Professor Olivers
March 29, 2013 4:38 PM
Get Your Groove On! [I & II years] by Professor Olivers
The second term was here and Florence had a bounce in her step that hadn’t been there since the school year had started. She had spent Christmas with her brother’s family and she was very pleased to see that Ally had gotten much better. Florence hadn’t been able to get to know the first-years this year as well because she had been absent for a little while taking care of her sister-in-law until someone else could. It had been a little stressful going back and forth from Arizona to Chicago, but now she was back to stay for the rest of the school year. She had missed teaching, she had to admit. Though she had met with some of her old friends and colleagues from her days on the stage, she actually enjoyed teaching her students, even the little ones.The challenges going on in the school were exciting compared to previous years. She had been pleased with how the first challenge that she had planned with DiAnna had gone. She had especially enjoyed the added touch with the ghosts who hadn’t been very difficult to convince to help out. She just hoped the challenges didn’t pose a big distraction to her students when they were in class. The last thing she wanted was a mandatory school event to hinder her classes.
Florence had prepared a somewhat fun lesson today. Difficult, of course, but that was to be expected. She wasn’t an easy professor even if she did have a sense of humor. There were little dolls made out of plastic on everyone’s desk. Each doll was standing on its feet, already enchanted to stay balanced. It would be necessary for the charm they were learning today. She was sitting at her desk, going over her notes for today as the students walked into class. She looked at their young faces and smiled to herself. She had missed them, she had to admit.
Once everyone was in and the classroom door had swung shut, she stood up and smiled. “Good morning everyone, and welcome to another Monday. I hope you all had a good break and are prepared to start working again. Today isn’t going to be easy, but I hope it’ll be fun.” It sounded like an oxymoron, but she thought her Aladren students would, at the very least, get a kick out it. “Today we’re going to learn how to animate inanimate objects by making them dance.” With a flick of her wand, the chalk wrote the name of the spell on the board. “Turn to page 102 in your textbook, please.”
As soon as the page-flipping had died down, she stepped away from her desk and began her mini lecture. “The Dancing Charm was created by toy makers to bring plastic dolls and figures to life. In the working world, this sort of charm really doesn’t have any other purpose than to entertain. It only works on inanimate figures. For example, if I cast the charm on a person—” She paused and cast the charm on a random second-year. “Agitovenia!” The light orange light wrapped around the student and disappeared. “—nothing will happen,” she finished with a smile. “The charm isn’t strong enough to force a person to do something against their will. If it was, it would be illegal.” She gave a nod of thanks to her guinea pig and turned to charm the chalk to write again.
“The incantation is Agitovenia.” The pronunciation was written clearly on the board: a-GEE-toh-VEN-ia. “Say it with me, without your wands. ‘Agitovenia.’ Good. The wand movement is illustrated in your textbook, but let me show you. You make a half-circle swish to the right, then the left, and then tap the object you want to charm with your wand. You’ll make an infinity sign in the air, or a sideways number eight. When you have practiced the wand movement sufficiently enough, go ahead and give it a try.” Nothing horrible would happen if they happened to forget to perform the charm from right to left, but a puff of ugly smoke would emit from their wand according to the textbook.
The chalk on the board finished its writing and fell back down. “Let me show you before you start doing it yourselves.” She went up to a first-year’s desk and stood in front as she performed the charm. “Agitovenia.” The doll’s feet suddenly began to move and the doll twirled around in a structure-less dance. “These dolls are, unfortunately, restricted by their plastic bodies and so can’t move nearly as gracefully, but it’s fun to watch, isn’t it?” She smiled as the doll raised its arms and twirled like a ballerina. She performed the countercurse and the doll fell inanimate once more. “There’s your example. Now go on and try it! If you need any help, I’ll be at my desk. Your homework for next week is to research the origins of the countercurse as well as the meaning of the Latin spell and your experiences with the charm in class.”
OOC: Two hundred word minimum posts, please. And creativity receives bonus points!
