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Post by Deleted on Jun 30, 2014 16:39:18 GMT
During his first two years at Hogwarts, the Hufflepuff common room was Sig's favorite room in the entire castle. A nurturing atmosphere, a warm hearth, kitchen adjacent, and most of his housemates were pretty tolerant of his awkwardness. It was one of the few places around the castle Sig actually felt safe. Like many other aspects of his life at Hogwarts, that changed after the fight in his third year. More specifically, after he joined the DA and found out about the room of requirement. The Hufflepuff common room remained a very close second to his favorite place in the castle, but a room that could be whatever anyone needed it to be was hard to beat. His common room was a lot of things, but it wasn't a training ground, a place where he go with someone to have a private conversation, or even a place where he could just be alone with himself.
He entered the room, as he'd done a few times before, to find exactly what he needed. In this case, a foam mat that, more or less, covered the floor, a couple of coat racks, two stalls to change clothes, some heavy bags, and a full body mirror long enough to stretch from one corner of a wall to the other. In other words, he needed a place to train.
It wasn't always that he used the room of requirement for that purpose. In fact, it was very rare that he used for that purpose. Sig always preferred to train outside. It was how his father taught him, so it seemed appropriate. There were only two reasons he ever used the room of requirement for a place to train, when the weather didn't permit him to train outside, and when he wanted to train someone else. Today was the first day he would use the room for the latter reason.
Sig had met Fanny about half way through his third year when he joined the DA, Dueling, and Charms clubs. Over the years, she had helped him get better at dueling and casting hexes and curses. So, when she asked if he would teach her what he knew about hand to hand combat, he was more than willing to help her the way she had helped him. He told her to meet him at the room of requirement after classes were done and to bring comfortable clothing, preferably a t-shirt and sweat pants. Everything had been prepared.
Sig had hang up his robe and untied his tie before hanging both of them up on one of the coat racks when he saw the door swing open. The corners of his mouth pointed upward. "There she is. Hang up your robe and you tie, take off your shoes, and change in one of the stalls. We'll begin when you're ready." He removed his shoes and walked into one of the stalls with his change of clothes.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2014 13:51:35 GMT
One of the new DA members, though Fanny couldn't recall who exactly, had once compared the Room of Requirement to a bag of Bertie Bott's Beans, especially when it was not your imagination that had created its current state. Every time you stepped through that hidden portal, you never knew what would await you. She was certainly feeling like that now as she walked through the door to find the room once again completely changed to what it was usually like when they did DA training. It was much smaller, and it contained a foam mat and even two stalls who she guessed were for changing clothes. Clearly, Sig was once again thinking of everything. She liked him for that, and even though she was nervous about starting her hand to hand combat lesson, she knew she was in safe hands with him.
Sig was one of those people she had slowly formed a friend-like bond to, together with Lee. She had been finally stepping out of her sister's shadow, and though they both knew Haylee well and were in her year, she was Fanny with them, not Haylee's little sis. It also added a nice touch that Sig was in Hufflepuff and Lee in Ravenclaw. Always hanging with the same old crowd had never been Fanny's thing and she did not share any resentments against different houses, apart maybe from Slytherin. But seriously, who liked Snakes these days? Especially if they were of the Inquistor Squad...
„Right to the point you are“, she greeted him with a smile, then ducked behind one of the stalls to change into kneelength leggins and a sports t-shirt – undoubtedly muggle-like, she thought with an inward snort. Oh how the Death Eaters would hate it! Then again, of course they also would hate the sheer idea of two students training hand-to-hand combat behind their backs in a room that was completely out of their reach.
Once changed, Fanny came out of the stall and did a few trying leaps and stretching excersizes. Whatever kind of sport you did, you never started it without warm-up. That her many dancing lessons had taught her.
Straightening up, she put her fists on her hips in a ready posture and flashed her friend a grin. „Ready when you are, Sig. What's first?“ |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2014 6:03:02 GMT
Sig began removing his shirt and pants that were worn underneath his robes and replacing them with the pair of black gym shorts and a t-shirt of one of the muggle bands he enjoyed. He was happy that Fanny appreciated his straightforwardness of the matter. Of course, he did thoroughly enjoy the kind of laid-back friendship that he shared with Fanny and Baylee, and he was pretty confident that they loved that too, but he also greatly appreciated their shared urgency in matters of such grave importance. "Hey, if there's anything I'm serious about, it's toppling the death eater regime." Sig exited the stall and joined Fanny on the floor.
Sig was very impressed to find Fanny stretching when he exited his stall. He followed suit with some simple aerobics, calisthenics, and stretches of his own, all of them exercises he and his father did together when they trained. Fanny had already finished a few seconds before he was done and asked Sig what he wanted to do first. "Actually, the first thing I was going to suggest was that we both stretch for a bit first, but, seeing as how you've already beaten me to that. I suppose I'll teach you some of the basics of what you'll need know."
Sig moved his right foot backward and opened up into a forward stance. "You're going to want to have your feet like this, shoulder-width apart, with your right leg behind you." Sig pointed rotated his feet ever so slightly. "Toes facing two-o-clock, knees bent, and your right heel off of the ground." Sig waited for her to comply before continuing. "Now, make fists with both of your hands, you'll want your left hand parallel with your nose and about 9 inches to a foot away from it. You're right hand should be at the center of your chest."
Sig stood back and observed Fanny as she followed his instructions, admiring her progression. "By the way, don't be afraid to hurry me along. I don't want to spend too much time on anything you might be able to grasp quickly."
