Professor Lorraine Taylor
November 22, 2008 8:36 AM
Beginning Charms, Class I [Years I -- III] by Professor Lorraine Taylor
It was the first Charms class of the new school year, and Professor Lorraine Taylor was prepared to begin teaching. She'd had a lovely summer, visiting her brother for two weeks and working on an engineering mentoring project for a bit as well. Her nephew was turning into quite the young man. He seemed to have inherited the family penchant for interest in math and science. The woman had a sneaking suspicion that he was also going to end out at Sonora--but it was a few years yet until she would know for sure. Jonathon was only eight, after all, and a rambunctious eight at that. She would see.Almost the time for class to begin, Lorraine walked over to the door in her usual black-and-sensible shoes and pulled it open, making sure it stayed that way with a quick, nonverbal charm. Then she walked back to her desk, professional black robes swaying as she did so. Today she wore a neat gray blouse and black pants under the robes. Lorraine was one of those teachers who felt that it was inappropriate to wear anything other than professional clothing to teach. The sort that generally had to be coerced into participating in 'Casual Days' at work. Well, at least the last time she checked, Sonora hadn't had any specific 'Casual Days'. That was a relief.
The beginning charms class had begun to file in. She smiled at some of the more energetic students she knew from last year and inquired as to how their summer was. Some of the students looked a little uneasy at discussing their summer with their Charms teacher, while others were more than happy to do so. The first years looked small and a bit uneasy next to the more comfortable second-and-third years.
And then class was to begin. Lorraine walked over to the door and shut it with a click behind one last student who sprinted in just on time. She gave them a look with her pale blue eyes that made the student in question quickly scuttle to find a seat. Lorraine did not appreciate late students.
“I am Professor Taylor, your charms teacher. For those returning students, I welcome you and would request that you remain politely silent as I go over the basics with the first years.” another pointed look at one of the more loquacious second years. “The papers I am currently passing out contain the syllabus for this class. This must be signed before we commence this class, and those students who would like to take issue with this may come up and speak to me privately.”
The syllabus essentially covered her educational background (seven years study at Sonora Academy as an Aladren, magical college in California, then several years of work as a magical engineer in Nevada), the materials required for class, what could be expected for homework, and a few rules:
1. There will be no tolerance for name calling based on race, religion, ethnicity, 'purity' of blood, ability to perform in this class or others, etc.
2. There will be no tolerance for dangerous behaviour (running around, dramatic or careless use of wands, etc)
3. There will be no food or drink of any type in the classroom unless otherwise specified by the teacher.
Refusal to comply with these rules may result in detentions, loss of House points, or meetings with your Head of House.
At the bottom, there was a space for student signatures.
The syllabus had been slightly amended from last year, thanks to a few first years. Lorraine hoped that those students in question would continue their interest in Charms. She was hoping to get a few magical engineers out of that bunch. It certainly seemed they had the mind for it.
"Today," the woman said, "We will be learning moving charms. The Levitation Charm," she demonstrated with a quick Wingardium Leviosa on the extra papers on her desk, "the Summoning Charm," again a demonstration, this time on the paperweight on her desk, "and the Hovering Charm." Lorraine waved her wand in a quick z-shape, and with a quick Naretus, the papers on her desk started hovering. The woman slid her wand into her pocket and continued addressing the class.
"First years, feel free to try the Hovering Charm if the Levitation Charm is a bit easy for you. Do not try to Summon anything. I don't want you setting my class on fire with spells gone wrong. Second years and third years, feel free to work on both your Hovering and Levitation. Consider it a review. Third years, if you want a challenge, you can try Summoning. Second years, if you want to be skinned alive, you can try Summoning." Lorraine smiled benignly at the group. "You may begin."
OOC: Minimum of ten sentences please. Anything shorter than that will not count for House Points. If you are having trouble writing the ten sentences, try to include what your character is thinking, feeling, seeing, etc. Site rules should be followed, of course. Beyond that, please be creative and tag me if necessary.
Subthreads: I command thee paper to fly! by Miles Turner with Daniel Nash II (and a little Holly Greer)
Sharing a class with my brother by Holly Greer with Nathaniel Leon, Nathaniel
Two heads are not better than one by Ethan and Elliot Valentine with Indy Choudhry, Ethan and Elliot
Practise makes perfect. by Eun Ae Song with James Anthony, Eun Ae
Slight intimidation, but I'll manage. by Aeon Coure with Sophia Xuereb, Aeon.
