This Workout Brought To You By Sia on Magical Arts Room and Sports

Parker Fitzgerald

February 28, 2018 12:50 PM

This Workout Brought To You By Sia by Parker Fitzgerald

Let out the energy. That's what his mother had always said he needed to do, and maybe, just maybe that's why he had not been feeling himself lately. He hadn't been going on as many walks in the garden without his adventure buddy around. He'd been sitting in the Library playing DnD and reading up on animals while writing letters.

Without Quidditch Parker needed something to do, to work out the energy he had, and hopefully get rid of the foggy feeling. That's how he found himself in MARS. He remembered it from the tour in first year, but hadn't yet actually made use of it. He decided he would have it be a simple gym, like the one his brother had made back home.

Sitting in the mock up of the gym felt weird. He could see the feel the equipment and it felt real, but he had seen the room only moments before and it wasn't there. Sitting down on the bench Parker took out the small iPod his sister had given him and put the ear buds in and started working out to the rhythm.

I had a one-way ticket to a place where all the demons go
Where the wind don't change

Parker slowly started stretching and then, because the music was moving faster he started doing burpees. He'd only done them a few times before and had hated them, but he felt they might use up the energy he was feeling inside.

I found solace in the strangest place
Way in the back of my mind
I saw my life in a stranger's face...

Up to 35 burpees. The most Parker had ever done and he could feel the energy building instead of going away. He was getting more of it instead of less. This was not going as he had planned, but decided to keep going. Switching it up, and cycling through a few other exercises that he knew.

I have made every single mistake
That you could ever possibly make

Images of John Jr suddenly flashed through his mind. For some reason Parker could feel his anger raise up to meet with energy that he was feeling. Images of his brother and sister started flooding into his mind. Parker stopped moving, trying to stop the images, but they kept coming. His brother threatening him and his sister. His sister playing in their front garden. Parker closed his eyes wanting the images to stop, shaking his head. He could feel the anger and the energy getting more intense. He crouched down on the floor and shouted at his brain to stop.

Then nothing.

Parker realized suddenly it had all stopped. The energy he had had disappeared, as did the images, the anger, even the sound.

Slowly opening his eyes Parker's mouth responded in kind. What had been the simple gym looked liked a bomb had gone off. Scorch marks on the wall, the equipment seemed flipped over, and bits of smoke still hung in the air, but Parker was sitting in the center, untouched. The earbuds seemed to have fallen out when Parker crouched down towards the floor.

He picked them up and put them in his ears, both afraid of what might happen if he did, and also if he didn't.

I'm alive
I'm alive
I'm alive

41 Parker Fitzgerald This Workout Brought To You By Sia 1402 Parker Fitzgerald 1 5

Jozua Sparks

March 01, 2018 9:09 PM

And the Letter A for Apocalypse by Jozua Sparks

Jozua had lost some time being sick. He'd milked it as long as he could, but eventually he'd had to go back to classes. Then there had been make-up work from the two days of class he missed while bedridden. Well, the first day he had actually been bedridden, spending several hours in the Hospital Wing, then getting sent to rest the remainder of the day in his own room. The second day he would have probably been fine to return to class, but he'd successfully convinced Professor Xavier that he needed one more day of recovery. The third day had been the weekend and there was just no excuse for not going back after that.

As he'd been busy making up his homework and classwork, he hadn't really had much opportunity to get back to the Dueling Arena - aka the MARS Sports room - much lately to try to keep working on his wand control or whatever it was that was up with him. Though, truthfully, in doing that homework and classwork, he really hadn't had any issues recently.

Today he had time again, and he planned to test out this new semblance of control he'd achieved, so he made his way to MARS. Opening the door to the Sports room, he came to an abrupt halt less than a full step into it.

The place was a disaster. "Wow," he heard himself blurting out, "I thought I was having magic control issues." He'd seen worse. His house had burned down just over a year ago, after all. But it was still an impressive display of utter destruction. In the middle of it was a kid he didn't really know, but thought he recognized as the smallest Chaser on the Pecalus team. The one Joe had hit with a bludger last year. He suddenly felt glad it hadn't been him, or he'd feel the need to start apologizing.

