Professor Levy
February 03, 2011 5:07 PM
Advanced Level (5th & 6th Years): Lesson I by Professor Levy
Erika watched from behind her massive mahogany desk to see the reactions from her students as they walked into the classroom and saw a panther circling the room. Of course, this wasn’t an actual panther since it was fairly translucent and glowing, but it was still impressive if she did say so herself. Though, anyone that was an Auror, like some of her friends that had come to her wedding over the summer, wouldn’t have been quite so awed. Being able to cast a patronus was a requirement for being an Auror for all the obvious and not so obvious reasons. Many of which she would be discussing today.Once everyone had taken their seats, Erika moved from behind her desk to sit on it. “As probably all of you know, the panther stalking around the room is a patronus, my patronus and as many of you have probably guessed, that’s what we’re going to begin discussing and working on. Anyone that has hopes of becoming an Auror must be able to master this spell,” she warned those that had aspirations of such a dangerous career. She had once been an Auror, one of the best and youngest, and quite often she missed the excitement of the field. Sometimes she considered going back and maybe she wouldn’t be able to be out in the field anymore, but maybe working in the Investigations unit.
“In terms of protection, the patronus is most effective against dementors and lethifolds. In fact, this is the only spell that truly works. Just for review, dementors and lethifolds are both dark creatures. Dementors will drain every last bit of hope and happiness from a person and the worst thing they do is the Dementor’s Kiss where they suck the very soul out of a person and leave nothing left, but an empty shell. As for lethifolds, I suppose they’re a bit better than dementors since they won’t leave a person a living without a soul. The lethifold looks like a thick black cloak, about half-inch thick. It will attack a sleeping person in their bed, smother them, and digest them. They leave absolutely no trace at all so if someone suddenly disappears that might be what happened.”
She paused for a moment. Her gray eyes glanced around the darkened atmosphere of the room. “Of course, this is assuming the person was visiting the tropics since this is the only place they’re found and are still pretty rare.” Erika brushed her dark hair back out of her face. Admittedly, she wanted to scare them, make them realize how important it was to learn these lessons. Not only for their exams, but for just their safety in the world. It wasn’t just the magical one either, because how often did people – wizards and muggles alike – just disappear without a trace? Not to mention all the other things that could occur. At the same time, she needed them to stay focused on the lesson. If they couldn’t perform the lesson in a safe environment, they weren’t going to have any hope if they were in real danger.
So, it was on to the other point. “The patronus is not only good for protection, it’s also good for delivering messages. If you wanted to warn someone or if you needed help, sending a patronus is very effective. They are able to deliver a message and the patronus will take on your voice or you can use it to lead a person to where you are or even a particular spot.” At this point, she demonstrated just what she meant. Some might have already seen a deliverance of one, but some might not have and there was nothing better than showing. One the other side of the room, her panther seemingly spoke, “Very effective.”
Erika drew their attention back to her. “Today, we’ll start with casting the patronus spell. Keep in mind that your patronus is a reflection of yourself and can transform with extraordinary emotional change. To perform the spell, simply point your wand like so,” she brandished her wand, “and say Expecto Patronum. Once everyone has a handle on the patronus charm, we will move on to working with pogrebins, because they produce feelings similar to a dementor, but on a lower scale. If anyone finishes early, you may try passing messages back and forth with someone. I’ll be around if you have any questions or need help. You may begin.”
OOC: Normal posting rules apply! Minimum of ten sentences with no major grammatical or spelling errors. Remember, the more lengthy and creative the post, the more points earned. Enjoy!
