Sticky situation? You can say that again on Transfiguration

Professor Skies

January 18, 2013 11:55 AM

Intermediate Transfiguration - a sticky situation by Professor Skies

Selina was pleased to be back for a second year of teaching. Teaching in a proper school was much more preferable, in her mind, than taking on individual tutees, many of whom were spoilt little brats. Plus you saw more change in a school. Her first year of RATS students had graduated, a new set of first years had moved in and in this, the intermediate class, the familiar faces had grown a little older, some beginners had moved up and some older students moved on. It was nice to watch them all progressing.

“Good morning, class,” she called, bringing them to order once the bulk of the class seemed to have arrived. “Welcome or welcome back to Intermediate Transfiguration. For those who were here last year, some of this may sound familiar but I hope you don't begrudge your new classmates the overview.

“This is the block of your studies where you will work on animate transfiguration, that is those involving living things. Many people find this a daunting prospect. Mistakes happen but accidents rarely do, in that the creatures with which you are working are not often caused pain and are almost never permanently harmed by your actions. Imagine you are Transfiguring something into a stick insect, as we will be doing today,” she had deliberately chosen this not only as a relatively easy task but also because people got a lot less sentimental about insects than mammals and thus it might ease them into the idea of working on living things, “You must imagine that a hypothetical, fully formed stick insect exists elsewhere. When you transfigure, you are bringing forth elements of that creature but they still remain connected to the original whole. This is why part transfigured animals do not bleed to death or immediately go into shock. I am happy to discuss the theory further with anyone who is interested, or to address any ethical concerns that may remain.

“Now, to today's class,” she stated crisply, in order to bring back any of the older years who had let their attention wander during that familiar part of the lecture, “In my classes, there will always be a fifth year assignment and a third year assignment. Fourth years will usually be welcome to choose between them depending on their comfort level, although there may be times when I encourage you to move on, or set you a different task. That is not to say that third years may not attempt to explore the more advanced material. If you successfully complete your own assignment, you may begin to work on the harder task for the day. Or, if they will have you, observe and ask questions of those in the older years working on it.” The end of term feedback forms she had given to students last year had suggested that some of them were frustrated by having their class content capped, and thus – although she still firmly believed in differentiating the curriculum for the different years – she had decided not to impose such limitations this year.

“Today, the third and forth year task will be transfiguring sticks into stick insects. As the box comes around for you to choose a stick, consider how this choice will make your task easier or harder and choose accordingly,” there were more sticks than people, and so hopefully even those who received the box last would have a choice. “The forth and fifth year task,” (she had thought long and hard about how to label these tasks and although this name did not reflect her invitation that third years were welcome to try it, she had felt 'stage 1 and stage 2' or 'beginner and advanced' were both demeaning to those not doing the harder task, especially those forth years who wished to break themselves in gently, which was a perfectly valid approach), “is to transfigure a pot plant into a stick insect. There is some debate in Tranfiguration over whether living to living is harder or easier than non-living to living. Some hold that working with two complex organisms increases the work load, whilst others site the shared feature of animacy as reducing it. The middle path suggests the similarity of the life forms in question is what determines which of these is true and thus varies for any given pair. I am of the opinion that it makes it harder, in this case, although even if I am wrong, the pot plants are less physically similar to stick insects than the sticks, so should still give you an adequate challenge.

“The homework task for all of you will be to summarise that debate and the evidence for it, along with exploring any other features which determine the difficulty level of animate transfiguration,” she explained. Behind her, the chalk scribbled the details on the board, including a brief summary of the debate in question, for any third years who had stopped paying attention whilst she discussed the other task.

“The incantation for today is insecare, with the emphasis on the second syllable. You will need to use a short wand flick which runs parallel to your stick – for those using plants, obviously this will be vertical,” she explained, moving her wand up and down through the air, starting at her shoulder and dropping, “Those using sticks, I suggest using a horizontal movement,” she flicked left to right, “although if you find it easier to do it vertically – the other kind of vertically,” she added, to indicate that she meant away from their body, rather than balancing the stick on end, “then that should work just as well. It's whichever is most comfortable and natural for you, so have a play around first. Your desks are charmed to prevent the insects escaping should you be successful. Off you go,” she smiled, assuming that they knew to call on her or their neighbours if they needed help.

OOC – usual rules apply. Minimum 10 sentences, 200 words. Selina would stop any accidents before they get out of hand. Tag her in the subject line if you need her.

Subthreads:

Sticky situation? You can say that again by Clara Abernathy with Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren

I think I'll call him Stumpy by Liam Ammon, Pecari with Aria Yale, Teppenpaw, Professor Skies

Less sticky than sickly. by Cepheus Princeton, Crotalus with Alicia Bauer, Aladren, Cepheus

I've seen worse. by Jorge Garcia, Pecari with Angel Jareau - Teppenpaw, Jorge

Stick into... whatever. by Michael Grosvenor with Eris Ackart

Stickier than syrup, I'd say. by Mellie Goodwin, Pecari with Gareth Whitebriar - Crotalus

It sure is. by Valerie Lennox, Crotalus with Brianna Japos, Crotalus

Not faring so badly by Henny B-F-R, Aladren with Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw

Potentially my last Transfig class thread by Sully Quincy, Pecari with Professor Skies, Sully

Getting in just under the bell by Thaddeus Pierce, Aladren

0 Professor Skies Intermediate Transfiguration - a sticky situation 26 Professor Skies 1 5

Clara Abernathy

January 19, 2013 12:18 AM

Sticky situation? You can say that again by Clara Abernathy

Clara walked into her very first class of the school year feeling a little more nervous than usual. In this year and the others she knew that the tasks and spells got a little harder as they progressed. She merely hoped she could keep up with the work and not get too confused. She thought of herself as pretty intelligent, but that didn't mean for a second that spells didn't fizzle despite best efforts, and charms didn't blow up in your face (so to speak). Clara found herself a seat and offered Professor Skies her brightest smile hello as she hung her stuff on the back of her seat. She looked around the room and tried to study any faces she saw. She was sorta hoping that there were at least a few people here in class that she might know and already be friendly with. If not she had no problem making new friends.

She pulled out a notebook and a self-filling quill and took down any notes that might already be on the board. She waited for Professor Skies to tell the class about the assignments before she continued writing in her notebook. If anything she would not be accused of not trying to keep good notes. She was intrigued by the idea of turning a stick into an insect. She remembered how in her second year Charms class that had turned rocks into pillows. She wondered if the principle was the same here. The only difference being that they were turning one inanimate object into another. In this case they're turning an inanimate object into an animate one. Sounding easy enough...maybe. She wasn't quite sure about the paper they had to write for homework. She wasn't quite sure hw she would feel about it if asked. Since she'd never tried to do it before she couldn't say for sure. Guess she was about to find out, huh?

“The incantation for today is insecare, with the emphasis on the second syllable. You will need to use a short wand flick which runs parallel to your stick – for those using plants, obviously this will be vertical,” she explained, moving her wand up and down through the air, starting at her shoulder and dropping, “Those using sticks, I suggest using a horizontal movement,” she flicked left to right, “although if you find it easier to do it vertically – the other kind of vertically,” she added, to indicate that she meant away from their body, rather than balancing the stick on end, “then that should work just as well. It's whichever is most comfortable and natural for you, so have a play around first. Your desks are charmed to prevent the insects escaping should you be successful. Off you go,” she wrote Professor Skies' instructions into her notebook for future reference.

Clara took the box of sticks when it was passed to her and carefully looked them over. She figured since she was trying this for the first time it might make more sense to choose a stick that was a bit mediumish in size. Once she found the one she felt would suit her purposes she extracted it from the box. The stick was a fairly decent size, not too long and not too short. She looked over the stick in her hand carefully and after looking over the instructions, made her first attempt. She took a deep cleansing breath and released it slowly as she uttered the incantation. "Insecare!" she said sternly as she made the flicking motion with her wand that she was supposed to. She tried to concentrate on what she was doing and studied the "stick" carefully. Since it wasn't exactly moving she wasn't sure if it had actually worked. Since Clara had never actually seen a LIVE stick insect before she wasn't really sure what it was supposed to look like.

Clara turned to the classmate sitting closest to her and asked quizzically, "Does this look like an insect to you? I can't really tell," she admitted, smiling sheepishly.

0 Clara Abernathy Sticky situation? You can say that again 232 Clara Abernathy 0 5

Liam Ammon, Pecari

January 19, 2013 2:28 AM

I think I'll call him Stumpy by Liam Ammon, Pecari

Here was the moment Liam had been dreading from the moment he learned about it—animate transfiguration. The only consolation he had was that he was going to be transfiguring one of the world’s simpler creatures—a bug. Luckily he was only freshly intermediate, so he would be focusing on turning a stick into a bug rather than the other way around. This made him feel slightly better about the lesson at hand, as he wasn’t entirely confident enough in his skill to try and transfigure something as it was running away from him. Shooting at moving targets was something he’d have to work on after he managed to get a few bulls eyes on the more stationary ones.

Confidence in general was still something that eluded the boy from occasion. Particularly since he was working on growing out of one awkward stage and was headed more quickly than he realized toward another. His new haircut and slimmer physique helped a little, but he was still awkward on the inside. Somehow he needed to push all of that aside and believe he could successfully cast the spell.

When the box came around, he rummaged through it for a bit before settling on a stick and passing them along. His was a little shorter than the length of his wand, and had a few knots in it. It wasn’t terribly thick, but had an insect-y characteristic about it that Liam liked.

Until this point, he’d been mostly unaware of his neighbors since he’d, in his opinion, done a reasonable job at listening to exactly what they were meant to do. The Pecari student set his stick horizontally on the table in front of him and readied his wand. His stick and the insect he was hoping to conjure were similar in shape, though his stick may be a bit larger. He closed his eyes for a moment and considered other similarities, but mostly imagined legs sprouting from the stick, as well as eyes and, well, animation.

Opening his eyes and taking a deep breath, Liam practiced the wand movement—quick and parallel to his stick. Once he felt he got it down, he gave the incantation a go or two quietly. Alright, this was it. Liam pushed his sleeves back, imagined the transformation in his mind and spoke the word as his wand moved.

“Insecare!”

Liam’s stick twitched and sprouted eyes and antennae, but its legs were only partially there. Liam frowned slightly, but remembered what Professor Skies had said about it not being a painful process. His bug was rather pathetic looking, with only little stubs where it’s long think legs would normally go.

“Guess I should give it another go…sad little guy.” He said before turning to see how his neighbor had faired.

5 Liam Ammon, Pecari I think I'll call him Stumpy 37 Liam Ammon, Pecari 0 5

Cepheus Princeton, Crotalus

January 19, 2013 11:25 AM

Less sticky than sickly. by Cepheus Princeton, Crotalus

The initial dread of coming back to study had worn off a bit as Cepheus walked into class. The thought of being in the same proximity as Theresa once more made his heart jump into his throat, but he tried not to think too much about it. He didn't want to look for her either, but his blue eyes scanned the room in search of her anyway. Almost blindly, he sat down at a desk and ruffled through his bag. He had one more year till his C.A.T.S., but he didn't think it was worth worrying about quite yet.

A few Transfiguration lessons last year had dealt with live creatures and Cepheus had been sickened by it. It wasn't that he was a squeamish lad, but turning an animal into an inanimate object had set his teeth on edge. He certainly didn't want to do anything like that every again, though today it seemed like they were going to, only this time change a stick into a living creature.

Cepheus felt a bit like God in this class sometimes with the things they did. Instead of manipulating objects or people like in Charms class, Transfiguration consisted of changing one thing to another. Cepheus didn't know the complete properties of it as he preferred practical to theoretical, but he was sure there were complicated theories about the reasoning behind it. Magic was certainly a gift that he would never be able to completely understand.

He groaned when Professor Skies assigned a debate-based essay. He loathed those and had barely made it through the last term in this class with those sorts of essays. It was only because he had Aladren mates that he'd been able to survive and pull his way through. Now with no real Quidditch matches, Ceph would have more time to study and work. He'd have no real excuse this time unless he decided to join one of those blooming clubs.

At least the essay wasn't till he had time for it. The fun part came first. Ceph looked at the stick he had on his desk and decided to give it a go. "Insecare," he said with a horizontal flick, and watched as the stick grew legs. There were only three legs, however, and Cepheus knew he wasn't finished yet. It really did make him uncomfortable performing magic on helpless creatures even if they were only insects. "Insecare," he said again, emphasising the last syllable more and flicking his wand horizontally once more. It seemed to work well enough, and his insect grew another three legs, making the total six.

"That's right, isn't it?" he asked his desk-mate. "Stick insects have six legs?" He stared down at his flailing stick and muttered, "Too many bloody legs, if you ask me," loud enough for his partner to hear.

0 Cepheus Princeton, Crotalus Less sticky than sickly. 0 Cepheus Princeton, Crotalus 0 5

Alicia Bauer, Aladren

January 20, 2013 12:11 PM

Poor darling. by Alicia Bauer, Aladren

Professor Skies was not quite a sentence into her beginning of the year speech when she revealed it was aimed primarily at the third years, but since Alicia had already been sitting up very straight and looking very attentive, she maintained the posture as the basics of Intermediate Transfiguration were gone over again, figuring that seeming to consider it important when staff members said anything could not hurt her and might even help her. This year, she was assuming that her every move would be subjected to a high degree of scrutiny as the staff engaged in whatever combination of conversations and backroom deals that resulted in six names being called at the next Opening Feast, so she had to think almost every moment about making an impression.

Besides, for all she knew, the professor might slip something in there which was important just to see if they were paying attention (which was what, if there had been much of a chance of her ending up there to begin with, she would have done in her position) and Alicia would have hated to be the one who didn’t notice even if nothing had been at stake.

The discussion of animate transfigurations, both ethical and theoretical, was familiar, especially after the huge research paper she had poured her figurative blood and sweat and a good handful of actual tears into last year, but she did find out what they were going to be working with today a little earlier than she would have if she had let her attention wander. Her eyes flicked briefly directly onto Professor Skies’ face, really focusing on it instead of just looking in that direction, as she talked about the leveling of assignments and the new freedom to move on if they wished – nice for the third years, but she was sort of glad, in retrospect, she had done things the way she had last year; she felt she had gotten a lot further experimenting on her own than she would have dared in front of a teacher, plus now she would just look insanely talented when she tackled fifth year assignments without the usual beginners’ errors – but then her expression went back to brightly anticipatory for the rest of the opening address.

