Here kitty, kitty, kitty... on Charms

Professor Olivers

January 03, 2014 10:40 PM

Moving Things Around. [III, IV, V years] by Professor Olivers

There was a book on the history of King Arthur open in the hands of Florence Olivers. Her blue eyes were trained on the pages and the inked letters, but her mind was elsewhere. She hadn't turned a page in over five minutes. Over the break Florence had met with one of her old university friends during her vacation in New York to watch a friend perform on Broadway. They had caught up at a coffee shop, talking of old times and new experiences—it had been more than twenty years since they had last seen each other. When Terry had first died, Florence hadn't thought she'd ever be able to think of romance again. Turning fifty just the year before had solidified that notion. But now she was unsure. All the fifty-year-old women Florence knew were happily married or newly divorced, not widows with a budding romance. It felt very odd.

Alas, she was here and Nick was still in New York. They had promised to keep in touch this time and before they had parted he had made his intentions clear. There was no time for dilly-dallying, so he said, and Florence had neither refused nor encouraged him. She didn't really know what to make of it all with Terry's death still so recent. Four years was not very long ago.

Florence's looked over the top of her book and noticed students filling the classroom. She dropped her book on her desk, trying not to think of Nick and her age and Terry as she flipped to the correct page in the Charms textbook. Today she would be teaching a new lesson, but Florence didn't think her intermediate students would have too much trouble working on the practical lesson for today. There were two boxes at the front of the classroom with different objects in them. In the first were the same white stuffed animals she had used for her beginner's class last term, though she had shrunk them for this class. In the second box were slightly larger and heavier objects such as hardcover books, owl cages, and the like. The third group of objects was not in a box, but consisted of furniture, mostly small desks and chairs. Luckily the Locomotor Charm did not allow the caster to lift an object very high off the ground unlike the variations of the Levitation Charm.

"Good morning class. As eager as you all are for lunch, I hope that you will pay close attention to today's lesson. We will be working on the Locomotor Charm. Please turn to page 211 in your textbook.” She waited till the page flipping died down a little before addressing them all again. “Who knows anything about the Locomotor Charm without looking at their textbook?” She called on a couple students who raised their hands and nodded at their answers. “Yes, unlike the Levitation Charm, Locomotor allows the caster to move the objects from one place to another. Similarly to the Levitation Charm, however, the caster’s skill and stamina determines how far the object can be moved and how heavy the object can be. Ergo, the objects in the front of the classroom.

“Third years, you will work on lifting and moving the stuffed animals around the room. When you feel comfortable with the charm, you may move onto the second box. Fourth years, begin with the box of heavier objects. When you feel comfortable or particularly ambitious, come and show me your work and I will determine whether or not you may move onto the pieces of furniture. Fifth years, please do not cause havoc by breaking furniture. You will be moving these desks, chairs, and weights on this side of the room. Third years, you will work on that side of the room—” she moved the first box to the far right corner of the room, “—fourth years on that side—” the box was moved to the far left corner of the room, “—and fifth years on this side of the classroom closest to me. Please be careful and be aware of your strength and stamina. Third years, your essay for this week is to research and compare and contrast the Levitation Charm and the Locomotor Charm. Fourth and fifth years, I’d like you to do a bit more research and argue which charm would be most practical in daily life. With that said, you may begin.”

With objects being moved around the room as such, Florence didn’t dare pick up her book again. She didn’t want to fall into daydreams and idle fancies again just in case a desk fell on someone’s foot or something even more horrid. She began walking around the room, inspecting the work of her students with her dark robes swishing around her ankles.

OOC: Get creative with these posts! Injuries can happen, but be realistic and no desks falling on top of people. The charm only allows the object to move a few inches off the ground. Tag Florence if there are any emergencies or help needed. Happy posting!

