Cassie had her wand stuck in her hair actually holding her hair up as she listened to Simon's explanation. She tried her best to get into class frame of mind and not let her mind stray too far or she would probably just end up missing everything that he said.

Of course her initial reaction was to join James' group but then yeah, she figured she needed to practice some defensive spells since the offensive ones would probably come more natural. Casting a quick look in Jim's direction, she finally focused her attention on Simon.

She frowned slightly as Simon instructed that they practiced without wands. She figured that would look quite silly and proceeded to just repeat the spell's pronunciation over and over in her head. The wand motion was after all simple enough.