I think I may be better with Earth Bending on Charms

Professor Light

November 11, 2011 8:25 AM

Water Bending 6&7 by Professor Light

A yawn, a stretch, a turn, a face burrowing halfway into a pillow, one bleary hazel eye opening halfway and then closing once more. ‘Think I’m supposed to do something today…’ A head shifted, a smile spreading across full lips. ‘Oooh, soft. That’s what I’m supposed to do.’ A body snuggled in a little deeper into the sheets, bare feet rubbing against each other. The same eye opened once more, blinking sleepily, slowly closed again… sleeping… the eye flung open. ‘Tell me that’s not the time!’ The cruel clock stood staring at Professor Caesar Leonard Light, slowly ticking from 9:07 to 9:08. “Oh sh--!” Caesar shot up in bed, a strangled cry caught in his throat as he struggled with the sheets and blankets, the soft material attempting to entrap his body. “I’m ten minutes late for class!” Ten minutes late for his first ever class. And with teenagers no less. Merlin, they were going to eat him alive. “Oh man! Oh man! Ohmanohmanohman!” Freed finally of the sheets, Caesar stumbled into his private bath, hurriedly squeezing the tube of toothpaste, launching the white mint into his mouth before cupping his hands beneath the faucet, gathering cold water and pouring that into his mouth. ‘Ohmanohmanohman hurry up, hurry up!’

He ran around his chambers, gathering the white collar shirt, tan pants, tan vest, white socks and brown shoes he’d thankfully – “Thwank gwoo lword!” – put out for himself to wear last night. Still swishing the toothpaste around, he put his clothes on quickly, doing his best to manage looking somewhat professional in light (yay for puns!) of the fact that he wasn’t even running out of time but was in fact completely out of time to get to class. He ran back into the bathroom and spat out the toothpaste, his mouth almost feeling clean. ‘Don’t I know a charm for that?’ His head rose from the sink, toothpaste froth coating the corners of his mouth as he stared at himself, a little toothpaste on his chin and cheek. “You, my friend, are an idiot.” An idiot who was apparently on his way to teaching school kids all they should know. Three cleaning spells (one for his mouth, one for the toothpaste on his face, and one to neaten the wrinkles in his clothes) later, and Caesar was finally nearly ready to go. Quickly grabbing his wand and his books, he turned on his heel and –

– and he did not disapparate right into class. “Oh – right. No apparating on school grounds. Hahaha.” He chuckled nervously. “All right the long way then.” The door banged hard behind him. Safe from the constraints of robes (usually he did wear them, but thank god he had chosen not to today) Caesar jumped over flights of stairs, landing hard at the bottom but continued going, doing his best to remember just exactly where his classroom was located. “Good morning cl – oh, sorry, Professor.” Apologizing to his colleague he backed out, ears reddening and continued his run, anxiously searching for his class.

BANG

“Nngh!” Caesar blinked at the class turned to look at him, his Advanced students in class before their teacher. He stood still for a moment, and then offered an awkward grin, pushing up from his slanted stance (shoulder pressed a little too hard at the door he’d slammed into) and walked to the front of the class towards his desk. “Er – hi. Good morning. How are you all?” He set his books down at his desk, lifting a hand to brush away the brown hair that had fallen into his face. “I’m Professor Caesar Leonard Light. My lesson today was going to cover the methods of charming objects to tell time but,” He smiled a little, encouraged by what sounded like a light laugh. “I’ve been recently informed I’m not the expert.” He bent down to his books, shifting them to pick up one of the textbooks required for the class (The Standardized Book of Spells Year 6, The Standardized Book of Spells Year 7, and Charming Chants: The Advanced Castor’s Guide to Miracles, Marvels, and More), flipping open the cover to pull out the lesson plan he’d written out by candle light just last night. “I do apologize for being late, I hope you will excuse me for it today. In the future, I will do my utmost to get here on time and I expect every one of you to do the same. Though, having found a new sympathy for tardiness, I will probably not come down too harshly on any of you if you have a good excuse.” He glanced over his lesson plan, then pulled his wand out and flicked it at the board.

“Anyway,” he smiled at them all, eyes running over each student, trying to commit each face to memory. “You won’t want to miss this class, I think. I hope. Charms is a pretty fun subject, and pretty important too. Bonus points to anyone planning on becoming a Charms teacher.” He grinned. “Negative points if you end up vying for my job though.” While the blackboard behind him continued to inscribe the words he had written on the parchment, Caesar asked the class to go around the room with their names. “Name please, house, aaaand… why don’t you tell me the just most greatest thing you enjoy about Charms? And, also, tell me something you don’t like about Charms. The greatest thing can be the fact that I’m teaching it, but be careful about what you don’t like.” Another bright grin flashed around the room. “Just because I’m a Charms Professor doesn’t mean I don’t know hexes.” He listened carefully to what each student had to say, and by the time they were all done the board had finished copying from the parchment.

“All right, good. Excellent. Okay, we’re a little short on time. Well, more than I had accounted for when I was dreaming up this little lesson, expecting myself to be a little earlier. Anyway, as you can see, the theme for today is water. The theme for about three months actually.” The board listed a few diagrams of wand movements accompanied with certain spells and how to correctly pronounce them. “Magic is basically nature, yeah? Wizards and witches are superbly connected to the earth, to nature. Magic is steeped in elemental energy. Water, air, earth, fire. You’re all advanced, you’ve all – I expect – proven yourself in many ways capable. Today, and the rest of this week we’ll be working on mastering a few of these important elemental spells. Next week we’ll all take a trip to the Water Room where each and every one of you will no doubt prove your mastery over the first element on our agenda.” Caught in his own exuberance, the nervousness that had all of Caesar’s previous words was gone.

