Adam turned at the sound of the door opening, smiling when he saw that it was Louisa and that she had managed to successfully make it in. He was getting a tad bit nervous since she was a few minutes later than she said she was going to be, but no worries. He responded to her playful punch by giving her a little one back, before admiring the room along with her. He hadn't really thought of himself as a teacher, but considering he was going to instruct her on self defense he figured that automatically had him fit into the role.

"Intimidating but very, very useful," Adam said with a thoughtful nod.

Adam was about to make another comment when Louisa asked him about her outfit. "It's perfect," Adam said with a smile, not really sure if that was what she was looking for or not. It was after all the perfect outfit to be kicking and punching stuff in and that was what they were here for right? Besides Louisa didn't really ask him what he thought of her outfits in a fashion sense, so he was sure that that was what she meant. And he was just going to keep that fact that she looked pretty in the laid back attire to himself. Cough.

"Well I figured we could start with some basic punching on the punching bag, and once you get the hang there, we can move onto the actual body mannequin. How does that sound?"

Very useful. Pfft, sure that was his idea of a martial arts gym room. Or whatever it was called in professional tongue. Heh. Louisa rolled her eyes at his 'perfect' answer, though. He was a boy, she forgot that they didn't really care about outfits. Well, moving on.

Punching the bags first. Louisa snorted, "I know how to punch those bags," she pushed one with her hand- or well, tried to push one but she manager only to stir it with her clumsy stick hand. Her eyebrows furrowed, "Wow. They're... heavy and... real. Do they put concrete in them?" Louisa put her both hands on the bag and started feeling it up. Nope, it wasn't concrete. Well, what was inside the bag then?! She knocked on it and pasted her ear hard against the surface. Knock knock. She might determine the substance of the fillings by the echo of the sou-

Ooh.

Suppressing a blush, she retreated, "Uhh... sorry. Not gonna be the nerdy Ravenclaw again. Okay, so.. I'll go with whatever you think is right." She grinned at the boy. He was the teacher so she was going to obey him no matter what.

Adam tried to suppress a chuckle as Louisa confidently stated that she knew how to punch a punching bag already, while only managing to move the bag an inch at most. Unfortunately Adam's attempt to keep the smile off of his face completely gone as he watched Louisa desperately trying to figure out what exactly the punching bag was composed of. In all honesty though Adam had no idea and had never really thought that much in to it. "Alright Miss Ravenclaw are you ready to get started?" Adam asked with a little chuckle, grabbing a hold of the punching bag to steady it slightly.

"Now, an important thing to keep in mind is that whatever arm you aren't punching with you want to use to guard your face." To demonstrate what Adam meant he lifted his arm so that it was bent at a ninety degree angle, his fist right next to his cheek. "So if I am punching with my right hand, which you will if your a righty, then your left hand needs to be up and guarding your face. Go ahead and give it a try," Adam offered, stepping back to give her some space.

Grinning and moving away from the punching bag, Louisa started hopping in her place. Being sporty and ready to kick some butts. "Aye aye!" Or was this pirate-y lingo? Oh well. She didn't know any ninja lingo so... yeah. Ahem. Her mind HAD to stop drifting away and fuss over those stuff, she concentrated again, waddling on the floor with no more hopping.

"Ah.. okay.." Louisa replied after Adam demonstrating for her. She lifted her left fist and settled it close to her jaw, and the right fist was raised too but not as high. Was she supposed to curl her left hand as a fist though?

"And? I just shoot my right hand into the target's face?" Smirking as she said so.

