Lesson II: Fifth Years on Charms

Professor Aaron McKindy

May 26, 2007 2:35 PM

Lesson II: Fifth Years by Professor Aaron McKindy

The fifth-year class, Aaron was pleased to see, wasted no time in entering and sitting down at the desks. They didn’t even gawk at the presence of desks in his classroom. Granted, there weren’t nearly enough for the whole class, and they were scattered along the walls, but it was still a bit of a shock. Aaron had gotten rid of the desks within the first week of teaching at Sonora, and nobody had seen them since. Still, seven desks or so stood against the wall, each with a stack of papers and a pair of Self-Inking quills in various colours upon it.

As usual, there were also beanbags scattered about the room. A bit more unusually, there were also ravens perched all over, large pink frogs hopping about, and a few guinea pigs scuttling around the room as well.

“Right, excited for more test review?” Aaron asked, rhetorically (and with a certain sardonic edge). Several students made very disgusted noises and others looked as though they were about to. He continued, ignoring the reactions. “Excellent! Today you have a new review packet, due in three day’s time. I’d like you to get into pairs, because you’ll be doing some practical review as well as theoretical today. Pairs will alternate with the practical review and grading of the old review packets. Once you see a desk open, you can go ahead and move from practical to grading. Please be honest in grading; you know where to turn them in,” Aaron nodded at his desk, “when you are done.

“You will work on the Silencio charm, as well as your improvisational skills at using other knowledge in conjunction with this charm in order to catch and silence the animals of your choice. Once you have managed to do both to one particular animal, it is suggested that you move onto another species.

“New packets are on the desks, when you are done with all of this. If you need help, don’t hesitate to ask.”

Aaron nodded at the group of fifth years, signaling the start of the lesson, and waved his delicate redwood wand at the animals in the room. Almost immediately, the classroom was filled with squawks, squeaks, and ribbits. The professor frowned and waved his wand again; more, similar noise was added to the cacophony. He really had to work on his charm revocation this summer, Aaron noted as he began to travel about the classroom to see how his students were doing with their work.

Subthreads:

Re: Lesson II: Fifth Years by Lily Collins with Jenna Howard

Eek by Zack Dill with Professor McKindy, Zack

Titles...uck... by Kaylie Brockert

Class Ends by Professor McKindy

0 Professor Aaron McKindy Lesson II: Fifth Years 0 Professor Aaron McKindy 1 5

Lily Collins

June 03, 2007 7:04 PM

Re: Lesson II: Fifth Years by Lily Collins

An icy glare of death that was usually reserved for Earl Valentine settled itself on the new review packets that were on the desks as Lily noticed them. It took every ounce of self-control that she posessed to not take out her wand and demonstrate the extensive practice the fifth year had done on fire starting spells. As McKindy confirmed that those were indeed new packets that they were to do within the next three days, Lily turned her nasty look his way and resisted the urge to stuff them down his throat.

Silencio charm, She thought, I'd like to try it on him. Lily would have rather experimented on the other people in the classroom than animals any day. She was hardly big on animal rights or anything but that didn't mean she felt it was necessary to practice spells on them. Then again, it wasn't as if a silencing charm was painful and they used bits of animals in Potions all the time. However, the people in her class tended to deserve it more than any guinea pig. Lily had never thought them to be particularily loud. People, on the hand, were obnoxious pains who said annoying things.

A raven swooped towards her, and Lily dodged out of the way and sighed. "Silencio !" She called, pointing her wand at it. The creature opened its mouth to make a sound but none came out. What was the point of trying to catch them when she could make them stop making noise even as they flew by? Still, playing with the animals and working on the practical stuff beat theory and those horrid review packets anyday, so Lily turned and tried to use a binding charm on one of the frogs that hopped by.

11 Lily Collins Re: Lesson II: Fifth Years 45 Lily Collins 0 5

Jenna Howard

June 06, 2007 7:58 PM

why do I bother? by Jenna Howard

Jenna's chin rested on her open palm as she stared boredly towards the front of the room. Charms was one of those classes she practically had to drag herself to everyday. Wandwork was something she did not excel at, to put it nicely. The brunette never could get the incantation pronouciations exactly right, and her wand movements always seemed to be too jerky. Jenna was dropping this class as soon as the school would let her, she'd been promising herself that since day one.

