Create your own? How fascinating. on Charms

Professor Aaron McKindy

February 05, 2010 2:02 PM

Charms Club [Open to All] by Professor Aaron McKindy

It was a relatively warm Sunday afternoon in late January, and Aaron had Flooed in a few hours earlier than he would have normally in the interest of preparing for the first Charms Club meeting of the new year. Charms Club had originally been the brainchild of Josiah Ashwood in Aaron’s first year of teaching, but it seemed that since then, the student’s interest in it had disappeared. Aaron was unsure whether that was the result of the acquisition of new interests or the result of a waning interest in the class resultant of his predecessor, but regardless, Josiah had not approached him with the idea of resuscitating the club in the first half of the year.

Over the break, Aaron had Flooed in and out of Sonora but had spent most of his time at home with Garen. During one of his visits, he had popped in to Sadi’s office and asked if she would mind him starting Charms Club up again. She said she wouldn’t, so he had distributed flyers to be placed on the bulletin board in each of the Commons.

The man looked over his room with a small smile of satisfaction. The desks had been placed in an open circle with a substantial amount of free space in and around them. On Aaron’s newly clean desk, there was an assortment of different foods. The Italian had opted to make sugar cookies last night, as well as bringing in a general amalgamation of the popular wizarding candies. The cookies were shaped like iguanas, and Aaron had also Charmed them to wink. He had also left a dozen of them on the counter for Garen that morning.

The professor walked over to the heavy oak door and propped it open with a well-placed charm. He was getting better with left-handed wandwork, but it still felt awkward. But that might have been the new wand as well. Either way, Aaron contented himself with conjuring a warm cup of tea and leaning against his desk as the students began to filter into his room, ready for the Club. He greeted them as they came in, mostly by name, and chatting with a few about break. After about ten minutes, Aaron got their attention and began the explanatory part of the lesson.

“Welcome back,” he began, grey-green eyes taking count of those present. It looked like a fairly mixed group, which was promising. “This isn’t going to be a formal lesson or anything like that, so feel free to jump up and grab more licorice wands whenever you’d like. Charms Club is just a place for all of you to learn some more charms that aren’t necessarily covered in our curriculum, but can be useful for everyday life. Or pranks,” Aaron added with a touch of amusement. There was a reason he was the Pecari Head of House, after all.

“Today, just as a quick introduction, I was going to introduce you to some do-it-yourself charms,” he continued. “Generally, it’s a bad idea to experiment with charms creation unless you have a considerable background in magical theory and defunct languages, but there are some exceptions. Mobility spells are among these exceptions. Mobilius,” the Italian said, flicking the wand in his left hand at a vacant desk. It followed the tip of Aaron’s wand as he moved it back and forth, up and down, then set it back on the ground.

“For the most part, that works for crude movements, but it also requires you to concentrate on what exactly you want to move. But if you want to move something really specific without paying as much attention, it’s best to use a spell that is more specific. By tacking ‘mobili’ onto the Latin equivalent of the object you want to move, you should be able to move things with less effort. I have a collection of Latin dictionaries on the bookshelf in the back—go ahead and grab one, if you’d like. Other than that,” Aaron shrugged and gestured at the food next to him. “There’s food, there’s people, do whatever you want. Please ask before blowing up my classroom, though. I’m not sure how kindly the Headmistress would take to that, and I’d rather not have to piece it back together when we’re done.”

With that, Aaron helped himself to one of his cookies. He wasn’t particularly worried about this batch of kids. After all, they did want to learn charms for fun. Instead, he smiled as the students clumped together in groups and started to figure out the spells they wanted to use, then seated himself atop a free desk and Summoned his Dictation Quill, set it on the parchment on the desk next to him, and began drafting lesson plans.

|OOC| Tag me if you need me, but this isn’t a class so just have fun and follow the site rules. ;)

Subthreads:

Attending, and here to assist by Elly Eriksson with Demelza Eagle, Elly

Create your own? How fascinating. by James Anthony with Marissa Stephenson

Pretty women, YES!, Pretty women by Seamus McFarlin

0 Professor Aaron McKindy Charms Club [Open to All] 0 Professor Aaron McKindy 1 5

Elly Eriksson

February 05, 2010 4:35 PM

Attending, and here to assist by Elly Eriksson

At Josiah's request five years ago now, Elly had helped her friend to run the charms club, always assisting the younger students who were having trouble with the more basic spells (the club was open to all years, so difficulty levels of the charms could vary considerably). Though as Josiah seemed to lack time or interest to maintain the club over the past couple of years, Elly had her own concerns with Quidditch and prefect duties, and she had let the charms club become exitinct. Or so she'd thought. She had also thought that Professor McKindy had left them for good, but when he returned at the start of the year, it was no surprise to the seventh year that charms club would be re-established.

