"Not so much, but you'll get it if you keep trying." It was a nice and basic stinging hex after all. Jim grinned as he watched, there was already a difference in Spike's focus.

"Hi." He agreed and raised one eyebrow. "So you wanna work on a stinging hex with me or head over to Simon," He pointed at the Gryffie Quidditch Captain, "And work on some defense?"

"Have fun with that." Jim didn't mind. People could do what they wanted, so long as they were participating somehow.

It was good seeing how dedicated they all were. Jim nodded. "Good pronunciation too. Relax your grip just a little bit, it'll help make it feel a bit more natural. Your wand is like an extension of you, its a tool sure, but it should feel natural to use it and if you grip it too tightly, then part of you will be distracted by how it feels in your hand."

"Hey good work. You wanna try it on me?" Brave Jim. "I'll tell you how much it stings hehe." He held out his arm, sleeve rolled up. When it hit they'd be able to SEE his skin get all red too.


"Give it a go."

Spike gave a little nod, feeling more confident as he caught sight of Jimmy's grin. He would have this sussed by the end of this session.

"Er-ti-kate!" bamBAM.

His eyes widened. Nothing had happened to the dummy that he could see, but he'd felt something. He couldn't really explain it. Almost like an electric tickly feeling...through his arm and down his wand. Was that proper magic? It certainly felt more that just waving a stick around any old how. Like it had a purpose. A smile crept across his lips.

Sneaking a glance to Jimmy, he saw the older boy offer to be practiced on. That was an awesome thing to do. That was why Jimmy was one of his heroes. Because he did awesome stuff like that. And although Spike didn't want to practice on Jimmy, he did want to get his spell to the stage where it'd leave a decent mark on the skin and hurt if he needed it to. And so he could see he'd done something properly.

He thought about that feeling he'd had before, and then seeing a sore red rash on skin. He held his wand comfortably in his left hand, and then looked at the dummy.

"Er-ti-kate!" bamBAM.

His face lit up, as he saw it hit the dummy. Not all that strongly, and not precisely where he was aiming, but it was still a hit. He gave himself a little clap.

Now to get it good enough to show Jimmy. So it might actually be considered an offensive spell, and not just a slight nuisance for a couple of seconds.

Jimmy... Lexi was looking for Jimmy more than anyone else. With a roll of parchment in her hand and a self inking quill tucked behind her ear she wandered into the classroom and cast a glance around. AH! There he was. Heheh.

Gliding through the room being sure to stay out of the way of any stray spells and whatnot she observed the kiddos learning Defense stuff. Cute.

"Hey Jim! Whatchu teaching everyone, Professor Wilkes?" she asked with a cheeky grin. She knew how much Jim loathed that people knew he could do stuff. Hehehe. Pulling the quill from behind her ear she poised herself to jot some notes down. MHM. Yearbook stuff for the win.

Aurora nodded, "Right, looser grip, 'kay," she threw her wand in the air and caught it again. I'm so glad that worked. she thought to herself, she'd been practicing that for ages. Then she looked around, good, no-one had seen her showing off. She didn't want to come across as an absolute narcissist. "Urticate!" she crossed her wand as she said. Zing. A wisp left her wand and the cross on the dummy darkened. She jumped up, smiling. "Yes!" she shouted, clapping a little.

Nika looked at Jim with her mouth agape. What?! Try it on him? Nika raised an eyebrow worriedly. "Are-are you sure?" Won't it hurt him!?

BamBAM. Jimmy didn't comment, but he had seen.

Uh huh.

Jim turned and made a rude gesture at miss Denver.

But... well...

"Just working on some offensive spells right now, starting with a stinging hex, urticate, the nettle hex."

What was with the mini-applause? First Spike and now this one. Jim grinned. She was pretty fast though, that was good.

"I'm sure. Don't worry. Me manly man." He beat on his chest and then stretched his arm out again. "It'll hurt a bit, but you know, this way I can give you an idea of how much you're doing and you can see what its like to cast on someone and this IS relatively harmless, no long term damage. I can handle it, I'm promising you."

Yep. He was ready for her to try it out. Arm was ready to be a target.

"James Wilkes! I never! You ought not to make such gestures to a LADY ya know," she said with a smirk. And followed it up with a burp. Heh.

Right. Urticate. Good deal. "And how are things going, in your opinion? Better than letting kids out to fend for themselves trying to learn on their own or not learn at all?" she asked as she tickled at his nose with the end of her quill. Hehehe.

Nika raised her wand reluctantly. She didn't want to hurt the guy, but he told her to do it. She took a deep breath and looked at him again with a raised eyebrow, just to be safe. "Um here I go." She closed one eye as she looked at his arm, "Er-tick-ate!"