His gaze darted about the place, picking out the remains of some strange contraptions pushed to the edges of the room and badly scorched. He wasn't quite sure what they were, but he didn't think they were looking in good shape. They looked like they'd been in the way when a massive fireball went off, though Firs- no, Second-Year Chaser looked perfectly fine, so that - probably? - wasn't what happened. Still, that was some magical potential.

"Do you like standing in the middle of explosive craters, or can I make a few changes to the room?" he asked. It wasn't impossible that the kid just woke up today with the desire to stand in the middle of a disaster scene and the room had obliged him. MARS was cool like that. So he didn't want to start messing around with the scenery if this was what the kid wanted. He'd been there first, after all. "I mean, running around in the aftermath of the apocalypse is suddenly starting to look interesting, now that I see it, so if you don't mind, I'll join you, if that's what you're doing."

1 Jozua Sparks And the Letter A for Apocalypse 348 Jozua Sparks 0 5

Parker

March 02, 2018 5:28 PM

And for Alleviating Awkwardness? by Parker

Sore. Sore and tired. That's how Parker felt when the older boy walked in on him in the middle of the floor. Now Parker could add embarrassed and scared to the list of things he was feeling. At least it hadn't been his Quidditch Captain... or a teacher. Though he imagined the teachers had seen worse. He'd heard enough stories from Cleo to realize that maybe fire wasn't an abnormal thing, still, Parker could see how this looked bad. Blowing up things isn't usually something that gets put on a list of things to do.

As the older boy spoke, Parker knew exactly who was in front of him. It had to be Jozua Sparks. Though they had not been introduced, or really interacted, apart from games, where it was hard to be introduced to an opponent, he had heard all the stories about his... display earlier this year, to his...flare for the dramatic. Parker knew the comment was coming from the man himself. And if Jozua was saying it, it meant the room really did look as bad as Parker had imagined.

"I..." Parker started to try and explain but didn't know how. Hanging his head down he simply said "I came in to release some of the energy I had. Though I don't know how it came to this."

Parker laughed at the Jozua's next comments. He felt a little better knowing that he wasn't in trouble, at least not with the older boy. No one had told him that Jozua was funny, besides being a spectacle maker.

"No no, please, if you know how to fix this, please. I just wanted to work out before not... I don't... not do whatever this is," Parker said stumbling over his words as he stood up to wave his hand at what had been apply described as the aftermath of the Apocalypse.

He'd made the sports room look like his family home, and now Parker had blown it up? What did that mean. What was happening? He didn't like it, and if he was being honest, was a bit scared of himself.

41 Parker And for Alleviating Awkwardness? 1402 Parker 0 5

Jozua

March 07, 2018 7:58 AM

Absolutely by Jozua

Given permission to change the room from the person who created its current incarnation, Jozua closed his eyes, spread his hands out and turned in a slow circle, imagining the Dueling Arena as he had created it for every Dueling Club meeting since it began. It looked mostly like the one in Aladren (his hometown, not the House) but with a lot less seating for spectators (though enough for the rest of the club members who weren't currently dueling at any given time).

The floors gleamed a polished gray color with boundary lines for three different duels to be going on at a time. The walls looked solid and stone, and even the chairs were metallic. Cushioning charms made them more comfortable, without adding anything that might be flammable to the room. Additional charms were in effect to keep fire and other dangerous spell effects from leaving the dueling circles. It wasn't an enchantment Jozua could normally do yet, but the MARS was generous and didn't want anyone to get hurt either and was able to duplicate the effect so far as Jozua could tell as long as he remembered to think about it when he made the room.

He opened his eyes, lowered his arms, and looked around in satisfaction. It looked like a safe place for working with uncertain magic. He turned back to the kid. "If you want to stand in one of the circles and practice, they're designed to keep magic effects from endangering anyone outside the circle. I've found some spell practice has been having a good effect on my control. Haven't had an outburst in a few days."