Subthreads: I didn't bring my dancing shoes. by Adam Spencer, Pecari with Virginia Bellrose, Crotalus, Adam, Willow Collins,Teppenpaw, Ginny Bellrose
Dance, magic dance by Francesca Wolseithcrafte with Annabelle Pierce, Pecari 2nd year
My groove is in 3/4 timing. by Effie Arbon, Crotalus with Carter Browning, Teppenpaw, Carter Browning
Groove is in the heart. But my heart's not in the groove... by Charlie B-F-R with Wendy Canterbury - Pecari
But what is the doll's motive to dance? by Annette Pierce, 2nd Year Pecari with Analea Thornton
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Professor Olivers
Get Your Groove On! [I & II years]
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Professor Olivers
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Adam Spencer, Pecari
April 02, 2013 12:02 PM
I didn't bring my dancing shoes. by Adam Spencer, Pecari
Mondays were always the worst days of the week in Adam's opinion. He hadn't disliked them before, but going to early classes after a nice weekend of sleeping in was torture. Adam prided himself in being a good student, but Mondays just killed him. He had a horrible time paying attention in class, especially in his morning classes, and he felt bad not being able to give his hundred-percent, but that was just how it was. Now he understood why his dad drank coffee every morning before work. He wasn't sure if his peers felt the same way. Everyone else seemed cheery enough, at least from what he could see.Adam was one of the last to come into class and he slid into one of the few empty seats left. It was just in time, apparently, because Professor Olivers began talking. It took all of Adam's self-control not to lean his head against his hand and doze off. Instead, he fiddled with his quill, doodling all over what was supposed to be his notes in order to keep awake.
Talking about dancing reminded Adam of the ball that was going to be held at the end of the term. He had yet to find anyone he wanted to take. If anything, he supposed he would have to go alone or at least find a friend to go with. If his sister were here, at least then he would have someone to go with. Adam was a social butterfly in most situations, but in his first term at Sonora, he hadn't formed any solid friendships yet. He wasn't too worried about it, but it would be nice to attend the ball with someone.
When his professor unexpectedly cast the charm they were learning today on someone, Adam was jolted awake, eager to see the results. The orange light wrapped around his classmate with promise, and then simply disappeared. Nothing happened and Adam slumped back down into his seat, disappointed.
He stifled a yawn and belatedly turned his textbook to the page they were supposed to be on. He felt bad not being a better student and penned down the name of the charm and a couple lines of notes that would probably be helpful for his essay. Essays were inevitable in all of his classes, he had discovered. He was lucky he'd had a writing tutor back at home or else he would have failed them all. He wasn't used to writing-intensive classwork.
Professor Olivers dismissed them to begin their work and Adam turned to the person next to him. "Happy Monday," he greeted them with a smile, and he turned to the plastic doll. "My younger siblings would love this spell." He waved his wand around a bit, trying to get the movement right before casting it. "Agitovenia." The doll's arm rose above its head unexpectedly, but it didn't do anything else. Adam sighed. "How was your weekend?" he asked his partner, turning briefly to them before working on his wand movements again. He liked to get comfortable with the action before performing it. With wandwork, he had realised he mucked up spells most of the time because he wasn't physically performing it right.
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Adam Spencer, Pecari
I didn't bring my dancing shoes.
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Adam Spencer, Pecari
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Virginia Bellrose, Crotalus
April 07, 2013 4:05 PM
You could try transfiguring them? by Virginia Bellrose, Crotalus
Ginny’s holiday break had been rather fun. She had gone to England for the first time in her life and to a real ball hosted by a family not related to her! She had been able to get to know Francesca better as well as Rupert, which was really nice. But more so than that, her family had a real Christmas together. Since they moved to the community, their Christmases had become Yule celebrations, which she didn’t really understand. But this year, even though they were in a hotel, she was able to celebrate one of her favorite holidays with her parents. It was the best. Well, except for the fact that she couldn’t also celebrate with the staff back in Ohio, but her mother let her make cards and send them from their hotel in London. Hopefully the staff had received them.But now she was back in school and the cheer of the holiday was wearing off. She didn’t mind classes, but some of them were better than others. She enjoyed Care of Magical Creatures, but that was because the creatures were adorable most of the time. Charms was another one that she tended to enjoy, mostly because they spells were difficult but not complicated. If that made sense. She at least knew that she would get it by the end of class. Defense Against the Dark Arts was a similar class regarding this, for the time being. She knew as she grew older this train of thought may change. Transfiguration and Potions, however, were classes that she struggled in.
Walking into Charms, Ginny gave a polite smile to the Professor before finding a seat and settling in for the lesson. Her only issue was all the essays that they had to do. Once in a while being assigned an essay was fine, but they seemed to get these daily and from all lessons. It was overwhelming. She didn’t know how the older students managed with all their more difficult courses.