Jez laughed at the castle. "Seriously?! My friend has made an understatement, it's very cool!" She had a sudden thought. "Hey, you don't mind us jumping on you or anything, right?"
A nervous laugh came from the bouncy castle. "No, not at all. Although ... please take off your shoes, I don't want to get a puncture."
Jez glanced down at her feet and saw she was still wearing her scuffed white-turned-grey trainers that didn't go with the pretty blue dress at all. "Oops, sorry!" She pulled off her shoes and threw them next to Nate and Pam's. "So ... you must have a pretty boring existence here. Being a large bouncy castle and all."
The castle seemed to deflate slightly. "Oh yes," it sniffed, although Jez wasn't quite sure where its mouth was. "Someone dumped me in the Room of Lost Things back in 2036, and nobody's gotten me out since! You three are the first bouncers I've had in ages ..." It sniffled, despite not seeming to have a nose either.
"Merlin's beard don't cry," said Jez hurriedly. "Or you'll turn into a swimming castle instead." Not strictly true, but whatever. She wished inside her head for a few tissues and hurriedly mopped up a few drops that had leaked out of the castle's side with the box of tissues that appeared in her hand. She looked at her friends. What are we going to do about it? she mouthed, nodding at the castle. They couldn't leave it all alone again.

Nate shook his head at Jez, giving a small shrug. No clue! he mouthed back, looking over at Pam. Any ideas? Well, this was tough. Not only was this a very large bouncy castle, but it was apparently sentient, and it was of the Room--which meant that it couldn't leave the Room. Nate racked his brain, all the while bouncing up and down, because that seemed to make the castle feel better. "I've got it!" he suddenly burst, doing a flip off of the front of the bouncy castle and sticking the landing right next to Jez. "It seems lonely," he whispered, "So let's give it company. Watch..." Nate closed his eyes and wished hard, not opening them until he heard a sharp crack.
"Master wishes to speak to me?" asked the house elf that stood before the three.
"Of course! What's your name?" Nate politely inquired.
"Poppy, sir," she answered.
"Poppy? Well, can I ask something of you? Our friend here needs some company, and we can't stay here with her. Can you stay here and play with her?" Nate said gently, pointing towards the bouncy castle.
"Yes, yes, of course!" the elf said excitedly as she ran over and began jumping on the inflated structure. She seemed to be truly enjoying herself, not even fearing the possibility of punishment. Of course, Nate had done his best to eliminate that possibility, but, as a house elf, Poppy could never get too comfortable.

Pam smiled at the house elf, climbing off before she got on. Looking over at Nate she said, "Clever thinking there." Noticing the music was gone, she racked her brain for another song. Flicking her wand she said "Nova Musica." As Fences, by Paramore came on, Pam started dancing in time to the music.

"Thanks, Pam," Nate said, getting back up onto the bouncy castle. "Poppy, do you mind if I jump as well?"
The elf didn't even pause in her jumping as she squeaked, "Of course, Master Nate!"
"Brilliant," Nate quietly said, gaining more and more height with each jump. Occasionally, he and Poppy would cross paths, with the elf either flip-flopping over him, or diving underneath him. "Come on, you two, this is fun!" he called to Jez and Pam, who were still sitting down on the stone floor. That didn't look like nearly as much fun.

Suddenly, after a few minus of uninterrupted jumping, the bouncy castle decided to help out Nate and Poppy with their air time. "Wuaagh!" Nate cried out in shock as he was launched through the air and off of the bouncy castle, landing hard on the same mat that Jez had wished for earlier. Despite his own personal well-being, Nate could tell that something wasn't right. His pocket felt loose. Frantically, he pulled out his wand to find that it was snapped cleanly above the handle, the shaft of the wand dangling from a thin piece of dragon heartstring that resided within the wand. "Erm, guys!" he yelled, "My wand!" He would have shown them, but he couldn't move. That wand was his protection, his weapon, his security. And now, it was dead.

Pam watched as Nate flew through the air, and onto a mat. "Nate, are you alright?" She said, rushing over. Once he started speaking, she let out a sigh of relief. As he spoke, her heart sank. Without a wand, Nate couldn't do much. He was only twelve after all. "It's alright. You can always get another. And maybe you'll be more careful with it." Pam sighed. She knew losing ones wand was like losing a friend. It's hard to gain that same hole back.

