Olly could have maybe held on. If he was actually attacking Ellery. If he was actually a bandit trying to escape. If his life was actually at risk. But it was just Ellery trying to get away from him in an activity, so he did not fight as hard as he technically could have. Because he didn't want to hurt her wrist. But she did a pretty good job trying and holding on any longer would have hurt him. So he was glad he did not try harder.

"You can't catch me," he taunted. Olly jumped back and forth lightly in front of her. It was her turn to try and trap him now. And his turn to try to escape.

Hearing Hirsch call the class's attention, Rachel turned away from her dummy. She listened intently. Yes, she reasoned her weight was key but again, she didn't have much of that so how much damage could she do? If given the chance, she would try better the next time because she had not done such a good job earlier.

Escaping from a wrist hold seemed easy to the girl but she knew a lot of practice was required to get it perfectly. She was determined to do better this time and so she repeated the steps Hirsch had just explained repeatedly in her head. She then moved to strap on the protective gear provided before turning her attention back to the dummy she had been working on before. It definitely looked more menacing to her.

"Here goes nothing,'' she murmured and stepped up to the dummy once more.

Ellery grinned and mirrored Olly, moving side to side as well. If he wanted to play this game, so be it. She darted out quickly, feigning grabbing onto him, then snuck around his side and pinned him close to her chest, arms wrapping around his shoulders and her chin hovering next to his left ear.

"Hellooooooo, Clarisse," she whispered creepily, a la Hannibal. Come ON. No one expected a man named HANNIBAL to be a CANNIBAL??? Unbelievable.

Cornelius Orion Baltazar... that was a mouthful to remember, but he'd manage it. No longer a kid, then. "Cornelius," he repeated, testing the name on his tongue with the hope it would stick in his memory. "Nice t'meet you, I'm Zeke... Zeke Browne." And no little Sir, you could not have his middle name, not upon a first introduction at least, or ever. Really. Mmmm...

But yeah... Professor. Right. Lesson. Good.

Zeke paused to face their Professor when the whistle blew, his hands slipping into his pockets casually as he listened to the next part of the lesson. The generic praise was... well, generic, and he couldn't say with any certainty that the man had seen how pro he was. Shame. Nevertheless, there was more. Escaping a solid wrist grasping, well now that sounded delightfully fun. He accepted the padding as it came around, though he would have preferred to go without. Either way, he wasn't putting it on just yet. Padding was so not his style. Really. It was... tacky, no matter the label. He raised a hand high into the air, "Professor, do we have to wear the protective gear?" And like, please answer no.

Looking between Cornelius and the now bigger dummy's, Zeke considered his options. He really wanted a human opponent. Flesh. But... perhaps a stronger one than a first year. "No worries," he returned the boy's thank you. The Gryffindor's eyes followed Cornelius as he went at his dummy again, the comments too, amusing. HA! Cracker.

...

But alas, "Partner?" Yo. Ya'll. Someone?

Yeah, no. Practicing on a real live person was NOT going to happen. It'd been hard enough to jab a dummy in the face, even if they were invented for that very reason. What'd they do to deserve that, huh? Just 'cause they weren't technically living didn't mean they didn't have FEELINGS. Okay fine. It probably did mean exactly that, but that didn't mean Norah was prepared to hurt it without feeling dreadful about it. The things she did for the sake of new professors, man. Prefects were probably meant to follow all the directions ever, so she didn't protest as she turned back to face the dummy which had apparently gotten much meaner, but she didn't spare it one of her best apologetic looks. "Sorry dummy dude. But I've gotta."

Knowing full well that she was wasting time, she walked slowly over to the protective clothing and pulled some out at random, then walked back to the dummy slow enough that she didn't reach it until a good few seconds after the whistle had blown. Alrighty. Here goes nothing, right? The dummy came towards her with one arm reaching towards her wrist, and Norah froze for just a split second too long before trying to reach out and intercept it. The dummy's arm knocked hers down and she took a stumbling step backwards with a dramatic GLARE. Excuse you, dummy. After all she'd done for you.

Henric noticed llia was looking for him, he waved to her. "Over here,"he grinned. "I saw you earlier...wow...llia, you were great, how did you learn to do that knee drop-kick move?" he asked, amazed by her. He suspected that her hitwizard father might be the the reason. Anyway, they were going to fight dummies for real now! The dummies were going to attack them and they had no other choice but to defend themselves. Okay....this "llia, we should gear ourselves up now,"Henric said as he grabbed a helmet and helped put it on her head for her. As always, he was being a protective boyfriend again. He wanted to make sure his girlfriend wasn't going to get hurt by the dummies, alright...ehem.

