Professor Olivers

June 24, 2013 10:20 PM
Over the past few weeks, Florence had come to memorize both the names and faces of all of her students. Many in her Intermediate and Advanced classes she knew from the years before, but the Beginner class was always a challenge. This year it was a challenge she had conquered and she was able to note each child by name when they stepped into the classroom that Wednesday morning. Just two more days till the weekend where she would be grading essays through Sunday. She hoped this new batch of essays was better than those at the beginning of the term.

Once the clock struck eight, the ever-prompt Florence shut the door with a wave of her hand. “Good morning, everyone,” she said with a smile. She went to stand in front of her desk. “I hope you all worked hard on your essays for today. Please turn them in at the front of the classroom. There is a basket here on my desk where you can hand them in once I start you all on the practical assignment for today.” With that said, she turned and plucked her wand off her desk.

She sent the piece of chalk scribbling on the blackboard behind her. “Today we are going to be working on the Refilling Charm. I had you all write an essay regarding the history of the charm as well as what the limitations to this charm are. I’m looking forward to reading your essays, but for today we’re going to try the charm out ourselves.” On each desk was a tall labeled glass. Each had been filled with different liquids just a few minutes before, but Florence had emptied them all out. If the student did the charm correctly, the still-wet liquid particles would multiply, therefore refilling the glasses. There had been water or different juices in the different glasses, but each student wouldn’t know until they successfully refilled it.

“Each of you have a glass in front of you that was previously filled with either water or juice. Once you have succeeded in your charm, I want you to write down the number on your glass, your name, and the type of liquid you have. I will be walking around and inspecting your work. If you need any help, just give me a call.

"Now, the incantation, as you all should know from your research, is Repleo. All you have to do is simply point your wand at the glass. Second-years, since you all are a little more experienced, I want you to try this spell non-verbally. There will be no other indication that you have succeeded except that the liquid will refill. The liquid will fill up the glass to the original amount that was in there. Don't worry; none of your glasses should overflow."

There didn’t seem to be much more to say so Florence nodded. “Begin.” The charm itself was simple enough, but with first and second years she knew that the biggest problem was usually in pronouncing the spell right and getting used to casting spells with a wand. For this reason alone she loved her Advanced students. Once the essays had come in, she stacked them and put them on the side of her desk, ready to be graded this weekend with the rest of the essays she had let pile up this week. Once she had organized herself, she began walking around, looking to see if their previous research of today’s charm had helped their practical work at all.

OOC: Creative, realistic posts earn more points; you know the drill. Happy posting!
Subthreads:
0 Professor Olivers Beginner Charms [I & II years] 0 Professor Olivers 1 5


Julian Babineaux

June 27, 2013 10:18 AM
Julian half marched into the Charms class, determined that whatever this week’s task was to be, that he would be able to accomplish it without any difficulty. Charms was one of his favourite classes, and, though he would never dream of admitting it to any of his fellow students, he did enjoy Professor Oliver’s theatrical touches. After last year’s challenges he felt inspired to excel in charms, so that he might be able to be useful in daily life at school and at home as well. He knew that some people might call this showing off, but that didn’t bother him much. Julian knew they were just jealous.

Seeing glass beakers arranged on the benches, he began to imagine what task might lie ahead. Perhaps something with smashing glass, or perhaps directing a small object into the beaker magically. The essay which he placed into the basket at the front of the room was not his best work, he knew, but he had been so distracted that he considered it a triumph to have finished at all. The refilling charm was not the most exciting, but it was very useful and certainly essential to the life of an accomplished wizard, distractions or not. The next thing he knew, however, Professor Olivers had stopped talking and everyone was lining up behind the desks. Again, he told himself to focus on class and not allow his mind to wander. He took out his wand pointedly, and looked around the room to make sure that everyone was doing the same.
0 Julian Babineaux Finding it hard to focus... 0 Julian Babineaux 0 5


Dimitri Porter

July 03, 2013 11:54 AM
Dimitri made his way to Charms class having missed seeing his sister yet again. He wasn’t really worried about it. They were in the same house after all. They would run into each other sooner or later. He walked into class and found himself a seat. He saw Francesca across the room and waved politely to her and Irina who was seated close by. He sat gown putting his bag down on the floor. He turned his attention to Professor Olivers and wondered what they would be doing with the beakers she had up front. It appeared that liquid of some kind had been inside them due to the drops of liquid that appeared to still be inside the glass. He waited patiently for the Professor to tell them about their assignment for class. He was a little surprised to find that they would be working on the Refilling Charm that day and nodded slightly. So that must be what the beakers are for he thought to himself as she continued. He kind-of liked the mystery factor to the whole thing in that they had no idea what had been inside of the beakers. He couldn’t wait to get one of them and refill it to see what was inside.