"Yeah," Nate said, still a little shocked, "Maybe I will. I need to go to Ollivander's in Hogsmeade." No sooner had Nate said this than an archway to a tunnel opened up in the wall in front of him. With his holly wand clasped tightly in his hand, he sprinted towards the opening, again becoming conscious of the money in his pocket. He kept it for occasions like this--you never knew when something might happen. "I'll be back!" he called, his voice echoing off of the narrow stone passageway and into the Room.
_____

About ten minutes later, Nate came brightly back into the Room of Requirement, a wand box in hand. His old wand was still in his right hand, where it had been when he left. "I've got it!" he said. "My new wand! Come here, check it out!" He knelt down in front of Jez and Pam, setting the brown, leathery box down on the ground in front of him, his broken wand pieces next to it. "So, here we are..." he started, taking the top slowly off of the box to reveal the ribbons that concealed the actual wand. "My first wand was holly and dragon heartstring, fifteen inches. This new one..." he slowly pulled back the ribbons to reveal the wand itself, "...Has a mahogany shaft, a wenge handle, and a core of raven feather. Fourteen inches." And it was awesome. He couldn't help but try it out. A single dummy appeared behind him, its single wheel squeaking loud enough to take Nate's attention. "Incendio!" he yelled, sending the spell flying at the dummy, resulting in a fireball of a dummy. "Flippendo!" he finished, knocking the smoldering ruins into the stone wall. This wand felt even more powerful in his hand than the last one. "Lovely..." he mused, rolling the wand over in his fingertips.

(OOC: I did this on account of me actually breaking my own wand, and my replacing of it with a replica Harry wand. It is, indeed, awesome by the way.)

Pam was glad Nate had a new wand. It was going to be hard to get by without one. Pam leaned back just as Nate started casting spells. She turned to him, a playful, yet serious, glare in her eyes. "Nathaniel Stone. If you turn this into a duel.." She trailed off. What could she do? She could leave. But that wouldn't make a difference. They could get along without her. Sometimes she thought Jared was right.

Shaking her head, she got up. "No dummies." As soon as she said that, the blown up dummy vanished. "I'm glad you got a new wand, but can you please put it away?"

The house-elf frankly didn't surprise Jez at all. She hardly noticed them anyway, since she'd grown up surrounded by the little creatures. So maybe she disregarded Poppy a little. She was a whole lot more concerned with Nate's wand, and extremely curious about the secret passage he'd gone through. Keegan hadn't told her about that one, and he prided himself on knowing all the passages in Hogwarts, blocked or not. She made a mental note to check it out later.

Jez had her wand out as Nate started on that dummy, the fiery glint that only duelling could produce sparkling in her eyes. A dummy appeared in front of her as well, and just because she could, it was wearing a rainbow afro and chicken suit. "Everte Statum!" she yelled, using the spell she'd cast on Jared in Diagon Alley. She mentally reprimanded herself. She couldn't let it become her signature spell or she'd get predictable.

Jez heard Pam's protests against a duel, and felt a momentary stab of annoyance. She quickly squashed it, shrugging. "Okay." She turned on the dummy, trying to decided the best fate for it. A smile of pure evil crossed her face. "Colloshoo! Petrificus Totalus!" The dummy became as rigid as a board but didn't fall over because of the sticking charm on its feet. Jez grinned, going over and patting it. The dummy seemed to glare at her, unable to spark her because it was frozen in place. That just made Jez's smile widen.

Nate watched, unimpressed, as Jez blasted a few dummies. "Erm, Jez? Didn't you say that this was going to be a non-magic party?" he accused, tapping his foot off of the stone floor. "Predictable, though..." he muttered, going back over to the bouncy castle, but this time leaving his new wand inside his shoes. Naturally, this was when he first realized that all the while he was walking that passageway, and buying his new wand, he didn't have any shoes on. Oh well!

Adam couldn't help but chuckle as Louisa said Aye, Aye! Well...he supposed even pirates could benefit from knowing a bit of self-defense, even if their main defense method of choice were swords. But...anyway...Adam was letting his mind go way too far off the topic of hand. Clearing his throat slightly Adam looked at Louisa in her stance and nodded. "Good, good," Adam said with an encouraging smile. "Now, you will want to make sure that your hands in curled into proper fists," Adam said, demonstrating with his own fist. "Once you have your fist nice and firm you can start to punch. Now for starters we'll start with the simplest punching form which is called a jab. What you do is square yourself with the punching bag," Adam said, demonstrating as he did so, "Keep your guard by your face, and give a firm punching motion, keeping your arm straight as you follow through with the punch, and making sure that your punch stays at chest level."