She copied the homework down carefully, trying not to estimate right now how much time she was going to have to put into it, and when the time for selections came, took one of the potted plants. Complete conquest or nothing.

“Insecare,” she incanted, her pronunciation precise and her walnut wand making a quick downward gesture, though it felt slightly awkward; she would have preferred to start with her wand at the bottom and then flick the tip upward, but she had copied the professor’s gesture. Later, she could play around and see if it worked as well the other way, since it had been suggested that the movement had a hint of wriggle room in it when Professor Skies had talked to the third years, but right now, she needed to do what was sure to work. She watched in delight as her potted plant, helped along by the practice Transfigurations she’d squeezed into the small amount of time since she’d returned, began to shrink toward the desk and stretch itself long at the same time, sprouting the beginnings of a few oddly-placed legs and taking on a brownish tinge at one end.

Not perfect, but not bad for a first attempt, either. It was on its way to what she wanted it to be. Her eyes were bright and her face almost glowing with satisfaction as she turned toward Cepheus, who seemed to be more conflicted about the state of his stick insect.

“I think six is pretty normal for insects, yeah,” she said, thinking back to things she had learned one place or another over the years. “I’m pretty sure only spiders have eight. That's when I'd have to agree that you gave it too many.” She repeated her incantation and got an organic thing which resembled an insect more than a plant, but which was still made of plant. Her expression as she looked the object over was merely one of mild professional interest before she turned back toward her friend. "It's thing like this that make me love Transfiguration. Nothing says 'welcome back from your summer vacation' like the question of how many legs a specific bug has," she joked. "How was your summer vacation, by the way? Did everything in it have the right number of legs?"

16 Alicia Bauer, Aladren Poor darling. 210 Alicia Bauer, Aladren 0 5

Jorge Garcia, Pecari

January 21, 2013 12:37 PM

I've seen worse. by Jorge Garcia, Pecari

Jorge’s summer had been the same as it always was. They spent time in Mexico with his cousins and time in Spain with his extended family. Sometimes he thought it was funny that he was two different types of Spanish. But, his grandparents met while in school in America and that was where it began. It had been a good time and it was clear with how dark his skin had become that he had spent most of his time out in the sun. He enjoyed being home, even if it was predictable. The only thing that hadn’t been was the announcement Lita had made advising that she and Juri were engaged. The family celebrated for days afterword and almost immediately began to make plans. Apparently they were planning a beach wedding in Mexico. Jorge enjoyed going to weddings in Mexico. Everyone just danced and got crazy. At least it was something different at any rate.

His return to Sonora had come with un-expectant news too. Quidditch was cancelled and in its place were Challenges. The amount of outburst (most especially from the girls) had been rather entertaining to watch. He thought the males in the school would have a hard time with it, but it was the girls who made all the fuss and a big sloppy scene of tears. Girls. They were useless when they were emotional. But, at least he was able to get some amusement out of all of it. Jorge didn’t care much about playing quidditch, he did it enough when he was home, but the challenges seemed to suggest that everyone would be involved. He only hoped that they kept his attention long enough to make it through.

When the team list came out, Jorge visibly frowned. He swore the school was out to get him. He somehow always ended up with Monster Mouth. He could only hope that none of the challenges required them eating. As long as food was not involved, he thought it would be okay. The rest of the team… he wasn’t sure about. Aside from Solomon Asa, of whom Jorge knew only by face since the guy never spoke, Jorge was the only male. Waverly’s sister was on the team, so he guessed that would be okay, and Preston Stratford’s sister or cousin or something was on it too. Jorge did not hear good things about the 6th year’s behavior, so he half wondered if the guy would kill them if his relation was hurt. And their eldest member of the group was Kate Bauer. Other than her being Alicia’s sister, Jorge didn’t think much else of her, but hoped she could keep them going through all the challenges.

But now was the time for lessons. Jorge didn’t much care for all the essays and projects that Professor Olivers had a tendency to throw at them, but she definitely knew how to teach them. He sat and listened to their lesson as he did with all lessons. When they were released onto their own recognizance, Jorge took a plant and then took a moment to picture the box chart and tried to find the commonalities between a plant and a stick insect. He might have wanted to start with a stick, but last year he had pretty much mastered inanimate to animate object transfiguration. He felt there was no reason not just jump right into the more difficult stuff.

Jorge was better with his work than people might realize considering he was a Pecari and didn’t really offer much by way of social graces. He didn’t mind floating in the background though.

When he felt he had summarized the plant and the bug enough, Jorge practiced the spell a couple of times and then decided it was time. “Insecare” He watched in mild curiosity as the plant shifted and changed. The large green leaves thinned and browned as the stem thickened and browned. Although it wasn’t a full transfiguration, the leaves were not quite legs just yet and the plant not quite a bug, but he felt for his first time, he did pretty damn good.

0 Jorge Garcia, Pecari I've seen worse. 0 Jorge Garcia, Pecari 0 5

Cepheus

January 21, 2013 4:48 PM

Make it go away. by Cepheus

It figured that Alicia would be working on transfiguring a more difficult object. He adored her, really, but he just couldn't always understand the incentive to doing more work than necessary in class. If he was doing something he enjoyed, he would certainly put more effort into it, but if he could get by and still pass the class, he'd do it. Besides, Transfiguration was one of those classes he didn't take as seriously as others. The only reason he hadn't dropped it as a fourth year was because his family expected him to continue taking all of these classes until he graduated. He couldn't be the patriarch and be uneducated in particular subjects.

Cepheus acknowledged her attempt with a nod. She was brilliant at magic, he had to admit, and he believed it was because she put so much effort into it. Perhaps if Cepheus was more inclined to trying harder, he would become just as good. He couldn't remember why he had ever wanted to before, but the initial excitement at performing magic had dulled slightly. He loved it, of course, but it was a part of his every-day life; nothing all that special anymore.

He chuckled at Alicia's joke as he poked his stick with legs with his wand. "I'll have to get back to you on the legs, but everything else was good," he said with a smirk. He shrugged. "Nothing special, really. Went to London to visit my cousin, Adam. His mum, my aunt, wanted me to go and tell him all that he'd need to know before coming to Sonora. I think he's in Pecari now with my brother. I didn't have to go to France this summer. I was really chuffed with that."

Cepheus decided to make a last attempt before returning the question. "Insecare," he said, waving his wand once more, and then the stick stood on its legs and grew antennas. He smiled as the insect wobbled around. "Brilliant. And a bit nasty." He decided he didn't like insects of any sort; unfortunate since he lived in the country. "How about you? How was your summer?"

0 Cepheus Make it go away. 0 Cepheus 0 5

Alicia

January 21, 2013 8:22 PM

Vanishes the bug. by Alicia

“Well, that’s good,” Alicia said when Cepheus said he was pleased not to go to France. She would have loved to go overseas more often, but that was only because she didn’t have relatives to stay with there. One of the chief charms of the idea of a trip to France was that no one in the family except her and Isaac would ever speak the language well enough to voluntarily go there, and her half-brother was someone she could tolerate because of his value anyway.

She would, it occurred to her, as it so often did, turn seventeen just after they started their sixth year, so maybe she’d offer to spend that last summer vacation there if Cepheus did have to go see his relatives that season and they could both have a better time away from Sonora than usual. It was something to think about, anyway. She didn’t stand a chance of getting her hands on her full inheritance at seventeen, and would prefer for Jeremy to pay for her to go to college out of his pocket than out of her trust fund anyway, so she would have to keep up the semblance of ties that long, but he would no doubt be happy to throw in a vacation, too, especially if he thought it might lead to something else. Alicia could envision marrying Cepheus about as well as she could imagine being married to Derry Pierce – objectively, she knew they were both not unattractive, but it would just be all wrong and weird to go beyond that, and, more importantly, they would never bring the best out in each other – but she had no objection to playing on the idea if it got her more money and time away from the family.

For now, she gave her Transfiguration another tweak, bringing it toward animation, and copied his shrug when asked about her own summer. “Useful,” she said. “I couldn’t practice them all for real, of course, but I learned a lot of new incantations and wand movements, and I think I should be able to stay ahead of the professors in theory pretty well this year.”

She watched his transfiguration wobbling around and gave hers another go. She would have to start all over when it went back to being a plant, and once she got it back to an insect from there, she would have to start trying to transfigure it from the ground up, on her first try, instead of going through multiple spells to get the effect once. Each time it didn’t work, she would have to let it go back to being a plant before she could try again. It was, she had determined ages ago, the best if not the only way to make herself progress. “When I wasn’t reading or writing to someone, though, I occasionally did spare a moment to wonder...." She lowered her voice a little, so the conversation could, at need, be masked by those around them. "What did you think of that book they gave us at the end of last year?”

16 Alicia *Vanishes the bug*. 210 Alicia 0 5

Michael Grosvenor

January 22, 2013 12:14 PM

Stick into... whatever. by Michael Grosvenor

Transfiguration was second period. Michael tried to not to be paranoid that everyone was staring at him as he walked in, given that he'd missed first. Brianna's letter had arrived that morning. He would have been late to class anyway by the time he'd finished ranting and crying over it and then there was the issue of his eyes. He wasn't going to show up to class in that state, with it so obvious to everyone what he'd been doing. He was fairly sure that, if you weren't in class, you were supposed to be with the medic, getting proof that you weren't there for a reason but he hadn't bothered. After all there was nothing physically wrong with him. He guessed he might be in trouble for that but it was the least of his concerns right now. He didn't look like he'd been crying any more, in that the tell-tale puffy red circles had gone from under his eyes but he did look roughly like he'd spent first period being hit by a Confundus Charm. His expression was a little glassy-eyed, and he seemed somewhat distant from what was going on around him.

He sat in his usual seat in the front row, quill and parchment out but didn't take notes as Professor Skies talked. He seemed to start a little as the box of sticks went round, and took one mechanically without really paying any attention to it. He twirled it for a while in front of him whilst she finished talking. He only really realised she'd stopped when everyone around him went into action, and he roused himself, glancing over the instructions on the board.

“Insecare,” he read, without enthusiasm or the correct stress, twitching his wand at the stick. He wasn't even sure what it was supposed to be changing into and, unsurprisingly, his wand did not respond to the incredibly lack lustre attempt. He flicked the end of the stick, causing it to spin around again, wondering why he had bothered dragging himself here. He really didn't care.

13 Michael Grosvenor Stick into... whatever. 199 Michael Grosvenor 0 5

Eris Ackart

January 22, 2013 3:48 PM

Maybe we could try transfiguring that frown? by Eris Ackart

Originally, Eris had hoped to pair up with Waverly for transfiguration class. Sure, they were on a challenge team together, but Waverly was fun and they were basically at the same stage in life—she also didn’t think Waverly would mind if Michael looked their direction. However, Michael had been missing during their first class of the day, which worried her a little.

His appearance in this class made her feel a little better, but something about him seemed off. She couldn’t quite put a finger on it, but she hoped that Waverly would understand when she decided to go work with him instead. Besides, now that they were 4th years, Clara and Brielle would be in class with them; plus Waverly definitely didn’t seem to be short on friends anyway.

Eris had already found a seat, but quickly shoved everything back into her bag and made her way to the front row where, luckily, there was still an empty seat next to Michael.

“Hey!” She said, getting out her things and trying to catch up on the note taking.

They’d spent a lot of time together over the summer, and this was a side of him she hadn’t seen before. He seemed distracted, at best. Eris didn’t think she’d done anything wrong, but she couldn’t be positive. Sometimes, though not as often anymore with the subtitle charm he’d worked up, things got lost in translation—but this felt different.

Eris had decided to try a plant, having had a fairly successful 3rd year in that class, but she couldn’t quite concentrate on the lesson yet. She watched Michael’s attempt at the spell with a furrowed brow--something was definitely going on.

She shifted slightly in her seat so that she was facing him a little better and rested her hand on his arm.
“Michael…what’s wrong?”

0 Eris Ackart Maybe we could try transfiguring that frown? 0 Eris Ackart 0 5

Michael Grosvenor

January 23, 2013 7:20 AM

I'm not sure I want you pointing a wand at my face... by Michael Grosvenor

Michael started when someone touched his arm. He looked a little confused when he saw it was Eris. Although he hadn't really been paying attention when he sat down, he would have thought he'd have noticed he was sitting next to her. Something else flickered in his eyes though. He looked at her fondly. Eris. Now his Eris. And, he realised, he was making her worry. He managed a little twitch of a smile at her.

“S'ok,” he reassured her. He guessed it wasn't really but he more meant that she didn't have to worry. He didn't want to get into the whole thing again here. He didn't like private discussions in public places, for one thing. He was always anxious that people would overhear him and, in spite of its superficially friendly nature, Sonora had proven itself to be a pretty spiteful gossip mill in the last year. He also wasn't sure how well he'd hold it together if he started talking about things again. Whilst he was fairly sure there were no tears left in his body or energy left to cry them with, he didn't want to put this idea to the test. Plus he'd reached this nice point where everything had just gone kind of numb. He was still dimly aware of everything he'd been feeling and thinking but it had gone beyond words into a sort of white noise. He was sure putting it back into actual, solid thoughts would hurt. “Tell you later,” he said, knowing he couldn't really keep this from Eris. Big things that affected him somehow affected her by extension now. Besides which, he didn't want to. Whilst he didn't really want to have to talk about this ever again, he didn't want to keep it from her.

“You've got a plant,” he observed, before remembering that fourth years sometimes got different assignments. He wasn't really an expert but he would have said plants were harder to work with than sticks. “Am I meant to have one too?” he asked, a mild amount of resolve to pull himself together forming. At least if he worked on the lesson, he might be less tempted to think about other things.