He walked up to the front of her desk when she instructed them to and chose a beaker at random. He took it back to his desk with him trying to study the liquid drops from the inside. He thought he might be able to guess what had been inside it from the droplets, but no such luck. He put the beaker down on his desk and pulled out his wand. He said the spell a couple of times to himself before he was ready to cast it. He glanced over and saw that the boy next to him appeared to be doing the same thing. Dimitri grinned to himself and kept mouthing the spell. When he was fairly certain he had the right pronunciation he gave the spell a whack. He pointed his wand at the beaker and said, “Repleo!” He frowned when he realized that the droplets had yet to move from where they originally sat. “Well that was a bust,” he said aloud, glancing from his neighbor’s beaker to his own. He sighed slightly and wondered if he had said it correctly. He went back over the spell in his head saying it to himself again a few times as well. When he was pretty sure he figured out what the problem might have been he gave the spell another go, this time saying it slightly different than he had before. “I wonder what would happen if I put more emphasis on the end of the word,” he mused loud enough for his neighbor to hear him. He raised his wand for a second time and tried casting the spell. “Repleo!” he said again this time putting a little more emphasis on the Leo part.

He watched the droplets in the beaker and began to get frustrated when he didn’t see anything happening. He was about to mentally kick himself when he noticed the liquid in the beaker slowly beginning to move. He watched curiously as the little droplets began falling on top of one another and slowly filling the glass back up. He wanted to hug himself he was soo excited. He kept watching as the glass continued to fill itself. It stopped about 4 inches from the top. The liquid inside was a light amber-ish color and had a faint scent to it that he couldn’t quite place. Dimitri turned to his neighbor and held up the now full beaker. “What kind of liquid does that look like to you?” he asked. “I think it’s grape juice, but I can’t be sure.” He had a pretty good feeling that he was right and it was white grape juice, but he could totally be wrong. Heck for all he knew it was apple juice.
0 Dimitri Porter Juice or water... lets find out which one 0 Dimitri Porter 0 5


Julian Babineaux

July 17, 2013 5:15 PM
Julian really didn’t know, and shook his head in bewilderment. The liquid in the glass beaker that his neighbour was holding out looked too pale to be apple juice to him, but he couldn’t say that he had ever tried grape juice. Whilst it pleased him to watch the container filling up, and that the task was evidently not that difficult to complete, it bothered him enormously that someone else had managed it first, while he gazed off into the middle distance like, he thought, a floppy haired lettuce.

With that in mind, he raised his wand to have another go, but nearly knocked his empty beaker off the bench in his haste. He cursed under his breath and once more attempted to focus his energies. He inhaled deeply, and gripped the wand, but then decided that his methodology was all wrong. He was taking this much too seriously. It was just a beaker full of liquid after all. He gave himself a shake and tried to relax. “Sorry I didn’t introduce myself, I was a bit distracted!” he told the other boy, and spread his hands wide. “Any chance you could give me a pointer or two?”
0 Julian Babineaux I think we'll have to taste it and see 0 Julian Babineaux 0 5


Dimitri Porter

July 20, 2013 4:11 PM
Dimitri watched the boy next to him try to do the spell without much success. He looked like he might be frustrated about not getting it to work. Dimitri grinned a bit, completely understanding his frustration since he himself had suffered the same fate just moments before he had gotten the spell to work for him. He waved away Julian’s apology for missing introductions. “Its no big deal,” he offered friendly. “It happens to everyone. We would have gotten to it eventually.” He tried to sound as upbeat about it as possible. It really wasn’t something he was dreadfully worried about. “We could always do it now if you’d like,” he offered cheerfully. “I’m Dimitri. Its great to meet you,” he introduced himself lightly. He smiled friendly when Julian asked if Dimitri could give him some pointers with the spell. Dimitri nodded. “Absolutely. If I can help.” He put his wand down on his desk and raised his pointer finger in its place. He figured he’d use it to mimic the wand movements to show them to Julian until he felt comfortable with casting the spell using the wand. He reasoned it was safer that way then trying with the wands and goofing it up royally.

“Okay…lets start by practicing the wand movements with our fingers,” he suggested. “I know it sounds kind-of lame, but it might help get the movements right. Besides, if we do it with our fingers before the wands it may cut the amount of flub ups down to a minimum.” He figured it couldn’t hurt. “Once we practice those a couple times til you’re comfortable with it then you could try practicing saying the spell. I found that it worked better when I put more emphasis on the end of the spell word then on the front,” he offered. He wasn’t sure if that had been Julian’s problem to begin with, but it didn’t hurt to at least have him try it. For all they knew that could have been his only issue. Once he was sure that Julian seemed to have the wand movements down, he suggested he try saying the spell the way he said to do it. “Okay that looks good. Why don’t you try saying the spell now with the emphasis I suggested a few times?” He listened for Julian’s attempts (if he actually tried them) and then suggested that he try the spell with his wand and see if the spell worked for him then. “You appear to be ready to try it again with your wand,” Dimitri said encouragingly. “Why don’t you give it a whack? We can toast our success with whatever is in the beakers,” he suggested. He watched Julian’s next spell attempt with anticipation. If he was right, Julian should have no trouble with the spell now. If he was right.
0 Dimitri Porter Here's to your success 0 Dimitri Porter 0 5