Some lessons ought to have padded rooms. by Laurie Cider with Alexis Ashwood (Crotalus), Laurie
I get to make things fly?!?! by Adelita Garcia [Crotalus] with Deepa Rajaram, Adelita
When fantasy becomes reality by Juri Dahlgren with Kendra Paully, Juri
Keeping everything moving...or not. by Grayson Wright with Lucie Dupree, Lucie
Being treated like an adult by Charlotte Abbott with Mike Song, Charlotte, Charlie
I can't really think of a title again. by Pippa Brockert
Questions of course,(Tag Professor) by Quentin Melcher
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Professor Lorraine Taylor
Beginning Charms, Class I [Years I -- III]
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Professor Lorraine Taylor
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Holly Greer
November 22, 2008 7:26 PM
Sharing a class with my brother by Holly Greer
Holly was a little nervous about this class. It wasn't the subject that worried her. Charms was one of her best classes and she saw no reason why that would change. The teacher was strict but well-qualified, and there was never any risk of disgusting animals (as a whole or in pieces) or terrifying monsters or nightmare-inducing recitations of historic events. It was, in fact, a rather pleasant class, and perhaps the only one she didn't have any reservations about.The problem was in that it was to be shared with the first years. She'd known it was a possibility, but she'd really hoped all of her classes would fall such that she'd be in the intermediate level and the first years would be stuck, obviously, in the beginner classes.
This wasn't the case for Charms.
Danny was sitting right in the middle of the room, and it was so strange to see him there. Until now, there had been a perfect separation of her home life and her school life, and she was just a little bit nervous about what her friends would think of her half-brother.
He was dressed cleanly, as he nearly always was. His robes were finely tailored and of the best quality, as were hers. In that, at least, he wouldn't cause her to loose any credibility with her peers. In fact, as a boy - a breed not well known for caring for how they looked, his finely attended to appearance might even reflect favorably upon her and her family. So she acknowledged his existence as she walked past him.
He did not acknowledge hers, but that wasn't terribly unexpected. Danny was unsociable at the best of times. Perhaps it was best not to introduce him to her friends. Still, a part-masochistic, part-sadistic, part-big-sisterly urge made her take the seat right behind his.
She was glad she had when the syllabi got passed out and she remembered her own confusion about them during her first year. Danny had probably spent enough time around her father that he could be wondering about signing something without letting a lawyer look it over, so she leaned forward and advised him that it was okay.
Again, he didn't acknowledge her, but he signed the paper without hesitation so she congratulated herself on a big sister moment. Living mostly with her dad, she didn't have too many of those with Danny. Perhaps sharing a school with him wouldn't be completely awful.
As the lesson began, she took enough notes to get the gist of the lecture down. They weren't fully comprehensive (there was a reason she wasn't in the same house as Chelsea and Danny), but they were good enough. Taking out her wand, she decided to start by reviewing the two easier charms. It had been several months since she last did magic, after all.
"Wingardium Leviosa," she cast, and the parchment her notes were on lifted nicely into the air. She ended the spell and went onto the next charm. "Naretus," she cast, and again the parchment lifted into the air, hovering there easily.
That just left the new one. She turned to her side and confided, "I'm a bit nervous about trying the summoning one." She ended the hovering charm and let the paper settle back onto her desk. "I don't particularly have any desire to be skinned alive or cause a fire."
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Holly Greer
Sharing a class with my brother
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Holly Greer
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Nathaniel Leon
November 24, 2008 5:57 PM
I don't have one of those! by Nathaniel Leon
Nathaniel had to dress in a hurry, trying hard to not look out of place with the pink t-shirt and shorts that had become his look over the summer. The black robes Star had bought him were already splattered with different color droplets of paint, which the eleven-year-old overlooked in favor of his hair. He was going to Charms, and he didn't know if it would be required for him to tie it up. Potions was an almost definate yes, but Charms? Frowning, Nathaniel let it be and hopped down from his room.He looked to see if Pippa, the one person he'd met so far, had left already but he didn't see her so he just went off to Charms by himself. Humming a tune, Nathaniel walked into the class earlier than he'd imagined and took a seat. After a while, the place became packed, and Nathaniel was readying himself for his very first magic experience. Breathing deeply, the boy found himself with a carefree grin, resting one cheek in his open palm as he watched the teacher come in.
His heart beat fast enough to rival a pack of threatened mice, and he was excited. The first order of buisiness was surprisingly (and annoyingly) normal. Where was the magic in a syllabus? But he signed it all the same and passed it up, not letting the happy smile slip even though he was required now to take notes. The magic part would be coming up soon enough, he thought optimistically, overhearing the girl next to him tell the boy in front of them that it was {"okay"). Confused, he blocked that out and went to copying notes in his neat handwriting.