Flipping through the book to the appropriate page, Ginny gave it a look over while waiting for the professor to continue. This looked like it would be a fun spell to have. If she thought about it, she could remember her toys always coming to life for her when she was a small child. One of the staff members must have done it when she wasn’t paying attention. A smile of appreciation touched her lips for a moment, but quickly washed away when the Professor attempted the spell on her classmate. Effie did not look too pleased. Of course, Ginny wasn’t sure she wouldn’t have had a similar reaction if the professor suddenly pointed her wand at her, but there was little she could do about it.
Ginny repeated the incantation as asked, thinking that it was so very long and the wand movement sounded complicated. Ginny attempted the wand movement by looking at the book, but she wasn’t sure if she was doing the circles right. She watched the professor perform it trying to imitate her, but she lost focus as the doll began to move. It was rather alien looking by the stiff way of its movements. Ginny tried not to think about it.
Now off on their own, Ginny mumbled the spell to herself trying to work on the wand movement. The boy next to her spoke and Ginny turned to see that he was talking to her. “Oh, Happy Monday!” She replied with a smile. She was pretty sure his name was Adam, but they had never formally met. “The staff at home used to do this spell on my toys for me.” Ginny commented when he mentioned his younger siblings. Ginny didn’t have any, so she couldn’t really agree or disagree to it.
In the middle of performing the spell herself, Ginny became distracted by his question and ended up incorrectly maneuvering her wand. The result was a cloud of dark smoke that puffed out of wand briefly. It startled her for a moment, but when she realized what happened, she felt a little foolish. She sighed to herself. She would get it eventually. “My weekend was lovely.” She replied, although she wanted to say boring. She never did anything here and she really wanted to explore the school and grounds, but she wasn’t close to anyone to ask them to go with her. “I’m Virginia Bellrose of the Alberta Bellroses, by the way.” She said after a moment. “We haven’t formally met. I prefer to be called Ginny. How was your weekend?” She added her preferred name since most people seemed confused when she added it.
Redoing the wand movement step by step by the book, Ginny was rewarded when the doll gave a twirl. It wasn’t much, but it was a start. Her excitement at the small movement came out in a gleeful giggle. She had always been so easily impressed.
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Virginia Bellrose, Crotalus
You could try transfiguring them?
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Virginia Bellrose, Crotalus
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Adam
April 09, 2013 2:44 PM
I'd rather the dolls dance for me by Adam
Adam thought it was rather lucky the witch next to him had a staff at her home. They only had one house-elf that did all the dirty work. His mum had been the one to charm his toys, or at least buy them charmed already, and it had been great fun ordering his toy soldiers around in faux battle scenes. He had played wizard's chess quite a lot growing up as well with his parents. Now he knew at least one animation charm that he could use for Charlotte's birthday gift.It was apparent that Adam's friendly question had distracted the witch from her work, and Adam felt a little bad. "Sorry," he said when she sighed. He had grown up in a houseful of children, meaning he had learnt to be patient and taking responsibility for his own actions, the latter a trait his father had taught him, the former his mother.
Adam never found weekends particularly exciting, but they did give him time to catch up on everything. He usually did his homework then, caught up on his letter writing, practised some wand work and roamed the school. With the weather getting warmer, he would be venturing more outdoors soon. He especially loved the gardens, though they were very different from what he was used to.
Virginia introduced herself and Adam made a slight bow with his head. "I'm pleased to meet you, Miss Bellrose," he said. He wasn't sure whether or not her telling him her name preference was an invitation to call her 'Ginny' from the beginning. He and his peers were usually less formal with each other than the adults, but he would play it by ear. "Adam Spencer, of the London Spencers." He didn't think there were enough Spencers for the family name to be known outside of England, or at least none that he was directly related to.
"My weekend was lovely as well," he told her. "I didn't do very much, but I did get to explore the library a bit. I want to find the MARS room next. I hear it's supposed to be chock-full of things to take advantage of."
After he finished, he watched Ginny give the spell a go, watching as her doll twirled. It made up for the handful of smoke that had come out first, and he smiled at her. "That was impressive," he said. It was a little endearing how she giggled like a little kid. It reminded him of one of his much younger siblings. "Have you performed the charm before?"
