Isis Carter-Xavier
May 29, 2021 5:47 AM
Let the sparks and ear plugs fly! [Beginners] by Isis Carter-Xavier
“Welcome, students,” Isis greeted as the beginners filtered by her into the classroom. “Essays, please!” She held out her hand and offered a smile. When it was up to her, she tried not to assign too many essays to the younger years, but this one was short, anyway, and the research they had done for it would hopefully have prepared them for the day’s lesson. “If you need to sit down to get it out of a bag, that’s fine, just make sure it gets my way before we begin.”Once it seemed like she had all the students and essays she was likely to be getting today, Isis tapped her wand on the board, and the words red sparks appeared in an appropriately colored font and underlined itself.”Hopefully you all did your research and can easily identify the differences between the three red sparks charmed: Vermillious Uno, Vermillius Duo, and Vermillious Tria.” Similarly, the incantations appeared underneath their category on the board. “Can anyone tell me what is the purpose of this vein of magic?” Isis called on raised hands in the order she saw them, awarding points for answers that were close enough. Primarily, the spells were for signaling help, but they also made pretty decent minor defensive spells in a duel.
“Great job, guys. So obviously, the three vary in terms of strength and incantations. Today, I want you to assess which spell your partner is using based only on what you see.” Isis picked up a few packets of foam ear plugs and tossed one at Oz Spellman and one at another student farther back who looked sleepy and inattentive. “You’ll all need a pair of ear plugs so that you don’t hear the words your partner says, so come on up and get those.” There were a few options for size and color. While shopping for supplies, Isis discovered that ear plugs were apparently yet another needlessly gendered item, so she took the liberty of charming a few into other color options and repackaging.
“Try not to lip-read, if you can help it,” she added as the students returned to their seats. “I want you to primarily judge based on the strength of the spell and the wand movement. Take turns for a while, and in twenty minutes or so we’ll reconvene to discuss our findings.”
OOC: Hi gang! Info can be found on the HP wiki for all 3 spells:
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Red_Sparks
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Vermillious_Duo
and https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Vermillious_Tria
One important note: the wiki shows sort of a zig-zag wand movement for Uno and says Tria has a "downward slash" but does not provide info on Duo. For our purposes, let's assume it is a horizontal slash. Let me know if there are any questions!
Subthreads: That sounds incompatible with lying down by Oz Spellman with Henry Spellman
If that is what you want... by Iris Cobb with Lydia Priory
Magic Roman candles, got it. by Augustine Reed-Fischer with Rosalynn Tellerman
Anything worth doing . . . by Reighleigh Mae Thorn with Billy Cobb
*sighs* by Amethyst Brockert with Alexei Vorontsov
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Isis Carter-Xavier
Let the sparks and ear plugs fly! [Beginners]
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Iris Cobb
June 03, 2021 5:44 PM
If that is what you want... by Iris Cobb
Defense against the Dark Arts was not one of Iris' favorite classes. She could see why it was important, apparently there was quite a bit of dangerous stuff out there in the world. Still, that didn't mean she had to like it. A fair amount of it reminded her of growing up with Billy and his friends. She'd had generally harmless critters dropped on her, tossed in her direction and show up in all sorts of places that she was sure to find them. So, her reactions to surprises along those lines had been honed to the point where she was fairly good at quite a bit of the things they covered in this class. That still didn't mean she liked it.Essays were another thing that she wasn't all that fond of. Of course she had done it, she had followed the instructions and it wasn't a bit longer than it absolutely had to be. Iris fished the paper out of her bag and handed it to the Professor. Another practical lesson today, she thought as she listened to the professor begin class. Oh well. She stood and went up front to collect a set of earplugs, there was a lovely greenish-blue set that she selected. Now she just had to find a partner somewhere so that they could shoot each other with varying degrees of fire. Terrific. Iris very briefly toyed with the idea of seeing if Billy wanted to partner with her, just because she had no doubt that he would only use the biggest spell and that would make her task so much easier. However, she decided it wasn't worth it and soon spotted someone else.
"Hi!" She said to the cheerily, usually happiness got the best responses. "Ya wanna partner up for this?"
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Iris Cobb
If that is what you want...
