<span style="font-style: italic">This isn't exactly how I pictured coming here</span>, David thought as he held the basement door opened and looked out onto the hallway.<br/><br/>Stevenson Auditorium was going to be his acting debut. He even had a class here, Fundamentals of Acting 1A. Acting was going to be his way of forgetting about all the crazy stuff in his life. To forget about his parents, the crazy murderous vampire, and that he was a witch. Though David loved magic, and though he would never admit it, he wanted so bad to be normal. He wanted to come home to a noisy house with parents and siblings and sibling rivalry. Deep down, he wanted the normal and mundane. He'd trade the magic, he really would. He would trade it all in for a life with his parents on a cul de sac and with no knowledge of the supernatural world. Once, a long time ago when David was young and the death of his parents was still a gaping wound in his heart, he thought about bringing them back with magic. The supernatural world had taken them from him after all, so it would have to give them back. But, there are things that even magic can't do - or shouldn't do.<br/><br/>Footsteps drew his attention. The shade was hunting an innocent couple. No doubt in order to steal their souls or suck the life out of them or something. David had to admit, he actually had no idea what shades did. He'd have to check in his family grimoire when he got the chance.<br/><br/>Wand drawn and ready, he followed the sounds. In his head, he ran through the required spell that Eric had drilled into his head. One of the many essential spells for survival that David had been required to learn. It was a very complicated spell - one of those really difficult spells. With most spells, the magic didn't actually happen until the spell was delivered, or rather, until the spell had been spoken completely. These Delivery Spells were the most common and depended greatly on your flicking technique and less on how the wording was done. They didn't always have to be spoken aloud, some very talented witches can perform spells by simply speaking them in their mind.<br/><br/>The second type of spells depended heavily on intonation. These were the spells where one merely needed to be touching their wand, but where the wording and intonation of each word had to be absolutely perfect. They were useful in that they were much easier to perform in public since you never had to bring out your wand to perform the spell since there was no flicking involved. But intonation spells required an immense amount of practice to get them right.<br/><br/>The third kind of spell would depend on intention. The wording didn't really matter, and was mostly there to provide a framework or guide to what you wanted to do. They are probably the easiest and the hardest. An intention spell requires perfect concentration and the purity of intention. If you weren't truly committed to the spell it wouldn't work. Most curses were intonation and intention. Which meant you couldn't do the torture or killing curse unless you had committed yourself to it. But those spells took something from you. A piece of goodness or purity. David would only use the killing curse, and the torture curse, on one creature alone. And he'd make him pay when he found him.<br/><br/>Amongst the different kinds of spells, there were also active spells. Active spells start the magic immediately as the spell is being spoken or intended. These are really dangerous because if you stop in midstream or get it wrong, it backfires. Backfires can be incredibly painful depending on the strength of the spell. It would be like pure pain coursing through your veins.<br/><br/>The Seperatus Spell was used in any form of separation when a possession was involved. It could be as simple as a possessed object, or a house, or a shade. Unfortunately, the Seperatus Spell required wand technique, intonation, intention, and to top it all off it was an active spell. He'd never actually performed the spell, but he would have to now.<br/><br/>When David realized he had been making noise with his own footsteps, he slapped his own forehead for being an idiot. He flicked his wand at his feet, muttering the spell to silence his footsteps. He hoped no one had heard since it would probably ruin his surprise advantage.<br/><br/>Then, suddenly everything went to hell. A woman screamed, loud and clear. David rushed now, running incredibly fast, the spell trying to compensate for the loud noise his feet were making, but some of the noise still got through. In a large room with boxes piled high and different equipment used by the auditorium and classrooms, he saw a figure standing there. When it looked at him, he felt the now familiar feeling of shade's gaze. He didn't like the idea of exposing himself to the humans here, but he could try to erase their memories later. It was more important to save them.<br/><br/>"I've got you, Shade!" David screamed. Then he pointed his wand at the creature and began the spell.<br/><br/>"Corpus, separatus, lenguaforma, inteli'hissimanda," the room seemed to shift out of focus, and the sound of thunder boomed around them. Boxes went flying everywhere and the ground vibrated with power. The air rippled away from David, blue ethereal tendrils of power emanating from his wand. "Eliminati, desendro, cotrovo," David focused on his intention and intonation. The intonation was the hardest part. Some words were high pitched and other low, and some even changed tone right in the middle of the word. "Levimantis, destructiask," the spell was getting stronger and stronger, the tendrils going around and through the shade, slicing through it's connection with the human body and beginning to drag it into the afterlife. Once the spell was finished, it would also seal him away, making sure the shade could never come back even if a necromancer were to summon him. David briefly wondered if it hurt the shade.<br/><br/>Then, with a sudden snapping motion, the spell backfired. David had messed up the intonation for "endio." The force of snapped his head back dangerously and through him back into the hall where he landed with a thud. Pain coursed through him, hot and cold at the same time. It felt like ice was scraping through his veins. The room stopped shifting, the floor was still, the thunder abated, and the tendrils around the shade evaporated.<br/><br/>David was out. His wand lay a few feet in front of the shade. It's glow flickering, and then disappearing all together.