Professor Taylor
December 06, 2007 5:40 PM
Beginning Charms, Class II [Years 1 & 2] by Professor Taylor
It was directly after Midterm. Lorraine’s Midterm had been rather restful; she had gone home to visit her siblings, despite the plethora of rather obnoxious nieces and nephews, none yet older than five or so. The ‘or so’ because she did not precisely know how old a great deal of them were, only that they were short and annoying. Whether or not they would exhibit any magical potential was something that Lorraine did not believe could be estimated as such. She came from a strictly Muggle family, and one that had a rather no-nonsense manner of dealing with things. Before she had received her letter and been sent off to magical school, they, like most Muggles, had been adamant that magic didn’t exist, as had Lorraine herself.However, this was not the time to be pondering whether or not she would be teaching any of her relations in several years’ time. This was the time to be preparing for her lesson. Or, rather, to be preparing to start her lesson; this lesson had already been planned since the beginning of the year.
The first half of the year, Lorraine had taught strictly methodology with very little on theory or use. In a Muggle class, this would not have been possible; merely methodology would have bored them to tears. However, these were young wizards and witches, anxious to learn spells to show off to their friends and to experiment with. Consequently, both sets had learned all the spells in the curriculum already.
Now was the time when she expanded into the part of Charms that she truly enjoyed: theory and application.
“I hope,” the woman said, shutting the door with a click as the last on-time student skidded into the room. “that you all had a lovely break.” That with a washed-out blue stare at the child fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to be seated in the front row. By this time, they seemed to have gotten over their initial unease towards Lorraine and merely accepted her manner as rather strict, but not entirely unkind. “Now that you are back, I trust you will focus and concentrate on the tasks at hand.
“I would have you know that we have effectively covered the spell curriculum for the first and second year courses respectively. I would also have you know that from this point on, you need not bring anything but your wands to class. All other materials will be provided.
“For the rest of the year, we will be exploring the uses of charms in the real world, in addition to the theory behind the use of them—the why and how, if you will. We have briefly touched upon these topics before, but we will begin to go more in-depth now. Any questions? Good. Each of you should have a sticker on your desk reflecting,” flick of the wand and the words ‘airplane’, ‘bridge’, ‘broom’, ‘factory’, ‘magic carpet’, and ‘radio’ appeared on the board. “one of these words. I would like you to gather in groups and make a list of which spells could be, not necessarily are used in these things and why. Please note that with two exceptions, these words can be applied to magical or Muggle environments and work accordingly. If you have time, extra credit will be awarded to those with accurate sketches of their word with arrows pointing to where each spell would be used. These will be turned in at the end of the class.”
Lorraine nodded firmly to herself, another look sliding around the classroom to take in the reactions to the instructions.
“And by the way,” she allowed as she began to turn away from the class to observe from the front of the room. “there will be no more homework for the rest of the year. You may begin finding your groups.”
OOC: To clarify: each student will have a sticker on their desk that is an airplane, bridge, broom, factory-thing, magic carpet, or radio. Students will work with students with the same sticker. Please, no more than three people to a group—expand and make new friends! Minimum of 10 sentences, grammatically correct and spellchecked please. The more interesting and creative you get, the more house points will be awarded!
