Order Only: Defence Assessment
Apr. 10th, 2013 08:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alt_kingsleyIt was my turn this morning to drill the Junior Au Institute kids in Defence. Lessons today focused on fighting in situations where vision is impaired, and surprise attacks. I do think the drills we've held over the past week have made a difference. Frank and I can already tell they've improved over the benchmarks set when we tested them on reaction time, etcetera, at the beginning of last week.
Notes:
Justin: Justin's very good, as all his Defence teachers over the past week have probably noticed. I don't think there is any doubt he'll be able to get an OWL in the subject. He's excellent at seizing weapons of opportunity, and equally adept at thinking of ways to use them magically or like a muggle. Example: He was the first to think of commandeering the window drapes in the sparring room: the curtains themselves he charmed to wrap around his opponent to engulf him, but the curtain rod he simply hurled like a javelin. Very effective.
Ron: Like Justin, Ron's extremely quick. He also has a keenly competitive edge. Molly, you certainly don't have to worry about him getting an OWL in this subject. In fact, I expect he might very well pull down one of the top marks in the group. He's especially able to see the whole duelling field, assess useful cover if there is any, decide what his best angles are, plan moves ahead, get into position without giving away his plans for attack. He's good at faking direction and then moving where he wanted, and he always has one or two alternative ideas.
He's a chess duellist, in other words. Arthur's influence, I expect.
His weakness is that he sometimes gets cross, and then he doesn't think as well. He can be hard on himself, too, so the anger that undoes him is sometimes directed inwards. But. Sometimes you get him cross and he turns really deadly focused. So don't count on irritating him into giving away all advantage.
I suspect, at this age, he works best if paired with another boy. Today he was distracted by the presence of Pansy and Sally-Anne, keeping half an eye on them all the time. Maybe that's something that will simply get better with maturity.
Neville: Neville mentioned some of the drills he's done with you, Frank. His technique is solid, if not particularly quick or original. One thing I noticed today: They were practising synchronised movement through a darkened room. I think he actually had trouble in the stress of an action situation with keeping track of which side was his right and which was his left, which meant he became confused by his partner's verbal commands. Not particularly nimble on his feet, either.
Sally-Anne: She actually duels more like a hesitant Ravenclaw than a Slytherin, by which I mean she tends to overthink things, which slows down her reaction time. Her greatest strength is her ability at avoiding telegraphing her moves in advance.
Susan: Susan definitely has some work to do. She tends to shut down, get panicked and paralysed when stressed, and loud noise disconcerts her. She didn't let herself get discouraged, however, and kept working doggedly at her spells, even though her opponent beat her almost every time. I've suggested some drills she can run through to practise, if she can find a partner to work with.
Pansy: Middling fair. She can earn an 'Acceptable'--maybe. But maybe not. She telegraphs her moves openly, and gets flustered when her attempts to dodge fail, as they frequently do.
Fred and George Weasley: Truly outstanding at teamwork. All that practise as Beaters, I would imagine. Quick reflexes, and very devious. I have no worries on their behalf. They will certainly earn 'E' or above on their NEWTs.
Evelyn and Luna: Since they're not up for OWLs or NEWTs this year, I didn't give them quite as much class attention, using them more as sparring/demonstration partners for the others. But the two of them demonstrated the most original thinking on one of my standard training exercises this morning. I had each student face off with me in turn, challenging them to do something to surprise me (without hurting me), and to use that surprise to disarm me if they could.
Most of them attempted something like what Sally-Anne tried: she immediately started talking, trying to distract me with conversation, and then attempted an 'expelliarmus' midsentence.
Evelyn hit me with a 'quick repair' sewing charm that rapidly stitched the sleeves of my robe to my sides. It was a good thought, except that the robe was voluminous enough that even with the arms bound, I had enough movement that I could still disarm her.
But Luna...oh, my. Molly, you warned me that the girl's mind is a bit off-kilter, and you weren't kidding.
She just looked at me and then flicked a spell that, uh...made me lose control of my bladder sphincter. And yeah, I did drop my wand in surprise (the first time anyone's managed to make me do that in quite awhile) and she calmly picked it up.
And then, perfectly straight-faced, she said, 'I'm so sorry, did that embarrass you?'
She told me it's a spell used by naturalists when they collect Spiny Archea..Archeatophe--I dunno. Some creature I've never heard of, (and I did earn an 'O' in Care of Magical Creatures). She said their urine is exceedingly corrosive, and they use it as a weapon, which is why collectors make them, er, shoot their bolt first, so to speak.
Disadvantage: she can be a distraction to her allies. It took me almost a quarter hour to get the rest of the kids to settle down after that demonstration; they were all laughing so hard.
(The things I do for the Order. And thank Merlin for Scourgify charms.)
