Weakness and strength. on Charms

Professor Light

November 19, 2011 12:00 AM

Sticks and Stones {3-5} by Professor Light

“... okay, seriously, where is my wand?” Tipping precariously over the cliff of Frantic, Caesar dropped to his knees, palms pressed against the floor, his fingers curling, bending to peer anxiously beneath his desk. “Come on... don’t do this to me!” Anora’s letter, like all of Anora’s letters, had come at a bad time for him. ‘Yes, fantastic. You had another baby. Yes, fantastic. Your husband is amazing. Yes, fantastic. Your life has turned out exactly the way you wanted it to.’ He had spent all night last night outlining a lesson that centered on how to make letters implode once the desired recipient held the envelope in their hand. After a few drinks his temper was calmed and his sanity had been restored, but while he wasn’t quite drunk, he was tipsy enough that he had struggled to remember exactly how the Sobering Charm was pronounced. Too afraid of oversleeping (again) he had made his way to his classroom late last night, and spent the entire morning planning an appropriate lesson, grateful that he hadn’t had a first period class.

Checking the clock, Caesar gave up on searching for his wand and decided to use the remaining twenty minutes of agonized freedom re-outlining his lesson so that he wouldn’t have to demonstrate the appropriate wandwork. Rising to his feet, Caesar straightened only to slump back into his chair. “Oy!” Springing up a second later, Caesar turned to stare at the seat that had burned him. “For merlinssake...” He was wearing his robes backwards, and had sat on the pocket holding his wand. Caesar paused, straightening fully, his back stiff, his shoulders tensed and raised. Taking a deep breath through his nostrils, he filled his thoughts with anger. ‘HateAnorahateAnorahateAnorahatehatehateAnora!’ He let out the breath through his mouth, his lips parting just slightly, and all the hate, anxiety, and nervousness were drained. ‘Got nothin’ but love.’ “Alrighty then,” Turning his silver robes around, Caesar pulled out his wand (undamaged) and began cleaning up the traces of fatigue on his face, the wrinkles on his robes, and neatened his desk. “Okay, okay, okay...”

Muttering senseless, semi-positive words, Caesar got ready for his Intermediate students. He’d had them for a week, but wasn’t really sure what he thought of them yet. He’d gone to a slightly bigger school when he was a kid, so he was used to classes that were divided between each and every year. At Sonora he had to evaluate the difference in education that the third, fourth, and fifth years had. After going over the spells they’d each already learned, looking for overlapping gaps, overlapping connections, Caesar ~~figured~~ ~~hoped~~ was guessing that his lesson for today would satisfy all three years.

“Hey, afternoon!” Caesar welcomed the incoming students as the clock finally caught up to where his mind had been for the past ten minutes. “Drop your essays on my desk before you take a seat, por favor.” Having been a victim of a love potion once - ‘HateAnorahateAnorahatehatehateAnora!’ - Caesar was wary of any and all potions and charms that manipulated the emotions of another human being in any way. He’d had the Intermediate class study Cheering Charms, taught them the incantation Laetissimus because he didn’t believe in withholding information out of fear, and then gave them an excerpt of his dissertation to read where he outlined how simple magic commonly perceived as harmless could potentially lead to the three Unforgivable Curses. For example, Cheering Charms leading to the Imperius Curse. Using his own dissertation as a resource, as well as three other text resources where one supported and the other two contradicted his opinion, he asked them all to write an essay on where they thought the line should be drawn in teaching magic, if any.

Waiting for everyone to settle down in their seats, Caesar glanced over at one of the full length mirrors he had propped up against the wall, pleased to see that the previous blood shot pupils, circles under his hazel almond shaped eyes, and the lifeless character of his honeyed brown hair was all gone, his midnight spells and energizing potion proving successful. “As you know, these two terms we’ll be focusing on the practical applications of charm work in the most frequently occurring scenarios. For example,” There was an indiscernible twitch of his wand, and on several desks life sized mannequins of various appearance fell with hard thumps and convincing shrieks of pain emitting from their unmoving mouths. “Having to heal yourself, or another.” Each mannequin was damaged in some way; a few had broken noses, split lips, legs twisted at odd angles, fingers spread out further than what was normal, hanging limply from their tiny sockets, what looked like blood running from infected ears, and gashes across a thigh and a chest.

“The first spell I want you all to practice is Tergeo.” Caesar pronounced it, Tur - jee - oh. He repeated the spell, this time moving his wand in a half crescent shape, watching the blood on a mannequin clear away. “Point it wherever you see blood. You have to clean the wound before you can properly treat it.” He kept his wand pointed steady at the same mannequin, fixing on the nose that the blood had gushed from. “Episkey is the second spell I want you all to practice.” He repeated the spell Eh - pis - kee without wand movement, just holding his wand-arm steady. With an audible snap! the mannequin's nose fell back into place. Caesar waited for any questions to pop up while waving his wand and letting the mannequin be restored to its previous horrific grandeur, sprawled over a student’s desk.

“I couldn’t spring for dummies for each and every one of you, but I’m glad because when applying these skills in the real world, it will be important to know how to work as a team, in a team, and to split the necessary duties. Start when you’re ready. I will be walking around the class, correcting your form.” He walked through the classroom as his students partnered up, fingers running through the thick volume of hair he had, falling to pull idly at his earlobe. 'I'm a teacher... huh. Who saw this coming?'

Subthreads:

May break my bones. by Marcus Williams (Pecari) with Sophie Jamison [Pecari]

Aren't nearly as useful as wands. by Fae Sinclair (Crotalus) with Madeline Parry, Teppenpaw, Fae

Falling dummies could definitely hurt me. by David Wilkes, Aladren with Regina Parker (Teppenaw)

...Are trees and boulders if they did all that. by Sam Bauer, Crotalus with Jordan Adair, Crotalus

Can be less cruel than words. Trust me. by Ryan O'Malley, Crotalus with Phoenix Lucore, Crotalus

Weakness and strength. by Autumn Collins, Crotalus with Eliza Bennett, Crotalus, Eliza

...Had better come nowhere near me by Arthur Carey, Aladren with Alice Adair, Crotalus, Arthur

Hey, this is great! by Arnold Carey, Aladren with Sara Raines, Pecari

Blood and Bones. by Russell Layne, Aladren with Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw

Life's going to have some rough patches. by Kate Bauer, Teppenpaw with James Owen, James

Don't you love finding posts you really wrote weeks ago? by Jane Carey, Teppenpaw

0 Professor Light Sticks and Stones {3-5} 0 Professor Light 1 5

Marcus Williams (Pecari)

November 20, 2011 12:16 AM

May break my bones. by Marcus Williams (Pecari)

Marcus was happy to be back at Sonora. He knew he’d miss his home once he was settled here, but he needed the break from all of that chaos. His friends were all into girls now, which was fine with Marcus because he liked to look at girls as much as possible, but they were into girls on a level that Marcus was fairly certain never crossed the minds of any of the females at his school. It was just improper. Marcus knew that the girls from his hood behaved in this way, so he probably shouldn’t have been so surprised by it, but he was. It was so night and day with Sonora and Rochester that Marcus couldn’t keep a handle on it all the time and sometimes he felt that his roots showed too much when he was at a school where everyone seemed to come from money.

Over the summer, Marcus had rid himself of his braids. He had had braids since he was seven, so this was a new adventure for him. Now without braids, Marcus had a clean cut look to him with a wicked design that his mother allowed him to have edged into his hair. He wouldn’t be able to keep it up normally, but his mom taught him how to use the clippers so that he could keep his hair even and within control. Along with the change in his hair style, Marcus obtained a summer girlfriend. She was the best friend of his best friend’s girlfriend. Although Marcus didn’t really care to date her, she insisted and so did everyone else. So, he spent days of hanging out with her, going to the movies with her, eating ice cream with her, and going to the beach with her. It wasn’t so bad but by the end of summer, Marcus had been happy to break it off with her too. She was needy and loud and not at all what he was used to anymore.

But now he was back at Sonora, a couple of inches taller (he now hit six feet!), a little leaner thanks to his basketball work, which he planned on continuing in MARS (he honestly missed the good old muggle sports), and feeling all the more ‘grown up’. He could only hope that the others in his class were a little more relaxed than they had been in their previous years. He was getting tired of everyone needing to be perfect because marriage would happen for them as soon as they graduated. He didn’t think that was much of a future.

That was neither here nor there.

Marcus took a seat in Charms. It was a new professor this year, so Marcus was still figuring him out. He seemed alright though. Definitely seemed to know what he was doing and he wasn’t giving them work that was either too easy for them or too difficult. Today’s lesson seemed to still be following that logic. With the drop of the dummies (Marcus felt like they were taking First Aid), Marcus copied the movements of the wand as the Professor showed them and also opened his book to the spells themselves so that he couldn’t mess it up too terribly. Once they were set free, Marcus turned to his partner, “Do you want to do the bleeders or the broken bones?”

6 Marcus Williams (Pecari) May break my bones. 180 Marcus Williams (Pecari) 0 5

Fae Sinclair (Crotalus)

November 20, 2011 1:19 AM

Aren't nearly as useful as wands. by Fae Sinclair (Crotalus)

Fae was struggling to let go of life at home. It wasn’t so much that she was homesick as it was that she knew that everything at home was changing. When midterm came around, she had no idea what to expect. Would Shelby even be spending Christmas with them or was she now going to spend her holidays with the Stratfords? Fae also knew that Jaiden was going to be getting betrothed soon too. The only reason why he hadn’t yet was because he was in college. Except, now none of that mattered. Jaiden wasn’t around much during the summer, but Fae had over heard her parents chatting. They were up to something and it had to do with her brother. If Jaiden was betrothed too, Fae would be all alone! Or what if they were going to betroth her too? What would she do then? What if it was with someone she had never met? Or worse, someone she couldn’t stand? Not that she could think of any boy with whom she couldn’t stand, but still… the thought worried her.

She had been lost in her own world since school began. She had spent Opening Feast with Topher and Alice. She seemed to do this every year. But she had been a bit standoffish towards Alice. Fae had no idea where the attitude came from. By now, she was used to the way Alice was, so there was no real reason for Fae to have been so short with her. And yet, she had been and, in the moment, felt good about it. At least, until the guilt had kicked in. After that, Fae understood that she was taking out her frustrations of her home out on her friends here. Since realizing that, Fae had taken herself away from everyone. She didn’t want to say anything that might lose her a friend.

This was more difficult to do in lessons because they always seemed to need partners. Today was no different. After her initial shriek at the sudden appearance of the mannequins that slammed onto her desk (and embarrassment that followed her having screamed), Fae looked at the doll in repulsion. The lesson was honestly a good one and she could see the reason for it, but did there have to be blood and broken bones? She could barely look at the thing without feeling sick.

Fae closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She had no other choice. She needed to do the lesson and the faster she did it, the faster she was able to get the mannequin out of her face. Opening her eyes once more, Fae looked to the person sharing the doll with her. “I’m sorry, the blood doesn’t seem to be sitting well with me and I don’t think the screams are helping me any. If I do the broken bones for awhile, will you work on the blood until I can manage it a bit better?” Maybe that made her look weak, but she certainly felt that if she lost her lunch during class would make her look even worse.

0 Fae Sinclair (Crotalus) Aren't nearly as useful as wands. 0 Fae Sinclair (Crotalus) 0 5

Sophie Jamison [Pecari]

November 20, 2011 9:49 PM

But Charms will never hurt me? by Sophie Jamison [Pecari]

Admittedly, focusing on school work was a bit harder nowadays for Sophie. Her mind kept wandering to her father and the woman she was completely convinced existed and was busy trying to whisk him away in some whirlwind love affair. Over the summer she hadn’t actually met any such woman, but the way Jacob Jamison behaved… it was obvious he was in love and perpetually caught up in his own thoughts.

The blonde wondered what the woman looked like. Was she tall? Her mother had been a considerably short woman, which was where she herself got it. Was she dark-haired? Sophie had her mother’s light hair and blue eyes. In the department of physical attributes, actually, she got very little from her father. She liked to think she behaved more like him than Sara Jamison if only because being compared to her mother was something she was unsure of how to take it, as an insult or a compliment.

She did try her best to pay attention, especially in classes she liked. Charms, for example, was one such class. She very much missed Professor McKindy; he’d been her favorite staff member. However, she thus far liked Professor Light well enough. The lesson seemed fairly intriguing to the fourteen year, so she was considerably excited. She wasn’t intending on becoming a Healer, so it wouldn’t be something she would use terribly often later in life, but it was still probably going to come in handy.

“Do you want to do the bleeders or the broken bones?” asked a voice beside her. The blue-eyed girl glanced over to see her fellow Pecari fourth year, Marcus. She’d been kind of oblivious not to notice him before that moment, really. Truthfully, she didn’t know him entirely thoroughly, but he’d seemed nice enough to her. She did notice he had gotten taller though, or perhaps she had just gotten even shorter. Considering her age, she was definitely minute. There were probably second years taller than her, which tended to bug her greatly.

“I’ll do the bones,” Sophie returned honestly. “Less wand movement means I’m less likely to poke your eye out or something.” While she was actually good at Charms, she was still a hopeless klutz sometimes. “Hope you don’t mind my stealing the easier spell,” she added with a laugh. “Anyway, I think the blood thing has to be done first, so go ahead whenever you’re ready.” The mannequin’s bleeding, despite it being an inanimate object, was still kind of a sad sight. The only person she ever really wanted to see bleeding was, say, Carrie O’Malley.

12 Sophie Jamison [Pecari] But Charms will never hurt me? 34 Sophie Jamison [Pecari] 0 5

Marcus

November 23, 2011 10:47 PM

Actually, I'm pretty sure Charms can hurt you. by Marcus

It took Marcus a moment to remember who the girl beside him was. He recognized her as the girl who Ryan was always with, but he couldn’t recall her name for the life of him. That didn’t mean anything against the girl. The girls Marcus was used to here in school were the Pureblood girls who made it known that they were proper and Pureblood and whatever else it was that they were aiming for. This was something he had grown accustomed too and sort of forgot about everyone else who might not show off these values too. Everyone else sort of shifted to the side and Marcus had begun to believe that every girl wanted to be engaged before they were even graduated.

A part of him truly believed that the magical world was nothing more than a slave house for breeding. If all they did was go to school to meet a proper future husband/wife, why waste all that money on the schooling at all? None of them seemed to have a plan after graduation. He couldn’t understand that. In the Muggle world, everyone needed a way out. College or Trade School was where they tried to go for. There were those who never made it that far and certainly some who only thought of getting married, but that was never the sole purpose of anything. The Magical world was twisted, but this was the only world where he truly had any sort of future.

“That’s very kind of you.” Marcus said with amusement. “I’d rather like to keep my eye.” He remembered her name, Sophie. Or Sophia. One of those. Still, he was certain that it began with Soph. “It’s fine. If I get the harder spell down first, than I know I can do the other spell without too much problem.” He commented lightly. Grabbing his notes from beneath the moaning mannequin and reviewed what he had written. “Tergeo” He said as he moved his wand in a half crescent shape like the Professor had done. He watched the blood disappear from the nose, but not completely. Still for the first try, he thought he had done a pretty good job. On his second try, the nose was completely blood free. “Not bad, not bad.” He commented lightly. “Want to try fixing the nose now, Sophie?” He was taking a chance at saying her name, but the worst that would happen was that she would correct him if he were wrong. He hoped anyway.

“How are you liking the new Professor?” Marcus asked for conversational purposes. He didn’t know this girl, so he had no idea what to talk about.