And finally, he was allowed the bit with magic. Grinning with excitement, he kept thinking over and over again that he was going to actually produce magic. How cool was this? The wand he held in his hand (picked out especially for him) could be regarded no more than a mere stick of wood was now burning in his hand ready to try. "Okay," he sighed to himself and then held his (ooh, it was so cool) wand out.
"Winga-aardium Levio-oosa," he said dramatically at around the same time as the girl next to him. Her paper lifted, and his fluttered like there was some kind of breeze. His cheerful face fell a mile downward as he realized that nothing happened. Careful to try and compose his face he tried a few more times, only to get nothing. Setting the wand down, Nathaniel took a few deep breaths, hoping to calm his disappointment, when the older girl next to him spoke (to him?).
"I'm a bit nervous about trying the summoning one."
He looked over at the girl he'd envied for a second with wide confused eyes. The lanky boy looked her over sympathetically. So she was afraid? Skinned alive? That could happen? Nathaniel nodded, "I'll save you then," he replied, his smile returning to his face (hopefully it hadn't been missed by his face). "You can help me with the simple one!" he told her cheerfully enough, "I really want to get it down, and I'm just not doing it. Do you want to help me? It may kill some time before you get onto the scary spell!"
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Nathaniel Leon
I don't have one of those!
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Nathaniel Leon
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Holly
November 24, 2008 7:54 PM
I, sadly, have two. by Holly
After generally announcing her apprehension in regards to the summoning charm to the room at large, and the person nearest her in particular, Holly turned to see who that person was. By choosing her seat based on proximity to Danny, she had ended up next to another first year, this one as messily attired as Danny was neat. Clearly not a product of her social class.As he spoke, she debated which would reflect worse on her: to ignore him entirely after she'd spoken in his general direction, or to continue conversing with him. He was a first year and of questionable upbringing. Surely, it would understandable to make an excuse that she really ought to continue working on the third year level spell.
But then the commotion from the row in front of them caught her attention. Oh, dear Lord. It was a fan of Danny's show (Holly hadn't ever watched it - her father said it was too adult for her) recognizing him and making an awful scene. And then, worse, Danny drew said fan's attention to her. She frowned severely at him. Didn't he know she was supposed to be protected from public exposure?
He made a face at her and she rolled her eyes at the childishness of it and was given no other choice but to turn deliberately to the boy sitting next to her as if he were the most important person on the planet. It was better than continuing to acknowledge Danny's existence.
"Yes, I'd be glad to help," she told him, which was a complete lie, but this one time she managed to pull it off believably. Danny might still be listening.
"You hold the wand like this," she demonstrated the proper grip as though this was the most critical step of the entire exercise. "Then you give it a swish, like this." She demonstrated that too, doing it three times to make sure he got it. "And then flick." A sharp precise movement. She did that three times, too. "Now put it together with the incantation: Wingardium Leviosa." She made sure he was paying attention and then demonstrated the whole process. Swish. Flick. "Wingardium Leviosa." Her paper easily lifted up into the air again. "Now you try."
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Holly
I, sadly, have two.
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Holly
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Nathaniel
November 24, 2008 8:33 PM
Mine are of the other gender by Nathaniel
Twirling a lock of hair around his finger, Nathaniel was sure to keep smiling, as embarrassed as he was. He should have magic to be here, and all he could do was make the paper flutter. Now he was asking for help, and she might not want to help. He couldn't blame her though, if she was trying to get that third spell down she must have been a lot older. His own older sister even got annoyed with his childish ways sometimes. Blushing once more, he turned his ear to the outburst of the boy in front of him.At the name "Nate", Nathaniel's ears perked up. Very normally called "Nathaniel" by his family, the kids at school seemed to find three simple syllables a mouthful and had taken to sometimes calling him "Nate" or "Nathan". But he guessed that that was the other boy's name and he frowned, once more embarrassed by his own thoughts. The Nate boy looked back at the girl next to him, Nathaniel was sure to look away knowing the embarrassment still showed on his face.
He couldn't think he was the only one here who would be called "Nate". She agreed to help, and Nathaniel turned to the girl with his thankful smile (he had a lot of different ones that he held in him). "Thanks so much," he said, straightening up and pulling his wand in once again. "My name is Nate too," he said, cocking his head to the boy in front, "Nathaniel. Thanks for agreeing to help me," he said, because he thought maybe it was more polite. He held the wand, mimicking the girl with careful eyes. It was all so structured, probably why Nathaniel was getting confused. He was always the type to add some little flourish to his movements, spicen things up, get himself noticed.