13 Michael Grosvenor I'm not sure I want you pointing a wand at my face... 199 Michael Grosvenor 0 5

Eris Ackart

January 23, 2013 5:58 PM

I see your point... by Eris Ackart

Eris nodded silently when Michael said he’d tell her what was bothering him later. She expected that; the classroom wasn’t a great place for conversation anyway, particularly when you were sitting mere feet away from the professor. While this didn’t really do anything to quell her worries, she’d have to push it aside for now—at least he was willing to talk about it, whatever it was. If it had moved him to the point of not being able to attend class, it definitely wasn’t going to be good. Until then, she’d just have to try to at least get him through the lesson.

Her attention reluctantly returned to her plant when Michael mentioned it and whether or not he was supposed to have one as well.

“Technically, yes.” She started, choosing her words carefully so as not to come off as antagonizing. “The 5th years, and those in 4th who wanted more of a challenge were to take plants. If you’re not feeling up to it, I’m sure you could give the stick another go…”

“Or you can watch me and we can work through the summary together? There are plenty of plants around the castle just asking to be turned into stick bugs; you can always practice that later.” Eris wanted to hug him, or at least hold his hand, neither of which were exactly appropriate for class. She just hoped that he wasn’t horribly insulted by her offer to help him with the assignment, considering she was a year younger than he was.

“If you want, I mean.”

0 Eris Ackart I see your point... 0 Eris Ackart 0 5

Aria Yale, Teppenpaw

January 23, 2013 9:22 PM

I think I'll call for an adult (PROFESSOR) by Aria Yale, Teppenpaw

So far, Aria had to say that her third year was turning out to be pretty okay. She didn’t mind that Quidditch was cancelled or anything like that. She didn’t play sports, but she sometimes enjoyed watching the games (she refused to tell her parents this as they did not agree with such violent things), but the challenges seemed very cool and Aria could participate in them. She had been a little bit worried about the teams as they would be chosen for her, but it seemed as though the professors paid attention because Aria had ended up on the same team as Liam. Of course, there was a possibility that Liam wouldn’t be as happy as she was that they were on the same team, but she hoped that wasn’t the case.

Thinking of Liam, Aria smiled at the thought of the gift she had for him in her bag. Over the summer, Aria had picked up using clay and ceramics to create things. Either useful things or fun little things that made her happy. Most of the time, she made pots or vases, but whenever she had an idea for someone, she made that too. Like for Liam. She really wasn’t sure if he liked what she made him and hoped he wasn’t offended, but she thought it was too upbeat to really hate anything anyway.

She found him in a seat when she arrived to Transfiguration and immediately found a seat near him. She didn’t have time to talk to him, so she just took out parchment and began to take notes as Professor Skies began her lesson for the day. Almost immediately, Aria had a problem with what they were going to be learning that day. Animate transfiguration. Aria’s beliefs were against using animals for any reason. The most they did was wool off the sheep and milk from a cow. That was it. They used substitutions in their potions when they called for bugs or animal parts. She was raised to never use magic against a person or an animal. Animals were innocent and spirits just as humans did. When they needed to use a flower, they planted another in its place and gave thanks to Mother Earth. How was she supposed to do this lesson if she could not use her wand against an animal? Well, they were technically on a stick, but it would become a bug. Was that the same thing?

Aria sat at her desk, torn between doing the lesson and doing what she believed in. Her parents told her that this day would come and they would be understanding of the decision she made, but Aria didn’t know what to do. Her blue eyes watched Liam as he attempted the spell. The results had brought a hand to Aria’s mouth and tears to her eyes. She knew the Professor said that it wouldn’t hurt them, but how would she know? Did she speak to them? Did she feel for them? When human’s transfigured themselves, they felt it and if it went wrong, they felt that too. Why would bugs and animals not be the same?

Aria shook her head, horrified. Her hand shot up, “This is wrong.” She said, more to herself but she had said it clearly, so others may hear her as well. “Professor, I cannot do this. It goes against my beliefs. I cannot use my wand against another. I cannot.” She repeated, in a near panic. She didn’t want to go against the professor, but she knew in her heart of hearts that she wouldn’t be able to do lessons like this and she may have to fail the course.

0 Aria Yale, Teppenpaw I think I'll call for an adult (PROFESSOR) 0 Aria Yale, Teppenpaw 0 5

Cepheus

January 24, 2013 8:58 AM

It's not actually a bug yet, but I'm getting there. by Cepheus

Cepheus had complained to Alicia once or twice about his awful cousin Devon, whose family he had to live with there, and his equally awful French lessons. He considered himself fluent enough now, though he really didn't have anyone to practise with at home or here at Sonora. He liked France well-enough, but he'd rather be there on his own terms than forced to go.

It was impressive how much motivation Alicia could muster up to study even during the holiday, and he merely smiled. "Perhaps one day you'll surprise even the professors with all your knowledge." He grinned at her and turned back to his work. "You could ask to transfer into the Advanced class next year. You've started studying for your C.A.T.S. as well, I presume?" He was half-teasing, but also half-serious. He didn't doubt Alicia would start something like that a year, if not two years before.

Her next comment was forthcoming, but Cepheus still allowed himself to think about it. He had expected her to be curious about it and had even expected her to ask sooner. "It was all right," he said, pretending to concentrate on his wand movement. "You and Thad got 'Most Serious', I remember. I thought it was rather fitting," he teased.

Ceph knew what she was really asking about though, or at least he thought she did. Why else would she bring it up? But he didn't want to give the information away so easily because he didn't really know what to think of it. That stupid book had brought up feelings and both he and Theresa had reacted a bit badly to it. He had figured himself out during the summer, but he had yet to talk to Theresa this year. Besides, Alicia could be on a completely different vein and he wouldn't want to be the one to bring up the uncomfortable subject.

0 Cepheus It's not actually a bug yet, but I'm getting there. 0 Cepheus 0 5

Alicia

January 24, 2013 10:39 AM

You'll make it. by Alicia

“Maybe,” Alicia said lightly, though she would never actually show the staff everything. Enough to keep her in their good books, to cement it in their minds that Alicia Bauer was a model student who should be held up as an example to the younger years, to make an impression, yes – but never everything. A light that burned too brightly stood too much of a chance of being snuffed out. His next suggestion, though, had her looking up indignantly. “Not as such,” she said about studying for the CATS. “But even if I had, I wouldn’t move up with the fifth years and leave the rest of you if you paid me. Ours is one of maybe two years in the whole school with anyone in it worth competing with.”

Among other things, but she had never outright told her friends how much she cared about them. For most of her first two years, she had still been waiting for them to disappoint her, and last year, when her life had come as close to perfection as she thought it could have at that time, well, it had just never come up. Feelings weren’t a popular topic of discussion in her circle, not usually. They had other things to talk about besides each other; she thought that was just understood.

She laughed when Cepheus avoided her question. “Well, Thad and I think we’re very fun people,” she said. “It’s a subjective term.” She turned her head a little, so she could see both him and her transfiguration project. “Personally, though, I think a lot of the awards were inaccurate, at least for our year.” Anger and resentment flared up again as she remembered the third year girls’ section, but she kept it off her face. Learning to smile while she thought about stabbing somebody was something she had done so long ago she could barely remember it, because no one wanted to see someone who was angry, no one wanted to give anything to someone who was frustrated or offended or sad. Besides, she wasn’t really trying to talk about that, anyway.

This wasn’t the best place, and prying wasn’t a good idea, but she did owe him for that time he’d brought up her parents last year, and she just wanted to know, once and for all, two important things. One was whether or not she had to expand her circle to include Theresa Carey now (not pleasant, but it would have its compensations) and the other was whether or not she had really missed something as big as one of her friends jumping into the world of romance (a much bigger deal). “It felt like I was reading a yearbook from someone else's class. First I lost Most Logical to a Pecari girl, and then I find out everyone's dating people I totally did not think they were dating from the couples page. Including you." She gave him a teasing smile, hoping to thoroughly banish any thoughts he might have about her being jealous or something because she wanted him. "Was that for real? Because I have got to compliment you on secrecy if that's so. I like to think I know what's going on around here, but I never suspected a thing."

16 Alicia You'll make it. 210 Alicia 0 5

Mellie Goodwin, Pecari

January 24, 2013 11:24 AM

Stickier than syrup, I'd say. by Mellie Goodwin, Pecari

All summer long, Mellie had known she was sort of already a fifth year, but there was being a fifth year and then there was being a fifth year. The former was just sort of a general awareness of increasing responsibility and proximity to adulthood. The latter was getting a prefect’s badge and walking into an intermediate class as one of the oldest members of it in the same week.

She still wasn’t used to the first, or even totally sure of what it meant, but Mellie still thought she preferred it to the other one. She knew it was kind of stupid, since she had been in the same class for the past two years without anything too horrible happening to her, but the idea of going to classes as a fifth year completely and utterly intimidated her. She couldn’t get, when she thought about it, a revolving series of images involving smoke and explosions and big red Ds and other generally non-satisfactory results of her attempts to keep up in class out of her head. It might have been useful, she thought with bleak humor, if she had been taking Divination, but as it was….

Still, she came into the classroom with a smile on her face and a chirpy greeting for a few people she recognized as she made her way to the front of the room, knowing more than ever that she needed to be where she could pay attention this year if she wanted any chance of passing. It wasn’t everyone else’s fault she wasn’t a good student, so she guessed she shouldn’t take it out on them.

Now, she thought unhappily as she looked for one of her more common class partners and saw him already occupied, if she could just not want to take out her deficiencies as a girl on another specific girl every now and then, just in passing….

Professor Skies told them the first part of the lecture was mainly for the third years, but Mellie listened closely to all of it anyway, hoping for any scrap of information she had forgotten or never learned which could help her out in the ordeal which was to come. She wasn’t sure she got anything except the concept of transfigured objects existing beyond themselves, one she had heard before but had never understood then and didn’t have a sudden flash of revelation about now, but it had, she thought as she got her wand out and tried to remember if she had ever seen a stick insect in real life before, been worth a try. Something helpful for beginners and those who lost a lot of their school memories over the summers might have come up. It had been a good use of her time, especially since she didn’t have any notes to frantically study in the first moments of class yet. That it wasn’t really likely she would in a few weeks, after the first stress and feeling of starting over wore off, either, was something she chose to ignore.

She got a pot plant on her desk, then looked over it, trying to tell herself she believed in the line of thought Professor Skies had offered about where this was easier than the alternative of…of…of whatever Professor Skies had said, it had been theoretical, and she had written as much as she could catch down because it was part of the homework, but she wasn’t sure she really got it. Theory usually went over her head, and she just sort of bluffed at test time and scraped through it all. Tentatively, she lifted her wand, made the downward wand motion the teacher had demonstrated for them, and said, "Insecare!"

To her surprise, it actually did start to change. It didn't look like any bug she'd ever seen when it seemed to stop, of course, but that was beside the point. "It did something!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands and then wincing when her left one smacked into her wand, still held in her right.

16 Mellie Goodwin, Pecari Stickier than syrup, I'd say. 206 Mellie Goodwin, Pecari 0 5

Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren

January 24, 2013 7:27 PM

Sticky Situation by Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren

Living transfiguration always made the short Aladren squeamish. Especially when the transfiguration was a live animal going to an inanimate object. For some reason that always seemed so much worse to her. Turning a mouse into a tea cup was more traumatic, than turning a tea cup into a mouse because the cup couldn’t look at her while she pointed her wand and began attempting the spell. That, and spells rarely worked right the first time, so she ended up with a tea cup with whiskers, or the handle as a tail.

What Kitty could never understand was why. Why in the heck would anyone want to turn a mouse into a tea cup in the first place? Surely drinking out of such a thing would be quite unsanitary. Why not turn a rock into a tea cup, if a cup was that desperately needed. It was way easier to find a rock, anyway, than it was to catch a mouse.

Today’s lesson was even less logical. She could find no reason why anyone would want a stick bug. Kitty’s nose wrinkled. Insects were not her favorite thing, and stick bugs were so creepy, all long and way too thin. Icky. Lady bugs were okay, and roly polies, butterflies and caterpillars, but that was it. The rest, especially those that bit or stung, were not on Kitty’s list of favorite things.

With a dejected sigh, Kitty selected one of the small potted plants. The dark haired girl studied her plant, putting off the moment when she’d have to turn the pretty green thing into an icky bug. She was about to make her first attempt when the girl sitting next to her asked “Does this look like an insect to you?”

Periwinkle blue eyes studied the stick on the table. Snatching up her quill, Kitty prodded the stick lightly, trying to get it to move and prove its living state. “Huh, I think it might still be a stick.” Well, at least with a potted plant she wouldn’t have that problem.

0 Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren Sticky Situation 0 Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren 0 5

Angel Jareau - Teppenpaw

January 24, 2013 8:18 PM

I have seen better by Angel Jareau - Teppenpaw

Ash white hair hid ruby eyes while bone pale fingers systematically tattered the left edge of a quill. If asked, Angel would say that he preferred Transfiguration and Charms above all other classes. Both relied heavily on wand work, and it was in this area that the albino had a unique talent. The condition that stole color from the world came with a gift. A gift that had once been coveted by the Shield line, and ultimately lead to its destruction.

When the Shield family had been at the height of power, their line had a rare defect, the main identifier was monochromatism. The full colorblindness robbed the individual of the ability to distinguish any color, preserving the world only in variations of brightness. But, with the loss of color, they gained something infinitely more valuable. The ability to automatically perform any spell they saw, as long as their magic was developed enough to handle the strain. Much like a musical savant, who only had to hear a song to perform it without error, Angel was the same.

Even at the height of the Shields power, this condition was rare, only appearing once or twice a generation. When three generations passed without the gift appearing, the Shield Patriarch took drastic action. In an effort to bring the gift back, he turned to inbreeding. It worked…for a while. The next few generations saw a greater increase in the gift, their magic grew with their power and almost unnatural beauty as like bred with like. Then, as in all cases of this nature, things began breaking down and the family ended up destroying itself from the inside out.

Angel was the last, and for all the other physical defects, he had been born with the gift that one old man condemned his entire line for. Like any other gift, there were limitations. The main limitation was simple, like a musical savant who cannot read a note, Angel couldn’t perform a spell he hadn’t personally witnessed. He was incapable of reading an incantation, looking at a diagram and performing the spell. He had to see it in motion, word, wand movement, and affect, for his talent to work. Without seeing the spell, his wand was as useless as the sticks being passed around.