6 Marcus Actually, I'm pretty sure Charms can hurt you. 180 Marcus 0 5

Madeline Parry, Teppenpaw

November 25, 2011 7:43 PM

Not much to argue with there, usually. by Madeline Parry, Teppenpaw

Madeline missed Professor McKindy, both because he’d been the professor for all of her first two years and because he’d been cool. Since he was gone, though, he was just gone, and so she had a new Charms professor.

Her inclination, as it was with most people, was to make the best of it and assume he was all right, to be basically predisposed to like him, but to take more time to form a real opinion of him. She guessed she got that from her dad, who was also slower to really start to like people than they often thought he was, though she was more like her mom in being a little more conventionally friendly about it either way instead of the proof that she liked someone being in her growing comfort with unceasing sarcasm with them. Either way, though, the new professor was still too much the new professor for her to be really sure that she liked him, and she guessed she might not be totally sure until midterm or so.

Today’s lesson, she saw very quickly, wasn’t going to be one that went on the list of reasons to like him. She jumped along with, she was guessing, half the rest of the class when the dummies fell to the desks out of nowhere with shrieks of pain, and thanked goodness that, whatever else good or bad there was about it, the Intermediate class she was now part of was very big and there was therefore no way that everyone could have their very own casualty of the needs of med students flop down on their desks. It was gross enough to look over and see one on the table next to hers.

It looked like the girl next to her – Fae Sinclair; they didn’t really have a lot to do with each other, but Madeline knew her name – was taking it worse than she was, though, because at least she didn’t think she was in immediate danger of being really sick. She nodded when Fae asked if she might deal with the blood, at least at first. “Sure,” she said with a sympathetic smile. She thought the blood-cleaning-up spell sounded a little easier than setting bones anyway, though that could have just been her Muggle prejudices talking. “Welcome to Intermediates, I guess,” she added, trying to make light…er of it. Beginners stuff this definitely was not.

0 Madeline Parry, Teppenpaw Not much to argue with there, usually. 0 Madeline Parry, Teppenpaw 0 5

Sophie

November 25, 2011 9:46 PM

Well, these ones won't. by Sophie

She giggled at his return amusement. Keeping one’s eye was indeed a very good thing, Sophie felt. Not having one--especially if it was removed in some clumsy accident like this would have been--would not only upset the balance of one’s face but just be bad. It would impair vision and the like, not to mention pretty much suck in general.

“Want to try fixing the nose now, Sophie?” he asked. The tiny blonde nodded. “I guess so,” she replied. She pointed her wand at the dummy’s crooked nose. Marcus had done a good job on cleaning away the blood, so since that had to be done first, she hoped it would make her task easier. While she was quite good at Charms, she still was often nervous of messing it up. She found most of her Sonora classes to be pretty hard, although the title of challenging to her alluded Potions. That one she found as natural as breathing.

“Episkey!” The dummy’s noise shifted, the snap ringing in the air. Sophie had known it was coming from the Professor’s doing it, but it still surprised her, and she leaped unconsciously from her position, hiding behind her partner. Blinking her blue eyes as she noticed that she was now in a different location, she returned to her spot. “Um, it startled me,” she tried to explain, blushing slightly.

“How are you liking the new professor?” Marcus inquired. The Pecari girl thought for a moment. “He seems all right,” she answered. “I miss McKindy though. I really liked him.” He’d been not only the Charms professor but their Head of House, and while she did like Professor Levy in the position, it wasn’t the same. “I don’t know,” added the Englishwoman with a shrug. “What do you think?”

12 Sophie Well, these ones won't. 34 Sophie 0 5

David Wilkes, Aladren

November 27, 2011 3:34 PM

Falling dummies could definitely hurt me. by David Wilkes, Aladren

David didn’t think he was the most skittish guy in the history of ever, but nor was he a doctor, fireman, or high-wire walker, so when the dummies fell from the ceiling with their clattering and shrieks of pain and one of them landed squarely on his desk, he jumped a little, and pushed his chair away from the desk, though he almost immediately leaned back toward it to yank his notebook out from under the thing. What looked a lot like pus was running from the dummy’s ears, and while he knew the Scouring Charm as well as anyone else…Maybe it was just because he was a Muggleborn with a fastidious nurse of a mother, but somehow, he didn’t think that whatever he did would be enough for that thing to ever seem clean again if that stuff got on it, even if it probably wasn’t actually biological.

Once he had the notebook, though, he left his chair where it had ended up when he pushed back and sat himself back in it, a small but firm distance between himself and the desk and what was on the desk. He was no more eager to be called sissy than the next guy, but that was just gross, and when needing to lay his notebook flat on his lap in order to take notes let him move his chair even further back a moment later, he took the excuse with nary a qualm.

One thing he could say about the new guy: he was determined not to be boring.

The thought of needing to use First-Aid charms wasn’t one David especially relished, especially after the snap of one dummy's nose going back into place made him almost feel a little ill for a second, but he had to admit it was practical. They did stuff in lessons all the time that could get somebody a little hurt, never mind in Quidditch, and it would be a lot easier than going to the hospital for every little break and sprain the way people had to in the Muggle world once he was out of here, though he guessed that depended on whether or not the charms could be performed by the person who was injured; he didn’t remember the professor saying anything about that, though it was possible he’d missed it. His attention tended to wander at unpredictable moments and then return without him remembering what had distracted him, or at least not noticing that he’d missed anything that wasn’t boring and useless.

When they were told to group up, he looked at his neighbors with a wry smile. “At least there’s not any guts,” he offered, thinking of the theme of a great many movies. Blood and bones here, yes, but no guts that he could see. “I’d ask if you wanted to work together, but I guess it’s more of a ‘will you’ question today.” Since if anyone actually wanted to stick their fingers in the wounds of the medical dummies, even if the someone was among the potential Healers in the class, he was going to be seriously, seriously disturbed by that. Just because some things were necessary to know or do did not mean people were supposed to enjoy them.

16 David Wilkes, Aladren Falling dummies could definitely hurt me. 169 David Wilkes, Aladren 0 5

Sam Bauer, Crotalus

November 27, 2011 6:26 PM

...Are trees and boulders if they did all that. by Sam Bauer, Crotalus

It had been long enough since school started that Sam no longer did a double take when the professors he was used to weren’t there sometimes and put his badges on by reflex in the mornings, but it still took him by surprise when he stopped for a minute and realized that it was really his fifth year. In a few months, he’d be sitting his CATS, and two years after that – three less than he’d already been here – he’d be on his way out the door, a certified adult wizard with the best of wishes from Sonora Academy behind him and not a whole lot else. His mom would well-wish him, too, but since she and his father had never been married, it was his father’s ex-wife, with her two kids, who’d gotten the pension.

All that, though, still seemed a long way off – even further than CATS, which still seemed like things that had to happen next year. The sensation of having a feeling of foreboding based on how short a year was, but constantly reminding himself that it was still a year away, was still with him and didn’t seem, except in the isolated moments when he did remember he was in fifth year and really feel the import of that, to have altered one jot.

He wasn’t feeling it as he sat down in Charms, surrounded by the same big crowd of other Intermediates that he had been for the last two years. Yes, Rachel was gone, but Kate was still in the class, and he didn’t really notice the third years anyway except when they passed in front of his line of sight and he wondered what that dirty rotten capitalist Russell Layne and his rich boy friends were doing in Sam’s class. None of them were drawing attention to themselves that way at this exact moment, so he was in a good mood, convinced he was in fourth year, as he waited for the lesson to begin.

When the dummies fell abruptly from the ceiling, he made a face, but wasn’t honestly too bothered by the sight. He wasn’t sure why that was, since blood and stuff definitely wasn’t what he was used to, but maybe it had something to do with Quidditch. No one played these days for very long without figuring out pretty much what it felt like to have things creaking and cracking against the use of nature, and while he was pretty sure he’d never been hurt as bad as the thing on the next desk – it looked like it’d had its finger joints all dislocated, which was definitely not something he’d even seen the Year Aladren Went Psycho – it wasn’t like he hadn’t been in the hospital tent before.

He made a few haphazard notes as what they were supposed to do about the condition of the dummies was explained, watching with growing fascination as the professor demonstrated on one’s nose. That was cool. A little gross, but cool.

He didn’t have a dummy on his desk – money, the root of all evil, struck again – and so turned to one of the seats that did as soon as they were told to start working. “Hey, want to work together?” he asked. He was guessing it would have been more proper for the person with the dummy (the one who was at the center of the work, and could work with or without anyone) to make the offer, but that was one of the great things about being him. He didn’t have to worry too much about what was proper.

16 Sam Bauer, Crotalus ...Are trees and boulders if they did all that. 163 Sam Bauer, Crotalus 0 5

Regina Parker (Teppenaw)

November 28, 2011 8:18 PM

Nah, you can just blast them away! by Regina Parker (Teppenaw)

Although Reggie couldn’t say for certain that Charms was her favorite class (that was, by far, Potions but she was a bit biased with all of that), but Charms did rank pretty high on her list. For one, her previous professor wore a pink hat. Pink wasn’t really her color, but she still thought it was quite awesome for a professor to wear such a thing at all. From her schooling in the past, the teachers had been rather stiff and overly professional. It had been nice to know that not all adults were like that in the education system.

Not to say that a pink hat was the only thing that she had liked about the subject. Her dad was a Potions Master at the magical hospital in Nebraska, so growing up, Reggie spent a lot of time with the Healers and Medics that worked there. She had witnessed many charms happen that helped save lives of patients. Seeing such things changed a person. She never thought about going into the field herself, but she thought it was an amazing career and she loved Charms because of their capabilities.

Reggie waltzed into the classroom with a smile on her face. Although she hadn’t been sleeping well due to strange dreams and the sense of déjà vu that kept occurring to her, Reggie was still in a rather pleasant mood, all things considered. Taking a seat, she watched the professor with interest. He was still new and unknown to her, so she was trying to figure out what he was all about. So far, she can say without a doubt that his lessons were always entertaining.

Case and point, the screaming dummy landed in front of her and her desk mate. She jumped along with most of the rest of the class, but otherwise wasn’t perturbed by the scene in front of her. Maybe she was desensitized by all the movies she had seen or all the times she had spent in the hospital with her Dad. Or maybe she was just weird. She couldn’t say for sure, but the sight of the dummy actually excited her. She was taking in the dummy and trying to pay attention to the professor, but it was hard to do with the dummy screaming. Finally, they were left to do the spell castings for themselves.

Reggie smiled at David when he addressed her. “Guts would totally be awesome if they were included.” She said in all seriousness. “I mean, the broken leg and blood and stuff is pretty cool too, but guts and innerds are just way more better when it comes to bodies.” She was chatting probably in a way that wasn’t all that attractive, but she was being honest and that’s all she cared about. “I always love watching horror movies with all the blood and gore. This is like a tamed version of that, I think. Awesome lesson though.” Reggie rambled. “So, do you want to try fixing the liquid stuff or the solid breaks?”

6 Regina Parker (Teppenaw) Nah, you can just blast them away! 187 Regina Parker (Teppenaw) 0 5

David

November 30, 2011 5:00 PM

Fair point. Am I a wizard or not? by David

David listened to the girl beside him – one of the that group that had a lot of Teppenpaws, he thought; that was weirder than there also being, comparatively, a lot of Aladrens in the same year to him since all those Aladrens were dudes and most Aladrens seemed to be dudes, and there were more Teppenpaws than Aladrens even ignoring that – go on about how actually, she would have liked a bit more gore. At first, he just sort of raised an eyebrow in surprise, but by the end of her ramble on the topic he was smiling a little, his expression more admiring than anything. He liked people who weren’t what he expected; she was a Teppenpaw, a girl, and pretty, which usually didn’t equal cheerfully being okay with the idea of going to watch horror movies.

“No chance of getting bored, anyway,” he said when she finished. “I wouldn’t dream of keeping you from the blood, so you can have that.” Plus, then he wasn’t dealing directly with the blood himself. Machiavelli might not have been impressed, nor the population of Crotalus House, but he thought it wasn’t half-bad. He noticed the form of what he’d said and, on a whim, threw in a little seated half-bow for good measure, gesturing toward the dummy as he did.

“I’m David, by the way,” he added, since he didn’t know if she’d be aware of that. He did not consider himself a very noticeable person, all things considered.

So that left him with Episkey. Funny work. It sounded like someone trying to write out a sneeze, or like some weird invention from Newton or Emerson or Physicton or one of those guys. Episkey. He thought it would be fun to say and gave it a shot. “Episkey,” he said to what looked like a broken finger, and flinched slightly when it snapped back into place, but it didn’t disturb him as much as it had the first time. He guessed it got easier. He also thought the Godfather theme ought to start playing at that thought, and made a mental note to go look in the library to see if he could find some kind of charm to make that kind of effect. That would be many kinds of cool, he thought.

Not that being able to fix stuff wasn’t. “Did he say if you could use this stuff on yourself?” he asked Reggie. Maybe she’d been paying attention at a moment when his mind had wandered off into the wild blue yonder for the wrong three seconds, and that still seemed like a good thing to know, even if he never played Quidditch again. A tiny part of him still liked the idea of being a magic knight he’d had in his head when he first arrived at Sonora as a Muggleborn who’d read way too many fantasy novels before school and had packed in more in the months after his letter than he had for a year before.

16 David Fair point. Am I a wizard or not? 169 David 0 5

Fae

November 30, 2011 8:57 PM

I think it's a good argument. by Fae

Fae’s partner for the day’s lesson was Madeline Parry. Fae knew next to nothing about the girl, which didn’t really mean anything at all. She did know that Madeline was not on the list of people that Fae was supposed to be associating with while at Sonora. Of course, Fae hadn’t been following that list very much (despite being closest friends to an Adair, a Carey, and a Raines), but that didn’t mean that she hadn’t taken notice as to who was on the list and who wasn’t. Fae wasn’t sure if that meant she was from a poor Pureblood family, a Halfblood, or if she was a Muggleborn. Fae knew that she should care about this fact, but she didn’t. Maybe in the future it would matter, but Fae was thirteen and just trying to get through the year.

Of course, Fae couldn’t deny a bit of envy knowing the sort of friendships the Teppenpaws in their year seemed to share. Fae had Alice as a friend, but Topher and Phoenix were more friendly acquaintances than anything else. It just seemed like all the Teppenpaw third years were friends. Maybe the house just held special powers to make everyone like one another? Maybe if Fae had been put in that home, she wouldn’t feel so awkward or nervous around others, especially people she felt were friends, like Arnold.

Fae was happy to hear that Madeline would work on the blood for her. She didn’t understand the ill feeling that she had just looking at it. It wasn’t even real blood. But, she was squeamish and had never been in front of something so grotesque before. How anyone else found this to be entertaining or fun was beyond Fae’s understanding. The broken body parts were horrible too, but they weren’t squirting out liquids of awful colors.

She gave Madeline a genuine smile when the girl agreed to work on the blood until Fae was able to handle all of it. That was nice of her. But, Fae knew that she probably looked like a baby not being able to handle the sight of fake blood. She ought to at least try to force herself into dealing with it, but she knew that wasn’t something she was really willing to do. Maybe after the first round, she could do it, but for now, she’d leave that to Madeline. She gave a small laugh at Madeline’s greeting. “I hope not all the lessons deal with fake broken bodies that shriek in pain. I think I’ll end up going insane. I mean, sure, every once in awhile it’s okay to have a jump start in the day, but I think all the time would just be exhausting!”

She was talking too much now. Blushing, Fae apologized, “I’m sorry, I rambled. What were the spell names again?”

