Defence Aganst the Dark Arts Class.

[king_of_flirts]

Jack Harkness was supposed to be teaching the class, if anyone knew who he was they'd be in for a bit of a shock because Jack wasn't going to be actually taking his first lesson. Nope. That joyful challenge fell to one Doctor Owen Harper. Who, when had been told this great news by Jack spent the next half hour swearing at him and stomping about the

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[maid_brienne]

Defense Against the Dark Arts was actually the kind of class Brienne would regularly have attended, had classes been something people did regularly in the first place. After all, combative magics would prove useful, if she could get them to work back home.

She'd listened to the lecture raptly. She hadn't taken notes, but she'd hung on the professor's every word. And, the pixies having been released, she stood up, scowling in fierce concentration (a look that did not do her appearance any particular favors), and set to stunning pixies. This required her to tune out the rest of the people in the class, which was good because some of them did not seem to be much interested in actual studying. To her surprise, she was actually good at this activity, and within a few moments she actually began to enjoy herself.

[superfraternal]

Simon had been listening and taking notes. He just didn't have a Hogwarts-style wand yet, so he considered himself to be auditing this course rather than taking it for credit.

Brienne was one of the few people here he recognized (he also recognized Wishbone the talking dog, and hoped to stay well away from that confusing canine). Simon watched her dispatch pixies with aplomb. A soft and amazed grin spread over his face.

"Wow." (Okay, it was the Chinese equivalent of wow, but the mun doesn't know Mandarin and doesn't trust fan sites.) "You're really good with that, Brienne."

[maid_brienne]

Brienne flashed Simon one of her quicksilver smiles. She was honestly glad to see him, since it meant she actually knew someone in the class. "It's mostly reflexes," she admitted, dispatching another pixie with a quick flick of her wrist. Then she offered Simon her wand. "Do you want to try?" she asked.

[superfraternal]

Simon coughed. "I think it'd stretch credibility for me to be able to do that kind of magic right away," he suggested. "I mean, I've only just gotten here and I've never taken any magic classes before ..."

Then he realized, as ever, too late; now I'm going to look like a coward to her.

"But I might as well try ... that's what classes are for." He took the wand with a grip whose firmness might be somewhat surprising given his less-than-forceful manner. "Here goes nothing. Stupefy!"

A pixie stopped in mid-flight. For a moment Simon thought incredulously I've done it. On my very first try I've performed a magic spell. I've --

Then the pixie stuck its tongue out at him.

Apparently it had frozen not in stupefaction, but in surprise at Simon's effrontery.

[maid_brienne]

Brienne fixed the pixie with a fulminating glare which seemed to have no effect whatsoever.

"That was a good try," she said stoutly. "And you might as well start somewhere with learning spells, right?" She waited for him to make another attempt.

[superfraternal]

Simon glanced from the pixie to Brienne. "Ah... is there a procedure I should be following? Besides pointing a stick and saying the magic word? Is magic a state of mind?" He was grasping at straws here, and he knew it.

[maid_brienne]

That was entirely too deep for Brienne. "Yes," she said. "I suppose it is. I think you have to really want the pixies stunned or it won't work. I've been trying to picture people I dislike in my head when I cast the spell. It seems to help."

[superfraternal]

"That doesn't seem fair to the pixies," Simon demurred, looking doubtful.

[maid_brienne]

"I suppose not," Brienne conceded. "But they're not exactly the sort of creatures you'd want to deal with for longer than you have to." She glanced over at where some of the pixies were harassing poor Mikami.

[superfraternal]

Simon followed her gaze and winced for Mikami's sake. "Point taken." Clearing his throat, he aimed the borrowed wand at another pixie -- one not perilously entangled in anyone's hair. It was an innocent bystander pixie, he thought. Gorram it, stop feeling sorry for the pixies, Simon.

"Stupefy?"

Simon shook his head as the pixie flitted away. "I guess I'm just not cut out for -- look out!"

The pixie had apparently not flitted away, but had rather been backing up in preparation for a revengeful attack. It flew straight at Simon and Brienne with all the determination of a kamikaze pilot.

Simon gritted out something in Mandarin and moved quickly. "Stupefy!"

This time the pixie dropped like a stone. About six inches away from where Simon was standing.

Wide-eyed, he stared down at it.

[maid_brienne]

Had Brienne had any sort of girlie impulses whatsoever, she would have clapped her hands, maybe done a little victory dance, or otherwise comported herself in a less than stoic manner. But she wasn't that sort of person, so she merely grinned. "You did it!" she exclaimed gleefully, reaching out as if she meant to give him a hearty back slap. (Nobody had yet taught her about the high five, which would have been a useful thing to know.) But she drew her hand back almost immediately, because she really wasn't good at this sort of thing and really, really didn't want to make things awkward, since they really hadn't been, up to this point.

[superfraternal]

Simon continued to stare at the fallen and frozen pixie. "I did, didn't I?" He sounded mostly disbelieving, and a little unsettled. "Well, it was in self-defense."

[maid_brienne]

"Yes, it was," Brienne said emphatically. "And at least now you know that you could use that spell should you ever have need of it." Not that she saw much of a need for stunning anyone here at Hogwarts, but it was the principle of the thing.

This time she did manage to extend her hand. "I'll take my wand back now, if you think that's enough pixie-stunning for one day," she made bold to lightly tease.

[superfraternal]

"More than enough for one day," Simon agreed wholeheartedly. He handed over the wand with a tentative smile. "I guess I'll have to get one of my own." He meant the wand.

[maid_brienne]

Brienne took back her wand and revived the pixie, which flitted away to go bother someone else. "I think you can get wands in the village," she said. "I just kept one from the last time I attended an actual class." Mostly because the mun was too lazy/disinterested to write an acquiring-wands RP. "Did you find anything interesting in the library?" she asked, referring to their last meeting.

[superfraternal]

It took a moment for Simon to realize this was a segue to discussing their prior meeting. "Oh! I found the library itself interesting. It'll be an invaluable resource," he offered, somewhat vaguely. There were so many things he'd been looking for, he couldn't possibly cover all that ground in one day, and it'd be hard to sum it all up in conversation for that matter. "Thanks again for showing me the way."