The most magnificent and magical multicoloured cat on Charms

Professor Olivers

November 17, 2013 7:34 PM

What a colorful world. [I & II years] by Professor Olivers

Even if things were changing at Sonora at a head-spinning rate, Florence could always find comfort in her Charms classes. She was used to these lessons since she had tutored and taught classes for most of her post-graduate life. It had started as a side job during her years at the acting academy in Chicago, but she had grown to love it. Acting, her first passion, had become a side interest for her career as a professor, a route she had never imagined herself going down. But Florence had found comfort in teaching and she enjoyed it more than she had initially thought she would.

Today the desks were set up in rows with a different white stuffed animal on each desk. In the last class they had worked on turning whole objects into different colors, but today they were going to try working on sections. Her beginner students were supposed to be comfortable with the charm by now, but Florence, of course, had no way of knowing that unless they went to talk to her. She smiled at the beginners as they walked in. This year she had decided to try and be a little more lenient with the beginners time-wise and told herself not to start class at the strike of eight. She was naturally a very punctual person and expected so from everyone else, but she had to realize that these children were eleven to thirteen years old. They weren't all going to be perfect especially in their first year. That did not mean, of course, that students could take advantage of that. She would most certainly crack down on those who were incessantly tardy.

When Florence had first started officially teaching, she had disliked this class out of all three of her classes. Young children had never really been her specialty and she lacked the patience for them. But she had, admittedly, softened up quite a bit in her years here. A part of it also had to do with Florence meeting her little grandniece for the first time earlier in the summer. Seeing her brother’s family thrive with new children was almost enough for Florence to regret not having children of her own before Terry had passed away. Almost.

“Good morning, students,” she greeted them with a smile. Her choice of clothing was less eccentric today, but she had added a red 1920’s style hat to her ensemble that did not seem to fit with the rest of her violet outfit. “As I am sure you expected, today we are working on the Color-Changing Charm again. This time, however, we are going to work on changing sections of these white toys instead of the object as a whole. In order to do so, you’re going to have to focus specifically on that section and mentally cut the rest of the object out. Flick your wrist to the left once as we have been practicing. Let me demonstrate.” With that, Florence picked up a somewhat large, stuffed white dog and placed it on her desk so everyone could see. "Multicorfors." The ear of the dog turned the same shade of violet as her robes.

“I want you all to practice using at least eight colors on your stuffed animal on your desk. It will be practice for the quiz we’ll be having this Friday in lieu of the biweekly essay.” With that, Florence nodded at them. “You may begin.”

OOC: Any help needed, tag Prof. Olivers. Two hundred words, creative posts earns more points, etc. Have fun with it!

Subthreads:

The most magnificent and magical multicoloured cat by Theodore Wolseithcrafte, Aladren with Atlas Primred, Pecari

Organised colour, I hope. by Charlotte Spencer, Crotalus with Serena Brockert, Teppenpaw, Charlotte Spencer

0 Professor Olivers What a colorful world. [I & II years] 0 Professor Olivers 1 5

Theodore Wolseithcrafte, Aladren

November 18, 2013 5:30 PM

The most magnificent and magical multicoloured cat by Theodore Wolseithcrafte, Aladren

Theodore arrived promptly to class. He had made a point of never being late, having allowed himself extra time in his first few days, when he was unsure of the locations. He now had a good working knowledge of how to get to all his classes and, bar any dire emergencies, planned to be punctual at all times. Francesca had told him that Professor Olivers was very strict on tardiness, although she seemed slightly less firm that his sister had implied. His sister had a fairly good opinion of the Professor, which inclined him favourably towards her, as he trusted his sister's judgement. Francesca seemed to find her a bit theatrical (unsurprising, given her past vocation) but had learnt well under her and found her to be a decent teacher, which really was the main thing. Theodore felt that this juxtaposition of traits was perfectly summed up in the fact that Professor Olivers was currently teaching them methodically and diligently whilst wearing a rather attention-grabbing hat.