Subthreads: That can't be what I think that is. by Daniel Nash II, Aladren (and Head Boy) with Jethro Smythe, Jethro
Oh feathered friend, appear! by Adelita Garcia (Crotalus) with Dana Smythe, Adelita, Lita
Virtual camping, anyone? by Jose Hernandez, Pecari with Andew Duell, Jose Hernandez, Andrew Duell
Here, kitty by Charlotte Abbott with Marissa Stephenson, Charlotte, Charlie
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Professor Levy
Advanced Level (5th & 6th Years): Lesson I
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Professor Levy
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Jose Hernandez, Pecari
February 07, 2011 5:16 PM
Virtual camping, anyone? by Jose Hernandez, Pecari
Jose still wasn't entirely sure he approved of being considered an "Advanced" student in some of his classes. Not so much because he thought the material was too hard but because most of his friends were still in the intermediate level class and he didn't feel like he'd been at the school long enough to be called 'Advanced' yet. He was barely able to admit he was supposed to be in the fifth year instead of the fourth and now they wanted to call him Advanced already?But here he was, in the Advanced DADA class, and he barely gave the panther stalking around the room a second glance. (The first showed him clearly enough that it was patronus which was only dangerous if it snuck up on you while you were practicing your balance act and the individual who cast it decided to yell 'Boo!' from directly behind you on a tightrope. Thank you, Uncle Dean. Jose bet Professor Levy never used hers to try to train a stage performer not to startle from unexpected sounds while doing dangerous tricks.)
He took a seat near the back of the room, took inconsistent notes during the lesson (he got the important parts anyway), and then pulled out his wand from its place in his bag. For a little while, he just watched some of his classmates try the spell and tried to guess what his would be. Uncle Dean had a lion. Saul, he was pretty sure, had Aunt Regina which he thought was kind of odd but also kind of appropriate. He wasn't a Pierce in the strictest definition of his name, so Regina had never given him as much personal attention as she had Saul and Maria. Jose was just as glad for that reprieve. She was every bit as terrifying as Dean's lion.
Maria had a falcon, if Jose remembered correctly, and Dad might have a scorpion. It wouldn't surprise him if Dad had a scorpion anyway. It seemed like a Dad thing. He had a fuzzy scorpion hanging off his rearview mirror instead of dice.
Jose raised his eyebrows as Daniel Nash pulled a police car out his wand and snickered a little at that. There was no way the guy could pretend to be pure-blooded with that kind of patronus.
Still shaking his head in amusement, Jose cast the spell himself. He'd seen enough of his relatives do it that the words fell off his tongue readily enough, and the wand motion was not difficult. He summoned some of his best good cheer to throw into the mix, and out came . . .
"Shouldn't have laughed at Daniel's," he decided out loud, tilting his head to the side as he regarded the barely cohesive but recognizable RV taking up the space in front of him. Nothing said 'home' and 'safety' like the main Recreational Vehicle that served as the California Pierces' family base. Plus, Jose bet it could run down and crush any dementor in its path. He felt pretty pleased with the shape his patronus had taken. Nobody had ever accused a California Pierce of being subtle.
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Jose Hernandez, Pecari
Virtual camping, anyone?
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Jose Hernandez, Pecari
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Andew Duell
February 07, 2011 8:16 PM
We'll just need some marshmallows now. by Andew Duell
Andrew wasn't entirely certain about the panther stalking the room. It clearly wasn't a normal panther, and that worried him just a little more. He was fairly sure what a normal panther was capable of, not that it was pleasant, but at least it was known. This thing was glowing, and he could see through it, who knows what it was capable of. Professor Levy didn't seem to concerned about it, she must have it under control. If they were to learn to fight it, it would have to remain passive until they learned how, right?With that mindset, he found a seat next to Jose. They had worked together before, so if this was going to be a partner type lesson, he'll take Jose in his corner. He took out his books and notepad while keeping an eye on the panther. He did notice that Jose didn't seem particularly worried. Before he could ask, the professor got started, and he started scribbling notes.
Ahhh.. that would explain it, that was a patronus. Naturally he'd heard of them, but he hadn't really seen any. That was pretty cool. He had asked his mother about hers last summer. She said that she'd never really got the hang of that spell, and produced a weird floaty, bloby thing that didn't look terribly stable. He had hoped he would do better, and now was his chance.
