Unsure what karma has to do with chameleons, but okay [Jake] on Charms

Professor Perrault

January 11, 2017 4:24 PM

Karma, karma, karma chameleon [VI & VII years] by Professor Perrault

“Good afternoon, class,” Edward smiled from behind his desk when his students arrived and it was time to commence the lesson. “I have finished marking your mock papers,” he told them. “I’ll send them around as I take roll call.” He began taking the register whilst the papers distributed themselves around the room, landing on the desk in front of the right students.

Edward wanted his students to do well, as any teacher should do, and he put a lot of effort into making sure they could reach their full potential. He knew his Advanced class may not have thanked him for it, but he had set them a mock written test shortly after their return from the midterm break, which they’d been given advance warning of before they broke up for the holiday and had thus had plenty of time to prepare for. Although he still had a large part of the syllabus to teach, the seventh years (for whom this was more relevant) had already spent a year in the Advanced class.

The Charms teacher had also wanted to get in a mock practical but had decided against doing that at the same time as the written, even though when it came to the real thing they’d have all of their exams pretty close together. He still planned to do a practical test, but it probably wouldn’t be as formal.

“Now,” Edward said once he had finished. He stood up and moved around to the front of his desk. “Well done to those of you who did well. You all know your target grades by now, so any of you who achieved two or more grades below that in the test will have to resit it. I shall arrange when that will be and let you know.” He wasn’t punishing them, merely giving them another opportunity to practise for the real exam. He was confident by this point in the year that the target grades he’d assigned the students individually were appropriate so if anyone was missing theirs by a significant amount, he suspected it was due to a lack of effort and preparation. If it were a lack of understanding of the exam style, he could usually spot this in the way they answered the questions and therefore help them.

“What I would like to do,” Edward continued, “is to talk to each of you individually and go through your papers with you. I want you to understand where you went wrong on some of the questions and this is also time for you to ask me to explain anything to you. I will remind you that my door is always open if you need any help or aren’t understanding anything, so please do ask and if you wish for extra tuition leading up to your RATS then do ask.”

“The same applies for you sixth years,” Edward added. “I know you won’t be sitting your RATS at the end of the year but it is always good to ask for help.” He’d set two different tests for the sixth years and the seventh years, which was one of the reasons he was going through the papers individually rather than going through everything for the whole class together.

“Alright, so this is how today’s lesson will work. As we’ve been learning about the Disillusionment Charm recently, I’d like you all to continue your practice with that. There are still several large objects from the previous lesson for you to use, as you can see, but I expect most of you seventh years to be performing the charm on yourselves by now. Sixth years, you may also begin to try it on yourselves if you’re feeling confident. Seventh years, if you are confident with self-Disillusionment, you may partner up and try it on each other but please be careful. Please only advance if you feel completely confident - take things at your own pace and keep practising what you see fit, there’s no pressure.”

“So just to quickly remind you all,” Edward pushed off from his desk, standing up straight. “The incantation is Occulo and for one of the objects, or your partner, you just need to tap on them. For casting the charm on yourselves, you need to twirl your wand around yourselves, like so-” Edward performed the spell on himself, so that he was concealed. He cast the counter-spell, Finite Incantatem, aloud as a reminder to the class.

“I’ll call you up to the front of the class one by one so bring your paper with you when I call your name,” Edward instructed the class. “In the meantime, just get on with practising the Disillusionment Charm. If you need any help, please don’t hesitate to interrupt me.”

OOC: It is your choice what your character’s target grade is (but please note that Edward would not be unrealistic and bases it off their CATS results and/or class performance) and what they achieved in their mock test.

Subthreads:

I'm disillusioned. by Aiden O'Neil (Teppenpaw) with Scarlett Brockert,Pecari

Unsure what karma has to do with chameleons, but okay [Jake] by Olivier Westley, Crotalus

You jump, I jump [tag: Liac] by Tobi Reinhardt, Teppenpaw

Target achieved by Clark Dill, Aladren

8 Professor Perrault Karma, karma, karma chameleon [VI & VII years] 0 Professor Perrault 1 5

Aiden O'Neil (Teppenpaw)

January 11, 2017 6:16 PM

I'm disillusioned. by Aiden O'Neil (Teppenpaw)

Aiden had not enjoyed the mock exam that they had been given. He had studied for it, of course, and his parents had helped him with any questions he had while he studied over the break, but that did not mean that he was confident in actually completing the test. Aiden had a difficult time with this sort of thing. He was fair better at practical than he was at written because practical was simply performing a spell he knew by heart and written was trying to explain it. If it was multiple choice, he could get by alright that way, but he could not explain things very well (verbally or written). After he had taken the mock exam, he felt a little better. He knew the majority of the work thanks to his parents help (and Savannah’s once they returned to school), so he was confident enough to believe that he had managed to pass it.