The colour changing charm generally seemed to be taught as light hearted frippery although Theodore had read of several instances of chess matches descending into violence after it had been subversively and surreptitiously used on the pieces. He thought that was a rather good illustration of how much magic could be altered by the intention and character of the caster. It seemed they would be attempting the somewhat less nefarious task of colouring in stuffed animals today. Not being a fan of customising soft toys or cheating at games, he couldn't see himself finding many uses for this spell, except perhaps rapid corsage and tie alteration if a date decided to change her dress at the last minute without telling him. Hopefully the girls he dated wouldn't be so flighty. However, he was still growing accustomed to his wand (and it to him) and learning to channel his energy into a deliberate and controlled effect. All practise was useful for that.

He started by noting down parts of the fluffy white cat he had been given, in order to ensure that he came up with eight parts to turn different colours. It would never do to start colouring in randomly and then discover, as he got to the feet, that he had been too broad in his application. Especially as, now that he looked at it, it didn't really seem to have separate feet – rather its legs just got a little wider and then stopped. Ears, head, body, legs x 4, tail. That all seemed to be in order.

He focussed on the ears first. He had noted them together on his sheet, meaning that he could make them the same colour, though he thought it might help to focus on them one at a time.

“Multicorfors,” he cast, envisaging the isolated left ear turning black. It was a little like Transfiguration and he found it reassuring to have some sort of method and mental picture to hold on to. Upon open his eyes, he found the cat's left ear to be grey. No one would know, of course, that that had not been his intention. He knew, however, and he wanted to get it how he had pictured it, otherwise he clearly wasn't doing the spell to a high enough standard, and then what was the point? He removed the incantation. He was just drawing focus to try again when the person beside him spoke.

13 Theodore Wolseithcrafte, Aladren The most magnificent and magical multicoloured cat 270 Theodore Wolseithcrafte, Aladren 0 5

Atlas Primred, Pecari

November 30, 2013 1:07 AM

I got a tie-dye bear by Atlas Primred, Pecari

Atlas received a surprise that morning at breakfast, an owl appeared for him with a package from his family. When his family had purchased the owl back before school started, it was still young and needed to be trained. He knew he wouldn’t be seeing it for at least 3 months, it had to learn to take directions from both wizards and his non-magical family. But still, Atlas was surprised the little brown owl was able to be trained at all. Magic sure was amazing. Within the neatly wrapped package was a letter from his parents recounting all that had happened while he was away, a pouch of cookies, a drawing from his sister, and a small string-tie bracelet she had made in her kindergarten class. He smiled warmly, examining the bracelet. He noticed it was almost the same dark red color as his hair, no doubt the reason why his sister picked the string in the first place. He was pretty impressed, she usually didn’t have the patience for artistic things, and the weave wasn’t too bad even with the mistakes she had made.

Realizing that he had drifted off in thought, he quickly put everything in his bag and ran off to Charms. The teacher was nice enough, but he didn’t want to get on her bad side just because he was caught in a moment. Arriving with barely enough time to spare, he tried to casually walk over to the first open seat. His breathing was still heavy and his clunky movements where easy indicators that he had just sprinted across the school. He sat down with a thud, the jerk from the desk making the perfectly placed white teddy bear tip over onto its side. When Professor Olivers had begun the lecture, Atlas allowed his thoughts to drift back to the bracelet, he had done well with the spell in the last class so he wasn’t too worried about it this time. Atlas twirled the crimson string in his fingers. He didn’t care much for jewelry but he appreciated the sentiment. When Professor Olivers released them to begin practicing the spell, Atlas pulled out his wand. Looking at his short larch wand, an idea struck him to tie the string around its base. Holding his wand up a little higher to allow the string to dangle, he smiled, fairly pleased with how it turned out. He was glad it was such a dark red, any other color would have looked horribly girly.

