A goal fit for kings? on Charms

Professor Olivers

November 21, 2012 8:09 PM

A Charming Treasure Hunt [III, IV, V years] by Professor Olivers

Working with three different age groups had initially been difficult for Florence who had never had to prepare full lesson plans before. With a term behind her, however, and no astounding conflicts, she had gotten her feet wet and was ready to swim into deeper waters. She could feel the vibe from some of her students who did not respect her, but she could understand that. If it wasn’t her great knowledge and experience with Charms, she wasn’t sure she would have gotten the job in the first place. She wanted to teach her students all that she could, but she knew earning their respect would be the most difficult.

As a former actress, Florence enjoyed implementing changes to the scenery and dressing the part of whatever culture she was using. Today, however, was going to be a day of practical testing, and she was dressed professionally in navy blue robes, short hair styled and well-kept as always. Her outfits were impeccable, always. She had had the students write an essay on the theoretical approach to the charm of their choosing, and they had a longer research essay due at the end of the term in lieu of an actual exam. As much as she enjoyed grading tests, she was interested in the ideas her students had about different charms, whether or not the arguments they made actually interested them.

Her desk was at the front of the classroom, but looked insignificant compared to the giant trees and forestry that made up the classroom. It looked like a clearing in the middle of the forest, complete with a deep lake that the students could jump into and be fully submerged if they wished. It was a little chilly in the room, but that was only because it was chillier outside. Today was going to be a treasure hunt, and Florence was indubitably excited for it. “As you walk in, please drop off your essay on my desk and find a seat anywhere you’d like.” She had no doubt her voice would carry; it was one of the perks of having practiced throwing her voice for so many years.

Once everyone had handed in their essay and was seated, she leaned against her desk, a canopy of leaves providing shade from the faux winter sun. “As you can see, today is not going to be a regular day,” she said, half-joking because no day was considered a ‘regular day.’ “In your syllabus you should have read that today was going to be the last practical quiz of the term. It is going to be a treasure hunt where you will need to use the charms that you learned up to this point in the term. You will need to find the prize and bring it back to me.” She passed out a piece of paper with the instructions on it with a flick of her wand. “Get into groups of three and look over the instructions.” She wanted to have the groups have one of each year in them, but she had gotten the feeling that it hadn’t gone spectacularly well the last several times she had tried it.

On the sheet of parchment, the instructions read as follows:
1. Summon the specific color of your stone. If you do not point your wand at the right area, it will not come. Don’t worry; if it comes flying at you, it will feel like a feather on impact.
2. Sever the stone in order to find the clue written on the inside. You must sever it perfectly in half and enlarge the stone in order to get the clue properly.

The second clue that the students would tell them exactly where to find the treasure, but when they got there, there would be some kind of obstacle, whether it be a large amount of thick thorns and briars that needs to be cut through, a disgusting amount of mud and filth and slime at the entrance covering up the treasure that needed to be completely cleaned off, or an extremely grumpy gnome would pop up and try to bite them in which a Freezing Charm or Cheering Charm, whichever the student chose, was necessary.

The prize they would find was in a small treasure chest with a rusty lock that needed to be unlocked at least a couple time before it would open. Inside was a round golden ball not unlike a snitch except that it didn’t fly and weighed several tons along with a piece of candy. The candy was for them as Florence would explain if they brought it up along with the prize. The ball would need to be levitated to her desk, an easy enough task for even the youngest students in her class though the object was very heavy.

In order to keep things clear, she had set the stone that they were supposed to summon in the beginning a different color for each student and put it into a different place. The different places consisted of trees, behind bushes, in the lake, and around odd places in the classroom where they would not stick out. This was going to be a lot of fun to watch. Florence stacked up the essays nicely and then nodded at her students. “Whenever you are ready, begin. If you have not found your treasure by the end of the class period, come up and see me.” With that, she waved her hand at them and sat down at her desk, watching them while pretending to look over their essays.

OOC: Ten sentences, creative posts, you know the drill. The charms you could use are Accio, Engorgio, Scourgify, Evanesco, Abrumpo (Severing Charm), Creohilaris (Cheering Charm), Frigus (Freezing Charm), Wingardium Leviosa, and Alohomora. There shouldn’t be any injuries unless someone falls into the lake trying to summon their stone or gets bitten by a gnome. If you need any assistance, tag Professor Olivers in the subject line.

