Groove is in the heart. But my heart's not in the groove... on Charms

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

0 Professor Olivers Get Your Groove On! [I & II years] 0 Professor Olivers 1 5

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.

0 Adam Spencer, Pecari I didn't bring my dancing shoes. 0 Adam Spencer, Pecari 0 5

Francesca Wolseithcrafte

April 04, 2013 3:06 PM

Dance, magic dance by Francesca Wolseithcrafte

Francesca returned to Charms with a slight hint of a leaden weight in her stomach. She felt that she had still been getting to grips with wielding her wand at the end of last term and, after a two week break, there was the potential that her skills, unpolished to begin with, were now also a little rusty. Charms was quite possibly her least favourite subject as it was the most obvious display of that. Potions and Care of Magical Creatures rarely required wand work. Transfiguration, although more complex, made more sense and had more structure to her, which supported her in the practical element. In Defence Against the Dark Arts she supposed it was the slightly adrenalised sense that her life, or at least her well-being, depended on what she was doing which pushed her to master things more quickly. As a rule, theory came exceptionally easily to her. Wand work significantly less so, and Charms lagged the furthest behind. She hoped it would all click together, that it was just a case of getting used to her wand and to channelling her powers but, until that happened, she worried that people would notice her below par performance and think ill of her.

She sat up straight, as if by sheer attentiveness she could better perform the practical element of the lesson when it came to it. She noted down everything Professor Olivers said and joined in with the chanting and emulating of the wand movement. When they were set to their task, she read the directions in the book through twice. She felt that she knew all that she could about the background, and could only hope that that was enough to give a passable performance in the practical task.

She swirled her wand through the motion a couple more times. It was more complicated than some of the ones they had used the previous term and she wanted it to feel natural, as she could not allow getting the movement right to take her focus. Her focus had to be on what she was doing, as a whole and complete act, and on the effect it should be having.

“Agitovenia,” she cast, once she felt confident that she could do the movement without thinking about it too much. The doll's legs quivered and, had the aim of the lesson been a jelly-legs curse, it might have looked like Francesca was well on the way to achieving it. The doll seemed to have gone rather weak at the hips and was bent over backwards in what would have been an alarming or impressive pose for a human. It occasionally twitched. Francesca hastily cancelled the charm, assisting the doll back into its standing position – presumably they had some kind of balancing charm, or hers would have gone right over. Focussing on the positives, her charm had successfully targeted the legs and had caused the doll to move. However, if there was anyone who regarded those movements as 'dancing' she sincerely hoped never to meet them.

“Agitovenia,” she tried again, concentrating on the fluidity of the movements, trying to associate them in her mind with the fluid movements of dancing. This time her doll at least remained upright. It was still twitching rather than doing much more but it was progress.

“How are you finding this?” she enquired, cancelling her charm and turning to her neighbour. Whilst she wasn't keen to draw their attention to what she was managing to do, class was a good opportunity to make or strengthen associations, and that was something she was keen to work on.

OOC - Adam, someone mentioned they were working on a reply to you and I didn't want to gazump them, which is started a new thread. Didn't want you to think I was ignoring you.

13 Francesca Wolseithcrafte Dance, magic dance 250 Francesca Wolseithcrafte 0 5

Effie Arbon, Crotalus

April 06, 2013 3:50 PM

My groove is in 3/4 timing. by Effie Arbon, Crotalus

The day's work for charms was.... well, charming, if not of any great practical use. That suited Effie just fine. Charms to amuse oneself, one's company or, perhaps more accurately in this case, one's children were right up her street. She could see herself putting this charm to good use. Araceli would find it delightful. If Effie was allowed any time to do what could be considered playing with her younger sister. Now that she and Delphine were young ladies, she wondered what Araceli did all day....

She tore her thoughts away from her sibling and back to class just in time to find Professor Oliver's pointing her wand at her. Effie assumed that Professor Olivers was going to use her figuring for demonstration and gave a gasp of surprise as she found the charm wrapping around her own body instead. No overwhelming urge to dance filled her although a rather strong one to hex her Professor was oddly present... Effie knew full well that the charm did not work on humans but she had been surprised by the unexpected and unconsenual use of her as an illustration. Professor Olivers' smile of thanks was met with a glare both on the principal of the thing and because she had caused Effie to make a fool of herself in crying out. She could only hope people correctly read it as surprise at the Professor's behaviour rather than alarm.

She turned her attention back to the doll as the Professor demonstrated the spell properly and explained the dolls were limited by being made of something called 'plastic.' Effie supposed that explained why they were so oddly shiny and cheap looking. It must have been something Muggles made dolls out of. The thing was definitely ugly compared to her collection of pretty porcelain dolls at home, each with their own hand stitched dress. She tried not let her mind stray back to Araceli, and whether she would spend her evening playing tea party. Her sister had always loved that game.

Once they were set to their task, Effie straightened her back and focussed, determined to make up for her slip up earlier.

