If you go down to the class today.... on Charms

Sub. Professor Joseph Regal

July 03, 2012 7:11 PM

Beginners class [1 and 2 years] by Sub. Professor Joseph Regal

Joseph Regal had followed his father’s path into academic life, and for the last few years he had been focusing on charms research. He liked the research branch of academia, but he sometimes took teaching jobs to help out schools that needed substitute teachers. And that was what had brought him to Sonora, his father’s former school.

This had been the school his father had run for two short years before he had to step down and focus on his mother’s illness. It had taken a lot of the whole family, but it seemed like things were getting better at home. He hoped for the sake of everyone, and since Joseph lived in another state and had a lot of work, he rarely went to see them.

The Substitute Charms teacher didn’t know how long he was going to stay teaching at Sonora, but he was sure he was going to have a great time doing it. Teaching was always fun to do, in small periods of time, of course. Joseph didn’t know how people actually did this for a living. No, he preferred being in a lab testing and coming up with new exciting charms. He found that a more fulfilling work, than teaching, but he had nothing against helping children learn the material.

It had been a while since he had taught anyone, but the excitement to get to do it was still lingering in his stomach. He arranged his papers and wrote his name on the blackboard before the kids from the beginners class arrived. The clocked chimed and the students began arriving. He waited until the last of the children was in place before introducing himself

“Welcome! I am your substitute professor for charms,” he smiled and pointed to the blackboard. “I am Professor Joseph Regal.”

He hadn’t been with children this age in a long time. His own children were older than the beginner’s class. “Today we are going to do something fun. The charm we are going to practice today is the color-changing charm!” he wasn’t sure if they had already done it before, but it never hurt to review things. It was something that was bound to come in their examinations, or at least it had come in some he had overseen over the years.

“The incantation is Multicorfors and you flick your wrist to the left one time. Look at how I do it.” He did the demonstration and had the teddy bear on his desk from brown to purple. “You have to think about the color you want to the teddy bear to change in order for it to have effect.”

Joseph had placed a teddy bear on each of his students’ desks before they had entered; “Now you can try it. You can work in pairs if you want to! Have fun and if you need me just raise your hand,” Joseph finished his small lecture and hope that everyone would have a good time with this lesson.

OOC: site rules apply! Have fun!

Subthreads:

If you go down to the class today.... by Henny B-F-R (Aladren) with Alexandra Devereux, Crotalus, Alex Devereux

Bri...why are you green? by Clara Abernathy, Pecari with Aubrielle Thornton, Teppenpaw, Sub. Professor Joseph Regal, Brielle

Well, it's a start by Jay Carey, Aladren with Thad Pierce, Aladren, Jay

All the colors of the rainbow! by Waverly Canterbury - Pecari with Evan Brockert, Aladren, Waverly

Pretty Colours. by Cepheus Princeton with Carrie O'Malley, Crotalus, Cepheus, Crotalus

Cuuuute! by Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw with Marcus Crosby, Teppenpaw

They would... by Andrina Thornton, Aladren

Is this right? by Solomon Bensalem, Crotalus

0 Sub. Professor Joseph Regal Beginners class [1 and 2 years] 0 Sub. Professor Joseph Regal 1 5

Henny B-F-R (Aladren)

July 04, 2012 2:33 PM

If you go down to the class today.... by Henny B-F-R (Aladren)

Teddies were supposed to be cute and comforting but Henny found the sight of them arranged with military precision along all the desks a tad unnerving. It was a little like the concept of mandatory fun, or care and affection being meted out according to a strict timetable. Something about it just didn't quite gel. Therefore, when the substitute professor – some relation of the former headmaster, perhaps? - instructed them to turn their wands on the critters she had no qualms whatsoever. Not that a spell to change its colour was a particularly gruesome thing to do, unless it went wrong. And, generally speaking, her spells did not.

Setting ted up squarely as a target, she decided to turn him a nice Aladren blue. Emotion could be useful in spell-casting, provided it was kept in check. A proportional amount of emotion, a genuine desire to see the results of the spell come to pass, was useful. It was when strong emotion took over and dwarfed one's control that things became problematic. However, pleased as she was to be an Aladren, she didn't think her house pride was going to swell to such an all-consuming level.

“Multicorfors,” she cast, picturing her bear becoming a rich, even blue, and trying to focus on her desire for that to happen. The fur on his middle became a perfect match for the Aladren décor but as it moved towards the edges, the colour paled and eventually faded.

Henny took a moment to gather her thoughts. She suspected the problem was that she didn't greatly care whether the bear was blue or not. Or rather, were she in the position of wanting a blue bear, she would simply buy one that was blue in the first place. Charms faded over time, after all. She supposed it could be possible to want a specific thing in a specific colour and not be able to find it, and then this could be useful. Or perhaps it was handy for people who cared about co-ordinating their bag and their shoes and their accessories. You could save yourself a lot of time and money by just having a few items and colouring them as you wished at the start of the day. Although she rather suspected that people who cared so very much about co-ordinating everything were not the sort of people who restricted themselves to owning a sane number of shoes and so-forth.

Refocussing her attention on the teddy bear, Henny had the idea of turning those areas that hadn't turned blue to black instead, to make him a proper Aladren bear.

“Multicorfors,” she cast, focussing on his ears and paws in her mind. They blackened but the blue she'd previously cast vanished as they did so. “Guess you can't be two artificial colours at once...” she mused to herself. Or at least, he couldn't be the way she'd been doing it.

13 Henny B-F-R (Aladren) If you go down to the class today.... 211 Henny B-F-R (Aladren) 0 5

Clara Abernathy, Pecari

July 07, 2012 2:12 AM

Bri...why are you green? by Clara Abernathy, Pecari

Clara was on her way down to the Charms class halfway dreading her next session. Her last Charms lesson didn't really go so well seeings how she had dropped the candlestick onto the professor's desk, spilling candlewax everywhere. The professor hadn't said anything about it, but she still felt bad about it. As she made her way to class she ran into her cousin Brielle and the two girls linked arms. They entered class still linked chatting about what they would be working on for the concert and took two seats closest to eachother. Clara listened intently as the new teacher introduced himself to the class. "Good Morning Mr. Regal," she said politely and smiled. She glanced curiously at the teddy bear sitting on her desk. What in the world are we going to be doing with these? she wondered silently to herself.

Clara listened as the professor explained their assignment and her usually happy smile turned downward for just a moment. Color-changing charm? Had she heard him right? He actually wanted them to use a color-changing charm to turn something a different color on purpose? Clara couldn't help remembering the potion explosion that had turned her into a human booger for three days. What if I goof this up? What if my bear doesn't change color? the little Pecari worried slightly as she frowned a little at the teddy. Clara glanced towards her cousin and saw Brielle studying her bear, probably getting ready to try the charm herself. Clara slowly raised her wand and repeated the word for the charm a few times in her head...Multicorfors, Multicorfors, Multicorfors. She let out a breath she had been holding and tried to calm herself. "You can do this", she told herself. "You just have to relax. Its not a potion you messed up. This you're supposed to change color on purpose. Just breathe...everything will go fine" she pep-talked herself til she was confident enough to try.

Clara raised her wand and got ready to try the charm. She flicked her wrist once to left while stating "Multicorfors!" as confidently as she could muster, halfway closing her eyes in the process. She had been thinking of the color green the whole time. Clara opened her eyes, but was not surprised to learn that the bear had remained brown. She let out a small sigh of frustration. Maybe I wasn't concentrating hard enough she told herself as she stared at the still brown bear. "Maybe I should try again," she mumbled impatiently. She raised the wand a second time and as she flicked her wrist left again she gave the charm another go still half closing her eyes as she did it. " Multicorfors!" she stated again still thinking of the color green. She opened her eyes fairly certain that she had put every bit of energy she could have into that last attempt and was stunned to learn that the bear had still not changed colors.

"What in the name of sam hill is going on here?" she asked herself aloud. "Why didn't the blasted bear change colors?" She turned towards her cousin to ask her if she might have done the charm wrong and stopped dead, her eyes as big as dinner plates. Her mouth dropped open slightly and she clamped her hand over it to keep from making any sound. In that instance Clara knew exactly why her attempt on the bear had failed. While she had been casting the charm she neglected to pay close attention to where she had been aiming. It turned out that instead of aiming at the teddy bear as she had assumed she had been, she must have been aiming at her cousin and had changed her cousin green instead. Brielle was now the human booger and Clara was unsure as to how long she would stay that way. Clara also was unsure as to why the charm worked on Brielle and not the toy.

"Um...Bri...please don't panic when I ask this, but why are you green and not my bear?" She bit her bottom lip as she studied her cousin searching for a way to fix her boo boo.

0 Clara Abernathy, Pecari Bri...why are you green? 232 Clara Abernathy, Pecari 0 5

Aubrielle Thornton, Teppenpaw

July 07, 2012 2:26 AM

Clarabear... You're blue... by Aubrielle Thornton, Teppenpaw

Brielle walked up to Charms class at the same time as Clara did from the opposite end of the hall. B smiled at her cousin and the pair linked arms and walked into class together. As they walked in they decided to sit next to each other, so they found an empty desk.

