When Going Into Danger, Take A Bodyguard

"Mind having my back, Mana?" you ask, surprising the straight haired blonde, "Or I guess sabotaging it, in this case."

She looks over at Selena, who seems a little disappointed for a second. However, after flicking her gaze in the direction of Amelia and Harmony, she gives you an understanding smile and gives Mana a go-ahead gesture before turning to pair up with Marcus.

Mana gives her own gaze over at Amelia and Harmony, the two still smile glaring at each other as they wait for the exercise to begin. She sighs but seems to get why she was chosen now and she indicates for you to be the one to shoot at the target first.

As you and the other students that are going first in their pairings line up in front of your targets, you smile as Mana. "Thanks," you say, keeping your voice low, "I had a feeling you might be used to breaking up fights."

"I do, actually," Mana replies, matching your volume, "Two of Selena's other bodyguards, Rae and Lina, argue ALL the time. It can get kind of... shove-y before me and Annie need to step in."

She purses her lips, chancing a glance over as Harmony is lined up to go first while Amelia waits to cast whatever trick spell she has planned. "You... don't think it's going to get THAT bad, do you?" your blonde partner asks.

"I hope not," you reply, as you get ready to go first, "And I imagine if it DOES get 'that bad' the Professor will break it up."

"Still doesn't hurt to have someone who's quick with a shield spell on hand just in case?"

"And someone I can talk to about a... mutual friend with low self-confidence."

Mana's cheeks turn ever so slightly red.

"Begin!" Zizana shouts, folding her arms under her chest as she grimly observes.

You turn your attention to the target, waiting for Mana to cast her spell. After a few seconds, you hear Mana whisper, "Pepperium."

A tingling sensation assaults your nose as you raise your wand to the target, aiming for the bullseye. At first it seems manageable, a minor annoyance more than anything but then you try to cast your own spell. "Illumibo--ACHOO!"

The tingling sensation suddenly multiplies tenfold, the full-body sneeze making your arm jerk to the side and causing your spell to go wide. It only grazes the very edge of the target as it whizzes past and Mana playfully smiles at you as she says, "That's gonna happen any time you try to use some magic for the next... hour or so. Annoying, isn't it?"

"Very," you agree as you rub at your nose with your free hand and smile back.

As you prep yourself to try again, you look over at Amelia and Harmony. Things already appear to be going sideways as Amelia has a frustrated look on her face while trying to cast whatever distraction spell she wants on Harmony. The Phoenix House girl has a very smug look on her face as she stands there, seemingly unaffected. "Come now, PARTNER," Harmony says, a smirk on her lips, "I can't start until you hit me with something. Or have you been sleeping around so much you've forgotten your minor curses?"

You hear Amelia growl under her breath as she tries several more spells that also seem to do nothing. This makes the athletic brunette even more visibly frustrated as she mutters, "The hell's going on? Something wrong with my wand?"

You take another shot at the target, the sneeze you are hit with throwing off your aim again but this time you manage to catch yourself and hit the outer ring of the target. Sniffling, you look over at Amelia and Harmony again to see Harmony has still not moved. Amelia has still failed to cast any spell on her and your fellow Wyvern is starting to draw the attention of the Professor, though Zizana has not made a move or said anything as she watches.

Amelia is looking down at her wand as she casts yet another spell so she, unlike you and Mana, fails to notice the very easy to miss glitter of energy around Harmony's body. "Wow," Mana whispers to you, "I've never seen a shield spell cast that subtly. It'd only work on light curses but I have no idea when she slipped it on."

Mana's face then scrunches up in confusion. "Are we allowed to be using those?"

"I don't think so," you reply, "but the teacher isn't--"

You stop as you notice, without having moved her arms from their folded position, Zizana subtly tracing something with the forefinger of her right hand in the air. Looking back at Harmony and Amelia, you see that Harmony is so smugly focused on Amelia's frustration that she does not catch when her barrier glitters again as it is dispelled.

Amelia, not having noticed the barrier either, growls out her curse through gritted teeth. The name of said curse is impossible to make out as a result so it looks like Harmony is going to have several surprises in the next few seconds. The first being that the curse actually lands, which causes her to blink rapidly. Amelia seems just as shocked for a moment but then a sly grin forms on her lips as she says, "I guess you can start now."

