The CATS are stalking us on Charms

Professor Perrault

November 20, 2016 5:09 PM

Come and Go [III, IV & V] by Professor Perrault

“Welcome class, please settle down,” Edward smiled as his largest class entered the room and took their seats. There were only a couple of weeks left until midterm now and it wouldn’t be long before his students started slipping into that holiday attitude. He knew that it was important that they got the time off to relax but at the same time didn’t want his fifth years in particular to allow themselves to get behind or forget certain parts of the course.

“Today we will be finishing off our topic on the Summoning and Banishing Charms,” he informed the Intermediates. “For the first part of the lesson, I would like you to practise both of these spells - which you should all be very familiar with by now - on the various objects around the room.” There were a range of objects, some soft such as a cushion and others easily breakable like a teapot so that the students could work their way through to the more challenging objects.

“I want you all to pair up - some of you may get into groups of three if necessary.” Edward hadn’t taken the time to check whether the class could divide equally into pairs because he really wasn’t that fussed - he thought the students were old enough to sort themselves out by now. “For the first part of the lesson, I want you to assess your partner in performing both the Summoning and the Banishing Charms using the sheets that are now going around.” Edward had charmed a stack of sheets to distribute themselves onto the desks in front of each student. The sheets had a list of criteria on them which asked the students to rate different features of their partner performing the spells out of five

The sheet listed the following features: incantation, wand movement, aim, control, and outcome (success). After each of these points were two boxes, one for the Summoning Charm and the other for the Banishing Charm, where the students had to give their partner a score out of five. The scoring system was explained at the top of the sheet with 1 being poor, 2 being mediocre, 3 being satisfactory, 4 being good and 5 being excellent. At the bottom of the sheet was a total box for the students to add up their individual scores to get an overall mark.

Edward was hoping for nothing below 3s and for his fifth years to be reaching mostly 5s but it was ultimately down to the judgement of the partners. He knew he ran the risk of some of the students being too nice and others being too harsh, as was bound to be the case really, but the reason he was doing it was more to get the students thinking about the five listed individual elements of casting the charms and less about the actual scores that they received.

“Remember that this is not a competition and it doesn’t matter if someone else scores much higher than you,” the French-Canadian stressed this point. “The main objective of this task is to focus on a few individual elements of spellcasting. By assessing others, this should help you to think much more about how certain features can change your overall outcome. You should see a similarity between the scores you give for the first four and the one that you give for outcome. I will be surprised if anyone getting less than 3s receives an outcome score of 5.”

“When you have finished filling out the sheets for each other for both charms, please come up and put them in this tray on my desk,” Edward instructed, setting said tray down as he spoke. “After you’ve completed this task, I would like you to stay in your pairs and create a factsheet on the Summoning and Banishing Charms. You should be able to use a lot of own knowledge for the main facts about the spells but you may also use your textbooks and anything from the shelves around the room for further research. These books,” Edward placed a hand on a box of books on his desk, “are some that I have taken from the library which you may also find useful.”

Edward pulled out his wand and flicked it briefly so that a list appeared on the blackboard behind him. “These are the main things I want to see in your fact sheets,” he told the class. The list on the board read: purpose, casting (incantation, wand movement, etc.), effects/limitations (include counterspells), history. “If you have the time, I would suggest that you try and find further information to include.”

“It is up to you how you complete this task,” Edward continued. “If one of you wants to work on the Summoning Charm and the other on the Banishing Charm you can do that. Or if one wants to research on the history side of things whilst the other wants to do effects, then you may also do that. It’s your choice - just make sure you all have something to be getting on with and aren’t letting your partner do all the work.”

“You may also present your factsheet however you like. It may be as a leaflet, a poster, a mindmap, whatever. I would like to see some consideration going into the presentation of it but don’t forget that the facts are the most important part.” Edward smiled, knowing that there were some kids who had a tendency to just scribble down a tonne of facts on plain parchment and others who would spend so much time making everything look pretty that they hardly had the time to get anything written down. “I’ll bring out some coloured paper and inks that you may use.”

OOC: Usual class rules apply! Don’t forget to include your house in the author line. You can make up some of the objects you use (there’s more than just cushions and teapots) but obviously be realistic.

Subthreads:

The CATS are stalking us by Ginger Pierce, Teppenpaw with Owen Brockert, Teppenpaw

Searching for an appropriate partner. by Kelsey Atwater, Crotalus

8 Professor Perrault Come and Go [III, IV & V] 0 Professor Perrault 1 5

Ginger Pierce, Teppenpaw

November 23, 2016 1:54 PM

The CATS are stalking us by Ginger Pierce, Teppenpaw

Ginger was looking forward to the upcoming break. It was still weeks away, but its shining beacon kept her going through class after class that seemed intent on reminding her that the CATS were coming and they wanted to hunt down her whole year group and eat them. She could only imagine Jake was getting it even worse over the plague bearing RATS. Only the fact that the midterm's arrival meant those tests and Jake's graduation were that much closer kept time from slowing to a metaphorical standstill. As it was, the individual days dragged on for ages but the weeks were skipping by all too quickly.

This day, or at least this Charms lesson, wasn't looking too bad though. It was review of a topic she was covering for the third time, so she felt pretty solid on summoning and banishing charms. Even the prospect of being graded by one of her peers did not phase her. Summoning was pretty much the most useful spell ever created - even muggles without an ounce of magic in them tried to summon things - so she'd had loads of practice with it even outside of class, and banishing wasn't all that far behind in terms of practicality.

Not wanting to show up a new learner too badly, she selected another fifth year as her partner for the peer review and later a fact sheet assignment.