The professor introduced himself and welcomed them to class before he told them that they were going to be working on the Color-Changing Charm. She looked at Clara and stifled a giggle. Bri was sure she knew what her cousin was thinking about because her brain went right to the time when a potion changed Clara to a shade of greed. Clara had been a self imposed, walking, talking booger for days a few years back because of the backfiring potion. Brielle knew that inwardly and/or outwardly her cousin would end up groaning.

Aubrielle pulled out her notes and quietly scribbled ‘Say multicorfors and flick wand wrist to left one time.’ in her book. Professor Regal told them to watch him and he did the charm by making his bear from brown to purple. “WOW!” she said, grinning at Clara. “THAT is soooo cool! I’ll bet we can do it!! Let’s do it, this is sooo cool!” she added as she went on even more excited as she talked. “Oooh!! When we get this right we can make ANY dress black for the show!” she blabbered. Clara started talking but Bri was almost sure her cousin wasn't talking to her.

So, B looked at her notes and pulled out her wand. “Multicorfors” she said as she was something out of the corner of her eye. Brielle flicked her wand to the left of her at the same time as she looked to the right, forgetting what she was doing completely. Henny was changing her bear blue and then black. “COOL!” she said, before she realized that she hadn’t actually changed the color of her bear at all… "Nuts..." she said, thinking that she'd done something wrong. Multicorfors she thought to herself, figuring that maybe she'd pronounced something wrong.

"What in the name of sam hill is going on here?" Clara asked out loud. "Why didn't the blasted bear change colors?"

Brielle turned towards Clara to see what had happened. Clara's hand went right to her mouth and Bri realized that she indeed had done the charm correctly...

She had turned her cousin Clara, blue...

"Um...Bri...please don't panic when I ask this, but why are you green and not my bear?"

“OHMYGOD…” she said, eyes widening bigger than saucers. “Clara… I…” she started, thinking of her mother and Uncle Bryan and how they would take their neice/daughter being turned blue by their daughter/neice… I’m dead meat… she thought as she looked down at her own hand that wasn’t holding her wand.

Green? she thought, confused.

"Wait... I know what happened! Clara, you closed your eyes and I got sidetracked by something on the other side of the room... We both did the charm right, but we didn't get our aim right!" Brielle said, looking at her smurfy cousin. "Well, now what?" she asked Clara.

0 Aubrielle Thornton, Teppenpaw Clarabear... You're blue... 0 Aubrielle Thornton, Teppenpaw 0 5

Alexandra Devereux, Crotalus

July 08, 2012 7:56 PM

...You may or may not see a very colorful scene by Alexandra Devereux, Crotalus

He had been her professor for two years, so she guessed she was used to him, but that was as much as Alex could really say about Professor Light. She had neither loved nor hated him, and was, now that he was gone, neither delighted nor devastated by his absence. He had been one teacher, but like the Care of Magical Creatures teachers before him, he had gone, and now there was another teacher. A stand-in teacher, anyway; she had gotten the impression this one wasn’t going to stay for very long, just until they could find someone who did want the job semi-permanently.

As she came in, she gave the substitute her customary very slight and neutral smile before she decided there was no real difference between one teddy bear and another, went to find a seat, and, for something to do with her hands while she waited for class to begin, began trying to arrange her brown hair into a messy bun, the ‘messy’ part being at least an almost guaranteed success because her hair was fine and she did not have the fancy potions and spells a part at home would involve using to make it go neatly into place. As long as she learned enough about the subject matter and learned it in an organized enough fashion that she could pass her CATS in three years, Alex didn’t suppose it really mattered who taught her Charms, or any other class. She had preferences among the professors, but none of them were anywhere close to things she would call bonds.

Alex let her hair fall, a little wavier for its experience, back to her shoulders when Professor Regal – it was only when she heard it and saw it at the same time, with it up on the board, that it registered with her that he had the same name as Headmistress Jareau’s predecessor, but as she had also lacked strong feelings about him and suspected he’d felt the same way about her, that didn’t bother her, either – called the class to order and told them what they were doing for the day.

Color-changing charms. Well, that could be useful, she thought, if she could learn to make it last any time at all; she suspected it had something to do with spending too much time with Theresa, but she sometimes found she just didn’t like the color of her bag, or her shoes, or something, and was fun to imagine just changing it up sometimes, not for any real reason, but just because.

Of course, learning it also had the benefit of making her pass the exam, which was generally why she learned spells. That, too, was an advantage she wished to have. Short-term goals were usually enough to motivate her in the absence of any good long-term ones that she could figure out.

She looked carefully at the bear in front of her for the first time and decided her earlier assumption about how one was just as good as another was correct. Hers did not look much different from that of the girl next to her, or the one across the row. They were just…bears, nothing special about them that she could see, nothing about them existing that could complicate a spell. She pointed her wand at the bear on her desk, mimicking the gesture made by the professor as nearly as possible, and said, “Multicol - ” before catching herself and biting the far right side of lip, annoyed with herself for stumbling over the word. Just because it felt like it ought to be ‘multicolor’ did not mean it was; that was a first year mistake.

“Multicorfors,” she tried again, very careful to get it right. She supposed being too focused on that, rather than on a color, could have something to do with why the spot of color which washed over the head of the bear was much too pale, not at all what she’d really had in mind. It didn’t cheer her up, exactly, to hear that things hadn’t apparently quite worked out for Henny in the seat beside her, but it did make her feel less annoyed with herself, if only because the other girl seemed to have tried something different than what Alex had thought to do.

“That’s interesting,” she said, looking over Henny’s bear. “I wouldn’t think they would just cancel each other out, unless they were supposed to go over the same part of it.” Then, she thought, the second color would be the one which won out; paints would mix into another color, probably a strange sort of brown, but she had a feeling, if not proof, that it wasn’t like paint. “What was the other color?” she asked, just to see if she’d guessed right.

0 Alexandra Devereux, Crotalus ...You may or may not see a very colorful scene 0 Alexandra Devereux, Crotalus 0 5

Jay Carey, Aladren

July 08, 2012 8:31 PM

Well, it's a start by Jay Carey, Aladren

Jay had heard that professors at Sonora changed over a good bit, but he had never seen it before, and he wasn’t sure how it was going to work. At home, if there was a lag between one tutor finishing and another arriving, they had a few days off, not a substitute. In theory, he supposed it would just be like they had three teachers in quick succession, but he did wonder if it would make a difference that Professor Regal knew that this wasn’t going to be his real job, if it would make him not teach as well as he would otherwise.

He seemed enthusiastic enough about being here, anyway, Jay decided as the lesson began. The lesson itself was brief, but then, it was apparently not a complicated spell, and plus it was one he thought was easy to come up with uses for, so there was no reason at all to explain why they were leaning it. They could use it for decorating without having to spend money and buy new decorations for every occasion, or perhaps, if they were very good, covering up stains, there were a lot of those at home, and sometimes something would be hard to get out, so at a party or something, maybe it could just be covered up….

That, though, brought to mind the image of his brother Brandon being allowed to attend a party, and that was not one Jay found it easy to entertain. He thought some of how Brandon acted was just him acting the way they all expected him to – Jay had seen him act almost like a normal person when it was just them and Diana, and then begin to act foolishly again as soon as Terry or Mother or anyone like that came around – but their parents would be at any parties they attended for years and years yet, and Brandon could never resist a chance to upset Mother. Maybe if the Fourth was there, he wouldn’t; he did seem respectful of the Anthonies, anyway, even the one who was only a few months older than Henry, who was Brandon’s second-favorite person after Mother to make angry.

Putting aside thoughts of home and things that had happened at home and what was going on at home, since there wasn’t really anything that he could do about those things, Jay picked up his wand and concentrated on the stuffed bear before him. To start with, he decided to just make it a lighter brown, thinking this would be a little easier than changing it altogether and so a good way to work his way up to that. “Multicorfors,” he intoned, and felt himself flush a little beneath his freckles as the bear’s chest did turn a lighter shade of brown. He had noticed sometime in October last year that he had the habit of blushing when something went better than he expected it to and hadn’t been able to stop noticing it ever since.

0 Jay Carey, Aladren Well, it's a start 0 Jay Carey, Aladren 0 5

Thad Pierce, Aladren

July 09, 2012 11:47 AM

Started is certainly better than stuck by Thad Pierce, Aladren

Thaddeus was only a second year, so Headmistress Kijewski was the only top administrator he had known at Sonora, but the name Regal immediately stood out to him when the substitute teacher introduced himself. Derry had talked at length of the previous headmaster - largely during Thad's questioning of all things Sonora in preparation for his own arrival at the school - so the name and characterictics of the former Head were familiar enough that Thad immediately concluded two things. Firstly, they were not one and the same man. This one was too young to be former Headmaster David Regal. Secondly, there probably was a connection. Regal was not a common enough name to just assume there was no relation between them.

Though Thad logically understood that there was likely little influence that a retired headmaster could or would want to turn against a second year Aladren who had only gotten in trouble once in his life (admittedly, on the very first day of Sonora classes, in front of the entire first year class, and resulting in both a detention and a grounding for two weeks both at home and in Flying Lessons, so it had been a rather spectacular bit of trouble), but Thad still felt he should be on his very best behaviour this lesson being led by a Regal.

