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
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
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
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
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
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
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
