#jordi prewett

[carewyncromwell]

Hahaha, so...today, December 28, 2020, is my foul-mouthed HPMA DADA Teacher’s Assistant kiddo Erik Apollo’s birthday...as well as my 30th! (EEK!!)

Those balloons were definitely left in my boy’s office by some of his students as a joke -- dunno whether it was Jordi Prewett @cursebreakerelmswood, Mitch C. Hodge @department-shoe-stud, H.G. Gray @ljthebard1, or his “little sister” Eos Amari, but you can bet your ass he loved them and immediately showed them off proudly to his friend Professor Jasper Jericho “Jay” Kingsley. I think even Erik’s immediate superior Professor Alistair Schaefer @cursebreakerfarrier couldn’t completely bite back a laugh at the sight of them. 

Wishing everyone happy holidays! In Erik-muse’s words, after how shitty of a year we’ve had, I’d say we’re in need of them! xoxo

[department-shoe-stud]

I know I’m a day late, but I hope I can still wish both @carewyncromwell and Erik Apollo a happy birthday!

Thank you for the inspiration, @cursebreakerelmswood ! The thought of Mitch, Jordi, H. G. ( @ljthebard1 ), and Eos Amari hiding in the closet after setting up the balloons is top-tier comedy!!!

[carewyncromwell]

There! Finalized my model sheet for my HPMA girl, Anastasia Read! You can read more about her here at this moodboard post I did for her, but basically she’s a Gryffindor who dreams more than she talks and is determined to be the heroine of her own fantasy story.

Some more info about Ana under the cut...

Ana doesn’t resemble her biological parents, John Read and Bonnie Pinkstone-Read, much at all except in hair color (both are also brunettes). Her soft, endomorph frame, strong shoulders, and bluish gray eyes come from her maternal grandfather. As an adult Ana’s even taller than her mother Bonnie, who’s very petite all the way around.

Poor Ana is actually quite self-conscious about her weight, thanks in no small part to the, um...attempts at support from her mother Bonnie, who frequently expresses “concern” about Ana’s health because of her size. At school she wears a highwaisted skirt to hide her tummy, as if she wore a skirt like all of the other girls’, she’d look like -- in her mother’s words -- “a sack of potatoes tied in two.” It’s also the reason she always wears pants, tights or leggings -- she thinks her legs are very chubby and unattractive. Despite her roundness, however, Ana’s also always had very strong shoulders and is on the taller side compared to her other female classmates, which helps her put off a tougher image.

Bonnie Read’s biggest foible as a mother is her immaturity. She wants to be Ana’s “friend” more than a mentor most of the time, and so has difficulty enforcing discipline or even in setting a good example. Bonnie almost immediately dated three other men after divorcing John, all of whom either pointedly ignored or expressed open resentment toward her daughter Ana, before she finally met, dated, and married her second husband. Bonnie’s dependent personality and (as mentioned) subconscious weightism doesn’t help matters either.

Ana’s father John Read is an active-duty soldier. He’s actually an incredibly absent father who never really had much interest in having a family, but Ana’s always put him on a bit of pedestal, partly because of her image of him having become a soldier for noble reasons like serving his country and partly because him not being there to actively be a poor parent like her mother Bonnie made it easier for Ana to romanticize John in her mind. Ana writes to John very frequently. John doesn’t write back much at all.

Ana’s best mentor figure is her stepfather, Bradley Pinkstone (a wizard and Gryffindor alumnus himself). He and his two grown sons Jasper and Preston (a Slytherin and Gryffindor in their day) are very affectionate toward Ana, which kind of weirded her out at first, considering she’s not their blood relative and she’d assumed they’d hate her...but oh, was she ever so glad to be wrong! The new Pinkstone-Read family live in a rather pretty brick house in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Her best and favorite class is History of Magic, but she tends to enjoy all classes where she can write essays. She’s always been miles ahead of her classmates when it comes to writing, especially considering that there are no specific writing or grammar classes taught at Hogwarts. Just about every written assignment Ana’s ever submitted has gotten an O.

Contrariwise, she struggles in classes that are more “physical” like Care of Magical Creatures or Flying.

Despite not getting into Flying class or Quidditch, though, Ana does take time to practice flying on her own at night when no one else is around. She finds moonlit broom rides incredibly romantic and great inspiration whenever she’s suffering from writer’s block.