He sat quietly and attentively though the lesson, taking notes as necessary so he would remember the pertinent details later, and did not raise his had to as about the spell's history, the story of it founding, or and anecdotes about famous uses of it. He felt this showed great constaint on his part, but decided he would need to look these things up in the library at the first opportunity to make up for the lost opportunity, and perhaps demand answers from the permant Charms professor when they got one, or maybe a prefect if that didn't happen quickly enough. Thad was going to sorely miss Professor Light. The man had always been glad to answer Thad's questions to the limit of his knowledge. Well, willing to do so if not glad precisely.

Well, maybe Professor Regal wouldn't mind answering a few, if Thad didn't press too hard and he waited until after class.

For now, though, there was a teddy bear to modify chromatically.

At home, Thaddeus had a teddy bear. It was one of his very few toys with little educational value. He had carried it around a lot when he was younger, but now it mostly sat on his bed and served as an additional, if somewhat oddly shaped, pillow.

Still, that bear had been with him for as long as he could remember, and it was differently colored than the one in front of him now. Thad imagined his own bear, pointed his wand, and cast, "Multicolfors."

The fur faded in some spots and darkened in others, but mostly turning a dull grey color that looked like it may have been black a long time ago, before sun and wear got to it. Though no familiar bare patches suddenly emerged, the age of the bear seemed to at least double.

Turning to check his neighbor's progress, Thad saw Jay Carey had also acheived a subtle change to his bear's coloring. "Do you have one at home, too?" he asked curiously.

0 Thad Pierce, Aladren Started is certainly better than stuck 0 Thad Pierce, Aladren 0 5

Henny B-F-R (Aladren)

July 09, 2012 1:17 PM

Today's the the day the teddy bears have their fur dyed by Henny B-F-R (Aladren)

Henny looked up from her work and was a little surprised to find that it was Alexandra who was talking to her. Henny didn't know a lot about the other girl, but she knew that was a Crotalus and related to the Careys, all of which led Henny to believe that she was a little bit proper about things. Henny tried not to judge books by their covers but equally she didn't go out of her way to flaunt herself and her DISCUSS and gay pride badge adorned school bag (currently tucked under the desk) in front of people with whom it would start arguments. With those who might take issue, she waited to speak until she was spoken to. But Alexandra was speaking to her perfectly civilly, and she was fairly sure she'd heard people call the girl Alex, which was scarcely the height of formality, so perhaps she was Pure in blood but not in attitude.

“Blue,” she replied to Alex's question, “And I suppose that when I was casting that, I was trying to apply it to the whole bear. So, even though I wasn't fully successful, when I tried to add the black, I was adding it to an area that had already been cast on... Let's see what the book says,” she mused, looking up the charm in the index of her text book. Flicking on from the introduction to the charm, wand movement and incantation, she found a subheading. “Here we go, casting multiple colour charms on the same object....

“When casting a color change charm, it will usually be applied to the object as a whole. If attempting to make an object multiple colours, or prevent the charm being applied to the whole object (for example, changing the colour of a purse but not its fastenings) it is important to mentally subdivide the object, focussing – again, for example – on exclusively the body or material of the purse, rather than the whole object. Where no such obvious division applies, e.g. if wanting to make the body of a purse two or more colours, a preparation charm may be necessary, see chapter...,” Henny tailed off, having read what she needed.

“I guess that answers the question then,” she smiled, cancelling the charms she had so far placed on the bear, ready to start again. It felt a little bit like cheating to do the task part by part, when she supposed the idea was to be strong enough at the charm to cast it over an object of approximately that size.

“I might just practise the basic, single coloured bear until I've got that right,” she told Alex. “Then have some fun later if there's still time. What are you going to do yours?” she asked.

13 Henny B-F-R (Aladren) Today's the the day the teddy bears have their fur dyed 211 Henny B-F-R (Aladren) 0 5

Waverly Canterbury - Pecari

July 11, 2012 8:59 PM

All the colors of the rainbow! by Waverly Canterbury - Pecari

Waverly was eagerly looking forward to Charms every week now. The term would end before she knew it and then she wouldn't be able to do spells for a whole summer! She didn't know how she'd be able to live in the Muggle world again after this. She hummed as she walked into class, smiling at people she knew. It was always nice to see familiar faces. She sat down at a desk and greeted the person next to her whom she knew would be her partner for class. She took out her wand and waited for the professor to start talking.

She would miss Professor Light and she wished she knew where he'd gone, but seeing the teddy bears on their desks, she knew this professor couldn't be that bad either.

A color-changing charm! Waverly beamed. Now this would be a helpful spell! She listened carefully to what she had to do before turning her head to the person next to her. "So what color do you want our bear to be?" she asked as she began to tie her brown hair up into a ponytail. It was second nature to tie up her hair during Charms, but not during Potions when she actually needed to. "I was thinking orange. It's my favorite color. I wonder if you can change different parts of its body different colors." Having suddenly become a really big Quidditch fan, just at school anyway, she wanted to make a Pecari bear to take home. It would remind her of her beloved house during the long summer.

0 Waverly Canterbury - Pecari All the colors of the rainbow! 0 Waverly Canterbury - Pecari 0 5

Jay

July 11, 2012 9:17 PM

There's still time for stuck, but I'm optimistic by Jay

Jay had played with a stuffed bear when he was little, and it was at home, but he wasn’t sure it still technically qualified as his. “I think my youngest sister has it now,” he said honestly. His mother encouraged him and Henry to play with whatever appealed most to Anthony, which was, right now, toy logs and models, and Cecilia had to have something to play with until she was old enough for the dolls. He hoped Terry didn’t mind by then; Diana didn’t like them anyway, so they had stayed neatly arranged in Theresa’s room even after Mother tried to give them to Di, but he didn’t think Mother would let Cecilia be like Diana even if she had – as they all hoped she wouldn’t – another boy sometime.

Admittedly, if Mother had to have another baby, another boy would be better than another girl. Girls, Mother always said, were much more expensive, and also they had to behave themselves much more than boys did – something she’d then add that Theresa and Diana weren’t very good at. Jay didn’t think the others were as bad as Mother seemed to think they were sometimes, but then, they didn’t get on his nerves as much as they did on hers.

“I was thinking, though,” he explained, “that it might be easier to start out with just – something like the color already on it, instead of trying something further away right away. If it’s really changing the color of the bear instead of just going over the color that’s already there.”

Though him being something like an heir – he thought he’d heard that Thaddeus was just the Pierce heir now, actually, but that it was complicated somehow – where Jay was not had something to do with it, Jay also had a certain amount of respect for Thad just as an older and, from what he had seen, very intelligent Aladren. He glanced at him, not averse to the idea of support for his theory. He didn’t feel any deep need to be academically perfect, but he did like to do well in his lessons, to do things right. Doing things the wrong way was just…he didn’t like that on its own account, not just because it meant lower grades. It was just better to do things right, regardless of what specific ‘things’ happened to be. “Does that make any sense?” he asked.

0 Jay There's still time for stuck, but I'm optimistic 0 Jay 0 5

Cepheus Princeton

July 12, 2012 3:37 AM

Pretty Colours. by Cepheus Princeton

French lessons. French lessons, French lessons, French, français, franglais. That was all that Cepheus's summer was going to come to, so Father had determined. Even worse, instead of living with his fun French cousins, he had to live with Devon, the most spoilt brat he had ever met in his life. And, Cepheus being rather spoilt himself, that was saying something. The only reason why he was not allowed to live with them was because Mael, his second cousin, was getting into too much mischief in France even at the age of thirteen. Father had also tried to convince Cepheus that that family spoke English dominantly and therefore would not be a good place to go to learn. Cepheus didn't believe a word of it. At the last family reunion, Mael spoke with a very French accent and French to his mother and father. Father just didn't want him to have fun, Cepheus had determined childishly.

After discarding the letter, he had marched off to class, determined to do his best and show his father he could take care of himself. Having to take care of himself at boarding school, something he had not had to do ever in his life, had made him a bit more independent and Cepheus was keen on keeping it that way. Of course, he couldn't say anything about his tentative betrothal to the Irish girl, but he had known that he would be betrothed to some pure-blood girl since he was born. He was determined to hate her, whoever she ended up being. At least he could have a say in everything else. He hoped, anyway.

Cepheus sat down rather hard on his chair, hurting his tail bone in the process. The pain was forgotten quickly, however, as class began right as he sat down. He hurried to take his wand out of the pocket of his robes and mimic the professor's wand movements with his hand, not daring to say the incantation yet. Colour-changing charms. That didn't seem too difficult.

Looking at the bear in front of him, Cepheus cleared his throat and turned to his desk companion. "Would you like to be partners?" he asked politely. He looked at the bear again. "Mind if I try first?" He cleared his throat again, making it sound more official, and raised his wand. One flick to the left with his right wrist and, "Multicorfors" made the bear turn a putrid sort of brown instead of the red he had been visualising.

Cepheus blinked at it and cringed. "Quick, change it before I vomit," he told his partner. The bear even looked like sick and Cepheus was tempted to try again just to change the awful colour. The English lad averted his eyes, opting instead to survey the room while his partner took their turn with the teddy bear.