Subthreads: Radios Unite! (wotw) by Brett Hodges with Rilla White
I'm leavin' on a jet plane by Talitha Cumni with Holly Greer, Talitha
Boys and Brooms by Lutece Anthony [Crotalus] with Cecily Smythe, Lutece
Magic Carpets? What now? by Oliver Abbott
Global Warming by Jae Dimitri [Pecari] with Rorrie Hudson, Josh Warren
Bridges? Lame. (Wotw) by Chelsea Brockert with Ronen Cooper, Ronen
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Professor Taylor
Beginning Charms, Class II [Years 1 & 2]
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Professor Taylor
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Lutece Anthony [Crotalus]
December 15, 2007 3:23 PM
Boys and Brooms by Lutece Anthony [Crotalus]
The truly miserable part about being the oldest year in a class was the considerable lack of guys. Well, not the lack of guys, but the lack of dateable guys. There were very, very few first years whom Lutece would consider dating. They would have to be super cute, to begin with, and she wasn't spotting any. So she turned her attention to those in her year, yet again. It was rather a depressing list. Cisco Vargas, who she didn't see here yet, was kind of cute but not that interesting. An Aladren geek, nonetheless. Then there was Lucas Smythe, who was, again, geeky but kind of cute. Geeky seemed to be a reoccurring theme in her year, actually. Except for the Pecaris. There was that Jae kid, but he was more like some sort of dog. One of those golden retrievers that spent most of their time ruining someone's carpet.Sighing, Lutece ran the tips of her fingernails up against the edge of a sticker on the corner of her desk. It was a broom, as she would have noticed if she had been paying any attention to the sticker. The Crotalus also would have noticed that it was getting sticky gunk on her recently painted cream nails if she was paying attention. But Lutece was far more occupied with what she had titled the Boy Problem to notice such things. Again, there was Oliver...but again, she wasn't sure if he liked Talitha or not. The other girl was her best friend here at Sonora, and it would be mean to start going after a guy who liked her. It just wasn't in The Rules.
This did not mean that Lutece actually knew what The Rules were, only that there were some. She would really have to do some research on Wikipedia when she got home for the summer. Her iMac was a year old now, and gathering dust in the corner of her closet while she was at school. Or at least, the twelve year old hoped that it was gathering dust. Elsewise, that meant that either Grace or James or her parents were snooping, which was simply not to be tolerated. The one good thing about this whole 'magic' nonsense was that there were some really nasty lock spells at there. She was planning on getting one of her geeky yearmates to protect her diary properly with one of those 'spell' things.
Suddenly, the bore of a Charms teacher stopped talking at the front of the class with the promise of no homework for the rest of the year. That was a good thing, and probably the only reason why Lutece had realised that the lesson had begun. She had completely missed the part where Professor Taylor had started talking. And as usual, Lutece had no idea what was going on. Thankfully, someone from behind her asked, "Is that a broom?" and she swiveled gracefully to face them.
Today she was wearing a knee-length red skirt with silver sequins sewn into the hem, matching flats, and a salmon AE sweater. Underneath her robes, of course. Robes were such a pain. Her brown hair was in a halfback, which Lutece was still trying to figure out how to make look spectacular with her all too straight hair. It didn't look bad, it just didn't look amazing.
"Yes, it is," Lutece replied, once she had pressed the sticker edges back onto the desk with one careful finger. "Why do you ask?"
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Lutece Anthony [Crotalus]
Boys and Brooms
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Lutece Anthony [Crotalus]
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Cecily Smythe
December 15, 2007 5:34 PM
I have no interest in either by Cecily Smythe
Returning to classes after having such an exhilarating break from school was such a complete bore. Charms wasn’t half as bad as potions or transfiguration, obviously, but it was nevertheless an unwelcome intrusion into Cecily’s otherwise pleasant life. Her midterm had been decidedly enjoyable, as she had been spoilt even more than usual, to make up for having to spend so much time away form home. She had spent a lot of time with Heidi, brushing her coat and braiding her tail, and feeding her peppermints. Cecily had also visited the dressmaker’s shop with her mother, for her new season outfits. She was wearing one of them right now – a beautiful baby blue satin button-up blouse with matching trousers that even had small flares at the bottom. The set was completely hidden by dull uniform robes, of course, but Cecily was looking forward to parading it in the common room later that day.First, though, she had to get through a day of classes. This class was going to be monumentally dull, Cecily had no doubt about it. Still, if she didn’t get good grades then it would upset Daddy, so she had to at least try in her classes, no matter how much of a waste of time they were. So Cecily listened while the professor explained what they should do, and she couldn’t chew on her hair because she’d tied it all up in a twist at the back of her head today, so she took to biting her nails instead. When the lecture was up, Cecily stood up to better find her group – she was so small that she was almost invisible sitting down, she was sure of it. Luckily, she thought she spied a broom sticker, just like her own one, on a desk just a couple in front. Standing hastily with her book bag clutched in her hand, Cecily quick-stepped over in white patent leather clad feet.
