Jozua Sparks

October 14, 2016 1:01 PM

[HoH Office] If I could impose on your time, Professor Pye? by Jozua Sparks

Jozua approached the Aladren Head of House office, which was conveniently located near the library so he didn't need to make a special trip for it. He was still working his way through the collection of biographies of wizards and witches famous for real life acts of derring-do, whether that be for exploration, dueling, or general awesomeness. In anticipation of this meeting, he had just checked out one biography on the duelist Hagen and another book on the forms, rituals, and common spells used in wizard duels.

He knocked, and when he was allowed inside, he screwed up his courage and entered. Professor Pye was a good teacher. No homework was pretty cool, and his quizzes weren't even too bad if you just paid attention and kept up on the reading. He was a bit on the more strict side compared to others, but not horrendously so.

Still, he was a Pye, and ex-auror, and a DADA professor, so by default, Jozua felt just a little bit intimidated approaching the man on his home turf, alone, and without prior invitation. "Uh, hi," he began, obviously a master of eloquence. "At orientation last year, Mr. Xa- I mean, Professor Xavier said we could start clubs that don't already exist, and I was hoping to make a dueling club, and I kind of thought, since you're the DADA professor and all, that you'd be the best choice for advisor and supervisor since it's kind of dangerous with all the hexes and stuff. W-would that be something you'd be interested in helping with, or should I ask someone else?"

Unlike science or book club, who mostly had honorary advisors, a dueling club would probably require an adult presence actively engaged in each meeting, and Jozua felt a little nervous asking for such a commitment from a professor he didn't really know all that well. Professor Xavier would have been much easier to approach but Jozua simply could not visualize the affable portly herbologist in charge of a dueling club and so here he was.
1 Jozua Sparks [HoH Office] If I could impose on your time, Professor Pye? 348 Jozua Sparks 1 5


Professor Pye

October 19, 2016 3:18 AM

Consider it imposed. by Professor Pye

Alfie had always operated under the theory that any moment the world could be taken over by dark wizards and that the students of Sonora upon emergence into the real world would be grossly under prepared to take on the evils that lurked around every corner. To say that Alfie was paranoid would be putting it lightly. But it worked for him and that's why so many of his students were extremely proficient in his practical exams. Perhaps they might have hates him for his strict expectations on neat wand work, but it was for their own good--and his, really. He didn't want to have to live with the idea that one of his students would leave Sonora and then be unable to properly defend themselves should they wind up on the wrong end of a rather nasty witch or wizard.

So when Jozua Sparks came to him asking to start a duelling club, Alfie was very pleased. He started his students duelling in class early. About two weeks into the school year he started the intermediate and advanced students while he taught the basic shield charm and body bind curse to the beginners. He couldn't believe he had ever thought that was enough. Jozua was completely right-- the students of Sonora deserved more, they needed more if they wanted to survive. He had just been too preoccupied by his personal and familial problems to realise his one greatest short coming as a Defence professor.

Alfie nodded. “I’m ashamed to not have thought of it myself, next year you’ll start duelling in the intermediate level classes. I hold rather frequent duelling lessons, but to work with students outside the restraints of a classroom…” Alfie knew he couldn’t get too crazy, he was still employed by the school. But as a club was an extra curricular class, he could go more in detail with students who were interested in the subject unlike those who simply took it because it was required and would drop it as soon as their sixth year would allow them. “I’ll run it by the heads this evening and get back to you tomorrow, okay?”

Yes, training a whole group of students to defend themselves against the evil world was exactly why Alfie had come to love his job.
10 Professor Pye Consider it imposed. 30 Professor Pye 0 5

Jozua

November 09, 2016 4:10 PM

Great! I mean, thank you! by Jozua

Jozua grinned, pleased when Professor Pye not only seemed interested but also expressed regret that the club wasn't already in operation. Awesome. Not awesome that it hadn't existed before and now he'd made Pye feel bad about it, but awesome that the idea seemed to be very well received. "That would be great!" Jozua enthused when the professor offered to run the idea by the Heads tonight. The guy wasn't wasting any time, was he? Jozua felt much more confident in his choice of club advisor/teacher. "Tomorrow sounds perfect."

Also of great interest was the promise that dueling would play a large part of his intermediate class in DADA, and that was definitely something Jozua was looking forward to.

He hesitated a moment, not sure if that was it and he was dismissed now, or if he was expected to offer some more details on how this club might go. Was it now Pye's club, or did Jozua still have founder's right to dictate how a student run club worked. Was this something that could even be student run, in the way other Sonora clubs were? Or was Pye already seeing it as a voluntary extension of his class?

"Um, do you want or need anything else from me? I mean, it's awesome that I'll get real dueling lessons next year, but my practical experience currently is pretty much just the disarming charm you taught us last year, so I'm kind of thinking you'd do most of the instruction and refereeing, right? I can put up signs and stuff, though, that kind of thing."
1 Jozua Great! I mean, thank you! 348 Jozua 0 5