Two heads are not better than one on Charms

Professor Lorraine Taylor

November 22, 2008 8:36 AM

Beginning Charms, Class I [Years I -- III] by Professor Lorraine Taylor

It was the first Charms class of the new school year, and Professor Lorraine Taylor was prepared to begin teaching. She'd had a lovely summer, visiting her brother for two weeks and working on an engineering mentoring project for a bit as well. Her nephew was turning into quite the young man. He seemed to have inherited the family penchant for interest in math and science. The woman had a sneaking suspicion that he was also going to end out at Sonora--but it was a few years yet until she would know for sure. Jonathon was only eight, after all, and a rambunctious eight at that. She would see.

Almost the time for class to begin, Lorraine walked over to the door in her usual black-and-sensible shoes and pulled it open, making sure it stayed that way with a quick, nonverbal charm. Then she walked back to her desk, professional black robes swaying as she did so. Today she wore a neat gray blouse and black pants under the robes. Lorraine was one of those teachers who felt that it was inappropriate to wear anything other than professional clothing to teach. The sort that generally had to be coerced into participating in 'Casual Days' at work. Well, at least the last time she checked, Sonora hadn't had any specific 'Casual Days'. That was a relief.

The beginning charms class had begun to file in. She smiled at some of the more energetic students she knew from last year and inquired as to how their summer was. Some of the students looked a little uneasy at discussing their summer with their Charms teacher, while others were more than happy to do so. The first years looked small and a bit uneasy next to the more comfortable second-and-third years.

And then class was to begin. Lorraine walked over to the door and shut it with a click behind one last student who sprinted in just on time. She gave them a look with her pale blue eyes that made the student in question quickly scuttle to find a seat. Lorraine did not appreciate late students.

“I am Professor Taylor, your charms teacher. For those returning students, I welcome you and would request that you remain politely silent as I go over the basics with the first years.” another pointed look at one of the more loquacious second years. “The papers I am currently passing out contain the syllabus for this class. This must be signed before we commence this class, and those students who would like to take issue with this may come up and speak to me privately.”

The syllabus essentially covered her educational background (seven years study at Sonora Academy as an Aladren, magical college in California, then several years of work as a magical engineer in Nevada), the materials required for class, what could be expected for homework, and a few rules:

1. There will be no tolerance for name calling based on race, religion, ethnicity, 'purity' of blood, ability to perform in this class or others, etc.

2. There will be no tolerance for dangerous behaviour (running around, dramatic or careless use of wands, etc)

3. There will be no food or drink of any type in the classroom unless otherwise specified by the teacher.

Refusal to comply with these rules may result in detentions, loss of House points, or meetings with your Head of House.

At the bottom, there was a space for student signatures.

The syllabus had been slightly amended from last year, thanks to a few first years. Lorraine hoped that those students in question would continue their interest in Charms. She was hoping to get a few magical engineers out of that bunch. It certainly seemed they had the mind for it.

"Today," the woman said, "We will be learning moving charms. The Levitation Charm," she demonstrated with a quick Wingardium Leviosa on the extra papers on her desk, "the Summoning Charm," again a demonstration, this time on the paperweight on her desk, "and the Hovering Charm." Lorraine waved her wand in a quick z-shape, and with a quick Naretus, the papers on her desk started hovering. The woman slid her wand into her pocket and continued addressing the class.

"First years, feel free to try the Hovering Charm if the Levitation Charm is a bit easy for you. Do not try to Summon anything. I don't want you setting my class on fire with spells gone wrong. Second years and third years, feel free to work on both your Hovering and Levitation. Consider it a review. Third years, if you want a challenge, you can try Summoning. Second years, if you want to be skinned alive, you can try Summoning." Lorraine smiled benignly at the group. "You may begin."

OOC: Minimum of ten sentences please. Anything shorter than that will not count for House Points. If you are having trouble writing the ten sentences, try to include what your character is thinking, feeling, seeing, etc. Site rules should be followed, of course. Beyond that, please be creative and tag me if necessary.

Subthreads:

I command thee paper to fly! by Miles Turner with Daniel Nash II (and a little Holly Greer)

Sharing a class with my brother by Holly Greer with Nathaniel Leon, Nathaniel

Two heads are not better than one by Ethan and Elliot Valentine with Indy Choudhry, Ethan and Elliot

Practise makes perfect. by Eun Ae Song with James Anthony, Eun Ae

Slight intimidation, but I'll manage. by Aeon Coure with Sophia Xuereb, Aeon.

Some lessons ought to have padded rooms. by Laurie Cider with Alexis Ashwood (Crotalus), Laurie

I get to make things fly?!?! by Adelita Garcia [Crotalus] with Deepa Rajaram, Adelita

When fantasy becomes reality by Juri Dahlgren with Kendra Paully, Juri

Keeping everything moving...or not. by Grayson Wright with Lucie Dupree, Lucie

Being treated like an adult by Charlotte Abbott with Mike Song, Charlotte, Charlie

I can't really think of a title again. by Pippa Brockert

Questions of course,(Tag Professor) by Quentin Melcher

0 Professor Lorraine Taylor Beginning Charms, Class I [Years I -- III] 0 Professor Lorraine Taylor 1 5

Miles Turner

November 22, 2008 11:28 AM

I command thee paper to fly! by Miles Turner

So far, it was much different than a normal school. The teacher was normal and a real rule-monger, that's for sure. The classroom could have almost been one from back home. And the magic, moving around a little sheet of paper? He could get one of those clear wires from some magic shop and attach it to his wand to perform that feat. No one would believe he was for real.

Miles dipped his quill into the ink well, and very messily signed his name to the class syllabus. He still hadn't quite got the hang of using this thing and there were ink stains everywhere to prove it. After only a few minutes of furiously taking notes, his hands, robes, and part of his desk were covered in black splotches and fingerprints. It was embaressing, really. And he hadn't even managed to get good notes out of it.

Reaching down to his bag, Miles glanced over the notes he'd just taken. He'd got the part where she said they were supposed to levitate things, and they would start a fire if they did some other charm. And as starting a fire was definitely a way of drawing attention to himself, Miles wasn't too keen to go against the teacher's instructions. Except he wasn't sure which spell belonged to what.

Placing a new, somewhat clean, sheet of paper on his desk next to the notes, Miles readied himself to give this a shot. He rolled up his robe sleaves, gripped his wand tightly in his right hand as though it might escape, and stared down the parchment. He got the impression from seeing too many movies that he should give off that "You will do my bidding" attitude towards the piece of paper when performing his spell. It was very important to look commanding. Being unsure of what to do next didn't help this persona at all, he thought.

"Na-ret-us," Miles sounded out from his notes, while jabbing the wand into the piece of paper. Nothing happened.

"Guess that's not it," he muttered to himself, looking for some other words he could recite.

"Wing-ar-di-um...uh...Naretus?" he tried again, this time giving the paper a good prod forward. Nothing happened. Maybe it would work better if the paper was balled up. Less area to lift. After doing so, Miles continued, trying every spell he could come up with.

"Leviosa Wingardium....Naretus Leviosa....Leviosa Leviosa...Wingardium Flyus....Flyus Paperus." This wasn't working.

"Shazaaam!" he tried one last time, adding a little oomph to his attempt.

"Are they sure I'm a wizard?" he asked the paper.

0 Miles Turner I command thee paper to fly! 0 Miles Turner 0 5

Daniel Nash II (and a little Holly Greer)

November 22, 2008 6:49 PM

I don't think it works quite like that by Daniel Nash II (and a little Holly Greer)

Danny was among the first to arrive. He took his seat somewhere in the middle of the room, hoping to blend in with his classmates until he could determine whether or not he was actually any good at the subject. Once he had a few lessons worth of experience, he'd decide whether he was good enough to deserve a seat in the front row.

Once seated, Danny - no, he was going by Daniel now. Daniel took out his notebook (spiral, with a normal pen, because he had no intention of making a fool of himself until he'd mastered the art of writing with a real quill - and by then he'd be good enough at it that he wouldn't be making a fool of himself) and readied himself to take notes.

It was shortly after he was prepared to begin the lesson that he saw his half-sister walk in. He hadn't realized he'd be sharing any classes with the third years. He did his utmost to pretend that he had never seen her before in his life. As he was a seasoned actor with one full season of a prime-time cop drama under his belt, there was nothing wrong with his performance. Unfortunately, Holly's curt "Danny," as she walked past his desk sort of undermined the whole effort.

He looked curiously to the side, at a boy he hadn't met yet, but who was wearing a Crotalus badge, as though this guy might be the 'Danny' Holly was addressing. He heard her sigh and mutter, "Forget it," as she kept on walking.

Glad to be done with that ordeal, and even gladder when the teacher shortly began class, Daniel read over the syllabus with interest, fascinated by the woman's background. He hadn't realized there was such a thing as a magical engineer. The fact that she had been an Aladren like Daniel was also pleasing news. Before he could sign it though, he felt someone poke him from behind and he was horrified to find that his sister had taken the seat behind him. "I asked Dad. It's okay to sign it," she told him in a whisper.

Danny hadn't really thought there was any reason not to. It wasn't like the document had any dangerous legal loopholes. It was just a set of rules. He turned back to the front and signed his name on the line without giving Holly any verbal acknowledgment. If he ignored her long enough, maybe she'd take the hint and leave him alone.

With those turned in, Danny took notes in a clear hand. His penmanship was as precise and neat as the rest of him, without so much as a hair or dotted i out of place. Once, he glanced to the side, at the Crotalus boy he'd noticed earlier, and congratulated himself on his decision not to mess with quills until he had more practice with them.

Once the lecture was over and they were free to practice the charms given, Daniel took out his wand and was about to practice the easier of the charms, the Levitation one, just to get a feel of how difficult magic really was, when his eye was drawn one final time to his ink-covered neighbor. The other boy's attempts was about as hard to look away from as a train wreck and for about the same reason. Daniel wondered how long it would take for the warned-of fires to begin.

When none seemed forthcoming, Daniel spoke up to put the guy out of his misery. "The phrase you're looking for is Wingardium Leviosa," Daniel told him. He slid his own clearly organized notes over so the other kid could read them (but not so close, that he risked getting splattered ink on his notebook). Written on the page were the following words:

Levitation Charm: Say 'Wingardium Leviosa', Swish & Flick (easiest)

Hovering Charm: Say 'Naretus', Z motion (middle difficulty)

Summoning Charm: Say 'Accio [Object Name]', don't know how to describe motion (do not attempt)

Last Christmas, Daniel had spent a lot of time holed up in Holly's room, going over her magic books, including her charms one. Unfortunately, he'd never been able to get his hands on her wand, but he'd practiced the described motions and imitated moving photographs in her book with a pencil. So it was with a good deal more confidence and ease than one might have expected from a muggle-born first year, that Daniel said, "Here, like this."

He made the swish and the flick and enunciated the Latin words carefully as he cast, "Wingardium Leviosa." The other boy's balled up piece of paper lifted about an inch into the air before falling back onto the desk. Not the most impressive showing of all time, no doubt, but Daniel though it was an excellent first spell ever, and he smirked at the paper ball with smug success. Glancing back at the boy again, Daniel added, almost as an after though. "I'm Daniel, by the way."

1 Daniel Nash II (and a little Holly Greer) I don't think it works quite like that 123 Daniel Nash II (and a little Holly Greer) 0 5

Holly Greer

November 22, 2008 7:26 PM

Sharing a class with my brother by Holly Greer

Holly was a little nervous about this class. It wasn't the subject that worried her. Charms was one of her best classes and she saw no reason why that would change. The teacher was strict but well-qualified, and there was never any risk of disgusting animals (as a whole or in pieces) or terrifying monsters or nightmare-inducing recitations of historic events. It was, in fact, a rather pleasant class, and perhaps the only one she didn't have any reservations about.

The problem was in that it was to be shared with the first years. She'd known it was a possibility, but she'd really hoped all of her classes would fall such that she'd be in the intermediate level and the first years would be stuck, obviously, in the beginner classes.

This wasn't the case for Charms.

Danny was sitting right in the middle of the room, and it was so strange to see him there. Until now, there had been a perfect separation of her home life and her school life, and she was just a little bit nervous about what her friends would think of her half-brother.

He was dressed cleanly, as he nearly always was. His robes were finely tailored and of the best quality, as were hers. In that, at least, he wouldn't cause her to loose any credibility with her peers. In fact, as a boy - a breed not well known for caring for how they looked, his finely attended to appearance might even reflect favorably upon her and her family. So she acknowledged his existence as she walked past him.

He did not acknowledge hers, but that wasn't terribly unexpected. Danny was unsociable at the best of times. Perhaps it was best not to introduce him to her friends. Still, a part-masochistic, part-sadistic, part-big-sisterly urge made her take the seat right behind his.

She was glad she had when the syllabi got passed out and she remembered her own confusion about them during her first year. Danny had probably spent enough time around her father that he could be wondering about signing something without letting a lawyer look it over, so she leaned forward and advised him that it was okay.

Again, he didn't acknowledge her, but he signed the paper without hesitation so she congratulated herself on a big sister moment. Living mostly with her dad, she didn't have too many of those with Danny. Perhaps sharing a school with him wouldn't be completely awful.

As the lesson began, she took enough notes to get the gist of the lecture down. They weren't fully comprehensive (there was a reason she wasn't in the same house as Chelsea and Danny), but they were good enough. Taking out her wand, she decided to start by reviewing the two easier charms. It had been several months since she last did magic, after all.

"Wingardium Leviosa," she cast, and the parchment her notes were on lifted nicely into the air. She ended the spell and went onto the next charm. "Naretus," she cast, and again the parchment lifted into the air, hovering there easily.

That just left the new one. She turned to her side and confided, "I'm a bit nervous about trying the summoning one." She ended the hovering charm and let the paper settle back onto her desk. "I don't particularly have any desire to be skinned alive or cause a fire."

1 Holly Greer Sharing a class with my brother 123 Holly Greer 0 5

Ethan and Elliot Valentine

November 23, 2008 2:51 AM

Two heads are not better than one by Ethan and Elliot Valentine

They had met up in front of Cascade Hall, just in case they got lost on the way to their very first class at Sonora. Two heads were always better than one. When both managed to find each, they headed off to charms at a pace that could only be described as that way of walking when you want to run but aren't allowed to.

They got to class about five minutes before it was supposed to start. It was only another minutes before a stern looking witch opened the door. They hesitated at the precipice. Their excitement over finally starting to learn magic was battling with their distaste of being teacher's pet. In the end, magic won out and they jumped into the classroom, sitting in the back to even things out and spending the remaining minutes talking amongst themselves and continuing the conversation in much lowered voices.

Elliot had hastily copied down the spells, having more legible handwriting than Ethan and they both stared at the spells with equally gleeful grins and brandishing their wands.

"I say we see what these babies can do," Ethan remarked flailing his wand. The wand sent out some feeble green sparks with the movement. Elliot grinned wider in response and at the same time said the incantation.

"Accio inkwell!"
"Windgardium leviosa!"

Nothing happened for either of them leading to twin disappointed faces.

"You actually tried the hard spell, Ethan? No wonder nothing happened."

"At least I got nothing on the hard one. You failed at the easy one," Ethan laughed as Elliot stuck his tongue out. A few more tries later (with Ethan getting fed up at his lack of magic with the summoning spell and switching to the levitation spell) the best either of them had gotten was Elliot making Ethan's quill smack Ethan in the face. Ethan laughed and crumpled up a piece of paper and tossed it at his twin, missing and hitting the person sitting behind him.

Both twins turned toward the person. Elliot pointed to Ethan. "He did it," he said, while Ethan mocked innocence. They both grinned at the person.

"Hey, I'm Ethan. Crotalus. First year. And he's,"

"Elliot. Teppenpaw first year. You having any better luck than us?"

0 Ethan and Elliot Valentine Two heads are not better than one 0 Ethan and Elliot Valentine 0 5

Miles Turner

November 23, 2008 8:30 AM

Whatever you say, Nate by Miles Turner

“Oooh,” Miles said in the long drawn out manner of sudden epiphany. That made much more sense than what he was trying to do. Miles nodded emphatically, still staring at the piece of paper, a small smirk appearing from the corner of his mouth.

“Thanks man. My name’s Miles.”

He turned to the boy and lifted his hand as though about to offer a handshake. But something stopped him. This guy looked familiar. Where had he seen him before? Miles paused in thought for a moment and dropped his hand to his side once again. He wasn’t anyone he knew from the hood back home. Which meant he had to be from somewhere outside of South Central.

“I know you from somewhere.”

And it wasn’t the opening feast. And it just someone he’d seen once anyways. He’d seen this kid lots of times. Lots and lots of times.

“Hey, hey,” Miles started pointing at the kid in excitement, a great big smile of recognition exploding across his face.

“You’re from that show! Yeah, that crime show, right?”