He copied the first few times, pausing to wipe his palms on his robes. Swish and flick, he tried the spell alone, "Wingardium Leviosa." The paper fluttered upward, not perfectly, but holdind still and concentrating harder than he was used to was the way he was doing this, and that didn't work for him for long. He dropped his concentration with a laugh, and the paper floated back down to his desk. The silence he had been working in, didn't suit him either, so Nathaniel broke it. "I did it, sort of," he told the girl, excited. "I'm not used to this, that was so cool!" He beamed as brightly as a light bulb, swinging his legs in the chair watching the paper that he'd made fly.
He looked back at the girl. "Should I try it again? Do you think I can get it higher? Wow, magic!" he spewed in the matter of a few seconds, then remembering that they weren't working on the same thing that she was probably way ahead of him his smile turned slightly sheepish. "Er, well maybe you should work on yours?"
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Nathaniel
Mine are of the other gender
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Nathaniel
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Holly
November 24, 2008 10:03 PM
I have one of those, too, but on my dad's side. by Holly
"Oh," Holly said when Nate - Nathaniel - introduced himself and gave away his belief that he shared a name with her brother. "No, his name's Danny. Daniel," she corrected herself, remembering belatedly that Danny wanted to be called by his full name now. "He just plays a Nate on TV." She said this like every eleven year old had his own television show and that there was nothing special about it. He was just Danny, after all. "Anyway, the spell," she said, not wishing to dwell on her brother at the moment, and began her demonstration.Later, after Nate - the real one, not the fake one - gave it a try and got a low hover going, she couldn't help but smile back at his enthusiasm. It reminded her of one of the things she liked best about her little sister. Molly was so happy most of the time. Though, used to Daniel, it seemed a little strange on a boy older than five.
"Yeah, go ahead and try it again," she told him, willing to take his original excuse to put off the summoning charm a little longer. She glanced up at her brother again and realized all of sudden that she'd given Nate Danny's name but not her own. "I'm Holly," she added, trying not to let it sound like an afterthought, but not quite managing. "Holly Thistle of the Hollywood Thistles. Third Year." There. That ought to dwarf the introduction she gave Danny. Had she belonged to any House but Pecari, she would have added that, too, but it was best not to associate herself too closely with those people.\r\n\r\n
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Holly
I have one of those, too, but on my dad's side.
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Holly
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Nathaniel
November 26, 2008 4:28 PM
Aw, and I thought we were opposites! by Nathaniel
Feeling incredibly stupid, Nathaniel just nodded dumbly. “Oh,” the boy played a “Nate” on a TV show. Well, at least now he knew there were no other “Nates” to confuse with Nathaniel... er maybe. He still didn’t know everyone yet. He looked away slightly, “I don’t... really watch much television,” he stated, as if this were an excuse. His cheeks began to turn red, but it was true. If the television in his house was ever turned on, it was turned to a random news channel for his parents to “tsk tsk the situation of the government today” at or a cooking channel for his father to test his new hobbies.To be completely honest, Nathaniel was never that interested in television anyway. And neither did most his family. Sitcoms, dramas, cartoons, anything of the like were things Nathaniel only saw at brief glimpses when going to the houses of friends. Even when the news was on, Nathaniel found himself avoiding it. Every time he sat down to listen there was something crazy. And if he and a friend ever needed entertainment from the flickering box, he walked a block down to the video store to get a movie for that night, which he found slightly more interesting and a larger time killer.
Nathaniel found himself smiling again when the girl–Holly–told him to try again. “Okay,” he said in his chirpy little voice, and the lanky boy swished-and-flicked once more, “Wingardium Leviosa,” he said, drawing it out. The paper floated up the same height, but Nathaniel was able to keep it up longer with that same amount of concentration. Breaking it, the paper fluttered, and Nathaniel laughed. “The magic thing, its so cool,” he said, not exactly addressing Holly but talking in her direction, “To think, I thought it was all pretend.”
He looked at the girl helping him with the watted grin, barely finding a reason to frown overall. Nathaniel had always been overenthusiastic, overly happy, it wasn’t just the magic thing, really. “That’s a cool name,” he complimented, “It sounds like a band, Hollywood Thistles, and it reminds me of Christmas.” He wouldn’t be surprised if everyone in this room had their run-ins with the performing arts, having been so used to his father talk about his life “in the band” (Starlight, which his sister found herself named after though strangely enough it was his mother that named her). “Nathaniel, but you know that, Leon. First year,” though, thinking about that after a second, Nathaniel realized she probably knew that already too. “Oh, and I’m in Teppenpaw, if that means anything as well.”
Nathaniel swished his wand around all through his tidbits of speech, and now turned it back on the paper to try the spell once more. “Wingardium Leviosa,” he repeated again, not finding any loss in glee when it rose again. And, it may have been his imagination, but he believed it had gone slightly higher too! How great!
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Nathaniel
Aw, and I thought we were opposites!