Subthreads:

More like fumbling things around by Carter Browning, Teppenpaw

I guess you could say I did that by Clara Abernathy, Pecari

Here kitty, kitty, kitty... by Francesca Wolseithcrafte, Aladren

Cute little fluffy things! by Virginia Bellrose, Crotalus

0 Professor Olivers Moving Things Around. [III, IV, V years] 0 Professor Olivers 1 5

Carter Browning, Teppenpaw

January 05, 2014 12:37 AM

More like fumbling things around by Carter Browning, Teppenpaw

Carter left the Teppenpaw dorms towards his Charms class wondering why he had skipped breakfast. For some reason he hadn't been hungry and skipped going to breakfast. Now that it was almost lunchtime Carter was positively starving and kicking himself for not eating earlier. He had heard his stomach rumble a bit as he walked to the Charms room and silently prayed that the rumbling didn't grow any louder. Nothing could be more embarrassing than sitting in class and hearing his stomach complain in front of everyone. Carter grimaced at the very idea and shook his head to get rid of the mental image. He quietly opened the door to the Charms room when he arrived and took an empty seat. Carter never worried about sitting in the same exact seat every time because there was never any guarantee that he would always get the same exact seat. Carter eyed the items in front of the class with mild interest as he put his bag under his desk. He pulled out his textbook and placed it on the top of his desk. This should be good he thought to himself as he waited for Professor Olivers.

Professor Olivers began her lesson lecture and Carter felt his eyebrow raise slightly. Locomotor Charm, huh? he thought to himself as she continued. Interesting. He glanced over the items in the boxes on her desk and wasn't surprised that there were different stages of items. He was contemplating which item he was going to use when she gave her instructions on who would use which box. He was not at all surprised that his year group would be working on the slightly harder items to move (outside of the fifth years of-course). According to Professor Olivers if he felt ambitious enough he could move on to the fifth year objects as soon as he showed her he could handle the fourth year stuff. Carter finally decided that he was going to try working with one of the owl cages. He had already worked with the hardcover textbook when they were working on the Levitation Charm. He felt the owl cage might be a bit more challenging since it was bigger than the books and a tad heavier as well. He was glad that there didn't appear to be any owls inside the cages provided for use (not that Professor Olivers would have had live animals in them at all), but one couldn't help worrying about such things.

Carter groaned slightly about the same time as his stomach when she mentioned the other half of their assignment and he silently prayed that no one around him heard his stomach rumble. His groan he could live with, the stomach complaints not so much. Every student groaned about something, that was normal. His stomach rumbling made him feel a tad self conscious. Carter found that he didn't much like feeling self-conscious as of late. Once Professor Olivers finished her lecture and set them on their task, Carter walked up to her desk and plucked one of the empty owl cages from the fourth year box. He headed over to the spot she told them to go to work on their spells and set the owl cage down on the floor. He figured that he would try lifting it from the floor to the nearest desktop before swapping and doing it the other way around. Carter had read through the chapter a bit while Professor Olivers was talking and got an idea of what she wanted them to do. Now he just had to put what she said and what he read into practice. He hoped that shouldn't be too difficult.

Carter raised his wand and prepared to cast the spell, moving the cage from the floor to the desktop. He said the incantation and pointed his wand at the cage on the floor. Lifting his hand holding the wand upwards, he watched as the cage shook a bit on the ground before it began to lift upwards. Carter grinned at his effort trying to keep his focus as the cage lifted from the floor to the edge of the desktop. He lowered the wand and cringed slightly when the cage landed slightly heavily on the desktop. It even made a slightly loud clanging sound when it landed. “Well, that wasn't soo bad,” he mumbled to himself prepping himself for the second try. This time he would try lifting it from the desktop to the floor. He only hoped the second attempt went more smoothly than the first. Carter rolled his shoulders to loosen them out a bit and rolled his head around to loosen up his neck. He cracked his knuckles and pointed the wand at the cage on the desktop. He cast the charm again and watched delighted as the cage rose up from the surface a bit easier this time around and began floating towards the ground. Carter had it about half-way towards the floor when he got a strange tickle in his nose. He felt his face screwing up slightly as he tried to keep from sneezing.