Ana’s an avid journal keeper! She goes through a good five of them every year. She generally magically shrinks her finished creativity journals for easier storage, and she always hexes whichever one she’s currently writing in order to make sure no one else can open it. (If you’re somehow lucky enough to get her permission, she’ll open her creativity journal for you so you can read it and look at the doodles she did.)

Her favorite authors are Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Hans Christian Andersen, and William Shakespeare. Her favorite type of movies are high fantasy like The Princess Bride, Stardust, and The Lord of the Rings.

Ana’s also huge into Japanese manga! Her one true love is Sailor Moon, but she’s very fond of shoujo manga titles like Cardcaptor Sakura, Ouran High School Host Club, and Fruits Basket.

Ana’s favorite musical genre is symphonic metal, introduced to her by her oldest stepbrother Jasper. Her favorite bands are Within Temptation, Evanescence, and Nightwish.

As a teenager, Ana falls in love with the Victorian Gothic and steampunk subcultures, the first of which Jasper dabbles in and the second of which Preston is hard-core into. Being an INFP, she loves the creativity, historical bent, and romanticism in both movements. At the Pinkwood-Read family’s formal Christmas parties, you’ll often see all three of them wearing top hats with their holiday ensembles.

Ana does NOT make friends easily, but once you do become her friend, she’s always got your back. Her BFF is Hufflepuff Robin Isherwood @cursebreakerfarrier​. She also gets along pretty well with Gryffindor housemate Lorcan O’Donnell @unfortunate-arrow​, Slytherin Jordi Prewett @cursebreakerelmswood​, Ravenclaw Noa March @that-ravenpuff-witch​ and Hufflepuffs Mitch C. Hodge @department-shoe-stud​ and HG Gray @ljthebard1​. They all either call Anastasia “Ana” or “Annie” -- her stepfather and brothers call her “Anya.” 

Upon finding out how much her BFF Robin likes flowers and plants, Ana went out of her way to collect some books on the Victorian language of flowers. (Her brother Jasper gave her a hand with finding some good ones.) One Valentine’s Day she even sent Robin a friendship bouquet of irises, goldenrod, oak-leaved geraniums, and southernwood without any sort of note -- not that it was necessary, given that flowers’ message translated to “Just wanted to let you know you’ll always be my best friend.” (Everyone else assumed Robin had this mysterious secret admirer.)

If anyone rubs Ana the wrong way, they can expect a formal dueling challenge. Ana is witty on the page, but not verbally, and she’s upfront and honorable enough when she’s angry to want to “take it outside” and settle the dispute on the dueling field the way a knight would avenge a slight to their king’s honor, rather than be backhanded or sneaky about it.

Ana may be cisgender and identify as straight, but she is the ULTIMATE LGBT+ ally. Even when she was a kid, she would get very hot under the collar about homophobia, racism, or any other sort of prejudice, thanks to her Gryffindor sense of honor and her INFP sensitivity, and after Bonnie married Bradley and Ana met Jasper (who’s transgender FtM himself), Ana became all the more passionate about LGBT+ rights. She only becomes more vocal in her support after some of her friends come out of the closet too.

Ana’s greatest fear is being insignificant. This is depicted in boggart form as the whole room around her suddenly becoming huge, to the point where she’s as tiny and helpless as a mouse.

Ana’s Patronus is a black swan. If she ever became an Animagus, she’d be a large brown and gray tabby cat with oddly colored bluish gray eyes.

I could see Ana one day becoming a well-regarded author of fiction books for young magical children.

[department-shoe-stud]

Mitch isn’t dead, he just has a concussion and a fear of confrontation.

I was looking back at old chats and found this one between @cursebreakerelmswood and I about our boys. It was funny and I wanted to try my hand at some other MCs. Hope I did okay?

Erik Apollo belongs to @carewyncromwell

Jordi Prewett belongs to @cursebreakerelmswood

Mitch C. Hodge belongs to me!

[carewyncromwell]

...Okay, I’m cheating a bit with my “thank you” gifts in honor of my MC Carewyn Cromwell’s birthday, but I really wanted to give some love to Carewyn’s “son” Erik Apollo’s “apprentices” -- Mitch C. Hodge @department-shoe-stud​, Jordi Prewett @cursebreakerelmswood, and Henrietta “H.G.” Gray @ljthebard1!

