The worst year ever? perhaps. on Charms

Professor Lorraine Taylor

April 13, 2008 12:50 PM

Advanced Charms [Select Sixth and Seventh Years] by Professor Lorraine Taylor

After a great deal of consideration, Lorraine had decided to make her Advanced Charms class into one with a learning rotation. In short, that meant that she could combine the sixth and seventh years into one class, providing them with more opportunities for peer interaction. As far as actual student edcuation went, sixth years would learn the spells the seventh years had learned last year in their seventh year. While it sounded confusing at first introduction, the Charms professor had seen it pulled off rather well in her years of being taught and was firmly of the opinion that it would be a good idea to try with this class. After all, even Muggle schools had mixed levels at the higher level, if not even before. It was a good system.

The woman was seated behind her desk, pale blue eyes fixed on her lesson plans again as she made sure that everything was in place for the next lesson. It was an exciting thing to be teaching children who would use her lessons in further life. Yes, teaching the younger children could be gratifying as well, but there was just something about teaching a group of young adults committed to learning your subject that made her feel like there was a true reason for the seemingly abrupt move into teaching.

The first student entered her classroom, tentatively opening the creaking door. Lorraine nodded at the student, smiled briefly, and inquired as to how their summer had gone. After that, she continued her perusal of her lesson plans as other students filed in. Lateness was not an issue in this class; the woman trusted that those students who entered late or skipped the class would retrieve the information gone over from their peers. Too many lates or skips, though, and she would have to have a chat with the student in question. Possibly with Niobe as well, since the former Divinations professor had become Sonora's guidance counselor over the summer.

"Welcome to Advanced Charms," Lorraine said as she stood, addressing the now full classroom. "Today, I would like you to open to page 348 in your books and spend some time reading about the Geminio charm--this is often used to duplicate inanimate objects. However, there are some limitations and hazards to using this charm. I would like an essay discussing these limitations and hazards by Friday.

"Once you have completed your reading and have taken notes, I would like you to practise your practical work on this group," Lorraine flicked her wand and her cabinet doors opened to reveal shelves full of inanimate objects of various size and complexity. "Please make note of what is difficult for you and why you think that is; we will going over this information next class. For the time being, questions and comments can be directed towards me. Get to work!"

OOC: You lot should know the rules by now, so I'll just say that if you would like to write the essay, you may 'turn it in' to the above homework bin for a minimum of 10 and a maximum for 20 extra house points. Enjoy!

Subthreads:

The worst year ever? perhaps. by Earl Valentine with Mia Kerova, Earl

Me? In class? Say it isn't so! by Catherine Raines

0 Professor Lorraine Taylor Advanced Charms [Select Sixth and Seventh Years] 0 Professor Lorraine Taylor 1 5

Earl Valentine

April 27, 2008 9:57 PM

The worst year ever? perhaps. by Earl Valentine

As soon as Earl stepped into the class, he knew he was going to have a difficult year. It wasn't the actual class. Charms, wasn't the easiest or funnest class ever, especially with Professor Taylor's love of essays, but Earl did all right. Well, he passed anyways.

The real problem was the other students in the class. In fact, that was the problem with all of his classes this year. Nicoletta Dupree happened to be in every one of his classes. Last year, this would have been very welcome, but something happened over the summer that made Nic decide to not want to be with him anymore. He had told her it was okay; that they could still be friends; that they were never technically a couple, so it wasn't like she was dumping him. But it felt that way to him. He had just realized how much she meant to him and then just a few months later, she leaves him for reasons still unclear to Earl.

The thing about this class that made it the worst, however, was not that Nic was in it. It was that Nic AND Adam, were in it. Earl had a strong suspicion that Nic still had feelings for Adam (since she had told him she did at the start of their pseudo-relationship) and after hearing a rumor that Adam had broken up with his girlfriend over the summer, he figured that the two break-ups weren't just a coincidence. And having to spend the next two years watching them be lovey-dovey wasn't going to make Charms very pleasant for Earl.

He pointedly ignored the both of them as he took a seat chosen so that he didn't have to see them. So he sat in the very front, and proceeded to doodle on the inside cover of his book until Professor Taylor began the lesson. The bad part about being in the front row was that she'd know if he neglected the assignment to draw, which is what he usually did in class.