0 Fae I think it's a good argument. 0 Fae 0 5

Ryan O'Malley, Crotalus

December 01, 2011 5:49 PM

Can be less cruel than words. Trust me. by Ryan O'Malley, Crotalus

Recently, Ryan had been thinking a lot about girls. A lot . He couldn't help but notice that some of them were very attractive. Of course, there were two he'd always thought were cute but it wasn't like Ryan had a crush on either because he did not know them that well. He'd never even spoken to them and the Crotalus just couldn't like a girl that he didn't really know, except to think they were pretty in the abstract. For all he knew, despite their cuteness, they were cruel, horrible people like his mother and the last thing Ryan would ever want was to be with a girl like his mother.

Of course, as his mother disliked him, a girl like her wouldn't like Ryan either. That was an oddly comforting thought actually. Truthfully, the Crotalus hoped never to meet any girl that was exactly like his mother or sister-though for some inexplicable reason, Renee Errant somehow reminded Ryan of Carrie, though he didn't know why because his sister was far more of a girly-girl and Renee didn't normally seek to make the fourth year miserable-because such a girl would do exactly like his mother did and get her kicks out of tormenting him. Ryan didn't need any more of that. Though he was certain Carrie wouldn't stop any time soon and for once the Crotalus shared a common goal wish with his sister, that she could go live with their mother.

It wasn't as if it was just hormones either. Some of it was of course, but Ryan wanted-no, needed -someone to care about him in that special way. Sophie was his friend but he didn't think she'd like him that way and some day she would like someone else that way and that someone would like her and she wouldn't need Ryan anymore. Despite the fact that there were far more girls than guys at Sonora that was more likely to happen than the reverse. He had serious doubts that any girl would want him at all and he would always need his best friend even though Sophie seemed to treat him as more of a brother-or cousin, because in Ryan's experience, people didn't treat brothers very well-than anything else.

He was certain that this, wanting for someone special, yearning to be truly cared about in that way was nothing but a pipe dream. Ryan was completely unworthy of love. Sometimes it was said that ugly people had faces that only a mother could love-not that he thought himself downright ugly really, just kind of goofy looking, with huge ears-but basically one way that the Crotalus interpreted that was that a mother would love her child no matter what even if nobody else did and if Ryan's own mother didn't even love him, who would?

The Crotalus sat in Charms now, trying very hard not to check out the girls, particularly those two really cute ones. Ryan didn't want them to think he was creepy or a stalker or anything. He hated for anyone to think badly of him, he just wanted badly to be liked and he could practically hear his mother's voice in his head laughing at him derisively and telling him that even the ugliest most desperate social climbing girl from the most unimportant of families wouldn't date Ryan.

So the fourth year forced himself to concentrate on the lesson instead. When the professor finished talking, Ryan got a dummy and turned to the person next to him, gave them a friendly smile-it was better to be nice to people so they'd not only like you but feel good too-and asked "Would you like to work with me?"

11 Ryan O'Malley, Crotalus Can be less cruel than words. Trust me. 176 Ryan O'Malley, Crotalus 0 5

Autumn Collins, Crotalus

December 02, 2011 5:16 PM

Weakness and strength. by Autumn Collins, Crotalus

Her stomach rumbled and Autumn tried to ignore it. She had skipped lunch in favor of studying for CATS which were drawing ever nearer. Getting perfect scores was extremely important to her and she needed to lose weight, so it was really a no brainer for the Crotalus. Besides, while she wasn't as strong emotionally as her sister Lily, had never been a strong person in general, Autumn needed to be so now. Needed to be in control and stay on her diet. She was not going to give in to her weakness and hunger.

Instead, she willed herself to listen to the new professor. She had never been fond of new professors. They caused Autumn nothing but anxiety. Especially if they were unpredictable people themselves. Worse, it meant Autumn had to try and impress someone new and the Crotalus felt blimp-ish and inferior and completely unimpressive right now. How on Earth was she going to make him like her? The fifth year was certain that Professor Light would either look right through her or wouldn't be able to miss what a fat dumpy little mouse she was.

Autumn felt another pang of hunger and ignored it, trying to concentrate on what the professor was saying. After all, she wanted perfect scores in all her classes as well and that couldn't happen if she didn't pay attention in class. Nor would she impress him. Autumn could even get in trouble for not listening and that would be just humiliating. She had to be strong and push the hunger out of her mind. She would have a salad for dinner later and exercise afterwards but for right now, Autumn had to focus on the lesson.

The assignment given made her feel kind of nervous. The Crotalus would never want to be a healer. Blood and guts didn't make her nauseous but they weren't her favorite thing. The real problem with Healing though, was that people could be in life and death situations and Autumn could not handle that sort of pressure. If someone died at her hands, she'd absolutely not get over it ever. Killing or even hurting someone could cause tremendous guilt even for someone not as pathetic as Autumn. Lily still felt bad about Kaylie's accident, after all.

She forced a smile, even though she didn't feel the least bit happy and turned to person next to her. "Will you please work on this with me?" Autumn would understand if they didn't want to. She was imperfect, a disgusting blob. Still, it would hurt her feelings anyway if the person refused.

11 Autumn Collins, Crotalus Weakness and strength. 164 Autumn Collins, Crotalus 0 5

Eliza Bennett, Crotalus

December 03, 2011 3:39 AM

Twelve of one, half a dozen of the other by Eliza Bennett, Crotalus

As she entered the classroom, Eliza glanced at Professor Light, smiled automatically at his greeting, replied cheerfully, playfully actually dropped her paper onto the desk before laughing and tidying the stack, and went to find a seat. After a week, she still didn’t know what to think of him, exactly, though she was still going through the motions of trying to sort it out. He was likely to prove as impotent and unimportant outside of the extremely narrow confines of this classroom as most of the staff was, but she did need to know. She had to know how predisposed he was to being her enemy, if the issue came up, and work out how to deal with that, then.

She had never, in three full years, decided how to evaluate teachers’ lessons in terms of that, but when a grotesque doll fell from the ceiling to end up in front of her, she counted it as a piece of evidence that a professor’s lessons did indicate how much for or how against good taste he was. She rubbed her hands against her skirt as though to clean them as she looked at the thing, her mouth twisting slightly with displeasure at the sight before her eyes. Eliza was the eldest of five children, so she knew something of what illness and injury and all that looked like, it had been sort of inevitable with all of them running around the house even before they had to go live with Aunt Katherine at her worst, but she had never seen so much of it at once, and usually it was gone in an instant. Even if someone was sick with something that wouldn’t go away immediately, they were shut away from the rest of the family at once, in the hopes it wouldn’t spread.

The spectacle was unpleasant enough that it took a minute for the message begun before it appeared and finished after to sink in: that the trick for the day was to learn how to make it go away. Well, she could stand behind that. If she was somewhere with someone bleeding all over the place and there was no one available to fix the problem, she’d rather fix it herself than wait around for someone to show up. She took out her wand and smiled brilliantly at Autumn Collins when the older girl spoke to her.

She didn’t know Autumn, though she’d expected the girl to be the new Crotalus prefect and had taken it as a bad sign when she did not. Sam Bauer was out of the question, all things considered, but if she could have both of the other two fifth year Crotali…There was something as mechanical, as wearying, about the thought as there was about her smile, as there was about the moment of wondering, comparing herself to Autumn, if her darker looks weren’t a hair too much, too dramatic, to be really pretty, but she was so used to thinking it that there was really nothing else to think. A Collins would be a good addition to her collection of friends and allies, so she’d get a Collins now. “Of course,” she said, as though nothing could have made her happier.

She would have to take direction, of course, from an older girl. “Which spell would you like to work on first?” she asked, assuming they were to switch at some point so they would both know both spells. “I don’t really mind starting with either.” She was the leader of her little group; she wouldn’t seem too subservient even now, here at the beginning with an older girl.

0 Eliza Bennett, Crotalus Twelve of one, half a dozen of the other 174 Eliza Bennett, Crotalus 0 5

Reggie

December 03, 2011 9:32 PM

The school says you are... by Reggie

Well, he was smiling at her that was a good sign. She hadn’t talked him into boredom or said something that was completely weird. Since she had mentioned movies and he hadn’t thought of her as strange, Reggie took that to mean he was either half blood or Muggleborn. She sometimes still forgot that there were others who hadn’t grown up in both worlds the way that she had. One would think that after being friends with Derry for so long, Reggie would think twice about the things she said in reference to the Muggle world, but her roommates had both been submersed in the Muggle world and thus, Reggie never considered others as just simply ‘Pure’.

On top of that, she knew that sometimes she said oddball things. At the time of saying them, she didn’t think anything of it because they were normal phrases that were used around her household (even her grandparents shared these sayings), but the people she was around the most here at Sonora had long since accepted her weirdness. Not so much the people who weren’t ever around her. But, he was not looking at her with confusion or as if she were crazy, so Reggie took that to mean that she hadn’t said or done anything out of the ordinary. Reggie returned his smile with enthusiasm.

At his half bow, Reggie did a sitting curtsy, a similar move to the one she pulled with Derry during the opening feast. It was awkward, but the point of it was clear. “Thank you kind Sir.” Reggie said in a faux old English accent. Reggie twirled her wand as she flipped through the book until she found the spell she was looking for. She had been too distracted by the dummies to notice the wand movement. It was never good to have shrieking dummies in a class of thirteen year olds.

Looking up from the book, Reggie smiled again. She knew his name, but that was from role call in the dozen or so classes they had been in together since her first year. “I’m Reggie.” At this age, Reggie was finally noticing boys. If she were to ask Maddie or Jess what they thought of David, she was certain that they would agree with her in saying he was cute. Actually, now that she thought of it, she would ask them their opinions. Boys were not something that was ever brought up before but now she was curious to know their thoughts.

“He didn’t say it, I don’t think, but you can.” Reggie said, looking over the mannequin for a good spot to try the spell on. “My Popsicle works at the magical hospital near my home town. I’ve seen plenty of Healers use Episkey on patients.” Reggie was explaining, finding a good bleeder and focusing her attention on that, Reggie pointed her wand, “Tergeo!” She said, waving her wand in a half moon shape and then squealed when the blood spurted out of the nose and ears instead of stopping. “Finite! Finite, finite, finite!” Reggie cried out, trying to protect herself from the blood. “Sorry!” She said to David once the blood stopped it’s violent squirting, looking sheepish, she looked around trying to find something to wipe the mess with. “Did it get on you?”

6 Reggie The school says you are... 187 Reggie 0 5

David

December 05, 2011 12:16 AM

I could be a master of disguise. by David

David lacked much of an appreciation for gore, but he did have one for people who didn’t look at him like he’d fallen or had heavy things dropped on his head repeatedly as an infant instead of just that one time (and he had, unlike subsequent times when his sisters or his half-sister’s kids smacked him with something, done absolutely nothing to provoke it, having been peacefully asleep at the time) when he did things like start acting like something out of Sir Walter Scott because it was funny. He grinned easily at Reggie and her put-on accent.

Reggie. Yeah, he was pretty sure he had heard that name before. Not on the roll in that form, but he doubted anyone was going to go to the effort to sneak into a Charms class illegally even if he hadn’t been sure he’d heard that name in class before, so that was cool. Though he was now curious about exactly what sort of person would go to all the effort of infiltrating Charms. Unless the professor was secretly an escaped criminal or something, and Interpol (or, as the case was since there would potions or Transfig or something to looking like a thirteen-year-old instead of a Man in a Suit, Magic Interpol) was after him….

Er, yeah, that was a little implausible even for a movie plot. He wasn’t sure that would work even if wizards could figure out how to have movies without blowing stuff up. Unless special effects guys were really all wizards, but come on, that was going a little way into the territory of the weird, not to mention illegal.

The question about self-use was answered and the tolerance for blood in front of her instead of just on screen was maybe explained. David nodded. “My mom’s a nurse,” he said. “She usually stuck me ‘n my sisters in an office, though, when we had to wait at work, she never let us see anything. Guess magic’s neater, though – like tidier, not like stitches.”

Pretty bad sentence, all things considered, but he didn’t worry too much about that, not least because there was suddenly stuff that looked like blood all over the place. He guessed, in retrospect, that as the older and wiser student who had a badge now to boot, he should have stepped in to stop it, but by the time this occurred to him and he lowered the hand he’d raised to his face, she had it back in hand.

He examined his sleeves, pleased to feel pretty sure, on examination, that it wasn’t really blood. No nasty diseases for him. “Nah, not too bad,” he said. “Scourgify.” That charm, he had learned pretty well. It felt weird, unpleasant, on his hands, but that was better anyway. He had not realized he was so antsy about fluids of a dubious nature touching him before this, and hoped it was a passing thing – well, in one way, not so he suddenly became an enthusiast about that kind of thing, this was a bad question. “Though now I wonder how much blood it has in it, or if you accidentally made it make more, or…” And this was the kind of wondering which had nearly led to the explosion of a pumpkin last year in Transfiguration, but eh, he and Samantha had gotten away with that. It might have helped that the pumpkin hadn’t actually exploded, but that didn’t occur to him too much at the moment as he speculated about how to figure out what had produced that effect there, which had only lacked a bit of good score music to make for a real good scary movie moment. Mannequins gushing blood to scare chords would have creeped him out in theaters, anyway, maybe more than actual people seeming to do so would have.

16 David I could be a master of disguise. 169 David 0 5

Madeline

December 06, 2011 4:56 PM

Well-constructed and eloquently delivered by Madeline

“Nah, it’s fine,” Madeline said when Fae apologized for rambling. “The spells are tergeo, for the blood, and…epi-pip-ski…something – Epis-key for the bones.” She could tell she was flushing over her mispronunciation, but she smiled anyway. “Yeah, that’s another reason why I don’t mind working on the blood,” she joked. “I’m pretty sure I said it right the second time, though.”

She hoped so, anyway, because while it wasn’t on people, she wasn’t sure she wanted to see what would happen if a medical kind of spell went all wrong. That could be bad to look at. She would really rather not.

“I’m actually surprised by how not grossed out I am,” she mused, turning her wand in her hands. She knew it was probably totally stupid, but she still got a thrill from using it, at least the first time she tried a new spell. There was a second, just a second, where it all seemed like a dream again and she was sure it wasn’t real and she’d wake up and everything would be back to normal again in a minute. And, even though she’d been happy at home just like she was happy here, and she’d love to be with her parents more again, that she’d feel just a little disappointed when she did wake up that this world wasn’t real.

Then the spell would work and she’d be chatting with her partner and it would go back to being almost normal, and that would be okay, too. “I always got grossed out by stuff on TV, or on movies with doctors in them and stuff. This isn’t great, but it’s not as bad as seeing it on the screen.” She glanced over at Fae. “And now I’m rambling. Okay.” She faced the dummy again and took a deep breath. “Tergeo.”

And sure enough, sparks floated from the end of her wand, and…well, she didn’t think some of the blood was supposed to retract into the nose, it was supposed to go away, but all of it wasn’t where it had been.

“Well, it’s some improvement,” she said.

0 Madeline Well-constructed and eloquently delivered 0 Madeline 0 5

Jordan Adair, Crotalus

December 06, 2011 9:26 PM

I prefer twigs and pebbles. by Jordan Adair, Crotalus

Even though they had been in school for at least a week now, Jordan couldn’t help longing to return to summer. She did all right in classes; nowhere near to her brainy sister, Alice, but well enough that she wasn’t in any danger of having to repeat a grade. Even so, there was no doubt that she didn’t want to be here. She wanted to go back to the fun of summer. She had yet to settle into the dull routine of breakfast, classes, lunch, classes, dinner, homework, free time, sleep, then rinse and repeat every single day. It was boring! She wanted to sleep in. She wanted to enjoy a late breakfast before lazily lounging by the pool. She wanted to hang out with her friends, especially the male ones. She had briefly dated Brad Delllings, which had been lots of fun. She had hated dumping him, but she didn’t believe in long distance (or long lasting) relationships.