That crime show. Of course the crime show! Miles watched it over at Freddie Williams’ apartment every week, that is if mom was out working at the grocery store or something. Mom still thought they should be watching cartoons. Plus, they didn’t have cable. And though Miles wasn’t usually one to break his mother’s rules, he didn’t see anything wrong with walking across the hall to watch Street Beat or whatever else happened to be on at the time. And cartoons were for babies. Everyone knew that by now.

“And hey, I’m really sorry about that coma, man. That was, well, that was wack.”

Things always became incredibly loud in old Freddie’s apartment when Street Beat was on, that was for sure. They cheered on the good guys, they cheered on Nate in fact, and the heckled the criminals as though this alone would stop their plans. And when Nate had fallen into a coma, they urged him to get up, to wake up. It was funny now after watching that show before school began to actually see the real and true Nate here. His boys back home wouldn’t believe this. They won’t believe this, or for that matter anything else that had happened since the beginning of the year. Miles couldn’t tell them about magic, but he was sure going to rub in the fact that he was going to school with a guy from TV.

“So, Nate, you think you’ll wake up any time soon?” Miles had by now completely forgotten about the ball of paper sitting on his desk and what he was supposed to do with it. He was too interested in finding out what was going to happen on Street Beat before anyone else.

0 Miles Turner Whatever you say, Nate 0 Miles Turner 0 5

Benvolio Dramulan

November 23, 2008 8:41 AM

My first spell! by Benvolio Dramulan

Benvolio had been brimming with excitement ever since he first set foot in the Charms classroom; after his many weeks of eager anticipation, he was finally going to perform his first spell. He held his Charms textbook, which he had been reading over and over again the night before, closely by his side and looked around the classroom for an empty seat. Around the middle of the room, he recognised Miles Turner, a familiar face from the Sorting Feast, and strode over and took a seat adjacent to his new-found friend. He gave Miles a wide smile while putting his belongings on the desk and settling down into his wooden chair.

Eager to start his first lesson at Sonora on a happy note, Benvolio fished out a notebook and pen from within his bag and began copying down the incantations that the professor discussed with the class. Taking a quick look around the classroom, Benvolio realised that most students were scribbling their lesson notes on pieces of yellowish-brown parchment with quills in place of notebooks and pens. Practice writing with quills and parchment, Benvolio wrote in his notebook underneath his notes; he definitely did not want to end up being left out in his new school.

Eager to put his little bit of magical knowledge into practice, Benvolio pulled his wand out of his bag and positioned a piece of paper in front of him. He practiced reading the incantation aloud before actually performing the spell; the other thing he did not want to achieve was becoming the first student in the class to start a fire. Picking up his wand and practicing his swish-and-flick wrist movements, he heard Miles complain about his inability to perform the spell right, and how the other boy who sat together with them taught him to do it properly. He heard the boy introduce himself as Daniel, and Benvolio himself turned to face Miles and Daniel.

Benvolio smiled brightly and said excitedly, "Hello! Benvolio Dramulan, pleased to meet you. Daniel, you must have had loads of practice, you seem to be quite the expert at charms!" Turning his attention back to his piece of paper, Benvolio cracked his knuckles, picked his wand up in his left hand and drew a large figure-of-eight over his paper while saying so loudly he was almost shouting, "Wingardium leviosa!" A loud bang that startled Benvolio into almost jumping off his chair issued from his wand, and his paper flew off its desk as if it was being carried along by a gust of wind. Benvolio grinned sheepishly as he ran forward to retrieve his paper.

"Not the best first attempt, eh?" Benvolio said as he sat back down on his chair. Noticing that Miles seemed distraught over his inability to lift his paper off his desk, Benvolio decided to say something to cheer him up. "I don't think people without experience like us can usually get spells right on their first attempt, it usually takes practice. We'll just have to try harder!" Upon completing his sentence, Benvolio inhaled deeply before swishing his wand less extravagantly and said the incantation again, this time controlling his excitement. His paper lifted itself a few inches off the tabletop, quivering slightly before dropping back onto the desk the moment Benvolio's concentration faltered.

"Well, I'm not good at it, too, I guess we'll just have to put in more effort during break times," Benvolio said, smiling reassuringly at Miles.\n

0 Benvolio Dramulan My first spell! 269 Benvolio Dramulan 0 5

Benvolio

November 23, 2008 8:42 AM

OOC: Oh no, I was typing my post while you posted yours. -.- (nm by Benvolio

0 Benvolio OOC: Oh no, I was typing my post while you posted yours. -.- (nm 269 Benvolio 0 5

Daniel

November 23, 2008 2:04 PM

I'll try to join them up by Daniel

At first, Miles was normal. He seemed to get what he'd done wrong, thanked Daniel for sorting out the issue, and then introduced himself. And then two thinks happened at once. (1) The kid on Miles' other side greeted Daniel and introduced himself, too. That was also fine and normal. Meanwhile, though, (2) Miles looked up and actual saw Daniel. And recognized him.

It took most of Benvolio Dramulan's introduction to make the connection, but Daniel had known it was coming. He tried to pay attention to Benvolio's compliments on his charms ability, but Miles was obviously a volcano about to erupt and Daniel kept a nervous eye on him.

Almost at the same time as Benvolio attempted a very explosive levitation charm, Miles got it. Daniel made himself smile and nod in agreement that, yes, he was from that crime show. He only winced a little bit when he was called Nate.

This was kind of the reaction he'd been expecting when he'd introduced himself to Euna last night. He'd idiotically been disappointed by her complete lack of recognition. This, he reminded himself, is why you don't want to be an actor when you grow up.

Still, it was a little flattering. A lot flattering, to be honest. Miles was clearly a bit fan. With a little luck, he was just a big fan and not a creepy stalker fan, but at this point it was best to assume the former. "Um, yeah," he agreed, "Nate'll wake up for the episodes that film during the summer. I'm uh," he waved a hand around the classroom, "kinda busy the rest of the year."

He nodded toward Benvolio, who had been a bit over shadowed by Miles during the big reveal and whose later comments, if any, Daniel had missed. "Pleasure to meet you, too, Benvolio. I'm actually," he inclined his head toward Miles, indicating the obvious recognition the Street Beat fan had had, "new to the wizarding world. Well, except for my half-sister."

He couldn't quite stop himself from looking at Holly, seated right behind him. She spared a frown for him, as though it were his fault Miles had made a scene. Danny made a face back at her; he was above sticking out his tongue, but the look he sent her way was only one step removed from that. She rolled her eyes and turned deliberately away from him and he did the same to her.

"We have a highly evolved sense of sibling rivalry," he offered in explanation to the two other first years who had just witnessed the swift and completely non-verbal argument. "So of course I stole and read all of her magic books as soon as I could." For Miles's benefit, he added, "She's my sister on my mom's side. No relation to the Nashes at all."

1 Daniel I'll try to join them up 130 Daniel 0 5

Indy Choudhry

November 23, 2008 3:40 PM

But are more entertaining, hopefully. by Indy Choudhry

OOC: I'm assuming the twins are identical... if not, please correct me. =)

"Crap crap crap crap crap," Indy muttered, peering down each corridor he passed. He couldn't believe that he was going to be late for his first class! His dad had told him to find his way to the classrooms before the first day, but had Indy listened? No. Just like he hadn't listened to Dev when he told him not to drink a bottle of ketchup on a dare, or to steal his wand and try to do spells (in his defense, Indy was seven and stupid), or to keep breaking into the neighbor's backyard to steal pomegranates. He would beat himself over the head with his Charms textbook, but thought it might slow him down.

Finally, he found the right door. It was closing--he broke into a run and slipped in sideways before the professor could close it, slightly out-of-breath and disheveled. He dodged her glare and slid into a safe seat at the very back of the room, breaking out his self-inking quill and notebook in time to jot down the notes.

Levitation charms? One corner of Indy's mouth quirked upward into a mischievous smirk. Levitation charms could be useful. Despite the earlier revelation of 'listen to your father,' he swatted away the memory of Dev's warnings about continuing his practice of prank-pulling. What fun was school without pranks? It made things more interesting, and it kept the teachers on their toes. He was doing them a favor, really.

After signing his syllabus, Indy folded it into four and placed it in the middle of his desk, clearing everything else out of the way. He looked at it with an expression of intense concentration, lifted his wand, and intoned, "Wingardium levEEosa."

The paper twitched. He consulted his notes.

"Wingardium leviOHsa," he tried again. This time, the paper flopped over onto its other side. He grinned triumphantly. "Wingardium leviosa!" he said. The paper shot up a few inches above the desk and hovered there for a few second before dropping again. He punched the air in victory, then stopped, surprised, as something hit his face.

Two identical faces turned towards him. "He did it," said one.

"Hey, I'm Ethan. Crotalus. First year. And he's,"

"Elliot. Teppenpaw first year. You having any better luck than us?"

Indy grinned at the twins. "Well, I haven't maimed anyone yet," he quipped. "Indrajit Choudhry, Pecari first year. You can call me Indy." He glanced between them again, cocking his head curiously; his dark shaggy hair fell into his face. "Ethan and Elliot, right?" he asked, pointing at the second speaker and then the first.

0 Indy Choudhry But are more entertaining, hopefully. 0 Indy Choudhry 0 5

Eun Ae Song

November 23, 2008 8:42 PM

Practise makes perfect. by Eun Ae Song

Eun Ae entered the classroom, saw her brother's wave of greeting, and headed in the opposite direction. She was not about to have her professor's first impression of her marred by her brother's inevitable irresponsibility. She took a seat near the front, too the far left, and began arranging her materials in careful, precise motions, her fingers lingering on each pen, layer of parchment, and text a moment longer than necessary to straighten any misalignment that might exist. Once her reading glasses were donned (dull gold frames, unremarkable except that they exhibited an extreme practicality to their shape), she was prepared for her first Charms lesson.

After listening to Professor Taylor's introduction, subsequent declaration of intent, and reading an immediately signed syllabus, Eun Ae felt the comforting ease of familiarity wash over her. Studying, learning, school work- these were things she knew how to do. Substitute mathematics with arithmancy and runes, english with charms, science with potions,and suddenly, Sonora Academy felt much more real and ordinary.

She lent her focus to the lifting spell first.

The text had described the movement as first a swish and then a flick. Professor Taylor had given the flick a sweeping flourish, which Eun Ae imitated, not yet trusting her unlearned talents to a spoken spell.

Swish and-

Flick. Curve the wrist a bit more.

Swish and flick- a bit more naturally this time.

Swish, flick, and flourish. Better that time.

Swish, flick, flourish- and, "Wingardium Leviosa," she whispered. Her brown eyes grew wide behind her frames as the parchment she had so carefully placed not minutes earlier lifted into the air. The paper danced, as if balancing itself on a set of rolling waves. "It worked," she breathed, not fully believing it.

Her first taste of true magic, and already, her focus had proven it a success. Her wand trembled in her grip, the thin length of dogwood, its core made from the donated feather of an augurey, slack from her surprise. Belatedly, she steadied herself, just managing to raise her hand again, and with it the parchment, saving it from returning back to the stack it came from.

Her success posed a new problem, though. Nervously, she considered her neighbors, hoping to come across a face that seemed at least slightly open to consultation. She settled on the desk behind hers and edged back enough so that she drew parallel.

"Excuse me, but now that I've got it up, what should I be doing with it exactly?"

0 Eun Ae Song Practise makes perfect. 131 Eun Ae Song 0 5

Aeon Coure

November 23, 2008 9:01 PM

Slight intimidation, but I'll manage. by Aeon Coure

Aeon walked into the Charms class. After declining the tour of the school he had set out to find his way around, leaving time to find the class incase he got lost. Unfortunately, in his attempt of adventure he has become incredibly lost and had to consult to walking around aimlessly until he had spotted the troupe of first years following the guide. He sighed and followed at a distance, so as to not be counted as one of the first years who couldn't make their own way around the school. He had an easy time following the group, until he had been distracted with his shoelaces and bent down to tie them. Unfortunately, when he had finished his shoe lace tying endeavor, the guide group was out of sight and he was alone again. Aeon shot up and dashed towards the area where he thought the group had trudged off to. He soon spotted them turning a corner and he followed in time to see them stop in front of the charms room. He continued walking up to the group and then past them into the classroom.

When he got inside he quickly found a seat that was towards the back of the room. He didn't like sitting up front because teachers called him a distraction, and didn't want him distracting the others, and he was usually sent to the back anyways, so the other students couldn't see him as easily. Oh, well. Aeon set his book down and stared at it. It was in pristine condition, which in Aeon's book, means that it was destroyed. He opened the cover to his book and wrote his name in the upper left hand corner of the cover. When he decided that he didn't like how it looked he scribbled it out and tried to re-write it. He continued this before he realized that papers had been passed out, and that the teacher was talking to the class. He looked at his cover, where his name now dominated all four corners of the cover, leaving a 2 inch circle in the middle of the scribbled out names. He slid his book to the front corner of his desk and looked back up at the teacher, before realizing that he did have to look at the paper she had passed out.

The paper was a syllabus, indicating he behave in class, and try hard. Basically. He looked toward the bottom, and in small all caps letters wrote his name on the little line, smothering the urge to scribble it out and re-write it. He passed the paper onto the student next to him, without giving them much recognition and opened his book again. He stared at the cover as the teacher continued on reciting the lesson. He listened to the basics of the lesson and wrote down the names of the spells, as best he could, onto a scrap piece of paper and then waited for her to release the students to their practices.

As soon as she released the students, he put on a friendly face and turned to the student next to him.

"'Ey. Whas up? Ya wanna chill on 'is one?" he asked in a strong East Coast accent, smiling as best he could, without over doing it. "An wh'le ya at ih' c'n ya d' me a fav'oar. I seem t' not be ay'ble t' write m' name right. Could'ya write it fer me?" he said as he pulled his book back over towards him. He hoped to death that the student had good handwriting.

He quickly set his pen down next to his book, incase they needed it, and pulled his wand from out of his rolled up sleeve. He had started keeping it there when he had rolled his sleeves to put his stuff in the compartment, and needed a safe place to keep it. When it didn't fall out, he ended up keeping his sleeves rolled all the time, and slipping his wand up his upper arm.

He turned back towards the other student and waited for a response.

0 Aeon Coure Slight intimidation, but I'll manage. 0 Aeon Coure 0 5

Laurie Cider

November 23, 2008 9:07 PM

Some lessons ought to have padded rooms. by Laurie Cider

Laurie Cider liked her Charms lessons, let there be no doubt on that. She found the lectures concise and to the point; there were equal amounts of learning and practising. It helped as well that she seemed to have a natural knack for the spell-work, something she plainly lacked when it came to Transfiguration or Defense Against the Dark Arts. The former bothered her with its lack of definition; being able to transform mice into tea cups seemed terribly transcendental. A mouse is a tea cup is a mouse once again- which was the mouse and which was the tea cup? She was far too detail oriented of a person to enjoy a subject that forced re-definition every lesson.

The latter required at least some form of aggression, and Laurie didn't like the angry stir of feeling, disjointed and inexplicable, that sat in her stomach after each lesson.

Charms was far more straight-forward.

From her seat near the back, she listened, jotting down the occasional note regarding the spells and how Professor Taylor demonstrated them. Once left to open practise, she began by mimicking the motions for the Summoning Charm. Settled after a few tries, she decided to give her first verbal attempt.

Jokingly, she spoke aloud, confident that her first attempt would result in a failure as most of her trials did. "Accio partner for practise."

Much to her chagrin, the spell worked. Partly. Instead of dragging a poor fellow classmate to her desk, her messenger bag, chock full of books and quills, shot out from under her desk, neatly knocking her straight in the chest. With a dulled oomph, she careened backwards, colliding with the classmate beside her.

For a few brief seconds, Laurie let herself lay where she fell, not yet mindful of the fact that a most likely unwilling body had suffered the same fate. Once her mind caught her with her, she scrambled to the side, wincing as she moved.

"So sorry!" she exclaimed, hands already lifted in apology. "Are you all right?"

0 Laurie Cider Some lessons ought to have padded rooms. 0 Laurie Cider 0 5

James Anthony

November 24, 2008 4:03 PM

Always my motto by James Anthony

James entered the classroom more than a bit nervous. Of course he had heard about Sonora from his older sister, Lutece. Of course he had heard about Charms (both the old, ridiculously flamboyant teacher and the new, ridiculously strict teacher). Of course he had looked over Lutece's notes and spellbooks. But he had long since faced the fact that Lutece was stubborn, annoying, and not at all dedicated to the proliferation of scientific theory in her life, much less the world. If James were to be honest with himself, he would remind himself that he hadn't believed in magic a shred more than she did upon receiving her letter to Sonora. But over the years, incredulity had grown into curiousity, and a bit of a disappointment that there was a part of the world he would never have the chance to have a poke at.

Of course, when the barn owl carrying Lutece's supply list had dropped two letters at the kitchen table instead of one, James had felt his heart speed up (from the regular 65 bpm to 83 bpm--he'd checked). Of course the bespectacled, brown-haired eleven year old had known it was for him. Liss was much too old and Grace wouldn't have taken advantage of the opportunity. It was him, and all him, and he was excited beyond measure.

