Professor Lilac Crosby
November 18, 2011 5:43 PM
Shield me with your... pipe? [First and second years!] by Professor Lilac Crosby
“…Wrimlet, Morana.” With that final name, Lilac finished the attendance for her beginners’ class. She still didn’t have the names down quite yet (although she knew Miss Wrimlet, a member of her own House). She’d gotten pretty adjusted to seeing the faces of the new first years by this point, but it continually seemed somewhat strange walking into her intermediate class and seeing now-third years like Hope Brockert and Addison Thorton. Even odder still was the fourth-year class; she’d started at Sonora when that particular class was mere first years themselves.Students, just like she herself, grew up ever so quickly. Her very own niece, while still in the beginners’ class, was a second year already. In all honesty, she enjoyed the first and second years a great deal because they were so young still and so rapidly changing. However, she was probably the least free with herself in that class: she tried very, very hard not to be a complete dork and embarrass Sally.
To the considerably newly-christened first and second years she spoke. ‘Now that that’s all in order, I bet you’re wondering why there’s a metal pipe on each of your desks.” The tubes were about two feet long and not as heavy as they looked at all, easy to lift for most students. She’d taken every precaution she could think of for special cases; when Valerie Lennox had come in, for example, the twenty-nine year old had been sure to guide her to a desk where the pipe was smaller and even lighter. Any other students with similar medical concerns were addressed in such fashion as well. She always did her best for such students.
The grey-eyed witch grabbed the pipe off of her own desk, proportionately longer as she was larger than the students and could likely hold more. “Imagine this, if you will: you’re all grown up. You’re an Auror. Someone chases you into a dark alley. Something’s happened that you can’t escape. What do you do then?” Lilac paused briefly to glance across the students. The usual variety of opinionated faces seemed true. “You need a shield, but all the only thing available is a metal pipe from one of the buildings.”
Wand directed decisively at the pipe, she incanted, “Paerdecto!” In the blink of an eye, the pipe was a shield. “Now, note that the composition of the pipe has not changed. Strengthened a little, maybe, but not changed. Most of this is just a shift in form. It is, however, now more resistant to magical damage, as it ought to be.” Otherwise, there really was no point to the spell in itself.
While she had spoken the incantation, it and its pronunciation had appeared on the board behind her. PAIR-deck-toe. “Be sure to realize that this may not do terribly much against stronger spells, but obviously it’s better than nothing.” Just as the pipe and its weight, the spell was not as challenging as it would have appeared. “Any questions? If not, go ahead and begin. Feel free to help each other out. Talking’s fine as long as it’s at a manageable level. I’ll be here if you need me for any reason.” On that note, the class was let loose. The brunette sat at her desk, straightening her ankle-length brown skirt a little as she did so. She absolutely abhorred such a tremendous amount of wrinkles, but she’d overslept a bit that morning.
OOC: Welcome to Transfig, first and second years! Let’s see some nice, creative, detailed posts. That makes me happy, plus you get points, which make you happy too! Everybody wins! Yay! Have fun, but don’t do bad things like writing for other people’s characters. Happy posting!
Subthreads: It would work better to use a shield that used to be a pipe by Theresa Carey, Pecari with Gareth Whitebriar - Crotalus, Theresa
I'll...try? by Mellie Goodwin, Pecari with Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren
Only if there's room after I shield me. by Alicia Bauer, Aladren with Angel Shield - Teppenpaw
I don't think it will do me any good (Professor) by Valerie Lennox, Crotalus with Prof. C.
All right, if you insist by Alexandra Devereux, Crotalus with Elijah Errant {Pecari}, Alexandra
Not what I'd have in mind. by Evan Brockert, Aladren with Andrina Thornton
Sorry, I'm too busy running the other way by Paul Bennett, Crotalus
Class closed (nm) by Prof. C.
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Professor Lilac Crosby
Shield me with your... pipe? [First and second years!]
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Professor Lilac Crosby
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Theresa Carey, Pecari
November 19, 2011 11:56 PM
It would work better to use a shield that used to be a pipe by Theresa Carey, Pecari
She had been taking classes for a little while, now, but Theresa still felt a certain amount of excitement every time she came to one, particularly ones where she got to use her wand. That was easily the thing she’d been most excited, from the beginning, about coming to school for: coming to school meant being old enough to have the right to own and use a real wand of her own, even if she could only legally use it while she was at school. That was just for a few years. Six years wasn’t long at all; she’d have siblings still not in school then, if only because the gaps between them had been growing longer and longer since Henry was born.The pipes on all the desks in Transfiguration did get a look of confusion from her when she came in, and she felt a moment of concern when she saw that some students were being directed to desks instead of picking their own as usual, but she mostly just decided it was one of those ‘school’ things and waited for an explanation. It was hard to wait when she wanted to know at once, and her foot was jiggling a little by the time the last of her sometimes very slow classmates finally arrived, but other than that, she thought she managed to look patient.