Giving a sigh, her blue eyes turned towards the professor. She supposed that she should attempt to pay attention. It wouldn’t do her any good to earn a spot on the bad side of Professor Light when he was the one that would be giving her a grade in the class. She intended on continuing with Charms until she graduated. It was one of her better subjects. Of course, given how often professors changed in the school, it might not even matter. But still, it wouldn’t be good to have a negative mark. She pulled out her notebook in an effort of being prepared. Well, that was before she gave a shriek at finding herself faced with a brutalized mannequin on her desk. It made it doubly hard to pay attention to exactly what they would be doing during the lesson. Ew. Super gross! She was definitely never going to go into the Healing field that was for sure.

She shuddered when the professor performed the Episkey spell and the dummy’s nose popped back in place. The sound was horrific! She had never had a broken bone before so she had never heard the sound before, but she could say it certainly didn’t sound natural. She guessed it sounded pretty much the same whenever it got broken before. Either way, it didn’t sound pleasant. At least, they were going to be able to work in partners. She was glancing around for someone that might be more willing to do the actual work when someone next to her spoke. Looking over, she saw Sam Bauer. She had never actually spoken to him before, but she had noticed him. He was a fairly decent looking fifth year plus he was in her house. “Sure, I was thinking we should probably start with the ears. That has to be pretty painful.” She touched her own ears in thought of what it must feel like. “Do you want to go first?”

0 Jordan Adair, Crotalus I prefer twigs and pebbles. 0 Jordan Adair, Crotalus 0 5

Phoenix Lucore, Crotalus

December 06, 2011 10:56 PM

I would rather have neither. by Phoenix Lucore, Crotalus

Coming back to school, Phoenix had realized that he had yet to make any friends. This was his third year and being so quiet had served him very little purpose. He was on friendly terms with Fae and Alice, but nothing of significant value. Not to mention, he barely even knew his roommate, Topher. He hadn’t realized how isolated he had become until his little sister, Ephanie, had started asking questions about school and the people there. She was quite a bit more outgoing than he was. Oh, it wasn’t that he was shy so much as he tended to be caught up in his own headspace. So, he had decided that this year, he would become more involved. He would make the effort to get to know others so that he would actually maybe miss some of his fellow students when he graduated someday.

Brushing his hair off of his face, his blue-green eyes glanced around appreciatively at some of the good-looking girls in the class. He had begun to notice them more and more. Though, he knew that he could never take interest in any of them. His parents had given him the Talk over the summer. It was awkward enough, but his had included the details of what having veela blood would do. Those that were interested in males would be naturally drawn to him, some more than others, but it would be superficial. He would have to take great care not to become involved in the puppy love relationships that others his age would be experiencing. He had to remain aloof and unattached. It was a shame though, because there were certainly a couple of girls that he was physically attracted to. Was it really so wrong to draw their attention?

Shaking his head, he decided it shouldn’t really matter. He should be focusing on the lesson, which wasn’t too hard to do when a whole bunch of dummies came barreling down. Cool! Okay, granted they were a bit grotesque, but that was part of the awesomeness of the lesson. Even better was that they were going to be fixing them up. This was completely up his alley. He thought about maybe one day becoming a Mediwizard. He thought he would be able to do some good in the world. Plus, it was definitely better than being stuck at some desk job. He always had to be moving. Even now, his foot was twitching, because he wanted to be moving. His mom had thought at one point that he might have had attention deficit disorder, but their mediwizard had assured them he didn’t. He was just a highly active and energetic person.

As such, he was thrilled when they were told that they could get to work and more so when someone asked him to work with them. Looking at the other boy, he recognized him as someone that he had seen around his own house, but honestly, he couldn’t place a name with the face. He really was stuck in his own head. “Yeah, sure. Uh…you’re…? I’ve seen you around. I’m Phoenix Lucore.” He supposed he was supposed to add some bit about where he was from and all that, but he didn’t. He just didn’t care to. Why pretend to be what he wasn’t? His father might have been pure and from a good family, but he was a half-breed, only accepted by wizards due to their fascination with veelas, though, still not fully accepted.

Taking a place near the boy, Phoenix procured his wand. He opted to clean around the mouth. “Terego!” He was pleased to see that most of the blood was gone. “Do you want to give fixing it up a try?”

0 Phoenix Lucore, Crotalus I would rather have neither. 0 Phoenix Lucore, Crotalus 0 5

Arthur Carey, Aladren

December 08, 2011 7:21 PM

...Had better come nowhere near me by Arthur Carey, Aladren

It wasn’t every day that something noisy and a little chaotic happened in Charms class, but it was enough days that Arthur had slowly, over the course of his first two years, come to think of Charms class as absolutely exhausting. It was extremely useful, and he loved the subject in the abstract, but on a day-to-day basis, in class…it was exhausting.

Now, in Intermediates, it tended to be even more tiring. There were too many people crammed into one room; his family alone had three representatives, and Arthur knew enough to know that to compare his accomplishments to Jane’s in anything other than an act of deference to her would be an exercise he would emerge from looking very foolish. She smiled like an idiot, she was friends with an idiot, she was in Teppenpaw like an idiot, but he had overheard her talking to her brother just enough to realize that she was as far above him intellectually than he was above most of the first years, and he deeply respected her brain. The rest of his classmates weren’t as intimidating, he would be willing to bet he could hold his own with any of the fourth years and maybe more than a few of the fifth years, but they were just…there, and when the class lent itself by nature to dramatic displays….

Such as the one before him now. Arthur jumped a little when it first appeared unexpectedly, but then looked at the ugly doll which had landed on his desk with such a lack of emotion that the moment of surprise might have never happened.

He frowned slightly, though, as he considered its ears. Learning to clean up the blood and such was all very well, but if they didn’t have some means of disinfecting it, then that was just so much wasted time on their parts, because it would start up again at once. Or worse; he thought it would be bad if the infection were sealed up in the patient’s head. The ear was in ominously close proximity to the brain, after all. If it was that bad, bad enough for blood to be running, then the patient should also probably be fevered; they’d need to take care of that quickly, as fever was something he knew was very bad for the brain. He’d gotten some kind of throat infection when he was nine, and there was a week he had heard described to him but which he did not remember at all.

Then there were all the broken bones. Healing a broken bone wasn’t much of anything, he knew, but he remembered Arnold going white as paper, one time at home, after being given something for pain while one was put back into place so it could be healed. More dimly, he was convinced he remembered Uncle Adam forcing a bone in his arm to go back beneath his skin after the broom crash when he was four, and what it was like to have his ribs realigned for healing, and that both had hurt like fury, despite Mother’s assertion that he’d been so doped up he couldn’t possibly remember any of that. These didn’t seem to have that kind of fracture – compound, was that the word Mother had used? – and he didn’t know how to check for broken ribs, but some of the ways things were bending made him think things might be in chips in there, and if the screams were meant to happen any time something that should hurt them happened, he imagined they were going to scream bloody murder while they had their bones fixed.

The exemplar, however, didn’t complain at all about the mending of its nose, so maybe that had just been for dramatic effect when they fell. They would see. It still seemed like more of a crossover with a potions lesson to him, at least to avoid screaming.

Unless he was wrong, and cleaning the blood would prevent or remove infection, but Arthur seldom considered that possibility for long and didn’t break pattern now.

When they were put to work, he focused on assessing the doll and rubbing his left shoulder in instinctive sympathy with it as he noticed that its left shoulder was dislocated. This was going to be a lot of work.

He remembered there being something about partners, the professor lacked money, et cetera, in the end of the speech. He didn’t strictly require one, since he had a doll, but someone else would. He looked up, and, sure enough, there was a person.

“Good day,” he said pleasantly. “I’m not sure if the bones take priority over the bleeding or not, or if it doesn’t matter because it’s not real and, er, we’re just learning the spells, not the full treatments.” That was a possibility that hadn’t occurred to him before the moment he said it, or he thought he might have phrased it a little better than that. He focused, in the absence of more distracting thoughts following that one, again on his partner. “What d’you think?”

0 Arthur Carey, Aladren ...Had better come nowhere near me 0 Arthur Carey, Aladren 0 5

Reggie

December 08, 2011 9:45 PM

And me an evil villain? by Reggie

“A nurse?” Reggie asked, looking up from her work for a moment to look at him. “Very cool.” She said with a smile. Reggie had respect for those in the Health Care system. Actually, any sort of system where they were helping people. Reggie had no idea what it was that she planned on doing with her life, but she wanted it to be in something that would get her into helping people. Maybe not a Healer. Any one of those seemed a bit withdrawn or maybe disconnected. Her dad said it was because they had to deal with so much that it was easier on them to not have a real relationship with their patients. Watching movies, Reggie figured that was probably true in the Muggle hospital too. But a nurse, in both the Magical and Muggle world, were always so nice and willing to help. They were real heroes to Reggie.

Her spell work had been awful and Reggie was slightly embarrassed by this knowledge. Normally, it wouldn’t have bothered her at all, but David was an older student who she thought was cute and he was easy to talk to. He now just witnessed her flub up her spell and in a really messy way. Her school robes had fake blood all over them and she was pretty sure she had some on her face and in her hair. She really looked like a gore freak now.

“Well, that was terrible. I’m sorry.” She said again even though he seemed totally cool with it. She didn’t know what her deal was. She wasn’t normally so flustered by this all. “I think the dummy may be filled a bit with the blood, but I think my spell also sort of caused it to increase and spit out.” Reggie joked. “This will take me forever to get out of my clothes and hair.” She commented more to herself than to him. “Too bad I don’t have a camera. I would totally take a picture of myself right now to send home to my dad. He’d get a huge kick out of this.” Reggie shook her head, amused with herself and then tried the spell one more time. This time, it seemed to work because she did the crescent moon instead of half a moon. “There we go.” She exclaimed, looking accomplished. “Maybe the professor will let me borrow a dummy and I can make a horror movie all my own staring the students of Sonora. Wouldn’t that be awesome?”

6 Reggie And me an evil villain? 187 Reggie 0 5

Alice Adair, Crotalus

December 08, 2011 9:52 PM

Though, it might be exciting. by Alice Adair, Crotalus

Change was not something Alice enjoyed in the slightest. It tended to be unsettling. Over the summer, she had ended up having to deal with familial dynamics shifting when Dani had decided to completely transform herself. Their mother had completely flipped out when she had seen the hair and piercing. Her sister had been in a world of trouble when it was learned she had forged a parental signature, but it hadn’t seemed to matter. She had just ended up storming out of the house. So, rather than her mom and dad yelling at Dani, they had argued with each other saying how she should never have been allowed to go away to the writer’s workshop. Her mom thought it had all started there.

Alice had sought refuge in the educational. She had focused her time on studies. It wasn’t like she had anyone to talk to anyhow. Jordan had spent all of her time with her new boyfriend. Jordan had always liked boys, but to have actually called someone a boyfriend and to spend so much time with him, well, it had been weird. She didn’t like it one bit. It also made her worry. Would she eventually act in such a silly manner trying to impress boys? She really hoped not. She might be concerned that she was abnormal if it weren’t for the fact that Fae didn’t like boys in that way yet either. Though, even though she didn’t like guys in that way, it didn’t mean that she didn’t think that some were attractive in that they were a good looking person way. She just wasn’t interested. Plus, it meant change.

Therefore, it stood to reason that seeing a different professor teaching Charms had not sat well with her and she was still adjusting to the fact. Not to mention that she did not enjoy professors that did things such as drop dummies onto desks. She about jumped a mile when he did so. It didn’t matter if the lesson was interesting or not. She did not like surprises. However, since there was little she could do about such a matter, the Crotalus decided to concentrate on the things that she could control and that was to try and do her best on the lesson. The spells seemed easy enough. There really wasn’t very much wand waving at all. Actually, she wondered if it was actually supposed to be that simple? Had she missed something? She didn’t think she had, but she supposed she would know once they were grouped together. It was a given that in about every class they would work with someone else.

Alice never really understood why this was necessary, but was glad when someone saved her the trouble of having to make the awkward overtures. Oh, it was Arthur. She found him to be rather pleasant company in the time that she had spoken with him. “Thank you and a good day to you as well,” she replied, attempting her best to speak in a polite manner. Taking a moment, she thought about his question. “I suppose mending the bones would be essential if they have not broken the skin. However, if they have, cleaning up the blood might be critical so as not to allow infection to enter any further than it already has. Of course, since all the bones need to be reset and it is essential to be done, it would be best to do them all at once. I think I would have to choose to clean up blood in broken bone areas first, set those, then work down through the less critical areas. Assuming that sits well with you, would you like to go first?”

0 Alice Adair, Crotalus Though, it might be exciting. 0 Alice Adair, Crotalus 0 5

Autumn

December 08, 2011 10:08 PM

Which is which? by Autumn

Eliza Bennett was somebody that Autumn barely knew. The only thing that she knew about the younger girl was that she didn't get along with one of her roommates. The fifth year was rather glad not to have any herself. She didn't know if she could handle fighting with one of them. Autumn got stressed easily as it was and not only having an enemy but having to share a room with said enemy would make it even worse. She'd probably be exceedingly paranoid about having to watch her back every single second.

And from what Autumn could tell, Eliza's roommate was extremely poorly behaved as well, the rumors she'd heard about that girl were horrifying, including that she'd been drinking wine at some party that Autumn hadn't attended, but Nina and Hope had. There was no way that girl would be prefect next year. It would have to be either Eliza, Jordan or Ryan.

Of course, on the other hand, Autumn was incredibly well behaved. She got exceptional grades and was nice or at least polite to people...and she still hadn't gotten it. She still didn't know what she'd done wrong but it meant that she wasn't perfect and while logically, the fifth year didn't really believe that she'd lost the position because of anything in the way she looked, but Autumn still felt flawed and the most obvious flaw she could find was her weight.

That was what she could spot, that was tangible and she could do something about it. The Crotalus could control her diet and her hunger. Autumn did not have to be weak and give in to it. Even if she could control nothing else in her life, she could certainly control that. She'd feel better then, when she lost at least ten pounds, maybe fifteen.

Eliza's question brought her back to Earth. "I suppose, I'll do the broken bones first." Autumn replied. She hoped this would be okay with the younger girl. One of last things she really wanted was conflict. She didn't want to be difficult. All she'd ever wanted to do was impress people.

11 Autumn Which is which? 164 Autumn 0 5

Eliza

December 10, 2011 4:36 PM

Depends on the person and the situation by Eliza

Autumn seemed a little distracted, but Eliza ignored it for now, blaming the class itself. CATS-level classes, knowing that everything they knew would have to be done in front of strangers in a few months, were stressful; getting older in general was stressful. People talked more and more about what your future would be, and she supposed a Collins would hear as much about marrying as she did, if maybe with more actual names in the equation than just Mother fussing about how there should be more available names.

Or maybe not. It wasn’t as though this problem was exactly exclusive to her family. Eliza tried to look at it as a competition sometimes, in the hopes that it would somehow make the idea of getting married more appetizing, but it hadn’t worked. The only thing she liked about the idea was that Mother might be quiet for a little while before she started complaining about how Eliza’s husband was not prestigious enough to suit her and that That Female was illegitimate (at best; Mother had enjoyed talking about what a scandal that was) and thus sure to do even worse.