First day of Charms, walking into class with his school robes on over a new pair of jeans and an AE t-shirt, the slender Aladren looked around the classroom. The teacher looked strict, but that observation could well have been influenced by his sister's reports of her. The other students in the room varied from self-confident (James hypothesised in his head that these would be the older students, knowing from Lutece that Professor Taylor had a penchant for teaching mixed classes) to the introverted. Ah, this would be interesting anyway. James astutely picked a seat near the front, but not too near that people would think him a suck-up, and to the far left. A few moments later, a girl sat in front of him.

At 5 foot even, James was pretty used to being one of the taller people in the room. He was also skinny, a product of the growth spurt of course. His father was tall, and therefore he would likely be tall. This was how the world worked. James enjoyed knowing how things worked.

The Aladren felt immediately more at home after Professor Taylor began the class and passed out the syllabus. Magical engineer? Already James could feel his interest bubbling. There were science-math-magic crossovers in this strange new world? Splendid! Without further ado, he unscrewed his new, black ink, dipped his new quill in it, and signed his name. It wasn't in the least bit sloppy--he'd practised before coming.

Now it was time for the class to really begin. James rolled up the sleeves of his robes, pulled his heather-and-dragonstring wand out of the holder in his specially purchased bag, and began incanting. He was familiar with the first charm, having seen it in Lutece's book, so it was with almost supernatural ease that the eraser he decided to use as an object levitated. It stayed relatively steady too, something he found particularly impressive.

Now, for the second spell.

Consulting his carefully taken notes, James was just about to begin the supposedly-more-difficult Naretus spell when the girl in front of him edged backwards, then turned to face him.

"Let it down, I'd suppose," James replied, setting his own wand down on the desk. The eraser followed.\r\n\r\n

0 James Anthony Always my motto 126 James Anthony 0 5

Nathaniel Leon

November 24, 2008 5:57 PM

I don't have one of those! by Nathaniel Leon

Nathaniel had to dress in a hurry, trying hard to not look out of place with the pink t-shirt and shorts that had become his look over the summer. The black robes Star had bought him were already splattered with different color droplets of paint, which the eleven-year-old overlooked in favor of his hair. He was going to Charms, and he didn't know if it would be required for him to tie it up. Potions was an almost definate yes, but Charms? Frowning, Nathaniel let it be and hopped down from his room.

He looked to see if Pippa, the one person he'd met so far, had left already but he didn't see her so he just went off to Charms by himself. Humming a tune, Nathaniel walked into the class earlier than he'd imagined and took a seat. After a while, the place became packed, and Nathaniel was readying himself for his very first magic experience. Breathing deeply, the boy found himself with a carefree grin, resting one cheek in his open palm as he watched the teacher come in.

His heart beat fast enough to rival a pack of threatened mice, and he was excited. The first order of buisiness was surprisingly (and annoyingly) normal. Where was the magic in a syllabus? But he signed it all the same and passed it up, not letting the happy smile slip even though he was required now to take notes. The magic part would be coming up soon enough, he thought optimistically, overhearing the girl next to him tell the boy in front of them that it was {"okay"). Confused, he blocked that out and went to copying notes in his neat handwriting.

And finally, he was allowed the bit with magic. Grinning with excitement, he kept thinking over and over again that he was going to actually produce magic. How cool was this? The wand he held in his hand (picked out especially for him) could be regarded no more than a mere stick of wood was now burning in his hand ready to try. "Okay," he sighed to himself and then held his (ooh, it was so cool) wand out.

"Winga-aardium Levio-oosa," he said dramatically at around the same time as the girl next to him. Her paper lifted, and his fluttered like there was some kind of breeze. His cheerful face fell a mile downward as he realized that nothing happened. Careful to try and compose his face he tried a few more times, only to get nothing. Setting the wand down, Nathaniel took a few deep breaths, hoping to calm his disappointment, when the older girl next to him spoke (to him?).

"I'm a bit nervous about trying the summoning one."

He looked over at the girl he'd envied for a second with wide confused eyes. The lanky boy looked her over sympathetically. So she was afraid? Skinned alive? That could happen? Nathaniel nodded, "I'll save you then," he replied, his smile returning to his face (hopefully it hadn't been missed by his face). "You can help me with the simple one!" he told her cheerfully enough, "I really want to get it down, and I'm just not doing it. Do you want to help me? It may kill some time before you get onto the scary spell!"

0 Nathaniel Leon I don't have one of those! 133 Nathaniel Leon 0 5

Holly

November 24, 2008 7:54 PM

I, sadly, have two. by Holly

After generally announcing her apprehension in regards to the summoning charm to the room at large, and the person nearest her in particular, Holly turned to see who that person was. By choosing her seat based on proximity to Danny, she had ended up next to another first year, this one as messily attired as Danny was neat. Clearly not a product of her social class.

As he spoke, she debated which would reflect worse on her: to ignore him entirely after she'd spoken in his general direction, or to continue conversing with him. He was a first year and of questionable upbringing. Surely, it would understandable to make an excuse that she really ought to continue working on the third year level spell.

But then the commotion from the row in front of them caught her attention. Oh, dear Lord. It was a fan of Danny's show (Holly hadn't ever watched it - her father said it was too adult for her) recognizing him and making an awful scene. And then, worse, Danny drew said fan's attention to her. She frowned severely at him. Didn't he know she was supposed to be protected from public exposure?

He made a face at her and she rolled her eyes at the childishness of it and was given no other choice but to turn deliberately to the boy sitting next to her as if he were the most important person on the planet. It was better than continuing to acknowledge Danny's existence.

"Yes, I'd be glad to help," she told him, which was a complete lie, but this one time she managed to pull it off believably. Danny might still be listening.

"You hold the wand like this," she demonstrated the proper grip as though this was the most critical step of the entire exercise. "Then you give it a swish, like this." She demonstrated that too, doing it three times to make sure he got it. "And then flick." A sharp precise movement. She did that three times, too. "Now put it together with the incantation: Wingardium Leviosa." She made sure he was paying attention and then demonstrated the whole process. Swish. Flick. "Wingardium Leviosa." Her paper easily lifted up into the air again. "Now you try."

1 Holly I, sadly, have two. 123 Holly 0 5

Nathaniel

November 24, 2008 8:33 PM

Mine are of the other gender by Nathaniel

Twirling a lock of hair around his finger, Nathaniel was sure to keep smiling, as embarrassed as he was. He should have magic to be here, and all he could do was make the paper flutter. Now he was asking for help, and she might not want to help. He couldn't blame her though, if she was trying to get that third spell down she must have been a lot older. His own older sister even got annoyed with his childish ways sometimes. Blushing once more, he turned his ear to the outburst of the boy in front of him.

At the name "Nate", Nathaniel's ears perked up. Very normally called "Nathaniel" by his family, the kids at school seemed to find three simple syllables a mouthful and had taken to sometimes calling him "Nate" or "Nathan". But he guessed that that was the other boy's name and he frowned, once more embarrassed by his own thoughts. The Nate boy looked back at the girl next to him, Nathaniel was sure to look away knowing the embarrassment still showed on his face.

He couldn't think he was the only one here who would be called "Nate". She agreed to help, and Nathaniel turned to the girl with his thankful smile (he had a lot of different ones that he held in him). "Thanks so much," he said, straightening up and pulling his wand in once again. "My name is Nate too," he said, cocking his head to the boy in front, "Nathaniel. Thanks for agreeing to help me," he said, because he thought maybe it was more polite. He held the wand, mimicking the girl with careful eyes. It was all so structured, probably why Nathaniel was getting confused. He was always the type to add some little flourish to his movements, spicen things up, get himself noticed.

He copied the first few times, pausing to wipe his palms on his robes. Swish and flick, he tried the spell alone, "Wingardium Leviosa." The paper fluttered upward, not perfectly, but holdind still and concentrating harder than he was used to was the way he was doing this, and that didn't work for him for long. He dropped his concentration with a laugh, and the paper floated back down to his desk. The silence he had been working in, didn't suit him either, so Nathaniel broke it. "I did it, sort of," he told the girl, excited. "I'm not used to this, that was so cool!" He beamed as brightly as a light bulb, swinging his legs in the chair watching the paper that he'd made fly.

He looked back at the girl. "Should I try it again? Do you think I can get it higher? Wow, magic!" he spewed in the matter of a few seconds, then remembering that they weren't working on the same thing that she was probably way ahead of him his smile turned slightly sheepish. "Er, well maybe you should work on yours?"

0 Nathaniel Mine are of the other gender 0 Nathaniel 0 5

Holly

November 24, 2008 10:03 PM

I have one of those, too, but on my dad's side. by Holly

"Oh," Holly said when Nate - Nathaniel - introduced himself and gave away his belief that he shared a name with her brother. "No, his name's Danny. Daniel," she corrected herself, remembering belatedly that Danny wanted to be called by his full name now. "He just plays a Nate on TV." She said this like every eleven year old had his own television show and that there was nothing special about it. He was just Danny, after all. "Anyway, the spell," she said, not wishing to dwell on her brother at the moment, and began her demonstration.

Later, after Nate - the real one, not the fake one - gave it a try and got a low hover going, she couldn't help but smile back at his enthusiasm. It reminded her of one of the things she liked best about her little sister. Molly was so happy most of the time. Though, used to Daniel, it seemed a little strange on a boy older than five.

"Yeah, go ahead and try it again," she told him, willing to take his original excuse to put off the summoning charm a little longer. She glanced up at her brother again and realized all of sudden that she'd given Nate Danny's name but not her own. "I'm Holly," she added, trying not to let it sound like an afterthought, but not quite managing. "Holly Thistle of the Hollywood Thistles. Third Year." There. That ought to dwarf the introduction she gave Danny. Had she belonged to any House but Pecari, she would have added that, too, but it was best not to associate herself too closely with those people.\r\n\r\n

1 Holly I have one of those, too, but on my dad's side. 123 Holly 0 5

Adelita Garcia [Crotalus]

November 24, 2008 11:00 PM

I get to make things fly?!?! by Adelita Garcia [Crotalus]

Adelita had followed some of her classmates towards the Charms classroom. She was terribly nervous. She was still petrified that she wouldn’t be able to do magic. She certainly had her moments of accidental magic. Her mother was furious at Adelita when she had been so upset with the idea of losing her own bedroom back when Jorge was first born because Adelita’s magic had been fierce and she had ended up shattering all the windows in their living room. So, she knew that she was capable of doing magic, at least when she was emotional. She just wasn’t so sure she would be able to channel that magic through her wand to actually perform magic on command.

She was trying to be positive though. Adelita held her head high as she walked. Her back straight, her hair done perfectly in her braided pigtails (her mother had told her to stick to a style that she could do well and that was the best she was good at), her skirt falling to her knees with her fun stockings covering the rest of her legs, and her shirt pressed comfortably against her. All of this, of course, was beneath her tailored school robes. She would at least look the part of someone who knew what they were doing.

Walking into the classroom, Adelita smiled at the professor, but otherwise didn’t make much eye contact with the woman. Tia Izzy hadn’t really said one thing or another about the Charms professor, but her Tios didn’t seem to be all that huge of fans for the woman. Not that there were many adults that the twins enjoyed, but Tio Jose was usually better at being agreeable towards authority and he had been inclined to tell Lita to keep her head down while in the classroom. So, Lita was going to take his advice to heart.

She looked around for a seat for a moment, nibbling on her lower lip in thought. She could sit with her roommates as they were safe, or branch out and meet new people. It was a hard choice. Lita was really connecting with Charlie, to branch out could end in disaster. Instead, Lita opted to sit towards the front and off to the side where there were empty seats by her, giving other people a choice to sit near her. She placed her book on her desk and pulled out a sheet of parchment with her quill resting beside it on her desk. As soon as Professor Taylor began talking, Lita gave her her undivided attention. She skimmed through the syllabus that she was handed, frowning slightly as she looked it over. Would she be able to do what was required of her? That remained to be seen.

The actual rules part wasn’t an issue for her. As a Latina from a community that held many Latinos, Adelita had witnessed prejudices that she had yet to fully understand. San Francisco was a city full of diversity, but it still had hate in it as well. It was something that her parents were still trying to teach her to understand why certain people behaved in certain ways and why such things existed. Lita blamed her sister for being so curious about those things. Dulce was always asking the ‘whys’ to things.

Signing the paper as requested, Lita returned her attention to the professor and to the lesson at hand. The charms they were going to learn were charms that she had seen performed a thousand times by her parents and various relatives. This would be the first time she would ever perform them herself and it was a little nerve wracking. But she could do this. She could. Taking a deep breath, Adelita quietly went over the spell over and over again. Repetition is key, or so that’s how it was in dance.

When she felt as though she had the spell down as much as she could, Adelita focused her attention on the sheet of parchment in front of her. “Wingardium Leviosa!” She spoke, her wand moving as she had been instructor. Much to her surprise, she actually lifted the object in front of her just… not the parchment she had been trying for. Her quill had raised a few inches above her desk. Her surprise was evident and also catastrophic. She dropped her wand and the effect of such an act caused the quill to surge forward and smack against the back of the head of the person sitting directly in front of her.

Red with embarrassment, Lita was quick to apologize, “I’m so sorry! I dropped my wand. Are you okay? Did I get ink on you?”

0 Adelita Garcia [Crotalus] I get to make things fly?!?! 0 Adelita Garcia [Crotalus] 0 5

Juri Dahlgren

November 25, 2008 3:01 AM

When fantasy becomes reality by Juri Dahlgren

Being a laid back person, Juri ambled into the Charms classroom, neither early nor late. It wasn’t as though he had gotten lost on his way to the classroom for he already had done a walk over of the school to find his classes. It was more that he just wasn’t in a hurry. Being late, though, wasn’t an option either, which is why he had already found out where they were. While his mother wouldn’t care if he received a detention, his father and the Executioner, also known as his stepmother, would, which wouldn’t bother him so much if it weren’t for the fact that it was bound to start an argument between his parents and they already did that enough.

He picked a seat towards the middle of the room since he didn’t know what to expect would happen. It was a magical school. Honestly, who ever believed that magic actually existed? Obviously, though, it had to, because how else was he going to be able to explain why he was sitting in a school full of it. He had to admit it was pretty awesome to find out that he had magical abilities. It was like being in a comic. Boy has crummy life. Boy has something weird happen. Boy develops powers. Boy becomes hero. Okay, he didn’t actually think he was going to be a hero, but the rest sounded about right. It wasn’t like he was doing anything special in Pittsburgh.

Before he had received his letter, Juri had thought that his first year of middle school would be exactly like every single year of being in elementary minus kindergarten. It would be exactly the same faces, the ones that he had grown up seeing. The popular kids would still be the popular kids. The band kids would still be the band kids. And he would still be him, the quiet boy that for some strange reason had been considered part of the former group, though, he had only two close friends. That was the bad about coming to a new school. He had to leave them behind and hadn’t been able to tell them why. Even his mom had said that he couldn’t. Yeah, it was the pits.

He blew up on the blonde hair that had a tendency to be in his eyes. He pulled out his notebook. It was the same one he had used last year. It even had his old math homework. There was no point in getting a new one when this one was still perfectly good. On the note of math, he wondered what they did for that. Did they just not have math anymore? What about any of the other subjects he would have been learning? If he didn’t learn math, chemistry, and the like, the Judge was going to be really angry. He had been completely opposed to Juri going to a magical school in the first place. He thought the whole thing was ridiculous since there was absolutely no way such silly imaginary things could be.

This professor sort of reminded him of the Executioner. She seemed to have that whole uptight beat about her, like she had to have everything done a certain way. It came as no surprise to him when she handed out a syllabus that had to be signed. He skipped over the part dealing with her educational background. He assumed she was qualified enough since she was teaching. Then, he glanced at the materials and area dealing with homework, yadda, yadda. This came with every class. It was nothing new. Then, he scanned the rules. The second and third ones were nothing major, but he found the first one to be of interest. His brows knitted with confusion. What did ‘purity’ of blood mean? He glanced down at his now spread out hands. Did people have some strange substance in their blood? And if they did, how would a person even know?

This was the sort of thing that his dad would say he should have an attorney present for, but, thankfully, the Judge wasn’t here. He figured that it must be important since it was listed along with things like race and religion and he knew about those things. It was one of the rare things his parents had agreed upon teaching him, being tolerant of others that might be different from him. Clicking his pen, he signed his name and passed it along. With that out of the way, he was curious to see what the actual lesson would deal with.

His blue eyes widened slightly each time she demonstrated a charm. He really shouldn’t have been surprised, but he was. Getting to the point where magic was viewed as commonplace was certainly going to take some time and he was glad when the professor said that his year would only be working on the first two, though, the second was optional. His eyebrow shot up at the mention of the possibility of fire. Well, that was an odd thing to mention and he wondered how often such things happened, but shrugged it off. It was just another thing that to add to a long list of things he would find out in time.