It was an exciting prospect, and so it was with a joyful bound that the Head Girl made her way a little early to the charms classroom, where she greeted her Head of House with a familiar wave. She assured McKindy she'd continue to help out with any students who were struggling, particularly first years, and chatted a short while about her winter in Austria, and a little about her adventures on the Oregon Trail in summer. She had a winking iguana cookie.

When the other students arrived, Elly couldn't help grinning at her Professor's encouragement in them using charms for pranks. Elly had been doing so for years, and was currently planning something pretty spectaular for the ball - her final term at Sonora, and her final prank. It was going to be even better than the fireworks last year, even better than the inhibition inhibitor the term before that, and yes, even better than the singing potatoes. She was convinced the faculty had started to suspect her, along with Irene and possibly Caedence, too, who both often helped out when needed, but she'd managed to get this far without detention. There were only a few months left to go - she could last that long without being unceremoniously ejected from the school grounds. As long as she graduated, she was going out with a bang.

As the students set to work, Elly kept an eye out for any of the teenier kids who might need some help. A seventh year and more than usually tall for her age, Elly had a good view over the classroom, and stuck out as the obvious person to ask for help (the gleaming Head Girl badge did hurt with that, either). "Hey," Elly smiled when she came across someone who looked like they might be struggling. "How's it going?"

0 Elly Eriksson Attending, and here to assist 92 Elly Eriksson 0 5

James Anthony

February 06, 2010 10:59 AM

Create your own? How fascinating. by James Anthony

James Anthony had opted for his usual polo-and-jeans that morning and had anticipated spending his day immersed in his studies. It was only upon overhearing a conversation about the Charms Club in the library that the Aladren had pushed his glasses up his nose and determined that he would see if it was of any use. He did not have great hopes. Although Professor McKindy was a fairly clear teacher who encouraged individual ingenuity in his classes, James did not consider him to be particularly talented at his craft. Of course, James did not consider any of his professors to be of particular talent. If they were, he supposed, they would not be professors.

Upon walking into the room, James noted that there was a very prolific amount of food on the desk, and that McKindy himself leaning against it and chatting with the Head Girl. To be polite, he walked up to the desk and took a cookie. Upon sitting at a desk, the thirteen year old realised that it was winking at him. With a frown, James pointedly bit off its head. While James approved of the use of charms and such in daily life, he most certainly did not appreciate being winked at by something that was created to be eaten.

However, once McKindy began to speak, James could not help but become intrigued. Unlike the man’s usual presentation—here is the spell, do it—this required considerably more attention to detail and would be considerably more useful. Creating one’s own spells was certainly challenging. James had read of it, but had not personally endeavored to create his own. He did not wish to explain to the new Medic why, precisely, there were a pair of tentacles protruding from his forehead or something similarly unpleasant.

“Pardon,” the Aladren asked the person sitting next to him as he stood to collect his dictionary. “would you like me to retrieve a dictionary for you as well?” After all, one should always be polite, particularly to one’s inferiors.

0 James Anthony Create your own? How fascinating. 126 James Anthony 0 5

Demelza Eagle

February 09, 2010 2:37 PM

I'm very fortunate then, aren't I? by Demelza Eagle

Demelz figured that a little help with charms wouldn't hurt. She liked charms class, and had lots of fun casting spells, so a charms club sounded like fun to her! She walked down to the family charms classroom in casual muggle cloths because it wasn't an actual class. Which was good, because she wouldn't be graded for how good or bad she did. If only every class didn't have a grade... Plus, if she was having trouble, she wouldn't have to worry about loosing house points (not that Professor McKindy would do that, anyway). This was a great chance to improve her charms skills!

Since she got there a little early, she grabbed a cute iguana cookie. They were good, too! She didn't know that teachers could cook. But soon Professor McKindy started talking, so she finished the cookie and actually paid attention. Her ADD really wasn't bothering her today.

