Oh I love
when we speak about old languages and script. It makes me think of archeology.
I wish I was an archeologist! I did learn the Greek alphabet and basic
hieroglyphs when I was younger. I was such a nerd (or a Ravenclaw I guess) even
back then. I hope that we’ll be offered courses in magic from the rest of the
world. Wouldn’t it be awesome to learn spells from Asia or Japan or the Latin
Americas! If Hogwarts doesn’t teach it, then maybe that’s what I’ll do after I
graduate: travel the world to learn about the different magics out there!

Anyways,
this week was about the importance of proper pronunciation. Like I didn’t know
that already! I’m still mad about that Lumos and Reparo, even if the Lumos is
easy now. Reparo though is still far from becoming a reflex. Stupid “RAH”! Now
I sound like the Dragonborn :) FUS-RO-DAH! Hahaha! The prof used the example
“I’d like to buy a dead cat” vs “I’d like to buy a red cat” to explain the
importance of pronunciation. And all I could think of was that no matter what
you said, you’d look like a weirdo either way (what would you want a dead cat
for? Eating it? And a RED cat! Whatever you’re on, man, must be good. I’ve
heard of ginger-coloured cats, but red! Does it have horns too?). Anyways, I’m
glad I’ve been checking proper pronunciation before trying out spells since the
Lumos, cause backfires don’t sound too pleasant. Yay for smart me!

Did I
ever say how much I LOVE the Quintessential
Magic textbook? It is simply awesome. I like Magical Theory as well, but sometimes it tends to go on for what
feels forever…

So this
week, I decided to do the spells in reversed order. It has nothing to do with
the fact that I’m scared shitless about setting the house on fire, no Sir! So,
I started with the Locomotion Charm. That will so be useful next time I decide
to rearrange a room or next time I move! The incantation is Locomotor and it’s
pronounced “LOH-koh-moh-tor”. That emphasis on the “LOH” just sounds wrong to
me, but at least I don’t have decades of saying that word, so it shouldn’t be
too hard to get my brain to think otherwise. And it wasn’t. The wand movement,
a full circle with an upward flick toward the target at the end, demanded a bit
of practice. You know, to make sure it’s a circle and not a spiral, but it
wasn’t too hard either. The first time I tried, thank Merlin it was only with a
pen. The textbook mentioned the target may swerve and shudder as it moves. Mine
did more than swerving. If the pen had been a broomstick, then the rider was
drunk. My pen looked like it was driving under the influence! I assume it was
due to my scattered mind. I think “I want it to go there” but then I get distracted
by something shiny and the pen ends up not knowing where to go anymore. I
really need to practice this “staying focused” thing. I ain’t even attempting
the casting of a second spell while Lomotor is active yet. It would be
pointless since I’m still working on my staying focused on just one spell.
Maybe by next week, I’ll be better at it.

Incendio.
The Fire-Making Charm. I absolutely refused to practice the spell until I had
an extremely safe area. The pronunciation (in-SEN-dee-oh) is actually easy and
the wand movement (a curved flick up and down in the shape of a flame) as well.
And that’s when you wish you had a fireplace or something like that. I know the
textbook said that with my lack of experience, I should only be able to light a
candle from several inches away, but it’s FIRE! Haven’t your parents never told
you NOT to play with fire! I think I’ll stick to lighters to light my candles,
thank you very much! But I still needed to learn the spell and at least get it
to work once. One of my neighbour has this neat little area for bonfires. So I
woke up in the middle of the night, got dress like a thief (you know in all
black) and sneaked in his backyard with my candle. I set one on the edge of the
bonfire area and went for the kill, only to have nothing happened. In
retrospective I should have realized that my fear of burning down the whole
place was fighting my will of lighting the candle. It still took me around
half-an-hour to get frustrated enough that I wasn’t subconsciously focusing on
the fear anymore and for me to produce a small flicker of flames, which made me
jump in surprise. But now that I knew what the Incendio looked like at my level
I wasn’t scared of it anymore. So I blew the candle out and tried again. I did
this around ten times, just to be sure it wasn’t a fluke. I’m still not going
to use that spell unless I have to, like if I ever do get a fireplace or am
lost in the woods and need to warm up…