Now, he had to figure out what he was going to attempt to levitate. He considered his pen, but after the mention of fires, he thought that maybe it wasn’t the best choice of items since he was just learning. He didn’t think the school would be too impressed if he ended up poking someone’s eye out. His notebook was out. He was not going to tear out a good sheet of paper to use nor was he going to use his math notes. It had been his second favorite subject in school, after music. So, what did that leave him? He should probably have brought something more than he did. He turned to the person closest to him. “Do you have something that I could borrow?” He was very careful to pronounce the words correctly rather than let his Pittsburghese come into play.

0 Juri Dahlgren When fantasy becomes reality 127 Juri Dahlgren 0 5

Alexis Ashwood (Crotalus)

November 25, 2008 2:26 PM

Klutz! by Alexis Ashwood (Crotalus)

Alexis really didn’t want to go to class. She had always hated classes, and this year was no exception. Although, when the red head arrived to Charms, she noticed with glee that Josiah wasn’t there. Maybe this class could be enjoyed, then. Yes, it seemed that this day might go nicely.

Of course, they had to be lumped with the first years. Again. Which meant they had to listen to the same, boring rules. Again! If she got stuck with the first years in many more of her classes, she was going to explode. She took a deep breath. Didn’t she want to be nicer or something this year? Well, her mother wanted her to make more friends. Acceptable friends. In other words, she wasn’t really supposed to speak to the Warrens or Laurie. What her mother didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her, Alexis supposed.

So today they would be working on the summoning charm. Alexis was pulling her hair into a ponytail when the first disaster of the day happened. Someone apparently fell backwards and knocked her down and off of her chair. She didn’t hit her head on the floor very hard, but Merlin, it hurt! She sat up quickly, ready to snap at whoever did that.

"So sorry! Are you all right?"

Oh, it was Laurie. Alexis’ anger subsided a little bit. “Yeah, I only hit my head.” she said with sarcasm, but with a tone that (hopefully) let Laurie know she wasn’t too upset. She rubbed the back of her head. Yeah, there was a nice lump there. She’d just have to deal with it. “What about you? If you knocked into me that hard, your fall must’ve been harder, unless I acted as a shield or something.”

0 Alexis Ashwood (Crotalus) Klutz! 0 Alexis Ashwood (Crotalus) 0 5

Dannny

November 25, 2008 5:01 PM

OOC: In the off chance... by Dannny

.... you're waiting for an email notification of a response . . . See below. I joined the two threads up as best I could.

0 Dannny OOC: In the off chance... 0 Dannny 0 5

Deepa Rajaram

November 25, 2008 7:55 PM

High up in the sky? ...Oh dear. by Deepa Rajaram

Deepa was not terribly concerned about classes. She had always done well at home in India, in both Muggle classes and her magical theory tutelage. She was, in fact, a year ahead of her age as far as reading and mathematics went. Magic, while very different, did not worry her; it was customary in her grandfather's family for the younger cousins to sit in on the tutelage of the older, so she had seen enough magic done that she felt reasonably confident that she could do so herself.

No, it wasn't the work that concerned her--it was the people. Sonora was very far from her home in Agra, India, and the people seemed very strange to her. Intellectually, she understood that all of the new students must feel the same way to some extent, but emotionally she still felt very alone, and much of her wanted to curl up in her strange bed in her strange room and wish herself home again. She was sure no one else was so very far from home, and she had such a pronounced accent, and she dressed strangely, and behaved strangely, and didn't feel human when she was around these other students who all seemed to feel so very at home in their skins--

She took a deep breath as she approached the Charms classroom. She had scouted her routes ahead of time, of course, so she arrived with a good ten minutes to spare. She took a seat towards the front of the room, in the upper corner, and spent the rest of the time until class neatly labeling her empty notebook and rearranging her Self-Inking quills.

The class began; diligently, she recorded the professor's words, and signed the syllabus, and then it was time. She felt a flutter--not of anxiety, but anticipation--as she tucked her supplies back into her bag and put her notebook safely off to one side. She carefully placed a pencil--still unsharpened and wonderfully new--in the center of the desk, and raised her wand. She checked her notes one last time, and then--

"Wingardium leviosa," she said, trying her best to copy the professor's accent and disguise her own. The pencil did not move.

Deepa frowned and checked her notes. No, she had the right spell, and she was certain she had the motion right. Again, more forcefully: "Wingardium leviosa!"

Nothing.

She bit her lower lip thoughtfully, eyes narrowed slightly as she studied the pencil. Another try, and another failure. Then a fourth. The words, in the strange accent, didn't seem to fit very well into her mouth. Finally, she gave up, and muttered petulantly in her own language, flashing the wand at the pencil, "Wingardium leviosa, you stupid thing!"

The pencil rose and hovered a good twenty centimetres off the desk. A look of joyous surprise crossed Deepa's face, her dark eyes lighting up. It had worked! She had--

She squeaked in surprised as something hit the back of her head. Both hands flew back to the spot, the pencil fell with a clatter, and Deepa turned to the girl behind her, who was already apologizing.

"I'm so sorry! I dropped my wand. Are you okay? Did I get ink on you?”"

Deepa felt the back of her head, forehead furrowed thoughtfully, then shook her head, giving the girl a smile. "No, I do not think so," she said, her words full of the lilt and song of India. "Did you make it fly first?"

0 Deepa Rajaram High up in the sky? ...Oh dear. 0 Deepa Rajaram 0 5

Adelita

November 25, 2008 11:46 PM

Do you not enjoy flying? by Adelita

Recognition of the girl in front of her filtered through her mind when the girl had turned to look at Lita. Where…oh! Adelita remembered now. This girl had been in her bed room last night. She was one of her roommates. “Oh, good!” Adelita said rather relieved that she hadn’t just inked her new roommate. The last thing she wanted to do was make someone angry at her because she had lost control of her spell.

Adelita took in the girl’s appearance and her speech. She hadn’t heard the accent before, but that wasn’t saying very much. She spent her time in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Mexico, and Spain, one would think that she would consider herself a well travelled person, but the truth was that even though she had been to all those places, she had kept in her box of familiarity. Mainly, with family. She knew accents within the areas that she lived/visited, but nothing beyond that. Her roommate’s accent was different, her look was different. Familiar, but different.

“Fly?” Adelita asked, blinking at the girl for a moment while she tried to decipher what she meant by that. She looked around for a moment before remembering that there were other spells that people were learning besides the floating one. “Oh, no no no no.” Adelita hastily said, her blush finally fading from her face to be replaced by a smile. “I was using the um… Wingardium Leviosa spell. I meant to lift my parchment up, but ended up with my quill.” Adelita made a sour face at her mistake and gave a slight shrug of confusion at the incident. “I was so excited that it worked, I ended up dropping my wand which caused the quill to go flying away from me and smack into your head. Again, so sorry about that. It was my first spell, I guess I should have known that would happen.”

Adelita bent down and picked up her quill before setting it into her bag so that the parchment was the only item that she picked up when she tried the spell again. “I’m Lita, by the way.” Adelita introduced herself. “I think we’re roommates.”

0 Adelita Do you not enjoy flying? 0 Adelita 0 5

Sophia Xuereb

November 26, 2008 1:48 PM

blinks Was that english? by Sophia Xuereb

Sophia was, if anything, even slower than she had been in entering this class in her first year, although the second year was as neat and well presented as ever. A year of failure after failure had disheartened her to quite an extent, and she hadn't even been able to properly articulate why to her parents, for fear of disappointing them. Not that she even really understood what the problem was herself. She was starting to entertain some suspicions, however.

She looked around, spotting Laurie and Amelia and a few other people she knew, but deciding to sit away from them. Best not to give them any further reason to think her stupid or a lackwit. It was going to be bad enough as things stood. She arranged her things on her desk with exceeding exactness, making sure that things were set for optimal usefulness, glanced at her book with a frown and then up at the Professor, as she entered, with a definite air of trepidation.

The start was fine. Sophia took the a sheet of paper from the pile being passed around and handed the papers to the next person so it could continue it's trek around the classroom. She read over the conditions carefully, and felt rather better about them than she had last year. It made much more sense now, less room for misunderstandings and confusion - and definitely better worded for optimal interpretation.

She dipped her quill into the inkpot, wiped it carefully on the edge to remove excess black ink from the tip and signed her name below the rules. Professor Taylor had, in the meantime, started talking again, this explaining the gist of their lesson. Sophia looked at her wand and tried not to look as wary as she felt. She opened her notebook and dipped her quill in the ink again, taking comfort in notes.

Wingardium Leviosa - Levitation Charm.
Naretus - Hovering Charm.
Accio - Summoning Charm.

She smiled tightly at the Professor saying that any second years who tried the summoning charm would be skinned alive. She knew that even without that threat she wouldn't be attempting it, and felt rather inadequate as a result. At least they hadn't been told to find partners, she consoled herself. If she kept quiet and didn't bring attention to herself-

"'Ey. Whas up? Ya wanna chill on 'is one? An wh'le ya at ih' c'n ya d' me a fav'oar. I seem t' not be ay'ble t' write m' name right. Could'ya write it fer me?"

Sophia sat there with a look of disbelief on her face as she tried to compute what had just been said. She thought that he might have asked for help writing his name, but wasn't one hundred percent sure about it.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I'm afraid I'm not sure I understood. Did you say you need me to write your name for you?"

She hoped he didn't think she was being rude, but his accent was... well, it was something else.

39 Sophia Xuereb *blinks* Was that english? 0 Sophia Xuereb 0 5

Grayson Wright

November 26, 2008 3:46 PM

Keeping everything moving...or not. by Grayson Wright

Gray was a little surprised to be greeted by the professor as he entered the Charms room - he had remained firmly set in the idea that he was completely invisible here - but he offered her his usual quick, nervous smile and told her an extremely abbreviated version of his new living situation. He had yet to completely adjust to having so much room for himself, and supposed spending four months at school would undo all the adjustment he had made, but at least it was a good kind of unusual.

It was a little odd to be in class with the firsties after getting the idea that third year was considered one of the intermediate classes, but as long as the classroom was big enough and the chairs plentiful enough for three groups of students, Gray had no real problem with it. Taking an open desk, he took out his wand, his quill, and his notes-book, then waited for the class to come to order. A straggler or two usually seemed to prevent it, which he didn't get; the Charms teacher was very low on his list of people to cross at Sonora, and he had no reason to think she was higher on most people's. Professor Taylor was a witch who just had a very...formidable air about her.

With that thought in mind, he read over and signed the new syllabus quickly before handing it in with the rest. There was a difference from last year, but it was all reasonable and correct, and the only difficulty Gray could see was an off chance Professor Taylor wouldn't be able to figure out his signature after two months of not being forced to read his handwriting. Once that was done, the professor started the lesson.

He scrawled down the assignment, hoping it would give him enough time to think about which spell he wanted to work. Levitation was easy, Hovering all right, and Summoning an entirely new one. The word 'challenge' made him want very much to try it, but the idea of setting something on fire made him wary; he didn't much like fires, and Charms was, well, not his best subject. Finally, he decided to review the Hovering Charm before he considered trying Summoning.

Since his textbooks would cost a lot to replace, accidents involving his inkwell would be messy, and he would lose an awful lot of notes if his notes-book caught fire, Gray put his quill in front of him to practice on. He had an entire box of cheap quills just like it upstairs, and the loss of one wouldn't hurt anything. Moving his wand in a rough 'z' shape, he said, "N - Naretus!"

His quill began to spin around like a rogue compass needle.

He was really going to have to work on his speech clarity if he wanted to be any sort of wizard.

16 Grayson Wright Keeping everything moving...or not. 113 Grayson Wright 0 5

Nathaniel

November 26, 2008 4:28 PM

Aw, and I thought we were opposites! by Nathaniel

Feeling incredibly stupid, Nathaniel just nodded dumbly. “Oh,” the boy played a “Nate” on a TV show. Well, at least now he knew there were no other “Nates” to confuse with Nathaniel... er maybe. He still didn’t know everyone yet. He looked away slightly, “I don’t... really watch much television,” he stated, as if this were an excuse. His cheeks began to turn red, but it was true. If the television in his house was ever turned on, it was turned to a random news channel for his parents to “tsk tsk the situation of the government today” at or a cooking channel for his father to test his new hobbies.

To be completely honest, Nathaniel was never that interested in television anyway. And neither did most his family. Sitcoms, dramas, cartoons, anything of the like were things Nathaniel only saw at brief glimpses when going to the houses of friends. Even when the news was on, Nathaniel found himself avoiding it. Every time he sat down to listen there was something crazy. And if he and a friend ever needed entertainment from the flickering box, he walked a block down to the video store to get a movie for that night, which he found slightly more interesting and a larger time killer.

Nathaniel found himself smiling again when the girl–Holly–told him to try again. “Okay,” he said in his chirpy little voice, and the lanky boy swished-and-flicked once more, “Wingardium Leviosa,” he said, drawing it out. The paper floated up the same height, but Nathaniel was able to keep it up longer with that same amount of concentration. Breaking it, the paper fluttered, and Nathaniel laughed. “The magic thing, its so cool,” he said, not exactly addressing Holly but talking in her direction, “To think, I thought it was all pretend.”

He looked at the girl helping him with the watted grin, barely finding a reason to frown overall. Nathaniel had always been overenthusiastic, overly happy, it wasn’t just the magic thing, really. “That’s a cool name,” he complimented, “It sounds like a band, Hollywood Thistles, and it reminds me of Christmas.” He wouldn’t be surprised if everyone in this room had their run-ins with the performing arts, having been so used to his father talk about his life “in the band” (Starlight, which his sister found herself named after though strangely enough it was his mother that named her). “Nathaniel, but you know that, Leon. First year,” though, thinking about that after a second, Nathaniel realized she probably knew that already too. “Oh, and I’m in Teppenpaw, if that means anything as well.”

Nathaniel swished his wand around all through his tidbits of speech, and now turned it back on the paper to try the spell once more. “Wingardium Leviosa,” he repeated again, not finding any loss in glee when it rose again. And, it may have been his imagination, but he believed it had gone slightly higher too! How great!

0 Nathaniel Aw, and I thought we were opposites! 0 Nathaniel 0 5

Lucie Dupree

November 26, 2008 10:33 PM

Maybe just in the wrong direction by Lucie Dupree

Charms ranked third on Lucie’s lists of favorite classes, though, she didn’t actually hate any of the subjects. She just liked some more than others, but each one had something interesting to offer and nearly always provided an idea or two for some story or the other. However, over the summer, she hadn’t gotten much chance to implement the thoughts since she had gotten a bit sidetracked. Every other summer, she was always known to other people as being Devian’s kid sister or Danae’s little sister, but this time it had been completely different, especially when they had been visiting her grandparents in France.

She had ended up with an entire week of neither Devian nor Danae being there, which was odd to say the least, but was also likely to happen more in the future since each one was now betrothed. Though, it was a bit strange, in her opinion, that Danae’s had changed. She wasn’t quite sure how she thought about it yet since she had never met the new person. With Emeric, she had the vague notion that he was a nice guy, but then appearances could be deceiving. It was a theme in some stories. But then, was the other guy any better or would it just come down to the lesser of two evils? She wasn’t sure, yet she had every intention of finding out.

Besides, it was good practice for when her parents tried to throw betrothal at her next summer, which she had every intention of getting out of. With not being in her older siblings’ shadows (though, some would say she outshined them both), Lucie had become little Miss Popularity around the community. Part of it was Devian no longer protecting her and the other part was Danae no longer drawing the male attention (something she didn’t even realize she did). As such, Lucie had become to attract a number of the boys. Of course, having their attention really didn’t mean much with the immaturity factor, but it had been sweet that they had tried to impress her with stupid stunts and male ego.

It had also served to cinch that there were just way too many cute boys out there to be forced to settle down at fourteen. On the note of boys, her blue eyes caught sight of Grayson. They had gotten along well last year in Charms and if they had to do partner work again, she thought it would be nice to work with him. Quickly, she took a seat near to him and pulled out the necessary materials since class was beginning. She added her name to the syllabus in her neat handwriting without reading over the rules since basically all rules were to be following the rules, which was whatever the professor said. It was simple enough to get and she didn’t really understand those that defied that when there were better rules to break than not following lesson instructions.

All right, so today’s lesson was dealing with review and add. What to work with? She really didn’t want to use one of her new pens. Last year was all about sparkly pens. This year, she had ones that were designed to look like a feather except it didn’t look quite like a normal quill. This one was in a purple shade that she adored. No, she couldn’t use it. Oh, she knew what she could use. She pulled the elastic from her golden curls, letting them fall below her shoulders. She didn’t care what happened to it. She placed it on her desk and was about to begin when she noticed what Grayson’s quill was doing. She leaned over slightly to talk better and in doing so brushed her fingers against his wrist. “We’re not supposed to be doing the Point Me spell,” she said lightly and with a grin to show that she was only teasing. “So, how was your summer?”