Subthreads:

A goal fit for kings? by Thad Pierce, Aladren (Third Year) with Henny B-F-R, Aladren, Alicia Bauer, Aladren

This may be a fun class after all. by Reggie Parker, Teppenpaw with Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw

Sounds fun! by Arabella Brockert, Pecari

0 Professor Olivers A Charming Treasure Hunt [III, IV, V years] 0 Professor Olivers 1 5

Thad Pierce, Aladren (Third Year)

November 23, 2012 11:00 AM

A goal fit for kings? by Thad Pierce, Aladren (Third Year)

Thad entered the Charms classroom with only a small hesitation to his step as he took in the forest that had replaced the room's normal dimensions and contents. He knew today was supposed to be a quiz, so he hadn't really been expecting anything so intricate for classroom scenery. Of course, this was Professor Olivers and he was starting to learn to expect the unexpected here, especially in regards to scenery, so he was able to avoid coming to a full stop in the doorway.

He made his way over to the teacher's desk and dropped off his homework in the appropriate pile. He was sure he would score well on it. He'd put a fair amount of research into it and it was a few inches longer than the requirements. He had given it a good proofreading, too, so he knew she would have no cause to complain about spelling, grammar, or penmanship either.

He found a place to sit near the front, as much as he could, mostly out of habit but also so no trees would block his line of sight if she started demonstrating something. There were no such demonstrations, but he received a piece of paper with a some instructions and a color on it. He conceded that it was at least a creative way to do a practical quiz. He could think of far more boring ways to demonstrate his skills than by proving he could find an orange stone, crack it open, reach a treasure chest, get it open, and deliver the contents to the teacher.

He was a bit surprised, though, that they were not only allowed but instructed to work in groups for the class. Quizzes were traditionally solitary experiences. On the other hand, this particular format did rather lend itself to cheating by spying on fellow classmates to see how they were proceeding with the tasks, so Thad supposed she was just making it more fair for the more honest students who wouldn't do that.

Deciding to find a group organically rather than deliberately, he just started walking around the woods, trying to spot a flash of orange among the greenery to indicate which direction he should point his wand when he tried to summon it. When he wandered near enough to a fellow classmate who didn't seem to have two teammates with them already, he asked, "So what color are you looking for? I'm trying to spot an orange stone. You wouldn't think it would be too hard to find, but so far I haven't seen it yet."

0 Thad Pierce, Aladren (Third Year) A goal fit for kings? 0 Thad Pierce, Aladren (Third Year) 0 5

Reggie Parker, Teppenpaw

November 23, 2012 12:30 PM

This may be a fun class after all. by Reggie Parker, Teppenpaw

Reggie had had such a fun midterm. She had gotten all of the photos developed with the help of her father and had started passing out the copies to the students whom she actually knew. It would be harder for her to figure out the younger years, but eventually, they would get the copies too. She had received a card from Phoenix and had sent him a card along with their picture together. After she had spent a few days dealing with the pictures, her father and her had met up with Derry and his mom to do some skiing. Reggie liked his mom. She could tell why Derry was such a nice guy because of his mother. Dad liked her too. And he trusted Derry a lot more now than he had in the past. Probably because he was nervous about her being so close to a boy. Not that he had to worry about Derry. Besides, her best friend even gave her the okay to date Phoenix.

Of course, since coming back to Sonora, Reggie hadn’t seen much of the Crotalus. She had to wonder if maybe she had thought the whole thing up. Maybe what she had thought was a flirtatious connection hadn’t been anything more than Phoenix being nice to her and her overactive imagination had made it into something more? Or maybe he really just wasn’t that into her.

Reggie walked into the Charms classroom and only hesitated for a moment because she hadn’t been expecting a forest, but then started walking again and handed in her essay as asked. It wasn’t like this was her first time where the classroom had been transformed. Still, it made her question what it was that they would be doing for the day. She felt like they were going to be talking fairy-tales and a unicorn was going to just step out from behind a tree. But that would be more for Care of Magical Creatures than Charms.

Taking a seat in the grass, Reggie waited for the lesson to begin. It didn’t take long though and Reggie found herself staring at a list of what she’s supposed to be doing in her groups. Standing up again, but shuffling her bag against a tree, Reggie took out her wand and looked around for some partners. Thankfully, they didn’t have to be specific years, so she could work with her friends if she wanted to. Catching an eye, she smiled and made her way over, “Hey, do you want to be in a group together?” She asked nicely.