“Is that a broom?” she asked the older girl who was seated at the desk. The girl said that it was, and so Cecily slid into the adjacent desk, which had just been vacated by another student.
“Why do you ask?” Cecily blinked her brown eyes and stared at the other girl, who she was almost sure was in her house. “Because we have to work in groups and write about the sticker on our desk,” she said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I have a broomstick too, so we have to work together,” she explained to the silly girl who apparently hadn’t quite followed the teacher’s instructions, no matter how simple they had been.
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Cecily Smythe
I have no interest in either
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Cecily Smythe
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Lutece
December 16, 2007 3:27 PM
...are you human? by Lutece
Really, Lutece hated looking stupid around younger kids. They should respect and revere her, as she had Jen and Lily. As she did respect Jen and Lily. It was her goal in life to be just as awesome as Jen was when she was in her fifth and sixth year. To have younger kids know who she was and ask her for advice. To be friends with the most gorgeous guy in her year (she didn't know if Jen was actually dating Matt's older brother or not, but they had been hanging around a lot last year, and a bit this year too). But no, she was stuck in this depressingly dull class without anybody to take her to the ball and nobody to talk to because Talitha was already working with someone. And now she had a smarmy first year telling her what to do. Lovely."I knew that," snapped Lutece, pushing the loose hairs in her face behind her ears, then quickly pulling them back out again and arranging them in a manner that she thought would look fetching, not wanting to dig her mirror out of the bottom of her bag in front of this little kid. She looked almost familiar--was she a Crotalus? Actually, Lutece thought she might know the kid's name. C something. Last name...oh! She knew where she recognised the girl from! Wasn't she Lucas's little sister or something? "Aren't you related to Lucas?" Lutece asked out of interest.
Figuring that she ought to look as though she really did know what she was doing, Lutece ducked her head under the desk to fetch out parchment and a quill from her bag. The quill had been her dad's 'private' gift to her for Christmas. It didn't need that ink stuff, so she couldn't accidentally spill it and ruin her outfit. Assuming that her outfit wasn't covered by the super-tacky school uniforms that they always had to wear for no particular reason. At least normal private schools had cute uniforms. Like the ones in those weird backwards Chinese cartoons that James sometimes read. All short skirts and adorable shirts.
Parchment and quill neatly arranged on the desk (and hair surreptitiously checked underneath the desk with the mirror), Lutece smiled brightly (and somewhat fakely) at the girl. "So, any ideas?"
Maybe the kid was her way in to Lucas. Hm. That was a pretty good idea, actually.
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Lutece
...are you human?
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Lutece
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Cecily
December 16, 2007 4:54 PM
Last time I checked by Cecily
Cecily couldn’t help but raise a sceptical eyebrow at the girl who claimed to know what she was doing. At least one of them had paid attention to the Professor. Pursing her lips, Cecily pulled her own books, lightweight parchment and self-inking quill from her bag and arranged them neatly on her new desk. Then the older girl drew her attention by speaking again. “Aren’t you related to Lucas?” she said.“As a matter of fact I am,” Cecily replied, pleased that she had been recognised, if only through her family members. “I’m Cecily Smythe,” she said proudly, “Lucas is my cousin. Are you friends with him?” she enquired, more from nosiness than genuine curiosity. If she could get any dirt on Lucas from his school friends then all the better for her and the worse for him. Not that Lucas was too dreadful, but he was always rather rude to Cecily, for reasons unknown.
“So, any ideas?” Cecily’s partner asked.
“Well, I can’t say I know a great deal about broomsticks, actually,” Cecily replied, idly twirling her quill between her fingers. “My uncle owns a company that makes brooms, but I don’t really talk to him about his work,” she said, in a tone that suggested this was obvious. “Lucas would know what charms they use,” she said, “he’s on the Quidditch team.” She glanced around the room to try and spot her cousin, but couldn’t see over the heads of the people nearest to her. “Maybe there’s something in here,” she suggested instead, and opened her textbook.