Aurora walked closer to the dummy and inspected the mark. It wasn't so mug burned onto it as burned out. As though the hex had stung all the colour from the dummy. That's pretty cool. Aurora thought to herself. Then she stood back again and tried again. Concentration: check. Pronunciation: check. Wand movement: check. Loose grip: check. She took another breath and held her wand in front of her. "Urticate." she let out the breath as she said the spell and felt it leave her wand. She saw it hit the dummy; not quite where she had been aiming but she was getting the hang of it. She grinned to herself, she had been worried that she'd find the DADA stuff as difficult as flying or arithmancy but she seemed to be getting there with it. She wondered how painful the hex was, it didn't look particularly pleasant. Note to self: try it on Kryspin... when out of hospital... her face fell, she had been trying not to think about her brother and now she did she felt guilty. She tried (badly) to avoid looking miserable and reminded herself that she was getting good at this whole not-home-school thing and that he would be proud of her. Maybe.

Hm. Tough choice but she'd rather learn few offensive spells first. "I'd like to work on offense for a while." Viola tried not to look too excited. But, the idea of getting to learn new spells was making her a little hyper. "I'm not sure if I've introduced myself before but I'm Viola." She took a deep breath and coontinued, "And, thanks." Yeah, it was nice of him to offer to teach her a few spells.

He glanced at her, one eyebrow going up at the questions.

... was she interviewing him?

... for his vair own publication?

Jimmy gave her a daaaazzling smile.


"Things are going pretty well, these guys here," Most of whom we're TINY in Jim's opinion, being no older than third year, "Are pretty hungry to learn, and its hardly fair not to help them do that."

Jim kept his eyes open, being careful not to flinch preemptively. The spell hit him, but not too hard; his skin had a faint pink mark. James wrinkled his nose. "That was... uncomfortable. I didn't die though, so maybe try it again with a little more.... oomph." Or bamBAM if she preferred. He stretched his arm out again.

He watched Aurora as closely as he was able considering Jimmy was being a bit of a human target. He grinned when he saw her make another hit, to him it looked good, and he didn't know it wasn't quite where she'd aimed of course.

Jim gave her a thumbs up.

"Sure. Nice to meet you, Viola." Probably. That was the sort of thing you were supposed to say at least.

Maybe secretly Jim didn't mind doing this for the younger kids after all.

"And its no problem. We're working on a stinging hex, the nettle stinging hex. The incantation is Urticate and the wand movement is a crossing x shape." He didn't demonstrate, considering he was waiting for Nika to cast at his arm again.

"So maybe watch what these guys do, and then give it a go. Practice pronouncing the incantation first, then the wand movement seperately, and then put it together and see if you can make one of those dummies squeak."

... not literally squeak. But, hit the dummy.

Oooh look at that PRETTTTTY smile. It made her want to hug him. Hehe. Yeah right. Pffffft. She did smile right back at him as she jotted some things down.

"Awesome, Jim. I shall quote you... Hey if you want I could show them the proper way to cast that hex... on you perhaps," she said with an eyebrow wiggle for his benefit. Little did he know, Lexi had skills now that she hadn't had before. Hehehe.

Finlay had been wandering through the castle, down by the defence room, considering whether he wanted to go in there, and like practice some hitting or something. But when he got down there, he got distracted by someone talking in the other room. Finlay knew that voice very well, even though he hadn't heard it in a long time. Mmm. He decided against going into the main defense room, and instead stepped into the other one, watching Jimmy for a second. He seemed to be teaching. But Finlay had a feeling that he probably wouldn't be welcome at all. Hmm. But Lexi was here too. So that would kind of help right?

"Hey guys..." He spoke, as he wandered over to them. This was going to be interesting. "Mind if I join you?"

Walking through the corridor, Desmond stuffed his hands in his pockets and whistled. Nothing like a lonely walk down another deserted corridor. Its all he seemed to be doing now a days. It almost surprised him when he heard voices in a classroom up ahead.

Getting curious, Desmond walked a little faster. When he got close, he slowed down and stuck his head around the corner. "Um... hey?" he said in more of a question then a statement. This was one of the abandoned classrooms. What were these students doing in here?

Aiden who was practising the Shield Charm when she saw the older Slytherin stucked his head in. "Hello," responded Aiden, wand still drawn. She has no idea what else to respond, but it should be polite to greet back, isn't it?

Simon watched as his group all tried their hands at the relatively simple spell. He couldn't help smiling as they seemed to be handling themselves quite well including the youngest of the bunch. He nodded as they went one on one with the dummy. "Very good."

"You're welcome," Simon returned to the girl as she thanked him for his assistance on the spell pronunciation. When it was her turn, the seventh year watched with concentration, glad to see she had gotten the hang of it. "Good job," he said as Aiden moved to let the next student go.