Now, however, walking into the classroom, he was nervous that he hadn’t passed and he would have to take it all over again. His performances in lessons were pretty consistently average. His practical portion of lessons made up for the written part which was what kept him afloat. Getting the exam back, he found that he was still consistently performing with his A. An A he could do. It was passing. It wasn’t the greatest and it was where the Professor expected him to fall, so an A would do just fine. Aiden sighed with relief and relaxed in his seat as the Professor finished roll call and went on to start the lesson.

He really didn’t want to discuss his test, but that was going to be inevitable as it seemed. Aiden sighed. He hated discussing his grades with people. They weren’t great, but they weren’t awful either. What was wrong with mediocre anyway?

Instead of thinking about the discussion, Aiden focused on the lesson. He had awhile before his name was called if they were going through alphabetical order based on last name. Aiden went over to one of the bookcases that were available for the charm and looked it over. He had done alright when he first started doing this charm, so he should be able to disillusion this item pretty easily. Once he was capable of that, then he would be confident enough to try it on himself.

Raising his wand, Aiden spoke the charm with a clear voice and watched has it began to fade into the background. It was nearly completely gone before the charm seemed to stop and he found himself staring at a faint bookshelf. He removed the charm and tried again. The second time ended with the same results. A frown formed on his lips and he looked around to see what his neighbors were capable of. “I’m getting stuck on the end result.” He stated when his neighbor caught him watching. “I can’t figure out why.” He explained to them. “It just won’t take that last step for me.”

6 Aiden O'Neil (Teppenpaw) I'm disillusioned. 287 Aiden O'Neil (Teppenpaw) 0 5

Scarlett Brockert,Pecari

January 12, 2017 10:37 PM

Yea, I'm bit so as well by Scarlett Brockert,Pecari

Sometimes Charms-well really all her classes-could be a total pain. Scarlett groaned internally at the mention of target grades. Honestly, she objected to the whole concept. If your target grade was higher, it put more pressure on you to achieve more. And certain people really didn't need any more pressure. And if you were on the lower end of target grades, it was basically calling someone stupid. How would it feel for someone to find out their target grade was a P? What would that do to one's self-esteem. Her own happened to be an A while her sister and probably Chaslyn were expected to get Os, though she didn't know that it was Professor Perrault who put that target on Chaslyn but Aunt Jillian. Or Chaslyn herself in order to please Aunt Jillian.

The thing was Scarlett was really pretty good at the practical stuff in regards to Charms albeit not quite as much as in Transfiguration. She could even grasp some theory, it's just that she found it extremely dull and so when Professor Perrault went on about it, her eyes just glazed over and Savannah explained it to her later where Scarlett paid attention. Not to mention when they had to do things like research papers which Savannah had so much more patience for than she did. However, Professor Perrault mostly likely regarded her as the dumb twin when that wasn't at all the case. Savannah did better in school because she found it interesting. Scarlett did not.

The whole system just caused another hierarchy. People complained about there being one with regards to blood status, but then a teacher went around putting an academic one in place. How was that okay? If one hierarchy was bad, so were others. Judging someone on their academic prowess was not any better than judging one on blood status. And no teacher was endorsing-at least not publically-the one about blood status. Scarlett figured it had to work on at least a subconscious level for people like the Headmaster. Whereas it was actively being created here.

Of course maybe this one bothered her more than the blood status one because she wasn't on top like she was there. However, a teacher still shouldn't be condoning any sort of hierarchy.

She sighed. At least today's lesson was a practical one which was always better. She could go above her target grade and get an E perhaps. However, before she gave it a try, she had some other business to attend to. Looking around the room, she spotted the person she wanted to speak with.

The Pecari approached her sister's boyfriend but before she could say anything, he spoke. "Huh." Scarlett replied. "I'm not sure why that is either. I assume you're doing the motions and pronounciations right and really want to make the bookcase disappear. Perhaps you're stressed about going over the mock tests. Like even if you're concentrating on this, that could be there in the back of your mind, on some subconscious level." The Pecari suggested.

She went on though, "Hey. I never got a chance to tell you I really like the earrings you gave me." They were currently gleaming from her ears. " It was so nice of you to think about me, and I know it impressed Savannah too that you cared enough to get me something too."

11 Scarlett Brockert,Pecari Yea, I'm bit so as well 293 Scarlett Brockert,Pecari 0 5

Olivier Westley, Crotalus

January 12, 2017 11:00 PM

Unsure what karma has to do with chameleons, but okay [Jake] by Olivier Westley, Crotalus

Olivier was feeling rather bitter. Seventh year was half way over and Lena was still dating Clark Dill. Their parents, though lovely, weren't the sort to care much what polite society gossiped about and had raised both their children to love (or hate, in Olivier's case) people from all backgrounds equally. Clark's blood status was not what Olivier objected to--not really, anyway. Lena was a nice, pretty, pureblood witch from a good family. They had managed to stay out of the public's eye for the most part and lived in an isolated village in Wales so they weren't as well known as say, the Brockerts or Careys were in the United States. They weren't even as prominent as the Lucans who, although a very good family, tended to stay out of the public eye for the most part.