Melbourne hadn’t exactly liked the first part of this…okay no, that was a lie a giant lie. She had loved it. “I think it would be smart to wear it Zeke,” Mel nodded over to the older Gryffindor boy as she trugged over and began saddling up…all of the gear felt so heavy but it was worth it wasn’t it?

“ooooookay lets do this” she muttered as she tested out all of her gear. She didn’t know at first if she wanted to work alone or with a dummy but the thing was she wanted to go all out and get every feeling everything out of her system. No she was not going to give up on this. The dummy it was.

“Lets do this Dummy” she turned tauntingly speaking at the big meanie.

It was coming fast this time. The dummy wasn’t simply trying to pick her up she could tell as it swayed and tried to punch at her. “Not this time” she yelled at it before jumping out of the way just once dodging was going to be her tactic for now. She needed to figure out where to attack it.

“YOU ARE NOT DOING THIS TO ME” she yelled as she kicked the dummy in the groin before finding another dummy to tumble with. She was going to get this over with. Nothing was going to stand in her way not even herself.

Excited by his somewhat success at attacking the dummy's eyes, Carl stood still grinning and going over what he had done. As a result, his opponent managed to regain its vision and tower over him - and ... wrap its arms around? He hugged it back, but was glad when Professor Hirsch blew his whistle. Hugging a dummy was awkward, no matter how animated it was. It let him go and he turned his attention to the Professor.

Safety clothes. The reality of what they were going to do came upon him and Carl glanced at the dummies. Yeah, they looked scary. He remembered what he said at the beginning of the lesson about intimidating the opponent. That was what the dummies were doing right now! Maybe ... maybe a human opponent would be better.

"Yoongi? Do you want to pair up?" He asked. The Gryffindor was taller and wider than him, so it would be good practice in case he was attacked by a larger opponent in real life.

Professor Hirsch was right, this dummy had become wilder than before. Was she scared? No. This was just a dummy and she had ever fought with a big kid before. Besides, someone who held a brown belt in Shotokan karate wouldn't be easy being defeated by a dummy.

Performing her karate-style front stance, Ava put both of her hands in front of her and ready to give the dummy her best attacks. Hehehe. "Let's do this!" Once she'd spoken like that, the dummy started the attack first by gave a punch to her chest, but her reflex was good enough to block it and also gave a knife hand strike right on the neck. "Hi-yah!" Maybe if she practiced this to her friend, it could break their neck so.. Yeah, that's why she preferred to practice this to the dummy instead.

What's next?

Where was Bentley, why was he sitting so far away? HOW was Blaise meant to rub in the fact they had ZERO use for wands this lesson when his cousin decided not to be sitting right HERE?

In truth, it might have been his fault, afterall, he was the one to squeeze himself in between Dima and Norah but now they were moving on to the big leagues and his cousin SHOULD have drifted over to him already. No matter, Blaise would simply go to him. The young Gryffindor grabbed two sets of everything and made his way across the classroom.

"These are yours. You can go first and I'll grab you but I'm telling your mum if you break my wrist or something." There was a moment's pause in his threat as he suddenly remembered all the trouble they were already in.

"Or not. Let's just do it." They wrestled all the time and got hurt, this time they had the luxury of padding and proper technique. Should be fine.

While he had fallen on the mat, he had seen Norah fighting one of the dummies and it was knocking her arm away like it was nothing. He was already turning around to run to her and kick the dummy away when he heard a loud whistle. The sound made him jump and he slipped again. Which was probably a good thing because he might have embarrassed her... No one had seen that right?

As the Professor ordered them all to wear protective gear, the Head Boy's stomach turned again. He did not like like this , he did not like this at all.
Still, as the school leader he should show support to the Professors so he took the gear and put them on, stalling as much time as possible. As he did so, he overheard Zeke asking if they could fight without gear. Was he serious?! Did he not see how the dummies had changed to even more scary looking dummies? Or the way some of the students were even scarier than the dummies itself?!

A voice shook him out of his thoughts and he looked at Carl as he was asked to partner up with him. "Oh..i don't.." he was about to say 'i don't know' but one glance towards the dummies and the very brave Gryffindor nodded his head. A first year was definitely a lot saver than a mean looking dummy who could do who knows what kind of attacks. "Okay..."