"Don't worry...it wont hurt. Its more for appearance," he assured the Ravenclaw as he ducked the first time around for the dummy. Simon watched the boy try to relax and focus, smiling as the shield appeared the second time. "Good job."

Seeing the girl miss her mark the first time, Simon frowned but not out of disappointment. For it was understandable for some to not be able to do it at first, they couldn't all be perfect. The captain walked closer as she practiced off to the side. "Anything I can help with?" he asked seeing as it had seemed to be done well enough.

Simon turned hearing a new voice and spotted a boy sticking his head into the classroom seemingly confused and curious at the same time. Which was understandable seeing as they weren't making their lessons too wildly known and most would expect this classroom to still be empty like it usually was in past years.

"Hello...come on in," he greeted in return motioning for him to walk in further. "We're working on learning defensive and offensive spells if you'd like to join us."

Spike was in the zone. Or the closest he'd probably ever come to it when learning something new about something other than critters, creatures, plants or Quidditch. He fired down spells at the dummy, a few wobbly bad ones here and there, but on the whole getting better. A couple had even made an obvious impact. He turned to have a break, and to see where Jimmy had got to (as in, how much extra practice he might have til the older boy saw his efforts), when Spike saw someone he hadn't ever expected to be here.

His eyes widened, as Finn went over and spoke to Jimmy. Had they made up? And Spike didn't know about it? He pursed his lips together, a curiousity in his blue eyes.

Perfecting urticate (bamBAM) was momentarily forgotten...

Presley sighed. "I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I can't seem to get it," she admitted dejectedly. She was saying it right, she was mimicking the other people's wand movements precisely. But for some reason the spell wasn't working for Presley. Simon offered to help, but Presley couldn't see how he could, if she didn't even know what the problem was. Perhaps she didn't have motivation enough to block a ray of light that wasn't going to hurt her? She voiced her opinion to the instructor. "Maybe I just don't have enough motivation." Not that Presley wanted hexes fired at her, but it might help some.

Selina walked into the DADA practice room. With a lack of a Professor this term, Borr was exactly like hi sname a bore, she came in from time to time to hone in on her skills. Upon entering the room she saw Simon Bennett helping a ton of students. Her first feeling was to panic and run out the door, but then she remembered that they were friends now and she could approach him. Approaching him would be still difficult, because of her crush, but after seeing him on the beach with Jacob a lot of the sparkle in her eye for him had dissipated. He was just Simon and she respected him, but a lot of his allure was gone. So she leaned up against the door and said, "Hey there, what's going on here?"

Coming into the classroom a little farther and resting against the door frame, Desmond looked around. The lot was all practicing spells and what not. This was quite a little surprise. "Spells? Incantations?" he thought to himself a smile emerging on his handsome face. This was a little rebellious act. And he could enjoy it.

"Well what are you all practicing now?" he asked with mild interest crossing his arms across his chest and looking from student to student. All different but all, sorta talented. He'd have to see where this led him.

Luna heard about this DADA group and thought it was a pretty good idea she walked into the empty classroom and looked around it looked good ''Hi!'' said Luna

Aurora returned Jimmy's thumbs up, wiped the worry off her face and plastered on a wide smile. She dug into her pockets for something to use to mark the dummy. Jelly babies... A small phial of plant food... A few knuts... Some dried mealworms... A little sparkly thing... AHA! The stub of a pencil! She made a faint cross in the dummy and stepped back.

She held her wand in front of her and tried to hit it. "Urticate!" she missed. She tried again. And again. And again. Eventually she managed to get within three inches of her target. "Arghhh!!! So close!" she frowned and sighed in frustration, popping a jelly baby into her mouth.

Aiden lowers her wand, slightly panting. She has been casting the Shield Charm non-stop. "Well, if you want to learn the Shield Charm, you could ask Captain Bennett for help. If you want to learn the Stinging Hex, you can go to that group over there," she points towards the other group whose members are practising offensive spells. Then, she turns around at another new member.

"Hello," greeted Aiden briefly. She is not good at communicating, but a simple hello should do it, right?

''So what spells are you doing?'' asked Luna she wasn't listening when she was talking another new member

Nika truly hoped that it didn't hurt too bad. She opened her eyes a bit wider as she looked at his arm. When she saw the pink mark her eyes opened as wide as they can go and they were filled with a look of concern. Oh my.

Wait Jim-say-what-now!?

he's asking her to do it again because he didn't die!? Does this mean that he wants her to do it hard enough so he does die!? Oh my Merlin, as if it wasn't hard enough to do it to his arm the first time. Now he wants her to do it again.

Nika took in a deep breath as she held out her wand again and looked at the target, which in this case was jim's ARM!! Now all she needed to do was add a little more "oomph", but what if she didn't want to add more oomph!? Right. Deep breath. "Er-tick-ate!"