40 Cepheus Princeton Pretty Colours. 216 Cepheus Princeton 0 5

Alex Devereux

July 13, 2012 8:36 PM

Or at least they'll say they really really tried by Alex Devereux

Alex smiled slightly again, pleased that she had, in fact, guessed it right. Aladrens were a little predictable that way; she wondered if it was something to do with their traits – she thought it would be a little strange if it was, when another of their traits was supposed to be individuality – or with their Quidditch team being held up so high most of the time, or with Alex’s House and year, or even with her personally, instead of anything about the Aladrens. She didn’t mind being a Crotalus, but neither was it anything she considered important; she was more likely to spend time with boys than she might have been otherwise, since Cepheus and Gareth were in her House and her closest female friend was not, but other than that, she regarded Crotalus mostly only as the place she slept at night for nine months out of the year. Between the overachievers, the fighters, the hopeless neurotics, and the few – she sorted herself more or less into this group – who seemed more detached than anything else, she didn’t think there was a Crotalus ‘thing’ for her House to rally around and use as its definition, at least not in the way that Aladren was known as the smart House.

She leaned over a little to see Henny’s book as it was read aloud from instead of opening her own when the other girl took the sensible approach to the question and decided to look it up, and nodded as the relevant part was finished. It amused her that the example it used was a purse, but it would take too long to explain why and would go into family things, so she kept that to herself. Being seen as eccentric was not much better than getting into family things. Her family was on the list of topics she thought it was generally better just not to go into; she thought most people knew she was related to Theresa somehow, but it wasn't because she had gone to lengths to publicize the fact.

"It looks like it," she agreed, mildly curious about what was in the passage the passage they'd read referred them to next, but still not enough to look it up herself. She might go over it when she was studying for an exam, since her father said that the best thing to do was always learn a little more than she had to and find a relevant way to slip it into her answers, but not right now in class.

“I’ll turn it purple,” she decided. Alex liked purple; her mother said it made her coloring look even duller than usual – she didn’t see as much difference as her mother seemed to, as they both had brown hair and eyes, just slightly different shades of those, but Victoria insisted that Alex had inherited her father’s coloring, along with his other undesirable physical features; those, she couldn’t argue as well, as there was no trace of her mother in her looks at all – but she had persisted in liking it anyway. “Are you planning to go with blue or black this time?” she asked.

Now that she’d said something about how her bear was to end up, she had to follow through. She focused on a more subdued shade, nothing which would draw attention, and forced that image to the front of her mind as she tried out the spell word on the bear on her desk. “Multicorfors!”

The bear’s head, which her wand had been aimed at, turned a sort of grayish-lavender color, then darkened to something closer to what she had been aiming for, though the tendrils of color reaching down toward its chest abruptly became lighter and kept growing lighter until they were still the gray-lavender color at their ends. Alex smiled slightly to herself as she looked it over. Not bad, she decided, and looked back over to see how Henny had done this time around. "Have any luck?" she asked.

0 Alex Devereux Or at least they'll say they really really tried 0 Alex Devereux 0 5

Carrie O'Malley, Crotalus

July 14, 2012 11:51 PM

Not as pretty as me. by Carrie O'Malley, Crotalus

Midterm had been absolutely dreadful for the blonde, what with finding out about her father getting remarried and all. Why had he done that to her? It had been very selfish of him and his priorities seemed very screwed up. Didn't he understand that Carrie was supposed to come first? That was just how things were , how they were supposed to be, and people needed to used to that.

She had done her best over midterm to make everyone else as miserable as she was. The Crotalus would never forgive any of them, not her father or revolting brother or that woman and her snot nosed little boys-the younger one being almost as dumb as Ryan-and freaky daughter. They were the ones that deserved to suffer, not Carrie.

Coming back to school had not improved her mood much either. First of all, Coach Pierce had not been fired. That barbarian should be locked up where she couldn't bother decent people, let alone teaching anything, even something as improper and idiotic as flying. She probably wasn't smart enough to teach anything else, but her mere presence made Carrie livid.

On top of that, there was the school concert. Oh, the first year was thrilled to have a chance to show off to everyone how fantastic she was. She was going to do a dance routine. The Crotalus was an excellent dancer, the best there ever was. What bothered her though was-thanks to Ryan of course-was that her mother would not be allowed to attend the performance. Carrie was determined to make her brother pay for that somehow as well.

She sat in Charms now. The first year wasn't overly impressed with Professor Light's temporary replacement, she didn't think he was a pureblood after all, but the spell sounded reasonable. Even if teddy bears were totally babyish. Still, at least he wasn't forcing them to do something improper in order to do it and Carrie wouldn't have to worry about breaking a nail or something.

The person next to her, Cepheus Princeton, who be all accounts was one of the few people worthy of associating with, asked if they could be partners. "Of course." The younger Crotalus replied, smiling. Cepheus was someone worth being pleasant to and impressing. Not that she had to try hard to impress people, she did so just be existing.

Carrie waited as he had a go at the spell and wrinkled her nose at his results. "It is pretty repulsive." She agreed, figuring he was probably joking about it making him want to vomit, boys were supposed to be stronger than that, but then it sort of made her sick to look at something so ugly too. Ugly things did not belong in her line of vision, they offended her. "All right." Carrie agreed. " Multicorfers " She said, doing the proper wand motions envisioning a pretty pale pink bear.

Unfortunately, that only made things worse and turned it an even uglier color. "There must be something wrong with this particular bear." There was no way it was her fault-because nothing ever was- and it was likely not Cepheus's either. "Perhaps we should ask for a new one?" Carrie suggested.

11 Carrie O'Malley, Crotalus Not as pretty as me. 230 Carrie O'Malley, Crotalus 0 5

Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw

July 15, 2012 6:42 AM

Cuuuute! by Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw

For Melanie, midterm had been a little bit of a let down. She knew it was to be expected that her sister would be ill, it just a part their lives whether they liked it or not. Still, after last year, which had been the best holiday in years, the Teppenpaw had been hopeful about this year, but no such luck. Valerie had come down with the flu again.

At least, the Crotalus was better now, at least for the time being. Melanie worried an awful lot even though she tried not to show it or bring anyone else down with her problems. She'd always been the strong one-though that might have just been her family comparing her to Valerie, who was so fragile that Melanie seemed less so by comparison.

Oh, there were times that she wanted to break down and unload on someone but she never did. She couldn't. Pureblood girls were supposed to keep their composure at all times in public. Plus, Melanie didn't want to put her troubles on someone else. It wasn't something most eleven and twelve year olds were used to dealing with even if the Teppenpaw was all too familiar with it.

She didn't even have anyone to confide in . Melanie liked her roommates pretty well but wasn't close friends with any of them, a situation she hoped to change within the next seven years, but still. There was Ryan too, whom Valerie had become close to, but he seemed to have a lot of his own problems, if his sister's behavior was anything to go on.

For now, though, Melanie was going to focus on her Charms lesson. In some ways, this was her favorite class. Oh, the first year was good at Transfiguration, in fact in pretty much all of her classes. School just seemed to come relatively easy to her even if she wasn't an Aladren. It was something Melanie was glad of, maybe then she could help Valerie with her work, even though the Crotalus was two years older than her.

She took a seat and noticed the teddy bear on her desk. It had brown fur and looked so cute! She just wanted to pick it up and hug it, but restrained herself from doing so. The Teppenpaw was glad that this was Charms and not Transfiguration, because she wouldn't want to have to turn something so adorable into something that, well, might not be. What if Melanie ended up accidentally leaving the stuffed bear without a head or something? That would be dreadful!

After hearing the lesson, the first year smiled. This spell sounded like it would be no problem. She envisioned a white bear replacing the brown one, as Melanie preferred natural looking teddy bears. " Multicorfors " The Teppenpaw flicked her wrist to the left just as the professor had done. The bear didn't turn completely white all over, just its head and arms. The torso and legs were still brown, but a lighter brown. It was a good first try.

Melanie turned to her neighbor. "How are you doing?" She asked, wanting to start a conversation as she worked. Maybe she could make that close friend that she wanted so badly.

11 Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw Cuuuute! 226 Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw 0 5

Marcus Crosby, Teppenpaw

July 16, 2012 4:24 PM

Who, me? Teehee by Marcus Crosby, Teppenpaw

Marcus was really happy to go to Charms class today. Of course, he was almost always happy. Midterm was over now, so he’d had to say goodbye to Mom and Dad again, but it was okay because he’d see them again later. He missed them already, but they wrote him a lot. Everything was still really cool.

His break had been lots and lots of fun! His brother got married, and the blond was so proud of him. The marriage had been arranged for them, but Martin totally liked his bride. The reception had been fun too. There was a bunch of music and food and dancing. He even saw Martin on the dance floor more than once! Marcus danced too. He wasn’t the best dancer, but he tried really hard. He even got to dance with the bride’s pretty older sister!

Now he was back at school with memories bouncing around in his noggin. Sitting in Charms, he couldn’t help but wonder why their professor wasn’t here. He hoped nothing was wrong. He was happy to see the substitute and gave the man a smile. Maybe Substitute Professor Joseph Regal was nervous. Marcus wanted to help him feel better. Being nervous was no fun.

The Teppenpaw flicked his wand at the teddy bear in front of him when the time came, exclaiming ”Multicorfors!”. In his mind he pictured the bear turning a shiny Teppenpaw yellow. In reality, it only changed a little bit, settling on a muddier shade.