“All right, you can see that there are five spells listed on the board. We’re practicing two today – and feel free to partner up or even group up – and your homework is to continue practicing them. By the end of the week we’ll have all five practiced and mastered. Feel free to come to my office at any time if you want to go over the spells with me.” He took a breath, continuing to smile and to stave off the nervousness. He raised his wand and gentle swept the air, bowls (in the size and shape of general glass punch bowls) appearing on students’ desks. "All right, you all know how to fill your bowls with water. Please do so.” He walked up to the first student who filled up their bowl, motioning for the others to gather around.

“Aqua Diripio.” He pronounced it, Ah – kwa – dee – reep – ee – oh, and his hands parted from their clasped position, slowly spreading through the air over the bowl as if it were not mere air he was pushing through but something hard, something solid. With his hands, the water moved, a little glass pathway emerging in the bowl. His hands held the spell a little longer, then came back together again, wand hand pressed against his other and the water fell back with a soft crash. “Now,” he pointed the wand at himself, the tip of the wood pressed against his Adam’s Apple. “Aqua Spiro.” His Adam’s Apple jutted out uncomfortably at the sudden pressure. He gasped a little, and then bent quickly for the bowl, relaxing only as soon as the water reached his lungs. He held the pose for a little bit, and then lifted his wand, face still buried in the water, his body bent over the desk, and pointed the wand at the nape of his neck. “Finite.” His voice came out clear in the water, a few bubbles escaping his lips. He pulled his head out, grinning through the mini waterfall tumbling over his face. “The diagrams of the wand work and effects on the water are on the board. Get going, get practicing, and let’s utilize as much time as we can to get work done.” He stepped away from the student’s bowl, dried himself off with his hand (he was often so forgetful he had a wand) to sit down at his desk and start gazing around the class, eager to see what his students would make of his very first lesson.

Subthreads:

I could be from the Southern Water Tribe by Jose Hernandez, Pecari with Rachel Bauer, Crotalus, Jose

Flexibility isn't my specialty by Raines Bradley, Crotalus with Jethro Smythe, Raines Bradley

I think I may be better with Earth Bending by Andrew Duell, Teppenpaw with Alessa Hinckley, Aladren

Could be useful by Edmond Carey, Aladren

0 Professor Light Water Bending 6&7 0 Professor Light 1 5

Jose Hernandez, Pecari

November 12, 2011 12:36 PM

I could be from the Southern Water Tribe by Jose Hernandez, Pecari

Jose was, as he usually was, right on time for class. Generally, this meant the professor would close the door behind him and sometimes give him a warning look if he had waltzed in closer to 9:01 than 9:00. Today, he'd given himself a slightly larger margin of error, seeing as how it was the first day and he'd be having a new Charms professor and all, but when he entered the room at 8:59 (a whole twelve seconds before 9:00), he had somehow managed to beat the professor there.

This was strange, but not unprecedented. Sometimes even professors ran late. So he took his seat, right in the middle of the room, and started taking out his supplies. When his books were laid out neatly, his notebook was opened to a mostly blank page with only today's date in the upper right hand corner, his muggle ball-point pen was laid diagonally across the notebook, and his wand was placed in a prominent position on the desk, he looked up and found that the professor still wasn't there.

Confused, he turned to his neighbor to ask if the class had been cancelled without his knowledge, but (quite obviously given that his neighbor was sitting right there beside him) his classmate hadn't heard anything about that either. Jose began counting the rest of the Charms students to see if there was a reduced number, but if the class had been cancelled, it didn't look like anyone had been informed of it.

He did take the opportunity to get Andrew to sign his arm cast, as well as a few other people who were taking Charms and who ought to have their name on his souvenir of Seventh Year.

Jose was just about ready, in his duty as Head Boy, to go looking for an administrator to figure out what what going on with the Advanced Charms class scheduled for 9:00, when the Professor did walk into the room. Jose sat back down immediately, biting back his aborted announcement that everyone should stay in their seats and he'd find out what had gone wrong.

He laughed briefly at the time telling joke, and decided, despite the man's claim that he would like them to arrive on time, that this was one professor who probably wouldn't mind too much if Jose didn't account for a brief hallway conversation with one of his Quidditch players and walked in at 9:00:38.

As the actual lesson began, Jose took down appropriate notes, accepted the punchbowl flying at him in stride, filled it with water (a simple charm that had become second nature after all the cauldron filling he'd done over years of potions class), and watched the professor demonstrate two of the spells they'd be using this week. For a second, Jose had worried that the guy was trying to drown himself, but then he read the part of the chalk writing that explained that use of Aqua Spiro meant the exact opposite was happening.

When they were told to get to work, Jose looked over at his neighbor again and asked, "Want to spot me while I try to breathe water?"