“Agitovenia!” she cast firmly, swirling her wand gracefully through the motion and picturing a simple, elegant waltz. The doll raised her arms as if holding an invisible partner and began to move her legs although Effie could immediately see what Professor Olivers meant about their limitations. The stiff legs made the steps with difficulty, giving them an awkward look. Out of habit, Effie found herself counting the waltz timing in her head. One two three, one two three.. After a few bars of ungainlybut on-time waltzing, the doll slowed. The stiff movement of her limbs was emphasised by the slowness, giving an overall impression of extreme effort to keep moving. Ultimately, the effort was too much and the doll ground to a halt.

“Not a bad start,” she commented to her neighbour, “Although they are rather awkward, aren't they?”

13 Effie Arbon, Crotalus My groove is in 3/4 timing. 238 Effie Arbon, Crotalus 0 5

Charlie B-F-R

April 07, 2013 12:45 PM

Groove is in the heart. But my heart's not in the groove... by Charlie B-F-R

It was an effort to drag himself to class after the holidays. Classes were usually fun, especially Charms but they weren't more fun than Christmas. It was pretty hard to beat Christmas. Spending the break at home had just reinforced to Charlie how awesome having as much time to play as you wanted was and how much he loved being with his family. He felt a bit deflated at coming back to school, especially as he didn't get to spend class or common room time with his sister. His usually bouncy demeanour was absent as he flopped into a chair in Charms, and there was what might have been a slight pout on his lips.

His mood was not improved by Professor Olivers telling him the class would be hard (when wasn't it? For a flouncy actress type she really loved setting complicated work) but when she revealed the nature of this hard work he brightened a little. Making dolls dance did sound fun... He joined in the chanting and wand-waving. He was mirroring Professor Olivers at first and accidentally bumped into his neighbour as they went different ways at different times before he correct himself with a whispered 'sorry' to them.

“This seems kind of complicated, doesn't it?” he asked, when they were set to work. “I mean, you have to go this way then that way and...” he shrugged, trying to do the wand movement smoothly. “I think I always make one loop bigger than the other...” He practised a few more times.

“Ok... Here goes...” he psyched himself up, trying to put his serious Doing Magic face on. It was a lot easier today, given that he hadn't been as un-serious as usual at the start of the lesson.

“Agitovenia!” he cast. The doll raised her arms up as if about to start a bit of boogy but then froze in that position. One arm was also considerably higher than the other, and she leaned over a little lopsidedly. “Why did she have to set us something hard on the first day back?” Charlie complained, which was rather unlike him.

13 Charlie B-F-R Groove is in the heart. But my heart's not in the groove... 252 Charlie B-F-R 0 5

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.

0 Virginia Bellrose, Crotalus You could try transfiguring them? 0 Virginia Bellrose, Crotalus 0 5

Wendy Canterbury - Pecari

April 07, 2013 5:46 PM

A good dance has a lot of heart to it, so they say by Wendy Canterbury - Pecari

The winter break had been so much fun that Wendy found it harder than usual to come back. She had gotten to see her mom's parents from North Carolina who always gave the best gifts and there was a lot of music going on in the Canterbury apartment. There was usually always music going on there, but this Christmas there had been more than usual. It had been a lot of fun and Wendy already missed it.

Classes were not bad, though. At least she didn't have to go to a regular school and learn math and science, two of her worst subjects. Magic didn't fascinate her nearly as much as it had fascinated her older sister when she had been this age, but Wendy did like being a witch and doing magic.

Professor Olivers said they were going to do a hard lesson today and she sighed, but nevertheless accepted her fate. Professor Olivers's lessons were usually kind of interesting, though she hadn't seen much of her professor last term. Probably personal reasons, unless she had been sick or something.

She participated along with the lecture, being amused at Effie's reaction to being the guinea pig for the spell, and then wandered off into her own mind as she usually did. She had asked her best friend Carter to the ball at the end of the term and she still had to ask her mom to send a dress. She wanted something with lots of yellow and flowers, but her mom didn't think that would be appropriate. Sometimes Wendy just couldn't understand color schemes.

The boy next to her bumped her arm, startling Wendy out of her thoughts. She hadn't realized how far her wand arm was going as she had absently been practicing the movement. "It's okay," she said with a friendly smile, brushing her blonde hair out of her eyes. "It just takes some practice. It is kind of complicated, but we always seem to do complicated things in this class." She wasn't complaining, just stating a fact.

Wendy liked watching her peers do their work and taking turns. It was nice to coach people on their work and get advice from them too. Having a partner in crime was always fun too. She watched him do his work, imagining if one of her Barbie dolls at home could be enchanted to do something like this. That would be so much fun, getting all of her dolls to do the boogie. However, the doll the boy was working with stopped short and she blinked.

"Hey, at least you got the arm to move. I bet even the best wizards in the world couldn't do a charm like this on the first try when they were our age." She just smiled at him again. "You're Charlie, right? I remember your name from last term's classes. I'm Wendy." For a girl who was usually in her own world most of the time, she did tend to people watch and catch names once in awhile.

