Oh, dear... on Charms

Professor Aaron McKindy

May 25, 2007 6:36 PM

Charms Lesson II: Third and Fourth Years by Professor Aaron McKindy

Humming quietly under his breath, Aaron McKindy waited for his third and fourth year class to enter the unusually barren room. He had Vanished the beanbags, bookcases, and the Muggle posters especially for this lesson. After all, the school year was winding down and the students were getting antsy. Probably not the best time to be teaching students a potentially hazardous charm, but Aaron was rapidly running out of things to do with his younger classes while dealing with extensive test prep for his older classes. He could hardly justify having a 'free period', but he was also running out of the simple-but-useful charms. That was going to become a problem shortly.

After the majority of the students had made their way to the classroom--no few of them looking surprised or confused--Aaron put his wand down, stood, and began the class.

"Today you will learn to create a sort of portable fire," Aaron said without preamble. "This spell is at about a second-year difficulty. It is also, however, potentially hazardous; therefore why I am not teaching it to younger years."

Actually, just the thought of the current first-and-second years learning this particular charm nearly made Aaron wince. This would definitely be one that Aaron would make sure did not find its way onto Josiah's Charms Club itinerary.

"Please take the utmost care in the practising and execution of this charm. If you do not feel capable of safely completing this activity, speak to me and I will provide an alternate activity. Should an accident occur, please put the fire out using the 'Aquor' spell and get me immediately.

"Now, to perform this spell, you must wave your wand--a bit like striking a match," Aaron said the last word a bit oddly. Matches were still a bit of a problem with him; getting the hang of those things was hard. "and say 'Accendio'. Make sure your wandtip is pointed into your--" the professor looked around the room. Right. That was what he was forgetting. With a flick of his wand, a neat stack of glass jars appeared in the centre of the room. "Your jar. Any questions? No? Get started, then."

Aaron went back to compiling theory review packets for his fifth years with half an eye on the students before him.

Subthreads:

This isn't going to be good. by Anne Wright

There was fire and smoke... by Geoffrey Layne

Oh, Professor McKindy by Saul Pierce with Professor McKindy

Oh, dear... by Allie and Lila St. Martin

Over cautious. by Adam Brockert

Class Ends by Professor McKindy

0 Professor Aaron McKindy Charms Lesson II: Third and Fourth Years 0 Professor Aaron McKindy 1 5

Anne Wright

May 27, 2007 10:19 PM

This isn't going to be good. by Anne Wright

Anne doubted she was going to like McKindy's latest lesson.

The Charms classroom always looked a bit odd to her because of the absence of desks, but the room now looked odd by its own odd standards. Even the posters had vanished, leaving a slightly unsettling quiet. Leaning against the wall lead to the discovery that the room had not, as she had been thinking, been turned into a soft room again to cut down on accidents. Maybe it was just her imagination playing tricks on her, but the whole thing rang wrong, somehow. She didn't like it.

Geoff, of course, had beaten her to class. He nodded to her from where he was leaning against another wall, one further from the entrance than hers. She scanned the room for signs of her family, but didn't care enough to invest much in the way of time or energy to finding and greeting them. She and the family were, she thought, getting along better now than they ever had, but not well enough that she was going to go into spasms of sentiment over Allie and Morgaine. Lila was, as usual, a case unto herself; Anne thought the Wrights had a better chance of attending galas than she and Lila did of getting along. Her attention left her classmates and turned to McKindy as the lesson began.

Portable fires. Glass jars. This wasn't good. Anne was okay with the fire bit - she thought she was, anyway; she wasn't that wacko, and she was decent with a wand - but glass...It could only end in tears if she lost her temper. Her history with glassware was not a particularly good one. Breaking it had, to the best of her recollection, been her main problem with accidental magic, and all she'd blown up since she had started at Sonora was mirrors. It was one of those strange, inexplicable things she had actually considered telling Doc Thorpe about, on the few occasions her hatred for the woman had slipped her mind.

McKindy had said they could do something else if there was a problem with this. She could do that...If she was in the mood to commit complete social suicide. Everyone was here, and they'd all notice. That wouldn't be good, either. From what Geoff had told her and she'd put together on her own, half the school thought she was a desperate loser and half thought she was antisocial in the nutty sense of the word. Offering credibility to either idea wouldn't be good. That left sticking it out and hoping nothing happened to set her off. It wasn't like she flipped out every time that she was put under stress...

