Professor Olivers
June 25, 2015 10:52 PM
Honey, I shrunk the [fill in the blank]! [I & II years] by Professor Olivers
Two weeks had already passed since the start of the term and Florence was having a harder time this year remembering all of the names of her students. That usually meant she called on those whom she did know or had to ask them to state their name before letting them ask their question. Today was a little harder for her than most, and before preparing herself for class she wrote a letter to no one before crumpling it up and throwing it away. It was usually around this time of year when Florence felt that pang of loss most significantly. No matter how many men she fell in love with during the course of her life, none could take Terry’s place. He’d been her first husband; someone she would not easily forget.During class, however, she put on a brave face and when the beginners came in she knew she could mask her emotions until later tonight when she was alone in her bedroom. Her normally eccentric attire was quite dull and drab today, something only her older students would probably notice. “Good morning everyone,” she said. “I hope you all did your assignment from last week. Turn it into the basket as it comes to you.” With a flick of her wrist, the metal wire-basket floated around to the students’ desks, giving them a few seconds to whip it out of their bags and place it inside.
“While that’s going around, please turn to page 12 of your textbook. Last we practiced the Enlargement Charm. Today we’ll be going over Shrinking Charms. The Enlargement Charm goes hand-in-hand with this one, so I’m sure you’ll all catch onto it fairly quickly. The incantation is Reducio. Let’s say it together once: Reducio. Now together, with the wand movement. Reducio. Very good.
“On your desk is an oversized object that you need to reduce. For first-years, you will be reducing large fruit on this side of the room. For second-years, you need to reduce the moving toys that are scurrying around the opposite side of the room. They are charmed to stay on your side and run away from humans, so you have to be sure of your aim. Remember to use Engorgio if you hit something else as a countercurse. And no purposely shrinking each other.”
Florence plucked the wire basket out of the air as it returned to her and put it down on her desk. “If you need any help for today’s assignment, come ask me. I’ll be here reading your essays and keeping an eye out for all of you. Once you’re finished, come show me your finished product and work quietly on other homework or reading the next chapter.”
OOC: Welcome to Charms! Please write 200 words minimum. Creative, realistic posts are worth more points. Florence will be keeping an eye out for any serious mishaps, and shrinking people would be difficult for first-years (though clothing would be less difficult...). Any questions, tag Professor Olivers on the OOC board or in the tagline. Remember, points are awarded for how well you write, not how well your character does in a lesson.
Subthreads: Pear by Kira Spaulding, Crotalus with Emilia-Louise Scott, Aladren
You'll never catch me, I'm the gingerbread man! by Ginger Pierce, Teppenpaw with Alistair Johnson, Crotalus
Mouse. by Caelia Lucan, Crotalus with Andrew Carey, Teppenpaw
You didn't need that book, did you? by Jax Donovan, Aladren with Laila Kennedy, Crotalus
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Professor Olivers
Honey, I shrunk the [fill in the blank]! [I & II years]
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Professor Olivers
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Kira Spaulding, Crotalus
July 04, 2015 4:59 PM
Pear by Kira Spaulding, Crotalus
Kira was glad to finally be in classes. All her life, she'd been doing magic accidentally. Of course, most magical children did, but she seemed to be doing it all the time . She'd wake up in the morning with her room in total disarray no matter how clean it been when she'd gone to sleep, especially if she had bad dreams and she'd often break stuff without meaning to or set things on fire. Things would be big and things would be small and things would disappear completely or reappear somewhere else or become something else. For example, her hairbrush would be a wooden spoon when she woke up.Last summer, her father had finally caught on and caught her off guard completely be telling Kira that she was apparently a very powerful witch and presenting her with an old wand. She didn't know whose wand it had been but Father wanted her to get better control over magi...il she was able to get her own wand and practice legally.
Besides, she'd been eleven already, her birthday was the second day of term, so it wasn't exactly fair that she had to wait the extra year anyway. Though Father said she'd catch up quickly. The best thing about it all had been the extra attention he'd given her. Her parents tended to focus more on her brother as well as Father's work and Mother's social obligations. Alice Spaulding was rather into supporting charities and helping people and being the total antithises of her older sister, Pearl.
Anyway, even though Kira felt so inadequate in so many ways, doing magic well made her feel rather good, though out of habit she still tried not to draw attention to herself. She had wanted such from her parents but at the same time, the Crotalus desperately didn't want to be told what she was doing wrong. But maybe, just maybe, she would finally be better than Kelsey at something . Not to mention be generally less destructive. The first year had never wanted to be, but she just couldn't help it.
Of course, being destructive was just another way she'd screwed up as a proper young lady. Kelsey was never destructive.
She went over and sat at a desk with an oversized pear. Kira hadn't really much problem with the enlarging charm and had mastered it rather quickly. She hoped to have just as much luck with the shrinking charm. The first year had made things bigger or smaller often when she wasn't even trying so maybe now that she was, she'd be even more successful.