He managed to keep control for a brief second, keeping his eyes focused on the cage floating above the floor. Just when he thought he had full control back, his face screwed up completely and he sneezed hard towards the floor. He completely lost all concentration and frowned when he heard the cage crash to the floor at his feet. “Merlin's bloody beard,” he grumbled to himself as he rummaged in his robe pockets for a tissue or handkerchief. While he was rummaging in his robe pockets, he noticed out of the corner of his eye what appeared to be shoes standing nearby where his cage lay discarded on the floor. He grimaced to himself before placing the handkerchief over his face and holding up his pointer finger as if to ask whomever might be standing there to give him a moment. He turned his head slightly to the side so he could semi-discreetly blow his nose that he could feel running down his nose. Once he was cleaned up and more presentable than he had been he turned to whomever it was that might still be waiting and offered them an apologetic smile. “Terribly sorry for that mate. I hope I didn't drop my cage on you or anything. I didn't, did I?” he asked sincerely.

0 Carter Browning, Teppenpaw More like fumbling things around 0 Carter Browning, Teppenpaw 0 5

Clara Abernathy, Pecari

January 05, 2014 2:45 AM

I guess you could say I did that by Clara Abernathy, Pecari

Clara had very mixed feeling about her upcoming Charms class. She was looking forward to it because it would give her something to do besides mope around her dorm room which was honestly getting a tad old. She was a bit worried about the class because it was one of the ones she really needed to work on fixing her grade for. Her marks for Charms class weren't terrible, but they could use some vast improvement. She had struggled pretty badly with the last Charms lesson and was praying to whatever entity that would listen that she didn't have the same problem with this one. Clara enjoyed being a witch, but it just seemed like lately all she wanted to do was forget all about the whole thing. The last year or so had been very rocky for her emotionally and she had no idea what to do about it. Since her father had starting dating her now step-mother her willingness to confide in him had dwindled thanks to his attention being on his new wife and not his daughter. Clara felt like a third wheel when she used to have a front row seat. It was not a feeling the fifteen year old relished. Now thanks to other complications that had arisen in her life since the winter break, Clara's world felt even smaller than it had before. She knew that she still had her cousin Brielle, her friend Waverly and her boyfriend Lucian to confide in should she need a shoulder to cry on and that made her feel a little better about her situation.

Clara finished the walk to the Charms room and quietly opened the door. She glanced towards Professor Olivers and gave the teacher a small smile and wave hello. She made her way to an open seat and hung her book bag on the back of her chair. She dug her textbook out of it and laid it on her desktop. She rummaged around briefly for a pen and her notebook before turning her attention back towards the professor. She couldn't help frowning curiously when she spotted the boxes of items and the pieces of small furniture sitting by Professor Olivers desk. What is all that stuff for? she wondered to herself as she waited for Professor Olivers to begin her class lecture. Clara sincerely hoped she wasn't going to have to make one of those items disappear or anything. Given her track record so far with spells, Clara might accidentally wind up magically throwing it at someone elses head or worse. She really didn't want to let herself imagine what the worse thing could be. She just wanted to make it through class without hurting anyone or anything. That was really her only goal for the day.

She flipped to the page they were told to and read the chapter a bit while Professor Olivers told them about their assignment. Say what?! she thought to herself as her eyebrow lifted in surprise. She wants us to do what?! She continued thinking to herself as Professor Olivers continued with her lesson. Clara glanced nervously towards the pieces of furniture, trying to find something big enough to lift, but small enough that if she were to drop it it might only do minor damage. Her gaze fell upon one of the desk chairs and she sighed a bit. Maybe I can move that one without hurting anything she told herself as she waited for Professor Olivers to tell them to start the assignment. Once Clara had the “all set” she made her way slowly to the part of the room that Professor Olivers had told them to work within. Clara selected what appeared to be a fairly light chair and dragged it to an open spot in her area where she was hopefully less likely to encounter anyone else should she make a mistake.