This is a photograph from their Hogwarts graduation day of the three showing off their diplomas that they sent along to their old Defense Against the Dark Arts TA, with a couple of scribbled notes on it. (Why yes, Mitch wrote the first line -- he’s the apprentice with the mouth most like Erik’s out of the three. XDD I see Jordi having written the second line and HG having written the last. I daresay whatever picture they gave their actual DADA professor, Alistair Schaefer @cursebreakerfarrier, was much cleaner. Unless they wanted to tease him by writing a swear word and then pointedly crossing it out and writing something squeaky clean over it, like Alistair would sometimes have to do on any assignments of theirs that Erik had graded. “Thanks for all of your help, Professor Schaefer...and for putting up with all of our shitake mushrooms! See you soon!”)

Erik goes on to keep this signed picture framed on his desk in the Auror office for many years afterward, right next to a framed picture of his guardian Carewyn and himself as a kid -- and if anyone at work asks about who the kids in the picture are, he usually smirks very widely when he answers.

“Three incredibly bright and talented people. If you work very hard, maybe you’ll be a match for them some day. Key word being ‘maybe.’”

Love you guys! Hope you like it!! 💚

[carewyncromwell]

6, 7 & 8 for the darling sourpatch~? Oh yeah, Roxy told me to say hi for her~

[Why no, Erik is not lightly blushing at the mention of his crush.]

“(clears throat) ...You may pass along my sincerest regards to Ms. Kim as well.”

[Yay for awkward turtle!]

6. Who’s your favorite student? (JK you don’t honestly have to answer)

[Erik’s mouth spreads in a cocky smirk.]

“‘Don’t have to answer?’ ”

[He cackles loudly, his ice blue eyes twinkling with mischief.]

“Fuck that. I reckon everyone knows who my so-called ‘favorites’ are -- I don’t exactly hide it. All one has to do is consider how few students I personally offer individual sessions to.”

[Why yes, he’s talking about his “apprentices,” Jordi @cursebreakerelmswood, Mitch @department-shoe-stud, and HG @ljthebard1.]

“Fortunately for everyone else, they all have a chance to join that list of ‘favorites,’ if they put in the work to impress me.”

7. Who’s your least favorite student? (Same as the last one)

“The list’s extensive. I’ll just break my criteria down into three bullet points -- Lazy. Arrogant. Drunk on the blood purist Kool-Aid, no doubt force-fed to them by their shit-for-brains parents.”

8. Do you live in Hogwarts?

“No. In the evenings I Floo back to my flat in Milton Keynes. If nothing else, I’ve got to feed my ‘flatmate,’ Jareth.”

((OOC: Jareth is Erik’s three-legged Russian blue cat. Yay for cat daddies!))

Professor Asks!

[carewyncromwell]

...So I’ve come to a decision about my girl Carewyn’s adopted “son” Erik Apollo -- post-Hogwarts, he’ll have become an Auror and an assistant DADA teacher at Hogwarts...circa the time a lot of your HPMA kids will be at school. :D

So if your HPMA kids need DADA tutoring or some useful jinxes and curses that the other teachers won’t teach, they can always reach out to my boy! He might be a snarky, impolite, potty-mouth little bugger who has none of the “nurturing” vibes his guardian Carewyn’s got, but he knows his stuff and he’s got his own weird flair for teaching. He’s already kind of taken @cursebreakerelmswood​‘s kid Jordi Prewett under his wing, so if any of your kids mess with him, “Professor Apollo” might bring you up to the front of the class at his next tutoring session and use you as target practice for the latest hex he plans to teach. ;) If you’re very, very lucky, you might even get the chance to hear him play the trumpet at the top of the abandoned Astronomy Tower in the early mornings, before everyone else gets up. This boi = ultimate morning person.

“Afternoon, rugrats. First years, then? All right -- reckon I should say my piece, before we start.

“The name’s Erik Apollo -- you may call me ‘Professor Apollo,’ ‘Professor,’ or just ‘Apollo.’ Call me anything else only when I’m not in earshot. I’m the most recent applicant accepted into the Auror Department at the British Ministry of Magic. Aurors normally fight Dark Wizards -- but since I’m still the new recruit, they thought it best to position me somewhere that needs ‘monitoring,’ so they plopped me down here. Normally one would be pissed off at the thought of graduating school with honors and achieving your dream job, only to be sent right back to school -- fortunately, Hogwarts is anything but a peaceful place, as I’m sure you’ll all figure out sooner or later.

