Bridges? Lame. (Wotw) on Charms

Professor Taylor

December 06, 2007 5:40 PM

Beginning Charms, Class II [Years 1 & 2] by Professor Taylor

It was directly after Midterm. Lorraine’s Midterm had been rather restful; she had gone home to visit her siblings, despite the plethora of rather obnoxious nieces and nephews, none yet older than five or so. The ‘or so’ because she did not precisely know how old a great deal of them were, only that they were short and annoying. Whether or not they would exhibit any magical potential was something that Lorraine did not believe could be estimated as such. She came from a strictly Muggle family, and one that had a rather no-nonsense manner of dealing with things. Before she had received her letter and been sent off to magical school, they, like most Muggles, had been adamant that magic didn’t exist, as had Lorraine herself.

However, this was not the time to be pondering whether or not she would be teaching any of her relations in several years’ time. This was the time to be preparing for her lesson. Or, rather, to be preparing to start her lesson; this lesson had already been planned since the beginning of the year.

The first half of the year, Lorraine had taught strictly methodology with very little on theory or use. In a Muggle class, this would not have been possible; merely methodology would have bored them to tears. However, these were young wizards and witches, anxious to learn spells to show off to their friends and to experiment with. Consequently, both sets had learned all the spells in the curriculum already.

Now was the time when she expanded into the part of Charms that she truly enjoyed: theory and application.

“I hope,” the woman said, shutting the door with a click as the last on-time student skidded into the room. “that you all had a lovely break.” That with a washed-out blue stare at the child fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to be seated in the front row. By this time, they seemed to have gotten over their initial unease towards Lorraine and merely accepted her manner as rather strict, but not entirely unkind. “Now that you are back, I trust you will focus and concentrate on the tasks at hand.

“I would have you know that we have effectively covered the spell curriculum for the first and second year courses respectively. I would also have you know that from this point on, you need not bring anything but your wands to class. All other materials will be provided.

“For the rest of the year, we will be exploring the uses of charms in the real world, in addition to the theory behind the use of them—the why and how, if you will. We have briefly touched upon these topics before, but we will begin to go more in-depth now. Any questions? Good. Each of you should have a sticker on your desk reflecting,” flick of the wand and the words ‘airplane’, ‘bridge’, ‘broom’, ‘factory’, ‘magic carpet’, and ‘radio’ appeared on the board. “one of these words. I would like you to gather in groups and make a list of which spells could be, not necessarily are used in these things and why. Please note that with two exceptions, these words can be applied to magical or Muggle environments and work accordingly. If you have time, extra credit will be awarded to those with accurate sketches of their word with arrows pointing to where each spell would be used. These will be turned in at the end of the class.”

Lorraine nodded firmly to herself, another look sliding around the classroom to take in the reactions to the instructions.

“And by the way,” she allowed as she began to turn away from the class to observe from the front of the room. “there will be no more homework for the rest of the year. You may begin finding your groups.”

OOC: To clarify: each student will have a sticker on their desk that is an airplane, bridge, broom, factory-thing, magic carpet, or radio. Students will work with students with the same sticker. Please, no more than three people to a group—expand and make new friends! Minimum of 10 sentences, grammatically correct and spellchecked please. The more interesting and creative you get, the more house points will be awarded!

Subthreads:

Radios Unite! (wotw) by Brett Hodges with Rilla White

I'm leavin' on a jet plane by Talitha Cumni with Holly Greer, Talitha

Boys and Brooms by Lutece Anthony [Crotalus] with Cecily Smythe, Lutece

Magic Carpets? What now? by Oliver Abbott

Global Warming by Jae Dimitri [Pecari] with Rorrie Hudson, Josh Warren

Bridges? Lame. (Wotw) by Chelsea Brockert with Ronen Cooper, Ronen

0 Professor Taylor Beginning Charms, Class II [Years 1 & 2] 0 Professor Taylor 1 5

Brett Hodges

December 08, 2007 1:03 AM

Radios Unite! (wotw) by Brett Hodges

Charms was easily Brett's worst subject. It was a miracle he had passed the first part of the year after failing everything the first couple months. He couldn't even do the first year spells, and it was nothing short of an Act of God that he hadn't been held back last year. Oh, sure, he'd known the spells, could spell them even, but unfortunately, good spelling was superfluous next to successful practical performance, which he could do not at all.

This October, things had changed. He hadn't realized how much he'd been holding back until he talked to Irene about it. It was like the heavens had opened up and granted him an epiphany: "Brett," said heavens whispered, "you've tried everything except trying."

Brett wasn't good at Charms. He wasn't good at spells. But he could do them when he actually tried. His grade jumped 20 points almost overnight. And another 20 in another couple weeks. The next 20 were a little harder to come by, but his was a passing grade now. Low passing, but fabulously, amazingly, rejoicingly passing.

Professor Taylor finished her explanation of the activity and Brett looked around, dumbfounded. His groups was supposed to make a list of what spells are used in radios. It made no sense. Radios were muggle devices and didn't use any spells at all. May be she meant the radio industry... which was also muggle and didn't have anything to do with magic.

With furrowed brow, Brett picked up his bag, notebook, and pen, and went in search of his group. He found another radio-er in the front corner of the room, and hovered there, watching for the others and waiting to see if this was, indeed, how the other kids in the class were grouping up. It seemed to be.

"So," Brett said the other radio kid, "She said to write down what spells are used in radio? I... what does that mean?"

0 Brett Hodges Radios Unite! (wotw) 0 Brett Hodges 0 5

Talitha Cumni

December 09, 2007 9:50 PM

I'm leavin' on a jet plane by Talitha Cumni

Talitha sat in the middle of the classroom, trying not to glare at Professor Taylor. She knew it wasn’t the woman’s fault that Charms had so drastically changed. Each professor taught in their own style and she couldn’t help it if her predecessor was a lot more fun. She was a good teacher though, and Talitha had learned a lot once she realized that boycotting the class would mean failing it and therefore a severe grounding at home.

