Reminiscing on Charms

Professor Lorraine Taylor

September 06, 2008 9:18 AM

Advanced Charms [Select Sixth and Seventh Years] by Professor Lorraine Taylor

Lorraine pushed her short, gray-blonde hair back as she looked at the calender. It was not yet long enough to put back without the use of blindingly obvious Temporary Sticking Charms, and it was annoying her. The woman would have seriously considered getting it all cut off if she hadn't known it would then grow out longer and be a complete pain again. Besides, she didn't have the time to bother with something like that. The end of the year was fast approaching, and with the end of the year came the thing she had been teaching her students for: tests.

It wasn't so much the fifth years she was worried about. Two batches of her fifth year students had gone through exams and come out with the grades they deserved. Not that she was being patronising or vindictive in saying that; merely that the students who worked hard all year and put forth an effort in both the homework and the classwork had done very well, and the students who had treated her class apathetically or as a chore had done less well. There were a few exceptions on either side, of course, but Lorraine felt perfectly confident in both her ability to teach fifth years who would pass their exams, and in the ability of those fifth years to do so. After all, they were nearly adults in the wizarding world at that age!

The seventh years, on the other hand...for her Advanced class she was a bit nervous about the seventh years. Her Advanced with Charms course had moved past the seventh year curriculum at the end of last year and was working on college material. Most of those were students heading towards charms-based jobs, anyway. Ah well. Class was starting, and with only three weeks to the exams, they needed all the time they could get.

"welcome," Lorraine said as the last student barely squeaked their way into the classroom before it was time for the lesson to begin. The heavy door slammed shut behind them as Lorraine waved her wand, causing thick packets to fly to the desks of all the seventh years. "These packets," she informed them, "list all the spells and theory that you may be tested on in your upcoming exams. This class period, I would like you to look through those packets and review. If you need help, please ask me. You may not have seen some of this material since second or third year."

Now the woman flicked her wand again and packets of paper (albeit those considerably thinner than what the seventh years had) flew to the desks of her sixth year students. "Sixth years, you have final exams coming up in two weeks, and I will be testing you to begin to prepare you for the exams you will take next year. Your packets will have some old material in it. If you need help, let me know."

With a nod of her head for the class to begin, Lorraine stepped down off the dais and began circulating among the students, listening to what she needed to do more review work on.

OOC: Y'all know the rules by now. This is a little bit of fuzzytime use, but it allows you room for more creativity, so let's go for it. Tag me if I'm needed!

Subthreads:

This is dull. by Lily Collins

Reminiscing by Mia Kerova

0 Professor Lorraine Taylor Advanced Charms [Select Sixth and Seventh Years] 0 Professor Lorraine Taylor 1 5

Lily Collins

September 17, 2008 5:47 PM

This is dull. by Lily Collins

Review packets? Oh,dear Merlin, how boring ! This was the time that they should be learning new advanced spells, wandless magic and the like. Lily knew that they were working on college spells already and thats what she wanted to keep doing. She was feeling restless and totally not into working on theory. Theory was dull. It was for those who were less capable of performing the actual spell and probably wanted to take the joy out of doing so for those who could. Magic either worked because the person was a witch or wizard or didn't because they were a muggle, even though some magical people were better at spells than others. Lily had to wonder if Professor Taylor's own wand work was shoddy and that's why she focused so much on theory.

She sighed and turned to the review package. This all seemed so pointless. Lily was not going to be some pretentious academic snot who sat around discussing the theories of things and trying to sound like she was smarter and better than everyone else while not doing anything the least bit important. She was going to be an Auror.

Soon, Lily found her mind wandering. She usually didn't have that hard of a time focusing on classes, but this was all old stuff. She gazed out the window, wishing desperately that class would end. Lily didn't know what she was going to do when it was over and she didn't care. She just knew that it would be more interesting than this.

11 Lily Collins This is dull. 45 Lily Collins 0 5

Mia Kerova

September 25, 2008 11:21 PM

Reminiscing by Mia Kerova

Mia always entered the Charms classroom with her fingers itching to grab her wand and practice a new spell or two. It was definitely her favorite class and all she knew about her future plans was that if she were to have a job, she wanted it to heavily involve charms. She claimed a seat of her own by sitting and propping her tote bag against the leg of the desk she had chosen. She began her routine wand twirling, threading the wooden stick through her fingers with practiced ease as she waited for class to begin.

But when Professor Taylor began the class, Mia couldn't help but feel disappointed on top of nauseated when the thick packet landed on her desk. Rather than practicing new spells, she was told to review spells she already knew as well as theories. She supposed that wasn't such a bad idea in hindsight. Did she really want more potential ammunition for the testing? If she tried to think back as far as second year, there were a lot of spells she learned between then and now and all of them could appear on the RATS exam; how to do the spell and what the spells were for and any other obscure questions the examiners might think were properly torturous to the students' minds.

Mia took a deep cleansing breath to steady her heart rate as it began to spike with anxiety again. With RATS so near, her heart was always racing and her stomach churning and her head pounding, but there was nothing to do except prepare herself. She started from the beginning of the packet to see how much of the material she recognized. Skimming the pages, she found nearly every one familiar to some extent. Many of the spells she learned early on had been useful so she used them fairly frequently and they were etched in her memory. Most others she had reviewed for when she took the CATS so they weren't as rusty as one might think.

One spell that stuck out in particular was the drying spell, exsorbeo. Not only because it was good for quick clean up, but because she vividly remembered the day she learned that spell. It was the day of the freak mud storm. She had been working with Anne Wright on wetting and drying a cloth and Mia's hand got in the way of an aquor incantation gone awry, which cause it to be burnt. It was insane to think that five years had gone by since then. It was even more insane to think that she could count the weeks to graduation on her fingers.

Mia shook the thoughts away when she felt the strangest sensation of excitement and terror and pride and sadness all at once. Sonora had been her home away from home for seven years. She had trouble imagining herself not planning her return the following fall. So instead of trying to imagine it, she focused on the aquor and exsorbeo spells.

She tore out a page from her notebook and folded it into quarters for a smaller and sturdier workspace. She silently practiced the motion for aquor, recalling the words her professor at the time, now her Headmaster, had told her when she first tried the spell. She didn't know exactly why those words were forever etched into her mind. The first instructions she had received on doing any kind of magic, maybe? No matter the reason, there they were and there they would stay.

"Aquor." Mia spoke easily, putting emphasis where she had been instructed to years ago. The water flowed from her wand smoothly, wetting only the paper square. When it was dampened satisfactorily, she gave her wand a quick spin and then readied it again. With the proper motion, she spoke the incantation she needed.

"Exsorbeo." There was a sucking sound as the dampness disappeared and the paper lightened and loosened. And then, for no reason apart from enjoying to make things float, Mia cast another spell.

"Wingardium Leviosa."

She let the paper dance around her head while she skimmed through the packet again looking for another spell to practice. She noted the ease of her spellwork and realized just how far she had come since first setting foot inside the walls of Sonora Academy. It was a really good feeling.

0 Mia Kerova Reminiscing 0 Mia Kerova 0 5