“I’m not here to replace your professor -- my sessions are optional and tri-weekly, Monday-Wednesday-Friday. Opt out of any and all of them, if you want -- I don’t care. I only respect those who are willing to put in the work to improve themselves...so if you’re not interested in protecting yourself and your family from the Dart Arts and in learning as much as you can, then you can clear out. If you stick around, I will teach you. I won’t play nice, and I won’t coddle and give you gingersnaps like some of your other teachers -- but I will teach you. All I expect is that you come to my sessions focused and ready to fight and that you don’t bitch if I pick you to help me with a demonstration. Once you master the spell in question, then I might give you the chance to cast on someone else. Until then, you’ll just have to be a guinea pig once and a while. (smirks) Don’t worry. You all will have your chance at being the guinea pig at some point.

“Now...if all the lily-livered among us have cleared out...let’s begin.”

[carewyncromwell]

Why hello, everyone -- allow me to tell you a rather odd love story, set in the timeline of HP: Magic Awakened.

From stage left, we have Anastasia “Ana” Read, an independent, dreamy Gryffindor who contrary to the stereotype thinks a lot more than talks and believes the pen is just as mighty as the sword.

From stage right, we have Charlie Copper, a sociable, outdoorsy Ravenclaw who loves dragons as much as his namesake Charlie Weasley and will do any number of stupid things in the name of “science!” @drinkyoursoupbitch

When Charlie first encountered Anastasia, he was struck by her strong moral compass, given her tendency to challenge bullies and blood purists to Wizard Duels and then completely kick their asses fair and square, as well as her clear intellect, apparent in how every single essay she’s ever turned in since first year received an O. So he got it in his head -- “this girl and I? We should be friends!” Unfortunately Anastasia was NOT on the same page. She’d heard plenty about Charlie’s older siblings (who were in Gryffindor) and how much trouble they got into, and she could not understand why anyone would do things like checking out every single book in the library before she could just to try to get a complete stranger to be their friend. On top of that, she couldn’t help but resent Charlie a bit for doing so well in Care of Magical Creatures, a class she always struggled with.

After a lot of persistence, though, as well as seeing how good of a friend he was to Chip Winger @department-shoe-stud and others, Ana finally, finally gave Charlie a chance in sixth year and agreed to hang out with him. By the time they were seventh years, the two both considered each other friends, and once they graduated Hogwarts, Ana exchanged diligent correspondence with Charlie, her letter count to him only being beaten out by that to her best friend, Robin Isherwood @cursebreakerfarrier.

Now by the time this odd pair officially became friends, just about everyone in Charlie and Ana’s circles -- Robin, Chip, Mitch C. Hodge @department-shoe-stud, Jordi Prewett @cursebreakerelmswood, H.G. Gray @ljthebard1, Scotty Rosier @drinkyoursoupbitch, and Noa March @that-ravenpuff-witch -- could tell that Ana had developed romantic feelings for Charlie. Those suspicions were more than confirmed when Ana wrote her first book -- the first in a series featuring an eccentric, handsome, dark-haired traveling adventurer and dragonologist named Ardon Ronne. Everyone pretty quickly guessed the character was based off of Charlie Copper, who post-Hogwarts had started working at the Romanian Dragon Preserve alongside his namesake Charlie Weasley. When Chip Winger brought the book up to Charlie (with a little *wink wink nudge nudge*), however, Charlie was blissfully oblivious and brushed it off completely, saying it was kind of weird, but hey, “that’s Ana for you.” Turns out -- yeah! -- he really had been working so hard just to earn Ana’s friendship. He had not had a crush on her, like so many suspected. Needless to say, just about everyone wanted to throw hands at this revelation. This IDIOT!

It was only as the years went by that romantic late-bloomer Charlie started to notice girls. When he wrote about a rather pretty girl at the Preserve in his letters home to Ana, he was taken aback by how much Ana interrogated him about the girl in question, as if she was testing the girl vicariously through Charlie. “Is she honest?” her letters demanded. “Is she brave? What do you have in common? Does she treat you with respect?” What Charlie couldn’t have realized was that this was Ana fighting with herself. She felt frustrated and jealous beyond reason that Charlie had ignored all of her sincere efforts to love and support him and be someone he could potentially see in a romantic light -- but at the same time, she had always suffered from low self esteem about her appearance and knew that if this girl could make Charlie happy, she had no right to get in the way. Once she’d gotten every answer she wanted from Charlie and concluded that the girl would be a good match for him, she stopped writing. The young woman who used to send five letters every week abruptly went silent, leaving Charlie incredibly confused.