In case Adam was confused, since sometimes this was a lot to handle, Adam demonstrated on the punching back in front of him, giving the thing a thorough jab so that the punching bag slid along the wire it was hanging on until it stopped about ten feet away from them. Walking over Adam grabbed the punching bag and dragged it back along the wire. "Wanna give it a go?" Adam asked.

Louisa stepped to the side a bit, letting her fists fall to her sides as Adam continued to explain and demonstrate. Her mind was really focused on the training first, especially when it was merely theoretical. But when he moved his fists and jabbed the punching bag, her eyes moved to his arms and then her heart... skipped a beat. It was a huge relief when he went over and grabbed the bag, though. Because she needed some moment to shake the blushing away and take a deeeeeep breath.

She had a boyfriend. A handsome one too.

Ahem.

"'kay.." she avoided Adam's eyes as she started to follow his lead. She curled her hands into two 'firm' fists, brought her left to the front of her face, while keeping the right one in front of her chest. Her eyes focused on one point on the bag and JAB!

"OW!" The bag jerked... a couple of feet away but Louisa was frowning and flexing her punching hand. "That was painful!" Staring down at her right hand as she murmured that. "I think I have lame fingers." Because the back of the fingers were the ones to crash into the bag.

Adam was so busy paying attention to explaining things to Louisa in a way that he was sure was simple enough for someone just starting defense stuff to understand, that he hardly noticed that Lousia's face was slightly red until he got back and was setting the bag up for her to punch. Huh. Well Adam supposed that it was a little toasty in here, but he supposed it was too late to wish for a room with a little bit of air conditioning or a fan. Well...they would manage. And besides, there was nothing like working up a good sweat, right?

Err...was it just him or was she avoiding his eyes? She was probably just a little nervous since Adam had taken more than one class in this kind of thing and Louisa was a true Ravenclaw at heart, but really she had no reason to be embarrassed. Adam gave her another encouraging smile, watching as she wound up with a nice firm arm...way to go Louisa...and then, BAM. Adam cringed slightly, half expecting Louisa to have bruised her fingers since when she made contact it was definitely on her fingers and not on her knuckles. Oh dear...well...that's alright.

"Your fingers are not lame," Adam said with a little chuckle. "You're just making contact with the bag with your fingers rather than your knuckles," Adam said with a smile. "Here." Adam took a hold of Louisa's right hand and rubbed it soothingly for a moment in order to release some of the pain before letting go. "Now, just make sure that you don't straighten your arm too much or that you're too far from the bag when you swing, since those are usually the two reasons you'll hit the bag with your fingers rather than your knuckles." Adam took a hold of Louisa's hand again, standing behind her so that Louisa was centered between his shoulders just in front of him. He cupped her hand into the proper first.

"Now you'll pull back like this," Adam said, pulling her arm back in the right form, "and you'll come through like this," Adam said, leading her arm until her knuckles made firm contact with the bag in front of them, shaking the bag slightly. "Ready to give it another go?" Adam asked, stepping back so she could have some space to do it on her own.

"I.. err.." Holy Merlin! He was smoothing her hand. Louisa's eyes widened and she held her breath for a second to prevent her cheeks from blushing... which worked strange enough. "Th-thanks." It reminded her of the way her mother kissed her booboo about... ten years ago but that was a very gentle gesture of her mentor. Good. Good mentor. Right. Mentor. Just teaching how to punch and all.

Listening to his correction, the Ravenclaw was about to do it when he came.. closer... closer than appreciated. And then...

O______________o

It was either the weird room he'd imagined, or the hammering heart, or the frozen eyes or all of the above that made her dizzy juuuust a bit as he used her hand for punching the bag. All through this minute, the girl's mind had frozen along with her other vital stuff in her body. And she didn't breath out again until he stepped away.

THANKYOU.

"I'm actually a bit.. thirsty.. I think." She went over to the table, snatched a bottle of water, careful not to turn and let him see her face. She opened it and chugged down some cold water to snap herself back to reality.

