Thread title from: Hickory Dickorey Dock, Two mice ran up the clock - the clock struck one, the other ran down with minor injuries. - der dum ching

Georgiana Trishna was an unusual creature. One of those irritating young people who had enough intelligence to do anything academic she desired to study, yet chose to while away her time with frivolity. If he ever dared describe her as doing such, however, he doubted she'd spend her time so readily in his company. As it was, these times allowed him to try and nudge that mind into suitable avenues.

On the front row of desks was a bucket, which within contained several mice. They tumbled over each other, trying to use each other to get out, but the depth of the bucket was too much for them to crawl up and out.

"Our victims for today." Ignan explained, gesturing to the mice. "If your brother, or anyone else asks, we discussed patronuses again and their ability to carry messages. Tidier."

He reached into the bucket and pulled out one of the mice by the tail where it wriggled and curled up to try and free itself.

"Are you familiar with the blinding curse[1], Georgiana?"

1.

Caecus

Half the fun of this was the thought that she got to get one over on Tapendra. Not that she had a shortage of those, he still hadn't found out about the tattoo, even.  Other half, well, that was adrenaline and smashing up Ignan's serious old man schtick.

That he couldn't appreciate her t-shirt either was just why she'd worn it. Color on it didn't hurt, either. Least she wasn't a dweeb. "Yeah, yeah, I can bullshit the brother." See the tattoo. Or don't. Depended.

And mice were snake food anyways. Not like he'd named them. Mice she didn't care about. Liked her critters bigger and more likely to cause injury.  Blinding curse, though. Sounded fun. Though he had to start with the stupid question, and she rolled her eyes. She wouldn't be coming her if he was just teaching her junk she already knew. "Course not. Going to chop their tails off, too?"

Her feet clunked on the floor as she stood there impatiently, hands on hips. Keeping away from the furniture this time.

Ignan smirked at the comment of cutting off their tails.

"Not with a carving knife, no," he spoke softly, recalling the nursery rhyme. "Pity to demonstrate slicing curses on such small beings - I'll get us a cow one day..." Ignan frowned at himself, realising he'd already gone off-topic.

"Blinding curse then," He dangled the mouse higher, "caecus!" as he hissed the curse bright light from his wand shot out to the head of the mouse which began to paw at its eyes. He dropped it to the table, and after a moment of wiping its eyes, it ran, almost straight into the bucket, its whiskers only just stopping in time. Ignan drew his wand tip closer to the head of the mouse and around it, but it showed no sign of seeing it.

"Its temporary, but with repetition, and precision, I could blind it without repair." He prodded it with his wand and the mouse squeaked and ran around the other side of the bucket, wiping at his eyes again, whiskers twitching.

"A cow? We going to eat it afterwards?" Gigi scuffed her shoes on the floor, then leaned in towards the bucket as Ignan demonstrated. "And what exactly does it do to the eyes?" Maybe they could dissect a cow eyeball. Could use the other one for bowling. Most cows came with two.

Wasn't there for cows, though. Might as well get with the trying. She snagged one of the fresh mice, watched it squirm for a sec. CAE-ous, no, that wasn't quite right. CAI-ous, KAI-ous. "Caecus!" She poked at the mouse with her wand as she spoke, the spell hitting its ear and running down the side of its head more than its skull.

The left eye of the mouse turned a bit gray, and it started going in a circle when she set it down. Seemed its whiskers were smouldering a bit. Oops. Blinding someone and then setting their face on fire seemed to just scream for attention.

Plus burning hair smelled awful.

"And what exactly does it do to the eyes?"

"They cloud. Its not quite the same as a cataract, but rather a confusion of what the eyes are seeing to what the mind interprets. The world goes dark." Ignan gave a shrug, "If you mean more 'scientifically' I couldn't elaborate more than assume it interferes with nerves." Biology wasn't his strong point other than the essentials, how to save a life, and how to make it end… slowly.

He watched quietly as Gigi tried her hand at the spell, following his example,
"Caecus!"

The aim was a little off- but it was a wriggling mouse after all. The two of them peered at it with interest.
"Not bad." Ignan said slowly, and fished up the mouse, holding it more tightly in his fist so he could let Georgiana inspect the eyes a little better. "You can see the variation between the eyes though," He held it so they could both see.
"A good tactic with a human foe is to make them look at you first, give them a reason to turn head and shoulders properly towards you for an easier aim. Otherwise you get this one-eyed blindness and a bit of a smack to the head, which might make them think twice, but isn't as useful as full blindness."

