What goes up must...go sideways? on Charms

Professor Perrault

July 29, 2016 3:20 PM

Arresto Momentum [I & II years] by Professor Perrault

Edward always met his students with bright and cheery enthusiasm. Irrelevant of what he was going through or how he was feeling on the inside, each day he insisted on being positive, believing it the best way to encourage positivity from them in turn. As serious and important, not to mention difficult, as learning could be, Edward aimed to keep it interesting and enjoyable because that was what it should be. Charms was a wonderful subject so there was no excuse for his students not to agree and should they not, that could only be a poor reflection of his teaching.

Beginner classes were the easiest to teach in this sense because the level was much lower than his other two classes and there was not the impending CATS or RATS exams for students to worry about. The kids were young, innocent, (mostly) happy and free. In many ways Edward wished he could go back to that age where nothing mattered, although when he really thought about it the internal sufferings he still faced to this day (but had come to live with rather more peacefully) had probably been especially dominant at that hormonal age.

“Welcome class,” he beamed around the room once they were all seated, making eye contact with the odd student appropriately. “Today’s lesson is a practical one so you will all need your wands out. You should have done the research homework in preparation for this lesson - please put your sheets in the tray as it goes round.” He sent the homework tray around the desks to collect in the worksheets. He had set a simple research task for their homework, focused on the spell they were learning today, and had provided them with sheets of relevant questions for them to answer to help them know what exactly he wanted them to know and to make sure they covered all that they should. For the older years he would have expected them to be fully capable of carrying out their own research without assistance but he didn’t think it hurt to give his first and second years a helping hand whilst they were still learning the ropes of independent working.

“Right, since you should all have a lot of background knowledge from your research, we’ll crack right on today with the Slowing Spell,” Edward continued, keeping his wand out for demonstration purposes. “The incantation for today’s charm is Arresto Momentum,” with a flick of his wand, the incantation scribbled itself onto the blackboard behind him. “That’s pronounced ah-REST-oh mo-MEN-tum. Now say it with me, ah-REST-oh mo-MEN-tum - good.” The Charms professor still liked to get his youngest class to repeat the incantation as a whole to make sure they got the pronunciation spot on but now the first years were growing more accustomed to picking up on this kind of thing, he felt that he could relax a little more about drilling the importance of saying the spell right as he had done at the start.

Edward picked up a book and held it up in the air before letting go. Before it could fall very far, however, he spoke the incantation clearly and waved his wand. The purpose of the Slowing Spell was to slow the velocity of an object and it did just that. The book descended very slowly back onto his desk before his returned his attention to the class sat watching.

“Now you may use a variety of objects around the room to practise this spell,” he instructed his students. “Think about the sorts of objects you are using - heavier objects will naturally fall faster than slower ones so you might want to take this into account when selecting what you will practise on. Have a play around with controlling your speeds if you can get the hang off the spell. You may also want to team up with someone else and try have a ‘slow race’, it’s up to you depending on how you get on. Any problems or questions, just give me a shout.”

Edward smiled and took a seat at his desk, planning to go through some of his students’ answers to the research questions whilst observing their progress with the current task in hand. After a while he would get up and walk amongst his students for a bit to offer advice before returning to do some more marking and so forth.

OOC: The name “Slowing Spell” has been created by me but the actual (nameless) spell can still be found under its incantation “Arresto Momentum”. Usual rules apply: 200 words minimum, creativity and realism, no godmodding, etc. Tag Professor Perrault if needed but you are always free to assume he has offered appropriate advice.

Subthreads:

What goes up must...go sideways? by Joseph Umland, Teppenpaw

Bouncy bounce! by Camden Miller

8 Professor Perrault Arresto Momentum [I & II years] 0 Professor Perrault 1 5

Joseph Umland, Teppenpaw

August 03, 2016 1:11 PM

What goes up must...go sideways? by Joseph Umland, Teppenpaw

Joe had gotten at least part of the answers to half his Charms problems out of his brother before John had noticed there was a pattern to Joe’s questioning. Or that Joe was taking shorthand notes on the responses on a blank sheet of parchment so he could translate them into his own words later. This was one of several recent phenomena which let Joe know that while John didn’t look as completely hag-ridden as he had before Easter (a thing Joe still wondered about; what had ailed him?), he was still so preoccupied with something that only half his attention was on any given thing he happened to be doing. As he put the completed paper into the tray going around the room, Joe really, really hoped he didn’t know why that was.