Her opinion of the stern woman raised a notch or two with this class, however. Studying practical use in the everyday world promised to be interesting. Throwing out the textbooks for the rest of the year didn’t hurt either. True, she saw people using charms and spells everyday at home. The people using them acted as though it were as natural as breathing. Most of the time, they didn’t look like they even thought about what they were doing, they just did it. It was so different from her practicing and trying and goofing up and practicing some more and sometimes getting it right.

She never really thought about the magical tools she used, either. They just did what they were supposed to do. She hadn’t ever contemplated what went into making them work or what spells were used in their manufacturing. Interesting, even if it was a written assignment with no actual wand practice.

She looked at her glowing sticker. Airplane? Okay, she knew there were no spells used on muggle airplanes, usually. This called for a bit of creative imagination. She mulled this over for a while before searching for the other students who were stuck with flying tubes too. Spotting one, she walked over and smiled.

“If humans were meant to fly, we’d have all been born with wings.” Talitha said as an opening, hoping it sounded the way she wanted it to, that she was ready to have fun with something that could very easily turn into a boring chore.
\n

0 Talitha Cumni I'm leavin' on a jet plane 102 Talitha Cumni 0 5

Holly Greer

December 14, 2007 11:36 AM

They beat flying covered wagons by Holly Greer

Holly liked Charms. She'd been a bit dubious at first, mostly due to the fact that she was muggleborn and she'd had her doubts about magic in general, but once she'd started getting spells to work, it had been really cool and she had begun to look forward to Charms so she could see what else magic people could do. The teacher's announcement that they were moving into uses and theory was disappointing. (Though, to be fair, the lack of homework hereafter more than made up for it.)

Looking at the sticker on her desk, she was surprised to find the word 'airplane'. Confusion and consternation about what an airplane was doing getting mentioned in a magic class almost made her miss the instructions for the lesson, but she tuned back in quickly enough to catch the gist of it. She was still baffled about why there would be charms on an airplane though and she continued to stare at the word as if she was sure she must be misreading it.

“If humans were meant to fly, we’d have all been born with wings.”

Holly looked up and found an older girl joining her. She smiled nervously and wondered if that was supposed to be a quotation and she was expected to provide the next line. Not recognizing it from any the movies she knew well enough to recite, she just smiled, "Yeah, I'd always wondered why Tinkerbell needed fairy dust when she had wings."

Her eyes darted back to the sticker again, "So I'm guessing airplanes don't actually have any charms - or fairy dust - on them, but we're supposed to come up with what wizards might put on them if they were making them?" Belatedly realizing a serious breach of etiquette had been made she quickly looked back at the other girl and spoke hurriedly, "Oh, and I'm Holly Thistle of the Hollywood Thistles."\r\n\r\n

1 Holly Greer They beat flying covered wagons 123 Holly Greer 0 5

Lutece Anthony [Crotalus]

December 15, 2007 3:23 PM

Boys and Brooms by Lutece Anthony [Crotalus]

The truly miserable part about being the oldest year in a class was the considerable lack of guys. Well, not the lack of guys, but the lack of dateable guys. There were very, very few first years whom Lutece would consider dating. They would have to be super cute, to begin with, and she wasn't spotting any. So she turned her attention to those in her year, yet again. It was rather a depressing list. Cisco Vargas, who she didn't see here yet, was kind of cute but not that interesting. An Aladren geek, nonetheless. Then there was Lucas Smythe, who was, again, geeky but kind of cute. Geeky seemed to be a reoccurring theme in her year, actually. Except for the Pecaris. There was that Jae kid, but he was more like some sort of dog. One of those golden retrievers that spent most of their time ruining someone's carpet.

Sighing, Lutece ran the tips of her fingernails up against the edge of a sticker on the corner of her desk. It was a broom, as she would have noticed if she had been paying any attention to the sticker. The Crotalus also would have noticed that it was getting sticky gunk on her recently painted cream nails if she was paying attention. But Lutece was far more occupied with what she had titled the Boy Problem to notice such things. Again, there was Oliver...but again, she wasn't sure if he liked Talitha or not. The other girl was her best friend here at Sonora, and it would be mean to start going after a guy who liked her. It just wasn't in The Rules.

This did not mean that Lutece actually knew what The Rules were, only that there were some. She would really have to do some research on Wikipedia when she got home for the summer. Her iMac was a year old now, and gathering dust in the corner of her closet while she was at school. Or at least, the twelve year old hoped that it was gathering dust. Elsewise, that meant that either Grace or James or her parents were snooping, which was simply not to be tolerated. The one good thing about this whole 'magic' nonsense was that there were some really nasty lock spells at there. She was planning on getting one of her geeky yearmates to protect her diary properly with one of those 'spell' things.

Suddenly, the bore of a Charms teacher stopped talking at the front of the class with the promise of no homework for the rest of the year. That was a good thing, and probably the only reason why Lutece had realised that the lesson had begun. She had completely missed the part where Professor Taylor had started talking. And as usual, Lutece had no idea what was going on. Thankfully, someone from behind her asked, "Is that a broom?" and she swiveled gracefully to face them.

Today she was wearing a knee-length red skirt with silver sequins sewn into the hem, matching flats, and a salmon AE sweater. Underneath her robes, of course. Robes were such a pain. Her brown hair was in a halfback, which Lutece was still trying to figure out how to make look spectacular with her all too straight hair. It didn't look bad, it just didn't look amazing.

"Yes, it is," Lutece replied, once she had pressed the sticker edges back onto the desk with one careful finger. "Why do you ask?"