Wendy turned to her doll and gave the charm a try. "Agitovenia!" Her wrist went a little out of control for a moment, and so her loops weren't perfect. The dolls feet moved as if it was going to twirl, but it stopped and fell over, inanimate once more before making it. "Rats," she said, picking it back up. "I hope it'll finish its turn when I cast the charm again. Maybe it'll do a few if I do it right." She looked over at Charlie. "Do you want to practice the loops a couple more times before trying it again?"

0 Wendy Canterbury - Pecari A good dance has a lot of heart to it, so they say 0 Wendy Canterbury - Pecari 0 5

Charlie B-F-R

April 08, 2013 11:39 AM

Well, that explains where I'm going wrong then by Charlie B-F-R

Charlie grinned at Wendy's compliment. He knew it was probably almost definitely not true – there had been some fantastically powerful wizards, mostly in The Olden Days, whom he was sure had had dolls dancing since they had been holding a wand (which was much earlier in their lives as people weren't as strict back then). But it was still nice of her to say.

“It's a start,” he agreed with a smile. “Right,” he confirmed when she asked his name. He had told all the teachers they could call him Charlie on roll call but sometimes teachers felt the need to be formal about those sorts of things. He was glad though that people seemed to know him as that, not Charles. He was really not a Charles, never had been. He didn't really need her to tell him her name – it was a small school and he liked to know who everyone was. He thought she spent a lot of time with Carter, who was in Charlie's good books firstly for helping him out in collecting feathers in Care of Magical Creatures and secondly for not calling him any of the nasty names people at had his old school had when he found out Charlie wanted to make them into fabulous accessories.

“Hey, that was good,” he encouraged, when she was disappointed by the doll falling over. But Wendy seemed to pick herself and the doll back up, hoping she could get it to finish its spins. “I bet you will,” he nodded.

“That sounds like a good plan – we can watch each other practice until it's perfect or we've made ourselves thoroughly dizzy!” he laughed, “Ok, tell me when my loops are even...” he said, his smile slipping in favour of a look of concentration which involved going near cross-eyes at his own wand. He turned towards Wendy and swirling his wand through the motion, trying very hard to make sure he made both sides exactly even. Once he got some positive feedback he turned back to the doll.

“Right, time to try it on you again!” he addressed her. “Ag-i-to-ven-i-a,” he cast, doing it rather slowly and carefully so that he could make his wand movement perfect. Rather predictably, this had an impact on the way the spell worked. The doll began to move, swirling her limbs – mostly the arms, really – through a fairly freeform dance. It would have been a pretty funky number except that she was doing it remarkably slowly. Had it been an elegant dance, that might have suited it, however it made the current moves she was busting look rather peculiar.

“Look!” Charlie breathed, as if this odd, stilted boogie was the most wondrous thing he had ever witnessed. “She's doing it! She's really doing it!” After about a minute the doll wound down and Charlie turned back to Wendy.

“Your turn!” he grinned.

13 Charlie B-F-R Well, that explains where I'm going wrong then 252 Charlie B-F-R 0 5

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?"

0 Adam I'd rather the dolls dance for me 0 Adam 0 5

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.

11 Willow Collins,Teppenpaw That would be cool. 253 Willow Collins,Teppenpaw 0 5

Carter Browning, Teppenpaw

April 12, 2013 12:07 PM

I wonder sometimes if I actually have one by Carter Browning, Teppenpaw

Carter walked from the Teppenpaw dorms to the Charms classroom still trying to wipe the sleep from his eyes trying hard to keep up with everything. He figured once the challenges were over everything at school should go back to normal. At least that’s what Carter hoped anyway. He arrived at class and found himself a seat, smiling towards Wendy when he spotted her and waving hello. He was still reeling over the fact that she had asked him to accompany her to the ball and wondered what he should wear. He promised himself he’d ask her later. Once everyone was in and the classroom door had swung shut, the professor 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.” “Today we’re going to learn how to animate inanimate objects by making them dance.” “Turn to page 102 in your textbook, please.”

Cater turned to the page requested in his textbook and briefly read down the page. As he glanced over the page Professor Olivers began her mini lecture on the days lesson. “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—” He watched her pause and try casting the charm on Effie who was seated next to him. 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, The charm isn’t strong enough to force a person to do something against their will. If it was, it would be illegal.” He watched her give a nod of thanks to Effie before turning back to charm her chalk again.

“The incantation is Agitovenia.” He noticed that 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.”

“Let me show you before you start doing it yourselves. “Agitovenia.” He watched intently as she performed the charm on a doll that was sitting on a first year’s desk. The doll seemed to dance around, but its movements were really stiff so it looked more like it was having a seizure to Carter. “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?” Carter found himself agreeing with the professor on her assessment of the doll’s performance. He watched her sort of smile as the doll raised its arms and twirled like a ballerina. He watched carefully as the professor 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.”
Carter sighed as he heard the professor assign their homework assignment as well. He didn’t dislike homework, but like any normal 12 year old he wasn’t excited about it either. He turned to Effie to give his slight sympathies over the professor’s use of her as a Guinea pig when she turned towards him. She had apparently been trying out the charm on the doll in front of her as the professor finished her lecture.

