Professor O'Leary
August 30, 2009 10:54 AM
Lesson II: Third-Fifth Years by Professor O'Leary
The holidays had been good, more than good. Drake always spent midterm in one part of the world or another ice-skating with his daughter. His good mood usually continued into the first couple weeks of the school year starting back up. This year his chipper mood was enhanced for having met Aina. With a light wave of his wand, Drake sent the desks flying against the walls in order to provide the space necessary for a practical application lesson. Drake preferred these types of lessons to pure lecture, because while lecture provided information about spells, creatures, or whatever else they were learning, it was the application that would make the responses second nature and that was what would enable them to survive if ever faced with a real situation.Though, Drake only hoped that they would never be, especially not in the way that he had been, not in the way that his eyes had been opened to what others were capable of. He wished he had known. If he had, maybe she would still be alive, but that was his regret to live with, not theirs. Abruptly, his mood crashed into the overweighing amount of guilt for considering such notions as serious dating. After what had happened, he had vowed never to become close to anyone again. He never wanted to feel the anguish of losing someone again and what was worse, knowing that he had been the cause.
This weight of guilt brought forth a more stringent professor than Drake normally was. As the students began entering the room, he barked, “Place your things on the desks and keep them out of the free area.” Normally, he wouldn’t have bothered to say anything. He would have assumed that after having him for a little over four or five years, he assumed the students knew well enough what was expected, but misery loves company and all. Once they were gathered in the middle of the room, he flicked his wand again causing the following to appear on the board:
Advanced Shielding
The Shield Charm (Protego) vs. Hex Deflection (Contego)
“By now, all of you should be well versed in casting Protego, the Shield Charm. However, this charm is only designed to deflect minor to moderate jinxes, but what do we do when the spell is more powerful?” Drake asked about the former and to lead into his introduction of the latter. “We use Hex Deflection, which is stronger protection, and because it is stronger, it takes more work to master. The specific spell we are going to learn is Contego. Repeat after me, Con-tay-goh. As you might have noticed, the spell pronunciation is similar to Protego, so I expect that you will have little trouble with that part. Now, to perform Contego, wave your wand like so.” He demonstrated the movement, which was more complicated than the shield charm.
After showing the students a couple more times in order to try and make sure everyone had a chance to see the correct wand movement. Drake continued on, a little less curt than before, “For this lesson, I would like each of you to pair off with one other person to practice dueling with this spell. While you work on this spell, I’ll be around observing to see where improvement needs made, especially for the fifth years since C.A.T.S. will be coming up.” He had never had anyone not make it through for Defense and he wasn’t about to start now. “If you have any questions or need help, don’t hesitate to ask. You may begin.”
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Subthreads: Who's brave enough to curse me? by Cynthia Smythe
Contemplation by Chelsea Brockert with Amelia Smythe
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Professor O'Leary
Lesson II: Third-Fifth Years
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Professor O'Leary
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Cynthia Smythe
September 11, 2009 11:38 AM
Who's brave enough to curse me? by Cynthia Smythe
Defense was the only highlight in Cynthia's week. Professor O'Leary seemed to be in a bad mood for their class, which didn't bother the fifth year either way; as long as she was learning she really wasn't bothered whether the professor was chipper as spring or sour as a lemon. Besides, it turned out that the class was practically-based (which could go either way) and actually encouraged casting of hexes. Cynthia thought she might even be smiling - one eyebrow had raised and her lips had curled up at one side. It was an unfamiliar phenomenon.The only downside here was that Cynthia had to work with a partner. She thought she could play it safe and choose one of her cousins - irritating Cecily and Amelia may be, but Cynthia was well practised in tolerating them. Plus it would be fun to have a legitimate reason to hex them. Though on second thoughts, they might be rather more violent in their attempts than a neutral classmate might be. Decision made.
Cynthia approached the poor person standing nearest to her, and said in clipped tones, "Would you be willing to work with me during this lesson?" Usually she would simply tell her partner that they were just that, but Cynthia's parents had impressed on her the notion of politeness over midterm. If she was going to be considered in society she would have to curb her manners. Cynthia cared very little about society - all she was planning on doing was taking her father's place in his business after his death - but her parents did. Cynthia grudgingly obeyed. Besides, if this person said no, she could always hex them until they changed their mind.