“That’s fine,” Eliza said, even though it left her to deal with the blood. She could pretend it belonged to a certain member of the class, and that cleaning it up would hurt like throwing vinegar laced with salt into each gash. Even that wasn’t as satisfactory as it might have been once, as it should have been, but it was something.

“Tergeo,” she intoned, picking a wound at random. Much of the blood went, leaving a reddish-orange residue on the fake skin. “Ick,” she added, finding this somehow worse than the actual part where the dummy had been bleeding all over the place. “At least it’s not hard. I’m still going to have to tell my little brother he doesn’t want to be a Healer, though.” That had come up for some reason over the summer, but she couldn’t in good conscience recommend the profession to him if this was the view he’d get every day.

Of course, she was a girl. A strong-minded manly man might not mind so much as she did. Eliza had never seen what was supposed to be so superior about guys and men, but she guessed they must have had something going for them, to in so many cases be in charge. Mother had always criticized Father for treating her too much like a son instead of a girl, after all, passing along the same lessons and advice to her that he did to Paul as though she were an heir and might amount to something besides a friend for her nephews to rely on if they needed to, or at best a way into a certain business or part of the country for them.

“Of course, he’s probably already changed his mind,” she admitted. “Do you have younger siblings?” To get Autumn in her camp, or even be really sure there was a chance of doing so, really, she had to get to know her better. Plus, it was one of the easier ways to strike up a conversation, turning it to the other person. If Autumn didn’t like to talk about herself, Eliza would have to think of something else, she couldn’t have anyone else resent her, but it was a start.

0 Eliza Depends on the person and the situation 0 Eliza 0 5

Arnold Carey, Aladren

December 10, 2011 5:41 PM

Hey, this is great! by Arnold Carey, Aladren

Arnold fidgeted slightly in his desk before Charms, doodling a very bad picture of a Snitch on the edge of the first page of his textbook. Arthur liked to arrive to classes early, and Arnold usually came with him to make sure he didn’t actually end up being late, but then he usually got bored waiting on class to start. He’d talk to people sitting around unless they were visibly against this, and doodle, and otherwise kill time, but he didn’t really like to; if he did something, he wanted to be really doing that, and you couldn’t even really have a conversation in the few minutes between classes.

He was thinking about the essay he’d just handed in, aware it was probably going to be one of those grades he got a slightly disapproving note from home about, and at the same time about Quidditch practice when the lesson began and didn’t really follow everything Professor Light was saying until, out of nowhere, there was screaming. He looked up and all around him, startled, as the dummies fell to some desks, and looked at the one nearest to him with something between revulsion and intrigue as he noticed why it was screaming. That was…Well, he’d gotten hurt his fair share of times, so had all the other boys, but he wasn’t used to seeing it quite like that. Usually, whoever was hurt was bundled up to a room very quickly, and when everyone else saw them, they were mostly back in one piece again.

It made a certain amount of sense to him, studying the spectacle, why Arthur fussed so about his lack of concern for Bludgers. He didn’t get in that shape during games, but he guessed it was about how he must have looked after the unfortunate incident with the window.

For once, then, it was easier than usual to concentrate on the lesson and pay careful attention to how the spells were supposed to work and sound and how his wand should move and all that without having to wing it and steal glances at the work of those around him to be sure he knew what he was doing. He even took notes. This was something he could actually use and probably would have need of sometime, if no one was around at a bad time; Arnold didn’t have a lot in the way of introspection, but he had noticed that he was pretty good at getting himself into situations where a knowledge of some basic Healing charms was a good thing to have to hand.

He didn’t have one of the ‘patients’ on his desk, though, so he turned to the nearest person who did with what he hoped was a charming smile. “Mind if I work with you?” he asked. “I can work on the bones.” Since he usually ended up breaking or at least cracking things more than he ended up bleeding, or at least he thought so. Having that thought also did make him wonder if maybe he should be more careful, but then he dismissed it. It sounded worse than it was, he was sure of that. Otherwise, he’d most likely be very dead by now. There were family jokes about it, but he was sure that even Carey luck could only carry anyone so far.

0 Arnold Carey, Aladren Hey, this is great! 181 Arnold Carey, Aladren 0 5

Sara Raines, Pecari

December 10, 2011 6:19 PM

That's a matter of opinion by Sara Raines, Pecari

That morning, Sara had stood before her mirror for a long moment, looking herself over, before she gave the pretty reflection an only slightly hesitant nod, smoothed her blue dress and green robes and long brown hair all one more time, and went out to meet the day. Her cheekbones looked too prominent to her, her body too long for itself somehow, her hair impossible when she looked in the mirror now, but she could still see when she looked as good as she was going to for a certain day.

It was absolutely, she thought, absolutely ridiculous that just now, when she was fourteen and reasonably popular and had everything coming together for her at her fingertips, that she had to start feeling plain and awkward, but it did, at least, make her feel a little better about the lesson for the day in Charms. Or the lesson made her feel a little better about it, one or the other. She was too short, her coloring wasn’t very good, her bones had turned clumsy and strange without much warning, and she had never been, in her opinion, properly poised, but she, thank Merlin, was a perfect beauty on her worst day compared to those poor dummies on the desks. What on earth could happen to someone to make them look like that?

Suddenly, though she’d never been someone to write them off altogether in the first place after all the murmuring she’d heard about the complications of a family with a female heir who, well, also happened to be Catherine, Professor Levy’s Defense classes began to seem far more relevant.

Just as quickly, her moment of stunned vanity when she’d noticed what had fallen turned into something like pity for the poor things. She knew it was silly, they were just medical dummies, there were probably dozens like them at the hospital and the professor might have even bought them from her family, but Sara had been the sort of little girl who was very attached to her dolls and still kept them, occasionally even taking one down if she was having a very bad day. She found herself wanting to clean these up and wrap them in blankets and hide them from stupid boys, who were terribly drawn to any dolls unfortunate enough to be in the general area of them.

Instead, she forced her eyes up to meet Arnold Carey’s and gave him a bright smile to match his own. She did not know the Carey twins well at all, but they mixed with enough of the same people that she knew she should, so now was as good a time as any to get a little better acquainted with this one.

“Very useful for a Quidditch player, I’d think,” she said when Arnold offered to work on the bone-knitting spell. She had gone to the games because of her friendships, and knew something of Arnold’s propensity for getting into harm’s way as well as the Snitch’s. “I’ll work on Tergeo, then.” Which was the one she was more likely to use, as an eventual wife and mother, so that all worked out very neatly. Though she supposed she’d have to know both spells eventually, for the exam and also practical reasons. “Are you having a pleasant day, Mr. Carey?”

0 Sara Raines, Pecari That's a matter of opinion 0 Sara Raines, Pecari 0 5

Russell Layne, Aladren

December 11, 2011 7:35 PM

Blood and Bones. by Russell Layne, Aladren

After a week, some of the excitement of being in the Intermediate classes was starting to wear off, but only a very little. Russell knew it was stupid, but he still felt a little thrill at sitting down in his classes and realizing he was now in the room with the fifth years, working sometimes – even often – on the same material they were. On one hand, that meant he was that much closer to finishing school, which was kind of a sad thought now that he was comfortable here, but on the other hand, there was so much to learn here.

That was the upside, too, of being at the bottom of the heap, so to speak. As a third year, he was one of the people here with the least experience and knowledge to go on already, which meant there wasn’t too much of a chance of anything being repeated for him, making it all about the learning.

Of course, the downside was that he still had so much to learn, too, he thought ruefully as he handed in his essay. He’d very nearly asked Arthur for advice before reminding himself that he did have some self-respect, he’d worried so about the thing and whether or not his argument was good enough or even coherent or if it was technically coherent but actually completely in the wrong and if he even had a clue what the professor wanted to hear. He was pretty sure that ruthless, cutthroat ambition was never going to be an integral part of his personality, but if he was here, then he didn’t want to be at the bottom of the heap in terms of his grades as well as in terms of age. He thought he could do better than that, if he could be sure what was expected of him. Maybe it would have been a little easier if he’d still been used to the professor even if he was still feeling out how hard the class was going to be; he didn’t know that for sure, but it did seem likely.

Like a few people, he jumped a little when the dummies, each looking like it had been through a natural disaster and maybe in some cases a minor war, fell down on some desks. ‘Healer’ wasn’t really a career path Russell had been considering, but then, there wasn’t really he was, either, and this was basic stuff. That didn’t mean it would be as easy for him as the fifth years, but still, doable. How hard could it be? He could already do a Scouring Charm, and bones just…stopped being broken, right?

He ignored the little voice in the back of his head that suggested he might just be oversimplifying that a little. That voice was not helpful right now, and he didn’t need internal voices that weren’t helpful today.

“Hey,” he said, turning to the nearest person with a dummy when they were set to work. “Want to work together?”

16 Russell Layne, Aladren Blood and Bones. 183 Russell Layne, Aladren 0 5

Sam

December 11, 2011 8:25 PM

I prefer not to get hit by stuff at all. by Sam

On inspection, Sam recognized the girl at the next desk as one of Renée’s roommates. Not, though they looked a little alike, the ringleader, that was the dark-eyed one, Eliza, that Nic was…friends or something with, Sam didn’t know, but she was really proper and had gone to the Ball last year in a red ball dress and a tiara, which Sam thought told him everything about her that he needed to know. This was Jordan, yeah, Jordan Adair. From what he’d seen, he would, if he’d had the money to be a betting man, have put his money on her being the new fifth year prefect next year just on the basis that she was possibly the most normal of the lot.

Still, he was pretty sure he was the darkest Crotalus horse ever to come out of even a small selection pool with a badge on, so who knew. He couldn’t find much of a pattern to the prefect selections he’d seen over the years, no real balance between liberals and conservatives, real or just perceived by those around them, seemed to be the idea. If there was a pattern, it was discernible only to minds brighter than his, and his guess was that it wasn’t that but just a case of it being a staff thing, when staff people were as subject to whims as anyone else. Only time would tell who Marissa’s replacement was going to be next year when Rachel was lording it over everyone as the senior prefect for their House, and probably as Head Girl of the school to boot.

“No problem,” he said, a little amused by her holding her ears like that, when he was asked if he’d go first. Maybe she was putting on, maybe she really was completely grossed out, but either way, it was cool. He pointed his wand at the mannequin’s right ear and said, “Tergeo.”

Some of the blood began to clear away, which was good, and he repeated the spell to finish it off. Another try or two, and his guess was that he’d be able to work it with one spell, at least on ears, though he only had one other ear to practice on, which was a minor inconvenience in that way. He glanced back over at Jordan. “You want to try the other ear, or work on the bones while I take care of the blood and stuff?” Since maybe that was what was bothering her, rather than just not wanting to be the first one to try the new spells. Some people got bothered by that, he knew, or at least he had heard and seen in a few comics. People swooning and stuff. That would be pretty bad, better if she didn't do that, especially since he might now be expected to be responsible for that or something. He didn't know how he could be, but who knew what secret loopholes came with the badge?

16 Sam I prefer not to get hit by stuff at all. 163 Sam 0 5

Kate Bauer, Teppenpaw

December 11, 2011 11:13 PM

Life's going to have some rough patches. by Kate Bauer, Teppenpaw

Kate smiled brightly at Professor Light as she dropped her paper on the desk, figuring it was always best to go out with a smile. She hadn’t gotten near length, and the whole thing was the disorganized product of three crazy hours, so she was pretty sure, no matter how lenient a grader he was, that she wasn’t going to do very well on the essay she’d just handed in.

Oh, well. There were more important things in life than making a great grade on each essay she handed in, and she wasn’t going to fail the course at any rate. Momma would be annoyed, and Rachel, but when were they not? Kate had only the dimmest memories of a time when anyone in her family except Dad had ever seemed to think she was anything other than basically a disappointment, a failure, an errant offshoot of an ambitious line that had no more place in its steady climb to greatness than poor Aunt Lavinia did. She’d learned not to let it bother her too much. If she hadn’t, she didn’t guess she would have time to think of anything else.

And there was plenty else to think of. Her little sister was getting settled into first year. Two of her family members were now prefects on top of being bigger achievers than she was, and Rachel had spent all summer talking about how she had to be absolutely perfect all year so she could get on the ballot for Head Girl. She was going to be the oldest Seeker in the school next year, so she really needed to get her act together on the Pitch and win something for once. Maybe it was just whatever small part of her genes came from Granddad and Momma talking, but she thought it was high time Teppenpaw got its share of the glory.

And, oh, yeah, her CATS were next year. Next year, but the past three years had gone by so fast she was still a little surprised sometimes to note that she was not in first year anymore, so she was pretty sure the next few months weren’t going to be nearly as long as she thought right now that they should be. And even if they were, she was going to be nagged about studying every day by someone anyway, so she might as well go ahead and do it.

She had her stuff all out and ready to take notes, determined to be a good student for as long as she could maintain a reasonable amount of fear for her future academic life, which made it a bit of a disappointment to have a great big mannequin running something red fall on top of her paper and, she was pretty sure, break her quill. It wasn’t her best quill, or even her favorite, but it was pretty good, so she wasn’t going to be happy if it was broken. Once her heart stopped thudding. A certain amount of surprise was a given at magic school, but really? Screaming? That had come a little out of nowhere, especially since they weren’t even in Professor Levy’s class.

At least the lesson sounded cool. Kate knew there was no way she was remotely smart enough to be a Healer, she’d get laughed out of the Healer-school entrance exam or whatever it was, but the lesson was still cool, and it couldn’t be too hard if the third years were getting to do it. She kinda wished Rachel and some of her friends had been there, though, just so she could have watched how they would have reacted. She could just see Veronica Kerrigan jumping through the roof.

Turning in her seat, she grinned at the person in the next dummy-less desk. Then, borrowing what she imagined to be the tone her sister might use to invite someone to some kind of super party or cool people’s breakfast or whatever, she really didn’t know a lot about that kind of thing except that she was pretty sure it did not involve things with broken bones and blood everywhere as a general rule, she said, “Care to join me?”

16 Kate Bauer, Teppenpaw Life's going to have some rough patches. 170 Kate Bauer, Teppenpaw 0 5

David

December 12, 2011 2:02 AM

Do you want to be an evil villain? by David

“I’ll tell her you said so,” David said with a half-grin when Reggie said Mom being a nurse was cool. He usually saw her at the end of the day, when she was tired and thoroughly sick of having to be accommodating to everyone and still had a bunch of housework to do and three kids and a husband to put up with, and he was pretty sure she’d like the thought of someone thinking she was cool.

He thought she was…impressive. And a little scary sometimes. But then, he guessed that was how it went for someone who planned to survive in his family and was too stubborn to back down and be walked on, like his cousins’ wives. And he could not see his mother ever, in a million years, being like his cousins’ wives. His mother was kind to people like those poor girls, she was kind to everyone because that was just how she was unless someone wronged her on an epic scale, but she could never be like them. It was against the natural order for her to accept what she got and be okay with it.

“Maybe the spell will work on your clothes, too?” he hazarded a guess, since if he was her, he’d rather not walk back to the common room looking like he’d just come out of a slasher film. Just a personal preference, and hey, it couldn’t make things much worse at this point even if it didn’t work. It was always good to look at things and find that they did, in fact, have an upside, that was his motto. “Can’t come up with anything for getting a camera, though, sorry.” Well, except running somewhere and getting one, but he was pretty sure that the professor would give them a weird look and tell them to go sit back down if they tried to use that one as an excuse to get out of class.

