Professor Aaron McKindy

July 27, 2011 6:04 PM

Professor Aaron McKindy

Peripheral
Written by:

Deck the Halls [Years I - III] by Professor Aaron McKindy

Admittedly, the last thing Aaron McKindy was feeling at the moment was festive. He had thoroughly decimated his life in the last year, and was staying at Sadi’s again for the upcoming holiday. Jessie and Jera were both currently studying at L'Academie de Român de Vrãjitorie in Romania, which meant his biological daughter had no intention of being home for Christmas – she would be much too busy playing with large, fire-breathing creatures that wanted to eat her. That was all well and good because a Christmas at Sadi’s wasn’t a Christmas alone, but the impending festivities really weren’t making the dark-haired Italian feel any better about his recent life decisions.

That just meant he had all the more attention to focus into his classes. Or at least, that was how he had been coping of late.

With an irritable black cat batting at his ankles, Aaron flicked his wand and a ten-foot Christmas tree rose from a three-inch model that had been sitting on the floor in an empty corner of the classroom. The desks in the rest of the classroom had been Vanished for the day, with only the posters on the wall and his own personal desk, sitting on the raised dais in front of the classroom, remaining of the usual décor.

Just a few minutes later, the large, oaken door creaked open and the grey-green eyed man adjusted the large tophat made of pink bubbles that rested atop his head, preparing for the wave of students that would soon be arriving.

“Please feel free to help yourself to some punch and cookies!” Aaron said in greeting to the students who entered the classroom, gesturing at a long, thin table along the wall the door was on. There was a large bowl of crimson punch (out of which small stars leapt intermittently) and several trays of a variety of cookies. Once all of his younger years had entered the room, Aaron cleared his throat significantly and, when that failed to surmount the chattering of the gathered students, he decided to just start.

“Hey guys, I need your attention a moment,” the Pecari Head of House informed them. “Today is an easy class day, but just because you’ll all be sugar-high in the next five minutes doesn’t mean it’s a freebie.

“By the end of this class period, the tree over there,” the man gestured with one arm, long-sleeved olive shirt covering his arm to the wrist, “needs to be fully decorated. Obviously no ladders are provided, so I expect you to use your knowledge and skills at levitating charms to move ornaments up there. Extra credit to anybody who can make the Christmas gnome ornaments,” Aaron this time gestured to a cluster of small, Santa-colored gnomes on top of a bookcase, “sparkle. The spell is in your book.

“I’d also like to see some strings of lights on the tree,” the professor suggested. He intended for this to be a fun pre-Midterm celebration, but also a review of the significant concepts (namely of conjuring lights and basic movement) that the class had learned over the course of the previous half-term. “I’d suggest using the Coresco charm,” Aaron concentrated on the colour purple, flicked his wand, and suddenly had a ball of purple light floating in his left hand, “combined with the movement-chaining charm we learned just before Thanksgiving,” another flick of the wand, “Vinculo,” there were now a small chain of purple lights levitating just an inch above his hand, “But of course, you’re free to use whatever you’d like.” He waved his wand once more and the lights disappeared.

Slipping his wand into the back pocket of his jeans, Aaron smiled at the kids “Have fun! Full marks for all of you if you help decorate the tree – but for those of you who aren’t intending to, remember that I’m watching you.”

Instead of helping himself to a cookie, Aaron busied himself tidying the bookshelf at the back as the students began to trickle over to the tree. He hoped some of them needed help; it would keep his mind off things.

|OOC|
Minimum ten sentences, please! But the more you do, the more House Points your House gets. Be creative and have fun! Tag me in your subject line if your character needs Aaron. Feel free to be creative with the charms you use – check the Harry Potter Lexicon or Wiki if you want some ideas – but don’t forget to remain within realistic guidelines. Chances are, a first year will have more trouble performing these spells than a third year and a third year might be a bit bored with levitation charms by this point; that sort of thing.

Enjoy!
Subthreads:
Confused as ever, but in a festive way by Ayita Bly [Pecari] with Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren, Ayita
Fa-la-la-la-la by Michael Grosvenor with Valerie Lennox, Crotalus
What did the halls ever do to me? by Paul Bennett, Crotalus
...Or not by Jenny Owens with Linus Macaulay
Looks like I'm more likely to <i>break</i> the halls. by David Wilkes, Aladren with James Owen
*Looks for holly-shaped cookies* by Arthur Carey, Aladren
Chipping in by Arnold Carey, Aladren
0 Professor Aaron McKindy Deck the Halls [Years I - III] 0 Professor Aaron McKindy 1 5


Paul Bennett, Crotalus

July 31, 2011 10:46 PM

Paul Bennett, Crotalus

Alumnus
House: Crotalus
Written by:

Age in Post: 11

What did the halls ever do to me? by Paul Bennett, Crotalus

Paul had gotten used to things being a little strange at school, a little unpredictable, at least compared to home, even within the cycle of classes and Quidditch practices and such, but he still thought it was okay to be surprised when he walked into the Charms classroom and found a Christmas tree tall and fine enough to grace the front hall of his house and almost no other furniture. That was a little out of the ordinary even for the professor who wore a pink bubble hat.

Still, the food held more interest for him, even if he did flinch back in the middle of reaching for the punch ladle when the stars came out of the bowl before he completed the gesture, and he was taking a bite of cookie when the circumstances of the room were explained to him. Paul’s expression was momentarily almost as startled as he was, but then he shrugged it off. If the professor wanted a pretty tree, Paul would do his part to make it the shiniest tree this side of the Cabinet line. He wanted to go home with good grades that would excite no comment from disapproving relatives. Avoiding disapproving relatives was something he considered key to a good life.

Of course, the poor tree, with so many people decorating it and who alone knew who half of them were and what their training in this area had been, was very likely to end up as such an offense to his sense of good taste that he could only hope the professor would choose to keep it displayed in his own quarters for the rest of the time left before midterm, but he tried to ignore the parts of him that spoke with his mother’s voice. It was just a matter of acting like a civilized being, in his opinion.

He finished the cookie and got another, not worrying too much about becoming sugar high. Sugar could provide a little more energy than he usually had, but not enough for him to act like an idiot the way Leo did. Once he’d finished that one, too, he took out his wand and decided to start by duplicating the professor’s feat, only not in purple. Instead, because it was seasonal and fit in with a little House pride, he conjured a ball of red light, replicated it, and scattered it on a section of tree which was still…comparatively bare. He hadn’t gotten to really bare because of the cookies.

He decided to add some silver, despite how displaying too much House pride was awkward, and frowned a little in concentration so he didn’t end up with gray as he said, “Coresco.” He had to try it again to get the shade right, but then replicated it and began stringing it as well, until one of his lights touched one of someone else’s decorations. “Whoops,” he said. “Sorry about that. You can have that branch.” He floated the offending light further down.
0 Paul Bennett, Crotalus What did the halls ever do to me? 201 Paul Bennett, Crotalus 0 5