Looking over to his partner, he saw that he had already changed the stuffed cat’s ear grey. Atlas quickly picked up his stuffed bear, posing it upright. He decided to try to turn the right arm blue. Concentrating on just the arm, he tried to visualize where the seams of the bear would be to use as a guide. He held out his wand flicking his wrist left, “Multicorfors,” he spoke softly. Then suddenly the arm turned a bright blue. He was worried that the spell wouldn’t work because he had gotten slightly distracted having the extra weight on his wand. However Atlas smiled, when he saw it had worked perfectly.

Then suddenly, from the arm’s seam, a deep crimson color began to spread slowly throughout the torso of the bear. Atlas had to act quickly or his entire bear would turn red. He lifted his wand once more, in an attempt to turn the still reddening torso back to white. “Multicorfors,” he said still some panic in his voice. The white he cast mixed with the red causing a tie-dye like swirl. Fortunately he was able to contain the red in the torso. Atlas looked displeased at the mess of colors he had made, at least he had managed to make the arm blue. Atlas peered over to see if his partner had made any more progress. Surprisingly the grey was gone, like it had never been there to start. Whatever his partner did to remove the spell appeared to have worked loads better than Atlas’ failed solution. “Um… excuse me… but how did you manage to get it back to normal?”, Atlas asked gesturing to his own bear with a weak smile. “I sorta messed up.”

0 Atlas Primred, Pecari I got a tie-dye bear 276 Atlas Primred, Pecari 0 5

Theodore Wolseithcrafte

November 30, 2013 4:44 PM

You have my sympathies by Theodore Wolseithcrafte

The fact that the boy taking a seat next to him landed heavily and out breath did not help him make a good first impression on Theodore. The boy had almost been late. Perhaps their were extenuating circumstances and Theodore decided to reserve judgement on the matter, reasoning that things happened to cause everyone to be late once in a while, and it would only be if this person was habitually late, or close to the wire, that he would begin to take issue.

His attention was next drawn back to his partner after their first attempts on their stuffed toys, by the boy asking him a question.

“I used finite incantatem,” he explained, in response to the boy's query. “It's a counter-charm – removes most spells or effects operating on the target,” he added. He felt that, if the boy was at all familiar with magic, he would have known of the spell. Theodore tried not to mind too much that the boy was quite possibly a Muggleborn. Francesca said people didn't worry so much about it at school and Theodore really was perfectly prepared to overlook it for the sake of someone he found interesting. However, the facts of the boy being almost late to class and being possibly Muggleborn did incline him less favourably towards finding more out.

“Like so,” he explained demonstrating the wand motion and spell at his stuffed cat, “Clearly nothing happened as there was nothing to remove but that's how you do it,” he added. He hadn't wanted to interfere with the other boy's work even though it would have made for a better demonstration.

“How did you achieve that effect?” he asked, surveying the boy's rather splotchy bear. “It's rather interesting,” he explained. Even though he didn't like it personally, he could see that it might be appealing to someone, and he was always interested in how the slight variations in a spell could alter the outcome. Many great discoveries were made by accident, after all.

After the boy had replied, Theodore turned back to his own work, trying to concentrate all of his effort onto the small space of the cat's ear, blocking the rest of it out.

“Multicorfors,” he cast. He inspected is work closely. But he couldn't quite decide.... If it hadn't been grey before, he was sure he would have thought it was black now, so perhaps it was just his mind tricking him. On the other hand, he knew that he hadn't achieved what he wanted on his first try, so perhaps he hadn't again this time...

“Does this look black to you or just very dark grey?” he asked his desk partner. If he himself couldn't tell, he supposed it shouldn't really matter but he felt the need to be sure.