It was very safe to say that Jenna loathed the class, and this was why when the professor mentioned even more review packets, her jaw dropped slightly, causing her chin to slide off her palm. Wincing, she wondered why she had to be so clumsy. At least the review packets weren't practical work. She could memorize things and spitting back information much better than she could do the practical stuff. The girl figured she could make a couple of weak attempts at the spell before turning towards the theory.

Taking out her wand, she looked reluctantly for a target, preferably one that didn't move very quickly. She looked around, and found a rather large looking frog that was kind of just sitting there. Of course, knowing her luck it would jump out of the way just as soon as she said the spell, so she had to be cautious. Sending a freezing charm in the fat frog's direction, she couldn't really tell if it had worked or not. It hadn't moved, and deciding to be optimistic, she took that as a good thing.

The girl raised her wand, went over the spell in her head one extra time, and opened her mouth to speak the words just as the frog jumped away. Just brilliant. She couldn't even cast a simple freezing spell! Watching the frog jump away, it was caught in a binding charm by none other then her roommate, Lily, who sat to Jenna's right. Jenna sighed.

Setting her wand down on her desk, she stared at the stupid frog that had escaped her clutches only to be caught by Lily, "Yeah, I could never do that," she shook her head, "I think by now I'm pretty much a lost cause."

0 Jenna Howard why do I bother? 46 Jenna Howard 0 5

Zack Dill

June 13, 2007 2:08 PM

Eek by Zack Dill

Zack stopped short just inside the doorway of the classroom. It was not the presence of desks that caused this reaction - though if he'd noticed them first, he might have been more willing to take another step into the room. Rather, it was the birds that had him gawking and freezing in the doorway. The birds and the frogs. The birds, the frogs, and the guinea pigs.

It was strangely silent for all the animals in there. That was the only thing that allowed Zack to take that next step into the classroom. Well, the quiet and the fact that he'd never skipped a class in his life and had no intention of ever doing so. Besides, it wasn't like these were dangerous animals, which was more than could be said for what Professor Kijewski sometimes brought in for show and tell.

He wrinkled his nose and tried not to step on any creatures or in anything they might have left behind. He knew he was being as prissy as any girl might, but he didn't like nature and what little experience he had with it told him that nature didn't much care for him either. Those raven were probably just waiting for the right opportunity to peck his eyes out, and the fat rodents no doubt wanted to chow down on his ankles, and the Great Maker only knew what nefarious plans the frogs had in mind for him.

He claimed a bean bag chair quickly, not even going up to the front of the classroom as was his norm because he wanted to get off the floor as soon as possible. As soon as he was seated, he drew his feet up away from the critters that couldn't fly and gave dark looks up at the ravens, hoping that they'd understand that he would tolerate no pooping on his head. He assumed the beanbag chair was rounded, smooth, and large enough to protect him from the frogs and guinea pigs.

He did not open his bag. The animals suggested it was going to be a practical lesson today and he'd rather not get critter refuse on his books or notes. So he just hugged his bag and knees against his chest and hoped for the lesson to pass quickly. All the creatures were making him very nervous and edgy and it wasn't even entirely due to the their malevolence. He conceded to himself that it was possible he had some mild form of OCD and all the fur and feathers and slimy pink frog skin in the room was not sitting well with him.

Zack wasn't sure what to make of Professor McKindy's opening gambit about more test review. The animals had to be there for a reason. As boring as even he found review packets (especially now that they had been doing them for a while), he would have far preferred that over whatever activity that was the root cause of there being so many animals about.

That was clarified shortly and then Zack made a small whimpering sound and wrapped both arms around his head (most particularly his ears) as the silencing spell on the room was lifted and the terrible cacophony of animal sounds that had been missing filled the room.

He'd been barely holding in there when they were all quiet.

This, this was too much. He curled into a tighter ball on his beanbag chair and let his bookbag fall to the floor.