Fortunately, two months later, Ana’s stepbrothers, Jasper and Preston -- well aware of how unhappy their stepsister was -- decided to surprise her by inviting her “friend” Charlie Copper to the Pinkstone family’s annual Christmas party. As it is every year, the event hosted a select handful of both Muggle and wizard friends of the Pinkstones (the male members of whom all worked in a Muggle theater in their hometown of Stratford-Upon-Avon), with the dress code being formal dress robes (for wizards) and pre-WWI-inspired fashion (for Muggles). This made the Christmas party a rather colorful and theatrical sight, with everyone wearing top hats, tails, petticoats, corsets, vests, ties, and their finest robes, and everyone walzing to music ranging from traditional classical pieces to orchestral arrangements of Christmas songs to symphonic metal.

However Charlie had expected to greet Anastasia after two months of silence, though, it didn’t happen -- for when Ana descended the main staircase into the party already in progress, dressed in a low-cut white dress and matching white top hat, the newly girl-aware Charlie felt himself freeze up. She was beautiful. Charlie stowed away out of sight, trying to pull himself together, but he could see he wasn’t the only one who thought so. A lot of men danced with Ana. A lot of them were looking at her. It was only when one in particular got a bit too aggressive with his flirting that Charlie -- barely thinking at all -- intervened, coming up right behind Ana and advising the wizard to back off before Ana was tempted to say “no” in a way that didn’t involve words. Anastasia, previously unaware that Charlie had been there, was almost as red in the face as he was when she whirled around, startled, to look at him.

For the first time they looked at each other -- and felt the exact same way about each other.

Will they act on it, though...? Only time will tell. :3

[carewyncromwell]

10 facts about Sour Patch, perhaps?

Hahaha, mais oui, ma chere!

1) Erik is bisexual. He’s actually had more crushes on men than women over the years, but because he’s much more comfortable speaking his mind than speaking from the heart, his relationship with Roxy Kim @mira-shard is actually his first really serious foray into the realm of romance. Who knew my confident, snarky Sour Patch Kid could actually be a Mr.-Darcy-level awkward turtle, when it comes to love! LOL!

2) Although Erik has been attracted to more men than women, Leia Organa from the original Star Wars trilogy was his first childhood crush. His second was on Cary Elwes, the actor who played Westley in The Princess Bride. 

3) Even though he has adapted very well to the Wizarding World, Erik’s still very fond of the Muggle world and its trends. He not only played Nintendo games back in the day, but he’s also a big fan of Muggle movies. Carewyn and he have gone to the movies very frequently over the years, sometimes with a friend or two of Carewyn’s from back in the day. 

4) Erik’s favorite movie genre is fantasy: he especially enjoys fantasy films that have a darker or more “adult” edge to them, like Labyrinth, The Princess Bride, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Pan’s Labyrinth. 

5) His one true fandom love, however, is Star Wars. It was the first...well, anything that he bonded with his father, Phillip Apollo, over, and whenever Erik revisits it, he feels that little bit closer to Phillip. 

6) Although Erik does drink, he always cuts himself off at two drinks, no matter what size, because of the bad memories he’s retained of his mother Sadie when she was an alcoholic. 

7) Because of his trauma of being captured by the Death-Eater-controlled Ministry of Magic and being hauled before the Muggle-Born Registration Commission, Erik’s greatest fear is a dementor. Azkaban no longer employs them as guards any more and the Wizarding World now actively tries to contain them as much as possible (considering they are creatures that were originally made from very Dark magic to begin with), but whenever Erik encounters one in the outside world, he shows an astounding level of brutality in destroying it, with the thought that “that way they can never be used to torture anyone else again.”

8) Erik’s Patronus is a Siberian Cat. He went out of his way to learn how to cast the spell on his own while he was still at Hogwarts, given his history with dementors. He mastered the spell at age 14 -- his go-to “happy memory” is when Carewyn bought him his first familiar, a black and white tuxedo cat Erik called Han Solo. He also goes out of his way to teach his sixth and seventh year students the Patronus Charm so they can all cast one by the time they graduate -- he was particularly proud when his “apprentices” Jordi Prewett @cursebreakerelmswood and Mitch C. Hodge @department-shoe-stud both mastered the Charm in their one-on-one sessions, prior to him teaching the rest of their class. 