Sighing rather loudly at the assignment (he should've known that it involved an essay), he flipped to page 348 and began reading. It was actually a pretty cool charm. To be able to duplicate things, however worthless it might be. He could duplicate his drawings and work things out without ruining the original.

He took a few notes on the charm, and after getting the gist of the spell, removed his wand from the pocket in his robes and went to the shelves full of objects, being careful to get there in such a way that he didn't have to pass by Nic's desk. He picked up the first thing he saw that didn't look too complex. A wooden block with the letter 'N' carved into it and painted red. He stared at it for longer than necessary, it reminding him of Nic. He bit the inside of his lip and placed it back on the shelf. He needed to concentrate and that wouldn't help.

He picked up something else uncomplicated: a teacup with a pattern of ivy circling it. He decided to leave the matching saucer on the shelf, feeling it was best to start simple and brought the cup back to his desk.

"Geminio!" he said, pointing his wand at the cup. It rattled on the table, but remained unchanged and singular. He tried three more times before the cup split into two almost identical cups. The copy had no pattern and no handle. Getting slightly frustrated and noticing that the person next to him had gotten much further than he had, he tried reversing the spell to start again, but poked the cup with his wand a bit too hard, causing it to tip over the edge of his desk and shatter loudly on the floor. The copy disappeared and Earl cursed loud enough for the whole class to hear before getting down on his hands and knees to gather up the pieces. He replaced the pieces on his desk and muttered "Reparo!" and watched the cup rebuild itself before his eyes.

He sat there and stared at the cup, not really in the mood to try again. He just hoped things would get better as the year progressed. Maybe he'd get over Nic....maybe Adam would fail the class...maybe.

0 Earl Valentine The worst year ever? perhaps. 67 Earl Valentine 0 5

Mia Kerova

April 29, 2008 8:57 PM

Perhaps. But perhaps not. by Mia Kerova

Mia had mixed feelings about being back at school and hoped it wouldn't affect how she did in class. Her grades were something she prided herself in. However, half of her mind was still at home, her new home at her stepdad's house, hoping everything was all right. She made sure to get a newspaper every morning at breakfast just to be certain that everything was fine and she was worrying over nothing. It wasn't nothing for the families that were victims of those P.U.R.E psychos running around, but thankfully her family and friends were still being bypassed. Letters from her mom and from Dino she received that morning were still tucked away in her bag as reassurance they were still fine. She would rather worry over nothing than over something, but she tried to keep it all in the back of her mind during school. Schoolwork had a way of pushing everything else from one's thoughts anyway and that could only help now.

Mia opened the creaky Charms door when Professor Taylor acknowledged her presence. It looked like she was the first one there. She supposed she left for class earlier than she thought. She answered Professor Taylor's inquiry about her summer with a quick, but polite "It was fine, thanks" before taking her seat. She sat her bag beside her chair as she always did and pulled out her wand, textbook, paper, and pencil for notes. She began the unconscious twirling of her wand through her fingers as the rest of the students arrived soon afterward and the lesson began.

Professor Taylor started them off with an essay. Mia held back a pained look. It might've been expected, but it was no less unwanted. As for class, there was book work then practical work. She could handle that. Mia flipped to the right page and picked up her pencil to start note taking. A duplicating charm for inanimate objects. That could probably come in handy at an unexpected moment. Simpler objects would be easier to duplicate while more complex objects would take more concentration. That made perfect sense. She finished reading through the pages and taking notes and quickly surveyed the room to see if anyone else was done reading and had started using the charm.

Mia went to the cabinet to retrieve a set of objects to practice with. She looked at the wide range of items to start duplicating. She took a few to practice with back to her desk, most that were fairly simple and a few that were cool looking which meant they would probably be hard. The simplest thing she took was a plain wooden cube. That looked like the perfect place to start. She looked over how to perform the spell and practiced the movement silently a few times before speaking the incantation simultaneously.

"Geminio."