“Not a bad start,” she commented to her neighbour, “Although they are rather awkward, aren't they?” Carter had to admit she was absolutely right about their movements being very awkward. He nodded in agreement. “Yeah they are kind-of,” he agreed. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully with his hand. “Personally they kind-of look like they’re going into seizures instead of dancing,” he half joked. “I wonder if I can make mine do any better. I doubt it, but you never know.” He laughed slightly at his own joke and raised his wand to give it a whirl. He pointed his wand at his doll and said, “Agitovenia!” He waved it like the professor had shown them and tapped the doll.

The doll got up off the desk and began to whirl around in a circle. It began to rapidly pick up speed and Carter began to fear it would fly right off his desk towards some poor unsuspecting student. He watched it spin with fascination before trying out the countercurse. The doll stopped spinning dead in its tracks and fell upon the desk as though it had never moved. Carter stared wide-eyed at the inanimate object before glancing up at Effie. “Well now, that was weird,” he commented. “Somehow I don’t think it was supposed to do that.” He scratched his chin and folded his arms over his chest. “Perhaps it would go better if I tried again. What do you think?” he asked her, studying his doll.

0 Carter Browning, Teppenpaw I wonder sometimes if I actually have one 0 Carter Browning, Teppenpaw 0 5

Wendy

April 12, 2013 4:51 PM

You could do the robot by Wendy

Wendy smiled at Charlie's encouragement. "Thanks," she said. She really liked making new friends even if it didn't come all that easily to her. Charlie started practicing his loops in front of her and Wendy watched until they were almost perfect. "There!" she said when he did it right. "That's great. Just do it that way again when you actually do it."

Hopefully he would remember how it felt like. She watched Charlie cast his charm and then turned to look at the doll. The doll's slow movements captivated her and she felt like she was witnessing something beautiful. A classical song came to her head and the background noise seemed to fall away. The doll's dance was strange, but it looked so carefully scripted that Wendy didn't know what to make of it. It was so strange, so slow, and so delicate; it was beautiful.

And then the doll stopped and reality came rushing back to Wendy. "That was amazing," she breathed, and then looked back at her doll. "Right, my turn," she said, taking a moment to situate herself again. She drifted in and out of her own head so often she was kind of used to transitioning quickly. "Okay, ready? Agitovenia!" She said it a little forcefully and her loops were slightly off, but the doll moved. It stood up abruptly and started doing the robot. She giggled, easily entertained.

"I loved that!" she exclaimed. "I wonder how I could make it do ballet." She turned to Charlie. "Now that we know we can make them dance, we should try and experiment with the kinds of dances we could make them do." Wendy really liked this project. It would be so cool if she could make her dolls do this at home. "What kind of dolls do magical people have?" she asked. "Are they like these or can they all move?" Magic had to have some perks like animated dolls since they didn't have TV and stuff. She just imagined her stuffed animals at home moving like this. Her make-believe play would be so much more fun if they could move on their own.

0 Wendy You could do the robot 0 Wendy 0 5

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.

0 Ginny Bellrose If they ever get to dance, any way. 0 Ginny Bellrose 0 5

Annabelle Pierce, Pecari 2nd year

April 15, 2013 2:31 PM

Dancing solo by Annabelle Pierce, Pecari 2nd year

Since the second challenge, Annette had been pressing for more magical independence. No longer was she content to just accept their situation as the way things were. She wanted to be able to cast spells by herself.

Annabelle was not quite sure how to take this. In some ways, she felt kind of hurt. Before the obstacle course, they were inseparable and the idea of doing anything alone was an unpleasant and neccessary evil, at best. Now, Annette was intentionally sitting down in seats where Annabelle could not sit next to her, and she seemed to see their connection as an irritation rather than something special.

Annabelle could not help but feel like her sister was trying to get rid of her. Sometimes, Annette didn't even wear the clothes Annabelle picked out for her, but something completely different! And Annette had not inherited their mother's infallible sense of fashion. Annabelle only barely stopped her from going out in public wearing white shoes before Easter twice. And the outfits she put together! It was lucky they shared a room or Annette would have badly discredited herself by now. How anyone raised under Mother's roof could possibly think it was a good idea to mix stripes and plaid was entirely beyond Annabelle. Surely even Derry knew better than that, and his fashion sense was three centuries out of date.

Which was not to say that Annabelle did not understand why it was important that they break this magical dependency they had on each other. Even aside from being given different roles during the second challenge, their grades had taken a dip in all of their wand-using classes for no other reason than their more seperate seating arrangements.

Casting alone, after all, wasn't something they had ever been able to do, and that hadn't changed just because Annette decided they should start dressing differently.

Now in Charms, Annabelle took a seat near the first year she had taken on as her sort of mentee. Of course, these last weeks she had not been particularly talented in trying to show the younger girl how to succeed when she was having just as much trouble herself, but it was almost as much habit to sit near Francesca as it was to sit near Annette, and Annette wasn't letting her sit next to her in class anymore. So she clung to the tradition she had left.

The charm was one she thought she would have enjoyed, if Annette was not being stubborn. She practiced the motion and incantation with everyone else, then tried it on her own doll. The first try had no effect, so she took a moment to imagine the doll dancing, sweeping across the desk like she was a graceful Lady in a ballroom. Annabelle could almost hear the music.