He stood in front of the kid, feeling bad already. "I just... i don't like this, like at all okay?" he said, taking a deep breath. Wait, wasn't this the kid he had bragged to about all the dangerous and life threatening stuff he had done? ...oh great... "I don't like fighting and i don't want to hurt you but most importantly" like really really REALLY important "Please don't hit my face, i'm too good looking"

Jaemin had remained in the dummy's arms, grumbling and dangling, until Hirsch had signaled the end of the activity. Then and only then did the thing seem to reactivate itself, and it dropped him rather unceremoniously onto the mats. He gave it a sour look as it retreated, crossing his arms over his chest. RUDE. Rudest dummy in Hogwarts. Hopefully.

When the professor started in about their next activity, Jaemin paled a bit. He had only just been let go, and now he was supposed to let it get him?! Professor?!!!

The small boy dutifully retrieved the safety gear and even managed to put it on before he tucked himself aaaaaall the way behind as many bigger, taller students as possible. This seemed like a decent plan of action... until everyone jumped right into the new exercise and he was left standing exposed. Whyyyy? He looked around at the people going at each other, then at the equally frightening dummies that seemed intent on finding the partnerless. He did not want to be squishsnuggled again!

NO. BAD DUMMIES. NO. Jaemin shrank back a bit when one came at him and reached to grab him by the upper arm. NOOOOOOOOOOO.

Professor Hirsch was not joking. The dummy did try to attack Rachel with its hands. Only this time they did not try to hug her but instead it tried to swat her. One hand after the other came flashing towards her. Startled, Rachel dodged them. What she lost in strength, she made up for in agility. She could be quick when she needed and as a result the dummy missed her every time.

Once though, as she was dodging, it managed to take a hold of one of her plait. "Ow!" Her dark brown hair was pulled on and it was painful. "Let me go!'' Bringing her right hand up, she made a sharp jab at the dummy's eyes. Her hair was quickly released as the dummy brought its hands up to its eyes in obvious discomfort. "Take that.''

Rachel took the moment to look around and spotted Ava fighting her dummy. "You fight as though you're a professional,'' she said with a smile. "Do you want to partner with me?"

The dummy was pulling him. THE DUMMY WAS PULLING HIM. Mayday, mayday!!! Jaemin flailed a little and pressed his feet down against the floor like a stubborn dog refusing to be pulled by its collar. Unfortunately, he seemed to have much less body strength than a dog, because the dummy merely slid him along as it moved.

Unfair. So unfair.

The little boy scrabbled at the dummy's fingers with his own, but that just made it tighten its grip even more. He winced, because even soft squishy fingers could hurt when they squeezed hard enough, and pulled back again, turning a little as he squirmed. The dummy's body turned toward his with that, and Jaemin shoved a fist right into its soft stomach area, hoping it was high enough to hit the solar whatsit.

The dummy let go of his arm, going still for a moment and giving him a second to huffily readjust his clothing before it reached to grab him again. This time the dummy didn't just hug him into the air; the thing grabbed the small boy up and deposited him over its shoulder, like a less-lumpy sack of potatoes. Jaemin let out an anguished yelp. WHY HIM. WHY. THIS WAS THE RUDEST DUMMY IN THE WORLD. He kicked his legs fruitlessly, unable to get a good enough angle to knee the thing in the face or kick it in the stomach.

Taking a step back from the advancing dummies Hady shifted her eyes onto the Professor when he called the mini activity to an end. Having only knocked her 'attacker' over one she wasn't entirely happy with herself but she did however get the idea and a few good hits in. So all in all it hadn't been to bad.

Being told to get on some defense gear wasn't what the girl had, had in mind for this lesson but whatever. If they were being told to wear it then she would. No questions asked. Making her way over to the box she selected herself the proper gear and put each piece on making sure it fit as it should. When she was satisfied with it all Hady glanced around. If someone wanted to partner up with her she was open for that but she wouldn't go looking for someone, sorry it just wasn't happening.

Without any thought of it Hady moved towards the 'attacker' closest to herself watching it closer. They appeared to be larger, more mean then before. Just great. The steps for the task were simple enough and she was more then ready to get a move on. Let's go dummy thing and grab her already.

Bentley was meaning to go get Blaise for this second exercise but his cousin seemed to have had the same idea since he beat him to the meet up.

"Some luck you're having today, wands and all." Bentley said as he pulled the protective gear on. Why did they need all this any way? Did the professor not trust them to have some sort of self control?

......

Smart professor.