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Nathaniel
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Holly Greer
December 01, 2008 4:55 PM
We're very close to being opposites by Holly Greer
Holly nodded, accepting that Nathaniel did not watch much TV. Neither, truthfully, did she. Her father had to screen everything she watched first, to be sure it didn't contain anything that might upset her, so most of the shows she did watch were on DVD. This, according to Danny, was not watching TV, but watching DVDs. But he called everything she liked 'kiddie shows' so she wasn't sure how much she should believe his terminology.She watched critically as he performed the spell again. She saw a few minor things that she thought he could fix up with some more practice, but the spell worked well enough and he seemed more than pleased by its results.
Though of muggle origins, Holly had never quite given up believing in magic even before she found out about Sonora. (She was still waiting to discover that her Grandfather Greer was actually a prince who ran away from his home country and any day now her long-lost great-aunt would come looking for someone to take over the throne - Royalty had to come from her Dad's side, or it would be Luke who got swept away to be King.)
In any case, she couldn't relate to ever thinking that it was all pretend. She'd once thought it had all been a series of increasingly powerful hallucinations that were symptomatic of her descent into schizophrenia, but that was slightly different. She wasn't about to share this observation with an eleven year old boy she hardly knew.
Fortunately, she didn't have to respond because he was complimenting her name, and she felt her heart warm toward him. She nodded in agreement, though she wasn't so sure she thought it sounded like a band. That hadn't been what she was going for. "Yes, I think it sounds lovely. Thistle is a kind of wood, and I was playing off of 'Hollywood'. Plus, I've always been partial towards Christmastime. It's ever so much better a name than Holly Greer. I don't understand why my father never changed his surname. It's so dull. No wonder Mom never took it, even when they were married." But Daddy was hardly alone in that. Even the ones with cool names hadn't gotten her to give up Burbridge. It was probably a publicity thing.
But that didn't make Greer any better a name.
As Nathaniel did his spell one more time, Holly picked up her own wand and decided it was time to actually try the third year level spell. She pointed her wand at the notebook in front of her brother (it suddenly occurred to her as she did so, exactly how splendid a spell this was going to be once she mastered it).
"Accio Danny's notebook."
It shifted on his desk, but didn't come to her or burst into flames. Danny's hand came slamming down onto the notebook and he turned around to glare at her. She widened her eyes and raised her eyebrows in a look of total innocence. He didn't buy it, of course, but he wasn't really supposed to. Her brother scowled and turned pointedly back to his own conversation.
Struck by a curiosity that overcame her disinclination to admit to having a brother, she asked Nathaniel, "Do you have any siblings?" She didn't recognize the name Leon, but there were a lot of people in the school who she didn't have a last name to pin to. Just to be annoying, she kicked the back of Danny's chair. He pointedly ignored that, too.\r\n\r\n
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Holly Greer
We're very close to being opposites
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Holly Greer
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Nathaniel
December 04, 2008 1:41 PM
Huh? I don't see it. by Nathaniel
Nathaniel was glad that his lack of knowing today’s popular shows and channels wasn’t something that caused a look of compete and utter shock, such as the kinds he was used to getting from his peers when they asked if he watched “such and such” on “this show here”. Well, magical people didn’t seem to even have the grasp of how to operate a television (from what Nathaniel saw of that one man who came to their house), and his mind immediately connected everyone here to coming from that magical background (though she said her brother did know about television unlike the guy who came to his door? he brushed the confusing bits from his mind), so he supposed he shouldn’t be shocked that she wasn’t shocked.Maybe he should stop being so shocked about all the magic, and the different and similar things wizards did in their spare time and just work on his studies? But then, Nathaniel was never one for doing something like that, at least not right away. Maybe after a few years he would get over the whole "magic" thing but for right now, not only was it new it was fantastic. So his whole being was shaken whenever that piece of paper fluttered upward on his command.
This was something he would be showing his mother, when he could. Nathaniel was certain that she would absolutely love even the smallest peeks into this world. She was practically ready to jump into the fire that the magic-man lit with his wand, simply because it had come from no where.
She added another name to hers, apparently her father's name, that didn't really fit into the "tree" and "plant" parts of her name. Not that he thought "Greer" was a bad name, and if he did he would never be the person to say it, "Holly Thistle of the Hollywood Thistles" just sounded so much smoother. "It definately fits you well," Nathaniel continued, "And it fits together too! Not many names fit together that well," which was why his mother changed her name as a teenager. Of course, she had kept it, because Leon had nothing to do with the sky. Though, on bills she put her "given name". "I don't think my name fits together very musically," he added, thinking. "Nathaniel Leon sounds like it has the 'ee' sound at the wrong spots, or with the wrong consonants. And the 'l' at the end and the 'l' at the beginning merge too fast."
