Professor Taylor
December 06, 2007 5:43 PM
Intermediate Charms, Class II [Years 3, 4, and 5] by Professor Taylor
As with her Beginning Charms class, Lorraine was not so much teaching today as encouraging thought. As with her Beginning Charms class, the Intermediate class would also be working in groups. Unlike her Beginning class, the Intermediate class would still be receiving homework. After all, the fifth years would be taking some very important exams in a few short months and she wouldn’t like them to fall behind. There were a few minds she would simply love to see in her Advanced with Sciences class, although she was uncertain as to whether some of them would be interested or not. But no matter—that was something to be dealt with after the test scores came back.“Good morning,” she said, nudging the door shut with one brown shoe as the class began. “I trust you had a good Midterm.” this class was more crowded than her Beginning Charms class; well, that was as it should be. There was an extra year of students in the classroom now. Nevertheless, there were enough desks to fit them all, Lorraine had made sure of that. “Now, as we begin a new calendar year, we also begin a new emphasis in Charms. Our lessons will now be more theory-based and we will explore uses of these charms more completely. Some of you will be taking exams and deciding where you wish to place your career emphasis this year; others will be doing so next year and some the year after, but it is an important step for everyone. Hopefully, this will help you see that you will need to have a great knowledge of Charms in your future lives—or not.” this last was added with an especially icy tone to Lorraine’s voice. She simply could not stand those who completely disregarded Charms. There were so many different aspects of the subject!
“You will work in groups of two, no more, no fewer. Each pair will write an essay on one of the following.” flick. “This essay will be due at the end of class. You may use any of the books in the back or, if you wish, you may take your research to the library. If I hear of any misconduct, in or out of my classroom during this period, suffice to say that the student in question will not be a very happy person.” A pointed glare at some of the more well-known troublemakers in the room. “You may begin.”
On the board, in neat, white handwriting, read:
a. Under what circumstances will summoning and banishing charms work and why?
b. When is it ethical to use a Cheering Charm, or other mood-altering spells?
c. What are the problems intrinsic to using cleaning charms and how can these be avoided?
Students may choose to argue the assumptions of any of these questions.
OOC: Minimum of ten sentences as usual, correct grammar and spelling is a must. You need not actually write the essays, although if you do, ten extra points will be awarded to each participant’s House, fifteen if it is especially interesting. Please post completed essays under the ‘Homework’ thread. Enjoy!
Subthreads: Essays, blargh by Paul Tarwater with Echo Elms, Paul
uhhh....partners? hopefully my friends are here! by Guenther Heindrich
There are worse things by Elly Eriksson with Allie St. Martin, Elly
Oh no, essays by Saul Pierce
Boring essays? by Earl and Eavan Valentine with Meredith Lail, Eavan
Are partners really necessary? by Adam Brockert
Closed (nm) by Professor Taylor
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Professor Taylor
Intermediate Charms, Class II [Years 3, 4, and 5]
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Professor Taylor
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Elly Eriksson
December 09, 2007 12:27 PM
There are worse things by Elly Eriksson
The new professor still made Elly a little uneasy. She wasn’t horrid or unfair, or even creepy like Professor O’Leary, but she certainly wasn’t as fun as the previous charms professor had been. Her lessons were fairly good, and so Elly forgave her for being a bit dull. That was until in her opening speech that lesson Professor Taylor informed them all that their lessons would be more theory based for the remainder of the term. Theory based lessons were notoriously more arduous than practical classes, and correspondingly far less fun. Plus there was usually a greatly reduced opportunity to chat during class when not doing wandwork. Of course, Elly’s underdeveloped magical skill made any attempts at practical work seem pointless at best, so she supposed she should be grateful for theory work, which at least allowed her a fair shot at a decent grade.Elly’s heart lifted when she heard they were to work in pairs. Perhaps this class wouldn’t be so dull after all! They were even given a choice of essay topics, which Elly thought was a fabulous idea, because it allowed each student to research their own personal interests. Well, to an extent, anyway. Glancing briefly at the board, Elly found she was less drawn to the first topic than the others, but any of them were doable. Working with a partner would probably allow for a little harmless fun, too. Trouble was discouraged, as always – Professor Taylor was such a stickler for rules – and Elly couldn’t help but snigger as Saul was sought out as a threat to decorum. Elly knew it wasn’t Saul’s fault he often ended up making a spectacle of himself, he just didn’t process directions in quite the same way as everyone else.
When the professor was done talking, and announced they could begin, Elly wasted no time in finding a partner. “Hi, would you like to work together? I’d rather not do the first point, but either of the other two are fine,” she said with a cheerful smile.