Harmony scowls at Amelia for a moment but does prepare her wand, aiming it at the target. Harmony starts to gather magical power, the tip of her wand starting to glow as she chants, "Illumi--"

Then her shirt disintegrates with a loud series of tearing noises. The scream Harmony lets out as she drops her wand and covers herself with her arms (though she has a plain white sports bra on so it is not as if she would have been fully exposed otherwise) catches the attention of the entire class. For her part, Amelia has an expression that is a cross between shock and bemusement.

"What do you think you're DOING you PERVERTED bi--" Harmony shouts, catching herself before she fully lets out the unladylike curse.

"It was supposed to be little rips!" Amelia yells back, raising her free hand defensively, "Distracting but not all... THAT!"

"Harker," Professor Zizana says, suddenly standing behind you and Mana, "if you are confident you cast a spell correctly, check your surroundings for other factors first instead of instantly trying to cast it stronger."

"Other fact--" Amelia starts to ask but then glares at Harmony, "A shield! You were cheating?!"

"Professor!" Harmony exclaims as she ignores Amelia's accusation and focuses on the grim-faced elven, "This spell cannot POSSIBLY be appropriate for this exercise!"

"Normally, no," Zizana replies, "However, it IS true that you might be caught in a situation where you are... unprepared while being observed."

The Professor then looks over her shoulder at the rest of the class. "Back to your own tasks!"

Said rest of class, save for you and Mana, do just that. The only reason you and your partner remain watching is because Zizana places a hand on each of your shoulders, stopping you in your tracks. Harmony's eyes widen in horror as her cheeks turn red, realizing what the teacher is telling her to do.

"But...!" Harmony starts to protest before Zizana gives her a VERY meaningful look.

"You are an Ashcroft. Is not whining beneath you?"

Harmony briefly chews her lower lip before nodding and crouching down to pick up her wand. Her eyes dart nervously between you and the other three watching her as she stands back up, hesitantly pulling one of her arms away from her chest to aim at the target. This leaves her with only one arm pressed against her bra-clad breasts to keep them covered, which actually squashes them inwards a bit and makes her cleavage stand out that much more noticeably. Her hand is quivering, her face red with embarrassment and... possibly something else, given how you notice her briefly rubbing her thighs together whenever her gaze lands on you. She can barely whisper out the word, "Illumibolt."

The trembling does make her shot unsteady but it still just barely manages to hit the corner of the bullseye. Amelia clicks her tongue in annoyance, obviously having hoped that it would have at least taken more than one shot for Harmony to regain the light grasp on confidence she still had.

"Good," Professor Zizana says with a curt nod, "Switch."

She removes her hands from yours and Mana's shoulders. "You two. Back to your target."

Listening to your teacher's instructions, you resume your own struggles. Fortunately, now that you know what you are dealing with, you are able to aim slightly off center and when the sneeze hits, your arm jerks in the right direction and you successfully hit the target.

"Nice," Mana says as she dispells her curse, "Guess it's my turn."

As you switch positions, you ask, "Hey, did Artie say anything about what Professor Dove wanted him for when he got back? I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet since then."

You know he probably did not tell Mana the truth, if he talked about it at all, but you are curious to see what story he might have given if he did.

Mana grunts, her face growing worried. "Not really. All he said was the Professor had been angry but not at him and she even promised to keep helping him with this whole... thing."

Dove WAS certainly helping Artie with a "thing" of his from what you saw, but you hold your tongue on that.

"Honestly, I'm more worried about Professor Dove," Mana says, "She's been acting weird ever since everything with Parisa happened. Really frazzled, y'know? Trying to deal with that, the accusations against Artie, there's rumors she had a BIG argument with a Phoenix House kid recently, and I also hear one of the other teachers has been trying to convince Hallgrave to give them her position."

"That does sound really... frazzling," you agree as you ponder what curse to cast on Mana.

"What's even weirder is that as bad as she looked when she interrupted us, she was suddenly all giddy and relaxed the next morning," Mana says, "Like when Molly got into the medical herbs when she didn't really need them."

Dove certainly got into SOMETHING the previous night from what you saw, but you again hold your tongue on that.

After another few seconds, you know what you are going to cast: A little something you read that said it would simulate the feel of an ice cube being run up and down your spine. You prepare to cast your spell but you hear a sudden exclamation from Amelia and look back over.