Nibbling a thumb nail, Angel’s red gaze lifted when the lecture drew to a close and the Professor was about to demonstrate the incantation. This was the only part of any lesson that the albino paid attention to. His academic short comings made taking notes impossible, and the pale boy had a hard time following the swift lectures that moved from concept to concept faster than he could grasp. To his shock, she didn’t perform the spell. Instead she just said the incantation, and showed them the wand motion. Angel blinked, and waited for her to continue, to demonstrate. She didn’t.

He wasn’t sure what to do, that had never happened before. Ruby eyes drifted to the left, noticing the boy next to him choosing a potted plant. Like a ghostly shadow, Angle did the same. When the boy performed the spell, brilliant red eyes, usually down cast and hidden behind long bangs fixed themselves upon him.

Turning his attention to the plant, Angel said in a soft monotone “Insecare” A perfect replica of the boy’s attempt sat on his desk. The albino tilted his head to study the outcome. His work had always been exact, because the professor’s examples were perfect. It was odd to see an imperfect specimen on his desk. Looking back at the boy, Angel waited for him to try again, to get it right, so he could do it too.

0 Angel Jareau - Teppenpaw I have seen better 0 Angel Jareau - Teppenpaw 0 5

Gareth Whitebriar - Crotalus

January 24, 2013 9:00 PM

Hopefully it won’t get that messy by Gareth Whitebriar - Crotalus

Gareth was late. This was an unusual occurrence for the tall Crotalus, but the start of the year did require a period of adjustment. Mainly in the form of organization. He realized in his last class that he’d forgotten his Transfiguration book, and thought he had plenty of time to go back to his room to retrieve it. The plan would have worked too, if the dratted book had been in its proper place. Instead it was lost in the fathomless depths of his trunk, and it had taken more than a few minutes to dig it out.

He made it to class just before it started, and was dismayed to find that most of the seats, mainly those in the back, had already been taken. As tall as the Welsh blond was, he did his best to accommodate his shorter classmates by not sitting in the front of the class and blocking their view. Today was the unfortunate exception and with a stifled sigh, the large youth took one of the open seats at the front of the class.

Broad shoulders that could easily rival some of the seventh years, honed to hard strength after a summer of Beater practice at his little brother’s insistence, hunched slightly in a doomed effort to be less large. Resigning himself to the situation, Gareth took out some parchment and began taking notes in his cramped writing. Transfiguration was one of the subjects Gareth had a bit of difficulty with when he’d first started at Sonora, but over the years his skill had improved and now felt rather comfortable with the subject.

He had no qualms about animate transfiguration, it was simply another branch of transfiguration and the Pureblood had never given it much thought. Feeling confidante, he chose one of the potted plants and closed his eyes. Gareth found that visualizing the spell before performing it greatly increased his chance of succeeding without having to try endlessly to get it right. When he was finished with the visualization, he brought his wand down in the proper vertical motion while saying in his deep baritone, “Insecare”. Obediently the plant began to morph, the green dulled to a dusky brown as the pot bled upward, merging with the body of the now thinning plant. That was where the transfiguration faltered, halting while still half red from the pot, and not quite alive. Well, it wasn’t terrible for a first try.

“It did something!” An excited female voice cheered next to him. Gareth couldn’t quite hold back the chuckle as the young lady clapped like an excited little girl.

“Not bad for a first try.” The fourth year said encouragingly as he gave her a friendly smile.

0 Gareth Whitebriar - Crotalus Hopefully it won’t get that messy 0 Gareth Whitebriar - Crotalus 0 5

Valerie Lennox, Crotalus

January 25, 2013 3:26 AM

It sure is. by Valerie Lennox, Crotalus

Valerie had had the best summer of her life. She hadn't been sick in months! The last time had been at the beginning of the summer when she'd had a sinus infection. Which she normally would have had her whole vacation. However, at that point, she hadn't really started her new medication yet. Which the Crotalus loved, even though it made her kind of tired and didn't taste too great. It beat feeling bad.

Not that Valerie was allowed to do normal things much. Though her parents had taken advantage of her improved health to have her spend more time with her betrothed. He seemed nice enough, fortunately. The Crotalus hoped that they would get along. She was still a bit nervous though about him liking her at all. Valerie knew she was deficient but she was better now, even though she was terrified of getting sick at all and having to leave school.

However, she was really worried about Brianna, and actually more so than she was about how things would be with Jasper. The other Crotalus was one of Valerie's closest friends, one of the few people at Sonora she felt comfortable with, and she'd been in a terrible accident. Truthfully, Valerie could probably relate to what Brianna was feeling right now, sort of. Obviously, the blonde had never been the victim of such awful hatred. She didn't know how she would cope with it if she was. Probably not very well, and she'd probably end up getting sick.

But she did know what it was like to have physical issues. To be in pain, even if it wasn't the exact sort of pain her friend was in and in the exact same way. To be limited in some way. It wasn't something Valerie had ever been able to hide. Her issues had been as obvious as Brianna's crutches. And truthfully, they were still there, lurking in the background, threatening to destroy everything at any given moment. The potion was not going to cure her completely, just make it so she didn't get sick quite as often as before. If something bad enough came along, Valerie would probably still get it.

She really wanted to help her friend, but she didn't quite know how. She couldn't help Brianna if she fell or with her therapy the way Josh or Linus could. Valerie hadn't even been able to visit her in the hospital because of her own problems. Hospitals were breeding grounds for infections and given that her family had money, the Crotalus was always cared for at home. Valerie felt useless, and if there was anything she could do to help Brianna in any way, she would.

Fortunately, Transfiguration was one of Valerie's better subjects. Actually, other than the physical parts of Defense, which she'd always gotten out of, she wasn't really bad at anything. Her grades weren't as good as they otherwise would be, because she'd been sick so much. Hopefully, Valerie would do better this year, and pass all her CATS. She didn't expect better than an A in Defense though, even though she'd never done poorly on any of her essays. She wanted to get Es in everything else and maybe pull off an O in Transfiguration. Transfiguration was a big deal in Grandmother Lennox's family and they were the ones at Sonora. Being actually good at something made her feel a bit better.

The fifth year gave the professor her full attention, even if part of the lesson was repeated for the third years, Valerie still might have missed something last year. She thought she had gone to the first Transfiguration lesson last year, but she was never too sure on these things. It sounded reasonably familiar but she really didn't want to take a chance on missing anything, especially when the professor started the new stuff. Part of her wished she could have done the easier lesson. Valerie never thought she had done enough and wanted to get it right before moving on, but she didn't want to embarass herself by being the only fifth year with a stick either.

And she really didn't like bugs much so she wasn't exactly thrilled about the lesson in general. The Crotalus had always been taught that bugs were filthy, icky, carriers of disease waiting to infect her at every turn. Except, of course, the ones used in potions. Which were apparently sterilized or something. Other than that, Valerie had a mild phobia of bugs. Was a bug transfigured from something else somehow different? She was too afraid to ask and draw attention to herself about it. She'd really had enough of that over the years. Valerie really hated being different from everyone else.

So she took a potted plant-probably not the most sterile of things to begin with-and took out her wand. She practiced the motions and said the spell to herself a couple of times both because she wanted to get it right on the first try, or at least have it do something the first time, and because she really wasn't too eager to have a stick insect around, though the classroom would be crawling with them soon. Though nobody else's could escape their desk fortunately. "Insecare" Valerie said, when she was finally satisfied with her own progress-and had worked up the nerve and the plant leaves vanished, leaving her with stick in a pot, with one little leg.

She must not have wanted it to change badly enough.

11 Valerie Lennox, Crotalus It sure is. 204 Valerie Lennox, Crotalus 0 5

Cepheus

January 26, 2013 1:31 PM

You're an optimist. by Cepheus

Cepheus thought it was true that there weren't many as ambitious as Alicia in this school. There were others, but Cepheus didn't pay much attention to them or their study habits. He was glad that Alicia wouldn't even consider moving up a level. He highly doubted it was possible anyway even if she wanted to, but he kept that to himself.

The relationship Thad and Alicia had were so close that Cepheus sometimes felt excluded. It could have been because they were in the same house and he was in another, but he wasn't sure. They were all friends, though, and Cepheus was sure of that. He didn't know how he could have survived living so far from home without them. At least, back when he had enjoyed living at home.

Alicia continued on the yearbook vein and Cepheus wanted her to drop it. He didn't want to talk about it here and now, but it seemed like she was heading towards that direction anyhow. The awards hadn't been inaccurate according to Cepheus, though he thought he should have been included in the 'Best Looking' category, but he could see why Alicia would have a few qualms with it. He thought she would be upset about not making 'Most Logical', and he was right when she mentioned it as one of the noticeable 'errors' in the book.

The moment she mentioned dating, Cepheus's heart jumped. He knew what was coming, but he still couldn't prevent his face from reddening. If he and Theresa were dating, he wouldn't have been so embarrassed at being caught. It was that his feelings weren't known to anyone that made it embarrassing. Cepheus turned away to focus on his stick again, trying to form words.

"There was nothing to suspect," he said. "We were never dating. Though I wouldn't have had anything to hide from you if I was." He glanced at her before turning back to his work again. "If you want to know the truth," he said, lowering his voice as his eyes looked around to see if anyone was listening in, "I think I might fancy her." He clenched his fists, heart pounding as he let Alicia in on his secret. "I didn't think about it till after that bloody award. I thought she might've liked me that way too, but I'm not sure any more."

That and the men in his family had forbid any sort of romantic relationship with her. "I don't think this attraction is going to go anywhere, honestly," he said, leaning back and pretending to be all right with all of this. "I'm just glad I can be honest about my feelings at the very least to myself and now you." He couldn't believe he had just told Alicia all that, but now it was out. "You don't like her, though, do you?" he asked, wanting to know if Alicia and Theresa were, in fact, feuding, or at least weren't fond of each other.

0 Cepheus You're an optimist. 0 Cepheus 0 5

Brianna Japos, Crotalus

January 26, 2013 1:44 PM

I missed the point of this. by Brianna Japos, Crotalus

It was only the second class of the day and already Brianna was feeling the effects of it all. The walk from the common room to the hall for breakfast had been rough. The walk from the hall to her first class had been a struggle. The chairs didn’t help with her discomfort at all and the longer she stayed upright with no support, the pain increased. By the time she had managed to make it to Transfiguration, Brianna was in near tears. Her Healer and Therapist told her that her first few weeks would be the worst for her in every sense because she would be putting her body under a lot of stress while it becomes accustomed to all the movement that she had to do. All of her physical therapy did not prepare her for this. She had spent most of the summer in the water, the water created a barrier of comfort for her, taking much of the stress from her body. She had only really walked out of the water the last couple of weeks and it had been limited amounts of movement with long periods of rest.

Her body shook uncontrollably when she took her seat at a desk close to the door (it was easier for her to sit there instead of walking around the room, plus there was a greater chance of her crutches catching something if she attempted to walk through the aisles). She felt her back tightening and was worried that if she didn’t find someplace comfortable to relax for a bit, she was going to have a spasm. But right now, she had to take her mind off her back and focus on the lesson before her. This was not easy for her to do, all things considered, and ended up closing her eyes and keeping a tight grip on her desk to the point where her knuckles were white.

She took deep breaths to try to relax and deeply regretted not bringing her heating pad with her. She had been naïve to think that this wouldn’t be difficult. She thought that the long period of lessons would be enough to relax her and keep her from over-extending herself, but she did not take into account the hard seats and the uncomfortable posture she would have to endure. Nor did she take into account the length of the school and the amount of stairs that she would have to climb. She didn’t want to have to take the pain reliever potion, but she felt that she might have to see the medic for it after all.

She would have to ask for help even though she really didn’t want to. She was grateful to Josh and Linus for offering and knew that Josh would bend over backwards to make sure that he did even if she didn’t take him up on the offer. It was already too much to ask for him to be in the water with her, she didn’t want to keep him from his classes. And, Brianna liked Linus, not at first way back in their first year together, but over time, he had become someone she felt comfortable around. Now that they were on a team together, he was already probably going to have to help her there, so she did not want to ask him for additional help if she could help it. Which meant, she had to figure this out on her own considering she had no one else left to ask as Valerie wouldn’t be able to assist with anything physical.

Brianna lost herself in her thoughts, but it helped her to relax somewhat. She could go back to her room for the break instead of lunch and get her heating pad and possibly lay down. That could work. Because of her thoughts, Brianna missed the lecture and opened her eyes to find that everyone had an object and a box was sitting in front of her. Valerie had a plant, so Brianna took on too and passed the box on. Movement reminded her of the pain again, but Brianna pushed it away, trying to focus on the task at hand. Turning to Valerie, who was already attempting the spell, Brianna asked for help. “I’m sorry, Valerie, I was having hard time listening. What should we be doing?”

0 Brianna Japos, Crotalus I missed the point of this. 0 Brianna Japos, Crotalus 0 5

Michael

January 26, 2013 2:15 PM

Glad you see my point by Michael

Eris was trying to make everything easy on him, which he appreciated. And, whilst it was tempting to wallow and let her look after him, he wasn't sure that would go down well with Skies.

"No, that's ok. But thank you," he said, in a heartfelt tone. The last thing he needed was detention, or possibly a second detention, depending on how leniently his skipping first period was viewed. "One plant to insect coming up," he resolved, going to get a plant from the end of the bench.

He studied it, trying to think about the differences between it and a stick insect. It was green and healthy looking, whilst stick insects looked more like dead pieces of wood, like the younger kids were working with. And they didn't have leaves. Deciding that was a pretty key difference, Michael decided to make that his starting point. He imagined the plant shrinking back, the leaves withering up and vanishing, and it becoming more like a quick.

"Insecare!" he cast with as much feeling as he could muster. The plant trembled, its leaves turning blackish brown and the whole thing becoming withered and dead looking. "Huh, that's kind of..." Ironic might have been a suitable word - the plant was now closer to its target but the transformation between two living things involved it becoming more dead-looking. Morbid might have also done a decent enough job of completing the sentence. Michael just shrugged. If wasn't really sure how to describe the fact that he'd just killed his plant, but possibly in a good way.