"Do you even think mum would believe that I deliberately broke your arm?" As far as his mother was concerned he was a perfect angel..and he was for the most part.

As soon as he was done and without warning, Bentley charged at his cousin.

The headbutt worked! The headbutt hurt!

Tenacius was rubbing the soreness from his forehead as he turned to listen to the additional demonstration from the Professor. Oh and look protective gear. Now maybe he shouldve waited for those eh?

Pffft, in real life situations, nobody would be wearing protective gear. So he's gonna skip the pads and go bare knuckles to this one Defense man.

Tenacius saw his dummy had magically got itself upright again, and yes, it does look even bigger and more menacing than ever before. Is he having second thoughts about skipping those protective paddings. Well yes. But the dummyjustgrabbedhiswristand asdfasdfasdfadsfadf!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

Professor Hirsch was not joking. The dummy did try to attack Rachel with its hands. Only this time they did not try to hug her but instead it tried to swat her. One hand after the other came flashing towards her. Startled, Rachel dodged them. What she lost in strength, she made up for in agility. She could be quick when she needed and as a result the dummy missed her every time.

Once though, as she was dodging, it managed to take a hold of one of her plait. "Ow!" Her dark brown hair was pulled on and it was painful. "Let me go!'' Bringing her right hand up, she made a sharp jab at the dummy's eyes. Her hair was quickly released as the dummy brought its hands up to its eyes in obvious discomfort. "Take that.''

Rachel took the moment to look around and spotted Ava fighting her dummy. "You fight as though you're a professional,'' she said with a smile. "Do you want to partner with me?"

My goodness. Her karate technique was still as good as usual. Ava was very pleased for that, it had been like a year since she left her karate club and she just missed it very badly. Drowning with dueling club and homework make her didn't have a time to practice her karate technique anymore so... She was very pleased with this class.

The young lioness was about to continue her practice but then there was someone come approaching her. Oh hi, Rachel! She remembered this girl of course, one of her prank's victim. Hehehe. She was fighting like a pro? Well, Ava could say that she used to, considering her karate "Well, thank you." She smiled. "I was in a karate club when I was in muggle school." No, she wouldn't mention about the bullies and the tournament... "You want to partner up with me?" Her eyebrow slightly raised when this Ravenclaw girl mentioned about being a partner. To be honest, she preferred to practice with the dummy instead. If she partnered up with her, she couldn't practice any advanced techniques. But it sounded fun too. "Sure." She nodded agreeing.

Before she continued her practice, Tenacius not using any protective gears caught her attention. "You'd better not skipping the the protective gears, T." She said to that curly boy.

"Put me DOWN!" Jaemin squirmed and thrashed some more on the dummy's shoulder, trying to roll himself off, but the thing had one soft arm holding him securely down. He wasn't going anywhere unless he figured out how to get loose. Oh the indignity of it all. Why did these things think it was okay to pick him up?! Just because he was small?!

He had to calm down. Caaaaalm down. Then he could think this through. The boy took a deep breath and tried to center himself... emotionally, if not physically. Stupid dumdum.

The thing was starting to walk again, and Jaemin swallowed down on the immediate panic that jabbed him again at this. His legs were useless in this position, and his arms couldn't really reach any-

...oh. Oh wait. He could do this.

"Put. Me. DOWN." The boy practically shouted, again, at the thing, drawing his elbow up and slamming it into the back of the dummy's neck. The neck was a weak point, right?! And he had sharp little elbows! It would work!

And it did. Which mean Jaemin dropped back to the mat with a very loud, kicked-puppy yelp.

Hugo was done with the mini activity and felt proud of his skills. It wasn't a big deal but whatever. And now for the second activity he needed to pair up. He was going to choose the first person he saw and that was....Brooklyn.

Hmm. Not sure about this.

Still the fifth year walked up towards her, "Ready to show your karate skills?" yeah? Good. "We can work together. I'll be gentle" 'cause he didn't want to injure her. No thank you. Especially Brooklyn. Hugo put on the protective gear and was ready.

SPOILER!!: Ava! <3

Quote:

Originally Posted by RandomRaven

My goodness. Her karate technique was still as good as usual. Ava was very pleased for that, it had been like a year since she left her karate club and she just missed it very badly. Drowning with dueling club and homework make her didn't have a time to practice her karate technique anymore so... She was very pleased with this class.

