Vance surveyed the room, arms folded, waiting for the last of the chatter to settle.
Vance said, "Ready your wands!
Thirty-odd students reached for their pockets at once, a ripple of fumbling, and someone dropped a wand, then scrambled under a desk to retrieve it.
"Mr. Johnson, stop messing around!"
"I found it!" came the muffled reply from beneath the wood.
"Sigh"
Aegeus drew his wand without issue, already settling into a loose, low-wand stance.
After another minute, Vance said, "Only harmless spells are permitted, like the Dancing Feet Spell I taught you," raising his voice over the scramble. "And only use minimum power. This is only a training exercise. Anyone who puts real weight behind their spells will have to answer to me and your head of house!"
He then paired them off without apparent logic— Gryffindor with Slytherin, tall with short— Aegeus's name was called last.
"Granger, you are with Bole."
A ripple went through the nearest cluster of Slytherins. Bole's expression hardened, his jaw setting the way it had in the corridor, wand ready before Vance had finished the sentence.
"Bole, you will attack, and Granger will defend. Then you will switch," said Vance, "Ready?"
"GO"
"Aculeo"
Bole went first; the stinging jinx came in fast and flat, more force behind it than the strictly necessary.
Aegeus read the angle the same way he had done with the wooden ball, then he shifted his weight two inches off center, and let the red bolt pass close enough to stir the fabric at his sleeve.
Vance, three pairs down, didn't even look up. "Bole!"
"It's within range!" Bole said.
Although jinxes are considered dark magic. It was the weakest kind. It was mildly harmful; it could only cause irritating or amusing discomfort rather than any serious damage, but if someone put more force than necessary, it could be really harmful.
"It wasn't. Again."
Bole's second attempt came in exactly as it should— same spell, but with far less power behind it. Aegeus let it clip his shoulder this time; he wanted to test his defense against it. And as expected, the spell failed to do any damage.
"Granger, your turn," Vance said.
Aegeus raised his wand and used the same spell. "Aculeo."
The spell left Aegeus's wand with a terrifying speed. Bole— who had clearly expected a speed closer to the sluggish pace of the rest of the room— was struck across the forearm. He hissed through his teeth, his face twisting with fury.
Around them, the drill had mostly ground to a halt, a handful of pairs pausing to watch how the conflict would play out. Marcus, three spots down, had stopped entirely.
"The rest of you, eyes on your partner!" Vance said, without raising his voice, and the room snapped back into motion, though the glances kept coming.
By the end of the hour, Bole didn't manage to land a second hit. When Vance finally called the class to a stop, Bole sheathed his wand with more force than necessary and didn't look at Aegeus again.
Marcus caught up with him at the door, rubbing his own shoulder where somebody's jinx had landed. "He didn't even have a chance, did he?"
Rosalind fell in on his other side. "You've gotten faster."
As the rest of the students left the class like usual, Aegeus lingered near the doorway until the room had properly emptied, then doubled back inside instead of following the others out.
Vance, who was already resetting the room, glanced over at him. "Do you need something?"
"No, sir." Aegeus set his bag down against the nearest desk. "I just want to ask for permission to use the room, if that's okay."
It was the best room for him to practice; it had enough space and dummies.
Vance studied him for a moment, then shrugged and said, "It's yours until the next lot needs it. Try not to set anything on fire."
"I will try, sir," said Aegeus said wittily.
Aegeus waited until the door swung shut behind the last stragglers before he drew his wand — sheathed it against his side, the way he had done during drills, then drew again. And again. He wasn't casting any spell yet, only motions: wrist to ready position, no wasted movements, no twist in the shoulder.
The reason Fairweather had beaten him was not only because the spell was faster, but because the draw had also been faster, already loaded with a spell before Aegeus had even settled his stance.
He timed himself mentally. Draw. Reset. Draw. Reset. By the fortieth repetition, the motion had gone smoother.
Only then did he start casting.
"Aculeo." Draw, cast, breathe. At the dummy, watching the thin red thread leave his wand a fraction faster each time he trimmed some wasted motion out of the draw. Six repetitions. Ten. By the fifteenth, the gap between drawing and casting kept shrinking, until it became just a single motion instead of two stacked ones.
Then the combos— the thing Fairweather had actually beaten him with. He picked two spells he could cast together without a pause. Stinging Jinx, then Expelliarmus, back to back at the dummy, with no pause between them.
The first attempt came out ragged, an obvious pause between the two where his weight shifted wrong. He did it again.
By the twentieth repetition the pause had mostly vanished— not gone, he doubted it would be anytime soon, but much smaller.
He was on his thirtieth rep, his hand starting to ache, when the door creaked open behind him. Rosalind stood in the frame, arms crossed.
"How long have you been doing this?" she asked.
"Since everyone left..."
"That was forty minutes ago."
Aegeus lowered his wand, breathing a little. "Was it?"
She didn't come further in, just leaned against the doorframe, watching him.
"The curfew is in twenty minutes. Don't make me come back for you again."
She was gone before he could answer, footsteps already fading down the corridor. Aegeus looked at the wall a moment longer, then reset his stance and ran the combo one more time.
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TO BE CONTINUED
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