Clara took in a deep breath and let it out slowly as she worked to calm her nerves. “I can do this,” she told herself quietly as she rolled her neck and shoulders. “It'll be fine.” She wasn't entirely certain she believed her own pep talk, but it was worth a shot. Besides, how bad could it really be with Professor Olivers sitting less than ten feet away? Keeping that thought in mind, Clara made her attempt with the chair. Clara swallowed heavily before pointing her wand at the intended target. She cast the charm on the chair and fought the urge to cringe and close her eyes as she waited for the chair to raise into the air slightly. When the chair got to the point it was supposed to off of the floor, Clara let out the breath she had been holding slowly and moved onto the harder part, moving the chair without dropping it on anyone. Clara pointed her wand towards another open space a few short feet from where she started from and began moving the chair towards it. She felt herself growing a little more confident as she watched the chair move as she wished it to. This is almost too good to be true! she thought excitedly as the chair floated the last little bit towards its destination. Clara mentally willed the chair to behave itself as she completed the spell. She watched gleefully as the chair settled (well fell slightly) into the space she chose and she literally had to fight the urge to scream “YES” at the top of her lungs.

This small victory made the Pecari feel ten times better than she had in months. She felt soo good about it that she did a small wiggle dance, shaking her arms and head around slightly as she danced in a small circle. The action had to be quite the silliest thing she had ever done while in class in a while and Clara really could have cared less. She was pleased with herself and had allowed that pleasure to show. If anyone else didn't like it so be it. Clara tried to compose herself while she decided what to try next. She debated moving the chair back to where she had gotten it from or moving something else to the same spot where the chair now stood. She finally decided on just moving the chair back to its original position. Clara took a deep breath and let it out slowly before pointing her wand at the chair and casting the charm again to move it back. She pointed her wand towards the spot where the other furniture sat and silently willed the chair to obey. She bit her lower lip slightly as she watched the chair anxiously make its way back to the rest of the furniture. She grew a tad more anxious as she attempted to place the chair gently back down to the floor. It fell back down onto the floor on one of its legs and fell over with a loud-ish clattering to the floor, landing on its side on the floor. Clara cringed a little bit when the chair hit the floor. She laughed slightly at how the chair landed. “Well, I suppose that could have gone worse,” she mused aloud to no one in particular. She sighed sadly when she realized she still had the written part of the assignment to still do.

Clara went back to her seat and stared at the blank piece of paper that stared back at her from her notebook. She rested her chin on her palm as she tapped her pen lightly on the paper. “Why do they always want us to write an essay of some kind?” she queried aloud to herself. “Ugh...” she said in light disgust as she eyed her still blank piece of paper. She glanced towards her neighbor's desk to see if they had anything written down yet for the assignment. “What would you say is the most useful charm to use for everyday stuff?” she asked them. “The Levitation Charm or the Locomotor Charm? I'm drawing a terrible blank here.” She grinned awkwardly at her neighbor. “Ugh...I am soo bad at this sort of thing.”

0 Clara Abernathy, Pecari I guess you could say I did that 232 Clara Abernathy, Pecari 0 5

Francesca Wolseithcrafte, Aladren

January 07, 2014 5:05 PM

Here kitty, kitty, kitty... by Francesca Wolseithcrafte, Aladren

Intermediate Charms was not Francesca's favourite class. She'd always found wand work harder than theory or practical subjects (though at least more interesting than she often found Care of Magical Creatures, it had to be said). Defence Against the Dark Arts had the adrenaline push that what you were learning might just save your life and Transfiguration had so much more logic to it. She had managed to find her feet with all her subjects during her beginner years but now the step up had slightly wrong-footed her again. She was getting there. She always made slow and steady progress (the last word not quite making up for how frustrating she found the two descriptors) and it hadn't been such a steep learning curve as her first two years. Besides which, the classes usually were differentiated, which helped.

As Professor Olivers invited them to answer a simple question on the Charm, her hand flew into the air. Perhaps it was over-compensating. Perhaps it would only draw attention to her lack of wand skills if she was so obviously smart in theory but she wanted to make it clear to everyone that, even when spells took her some time to master, they should never assume it was due to stupidity.

“Locomotor allows you to move things across horizontal planes whereas Wingardium Leviosa works only on the vertical,” she replied promptly, She added what Professor Olivers said about strength and distance to her notes, trying not to worry about how her own would affect her work.

