Courage {Neville Longbottom} (ON HOLD)

Chapter Fifty Five

Kefira and Neville had to question if Bandile had finally lost his mind as he called upon them one early morning. They met in an empty field away from both of their homes and were told they would be having their own Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons under his guidance. But it certainly left them confused as they were both underage and unable to practice magic unless they were on school grounds. However, when Kefira was told that she wasn't going to need her wand, she was really beginning to question her Uncle's sanity.

As he had the two sitting in the grass before him, he handed both of them a stick, leaving them to hesitate in taking them from him.

"Um...Uncle Bandile," Kefira called out, " these are sticks."

"Thank you for pointing out the obvious, Kefi. We're all pleased to hear that your eyesight is still perfect," Bandile grinned at her while she narrowed her eyes in his direction. Neville took his stick first and examined it over, waiting for something to happen before he looked back up at the man.

"I'll admit, I'm confused."

"Of course you are because neither one of you have given me the opportunity to explain what is going on," Bandile said, "now listen up. Obviously, these sticks are not your wands but as you two both felt the need to remind me, you cannot practice magic outside of school yet. But what we're going to do does not require your wands, at least, not until you two get better at it. We're going to work on your enunciation and your movement. Enunciation is extremely important when it comes to spell work because if you don't have a clear voice or speech it can affect your performance and during a duel you don't want that. "

"Right, we're going to want to pull out our sticks and smack people over the head with them," Kefira teased bringing Bandile to make a face at her. 

"No, you two will eventually be learning non-verbal magic, but Kefira, as you learned, silent magic is not easy by any means. Your voice has to be clear in your head in order to channel it into your wand. If you cannot properly pronounce a word, regardless if you don't say it out loud, it's still not going to work properly. So, I want to hear the clear enunciation of each spell and I want to see the proper wand movement, using your lovely "wands."

Kefira raised her hand causing Bandile to clap his hand over his face wanting to avoid the question, knowing it was going to be something he probably didn't have a proper answer for.

"What is it, Kefi?"

"How come the wizarding world doesn't use guns?" She asked before allowing her hand to drop back in her lap. Neville and Bandile faced the girl with incredulous looks while Kefira looked incredibly calm.

"Kefi, I swear-"

"It is a valid question!" Kefira argued. "I mean, come on, the amount of time it takes a person to call out a spell, someone could have easily pulled the trigger and boom, it's over."

"Kefi-" Bandile called out in a warning tone but Kefira's focus was lost as she turned to Neville.

"Here, Neville, say a spell. Any spell," she told him.

Neville looked to Bandile, knowing that Kefira was interrupting a lesson they were supposed to be having. But the man gave a shrug of his shoulders, encouraging the boy to oblige.

"Okay," Neville sighed, " Wingard-"

"Bang, you're dead," Kefira said simply. "I win."