1 Zack Dill Eek 40 Zack Dill 0 5

Professor McKindy

June 15, 2007 12:12 PM

Is there a particular reason why you're eeking? by Professor McKindy

The classroom was very loud, between the students and animals. Granted, that was rather the point of the lesson today, but it was still starting to make Aaron’s head hurt as he walked around the classroom. Most of the students seemed to be doing rather well. A few were struggling with catching the animals in question, but all in all it seemed to be working out all right. The Silencing Charm was a fairly important one. So far as testing went, it was one of those truly obnoxious concepts that was beaten to death for no apparent reason.

Nearly tripping over a small, tricoloured guinea pig that had decided that chewing on his robes was an excellent use of its time, Aaron grinned and scooped the animal up. It struggled around for a bit , eventually sitting quietly. By that time, though, the professor had noticed what seemed to be something of an anomaly in the classroom at the time. A still figure curled up on a beanbag.

Swiftly making his way over to the boy, still holding the small rodent, Aaron frowned worriedly. “Are you ill?” he asked, only realising afterwards that he probably was not heard due to the cacophony around them. Waving his wand, Aaron muttered a spell and a small bubble of silence surrounded the two, save for the small rodent in Aaron’s hand, who continued making a soft, bubbling squeak.

“Zack? Are you ill?” the professor repeated.

0 Professor McKindy Is there a particular reason why you're eeking? 0 Professor McKindy 0 5

Zack

June 16, 2007 12:02 PM

yes, there is by Zack

It went suddenly silent. Well, comparatively silent. As he loosened his arms from around his head and ears, he thought he could still hear a squeaking guinea pig but that might just be his mind trying to fill the sudden quiet.

"Zack?" Another voice sounded, almost certainly real. "Are you ill?"

Zack opened his eyes and found the professor standing beside him. He held one of the wretched rodents, but at least the terrible noise had stopped. Ill? Zack wondered at the question, then decided it was as good an excuse to get out of here as any. It was better than admitting he was afraid of guinea pigs, birds, and frogs. He nodded, "I've got a bad headache," he said, only partly lying because he was sure it would return just as soon as the sounds came back.

"It was way too loud for me," he added, and that was definitely the truth, if not the whole of it. There was a reason he liked spending all his time in the library. Even playing Quidditch never got that loud - he played Seeker and even when the crowd made a lot of noise, he was so far up he barely heard it. He certainly never watched a game he wasn't playing in.

The guinea pig in Professor McKindy's arms squirmed and made another squeaking sound and Zack flinched away from it, afraid it was going to jump out of the teacher's hold and start gnawing on him. That multicolored fur could not be natural and the beast was probably homocidally furious at what had been done to its coat. Zack made for an easy target. Surely even guinea pigs could smell his fear.

0 Zack yes, there is 0 Zack 0 5

Professor McKindy

June 18, 2007 11:07 AM

Excellent. Can I do anything about it? by Professor McKindy

The boy in front of him had Aaron completely believing that he only had a headache. After all, a headache was a perfectly normal, expected side effect of being in a room with a horde of noisy animals. Aaron himself had one. He was about to offer Zack the opportunity to go the Infirmary when the rodent in Aaron’s hand squeaked and squirmed again, and the student flinched away. At that point, he began to doubt the headache story. Or, rather, doubt that it was the sole reason for the fifth year’s discomfort with the class at the moment.

“You could go to the Infirmary to get something for your head,” Aaron said slowly. “But you would have to make up the practical practise of the Silencing Charm anyway, and I’m afraid that I cannot allow you to practise on the first years,” he added with a grin. “You would have to use the same animals as your classmates. It’s really very important that you know this.”

The guinea pig squirmed again and started to chatter its teeth at the Charms professor. “Stop that,” he ordered the animal mildly, tapping it on its nose. Surprised, the animal stopped the noise and froze. It had dark red eyes that appeared to be brown or black unless they were caught in the right light. The fur of the animal was white, tan, and brown, coming up in ragged, furry spikes at seemingly random intervals.

With a flick of his wand, Aaron Summoned a small cardboard box from the opposite side of the room. He placed the small rodent in the towel-lined box, where it promptly relieved itself and began scurrying around, sniffing the walls and attempting to chew on them.