9) On the note of cats, because of his mother, Erik has always been a cat person. The very first cat Erik ever knew was a grumpy Siberian Cat (*eyes Patronus response with a smirk*) named Tabitha, who hated everyone except for Sadie Apollo until she gave birth to her son, Erik. Tabitha, who would scratch at anyone who so much as looked at her funny, softened to the little “hairless kitten,” curling up on his blanket on the floor to “watch over” Erik. Tabitha disappeared from the Apollo home, presumably to die, when she was 16 and Erik was five. 

10) Erik has always had a marked talent for Divination, particularly scrying and prophecy. When he was a young boy, he always was able to predict when surprise quizzes were going to happen and what was going to be on them. He first realized what that “luck” of his meant when he caught sight of what looked like someone being drenched in red paint in one of Trelawney’s crystal balls in Divination, only to find out that nobody else had seen it. Later that month, Peeves ended up splashing red paint all over the rest of the third year class as they walked out of the Great Hall as a prank. 

10 Facts!

[department-shoe-stud]

Mitch and Erik’s First Tutor Session

Well, unofficially.

As the class filed out, the Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher's Assistant raised his voice to call over the din. "Mr. Hodge -- would you stay after for just a moment. I'd like a word." His voice wasn't stern exactly, but it was predictably blunt.

Mitch paused in his steps, tension in every muscle as he turned to face Mr. Apollo, eyes going wide behind his glasses as he nodded. Watching his classmates leave, Mitch’s thoughts spiraled, thinking back on any possible missteps he could have made.

Erik settled himself on top of the desk at the head of the classroom and patiently waited for the rest of the class to file out and for the door to close behind the last student. Once everyone else was fully gone, he lightly crossed his arms over his chest and addressed Mitch. "Mr. Hodge," he said levelly, "I would like to see you attempt the Disarming Charm on that dummy, please." He nodded to the black training dummy he'd placed in the center of the room.

Mitch’s eyes darted to the dummy, and back at his teacher. His hands gripped the sleeves of his school robe nervously, the sleeves spooling past them. He blinked in confusion. “P-Pardon, Mr. Apollo?”

Erik inclined his head slightly. "I would like to see your wandwork up close, one-on-one," he explained, his voice remaining very level. He again nodded to the dummy. "When you're ready."

Ready. As easy as that. Mitch looked at the dummy again, and shuffled forward. He grabbed the wand from his pocket — It still felt too big, too long, too clunky — and looked between the wand and the dummy. He could feel Erik’s eyes on him as he stood there. Just stood there, staring and not saying a single word. Oh God. “Um, I think... I think I forgot the spell, s-sir.”

Erik could see Mitch's nerves. As he suspected -- there were insecurities there, getting in the way. His eyes softening ever-so-slightly, just enough that his face became much more casual, he sidled up onto his feet and over to Mitch. "Put the spell out of your mind, for the moment." He took out his own wand, holding it out in front of him just as Mitch was holding his. "Focus on your wand and your grip. I know it seems too big for your hand, too temperamental and wild -- like some crazy wild horse you're afraid to let go of, for fear it'll trample you. But your wand isn't where the magic comes from -- it's merely a conduit for it. The power comes from inside of you, not the wand. Think of it like a lightning rod, helping you focus your power and control it. You don't need to hold it in a vice grip -- you don't need to control it -- instead, see it merely as a tool. Picture the way you hold your pencil in your mind. Your wand is like a pencil. It's a tool -- the only difference is that it helps you express yourself through magic, rather than through the written word." As he speaks, Erik's focus is largely on the dummy in front of him and Mitch: he could sense that Mitch was growing uncomfortable, with how much he was looking at him and thought it might work better to merely show the proper posture by example, holding his own wand out the proper way, rather than staring at Mitch or physically adjusting the Hufflepuff's grip himself.

Mitch took in his instructor’s words carefully, feeing embarrassment come through him. He wanted to do better, he really did, and it was... nice, that Erik seemed to understand, but it didn’t stop him from feeling foolish. He shook his head and looked at Erik’s posture, slowly moving to match. When they did, he took a deep breath and looked back at Erik, nodding to show he was ready to continue.

Erik gave Mitch a curt nod of approval in return, his edges of his mouth touched by the faintest hint of a smirk. “Now then,” he said, keeping his focus on the dummy, “we’ll practice the wand movement next. To cast the Disarming Charm, you’ll move your wrist to the right and then down — kind of like an upside down backwards ‘L,’ see?” He demonstrated the wand movement slowly several times as he spoke. “Get the movement in your wrist, nice and easy.”