0 Jose Hernandez, Pecari I could be from the Southern Water Tribe 0 Jose Hernandez, Pecari 0 5

Rachel Bauer, Crotalus

November 13, 2011 7:55 PM

But you could also not be. by Rachel Bauer, Crotalus

Sitting down in class with the seventh years felt strange. All the way through school, it had felt like it was just where she was and what was in life, but now it was approaching the end. Next year, it would be sixth years who felt strange about sitting down next to her, and then after that…she would be done. Maybe she would be in another school, maybe she wouldn’t, but she wouldn’t be at Sonora anymore. It was strange.

Plus, the class size wasn’t even strange, it was just weird. The Intermediate class was usually the biggest around, but the Advanced groups were often the smallest. Charms was pretty popular as far as it went, but it was still only two years, and she’d put together that some of the other classes might be tiny. It would be the biggest share of the professor’s attention she’d had since she left tutoring at home, since Beginner lessons were usually pretty crowded as well, just not as bad as Intermediate was in the classes when third through fifth went together. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that yet, and was guessing the final answer was going to have a lot to do with how hard Advanced classes really were versus how hard they were reputed to be.

She was thinking about all that, tapping the end of her quill against the desk absent-mindedly, when she abruptly noticed that it felt like she had been sitting here kind of…long. Longer than she should have without the lesson beginning. She had gotten here early, sure, but not ridiculously early because she had no intentions of sitting awkwardly in the room with the new professor and trying to make conversation while they waited for the other Advanced Charms students to show up. Looking around, she saw no immediate signs that anyone else knew what was going on, either. So what was the deal?

When the door abruptly crashed open, Rachel jumped and stared at the man staring at them, the suddenness of his entrance throwing her completely off-guard. A minute later, after finding out he was the professor, she found herself holding her breath to keep from nearly snorting with laughter at the comment about keeping time. That was funny, in a way, but that still didn’t explain why the professor was wandering in way late for class.

“I’m Rachel,” she said when it was her turn for introductions. “Rachel Bauer, Crotalus.” That part wasn’t hard, though what kind of sadist asked them to state things they liked and disliked about the class, she didn’t know. That was just wrong and indecent, and she seriously did not appreciate it.

The lesson, though, looked okay. Filling the bowl with water was no trouble at all for her, and while she wasn’t eager to start fooling with her own breathing mechanisms, the first spell sounded okay as well. She was about to, on those very firm grounds, work on it first when Jose Hernandez spoke to her about that first one, and it occurred to her that a viable option was having someone else try the water-breathing spell first and see how well it went for them (as opposed to a fully-qualified wizard) before she tried it and hoped for luck.

“I think I can handle that,” she said with a smile. “If you can return the favor once you’re done, anyway.” Working with one of the seventh years was ideal for this first day of class, since they’d had a year to get used to it, sort of, and his being Head Boy meant she needed to hang out with him sometimes this year anyway. She going to be Head Girl next year or die trying, and it seemed like a good idea to socialize with the current Head Students while she could to get a feel for the job beforehand. That was the whole reason she had signed up for Transfiguration, actually, since it was one of the very few normal classes Marissa Stephenson was still in. How that girl had gotten it when she had practically dropped out of the mainstream school last year and there had been way more Pecaris to vote for Tawny Brockert than Crotali to vote for Marissa, Rachel had no idea, but it did give her hope for her own election later in the year.

16 Rachel Bauer, Crotalus But you could also not be. 154 Rachel Bauer, Crotalus 0 5

Raines Bradley, Crotalus

November 13, 2011 10:06 PM

Flexibility isn't my specialty by Raines Bradley, Crotalus

Here they were. Advanded classes. The beginning, in a real way, of a new phase in Raines’ life.

Since it had a new professor he was going to have to impress, he arrived early to Charms, his thick auburn hair meticulously arranged but still almost sloppy compared to the immaculate, freshly-pressed perfection of his robes. His white shirt, its collar stiff with starch, was as neat, as were his dark trousers, and his black shoes were shiny enough for him to see reflections in if he looked at them. It was almost enough to make up for not having a badge to wear, and, he thought, showed his abilities in the subject off a little for the new professor. He had been up for an hour and a half before breakfast going over everything with his wand to make sure it was in order, putting into use almost every charm his mother, at least, had ever taught him. He had no badges, but everything else that could be done to make sure Raines Bradley made a good impression on the person now taking the classes that had been Professor McKindy’s had been done. The only other thing he could think of would have been to break that rule that said men could not artificially improve themselves with make-up the way girls could, but if there was something he wasn’t allowed to fix, he’d choose his face over his clothes. He thought his face usually looked all right on its own.

He knew he needed to impress the new professor, maybe almost as much as he needed to impress Miss Veronica, but it didn’t seem that the new professor felt any need to impress them in return. Raines discreetly checked his watch against the classroom clock twice, then gave up and took out his class schedule. No, Advanced Charms was at this time, in this room. At least, he was confident enough that this was the classroom referenced not to ask anyone about it. It was the one Charms was usually in and there were known seventh years in it, anyway.

Just as he was beginning to feel a mixture of slight concern and more pronounced annoyance, the door burst open, revealing a robeless man who seemed almost surprised to see them. A transfer to the Advanced class, perhaps, who couldn’t believe his luck at being late the day the professor didn’t bother to make an appearance?