He dropped that mouse into the bucket again, exchanging it for another by the tail, which he offered to Georgiana.
"Of course you'd not be casting it on a human opponent. Being not strictly legal in Britain." His expression read well, not when anyone would know, hmm?

"Improve on the last attempt."

"What, like me drinking?" Not that she'd waste that on mice. Didn't get enough of a shot at it as it was. Tappy and that whole vendoring her gear prospect didn't help. "But blinding, not ruining depth perception."

Ugh but mice were hard to hit. She took the one Ignan offered her, set it down, then watched it scamper around for a minute. Hmm. How to...maybe what might work on annoying humans worked on mice, too. She pointed her wand in its direction and snapped her words out. "Hey, douchebag!" The mouse looked up, whiskers moving so fast as to be a blur. "Caecus!"

This time, it hit the mouse straight on, leaving a bit of a smudge up its nose but no fire. Fortunate, for the noses of everyone nearby. The mouse, however, turned about frantically, both eyes blinded.

And then ran straight off the desk. It landed with a sickening crunch, and twitched once or twice. "Oops." At least they had a lot of mice.

"We'll use that one later," Ignan assured her, flicking his wand up, the tiny corpse flying up and landing with a bump on the table. He brought his wand down sharply to kill it properly if it hadn't been before.

"Yes, a bit like drinking, only you aren't as relaxed about it all." He narrowed his eyes at Gigi, and gave a good-natured smirk "I won't mention you asked to Tapendra, hmm?"

Peering into the bucket, he gestured to Gigi to try once more before they moved on to try something a little different.

"So now you're able to blind someone, such a reassuring thought, we'll go for deafening." Ignan suggested, plucking another of the mice out which wriggled between his fingers. Gripping it more firmly, he cast the spell at close range to demonstrate.

"Obsurdesco" Two bolts of purple light shot from the end of his ebony wand to the two little ears on the side of the mouse's head. It looked unperturbed for a moment, but when Ignan snapped his fingers behind it, it made no effort to dart its head round to check.

"Funnily enough its a traditional curse parents inflicted on themselves to get some peace. Not advised, bit dangerous to deafen yourself if your children get into peril. But as a tactic in duelling, what advantage might it yield?"

The mice seemed even smaller when they were dead. "What, you're not going to run off and tell Tappy all about my quips during the super-secret lessons? He might get bored." Gigi stomped her foot in pretend impatience, then reached out to snag another mouse from the bucket.

"Caecus!" She hit the mouse straight on, then reached out to snatch it-and throw it back in the bucket-before it fell off anything. They'd run out of mice pretty fast then.

She nodded along to Ignan's explanation, holding her head a little too still in mockery of the mouse's obliviousness. "They can't hear what spell you're using, duh. Lot harder to react if you don't know what's coming." Her fist rapped on the desk nearest Ignan and the deafened mouse. "You don't get in much trouble for using it, then?"

"Pfft, only if you don't do the same for me." Ignan retaliated and smirked.

"Not as much trouble, no. Possibly ears are a little easier to heal than eyes, who knows exactly the reasoning of the law here?" He shrugged, "Some places, crucio isn't frowned upon at all. But then, they're not the nicest places to visit either."

With a deaf mouse still wriggling in his hand, he gestured to the bucket for Georgiana to pull her own from it and try the deafening curse instead. He allowed the mouse to run from one of his hands to the other and up his sleeve a little rather than allow it to nibble his fingers impatiently. They were only food for some of the creatures in the tanks down the side of the room.

"See how you go with obsurdesco then, Trishna. More mice where these came from."

Gigi rolled her eyes a little. Reflex. "Alcohol and places where Crucio is legal. Throw in some tattoos and you'd get his eyes bugging out." Her shoes thumped as she kicked absently at the base of the desk. "No way I'd tell him about it. Kind of kills the point." Sometimes a list of all the things Tappy didn't know sounded fun.

Course she'd be screwed if he found it, so nope nope nope. Time for the mices.

Grabbing them was getting a little easier, but still not the funnest thing in the world. One mouse was plopped down on, and then she directed her wand at it. "Obsurdesco!" The beam that shot out was closer to black than purple, and after it hit the mouse, well, the mouse seemed to suddenly be missing most of its ears.