David considered Reggie’s movie proposal. “Animate these things, get ‘em moving around some and all, and you’d probably have the summer blockbuster,” he admitted. “Just as long as I’m one of the people who either makes it or almost makes it, okay? I don’t wanna be the idiot who does something stupid and gets killed in the first fifteen minutes after they get stuck in whatever’s causing the horror.” He could at least appreciate almost making it, it felt like a commentary on something even if he wasn’t completely sure what that something might be off the top of his head, but dying in the first fifteen minutes was just silly. He could be kind of stupid about some things sometimes, but he’d like to think that he was smart enough to make it a little longer than that. Plus, nobody ever remembered who that first guy who got his head chopped off was, anyway. Making it almost to the end meant he’d probably been around long enough to make some kind of impression on the audience.

16 David Do you want to be an evil villain? 169 David 0 5

Jordan

December 14, 2011 5:41 PM

This is true. by Jordan

Watching the blood clearing away made Jordan feel better, because the dummy looked better. It really was a good thing that she didn’t work in the Healing sector. She would never be able to handle all of the medical and magical emergencies that occurred day to day. She would either get grossed out or panic or whatever else and thus becoming completely useless to the person that she was supposed to be helping. She had no idea how people actually did it, how they enjoyed it, but then it wouldn’t be the first time that she didn’t understand someone. She didn’t understand either of her sisters. One was emotionally withdrawn and one was just a…no, she shouldn’t think that, even if it was true.

Jordan’s attention shifted to Sam when he asked if she wanted to give the other ear a try or to work on the bones. Which did she want to do? She had thought that the sound of the bones was awful! But did she really want to deal with the blood? It was utterly disgusting. She pouted slightly. “I guess I’ll try the bones, but I can’t promise that it will go well for the poor mannequin.”

Taking her wand, she concentrated on the nose. She figured that anything having to do with the face had to hurt pretty badly and was one of the more vulnerable areas. “Episkey!” Crack! She frowned slightly. Okay, so the nose didn’t quite go back the entire way, but it was an improvement. Not to mention that doing the spell herself made the sound not so bad. Maybe it was like one of those things where if you do it yourself, it’s a lot less painful than when someone else does it. She had to try a couple more times to get the nose fixed and it still wasn’t quite aligned, but it was certainly better than it had been.

“Do you want to try fixing any of the bones?” She didn’t want him to think that she was hogging the dummy, which she most certainly wasn’t. If anything, she would be perfectly content if he wanted to do everything. Oh, it wasn’t that she didn’t try with partnership work, but sometimes, there were lessons like these and it was just preferable to have someone that could handle all the icky business. It was like when she saw a spider. She didn’t want it around, but she didn’t want to kill it either. It was much better to get someone else to take care of it.

As they worked, she sneaked a look at him. He was pretty cute. She decided she had lucked out in partners and figured she would find out more about him. “Any plans on doing this professionally?”

0 Jordan This is true. 0 Jordan 0 5

Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw

December 15, 2011 3:13 AM

And Ice Cream Cones? (going with a rhyming theme here) by Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw

Charms was one of Hope's favorite classes and one she was pretty decent at too. She was less anxious about being in the intermediate group than she was in, say, Potions. Professor Fawcett had a tendency to be one of the more difficult professors. Hope still liked and respected him though. She pretty much liked most people.

Being an Intermediate was just a sign that she was getting older. The third year had mixed feelings about this. She felt sad and excited at the same time. It was hard leaving childhood behind but at the same time, there was the wonderful excitement of what her impending teenage years had to offer. Hope hoped that they would be wonderful, full of happiness and new privileges. She'd start wearing some make-up and dressing more maturely, not inappropriately but not so much like a little girl. She didn't want her male classmates to see her that way, as a child anymore.

As Hope walked into the classroom,she placed her essay on the Professor's desk. She wasn't the smartest kid in class but that was okay. The Teppenpaw had tried her very best and was certain she'd do fairly well on the essay. Any mistakes that the third year made that would bring her grade down, she could easily make up for with wand work.

The topic of the paper had been an interesting one. She thought Cheering Charms were a good thing. What was wrong with a spell that made people happier? Hope didn't like people being sad. She rarely was but she'd seen a lot of her family unhappy. Two of her roommates seemed so as well. On the other hand, Hope didn't approve of the Imperius Curse at all. She believed those things should be taught about in theory so people would know about them, but that they shouldn't be learning how to cast them. There were some people out there who would use such spells to harm others.

But that wasn't for Hope to worry about right now. The third year really wasn't much of a worrywart the way her mother was. She looked around the room for a place to sit and happily noticed there was an open seat next to Russell. The Teppenpaw smiled and sat down in it. Sitting next to her friend put Hope in an even better mood.

She listened as the professor began to speak. All of a sudden a bloody, broken, dummy fell on top of Hope's desk. She didn't scream or anything, but she did jump back a little bit. The Teppenpaw could handle a bit of fake blood but the dummy had still startled her. Apparently, they were going to be healing the poor thing. Excellent. Hope knew she would never be a healer, that was for super smart Aladren people who didn't come from the sort of pureblood families where the women didn't work, but she certainly thought cleaning up blood and fixing bones was a good thing to know. Someday, Hope would have children, who would inevitably get into such scrapes and she would be able to fix them up without getting an actual healer involved.

The Teppenpaw noticed that Russell didn't happen to have a dummy on his desk and was about to ask him to work with her when he turned to her and asked, “Want to work together?” .

"Certainly." Hope replied, beaming happily. "I could do the blood first, unless you really want to." Though she couldn't really imagine anyone-except maybe a vampire-overjoyed at dealing with blood. As the Aladren wasn't one, she didn't expect him to express some desperate desire. She personally just assumed that for herself and which she'd more likely have to deal with in the future, that it was more important to learn how to clean up blood.

11 Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw And Ice Cream Cones? (going with a rhyming theme here) 186 Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw 0 5

Arthur

December 15, 2011 9:32 PM

I do like a bit of excitement every now and then by Arthur

Arthur didn’t find it difficult to be pleasant to Alice, because he liked Alice. She was as good a student as he was, and she was clear-thinking, as she was showing now in her analysis of the situation they were to deal with, and both of those were traits he had hoped to see a lot at Sonora but had been disappointed in. There were plenty of Arnolds here, carefree and energetic and cheerful with it, and not a scarcity of Anthonys, pleasant people who were really ordinary enough but had been called to something better, and other people he just thought of as normal, but still not very many like him.

“Your assessment concurs with mine,” he said, pleased that they should agree. The external bleeding was messy, but the gashes didn’t look very deep. Just messy. Bones which were left too long, though, would be more messy. The books on anatomy were things that could hold his interest very well, even if he didn’t always completely understand what they said yet.

One day, though, he would. He’d understand every word, perhaps even better than the people who’d written them down in the first place had. Perhaps he would be the new family Healer someday, like Uncle Adam; it was a good, honorable choice for a son who could never inherit, and certainly better than Uncle Donnie’s ‘business.’ Arthur had only the vaguest idea of what that was, but the tones his parents used when they mentioned it between themselves told him enough to know that it wasn’t the best idea if he wanted to maintain strong immediate family ties, which he did. He did not know how to express such things without everyone being completely mortified by the occasion, which was one reason he’d like to study psychology sometime, but he loved his parents and Arnold, anyway, and even Anthony in a dutiful way. “And I don’t mind,” he added. Going first or last was of little interest to him, so if she wanted him to, then that was all right with him.

There were, of course, he knew, formalities about how to act around girls, leadership and such. Arnold understood those things; Arthur went through the motions when he had to, but at school, he couldn’t see a point much of the time. Many of the girls were more like Mother than anything, independent-minded and not at all likely to thank him for assuming they were weak, helpless little things. Luckily, it wasn’t very hard for him to think of his life here and his life at home as completely separate things that had nothing to do with each other, and at Sonora, girls were just people who tended to have longer hair and sometimes wear dresses, and which he occasionally found, to his utter annoyance, pleasant to look at. Some of them were interesting, some were boring, some were frustrating, some were proper ladies and had to be treated as though he’d met them at one of Grandmother’s parties, just as some males here were interesting, boring, annoying, or fixtures. It didn’t really seem to make a difference; they’d all grow up to be things they weren’t ‘properly’ supposed to be anyway, if listening to the family talk was anything to go by.

He started, as Alice had recommended, with what looked like a serious injury and cleaned it before setting it. The noise was unpleasant, but he made a slight face and then he ignored it. The spells weren’t much harder than he’d expected; the first one was pretty straightforward, and while there had been a bit of…resistance he hadn’t quite expected with the second, as the bone knit, he was fairly sure it had worked out the way he meant it to, and that the bone was now reasonably sound. “Perhaps we should each start at an end?” he suggested. “Then everything would get done more quickly, and there would be less of a chance of infection or bones setting improperly.”

0 Arthur I do like a bit of excitement every now and then 0 Arthur 0 5

Sam

December 16, 2011 11:36 PM

It doesn't seem to help in Quidditch, though. by Sam

Jordan pouted a bit, but Sam lived in Crotalus House the same as she did. If he let himself be drawn into doing other people’s work by a girl being pretty and not looking happy about something, he’d do nothing but do work for the many pretty, unhappy girl members of Crotalus, and he did have other stuff to do. His work, for instance, if only so his mom didn’t kill him. “Look on the bright side,” he advised her. “He’s just going to mess them up again when we’re done anyway, for the next class or something. So it won’t bother the mannequin too much.”

Though it was kind of weird for him to think of the mannequin being bothered in the first place, so he decided she must have meant it as a figure of speech, or something like that – he hadn’t paid too much attention during language arts when he was in little school and didn’t remember or keep straight a lot of the terms from it. He could read and write, and didn’t see the need to know if what he was reading was an adverb or an adjective so long as he could use it.

He worked on some more bloody areas, looking up again when Jordan offered to let him work on some bones. “Sure,” he said. “I’ll try to fix its leg.” Admittedly, he was no Healer, but he was pretty sure that legs did not naturally bend at the angle this one’s left leg was, so his best guess was that Episkey was the spell to go with for that. He squinted slightly at the leg and then tried it, shrugging a little uncomfortably at the sound it made but noticing that it did, indeed, look much straighter after he was done. “Not bad, not bad,” he said.

Sam shook his head, though, when Jordan asked if he was thinking of doing this to earn his livelihood someday. “Nah,” he said with a laugh. “Not seeing it. Though, you never know.” He took Divination, but had as a deep conviction that there was no real knowing what life was going to throw at a body. He never would have guessed in a million years that his cousins would be living it up and pretending to be purebloods in California while he met up with his mysterious father’s actual family by complete chance in a robe shop. “What about you?”

Frankly, he didn’t really see that, either – but there was no telling. Maybe she’d be a Healer, he would, too, her dark-eyed friend the Princess Eliza would be president and incarcerate Renée for life for a crime she hadn’t committed, and Pecari would dominate in Quidditch this year. Stranger things had happened. The only thing that was really surprising about life – or should have been, anyway; his best attempts at utter cynicism couldn’t keep him from occasionally just kind of staring at things – was that anyone ever managed to live long enough to have one.

16 Sam It doesn't seem to help in Quidditch, though. 163 Sam 0 5

Ryan

December 17, 2011 11:14 PM

Me neither by Ryan

"I'm Ryan O'Malley." The fourth year replied. It didn't really bother him that Phoenix didn't know his name. Ryan considered himself to be fairly insignificant and besides, he'd spent most of his life trying to hide and blend in with the surroundings. To be noticed meant to be tormented and the Crotalus was always a bit wary of new people, even though Ryan did his best to be friendly. He wasn't a nasty person, Carrie was the one who'd inherited all of their mother's meanness. He simply worried that others would be mean to him, the way they were so he would make every effort to get on someone's good side.

Sometimes, Ryan wondered where his mother had gotten such meanness from as his grandmother was a kindhearted woman and his grandfather was gruff and stingy at worst. Sure the Crotalus had been initially quite afraid a man that his mother had made out to be an ogre. Over time, Ryan had realized that his grandparents were not the horrible people that his mother made them out to be. Maybe in time, he'd feel that he himself wasn't such a terrible person but the fourth year didn't forsee that happening anytime soon.

He'd actually gotten to the point where his mother's punishment of sending him to the home of her hated parents was no longer one, just like when she made Ryan sleep with the house-elves. Only that had been discontinued when his mother had discovered that he enjoyed it and going to his grandparents' had not. Ryan figured the reason she kept sending him there had to do with wanting him out of the house.

Ryan also noticed that Phoenix did not give the proper greeting. Either he was more relaxed or not a pureblood or he didn't think Ryan was worthy of it. All three were fine with the fourth year. He was used to being considered less worthy so it wasn't much of a slight. Besides, he preferred being called Ryan anyway. However, just in case. "You can all me Ryan. May I please call you Phoenix? "The elder Crotalus asked,making sure to sound polite and proper just in case.

The fourth year watched Phoenix as he cleaned up the blood around the dummy's mouth. "I suppose." Ryan replied. What was he going to do, refuse? He wouldn't do that even if he were so inclined and had an issue with fixing bones. He'd get in trouble or something and the professor would hate him. It was bad enough that Coach Pierce was against him. "Episkey," Ryan directed the spell at the dummy's arm, which found itself back in place.

11 Ryan Me neither 176 Ryan 0 5

Autumn

December 20, 2011 8:14 AM

And in this case? by Autumn

The elder Crotalus smiled. "Good job." She told Eliza. Autumn felt slightly guilty sticking the fourth year with the blood. which was yucky, but she had thought that it might be easier and Autumn needed to succeed at challenges. Failure would be unacceptable to her. She was already too fat-which she would work her hardest to fix-she didn't need to fail in this too.

Besides, blood was messy and the fifth year hated mess. Autumn kept her room as neat as a pin. Everything super organized, everything in it's place. It was how she functioned best. She once again thought it was probably for the best that she didn't have roommates. What if they were slobs? Autumn would never say anything to them, never get on their cases about such things. The fifth year didn't like conflict and she wouldn't have wanted to come across nasty or difficult to live with. Inevitably, Autumn would be the one to suffer in that situation. Things were much better the way they were.

At least in that respect. As far as the Crotalus was concerned things were far from ideal in her life. She felt she wasn't good enough, that her grades wouldn't be good enough, that she was too chubby, that she'd never find a husband. After...what her father had done with his first marriage, she and Willow had quite a bit to make up for. Not that Autumn didn't love Lily. She did, she admired her more than anyone. Still, it meant the fifth year had to try harder, be more perfect.

"Oh, yes." Autumn replied. "A younger sister, Willow. She's eight." Willow was very different from either her or Lily. The youngest Collins was artistic like the fifth year but far more relaxed. "I don't think she'll be a Healer though." Girls typically did not have careers,in their world. Lily was an exception, probably because of her...circumstances. It was pureblood girls that didn't work, and her older sister was not a pureblood.

Or maybe it was because she was strong and independent-minded. Something Autumn was not. She was more than happy to just get married and paint in her free time, though the part about giving her husband heirs filled her with discomfort. Nothing against babies once they were born, except they made an awful mess, but getting pregnant did not appeal to her in the slightest. Autumn felt she was big enough already as it was.

" Episkey " She said, doing the proper motion and directing it at a broken bone. The fifth year smiled, pleased when it worked out. She always took things hard and to have a melt down in front of all these younger students would make matters worse. Autumn needed to maintain composure. "Is your brother your only sibling?" She asked. "He's a second year, right?" The fifth year had tried her best to learn who was who within her own house, just in case she had been made prefect. Quite obviously, she had not but the memorization had stuck.