Or the professor. Raines had to work very hard to force his expression out of its frozen mask of disapproval and into a slight, pained smile at the sad attempt at humor as, at the top of his notebook, he jotted down a reminder to himself to write Mother about this if it proved to be an isolated incident and Uncle Charles if the man’s lack of professionalism endured. He wondered what Light – it sounded like a made-up name to him; perhaps the man was really a runaway criminal, or worse, one of those people like the librarian who felt they needed to be dramatic – called a good excuse, and why, if he was going to bring that up, he hadn’t offered up his example.

“Raines Bradley,” he said, without elaboration, when asked for his name. Now came the hard part. There was nothing ‘great’ about Charms to him, nor was there much specifically not ‘great.’ It was just the class he would endure, some days more easily than others, at this time on certain days from now until June. “Ah – I prefer practical Charmswork to the abstract.” He wasn’t completely sure he’d used the flowery words he really wanted in that sentence, but he hadn’t been able to come up with anything better as he was talking.

So on it went, listening to the dull platitudes of his classmates, until finally the lesson began and the class finally, finally involved something that didn’t make him want to bite someone. He did not like the idea of putting his head down into a bowl, baring the back of it and the back of his neck to anyone who wanted to take a shot, but that was unlikely and being able to breathe in water would no doubt be a useful skill, just in case.

They were told to work together, which was usual, but almost always unpleasant. The best-case scenario was one where he worked with Miss Veronica and had to worry every moment about making a mistake in front of her. This year, he expected it to be worse than usual, because Mother had told him that sometimes, to get what you wanted, you had to lower your standards and smile at those who had no right to be smiled at, and he knew he might have to do that all year if he wanted to be secure in his certainty of becoming Head Boy by default.

So he smiled as he made eye contact with someone he thought had no specific reason to hit him over the head. “Hello,” he said. “Want to work together?”

This was one day, of one year. He could survive interacting with nobodies for a year, so long as it didn’t lose him anything he actually cared about and got him something he did. He just had to keep remembering that.

0 Raines Bradley, Crotalus Flexibility isn't my specialty 0 Raines Bradley, Crotalus 0 5

Jethro Smythe

November 14, 2011 1:46 PM

I don't have a speciality by Jethro Smythe

The only reason Jethro had stayed put in class for so long without a professor was that everyone else had done the same. If it had been just him, the seventh year would have been certain than he'd selected the wrong room, or perhaps the wrong time for his class, and so left the vicintiy to locate the proper premesis. Only the fact that other advanced students were also waiting, with varying degrees of patience, kept the Crotalus in his seat.

When the new professor did, at length, arrive, Jethro sort of wished he hadn't. He'd become accustomed to the occasional absurdity of Professor McKindy's teaching, but he thought it improbable that in his few remaining months at Sonora he would come to understand Professor Light's speech patterns. Though he worked hard to concentrate, Jethro found it impossible to keep concise notes, as the teacher drifted from topic to topic without warning, speaking quickly and with random interjections. The class had barely started before Jethro shook his head to clear it, blinking his dark eyes in rapid succession just in case that would help.

A brief respite arrived when the class had to make their own introductions, and it was welcome in essence, but providing his own opinions about charms almost meant Jethro had to make up facts for the purpose. he took charms because it was one of the two subjects he'd passed at CATS level, and Sonora required at least two subjects to be studied in the final two years of its schooling. So when it was his turn, he clearly stated, "Jethro Smythe, Crotalus." Then after a moment's deliberation, he said, "I'm drawn to the practicality of charms but I struggle with the coursework." That, at least, would alert the new professor to his existing difficulties, if he had not already been forewarned about them for any reason.

Then it was back to trying to take notes while the professor talked a mile a minute swapping between this topic and that as if flow of conversation eluded him. Jethro only managed to catch up when everyone began to fill the bowls on their desks with water. The agaumenti charm was, luckily, one of those few Jethro could cast successfully. The force and direction of its flow was not always within his control, but a steady trickly over a wide container was easily accomplished. He caught another break as the spells were thoroughly demonstrated, leaving Jethro in doubt as to what he was supposed to accomplish. All he had to do now was find a willing partner - a feat that, on this occasion, sorted itself out before Jethro had done much thinking on the matter.

One could perhaps forgive him for being confused that Raines Bradley wanted to work with him. Though the two Crotali got along tolerably well for two people who spent very little time in each others' company, they never conversed beyound small talk, and Jethro's inaptitude at spellwork had almost certainly not escaped the younger boy's notice. Nevertheless, Jethro nodded his head in the affirmative, with the vocal addition, "Yes, okay."

0 Jethro Smythe I don't have a speciality 146 Jethro Smythe 0 5

Jose

November 14, 2011 7:09 PM

That seems somewhat more likely by Jose

The classwide self-introduction (of which his contribution had been "I'm Jose Hernandez, from Pecari, and I like that Charms are really versatile and can be used for anything from chores to stage performances, but I don't like that I have to write long essays about how they work") had passed by so easily that it was barely worth noting, but it had reminded him of Rachel's name. He had almost been able to recall it from the last year of Prefect meetings, but the class-provided role call had cleared up any lingering doubt.

She agreed to spot him for the low-low price of returning the favor, which seemed more than fair to him. "It's a deal," he agreed with a friendly smile.

That settled, and secure in the belief that if he started drowning, Rachel would rescue him, Jose picked up his wand, pointed it at his throat, and cast, "Aqua Spiro!"

