The little Charms student that could. on Charms

Professor Lorraine Taylor

July 07, 2009 11:14 AM

Beginning Charms I by Professor Lorraine Taylor

The sheet of paper lying on every student’s desk as they entered was a study guide for their midterm exam. The list on the chalkboard at the front of the room was the (brief) collection of spells they would be expected to know backwards, forwards, and in some cases upside down. The woman standing at the front of the classroom, dressed in neat and professional black robes with her grey-blonde hair pulled back tightly away from her face was Lorraine Taylor, Charms Professor, Head of Teppenpaw, and sole source of all the pain and suffering the students were about to go through for the three weeks leading up to their winter holiday. She was waiting, rather impatiently, for her Beginning Charms class to get the hint, stop talking, and pay attention to her. Lorraine was not a patient person. She began.

“On your desk,” the woman said sharply. Her students’ collective attention quickly focused on her. They had learned well in the few weeks/few years she had taught them. “Is the study guide for your midterm. Be advised, third years,” Lorraine warned, “that my Intermediate class does not receive the same privilege before their midterm. You will have the remainder of the class to go through that study guide. I will not grade it, but I also will not answer any questions unless you have done the work yourselves to at least attempt some sort of understanding. You may work in groups or alone, depending on your personal preference. I will also be handing back your Theories of Charms essays that you turned in last class. They were very disappointing for the most part. Unless you received a minimum of 90% credit, you will be expected to rewrite the essay. I would like that on my desk by tomorrow afternoon, 5:00 at the latest. This is the last time you will be permitted a rewrite.

“That is all. You may begin.” Lorraine turned and walked to her desk, collected the papers, and began passing them out. Many of the scores were, quite frankly, abysmal—although she did smile congratulatorily at one first year girl as she handed back her paper. “Very well done,” the professor commented. “I would seriously consider taking my advanced class when the time comes, if I were you.” Unfortunately, most of the students she was currently teaching were that promising. Ah well. Such was her task to teach what she could. Papers returned to their owners, Lorraine seated herself at her desk and began grading her seventh years’ work.

OOC: Minimum of 10 sentences please! Extra-interesting posts get more points. ;)

Subthreads:

The little Charms student that could. by Marissa Stephenson with Charlotte Abbott

How charming by Edmond Carey

Re: Beginning Charms I by Pippa Brockert

0 Professor Lorraine Taylor Beginning Charms I 0 Professor Lorraine Taylor 1 5

Marissa Stephenson

July 08, 2009 11:08 PM

The little Charms student that could. by Marissa Stephenson

Attending an average Charms class was like going through a knothole backward, being beaten up fifteen times in a row, tripping over high heels, being stomped on by the heels of others, and then promptly being run over by a car. On very bad days, which were the only other type there were in the Charms classroom for Marissa, that car turned into about a million fully loaded eighteen-wheelers.

It was exhausting and frustrating, but the calendar beside Marissa's bed, on which she marked off each day leading up to the Christmas holidays in red, indicated that a measley three weeks stood between her and the end of the semester. Since she hadn't blown anything up in weeks, she thought a peaceful resolution to her Charms struggles could work out for this half of the year.

While that didn't take care of the spring, just thinking of two weeks without classes was bolstering enough to give her a new wave of determination to add a few more points to her grade before she went home. She wanted a perfect Christmas, and that couldn't happen if her parents were disappointed.

Professor Taylor's introductory remarks caused a flicker of uncertainty. Just a flicker. But then she gripped her wrist and shook the bad thought aside. She could write essays. On that point, she was absolutely sure. There was a chance she would never be a great witch, but she could still write any professor who cared for one a good essay. It would be fine.

After all that talk of 'very disappointing', though, it was hard not to still feel a little nervous. When her paper was handed back, it took Marissa a long moment to gather enough nerve to look at her grade.

When she finally did (poplars, she recalled wryly, could be courageous when it was absolutely necessary), all of the blood in her body rushed to her neck and cheeks as huge waves of relief crashed over her. 91. It wasn't fabulous by any means, but it wasn't a forty or something. She had been worried for a minute there.

Though she didn't have to, Marissa resolved right then and there to rewrite the paper anyway. A 91 was just too close to unacceptable, and teachers liked ambition. Besides, she needed the points. The higher her final grade for the fall was, the lower the chances that her mother would kill her. Daddy she could handle - she'd had Tony Stephenson wrapped around her little finger practically since birth - but Mama was an entirely different ballgame.

Feeling even more determined in the aftermath of the lukewarm (but not abysmal) grade, Marissa took a real quill she was trying to use all day out of her bookbag and started writing down spells on the board. It wasn't, for Charms, too bad of a list. She had, after many trials and a hair fire, managed to master almost everything, and she had a few weeks left to practice the rest of them. The Gardens had enough empty nooks for her to do that safely. It was not going to be a perfect exam, but she would pass. That much, she was sure of.

First, though, she had a study guide to finish. Putting on a smile, she turned to face the seat beside hers. Since it had been a few weeks since she'd caused any major disaster here and could usually answer questions well, Marissa felt fairly confident that she wouldn't be considered too awful to work with, but she still mentally braced herself for it just in case. "Want to work together on this?" she asked, half-lifting her paper to show what she meant.