"Heya," she greeted her randomly chosen classmate cheerfully, "Need a partner? I promise not to be unduly harsh with my review." She suspected she would be handing out a lot of fives, but she might drop a score as low as four if she saw something wrong. Telling someone they were perfect when they had a CATS exam coming up was sabotage, not kindness.

1 Ginger Pierce, Teppenpaw The CATS are stalking us 302 Ginger Pierce, Teppenpaw 0 5

Owen Brockert, Teppenpaw

November 25, 2016 5:54 PM

They are not what I am most worried about. by Owen Brockert, Teppenpaw

Owen suppressed a sigh when he heard the day's instructions for Charms. It wasn't quite as bad as dueling was as he wasn't being asked to either harm someone else physically or do something physical that would both put him at risk for an asthma attack or looking inferior to his male classmates. He wasn't sure which of those two things would be worse really. The feeling of being unable to breathe was dreadful but he thought losing Jemima because her family didn't approve of him was even more unbearable. Sometimes families like either of theirs didn't really care about what their kids really wanted though his parents did.

Or even if the Wolseithcraftes didn't put a stop to it as it was what Jemima seemed to want and Owen thought they actually did care about that, it didn't mean that they actually liked him and didn't wish she'd be with a Quidditch loving intellectual instead. The whole thing just made him feel super insecure. Like he wasn't good enough for the girl he loved.

As for today's Charms lesson, it wasn't so much that Owen couldn't banish or summon and was worried about what he'd get. It was just that he didn't want to have to critique others. He didn't feel too comfortable telling them what they were doing wrong. It felt really really mean and Owen hated the idea of hurting anyone's feelings. And didn't particularly appreciate the fact that those who would relish such an opportunity-something that was difficult for him to understand, but it happened-were given that chance. The Teppenpaw felt that it was more important to be kind and cooperative and supportive of others.

And truthfully, Owen was a bit worried that people would ignore Professor Perrault's comments about it not being a competition. As much as he hated thinking negatively about anyone-never having considered being competitive a particularly positive trait and being specifically raised not to believe it was-he knew that there were those in their class who were very much the sort who thought things were just that.

He sighed again. Although she was literally the last person Owen would ever want to criticize, he was naturally inclined to work with Jemima because he genuinely loved being around her. However, before he got that chance, Ginger approached him. "Sure." He replied. Admittedly, she might be a good choice as Owen honestly didn't think he could give his girlfriend anything but fives, unless she did really really bad and then he'd have to give her a lower score and would feel tremendously guilty about it. It would be hard enough not giving Ginger all fives. In fact, he didn't know if he could bring himself to give less than a four whether he was working with Jemima, Ginger or Jack Spencer. Additionally, Ginger wasn't likely to be overly harsh with him.

"How would you like to do this?" Owen asked, eyes briefly wandering over to Jemima as they so often did. Professor Perrault had said they might have to work in a group of three after all so if that was the case, she could always join them.

11 Owen Brockert, Teppenpaw They are not what I am most worried about. 300 Owen Brockert, Teppenpaw 0 5

Kelsey Atwater, Crotalus

November 29, 2016 6:43 PM

Searching for an appropriate partner. by Kelsey Atwater, Crotalus

Though it was only a few weeks until Midterm, Kelsey was firmly keeping her mind on her studies as much as possible. She wouldn't say she didn't look forward to the holidays and all the balls and parties that went along with it. It was an area where she'd always shone and now it was getting to the stage where she knew that there would be potential suitors. While Kelsey had her preferences-namely Alistair, as while she did not think she was in love with him, he was the guy that she had spent the most time around and they were good friends-but she was sure that she'd have her pick anyway. After all, the Crotalus was the ideal pureblood lady with impeccable breeding. A catch for any pureblood male.

Not only that but she was looking forward to a break from exposure to those of lesser background and their antics and generally poor manners that could apparently even influence those who were supposed to be of a an overall superior quality. Kelsey was super worried about Natalie with her Muggleborn roommate and the general behavior of Pecaris. Girls in that house-even those from the right families- seemed to have something about them that made them weaker and more susceptible to negative influences and bad behavior, the exceptional example of Sara Raines aside.

Plus, Sammy Meeks seemed to be sniffing around Kira, just dying to corrupt her too. The other fifth year was an example of exactly what was wrong with the Muggle world and how girls there were raised. Kelsey didn't feel either her cousin or her sister was as strong in their committment to the way things were supposed to be as she was. Kira was too desperate to be liked and Natalie...just seemed to have a rebellious streak.

However, there was no point in worrying about that right now. The Crotalus was in class and therefore, her mind should be on class. It was very important to get good grades, pass CATS and prove oneself competent at magic, if not superior. Not to mention Kelsey was not going to give her inferiors a chance to think that they were anything but exactly that. She noticed a fair amount of the non-pureblood students had an overly elevated opinion of themselves that in some cases wasn't befitting even one of her standing, let alone one of theirs. As far as Kelsey was concerned, her own sense of self worth was at exactly appropriate level for her status and theirs was approaching Carrie levels of ego which if it wasn't deserved for her cousin who was just as pure as her, it certainly wasn't deserved for them.

As she listened to the instructions for today's assignment, she had to say it would be golden opportunity to knock those she'd just been thinking of back into their rightful places, except for the fact that Kelsey very much didn't want to sacrifice herself to said cause and actually have to openly interact with such people. Yech. Besides, why give them the gift of helping them learn from their mistakes by giving them advice? The right way to go about this was to outdo them at every turn.

Instead, Kelsey did what she usually did, and approached someone of appropriate status. "Will you please work with me on this?"

11 Kelsey Atwater, Crotalus Searching for an appropriate partner. 305 Kelsey Atwater, Crotalus 0 5