thattimeofthemonth | Open RP Post

Frowning, Draco sent another wave of lightening this time not focusing on Remus. This time he had the lightening move in a horizontal strike. He doubted that this trick would work, but his main focus was trying to find his actual teacher.

He hated this kind of tactic, mainly because it was he was weak at it. His aunt used to love a similar tactic on him all the time. He always failed it too.

Strangely enough, Remus (or what he believed to be an illusion of Remus) actually flinched back on contact with the lightning this time. Seemed the boy had a surprising amount of strength behind his attacks even when it wasn't meant to kill. If it was an illusion, why was it flinching?

Remus stood up, hands at his side. If Draco paid very close attention, he would catch that despite Remus' hand seeming to be empty, his fingers were still curled as if he was holding his wand. Yet his hand didn't move, nor did he speak a spell.

"Better! Changing up your tactic is a smart way of going about it!"

Draco still didn't understand this illusion. At least he was on the right path. Remus was there but not there. Was this some kind of shield?

He saw the flinch and he saw the way Remus held his hand. That told him as well that he was using a wand. Only it was concealed some how. This was nothing like what Bellatrix used to do.

Draco narrowed his eyes as he tried to think and at the same time he gave another flick of his wand. He wanted to disarm Remus of his wand. He wasn't sure how successful this simple tactic would be.

There had been a reason that Remus had been asked to be the DADA teacher for Hogwarts. When he saw Draco's hand come back up this time, years gave him the advantage. His own matched it and he snapped his wrist hard, calling out the matching spell to Draco's own at just the split second faster.

But Remus looked pleased. "Well done! Caught on quick to that trick actually, both that it was an illusion to start with and then where it was." Praise, even if the disarm wasn't successful.

Despite the praise, Draco frowned. He was more mad for not being able to disarm his teacher. Especially when they had discussed this earlier about how one could easily read what the other could do with the hand movements.

"But I failed to disarm you," Draco replied and pointedly looked at his feet. "I should have done that first."

"Because you didn't know I had it," Remus pointed out gently. "That was the point. I cast an illusion over my hand to hide my wand, to make you think I was still unarmed. I wasn't about to let you get a third cast off before I renewed that charm, though."

He gave a nod of understanding, but it was still clear he was mad with himself for making the mistakes. He knew that his aunt or godfather wouldn't have let him go so easily.

"Is there an easier way to detech illusions? Aside from understanding the person before you?"

Unlike his family, Remus knew people made mistakes and had to learn from them. No need to be cruel.

"It depends on the quality of the illusion. I've worked hard for that illusion - I had to be able to hide my wand from the other werewolves when I went into hiding with them." He gave a small shrug. "However, outside of that, there's a very easy way to test for such a thing."

He held up his hand. "If you cast a simple spell, something that should hit them - watch their bodies. If they have an illusion upon them, the part of them that is illusioned will glow alone if they have no protection spells on, and will not glow if they do."

"So basically what happened when I first tried to attack....you had glowed." Draco replied appearing to be more relieved now. He now had a better understanding of how to handle a situation. Bellatrix was never one to explain how to resolve a problem. She expected one to learn from trial and error. Nor was she one to tell how well he did.

"So even if I were to try and disarm you that alone would have said something as well."

"Not every spell can show that glow," Remus corrected. "Remember, it has to actually hit them to count. It's easy enough to block a disarm. However..."

Remus concentrated for a moment, then gestured with a whispered spell. There was a crack of a sound like thunder... then it started raining. Over Draco.

"You can do something like this, instead." With a little smile.

"Very funny." Draco scowled and was not amused with getting soaked by the sudden downpour. With a wave of his wand and a few words he undid the spell.

It was tempting to send the tiny storm over to Remus, but he behaved. He'll get his revenge later.

Remus chuckled, looking a bit amused. "Sorry. Figured it would get my point along quicker." He smiled before he raised his brows. "Ready for the turn around? I want to see your defenses."

Then raised his wand.

Draco shook his head more amused then anything. He wasn't buying that one bit. Remus is just lucky that Draco fully respects him now.

Quickly, Remus held out his wand. He carefully paid attention to how Remus stood and held his wand wanting to use everything he could to predict what might be done.

Remus' eyes were very serious, brows still up. "I'll give you a choice, Draco, and I want you to be honest with yourself in how you respond. Do you want me to test you like I would a student, or like I would another wizard, properly? The latter means you very well could get hurt if I can't pull the spell fast enough."