When they were dismissed to their work, she went to the front and collected an animal from the box (it would simply be chaos if they were all aiming at the same small space without even being sure what other people were trying to target). She ended up with a fluffy white cat. Something about that rang a bell in her head, though she couldn't remember seeing it before.... Shrugging the feeling off, she set the cat down and retreated to the side of the room ear-marked for third years.

“Locomotor!” she cast, having consulted the book for the proper emphasis and wand movement. She knew it from reading for the class but she always liked to check and make sure it was fresh in her mind before beginning. She brought her wand up sharply, focussing on the cat. Which fell over. Sighing, she walked forward and set it right again.

“LO-” she began, before a crash from the other side of the room caused her to jump and lose her focus.

“I'm beginning to think it may be difficult to concentrate today...” she sighed to the person next to her.

13 Francesca Wolseithcrafte, Aladren Here kitty, kitty, kitty... 250 Francesca Wolseithcrafte, Aladren 0 5

Virginia Bellrose, Crotalus

January 19, 2014 10:34 PM

Cute little fluffy things! by Virginia Bellrose, Crotalus

Ginny practically skipped merrily to her Charms lesson. This wasn’t because Charms was her favorite class or anything (not that it was her least favorite either), it was just because Ginny was in a good mood and any mood she was in tended to be flaunted openly with her physically. When she was angry, her steps were harsh and direct. When she was sad, she was slow and sluggish. But when she was happy, she bounced. There was no real reason for her good mood, she was simply just happy. Probably had to with the fact that things were just going well today. Her hair curled nicely for her on her first try that morning (Ginny was getting so much better with styling charms thank to a book on them she had received over Christmas), her makeup that she had been allowed to wear beginning this year, was subtle but still made her feel pretty, and she was wearing her new green dress that her grandmother had given to her for a gift. Of course, the day was still early since lunch had yet to happen, but Ginny was going to stick with positivity today.

She found herself a seat near her friends and took out her wand and materials. Ginny didn’t wait long for the lesson to start and she knew it would be an entertaining lesson at best. It wasn’t a surprise to her that Francesca was one of the students to answer the professor’s query. Francesca was the opposite of Ginny in just about every way. She was blonde, blue-eyed and pretty but she was also very smart. Ginny was brown hair, green eyes, freckled faced, and not nearly as smart as her best friend. She wasn’t stupid, but she wasn’t Aladren smart. Ginny admired her friend for many of her traits, but mostly, she admired how intelligent she was. Ginny floated through things and hoped for the best, which led for average grades. Her parents found these things acceptable which was the only thing that kept Ginny from feeling like a failure around her friends.

With every lesson, there was homework, but at least this one she figured wouldn’t be too difficult to do. The two spells were weirdly alike, but each did their own particular thing. Ginny had to wonder if there was a spell that did both things at the same time making these two separate ones useless, but she didn’t want to go into that much detail with her homework. It’d probably be a future assignment anyway. There would be no point in doing the work twice.

With the lecture done, Ginny got up from her desk and made her way over to the box of stuffed animals. Ginny was an only child, so she was quite fond of toys, whether they be dolls or stuffed animals. They had been her friends as much as the house staff had been. Oh, how excited she was to be going to her real home this summer and see them all again! Just the thought of seeing the staff put an extra bounce in her step.

She set the brown bear down in a spot a little way away from the crowd and flourished her wand around for a moment while she practiced saying the spell. Levitation she had gotten down relatively well, but moving an object would require concentration. Just as she was about to attempt the spell, a thud resonated throughout the classroom and startled Ginny. One of the older students dropped their heavy object. Feeling flustered from the shock, and knowing her face was red from a blush. Shaking it off, Ginny pointed her wand at the teddy bear and firmly spoke the spell. For a moment, nothing happened but then the bear steadily raised off the ground an inch or so before flopping back down again. It wasn’t much, but she’d still take it. She rolled on her feet while she worked out what to do next. “It’s not a bad lesson, don’t you think?” Ginny asked with a large smile to the person closest to her.

6 Virginia Bellrose, Crotalus Cute little fluffy things! 0 Virginia Bellrose, Crotalus 0 5