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Lydia Priory
June 04, 2021 9:25 AM
Nothing about DADA is anything I want, but I do want to work with you. by Lydia Priory
Lydia had had a really good midterm. She had been delighted to see Mommy and Daddy and Connor and Gwendolyn and Misty and everyone else in her family again. Plus, she'd gotten really nice presents including a new American Witch doll and a cuddly teddy bear along with really pretty dresses.She wished that she was there now. It wasn't as if school overall was terrible but right now was Defense Against the Dark Arts which, aside from Flying, was Lydia's absolute least favorite class. It discussed terrifying subject material and sometimes involved dueling and having hexes being hurled at you. And dueling was not something the Teppenpaw was at all good at. She did not tend to be quick on her feet and was likely to get hit with something awful. Plus, it hurt her grade. Much like in flying, it was a class geared towards what Lydia wasn't and it was also the source of endless nightmares about being hit with a terrible hex and being humiliated in front of her peers or a dark creature or dark wizard-often Bridget's grandfather, since he was a dark wizard that she specifically knew about- coming after her.
However, it wasn't just the nightmares. It was the potential humiliation both from not being an athletic sort which was needed for certain lessons and the very real possibility that Lydia would end up breaking down and crying because either she was hit with something awful or because she simply couldn't keep up with certain lessons or she was legitmately scared. And if that happened, her classmates might bully her. For the next seven years.
So just being in Defense made Lydia extremely anxious and edgy, not knowing if they were going to learn something terrifying or do something humiliating today. As always, she felt mildly like throwing up as Professor Carter-Xavier introduced today's lesson. She relaxed slightly when it turned out to be about red sparks spells and also, not dueling. A spell that was used for signaling help was one Lydia was more likely to put to use if she was ever in a situation that called for it rather than actually fighting back herself. Assuming she even was capable of doing even that rather than being completely paralyzed with fear. Of course, the best way to go was to never be in such situations in the first place.
Now she had to go and find a partner, preferably none of the....rougher people. The Teppenpaw could maybe handle those people in a different class but in DADA, it was completely out of the question. Fortunately, Iris spoke to her first. "Absolutely!" Lydia replied in a mixture of happiness and relief.
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Lydia Priory
Nothing about DADA is anything I want, but I do want to work with you.
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Iris Cobb
June 05, 2021 3:55 PM
Well, You can get one thing that you want then. by Iris Cobb
If Iris had to guess, she didn't think Lydia much liked this class. She did sympathize, but at the same time, Iris herself would much rather learn about this sort of stuff in class rather than out in the wild. Plus, it wasn't like they had a choice in the matter. The class was a requirement and so they had to do it whether they liked it or not. Might as well make the best of it."Didja get your earplugs?" Iris asked Lydia merrily while showing off the pair she had picked up. "We should figure out a good systematic way of doing this if we won't be able to hear each other." She thought for a moment, "We'll need to figure out who is going when, and maybe do some sort of countdown?" Naturally there wouldn't be any such thing happening if they got themselves into an actual dual, but this was practice. She liked having all of the ground rules figured out before hand, and she thought they might help Lydia feel better as well.
"How 'bout you cast first, and I'll guess first?" Iris stuck one of her earplugs in while she talked. "Then I can hold up one, two or three fingers to indicate my guess. You can nod or shake your head to let me know if I was right and then we swap roles." She thought that made sense, "Sound good?"
Once things were settled, Iris stuck her second earplug in and watched her partner's movements. Now that she was the essays had gone over some of what she should look for, so hopefully this would work out okay.
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Iris Cobb
Well, You can get one thing that you want then.
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Lydia Priory
June 12, 2021 1:42 PM
Good enough by Lydia Priory
Oh, right, earplugs. Lydia flushed slightly. "I better do that."Regardless of color preferences, ultimately, earplus were earplugs. It was much more important to her to procure a decent partner, particularly someone she was comfortable with than anything else. Unfortunately, the list of people that the Teppenpaw was comfortable with was very short and only consisted of one person who was available at this moment, which was Iris so fortunately, that was who she was partnered with. The only other people were Val, Bridget and sort of Sophia.It was deeply sad that her older sister was only a person she felt "sort of" comfortable with. She knew the sixth year wouldn't deliberately hurt her,both because Sophia cared about consequences and because she was just not evil like that, but at the same time, the Aladren wasn't a terribly patient person-and in DADA, Lydia needed someone patient-and besides the younger girl always felt like Sophia was irritated with her. Or just plain irritated about something. The sixth year often seemed like she just slightly less grouchy than Headmaster Brockert was.
