"Protego!" A transparent shield manifested before Tiara and Christian's spell touched the shield, and it bounced back to him. Luckily, his Capoeira training kicked in, and he moved his torso to dodge.
"As you can see, a more advanced Shielding Charm is not only stronger but capable of bouncing curses, jinxes, and charms," explained Tiara before a cunning smile crept on the corner of her mouth. "Attack again, and I will show something better."
In his excitement, Christian did not notice that smile and tried again. The spell bounced back, but it was too fast for him to react. So, his wand flew away, followed by his body, before crashing on the ground with a thud.
"Wow, it was so fast? What happened?"
"A little dueling skill I picked up," replied Tiara with a proud smile. "If you can time your shield perfectly, the rebounded spell's speed will more than double."
"Yes. In the first spell, the shield appeared before the spell hit. On the second attempt, the shield materialized and came into contact with the spell right as it was before me, forcing it back with far greater speed."
"Yes, with years of dueling experience. Even with your aptitude, this is not easy to master."
"Well, I look forward to the challenge."
"That's the spirit," nodded Tiara. "Now, I will attack, and you will defend."
Christian watched as his shield instantly broke apart and an invisible chord blinded him; the situation was similar to when that ugly witch tried to capture him but weaker; he was not too sure.
"This was a jinx, not even a whole curse, but it was enough to break your shield. You need more practice," she commented before using the counter-curse to free him.
"I see. What are jinxes?"
"They are dark charms, or spells with connotations of Dark Magic. They are introduced in the first-year book. I also bought you [Curse and Counter-Curse], which you can read later. Let's continue."
"Like all magic, the secret to increasing the effect of the charm is to focus. I'll give you a little tip: visualization. Imagine countless layers of protection enveloping you."
Christian's shield could not hold on, but with each failure, he learned something and increased its intensity. However, once he adapted to a certain level, Tiara would either increase the intensity or use a more potent spell. This continued for hours until the sun was never visible.
"That's it for today. Tomorrow, we will train your handweaving Shielding Charm."
Christian groaned as he knew tomorrow's training would be more brutal. His body was already sore.
"Drink your Wiggenweld Potion, and you will be fine."
"Why didn't I think of that?"
Later that night, after Christian went to bed, Tiara stayed in her study to summarize today's training and progress.
'He did not react negatively after using a spell similar to that of the Dark Witch, which implies there is no visible psychological trauma from the event, but I should still contact Bart,' she thought and wrote these things down.
'He has an inquisitive and innovative mind, and I need to cultivate this side of him. But how? She can only think of pushing back the time he starts reading his textbooks so that he is not too influenced or limited by their thinking.
"I can also give him a journal," she muttered before scribbling more things. "The battle training should be more intense. I must drill into him the instinct to use the Shielding Charm."
She rearranged the training plan for the next month. She sighed in relief at how great things were going, but remembered Papa Tounde's prophecy and her failure to find him. With a sense of fatigue, she looked at something in the room: "If you were here, what would you do?"
Christian received a book from his mother during the next day's training.
"What's this? A journal?"
"Yes and no," replied Tiara. "I want you to write down any ideas you have about magic."
"It could be your random thoughts and analysis, or ideas similar to how you wanted to deal with the Cruciatus Curse. You can write anything about magic or treat it as a regular journal."
"Are you going to check it?"
"No, unless you want to show me some of your ideas," explained Tiara. "I will teach you how to bewitch the journal to hide the writing if you do not want people to read it."
"Lesson for another day. Now, let's continue the training."
The following month was painful for Christian. For the rest of September to the middle of October, he barely learned any new spells and only practiced the Shielding Charm. Once he reached an adequate level in both types of magic, his mother suddenly increased the difficulty by having her and the dummies (whom he thought were simply for decorations) attacked simultaneously.
But this was not the end, as these two became mobile and not staying in one place. But even that was not the worst, as he had to protect himself from his mother and four dummies constantly moving around him. And that was still not the worst training as she took him into a forest with low visibility, and he had to block her attack.
"Excellent," praised Tiara after a short handweaving duel between them. She was perfectly fine, but Christian was breathing heavily; however, he was glad he could remain standing.
"But, I must say your use of magic is very basic and lacks imagination, especially in battle," continued Tiara.
"Firstly, you never use the environment. See where I'm standing?"
"I purposely left a dummy behind me. You could have used the Accio Charm to summon it and force me to turn around to deal with it."
"Hmm, you have a point, as that would give me the initiative."
"Right?" She smiled. "Secondly, you've never used any combos. I think that's the term your game used."
Tiara took a small pebble on the ground and used transfiguration to turn it into a shining silver sword. She cast the Levioso Charm, which allows her to levitate the sword without actively controlling it.
"Depulso!" Her hand generated a tremendous force that pushed the sword forward before embedding itself into the wall.
"That was bloody brilliant," commented Christian after seeing every step. He knew all these spells and could use them.
"Some magical creatures have high immunity to charms or curses, but not physical or blunt objects. So, this combo has been very useful to me."
"In conclusion, magic can be applied in many creative ways, even Dark Magic," explained Tiara.
"Really? How can that be?"
Tiara became lost in her thoughts.
"I remember this one time I was excavating a ruin in Canada and was severely injured in the process, with broken bones and losing too much blood. I apparated away from the danger, but did not know where I landed. As fate would have it, I was rescued by an Indigenous Shaman. She used a Bone Growing Curse — which is usually used to make the bones in the body grow uncontrollably — to mend my mine and grow them back. Then, she used a Blood Controlling Curse to force my body to produce enough blood. After some herbal remedy, I was back in peak shape in just a few hours."
Tiara sighed, "It was truly beautiful how much control she had over her magic. I wanted to learn something, but her tribe did not teach outsiders. However, from that experience, I knew never to limit a spell to how it was described in a book or how it was conventionally used."
Few of her experiences impacted her as much as that day, so she remembers it vividly.
"Magic is truly wonderful," praised Christian.
"It can be," nodded Tiara. "Our training will no longer be as intense, and we can focus on other things from now on. Don't forget that tomorrow is the Quidditch match."