DA Files: Styles and Imagination

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"Looks like everyone is here. . . Welcome back, all of you," said Quinn as he closed the Room of Requirements to anyone outside. He removed his outer robe and hung it on a coat rack that appeared beside him. "I hope all of you're feeling well and are ready for another day of fantastical and mystic magical learning."

He walked to the center of the Room of Requirements as the DA members gathered around him in a circle.

"Last time, we finally completed the duels, and I and hopefully you, now know where your fellow peers lay on the skill ladder," he said while rotating so he could look at everyone. "A key advantage of making you guys duel each other is that it showed which spell you think you know the best because usually in duels, people chose their best magic. . ." Quinn raised a finger with a short pause, ". . . or to be more specific, they chose the magic they think they're the best at — of course, that's not the cause, is it."

He turned to Tracey and raised her hands towards her.

"Tracey Davis here chose the Disarming spell to strip Padma's wand, and she thought it was her best or obvious option to end the duel but was it the correct decision — don't get me wrong, it worked — but her Disarming charm wasn't effective in a real-world scenario where the duel doesn't end at Disarming the opponent. . . Any thoughts on why I say that?"

From the circle, Harry raised his hand and spoke when Quinn nodded.

"The duel doesn't end until when you have entirely made sure that your opponent can't cast a spell," said the son of an Auror.

Quinn acknowledged and nodded approvingly. "Exactly, stripping your opponent off their wands doesn't mark the end of the duel." He pointed at Padma Patil, "When she was disarmed by Tracey, Padma still had her wand right beside her feet, which means Padma still had all the chance to rearm herself, continue the duel, and maybe even turn the table on Tracey.

"So, what we learn from Tracey and Padma's duel is that when engaging in a duel, front with your best spells, and by that, I mean the spells that you're a hundred percent can cast at a higher level of quality. . . if you're casting the Disarming spell, then make sure it whips the wand out of range. . . if you fancy the Stunner, then ensure that it knocks the person out. . . if the Full-Body Bind is what tickles your wand, then it better restrict your target like a death hold."

A third-year Gryffindor raised his hand hesitantly and asked, "What if we don't have spells like that," his voice quietened a level, "spells that we're good at."

There was a lot of eye shifting in the crowd as a lot of younger ones and even some older ones had the same question in mind but weren't as brave as the third-year Gryffindor to bring it up.

"That's why we are here," said Quinn smiling brightly to put everyone at ease. "The objective of us gathering here is to learn how to cast spells practically; you will learn defense and attacks spells, and even study various charms. . . I sincerely hope that by the end of our time together, all of you have a set of spells you're comfortable with."

Daphne raised her hand in question: "What are your preferred magics?"

Crippling-ice, drowning-water, raging-wind, perception-bending illusions, mind-magic, flesh-severing spells, a spell that disabled body parts. . .

"I like the Stunner," said Quinn smiling. "It knocks the target out — no muss, no fuss."

Another question was raised, this time it was Hermione: "What about Harry and Carmichael's duel; both used various spells. From what I have heard, the number of spells they used was extensive even for experienced duelers."

Quinn glanced at the boys in question and recalled the duel they had. There were indeed a lot of unique spells exchanged between the two.

He raised his arm and pointed at Harry, "Harry Potter is the son of a Senior Auror, and from what I know, he has to learn a thing or two from his father. It's not unusual for someone in Harry's position to learn a variety of spells, which he showcased in his duel."

Then he pointed at Eddie and continued, "Eddie is my best friend, and from that, I know how he learned magic. The way he duels is to cast a series of non-repeating spells, with every single cast packing a punch on its own. This way, the target can't get comfortable, and Eddie will exploit that discomfort to land in a hit."

Quinn and Eddie's difference in casting ability and strength of spells was akin to a great chasm. Eddie couldn't compare in that aspect; as such, he, a long time ago shifted to the tactic of variety and speed — he would never repeat a spell two times in a row and cast in the hopes of sneaking one in and from time to time he had indeed surprised Quinn and had come very close to get a hit, solidifying Eddie's belief, leading him to a path on which he learned and practiced a variety of spells — something that, Eddie as a Ravenclaw, had no qualms in doing.

"But!" said Quinn stressing. "You're not to copy both of these guys. The style they use is suitable for them because they," he turned to Harry and stared at them for a moment, "not they. . . Harry hasn't got the hang of the high-variety dueling style. If he reduced his choice of spells, he would've beaten Eddie."

"Hey!" said Eddie throwing his hands up.

"If you yapped less and cast more, you'd have won," said Quinn shrugging — "As I was saying, high-variety casting only comes after you're comfortable with a great number of spells and cast them under pressure. If you're not skillful with various spells, you will mess up when it really matters."