However, this was not the time to worry about that because Lydia... had DADA stuff to worry about. And DADA was much more scary than her sister or the school's headmaster. Although she needed to focus on the positive. She was working with Iris-the literally only person in the room she was at all comfortable with-and that the lesson could be far far worse. This lesson was actually...not that scary. They were not dueling, they were not throwing hexes at each other.
"Those are a pretty color." She said about her friend's earplugs. She walked up and picked out a pink pair of her own. Iris's were nice but she didn't want to be a copycat. Besides, pink was Lydia's favorite color anyway.
The Teppenpaw nodded. "Sounds like a plan." She put her earplugs in and got into the correct position. "Ready? One, two, three. Vermillious Tria !' Obviously, if she was in a situation where she needed to signal for help, she was going to use the strongest spell but she made sure to point the spell away from the other first year since Lydia didn't want to take a chance on hurting anyone, especially not someone who didn't pose a threat to her and was someone she considered her friend. To be honest, the thought of hurting anyone or anything was deeply upsetting.
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Lydia Priory
Good enough
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Iris Cobb
June 14, 2021 6:05 PM
Now on to the fun part? by Iris Cobb
"Thanks," Iris replied to Lydia's complement to her earplugs, "They're almost the same color as the pond back home." At least, she thought, when it was nice and quiet and some people weren't making a ruckus. It was one of her favorite places. "Yours are nice too." she commented back. Pink was a nice color as well, but it wasn't super high on her list of favorites.As Lydia got into position Iris tried to recall what all she had written in that essay about these spells. She had done it, but now that she actually had to recall the information she couldn't remember which motions went with with spell. One was zig-zaggy, one was a vertical slash and one was a horizontal slash. That sounded right, but which was which? She did her best to watch Lydia's wand and not her mouth, because they weren't supposed to and that would be cheating.
Her partner made a downward slash and a significant amount of sparks burst forth from the wand. That was a bunch of sparks, was it the three version, Tria? Or was that only the Duo version and the Tria might be even bigger? The zig-zag motion was the most complicated one, was that for Tria? No! She remembered now, she had thought that was a bit odd when she was writing the paper, the complicated gesture one was the weakest one. So it wasn't Uno... that didn't help her much, she didn't think it had been.
She held up two fingers to guess at Duo with an uncertain expression on her face. Right or wrong, once she had the answer, she'd know what they all were by wand motion. If she was right, vertical was Duo and horizontal was Tria, if she was wrong they were the other way around.
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Iris Cobb
Now on to the fun part?
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Lydia Priory
June 16, 2021 2:02 PM
Sorry, we have to do DADA stuff before we can have fun by Lydia Priory
"Thanks." Lydia responded. Briefly, she wondered if maybe Iris was a tad homesick and that was why she picked earplugs that reminded her of something at home. The Teppenpaw hoped her friend wasn't feeling that way, but it was something she could certainly relate to. Which might be one reason that she wouldn't want Iris to feel that way.She waited for the other girl to guess which of the three spells that she had done. Iris held up two fingers and Lydia shook her head, feeling bad. First of all, because she didn't want her friend to feel bad if she got something wrong. Although not everyone would, the Teppenpaw knew that she would personally. Not that Iris should but Lydia herself was the sort who was embarassed if she got something wrong . The Teppenpaw knew what it was to feel inadequate and weak and like you couldn't do things for yourself. The other first year wasn't necessarily feeling that way, but Lydia didn't want her to.
And was it somehow her fault that Iris got it wrong? Was her display of sparks not strong enough? Lydia had thought they were plenty bright but maybe she should have made her wand movements a bit clearer. Or maybe her magic was not that strong although regardless of whether or not she was strong in other ways there never had been any indication that that was the case. Still, the Teppenpaw could have mixed up the movements and done the wrong one though she thought she had done a downward slash. After all, had Lydia done the wrong combination then it would have failed completely, either nothing would have happened at all or there would have been a disaster.