He double checked the notes he had taken, waved his wand and recited the words. Nothing happened. Strangely he felt both disappointed and relieved. He really wanted to be able to make a patronus, but what if it was something really, odd or strange? It was supposed to be a reflection of himself? Something that would show everyone in class who he truly was? That sounded downright terrifying. Maybe this was something better practiced when no one else was around.
No. That wasn't right. That wasn't the kind of person he wanted to be, nor the type of patronus he wanted to create. Not something that skulks around in the dark hiding from everyone. Those days were over. He summoned up his courage and tried to build the magical energies much like he had in his transfigurations. He tried again and was rewarded with a shimmer. A form that faded out about the size of the professor's panther.
He moved to try again, when suddenly there was a large, glowing RV sitting in front of him. Where... then he heard Jose talk next to him.
Andrew's initial response was simply, "Wow... how...?" He took a moment to take that in. "That's pretty good. Let's see if I've got it now." He refocused, and tried again. This time a dragon, the roughly the size of a panther appeared in front of him. "Cool..." He muttered under his breath, then he noticed that it wasn't just a dragon. It was a dragon that looks like it had been fused with all sorts of technology. It was his childhood hero, Bahamut, the cybernetically enhanced dragon. Very cool. It then flickered and vanished.
"Huh... how do you sustain it?"
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Andew Duell
We'll just need some marshmallows now.
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Andew Duell
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Jose Hernandez
February 09, 2011 11:16 AM
I've got the marshmellows. You have any chocolate? by Jose Hernandez
When Andrew sat down beside him, Jose took the opportunity to offer a quick 'Hi' before Professor Levy started in on the lecture. Andrew was probably his closest friend outside of Pecari and one of only two in his year that Jose considered a good friend. If he couldn't sit with Mel, Delilah or Starbuck during class, Andrew was an excellent alternative.After he got the RV up and running (a task that was probably even more difficult on the real one than it was for Jose to create it as a Patronus given that it was nearly twice as old as Jose himself and held together with duct-tape and magical enhancements), Andrew managed to make some kind of robot dragon, which Jose was sad to admit was totally cooler than the RV. If he were a dementor, he'd be way more scared of a robot dragon than some beat-up old camper.
With that thought, the RV vanished from in front of them seemingly almost in protest.
"It, uh," he shook his head to get his thoughts cleared of Patronus Inferiority. "It feeds off positive energy so you need to keep up good thoughts so it doesn't fade out. Like flying in Peter Pan," he added. "Sometimes a specific happy memory helps."
He thought of one this past summer, where the Cousins were all gathered round a campfire and telling stories and eating s'mores, and said, "Expecto Patronum!" And the RV was back, clearer than before. In the back of his mind he kept up the memory of laughter and the taste of burnt marshmallows. "Think happy thoughts!" the RV said in Jose's voice, its front bumper moving up and down like some kind of cartoon car's mouth.
Jose's eyes widened and he laughed in delight at that. "Oh, that was awesome," he said, his planned 'Oo! It worked!' for if his attempt to project his voice was successful didn't stand a chance against his surprised reaction to how it worked. He was pretty sure his mouth had still moved, but ventriloquism was a skill he only had limited experience with.
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Jose Hernandez
I've got the marshmellows. You have any chocolate?
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Jose Hernandez
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Andrew Duell
February 11, 2011 7:58 PM
Chocolate... chocolate... I thought I had some here... by Andrew Duell
Andrew burst out laughing right along with Jose at the RV's speech. That was awesome! He pulled himself together, "That is cool! Did you tell it how to do that? I've gotta try."Alright, happy thoughts, happy thoughts. His happiest memories were when his parents were still living together, but that was so long ago. He couldn't remember those times that well anymore. Maybe his happy thoughts didn't have to come from the past, but from the future. He thought of his parents back together and them all living under one roof once more. The images came easily to him as he had pictured them thousands of times already. He couldn't help but smile, someday he would bring this to reality. They would be together again!