16 Marissa Stephenson The little Charms student that could. 147 Marissa Stephenson 0 5

Charlotte Abbott

July 14, 2009 1:47 PM

Show off by Charlotte Abbott

It was such a pity that the charms professor was an evil gargoyle, because Charlie actually quite enjoyed the classes. Not as much as Defense, which was always very cool, but the spells were neat. That Taylor woman just made them last forever. And ever. With extra homework.

What's worse, she expected all the kids to be certified genius or something. Charlie was smart; she'd always been somewhere near the top of her class. Trouble was, a lot of the kids at Sonora were smart. Plus they had classes with more than one yeargroup together. Which basically meant that Charlotte Abbott was no longer one of the brainy kids. Above average she may be, but with distractions like ballet and Quidditch eating up a lot of her spare time, she would never give 100% on her essays. It should have been no surprise, then, that her 83% wasn't satisfying anyone. Groaning, Charlie mentally reorganised her evening to fit in re-writing the paper. Evil professor.

"Want to work together on this?" A voice next to her distracted Charlie from her negative thoughts.

"Oh, yes, of course," she answered brightly, hastily shoving her paper aside in case she would be judged by her sub-standard grade. She took a look at her partner, a girl in her House in the lower year. "We haven't spoken yet, have we?" the question was merely friendly rhetoric. "I'm Charlotte Abbott, nice to meet you."

0 Charlotte Abbott Show off 135 Charlotte Abbott 0 5

Edmond Carey

July 24, 2009 12:05 AM

How charming by Edmond Carey

Somehow, to his own surprise, Edmond had almost finished up half a year on his own at school. He'd gotten used to dorms and the Cascade Hall, to common rooms and the sheer size of the library, and the tremendous variation in teachers. He'd learned his way around the mansion, and thought that he had almost done so well enough to try finding his way around it blindfolded. His wandwork, at least in his opinion, was far better than it had been in September, and his writing might have improved as well. He was enjoying himself here.

He still wanted to go home, though. Letters had started to come and go on a daily basis, and while most were rambling by Jane, an increasing number of the missives dealt with a pair of topics very near and dear to his heart: Christmas, which was the biggest holiday of the year, and his twelfth birthday, which was pretty big in its own right. Julia was careful not to give anything away, but to judge by what he had picked up, Morgaine's insistence on going back home to Georgia was all that would keep this from being one of the best holidays ever.

Professor Taylor, of course, didn't give him time to dwell on his sister's motives. She wasn't the only professor who was demanding, but when he thought about 'demanding', hers was the image that popped up. If she had not been a witch, she could have been one of his old tutors.

The comments on their Theory essays made him wince. It was, to his mind, a bit harsh to say all of that in front of the class. It might be true, but still...harsh. When he got his back, he slid it into his folder without looking at it. The problem wasn't one he could fix right now (assuming that it even existed), so he'd deal with it later.

For now, he had a review to work through.

He decided to start with the spells on the board. He'd been able to perform all of them by the set deadlines, but a few had not been practiced since he'd completed the exams. This was his Head of House, which made performing well on all of her midterm's sections critical.

To test himself, he took out his History book and pointed his wand at it. "Wingardium Leviosa."

The book rose without difficulty, so he decided to add two more to see if he could hold up the greater weight. He had no idea what she might ask him to do, specifically, during the midterm. They wobbled a little on the way up, but that couldn't count off too many points if he couldn't work out how to fix it before the exam.

As he raised them another half-foot, he heard someone speak to him. He glanced sideways, lost focus, and, realizing the issue with that, winced about half a second before the pile of books hit the desk and the top one slipped off, going to the floor to make another, lesser, bang. Pulling it back in with his left foot, Edmond gave the speaker an embarrassed look, acknowledging that it was his fault the books had all gone down. "Repeat that?" he asked sheepishly.

0 Edmond Carey How charming 143 Edmond Carey 0 5

Pippa Brockert

July 28, 2009 8:22 PM

Re: Beginning Charms I by Pippa Brockert

Now that the elder Professor Flatt was gone, Professor Taylor had to be the teacher that Pippa found most intimidating. It always felt like nothing was ever good enough for her and Pippa had to work much harder than she might have in another class on essays. Not that she resented it, but she tended to be a bit more anxious about how she would do in Charms than other classes. What might have got her an E in another class seemed like it wouldn't even get her an A in this one.

So that day when Professor Taylor announced that the essays were very disappointing, a storm of butterflies started up in Pippa's stomach. She had worked so hard on hers and would be quite upset if she had to redo it. Pippa had tried to be really thorough and had checked to make sure it didn't have any glaring spelling or grammatical errors so she didn't know what else she could have added.

When Pippa got her paper back, she breathed a sigh of relief. She had gotten a 92. She wasn't going to have to do it over. That meant she didn't have to worry over it anymore. She could move on to the study guide.

As she opened it, she had the feeling she was being watched. Pippa's eyes left her work and gazed around the room only to see her sister glaring at her from across the room. As soon as her eyes met Tawny's, the younger girl scowled and turned away pointedly.

Pippa looked down at her desk, feeling bad all over again. She didn't know why her sister seemed to hate her so much. She always wondered what she'd done wrong. It wasn't like it was just right now either. It was always like this. Tawny had been mean and nasty to her for as long as she could remember and Pippa just didn't know why, but it really hurt. It had completely killed any joy she'd felt over getting a good grade on her paper.

Trying to push it aside, Pippa turned to the person next to her and asked "Do you want to work with me on the study guide?"

11 Pippa Brockert Re: Beginning Charms I 132 Pippa Brockert 0 5