She'd known she wasn't going to like this lesson!

Getting a jar, Anne headed back to her bit of wall before someone else could claim it. She would have gone over and worked with Geoffrey or Gwen, but it seemed safer for all involved if they worked individually. The girl was a brat and a colossal headache to everyone - except her clueless parents - who came near her, but Anne didn't even want to set Lila on fire. The kid had already had it happen once, if her memory served her rightly. Lowering the tip of her wand into the jar, refusing to let herself go down a line of thought that ran 'what if it catches fire?', Anne gave the spell a try.

Nothing happened.

Alright. Try two. Nothing wrong with not getting a spell on the first attempt. Aladrens were smart, but if intelligence and skill with a wand were linked, she hadn't heard a thing of it, and hardly anyone got spells right on the first try, anyway. She could do this. She could do this right. Nothing was going to go wrong. "Accendio," she said again, making a striking motion with her wand. A few bright sparks fell out of the tip, but that was it. Another try, that was it. Anne forced all thoughts of accidents from her mind. She had all of the variables under control. "Accendio!"

It took several more tries to get a small fire going in the bottom of her jar, but, when everything was considered, she was happy with that. The point was, she thought, to warm up their hands, not light miniature bonfires that consumed the very wands that started them. She wanted to read the theory behind the charm, but wasn't sure how McKindy might take it if she sat down, the fire to the side, and dug out her book in all this mess. Drawing her wand again, she used Aquor to put out her little fire, the Drying Charm to dry the inside of the jar, and began to work on it again.

16 Anne Wright This isn't going to be good. 59 Anne Wright 0 5

Geoffrey Layne

June 08, 2007 8:54 PM

There was fire and smoke... by Geoffrey Layne

Geoff did a bit of a double take when he noticed the barren room, but he had the presence of mind to keep moving along. It was strange, but McFarlan's room was stranger, and there was no reason to block the doorway. Logic suggested that it was a security measure against the charm they were going to do - not the most encouraging thought he'd ever had. Out of the two years, there were less than five people Geoff would trust with a scalpel in Potions, never mind with dangerous, possibly unpredictable magic.

He nodded acknowledgement when Anne entered the room. There was one of the students he didn't trust with sharp objects, though he'd never tell that to her. She was, after all, his friend. He tried to avoid hurting his friends, as a general rule. She took a pose identical to his against the wall the door was set in. Their looks were the reason they struggled to figure out why people thought they were related, but the mannerisms beyond the looks were often scarily alike. There was no telling who had copied what from who at this point.

He straightened up a bit against his piece of wall when the professor began giving his instructions. Geoff wondered for a moment if McKindy was all the way there when he seemed to forget about the jars, but decided he didn't really want to stroll down that avenue of thought. They were, for the most part, all good enough with the Aquor charm that it the odds of them burning down the school were slim. It was better to use positive visualization, or whatever that junk Lena went on about was.

He kept a nervous eye on Anne as he went to get a jar, but she seemed fine. Geoff knew her too well to think that she would be embarrassed to ask for another assignment if this one struck her as too dangerous, so it was probably a good conclusion. Anne had her pride, but she wasn't an idiot by any means. She wouldn't risk harm to Number One, unless it involved the chase for the Quidditch Cup.

He worked quietly, hoping to keep any mishaps from becoming public knowledge. Maybe that was paranoia or narcissism or one of a hundred other things that weren't very flattering, but he couldn't believe that he didn't have a reputation to keep up. His Transfiguration lessons already made the image of 'best in the year' hard enough to maintain. It was hard, and he did have competition, but he thought he'd managed it so far. Nobody was perfect, but the only things worth going for were the unattainable ones. After a bit - he wasn't yet to the place of getting everything right on the first try - he managed to get a fire going.

Geoffrey smiled at it, satisfied with the product and quite pleased with himself, at least for the moment. Any ego trip would be ended by his next Transfiguration lesson, but that was then. He glanced around the room, his eyes lingering on Devian Dupree and Morgaine Carey in particular. He had come to see them as his main sources of competition, so interest in their progress was just natural. If they hadn't belonged to old socialite families with more galleons than sense, he thought he might have actually liked both of them.