He waved invitingly toward one of the circles. "If you're not sure what to do, I can teach you a few dueling drills." Then he belatedly decided an introduction was probably in order. "I'm Jozua, by the way. Jozua Sparks. The, er, dueling club president."

1 Jozua Absolutely 348 Jozua 0 5

Parker

March 15, 2018 2:49 PM

Amazing by Parker

He knew what the MARS rooms could do. After all he had crafted the room himself before he blew it up, but he'd not had his eyes open when the room had changed, so the experience was downright jaw dropping.

The room swirled in front of Parker's eyes changing from the brown wood tones of the Fitzgerald house into grey stone metallic floors and walls. The overturned furniture flew away and was replaced by chairs and all the while Jozua sat there with his eyes closed. Parker was transfixed. This. This was magic. This was what he wanted to do and imagined he'd do at this school.

As the room came together Parker looked around. He wasn't sure where he was standing, but he could tell he was in the middle of some kind of performance area. There were three areas marked out. Jozua spoke as he turned around. He made good sense and then Parker thought he made a joke, but Parker was still in awe of having seen the room change itself like it had. And merely nodded as he backed up into the circle area.

Parker finally snapped out of it when Jozua introduced himself, which caused Parker to laugh a bit. He imagined it was hard for people not to know who Jozua was.

“I know who you are. You're someone that’s hard to miss. As my dad would say, your reputation presence precedes you. My name is Parker. I’m a…” Parker was still looking around the room and for a moment forgot what year he was in, “second year. I got beamed by the beater last year.” He remembered Jozua was on the other team, but couldn’t remember if Jozua was the one who’d hit him though.

“Sorry, I’ve never seen the room change before like that it was… I want to say magical, but that sounds stupid being at Sonora. And umm… I’d love to learn some drills. I don’t really know any besides from Defense classes. You have anything to stop me from blowing up? My parents didn’t teach me any.”

Parker added the last bit, not necessarily lying as he thought it’d be stupid to, to end a conversation about him being muggle born before it started. It was a conversation he’d had too many times in this school upon first meeting people. A conversation in which people seemed to sometimes treat him differently. One of the reasons he missed talking to Cleo, she seemed genuinely not to care about who his parents were.

41 Parker Amazing 1402 Parker 0 5

Jozua

March 21, 2018 10:38 AM

Awesome by Jozua

Jozua felt his heart sink as the younger student revealed that he clearly already knew who Jozua was. He supposed it could just be because he ran the dueling club, but he suspected the cause of his fame, apparently even outside his nearest year groups, had more to do with his spectacular displays of uncontrolled magic recently. Obviously word had spread about that well beyond the intermediate class.

He ran a hand awkwardly through his blond hair, but fortunately even in his dismay and embarrassment he didn’t start sparking out again. In fact, he was feeling solidly in control of his magic again, even in the face of social awkwardness. Obviously his practice and the necessary of skipping classes to do so was paying off. Maybe, maybe, he was safe enough to start casting around other people again.

At least Parker was just politely introducing himself and not outwardly accusing Jozua of being kind of scary. But then, after what Jozua had seen walking into the MARS room, Parker might be afraid of having it turned back on him. “Yeah, that was Joe,” Jozua supplied the name of ‘the beater’ who had caught Parker out in the last game when he mentioned it. Quidditch was good for getting to know your own teammates, but there really wasn’t much opportunity for catching the names of the folks on the other side.

He grinned, feeling more comfortable and confident, now that the subject had turn firmly toward dueling drills. This he knew. This he could teach and demonstrate and not worry about doing it wrong because this had never failed him.

“Absolutely,” he promised. “After, er, well, after,” he said significantly, not wanting to bring up his sparking out or the explosion in Transfiguration, but figuring Parker could probably figure out what he was alluding to since ‘his reputation preceded him’ and all. “After that, I started doing some wand control drills in here, and it definitely seems to be helping. I’ve been accident free for almost a week!” And okay, fair, there had been days in there where he hadn’t left his bed much less picked up a wand, but accident free was accident free.