6 Reggie Parker, Teppenpaw This may be a fun class after all. 187 Reggie Parker, Teppenpaw 0 5

Henny B-F-R, Aladren

November 25, 2012 2:30 PM

A quest across unfamiliar territory, certainly by Henny B-F-R, Aladren

Henny did not manage to achieve what Thad had, i.e. continuing in spite of her surprise. She managed to shuffle to one side of the doorway when the person behind her nearly bumped into her but she needed to take things in for a moment before she could feel comfortable entering any further into the room. It had been transformed. And the transformation was somewhat... wild. Henny studied the room, reminding herself that this was still Charms. Things weren't going to leap out from the bushes at her. She would still have preferred a straight forward quiz though. Professor Olivers had a tendency to try to make things interesting. Or what the woman presumably thought of as interesting but which Henny often found unnecessary and unsettling. She liked her classroom to look like a classroom. She did not like unexpected change. She did not like wild places. She took her customary COMC position, rather than her traditional class position, placing herself as near the door as possible. She was forced to venture forward when the Professor asked for their essays and then scurried back to her place anxiously.

She listened to the lecture with a vague sense of appreciation for what their teacher was trying to do. The lesson required the Charms to be put to practical use, if only to complete a game, which could be more satisfactory than doing them just for the sake of proving one could. However, she wished the scenario didn't involve places where things could.... lurk.

When they were instructed to go about the task, she skimmed the instructions in case they warned of any particular danger but they didn't seem to indicate that. She clenched them at her side and began a preliminary scope out of the territory, her wand in her hand. She wanted to give the room a once over before beginning.

She was pleased when Thad rounded the corner, unattached to team-mates. Against all the odds, she was very fond of the Pierce boy even if she was aware that there were limits to the degree to which they could truly be friends. He was always pleasant. Especially in these now transformed and unfamiliar surroundings she was glad of the chance to latch onto someone familiar. She only hoped she wasn't too unlike her usual self to do well at the class, as part of why she felt she got on well with her housemate was their mutual respect for each other's intelligence. She therefore felt that to do badly in front of him would damage their relationship. Unfortunately, she was forced to re-consult her instructions when he asked about the colour stone she was looking for, which she was sure did not look very collected and professional.

“Blue,” she stated, “I just thought I'd get an overview of the territory first,” she added, trying to justify her inattention to the instructions, “Our Professors do seem to have a fixation with all things arboreal at the moment, don't they?” she added, referencing the fact that Professor Skies had brought a tree to one of their Transfiguration classes.

13 Henny B-F-R, Aladren A quest across unfamiliar territory, certainly 211 Henny B-F-R, Aladren 0 5

Alicia Bauer, Aladren

November 26, 2012 10:14 PM

Sound dangerous. Let's do it! by Alicia Bauer, Aladren

When Alicia walked through the door of what was usually the Charms classroom, her longer-than-required essay on the theory behind the Summoning Charm already in her hand and her most winning smile already in place, she took two steps into the clearing which was now behind it before she processed that she was now, for all intents and purposes, outside and stopped to look around in surprise. As she took in the rest of what, for the sake of argument, she continued to call the classroom, not only did her smile fade briefly into a stunned expression, but she almost dropped the scroll of parchment as she attempted to hand it in. She had known before that the new Charms mistress had an impressive mastery of her craft – she had been doing unusual things to the room all year – but this was…this was big.

Even as she thought of that, the professor’s voice rang out, startling her as it gave them their first directions of the day in such a normal way that Alicia almost wondered if Olivers knew she was impressed. Acting as casually as possible was, after all, very likely what Alicia herself would do if she had gone out of her way to show a group of teenagers what she was made of, charms-wise. Taking a seat on the ground had not been among her plans when she chose to wear her favorite knee-length gray and navy blue dress and a pair of black heels to class for the quiz, but she pulled it off gracefully enough and continued to look around the new arrangement of the room, which either seemed or was much bigger than usual, her heavy-lidded eyes shining as she imagined what must have gone into making all this and definitely hoping, for the first time she was sure of, that Professor Olivers stayed. If she could do this, then she could possibly teach it, and other things which were just as impressive, and Alicia wanted to learn.