0 Lutece Anthony [Crotalus] Boys and Brooms 0 Lutece Anthony [Crotalus] 0 5

Oliver Abbott

December 15, 2007 5:15 PM

Magic Carpets? What now? by Oliver Abbott

Charms was another of the classes that Oliver was good at. In fact, he thought he was doing fairly well in all his classes. Which was most pleasantly surprising; a year ago his parents had almost convinced him he would fail all of his classes. Practical spells in particular seemed to come especially easily to Oliver. He wondered if it was because he had some sort of hidden talent, or if he had a good wand, or maybe he could just follow instructions well. Perhaps it was fluke. Who knew?

As Oliver found his seat near the front of the class, he couldn’t help but feel quietly confident about the outcome of the lesson. Professor Taylor was by no means cheerful, in fact she was rather dull, but she did seem to know what she was talking about. Plus she’d just pretty much told them not to bring their textbooks to lessons anymore, which definitely couldn’t be a bad thing. There was even sketching involved in this class – Oliver was good at that, too. If he worked hard this lesson he could even be heading for star student status. Not that such a position was ever one Oliver had craved, that was more Julian’s thing, possibly Charlie’s, too. Still, it couldn’t hurt to be top of the class.

Wait, it got better yet. No homework for the rest of the term! Charms was definitely Oliver’s new top class. His assignment for the day, as dictated by the odd sticker on his desk, was magic carpets. That was a topic he really knew very little about. Aside from the flying carpet in Aladdin (which Charlie had made him watch, it hadn’t been his choice, he would swear it), Oliver hadn’t really heard of them. He supposed they were fairly common in the wizarding world though – a way to get around more comfortably than on a broomstick, or what have you.

Eager to get started and prove his worth, Oliver scanned the class, pushing his blond hair back form his eyes to allow him to see without distraction. Spying another person from the magic carpet group he headed over.

“Hey, I got magic carpet too,” he said, adjusting his black-rimmed glasses and feeling a bit stupid talking about an object he’d only ever come across in a kids’ film. “So I guess we’re working together.”

0 Oliver Abbott Magic Carpets? What now? 99 Oliver Abbott 0 5

Cecily Smythe

December 15, 2007 5:34 PM

I have no interest in either by Cecily Smythe

Returning to classes after having such an exhilarating break from school was such a complete bore. Charms wasn’t half as bad as potions or transfiguration, obviously, but it was nevertheless an unwelcome intrusion into Cecily’s otherwise pleasant life. Her midterm had been decidedly enjoyable, as she had been spoilt even more than usual, to make up for having to spend so much time away form home. She had spent a lot of time with Heidi, brushing her coat and braiding her tail, and feeding her peppermints. Cecily had also visited the dressmaker’s shop with her mother, for her new season outfits. She was wearing one of them right now – a beautiful baby blue satin button-up blouse with matching trousers that even had small flares at the bottom. The set was completely hidden by dull uniform robes, of course, but Cecily was looking forward to parading it in the common room later that day.

First, though, she had to get through a day of classes. This class was going to be monumentally dull, Cecily had no doubt about it. Still, if she didn’t get good grades then it would upset Daddy, so she had to at least try in her classes, no matter how much of a waste of time they were. So Cecily listened while the professor explained what they should do, and she couldn’t chew on her hair because she’d tied it all up in a twist at the back of her head today, so she took to biting her nails instead. When the lecture was up, Cecily stood up to better find her group – she was so small that she was almost invisible sitting down, she was sure of it. Luckily, she thought she spied a broom sticker, just like her own one, on a desk just a couple in front. Standing hastily with her book bag clutched in her hand, Cecily quick-stepped over in white patent leather clad feet.

“Is that a broom?” she asked the older girl who was seated at the desk. The girl said that it was, and so Cecily slid into the adjacent desk, which had just been vacated by another student.

“Why do you ask?” Cecily blinked her brown eyes and stared at the other girl, who she was almost sure was in her house. “Because we have to work in groups and write about the sticker on our desk,” she said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I have a broomstick too, so we have to work together,” she explained to the silly girl who apparently hadn’t quite followed the teacher’s instructions, no matter how simple they had been.

0 Cecily Smythe I have no interest in either 122 Cecily Smythe 0 5

Talitha

December 16, 2007 4:53 AM

Or Brooms by Talitha

Talitha smiled kindly at the way the younger girl introduced herself. Quite a few of the students seemed to think it was somehow impressive to declare their family origins. The fact that it held little or no weight with the faculty at Sonora didn’t seem to matter. There was only a handful of students who truly cared. Talitha wasn’t one of them.

“Nice to meet you, Holly. I’m Talitha.” She said, refusing to go into the family status name game. She almost asked who Tinkerbelle was or what was fairy dust but decided against it as she didn’t want to waste class time by veering off subject.

“Yeah, it looks like we have to come up with charms that would make it do what its supposed to do if the mechanics weren’t working.” Cut and dried. Technical. Not fun. While an interesting concept at first, somehow doing the actual assignment seemed very dull. There had to be a way to liven it up a bit.

“Okay, lets say we were somehow lost in Death Valley. No owls to send for help. No brooms and we can’t apparate. Tired and hot, we stumble on this wreck of a plane. If we can make it fly, we’re saved. If not, we’re doomed. So, since neither one of us are muggle mechanics, we’ll just have to use magic to make it fly.

“I guess the first thing we have to do is decide if we found a big jet or a private plane with those twirly things. What are they called?” Talitha searched for the right word. “Oh, yes, propiters.” \n

0 Talitha Or Brooms 0 Talitha 0 5

Lutece

December 16, 2007 3:27 PM

...are you human? by Lutece

Really, Lutece hated looking stupid around younger kids. They should respect and revere her, as she had Jen and Lily. As she did respect Jen and Lily. It was her goal in life to be just as awesome as Jen was when she was in her fifth and sixth year. To have younger kids know who she was and ask her for advice. To be friends with the most gorgeous guy in her year (she didn't know if Jen was actually dating Matt's older brother or not, but they had been hanging around a lot last year, and a bit this year too). But no, she was stuck in this depressingly dull class without anybody to take her to the ball and nobody to talk to because Talitha was already working with someone. And now she had a smarmy first year telling her what to do. Lovely.