Kira practiced the movements and pronounciation, wanting to make sure she had those down. When she thought she was ready, she turned to see a much smaller pear in front of her already. Doll sized, even. But the size for a porcelain doll or rag doll to eat. Kira smiled, now she would try and see if she could make it doll housed size.
But before she had the chance, the person next to her spoke. "Pardon?" The Crotalus asked. "Sorry, I just got kind of into the assignment." She hoped she wasn't making a mistake socially again.
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Kira Spaulding, Crotalus
Pear
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Kira Spaulding, Crotalus
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Emilia-Louise Scott, Aladren
July 05, 2015 1:39 PM
My apple is dead. by Emilia-Louise Scott, Aladren
Considering that she’d been sorted into the ‘clever house’, Emmy-Lou was a little disappointed by her performance in some of her classes since the start of term. She didn’t feel that she was one of the top students for her year group at all. Charms was one of her least favourite subjects at the moment which annoyed her because she thought it was quite an important one. She considered herself good at remembering the things in textbooks and achieving high marks for her essays but the actual practical aspect of the class did not run quite so smoothly. Last week they had been working on the Enlargement Charm and her results had seemed quite random. She was of the opinion that her wand didn’t like her. It just wasn’t obeying her.When the basket came around, Emmy-Lou hurriedly put her named essay in. She had found that she enjoyed the Charms homework much more than she did the lessons a lot of the time. The blonde eleven year old opened her book to the correct page as she listened and had to stop herself from groaning out loud. She tried to convince herself that she might actually get on better with the shrinking charm than she had with the enlarging charm but she couldn’t really see how there would be any difference in terms of difficulty.
Emmy-Lou scowled at the apple on her desk.
“Reducio,” she pointed her wand at the fruit. Nothing. “Reducio. Re-duck-she-o.” She didn’t think saying it slowly would help but had no idea what she was doing wrong. Was she putting emphasis in the wrong place? “REductio… reDUCio… reduciO!” She was generally quite an amiable person but found herself getting more and more frustrated each time nothing happened. Emmy-Lou jabbed the apple with her wand a couple of times, repeating the incantation over and over in a rather crazy fashion. She sighed irritably and glanced around the room to see how her classmates were getting on.
The Aladren’s brown eyes widened as she clocked Kira Spaulding sitting near to her, smiling at a tiny little pear. “How?”
“How did you do that so quick?” she expanded when the Crotalus girl missed her one word question. “I mean, just look!” she tapped her apple again a few times just to prove how useless the fruit and her wand were being. “Nothing happens when I do it! Is there some kind of secret?”
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Emilia-Louise Scott, Aladren
My apple is dead.
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Emilia-Louise Scott, Aladren
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Kira
July 10, 2015 9:27 PM
Poor apple. by Kira
When she realized what her neighbor, Emmy-Lou Scott, had asked her, Kira blushed furiously. Apparently, Emmy-Lou hadn't had any luck with the spell at all and the Crotalus was at a loss for words. She knew that that showed poor social skills and a lady knew how to behave at all times, always knew the right thing to say. She glanced across the room at her cousin, certain that Kelsey would know. Of course, being that Emmy-Lou wasn't a pureblood-Kelsey had oh-so-kindly given Kira the rundown on who was and wasn't appropriate after their first class, as if the first year couldn't reconize pureblood last names on her own-certainly the older Crotalus would probably rather not talk to her. The thing was though, she wouldn't outright say that and handle the situation with grace and tact.However, that wasn't exactly the issue Kira was having. She didn't really care quite so much beyond that she was a bit paranoid that talking to non-purebloods would make her look inferior to her cousin again and didn't want to marry one. She didn't want to get disowned and throw away everything and everyone she knew. Her issue was that she genuinely had no idea whatsoever how to answer Emmy-Lou's question. Kira didn't know why she was good at magic beyond that some people were just...magically stronger than others.
However, she couldn't say that . It was rude and would probably alienate Emmy-Lou. Technically she wasn't supposed to care about alienating someone who wasn't part of society but Kira did. She didn't want anyone to dislike her at all. Plus, it might hurt Emmy-Lou's feelings and make her feel bad and the Crotalus knew all too well what it was like for someone to be just plain better than her at everything.
Well, almost everything. Kira glanced back at her pear.
Still, feeling inferior was not a nice feeling and to have someone outright say to her they were just better at something would upset her greatly. Not that they did say it. They never had to. Kira knew.
But what could she say? "Um, I-I don't know." She replied, finally, feeling super awkward. It was the truth. How could one say what made someone good at one thing or another? Still Kira felt really stupid both at her lack of social ability and telling an Aladren she didn't know something. She didn't want to give Emmy-Lou reason to find her inferior either.
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Kira
Poor apple.
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Kira
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