She watched the cube on the table stretch a little and then split into two separate, identical blocks. Mia grinned. She loved when a spell worked the way she wanted it too. She eyed the most complicated of her objects and shook her head with a partly amused and somewhat disbelieving smile. A cup of multicolored, sparkling putty. So she had to work with a shape-shifting, multicolored, glittering mass. Why did she take that? Oh that's right. It looked cool. Well where was the fun without a little challenge? Plus, silly putty rocked. She continued practicing, managing to duplicate an inkwell, a sandal and a decorative candle after a few tries.

Finally all she had left was the putty. She picked up her goopy mass of sparkling putty and kneaded it between her hands, stalling before she attempted to duplicate it. Her attention was sharply drawn away by the sound of a loud crash and a swear. She watched the student beside her, Earl she was near positive his name was, kneel over to pick up the pieces. Her arm twitched as she started to get up to help, but he looked pretty peeved and soon had all the cup fragments. He repaired the teacup and then just stared at it. Mia looked at her own objects, then glanced at Earl, then turned back once again. The least she could do was offer a little help with a subject she was good at. The worst he could do was say no and continue moping. She had dealt with a moping teenage boy before, which was partly obligatory. This wasn't, but there was actually something she could do. If he wanted the help, of course. If not, there was putty to duplicate and an essay to start.

"Finite Incantantem." She whispered and the duplicates on her desk vanished. She wouldn't want to be stared at by a bunch of completed spells if she were having trouble. She turned to Earl with a casual smile. "Need a hand?"

0 Mia Kerova Perhaps. But perhaps not. 0 Mia Kerova 0 5

Earl

April 29, 2008 11:36 PM

I guess it all depends by Earl

"Need a hand?"

Earl lifted his head and saw a pretty seventh year girl smiling at him. Mia, if he recalled correctly. They had never really talked being in different year and in different houses, but he had noticed her around. She was a prefect; she was pretty; she was smart. And he was fairly sure she had dated Stephen at one point, though he didn't know much about that. But it was the smart and pretty parts that made Earl pull himself out of his mood momentarily, and turn towards her.

Earl gave her a poor excuse for a smile, but it was all he could muster at the moment. She asked if he needed help? IN more ways than one, but he assumed that it was only meant toward the charms assignment. He could probably use some help, actually. His smile became a bit warmer as he nodded.

"Yeah, I could use some help," Earl said, picking up the teacup and showing it to Mia. "I can't seem to completely copy the thing. The best I've gotten is a plain cup with no handle. And that was once." Granted he had broken the cup and then given up, but it was true. He had seen what Mia had accomplished before and she had far outstripped Earl, even though he had started trying a few minutes before she had.

"You got any tips?" he said, feeling a bit more upbeat now that he was thinking about something other than his urge to brood.

0 Earl I guess it all depends 0 Earl 0 5

Mia

May 01, 2008 12:00 PM

Then we may as well think positive by Mia

Mia fully turned towards Earl when he accepted her offer, readjusting her skirt at the knee and then crossing her legs comfortably so she could concentrate on him and what he needed any help with. She kneaded the putty with one hand and began spinning her wand through the fingers of her other hand unknowingly again as he explained what the problem was. Mia looked at the teacup that was now fully repaired.

It had a nice ivy pattern on it, something she might see at her grandmother’s house, and it didn’t look too hard to duplicate. Not like that putty, but she could forgive because she enjoyed playing with it. Maybe if she managed to copy it right, she could keep it. She didn’t doubt putty would make a great stress reliever with RATS looming ever nearer. Just the thought of the testing made her stomach cramp up.

”You got any tips?”

“Maybe.” Mia looked back at Earl. He seemed a little happier. That couldn’t be bad. “Try it again. I didn’t see what you did before. It could just be a focus issue. You did look pretty peeved.” She gave a small shrug and smiled good-naturedly. She wouldn’t go so far as to ask what had him so annoyed because honestly it wasn’t any of her business, but that might be the problem. Had to start somewhere, right?

Focus was usually the first thing Mia thought of if she couldn’t work a spell right. It had been that way since first year when Headmaster Bulla, back when he used to be Professor Bulla, told her about how emotions fueling her spells could lead to trouble, like accidental magic. It was one of those little things she could recall very clearly from all of those years back. And she hadn’t doubted her ability to cast Aquor since.