11 Autumn And in this case? 164 Autumn 0 5

Jordan

December 20, 2011 8:15 PM

Maybe this lesson will. by Jordan

“I guess,” Jordan said with a small shrug of her delicate shoulder. “It just seems awful though for the poor dummy that after going through all this, he’s just going to end up messed up again.” She frowned more. It wasn’t that she didn’t know that it was necessary and she was aware that the actual mannequin didn’t have any real feelings, but it reminded her of her stuffed animals. “When I was younger, I used to think that all of my stuffed animals had feelings. I thought that they secretly danced around and had lives when I wasn’t looking. And I worried that if I got rid of any, they would be lonely.” She had actually cried over it when she was eight and she had lost Boo-boo. She just kept thinking how lonely and frightened he must have been. Thankfully, she had found him later and the teddy bear still held a place on her bed at home.

After she had fixed the nose and Sam did the leg, the mannequin was decidedly looking less broken. Maybe she could do this. Maybe one day she would be a Healer. Healer Adair. Mediwizard Adair. That had a nice ring to it, but it would require a lot of schooling. Blech. And even more Potions. Double blech. Charms could be fun, but Potions was certainly not. She hated Potions with a passion, but doing this wasn’t so bad. Still…she couldn’t see herself actually dealing with all the emergencies day in and day out. And what if she couldn’t fix something? How was she supposed to tell someone? Oh, by the way, your nose is going to be a mini beehive for the rest of your life? Seriously? There was no way she could do that. So, what did she want to do?

“I don’t really see myself in this field either,” Jordan replied. “I’m not really sure what I want to do. I could try gymnastics, but I would have to leave school to do it professionally and it’s not really something I can do past my early twenties.” When she had wanted to do it when she was nine, her dad had told her that it wasn’t a realistic career goal. So, she highly doubted that now at fourteen, her dad would really think it was any better an idea. She didn’t even think it was a good idea. Though, it was better than her idea of being a princess when she was five. “I don’t know. Maybe I’ll be a professor. I could teach Charms. Be the one to massacre the mannequins.” She giggled at that one. She didn’t see herself doing that either, but it was fun to think about.

Back to the dummy. Where to go to next? Maybe she should try clearing away some of the blood. Concentrating on a rather large area, she performed the spell and was pleased to see that most of it went away. “You know, these spells will probably help you in Quidditch.” She was just thinking of how many injuries occurred in the game. It would probably help for the minor injuries and assuming the person could take it; they could fix the break in the game and keep going. She bet it was really something useful for professional players.

0 Jordan Maybe this lesson will. 0 Jordan 0 5

Alice

December 20, 2011 11:03 PM

Could be dangerous. by Alice

Agreeing to a course of action had been easy enough. Alice never understood why some found it necessary to quibble for the sake of quibbling. Did it really matter the course of action within the classroom or who went first? Though, she had given her logical opinion on how to proceed, it hadn’t been an order by any means. Regardless of how to begin, the point of the exercise was to learn the right course of action. Mistakes may be made. Perhaps, how she thought wasn’t the best. If so, that was something that would be learned. So, really what was the point in arguing? If Arthur had thought of another way to start, then she would have been just as agreeable, as maybe it would have been a better idea or maybe it wouldn’t have been. But one thing was certain, if they spent all their time arguing, they would not learn anything.

As such, she nodded in agreement when he suggested they begin working at opposite sides. “I’ll begin with the top half, if that’s all right?” It wasn’t that she would have minded the lower half. It was just that she wanted to have a chance to work with the more delicate facial areas. They felt like they were more interesting to work with than the legs or toes. Of course, not having studied anatomy, she didn’t exactly know what the more complicated areas were. Though, she supposed it didn’t heavily matter since they were to be using only two spells. She was surprised that there weren’t more spells in working with broken bones. But then, maybe there were and that was for advanced lessons? Either way, she still thought it was interesting to work on the face and see how the bones reset.

While the physical body was interesting, she found the psychology of it all a much more fascinating subject. Maybe it was because she didn’t quite fit in with others. She was quite aware that she didn’t. She never had. Often, it was like she was watching everyone else act out parts, parts that she didn’t quite understand. She didn’t understand why people said one thing, yet they did another. She didn’t understand why it was necessary to pretend to be something that they weren’t. But if she thought about it, was she really that different? Everything that was inside of her was always hidden. Alice never allowed the emotions to come forth. It was what had put her into Crotalus. She was cautious in a way that no one knew about. She was hidden, afraid to come out.

Beneath the cool exterior, there lay a wealth of passion. It was easier though to pretend that it wasn’t there. It was easier to keep herself unattached from people, because all they did was bring forth a wealth of unnecessary anger, distrust, fear, and ultimately pain. No, she was much better off without all of that. She didn’t want to be like all of the others that she saw through her camera lens. The laughter that would ultimately turn to tears or the friendly greetings that turned to barbed words. Besides, she worried that if she did allow her emotions to come forth, exactly what would those emotions be? Would she be like Jordan or more like Dani or would she be something else entirely? Would it be worse? No, she had to keep them at bay. She had to focus. She was purely academic and that’s all she would ever be.

0 Alice Could be dangerous. 0 Alice 0 5

Arthur

December 21, 2011 3:45 PM

That's why the fun is in being very careful by Arthur

Arthur nodded agreeably to Alice’s request to begin at the top of the dummy, leaving him with the bottom. “As you like,” he said. “It will be interesting to see if there’s any difference between how smaller bones and larger ones heal.”

He supposed this was an attempt to make conversation, though it could be taken as just an observation. It would be interesting to see; he’d always been under the impression all of medical magic was immensely complex, immensely specific, but this seemed easy and straightforward enough. Of course, he thought with the ghost of a smile, things often seemed easy and straightforward to him and, he’d noticed, apparently to Alice when they seemed to boggle much of the room, so perhaps he wasn’t the best person to speculate about whether or not it was straightforward.

Still, he had seen his mother work, and Uncle Adam. Mainly on him, since they usually did lock him out until Arnold was more or less in one piece again. That was unfortunate, since while Arthur had actually broken more small bones than Arnold had, he had been four at the time, and had just had a broken leg since, and hadn’t seen anything finer than his brother’s wrist put back together since. Realigning fingers was something Mother probably would have done without wasting the time of setting up a room or anything, but Arnold usually didn’t get injuries like that, and the one time he had, after going through that window, Arthur had been stuck….

He shook his head slightly, dismissing the memory. In the end, he had regained the ability to speak English and Arnold’s face had been successfully put back together, so there was no need to think much about it now. He returned to working on the lower half.

He had missed it at first, but as he examined the foot of the broken doll more carefully, he found it, too, wasn’t quite right. “It seems I get some of the smaller bones myself,” he added, prodding the foot carefully. It was interesting how many bones there were in the body, ones he only occasionally noticed in the ordinary course of things. He thought they were still mostly in line, just fractured, in this case. “Here we go. Tergeo.”

The feeling was, to him, somewhat different than the major bones. “It feels different,” he reported dutifully. “To me, anyway.”

0 Arthur That's why the fun is in being very careful 0 Arthur 0 5

Eliza

December 21, 2011 4:42 PM

Well, what do you think? by Eliza

Eliza offered Autumn a slightly toned-down, slightly more genuine-seeming, version of her smile when the older girl complimented her charmswork. “Thank you,” she replied, inclining her head in acceptance of the praise. Praise from other females was a pretty rare commodity in her world, and while being good at cleaning up blood wasn’t something that really fit in with the life she was supposed to have, the kind of person she was supposed to be, Eliza had been bred from birth, as her father and great-grandfather had been before her, to snap up any good thing she could get her hands on without hesitation or remorse. Including compliments which did not appear, to the best of her judgment, to be backhanded; those that were, she was to accept and then turn so they backhanded the would-be backhander. But she didn’t think she’d have that problem, much, with Autumn here.

She was amused, though, by the comment about how Autumn doubted her sister would turn out to be a Healer. It was nice to see that the other girl had a sense of humor after all. Eliza’s impression of her had always been that she was actually a lady, rather than just pretending like the rest of them, and so unapproachable. “I don’t expect it of anyone in my family, either,” she said, thinking of the look on Mother’s face if anyone actually did something so lowly as become a practicing Healer. The kind who bought his way into a comfortable office and management position – certainly. But not the kind she thought they were discussing, and certainly not the girls. Mother would be scandalized if they even thought of such a thing.

Sometimes, Eliza almost regretted that. She was going to be fifteen in a week and she already found society absolutely exhausting, already found constantly cultivating and maintaining allies and scheming – however, she thought bitterly, unsuccessfully – to take down her enemies and thinking about relatives a burden rather than the great pleasure of her life. Her temperament wasn’t submissive enough, either, for her to be one of those women whose sole interest was in their children while other women in their family took care of the political aspects of belonging to a family; the very idea seemed strange, since her mother was nothing like that, at least with her. But she didn’t have options besides those two, so she would have to resign herself to it.

“Nice job,” she returned Autumn’s earlier compliment when the older girl smiled after casting her charm, assuming the smile meant it had gone well. The question surprised her, though. “Paulie? Oh, yes.” She paused to sort out her answer better. She hadn’t expected her brother to actually be something Autumn was aware of. Maybe she had underestimated this girl a lot. Well, she could fix that now. “I mean, yes, he’s in second year. I have two more brothers and a sister at home, though.” She smiled. “We’re a big family.”

Well, they were working on it, anyway. Uncle Vic would never have any children because of his condition, and none of them had apparently ever really expected it of Aunt Katherine even before she met the Careys because of her…her other condition, but her other uncles and their cousins did. Not so many, generally, as Father and Mother, but then, Father was the money man. The Bennetts were on the rise, anyway, and they’d all help in that. No matter how unpleasant the things they had to do to help might be for them. It was why they’d all been born, after all.

0 Eliza Well, what do you think? 0 Eliza 0 5

James Owen

December 22, 2011 10:10 AM

Life's one big rough patch by James Owen

Professor Light was scatty. James didn't like him. It was bad enough that they had to change professors part-way through the curriculum, but having a professor who rarely seemed to know whether he was coming or going vexed James a great deal. he was therefore already disgruntled by the time a mangled representation of a human torso landed nearby - thankfully not on his own desk. It seemed impractical, and, if he was honest, unnecessarily gotesque. He appreciated occasional blood and gore as much as the next person - some of the illustrations in the advanced transfiguration books were fascinating - but there had to be a line drawn somewhere (and if he were in a more rational mood he might have be drawn to concede that the line was drawn a lot closer for Professor Light than for less annoying teachers).

Regardless of his appreciation, or lack thereof, for the manner in which the subject was being taught, James couldn't deny the usefulness of its content. He'd already made decent notes while the professor had been warbling on, so when Kate Bauer asked if he cared to join her, James nodded in affirmation, with the vocal accompaniment, "yes, okay."

Admittedly, the first time he'd met Kate they'd gotten off on the wrong foot to some extent, but it had been short-lived (on his part, at any rate) and James found she was one of the few people in his yeargroup he could really tolerate. This might perhaps be due in part to the fact that he didn't spend a great deal of time in her company, but nevertheless he thought there were plenty a more objectionable partner than she.

"Do you have any preference on who should start where?" James asked. As he wasn't concerned with the matter himself, he was happy to leave it up to someone else to decide.

0 James Owen Life's one big rough patch 168 James Owen 0 5

Russell

December 22, 2011 2:42 PM

And buttered scones. by Russell

Russell was a little surprised that a girl would volunteer to be the one to deal with the blood and all, but to each their own. It didn’t bother him that much, either – it was kind of a mess, but his mother’s accusations of mild OCD tendencies only extended as far as the papers he handed in and the shelves of books in his book room went; his desk and bedroom tended to look like they’d just been hit by a hurricane which dropped books and papers down on the environment instead of water – but neither did he really want to deal with it, so he shrugged slightly.

“Whatever works,” he said with a smile, an expression his cousin’s circle of friends had tossed around a lot between themselves when he’d been younger. “I’ll try to fix up the bones, then.” He didn’t think either of them was going to have a shortage of work to do; could someone even get by if they were hurt this much in real life? He guessed it didn’t really matter, since the exercise was just about learning to use the spells, but he had to wonder.

He’d grown up, by and large, pretty quietly. His home life consisted of him and his parents, and while he had relatives and friends scattered all around the area, they had mostly stayed out of trouble when he was a kid – or at least, he had. His mom would not have tolerated too much messing around, and he hadn’t been much inclined to it, anyway. So while he’d gotten his fair share of bruises and scrapes, there were the kinds of thing Mom could rub a potion onto, or just tap with her wand without saying anything that he remembered, and they’d be patched up in an instant and he’d be back to whatever he was doing or doing next without thinking twice about it.

“Ever see these used before?” he asked, remembering that Hope came from a really big family. His guess would be that if anyone in the class had, it would be someone with lots of brothers and sisters and relations, all running around, surely nobody had time to really watch them the way Mom did him, and so people broke bones and got cut up pretty badly and all that. That would make these spells useful things to know, and probably used pretty regularly.

Though he wouldn’t be too surprised to hear he had it all wrong; his family managed to be good-sized when it was all taken together, but no one in particular had a lot of kids, so all he knew about it was conjecture. Some of them would have died or something if watching after them was as impossible as it seemed in his cheerfully only-child head, and the way he’d heard Hope talk about her siblings, a bunch of them adults and one of them having a baby and all that, they weren’t all one on top of the other, either.

16 Russell And buttered scones. 183 Russell 0 5

Sam

December 22, 2011 3:31 PM

That would be great. by Sam

Sam honestly had no idea what to do with or how to reply to the anecdote about the stuffed animals having feelings. Yes, maybe there had been a phase in his life where he pretended a Captain America action figure was his completely unremembered (for the obvious reason of having been dead before Sam was born) Auror father and it always beat the bad guys, but he knew of this phase more through humiliating sessions where various family members talked about things he and his cousins had done when they were small than through actual memories, as he’d been about three to five years old at the time, and even if he’d remembered it better, it just wasn’t the kind of thing a dude shared with others. Not unless he was trying to seem sensitive and sympathetic to a girl, anyway, and Sam wasn’t doing that at the moment, and wasn’t sure he could bring Captain America into it even if he was. That wasn’t really his style.

Then noticing the pretentiousness of imagining he had a style nearly made him start laughing at himself, so he shut that entire line of thought down at once, in case Jordan thought he was laughing at her and started hexing him. That wouldn’t be good.

“Think I saw a movie like that once,” he said, grabbing the first thought that occurred to him, even though there was every chance in the world she didn’t know what a movie was. “Ever see it?”

He nodded at the mention of gymnastics probably not being the most feasible career path in the world, though he knew little more about it than that Rachel used to do it in competitions when they were little and she was sane and that it involved lots of being in the air and bending things ways he was pretty sure it was against the use of nature that they should go. And that people who did it were young. “Yeah, that would suck,” he agreed, then, for once, had something come together in his head. “Especially the part where you left school.”

Her comment about being the one to massacre the mannequins got a laugh to go with her giggle. “And here I thought you felt sorry for them,” he said, wondering if he was getting the hang of this on the spot. That would be pretty cool. “Hidden depths, huh?”