But Clark was a muggleborn (he would have called him a mudblood but he was Lena's friend) whose best friend thought it appropriate to dance with unsightly animate beings created by the dimwitted professors to liven up the ball. Or whatever. Dating Clark was a step down for Lena, Olivier knew it, everyone knew it. He was happy she was happy, but...everyone knew that pureblood girls in their seventh year always ended up marrying whoever it was they were dating that year and Olivier for one was not going to stand to have Clark as his brother-in-law. Certainly this muggleborn couldn't take care of Lena properly.

Just thinking about what people would say about his precious sister made Olivier sick to his stomach. It wasn't her fault that other people couldn't love (or hate) everyone equally like they could! But because they couldn't it was Olivier's job to make sure she didn't further ruin her reputation (part of him wondered what good a reputation, something that was completely a meaningless social construct if one didn't care what others thought about them and part of Olivier really didn't think other people's opinions mattered because hardly anyone was intelligent enough to have the right one) by marrying Clark Dill.

He was so distracted that he wasn't paying much attention as Professor Perrault introduced the lesson or announced the returning of their mock tests. When he snapped back into it, there was an exam paper on the desk in front of him and he flipped it over to reveal an O. Not surprising, there wasn't much for Olivier to do other than study since no one at the school interested him enough to hang out with them, and even though he knew he was more together than any other student or professor there even he wasn't egotistical enough to think he therefore didn't need to study!

Olivier smiled happily at his grade and left it over turned on the table--let the others see, the only Olivier they knew was cheerful and happy and helpful and not the sort to rub a good grade in their face on purpose and he was in a bad enough mood that he didn't really care if someone saw that paper and thought he was bragging. He looked around at his classmates and quickly gleaned what was going on. The sixth years were practicing the Disillusionment Charm on themselves while the seventh years appeared to be either doing the same or partnering up and doing it to each other. And the moment of truth came.

Did he want to attempt a harder spell and try to cast a Disillusionment Charm on a classmate? Or did he want to trust his instinct which told him not to allow his classmates to cast a spell on him. Olivier badly wanted to try his hand at the higher level spell--after all, he had the O, it would look terrible if he didn't at least attempt to work with someone else. But did that really mean he trusted his classmates to try and do the charm on him too? Nope, 100% it did not. In fact, Olivier didn't think he would trust any of his classmates to work with him. Even Lena because she was a bit scatterbrained and might cause some sort of irreparable damage.

Nevertheless, he painted on his best, brightest smile and approached someone who he thought would be less than likely to accidentally murder him during class. "Hey, Jake," he said. "Want to work together?" Jacob Manger was Head Boy which meant he was probably at least half-way qualified to hold a wand (according to the professors, at least, which Olivier wasn't even sure was a good indicator of his abilities as they had made other questionable decisions over his past seven years) despite being a Teppenpaw. But hey, at least if Olivier accidentally did something to him no one would notice. Teppenpaws weren't real, after all.

10 Olivier Westley, Crotalus Unsure what karma has to do with chameleons, but okay [Jake] 282 Olivier Westley, Crotalus 0 5

Tobi Reinhardt, Teppenpaw

January 12, 2017 11:26 PM

You jump, I jump [tag: Liac] by Tobi Reinhardt, Teppenpaw

After COMC and Herbology, Charms was easily Tobi's best subject. He had to work hard to get good marks in it whereas the other two came more naturally because he was actually personally invested in the material. It wasn't that he didn't like Charms. He did, it was actually kind of a cool subject. But he felt a lot of pressure from his dad to do well and he wasn't sure that he wanted to follow in his footsteps. For so long he had felt so pressured to join him in the metal charming world and now that he was a year and a half away from graduation, he didn't know what to do anymore.

At least the new material Professor Perrault gave them every day was enough to keep his mind distracted. It was all stuff that he would need to know whether he continued after school or not, and some of it was actually pretty cool. The Disillusionment Charm from the past few lessons, for example, was one such charm which Tobi knew would be useful if he needed to conceal a large creature from any Muggles in the area, and now he had a reason to take Advanced Charms again the next year. Well, a reason that wasn't family obligation, at least.