"I knew that," snapped Lutece, pushing the loose hairs in her face behind her ears, then quickly pulling them back out again and arranging them in a manner that she thought would look fetching, not wanting to dig her mirror out of the bottom of her bag in front of this little kid. She looked almost familiar--was she a Crotalus? Actually, Lutece thought she might know the kid's name. C something. Last name...oh! She knew where she recognised the girl from! Wasn't she Lucas's little sister or something? "Aren't you related to Lucas?" Lutece asked out of interest.

Figuring that she ought to look as though she really did know what she was doing, Lutece ducked her head under the desk to fetch out parchment and a quill from her bag. The quill had been her dad's 'private' gift to her for Christmas. It didn't need that ink stuff, so she couldn't accidentally spill it and ruin her outfit. Assuming that her outfit wasn't covered by the super-tacky school uniforms that they always had to wear for no particular reason. At least normal private schools had cute uniforms. Like the ones in those weird backwards Chinese cartoons that James sometimes read. All short skirts and adorable shirts.

Parchment and quill neatly arranged on the desk (and hair surreptitiously checked underneath the desk with the mirror), Lutece smiled brightly (and somewhat fakely) at the girl. "So, any ideas?"

Maybe the kid was her way in to Lucas. Hm. That was a pretty good idea, actually.

0 Lutece ...are you human? 0 Lutece 0 5

Cecily

December 16, 2007 4:54 PM

Last time I checked by Cecily

Cecily couldn’t help but raise a sceptical eyebrow at the girl who claimed to know what she was doing. At least one of them had paid attention to the Professor. Pursing her lips, Cecily pulled her own books, lightweight parchment and self-inking quill from her bag and arranged them neatly on her new desk. Then the older girl drew her attention by speaking again. “Aren’t you related to Lucas?” she said.

“As a matter of fact I am,” Cecily replied, pleased that she had been recognised, if only through her family members. “I’m Cecily Smythe,” she said proudly, “Lucas is my cousin. Are you friends with him?” she enquired, more from nosiness than genuine curiosity. If she could get any dirt on Lucas from his school friends then all the better for her and the worse for him. Not that Lucas was too dreadful, but he was always rather rude to Cecily, for reasons unknown.

“So, any ideas?” Cecily’s partner asked.

“Well, I can’t say I know a great deal about broomsticks, actually,” Cecily replied, idly twirling her quill between her fingers. “My uncle owns a company that makes brooms, but I don’t really talk to him about his work,” she said, in a tone that suggested this was obvious. “Lucas would know what charms they use,” she said, “he’s on the Quidditch team.” She glanced around the room to try and spot her cousin, but couldn’t see over the heads of the people nearest to her. “Maybe there’s something in here,” she suggested instead, and opened her textbook.

0 Cecily Last time I checked 0 Cecily 0 5

Rilla White

December 16, 2007 10:28 PM

Radio?! Charms?! by Rilla White

Rilla only half listened to her Charms professor as she went on about whatever she was talking about. Rilla had a short attention span, it was a well known fact to most who got to know her. This fact drove Rilla's mother completely crazy.

She'd been grounded a day into break because she'd smashed half the plates in the kitchen while she'd been doing the dishes. As a first year, she could manage a simple charm to lift things, and she'd been moving the dishes with magic. Her mother had forbid this, and even mentioned that Rilla didn't have the attention span to carry it out. However, Rilla hadn't been listening... and she'd dropped most of the dishes when she spaced off while washing the ones that weren't floating to the drying rack.

She'd managed to catch a few, and the ones in the sink were of course fine but her mother was not at all happy. And so, her break hadn't exactly been pleasant. She was now musing on how she could amuse herself at school, being studious wasn't currently a priority. At 11 who was studious? Not her for sure. So she was a bit confused when the students started dividing into groups.

Looking down at her desk she noted a sticker with a radio on it, or that was at least what it kind of looked like. Rilla didn't know witches and wizards even used stickers, but of course, this Professor was a little odd. What she was suppose to do now, she assumed was to find other people with radios. At this point she saw a boy come up to her.

"There aren't any spells used in a radio!" Rilla started laughing without thinking. She didn't think whether or not the professor could hear this, which she of course could have if she wasn't completely deaf. Then she tried to pull herself together. They were suppose to be working. While she didn't care that much about her grades her mother did, plus around here you could get detention for missing work. Of course, that was a deterant if her mother wasn't.

"What exactly did she say? Sorry, I wasn't really listening.. I was thinking about how to..." Rilla stopped there. She had to be careful what she told this boy, he could be a snitch, how did she know.

"Umm, sorry, that before was rude, I'm Rilla. A teppenpaw first year. Now kindly explain to me what we're suppose to be doing and I'll see how I can help, and maybe we'll have another group member shortly." Rilla hoped the Professor didn't overhear she hadn't been paying attention. Professors usually didn't like to hear such things.

0 Rilla White Radio?! Charms?! 116 Rilla White 0 5

Holly Greer

December 17, 2007 2:23 PM

Or a flying bed with magic bedknobs by Holly Greer

Talitha, Holly repeated mentally, glad to have a name to put to the other girl's face. She looked familiar and Holly was almost positive she was the one who started crying over an Indian analogy in that first class of History of Magic. Since Holly herself had fainted in that class, though, she wasn't about to hold it against Talitha.

Holly listened as Talitha provided a (highly unlikely) situation that might require them to do what this lesson was all about, but before they moved onto actually doing the assignment, Holly found it necessary to set straight the vocabulary. "Propellers," she corrected. "They're called propellers."

Once that was settled, Holly turned her attention to the question Talitha had asked. "I don't really know that it makes a difference. The idea's pretty much the same thing either way and even in a big jet they've got giant thrusters that do pretty much the same thing, I think. At least, in all the cartoons where birds fly in there, they come out all de-feathered so I think there's spinning propeller things inside them."