He couldn't breathe. His eyes went wide in a brief panic before he remembered that was what the bowl of water was for, and he dunked his face into it like he was bobbing for apples. Instead of apples, though, he found the ability to draw oxygen into his body.

After a few moments to prove to himself that this was actually working the way it was supposed to, he submerged his wandtip as he cast, "Finite." He came up spluttering at the equally abrupt inability to breathe water, and used a robe sleeve to wipe the water from eyes. Once he had regained his equilibrium, he grinned over at Rachel again, feeling only a little bit sheepish for his poorly handled transitions and the water still dripping from his now sopping wet hair. "Well, that mostly worked." He leaned over his desk and ran a strand of dark hair between his fingers and watched a stream of water fall back into the punch bowl. "Did you see if the professor provided towels?"

0 Jose That seems somewhat more likely 0 Jose 0 5

Andrew Duell, Teppenpaw

November 14, 2011 8:10 PM

I think I may be better with Earth Bending by Andrew Duell, Teppenpaw

Andrew was running late. This wasn't completely unprecedented, but the reason behind it was. Normally if he was late for class it was because of one of his experiments, this time however the reason was a girl, his girl. He really couldn't quite get over that little word he could insert in there now. Having missed her at the Feast the night before, He had met up with Marissa for breakfast. It had been awesome, and he really hadn't wanted to leave, but... duty calls. Well, class calls. The classroom was mostly filled by the time he arrived, but no sign of the new teacher yet.

He looked around for Jose, and saw him wandering around the room getting his cast signed. He flopped his stuff down at one of the few unoccupied seats and went over to Jose. He finally got to exchange a few words with him and sign his cast. They'd have to meet up later and talk about summer stuff and whatnot, the Head boy didn't seem to know anything about the professor's mysterious absence either. It was about then that the new professor slammed into the room, Jose rushed off to his seat and Andrew found his.

Interesting, Jose was sitting next to Rachel Bauer, and she seemed to be giving him quite a bit of attention. Was there something going on there? He was one of the few people that he had told about his and Marissa's 'official' status. Maybe he was looking to do likewise? She had gone to the dance with Nic at the end of last term, hadn't she? He was fairly certain... anyway, it didn't matter. That kind of thinking was more along Jhon's lines, not his. He didn't really want anything to do with it.

Instead of pondering that further, he followed along with what the professor was showing and scribbled notes as he went. When his introduction turn came up, he responded, "Andrew Duell, Teppenpaw. I like the versatility of charms, but find that is also their biggest downside." He had no idea what else to say, so that seemed to work. He caught the bowl when it came his way and filled it with water easily enough.

As tradition dictated he turned to his neighbor and asked, "So, do you want to work together on this?"

2 Andrew Duell, Teppenpaw I think I may be better with Earth Bending 145 Andrew Duell, Teppenpaw 0 5

Rachel

November 15, 2011 1:04 PM

I'm very confident that I'm not. by Rachel

Jose, not very surprisingly, agreed to her terms. “Fantastic,” she said, her hands flat against her desk, resting on either side of her bowl. “You’re good to go, then.”

Well, as far as having someone to frantically cast finite incantatem while doing everything in her power to draw the professor’s attention to them went, anyway. How good he was for the spell was something she guessed only he and Seers could know, assuming he wasn’t one. She’d often wondered if that particular Gift would actually be of any use on a day-to-day basis; her attempts to use what she learned in Divination class to actually figure out how things were going to go tended to be hit and miss, but that could have been an input problem more than a flaw in the system itself.

When his eyes widened and he looked like things were not going right for a second after casting the spell, her eyes also widened and she grabbed her wand and prepared to yell, but then he remembered the water and things seemed to go better. At least, the gesture he used to bring his wand to his throat to end the spell did not seem frantic, the way it would be if he were dying or something, and before she could start to be concerned by any other factors, he came up, seeming okay. Wet, but oka….

Oh, sweet Merlin and a box of potatoes, no.

“I didn’t see any,” she told Jose. “Drying charm…Drying charm….” She fumbled for a moment, trying to remember, noting that it got harder and harder to remember just how many spells she knew the more she learned, and then remembered and cast that for him without even really thinking that he might prefer to do that himself. “I think that also mostly worked,” she told him. “I don’t think I have a mirror with me today, sorry.”

Which was hilarious. She always had a mirror, but today, when she really needed one, she was almost completely sure she’d left her compact lying on the bed in a hurry to get out and to class, along with the rest of her make-up. The make-up she was probably, her faith in the cosmetics industry not being enough to support the idea that what she'd put on before class was going to stand up to this, very shortly going to need very much.

Rachel had grown a lot over the course of six years, physically and otherwise. Where she was now as a long way from where she’d been when she was eleven and thought of almost nothing but her hair, her ability to keep anyone from realizing what she was, her hair, her social status, her hair, and suing people who annoyed her. But she still took a high degree of pride in her appearance, still spent time each and every morning making sure she looked her best and then made regular touch-ups through the course of the day, and now, she was about to mess it all up.

She looked glumly at the smooth, clear surface of the water in the big bowl on her desk. This was going to suck.

“My turn, I guess,” she said, trying not to sound too perturbed since it wasn’t Jose’s fault. “Here I go. Aqua Spiro.” Deciding it was best to just get it over with, she was already heading down when the charm kicked in and the air went away.