16 Geoffrey Layne There was fire and smoke... 72 Geoffrey Layne 0 5

Saul Pierce

June 13, 2007 3:29 PM

Oh, Professor McKindy by Saul Pierce

Saul had walked about five feet into the room before he noticed something was weird. He stopped and looked around, a small frown of confusion taking over his features. Where'd the beanbags go? And, um, hadn't there been something on the walls before? He wasn't entirely sure what, but he didn't remember them looking that boring before.

He dropped his bag absently on the floor as he did a slow circle. Well, Anne, one of the Geoffs, and a few other kids were apparently trying to make up for the lack of decorations by putting themselves against the wall, but Saul didn't really think it was working. They were still definitely empty-looking. It bothered him. A lot. It would be different if there was a patterned wallpaper, but it was all just so plain. Even in a different room, it would be okay, but this was Charms. This was Professor McKindy's classroom. It didn't fit the act. There should be more color.

Suddenly struck with a thought, Saul spun toward the front of the room. Was there a new teacher? A substitute? But no. Professor McKindy was right there. And - oh, he was talking.

Saul began to fidget nervously. Fire. Magic fire that came from a wand. And potentially dangerous, hence the no beanbags or wall stuff. Professor McKindy was even giving an out to those who didn't think they could do it safely. Okay, yes, second year level spell, but Saul was only a third year and he didn't exactly have the best record. What if he stopped paying attention just long enough to miss something really important about how not to set yourself on fire?

Or what if he spun his wand clockwise instead of counter clockwise by mistake (he could never keep those straight because he'd always had a digital watch) and instead of getting a little fire in a jar, he got a giant bonfire on the floor? Or what if the glass jar got too hot and melted? Or what if he got distracted just as he was casting it and it shot toward one of his classmates? Or Pepper? Or Briony? Or what if . . . .

He just missed the entire set of instructions in his worry and agitation and didn't even know how to do the spell?

Great. Well, that made the decision easier. He made his way toward the professor as most of his classmates went for glass jars. "Um," he said, to get the man's attention, "I don't think I have the attention span for this spell," he said honestly.

1 Saul Pierce Oh, Professor McKindy 82 Saul Pierce 0 5

Professor McKindy

June 15, 2007 12:10 PM

I seem to hear that rather often here by Professor McKindy

In all honesty, Aaron hadn’t really been expecting anyone to opt out of his lesson. The spell was potentially dangerous, yes, but even those who were a bit wary of conjuring fire would be egged on by their friends to at least try it. Or, at least, so the professor thought. Obviously, since there was a boy standing in front of him saying that he lacked the attention span to safely perform the spell, Aaron had been mistaken.

He processed his surprise for about a half second, then smoothly went into his ‘alternate assignment’ plan. The one that he was about to make up as he went along.

“Thank you for letting me know,” Aaron responded to the boy. S something. Saul, was that it? “Are you uncomfortable in the room, or just doing the spell? You may work in my office or the hallway, if you wish.” Fire—light—water…water as an amplifier, maybe? Yes, that might work.

Using his wand to conjure parchment and a Self-Inking Quill, Aaron quickly wrote down the instructions for the activity. His handwriting was legible. Barely. Handing the piece of parchment to the boy-whose-name-may-have-been Saul, the professor waited to see if he had any questions on the spell before going off to make sure the rest of the class was functioning safely.

The instructions read:

Water as an Amplifier
In the Muggle world, water is often used to amplify sounds. Many creatures also use this trait of water to their advantage, magical and muggle. Dolphins and whales use this to communicate with others of their species, while magical creatures such as the Ramora use it to amplify their innate magical abilities, allowing them to utilize magic in a way that is close to the uses that wizards find for their own magical ability.

Choose one activity:

-Using the spell Aguamenti fill several glass containers with water. Experiment with various spells as to which work best in water** and how this differs from their effectiveness otherwise.

-Using the spell Aguamenti fill several wineglasses with varying amounts of water. Dip a finger in the water and run it around the rim, noting how the tone differs depending on the amount of water in the glass. Perform one or two spells in the water**; compare and contrast the results.