A choice? Draco was a bit surprised by it. He was so used to dealing with the his family and the Death Eaters and they never gave him a choice. They automatically treated him as another wizard and expected him to do well. And were always disappointed when he didn't live up to their standards...because he was a student and still needed to learn.

Part of him wanted to be treated like a wizard and prove that he didn't need to be protected. But at the same time he knew he still needed to learn a lot.

"Test me like a student," Draco replied with some reluctance feeling a little ashamed of himself.

Draco might notice the pleased expression in Remus' eyes at his choice and he nods. "Student, then." He watched Draco closely, then adds, "defensive only, for now. I want to see how you defend yourself. No return attacks. After this, we'll try a bit of a free duel, and then I'll know what's best to teach you to work with your style."

He shifted his weight. "Here we go!" Almost happy. This was a man who did love to teach, actually. The movement of his wand was shift. "Rictusempra!"

He noted that Remus seemed pleased with his answer and relaxed a little. He hoped it meant that he had made the right decision.

"Protego Maxima!" Draco quickly replied as soon as Remus had cleared the okay to go. He wasn't going to fool around with this and quickly tried to form a protective barrier. He was quite familiar using these having to help his father put up wards around their house.

Very telling. Remus made a note of the spell and watched as his intial spell bounced off, but as the spell went up, it had a weakness. The more foolish of wizards tried this same thing often enough, and years of fighting for himself had taught him much. So he fired off three rapid fire hexes, two to strike for the front to keep Draco busy and another that seemed to miss, hitting the ground behind and to the side. But in reality, the ward took time to come tigether as a whole - interrupting it was easier than a weaker protection to begin with.

The heather suddenly sprouted vines which leapt for Draco from behind.

Draco cursed softly to himself, realizing his mistake too late. He should have been prepared to back himself up with it since it wasn't necessarily a quick defensive spell to rely on.

While Draco managed to repel the first two hexes, the one that sent the vines out kept Draco busy. Unfortunately, before Draco could think of a spell to use the vines had him quickly entangled. It only left him furious with himself as he tried to get free of the vines.

"The downside to a powerful ward," Remus called over, "is that it takes time to cast and time to form and more attention to cast!" Teaching even as they go. "Layers can provide the time and safety you need to cast such a powerful one." He gave a quick flick of his wrist and dismissed the vines, letting then fall from Draco.

"Power isn't always the best first attack or defense. Sometimes, something more simple can be the deciding factor."

Thankfully, Draco managed to regain his balance so he landed on his feet. It was his once saving grace from the humilation he already suffered from. He listened to what Remus had to say, taking in the advice. He had to admit he enjoyed learning from Remus more then his aunt.

"I shouldn't have picked something so slow."

"Those who focus more on the dark side tend to think always in terms of power. It must be more powerful. That's if they think of defensive protections at all. Before, while you were checking around, I started with a simple spell and built on it - hid my wand first, protective charms after that. Remember what I said about knowledge being power? Falls into that category."

He lifted his wand, which was the only warning he gave before he sent another spell at Draco - something more simple. Another disarming spell.

Draco gave a nod of understanding, a little disappointed with himself. This was going to be a hard transition for him. He had grown up to learning a lot of the Dark Arts and relying on that way of thinking. "I'll admit...this is going to be hard for me to transition. I didn't think how difficult it would be to switch over...until now."

Quickly, Draco reacted by relying on a more simple deflecting spell. He needed to remember that simple was just as effective as big and powerful ones.

"When I had to go underground with the werewolves, I honestly had no idea what I was getting into. Unfortunately, sometimes, you have to learn the hard way - by being pushed off the dock." Teaching, even as he 'dueled'. "Better."

He didn't just stand still like most wizards did when they dueled, he started to move, circling Draco. His next spell came nearly as quick, another attempt to disarm, but then as soon as the spell went off, he pointed to the ground and snapped off another spell. This one caused a massive pool of ice around Draco's feet.

This particular style of dueling threw Draco off a bit. Granted he knew his father could duel well while moving and didn't have to stay in one spot.

Draco went to deflect the spell, but fell for the second attack. He tried to focus on melting the ice around himself and at the same time he knew he left himself open. He frowned not liking being put in this type of situation.

Edited 2015-11-19 02:23 (UTC)

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