Panting, she let the bottle down and went back to her spot. Hopefully he wouldn't come closer again. Taking the position, readying her fists. The punching bag standing before her, she had her adrenaline high still and used all the frustration at her cheating hormones to punch the stupid bag that caused this inexplicable emotions to surface.

It boosted a good four feet up ahead. Louisa hugged her punching bag and stared in awe at the result of her punch. Emotional punch worked the best for her, it seemed.

It wasn't until Adam had stepped away from Louisa to let her try the punch again that he suddenly became aware of the fact that Louisa looked quite flustered. Err...was it something he said? After all he thought he was being as constructive as humanly possible and if anything he had been encouraging, not causing her to be embarrassed or doubt herself. Unless....no, no. Surely she wasn't getting all flustered because he had touched her. After all he had only done it because actually holding her and showing through the motions was sometimes more effective than simply trying to demonstrate. And besides since when had Louisa ever gotten so flustered over them being that close? After all she grabbed his arm, hugged him all the time whenever they saw each other, got horribly flustered when his best mate implied they should be more than friends....

Oh dear.

As Louisa went over to grab a drink of water, which only confirmed that she was indeed freaking out from how much he had touched her, Adam cleared his throat, grabbing one of the weights off a set of weights nearby, examining it, until he heard Louisa screw on the top of her water bottle and the sound of her feet pressing into the matted floor. He turned around to give her another encouraging smile, figuring that maybe if he just acted completely normal than things would just be...well...normal. Oh who was he kidding. Surely that wasn't the reason why Louisa was being odd! She was probably just hot in here! After all it was pretty toasty wasn't it?...cough.

Adam watched as Louisa wound back, focusing all his attention back to the task at hand, and giving a couple of claps after Louisa managed to hit the punching bag a few feet. "That was great Louisa!" Adam said, deciding to just give her a nod and a few more claps instead of high-fiving her or anything like that. Wouldn't want to make it more hot, right? "Alright, so I think you've got the hang of the jab, so now we can move on to the upper cut," Adam said with a warm smile. "Now the upper cut in helpful if someone else has a guard up, or someone is too close to you for you to get a good jab in. So the important thing about the uppercut is making sure that it is a concise and solid movement. No huge windups are necessary to make an uppercut punch effective." He stepped in front of the bag so that she could see. "You keep your arm close to your body, with your arm bent in a ninety degree angle, and when you punch you move your arm up and out away from your face like this." Adam demonstrated, shaking the bag somewhat violently as he did so. He stepped back after steading the bag to indicate that it was her turn to give it a go.

Jez shrugged, pretending to hang her head but really grinning at Nate from under her fringe. "I think you abolished that rule before I did," she pointed out, then let it go. Suddenly she was tired of wearing a dress. It had been nice for about an hour, and now it was limiting her. She ran into the wardrobe in the wall, shutting the door before wishing for a new outfit. Anything you want, Room, as long as it comes with jeans.
She came out a few moments later walking on her hands, silently thanking the Room for the jeans and rather nice new jacket. She flipped the right way up at the food table and popped open a Coke. "I love this stuff!" she said happily.

"I guess it was good." she replied a bit shyly, fidgeting with her feet. Unfortunately she couldn't just stare down at the mats, Adam started talking again about different kind of punching. She couldn't help but raise her eyebrows at his explanation, "There are more than one way to punch someone?" Well. That was news to her.

Watching him demonstrate, she made sure NOT to look at him as much as looking at the punching bag in front of him. She was kind of determined to end this session as soon as possible too, before... something happens. Whatever that was supposed to mean.

Stepping forward to stand in front of the bag, she had really no idea what to do other than mirroring her previous punch. How on earth was she supposed to make a punch concise, she had no idea. At the same time, she had to do it right before he offered showing her how to move. SCOFF.

Raising her left hand to her face, she quickly moved her right fist toward the bag. When it collided, she winced but the bag moved fairly enough. Not as violently as Adam's punch but... it moved.