She took out a piece of paper and drew a large jet as best she could. It wasn't the best piece of artwork ever done, but it was at least recognizable. "Jets are easier to draw," she justified her choice.

Underneath the body of the jet, she drew five arrows, evenly spaced pointing up. "The obvious one would be some kind of levitation charm. The only one I know is Wingardium Leviosa, but that might not be strong enough for a whole jet."

1 Holly Greer Or a flying bed with magic bedknobs 123 Holly Greer 0 5

Jae Dimitri [Pecari]

December 17, 2007 3:07 PM

Global Warming by Jae Dimitri [Pecari]

Charms was not as madcoolawesome as it used to be, Jae reflected sadly as he skipped down the hallway to Professor Taylor's classroom. It used to be Professor McKindy's classroom, but Professor McKindy was gone, just like Professor Deck and Professor McFarlan. Sonora didn't seem to be very good at keeping cool teachers. Except Professor K., who was supermadcoolawesome and taught Comec AND was the D-H. The dreadlocked boy also liked the Divinations professor, but he hadn't actually met her yet. She just looked cool and taught a cool subject. But he was still sad that they had boring Professor Taylor instead of madcool Professor McKindy with the bubble hat and the frogs.

He opened the door and skipped into the classroom, stopping right away when he noticed Professor Taylor's scary blue eyes on him. She wasn't mean, she was just old lady strict, which was close to mean but not exactly mean. Jae still didn't like her though. Very, very boring was her teaching style, and Jae didn't do very, very boring. Also, she liked to add stuff from Muggle sciences which Jae didn't like that much. The Coloradan had done very well in the bits of science that involved animals, but rather badly on the bits that had involved math and machines. It was just how his mind worked. Animals made sense. Trees made sense. Machines just worked. People should know how they worked 'cause that was just interesting, but they shouldn't have to be able to figure out how.

Walking at a relatively sedate pace to his usual seat, Jae plopped his bag down as soon as he got to it. The seat in question was in the back corner, far away from where he could annoy Professor Taylor. Today,the seat also had a sticker on it. Jae sat down and looked at the sticker. It was a bunch of towers with smoke leaking out of one tower. At the bottom of the towers was a grassy patch, and the grassy patch was very grassy. In fact, it was more green than their lawn back home. The Pecari didn't think that this was a very normal thing to have at the base of a factory, because all the factory things he had ever seen were in Denver, and they were all concrete-y and not green at all. Plus, they polluted the environment and broke down the ozone layer and caused global warming.

Aunt Marla had gotten him a book about the environment for Christmas, and Aunt Cheri had gotten him one with all sorts of magical creatures in it. They had been very informative.

Just as soon as the Professor was done giving directions, Jae hopped up and found his partner. "hi! We're partners, right?"

0 Jae Dimitri [Pecari] Global Warming 0 Jae Dimitri [Pecari] 0 5

Lutece

December 17, 2007 7:22 PM

Well, at least you had your doubts too by Lutece

Hah! Lutece felt a distinct sense of satisfaction at being correct in her (albeit educated) guess about her partner's relations. Cecily Smythe. It wasn't too bad a name, actually. And the girl's shoes were certainly rather nice, not the usual tasteless sneaker usually found treading Sonora's hallways. Home of the fashionista this school was not, Lutece was disappointed to say. True, it could get difficult with the whole uniform thing, but any truly dedicated person could manage something, at least. And Cecily was cousins with Lucas...? Interesting. She wondered if the two got along. Lutece most certainly did not get on well at all with most of her cousins. Granted, said cousins were on her father's side (her mother was an only child), but nevertheless.

"Yes, we speak occasionally," the Crotalus said smoothly, trying to give the impression she was understating a fact. The fact was that their speaking was quite limited to in-class work and accidental running into each other in the hallways and such, but it couldn't hurt to stretch the truth a bit. Particularly when it involved boys, and particularly when it involved boys so close to a ball. Lutece hoped they could wear proper clothes, elsewise she would have to go shopping for--euegh--dress robes. Via catalogue, at least, but robes were so tacky. It made her feel as though she had just come out of the shower half the time and as though she was wearing a blanket for no apparent reason the rest of the time.

"I'm Lutece Anthony, by the way. Second year Crotalus. I know Lucas is on the Quidditch team; I'm the Crotalus Reserve Keeper and we've played against his House before." Lutece's alert gray-green eyes noted that Cecily was looking about for her cousin to see what charms people used on brooms. She assumed that this was their assignment, since that's what all the other people were doing at the moment. Unfortunately, Cecily didn't seem to be able to spot her male cousin, and turned towards the textbook instead. Disappointed but not beaten, Lutece cast a few surreptitious glances around the room herself before settling into work mode. No Lucas that she could see. She sighed. Oh well. She would have to catch him later.

"Well, I suppose you would need some sort of charm to make sure you don't get too uncomfortable, because when you sit on a broom it doesn't feel like sitting on a broom," Lutece mused, brushing the soft edges of her quill against her lipgloss-covered lips. Thankfully, bits of feather did not come loose and stick to her lips. That would have been rather awkward to try and remove. "See if you can find a charm like that in the book." On sudden inspiration, she ducked down to dig through her bag again, coming up with a rather tattered copy of Quaffles, Snitches, and Bludgers: an Insider's Guide to Quidditch that her father had bought her secondhand over the summer. Lutece swore the man was six times as interested in the whole magic boarding school business as she was sometimes.

"Here we go, page 349. Cushioning Charms." Quickly, Lutece noted the name, book, and page number in neat green ink after putting her name, date, and course in the upper right hand corner. Her grades had jumped considerably since last year. Since she started doing work, that was to say.