He’d had another, longer comment, more or less along the same lines but a little clearer, in mind, but the hard part of keeping up this kind of conversation, he’d noticed, wasn’t thinking of kinda-clever things to say, it was in delivering them. He was no good at it. That was why he’d been surprised by being able to come up with the turn where the worst part of her gymnastics career would be her leaving the rest of them at school deprived of her presence. It was a glimmer of hope for his chances, he guessed, in a few years with the girls. Maybe Rachel, and by extension her mother, was right and being this thing or the other really was just a question of learning the right mannerisms.

Or maybe not. He didn’t know. As long as he didn’t make a complete fool of himself, he was good, anyway.

He nodded at the mention of this being something good to know in Quidditch. “Yeah, especially when we play Aladren,” he said, all thoughts of teasing and how to talk to girls and all that going from his brain at the practical matter before him. That was not an uncommon effect. “You know…” He paused, biting the inside of his mouth for a moment in thought. “You might have just given me an idea. We can’t use wands on each other, that’s against the rules, but I don’t think there is one that says we can’t patch ourselves up without leaving if we need to.” He could mention it to Marissa, the idea of everyone except maybe the new guys, the beginners, taking their wands with them in case of injuries, anyway. If Aladren didn’t think of it, that could be a major advantage to Crotalus on game day.

16 Sam That would be great. 163 Sam 0 5

Kate

December 22, 2011 4:11 PM

That's a pretty pessimistic way to look at it. by Kate

Kate had never been too sure what to think of James Owen. Their first meeting hadn’t been one of her finer moments, but a lot of that had to do with her being, well, kind of stupid as well as him being kind of…she didn’t want to say ‘hostile.’ Kind of not the warmest member of the year, as well as just an Aladren. It wasn’t entirely uncommon, she thought, for them to just kind of not notice that other people were slower than they were, or less direct in a lot of ways; Crotalus was the one with the reputation, but in its way, Aladren was as set apart from the rest of the school, if not more. Sam liked to joke that even the professors wouldn’t care much for them if not for their test scores, so they threw them all together in one place, so they could egg each other on to yet higher academic heights while sparing the rest of the school the trouble of dealing with them.

She and James hadn’t had any run-ins since they were first years, though, and that was so long ago that she guessed she was the only one who remembered it because it had been awkward for her and she’d felt like a klutz on top of feeling like a dummy, so Kate wasn’t worried about working with him too much. He was smart, so their mannequin would get healed enough that they wouldn’t fail, and who knew. She’d noticed he seemed to get along with Eliza Bennett, who seemed to Kate like one of the most cheerful and outgoing people in the whole year just from the range in the company she kept despite the pureblood status that said she should have been a complete snot to more than half of them, as well as he did with anyone, so maybe he’d softened up a little. At least as long as she didn’t do something utterly stupid, like ruin his work, or say something completely moronic.

Occasionally, she reminded herself she was a smart, perfectly competent person, and that it wasn’t to her credit to see it as a problem that she wasn’t Rachel, or even the less accomplished but cuter Alicia. Sometimes, she even believed it. More and more these days, as she saw just how much Momma and Rachel really seemed to get out of the lifestyle they had chosen. Just not always when she was interacting with actual people, particularly those who’d disapproved of her in the past.

The first test of whether or not she could do that came quickly, when he told her to pick who would start where on the dummy. She bit her lip, looking it over, before saying what seemed the most logical to her. “Start in the middle, and each go one direction?” she said, gesturing to about where the dummy’s belly button should have been. Then, because there was no way she wanted to be the one in charge and then it be totally her fault ~~when~~ if something went completely sideways, she added, “Which way do you want? Up to the head or down to the feet?”

16 Kate That's a pretty pessimistic way to look at it. 170 Kate 0 5

Arnold

December 23, 2011 1:32 PM

What isn't? by Arnold

Arnold had honestly not thought of how useful this spell could be for a Quidditch player, and he blinked, surprised, at Sara’s suggestion. “Huh,” he said after a moment’s thought on the matter, then smiled brightly at her again. “That’s true. Thanks, Miss Sara.”

A more proper member of society most likely never would have addressed Sara so familiarly given the extent of their acquaintance, but it really didn’t occur to him as or even after he said it. She was Miss Fae’s friend, she was Preston’s friend, and they were his friends, so they were almost as good as friends already, anyway – friends-in-law, maybe, something similar to that. He called the people his aunts had married ‘uncle’ and their first names even though he was hardly familiar with either of them, because they were relatives by close association, and his father was familiar with both Catherine and Emma, being their older brother. It made sense to him, anyway, on the level of not even thinking about it.

He didn’t really notice her calling him Mr. Carey, either. It was that or just Arnold – girls could, in his system, anyway, get away with that much more easily; it was just okay for a Proper Girl he knew to call him Arnold even though he’d likely keep calling her Miss First Name forever, or at least until someone got married – and since they were only friends by association, it wasn’t overly formal. He would have let her call him Arnold, but it didn’t occur to him as very strange that she didn’t, either. “It’s a good day,” he confirmed, breaking from looking over what they had to work with to add a smile. “What about you?”

Idly, he wondered what people did if they were not having a good day, or at least an okay one, and tried to remember if he’d ever been in that position. He didn’t have a lot of bad days, or at least, if he did, he didn’t really remember them. The only times he remembered where he’d call the days under discussion unequivocally bad had all been the kinds where he hadn’t been expected to have a good day at all, and even then, he thought he’d usually tried to make the best of it once the worst of it was over.

Still, he hoped Sara really was having a good day, and that they’d both continue to have a good day once this class was over and their dummy had been evaluated for grading. Arnold often lacked the focus to go through the effort to get them, at least to the extent his brother did without seeming to try, but he did want good grades in school, so the family would be pleased with him. He squinted at a nasty-looking break and then tried, “Episkey,” to correct it.

There was a sharp sound from the dummy, then he thought it didn’t look so bad, though prodding it let him know it still didn’t feel completely even. Arnold had gone through enough scrapes that he knew more or less how things were supposed to feel and how they were not. “I don’t think it worked quite right,” he remarked to Sara. “Do you think I should try the spell again? Would that make it work right, like when you do something over in Transfiguration?” He wasn’t familiar with what, if anything, happened if Healing magic didn’t work right the first time; with his mother and great-uncle, it always did and that was all that anyone had to think about it, as far as he knew.

0 Arnold What isn't? 181 Arnold 0 5

Jane Carey, Teppenpaw

December 23, 2011 1:51 PM

Don't you love finding posts you really wrote weeks ago? by Jane Carey, Teppenpaw

Jane concentrated on a lake. At least, Jane tried to concentrate on a lake. The exercise was supposed to be calming, help her to emulate the smooth surface of the lake in her head, but it wasn’t working very well. She was trying, but she couldn’t picture the water without ripples in it, or stop getting distracted by the autumn trees surrounding it.

The homework for this class had disturbed her. She hadn’t liked emotion-changing charms when they had covered them with Professor McKindy, and she really did not like the dissertation excerpt Professor Light had made them read after last class. Nor did she like the assignment. Her instinct was to say that those things should never be learned, that they should be erased from the minds of anyone who already knew them and never spoken of again, but…even if that worked, and the part of her that had come out of all her mother’s classes knew it was impossible that they would get everyone, someone would just rediscover the vile things. She was sure her essay was terrible, that her first grade with this new professor was not going to be as good as it should have been, because she hadn’t been able to sort through her thoughts clearly and unemotionally. She knew now why Edmond had been such a mess after his Defense class on the Unforgivables last year.

She noticed her fingers drumming on the edge of her desk and, with an effort, stilled them. Surely they would move on to something else today. Surely. She wouldn’t have to think about that anymore, because they would get to move on to something else today.

They did.

Hers wasn’t one of the desks a mannequin abruptly appeared on, but she heard the shriek of pain clearly enough. When her heart slowed its abrupt hammering enough for her to breathe properly again, she seriously considered seeing if she could make her professor look like one of the mannequins and see how well the class did healing him, the echo of Mother’s voice telling her about how only those who lacked the wit to solve a problem through words resorted to violence just annoying her instead of acting as a restraint.

She started counting primes in her head, rushing through the easy ones to get to something that would require enough thought to keep her from going up there and cursing Professor Light into a slug. Or throwing up.

After a minute, it began to work, and she was able to look at the dolls calmly enough after taking only a moment to also look at her dress. It was neat and clean, not a spot or rent on it anywhere, and it wasn’t even yellow, or cut as a winter casual dress. By luck, it was one of the slightly shorter, lower-cut ones she had gotten last year, one of the ones which, though still strictly modest by most standards, she was sure Mother never would have approved of. As far away as possible from things she wished she didn’t remember, unlike the mannequins.

She even managed to smile for the person sitting next to her. “Shall we work together?” she offered. “I can do either spell.” She didn’t think the dolls screaming again would bother her as much, since she wouldn’t be taken by surprise by it.

0 Jane Carey, Teppenpaw Don't you love finding posts you really wrote weeks ago? 0 Jane Carey, Teppenpaw 0 5

James

December 27, 2011 10:24 AM

The glass is half empty by James

Kate made a suggestion that they start in the middle of the dummy, which sounded counter-logical to James. It would surely make more sense to start at either end and meet in the middle, but then he supposed ~~he might work a great deal faster than Kate~~ one of them might work more quickly than the other, which would leave the other in the pair completing more work until they met. Then again, Kate's method would leave the faster worked waiting around for the other to finish. James wasn't sure which scenario was least preferable, but decided the difference was negligible. "Okay," he said, agreeing to her proposal.

As for the direction, he instictively felt more drawn to the head, considering that there was less body in that direction than all the way down to the feet. Then again, the upper torse also had arms and hands, which could potentially take as long on their own as the legs and feet. Deciding that probably didn't matter ~~when he was likely to finish first, anyway~~, James continued with his initial decision, and said, "I think I'd prefer to work up towards the head, if you don't mind." He didn't think she would mind, having given him the choice, but girls could be weird about changing their mind for no apparent reason, so it was always worth checking.

When their roles had been clarified, James took a look at his end of the body. It looked fairly mangled, but then the professor had only given them two spells to use, so presumably they could fix the mannequin to a satisfactory level by using only these two spells. If there was any time left at the end of the assignment, James supposed they could always look up any other spells they thought might be useful to ensure a more thorough recovery. It wasn't that he felt any need to impress this peculiar professor; he was simply a perfectionist.

Beginning with a red sticky mark on the body's abdomen, James attempted the first spell for the first time, having re-read it and tested it aloud once for pronunciation. "Tergeo", he cast, moving his wand in a half crescent shape as the professor had demonstrated. As expected, the blood - or blood substitue... James wasn't sure which it was, if the spell was in fact created for a purpose as specific as blood removal - cleared away. The fourth year had yet to encounter a spell he couldn't execute on his first attempt, at least to a level where he could claim objectively recordable success.

One of the many problems James had with partner work was that it often necessitated conversation. he supposed there was no real need for him and Kate to discuss anything, but even he couldn't deny that working in silence while their peers chatted away could be interpreted as awkward. When speaking was compulsory, james tended to prefer debate over idle chatter. Therefore it was sometimes best for him to initiate the conversation, to keep it on his terms. With this in mind, he said, "So far I don't like the new professor, but I think might turn out to be one of our more useful assignments. What do you think?"

0 James The glass is half empty 0 James 0 5

Kate

December 27, 2011 8:36 PM

Technically, it's both half-empty and half-full. by Kate

James was being very agreeable. About this, Kate was very happy. She tried to be as accommodating as possible when she was working with someone in class, since she really just wanted to get along, but when people told her to make calls, she was always worried that even if they said they didn’t care, that they really did and were now all annoyed about something. That was why she gave it back to him who should get which end, because she honestly did not care. Either way, it was going to be working, lots.

He decided to take the head, and she nodded. “Sure,” she said cheerfully. “That’s great. You can do that, and I’ll do – “ she waved vaguely toward its legs and feet. “All this.” Though she was unsure how well she would do with the little bones in the feet and stuff, it still had fewer little bones (she thought; it wasn’t like she’d ever really made a study of anatomy at all) than the head and face and arms and stuff, so that was great. Less for her to screw up, just from the looks of it. She just hoped she was right about that.

Which she might very well not be. Maybe the little bones were tons easier to fix than the big ones, or maybe it was really the lower half of the body that was riddled with tiny little things it was hard to notice needed fixing, or any number of other things she hadn’t thought of and accounted for. She’d just have to see.

She tried cleaning the blood away from a big gash in the calf and had success. Some success, anyway; it wasn’t perfect, but it was better than nothing. Then she was mentally talking herself into trying on a bone when James spoke to her. “Hm?” she asked, looking up. “Oh…” She didn’t want to make statements about liking or not liking the professor, but the second part, she could deal with. She looked at that instead. “Pretty useful, yeah. ‘Course, I think I’ll still let someone who knows what they’re doing take care of me if I can.” She tried the bone spell. It made an ominous sound, but she decided not to think too much about that. “Ever thought of being a medic?” she asked, to continue the conversation. Aladrens certainly had the brains for it.

16 Kate Technically, it's both half-empty and half-full. 170 Kate 0 5

Hope Brockert

December 31, 2011 9:37 PM

Musical tones by Hope Brockert

The Teppenpaw knew that it was a bit unusual for a girl to want to clean up blood because it was gross, but honestly, it was far more likely for her to have to do that rather than fix bones. Hope would never be a Healer. She would never have a career and even if she was so inclined or had been born into a station of life where that was necessary or even an option, it probably wouldn't be that. Maybe a nurse, as Hope liked taking care of people, but Healers had to be really smart. If they were incompetent, it be very bad. Like what happened to Kaylie.

She would, however, likely be having children and needed to care for minor scrapes. Other than what happened to her eldest sister, none of them had ever broken a bone. Though that might have been because Hope's mother was very overprotective when it came to her children's safety and aside from Nina, and Kaylie playing Quidditch at school, none of Hope's siblings were the active, in love with danger type.

Besides, honestly, Hope was sort of afraid of screwing up fixing a bone properly. Cleaning blood-which in this instance could not possibly be real, at least she hoped not, because that was kind of creepy-was well, simply cleaning.

The third year returned her friend's smile, happy that he was willing to work with her. Not that she'd expected anything else, people usually didn't refuse requests for partnership in class. Most people tended not to ask people they didn't like. They worked with friends, friendly acquaintances or people they didn't really know.

"Of course." Hope replied to Russell's question. "More so the blood than the broken bones one. Aside from my sister Kaylie being smacked in the back by a bludger, none of us have been seriously injured. Sort of surprising probably but my mother is kind of a safety nut. Like not even my brothers are allowed to play Quidditch since what happened to Kaylie, so its not just us girls and WAIL related reasons."

And given the way Aladrens played, she couldn't see why anyone in another house would want to join their house teams, but of course Hope would never say that to Russell. She did worry about him getting hurt some, but not as much as if he were in another house and of course, supported his decision to play. Hope thought he was really good and usually rooted for Aladren anyway. She had more loyalty to her friend than her housemates, even if Kirstenna was her third cousin or something, they weren't close, nor was she really to Derry or Ben.

"However, most children get bumps and bruises at some point so it was pretty much inevitable that an accident would happen." She had also seen it used when Harmony had coughed up blood but the Teppenpaw didn't like thinking about that. It made her sad. Hope worried about her cousin's wife a lot. She worried about her cousin too.

"Not that I actually have much experience with kids." Hope admitted. "I mean, I'm the second youngest and I've never even met my niece. My cousins are all older than me too." She was using the word cousin in the normal sense. "My oldest cousin has a daughter a year younger than us. She's in your house." Hope asked. "What about you, have you seen it used?"

11 Hope Brockert Musical tones 186 Hope Brockert 0 5