0 Lucie Dupree Maybe just in the wrong direction 114 Lucie Dupree 0 5

Ethan and Elliot

November 27, 2008 1:43 AM

Definitely more entertaining by Ethan and Elliot

OOC: You assumed correctly :)

"Yet, being the operative word here," Ethan grinned. "Nice to meet ya, Indy." Ethan held out his hand, followed by Elliot.

"Indy? Good. I don't think I could've gotten your whole name right now," Elliot grinned. Ethan nodded in agreement. "Our family thought we were going to be Pecari, because we're, what was it again?"

"Spontaneous and active," Elliot finished for him. It was true that they were both those things. They played a lot of sports before starting Sonora and had a habit of playing tricks on unsuspecting family members and friends, but neither of them had ended up in Pecari for some reason. Apparently they were different on a deeper level. The Valentines were cut in half: Teppenpaws and Crotali, definitely an interesting combination.

"So, Indy," Elliot started. "Where's that name from?"

0 Ethan and Elliot Definitely more entertaining 0 Ethan and Elliot 0 5

Aeon.

November 27, 2008 3:14 PM

Uh..It was East English. by Aeon.

Aeon shaded slightly, after hearing her response. Of course she would have difficult understanding him. This school was on the other side of the country! He shook it off quickly and smiled again.

"Uh, huh. Aye've bean tr-eye'n' fer awh-eye-le n' I cn't get it right. S'rry if ya cn't und'rst'nd meh'. I'm from New Y'oar-k. Accent." he said shrugging. He motioned towards his book to the space in the circle.

He also grabbed another sheet of paper and wrote down the spells that he had to do during this class period. When he turned back, he smiled at her. He was about to as her if she wanted to try out the spells, when he remembered that she had never really answered him the first time. HE frowned slightly and quickly, before he repeated himself.

"Ya wanna chill on 'is one?" he repeated, looking back over at her.

He pulled back his book and set it back up in the upper left hand corner of his desk. He picked back up his wand and twirled it between his fingers as he waited for a response, while he leaned back in his chair, so that only the back two legs were resting on the ground.

0 Aeon. Uh..It was East English. 0 Aeon. 0 5

Sophia

November 27, 2008 6:42 PM

East American English? Odd... by Sophia

OOC: I'm almost tempted to ask for a translation into english at the bottom of your posts! :-p What part of New York is Aeon's accent supposed to be? I'm not American, and I'm not really able to place it... BIC:

"You seem able to write," Sophia said slowly, after a moment. He was writing again, on a sheet of paper, which seemed to validate her point. "What's the problem with writing your name?" Was it really that much more difficult than writing the - she looked at what he was writing - spells down?

Still, frowning a little, she reached over and pulled his book closer to her, looking at the space he had indicated. "You'll have to tell me what it is though," she told him. All around the space there were obvious previous attempts, but they were scribbled out into complete illegability. "I'm Sophia."

He was certainly a strange boy. He spoke again, asking her if she wanted to 'chill on this one', if she had heard correctly, and Sophia shook her head in confusion.

"I'm afraid I don't understand," she had to say, apologetically as she watched in surprise as he took the book back again and put it aside, even though he hadn't given her his name to be written in his book. "None of these spells have anything to do with making things colder. They're all about moving things, in one way or another. Oh-" she stopped. "Was that slang?"

That certainly made better sense, for all slang was, in her limited experience, a world of confusion and mixed meanings.

"You want to work together?" she summised, after thinking about it and putting the context together in her head. No, she thought. But he was a first year. Perhaps she could use that to her advantage. "Alright. Do you want to try Wingardium first? You could try to levitate that paper," she pointed at the piece of paper he had been writing on. "I can watch and give you some tips, if you like."

The theory was something she thought she had a good grasp of, at least. She had spent the holidays pouring over books trying to work out a better technique.

39 Sophia East American English? Odd... 0 Sophia 0 5

Aeon

November 27, 2008 11:51 PM

It's basically East coast. New York. by Aeon

OOC: Okay. From now on I'm jus gonna write regularly and say he's using his accent so you won’t have to worry about it. :D BIC:

When the girl pointed out how he could write, he grimaced and chuckled a bit. He looked back over at her, while leaning forward and forcing his chair back onto all fours.

"Oh, I can write, but I hate my handwriting." he said.

When she introduced herself as Sophia, Aeon felt that it was time for him to say his name.

"Oh, Right! I'm Aeon." he said quickly.

When she realized that his 'wanna chill on this one' was slang she stopped and connected his New York slang.

When she asked him if he had asked to work together, he simply looked at her waiting for a response. When she started with asking him if he wanted to start with the Wingardium charm first, he agreed and slid his wand of the table.

He couldn't help but feel slightly nervous. It was his first time using magic legally. He had once gotten a hold of his mother’s wand and ended up de-pedaling every flower and plant in the house.

He looked back over at his spell paper and pointed his wand at it. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, reopened them and took a deep breath. He got into his thinking position, which just happened to be with his feet pushing against the edge of the desk, him leaning in his chair on its back legs, and his arms resting on the back of his chair. He pointed his right hand at the paper and breathed in before saying,

"Wingardium Leviosa." he felt the not to common rush of energy and watched as the paper twitched before rising slowly into the air. He kept his concentration for another thirty seconds before becoming bored and twirling his wand back facing him and pushing it up his sleeve with his middle finger.

Now that he had done the spell and succeeded, he felt no nervousness and even took slight offense to her over confidence on the knowledge of the spell. He knew he shouldn't feel mad, but he didn't like when people jumped to conclusions, even if the odds were leaning towards the fact that he shouldn't know about this type of magic yet.

The paper dropped back down to the table and he looked back over at her.

"You wanna try now? Or should we move on?" he asked turning his head towards her. "I'm good at magic. Especially charms."

0 Aeon It's basically East coast. New York. 0 Aeon 0 5

Kendra Paully

November 28, 2008 2:41 AM

Wow, reality sure is amazing! by Kendra Paully

Kendra was just beginning to get the hang of the school. After she ate her breakfast, three pieces of bacon and one spoonful of scrambled eggs, she had set out to find her first class. Charms. She had actually been looking forward to charms. She didn't know why, but she had an invisible attraction to the class. Like she needed to participate in the class. She walked up to the large entrance door, and stepped into the room. There were still plenty of seats left in the class and Kendra took her pick of one. She walked toward the center of the room and turned into one of the middle rows. She set her stuff down on one of the desks and looked around to see if any of her housemates from the opening feast were there. Unfortunately, none of them were, so she'd have to be a loner for the first day of class. She sat down at her desk and pulled out her quill and ink. Her beautiful silver ink. Her Favorite ink. She of course had some black ink, incase the teacher frowned upon silver ink, but she loved her silver ink. She set down both utensils and looked over at her book. It was very plain. Crisp. New. Perfect. Divine. And she didn't like it. It made her look like she was a teacher leach. Someone who sucked up to the teacher and stuff. She pulled the book towards her. The inside cover had her name printed clearly on it. She doodled a flower next to her name, and then drew what should have been a heart, and ended up looking like a cloud. She sighed, now upset that her book was imperfect. She looked up and noticed that the teacher was walking up to the front of the classroom. She listened as she explained all the information and then handed out a syllabus and started to explain the day’s lesson. Kendra got her paper and signed her name on it. In silver ink. She handed it back up to the teacher and wrote down the acceptable spells that she could try today.

When the teacher dismissed them to try the spells on their own, Kendra decided to start with something light, so it would be easier to lift magically. She thought and then pulled a bobby pin out of her hair and set it on her desk. She then pulled out her lacewood and hawk feather wand and prepared to try the spell.

"Do you have something that I could borrow?"

She stopped what she was doing and turned to the boy sitting next to her. He was looking at her, and she thought he just asked to borrow something of hers. It also sounded like he was trying to force away an east coast accent. She smiled, finding it ironic how she had tried to do the same thing before. It hadn't worked for her so she had given up and let her accent slide.

"Uh. Yeah. I've got stuff. I have an extra bobby pin, or a quill, or... uhmm...well I don't know what else, but I could find something, if you really need it." she said with a strong New York/east coast accent. She smiled at him and looked back over her desk for other objects. "It's your pick. I've got nothing valuable here soo..."

She waved her hand over the desk and turned back to him.

"By the way. I'm Kendra. Crotalus."

0 Kendra Paully Wow, reality sure is amazing! 0 Kendra Paully 0 5

Sophia

November 28, 2008 3:01 PM

Ok. I was just wondering. by Sophia

Sophia was slightly taken aback, and started to feel even worse. "That was good," she said. Surprising good, really. It was discouraging seeing people who could just take to the magic and get results. It was, she thought with an edge of disgruntlement, rather like she seemed to attract the magical prodigies. No slow learning process for them. Instant results! Like magic.

Like magic.

"Yes, you really are quite good. I think though," she suggested, ignoring his questions, "that if you put a little more flick in after the initial swish, you'd get a faster result. How about putting a bit of time into refinement before you go rushing headlong into new territory?"

That was also the problem with a lot of people who received instant gratification for their efforts, Sophia thought. Always in a hurry. Sure, they could do the spells, but mastery required a little more effort.

39 Sophia Ok. I was just wondering. 0 Sophia 0 5

Aeon

November 28, 2008 3:40 PM

wondering is good. by Aeon

Even after Aeon had succeeded in the spell, he still had a feeling that Sophia felt an air of superiority over him. This only bugged him more, causing him to lean back forward in his chair, with a slightly audible, BANG. He slipped his wand back out from his sleeve and held it in his hand again.

She suggested he flick his wrist to get a faster reaction. He did find this annoying, especially since she chose to ignore his questions and continue to "help" him. But being a gentleman, he didn't let his annoyance show and he pointed his wand back at the paper. He kicked his chair back onto its back legs again and took a breath in.

"Wingardium Leviosa." he said while flicking his wrist.

The paper once again lifted into the air, but this time Aeon kept it floating for another three minutes, so as to subtly prove he knew the spell, and could do it successfully. He once again slid his wand back up into his sleeve and looked back over at her. He repeated his previous questions to her and waited for a response.

"You wanna try now? Or should we move on?" he asked again.

0 Aeon wondering is good. 0 Aeon 0 5

Sophia

November 28, 2008 6:07 PM

As is wandering. by Sophia

Little show off, Sophia thought to herself. She instantly felt bad for the thought though. It wasn't Aeon's fault that he had a natural aptitude. And he was a boy, so he couldn't help being dense and not wanting help.

"I'll try later," Sophia said. If he saw her fail, well, she didn't want him to. Not with his ease with magic. It would just make it a dreadful lesson, stuck with a first year thinking she was hopeless and had no place here. No, much better to use his interest and ability to keep him distracted. "Do you think you'll do as well with the Hovering Charm?" she asked him.

39 Sophia As is wandering. 0 Sophia 0 5

Gray

November 28, 2008 11:09 PM

Any ideas for getting back to the right one? by Gray

Gray started very slightly when someone else's hand touched his wrist. He looked down at the fingers in question and up again to see that they were attached to Lucie, his comrade-against-vegetables from the year before. "Ha, ha," he said, then grinned back at her, feeling slightly hot. "Y'know, if I ever start looking for you, you'll probably stop sitting, uh, sitting with me."

He felt even more suspiciously warm after that great rush of speech, and half-sure he had said the absolutely worst thing. He broke eye contact with her, but his head jerked back up as soon as she mentioned summer.

Pushing his glasses back up, he launched enthusiastically into the topic. "It was weird. We aren't living in the big house anymore, you know, with all of my aunts and Uncle John and Grandma. It's just us - me and Mom and Dad. Well, and Anne, but she's probably going to move out once she graduates. Mom says she always wanted a house without ten million relatives in it, so she made Dad save up lots of money so they could buy a house. She's even got a job, too, so they can make all the payments and stuff."

That, more than anything, had made it clear how serious his mother was about this. Janine Wright hadn't worked a day in Gray's memory - she thought it beneath her. She was kind of weird that way. "My new room is huge," he said, deciding to omit the part where he still missed the familiar boards and corners of his old room. "And Dad made a shelf for my books for my birthday, so it's not all cluttered up like before."

He realized he'd been rattling on at her for quite a while now and looked down again, embarrassed. "So, uh," he said, fiddling with his wand. "How was your, your summer?"

16 Gray Any ideas for getting back to the right one? 113 Gray 0 5

Eun Ae

November 28, 2008 11:41 PM

You'd think you're an Aladren or something. by Eun Ae

Eun Ae watched as both the wand and eraser came to a rest on solid surface. "Let it down. . .?" she repeated, the meaning hitting her belatedly. Once it did, though, her cheeks immediately flushed. Obviously, if she had to lift her wand to impose the lifting command on an object, lowering it would provide a similar end.

"Right. Of course." She motioned with her ward downwards, her cheeks still flaming, and the parchment obeyed, fluttering gently back to its earlier place on her desk.

The warmth from her first attempt at magic- purposeful magic that is- was slowly receding. It wasn't so much the momentary embarrassment as it was the realization that for every step she took forward, there was a part of her that took three steps back. She couldn't blame communication entirely; there was her temperament as well. She was not an optimist; she was a firm realist, with strong pessimistic overtones. Perhaps eleven years old was too young an age to have developed oneself such an outlook; Eun Ae was of the opinion that she was too old to not have done so.

"Er, thank you then." She gave her classmate a careful glance, recognizing him as a fellow Aladren. Beyond the Welcoming Feast's conversation with Daniel, Eun Ae hadn't attempted any introductions. Oh, of course there were the requisite ones with her roommates, but even that had been somewhat stilted, a fault she placed entirely at her feet. She knew very well that she was not very likable, and that her personal habits did not lend themselves to friendly overtures.

Still, she was a polite girl, and the moment pressed for at least some form of introduction.

"I don't remember if I introduced myself before, during the meeting in the common room or not, but I'm Eun Ae Song," she supplied, mindful as ever to pronounce her name slowly. "Would you like to work together?"

0 Eun Ae You'd think you're an Aladren or something. 0 Eun Ae 0 5

Laurie

November 29, 2008 1:07 AM

This is true. IRL, too. by Laurie

Laurie had spent much of her second year reminding herself that first impressions (even if they were a whole year long) were not always to be trusted. Alexis Ashwood must have had some sort of reason for her attitude that first year, and it was only fair that Laurie provide her the opportunity to make an explanation of some sort. And so it was that the Crotalus forced herself to be friendly and not vocalize her concerns to Renaye who seemed far more comfortable with the redhead's change of heart.

It had to be admitted, though, that Laurie's efforts were often weakly enforced. For all of her high minded thoughts, her follow through tended to be a far more honest reflection of her feelings. She just didn't trust the girl. Something rang wrong, like a note gone flat, and she couldn't shake that, regardless of how much she lectured herself internally.

"I'm so sorry, I really didn't expect to get tackled by a bag," Laurie explained, quelling some of her discomfort by focusing on helping her roommate up from the ground. Her own various pains voiced themselves as she rose, her knees popping with the movement. "Nothing too bad; I'll probably have a few bruises tomorrow, though. I've had worse playing touch football at family reunions. Are you sure you're okay? It sounded like you hit your head pretty hard."

0 Laurie This is true. IRL, too. 0 Laurie 0 5

Aeon

November 29, 2008 12:04 PM

Wondering turns to wandering? by Aeon

Aeon felt very happy with his successful attempts at the spell. He hadn't expected to be good at any kind of magi...il well into his classes. Aeon looked back over at Sophia. She was sitting quietly looking at him. At first he thought his hair was being crazy, but then he realized that she was thinking. He waited for her to finish thinking. When she answered his question he immediately objected.

"The object of the class is to try the spells. You don't have to get them the first time." Aeon said, noticing he was talking over her next question.

"I'm not doing the hovering charm until you do the first spell." He said leaning back on his chair.

0 Aeon Wondering turns to wandering? 0 Aeon 0 5

Lucie

November 29, 2008 3:57 PM

You should take a right at the next turn. by Lucie

While some might have found Gray’s odd match of words slightly insulting, Lucie couldn’t help giggling a bit. He reminded her of those that she had met over summer where they seemed unsure of how to react to her testing of the feminine wiles. “I probably will stop sitting with you, but that’s only because you’ll be sitting with me after you find me,” she replied with her own form of logic, which made complete sense within her own head. She twirled a bit of golden hair around an index finger as she waited to see how Gray reacted.

Lucie thought the idea of living with a whole bunch of relatives sounded weird to start with. She only lived with her mom, dad, and siblings in Quebec. She supposed it was sort of like what her family had in France, but not quite. There it was more of an estate, which consisted of various houses owned by various family members sitting on the same gated land. Though, she supposed it really wouldn’t be so bad living with all her other family members. She liked them well enough and got along with everyone. Besides, living together meant working out problems sooner and there were enough of them that needed to do that.