13 Michael Glad you see my point 199 Michael 0 5

Alicia

January 28, 2013 2:17 PM

Not really, just very sure of my opinions. by Alicia

She knew she should first feel bad for her friend, first being thrown into the yearbook with a girl he wasn’t dating and thus risking a minor little scandal in pureblood circles before either of them even took their CATS and now having to endure this interrogation, but when she heard Cepheus’ answer, Alicia’s first reaction was something like relief. Maybe, just maybe, the comment about having nothing to hide from her could be taken two ways – maybe it meant she wasn’t important enough to bother hiding things from – but she refused to entertain that possibility, and as for the other part, it meant she was not already losing her edge. She was still on top of things. She had not begun to slip, to not do things right.

She had not, Alicia knew, done everything she should have in school. She should have joined the Baking and Horse Lovers’ clubs when they were founded, despite her lack of both free time as it was and passion for either subject, instead of just planning to join them this year. If she had done that, then not only would she have had a year to get used to the extra demands on her time, but she would have also looked to the staff like she just enjoyed being busy, instead of like she was trying to stack her extracurricular deck in the hopes of impressing them when it came to award time. She might have also had a chance to figure out how to oust Waverly and Jade as their leaders – Henny was safe as the leader of the book club because she liked Henny, but there she should have proposed more officers and wormed her way into, if Thad wanted Vice President, being the secretary – so she could have had existing leadership positions to put her on her resume. She should have started a club of her own and worked up a school service project, too, according to the reading she’d been doing this summer. That she would have, under such a schedule, have probably had to start her homework every night sometime after midnight was not important. The point was that she had not been the absolute best.

Her one comfort, when she thought about that, was that the closest anyone came to doing better was Waverly Canterbury, and Alicia thought she beat her academically and in some social arenas as well. She hoped, anyway. At the very least, Waverly wasn’t direct prefect competition because she was a Pecari, and Head Girl was still anyone’s prize. She wasn’t feeling as totally in control of her own destiny as she had before the yearbook made her notice how rarely her name appeared under things and how little people apparently thought of her, but she still couldn’t stop believing in the vision she’d described to Thad at the Bonfire last year, the one where they were Head Boy and Head Girl and owned this school.

Right now, though, she owned a secret, and that was a little thrill in its own right, too. Her hand went toward her mouth of its own accord before she caught it and put it back on her desk when Cepheus confessed that though he didn’t have Theresa Carey, he did want her, and her eyes widened a little in spite of herself.

“Of course,” she said when he said he was glad he could be honest with at least the two of them about it. Then there was another question, though, one which she shrugged in answer to. “Honestly, I don’t know her,” she said. “Just from what I’ve seen, I wouldn’t want to date her, but I don’t have anything against her.” Except that she was a Carey, of course, another East Coast, old-blood girl who’d look down on Alicia even if she’d had a better family than the one she actually did. A girl who already had a future. Cepheus didn’t know about all that, though, and Cepheus didn’t need to know about all that. Being honest about her feelings was a one-way trip to living with her father, and she doubted, with no prospect of ever getting out, she would make it three days if that ever happened.

She remembered she was in class and quickly worked on completing the animation of her stick insect, her mind not on it at all. “If she was with you, she’d be my friend, too, then, I guess,” she continued on the matter of Theresa Carey. “And you two were friendly enough last year that I had my doubts when I saw the book. Why not ask her to the ball this year? You’ll never know unless you try, right?” Her tone was light as she used the cliché, and she paid a little more attention to her work as she raised her wand to it again.

16 Alicia Not really, just very sure of my opinions. 210 Alicia 0 5

Mellie

January 28, 2013 2:48 PM

That would be a good thing. by Mellie

Mellie’s first impression of the person beside her, who had, it seemed, heard her little outburst, was that he was in the wrong class, because she knew her own class well enough to know he wasn’t in it and because surely no one in the younger years was that big. On second look, she thought she recognized him as a player on one of the other Quidditch teams – Crotalus, unless he was wearing someone else’s robes. He was the blond Crotalus Beater, the one who usually stayed with their Seeker.

“Thanks,” she said, too pleased with herself still for having accomplished anything to be embarrassed at being praised by a fourth year. “Yours is good, too,” she added, looking at his result. She thought it was actually further along than hers, but she had never fooled herself that she was a very good Transfiguration student even when it was later in the year and she was in practice.

This class, she thought, with something almost like wistfulness, was one she expected to leave behind after CATS, but she didn’t know anything for sure at this point. It just didn’t seem real to her yet that, at last, all her classes really counted, that it was all important now, that she was in the last year she had before she had to choose what goals to aim at long-term. She still felt like a fourth year herself in spite of the badge shining on the front of her robes; she kept noticing it and being surprised all over again, since the shine distracted her, since she didn’t usually wear much jewelry. She had written it down that she was prefect, in a letter she had sent to her parents before she went into the Hall for breakfast this morning because she had known they would be upset if she didn’t tell them right away, but it still seemed like something she might have dreamed.

“I wonder how long we’re going to stick with this, you know, stuff,” she said, looking around the room and at the other students’ progress so far. The third years were probably having the worst time, but Mellie doubted anyone just excelled at this kind of stuff on the first day. Well, maybe a few in Aladren or something, but they were kind of off in a category of their own anyway. Mellie didn't exactly think of them as part of the same school as everyone else, except some of the Crotali, but not that many of them, even. There were normal people, Aladrens, and some Crotali in each group and some Crotali in the middle.

16 Mellie That would be a good thing. 206 Mellie 0 5

Cepheus

January 30, 2013 4:00 PM

Brilliant, you are. by Cepheus

It was becoming more and more difficult for Cepheus to concentrate on his spell work, but he didn't care nearly as much as he should have. He was relieved when Alicia said that she couldn't really hold anything against Theresa; the last thing he'd want was for there to be a feud between the two witches he liked.

Cepheus usually prided himself on keeping up with how things were running at this school, but he had found himself falling behind more and more. This year was, perhaps, the worst with all this going on as well as his own troubles. He knew there were clubs, but he hadn't joined any. He had no interest in the Baking Club nor the Book Club, and Horse Club didn't sound very appealing either. Now if there was a Duelling Club of sorts, then Cepheus's interest might be garnered. But he certainly wasn't going to try and create one.

Alicia hinted that even she was suspicious by how close Ceph and Theresa had gotten last year, and Cepheus felt his face grow hot again. "I'm closer friends with you than with her and we didn't win any 'Best Couple' award," he said defensively. But maybe there was something between him and Theresa that he hadn't noticed before.

It was strange to hear his friend encourage him to pursue this relationship. He knew she was only saying this because she didn't know what was truly holding Cepheus back. Ordinarily, Cepheus would tell his friends immediately, but the words of his betrothal were stuck in his throat. It was too big for him to share with even his closest friends. He wanted to pretend that it didn't exist no matter how much it mattered. Maybe once they graduated, he would invite his friends to his wedding and pretend he was in love with Megan Brownbriar. But he had always been terrible at pretending.

"I completely forgot about the ball," he said honestly, following Alicia's lead and focusing on his stick bug once more. He poked it again with his wand. One dance wouldn't count as a date, would it? He was expected to dance with more than one witch and if he went solo there wouldn't be anything to suspect. If he happened to hang around Theresa the entire night, then maybe. Would his father refuse Cepheus just one date to the dance? He would have to write home and beg his father for just one date.

Cepheus didn't know how to answer Alicia, and so he worked on his project for a bit, succeeding finally into turning the stick into a live insect. It looked to be missing an antenna, but Cepheus couldn't bring himself to care. "Who are you going to the ball with?" he asked. If Alicia was thinking about dates to the ball already, then she must have someone in mind.

0 Cepheus Brilliant, you are. 0 Cepheus 0 5

Alicia

January 30, 2013 6:08 PM

I know, but thanks for saying it. by Alicia

“Very true,” Alicia said calmly when Cepheus got defensive, looking at her stick insect thing as she spoke in case Professor Skies was watching. For once, something more interesting than her academics was going on in class, but she wasn’t going to advertise the fact to the professor if she could help it. “But most people, you know, if they’d just appeared in the yearbook with someone they weren’t really dating, they wouldn’t have been able to just calmly sit down and talk at the bonfire, so I had to wonder. Besides, some people just have couple vibes, and you and I probably just don’t.”

Otherwise, if every girl-boy friendship had, she thought, she might have been in an awkward position. The kind that involved being perceived as someone with looser morals than she actually had. Both of her closest friends and almost all her other friends were guys. As far as she knew, though, no one had ever tried to say anything about it.

She looked up from her work again, surprised, when Cepheus said he had completely forgotten about the ball. How anyone could forget about that, even with the distraction the challenges were providing for them until then, was beyond her; it was the major social occasion of the year. There were the dresses to think about, and the dates, and the implications of everyone else’s dates, and…but maybe that was a thing only girls thought about. She should ask Henny, and maybe Ephanie, what they thought about it to see, if she got a moment to do that in; she could, she guessed, ask Thad, too, to see if males not thinking about it was also typical, but she thought that conversation might get a little more pointed than it really needed to at this point in the year. Maybe she’d grab someone else sometime instead.

“Well, now I’ve reminded you, so you’ve got no more excuses,” she said, and finally animated the pot plant. She looked at it with distracted pride for a moment before beginning to feel resigned to how much work it was going to be from now on, when she was going to have to try to turn it straight from plant to bug each time, without letting herself work on it through intermediate steps.

She wished it would go ahead and revert to its original shape, though, when Cepheus turned the questions on her. Fair was fair, but she wished the force field around her desk keeping the temporary stick insect from running off the desk would fail so she could have something distracting going on while she answered anyway. The universe wasn’t that kind, though, so she shrugged, turning her wand between her fingers.

“No one’s asked me yet,” she said. “I’m not really worried about it yet, though. I mean, it’s the first day of classes, right? I don’t think I really need to start panicking until at least February.” The insect began to slip back toward being a plant. "Insecare," she said again, to incomplete results, leaving her without that to work on until it went back to its beginning point again.

16 Alicia I know, but thanks for saying it. 210 Alicia 0 5

Valerie

January 31, 2013 12:00 AM

I'm not entirely sure there is one. by Valerie

Valerie had always sat close to the door because of her own issues, because she tried to exert herself as little as possible even on something small like that. Plus, in previous years, sometimes she'd just not felt up to taking a seat further away. She usually tried to get to class early in order to get the seat she liked too. Now, apparently, Brianna was having similar problems naturally, and Valerie made a mental note to always save a seat nearby for her friend. Any little thing she could do to help she wanted to do.

Besides, she really wanted to sit by the other Crotalus anyway. Valerie knew she could have sat with Melanie now that they were in the same class, and normally she might have occasionally, but right now she wanted to be around Brianna and show her friend that she was there for her even if she couldn't help her with anything physical. At the very least Valerie wanted to be there if Brianna needed someone to talk to or something. Not during Transfiguration of course, but in general. It was about the only thing she could do.

She hated being so useless, though she should have been used to it. The Crotalus was worried about the challenges this year. If they were too physically demanding, she was not going to be much of an asset and her teammates wouldn't want her. She wouldn't blame them. Valerie was worried that if they didn't do well, it would be all her fault for slowing them down though if there was an intellectual or spellwork task, she thought she would be okay. She wasn't quite as smart as Melanie-her sister was really brilliant- or as good at Transfiguration as Ryan but she wasn't bad in that respect.

Plus, Valerie was worried that anything that was physically taxing would put her health in jeopardy. She'd never been allowed to, of course, and now she was more afraid than ever of getting sick at all. Staying at Sonora was very important to her, to be with her friends and her sister. Melanie might choose to be homeschooled too if that was the case, but Valerie wouldn't want her to. Her sister deserved a normal life with friends rather than being shut up in their house, the way that the Crotalus always was. The fifth year wanted some semblance of a normal life herself.

"Oh, we're supposed to turn these plants into stick bugs" Valerie replied, unable to keep from wrinkling her nose. In addition to insects being carriers of all the germs that were coming to get her, she was something of a girly girl, a real proper lady and she really wasn't too thrilled about this lesson. Of course, she could understand why she had to do it though, they were some of the simplest forms of life. A stick bug was similar to a stick, hence the name, and potted plants were sticks with leaves. Valerie still didn't really want to do it though. "We also have an essay to do for homework. Would you like to work on it together?" Not that she didn't think Brianna couldn't do it by herself or think that she herself couldn't, now that she wasn't behind in schoolwork. She just wanted to do something with her friend. "Oh, and the incantation is Insecare " Valerie added, demonstrating the wand motion for Brianna.

11 Valerie I'm not entirely sure there is one. 204 Valerie 0 5

Eris Ackart

January 31, 2013 7:09 PM

I'm glad you're glad...or something by Eris Ackart

“Only trying to help.” Eris said with a smile before Michael went to fetch his plant. Even though he didn’t accept her offer, she was glad that he seemed to be coming around a little. At least he was going to give the lesson another shot, which was likely the best alternative; he wouldn’t get marked down for not participating and it was likely to get his mind off of things. That was one of the nice things about spell work; there wasn’t really room in your head to think about much else—if you wanted to be successful anyway. It wasn’t like potions where you only had to measure things out, count spoon rotations, and stew over things while you wait for the potion to simmer.

She watched as he gave the spell ago, and cocked her head to the side as it all but shriveled up and died in front of him. She hadn’t given it a try yet, but considering it was closer in appearance to what they were trying to accomplish, Eris figured he was going in the right direction.

“I think it’s a good start.” She said earnestly, before looking over her plant in comparison. “It’s definitely brown and sticklike.” The Teppenpaw girl removed her wand and turned her plant around, studying it in order to get a complete idea of what she needed to do. She wanted it to be like plants in the winter, kind of sad and dead looking on the outside, but very much alive. Roots and branches could easily be legs or antennae, the only difficult part would be the leaves. Unless, of course, she took Michael’s route and killed them.