She had tucked her hair back, so not much of it was in her face as she opened her eyes and blinked, immediately feeling claustrophobic in the confines of the bowl. The edge pressed uncomfortably against her chin. She thought at first that was why she…could breathe, but felt as though it was an effort and there wasn’t really enough air, but adjusting her position didn’t help, and she decided she’d had enough.

Manipulating her arm when she couldn’t see it to direct it proved to be harder than she thought, and she hit herself in the neck with the handle, nearly making herself gag, before she got the point anywhere near her throat. Completing the ending charm as quickly as she could, she surfaced a little too quickly, slopping some water over the side of the bowl but not really noticing as she started coughing and pounding on her chest.

“For – the love – “ Her blue eyes focused to find water dripping onto her clothes. It was difficult to much care, though. “I don’t – “ she started coughing hard, pressing her mouth into her sleeve to keep that from being any noisier than it had to be without much regard for the fabric or even the possibility of water seeping through to the blouse beneath – “think I like that,” she finished, her chest feeling raw as she flushed red from embarrassment once the fit was past. “Ugh.” She adjusted her grip on her wand, which had remained in her hand but in a position that wasn’t comfortable or practical, and mumbled a half-successful drying charm. “Did you feel like there wasn’t enough air?” She refused to ask if she had mascara and eyeshadow everywhere they weren’t supposed to be before he had time to answer the question that actually pertained to the lesson. Why had she chosen today to wear a good amount of dark eyeshadow?

16 Rachel I'm very confident that I'm not. 154 Rachel 0 5

Raines Bradley

November 18, 2011 10:24 PM

Mine may be baby steps by Raines Bradley

Halfway through his resolution, Raines had slightly changed his mind. He would have to spend the year pretending to associate with nobodies, but before he got to that stage, he could deal with people who were technically all right but really not for one reason or another. Baby steps. His mother had never really told him a lot about his early childhood, but he thought it was a good bet that he’d taken those before he started running.

Hence, Jethro Smythe. Good family, there was apparently something going on between him and Edmond Carey’s sister, but he was…well, he guessed the Careys couldn’t be too picky, could they? Plus, Raines and Jethro had interacted before and Raines had not come out of it feeling any particular animosity toward Jethro. It would be a good first step toward interacting with people he truly couldn’t stand. A good, short first step.

He knew, though, that Jethro not being someone whose personality and associations made him think about violence didn’t mean this was going to be easy. This was going, in fact, to probably be miserable. And it was just the beginning of a year of that. For a moment, he felt that he wasn’t sure if it was really worth it all.

However, it was only a second later that he came to his senses. Of course he had to do it. No question. The only way up was to do things like this, and he wasn’t about to stay down forever. He was going to be just as important as Uncle Charles, just as powerful and respected. Taking over this place was just the beginning of that. Baby steps.

“I think we should do the spells in the order the professor presented,” he said. “I’ll try the water-moving one, then you can, if you don’t object.”

0 Raines Bradley Mine may be baby steps 155 Raines Bradley 0 5

Alessa Hinckley, Aladren

November 24, 2011 9:53 AM

I'm okay with bending water, breathing it,not so much. by Alessa Hinckley, Aladren

To Alessa the best thing about being a sixth year was no longer having to take classes that she didn't like. She had dropped COMC because she'd never had any interest in the subject, DADA because there had been enough athletic lessons to turn her off of the subject, and Potions because it wasn't proper even though she was fairly indifferent to it. Alessa was now taking Charms, Transfiguration, Divinations, and an independent study in history.

So far, the Aladren wasn't sure how she felt about the new Charms professor. She'd never been all that attached to Professor McKindy and in fact, was not attached to any of the professors or for that matter, anyone else at Sonora.

Of course, one of the quickest ways to get on Alessa's bad side was to ask her to give her personal opinions to the whole class. There was no need for that. She already knew everyone's name and year and house. Everyone in the class had been there for years. Alessa could see maybe doing this to the Beginner class, though she still would not have liked it but with the Advanced? The last thing she wanted was to get all touchy-feely with anyone at school.

Besides, Alessa had never really thought about what she did and didn't like about Charms. She just knew that she was decent at it, which she liked but didn't want to say, because it was bragging and she found that to be tasteless and that it was an acceptable subject for her to study. Furthermore, Alessa was afraid she'd sound stupid.

After that rather cruel and sadistic task, the actual lesson began. The first part didn't sound so bad to her, bending water with her hands. That sounded-and looked-rather neat. On the other hand, Alessa didn't think she liked the idea of bending over a bowl and trying to breathe water. Not only would it mess up her hair, clothing and the little bit of make-up that the sixth year found necessary to wear-she might not have been the most fashion conscious person on the planet but Alessa liked to look neat and presentable and she wasn't sure she had time to go fix herself up after class, nor did she want to have to-but if the spell failed, there was a possibility of, um, drowning . It was bound to be uncomfortable, and Alessa hated discomfort. She'd always hated getting water in her face.

Not only that, but the sixth year's cousins, Tawny and Nina were both in the class as well. Tawny didn't like the younger Pecari. Tawny, Nina-well, any of the Pecaris in Alessa's year-and something you could drown in were not a good idea. The only good thing Alessa could say about that situation was that at least Marissa Stephenson was not taking Advanced Charms. The Aladren didn't know what her cousin was going to end up doing to the girl, and she really didn't want to. If she was told, it would way heavily on her conscious and she'd have to find away to stop it. Which meant Tawny would hate her and do something possibly unpleasant to her . Being family wouldn't matter given how the Pecari felt about her own sister.