She looked over her instructions when she got them, her eyebrows drawing closer together in concentration and a small smile turning up the corners of her mouth as she realized they were going to have a bit of a game today. At once, as much as it pained her to do it, she dismissed the possibility of working with her friends from outside of Aladren, if she could help it; if she was going to be in the trio which did the best work and finished first with perfect marks, she was going to need to work with her own people. Preferably without a fifth year; they were an interesting group, but everyone would assume that the fifth year had carried the majority of the load if a fifth year worked with third years, and she couldn’t have that any more than she could dare do all the work for a group herself when she strongly suspected that Professor Olivers would somehow have the environment enchanted to sound an alarm if someone attempted to cheat for their friends that way. It was, after all, what she would do again, and she did like the Charms professor often enough to take that as a good guide.

Still, though, when they were given permission to get started in groups, Alicia moved, on her own, from her position near the front of the clearing to a spot closer to the middle, where she stood on her own for a moment, focusing hard on trying to imagine the parameters of the room and to picture, as exactly as possible, a purple rock, and to keep the three images in her head – the forest she could see, the room as it usually was, and the purple rock – all separate as she drew herself together, her wand pointing more up than in any other direction as she focused on her magic and what she knew, after her research, which had gone further than the paper she had just handed in reflected, about Summoning Charms. She knew it wasn’t likely to work, a theoretical understanding was all well and good but a certain amount of magical strength and skill she doubted she had quite attained yet was just as if not more crucial, but she had to try, just to see if she could get it…

“Accio,” she incanted softly, and waited for a moment, looking but seeing no purple rocks coming her way. She tried again, this time taking the easy route and specifying what it was she was Summoning. “Accio purple rock,” she tried, and then, when that didn’t work, either, “Accio, lapis purpureus.” After that one, she was so sure, for a moment, that it would work that she looked around her rapidly, planning to catch the stone before it could hit her if it came with too much force, but it didn’t come. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and then exhaled slowly, letting go of the disappointment in favor of being pleased with herself for being pretty sure she remembered the adjective form of ‘purple’.

Still, she promised herself as she started walking with purpose toward other people another time. I’ll practice that more and get it right another time.

Seeing Thad and Henny together, Alicia let her attempts and the successes and failures that went with them slip back into the mental cubby reserved for them as she smiled again and went to join them, figuring that if she was going to work with other people, here were the best two in the very large class for her to join. They were all among the best students here, and so shared an unspoken superiority to their classmates, they all got along very well, and she, personally, felt comfortable with the idea of working with both of them at the same time, where she would have felt a little more unsure of her place if it had been, say, her, Thad, and Evan. She could have worked with that, just as she could have, if she’d really had to, have worked with Andri and Arthur Carey, but she preferred the set up now presenting itself to her by a lot. She drew level with them just as Henny commented on the arboreal tendencies of their professors this term.

“I’ll say,” she said with a laugh as she stopped near them, slipping into the conversation in what she thought was a pretty natural manner. “If Fawcett and Levy do the same, I’m going to start having flashbacks to my mother’s bonsai fixation.” She moved her directions to the hand already holding her wand long enough to tuck her hair back behind her ear on the right side. “Do you guys have a third, or do you mind if I join you?” she asked, since, as they were already together and the three of them had not prearranged themselves into a group (which would have been hard to do without one of them spontaneously developing Seer abilities), it would be a little rude to just assume she was part of their group now without giving at least one of them a chance to extend the invitation to her.

OOC: 'Lapis purpureus' means, as near as I can work it out, 'purple stone' in Latin; if anyone with a better knowledge of the language should deem it erroneous, we'll just...chalk it up to spell Latin or blame Alicia for not studying her languages enough around all those essays! Right! Since we all know there are no other possible explanations for such a thing....

16 Alicia Bauer, Aladren Sound dangerous. Let's do it! 210 Alicia Bauer, Aladren 0 5

Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw

December 11, 2012 7:11 PM

It sure looks like it! by Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw

She gazed around the classroom, impressed. Hope might not have loved everything about Charms class-the weekly essays sprang to mind-but sometimes she felt that Professor Olivers was quite creative. The transportation to room was amazing. The Teppenpaw could barely see that it had once been an ordinary classroom. Hope absolutely loved how it had been transformed into a forest clearing.

It actually reminded her of the time they'd done a scavenger hunt in Potions in The Mirage Chamber her second year. A wistful smile graced Hope's face. That was the first time she'd really talked to Russell and ever since, she'd considered him her closest friend. Of course, she really did want more than that but she had no idea if he saw them as any more than friends.