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Cynthia Smythe
Who's brave enough to curse me?
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Chelsea Brockert
September 11, 2009 2:13 PM
Contemplation by Chelsea Brockert
Beyond him being too observant, Professor O'Leary really didn't offend Chelsea too much. Defense was hardly a favorite of hers though.Most of what they'd learned so far wasn't particularily useful, but it least it wasn't unladylike and improper.Today's lesson would be unladylike and improper and she knew it before O'Leary even mentioned dueling.Chelsea wasn't stupid and she knew hex deflection meant there needed to be hexes to deflect. This did not thrill her. While Chelsea was sure she could do it if she put her mind to it...she really didn't want to put her mind to it. She generally disliked physical violence, it was too crude and simple.
Chelsea frowned. The obvious thing to do when there was a partner lesson was to work with one of her friends. The thing was, she didn't want to hex one of them . On the other hand, while she didn't care about hurting her enemies, she didn't want to spend the class interacting with them. Besides, someone like Renaye had no class and wouldn't show proper restraint.
Perhaps it was best to work with one of the people Chelsea felt indifference towards.
Of course, working with one of her friends would result in generally weaker hexes (due to not really approving of violence or wanting to harm each other rather than any lack of ability), higher likelihood of Contego working, and spending the lesson chatting and gossiping.
Before Chelsea could ultimately make up her mind, someone approached her.
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Chelsea Brockert
Contemplation
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Amelia Smythe
September 20, 2009 10:10 AM
Likewise by Amelia Smythe
Amelia didn't care much for DADA. O'Leary was kind of hot in an older man way, so sometimes that was entertaining, but the subject material didn't tend to hold her interest. She wasn't inclined to hex people, and didn't think she'd ever need to protect herself from curses (unless she and Ian were to have a particular chat any time soon). At least it could be interesting. Like today - no notes, just get out there and hex people. O'Leary didn't mess about.Amelia suffered the usual decision of who to work with that accompanied every practical lesson of this sort. She avoided even catching Cynthia's eye - her cousin was always looking for an excuse to hex her. Amelia was under no pretense that she'd be cut any slack for being two years younger. Her normal partner of choice, Ian Grimm, was still being mostly ignored by Amelia, since he started choosing to work with cecily in class, instead. Amelia still hadn't worked out what was up with that - Holly said Ian was crushing on Cecily; Amelia didn't like to believe it, but neither did she want to breech the subject with either or them.
Aha! Amelia could try asking one of Cecily's other friends. Singling out Chelsea as an excellent partner - would probably do a little work, not curse Amelia too badly and have plenty of time for gossip, Amelia headed over. "Hey Chelsea, can I work with you?"
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Amelia Smythe
Likewise
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Chelsea
October 03, 2009 7:11 PM
Re: Likewise by Chelsea
It was a bit of a relief when Chelsea realized that it was Amelia who had approached her. She may not have been one of the Ladies, but Chelsea generally liked Cecily's younger sister (something she couldn't even say about one of her own) and found her much more pleasant to work with than most of her classmates, including the ones she felt mostly indifference to.So long as it wasn't Alexis, Jenaye or Laurie, it was fine. Chelsea wasn't too sure she'd be able to keep up her ladylike restraint, particularly with Alexis and she was certain Jenaye wouldn't no matter who their partners were (unless it was each other perhaps) and Chelsea just plain didn't want to work that hard. She wouldn't have been too keen on working with Cecily and Amelia's cousin Cynthia either.
"Hey Chelsea, can I work with you?"
Giving the younger girl a pleasant smile, she replied "Of course. This whole thing is ridiculous isn't it? Like We're ever going to duel people." Okay, there was the possibility of having to deflect curses with Nina coming here next year, but Chelsea was a good four years older than her sister, and was thus much more advanced.
"I'll let you try and deflect first" Chelsea took what she knew to be a proper dueling stance. " Expelliarmus! " She was not going to hex Amelia. Disarming was appropriately non-violent. Plus, there was something about leaving someone defenseless for a hex. Not that Chelsea wanted to do it to the third year, but in theory, if she was going to duel, (which she never would), that is what she would do.
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Chelsea
Re: Likewise
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