Notes:
Justin: Justin's very good, as all his Defence teachers over the past week have probably noticed. I don't think there is any doubt he'll be able to get an OWL in the subject. He's excellent at seizing weapons of opportunity, and equally adept at thinking of ways to use them magically or like a muggle. Example: He was the first to think of commandeering the window drapes in the sparring room: the curtains themselves he charmed to wrap around his opponent to engulf him, but the curtain rod he simply hurled like a javelin. Very effective.
Ron: Like Justin, Ron's extremely quick. He also has a keenly competitive edge. Molly, you certainly don't have to worry about him getting an OWL in this subject. In fact, I expect he might very well pull down one of the top marks in the group. He's especially able to see the whole duelling field, assess useful cover if there is any, decide what his best angles are, plan moves ahead, get into position without giving away his plans for attack. He's good at faking direction and then moving where he wanted, and he always has one or two alternative ideas.
He's a chess duellist, in other words. Arthur's influence, I expect.
His weakness is that he sometimes gets cross, and then he doesn't think as well. He can be hard on himself, too, so the anger that undoes him is sometimes directed inwards. But. Sometimes you get him cross and he turns really deadly focused. So don't count on irritating him into giving away all advantage.
I suspect, at this age, he works best if paired with another boy. Today he was distracted by the presence of Pansy and Sally-Anne, keeping half an eye on them all the time. Maybe that's something that will simply get better with maturity.
Neville: Neville mentioned some of the drills he's done with you, Frank. His technique is solid, if not particularly quick or original. One thing I noticed today: They were practising synchronised movement through a darkened room. I think he actually had trouble in the stress of an action situation with keeping track of which side was his right and which was his left, which meant he became confused by his partner's verbal commands. Not particularly nimble on his feet, either.
Sally-Anne: She actually duels more like a hesitant Ravenclaw than a Slytherin, by which I mean she tends to overthink things, which slows down her reaction time. Her greatest strength is her ability at avoiding telegraphing her moves in advance.
Susan: Susan definitely has some work to do. She tends to shut down, get panicked and paralysed when stressed, and loud noise disconcerts her. She didn't let herself get discouraged, however, and kept working doggedly at her spells, even though her opponent beat her almost every time. I've suggested some drills she can run through to practise, if she can find a partner to work with.
Pansy: Middling fair. She can earn an 'Acceptable'--maybe. But maybe not. She telegraphs her moves openly, and gets flustered when her attempts to dodge fail, as they frequently do.
Fred and George Weasley: Truly outstanding at teamwork. All that practise as Beaters, I would imagine. Quick reflexes, and very devious. I have no worries on their behalf. They will certainly earn 'E' or above on their NEWTs.
Evelyn and Luna: Since they're not up for OWLs or NEWTs this year, I didn't give them quite as much class attention, using them more as sparring/demonstration partners for the others. But the two of them demonstrated the most original thinking on one of my standard training exercises this morning. I had each student face off with me in turn, challenging them to do something to surprise me (without hurting me), and to use that surprise to disarm me if they could.
Most of them attempted something like what Sally-Anne tried: she immediately started talking, trying to distract me with conversation, and then attempted an 'expelliarmus' midsentence.
Evelyn hit me with a 'quick repair' sewing charm that rapidly stitched the sleeves of my robe to my sides. It was a good thought, except that the robe was voluminous enough that even with the arms bound, I had enough movement that I could still disarm her.
But Luna...oh, my. Molly, you warned me that the girl's mind is a bit off-kilter, and you weren't kidding.
She just looked at me and then flicked a spell that, uh...made me lose control of my bladder sphincter. And yeah, I did drop my wand in surprise (the first time anyone's managed to make me do that in quite awhile) and she calmly picked it up.
And then, perfectly straight-faced, she said, 'I'm so sorry, did that embarrass you?'
She told me it's a spell used by naturalists when they collect Spiny Archea..Archeatophe--I dunno. Some creature I've never heard of, (and I did earn an 'O' in Care of Magical Creatures). She said their urine is exceedingly corrosive, and they use it as a weapon, which is why collectors make them, er, shoot their bolt first, so to speak.
Disadvantage: she can be a distraction to her allies. It took me almost a quarter hour to get the rest of the kids to settle down after that demonstration; they were all laughing so hard.
(The things I do for the Order. And thank Merlin for Scourgify charms.)
(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-11 03:59 am (UTC)good on luna.
and that's my girl.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-11 05:24 am (UTC)Nothing interesting to report from me, by the way, but then again, Creatures isn't one of the subjects that are at risk here.
I will apologise to whoever first gets sick of the History mnemonic songs, though. (I've been humming them all week. And Bill, I caught you whistling the tune of the Goblin Succession Song at supper yesterday, don't think I didn't.)
(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-11 04:14 pm (UTC)My goodness, yes. She has always managed to surprise me more than any person I've ever met.