0 Lutece Well, at least you had your doubts too 0 Lutece 0 5

Talitha

December 17, 2007 8:16 PM

Bubbling Along on the Bottom of the Beautiful Briney Sea! by Talitha

“Propellers,” Talitha repeated. She was familiar with cartoons. She’d seen her share of them when she visited her muggle friends and the scenes Holly described flashed in her memory, no problem.

Talitha searched her Charms book as a reference. The text might not be required, but it could come in handy like a kind of lexicon. Perhaps she should keep it in her bag just in case, for the time being. One never knew when it might come in handy.

“Well, if the doors were stuck tight, we might need Alohamora.” Talitha said, thinking out loud. She admired Holly’s sketching. The first year certainly drew better than she did. Talitha began to take notes as her contribution to the project. “We might want to use some sort of atmospheric charm to make sure we had clear weather in the air. Perhaps we could use a Locomotor charm to get the “Moose” moving. We might also want to use a Point Me spell to figure out where we’re going.”

Talitha studied the drawing. Perhaps there was something that could guarantee a soft landing. “What do you think?”
\r\n\r\n\r\n

0 Talitha Bubbling Along on the Bottom of the Beautiful Briney Sea! 0 Talitha 0 5

Cecily

December 18, 2007 11:21 AM

Sometimes I feel superhuman by Cecily

Cecily’s partner finally introduced herself as Lutece Anthony, and said that she was on the Crotalus Quidditch team. Cecily silently congratulated herself on being correct about Lutece being in the same house, but this pleasure was almost immediately overrun by Lutece’s statement about her role in what was often considered a sport.

“You play Quidditch?” Cecily asked, aghast. Having spoken with Laurie before midterm, Cecily could just about appreciate why some girls might find enjoyment in watching the odd game, especially if was in support of a House team. However, she didn’t think she would ever understand why girls actually wanted to play Quidditch. It was such a boyish thing to do! “Aren’t you scared of getting knocked off your broom?” Cecily asked, in case this possibility had never occurred to Lutece. After all, she did seem fairly slow.

Despite her apparent cluelessness at the start of the lesson, Lutece did at least have some ideas about the charms used on brooms (though Cecily would refuse to see this as an advantage of riding the stupid things). Even as Cecily began looking up cushioning charms in the textbook, Lutece found the same information in a Quidditch book. Cecily gave the book a disproving sniff, and turned back to her own, set textbook. “How about the charms that keep it up in the air?” she asked, the obvious question suddenly occurring to her. “Brooms are just bits of wood until they’ve been charmed to fly.”

0 Cecily Sometimes I feel superhuman 0 Cecily 0 5

Holly Greer

December 19, 2007 12:51 PM

Everything and Anything a Truck Can Unload by Holly Greer

When Talitha made no complaint against the levitation spell suggestion, Holly wrote that underneath the arrows below the plane. Wingardium Leviosa Deciding it needed something more than the spell name, she added a description of why it was necessary: (to make it fly)

She looked over the addition and found it was good. Talitha had opened her book by this time and was making more suggestions. As Holly hadn't had doors (or windows) yet on her drawing, Holly added those in, and put an arrow toward one of the doors, and at the non-pointy end of the arrow, wrote out (if stuck) Aloha Mora. She had no idea what that spell was, but she guessed it opened stuck doors. Then she drew a arrow pointing out from the nose of the plane and wrote in front of that Loco Motor (to make it move). Next to it, she also wrote Charm to Make Weather Good.

She puzzled over where to put the point me spell, but decided to draw in an arrow pointing to the cockpit. Point Me (to navigate) she wrote at the non-pointy end of that arrow.

"That sounds good," Holly approved of the suggestions when Talitha asked her opinion. "Let me think. Um, we need lights and radios, too, so we don't run into other planes and they know where we are. And, um, something to keep the passengers warm, and maybe even a movie. How fancy are we getting here? Do we need a way to warm up airline food and keep the drinks cold, too?"

1 Holly Greer Everything and Anything a Truck Can Unload 123 Holly Greer 0 5

Chelsea Brockert

December 20, 2007 10:49 AM

Bridges? Lame. (Wotw) by Chelsea Brockert

Chelsea had never thought it would be possible for Charms to be so dull. It was supposed to be the backbone of all magic. A witch or wizard would be lost if they didn't know how to do it.

However, Professor Taylor seemed to be sucking all the fun out of class. It was even worse than History of Magic. Chelsea didn't care about the theories behind the charms, she wanted to perform them. The methodology that they'd spent the first part of the year on was unbearable. Furthermore, Chelsea didn't feel they were getting an adequate education in this class, even if they had gone through the whole curriculum. It didn't matter if they had, if they couldn't perform the spells they had learned. Even if Chelsea picked up on the simple ones, it would have been better than dreary methodology.

She fought to suppress a yawn as today's lesson was announced. Yawning in public was not ladylike but Chelsea couldn't help but show signs of her boredom. Learning application to her obviously meant something than it did to Professor Taylor. To the first year, it meant doing spells, not talking about how they were used on various items. That would never teach her how to take power and smite those who got in her way like a well-placed jynx would.

Chelsea gave inaudible sigh and looked down at her desk. A bridge. Oh, joy. She knew nothing about them, aside from they were used to go over water, and had no desire to know anymore. She turned to the person next to her, who also had a bridge. "I guess we're working together."

11 Chelsea Brockert Bridges? Lame. (Wotw) 108 Chelsea Brockert 0 5

Rorrie Hudson

December 20, 2007 3:17 PM

Global Cooling by Rorrie Hudson

Rorrie entered charms class with the expectations of an entertaining class. The last lesson was pretty cool, being able to make her wand light up and stuff. Rorrie took a seat and listened as the Professor talked about the task at hand. When the stickers were mentioned, Rorrie looked down at hers: A factory. Super... She kind of wanted the magic carpet, but she'd take what she got. Rorrie looked around for the other people with the factory sticker, but it seemed they'd found her first. A boy with blonde drealocked bounced up to her. She smiled at him.

"Hi! We're partners, right?"