"Well, that'd probably get trouble." She ran her finger across the new edge of one of the ears. "Least it's not smoldering."

Ignan's eyebrows raised when he saw the mouse was now without ears.

"Merlin, good job we're using mice." His voice and face registered surprise and a little amusement, not that the mouse was clearly too amused. He held out his hand for the mouse, wrestled it gently between his hands to better inspect the wounds, wondering if she'd shrunk them.

"Think if that were your opponent we'd have them off to spell damage." Ignan explained, considering some sort of remedial incantation and figuring it might be worse on the thing, not that he was sentimental, he just wasn't keen on a mouse screeching from his hand, sinking its teeth into his finger.

Back down on the desk he brought his wand down with a snap as he had earlier and a second mouse lay motionless, no longer troubled by its lack of ears.

"Focus on the effect you want on the ears, rather than just pinpointing them, see if that fares any better." The Professor suggested, resting his knuckles on the desktop and frowning as he watched Georgiana retrieve a new victim to test with.

"Maybe I just hate mice." Gigi pried another one out of the bucket, and gave it a somewhat sympathetic look. "Though hey, who would I use it on that I don't want in spell damage?" She tipped her head to the side and gave Ignan's ears a rather pointed look. Wouldn't hurt his looks any, specially at this age.

Her new mouse was twitchy, as if the fate of its buddies had made it nervous. When she set it down on the desk it just wiggled its whiskers and stayed still.

"Won't play Sith this time, though." Though with mice it was more like annoyance than evil burning passion of doom. She slid her hand down the cold blue crystal of her wand and got a good grip on the handle. Think deafening thoughts and all that. "Obsurdesco!" The beam was still a little dark, but was certainly purple.

And the mouse looked to still have its tiny little ears. She tapped her fingers on the desk behind it, and got no reaction. "Too bad I can't soundproof my room." Couldn't get away with casting this on Tappy and turning the sound up, either. Damn shame.

"Though hey, who would I use it on that I don't want in spell damage?"

He gave her a steady, calm look in return, indicating that looking unimpressed with the cheek would only please her, and he wasn't the smiling sort.

"Won't play Sith this time, though." Ignan frowned, not catching her words correctly, and not knowing what Sith meant anyhow.
"Obsurdesco!"

That one seemed to be the charm.

"Too bad I can't soundproof my room."

"There are other spells for that." Then he paused, tutted at himself as he realised and picked up the mouse, dropping it back into the bucket. "Though you mean because you live with Muggle things, hmm? I think the option there is move out, instead." The remaining mice would make for a good dinner for the curious beasts, and the two that were freshly dead wouldn't go to waste either.

"Good. Look those both up, and you can elaborate on their origins and discovered variations next time we meet." Praise, followed by homework. That was additional homework to the tasks he set her as part of her NEWT class. Well, although it was wandwork that would keep her quick and good in a heated moment, he didn't doubt her academic talents in general. Besides, reading about how blinding and deafening could help her out might give her some cunning thoughts on how to use it to her advantage when she needed it.

"And for over Christmas, you can lend your mind to other topics you wish me to discuss and teach you, where I can. I know some of how to keep your attention, but I doubt you'll be satisfied until I sate your curiosity. You can tell me Christmas Eve, or when we return." He picked up the bucket tossed in the two dead mice and made his way down the side of the classroom where the tanks were, dropping in the poor creatures at regular intervals to awaiting, hungry beasts.

Placing the bucket down beneath the sink he'd once half-drowned Georgiana in to demonstrate a point, he turned on the spot to face Georgiana and raised his head expectantly.

"Any questions?"

Homework and moving out. Now that was just cruel. Though Gigi could dig a little time up over Christmas, she supposed. At least for this. "Alright. Might even memorize the evil overlord list while I'm at it. Think I'm safe from the goatee one, though." She watched as he disposed of the rest of the mice, and that rather pointed gesture with the bucket. Maybe she'd have to ask about not-drowning spells.

Some other day. "Nope, no questions. Doubt you can tell me the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow." She kept her eyes on him as she made her way towards the door.  Wouldn't be surprising if he tried to catch her off guard.

Not this time anyways, as she made it there without incident.

End