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Cecily
Last time I checked
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Cecily
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Lutece
December 17, 2007 7:22 PM
Well, at least you had your doubts too by Lutece
Hah! Lutece felt a distinct sense of satisfaction at being correct in her (albeit educated) guess about her partner's relations. Cecily Smythe. It wasn't too bad a name, actually. And the girl's shoes were certainly rather nice, not the usual tasteless sneaker usually found treading Sonora's hallways. Home of the fashionista this school was not, Lutece was disappointed to say. True, it could get difficult with the whole uniform thing, but any truly dedicated person could manage something, at least. And Cecily was cousins with Lucas...? Interesting. She wondered if the two got along. Lutece most certainly did not get on well at all with most of her cousins. Granted, said cousins were on her father's side (her mother was an only child), but nevertheless."Yes, we speak occasionally," the Crotalus said smoothly, trying to give the impression she was understating a fact. The fact was that their speaking was quite limited to in-class work and accidental running into each other in the hallways and such, but it couldn't hurt to stretch the truth a bit. Particularly when it involved boys, and particularly when it involved boys so close to a ball. Lutece hoped they could wear proper clothes, elsewise she would have to go shopping for--euegh--dress robes. Via catalogue, at least, but robes were so tacky. It made her feel as though she had just come out of the shower half the time and as though she was wearing a blanket for no apparent reason the rest of the time.
"I'm Lutece Anthony, by the way. Second year Crotalus. I know Lucas is on the Quidditch team; I'm the Crotalus Reserve Keeper and we've played against his House before." Lutece's alert gray-green eyes noted that Cecily was looking about for her cousin to see what charms people used on brooms. She assumed that this was their assignment, since that's what all the other people were doing at the moment. Unfortunately, Cecily didn't seem to be able to spot her male cousin, and turned towards the textbook instead. Disappointed but not beaten, Lutece cast a few surreptitious glances around the room herself before settling into work mode. No Lucas that she could see. She sighed. Oh well. She would have to catch him later.
"Well, I suppose you would need some sort of charm to make sure you don't get too uncomfortable, because when you sit on a broom it doesn't feel like sitting on a broom," Lutece mused, brushing the soft edges of her quill against her lipgloss-covered lips. Thankfully, bits of feather did not come loose and stick to her lips. That would have been rather awkward to try and remove. "See if you can find a charm like that in the book." On sudden inspiration, she ducked down to dig through her bag again, coming up with a rather tattered copy of Quaffles, Snitches, and Bludgers: an Insider's Guide to Quidditch that her father had bought her secondhand over the summer. Lutece swore the man was six times as interested in the whole magic boarding school business as she was sometimes.
"Here we go, page 349. Cushioning Charms." Quickly, Lutece noted the name, book, and page number in neat green ink after putting her name, date, and course in the upper right hand corner. Her grades had jumped considerably since last year. Since she started doing work, that was to say.
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Lutece
Well, at least you had your doubts too
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Lutece
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Cecily
December 18, 2007 11:21 AM
Sometimes I feel superhuman by Cecily
Cecily’s partner finally introduced herself as Lutece Anthony, and said that she was on the Crotalus Quidditch team. Cecily silently congratulated herself on being correct about Lutece being in the same house, but this pleasure was almost immediately overrun by Lutece’s statement about her role in what was often considered a sport.“You play Quidditch?” Cecily asked, aghast. Having spoken with Laurie before midterm, Cecily could just about appreciate why some girls might find enjoyment in watching the odd game, especially if was in support of a House team. However, she didn’t think she would ever understand why girls actually wanted to play Quidditch. It was such a boyish thing to do! “Aren’t you scared of getting knocked off your broom?” Cecily asked, in case this possibility had never occurred to Lutece. After all, she did seem fairly slow.
Despite her apparent cluelessness at the start of the lesson, Lutece did at least have some ideas about the charms used on brooms (though Cecily would refuse to see this as an advantage of riding the stupid things). Even as Cecily began looking up cushioning charms in the textbook, Lutece found the same information in a Quidditch book. Cecily gave the book a disproving sniff, and turned back to her own, set textbook. “How about the charms that keep it up in the air?” she asked, the obvious question suddenly occurring to her. “Brooms are just bits of wood until they’ve been charmed to fly.”
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Cecily
Sometimes I feel superhuman
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Cecily
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