Well, that and maybe the way she was leaning forward in her desk a little too far, but oh, well. It wasn’t like that horrible woman was here to see her and correct her. Another good thing about being at school was being away from those tutors hired to make sure she and her first two brothers knew proper etiquette, especially her. She did think she smelled just a little awful perfume, though.
She stopped thinking about that, though, and started thinking about the lesson as it began, her dark eyebrows coming together for a second when she realized what they were being taught to make. A shield? She’d heard all the tales about how the Muggles would come kill them all if they ever broke the Statute of Secrecy and all just like everyone else had, Grandmother liked those sorts of tales, but really, was it so bad that they really needed to learn a shield right now? Mother had never said a word about it, and surely she’d know; she had so many relatives in the Cabinet….
Then Professor Crosby said ‘resistant to magical damage.’ Well. That ruled out Muggles, anyway. Theresa supposed she could understand that, too; her history lessons had been full of wizards fighting each other for one stupid reason or another. She was a South Carolina Carey because of that, actually, though she didn’t expect she would ever have to do any fighting. That was why she had brothers and a father and would eventually have a husband.
When they were asked about questions, she didn’t have any, and was soon examining her length of pipe more carefully in anticipation of turning it into a shield. When she thought she had the picture of it in her head pretty well, she took out her wand, smiled at it for a second, and then tried the spell.
The pipe rattled on the desk, but then lay still. Theresa frowned, looking at it with her head tilted a little to the side. She thought it looked a little…dull, maybe a little flatter, but she wasn’t sure. “Silly thing,” she said, then thought back what she’d just tried to do, trying to figure out where she had gone wrong, the idea that the person sitting beside her might be able to help or think she was talking to them and be offended not even occurring to her as she studied the challenge.
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Theresa Carey, Pecari
It would work better to use a shield that used to be a pipe
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Theresa Carey, Pecari
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Gareth Whitebriar - Crotalus
November 20, 2011 2:34 PM
Than a pipe that had once been a shield by Gareth Whitebriar - Crotalus
Classes hadn’t been as difficult to adjust to as Gareth first expected them to be. The idea of so many children being taught by a single Professor had sounded like a rather chaotic system to the Pureblood but it was far more orderly than his imagination had painted it. There was less one on one attention between Professor and student, but there was the use of teamwork which while not always as good, still interesting.Taking a seat Gareth picked up the length of pipe sitting on his desk. What shall you be at the end of the lesson? Gareth mused as he ran his long fingers over the metal. Transfiguration was one of the more difficult branches of magic, but it was an area that held numerous uses for an Auror, and it was important for him to learn all he could.
His quill scratched cramped notes over the parchment as the lecture began. A smile lingered on his lips at the lesson. Yes, he could see how being able to create a shield would be useful in his desired profession. An adequate shield could be used in place of defensive spells so that a wizard could focus on offence if they were outnumbered and unable to retreat. “Paerdecto!” Gareth frowned at the now flat pipe, it wasn’t exactly a shield. No, it was still far from the finished product. But, he knew that transfiguration was difficult, so getting it right on the first try was perhaps asking a lot.
“Silly thing.” The girl next to him said. Gareth frowned. He hadn’t done all that bad. “Pardon?” He said, unsure of what else to say to the comment.
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Gareth Whitebriar - Crotalus
Than a pipe that had once been a shield
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Gareth Whitebriar - Crotalus
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Theresa
November 26, 2011 8:32 PM
I would think so by Theresa
In her concentration on her work, Theresa didn’t immediately catch on that she was being spoken to, but when the word the boy beside her had just said finally got through her ears far enough to connect with her mind, she looked up immediately, her dark eyes momentarily wide with surprise before she flushed with embarrassment.“I’m sorry,” she said weakly, feeling a complete idiot. This was not the first time that she had seen that her complete focus on her work needed to be broken in these classes, that she had to be a social being and not a stooped scholar or else they would pull her out of this school and pack her off to some girls’ institution before she could blink and then she’d never get out again, if they didn’t just bring her up at home the way they had most of the Louisiana Careys and then marry her off to whatever nobody with a barely-extant family they wanted to absorb they could blackmail into having her. “Did I say something? I was…” she gestured to her pipe. “My first try with the spell didn’t work very well.”