A voice beside him inquired of his progress, and he turned to face the source. It was his housemate and yearmate Melanie. He hadn’t really talked to her a lot before, but he was completely willing to start. “It changed a little bit,” he replied. “No major change. How is yours?”

12 Marcus Crosby, Teppenpaw Who, me? Teehee 225 Marcus Crosby, Teppenpaw 0 5

Evan Brockert, Aladren

July 18, 2012 8:19 AM

Belong on our bear? by Evan Brockert, Aladren

Generally speaking, Evan enjoyed Charms. Well, he enjoyed all his classes, which he supposed was part of being an Aladren, but the ones involving wand work tended to be more fun and had more opportunities for the second year to be inspired artistically. Any opportunity for that in Potions usually involved making pictures using plant parts rather than using them in the potions.

Of course, as he didn't want to fail because it would make his mother sad, his great-grandfather yell, and make Nora-who was the first person in his family whom Evan had dealt with that seemed to have a lot of house pride- lecture him on being a shame to Aladren, the ingredients tended to find their way to the proper place anyway.

The sub didn't faze Evan. He'd appreciated Professor Light's eccentricity, considered him something of a role model because he was a pureblood that dared to be unconventional. On the other hand, there was tales of stench bombing the Intermediates last year. That hadn't gone over well with Autumn at all, when she'd been sick already, and Hope hadn't necessarily enjoyed it.

Evan took a seat next to Waverly Canterbury whom he really didn't know, like, at all. She was a Pecari and shared a room with Arabella and he thought she was the only muggleborn in their year but that was about it. He returned her greeting and turned his attention to the professor.

He grinned when he heard the spell they were going to do. A color changing charm sounded most useful. Evan couldn't help but imagine all the artistic uses of this. How awesome would it be to make the pebbles and rocks that he used for his projects multicolored.

The Aladren looked over at Waverly when she spoke to him and smiled enthusiastically. "An orange bear sounds awesome!" Orange was such an underrated color. "And I totally think you can. Shall we try it? Like you could change the torso orange and then the head and each limb could be something different!" Evan quite clearly thought this was an awesome idea.

11 Evan Brockert, Aladren Belong on our bear? 212 Evan Brockert, Aladren 0 5

Cepheus, Crotalus

July 18, 2012 2:40 PM

A sunset is rather pretty. by Cepheus, Crotalus

Cepheus recognised the girl next to him as an O'Malley, a family name he had encountered several times during his two years at Sonora. She was in his house, a first year as well, and Cepheus had made it his business to know whether or not the O'Malleys were pure-bloods worthy enough to be considered. He had been a little lazy on researching blood statuses during his time here, but with luck he hadn't come into contact with too many muggle-borns or half-bloods. Father had been wrong in one aspect: there certainly were many, many pure-bloods in America.

He wondered briefly if he should make an introduction or not though he already knew her name. It would only be proper, Cepheus decided just as Miss O'Malley turned the bear's "fur" an even more putrid colour. "Crikey," he muttered under his breath and quickly thought of another charm. Carrie's suggestion that their teddy bear was malfunctioning was not a far-fetched idea in his mind, but he'd rather not give up before everyone else. He looked around the room once very quickly. It didn't seem like anyone else was really having loads of trouble with their bear, just with the colours.

"Let's give it another try," he said instead. He frowned before doing the correct wand motions--this time more carefully--and saying the incantation. The part of the bear he'd pointed at, the torso, turned a bright red, an improvement to the otherwise putrid-brown bear. "Merlin." He tried it again on the arm and the arm turned a splotchy blue. "That's an improvement if nothing else," Cepheus said sourly. He turned to Carrie. "Seems I've forgotten my introduction. I've seen you around, but haven't formally introduced myself." A charming smile accompanied his little spiel. "Cepheus Princeton of the Surrey Princetons."

Introductions were always a bit strange in Cepheus's mind. He never knew how to do it properly, but school was supposed to be practise grounds for the real world anyhow. "Now, about this bear. Have a go at it." Charms was a fun class and all, but he hated not being able to do things properly the first time around. All magic seemed to be a bit more difficult this year. He hadn't decided whether that was a good thing or a bad thing yet.

0 Cepheus, Crotalus A sunset is rather pretty. 0 Cepheus, Crotalus 0 5

Clara

July 18, 2012 8:52 PM

Professor Regal...HELP! by Clara

Clara vaguely heard Bri's comment but it took her a moment to figure out what her cousin had been saying. What does she mean we did the charm right? Clara thought to herself looking at Brielle confused. I turned her green for crying out loud Clara glanced down at her hand still holding her wand and froze. Her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and her jaw fell open a bit. "How in Merlin's name did I turn into a smurf?" she exclaimed now inspecting both of her hands. It took everything in her not to scream shrilly over the whole thing which she had originally intended to do. "Is this what you meant when you said we did this right, because it doesn't look right. I thought we were supposed to change the bears, not each other." She pouted angrily for a moment and then found herself giggling. Only she and Brielle could have done something so outrageously stupid. She laughed harder when she realized that she was going to have to tell her dad about this, and he in turn would probably tell aunt Charlotte and uncle Damon on top of aunt Alora. She could only imagine what Aunt Alora would say when she found out Clara had turned Brielle into the booger this time instead of herself.

It was shortly after that thought had passed through Clara's mind that she remembered Brielle's question. She shrugged her now blue shoulders and shook her blue-faced head. "How the heck should I know? Its not like I've ever done this before..." she started to say and then thought better of it. "Okay maybe I have, but that was completely different. Its not like I've ever done this sort of thing using a charm before. Maybe we should ask the professor for some help," she suggested, raising her now smurfy blue hand in the air. "Ummm....Professor Regal, I think we might need some help PLEASE!" she requested of the teacher hoping he could fix their interesting predicament.

0 Clara Professor Regal...HELP! 232 Clara 0 5

Melanie

July 21, 2012 1:55 AM

I suppose though. by Melanie

"About the same as yours," Melanie replied, smiling at Marcus. He was one of her fellow Teppenpaw first years and, well, she sort of wanted them to be a close group of friends like the fourth years in their house, even though Aria and Brielle weren't purebloods. Plus, he always seemed like such a happy, friendly person and Melanie liked to be around people like that. Not that she'd turn her back on someone who was unhappy, she'd listen to them and their problems and try to be a friend, but there was so much sadness in her life even though Melanie tried not to let it show that it would be good to have someone like Marcus around to cheer her up.

She sort of wondered if her fellow Teppenpaw was even capable of unhappiness. He had to be the most cheerful person she'd ever met, though his aunt was pretty cheerful too. Maybe Marcus didn't have anything to be sad about. That must have been nice.

Not that Melanie would ever wish anyone to feel bad. Well, maybe if they hurt her sister, but that was it. Then she'd probably hurt them herself. Otherwise the first year would never want to drag anyone else down just so they understood how she felt sometimes. Melanie would rather they cheer her up instead, though she would feel wrong being too happy if Valerie was too sick. Which would never happen anyway.

She wasn't selfish like her mother. There had been a wedding over midterm-again-and they hadn't went-again. Her mother had pouted saying that it was only the flu and that Valerie would be perfectly all right in nurse's care. Melanie's father had been angry with her and Melanie herself had been disgusted. She wouldn't have gone even if her parents had. Sometimes, it felt like the Teppenpaw cared more about Valerie than either of them. Even though she thought her father just threw himself into work to distract himself.

That actually reminded her. Tawny had married Martin Crosby. He was likely some relative of Marcus's. "So how was the wedding?" Melanie asked. "Martin is your relative, right? Tawny is like my...third cousin I think." She was going to be a bit embarrassed if the other first year didn't know what she was talking about but odds were that he probably did.

11 Melanie I suppose though. 226 Melanie 0 5

Waverly

July 21, 2012 5:02 PM

You read my mind! It begins with orange by Waverly

Waverly was glad to meet someone new. She wasn't exactly sure who he was except that his name was Evan. She knew that much from class. It was especially encouraging when he sounded enthusiastic for her idea. "Yes, that's exactly what I'm hoping for!" she told him, and then concentrated on the spell. "Multicorfors," she said, watching the bear's arm turn a dull orange. It wasn't exactly the color she had envisioned, but it was good enough. "Well, I guess that works," she said with a smile at her partner. "Okay, you go!"

This whole partner-thing in all of her classes was one of Waverly's favorite part. She got to talk to people she never would've talked to outside of class and she made new friends this way too. Especially the people in different houses. Waverly hadn't realized till recently that there were very few muggle-borns her age at this school. Maybe none! But though she stuck out like a sore thumb, she'd make the best of it. Really, what muggle got to learn magic like her? The most exciting part was that her younger sister was going to come next year. She couldn't imagine what life would've been like if only Waverly had been magical.

"I love Charms," she told Evan. "I think it's the coolest class ever. I thought I'd be better at Potions since I bake and all, but that's my worst class." She shrugged. "But I guess I just need to work on organizing how I stir and mix stuff." Assuming that Evan had grown up with magic was easy. The purebloods and half-bloods seemed more natural with their magic while Waverly sometimes stumbled or was ignorant of things that were obvious to them.