"If you're a factory sticker, then yeah," she said, gesturing to her own sticker. "I'm Rorrie." She hadn't the faintest idea what charms actually existed and what ones she was just making up in her mind. Maybe something to reknew the machines? She knew most people would reply with "cleaner air. Save the whales!" No thanks.

"So what do you think? I don't really know a lot of charms..."

0 Rorrie Hudson Global Cooling 0 Rorrie Hudson 0 5

Josh Warren

December 20, 2007 3:55 PM

Globes by Josh Warren

Josh and Renaye went their seperate ways as they entered the class, like they usually did. Every once in a while they would work together on something, but they had decided that this was their opportunity to make new friends, rather than be Siamese twins. He brushed some of his black hair out of his bright blue eyes as he took a seat randomly in the class. It wasn't until after he was sitting that he noticed the stickers at every desk. His depicted what looked like towers with smoke. Factories, obviously. He looked around for the rest of his group, glancing enviously at the Broom group. What would factories use charms for? A multiplying charm? Make more, faster? Josh headed towards his group and his heart jumped a little as he saw Rorrie sitting there with a boy he was pretty sure was a second year. Maybe this was his chance... He had been meaning to ask her to the ball, but he just hadn't talked to her as much. He would have to do it at some point...

"So what do you think? I don't really know a lot of charms..."

Josh took a seat beside her and smiled lightly. Inputing his idea before it was lost, Josh said, "What about a charm that multiplies wahtever they're producing? Make more goods faster and cheaper?" Rorrie was muggleborn, so he suspected that was why she didn't know that much about charms. He wouldn't know either, so he couldn't blame her. She was smart though. She could pick it up easily. He looked at the other boy.

"Hi. Josh Warren."

0 Josh Warren Globes 0 Josh Warren 0 5

Talitha

December 23, 2007 1:51 PM

And just a bit more by Talitha

Talitha noted, Lights, Radio, Heat, Food, Water, Movie. Well, the crash had turned into a regular passenger flight. No problem. She pondered the list.

“I guess we could make it as elaborate as possible.” Talitha chewed her bottom lip. “I’ve got a feeling, the longer the list of charms, the better our grade so we might as well make it a first class flight.”

There was no problem with anything Holly mentioned. Talitha had never been on a plane herself, but she was comfortable with all the things she’d mentioned because of growing up around muggle neighbors. Some of the specific terms might confuse her, but she understood the basics of a lot of things. Applying magic to muggle items was the problem. How to communicate with a radio that’s not an owl or connected to the Floo?

“Well, water’s no problem. We can pour that from our wands with the Aguamenti charm. Maybe we can adapt a spell we learned in Charms club last year for lights. That one’s Corescio. It makes a lighted orb. The radio and movie, I don’t have a clue. What do you think?”
\n

0 Talitha And just a bit more 0 Talitha 0 5

Ronen Cooper

December 25, 2007 11:16 PM

hear, hear by Ronen Cooper

Ronen Cooper looked up from the army of poorly drawn stickmen he had created upon his paper. It was his way of pretending to take notes, without actually doing so. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Charms – quite the contrary. Although the professor still mildly scared him, after Defense, this was his favorite class. The problem was that he had somehow managed to read through all of his textbooks on the trips to and from Sonora, understood it, and felt it completely unnecessary to take notes.

His brown eyes sparkled – no textbooks? Excellent! A new challenge was always welcomed. Especially those challenges that didn’t involve too much grace – the first year was hopelessly clumsy. Nearly falling out of his seat as he assumed a more attentive position, he was glad that he had chosen to sit in the back of the class, where few could see his blunders.

Sticker? What sticker? He scrambled for the desired object, and upon it discovered the picture of what he could only assume to be a bridge. Well, that was certainly vague. What kind of a bridge was it… a suspension bridge, Brooklyn bridge, London bridge? Golden Gate? Those were the only bridges he knew off hand. There were of course, several bridges back home in Jersey, but at the moment he couldn’t remember any of their names. He racked his brain for answers – they had made him build model bridges in Muggle school, he had aced that project. Surely he must remember something… eureka! Triangles are the strongest geometrical shapes in the world! Not that he had the faintest idea how that might help him in this particular class, he was just glad that he was able to recall something .

Ronen whooped upon the announcement that there would be no more homework this year. Sure he liked learning about the subject, but he was no Aladren. He had better things to do than be cooped up inside his dorm with dreadfully boring homework.

He nodded at the girl sitting next to him, "Yep, bridges. Don't know much about 'em, but I guess we could be creative." Were there spells in his beginner's charms textbook that could be used for bridges? There must be. The brown-eyed boy firmly believed that if one was imaginative enough, they could get magic to serve any purpose.

0 Ronen Cooper hear, hear 124 Ronen Cooper 0 5

Chelsea

January 05, 2008 7:39 PM

Re: hear, hear by Chelsea

"How thrilling." Chelsea replied in a voice that seemed like she found it just the opposite. It wasn't really the guy's fault that the class was so lame. "I honestly don't know much about bridges either," she replied. It wasn't as if she couldn't pick it up. Chelsea was, after all, a genius. It was just that she didn't care one iota about bridges and all this technical matter. She was far more interested in power and how to get it. How would knowing what spells held a bridge up help her with that? Unless Chelsea was going to collapse a bridge and kill everyone on it and make the lives of everyone who had to use it miserable, it wouldn't. And that wasn't really her style.

"Creative huh?" She raised on perfectly plucked dark brown eyebrow and a mischeivous smile twitched around the corner of her mouth. "I very much doubt she " Chelsea nodded towards the teacher, "appreciates that, but as I know virtually nothing about this topic, I say we go for it."

Then another thought came to her. "Do wizards really even need bridges? I mean most of our transportation involves other methods, such as apparation. That takes you from where you are to approximately where you're going. Floo powder takes you from fireplace to fireplace. Neither method involves going over water the way a bridge would. Why would we bother using a charm on something we didn't need?"