**In the water indicates with the wand tip fully submerged

0 Professor McKindy I seem to hear that rather often here 0 Professor McKindy 0 5

Saul

June 16, 2007 12:26 PM

how strange by Saul

"Oh, the room's fine," Saul insisted, not wanting to be sent away like, well, he didn't know what like, but he didn't want to be sent away. "I just don't think I should be setting the next California Wild Fire here in Arizona."

The teacher then wrote out an assignment, which was perfect because that meant Saul could keep looking back at it if he forgot what he was doing. As he read it over, the first assignment looked okay, if not as exciting as shooting fire into jars. The second one though . . . he knew his limitations. "I'll be doing the first one," he told the professor absolutely. "I'm worse with music than fire."

Taking the sheet with him, he went to the stack of glass jars his classmates were using and collected two of them. He found a spot of floor that was somewhere between Briony and Pepper so he could watch both of them (and douse them with augmented water spells if they caught on fire, but that wasn't the main point of him watching them).

Putting the jars on the floor in front of him, he used Aguamenti to fill one of them with water. Then he put his want in the empty one and cast, "Lumos!" In the fairly bright classroom, he could barely see that the wand tip was lit up at all. He took out the wand and put it into the water. "Lumos!" he cast again and this time the whole jar seemed to glow.

"Nice," Saul commented and wondered if he could use water to help him through his finals. He looked at the assignment sheet again and then went looking in his bag for a quill and paper to write down the differences.

1 Saul how strange 82 Saul 0 5

Allie and Lila St. Martin

June 22, 2007 7:13 PM

Oh, dear... by Allie and Lila St. Martin

Allie didn't appear to be very bothered by the oddities of the Charms classroom's current design or lack thereof, but Lila knew better than to take it as proof of anything. Her sister trusted the staff and administration, and Allie was a St. Martin; it was conceivable that Allie wasn't as calm as she seemed. Lila didn't make a practice of giving Allie much credit, but dismissing her totally wasn't a practical option; they were, after all, identical, and school had to some extent changed her sister. Allie still wore her heart on her sleeve more often than not, but the creases in that sleeve sometimes hid bits of it, now.

She stuck close to her twin, who didn't argue. She did give Lila one quick, surprised look, but Lila ignored it. Paying attention only to things she wanted to pay attention to was a specialty of hers. Glancing around at the others in their class, Lila moved quickly past Morgaine, moved even quicker past Gwen and Anne, and came to the conclusion that most of her classmates were as confused as she was. She didn't like sharing things in common with most of the people in the two years represented, but the numbers, in this case, made Lila feel somewhat better.

Allie's small, pleasant, all-purpose smile dropped within a second of McKindy's explanation of what they were doing. It didn't take much intuition on Lila's part to know the scene her sister was rehashing, because her mind had also gone to a Transfiguration lesson in their first year. Lila held her once-damaged hand, now perfectly repaired, close before she thought about it. Allie and fires had a history, and it was not a good one. This had the potential to go...badly for them.

Still, she couldn't let her sister embarrass them in front of everyone by saying she couldn't do it. Allie was really Alexandra St. Martin. That made her Lila's older sister, a firstborn child of an important man, and a pureblood. That all meant something. "Don't even think about it," she told her when McKindy stopped talking.

Allie's innocent eyes were wide. "I don't want to cause any trouble," she said. Lila quickly put her hands back down as her sister glanced at them. "Or hurt anyone."

"You won't," Lila said, sounding a lot more confident than she felt. Maybe it would rub off. "I'll help you. You know I'm not going to mess it up." Again, she managed to take a better stance than she the one she really believed. It was embarrassing, and so never admitted, but she had been just a bit pyrophobic since the accident. Allie still looked as if she had her doubts about how wise this was, but she did nod. Deciding that was the best she was going to get, Lila went to get them a pair of jars.

Allie held hers gingerly, as if afraid it would break just from contact with her. That thought had already occured to Lila, who had taken to standing on the side whose hand was not holding the jar. "Okay," she said, wishing there was a place to sit; the floor just didn't appeal to her sense of cleanliness. Who knew what was on other people's shoes? "I think we should start off by making sure we know the right way to pronounce the incantation." That had been what made Allie set her on fire in their first year. "Once we finish with that, we'll practice the wand movement. We can try to do it after that."