Nathaniel nodded, almost serious, as if he was considering the meaning of the universe in the letters of his name. But his face broke into a bright smile afterwards, no smile ever gone from Nathaniel's face for very long. "Greer isn't very bad either, Thistle just has a better ring. Is it your mother's name? Since... Greer is your father's?" he asked, slightly curious. He guessed that her parents "weren't together" anymore. He only knew a few other kids like that, but their names were normally their father's.
After his last try with his spell, Nathaniel's attention turned to Holly, who had picked up her wand once more. His hands brushed down his wrinkled robes nervously as she tried the spell she hadn't wanted to perform before. He grinned over at the back of the other boy's head (Nate-Danny?) as Holly made his notebook twitch. When the boy's hand slammed down on the notebook and turned around, Nathaniel turned his own burning face away, feeling bad for the quiet giggles that escaped the confines of his mouth. Hand over his mouth, Nathaniel looked back at Holly. His hands moved to the sides of his face, hoping to cool himself down from embarrassment of being "caught".
Nathaniel nodded at Holly at the mention of siblings. His voice still having the effects from his previous second of laughter, spiced up with merriment, he answered properly, "I have two sisters. Star and Lucy, Star's in college right now studying music. And Lucy's two, she likes wind chimes and beating on pots and pans," he smiled, not bothering to explain why Star's name was "Star" and not more "normal" than Nathaniel and Lucy's (nor did he give Star's full name, which she was often embarrassed with). It wasn't important.
Not wanting to get into the life of his sisters (which would then snowball into his parents, then him, and perhaps his friends at home would be next?), he returned the question to Holly. "Is Daniel your only sibling?" he asked with some interest. Nathaniel's hands found his wand next, and the boy fiddled with it while listening to the older girl.
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Nathaniel
Huh? I don't see it.
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Nathaniel
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Holly Greer
December 04, 2008 4:35 PM
Trust me, it's there. by Holly Greer
Holly nodded in complete agreement as Nathaniel commented on how well her chosen surname fit both her and her first name. While she no longer verbally included the Princess that had once preceded her full name (Princess Holly Greer sounded ridiculous, which is what had precipitated her name change in the first place, back when she'd only been ten), she thought 'of the Hollywood Thistles' held much the same regal sound to it and fit the name just as perfectly.She took his words as an ultimate compliment, and as strange a little boy as he was, she found herself inexplicably liking him more and more. Well, he sort of shared a name with her brother. Maybe that explained it.
She found herself thinking about what surname might sound good with 'Nathaniel' as he explained the shortcomings of his own given name and couldn't help but agree with him on the 'ee' sounds and the two Ls. She'd give it some consideration later, when she was trying to fall asleep without thinking about History of Magic. Unfortunately, 'Nathaniel' was more a name than a word, which made it a little more difficult.
"No," Holly answered when he asked if Thistle was her mother's name. Three years ago, the question would have surprised her, but three years ago, she'd thought the whole world knew who her mother was. With most of her Sonora friends being pureblood witches, she no longer held that misconception. She had needed limited 'the world' to Hollywood and the movie watching muggle populace. She assumed since Nathaniel didn't watch TV, he didn't watch many movies either.
Plus, Ms. Yuma had also asked if Thistle was her mother's name last year, so the question wasn't even unprecedented. "My mother's name is Burbridge which, admittedly, is better than Greer, but Holly Burbridge doesn't sound right at all." Not least because her mother hadn't had primary, or even split, custody of her since before Holly could remember. "Thistle works the best. That's why I picked it out of all of the words and names in the English language." She was quite rightly proud of her choice.
Later, after he'd answered her question about siblings (after hearing some of the names other movie stars had saddled some of her classmates at North Hollywood Academy with and after she herself had avoid a full name of 'Hollywood Greer' only because it sounded too masculine, Holly thought nothing of 'Star' - she just assumed his parents learned their lesson after Nathaniel's older sister came home crying one too many times, by 'Lucy' they'd apparently gotten a handle on picking good names for their children), Holly put her wand down and answered his.
"I have two brothers on my mom's side. Luke is in High School. Lucas George," she added, giving her older brother's first and middle name with a roll of her eyes, so Nathaniel could understand how bad her mom had been at naming children initially, too. Of course, if he didn't watch movies, he might not get it. "And Danny's named after his Dad." She nodded to the brother who was sitting in front of her. It wasn't the most original naming convention in the world, but at least it got Danny out of anything truly horrendous. Danny Nash was even kind of fun to say. Except he wanted to go by Daniel now. "His Dad goes by Dan Nash, which has the same last and first consonant thing as your name, but it seems to work for him," she added as an aside. "Maybe the problem is that your last name is two syllables."