Even without knowing exactly what they were fighting about (he’d heard something about William Welles, something about dresses, and both of them using the word ‘love’ in tones that were anything but loving while it was happening, but hadn’t been able to get close enough to put it all in context without them noticing him, and he had not wanted to walk into that one at the time) Joe had expected the disagreement between his siblings to end quickly. He'd truly believed, however gloomy he'd been when he'd first returned to school, that there would be some small, double-meaning remarks in a few letters – allusions to books they were both familiar with, self-deprecating jokes, that kind of thing – and that would be that. Instead, though, unless she was doing so outside normal mail hours, Julian hadn’t written to John at all in weeks, just Joe, and just the usual rather dull ramblings about neighborhood goings-on. John, for his part, expressed no curiosity whatsoever about the missives. Whatever they had said to each other, it seemed they were both still angry about it, and Joe kicked himself daily for not intervening at the time, convinced he could have defused the situation, or maybe even persuaded them to see reason. He had just, at the time, been curiously afraid to do it, a thing he chose not to think about at any length now….

Instead, he’d think about practical charms. He chanted the incantation to the day’s spell along with the rest of the class. Joe’s Latin was…poor to say the least – he could recognize a lot of words, provided they were in present tense, but had never learned to string them together into anything meaningful without a lot of time, effort, and a grammar chart right there, and the third and fourth conjugations were just so much gibberish to him even with the chart right there – but he strongly suspected this was one that even his classmates whose mothers had not taken it upon themselves to correct what they saw as a massive gap in modern education would be able to guess the meaning of. Unless they thought it was a spell to deploy a pair of handcuffs to land on a given individual, maybe. That was always, he had to admit, a possibility, though an idea Professor Perrault quickly put to bed for anyone who believed it after they finished the chant successfully. Joe looked on admiringly at the trick of stopping the book’s fall; he didn’t think he could have said the words before a book fell and he wondered if Professor Perrault had cast some milder version on the book to begin with to pull off the trick before he stopped and chided himself for always being so suspicious.

As one of the second years, Joe felt obliged to go for something a little more challenging than a sheet of paper and weighed several objects between his hands before he finally decided on an apparently empty tin, about the size of the ones Mom bought English Breakfast tea (one of the things everyone would drink from, though John only when he couldn't find the specific brand of much stronger bagged stuff that he particularly liked in any local shops) in. It wasn’t too heavy; though metal, it actually felt lighter than the paperback book he’d held in his other hand. On second thought, though, he still removed the lid, which seemed denser than the rest of the thing, before tossing it up in the air.

It still hit the desk with a clang before he could get more than a syllable out. Mostly undeterred, he picked it back up, tossed it again, and this time gabbled the incantation out as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, ‘gabble’ was not an optimal spell delivery format, and Joe attributed that to why his tea tin did not start falling slower but instead veered off course and bounced, this time thankfully without a clang, off another student’s arm.

“Gosh, I’m sorry,” said Joe, mortified, as he scrambled for his errant tin. “You’re not hurt, are you?” It hadn’t looked like it had a lot of velocity, but one never knew….

16 Joseph Umland, Teppenpaw What goes up must...go sideways? 329 Joseph Umland, Teppenpaw 0 5

Camden Miller

August 05, 2016 11:04 AM

Bouncy bounce! by Camden Miller

Camden entered the Charms classroom in a real hurry, the second year found his preferred desk, and sat down while panting. It had been a real miracle that no one had taken over his desk, but Camden was grateful no one had. The second-year was kind of a creature of habit when it came to certain things, and his favorite desk was one of it. The poor boy had forgotten his homework back at his room and had to run to go get it just in time for the class. He, luckily, had made it just in time. A sly grin adorned his boiyish face when the Professor asked the piece of paper he had worked so hard on. Everything had change for him at Sonora, except his need for constant tutoring, and that would probably never change. The boy, proudly, passed the homework and excitedly put his wand front and center on the desk. He loved practical classes! They were so much better than writing or listening to the professor drone on about stuff. Camden had less trouble keeping up when it was practical.

The Pecari dutifully joined the class´ chorus as they repeated slowly the incantation that was now written on the blackboard. Camden thought he was doing a superb job, so far, and smiled brightly at himself. He made an effort to stay focused on the professor for a bit longer before starting practicing. It had been a good thing, though, because he demonstrated how to do it, and if he was honest, it was so damn cool! Camden was constantly amazed by magic.

The brown-haired boy located a small bouncy ball and decided to try on it. He didn't want to use something too heavy because it would make a lot of noise if he couldn't do the spell, and he didn't want to be embarrassed.

Camden carefully placed the bouncy ball besides his wand still on the desk and looked at them for a few seconds. He grabbed his wand and practiced the movement he had seen the professor do while muttering the incantation. He probably looked pretty silly, but he didn't care. He had to get good grades! He had to be a good wizard and he was at an disadvantage as it was.

After a minute or two of Camden practicing without anything actually happening, he carefully grabbed the ball, looked at it again and let it drop on his desk. The ball bounced one, two, three times before the boy brandished his wand and attempted the spell…

The ball continued bouncing before he snatched it out of the air. He sighed and let the ball lose once again.

0 Camden Miller Bouncy bounce! 337 Camden Miller 0 5