Allie might have grown some backbone since she last started a fire, but she still didn't argue with her twin often. The plan was, as Lila was sure anyone could tell, a rather good one, and things just went more smoothly when Allie kept her opinions to herself, anyway. It wasn't at all surprising to see the slightly older St. Martin nod, then do exactly what Lila had suggested they do.

16 Allie and Lila St. Martin Oh, dear... 76 Allie and Lila St. Martin 0 5

Adam Brockert

June 23, 2007 1:43 AM

Over cautious. by Adam Brockert

As usual, Adam took to the back corner of the room. It didn't matter the set-up, he always went where he was least likely to be noticed. The fewer people who could see him or were around him the better, especially if he was going to be doing a fire-starting spell. He didn't want to end up burning one of his classmates. Aside from the obvious that Adam didn't like hurting people, it was also the most sure-fire way to get him more hated and get him in trouble. He'd already made a fool of himself in this class last time by blowing out his ear drum and practically fainting.

Professor Mckindy had announced that there was an alternative assignment and Adam briefly considered taking it. However that would just draw attention to him. People would think he couldn't handle a simple second year spell, that he was afraid of fire, that he couldn't manage...and he probably couldn't but he didn't want to let on. His classmates already had an overall low opinion of him and anything he did to draw attention to himself would just make it worse. Saul Pierce was taking the alternative assignment, but that was different, Saul was one of those popular people who could get away with anything and have it still be okay, not be laughed at in a negative way. Adam was not like that.

He glanced at the jars that the rest of the class was moving towards. Adam's stomach knotted up. He didn't want to get that close, they might notice him and he could be doing something wrong without even knowing it. Adam wished he could do the summoning charm. He'd read a little about it,perhaps he could give it a try. " Accio glass jar" he said, doing the motion with his wand. Adam wasn't too surprised when it didn't work at all. It was a spell for an older student, and he was so incompetant that he couldn't possibly get anything right. Adam thought about trying it again, but realized that there could be some huge embarassing repercussion if it went wrong, such as the glass jars all breaking or all coming towards him at once. It was best to just walk over there.

He took a deep breath, and made his way to the jars, his knees quaking all the way. Adam hoped that he was walking as normally as possible despite how shaky he was. All he wanted to do was run over and get the jar and get back to his corner before anything could happen to him. That would make him look obvious though and people would comment on it. That would seem odd. Adam didn't want to appear that way.

Grabbing a jar, he made his way back to his corner and focused the rest of the time on making sure he had the wand movements and pronounciations down and trying to create a fire that would be in the jar and not having any embarassing mishaps

11 Adam Brockert Over cautious. 78 Adam Brockert 0 5

Professor McKindy

June 27, 2007 9:54 PM

Class Ends by Professor McKindy

Class ended with nobody maimed, burned, or even mildly injured. Aaron was very pleased with the result, and happy that he had decided to do this with his third and fourth years. The only downside was that some of the students looked downright uncomfortable with the spell, while one had decided to completely opt out. To be fair, Aaron had rather been banking on a few uncomfortable students; on paper, he didn't care. In the actual class, though, it made him feel rather guilty. Even more so when Saul Pierce asked him for the completely unprepared alternative activity.

Still, that was said and done. All told, Saul had, perhaps, enjoyed himself. Water. Aaron would have to remember that particular idea for a lesson. Perhaps next week, or next year. Either way, it was something that should certainly make it onto the books. It was fun and not even marginally dangerous. Perhaps he should do it with his fifth years, to help with theory....

"Class dismissed," Aaron said. Unusually for the room, the class was actually quiet(ish, anyway) today. Probably because of the spell they were learning. "Please make sure to douse all fires and stack your jars where you found them. We'll be having a study day next class, so be sure to bring anything you need for that."

Once the students had left, Aaron Vanished the jars and finished his review packets just in time to copy them with a flick of his wand before the fifth year class began.

OOC: Thanks for the effort, guys! See you next term!

0 Professor McKindy Class Ends 0 Professor McKindy 0 5