She liked the mention of pranking. That sounded like loads of fun! When it was time to go off independently, Demelza grabbed her wad with her left hand. She wanted to try out the charm professor McKindy did, so she pointed at a quill and said, "Mobili". But for some reason, it didn't work. She tried it again, but still, same result: nothing. She frowned, but spun around quickly to the person talking to her. She noticed it as her quidditch captain, and smiled at what she asked. "Um well, I can't figure this out... am I saying the spell wrong?" She asked. Good a seventh year should definitely be able to help her!

0 Demelza Eagle I'm very fortunate then, aren't I? 157 Demelza Eagle 0 5

Elly

February 12, 2010 7:46 AM

I like your thinking by Elly

Demelza was shaping up to be a pretty decent Quidditch player, but apparently her charms skills had yet to be developed. Elly could understand - she had been consistently awful in transfigurations unltil she could drop the subject at the end of fifth year. Besides, Professor McKindy probably didn't work Mel as hard in charms class as Elly worked her in Quidditch practises. The competetive streak was missing in school work (unless you happened to be in Aladren, which Demelza was not).

"You're not saying it wrong exactly," Elly replied, perching her behind on one of the desks near them. "You just need to add the name of the object to the end," she grinned. "So what are you trying to move, the quill?" The redhead searched her brain for the Latin equivalent. "Stilus?" she questioned out loud. "I think that's right. So you want to say, Mobili Stilus." Elly didn't demonstrate the spell - she wanted Mel to have a go, first.

"Give that a try, and I'll watch your wand movement just in case," she suggested. Helping out came so easily to Elly; she wondered why she'd let the charms club slip before. This was fun.

0 Elly I like your thinking 0 Elly 0 5

Marissa Stephenson

February 13, 2010 11:33 PM

Potentially useful, too. by Marissa Stephenson

Contrary to her feeble hopes, Professor McKindy's guidance had done little to improve Marissa's even more feeble show in his subject. Marissa didn't blame him for that. Part of her problem might be her learning style not playing nicely with his teaching style, but it was mostly the result of a lack of talent combined with becoming more depressed every time she watched her first year counterpart picking up the same spells Marissa struggled with greater ease than she'd have picking up mail. It was getting harder to recall that it was wrong to hold a grudge just because a classmate had more skill or luck than she did.

She knew the experience was likely to be torturous, but she had finally decided to come to Charms Club for two reasons. One was purely strategic: coming, despite her difficulties, made her look more like an eager student who was willing to work through her problem areas, and as much as Marissa felt awful for even thinking of it, that might make McKindy feel a little more inclined to give her sympathy points the next time he had to grade one of her practical assessments. The other reason, which she felt a lot better about admitting to herself, was that there was a chance of more one-on-one instruction and help than she could really get in the class proper. Any little bit could help.

To combat the 'torturous' part, Marissa helped herself to some of the candies, carefully avoiding the cookies and a few other things she knew or suspected to move. It wasn't natural to eat things that were still moving, and she got kind of sick even nibbling on sugar cookies when they did not wink at her in a way that made her want to put them somewhere safe because they were alive and it wasn't right to eat them. She'd had more or less the same issues with particularly pathetic-looking Animal Crackers before Sonora.

Professor McKindy, as always, came across as unthreatening, though perhaps a bit moreso even than usual. That was good, especially since he was explaining what they were doing. He also offered Marissa a slight ray of hope when he mentioned the usual criteria for spell creation.

There was one thing at Sonora that Marissa could always do and do well, and that was theory. She didn't even think it was going too far to suspect she was the best in her year, as she was already reading theory more complex than what a textbook writer somewhere had deemed proper for her. She'd been exposed to foreign languages since an early age, too; she already spoke French and Spanish, and she'd gotten her mama to promise she could start taking Latin lessons after she turned thirteen. That was a defunct language, and what would the magical world be if there wasn't a career in the spell creation idea somewhere? She could learn Old English too. She'd learn Old Finnish if it meant not being useless forever.

But first things first. They were doing something easy - a sort of spell creation that didn't necessarily require the creator to have a huge amount of theoretical knowledge. If she couldn't do that, she wouldn't have been able to leave first year. Right now, she was sure she could do this. She could do this. Of course.