"What would you use this charm for?" she asked. She didn't care if it was a stupid question. She knew exactly what she was going to use it for now. She never had to buy shirts just for their color ever again. Waverly's art projects would also be the coolest colors and she wouldn't have to work really hard at painting it or something. Though paint was fun in itself. "Sorry if I'm distracting you," she quickly added, and smiled sheepishly. She and her sister had been on the receiving end of lectures for being too loud or talkative. She had to remember that, especially in class.

0 Waverly You read my mind! It begins with orange 0 Waverly 0 5

Carrie

July 24, 2012 5:02 AM

So, I'm like a sunset? by Carrie

Carrie returned Cepheus's charming smile with one of her own. Of course, all her smiles were charming, but this one was especially so. He was the first person she'd really spoken to that wasn't completely barbaric. Well, Carrie supposed her roommates were all right, it was just that she didn't think she should be sharing a room. She deserved better than that, she was special .

He introduced himself to her and, thought the first year was certain everyone knew who she was already, she replied. "I am Carrie O'Malley of the Colorado O'Malleys. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mr. Princton." And for once it truly was. Cepheus seemed the right sort. The most objectionable thing she could think of about the older Crotalus was that he seemed friendly enough with Alexandra Devereaux who was Arabella's best friend and thus flawed by association.

The first year looked back at the bear wrinkling her nose at it, but at least its arms were improved over the repulsive color they were before. "Good job" Carrie told Cepheus, smiling at the older boy. It was good to charm men so she could get married and live in the lap of luxury. The more a man liked a woman, the more money he was willing to spend on her. That was what Carrie's mother had always taught her and her mother was always right.

She certainly was about Ryan. The Crotalus had never been as repulsed by him as she was now. Everything wrong in her life was his fault, everything! That her parents had divorced in the first place and that her father remarried that awful woman (because if the former hadn't happened, the latter couldn't have). Actually, come to think of it, it was probably Ryan's fault that Coach Pierce had hexed her too, yes the ruffian was still defective, but she was probably also punishing Carrie for having that for a brother! Which just made the woman seem more unreasonable.

The Crotalus girl nodded as Cepheus suggested she try again. She did the wand movements and pronounced the spell perfectly-of course, because everything that Carrie did was right, simply because it was done by her, deciding to make the bear red now, because that was what Cepheus had already started and a red and pink bear would look dreadful, though not as awful as the revolting one from before. However, instead of red, the bear's stomach turned pink anyway. "Maybe we should try making it all one color. Or at least red and white. Or perhaps red and silver."

11 Carrie So, I'm like a sunset? 230 Carrie 0 5

Cepheus

July 25, 2012 6:41 PM

Not exactly. You're like a daisy. <i>I'm</i> like a sunset. by Cepheus

Cepheus's assumption of her was right. She was from a proper pure-blood family and perhaps would be of some use in the future. She was well-mannered as well; perfect for the kind of acquaintance his grandfather would want in America. He wasn't exactly sure where Colorado was, really, but that bit didn't matter. "The pleasure is mine," he replied.

His grandfather and father had always reminded him of the responsibilities he was to endure as first a married man, then as the family patriarch, though Cepheus had no intention of getting married until he was at least twenty-three no matter what Grandfather said. Mother had once tried telling Cepheus at ten years that he couldn't be so selfish in order to have a happy marriage, but Cepheus thought that advice was ludicrous. As a child, girls were simply playmates who cried a bit more than he with long hair and lacy robes. Wives were just the adult version of that, except more proper.

As he was approaching adolescence, however, he was beginning to notice girls more, but he never wanted to fall in love. First of all, men in love, according to Grandfather, were fools. Second of all, it wouldn't even matter if he did fall in love. He was destined to be married to whichever girl his grandfather decided, and Cepheus had already decided to hate whoever she was till the day he died.

Charming girls, especially charming young girls, put Cepheus at an unease, but Carrie wasn't three years younger. He liked the attention she was giving him so far. Not overbearing, but not indifferent either. Of course, he would prefer a girl he could run races against any day, but charming flatterers were good for the ego too.

Carrie was of the right sort, anyhow, so Cepheus felt more comfortable in partnering with her. She turned the bear's stomach pink, a revolting colour but much more tolerable than the former. What else was he to expect from a girl? "Yes, I think red and silver should do it," he agreed. "And good job to you too," added Cepheus with a smile. His next wand movement made the bear's stomach silver instead of pink, though it was a bit more of a spatter of colour than an actual round tummy, and then he gestured for Carrie to go on with the rest of the bear. It was quite a generous offer from Cepheus, allowing the girl to do whatever section of the bear she wanted. He personally wanted to turn the head red, but it didn't matter in the end. My, he was growing up. Wouldn't Mother be proud.

0 Cepheus Not exactly. You're like a daisy. <i>I'm</i> like a sunset. 0 Cepheus 0 5

Sub. Professor Joseph Regal

July 27, 2012 10:31 PM

Help is here! by Sub. Professor Joseph Regal

Teaching small children the beautiful art of charms was always an interesting adventure. The kids were learning to handle their wands and a lot of the times something happened that required his assistance. The predicaments that usually rose became funny anecdotes he often shared with his wife and children. It was a way to explain to his small ones about the problems that could arise will handling a wand. Thankfully, his children were still too young for school and he still had time to show them the importance of hard work and listening to the professor.

Children making mistakes was normal and it seemed a pair of his were in dire need of his assistance. He smiled at the two girls, “You seem to be in quite a predicament.” Joseph smiled at them. “What happened to make you change color?” He, of course, would help them, but he wanted them to analyze what they had done wrong and work on finding a solution. They needed to learn, and he was at the school to teach them.

Joseph crossed his arms and waiting for them to find the solution to their predicament. This stint at teaching was becoming more fun as the time passed. It was fun to teach from time to time. “Who is going to start?” His smile had never left his face. It was a way of showing the girls that he wasn’t mad, but he wasn’t going to make it easy. Learning was hard work.

0 Sub. Professor Joseph Regal Help is here! 0 Sub. Professor Joseph Regal 0 5

Marcus

July 28, 2012 12:29 AM

Thanks! You're cute too! by Marcus

“He’s my brother!” Marcus grinned automatically. “The wedding was so much fun!” Since Melanie said she was related to Tawny, he wasn’t sure at first why she hadn’t gone. When he thought about it, though, he remembered something about her older sister being sick a lot. He was pretty sure her name started with a V. Veronica? Vanessa? Valerie? That was it! Marcus wasn’t very good at names.

“Tawny looked really pretty,” continued the blond. “I don’t really know her a lot yet, but she and Martin get along really well!” He glanced sideways suspiciously before adding in a hushed tone, “Don’t tell anyone, but I think Martin likes her! He doesn’t usually like people, but he definitely likes her.” The fact that his big brother found somebody whose company he actually enjoyed made Marcus really happy. Tawny would be good for Martin.

Marcus glanced back at his off-brown teddy bear. “I think I want to try the spell again,” he decided. “Multicorfors!” This time he imagined the bear turning a nice red, but instead of not doing enough, his spell did too much, and the bear turned pink. The Teppenpaw giggled. “Oops. Still don’t have it, I guess!”

“You want to try yours again?” he asked hopefully. “I’ll try mine again after you go. I’m sure this time I’ll get it!” Maybe something Melanie would do could help him learn. Marcus liked learning. Plus, since he’d once done not enough and then too much, he was pretty sure he’d find the happy middle this time. As he waited for her to go again, he couldn't help but notice something. "Did you know you're really pretty?"

12 Marcus Thanks! You're cute too! 225 Marcus 0 5

Evan

July 29, 2012 4:45 AM

And continues with green. by Evan

Evan grinned at Waverly as she turned the bear's arm orange. "Yeah Charms is pretty awesome. Along with Transfiguration. Well, okay, I like all classes, but I suppose that's part of being an Aladren." Actually the second year couldn't think of a single thing he didn't like about Sonora. Well, maybe that the concert was mandatory. Evan certainly didn't mind being in it, but some people just weren't...into anything that could be useful in it. Plus the whole thing was going to be awfully long.

And, well, honestly, performing didn't really work to Evan's creative strengths. It involved planning which just sort of sucked said creativity out of it all. The Aladren never had a plan, he was more free-spirited than that. His artistic medium was more visual-and consisted of anything that he could get his hands on. It's not that Evan minded being onstage though, it was just that well, people needed to know what they were doing ahead of time.

"Organizing is overrated." Evan replied. "When I try to create something, I just sort of do what feels right, you know?" His mother said that he was a creative genius but then, she was his mom so she probably thought all her children were brilliant. Evan doubted everyone in his family felt that way, his great-grandfather probably saw him as a kook who needed to be fixed. The second year didn't care though. He liked himself the way he was.

"Though I've never baked anything in my life." The Aladren admitted. Considering his methods, that was probably a good thing too. Surely, nothing Evan made would ever taste good with the way he did things. Cooking was like Potions that way, Waverly was right. Except Evan did do what he was supposed to for potions. It just wasn't as fun as Charms with all the...preciseness. He was capable of such but did not like to.