0 Mia Then we may as well think positive 0 Mia 0 5

Earl

May 01, 2008 9:07 PM

Think happy thoughts by Earl

Earl's eyes strayed towards Mia's skirt, when she adjusted it, but caught himself and returned his gaze back up to her face in an instant. The last thing he needed at the moment was more girls. The first thing he needed was help, so he tried his hardest to keep his mind on the task at hand.

So, she had noticed he was 'peeved', as Mia so aptly put it. Well, it wasn't like he was being subtle about the fact but it made Earl realize just how much the whole Nic situation had gotten under his skin. Now was not the time to think about Nic...and Adam. And what they might be up to. Earl closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to rid the image from his brain. Now was the time to think about the stupid tea cup and the fact that there was only one still. Earl did as he was asked, and retried the spell.

This time, a second cup appeared, without the handle or the pattern,and Earl noticed that the bottom of the cup was round like a ball; certainly not the same as the original. He shifted,so that he facing Mia better, causing the copy to roll around the desk a little.

"Well, that's what I got so far." He leaned back dejectedly and looked up at Mia.

0 Earl Think happy thoughts 0 Earl 0 5

Mia

June 10, 2008 8:59 PM

Like being able to post regularly by Mia

OOC: So sorry for the ridiculous lateness! Infinity and three things to do, but I'll save you the boredom of listing excuses. I'm really sorry.

BIC: Mia watched Earl redo the spell seeing if her first thoughts were right and he was just thinking about something else more than making a copy of the cup. She focused on the hand wielding the wand as the incantation was spoken again. The result wasn't so great. A plain cup rolled along the desk on its rounded bottom. But she wouldn't completely lay the blame on whatever had Earl so mad. It could have been a consequence of being upset, but she was just taking it as she saw it.

"And that isn't bad so far." Mia retorted honestly and encouragingly and reached out to stop the cup from its unnerving rolling. She would rather not have it smash against the floor again. She turned it upside down so it would sit steady. "I don't know if you noticed, but you had this twitchy thing going on with your wrist." She tried to demonstrate what she saw him do. As she finished the motion of the spell she did a minute jerk of her small wrist. "It was something like that. Otherwise, the rest of it was pretty good. Really."

Mia flicked her wand and the round bottom cup disappeared. She made a small motion towards the original teacup to show he could try again whenever he was ready. At least he looked calmer than before. Still a little mopey looking, but calmer.

"Is RATS level Charms harder than you thought or is this just one of those days?" Mia asked Earl off-handedly. Everyone had off days. She wasn't at all questioning his ability to perform any spells. Mia didn't need to take Divinations to foresee rough days ahead for millions of reasons including a cloudy mind.

0 Mia Like being able to post regularly 0 Mia 0 5

Earl

June 24, 2008 4:05 AM

Exactly. by Earl

OOC: Ditto on the sorry. I forgot. *grins sheepishly*

BIC: Earl had to try really hard to not roll his eyes at Mia's compliment. Not bad so far? They were supposed to be making two things from one and all he could do was make his cup breed mutant offspring. Although he was impressed that Mia actually found something tangible for him to fix. Usually when he got help with charms, people told him to 'concentrate more' or put 'greater emphasis' on one of the words. He hadn't noticed the twitch Mia demonstrated.

All he had really been paying attention to was Nic from the corner of his eye. He couldn't tell how she was doing, but he bet she was doing better than he was. He still remembered her easily transfiguring that chair into a cat the year before. He quickly shifted his attention to Mia and the teacup. He could brood later.

This time, Earl put his mind fully on the task at hand and trying not to do the wrist flicking, he tried the spell. The cup rattled a bit on the desk before morphing into two almost identical cups. The only difference was that the copy had no leaves on the vine. Still, the improvement was enough for a grin to spread out onto his face - the first since coming back to Sonora.

"Cool. It actually worked. Merlin Mia, you should be a teacher or something," Earl exclaimed turning to his tutor with the smile still in place.