The worst that could happen was that she’d muttered some phrase that a young lady, however completely surrounded by persons of the male persuasion she might be in her life usually, should not know. The best was that she’d just muttered something innocuous under her breath and he hadn’t heard it clearly and wondered what she’d said – or even that she hadn’t said anything and he’d heard someone else and thought it was her. She wasn’t sure which it was, though, and supposed she wouldn’t until he responded, one way or the other, and then she’d have to hope he wasn’t like Arnold or Brandon, to tell her she’d said something awful just to tease her and watch her jump whenever an adult came into the room until she realized they had done it and then she got in trouble anyway for smacking whichever one it was, or both, upside the head.
She glanced at his work, hoping for something that would give her a reprieve from her social lapse and finding it. “You did much better,” she complimented him. “See?” she pointed out her own barely changed pipe, which she almost thought, in her embarrassment, might not have changed at all but just tricked her overly-determined to succeed mind.
She also realized they hadn’t been properly introduced yet, one way or another. “I am Theresa Carey, of the South Carolina Careys,” she said. She might not want him to know her name if she’d said something she shouldn’t, but he was bound to figure it out at some point in the next seven years, so it was better to own it now. Besides, she was proud of her family, proud to be a South Carolina Carey; it was a good name to have, however unworthy of it she might feel sometimes. It was something bigger than just her.
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Theresa
I would think so
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Theresa
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Gareth
November 29, 2011 11:41 PM
And I would agree by Gareth
If her reaction was anything to go by, the prior comment hadn’t been directed at him. “Er…Its nothing.” Gareth reassured her. Now that he knew she wasn’t insulting him, he was perfectly willing to let the odd utterance go. While he’d never known someone who talked to themselves he had read about those who did, so it wasn’t too terribly odd. Well, maybe a little, but it wasn’t as bad as some of the quarks he’d heard of.“It’s a pleasure to meet you Miss Carey. I am Gareth Whitebriar of House Blackbriar.” Gareth returned the introduction with a friendly smile. His Welsh accent flavored the words as he gave her pipe a studious glance. “Hm, it does look a bit shinier than it did.” He offered helpfully, not wanting her to feel too bad about the pipe not making much progress on its way to becoming a shield. “Transfiguration is a difficult subject in any case, not really something we’re expected to master on our first attempt.” He added.
The branch designation showed that the Carey’s were a big enough family to have multiple branches in different areas of this overly large country. He wondered how important of a family they were. It wasn’t a name he was familiar with, then again Gareth didn’t know many of the American lines as well as he knew the European ones. Lifting his wand he attempted to cast the spell again, this time the pipe flattened entirely but it didn’t spread out to form the shape of a shield, it just looked like a squished pipe. Gareth gave the pipe a frown, annoyed that it wasn’t becoming a shield, forgetting his earlier words.
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Gareth
And I would agree
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Gareth
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Theresa
November 30, 2011 9:53 PM
Shields deflect bigger things than pipes, usually by Theresa
Theresa was still worried about what on earth she’d said, but she smiled a little when she was called Miss Carey. Miss Carey seemed, to her, like the sign that she had really gotten out into the world and was a person in her own right now, a person to be reckoned with, instead of just Miss Theresa, or Miss Terry, or just Terry, Donnie Carey’s eldest child, who’d enjoyed the privilege of what little inheritance he could scrape together for anyone for barely a year before she’d been supplanted by her first brother.She didn’t really begrudge Jay that. Their father only got by so well as he did because Careys looked out for each other, and Uncle Anthony and Grandfather and even her aunts, her father’s sisters and even Uncle Anthony’s wife, looked after him and Mother. When Theresa needed a new dress for a formal occasion, it was often Aunt Emma who paid for it; when one of her brothers outgrew a broom, Grandfather bought it, when Mother couldn’t get out of bed half of them would go stay with Uncle Anthony and Aunt Lorraine while the other half went to Grandmother. They had to switch, though, on which half went where; it was usually very merry at Uncle Anthony’s, everyone had a very good time with their cousins and Aunt Lorraine would play with them like a boy herself, but it wasn’t much fun at all to go to Grandmother’s and be made to hear lectures about propriety all day and, in her case, made to sew while she heard them, or else, since she had more or less proven herself during the twins’ first year, made to stand in a corner during one of Grandmother’s parties. That was all better than the alternative, though, which was for them all to be utterly humiliated, as Mother often grimly predicted they would someday be.
No, he didn’t grudge her brother his inheritance, but she had spent two years grudging her two older cousins every minute they got to spend at school. When you were at school, you weren’t so much an eldest sister and eldest daughter and general helper, you were…well, whatever you could make yourself, really, and on your way to being like Grandmother, or Aunt Emma, or even Great-Great-Grandmother: a person to be reckoned with, a person who was part of society. That was what she wanted.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, too, Mr. Blackbriar,” she said, feeling very grown up and gracious.