13 Theodore Wolseithcrafte You have my sympathies 270 Theodore Wolseithcrafte 0 5

Atlas Primred, Pecari

November 30, 2013 10:53 PM

Thank you. Tie-dye isn't really my thing. by Atlas Primred, Pecari

“Thank you vey much,” Atlas replied with a smile after the boy’s demonstration. He wondered if he should have asked someone else, unlike Leonidas in potions, this boy seemed solely into his work and didn’t seem keen on making friends, at least not with Atlas. He was just about to turn back to his project and shut up for the rest of the class when the boy asked about his bear.

“Well…” Atlas began shyly, feeling somewhat self conscious, he then proceeded to give a quick abridged version of what had just happened, he didn’t want to seem like a chatterbox. “I think that casting a spell is like kicking a soccer ball, after your foot meets the ball for the initial kick, there is still some powerful momentum left,” he finally said after he explained all that had happened. “But I’m no expert, its just all observation,” he added chuckling nervously while he rubbed his free had through his auburn hair.

After the boy turned back to his stuffed cat, Atlas looked again at his own work. Taking his wand the way the boy had shown him, he concentrated deeply on the torso, “finite incantatem.” A red light emitted out of his wand and suddenly the torso was a solid white once more. He figured since he seemed to be on a roll he may as well keep going. He imagined where the seams where once more, focusing so it wouldn’t spillover again. Finally he lifted his wand, “Multicorfors!” He couldn’t decide between green and yellow, so he just thought about both to see what would happen. The result was a greenish yellow. “Hmm that’s weird, thought it would have swirled again,” he thought to himself inspecting the solid colored torso.

He was getting ready to do the next arm when his partner interrupted with his own question. Atlas was a little startled. Maybe he didn’t think Atlas was such an idiot.

“Hmm…”Atlas said looking at the ear, “It looks black to me, but if you want to be sure you should check near the base of the fabric. If you really changed it completely, then the fur all the way to the fabric of the bear should be black, not grey.” Atlas decided to continue just in case his first explanation wasn’t clear enough, “One of the Vets at the animal shelter back in Santa Cruz once showed me a cat that at first seemed black. However when she showed me the fur closer to the skin it was actually dark brown, only the tips of the hair where actually black.”

0 Atlas Primred, Pecari Thank you. Tie-dye isn't really my thing. 276 Atlas Primred, Pecari 0 5

Theodore Wolseithcrafte

December 02, 2013 12:32 PM

Nor mine. by Theodore Wolseithcrafte

The boy, it seemed, had been distracted by something red, which he had attached to his wand. The swirled effect had been achieved by attempting to right this spell by using the charm to turn the bear white, rather than using the counter charm. The two competing charms seemed to have clashed and mixed together somewhat.

“Interesting,” he commented on the boy's explanation. He was rather tempted to try it, although not on his class project, partly because it hadn't been what was asked for and also because it looked rather tacky, and thus would be an experiment for when no one was around to see the results. “I don't know what soccer is but that sounds like a reasonable metaphor,” he nodded. Even without knowing the game in question, the boy had provided enough information for him to understand what he meant.

“I'm Theodore, by the way. Theodore Wolseithcrafte.” He didn't bother to give his name in the more formal format reserved for Purebloods as mentions of soccer fairly well ruled out the notion that he was talking to one. Still, the boy deserved the common courtesy of knowing to whom he was speaking.

“I see,” Theodore nodded, when the boy gave his explanation of how to inspect the cat. Theodore wasn't convinced the same method really applied to stuffed cats whose fur had been changed by magic, especially as the boy was talking about a cat with a different colour at the tips of its fur than the base. What Theodore wanted to know was whether what could be seen looked more dark grey or black. The boy had said black, which comforted him. He brushed the fur gently aside, peering at where it joined the toy, just so as to not appear rude. It appeared to be the same colour there. He turned his attention to the other ear, isolating it in his mind and trying to produce the spell as identically as possible to the last time. He surveyed the ear. It looked darker. Which meant the other one couldn't be black. Or his mind was playing tricks on him.

“Curses...” he muttered.