Besides, her family would never see him as good enough. They talked a lot about her getting betrothed these days, as far as Great-Grandfather was concerned, the Teppenpaw was about the perfect age for it, having heard about Fae Sinclair's betrothal to Arnold Carey and the fact that Nora, who was a year younger than Hope was had been betrothed forever . Yet Nina and Tawny had both taken some time. It tended to be a matter of who was available, and while Hope tried to consider Arthur Carey and Josh McLachlan-she thought Great Grandfather would overlook his family's darkness when he himself didn't seem so, just not particularly friendly and she thought he might have something going on with Brianna Japos anyway, which Hope supported wholeheartedly and saw no different than if she was with Russell-but ultimately, her thoughts kept coming back to her friend.

Of course, Hope could end up with someone who didn't even go to Sonora the way her siblings had even though they seemed happy enough. The fifth year didn't like this idea very much. She'd attended balls over midterm and went to weddings and was sure to have more events to attend over the summer. All done to parade her in front of eligible bachelors, more so than to honor the host, in hopes that she would take an interest in one of them and that they would take one in her. So far, Hope didn't find these wealthy boys to be half as impressive as Russell though.

However, that seemed a world a way right now as Hope stood in the (albeit artificial) clearing, appreciating Professor Olivers' work. The more she heard though the more it did sound like the scavenger hunt from Potions her second year. Except instead of just looking for bugs and plants, she would be tested on all the Charms she'd learned throughout the year so far. She looked around for a partner, catching her roommate Reggie's eye. "Sure!" Hope replied. It would be nice to hang out with the other Teppenpaw for a change.

11 Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw It sure looks like it! 186 Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw 0 5

Arabella Brockert, Pecari

December 21, 2012 3:59 AM

Sounds fun! by Arabella Brockert, Pecari

Arabella had not much enjoyed writing her essay though she was glad she had been able to choose what charm she wanted to use. She had, of course, picked an easy one. It wasn't so much that the Pecari was a lazy girl-that was Amity-but she didn't have a lot of patience with written work or theory. It seriously bored her and Arabella could think of better uses of her time such as practicing her fencing-that is, if she could get Amity to spar with her. Which did not happen because the Aladren did not want to do anything . It was just a tad exasperating at times though Arabella didn't blame her cousin, Aunt Jillian was an unreasonable woman and if the third year had to put up with what her cousins did, she'd probably react the way Amity did.

The Pecari was also not thrilled about having the longer essay at the end of the term. Arabella would have rather had the exam, so long as it was multiple choice, fill in the blank, true or false and short answer. Essays of any kind were not her strength with her verbosity seemingly limited to calling Carrie a variety of (well-deserved) insulting and unladylike things. Research was just a pain, trying to keep going on something that probably didn't interest her.

Prior to coming to Sonora, she'd never really done an essay. Research wasn't something Arabella had ever done with her tutors, who preferred to adjust to how a student learned best in the interest of the student receiving their full potential. Not like her cousins. Aunt Pearl had given Carrie 'the best' tutors-who were to let her have her own way or be fired-while Uncle Jeffrey had Ryan's tutors who were kind but pretty standard meet at their grandparents' and Amity's army of tutors taught to Aunt Jillian's specifications and standards much to the Aladren's chagrin.

Today's lesson actually seemed fun, even though it was a quiz. First of all, it seemed to be on the practical side of things, demonstrating spells they'd learned. A treasure hunt certainly beat sitting still. It turned she and her brother Fabian were both kinesthetic learners while Serena was a very visual learner, who needed to see something written down to know that it was important to take notes on. Arabella, though, needed to be doing something. It was why she did so much better on practical than theoretical work.

Another thing about quizzes and exams were that while you had to study, it took far less time to finish up a test, one class period, then it to spend hours and hours researching one thing and writing about it. It was why she never ever worked on homework with Amity. It was best to try and work with Alexandra, or Ryan who was older and already gone through the lessons that the Pecari was on now or even ask Melanie Lennox who had a gift for research from what Arabella understood.

She gazed around, looking for a group. The third year wasn't all that picky, given that the only person she absolutely wouldn't be able to tolerate wasn't in this class. There were some advantage to Aladrens, particularly older Aladrens, but then older students in general would be useful. The nice thing though was that this quiz was a group quiz and wouldn't have to depend on just one person. Arabella found the closest person to her that didn't seem to have a group and asked "Do you want to work with me?" She gave them a friendly encouraging smile, confident that they'd say yes. People rarely refused offers to work with others in her experience.

11 Arabella Brockert, Pecari Sounds fun! 217 Arabella Brockert, Pecari 0 5