Alessa didn't have time to think about it though, because Andrew Duell had asked her to work with him. "Certainly." The sixth year replied.

11 Alessa Hinckley, Aladren I'm okay with bending water, breathing it,not so much. 150 Alessa Hinckley, Aladren 0 5

Jethro

November 26, 2011 2:25 PM

Small and wobbly? by Jethro

It was strange, not having to anticipate the inevitable moment where the person he's approached for partnership inevitably declined him. For his part, Jethro would never decline a partner, unless he thought he would be in serious trouble of ruining their grade, and that this would have serious consequences for the other students, of course. For today's lesson, they each had their own bowls of water, and so presumably had to perform the spells separately even though working together, and hence Jethro's ineptitude logically couldn't have much of a difference on Raines' grade. He was therefore unlikely to damage it. For his part, however, Jethro's grade was likely to be increased by working with a student of sufficient skill. For example, raines already had a sensible plan for the class, and made his suggestions clear.

"I don't object at all," Jethro assured him. He would much prefer Raines to try the spells first anyway, because it gave him a second opportunity for observation. Jethro's one skill lay in mimicry; it's how had he survived basic watch-and-repeat classes for the past seven years, and indeed how he got by in social situations, not to mention his apparent artistic talent (which, naturally, only lay in copying existing objects - he couldn't imagine subjects that were not already there). He therefore took a side step out of Raines' line of sight, so as not to cause distraction when his classmate was casting the first spell.

Jethro was aware his trun would come next, so he re-read the incantation written on the board and whispered it almost soundlessly to himself before carefully watching Raines complete the spell. With any luck, his partner would be successful on his first attempt, and, by copying him, Jethro would perform eqully adequately. The trouble came when he had to recall what he'd learned once he'd left the classroom, and that had always been somewhat of an issue.

0 Jethro Small and wobbly? 0 Jethro 0 5

Edmond Carey, Aladren

November 26, 2011 8:23 PM

Could be useful by Edmond Carey, Aladren

There were a lot of new professors here this year, a new staff to go with a new Headmistress for the most part. Professor Fawcett, who had taught Morgaine for a year or two at the end even if he hadn’t been an official professor yet, seemed almost like a relic of another time. There was something a little unsettling about it, if he was to be honest.

In a way, if he was to be even more honest, it was almost comforting, too. It made the prospect of separation from this place easier, the idea that next year, he wouldn’t really have any ties here anymore anyway. He was up and dressed neatly for his new professors, early to every class, a model student and prefect all around, but with an odd sense that it didn’t really matter anymore if he impressed anyone or even did especially well. Sonora was over, and his life was going to be a bloody mess after it, and he didn’t even know if that was worse than what he was already dealing with. He couldn’t even go certain places in this school anymore; even now, he could only remember the second half of his fifth year.

Though, there were still reasons to stay, and that was the problem, wasn’t it, that was always the useless problem….

He pressed his knuckles into his forehead for a moment, glad of the relative obscurity of the furthest back row being occupied, trying to clear the gloomy thoughts. Of course he was gloomy; it was the beginning of an end, and he’d had enough of things he’d once liked ending for his taste over the past six years. He would forget i –

The door crashed open, and Edmond jumped, his wand in his hand before he realized that the person standing in the door looked quite as astounded to see all of them as Edmond was to see him, was doing nothing but standing there, and had been at the staff table during the Opening Feast. He was the professor. Edmond put his wand away as quickly as he gracefully could, feeling the color come back into his face and then darken past where it should have as he went from white-faced to turning as red as his hair. Idiot, he thought, and didn’t know if he meant the remark more for himself or Caesar Leonard Light.

At any rate, the propensity people had for making sudden, dramatic moves when they didn’t really mean to present themselves as threats was something he would not miss about Sonora. Not in the slightest.

“I am Edmond Carey,” he said when the introductions reached him. “Of Aladren House. I quite enjoy Charms. That’s all, thank you.” The man had embarrassed him, and now Edmond did not feel like playing the little game of coming up with something that he thought would pass muster for the second thing that had been asked, only maybe it could be turned against him later. He hadn’t to begin with, it reminded him too much of the bizarre maneuverings Morgaine occasionally described, but now he was not going to bother with it at all. Let him tailor his lessons to the dislikes of the others, if that was what he wanted to do, or to their favorite things, if that was it. Edmond would learn his lessons either way and pass his RATS either way and that would be the end of it.

He copied everything that went on the board, translating diagrams into descriptions because he would take more time to sketch it than he had and could fill that in later, and watched the demonstration with a little interest. He wasn’t sure when he’d have a need to move water, and supposed anyone who wanted to drown him would either drug him or hit him over the head and take his wand away first, but he knew that not being able to think of a way to use something off the top of his head was no good reason not to learn it. Other people were more creative in creating circumstances than he was, so it might be useful sometime when he was least expecting it.

Back at his desk, he looked at the person sitting beside him and found a pleasant smile. “Shall we work together?” he offered. It looked like most of the class was pairing up, no doubt so someone could keep an eye on them during the part where they were supposed to be breathing water. “I’m not sure I can think of a place where I’d use the first one, but it sounds interesting anyway.”