13 Theodore Wolseithcrafte Nor mine. 270 Theodore Wolseithcrafte 0 5

Atlas Primred, Pecari

December 03, 2013 6:24 AM

I would love to learn what you do like. by Atlas Primred, Pecari

Atlas was visibly astonished that the boy didn't know what soccer was. After all, it was one of the most popular sports in the world. He figured even a wizard would know what it was. "Oh sorry, didn't mean to mislead you. Its a pretty fun game, kinda like Quidditch but on the ground and with only one ball. I could teach you sometime.” Atlas said again tussling his hair with his hand, "if you were interested anyways." The boy seemed like the studious type so Atlas was pretty skeptical that he would even accept the proposal, but he thought he would offer anyways.

"Hi Theodore, it's nice to meet you. I'm Atlas Primred," he said calmly flashing him a small smile. He had gotten more used to introducing himself and was getting a little more confident, however still unsure of himself. Atlas touched the crimson string on his wand, he hoped it would give him a little extra friendly-boost.

He wondered if he should have just brought out one of his colored pencils from his bag to use as a comparison as an alternative to his explanation. "I hope he doesn't think I'm too weird," he thought, his confidence a little bruised but still in tact.

As Theodore continued to inspect his cat, Atlas was deciding what to do next. "Maybe a pink ear" he thought. Isolating the left ear, he thought clearly. This time he wanted to see if he could do one side pink and leave the other side as is. Back home he would never go above and beyond with assignments, but here it was like a challenge of his ability, and the only kind of test worth while. Again he meditated on the seams, just as he was going to cast the spell he heard Theodore mumble "curses".

Atlas looked over at him. The cat ear Theodore had just changed was somewhat darker than the last one. He wondered if he was trying to make this ear black too or perhaps it was an unsuccessful attempt. Atlas felt a little awkward, and questioned if he should say something. He didn’t want to give any unsolicited suggestions, as Theodore may have seen it as an insult. He decided instead to ask a question that he hoped would spark some curiosity (and maybe some conversation) in him.

"Looks good Theodore….Hey, what do you think would happen if a person aimed another "Multicorfors" at a spot they had colored previously? Do you think it's like watercolors and would be an overlap of color?" Atlas asked sincerely.

0 Atlas Primred, Pecari I would love to learn what you do like. 276 Atlas Primred, Pecari 0 5

Charlotte Spencer, Crotalus

December 04, 2013 12:35 PM

Organised colour, I hope. by Charlotte Spencer, Crotalus

There was little that Charlotte enjoyed about learning that motivated her to pay strict attention other than her fears of discipline and bad marks. Learning how to use magic was useful, but there were other classes that would never help her in her future career as a home-maker. Since birth she had been groomed to be the proper lady to make any mother proud. Charlotte learnt more from watching her mother and grandmothers than sitting in a classroom or analysing magical creatures. If she had to pick a favourite, however, Charms was at the top of her list. It was the most useful out of them all and she enjoyed the practical work.

Charlotte sat at the same desk she always sat at, the end of the middle section of the room. She enjoyed being close enough to hear her professor, but not quite so close that she would be in danger of gaining her professor’s attention. Professor Olivers was somewhat eccentric and her fashion atrocious. When Charlotte saw what she was wearing today she couldn’t help but judge her. It was an absolute fashion faux pas to wear a hat like that with her outfit. Purple and red were two loud colours that Charlotte never would have put together. She shivered a little and averted her eyes. Most days her professor seemed to wear eccentric colours, but she could at least try to make the articles of clothing match.

Professor Olivers started class and Charlotte threw herself into taking notes so she wouldn’t have to look at her and be distracted. She looked up only for the demonstration, her eyes still distracting themselves with Professor Olivers’s atrocious hat. She turned back to her notes and shook her head slightly, only her private thoughts telling of her judgement.