It seemed stranger still that they hadn’t moved out sooner. She always assumed that one went to school, graduated, found a job (if you were male), got married, and moved out. It was the natural progression of things. “Do you ever miss living with your ten million relatives?” Lucie asked. When she moved away, would she miss living there? Probably. She couldn’t really imagine living anywhere else (aside from Sonora during the school year) nor could she imagine living with anyone else. What was worse to think about was that when she did end up living with someone else, her husband, she would barely know him. It was why she had to make sure Danae’s intended was a good guy and she hoped one day, her sister would do the same for her since no one else would.

Despite how much her father spoiled her, Lucie didn’t doubt that he would use her to suit his own purposes just as he was doing with her siblings. She would be given to whoever had the highest offer, whether it was through financial means, connections, or both, and it was given to change at any moment just as Danae’s had. She had started off with Emeric, who was at the lower rung of the social circle. He was pure with some status and a little bit of money. Then, he was traded in for a Santoro, also pure, with more status, more money, and better connections. The only time it was actually set was at the moment ‘I do’ was spoken.

Their happiness didn’t matter in any of it. All of it rested upon her father’s selfishness and for a moment she couldn’t help feeling a bit envious of Gray. His father had actually taken time to make him something. There was something heartfelt about it. “That was really nice of him. Have you started decorating your room yet? Hey, maybe you could have a mini-library in it,” Lucie commented. Then, because she wasn’t one to miss a step asked, “When was your birthday?” Her own birthday had been in May, but every summer, her parents had one for her and for Danae, whose birthday was actually in the summer. Devian’s was during midterm break since his was in February, so they celebrated a bit early and he ended up with the short end of the stick.

“Oh, my summer was wonderful,” Lucie answered with a smile that lit up her entire face. “Every summer, my brother and sister, and I go to France to spend some time there with our grandparents. This year, I got to spend a whole week there by myself, because Devian went off to England and Danae was in Spain with their betrothed.” She wrinkled her nose in distaste at that, before continuing on, “Anyway, without them around, I got to go out on my own around the area. Well, I wasn’t really alone since I got to hang out with the other kids that live there, but it was a lot of fun.” She stopped there, because she was beginning her own series of rambling and was being distracted from actually trying the spell.

Digging around in her bag, she managed to find one of the older pens and pulled it out to use. Okay, she was supposed to try hovering, then summoning. She mimicked what the professor had done and the pen hovered for a second, before she got distracted again. The pen dropped with a little clank against the desk, as she turned her attention back to Gray. “Have you ever been to Paris? There’s a bookstore there that I think you would like. It’s small, but they had some interesting books. Or at least I think they were. I ended up picking up one about the link between muggle fairy tales and magic.” She had been excited when she had found the book, especially after the Transfiguration lesson in which such things were mentioned. “Did you get anything new?”

0 Lucie You should take a right at the next turn. 0 Lucie 0 5

Charlotte Abbott

November 30, 2008 8:00 AM

Being treated like an adult by Charlotte Abbott

Class was usually one of those painful things in life that had to be survived. At Sonora, Charlotte knew it would be different: classes were occasions when you got to use your wand, and were taught how to do magic, and it was all new and incredibly exciting. So when she came to her first ever charms class, Charlie was breathless with excitement and could barely manage to keep still through the professor's introduction.

Charlie read the class rules without taking anything in, and signed the bottom because that's what they'd been told to do. Then the real exciting part of the lesson came. Charlie had to force herself not to squeak with delight as the teacher did magic spells right up in front of the class. This was amazing!

But actually, the more amazing part of the class was yet to come. Instead of telling them what to do, Professor Taylor was trusting them to do the right spells out of the selection. Charlie sat in stunned awe; her old Muggle professors had never done anything like that. It was all 'read this chapter' and 'write this out in your own words.' Even if they did practical work in science and stuff, they had strict instructions to follow, and the classroom assistant breathing down their nexk to make sure they stuck to the instructions like some seriously strong glue. This whole freedom to choose to behave thing was new and Charlie liked it; it made her feel more like a grown up. There was no way she was going to betray her freedom and do the wrong spell. No sir.

Of course, in her excitement, Charlie had totally forgotten which spell she was supposed to be doing. She could have put up her hand to ask Prof taylor for help, but then she might get in trouble for not writing down the assignment. Instead she tapped a nearby student to get there attention. "Hi," she said with a smile. "Sorry to disturb - I've totally no idea what I'm doing. Help me out?"

0 Charlotte Abbott Being treated like an adult 135 Charlotte Abbott 0 5

Holly Greer

December 01, 2008 4:55 PM

We're very close to being opposites by Holly Greer

Holly nodded, accepting that Nathaniel did not watch much TV. Neither, truthfully, did she. Her father had to screen everything she watched first, to be sure it didn't contain anything that might upset her, so most of the shows she did watch were on DVD. This, according to Danny, was not watching TV, but watching DVDs. But he called everything she liked 'kiddie shows' so she wasn't sure how much she should believe his terminology.

She watched critically as he performed the spell again. She saw a few minor things that she thought he could fix up with some more practice, but the spell worked well enough and he seemed more than pleased by its results.

Though of muggle origins, Holly had never quite given up believing in magic even before she found out about Sonora. (She was still waiting to discover that her Grandfather Greer was actually a prince who ran away from his home country and any day now her long-lost great-aunt would come looking for someone to take over the throne - Royalty had to come from her Dad's side, or it would be Luke who got swept away to be King.)

In any case, she couldn't relate to ever thinking that it was all pretend. She'd once thought it had all been a series of increasingly powerful hallucinations that were symptomatic of her descent into schizophrenia, but that was slightly different. She wasn't about to share this observation with an eleven year old boy she hardly knew.

Fortunately, she didn't have to respond because he was complimenting her name, and she felt her heart warm toward him. She nodded in agreement, though she wasn't so sure she thought it sounded like a band. That hadn't been what she was going for. "Yes, I think it sounds lovely. Thistle is a kind of wood, and I was playing off of 'Hollywood'. Plus, I've always been partial towards Christmastime. It's ever so much better a name than Holly Greer. I don't understand why my father never changed his surname. It's so dull. No wonder Mom never took it, even when they were married." But Daddy was hardly alone in that. Even the ones with cool names hadn't gotten her to give up Burbridge. It was probably a publicity thing.

But that didn't make Greer any better a name.

As Nathaniel did his spell one more time, Holly picked up her own wand and decided it was time to actually try the third year level spell. She pointed her wand at the notebook in front of her brother (it suddenly occurred to her as she did so, exactly how splendid a spell this was going to be once she mastered it).

"Accio Danny's notebook."

It shifted on his desk, but didn't come to her or burst into flames. Danny's hand came slamming down onto the notebook and he turned around to glare at her. She widened her eyes and raised her eyebrows in a look of total innocence. He didn't buy it, of course, but he wasn't really supposed to. Her brother scowled and turned pointedly back to his own conversation.

Struck by a curiosity that overcame her disinclination to admit to having a brother, she asked Nathaniel, "Do you have any siblings?" She didn't recognize the name Leon, but there were a lot of people in the school who she didn't have a last name to pin to. Just to be annoying, she kicked the back of Danny's chair. He pointedly ignored that, too.\r\n\r\n

1 Holly Greer We're very close to being opposites 123 Holly Greer 0 5

Mike Song

December 02, 2008 6:49 PM

I prefer being treated like a kid. More fun that way. by Mike Song

Mike Song avoided the whole tour guide angle as a general, tried-and-true rule. He'd had enough guides and tours and tour guides to last a life time. His cousin Bae ran Boardwalk tours for the flocks of eastern Asia tourists that flooded the Key Largo shores during the months of high summer. Bae's Korean was passably fluent, his Japanese mediocre, and he knew just enough Thai and Vietnamese to do damage. Mike, in a continuous act of self preservation, refused to retain any and all education regarding that of other languages. He just knew the moment he showed any amount of potential for it, just like his cousin, he'd be scooped up and put on tourist detail.

Besides, Mike wasn't all about 'connecting with the motherland,' like his sister was. If someone asked what he was, he always firmly responded with an one word answer: American.

But that was besides the point. He had not come clear across the country to engage in tourist like activities. He was no tourist to Sonora; he was a wizard, which in the scheme of things meant he was part of it. He was Sonoran, a Sonoran-American. The thought made him grin, and the smile still carried when fifteen minutes later, he spotted the back of his sister's familiar head and followed her to their first ever Charms class. Euna's head was always easy to find: all he needed to do was spot the shortest, darkest head of hair in the room, and there she was. He waved, preparing himself to join her where she sat; his smile was duly replaced with a frown. She had ignored him.

She'd been ignoring him since the day they first arrived, not so much as five words being spared for him. Mike was finding it more and more annoying.

"What's her problem?" he muttered, his voice low in its irritation, and threw himself into the nearest open chair, his dark eyes intently glaring at the back of his oblivious sister's head. He hardly noticed the entrance of his Charms Professor, and only re-directed his attention when the syllabus sheet arrived on his desk, demanding a signature. He signed without reading, positive that if the rules were silly, he was bound to break them regardless of whether he signed or not. He returned to his glaring, his ears only snagging upon snippets of the lecture; the words only stayed because of their alien sound. Words like win-gar-de-um and nar-eh-tus and this ah-see-o. His ears were used to foreign sounds, the ah-eh-ohs of Korean interspersed with a deep-throated chrrrl sort of exclamation. His neighborhood back home reverberated with the strange sounds that always drew the curious eyes of visiting tourists and the eventual declaration by the same individuals of his most hated of titles.

Immigrant.

"This is annoying," he announced to his desk and himself, purposely shaking his head to clear away the anger-inducing thoughts. "Time to move on now, Song, and get cracking at-"

"Hi. Sorry to disturb - I've totally no idea what I'm doing. Help me out?"

"Listen, noona, you've chosen exactly the wrong person to ask." Mike grinned despite his words, his hands spreading in an universal expression of cluelessness. "I think, though, we're supposed to be practising-" and he paused, his nose scrunched in consideration, "that one spell she was talking about- the, uh, win guardian levy oh sa one." He gestured with his wand for good measure, but the ill timed motion forced a string of sparks from the wand's tip. The reaction surprised him enough to force a more proper posture into his back. "Maybe I should give the board a gander first then, yeah? It's Mike, by the way, Mike Song. I'm one of those disreputable Pecaris."

0 Mike Song I prefer being treated like a kid. More fun that way. 0 Mike Song 0 5

Juri

December 02, 2008 9:15 PM

Isn't it though? by Juri

“Hi, Kendra in Crotalus,” Juri said with an easy grin, before introducing himself, “I’m Juri in Aladren.” He only added what house he was in, because she had. Otherwise, he probably would have left it off. He didn’t really understand why they were divided into Houses based on traits. He thought it was like placing a label on a person, like they had to be those things. As Aladren was the ‘smart’ house, it was like saying that he now had to do well in school. All right, in his last school, he had done well, but he liked that others didn’t expect him too, other than the Judge and Executioner. His mom had always told him that it was okay to fail, but now it was as though the school was saying that he wasn’t allowed to. If he did, would they put him in some other House?

His blue eyes flicked over to Kendra, narrowing slightly in thought. He pondered what labels she was given by being in Crotlus, but it was better that he didn’t know. He preferred to know a person based on his own conclusions rather than what others told him. He was sure that there were a lot of things that could be said about him that might not be accurate or necessarily true. He had been considered a cool kid, but it was because he was quiet. Though, really what made it so he was considered cool when someone else who was quiet was considered an outcast? It was probably for the fact that he didn’t care what others thought of him, so long as it didn’t impede on who he was, like this whole school labeling was doing. When his mom found out, she’d probably tell him to stage some sit-in or something. Yeah, right.

No, even if he didn’t like the label, did that mean he should purposely try to defy it? No. He had always done his work in school, even if it was usually unreadable and sometimes had paint on it. He had gotten in trouble with his third grade teacher over the paint and had scheduled a parent/teacher conference. His mom told the woman that she was inhibiting Juri’s growth by trying to force him to be what she wanted him to be rather than allowing him to figure out who he was, but then that was the way his mom was. Most parents would yell at their kids for coloring on the walls, when he had done it, his mom had bought him a box with more colors. This acceptance was what led him to discover his love of making music through unusual methods. Would he be able to continue that here?

Maybe things that he learned in his classes would actually help him towards continuing. Of course, that meant that he had to concentrate on performing the spell first. He glanced around to the indicated items. He turned down the bobby pin for the same reason that he chose not to use a pen. “Cool ink,” he commented when he noticed it. “Do you have other colors?” He liked that she wasn’t using the black that most people tended to use. It gave her a bit of a standout quality. Turning back to his desk, he set the quill, now in hand, down and attempted the first spell, which did nothing more than make the quill flutter slightly, but it started giving him ideas to try that would have to wait until after class and after mastering the spell. Before trying the spell again, though, he snuck a look back to Kendra, curious to know more about her. In rare fashion, he decided to try and find out more, “So, how do you like Sonora so far?”

0 Juri Isn't it though? 0 Juri 0 5

Indy

December 02, 2008 9:24 PM

And possibly better at concocting schemes? by Indy

OOC: Sorry for the delay! The holidays swallowed me whole and only just spat me back out.

Indy grinned at the twins. "It's from the same place as me--India. Well, I mean, I'm sort of technically from India, since I was born there, but I've lived in Sacramento my whole life," he replied. "And don't worry about the name. I've kind of gotten used to 'Andritty Chowder.'" One side of his grin widened, turning it into a smirk. "My fourth grade teacher was pretty frogging stupid."

He flipped his wand idly between his fingers and slouched back in his chair, looking at the twins. Spontaneous and active, huh? I bet. There was something about them that made him think they just might be the sort of people he'd been hoping to meet at the school--kindred spirits of the impishly inclined sort. He'd already been here a couple days, and he was already itching to start trouble.

He watched the teacher out of the corner of his eye until she was sufficiently distracted, then leaned forward and beckoned the twins closer. "Spontaneously mischeivous and active pranksters, I hope," he said in an undertone, giving them a conspiratorial grin.

Then, just in case the professor looked back their way, he sat back in his chair and resumed spinning his wand. "So where are you two from, then?" he asked innocently.

0 Indy And possibly better at concocting schemes? 0 Indy 0 5

Pippa Brockert

December 02, 2008 10:54 PM

I can't really think of a title again. by Pippa Brockert

It was her first class ever at Sonora and Pippa couldn't help feeling a little nervous. Fortunately, she knew what each and every subject was. That was an advantage she had over her muggleborn classmates, like Nathaniel and she felt guilty again for being nervous like she had at the feast.

Still, Pippa was worried about what her teacher was like. She had heard literally nothing about the Charms teacher, so she was not sure what to expect and not knowing what to expect sort of made Pippa anxious. The name Taylor was not one she was aware of but that didn't mean anything, as she was not up on pureblood families anyway that were not connected to her own and the professor's family background didn't really matter to her.

As the professor began to speak and hand out the syllabus, Pippa could find no real complaint. She seemed a little stern but not completely unreasonable. The first year read over the syllabus, particularly the rules. Pippa saw nothing wrong with them really. She thought it was completely awful for people to call each other names and prejudice was just plain wrong . Pippa didn't understand why people had to be mean to each other like that. Why couldn't everyone just get along? It would be so nice if nobody ever fought and everyone liked each other.

The second rule seemed practical as well. Pippa's eyes went to a scar on her arm. It hadn't happened because they'd been rushing around, but she sure didn't want more of them. She just plain couldn't think of anytime she would have food or drink, so she signed the syllabus and turned her attention to the lesson.

Once Professor Taylor finished giving the instructions, Pippa took out her wand and a quill to levitate. "Win-gar-di-um levio-sah" she enunciated, waving her wand. Her feather didn't even move. She was even more glad now that she wasn't allowed to be teased for her lack of ability.

11 Pippa Brockert I can't really think of a title again. 132 Pippa Brockert 0 5

Ethan and Elliot

December 03, 2008 6:33 PM

Possibly? More like definitely. by Ethan and Elliot

"I hope you know, we're calling you Andritty Chowder from now on," Ethan remarked, while Elliot silently grinned in agreement. They both automatically leaned in towards Indy when he beckoned and then gave twin mischievous smirks, but before they could respond, Indy jumped back into his previous pose. The twins repeated this instantly, thinking that the teacher might have been looking.

"Los Angeles"
"Encino"

"Encino is in Los Angeles," Elliot prompted, when each twin said something different. "And don't think it's too exciting. There's really not much for people our age to do anything. Our older brother and sister do stuff all the time and we're never invited."

"Hey, did you have anything in mind for us 'active pranksters'?" Ethan jumped in suddenly. "We're up for anything."

0 Ethan and Elliot Possibly? More like definitely. 0 Ethan and Elliot 0 5

Nathaniel

December 04, 2008 1:41 PM

Huh? I don't see it. by Nathaniel

Nathaniel was glad that his lack of knowing today’s popular shows and channels wasn’t something that caused a look of compete and utter shock, such as the kinds he was used to getting from his peers when they asked if he watched “such and such” on “this show here”. Well, magical people didn’t seem to even have the grasp of how to operate a television (from what Nathaniel saw of that one man who came to their house), and his mind immediately connected everyone here to coming from that magical background (though she said her brother did know about television unlike the guy who came to his door? he brushed the confusing bits from his mind), so he supposed he shouldn’t be shocked that she wasn’t shocked.