She remembered what Josh had told her last year, though this was different from the switching spell, Eris imagined the same principle would apply. She closed her eyes and pictured the plant shrinking down into a stick insect, and mouthed the spell wordlessly. Finally she opened them again and practiced the wand movement. Once confident with both of them, she took a deep breath and began the actual casting.

“Insecare!” She said firmly. Her leaves shriveled as well, and the branches began to shrink and darken and twitch a little. The plant was still very much a plant, however, and was rooted to the pot. Eris’ brow furrowed slightly as she inspected her plant. The branches, she swore, were twitching intermittently.

“Is my plant…moving?”

0 Eris Ackart I'm glad you're glad...or something 0 Eris Ackart 0 5

Clara Abernathy, Pecari

February 02, 2013 4:08 PM

Really? Ahh drat...take two by Clara Abernathy, Pecari

Clara was pleasantly surprised to see it was Kitty sitting next to her. She had liked the girl from the first time they had met in her first year. They had been Baking Club partners trying to make chocolate chip cookies together. The cookies came out slightly crisp, but they were really good and if memory served they had worked splendedly together. She smiled warmly at Kitty as she watched the older girl poke at her stick with her quill pen. “Huh, I think it might still be a stick.” Kitty had replied to her question after poking the stick. Clara frowned slightly at the comment and sighed lightly. "Really? Ya think so?" she asked poking at her attempt herself with her finger and realizing Kitty was right. Her attempt on the stick had pretty much failed miserably. "Well poo.." she commented slightly discouraged for like a second. "Oh well...hopefully attempt number two will go better," she hoped brightening up a little.

"How was your summer Kitty?" she asked the older girl. "Did you do anything fun? Bake any more cookies?" she asked teasingly. "I hope so. We did great last time...atleast I thought so," she told her confidently. "Lets see if I can get this right," she said pointing her wand at the stick again. She figured if she just concentrated a little harder she might be able to change the stick. She had to remind herself that what she was doing wasn't going to hurt anything. Maybe thats why she goofed it before. She was overly worried about turning the stick into something living and it getting hurt because of it. She let out a deep breath she had been holding and readied the wand again. She cast the spell again and made sure she tried to mimick the teacher's movements exactly. She was a little disappointed when it seemed to have fizzled again. She gasped audibly when she saw it begin to move around slightly. "Holy crackers! I think I did it!" she exclaimed excitedly. "Kitty look! I think its actually moving!"

Clara studied the stick closely and realized it was indeed moving. "Wow..thats weird," she said, staring at it quizzically. She looked over at Kitty's potted plant. "I guess its your turn now huh?" she asked. "I wonder what a potted plant stick insect will look like?" she couldn't help wondering aloud. She smiled encouragingly at Kitty. She placed her chin on one of her open palms and rested her elbow on the desktop. She couldn't wait to see what would happen.

0 Clara Abernathy, Pecari Really? Ahh drat...take two 232 Clara Abernathy, Pecari 0 5

Jorge

February 03, 2013 7:15 PM

You don't have to be rude. by Jorge

Jorge was looking over his work when he realized that someone was looking at him. Out of the corner of his eye, he say Angel. When Jorge was a first year, Dulce, his sister, had tutored Angel because he was so far behind. A couple of years ago when she graduated, she had wanted Jorge to continue her work and tutor Angel himself. Thankfully, no one had asked him too and Angel didn’t seem to think he even existed (or forgot the few times where Jorge was in the library studying at the same table as them) and so, he hadn’t needed to spend any of his free time dealing with the Albino. Sometimes, Dulce still asked about him just to be sure that he was keeping up with his studies. Jorge always faked that he had any idea as to what Angel was getting up to these days, but it was enough to satisfy his sister for awhile.

Jorge frowned at the kid. He didn’t appreciate being stared at and didn’t understand why the kid was watching him so closely. Didn’t he have his own work to do? If he had questions, he needed to use his voice, not just creepily staring at the person closest to him. He will never really understand the people in this school. Some of them were just really weird. Jorge wasn’t perfect and never claimed to be and he probably had his own ticks that maybe other people didn’t get, but he wouldn’t ever say he was weird. He felt pretty sane and normal.

“Dude. Why are you staring at me?” He asked Angel after a moment, looking somewhat annoyed by it. If Angel was into boys or whatever that was fine with Jorge, but Jorge didn’t want to be his object of affection. He liked girls. “If you have a question, you should ask instead of just stare. Staring is rude.” Jorge commented, his voice neither rising in anger nor showing any negative emotion what so ever. He was just stating facts so that the other boy knew what people would say.

Returning to his own work once more, Jorge gave it a look over and then tried the spell again. He was successful in completing the spell on his second time around. Considering the difficulty of animate to animate transfiguration, he felt that having succeeded on his second try was pretty good. A little more practice and he’ll be perfectly set.

0 Jorge You don't have to be rude. 0 Jorge 0 5

Cepheus

February 04, 2013 11:11 AM

I'm a sweet-talker. Haven't you noticed? by Cepheus

What Alicia said was true and Cepheus knew that. He just didn't like to be confronted with his feelings when he wasn't asking to be. If he and Alicia had any sort of couple-vibe going on, he couldn't tell. He could hardly tell his own feelings about Theresa for an entire year. Maybe he was just dense when it came to those sorts of feelings, but he knew he and Alicia had nothing going on. That was almost too strange to think about.

It made Cepheus feel out of the loop once more when Alicia looked at him in surprise that he hadn't been thinking about the ball. He really was out of it and he needed to get back on track. Otherwise he would be looking like a fool all the time and his grandfather wouldn't like that.

Thinking about the ball made Cepheus not want to think about it. There was so much that could be implied there, so much to dress up for and so much to do. There were dress robes to buy, his hair to trim, his shoes to shine and, best of all, dates. In a completely sarcastic way they were the best part, of course. It would have been easier if Cepheus didn't have an attraction to Theresa Carey. If Grandfather had told him to ask Megan to the ball, he would have. Loathed it completely, undoubtedly, but he wouldn't have cared. But there was someone else now that he actually wanted to ask.

Alicia distracted the both of them by animating her plant, and he smirked. "Good job," he told her. "You're a natural." They were all natural witches and wizards, but he certainly did not have as much patience and concentration as she did to make a plant turn into a stick bug in the first class period. The distraction was welcome, too, from this strange, strange conversation.

If he didn't expect Alicia to go with Thad, Cepheus would have asked her himself. Though she and Thad weren't a couple, they were very close and Cepheus wasn't blind to that. He didn't have many other close female friends like Alicia here and usually that would have bothered him. Unfortunately, he had only one girl he really wanted to ask and the other he was expected to ask. He would have to make up his mind about that.

At one point in his life, he would have been happy to do his family's bidding. He had been, and still was, a little excited to take over the family business. He had grown up knowing that someday the Princeton Hospitals were going to be his to run and take care of and he didn't mind that. It was more of his personal life that his family was currently ruining and, now that he had a personal life, it was frustrating. He didn't like being forced into a life-changing event and auctioned off like cattle. He didn't care if all the patriarchs had done it before him; he wasn't them and didn't want that to happen to him.

But tradition was tradition, and the Princetons fully believed in upholding it to the very letter. Cepheus had no choice in the matter.

"You'll get asked," said Cepheus nonchalantly. "It's just a matter of time." He smirked at her and watched his stick insect turn back into a stick. "For me, it's just a matter of deciding who to ask. If you get too desperate, don't worry; I'll ask you." He smirked to let her know that the last bit was in jest, but he did mean it even if it meant taking two dates. Who was he to say no to having two witches to dance with at the ball?

0 Cepheus I'm a sweet-talker. Haven't you noticed? 0 Cepheus 0 5

Professor Skies

February 04, 2013 2:07 PM

Being called upon by Professor Skies

It was predictable but, to Selina, disappointing. She knew, from John's substitutions to his lessons that there were certain students in the school who had issues with using animals in their Potions. She had been unsure how they would react to the idea of them in Transfiguration. Not well, apparently, in spite of her reassurances.

“Alright, Aria,” she said a little briskly, heading over as the girl loudly declaimed her class to be morally abhorrent. She understood the girl disagreed with the content of the class but there were appropriate ways to express that, such as a quietly raised hand. Loudly declaring her to be in the wrong was somewhat confrontational and was a thing Selina would never done to a professor in her own school days. She was rather shocked by Aria's rudeness, as well as a little annoyed that she was potentially disturbing other students who were trying to get on with their work. However, the look on the girl's face did show that she was clearly very upset by the situation. Selina was not made of stone and felt some sympathy at her student's distress – even if she didn't agree with her - and thus she held back any chidings regarding the volume and nature of Aria's complaints.

“There is a difference between raising your wand against someone and using magic on them,” she reminded her student gently, feeling that Aria's words were a little strong and somewhat distorting the picture. “For example, we cast charms on each other and that is very different to raising your wand against someone,” the words implied a deliberate act of violence rather than the use of a spell. “If that does not resolve the issue with the situation, we have several options. We can either discuss this further now, either here or we can step outside for a minute – though I will have to leave the door ajar to be able to hear in case I'm needed by the class - or you can come and see me during my office hours. If you would prefer that, I will allow you to either make notes and try to suggest what your partner is doing well and what could be improved, or I can set you some additional theory questions. What would you like to do?”

13 Professor Skies Being called upon 26 Professor Skies 0 5

Henny B-F-R, Aladren

February 04, 2013 2:54 PM

Not faring so badly by Henny B-F-R, Aladren

Transfiguration was an interesting class. It was very complicated and it rarely involved pointing your wand at anyone else – or, more to the point, having them point their wand at you. All of these made it a good thing in Henny's eyes, and she was keen to return to the intermediate classes. Settling herself in the front row, she took notes as Professor Skies spoke, including her recap of the previous year's introductory speech to them. The more times she wrote it, the more it would stick in her head. Plus the Professor wasn't repeating herself verbatim and a particular way she chose to phrase it might stick more strongly, or make some previously unconnected dots join up.

When they were set to the practical, she selected to work with a plant. She was a little nervous at stepping the difficulty of the task up, especially after a summer off, but she had come to be very proficient at the third year tasks by the end of the last year and so she thought she should attempt it – even if it was difficult, she usually enjoyed a challenge. There was only a tiny amount of Aladren pride and not wanting to lose face involved in her decision.

She contemplated the task at hand – and, by extension, the homework. What about this was easy and what was hard. The plant was alive but not animate. It was lush and green. She tried to focus on the internal structure of the plant. It was an interconnected series of stick like structures. Water flowed around it in a structure analogous to veins. It was more outward differences and the lack of animacy that set it apart from the insect.

“Insecare!” she cast, flicking from top to bottom, feeling more comfortable with that than with rapidly bringing her wand towards her eyes. She contemplated the plant maintaining its internal structure but becoming more stick-like on the outside. She watched as the texture all over it shifted, becoming dry looking, its colour changing to brown. The most remarkable part was this effect had also spread across the leaves.

“Good,” she nodded to herself. It was the colour and texture of a stick insect. Internally, she reminded herself, it was similar to start with. It just needed to actually be an insect and to move now, but she was satisfied with it as a start.

13 Henny B-F-R, Aladren Not faring so badly 211 Henny B-F-R, Aladren 0 5

Brianna

February 05, 2013 9:47 PM

Oh, wonderful. by Brianna

Brianna took another breath as she focused on Valerie. Charms was right after Transfiguration, so Brianna wouldn’t have time to go back to the dorm them in the fifteen minutes they had between classes to walk through the building to whatever section they needed to go into next. She was barely making it as it was. Last year, fifteen minutes would have meant an easy jog to the common room before and easy jog back to whatever side of the building she needed to be on with minutes to spare. Now, it meant huffing and puffing all of ten feet before she felt like her legs would give out on her. She felt so useless. It might not have been so terrible if it weren’t for the constant shooting pain that throbbed up her back at a constant pulse. If she were pain free and just dealing with her legs not working right, she thought she could be fine, but the pain distorted her and made everything so unbearable. She kept being told that she would get used to it, that eventually the pain will go away or at least, her body will learn to tolerate it and so it won’t be as painful any longer, but Brianna didn’t think that day would come. It was too overwhelming to think about.

“Really?” She asked her roommate rhetorically. Brianna’s brown eyes turned to the plant in front of her as she looked at it closely. Her large lips turned downward as she worked out how exactly she was supposed to turn a plant into a bug and why. She at least knew what a stick bug looked like having read books on nature and gone to Central Park enough times to discover all sorts of bugs. Brianna sighed heavily, her shoulders slumping when Valerie mentioned the essay. This shouldn’t have surprised her really because all they ever did was essays and on a good day, Brianna could handle the essay without any issue, but she felt like she wouldn’t be able to keep up with it all anymore.

“Oh, that would be nice.” Brianna stated, feeling somewhat relieved. If she had a partner than it would force herself to focus and not give in to the temptation to crawl into a hole and hide away for awhile. She was confident in her abilities in theory to manage the essay without problem when it came to the content, but her concentration was lax considering how often she faded out and lost herself in her own head. This was not something that happened in the past but her mind was foggy most of the time from the potions and when it wasn’t , it was distracted with the pain.

“Insecare” Brianna repeated, feeling the word on her tongue. Brianna straightened up, winced at the movement, but continued on and looked at the plant in front of her one more time. She thought about the stick bugs and how they were shaped. She let her mind take over for a moment, watching them move, blending them with that of a plant. Their looks were ridiculously similar that Brianna thought it wouldn’t take long to handle this transfiguration. Taking another breath, Brianna grabbed her wand and tried the spell. She knew her first attempt wouldn’t be her best since she was still trying to get herself level again, but watching the plant shrink and brown and begin to wiggle, she didn’t think she had done too bad. “How was your attempt?” Brianna asked Valerie.

0 Brianna Oh, wonderful. 0 Brianna 0 5

Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw

February 06, 2013 12:02 PM

Neither am I by Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw

Melanie was excited to be in Intermediate classes this year. For one thing, she got to be with her sister, and she was sure they would work together sometimes, though not all the time, they tended to only hang out in moderation so they could both have other friends. They ate together a few times a week, though the last few years, it probably looked like Valerie ate with Melanie all the time because of the fact that she'd been ill so much of the time. The Teppenpaw had been seriously worried about how often her sister seemed to be getting sick over the last few years but she was doing much better now.