Thankfully, neither of those things were the case. The mere thought of disaster made the first year a bit queasy, she would hate to get hurt or hurt Iris. Or anyone else for that matter. Plus, she might have gotten in trouble had something gone awry and her classmates would have noticed both the disaster and her getting yelled at. And nothing happening wouldn't have been much better because it would have meant she wasn't that good at magic.
Anyway, she supposed that she must not have made a mistake and the Crotalus simply had guessed wrong. And now Lydia had to tell her that. Which in some cases was also a scary prospect because some people didn't take that well, though Iris had never given any indication of being that sort of person. The Teppenpaw was going to go on assuming it would be fine, since she didn't have a choice at this point. She held up three fingers, indicating Tria .
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Lydia Priory
Sorry, we have to do DADA stuff before we can have fun
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Iris Cobb
June 17, 2021 6:25 PM
Can we make this fun? by Iris Cobb
Iris thought Lydia looked a little uncertain as she held up three finger to indicate that she had done the strongest of the spells. Was she unsure of which she had cast? That seemed unlikely. Anyway, Iris now knew which wand motions went with each spell. Great! She smiled back at Lydia and gave her a thumbs-up sign that she understood. Uno was the complicated one, Duo was the horizontal slash and Tria was the vertical slash. That should make the rest of this task easy enough now.She thought about which one of the spells she was going to cast for Lydia to identify. If she had just cast the Tria, she'd easily figure that one out. So if they were testing each other, she should do one of the other two. Well, why not do the complicated simple one? She gestured to her partner that she was ready to cast and took up a proper spell casting stance.
"Vermillius Uno!" Iris called out as she waved her wand around in the zig-zag motion that had caught her attention in the essay. A small shower of red sparks erupted from the end of her wand. It was a rather feeble showing when compared to the Tria level spell that Lydia had preformed. Iris was forced to wonder when the different levels of the spell would be useful. In what situation would you want to use Uno over Tria? If you wanted attention, the more sparks the better, right?
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Iris Cobb
Can we make this fun?
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Lydia Priory
June 20, 2021 3:39 PM
We can try by Lydia Priory
It looked like Iris was not bothered by getting it wrong, which was good. Lydia actually smiled. Which was something that rarely happened in DADA of course. This class was an endless source of misery for her as was Flying. Still, she liked that Iris was pleased. It made her happy when people she liked were happy even if she didn't quite understand why the Crotalus had made the thumbs up sign when she'd guessed wrong. Lydia assumed that it just meant things were all good and that they could move on.Which now meant it was her turn to guess. Okay, that sounded like something she could handle. She hadn't really had any problem with her essay and she was sure she remembered which motion went with which version of the spell. The Teppenpaw always tried to do her best with everything, but especially parts of DADA were less awful and terrifying and/or athletically demanding, such as essays to make up for the scary and/or athletic parts that Lydia knew full well she wasn't going to do well at.
Although, to be honest, the scary stuff, at least when theoretical was incredibly easy for her to remember. In fact, it was pretty much impossible to forget, thinking about dark creatures and dark magic. She could even perform the defensive spells when it was simply just performing them. The problem came when Lydia had to actually face these things practically. When there were spells being fired at her or if they somehow had a simulation of creatures coming after her. That was when she got too scared to handle it. Everyone and everything was bigger and stronger than her and she was helpless in these situations.
Also, remembering how to do a spell, the right combination of words and wand motions was part of magic, regardless of which discipline and it was just as simple to remember words that were part of protecting yourself in DADA-even if you found it hard to apply them practically- as it was to remember a charm or transfiguration. Lydia watched as Iris did a zig-zag motion and red sparks shot out of the other girl's wand. The Teppenpaw held up one finger for Uno.
She hoped she was right and not just because generally speaking, she preferred to be right just as most people did but also because, if the Crotalus had done a stronger spell and Lydia thought it was a weaker one, then it might be seen as an insult to Iris's magical strength. Then again, Iris had guessed that the Teppenpaw had done Duo when she'd done Trio and Lydia hadn't been offended, so maybe Iris wouldn't be either. Or maybe Lydia had guessed correctly, she waited to see whether or not she had.
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Lydia Priory
We can try
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