0 Earl Exactly. 0 Earl 0 5

Catherine Raines

June 27, 2008 2:35 PM

Me? In class? Say it isn't so! by Catherine Raines

Catherine smoothed her dark, knee-length skirt as she sat, feeling a slight pang of regret for the fine clothes she'd worn in Spain. There was nothing exactly wrong with any of the clothes she'd decided she could wear at school, or with the even fewer pieces of jewelry, but one trait of her mother's she couldn't quite shake off was a great love of obviously having the best of everything. If not for the heavy ring on her right hand, the simple, if still tailor-made, ensembles she wore here could have combined with the thin hoop earrings and small emerald on its delicate chain around her neck to make her look the daughter of a well-to-do merchant with a few pretensions to the upper class.

She frowned slightly at the ring, gold catching the light dully as she turned her hand. It was going to cause her a world of trouble, sooner or later, or her middle name was Bob. There was a reason signet rings, carefully downsized or not, didn't suit a woman's hand, and outside of Sonora that reason was almost important as her reasons for never wearing her best inside Sonora. Even if her friends never said a word about it, her cousins, eventually, would, and nobody was going to like what they had to say.

She turned obediently to the page Taylor asked them to. It had been Lorenzo who picked her Advanced classes, not her, but he had sent a twenty-page letter explaining why he had selected what he did. Charms had received the shortest bit of extrapolation - he knew she liked it, which was not the case with the other two courses he'd chosen - but he'd put enough down to make her take it almost as seriously as she had the year before. The spell on the page almost made her groan aloud anyway, though. Duplication sounded much, much too close to Transfiguration for her peace of mind.

Picking up her quill with an admiring look at her hands - it hadn't taken her long in fifth year to decide that she could avoid hurting her friends' feelings without ceasing to do her nails - she began to take notes as she read the passage, just as she'd been told. Once she finished that, she went back to read over it again, this time without an inky quill, a sleeve dangerously close to it, and what she should and shouldn't write down all buzzing around in her head and distracting her from the information. After that was done, however, there really was no more putting off a trip to the cabinets.

It seemed best to pick something both small and all of one piece and substance, just because that sounded simplest to her. She'd done much better than she'd expected as a fifth year, but that had been a combination of luck and constant hard work to distract her from the paranoid idea that both of her friends were finding new, better, niches within the school without her, and she'd never seriously doubted that she was still as dumb as she ever was. After a few moments of deliberation, she picked a simple wooden block. If that was too hard for her, it was better to know it now, so she didn't have to make a long series of embarrassing trips to the cabinet as she worked her way down to it.

Pushing her notes to the side, Catherine placed the block square in front of her and took a deep breath as she took up her wand, automatically being careful of her nails. It would be so much better if students didn't have to go for two months without practicing what they could do, but the statutes had been the same far out of living memory. There was really nothing for it but to hope that, for once, the student body wasn't watching her. "Geminio."

The cube shook a little, but nothing else happened.

Not too surprised, she tried it twice more before she had a thought. She was trying to make a block of wood, but all of the images that popped into her head whenever she looked at or said the incantation were about jewelry. The only gemstone she had on was hanging from her necklace, and even an emerald no longer than her pinky nail was still much too valuable to risk melting in Charms class, but...With a look around to make sure Professor Taylor wasn't looking at her, Catherine reached up and quickly took off her earrings. The left one she dropped into her pocket, but the right she put on the table in front of her, hidden behind the block. If a spell melted these, she had two more identical pairs in her dorm, and they'd be no great loss anyway.

She studied the trinket carefully, working up to picturing the gleaming curve of metal in her head exactly. There was no denying it was jewelry, and it was small and all of one piece and material. It would do, if anything would. Taking up her wand again, she performed the motion described by a diagram in the book and repeated the incantation as firmly and confidently as she could. An endless instant later, an almost-identical hoop lay beside the first. The replicated one was a little thicker than its daughter earring and the replica looked a bit fake, but Catherine still clapped her hands in delight.

Now if she could just find a piece in Taylor's cabinet that looked vaguely like some kind of jewelry for her grade...

0 Catherine Raines Me? In class? Say it isn't so! 66 Catherine Raines 0 5