Caught up in the thought, she cast again. This time the doll did make an aborted sweeping motion before abruptly bending over and stopping, as if she had tried to bow and got stuck there.

Signing, Annabelle ended the charm and set the doll upright again. Turning as Francesca spoke to her, she forced a smile and wished Annette would just look at her so she could do the charm properly and have some fun with it. "I got her to move," she offered the little success she had acheived. Some days, she couldn't even manage that much without Annette.

1 Annabelle Pierce, Pecari 2nd year Dancing solo 246 Annabelle Pierce, Pecari 2nd year 0 5

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?"

0 Adam Eh, I'm more interested in chatting you all up 0 Adam 0 5

Effie Arbon

April 16, 2013 1:31 PM

I suppose you'll find out at the ball.. by Effie Arbon

Effie managed a polite smile at what she presumed to be a joke about the dolls looking like they were having seizures. It made the whole scene a little grizzly, and she hoped she could disassociate the two ideas; she did not wish to start thinking of the phrase 'a lively dance' as being a euphemism for having a seizure. It would make social events so very awkward...

“I'm sure you will do admirably,” she commented when he suggested that he would likely under-perform in comparison. She knew he was only being modest, but she was also expected to make a supportive comment. That was just how the dance went...

“Well... there is an element of spinning in dancing,” Effie suggested weakly, when he stated that his charm had not quite going to plan. “And people very rarely get things perfect first time. I..” she hesitated very slightly. She had always been taught that boys knew best but she had spotted the mistake that Carter had made. Most boys here seemed very kind and mild-mannered, although of course she had never ventured so far as to correct one of them before, “You tapped it with your wand,” she explained. “I believe that is surplus to requirements. You just make the figure eight – which you did very nicely – and then it should work upon the completion of that.

“I think we had both best have another go,” she nodded. After all, she also had plenty of room for improvement.

“Agitovenia,” she cast, trying to flick her wand briskly and purposefully through the movement. Her doll moved more quickly this time, swinging its plastic limbs this way and that way. It looked a lot closer to the Professor's example but it was not anything she would have recognised as dancing. She had not been focussing on her own ideas of what the concept meant when she cast this time. She pursed her lips slightly, hoping that doing the spell well was not incompatible with giving the doll a modicum of grace about her movements. She waited for it to stop.

“Agitovenia,” she cast again, thinking elegant, waltzing thoughts. Once again the doll was stiff and awkward in executing the movements. “They do seem to suit random and unaesthetic flailing over anything I would regard as dancing,” she commented to Carter.

13 Effie Arbon I suppose you'll find out at the ball.. 238 Effie Arbon 0 5

Charlie B-F-R, Teppenpaw

April 16, 2013 2:25 PM

Or the mashed potato by Charlie B-F-R, Teppenpaw

Charlie jumped slightly at the sound of Wendy's voice, having been so intent on his practice.

“Right... ok...” he said, wracking his brains to try and recall exactly how his hand had just moved and how it had felt different to the umpteen other tries. Evidently though, he had drilled it into himself to some extent.

“Thank you,” he smiled, when she complimented his attempt, glad that she seemed as genuinely mesmerised by the doll's weird.... artistic interpretation of the idea of dancing as he was. Her attempt was much more literal and familiar to him.

“That was amazing!” he giggled, “You got the doll with the funky groove!” he laughed. “Um... I guess you could try thinking especially balletic thoughts Or striking a balletic pose as you cast the spell, like this,” he suggested, bending one leg out sideways so that his toes touched his knee. Once he had finished wobbling, he tried to look his most serious as he twirled his wand through its loops in front of the doll. “Agitovenia!” he cast again. However balletic Charlie's thoughts and posture were, the doll stuck with her free form dance. The only notable effect of his new pose was that the spell was a little worse than last time; the doll was leaning dangerously off-centre and occasionally wobbling. “Or maybe not...” he grinned ruefully, returning to his normal stance.

“Um, we don't really have ones that come enchanted. I think it's something to do with Muggles having dolls too, so if they got mixed up somehow it would lead to awkward questions. But my parents would sometimes put Charms on them to make them do stuff for us. Whenever I had a nightmare my Dad would make my stuffed unicorn do a little tap dance to cheer me up. It worked really well – it's hard to still be scared after seeing that. Stuff like that isn't against the law,” he added hastily, realising Wendy might start thinking his parents were bending the rules, given what he had said before. “So long as it's a short piece of magic that stops or that you take off again, it's ok. You're just not allowed to leave Muggle things lying around with lots of permanent spells on,” he explained.