She looked up from her exited survey of her desk when the boy next to her spoke. Marissa recognized him by process of elimination as the third year Aladren boy she had yet to work with, as his roommates both numbered among her past partners and their years had been put together enough that she knew most people's faces. Maybe now she could learn his name. "I'd appreciate that," she said with a smile. Nothing but utter, crushing failure could ruin her mood right now. "I'm Marissa. I don't think we've met before."

16 Marissa Stephenson Potentially useful, too. 147 Marissa Stephenson 0 5

Seamus McFarlin

February 19, 2010 8:23 AM

Pretty women, YES!, Pretty women by Seamus McFarlin

Seamus was eager to attend the Charms club event for three reasons. First of all, he loved Aaron’s, no strike that, Professor McKindy’s cookies. When the fourth year was home and the Professor was visiting his aunt, he’d sampled the magical winking lizards be the fistfuls. He’d never say it out loud, but the professor could bake cookies almost as well as his grandmother.

Secondly, while Seamus was rather proud of the way his grades were improving and almost up to Aladren standards. Funny how actually doing homework helped one’s marks. He was sailing through potions and CoMC. DADA was coming along fine. Transfiguration was a bit tougher, but he was steadily improving. His one issue was Charms. He couldn’t figure it out. He’d imagination enough and was a willing pupil. The other classes all used wand work to some degree so it wasn’t like he couldn’t cast spells. There just seemed to be this mental block when it came the getting them right in the classroom led by the professor in the bubble hat. So seamus thought a club were the pressure of grades were off, he’d be able to improve a bit.

The third and most important reason was what was happening at the end of the semester. The Spring Ball. Seamus had no steady girl. That was no besmirchment on his Irish charm or his looks. Seamus was not all that vain but he knew that he was a fairly good looking young man. It was just that he was willing to settle down. There was a plethora of pretty girls at Sonora and Seamus wasn’t about to settle down. Flirting was one of his favorite hobbies and if he had a steady girlfriend, he’d have to restrain himself.

The flipside to not having a steady meant that he didn’t have a guaranteed partner for the ball and there was no way he was missing it. He figured that joining the club would give him a great opportunity to get a date. If the girl was good in Charms as well and could help him improve his grades, all the better.

He walked into the classroom, confident that all his goals would be easily met. With a wink to Professor McKindy, Seamus snatched up what he felt was a fair share of the pile of cookies and sat down to listen to the introduction, trying to look seriously interested while munching iguana tails. Goal one met. Goal two would soon be realized, but Seamus was far more interested in goal three. And according to the view, there was a lot of possibilities in attendance.

“So,” Seamus addressed the student sitting next to him when Professor McKindy released them to try their luck. “Have ye ever made up your own spells before?”

0 Seamus McFarlin Pretty women, YES!, Pretty women 111 Seamus McFarlin 0 5

Demelza

February 24, 2010 6:11 PM

Thanks, but I'm far from genius... by Demelza

OOC: Soooo sorry for the delay!

BIC:
Demelza felt like slapping her forehead when Elly explained it to her. Oooh...duh. She had to say the name of the object before the spell. Now that she thought of it, it made sense, but it was a lot of work! Demelza had no idea how to say hardly anything in Latin! Perhaps, she thought, it was time to learn...

But, thankfully, Elly was there to help her. Although, she wasn't always going to be there to help, or anyone else for that case. But Elly was a seventh year, so she had way more training. Demelza might catch up one day if she was lucky.

She was shocked and delighted when Elly told her to try it herself before she even demonstrated. Giving a wide grin, she held up her wand, and then said, as firmly as she could, "Mobili Stilus," And, to her greatest delight and enthusiasm, the quill rose up! Demelza got really excited at that point: she had accomplished something! She knew that she could impress Jamie or Will with her new found charm, and maybe even make them jealous. Or, perhaps these were just fantasies, because Will was 4 years older than her and Jamie 7 years... so maybe not the jealousy part. But they would be proud, at least.

"Hey, look I'm doing it!" she exclaimed, with the usual Demelza enthusiasm (way too much excitement). She tried to move the quill around for a few seconds, which it did, but then fell, probably because she lost concentration. But Demelza didn't really care. She was just so happy she had done something!

"I don't know what I would do with out student mentors," she said, shaking her head. There was Andrew, and now Elly. "Thanks!" she beamed at Elly.

0 Demelza Thanks, but I'm far from genius... 0 Demelza 0 5