After Ginny answered, he turned to the doll himself. Once he got this charm right, maybe he could ask to purchase the doll from Professor Olivers and send it to his sister. Otherwise she wouldn't be receiving her gift from him on time. "Agitovenia." The textbook was helpful as was Professor Olivers's example and he watched the doll take a flying leap with its arms out and land nicely. That was all it did, however. "That wasn't much of a dance, was it? Maybe ballet." Adam, having never done ballet before, wasn't sure how the dolls decided what sort of dance they wanted to do. Maybe there was some mental thing going on, but nothing he was aware of.
"Are you a first year as well?" he asked. "Have you had a chance to explore the school much?"
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Adam
I'd rather the dolls dance for me
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Adam
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Willow Collins,Teppenpaw
April 09, 2013 3:37 PM
That would be cool. by Willow Collins,Teppenpaw
Although Autumn was doing much better, slowly getting well, she had not been released from the hospital before midterm, and Willow had spent it with Hope and Evan and their family. She'd been rather disappointed about the whole thing, but she knew her sister had been pretty sick-the Teppenpaw had been able to tell that just by looking at her that awful day last summer-and needed their parents more.Willow's cousins tried to make it better for her though, going out of their way to make sure she was happy and having a good time. Evan and Hope's mother Isabella was such a sweet woman. She treated the first year like one of her own children and Willow did appreciate that, but still, it wasn't the same. She wanted her own parents back. She wanted her sister to get well and stay that way. She wanted Autumn home permanently, not in the hospital.
Last time, she had expected her sister not to get sick again. She had thought that the first time that Autumn had been sick too and both times, she'd been disappointed. Even if Autumn got better now, would it last? Would it ever? She wasn't so sure. Willow didn't quite understand her sister's illness. Nobody ever seemed to really want to tell her what was going on and if she tried to look up something about it on her own, in a book or something, she got too upset.
Professor Olivers started class and Willow listened for instructions. There seemed to be charms out there that were not especially useful, but they were lots of fun and fun helped people get their minds off of things though in her case, it unfortunately didn't always work. The first year wasn't really supposed to talk about it with anyone either, aside from Hope or Evan or Nora. Not that she especially wanted to talk to Nora about it. She was close with the fifth year's younger sister Portia because they were only a year apart in age but Nora was very smart and kind of intimidating. She had a way of looking at things that was very intellectual and often didn't seem all that empathetic.
Not that there was anyone Willow felt comfortable enough to talk about her problems with other than her relatives even if she could. She liked her roommates well enough but didn't consider them close friends yet. Mostly, she just hadn't met that many people as she'd been keeping to herself a lot. It was a shame, because Willow really wanted to make friends, but she'd just not been in a mood to socialize. Maybe now that Autumn was a little better, she'd be happier and want to talk to her classmates more.
Maybe now was the time to start. She found herself sitting next to Adam and Ginny Bellrose. Adam was one of the few people other than her roommates that she'd talked to and it would be nice to get to know both him and the Crotalus. Willow had sort of been wondering about Adam and why he hadn't been at the ball his cousins had thrown anyway, though she didn't want to interrupt them and waited until Adam had replied. She turned to the other two first years. "Hi Adam." She greeted him and turned to Ginny. "I'm Willow Collins of the Pennsylvania Collinses.You can call me Willow, pleasure to meet you formally." She gave the other girl a warm friendly smile. "You did a really great job with that spell." She hoped they didn't mind if she joined the conversation.
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Willow Collins,Teppenpaw
That would be cool.
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Willow Collins,Teppenpaw
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Ginny Bellrose
April 14, 2013 9:21 PM
If they ever get to dance, any way. by Ginny Bellrose
“Oh, no no, you’re fine.” She commented, waving off his apology with a smile. “Spells never work the first time for me anyway, so it probably would have happened no matter what.” Ginny explained to him with ease. Faults probably weren’t something to say out loud, but their magical experience was limited at this point, so she didn’t think he’d look down upon what she had said.“London?” Ginny asked, perking up at the introduction. “I went to London on Holiday.” Ginny commented, pleased that she could contribute something. “The city is wonderful. My parents and I had a really great time there. We haven’t had a real vacation in some time and it was my first time to England. You’re very lucky to live there.” Ginny replied, smiling. Although the place she lived at now had so much happening all the time, she was not permitted to discuss it. In order to avoid any slip ups, Ginny remembered only her home in Ohio. That would always be her home.