0 Professor McKindy Excellent. Can I do anything about it? 0 Professor McKindy 0 5

Zack Dill

June 20, 2007 1:28 PM

You could put away all your pets, or at least send me away by Zack Dill

The white, brown, and tan colored beast (which, if any, of those was its original color and who would have made the coat all splotchy like that, anyway? - it looked hideous) was cowed by a tap to its nose. Professor McKindy was a brave brave man. The nose was right next to its angrily chattering teeth.

Zack forced himself to look back at the teacher and not stare at the malevolent monster held so casually in his arms. "The infirmary would be great," he said, glad of the reprieve, even if it was only temporary. With luck, when he did it by himself later there wouldn't be quite so many creatures out and about. He could handle one of each. Probably. Maybe. If they came at him one at a time.

McKindy then put the multicolored fiend out of sight and into a cardboard box. Zack relaxed, closed his eyes, and breathed out with the release of tension he hadn't consciously been aware of when the animal had been more immediately present. The bubble of silence around them gave Zack a sense of security that none of the other loose creatures could get at him either (it was likely a false assumption, but Zack wasn't going to worry about that overmuch until the ravens flocked at him like a scene out of a Hitchcock film, which they undoubtedly would soon enough).

He wondered if the cone of silence worked both ways as he added, "Of course I'll come back to do the assignment, but could they, maybe," he waved a hand vaguely around the room to encompass the menagerie, and finished hopefully, "all be in cages then?"\r\n\r\n

1 Zack Dill You could put away all your pets, or at least send me away 40 Zack Dill 0 5

Professor McKindy

June 23, 2007 6:08 PM

Is there a third option? by Professor McKindy

Zack Dill’s almost instantaneous relaxation after Aaron put the small guinea pig into the cardboard box confirmed his suspicions that the fifth year’s headache was not the sole reason for his desire to leave the classroom. He was a bit torn on whether or not to call the boy on it, though. It had to be at least a bit embarrassing for a fifteen or sixteen year old boy to be called out for being afraid of a rodent less than a tenth his size. On the other hand, Zack really should be familiar with the concept and able to work a proper charm. For all Aaron knew, the proctor of whatever standardized tests the fifth years had to take (CATS? RATS? OWLS? Something like that, anyway) would pull out a few guinea pigs and tell the student to silence them properly. Gods knew the animals were loud enough, anyway.

“Uhm…” Aaron paused a moment, to think. “Well, the frogs have an aquarium, although I don’t think that the spell would work very well through it. I don’t actually have cages for anything but the guinea pigs.” Another pause. “Could you manage by working now, in my office with just a frog and a guinea pig?” Oh. Wait. Damn. Where was the cat? “Or maybe out in the hall? Neither one is dangerous, really.”

This week, the professor decided rather abstractly, was the week of alternate assignments. Things were getting rather interesting, actually. He twirled his wand in one hand, oblivious to the green and pink sparks that it was erratically sending out in seeming annoyance. After another moment he stopped and looked at the fifth year, waiting for a response to his question.

0 Professor McKindy Is there a third option? 0 Professor McKindy 0 5

Lily

June 26, 2007 5:51 AM

I know the feeling. by Lily

She turned to face her roommate. Lily had been too seething mad at Mckindy to notice the other girl had been next to her. She gave Jenna a small smile and actually blushed a little. Lily didn't want to be a show off. She hated show-offs. They had a tendency to irritate her a lot. It was part of the basis for her hatred of Earl. It was why a lot of the Pecaris annoyed her.

"Er, it's okay. You may not be good at this but you're the best at Potions." Lily said a bit awkwardly. She wasn't too good at comforting people over the age of five. "And you can just drop this next year. I might, because taking all of these classes has my temper absolutely frayed. Sorry if I've been more difficult to live with than usual." She said with a grin. Lily really did like Jenna and hoped not to have scared her too much recently.

"And," here Lily dropped her voice to a whisper, so only Jenna could hear, "I think Mckindy has a few screws loose." She let her voice raise again, "I'm definitely keeping Defense though, what about you?" Lily doubted Jenna would take that one, since it was wandwork. Her roommate didn't seem to like it much.

OOC-Sorry for the lack of reply, I kind of forgot and got sidetracked with the Quidditch game and an app for a new character. I hope it's okay.