“My dad taught me these before I even got my own wand, in the hopes it would help with my accidental magic outbursts, and it did, kind of.” He left it to be assumed that he was using a fake wand instead of Dad’s because if Parker’s parents didn’t teach him anything to help control his magic, then they might be sticklers for the underage magic laws, and he didn’t want to get Dad in trouble. Or he supposed they could be muggles and just didn’t know any such exercises, but it was probably still safest not to admit to illegal magic use.

“So you hold the wand - or a stick, if you’re at home - like this,” Jozua stood next to Parker, demonstrating the stance. “Now center yourself, try to feel the magic inside you, and flick.” He flicked his wand. “Imagine like there’s a sword coming at you and you are doing a magic parry. Just brush it aside. You’re not actually casting anything, though, you’re just focusing and holding your magic. It’s good for attuning your wand to you, though, making it feel more like an extension of yourself and getting it used to holding your magic without actually doing anything with it until you want it to. So just, focus . . . and flick.” He demonstrated again. “It’s almost like meditation. Then when you feel like it’s the right time - I usually feel like a calmness surrounds me, but Dad says he gets a buzzing in his ears, and Mom says she just gets an intuition that she can’t explain but she knows she’s ready, and Grandad says he feels warm- you can go ahead and actually cast something. Like this.”

Jozua stepped away, putting enough space between them that he wouldn’t poke out an eye even if he lunged in Parker’s direction. He held his ready pose for a little while, flicking every now and then, until he felt the calmness that meant he had his wand’s full cooperation, and then swished and flicked, “Wingardium Leviosa!” he shouted with a force that suggested he was doing something way more powerful than a beginner level levitation spell. And the potted plant (which MARS kindly provided for him just as he needed a target) that he was pointing his wand at rose up into the air with satisfying speed.

He stepped back, lowering his wand, and the plant returned the the center of the circle. He bowed toward Parker, and stepped out of the circle. “Now you try.”

1 Jozua Awesome 348 Jozua 0 5

Parker

March 30, 2018 3:28 PM

And away we go... by Parker

Confusion spread across Parker's face. How could you practice wand magic without a wand?

When Jozua mentioned a stick Parker contorted his face a bit. He was trying to imagine what that would look like. All summer he'd been surrounded by sticks when he went into the mountains and had never picked up a stick to practice wand work. He wondered how that would work and what might actually happen if he tried.

Parker stood in the circle copying Jouza's movements without the wand. It was the only way Parker would be able to replicate them later. Jouza gave a lot of examples as to what it might feel like and the last one hit Parker. Like something warm coming up inside of you. Parker knew exactly what he meant, but hadn't realized that was what was happening.

"Like a cup of hot chocolate coming up instead of going down," Parker said nodding. He wanted Jouza to know he understood.

After Jouza had the pot come down Parker nodded. His heart was beating a bit faster than he wanted.

"Ok," he responded as he picked up his wand again and held it.

Parker took a deep breath in and held it counting to five like his mom taught him all those years ago. He held his wand out like Jouza had shown him. As he breathed out he could feel the warmth rising up and through his body. Parker almost didn't feel the wand in his hand anymore even though he could see it.

"Wingardium Leviosa," Parker said with a flick of his wand at the potted plant. As the potted plant went up, Parker thought briefly about a book his father had read to him about a potted plant falling from the sky thinking, "Not again." It made Parker smile as he watched this potted plant steadily rise. He could feel that warmth going through his arm and out his wand and just as it reached a certain level he brought it back down, resting on the table.

Parker pointed his wand down, as he was still a bit worried about what had happened earlier in Charms happening again.

"That...is that what wand work is supposed to feel like?"
Parker wondered why the professors had never described it quite like that before.

"What other spells are good to practice?"
Now that he could do this, Parker was getting his competitive spirit up and wanted to try harder things. He suddenly felt like maybe he would be a good wizard after all. He just needed to figure out how to learn in ways that worked for him.

41 Parker And away we go... 1402 Parker 0 5