Catlyn’s Journal Vol.2, Defense

This Journal contains spoilers for volumes one and two, you have been warned.

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Ever since the troll during Halloween, I've wanted to try to become stronger so I never run into a situation in which I'm tempted to use the Killing Curse again. I've tried to learn more offensive spells but they require a lot of mana to cast so they don't seem like good options, I'm still learning them anyway.

So, since I can't perform a powerful offense, I've decided to hone my defense. I've borrowed the library's copy of Defensive Magical Theory and I will write again in a few days about how this approach is going.

Entry two, a week later.

It's been a few rough days. The book turned out to be a massive moral rant on spell use rather than a useful theory book on magic used to defend. Because defensive spells need to overpower the spell they're defending against, they need more mana than that spell. On top of that, most defensive spells are either for defending an area or used on the victim after they were hit.

The only spells that would be useful for me to learn are the Protego's. I've been looking into any spell that might be useful but I can't really practice any of them. My schedule has been so full that I only have time to practice the Shield Charm.

Entry three, week three.

During this time I've realized a few things about the Shield Charm. The Shield Charm may seem like a simple spell used to protect the caster, it's much more complex than believed. When a spell hit's the charm, it does one of three things, ricochets, blocks, or reflects. The effect is thought to be random. This was a problem for me considering that if the spell was blocked then it required more mana. I want to eliminate this randomness but I also feel like there's more to it.

Entry four, the same week.

I asked Professor Flitwick about it considering his history as a dualist. He said that it is one of his dueling secrets he will reveal to the world following his death. Although he didn't tell me the secret, he gave me a clue. He said it had to do with wand movement.

Entry five, week seven.

I figured it out! I've been paying close attention to my wand movement as I've been practicing and connecting errors and my movements to specific effects. The reason why those errors are there is that the Shield Charm is very lenient on the minor movements. It can be horizontal, vertical, diagonal, all that matters is that it's a slash across the body. Considering the differences, I've decided to name the forms of the spell.

Form one, block. If I keep the tip of my wand in a straight line without squiggles, the shield will entirely block the spell.

Form two, ricochet. If you add a small arch to the beginning of the swipe, the spell will be reflected in the direction of where your wand ends the arch. It's sort of like deflecting or parrying.

Form three, reflect. This is the most complex and hardest to pull off. First, your wand not only needs to be at the apex of the swipe but meet the trajectory of the spell exactly. The wand movement then needs to stop at the apex as well. After all of this, the swipe must be in the opposite direction and angle of the spell, which redirects the spell straight back.

I was very lucky to figure this out. The more power behind the swipe, the more powerful the spell. This makes it impossible to have a powerful swipe that ends at the apex. So, to pull this off you must not put too much power in the wand movement which could spell death for the cast.

Form four, long cast. I decided to add the other ways of using the Shield Charm in this. Rather than swiping, the movement is a thrust. This makes it so that the shield stays alive as long as you keep your wand and arm in position.

Form five, barrier. The shape of the Shield Charm is that of a wall in a way. This form of just pointing your wand to the sky creates a bubble-shaped shield. This way makes the spell weaker and necessary to give more mana to strengthen it. It also requires great imagination and concentration to determine and correctly create the size and position of this shield. Because of this and its slow casting time, this form isn't typically used during a duel.

I would say the same is for Protego Duo and Protego Maxima but I'm not skilled enough to perform those spells.