"Anyways, on my dad's side, I have a little sister, Molly, who's in first - no, second? Second grade? Oh, gosh, she's getting old." It was maybe, maybe, possible that Molly was old enough to play with Holly's Barbies now.
Returning to the issue of names, Holly rolled her eyes and added, "Dad thought it would be cute if our names rhymed. Another good reason to use Thistle. Molly Greer and Holly Greer are really easy for people to confuse. Thank Merlin he didn't have any more daughters or there would be a Polly Greer and a Dolly Greer, too."
"And Luke has a some more half-siblings on his dad's side - I'm pretty sure one of his step-moms even lasted long enough to have two - but I don't really know them and only ever met them at his birthday parties, before I came here, and I'm not entirely sure which ones were cousins and which were siblings." Luke's dad had been married nearly as many times as Mom, but surely those unfamiliar kids at the family party couldn't have all been half-siblings. Luke had two uncles and an aunt who must have contributed.
"Danny just has me and Luke. His dad never remarried." She gave the back of Danny's head a sad pitying look. In some ways, she thought that was almost worse than Mom's constant marriages and divorces. Mom was at least trying to find The One. "I was the lucky one. Daddy's been married to Courtney - Molly's mom - since I was three."
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Holly Greer
Trust me, it's there.
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Holly Greer
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Nathaniel
December 09, 2008 5:40 PM
*worried* Is it bad opposite or good opposite? by Nathaniel
Nathaniel felt hints of pride bubble up when she acknowledged that his inspection of her name was correct. Grinning madly, Nathaniel rested his cheeks in his hands, and the boy’s legs kicked briefly, wonderful. He liked talking to Holly with her interesting name and her seeming interest in what he was saying about her name. For some reason, Nathaniel always caught himself up in peoples’ names, especially how they fit together. It wasn’t even something that important to other people, but he liked it. Picking up his wand once more, Nathaniel retried the spell, using it as a lapse to get his thoughts in order.“Wingardium Leviosa.” Swish. Flick. The paper floated up and Nathaniel found it getting higher.
Names were very important, Nathaniel liked to think, and very personal. If your name doesn’t fit you, he thought, then you had every right to change it. Which is why when Holly admitted that Thistle wasn’t her mother’s name, he simply nodded and marveled at her ability to find a word that fit so nicely into a name. He’d always imagined what he could call himself, unfortunately nothing fit. He wanted to keep Nathaniel, it was a nice name, four syllables that fit together (just not together with “Leon”). Nathaniel was what he called himself, and he didn’t like nicknames much (they just weren’t the real… or ‘given’ name).
The paper dropped when she snapped him from his thoughts with the name of Burbridge. He looked over at her, slightly puzzles. Burbridge sounded slightly more familiar than Daniel Nash did, and Nathaniel couldn’t place why. He watched movies only at night with nothing else to do, and he never placed the actors’ names with faces, but sometimes the names would stick if his friends repeated it a number of times. He shook his head though, trying not to be disapproving of the surname with her prename but his face still took it on a little. Good thing she’d already admitted to disliking how it fit, he really didn’t want to look insulting. “No,” he said simply, “You’re right, Thistle is best. It’s perfect,” he reiterated with a nod.
She was so lucky she found a perfect name. Leon, Leon, it just sounded thick on his tongue, even without his prename. It also sounded distantly like the word “Lion”, and Nathaniel didn’t like that (not that he didn’t like lions, he was taught to love all animals), if one looked at him he knew “lion” wasn’t going to be the first thing to come to mind. “My mom named Star,” he clarified, “Well, actually Star named herself Star, mom gave her two names and one of them just could be cut off to Star. Dad named Lucy and me, he didn’t like Star even though his band was called ‘Sounds of Starlight’,” Nathaniel shrugged.
“Lucas George,” Nathaniel commented, the name ringing a bell in a weird sort of way as he scrunched up his face trying to think of why it was familiar. “It sounds… backwards,” he admitted, but he wasn’t sure why.
She mentioned the problem with Nathaniel’s last name, and he nodded, taking that into account. “More like the four syllables then the two,” he pieced it together, “It doesn’t seem to fit.” Ho-lly This-tle, both hers were two but they fit, and now the problem was placed on his favored first name. Na-than Le-on was two and two, but he wouldn’t change his name to Nathan, that defeated the whole ‘I like the name Nathaniel’ business. “Maybe I should make my last name longer?” he thought aloud, then wrinkled his nose when Le-on-ar-do interrupted his thoughts. Never mind.