She felt a little irritated, though, with his attempt to be comforting about how her shield wasn’t going very well. It just felt insincere to her, somehow, that he should say that, almost the way she’d heard Aunt Lorraine say something to Mother about how boys could be unruly when Brandon would act up, all of them knowing perfectly well that Aunt Lorraine had as many boys as Mother did and kept them in order, at least in her presence when there wasn’t a power on earth that could make one twin stop taking insane risks or the other…taking insane risks of a different type when they were outside their mother’s presence, her cousins really weren’t very sensible. Boys in general weren’t, she thought. “I’ll get it in the end,” she said cheerfully. “I always do.”
She noticed his pipe wasn’t cooperating, either, though. Well, then! “My cousins say sometimes you have to try a few times before it works,” she offered generously. Well, Arnold did. Arthur was still apparently of the opinion that the rest of the world just didn’t try hard enough. “They’re third years, now, so I suppose they should know.” She decided to try it out again herself to see if she could have any luck this time, suspecting she would. “Paerdecto!”
Her pipe remained hollow, but spread into something like what she thought a shield should look like. A hollow, too-tall shield. “There,” she said, feeling pleased with herself and her wandwork, or at least more pleased than she’d been a minute before, as she looked at it. “Progess. It went much better that time.” She often had the peculiar feeling that she was almost readjusting to her wand when she tried a new spell, so they only worked together on the second try. She didn’t know much about wandlore, just the basics she’d seen in some lessons last year, but it seemed to make sense to her that it might work that way.
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Theresa
Shields deflect bigger things than pipes, usually
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Theresa
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Gareth
December 07, 2011 9:01 PM
That is preferable by Gareth
Being called Mr. Blackbriar was both thrilling and uncomfortable. “Whitebriar, Blackbrair is the main branch, we’re one of four lesser branches.” He corrected, while it might feel pleasant in a vaguely forbidden sort of way to be referred to as a Blackbriar it wasn’t something he should permit to continue. Last generation, in an attempt to keep his sons from the sort of massacre that had devastated the generation prior Alwyn Blackbriar broke the family into five supposedly equal portions: The Blackbriars, the Redbriars, the Whitebriars, the Greenbriars, and the Brownbriars. Each line was headed by one son and while this did keep the male offspring from killing each other, it still created a hierarchy of power that couldn’t be denied. Blackbriar was still the highest branch and the four lesser lines still differed to their power.
“My elder cousins are all attending Hogwarts, but I’m the eldest of the Whitebriars and along with one of my Brownbriar cousins we’re the first to attend Sonora. It must be nice having relatives at the school to go to if you need help.” Gareth said, it was still something of a sore spot that he hadn’t been able to attend Hogwarts, but Sonora wasn’t terrible and he was growing use to being so far away from his friends and family. I just need to make new friends, and in a few years there would be more family than just me and Meggs. Gareth thought as he attempted the spell again.
“I suppose your cousin is correct.” Gareth sighed at the circular metal that while no longer pipe looking was still rather far from being a shield.
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Gareth
That is preferable
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Gareth
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Theresa
December 08, 2011 1:56 AM
I think so by Theresa
Theresa felt herself turning bright red, which led to silently bemoaning the way she had to wear hats whenever she went outdoors to shield her face from the sun which might have given her more color to help hide things like this, as Gareth pointed out her error. It would have been bad enough as just a silly, brainless slip of the tongue, but as he explained...Goodness gracious, that was like someone calling her - er, not a Virginia Carey, they were supposed to be friends now. That would be cause for a wince, but it wouldn't be an insult. If she was right, it was almost like someone saying she was from Georgia!'Almost,' because he freely called his line a subordinate one. How very strange. No Carey branch, she was sure, would ever admit to such a thing. In theory, they were all equal, and in practice, everyone wanted to be the best. The idea of being okay with being less than someone else was completely alien to her, almost threatening; she couldn't really understand it. The official line was that she was slightly inferior to her brothers and cousins, but if she ever willingly acknowledged that before they were all too old and sleep-deprived from handling their own brats to care about anything anymore, or maybe ever at all, then the boys would eat her alive. That was one of the last things she ever wanted to happen.
But his family wasn't hers, and she had misspoken. "I'm sorry," she apologized, looking at the edge of his desk rather than at him. She hated apologizing. "I hope I didn't offend you. I wasn't familiar with your family, I misspoke." She smiled slightly, hoping to deflect the topic as her dark brown eyes made it almost to his face. "I can understand, though. My family has five branches, too, only we're all Careys, just Careys from South Carolina or North Carolina or Virginia or Louisiana or Georgia. No one would like it if their branch was mistaken, either."