As much as Ginny wanted to explore, the library had never crossed her mind. There was a chance that there would be some fabulous books in there that would peak her interest, but that was as far as it went. There would be nothing special in a library as far as Ginny was concerned. Still, she envied him for having the courage to explore. “Oh, yes, I’ve heard that the MARS room has so much to offer. I haven’t found it yet, but I’m hoping to. I heard there is a dance room and a music room!” There were two things in this world that Ginny loved to do. Ballet and singing. She also learned how to play the violin, but she wasn’t that good at it, so she tended to simply sing and dance. She did it often growing up as a means of entertaining herself.
Ginny shook her head. “No, just my lousy first attempt and now.” She said. She didn’t think a twirl was that impressive, but she was really happy that this time the doll had done something. Some spells, like the levitation charm, were really easy for her to learn. Other spells took her some time to do. She watched him as he tried the spell. The doll did a leap in the air for him before stopping. She wondered how people got the dolls to dance for a longer period of time then they seemed to be able to do. “It looked like a Grand Jeté en Avant.” Ginny said as she thought about it. She wondered if thinking about a dance was shown through the doll or if the doll just did what it wanted…
“I am a first year and no, I haven’t really explored much of it. Although, I’d really like to.” Ginny confessed. Another voice came into the conversation and Ginny turned to find Willow, one of Gemma’s roommates, greeting Adam. “Oh, hello.” Ginny said, smiling to the girl as she introduced herself. “Virginia Bellrose of the Alberta Bellroses. I prefer Ginny. It’s nice to meet you, Willow.” Still smiling, Ginny shook her head a little at the compliment. “Adam did a much better job than I. His actually jumped. How are you doing on the spell?” She asked Willow.
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Ginny Bellrose
If they ever get to dance, any way.
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Ginny Bellrose
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Adam
April 15, 2013 7:29 PM
Eh, I'm more interested in chatting you all up by Adam
It was simply brilliant, meeting his peers. He noticed Ginny perk up at the mention of London and briefly wondered if she had been there before saying she'd been there on holiday. He smiled. "Brilliant," he said before she continued on to tell him about it. "Yes, I love London," he told her. "It's been a great place to grow up in and I absolutely adore the city life." He could talk about his home for hours. Maybe on another occasion he would with Ginny or whoever else had been there before.Comparing his doll's leap to Ginny's doll's twirl was pretty good for the first try in Adam's opinion. "We're both good, just in different ways. Yours twirls and mine, well, likes leaping." He shrugged. It wasn't anything special yet, but he had confidence their dolls would perform some sort of coherent dance by the end of the class. And if not, they could always pass it off as interpretive. His mum had taken he and his siblings to a show once and Adam had been simply confused as to the sort of spectacle they were showing. His mum hadn't tried taking him to a dance again after showing complete indifference to it. Charlotte was much more into that sort of thing.
Speaking of dance, Ginny seemed interested in the dance and music rooms here and he connected them easily. "I'm assuming you dance and play and instrument or something? That's brilliant. What do you play? Or sing?" Charlotte played the piano, but Adam hadn't really put his lessons into good use. He played a little piano himself, but it wasn't anything good and he certainly wasn't going to go searching for a grand piano to practise on. His piano tutor would kill him, but that was no skin off his nose.
Now a place to sit and read a good book in peace and quiet or draw something cool would be nice to do in the MARS room. He wasn't sure what was there except for a Quidditch practise room, but he didn't think he would use that room unless he joined the team. Joining was an unspoken expectation of him. He had grown up playing it and enjoyed it. He just wasn't nearly as competitive as, for example, his cousins. Or the professionals.
Willow joined into their conversation and Adam, who found himself in between them, scooted his chair back a bit, forming an awkwardly flat half-circle. Apparently Ginny and Willow hadn't formally met and Adam would have found that odd at such a small school, only he hadn't formally met everyone in his year either. He needed to branch out more, but school was much more difficult than he had anticipated. How did anyone juggle all of these activities together?
"Yes, didn't you see it? It practically leapt across the room," he joked, pretending to look a distance away. He turned back to the girls and smiled. After she had answered Ginny's question, he took his turn to ask his own, lesson temporarily ignored. "Did you do anything fun on your weekend, Willow?"
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Adam
Eh, I'm more interested in chatting you all up
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Adam
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