Hogwarts Is Where The Heart Is

Chapter 28

The Christmas holidays ended and school returned to normal. Or as normal as Hogwarts got. However, there was a new addition for Genevieve. She now had private lessons with Professor Hecat.

"Now I've managed to alter the arrangement of your extra assignments. I shall be solely in charge of them now and these extra sessions will cover those spells as well as some... additional material," her Professor explained. Genevieve couldn't help but smile a bit at her professor's clever nature.

"So, you're using the excuse of combining all the extra assignments as a smokescreen to cover what we're primarily up to?" Hecat shrugged.

"Well, it's not entirely a lie. Some of these spells your classmates may have already covered while others are more advanced."

"I'm ready," said Genevieve. "I don't want to come off quite so badly in the next trial."

"And we don't want to give Professor Fig a heart attack," added Hecat. "Now, I'd like to teach you a variation on Protego and Incendio and I also have a few new spells for us to go over today so let's get to work."

They started with teaching Genevieve an enhanced version of the shield charm. It lasted far longer against attacks and in its strongest form (though she had yet to master this) could in fact disintegrate things that tried to pass through it. The second was Incendio tria which shot a ring of flames out from around Genevieve and was apparently good at getting you some breathing room. Though as Hecat put it,

"You should try NOT to roast your allies with it." Genevieve picked up this one rather quickly and they moved on to the new curriculum.

"The first spell is the binding spell incarcerous. Very good for tying up enemies." Genevieve remembered Evelyn and Professor Fig using them. She readied her wand at the dummy.

"Incarcerous!" embarrassingly thin ropes flew from her wand, then loosely wrapping around the dummy before sliding to the floor in a coil.

"Those wouldn't hold a mooncalf let alone a goblin or a dark wizard." Genevieve said scoffing at her own attempt.

"Try again and focus more on the quality of what you want to achieve," suggested Hecat patiently Genevieve tried several more times the ropes becoming progressively thicker and tighter until at last the dummy was bound fast.

"Well that one certainly isn't going anywhere." Genevieve laughed at the quip.

"What next?" she asked eagerly.

"Obscuro, it blindfolds your target which may not seem as impressive as fire or sending them flying but..." she trailed off clearly waiting to see if Genevieve would pick up.

"But it provides a distraction. Not only does it disorient your enemy given the sudden shock of losing their sight but they'd need to pause their attack to remove the blindfold giving you a split second advantage?"

"Precisely," said Hecat, sounding satisfied. "And it works well against both magic and non-magic wielding enemies. Try the dummy." Genevieve complied and after a few attempts that created slightly flimsy cloths, conjuration was not her strong suit, she managed to consistently produce a thick black blindfold over the dummy.

"Excellent. Now this last one I don't want you bringing into anything other than a real life duel." Hecat's voice was deadly serious. "The only thing I want you practicing that spell on is the dummy NOT your classmates. No matter how irritating."

"Understood," said Genevieve.

"Diffindo is the severing spell and it can to a great deal of damage particularly if you aim for the vulnerable areas of the body, the depth of the slice depends on the power of the spell, combined with immobilizing spells, such as glacius or arresto momentum which we covered before break, you can get in a great deal of damage before your enemy attacks again crippling them." Hecat paused.