She smiled, too, at the remark about it being nice to have family here. "It is," she confessed. "I like having Arthur and Arnold here. But," she added, "I'd never tell them, they're insufferable enough anyway. I think Arnold thinks he's my older brother already, now that he's a few years ahead and it's not like it is at home, it's awful. I already have three brothers at home." She passed the conversation back to him. "Do you have siblings?" she asked.
Arnold being right was a little strange, but she ignored that. "He is an Aladren," she said, and tried the spell again. The shield was maybe a little thinner, but not much. "Though I was hoping he'd be more wrong about this."
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Theresa
I think so
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Theresa
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Gareth
December 13, 2011 11:47 PM
*Nods knowledgably* by Gareth
The bright blush that painted Theresa’s face made Gareth feel bad about the correction, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. “I forgive you, I can see how it might be confusing seems the names of the branches are different.” Gareth said, hoping to make her feel a bit better. As far as he knew his grandfather was the only Pureblood to take that rout when the family branched off. Some of the other prominent families had gossiped about the unorthodox split, but the Blackbriar’s were influential enough that no one questioned the decision too publicly.It was strange to think that his family wasn’t as well known (or really known at all) in America. It wouldn’t be as difficult for him to get accustomed to seems the branches were still new enough that they had no influence outside of their affiliation with the Blackbriars, but Gareth was sure his cousins would have a harder time accepting the fact that they were no longer one of the more important families when they started at the other American school.
“I have two siblings, a younger brother and a younger sister. They’ll be attending Sonora in their turn as well. It’ll be nice to help them along and see which houses they get. My Brownbriar cousins will also be attending.” Here Gareth paused, trying to figure out how many of said cousins actually would be attending. Of all the branches Brownbriar had the most children, and it was difficult to keep track of all of them. “I believe they have three more that will attend after Meggs, but aside from Nia the rest are all still toddlers. The Blackbriars, and Greenbriars will be attending…” He tried to think of the name of the other school “That other American school.” He finished lamely when he couldn’t come up with the name.
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Gareth
*Nods knowledgably*
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Gareth
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Theresa
December 15, 2011 9:41 PM
Hopefully we won't need to shield ourselves in class, though by Theresa
“Yes,” Theresa said, glad he understood how potentially confusing his family was. And she’d thought hers was bad! “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a family that titled its branches that way before. Everyone I’ve ever known used states.”They also generally had fewer branches than her family did. How interesting, she thought, that both their families should be the same size. Five branches each. It also made her wonder exactly how his family had come to be divided the way it was; hers had done it over the course of about a century, with lots of violence. Everyone had wanted to be head of the Virginia branch at the same time, and then they’d had to leave town when Thomas…objected. Thomas could object very, very loudly when he wanted to, if family history was anything to go by. Theresa counted it as a goal in life to never give him reason to notice her in an objectionable way.
She was familiar enough with the concept of the small immediate family, through her first cousins – an odd set when Anthony V and Anthony VI had each had five, but then, she guessed Father and Mother had more than made up for Uncle Anthony’s family even if they had slowed down a lot since Henry – to feel a twinge of envy at the description of his. The family of ‘Meggs,’ whoever she was, sounded a bit more like what she was used to, though it was still smaller than hers, and hers didn’t really have toddlers at present. Diana had finally outgrown that stage, which just meant she was even more trouble now.
She shrugged at the mention of another school. “You’re at the better one, anyway,” she said, then lowered her voice as if taking him into her confidence on something. “There aren’t any Careys there.” She turned her head to shift the weight of her hair back over her shoulder and spoke normally again. “Great-Great-Grandfather would only let us have the best. Our whole family only has the best.” Anything – or anyone – that wasn’t the best would have to go, everyone knew that. Otherwise, they were just any other people, any other family. “I’ve got five siblings now. Three brothers.”
Theresa still wasn’t sure what to think of another sister, except that she really hoped the baby wasn’t going to affect her prospects. She had enough trouble being really sisters with Diana, there was enough time between them, and she didn’t expect to be very close to Cecilia as they grew up, not when she was going to be away so much while Cecilia was little. Of course they’d be able to count on each other if they needed to, that was any Carey and another Carey, or so the formal teaching on that subject went, but she didn’t expect to be as close to this one as she was to the other four, and did expect to be more distant with any more, if there were more.
Please, Merlin, grant that there wouldn't be any more.
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Theresa
Hopefully we won't need to shield ourselves in class, though
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Theresa
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