Plus, Melanie really liked her classes and was looking forward to learning more advanced magic. Not that she'd found the Beginner classes boring or anything, but, though she didn't like to say so as it sounded egotistical, she really thought she could handle more advanced material. Again, the third year had done very well in school last year, even better than her first year. All Os, and she would like to do so again this term. She'd felt rather proud of herself.

She sat up straight in her chair, her posture perfect. Valerie could slump a little if she wasn't well, but Melanie didn't have that excuse, nor did she begrudge the Crotalus it either of course. She tried to be perfectly proper at all times, a real lady. It was what expected of her, not only by her parents but by society. Mostly, it came pretty naturally to her. Not that she was always perfect. For example, the third year sometimes refused to do things that her mother wanted, because Valerie couldn't do them too and she felt guilty being out having a good time when her sister wasn't well. Plus, Melanie preferred the company of the fifth year to that of her mother or any of the children of St. Louis pureblood society anyway. Still, there was probably a reason she'd won Well Behaved last year.

Her attention was fully on the lesson now. If she wanted to repeat last year's grades, she had to pay attention to what was going on in class, not miss a single thing. However, when Melanie heard what they had to do, she was not all that pleased. As much as she was looking forward to learning inanimate to animate transfiguration and understood that they were the simplest form of life, she did not like insects of any kind. Truthfully, the third year had an even bigger issue with them than Valerie, who had legitimate reason to worry, did. In addition to the potential to make people ill because they were unsanitary, they were just gross and if it wasn't for the fact that she had always been so afraid of something happening to her sister, Melanie's boggart probably would have been a giant bug of some kind.

Still, she had no choice but to do it. Usually, she did what she was told whether she liked it or not and the only person that the Teppenpaw would ever talk back to was her mother, and that wasn't very often and was mostly her saying she didn't want to do something that her mother requested. Melanie never got nasty or sarcastic or anything, she didn't even think she was capable of being so. Besides, if she didn't do the lesson, she wouldn't pass the class.

"Insecare" said the third year, flicking her wand horizontally. The stick shortened and sprouted legs and antennae, until it was a perfect replica of a stick insect, except it didn't look to be the right...texture. It still appeared to be wooden. It was still disgusting looking but at least it wasn't alive. Unfortunately, Melanie was going to have to make it come alive and she was really dreading that.

The girl next to her spoke. "Pardon?" The Teppenpaw asked. "I didn't quite catch what you said."

11 Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw Neither am I 226 Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw 0 5

Henny B-F-R, Aladren

February 07, 2013 2:04 PM

Go us by Henny B-F-R, Aladren

“Oh, don't worry - I was just talking to myself,” Henny replied with a slight blush when the girl next to her asked what she'd said. It really was a dreadful habit that was going to get her into trouble sooner or later. Last year, the only thing that had saved her from acute embarrassment when Evan had caught her talking to herself (or possibly her hedgehog) was that he'd felt exactly the same way about his; that the sooner they weren't hedgehogs any more, the better.

“You look like you're doing well,” she nodded to Melanie's project, trying not to feel insecure that the younger girl's work already looked more like a stick insect than her own. Yes, Melanie was starting with an easier source, but wasn't Henny's age and greater experience supposed to balance that out? “I found when I started them, that I'd either get the look or the movement. Like, if I was really concentrationg on adding or subtracting movement – because that was new and different – then that changed but other stuff didn't. Whereas if I focussed on appearance, only that changed, cos I wasn't used to including motion as part of that thought process. Does that make sense?” she asked.

Turning back to her own work, she considered what ought to be done to it. It still had a lot of things about it that weren't stick-insecty and it still wasn't moving. Over the course of last year, she had become better at combining those two elements into one spell. Legs and antennae. It needed both of those and they were highly mobile parts; one could barely envisage them without thinking of them twitching. Holding the image of this in her mind, she turned her attention back to the plant.

“Insecare!” she cast again. The leaves of the plant stretched out, becoming ever so spindly. Near the top of the plant, they became antennae like, whilst lower down they looked more like legs. The ends twitched, all seeming to feel the air around. It was still largely on the wrong scale but it was the right colour and texture, had the right body parts and no leaves and it was moving a little. This was looking to be a pretty successful day.

13 Henny B-F-R, Aladren Go us 211 Henny B-F-R, Aladren 0 5

Valerie

February 10, 2013 1:16 PM

I can't imagine why anyone would want a stick bug. by Valerie

Valerie smiled, pleased that Brianna had agreed to work with her. She enjoyed spending time with her friend and it might make doing the essay more enjoyable. Plus, the Crotalus always worried about whether or not someone would want to spend time with her or fear catching something from her. She didn't think she was all that well liked and the only people who did like her were Melanie, Ryan, Michael and Brianna. Sully Quincy was also okay, she liked him too, but they weren't necessarily close, though for somebody not a proper pureblood, Valerie thought he was real gentleman.

Unfortunately, none of these people were on her challenge team. Paul Bennett was, but she didn't know where she stood with him or Topher and the rest were younger students. What if they lost because of her? Valerie knew she was obsessing about this a bit and stressing about it which she really shouldn't, because it wasn't good for her health, but she couldn't help it. Whenever she thought about it, she felt so anxious that her stomach would hurt. They'd lose because of her and they'd all hate her. The fifth year found this to be a very troubling thought.

She wondered how Brianna was handling it. In addition to being concerned for herself, she was concerned for her friend. Valerie knew the whole thing would be difficult for both of them and given what Brianna had went through with those awful boys, she didn't want people to turn against her. Though at least the Crotalus had Derry Pierce on her team, and he seemed awfully nice. Valerie figured the Teppenpaw would look out for Brianna. That was a luxury she didn't have. The best she could do was that if someone was mean to her, maybe Ryan would be capable of transfiguring them into something, but she didn't think he had him in it to do something like that, nor did Valerie really want him to.

"It went all right." She replied, showing Brianna how far she'd gotten. Valerie didn't think she'd done too good, really, not nearly what she was capable of. Which was pretty much the story of her life as far as school work went but usually she had the excuse of having been sick and having a lot of make up work to do. The Crotalus was hoping this wouldn't be a problem this year quite so much and maybe she could have more of a life too, spend more time with her friends. Brianna at least, since Michael had a new girlfriend he was busy with. She'd never thought she was quite as important to him as his other friends anyway.

"I don't think I wanted it to change badly enough." Valerie admitted. "I don't really like bugs very much." She looked at the stick critically. "That one little leg sticking out looks awfully pathetic though." The fifth year sighed. "I suppose I should try again. Insecare !" This time the stick shrunk and sprouted more legs. The pot thinned and turned brown. "Well, it's...better." She hoped she could get it down to the appropriate size. The last thing she wanted was for it to become a giant stick bug.

Valerie turned to Brianna. "Hey, do you want to eat lunch together?" What she really wanted to do was tell the other Crotalus that she was here for her any time she wanted to talk. She wanted to do anything she could, though she didn't feel she could do much at all.

11 Valerie I can't imagine why anyone would want a stick bug. 204 Valerie 0 5

Alicia

February 13, 2013 2:57 PM

Once or twice, maybe. by Alicia

Alicia allowed herself a brief, self-satisfied smile when Cepheus complimented her work. “Thank you,” she said. Her gaze, though, turned more critical as she actually looked over the plant, which still didn’t really match her image of a stick insect. It was an animated withered plant partially bent into the shape of an insect, with a back end which – misshapen because that was where the pot had been – almost looked more like that of a gigantic ant, which wasn’t pleasant for her to look at because Alicia hated ants. “It needs work, but I’ll take it for the first day back.” She shook her head. “It’s criminal how they want to keep us from using magic all summer. It’s almost like asking us not to breathe. Completely ridiculous.”

Once again, the Muggleborns and the idiots and the other idiots who assumed everyone under seventeen – as though that were some kind of magic number; Kate was seventeen, and Alicia could run rings around her any day of the week – had ruined it for everyone. She knew what the reasoning was: the Muggleborn idiots, and the idiots who lived in communities where they could be seen, would want to show off in front of the Muggles, since most of them weren’t bright enough to realize that Muggles weren’t worth impressing, and then…Blood and fire, and all because children could not be trusted to act sensibly. There were flaws in the logic about the size of the front doors of Sonora, such as why they didn’t just seize Muggleborn children as soon as their abilities manifested instead of giving them years to have revealing accidents they couldn’t even explain in, but that was how those in authority thought.

Frankly, Alicia didn’t think the Muggles would believe if anyone told them, or even showed them. They would think it was a trick, like the Loch Ness Kelpie, or put it down to the influence of drugs or mental illness, or something. Because they were stupid. They had developed technologies which could destroy the world, but they were still, deep down, just stupid, half-animated lumps of clay. Which made it incomprehensible to Alicia why the old families, those with the real power, had chosen to stop fighting them now that they had finally decided the threat didn’t really exist.

“Your chivalry knows no bounds,” Alicia said with a smirk of her own when Cepheus promised to take her to the ball if she got desperate.

The idea of things being strictly platonic was, in a way, almost appealing – not having to wonder and second-guess and all that – but even that wouldn’t solve her real problem, which was how closely girls who went to the ball with the kind of boys all her friends were would be looked at by those complacent old families, who still weren’t complacent at all about certain things. Such as the rising power and funds of people like her stepfather, who might choose to bring up people like her on his coattails, opening the doors to a wave of them eventually becoming important at some point more distant in the future. Families didn’t just consider the present, and a precedent was dangerous. A handful of precedents, or at least things she’d been told had happened before, were why Alicia dreamed of being happy someday, and that was something those old men would do an awful lot to make her stop thinking about if they figured out she did. She could end up with every single person she even vaguely liked except Henny cutting all ties with her by the end of the summer if things went bad. "I'd do the same for you, but let's hope it works out a little better than desperation for both of us, hm?"

16 Alicia Once or twice, maybe. 210 Alicia 0 5

Melanie

February 15, 2013 5:09 PM

Yay! by Melanie

"Oh." Sometimes, she did that too, thinking outloud, but only when nobody was around. Melanie didn't want them to look at her funny or ask her about it. They might think she was crazy and she couldn't let her parents think that they had two daughters with problems. She had to be the strong one that never worried them at all so they could focus on Valerie. Or at least, her father did, Mother was much too selfish. Plus, it would probably reflect poorly on their family if they both had something wrong with them. "I guess I'm sorry to have bothered you. I didn't realize, I assumed you were talking to me."

"Thank you." Melanie replied smiling. She'd done pretty good, she supposed. It was never about getting something perfectly the first time, it was about doing something at all. So far, she couldn't think of a time she'd failed in that respect in any class though naturally some spells went better than others. Transfiguration was probably the one where she got the best results the quickest. Theory and essays came pretty easily to her too, she was very good at research, having had to practice a lot of these things in order to help Valerie who was two years ahead of her. Though Melanie usually let Ryan help her sister with this class, because he was brilliant at it and she knew it made him feel good to help others with something he was good at. He needed that, she didn't.

Hopefully, though, the fifth year wouldn't need quite so much help this year, despite that it would have been easier to help her given they were working on the same material. However, the main reason Valerie had needed so much help was because she'd been sick so often and had trouble keeping up with schoolwork. That wasn't going to happen anymore. While Melanie held no illusions that Valerie would never get sick, she had to keep thinking it wasn't going to happen as much.

The Teppenpaw nodded. "That makes perfect sense to me. I was concentrating on more of making it look like a stick bug then actually bringing it to life." Because she really, really, really did not like bugs. Her instinct when she saw one was to kill it, the one act of violence Melanie felt she was capable of committing. She could probably even use the killing curse on one and not mind it, even though she was against said curse in general. She didn't just see this as protecting her sister, she saw it as that insects were nasty repulsive things that she didn't want around.

She watched as Henny tried again, this time showing improvement. "Good job!" Melanie told the other girl, looking back down at her own project with trepidation. She wanted it to stay wooden, it was gross enough that way without it crawling all over her desk and her books, or worse, herself. The idea of bugs crawling all over oneself was the most disgusting thing that the Teppenpaw could imagine. Yet, she didn't want to fail the class. " Insecare ". This time it's front legs started to move and she felt a bit of revulsion. At least it couldn't get too far this way. Still, Melanie couldn't keep the look of disgust off her face.

11 Melanie Yay! 226 Melanie 0 5

Brianna

February 15, 2013 9:58 PM

It seems like a strange thing to want. by Brianna

Brianna smiled at Valerie and gave a small laugh. It was a very honest admittance to say that she hadn’t wanted to change it because it was a bug. Bugs didn’t bother Brianna at all. Not even spiders. She had grown up used to them in some ways, living on the lowest floor of the condominium, so bugs were rather normal for her. She had a fondness for lady bugs and butterflies to the point where her father called her Bug. It was a cute pet name that never bothered her whenever he said it, but she was sure that if anyone else heard it, they would twist it into something sour. They always twisted everything. It was a special name between her and her father and she never wanted anyone to ruin that.

“Really?” She asked her. “I don’ t mind them so much.” Brianna admitted. She supposed even if she had been scared of bugs at one point, she had learned that there are far worse things to be afraid of in life than something barely the size of her finger. “I mean, I wouldn’t necessarily enjoy having one crawl on me when I’m not expecting it, but they don’t offend me in any way.” That was fair enough of an explanation. She felt that a phobia against bugs seemed silly. They were so small and, in most cases, rather harmless. They were probably more confused by the giants wandering around than anything else. But she kept those thoughts to herself. People might find her strange if she spoke like that.

“It does look better.” Brianna commented. The talking helped keep her mind off of the pain so that she could concentrate better. She tried the spell again and watched the plant transform some more. This was much better than her first try. She was able to focus more and the results seemed to show that.

“Hm..?” Brianna mumbled looking away from her bug to Valerie, taking the moment for her words to sink in. “Oh, sure.” Brianna stated after she figured it out. “I’ll have to head back to the dorm quick though since I forgot my heating pad and my back really hurts, but I can eat with you after that.” She hoped it wouldn’t take her too long to get to the dorms from class and back to the hall, but she figured if she did it all before lunch, she could just go straight to class when she was done eating.