\r\n\r\n
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Elly Eriksson
There are worse things
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Elly Eriksson
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Allie St. Martin
December 13, 2007 10:28 PM
It's never the worst while you can say it is. by Allie St. Martin
Allie gave Professor Taylor a small smile on her way to her favorite Charms desk. Her mother, unimpressed as she was by her firstborn's admission that she was somewhat intimidated by a mere female teacher, had offered her advice during the holidays. Teachers, Sarah had said, were simply people with social maladjustment issues. If she was nice and polite, it was likely they would respond favorably, just as people did at home. How the parties truly felt about each other was of no consequence. Allie wasn't sure she liked it, but she had to acknowledge the evidence supporting the theory.It took real discipline to hold to the nice-and-polite idea and not groan aloud when Professor Taylor explained how the Intermediate Charms class would be spending the rest of its year. Allie could muddle along with actual spells, but what made those spells work usually went straight over her head. She wanted badly to look around at her relatives to see how they were reacting, but she didn't want to do that and have Professor Taylor notice. How much of the CATS exam was over theory? She and Lila were lost causes if it was a majority.
Maybe an essay wouldn't be too bad, though. How two people could write one essay was a bit beyond her, but Allie felt reasonably sure it couldn't be worse than a thick stack of worksheets concerning the idea behind and/or case-specific applications of the given charms. She had quit using those post-unit features of her textbook back in her first year, after she realized staring blankly at sample problems with an empty mind was not helping her learn anything.
She was considering who to ask for a partnership when one of the other students, a very-tall-in-comparison-to-Allie girl with red hair, took the matter out of her hands. She wasn't entirely sure, but she thought she was speaking to one of the younger students. The girl certainly wasn't in her year, and putting her in with the fifth years didn't, for some reason, feel right. Allie smiled back. "Sure." A topic. Number one was out - just as well she didn't like it, either - and she had, at one point or another, gotten the impression that mental magic was very difficult. That left cleaning charms. "Is the third one all right?"
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Allie St. Martin
It's never the worst while you can say it is.
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Allie St. Martin
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Elly
December 14, 2007 12:28 PM
Always look on the bright side of life. by Elly
Elly smiled at the brunette girl who’d agreed to be her partner. Elly didn’t know who she was, but that was fairly usual – unless they played Quidditch or were called Briony or Pepper, Elly hardly knew any of the older students. “Is the third one alright?”“Yep,” Elly replied. She glanced at the board to check what she’d agreed to – ‘What are the problems intrinsic to using cleaning charms and how can these be avoided?’. She would have to check what intrinsic meant.
“I’m Elly,” she told the other girl, holding out her hand in greeting. It was a polite gesture she’d recently fallen out of the habit of using, but it seemed the right thing to do in this instance. “Nice to meet you,” she added, smiling. Once the other girl had introduced herself, Elly shook out a new sheet of parchment and took the lid off her biro – her handwriting with a quill was so messy it often wasn’t worth the effort.
“So,” Elly began, having written the title ‘Plan’ at the top of the page, “do you know what intrinsic means? Is it something like the problems you get when you use cleaning charms?” Knowing what the question meant was going to be her first step in writing the essay. The second step would be pooling ideas in a plan - at least, that was what Elly would do unless her partner had a preferred essay-writing method.
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Elly
Always look on the bright side of life.
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Elly
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Allie
December 14, 2007 8:41 PM
There always is one, technically speaking. by Allie
Allie was relieved to hear that topic three was acceptable to the other girl. This partnership appeared to be getting off on the right foot. It was still odd to see girls shake hands instead of curtsy, but she had learned how. "Allie," she responded, deciding the informal introduction was more appropriate to the situation. Picking those things out was easier than it had been. "Nice to meet you, too."Allie looked curiously at the object Elly was using like a quill, but didn't say anything. She'd seen other students, most of whom she thought were Muggleborns, using things of a similar appearance, but she'd never heard a name used to refer to them. "The inevitable problems that come with the charm, yes," she said when asked what 'intrinsic' meant. A moment of affection for her tutors came and went. They had given her a fairly good vocabulary, even if she didn't use it much.
There was nothing written under the heading of 'plans'. A logical next step was making some. She thought that would include points to cover. "So..." Allie bit her lower lip, as she always did while she was thinking. "I've never had to use one myself, but I think that cleaning charms are a little hard to control the strength of." She wasn't quite sure those words had come out in the right order.
Best to just move on and pretend it hadn't happened, if it had. "Mama won't let the elves use magic to clean the good antiques," she explained. "She uses them if something gets on the tablecloth or our robes sometimes, but never on the drapes or the good china or...those kinds of things. All I can think of is the charm being too harsh for old things." She gave her partner a slightly anxious look. Presenting a theory, especially one of her own invention, was not among her accustomed pastimes. Allie reached for her bookbag and the textbook it contained. The book was much more reliable than deductive logic, or whatever kind of logic it was.
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Allie
There always is one, technically speaking.