"I think I'll go for green next. On the opposite leg." Evan suggested. "And once we've gotten the whole bear colored, we can fix the colors we weren't satisfied with. What he really wanted was to make an elaborately patterned bear, have not just each part of it be a different solid color, but splatters and stripes and polka dots. No one single pattern. That would be so amazing! " multicorfors, "

Most of the bear's arm turned a delightful, super bright, neon green. Except it's paw. The second year looked at it. "Well, I suppose we can just make that yet another color." He grinned at Waverly. "Anyway, I think most people use this charm like, if they need something to be one color and its not the right one and they don't have time to go out and buy something that is." Evan smiled. "That's not how I plan to use it though. I'm going to use it in my artwork. Like make all the rocks and wooden spools and leaves and wine corks and whatnot different colors."

11 Evan And continues with green. 212 Evan 0 5

Aubrielle

July 30, 2012 9:37 PM

Thank goodness for help! by Aubrielle

Aubrielle glanced from her own green arms and hands to her cousin's blue ones and bit her lip. She looked at Clara who'd asked if this was what she'd meant. Brielle nodded. They'd done it to themselves and Bri for one was terrified that they'd be those colors forever. Clara started giggling and then asked how she should know what to do about it. "Yeah... I think asking Professor Regal what to do is a good idea." she started, but seconds later her eyes lit up.

"OH MY GOD! I'm GREEN! Just like Elphaba! When I get on Broadway you have to turn me green again! It'll be awesome! I'll tell the director that I only want YOU to be my makeup artist! We'll both make great money!!" B was so excited she could barely contain herself as Clara raised her hand into the air.

"Ummm....Professor Regal, I think we might need some help PLEASE!"

Brielle's eyes were still very bright as Professor Regal joined the pair of them with a smile on his face.

Without losing her own excited look or feeling she looked at him and answered his question. "Well... I saw something else change color out of the corner of my eye and I wasn't watching where I was aiming I guess... and if I know Clara she had her eyes at least partially shut..." she answered, looking to Clara for affirmation on that last part before she turned back to the professor who's arms were crossed.

0 Aubrielle Thank goodness for help! 0 Aubrielle 0 5

Clara

July 30, 2012 10:25 PM

I blinked...I guess Professor by Clara

Clara rolled her eyes slightly at Brielle's excited burst about her turning her cousin green again for Broadway. Only Brielle would think of Elphaba at a time like this. She breathed out slightly exasperated and laughed slightly. "I guess," she replied. She heard Bri's explanation of her side of things and nodded. She could see Brielle getting distracted by something happening on the other side of the room. She also nodded in agreement when Bri told Professor Regal that she may have closed her eyes slightly when she cast her charm. "I may have closed my eyes slightly," she admitted sheepishly. "I suppose that could explain why Bri ended up Green and not my bear," she told Professor Regal.

As she heard herself say that a stray thought crept its way through Clara's mind. What if we were to try thinking of our own skin tone as we recast the charm? she wondered to herself before voicing her question to the Professor. "What would happen if we were to try the charm again only this time we think of say flesh tone for the color? Would that work to fix the problem do you think Professor Regal?" she asked him curiously. There was only way to know for certain. She would have to test her thought. The real question at the moment was what if she tried it and it only made things worse? Was she brave enough to try it out and if she was who should she try it out on? She supposed since she was the one to turn Bri Green the least she could do is attempt to turn her back to normal. Maybe it would work. Only way to know for sure was to give it a whirl as it were. She took a careful breath in and then out before she raised her wand at her cousin. Bri please forgive me if I make this worse.

Clara focused on Brielle's own skin color in her mind, freckles and all and flicked the wand slightly casting the charm again, this time paying close attention to her target. She only hoped that she didn't close her eyes at all as she said the words for the charm. She pursed her lips together and held her breath as she waited to see if it would work. Slowly she watched her cousin's skin turn from booger green back to its original pale, freckly hue. She let out the breath she had been holding and grinned feeling pretty proud of herself. She had managed, it seemed, to turn her cousin back to normal. She glanced up at the Professor to see if he agreed with her assessment. "Okay Bri," she told her. "I think I may have changed you back. Now its your turn. I'm ready whenever you are...." she told Brielle, hoping her cousin had the same success changing her back to normal. And if not Professor Regal would help. She closed her eyes and waited for her cousin to re-cast the charm, hoping nothing distracted her this time.

0 Clara I blinked...I guess Professor 232 Clara 0 5

Melanie

August 01, 2012 5:34 PM

blushes by Melanie

Melanie smiled back at her fellow Teppenpaw. "It sounds like you really care about your big brother. Are you two close?" She asked. He'd mentioned Martin not liking many people, but that didn't mean Marcus was one of them. "My sister and I are." Melanie added. "She's my best friend."

It was true, no matter how many friends she made at Sonora-and she hoped to make quite a few-Valerie would always be the most important to her, the person that she was closest to. Her big sister needed her and Melanie-unlike their mother-would not abandon her.

Sometimes, the first year truly hated that woman. How could a mother not put their child first? How could be so selfish and shallow? Valerie was sick and that was how it was and her mother needed to deal with that and show the Crotalus some love and compassion. Oh, Melanie knew there were worse mothers but that didn't make hers okay. A mother should put her child before socializing.

"I won't tell anyone." She gave Marcus a conspiratorial smile. The Teppenpaw sort of liked having secrets with people even though she didn't have many of her own. Melanie couldn't even really tell Valerie everything she was feeling. She didn't want to upset the third year and get her worked up. That could get her sick again and Melanie couldn't stand to contribute to that. It was bad enough if the first year got sick, and Valerie caught it-which she always did. The Teppenpaw felt so guilty when that happened.

"I don't really know Tawny." Melanie admitted. "Is she nice?" She didn't know a lot of her extended family really. They really didn't attend family functions.She only sort of knew Ryan-and not that well-and the ones in her classes. Melanie thought the fifth year seemed very nice but she honestly didn't like his sister much and didn't have much opinion on the two second years.

"Okay." The Teppenpaw replied, agreeing to try it once more-and as many times as it took. Before she had the chance though, Marcus said something that startled her a bit. Melanie's face flushed and she looked down at the desk. "Thank you." She responded. Her mother often told people how pretty her daughters were, Valerie too, and her mother's friends-sometimes she took Melanie out for lunch with them and their daughters whether the Teppenpaw really wanted to go or not-said so too. However, she wasn't used to hearing it from someone her own age, much less a boy.

11 Melanie *blushes* 226 Melanie 0 5

Andrina Thornton, Aladren

August 01, 2012 7:12 PM

They would... by Andrina Thornton, Aladren

Andri was looking forward to Charms. She’d heard that they were getting another teacher and as much as she’d miss their other one, she was looking forward to getting to know this new one too. She hoped he or she had a fun class planned for them and was excited when she walked in and saw the bears on all the desks. “Nice!” she said, excitedly.

Professor Regal welcomed them and introduced himself to the class before he told them what they were going to do with the bears. When he said that Multicorfors as a charm would change the color of the bears to the color they thought of her smile widened. It wasn’t until some of the class started to change their bears into other colors that she noticed that her little sister and cousin hadn’t done what they’d been told to do. What she saw was that they’d turned EACHOTHER colors…

Her eyes widened from across the room, but she couldn’t help but laugh out loud at her sister and cousin Clara. When the class started they were both their normal pale-ish colors, but now Clara was blue (like she’d been after the sorting the year before), and Brielle was green (like Clara had turned herself when she’d coined herself as the walking, talking booger). Andri turned to her bear and tried to turn her brown bear a navy blue color for Aladren, but she wasn’t thinking about it hard enough. It didn’t change colors at all.

She stood up, figuring that she wouldn’t be able to do the charm herself with the correct focus until she knew that her sister and cousin were alright. She walked up to them as Clara asked for help from the professor and backed up a bit when he came up to them. She didn’t say a word, but only listened to what had happened, laughing inwardly.

God, I can’t wait to write to Mom and Uncle Bryan about this one! she thought as she went back to her seat. She was okay in knowing the professor would help them change back so she could focus on her own work now.

Shaking her head and laughing quietly to herself as she walked back, she sat down and once more thought hard, focusing on the color Navy Blue. “Multicorfors.” she said as she flicked her wand to the left. She glanced back at her bear and smiled brightly. It was a pretty shade of Navy Blue.

Right. This is cool. she thought.

0 Andrina Thornton, Aladren They would... 0 Andrina Thornton, Aladren 0 5

Solomon Bensalem, Crotalus

August 01, 2012 7:16 PM

Is this right? by Solomon Bensalem, Crotalus

Solomon hadn’t been doing so well in classes since he came back from the holiday break. He called it a break more than anything else as his family didn’t celebrate Christmas or anything like that. Nobody had asked him about what he’d done when he went home. For this fact, he was grateful. Matter of fact, nobody had asked him much of anything. He was totally fine with that as well.

At home, Solomon had helped his grandfather with anything the elder asked of him, like usual. It felt right, secure, it fit. Sonora just didn’t fit as much as he’d hoped it to. However, now Solomon’s problem was that he wasn’t sure if he should return to school next year as planned or just stay on the Island. He felt weird, out of place in the magical world even moreso than he did at home. BUT if he went back to Sonora he wouldn’t be a failure to his grandfather and his people. He sighed and walked towards Charms class. He walked in and their professor wasn’t there. There was another man there in his place. Solomon was scared for a moment until the man spoke and welcomed them as well as introduced himself. A new professor. Okay. he thought as his worry for this melted away like ice on a hot day. Professor Regal explained what they were going to do and Solomon glanced at the bear in front of him before he pulled his wand out.