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2014 23:51:38 GMT
Fanny gave a quick laugh as Sig talked about 'toppling the regime' – Merlin knew they were still far away from that! But at least there was hope. She wasn't one of those thinking youngsters couldn't do anything to change the world – on the contrary! Usually it WERE the young ones still not too adapted to the status quo so they still had the guts to try and overthrow it. That might be because young people still thought themselves invincible... but in Fanny's eyes that was a good thing. One had to reach for the stars if one wanted to reach anything at all! If they waited too long, things would only get worse until no one really dared to stand up. They had already waited far too long and now the flames were threatening to cause a bush fire before they could be stomped out.
Ha! She had caught him off guard there, she observed with a little satisfied grin. That's how she liked it, still being one for positive surprises. Nodding, she positioned herself next to him and tried to copy his moves as well as she could. At first the clock phrases confused her a bit, but then she realized what he actually wanted from her and followed suit. It was a well balanced position, she already realized that. But also a bit unfamiliar at first. Another laugh escaped her when he went on in great detail about where exactly her fists should be. „Do you have a measuring tape or how are you gonna check those 9 inches?“ she teased him lightly, but tried to comply. It felt a bit awkward now, standing there in this position without doing anything, but then she guessed it was normal.
„If you're gonna cast a Petrificus Totalus on me now, I'll kill you!“ she threatened him jokingly. „By the way, why is my left hand parallel with my nose and not my right one? It feels like this is the dominant one now cause it's higher up, but I'm right-handed.“ She was sure her left hand wouldn't be able to throw as much of a punch as her right one. But maybe that wasn't even the intention. Sig probably would tell her soon enough, but Fanny was eager to grasp it all.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2014 3:34:20 GMT
Sig was quite impressed with how quickly Fanny had been catching on to what he had been doing. He wondered if she had ever done anything like this before. She was a half-blood like he was, after all. Maybe she had taken lessons in dance or gymnastics, even yoga, perhaps. She seemed to be having trouble placing her left hand. He laughed with her. "Sorry, the nine inches is more of an estimation. Your front hand is the hand you'll be defending with most often. You want your hand to be up to protect your head, but you want your arm to be extended enough to where you can still defend against low-aimed strikes quickly enough." Sig stepped out of his stance, standing straight upright again. He reached his hands out and stopped halfway between himself and Fanny's arm. "May I?" He asked for her permission before adjusting her arm slightly.
Sig laughed with her again at her threat should he try to petrify her. "Don't worry, I'm smart enough to know you'd have me in some kind of hex as soon as the spell wore off." Sig grinned at her inquiry as to why her right hand was at her chest. "That's because your dominant hand is the hand you'll be attacking with. It'll do the most damage, and you have it at your chest to both protect your chest and build more momentum to add to the force of your strikes." He stepped back into his stance again, his chest facing Fanny to demonstrate. "Now, when you throw a straight punch, you'll want to use your back foot to pivot so that your body rotates with the punch."
Sig rotated on the ball of his right foot to where the toes of his right foot. His shoulders were square, and his chest was facing forward. His right arm, fully extended in front of him, and his left arm was pulled back. His left fist was inches away from his face. He pulled his right arm back and his body rotated back to it's original stance. "When you pivot like that while you punch, you'll put more force behind it, and you'll cover more distance."
He, once again, stepped out of his stance so that he could observe Fanny copy what she saw him do. "Now, how about you give it a go?"
((So, sorry it's taken me so long to reply. I've been a bit busy and a little sick. Also, sorry if any of my descriptions are a little confusing. Writing about martial arts is something I've wanted to do for a long time, and this is actually the first time I've attempted to do it. Anyway, looking forward to writing more posts.))
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2014 21:36:55 GMT
„Ah I see“, she muttered with a quirked up edge of her mouth as Sig spoke of the nine inches only being an estimation. Well, honestly, you try and look directly down your nose and then a little to the side to deem how big the distance was between your nose and your fist. It certainly wasn't easy, if you had to basically look angles. „Oh wait, I know how“, she exclaimed with a teasing voice and put the thumb of her right hand to the tip of her nose, waggling her fingers as if she wanted to thumb her nose at Sig, but then used the span created between her thumb and her little finger to measure the gap between her left fist and her nose. Yes, she was trying to be serious about the fighting part, but that didn't mean she couldn't have a bit of fun meanwhile. Pulling herself together, she gave recurrent nods to signal she was following his train of thoughts and understood them. „Sure, go ahead“, she encouraged him with a grin and allowed him to adjust her posture. He was the expert after all.
He was darn right about her throwing a hex at him though, if he ever tried something as mean as that. Hell hath no fury like a Fanny mocked. If only because revenge could be such a sweet thing, as long as it stayed within reasonable boundaries. There was no reason for hatred after all.
„... to both protect your chest and build more momentum to add to the force of your strikes." So that's what it was about, huh? Fanny wouldn't have known before, but it kind of made sense to have more momentum in a strike when it came straight out of your body's midst. Didn't especially the asian martial arts say something like that, about this spot somewhere around your navel where all your energy came from? She couldn't quite remember...
Admiring his show, she gave a little clap that was only half mocking. „It looks cool when you do it!“, she commented with a sigh. „I'll probably look like a newly headless chicken trying to find its head.“ In the end, she guessed, it was all about muscle control. It just was a long time since she had tried to rein them in so forcefully, doing exactly her bidding. Balance was another thing. But she'd be damned to give up before even trying!
Taking one last, deep breath, she tried to mimick his motions. It didn't feel half as weird as she had feared it would and in a moment of sheer bravado, she aimed her darting fist at Sig's midsection, firmly believing he would counter her in due time.
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