13 Charlie B-F-R, Teppenpaw Or the mashed potato 252 Charlie B-F-R, Teppenpaw 0 5

Francesca Wolseithcrafte, Aladren

April 16, 2013 2:53 PM

Do you know many solo dances? by Francesca Wolseithcrafte, Aladren

Francesca smiled as one of the Pierce twins sat down beside her. She seemed to have had a Pierce twin for company fairly regularly during Charms class. Assuming the same one who had partnered her in their first class had stuck with her, that meant it was Annabelle, however she had yet to discover a means to determine this for certain. Even though Annabelle had said they did not mind not being told apart it frustrated Francesca not to be able to. They were like a logic puzzle. There had to be an answer and she wanted to find it. So far, however, all the potential solutions that she had come up with entailed incredibly unsubtle magical violation of the twins' personal space. Whilst she was sure the school at large would be grateful to her, she did not think that slapping name labels onto their foreheads with permanent sticking charms was appropriate. Besides which, she couldn't cast one.

“Good morning,” she smiled, as one of the twins sat down beside her. Lately they seemed to have been sitting separately in class, which was intriguing given their magical limitations when apart. Although perhaps the distance across a room did not matter? It irked her that she could not recall whether Annabelle had said they needed to be together, or had defined what 'together' meant, or stated that they needed eye contact versus just an eye line... However, she thought it might be rude to probe into the matter again. The two had also started dressing differently, and she was curious as to whether a rift had sprung between them. It seemed inconceivable but things were definitely... different. She kept one eye on the girl next to her, watching her materials as she got them out, trying to catch sight of a 'This book belongs to Annabelle Pierce' sticker, or her writing her name on her work. Of course, she then had to link that to some particular recurrent trait....

“That's a good start,” she smiled at the Pierce twin, her eyes subconsciously darting in the direction of the other one and wondering about the effect of their separation. It was a harder charm... Was that alone enough to account for this Pierce twin not picking it up straight away? “Mine... twitched,” she admitted. As Probably Annabelle was not making hers impressively tango across the desk, Francesca felt more secure in admitting this slow start than she might have to someone else.

“Agitovenia,” she tried again. The doll raised an arm and stopped. Francesca took a deep breath and managed not to scowl at it. She understood every detail of why it should work and the fact that that didn't mean it automatically did frustrated her immensely.

“She definitely has thrown us back in at the deep end, hasn't she?” she smiled ruefully at the Pierce twin.

13 Francesca Wolseithcrafte, Aladren Do you know many solo dances? 250 Francesca Wolseithcrafte, Aladren 0 5

Carter Browning

April 16, 2013 4:21 PM

I suppose you're right by Carter Browning

Carter found himself agreeing with Effie’s observation that some dancing did have elements of spinning to it. He had tried to avoid the actually dancing part as much as possible when it came to his parents parties, but he was not without instruction. Much to Carter’s horror his mother had made certain he knew several forms of dancing. He would have cringed internally at the idea of having to dance in front of everyone at the ball had it not been for the thought of the person he would be dancing with. Carter found that he actually liked the thought of dancing with Wendy in front of everyone. He would never tell his mother that. She would go into a fainting spell at the idea of her son already liking girls. He was sure even his cousin Kinley would find a way to tease him about it. That part he wasn’t so worried about. He could handle her. It was the idea that he actually was going on his first official “date” that concerned him a bit. He tried pushing thoughts of the ball out of his head as he focused on what Effie was saying to him.

“You tapped it with your wand,” she explained. “I believe that is surplus to requirements. You just make the figure eight – which you did very nicely – and then it should work upon the completion of that.” Carter rubbed his chin thoughtfully at her correction of his casting. She was absolutely right. He had tapped it when he cast the spell. He hadn’t even thought about it when he did it. Drat! He really should pay more attention to the wand movements. He smiled when she complimented his figure eight. He wasn’t trying to be fancy with it, but it was nice to be noticed. “Ya know,” he began glancing at her thoughtfully, “You are absolutely right. I did tap the silly thing when I did the spell and didn’t need to. That’s probably why my doll turned into a spinning top as opposed to a dancer.” He laughed slightly at his own mistake. “Well I suppose second time is the charm right?” he asked lightly before his expression turned slightly confused. “Or is it the third time that’s the charm? Hmmm….” he pondered aloud.

He let the thought drop and turned back to the matter at hand. He nodded at her agreement of his suggestion to try again and readied his wand. “I will get it right this time,” he told himself as he watched Effie make her attempt first. Her doll moved around in much the same fashion the professor’s had and she seemed pleased with her attempts. He nodded in approval. “You’re really good at this,” he told her before turning to his own doll again. He raised his wand and did the figure eight only as she had pointed out and cast the charm. ““Agitovenia!” he commanded, after completing the figure eight. He watched with interest as the doll got up off the desk and began dancing around pretty close to how Effie’s and the Professor’s had. He nodded, a little surprised that it had worked so well, and dropped the wand. When he did, the doll went back to its non-moving status on his desk. He watched it with interest. “That was pretty cool,” he said. He turned to fully face Effie. “Thank you for your help with that,” he told her smiling. “I’m glad one of us could see what I had been doing wrong. If you hadn’t corrected me my doll would have probably flown across the room,” he joked lightly.

0 Carter Browning I suppose you're right 236 Carter Browning 0 5

Annette Pierce, 2nd Year Pecari

April 17, 2013 11:39 AM

But what is the doll's motive to dance? by Annette Pierce, 2nd Year Pecari

Annette liked to believe she was a strong, capable young lady. Independent, even, though in truth she had never really thought Annabelle was someone she might need independence from, until recently. However, the second challenge had made it eminently clear they had become dependant on one another, and not in a good or healthy way.