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Allie
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Elly
December 16, 2007 1:50 PM
Every cloud has a silver lining. by Elly
Elly and Allie. Well that was worth a smile. Elly was smiling already, though, so Allie probably didn’t think she was too odd. Allie was able to clarify what the question meant, too. She didn’t seem to be a bad choice in partner at all. She even offered up some good ideas for the plan. Elly jotted down ‘difficult to control strength’. Allie attempted to explain her point by talking about House Elves, but she succeeded in doing little but losing Elly completely. Although Elly was vaguely aware of the existence of Prairie Elves at Sonora, her experience of them went no further than that. Elly nodded, in a way she hoped conveyed her understanding, limited as it was. It did make some sort of sense that cleaning charms shouldn’t be used on old or delicate items, in case they got damaged.Allie pulled out her textbook then, and Elly thought that was a good idea, and followed suit. Professor Taylor did seem the sort who would like to see references for their ideas, so taking notes from the book might be a good idea. While she was looking for the right section in her book, Elly said, “I guess you might get the wrong sort of cleaning spell. I mean, I know there are some different spells – maybe you wouldn’t want to use the same spell on your silk robes as you would cleaning out your cauldron.” Elly couldn’t help but giggle at the mental image her point had conjured. She jotted down ‘correct use of different cleaning spells’ on her plan, too.
There were a few pages in Elly’s textbook about cleaning charms, and she didn’t think she would have time to read it all and write the essay with Allie before the lesson was up – perhaps a little skim reading was in order. “Hey,” she said, scanning one of the subtitles, “what about magical interference when using charms to clean items that are already charmed?”
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Elly
Every cloud has a silver lining.
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Elly
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Allie
December 29, 2007 1:06 AM
Just look at the glass as half-full. by Allie
Allie nodded when Elly brought up the possibility of using the wrong spell. She hadn't thought of that, which went to prove the validity of the point. "That could definitely be a bad idea," she agreed when the example of silk robes and dirty cauldrons was made. "Er..." Skimming, she noticed at once, was not going to work. The relevant passages were as foreign as the collection of withering Greek phrases Alban liked to rattle off at Lila. "Scouring charms would be the best bet for the cauldrons," she said after a moment.She was still struggling to speed-read and comprehend what she was speed-reading when Elly spoke again. "Good point," she acknowledged, looking up briefly to smile at the other girl. It seemed she'd lucked out and landed a partner more intelligent than herself, which worked in her favor. Allie was always slightly uncomfortable with such arrangements - it felt like cheating, something she'd never even tried to do - but that was how it went.
"I don't think just taking the charm off would work well," she said. "Residues and all that, and then there's all the people who aren't good enough at charms to work the spells and patent issues and...stuff." It was a bit of a lame end to the sentence, but she had no real practical experiences with the things she was talking about. They all fell under the category of things her father and sometimes her uncles worried about and that she and the other women heard a bit about every now and then. "That's probably why there's the market for cleaning potions."
She bit her lip thoughtfully, still scanning her book for key phrases. "I'd think wards and cursed objects would be harder to work with than other things. The whole point of them is to make bad things happen to people who mess with the enchantments. Not that it really matters if the spell is just doing what it's supposed to or if it's accidental if you're the wizard getting blown up, I suppose." She was definitely spending too much time around Little Julian if she was thinking along those lines.
OOC: Sorry for the delay!
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Allie
Just look at the glass as half-full.
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Allie
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Elly
December 31, 2007 8:43 AM
Optimism is the way forward by Elly
“Scouring charms would be the best for cauldrons,” Allie asserted. Elly nodded, and added it to her notes. She was glad that she had partnered with Allie, because, judging by her knowledge of charms and familiarity with house elves, she was from a magical family. Whereas Elly could read all the books in the library, and practise the spells until they were perfect, she often didn’t really understand the significance of what she was learning with respect to this world she was now a part of. For example, she had guessed that the same charm shouldn’t be used for cauldrons as for robes, but Allie actually knew which were the best charms for each scenario.Similarly, Elly guessed that mixing cleaning charms with already-charmed objects wasn’t a good idea, but Allie was able to give examples of what could go wrong, and why. She even offered the solution of cleaning potions. Elly listened to Allie’s comments, and scribbled them down onto her parchment along with the other points amassed so far.
“Cleaning potions,” Elly repeated. “That’s a good point for the second part of the question, about overcoming the problems.” She sucked the end of her biro while she thought, but soon stopped because it tasted disgusting. She took to tickling her chin with it, instead. “We could do with a bit more about how to avoid the problems, though.”
Elly laughed at Allie’s comments about the cursed objects. A wizard exploding himself probably wouldn’t be very funny in reality, but it was an amusing mental picture at any rate. “I suppose there’s a charm or something to work out if objects are cursed before you try cleaning them?” she suggested. They were crossing into the realms of DADA now, and Elly thought she might soon be out of her depths. Twirling an orange ringlet around her fingers – her hair smelled of the new lavender shampoo she’d received from her mother’s family for Christmas – Elly said, “Here’s what I’ve got so far, anyway.” She pushed her notes so Allie could see them, too, and re-read what little she had written.
What are the problems intrinsic to using cleaning charms and how can these be avoided?
Plan
- difficult to control strength - too harsh for old or delicate things
- correct use of different cleaning spells e.g. scouring charms for cauldrons not suitable for robes etc
- items already charmed – residues - patent issues (like legal brands?) – wards and cursed objects
- skill of charm caster
- market for cleaning potions
OOC: Don't worry about it :) Did you want to bother with actually writing the essay for those extra points?
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Elly
Optimism is the way forward
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Elly
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