unsure if he was supposed to laugh or not. "What?" he asked, sitting up right in his chair, alert. "What are you talking about?"

He eyed Novella suspiciously, glaring at her pets in turn. He was suddenly very paranoid. "You won't get near me." he muttered to her.

[Novella Sandler]

Novella cannot hear her familiar's voices anymore. There is only Erich's suggestion and Thom's insistance is barely audiable because now there is hunger, and it is a dull roar in her ears and behind her eyes. She can already taste the blood, and does not feel as Loiosh leaves her shoulder, and Darin scrambles up her her chest to bite down on her cheek, then jump away. She does not feel the wound, merely feels the thin stream of blood as it trickles down into her mouth which is already hanging slightly open, her eyes vacant and under the impression that her canines are much longer than they actually are.

She leaps forward, knocking over her desk because, whatever she may believe, she does not have the long legs and quick reflexes of the body they create when they are joined as one. She is only Novella, Darin and Loiosh watch her from behind the knocked down desk and ask each other what they can possibly do.

And then she is on Thom's desk on her knees and her hands are on his shoulders, and her mouth is wide open and going for his throat, her own blood leaving red spatters on his yellow robes.

[Thom Moen]

Thom began to shout unevenly, terrified but unable to fully voice what was happening to him. His chair fell backwards with him on it, causing him to smash his head against the freezing floor, a smear of blood appearing on the grey stone. He raises his arms now, clutching his throat with his fingers as if it might prevent Novella from tearing into it, if only for a few moments. The other hand is around her throat, pushing at her chin and face, trying to ward her off with slaps and scratches, gripping her jaw and turning it away from his throat.

Her blood dripped into his mouth, and the bitter copper taste making him sick to his stomach so that he heaved and wreched. He spat it out, feeling it thick and cold, and began to scream again, this time at Erich.

[Erich Aubry]

"As you can see the desire to protect ourselves from harm is one of the most potent and long-standing instincts inside each of us. Look at how Thom struggles! He will use every ounce of physical strength to repel this attack." Rainer stirs in his sleep briefly and Erich turns toward him for a moment before continuing, louder now to overcome the sound of Novella's snarls and Thom's cries. "Even Rainer whom I have known all my life will not have me. His will is such that he will never die, he resists even the passing of time and natural death." Erich is screaming over the struggling students now and addresses Helia with his voice supernaturally loud. "No matter how much magic he may possess, and he has more than anyone will ever have again, he will never feel safe enough to let another person in to his heart." Quieter now to her, he speaks through her directly and asks Helia in the command of his telepathy How can he with what's already inside him. Is this what you wanted to know, my dear?

Erich appears besides Thom and Novella, kneeling to look in to Moen's eyes. "But you don't need to be afraid," he says, ignoring Novella's gnashing teeth. "If you want to be safe you can be made safe." Erich tests the leaking boundaries of Thom's mind, the edges of him fluttering as if there was only a curtain between himself and everything else. You are not helpless, you can decide how strong you will be. Novella's bites down harder on the flat of his hand, throwing her weight down and on to him. "Think about the space between you getting thicker and thicker...make a wall there, make it hot..." Erich begins to trail off before he stands.

It isn't the magic you lack but the decision to use it. He waits for the air to change.

[Thom Moen]

Tears pricked in Thom's eyes, unable to escape and blinding his vision. He could hear Erich shouting above the noise calmly, as if just speaking over a machine, pausing every now and then. Was he observing Thom and Novella? Watching them with interest? Thom continued to cry and sob and kick and slap. His head swam lightly and he thought about knives and blood.

Erich appeared near his face, and he could not understand where he was. The room had vanished and all he could feel was hands and cold stone and wet tears and warm blood. Everything was a painful, roaring mess of sensation and temperature and feeling. Sounds rushed about him, and he could hear Erich's words in his head. It struck him that Erich was not going to help him as he'd done before.

He'd have to fight Novella alone.

He heaved once more, a small amount of vomit spluttering onto his own face and chest, but he began to gain control through his panic. He began to will Novella away, as if he were flying on a broom and she were at his command...

[Novella Sandler]

Erich stands beside them, and Novella can no longer see the classroom.

There are lines of red which must be Thom's blood vessels, and she half-way wants to quell her attack to suck the blood and shreads of torn flesh from underneath her fingernails, but she cannot stop fighting. She scratches at his arms and chest, bites at his out-stretched hands. His throat glows beneath her, one of four spots on his body glowing bright red. Head and heart. Throat and Groin.

She is suddenly aware that the light is not blood, that is is growing out and around the boy beneath her, and she wails like an animal in frusteration as she scratches at what looks to anyone outside like thin air, but is pushing her away slowly, glowing so brightly she closes her eyes and can still see it.

[Thom Moen]

Thom could feel Novella's frustraion, see her eyes glazed over in anger and fear. He could see the want in her face, even in the gleam of her blood red teeth, but even through the sudden redness he can see the reluctance in her, strong but veiled. It was there, alert and ready, but Erich was in the way of her will. Her hunger was his puppet on strings.

The Hufflepuff shouted out now. He did not speak words, just fury, and as he stopped physically pushing at Novella, as he stopped purposefully tasting her blood and feeling the pain in his limbs, his mind gave out to what Erich wanted.

The air was throbbing now, as if hot, but it was not. It was cool and fast like wind that could not be felt, and Novella's torso was rising form his, their chests and ribs no longer pressed to each other like bashing animals. Thom's fear still pumped, but now it was mixed with anger - anger at Erich.