So she tried to break away.

It was hard. Habit dictated that every morning Annabelle selected their outfits while Annette put their school bags together. She had to force herself to take clothes from the closet instead of the ones neatly laid out on her bed. Annabelle fussed, of course, and often made her change her clothes because choosing what to wear each day was Annabelle's job, not Annette's, so Annette allowed this aspect of normality, as long as it was different from what her sister was wearing.

Worse, though, was class. This was when Annette had to sit apart from her sister because Annabelle wouldn't do it unless Annette forced the matter. Annette had to steel herself against the look of hurt every time she sat down in a chair that did not have an empty one next to it. But it was neccessary, if they were ever going to be able to do magic by themselves. Annette was sure of that, and she was pretty sure Annabelle understood it as well. They needed to do this, for the good of both of them. Reinforcing the dependency could only hurt them in the long run.

Of course, it meant their grades were dropping. They had never been top of their class - they didn't have the drive or patience to spend that much time in the library when outside was so much nicer - but they had maintained a fairly consistent E average for the first half of the year in almost all of their classes. These last weeks, it had been dipping dangerously close to the A range of academic quality as their practical work suffered the effects of their separation.

Annette hated losing, and failing to perform a spell was losing. Every day, it took all of her willpower not to turn around during each class, and meet Annabelle's no doubt waiting gaze, just so they could pull a passing grade. But that would be giving in, and that would be losing on a much bigger scale. So she held firm and did not acknowledge her sister at all.

Now in charms, she looked for Analea, the first year she had sort of adopted that first class, but the higher priority was finding a seat far enough away from the nearest empty one that Annabelle couldn't sit too close. Finding one meeting her primary specification, she sat down and readied herself for class as diligently as any Aladren.

She took careful notes during the lecture, the page turned sideways to compromise social convention with her own preference to write upside down. She joined in on the class recitation and repetition of the incantation and wand motion.

She carefully did not look back to meet Annabelle's eyes before she turned her wand on the doll.

"Agitovenia,” she cast, swishing her wand in the appropriate sideways figure eight and tapping the doll. Unsurprisingly, the doll did not react.

Sighing, Annette turned to see how her nearest neighbor was doing. Then she could perhaps gauge how much her lack of success was due to Annabelle not being there, and how much was because it just happened to be a difficult charm. "My doll needs a more motivating dance instructor. How is yours doing?"

1 Annette Pierce, 2nd Year Pecari But what is the doll's motive to dance? 247 Annette Pierce, 2nd Year Pecari 0 5

Analea Thornton

April 18, 2013 10:40 AM

To be a princess? by Analea Thornton

Analea didn’t really feel comfortable in her own skin, especially after the second challenge. Fae had made her feel small, like a peon, someone who wasn’t worth a tuppence. That upset her and she’d spent the next week or so staying more quiet than normal. Even to her sisters and to Rory she barely said anything. When it came to classes, she kept her mouth shut. Did the charms, transfiguration, potions and more but in no more than a whisper (if that).

Charms class rolled around again and Ana was hoping for Professor Alexander again, she seemed to be an okay lady, and there was that thing about the picture of the Crown Jewels that helped her there too. But, no. It wasn’t anything against their regular professor either though. Professor Olivers was a nice woman and Analea liked her too, but there was something about that one class with the photo of the jewels that made her smile. The Crown Jewels were Royalty, I am Royalty… she thought, walking into the class, trying to help herself feel better.

Once in the room, Ana looked around for Rory, but found that her friend and roommate seemed to be already occupied. Next she looked around for Annette, hoping that she hadn’t already decided to work with anyone else as of then. If Ana couldn’t work with Rory or Abi didn’t want to work with her, she wanted Annette. At least Annette had been trying to help her feel better and all that in their class last term… That was something, right? she asked herself as she spotted the second year. She went over towards her and sat in the seat right next to her before anyone else did. Ana hoped nobody saw that as rude, but she at least felt slightly comfortable with Annette.

Professor Olivers started talking to them and when it was mentioned that the class wouldn’t be easy, Ana moaned softly. Making them dance? she repeated to herself as she turned to the page asked for in the book. Ana took notes as their Charms Professor spoke and when she used a student as a guinea pig Ana dropped her quill. The orange light wrapped around the girl but then disappeared as Professor Olivers went on to tell them that the charm isn’t strong enough to force a person to do something against their will or it would be illegal and then what the incantation was. Sure, there was no ‘s’ in it, but it was a long one, and one with full potential to trip up her mouth.

Analea wrote down the incantation and how to do the wand movements, then watched as the professor showed them all how to do it as well, on the doll on HER desk… The doll’s feet began to move and the doll twirled around in a dance. Her mouth dropped to the top of the desk in surprise and she moved back slightly in her seat, althewhile looking at Rory, then at Annette as if to say, “Help!” Her doll twirled around like a ballerina before Professor Olivers did the counter curse and the doll fell still again. Analea stared at it, before looking at Annette next to her while she jotted down their homework for the next week.