He stood from his desk and decided to try out the spell on one of the large objects just for one last practice before having a go on himself. Tobi raised his wand and deftly cast the Disillusionment Charm on a tall filing cabinet that no one seemed to have claimed yet and was pleasantly surprised to see the whole thing camouflage as it was supposed to even though he had ended the previous lesson being able to camouflage the large objects with relative ease. "Coolest spell ever!" he exclaimed with a laugh and took the spell off the filing cabinet before deciding that he probably could try it on himself if he wanted.

Tobi turned to Liac though anyway--he wasn't going to move up if Liac wasn't ready to move up with him. "What do you think?" he asked his favorite person in the world. "Dare we try it on ourselves?"

10 Tobi Reinhardt, Teppenpaw You jump, I jump [tag: Liac] 289 Tobi Reinhardt, Teppenpaw 0 5

Aiden

January 16, 2017 2:00 PM

We can be together! by Aiden

Aiden turned to look at Scarlett as she gave suggestions as to why his bookshelf wasn’t disappearing completely from view like he was trying to get it to do. There was a chance that he was thinking about other things that was preventing him from really getting the item to go away (Aiden did have a problem with focusing so it wasn’t totally farfetched of a claim to make), but he wasn’t sure if it was the mock exams or stress.

“I’m probably not paying enough attention to the spell.” Aiden admitted with a sheepish grin. “I’m not really concerned about the mock exam, I reached the projected goal that he provided to me, so as long as I keep doing what I’m doing and Savannah is kind enough to help me like she has been doing; I should be alright with that.” Aiden explained. He sometimes wished that he was more academically inclined to make his parents happy, but his mother told him that she was not very good at school and it seemed as though he got that part of his personality from her. His dad advised him that as long as he found something that supported his family (when he had his own someday) and was acceptable to the family, then he would be just fine.

Of course, thinking about the future, in general, gave him some anxiety. He was dating Savannah and he knew there was likely a chance that they would become unofficially betrothed (his parents were betrothed young and didn’t necessarily want to have to do that to their son if he was able to find someone on his own) unless his parents happened to want to make connections with another family. In which case, his relationship with Savannah was not guaranteed. Beyond his possible married life, Aiden had trouble figuring out what sort of career he would want. There were two that he thought of often, but wasn’t sure if he had the skill to do so. One was wand making. He absolutely loved the idea of creating such beauty from wood. And the second was broom making. He loved flying and he was a bit obsessed with the various brooms on the market. He just wasn’t sure if he had an in on either of those things.

Aiden refocused on Scarlett and the task at hand because he knew that thinking about things that were currently out of his hands would not help him make the bookshelf become hidden. His smile grew when she thanked him for the Christmas gift that he had given to her. “You’re welcome.” Aiden replied with a small shrug. He hadn’t bought the gift to impress Savannah. He just felt that it was the right thing to do being as they were twins and all. “I’m glad you have your ears pierced. I was a little nervous that you wouldn’t and the earrings would have been a useless gift.” He said with a laugh.

6 Aiden We can be together! 287 Aiden 0 5

Clark Dill, Aladren

January 27, 2017 1:49 PM

Target achieved by Clark Dill, Aladren

Clark turned over his exam, holding his breath, hoping that he'd allowed enough time for Charms study in between his science club research and his New Zealand research over break (to say nothing of Christmas itself and doing stuff with Dad over the break).

He let out the breath, along with a grin when he saw the O marked on the top of the page. Target grade achieved. He flipped through the exam booklet quickly, finding a small handful of questions the Professor had added comments to, and he read those diligently, and making notes as to the topics he needed to review a little harder before the real thing. A circle on one word of another question made him realize he'd misunderstood what it was asking, but most of the other comments were on subjects he hadn't thought to review and hadn't seen since intermediates, so he'd been just a little shaky on some of the finer details.

The Ridiculously Anal Testing of Skills was no doubt well named.

Satisfied by his review of his exam, he decided to just work on his self disillusionment until his name was called. With his name at the beginning of the alphabet, he didn't think he'd get very far with a partner before he had to leave for his conference, so there was no sense in involving anybody else until that was done.

He was camouflaged against the wall when his name was called, and he felt a flutter of pride when the Professor's eyes drifted right past him as he looked for his next victim- er, conference goer.

"Finite Incantatem!" Clark dispelled his work then grabbed his exam to bring up to the professor. "Hello. I have no real questions," he opened as he dropped down into the chair pulled up beside the teacher's desk. "I misread the one question and most of the rest was little stuff I just forgot. Is there a comprehensive list of all the topics that might show up for reference somewhere, so I don't forget to review anything for the real thing?"

When the conference finished, he first tucked his test away in his bag then looked around, trying to find someone who wasn't partnered up yet and looked like they were done with practicing the spell on themselves, or was at least close to done.

"Hey," he greeted one such person, "Do you want to work on disillusioning each other?"

1 Clark Dill, Aladren Target achieved 277 Clark Dill, Aladren 0 5