It was time to work and Charlotte was glad for the distraction. She had a white hippo to work with and Charlotte pet it once. It was soft, but not as soft and fluffy as her growing kitten. Poor Missy was locked up in her dorm room currently and Charlotte hoped she wouldn’t cause havoc there. Colours were very important to Charlotte and with a painter’s eye she surveyed her stuffed animal. If she split the hippo into sections she could easily use eight colours, but it wouldn’t look as nice. The ears would have to be two different colours as the legs; that was six. The hippo itself could be one solid colour and the last colour could be its spots.

Pleased with her idea, Charlotte began by making the hippo itself one colour. It would be easiest to work with a base. She tried to imagine a crisp purple, not the violet that Professor Olivers had charmed her object. “Multicorfors.” The hippo was the same shade Charlotte had imagined and she smiled, pleased. She had mastered changing an object into one solid colour the last class. The difficulty would be in splitting it into sections now. She pressed her wand against the hippo’s leg and imagined it to be a pale orange. “Multicorfors.” The entire hippo changed to the orange she had imagined and she frowned. “Blast,” she said before she could stop herself and she looked through her peripheral at her desk-mate, embarrassed. She hoped they wouldn’t say anything to her about that.

0 Charlotte Spencer, Crotalus Organised colour, I hope. 0 Charlotte Spencer, Crotalus 0 5

Serena Brockert, Teppenpaw

December 04, 2013 6:50 PM

Does this qualify? by Serena Brockert, Teppenpaw

Okay, Charms. Serena hoped this went better than Flying or Transfiguration. The former she took comfort in that proper ladies weren't supposed to be good at but the latter just made her feel nothing but shame. Logically, she knew there were people worse than her, like Sophie, but Sophie wasn't a Brockert . At least not by blood, Serena was certain that the older blonde would be someday.Well, technically an O'Malley, but still. Ryan and Carrie still had those genes and Ryan would pass them onto his kids. (The Teppenpaw didn't really expect Carrie to have any.)

She sat down next to a second year girl, whom she thought might be named Charlotte. The older girl seemed very shy and non-threatening, unlike most of Serena's own classes who she felt a bit intimidated by. The Teppenpaw just didn't fit into her class at all and the only friends she had were her relatives and people sort of connected to her relatives like Gemma. At least, she hoped she could consider Gemma a friend. Arabella was certainly happy about that idea, but the other Teppenpaw was two years older and probably wouldn't want a firstie trailing after her.

The first thing Serena noticed was her teacher's outfit. How could one not? It just didn't...go together, and if there was one thing that her mother and her aunts did all agree on-well maybe not Aunt Lilac who used to wear orange fuzzy slippers to class-was that there was no way they'd let their daughters-or sons-out of the house in an outfit that didn't match, that clashed horridly. Today, she was personally wearing a blue flowered dress that always had looked quite pretty on her. Arabella preferred less frilly things than she did but it had always been stressed that they looked well kept and important and reflected well on their family in every way. And after the disaster of taking three whole tries to get results in Transfiguration, Serena felt she needed to try even harder. To get all her homework done on time. She didn't always get perfect scores, but since it wasn't Transfiguration, she was honestly okay with that.

Today, the Teppenpaw was having a difficult time not staring at her professor's clothing. She didn't want to be rude because it was to stare but she just could not help it. Serena had another utterly horrifying thought too. Intermediate Charms was later today as well and she sincerely hope Professor Olivers changed her clothing. Carrie was in that and well, the poor professor would never hear the end of. Serena's cousin might not walk out of the class, but she probably would be unable to resist snotty comments. Thank Merlin, she hadn't heard about the first year's Transfig mishap or Serena would never hear the end of it. As for Professor Olivers, well, Serena almost felt like giving her a fair warning to change. Though the woman should know by now what Serena's cousin was like!