Maybe he should stop being so shocked about all the magic, and the different and similar things wizards did in their spare time and just work on his studies? But then, Nathaniel was never one for doing something like that, at least not right away. Maybe after a few years he would get over the whole "magic" thing but for right now, not only was it new it was fantastic. So his whole being was shaken whenever that piece of paper fluttered upward on his command.

This was something he would be showing his mother, when he could. Nathaniel was certain that she would absolutely love even the smallest peeks into this world. She was practically ready to jump into the fire that the magic-man lit with his wand, simply because it had come from no where.

She added another name to hers, apparently her father's name, that didn't really fit into the "tree" and "plant" parts of her name. Not that he thought "Greer" was a bad name, and if he did he would never be the person to say it, "Holly Thistle of the Hollywood Thistles" just sounded so much smoother. "It definately fits you well," Nathaniel continued, "And it fits together too! Not many names fit together that well," which was why his mother changed her name as a teenager. Of course, she had kept it, because Leon had nothing to do with the sky. Though, on bills she put her "given name". "I don't think my name fits together very musically," he added, thinking. "Nathaniel Leon sounds like it has the 'ee' sound at the wrong spots, or with the wrong consonants. And the 'l' at the end and the 'l' at the beginning merge too fast."

Nathaniel nodded, almost serious, as if he was considering the meaning of the universe in the letters of his name. But his face broke into a bright smile afterwards, no smile ever gone from Nathaniel's face for very long. "Greer isn't very bad either, Thistle just has a better ring. Is it your mother's name? Since... Greer is your father's?" he asked, slightly curious. He guessed that her parents "weren't together" anymore. He only knew a few other kids like that, but their names were normally their father's.

After his last try with his spell, Nathaniel's attention turned to Holly, who had picked up her wand once more. His hands brushed down his wrinkled robes nervously as she tried the spell she hadn't wanted to perform before. He grinned over at the back of the other boy's head (Nate-Danny?) as Holly made his notebook twitch. When the boy's hand slammed down on the notebook and turned around, Nathaniel turned his own burning face away, feeling bad for the quiet giggles that escaped the confines of his mouth. Hand over his mouth, Nathaniel looked back at Holly. His hands moved to the sides of his face, hoping to cool himself down from embarrassment of being "caught".

Nathaniel nodded at Holly at the mention of siblings. His voice still having the effects from his previous second of laughter, spiced up with merriment, he answered properly, "I have two sisters. Star and Lucy, Star's in college right now studying music. And Lucy's two, she likes wind chimes and beating on pots and pans," he smiled, not bothering to explain why Star's name was "Star" and not more "normal" than Nathaniel and Lucy's (nor did he give Star's full name, which she was often embarrassed with). It wasn't important.

Not wanting to get into the life of his sisters (which would then snowball into his parents, then him, and perhaps his friends at home would be next?), he returned the question to Holly. "Is Daniel your only sibling?" he asked with some interest. Nathaniel's hands found his wand next, and the boy fiddled with it while listening to the older girl.

0 Nathaniel Huh? I don't see it. 0 Nathaniel 0 5

Holly Greer

December 04, 2008 4:35 PM

Trust me, it's there. by Holly Greer

Holly nodded in complete agreement as Nathaniel commented on how well her chosen surname fit both her and her first name. While she no longer verbally included the Princess that had once preceded her full name (Princess Holly Greer sounded ridiculous, which is what had precipitated her name change in the first place, back when she'd only been ten), she thought 'of the Hollywood Thistles' held much the same regal sound to it and fit the name just as perfectly.

She took his words as an ultimate compliment, and as strange a little boy as he was, she found herself inexplicably liking him more and more. Well, he sort of shared a name with her brother. Maybe that explained it.

She found herself thinking about what surname might sound good with 'Nathaniel' as he explained the shortcomings of his own given name and couldn't help but agree with him on the 'ee' sounds and the two Ls. She'd give it some consideration later, when she was trying to fall asleep without thinking about History of Magic. Unfortunately, 'Nathaniel' was more a name than a word, which made it a little more difficult.

"No," Holly answered when he asked if Thistle was her mother's name. Three years ago, the question would have surprised her, but three years ago, she'd thought the whole world knew who her mother was. With most of her Sonora friends being pureblood witches, she no longer held that misconception. She had needed limited 'the world' to Hollywood and the movie watching muggle populace. She assumed since Nathaniel didn't watch TV, he didn't watch many movies either.

Plus, Ms. Yuma had also asked if Thistle was her mother's name last year, so the question wasn't even unprecedented. "My mother's name is Burbridge which, admittedly, is better than Greer, but Holly Burbridge doesn't sound right at all." Not least because her mother hadn't had primary, or even split, custody of her since before Holly could remember. "Thistle works the best. That's why I picked it out of all of the words and names in the English language." She was quite rightly proud of her choice.

Later, after he'd answered her question about siblings (after hearing some of the names other movie stars had saddled some of her classmates at North Hollywood Academy with and after she herself had avoid a full name of 'Hollywood Greer' only because it sounded too masculine, Holly thought nothing of 'Star' - she just assumed his parents learned their lesson after Nathaniel's older sister came home crying one too many times, by 'Lucy' they'd apparently gotten a handle on picking good names for their children), Holly put her wand down and answered his.

"I have two brothers on my mom's side. Luke is in High School. Lucas George," she added, giving her older brother's first and middle name with a roll of her eyes, so Nathaniel could understand how bad her mom had been at naming children initially, too. Of course, if he didn't watch movies, he might not get it. "And Danny's named after his Dad." She nodded to the brother who was sitting in front of her. It wasn't the most original naming convention in the world, but at least it got Danny out of anything truly horrendous. Danny Nash was even kind of fun to say. Except he wanted to go by Daniel now. "His Dad goes by Dan Nash, which has the same last and first consonant thing as your name, but it seems to work for him," she added as an aside. "Maybe the problem is that your last name is two syllables."

"Anyways, on my dad's side, I have a little sister, Molly, who's in first - no, second? Second grade? Oh, gosh, she's getting old." It was maybe, maybe, possible that Molly was old enough to play with Holly's Barbies now.

Returning to the issue of names, Holly rolled her eyes and added, "Dad thought it would be cute if our names rhymed. Another good reason to use Thistle. Molly Greer and Holly Greer are really easy for people to confuse. Thank Merlin he didn't have any more daughters or there would be a Polly Greer and a Dolly Greer, too."

"And Luke has a some more half-siblings on his dad's side - I'm pretty sure one of his step-moms even lasted long enough to have two - but I don't really know them and only ever met them at his birthday parties, before I came here, and I'm not entirely sure which ones were cousins and which were siblings." Luke's dad had been married nearly as many times as Mom, but surely those unfamiliar kids at the family party couldn't have all been half-siblings. Luke had two uncles and an aunt who must have contributed.

"Danny just has me and Luke. His dad never remarried." She gave the back of Danny's head a sad pitying look. In some ways, she thought that was almost worse than Mom's constant marriages and divorces. Mom was at least trying to find The One. "I was the lucky one. Daddy's been married to Courtney - Molly's mom - since I was three."

1 Holly Greer Trust me, it's there. 123 Holly Greer 0 5

Sophia

December 05, 2008 6:07 PM

So it seems. And in more ways that one! by Sophia

OOC: In other words, sorry about the delay! BIC:

"True," Sophia said, stifling a sigh. She thought of mentioning that she was a second year, and thus didn't have to do the first spell, but didn't see the point. So she composedly sat there for a moment, visualising what she wanted to happen, and thinking about everything she knew about the theory of the levitating charm.

She moved a piece of paper over so that it was right in the middle of the desk and pointed her wand at it.

"Wingardium Leviosa," she cast, giving her wand the proscribed swish and flick as she did so. She carefully didn't look at Aeon as the paper fluttered ever so slightly, but certainly didn't leave the desk. She took a small breath and simply cast the spell again. This time, a corner definitely left the desk, but that was it. Sophia's eyes fluttered closed for three seconds, and then, composed once more she turned to the boy.

"Your turn," she said with a false brightness.

39 Sophia So it seems. And in more ways that one! 0 Sophia 0 5

Aeon

December 06, 2008 5:33 PM

More? Where!?! by Aeon

Aeon sat back as Sophia begrudgingly accepted the fact that she needed to do the spell. He also sat quietly as she prepared to try the spell. When it was time for her to try the spell, he paid close attention to what she was doing. What was unexpected to him, the first time she tried the spell, the paper didn't move. She did it a second time, and he believed it twitched slightly. After the second time, she gave up and looked at him.

"Your Turn." she said.

"You sure you don't want to try again?" he asked. He wasn't sure it was a good thing to just skip a spell if you couldn't do it. "If you want, I could help ya'."

He thought that if she felt more comfortable with trying the spells, then maybe she could do better and not have as much stress on her.

0 Aeon More? Where!?! 0 Aeon 0 5

Kendra

December 06, 2008 9:08 PM

I feel confusion, particularly becuase that is what i said. by Kendra

*End of title: ...and I now do not know what to say.*

Kendra smiled at the joke, or what she hoped to be a joke, and listened as he introduced himself as Juri of Aladren.

"Hello. Again." She said before realizing she had already said hello, and must sound like a complete idiot. She felt some blood rushing to her cheeks, so she took two very quick and silent deep breaths to cool her face. She looked over at Juri again and smiled and let out a deep breath before looking back at her bobby-pin and preparing to start the spell. She pointed her wand, lacewood with hawk feather, and said the incantation. One end of her bobby-pin floated into the air, leaving the other still quite on the table, before falling back down. She sighed and stared at the bobby-pin, somehow thinking that if she started at it long enough, sternly enough, it would feel composed to levitate into the air.

She was broken from her staring contest when Juri said she had cool ink and if she had any other colors.

"Uh... Yeah. I have black and blue, but i don’t like using it. And I have hot pink, neon orange, ice blue, neon green, and purple. I like the different colors of ink." she said. "And of course silver. It's my favorite."

She then watched as Juri tried the spell. He didn't have any success, just like her. She smiled, happy that she didn't have to feel like a stupid person who couldn't get the simplest spells down. She instantly felt bad for the thought and decided to not think like that. She was about to try the spell again when Juri spoke up.

"So, how do you like Sonora so far?” he asked.

How did she like Sonora? It was nice. She loved her friends; she had even already known Aeon. How was he doing? She looked over to see him mastering the spell. His piece of paper was floating up in the air. He was lucky. She'd have to talk to him soon. Back to Sonora. She liked it. Her teachers were fun, and she liked her classes. They were okay.

"Well, I like it. My friends are cool. And the classes aren’t that bad. I love learning the magic, but History of Magic bores me. What about you? I feel like I'm talking a lot. Bu-. Sorry. Go ahead."

0 Kendra I feel confusion, particularly becuase that is what i said. 0 Kendra 0 5

Nathaniel

December 09, 2008 5:40 PM

worried Is it bad opposite or good opposite? by Nathaniel

Nathaniel felt hints of pride bubble up when she acknowledged that his inspection of her name was correct. Grinning madly, Nathaniel rested his cheeks in his hands, and the boy’s legs kicked briefly, wonderful. He liked talking to Holly with her interesting name and her seeming interest in what he was saying about her name. For some reason, Nathaniel always caught himself up in peoples’ names, especially how they fit together. It wasn’t even something that important to other people, but he liked it. Picking up his wand once more, Nathaniel retried the spell, using it as a lapse to get his thoughts in order.

“Wingardium Leviosa.” Swish. Flick. The paper floated up and Nathaniel found it getting higher.

Names were very important, Nathaniel liked to think, and very personal. If your name doesn’t fit you, he thought, then you had every right to change it. Which is why when Holly admitted that Thistle wasn’t her mother’s name, he simply nodded and marveled at her ability to find a word that fit so nicely into a name. He’d always imagined what he could call himself, unfortunately nothing fit. He wanted to keep Nathaniel, it was a nice name, four syllables that fit together (just not together with “Leon”). Nathaniel was what he called himself, and he didn’t like nicknames much (they just weren’t the real… or ‘given’ name).

The paper dropped when she snapped him from his thoughts with the name of Burbridge. He looked over at her, slightly puzzles. Burbridge sounded slightly more familiar than Daniel Nash did, and Nathaniel couldn’t place why. He watched movies only at night with nothing else to do, and he never placed the actors’ names with faces, but sometimes the names would stick if his friends repeated it a number of times. He shook his head though, trying not to be disapproving of the surname with her prename but his face still took it on a little. Good thing she’d already admitted to disliking how it fit, he really didn’t want to look insulting. “No,” he said simply, “You’re right, Thistle is best. It’s perfect,” he reiterated with a nod.

She was so lucky she found a perfect name. Leon, Leon, it just sounded thick on his tongue, even without his prename. It also sounded distantly like the word “Lion”, and Nathaniel didn’t like that (not that he didn’t like lions, he was taught to love all animals), if one looked at him he knew “lion” wasn’t going to be the first thing to come to mind. “My mom named Star,” he clarified, “Well, actually Star named herself Star, mom gave her two names and one of them just could be cut off to Star. Dad named Lucy and me, he didn’t like Star even though his band was called ‘Sounds of Starlight’,” Nathaniel shrugged.

“Lucas George,” Nathaniel commented, the name ringing a bell in a weird sort of way as he scrunched up his face trying to think of why it was familiar. “It sounds… backwards,” he admitted, but he wasn’t sure why.

She mentioned the problem with Nathaniel’s last name, and he nodded, taking that into account. “More like the four syllables then the two,” he pieced it together, “It doesn’t seem to fit.” Ho-lly This-tle, both hers were two but they fit, and now the problem was placed on his favored first name. Na-than Le-on was two and two, but he wouldn’t change his name to Nathan, that defeated the whole ‘I like the name Nathaniel’ business. “Maybe I should make my last name longer?” he thought aloud, then wrinkled his nose when Le-on-ar-do interrupted his thoughts. Never mind.

He laughed along with the rhyming names idea, making it a note in his mind not to name his children rhyming names. Before, he’d found it kind of cute, and interesting, but the way Holly talked about it made it seem less of an enjoyable thought. Probably like Star’s name, it sounded cool and unique but when you actually met someone named Star you kind of wanted to ask if it was a joke.

Nathaniel then went to trying to make sense of the differently structured family. “So, Lucas and Daniel are your mother’s children, and Lucas has lots of other siblings on his dad’s side but Daniel only has you,” he reiterated, “And then your dad’s side is your sister Molly,” he grinned again at the name issue, “And Molly only has you for a sister.” Nathaniel’s eyebrows rose in surprise, “Wow, that’s some big family tree, adding on all the moms and dads and such.” He only had four, seemingly small now that he compared it to Holly’s family.

0 Nathaniel *worried* Is it bad opposite or good opposite? 0 Nathaniel 0 5

Gray

December 10, 2008 10:56 PM

And then straight on to....Somewhere! by Gray

Gray thought about what Lucie's response. If he'd ever sat next to anyone intentionally, she would've had a point. As it was, he didn't, because he figured everyone already had someone in mind to sit next to and would be annoyed if his sitting down messed with that, which would be bad if there was partnerwork to be done. However, he'd also figured out that all of that wasn't something he was supposed to speak out loud about, so he was back to the beginning, where she had a point.

"True," he said with a half-grin. He noted, with a degree of worry, that Lucie was playing with her hair. When Anne did that, she was feeling very, very stressed out instead of her usual very stressed, and she sometimes blew things up without meaning to. He couldn't think of anything that had happened in the past minute to make Lucie stressed or anxious, but she, like Anne, was a girl. Merlin only knew what went on in their heads half the time.

Since nothing blew up, though, and Lucie didn't start going on about how much she had to do and didn't he know that she couldn't do everything and she had to do everything because everyone else was incompetent, Gray finally decided that it was safe to proceed with the spells and conversation. "Kind of," he admitted when she asked if he missed living with so many relatives. "Grandma's a, uh, a better cook than Mom or Dad, and Alicia - that's one of my, my aunts - was - is - a lot of fun."

Having room was nice - he understood about how grown-up men had to take care of their old mothers and unmarried sisters and all, but since John and Anne had been added to the mix, things had been a little too crowded - but he missed the family more than he intended to say. They still saw his aunts and Grandma at least once a week, but it was still as if everyone had suddenly dropped dead the rest of the time.

"September eighteenth," Gray said when she asked about his birthday. "I got most of my books shelved and the, uh, the model theater up before I had to come back." Since he had, at some point, realized the Dupree family was rich, he did not mention that there wasn't much else. He wasn't ashamed of his family's circumstances, but he could still remember how culture-shocked Anne had seemed when she first came to California. He didn't want to make Lucie uncomfortable.