She hadn’t joined in with the others on actually saying the incantation but she had done the wand movements as best as she could. When Professor Olivers left them to their charms, she turned to Annette and watched as she tried the incantation. Nothing happened to her doll, at least from Ana’s view of it, and when she heard Annette sigh, she turned up to her.

Ana sighed as well and looked at her now still doll. It’s movement had been from the professor and now she was expected to do it too… Why me? she thought.

“In need of help…” was Ana’s short and quiet answer to Annette.

0 Analea Thornton To be a princess? 0 Analea Thornton 0 5

Wendy

April 22, 2013 5:14 PM

Or the Charleston! by Wendy

Wendy giggled at Charlie's interpretation of a balletic pose. She hoped it worked just because he was putting so much effort into it, but it seemed like the doll was set on being an interpretive dancer. "I guess some dolls are better at other styles of dance," she said, shrugging as she continued to smile at him. "That was good form though. My mom wanted me to take ballet lessons, but I couldn't stay in those kinds of forms." If she ever danced, she would probably do the same kind of free-form dancing like Charlie's doll.

The word "muggle" was still unfamiliar to Wendy, so she had to think about it for a moment before remembering that that's what her parents were. Her older sister had made sure to inform her of this so she wouldn't look so naive. There was a lot her sister had told her about before Wendy even knew she was magical, so she was really glad she had finally come into the magical world. It just sucked that she couldn't take the magical stuff in this world back home with her. Still, it was funny having things in common with magical people.

"I had a stuffed unicorn too!" she said, hazel-green eyes bright. "But when I had nightmares my mom read me bedtime stories or sang to me. She's a musician." She sighed. "It's too bad permanent charms can't stay on toys," she said, looking at the doll. "It would've been cool to take home a magical doll with me. I think I'm going to try the spell again. I don't know how to tap dance, but I hope my doll does!" Suddenly she gasped. "Oh my gosh. I forgot to give her a name!" She thought for a moment, her blonde eyebrows coming together for a moment in concentration. "I think her name is Penny." She looked over at Charlie. "Your doll has to have a name too. It wouldn't be very nice to make her do things for us without naming her."

When Wendy had first started learning what was considered polite and good manners in meeting someone for the first time, she had thought it odd that people were born with names but not dolls. Dolls couldn't all have the same exact name, and if she played with them they had to have real names or else it was just rude. She didn't usually play with kids in elementary school without knowing their names and it was just the same with her dolls and stuffed animals. It was all part of the politeness her parents had taught her.

Once Charlie had decided on his doll's name, if he decided to go along with it, she turned back to Penny. "Now let's do a tap dance, Penny. Agitovenia!" Her wand movements were getting better, but though she concentrated really hard on her doll tap-dancing, Penny did a weird dance in between tap and the robot. It made her laugh, delighted and also highly entertained. School work at home had never been this fun. It was a good thing she wasn't going back there again. As a twelve-year-old, she knew she was supposed to be more grown up about things, but she was the baby of her family. She was allowed some extra years and no one should matter, least of all her. Life was short, as her daddy always complained about, so Wendy was going to do whatever she wanted and not be afraid to do it.

0 Wendy Or the Charleston! 0 Wendy 0 5

Charlie B-F-R, Teppenpaw

April 26, 2013 11:31 AM

How about the funky chicken? by Charlie B-F-R, Teppenpaw

“Wow, that's cool,” Charlie smiled, when Wendy told him her mum was a musician. “I like lots of the same music as my Dad and we'll like... sing and dance in the living room but I don't think you could call anyone in my family really musical,” he laughed. Father had a surprisingly nice voice when he joined in but he wasn't nearly as outgoing as their Dad, so it really only happened for things like 'Happy Birthday' or singing Christmas songs.

“That's true,” he nodded, when Wendy recommended that they named their dolls. “She seems like kind of a free-spirit, so maybe I should give her a free-spirity kind of name. Like.... Rain. I mean, I don't think that's going to encourage her to do ballet very much but never mind. If she likes doing interpretive dance, that's up to her. You be who you want to be, Rain,” he smiled at the doll, turning to include Wendy too. She was making the lesson seem much more like a game than real work.

“She is the queen of funk and fusion,” he grinned at Wendy, when Penny broke into an odd mixture of the steps Wendy had wanted and the ones the doll had done to start with.

“Ok, let's see what you've got, Rain,” he addressed the doll. He had given up on forcing her to do different styles, as it didn't seem to be her personality, but he wanted to get her crazy free-form dancing as good as it could be. “Agitovenia!” he cast again. His improved wand-movement, combined with a couple of practises and the fact that he was not standing, wobbling on one leg this time seemed to all come together. Rain was still throwing her limbs around strangely, in all directions but it was quicker this time, and about as graceful as he thought it could get with the restrictions imposed by her plastic joints “Good job, Rain,” he smiled at her.

13 Charlie B-F-R, Teppenpaw How about the funky chicken? 252 Charlie B-F-R, Teppenpaw 0 5