Didn't have time to comment on the last chapter so I'll do it now.
Crouching down for a more secure hold on your lean mare, you closed your eyes. You let yourself go again, a process that came more natural to you with every passing moon. Holding your breath for a few moments, before breathing out again calmed your mind. In the darkness, you let go of everything you were; this body was not that of Basques anymore, the woman who had seen twenty full cycles of seasons, the daughter of Edurne, he who had conquered the winter. When you opened your eyes – you were a wolf.
Definitely hope to have something like this in the future. Would probably require some insane Legilimency & Occlumency investment though so I will be a while. But being able to have a familiar of some sort and see through their eyes and feel their thoughts sounds all sorts of useful.
This was the last night for the Land of Primus.
You were all going to die here on this hill.
When your oldest brother spoke, you almost didn't register it: "Prepare sticks and stones."
Antes was still pale, there were dark shadows under his eyes that you had rarely seen even in the hardest of battles. When he spoke the next words, his voice didn't waver. In the end it was true, that he was the greatest of the children. He could take decisions, that the rest of you could not.
"Wake the elderly and children and arm them."
This doesn't sound like it will be a happy story either. Glad we didn't overburden Jacob this month, sounds like the Book has given him enough stress.
"It is often those that grew up without fear that ask questions like this. They are not wrong, far from it, Miss Pennyfeather, but a wizard's culture is coined by mistrust and doubt. For most of our history have we balanced our role in the world, until we yanked off the bridge to the mundane and put ourselves at the top of the magical world. A wizard always fears to climb the latter back down again, as he has grown rich and powerful at the top of it."
There was a learning in here, that you couldn't quite grasp yet.
This is the best Binns I have ever read. When he gets excited about a subject he can share some insightful commentary. I also like how you didn't go for what most people would consider the obvious solution, which would be to 'raise Goblins up'. Binn's said that you could do that, but that in doing so Wizards would also lose their supremacy and that there are costs in either scenario. Truly a great teacher in that he is trying to get his students to think.
Intellect Training, DC 40 → 1D100 →
27(27) →
Failure!
Sad, but not unexpected. I honestly think we shouldn't really try to train Attributes that need a DC 40 to pass. To much chance to waste an action. Thoughts on this? Should we switch to training the lower rated attributes and stick to level-ups to raise this attribute now? Or should we give it one more shot? Personally, it is too close to a 50-50 chance for me to put an action on it.
You stayed together for an hour, eating and talking of random things. While it was clear that this was not something that would happen regularly, as in most of them had other core groups of friends in their day to day life, you still enjoyed the evening.
For a moment you felt at peace even in this large group, because you realized … something like this could be quite nice actually.
Glad Jacob had time to bond with his year mates. He needed it after the week he has had. It also shows his fellow Ravenclaws that he isn't that distant. ..well maybe he is, but that he doesn't bite if you approach him.
New Spell Research, Protego (Deep Understanding) – DADA. Stronger version of the Shield Charm. Protego is a term applied to several varieties of charms. They create a magical barrier to deflect physical entities and spells, in order to protect a certain person or area. Conjurations may sometimes rebound directly off it back towards the caster or in other cases, may ricochet off in other directions or dissipate as soon as they hit the shield. Requires DADA Skill of A, gives a +15 to defending rolls. DC: 150
Nice. Glad we got it down. Though I don't think we will finish it this year. Our basic defense is good enough for now. If we tackle the other spells on our list then we can see where we are at then and if we have the time for it later on in the year then I say go for it. I would rank this after the Patronus in priority though.
Regarding the vote, for me it is between 2 or 3. Tracey seems open to having a friendly rivalry, and I would like to oblige her. Our relationship with her is unlike any other one we have with a fellow classmate and I would like to cultivate it further.
[X] "You guide the way." - You like dueling, clearly, but you don't have any aspiration to it. While trying your very best may be a bit much, you will invest some brain matter into developing your skills to further improve. But this is not an overly important matter to you in the end.
Edit: Changed to this. BeepSmile convinced me. I like their reasoning.