Gray almost dropped his wand when Lucie mentioned why she hadn't been burdened with her brother and sister over the summer. Betrothed? People actually still did that? He'd heard of it in books and programs, and Anne said her mother had meant for her to marry her jerk friend, but he hadn't thought she was being serious or that what went on in books really happened. Gray knew he pretty much had to get married someday - there had to be an heir, who had to have a sister - but 'someday' was vague enough for him to put off getting engaged now.

Since he doubted any comment he had to make would come out right or be appreciated if it did, though, and fumbling to keep his grip on his wand had reminded Gray of what he was supposed to be doing, he followed Lucie in trying again to make his quill hover. This time, he took great care to get the incantation out clearly, and he put more effort into a smooth wand movement, and it paid off: the quill rose to a few inches above his desk. He figured making spells do the things they were supposed to do would get easier as he got reaccustomed to practicing magic on a daily basis.

He looked up again at Lucie's question. "Paris?" Well, that was what she'd said. "Uh - no, never been to Paris. I can't read French." He realized he'd lumped together Lucie's main points, which was bad. Not reading French did not logically follow from having never been to Paris. Better just to move on as if he hadn't done it. "I'm going to one day, though - I mean go to Paris, I don't know if I'll ever learn to read French." He wasn't making it better. "I might do that, too, though. It would be neat to be bilingual. I could translate books or something."

If he couldn't be a novelist, that would be a dream career. He'd get paid for being a bookworm, which sounded an awful lot better than getting odd and frustrated looks from about half the family. His dad had never said anything, but Gray was fairly sure that Grayson would have liked his only son to play Quidditch instead of trivia games. That was why Gray stuck with his mother, who had said, and often, that she considered education the most important thing Gray could possibly pursue.

"Yeah," he said when asked if he'd gotten anything new and assuming she meant for his birthday. "Mostly books, but my mom finished another quilt and a scarf for when the charms make it cool down here." Gray made a face, half a grimace, half-amused. "My cousin bought me Quidditch Through the Ages." He felt no need to explain why that present was worthy of comment; it was no secret that he lacked any and all semblance of good coordination. "She said it's because it's historical."

16 Gray And then straight on to....Somewhere! 113 Gray 0 5

Holly

December 15, 2008 10:30 PM

Can it be neutral? by Holly

While Holly remained oblivious to Nathaniel's show of recognition on her mom's surname, when he said Lucas's name sounded backwards, she grinned a little at him. So he wasn't entirely ignorant of what her hometown produced.

"George Lucas created Star Wars and Indiana Jones," she explained. "Luke was named after him. Well, mostly him, but a little bit after the main character in the first three Star Wars movies, Luke Skywalker, too. I mean, his last name is Walker. You can't go around with a name like Luke Walker without people noticing that similarity, even if you didn't know his middle name was George. Luke got the worst name of all of us. Even Greer isn't that bad, by comparison."

At Nathaniel's thought that the problem with his name was that his last name was too short, Holly nodded immediately. "Yeah, that makes sense," she agreed. "Last names don't balance well if they're much shorter than the first name. I mean, take Danny's name. Daniel Nash. I draw out the a in Nash to make it sound longer, but if I say his Dad's name, it's Dan Nash, and I say Nash a lot quicker. Is there a prefix you like that you can put on the front of Leon so you can make it longer and break up the two Ls? Maybe hyphenate it with something? What's your mom's maiden name?"

When he asked for clarification on the intricacies of her family tree, Holly nodded along and only had to make one correction. "Yeah, but Daniel's got Luke, too. All three of us have the same Mom. Danny actually sees Luke more than I do, since he's with Mom every other two weeks while me and Luke have opposite weekends for visiting her and live mostly with our dads. Luke's the one with the really confusing family since both of his parents were remarried loads of times. Me and Danny both have really simple dad-sides. And Molly's got it the easiest since doesn't even have mom-sides and dad-sides."

1 Holly Can it be neutral? 123 Holly 0 5

Charlotte

December 18, 2008 6:49 AM

That's coz you act like a kid by Charlotte

The person Charlie chose to ask for help claimed not to know much more than her - though he did have some suggestion, and it sounded familiar so Charlie thought he was probably right. He was a bit crazy, if first impressions were worth anything. He was called Mike, and claimed to be disreputable. Though from what Oliver had said, Pecaris weren't always that bad - he played soccer with them at school and went off to play Quidditch every summer with a group of friends who were mostly Pecaris. Charlie shrugged it off and focused on the name part.

"Hello, Mike," she said with a smile. "I'm Charlie and I'm one of those reputable Crotalus...es." This house thing was odd - they had houses at her last school, of course, but never really paid much attention to it. Whereas here your house was pretty much your friendship and support network, and your flat mates to boot. Rather secular if Charlie thought about it too much. "And what's a noona?"

"'Kay, so we're making things float, yeah?" Charlie was gaining enthusiasm now; she was confident they were supposed to be doing that wing-thingy spell. The textbook - brand new and shiny - was already on her desk, so she flipped to the index and was delighted to find the right spell under W. "Hey, I got it here. Win-guard-ium le-vio-sa" she read out carefully. Keeping her book open for reference she picked up her wand and was overcome with sudden, yet not entirely unexpected, waves of doubt. Could she really do magic spells like the teacher up the front of the class?

"So do you want to try it first?" she asked Mike.

0 Charlotte That's coz you act like a kid 0 Charlotte 0 5

Nathaniel

December 27, 2008 12:58 PM

Oh, but that's so confusing by Nathaniel

Nathaniel nodded dumbly when he heard Star Wars and Indiana Jones, the names sounded familiar as well but he didn’t believe he’d actually seen either of these things in full. Maybe the posters that went up around buildings and movies stores and such? Still, he found himself laughing a little when she stated that her brother got the worst name of the bunch because it’s ability to be recognized. Luke Walker had its own odd sound to it, but Nathaniel didn’t comment on that, he didn’t think that was what Holly meant.

Nathaniel just wasn’t very caught up on the intricacies of his own world, he guessed, there were things that not everyone would know. He wondered if he should be spending more time learning about his own world instead of diving right into the Magical world without a second thought. It might make things more clear.

She commented on his comment about the length of the names, and he didn’t think about her brother’s name, only of what she was saying. “That makes sense, whenever I say my last name I think that I should hold out the ‘ee’ sound to match.” She asked about his mother’s maiden name, and then Nathaniel had to think. She dropped her real middle name before she even thought of getting married, when signing things that were unimportant but required a ‘real name’, Skye used weird things. “Lane, that’s the one she uses most often,” he wrinkled his nose. “Nathaniel Lane-Leon, I don’t think that’s going to work.” He laughed, and repeated the name, then continued on with others. “Nathaniel DuMonte-Leon? Nathaniel Le-on-ar-do?” The syllables on Leonardo were spoken slowly.

“I think I’ll stick with an imperfect name unless something genius hits me,” he said, shaking his head. His fingers touched his chin as he listened to Holly go on about her family, nodding every second or so. Blushing slightly when he realized he’d forgotten Luke in the mom’s side business. He frowned when she finished, and allowed himself the last question. “Why did all those people marry each other if they didn’t want to stay together, and were just going to go off and get married to someone else anyway?” he asked, thinking this a perfectly legitimate question to ask. He didn’t see the point in saying you would stay together when you wouldn’t.

0 Nathaniel Oh, but that's so confusing 0 Nathaniel 0 5

Quentin Melcher

December 29, 2008 3:48 AM

Questions of course,(Tag Professor) by Quentin Melcher

Quentin settled into a seat in the front row for his first Charms class. He couldn't help wonder why the class was called Beginning Charms when the second and third years were there. They were not really beginners, they had already began doing Charms last term. As for the woman at the front, Professor Taylor actually being their teacher this year, that remained to be seen. After Mr. Flatt had failed to be an actual teacher, Quentin was highly suspicious of any of the faculty calling themselves so until they proved it.

He glanced over the syllabus that had to be signed before the class could go on. First off, it said that there would be no name calling based on race, religion, ethnicity, blood purity or ability on this class. This brought many questions about which Quentin would surely ask when the woman finished talking. The second was about dangerous behavior, naming running around and dramatic or careless use of wands. He had slightly fewer questions about this but still some. As for the third part of it, Quentin would probably not be likely to bring food or drink and wouldn't have them even if specified by Ms. Taylor if she did not prove to actually be a teacher, given that it said specified by the teacher. Furthermore, even if she did prove to be a teacher, she had not specified which teacher. Plus, the teacher made it sound as if there were actually only one teacher at Sonora.

She began the lesson, even though Quentin had yet to sign his syllabus (he wasn't signing until he had all his questions answered) and suddenly was assured that Professor Taylor was indeed a professor, albeit a fairly contradictory one, as she instructed them on moving charms. Quentin had to wonder why she would only skin the second years for trying summoning things. The third years were encouraged and the first years forbidden, but why would the second years be skinned?

However, before Quentin would try any of the moving charms, he had to ask about the syllabus. He walked up to Professor Taylor's desk and fired off his inquiries. "The syllabus says we can't call students names based on those things mention. What about based on other things? What are we supposed to call them? Can we call them by their proper names given by their parents or whomever named them? Those are names and it says no name calling."

Quentin paused to take a breath and then went on "It also says no tolerance but you didn't say if there would be acceptance or if it was expressly forbidden. What about descriptions based on such things? Those aren't names. Also, why is it only the second years will be skinned alive and punished more severely than a first year who tried the Summoning charm? Do you especially dislike the second years for some reason? Skinning alive would be fairly dangerous behavior because you could accidently hurt someone else too. It's also pretty dangerous for said person being skinned. And what if the charm being taught is dangerous? Then we'd have to use dangerous behavior. Would it be tolerated then? Or accepted?" Once she answered Quentin's questions, then he would sign the syllabus.

11 Quentin Melcher Questions of course,(Tag Professor) 129 Quentin Melcher 0 5

Mike

December 31, 2008 2:42 AM

Excellent, then I'm already a success. by Mike

"Ha! Reputable- I like that." Mike grinned easily, deciding on the spot that this so-called reputable Charlie was okay. Her question, though, brought him a bit short. He had forgotten that his change in locale had also brought about a change in common vernacular. The phrasings that he was so used to employing around his fellow second and third generation friends- his neighbors and school chums- would only translate as strange and foreign when spoken here. Key Largo, while still a part of the United States, was made up of such a rich gathering of different cultures and languages and backgrounds that one easily forgot that beyond its small circumference, the rest of the country would have no idea what he meant if he mentioned such words.

"My family's from Korea," he began by way of explanation, "and where we live in Florida, we have a lot of other Koreans and Asians living around us. You use 'noona' when talking to another girl; it kinda means something like 'sister' or 'cousin.' If you go by it strictly. I don't even think about it really when I use it, so I hardly notice. It's nothing bad, though," he thought to add as a reassurance. "Just a habit, I guess."

The reminder that their class included a text book drew Mike's attention to his unopened schoolbag, his text book having only been opened long enough the night before to scrawl his name across the inside flap. He quickly found the same spot in the book that mentioned the lesson's discussed spells, and immediately, he zoomed in on the description. His eyes widened in appreciation; so his first real bit of magic would entail learning how to lift something. He could already imagine several different scenarios in which he could cause his sister extreme annoyance by sending something afloat.

"Me first?" he clarified, a touch surprised. He shrugged, though, after a moment of consideration. "Why not? I can be our guinea pig." His confident tones only just masked a sudden rise of performance anxiety. He tried mirroring the page's descriptions of the movements with his wrist, not yet ready to trust it with his wand. From across the classroom, he caught sight of his sister's success with the spell, and it was enough to push away his qualms. Heck, if Euna could do it, then it ought to be a breeze for him. "Here goes then: Wingard-ium Lev-iosa!" His wrist bent and flicked in the desired movements, and the strap of his book-bag shot up, dragging beneath it the contents of his bag. The bag remained off the ground a total of two seconds before plummeting ground-wards with a resounding smack.

Mike barely noticed the brevity of the spell, though. His entire focus rested on his wrist and hand, which still clung to his wand. It was undeniable; the spell, however short lived, had spun his skin and blood into a feeling not unlike static electricity before it's passed along. The urge to let loose with a hearty cheer was quelled only by the subconscious recognition that such an act would be certain to draw the undue and unwanted attentions of his professor.

Besides, he needed to get the charm under wraps as it was. A second and third and probably one-hundredth attempt wouldn't be out of the question.

"Reckon that as fair to middling? Still, not too awful for a first attempt." Mike pushed his bag aside with his foot, deciding that its flying days were over. He withdrew a pen from his back pocket to replace it. "Want it to give it a go with a pen then?"

0 Mike Excellent, then I'm already a success. 0 Mike 0 5

Charlie

January 08, 2009 1:22 PM

You have succeeded at failing by Charlie

Charlie liked this Mike person. She'd never known any Koreans before, that she was aware of. They had a lot of Japanese business men stay at the hotel, but she couldn't recall meeting many other Asians. Her school had mostly been Latino Americans, like her own family. "I like the word," she said, "but I don't think you should be calling me noona if it means sister," Charlie winked. She was an impossible flirt, but then she'd just broken up with her third real boyfriend, so she was obviously good at what she did.

Watching Mike do the spell was quite impressive. He managed to make his whole school bag float, even if just for a little while. "Hey, that was really good," Charlie told him with a beaming smile. Though the expression faltered when it was suggested she take a go.

"I suppose I should," she said, her nervousness fairly tangible by this stage. "Okay." Charlie placed her quill (a real quill - that was so retro!) in the center of her desk. She re-read and mimed the spell once more before taking a deep breath. "Promise you won't laugh? Here goes. Wingardium leviosa!"

The quill twitched a bit, hovered maybe hlaf an inch for all of half a second, then fell gently onto the desk again. A pathetic first try, particularly if compared to Mike's bag, but Charlie couldn't help but be proud. "I did magic!" she exclaimed, her voice higher than usual. "I can do real magic spells. Okay it sucked," she laughed, "but it's a start. Go on, you have a go with the quill," she urged Mike with a smile. "Bet you can do it really well this time."

0 Charlie You have succeeded at failing 0 Charlie 0 5

Professor Lorraine Taylor

Beginning Charms, Class I [Years I -- III] by Professor Lorraine Taylor

Miles Turner

I command thee paper to fly! by Miles Turner

Daniel Nash II (and a little Holly Greer)

I don't think it works quite like that by Daniel Nash II (and a little Holly Greer)

Holly Greer

Sharing a class with my brother by Holly Greer

Ethan and Elliot Valentine

Two heads are not better than one by Ethan and Elliot Valentine

Miles Turner

Whatever you say, Nate by Miles Turner

Benvolio Dramulan

My first spell! by Benvolio Dramulan

Benvolio

OOC: Oh no, I was typing my post while you posted yours. -.- (nm by Benvolio

Daniel

I'll try to join them up by Daniel

Indy Choudhry

But are more entertaining, hopefully. by Indy Choudhry

Eun Ae Song

Practise makes perfect. by Eun Ae Song

Aeon Coure

Slight intimidation, but I'll manage. by Aeon Coure

Laurie Cider

Some lessons ought to have padded rooms. by Laurie Cider

James Anthony

Always my motto by James Anthony

Nathaniel Leon

I don't have one of those! by Nathaniel Leon

Holly

I, sadly, have two. by Holly

Nathaniel

Mine are of the other gender by Nathaniel

Holly

I have one of those, too, but on my dad's side. by Holly

Adelita Garcia [Crotalus]

I get to make things fly?!?! by Adelita Garcia [Crotalus]

Juri Dahlgren

When fantasy becomes reality by Juri Dahlgren

Alexis Ashwood (Crotalus)

Klutz! by Alexis Ashwood (Crotalus)

Dannny

OOC: In the off chance... by Dannny

Deepa Rajaram

High up in the sky? ...Oh dear. by Deepa Rajaram

Adelita

Do you not enjoy flying? by Adelita

Sophia Xuereb

*blinks* Was that english? by Sophia Xuereb

Grayson Wright

Keeping everything moving...or not. by Grayson Wright

Nathaniel

Aw, and I thought we were opposites! by Nathaniel

Lucie Dupree

Maybe just in the wrong direction by Lucie Dupree

Ethan and Elliot

Definitely more entertaining by Ethan and Elliot

Aeon.

Uh..It was East English. by Aeon.

Sophia

East American English? Odd... by Sophia

Aeon

It's basically East coast. New York. by Aeon

Kendra Paully

Wow, reality sure is amazing! by Kendra Paully

Sophia

Ok. I was just wondering. by Sophia

Aeon

wondering is good. by Aeon

Sophia

As is wandering. by Sophia

Gray

Any ideas for getting back to the right one? by Gray

Eun Ae

You'd think you're an Aladren or something. by Eun Ae

Laurie

This is true. IRL, too. by Laurie

Aeon

Wondering turns to wandering? by Aeon

blinks Was that english? by Sophia Xuereb