"What do you use?" came a question.

"I keep my spell-choice limited and only use a selected amount of spells according to the situation," answered Quinn.

Quinn met the requirement for high-variety dueling, but a lot of his spell arsenal was tied up in various situations:

Ice was extensively used by Invisible Vigilante,

Water was tied up by his stint at the Great Lake,

A lot of the spells that he was comfortable using in duels were 'dark' in nature,

Illusion magic was free, but he hadn't developed a way that would fit in with his current dueling style,

Mind magic was one of his foremost fortes, but the fact that he was Legilimens was a tightly kept secret,

Body magic was definitely on the table,

Wind magic was still in development, but it was definitely at a stage where 'Quinn West' could use it. But it was his decision to keep it as a last resort,

Any of the above magics could be used by 'Quinn West,' but he refrained from using them because they might attract attention and connect back to him.

Quinn snapped out his thoughts when another question was raised to him.

"Then is — limited-variety, can we say that — worse than high-variety?" said Blaise Zabini.

"Not at all," said Quinn after a pause to collect himself, "if you choose your spells wisely and master them, understand their use case, and delve into variations, you'll have the confidence that they will work for you no matter what the situation. . . High-variety style can be challenging to use with practical effectiveness; that's why it's only seen used by Aurors and Hit Wizards who are trained in various spells to combat every situation they come across."

He once again pointed at Eddie.

"Look at him, he might practice high-variety, but his spells are largely offensive spells with a severe shortage of defense spells. If he wasn't so overbearing and quick with his offensive spells, he would've miserably failed at dueling," Eddie puffed his chest in pride, but Quinn cut him down the following sentence, "but if someone more skilled — not powerful — than him got the initiative, Eddie would be screwed sooner than he could get a cuss out of that mouth of his."

"Hey!" said Eddie once again, throwing his hands up.

"The point being is that it's better to concentrate on what is part of the Hogwarts curriculum," said Quinn, "but you have to go beyond the level and master the variations and capture the essence because that's the only way you'll actually succeed at limited-variety style."

Quinn clapped his hands once.

"Let's stop the chit-chat and get at the good stuff. You guys are going to divide into pairs and then use spells against each other. It's the best way to learn, and it's really fun one-up your partner," Quinn pointed at Eddie with his thumb. "Ask Eddie; he partners up with me when he wants to learn a spell. Ask him how fun and effective it is."

When everyone turned to Eddie, they saw him make a disgusted face as if someone had just stuffed a scoop of poop into his mouth and tied it shut. One-on-ones were effective, but they weren't fun when you were against Quinn because he would land every hit, and it would soon get frustrating; it was only because of Eddie being Eddie that he was able to hang on without rage quitting.

"We will start with something straightforward, something at a very basic," said Quinn after everyone had divided themselves into pairs. "The Disarming charm will be the first spell that DA will learn, and the first step of it is to learn to learn how to get disarmed."

There was a pause in the excited pairs on officially learning settled down for a moment.

"You mean learn how to disarm," said Ivy.

Quinn shook his head, "No, it's to learn how to get disarmed."

The murmurs rose. Discussing. What did Quinn mean by learning how to get disarmed; was there a correct way to get. . . disarmed?

"The best way to learn a spell is to experience it," stated Quinn. "Of course, there are spells like Reductor spell which you can't experience and spells like Stunners which are harmful after a couple consecutive hits, but spells like the Disarming spells can be experienced. So what I want you to do is concentrate on how your hand feels when someone disarms you. . . I want a person from the pair to disarm the other person five times in a row before switching the other way round. . . Remember, concentrate on the feeling of getting disarmed."

The feeling of confusion and doubt grew inside the Room of Requirements as the pair members stared at each other, but. . .

"EXPELLIARMUS."

Everyone looked in the direction of the chant and saw Daphne Greengrass picking up her wand and holding it straight up for Tracey Davis to cast again — "EXPELLIARMUS" — the wand flew up once again and fell into the air. Both girls were experienced with Quinn's methods as he had made them understand what it meant to 'pull' while he taught them the Seize-and-Pull spell.

Then another Disarming chant came from another direction, and everyone saw Eddie Carmichael and Marcus Belby staring up towards the ceiling. Marcus raised his hands up and caught his wand that dropped into his hand from very high up.

"Can't you go easy?" said Marcus, "I fear that the wand might poke my eye out."

"Hmmm," Eddie made the sound before — "EXPELLIARMUS" — and Marcus' wand went flying into the air, really high.