Mitch gave a nod back, setting his jaw, tamping down his nerves. He trusted that his teacher knew what he was doing, with the spell and with his help. Mitch watched the movement and repeated, slowly flicking his wrist a few times before taking the wand in it. “Mr. Apollo? Just out of curiosity... How badly can this spell go wrong?”

The question made Erik laugh. His laugh was a low cackle in the back of his throat — one that could’ve sounded evil, were it not for how sincerely amused and honest it was. He looked down at the Hufflepuff with a rather mischievous gleam in his eye. “Worst case scenario for you? You lose your balance and fall over. Best case scenario? You both disarm your opponent and knock them clean off their feet, making them look like an idiot for underestimating you.” The teacher’s assistant looked quite a bit younger, with that look in his eye. His lips spread into a brighter smirk. “Are you up to try the spell with the incantation? I’ll make sure you don’t fall over.”

Mitch let out a small, nervous laugh, little more than a huff of breath. He looked at the dummy and nodded. “If I do fall over, sir,” He said, gripping his wand the smallest bit tighter, “Promise you won’t laugh?” Feeling more confident in his posture and hand movement, he looked up at his teacher once more for support. “Please?”

Erik’s smirk loosened slightly and his ice blue eyes became a little smaller. “I give you my word,” he said, before adding with a broader smirk, “And whether I’m swearing an oath or swearing like a sailor, I mean what I say. Now then...the incantation is ‘Expelliarmus.’ Take your time and remember to enunciate the consonants. Ex. Pell. Lee. Air. Moose.”

Mitch nodded once more, repeating the syllables under his breath a few times before taking one last deep breath. He inhaled, stood at posture and stared the dummy down. “Expelliarmus!” While not the most powerful of spells, the dummy wobbled back a few inches, enough to show the spell had succeeded. “FUCK YEAH!” Mitch shouted in triumph, only realizing after the fact that he had shouted right in his teacher’s ear. “Oops. Sorry.”

The volume had startled Erik, but not long after Mitch had apologized, the TA burst out laughing. His loud, low cackle filled the room as he flicked his own wrist, silently moving the dummy back into its starting position with his wand, and then turned back to Mitch with a more devilish smirk. "So you DO have some fire in there," he said. "Thank God -- it's a pain in the ass, trying to drag students by their ears to their fullest potential."

Mitch quickly recovered from his apologies and headed straight into pouting. “I want to be good at magic, I do! I’m just not used to it like you are! It’s all so, so... weird! I’m used to everything being one way and then suddenly, guess what! Magic is real and you have it! Here’s a stick that helps you make things float but also set things on fire but also turn cats into cauldrons and also kill people. Have fun!” He scuffed at the floor, shoving his wand back into his pocket and sighing. “I want to be good but it’s... scary. Does it... Does it ever stop being... a lot?” He twisted his hands in his robe sleeves again. “I mean, it’s got to get easier, practice and all that but... I’m just... scared that I’ll hurt somebody.” He blinked and screwed up his face. “I’m also scared of the tree that hits you in the front lawn. Seems like a safety hazard.”

Erik's smirk slid slowly off his face, making him look a bit more serious. "You're Muggle-born too, then?" he said softly. He turned, strolling over to the desk at the head of the classroom again. He sat back down on top of the desk, patting the wood next to him as if offering Mitch a seat on it too. "It is very overwhelming, you're right," he said patiently. "Having so much thrown at you, all at once -- having your whole world up-ended, and everything you thought you knew disrupted -- making you feel like you're constantly falling behind...like...it's you, against the whole world." There was something almost haunted in Erik's eyes as he looked at Mitch. The memory of him as a boy Mitch's age standing in front of Dolores Umbridge and the Muggle-Born Registration Commission, cowering under the dark, draining, despair-inducing shadow of the dementors rippled over his mind. "...It will take a while to get your bearings," said Erik, his voice a bit lower in his throat with muted sympathy, "and it will take longer to find yourself and a place that can be all yours in this new World you've been enveloped in. The good news is...along with all of the scary stuff that you don't understand yet, there is also a lot of amazing stuff. And even if everything at once can seem overwhelming...if you take it a bit at a time, patiently making notches in your belt for everything you've learned -- you can look at each thing with awe, not just fear. And if you don't lose sight of that good thought you've got -- that desire not to hurt people -- then you'll be able to work hard to understand that magic as much as you can so that you never do." His mouth then twisted into another smirk. "As for the Whomping Willow, I don't blame you for that. That plant is fucking nuts."