He laughed along with the rhyming names idea, making it a note in his mind not to name his children rhyming names. Before, he’d found it kind of cute, and interesting, but the way Holly talked about it made it seem less of an enjoyable thought. Probably like Star’s name, it sounded cool and unique but when you actually met someone named Star you kind of wanted to ask if it was a joke.
Nathaniel then went to trying to make sense of the differently structured family. “So, Lucas and Daniel are your mother’s children, and Lucas has lots of other siblings on his dad’s side but Daniel only has you,” he reiterated, “And then your dad’s side is your sister Molly,” he grinned again at the name issue, “And Molly only has you for a sister.” Nathaniel’s eyebrows rose in surprise, “Wow, that’s some big family tree, adding on all the moms and dads and such.” He only had four, seemingly small now that he compared it to Holly’s family.
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Nathaniel
*worried* Is it bad opposite or good opposite?
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Nathaniel
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Holly
December 15, 2008 10:30 PM
Can it be neutral? by Holly
While Holly remained oblivious to Nathaniel's show of recognition on her mom's surname, when he said Lucas's name sounded backwards, she grinned a little at him. So he wasn't entirely ignorant of what her hometown produced."George Lucas created Star Wars and Indiana Jones," she explained. "Luke was named after him. Well, mostly him, but a little bit after the main character in the first three Star Wars movies, Luke Skywalker, too. I mean, his last name is Walker. You can't go around with a name like Luke Walker without people noticing that similarity, even if you didn't know his middle name was George. Luke got the worst name of all of us. Even Greer isn't that bad, by comparison."
At Nathaniel's thought that the problem with his name was that his last name was too short, Holly nodded immediately. "Yeah, that makes sense," she agreed. "Last names don't balance well if they're much shorter than the first name. I mean, take Danny's name. Daniel Nash. I draw out the a in Nash to make it sound longer, but if I say his Dad's name, it's Dan Nash, and I say Nash a lot quicker. Is there a prefix you like that you can put on the front of Leon so you can make it longer and break up the two Ls? Maybe hyphenate it with something? What's your mom's maiden name?"
When he asked for clarification on the intricacies of her family tree, Holly nodded along and only had to make one correction. "Yeah, but Daniel's got Luke, too. All three of us have the same Mom. Danny actually sees Luke more than I do, since he's with Mom every other two weeks while me and Luke have opposite weekends for visiting her and live mostly with our dads. Luke's the one with the really confusing family since both of his parents were remarried loads of times. Me and Danny both have really simple dad-sides. And Molly's got it the easiest since doesn't even have mom-sides and dad-sides."
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Holly
Can it be neutral?
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Holly
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Nathaniel
December 27, 2008 12:58 PM
Oh, but that's so confusing by Nathaniel
Nathaniel nodded dumbly when he heard Star Wars and Indiana Jones, the names sounded familiar as well but he didn’t believe he’d actually seen either of these things in full. Maybe the posters that went up around buildings and movies stores and such? Still, he found himself laughing a little when she stated that her brother got the worst name of the bunch because it’s ability to be recognized. Luke Walker had its own odd sound to it, but Nathaniel didn’t comment on that, he didn’t think that was what Holly meant.Nathaniel just wasn’t very caught up on the intricacies of his own world, he guessed, there were things that not everyone would know. He wondered if he should be spending more time learning about his own world instead of diving right into the Magical world without a second thought. It might make things more clear.
She commented on his comment about the length of the names, and he didn’t think about her brother’s name, only of what she was saying. “That makes sense, whenever I say my last name I think that I should hold out the ‘ee’ sound to match.” She asked about his mother’s maiden name, and then Nathaniel had to think. She dropped her real middle name before she even thought of getting married, when signing things that were unimportant but required a ‘real name’, Skye used weird things. “Lane, that’s the one she uses most often,” he wrinkled his nose. “Nathaniel Lane-Leon, I don’t think that’s going to work.” He laughed, and repeated the name, then continued on with others. “Nathaniel DuMonte-Leon? Nathaniel Le-on-ar-do?” The syllables on Leonardo were spoken slowly.
“I think I’ll stick with an imperfect name unless something genius hits me,” he said, shaking his head. His fingers touched his chin as he listened to Holly go on about her family, nodding every second or so. Blushing slightly when he realized he’d forgotten Luke in the mom’s side business. He frowned when she finished, and allowed himself the last question. “Why did all those people marry each other if they didn’t want to stay together, and were just going to go off and get married to someone else anyway?” he asked, thinking this a perfectly legitimate question to ask. He didn’t see the point in saying you would stay together when you wouldn’t.
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Nathaniel
Oh, but that's so confusing
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Nathaniel
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