Another two Disarming spell chant was heard, and they turned to see Harry Potter & Ron Weasley, and Ivy Potter & Hermione Granger cast the Disarming spells. Three out of four had gone through the same ordeal just last year — they were just thankful they were starting light.

"Stop staring and start casting!" Everyone turned to see Quinn sitting on the ground, legs crossed, with a big block of dark-gray stone in his hand. "I want everyone to at least get sick about getting disarmed; that's the aim~."

The room was suddenly full of shouts of "EXPELLIARMUS!": Wands flew in all directions, missed spells hit books on shelves, and sent them flying into the air. Quinn would look up from his rock time-to-time to glance around and thought he had been right to suggest that they practice the

basics first; there was a lot of shoddy spellwork going on; many people were not succeeding in disarming their opponents at all but merely causing them to jump back a few paces or wince as the feeble spell whooshed over them.

'I guess it will take some time,' thought Quinn before going back to his rock.

Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown casted Disarming charms on each other, with frustration building in both girls.

"Ugh, how long do I have to do this — EXPELLIARMUS!" said Lavender.

Parvati picked up her wand with a fed-up expression and aimed it at Lavender as it was her chance to disarm Lavender. Her hand was feeling chaffed at her wand repeatedly being stripped out of her grasp. She winced a little as the wand in her grasp hurt and kept the tens of disarming fresh in her wand.

'Aah, aah, disarming, disarming, disarming, it's so frustrating!' she thought, and the feeling of a wand being disarmed grew stronger with her anger — "EXPELLIARMUS!"

A scarlet zap escaped her wand struck Lavendar's hand; the wand flew high into the air, and Parvati blinked in surprise as the wand spun in the air and dropped into her raised hand.

"Huh?" Parvati stared at Lavander's wand in her hand with surprise. In her last turn, she was barely able to push Lavender's wand out to a distance outside her reach; getting into her own hand wasn't even in her sights.

"Oh, you did it. Nicely done."

Parvati turned to see Quinn standing at a distance from her.

"By any chance, were you thinking about getting disarmed while casting?" he asked.

"Y-Yes," said Parvati, still surprised to have cast the spell so well.

"Now, how about carrying that same feeling but this time channel them towards Lavender specifically," said Quinn in advice.

Parvati nodded hurriedly, and after returning the wand to Lavender, she once again cast — "EXPELLIARMUS" — and this time, she followed Quinn's advice. Once again, Lavender's wand was in Parvati's hand.

"It was easier this time," said Parvati fascinated.

"That's to be expected," said Quinn with a smile, "that's how magic is cast — magic within, focused through your wand, shaped by our intents and imagination, made possible with the knowledge and the chant.

"Now, can you explain what you felt and did to Lavender?" asked Quinn.

Parvati nodded and immediately got to sharing her newly gained ability with Lavender as if she had just heard a new hot piece of gossip that was just too good not to be shared.

That day, from Parvati and Lavender, a chain of explanations and demonstrations spread into the entire Room of Requirements as, one by one, people started to understand how intent, imagination, and knowledge worked together to form and shape magic.

"Till the next time I want you guys to practice the spell on anything you can disarm; it can be clothes from hangers, lids from bottles, rings from fingers, anything you can find, BUT!" he raised his voice, "it shouldn't be outside the four walls of your dorm room. If Umbridge gets a whiff of you trying spells out in the hallways, she will take advantage of the no magic in hallway rule and push you into harsher detentions than needed."

And with that, the DA meeting was dismissed.

After ensuring everyone was out of the Room of Requirements, the Prefects in DA, with knowledge of patrol routes, led their respective houses back to their common rooms. Hufflepuff and Slytherin took a common route to the Dungeons, while Ravenclaw and Gryffindor took another route to descend a couple of floors to go to their common rooms.

When they were on the fifth floor, Ivy watched as the Ravenclaw group turned towards their common house, but she noticed that Quinn was missing.

"Huh, but I just saw him with them on the seventh floor. . ." She turned to Hermione and asked, "Does Quinn have patrol duty today?"

"No, he isn't on duty for two more days," said Hermione.

'Then where did he go?' wondered Ivy as they descended down to the fourth floor, and she looked up the Grand Staircase. He could've gotten down only one floor between the seventh and fifth floor, and that was the sixth floor.

'But what's he doing on the sixth floor,' she wondered.

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Quinn West - MC - Get sick of it to get good at it.

Eddie Carmichael - Ravenclaw - Hey!

Parvati Patil - Gryffindor - So, like, it was so, like. . .

Ivy Potter - Leader of DA - Noticed the vanishing act.

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The link is in the synopsis!