"Well.. that was even more painful." Wrapping her left hand over her right and bringing it toward her in case he thought of massaging it again. 0_0

Pam was dissapointed that Jez had changed into something else. She looked pretty in her dress. But Pam knew she didn't like dresses, so she let it go. Still in her own, fancy, dress, Pam started twirling around. She wanted to change the song to something slower. Something different. She hoped the others didn't mind. And if they did, they'll probably change it. Besides. It seemed like they were going to start dueling any second, and Pam wanted to have something for herself.

She put on one of her favorite songs and started to twirl. But she felt a little lonely. But she already had her friends. She wanted a dance partner. Thinking in her head, she wished the room would give her someone to dance with. Out of the corner, and dark haired boy came out. He was a ghostly figure, and was barely taller then Pam. He bowed slightly, and held out his hand for Pam. She took it with a smile, and they started dancing.

Adam was so busy demonstrating to Louisa how to do the next punch correctly that he hadn't acknowledged that she had pretty much been looking at either the ground or the punching bag and not him. Err...he was so confused. Was it something he said? After all he didn't think that he had said anything offensive but perhaps he was wrong. He watched as Louisa punched the bag again, shaking the bag enough to show that she got in a pretty decent hint but grabbing her hand to show that she had hit her fingers again. Since she was acting so strange Adam figured maybe it was best to just leave her to tend to that wound.

Clearing his throat slightly, Adam attempted another encouraging smile but it fell flat more than anything else. "It's alright. That one is a little harder to make sure you hit concise is all," Adam said with a little nod, shifting his own eyes to the ground. The moment had gone from being fun and exciting to horribly uncomfortable and tension filled so quickly that Adam was having a hard time figuring out how to react. Should he be defending himself for something??

"Umm..." Adam started, figuring maybe it was better to leave it up to Louisa to decide whether or not to continue this little martial arts session. "I can show you how to kick if you'd like, but if you're not having a good time, then we can just go," Adam offered, trying not to sound defensive in his words, but thinking that he had failed pretty miserably. It was Louisa wasn't it that had agreed to learning how to defend herself, right? Adam had just offered to try and be a good friend, but if she was going to get all weird and uncomfortable than perhaps they should just quit while they were ahead. While he waited for Louisa to make a decision, Adam turned his back to her, bending down to pick up his water bottle and take a sip.

The girl watched him become as perplexed as ever. Uncomfortable and a bit.. less happy. She wasn't sure whether it was her fault at being so strange and concise herself, conciser than the punch even. Keeping her hands on top of each other, because the right one was still throbbing, she shrugged one shoulder, "I know how to kick." Jason had taught her how to kick and hurt even. It was supposed to be her number one self-defense if any bully tried to tackle her or something. She never did it but she still remembered how to.

"And I..err.. I am having a good time. Really." Moving to the table that held towels and bottles of water, she leaned against it. Away from him. "It's just the... something I suddenly remembered. It's making me... nervous about the whole training thing." Lowering her voice and her head at the same time. Louisa kept her gaze focused on her hand that was getting better, although she was still holding it with her other one.

"I'm sorry for being a downer," she said louder, and more like herself. She even managed a small smile at the boy.

Nate sighed, a small smile on his lips. "We can duel tomorrow night. Tonight, we--" He didn't know exactly what he was going to say, but when he caught, out of the corner of his eye, Pam dancing with a strange boy to a song he knew only she could have put on, his sentence was finished for him. "--we dance. Tonight, we dance." He smiled at Jez, taking a step toward her with his arm outstretched. She wasn't getting off so easily, though. Right as she was taking his hand, Nate wished that she was back in her dress. Hehe.

"There we go," he said, winking as they began to dance along with the song Pam had chosen.

Jez watched Pam dancing with the boy with a smile. Despite being something of a ghost, he was still a great dancer. She loved seeing Pam happy, since all she'd seen for a long time was pain.
Then the inevitable happened. Nate wanted to dance. Jez was about to protest, but he'd already pulled her in, and changed her clothes back to the dress. Jez tilted her head to the side, giving him a 'you can't be serious' smile. But she still danced with him, trying to remember how she'd done it last term. She closed her eyes, leaning her forehead against Nate's. She could remember better like that.