Of course, they had been talking about the spell Multicorfors , so perhaps she was planning to demonstrate on her own outfit. Though the Teppenpaw wasn't sure that would go over much better with people. Sleeves all different colors, the back of the outfit another one. There were places that would work, Serena was sure, but a classroom full of mostly proper purebloods, including the founder of the school's fashion club, was not that place. Unfortunately, all the woman did was change the ear on a stuffed dogs.

As for her own stuffed animal that she was using for the spell, she had gotten an octopus! The Teppenpaw couldn't believe her good luck! She needed to use eight colors and an octopus had eight legs. Serena could envision each one as a seperate color. This was the best luck she'd had since arriving at this school.

Okay,so she had to imagine now and she would do so leg by leg. The first one would be a deep shade of red. "Multicorfors." . She examined the leg. Okay, it wasn't as bright as she would like it to be, but she was hardly a perfectionist. Just in one subject and Charms wasn't it. And even there, she'd only been upset not to get instant results.

For the next leg, Serena envisioned orange. "Multicorfors." And results she got! She'd been going for just a regular orange and here she had a bright neon orange leg.Well, the octopus did. Wow. Yellow came next. She pictured it the color of a lemon. This wasn't quite so successful. It was a rather faded shade, like one that a child had for a long time and was now a rather faded yellow.

Of course, green was next. And unfortunately, though she pictured a lovely green, the color of fern, it turned the leg an ugly shade of puke green! Worse, the body of the octopus turned green too.

"Blast"

Serena turned her head in the other girl-Charlotte's?-direction. "Are you okay?" The Teppenpaw asked. Her hippo looked fine, at least it wasn't puke green.

0 Serena Brockert, Teppenpaw Does this qualify? 0 Serena Brockert, Teppenpaw 0 5

Charlotte Spencer

December 06, 2013 1:18 PM

Perhaps a different shade... by Charlotte Spencer

Unfortunately, as Charlotte had expected, her desk-mate did look over. Her hippo did not seem to be having any problems and Charlotte was sure the first year beside her, a Brockert, she believed, would think her silly. Charlotte didn't like messing up in front of her peers, but in front of one who was from a well-known American family was even worse. She didn't want to be laughed at by anyone, but especially by an important someone.

The first year didn't seem malicious, however, not that Charlotte knew any malicious eleven-year-olds. "I'm fine. I'm just having a bit of trouble with the sections of colour," she replied, looking over and noticing for the first time Miss Brockert's octopus. The shade of green was not very flattering at all, but Charlotte simply hoped it was only a mistake and her eyes went back to Serena's. "How is your work coming?" she asked politely, deciding that continuing the conversation would be prudent in this situation. Younger students were less threatening than her peers or older classmates. She had two younger siblings and felt most comfortable taking care of them, though she also felt very much at home being taken care of.

The hippo was not going to change so Charlotte turned it back to that pretty purple it had been before after conversing with Miss Brockert for a bit. She had a vision for this hippo and she was determined to make it work her way. Now that it was back to purple, she flicked her wrist to the left, but out of habit and the desire to see the hippo's leg changed, touched the tip of her wand to its leg when she said, "Multicorfors." The whole hippo changed back to that sunset orange and Charlotte took a deep breath, frustrated.

Whenever she felt frustrated or upset, Charlotte sighed or took deep breaths. She didn't like letting others know of her frustrations, even Adam, and liked to figure things out by herself if she was capable. She sighed and raised her wand again to try turning the leg a pale green. This time the charm worked and Charlotte's eyes widened, though she didn't like that the hippo was not cooperating with her plan. The leg did look nice against the orange, so Charlotte decided to leave it. Nice colours coming together always lifted Charlotte's spirits and she hoped the next leg would turn out just as nicely.

She turned to Miss Brockert, hoping to gain her acquaintance. "I'm sorry, you're a Brockert, aren't you? My name is Charlotte Spencer." Charlotte was never too sure if all of her classmates paid attention to roll call as, obviously, Charlotte did not.

40 Charlotte Spencer Perhaps a different shade... 265 Charlotte Spencer 0 5