0 Brianna It seems like a strange thing to want. 0 Brianna 0 5

Aria

March 03, 2013 5:49 PM

Thank you for coming. by Aria

Aria did not see a difference of how one raised their wands. Magic against a living creature, whether is was for dark reasons or for light reasons, was not right no matter what. Aria was okay with practicing magic in class with her classmates only because they had a voice to use. If she was hurting them or if they didn’t want to participate, they could tell her so and she would then not do it or find another partner. She didn’t agree with using hexes or anything against another person even for learning the way they sometimes did in DADA, but the person she was using them against was aware and also learning. After words, Aria cleansed herself through mediation. On days when she felt a heavy burden for her sins, she asked for forgiveness.

These things she could not do with an animal. Whether for learning purposes or to be cruel, an animal had no rights in this situation. They could not tell her ‘no’. They could not stop her from raising her wand to them. They could not defend themselves because they are not aware of anything until it is too late. And, unless one was a mind reader of animals, they have no way to say for certain that the animal is not being harmed. Aria knew that Apparation was a charm, but she felt Transfiguration might play a small part as well and when a human splinched themselves, they were in horrible pain. How is it not the same for an animal that was only partially transfigured?

“I understand what you are saying, Professor Skies.” Aria said quietly. She really did not want to go against authority, but there were some things she just cannot do. “However, it still is against my Spiritual beliefs to use magic on or against animals.” Aria explained. She was finding herself being over-anxious by all of this. She and her parents knew this day would come, but now that she was faced with it, it was terrifying. She was not comfortable with Professor Skies. She seemed so strict and somewhat without feeling. Aria was comfortable with Professor Fawcett because even though he was strict, he seemed to understand. “I think that I would like to do the additional theory work and discuss this with you at a later time.” Aria did not want the other students to overhear her and use what she said to their advantage. Her beliefs were important to her and she didn’t want anyone to make fun of it.

0 Aria Thank you for coming. 0 Aria 0 5

Sully Quincy, Pecari

March 06, 2013 3:36 PM

Potentially my last Transfig class thread by Sully Quincy, Pecari

Sullivan had known fifth year was going to be horrible. The CATS waited maliciously at the end and all the teachers would no doubt spend the intervening time torturing them all in some misguided belief that it would help. Sully was unconvinced anything could.

He had almost forgotten that Transfiguration was going to be even worse than the rest. The unwelcome reminder came when Professor Skies explained the class format to the third years. As a fourth year, he had never moved beyond the easier assignment given to the third years. This was not because he was lazy and was trying to avoid extra work. No, it was because the easier assignments were still too hard for him to master and trying the harder stuff would just be downright suicidal for his grade, which was already Poor at best. Heck, he couldn't even get a toothpick to turn into a needle half the time, nevermind anything to do with animate transfigurations.

Now he didn't have a choice. As a fifth year, he had to do the harder one. This year sucked.

As the box of sticks passed by him, he was sorely tempted to take one and do the easier version of the spell anyway. He didn't, though, accepting a potted plant instead amd regarding it with a sense of hopeless doom.

His first attempt predictably had no effect at all. His pronunciation was fine, and his wand motion paralleled the stem just as it should, but transfiguation required confidence that something would happen even more than other wand-based subjects, and his was non-existent. Worse, he knew that was why it wasn't working, but he had no idea how to get the needed confidence without succeeding, but succeeding needed confidence. It was a horrible catch-22 that he could see no way to escape.

He sighed and sat back in his seat wishing ferverently for the class, and the year, to just be over already. Of course, even dropping Transfiguration wasn't going to make sixth year any better. He had not been ready to advanced to intermediate classes in third year. He was even less ready to face advanced classes next year. He started behind everyone else and every year it seemed like the gap between him and his classmates got bigger rather than smaller.

He probably should have told somebody when he realized he was drowning instead of treading water, but it seemed too late to bother now.

0 Sully Quincy, Pecari Potentially my last Transfig class thread 0 Sully Quincy, Pecari 0 5

Professor Skies

March 07, 2013 2:20 PM

That seems a shame by Professor Skies

Once she had set Aria some additional theory questions, Selina turned her attention to the rest of the class, passing between the rows with a 'good' here or a 'flick a little more – it's all in the wrist' there. Glancing down one, she saw Sullivan, staring miserably at nothing in particular. The plant on his desk looked identical to when she had handed them out. He was not a high scorer by any stretch of the imagination, but he had always turned in his homework in in more or less the state she had requested. She was sure she would have noticed if he spent most of the class just sitting there. In short, he was not someone she had pegged as lazy, just not the brightest button in the box, and thus this behaviour was uncharacteristic. With his CATS just around the corner, and perhaps being well aware of his own limitations, that might well explain the current vacant stare.

She walked over, gently placing a hand on his shoulder to try to bring him back to the here and now. She smiled in what she hoped was a reassuring fashion – no student liked being caught day dreaming and she didn't want him to think that she had come to chastise him.

“You look like you have a classic case of CATSitis,” she informed him. She considered her next remark. There was the fact that it was still early in the year, that he might have just stepped up to this level and that there was still time... Whilst true, those sounded like fairly bland platitudes. They weren't really going to solve his problems if he found them too difficult to believe. She would have liked to be able to stroll up to him, pinpoint his problem exactly and tell him the answer but students did have this terrible habit of being complicated people with minds of their own, containing an awful lot of things that they didn't give away. It made her job that much harder and meant that the best approach was usually the broad one... “Would you like to tell me why that is?” she asked softly, keeping her voice at a confidential level which included only her and Sullivan.

13 Professor Skies That seems a shame 26 Professor Skies 0 5

Sully Quincy, Pecari

March 07, 2013 3:29 PM

You only say that because you can do Transfigurations by Sully Quincy, Pecari

Sullivan jumped a little when a hand landed on his shoulder, but he managed to refrain from yelping or any other really embarassing behaviour in front of the whole class. Bad enough the professor caught him staring out at his doom instead of at least making an effort at giving the potted plant bug-like features.

His expression of simultaneous dismay and contrite apology faded in favor of one of wry amusement as she accused him of contracting CATSitis. Then that, too, faded, leaving him just looking hopeless and depressed. He turned to the plant, because it was easier to talk to something that couldn't look disappointed.

"I can't do it," he admitted glumly. "And I know I can't do it because I think I can't do it, but that doesn't change that I know I can't do it, because I haven't ever been able to do it right. Sometimes, I can get partials, but I don't think I've pulled off a whole Transfiguration since second year, and that only happened because the first lesson was easy enough for first years who never held a wand before!"

He drew in a deep breath, then let it out again. "Sorry, it's just really frustrating, because I might have been able to do something with the stick, but this thing is just impossible." He gestured sharply at the plant mocking him with its plantness and scowled at it direly. "I already know I'm going to fail my CATS. Plant Guy is just rubbing it in."

0 Sully Quincy, Pecari You only say that because you can do Transfigurations 0 Sully Quincy, Pecari 0 5

Professor Skies

March 07, 2013 5:54 PM

No, it's cos I want the most minions by Professor Skies

Professor Skies listened as the word's tumbled out of her student's mouth. So, the problem seemed to be just about everything, at least with her subject. Poor Sullivan... She felt a pang of guilt. To be stressed by CATS was one thing but to feel that he had never been able to achieve anything in the subject....

“Well, it sounds like you started off on the right foot. That lesson for people who had never held a wand before.... You completed it. Most of the people who were having their first lesson probably didn't. So, you can do some things. But somewhere between here and there it sounds like you've lost your way. And it sounds like I need to do something about helping you find it again. I don't want you to fail. I know not everyone can score an O but I like to think everyone does as well as they can. And you are better than getting a failing grade. You didn't fail my class last year. You will learn more this year. They put a big, scary label on the fifth year exams but it is just the next end of year exam.

“If you would prefer to work on a stick, then let's start there. Because the last thing I want is for you to feel hopeless. It sounds like we might need to take a few steps further back to find where you last felt comfortable. Would you like to come and see me during my office hours, so that we can work out where that was, and how we can help you find your feet again?”

13 Professor Skies No, it's cos I want the most minions 26 Professor Skies 0 5

Sully

March 07, 2013 8:19 PM

Oh, well, that's all right then. by Sully

He nodded a little reluctantly as Professor Skies belatedly praised his progress in second year. Knowing how poorly he'd done since then sort of took the glow out of it, but it still helped him feel like he wasn't a complete loser in the subject. He made a sound in his throat that even he didn't know how to interpret at the idea of getting an O - not just in Transfiguration, but in anything - on his CATS, and while it was true he hadn't failed Transfiguration last year, he was pretty sure it was only by the skin of his teeth.

Still, an A on his Transfiguration CATS would be a huge deal for him and if he had to do a little extra work during Professor Skies' office hours, a pass would be worth it. He was still less than convinced such a thing was even possible, but he'd give it a try for a little while to see if there was improvement, anyway.

He nodded slowly, "Yeah, that works," he agreed. "What time are your office hours again?"

In the meantime, he'd see if he could give a stick legs and maybe some eyes.

0 Sully Oh, well, that's all right then. 0 Sully 0 5

Thaddeus Pierce, Aladren

March 08, 2013 3:37 PM

Getting in just under the bell by Thaddeus Pierce, Aladren

Last year, as a first time Intermediate, Thaddeus Pierce had chomped at the bit and eyed the fifth year assignments with green envy simply because Derry was permitted to attempt them while he, as a mere third year, had been forbidden from doing so. He had written a scathing review of this policy in the year-end evaluations, and he was pleased to hear that Professor Skies had amended it this year.

It didn't help him any, as he was now a fourth year and was encouraged to select between the two options as he saw fit anyway - not that there was any choice involved when one was an overacheiving Aladren seeking Prefectly notice - but it was still pleasing to know that his criticisms were heard.

He cheerfully allowed the box of sticks to bypass him, feeling irrationally grown up and advanced simply by adding a potted plant to his desk's decor. It wasn't like he hadn't worked on the more advanced variations of last year's assignments in secret before, just to prove to himself that he could achieve better results than Derry had, but doing them legitimately, in front of Professor Skies, had somehow gained an inexplicable symbolism that he was finally coming of age.

He felt downright proud of himself and viewed the plant as some kind of badge of honor that he was hard pressed not to elevate on a small podium of textbooks so everyone could see he was doing the fifth year assignment.

It was total madness, of course. It was just a normal class lesson, only barely - barely! - hitting animate to animate territory, but it still felt special.

He drew forth his wand with a bit more ceremony than truly neccessary, ran it up and down the length of the main stem to get the feel of the wand motion, and repeating the incantation through his mind a few times until he was comfortable with the sound of it. Bringing it all together, he cast the spell on the next downward stroke of his wand.

The plant transformed, leaving a pot with a stick bug half buried in dirt and struggling to pull free. Granted, it still had a couple green leaves sprouting off its body, and the middle pair of legs was either too far back and buried with the rear pair, or missing entirely, but it wasn't bad for a first attempt at the nearly CATS level spell.

Turning to his neighbor, he asked uncertainly, "Do you know if we were supposed to transfigure the pot as well for the fourth and fifth year variant?"

0 Thaddeus Pierce, Aladren Getting in just under the bell 0 Thaddeus Pierce, Aladren 0 5

Professor Skies

Intermediate Transfiguration - a sticky situation by Professor Skies

Clara Abernathy

Sticky situation? You can say that again by Clara Abernathy

Liam Ammon, Pecari

I think I'll call him Stumpy by Liam Ammon, Pecari

Cepheus Princeton, Crotalus

Less sticky than sickly. by Cepheus Princeton, Crotalus

Alicia Bauer, Aladren

Poor darling. by Alicia Bauer, Aladren

Jorge Garcia, Pecari

I've seen worse. by Jorge Garcia, Pecari

Cepheus

Make it go away. by Cepheus

Alicia

*Vanishes the bug*. by Alicia

Michael Grosvenor

Stick into... whatever. by Michael Grosvenor

Eris Ackart

Maybe we could try transfiguring that frown? by Eris Ackart

Michael Grosvenor

I'm not sure I want you pointing a wand at my face... by Michael Grosvenor

Eris Ackart

I see your point... by Eris Ackart

Aria Yale, Teppenpaw

I think I'll call for an adult (PROFESSOR) by Aria Yale, Teppenpaw

Cepheus

It's not actually a bug yet, but I'm getting there. by Cepheus

Alicia

You'll make it. by Alicia

Mellie Goodwin, Pecari

Stickier than syrup, I'd say. by Mellie Goodwin, Pecari

Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren

Sticky Situation by Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren

Angel Jareau - Teppenpaw

I have seen better by Angel Jareau - Teppenpaw

Gareth Whitebriar - Crotalus

Hopefully it won’t get that messy by Gareth Whitebriar - Crotalus

Valerie Lennox, Crotalus

It sure is. by Valerie Lennox, Crotalus

Cepheus

You're an optimist. by Cepheus

Brianna Japos, Crotalus

I missed the point of this. by Brianna Japos, Crotalus

Michael

Glad you see my point by Michael

Alicia

Not really, just very sure of my opinions. by Alicia

Mellie

That would be a good thing. by Mellie

Cepheus

Brilliant, you are. by Cepheus

Alicia

I know, but thanks for saying it. by Alicia

Valerie

I'm not entirely sure there is one. by Valerie

Eris Ackart

I'm glad you're glad...or something by Eris Ackart

Clara Abernathy, Pecari

Really? Ahh drat...take two by Clara Abernathy, Pecari

Jorge

You don't have to be rude. by Jorge

Cepheus

I'm a sweet-talker. Haven't you noticed? by Cepheus

Professor Skies

Being called upon by Professor Skies

Henny B-F-R, Aladren

Not faring so badly by Henny B-F-R, Aladren

Brianna

Oh, wonderful. by Brianna

Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw

Neither am I by Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw

Henny B-F-R, Aladren

Go us by Henny B-F-R, Aladren

Valerie

I can't imagine why anyone would want a stick bug. by Valerie

Alicia

Once or twice, maybe. by Alicia

Melanie

Yay! by Melanie

Vanishes the bug. by Alicia