Mitch laughed, nodding. “It’s insane.” He looked at Erik. His advice was sound and it was... nice, knowing that he wasn’t alone in this. That it got better. But he knew a far off look when he saw it, and he hoped that whatever Erik saw, it wasn’t something he had to deal with. He really did hope to be as used to the Wizarding World as everyone else one day, but Erik was just... so much cooler than Mitch, could do SO much cooler shit than him. Whatever haunted Erik’s memories would no doubt make Mitch piss himself. Mitch nodded once more and smiled. “Thank you Mr. Apollo. Do you... um, I heard Jordi, uh, Prewett was taking tutoring with you. Is that... Do I have to sign up for that, is that a special thing for him, should I just leave now and save you the trouble, or...?”

Erik's smirk broadened, revealing white teeth. " 'Save me the trouble?' Mr. Hodge, I *love* trouble -- and I reckon a nipper like you is *exactly* my kind of trouble. I could use more students with both drive and a good sense of humor." He adjusted his crossed arms over his chest. "I 'tutor' on a person-by-person basis, based on when both of our schedules are open. Week-days only -- even assholes like me deserve a good night's sleep once in a while. You may either bring something Defense-related that you would like to practice to me, or I will pick something myself." His ice-blue eyes twinkled mischievously again. "I'll warn you -- I'll expect you to give me 120%, both in class sessions and especially when we work one on one. If you're willing to put in the work, then I will do whatever I have to to make sure you succeed. But you'll need to be ready to kick some ass, got it?"

Mitch nods back, grinning. “Kicking ass is my middle name. That’s what the C really stands for.” Distantly, a bell rang in the hall, and Mitch felt himself blanche. “Potions. Shit.” He scrambled to shove his books away and nodded at the still smirking TA. “Week-days, bring material, 120%, got it.” With his bag haphazardly packed away, he sprinted towards the classroom’s door, only to stop at the threshold and turn back towards Erik. He raised his hand to his forehead and saluted him. “I’ll come back with my A Game, Mr. Apollo, or my name isn’t Mitch ‘Cicking Ass’ Hodge!” He swung the door open and sprinted down the hallway, muttering cusses at himself the entire way down to the dungeons.

Erik cackled as the Hufflepuff dashed out of the room. He liked this kid. It was going to be a lot of fun, training him.

~~~

Thank you so much @carewyncromwell for the rp session to help flesh Mitch and Erik’s dynamic out! It was so much fun having the Sour Patch and the Anxiety Boi interact and I hope we can do it again sometime!

I hope everybody else enjoys this exchange too! I really need to upload more original content for Mitch, my poor son :’(((

[carewyncromwell]

"...Hn. An ‘Ask Box,’ huh?”

[Cue Erik blowing off some dust.]

“Looks like it hasn’t taken questions in a while...but not in bad shape, I suppose.”

Ms. Cromwell must’ve used this, while she was at school...shit, imagine the stupid stuff she must’ve gotten sent back in the day...

[Erik cringes at the thought of his guardian receiving the sorts of...invitations he’d gotten as a student.]

“(clears throat) Hey there -- how do? The name’s Erik Apollo. Carewyn Cromwell was my legal guardian, when I was a brat -- I reckon you lot know her already. I’m the newest member of the Auror Department at the Ministry of Magic, and at present I’m positioned at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where I serve as a Teacher’s Assistant for Defense Against the Dark Arts. I can’t act like I’m proficient when it comes to using this sort of thing -- but Hell, I can think of stupider shit to do when you’ve got free time on your hands. So send along some messages for me, if you feel the urge. Messages, I will emphasize again. Don’t send me pictures of your dick -- I assure you, it’s not as impressive as you think it is.”

((OOC: YAY, CAREWYN’S “SON” ERIK’S TAKEN OVER THE ASKBOX FOR THE NIGHT! I apologize in advance if his replies are largely text-based, rather than including doodles like I normally do for these things...and I also apologize in advance for this muse’s tendency to swear -- he has both a smart ass and a potty mouth. XD

But yes! Here’s Erik’s backstory, should you desire it. Feel free to send him questions about his Auror or Assistant Teacher work, his backstory/family, Defense Against the Dark Arts in general, dueling, Healing magic, Divination, Star Wars (his favorite...anything, honestly), or those lucky enough to have a place on his short list of favorite people like his “Mama Bear” Carewyn, his protege Jordi Prewett @cursebreakerelmswood​, or his crush colleague Roxanni Kim @mira-shard! <33))