He cast the spell again, and his dragon appeared once more. It actually looked a little bigger than last time, had it grown? Could they do that? What all could the patronus do?
Bahamut looked at Jose and asked, "Did the professor say something about pogrebins to practice on?" Andrew then nearly burst out laughing again. "I gotta work on a more menacing voice if it's going to come out of that thing."
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Andrew Duell
Chocolate... chocolate... I thought I had some here...
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Andrew Duell
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Jose Hernandez
February 14, 2011 12:01 PM
I think I have the graham crackers by Jose Hernandez
"No, it just did that!" Jose exclaimed when Andrew asked if he'd made the patronus talk like that, "All I did was will it to project my voice!" Okay, that was almost cool enough to make up for not having a robot dragon for a patronus. Not quite, but almost.Andrew did his casting thing again, and the robot dragon looked even more impressive than last time. Okay, not so much on the 'almost' either. The RV faded and then vanished all together. Jose's patronus clearly did not like playing second string to Andrew's and had gone away to sulk. Jose didn't really blame it.
Then the dragon spoke - with Andrew's voice - and Jose had to laugh. "Yeah," he agreed, "Maybe try deepening your voice," he deepened his own as much as it could go, "like this." It wasn't very deep. Jose's vocal chords had mostly finished their transition from child to adult already, but he just didn't have the size to have a really good deep voice. Curse those short Mexican genes, again! Not that his ma was really any taller. Curse those Mexican and American short genes! Again!
"And yeah, once most of us get a hold on the casting thing, we try it again with the pogrebin. I guess we can start lining up for that."
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Jose Hernandez
I think I have the graham crackers
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Jose Hernandez
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Andrew Duell
February 16, 2011 7:14 PM
What else do we need? by Andrew Duell
Andrew tried deepening his voice, and was met with moderate success. It was deeper, but nothing close to what a dragon should sound like. He experimented having the dragon walk around a bit to see what kind of control he had over it and what it did naturally. From Jose's experience, it seemed that the magic just had to work some things out on its own. A thought occurred to him, he turned to Jose and asked, "What is the range on a patronus? The professor said they could be used to deliver messages, how far away? Once it gets out of my line of sight, how do I know what to tell it to do? Do I just tell it to go find somebody and say something to them, or do I need to give it step by step directions? Is there some way for me to use it's senses?" He stopped a moment, mainly because he realized he had thrown a lot of questions at Jose without waiting for an answer. He had more... but maybe he should wait a moment. He grinned "Sorry, maybe I should have read up on this better. What does the book say?" Andrew started digging around on his desk for his book. The dragon vanished once more as his focus shifted elsewhere.He looked up and saw it was gone. "Huh..." he began to ruminate to himself out loud, "If I do send it off to deliver a message, do I have to focus on it until the task is done? What if it needs to go really far away? I guess that gets back into the question of range." He began flipping through his book, looking for answers.
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Andrew Duell
What else do we need?
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Andrew Duell
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Jose
February 18, 2011 2:10 PM
A library, apparently by Jose
Jose blinked and stared blankly at Andrew as he was bombarded with a whole slew of questions that he had no answers to. He'd seen patronii before, and been startled by them when they came up behind them, but the California Pierces didn't really have any need to stretch the limits of the spell. They didn't even use it in life or death situations (beyond that they were a tool to prevent life or death situations) or any other traditional use for a patronus.It was just that somewhere back in their history, one of the Pierces learned how to cast one and thought it was cool and versatile enough to teach to the rest of the family and now it was part of the Pierce knowledge base that had been taught to everyone before California started requiring kids to attend proper schools.
The Pierce knowledge base said 'this is how its done, and this is how you scare the living daylights out of your kids with it' but nothing at all about its range or how to control it if it leaves line of sight.
As Andrew began flipping through his textbook, Jose nodded and agreed, "Yeah, that'll know better than me."
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Jose
A library, apparently
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Jose
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