His wand felt weird in his hand. It was, after all, just a stick really, but it didn’t mean it was like the sticks at home on the island. Solomon took his notes and once finished and told to get started he stared at his bear, then at his wand and back to the bear again. “Multicorfors.” He whispered. Looking at his partner to check on his ability of pronouncing it right. “Is that right? Multicorfors?” he added to them again in case they hadn’t heard him the first time.

0 Solomon Bensalem, Crotalus Is this right? 0 Solomon Bensalem, Crotalus 0 5

Waverly

August 02, 2012 3:02 AM

Nothing rhymes with purple by Waverly

Aladren. Waverly had only heard things about the other houses, but she was totally biased. She would always think Pecari was the best, but she'd keep that to herself. What she knew for sure was that the super studious people were put into Aladren and she hadn't thought about it until just right now. She liked all of her classes too, even Potions to an extent, but maybe that was just because she was a muggle-born and hadn't had real exposure to any of it.

It was funny hearing Evan say that organizing was overrated only because her dad was the complete opposite. Her dad was a mechanical engineer for Honda and he did a lot of the car part designing and stuff so he had to be extra organized. Her mom was more creative though and less organized, so that probably evened them out.

Green was a real contrast and yet complementary to orange according to the color wheel her art teacher had ingrained into her brain. The other color that would match was purple and Waverly decided to use that next. Purple was her second favorite color anyway. "Yeah," she agreed, wondering if splattering paint on the bear from her wand was possible. She really liked how that looked on things. The backpack she had used in elementary school had looked like an art project. It had been white, but there was so much color on it. She had splattered paint, painted little scenes, drawn things with colored sharpies: it was quite the sight to behold. Her mom had gotten her a plain old orange backpack because it looked more "mature" even if it was orange.

The bear's arm turned green just like Evan said he'd make it except for the paw. It looked really cool to her. "I think we should keep it like that," she said as she returned the smile. "It looks charming." Ha, pun. Her mom would be proud. She listened closely to what Evan was saying as she tried to decide what to color next. Then her decisions were forgotten when he mentioned artwork. Her green eyes lit up and she turned to him.

"You do artwork? Me too!" Apparently it sounded like he used household items and nature for it which was even cooler. "What kind of art do you make? Do you do art projects a lot at school?" Waverly loved decorating things like picture frames, making posters, and doing bigger art projects. For her last Midsummer project, since it was a fair, she had made a dollhouse completely from scratch. It had been presented beautifully with little lights around the roof encased in tiny glass orbs charmed to twinkle prettily. She had it at home now where it sat in her room, still twinkling. It acted like a sort of nightlight now, not that she needed one.

Remembering the task at hand, she quickly picked the bear's ear and, in her haste to get it over with and listen aptly to what kind of art Evan made, she pointed at the bear's stomach, aiming to do his torso, but the charm, done carelessly, made a sort of splotchy purple. There was more purple than brown and it really gave the bear character. She voiced this to Evan. "Well, I didn't mean to do that, but it really gives the bear character." She was more eager to talk to her partner now that she had found that he was creative and liked making art like she did, but she had to remember that they were still in class. They were, in a sense, making art themselves. She wondered if she should ask him if the colors were permanent, but she decided to save that question for later.

0 Waverly Nothing rhymes with purple 0 Waverly 0 5

Sub. Professor Joseph Regal

August 03, 2012 10:14 PM

You guess? Just pay attention. by Sub. Professor Joseph Regal

“In order to practice any branch of magic you need to concentrate on the task ahead,” he said in a serious tone. It could have the potential of creating a disaster or injuring them. He crossed his arms and let the words sink in. He couldn´t let them go around brandishing their wands like mad children. No, magic was a serious matter and they needed to realize that. Thankfully, their mistake had no lasting or dangerous consequences. “You can´t go casting spells without your full attention, because that could lead you into some serious trouble.” Even grown wizards and witches got into trouble over irresponsible magic.

However, he let the girls say their part before helping them further. After Clara said her part and tried to undo the mistake, they were wrong. “Covering the mishap could lead into more trouble.” The smile had returned to his face. It was clear that they wanted to learn.

“In this case, the charm would dissipate in a few hours and even when your solution worked right now it is just temporary.” It was nice to see the girls wanting to learn.

Joseph casted the counterspell and in an instant both girl returned to normal. “Now, tried one more time, but this time focus on what you are doing. Don´t let anything distract you from the task.” Joseph gave them the thumbs up and returned to the front of the classroom, but watched the pair closely.

0 Sub. Professor Joseph Regal You guess? Just pay attention. 0 Sub. Professor Joseph Regal 0 5

Brielle

August 10, 2012 2:53 PM

But I really tried... by Brielle

Brielle looked at Clara, then at Professor Regal, back to Clara again. She had been right in her guess on what had happened to have changed each other colors rather than the bears in front of them and it didn't look like the professor was too thrilled with them. However, it did look like they'd been a nice bit of entertainment for him (not to mention Andri who had walked towards there with a goofy grin on her face).

Mom'll know for sure in a few hours of what happened here... she thought to herself as she glanced back to Clara to sorta tell her without telling her.

“In order to practice any branch of magic you need to concentrate on the task ahead".

He crossed his arms and went on to pretty much tell them off for not concentrating fully on what they were doing. Brielle sighed and glanced down into her lap. She hated doing the stupid things she did sometimes and wondered why she did them. She also wasn't a fan of being told she could be in trouble.

With a sigh, she looked back up at Clara who had her wand pointed back at Bri again. "Uhm..." she started as Clara said the charm once more. Looking down at her arm, she saw it was back to relative normal? Hm... "Wait, how'd you do that?" she asked her cousin. But before she had the chance to get the answer to her question Professor Regal started talking.

“Covering the mishap could lead into more trouble.” Bri looked down again at her lap as he went on. “In this case, the charm would dissipate in a few hours and even when your solution worked right now it is just temporary.”

"So that really didn't work what Clara did?" Bri asked him as she looked into his eyes for the first time in a few minutes. He casted the counterspell and they were both back to normal colors. He told them to try again, but not to let themselves get distracted by anything. Then he walked away, back up to the front of the room.

Brielle looked at Clara and sighed. "I dunno..." she said, not so sure she'd be able to do anything without being distracted.

0 Brielle But I really tried... 0 Brielle 0 5

Sub. Professor Joseph Regal

Beginners class [1 and 2 years] by Sub. Professor Joseph Regal

Henny B-F-R (Aladren)

If you go down to the class today.... by Henny B-F-R (Aladren)

Clara Abernathy, Pecari

Bri...why are you green? by Clara Abernathy, Pecari

Aubrielle Thornton, Teppenpaw

Clarabear... You're blue... by Aubrielle Thornton, Teppenpaw

Alexandra Devereux, Crotalus

...You may or may not see a very colorful scene by Alexandra Devereux, Crotalus

Jay Carey, Aladren

Well, it's a start by Jay Carey, Aladren

Thad Pierce, Aladren

Started is certainly better than stuck by Thad Pierce, Aladren

Henny B-F-R (Aladren)

Today's the the day the teddy bears have their fur dyed by Henny B-F-R (Aladren)

Waverly Canterbury - Pecari

All the colors of the rainbow! by Waverly Canterbury - Pecari

Jay

There's still time for stuck, but I'm optimistic by Jay

Cepheus Princeton

Pretty Colours. by Cepheus Princeton

Alex Devereux

Or at least they'll say they really really tried by Alex Devereux

Carrie O'Malley, Crotalus

Not as pretty as me. by Carrie O'Malley, Crotalus

Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw

Cuuuute! by Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw

Marcus Crosby, Teppenpaw

Who, me? Teehee by Marcus Crosby, Teppenpaw

Evan Brockert, Aladren

Belong on our bear? by Evan Brockert, Aladren

Cepheus, Crotalus

A sunset is rather pretty. by Cepheus, Crotalus

Clara

Professor Regal...HELP! by Clara

Melanie

I suppose though. by Melanie

Waverly

You read my mind! It begins with orange by Waverly

Carrie

So, I'm like a sunset? by Carrie

Cepheus

Not exactly. You're like a daisy. <i>I'm</i> like a sunset. by Cepheus

Sub. Professor Joseph Regal

Help is here! by Sub. Professor Joseph Regal

Marcus

Thanks! You're cute too! by Marcus

Evan

And continues with green. by Evan

Aubrielle

Thank goodness for help! by Aubrielle

Clara

I blinked...I guess Professor by Clara

Melanie

*blushes* by Melanie

Andrina Thornton, Aladren

They would... by Andrina Thornton, Aladren

Solomon Bensalem, Crotalus

Is this right? by Solomon Bensalem, Crotalus

Waverly

Nothing rhymes with purple by Waverly

Sub. Professor Joseph Regal

You guess? Just pay attention. by Sub. Professor Joseph Regal

Brielle

But I really tried... by Brielle

blushes by Melanie