11 Chelsea Re: hear, hear 108 Chelsea 0 5

Holly Greer

January 11, 2008 12:58 PM

What about the kitchen sink? by Holly Greer

"Right," Holly agreed, trying to remember anything else from her flights to add to the ever growing list of charms that would determine their grade.

Adding to the plane diagram she'd drawn, Holly pointed an arrow into the main passenger cabin and added a short list of charms that would affect that section: Corseo (lights), Aquamenti (water for drinking and washing hands), charms for playing a movie or music. Beside the Point Me notation, she also put: communication charm(s) for contacting air traffic control and/or making a normal radio work.

As she put in this description, Holly explained to Talitha, "I figure the important part is to give our ideas, even if we don't know the specific spell words for all of them, as long as we have a few. We're only a first year and, um, whatever year you are." Holly was fairly certain Talitha wasn't also a first year since she knew way more than Holly did and she'd mentioned some kind of club from the previous year, but Holly didn't want to assume. "We can't be expected to know every charm out there."

She put a few more finishing touches to the drawing, including Altitude Indicator in the cockpit section and the words Stewardess Station: charms food preparation and storage were at the end of an arrow pointing toward the back of the plane. She frowned a moment, then put in one more area: Bathroom: Air freshener charm and flushing charm, aquamenti again for washing.

Looking at Talitha, Holly asked, "Is that everything? And did I spell the magic words right?" She'd had to sound them out and was uncertain whether she'd guessed correctly.

1 Holly Greer What about the kitchen sink? 123 Holly Greer 0 5

Ronen

January 13, 2008 2:29 PM

I was never good with subject titles by Ronen

Okay, so Ronen's partner didn't seem very excited to be here, but he could deal with that. It was just one class, not the end of the world. This girl wasn't even in his house, after today he might never even talk to her again. Or she could end up being really nice, once he got to know her a little better. Anything was possible, really.

Ronen gazed at the not-so-friendly looking teacher. She kind of reminded him of that one substitute teacher with the creepy mustache back at Muggle school. That Mustache Guy was so afraid to lose control of the class that he had been strict from the start, and never let the students have any fun. Naturally the brown-eyed boy had taken it upon himself to rectify the situation, asking silly questions and pulling a plethora of minor pranks. The sight of Mustache Guy substituting for one of his teachers was almost a guarantee that he was going to be sent down to the office. Ronen wondered what Cindy the secretary was doing now - she'd always had the best candy on her desk.

“Well, too bad for her,” Ronen shrugged, before deciding, “We’re going to come up with a seriously awesome list of spells, so awesome that even she will have to like them.”

“They’re probably more for convenience than anything,” he said, thinking that it would be annoying to get on a broom every time you had to cross a body of water, or find a house with a fireplace to use floo powder, or Apparate with a bunch of little kids, “Like if you wanted to get a lot of boxes or something across a river, you could use a bridge. Or you could just levitate them… I don’t know.” Every time he tried to think of an instance where a bridge would be necessary, he thought of a better option he could find in magic.

“Maybe you could have moving bridges, like there are moving staircases,” he mused, “Or maybe you could make a bridge out of really shoddy materials, than charm it to be super strong and stable. Or it could be like a drawbridge that is charmed to only let friendly people inside a castle or something.” He picked up his quill, thinking that maybe he better write some of this stuff down. It was certainly a start.

0 Ronen I was never good with subject titles 0 Ronen 0 5

Talitha

January 15, 2008 5:30 PM

So throw it in! by Talitha

Talitha grinned, “I think you’re right. We should get some credit for at least knowing there’s a spell for something even if we don’t know the name of the charm yet. I think the spelling is okay, but it really isn’t something I’ve ever been good at. I think we’ve covered a lot. If we missed anything, I wouldn’t know what it is.”

It was almost time to leave, Talitha was really surprised how fast the time went. Holly was fun to work with and her drawing was really quite good. She had a great imagination too.

“The only thing I can think of is perhaps the passengers could use a cheering charm to stay calm.” Talitha giggled, “With a first and second year flying the plane, it could be a bumpy ride. Oh, yeah! Perhaps we should add something to reveal dark magic or some other form of weapons detector in case there are any dark wizards or hijackers skulking about.”
\n

0 Talitha So throw it in! 0 Talitha 0 5

Chelsea

January 16, 2008 10:33 AM

Yeah, me neither. by Chelsea

Chelsea began to smile in spite of herself. She had to admit, she was glad to have a partner who didn't care what the teacher wanted. She wasn't here to impress someone who wasn't someone important to pureblood society or even someone who had any class so it was a relief that he wasn't some goody-goody. "Maybe she'll see it our way." Chelsea replied, though she somehow doubted it. The woman didn't seem the type to appreciate ideas that were better than her own. She seemed like the type who had an expected set of answers that she wanted them to search for. Chelsea quite frankly did not have the patience for that. There were things that she did put effort into, but looking up information that she had no interest in was not one of them.

"But if you're traveling, don't you start out at your own fireplace? I mean, I personally wouldn't want to get on a broom and of course, I can't apparate yet, but with Floo Powder, you typically start out at home and then end up at approximately your destination." Chelsea said. Her smile grew as he added that people could probably levitate stuff across water. "Exactly. It would be so much easier to use that than to drag all those boxes." Magic always made life easier and better. Chelsea couldn't imagine living a life without it. There was nothing inherently wrong with not being a pureblood, but magic was an infinitely superior life.

The Aladren considered her partner's ideas. "Those are pretty good actually." Chelsea replied. "Especially the one about only letting certain people into a castle. My grandfather has one on his ranch except there's no moat. I guess bridges in general are good for short distances. Like if you're walking and have to go across or something." She thought. "Perhaps a bridge that materializes when someone needs to go across?" Chelsea suggested.

11 Chelsea Yeah, me neither. 108 Chelsea 0 5