0 Edmond Carey, Aladren Could be useful 0 Edmond Carey, Aladren 0 5

Andrew

November 27, 2011 8:06 PM

You might be on to something there by Andrew

Andrew hadn't worked with Alessa much throughout his school 'career', being a year behind him meant he only saw her in classes every other year or so. She was an Aladren though and he found that in the past that meant she usually knew what she was doing. That suited him just fine, the first charm that the professor showed them looked simple enough, but breathing water? That looked like it could get downright dangerous if they messed it up. They'd better not mess it up then, right?

"Okay, I vote we start with the first charm, Aqua Diripio as a warm up." He flashed her a quick smile, hoping she didn't think he was scared or something at trying the other one first. The professor had shown them the charms in a specific order, Andrew could only assume that was the order that they should be accomplished in, right? Only a crazy person would shove his head under water right away... It was at that moment he saw out of the corner of his eye Jose pulling his head up out of his bowl, gasping for air. Andrew sighed, then turned his attention back to his partner.

"Right. Simple and easy." he put down his wand and clasped his hands over the bowl, mimicking Professor Light's motions. "Aqua Diripio" he spoke while picturing the link between his hands and a division in the water. Charms were weird things, they could do almost anything and didn't necessarily relate to each other very closely. Transfigurations was easier for him in that it allowed him to picture the object he had and the object he wanted it to be, then apply the magic to making the necessary changes. Charms didn't always allow him to do that. This one looked like it should though. By using the mental image of the water division following his hand motions he had little problem displacing the water to whatever distance he chose. Clapping his hands back together he ended the charm. "Your turn."

2 Andrew You might be on to something there 145 Andrew 0 5

Alessa

December 12, 2011 1:04 AM

Quite possibly by Alessa

Alessa felt rather relieved that Andrew suggested doing the first charm first. The Aladren was not at all keen on doing that breathing water charm. If she couldn't accomplish it, she would drown. Well, actually, she wouldn't. Alessa would take her head out the bowl long before that happened. Drowning in a bowl of water would be a moronic way to die.

She'd never been one to put herself in harm's way. Alessa could honestly not understand why anyone would. Not only could one die or get hurt, but it was just plain uncomfortable. And stupid. Alessa did not like pain and there were very few reasons why she would ever put herself in such a position-and even those she wanted kept to a minimum.

The Aladren had no idea why a professor would do this to them. Honestly, what kind of idiot put students in danger this way? From what the sixth year understood, when dangerous creatures were faced in classes such as Defense or COMC, those teachers used the Mirage Chamber. This whole thing sounded like a disaster waiting to happen. That must have been why they were working in pairs, so if one started to drown, the other could pull their head out of the bowl.

Alessa decided, however, that between the telling about their favorite and least favorite things about Charms and trying to drown them, the professor must just be a sadist. The cruelest person the Aladren had ever met-and, as she'd met Tawny, that was saying something. At least the seventh year had never hurt Alessa and she hoped to keep it that way.

Professor Light, on the other hand, seemed to have it in for them. The Aladren shot him a dirty look. Hopefully, he'd be gone before too long. Not that she would wish for someone to get hurt or anything."Agreed." If it were up to her, she would never do the second one.

Once Andrew successfully attempted the spell, Alessa took her spot over the bowl,said the appropriate words and copied the gesture both by the Teppenpaw and by the sadistic professor. It took a few seconds but she was soon able to control the water just fine. It was kind of neat but she honestly didn't know when she'd ever use it.

Alessa looked anxiously over in Andrew's general direction. "Um....now that we've finished that, I suppose we...have to do the other one, don't we?" She said, without much enthusiasm. Being bent down, her head in water, ruining her hair, looking awkward-Alessa's movements had always seemed odd to people and there was no lesson in poise that could prepare her for this- and worst of all possibly having her lungs fill with fluid if the spell failed really didn't appeal to her. "There's no way out of it, is there?" It certainly wasn't the first time she'd not wanted to do a lesson, there had been many a DADA lesson that Alessa had hated, but this was just insane . She didn't even care if she looked cowardly in front of Andrew. As far as the sixth year was concerned, there was a fine line between bravery and foolishness.

OOC-I am so sorry! I forgot about this thread.

11 Alessa Quite possibly 150 Alessa 0 5

Andrew

December 20, 2011 3:38 PM

Here's hoping for the best by Andrew

Alessa didn't look all that excited about doing the second charm that the professor wanted them to learn. Honestly he wasn't exactly thrilled about the idea either. That was, after all, why he suggested they start with the other charm. But, here they were finished with first and on to the second.

"Yeah..." was the best response he could come up with as he stared at the bowl. The first one had been easy because there was some sort of linking imagery he could use. This one... this one he just had to cast it and hope for the best. "Well," he gave his partner something of a nervous smile, "here we go."

He pointed his wand at his throat and enunciated very clearly the necessary words. His eyes bugged open and he gasped for air. Frantically he plunged his head into the bowl and gasped as the fluid brought in the necessary oxygen that the air no longer seemed to carry. He held it for just a moment longer before cancelling the spell and quickly removing his head from the bowl.

Wiping his face with his sleeve, he grinned. "Okay, it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. I guess it's your tun."

2 Andrew Here's hoping for the best 145 Andrew 0 5