11 Lily I know the feeling. 45 Lily 0 5

Zack Dill

June 26, 2007 9:48 AM

Not really by Zack Dill

Of the three animals, Zack was the most terrified of the ravens (they were harbingers of death in many cultures, after all, and surely that meant something) and least afraid of the frogs (who had tongues rather than teeth and the worst folk tales warned about the creatures was that they'd give you warts). Therefore, the offer to go into the professor's office or the hall with just one guinea pig and one frog was more than satisfactory, even if the rodents did have teeth that were disturbingly large given the size of their mouths. Zack nodded eager acceptance of the terms. "That's fine," he agreed.

He disregarded the Professor's claim that the guinea pig was harmless. Teeth meant biting and biting, by its very definition, was not harmless. Nothing anybody said would convince Zack otherwise. But with just one to worry about, he would be able to defend himself. There wouldn't be an opportunity for them all to attack en masse and overrun him by dint of superior numbers.

He uncurled from his nearly fetal position and reached down to grab his bookbag (he double and triple checked that there weren't any critters on or around it before pulling it up into his lap). He did not, however, put his feet down to the floor yet because, while he might be feeling relatively safe in the silent bubble, he wasn't going to just offer his ankles as a yummy prize for every rodent in the room until he knew he was allowed to run for the door.

1 Zack Dill Not really 40 Zack Dill 0 5

Kaylie Brockert

June 27, 2007 10:20 AM

Titles...uck... by Kaylie Brockert

Okay, deep breath. Kaylie could handle this. It was her year only and she liked Charms. She was even a bit good at them, not like everything else. CATS were weighing heavily on her mind and Kaylie was sure they were going to be a disaster. She hadn't been studying as she should have what with the thing with Chris and getting rather sick. It wasn't as though she would have studied much even if these things hadn't happened. Studying had a tendency to cause Kaylie headaches and she could never stay focused very long as it was. It was just that the current state of things made it even harder. Kaylie was doing her best just to scrape by and barely kept up with the homework assigned.

As she spotted the review packets on the desks, Kaylie groaned. If she had to do too much more homework, she was seriously going to lose it, have a complete nervous breakdown. Just thinking about it made her want to burst into tears.

She half-heartedly attempted a few capturing spells. Kaylie may have liked Charms but she honestly didn't like practicing those kind on animals and felt they should only be used when something was attacking. Something about it didn't seem right to her. Then she sucessfully pointed her wand to cast a few silencing charms at a few frogs and ravens.

Kaylie was about to cast the silencing spell on a guinea pig when she noticed the pained look in its eyes. It seemed to be favoring a foot as well, and barely moving. She just couldn't do it. She couldn't cast a spell on this cute furry little thing that appeared scared and hurt. Instead, the Teppenpaw scooped it up and took it over to the the desk with her, where Kaylie forlornly looked from the guinea pig to her old review packet. The creature seemed much more interesting to her, really. Perhaps she could take it and fix its foot and keep it as a pet.

11 Kaylie Brockert Titles...uck... 43 Kaylie Brockert 0 5

Professor McKindy

June 27, 2007 10:01 PM

Class Ends by Professor McKindy

Time for class to end. With sweep of his wand, Aaron Silenced most of the animals that hadn't been already. With another, less patient flick, he also Silenced the few he hadn't gotten the first time around. Perhaps sleep would be helpful. Or using verbal charms. But the nonverbals always appealed to his sense of dramatic flair. It was up there with the hat and robes. Part of the image. True, it was an image that he really didn't need to keep using, but it was still a bit fun. Impressive or no, using nonverbals kept Aaron in the practise.

"Class is over," Aaron said to the now-quiet room. "If you need extra help, stay a minute after and we'll arrange something. I'd also like a few volunteers to help me get the animals away properly, if you wouldn't mind. Other than that, you may go."

After dealing with a few requests for clarification or extra help, Aaron went to work putting the animals away with the help of his volunteers. Once the frogs were altogether, he waved his wand, Transfiguring them slowly into the large, transparent pink bubbles that then coalesced into his usual tophat, which he then donned.

OOC: Thanks for the great class and see you next term!

0 Professor McKindy Class Ends 0 Professor McKindy 0 5