The young lioness was about to continue her practice but then there was someone come approaching her. Oh hi, Rachel! She remembered this girl of course, one of her prank's victim. Hehehe. She was fighting like a pro? Well, Ava could say that she used to, considering her karate "Well, thank you." She smiled. "I was in a karate club when I was in muggle school." No, she wouldn't mention about the bullies and the tournament... "You want to partner up with me?" Her eyebrow slightly raised when this Ravenclaw girl mentioned about being a partner. To be honest, she preferred to practice with the dummy instead. If she partnered up with her, she couldn't practice any advanced techniques. But it sounded fun too. "Sure." She nodded agreeing.

Before she continued her practice, Tenacius not using any protective gears caught her attention. "You'd better not skipping the the protective gears, T." She said to that curly boy.

"You're welcome.'' Ava deserved the complement and justified just this with the Karate club comment. "That explains it all.'' Rachel smiled again. "I sure do. You can try to break free from my grip, if that's alright with you.'' She was confident that Ava would be able to do so and she wanted another demonstration before she tried the escape part for herself.

"No pranks, okay?" Rachel still vividly remembered the bit of shocks she had received in Sugarplum's last year from the girl. She reached for one of Ava's wrist to firmly grip it. ''Ready when you are, Ava.'' She trusted that the Gryffindor would not go too hard on her so as to cause her pain.

After he put on the gear, the dummy grabbed his wrist, and for a moment, he panicked. It's grip was tight and he thought, just maybe, that the dummy was actually going to hurt him. What he wouldn't give for a strength potion right now.

No, no. He thought You can't relate everything to potions. You need to branch out. Learn something.

The voice in his head, that sounded a lot like his mother, had a point. Although he loved potions, there was more to the wizarding world. Even though he was fifteen, there was still so much he needed to learn. And it started here. Not with a potion or even a wand. It started with a stance and being grabbed by a dummy.

But while he was trying to pep talk himself into doing something, the dummy began pulling him back. Back towards the line of other dummies. It was a lot of awkward flailing, since the gear felt heavy. Then again, he was one of the scrawniest people to walk on two legs. He was going to have to actually work if he wanted to stand a chance against the dummy.

Dante was just meh at all of this. He would rather sit on the sideline and watch gryffindors do this activity. That would be a laugh and well he just did not want to do this anymore. He had his funny with the dumb dummy. Increasing the difficulty just made him want to go get some pizza. He was in no danger. Since Dante was sure Hirsch wanted to keep his job for more than a couple months. Dante went up and put on all the practice gear. So nobody got hurt and Hirsch got to keep on teaching. Right Partner. Since why not. Well why not a Gryffindor. Since they probably love this activity.

No, not Ava. She was too short.Looks like Liv was with that ravenclaw. So who else. Oh right there was that other kid. He walked over to him (Torrance).

"Partners?"

Looks like he could kick the dummy into oblivion. And Dante could help.

Katherine had never listened so closely before. Wrist hold. Could be VERY useful, y'know, so she tried doing it on her own as she listened to the professor (which proved inefficient as clearly she needed someone else to hold her wrist). She... wanted to write this down, so she quickly walked to her cushion or whatever and quickly scribbled it down.

Hopefully one day she would be able to draw and illustrate with magic...

Anyway, she keenly listened to the instructions and got the protective clothing. After putting them on, she walked directly to the dummies. She didn't even consider partnering up with someone else - she couldn't risk having her wrist broken. A dummy it was, which she could punch freely too.

Not that she was violent. It was all for earning points.

When the whistle was blown, she directly held out her wrist. She wanted to master this movement first, because she had done hitting the dummy well. So when it held it, she took a step forward quickly, pulled her elbow down and shot her hand upwards FAST.

Her wrist was FREE!.. But the dummy didn't stop this time.

Torrance was looking down at the gear they had to put on. So wait...what went where? Those things looks like arm guards. So Torrance strapped on the shin guards to his Forearms, chest armor, and well the Helmet he was able to get...Nope. He chucked it aside. No way was he going to get that on over his hair. Last was the gloves, he got them on and was able to fit then snugly under where the shin guards met his wrists.

He felt kind of cool with all this upper body armor. Hopefully the Dummy doesn't go for his feet though. He felt kind of naked there.

The young puffy-haired lion stood up and was about to go tackled a dummy that needed a good tackling when he heard a voice behind him. "Huh? Um, sure." He nodded and grinned at the older Slytherin boy. (Dante) "Do you want me to escape from you?" He raised an eyebrow curiously. The Slytherin was definitely Taller, but larger. he looked like a stick. he could always try and escape from him. Thanks to Uncle Julien he knew a few REALLY hard to escape holds.